Local
LGBT Affairs Office moves to Reeves Center
Third staffer to be hired for LGBT youth housing issues
‘The mayor wants to raise our profile and give us more access to our own community,’ said Sheila Alexander-Reid. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
In a little-noticed development, the Mayor’s LGBT Affairs Office has moved out of the John A. Wilson Building, which serves as the District’s city hall, and moved into the Reeves Center Municipal Building at 14th and U Streets, N.W.
Although the office is no longer in the same building where Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office is located, the new location “absolutely” does not represent a downgrading of the office, according to Sheila Alexander-Reid, the LGBT Affairs Office director.
“The reason for the move is that the mayor wants to raise our profile and give us more access to our own community,” Alexander-Reid told the Blade. She noted that the LGBT Affairs Office is now located one floor above the DC Center for the LGBT Community, which moved into the Reeves Center two years ago.
“It’s actually a huge upgrade because we were relegated to an office and a cubicle in the Wilson Building and now we have a suite with a sofa and a conference room table,” said Alexander-Reid. “So it’s an incredible upgrade.”
Alexander-Reid also confirmed that Mayor Bowser has given the go-ahead for the hiring of a third staff member for the office, who will serve as a specialist in LGBT housing and LGBT youth homelessness issues.
The office currently has just two staff members, Alexander-Reid and Deputy Director Terrence Laney.
The need for the new staff member became apparent last year after the D.C. Council passed and then-Mayor Vincent Gray signed the LGBTQ Homeless Youth Reform Amendment Act of 2014. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and then-Council member Bowser (D-Ward 4) co-introduced the bill, which calls for addressing specific needs of homeless LGBT youth.
Among other things, the legislation amended the 2006 law that established the LGBT Affairs Office as a permanent entity in the Office of the Mayor to authorize the hiring of additional staff members for the office. The LGBTQ Homeless Youth Reform Act also mandates that the LGBT Affairs Office administer a grants fund that the legislation created called the LGBTQ Homeless Youth Training Grant Fund.
“The Fund shall be continually available to the Office for the purpose of providing grants to fund trainings on cultural competency for providing services to LGBTQ homeless youth for providers throughout the District,” the legislation says. “The Office shall establish criteria for eligibility to receive a grant,” says the legislation, which became law about a year ago.
Sterling Washington, the LGBT Affairs Office director under Mayor Vincent Gray, said Gray determined that a third staff member would be needed to carry out the new duties required to administer the grant program. Washington said Gray was about to hire someone to fill the new position but decided to leave that task to the new mayor after he lost his re-election bid in the Democratic primary to Bowser.
“We’re interviewing as we speak,” Alexander-Reid said when asked what the target date would be for hiring the new staff member. “The target date is ASAP,” she said.
She said the funds for the salary for the new staff member will come from funds appropriated for the Department of Human Services, which monitors most of the city’s homelessness-related programs, including shelters and residential facilities.
Alexander-Reid said her office will host an open house on April 21 to introduce the community to the office’s new space. She said the move from the Wilson Building took place about three weeks ago, but she and Laney wanted to wait until they had settled in before formally announcing the move and scheduling an open house.
“Of all the government buildings this is the closest to sort of the nexus of the LGBT community,” Alexander-Reid said. “It’s two or three blocks from the Blade. It’s right above the LGBT Community Center…This is the one that’s most convenient and the closest to the nexus of where the community can be found.”
The Reeves Center initially had been slated to be given to a private developer as part of a land deal to build a new soccer stadium in the Buzzard’s Point section of Southwest D.C. Those plans were later changed, but city officials say it’s still possible that the Reeves Center could be demolished to make way for a new residential and retail complex.
Alexander-Reid said she has been told that the building will remain as it is for at least the next four or five years.
Virginia
Parades, community events held to mark Pride Month in Va.
Upwards of 30,000 people attended PrideFest in Norfolk on June 22
Activists across Virginia last month held a series of events to mark Pride Month.
Hampton Roads Pride, a volunteer-run organization founded in 1997, held 37 different Pride events throughout the region in June.
Their biggest event, PrideFest, which is part of their larger three day event, Pride Weekend, celebrated its 36th anniversary on June 22. Pride Weekend took place from June 21-23 and began with a block party at NorVa in Norfolk.
PrideFest took place at Town Point Park, and an estimated 30,000 people attended. More than 70 venders participated, while Todrick Hall and Mariah Counts are among those who performed.
Another PrideFest event with a DJ in the afternoon and live music at night took place in Virginia Beach on June 23. Congressman Bobby Scott and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) are among those who attended Pride events in Suffolk on June 30.
Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Alexander, along with members of the Norfolk and Virginia Beach City Councils, also attended the Pride events in their respective cities. Jamar Walker, the first openly gay federal judge in Virginia, also took part.
“You know people all throughout Pride Month, at all of our various events, tell me all kinds of stories about their own experiences and the past of this community … and some of our older folks especially, remember when we couldn’t have this,” Hampton Roads Pride President Jeff Ryder told the Washington Blade on Monday during a telephone interview.
“It was a great year,” he added. “It was a big achievement for us to have unique celebrations in each of our seven communities. Each of these cities is so different from one another, but to be able to create a Pride celebration that’s unique in each of those places was really great, and I think really well received by folks who may not have felt represented previously. We’re always trying to do better, to embrace every aspect of our community, and take a big step forward there this year.”
State Dels. Adele McClure (D-Arlington County) and Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington County) are among those who spoke at Arlington Pride that took place at Long Bridge Park on June 29. The Fredericksburg Pride march and festival took place the same day at Riverfront Park in Fredericksburg.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on June 10 hosted a Pride Month reception in Richmond.
Youngkin in previous years has hosted Pride Month receptions, even though Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups have criticized him for supporting anti-LGBTQ bills.
The Republican governor in March signed a bill that codified marriage equality in Virginia. Youngkin last month vetoed a measure that would have expanded the definition of bullying in the state.
Baltimore
Baltimore street named in honor of trans activist
Iya Dammons is founder of support groups Safe Haven in Baltimore, D.C.
Baltimore city officials and LGBTQ activists participated in a ceremony on June 29 officially dedicating the renaming of a street in honor of transgender woman Iya Dammons, who founded and serves as executive director of the LGBTQ services organization Maryland Safe Haven.
A section of Baltimore’s 21st Street at the intersection of North Charles Street, where the Maryland Safe Haven offices are located, has been renamed Iya Dammons Way.
The ceremony took place six years after Dammons founded Maryland Safe Haven in 2018 and one year after she launched a Safe Haven operation in D.C.in 2023 located at 331 H St., N.E.
A statement on its website says Safe Haven provides a wide range of supportive services for LGBTQ people in need, with a special outreach to Black trans women “navigating survival mode” living.
“Through compassionate harm reduction and upward mobility services, advocacy support, and community engagement, we foster a respectful, non-judgmental environment that empowers individual agency,” the statement says. “Our programs encompass community outreach, a drop-in center providing HIV testing, harm reduction, PrEP, medical linkage, case management, and assistance in accessing housing services,” it says.
Among those participating in the street renaming ceremony were Baltimore City Council member Zeke Cohen, interim director of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Alexis Blackmon, and Dominique Morgan, an official with the national foundation Borealis Philanthropy, which provides financial support for transgender supportive nonprofit organizations, including Safe Haven.
“This is a significant achievement and historic moment for our city,” a statement by Maryland Safe Haven announcing the ceremony says. “Iya Dammons has been a tireless advocate for transgender rights and has worked tirelessly to provide safe spaces and resources for transgender individuals in our city,” it says. “This honor is well-deserved, and we are thrilled to see her contributions recognized in such a meaningful way.”
Baltimore
Despite record crowds, Baltimore Pride’s LGBTQ critics say organizers dropped the ball
People on social media expressed concern about block party stampede
BY JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | This year’s Baltimore Pride Week attracted 150,000 people — record attendance that far exceeded initial projections of 100,000.
But some see room for improvement and want organizers to address safety issues and make changes so the annual event that celebrates the LGBTQ population is better run.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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