Local
Md. police sting operation targeted Grindr
Local man convicted of soliciting sex from 15-year-old
Daniel Read
A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge on June 29 found a 31-year-old man guilty of soliciting sex from a 15-year-old fictional boy created by an undercover police detective who posted messages on the gay app Grindr under the name “Kinky Twinkie.”
The guilty verdict handed down for Germantown resident Daniel Read followed a one-day non-jury trial in which information surfaced that the undercover officer initially created a Grindr profile for Kinky Twinkie as a 17-year-old male high school student.
The legal age of consent in Maryland is 16.
At the time of his arrest in December, Read served as a Montgomery County District Court commissioner, a position that involves performing some of the duties of a judge, including setting bail for prisoners. He was dismissed from his job shortly after his arrest.
A police charging document filed in court says that under the profile of “Dan,” Read began to communicate with the detective posing as the student through text messages and private messages on Grindr.
“During these messages your affiant advised Dan that he (Kinky Twinky) was actually 15 years old,” the charging document says. After several additional exchanges of messages, Dan allegedly asked the student to send him nude photos of himself.
“By utilizing open source libraries, your affiant was able to obtain images to send to Dan as he requested,” says the charging document, which was prepared by the arresting officer, who is identified on the document as Det. Nick Jerman.
The document says Read eventually told the fictional student through a text message that he wanted to have sexual intercourse with him and agreed to meet him at a McDonald’s restaurant in Germantown.
According to the charging document, police officers intercepted Read in his car and arrested him on a charge of sexual solicitation of a minor as he approached the McDonald’s. It says Read had given the undercover officer posing as the student his cell phone number during a prior communication.
Police used the number to trace Read’s identity and home address. At some point before the arrest, police visited the street where Read lived and saw his car, which enabled them to recognize the car when Read drove to the McDonald’s.
“Yesterday’s verdict is clear,” said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case. “Do not seek out sex with a minor. Do not use social media to lure underage boys for a sexual encounter,” Korionoff said.
“The underage person you may be ‘chatting with’ might just be an undercover police officer,” he said. “Daniel Read used poor judgment and committed a criminal offense. He will be held accountable for his crime.”
Under Maryland law Read faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and possible placement on a sex offender registry. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Sharon Burrell on Aug. 15.
Read’s attorney, David Moyse, said Read’s arrest took place 30 days after he and the undercover officer began communicating with each other on Grindr and after Read developed what the attorney said was an emotional bond with what he thought was a confused young man who he wanted to help.
“And the real truth is he was targeted, and for 30 days was speaking with this young man thinking that they had a real relationship,” Moyse said. “And Mr. Read identified with the idea of a sexually confused or in-the-closet 15-year-old who was being raised Catholic just like Mr. Read and who described himself as not understood by friends and family or his religion.”
According to Moyse, although Burrell said in her verdict that Read’s actions met the criteria of sexual solicitation of a minor she also found that he was “emotionally induced” to create a relationship with the fictitious student.
“They preyed on a lot of issues that Mr. Read dealt with in his own adolescence to create that bond,” said Moyse. “And in the very end they used jealousy to get him to go over the edge.”
Moyse said transcripts of hundreds of text messages between Read and the detective posing as the student, which were introduced as evidence at the trial, show that the detective repeatedly raised the issue of sex and made it clear that he wanted to have sex with Read.
“Mr. Read kept saying, look, wait until you’re 16 and it’s legal and then we’ll meet,” Moyse quoted Read as saying. “After 30 days the officer said you know what? You’re Mr. Right but I need Mr. Right Now,” Moyse recounted.
“And he went back on Grindr presumably to find another guy,” said Moyse. “And Daniel was so jealous he said fine, let’s fuck.”
It was at that point, Moyse said, that police and prosecutors determined Read crossed the line and violated the statute prohibiting sexual solicitation of a minor.
“To be very fair, they had prior conversations from Mr. Read with other people where he expressed interest in 15-year old boys and 14-year-old boys,” Moyse said. “These were all kind of internet talk. It wasn’t with actual 15-year-olds. But the judge found that he still had the desire, the predisposition to do this,” said Moyse.
“That’s why it’s not entrapment,” he said, as defined and interpreted under the law.
Moyse said he has made a request with the judge to have the sentencing postponed to allow Read to be further evaluated by a mental health professional who will prepare a pre-sentencing report for the judge.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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