News
Elections in Chile: LGBTQ candidates make their mark
Eight queer people elected to write new Constitution
Editor’s note: The Washington Blade published a Spanish version of this story on May 20.
CONCEPCIÓN, Chile — LGBTQ activists and organizations celebrated the results of last weekend’s historic elections in Chile in which eight openly queer candidates were elected to write the Latin American country’s new Constitution.
They are Jennifer Mella, Valentina Miranda, Bessy Gallardo, Pedro Muñoz, Javier Fuchslocher, Gaspar Domínguez, Rodrigo Rojas and Tomás Laibe, who represent 5.2 percent of the total of 155 seats that will make up the Constitutional Convention.
“Although the representation of people with different sexual diversities remains low, it is a historic step to have constituencies that allow us to install the urgency of our demands, and promote respect and protection of the rights of the LGBTIQ+ population in the new constitution and in society. The commitment of feminist and progressive forces regarding these issues will also be very relevant, and as an observatory we will be attentive to that discussion,” explained Marion Stock, coordinator of Les Constituyentes, Marion Stock, in a statement after the votes were counted.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), meanwhile, described “as historic that eight openly LGBTIQ+ people had been elected as constituents, inasmuch as this allows the rich diversity of Chile to have a voice and vote in the most important transformation process faced by the country.”
“We hope that the new constitution explicitly guarantees nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression; as well as by all the categories protected in the Zamudio Law; and full equality of rights is recognized for all individuals, couples and families, whatever their composition. Only with this, each and every one of the homo/transphobic laws and public policies that still persist in Chile can be eliminated at once,” said Movilh spokesperson Óscar Rementería.
Laibe from the Socialist Party of Chile, who was elected in the southernmost area of the country, views his presence and that of seven other LGBTQ people at the convention will help replace the current constitution as a cultural milestone. The current Chilean constitution has been in place since Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.
“I think it is a milestone that, first, we have had more than 40 candidates of sexual diversity to this Constitutional Constitution,” said the political scientist during an interview with Lo Que Queda del Día on Cooperativa radio. “It is a milestone in the history of Chile and it will probably set the tone for what the rest of the elections, in which I am sure we will have more of a presence, will be.”
He added that “we feel proud in our case, because we were the only diverse candidacy in the southern region, where we are so isolated and suddenly we are much more conservative than in the rest of the country and we do not realize that in Santiago they pass things and that perhaps there is a cultural advance that is very different from what is happening in the regions.”
“It has been very important to nail down this flag, to talk about sexual diversity throughout the campaign to try to make visible this problem that is part, I think, of the diagnosis of the social outbreak: There are flags that have been hidden, invisible, for a long time; there are people who feel discrimination every day and who experience inequality and discriminatory treatment in education, health, at work,” said Laibe. “That is going to be, without a doubt, one of the struggles that we are going to have to address in the Constitutional Convention.”
Chileans in the last elections not only elected Constitutional Convention members. They chose their new community and regional representatives. And the LGBTQ community also saw positive results in these races.
The Washington Blade spoke with Cristian Martínez, an LGBTQ activist who was elected as a councilmember in Molina, a city that is 210 kilometers south of the Chilean capital of Santiago.
His race made national news a few weeks ago due to the fact that an Adventist college distributed openly anti-LGBTQ text to its students. Martínez last Sunday made history in Molina as the first openly gay person to be elected as an elected official in his home region.
“My city and my region is rural and conservative. We are a rural area, however, there is a process of change and that is demonstrated by the fact that they have elected me, an openly gay person as a councilor, but it is slower than what is happening in the big cities, I believe that we are going slower here with respect to the LGBTQ+ community and particularly trans people, therefore visibility is the most important thing,” Martínez told the Blade.
“As long as residents do not know trans people, lesbian, bisexual, gay, intersex people, etc., they will not know how to love, respect and welcome them, I believe that making ourselves visible is the most important thing and there you have to do a job that we are advancing. I believe that my town is willing to advance on these issues, but the challenge is huge. There are slightly more conservative Christian communities that also exert social pressure in certain spaces. I believe that this will be lessened as we become more visible,” concluded the now-elected councilor.
Martínez told the Blade that it was “super important” for LGBTQ activists “to participate in these elections because after the social outbreak, all activists and people who participated in social movements felt the responsibility and obligation to assume responsibilities of popular election in the elections that took place. they came, in our territories, in our communes, in our spaces.”
Chile, in this way, leaves behind the prejudices that say LGBTQ people are unqualified to hold public office and this will allow further political inroads, especially in the next elections in November when Chileans go back to the polls to elect a president and members of Congress.
Cristian Martínez (Photo courtesy of Cristian Martínez)
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.”
The White House
As house Democrats release Epstein photos, Garcia continues to demand DOJ transparency
Blade this week sat down with gay House Oversight Committee ranking member
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released new photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s email and computer records, including images highlighting the relationship between President Donald Trump and the convicted sex offender.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, was found guilty of procuring a child for prostitution and sex trafficking, serving a 13-month prison sentence in 2008. At the time of his death in prison under mysterious circumstances, he was facing charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors.
Among those pictured in Epstein’s digital files are Trump, former President Bill Clinton, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, actor and director Woody Allen, economist Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Bill Gates, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
One photo shows Trump alongside Epstein and a woman at a Victoria’s Secret party in New York in 1997. American media outlets have published the image, while Getty Images identified the woman as model Ingrid Seynhaeve.
Oversight Committee Democrats are reviewing the full set of photos and plan to release additional images to the public in the coming days and weeks, emphasizing their commitment to protecting survivors’ identities.
With just a week left for the Justice Department to publish all files related to Epstein following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the Justice Department to release most records connected to Epstein investigations, the Washington Blade sat down with U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the Oversight Committee to discuss the current push the release of more documents.
Garcia highlighted the committee’s commitment to transparency and accountability.
“We’ve said anything that we get we’re going to put out. We don’t care who is in the files … if you’ve harmed women and girls, then we’ve got to hold you accountable.”
He noted ongoing questions surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein, given their long history and the apparent break in friendship once Trump assumed public office.
“There’s been a lot of questions about … Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. They were best friends for 10 years … met women there and girls.”
Prior to Trump’s presidency, it was widely reported that the two were friends who visited each other’s properties regularly. Additional reporting shows they socialized frequently throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, attending parties at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and Epstein’s residences. Flight logs from an associate’s trial indicate Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet multiple times, and Epstein claimed Trump first had sex with his future wife, Melania Knauss, aboard the jet.
“We’ve provided evidence … [that leads to] questions about what the relationship was like between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.”
Garcia stressed the need for answers regarding the White House’s role in withholding information, questioning the sudden change in attitude toward releasing the files given Trump’s campaign promises.
“Why is the White House trying to cover this up? So if he’s not covering for himself … he’s covering up for his rich friends,” Garcia said. “Why the cover up? Who are you hiding for? I think that’s the question.”
He confirmed that Trump is definitively in the Epstein files, though the extent remains unknown, but will be uncovered soon.
“We know that Trump’s in them. Yeah, he’s been told. We know that Trump’s in them in some way. As far as the extent of it … we don’t know.”
Garcia emphasized accountability for all powerful figures implicated, regardless of financial status, political party, or personal connections.
“All these powerful men that are walking around right now … after abusing, in some cases, 14‑ and 15‑year‑old girls, they have to be held accountable,” he said. “There has to be justice for those survivors and the American public deserves the truth about who was involved in that.”
He added that while he is the ranking member, he will ensure the oversight committee will use all available political tools, including subpoenas — potentially even for the president.
“We want to subpoena anyone that we can … everyone’s kind of on the table.”
He also emphasized accountability for all powerful figures implicated, regardless of financial status, political party, or relationship with the president.
“For me, they’re about justice and doing the right thing,” Garcia said. “This is about women who … were girls and children when they were being abused, trafficked, in some cases, raped. And these women deserve justice.”
“The survivors are strong.”
Deputy White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson issued a statement regarding the release the photos, echoing previous comments from Republicans on the timing and framing of the photos by the Oversight Committee.
“Once again, House Democrats are selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative,” Jackson said.
“The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents, and calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends,”
In a press release on Friday, Garcia called for immediate DOJ action:
“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends. These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. House Oversight Committee)
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.
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