Sean Ebony Coleman became the first transgender African American to own and operate an LGBTQ center with the founding of Destination Tomorrow in 2009. Subsequent centers opened up in Atlanta in 2022 and D.C. in 2024. 

Destination Tomorrow was founded on the idea that “it is more helpful to empower our most vulnerable TLGBQ+ community members in a way that takes them off the path of needing emergency care.”

“Our organization emphasizes economic, social, and mental empowerment through a variety of holistic educational, financial, support-based, housing, and health programs,” Destination Tomorrow said on the organization’s website.

With Transgender Day of Visibility today and WorldPride coming to D.C. this June, the Washington Blade spoke with Coleman to get some further insight into how Destination Tomorrow and other organizations are responding to the pressure the Trump-Vance administration is putting on the LGBTQ community.

BLADE: What was the overall reaction to the Trump administration and the heavy anti-LGBTQ rhetoric being pushed by the administration from Destination Tomorrow?

COLEMAN: I think the first thing was disbelief, right? You know he’s not well versed, but the embellishments about the community, particularly the trans community, were so outlandish that they became dangerous. So I think the first thing was, people actually believe this, and we have a message in problem because we’re not responding. We really missed an opportunity to message that differently. Like some of them it was so easy for us to respond and say, “We’re talking about the entire sports world when it comes to college and high school” and those kinds of things, right? We are definitely focusing on the wrong one percent.

I knew it was like collectively as a trans man, just personally, I was like “okay, so how do you show up now?” You’re in a position that folks expect you to at the very least have something positive to say next steps, this is what we’re gonna do, marching all this, whatever. I’m sitting with it like, no, I’m a little nervous. In the moment, most of the danger and most of the rhetoric is happening towards trans and gender nonconforming people and unfortunately, Black and brown and trans and gender nonconforming folks feel it worse when things like this happen.

BLADE: With a lot of organizations getting threats, losing funding, and everybody just being scared, has Destination Tomorrow specifically received any higher amounts of traffic to your locations, either here or other states?

COLEMAN: All three locations have seen an uptick. Funny thing a lot of them are coming in because they just want community. and we do that intake assessment. Then we say “while we have you here, we could do all of these other things.” But it’s really about them coming for community. If you know anything about us, we’re well versed in the house and ballroom community. So we put on balls. We’re planning one now. 

And the young people, particularly young trans people, are also coming in for the ball, but they also want to know. Mr. Coleman, what can we do now? What is it? They want a call to action, want to be motivated and I think we have to figure out again this one message of where we’re going to go. Whether it is New York, Atlanta, and D.C., Destination Tomorrow is then going through all of the other trans into the nonconforming organizations. Speaking in one voice and figuring out what movement building looks like for us in this moment and we think that young people should drive it.

Particularly in New York and D.C. will receive some additional resources because we want to be able to address those folks that are going to come in. We want to make sure (to have enough) staff, (increase) our hours. We increase our security and our security presence because that was something that we were concerned about, even if it’s just an in person meeting that we’ve been doing for the last five years, because how do we keep those meetings and that meeting space and our identity safe?

BLADE: Do you feel like given the recent federal government layoffs and this whole Trump takeover of Washington, like, do you think D.C. is prepared or safe enough to start implementing those things that you want to try and get done?

COLEMAN: Yes. I think once we’ve taken a moment to step back and assess the situation, we will be able to come out stronger with the initiative that is going to be most important and most impactful for our community, but I think it is going to take some collaborative effort. I don’t think one agency is gonna be able to do it. I think this is a time for collaboration and allies. um, and not in that order. Right? But D.C. is definitely a safe place for LGBT community members worldwide.

It’s gonna be an amazing time. We’re gonna get an opportunity to show how resilient our community is, how much love we still receive. If you look at some things on social media, it’ll seem like everyone’s demonizing the trans and general nonconforming community and that’s not necessarily the case, right? 
I think we get sucked into this vacuum with social media and I think once you log off and you actually go outside, you recognize exactly how much support you have from your community. And I think that ties back into our messages. We’re not going to stand around sad and defeated. We’re going to show up, have a good time with WorldPride.

I also see it as an excellent opportunity to strategically put some plans in place. While we have you here, and we’re celebrating, we’re partying, but here is what our next steps will be. We have at least two or three next steps that collectively, you can go back down and all of us a picture goes saying two or three things. Say the same things, stay on message and I think World Pride will be an excellent opportunity to do so.

Along with the comments on TDOV and WorldPride, Coleman also spoke about the current state of LGBTQ politics.

“What’s so unfortunate for me is that we lean into our allies, right? Now is the time for our allies to take a look around the room and say “Oh wait. This person is missing [in the conversation], we should not be speaking on behalf of Black and brown people,” he told the Blade. “I specifically say Black and brown trans people. [Allies] shouldn’t be speaking on behalf of them because I know a few that can actually come here and speak on their own behalf and unfortunately it doesn’t happen. I think it’s because it’s tied into the losing funding across the board. So those LGB organizations are gonna feel that loss. And at some point they may feel like they have to step in and fill a void that they don’t necessarily have to because we’re here.”

Specifically in New York, Coleman has been looking toward the local government to help Destination Tomorrow and other organizations stay protected and operational during times like these. 

“Trans, gender nonconforming and LGB issues go across different issues. Whether we’re talking about housing, criminal justice reform, or reproductive rights. We should be included in those discussions, and we should be included in those funding opportunities,” said Coleman. “And I think this gives us an opportunity to show that Destination Tomorrow has a program called Pride at Work. to the workforce development program, where we’re pitching it in D.C. and we’re actually in our third year of doing it in New York City. That’s an example of how workforce development should be for all of us, right?”

“So a lot of the work we’ve done in the last couple of months is really meeting with all our elected officials and saying, ‘This is the message that we’d like you to push. This is what we want to say, this is how we feel. Because you are not saying it, it feels like you left us behind. This is where you are missing the mark and it is up to you to fix it,’” he added.

A discussion for New York mayoral candidates took place later that evening. One of the things that Coleman wanted to heavily iterate to the candidates was that “at the end of the day, we’re paying attention now. We may not have been as politically engaged as we should have been, but we are now.”

D.C.’s Rainbow History Project has announced details of its WorldPride 2025 exhibition called  “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington.”

The non-profit, all-volunteer group, which has been chronicling LGBTQ history in the D.C. area for the past 25 years, says its World Pride Exhibition will be set up from May 27 through July 6 in Freedom Plaza, which is located on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. between 13th and 14th streets.   

RHP spokesperson Emma Cieslik said the multi-display exhibition would be open 24 hours every day during that seven-week period with full all-weather and security protection, including illumination for night-time viewing.

“From 1965 to the present day, the exhibition divides D.C.’s LGBTQ+ history into 10 eras that are explored in a visual timeline wall along Pennsylvania Avenue,” according to a statement released by Rainbow History Project. “Alongside the timeline wall are 10 large cubes with archival photos of pickets, protests, and parades, as well as portraits of Community Pioneers who championed each era called the Hero Cubes,” the statement says.

“The exhibition disrupts the popularly held belief that the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement began with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 in New York,” the statement points out.

It adds that while the  riots in response to the NYPD raid at the Greenwich Village gay bar Stonewall was a “vital” boost to the LGBTQ rights movement, another historic LGBTQ action in D.C. pre-dates Stonewall – the April 17, 1965 “Picket for Homosexual Rights” in front of the White House that was organized by the Mattachine Society of Washington and its then leader, D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny.

“RHP recognizes this picket, four years before the Stonewall Riots, where 10 members of the Mattachine Society of Washington marched with signs in front of the White House – as the start of D.C.’s rich queer history,” the statement says. 

It says RHP will hold a re-enactment of the 1965 White House homosexual rights picket at 4:15 p.m. on April 17, 2025, on its 60th anniversary.

“This exhibition is the culmination of 25 years of RHP’s work and is the largest in RHP’s history,” the statement added regarding the Freedom Plaza exhibition.

RHP spokesperson Cieslik said the joint application by WorldPride 2025 and Rainbow History Project for a permit for use of Freedom Plaza for the RHP exhibition and other WorldPride events is in the final stages of approval but had not yet been approved.

Ryan Bos, executive director of D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance, which is the lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, has said the permit application process for use of U.S. Park Service controlled federal parks and land, such as Freedom Plaza and the National Mall, were moving ahead as planned.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Park Service didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for the status of the Freedom Plaza permit application.

Full details of the Rainbow History Project’s WorldPride exhibition, including photos of the specific exhibits, can be accessed at rainbowhistory.org.

A group of more than 100 supporters gathered outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., on Thursday, March 27 to show appreciation for the passage of a Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation by the Fairfax County School Board. The board unanimously passed the proclamation in its general meeting held in the auditorium of the middle school that evening.

Karl Frisch, Fairfax County School Board chair, introduced the proclamation recognizing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility in Fairfax County Public Schools.

The Fairfax County School Board passed the proclamation, which “encourages all to promote a caring culture of equity, inclusivity and respect for transgender people, not only on this special day but throughout the entire year as well.”

Vanessa Hall, co-chair of FCPS Pride, was among the speakers and organizers of the Transgender Day of Visibility rally preceding the school board meeting.

“In this world right now, this world which feels so chaotic and threatening — which really seems to be overly focused on trans children, removing their rights — we need to take this opportunity to gather our community, to celebrate joy, to see each other and to gather our strength for the next attack, frankly,” Hall told the Blade.

Rev. Emma Chattin of the Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia was among the speakers at the rally.

“We have to be visible — all of us — friends, family, allies, speak up!” Chattin called out to the crowd. “To do otherwise does a disservice to the strong souls that came before us. For the struggles that they faced are now ours. The spirits of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera look to us now. Because liberation is a long, long struggle. We are not helpless and we cannot be hopeless. Our time is now. We are a powerful people. We leave a mark and we will not be erased.”