(Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a three-part series profiling the candidates for mayor of Rehoboth Beach, Del.: Commissioners Suzanne Goode, Susan Stewart, and Craig Thier; a fourth candidate, William Raak, filed to join the race but has not responded to Blade inquiries.) 

Residents of Rehoboth Beach, Del. will elect a new mayor this summer after Stan Mills announced plans to retire after serving six years as mayor and 12 as a commissioner. One candidate who could make history is Commissioner Susan Stewart, who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community, a potential first for the town, which has never had an openly gay mayor.

Stewart is a current city commissioner for Rehoboth Beach and has served as a member of the Mixed-Use and Stormwater Utility Task Forces. 

A Pennsylvania native who spent her adult life working in Washington, D.C., Stewart has owned a home in Rehoboth since 2013 with her partner of more than 20 years and began living there full time during COVID.

Stewart described her campaign as offering vision, leadership, and integrity. She has a background as an attorney and financial adviser. 

She spoke about the work that she is doing as city commissioner that she would continue as mayor, specifically with Reimagine Rehoboth. 

“I’ve been shepherding through a master planning initiative for the first time,” she said. “We’ve never really had an overall study with urban planners and transportation consultants.” 

Stewart highlighted the upcoming ‘Charrette Week’ from July 13-17 when members of the community can learn about the city from urban planners and give their input on the planning initiative. 

“We’ve got this natural beauty and we’ve got some things we can work on,” said Stewart. During ‘Charrette Week’, Stewart said that the community will also have the chance to rename ‘Reimagine Rehoboth’ due to the pushback it initially received.

“Getting the community engaged and united behind is the big goal,” said Stewart. 

Stewart also mentioned that she is the liaison with Clear Space Theatre Company as it aims to build their own venue in town. She expressed hope in bringing this vision to fruition as she values the art and culture that the company brings to town.

“It hasn’t been lost on us that the Kennedy Center has sort of cut loose a lot of its patrons,” said Stewart. 

Stewart also said she wants to increase age and racial diversity in Rehoboth through supporting the construction of more workforce housing. 

“We don’t generally have [racial and age diversity] here. I wish we did,” said Stewart.

According to the 2024 census, the median age of Rehoboth in 2024 was 63 with 44% of the population being 65 and over. Additionally, 89% of the city’s population was reported to be white. 

Stewart also said that she aims to maintain Delaware’s perfect score on the Human Rights Equality Index in 2025, which she credits to the work of the assistant city manager, Evan Miller, and CAMP Rehoboth for getting Rehoboth to be recognized. 

“Rehoboth is a great place for our broader LGBTQ+ community,” said Stewart. 

She also said that she is proud to support organizations like CAMP Rehoboth, which the city was able to give a grant to for the first time this year according to Stewart.  

“The city and CAMP Rehoboth have such a productive and wonderful relationship.”

Stewart said that she wants CAMP to know that they are always welcome to reach out if they ever have issues that require help from the city. 

“We’ll continue to have a very productive and warm relationship.”

The Blade also asked Stewart about her public disagreement with fellow City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Suzanne Goode in March of this year. 

During a commissioners meeting on March 9, Stewart outlined allegations that Goode used derogatory language in emails, particularly toward City Manager Taylour Tedder.

“All of our emails are public information under FOIA. I simply asked the city to link them on the website, and then the city published a transcript of [Goode’s emails].”

Stewart said that she did this on behalf of the city’s employees such as Tedder: “We have a moral and legal obligation to support our employees.” She also said that this situation has escalated since the March 9 meeting. 

At the meeting, Goode denied all of the allegations and said that they were based on falsehoods. 

“The challenge with Suzanne Good is that she burns through so much time in a public hearing because she wants to talk about all these things in the past,” said Stewart. 

If elected mayor, Stewart said that she would look into measures to help meetings run smoother and prevent disruptions such as turning off mics and moving public comment to the end of the meeting instead of the end of each topic. 

“We want public input, but the people that come there for good reasons to talk about things that they need help with get drowned out by these disruptions.”

The election will take place on Aug. 8, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. 

Madonna isn’t just back, she’s ubiquitous. 

From a Times Square takeover to Graham Norton’s couch, the pop legend is busy promoting her new album, “Confessions II,” a sequel to 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” that is earning rave reviews.

“Madonna’s back in peak form with a fresh and honest dance record that’s not only her best in 20 years, but a genuinely vital addition to her canon,” says Pitchfork.

“Facing grief and loss has made Madonna’s music deeper than it’s been in 20 years, but also more alive,” the Guardian proclaims.

“If everyone in the club is a work of art, as ‘Danceteria’ says, then to live loudly is to make an indelible mark,” according to Vulture.

The album features upbeat dance productions along with some melancholic views on death and loss. On the song “Betrayal,” she reflects on the recent death of her stepmother Joan, singing, “You’ll never take my mother’s place … you betrayed me, you enslaved me.”

On “L.E.S. Girl,” she revisits her early days living on the Lower East Side and struggling to pay the rent. “Bizarre” seems to reference her failed 1980s marriage to actor Sean Penn. “Test” is a duet with daughter Lola Leon, in which she sings, “I wish I knew / The pain I’ve caused / My butterfly / Was always being watched.”

But the emotional high point of the album comes on “Fragile,” which she wrote about the death of her brother Christopher. The two were close early in Madonna’s career and he designed sets for early tours, including “Blonde Ambition.” But they had a falling out after her marriage to Guy Ritchie and he wrote a scathing tell-all book about his sister that led to years of estrangement. The two reconciled after Christopher’s cancer diagnosis and shortly before he died in 2024 at age 63. She sings, “Late last night I was fast asleep/You came to me in a dream/You said, ‘Don’t forget about me/Don’t forget to be happy.’”

Death emerges again but in a much more upbeat context in “Danceteria,” an ode to the iconic New York nightclub that has emerged as a gay favorite single and seems destined to be the song of the summer in queer nightlife. She recounts her pre-fame days trying to convince a DJ to play her first single “Everybody” at the club and name checks Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, best friend Debi Mazar, and DJ Mark Kamins on the track. 

Streaming numbers and sales are strong for the new album with projected first week sales of 100,000 ensuring a No.1 debut in the U.S. 

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J. continues to dominate headlines about transgender rights, three recent federal court cases produced significant rulings that limited or temporarily blocked Trump-Vance administration policies attacking trans Americans.

Talbott v. USA

Trump issued Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” on Jan. 27, 2025, banning trans people from serving in the military. The following day, GLAD Law and the National Center for LGBTQ Rights filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the ban on behalf of six active-duty service members and two individuals seeking to enlist. The organizations argue the policy violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

The plaintiffs sought a nationwide preliminary injunction — a temporary block on enforcement of the executive order while the litigation continued. The district court granted that injunction and later rejected the Trump-Vance administration’s request to dissolve it, temporarily protecting trans service members from being discharged solely because of their gender identity.

That protection, however, was short-lived. In Shilling v. Trump, the Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s injunction, allowing the military to begin enforcing the trans service ban while litigation continued. The U.S. Air Force subsequently required trans service members facing involuntary separation proceedings to appear in uniforms and grooming standards corresponding to their sex assigned at birth and, in some cases, used their deadnames during those proceedings.

Despite that setback, the plaintiffs secured two significant legal victories during Pride month.

On June 1, a federal appeals court blocked the discharge of the trans service members involved in Talbott. Then, on June 30, a federal district court certified the case as a class action on behalf of all currently serving trans service members. That means future rulings in the case will apply not only to the original six plaintiffs but to all active-duty trans military personnel covered by the class.

The case remains ongoing, but class certification significantly strengthens the ability to protect trans service members as the litigation continues. Currently, there are 28 plaintiffs in total, including the two still attempting to enlist.

Z.A. v. Blanche

In Z.A. v. Blanche (formerly Z.A. v. Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford), the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an emergency order one day before a federal grand jury subpoena was set to be enforced on July 2. The order blocked the Department of Justice from obtaining confidential medical records belonging to California families whose children receive gender-affirming care.

The ruling relied in part on protections established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the 1996 federal law governing the privacy and security of medical records.

The decision represented a significant check on the administration’s efforts to obtain sensitive patient information, protecting the privacy of trans patients and their families while the legal challenge proceeds.

Doe v. Blanche

Doe v. Blanche, which remains ongoing, challenges Trump’s executive order, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Under policies implementing that order, many trans women in federal custody would be housed in men’s prisons.

A federal district court in D.C. granted a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a Bureau of Prisons policy that would require incarcerated trans women to be housed in men’s facilities regardless of individualized safety assessments or the risk of sexual assault.

The Bureau of Prisons policy also conflicts with the goals of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), enacted by Congress in 2003 to address sexual abuse in correctional facilities through standards, research, funding, and prevention measures. Federal data has consistently shown that trans people in custody experience sexual assault at dramatically higher rates than the general prison population.