Top 10 local news stories of 2022 – Washington Blade
From the return of Pride to the shutdown of Casa Ruby, the Blade was busy in 2022 covering all the local LGBTQ news. Here are our staff picks for the top 10 stories of the year.
#10 As You Are bar overcomes hurdles to open
Plans of lesbian activists and businesswomen Jo McDaniel and Rachel Pike to open the LGBTQ café and bar of their dreams called As You Are in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill appeared uncertain at best in January 2022.
Some nearby residents raised objections to what they said would bring noise and neighborhood disturbances by plans for a second-floor dance floor at the bar’s 500 8th St., S.E. location. But as it turned out, many residents expressed support for the bar.
McDaniel and Pike, with help from their attorney, worked out an agreement with the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which gave its support for the bar’s liquor license application that was later approved by the city’s liquor board.
Although McDaniel and Pike say they still have some hurdles to overcome, the bar opened for business on March 22. Among the several dozen people who showed up on opening day were gay U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband.
#9 Gay Hyattsville mayor posthumously charged with embezzlement
Gay Hyattsville, Md., Mayor Kevin Ward, who took his own life on Jan. 25, was posthumously charged a few months later with embezzling more than $2.2 million from a D.C. charter school network where he worked as director of technology.
The revelations shocked LGBTQ supporters and Hyattsville city officials, who had praised Ward as a progressive and highly regarded public official who worked for the betterment of all of Hyattsville’s diverse residents.
U.S. Park Police said they found Ward deceased in a federal park in Northern Virginia from what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
News of the alleged embezzlement surfaced when federal prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Ward’s estate charging, among other things, that he used the money he stole to buy at least 10 cars, a camper, sports memorabilia, and property in West Virginia.
#8 Loudoun County sexual assault case triggers opposition to trans policies
Transgender supportive public-school policies adopted in Loudoun County, Va., and throughout the state and beyond continued to face intense opposition in 2022 from a 2021 incident in which a 15-year-old boy initially believed to be transgender or gender fluid was charged with sexually assaulting two girls in separate high schools. One of the two assaults took place in a girl’s bathroom while he wore a skirt.
Although the boy’s mother has said her child is not transgender and identifies as straight, critics seized on the two sexual assault cases as grounds for reversing or opposing school policies that allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and other school facilities that match their gender identity.
In a separate development, the Loudoun County school board, which previously had adopted trans-supportive school policies, voted to uphold a decision by the school superintendent to remove the LGBTQ book ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ from high school libraries.
#7 Monkeypox hits D.C. gay, bi men
Officials with the D.C. Department of Health reported in July that gay and bisexual men and those in the category of men who have sex with men (MSM) appeared to comprise at least 90 percent of the reported monkeypox cases in Washington, D.C.
But that percentage declined a short time later when the DOE changed its reporting policies in an effort to reduce the stigma associated with monkeypox infections. Officials said they did not want to appear as if they were applying undue pressure on people to disclose their sexual orientation when they apply for a monkeypox vaccination or seek a monkeypox test or treatment.
That change in policy appeared to result in a lower number of newly reported cases being attributed to men who have sex with men and a higher number of cases attributed to an “unknown” risk group.
In late summer, some public health officials said the lead cause of monkeypox transmission appeared to be through sexual relations rather than casual contact such as from dancing.
#6 Ally Wes Moore wins election as Maryland governor
Maryland Democrat Wes Moore, an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights, won election in November as Maryland’s first African-American governor. In other LGBTQ related races, lesbian former Maryland state Del. Heather Mizeur lost her race for a U.S. House seat in the state’s Eastern Shore district.
In Delaware, transgender woman Sarah McBride won re-election to her seat in the State Senate. And in Virginia, transgender State Del. Danica Roem announced she will run for a seat in the Virginia Senate in 2023.
#5 Gay former D.C. cop Brett Parson arrested on sex with minor charge
Former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson, who served as supervisor of the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit before retiring from the force in 2020, was arrested in Boca Raton, Fla., on Feb. 12, for allegedly having sex with a consenting 16-year-old boy in violation of Florida’s age of consent law, which is 18, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court.
The affidavit says the 16-year-old told police he and Parson met on the gay online dating app called Growlr and agreed to meet for a sexual encounter in Coconut Creek after exchanging “explicit” photos of each other. It says the two engaged in consenting sex in Parson’s car while parked in a secluded parking lot at night.
An arrest warrant obtained by Coconut Creek police charges Parson with two counts of “Unlawful Sexual Activity with a Minor.” Parson was released on bond while awaiting trial. Court records show no trial date has been set and the next court status hearing for the case is scheduled for March 17, 2023.
#4 Youngkin creates uproar over proposed trans school policy
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia introduced a proposed directive in September requiring all the state’s 133 public school districts to adopt transgender “model policies” that, among other things, would require transgender students to use school facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender at birth.
The proposed policies, which drew strong opposition from LGBTQ rights advocates, also would require students who want to change their name or gender on official school records to obtain legal documentation, such as a legal name change, with parental approval. Additionally, the Youngkin policies would call for teachers and other school employees to refuse to refer to trans students by their desired name or pronoun unless students’ parents request that change in writing.
Although the proposal received mixed reactions from the public through about 71,000 written comments during a 30-day review period, the state Department of Education postponed the policy directive’s implementation for more than a month following legal issues raised by opponents. Among the issues raised is that the policies would violate Virginia’s LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.
#3 Large-scale D.C. Pride events resume
Organizers of D.C.’s 2022 Capital Pride Parade and Festival say the two events attracted close to a record half-million people during the city’s Pride weekend in June when large-scale outdoor and indoor Pride events resumed following the scaled-back events in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
Organizers of the city’s Black Pride events, which take place each year during the Memorial Day weekend in May, said large-scale indoor celebrations, including conference sessions and dance parties, resumed in full force as well in 2022. The Blade’s annual Pride on the Pier celebration at the Wharf also returned to packed crowds.
Among those who joined the Capital Pride celebration was U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who made a surprise appearance on the Capital Pride Festival stage before a cheering crowd.
#2 D.C. election highlights LGBTQ political involvement
LGBTQ activists said among the highlights of the 2022 D.C. election was gay D.C. school board member Zachary Parker, who won election to the Ward 5 D.C. Council seat, becoming the first out LGBTQ person to serve on the Council since 2015.
Gay former D.C. police officer Salah Czapary lost his race for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat, and two gay Libertarian Party candidates lost their races for the D.C. congressional delegate seat and the Ward 3 Council seat.
In the June Democratic primary, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Council Chair Phil Mendelson won in hotly contested races. In a development that surprised some political observers, the city’s largest LGBTQ political group, Capital Stonewall Democrats, endorsed Bowser and Mendelson’s lead opponents.
LGBTQ supporters of Bowser and Mendelson claim the large majority LGBTQ residents voted for Bowser and Mendelson, who have strong records of support on LGBTQ issues. Like all D.C. elections over the past 20 years or longer, virtually all candidates running in 2022 expressed support for LGBTQ rights.
#1 Casa Ruby shuts down
Casa Ruby, D.C.’s once highly regarded LGBTQ community services center, closed its operations in July due to a financial crisis brought about by the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funding and alleged mismanagement.
On July 29, shortly after the shutdown, the Office of the D.C. Attorney General filed a civil complaint against Casa Ruby and its founder and former executive director Ruby Corado, alleging that Casa Ruby and Corado had violated the city’s Nonprofit Corporations Act for the past several years.
The complaint said improper actions by Corado, including the unaccounted-for expenditure of city funds and a gross failure by the Casa Ruby Board of Directors to provide oversight, was the cause of the financial crisis. The AG’s office on Nov. 28 filed an amended complaint in D.C. Superior Court with new allegations, including claims that Corado withdrew more than $400,000 of Casa Ruby’s funds for unauthorized use in El Salvador.
Corado has denied any improper or illegal financial practices and blamed the D.C. government for Casa Ruby’s collapse. In an interview with the Blade in El Salvador, where she has lived most of the time for the past two years, Corado said the allegations against her, especially those made by the D.C. Attorney General, amount to “persecution.”