Top 10 local LGBTQ news stories of 2024

It’s been another busy year for local queer news, with everything from a series of brutal hate crimes to the impending sentencing of former local activist Ruby Corrado making headlines. Here are the Blade’s top 10 local stories of 2024.

#10 Gay Episcopal pastor returns 40 years after unlocking

The Reverend Harry Stock was stripped of his Episcopal priesthood by church officials in West Virginia 40 years ago after discovering he was gay and entering into holy marriage with a male partner, but he was denied the miracle. This is a development that is called. He was officially reinstated as an Episcopal priest in a ceremony held on October 26 at the Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

In an invitation to the ceremony that Stock sent to friends and associates, he said the ceremony marks the 43rd anniversary of his ordination as an Episcopal priest by the bishop of Charleston, West Virginia, and the 40th anniversary of his unlocking. He said it would be done later. He was expelled from the priesthood for having “declared his love for another man at the altar” during the sacred union ceremony.

#9 DC Council approves budget with $8.5 million in LGBTQ provisions

On June 12, the D.C. Council gave final approval to the District of Columbia’s $21 billion fiscal year 2025 budget. The budget includes more than $8.5 million in funding for LGBTQ-related programs, including $5.25 million to support the June 2025 World Pride celebration hosted by D.C. are. Hosted by

The budget also includes $1.7 million in funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, an increase of $132,000 from the office’s funding this fiscal year, and funding to complete renovations to the Mayor’s Office. Includes one-time funding of $1 million. A new building for the DC Center for the LGBTQ community in the city’s Shaw District.

#8 Judge Seals Case of Gay DC Gym Owner Charged with Distribution of Child Pornography

In a surprising development, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on October 23rd announced a decision by defense attorneys to close and seal all court records from that date in the case of gay D.C. gym owner Michael Everts. I agreed to the request. was arrested on November 29, 2023 on charges of distributing child pornography.

Before the case was unsealed, court records show prosecutors offered Everts the option of pleading guilty, possibly to a lesser charge, and his decision on whether to accept the offer , was scheduled to be revealed at a court hearing on October 23, 2024. The judge now sealed the case.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution have disclosed why the case was sealed. Court watchers say one possible reason for sealing cases like this one is that the defendant is cooperating with police and prosecutors in other investigations into other people believed to have been involved in similar criminal activity. He says it’s for the sake of it.

#7 Trans Employee Wins $930,000 in Compensation in Lawsuit Against DC McDonald’s

A jury in Washington, D.C. Superior Court on August 15 awarded a $930,000 lawsuit against a company that owns and operates McDonald’s restaurant franchises in northwest Washington, alleging that transgender employees suffered discrimination, harassment and retaliation. ordered to pay compensation for damages. Her gender identity violates the DC Human Rights Act.

The lawsuit, filed in January 2021 by attorneys representing Diana Portillo Medrano, says Medrano was first hired as a customer service representative at McDonald’s, 5948 Georgia Ave., N.W., in 2011; , she was promoted in recognition of her good work up until her retirement. Two years later, I began transitioning as a trans woman.

Since then, she says, her supervisors and colleagues have “subjected her to a barrage of abuse, ridicule, ridicule, and harassment because she is a transgender woman.” The complaint alleges that she was wrongfully fired after filing a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

#6 In Washington, DC, 28 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ

According to the District of Columbia’s 2024 Annual Homeless Survey conducted in January, 12 percent of homeless adults and 28 percent of homeless youth ages 18 to 24 identify as LGBTQ.

Point-in-time (PIT) numbers show an overall 14 percent increase in homelessness in the city compared to 2023. And this year’s total of 527 LGBTQ homeless people represents an increase over the 2023 LGBTQ homeless counts in Washington, D.C., of 349 and 347. By 2022, LGBTQ homeless people will be counted.

#5 Notable Local Dead: Bernie Delia, Kathy Wolfe, Cornelius Baker

In 2024, the local LGBTQ community mourned the loss of several prominent community members and celebrated their lives and accomplishments.

Bernie D’Elia, a founding member of the Capital Pride Alliance, the organization that organizes most of Washington, D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride events, and most recently co-chair of World Pride 2025, is a longtime gay man. He was one of the first lawyers to publicly say so. A U.S. Department of Justice employee died of natural causes on June 21st. He passed away at the age of 68.

Kathy Wolf, a longtime Washington Blade contributor, award-winning journalist, and nationally recognized poet, died June 22 after a short battle with cancer. She was 71 years old. Wolf is also legally blind and because she has a disability, she decided to use her platform to highlight the important contributions of LGBTQ people with disabilities.

A. Cornelius Baker has had an extensive career in public health, including service as special advisor to the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health and executive director of Whitman Walker Health in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Patients with AIDS. However, he suddenly passed away in December 2016. He returned home on November 9th for natural reasons. He was 63 years old.

#4 Ruby Collado pleads guilty to wire fraud

Ruby Corrado, founder and executive director of the defunct Washington, D.C., LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby, pleaded guilty on July 17 to a single charge of wire fraud as part of a plea deal offered by prosecutors. Ta.

The charges to which she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., allege that she “used at least $150,000 of taxpayer-supported coronavirus emergency relief funds for personal use,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It is alleged that the money was diverted to a private offshore bank account. In 2022, “when Casa Ruby’s financial irregularities became public, Ms. Collado sold her home in Prince George’s County and fled to El Salvador,” prosecutors said in a statement.

It said FBI agents arrested her at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, on March 5, 2024, “after she unexpectedly returned to the United States.” She is scheduled to be sentenced on January 10, 2025, according to court records.

#3 Accidental Deaths of Two Beloved DC Gay Men Produces “Strong Response”

On December 27, 2023, Brandon Roman, 38, and Robert ‘Robbie’ Valletta, 28, two well-known and beloved gay men from Washington, D.C., were killed by an accidental drug overdose. His sudden death from an overdose sparked an outcry in the city and community. We are becoming more proactive about the opioid overdose issue and how it impacts the LGBTQ community.

After completing autopsies and toxicology tests, the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed in April 2024 that the two men’s deaths were due to the accidental ingestion of several drugs that caused fatal “toxic” effects. did. Fentanyl was among the drugs found in the two bodies, which D.C. public health officials say is the leading cause of accidental drug overdose deaths in the city.

In June, two months after the coroner’s report, federal prosecutors charged the alleged drug dealer with “distribution of cocaine and fentanyl” that led to the deaths of Roman and Barletta on Dec. 26, 2023. Obtained an indictment against a person.

Washington, D.C., police are continuing to investigate a separate incident in which two gay men were attacked and assaulted on U Street in Washington, D.C.’s northwest entertainment district on October 27, and one of them died from his injuries. . Police announced in November that two boys had been arrested for robbing 39-year-old gay DJ and hairstylist Brian Smith. Smith was found unconscious in the 500 block of T Street NW with head injuries. He died 11 days later, but police have so far only charged the two boys with robbery.

Smith’s assault and robbery came after Sebastian Tomas Robles Lascaro, a 22-year-old gay man, was assaulted by as many as 15 men and women inside a McDonald’s store, some of whom were shouting anti-gay slurs. It happened about 4 hours later. 14th Avenue and U Street, N.W., according to a police report. Washington, D.C., police announced that they have arrested a 16-year-old male in connection with the incident, which remains under investigation.

Also in October, 15 students at Salisbury University in Maryland were charged with assault in connection with a hate crime against a 40-year-old gay man. Police say he sent messages to Grinder posing as a gay man and lured him to an off-campus apartment. A 16 year old male seeking a sexual encounter. When the man arrived at the apartment, the students assaulted him while he was sitting in a chair, police said.

Two months after the arrests, Wicomico County prosecutors filed serious assault and hate crime charges against at least 12 of the 15 people charged in the attack due to a lack of sufficient evidence to sustain charges. announced that it would be withdrawn. Prosecutors have left false imprisonment and second-degree assault charges against most of the students arrested, and a trial is scheduled for late January.

#1 City Preparing for WorldPride 2025

Well over 600,000 people, many from across the country, attend Washington, D.C.’s annual Capital Pride weekend event, including the Pride Parade on Saturday, June 8th, and the Pride Festival and Concert on Sunday, June 9th. We gathered. Officials with the Capital Pride Alliance, the organization that organizes most D.C. Pride events, said the June 2024 event was planned in part in preparation for World Pride 2025, which D.C. will host from May 17 to June 8. said. 2025.

As in previous years, dozens of contingents from various organizations and local and federal agencies marched or rode in vehicles and floats in the June 8 parade. Those attending the parade included D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. City Council. The day of the parade also included the Washington Blade’s annual Pride on the Pier party, held at The Wharf area on the city’s southwest waterfront.