D.C. Council reverses proposed budget cut called harmful to Pride events

Approves full $1.5 million Festival Fund request by mayor

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

The D.C. Council on May 16 reversed an earlier decision by one of its committees calling for cutting $1.5 million from a city program that has helped support the city’s Capital Pride parade and festival as well as other Pride-related events.

The program in question, known as the Festival Fund or Special Event Relief Fund, has for many years exempted community-based organizations like the Capital Pride Alliance from having to pay the costs of street closings and police and other public safety support services needed for such events.

Other events that beneft from the fund are the city’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, the H Street Festival, and the Fiesta DC Hispanic event, among others.

At the request of D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), the Council voted on May 16 to include the $1.5 million Festival Fund as part of the city’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

The Council’s action reversed an April 27 decision by its Committee on Business and Economic Development to delete the Festival Fund along with cuts in several other programs.

Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, said elimination of the Festival Fund program would result in Capital Pride having to pay between $550,000 and $750,000 to hold the city’s popular Capital Pride Parade, Festival, Block Party, and other Pride events in 2024, when the elimination of the fund would have taken place.

Capital Pride offcials have pointed out that the largescale Pride events, which draw several hundred thousand participants, many of whom come from other locations, generate “signifcant revenue” for the D.C. government.

Bos said the elimination of the Festival Fund would have also had an adverse impact on the upcoming 2025 World Pride events, which D.C. and the Capital Pride Alliance have been selected to host.

Council member Kenyan McDuffe (I-At-Large), who chairs the Business and Economic Development Committee, told the Washington Blade last week that he and three other members of the fve-member committee voted to cut the Festival Fund to reinstate funds that Mayor Muriel Bowser had proposed cutting for the Child Wealth Building Act or Baby Bonds program.

That program, McDuffe said, was designed to “help close the racial wealth gap in our city by investing in children born into poverty.” He said he supports the Capital Pride events, including the Pride parade and festival, and would have tried to fnd other funds to support the Festival Fund program.

The other members of the committee who voted to cut the festival fund – Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) have longtime records of support for the LGBTQ community. A spokesperson for Pinto said she, too, planned to seek out other funds to restore funding for the Festival Fund.

The remaining member of the committee, Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said she opposed cutting the Festival Fund. She was absent when the committee voted on the cut due to a conficting meeting of another committee that she chairs.

Bowser administration offcials said the mayor’s proposed budget called for cutting the Baby Bonds program because other existing D.C. social services programs are addressing the needs that McDuffe said the Baby Bonds program was intended to support.

CAMP Rehoboth names new executive director

CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBTQ community services center serving Rehoboth Beach and areas across Delaware, announced it has hired Kim Leisey, a longtime high-level administrator at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, as its new executive director.

Leisey, who holds a Ph.D. in Human Development, has served for three decades in the feld of student affairs and facilities management at UMBC leading up to her current position as Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, according to a statement released by CAMP Rehoboth.

“The appointment of Dr. Leisey, a Lewes resident since December 2020 and a Rehoboth Beach visitor since the early 1990s, marks the frst time CAMP Rehoboth will be led by a cisgender lesbian in its 33-year history,” the statement says. “She will join the CAMP Rehoboth team on July 10, 2023,” it says.

“After conducting a comprehensive national search, the Board of Directors selected Kim because of her widely respected leadership in creating strong, healthy, and inclusive communities throughout her career,” said Wesley Combs, president of the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors and chair of the group’s executive director search committee.

“As a champion for all things that help humans to thrive during their lifespan, combined with extensive experience with human resources, facilities, health and safety, and operations at UMBC, Kim is the exact person to help strengthen the CAMP Rehoboth of today and into the future,” Combs said.

The need for a new CAMP Rehoboth executive director surfaced in May of 2022 when then executive director David Mariner resigned to start a new Delaware LGBTQ advocacy group called Sussex Pride. The CAMP Rehoboth board a short time later named Lisa Evans, a longtime administrator at nonproft organizations in Baltimore, as CAMP Rehoboth’s interim executive director.

The May 11 statement announcing Leisey’s appointment as the new executive director says the search for the new director was conducted by Johnny Cooper of Cooper Coleman LLC, an LGBTQ-owned executive search frm that was selected after a Request for Proposal process that included fve frms that applied.

Combs told the Washington Blade that Leisey continued in her role as Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at University of Maryland Baltimore County after moving to Lewes, Del., in late 2020.

“I am honored to be working with the amazing team at CAMP Rehoboth Community Center,” she said in the statement announcing her appointment. “My leadership will honor the important and beautiful legacy of Steve Elkins and Murray Archibald,” said Leisey. “The foundation they have created is strong and powerful.”

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

DC Brau, the city’s original craft brewery, this week revealed the design of its sixth annual Pride Pils can and announced the celebratory Pride Pils launch event. In support of the Blade Foundation and SMYAL, DC Brau partnered with LGBTQ-owned Red Bear Brewing Co. and local artist Chord Bezerra of District Co-Op to design this year’s can.

DC Brau will showcase the Pride Pils design, kicking off D.C. Pride with a celebration at Red Bear Brewing Company (209 M St., N.E.) in NoMA on Thursday, June 1, from 6-8 p.m. Guests will enjoy DC Brau beer, featuring the newly minted 2023 Pride Pils can. The event is free.

The art, designed by Chord Bezerra, was created in direct response to the anti-drag bills being passed around the country. Drag king and queen culture has always been a cornerstone of the LGBTQ community. In the 1890s, William Dorsey Swann, the frst self-described drag queen, pushed boundaries and created safe spaces for queer expression in Washington, D.C. Today, drag culture is under attack, but the community stands united to ensure the rights of kings and queens to express themselves remain for generations to come.

In addition to the design being featured on DC Brau’s 2023 Pride Pils can, supporters can purchase ‘Hail To The Queens’ merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and more from District Co-Op. Proceeds from each purchase will beneft the Blade Foundation and SMYAL.

Since launching Pride Pils in 2017, DC Brau has donated more than $48,731 to the Blade Foundation and SMYAL, selling more than 90,336 Pride Pils cans. This year, the can labels have been generously donated by Blue Label Packaging Co. along with PakTech’s donation of packaging handles.

FROM STAFF REPORTS