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Though Mayor Muriel Bowser has already appointed most of the key positions in her cabinet, there’s still a few prominent positions left to be announced. This morning, Bowser announced the appointment of two leadership positions to head the newly retitled Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Affairs.
Speaking to press and members of the community at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library this morning, Bowser announced the appointment of prominent LGBT activist Sheila Alexander-Reid, who previously worked on the business side of things at the Washington City Paper and the Washington Blade, as the head of the Office of LGBT Affairs, and civil rights activist Terrance Laney as the deputy director.
“I am happy to lead an administration that is reflective and inclusive of the District’s population,” Bowser said at the press conference. “Our administration is committed to equality and social justice, and that is reflected by the work we do and the causes we fight for every day.”
Along with these two appointments, Bowser also announced a slight, yet nonetheless significant change to the Office Alexander-Reid and Laney will be leading. The office, which was previously known as the Office of GLBT Affairs is now the Office of LGBT Affairs to “better align with the community’s embrace of the term LGBT,” Bowser said.
Though gay marriage is legal in D.C., there’s still quite a bit of issues facing the LGBTQ community, and Alexander-Reid outlined what some of those priorities would be. “We have a lot to celebrate,” she said, “but we still have a lot of work to do.” Affordable housing, AIDS awareness, access to equal healthcare, and a focus on the transgender community are all priorities Alexander-Reid said her office would focus on.
That last bit, a focus on the transgender community, has Ruby Corado, executive director and founder of Casa Ruby—a bilingual, multicultural LGBT organization in D.C.—excited. She says there needs to be a priority on D.C.’s transgender community, which, she said, is the most marginalized community.
“[The biggest] priorities are hate crimes and how our city actually attends to those who are victims are crimes,” Corado told DCist. “[Also], the homelessness issue within our community that affects LGBT youth and elders is so important because those are very vulnerable populations within the community.”
Currently, Casa Ruby is close to opening the city’s first homeless shelter for LGBTQ youth, thanks in part to a grant from the city and a flood of donations from supporters.
Corado says she’s excited and hopeful about Bowser’s appointment of Alexander-Reid. “It’s such an exciting moment and I do hope that these appointments really [make] changes,” she said. “There’s an inequality in the community. Transgender people do not have access to the same things. People still walk into community clinics and get denied services. People are still out looking for jobs, and even though it is illegal not to hire trans people, they still get denied jobs.”
“I’m very hopeful that things will change for the better,” she added.
