SMYAL Fall Brunch to focus on celebration — even in these dark times

SMYAL Executive Director Erin Whelan has one goal for this year’s SMYAL Fall Brunch — to center joy.

“Joy is just as important as the pain and the worry in the advocacy,” Whelan told the Washington Blade in an interview.

It’s not that SMYAL’s Fall Brunch, now in its 28th iteration, hasn’t always been a joyful fête. Or that the organization, which has also been around for four decades, doesn’t have much to celebrate.

It’s that during a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is bent on curtailing LGBTQ rights, whether by blocking minors’ access to gender affirming care or prohibiting gender marker changes on IDs, LGBTQ advocates find themselves in an environment in which they have more to worry about than to celebrate.

But Whelan believes it’s still important to applaud the ex