Sounding Off with Karen

Published in the April-June 2026 Edition
By Karen Kendra Holmes

Welcome readers to “Sounding OFF with Karen” and my pronouns are She Her Hers. I will be your writer and advocate for the column. I am very happy to be writing for Maryland OUTLoud Magazine.

To start things off in this article I retired from the Federal Government last year on September 28,2026 and it was and is a blessing as of today.

Just recently I published my memoir. My memoir tells the story of my lifelong journey to discover who I truly am — deep within my mind, heart, and soul — as a transgender woman. From age 13 to 53, I lived with an internal struggle, fighting to free my authentic self. For 40 years, I wandered. Today, that journey has finally brought me home. I am proud to live fully and openly as who I was always meant to be Karen Kendra Holmes.

I love my life as a transgender woman every single day.

Along the way, I served as a federal government employee for over 24 years, stood proudly with the Maryland Defense Force and the U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps, and now volunteer with the Red Cross Disaster Action Team and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). As a TEDx speaker, I travel to the country sharing my story with members of the military, law enforcement, medical professionals, federal agencies, and students.

My mission is simple: to empower transgender people to live authentically and to help the cisgender community better understand who we are.

If you believe in something, you may achieve it. But if you believe in yourself, you will.

To order my memior visit marylandoutloud.com/articles/karenkendraholmes

or visit the QR code below:

Now onto a couple of people “Sounding Off” with Karen! To start things off, I am so tired of this administration dodging the issues around the “Epstein’s File”. When it was promised that the Epstein Files would be released a court order as well to do so, why has it not been done. If it was little old, me or you to do so by the Courts or by Congress, we would have to do so and we would not be able to not do so, but yet this administration ignores does. How wrong is it and what gives this administration the right to do so. What are they hiding from us, and the MEGA people want them to release the other half of the files. One thing that was asked of this writer anonymously how comes DOJ or FBI are not talking with the pilot(s), flight attendance on Epstein’s plane who were the people coming on the plane to go to Epstein’s Island. The same question was asked about the Captain of staff on Les Wexner 315-foot superyacht Limitless which Epstein had access to. Would those people not know who came on the superyacht?

Next is about service people that do not show up to do the work or call you to give you an update on time to respond. I have 2 cases and the first private contractor is someone who installed a room AC/Heater unit on the wall and the outside unit that works with it over two years ago. The owner sent a technician out to work on it and found a leak on a pipe. He said that they needed to fix the leak or replace the pipe and give a recharge to the system. I talked with the owner who said they would be out in two days, which he never did. Plus, they never called me, and I have been trying to reach the owner for a week with no response to my calls or text messages. To me I was trying to work with a small business, which you would think they need the work. I even called my friend who referred to this company to me. She herself said she would call them and got no response either. Now I am calling another company who said they would be out between 11 and 3 today and no show or phone call either. I tell you if you have a business yourself you need to keep in touch with your customers even if you cannot make at the time range you said so we are not just sitting around.

Case number two is a friend of mine who just brought a condo and had a ceiling leak in her living room and bedroom. You would think as a new homeowner that the salesperson would jump right into taking care of the problem right away as soon as possible. Then when we had the snow and ice storm, the property workers were going to clean in front of her condo, but never showed, so she had to climb over her fence to be able to leave to go to work. Here again you would think they would take care of their new owner. I know when I use to sell alarm systems for a living, I always give my customers my pager number if they have a problem and need to page me, they could do so. Have things changed that much today that we do not take care of customers after they have a sale.

Until next time stay safe out there and again my email address is: karen@marylandoutloud.com. You can also catch me on my podcast on Fridays “The Fireplace Chat” at 3pm E.S.T. on Facebook live under Karen Kendra Holmes. Until next time Sound OFF with Karen.