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Gay activists missing at Fenty campaign kick-off & more
A rally marking the opening of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s re-election campaign headquarters had few gay Democratic activists in the crowd. (DC Agenda photo by Michael Key)
Gay activists missing at Fenty campaign kick-off
Few gay Democratic activists attended a rally last week that marked the opening of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s re-election campaign headquarters on Georgia Avenue, N.W.
About 300 supporters and volunteers cheered April 10 as Fenty opened his campaign with a speech highlighting his administration’s accomplishments, including reforms in education and crime fighting that he acknowledged weren’t always popular.
“We did it because it was the right thing to do,” he said, reciting a litany of policy changes and actions that would make D.C. a “world-class city.”
Among the gays seen at the event were Christopher Dyer, director of the mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, and Joe Martin, director of the mayor’s office of constituent services for Ward 4. Also present were gay civic activists John Fanning of Logan Circle and Martin Moulton, the gay president of the Convention Center Community Association.
Fanning, who works for the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation and is a former Advisory Neighborhood Commission member, said he believes Fenty will receive “solid” support from the LGBT community.
“I think the mayor has made some very tough decisions and has significantly improved city services and the delivery of them in many areas,” he said. “The mayor has always been a longtime supporter of the LGBT community and I believe that he remains very sensitive to our causes and issues.”
Don Colodny, a member of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, was one of the few club members present. He said the lack of a large gay presence at the event was not a sign that gays won’t vote for Fenty.
“It was held at 10 in the morning on a Saturday in the far side of the city,” he said, noting that the location and early hour most likely discouraged gays from attending the event. Other people noted that the event wasn’t widely publicized in the LGBT community.
In his speech at the rally, Fenty did not mention LGBT issues or the city’s same-sex marriage bill, which he signed into law in December. He also did not reference two recent city studies that show record high numbers of HIV infections among city residents, including African Americans and men who have sex with men.
He instead pointed to the more positive findings of the AIDS studies showing that the city’s aggressive programs to administer HIV testing over the past several years — and placing people who test positive into city-funded treatment — has reduced the number of AIDS cases.
“We knew we had to fight the spread of AIDS,” Fenty said. “The number of new AIDS cases, ladies and gentlemen, declined 33 percent between 2004 and 2008. We have doubled the amount of testing, distributed three-and-a-half million free condoms, [and] removed 350,000 needles from our streets.”
DC Agenda boxes stolen in Georgetown
Boxes used to distribute the DC Agenda at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, N.W., in Georgetown were discovered to be missing on three occasions in March, prompting the paper’s publisher to file a stolen property report with D.C. police.
The boxes were positioned on the sidewalk on Wisconsin Avenue in front of the United Colors of Benetton clothing store, next to distribution boxes for Politico, The Hill and Washington City Paper.
Publisher Lynne Brown said that when the first DC Agenda box disappeared at the Georgetown location, the newspaper’s distribution company quickly replaced it with another box. When that replacement box disappeared a short time later, a heavier metal box was installed, Brown said.
She noted that that box disappeared sometime before DC Agenda’s delivery person arrived to deliver the subsequent issue. Because the DC Agenda is distributed free of charge, Brown said she concluded someone appears to be taking the boxes and the newspapers inside with the intent of stopping their distribution at that location.
Brown is asking that anyone with information that might lead to the identification of the person or people responsible for stealing the boxes contact the DC Agenda’s distribution department at 202-747-2077, ext. 8080.
Virginia man sentenced for hate crime
A 27-year-old Virginia man has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after pleading guilty to assaulting a group of lesbians on a sidewalk in Adams Morgan in September, a crime that police listed as a hate crime.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Craig Iscoe handed down the sentence April 5 against Christopher McDonald, who pleaded guilty to charges of simple assault and bias-related threats to do bodily harm.
The United States Attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, dropped separate charges of possession of a prohibited weapon — a knife — and a second count of bias-related threats to do bodily harm in exchange for McDonald’s agreeing to plead guilty in February.
According to prosecutors, McDonald admitted to “confronting the women about their sexual orientation and made derogatory, profanity-laced remarks about their appearance and sexual orientation.”
In an unprovoked action, McDonald, who was born in Jamaica, “pulled out a knife and began advancing toward one of the women, saying ‘if we were in Jamaica I’d shoot you in the face for being gay,’” says a statement released by prosecutors.
Police said the incident took place on the 2400 block of 18th Street, N.W., on Sept. 7.
Under the terms of his sentencing, McDonald’s incarceration will be followed by a two-year period of supervised probation. He must also complete 50 hours of community service, obtain substance abuse treatment, and “complete courses in anger management and sensitivity to issues of sexual orientation,” according to the prosecutors’ statement.
Attorneys spar over evidence rules in Wone murder case
Attorneys are still arguing over procedures and rules for the submission of evidence at the upcoming trial of three gay men charged in connection with the August 2006 murder of Washington attorney Robert Wone.
At a status hearing in D.C. Superior Court on April 5, Judge Lynn Leibovitz acted as a taskmaster to facilitate agreement between the two sides on how to deal with a mountain of evidence. Among the items of evidence is a knife that the three defendants claim an unidentified intruder used to stab Wone to death while he was asleep in a guest bedroom at their Dupont Circle home.
The defendants, Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward, have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and evidence tampering. No one has been charged with Wone’s murder.
Prosecutors have alleged in a detailed arrest affidavit that the three men, among other things, cleaned Wone’s blood off a kitchen knife they say they found beside Wone’s body as part of a conspiracy to prevent investigators from determining who killed the prominent Asian-American attorney.
Prosecutors have said they believe the actual knife used to stab Wone may have been part of a three-knife cutlery set found in Ward’s bedroom. One of the knives was missing upon police inspection.
Leibovitz scheduled another status hearing for April 23. The trial in the case is scheduled to begin May 10.
Richmond’s gay center hosts musical, comedy shows
The Gay Community Center of Richmond in Virginia is hosting three musical and comedy shows in coming weeks.
Musicians Gaye Adegbalola and Roddy Barnes will be in concert together at the Center’s event hall at 8 p.m. April 24. Gregg Johnson, a Center director, said the joint performance is expected to be “one hell of a show.”
“Gaye Adegbalola embraces and redefines the classic style of the great blues divas of the 1920s and 1930s, those of 10 fiercely independent wild women who were unashamed to lay their souls bare and unafraid to give advice,” he said. “She invokes the spirit and addresses the lyrics and improvisational techniques of the classic blues women and brings history to life.”
Johnson said Adegbalola was a founding member of Saffire the Uppity Blues Women, and is “truly the epitome of uppity.”
“Roddy Barnes is a classically trained pianist and can play any genre, but excels in the old-timey sound that works best with this music,” he said. “Experience the dynamic and compelling performance of Adegbalola and Barnes as they conjure up another era and put on one hell of a show.”
Tickets for the event are $10 and can be purchased at the Center or online by following a link at GayRichmond.com.
On April 25, students from Virginia Commonwealth University will stage a comedy and improvisation show at the Center’s event hall. Tickets to the three-hour event that begins at 7 p.m. are $3 and available at the door.
And early next month, Johnny Blazes will stage his “wo(n)man show” at the Center. Johnson described the performance as blending “cabaret arts with theater to create a series of vignettes that are a humorous look at gender stereotypes that pervade our world.”
Blazes has a background in theater, clowning and drag. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show May 5 are $10 and available at the door.
The Gay Community Center of Richmond is located at 1407 Sherwood Ave. in Richmond.
LGBT elder group opens D.C. office
The New York-based Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders, also known as SAGE, has opened an office in Washington, D.C., to strengthen its advocacy for LGBT elders with the federal government, the group said in a statement.
With the Washington office in place this month, SAGE “will ensure that the needs of LGBT older people are addressed in public policy and public discussion across the country,” said Michael Adams the group’s executive director.
John Johnson, the group’s director of federal government relations and currently the sole staff person in the Washington office, said the office is operating out of space rented from the National Caucus & Center on Black Aged at 1220 L St., N.W., Suite 800.
The opening of the Washington office comes after the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services awarded SAGE a contract to create and help operate an LGBT Elder National Technical Assistance Resource Center. SAGE will manage the center with a network of partners, including the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging.
Johnson, however, said the SAGE Washington office will be involved solely in advocacy work and won’t take part in operating the new elder center.
Since its founding in 1978, SAGE and its affiliate member groups have expanded significantly their support services for older LGBT people across the country, according to the group’s statement.
District of Columbia
GLAA releases ratings for 18 candidates running for D.C. mayor, Council, AG
Mayoral contender Janeese Lewis Geroge among those receiving highest score
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, a Democrat, is among just four candidates to receive the highest rating score of +10 from GLAA D.C. who are competing in the city’s June 16 primary election.
GLAA, formally known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, has rated candidates for public office in D.C. since the 1970s. It rated 18 of the 36 candidates on this year’s primary ballot for mayor, D.C. Council, and D.C. attorney general based on its policy of only rating candidates who return a GLAA questionnaire asking for their positions on a wide range of issues, most of which are not LGBTQ-specific.
Among the candidates who did not return the questionnaire and thus did not receive a rating, according to GLAA, was Democratic mayoral contender Kenyan McDuffie, who along with Lewis George, is considered by political observers to be one of the two leading mayoral candidates running in the Democratic primary.
GLAA President Benjamin Brooks said that when the McDuffie campaign learned that GLAA announced it had released its candidate ratings and McDuffie was not rated because a questionnaire from him was not received a McDuffie campaign worker contacted GLAA. Brooks said the campaign worker told him they didn’t initially believe they received the questionnaire but they discovered this week that it landed in the spam folder of the campaign’s email account.
Brooks told the Washington Blade he informed the campaign worker it was too late for GLAA to issue a rating for McDuffie since the submission deadline for all candidates had passed. But he said GLAA will allow McDuffie to submit a completed questionnaire that it will post on its website along with the questionnaire responses of the other candidates who submitted them to GLAA.
Lewis George and McDuffie, who each have long records of support for the LGBTQ community, are among a total of eight candidates running for mayor on the June 16 primary ballot: seven Democrats and one Statehood Green Party candidate. In addition to Lewis George, GLAA rated just two other mayoral candidates. Rini Sampath, a Democrat who self identifies as queer, received a +6.5 rating, and Ernest E. Johnson, also a Democrat, received a +4.5 rating
Under the GLAA rating system, candidate ratings range from a +10, the highest score, to a -10, the lowest possible score. In its ratings for the June 16 primary, the lowest score issued was +4.5. GLAA said in a statement that each of the 18 candidates it rated expressed strong support for LGBTQ-related issues in their questionnaire responses, indicating that the overall rating scores reflect the candidates’ positions on mostly non-LGBTQ-specific issues.
The three other candidates who received a +10 GLAA rating are each running as Democrats for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat. They include gay candidate Miguel Trindade Deramo; Aparna Raj, who identifies as bisexual; and LGBTQ ally Rashida Brown. The only other Ward 1 candidate rated by GLAA is LGBTQ ally Terry Lynch, who received a +5.5 rating.
Ward 5 D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker, the Council’s only gay member who is facing two opponents in the Democratic primary, received a +7 GLAA rating. The two challengers did not return the questionnaire and were not rated.
“In seven out of 10 of our priorities, every candidate indicated agreement,” GLAA said in its statement to the Washington Blade in referring to the candidates it rated. “Total consensus on core issues signals that whomever is elected to Council and mayor, we should expect to hold our elected officials accountable to our goals of protecting home rule, resisting federal overreach, advancing transgender healthcare rights, and eliminating chronic homelessness in the District,” the statement says.
“While candidates agree on the basics, they distinguish themselves in the depth and creativity in their responses, and their record on the issues,” according to the statement, which adds that candidates’ full questionnaire responses and ratings can be accessed on the GLAA website, glaa.org.
Like past election years, GLAA does not rate candidates running for the D.C. Congressional Delegate seat or the so-called “shadow” U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate seats.
With the exception of one question asking about transgender rights, none of the other nine of the 10 questionnaire questions are LGBTQ-specific. But most of the questions mention that LGBTQ people are impacted by the issues being raised, such as affordable housing, federal government intrusion into D.C. home rule, and access to healthcare and public benefits for low-income residents.
One of the questions asks candidates if they support decriminalization of sex work in D.C. among consenting adults, which GLAA supports. Lewis George is among the candidates who said they do not support sex work decriminalization at this time. The other two mayoral candidates that GLAA rated, Sampath and Johnson, said they support sex work decriminalization.
In the race for D.C. attorney general, GLAA issued a rating for just one of the three candidates running: Republican challenger Manuel Rivera, who received a +4.5 rating. Incumbent Democrat Brian Schwalb and Democratic challenger J.P. Szymkowicz were not rated because they didn’t return the questionnaire.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D), who is running unopposed in the primary, received a +6.5 rating. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who is facing three Democratic challengers in the primary and who is a longtime LGBTQ ally, received a +6.5 rating.
In the special election to fill the at-large D.C. Council seat vacated by the resignation of then-Independent Councilmember McDuffie to enable him to run for mayor as a Democrat, GLAA has rated two of the three Independent candidates competing for the seat. Elissa Silverman received a +5.75 rating, and Doni Crawford received a +5.6 rating.
Finally, in the At-Large D.C. Council race GLAA issued ratings for five of the 11 candidates running in the primary, each of whom are Democrats. Oye Owolewa received a +9; Lisa Raymond, +7.5; Dwight Davis, +6.5; Dyana N.M. Forester, +6; and Fred Hill, +6.6.
The full list of GLAA-rated candidates and their detailed questionnaire responses can be accessed at glaa.org.
Rehoboth Beach
From the Capitol to the coast: Rep. Sarah McBride shares Rehoboth favorites
As summer kicks off, Congresswoman Sarah McBride shares her favorite Rehoboth spots.
Each year for the past 19 years, the Washington Blade has kicked off the summer season with a quintessential tradition — a party in Rehoboth Beach. The annual celebration is well known among Blade readers as the unofficial start of summer and beach season. (This year’s event is May 15, 5-7 p.m. at Diego’s featuring remarks from Ashley Biden.)
Two weeks ago, the Blade sat down with Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, to discuss her first year in office. While reflecting on key milestones and challenges ahead, she also shared some of her favorite Rehoboth spots and what the beach town means to her.
“I love Rehoboth,” the state’s sole House member told the Blade, beaming from her office in the Longworth House Office Building. “I love Baltimore Avenue, and love going to Aqua and the Pines.”
Both Aqua and the Pines have long served as staples of Rehoboth’s LGBTQ community. From the Saturday night lines stretching down the street off the main drag to the Sunday tea dances, the venues have helped cement Rehoboth as one of the top LGBTQ beach destinations in the United States dating back to at least the 1940s, when LGBTQ federal workers would escape the pressures — and often prying eyes — of Washington for a queer haven along the Delaware coast.
While attitudes and the community itself have evolved over the decades, Rehoboth today can still feel like an extension of D.C. — only with more Speedos and sandy flip-flops. Conversations that begin in Washington about politics and nightlife often continue beachside, shifting from “What’s Bunker’s theme tonight?” to “Who’s DJing at Aqua?”
When asked where she likes to dine in town, McBride highlighted one longtime favorite while also teasing a new addition she’s eager to try.
“Drift Seafood and Raw Bar is one of my favorite restaurants,” she said. “I actually ran into a Rehoboth restaurateur the other day while I was at Longwood Gardens for the tulips — which were beautiful. The restaurateur just opened a new restaurant on the south end of Baltimore Avenue that I’m excited to try. It sounds like an Indian fusion restaurant.”
When asked whether she frequents Poodle Beach — the longtime LGBTQ section of the shoreline — McBride shared that she prefers a quieter stretch of sand a bit farther north of Rehoboth’s gay beach scene.
“I usually go to Deauville, which is just north. It’s right there in between the boardwalk and Gordon’s Pond and North Shores.”
Regardless of where she chooses to unwind from the pressures of Washington and Dover, McBride was clear about how much both Rehoboth and Delaware mean to her.
“I love Rehoboth. I love the restaurants there. This is the professional privilege of my lifetime, getting to represent Delaware.”
“One of the things that I love is seeing how much goodness there is in this state,” she shared. “I represent more people in the House of Representatives than any other representative. Unlike most members who represent exclusively urban, suburban, or rural districts, I represent all three. Delaware demographically looks like America.”
She went on to say that representing a state whose demographics closely mirror the country as a whole gives her hope for the future — something that can at times feel elusive within the often-divisive halls of Congress.
“That means every day that I’m here, and every time Delawareans come to visit me, I get to see the full diversity of this country and this state on display. I get to see the goodness across that diversity, whether it’s diversity of identity or diversity of thought. It makes me even prouder to represent a state that time and time again judges candidates not based on their identities, but based on their ideals.”
She ended with a simple but hopeful message about her state and its people.
“Our politics are too often defined by hate. I’m glad Delaware and Delawareans are showing that a different kind of politics is possible.”
District of Columbia
Anti-LGBTQ violence prevention efforts highlighted at D.C. community fair
Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs organized May 8 event
Detailed advice on how LGBTQ people can avoid, defend themselves against, and prevent themselves and loved ones from becoming victims of violence, with a focus on domestic and intimate partner violence, was presented at a May 8 LGBTQIA+ Safety in Numbers Community Fair.
The event, organized by the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, included five workshop sessions and information tables set up by 14 LGBTQ-supportive organizations and D.C. government agencies or agency divisions, including the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s LGBT Liaison Unit and the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center.
Also playing a lead role in organizing the event was the D.C. LGBTQIA+ Violence Prevention and Response Team, or VPART, a coalition of D.C. officials and leaders of community-based organizations that work with the Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
The event was held in meeting space in the building where the Office of LGBTQ Affairs is located at 899 N. Capitol St., N.E.
The workshop topics included de-escalation training on healthy relationships, bystander intervention, self-defense training, violence prevention grants, and suicide prevention.
“This will be a public safety and violence prevention event where community partners will educate attendees on various methods of violence intervention and trauma-informed practices,” according to a statement released by the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs prior to the start of the event.
The statement adds, “We will have live demos, interactive games, and workshops focused on strategies for self-defense, protecting vulnerable communities, increasing access to mental health resources, providing tools for recognizing domestic violence/intimate partner violence signs in intimate relationships, and assistance for substance abuse.”
Sonya Joseph, associate director of engagement for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, told the Washington Blade that studies have shown rates of domestic or intimate partner violence are higher in the LGBTQ community than in the community at large.
“Domestic violence and intimate partner violence are two very big prevalent issues in the LGBTQ community,” she said, adding that some of the workshops at the event would be providing “training on healthy relationships and how to recognize and prevent intimate partner violence and the signs of it.”
About 35 to 40 people attended the workshop sessions.
Experts specializing in violence impacting the LGBTQ community have said domestic violence refers to violence among people in domestic relationships that can include spouses but also siblings, parents, cousins, and other relatives. Intimate partner violence, according to the experts, refers to violence perpetuated by a partner in a romantic or dating relationship.
These D.C. based organizations or agencies that participated in the LGBTQIA+ Safety in Numbers event, and which can be contacted for assistance, include:
• Defend Yourself
• DC LGBTQ+ Community Center
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• Joseph’s House
• Us Helping Us, People into Living, Inc.
• MCSR (formerly known as Men Can Stop Rape)
• MPD LGBT Liaison Unit
• Volunteer Legal Advocates
• DC SAFE
• Destination Tomorrow
• D.C. Office of Victims Services and Justice Grants
• Life Enhancement Services
• ONYX Therapy Group
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.
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