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‘Kameny Way’ ceremony highlights Capital Pride events

200,000 expected for Sunday festival

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A two-block section of 17th Street, N.W., in the heart of one of the city’s most visible gay neighborhoods was to be renamed this week as “Frank Kameny Way” in honor of the veteran gay activist credited with founding the city’s LGBT civil rights movement.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty was scheduled to preside over a ceremony and the installation of a new street sign Thursday to officially put in place the Frank Kameny Way street designation.

The ceremony was to be part of a long list of events associated with Capital Pride, the city’s annual LGBT community celebration.

The Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which has jurisdiction over the 17th Street strip near Dupont Circle, initiated the Kameny street designation earlier this year.

According to ANC Commissioner Mike Silverstein, the commission voted unanimously to ask the city to designate as Frank Kameny Way a section of 17th Street between P and R streets, N.W.

“We — and everybody else we talked to — thought this was long overdue,” Silverstein said.

Kameny began organizing efforts to secure gay civil rights in the late 1950s after he lost his job as a civilian astronomer with the U.S. Army Map Service when authorities discovered he was gay. He founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in the early 1960s, the city’s first LGBT group. He is credited with playing a leading role in shaping the local and national LGBT rights movement for the next 40 years.

In other Capital Pride-related news, lead organizer Dyana Mason said plans were proceeding smoothly for the annual parade’s kickoff at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at 23rd and P streets, N.W.

Gay activist and former Lambda Rising bookstore owner Deacon Maccubbin is the parade’s grand marshal. Maccubbin is credited with starting the city’s first annual LGBT pride event in 1975 as a block party near Dupont Circle.

The parade will travel east on P Street past Dupont Circle and continue along New Hampshire Avenue, R Street, and 17th Street, where participants will walk along the newly designated Frank Kameny Way.

From there, it will travel east on P Street, turn south on 14th Street, and end at 14th and N streets, N.W., near Thomas Circle.

Mason said a crowd of about 200,000 people is expected for Sunday’s annual Capital Pride Festival, set to take place on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between Third and Seventh streets.

Similar to past years, close to 250 booths and vendors’ stands are expected to be at the festival, with dozens of LGBT and LGBT-supportive groups and businesses displaying their products or advancing their causes.

Steven Taubenkibel, a spokesperson for the Metro subway and bus system, said Metro is aware of the crowds expected for Capital Pride events over the weekend. He noted that officials were prepared to add more train cars beyond the normal weekend schedules if larger crowds and a higher ridership warrant the additions.

He said long-scheduled track repair projects would cause delays at the East and West Falls Church and the New York Avenue stations.

Mason said that in addition to entertainers scheduled to perform on the festival’s main stage at Third Street, near the U.S. Capitol, several speakers, including elected officials, were expected to address the crowd from the stage.

Among those confirmed earlier this week to speak were D.C. City Council Chair and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray and the director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs Christopher Dyer.

Mason said the mayor’s office had yet to confirm whether Fenty would speak at the festival. The mayor was scheduled to march in the parade.

Others expected to speak were D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton; representatives of American Veterans for Equal Rights, who were to be accompanied by the playing of taps in honor of fallen service members; and Miss D.C. Jen Corey.

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Maryland

A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center

Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump

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Tavish Forsyth, a queer artist and educator, posted a nude video on YouTube in protest of the Trump administration’s takeover of the Kennedy Center earlier this year. (Photo by Jessica Gallagher for the Baltimore Banner)

BY WESLEY CASE | Tavish Forsyth had come to a conclusion: They could not work for President Donald Trump.

So the 32-year-old Baltimore resident stripped down, turned on their camera, and lit their career on fire.

“F—— Donald Trump and f—— the Kennedy Center,” a naked Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, which is run by the Kennedy Center, said in a video that went viral. The board of the nation’s leading cultural institution had elected Trump just weeks prior as its chairman after he gutted the board of members appointed by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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District of Columbia

Little Gay Pub to host April 25 celebration of life for Patrick Shaw

School teacher, D.C. resident praised for ‘warmth, humor, kindness’

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Patrick Shaw (Photo via GoFundMe)

Co-workers and friends will hold a celebration of life for highly acclaimed schoolteacher and D.C. resident Patrick Shaw beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 25 at The Little Gay Pub 1100 P St., N.W.

Little Gay Pub co-owner and Shaw’s friend, Dusty Martinez, said Shaw passed away unexpectedly on April 19 from a heart related ailment at the age of 60.

“Patrick touched so many lives with his warmth, humor, kindness, and unmistakable spark,” Martinez said. “He was a truly special soul – funny, vibrant, sassy, and full of life and we are heartbroken by his loss.”

In an Instagram posting, Shaw’s colleagues said Shaw was a second-grade special education teacher at the J.F. Cook campus of D.C.’s Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School.

“Patrick brought warmth, joy, and deep commitment to Mundo Verde,” his colleagues said in their posting. “His daily Broadway sing-alongs, vibrant outfits, and genuine love for his students filled our community with energy and laughter.”

The posted message adds, “Patrick was more than a teacher; he was a light in our school, inspiring us all to show up with heart, humor, and kindness every day. His spirit will be deeply missed.”

The Washington Blade is preparing a full obituary on Patrick Shaw to be published soon. 

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District of Columbia

D.C. police seek help in identifying suspect in anti-gay threats case

Victim threatened with assault, called ‘faggot’ as he left Capitals game

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D.C. police are seeking help from the public in identifying a male suspect whose image was captured by a video surveillance camera.

D.C. police are seeking help from the public in identifying a male suspect whose image was captured by a video surveillance camera after he allegedly shouted anti-gay slurs and threatened to assault a man at 6th and H Streets, N.W. on March 20 at about 9:54 p.m.

A police report says the victim told police the incident took place shortly after he exited the nearby Capital One Arena where he had attended a Washington Capitals hockey game.

The police report says the incident began when the victim saw the suspect yell a racist slur at a person behind the victim and started to berate a valet operator.

“Suspect 1 then turned his attention to Victim 1 and called him a ‘faggot’ among other homophobic slurs,” the report says. It says the victim then used his phone to record the suspect, prompting the suspect to walk away before returning and “snatching” the phone from the victim’s hand.

“Suspect 1 walked several feet as Victim 1 followed, requesting his phone back,” the report continues. “Suspect 1 stopped and turned to Victim 1 and while yelling other obscenities exclaimed ‘if you keep recording, I’m going to kick your ass.’” The report concludes by saying the victim was able to recover his phone.

It lists the incident as a “Threats To Do Bodily Harm” offense that is a suspected hate crime.

“Anyone who can identify this suspect or has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at 202-727-9099, or text your tip to the Department’s TEXT TIP LINE at 50411,” according to a separate police statement released April 23.

The statement says police currently offer an award of up to $1,000 to anyone who can provide information that leads to an arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for a crime committed in D.C.

D.C. police spokesperson Tom Lynch said the case has been under investigation since the incident occurred on March 20. He said the video image of the suspect, most likely obtained from a security camera from a nearby business, was released to the public as soon as it was obtained and processed through the investigation.

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