Local
LGBT contingent marches in D.C. King Day parade
Stein Club president issues King Day message
Representatives of local LGBT advocacy organizations, including students with two Gay-Straight Alliance groups from area high schools, marched together on Monday morning in city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade.
With city residents watching from the sidewalks, the LGBT contingent joined other parade goers in walking about two miles along Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., which passes through neighborhoods in Southeast and Southwest Washington.
“It was the first Martin Luther King Day parade we’ve had in eight years,” said gay activist Nick McCoy, who helped organize the LGBT contingent on behalf of the D.C. LGBT Community Center.
“We were well received. We chanted and cheered all the way up MLK Boulevard to make sure we had a good LGBT presence,” McCoy said.
Among the LGBT groups participating in the parade were the LGBT Community Center; the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group; the D.C. Coalition of Black Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Men and Women; and Gay-Straight Alliance groups from D.C.’s School Without Walls and Arlington, Va.’s Washington-Lee High School.
McCoy, a member of the D.C. Center’s board, and Anna Bavier, a Center volunteer, coordinated the LGBT participation in the parade with the parade’s organizing committee, which was headed by Denise Rolark Barnes, editor and publisher of the Washington Informer newspaper.
Last month, Barnes said she was in full support of a call by gay activist and Ward 8 community leader Phil Pannell for LGBT organizations to participate in the parade. Pannell also served on the organizing committee.
“I think it was really good for the LGBT community to come out here to be seen in support of Dr. King’s message and also to let everybody see we’re here, we’re present and really just part of the overall community,” said Stein Club President Lateefah Williams.
Last year Williams, an attorney, became the first black lesbian to be elected president of the Stein Club, which was founded more than 30 years ago.
“Dr. King’s message for justice and equality still rings true today,” Williams said in a statement released by the Stein Club.
“While the District’s LGBT community has won many key struggles, including marriage equality, it is important to remember that there are still segments of our community who are struggling,” she said. “Too many youth in our city are still being put out of their homes for coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Too many transgender people in our city are being targeted by violence.”
Williams added, “Dr. King said, ‘An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.’ As we honor Dr. King today, it is important to remember that we must continue to fight so that the entire community can live safe, happy, healthy lives. We must ensure that all of humanity is treated with respect and has the necessary resources to thrive as human beings.”
Among the public officials participating in the parade were D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D); D.C. Police Chief Kathy Lanier; D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown (D-At-Large); and D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), in whose ward the parade took place.
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Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
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Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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