Local
Kameny’s ashes remain in storage
Cemetery president proposes end to burial impasse
A headstone and a separate marker inscribed with Frank Kameny’s famous slogan ‘Gay is Good’ have been removed from his gravesite in Congressional Cemetery. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Nearly 10 months after nationally acclaimed gay rights leader Frank Kameny died in his Washington home at the age of 86, an urn bearing his ashes continues to sit on a shelf in a storage vault in the headquarters building of D.C.’s historic Congressional Cemetery.
Cemetery officials said a dispute between Kameny’s estate and the D.C. gay charitable group Helping Our Brothers and Sisters (HOBS) over ownership rights to the plot where Kameny’s ashes were scheduled to be interred on March 2 forced the cancellation of the interment. HOBS purchased the plot earlier this year without consulting the estate, a development that the estate’s attorney says triggered the dispute.
The ashes, along with a headstone provided by the U.S. Veterans Administration recognizing Kameny’s military service during World War II and a separate marker inscribed with Kameny’s famous slogan “Gay is Good” have languished in storage at the cemetery since shortly after the interment was cancelled.
But in a surprise development on Wednesday, Congressional Cemetery’s new president, Paul Williams, disclosed in an email to the estate and HOBS that HOBS never had legal ownership rights to the Kameny plot because it failed to pay the balance on the purchase price.
“Because it had a balance, no deed was issued for the site to HOBS,” Williams said in his email.
“I propose we issue the deed directly to the estate (copy to HOBS) showing proof of ownership,” he wrote. “The estate would also need to sign an authorization of interment, which can be done at the same time. Then, we can replace the two stones in storage that we also have onsite and proceed with a private interment,” Williams wrote.
Glen Ackerman, an attorney representing the estate on behalf of Timothy Clark, whom Kameny named in his will as the main beneficiary of the estate, said the estate has accepted Williams’ proposal.
He said Williams’ disclosure that HOBS never had a deed to the cemetery plot and that the cemetery would issue the deed to the estate effectively ends the dispute by turning over the plot to Clark and the estate.
HOBS President Marvin Carter couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday afternoon to comment on Williams’ disclosure that the cemetery planned to issue to the Kameny estate the deed to the cemetery plot.
Ackerman has said all along that the dispute centered on the estate’s desire to own the cemetery plot to ensure, among other things, that no one else would be buried or interred in the plot.
Under cemetery rules, two coffins and three urns may be buried or interred in Congressional Cemetery plots.
HOBS, which purchased the cemetery plot earlier this year from money donated by Kameny’s friends and admirers, has said it had no intention of burying others at the site.
Carter has said he and HOBS were always willing to transfer ownership of the plot to the estate. But people familiar with the dispute have said the point of contention was whether the estate should reimburse HOBS for the purchase price of the plot.
Ackerman has said Clark’s position was that donors from the LGBT community put up the money to buy the plot by giving it to HOBS, a non-profit group with tax-exempt status, so the donors could receive a tax deduction on their contribution. HOBS, in turn, made the purchase on behalf of the donors, the estate has maintained.
Meanwhile, the cemetery’s former interim director, Patrick Crowley, said he had the headstone and marker removed from the gravesite earlier this year until the estate and HOBS reached an agreement over final ownership of the plot.
Ackerman has said Clark and the estate became alarmed in February when a small group of Kameny friends announced in a press release that an interment ceremony for Kameny’s ashes would take place at the cemetery on March 3. Ackerman said organizers of the interment never consulted Clark or the estate, even though the estate had legal rights to the ashes.
Organizers of the interment ceremony abruptly cancelled the ceremony and burial the day before it was scheduled to take place on March 3, saying they did so out of “respect” for the Kameny estate. The urn bearing Kameny’s ashes has been in storage in the cemetery’s offices at 1801 E St., S.E. ever since that time.
The burial ceremony organizers, led by gay rights advocates and longtime Kameny friends Charles Francis and Bob Witeck, have said through intermediaries at the time that they invited Clark to participate in the ceremony and attempted to keep him informed of their plans. They said Ackerman refused to allow them to speak directly to Clark.
Gay activist and longtime Kameny friend Rick Rosendall, who was scheduled to speak at the Kameny interment ceremony, said it was his understanding that it was the estate’s “demand that no interment could be held until the deed to the burial plot was turned over to the estate that led to the event’s cancellation.”
Rosendall said he expressed his hope at the time that the dispute could be resolved. “That is still my hope,” he said.
Ackerman said the estate didn’t learn of the burial service until it obtained a copy of the organizers’ Feb. 13 press release announcing the ceremony.
He said the Kameny friends’ decision to organize the burial without initially consulting Clark or the estate created an atmosphere of mistrust between the two parties. Because of that, he said, Clark has insisted that ownership of the cemetery plot be transferred from HOBS to the estate without charge before the estate would consent to allowing the ashes to be buried.
Clark told the Blade in an interview earlier this year that he planned to keep half of the ashes and would donate the remaining half to be interred at Congressional Cemetery.
Francis and Witeck took initial possession of the ashes following Kameny’s death after Kameny’s sister, Edna Kameny, Kameny’s surviving next of kin, signed over power of attorney for Kameny’s remains to Witeck. Edna Kameny, who lives in New York and is in frail health, told the Blade she was pleased to entrust to Witeck and other Kameny friends the task of carrying out her brother’s stated wish to be cremated and to make funeral and memorial arrangements.
Once the details of Kameny’s will became known, including Clark’s role as personal representative or executor of the estate, Ackerman said it became clear that Clark and the estate should take possession of the ashes.
But when Clark sought to obtain possession of the ashes he said Francis told him the ashes had already been buried, a development that contributed to the mistrust between the estate and the Kameny friends organizing the burial.
Ackerman said it wasn’t until the estate saw the Feb. 13 press release announcing the interment ceremony at Congressional Cemetery that he and Clark learned the ashes had not, in fact, been buried.
When contacted on Wednesday, Francis said he had no comment on the matter, saying the dispute over the ashes is between the estate and HOBS and he has nothing to do with it.
Last week, Congressional Cemetery President Williams said he was hopeful that the dispute between the two parties would be resolved soon but said he couldn’t predict when that would happen.
“We have a little movement,” he told the Blade on July 27, saying negotiations were taking place between the estate and HOBS.
“It’s all confidential so far until everything’s signed. But I can tell you that the two parties have come to an agreement, that being the estate and Helping Our Brothers and Sisters.”
Before being removed earlier this year from this gravesite, the head and foot stones for Frank Kameny were located to the left and in front of head stone shown here, which marks the grave of another person. (Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.)
However, when reached two days later by phone, Carter told the Blade Williams had just informed him he had a proposal to resolve the dispute but that Williams did not provide any details about the proposal. Carter said Williams told him he would take steps to provide those details soon.
“HOBS has always been willing to work things out,” Carter said. “We’re not interested in continuing to own the gravesite.”
Carter told the Blade in a phone interview on July 29 that he had been out of town for the past few weeks and didn’t have a chance to check mail that may have been sent to HOBS.
“But no one from the estate has called me or emailed me about this recently,” he said. “They have my number and email address.”
Ackerman disputes this assertion, saying he and his law firm repeatedly sent written material to Carter by certified mail. He said the mail was returned to the law firm marked “refused” by recipient.
Rehoboth Beach
Officials raise troubling concerns about Rehoboth mayoral candidate Suzanne Goode
Homophobic emails, ‘aggressive’ behavior cited: ‘It just seems to be getting worse’
As Rehoboth Beach voters prepare to elect a new mayor on Aug. 8, some city officials and local residents are raising new concerns about the behavior of City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Suzanne Goode.
In addition to a history of troubling emails in which she has used homophobic language and criticized the city’s rainbow crosswalks, Goode is being accused of inappropriate behavior by a neighbor and a fellow Commissioner related to a dispute on the Nextdoor online platform.
The Blade spoke to City Manager Taylour Tedder, Commissioner Chris Galanty, and others about Goode’s behavior during her time as commissioner.
Goode was elected commissioner in August 2024. Fellow commissioner Susan Stewart, who is also running for mayor, criticized Goode’s behavior in a March 9, 2026 meeting, bringing up emails outlining Goode’s offensive conduct toward city staff.
In one email, Goode wrote to Rehoboth Beach City Solicitor Lisa Borin Ogden: “I am sorry that I learned from Google when you were first interviewed [in the] spring [of] 2025 that you are Jewish. My opinion of my fellow Jews declined significantly thanks to you since last summer. Actually would have thought you would have more compassion than the average person, based on your late brother. Except you don’t. I am sick of your haughty attitude toward me.”
In other emails, Goode questions why city officials encouraged CAMP Rehoboth and Clear Space Theatre to apply for grant funds. She has denigrated both institutions, referring to CAMP as a “questionable non-profit” and Clear Space as “second rate” with a “woke, drag queen bent” at times. She accuses Rehoboth’s LGBTQ community of displaying “their sex lives in public view” and fears physical violence from LGBTQ activists.
Goode disputed the claims and called for the city to remove Stewart’s remarks from the website.
The following statements were included in the emails sent by Goode:
• “Gays and theatre aficionados can donate as much as they like to these pet causes. Some taxpayers think the theatre is second-rate as community theatres go, and many dislike the RB emphasis on LGBTQ when heterosexuals don’t demand equivalent display of their sex lives in public view.”
• “Just because the LGBTQ community feels oppressed and discriminated against, that doesn’t mean that those who identify as LGBTQ are better able to recognize racial discrimination than someone like myself. It might surprise some of you to learn that I briefly dated an African American fellow college student.”
• “A performing arts and LGBTQ agenda isn’t appropriate for BOC spending when the city faces over $60M in debt.”
• “But there are some folks in town, who ironically have to remain in the closet (conservatives now have to do what gays had to do in the 20th century — ah, the irony) who object to the woke, drag queen bent of Clear Space at times. They have confided this in me, and thanked me for fighting for their tax dollars. Maybe I will regret speaking up, as some LGBTQ activist will attack me physically, even though I am a complete supporter of gay rights, and have as many gay male friends as female friends now that I live in RB with a large gay population.”
In the emails, Goode also referred to City Manager Tedder as “the mayor’s whore.”
Stewart told the Blade that the troubling behavior has since escalated.
Commissioner Chris Galanty spoke to the Blade about Goode’s behavior as commissioner and her issues with the rainbow crosswalks in town.
“Suzanne told me on two separate occasions that she didn’t like the rainbow crosswalks, and she said that she didn’t understand why they had to exist, and she didn’t understand why gay people had to advertise their sexuality, and she said straight people don’t have to do that.”
Galanty said that when he challenged her on this, she “moved very quickly to another topic.” He said that she has now shifted her perspective and is more concerned that the rainbow crosswalks are an issue of labor costs.
Goode told the Blade that, “Unfortunately, the rainbow crosswalks have potentially reduced the upkeep of the conventional crosswalks. But the rainbow crosswalks are attractive in and of themselves, and they do add to our recognition of Rehoboth’s longstanding status as a gay-friendly town.”
Accusations of “aggressive” behavior by Goode aren’t limited to emails. Last summer, Goode came to the home of Diana Jones, a property owner in Rehoboth Beach who is a neighbor of Galanty’s. Jones spoke to the Blade to share her experience with Goode.
Jones is active on Nextdoor, an online social network for neighborhoods. She said that she got involved on the platform during the time of the commissioners election last summer, in which her neighbor, Chris Galanty, was elected as commissioner.
Jones said that she made posts supporting Galanty. She said that someone posted a link of a lawsuit that involved Goode’s husband, Jeffrey Goode, who lost his race for commissioner last summer. Jones said that she reposted the link after it was taken down.
Jones said that the lawsuit was “very relevant to somebody who is running for city commissioner.”
Jones said that Suzanne Goode showed up at her house as a result of the post. Jones was out walking her dog nearby so Goode briefly spoke with Jones’s husband who was home.
“She came over to my house because she was saying I was doxing him,” said Jones. Jones said that Goode then found her as she was walking her dog and tried to talk to her about her Nextdoor posts, saying that she “brought up a very painful time in her life.”
Jones said that she has not had any communication with Goode since.
When asked for comment on the situation with Jones, Goode responded by saying “Diana Jones’s behavior toward me was despicable, and the way she has chosen to give her side of the story to news media says more about her than it will ever say about me.”
Galanty told the Blade that Goode came to his house in late June of this year when he was not home. She then called him about Jones.
“She relayed to me that she was having a disagreement with my neighbor on the Nextdoor platform, and she asked me to intercede with the neighbor,” said Galanty. “She said, ‘Please speak to her because I am frustrated with what she is saying. She needs to stop, and you need to say something to her.'”
Galanty said that Goode called him four times and texted him 32 times in the span of three and a half hours the next day.
Galanty said that he responded the next day, telling her that her behavior was inappropriate.
“Eventually it took a couple of weeks, but she apologized in her own way. She just said we just need to let it go.”
From his perspective as commissioner, Galanty said, “She likes to re-litigate things that have happened, six months ago, nine months ago. She likes to rehash issues that are in the past.”
“She can be really aggressive, and people are just really turned off by her,” said Galanty.
Tedder, who has accused Goode of creating a “hostile work environment,” told the Blade about his experiences working with Goode.
“She does not support the staff, and constantly tells us to resign,” said Tedder.
Tedder said that Goode texted City Solicitor Ogden at 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday, telling her to resign.
“Sometimes she does have good ideas. It’s just it gets so lost in these pages and pages of emails and thousands of emails that she sends,” said Tedder.
In regards to Goode’s behavior, Tedder said it has been going on since the beginning. “It just seems to be getting worse.”
Maryland
Advocates for trans students urge Md. to fight White House threats
Four school districts under federal investigation
By JESSICA CALEFATI | Allies of transgender children are urging state education officials to fight back against the Trump-Vance administration, which has threatened to punish a growing number of Maryland school districts over local policies that affirm students’ gender identities.
The advocates testified Tuesday morning before the Maryland State Board of Education — one day after the U.S. Education and Justice departments alleged that Anne Arundel County’s school system violated federal student privacy law by withholding a student’s gender identity from their parents. A spokesperson for the district said Monday legal counsel had not yet reviewed the claims and that the district had no further comment.
School districts in Prince George’s, Montgomery, and Frederick Counties were already under investigation for allegedly violating Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination. The federal government last month threatened to revoke funding from the districts because they allow trans students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their identities.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
White House threatens Anne Arundel schools over gender identity policy
District faces possible legal action or loss of federal funding
By JESSICA CALEFATI | The Trump-Vance administration on Monday threatened to punish Anne Arundel County’s school system with legal action or the loss of federal funding for allegedly withholding information about a student’s gender identity and transition from the child’s parents.
The U.S. Education and Justice Departments together determined that the suburban Maryland district treats students’ gender identities as confidential medical information that cannot be shared with parents, in violation of federal student privacy law, according to a news release. A federal lawsuit filed against the district earlier this month made similar claims.
“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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