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
Rehoboth’s ‘Poodle Beach’ to be honored with historical marker
Delaware Public Archives to hold ceremony June 27
The Delaware Public Archives is set to unveil a new State of Delaware Historical Marker recognizing Rehoboth’s Poodle Beach Saturday, June 27, at 9 a.m. The unveiling will take place at the corner of Prospect Street and the South Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
The unveiling ceremony is free and open to the public and will include remarks from members of the community, government officials, and representatives from the Delaware Public Archives.
Located at the southern end of the boardwalk near Queen Street, Poodle Beach is one of the most famous sections of Rehoboth Beach, having served as a gathering place for the LGBTQ community for decades.
The Delaware Public Archives said that, “The marker recognizes the site’s longstanding role in the social and cultural history of both Rehoboth Beach and the State of Delaware.”
The petition to have Poodle Beach recognized with a historical marker was started by a group of Rehoboth Beach residents in June 2020 and was officially approved in December 2020.
Although the origins of where Poodle Beach got its name are unknown, its history can be traced back to du Pont heiress and well-known lesbian Louisa Carpenter. Carpenter and her LGBTQ group of friends would travel to ‘Carpenter Beach’ toward Dewey Beach in the19 30s and ‘40s.
Over time, the beach grew in popularity and began to be used predominantly by gay men in the following decades. It wasn’t until the ‘80s when the beach spread back toward the boardwalk as people stopped making the journey to Carpenter beach.
Poodle Beach was initially called “Lazy Gay Beach” because gay men got tired of walking so far from the boardwalk to get to Carpenter Beach.
There are multiple theories that explain how the name ‘Poodle Beach’ came to be. One of the most popular is the ‘Two cousin theory’ where it is rumored that a pair of cousins would drive up from Maryland and bring their poodle dogs onto the beach.
Poodle was also the site of the popular Labor Day weekend drag volleyball games that were started in 1988 and ended with COVID in 2020.
District of Columbia
McDuffie concedes to Lewis George in D.C.’s mayoral primary
Democratic Socialist presumed winner while official vote count continues
D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) emerged as the presumed winner in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary for D.C. mayor as her lead opponent, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-At-Large) conceded the race Thursday, June 18.
Both Lewis George and McDuffie have strong records of support for the for the LGBTQ community, and local LGBTQ rights activists appeared divided in their support between the two mayoral candidates.
“Earlier this morning, I called Councilmember Janeese Lewis Geroge to congratulate her on her victory and wish her success as she prepares for the general election,” McDuffie said in a statement. “The campaign may be over, but the work of building a safer, more affordable, more prosperous city continues,” he said
It its most recent release of the official first-choice vote count at 1:54 p.m. on Thursday, June 18, the D.C. Board of Elections reported Lewis George had 55,214 votes or 52.87 percent of the vote. McDuffie had 38,033 votes, or 36.42 percent.
Each of the five other Democratic mayoral candidates had less than 4 percent of the vote, including Rini Sampath, who self-identifies as queer, who had 3.093 votes or 3.02 percent.
With about 75 percent of D.C. voters registered a Democrats, Lewis George’s status as the apparent Democratic nominee makes here the odds-on favorite to win the general election in November. Board of Elections records show that no Republican candidate ran for mayor in the D.C. Republican primary on June 16 and one Statehood Green Party candidate — Robert G. Gross — ran unopposed. The latest vote count shows he received 312 votes from registered Statehood Green Party members.
With Lewis George running as a democratic socialist and left leaning “progressive” candidate and McDuffie running as a more moderate Democrat on a wide range of issues, LGBTQ activists, like voters in general, appear to backed either of the two on non-LGBTQ issues since both are strongly supportive of the LGBTQ community, including transgender-related issues.
Lewis George received the endorsement of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.s largest local LGBTQ political group.
D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large), who supported Lewis Geroge for mayor, emerged as the apparent winner in the race for D.C. delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. He received 62.9 percent of the vote in a five-candidate race. His closest opponent, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who conceded the race to White, received 21.52 percent of the vote. White and Pinto have been longtime supporters of the LGBTQ community.
In other races, D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member, received 76.51 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race, making him the clearcut winner in the primary.
In the Ward 1 D.C. Council race, where five LGBTQ supportive candidates were competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Brianne Nadeau, who is not running for re-election, community activist Aparna Raj, who identifies as bisexual, has emerged as the apparent winner with 46.91 percent of the vote. Her closest opponent, gay candidate and LGBTQ rights advocate Miguel Trindade Deramo, had 20.63 percent.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and Councilmember Matthew Frumin (D-Ward 3) ran unopposed for re-election in the primary and emerged as winners. Also emerging as apparent primary winners were Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), with 74.4 percenter of the vote, and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, with 90.4 percent.
In the At-Large D.C. Council race where nine Democrats were competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Anita Bonds, who is retiring, local pharmacist and community activist Oye Owolewa, who was endorsed by Capital Stonewall Democrats, was leading with 33.89 percent
In the special election to fill the other At-Large Council eat that under the city’s Home Rule Charter must go to a non-Democrat, former Councilmember Elissa Silverman was leading with 54.87 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race. Incumbent Doni Crawford, who was temporarily appointed to the seat, was in second place with 24.09 percent.
At least 14 known LGBTQ candidates were among several dozen candidates competing for seats on the D.C. Democratic State Committee in the June 16 primary.
Longtime local gay Democratic activist and Ward 8 community leader Philip Pannell emerged as the apparent winner in the race for D.C. Democratic National Committee, one of the two highest-level State Committee positions, along with the National Committeewoman post. Pannell received 40,073 votes or 49.32 percent of the vote, according to the latest vote count.
Coming in second place in the National Committeeman race was gay Democratic activist David Meadows, who had 34,875 votes or 42.92 percent. The third candidate in the race, Mike Panetta, had 5,904 votes or 7.27 percent.
The winners couldn’t immediately be determined in the races where most of the other LGBTQ State Committee candidates were running. Two of the presumed winners who had a sufficient number of votes to win prior to the final vote count were trans candidate Vida Rangel for the Ward 1 Democratic Committeewoman seat; and Stevie McCarty for the Ward 2 Democratic Committeeman seat.
District of Columbia
Pride is here!
Parade, festival, parties planned for 51st annual D.C. celebration
The 51st annual Capital Pride is already underway with parties and events throughout D.C. The Capital Pride Parade and Capital Pride Festival are the two large signature events slated for this weekend, though there are many other LGBTQ Pride celebrations planned for venues throughout the city in the days to come.
Friday, June 19
The Capital Pride Alliance and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs are hosting the LGBTQ+ Women’s Symposium at Arlo Washington DC (333 G St., N.W.) with sessions scheduled from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and a day party from 3-7 p.m. The symposium brings together community leaders and advocates for panel discussions and dialogue. RSVP for the free event on capitalpride.org.
The RIOT! Official Capital Pride Opening Party is scheduled for 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m. at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.). Bob the Drag Queen will be running a DJ set and Myki Meeks scheduled as the headlining performer. Area DJs and performers include: Bambi, Baphomette, Bumper, Cake Pop!, Connor, DJ Ed Bailey, DJ Diyanna Monet, Evry Pleasure, Jakknife Complex, Mari Con Carne, Pussy Noir and WessTheDJ. Advance tickets run from $49-$59 and will be $69 at the door. Capital Pride General and VIP pass packages also include admission and can be purchased on capitalpride.org. The event is 18+.
KINETIC Presents is holding a Pride opening party, UNCUT XXL: Heavy Load from 10 p.m.-4 a.m at A.i. Warehouse (530 Penn St. N.E.). There will be music by Alex Acosta, Felipe Lira and Mitch Ferrino. Tickets are $80.33-$96.62 + fees on Eventbrite. The event is 21+.
Saturday, June 20
A Capital Pride Family Fun Festival will be held at Stead Park (1625 P St., N.W.) from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The event is designed for families and children with games, crafts, glitter tattoos, hair tinsel, story time, an inflatable obstacle course, and more. The event is free and especially designed for children ages 2-10, though is open to everyone.
The Crack of Noon Parade Brunch is scheduled for 12-3 p.m. at Viceroy Washington DC (1430 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). It is an all-you-can-eat gourmet brunch with mimosas. Tickets for the event are limited and range from $75-$90 or as a part of the VIP package available on capitalpride.org. The event is 21+.
The 17th Street Pride Block Party will run concurrently with the Capital Pride Parade from noon-10 p.m. on 17th St., N.W. between P and S streets. The event is presented by Absolut.
The Capital Pride Parade is one of the largest in the region and is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants and spectators. The annual parade is scheduled for 3-7:30 p.m. and will move through the Shaw, Logan Circle, Downtown and Penn Quarter neighborhoods. The parade is anticipated to begin at 14th Street and T Street, N.W. and end at Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street, N.W. The event is free to spectate and open to people of all ages, however, there are grandstand bleachers set up at Franklin Park (957 14th St., N.W.) for a shaded, seated spot for $40 in advance. Tickets for the grandstand bleachers are available on capitalpride.org. Monroe Alise and David Archuleta are serving as the parade grand marshals.
The Official Capital Pride Women’s Party, ELIX-Her, is slated for 10 p.m.-3 a.m. at Decades DC (1219 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) The multi-floor event has a different “vibe” for each floor: Latin/reggaeton/Caribbean, house/dance/pop, and hip-hop/rap/afro/reggae musical genres. Tickets are $32.15-$42.59 + fees and can be purchased on capitalpride.org. The event is 21+.
The MIXTAPE Pride Party is scheduled for 10 p.m. at the 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) with DJs Shea Van Horn and Matt Bailer. Tickets are $45.65 and are available on ticketmaster.com. The dance party is 21+.
KINETIC Presents partners with Capital Pride to produce the Official Main Event party, Toy Land, from 10 p.m.-4 a.m at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.). Toy Land is 18+ and features music by GSP and Matt Suave. There will be a special performance by Alaska from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Tickets are $63.35-$69.15 and available on ticketmaster.com.
Sunday, June 21
The Capital Pride Festival is scheduled for 12-10 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. The event will include food courts, multiple beverage gardens, vendors, community organizations, games, art, performances, dancing and more. Donations are appreciated by organizers, but the event is free. There are designated beverage garden areas for attendees 21+, but the majority of the festival is open to people of all ages. The Capital Pride Concert on the main stage of the festival runs from 1-8 p.m. with a sunset dance party with DJ Tracy Young planned for 8-10 p.m. The stage is at the east end of the festival on Pennsylvania Ave. at 3rd Street. The event is free and open to the public, but VIP passes for an area near the stage for attendees 21+ are available on capitalpride.org and range from $230-$290 or as a part of a $450 Capital Pride VIP package. Concert headliners include Maren Morris, Myki Meeks, Leikeli47 and Harrison. Other performers include Carlos Ova Dupress, Kora Edge, Ruepratt, RenRiot, Vagenesis, Kitty Lovelace, Ari Voxx, RAYSHARD, Bryce Bowyn, the 2026 Capital Pride royal court, Lisa Lisa, Ms. DC Black Pride and Destiny B. Childs. An accessibility zone is available with ASL interpretation and accessible seating.
KINETIC’s discoVERS closing party is scheduled from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. at SAX (734 11th St., N.W.). Music is provided by Alexis Tucci and Clinton Foster. Tickets are $41.76-$69.46 + fees and are available at kineticpresents.com. The event is 21+.
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