Local
Block Party concerns spark debate
Issues raised by Mount Vernon Association, business owners


Baltimore Pride block party (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
A week before Baltimore was to celebrate its annual Pride weekend, a brouhaha developed as City Café owner Gino Cardinale and others met with the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association (MVBA) to discuss issues relating to the block party planned for June 15.
“There is concern from area residents and businesses regarding Pride’s block party this year,” said MVBA president Jason Curtis in a statement. “Concerns are mostly regarding cleanliness after the event and the underaged drinking during the event.”
At the meeting, Cardinale allegedly charged that the Club Hippo, Grand Central and the GLCCB’s vendor that serves alcoholic beverages are not doing enough to prevent underage people from purchasing drinks.
This led to spirited arguments carried out on Facebook between supporters of the bars and City Café. From the bars’ perspective, each establishment maintains that it dutifully cards customers to ensure they are of legal age.
The City Café’s point of view as well as those of other Mount Vernon businesses and residents who believe they are negatively affected by the block party, is they want to protect their interests and keep the area clean. They charged there is urination and defecation on private property and much litter strewn around the neighborhood.
Club Hippo owner Chuck Bowers insists that his club as well as Grand Central consistently cards customers at this event. He told the Blade that underage drinking at the block party often occurs when kids bring alcoholic beverages to the event. “They bring the alcohol from other places and from coolers stored in cars,” Bowers said.
Cardinale said he is not singling out Bowers and Grand Central’s owner Don Davis but that more efforts must be taken to prevent such behavior. He cites turnover within the GLCCB for his inability to fully discuss and resolve the situation with the organization. That is why he approached the MVBA for resolution.
MVBA’s Curtis stated on a Facebook post that, “the City Café never asked that Pride be stopped or cancelled. City Café requested, as did other businesses and residents, that GLCCB step up and start properly managing the event which they obtain a permit for. I won’t deny that it was discussed that if GLCCB can’t do a better job in managing this event, that the event itself should be reconsidered. City Café was not alone in this request.”
The boundaries for consuming alcoholic beverages that have been agreed to consist of Longrove Street on the east, Morton Street on the West, Read Street on the south and half a block of Charles Street on the north. Alcoholic consumption outside that designated area would be subject to enforcement of Baltimore’s open container law. In addition, people will be stamped to designate whether they are 21 or above or not.
Maryland
A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center
Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump

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.
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’

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.
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

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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