Local
Stein Club backs Mendelson
Kwame Brown wins support in Council chairman race
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club this week endorsed D.C. City Council member Phil Mendelson over his gay challenger, Clark Ray. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, voted this week to endorse at-large D.C. City Council member Phil Mendelson over his gay challenger, Clark Ray, 62 percent to 35 percent.
Stein members also on Monday endorsed at-large Council member Kwame Brown in the race for City Council Chairman over his main rival, former Ward 5 Council member Vincent Orange, 80 percent to 16 percent.
The club’s endorsement of Mendelson and Brown for the Sept. 14 Democratic primary followed its decision last month to endorse City Council Chairman Vincent Gray over Mayor Adrian Fenty in the hotly contested mayoral race.
Mendelson, whose gay supporters portrayed him as an unfailing straight ally who shepherded the city’s same-sex marriage law through the Council last year, received just two points above the 60 percent threshold required for an endorsement under the club’s rules.
Monday’s endorsements came after the candidates spoke during a club forum at the gay nightclub Town, and members debated whom to back. About 100 members voted on the endorsements, according to Stein Club President Jeffrey Richardson.
A third candidate running in the at-large Council race, D.C. shadow senator Michael Brown, did not receive any votes from Stein members, although he received loud applause for what he said was the main mission of his candidacy: to promote D.C. statehood.
Michael Brown expressed strong support for the city’s same-sex marriage law and pledged to be a “champion” for LGBT rights if elected to the at-large Council seat.
During the forum, several Mendelson supporters praised Ray as a highly qualified candidate. But they said it would be wrong not to stand behind Mendelson, a pro-LGBT Council member who has a record of support on a wide range of LGBT issues such as same-sex marriage equality, gay adoptions and domestic partnership laws during his nearly 12 years on the Council.
“Here in the District of Columbia, we have more rights as members of the LGBT community than we do in other states,” said transgender activist Jeri Hughes. “And it’s due to legislation from men like Phil Mendelson. So no matter how much I love Clark Ray, I’m not going to forget what Phil Mendelson has done and the progress that has been made in the District. I’m supporting Phil Mendelson.”
Ray, who also praised Mendelson for his role in helping pass the local same-sex marriage law, said he was running to bring change to a Council “status quo” that has impeded progress for city residents.
“I’m a firm believer that for a city to breathe and move forward, you need fresh leadership,” he said.
Ray pointed to his many years of experience in public service, including his work for Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton administration, his role as head of the constituent services office under former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and a similar post under Mayor Adrian Fenty. Ray also served as director of the Department of Parks & Recreation under Fenty.
“I have not asked any one of you to vote for me because I’m an openly gay man,” Ray told Stein Club members. “I want you to vote for me because I’m qualified.”
But Ray and his supporters also stressed that as an openly gay man, he would provide the LGBT community with another “seat at the table” in city government, where he would have a greater understanding of the needs and concerns of LGBT people.
“I’m not only a friend of the LGBT community, I am a member of that community,” he said.
If Ray wins the election, he would become the third openly gay person on the 13-member City Council. Gay Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who are running this year for re-election, are considered strong favorites to win another term on the Council.
Among the club members who spoke on Ray’s behalf at the Stein forum were Nick McCoy and Carlene Cheatam, two of the lead organizers of a coalition of local activists and city residents who lobbied the Council to pass the same-sex marriage law.
Among the club members supporting a Mendelson endorsement were lesbian activist Barbara Helmick and nationally recognized gay rights attorney Nancy Polikoff.
Polikoff told club members that while Mendelson’s work on the same-sex marriage law captured most of the community’s attention, he introduced and played a key role in passing a gay adoption law that is considered the most far-reaching such measure in the country.
“None of this would have happened without Phil,” she said.
Mendelson said after Stein Club members voted that he was honored to have won the club’s endorsement and he would continue his commitment to LGBT rights and causes.
During a question and answer period, one written question directed at Ray asked whether he would consider running for the other at-large Council seat that would become vacant if Kwame Brown wins his race for Council chairman.
Under the city’s election rules, the D.C. Democratic State Committee would appoint Kwame Brown’s interim replacement until a special election is held several months later. Ray said he’s running to win in his race against Mendelson but added that he would view a Council vacancy created by Kwame Brown’s possible election as Council chairman as a development “of interest” to him.
Several club members supporting Mendelson said they would back Ray for an at-large seat vacated by Brown.
Orange addresses flip
on same-sex marriage
In his opening remarks at the Stein forum, Orange addressed an issue he seemed to know would hurt him in his quest for the club’s endorsement: his stated opposition to same-sex marriage during his unsuccessful mayoral bid in 2006.
In a development that riled LGBT activists, Orange said then that any of his fellow candidates for mayor who backed a proposed same-sex marriage bill were not fit to hold public office.
“In 2006, I did say marriage was for a man and a woman,” he told Stein members Monday. “Now, in 2010, I strongly support the Marriage Equality Act.”
Orange added that he had a long record of support on LGBT civil rights issues during his tenure as a Ward 5 Council member and later in his post as an executive with the Potomac Electric Power Company, where he said he pushed for a company policy of providing benefits to employees’ domestic partners.
When gay activist Lane Hudson, a Kwame Brown supporter, questioned Orange’s commitment to same-sex marriage, Orange reiterated his support for the same-sex marriage law, calling it the “law of the land.”
“I made some mistakes that I’m not proud of,” he said, referring to his 2006 comment. Orange said he changed his position to support marriage equality “long before” he decided to enter the Council chairman’s race.
Kwame Brown was among the 11 Council members who voted for the same-sex marriage bill in December. He told Stein members he’s strongly committed to LGBT equality in all areas, not just marriage.
He noted that his commitment to same-sex marriage is “unwavering,” despite expressions of outrage against his vote on the marriage bill by some community activists and clergy members who opposed the bill.
In response to an audience question, Kwame Brown said he opposes a ballot measure proposed by same-sex marriage opponents that would allow city voters to decide whether to keep or overturn the law.
Orange said he supports the marriage law but did not say, after repeated requests to comment on the matter, what his position is on a possible ballot measure to overturn the marriage law.
“I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals,” he said.
Ray told the Blade he was disappointed but not discouraged over the Stein Club’s decision to endorse Mendelson.
“This is not going to hinder me at all,” Ray said. “I’m in this thing for the long haul and I’m in this to win. I plan to take my message to all residents — gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, straight, questioning — all the residents of the District of Columbia.”
Although Michael Brown, the D.C. shadow senator, received no votes from Stein Club members in his bid for the at-large seat, some political observers have said he poses a potential problem for Ray.
Michael Brown the shadow senator, who is white, has the same name as popular at-large D.C. Council member Michael Brown, who is black and is the son of the late Democratic National Committee chair and Clinton administration official Ron Brown.
Some activists say a significant number of voters are likely to confuse shadow senator Brown with Council member Brown and mistakenly vote for shadow senator Brown in the at-large Council race.
This would hurt Ray, some political observers say, because voters likely to back the wrong Brown would not be supporters of Mendelson, who enjoys widespread name recognition citywide, but instead could be potential votes for Ray.
The city’s two shadow senators, along with one shadow representative, hold unpaid elected posts created by the city to advocate voting rights for the District. They are not members of Congress and have no congressional authority or duties.
District of Columbia
Faith programming remains key part of Creating Change Conference
‘Faith work is not an easy pill to swallow in LGBTQ spaces’
The National LGBTQ Task Force kicked off the 38th annual Creating Change conference in D.C. this week. This year, as with years past, faith and interfaith programming remains a key part of the conference’s mission and practice.
For some, the presence of faith work at an LGBTQ+ conference may seem antithetical, and Creating Change does not deny the history of harm caused by religious institutions. “We have to be clear that faith work is not an easy pill to swallow in LGBTQ spaces, and they’re no qualms about saying that we acknowledge the pain, trauma, and violence that’s been purported in the name of religion,” Tahil Sharma, Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, said.
In fact, several panels at the conference openly discuss acknowledging, healing from, and resisting religious harm as well as religious nationalism, including one scheduled today titled “Defending Democracy Through Religious Activism: A panel of experts on effective strategies for faith and multi-faith organizing” that features local queer faith activists like Ebony C. Peace, Rob Keithan, and Eric Eldritch who are also involved in the annual DC Pride Interfaith Service.
Another session will hold space for survivors of religious violence, creating “a drop-in space for loving on each other in healing ways, held by Rev. Alba Onofrio and Teo Drake.”
But Sharma and others who organized the Creating Change Conference explained that “a state of antipathy” towards religious communities, especially those that align with queer liberation and solidarity, is counterproductive and denies the rich history of queer religious activism. “It’s time for us to make a call for an approach to LGBTQ+ liberation that uses interfaith literacy as a tool rather than as a weapon against us,” Sharma explained.
Recognizing a local queer faith icon
Along with the panels, fighting religious nationalism and fostering communion with aligned faith activists and communities is at heart of this year’s faith work. As Sharma shared, “the person that we’re honoring this year for the faith award is Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, and Dr. Betancourt is an amazing leader and someone who really stands out in representing UUs but also representing herself unapologetically.”
Based in the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Betancourt has more than 20 years of experience working as a public minister, seminary professor, scholar, and environment ethicist, and public theologian. Her activism is rooted in her lived identities as a queer, multiracial, AfroLatine first-generation daughter of immigrants from Chile and Panama, and has been a critical voice in advancing the United Universalism towards anti-racist and pluralistic faith work.
Creating a faith-based gathering space
Sharma also said that faith fosters a unique space and practice to encounter grief and joy. For this reason, Sharma wants to “create a space for folks to engage in curiosity, to engage in spiritual fulfillment and grounding but also I think with the times that we’re in to lean into some space to mourn, some space to find hope.” The Many Paths Gathering Space serves this purpose, where visitors can stop for spiritual practice, speak with a Spiritual Care Team member, or just take a sensory break from the bustle of the conference.
This also means uplifting and foregrounding queer religious ephemera with an ofrenda to honor those who have passed, a display of nonbinary Korean American photographer Salgu Wissmath’s exhibition Divine Identity, and the Shower of Stoles, a collection of about 1,500 liturgical stoles and other sacred regalia representing the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of faith.
The Shower of Stoles
The collection was first started in 1995 by Martha Juillerat and Tammy Lindahl who received eighty stoles that accompanied them and lent them solace as they set aside their ordinations from the Presbyterian Church. The whole collection was first displayed at the 1996 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New Mexico. The stoles, according to the Task Force, “quickly became a powerful symbol of the huge loss to the church of gifted leadership.”
Each stole represents the story of a queer person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community, often sent in by the people themselves but sometimes by a loved one in their honor. About one third of all the stoles are donated anonymously, and over three-quarters of the stoles donated by clergy and full-time church professionals are contributed anonymously.
The collection shows “not just the deep harm that has been caused that does not allow people to meet their vocation when they’re faith leaders, but it also speaks to how there have been queer and trans people in our [faith] communities since the beginning of our traditions, and they continue to serve in forms of leadership,” Sharma explained.
Explicit interfaith work
Along with creating a sacred space for attendees, hosting workshops focused on faith-based action, and recognizing DC’s rich queer religious history, Creating Change is also hosting explicitly faith services, like a Buddhist Meditation, Catholic Mass, Shabbat service, Jummah Prayer Service, and an ecumenical Christian service on Sunday. Creating Change is also welcoming events at the heart of queer religious affirmation, including a Name/Gender/Pronoun/Identity Blessing Ritual and a reading and discussion around queer bibles stories with Rev. Sex (aka Rev. Alba Onofrio).
But along with specific faith-based programs, Sharma explained, “we’re looking to build on something that I helped to introduce, which was the separation of the interfaith ceremony that’s happening this year which is a vigil versus the ecumenical Christian service which is now the only thing that takes place on Sunday morning.”
This includes an Interfaith Empowerment Service this evening and an Interfaith Institute tomorrow, along with “Sing In the Revolution,” an event where folks are invited “to actually engage in the joy and rhythm of resolution and what that looks like,” Sharma said. One of the key activators behind this work is Rev. Eric Eldritch, an ordained Pagan clergy person with Circle Sanctuary and a member of the Pride Interfaith Service planning committee.
Affirming that queer faith work is part of liberation
The goal for this year, Sharma noted, alongside holding space and discussions about faith-based practice and liberation and intentional interfaith work–is to move from thinking about why faith matters in queer liberation spaces to “how is interfaith work the tool for how we’re engaging in our understanding of de-escalation work, digital strategies, navigating a deeper visioning that we need for a better world that requires us to think that we’re not alone in the struggle for mutual abundance and liberation,” Sharma explained.
It may surprise people to learn that faith work has intentionally been part of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force since its beginning in the 1980s. “We can really credit that to some of the former leadership like Urvashi Vaid who actually had a sense of understanding of what role faith plays in the work of liberation and justice,” Sharma said.
“For being someone who wasn’t necessarily religious, she certainly did have a clear understanding of the relationship between those folks who are allies, those folks who stand against us, and then those folks who sit in between–those folks who profess to be of religious and spiritual background and also are unapologetically LGBTQ+,” he continued.
This year’s faith programming builds on this rich history, thinking about “a way to kind of open doors, to not just invite people in but our people to go out into the general scene of the conference” to share how faith-based work is a tool, rather than a hindrance, to queer liberation work.
Virginia
McPike prevails in ‘firehouse’ Dem primary for Va. House of Delegates
Gay Alexandria Council member expected to win 5th District seat
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike emerged as the clearcut winner in a hastily called Jan. 20 “firehouse” Democratic primary for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria.
McPike, who was one of two gay candidates running in the four-candidate primary, received 1,279 votes or 60.5 percent, far ahead of gay public school teacher Gregory Darrall, a political newcomer who received 60 votes or 3 percent.
Former Alexandria City School Board member Eileen Cassidy Rivera came in second place with 508 votes or 24 percent and Northern Virginia criminal law defense attorney Chris Leibig finished in third place with 265 votes or 12.5 percent.
Each of the candidates expressed strong support for LGBTQ-related issues.
With less than a week’s notice, Democratic Party officials in Alexandria called the primary to select a Democratic nominee to run in the Feb. 10 special election to fill the 5th District House of Delegates seat being vacated by state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria).
Bennett-Parker won the Democratic nomination for the Virginia State Senate seat being vacated by gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is resigning from his seat to take a position in the administration of Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who took office on Jan. 17.
Bennett-Parker won the nomination for Ebbin’s state Senate seat in yet another firehouse primary on Jan. 13 in which she defeated three other candidates, including gay former state Del. Mark Levine.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate, first won election to the Alexandria City Council in 2021. He has served for 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and has remained in that position during his tenure on the Alexandria Council. He told the Washington Blade he will continue as chief of staff until next month, when he will resign from that position before taking office in the House of Delegates.
He received the endorsement of Ebbin, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), and the LGBTQ Victory Fund in his race for the 5th District Va. House seat. Being an overwhelmingly Democratic district, virtually all political observers expect McPike to win the Feb. 10 special election.
He will be running against Republican nominee Mason Butler, a local business executive who emerged as the only GOP candidate running for the delegate seat.
“Thank you to the voters of Alexandria for choosing me as the Democratic nominee in the House of Delegates District 5,” McPike said in a statement released shortly after the vote count was completed. “It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to fight for our community and its values in Richmond,” he said.
“I look forward to continuing to work to address our housing crisis, the challenge of climate change, and the damaging impacts of the Trump administration on the immigrant families, LGBTQ+ Virginians, and federal employees who call Alexandria home,” he stated.
He praised Ebbin for his longstanding support for the LGBTQ community in the Virginia Legislature and added, “If elected to the House of Delegates in the Feb. 10 general election, I will continue to fight to protect the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ Virginians from my new position in Richmond.”
Gay candidate Darrall’s campaign website said he is a “proud progressive, lifelong educator, and labor leader running to put people first.” It says he is a political newcomer “with more than 20 years in the classroom” as a teacher who played a key role in the successful unionization of Fairfax Public Schools.
“He is a proud member and staunch supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community,” his website statement said.
District of Columbia
Sold-out crowd turns out for 10th annual Caps Pride night
Gay Men’s Chorus soloist sings National Anthem, draws cheers
A sold-out crowd of 18,347 turned out on Jan. 17 for the 10th annual Pride Night at the Washington Capitals hockey game held at D.C.’s Capital One Arena.
Although LGBTQ Capitals fans were disappointed that the Capitals lost the game to the visiting Florida Panthers, they were treated to a night of celebration with Pride-related videos showing supportive Capitals players and fans projected on the arena’s giant video screen throughout the game.
The game began when Dana Nearing, a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, sang the National Anthem, drawing applause from all attendees.
The event also served as a fundraiser for the LGBTQ groups Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing services to homeless LGBTQ youth, and You Can Play, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing LGBTQ inclusion in sports.
“Amid the queer community’s growing love affair with hockey, I’m incredibly honored and proud to see our hometown Capitals continue to celebrate queer joy in such a visible and meaningful way,” said Alston Foundation Executive Director Cesar Toledo.
Capitals spokesperson Nick Grossman said a fundraising raffle held during the game raised $14,760 for You Can Play. He said a fundraising auction for the Alston Foundation organized by the Capitals and its related Monumental Sports and Entertainment Foundation would continue until Thursday, Jan. 22
A statement on the Capitals website says among the items being sold in the auction were autographed Capitals player hockey sticks with rainbow-colored Pride tape wrapped around them, which Capitals players used in their pre-game practice on the ice.
Although several hundred people turned out for a pre-game Pride “block party” at the District E restaurant and bar located next to the Capital One Arena, it couldn’t immediately be determined how many Pride night special tickets for the game were sold.
“While we don’t disclose specific figures related to special ticket offers, we were proud to host our 10th Pride night and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community,” Capitals spokesperson Grossman told the Washington Blade.
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