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Obituaries
Dori Ann Steele, 53, Michael Baker, 64, and Everett Waldo, 77
Dori Ann Steele, 53
Dori Anne Steele, an author and massage therapist in Silver Spring, Md., died March 4 following a four-year struggle with a debilitating spinal nerve condition known as arachnoiditis. She was 53.
Her partner, University of Maryland Family Studies Professor Robyn Zeiger, said Steele took her own life when the pain from the incurable illness, which eventually would lead to partial paralysis, became unbearable.
Zeiger, who was Steele’s partner for more than 26 years, said she and the couple’s friends and family members remember Steele as a “healer” through her expertise as a certified massage therapist.
Friends and family members will celebrate Steele’s life at a memorial service scheduled for May 23 at the University of Maryland’s Memorial Chapel, Zeiger said.
Steele began her career as a Silver Spring massage therapist in 1994 after graduating from the Potomac Massage Training Institute of D.C. with a certification in Swedish and deep tissue massage. An Institute biography says she obtained advanced, post-graduate training in specialized massage techniques.
It also says that in 1999, she became a Reiki Master, a term used to describe people trained to perform and teach a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation through massage and meditation.
Zeiger, who wed Steele in Canada in 2006 and again in California in 2008, said that prior to working as a massage therapist, Steele worked as an editor and technical writer for consulting firms that specialized in the fields of health and science. She received a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.
Steele was a creative writer and poet, Zeiger said. Her book, “Drawing Back the Curtains: A Collection of Lesbian Erotica,” was published in 1990.
Zeiger, a licensed clinical counselor and senior lecturer at the University of Maryland, said Steele joined her in advocating for same-sex partner rights and benefits at the university and elsewhere. In 2007, the two focused on a campaign to persuade the University of Maryland to adopt such benefits.
“She went from a very vibrant, very alive person to another person due to the pain,” said Zeiger.
Zeiger told the Blade that Steele drove to a rustic location on Damascus Road in Gaithersburg where Steele and Zeiger enjoyed the scenery together in past years. Steele parked the car in a church lot and consumed a large quantity of pain medication, Zeiger said.
A Montgomery County medical examiner determined the death was caused by an overdose of oxycodone and alcohol.
“Dori made a rational and brave decision to end her life, given the dire circumstances of her severely painful physical condition,” Zeiger told the Gazette, a Maryland newspaper. “It was based not on depression, but on the fact that she could no longer tolerate the pain.”
The Gazette reported that in a note she left, Steele wrote, “I just cannot see any more doctors, have any more procedures, MRIs, pills.”
In addition to Zeiger, Steele is survived by her sister, Donna Flynn; her brother, Paul Satterfield; her brother-in-law, Harvey Zeiger; her sister-in-law, Susan Zeiger; two nieces; one nephew; and other relatives.
The memorial service in celebration of her life is scheduled to take place at noon May 23 at the University of Maryland’s Memorial Chapel.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Food & Friends, 219 Riggs Rd., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20011, or Best Friends Animal Society, 5001 Angel Canyon Rd., Kanab, Utah 84741.
Michael Baker, 64
Charles Michael Baker, a founding member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and a federal government employee for 30 years, died March 1 at Sibley Memorial Hospital of complications associated with acute pancreatitis. He was 64.
Originally from Key West, Fla., Baker attended La Grange College in Georgia before moving to Washington, D.C. He worked at the Office of Management & Budget and later served as director of environmental education for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During his time at the EPA, Baker founded the federal government agency’s staff diversity group, which organized annual LGBT Pride-related events associated with Federal GLOBE, an LGBT organization of federal employees. He retired from government service in 2008.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington honored him in 2009 with its Harmony Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his involvement with the chorus in a variety of roles for 29 years.
Jeff Buhrman, the chorus artistic director, said Baker was one of the group’s founding members in 1981 and served as its first president elected by Chorus members in 2001 after the group reorganized its governing structure. Baker sang for the chorus for the entire 29 years of his involvement with the group.
“It was the love of his family and friends and his involvement in music and theater that gave him his greatest joys,” says a tribute to Baker prepared by friends.
He is survived by his partner, Trieu Tran of Washington, D.C.; his sister, Sylvia Knight; his son, Matthew; one daughter-in-law; and two granddaughters. Memorial services celebrating his life were held in April in Key West and Washington, D.C.
Everett Waldo, 77
Everett Waldo, a founding president of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and a federal government employee in the 1980s, died April 3 of natural causes in San Diego. He was 77.
Waldo has been credited with playing a key leadership role for the Gay Men’s Chorus in its formative years, working with others to put the group on its path toward becoming a highly acclaimed choral group in the nation’s capital, Chorus officials said.
He was born in Waterbury, Vt., and attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and Miami University in Ohio, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music.
He served in the Army in Frankfurt, Germany, during the Korean War and later attended Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C., where he received a master’s of divinity degree. He served as a minister at Methodist churches in Bucksport, Maine, and Accokeek, Md. He later worked for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington.
A biography prepared by family members says he moved to San Diego in 1990, where he became involved with the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Kathleen Owens, the church’s associate minister, said Waldo served as an active lay leader and fundraiser for the church.
In a separate tribute to his long association with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, present and former Chorus members said Waldo returned to Washington several times in the 20 years following his move to San Diego to attend and participate in Chorus events. They said he remained a singing member of the Chorus up until his move to the West Coast.
“Given that his achievements throughout his career with [the Chorus] were primarily in the administrative area, it must have pleased him immensely to be a soloist in one of his final concerts, singing the role of one of the ‘Three Little Girls from School’ in ‘The Mikado,’” says the tribute.
“The Chorus next year will mark its 30th anniversary, thanks to Everett and his fellow pioneers and the countless others who followed Everett’s early and crucial example,” it says.
Waldo is survived by his sons, Jonathan and Matthew; four grandchildren; his former wife, Liz; and his sister, Joanne Bixby.
A memorial service honoring his life was held in San Diego in May. Family members requested that donations, in lieu of flowers, be made in his honor to First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, 4190 Front St., San Diego, CA 92103.
Virginia
Two gay candidates running in ‘firehouse’ Va. House of Delegates primary in Alexandria
Kirk McPike, Gregory Darrall hope to succeed delegate vying for Ebbin’s seat
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike and gay public school teacher Gregory Darrall, who serves as vice president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, are among four candidates running in a Jan. 20 “firehouse” Democratic primary for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
With less than a week’s notice, Democratic Party officials in Alexandria called the primary to select a Democratic nominee to run in a Feb. 10 special election to fill the 5th House District seat being vacated by state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria).
Bennett-Parker won the Democratic nomination for the Virginia Senate seat being vacated by gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is resigning from the 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 the 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.
The Jan. 20 primary in which McPike and Darrall are competing will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in two polling places in Alexandria: the Charles E. Beatley Jr. Central Library at 5005 Duke St. and the Charles Houston Recreation Center at 901 Wythe St.
The other two candidates running are former Alexandria City School Board member Eileen Cassidy Rivera and criminal law defense attorney Chris Leibig.
McPike, who first won election to the Alexandria City Council in 2021, served for 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) prior to winning election to the Alexandria City Council.
“Now, Kirk is ready to bring his experience to Richmond to keep improving the lives of all Virginians as our delegate for House District 5,” his campaign website says. His website writeup says he and his husband, Cantor Jason Kaufman, have lived in Alexandria’s Seminary Hill neighborhood for 15 years.
“As delegate, we can count on Kirk to keep delivering for us — helping Virginia maintain our commitments to our schools, our first responders, and our efforts to address climate change, housing affordability, and infrastructure,” the website statement says.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter and advocate, has been endorsed by Ebbin and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). Beyer said in a statement that McPike “has a proven track record of delivering results for Alexandrians.” The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which raises money for LGBTQ candidates running for public office, has also endorsed McPike.
Darrall’s campaign website says 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 says. It says he met his husband Jose while living in Miami and the two operated a small business in South Florida for a decade before moving to Alexandria in 2015. It adds that Darrall is “fluent in Spanish, loves walking Alexandria’s neighborhoods, and is driven by a deep belief in fairness, equality, and strengthening our democracy from the ground up.”
The Alexandria Republican City Committee nominated local business executive Mason Butler as the Republican nominee for the House of Delegates seat in the Feb. 10 special election after he emerged as the only GOP candidate running for the seat, according to the Alexandria Brief publication. He will face the Democratic winner in the Jan. 20 firehouse primary.
The Washington Blade is seeking to determine GOP candidate Butler’s and Democratic candidates Leibig’s and Rivera’s positions on LGBTQ-related issues and will update this story if their positions on those issues can be determined.
Abigail Spanberger was sworn in as the 75th governor of Virginia at a ceremony on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol on Saturday. Thousands of spectators watched the swearing-in ceremony and parade, despite the rain and temperatures in the low 40s.
Spanberger, a member of the Democratic Party and an LGBTQ ally, became the first woman to be Virginia’s governor.
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Newly-elected Attorney General Jay Jones, Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, and Spanberger were each administered the oath of office in the public ceremony.
Republican former Gov. Glenn Youngkin left the ceremony shortly after the oath of office was administered to Spanberger and before the inaugural address.
In her speech, the new governor made an appeal to bipartisanship and looking past division in our current moment.
“To my friends in the General Assembly — on both sides of the aisle — I look forward to working with you,” said Spanberger. “I know what it means to represent your constituents, to work hard for your district, and to pursue policies you believe in. We will not agree on everything, but I speak from personal experience when I say that we do not have to see eye-to-eye on every issue in order to stand shoulder-to-shoulder on others.”
Spanberger acknowledged Virginians’ frustrations with federal layoffs and governmental policy.
“I know many of you are worried about the recklessness coming out of Washington. You are worried about policies that are hurting our communities — cutting healthcare access, imperiling rural hospitals, and driving up costs,” said Spanberger. “You are worried about Washington policies that are closing off markets, hurting innovation and private industry, and attacking those who have devoted their lives to public service.”
Spanberger alluded to the Trump administration, though never mentioned President Donald Trump’s name in her remarks.
Spanberger said, “you are worried about an administration that is gilding buildings while schools crumble, breaking the social safety net, and sowing fear across our communities, betraying the values of who we are as Americans, the very values we celebrate here on these steps.”
The new governor then spoke of her priorities in office, pledging to tackle housing affordability by working to “cut red tape” and increase housing supply. Spanberger also spoke of forestalling an impending healthcare crisis by protecting access and cracking down on “middlemen who are driving up drug prices.”
Spanberger spoke of investments in education at every level, standing up for workers (including the large number of federal workers in Virginia), and taking action on gun violence.
Virginia married couple Mary Townley and Carol Schall witnessed the inauguration ceremony from the stands set up on the grounds of the Capitol. Schall and Townley are one of the plaintiff couples in the case that challenged the Virginia constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Virginia in 2014.
“We are delighted with the inauguration of Abigail Spanberger as governor of Virginia,” Schall told the Washington Blade. “The celebration of her inauguration was full of the beautiful diversity that is Virginia. The Virginia Pride contingent was included as a part of what makes Virginia a great place to live.”
“Such an honor to attend such a wonderful event in Virginia history,” Townley told the Blade. “The weather before the Inauguration was cold and rainy, but I believe it represented the end of a dreary time and it ushered in the dry and sunny weather by the end of the inaugural parade. Madam Governor brought us to the light!”
The inaugural parade following the governor’s remarks included a contingent from Diversity Richmond and Virginia Pride. Marchers in the LGBTQ contingent carried a giant Progress Pride flag and were met with loud cheers from the gathered spectators.
Spanberger after her inauguration signed 10 executive orders. One of them bans discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other factors.
“By virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor under Article V of the Constitution of
Virginia, I hereby declare that it is the firm and unwavering policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia to ensure equal opportunity in all facets of state government,” reads the executive order. “The foundational tenet of this executive order is premised upon a steadfast commitment to foster a culture of inclusion, diversity, and mutual respect for all Virginians.”
Virginia
VIDEO: LGBTQ groups march in Va. inaugural parade
Abigail Spanberger took office on Saturday
The inaugural ceremonies for Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger were held in Richmond, Va. on Saturday. Among the groups marching in the parade were Diversity Richmond and the Virginia Pride project of Diversity Richmond.
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