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Md. Senate hearing on marriage draws hundreds

Governor, Baltimore mayor testify in favor of bill

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Martin O'Malley, gay news, gay politics dc

Gov. Martin O'Malley testifies before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Tuesday in favor of the Civil Marriage Protection Act. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Over the course of four hours on Tuesday, opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage delivered compelling testimony before a Maryland Senate committee in hopes of swaying lawmakers on a landmark bill.

The Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard testimony on the Civil Marriage Protection Act throughout the afternoon on the last day of January, as lawmakers, experts, clergy and regular citizens from both sides of the issue shared their feelings on the bill at two minutes a piece.

Gaithersburg resident Stephanie Kreps arrived early to the hearing, proudly wearing a ‘Marylanders for Marriage Equality’ sticker to show her support for the bill as the mother of a gay son.

“It’s simple to me,” Kreps told the Blade. “I have rights that my gay son doesn’t have, and I want those rights for him and all other gay people.”

Kreps was looking forward to hearing the testimony of the bill’s supporters and said she was hopeful for the bill’s prospects considering the Governor’s support this year, and the growing trend toward supporting marriage for same-sex couples in Maryland.

The first witness to testify in favor of the bill was Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who has made the bill part of his 2012 legislative agenda. O’Malley, who had at one time hesitated to support extending full marriage rights to gay couples, has become a proponent of the legislation.

“As you know we already recognize civil marriages that come from other states,” Gov. O’Malley said during his brief testimony, “the civil marriage equality bill draws upon the lessons that we have learned from these other states.”

“This bill balances an individual’s civil marriage rights with the important protections of religious freedoms for all,” O’Malley continued. “And because it protects both of these inalienable rights, it is supported by a broad coalition of Marylanders, which includes clergy, community leaders, faith-based organizations, civil rights groups and those who hold the most important title of all in our democracy, and that title is citizen.”

Jamie Raskin, gay news, gay politics dc

Sen. Raskin testifies in favor of the bill, Tues. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

O’Malley was followed by gay Sen. Richard Madaleno who spoke from the heart about his love for his partner and raising a child, and relayed a story about a walk with his young daughter that expressed the very essence of family.

“We were picking flowers along the way, and she was picking buttercups and dandelions,” Madaleno said. “As she picked a few of the flowers, and went on to pick more, she handed me a little bouquet, and said ‘daddy will you hold my wishes for me?’” When he asked her what she meant, she explained. “She said ‘This is a wishing flower, you blow on it, and you see where your wishes go.’”

“I don’t know why people fall in love, I don’t know exactly why I have fallen in love with Mark as opposed to someone else, but I have, and together we have formed a family, and that family includes children.”

Following Madaleno were Democratic Sens. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garagiola and Republican Sen. Allan Kittleman, as well as Attorney General Douglas Gansler (video below courtesy GoodAsYou), all of whom urged passage of the bill.

Allan Kittleman, gay news, gay politics dc

Sen. Kittleman broke ranks with Republicans to support the bill. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Kittleman, who spoke about his father’s work in the civil rights movement, said he feels so strongly about the legislation because “I really do believe it’s about family, it’s about liberty, it’s about equality.”

“I remember my dad telling me years later that when he was fighting for the civil rights movement, and integration in the public schools in Howard County, and he was talking to people who were opposed to it, especially school board members, the would say things like ‘but you don’t know what will happen if we accept African Americans. Here’s what might happen. They’re going to do this in the hallway,’ or ‘they’ll do this in the classroom,’ or ‘they’ll cause this problem.’ Always ‘might be this’ or ‘might be that.’ What I’m urging you is don’t succumb to the mights. What my father taught me is that you don’t take away someone’s civil rights because of something that might happen. You can deal with the ‘mights’ later on. But make sure we get the civil rights done now. Make sure we get that equality for everyone in our community now.”

“You don’t say no to civil rights because you’re worried about what might happen in the future,” Kittleman concluded.

Raskin, for his part, strongly defended the religious protections in the bill, confirming that churches and church sponsored and operated facilities would be exempt from having to “lend any of its accommodations, programs, or services for the purpose of promoting a marriage it disapproves of for religious reasons.”

However, Raskin was quick to differentiate religious groups and private individuals or businesses, who have been barred in law since 2001 from discriminating against Marylanders in public accommodation because of sexual orientation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0aThYUXJ64
Sen. Raskin defends the marriage bill.

Also testifying in favor of the bill was Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

“I believe that all couples regardless of their sexual orientation, want their children protected under the law,” Rawlings-Blake testified. “Please don’t be mistaken, this bill is about more than those rights, it’s also about civil rights and about equality under the law.”

Both sides were given two hours each to present their witnesses in four parts — the first and third hours in support of the law, and the second and fourth in opposition.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, gay news, gay politics dc

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake testifies in favor of the bill. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

All told, more than 75 citizens delivered testimony both for and against the bill over a period of four and a half hours. Opposition to the bill ran from the colorful — like local same-sex marriage hearing mainstay Minister Leroy Swailes, who produced groans even from other opponents of the bill — to the passionate; while support ran from the clinically factual to the deeply moving — such as the ardently supportive mother of a lesbian daughter, Penny Nichols.

The supporters also included dozens of same-sex couples raising children, parents of gay children and straight children raised by same-sex couples, all in an attempt to counter arguments by the opposition that same-sex marriage would be detrimental to the development of children in Maryland.

Also testifying in support of the law in the first hour were gay veteran and law enforcement officer Irene Huskens of Fort Washington; president of the Maryland AFL-CIO union, and father of a gay child, Fred Mason; gay federal worker and long-time Maryland resident Candy Holmes; supportive Unitarian-Universalist minister Rev. John Crestwell; and David Rocah, staff attorney at the ACLU of Maryland.

One of the questions that Rocah fielded from committee member Sen. Joseph M. Getty after his testimony dealt with whether the law discriminates against close family members that wish to marry “because of genetics, and the familial relationship is because of genetic relationships.”

“It’s long-standing policy in Maryland to prohibit marriage between people of a particular familial relation,” Rocah answered. “They don’t all relate with genetics. Maryland has prohibited relationships between stepfathers or stepmothers, they’re not genetically related. Different states have different degrees of familial relationships in which marriage is prohibited. I don’t see the issue of discrimination that you’re referring to.”

Both the hearing room itself and an overflow room were filled to capacity through much of the hearing, producing an electric and anxious atmosphere among those in attendance. Same-sex marriage supporters sat next to opponents, making it difficult in many cases to distinguish who was there in favor of and who was there against. Most in attendance could only be differentiated by the round stickers given out by both the proponents and opponents — which themselves were similar in shape, size and coloring.

Among those in the audience in opposition to the bill was Maryland resident Ruby Wilson who says she has concerns about the bill because she believes it will harm children.

“I believe children are being affected already in Massachusetts with the bill that’s there,” Wilson — who says as a Catholic she does not believe gays should adopt children — told the Blade. “In the fifth grade they’re given a book …and it tells all the ways that you can enjoy yourself as a homosexual. I don’t want my grandchildren to have that.”

“Also they said that there’s going to be a conscience clause in this bill for Christians,” Wilson continued. “Well, they just take that to court, and the courts just take it out. And then where are we at? We just have no protection.”

“I’m totally against it,” Wilson said, though she is not opposed to civil unions for same-sex couples. “I’m just opposed to redefining marriage.”

Wilson’s feelings about “redefining marriage” were echoed by Maryland resident Edna Kersey.

“I think that traditionally that is what marriage defines, is a man and a woman, and I feel that they should find another term for the same-sex marriage, or the same-sex union, so that it not tamper with the name that we so long stood on,” Kersey told the Blade. “That’s what our foundation is built on, the tradition marriage, which is between a man and a woman. So its not the union itself, it is the name or the title that they are trying to change.”

However, Kersey tells the Blade that she is not in support of Civil Unions, unlike Wilson.

In the second hour, the opposition first presented Maryland Family Alliance president Pastor Dereck McCoy, who set a cordial, respectful tone.

“Regardless of the tenuous debate that we’re in,” McCoy said, “I think we need to understand that Marylanders are separated on this issue, but it’s a deep and passionate thing in the root and the heart of the communities and many people’s lives.”

However, regardless of the result of the vote, McCoy said the definition of marriage would not change for opponents. “People will still feel that marriage should be defined as one man, and one woman. That does not change.”

Following McCoy was Maryland Baptist ministers Rev. Dr. John Lund, and Rev. Dr. Nate Thomas, as well as Presbyterian pastor Bob Borger, former mega-church pastor Joel Peebles — who recently lost a court battle over control over his Jericho City of Praise Ministry — as well as some Catholic voices such as Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Eric Arnold, and Maryland Catholic Conference’s Mary Ellen Russell.

“Among those who testified last year, there were some who seemed to bring hatred and prejudice into the hearing,” said Father Arnold. “In fact, the Baltimore Sun reported that at least one Senator changed his stance on the bill because of the demonization that he sensed in some of the testimony. So as I speak to you today, I ask you to please not lump my testimony in with those who may be driven by hatred or prejudice.”

Father Arnold assured the committee that he, and many of those testifying with him, were there with good will.

“We are here today simply to speak on behalf of the wonderful and unique institution of marriage as it exists in between one man and one woman,” he continued, saying that preferring such unions was ‘not prejudice.’ “We ask you to recognize that the family based on a marriage of a man and a woman is a natural institution that is prior to the state.”

Mary Ellen Russell, in the adjacent audio file, seemed to come out both in favor and against civil unions during her testimony (hear her testimony at GoodAsYou.org).

The testimony was concluded by an attorney specializing in representing churches and ministers, Erika Cole, the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty’s Eric Baxter, and the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund’s Brian Raum (hear his testimony at ThinkProgress.org).

Brian Frosh and Lisa Gladden, gay news, gay politics dc

Committee chair Sen. Brian Frosh and Lisa Gladden. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Several times throughout the proceedings — both the hearing room and the overflow room where the testimony was projected upon two large screens at the fore of the room — parts of the audience erupted into cheers and applause in response to testimony given, often soliciting a stern reminder from committee chair Sen. Brian E. Frosh that for the sake of time, applause was to be held until the end, in recognition of the number of witnesses to get through.

Leading the supporters of the bill to testify in the third hour were the Human Rights Campaign’s Sarah Warbelow, who gave a statement about the way same-sex couples in Maryland were treated unequally in terms of property ownership, child rearing, healthcare and inheritance.

“Hundreds of laws cover the benefits, rights, and obligations of spouses,” Warbelow told the committee. “When same-sex couples cannot participate in marriage, their families are more vulnerable.”

Following Warbelow were Baltimore Presbyterian pastor Andrew Foster Connors, Baltimore’s Rabbi Elyssa Sachs Kohen, Doug Prouty of the Montgomery County Education Association, Henry Dugan president of the Maryland State Bar Association, along with State Bar member Craig Little, Daphne Mcclellan executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Maryland chapter, Rev. Madeleine Beard coordinator of public policy for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, MCC Bishop Rev. Darlene Garner and Rev. Jill McCrory Chair of Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists.

They were joined by social workers and radio hosts Bob and Lori Hollander, Progressive Maryland Interim Executive Director Kate Planco Waybright, and Ezekiel Jackson political organizer for 1199 SEIU, who said, “as a heterosexual African American man, I’m here for equality.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfBGyIhtWfw
A.G. Gansler testifies

Opposition in the fourth hour brought some of the most curious testimony of the day. Openly gay father Doug Mainware lamented the lack of a mother in the lives of his children, and cited his conservative beliefs and “thinking deeply about this issue in a reasoned way,” as impetus for coming to oppose the bill after previously supporting it. Senator Raskin, intrigued by the curiosity of the situation, asked Mainware, “how do you undermine an institution by bringing more people into it?”

Mainware believes that the term belongs specifically to the union between a man and a woman, but did admit he is not opposed to civil unions.

Mainware was followed by a cordial Rob Lucas and anti-gay group MassResistance’s Brian Camenker, who warned lawmakers that parents will lose control over what children are taught in school if marriage is extended to same-sex couples, and even warned about a particular case, frequently cited by same-sex marriage foes, in which David Parker was arrested for opposing a pro-gay curriculum in his child’s school.

Also opposing in the fourth hour were Pastor Victor Kirk, Maryland Gubernatorial candidate Corrogan Vaughn, Ruth Jacobs, Silver Springs pastor Robert Nelson, leader of Maryland Marriage Savers Mike McManus, Pierre Bynum, Chaplain at the Family Research Council, Martha and Ed Jenkins, Todd Braun, the colorful Minister Leroy Swailes, and Grace Harley who opposes the bill but — after reciting from the biblical book of Matthew — proclaimed, “I once lived as a man, I once married a woman in 1978, I’ve been before you many times.”

After the final round of opponents, several prominent supporters were able to give their testimony, including Kate Oliver of the group COLLAGE which brings together the children of gay parents, Rev. Lisa Ward, Liz Seaton of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Rev. MacArthur Flournoy who had led the clergy rally earlier in the day, president of the Maryland Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Mark Yost and Episcopal priest Rev. Kathleen Corbet Welsh, a happily partnered lesbian for many decades.

Among these prominent voices was Equality Maryland executive director Carrie Evans, who echoed the sentiments of all of the heartfelt statements that had preceded hers.

“Today you have heard from individuals and families who represent the wonderful and cherished diversity of our great state,” Evans told the committee. “Each person has shared the sometimes personal and touching reasons why you should vote to end marriage discrimination.”

Also in this group was memorable mother of a lesbian daughter at Drexel University, Penny Nichols, who proclaimed “As a devoted mother, I knew my daughter was gay since the second grade.”

“When she finally said to me at the age of 16, ‘mom I’m gay,’ I shocked her with my response, for I hugged my daughter, and I said ‘I’m so proud of you for being your authentic self,” Nichols said. “I want my lesbian daughter to live in a just world.”

“The only obstacle my lesbian daughter should face is her mother’s rule that she cannot marry until after she receives her degrees,” Nichols continued. “I am not gay, but I birthed a gay daughter. I don’t know who’s louder or prouder — she or I — but I will tell you, I think I am outer and prouder!”

After the completion of the last supporters, the committee agreed to exhaust the speaker’s list by giving those remaining — both supporting and opposing — one minute each to add their own testimony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Tsr7rz9Og

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District of Columbia

D.C. mayor honors 10th anniversary of Team Rayceen Productions

LGBTQ entertainment, advocacy organization praised for ‘vital work’

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Rayceen Pendarvis co-founded Team Rayceen Productions. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser today issued an official proclamation declaring Monday, March 18, 2024, as Team Rayceen Day in honor of the local LGBTQ entertainment and advocacy organization Team Rayceen Productions named after its co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis.

“Whereas Rayceen, along with Team Rayceen Productions co-founder, Zar, have spent 10 years advocating for the Black LGBTQI+ community using various forms including in-person events, social media, and YouTube,” the proclamation states.

The proclamation adds that through its YouTube Channel, Team Rayceen Productions created a platform for “Black LGBTQIA+ individuals to discuss various topics including spotlighting nonprofit organizations and small businesses, voter registration and participation, the state of LGBTQIA+ rights and resources in D.C, gender equality and equity, and the amplification of opportunities to bring the community together.”

It also praises Team Rayceen Productions for its partnership with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs in helping to produce “exciting events like the District of Pride talent showcase held each June and the iconic 17th Street High Heel Race celebrated in October.”

“Whereas I thank Team Rayceen Productions for its vital and necessary work and am #DCProud to wish you all the best as you continue to support Black LGBTQIA+ residents across all 8 Wards,” the proclamation continues.

“Now, therefore, I, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., do hereby proclaim March 18, 2024, as TEAM RAYCEEN DAY in Washington, D.C. and do commit this observance to all Washingtonians,” it concludes.

“We thank Mayor Bowser for this special proclamation, which highlights where it all began, with the Black LGBTQIA+ community of Washington, D.C,” Team Rayceen Productions says in a statement. “Starting with The Ask Rayceen Show, Reel Affirmation, and events with D.C. Public Library to Art All Night, Silver Pride by Whitman-Walker, and events with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, we are #dcproud of what we have accomplished in the Nation’s Capital,” the statement says. 

“For TEAM RAYCEEN DAY, we thank the diverse group of individuals who have made everything we have done possible by volunteering their time and talents over the past decade – as online co-hosts, event staff, performers, DJs, photographers, and more,” says the statement.

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Local

D.C. jury finds AARP Services illegally fired gay man

Former employee awarded $2.1 million in damages

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Richard A. Deus, Jr.

A D.C. Superior Court jury on March 15 handed down a verdict finding that the D.C.-based AARP Services, Inc., an arm of the AARP that interacts with businesses supportive of the nation’s seniors, illegally fired a gay manager because of his sexual orientation.

The jury’s verdict, which it said was based on a “preponderance of evidence,” came six years after Richard A. ‘Rick’ Deus Jr., who worked for AARP and AARP Services for 11 years, filed a lawsuit against his former employer in May 2018. The lawsuit charges that AARP Services violated the D.C. Human Rights Act by firing him after falsely accusing him of accepting gifts for travel from businesses affiliated with AARP that violated AARP employee ethics policies.

His lawsuit says he was fired in February 2018. At that time, he held the title of director of program management at AARP Services.

The lawsuit says AARP Services cited the alleged travel violations as the reason for its decision to fire him. The lawsuit named AARP Services and its then chief executive officer, Lawrence Flanagan, as the two defendants responsible for Deus’s firing.

But the jury’s verdict only named AARP Services as being at fault in the firing. It did not find Flanagan at fault and did not hold him responsible for damages, even though Flanagan testified at the trial that he made the final decision to terminate Deus on grounds that Deus violated the travel policy.

The jury also chose not to hold AARP Services responsible for paying punitive damages to Deus, whose lawsuit called for $5 million in compensatory damages and an additional $5 million in punitive damages.

In its verdict, according to online court records, the jury awarded Deus $1,612,916.18 in compensatory damages and $578,351 in damages for emotional distress that AARP Services is required to pay Deus. The court records show the jury awarded Deus another $1,118.89 to be paid by AARP Services for its alleged breach of contract with him in its decision to fire him.

An attorney representing AARP Services immediately following the verdict filed a motion requesting that Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini, who presided over the trial, issue a “directed verdict” overturning the jury’s verdict. 

Such a motion is often filed by individuals or organizations on the losing side of a lawsuit, but such requests are rarely approved. Matini said she would schedule a hearing to consider the motion in May.

“I’m thrilled that the jury found that I was treated differently from my co-workers and discriminatorily fired,” Deus told the Washington Blade after the jury handed down its verdict. “That’s clearly what they found, and they awarded emotional pain and suffering,” he said. “But overall, I’m elated. It’s been six years of my life that I’ve been fighting and telling people that I was treated differently than anybody else and today I got my vindication.”

Laura Segal, AARP’s Senior Vice President for External Affairs, told the Blade in a statement, “AARP is pleased with the jury’s verdict that Lawrence Flanagan lawfully terminated Richard Deus’s employment.” She added, “AARP Services, Inc. (ASI) disagrees with the remainder of the verdict and is exploring all options for further legal review. We remain committed to an inclusive culture and warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.”

Attorneys representing AARP Services argued at the trial and presented witnesses denying Dues was fired because of his sexual orientation. They asserted that AARP Services had and still has gay and lesbian employees and managers and that the company has a longstanding policy of prohibiting  discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or marital status.

Deus’s lawsuit accused AARP Services of targeting Deus for discrimination based on his marriage to another man as well as for his sexual orientation. The jury did not find that AARP Services engaged in discrimination against Deus based on his marital status.

Flanagan was among the lead defense witnesses who testified at the nine-day-long trial. He testified that he has worked for many years with gay colleagues, has a gay relative who he admires, and would never have allowed his staff to engage in discrimination while he served as AARP Services CEO.

He noted in his testimony that his decision to fire Deus was based, in part, on the recommendation of AARP Services’ human resources or personnel director, Michael Loizzi, who is an openly gay man. Loizzi, who also testified at the trial, said that as a gay man he would never have called for Deus or anyone else to be fired because of their sexual orientation. He stated in his testimony that he recommended to Flanagan that Deus be fired because Deus violated AARP Services travel policy and lied to his supervisor about the details of the travel to get his supervisor’s approval under false pretenses.

Deus, during his own testimony, strongly disputed claims that he obtained permission for his travel by providing false information to his supervisor. His lawsuit states that both his supervisor and AARP Services’ legal counsel cleared him for the two trips that he has been accused of taking in violation of policy.

His lawsuit identifies heterosexual AARP and AARP Services employees who have taken business trips like the two taken by Deus that allegedly violated travel policy who were not fired or disciplined. A few faced disciplinary actions but were allowed to retain their jobs, the lawsuit says.

“This case is about the unequal treatment of a gay man when juxtaposed to the treatment of our heterosexual comparators,” Darrell Chambers, Deus’s lead attorney, told the Washington Blade after the verdict. “This is not a case about an organization or a group of people who hate gay people and decided that they were going to fire this man because they hate him,” Chambers said.

“Instead, it’s a case where the punishment that they consistently applied to gay employees, re Mr. Deus and Mr. Sanders, was harsher, far harsher than the punishment they applied to heterosexual employees who committed the same or similar acts.”

Chambers was referring to former AARP Services employee Jack Sanders, who is gay and who testified on video played at the trial that he was summarily fired on grounds that he allegedly sent pornographic photos or video images to another AARP Services employee, who complained about receiving the pornographic images.

Sanders has said the pornographic images in question were sent to the employee by his ex-boyfriend who wanted to portray Sanders in a negative light. Through telephone and wire transmission records Sanders was able to show that the images in question were sent from a device in Washington, D.C. at a time that Sanders was in Chicago, proving that Sanders could not have been the person who sent the images.

Deus’s attorneys brought out at the trial that AARP Services failed to give Sanders a chance to defend himself, prompting him to file his own lawsuit against AARP Services for which a settlement was reached. The terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed. But Deus’s attorneys cited Sanders’s case as yet another example of how AARP Services has treated gay employees differently from heterosexual employees.

AARP Services attorney Alison Davis argued during the trial that discrimination based on Deus’s sexual orientation had nothing at all to do with the decision to fire him. Davis told the jury that the two trips that Deus took that led to his firing, one to New York City and the other to New Orleans to attend the Sugar Bowl football game, were financed in part by companies that do business with AARP in violation of AARP and AARP Services policies for travel. Among other things, she said the Sugar Bowl is considered a championship game that has a value higher than smaller gifts that AARP employees are allowed to accept.

Deus testified that his reason for accepting an invitation to the Sugar Bowl game was to spend time with the new account director at the Allstate insurance company, which paid for the Sugar Bowl game ticket. “In 2019, we were going to be negotiating a new contract with Allstate and we wanted to establish a good relationship with her before the contract negotiations began,” he told the Blade. “That’s how you do business.”

Deus said he was referring to Allstate’s business relationship with AARP Services, which he said, similar to its interaction with other businesses, helps AARP provide support and services to the nation’s senior citizens.

In her cross examination of Deus on the witness stand, Davis also raised AARP Services’ claim in contesting the lawsuit that the emotional distress and depression that Deus says he suffered because of his firing could have been caused by issues unrelated to the firing. Davis asked Deus if his emotional distress was caused by stress that Deus has said he experienced years earlier when he came out as gay to his parents, who are ordained ministers, and in his interaction with his sister, who had been diagnosed as being bipolar. 

Deus said that while his coming out to his conservative parents nearly 30 years ago and his sister’s mental health issues were a concern years earlier, he and his parents had long since reconciled over his sexual orientation and his sister’s mental health issues played no role whatsoever in the emotional distress he experienced after being fired by AARP Services.

In her cross examination of Deus on the witness stand, Davis also asked him if his decision to be interviewed by the Washington Blade last year for a Blade story about his lawsuit could have contributed to the difficulty, he said he encountered in finding employment after he was fired by AARP Services. Deus, who testified that he was hired by at least one other company that later laid him off, said he did not believe a Blade story about his lawsuit would have an adverse impact on him.  

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Baltimore

Power Plant Live! opens Club 4, its first LGBTQ bar

Ryan Butler, known by his drag persona Brooklyn Heights, helped launch venue

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Ryan Butler, also known as drag performer Brooklyn Heights, stands in the space at Power Plant Live! that will house Club 4. (Photo by Kaitlin Newman for the Baltimore Banner)

BY JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | Ryan Butler wanted a place where all members of the LGBTQ community could enjoy drag, drinks and fellowship in a safe space. He found it by the Inner Harbor.

Butler jumped at the opportunity to help open Club 4, the first LGBTQ-themed bar to occupy the popular Power Plant Live! venue.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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