Local
Frank Kameny’s sole heir speaks out
Housemate, friend of 19 years was ‘family member’ unknown to gay leader’s associates
Timothy Clark, 35, was named the sole beneficiary of Frank Kameny’s estate except for his papers, which Kameny bequeathed to the Library of Congress. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a two-part report. Next week: More on Timothy Clark and his long association with Frank Kameny.
While nationally acclaimed gay rights pioneer Franklin E. Kameny collaborated in his later years with fellow activists and national politicians and attended events at the White House, Timothy Lamont Clark says he prepared Kameny’s breakfast and dinner in the privacy of Kameny’s home.
Virtually unknown to Kameny’s circle of friends and political associates in the LGBT rights movement, Kameny named Clark, 35, in his will as the sole beneficiary of his estate except for his papers, which he bequeathed to the Library of Congress.
He also named Clark in the will, filed in 2007, as the personal representative of his estate, a position similar to an executor that has full authority to decide how the estate’s assets and possessions should be managed.
Kameny died in October 2011, leaving behind what LGBT activists and civil rights leaders who knew him called a 50-year legacy as one of the nation’s preeminent architects and advocates for LGBT equality.
Clark says he began a 19-year friendship with Kameny when he was 15 years old, after calling the Gay Information hotline that Kameny operated out of his home in 1991.
Clark says he was living with his grandmother in Southeast D.C. at the time and was struggling to come out as gay in a deeply religious extended family. Through an odd turn of events, his grandmother learned that Clark had been speaking to Kameny by phone on a regular basis a few months after Clark first called the hotline, which he had discovered in the Yellow Pages.
“That’s when my grandmother called Frank,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade on Tuesday. “At first it was a heated conversation. But then once they got past that, my grandmother said on no uncertain terms you will not be able to see my grandson until his 16th birthday.”
He continued to speak with Kameny by phone in what he describes as a counselor and mentor type relationship. Shortly after his 16th birthday Clark says he met Kameny in person for the first time in a public library while accompanied by his grandmother.
“After that, my grandmother allowed me to talk to Frank,” Clark said. “It was nothing that was hidden anymore… And Frank has been part of my life ever since then.”
Clark added, “And that’s when my grandmother started asking him, do you think that him being this way, is it safe for him to go to Anacostia High School? And Frank said yes. It was like everything had collided in a good way between all parties involved.”
Among the things Clark talked to Kameny about in the ensuing years was his relationship with his boyfriend, who moved in with him at his grandmother’s house around 1997 after the boyfriend encountered problems with his parents, who were members of the Jehovah’s Witness faith.
Although his grandmother was gradually becoming more accepting of him being gay, Clark said she wasn’t quite ready for him to cohabitate with a boyfriend in her house. With his grandmother’s consent, Clark accepted an offer by Kameny to move into Kameny’s basement apartment at Kameny’s house on Cathedral Avenue, N.W.
In addition to being a good friend, Clark knew that, unlike his grandmother, Kameny would have no problem accepting Clark’s boyfriend.
“So I moved over there in his basement until 1999 and then me and my boyfriend moved out to Centerville, Va., Clark said. “So I was there from ’97 to ’99 before I moved out.”
Clark said he moved back into Kameny’s house between 2002 and 2003 after having moved from Centerville to an apartment in D.C. By then his friendship with Kameny deepened and evolved into a family type relationship, with Kameny spending time at his grandmother’s and relatives’ homes on holidays, including Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, Clark said.
“Frank was a part of my family,” he said. “Frank was like a grandfather to me. My grandfather passed away when I was little, but Frank was literally like a grandfather to me. We had our ups and downs, but that’s what families do.”
Clark said his return to Kameny’s house came at Kameny’s request and caused a strain on his relationship with his boyfriend.
“He just called me and said that he was getting older and he missed me living there and he would like for me to come back,” Clark said. “So that’s when my aunt, who knew Frank, that’s when she got someone to redo the basement because the basement by then was in horrible condition and I couldn’t come back there like that.”
As the basement was being fixed up through contractors hired and paid for by his aunt, Clark said Kameny sat him down to discuss the situation.
“He said Timothy, you know I’ve always been self-sufficient and I never needed anybody around, but when you were here I found comfort and I would like to have you back if you’re willing to come back.”
While mulling over Kameny’s invitation to return, Clark said he and his boyfriend had a separate conversation. “That’s when my partner said, well, it’s me or the old man. I chose Frank because Frank was very important to me,” said Clark. “He helped me get over things in my personal life, you know, a lot of things. He helped me get through the anger I had towards a lot of the women in my family,” whose religious beliefs often were at odds with his sexual orientation, Clark said.
“Frank really helped me get past all of that.” Pausing and appearing to hold back tears, Clark said, “Frank is — oh — he was just awesome.”
Clark lived in the basement apartment until after Kameny’s death.
Collard greens and chitlins
Describing himself as a “very private” person, Clark said he shunned the political and LGBT activist world that Kameny relished, despite Kameny’s frequent requests that he attend various events and celebrations. It was only in the last few years of Kameny’s life that Clark said he began attending the city’s LGBT Pride parade as it passed around Dupont Circle.
Instead, he says he has fond memories of Kameny’s participation in his family events, including holiday dinners.
“When my grandmother’s sister from North Carolina came up he went over there to meet her with me at my cousin’s house,” Clark recalls. “It was just so funny because he knew my grandmother but when he first came to one of the dinners and my grandmother had collard greens and chitlins, I said Frank I want you to finish your plate for everything,” Clark said.
“My grandmother asked him to call her by her first name, Lena,” he said. “And Frank said, Lena, what is this? And she said chitlins [pig intestines prepared in a traditional Southern recipe]. And Frank sat back and said Lena what does an old Jew from New York know about this? We all just laughed, and he ate the chitlins. And ever since then he would always ask if my grandmother was making chitlins for the holidays.”
Clark said his fond memories of Kameny’s role as a welcomed member of his family became marred to some degree following Kameny’s death when rumors began circulating among some of Kameny’s political friends and acquaintances over the nature of his relationship with the famed gay rights leader. Some wondered why he would be named as the main beneficiary in Kameny’s will, giving him Kameny’s house, which the city’s tax office says has an assessed value of $730,880.
Clark said earlier rumors that surfaced in the year prior to Kameny’s death were even more unsettling. Clark said he was stunned last year when two D.C. police officers, a staff member from gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large), and a D.C. government official specializing in senior citizen services came to Kameny’s house to talk to him and Kameny separately over concerns by people who knew Kameny that Clark was “abusing” him and may have been arrested in the past for allegedly assaulting Kameny.
Glen Ackerman, who is serving as Clark’s attorney on matters related to Kameny’s estate, said he conducted a search of D.C. court records and confirmed “there is absolutely no truth whatsoever to these ugly rumors.”
The Blade also checked court records and determined Clark had never been charged with an offense in connection with his relationship with Kameny.
Ackerman said that as hurtful as the rumors are to Clark, he believes they were spawned, in part, over the fact that Clark was an unknown figure to virtually all of Kameny’s activist friends and acquaintances. He said he advised Clark to speak to the Blade, among other things, to dispel the mystery surrounding him.
“The only story that’s relevant here is that out of everyone that Dr. Kameny knew in his life, he only trusted one person in terms of his estate and that’s Timothy Clark,” Ackerman said. “With everyone in his life, he trusted this one man to be his personal representative at his death and to leave him basically all of his earthly possessions, including but not limited to his home, his automobile and all of his possessions with the exclusion of his papers that would go to the Library of Congress.”
Ackerman said that officials with the Kameny Papers Project, who had helped arrange for the donation of Kameny’s life’s work writings on behalf of LGBT rights to go to the Library of Congress, initially had not consulted Clark about plans to have Kameny’s ashes buried on March 3 in D.C. Congressional Cemetery.
“He has the sole authority to decide the destiny of all of Dr. Kameny’s possessions, including his ashes,” Ackerman said.
Clark, who initially planned to take possession of Kameny’s ashes, said he has agreed to allow half of the ashes to be buried in the planned March 3 memorial ceremony at Congressional Cemetery while keeping the remaining half “to cherish for the rest of my life.”
Clark said his grief over Kameny’s death brought back memories of the death of his grandmother in 2008, who Kameny knew and loved. When he received a phone call while at home with Kameny that his grandmother had died, Clark said he walked outside on the front lawn to collect his thoughts.
“Frank came downstairs and outside,” he said. “I was standing on the grass. He came out and hugged me and said I’m still here for you, I’m still here. I’ll never forget that day.”
He said he and several of his relatives plan to attend the March 3 burial ceremony for Kameny’s ashes.
Virginia
Va. court allows conversion therapy despite law banning it
Judge in June 30 ruling cited religious freedom.
In 2020, the state of Virginia had banned the practice of conversion therapy, but on Monday, a county judge ruled the ban violates the Virginia Constitution and Religious Freedom Restoration Act, allowing the therapy to start once more.
The conversion therapy ban, which can be seen in Va. Code § 54.1-2409.5 and 18VAC115-20-130.14, was overturned on June 30 as a result of two Christian counselors who argued that their — and all Virginia parents’ — constitutional right to freedom of religion had been encroached upon when the state legislature passed the ban.
A Henrico County Circuit Court judge sided with John and Janet Raymond, two Christian counselors represented by the Founding Freedoms Law Center, a conservative organization founded in 2020 following Virginia’s conversion therapy ban. Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General entered a consent decree with FFLC, saying state officials will not discipline counselors who engage in talk conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy, as the legislation described it, is considered to be “any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.” The ban’s reversal will now allow parents to subject their children to these practices to make them align better with their religion.
This decision comes despite advice and concern from many medical and pediatric organizations — including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American Counseling Association, to name a few — all of which denounce conversion therapy as dangerous and harmful to those subjected to it.
The American Medical Association, the largest and only national association that convenes more than 190 state and specialty medical societies, says that “these techniques are the assumption that any non-heterosexual, non-cisgender identities are mental disorders, and that sexual orientation and gender identity can and should be changed. This assumption is not based on medical and scientific evidence,” with attached data indicating people subjected to conversion therapy are more likely to develop “significant long-term harm” as a result of the therapy.
The AMA goes as far as to say that they outright “oppose the use of reparative or conversion therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity.”
FFLC has a clear goal of promoting — if not requiring — conservative ideology under the guise of religious freedom in the Virginia General Assembly. On their website, the FFLC argues that some progressive policies passed by the Assembly, like that of freedom from conversion therapy, are a violation of some Virginians’ “God-given foundational freedoms.”
The FFLC has argued that when conservative notions are not abided by in state law — especially when it involves “God’s design for male and female, the nuclear family, and parental rights” — that the law violates Virginians’ religious freedom.
A statement on the FFLC’s website calls gender dysphoria among children a “contagion” and upholds “faith-based insights” from counselors as equal — in the eyes of the law — to those who use medical-based insights. This, once again, is despite overwhelming medical evidence that indicates conversion therapy is harmful.
One study showed that 77 percent of those who received “sexual orientation change efforts,” or conversion therapy, experienced “significant harm.” This harm includes depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and internalized homophobia. In addition, the study found that young LGBTQ adults with high levels of parental or caregiver rejection are “8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide,” with another study finding that “nearly 30 percent of individuals who underwent SOCE reported suicidal attempts.”
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat representing Fairfax, said that the overturning of the ban on religious merit disregards the entire concept of having professionally licensed counselors.
“I have no problem if somebody wants to go look at religious counseling from their priest or their minister, their rabbi, their imam — that’s perfectly fine,” Surovell told the Virginia Mercury. “When somebody goes to get therapy from somebody licensed by the commonwealth of Virginia, there’s a different set of rules applied. You can’t just say whatever you want because you have a license. That’s why we have professional standards, that’s why we have statutes.”
District of Columbia
GenOUT Chorus offers solace, strength to LGBTQ teens
Summer camp held from June 23-27
As Pride month draws to a close and Washington begins to take down its rainbow flags and WorldPride decorations, it can be easy to confine the ideas of LGBTQ liberation to June. One historic organization in Washington has been speaking out — or singing out if you will — to ensure that LGBTQ youth are allowed to explore and be themselves every month of the year.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington is one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ choruses in the world. With more than 300 members and more than 40 years in the D.C. LGBTQ community, to say it is an institution would be an understatement.
Beginning in 1981, following an inspiring performance by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at the Kennedy Center, a group of 18 gay men — led by a “straight” woman and friend of Washington’s gay community, Marsha Pearson — created the GMCW. Since its establishment the organization has only grown in number and relevance within the city. From hosting multiple concerts a year, international equality trips, and creating a dedicated space to “inspire equality and inclusion with musical performances and education,” the GMCW is one of the cornerstone organizations in the Washington LGBTQ community.
One of the most remarkable parts of the GMCW is its youth outreach program and choir: GenOUT. The outreach ensemble specializes in providing a space for Washington’s LGBTQ and allied youth, ages 13-18, to find their voice through song and connect that voice to community. The GenOUT program has been around since 2001, and since 2015 has provided a platform for their voices to be heard — literally — making it the first LGBTQ youth chorus in the Washington area.
The Washington Blade sat down with GenOUT Director C. Paul Heins and member Ailsa Ostovitz to discuss why GenOUT, and more specifically the GenOUT summer camp, which was held from June 23-27, has become an essential space for LGBTQ youth in the D.C. area to find their voice amid less-than-supportive administration and rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the nation.
“This is my 11th season with GenOUT, and also the 11th season with Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington,” Heins said when explaining how he ended up in the director role for the self-selected, no audition required youth outreach ensemble. “I was hired in August of 2014 to start GenOUT. I spent that first fall researching other choruses, figuring out the infrastructure, promoting the chorus, and building relationships with schools, organizations, and faith communities. And then we started in January of 2015 with nine brave singers and since then, we’ve had 150+ singers from 80 or more schools in the DMV participate.”
Ailsa Ostovitz, on the other hand, being in high school had not had as much experience with choirs — yet her commitment and unwavering passion for the work she — and the other performers within GenOUT provide to each other was unmistakable.
“I’ve been a part of the course since April of 2022, and that was like seventh grade— which is wild to think about,” Ostovitz said when reflecting on how long she had been a part of GenOUT. She explained how she had begun to develop a drive for filling leadership roles within GenOUT after gaining valuable experiences and education from the organization.
“This is my first year in leadership,” she added. “The rest of the years, I kind of hung back. I really wanted to — especially last season — kind of put myself in the position of a peer and think ‘What would I want from people that are supposed to represent me to the adults? What would I want out of that?’”
And with those questions in mind, Ostovitz explained she buckled down and worked hard to get to where she is now as a member of the leadership team within the GenOUT choir.
“I spent a lot of time working with my section leader, and, looking up at him and being like, ‘What are you doing now that I can do in the future?’ And so this year, I ran for leadership,” Ostovitz said. “I got section leader, and that was cool. I’ve just spent a lot of time — most of my time in this course — learning leadership skills to kind of help me in all sorts of things in life, because I like to take control of things, and I like doing stuff.”
These leadership skills are just a handful of the things that students like Ostovitz learn while participating in the program. This year’s theme was “Make Them Hear Us!: Empowering LGBTQ+ and Allied Youth Through Music, Media, and Community,” and provided multiple opportunities for GenOUT’s members to engage with new concepts, ideas, and experiences.
From field trips to mentoring opportunities to an end-of-camp performance, it becomes clear when speaking to those familiar with the GenOUT experience: it is not your traditional summer day camp.
“The title of the camp references the anthem that GMCW has sung for many years,” Heins said. “‘Make Them Hear You’ from the musical ‘Ragtime’ encourages us to share important stories — stories that honor the fights that we’ve been fighting, the rights that we have won, affirmations that we seek for every human being, and the focus on media — specifically developing young people’s understandings of the kinds of media that they can access and use to share their voice.”
The camp offers singing and dancing lessons, creative writing exercises, LGBTQ+ history lessons, and open discussions about identity — providing an outlet for students to figure out who they want to be and find their voice.
“What this camp does, I believe, is it helps foster young people’s voices and not only encourages them to speak, but to give them the skills to speak in a way that will be heard meaningfully,” Heins added. “I have noted that youth in queer choruses like GenOUT have said that singing in a chorus allows young people to express themselves more honestly and with greater passion than other forms of expression. They’ve also said that singing with others that understand you on a very deep, profound level, makes the expression much easier and more beautiful. I think that experience is what really makes this a special opportunity for young, LGBTQ and allied people.”
Ostovitz echoed Heins’s sentiment, emphasizing that the space GenOUT provides allows her to feel empowered in ways more than by creating leadership skills that will help her later in life. GenOUT has allowed for her to see the humanity and similarities LGBTQ youth all face in a straight world.
“Joining the chorus and being in this camp, it really gives people a chance to see that every person is going through the same experience you are, on a level of finding your own identity and being confident in that,” Ostovitz said. “It really, really serves a purpose by showing there are still queer people. They’re not fizzling out — young people are queer. We want to use our voices to express what we feel and how things are affecting us, and I think that using music to do that is probably one of the most powerful ways to do that.”
In addition to allowing for internal growth and honing their singing abilities, both Ostovitz and Heins pointed out the other valuable skills students learn while in the GenOUT program. Ostovitz explicitly highlighted the mentorship program GenOUT has with GMCW, and how it has helped students like her figure out their future.
“Because we are so connected with GMCW, we run a mentorship program where, if you want to explore career, identity, whatever, we can connect you with somebody from GMCW,” Ostovitz said. “You get to spend a whole semester with a person working on your voice or your career or your what you want to do in higher education. It’s not only for things related to your queer identity, but it’s also just for life. It’s really cool.”
This year’s theme, centering around media and the many ways people can share their voice, was highlighted through the camp’s field trips to two legacy media organizations — WAMU and NBC Washington — and a discussion with staff from the Washington Blade, including Publisher Lynne Brown and International News Editor Michael K. Lavers.
“GenOUT provides a chance to get to know people from all around this area, but it also connects you to older folks, It connects you to people from the past, as well as we learn about LGBTQ history,” Heins said. “I think a camp specific thing is we want young people to understand how they can share their stories beyond just talking to their friends. There are these forms of media that are out there to share your stories, to have your voices heard, and to have a sense that these media are there for everyone. It’s not just a thing for people aged 21 and over. That was something that Lynne and Michael from the Blade were sharing with; that anyone can write in a letter to the editor. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be published, but that anyone has that opportunity. And I think that’s a great way for them to say the Blade is open to you to share your voice.”
The concept that there are people who want to, or may need to hear queer voices represented is one that is not lost on Ostovitz.
“There is something Thea says that has kind of integrated into our chorus — that someone out there needed to hear you, needed to hear your voice, needed to hear your story,” Ostovitz said. “That’s something that I kind of live by in this chorus, where I’m like, ‘I believe that there is someone out there that needed to hear this song for whatever reason, whatever it did for them. And I’m hoping to learn how much more can this chorus do for not just our little community, but how much more can it do around the world or the country — especially now.”
Living in the political center of the U.S., Ostovitz explained, has impacted how she approaches her identity, her education, and the urgency of using her voice — both as a student and as a young queer person navigating an increasingly hostile national climate.
“Being so close to the political center of the country and also a student at the same time has not been the easiest thing in the world as of late,” she said. “You’re thinking a lot about ‘Oh, I wonder if this program in my school will still exist next year,’ because a lot of the funding for physics and science programs in general has been cut. So I’m fortunate enough that Maryland has been pretty good about going against this administration. And so being in this chorus gives me a second to step back from my academics and just go somewhere for the two hours of rehearsal.”
For Ostovitz, just having those two short hours a week to focus on music — without thinking about the political climate that paints her and her choir peers as nefarious for being LGBTQ — provides solace.
“Everybody else is going through the same thing as I am, but we’re all also working towards the same goal, which is acceptance and uplifting of everybody and everyone — no matter who they are,” she said. “It kind of settles you down and grounds you. And then you just make music with people, and it’s really like a stress reducer for me.”
“Is it too trite to say that that would make people feel less alone, knowing that it’s not just a DMV thing, but that there are queer people all over?” Heins asked Ostovitz.
“No, it’s not — for sure,” Ostovitz responded. “It was a bit eye-opening.”
“A lot of us are fortunate enough to have families that support us enough to trust us and help us be passionate and mean what we do with the work that we do in this chorus — because it is optional,” Ostovitz added. “It is optional to have the courage that we have to practice and commit as much as we do, and the fact that we have a whole organization backing us on that is pretty cool.”
“We often say that we sing for those who can’t sing in a chorus like ours,” Heins said. “We sing for people who don’t have the freedom or the option to live their authentic lives. I think that’s very powerful.”
“It’s a very unique experience to be surrounded by so many people that get it,” Ostovitz said. “It’s a very joyful experience when we perform our big shows at the Lincoln Theater, being part of that production is also a very unique experience. So I think everything about this chorus is very joyfully unique.”
“I feel very proud, and I feel very inspired,” Heins said. “I feel inspired by the young voices. I feel a sense of inspiration in my own music-making, when I am able to take a piece from its very beginning all the way to the stage in a polished form. And I feel that sense of pride in knowing that I’ve helped this group of young people develop their confidence to do really amazing things.”
“GenOUT sang 22 times last year, which for any chorus is a big deal, but for a youth chorus coming from thither and yon, it is really a big deal,” Heins added. “I’m just really inspired and proud, and know that when I am in a nursing home somewhere and these folks are still out working and I know the country will be in good hands.”
Virginia
Walkinshaw wins Democratic primary in Va. 11th Congressional District
Special election winner will succeed Gerry Connolly
On Saturday, Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw won the Democratic primary for the special election that will determine who will represent Virginia’s 11th Congressional District.
The special election is being held following the death of the late Congressman Gerry Connolly, who represented the district from 2008 until 2024, when he announced his retirement, and subsequently passed away from cancer in May.
Walkinshaw is not unknown to Virginia’s 11th District — he has served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors since 2020 and had served as Connolly’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2019. Before he passed away, Connolly had endorsed Walkinshaw to take his place, claiming that choosing Walkinshaw to be his chief of staff was “one of the best decisions I ever made.”
The Democratic nominee has run his campaign on mitigating Trump’s “dangerous” agenda of dismantling the federal bureaucracy, which in the district is a major issue as many of the district’s residents are federal employees and contractors.
“I’m honored and humbled to have earned the Democratic nomination for the district I’ve spent my career serving,” Walkinshaw said on X. “This victory was powered by neighbors, volunteers, and supporters who believe in protecting our democracy, defending our freedoms, and delivering for working families.”
In addition to protecting federal workers, Walkinshaw has a long list of progressive priorities — some of which include creating affordable housing, reducing gun violence, expanding immigrant protections, and “advancing equality for all” by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Fair Housing Act.
Various democratic PACs contributed more than $2 million to Walkinshaw’s ad campaigns, much of which touted his connection to Connolly.
Walkinshaw will face Republican Stewart Whitson in the special election in September, where he is the likely favorite to win.
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Upwards of 100K people march in Budapest Pride
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