Arts & Entertainment
Pointing the way
Scholarships help LGBT students achieve career and education dreams
Jorge Valencia, director of the Point Foundation, at last year's event. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The Point Foundation, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, boasts doctors, lawyers, filmmakers and even the nation’s youngest openly gay mayor as alumni of its scholarship program, which has connected gay college students with millions in financial support and a robust professional network for more than a decade.
Yet organizers say there remain countless LGBT students whose educations are cut short by limited funds and unsupportive families. And even as LGBT youth find more mainstream acceptance, interest in the innovative scholarship program has not dissipated.
In fact it’s growing, say organizers who will host a May 3 fundraiser meant to jumpstart donations and boost financial support for the expanding pool of scholars. The event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Equality Center (1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW). Tickets are $75.
It will feature remarks from founders Bruce Lindstrom and Carl Strickland, as well as success stories shared by some of the Foundation’s growing crop of alumni.
Organizers are finalizing this year’s recipients from a field of some 2,000 applicants, up about 33 percent from last year. Scholars will be announced in June.
“We’re getting a lot more applications from geographically diverse parts of the country, also people of color and women,” says Jorge Valencia, Point’s executive director and CEO. “We’re very happy with that, a lot of that has to do with our outreach efforts.”
The Washington Cornerstone Society event — named for large gift donors — will be one of eight the foundation plans this year to help support the roughly 75 scholars it sponsors annually.
The amount of each scholarship fluctuates based on the number of scholars, but officials say the funds help cover everything from tuition to living expenses for undergraduates and graduate students at institutions across the country. The competitive qualification process involves a 10-part application and culminates with phone and in-person interviews.
Each year, Valencia said, the pile of applications gets thicker.
“That’s why these Cornerstone events are so important,” he says. “We need to be able to raise more money to support these scholars.”
The scholarship program’s continued success is bittersweet, however. Valencia says it’s evidence that there remains a lot of work to be done in boosting acceptance of LGBT youth.
“I hope one day there isn’t a need for organizations that serve underserved communities,” says Valencia, explaining that though scholarships are not limited to scholars who face rejection from their families, those students still comprise many recipients. “The opposition is fighting even harder to make these young people all over the country and all over the world really feel less than equal, so the need is just as high as ever before.”
For Ashland Johnson, rejection came not from her family, but from her employers.
“I worked at Morehouse School of Medicine, my boss found out I was gay and I was fired,” says Johnson, who channeled the messy experience — which eventually involved the American Civil Liberties Union — into a desire to practice LGBT civil rights law.
Johnson had studied English and planned on being a professor before the 2006 incident but soon found herself looking at law schools — and looking for money. In Point Foundation, she says she found both financial support and a commitment to developing fully rounded students through leadership training.
“I saw they were really more than a paycheck,” says Johnson, who graduated in 2011 and now works as policy counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, in Washington.
Scholars are required to complete community service projects benefiting the LGBT community; in exchange, Valencia says they receive support through the duration of their academic career, training opportunities and mentors in their field.
The latter can be invaluable as young professionals navigate complex fields, says Daniel O’Neill, a 2011-2012 scholarship recipient and aspiring primary care physician. Through his program mentor, O’Neill says he has expanded both his knowledge of HIV treatment and his vision of where medicine can take him. He plans to spend time working in San Francisco this year to learn even more about medical issues largely impacting gay and lesbian patients.
“They’ve accelerated my ability to pay it forward and help the LGBT community,” O’Neill says of the foundation. “They’ve galvanized the passion of mine to affirm that I’m part of this large LGBT community.”
Scholars also gain access to the foundation’s large network of prestigious alumni, including one who epitomizes Point’s growing influence.
Alex Morse, mayor of Holyoke, Mass., is the nation’s youngest openly gay mayor and a Point Foundation scholar.
“The Point Foundation assisted me financially as a student at Brown University,” he said in an email. “But more importantly, it introduced me to an intergenerational network of successful members of the [LGBT] community from all across the country. It helped give me the confidence I needed to achieve my goals and set me on a strong path into the future.”
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai, Dan Martin and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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