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D.C. Mayor Gray calls Catania remarks ‘nonsense’

Gay Council member wants answers about campaign scandal — or a resignation

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Mayor Vincent Gray spoke at the Pride week LGBT town hall on Thursday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray took a shot at gay Council member David Catania during a Pride town hall event Thursday.

A day earlier, Catania said in a televised interview that Gray should resign if he fails to tell all he knows about allegations of improprieties in his 2010 mayoral campaign.

He told Fox 5 news, “The time has come … for the mayor to provide answers to the questions that people have regarding his campaign or return as a private citizen and address those issues,” said Catania.

“I don’t want to respond to that kind of nonsense,” the mayor said when asked by the Blade’s Lou Chibbaro Jr. about Catania’s remarks. “David Catania makes comments at times that are ridiculous.”

The reception and town hall, which took place at the Charles Sumner School in Washington, D.C., also saw the swearing in of members of the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Committee. The event was sponsored by Capital Pride, the Washington Blade, the Victory Fund and the Crew Club.

“We want to get them sworn in tonight,” Mayor Gray said in announcing the new members of the committee after an introduction by the mayor’s GLBT liaison, Jeffrey Richardson. “Because we want them to take this seriously. This is serious work.”

“People can step back for a minute,” the mayor said in response to a question about the resignation and indictment of City Council Chair Kwame Brown. “The city is doing extremely well.”

The mayor said he was shocked and saddened by the resignation but said the scandal would not impact city services. He rattled off a list of accomplishments during his tenure as mayor, including posting a budget surplus, lower unemployment and a reduced number of homicides.

“We are a resilient city,” the mayor said, saying the District is adding 1,000 new residents each month. “Our city is in great shape.”

“I was stunned and I was sad to learn what was revealed,” the mayor said of the resignation of his longtime friend, but assured residents the city was on the right track.

The mayor also answered questions from the Blade about President Obama’s support of marriage equality as well as the impending Maryland referendum on same-sex marriage.

The mayor also spoke extensively of his pride over the District playing host to the International AIDS Conference, being held in the United States for the first time in two decades. He also said he was not prepared to make any statements about running for mayor again in 2014.

“We will be able to showcase what we are doing in the District of Columbia itself,” the mayor said, saying the conference will be an opportunity for AIDS/HIV researchers and advocates to advance the science of HIV prevention and care. “We are doing a lot.”

The comments came after a line of questioning about the rising HIV rates among gay men in the District of Columbia.

During an audience question and answer session immediately following the interview, trans advocate Ruby Corado thanked the mayor for his support.

“Since you’ve been mayor a lot of LGBT activists can sleep a little better,” said Corado, whose Casa Ruby recently opened catering to the Latino LGBT community. “As a trans activist, I certainly sleep a lot better.”

The members of the committee sworn in Thursday night are:

  • Andrew Barnett – Executive Director Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League
  • Gregory A. Cendana – Executive Director of Asian American Labor Alliance
  • Wesley D. Thomas – Dentist, U.S. Department of Defense & board member, Whitman-Walker Health
  • Brittany E. Walsh – Program Manager, LIFT-DC
  • Ryan C. Wilson – Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
  • Lester Johnson – President, Team DC Executive Council
  • Kareem Murphy – Partner, Ferguson Group & Member, Metropolitan Community Church Public Policy Team
  • Megan Wallace – Principal, Wallace Law, LLC,
  • Matthew Leblanc – Program Coordinator, LGBTQ Resource Center, Georgetown University
  • Savanna Wanzer – Founder of Capital Trans Pride 2007 & Board member Whitman Walker Health
  • Iden McCollum – Founder and Executive Director of the Ida Mae Campbell Foundation
  • Ronald L. Swanda – Aging Advocate
  • Dr. Imani Woody – Chair, SAGE Metro DC
  • Khadijah Tribble – Director of Operations for the Not-for-Profit Hospital Corporation’s Infectious Diseases Care Center & Principal, of Trifecta Consulting Group
  • Julius Agers – Two-Spirited American Indian and Transgender Advocate
  • Courtney Snowden – Principal, Raben Group
  • David Perez – President, Board of the Latino GLBT History Project & Director of Development for the League of United Latin American Citizens
  • June Crenshaw – Chair of the Board of Rainbow Response Coalition (RRC)
  • Barbara Ann Helmick – Deputy Chief of Staff for Citizen Outreach for The Public Interest Network (appointed as Vice Chair of Mayor’s GLBT Advisory Committee)
  • Earl Fowlkes – President/CEO of the International Federation of Black Prides (IFBP) – Appointed as Chair of Mayor’s GLBT Advisory Committee

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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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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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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