Local
Maryland lawmaker opposed to same-sex marriage admits to drinking before boating accident
Delegate Don Dwyer operated one of two boats that collided on the Magothy River
A Maryland lawmaker who vehemently opposes same-sex marriage told reporters on Thursday that he was drinking before the boat he was operating crashed into another vessel last night.
The Maryland Natural Resource Police said paramedics transported three adults and four children to local hospitals after Dwyerās boat collided with a 20-foot Bayliner on the Magothy River near Gibson Island around 7 p.m. on Wednesday. A salvage company later recovered Dwyerās vessel that sank after the collision.
Dwyer, 54, has been a member of the House of Delegates since 2003.
He told fellow lawmakers during the debate on the same-sex marriage bill in February that the legalization of nuptials for gays and lesbians in Massachusetts in 2004 indoctrinated the stateās public school students on homosexuality. Marylanders will vote in a November referendum on the law that Gov. Martin OāMalley signed. Dwyer, who has introduced several measures that would have amended the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, tried to remove Baltimore Circuit Court Judge M. Brooke Murdoch from the bench in 2006 after she found Maryland’s ban on nuptials for gays and lesbians unconstitutional. He also sought to impeach Attorney General Doug Gansler following his 2010 announcement that the state would recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions.
Dwyer, who spoke to reporters in a wheelchair while wearing a neck brace and a bandage on his left foot before nurses brought him back into the hospital, did not indicate whether he would step down. Neither he nor his office immediately returned the Blade’s request for comment on his political future.
āIāll leave that to his own reflections,ā said gay state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County.)
Sargent Brian Albert of the Maryland Natural Resource Police told the Blade that his agency’s investigation into the accident continues.
“Delegate Dwyer’s admission to drinking prior to operating the vessel will not alter our investigation,” he said. “NRP will reconstruct the accident and complete a thorough investigation prior to charging. Usually it takes approximately 30 days for a blood kit analysis to return. When NRP receives the results proper charges will be placed.”
Maryland
Rockville teen charged with plotting school shooting after FBI finds āmanifestoā
Alex Ye charged with threats of mass violence
BY BRETT BARROUQUERE | A Montgomery County high school student is charged with what police describe as plans to commit a school shooting.
Andrea Ye, 18, of Rockville, whose preferred name is Alex Ye, is charged with threats of mass violence. Montgomery County Police and the FBI arrested Ye Wednesday.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
New D.C. LGBTQ+ bar Crush set to open April 19
An āall-inclusive entertainment haven,ā with dance floor, roof deck
D.C.ās newest LGBTQ+ bar called Crush is scheduled to open for business at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 19, in a spacious, two-story building with a dance floor and roof deck at 2007 14th St., N.W. in one of the cityās bustling nightlife areas.
A statement released by co-owners Stephen Rutgers and Mark Rutstein earlier this year says the new bar will provide an atmosphere that blends ānostalgia with contemporary nightlifeā in a building that was home to a popular music store and radio supply shop.
Rutgers said the opening comes one day after Crush received final approval of its liquor license that was transferred from the Owl Room, a bar that operated in the same building before closing Dec. 31 of last year. The official opening also comes three days after Crush hosted a pre-opening reception for family, friends, and community members on Tuesday, April 16.
Among those attending, Rutgers said, were officials with several prominent local LGBTQ organizations, including officials with the DC Center for the LGBTQ Community, which is located across the street from Crush in the cityās Reeves Center municipal building. Also attending were Japer Bowles, director of the Mayorās Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Salah Czapary, director of the Mayorās Office of Nightlife and Culture.
Rutgers said Crush plans to hold a grand opening event in a few weeks after he, Rutstein and the barās employees become settled into their newly opened operations.
āStep into a venue where inclusivity isnāt just a promise but a vibrant reality,ā a statement posted on the Crush website says. āImagine an all-inclusive entertainment haven where diversity isnāt just celebrated, itās embraced as the very heartbeat of our venue,ā the statement says. āWelcome to a place where love knows no bounds, and the only color or preference that matters is the vibrant tapestry of humanity itself. Welcome to Crush.ā
The website says Crush will be open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., Fridays from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m., Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m., and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. It will be closed on Mondays.
Crush is located less than two blocks from the U Street Metro station.
District of Columbia
Reenactment of first gay rights picket at White House draws interest of tourists
LGBTQ activists carry signs from historic 1965 protest
About 30 LGBTQ activists formed a circular picket line in front of the White House Wednesday afternoon, April 17, carrying signs calling for an end to discrimination against āhomosexualsā in a reenactment of the first gay rights protest at the White House that took place 59 years earlier on April 17, 1965.
Crowds of tourists looked on with interest as the activists walked back and forth in silence in front of the White House fence on Pennsylvania Avenue. Like the 1965 event, several of the men were dressed in suits and ties and the women in dresses in keeping with a 1960s era dress code policy for protests of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., the cityās first gay rights group that organized the 1965 event.
Wednesdayās reenactment was organized by D.C.ās Rainbow History Project, which made it clear that the event was not intended as a protest against President Joe Biden and his administration, which the group praised as a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights.
āI think this was an amazing event,ā said Vincent Slatt, the Rainbow History Project official who led efforts to put on the event. āWe had twice as many that we had hoped for that came today,ā he said.
“It was so great to see a reenactment and so great to see how far we’ve come,” Slatt said. “And also, the acknowledgement of what else we still need to do.”
Slatt said participants in the event who were not carrying picket signs handed out literature explaining the purpose of the event.
A flier handed out by participants noted that among the demands of the protesters at the 1965 event were to end the ban on homosexuals from working in the federal government, an end to the ban on gays serving in the military, an end to the denial of security clearances for gays, and an end of the government’s refusal to meet with the LGBTQ community.
āThe other thing that I think is really, really moving is some of the gay staff inside the White House found out this was happening and came out to greet us,ā Slatt said. He noted that this highlighted how much has changed since 1965, when then President Lyndon Johnsonās White House refused to respond to a letter sent to Johnson from the Mattachine Society explaining its grievances.
āSo now to have gay people in the White House coming out to give us their respects and to say hello was especially meaningful to us,ā Slatt said. āThat was not expected today.ā
Among those walking the picket line was longtime D.C. LGBTQ rights advocate Paul Kuntzler, who is the only known surviving person who was among the White House picketers at the April 1965 event. Kuntzler said he proudly carried a newly printed version of the sign at Wednesdayās reenactment event that he carried during the 1965 protest. It stated, āFifteen Million Homosexuals Protest Federal Treatment.ā
Also participating in the event was Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowserās Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Bowles presented Slatt with a proclamation issued by Bowser declaring April 17, 2024, Mattachine Society Day in Washington, D.C.
āWhereas, on April 17, 1965, the Mattachine Society of Washington courageously held the nationās inaugural picket for gay rights, a seminal moment in the ongoing struggle for LGBTQIA+ equality in the United States, marking the genesis of public demonstrations advocating for those rights and paving the way for Pride Marches and Pride celebrations worldwide,ā the proclamation states.
About 30 minutes after the reenactment event began, uniformed Secret Service agents informed Slatt that due to a security issue the picketers would have to move off the sidewalk in front of the White House and resume the picketing across the street on the sidewalk in front of Lafayette Park. When asked by the Washington Blade what the security issue was about, one of the Secret Service officers said he did not have any further details other than that his superiors informed him that the White House sidewalk would have to be temporarily cleared of all people.
Participants in the event quickly resumed their picket line on the sidewalk in front of Lafayette Park for another 30 minutes or so in keeping with the 1965 picketing event, which lasted for one hour, from 4:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m., according to Rainbow History Projectās research into the 1965 event.
Although the LGBTQ picketers continued their procession in silence, a separate protest in Lafayette Park a short distance from the LGBTQ picketers included speakers shouting through amplified speakers. The protest was against the government of Saudi Arabia and organized by a Muslim group called Al Baqee Organization.
A statement released by the Rainbow History Project says the reenactment event, among other things, was a tribute to D.C.-area lesbian rights advocate Lilli Vincenz, who participated in the 1965 White House picketing, and D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, who founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in the early 1960s and was the lead organizer of the 1965 White House protest. Kameny died in 2011 and Vincenz died in 2023.
The picket signs carried by participants in the reenactment event, which were reproduced from the 1965 event, had these messages:
ā¢ āDISCRIMINATION Against Homosexuals is as immoral as Discrimination Against Negroes and Jews;ā
ā¢ āGovernment Should Combat Prejudice NOT PROMOTE ITā
ā¢ āWhite House Refuses Replies to Our Letters, AFRAID OF US?
ā¢ āHOMOSEXUALS Died for their Country, Tooā
ā¢ āFirst Class Citizenship for HOMOSEXUALSā
ā¢Ā āSexual Preference is Irrelevant to Employmentā
ā¢Ā āFifteen Million U.S. Homosexuals Protest Federal Treatmentā
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