Local
Rat problem, rent hike delay Center’s move
Lease negotiations near completion; move-in to Reeves building expected in June
Center leadership is eager to complete the move into the Reeves building, despite hiccups in the process. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Michael Sessa, president of the D.C. LGBT Community Center, said the center knew the city’s decision in December to allow it to rent space in a desirable city building at 14th and U Streets, N.W. came with an “as is” provision.
Under the provision, the center is responsible for paying the full cost of any renovation work needed to get the first floor, store front space ready for the center and its mostly volunteer staff to move into the Reeves Center, an eight-story office and retail building.
But Sessa told the Blade last week that the extent of the renovation work needed is far greater than initially expected and would cost as much as $75,000.
“We had an inspection and found that a rat problem has been so bad that the entire place needs to be gutted,” he said.
“We have to have a demolition team come in and rip the floor up and rip down everything in the ceiling and the walls because the rats were living there for how many years – leaving rotted floors, urine and feces – the whole deal,” according to Sessa.
The discovery of the need for more renovation work came shortly after officials with the city’s Department of General Services [DGS] handed the center a proposed lease calling for $1,500 in rent over and above the $4,000 per month rent initially proposed for the 2,468 square foot space.
When Mayor Vincent Gray announced on December 11 that the city had accepted the D.C. Center’s bid to rent the Reeves Center space, center officials noted that the $4,000 per month rent was significantly less than the market value for rent in that area.
Sessa and center executive director David Mariner noted that the below market rent was part of a city program that seeks to bring non-profit community groups to the bustling business and residential area as a means of enhancing the neighborhood and community.
However, Sessa said that the additional $1,500 would create a burden on the center’s budget and finances. It was not part of the city’s request for proposals, or RFP, inviting bids from businesses or organization seeking to rent the space, Sessa said.
Sessa said he has been negotiating with DGS officials for more than two months over details in the lease, including the $1,500, which DGS says covers a share of building maintenance costs such as janitorial services.
During that time, the space has remained untouched because no work can begin until the lease is signed, Sessa said.
“It’s just been a lot of back and forth,” he said. “And now we’re at the last point. I have someone doing a legal review of the lease, and then we’re ready to go.”
Darrell Pressley, a spokesperson for DGS Director Brian J. Hanlon, told the Blade he expected negotiations over the lease to be completed within a week or two.
“The process in terms of the negotiations is still at play,” he said.
Sessa, meanwhile, said the center also discovered that the “as is” clause requires it to remove abandoned restaurant equipment left behind years ago by Ben’s Chili Bowl that once used the space. Among the equipment left behind is an enormous walk-in refrigerator that can’t fit through the doors.
“We have to get someone to come in and disassemble it inside the room and carry it out piece by piece,” he said.
Despite these hassles, Sessa said the center is looking forward to moving into the new space, which is double the size of its current space one block away at 1318 U Street, N.W. The building in which the current storefront space is located is slated to be demolished to make way for a new office building.
The renovation work needed for the space is far greater than initially expected and would cost as much as $75,000. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
“Maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll announce a ‘ground breaking,’ he said, to kick-off the renovation work at the Reeves Center.
“Just so we get the community excited, we’re going to release the plans, the drawings to show people what the new space is like,” he said. “We’re going to put them online. You can meet the architect, meet the designer,” he said in discussing the planned ‘ground breaking’ event.
He said that if all goes according to plans, the center will hold a grand opening event in June in which Mayor Gray will be invited to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
As for the rats, Sessa said they are still living in the long abandoned space at the Reeves building into which the center plans to move. Holes in the floor leading to the building’s garage are believed to be their portal of entry.
“They keep saying the construction will solve it by sealing the holes,” Sessa said. “Well, yes, it will solve it. But unfortunately, we can’t save anything in that space, not a single thing – floor tiles, ceiling tiles, everything’s got to come up.”
District of Columbia
Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position
Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.
The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.
“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.
The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.
Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.
“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Mayor Bowser expected to attend March 20 event
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, and local and national Democratic Party officials are expected to join more than 150 LGBTQ advocates and supporters on March 20 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the city’s Capital Stonewall Democrats.
A statement released by the organization says the event is scheduled to be held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery building at 702 8th St., N.W. in D.C.
“The evening will honor the people who built Capital Stonewall Democrats across five decades – activists who fought for rights when the odds were against them, public servants who opened doors and refused to let them close, and a new generation of leaders ready to carry the work forward,” the statement says.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats.
Among those planning to attend the anniversary event is longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Paul Kuntzler, 84, who is one of the two co-founders of the then-Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Kuntzler told the Washington Blade that he and co-founder Richard Maulsby were joined by about a dozen others in the living room of his Southwest D.C. home at the group’s founding meeting in January 1976.
He said that among the reasons for forming a local LGBTQ Democratic group at the time was to arrange for a then “gay” presence at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at which Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and later won election as president.
Maulsby, who served as the Stein Club president for its first three years and who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he would not be attending the March 20 anniversary event, but he fully supports the organization’s continuing work as an LGBTQ organization associated with the Democratic Party.
Steven McCarty, Capital Stonewall Democrats’ current president, said in the statement that the anniversary celebration will highlight the organization’s work since the time of its founding.
“Capital Stonewall Democrats has been fighting for LGBTQ+ political power in this city for 50 years, electing people, training organizers, holding this community together through some really hard moments,” he said. “And right now, with everything going on, that work has never mattered more. This gala is the first moment of our next chapter, and I want the community to be a part of it.”
The statement says among the special guests attending the event will be Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, who became the first openly gay LGBTQ person of color to win election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018.
Other guests of honor, according to the statement, include Mayor Bowser; D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5, the Council’s only gay member; D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large); Earl Fowlkes, founder of the International Federation of Black Prides; Vita Rangel, a transgender woman who serves as Deputy Director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments; Heidi Ellis, director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; Rayceen Pendarvis, longtime D.C. LGBTQ civic activist; and Phillip Pannell, longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activist and Ward 8 civic activist.
Information about ticket availability for the Capital Stonewall Democrats anniversary gala can be accessed here: capitalstonewalldemocrats.com/50th
Maryland
Md. Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlines 2026 priorities
Expanded PrEP access among objectives
Maryland’s Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlined legislative priorities for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 2026 term during a press conference on March 5.
State Del. Kris Fair (D-Fredrick County) led the press conference. State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and other caucus members also spoke.
Caucus members are sponsoring 12 bills and supporting four others.
Martinez is sponsoring House Bill 1114, which would expand PrEP access in Maryland.
“PrEP is 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission,” he explained, noting PrEP’s cost often turns away potential users.
The bill aims to extend insurance coverage and expand pharmacists’ ability to prescribe PrEP along with other HIV treatments and testing. Martinez is working with state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) and FreeState Justice on the bill.
The House Health Committee had a hearing last week that included HB1114.
“Ending the HIV epidemic is about expanding access and providing these life-saving tools to all persons in Maryland,” Martinez said.
Several other pieces of legislation were highlighted during the press conferences. They included measures focused on youth and education, birth certificate markers, so-called conversion therapy, and hormone medications.
State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County) is cosponsoring Senate Bill 950, which would update and strengthen conversion therapy laws. State Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) has introduced an identical bill that would extend the statute of limitations on individuals who facilitate conversion therapy.
Kagan explained the bill would allow conversion therapy victims to come to terms with their experience undergoing the widely discredited practice that “creates shame and it silences survivors.”
When questioned, Fair explained the press conference happened late into the legislative session because “we [the caucus] are constantly having to respond in real time to what’s happening in Washington” while drafting and considering pieces of legislation.
The Frederick County Democrat described this session’s bills as the “most ambitious list of priorities to date.” Fair also described the caucus’s goals.
“It’s decency, it’s dignity, and its humanity,” he said.
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