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KASPER’S LIVERY SERVICE

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Since 1987. Gay & Veteran Owner/Operator.

Lincoln Continental Sedan! Proper DC License & Livery Insured.

http://www.KasperLivery.com. 202-554-2471

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Calendar

Calendar: March 29-April 4

LGBTQ events in the days to come

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Friday, March 29

Center Aging Friday Tea Time will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, email [email protected]

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Social in the City” at 7 p.m. at Hotel Zena. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Saturday, March 30

Fashion FREEWay will be at 2 p.m. at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This is an opportunity to get free clothes and also donate what you no longer need in your closet. If you’re interested in volunteering at this event, visit the DC Center’s website

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Sunday, March 31

AfroCode DC will be at 4 p.m. at Decades DC. This event will be an experience of non-stop music, dancing, and good vibes and a crossover of genres and a fusion of cultures. Tickets cost $40 and can be purchased on Eventbrite

Monday, April 1

Center Aging: Monday Coffee & Conversation will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of their choice. For more details, email [email protected]

Tuesday, April 2

Pride on the Patio Events will host “LGBTQ Social Mixer” at 5:30 p.m. at Showroom. Dress is casual, fancy, or comfortable. Guests are encouraged to bring their most authentic self to chat, laugh, and get a little crazy. Admission is free and more details are on Eventbrite.

Universal Pride Meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This group seeks to support, educate, empower, and create change for people with disabilities. For more details, email [email protected]

Wednesday, April 3

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.

Center Aging: Women’s Social & Discussion Group will be at 6 p.m, on Zoom. This group is a place where older LGBTQ+ women can meet and socialize with one another. There will be discussion, activities, and a chance for you to share what you want future events to include. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website

Thursday, April 4

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. To be fair with who is receiving boxes, the program is moving to a lottery system. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245. 

Virtual Yoga with Charles M. will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a free weekly class focusing on yoga, breath work, and meditation. For more details, visit the DC Center for the LGBT Community’s website.

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District of Columbia

News that Caps, Wizards will stay in D.C. comes amid Pride Night games

LGBTQ sports group ‘excited’ hockey, basketball teams will remain in District

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The Caps are staying in D.C. Here a Washington Capitals player uses Pride tape during warmups at Hockey is for Everyone night in D.C. (Screen capture via Capitals YouTube)

The headline grabbing news this week that Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis reached an agreement with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and will keep his hockey and basketball teams in D.C. rather than move them to Virginia came one week after the Capitals hosted its annual LGBTQ Pride Night Out game at the Capital One Arena.

And the announcement of the decision to keep the two teams in D.C. also came two days before the Wizards were scheduled to host their annual Pride Night Out game at the arena on Friday, March 29.

“We’re very excited that we can keep these teams in D.C.,” said Miguel Ayala, president of Team D.C., the local LGBTQ sports organization that helps the city’s professional sports teams organize Pride Night Out events. “And we’re very excited that we can partner with the Caps and the Wizards to do events there,” Ayala said in referring to the Capital One Arena located in the Chinatown section of downtown D.C.

Ayala said Team D.C., which provides support for more than 30 LGBTQ sports clubs ranging from softball and bowling to hockey and rock climbing, recognizes that Leonsis’s company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, has been supportive of the LGBTQ community through the Pride Night Out events and fundraising events for local LGBTQ organizations.

The Capitals’s website includes a detailed section on LGBTQ topics, including a statement that Leonsis created a Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation that has donated more than $200,000 to LGBTQ organizations. Among the recipients, the website says, are the local LGBTQ youth support group SMYAL, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Youth Well Being Project that provides support for LGBTQ youth, and Team D.C.

“In addition to in-season Pride Nights, the Capitals celebrate Pride month annually in June,” the website says. “In partnership with the D.C. Capital Pride Alliance, Monumental Sports and Entertainment paints the town rainbow and participates in the D.C. Pride parade each summer,” it says.

The announcement of the decision by Leonsis to keep its two teams in D.C. came three months after he and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced plans for a $2.2 billion project to build a sports and entertainment complex in the Potomac Yard section of Alexandria, Va. that would include an arena where the Capitals and Wizards would hold their games. 

Although the project received bipartisan support by most Virginia elected officials and was approved by the Virginia House of Delegates, the state Senate adjourned without approving the project after a Democratic state senator blocked the measure in her committee on grounds that taxpayers would be footing the bill for the project, a claim that Youngkin strongly disputes.

The agreement reached between Bowser and Leonsis includes $515 million in funds from the city for the renovation of the Capital One Arena that Leonsis has said needs modernizing for the two teams to continue playing there. In exchange for this and other provisions, Leonsis agreed to sign a new lease to keep the two teams in D.C. for another 25 years.

The agreement must be approved by the D.C. Council, which was expected to vote overwhelmingly to pass legislation approving it

Leonsis’s decision to keep the two teams in D.C. also came close to six months after the National Hockey League announced it had reversed a policy it put in place earlier in 2023 to prohibit its players from placing tape on their hockey sticks supporting social causes, including rainbow-colored Pride tape in support of the LGBTQ community.

The reversal of the policy by the NHL came after a groundswell of opposition surfaced opposing the ban from many LGBTQ and LGBTQ supportive sports organizations as well as from some NHL hockey players. Although Washington Capitals officials didn’t say whether they would enforce the policy for their players or penalize players for violating the policy, a spokesperson for the Capitals released a statement to the Washington Blade expressing support for the LGBTQ community.

“The Capitals stand proudly with and support the LGBTQ+ community,” spokesperson Sergey Kocharov said in the statement. “We strive to create and cultivate an inclusive atmosphere for all our players, staff, and fans and are committed to fostering an environment that welcomes all,” the statement says.

“Although all players are free to decide on their level of involvement and engagement on Pride Night, and their effort may vary from season to season, our commitment in this space won’t waver,” the statement continues. “Everyone is treated with respect and dignity regardless of their sexual orientation or identity, and we will continue to advocate for full LGBTQ+ equality.”

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India

India broadcast authority asks TV station to delete video deemed offensive to LGBTQ community

Activist Indrajeet Ghorpad filed complaint

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(YouTube screenshot)

India’s News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority on Feb. 28 asked a television station to delete a video that contained objectionable remarks against the LGBTQ community. 

The India Today video report’s headline was “Nudity sparks outrage at USA Pride parades: How India’s LGBTQ+ lead responsibly.” The clip reportedly contained factual inaccuracies, spread fear and demonized the LGBTQ community.

NBDSA has asked India Today to remove all hyperlinks to the video from every one of its platforms. The regulatory agency has issued guidelines for broadcasters about the LGBTQ community and asked to circulate it among all its editors and members. The broadcasting authority announced the directives after hearing a complaint that Indrajeet Ghorpad, an LGBTQ rights activist, filed.

Ghorpad said the program did not comply with the principles of “accuracy, neutrality, objectivity, good taste, decency and others.” Ghorpad also said it portrayed Pride parades in the U.S. in a negative light and unfavorably compared them with India’s LGBTQ community.

The NBDSA had received several complaints on the community’s portrayal. It issued five guidelines to sensitize and bring objectivity when covering the LGBTQ community in India, apart from the existing code of ethics and broadcasting standards.

The NBDSA on March 1 issued guidelines on how to report on issues faced by the LGBTQ community with accuracy, objectivity and sensitivity, and further said that non-sensitive and inaccurate reporting regarding the community has serious social repercussions.

The guidelines say “reporting should not sensationalize or create panic, distress or undue fear among viewers.” They also state broadcasters must avoid broadcasting any news that sensationalizes the issues related to the LGBTQ community, perpetuates stereotypes or creates fear in respect of the community.

The recommendations say broadcasters should refrain from using any expression or slur that may be construed as “hate speech” against the LGBTQ community. They also note broadcasters while covering any issue concerning the LGBTQ community must ensure their reporting does not promote homophobia or transphobia, or negative stereotypes about the LGBTQ community.

The guidelines say broadcasters must respect the privacy of LGBTQ people and not disclose personal information, including gender identity or sexual orientation of a person without their consent. The guidelines further state broadcasters should use inclusive and gender-neutral language, and respect the individuals’ preferred pronouns and names. Broadcasters, according to the guidelines, must strive for diverse representation in their coverage of the LGBTQ community and ensure voices from different segments of the LGBTQ community are provided a platform to express their views.

The incident is not a first Indian media. 

TV9 Telugu, a Telugu language television station, in 2011 did a sting operation on LGBTQ members of a gay dating site, over which the news channel faced the community’s wrath in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. The channel at that time broadcasted the operation all over the country and released profiles and pictures of the site’s users. 

The LGBTQ community protested outside the channel’s office in Mumbai by wearing condoms on their middle fingers.

NBDSA in April 2022 sanctioned TV9 Teluguand Sakshi TV, another Telugu-language 24-hour news channel, for sensationalizing a police raid in Hyderabad after neighbors complained of loud noise. The two channels broadcasted visuals of the party and individuals attending it, violating privacy and highlighting their sexual orientation without their consent.

Negha Shahin, a transgender Indian actress, told the Washington Blade that social media today has become an unsafe, toxic and hate-spreading tool with regards to trans and queer people.

“Mocking LGBTQIA+ folks is becoming a new trend. Content creators are creating content against queer folks, dangerous things are getting attention and triggering homophobia and transphobia,” said Shahin. “Meanwhile TV media like India Today is playing major part and considered as responsible news network. If they did not follow the guidelines then how will the society will follow? Journalists, politicians, actors, police, lawyers whoever addressing issues related to (the) minority community in India, should mind the glossary. They cannot be transphobic or homophobic. They cannot oppress, misgender, following stereotypes and creating false statement or news in the media.”

Shahin said news channels in India that do not following the guidelines are showing their hatred against the LGBTQ community. She said these incidents remind everyone that uprooting stereotypes and homophobia from society in every form is important.

Harish Iyer, a prominent equal rights activist in India, told the Blade that accepting different sexuality is not a Western or Indian concept, but rather a scientific one that cuts across geographies and sex.

“If channels are broadcasting this, they are not doing against gender or sexuality but against science and humanity,” said Iyer. “More than expunging and deleting the video, the corrective actions like watchdogs will ensure corrective actions are required. The guidelines are in sync with what the Supreme Court of India and the Constitution of India stand for. With a name like India Today, they stand against the very tenet of Indianism which is enshrined in the constitution that provides equal opportunity and equal protection of the law against any discrimination regardless of gender and sexuality, so I think, India Today, should not have the India in their name because that goes against the tenet of Indian constitution and the Supreme Court’s verdict as well. There should be something mandatory for the news channels, and not just the guidelines.”

India Today did not respond to the Blade’s multiple requests for comment.

Ankush Kumar is a reporter who has covered many stories for Washington and Los Angeles Blades from Iran, India and Singapore. He recently reported for the Daily Beast. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is on Twitter at @mohitkopinion. 

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