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Four contestants vied for the titles of Mr. and Miss Capital Pride on Saturday evening at a pageant at Town Danceboutique. Between the Pride wear, formal wear, talent and question competitions were guest performances by Brandon Biller, Destiny B. Childs, Xavier Bottoms, Regina Jozet Adams, Patti Lovelace and Monet Dupree.

Preston J. Adams, competing unopposed, was crowned Mr. Capital Pride 2012 and Alexandra B. Childs beat out her competition to be named Miss Capital Pride 2012. “It makes me extremely proud to be able to represent our community as a whole,” Childs said. “By having this title, I hope that people can look at me just being myself and that it would encourage people to do the same.”

(Washington Blade photos by Denis Largeron)

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Gay activist, Richard Rosendall, has been released from the Kameny estate lawsuit. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Gay activist Richard Rosendall, a longtime friend of the late gay rights leader Frank Kameny, testified in court on May 11 that he has returned several items he “borrowed” from Kameny’s house shortly after Kameny died last October.

Rosendall appeared in a courtroom at the D.C. Superior Court’s Probate Division in response to a show cause order obtained by attorneys representing Timothy Clark, the personal representative and main heir of Kameny’s estate.

Through his attorneys, Clark has charged in a lawsuit that Rosendall and three other Kameny friends and associates removed without permission documents and other property belonging to the Kameny estate from Kameny’s house in Northwest Washington shortly after Kameny died last Oct. 11.

“After the death of Franklin Edward Kameny, I borrowed, and held in my possession and control, certain personal properly lawfully belonging to the Estate of Franklin Edward Kameny,” Rosendall stated in a sworn affidavit submitted to the court two days prior to the hearing.

He identified in the affidavit and on the witness stand the items borrowed as “a copy of Dr. Kameny’s 1961 brief for the Supreme Court of the United States; a letter to or from [U.S. Supreme Court] Justice [Lewis] Powell; several letters between Dr. Kameny and an Army official concerning [the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance’s] wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington Cemetery; a box of business cards; and three or four books.”

Two of the other three named in the lawsuit, Charles Francis and Bob Witeck, have returned items they acknowledged belonging to the estate. Rosendall testified at the May 11 hearing that he helped Francis carry 17 boxes filled with papers and other items from Kameny’s house, which he said Francis placed in a storage facility for safekeeping. Rosendall has said Clark, who lived in the house with Kameny for 19 years, gave them permission to enter the house.

Upon their return of the property last month, attorneys for the estate dismissed Francis and Witeck from the lawsuit.

Similar to Rosendall, Francis and Witeck have said they took possession of the items to ensure they remain safe and properly preserved during a period of confusion following Kameny’s death. Each has said they planned all along to return the items to the estate. Witeck has said the only items he took were several photographs.

Rosendall testified that he returned the items he borrowed to Francis, who returned them to the Kameny estate last month.

“The Estate of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny is satisfied that Richard J. Rosendall has returned the items that Mr. Rosendall removed from Dr. Kameny’s home shortly after Dr. Kameny’s death,” said Glen Ackerman, one of the attorneys representing Clark and the Kameny estate, in a statement to the Blade on Monday.

“However, there are still a number of important historical items still missing from the Estate, including Dr. Kameny’s collection of buttons, handmade picket signs and posters,” Ackerman said in the statement. “The Estate is attempting to recover these missing historically significant assets as a part of the probate process and to make certain that Dr. Kameny’s wishes as recorded in his Last Will and Testament are carried out fully.”

In his will, Kameny bequeathed his papers to the Library of Congress while leaving all other possessions, including his house and car, to Clark.

In response to questions at the May 11 court hearing by Kameny estate attorney J. Max Barger, Rosendall disputed claims by the estate that Clark believes as many as 100 picket signs were taken from the house after Kameny’s death. Rosendall told Barger he doubted that many picket signs had been in the house.

Kameny and his fellow gay activists used the picket signs in their historic gay rights demonstrations outside the White House and other government buildings in the early 1960s, the first such demonstrations ever held.

Barger and Ackerman told Judge John Campbell, who presided over the hearing, that the picket signs and buttons, which are inscribed with gay rights messages, have an important historic value and must be accounted for during the probate process for the estate.

Rosendall testified that he has possession of one of the picket signs, which he said Kameny gave permission for him to take several years prior to his death. He said Kameny also gave him a signed copy of The Homosexual Citizen, a publication of the Mattachine Society of Washington, which Kameny co-founded in 1961.

Mindy Daniels, Rosendall’s attorney, expressed concern during the hearing that the estate was confusing items that Kameny gave to Rosendall and others with items belonging to the estate. She noted items given away by someone prior to their death are not part of their estate after the person dies.

Ackerman told Campbell that Francis, Witeck, Rosendall and Marvin Carter, another Kameny friend, had not responded to earlier efforts by the estate to obtain from them an inventory of the items they allegedly took from Kameny’s house following Kameny’s death.

Daniels said the estate never contacted Rosendall about these items until it filed suit against him in March. Ackerman said the estate did make attempts to reach Rosendall and the other three men.

The estate named Carter as a defendant in one of the lawsuits seeking the return of items taken from Kameny’s house and petitioned the court to order him to appear at the May 11 show cause hearing, but Carter did not show up for the hearing. Barger told the court the estate wasn’t able to locate him to serve him a summons to appear at the hearing.

Carter hasn’t returned calls from the Blade seeking comment on the case. As head of the local LGBT charitable group Helping Our Brothers and Sisters (HOBS), Carter arranged for the group to provide financial assistance and support for Kameny in the last years of his life.

“I don’t know where we are going with this,” the judge told the attorneys at the hearing. “You can say to these folks give the items back,” Campbell said to Ackerman and Barger. “They can say we did. You can say they didn’t…But we’re not sitting in a criminal court. I can’t convict someone of theft.”

Campbell called on all parties in the case to cooperate and do their best to come up with an inventory of all property that belongs to the state.

He ruled that Rosendall fulfilled the requirements of the show cause order and ordered that he be released from the order. He denied a request from Ackerman and Barger that he issue a “non-disparagement” order prohibiting Rosendall from saying disparaging things about Clark or the Kameny estate. Ackerman told Campbell that an attorney representing Francis made derogatory remarks and false accusations against Clark earlier this year.

Campbell said that as a probate judge he did not have authority to issue such an order.

“I always hope that people will be civil,” he said.

The judge said he could not issue a ruling for Carter because the attorneys for the estate had not been able to serve him with a summons calling on him to appear in court.

Ackerman said the estate would file a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Rosendall, leaving Carter as the only one of the four with the lawsuit still pending against him. The lawsuit calls on the court to require that Carter disclose what, if any, items he may have that belong to the estate and that he return any such items. Carter has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.

In his affidavit filed with the court, Rosendall, vice president for political affairs of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, made these additional assertions:

“I hereby affirm that I have destroyed or returned any and all copied, digitized, or otherwise electronically or physically duplicated property belonging to the Estate, including but not limited to: personal papers, photographs, documents, memorabilia and other miscellaneous items of tangible personal property. I further affirm that I have not caused the duplication and/or digitization, whether electronic or physical, of said property of the Estate to third parties.”

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Democrat Kenyan McDuffie, a civil rights attorney who received the endorsement of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, won a decisive victory on Tuesday in an 11-candidate race for the Ward 5 seat on the D.C. City Council.

The seat became vacant earlier this year when incumbent Democrat Harry Thomas Jr. resigned shortly after being indicted for embezzling city funds. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 38 months in jail.

Gay Republican candidate Tim Day, an accountant who is credited with raising questions about Thomas’s financial dealings that prompted authorities to open an investigation that led to Thomas’s indictment, came in fourth place. Day received the endorsement of the gay group Log Cabin Republicans of Washington.

Ward 5 political observers say McDuffie pulled together a broad coalition of supporters from all parts of the ward, including the Brookland, Bloomingdale, and Eckington neighborhoods believed to be home to large numbers of LGBT residents.

“Ward 5 has united behind Kenyan McDuffie, and that’s a good thing,” said Bloomingdale resident Barry Daneker, the Stein Club’s treasurer and vice chair of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee.

“This shows that Kenyan reached out to all the different factions that make up Ward 5,” Daneker said. “Ward 5 is changing and he did his best appeal to everyone.”

McDuffie told members of the Stein Club at an endorsement meeting in April that he is a strong supporter of LGBT equality, including the city’s same-sex marriage law.

According to final but unofficial results released Tuesday night by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, McDuffie received 4,085 votes or 44.5 percent, more than double the 1,850 votes or 20.2 percent received by his closest rival, Democrat Delano Hunter.

Hunter drew criticism from gay activists in 2010 when he ran against Thomas for the Ward 5 Council seat and said he would support a voter referendum to decide whether the city’s same-sex marriage law should be retained or repealed. At the time he accepted campaign contributions from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, which strongly opposed the same-sex marriage law. Earlier this year, Hunter told the Blade he changed his mind and supports the marriage equality law.

Democrat Frank Wilds came in third place, with 1,380 votes or 14.8 percent.

In his fourth place finish, Day received 490 votes or 5.3 percent.

Day beat Democratic attorney Ron Magnus, a longtime supporter of LGBT rights, who came in fifth place with 379 votes or 4.1 percent.

Of the remaining candidates, Democrat Shelly Gardner received 241 votes (2.6 percent); Democrat Kathy Henderson, 228 votes (2.5 percent); Democrat Drew Hubbard, 199 votes (2.2 percent); Democrat Rae Zapata, 182 votes (1.9 percent); Ruth Marshall 63 votes (0.7 percent);and independent John Cheeks, 38 votes (0.4 percent).

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Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates created an uproar among rival Democrats and LGBT activists early Tuesday morning when it voted to reject the nomination of gay Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland for the post of General District Court judge.

The 1 a.m. vote came in the last hour of the Virginia General Assembly’s 2012 legislative session. It followed claims by several Republican delegates that Thorne was unfit to be a judge because he has been an advocate for LGBT rights and couldn’t make impartial rulings on the bench.

The opposing lawmakers, led by Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William County), also charged that Thorne-Begland “misrepresented” himself on an enlistment application by not disclosing he was gay when he joined the Navy.

Thorne-Begland, a decorated Naval officer and fighter pilot, became a nationally recognized advocate for ending the military’s ban on gay service members in 1992 when he disclosed that he is gay, leading to his honorable discharge from the service a short time later.

“The fact that he defied his oath and could not have been candid on the application – that’s highly problematic and it stays with you,” Marshall told his colleagues.

When the vote was called, 33 delegates – 25 Democrats and eight Republicans — voted for the nomination, with 31 lawmakers – all Republicans – voting against the nomination. But nine Republicans and one independent abstained from voting and 19 Republicans and seven Democrats either were absent or did not vote, preventing Thorne-Begland from obtaining the 51 votes needed to approve the nomination in the 100-member House.

Under Virginia’s procedure for appointing judges, the General Assembly members representing Richmond, the area where Thorne-Begland would have served as a judge, placed his name in nomination after determining he was qualified for the post. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell didn’t advocate for Thorne-Begland’s nomination but issued a statement on Tuesday saying judicial nominees “must be considered based solely on their merit, record, aptitude and skill.”

Thorne-Begland, 45, serves as Richmond’s Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney and has worked as a Richmond prosecutor for 12 years.

His boss, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring, called Thorne-Begland highly qualified to serve as a judge.

“It’s hard to think about what happened in the General Assembly and not conclude that it’s a form of bigotry,” Herring said at a news conference in Richmond Tuesday afternoon. He called the vote to defeat Thorne-Begland an “embarrassment” for the state.

“The debate in the House of Delegates was homophobic and embarrassing,” said Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who is gay. “It showed disrespect to a Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney and decorated veteran who was honorably discharged,” Ebbin said. “It’s also offensive that the Senate wouldn’t even grant Lt. Thorne-Begland the courtesy of a vote.”

Ebbin was referring to a unanimous vote by Senate Republicans to invoke a parliamentary procedure that blocked the Senate from voting on Thorne-Begland’s nomination. Ebbin noted that although a Senate vote in favor of the nomination could not have saved the nomination because both houses are needed to approve it, he said the Senate should have taken a vote on the issue.

“I believe the Senate would have voted in favor of the nomination,” he told the Blade.

Thorne-Begland would have become Virginia’s first openly gay judge if the General Assembly had approved his nomination.

A Washington Post editorial said Thorne-Begland’s nomination was “sabotaged by an ugly campaign of homophobic bigotry led by Virginia Republicans.”

Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, said it was especially troubled that too many lawmakers succumbed to “fear mongering and shrill personal attacks” against Thorne-Begland by the Virginia Family Foundation, which opposes LGBT rights.

“The fact that the legislature caved in to the Family Foundation’s biased blathering is another unfortunate marker on the forced march to the past on which they seem determined to lead the Commonwealth,” Equality Virginia said in a May 15 statement.

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Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams celebrated five years in the District at their furniture store on May 10.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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The White House issued two separate formal statements on Tuesday objecting to House Republican legislation that restricts rights and withholds non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.

In one Statement of Administration of Policy, the White House Office of Management & Budget objects to anti-gay provisions in the House version of the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill. The legislation authorizes $642 billion in annual funds for defense programs and troop pay.

The House Armed Services Committee adopted the anti-gay provisions into the defense bill last week. They are Section 536, which provides “conscience protections” for chaplains and troops whose religious beliefs are opposed to homosexuality, and Section 537, which prohibits same-sex marriage ceremonies from taking place on base. The White House goes so far as to say Section 537 is “potentially unconstitutional.”

“The Administration strongly objects to sections 536 and 537 because those provisions adopt unnecessary and ill-advised policies that would inhibit the ability of same-sex couples to marry or enter a recognized relationship under State law,” the statement says. “Section 536 would prohibit all personnel-related actions based on certain religious and moral beliefs, which, in its overbroad terms, is potentially harmful to good order and discipline. Section 537 would obligate DOD to deny Service members, retirees, and their family members access to facilities for religious ceremonies on the basis of sexual orientation, a troublesome and potentially unconstitutional limitation on religious liberty.”

The White House issued a veto threat over the bill if it “impede[s] the ability of the Administration to execute the new defense strategy and to properly direct scarce resources for defense purposes.”

Additionally, the White House says Obama will veto the legislation if certain provisions are included, including a provision related to terrorist detainees. However, no veto threat is explicitly stated for the anti-gay provisions in the bill.

In another Statement of Administration Policy, the White House extends a unconditional veto threat to the House Republicans’ version of legislation that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Among other things, the White House objects to the lack of non-discrimination language for LGBT people seeking help from domestic violence programs that receive federal funds.

“The bill also fails to include language that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT victims in VAWA grant programs,” the statement says. “No sexual assault or domestic violence victim should be beaten, hurt, or killed because they could not access needed support, assistance, and protection.”

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee rejected proposed amendments that would have afforded these non-discrimination protections to LGBT people and included the LGBT community in VAWA’s “STOP Grant Program.”

A vote on the House floor on this version of VAWA is expected on Wednesday. The Senate version of the legislation, which was approved last month on a 68-31 bipartisan vote, includes the protections for LGBT people.

The two bills aren’t the only pieces of House legislation in which explicit LGBT protections were withheld or anti-gay language was included.

Last week, the House approved by a vote of 245-171 an amendment to Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations saying no funds can used in violation of the Defense of Marriage Act. Because the administration continues to enforce the law, the language would have no impact.

The Statement of Administration Policy on the legislation came out last week before the amendment was added. However, language in the statement says the administration “strongly objects to the inclusion of ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation” and “strongly opposes problematic policy and language riders that have no place in funding legislation.”

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Employees of several LGBT organizations sharing a Massachusetts Ave. building with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force were evacuated Tuesday afternoon as police inspected the building for bombs. (Washington Blade photo by Phil Reese)

Employees working for at least 11 national LGBT organizations in Washington evacuated the two buildings in which they are housed late Tuesday morning after D.C. police informed them of a possible bomb threat.

HRC employees were allowed back into their offices after police declared the building safe this afternoon. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said special police personnel with bomb sniffing dogs walked through the HRC building before informing HRC the building was safe a little over an hour later.

Cole-Schwartz said D.C. police told HRC that they received an alert about the possible bomb threat from Los Angeles police.

“Early this morning about 8 O’clock [11 a.m. east coast time] our LAPD 911 Dispatch Center received a call from a caller who stated he was going to blow up the LGBT building in Washington, D.C.,” L.A. police said in a statement released late Tuesday.

“LAPD immediately made notification to law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C. to advise them of the possible threat,” the statement says. “We also immediately launched an investigation here into the threat since it appeared to have been generated by a local pay phone.”

HRC is located in its own office building at 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and eight other LGBT groups, including the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Stonewall Democrats, were similarly advised by D.C. police to evacuate the office building in which they rent office space at 1325 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., according to Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE.

“We were given the all clear signal a short time later,” Keisling said. “It was a matter of being extra cautious.”

Other LGBT groups located in that building include the National Black Justice Coalition, Immigration Equality, Out for Work, and the National Coalition for LGBT Health.

At the request of D.C. police, employees with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce also evacuated their offices at 729 15th St., N.W.

Laura Berry, a spokesperson for the NGLCC, said police told her organization they received information of a possible threat against a national LGBT group and they were checking various buildings of LGBT groups in response to the threat.

Cole-Schwartz said D.C. police told HRC they were alerted to a possible threat against a “national gay rights organization” from the Los Angeles Police Department. He said D.C. police did not provide further details on how L.A. police were alerted to the possible threat.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, another prominent national LGBT group in Washington, was not contacted by police to evacuate its offices, which are located on 15th Street, N.W., said Victory Fund spokesperson Denis Dison.

Dison said the Victory Fund learned of the evacuation by the other groups through an email alert and contacted D.C. police to determine whether it should be concerned over a possible threat. He said police didn’t believe the Victory Fund was being targeted.

A D.C. police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said as a measure of extra precaution, D.C. police officials arranged for a brief evacuation of the police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit headquarters at Dupont Circle. The GLLU offices, which are part of the SunTrust Bank building, were searched and quickly found to be safe, the source said.

The evacuation of the HRC building, located at 17th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, resulted in backed up traffic after police temporarily closed part of 17th Street and Rhode Island Avenue.

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Deborah Cox will headline the Capital Pride Festival on Sunday, June 10. (Courtesy photo)

Capital Pride this week announced the recipients of its annual Heroes Awards, along with the entertainment lineup for the 37th annual parade and street festival set for June 9-10.

Dance diva Deborah Cox will headline the festival on Sunday. Cox, a 37-year-old hit-maker famous for songs like “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” “I Never Knew” and “Mr. Lonely” (she’s had nine No. 1s on the Billboard U.S. dance chart), told the Blade she sees gay audiences connecting with her songs on a deeper level than straight audiences.

“Their reaction is more heightened with emotion,” she said. “There’s something about the songs that really connects. Maybe it reminds them of when they came out or when they met their partner. I hear many stories about that. The straight crowd connects with the songs, but I think the gay community … there’s just a connection to the stories in the songs.”

Also performing Sunday at the festival will be fellow dance artist Crystal Waters and a diverse array of entertainers, including Alma Tropicalia, Aiden Leslie, Crys Matthews, Simulover and 13-year-old dynamo Ani Hesse.

“I’m so excited,” Ani told the Blade. “I love performing for big audiences. I can’t wait.”

Capital Pride also announced the recipients of this year’s Heroes Awards. They are: Andrew Barnett, executive director of SMYAL; Ebone Bell, founder of B.O.I. Marketing & Promotions and the Capital Queer Prom; Michelle Benecke, co-founder of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network; Kevin Platte, founder of the DC Cowboys Dance Company; and Justin B. Terry-Smith, an Air Force veteran and HIV/AIDS activist who founded the blog Justin’s HIV Journal.

The honorees will be recognized at the Capital Pride Heroes Gala & Silent Auction on Wednesday, May 30, 6:30-9:30 p.m. at LivingSocial, 918 F St., N.W. For more information, visit capitalpride.org.

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Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (photo public domain)

The chief of staff for a longtime Texas congresswoman has been placed on leave following Washington Blade inquiries about an email he wrote disparaging a gay staff member.

Eddie Reeves, spokesperson for the campaign of Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), said Murat Gokcigdem, the lawmaker’s chief of staff, has been placed on indefinite leave effective Monday and that Johnson would pursue an independent investigation of his actions.

The announcement follows Blade inquiries about an email from 2010 apparently written by Gokcigdem, about a gay staffer in the office, the late Christopher Crowe, who sought a position in the Treasury Department as special assistant to the undersecretary of budget and tax.

The email, titled “Chris Crowe update,” is dated June 2, 2010 and was apparently intended for Johnson but accidentally sent to Crowe. It was obtained earlier this month by the Washington Blade.

Gokcigdem wrote that he learned Crowe was among four finalists for the Treasury Department position and was seeking a letter of recommendation from the congresswoman.

The chief of staff writes that Crowe had friends within the administration and suggests that other LGBT people helped him in the hiring process because he wasn’t sufficiently qualified to have advanced that far otherwise.

“It is my personal belief that he has contacts there,” Gokcigdem writes. “And they, as a group watching and supporting each other if you know what I mean.”

The 29-year-old gay staffer became ill with meningitis and died of a staph infection that damaged his heart before he could secure the position.

Reeves said the lawmaker decided on Monday to put Gokcigdem on indefinite leave after she learned about the email as she was traveling back to Texas.

“Based on what she’s heard from different people on her staff, she decided the best course of action to do is put Murat on leave pending an investigation,” Reeves said.

Reeves said Johnson has already informed Gokcigdem that he has been placed on leave, but the path for an independent investigation hasn’t yet been determined.

Additionally, Reeves emphasized Johnson’s support for the LGBT community in the course of her work on the Hill.

“The congresswoman has been among the strongest supporters on the Hill of human rights and civil rights, including gay rights,” Reeves said. “That’s why she has a 100 percent rating on LGBT issues. She’s always had the support of Stonewall Democrats; she always had the support of the Human Rights Campaign, and quite frankly, not every member of the Congressional Black Caucus can say that.”

In the email, Gokcigdem wrote that the White House cleared Crowe for the position and expressed disbelief that Crowe had advanced so far in the hiring process.

“I can not believe the White House could pass a junior [legislative aide] to be a congressional liaison for budget and tax issues,” Gokcigdem wrote. “I don’t think he has the expertise or the vast knowledge to be like Rod Hall.”

Later in the email, Gokcigdem said he would defer to Johnson on whether he should write a letter of recommendation, saying Crowe was a satisfactory employee but added, “I had issues with him both professionally and personally.” The issues to which Gokcigdem refers are not named.

According to Legistorm, which monitors the expenses of House members, Gokcigdem took home $168,411 in income as Johnson’s chief of staff last year.

Crowe died in March 2011. Upon his death, Johnson issued a statement saying Crowe “was respected by his colleagues for his professionalism and beloved by many for his generous spirit and good humor.” Johnson was among the speakers during a memorial service for Crowe attended by Capitol Hill staffers.

Natalie Wyeth, a Treasury Department spokesperson, declined to comment on the Treasury Department position because the department does not comment on personnel matters.

Johnson, who represents Texas’ 30th congressional district, is facing two challengers in a competitive primary set for May 29: Barbara Mallory Caraway, a Texas state representative, and Taj Clayton, an attorney. Early voting for the primary began Monday.

According to the latest scorecard from the Human Rights Campaign, the 10-term Democrat has a perfect record in favor of LGBT legislation. In the 111th Congress, she voted for hate crimes legislation and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal. Under the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Johnson voted against amendments reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act that went to the House floor.

Johnson has also been endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, a local gay Democratic group in her district.

Omar Narvaéz, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, had high praise for Johnson — a former head of the Congressional Black Caucus — and her work on LGBT issues.

“Eddie Bernice Johnson has throughout her tenure been one of the strongest supporters on Capitol Hill of civil and human rights, including gay rights,” Narvaéz said. “That’s why she has consistently scored a 100 percent rating for LGBT issues and has always enjoyed the avid support of groups like Stonewall Democrats and the HRC — something not every member of Congressional Black Caucus can boast.”

In response to Gokcigdem’s email, Narvaéz said he “sees nothing wrong.”

“While she didn’t know about this email, it simply isn’t an issue,” Narvaéz said. “Not only is it true that gay groups, like every other racial, ethnic, geographic or issue group, stick together, it is a great thing that we do.”

In 2010, Johnson was criticized after the Dallas Morning News reported over the course of five years she gave out 23 scholarships to relatives — two grandchildren and two great grandchildren — and staff members’ children, which is against the rules of the scholarship.

The lawmaker repaid $31,000 to the caucus and said she was unaware that what she did was unethical. In a subsequent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Johnson said Gokcigdem was responsible for reviewing the scholarship applications.

CORRECTION: An initial version of this article misspelled the name of Murat Gockcigdem. The Blade regrets the error.

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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force hosted a “Pink and Purple Party” at Cobalt on May 4.

(Washington Blade photos by Pete Exis)