Washington Adventist Hospital (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The president of the Takoma Park, Md., based Washington Adventist Hospital has apologized for what she says was a “miscommunication” that led to a delay by the hospital in allowing a woman to visit her same-sex partner following the partner’s admission to the emergency room.

But hospital president Joyce Newmyer disputes claims by the two women and the Human Rights Campaign that an initial denial of a request to visit the partner was due to discrimination. Instead, she says it was based entirely on a policy of barring anyone from visiting emergency room patients undergoing initial treatment and evaluation.

Newmeyer’s assessment of the matter is at odds with an account by Takoma Park residents Kathryn Wilderotter and Linda Cole, who have been partners for eleven years and were legally married in Canada in 2004.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT advocacy group, released a statement saying a hospital staff member declined to allow Cole to visit Wilderotter shortly after Wilderotter was taken by ambulance on Nov.13, 2011 to the hospital’s emergency room because Cole “was reportedly not recognized as a family member.”

Wilderotter told the Blade she suffered a seizure while driving her car, resulting in a crash that led to an injury. She said a female staff member sitting at the front desk at the emergency room entrance declined to allow Cole to visit Wilderotter after Cole told the woman she was Wilderotter’s partner and spouse.

According to Wilderotter, Cole called Wilderotter’s sister, Kristin Biggs, who arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes later. When Biggs approached the same emergency room staff member she introduced herself as Wilderotter’s sister, Wilderotter told the Blade.

The female staff member then replied, “Oh, we have family here now. You can go in,” Wilderotter quoted her partner as informing her.

HRC announced in its Jan. 19 statement that Cole and Wilderotter have filed separate complaints of discrimination over the incident with a joint federal commission that regulates hospitals and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Discrimination during a medical emergency may be one of the worst forms of discrimination LGBT people face,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Recognizing this problem, federal regulations were put in place to end discrimination in healthcare settings and allow all people to be with their loved ones during their most critical moments.”

Solmonese was referring to the implementation in January 2011 of new federal regulations initiated by the Obama administration that require all hospitals participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs to allow patients to designate the persons they wish to see as visitors. The regulations prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation based on sexual orientation and gender identity among other categories.

Since nearly every U.S. hospital participates in Medicaid or Medicare programs the new regulations are said to apply to nearly all hospitals in the country, including Washington Adventist Hospital.

Meanwhile, HRC said in its statement that Washington Adventist Hospital has not responded to its annual survey of healthcare providers, which it uses to publish the HRC Healthcare Equality Index. The index assesses and discloses the policies and practices of hospitals related to LGBT patients and their families.

Newmyer told the Blade on Monday that she didn’t know why the hospital hasn’t returned the HRC survey in past years but said hospital officials were currently working on it and would be sending it to HRC shortly.

In a phone interview with the Blade on Monday, Wilderotter said a hospital executive called the couple six weeks later to say the incident was caused by a new employee unfamiliar with hospital policies and that the hospital apologized for what happened.

Newmyer posted a statement on the hospital website on Jan. 20 saying she was troubled over news media stories reporting the initial denial of visitation was due to discrimination.

“First, I want to express my deepest apologies to Ms. Wilderotter and Ms. Cole for feeling anything less than valued at our hospital,” she said in the statement. “As a policy and a practice, our hospital does not discriminate against anyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation or ability to pay,” she said.

Newmyer told the Blade on Monday that a hospital investigation into the incident shows that a “perfect storm” of miscommunication and coincidence may have led Cole and Wilderotter to believe they were singled out for discrimination.

According to Newmyer, when Cole arrived at the hospital doctors and emergency room attendants were treating Wilderotter and evaluating her condition. She said the hospital has a policy that prohibits anyone from visiting an emergency room patient at this “critical” stage of treatment.

She could not determine exactly what the hospital staff person told Cole at this time, Newmyer said, but she is certain that the denial of the visit would have been issued to anyone arriving at that time. In what she called an unfortunate coincidence, Newmyer said the attending doctors and staff completed their initial evaluation of Wilderotter and cleared her to receive visitors just as Wilderotter’s sister arrived.

When the sister was allowed to enter the emergency room treatment area, Cole understandably could have concluded that her initial denial was due to discrimination rather than the across-the-board policy of delaying visitation during the early stage of treatment, Newmyer said.

Wilderotter said the emergency room staff member’s comment referring to her sister as “family” and saying the sister could enter the area where she was being treated suggests that the staff member believed the sister rather than Cole should be allowed to enter the treatment area for a visit. Wilderotter said she has also heard from friends and others familiar with Washington Adventist Hospital that family members are sometime allowed in to visit a loved one in the emergency room even during the early stage of treatment by doctors and nurses.

“My sister took Linda by the hand and led her in,” said Wilderotter, who noted that she was comforted to see the two of them arrive at her side. Wilderotter said the staff member at the emergency room entrance didn’t attempt to stop Cole from entering the treatment area with her sister.

Catherine Holroyd, a Hyattsville, Md., resident contacted the Blade on Monday to report that she and her lesbian partner have been treated with respect and were fully recognized as a same-sex couple when the two have been admitted to Washington Adventist Hospital on separate occasions as patients.

“I’m a retired nurse,” Holroyd said. “I can tell you that we’ve been treated well at that hospital and so have other gay couples.”

HRC spokesperson Paul Gueguierre said Cole and Widerotter’s discrimination complaint has merit.

“Linda Cole was denied access to her partner during a time of great need,” he said. “Regardless of whether it was a simple communications problem, this was unfortunately a case of healthcare discrimination,” he said.

“We are encouraged by recent statements by hospital administrators that they do not discriminate and will take steps to prevent this from happening again in the future,” Guequierre said. ”We look forward to their participation in the Healthcare Equality Index. The HEI is designed to prevent cases like this one.”

Gay activists in Ward 5 have expressed skepticism over a candidate for the ward’s Council seat who says he no longer opposes the city’s same-sex marriage law.

Council candidate Delano Hunter, a Democrat, told the Blade last week that he no longer believes the marriage equality law should be subjected to a voter referendum, reversing his position from 2010 when he unsuccessfully ran for the Ward 5 seat against incumbent Harry Thomas (D).

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics officially declared the Ward 5 seat vacant on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after Thomas resigned shortly before pleading guilty to embezzling more than $300,000 in city funds. The board scheduled a special election on May 15 to fill the seat.

Meanwhile, since Hunter told the Blade he’s changed his position on the marriage bill, rival Ward 5 candidate Kenyan McDuffie, also a Democrat, joined gay activists in the ward to question Hunter’s sincerity, noting that Hunter stressed strong support for “traditional marriage” during his campaign for the Council seat in 2010.

McDuffie sent a statement to the Blade pointing out that he declared his full support for same-sex marriage when he, too, ran for the Ward 5 Council seat against Hunter and Thomas in the September 2010 Democratic primary.

“Undeniably, Mr. Hunter’s position on gay marriage today runs counter to the views he espoused on the campaign trail merely 15 months ago,” McDuffie said in his statement. “This is a classic case of a candidate analyzing voter returns and making a calculated decision to appeal to a constituency that he previously had written off.”

McDuffie added, “On the other hand, my record demonstrates my unwavering support for the LGBT community as well as my firm belief that tolerance and open-mindedness must pervade even where differing opinions collide.”

Political observers say both candidates have impressive credentials that could make them attractive to Ward 5 voters. Hunter, a native D.C. resident, worked as a company diversity specialist with the Nike Corporation in Oregon before returning to D.C. to become a Ward 5 community organizer. McDuffie, an attorney, worked in the Justice Department’s civil rights division as a trial lawyer.

In its candidate ratings for the 2010 Democratic primary, the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance gave Hunter a score of -2 on a scale of +10 to -10. GLAA gave McDuffie a score of “0.” The group said the two were given low ratings because neither of them returned a GLAA questionnaire that asks candidates about their positions on a wide range of LGBT-related issues.

Failure to return the questionnaire results in an automatic “0” rating unless the group has information about a candidate’s record on LGBT issues, GLAA officials have said. In this case, the group only knew of Hunter’s call for a referendum to overturn the marriage bill and of support he received from anti-gay groups, information considered hostile to LGBT rights.

Hunter told the Blade his campaign’s failure to return the GLAA questionnaire was an “oversight.” A McDuffie campaign spokesperson noted that McDuffie returned a questionnaire to the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, and expressed strong support for LGBT rights in his answers. He sent a copy of his answers to the Blade.

In an interview with the Blade last week, Hunter disputed claims by critics that his call for a referendum on the gay marriage bill was the focus of his 2010 campaign. He acknowledged that anti-gay groups opposed to the marriage equality bill endorsed him and spent large sums of money attacking incumbent Thomas, who voted for the same-sex marriage bill.

But Hunter noted that the anti-gay groups released ads attacking Thomas through an independent expenditure campaign over which he had no control.

He declined to say whether he would have voted for or against the marriage equality bill if he had been on the Council in 2009 when the Council approved the measure.

“I would like him to not only say he won’t overturn it but to say he supports it,” said gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein. “He should also state that he will not seek or take support from homophobic groups like the National Organization for Marriage if we are truly to believe this conversion in his beliefs.”

Ward 5 gay Democratic activist Barrie Daneker said Hunter would have to put forward specific proposals for supporting and advancing LGBT rights in the city before he can count on support from the LGBT community.

“Taking a new position at the 11th hour in order to appeal to a wider base of Ward 5 voters will do nothing for his campaign,” Daneker said. “We need concrete accomplishments and plans prior to giving support to a so-called ‘reformed anti-gay’ candidate,” he said.

Ward 5 political observers have said as many as seven or eight other candidates were considering entering the Ward 5 special election contest. Among them are Anita Bonds, the LGBT supportive chair of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, and Tim Day, the gay Republican who ran and lost against Thomas in the November 2010 general election.

According to Washington Post political analyst Mike DeBonis, Day made a comment likely to startle the city’s gay Republican leaders when responding to DeBonis’s question of whether he planned to run for the Ward 5 seat as a Republican in the May special election. “That’s an interesting question,” DeBonis quoted him as saying.

Many political observers have praised Day, an accountant, as a highly qualified candidate who would have little or no chance of winning election as a Republican in a Ward with an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters. Day lost to Thomas by a lopsided margin in 2010. But should Day change party affiliation to become a Democrat or an independent, his chances of becoming the Council’s third out gay member would increase in the eyes of some political observers.

Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton penned a column earlier this month in the newspaper’s Sunday Outlook section titled “D.C. Activists: Help Us, Post” in which he detailed complaints by the Federation of Citizens Associations of the District of Columbia regarding coverage of local neighborhood and citywide issues.

The criticism by member groups centered on a self-perceived inability to “hold their city government accountable without The Post behind them.” These controversial and increasingly insular groups now appear to come hat-in-hand seeking assistance in advancing the objectives they are unable to achieve as a result of developing popular support among residents.

Missing from Pexton’s review of a meeting with the group of self-proclaimed “citizen representatives” was any reflection on the standing such groups actually command in their so-called “jurisdictions” on issues of importance to local residents. The legitimacy of their public positions is highly questionable when viewed a little closer to the ground than the altitude of a respected national newspaper with a long history of being criticized for a dearth of in-depth or robust reporting on local issues.

The Post’s ombudsman illustrated only how seemingly distant the publication is from understanding the growing irrelevance of these groups in their respective communities – especially in the context of neighborhood economic development and the availability of local commercial community amenities.

The resulting one-sided and dismaying portrayal of the representative authenticity of these small groups harkens back to a former Washington Post subscription sales advertising tag line: “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.” The same, of course, could be said of the groups clamoring for help in promoting their signature anti-business and anti-development agendas.

Local community blogs and news publications examining community issues in greater detail and enjoying robust reader dialogue on such matters often demonstrate that these groups do not represent much more than the opinions of a tiny participating membership.

These organized antagonists are well known to readers of the Washington Blade due to extensive coverage of their mischief-making over the years battling local community businesses, including gay-owned and gay-patronized enterprises. In neighborhoods throughout the city, tumultuous and lengthy fights engendered by these groups over licensing, zoning and operational issues have become a part of common lore.

Notorious neighborhood obstructionists such as the Kalorama Citizens Association (KCA), Citizens Association of Georgetown (CAG), Cleveland Park Citizens Association (CPCA), Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance (MPNA) and the Dupont Circle Citizens Association (DCCA) have interjected themselves into nearly every conceivable business regulatory application and economic development proposal in their respective high-profile commercial and residential areas.

While acknowledging that The Post can’t cover every neighborhood dispute as extensively as hyper-local sources, enhancing coverage of community issues is a laudable goal. However, failing to recognize that self-anointed guardians of fiefdoms mostly produce a deluge of spit-sputtering amazement and anger from the vast majority of local residents is to miss the real story.

Zipcar banner generates complaint

Washington Post reporter Mike Debonis highlighted a link to a WUSA-TV video report last Friday on his widely read and well-regarded local news blog. The Channel 9 News report was reportedly prompted by a neighborhood resident complaining about a Zipcar banner displayed at one of the company’s car retrieval and return parking lots at 14th and Corcoran streets, serving the Logan Circle area.

The signage, prominently hung at the center of the lot and facing heavily trafficked 14th Street, features a yellow MINI Cooper with a rainbow license plate and is emblazoned with the slogan “Some of our best cars are gay.”

The reporter filmed reactions to the banner from several passersby. Although no one identified their sexual orientation on-camera, most considered it a benign commercial pitch. There was, however, a notable generational divide, with an older resident finding the message “very offensive” and predicting it would prove counterproductive within the LGBT community.

Although unreported by WUSA-TV News, the banner was a Zipcar affinity marketing effort in support of the first annual 14th Street “Homo Holiday Shop Hop” held the previous weekend on Dec. 3, sponsored by the Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CAGLCC) and involving numerous participating retailers on the commercial corridor.

Zipcar’s specialized slogan is apparently not one that everyone “gets” – although it remains proudly on display.

Mark Lee is a local small business manager and long-time community business advocate. Reach him at OurBusinessMatters@gmail.com.

Since Dan Savage started his “It Gets Better” campaign, it has seen a surprising amount of support in the media and from unexpected sources. It seems nearly each day, a new video makes headlines because of the high-profile person who appears in it — athletes, celebrities, politicians. The vast majority of these news-making videos come from straight people, many of whom might not have been expected to come out in support of gay youth in the past.

But for some time now, it has seemed that these videos have failed to live up to everything that made the “It Gets Better” campaign so powerful when it began, and have instead become a publicity tool for making straight public figures look good.

Why did “It Gets Better” seem like such a noble cause in the beginning? Because it achieved a very specific goal: It gave LGBT youth who are feeling scared, confused, uncomfortable about their feelings and their futures a hopeful voice to listen to. As difficult as it is for LGBT kids to find peers who understand them and are going through the same thing, it can be nearly impossible for them to have a direct talk with someone who has already been through it, who has grown up, understands what they’re going through from personal experience, and can say that it really does get better.

As a kid, it can be difficult to see beyond your current situation, and this is amplified for LGBT youth who often have no one they can talk to about what they are going through. What these kids need more than anything else is to be told that they have a future. The first “It Gets Better” videos seemed to be about just that.

Then straight people made videos. They couldn’t say they’d been in the intended audience’s shoes, but they had good intentions and wanted to provide moral support. The president of the United States made one, and that was historic so it made headlines. It was a nice gesture, but also vague and less personal because President Obama couldn’t really say he knew what it was like to grow up gay. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a video, which was historic as well, given the State Department’s own “bullying” of its gay employees during the Cold War. It was important, notable, newsworthy, but again didn’t do any of the things a heart-to-heart conversation between an out gay adult and a confused, scared, closeted teen was supposed to do.

Bullying and gay teen suicide became mainstream news stories in 2011, and they were generally the focus of the “It Gets Better” videos, despite the fact that direct bullying is just one of the factors that can make life miserable for gay teens (loneliness, pressure for most to stay closeted, fear that they’ll never find people who are like them are other factors). As more straight celebrities, politicians and athletes made videos, they began to focus primarily on the general idea of “being picked on.” Congressman Jim Moran’s video is uncomfortable to watch because, having no experience to relate to troubled gay teens with, he resorts to talking about how he was a “shy kid” growing up. He looks like he doesn’t know what else to say, and how could he? He never grew up with the broad, institutional persecution that LGBT youth face. But with so many other politicians making similar videos, his office must have felt that it needed to make its own.

Perhaps the new “It Gets Better” video from the United States congressional delegation from New Jersey, which features several politicians who have voted against pro-gay legislation in Congress, marks the point when this campaign has truly jumped the shark. As reported by Elizabeth Flock of the Washington Post, Rep. Leonard Lance, who appears in the video, voted against repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who says in the video, “There are actions we can take to make things better now,” voted against repeal of DADT and for the Marriage Protection Act, which would prohibit federal courts from hearing cases that involve challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act. Rep. Jon Runyan appears in the video and has said in the past that he supports civil unions but that gay people should not be allowed to be married. The congressmen may tout their disapproval of classic schoolyard bullying, and yet they are contributing to a public culture that enshrines discrimination against LGBT people into law.

The fact that a YouTube video can be seen as more important than an anti-gay congressional record signifies that the “It Gets Better” campaign has now become just as shallow as our political discourse.

Direct bullying is not the only thing that pressures gay kids to either stay closeted or risk facing social consequences. Public disapproval on a broad level can make a gay teenager’s situation seem more hopeless, and it can make traditional “bullying” seem supported by society – in the eyes of both the bully and the person being bullied. This type of bullying is more pervasive and can cause deep damage to self-esteem.

What these kids need is love, respect, and for somebody to tell them that they’ve been where they are and know what it’s like. It is still too early to tell how the intended audience is being affected by the “It Gets Better” campaign. We can only hope that when they are older and when they can answer back and tell us about what they went through, they will say that they were inspired by the campaign, that it didn’t seem like a cynical ploy for people to grab media attention by feigning tolerance, and a tool for politicians to conceal their hypocrisy.

Growing awareness of anti-gay bullying

WASHINGTON — After a year of high-profile bullying-related teen suicides, increased media attention is spurring greater awareness of anti-gay bullying, according to the Washington Post.

“Awareness of anti-gay bullying is increasing as acceptance of gay people has grown in society,” reads the Post piece. “Gay marriage is legal in several states, gays are now permitted to serve openly in the military and, in California, schools will soon have to teach gay-rights history.”

Part of that growing awareness generated a campaign last year to encourage advocates and allies across the country to wear purple on Oct. 20 to raise awareness about anti-gay bullying. Media companies like CNBC, journalists like Katie Couric and politicians like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the campaign.

This year, with a blitz of promotion by media watchdog group Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, hundreds of media companies, reality TV stars, network news anchors, sports stars and commentators, and politicians from across the nation and even President Obama wore purple on Oct. 20 for “Spirit Day,” advocating for schools to work harder to tackle bullying.

N.H. House to vote on marriage repeal in 2012

CONCORD, N.H. — Despite a vow by Gov. John Lynch to veto any bill that repeals marriage equality in New Hampshire, the state House Judiciary Committee passed language 11-6 that would do just that.

The bill’s author, Rep. David Bates (R-Windham) says that although marriage should be restricted to a man and a woman, civil unions would still be allowed for same-sex couples. “We have heard for a number of years that the government needs to get out of peoples’ bedrooms,” Bates told the Nashua Telegraph. “This does not contemplate the sexual relationship of the parties involved.”

Lawmakers would vote early next year on the bill, and would have to garner enough support to override a governor’s veto to suspend new same-sex marriages in the state. The proposed language would also leave intact the marriages of those couples who have already married in New Hampshire.

Seattle paper publishes Ref. 71 petition names

SEATTLE — Despite a court order preventing the state from releasing the names of signers of a petition to roll back Washington State’s comprehensive domestic partnership law, Seattle Weekly has published the image files of the actual petition documents.

The documents were public for five days prior to the injunction being issued, allowing the publication to get a copy of the 2.7GB file and make it available for download from its website.

The group that sponsored the failed measure, Protect Marriage Washington, used the petition pages to collect more information from signers than is required by law, including email addresses, many of which are now visible to anyone who downloads the file, according to the blog Pam’s House Blend. Many observers have speculated that the email addresses were requested in an effort to use the petition drive to build Protect Marriage Washington’s email list.

Chaz Bono voted off ‘Dancing’

HOLLYWOOD — Chaz Bono left ABC television’s ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ on Tuesday, after six weeks of surviving the judges’ scrutiny.

After dancing a tango to the theme of “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway night, the judges panned the performance by the 42-year-old transgender son of superstar Cher and her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono.

“It was like watching a cute little penguin trying to be a big, menacing bird of prey,” “Dancing” judge Bruno Tonioli said of Bono’s performance, which drew some boos from the audience, according to ABC.com.

Cher — an avid online social network user — tweeted about the result, “I Have Got 2Hold my TEMPER ! MY Tears R OK ! Congratulations Chaz I’m SO PROUD OF U ! This was YOUR Quest…& u Followed your Star.”

More than 20 members of Check It, a group of local gay youth that D.C. police have listed as a gang, turned out Monday night for a town hall meeting on problems faced by the city’s LGBT youth.

Lesbian activist Treona Kelty, whose organization Beautiful U – Yes U organized the event, said two Check It members told more than 100 people who turned out for the town hall that they consider their organization an extended “family” of mostly gay and bisexual men who have been ostracized by their parents and schools and misunderstood by police.

The town hall was held at the Metropolitan Community Church on Ridge Street, N.W., which has a mostly LGBT congregation.

Two Check It members were joined on a panel by Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs; Sharon Lettman-Hicks, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition; Amena Johnson of D.C.’s Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL); and Brian Watson of Transgender Health Empowerment.

Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy drew citywide attention to Check It when he wrote about the group and its founder, Tayron Bennet, 21, in a Sept. 27 column. Bennet, who attended the LGBT youth town hall Monday night, told Milloy he formed the group after being targeted for anti-gay bullying and harassment at Hine Junior High School, which is located less than a block from the SMYAL offices and drop-in center.

Police have said Check It members often congregate in Chinatown near the Gallery Place Metro station and allegedly have gotten into fights with rival youth gangs. Milloy quoted Bennet as saying some members of the group “started carrying mace, knives, brass knuckles and stun guns” as a means of fighting back when members of the group were attacked or harassed for being gay.

“We’re not a gang,” Kelty quoted a Check It member who identified himself only as Trey, as saying. “He said we have been ostracized by our families. We have been kicked out. So we consider ourselves just family,” Kelty quoted him as saying. “I’m so tired of people calling us a gang,” she quoted the youth as saying.

According to Kelty, Deputy D.C. Police Chief Diane Groomes, who attended the town hall gathering, asked Kelty and Beautiful U – Yes U to help police put together a mediation meeting in which police and Check It members can work together to resolve police-related issues. Kelty said Groomes told the gathering that she would arrange for the department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit to take the lead role in the mediation session.

Michael Kahn & Chelsea Clinton attend the Shakespeare Gala. (Photo by Peter Rosenstein)

On Monday night the lights were ablaze and the stars shined at the Shakespeare Theatre GALA honoring Michael Kahn’s 25 years as Artistic Director. Michael was hired when they were struggling to stay alive at the Folger Library. Michael’s vision not only built the Shakespeare Theatre into the world renowned company it is today but also led the renaissance of downtown D.C. He moved the company to the Lansburgh theatre before anyone else saw the potential of that area and today its home includes the glittering Harman Hall.

Tributes from Edward Albee to Terrance McNally told of his brilliance and contributions to the arts and to their careers. McNally told stories about he and Michael’s time at Columbia University including the plays they did there and Michael finding this young first time set designer to work with them by the name of Andy Warhol. McNally told of Michael being the gay blade about town even back then. Watching Michael take a play and work with actors to mold it to perfection is quite a thrill.

Michael was head of the drama department at Julliard and still returns to NY to teach master classes. He has directed productions around the world including Elizabeth Ashley on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and a recent Dallas Opera Company production of Romeo and Juliet.

Beautiful Harman Hall was aglow with the stars who saluted Michael. They included Stacy Keach, Pat Carroll, Rene Auberjonois, Nancy Robinette, Denyse Graves, Harry Hamlin, Patrick Stewart, Kelly McGillis, Floyd King, Richard Thomas, Bradley Whitford, and a favorite of mine the very  hot and charming Jeffrey Carlson who played Hamlet at the Shakespeare in 2007. There were a host of other celebrities including Chelsea Clinton who spoke movingly of what Michael and the Shakespeare Theatre meant to her during her high school years in DC and still today. Donald Graham, Chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company spoke and then read a proclamation from the Mayor declaring October 17^th Michael Kahn Day in the District of Columbia. Former Congresswoman Jane Harman spoke of what the theatre meant to her late husband Sidney, and how he loved Harman Hall, and there was a short film of Sidney himself talking about his love of the Arts.

The actors performed in a 90 minute production which included Joffrey Ballet leading dancers Fabrice Calmals and April Daly who did a breathtakingly beautiful piece from Othello, A Dance in Three Acts. The entire performance was directed by the talented Alan Paul.

Seen at the reception prior to the show, and at the dinner dance afterwards held at the beautiful building museum were; Supreme Court Justices, Alito, Scalia, Kagan and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Also there were former Congressman Phil Sharp (D-IN), Tom Downey (D-NY) and his beautiful wife the Hon. Carol Browner (former Clinton Administration EPA Administrator and Environmental Czar for President Obama), Williams and Connolly senior partner Dan Katz, Orrick Attorney and Shakespeare Theatre Board member Pauline Schneider, Former Mayor Anthony Williams, Governor William Weld and Leslie Marshall, and DC City Councilmembers’ Jack Evans and Tommy Wells. Being thanked from the stage by Michael were his friend and former assistant of ten years  Steven Mazzola who was there with his partner Dr. Jeffrey Akman, and Michael’s best friend John Hill. Michael made sure that the youth were well represented and invited many of the young actors including the 7 new acting fellows to the building museum to join in the festivities.

The GALA is the theatre’s biggest benefit of the year and supports their education programs. It was chaired by Miguel and Patricia Estrada and Anita Antenucci. It was truly a night to remember.

I’ve never met the Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist and TV talk show host Anderson Cooper. Yet, he’s revealed so much about himself over the years, and especially on his new syndicated TV talk show “Anderson,” that I feel he and I (everyone in TV Land) could almost be his BFF.

We know that Cooper’s father died when he was 10; that his 23-year-old brother committed suicide in 1988; that Cooper’s dog is named Molly; that at age 11, he hung out with his mother Gloria Vanderbilt and Michael Jackson at Studio 54; and that, as Cooper told Sarah Jessica Parker when she was on his show, he believes his giggle is like that of a “13-year-old girl meeting Justin Bieber for the first time.” This week, we watched Cooper and his mom on “Anderson” talk openly about the losses their family has suffered.

Yet, despite all of his up-close-and-personal revelations, Cooper, who along with hosting his new show, anchors the news program “Anderson Cooper 360″ on CNN and reports part-time for “60 Minutes” on CBS, still withholds the big reveal: his sexual orientation.

The likelihood that he’s gay is an open secret. In 2007 “Out” magazine named him one of the 50 “Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America.” The Washington Post has mentioned Cooper’s “undetermined sexuality.” Even my 84-year-old stepmother Jean, an avid Cooper fan, living in a small town outside the LGBT community and media buzz, seems in the know about Cooper’s queer quotient. “Anderson’s good looking and talented,” Jean told me over the telephone. “He’s gay, I like him!”

Still, Cooper remains closeted.  “I just don’t talk about my personal life,” he has told interviewers. “The whole thing about being a reporter is that you’re supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt to any group you’re in, and I don’t want to do anything that threatens that.”

If Cooper were an actor, athlete, famous chef, musician or other type of celebrity, I wouldn’t call on him to disclose his sexual orientation.

It’s wonderful (and often brave) when entertainers, sports figures or others in the public eye come out. Even if they do so sometimes to get publicity. By coming out, they help straight folks get to know us and are role models for LGBT youth. But even as I watch the out lesbian Jane Lynch host the Emmys, I know that it’s often still far from easy, famous or not, to be open about being queer.

Yet people in the entertainment industry — whether in Hollywood, on Broadway or TV or in sports aren’t under an ethical obligation to come out. Their job is to entertain us. Through the work, they strive to amuse us, to move us, to engage us, to enthrall us. When we see their movies, go to their concerts, attend their ball games, or watch their TV shows, we expect these entertainers and athletes to put on a great show — to play a good game. We don’t expect them to report the truth about our world to us.

But truth-telling is what we expect from journalists. No matter the medium (print, TV, radio or the web), or whether the reporter is a “working” journalist or a celeb like Cooper, we look for journalists to report the facts. As the renowned columnist Walter Lippmann said, “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth.”

As journalists, we prod our sources to reveal their true stories — even if this means revealing personal matters that sometimes aren’t comfortable to disclose. We strive to tell the truth about ourselves.

Because he is a journalist, Cooper has an ethical obligation to be open about his sexual orientation. As a reporter and interviewer, he works to break down secrecy and obfuscation.

Isn’t it time for Cooper to report the truth about himself?

Metro Weekly — a local gay magazine published by Jansi LLC, which is owned by Randy Shulman — and Post-Newsweek Media, Inc., the company that owns the Washington Post, reached a settlement agreement on April 28 over a lawsuit in which Post-Newsweek alleged that Jansi and Shulman engaged in fraud to avoid paying a Post-Newsweek-owned printing company $85,000 for printing services.

The settlement came six days after a D.C. Superior Court judge presiding over the lawsuit denied a motion for summary judgment by Jansi and Shulman that called for dismissing the fraud charge on grounds that insufficient evidence existed to move forward with the charge.

The settlement agreement also came just over seven months after Judge Ramsey Johnson denied a separate motion by Jansi and Shulman seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.

The terms of the settlement between the two parties could not be found in the court records, indicating the parties chose to keep the terms confidential as is the case with many lawsuits.

Paul S. Thaler, the attorney representing Post-Newsweek, and John W. Karr and William G. McLain, the attorneys representing Jansi and Shulman, did not respond to the Blade’s request for comment on the case and the settlement.

McLain faxed a message to the Blade on May 27 saying Jansi and Shulman would consider responding to a Blade inquiry in writing if such a response was “deemed appropriate” by him but the magazine has a policy of not providing interviews to Blade reporters.

Jansi and Shulman’s attorneys have argued that the lawsuit was without merit, saying the printing debt was incurred by Isosceles Publishing, Inc., the corporation that owned and operated Metro Weekly up until November 2007.

The magazine’s attorneys have argued that a new corporation called Jansi LLC entered into a licensing agreement with Isosceles to publish and operate Metro Weekly beginning in November 2007. They maintain that Jansi, as a separate corporate entity, was not responsible for the debts and liabilities incurred when Metro Weekly was published and operated by Isosceles.

A past due bill of $85,000 from Comprint, a Gaithersburg, Md., company owned by Post-Newsweek, was for printing services incurred by Metro Weekly during the time Isosceles published the magazine, the lawyers have argued.

In its lawsuit filed in July 2010, Post-Newsweek charged Jansi LLC and Shulman, one of Jansi’s two shareholders, with breach of contract, saying they were responsible for the printing debt with Comprint.

The lawsuit also charged Jansi and Shulman with fraud for allegedly entering into the licensing agreement with Isosceles for the alleged purpose of evading debts and liabilities.

“Upon information and belief, Mr. Shulman, Jansi, and Isosceles entered into the 2007 License Agreement with the specific intention to evade Isosceles’ creditors while continuing to publish, and reap revenue from, Metro Weekly,” the lawsuit said. “As a direct result of the defendant’s fraud, plaintiff suffered damages in a sum to be proved at trial but expected to exceed $1,000,000,” the lawsuit said in its request for punitive damages.

‘Nearly $656,000’ in tax liens

In its court brief opposing Jansi and Shulman’s motion to dismiss the fraud charge, Post-Newsweek attorney Thaler cited Shulman’s testimony in a deposition in February in which Shulman acknowledged that he and Isosceles had yet to resolve an outstanding tax obligation with the IRS.

News of Isoceles’ tax liabilities surfaced last year when the Washington Business Journal reported that, “nearly $656,000 in federal and state tax liens have been filed against Isosceles.” Records from the D.C. Recorder of Deeds, which keeps track of tax liens, show that 21 federal, D.C., or unemployment tax liens had been filed against Isosceles Publishing between 1996 and 2010.

Thaler stated in his brief opposing Jansi and Shulman’s motion to dismiss the fraud charge that the tax liens were an indication that the licensing agreement between Isosceles and Jansi was conceived to enable Metro Weekly to evade its debts, a development, he said, that supports Post-Newsweek’s fraud claim.

In Jansi and Shulman’s August 2010 motion for summary judgment seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, Karr argued that Post-Newsweek’s breach of contract charge concerning the printing debt was invalid because, among other things, Post-Newsweek had brought the same charge in a separate lawsuit in 2009.

A judge ruled in Post-Newsweek’s favor in the earlier lawsuit and ordered Isosceles to pay the printing debt. Isosceles started making payments for the initial printing debt, which exceeded $100,000, for a while before stopping all payments. That prompted Post-Newsweek to file the second lawsuit last July, Thaler said in court papers.

Karr argued in his dismissal motion that the legal concept of “claim preclusion” or “issue preclusion” prohibits “relitigation in a subsequent proceeding of the same claim between the same parties or their privies.”

He also argued that Post-Newsweek failed to provide in its lawsuit the required “elements” indicating that fraud might have taken place to a sufficient degree that a fraud claim could move forward to trial.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Ramsey Johnson rejected those assertions, stating in a Sept. 13, 2010 ruling denying the motion for dismissal of the lawsuit that he was “satisfied that the Plaintiff’s complaint for fraud has been sufficiently pled.”

In its separate motion filed Feb. 23, 2011 seeking dismissal of the fraud charge, Karr reiterated his claim that Post-Newsweek failed to provide sufficient grounds for proving fraud. Karr cited the testimony of Post-Newsweek official Garland Christmas in a deposition in which Christmas stated he was not familiar with the specific details of the lawsuit’s allegation that Metro Weekly and Shulman engaged in fraud through the licensing agreement between Isosceles and Jansi.

Karr argued in his brief that Christmas, the Post-Newsweek official in charge of debt collection for the company, also could not provide information to support Post-Newsweek’s claim that it suffered damages exceeding $1 million due to the non-payment of the printing debt or the licensing deal between Isosceles and Jansi.

In his opposition motion for Post-Newsweek, Thaler said the latest lawsuit was aimed at “asking the court to pierce the corporate veil and find that defendants Randy Shulman and Jansi LLC are the functional ‘alter egos’ of Isosceles and should therefore be held liable for the debt owed to Plaintiff.”

Business funds for personal use

In his opposition motion, Thaler added, “Mr. Shulman further indicated [in a deposition] that the licensing arrangement was the ‘only way’ Metro Weekly could continue to be published in light of the tax lien against Isosceles…Shulman and his business partners frequently commingled funds between Jansi and Isosceles. Shulman has also withdrawn funds from Isosceles and Jansi for personal use.”

Shulman was asked during depositions about various charges made to a company ATM card. “If you go down the purchases apparently using the ATM card you’ll see not just the Pet Smart and Martin’s Wine but a series of purchases at Safeway, RiteAid, Target and Subway as well as something called 14k Restaurant, Starbucks. Is it your testimony that all of these were for Jansi or mistakes by you as you’ve indicated you sometimes do,” a Post-Newsweek lawyer asked.

“Some could be mistakes I would think that – I know for a fact the 14K would be a business – that would be a business – that was probably for coffee for a business meeting,” Shulman replied.

In response to questions about purchases with the Jansi card made at other places, such as the Virginia Market convenience store near his home, Shulman said:

“ … I’m looking this over and I’m looking at the cluster of time and it’s very likely at this time that, aside from the thing that I was – quite honestly, I probably had absolutely no money in my own personal account. I was actually utilizing Jansi funds that were there at the time to help support me.”

“So you used the ATM for Jansi,” the lawyer replied.

“I did use the ATM for Jansi to make my purchases during that period.”

In his April 22 ruling denying Jansi and Shulman’s summary judgment motion to dismiss the fraud charge, Judge Johnson stated, “The court has already concluded that Plaintiff’s fraud claim was sufficiently pled when it denied Defendants’ Motion for Failure to State a Claim on Sept. 13, 2010.  With regard to the instant motion, the Court does not find that the issue of fraud, at least in this case, lends itself to summary judgment.”

The Washington Post has made tremendous progress in covering overtly gay issues since its new editor took over. When same-sex couples walked the aisle in D.C., the Post was there, flooding the zone with a multimedia extravaganza of marriage coverage.

But when the LGBT angle isn’t so obvious, the Post continues to cling to 1950s-era notions about sexual orientation — namely that it’s something to suppress or hide.

This lingering problem with honest reporting at the Post surfaced again in recent weeks as the tragedy of the Brian Betts murder unfolded. Betts, a nationally respected educator, was principal of Shaw Middle School in D.C. and a hero to his students. The Post has devoted much coverage, including front-page stories, to his brutal killing. Three teens are charged in connection with the murder; a fourth person faces charges related to alleged use of Betts’ credit card.

Almost immediately after the story broke, several of us at the Blade began getting tips that Betts was gay. Not closeted, but openly gay to a wide circle of area friends and colleagues.

Indeed, Betts was gay and the Post, even in a lengthy, prominent Sunday story about the murder, refused to report that basic fact. Post editors will tell you that his sexual orientation isn’t relevant or that they can’t prove it. Don’t believe them.

First, the Blade’s reporting staff was able to establish Betts’ sexual orientation quickly and with certainty. Surely the Post’s mammoth newsroom could have done the same.

Second, if Betts were straight, there is no question the Post would report basic facts, such as whether he was married, engaged, had a girlfriend, ex-wife or children. But because he was gay, such details are considered “personal,” “private” and “irrelevant.” It’s an indefensible double standard: If the fact of a straight subject’s sexual orientation is considered fair game for public disclosure, then the same must hold for LGBT subjects. The specifics of what you do in the bedroom: private. The fact of being gay or straight: public. It’s that simple.

Finally, and most significantly, his sexual orientation proved key to the story. Betts allegedly met his killer or killers through a gay-oriented chat line.

The Betts case is reminiscent of the story of Maj. Alan Rogers, a gay service member killed in action in Iraq two years ago. At the time, the Post covered his funeral and, despite interviewing multiple gay friends, and despite Rogers’ work for a gay-oriented organization that advocates for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” then-editor Leonard Downie, Jr. personally intervened, editing the story to remove any reference to sexual orientation. He even excised all of Rogers’ gay friends from the final story. The Post ombudsman at the time, Deborah Howell, sided with the Blade’s take on the story and agreed with us that dealing truthfully with the issue of sexual orientation would have painted a fuller, more honest picture of Rogers’ remarkable life.

The same is true for Betts. The importance of the gay angle might not be obvious to straight editors, but fellow gay men especially understand the significance of Betts’ life story. The worst slur directed at gay men is that we can’t be trusted around children; that we’re pedophiles. It’s a cruel, baseless, despicable stereotype that has driven countless gay teachers into the closet. That Betts — a respected educator — was gay and rose to such prominence in his field is an important and, yes, relevant, part of the story.