Transgender Day of Action protests. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Participants in the two protests, which organizers called a Transgender Day of Action, presented a list of demands to District Police Chief Cathy Lanier and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Mechan calling for immediate steps to address the problem.

“This past summer we were able to report 20 incidents where [transgender] people were beaten, stabbed, shot — and this is something that really concerns us,” said Ruby Corado of the D.C. Trans Coalition, who spoke to the gathering through a bull horn.

“The call that we want to make is that people remember that this is happening in your own back yard,” she said. “There’s no way that people in this city can ignore that this is happening to their own brothers and sisters, and we need to take action.”

Corado and others who spoke at the protests have said existing city laws and police department policies that prohibit discrimination against transgender people are among the strongest in the in the nation. But the activists say the city in general and police in particular haven’t adequately implemented those laws and policies.

“This is coming after the terrible outbreak of anti-trans violence in this city this past summer,” said Dana Beyer, executive director of the transgender advocacy group Gender Rights Maryland.

Day of Action supporters marching. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“The leadership in this city is committed to our community but for some reason they simply have not been able to implement that commitment,” Beyer said. “And we’re just here to remind them that they need to take that next step.”

Activists have expressed concern in recent months that the U.S. Attorney’s office, which serves as the city’s prosecutor in criminal cases, has reduced the charges against men arrested for violent crimes, including murders, against transgender people in an effort to persuade the men to plead guilty and avoid the need for a trial.

In meetings with LGBT activists, representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s office have said they only lower charges in cases where they believe the available evidence and circumstances surrounding the cases would prevent the office from obtaining a conviction from a jury if the case goes to trial.

LGBT advocacy groups, including the D.C. Trans Coalition and Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) dispute that explanation. They argue that the U.S. Attorney’s office has been too quick to reduce charges against violence criminals who target the LGBT community, and the office should bring more cases to trial.

Xion Lopez. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“I stand here today with the hope and knowing that the crime will stop, something will be done we’ll be able to move forward,” she said.

Janelle Mungo, an official with the D.C. chapter of the national direct action group Get Equal and an organizer of Thursday’s protest, said details of the demands and background on the issues surrounding anti-trans violence in the city can be viewed at www.TLGBpolicewatch.tumblr.com.

In statement responding to the protest, Lanier said, “MPD is committed to protecting and working with all members of our communities. I have demonstrated my personal commitment to this community from the beginning of my tenure, when I issued the department’s first directive on handling interactions with transgender individuals, to now, when I have been meeting with the GLBT community at least monthly since this summer.”

Lanier said she has just organized a series of town hall meetings to allow members of the police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit to meet LGBT community members. She said she was disappointed that no one from the LGBT community showed up at one of those meetings on Wednesday night of this week.

Jason Terry, a member of the D.C. Trans Coalition who participated in the protest, called Lanier’s statement “insulting,” saying police failed to adequately publicize the police meetings with GLLU members. He said many transgender community members also are reluctant to attend an event at a police station, where the GLLU meetings are being held, following two recent incidents in which a police officer has assaulted transgender people. In one of the incidents, an off duty police officer was arrested for firing his gun into a car in which three trans women were sitting.

“MPD’s failure to attract people to their events is their failure, not the community’s,” Terry said.

Members of the GLLU and affiliate officers joined fire and EMS officials in meeting the LGBT community at a public forum on Wednesday. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

More than a dozen affiliate members of the D.C. Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit joined police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department officials Wednesday night for a Public Safety Open House for the LGBT community.

The event, organized by the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, gave activists and community members a chance to mingle with the GLLU’s full-time and affiliate officers before the start of a discussion, where police and Fire Department officials answered questions about community concerns.

Activists attending the open house at the city’s Reeves Municipal Building at 14th and U streets, N.W., praised police and fire officials for establishing policies calling for reaching out to the LGBT community and prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination against police officers, firefighters and EMS workers as well as against members of the public.

But several attendees, including transgender activists Ruby Corado and Jason Terry and gay activist Rick Rosendall, said the supportive actions and attitudes of high-level police officials often don’t filter down to the behavior and actions of rank and file officers.

They pointed to a number of recent incidents involving police officers that have shaken the LGBT community. In one case, several officers refused to take a report of an incident in which four lesbians were assaulted by two male attackers who called them anti-gay names. The incident occurred outside the Columbia Heights Metro station.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the incident is under investigation and the officers could be fired depending on the findings of the investigation.

In another incident that shocked LGBT activists, an off-duty D.C. police officer fired his service revolver at three transgender women and two male friends who were sitting in a car in Northwest D.C. Two of the women and one of the men suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The officer was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.

Transgender activist Jeri Hughes said at the open house that police have not adequately investigated other assaults against transgender women, including one recent case where a trans woman was attacked on a Metro Bus.

Hughes said that while the rate of closing homicide cases in D.C. by making an arrest is 80 percent, the rate of solving homicides involving transgender victims is 20 percent.

On hand to answer questions about these and other concerns were Paul Quander, the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, who oversees the Police and Fire and EMS departments; D.C. Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe; Deborah Hassan, an EMS technician who serves as the Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT community liaison; Capt. Edward Delgado, director Police Department Special Liaison Division, which oversees the GLLU; and Sgt. Carlos Mejia, supervisor of the GLLU.

Also speaking at the event was Melissa Hook, director of the city’s Office of Victim Services, which assists crime victims.

Quander opened the discussion by inviting the LGBT community to inform him about issues of interest.

“I work for you,” he said. “I work for the citizens of the District of Columbia. And I need to meet your needs. I need to know what your issues are…and I have to ensure that everyone is treated equally, that everyone has a voice.”

With D.C. gay activist Peter Rosenstein serving as moderator, several LGBT activists responded by reiterating what they said were longstanding concerns. Among them is the view that Lanier weakened the GLLU by reducing the number of officers at its headquarters office, making it less responsive to the community at a time when anti-LGBT hate crimes are on the rise.

Lanier has said a police funding reduction made it necessary to reduce the GLLU headquarters staff from seven officers and a full-time sergeant to four officers and a part-time sergeant. But she has said the affiliate GLLU officer program she started has resulted in the designation of 46 GLLU affiliate officers, who work out of each of the department’s seven police districts. According to Lanier, the affiliates have greatly expanded the reach of the GLLU, enabling it to respond to all sections of the city at all times of the day and night.

Most LGBT activists and the local group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence say they support the affiliate program but believe the direction and leadership of the GLLU must be set by the full-time officers working out of the unit’s headquarters, which is located in Dupont Circle.

Under Lanier’s officer affiliate program, the affiliate members of the GLLU and separate liaison units working with the Latino, Asian, and deaf and hard of hearing communities devote most of their time to their regular patrol duties in the police district to which they are assigned. Upon receiving special training for liaison unit duties, the affiliates are on call to respond to LGBT-related crimes in their respective districts.

Mejia serves as supervisor of the GLLU and the Latino Liaison Unit. Although activists have praised his work in managing the GLLU they say the unit’s effectiveness is diminished by not having a full-time supervisor.

Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT community liaison Deborah Hassan (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Hassan, the Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT liaison, is less known in the LGBT community than GLLU officers.

In an interview before the start of the open house forum, she told the Blade that all firefighters and EMS workers receive diversity training that includes information about the LGBT community. She said she is unaware of any recent complaints by members of the LGBT community about discriminatory treatment by firefighters or EMS workers.

Hassan said she is out as a lesbian at work. She noted that at her request, she was given an official name badge for her uniform that identifies her as an EMS worker and “LGBT Liaison.”

“We’re here for the community, whether you’re straight or gay,” she said during the open house discussion.

Rosenstein, in introducing Delgado at the open house, said he was pleased that Delgado returned to his job as director of the Special Liaison Division. Rosenstein was referring to a decision by Chief Lanier earlier this year to transfer Delgado to another division and replace him at the liaison division post with a civilian police official who had no direct experience in police work such as investigating crimes.

Some activists criticized Lanier for making the change, saying Delgado had worked well with the LGBT community and appeared more knowledgeable on issues likely to come up in the operation of the Special Liaison Division.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we’ve done everything correctly because we’re all human and we all have faults,” Delgado said. “But you can rest assured that the Metropolitan Police Department stands behind the members of the LGBT community because we actually believe that all members of the community should be protected.”

Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Office of GLBT Affairs, said his office plans to hold more public safety open house events for the LGBT community in the future. He and Rosenstein thanked the GLLU officers for attending the event, including those who came during their off-duty hours.

Richardson noted that the names of all affiliate GLLU officers are posted on the Police Department website on the GLLU page. The listing includes e-mail contact information for each of the officers and shows the police district to which they are assigned, enabling members of the LGBT community to identify the GLLU affiliate officer serving the area where they live.

A D.C. Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered a 19-year-old District man held in jail without bond following his arrest one day earlier for allegedly assaulting five lesbians on July 30 on the sidewalk next to the Columbia Heights Metro station.

Judge Karen Howze issued the order after prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office charged Christian Washington with one count each of hate related simple assault and hate related threats to do bodily harm. Both charges are listed as misdemeanors.

A report of the incident prepared by an officer with the police department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit says Washington allegedly called the five women “dyke bitches” before he and an unidentified male suspect allegedly punched each of the women in the face and head.

Police said the incident took place at 14th and Irving Streets, N.W. about 3 a.m. Police said they are continuing to investigate whether others were involved in the attack.

Two of the victims told the Blade that one of the two suspects became enraged when the women politely spurned his attempt to flirt with them and one of the women informed him she was with her girlfriend. The two women said a second suspect joined in the attack and a third man who was with the attackers used his cell phone to capture the incident on video.

In a court hearing Wednesday, Washington pleaded not guilty to the two charges.

Howze scheduled a follow-up hearing on Aug. 17 to determine whether Washington should be released while awaiting trial or continue to be held. The judge set a status hearing on the case for Sept. 6.

Court records show that Washington was arrested on July 26 — four days before his alleged role in assaulting the five women — on a charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle that police say was a motor scooter. That arrest took place near the 1300 block of Columbia Rd., N.W.

A police report shows that Washington and a second man riding on the scooter with him led police on a Hollywood-style chase through streets and alleys before the men dismounted the scooter and attempted to flee on foot. The report says police apprehended Washington but the second suspect escaped.

Court records show Washington was released on his own recognizance at a July 27 court hearing after being formally charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

The attack against the five women drew widespread media attention when news surfaced that police officers arriving on the scene refused to take a report of the incident and released a suspect they apprehended upon their arrival.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier released a statement calling the officers’ behavior “appalling.” She told members of the D.C. group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence that the officers could be fired for not taking a report depending on the finding of an investigation of the incident.

Police in Montgomery County, Md., announced the arrest Wednesday of a fourth suspect charged in the murder of gay D.C. middle school principal Brian Betts.

Joel Johnson, 19, whose address could not be confirmed, was apprehended by D.C. police at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday along the 100 block of Ivanhoe Street, S.W., according to a police statement.

The statement from Montgomery County police says he was charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery and three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was being held at the D.C. jail pending extradition proceedings that would move him to Montgomery County.

Betts, 42, was found shot to death April 15 in an upper floor bedroom in his house in Silver Spring, Md. Earlier this month, police arrested Sharif Lancaster, Alante Saunders, and Deontra Gray — each 18 years old — on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges in connection with the Betts murder.

Police also charged Artura Otey Williams, 46, the mother of Lancaster, with receiving and using a credit card stolen from Betts by the three men charged in the murder.

Police said Betts met one or more of the three teens charged with his murder through a telephone sex chat line. Betts became the second D.C. area gay man to be murdered and at least the third to be attacked and robbed by someone they met through an Internet or phone chat line since last December.

Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence recently issued alerts urging people to use caution when meeting strangers through social networking venues such as the Internet or phone chat lines.

News that gay D.C. middle school principal Brian Betts met at least one of the three 18-year-old men charged with his murder through a sexually oriented chat line has prompted activists and police to caution the public about meeting people through such venues.

Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence and the D.C. police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit issued e-mail alerts in the past two weeks urging gays and others to take precautions before inviting home someone they meet through an Internet site or telephone chat line.

“Do not invite the person into your home without meeting in a safe, public space,” GLOV said in its May 7 alert. “Get as much personal information as possible, including a real face photo, phone numbers and a home address and try to verify the information.”

Kelly Pickard, a GLOV co-chair, said the group issued its alert after learning of another report by area police that a gay man was attacked near Manassas, Va., by someone he met through a telephone chat line.

Another gay male victim was killed in D.C. in January following a liaison arranged by phone, but authorities haven’t disclosed if the hookup originated from a sex chat line.

Insiders familiar with Internet and phone services linked to sexual hookups say the reported cases are the tip of the iceberg and far more incidents go unreported to police because victims often fear embarrassment and the public disclosure of their sexual orientation.

Police in Prince William County, Va., released a photo May 5 of an unidentified male suspect believed to have robbed at gunpoint a 28-year-old man in Manassas whom he met through a phone chat line.

According to Prince William police, the suspect and a male accomplice arrived by car at a prearranged meeting place with the victim at 2:30 a.m. April 12 in the Manassas area and invited the victim into their car. Police said the two drove the victim to Colton Lane, a dead end street, and escorted him by foot to a location between several nearby townhouses.

One of the two suspects then brandished a gun and forced the victim to turn over cash. The two suspects returned to their car and drove away, leaving the victim shaken but uninjured.

The incident occurred three days before Betts’ body was found in his house in Silver Spring, Md. Police said there were no signs of a forced entry into the home. Investigators said Betts appears to have met at least one of the three men arrested in connection with the murder through a sexually oriented telephone chat line — most likely on the night of the murder.

The three men arrested for the murder were Alante Saunders, whom police said had no fixed address; Sharif Tau Lancaster of Northwest D.C.; and Deonatra Gray of Oxon Hill, Md.

At least one other phone chat line-related murder took place in D.C. on Dec. 27. Police and prosecutors said 29-year-old Anthony Perkins, who was gay, was shot to death in his car by a suspect he met through a phone chat line on the night of the incident. In court papers, prosecutors said a witness told police that 20-year-old Antwan Holcomb boasted about pretending to be gay for the purpose of luring a “faggy” to a place where he could rob him.

The witness told police he overheard Holcomb say he shot Perkins during a scuffle as Holcomb attempted to rob Perkins inside Perkins’ car. Police have charged Holcomb with first-degree murder while armed.

D.C. police also have linked the murder of a gay Maryland man in January to a phone conversation in which 17-year-old William Wren of Southeast D.C. allegedly called the victim and invited him to meet him near the youth’s home. Police have charged Wren with first-degree murder while armed for allegedly shooting and killing Gordon Rivers, 47, inside his car while it was parked on Naylor Road, S.E. during a botched robbery.

Police have so far declined to say how Wren and Rivers met, raising speculation that the two might have met through a phone or Internet chat line.

“The New York City Anti-Violence Project documented 25 [gay-related] pick-up crime incidents in 2009, most of which involved Internet dating sites, including adam4adam and Craigslist,” GLOV says in its May 7 alert. “The types of reported crimes range from theft and drugging to sexual violence and murder.”

The alert says that these and local events “further confirms a trend — both locally and nationwide — that gay men who use these methods to arrange meetings are being targeted for violent crime.”

“While this trend has largely gone unreported by local media, GLOV believes that increased awareness and knowledge among the community is a vital component of keeping people safe.”

Four people were arrested this week in connection with the murder of Brian Betts, the gay principal of Shaw Middle School in D.C. (Photo by Bel Perez Gabilondo; courtesy of D.C. Public Schools)

Three 18-year-old men who allegedly met gay D.C. middle school principal Brian Betts through a telephone sex chat line were arrested this week in connection with his shooting death, police said.

Alante Saunders, whom Montgomery County Police said had no fixed address, and Sharif Tau Lancaster, who lives along the 5300 block of Fifth Street, N.W., in D.C., were charged Monday with first-degree murder, armed robbery and the use of a handgun in a felony crime of violence.

Deonatra Q. Gray, who lives along the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, Md., was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

“While the motive of the crime is still being investigated, we believe that it is most likely going to be robbery,” said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger during a news conference Monday.

Betts, 42, was found shot to death April 15 in a second floor bedroom of his house in Silver Spring, Md. Police said they found his fully clothed body after colleagues at D.C.’s Shaw Middle School, where he worked as principal, became concerned when Betts failed to report to work.

On the day they discovered Betts’ body, investigators disclosed they found no signs of a forced entry into Betts’ house, leading them to believe he invited his killer or killers inside.

Also charged in the case was Artura Otey Williams, 46, Lancaster’s mother. Police she was arrested Monday at the home on Fifth Street, N.W., on charges related to her alleged use of one of several credit cards taken from Betts’ house. She was not charged with the murder itself.

In a related development, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles separately disclosed Monday that Lancaster and Sanders had recently escaped from a juvenile home where they were in custody by the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Nickles did not say the criminal offense or offenses the two youths had been charged with to land them in DYRS custody.

Manger, when asked by a reporter at the Montgomery County Police news conference whether the chat line through which Betts allegedly met his killers catered solely to gay clientele, said, “I’m not aware of that. I don’t know.”

He said he also didn’t know the name of the chat line, saying only, “It’s been described as a sex chat line, a social networking chat line.” But he noted that investigators believe Betts met one or all of the three 18-year-old men implicated in the case through the chat line on the night he was murdered.

After the news conference, police spokesperson Capt. Paul Sparks described the system as a “national chat line” linked to an Internet site. Sparks said he didn’t know the name of the chat line or Internet site.

Many gay-oriented sex chat lines are advertised in local and national gay publications and web sites.

Manger’s news conference outside Montgomery County Police headquarters in Rockville came the same day that teams of police officers and detectives in Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and D.C. used search warrants to conduct early-morning raids on four residences where they believed evidence and suspects in the case were located.

Manger said Williams was arrested during a search of her house on the 5300 block of Fifth Street, N.W.

He said Saunders, Lancaster and the third 18-year-old man were taken into custody during the search of an apartment along the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, Md., which is located in Prince George’s County.

Among the items found during the Southview Drive search was Betts’ wallet, which was in possession of one of the men implicated in the case, Manger said. He noted that police found a receipt in the wallet for a pair of Nike shoes that were purchased using one of Betts’ credit cards shortly after the murder.

Police also used warrants Monday to search residences along the 4300 block of Third Street, S.E., in D.C., and along the 2400 block of Southern Avenue in Temple Hills, Md., in Prince George’s County.

Neighbors reported seeing police remove items from the residences, including several large bags containing items from the home on Fifth Street, N.W., which is near the border of D.C. and Silver Spring.

According to Manger and statements released Monday by Montgomery County Police, investigators began piecing together evidence linking the murder to the arrested suspects less than a week after Betts’ body was discovered.

The first break came when investigators discovered that Williams had used one of several credit cards stolen from Betts’ house on the night of the murder to purchase $111 worth of groceries from a Giant supermarket in Silver Spring on April 16, the day after Betts’ body was found. The Giant is located less than two miles from Betts’ house. Police said Williams was recorded using the credit card on a video surveillance camera at the store.

Police charged her with two counts of knowingly receiving a stolen credit card with the intent to use it, attempted theft of items less than $1,000 in value, and attempted fraudulent credit card use. She was being held in D.C. while awaiting extradition to Montgomery County.

“Lancaster was identified through fingerprints obtained from the crime scene inside Betts’ residence,” says one of two statements released Monday by Montgomery County Police.

“Through the course of the investigation, it was confirmed that Lancaster has no known ties to Betts,” says the statements. “Saunders, also with no known ties to the victim, was identified through fingerprints obtained inside and outside the vehicle belonging to Betts, a 2007 Nissan Xterra, which was stolen from his residence on the night of the murder.”

D.C. police recovered the vehicle April 17, two days after Betts was found dead in his house along the 3900 block of Fourth Street, S.E.

“It was determined that several credit cards belonging to Betts were stolen from the residence,” one of the police statements says. “The continuing investigation revealed that Betts’ credit cards were used to make purchases throughout the area, including Silver Spring, Oxon Hill, Hyattsville, Northwest and Southeast Washington, D.C.”

The statement notes that surveillance photos show Lancaster, Saunders and Williams using the credit cards.

“This remains still a very active investigation,” Manger said during his news conference.
In response to reporters’ questions, he said he didn’t know whether Lancaster, Saunders and Gray used the chat line to rob or harm other people. He also told reporters that he didn’t know what promoted one of the suspects to allegedly shoot Betts to death if the motive was robbery.

“The interviews have not been completed, so we don’t have that information,” he said.

Sparks, the police spokesperson, said more arrests could be made in the case.

Officials with the D.C. group Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence have said that law enforcement agencies in the D.C. area should issue a public alert about criminals targeting gays for robberies and assaults through online social networking sites or phone chat lines.

GLOV co-chairs Kelly Pickard and Joe Montoni said during the group’s regular monthly meeting in April, one week after the Betts murder, that plans were made to distribute flyers and other alerts urging members of the LGBT community to exert caution when using such sites or chat lines.

On Dec. 27, gay D.C. resident Anthony Perkins, 29, was shot to death in his car in Southeast D.C. by a suspect who met him through a phone chat line, according to D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney’s office. Authorities have so far declined to name the chat line.

D.C. police charged 20-year-old Antwan Holcomb with first-degree murder while armed in connection with Perkins’ death.

And in January, gay Maryland resident Gordon Rivers, 47, was fatally shot inside his car while it was parked on Naylor Road in Southeast D.C. Police later arrested 17-year-old William Wren of Southeast D.C. and 22-year-old Anthony Hager of Temple Hills, Md., on murder charges in connection with the case.

D.C. police said in an arrest affidavit that Wren admitted knowing Rivers before the murder and having called Rivers by phone to arrange a meeting with him on Naylor Road, intending to rob him.

Police and the U.S. Attorney’s office have declined to disclose how Wren met Rivers, spurring questions as to whether the two met online or through a phone chat line.

D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray announced this week he will challenge Mayor Adrian Fenty this fall. A third candidate, millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles, is expected to join the race. (DC Agenda photo by Michael Key)

D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s announcement this week that he will challenge Mayor Adrian Fenty in the mayoral race will force many LGBT activists to choose between two strong allies, local activists said.

But as of this week, many of the city’s top gay Democratic activists said they were not ready to take sides in the race, a development that some viewed as a sign that activists have concerns about Fenty.

Gray’s entry in the mayoral contest also opens the way for at least three gay-supportive Council members, whose names have surfaced as possible candidates for Council chair, to enter that race, creating another difficult choice for LGBT voters.

“One way to look at this is it’s a good thing,” said Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance. “It’s a luxury to be able to choose among friends.”

Rosendall and other activists have noted that in many parts of the country, the LGBT community still faces elections where most candidates capable of winning are hostile to their interests.

Some City Hall observers are predicting that Gray’s entry into the mayoral race will also prove to be a major benefit to gay Council candidate Clark Ray, who is challenging Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) in the September Democratic primary.

Mendelson reportedly is seriously considering running for the Council chairman post now that Gray is vacating the seat. Should Mendelson run for that position rather than for re-election to his current at-large seat, Ray would be in a far stronger position to win that contest.

Ray has been campaigning for the seat for nearly a year and has lined up support among many LGBT activists. But Mendelson’s strong record on LGBT rights and his leading role in pushing the city’s same-sex marriage bill to a successful 11-2 vote in December prompted large numbers of LGBT activists and rank and file gay voters to remain loyal to him, according to Mendelson supporters.

Ray told DC Agenda earlier this week that he’s heard rumors that Mendelson might be considering running for the Council chairman position now being vacated by Gray.

“I am focused on my race and running my campaign on the issues that I talked about all along — like education reform and reducing crime,” he said. “So that’s where my focus is.”

Ray said he doesn’t plan to make an immediate endorsement in the mayor’s race.

“I think it’s great for the residents of the District of Columbia to have choices,” he said. “It makes for a better process. So I will be just like the rest of the Washingtonians. I will sit back and watch whomever is in the mayor’s race and I will make my decision on whom I think is the best to lead the city in the next four years.”

A Ray-Mendelson race was expected to divide the gay vote, with many political pundits predicting that Mendelson would win the election due to his strong, citywide support.

Mendelson spokesperson Jason Shedlock said Tuesday that Mendelson would have no immediate comment on speculation that he was considering running for Council chairman.

Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), another longtime supporter of LGBT rights, is also strongly considering entering the Council chairman race, according to Ward 2 political insiders. Others have said that Council member Kwame Brown (D-At Large), an LGBT rights supporter who, like Evans and Mendelson, voted for the same-sex marriage bill, is yet another possible candidate for the Council chairman seat.

Gay Democratic activist Kurt Vondran, a former president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest gay political group, said political insiders are predicting Fenty and Evans would run as a team for mayor and Council chairman. The two have been longtime political allies.

Lining up against them in a rival slate would most likely be Gray and Mendelson, who are not only allies on the Council but longtime Fenty adversaries.

With this as a backdrop, the Stein Club and other LGBT organizations will be forced to walk a fine line to avoid alienating longtime political friends in the city government, who likely would be needed for future LGBT-related initiatives.

Stein Club President Jeffrey Richardson said the club and its officers won’t take sides in the mayoral race until it holds a mayoral candidates forum scheduled for June 14. He said the club will vote on an endorsement at the conclusion of the forum.

Ashley Smith, vice president of the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women, said his group has no immediate plans to endorse a mayoral candidate and would assess whether to make an endorsement at a later date.

“At this point in time, it’s an open bag,” he said. “People will need to look at the candidates, including other candidates who may enter the race.”

Rosendall noted that his non-partisan group rates candidates rather than endorses them. He said the GLAA will carefully rate all mayoral and Council candidates based on their known records on LGBT issues and their responses to a questionnaire asking their positions on the issues.

But some LGBT activists point to what they perceive to be a strong feeling of dissatisfaction with Fenty — just as public opinion polls have shown is the case among residents in many parts of the city. A Washington Post poll released in late January showed Fenty’s popularity dropping in all parts of the city over the previous two years.

Blacks changed from a 68 percent approval for Fenty in his first year in office to a 65 percent disapproval in the Post’s January 2010 poll. Overall, the Post poll showed 42 percent of D.C. residents approved of the job Fenty was doing compared to 49 percent who expressed disapproval.

The Post poll did not break down its sample to show the sentiment of LGBT voters.

But gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell, a member of the executive committee of the Ward 8 Democratic Committee, said gay and straight residents east of the Anacostia River, which includes wards 7 and 8, appear to be in agreement in their dissatisfaction with Fenty.

“People east of the river are almost 100 percent against Fenty,” he said. “And I don’t see much of a difference between LGBT people and the community as a whole. It’s mostly because of his personality, but also because folks don’t see any real change in their community.”

Pannell said he won’t back a candidate in the race until the Ward 8 Democratic Committee votes on an endorsement later this spring.

Gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson said this week he is supporting Gray for mayor, becoming one of the few LGBT activists so far to take sides in the race.

“My impression is that the LGBT community is very frustrated with Adrian Fenty for never showing up [at community events] except for the high-heel race, never doing anything to really get down to addressing the problems that our community has to deal with,” he said.

Hudson was referring to a concern raised by some LGBT activists that Fenty has declined to attend most LGBT community events, including meetings of LGBT groups. The mayor has attended an annual Halloween high-heel race on 17th Street, N.W., each year since he took office and has also marched in the Capital Pride Parade each year since becoming mayor. The parade, which draws tens of thousands of participants, is part of the city’s annual LGBT Pride events.

While acknowledging that Fenty takes strong pro-LGBT positions on virtually all issues of importance to the community, many activists have complained that he has declined to take a more visible role in speaking out on issues, especially anti-LGBT violence and hate crimes.

The local group Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence has complained that Fenty has ignored their longstanding calls for him to deliver a speech addressing the high number of anti-LGBT hate crimes in the city or appear in a public service announcement addressing the hate crimes issues.

‘A very tough call’

Gay D.C. Council members Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and David Catania (I-At Large), like many activists, haven’t taken sides yet on the mayoral race. Both are running for re-election this year, with political observers saying each appears to have a good shot at winning.

Brian DeBose, Graham’s press spokesperson, said Graham is “going to make a formal announcement about [the mayor’s race] in the near future but he’s not prepared right now to make a statement.”

Graham has been a long-time political ally of Fenty, and some City Hall insiders believe he’s leaning toward Fenty.

Catania this week had praise for both Fenty and Gray in their respective roles in advancing the same-sex marriage bill that Catania wrote and introduced last year.

Asked how he feels about having to choose between Fenty and Gray, Catania said, “That’s a predicament I’m facing as a person and as a voter myself because I happen to like both of them as individuals and as public officials.”

“So it’s going to be a very tough call,” he said. “Both have excellent scores as far as I’m concerned on LGBT issues. Both were very early and strong supporters of marriage equality. Both support me in the work we’re trying to do to overhaul the HIV/AIDS Administration.”

While praising Fenty’s actions, both on LGBT and other issues, such as overhauling the city’s public school system, Catania acknowledged that the mayor has “injured himself” on how people perceive him in connection with his personality.

“He’s picked some fights that people don’t understand and they’re hard to explain at times,” Catania told DC Agenda. “I think that’s hurt him in the eyes of some voters, who want in a chief executive, who want in a mayor a different demeanor at times than what we’ve seen demonstrated by Adrian.”

Gay activist and attorney Edward Grandis, executive director of the local business association Dupont Circle Merchants & Professionals, said he does not perceive strong dissatisfaction toward Fenty from Dupont Circle area residents and businesses, where large numbers of gays live.

“In my business circles, I don’t see a large anti-Fenty sentiment,” he said. “And in Ward 2 in general, I don’t feel people are down on Fenty.”

Grandis said he agrees with activists who feel Fenty should have been more outspoken on LGBT issues such as hate crimes, “but I don’t feel most rank and file gays are dissatisfied with Fenty.”

In a related development, the Washington Post reported that millionaire developer R. Donahue Peebles said Monday that he is “planning to run” for mayor, adding a third candidate with the resources to compete with Fenty and Gray.

A Peebles spokesperson told DC Agenda two weeks ago that Peebles supports the city’s same-sex marriage law. But the spokesperson could not confirm whether Peebles supports or opposes a voter initiative, which, if approved, would repeal the gay marriage law. Peebles’ business office did not respond to a DC Agenda request for an interview.

Catania, however, said Peebles expressed to him a commitment to LGBT equality when the two spoke earlier this year.

“We didn’t talk about a referendum or an initiative. That subject didn’t come up,” Catania said. “But unprompted, he did tell me how delighted he was about marriage equality and how much he supported it, how he finds that all of our rights are interconnected. And he doesn’t feel it’s appropriate to deny one group of rights because that same strategy was used against the community that he belongs to.”

Peebles, who is black, has sometimes referred to his admiration of the black civil rights movement.

New GLLU officers welcomed at reception

More than one dozen recently designated affiliate members of the D.C. police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit were formally introduced March 25 during a reception at the D.C. Center.

Close to two dozen GLLU affiliate officers, who work out of the department’s seven police districts throughout the city, are part of Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s plan to expand and decentralize the unit.

“This is just the beginning,” said Assistant D.C. Police Chief Diane Groomes. “Chief Lanier would say this is a work in progress.”

Groomes said more officers have expressed an interest in joining the GLLU than any of the other special liaison units, including the Latino, Asian & Pacific Islander, and Deaf & Hard of Hearing units.

The reception was hosted by the D.C. Center; Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence, a center project; and Rainbow Response, a local coalition that advocates for LGBT people victimized by domestic violence. GLLU officials have said that the largest percentage of calls the unit receives for assistance are related to domestic violence matters.

Kelly Pickard, GLOV’s co-chair, told the gathering that her group is hopeful that the expanded GLLU and its newly designated members will help local activists more aggressively combat anti-LGBT hate crimes. She noted that D.C. has the largest number of anti-LGBT hate crimes recorded among most U.S. cities.

“You are heroic in what you do, day and night,” she told officers at the reception.

Rainbow Response official June Crenshaw echoed Pickard’s sentiments, saying, “We depend on you.”

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Equality Maryland staffer to focus on marriage

Equality Maryland announced March 25 the appointment of Aimee Martin as its field organizer for marriage equality.

A resident of Montgomery County, Martin joins Equality Maryland with experience in mobilizing support on behalf of legislative and electoral campaigns.

“Aimee has labored in the trenches in the recent battles in New Jersey, Maine and California,” said Morgan Meneses-Sheets, Equality Maryland’s executive director. “She has done the hard work of advancing marriage equality in some of the toughest circumstances. We are thrilled to have her join us as we ramp up our efforts to win marriage in the Free State.”

Martin’s initial tasks will include winning stronger support for Equality Maryland from straight allies and the religious community and training speakers to discuss issues related to partner recognition.

Martin’s appointment is effective April 12. Equality Maryland is planning a series of events to introduce Martin and Owen Smith, the group’s recently appointed field organizer for transgender equality issues, this summer.

STEVE CHARING/BALTIMORE OUTLoud

Members of Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence, also known GLOV, voted at their monthly meeting Jan. 29 to elect D.C. residents Kelly Pickard and Joe Montoni as the group’s new co-chairs.

The two succeed outgoing co-chairs Chris Farris and Tod Metrokin, who are credited with reactivating GLOV a little more than a year ago after it had been dormant for nearly 10 years. The group serves as the local LGBT community’s advocate on crime and law enforcement issues. It also monitors and tracks anti-LGBT hate crimes.

“Tod Metrokin and I couldn’t be happier with the group’s choice,” Farris said of the election. “We’ve accomplished a lot in the past year and I look forward to continuing our work under the new leadership.”

In the time since Farris and Metrokin took on leadership of GLOV, the group has operated as a project of the D.C. Center, which recently moved to 1810 14th St., N.W.

Pickard and Montoni take the helm of GLOV at a time when the group has had strained relations with D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The group has criticized Lanier’s efforts to restructure and decentralize the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, saying she had nearly dismantled the unit before putting in place GLLU affiliate officers in each of the seven police districts.

Capt. Edward Delgado, who oversees the GLLU and three other special liaison units, announced two weeks ago that an expanded GLLU now includes 24 affiliate officers and at least six officers and supervisors associated with the unit’s headquarters in Dupont Circle.

“We know there remains a tremendous amount of work ahead of us, and we’ll continue to work to build confidence within the LGBT community that the issue of hate crimes is being handled with the seriousness it deserves,” Pickard said in a statement.