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Md. lawmaker says gay marriage ban ‘not discriminatory’

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland state Del. Emmett Burns Jr. (D-Baltimore County) railed against comparisons between LGBT and black civil rights last week during a hearing for his bill that would block recognition of same-sex marriage licenses issued out of state.

Burns claimed that he doesn’t support discrimination, but was tired of same-sex marriage supporters raising the Loving v. Virginia ruling that struck down interracial marriage bans. He said the current ban on same-sex marriage is not the same.

“It is not discriminatory,” he said during the House Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 31 in Annapolis. “I cannot hide my color. I don’t want to. I’m proud to be who I am. But those who are of a different sexual orientation could.”

His exchange with fellow Democratic committee members grew testy as they quoted NAACP Chair Julian Bond and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as saying the LGBT and black civil rights struggles were shared. Burns dismissed the comments, saying he didn’t recognize their leadership.

Burns said the state faces a crisis with the neighboring District of Columbia poised to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses, a development that could put Maryland’s same-sex marriage ban at risk.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has given no timeframe for when he will release a long-expected opinion on the issue of recognizing same-sex marriage licenses issued in D.C. and elsewhere, but some sources speculated that he will wait until the legislative session ends in April to take that step. Burns said he feared Gansler’s opinion could legislate same-sex marriage “through the back door.”

“Our back door is wide open,” Burns said. “Our law does not speak to marriages performed in other jurisdictions.”

Committee member Michael Smigiel Sr. (R-Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s counties) added that he believes Gansler has a political agenda and would act only after the current session had ended.

Gansler’s spokesperson denied the claim this week, saying the attorney general was still investigating the issue.

Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, testified in support of Burns’ bill during the hearing, saying the recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages would undermine the right of the General Assembly and the people of Maryland to decide the issue.

“The legalization of same-sex marriage in a small number of other states, and the prospect of its legalization in our neighboring jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, provides no legitimate legal cause for granting recognition in Maryland to those marriages,” Russell said. “House Bill 90 provides an added measure of assurance to the people of Maryland that the decisions of out-of-state courts or legislatures cannot, and should not, provide grounds for usurping the legitimate democratic process in our state for deciding this issue.”

She added that the Catholic Church supports the state’s current marriage definition in recognition that “only a man and a woman are capable of bringing children, our society’s next generation, into the world” and that voters have repeatedly agreed, even in liberal states.

Committee Chair Joseph Vallario Jr. (D-Calvert and Prince George’s counties) asked if gay Marylanders could meet, go to D.C., conduct a “drive through” wedding, return to Maryland and expect that marriage to be recognized “without even leaving their car.”

Lawyers for Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union testified that Maryland’s 1973 law defining marriage as one man and one woman would not be undermined if the attorney general upheld the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution, which mandates recognition of other states’ marriage licenses.

Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery County) testified against the bill, citing her own California-issued marriage certificate to her spouse Deborah.

“This bill is about me, and it’s about my family, and it’s about thousands of families across the state,” Mizeur said. “In Pasadena, Calif. — 3,000 miles from here — we’re treated as a married couple. In Pasadena, Md. — less than 30 minutes from here — we’re not. In Cambridge, Mass., our marriage would protect us were life to deal us a bad hand. In Cambridge, Md., we’re two unrelated women with some very expensive legal documents and a lot of uncertainty.”

Mizeur said Maryland’s current legal recognition of same-sex couples grants her 12 statutory rights of the 425 rights bestowed upon married couples.

Mizeur said she didn’t know how Gansler would decide the issue, but said that Maryland has a long tradition of upholding the full faith and credit clause and Maryland would eventually change its law, anyway.

“But either way, this bill is wrong,” she said. “It’s a step backwards for a state that presses forward.”

The hearing drew a standing-room-only crowd of mostly same-sex marriage supporters, including high school students, who frequently reacted to Burns’ colorful explanations of why LGBT bans were not discrimination.

Burns’ bill is not believed to have the necessary votes to make it out of the House Judiciary Committee. However, the as-yet-unscheduled vote will not be an indicator of support for legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland.

Mizeur told DC Agenda that she doubts a marriage equality bill would be introduced in the state House this year. While confident there are enough votes in the House Judiciary Committee to pass such a bill, Mizeur said same-sex marriage supporters are still shy of their goal in the companion Senate committee.

“We have supporters [in the House] who we don’t want to put at risk when there isn’t the support in the Senate,” she told DC Agenda, alluding to possible electoral fallout.

Equality Maryland is holding its annual lobby day Feb. 8.

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District of Columbia

43 known LGBTQ candidates win election to D.C. ANC seats

33 ran unopposed on ballot, 23 were incumbents

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Vince Micone was among at least 43 LGBTQ ANC candidates to win their races on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Micone)

At least 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election on Nov. 5 for seats on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in ANC districts in each of the city’s eight wards.

The 43 winning candidates, about half of whom were incumbents, were among 47 known LGBTQ candidates running this year for ANC seats. Results released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 33 of the winning known LGBTQ candidates ran unopposed on the ballot.

Among the winning LGBTQ candidates were incumbent Vincent Slatt in the Dupont Circle ANC district 2B03, who serves as chair of the ANC’s LGBTQ Rainbow Caucus.

Also, among the known LGBTQ ANC candidates, in just two single member districts, two LGBTQ candidates ran against each other. One was in district 1B03 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which incumbent Jamie S. Sycamore defeated challenger J. Swiderski.

The other was in district 2G01 in the Shaw neighborhood in which Howard Garrett, who serves as president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, defeated challenger Parker Griffin. The two were competing for an ANC seat in which the incumbent did not run for re-election.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city government on a wide range of neighborhood issues. City officials are required to give “great weight” to their recommendations, but government officials are not required to accept the recommendations.

Winning LGBTQ ANC candidates

Following is a list of the known LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. The candidates who won are shown in bold type.

1A04 – (Columbia Heights)
Jeremy Sherman, he/him

1A07 – (Columbia Heights)
Mukta Ghorpadey, she/her

1A10 – (Columbia Heights)

Billy Easley, he/him

1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street)J. Swiderski, they/he
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him

1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill)
Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him

1B07 – (U Street)
Matthew Holden, he/him

1D01 – (Mount Pleasant)

Jay Falk, she/her

1E01 – (Park View)
Brad Howard, he/him

1E07 – (Howard University/Pleasant Plains)
Brian Footer, he/him

2A05 – (Foggy Bottom)
Luke Chadwick, he/him

2B02 – (Dupont Circle)
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him

2B03 – (Dupont Circle)
Vincent Slatt, he/him

2B09 – (Dupont Circle/U Street)
Christopher Davis, he/him

2C01 – (Penn Quarter)
Michael D. Shankle, he/him

2F05 – (Logan Circle)
Christopher Dyer, he/him

2F06 – (Logan Circle)
John Fanning, he/him

2F07 – (Logan Circle)
Kevin Cataldo, he/him

2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him
Howard Garrett, he/him

2G02 – (Shaw)
Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him

2G04 – (Shaw)
Steven McCarty, he/him

3B06 – (Wesley Heights)
S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him

3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park)
Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him

4B01 – (Takoma)
Doug Payton, he/him

4B10  – (Lamond Riggs)
Jinin Berry, she/her

4C06 – (Petworth)
Christen Boss Hayes, they/them

4E02 – (16th Street Heights)
Vince Micone, he/him

5B02 – (Brookland)
Nandini Sen, she/her

5B04 – (Brookland)
Ra Amin, he/him

5B05 – (Brookland)
Mónica Martínez López, she/her

5D05 – (Trinidad)
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him

5D06 – (Trinidad/Carver)

Charquinta (Char) McCray, she/her

5E05 – (Bloomingdale)
Tyler Lopez, he/him

5F06 – (Eckington)
Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him 

6B03 – (Capitol Hill)
David Sobelsohn, he/him

6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle)
Karen Hughes, she/her

7B05 – (Hillcrest)
Elizabeth Reddick, she/them

7C01 – (Deanwood)
Brian Glover, he/him

7C03 – (Lincoln Heights)
Carlos Richardson, he/him

7C04 (Deanwood)

Anthony Lorenzo Green

7C08 – (Capitol View)
Brandon M. Scott, he/him

7E06 – (Benning Ridge)
Ravi K. Perry, he/him

8A01 – (Fairlawn)
Tom Donohue, he, him

8B06 – (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him

8C08 – (Douglass)
Elizabeth Carter, she/her

6/8F04 – (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels

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District of Columbia

D.C. police release photos of suspects in anti-gay attack at 14th & U

In separate case, gay couple attacked on Metrobus on Halloween night

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D.C. police released these images of suspects in the McDonald’s attack. Anyone who can identify these suspects should call police at 202-727-9099.

D.C. police on Nov. 5 released photos of seven suspects linked to the Oct. 27 assault of a 22-year-old gay man at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W. that a police report lists as a suspected hate crime.

The police report says the victim, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, told police as many as 15 people, mostly men and some women, punched him repeatedly in the face and body, with some yelling the word “faggot,” after one of the women criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.

“Thomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man,” Lascarro’s husband, Stuart West, said and who noted that Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas. “This horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma,” West said.

 In a No. 5 statement, D.C. police said the photos of the suspects were obtained from nearby surveillance cameras. D.C. police chief Pamela Smith told the Washington Blade police investigators were working with McDonald’s officials to obtain the video recordings from security cameras inside and outside the MacDonald’s.

“Anyone who can identify these suspects or who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at 202-727-9099,” the police statement says. The statement adds that police are offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for a violent crime in D.C., including the crime targeting Lascarro.

In a separate incident, FOX 5 News has reported this week that a gay male couple said they were the victims of a violent attack on a D.C. Metrobus on Halloween night, Oct. 31, and the two believe the incident should be listed as a hate crime.

According to FOX 5, Nico Nieves and Roy Capell said the incident took place around 1:30 a.m. after they left a gay bar on U Street, N.W., and boarded a Metrobus.

“They were all hitting us from all different angles,” FOX 5 quoted Capell as saying. “I was in the middle trying to block them and protect my partner from getting hit. I took a lot of punches to the back of the head, he took a lot of punches to his face,” FOX 5 quoted him as saying.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, which operates the Metro bus and subway system, didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Washington Blade for further information on the Metro Police investigation of the incident. The Blade also couldn’t immediately reach Nieves and Capell for comment.

FOX 5 reports that WMATA officials said the assault occurred after a group boarded the bus at New Jersey Avenue in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

“A Metro spokesperson indicated that preliminary investigations and video reviews suggested that Nieves and Capell were ‘belligerent and antagonistic’ toward other passengers, which led to a verbal altercation before they were assaulted and robbed of Nieves’s necklace and watch,” FOX 5 reports.

But the TV news station’s report adds that Nieves and Capell dispute that claim, saying they were “simply being affectionate when a woman began yelling at them.” It further quotes Nieves as saying, “They were just calling us names, questioning why we are gay and f****, bunch of names. They started throwing punches because I said it was none of their business who we are, if I’m gay or not.”

Following a Nov. 4 press conference about security plans for election night activity in D.C. at which Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Smith spoke, Smith told the Blade police were actively investigating the McDonald’s assault against Lascarro. She also responded to concerns raised by West, Lascarro’s husband, that police did not initially list the attack as a possible hate crime until he contacted police the next day to ask about that.

“We’ve taken the time to review the body worn camera footage from the officer who conducted the investigation with the victim of that particular crime,” Smith said. “And during that interview there was nothing that was said from the victim that there were any anti-gay or gay or racial slurs being shared with him,” according to Smith.

“We do recognize that often times when individuals go through a significant amount of trauma, they may forget details of what may have occurred,” she told the Blade. “But when we were made aware of the fact that there were some homophobic comments being made, we sent out an investigator, a detective, to do that investigation.”

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District of Columbia

Activists hold chalk art protest at McDonald’s after anti-gay assault

Police say victim attacked, beaten by 15 people for not saying ‘excuse me’

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Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others drew supportive messages in chalk at the site of an anti-gay attack. (Photo courtesy of Joey Minervini)

Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others used chalk to draw LGBTQ supportive messages on the sidewalk outside the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W. at 9 a.m. Sunday Nov. 3, one week after D.C. police say a gay man was attacked and assaulted by 15 men and women at that McDonald’s while shouting the word “faggot.”

Police say they are investigating the Oct. 27 assault against Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, 22, that Lascarro has said began inside the McDonald’s at about 1 a.m. when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.

“He ignored her, and he walked away,” Lascarro’s husband, Stuart West, told the Washington Blade. West said his husband told him the woman then called him a faggot and her friends, who were mostly men, blocked the exit door at the McDonald’s, preventing Lascarro from leaving and about 10 of the attackers began to punch him repeatedly in the face and body.

He was taken by ambulance to Howard University Hospital, where he was treated for multiple cuts and bruises before being released the next day.

Minervini released a series of photos he took of the Nov. 3 chalk protest, a few of which show the words “EXCUSE ME We All Belong” drawn in rainbow colored chalk on the sidewalk in front of the McDonald’s entrance. Other messages they drew on the sidewalk included, “We all belong here,” and “D.C. For You And Me,” with a drawing next to it with fingers making the peace sign.

Joining Minervini for the protest was D.C. artist and muralist Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, who operates a local chalk art and mural business called CHALK RIOT, Minervini told the Blade. He said one of his friends, Darren Pierre, also participated in doing the chalk art drawings.  

Minervini said most passersby, including customers entering and leaving the McDonald’s, appeared to be supportive of the protest, with some taking pictures of the chalk drawings.

“The vibe there was positive,” he said. “Some people were unaware of what we were doing, so I explained to them a gay man was attacked for apparently not saying ‘excuse me.’ So, that’s why we were chalking the words ‘excuse me’ to reclaim the phrase,” Minervini said. “We were doing it there to reclaim the space a little bit.”

He said he did not see any of the McDonald’s employees come out to look at the drawings up until the time the three ended their chalk art action about 10:15 or 10:30 a.m. Minervini said he and a friend walked past the McDonald’s around 5 p.m. Sunday evening and the chalk drawings were still on the sidewalk.

D.C. police have listed the attack against Lascarro as a suspected hate crime. But they have not provided an update on their investigation, including whether investigators have interviewed McDonald’s employees who were present during the attack or whether they have requested video footage from the security cameras at the McDonald’s.

West, Lascarro’s husband, said the ambulance took Lascarro to the hospital before police arrived and police officers first spoke to Lascarro about the attack at the hospital rather than at the scene of the assault.  

“Thankfully, he has been recovering from his injuries, the scrapes, cuts, bruising and swelling have all started to heal, but I fear the real damage can’t be seen,” West said in an updated message in a GoFundMe posting he set up to help defray the costs of Lascarro’s medical expenses.

“Unfortunately, after this incident, he’s battling with many emotions including anxiety, depression, fear of leaving the house and worse, questions whether D.C. is the right fit for him,” West says in his posting.

West told the Blade Lascarro, who goes by his middle name of Thomas, is a recent immigrant from Colombia who has permanent U.S. resident status. He said Lascarro had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker before stopping at the McDonald’s on his way home.

(Photo courtesy of Joey Minervini)
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