Local
Fenty vs. Gray presents tough choice for LGBT voters
Both seen as gay allies; race triggers shakeup in Council contests
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.
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Congratulations to RODRIGO HENG-LEHTINEN on his new role as Trevor Project Senior Vice President of Public Engagement Campaigns. On accepting the position, he said, “My mission has long been to stop LGBTQ, and especially trans, people from being perceived as political footballs and start getting us seen as real people – your friends, your families, your neighbors. Now I get to focus on that 100% at The Trevor Project.”
Prior to this, he was executive director, Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), where he co-led the merger of two national transgender rights organizations, NCTE and TDLEF, to create the new organization. He had served as executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, leading that organization through a period of growth, restoring organizational size and stability. He had served as deputy executive director prior to that. Previously he served as vice president of Public Education, Freedom for All Americans, where he led a successful campaign for transgender nondiscrimination protections in New Hampshire. He oversaw a full range of legislative lobbying, field organizing, and communications strategies and oganized a leadership coalition, established structure, and divided roles for key committees of 17 state and national partner organizations and local activists.
Heng-Lehtinen conducted English-language interviews with outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and Politico. He planned a Transgender Leadership Summit for the Transgender Law Center and served as Development & Donor Services Assistant, Liberty Hill Foundation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from Brown University.
Local
D.C., Va., Md. to commemorate World AIDS Day
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle will hold a Mass, candlelight prayer vigil
The D.C. area will observe World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 through a variety of community events.
Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day aims to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and honor the individuals affected by the epidemic. The global theme for 2025 is “overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response.”
Washington
DC Health will host a World AIDS Day event at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library from noon to 9 p.m on Dec. 1. Attendees can expect live performances, free food and free HIV testing.
The all-day event will also feature community resources from DC Health, DC Public Library, DC Health Link, Serve DC, and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
The Lily and Earle M. Pilgrim Art Foundation is partnering with Visual AIDS, a New York-based non-profit that uses art to fight AIDS, to reflect on World AIDS Day with a film screening on Dec. 1.
The David Bethuel Jamieson Studio House at Walbridge in Mount Pleasant will premiere “Meet Us Where We’re At,” an hour-long collection of six videos. The free screening highlights the complexity of drug use in intersection with the global HIV epidemic.
The videos, commissioned by artists in Brazil, Germany, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Vietnam, showcase the firsthand experience of drug users, harm reduction programs, and personal narratives. The program intends to showcase drug users as key individuals in the global response to HIV.
In addition to streaming the videos, the event will include an evening potluck and conversation led by Peter Stebbins from 6-8 p.m.
The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle will hold a 5:30 p.m. Mass and candlelight prayer vigil at 6 p.m. in honor of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The event is open to all and includes a subsequent reception at 6:30 p.m.
The Capital Jewish Museum is hosting a speaker series on Dec. 2 from 6:30-8 p.m. that explores the response to AIDS within the Jewish community. Speakers include LGBTQ psychiatrist Jeffrey Akman, physician assistant Barbara Lewis and Larry Neff, lay service leader at Bet Mishpachah, a synagogue founded by LGBTQ Washingtonians. Heather Alt, deputy director of nursing at Whitman-Walker Health, will moderate the event.
The program is free for museum members. General admission is $10 and Chai tickets, which help subsidize the cost of general admission, are $18. Tickets include access to LGBT Jews in the Federal City, a temporary exhibition that collectively explores Washington, Judaism, and LGBTQ history. The exhibition is on view through Jan. 4, 2026.
Virginia
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and local residents will commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 at the Lee Center.
The event, which is free to attend, will include music, choir performances, educational moments and more. The commemoration will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Maryland
The Frederick Center will host talks, tabling and a raffle in honor of World AIDS Day. The Frederick County Health Department will conduct free HIV testing.
The event, which is free to attend, will be held on Nov. 30 from 1-4 p.m. The Frederick County Health Department always offers free, walk-in HIV testing on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Prince George’s County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority will host a community day of awareness in honor of World AIDS Day on Dec. 6 from 1 a.m. to 2 p.m. The free event will feature free, confidential HIV testing, private talks with medical professionals and health workshops.
The event will be held at Suitland Community Center in Forestville and will include breakfast and snacks.
Damien Ministries is commemorating World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 through the grand opening of the We the People Community & Wellness Collaborative. The event, held at 11:30 a.m. at 4061 Minnesota Avenue, N.E., is free to attend.
Damien Ministries is a faith-based non-profit committed to supporting those with HIV/AIDS.
Begin Anew, a Baltimore non-profit that provides education, outreach and resources to improve public health, wellness and economic stability, is hosting its 4th Annual World AIDS Day Community Celebration on Dec. 1 alongside community partners.
Hosted at the University of Maryland BioPark from noon to 3 p.m., the program will feature keynote speaker Jason E. Farley of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The celebration will also dedicate awards to local heroes focused on fighting HIV/AIDS and promoting health equity.
The free event includes lunch, live entertainment and networking opportunities with health advocates and partners.
District of Columbia
Bowser announces she will not seek fourth term as mayor
‘It has been the honor of my life to be your mayor’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a longtime vocal supporter of the LGBTQ community, announced on Nov. 25 that she will not run for a fourth term.
Since first taking office as mayor in January 2015, Bowser has been an outspoken supporter on a wide range of LGBTQ related issues, including marriage equality and services for LGBTQ youth and seniors.
Local LGBTQ advocates have also praised Bowser for playing a leading role in arranging for widespread city support in the city’s role as host for World Pride 2025 in May and June, when dozens of LGBTQ events took place throughout the city.
She has also been credited with expanding the size and funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which was put in place as a Cabinet level office by the D.C. Council in 2006 under the administration of then-Mayor Anthony Williams.
It was initially called the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Affairs. At Bowser’s request, the D.C. Council in 2016 agreed to change the name as part of the fiscal year 2016 budget bill to the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Affairs.
As she has in numerous past appearances at LGBTQ events, Bowser last month greeted the thousands of people who attended the annual LGBTQ Halloween 17th Street High Heel Race from a stage by shouting that D.C. is the “gayest city in the world.”
In a statement released after she announced she would not run for a fourth term in office; Bowser reflected on her years as mayor.
“It has been the honor of my life to be your mayor,” she said. “When you placed your trust in me 10 years ago, you gave me an extraordinary opportunity to have a positive impact on my hometown,” her statement continues.
“Together, you and I have built a legacy of success of which I am immensely proud. My term will end on Jan. 2, 2027. But until then, let’s run through the tape and keep winning for D.C,” her statement concludes.
Among the LGBTQ advocates commenting on Bowser’s decision not to run again for mayor was Howard Garrett, president of D.C.’s Capital Stonewall Democrats, one of the city’s largest local LGBTQ political groups.
“I will say from a personal capacity that Mayor Bowser has been very supportive of the LGBTQ community,” Garrett told the Washington Blade. “I think she has done a great job with ensuring that our community has been protected and making sure we have the resources needed to be protected when it comes to housing, public safety and other areas.”
Garrett also praised Bowser’s appointment of LGBTQ advocate Japer Bowles as director of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs,
“Under the leadership of the mayor, Japer has done a fantastic job in ensuring that we have what we need and other organizations have what they need to prosper,” Garrett said.
Cesar Toledo, executive director of the D.C. based Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing services for homeless LGBTQ youth, credits Bowser with transforming the Office of LGBTQ Affairs “into the largest and most influential community affairs agency of its kind in the nation, annually investing more than $1 million into life-saving programs.”
Toledo added, “Because of the consistent support of Mayor Bowser and her administration, the Wanda Alston Foundation has strengthened and expanded its housing and counseling programs, ensuring that more at-risk queer and trans youth receive the safety, stability, and life-saving care they deserve.”
Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein is among those who have said they have mixed reactions to Bowser’s decision not to run again.
“I am sorry for the city but happy for her that she will now be able to focus on her family, and her incredible daughter,” Rosenstein said.
“She has worked hard, and done great things for D.C,” Rosenstein added. “Those include being a stalwart supporter of the LGBTQ community, working to rebuild our schools, recreation centers, libraries, gaining the RFK site for the city, and maintaining home rule. She will be a very hard act to follow.”
Local gay activist David Hoffman is among those in the city who have criticized Bowser for not taking a stronger and more vocal position critical of President Donald Trump on a wide range of issues, including Trump’s deployment of National Guard soldiers to patrol D.C. streets. Prior to Bowser’s announcement that she is not running again for mayor, Hoffman said he would not support Bowser’s re-election and would urge the LGBTQ community to support another candidate for mayor.
Bowser supporters have argued that Bowser’s interactions with the Trump-Vance administration, including her caution about denouncing the president, were based on her and other city officials’ desire to protect the interests of D.C. and D.C.’s home rule government. They point out that Trump supporters, including Republican members of Congress, have called on Trump to curtail or even end D.C. home rule.
Most political observers are predicting a highly competitive race among a sizable number of candidates expected to run for mayor in the 2026 D.C. election. Two D.C. Council members have said they were considering a run for mayor before Bowser’s withdrawal.
They include Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who identifies as a democratic socialist, and Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), who is considered a political moderate supportive of community-based businesses. Both have expressed strong support for the LGBTQ community.
The Washington Post reports that Bowser declined to say in an interview whether she will endorse a candidate to succeed her or what she plans to do after she leaves office as mayor.
Among her reasons for not running again, she told the Post, was “we’ve accomplished what we set out to accomplish.”
Comings & Goings
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