Local
Slain D.C. middle school principal was gay
Brian Betts hailed as innovative educator, hero to students
Brian Betts (Photo by Bel Perez Gabilondo; courtesy of D.C. Public Schools)
Brian Betts, the highly acclaimed D.C. middle school principal who was found shot to death April 15 at his home in Silver Spring, Md., was out as a gay man to a circle of friends and D.C. public school system colleagues, multiple sources have told the D.C. Agenda.
Montgomery County police said they discovered Betts’ fully clothed body in a second floor bedroom in his house along the 9300 block of Columbia Boulevard in Silver Spring. Police noted there were no signs of a forced entry into the house, leading them to believe that Betts, 42, invited his killer or killers inside.
Police spokesperson Sgt. C. Thomas Jordan said he could not comment on whether Betts’ murder was related to the slain principal’s sexual orientation, saying only that homicide detectives were investigating all possible angles of the case to identify a suspect or suspects.
“I know our investigators are talking to everyone they know of to get to the bottom of the case,” he said. “We are going to investigate every avenue. Our role is to solve a homicide.”
Betts established a reputation as a rising star in the Montgomery County public school system as a teacher and assistant principal before D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee recruited him to join her and Mayor Adrian Fenty’s efforts to overhaul the District’s long troubled school system.
In 2008, Rhee named Betts principal of Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson, a recently reorganized school in the city’s historic Shaw neighborhood. School officials said he quickly emerged as one of the school system’s most innovative principals.
The Washington Post reported that students liked him so much that they asked and Rhee agreed to allow 100 students to remain at the middle school for their ninth grade instead of the normal process of advancing to another school for that grade.
“The unexpected death of Brian Betts is unspeakably tragic for his family, for the Shaw Middle School community, and for all of D.C. Public Schools,” Rhee said in a statement.
“Brian Betts had the courage to take on the leadership of a struggling, underperforming DCPS school,” she said. “He was an inspirational leader for the teachers and for the students, and that leadership was bringing results. He knew what the children under his care were capable of, and he was determined to show them how to get there.”
Montgomery County police disclosed that D.C. police found Betts’ blue Nissan Xterra SUV on April 16 along the 3900 block of Fourth Street, S.E., in D.C., where it was believed to have been abandoned by two suspects between noon and 3 p.m. Police sources said investigators learned from a nearby resident that two males were seen leaving the vehicle, but as of Tuesday police declined to release a description of them.
On Monday, a Montgomery police spokesperson issued another statement saying investigators established that Betts was alive at least until 11:30 p.m. April 14. News media have reported neighbors observing that Betts had hosted a barbeque cookout for one or more people in his back yard on the night of April 14. Police would neither confirm nor deny that report.
Police arrived at Betts’ house about 7:30 p.m. April 15 after a co-worker called to report he had failed to show up at work that morning and could not be reached. The co-worker arrived at the house to investigate his whereabouts and entered the house after discovering the front door was unlocked, police said. Rather than investigate further, the co-worker called police, and police discovered Betts’ body in an upper floor bedroom.
One gay man who knew Betts from the time Betts lived in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood said Betts had a circle of gay friends and was seen patronizing the Dupont Circle gay bars Omega and Fireplace.
Another gay man who knew him said he assumed Betts was “out” as gay because many people in the gay community knew him in gay circles.
“He was definitely a member of the GLBT community,” said the man, who spoke to D.C. Agenda on condition that he was not identified.
Capt. Paul Starks, director of the Montgomery County police’s public affairs office, declined to comment on Betts’ sexual orientation or whether police were looking into whether the case was a possible hate crime or pick-up murder.
Gay activists and LGBT anti-violence groups in D.C. and other cities have expressed concern in the past that police investigators sometimes failed to seek help from the LGBT community in cases where mostly gay men were robbed or killed by men they met in gay clubs or meeting places and invited home.
In an investigative series of stories in the 1980s and 1990s, the Washington Blade reported more than 20 murders of gay men in the D.C. metropolitan area believed to be pick-up murders remained unsolved. Police confirmed that in each of the cases, investigators found no signs of a forced entry into the victims’ homes, where their bodies were found.
Following the murder of D.C. gay resident Anthony Perkins in December, when police found him shot to death inside his parked car in Southeast D.C., the D.C. police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit distributed flyers with Perkin’s photo to local gay clubs seeking information from members of the LGBT community.
The GLLU issued a similar flyer in February following the murder of a gay man from Maryland who also was shot inside his car on a Northeast Washington street.
D.C. police have arrested and charged suspects with first-degree murder while armed in both cases.
“Brian Betts was by all accounts an amazingly dedicated teacher and administrator,” said Peter Rosenstein, a D.C. gay activist. “Nothing can ever take that reputation from him. I never knew Brian, but friends did and according to them he was a brilliant, charming, funny, committed-to-his-family-and-students gay man.
“If this is true, my question to the police is: If his murder could be related to his being gay, are they using the GLBT community to help find his murderer?” Rosenstein said. “Are notices being sent out through the GLLU and other avenues to find this murderer and bring him [or] them to justice? Brian deserves no less from society than that we find who is responsible for this heinous crime.”
Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which monitors violence against LGBT people, said her group defers to police, family members and relatives of LGBT crime victims on whether to disclose the sexual orientation of such victims.
But she added, “Certainly the stigma and fear about being outed is something that can be an obstacle to investigating cases where someone may identify as LGBT.”
“We want people to feel free to come forward if they think that they have information that would be helpful,” Stapel said. “But all of those decisions have to be made in the context of what’s going on in their lives and in the victims’ lives and in the lives of other folks who care for the victim.
“And the reality is we still live in a very violent and very dangerous homophobic world.”
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, called Betts “a remarkable example of many, many, many men and women who are gay and lesbian who dedicate their lives to education.”
Pointing to Betts’ work to help transform D.C.’s public schools through his job as a middle school principal, Byard characterized him as “a real example of the amazing work that lesbians and gay men are doing as leaders in schools every single day, whether they are principals or teachers, and the contributions they are making to our schools.”
Maryland
Baltimore Heritage wants Md. LGBTQ historical sites added to National Registry
Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s Mount Vernon home among historical sites
Baltimore Heritage is continuing its mission to preserve Maryland’s LGBTQ history.
The group, using documentation, is attempting to get statewide LGBTQ historical sites listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Kentucky was the first state to make this effort, using a similar study to Maryland, which outlined a comprehensive list of LGBTQ heritage sites.
Baltimore Heritage, a local non-profit, 15 years ago began its efforts to promote LGBTQ heritage within the local community, mainly with walking tours to sites important to LGBTQ history. Preservation Maryland in 2018 received a grant, and Susan Ferentinos spent two years compiling a comprehensive list of LGBTQ historical sites, later published in 2022.
Suffragist Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s Mount Vernon home is one of the examples of the LGBTQ historical sites.
Although Garrett never labeled herself, she was involved in same-sex relationships, was a leader in the feminist movement, and played a large role in advancing education for women.
Although the effort has been ongoing, Baltimore Heritage Executive Director Johns Hopkins explained that Baltimore Heritage and its partners’ goal is to add Maryland to the public conversation on LGBTQ history.
“Bringing a little bit of a spotlight to some of the sites that are important, locally and nationally, would be meeting a goal of trying to have a broader, more in-depth public discussion around LGBTQ history, so we all know where we’re coming from,” said Hopkins.
District of Columbia
Community mourns passing of D.C. trans rights advocate SaVanna Wanzer
Acclaimed activist credited with founding D.C. Trans Pride
Three D.C.-based LGBTQ advocacy organizations released statements on April 24 announcing that highly acclaimed D.C. transgender rights advocate SaVanna Wanzer has passed away.
A family member told the Blade that Wanzer died on Friday, April 24 of natural causes. She was 63.
Among other things, the advocacy groups noted that Wanzer is credited with being the lead founder of the D.C. Trans Pride and D.C. Black Trans Pride celebrations and events.
“As a trailblazing transgender activist, educator, and founder of D.C. Trans Pride, D.C. Black Trans Pride, and May Is All About Trans, SaVanna created and led transformative transgender programming during D.C. Black Pride that ensured trans voices, stories, leadership, and lived experiences were centered, celebrated, and protected,” according to the statement from the Center for Black Equity, an LGBTQ organization.
“Her work was not just about representation, it was about liberation, community, and making sure Black Trans lives were honored in rooms, stages, policies, and movements that too often overlooked them,” the statement says.
In its own statement, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, called Wanzer an icon of D.C.’s Black trans community and longtime leader in many LGBTQ organizations.
“SaVanna Wanzer was a D.C. legend,” Tori Cooper, HRC’s Director of Strategic Outreach and Training, said in the statement. “She advocated for many years for the trans community and for people living with HIV, and served with many organizations, including D.C. Black Pride, Capital Pride, and NMAC [National Minority AIDS Council],” the statement adds.
“I can say firsthand that SaVanna will not just be missed for her work, but for her sisterly wisdom and her sense of humor,” Cooper said in the HRC statement.
In its own statement, Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, called Wanzer a “trailblazer” in her role as founder of Capital Trans Pride, D.C. Black Trans Pride, and the May Is All About Trans events. It says she served on the Capital Pride Board of Directors
“SaVanna was not just an advocate and community organizer but also a knowledge holder and elder voice in our movement,” the statement adds
In an undated statement on its website released before Wanzer’s passing, the D.C. group Food and Friends, which provides home-delivered meals to people in need, including people with HIV and cancer, says Wanzer had been one of its clients in the past. It says she had been living with heart problems since she was 16 and learned she had HIV in 1985 when she went to donate blood while working at the time for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It also says she had diabetes, which was under control.
Among her many involvements, Wanzer also served as a volunteer for D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health, which provides medical services for the LGBTQ community along with other communities. In 2015, Whitman-Walker selected Wanzer as the first recipient of its Robert Fenner Urquhart Award for her volunteer services at Whitman-Walker for more than 20 years.
The Center for Black Equity appeared to capture the sentiment of those in the LGBTQ community who knew Wanzer in the concluding part of its statement on her passing.
“Her vision continues to guide us,” it says. “Her courage continues to inspire us. Her impact will continue to live through every person, every Pride, and every space made more possible because she dared to lead,” it says. “Rest in power, SaVanna Wanzer. Your light remains with us.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser posted a remembrance on social media: “I am deeply saddened by the passing of SaVanna Wanzer. SaVanna Wanzer’s impact spans more than three decades in Washington, DC. The founder of DC Trans Pride, DC Black Trans Pride, and May Is All About Trans, she was a fierce advocate and a beloved leader. We are grateful for SaVanna’s commitment to making sure that transgender people—especially Black trans residents—are visible and respected.
“Her legacy lives on in the communities she built and the countless lives she touched. My condolences are with all who loved SaVanna Wanzer.”
The family member said funeral arrangements are expected to be announced early next week. This story will be updated.
Virginia
Prominent activists join ‘Living History’ panel at Freddie’s Beach Bar
Event organized by owner of new Friends of Dorothy Café in Alexandria
Six prominent LGBTQ community leaders and elders, including a beloved drag performer, talked about their role in advancing the rights of LGBTQ people and their thoughts on how the upcoming generation of LGBTQ youth should get ready to join the movement participated in an April 23 “Living History” panel discussion at Freddie’s Beach Bar.
The event was organized by Dorothy Edwards, who plans to open Friends of Dorothy Café in Alexandria. She said the café will be an LGBTQ community “intergenerational space” that will host events like the one she organized at Freddie’s Beach Bar.
“It will be a space for connection, storytelling, and belonging, especially for LGBTQ+ youth and community members who don’t always have places like that,” she said in a statement announcing the event at Freddie’s.
The six panelists at the Freddie’s event included Kierra Johnson, president of the D.C.-based National LGBTQ Task Force; Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s Beach Bar located in the Crystal City section of Arlington, Va.; Donnell Robinson, who for many years performed in drag as the icon Ella Fitzgerald; Taylor Chandler Walker, a local transgender rights advocate, author and public speaker; Heidi Ellis, coordinator of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; and Leti Gomez, an LGBTQ Latino community advocate and chair of the board of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.
Dr. Ashley Elliott, an LGBTQ community advocate and clinician who also goes by the name Dr. Vivid, served as moderator of the panel discussion, asking each of the panelists a serious of questions before opening the event to questions from the audience.
Among the issues discussed by the panelists was who was “centered” and who was excluded in the earlier years of LGBTQ organizing. Elliot also asked the panelists to address topics such as racism within queer spaces, gender dynamics, and strategies for coalition building between the LGBTQ community and other movements, including civil rights, feminism, and immigrant rights.
Each of the panelists expressed various thoughts on how the LGBTQ rights movement can make changes in response to the questions: “What can we do better?” and “Who is being left out?”
“I’m overwhelmed and so thankful that everyone on this panel said yes and agreed to come,” Edwards told the Washington Blade at the conclusion of the event. “I think every one of those people, including the moderator, was so brilliant and has done such good work for this community,” she said.
Edwards noted that each of the panelists, who have been involved in LGBTQ advocacy work for many years, talked about how they interact with younger LGBTQ people who are just beginning to become involved in activism.
“Truly, it’s an intergenerational conversation, and their wisdom and their words and their experiences can be disseminated to younger generations and people who want to do this work, people who want to fight for our community,” Edwards said.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Lutz said. “I thought it was a good turnout, and everybody was very enthusiastic and engaged,” he said. “And I think it was great and fabulous.”
Lutz has operated Freddie’s Beach Bar for more than 25 years and has hosted numerous LGBTQ events. A sign above the front entrance door to the popular LGBTQ bar and restaurant says, “Straight Friendly Gay Bar.”
Edwards said the April 23 event was recorded and she will make arrangements for the recording to be released for others to view it. The Blade will post the link in this story when it becomes available.
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