Local
Questions surface over resignation of AIDS director
Catania calls loss of Hader ‘catastrophic’
The announcement Tuesday that Dr. Shannon Hader, director of the city’s HIV/AIDS administration, had resigned after serving three years at an agency she is credited with greatly improving drew expressions of puzzlement and concern among LGBT and AIDS activists.
Speculation that the resignation could be linked to disagreements between her and the director of the Department of Health, Dr. Pierre Vigilance, under whom she served, surfaced when the department omitted any mention of Hader in a statement announcing her interim replacement.
“I share the concern of the community about the abrupt departure of Dr. Hader,” said Peter Rosenstein, a local gay activist. “We have to make sure we don’t fall back into the hole again on AIDS,” he said, referring to the AIDS administration’s reputation for being trouble-plagued prior to Hader’s tenure there.
Mayor Adrian Fenty formally announced Hader’s resignation at an impromptu news conference Tuesday afternoon, when he introduced Dr. Nnemdi Kamanu Elias, the AIDS administration’s chief medical director, as Hader’s temporary replacement.
“Our city has made considerable strides in the fight against communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, increasing the number of HIV testing programs and investing in HIV/AIDS awareness and research,” Fenty said. “I am confident that Dr. Kamanu Elias and the District will continue to ensure that city residents are armed with the necessary tools to protect and improve their health.”
The mayor’s office said a nationwide search would be conducted to find a permanent replacement.
Fenty told the Blade on Thursday that Hader, whom he described as having done “a fantastic job” at the city’s HIV/AIDS administration, felt it was time to “move on” in her career.
“Just like everything else in life, there’s a time when you move on and do something bigger, better and/or different,” he said. “And I think it was that time for her.”
Fenty said he had no comment on speculation of friction between Hader and Vigilance.
Hader will leave her current post July 15 and will begin a new job sometime this summer as vice president of the D.C.-based Future’s Group, an international consulting firm that works on public health issues.
Hader told the Blade in an e-mail that she would leave it to the mayor’s office to comment on details surrounding her resignation rather than discuss the matter herself.
“I will continue to be involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, just changing hats from time to time,” she said. “I look forward to putting on the new hat of ‘expert & engaged community member’ with regards to the fight against HIV/AIDS in D.C. I am a resident, I am a constituent, I am passionate about our community and feel privileged to be (and continue to be) a part of it!” she said in her e-mail.
Gay D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who have been outspoken advocates for city programs on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Washington Post, which contacted Catania, reported he declined to comment on speculation that he was deeply troubled that Fenty and Vigilance did not take adequate steps to keep Hader in her post as D.C.’s AIDS administration head.
“Her loss is catastrophic,” the Post quoted Catania as saying.
Catania told the Blade in an interview last week, before news of Hader’s resignation surfaced, that she played an instrumental role in improving the city’s AIDS programs, helping to transform the AIDS administration from what he called an agency in “total chaos.”
Although few people use its full name, the administration was merged two years ago with other health department agencies and renamed the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis & Sexually Transmitted Disease Administration.
As chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, Catania is also credited with focusing attention on the problems at the AIDS administration through numerous committee oversight hearings.
Before becoming head of the city’s AIDS administration, Hader had served as an epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program in Zimbabwe.
Kamanu Elias became chief medical officer for the D.C. AIDS administration in February 2009. The statement from the mayor’s office says her duties included ensuring “the technical and programmatic quality of HIV/AIDS and related programs throughout the DOH.”
Before joining the D.C. government, she worked as senior manager at the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership in the Netherlands. The organization is an arm of the European Commission and was created to support the development of “clinical interventions for HIV and other diseases in Africa and to build the capacity of developing country scientists,” the statement from the mayor’s office says.
Cameroon
Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now
Ludovic Mbock’s homeland criminalizes homosexuality
By ANTONIO PLANAS | An immigration judge on Friday issued a $4,000 bond for a Cameroonian immigrant and regional gaming champion held in federal immigration detention for the past three weeks.
The ruling will allow Ludovic Mbock, of Oxon Hill, to return to Maryland from a Georgia facility this weekend, his family and attorney said.
“Realistically, by tomorrow. Hopefully, by today,” said Mbock’s attorney, Edward Neufville. “We are one step closer to getting Ludovic justice.”
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position
Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.
The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.
“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.
The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.
Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.
“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Mayor Bowser expected to attend March 20 event
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, and local and national Democratic Party officials are expected to join more than 150 LGBTQ advocates and supporters on March 20 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the city’s Capital Stonewall Democrats.
A statement released by the organization says the event is scheduled to be held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery building at 702 8th St., N.W. in D.C.
“The evening will honor the people who built Capital Stonewall Democrats across five decades – activists who fought for rights when the odds were against them, public servants who opened doors and refused to let them close, and a new generation of leaders ready to carry the work forward,” the statement says.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats.
Among those planning to attend the anniversary event is longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Paul Kuntzler, 84, who is one of the two co-founders of the then-Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Kuntzler told the Washington Blade that he and co-founder Richard Maulsby were joined by about a dozen others in the living room of his Southwest D.C. home at the group’s founding meeting in January 1976.
He said that among the reasons for forming a local LGBTQ Democratic group at the time was to arrange for a then “gay” presence at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at which Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and later won election as president.
Maulsby, who served as the Stein Club president for its first three years and who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he would not be attending the March 20 anniversary event, but he fully supports the organization’s continuing work as an LGBTQ organization associated with the Democratic Party.
Steven McCarty, Capital Stonewall Democrats’ current president, said in the statement that the anniversary celebration will highlight the organization’s work since the time of its founding.
“Capital Stonewall Democrats has been fighting for LGBTQ+ political power in this city for 50 years, electing people, training organizers, holding this community together through some really hard moments,” he said. “And right now, with everything going on, that work has never mattered more. This gala is the first moment of our next chapter, and I want the community to be a part of it.”
The statement says among the special guests attending the event will be Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, who became the first openly gay LGBTQ person of color to win election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018.
Other guests of honor, according to the statement, include Mayor Bowser; D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5, the Council’s only gay member; D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large); Earl Fowlkes, founder of the International Federation of Black Prides; Vita Rangel, a transgender woman who serves as Deputy Director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments; Heidi Ellis, director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; Rayceen Pendarvis, longtime D.C. LGBTQ civic activist; and Phillip Pannell, longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activist and Ward 8 civic activist.
Information about ticket availability for the Capital Stonewall Democrats anniversary gala can be accessed here: capitalstonewalldemocrats.com/50th
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