Local
LGBT witnesses back D.C. anti-bullying bills
ACLU says legislation could violate students’ civil liberties


D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray presided over a hearing this week on two bills to address bullying and harassment in public schools. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Nine witnesses representing the LGBT community expressed strong support for two bills aimed at prohibiting bullying in D.C. schools, public libraries and parks during a City Council hearing this week.
The LGBT witnesses, including two gay and one transgender student, gave examples of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in the D.C. public school system. They joined other witnesses in noting that existing public school policies pertaining to bullying were not strong enough to adequately address the problem.
“The District of Columbia has been a pioneer on issues such as nondiscrimination in schools and yet is one of only a handful of jurisdictions in this country without an anti-bullying law,” said Alison Gill, a public policy associate with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
Gill and other witnesses pointed to the 2009 D.C. Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a federally funded study that includes data on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. Among other things, the study found that 29 percent of LGB teens in the city’s middle schools and high schools have attempted suicide. The study did not collect data on transgender students.
Anti-gay bullying and harassment are believed to have played a large role in prompting the youth to consider suicide, Gill and other witnesses said.
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray presided over the hearing in his current role as City Council Chair and chair of the Council’s Committee of the Whole. He takes office as mayor on Jan. 2.
The Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, which is chaired by Council member Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5), conducted a joint hearing on the two bills, the Bullying Prevention Act of 2010 and the Harassment and Intimidation Prevention Act of 2010.
Gray said after the hearing that the two bills would be combined following a markup hearing that he predicted would take place sometime next year.
“I don’t see the evidence of a comprehensive policy existing in the city on this,” Gray told reporters after the hearing, saying a combined version of the two bills would go a long way to address the problem of bullying.
The Bullying Prevention Act, which Gray and Council member Michael Brown (I-At-Large) introduced in April, calls for developing a “model policy prohibiting bullying, harassment and intimidation in the District of Columbia public schools.” It requires all public schools to adopt an anti-bullying and harassment policy at least as strong as the model policy defined in the bill.
The Harassment and Intimidation Prevention Act, which was introduced in October by Thomas, calls for developing similar policies banning bullying and harassment but expands the coverage to D.C. public charter schools, the city’s public libraries and parks and recreation centers, and to the University of the District of Columbia.
Thomas’s bill also covers bullying and harassment conducted through “electronic communication,” such as e-mail or social networking sites.
The bill defines harassment, intimidation or bullying as “any gesture or written, verbal or physical act, including electronic communication, that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory handicap, or by any other distinguishing characteristic…”
It says an act of bullying, intimidation or harassment would be one that “a reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, will have the effect of harming a student or damaging the student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to his person or damage to his property.”
The definition further states that the act in question “has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students in such as way as to cause substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of a school, university, recreation facility, or library.”
Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the D.C. chapter of the ACLU, said the ACLU supports the concept of anti-bullying legislation but has concerns that the wording of the two proposed bills in D.C. could violate students’ civil liberties.
“What does it mean by harming a student?” he said of part of the definition in one of the bills. “Does that mean hurting a student’s feelings? If a student comes in and says I feel very harmed by the fact that so and so said I was a crappy athlete … That’s not bullying,” he said.
“So I think the language here needs to be tightened up.”
Spitzer told the Washington Post that it would be “perfectly legitimate” for a student to say he or she thinks homosexual conduct is “against the word of God.” Although such a comment might hurt the feelings of a gay student, that should not be defined as bullying but instead as “an opinion that every student has a right to express,” he told the Post.
GLSEN spokesperson Daryl Presgraves said GLSEN believes the language in the two D.C. bills would not violate students’ civil liberties. But he said GLSEN and others supporting the bills would be open to making changes if the ACLU demonstrates that the language would prevent students from expressing their opinions in a way that doesn’t cross the line of true bullying and harassment.
Trina Cole, a male to female transgender student who graduated in 2009 from D.C.’s Dunbar Senior High School, told the hearing she was victimized by harassment and intimidation that went far beyond hurting her feelings.
“At school, I was often both verbally and physically abused,” she said. “We need to have more support in our schools so that the bullying that I went through does not continue to happen every day.”
Cole testified on behalf of Metro Teen AIDS, a D.C.-based group that provides services to LGBT youth at risk for HIV.
Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian for the city’s public library system; Jesus Auguirre, director of the Department of Parks and Recreation; and Mark Farley, vice president of the Office of Human Resources for the University of the District of Columbia each expressed strong support for the two bills.
A spokesperson for the D.C. public schools did not appear before the hearing. Gray said the person expected to testify had a scheduling conflict and was expected to submit written testimony within the next week.
Gay activist and ANC commissioner-elect Bob Summersgill noted that the D.C. Public Schools currently use city-adopted regulations pertaining to student discipline as a basis for addressing bullying and harassment of students. A provision of the city’s Human Rights Act and a March 2000 directive by the then D.C. schools superintendent are also used as a patchwork of rules or laws to address bullying.
“The limitations in all of these laws and regulations are the implementation and enforcement,” Summersgill told the hearing. “If a school fails to make clear that bullying will not be tolerated, or if a teacher or staff fails to intervene when bullying occurs, or if a teacher or staff makes a derogatory comment or through inaction shows their distaste for some group, then they are tacitly giving approval of bullying and harassment,” he said.
Michael Musante, an official with Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), which advocates for D.C.’s public charter schools, said the group did not support the proposed legislation, saying charter schools were formed as semi-autonomous institutions independent from city control.
He said many charter schools already have anti-bullying polices and said charter schools prefer to address bullying through school disciplinary codes rather than “one-size-fits-all legislation.”
Gray and Council member Michael Brown, speaking after the hearing, said they favor including charter schools in the legislation before the Council.
“They have over 30,000 of our kids being educated with public money,” Gray said of the charter schools.
Others who testified in favor of the bills at the hearing included Renee Reopell, program associate for the D.C. LGBT community center; Peter Rosenstein, LGBT community activist; Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance; Bill Briggs, executive director of Metro D.C. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); and Andrew Barnett, executive director of Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL).
District of Columbia
Victim of anti-gay rock-throwing assault in D.C. speaks out
Homeowner says arrested juvenile harassed him, husband prior to attack

Addam Lee Schauer-Mayhew, the gay man who was struck in the face by a rock thrown through the front window of his house in Northeast D.C. on June 6 by a 13-year-old juvenile male says he and his husband think it’s important for the community to know more of the details surrounding this incident.
Schauer-Mayhew spoke to the Washington Blade about the incident after the Blade reached out to him for comment. He said he and his husband, Bryan C. Schauer, wanted to point out that the rock-throwing attack was the most recent in a series of incidents in which the same juvenile and others accompanying him have targeted them with anti-gay slurs and throwing rocks at their house and car since last October.
D.C. police announced on June 16 that they had arrested a 13-year-old juvenile male one day earlier on Sunday, June 15, on a charge of Assault With Significant Bodily Injury, in connection with the rock-throwing attack against Schauer-Mayhew.
A police report says the rock struck Schauer-Mayhew in the left eye causing a laceration under the eye.
A separate police statement said the charge against the juvenile was listed as a “Hate/Bias” incident and noted that “LGBTQ+ flags were displayed at the front of the home.”
Schauer-Mayhew told the Blade he and his husband have displayed at least one Pride flag at the front of their house since they purchased it in the city’s Kingman Park neighborhood four-and-a-half years ago, essentially “coming out” to their neighbors. He said the neighbors have been fully supportive of the two as a gay couple since they moved into their house.
But around October of last year, around the time of Halloween, a few juvenile males began targeting the couple at their house by yelling homophobic slurs, including the word “faggot,” Schauer-Mayhew said, with the juvenile who assaulted him on June 6 of this year being among them.
Last November, over Thanksgiving weekend, the same juvenile male and a few of his cohorts broke into the couple’s backyard and carport while the couple was out of town visiting relatives, according to Schauer-Mayhew.
He said the break-in, as was the rock-throwing attack, was captured on video by surveillance cameras they have installed in several places on their house and property. Schauer-Mayhew said the couple provided D.C. police with video footage of the rock-throwing incident, in which he said the juvenile can be seen walking up to the house and throwing the rock through the window.
“I was sitting on our sofa in our living room, and I was just sitting there minding my own business,” Schauer-Mayhew told the Blade, while watching a tennis tournament on television.
“I heard the window break and then I felt something hit my face,” he said. “And my husband was upstairs, and he comes running down the stairs. And he was the one that called 911.”
He added, “My face was covered with blood. My hands were covered with blood. I walked over to my kitchen sink, and I collapsed on the floor.”
But when paramedics arrived in an ambulance in response to the 911 call, he said he declined an offer to take him to a hospital.
Schauer-Mayhew pointed out that the attack occurred on the day he and his husband planned to attend the WorldPride Music Festival held at the RFK Stadium grounds located close to where they live.
“I did decline to go in an ambulance to the hospital because I very much still wanted to be able to enjoy Pride weekend,” he said. “I did receive a lovely black eye. But it has since subsided, and the wound is healing well. But I will have a gash on my face,” he told the Blade.
“And after all of this happened, and everything calmed down, I soldiered up and we went to the festival,” he said. But while there he said bleeding under his eye resumed, prompting him to go to an emergency medical services tent on the festival grounds. “I was able to get the proper attention, and then the wound kind of glued up and then I rejoined the rest of the festival.”
According to Schauer-Mayhew, people in the neighborhood played an important role in helping D.C police locate and arrest the juvenile who assaulted him. The arrest took place on June 15.
He said the youth who assaulted him and others who hung out with him were known as neighborhood troublemakers who, among other things, broke into homes and cars to engage in thefts.
Just by chance, Schauer-Mayhew said he was in his car driving to a nearby grocery store on June 15 when he saw the juvenile who assaulted him leaning out of the window of another car driving nearby.
“And I instantly called my husband, and I said they’re back,” he said. By the time he arrived home he and his husband learned through an online “neighborhood chat chain” that others had also seen the juvenile and his cohorts and called police. The calls and follow-up sightings the next day, on June 16, enabled police to track down and arrest the 13-year-old juvenile.
“My message has always been I feel no malice toward them,” Schauer-Mayhew said when asked if he had a message for the juvenile who assaulted him and those he hung out with. “I just want them to get help and go down a better path than terrorizing people they don’t even know.”
Because court records of cases involving juveniles are sealed from public access, the Blade could not immediately determine the status of the case, including whether prosecutors with the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes juvenile cases, was prosecuting the case as a hate crime.

Delaware
Del. governor signs order to protect gender-affirming care
Directive to safeguard personal data of patients, providers

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer signed an executive order to protect gender-affirming care on June 20 at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, followed by the first meeting of the newly formed LGBTQ commission, which will work to protect the rights of LGBTQ Delawareans.
Executive Order 11 makes Delaware a shield state for providers of gender-affirming care. It prohibits state agencies from cooperating with investigations, subpoenas, or legal actions by other states against individuals or providers involved in care that is legal in Delaware.
Gender-affirming care refers to a range of medical, psychological, and social services that are designed to support transgender and nonbinary individuals towards aligning their outward characteristics with their gender identity.
“Across the country, people are being punished for seeking or providing gender-affirming care,” said Meyer in a press release. “In Delaware, we cherish privacy, dignity, and the right to make personal medical decisions. Everyone deserves the freedom to access healthcare rooted in science and compassion.”
CAMP Rehoboth Communications Director Matty Brown said the center was “honored” to be the location for the signing. He said the atmosphere was “emotionally charged” and “joyous” with many “tears of joy.”
“CAMP Rehoboth applauds this executive order,” Brown told the Washington Blade. “This is a clear signal to all Delawareans that all are welcome to thrive here … We know that medical care should be between the provider and the patient, so we are so excited to see Gov. Meyer uphold that.”
State Rep. DeShanna Neal spoke at the event and told a story of her fight with the state to get gender-affirming care for her trans daughter.
“I want to thank Gov. Meyer for his actions today and helping me keep a 20-year promise to my daughter and all the families that this fight has helped,” said Neal.
At least 14 other states and D.C. have passed similar protective laws designed to shield providers and patients from laws in states where gender-affirming care is restricted or criminalized.
“Transgender Delawareans and those traveling here for care can now breathe a little easier,” said Cora Castle, chair of the LGBTQ Commission. “This executive order reflects what science and medical experts have made clear for years: gender-affirming care is lifesaving. It also shows what happens when people with lived experience are trusted to help shape policy — we lead with both empathy and evidence. Delaware is proving what it means to protect all its people.”
District of Columbia
Rainbow History Project WorldPride exhibition hit by vandalism
Organizers scramble to repair damaged exhibits in D.C.’s Freedom Plaza

At least five of the multiple exhibits displayed in D.C.’s Freedom Plaza as part of the local Rainbow History Project’s WorldPride exhibition have been damaged by one or more vandals since the exhibition opened on May 18, according to Vincent Slatt, one of the exhibition’s lead organizers.
The most recent incident took place during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 22, when someone pulled down two of the exhibits displayed on decorated chain link fences, Slatt told the Washington Blade.
The Rainbow History Project exhibition, called “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington,” has been available for public viewing 24 hours each day since it opened in Freedom Plaza, which is located near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. between 13th and 14th streets.
Slatt says it will remain open until its scheduled closing on July 6, regardless of efforts by vandals to strike at its individual LGBTQ exhibits.
“Covering 1965 to the present, the exhibition explores the history of Pride in D.C. in 10 distinct thematic eras,” a statement released by Rainbow History Project says. “Each of the 10 areas are detailed in thematic cubes rich with history and visuals,” it says.
Slatt said at least two instances of vandalism, including the June 22 incident, occurred between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. during the time when a security guard working for a security company retained by Rainbow History Project was scheduled to be on duty at the Freedom Plaza site. But Slatt said the guard appears to have left before his shift was supposed to end, leaving the exhibition unsupervised.
“And so sometime during that security guard’s shift last night it happened,” said Slatt, referring to the two exhibits that were pulled down Sunday morning, June 22.
He said a decision was made later that day to fire the security company and retain another company to provide security for the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. Slatt said volunteers recruited by Rainbow History Project have been acting as “monitors” to secure the site during daytime and the evening up to 11 p.m. He said the group was unable to recruit volunteers to staff the shift from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Rainbow History Project, according to Slatt, received a $1,000 payment invoice from the company that has been providing the metal fencing for the exhibits under a rental agreement after one of the vandals damaged two ten-foot-by-ten-foot fencing strips beyond repair last week.
Slatt said a possible suspect for acts of vandalism appeared in Freedom Plaza the day before the exhibition opened on May 17, as volunteers were setting up the exhibits.
“The first night we were out there we had a homophobe yelling at us when he saw the word gay,” said Slatt, who described the person as a white male with red hair and a red beard appearing in his 30s or 40s in age. “He’s been out here a couple of times preaching the Bible and yelling slurs,” Slatt said.
At least one witness, a homeless man who sometimes sleeps in Freedom Plaza at night, has reported seeing a man fitting that same description vandalizing an exhibit, Slatt told the Blade.
He said Rainbow History Project has reported the vandalism incidents to the U.S. Park Police, which has jurisdiction over Freedom Plaza. A Park Police officer who came to the site on June 22 to prepare a report on the latest incident advised exhibition volunteers to call police immediately if they see the male suspect return to the site.
As if all this were not enough, Slatt said a few of the exhibits that had been damaged by a vandal and were structurally weakened were blown down by high winds during the storm that hit the D.C. area on June 19. He said volunteer workers put everything back together over the next few days only to have the yet unidentified vandal or vandals pull down two other exhibits on June 22.
-
National5 days ago
Activists rally in response to Supreme Court ruling
-
Israel4 days ago
Iranian missile destroys Tel Aviv’s last gay bar
-
National4 days ago
FDA approves new twice-yearly HIV prevention drug
-
South Sudan4 days ago
The forgotten struggle: LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan