Local
Stein Club endorses Biddle
Former councilmember Orange makes strong showing in D.C. Council bid
Sekou Biddle (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, endorsed Democrat Sekou Biddle Monday night for an at-large seat on the D.C. City Council that’s up for grabs in an April 26 special election.
Biddle beat former Council member Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) and four other Democratic candidates competing for the club’s endorsement in a second ballot vote, capturing 61.2 percent of the ballots cast. He needed at least 60 percent of the vote for the endorsement under the club’s election rules. Both candidates are straight.
The D.C. Democratic State Committee appointed Biddle, a former Ward 4 school board member, to the at-large Council seat on an interim basis in January under rules established for filling vacant Council seats. The seat became vacant when Council member Kwame Brown (D-At-Large) became Council Chair after winning election to that post in November.
Stein members voted on the endorsement following a candidates’ forum held at Town nightclub in which Biddle and each of the other five candidates appearing before the club expressed strong support for LGBT issues, including support for the city’s same-sex marriage law.
Biddle won the club’s endorsement in 2007 in his successful race for a school board seat and was considered the favorite for winning an endorsement again Monday.
But Orange, in a stronger showing than expected, received 16 votes, or 38.7 percent, of the 53 votes cast on the first ballot, preventing Biddle from capturing the needed 60 percent to win. Biddle received 30 votes, or 56 percent, on the first ballot.
Ward 8 Democratic Committee president Jacque Patterson received four votes in the first ballot voting. Joshua Lopez, an aide to former Mayor Adrian Fenty; Bryan Weaver, a former Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner; and Dorothy Douglas, a former Ward 7 school board member, received one vote each in the first ballot vote.
On the second ballot, which was limited to Biddle and Orange, Biddle received 30 votes compared to 19 votes received by Orange.
Three additional candidates running in the April 26 special election were ineligible to compete for the Stein Club’s endorsement because they are not Democrats. They include Patrick Mara, a Republican and longtime supporter of LGBT rights; Alan Page, a Statehood Green Party candidate; and independent candidate Arkan Haile.
Democratic candidate Tom Brown did not return a Stein Club questionnaire required for the club’s endorsement and for participation in the forum. Although he attended the forum, he was not allowed to speak. He has since promised to complete and return the questionnaire, and the club will post it on its website, according to club officials.
The questionnaire responses by the six candidates who attended the club’s endorsement meeting, which cover a wide range of LGBT issues, can be viewed at steindemocrats.org.
“It’s exciting to get the support of Gertrude Stein Democratic Club members,” Biddle said after the vote. “I think I’ve shown in the four years since I’ve been serving the city that I’ve made people proud and I’ve led and have really been a champion for the LGBT community.”
The Stein club’s interim president, Lateefah Williams, said the club’s officers and members would decide within the next week on the amount of a campaign contribution the club would make for the Biddle campaign. She said the club would also provide volunteers to help the campaign.
“We endorsed a candidate who’s very committed to LGBT issues,” Williams said. “We’re very fortunate that all of our at-large Council candidates are indeed supportive of our issues.”
Nearly all special elections in D.C. have been known for attracting a low voter turnout, making the outcome hard to predict, according to political observers.
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics issued a ruling on Tuesday disqualifying Patterson as a candidate in the April 26 election, saying it determined he failed to submit the required 3,000 petition signatures needed to be placed on the ballot for an at-large Council seat. In a separate ruling, the board confirmed that Mara obtained more than 3,000 signatures and qualifies for placement on the ballot. The board investigated Patterson, Mara and Weaver’s petitions in response to challenges filed by the Biddle and Lopez campaigns. A board spokesperson said the challenges against Weaver’s petitions were dropped.
District of Columbia
Hands Off the Arts to form ‘human chain’ around Kennedy Center
Drag performer Tara Hoot among event organizers
An organization called Hands Off the Arts has announced it is holding a protest on Friday, Sept. 18, in which between 400 and 800 participants are expected to create a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center to voice their strong objection to President Donald Trump’s call for possibly demolishing the Kennedy Center.
“Hands Off the Arts is organizing a rally Sept. 18 against the president’s defacing of JFK’s memorial, his removal and censorship of art, and the threat to demolish the center if he can’t remake the site in his image,” a statement released by the group says.
The statement says the event will start with a rally at 6:30 p.m. on the Kennedy Center steps and culminate with a “human chain” around the building. “There will be musical performances, testimonials from current and former employees, along with other special guest speakers,” it says
A separate announcement by the group says longtime D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in past years, was among the organizers of the Sept. 18 protest.
The planned protest follows Trump’s decision last year to use his authority to replace the existing members of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors with new members loyal to him. Over the objection of longtime Kennedy Center supporters, the Trump-appointed board changed the name of the center, at Trump’s request, from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But following the threat of legal action by opponents who pointed out that the name change could not be legally made unless approved by Congress, the name change was cancelled, with Trump saying he would take steps to restore it later.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports in a Sept. 13 news story that because of negative publicity related to Trump’s actions, the Kennedy Center was facing “fiscal collapse” and possible bankruptcy and could be forced to shut down as early as this week.
According to the Post report, a 57-page document presented to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees says the center was facing a financial and structural building crisis, with the recent collapse of part of the building’s inside ceiling, indicating the building was unsafe for employees and the public. Among other things, the document says the Kennedy Center may not be able to make payroll or pay for routine maintenance “within a matter of weeks,” the Post reports.
Some LGBTQ advocates were among those who joined others in boycotting the Kennedy Center to express their objections to Trump’s actions, including a statement by Trump that he objected to the Kennedy Center’s practice of hosting drag performances.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has been among the LGBTQ performing arts groups and artists that have performed at the Kennedy Center.
“With the future still very much uncertain, now more than ever, the Center needs you to stand up for freedom of expression and against authoritarian overreach into arts and culture institutions,” the Hands Off the Arts group says in its announcement of the Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest.
“You have the opportunity to make a difference — show up with Hands Off the Arts and show your power as part of Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” it says.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Baltimore
Transgender woman killed in Barclay community mourned by friends, advocates
Sophie Lee shot to death on Friday morning
By DARREONNA DAVIS | Denise Johnson imagined spending Sunday with her daughter, Sophie Lee, eating crabs at the park. Instead, she stood on a Barclay street corner Sunday evening surrounded by nearly 100 people who came to remember her daughter, a transgender woman who was fatally shot there Friday.
The 27-year-old woman was found in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street around 1:15 a.m. Friday, Baltimore Police said in a news release.
Lindsey Eldridge, a police department spokesperson, said it’s unclear if her identity had anything to do with her death and the investigation is ongoing.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, landed an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a new job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Jaime Christopher Pierce on their appointment to serve as a member of the Virginia Governor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. Pierce was sworn in on Sept. 3 by Greg Parks, clerk of the Alexandria Circuit Court.
Pierce currently serves as vice chair of the Alexandria City LGBTQIA+ Task Force and as a member of the Alexandria Pride planning committee. They previously served on the board of directors of Equality Virginia.
Upon being sworn in, Pierce said, “Public service has been a central part of my life for more than 30 years, and this appointment gives me an opportunity to serve the Commonwealth in a different and very personal way. My career has allowed me to work with people and communities throughout Virginia, and I hope to bring that experience, along with my own lived experience and my involvement in the LGBTQ+ community, to the work of the Board.” They added, “Having Greg administer the oath makes the occasion even more meaningful because of his own historic role as Virginia’s first openly gay elected circuit court clerk.”
Pierce also serves as Circuit Court Services Manager for the Department of Judicial Services, at the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia. They began their career in Virginia’s judiciary in 1994 as a deputy clerk with the Virginia Beach Circuit Court and have since held several professional and leadership positions within the court system. Pierce is a member of the National Association for Court Management (NACM) and the Mid-Atlantic Association for Court Management. At the national level, Pierce participated in the workgroup that developed the National Association for Court Management’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Guide, a resource designed to help court professionals advance inclusive practices and strengthen access, fairness and belonging within the justice system.
Pierce earned a degree in Criminal Justice from Liberty University, and a certificate in Paralegal Studies from Norfolk State University.
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Comings & Goings
