Local
Police, fire officials meet community
Pledge of support after spate of anti-LGBT crimes
Members of the GLLU and affiliate officers joined fire and EMS officials in meeting the LGBT community at a public forum on Wednesday. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
More than a dozen affiliate members of the D.C. Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit joined police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department officials Wednesday night for a Public Safety Open House for the LGBT community.
The event, organized by the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, gave activists and community members a chance to mingle with the GLLU’s full-time and affiliate officers before the start of a discussion, where police and Fire Department officials answered questions about community concerns.
Activists attending the open house at the city’s Reeves Municipal Building at 14th and U streets, N.W., praised police and fire officials for establishing policies calling for reaching out to the LGBT community and prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination against police officers, firefighters and EMS workers as well as against members of the public.
But several attendees, including transgender activists Ruby Corado and Jason Terry and gay activist Rick Rosendall, said the supportive actions and attitudes of high-level police officials often don’t filter down to the behavior and actions of rank and file officers.
They pointed to a number of recent incidents involving police officers that have shaken the LGBT community. In one case, several officers refused to take a report of an incident in which four lesbians were assaulted by two male attackers who called them anti-gay names. The incident occurred outside the Columbia Heights Metro station.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the incident is under investigation and the officers could be fired depending on the findings of the investigation.
In another incident that shocked LGBT activists, an off-duty D.C. police officer fired his service revolver at three transgender women and two male friends who were sitting in a car in Northwest D.C. Two of the women and one of the men suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The officer was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.
Transgender activist Jeri Hughes said at the open house that police have not adequately investigated other assaults against transgender women, including one recent case where a trans woman was attacked on a Metro Bus.
Hughes said that while the rate of closing homicide cases in D.C. by making an arrest is 80 percent, the rate of solving homicides involving transgender victims is 20 percent.
On hand to answer questions about these and other concerns were Paul Quander, the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, who oversees the Police and Fire and EMS departments; D.C. Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe; Deborah Hassan, an EMS technician who serves as the Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT community liaison; Capt. Edward Delgado, director Police Department Special Liaison Division, which oversees the GLLU; and Sgt. Carlos Mejia, supervisor of the GLLU.
Also speaking at the event was Melissa Hook, director of the city’s Office of Victim Services, which assists crime victims.
Quander opened the discussion by inviting the LGBT community to inform him about issues of interest.
“I work for you,” he said. “I work for the citizens of the District of Columbia. And I need to meet your needs. I need to know what your issues are…and I have to ensure that everyone is treated equally, that everyone has a voice.”
With D.C. gay activist Peter Rosenstein serving as moderator, several LGBT activists responded by reiterating what they said were longstanding concerns. Among them is the view that Lanier weakened the GLLU by reducing the number of officers at its headquarters office, making it less responsive to the community at a time when anti-LGBT hate crimes are on the rise.
Lanier has said a police funding reduction made it necessary to reduce the GLLU headquarters staff from seven officers and a full-time sergeant to four officers and a part-time sergeant. But she has said the affiliate GLLU officer program she started has resulted in the designation of 46 GLLU affiliate officers, who work out of each of the department’s seven police districts. According to Lanier, the affiliates have greatly expanded the reach of the GLLU, enabling it to respond to all sections of the city at all times of the day and night.
Most LGBT activists and the local group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence say they support the affiliate program but believe the direction and leadership of the GLLU must be set by the full-time officers working out of the unit’s headquarters, which is located in Dupont Circle.
Under Lanier’s officer affiliate program, the affiliate members of the GLLU and separate liaison units working with the Latino, Asian, and deaf and hard of hearing communities devote most of their time to their regular patrol duties in the police district to which they are assigned. Upon receiving special training for liaison unit duties, the affiliates are on call to respond to LGBT-related crimes in their respective districts.
Mejia serves as supervisor of the GLLU and the Latino Liaison Unit. Although activists have praised his work in managing the GLLU they say the unit’s effectiveness is diminished by not having a full-time supervisor.
Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT community liaison Deborah Hassan (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Hassan, the Fire and EMS Department’s LGBT liaison, is less known in the LGBT community than GLLU officers.
In an interview before the start of the open house forum, she told the Blade that all firefighters and EMS workers receive diversity training that includes information about the LGBT community. She said she is unaware of any recent complaints by members of the LGBT community about discriminatory treatment by firefighters or EMS workers.
Hassan said she is out as a lesbian at work. She noted that at her request, she was given an official name badge for her uniform that identifies her as an EMS worker and “LGBT Liaison.”
“We’re here for the community, whether you’re straight or gay,” she said during the open house discussion.
Rosenstein, in introducing Delgado at the open house, said he was pleased that Delgado returned to his job as director of the Special Liaison Division. Rosenstein was referring to a decision by Chief Lanier earlier this year to transfer Delgado to another division and replace him at the liaison division post with a civilian police official who had no direct experience in police work such as investigating crimes.
Some activists criticized Lanier for making the change, saying Delgado had worked well with the LGBT community and appeared more knowledgeable on issues likely to come up in the operation of the Special Liaison Division.
“I’m not going to sit here and say we’ve done everything correctly because we’re all human and we all have faults,” Delgado said. “But you can rest assured that the Metropolitan Police Department stands behind the members of the LGBT community because we actually believe that all members of the community should be protected.”
Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Office of GLBT Affairs, said his office plans to hold more public safety open house events for the LGBT community in the future. He and Rosenstein thanked the GLLU officers for attending the event, including those who came during their off-duty hours.
Richardson noted that the names of all affiliate GLLU officers are posted on the Police Department website on the GLLU page. The listing includes e-mail contact information for each of the officers and shows the police district to which they are assigned, enabling members of the LGBT community to identify the GLLU affiliate officer serving the area where they live.
Rehoboth Beach
Susan Stewart could make history as Rehoboth’s first openly gay mayor
Aug. 8 election features four candidates for top job
(Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a three-part series profiling the candidates for mayor of Rehoboth Beach, Del.: Commissioners Suzanne Goode, Susan Stewart, and Craig Thier; a fourth candidate, William Raak, filed to join the race but has not responded to Blade inquiries.)
Residents of Rehoboth Beach, Del. will elect a new mayor this summer after Stan Mills announced plans to retire after serving six years as mayor and 12 as a commissioner. One candidate who could make history is Commissioner Susan Stewart, who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community, a potential first for the town, which has never had an openly gay mayor.
Stewart is a current city commissioner for Rehoboth Beach and has served as a member of the Mixed-Use and Stormwater Utility Task Forces.
A Pennsylvania native who spent her adult life working in Washington, D.C., Stewart has owned a home in Rehoboth since 2013 with her partner of more than 20 years and began living there full time during COVID.
Stewart described her campaign as offering vision, leadership, and integrity. She has a background as an attorney and financial adviser.
She spoke about the work that she is doing as city commissioner that she would continue as mayor, specifically with Reimagine Rehoboth.
“I’ve been shepherding through a master planning initiative for the first time,” she said. “We’ve never really had an overall study with urban planners and transportation consultants.”
Stewart highlighted the upcoming ‘Charrette Week’ from July 13-17 when members of the community can learn about the city from urban planners and give their input on the planning initiative.
“We’ve got this natural beauty and we’ve got some things we can work on,” said Stewart. During ‘Charrette Week’, Stewart said that the community will also have the chance to rename ‘Reimagine Rehoboth’ due to the pushback it initially received.
“Getting the community engaged and united behind is the big goal,” said Stewart.
Stewart also mentioned that she is the liaison with Clear Space Theatre Company as it aims to build their own venue in town. She expressed hope in bringing this vision to fruition as she values the art and culture that the company brings to town.
“It hasn’t been lost on us that the Kennedy Center has sort of cut loose a lot of its patrons,” said Stewart.
Stewart also said she wants to increase age and racial diversity in Rehoboth through supporting the construction of more workforce housing.
“We don’t generally have [racial and age diversity] here. I wish we did,” said Stewart.
According to the 2024 census, the median age of Rehoboth in 2024 was 63 with 44% of the population being 65 and over. Additionally, 89% of the city’s population was reported to be white.
Stewart also said that she aims to maintain Delaware’s perfect score on the Human Rights Equality Index in 2025, which she credits to the work of the assistant city manager, Evan Miller, and CAMP Rehoboth for getting Rehoboth to be recognized.
“Rehoboth is a great place for our broader LGBTQ+ community,” said Stewart.
She also said that she is proud to support organizations like CAMP Rehoboth, which the city was able to give a grant to for the first time this year according to Stewart.
“The city and CAMP Rehoboth have such a productive and wonderful relationship.”
Stewart said that she wants CAMP to know that they are always welcome to reach out if they ever have issues that require help from the city.
“We’ll continue to have a very productive and warm relationship.”
The Blade also asked Stewart about her public disagreement with fellow City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Suzanne Goode in March of this year.
During a commissioners meeting on March 9, Stewart outlined allegations that Goode used derogatory language in emails, particularly toward City Manager Taylour Tedder.
“All of our emails are public information under FOIA. I simply asked the city to link them on the website, and then the city published a transcript of [Goode’s emails].”
Stewart said that she did this on behalf of the city’s employees such as Tedder: “We have a moral and legal obligation to support our employees.” She also said that this situation has escalated since the March 9 meeting.
At the meeting, Goode denied all of the allegations and said that they were based on falsehoods.
“The challenge with Suzanne Good is that she burns through so much time in a public hearing because she wants to talk about all these things in the past,” said Stewart.
If elected mayor, Stewart said that she would look into measures to help meetings run smoother and prevent disruptions such as turning off mics and moving public comment to the end of the meeting instead of the end of each topic.
“We want public input, but the people that come there for good reasons to talk about things that they need help with get drowned out by these disruptions.”
The election will take place on Aug. 8, from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center.
District of Columbia
SMYAL receives $25,000 award for ‘courageous acts’
D.C. group provides support services for LGBTQ youth
The D.C.-based organization SMYAL, which provides services for LGBTQ youth in the D.C. metro area, including housing for homeless LGBTQ youth, announced on June 30 that it received a $25,000 award for its “courageous acts” in support of the community it serves.
The award was a monetary grant from The Courage Project, which describes itself as a “national initiative investing in acts of courage and compassion that strengthens our communities and democracy.”
A statement on its website says it was launched in May 2025 and is funded and backed by leading national foundations in the U.S.
“At SMYAL, we are deeply grateful to receive support from The Courage Project and are inspired by their bold investment in LGBTQ+ youth at such a critical moment,” SMYAL CEO Erin Whelan said in a statement. “For queer and trans young people, simply showing up as themselves each day requires immense courage, and that courage is strengthened when organizations like The Courage Project stand behind them loudly, proudly, and without hesitation,” Whelan said.
In its statement announcing the award SMYAL says The Courage Project will recognize SMYAL and other awardees and their work on July 3 at the Washington National Cathedral as part of a special interfaith service marking the U.S. 250th anniversary.
“The Courage Project is a bold initiative honoring everyday acts of bravery – the quiet, often unseen acts of heroism that reflect the best of the American spirit and strengthen democracy at the community level,” the project states on its website.
Delaware
Delaware approves amendment protecting same-sex marriage
Measure must pass second vote in next year’s session
The Delaware General Assembly passed Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 100 on the last day of the legislative session on Tuesday after being rescinded last week.
Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 100 (SB-100) passed with 28 ‘yes’ votes, meeting the two-thirds threshold required for the bill to pass. Tuesday was the last day of the 153rd General Assembly.
The amendment would enshrine the right to same-sex and interracial marriage in the Delaware Constitution.
SB-100 was rescinded last week after it did not receive enough votes to pass. Democrats were short by three votes, with two Democratic members missing from the vote.
Rep. Josue Ortega (D-03) voted ‘no’ on SB-100 and Rep. Medinah Anton-Wilson (D-27) did not vote. However, both members voted ‘yes’ for Senate Substitute 2 for SB-100 on Tuesday.
Prime sponsor of SB 100, Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall (D-14), made the technical decision to change her vote last week from a ‘yes’ to a ‘no’ at the last minute to keep the bill alive.
Additionally, Republican Assemblyman Michael Smith (R-22) joined the Democrats with a ‘yes’ vote after voting ‘no’ on SB-100 last week.
In order for SB 100 to be enshrined into the state Constitution, it must be passed by two consecutive General Assemblies. Thus, the amendment will not be officially added to the Constitution unless it passes in the 154th General Assembly next year.
Rep. Snyder-Hall introduced the measure earlier this week.
“Just one week ago, we failed to pass this legislation. We failed the people of Delaware. But today, on the final day of the legislative session, the 153rd General Assembly affirmed that every Delawarean has the fundamental right to marry the person they love, regardless of race or gender,” said Snyder-Hall.
“Thank you to my colleagues for recognizing that the right to marry is a right worthy of protection and for voting yes on this important constitutional amendment.”
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