Local
Police, military officials lead Kameny farewell
Mayor, Council members join friends, activists in memorial ceremony


(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
A gay Air Force sergeant and four gay military veterans in full dress uniform joined gay D.C. Council members David Catania and Jim Graham as pallbearers at a memorial viewing on Thursday honoring the late gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny.
The contingent of pall-bearers, including gay former Army Lt. Dan Choi, carried an American flag draped coffin bearing Kamenyās remains into the main hall of the historic Carnegie Library in downtown Washington, where the viewing was held.
Friends and activists who knew Kameny during his 50 year tenure as one of the nationās and D.C.ās leading LGBT rights advocates said the ceremony and memorial viewing of his closed coffin was a befitting sendoff for a man they said improved the lives of millions of LGBT Americans.
Members of the Gay Menās Chorus of Washington opened the ceremony by singing the National Anthem as D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, four D.C. Council members and a contingent of friends and activists stood near the coffin.
Hundreds of activists, community allies, public officials, and D.C. residents who knew Kameny or knew of his work filed past the coffin between 3 p.m. and the start of the ceremony at 6:60 p.m. Among them was John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the highest ranking openly gay appointee in the Obama administration.
The Rev. Elder Troy Perry, founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, which caters to mostly LGBT congregations throughout the country, traveled from his home base in Los Angeles to attend the event. Perry, an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights for more than 30, worked with Kameny on national LGBT related projects in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mayor Gray said Kameny’s civil rights work led to a “massive, positive change” in the way LGBT people live their lives both in D.C. and across the nation.
āFrank Kameny is one of the most significant figures in the history of the American gay rights movement,ā Gray told the gathering. āIt was a poignant coincident that Dr. Kameny passed away on National Coming Out Day because he came out as a proud gay man in an era in which there were virtually no social and legal supports for sexual minorities who chose to live their lives openly in this country.ā
Organizers of the ceremony, led by local activists and Kameny friends Charles Francis and Bob Witeck, placed at one end of the coffin a picket sign that Kameny made for a 1962 gay rights protest he organized outside the White House. The sign, still attached to its original wood stick handle, states, āHomosexuals Ask for the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness.ā
At the other end of coffin stood a portrait of Kameny painted by local gay artist Don Patron.
Norton, a leader of the black civil rights movement, said Kamenyās acts of ādefianceā and āraw, pure undiluted courageā during the decades he fought oppression against LGBT people put him in a place similar to that of black civil rights legend Rosa Parks.
Norton noted that Kameny began his fight for equality and justice for LGBT people shortly after he was fired for being gay from his job as an astronomer with the U.S. government in the late 1950s.
āFrank Kameny no more set out to sacrifice his livelihood when he refused to deny his sexual orientation to federal authorities than Rosa Parks intended to give up her work as a seamstress when she refused to move to the back of the bus,ā Norton said. āRosa Parks got tired of suppressing her full identity and her full dignity. So did Frank Kameny,ā said Norton, adding, āThere is a special place in our country for people like Frank Kameny. The phrase he coined, āGay is Good,ā is every bit as significant as Black is Beautiful.ā
Kameny died in his home Oct. 11 at the age of 86. Organizers of his memorial said a larger community memorial celebration of his life will take place Nov. 15 at a location to be announced.
āHe was a great man who made it possible for me to be who I am,ā said Rick Wood, a D.C. gay activist who said Kameny helped him organize the cityās first gay youth group 25 years ago.
āWhen I heard of Frankās passing I was heartbroken but also grateful for the fearless and brave life that he led,ā said Catania. āWeāre all better off for having had Frank walk this earth. He changed minds and opened hearts to acceptance and tolerance in Washington and all over the world.ā
Graham, who said he got to know Kameny during Grahamās tenure as director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, called Kameny an āextraordinaryā figure on the Washington scene for half a century.
āIt is not possible to overstate the contribution that has been made by Frank Kameny for human rights, for gay and lesbian people and for everybody because, in point of fact, he was concerned about everybody,ā Graham said.
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance and a friend and colleague of Kamenyās for more than 20 years, read from a chapter Kameny wrote for a book about the early “homophile movement” that was published during Kameny’s early years of activism. Kameny’s message in the book chapter was intended for a gay audience.
āItās time to open the closet door and let in the fresh air and the sunshine,ā Rosendall quoted Kameny as saying. āIt is time to doff and discard the secrecy, the disguise and the camouflage. It is time to hold up your heads and to look the world squarely in the eye as the homosexuals that you are, confident of your equality, confident in the knowledge that as objects of prejudice and victims of discrimination, you are right and they are wrong, and confident of the rightness of what you are and the goodness of what you do. It is time to live your homosexuality fully, joyously, openly and proudly, assured that morally, socially, physically, psychologically, emotionally, and in every other way ā gay is good.ā
Joining the contingent of gay military pallbearers were four members of the D.C. Police Departmentās Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, who served as pallbearers at the conclusion of the ceremony. With participants and well wishers lining the steps and plaza outside the Carnegie Library, the GLLU members and two of the gay military veterans carried Kamenyās coffin to a hearse on the street
Kamenyās friends and activist colleagues said they arranged for Kamenyās body to be cremated, based on Kamenyās expressed wishes, shortly after his death on Oct. 11. An urn bearing his ashes had been placed in the coffin for the ceremony.
Witeck said he and others close to Kameny had yet to decide on a burial site or other resting place for the Kamenyās ashes. One place under consideration, Witeck said, is D.C.ās Congressional Cemetery.
District of Columbia
‘AG Schwab! Do your job!’ D.C. activists protest for trans youth healthcare
Action comes days after anti-trans executive order

About 100 activists protested outside of the offices of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Thursday, Feb. 13. The assembled protesters held signs in support of access to gender-affirming care and support for trans youth.
The activists called upon the D.C. Attorney General to “issue public guidance affirming that denying care based on gender identity is unlawful under D.C.’s anti-discrimination laws as well as use the full authority vested in their office to ensure this care is reinstated,” according to a statement.
This action comes days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning gender-affirming care nationwide for minors. D.C. hospitals, including Children’s National Hospital, began to comply.
Speakers at the rally included Rebecca York, director of youth development and community engagement for the D.C.-area LGBTQ youth services organization, SMYAL.

“SMYAL has long been a partner of Childrenās National, a partnership we have been incredibly proud of, especially working with their Pride Clinic team,” York told the crowd. “Their dedication to providing gender-affirming care has been a lifeline for many young people and their families in our communities, offering relief, comfort and hope. But now those lifelines have been cut off. We are incredibly disappointed in and concerned by the hospitalās decision to suspend gender-affirming care to comply ā in advance ā with the administrationās executive order attempting to restrict healthcare for trans youth.”
“This decision was made out of fear: the fear of losing funding,” York continued. “And it has abandoned the very youth who need it most. This executive order, barely two weeks old has already had devastating impacts on the lives of trans and non-binary youth. These cruel policies are not abstract. They are real, they are dangerous and they are hurting our young people today.”
“Gender-affirming care saves lives for trans youth,” said York.
Also speaking at the event was Dr. Omar Taweh.
“In our youthful, vibrant, queer city, doctors provide compassionate care for trans people literally all the time.” Taweh told the assembled protesters. “And weāre just here to demand that our local government leaders, including AG Shwalb over here, join the rest of the states that are taking stances ā¦to defend trans and gender-affirming care.”
Protesters formed a picket line and began a series of chants, including, “AG Schwab! Do your job!”
The action was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America.
District of Columbia
Death of D.C. gay robbery victim ruled a homicide
Police pursuing additional charges against two juveniles

D.C. police announced on Feb. 15 that the death of gay DJ and hairstylist Bryan Smith, 39, who police say was assaulted and robbed Oct. 27, 2024, in the 500 block of T Street, N.W., has been ruled a homicide.
Police said Smith was found unconscious at about 5 a.m. on the street where they believed he was assaulted and robbed and taken to a D.C. hospital. A short time later he was transferred at the request of family members while in a coma to a Northern Virginia hospital, where he died on Nov. 7.
āOn Thursday, February 13, 2025, the Northern Virginia Medical Examinerās Office advised that the cause of death for the victim was blunt force trauma and the manner of death a homicide,ā the D.C. police statement says.
The statement notes, as the Washington Blade and other media outlets have reported, that D.C. police on Nov. 14, 2024, arrested two juvenile males, 14 and 16 years of age, on robbery and assault charges in connection with the assault and robbery of Smith.
At the time of the arrest, police said they had evidence showing the two juveniles were implicated in three other assault and robbery incidents that occurred on the same night as the assault and robbery of Smith in nearby locations.
According to the statement, D.C. police detectives are working with the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes crimes committed by juveniles, to determine whether āadditional chargesā should be brought against the two juveniles following the determination that Smithās death was a homicide.
The arrest of the two juveniles was announced by D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith at a Nov. 15 press conference near the site where Smith was attacked.
āWe are here today to announce the arrest of two suspects responsible for a series of robberies in this community on Sunday, Oct. 27, including the robbery of 39-year-old Bryan Smith, who was walking home in the 500 block of T Street, N.W.,ā Chief Smith told reporters attending the press conference.
āOn behalf of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as myself, I send my deepest condolences to Mr. Smithās family as well as his friends,ā Chief Smith said. āWhile nothing can undo this senseless loss, we hope todayās arrests are of some measure of justice and a step toward healing,ā she said.
Chief Smith also said that police investigators had no evidence to indicate the assault and robbery of Bryan Smith was āmotivated by hate or bias.ā
District of Columbia
Dancing protesters denounce Trumpās Kennedy Center takeover
āThis is an attack, not only on free speech, but on artistsā

Waiting in the windy cold of a 45-degree February day in Washington, Tara Hoot stood in Washington Circle wearing a canary yellow dress, heels, and a rainbow feather boa. Hoot was waiting, along with about 100 others, although most of them were wearing layers of clothes, for a protest to begin.
āI am here because, well, I’m angry at the situation we find ourselves in,ā Hoot told the Blade amid a growing crowd of pro-drag and pro-LGBTQ protesters who gathered behind her. āI’m just so annoyed that this sitting president is attacking a marginalized population. It’s a distraction for the country when everything’s falling apart. The cost of eggs is up there, and inflation is rising, and he’s here attacking a marginalized population in D.C.? It’s like, go do your job, right? It’s immoral what he’s doing, and it’s weak to attack the marginalized population. He’s just showing his own weakness.ā
Last week President Trump promised followers that he would remove anyone that ādo not share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” specifically targeting drag performers at the Kennedy Center. On Wednesday he made that goal a reality by removing the 18 Democratic members on the formerly bipartisan Kennedy Center board, replacing them with Trump loyalists.
This raised questions of the legality of removing the board, and his seeming attempt to silence First Amendment rights. As a result, the Kennedy Center issued a statement following Trumpās post.
āPer the Center’s governance established by Congress in 1958, the chair of the board of trustees is appointed by the Center’s board members,ā the statement read. āThere is nothing in the Center’s statute that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members; however, this would be the first time such action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board.”
Of the newly appointed board members, all have stood behind the twice impeached president as he continues to slash the federal government. These loyalists include Richard Grenell, a gay man who served as Trumpās ambassador to Germany in his first term; Usha Vance, the second lady of the United States; Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; and Patricia Duggan, a philanthropist and top GOP donor.
The newly appointed board then elected Trump as chair.
When asked what Hoot, a local drag icon who has performed at the Kennedy Center, would say to the current board, she was quick with an answer.
āWell darling, they missed their chance!ā Hoot said. āI was running for board president of the Kennedy Center, the people’s princess, I would say. Art is gorgeous and diverse and beautiful, and it’s a way that we all tell our stories. The board needs to keep the heart of the Kennedy Center in mind, no matter who their board chair is. They actually need to have a spine and push back when these ideas that art has to be one thing or another, the board needs to push back and keep the Kennedy Center a people’s place for art.ā
Brooke N Hymen, a self-described āprofessional crossdresserā and trans person explained that to them, the changes in public attitude is more than a silencing of free speech, but an erasure of trans people.
āI find that attacks on drag are not just an attack on my heart, my livelihood, but also a veiled attack on trans people,ā Hymen said. āThey want to code trans people and what they do in their daily expression as drag as a way to ban trans people. So if we don’t stand up against these attacks on drag, trans people are the first people that will be harmed.ā
Hymen went on to say there are clear and simple ways that the board could offset these actions that directly and negatively impact the LGBTQ community.
āMore drag programming, more queer artists, more queer musicians, and more queer casts,ā they said. āTara Hoot was running for board of the Kennedy Center. I don’t know how possible that is under Trump, but I think that it’s a lovely sentiment and something that we should all push for.ā
Putting Hoot back in the Kennedy Center was also on the mind of other participants of the protest dance party. John Borstel, a former arts administrator, also said that appointing someone like Hoot to the board would be beneficialāif only to ensure that someone would speak out at the Kennedy Center.
āGet out and let the bipartisan board back in,ā Borstel said. āGet out and get people who know the arts back in. Let Tara Hoot in here! The drag queen who’s performed at the Kennedy Center. She’s been outspoken about this. She’s gone on record where the Biden appointed and ousted board members won’t even make a public statement about what happened. They’re afraid for themselves. We’ve got drag queens speaking out. The bureaucrats won’t speak up.ā
His sentiment regarding the lack of response from former Kennedy Center officials was echoed in his grievances with other established members of the arts community who didnāt show up at the protest. It did make him proud in a unique way though.
āI have never been prouder than I am tonight, to be a gay man, to be queer, because it’s the queers who have come out to protest it ā but it’s affecting everybody,ā Borstel said. āHe’s going to cut it all down. Everybody should be out here. I worked in the arts sector for over 30 years here. Where are those folks? But the queers are here. And they’re dancing!ā

Bennett Shoop, one of the protest organizers with the Claudia Jones School for Political Education, told the crowd at Washington Circleājust before their march down New Hampshire Avenue to the front of the Kennedy Centerāthat drag is deeply intertwined with Washingtonās history and that ignoring it means erasing that history.
āDrag is really important to D.C. and it’s important to D.C. history,ā Shoop said to the diverse and growing crowd of people listening. āWilliam Dorsey Swann was the first drag queen in the United States, an enslaved person who called themselves āthe queen of drag,ā who threw drag balls right here in this city. Drag is a D.C. institution, one that Trump has decided is going to be one of his top targets for his fascist administration. But it’s not just about drag performers at the Kennedy Center. This administration wants to remove all kinds of gender non-conformity and LGBTQ people at large from public life, just like the Nazis did at the Hirschfeld Institute when they burned all of those books.ā
āThis is D.C.,ā he continued as the crowd cheered him on. āD.C. is the queerest city per capita in the United States. We may not have representation in the federal government, but we do have a fighting spiritā¦He could pass all the executive orders and do all of the fascist takeovers that he wants, but queer and trans people will still be here. You know, we will still dance, and that dance will long outlive them.ā
One of those members of the LGBTQ community who resisted oppression through dance and protest, Shoop explained as he concluded his speech, could be credited with sparking the modern gay rights movement.
āLet us never forget that it was none other than drag king StormĆ© DeLarverie who inspired the Stonewall uprising that led to the gay liberation revolution of the ā70s. Drag was a part of our revolution then, and it must be a part of our revolution now. I just want to end with a quote from the namesake of our school, Claudia Jones, who once said āthat a people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.ā So like our predecessors, let this be the genesis of ours.ā
Following speeches by the other organizing groups, the group of 200 or so walked in the middle of the road toward the Kennedy Center singing and occasionally stopping to dance. Onlookers from apartments along the road opened windows waving at the group, occasionally screaming words of support from stories up.
One of those marching in protest was Jennifer Ives of Germantown, Md. She was bundled up in a coat and hat while holding a sign, dancing along the protest route.
āIām here because I want to support the trans and gay communities,ā Ives told the Blade. āI believe that soldiers should get their hormone treatment, their therapy, their pills. I believe that Trump should get out of the Kennedy Center. I believe that right now, there’s an assault on the trans community, and we just can’t stand for it. So we gotta protest, and we gotta dance.ā
Another participant, dressed in full dragāfrom voluminous black and red hair to a sparkly, tinsel-covered suit and thick white heelsāemphasized that no matter what executive orders are signed or what bans pass through state legislatures, LGBTQ people have always been here and always will be.
āThe main reason is to show that even though these actions have been taken, and though they want to strip us of our power, that we’re still here,ā said drag performer Rhiannon LLC. āI think an important thing that stuck with me after the election, even though we lost, Kamala Harris, her main message was, we’re not going back. And if we let that message die, then we kind of go along with it. So to be here and to be out, it’s awesome.ā
They continued, saying that if they had the ability to say one thing to the Kennedy Center board, it would be two words: āHave integrity. Although Trump may be there for the next four years, you are there after. These actions will follow you, and your job right now is to support the arts. So support the arts.ā
One of the last speeches of the night was delivered directly in front of the Kennedy Center, its marble walls and gold columns providing a final backdrop for the protest. Pussy Noir, another local drag legend, was handed a mic to wrap up the night.
āThis is an intense time for all of us,ā said Noir, who currently has a residency with the Kennedy Center REACH program and performs in drag across the city. āI don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m the main drag queen that brought drag to the Kennedy Center, and with many other drag queens in this city, helped establish it as a real art form.ā
Noir took a moment to look out at the crowd, their faces illuminated by the glow of the Kennedy Center, before finishing with a message of resilience and solidarity for all drag artists ā those currently protesting in front of the Kennedy Center and those performing in hole-in-the-wall gay bars across the country.
āSo no matter what anyone says, If you are a drag performer, you are an artist. If you support drag, you are supporting artists. Right now this is an attack, not only on free speech, but on artists, on small business owners, and I think that’s something that everyone in this country can understand. We must be supportive of each other and kind to each other. More than anything, that is the only way that we can fight this.ā
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