Local
Kameny’s death is local LGBT story of the year
Activists, public officials mourn loss of pioneering figure
Activist Frank Kameny died on Oct. 11, which is National Coming Out Day. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Local and national public officials joined D.C.’s LGBT community in remembering the life and accomplishments of veteran gay rights leader Frank Kameny at memorial events this fall following Kameny’s death in Washington on Oct. 11.
Kameny, 86, is credited with being one of the leading strategists for the early gay rights movement beginning at least a decade before the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, which historians consider the starting point for the modern LGBT rights movement.
LGBT movement leaders who knew Kameny say he laid the groundwork for the movement to advance following the Stonewall Riots and going forward, playing a pivotal role in advancing the cause of LGBT equality over a period of 50 years.
“Frank Kameny is one of the most significant figures in the history of the American gay rights movement,” said D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray at a Nov. 3 memorial viewing for Kameny at the city’s Carnegie Library building.
Gray was joined at the memorial viewing by several members of the D.C. City Council, including gay Council members David Catania (I-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1); D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D).
A gay Air Force sergeant and four gay military veterans in full dress uniform, including gay former Army Lt. Dan Choi, joined Catania and Graham as pallbearers, carrying an American flag-draped coffin bearing Kameny’s remains into the building’s ceremonial atrium.
Organizers of the ceremony, led by local activists and Kameny friends Bob Witeck and Charles Frances, said the flag-draped coffin honored Kameny, among other things, for his service in the Army in World War II, where he served in combat in Europe.
Year In Review: 2011
Among other accomplishments, activists said Kameny became the first known gay person to publicly challenge an act of anti-gay discrimination when he sued the federal government for firing him from his job in 1957 as a civilian astronomer with the U.S. Army Map Service because of his sexual orientation.
After losing his case in the lower courts, Kameny set yet another precedent by bringing the first known gay-related case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court upheld a lower court ruling against Kameny and refused to take his case on the merits.
But in a 61-page legal brief petitioning the court to take the case, which Kameny wrote, he pulled together what some gay historians consider a gay rights manifesto that became the underpinning of the LGBT rights movement for years to come.
In a second memorial for Kameny held Nov. 15 at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, several public officials, including members of Congress and an Obama administration official, cited Kameny’s role as a national civil rights figure.
“His life cleared the path that I and countless others followed into public service,” said John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, who in 2009 became the Obama administration’s highest-level openly gay appointee.
“His unrelenting and unceasing fight for gay rights enabled other Americans to step out of the closet and into the full light of equality,” Berry told the gathering. “But most importantly, his long battle and eventual triumphs show the miracles that one person wrought upon the world.”
Kameny’s friends and colleagues said they were saddened over his passing but uplifted in knowing that Kameny lived to see many of the LGBT rights initiatives he fought for come to fruition, including an apology by the government, more than 50 years later, for its decision to fire him.
Kameny also lived to see the Library of Congress acquire more than 50,000 documents from his gay rights-related papers collection; the Smithsonian Institution’s American History Museum acquire and display picket signs he and his fellow activists carried in gay rights protests in the 1960s; the D.C. government’s naming a section of 17th Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle as Frank Kameny Way; and a decision by city officials to designate Kameny’s house as an historic landmark.
Arrangements are being made for a burial service for Kameny’s ashes at D.C.’s historic Congressional Cemetery in the spring.
District of Columbia
D.C. LGBTQ community to gather for post-election dialogue
Dec. 12 event to address federal workers’ rights, immigration, more
Several leading LGBTQ organizations in D.C. are coming together to make sense of the recent election and to discuss the future of advocacy and resilience as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
With Republicans in firm control of the federal government after winning majorities in the House and Senate, many are concerned about attacks on the LGBTQ community, including Trump’s pledge to ban trans people from serving in the military. In addition, many LGBTQ federal workers have expressed concerns about being targeted for reassignment or termination, as outlined in Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for Trump’s second term.
In response, D.C.’s LGBTQ community is coming together for an event on Thursday, Dec. 12, 6:30-8 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.) featuring an array of speakers who will address issues, including: anticipated policy shifts; community resilience strategies; legal rights; immigration advocacy; and federal workers’ rights.
The event, titled, “Charting Our Future: LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Resilience in a Changing Landscape” is free; visit washingtonblade.com/future to RSVP.
The event is being hosted by the Washington Blade and includes community partners: the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, HME Consulting & Advocacy, Eaton DC, DC LGBTQ+ Community Center, Capital Pride Alliance, and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs. Heidi Ellis of the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition will moderate. A list of speakers will be released later this week.
District of Columbia
Casa Ruby receiver files for bankruptcy
Jan. 21 deadline set for creditors, former employees to apply for reimbursement
In a little-noticed development, the Wanda Alston Foundation, which assumed control over the operations of the D.C. LGBTQ community services group Casa Ruby in August 2022 under a court-appointed receivership role, filed a petition on Aug. 27 of this year to place Casa Ruby in bankruptcy.
The petition, filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, says Casa Ruby has estimated liabilities to at least 50 creditors of more than $1 million and estimated assets of between $0 and $50,000.
Nick Harrison, an attorney representing the Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing services to homeless LGBTQ youth, said Casa Ruby currently has no known financial assets, including cash.
He said the bankruptcy petition’s estimated assets of up to $50,000 are based on a pending lawsuit that the Alston Foundation filed against eight former Casa Ruby board members and Casa Ruby’s founder and former executive director Ruby Corado in December 2022. The lawsuit accuses the board of violating D.C.’s nonprofit corporation law by failing to exercise oversight over Casa Ruby’s operations that led to its financial collapse and shutdown in 2022.
The lawsuit calls on the court to require Corado and the former board members to pay “restitution, compensatory damages, punitive damages, receivership fees and expenses, court costs, attorneys’ fees, and expenses, and any other relief the court deems necessary and proper.”
A D.C. Superior Court judge on May 1, 2023, dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Alston Foundation against all but one of the former Casa Ruby board members but did not dismiss the case against Corado.
The Alston Foundation has appealed the ruling dismissing the lawsuit, and the case is now pending before the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The lawsuit also alleges that the board failed to adequately oversee the actions of Corado, who pleaded guilty in July of this year to a charge of wire fraud as part of a plea bargain deal offered by prosecutors.
The charge to which Corado pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for D.C. says she allegedly diverted at least $150,000 “in taxpayer-backed emergency COVID relief funds” awarded to Casa Ruby to “private offshore bank accounts for her personal use,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Corado, who initially denied the allegations against her, is currently staying with a family member in Rockville, Md., in a home detention arrangement following her arrest by the FBI on March 5 of this year. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 10.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Danya A. Dayson stated that her decision to dismiss the lawsuit against seven of the eight former board members was based on her interpretation of D.C. law. She said she believes the law holds that members of an organization’s board of directors can only be held liable for harming an organization like Casa Ruby if they “intentionally, rather than negligently, inflicted harm on Casa Ruby.”
The judge said she did not dismiss the case against one of the board members because the lawsuit presents evidence that the board member received some financial benefits from Corado.
In a legal brief filed with the appeals court, the Alston Foundation attorneys state that evidence shows the Casa Ruby board members “were deliberately indifferent or ‘willfully blind’ to the alleged wrongful conduct of the nonprofit’s executive director amounting to actual knowledge on their part that inaction would harm the nonprofit, ultimately and forcibly leading to its financial inability to continue operation.”
The former board members have declined requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Harrison, the attorney representing the Alston Foundation in the bankruptcy filing, said anyone who is owed money by Casa Ruby has until Jan. 21 to file a “proof of claim” form with the bankruptcy court to be eligible to be compensated if funds become available.
At the time of Casa Ruby’s shutdown, the organization’s employees were among those who said they were not paid in the months or weeks prior to the shutdown.
Asked what prompted the Alston Foundation to file the bankruptcy petition on behalf of Casa Ruby, Harris said, “Filing the bankruptcy petition ensures that a trustee with the appropriate expertise can wrap up the remaining issues while allowing the Wanda Alston Foundation to stay focused on its core mission.”
U.S. Bankruptcy Court records show that one of the officials in charge of collecting proof of claim forms for those owed money is Mark E. Albert, a court appointed Trustee for the bankruptcy filing. Court records show he can be reached at 202-728-3020.
Rehoboth Beach
Adult suspect pleads guilty to Rehoboth Beach hate crime
Case pending for five juveniles charged in targeting women for harassment
A 21-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in connection with an Aug. 17 incident in which five juveniles and one adult were arrested for allegedly targeting three women for harassment on a street in Rehoboth Beach based on their perception of the victims’ sexual orientation.
Lt. Mark Sweet, a spokesperson for the Rehoboth Beach Police Department, said the adult suspect in the case, Jerome Charleston, was sentenced to a fine of $100 plus court costs at a Sept. 18 arraignment in which he pleaded guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct.
A statement released by Rehoboth police at the time of the incident says it occurred on Saturday, Aug. 17, at 2 a.m. at Baltimore Avenue and Second Street. The statement says three women flagged down a police officer after a vehicle drove past them and then came to a stop.
According to the statement, five juveniles exited the vehicle and approached the women, making statements that their behavior in public was not appropriate. During the exchange, the statement continues, one of the juveniles fired an Airsoft gun at the women and all five returned to the vehicle and fled the area.
Airsoft guns are replica guns designed to shoot non-metallic projectiles. No injuries were reported in the incident.
The police statement says officers in nearby Dewey Beach located the vehicle and apprehended the five juveniles and an adult driving the vehicle.
“Once in custody, it was determined that the only reason the suspects stopped to confront the victims was due to their perception of the victims’ sexual orientation,” the Rehoboth police statement says.
The police statement says three of the juveniles arrested in the case, two of whom were 15 years old and the other 14, were from Rehoboth Beach. It says another youth, age 14, was from nearby Lewes, and the other, at age 15, was from nearby Blades, Del.
The statement says each of the juveniles was charged with Aggravated Menacing, a felony; and the misdemeanor counts of Offensive Touching, Conspiracy in the Third Degree, Disorderly Conduct, and a Hate Crime.
Charleston, the only adult in the case, was charged with Disorderly Conduct, which is a misdemeanor.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately determine the status of the case against the juveniles. Police spokesperson Sweet said those cases were still pending and Rehoboth Police could not comment further on those cases.
In most jurisdictions, including Delaware, juvenile cases are kept confidential and are not part of the public court records.
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