Local
12 LGBT candidates seek Obama delegate seats
D.C. will choose 14 from field of 92 on Saturday
Lateefah Williams, president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, is one of 12 LGBT candidates among the 92 competing for 14 delegate spots to the National Democratic Convention. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Twelve LGBT candidates are running to become delegates to the Democratic National Convention in D.C.’s Democratic presidential caucus, which is set to take place Saturday, March 3, at the University of the District of Columbia.
The 12 LGBT candidates are among a total of 92 candidates competing at the caucus for just 14 delegate positions and one alternate delegate post. They are pledged to support President Barack Obama, who is running unopposed for the 2012 Democratic Party nomination.
Among the LGBT candidates are Lateefah Williams, president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; Jeffrey Richardson, former Stein Club president and director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs; former Stein Club president and D.C. Council staffer David Meadows, and transgender activist and Stein Club treasurer Alexandra Beninda.
Gay D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) initially submitted his name as a delegate candidate but this week withdrew from the race.
“Just like in past years, the people who win are the ones who can turn out the most supporters to vote for them,” said Bill O’Field, executive director of the D.C. Democratic Party, which is organizing the caucus.
D.C. Council member and former mayor Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has said he is arranging for buses to bring senior citizens and other Ward 8 voters to the caucus to support his candidacy for delegate.
O’Field said the caucus is scheduled to take place between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday. He said any D.C. resident who is a registered Democrat is eligible to vote in the caucus, which is to take place at the UDC Auditorium, Building 46 East, near Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness Street, N.W.
According to O’Field, participants can vote any time during the three-hour caucus and don’t have to stay for candidate speeches.
Gay Democratic activists throughout the country, led by the National Stonewall Democrats, are pushing to elect as many out LGBT people as possible as delegates to the Democratic Convention. The convention takes place the week of Sept. 3 in Charlotte, N.C. Among other things, LGBT Democrats want the convention’s platform committee to approve a plank in support of legal marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Under D.C. Democratic Party rules, the city is divided into two voting districts for the purpose of selecting delegates to the convention: Voting District 1 includes Wards 1, 2, 6 and 8; and Voting District 2, which includes Wards 3, 4, 5 and 7.
The LGBT candidates running in Voting District 1 include Lateefah Williams, Adam Bink, Kevin Scott Carroll, Gregory Cendana, Jonathan Degner, David Meadows, Alexander Padro and Jeffrey Richardson.
The LGBT contenders running in Voting District 2 include Alexandra Beninda, Aadit Dubale, Philip Skillman and Sterling Washington.
O’Field said D.C. Democrats who cannot attend the caucus on Saturday may cast their vote for delegate candidates at the D.C. Democratic Party office on Thursday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The office is located at 1050 17th St., N.W., Suite 1000. O’Field said voters wishing to do this should call him first to make an appointment at 202-714-3368 or contact him by email at [email protected].
LGBT activists planning to attend a memorial interment ceremony for the late gay leader Frank Kameny, which is scheduled to take place on the same day as the caucus, expressed an interest in voting at the party office rather than risk arriving at the caucus too late to vote.
Maryland
Parents sue Anne Arundel schools, allege officials hid child’s gender transition
America First legal Foundation filed lawsuit on July 8
By CODY BOTELER | Two parents, backed by a conservative nonprofit group, are suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over the school system’s policies related to transgender children.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Maryland’s U.S. District Court, accuses staff at an unidentified county high school of lying to the parents, identified as John Doe and Jane Doe, about their child, identified as Mary Doe.
The Does allege the school “socially transitioned” their child without notice or their consent by using a masculine name and masculine pronouns for Mary Doe.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Campaign launched to elect more LGBTQ candidates to ANC seats
Capital Stonewall Democrats behind Queering ANCs effort
The Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, announced on July 7 it has launched a campaign to help elect large numbers of LGBTQ candidates to the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single-member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, liquor licenses, zoning, economic development, police protection, sanitation and trash collection, and D.C.’s annual budget, according to the ANC website.
Although the ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or proposals, such as applications for liquor licenses, city agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
Kent Boese, a gay former ANC commissioner, currently serves as executive director of the D.C. Office of ANCs.
“We are launching the most ambitious hyperlocal LGBTQ+ candidate pipeline initiative in the country,” said Stevie McCarty, the Capital Stonewall Democrats president, in a July 7 statement that announced the Queering ANCs campaign.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty says in the statement. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which was created by LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website that there are currently 38 caucus members consisting of elected LGBTQ ANC commissioners serving in the current 2025-2026 two-year term.
The website shows there are LGBTQ commissioners who are caucus members in each of the city’s eight wards, with six in Ward 1, eight in Ward 2, one in Ward 3, six in Ward 4, five in Ward 5, three in Ward 6, eight in Ward 7, and one in Ward 8.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately determine how many of them will be running for re-election in D.C.’s general election in November. But McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats hopes to recruit many more LGBTQ candidates to run for ANC seats.
The D.C. Board of Elections website shows the deadline for filing 25 required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot is Aug. 5.
A Queering ANCs website launched this week by Capital Stonewall Democrats provides details on how to run for an ANC seat and offers help for those interested in running.
“Think of someone in your building, neighborhood, friend group, community organization, or professional network who cares deeply about D.C. and would make a strong leader,” McCarty says in his statement. “Send them QueeringANCs.org and personally ask them to consider running,” he said.
The website can be accessed at QueeringANCs.org.
Baltimore
Ron Singer, owner of popular Mount Vernon gay bar Leon’s, dies
66-year-old’s funeral to take place Friday
By CAYLA HARRIS | Ron Singer, the owner of Baltimore’s popular gay bar Leon’s Backroom, died Tuesday, the venue announced in a social media post. He was 66.
“For more than 20 years, Ron made Leon’s a place so many people were proud to call home,” the post reads. “He will be deeply missed.”
The Mount Vernon bar, typically open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, is still open Thursday, but doors will close at midnight so staff can attend his funeral Friday morning. Services are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at Sol Levinson’s Chapel.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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