Local
Kameny burial ceremony postponed over estate dispute
Headstone, ‘Gay is Good’ marker in place for viewing at Congressional Cemetery
Frank Kameny’s headstone and grave marker are now in place and are open for visitors at the cemetery, which is located at 18th Street and Potomac Avenue, S.E. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
An interment ceremony in honor of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny that was scheduled to take place Saturday, March 3, was abruptly postponed Friday due to a dispute between Kameny’s estate and a local group that purchased the gravesite, according to a cemetery official.
News of the postponement came early Friday morning in an e-mail sent to the Blade by Bob Witeck, a longtime friend of Kameny’s who helped organize two earlier memorial services for the gay rights leader.
“The original plans on Saturday, March 3, 2012 for the gravesite services for Dr. Franklin Kameny are on hold, in deference to the estate of Dr. Kameny,” said Witeck, owner of the D.C. firm Witeck Communications. “There will be no services or ceremony at Congressional Cemetery held this weekend.”
Reached Friday morning, Witeck declined to provide further details at this time. An attorney representing the estate said he was unaware of the cancellation until contacted by the Blade.
Patrick Crowley, interim senior manager for Congressional Cemetery, told the Blade on Friday that the attorney representing Kameny’s estate contacted the cemetery on Monday to request that the interment of Kameny’s ashes be postponed.
“It’s my understanding that it has been postponed because of the wishes of the estate,” Crowley said. “All I can say is there is a disagreement between the parties that own the plot and the estate of Mr. Kameny.”
Crowley said the gay D.C. charitable group Helping Our Brothers and Sisters (HOBS), which had provided Kameny with financial assistance during the last years of his life, purchased the gravesite earlier this year.
Marvin Carter, an official with HOBS, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
D.C. attorney Glen Ackerman, whose law firm represents Timothy Clark, whom Kameny named in his will as the sole representative and heir to the estate, issued a statement to the Blade.
“The Estate of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny was surprised to learn from a member of the local media that Bob Witeck, of Witeck Communications, Inc., disseminated a press release announcing the gravesite service planned for Saturday, March 3, 2012 at Congressional Cemetery is on hold in deference to the Estate,” Ackerman said in the statement. “My colleague, J. Max Barger, is working with Timothy Lamont Clark, the Personal Representative of the Estate, for the purpose of administering the Estate according to Dr. Kameny’s Last Will and Testament.”
“Our instructions originally were to bury the ashes before the service,” said Crowley of Congressional Cemetery. “And then we received notice from the estate that they did not want that to happen until some things got resolved. So that’s where it stands.”
He said he understood that part of the disagreement was over a request by the estate that HOBS sign over to the estate the ownership rights of the gravesite.
Crowley said Kameny’s burial situation was unusual in that the estate does not own the burial site.
“Usually the estate or some family member owns the burial site and there’s no question,” he said. “But in this case the estate and site owners are different parties. It’s an unusual situation for us. As long as the estate has different instructions, we have to go with what they want with the ashes.”
The Kameny gravesite is located next to the gravesite of Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force sergeant who challenged the U.S. military policy of barring gays from service. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Clark told the Blade in an interview last week that he planned to attend the interment ceremony. He said that he planned to keep half of the ashes and donate the remaining half to be buried at the cemetery, where the LGBT community and the public could visit what is to be an historic gravesite to remember Kameny’s legacy.
The Kameny gravesite is located next to the gravesite of Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force sergeant who became the first service member to publicly declare he was gay in 1975 and challenge the U.S. military policy of barring gays from serving in the military.
Kameny served as an adviser to Matlovich and later became friends with the gay Air Force sergeant, who was discharged a short time later under the military’s gay ban.
Crowley said the cemetery is holding two urns containing each of the divided half amounts of Kameny’s ashes until it receives notice that the dispute is resolved and the interment can take place.
He said Kameny’s headstone and grave marker are now in place and are open for visitors at the cemetery, which is located at 18th Street and Potomac Avenue, S.E.
Cameroon
Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now
Ludovic Mbock’s homeland criminalizes homosexuality
By ANTONIO PLANAS | An immigration judge on Friday issued a $4,000 bond for a Cameroonian immigrant and regional gaming champion held in federal immigration detention for the past three weeks.
The ruling will allow Ludovic Mbock, of Oxon Hill, to return to Maryland from a Georgia facility this weekend, his family and attorney said.
“Realistically, by tomorrow. Hopefully, by today,” said Mbock’s attorney, Edward Neufville. “We are one step closer to getting Ludovic justice.”
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position
Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.
The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.
“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.
The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.
Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.
“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Mayor Bowser expected to attend March 20 event
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, and local and national Democratic Party officials are expected to join more than 150 LGBTQ advocates and supporters on March 20 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the city’s Capital Stonewall Democrats.
A statement released by the organization says the event is scheduled to be held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery building at 702 8th St., N.W. in D.C.
“The evening will honor the people who built Capital Stonewall Democrats across five decades – activists who fought for rights when the odds were against them, public servants who opened doors and refused to let them close, and a new generation of leaders ready to carry the work forward,” the statement says.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats.
Among those planning to attend the anniversary event is longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Paul Kuntzler, 84, who is one of the two co-founders of the then-Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Kuntzler told the Washington Blade that he and co-founder Richard Maulsby were joined by about a dozen others in the living room of his Southwest D.C. home at the group’s founding meeting in January 1976.
He said that among the reasons for forming a local LGBTQ Democratic group at the time was to arrange for a then “gay” presence at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at which Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and later won election as president.
Maulsby, who served as the Stein Club president for its first three years and who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he would not be attending the March 20 anniversary event, but he fully supports the organization’s continuing work as an LGBTQ organization associated with the Democratic Party.
Steven McCarty, Capital Stonewall Democrats’ current president, said in the statement that the anniversary celebration will highlight the organization’s work since the time of its founding.
“Capital Stonewall Democrats has been fighting for LGBTQ+ political power in this city for 50 years, electing people, training organizers, holding this community together through some really hard moments,” he said. “And right now, with everything going on, that work has never mattered more. This gala is the first moment of our next chapter, and I want the community to be a part of it.”
The statement says among the special guests attending the event will be Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, who became the first openly gay LGBTQ person of color to win election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018.
Other guests of honor, according to the statement, include Mayor Bowser; D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5, the Council’s only gay member; D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large); Earl Fowlkes, founder of the International Federation of Black Prides; Vita Rangel, a transgender woman who serves as Deputy Director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments; Heidi Ellis, director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; Rayceen Pendarvis, longtime D.C. LGBTQ civic activist; and Phillip Pannell, longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activist and Ward 8 civic activist.
Information about ticket availability for the Capital Stonewall Democrats anniversary gala can be accessed here: capitalstonewalldemocrats.com/50th
Gay Venezuelan man ‘forcibly disappeared’ to El Salvador files claim against White House
Trump proclamation targets trans rights as State Dept. shifts visa policy
Adolescentes trans en Ecuador podrán cambiar datos en su cédula, pero con condicionamientos
Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now
Laverne Cox, Liza Minnelli among authors with new books
Trump will refuse to sign voting bill without anti-trans provisions
Man stuck in Lebanon as Iran war escalates
Owner of D.C. gay bar Green Lantern John Colameco dies at 79
PHOTOS: ‘Defrosted’
