Connect with us

Local

‘Worldwide’ LGBT marches fizzle

Only 14 demonstrators turn out in D.C.

Published

on

worldwide march, gay news, gay politics dc

Lack of turnout for the local DC component of the 'worldwide' equality march led to the cancelation of the rally's march portion. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Saying they were unwavering in their commitment to LGBT equality, a contingent of 14 LGBT activists and their straight supporters held a rally across the street from the U.S. Capitol early Saturday afternoon as part of a series of Worldwide LGBT Civil Rights marches in the U.S. and abroad.

The event was promoted mostly on Facebook without the involvement of established local and national LGBT organizations. It was the brainchild of Oklahoma City gay activist Joe Knudson, who called for a series of simultaneous LGBT marches and rallies in cities throughout the world on April 21.

With less than 20 participants present at the conclusion of the rally, organizers chose to forego the march.

“These marches are occurring in over thirty cities around the globe,” said Curtis Sledge, a Richmond, Va., gay activist who organized the D.C. event and was among three speakers at the rally held at Upper Senate Park.

“Regardless of the size of the crowd…we’re here to say it’s our time right now,” Sledge said after the rally. “We are seeking equality not just for us but for everyone.”

The organization Let’s Reach One Million People Campaign, through which Knudson and others worked to organize the marches and rallies, listed 18 U.S. cities and 12 cities in countries in Europe, Asia and Africa where marches were scheduled to take place. It could not be determined at press time whether all of them took place, especially those in Africa.

According to reports in the gay and straight media, marches or rallies in most of the U.S. cities where they took place drew fewer than 100 people. The LGBT newspaper George Voice reported about 50 turned out for a rally and march on the state capital in Atlanta.

The Athens, Ga., Banner-Herald reported that about 75 people turned out for a march in that Georgia city, which was covered by the straight press. In Chicago, about 15 people participated in a March and rally and about 30 turned out for the march and rally in Portland, Ore., according to a report by the LGBT blog Bilerico Project.

In a statement released to organizers and supporters of the events, Knudson said between 6,000 and 8,000 people participated in the events in the U.S. and overseas. He said the enthusiasm and impact the events would have in the U.S. and abroad would be far more significant than the number of people attending them.

Jonathan Wolfman (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Jonathan Wolfman, a writer, former teacher and chief editor of an online travel site called CastleGayGuide.com, gave the keynote speech at the D.C. rally. Describing himself as a straight ally to the LGBT movement, Wolfman called LGBT rights “the essential civil rights mandate of our era.”

He noted that in addition to rallies and marches in the U.S., many of the LGBT events were scheduled to take place overseas, including such countries as Uganda, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

“That some are marching today in several of those nations takes guts and a belief in ultimate justice,” he said. “I salute all marchers today but especially those who risk arrest and beatings and worse for their commitment.”

Lamel Clark, 21, a Richmond resident, told the rally the 1960s era black civil rights movement was his inspiration for becoming involved in the LGBT movement as an African American gay man.

“Many years ago a great man stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke of a dream. He dreamed of a day when people could be treated equally and not judged by the color of their skin,” said Clark, speaking on a stage next to a fountain and facing the Capitol Building.

“I’m proud to stand not too far from where he was and know that his dream was a reality,” he said. “But today I stand before you with a dream of my own. I dream of a day when I can have the option to marry whoever I please and not have to worry about their sex but to be able to marry just on the basis of love.”

Lamel Clark (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Clark added, “I stand here because I have found the person who I want to spend the rest of my life with. So many people have told me, oh, it’s o.k. You don’t have to be married to spend the rest of your life with someone. My response is that’s not enough…I want to say loud and proud this is my husband.”

Among those standing nearby listening to Clark and the other two speakers were two U.S. Capitol police officers. The two likely were assigned to patrol a rally and parade that organizers stated in their application for a parade permit was expected to attract between 1,500 and 2,500 people.

Sledge said he was at a loss to say why so few people attended. He said he contacted a number of local organizations as well as several D.C. area universities about the planned march and rally. According Sledge, a Facebook page promoting all of the planned U.S. Worldwide March events had more than 20,000 members.

He said a number of people who told him they planned to attend D.C. rally didn’t show, including D.C. gay activist Brian Watson, who was listed as a scheduled speaker.

Watson did not return calls seeking to confirm whether he agreed to speak at the event.

When asked why he thought most of the established U.S. national and local LGBT organizations chose not to participate in the marches, Knudson said sources familiar with various groups told him the groups don’t like to get involved in events that they don’t control.

“I was point blank told by some that it is not proper for a new and young grassroots organization such as the Let’s Reach 1 Million People Campaign, to initiate such action as we did without first getting the approval of some of the older more established organizations,” Knudson told the Blade.

“[I]n doing so we stepped on a lot of egos and I was told egos of LGBT organizations do not heal very well or very fast,” he said.

Veteran D.C. gay activists Bob Summersgill, former president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, and Rick Rosendall, the group’s current vice president, disagreed with Knudson’s assessment of the established LGBT groups.

“Speaking for myself and GLAA, if we were so egotistical and controlling as Mr. Knudson says in his laughable generalization, we wouldn’t have the record of accomplishment that we do,” Rosendall said. “LGBT advocates in D.C. have a long history of coalition work, which is not about getting permission but about consultation.”

Summersgill said organizers of the worldwide marches didn’t adequately communicate what they wanted people to do to advance their goals of equality “other than to walk around while members of Congress were out of town.”

In addition to granting permission to hold the rally on U.S. Capitol grounds, the permit called for a march from the Capitol along Constitution Avenue to 15th Street, N.W., where it was to travel north and turn right on Pennsylvania Avenue and head back towards the Capitol. The march was scheduled to end at 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Wolfman, a Maryland resident, gave a ringing defense of same-sex marriage and needled opponents who say same-sex nuptials are a threat to the institution of marriage.

“This may be the most ludicrous idea going,” he said. “Encouraging marriage simply encourages marriage. It is impossible to see how the gay marriage next door threatens my straight marriage. It is equally impossible to understand how the legalization of gay marriage could possibly convince straight people not to marry or encourage them to split up.”

Sledge said in his speech that the LGBT rights movement has picked up considerable momentum over the past few years. Among the work still to be done in the U.S., he said, was the eradication of bullying and other forms of discrimination against LGBT youth.

“Never for a moment those of you in the gay community – never for a moment look on yourself as being inferior or less than human but stand tall with your heads held high as a person with a heart, with talent and significance in this world,” he said.

“And for all this we should be accepted for being what God created. Equality is our birthright. We are equal.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

District of Columbia

Sinners and Saints bar vandalized in suspected anti-LGBTQ hate crime

Blade spoke with General Manager Blair Nixon after incident

Published

on

The iron gate and glass door of Sinners and Saints smashed. (Photo from Sinners and Saints’s Instagram page)

On Thursday, shattered glass, broken doors, and homophobic slurs were discovered in the entryway of Adams Morgan queer bar Sinners and Saints (2309 18th St. N.W.) Images of the destruction were posted to the bar’s Instagram, and news of the break-in began to spread.

The Washington Blade sat down with one of the co-partners and general manager of Sinners and Saints, Blair Nixon, to discuss the break-in and the overwhelming response from the LGBTQ community.

“Our door was broken-so the glass was shattered,” Nixon told the Blade when describing the damage done to the space. “They wrote a slur on our wall, and unfortunately-we’re not sure to the extent that it was, but there’s a bunch of inventory missing from our liquor closet. It does seem like it was targeted because of what they wrote on the wall.”

Nixon, who has been with Washington’s only QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color) bar since its opening last August, explained that upon learning of the break-in, fear was his first reaction.

“It was really scary,” Nixon said. “To know that somebody was in our space, vandalizing it-it was very scary and honestly, devastating.”

He went on to say that if it weren’t for the restaurant above Sinners and Saints, La Grotta, they wouldn’t have known until hours later.

“We found out because of the restaurant upstairs that we’re partnered with,” he said. “The electricity to the entire building was turned off-including apartments and the restaurant above us. Whoever broke in went into the closet that’s outside of the building and turned the electricity off to the entire building. When the restaurant owners got there, they tried to figure out why there wasn’t any electricity. They went downstairs and saw the shattered glass, the door broken, and the slur on the wall.”

Once Sinners and Saints staff arrived to survey the damage, they posted the images to their Instagram and called the Metropolitan Police Department. Nixon was grateful for both MPD and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs’s quick reaction.

“We were really happy with the response,” Nixon said. “The mayor’s office reached out relatively quickly, and I had a conversation with them, and the police came shortly afterwards, and they did a really good job. So we’re very appreciative of the response. They took a statement, they looked at the damage, took photos of everything, and made a report.”

“They actually sent, like, the entire department,” he added. “There were multiple police officers, multiple detectives, and the LGBTQ liaison came a little bit later. In general, I just really appreciated the response overall.”

The Blade obtained a copy of the filed police report, which described the break-in as a felony-more specifically, MPD considered it a second-degree burglary. MPD’s report also classified the break-in and subsequent graffiti as having “a hate bias or motivation” against sexual minorities who own and frequent the bar.

Homophobic vandalism left in Sinners and Saints following the break in. (Photo courtesy of Sinners and Saints’ Instagram page)

Unfortunately, there were no cameras on the premises at the time of the break-in, which MPD estimates happened sometime between 2-6 p.m., but Sinners and Saints were able to obtain footage from nearby businesses.

“We did have some camera footage from the hostel next door, and we submitted that to law enforcement,” he said. “We’re just going to let them do their investigation, and I don’t want to make any suppositions about what might have happened.”

When asked what he believed motivated the assailant(s), Nixon didn’t offer a definitive answer. He suggested it was likely someone hostile to LGBTQ businesses in Washington but assured the Blade that Sinners and Saints would not back down-and that the LGBTQ community stands firmly behind them.

“I don’t want to make any statements about what we think happened. We’re going to let the police do their job. But, as the only QTBIPOC bar in D.C., I think it’s important to note that we’re still here. We’re not going to close. We appreciate the support of our community, and I think that overall, it’s really important that we’re a safe space for the underserved and marginalized communities in D.C. Given that D.C. has, you know, one of the largest queer populations-but there aren’t very many spaces for the communities that we serve-we’re very proud to serve those communities. And we aren’t going to stop.”

Nixon had one critique for MPD, but was overall with their quick response.

“We hope that law enforcement would have a greater presence in Adams Morgan,” he said. “I think that, especially from talking to other establishment owners and bar owners, there’s definitely been some increased issues in Adams Morgan, and we hope that that doesn’t continue. We talked to the Mayor’s Office about it and to the police when they came-to have a greater presence in Adams Morgan.”

Since its opening, Nixon said the support from the QTBIPOC and broader LGBTQ community felt strong-but now, after the break-in, that connection has only grown stronger.

“We opened in August of last year, and we think that D.C. in general has really responded to our mission, and the community has really shown up for us-just like the same way that we’ve shown up for them.”

That community support for Sinners and Saints, Nixon said, extends past the diverse group of QTBIPOC people buying shots and tipping 20 percent nightly. Some of the city’s LGBTQ organizations showed up, offering to help. One of those community members who reached out owns a popular gay bar just up 18th Street.

“The response has been really strong, and we definitely appreciate the support. A few of the other LGBT bar owners in Adams Morgan actually stopped by in person. We really appreciated that Dave Perruzza from Pitchers came by, and just in general that the community has been rallying around us.”

On Thursday night, Sinners and Saints opened as planned and hosted their “Sapphic Sailor Moon” party. Despite the break-in, the LGBTQ community came out to support them.

“I was working-actually bartending,” Nixon said. “I wasn’t originally supposed to be working, but I thought it was important for all the partners to be there. So everyone that’s involved in Sinners and Saints’ leadership team came out. Obviously, we were dealing with the incident, but being there the entire night, we thought that the response from the community was really strong. We wanted to make sure that we posted on social media the fact that we were still open, because a lot of people were contacting us and asking if we were going to be continuing on, if we were going to close. We thought it was really important to make sure that we were there and still open and still available.”

The iron gate and glass door of Sinners and Saints smashed. (Photo from Sinners and Saints’s Instagram page)

That community, Nixon said, includes members of the LGBTQ population who are often overlooked-which makes the attack on a space intentionally dedicated to them-particularly trans people and people of color-even more painful.

“I think that DC in general, as one of the cities with the biggest queer populations, has adopted the LGBT community in general-and it’s great. However, the adoption of people of color and the overall QTBIPOC community, you know, our trans community, hasn’t been the same. It’s super important to us to make sure that that community is protected and that there are safe spaces for them, and that’s what our core mission is. We never want that to stop. The most important thing is that the safe space for those marginalized and underrepresented communities continues. And I would hope that the acceptance of the community that we serve continues-and is just as important as the acceptance of the LGBT community as a whole.”

If you have any information about the break in, please contact MPD at (202) 727-9099. Sinners and Saints has set up a GoFundMe page for repairs. It can be accessed here.

Continue Reading

District of Columbia

Adams Morgan queer bar broken into and vandalized

Sinners and Saints targeted Thursday night

Published

on

Homophobic vandalism left in Sinners and Saints following the break in. (Photo courtesy of Sinners and Saints' Instagram page)

On Thursday night, Sinners and Saints, a popular queer bar in Adams Morgan and the only QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of color) bar in D.C., was broken into and vandalized with homophobic slurs, according to a recent Instagram post from the establishment.

The iron gate and glass door of Sinners and Saints smashed. (Photo from Sinners and Saints’s Instagram page)

“Last night, our bar — the only QTBIPOC bar in DC — was broken into and hate-crimed during DC Black Pride, a time meant for celebration, resilience, and joy — and on the eve of WorldPride 2025. We are heartbroken, but we are not broken,” the post read.

The statement was accompanied by a slideshow showing the damage: the front iron gate door and its glass counterpart shattered, glass strewn across the floor, and the word “FAGGOT” scrawled in black ink on the wall.

“This space exists to protect and celebrate queer and trans BIPOC communities, and this attack only strengthens our resolve,” the post continued. “We will NOT be silenced. We will NOT be intimidated. We will NOT back down.”

“To those who tried to harm us: hate fuels our defiance. To our community: we see you, we love you, and we will continue fighting for you. Sinners and Saints is resistance. We will rebuild. We will STAY OPEN. And we will keep our doors — and hearts — wide open for all who need refuge.”

They ended the message with a call to action: “Stand with us. Share this. Show up. We keep us safe.”

“What happened was truly disheartening, but we won’t be silenced,” co-owner Fazeel Ashraf told the Washington Blade. “QTBIPOC spaces are so important in this current political climate. I’d love to do a phone interview with one of my fellow partners.”

Despite the heartbreak surrounding the break-in and what Ashraf described as “a hate crime,” the LGBTQ community quickly rallied in the comments, offering support and assistance.

“Please let us know how we can help!” wrote Nik Battaglia. “I’m a handy queer with handy queer friends — I can fix shit, paint shit, and am happy to stand guard outside.”

Even national figures chimed in.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Laganja Estranja commented, “Incredible response! I believe in you. Sending so much love and strength.”

The Blade reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department regarding the break-in but has not received a response.

To view the damage, and some of the LGBTQ community’s supportive statements, visit the Sinners and Saints’s Instagram page.

Continue Reading

Local

Comings & Goings

Freedman-Gurspan takes role in Mass. governor’s administration

Published

on

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected]

The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success. 

Congratulations to Raffi Freedman-Gurspan on being appointed Associate Director, Federal Funding & Infrastructure Office, at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration & Finance. Freedman-Gurspan will be returning to her hometown of Boston and joining Gov. Maura Healey’s Administration. Freedman-Gurspan served in both the Obama and Biden administrations as well as worked in LGBTQ and redistricting advocacy during her 11 years in D.C. 

Freedman-Gurspan was the first openly transgender person on the White House staff when she worked for President Obama. She most recently served at the U.S. Department of Transportation in former Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s office, as Deputy Director of Public Engagement. Previously she worked with the National Redistricting Action Fund/The All On The Line Campaign, as Deputy States Director.  She worked for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) as Director of External Relations. In the Obama White House, she worked in the Office of Public Engagement, as Senior Associate Director. She was the White House Liaison to the LGBTQ community responsible for management of all public inquiries on matters regarding LGBTQ people, including recommending public responses to senior leadership, assisting in drafting administration talking points, and coordinating stakeholder engagement with the White House offices.  She worked with the White House, Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), as Outreach and Recruitment Director.  

Prior to that she was on the staff of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, House of Representatives Office of State Rep. Carl Sciortino, as legislative director, and worked for the City of Somerville, Health Department, Office of Commissions, Somerville, Mass., as LGBTQ Liaison.  

Freedman-Gurspan served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Presidentially Appointed Council; and as a member, and Board Member, Boston University, College of Arts and Sciences, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Norwegian, concentration in Nordic Studies, from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.  

Continue Reading

Popular