Local
Capital TransPride draws nearly 150 to Southwest
Panel discussed anti-trans violence and District police’s response
Panelists discuss anti-transgender violence and the Metropolitan Police Department’s response to it during Capital TransPride on Saturday (Washington Blade photo by Blake Bergen)
Nearly 150 people gathered at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Southwest on Saturday for the sixth annual Capital TransPride.
Author Everett Maroon delivered the keynote address; while Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive executive director Cyndee Clay, Rainbow History Fund founder Mark Meinke and TransPride founder SaVanna Wanzer were honored for their work on behalf of trans Washingtonians. Transgender Health Empowerment, the Latino History Project, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance and Equality Maryland were among the more than 20 organizations that co-sponsored the event.
“We reached a much larger audience than we did last year,” noted Capital TransPride Co-Chair Holly Goldmann, who is also a D.C. LGBT Community Center board member.
Former Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League member Terra Moore, Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence vice chair Hassan Naveed, Jason Terry of the D.C. Trans Coalition, trans activist Ruby Corado and Officer Juanita Foreman of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit discussed anti-trans violence in the District on a panel that former TransPride chair Danielle King moderated.
Corado, whose community center for LGBT Latinos in Columbia Heights is slated to open on June 6, said the situation for trans Washingtonians has improved over the last decade. Challenges, however, remain.
“These days we do have the ability that we can be ourselves and we can actually function during the day,” said Corado. “We come out in different neighborhoods in this city. There are people who are really willing to embrace us and have done so well. However, we still have other people that are not quite receptive of the idea of a trans person being themselves.”
MPD statistics show that there were 10 reported bias-related crimes based on gender identity and expression in the city in 2010, compared to five in 2009 and four in 2008.
A National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report indicates that 70 percent of anti-LGBT murder victims in 2010 were people of color—and 44 percent of them were trans women. The NCAVP study further noted that trans people and people of color are twice as likely to experience violence or discrimination than non-trans white people. The report also indicates that trans people of color are more than twice as likely to experience discrimination than whites.
Lashay Mclean’s murder last July in Northeast and the subsequent spate of anti-trans violence that included an off-duty District police officer allegedly shooting three trans women and two male friends while they sat in a car underscores the problem. Prosecutors charged Gary Niles Montgomery with second-degree murder while armed in connection with the stabbing death of Deoni Jones at a Northeast Metro bus stop on Feb. 2.
“It’s time we look at ourselves and come together,” said Corado in response to King’s question about what trans women of color can do to curb violence directed against them. “You really need to take an active role because until we become part of the solution, you can’t expect someone else to do it for us.”
From left; Officer Juanita Foreman and transgender activist Ruby Corado discuss anti-trans violence in the District.
Corado and several other panelists were quick to applaud GLLU and the MPD’s efforts over the last year to combat anti-trans violence in the city. Terry described D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray as the most trans-friendly administration the city has ever seen, but he stressed that City Hall has not done enough to ensure trans Washingtonians’ safety.
“We have to get serious in addressing biased policing in this city,” Terry said.
Terry also cited Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s comments during a WTOP interview in February that trans people need to do more to keep themselves safe as another example of what he described as blaming the victim. “It’s not your fault if you’re victimized,” he stressed. “It’s not your fault.”
Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes stressed at the end of the panel that the department remains committed to combating bias-related crimes in the city. She added the MPD has a system in place to respond to officers who do “not do what they’re supposed to do.”
“If there is an issue, do let us know,” said Groomes.
Police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump further defended the MPD’s approach.
“One of the District’s most attractive qualities is that it is open and welcoming to people of all nations, races, sexual orientation and gender identity. Intolerance and hate crimes have no place in our vibrant city,” she told the Blade. “With 100 officers and almost all detectives trained to work with the LGBT community to address crimes of all types, we have more resources dedicated than ever before. This in turn helps us to make arrests, as we did in the recent IHOP shooting, and prevent the next crime and victimization.”
Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, echoed Crump.
“While our city as a whole, still has much work to do on these issues, the Gray administration has made major strides to open the lines of communication with community partners and leverage resources to address some core issues facing the community,” he said, noting that the District’s community engagement remains far more advanced than in other cities around the country. “There’s always going to be more we can do to respond to trends, shift culture and change behavior. It is our commitment to keep our lines of communication open and work in partnership to make the District a safer place for all residents.”
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
Maryland
Md. Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlines 2026 priorities
Expanded PrEP access among objectives
Maryland’s Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlined legislative priorities for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 2026 term during a press conference on March 5.
State Del. Kris Fair (D-Fredrick County) led the press conference. State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and other caucus members also spoke.
Caucus members are sponsoring 12 bills and supporting four others.
Martinez is sponsoring House Bill 1114, which would expand PrEP access in Maryland.
“PrEP is 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission,” he explained, noting PrEP’s cost often turns away potential users.
The bill aims to extend insurance coverage and expand pharmacists’ ability to prescribe PrEP along with other HIV treatments and testing. Martinez is working with state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) and FreeState Justice on the bill.
The House Health Committee had a hearing last week that included HB1114.
“Ending the HIV epidemic is about expanding access and providing these life-saving tools to all persons in Maryland,” Martinez said.
Several other pieces of legislation were highlighted during the press conferences. They included measures focused on youth and education, birth certificate markers, so-called conversion therapy, and hormone medications.
State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County) is cosponsoring Senate Bill 950, which would update and strengthen conversion therapy laws. State Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) has introduced an identical bill that would extend the statute of limitations on individuals who facilitate conversion therapy.
Kagan explained the bill would allow conversion therapy victims to come to terms with their experience undergoing the widely discredited practice that “creates shame and it silences survivors.”
When questioned, Fair explained the press conference happened late into the legislative session because “we [the caucus] are constantly having to respond in real time to what’s happening in Washington” while drafting and considering pieces of legislation.
The Frederick County Democrat described this session’s bills as the “most ambitious list of priorities to date.” Fair also described the caucus’s goals.
“It’s decency, it’s dignity, and its humanity,” he said.
District of Columbia
Owner of D.C. gay bar Green Lantern John Colameco dies at 79
Beloved businessman preferred to stay ‘behind the scenes’
John Colameco, owner of the popular D.C. gay bar Green Lantern, has died, according to a March 7 announcement posted on the bar’s website and Instagram account. The announcement didn’t provide a date of his passing or a cause of death.
Green Lantern manager Howard Hicks said Colameco was 79 at the time of his passing.
“It is with great sadness that Green Lantern announces the death of our beloved owner, John Colameco,” the announcement says. “Most of our patrons might have heard John’s name, but might not have known his face,” it says.
“He was a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of guy who avoided the limelight,” the announcement continues. “He preferred to stay in the back of the house with staff and team ensuring everything was running smoothly so that everyone out front was having a good time.”
The announcement adds, “As a veteran and businessman, John wasn’t a member of the LGBTQ + community, but he was one of the best damn allies our community has ever had.”
It says he “long provided spaces for the queer community to come together” since the 1990s when he owned and operated a popular restaurant on 17th Street, N.W. called Peppers.
According to the announcement, Colameco and his then business partner Greg Zehnacker opened the Green Lantern in 2001 in an alley off of 14th Street, N.W., between Thomas Circle and L Street, N.W.
The announcement points out that the Green Lantern first opened in the same location in the early 1990s before it later closed when the original owners decided to purchase and open other bars, one of which was the gay bar Fireplace near Dupont Circle. Colameco and Zehnacker were able to reopen the bar with the Green Lantern name.
“When Greg died unexpectedly in February 2014, John remained steadfastly committed to carrying on their vision and ensuring that Green Lantern remained part of the fabric of D.C.’s queer community,” the announcement says.
“Over the years, through Green Lantern, John has provided support to many community organizations, most notably Stonewall Sports, the Gay Men’s chorus of Washington, and ONYX Mid-Atlantic with Green Lantern serving as a gathering hub for their activities,” it states.
The announcement adds that Colameco’s family was planning a memorial for him in his hometown of Philadelphia.
“His Green Lantern family will celebrate his life by operating the bar as usual and we encourage you to stop by and join us,” it says. “Community coming together and having a good time – it’s exactly what John would want.”
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