Local

O’Malley attends Maryland marriage fundraiser in NYC

Tickets to the Manhattan event ranged from $250-$25,000.

Published

12 years ago

September 14, 2012

Michael K. Lavers

Martin O'Malley, gay news, gay politics dc

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Editor’s note: Organizers of the fundraiser told the Blade the event was closed to press and declined our request to attend. The Blade learned Friday that several other media outlets, including the Baltimore Sun, were granted access to the event.

Governor Martin O’Malley was among those who attended a star-studded New York City fundraiser for the campaign to defend Maryland’s same-sex marriage law on Thursday.

“The battle is on in Maryland and we all need to get up for this fight,” said O’Malley at the St. James Hotel in lower Manhattan. The Baltimore Sun posted a video of the governor’s remarks on his website. “There are Democrats here, there are Republicans here. There are black people here. There are white people here. There are people from every strain of life in our country here in this great city of New York and the same is true in Maryland. We are going to succeed only if we help one another.”

Gay MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, actors Edward Norton and Josh Charles, gay director John Waters, supermodel Hilary Rhoda, former professional hockey player Sean Avery and comedian Sandra Bernhard were among those who paid between $250 and $25,000 to attend the event.

“It was a great event,” said Josh Levin, campaign director of Marylanders for Marriage Equality. “It was great to have so many Maryland natives come out and join us.”

Brian Ellner, who directed the Human Rights Campaign’s efforts in support of New York’s same-sex marriage bill that Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in June 2011, co-organized the fundraiser. He pointed to what he described to the Washington Blade after the event as “tremendous energy and great turnout”

“The New York momentum is real and focused on winning in all four states in November,” added Ellner, referring to efforts to defend same-sex marriage laws or defeat proposed constitutional amendments to define marriage as between a man and a woman in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota respectfully.

Former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, who also co-hosted the fundraiser, agreed.

“It was a great, well attended and very diverse event that brought both people who have supported marriage equality in the past, as well as new folks,” he told the Blade.

Levin declined to comment on the amount of money the fundraiser raised.

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Virginia

Va. Senate approves resolution to repeal marriage amendment

Two successive legislatures must approve proposal before it goes to voters

Published

12 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

The Virginia Senate on Tuesday approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The resolution that state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced passed by a 24-15 vote margin. An identical measure that state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) has proposed passed in the Virginia House of Delegates last week.

Sickles and Ebbin are both gay.

Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.

District of Columbia

Team Rayceen Productions goes on ‘indefinite’ hiatus

Local LGBTQ advocacy group’s co-founder resigns

Published

20 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Activist Rayceen Pendarvis will remain active in the community but colleague Zar announced his resignation. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Local community activist Zar, who founded the D.C. LGBTQ event and advocacy group Team Rayceen Productions in 2014 in collaboration with fellow activist Rayceen Pendarvis, announced he has resigned from his position as the group’s creative director effective Jan. 14.

His announcement says since there is currently “nobody who is willing, ready, or able to be my successor, I must also announce that the current Winter Hiatus of Team Rayceen Productions will continue indefinitely.”

The announcement says Rayceen Pendarvis will remain active in the community and remain available to be booked as a host, emcee, panelist, and wedding officiant in the role Pendarvis has played in the D.C. community for many years.

The primary motivation for his resignation at this time, Zar said in his announcement, is his deep concern about the problems he believes will surface during the incoming Trump administration.

“I am all but certain that the next four years and beyond will be chaotic, and possibly dystopian or apocalyptic,” he says in his announcement. “This is not the time for diplomacy, compromise, or capitulation,” he continues. “I understand that advocating for peaceful and nonviolent solutions is generally considered the only acceptable tactic; I am unwilling to abide.”

Out of deference to Pendarvis and others involved with Team Rayceen Productions, Zar said it would be unfair “to allow my personal and political views to be conflated with those of anyone else,” including those involved with Team Rayceen Productions.

“This requires my resignation,” Zar wrote in his announcement. “I am unwilling to be silent or censor myself.”

Zar said that while Team Rayceen Productions’ operations are currently on hold, its online content will remain available, “including over 900 videos created over the past five years for our YouTube channel and our Facebook live streams.”

District of Columbia

25K people attend People’s March in D.C.

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is on Monday

Published

4 days ago

January 18, 2025

Michael K. Lavers

The People's March was held downtown Washington on Jan. 18, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Upwards of 25,000 people attended the People’s March that took place in D.C. on Saturday.

Participants — who protested against President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals they say would target transgender people, immigrants, women, and other groups — gathered at McPherson and Farragut Squares and Franklin Park before they joined the march that ended at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Gender Liberation Movement is among the groups that sponsored the march. Dozens of other People’s Marches took place in cities across the country on Saturday.

Trump’s inauguration will take place in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Michael K. Lavers)