In a development likely to surprise LGBTQ activists, Nellie’s Sports Bar announced in a statement released on Friday that it has hired longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate Ruby Corado to serve as a manager at the bar in a newly created position of Director of Community Engagement.

In the same statement, posted on the Nellie’s website by owner Doug Schantz, Nellie’s issued a formal apology to Keisha Young, a 22-year-old Black woman who was dragged down a flight of stairs at the bar by a security guard during a June 13 incident that was captured on video and went viral on social media.

The incident, which started during a fight between Nellie’s customers and security guards, has triggered a month-long series of protests against the bar by LGBTQ and racial justice activists.

Corado is the founder and executive director of Casa Ruby, the D.C.-based LGBTQ community services center that offers bilingual programs for the LGBTQ Latino/Latina community and has a special outreach to the transgender community.

“To be clear, we are very sorry that this horrible incident occurred, and we are sorry for what happened to Ms. Young, and we apologize to her for how she was treated,” the Nellie’s statement says.

The statement reiterated an announcement in an earlier statement that Nellie’s released shortly after the June 13 Pride weekend incident that it had terminated its arrangement with a private security company for which the guard who pulled Young by her hair down the stairs had been employed.

The latest statement released on Friday says Corado will “assist in ensuring that all of Nellie’s staff receive ongoing diversity and sensitivity and inclusion training – with a focus on the concerns of LGBTQ+ people of color.”

Corado, who showed up at Nellie’s on Friday night, found herself in the midst of yet another protest outside the bar and the subject of criticism by some of the protesters who told her she should be joining them in the street rather than working for Nellie’s.

“What I feel today is that after my conversations with the owner, that he is willing to listen to the community, to act to make this space a place where everybody feels welcome,” Corado told the Washington Blade while standing on the sidewalk outside Nellie’s 9th Street entrance.

 “And that’s why he brought me on board,” Corado said in referring to Nellie’s owner Schantz. “And that’s why I came on board, because I do feel that, once again, I can talk to the community, engage them and listen,” said Corado. “And he did say that he is acting on the concerns of the community.”

Schantz has not responded to repeated requests by the Blade for comment.

The Friday, July 16, statement issued by Nellie’s notes that in addition to firing the security company at the time of the incident with Young, Nellie’s temporarily closed “to allow for a thorough review of the incident.”

The statement does not mention that Nellie’s reopening on Tuesday of this week, after being closed for over a month, was greeted by about 50 protesters, some of whom formed a human chain across the bar’s entrance door, blocking people from entering the bar. The action prompted the bar to close earlier in the evening than its normal closing time.

When Nellie’s reopened again on Friday, protesters returned to stage another demonstration on the sidewalk outside the bar and in the streets at the bustling intersection of 9th and U Streets, N.W., where Nellie’s is located.

D.C. police, who were monitoring the protest, immediately closed off vehicle access to the streets surrounding Nellie’s while about 40 or 50 protesters called for Nellie’s to agree to a series of demands that they have issued.

Among the demands is that Nellie’s participate in a “public community listening session” in which members of the community, including former Nellie’s customers, would present details about what protesters have said are alleged racially biased practices by Nellie’s staff against Black customers.

Corado told the Blade she agreed to Nellie’s invitation to serve as its community engagement director in her role as head of a private consulting firm focusing on diversity related issues that she started five years ago that’s separate from her job as Casa Ruby’s executive director. She said she will remain in her position as Casa Ruby executive director.

She said that among other things, she will make recommendations to Schantz on how best to address community concerns raised by the protesters and others in the community.

Nellie’s statement on Friday comes at a time when Nellie’s is under investigation by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General following a report two weeks ago by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) that it violated the terms of its liquor license under D.C. law in its handling of the fight that broke out at the time Young was pulled down the stairs by the security guard.

The ABRA report says the fight occurred after a Nellie’s staff member and one or more security guards ordered customers believed to have brought in their own bottle of liquor, which is not allowed by Nellie’s, to leave the bar. Young has said she was mistakenly identified as one of the customers who brought in their own liquor bottle.

 Among those leading Friday’s protest outside Nellie’s were Makia Green, co-conductor of the community activist group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, and Bethelehem Yirga, co-founder of the racial justice advocacy group Palm Collective. Both said they respect Corado for her many years of advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ community but were disappointed that she was working for Nellie’s.

“She should be in solidarity with the people in the streets because Ruby Corado used to be one of those people,” Green told the Blade. “And she should have been in solidarity with us.”

Minutes later, Green attempted to intervene when a verbal confrontation broke out between a man believed to be a Nellie’s customer and several of the protesters. The man, who is Black, shouted repeatedly, “You are boycotting the wrong fucking bar.” About a half dozen protesters shouted back, demanding that he leave the area.

“Nellie’s staff is racially, ethnically and gender-identity diverse,” the Nellie’s statement released on Friday says. “It always has and always will,” it says. “As we reopen to serve the community and ensure continued employment of our team of 50 employees – all of us at Nellie’s renew our mission to be an inclusive, welcoming and safe space for women, for all people of color, for the entire LGBTQ+ community and for all our neighbors and friends.”

The statement concludes, “We also recognize that being an inclusive business is an ongoing process, and we pledge to continue to investigate ways to do better. We promise to see you, to listen to you, to embrace you and to welcome you each night.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council members Trayon White (D-Ward 8) and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) joined other city officials and community leaders in a groundbreaking ceremony on July 15 for Whitman-Walker Health’s new healthcare center at the city’s rapidly developing site in Ward 8 known as the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus.

The six-story, 118,000-square-foot building, scheduled to open in the middle of 2023, will be Whitman-Walker’s largest-ever healthcare facility and will expand the health services currently provided in Ward 8 by Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Center in nearby Anacostia, according to a Whitman-Walker statement.

“This new health care home will reflect the vibrancy of the community and will give us an opportunity to expand care in ways we have been dreaming of for decades,” said Whitman-Walker CEO Naseema Shafi. “We are humbled to be working with Mayor Bowser and her team on this project,” Shafi told participants in the groundbreaking event.

Whitman-Walker describes itself as a non-profit community health center serving the D.C. metropolitan area with a special expertise in HIV/AIDS healthcare and LGBTQ healthcare. It says it currently provides services and care to more than 20,000 people annually.

In a statement released on the day of the groundbreaking event, Whitman-Walker said the new building will provide, among other services, primary, behavioral, dental, and “substance misuse” treatment services. Shafi said the new facility, similar to Whitman-Walker’s other facilities in Northwest D.C., will provide HIV-related care and care for transgender people and LGBTQ people in general.

According to the statement, the new facility will also include a ground-floor pharmacy and increased care for young people. In addition, it will provide administrative office space for over 100 Whitman-Walker staff, the statement says.

“This expansion will also allow Whitman-Walker to diversify and expand its research portfolio,” said Whitman-Walker spokesperson Jewel Addy. “Whitman-Walker has conducted research since 1987, studying nearly every HIV and Hepatitis C treatment on the market today,” Addy said.

“It’s difficult to say how important Whitman-Walker has been to D.C. residents,” Mayor Bowser told close to 100 people who turned out for the groundbreaking. “You’ve been part of the community for almost 50 years,” the mayor said. “And as you have grown and expanded, you have always prioritized the needs of the community. And because of that, Whitman-Walker has earned the trust of D.C. residents,” she said. “And we can’t wait to welcome you to St. Elizabeth Campus.”

White said he was pleased that Ward 8, which he represents on the D.C. Council, will be the host to the new Whitman-Walker facility. He and Gray, who represents nearby Ward 7, said they were looking forward to the expanded healthcare services the new facility will provide for people in need who live in the eastern section of the city, which historically has been underserved in healthcare.

John Falcicchio, the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, told the gathering that the new Whitman-Walker building will be one of several public and commercial buildings and facilities that either have already opened or will soon open at the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus.

He noted that the campus is home to the already operating St. Elizabeth’s East Sports and Entertainment Arena, which is home to the world champion Washington Mystics women’s basketball team. He said the campus will soon become home to a 252-unit housing facility, about 80 new townhomes, a new parking garage, a new city library, and a new hospital.

The Whitman-Walker statement says the D.C. development companies Redbrick LMC and Gragg Cardona Partners are working with Whitman-Walker to arrange for the construction of the new building.

“This groundbreaking represents the beginning of the realization of a bold vision shared by our partners at Whitman-Walker, Gragg Cardona Partners, District leadership and members of the community to build a new engine for economic vitality and quality healthcare,” said Louis Dubin, managing partner at Redbrick LMD.

By Cynthia Laird | SAN FRANCISCO – Sally Miller Gearhart, the first out lesbian to receive a tenure-track position at San Francisco State University and a beloved LGBTQ rights advocate, died July 14, according to Jean Crosby, who sent out an email to friends. She was 90.

Ms. Gearhart had been in poor health for several years. She had lived for many years in Willits, California but had moved recently to a care home in Ukiah.

The GLBT Historical Society posted on Facebook about Ms. Gearhart’s passing, of which they were informed by her good friend, Ruth Mahaney.

“Losing Sally is like a huge tree falling. She was very tall, and she was so important in the world,” stated Mahaney. “She had been saying she wanted out of here, to be ‘up in the sky.’ She was ready to go.”

In 1973, Ms. Gearhart received the tenure-track position at SF State. She established one of the first women’s and gender studies programs in the country while at the university, and was a leading LGBTQ activist throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee recognized Gearhart for her work in 2016 when she received the Heritage of Pride, Pride Freedom Award. She was unable to attend the parade.

Ms. Gearhart was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), having been a friend and colleague of Milk, the late gay San Francisco supervisor. Ms. Gearhart worked with Milk on the 1978 defeat of Proposition 6, a California ballot initiative that sought to exclude gay men and lesbians from teaching in public schools. Ms. Gearhart was also an acclaimed author of feminist science fiction.

During the Prop 6 campaign, Ms. Gearhart and Milk debated then-state Senator John Briggs, the author of the anti-gay initiative. It is a clip of that debate that is featured in the documentary.

“Harvey Milk and I did wonderful things together. We looked like mom and pop,” Ms. Gearhart recalled of their work on the ballot measure campaign in Deborah Craig and Veronica Deliz’s 2018 short documentary “A Great Ride.”

The film showcased the lives of a number of senior lesbians living throughout Northern California. The filmmakers followed Ms. Gearhart as she drove her beat up jeep with her dog, Bodhi, by her side through the Women’s Land all-female community she helped establish in Willits.

With the camera rolling, the relatively reclusive Ms. Gearhart at that point in her life discussed her fears about aging. In her later years Ms. Gearhart had declined media interviews, while her friends raised funds to cover the cost to care for her.

“I am scared to lose my ability to drive and my independence,” she told the filmmakers.

Ms. Gearhart was also featured in “Last Call at Maud’s,” a 1993 film about the former San Francisco lesbian bar. Carrie Preston portrayed her in the 2017 TV miniseries “When We Rise,” which was partially inspired by gay activist Cleve Jones’ memoir of the same title.

Craig has been working on a full-length documentary solely about Ms. Gearhart, which she had told the Bay Area Reporter she hoped to release this year. She found her to be “charismatic” and “a quirky hero.”

“She has this whole arc to her story that is really kind of … hopefully we can make a great American story of transformation. She was this small town Southern girl and becomes a character and leader and icon,” Craig had told the B.A.R.. “A lot of people, women especially, felt she hasn’t gotten her due. She was written out of the ‘Milk’ film. I try not to pass judgment, but that is what happened.”

Terry Beswick, a gay man who’s executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, talked about the significance of Ms. Gearhart’s life in a Facebook post.

“Sally’s contributions to LGBTQ history and culture were immeasurable,” Beswick stated. “She was a courageous fighter for equality at a time when it made an indelible difference then and now. So many people do not know her story, and I’m so glad that there is a documentary in the works to honor this unsung hero.”

In the mid-1970s, Ms. Gearhart was co-chair of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual. This organization offered a variety of speaking events and literature to educate followers on the Judeo-Christian tradition. It also educated legislators about LGBTQ people and the issues that they faced.

Ms. Gearhart was born in Pearisburg, Virginia, on April 15, 1931 to Sarah Miller Gearhart and Kyle Montague Gearhart. According to her Wikipedia entry, Ms. Gearhart attended an all-women’s institution, Sweet Briar College, near Lynchburg, Virginia. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in drama and English in 1952.

At Bowling Green State University, she obtained a master’s degree in theater and public address in 1953. She continued on at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, getting her Ph.D. in theater in 1956, with the intent of pursuing a life of academia.

The preceding article was previously published by The Bay Area Reporter and is republished by permission.