Local
Marriage ads to hit Md. airwaves
Pro-Question 6 campaign has purchased more than $500,000 in air time
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley at a Tuesday fundraiser in D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Public records indicate that the campaign to defend Maryland’s same-sex marriage law has purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of airtime on local television stations ahead of next month’s referendum.
Documents posted on the Federal Communications Commission’s website indicate that Marylanders for Marriage Equality has purchased $297,325 of air time on WBAL in Baltimore for 291 30-second advertisements that are scheduled to run from Oct. 10 through Nov. 6. FCC records further note that the campaign has also purchased $253,000.01 worth of air time on WJLA in D.C. from Oct. 29 through Nov. 6. Marylanders for Marriage Equality has also purchased airtime on WUSA in the nation’s capital, but documents filed with the FCC do not indicate a specific cost.
FCC records further indicate that the campaign has also made inquiries into potential media buys with WJZ in Baltimore and WRC in D.C.
Documents further note that Media Strategies and Research of Fairfax, Va., produced the ads. Josh Levin, campaign director of Marylanders for Marriage Equality, declined to answer questions about their specific content. He stressed, however, that they are part of what he described as the campaign’s ongoing outreach to Maryland voters on Question 6.
“We’ve seen the polls tightening in the public numbers over the last week,” said Levin. “That’s why it’s so important for us to get out on the air and get the message out there. We need to get the message to as many people as possible. That’s what we’ve been asking our supporters to do.”
Levin told supporters in a Sept. 20 e-mail that said the campaign needed to raise $500,000 over the “next two weeks” to counter Question 6 opponents’ ads. He said in the same fundraising pitch that Marylanders for Marriage Equality had only been able to purchase a week’s worth of television air time “in some places so far.” FCC records indicate that the Maryland Marriage Alliance has purchased $93,475 of air time on WBAL for 110 30-second ads that are slated to run from Oct. 8 through Nov. 5. The group has also purchased air time on WMAR in Baltimore.
FCC documents note that Frank Schubert of Mission: Public Affairs, LLC, in Sacramento, Calif., on July 12 requested air time on both WJLA and WUSA. Schubert, who is the national political director for the National Organization for Marriage, masterminded the campaign behind California’s voter-approved Proposition 8 that banned nuptials for same-sex couples in 2008. He also led efforts to overturn Maine’s 2009 law that would have allowed gays and lesbians to tie the knot and to pass a constitutional amendment earlier this year in North Carolina that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Levin implied that his organization’s Sept. 20 appeal was successful.
“I think you could draw that conclusion,” he told the Blade.
Marriage campaign needs to raise an additional $1 million
Gov. Martin O’Malley said during an Oct. 2 fundraiser for Marylanders for Marriage Equality at the D.C. home of gay Democratic lobbyist Steve Elmendorf that the campaign still needs to raise an additional $1 million before Election Day. He told a group of LGBT bloggers and reporters during a Sept. 24 conference call that Marylanders for Marriage Equality needed an additional $2 million ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
“This is by no means done,” said O’Malley. “And in your presence here tonight, I hope that when you leave here, you leave here committed to help us turn on the after-burners for the next 36 days.”
Meanwhile, Baltimore Ravens center Mark Birk earlier this week spoke out against marriage rights for same-sex couples in an op-ed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper in his native Minnesota. He also appeared in a Minnesota Catholic Conference web ad in support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in the state.
“I can put up a lot from the government like higher taxes and while I don’t like it, pushing God out of schools. But letting a small number of business and government elites and judges define what marriage is for Minnesotans doesn’t seem very fair. It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Birk, who compared a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the state’s same-sex marriage ban to the Iowa Supreme Court decision that led to nuptials for gays and lesbians in the Hawkeye State. “Politicians have said they will try to redefine marriage at their earliest opportunity, even next year if the marriage amendment doesn’t pass. Our culture today of moral irrelevantism attacks marriage and a lot of our Catholic values, but marriage is the foundation of our society and is definitely something worth fighting for — my marriage and the institution itself. A lot of people say live and let live; let everybody do what they want. But this is too important of an issue to do that on. We need to stand up and fight for it and preserve it for our sake, for our children’s sake and for the sake of our entire society. The state should have laws to protect marriage because it was around long before the state came around. I don’t think it’s their place to redefine it.”
Ravens linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo continues to speak out in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples in Maryland.
“We should be doing everything we can to make Maryland families stronger, which is why I support marriage for gay and lesbian couples who want to make a lifetime commitment together,” he says in a Marylanders for Marriage Equality web ad. “People from all walks of life, including gay and lesbian couples, want their children to be in stable homes and protected under the law.”
Ayanbadejo is scheduled to attend a Marylanders for Marriage Equality fundraiser with O’Malley in Baltimore on Oct. 8.
District of Columbia
D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs celebrates 20th anniversary
Bowser, Japer Bowles among those who attended celebration
Close to 200 mostly local LGBTQ community members and activists turned out on Thursday, Oct. 15, for the 20th anniversary celebration for the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
The event, which took place at the Penn Social event hall in downtown D.C., included remarks by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Office of LGBTQ Affairs Director Japer Bowles as well as LGBTQ community advocates Rayceen Pendarvis and Charity Blackwell.
The local dance group Urban Culture also performed on the stage where each of the speakers, including Bowers and Bowles, credited the community activists attending the event and others involved in the LGBTQ rights movement with helping the LGBTQ Affairs office succeed in its work.
Prior to and after the presentation by the speakers, local DJ, music producer, and community activist Tony Play presented house and dance music, including the music the Urban Culture dance group performed with.
The LGBTQ Affairs Office, officially named the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Affairs, has Cabinet-level status and currently has six staff members, including Bowles as director.
In his remarks, Bowles noted that the office serves as the largest LGBTQ funding organization in the D.C. region, administering over $1 million in annual grants for local LGBTQ organizations and services.
Both he and Bowser said among the office’s most important accomplishments in recent years was helping the city serve as host for World Pride 2025, which drew more than a million visitors to the city who participated in hundreds of LGBTQ-related events.
“This has been one of the greatest honors of my life to lead this office,” Bowles told the gathering. “We’re celebrating during LGBTQ History Month,” he said. “Our history is not just something we look back on. It is something we keep making,” he pointed out, adding, “D.C. isn’t just supportive. D.C. is the movement.”
Bowles said that with the strong support of Bowser, the LGBTQ Affairs Office over the past 20 years has trained thousands of D.C. government employees in LGBTQ cultural and sensitivity awareness, “invested in hate violence prevention,” supported programs to provide housing for homeless LGBTQ youth and adults, supported a project to document the Black LGBTQ community’s history, and “we directed millions of dollars to organizations serving our community every day.”
“And I’m so grateful to you, the advocates, the community organizations, the business leaders, and our staff,” he said. In introducing Bowser as the next speaker, Bowles credited her with putting in place policies and actions that have advanced the office’s support for the LGBTQ community.
In her remarks at the event Bowser praised Bowles for his work in advancing the LGBTQ Affairs Office’s mission. She thanked former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams under whom she noted the Office of LGBTQ Affairs was created during his last year in office.
“So, this is a birthday party, but it is also a call to action,” the mayor said. “Because I will sow my last day on Jan. 2,” she added, referring to her last day as mayor after deciding not to run for re-election for a fourth term in office.
Bowser noted that around the time the LGBTQ Affairs office was started the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage came up before the D.C. Council when she was on the Council representing Ward 4. She mentioned that the proposal was introduced by gay Council member David Catania and she immediately expressed support for the proposed legislation, which the Council later passed.
“And then those arguments, the discussions happened,” she said, referring to the ongoing debate over same-sex marriage and the possibility of Congress stepping in to overturn a D.C. marriage bill.
“But I have to tell you, your government said this is what we’re going to do. And we’re going to make it happen so there is equality in the District of Columbia,” she said.
She noted that the success in the approval of the same-sex marriage bill in D.C. was symbolic of the mission and success of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs over the following 20 years.
“People worked, they fought, they argued, they compromised, and they made this change,” she said.
When asked how he thought the event went, Bowles told the Washington Blade he was excited over the turnout and those who attended.
“A room full of community members, leaders, history makers, new friends, colleagues,” he said. “It was great. That’s what a birthday party is all about — it’s about honoring the people of the past, celebrating the many years ahead.”
Maryland
The UMD student reporter who dared to record Andy Harris — and kept recording
Anti-LGBTQ Republican threatened to have police remove Cat Murphy from briefing
By BRENDA WINTRODE — A University of Maryland student journalist targeted by U.S. Rep. Andy Harris during an informal press briefing Tuesday said she’ll continue to cover the Republican politician who threatened to have police remove her from the room.
Cat Murphy, a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a reporter for the student newswire Capital News Service, appeared on CNN Wednesday to recount a post-debate clash that has gone viral on social media and been broadcast on national news.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Murphy, 22, how she had processed the exchange one day later.
“It has been a lot,” she said. “But I was focused on doing my job and asking my questions that I wanted answers to. And I think I did that.”
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Center Arts Gallery celebration, auction to take place on Oct. 17
D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center to mark event’s 10th anniversary
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is hosting its 10th anniversary celebration of the opening of its Center Arts Gallery on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Center’s offices at 1827 Wiltberger St., N.W., from 6 – 9 p.m.
“For 10 years, the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center’s Arts Gallery has been more than a place where art is displayed,” a statement released by the center says.
“It has been a space where LGBTQ+ artists are seen, celebrated, and connected to community, and where their work has given expression to the stories of joy, resistance, grief, beauty, survival, courage, and imagination,” the statement adds.
It says those attending the event would have an opportunity to bid on donated artwork in an auction and to meet and interact with “the artists whose creativity has helped bring Center Arts Gallery to life, enjoy wonderful food and music, and celebrate a decade of LGBTQ+ artistic expression.”
But the statement posted on the LGBTQ+ Community Center’s website says free general admission tickets have sold out, with $75 VIP tickets still available. It says the proceeds from ticket sales will be used to help support the LGBTQ+ Community Center’s operations.
Attendees and others were also invited to an event after party at the LGBTQ bar and cafe Spark Social from 9-11 p.m. at 2009 14th St., N.W.
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