Local
O’Malley on marriage, presidential aspirations
Md. guv applauds Question 6 campaign, downplays 2016 race
Gov. Martin O’Malley with Brendon Ayanbadejo of the Baltimore Ravens outside Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore on Nov. 6. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Tuesday said he felt confident going into Election Day that the referendum on the state’s same-sex marriage law would pass.
“I had a pretty good sense in the course of those last 10 days that it was on a good positive trajectory,” he told the Washington Blade, recalling how delayed election results from Montgomery County prompted Marylanders for Marriage Equality not to declare Question 6 had officially passed until more than four hours after the polls had closed. “Once we figured that out then I started breathing a little more deeply. And then when the Montgomery County numbers came in and we were up to 51 [percent,] the night seemed to be coming into perspective.”
Question 6 passed by a 52-48 percent margin with Montgomery County voters supporting it by nearly two to one. Baltimore voters backed it by a 57-43 percent margin, while Question 6 lost in Prince George’s County by less than 4,000 votes.
O’Malley told the Blade he feels one of the campaign’s turning points came when Rev. Delman Coates of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton and Rev. Donté Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in Baltimore publicly supported the law he signed in March.
“There are lots of differences of opinion among clergy about this issue — and some are in favor of civil marriage equality, some are opposed,” said the governor. “For those guys to not only come to the conclusion personally and as citizens that civil marriage equality is the right change of law, but also to be willing to step up and speak to that in a public way allowed us to have a much more positive dialogue than the usual fear-based frames that have doomed these referenda in other states in the past.”
O’Malley also cited President Obama’s public support of marriage rights for same-sex couples during a “vulnerable election year” as another turning point for the pro-Question 6 campaign in Maryland. The governor also applauded him for statements in support of both nuptials for gays and lesbians and the Dream Act that will allow public colleges and universities to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants during the Democratic National Convention.
The governor played an increasingly important role in Marylanders for Marriage Equality fundraising efforts in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
He headlined a star-studded New York City fundraiser gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman co-hosted on Sept. 13 that raised more than $100,000 for the pro-Question 6 group. The governor also attended an Oct. 2 fundraiser for Marylanders for Marriage Equality that D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.,) lesbian state Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery County) and others attended at gay Democratic lobbyist Steve Elmendorf’s Washington home.
O’Malley spoke at the Human Rights Campaign’s “Chefs for Equality” fundraiser at the Ritz-Carlton in Foggy Bottom on Oct. 25 that raised funds for the group’s pro-Question 6 efforts.
“We had a very good campaign by the end,” he said. “We continued to grow and evolve and become stronger every day. And it was a very well-run campaign. Josh Levin[ campaign director for Marylanders for Marriage Equality,] did a good job.”
When asked whether gays and lesbians were visible enough during the campaign, O’Malley said the pro-Question 6 television and radio ads that ran in the Baltimore and D.C. media markets were “very effective.”
“The ads, through a variety of different voices, got across the message that this is a timeless American truth that we should protect rights of all individuals equally while protecting religious freedom,” he said. “The thrust behind the ads was to make this a question that can and should be supported by all people — gay and straight, black and white, believers, non-believers, people of all faiths. With limited dollars that’s what we attempted to do. If we had more money perhaps we would have been able to run a greater variety of ads, but we were smart and strategic.”
O’Malley further stressed he feels gays and lesbians were “well-represented” in the campaign and among its leadership that included state lawmakers. He was reluctant to comment on whether the Washington Blade should have published the names of those who signed the petition in support of the referendum on the state’s same-sex marriage law.
“I don’t know that I’m qualified to comment on journalistic ethics,” said O’Malley. The Blade published the list to its website in July; the Baltimore Sun followed and published the list in October.
The governor also sought to downplay growing speculation about the possibility he will run for president in 2016.
“I’m running mostly to get some more sleep and some more time with my family lately,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to these next two years because with the president’s re-election we’re going to be able to solidify some important strides forward on health care and public safety and moving our state to the other side of this recession. So those are all the things I’m thinking about. I haven’t really given any thought to 2016.”
O’Malley further joked he “never had to be quite the multitasker as” he was during this election cycle. Question 6 and the three other referenda he supported passed. O’Malley also chairs the Democratic Governors’ Association.
“We won five of our six contested races and even won back Puerto Rico, which no one thought would happen. We came close in Indiana,” he said. “I’m still in the gratitude mode. I’m focused on the making the next two years the most effective they can possibly be for this administration that I lead.”
Delaware
Delaware fines Rehoboth bar $15,000 for discriminating against trans woman
Hideout told patron she had to use men’s room due to gender marker on driver’s license
The Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission voted to fine Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille $15,000 last month due to a discrimination complaint filed by a trans woman over her use of the bathroom.
Katie Sorber, a transgender woman, said that on April 5, 2023, she was stopped by employees and told she could only use the men’s bathroom due to the “male” gender marker on her driver’s license. This occurred after Sorber presented her ID upon entering the bar and ordering a drink.
Sorber took to Facebook to complain about her experience at the bar after she was told to use the men’s bathroom.
On April 12, 2023, Sorber returned to the Hideout but was barred from entering due to her post on social media.
Following Sorber’s post, Bryan Derrickson, the owner of Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille, allegedly began enforcing a policy in which patrons had to use the bathroom that corresponded to the gender marker on their ID.
Derrickson was ordered to pay $10,000 to Sorber, $5,000 to the Special Administration Fund, as well as conduct anti-discrimination training with employees, remove the ban on Sorber from the establishment, and revise the bar’s bathroom policy.
The commission ruled that the bar and Derrickson had wrongfully discriminated against Sorber on the basis of her gender.
Derrickson’s explanations for the denial included safety concerns, a third-party patron complaint, and a reference to the health code. The panel found this to be inconsistent and lacking factual support upon cross-examination.
The case was evaluated under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, which explicitly prohibits discrimination and retaliation in places of public accommodation based on gender identity.
This was the second time that the bar has been fined for discriminating against a transgender woman. The bar received a $2,000 penalty in September of last year for denying a transgender woman entry in 2023.
Half of the fine went to Kathy Carpenter Brown, the trans woman who experienced the discrimination. Brown is the founder of TransLiance, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Delaware.
District of Columbia
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
31 of 43 known LGBTQ ANC members elected in 2024 seeking re-election
A 2026 list of candidates released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 31 of the 43 known LGBTQ candidates who won election in 2024 as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have filed the required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot this year to run for re-election.
The Washington Blade reported in 2024 that 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election to ANC seats that year in the November election
In a related development, the president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the group this year has recruited at least 39 LGBTQ candidates to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats in the city’s Nov. 3 general election.
The group’s president, Stevie McCarty, an incumbent ANC member in the city’s Shaw neighborhood who is running for re-election, said the 39 candidates and possibly more responded to the group’s Queering ANCs campaign launched on July 7 that includes a website with detailed instructions for how best to run for an ANC seat.
“Since launching in early July, the site has drawn more than 20,000 views, and 39 candidates have used it to actually run,” McCarty said in a statement. He said he wasn’t sure if all the 39 candidates wanted to be identified as LGBTQ, and he was reviewing the list of incumbent LGBTQ ANC members who won election in 2024 to determine if any of the 39 candidates recruited were among those incumbents. He said he was not ready to release the names of the 39 candidates he said his group recruited to run for an ANC seat.
If none of the 39 candidates recruited by Capital Stonewall Democrats are among the 31 known LGBTQ ANC incumbents running for re-election, it would mean at least 70 LGBTQ ANC candidates will be on the city’s November election ballot.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will send candidate questionnaires to the known LGBTQ ANC candidates as part of its process for endorsing candidates in the November election. He said he expects the group to help campaign for and provide financial support for the ANC candidates it endorses.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, zoning, liquor licenses, and economic development. Although ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or actions by city agencies, the agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty said in the Capital Stonewall Democrats statement announcing the launch of the Queering ANCs campaign in July. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
Some local LGBTQ activists, who asked not to be identified, said they were not aware of a significant boost in new LGBTQ ANC candidates from the Queering ANCs campaign. However, they praised the effort to recruit more LGBTQ ANC candidates and said the campaign could have yielded more candidates if it had started sooner than less than a month before the deadline for becoming a candidate.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will continue to recruit LGBTQ D.C. residents to run as write-in candidates for ANC seats, especially in the 45 single member districts in which no candidate will be on the ballot. The Board of Elections candidate list shows many ANC single member districts that have just one candidate running without an opponent.
Following is a list of 33 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in D.C.’s November 2026 election and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. All but two – Vita Rangel and J. Swiderski – are incumbents running for re-election. The Washington Blade will update this list if and when more LGBTQ ANC candidates become known.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights) Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A10 – (Columbia Heights) Vita Rangel, she/ her [non-incumbent candidate]
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street) J. Swiderski, they/he [non-incumbent candidate]
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill) Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street) Matthew Holden, he/him
1E01 – (Park View) Brad Howard, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle) Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle) Vincent Slatt, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter) Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle) Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle) Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw) Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw) Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights) S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park) Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma) Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs) Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth) Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights) Vince Micone, he/him
5B04 – (Brookland) Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland) Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad) Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington) Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill) David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle) Karen Hughes, she/her
7C01 – (Deanwood) Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights) Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C04 (Deanwood) Anthony Lorenzo Green
7C08 – (Capitol View) Brandon M. Scott, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn) Tom Donohue, he, him
8B06 – (Garfield Heights) Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
Congress
Chris Van Hollen says the Democratic Party needs change. Is he the one to lead it?
Senator is backing anti-establishment Democrats across the country
By LEE O. SANDERLIN | The Democratic Party is having something of an identity crisis — losing to President Donald Trump twice in three elections will do that.
Should the party embrace anti-establishment figures who espouse progressive policy ideas like Medicare for all and rhetoric about unrigging the economy for the 1 percent? Or should Democrats try to appeal to moderates who want to return to semi-normalcy in a time of political upheaval?
Although he’s been in Congress since 2002, with key leadership roles throughout his tenure, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, 67, counts himself firmly in the anti-establishment camp.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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