Local
Shutdown of GLLU website raises questions
Spokesperson says site closed after longtime volunteer operator stepped down


A volunteer says D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and other police
officials lost interest in keeping the GLLU website active, a claim disputed by MPD. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
LGBT activists and officials with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department have given conflicting accounts of the reason behind the shutdown earlier this month of the volunteer operated website of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has disputed claims by some LGBT activists that she shut down the site, saying through a spokesperson that the site closed after its longtime volunteer operator stepped down.
But the site’s operator, Sterling Spangler, told the Blade that Lanier and other MPD officials rejected his request that they recruit another volunteer to run the site, which some in the LGBT community viewed as the GLLU’s “official” website.
Spangler, a former GLLU volunteer, told the Blade he has operated and maintained the website since 2003. He said the site was housed on an outside server independent of the MPD’s website and that its domain name was purchased and set up by Matt Ashburn, another GLLU volunteer, shortly after the GLLU was first created by former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey.
Activists, including Spangler, say the site – although run by volunteers – became the de facto official GLLU website in 2006, when Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government named the GLLU the winner of its prestigious Innovations in American Government Award, which came with a $100,000 grant.
According to Spangler and other activists, at that time, the official MPD website didn’t have a page or section devoted to the GLLU. Spangler said as many as a half dozen or more GLLU volunteers from the LGBT community helped maintain the website, GLLU.org.
Spangler noted that the GLLU.org website was paid for entirely by funds from the Harvard grant. The grant requires the GLLU to have a website for carrying out the grant’s mission of reaching out to the LGBT community on police related issues.
Spangler, who served as manager of the website until October of this year, said things changed when newly elected Mayor Adrian Fenty named Lanier as the new police chief in early 2007. Lanier quickly moved to decentralize the GLLU by creating affiliate members in each of the department’s seven police district.
While activists didn’t object to the affiliate members they complained that the new chief was cutting back on resources and personnel for the central GLLU office in Dupont Circle. Spangler said Lanier’s changes and the subsequent decision by Sgt. Brett Parson to leave the GLLU to work as a street patrol supervisor resulted in the website “withering on the vine.”
“I couldn’t get anyone to give us content for the site,” he said. “After a while the site looked ridiculous because it was so out of date. And I wasn’t sure the community cared anymore.”
Under Lanier’s tenure, the MPD’s official website added special pages for the GLLU and the department’s three other special liaison units.
But to the amazement of many LGBT activists, high-level MPD officials disclosed earlier this year that they had not been aware of the GLLU.org site or of the Harvard grant and about $49,000 in grant funds that remained in an account hosted by the non-profit charitable gay group Brother Help Thyself.
Brother Help Thyself became the fiduciary agent for the grant funds in 2009 after another group linked to Harvard ceased operating, according to Mark Clark, the Brother Help Thyself treasurer.
Clark said Harvard informed the GLLU in 2006 that an independent, non-profit group had to serve as custodian of the funds under rules established by Harvard’s grants program.
Spangler said after more than 10 years as a volunteer, and after he determined the MPD’s top brass wasn’t interested in the website, he informed GLLU interim supervisor Sgt. Matt Mahl in late summer or early fall of this year that he planned to step down from his role of operating the website.
“I don’t know who he contacted,” said Spangler. “But when he got back to me he said MPD has decided to discontinue the website.”
Much to his amazement, Spangler said investigators with the department’s Internal Affairs Unit contacted him for information about the grant funds and informed him that Lanier ordered an investigation of the use of those funds.
Police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump told the Blade this week that the investigation concluded there “was no misconduct from any member [of the department] and no evidence of misuse of funds.”
Spangler said he learned later through police sources that it was Chief Lanier’s decision to close the website based, in part, on “budgetary issues.”
But Crump, in a statement sent to the Blade, disputed Spangler’s claim.
“Chief Lanier did not shut the site down,” she said. “That website was maintained by a volunteer who is no longer able to maintain the site. All four units of the Special Liaison Division are represented on MPD’s website.”
Spangler considers Crump’s statement misleading, saying MPD officials could easily recruit another volunteer to operate the website. He said the grant funds, which total slightly more than $49,000, could be used to pay for the website’s operation as well as more community outreach efforts by the GLLU.
MPD officials, meanwhile, have not said what they plan to do with the $49,000 in grant funds, which remain in a Brother Help Thyself bank account. Spangler says he remains hopeful that Lanier will reconsider her decision not to arrange for a volunteer or MPD staff person to operate the website.
World Pride 2025
D.C. liquor board extends drinking hours for WorldPride
Gay bars, other liquor-serving establishments can stay open 24 hours

D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board, which regulates liquor sales for the city’s bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and other establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages, has approved extended hours for alcohol service and sales during the days when most WorldPride events will be held in the nation’s capital.
In a May 2 announcement, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, which works with the board, said the extended liquor serving and sales hours for WorldPride will take place beginning Friday, May 30, through 4 a.m. Monday, June 9.
Although the official schedule for WorldPride events shows the events will take place May 17-June 8, most of the large events, including a two-day Pride street festival, parade, and concert, were expected to take place between May 30 and June 8.
According to the ABCA announcement and an ABCA spokesperson, liquor servicing establishments with the appropriate license can stay open for 24 hours and serve alcoholic beverages from 6 a.m. through the day and evening until 4 a.m., with no liquor sales allowed from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. during the May 30-June 9 period.
The ABCA announcement says liquor serving establishments must apply for the extended hours option and pay a $100 registration fee by a deadline on May 27.
Sources familiar with the liquor board have said the board has for many years approved the extension of liquor serving and sales hours for important events and for certain holidays such as New Year’s Eve.
At the time it approved the extended hours for WorldPride the liquor board also approved extended hours during the time when games for a World Cup soccer tournament will be held in the city on June 18, June 22, and June 26.
It couldn’t immediately be determined how many of D.C.’s 22 LGBTQ bars plan to apply for the extended drinking hours. David Perruzza, owner of the Adams Morgan gay bar Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar A League of Her Own, said he will apply for the 4 a.m. extended hours option but he does not intend to keep the two bars open for the full 23 hours.
Under the city’s current alcoholic beverage regulations, licensed liquor serving establishments may serve alcoholic beverages until 2 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends.
World Pride 2025
Episcopal bishop to speak at WorldPride human rights conference
Trump demanded apology from Mariann Edgar Budde over post-Inauguration sermon

The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde is among those who are scheduled to speak at the WorldPride 2025 Human Rights Conference that will take place from June 4-6.
Budde, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, in January urged President Donald Trump “to have mercy” on LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others “who are scared right now” during a post-Inauguration service that he and Vice President JD Vance attended at the Washington National Cathedral. Trump criticized Budde’s comments and demanded an apology.
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, 2025. (PBS NewsHour clip)
A press release the Washington Blade received notes Icelandic Industries Minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, UK Black Pride founder Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, and Bob the Drag Queen are among those who are also expected to participate in the conference.
The conference will take place at the JW Marriott (1331 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) and registration is open here.
World Pride 2025
Pabllo Vittar to perform at WorldPride
Brazilian drag queen, singer, joined Madonna on stage in 2024 Rio concert

A Brazilian drag queen and singer who performed with Madonna at her 2024 concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach will perform at WorldPride.
The Capital Pride Alliance on Thursday announced Pabllo Vittar will perform on the Main Stage of the main party that will take place on June 7 at DCBX (1235 W St., N.E.) in Northeast D.C.
Vittar and Anitta, a Brazilian pop star who is bisexual, on May 4, 2024, joined Madonna on stage at her free concert, which was the last one of her Celebration Tour. Authorities estimated 1.6 million people attended.
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