Local
Mautner Project to become part of Whitman-Walker
Groups call move ‘collaboration’ rather than merger
‘We are very excited that we’ll be working with Whitman-Walker Health,’ said Leslie Calman, the Mautner Project’s executive director, who is stepping down from the organization. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Mautner Project, a national lesbian health organization based in Washington, D.C. since its founding in 1990, will become an arm of D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health in what leaders of both groups are calling an “historic collaboration.”
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the two organizations said the arrangement will bring the Mautner Project’s programs and staff under the “umbrella” of Whitman-Walker, an LGBT community health care provider founded in 1978.
“We are very excited that we’ll be working with Whitman-Walker Health,” said Leslie Calman, the Mautner Project’s executive director. “It has a long, prestigious history of providing culturally sensitive health care services to Washington’s LGBT community.”
Calman said the joining of the two organizations would allow Mautner to “offer more critical services to a greater number of women who need those services throughout the region; it’s a natural fit.”
Don Blanchon, CEO of Whitman-Walker, said bringing Mautner’s programs into Whitman-Walker’s operations would enhance the longstanding mission of both organizations.
“Mautner Project has been dedicated to the health and wellness of Washington’s lesbian community for over 20 years,” Blanchon said. “We’ve been looking for a way to expand our health care services to women and Mautner Project’s programs and reach within their community will help us fulfill that mission.”
Although the joint statement released by the two organizations repeatedly uses the term “collaboration” to describe the new arrangement between the groups, details released by the groups give the appearance of a corporate merger.
Calman told the Blade that Mautner Project’s status as an independent non-profit corporation will cease to exist in the coming months as the organization closes its books and shuts down its office at 1300 19th St., N.W.
She said five of the Mautner Project’s six employees will continue to work on Mautner’s programs as Whitman-Walker employees working out of Whitman-Walker’s headquarters building at 1701 14th St., N.W.
Calman said she is leaving Mautner to become the CEO of a global health organization called Engineering World Health, which provides technical assistance on medical equipment in developing countries in Africa.
She said Mautner Project’s annual budget over the past several years has been about $950,000. Whitman-Walker spokesperson Chip Lewis said Whitman-Walker’s 2013 budget and projected revenue is $30.6 million.
Whitman-Walker emerged in the 1990s as the city’s largest private health care provider for people with HIV/AIDS. In recent years, Whitman-Walker has become a primary medical and dental care provider for all health care needs.
“Our mission is to be the highest quality, culturally competent community health center serving Washington’s diverse urban community, including individuals who face barriers to accessing care, and with a special expertise in LGBT and HIV care,” the statement announcing the new arrangement with Mautner Project says.
Unlike Whitman-Walker, Mautner Project has not offered direct medical services. Instead, the organization says on its website that it was founded to provide a wide range of support for lesbians with cancer and other serious illnesses through support groups, education and training of medical providers.
“Educating health care providers about the needs and concerns of their lesbian, bisexual and transgender clients” has been a key part of Mautner’s mission, its website says.
Calman said Mautner wasn’t facing an immediate financial crisis at the time its board decided to approach Whitman-Walker about a possible merger. But she said the board and staff became increasingly aware of the growing difficulty for smaller non-profit organizations like Mautner to raise money and serve the number of clients in need of services.
“The Mautner Project could have continued as an independent non-profit in the immediate future, meaning the next few years,” Calman told the Blade. “But the environment is getting harder and harder,” she said in referring to lining up donors willing to support a group of that size.
Corporate donors and foundations have been calling on small non-profits to “collaborate” or merge with other similar groups to eliminate what they consider a duplication of administrative costs such as office equipment, rent and executive directors’ salaries, Calman said.
“So it was a very deliberative, very thoughtful exploration of possibilities,” she said. “For us it’s really been about keeping the organizational programs and making it stronger and guaranteeing it into the future.”
Calman noted that in addition to continuing its services for lesbians with serious illnesses such as cancer, the Mautner programs at Whitman-Walker will also continue various illness prevention programs established by Mautner. Among them are cancer screening, smoking cessation and obesity reduction.
“Mautner Project will continue its operations at the Whitman-Walker Health’s 14th Street headquarters uninterrupted, led by Jacquetta Brooks, the current director of services at Mautner Project,” the joint statement says.
In its 2010 990 finance report filed with the IRS, the most recent such report available for public inspection, the Mautner Project reported it had sustained a deficit or debt of $107,107. The same report says Mautner had a deficit or debt of $264,390 in 2009.
Calman told the Blade that while Mautner often sustained a debt, the deficit figures reported in the group’s 2010 990 report gave an exaggerated perception of the actual debt, which she said was much smaller due to grants or other income that Mautner received shortly after the report was filed.
She said Mautner’s and Whitman-Walker’s respective boards agreed to keep confidential any debt that Mautner may have had at the time of the joining of the two groups.
District of Columbia
JR.’s hosts meet & greet for mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George
Event organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, Queers for Janeese
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George spoke to a crowd of LGBTQ supporters on June 1 at a meet & greet event held at JR.’s on 17th Street in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
The event, organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, which has endorsed Lewis George for mayor, with support from a group called Queers for Janeese, was followed by a “get out the vote” canvassing endeavor in which several of those attending the meet & greet visited the homes of nearby residents known to be Lewis George supporters.
The purpose of the canvassing was to remind Lewis George supporters to return their mail-in ballots or go to the polls on June 16 to elect Lewis George as the city’s next mayor, according to Matthew Kavanagh, one of the leaders of Queers for Janeese who attended the meet & greet event at JR.’s.
Local political observers consider Lewis George, a Ward 4 D.C. Council member, and former At-Large D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, to be the two leading candidates in this year’s race for mayor. The two are among seven mayoral candidates competing in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary.
Lewis George told those attending the meet & greet, which was held on the JR.’s outdoor patio, that she has a long record of advocating for and initiating city polices and laws in support of the LGBTQ community. She said large corporate donors were backing her opponents and urged her LGBTQ supporters to help raise funds for her in the remaining days of the campaign.
Among those attending the meet & greet was gay longtime Dupont Circle civic activist Randy Downs who last November opened a nearby eatery called Protest Pizza. “I am queer and I am a Janeese supporter,” Downs told the Blade.
Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, who also spoke at the meet & greet event, said his group would organize events in support of Lewis George in the remaining days of the campaign. Among them, he said, was an LGBTQ bar crawl in which supporters of Lewis George, including the candidate herself, would visit LGBTQ bars to promote her candidacy.
Virginians for Marriage Equality on Monday launched a campaign in support of repealing Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman, former state Sen. Adam Ebbin, former state Del. Mark Sickles, and American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Executive Director Mary Bauer are among those who spoke at the launch that took place in Richmond. State Del. Kirk McPike (D-Alexandria), who co-chairs the campaign, also participated.
“This amendment is about making clear that the government has no business deciding which marriages or which families are worthy of recognition,” said Bauer. “The ACLU of Virginia has been fighting for Virginians’ right to marry who they love since the landmark case, Loving v. Virginia, which struck down the ban on interracial marriage. Now we are proud to carry that legacy forward by standing with our coalition partners in the fight to pass this amendment and finally enshrine the right to marriage equality in the commonwealth’s constitution.”
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is a Republican, in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger in February signed a bill that finalized the referendum’s language.
The referendum will take place on Nov. 3.
Rehoboth Beach
CAMP Rehoboth’s new director shares plans for busy summer
Dr. Robin Brennan on joyful approach to leadership role
Dr. Robin Brennan, CAMP Rehoboth’s new executive director, has been getting adjusted to her role and connecting with the Rehoboth community.
In March of this year, Brennan took on the role of executive director of CAMP Rehoboth, an LGBTQ+ community center in Delaware working to Create A More Positive (CAMP) environment, following the retirement of Kim Leisey.
When asked about her first few months with CAMP, Brennan said that she’s “in the listening and learning phase.”
“The first few months have been overwhelmingly beautiful, with such warm wishes from so many really diverse groups,” said Brennan.
“The more time that I’ve been at CAMP, it’s almost like I have more questions and more admiration for the solid foundation that it has,” said Brennan. She explained that she is taking her time to listen and connect with the Rehoboth community during these crucial first months.
She spoke to the stressful nature of this work, saying, “This work takes a lot of resiliency, especially being in a front-facing position as executive director of an organization. There’s so much pressure on this to be successful.”
Brennan is no stranger to high-pressure work environments, having worked in the public health field during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brennan earned a doctorate in public health from Drexel University and has spent nearly two decades working in higher education, which she says greatly influences her approach to her work.
“I am always giving back to and mentoring students, that’s always been a part of who I am,” said Brennan. She said that the adaptability and flexibility she practiced during her time as a professor influences her work, noting, “I think that to be flexible is a key to success.”
Aside from her tenure in academia, Brennan has worked for nonprofits, including with organizations such as Redeemer Health and Nemours Children’s Health.
Leslie Ledogar, president of CAMP’s board of directors, said that Brennan’s joyful approach to this work made her stand out in the search for a new executive director.
“I think that I’ve always naturally been positive and joyful because if I don’t, I will burn out,” said Brennan.
For Brennan, honoring CAMP’s legacy remains a top priority in her role at CAMP. “For me, legacy is so critical, so I want to honor the legacy that this foundation was built on.”
When asked about DEI funding cuts by the Trump administration, Brennan shared how she is navigating an administration that is targeting organizations like CAMP.
“This administration doesn’t open doors for opportunities. As a nimble nonprofit organization, we have always had to be creative,” said Brennan.
She said that she “would never want CAMP Rehoboth to rely on federal dollars, regardless of what type of political administration we’re in. I think relying on any kind of dollars or funding is problematic.”
“We need to stay creative and innovative, not chase money, and also our ears need to be listening to what our community needs,” said Brennan.
As younger members of the LGBTQ+ community grow disheartened by the growing attacks on queer rights, Brennan shared her thought process behind helping younger members of the community.
“I think my number one thing is to listen to them, to ensure that they know their voice is valuable. That’s the most important thing before giving advice is to listen to their concerns, their needs, their fears, their struggles,” said Brennan.
“They may not be your struggles, but ultimately, as a human being, they’re all of our struggles.”
Brennan brought up PRISM, CAMP’s social group for young LGBTQ+ adults to gather in community and experience new activities with likeminded young adults. This group offers a safe space where members can form connections with one another to build a sense of belonging.
Throughout the interview, Brennan reiterated her admiration for CAMP and the community it has brought to Rehoboth for decades.
“There is no place like CAMP Rehoboth, and what it has done for Rehoboth or what it has done for countless individuals who see it as an escape and a place of freedom, visibility, belonging, and hope,” said Brennan.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Brennan said that she first visited Rehoboth in 1996 as a young gay person. “I felt at home. I could breathe,” said Brennan. She said that she has been a frequent visitor ever since and bought a house in town three years ago.
Brennan shared how happy she is to have her teenage daughter growing up with Rehoboth in her life. She said that her ideal day in Rehoboth involves going to the beach, trying new food, and enjoying time with her friends and family that live in the area.
As the summer season commences, Brennan shared that there is a plethora of upcoming events for members of the community to attend and enjoy.
Brennan highlighted the CAMP Women’s Golfing League, which is getting started on June 4 with tickets on sale now for CAMP Rehoboth members.
The CAMP Rehoboth Chorus is singing to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. on June 19 with tickets on sale now.
This year also marks the 35th anniversary of CAMP, which will be celebrated with Pride in the Courtyard on June 26.
Brennan was excited to promote CAMP’s new partnership with Beebe Healthcare starting this summer. The partnership is designed to expand access to patient-centered health services in downtown Rehoboth Beach.
“Relying on this partnership will be critical to the success of the health of our community,” said Brennan.
Brennan also talked about SUNFESTIVAL, which will be held during Labor Day weekend and will feature David Archuleta as the headliner.
Lastly, Brennan highlighted CAMP’s annual Block Party, which is held each October. “We shut down several streets, we have 100 vendors, and it’s a beautiful way for the whole community to come together to wrap up the summer,” said Brennan.
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