Local
D.C. trans birth certificate bill advances
Measure would repeal law requiring reassignment surgery
Council member David Catania authored the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Two D.C. Council committees voted unanimously this week to approve a bill that, among other things, would repeal an existing city law that prevents transgender people from changing their birth certificate to reflect a change in gender unless they undergo gender reassignment surgery.
The bill, written by Council member David Catania (I-At-Large), is called the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013 in honor of the transgender woman who was murdered in February 2012 while waiting for a bus in Northeast D.C.
“D.C. only allows trans people to change their birth certificate if those requesting changes have had sex-reassignment surgery,” Andy Bowen of the D.C. Trans Coalition told the Council’s Committee on Health at a May 16 hearing on the bill.
“This surgery costs many thousands of dollars,” Bowen said. “It is out of reach for the primarily low-income transgender population. It is not covered by most insurance policies. And it is not medically safe for some people.”
Bowen and other transgender advocates and their supporters told the committee that for many transgender people, surgery isn’t necessary for them to transition to another gender.
The legislation would amend the D.C. Vital Records Act of 1981 to require the city registrar to issue a new birth certificate designating a new gender for “any individual who provides a written request and a signed statement from a licensed healthcare provider that the individual has undergone a gender transition,” according to a statement released by the Committee on Health.
The bill would require that the original birth certificate of the transgender person be sealed when a new one is issued. The measure would also eliminate a requirement under existing law that people seeking a name change publicly announce the change in a newspaper or other publication.
Transgender advocates have said a new birth certificate and name change reflecting someone’s new gender are essential steps needed for transgender people to successfully complete their transition and live free from discrimination.
With Catania’s approval, the Committee on Health and the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety made seven changes to the bill that had been proposed by transgender activists, who said the changes would strengthen the bill’s protections for transgender people seeking a new birth certificate.
“For far too long, members of the transgender community have suffered intolerable discrimination and abuse,” said Council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), chair of the Committee on Health.
“The measure before us today is but one step we may take to bring protection and a sense of dignity to those who number among the most maligned members of society,” Alexander said.
The Committee on Health headed by Alexander approved the revised measure on Wednesday. The Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, chaired by Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) approved the bill on Thursday.
Twelve of the Council’s 13 members either co-introduced or co-sponsored the bill. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was the only Council member that didn’t add his name as a co-introducer or co-sponsor.
The bill is expected to come before the full Council for the first of two votes or “readings” later this month.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has said he supports the bill and would sign it when it reaches his desk.
“This has gone perfectly,” Bowen told the Blade on Thursday. “We got all the changes that we wanted and it passed in both committees unanimously. And the runway is clear for it to get its final Council vote.”
More than 20 witnesses representing a wide range of community groups and city agencies testified in support of the bill at the May 16 hearing, which was held jointly by the Health and Judiciary and Public Safety committees. No one testified against the bill.
Cameroon
Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now
Ludovic Mbock’s homeland criminalizes homosexuality
By ANTONIO PLANAS | An immigration judge on Friday issued a $4,000 bond for a Cameroonian immigrant and regional gaming champion held in federal immigration detention for the past three weeks.
The ruling will allow Ludovic Mbock, of Oxon Hill, to return to Maryland from a Georgia facility this weekend, his family and attorney said.
“Realistically, by tomorrow. Hopefully, by today,” said Mbock’s attorney, Edward Neufville. “We are one step closer to getting Ludovic justice.”
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position
Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.
The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.
“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.
The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.
Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.
“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Mayor Bowser expected to attend March 20 event
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, and local and national Democratic Party officials are expected to join more than 150 LGBTQ advocates and supporters on March 20 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the city’s Capital Stonewall Democrats.
A statement released by the organization says the event is scheduled to be held at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery building at 702 8th St., N.W. in D.C.
“The evening will honor the people who built Capital Stonewall Democrats across five decades – activists who fought for rights when the odds were against them, public servants who opened doors and refused to let them close, and a new generation of leaders ready to carry the work forward,” the statement says.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats.
Among those planning to attend the anniversary event is longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Paul Kuntzler, 84, who is one of the two co-founders of the then-Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Kuntzler told the Washington Blade that he and co-founder Richard Maulsby were joined by about a dozen others in the living room of his Southwest D.C. home at the group’s founding meeting in January 1976.
He said that among the reasons for forming a local LGBTQ Democratic group at the time was to arrange for a then “gay” presence at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, at which Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for U.S. president and later won election as president.
Maulsby, who served as the Stein Club president for its first three years and who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he would not be attending the March 20 anniversary event, but he fully supports the organization’s continuing work as an LGBTQ organization associated with the Democratic Party.
Steven McCarty, Capital Stonewall Democrats’ current president, said in the statement that the anniversary celebration will highlight the organization’s work since the time of its founding.
“Capital Stonewall Democrats has been fighting for LGBTQ+ political power in this city for 50 years, electing people, training organizers, holding this community together through some really hard moments,” he said. “And right now, with everything going on, that work has never mattered more. This gala is the first moment of our next chapter, and I want the community to be a part of it.”
The statement says among the special guests attending the event will be Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta, who became the first openly gay LGBTQ person of color to win election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018.
Other guests of honor, according to the statement, include Mayor Bowser; D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5, the Council’s only gay member; D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large); Earl Fowlkes, founder of the International Federation of Black Prides; Vita Rangel, a transgender woman who serves as Deputy Director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments; Heidi Ellis, director of the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition; Rayceen Pendarvis, longtime D.C. LGBTQ civic activist; and Phillip Pannell, longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activist and Ward 8 civic activist.
Information about ticket availability for the Capital Stonewall Democrats anniversary gala can be accessed here: capitalstonewalldemocrats.com/50th
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