Local
50th anniversary of March on Washington nears
LGBT contingent planned for Aug. 24 commemoration
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington will be celebrated next month. (Photo in public domain)
Local organizers of the 50th anniversary commemoration of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 civil rights March on Washington are calling on members of the LGBT community to participate in the re-enactment of the historic march set to take place Aug. 24 on the National Mall.
D.C. statehood and gay rights activist Jerry Clark, who was appointed by Mayor Vincent Gray to a committee to help recruit volunteers and participants for the march, said he is calling on local and national LGBT groups to help organize an “identifiable” LGBT contingent in the march.
“I would like to see an eye-catching LGBT contingent,” said Clark, who noted that national organizers of the march are supportive of LGBT equality.
Clark said LGBT activists involved with the march are committed to the goals and objectives of the event set by national organizers, including officials with the groups that worked with Martin Luther King on the 1963 march. Among them are the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
Also playing a key role in organizing the 50th anniversary march and a week of related events is the King Center, the Atlanta-based organization created by the late Coretta Scott King, King’s widow, and other King family members.
King’s daughter, Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center, said in a June 23 statement announcing plans for the 50th anniversary commemoration that a broad coalition of civil rights organizations would be involved in a series of events leading up to the Aug. 24 march.
“Our coalition hopes to make the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and my father’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech a meaningful experience which addresses the urgent causes of jobs, justice and freedom,” Bernice King said.
A July 8 statement released by the New York City-based National Action Network, headed by civil rights leader and commentator Rev. Al Sharpton, named more than 20 civil rights, labor, and faith-based organizations that are recognized as co-endorsers of the march. Among them are five national LGBT groups: the Human Rights Campaign, National Black Justice Coalition, Family Equality Council, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
Clark said members of Mayor Gray’s local organizing committee are encouraging supporters from all communities to sponsor local events during the week leading up to the Aug. 24 march. He said he expects at least one event to honor Bayard Rustin, the out gay civil rights organizers credited with playing the lead role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington as one of King’s top lieutenants.
Rustin died in 1987 at the age of 75.
A spokesperson for the King Center in Atlanta said on Tuesday that organizers have yet to announce the names of the speakers at the march and rally set to take place at the Lincoln Memorial, the same location where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Clark said he was hopeful that at least one LGBT representative would be selected to speak at the event.
Black gay activists in D.C. were credited with persuading organizers of the 1983 20th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington to agree to allow black lesbian poet and writer Audre Lorde speak at that event.
The decision to allow Lorde to speak came after then D.C. congressional Del. Walter Fauntroy, one of the lead organizers of the 1983 march, initially opposed allowing an LGBT speaker. Fauntroy’s opposition prompted local black gay activists Phil Pannell, Mel Boozer, Ray Melrose, and Gary Walker to stage a sit-in at Fauntroy’s Capitol Hill office. The four were arrested in an action that drew national media coverage.
Following behind the scenes negotiations in which Gil Gerald, an official with the National Coalition of Black Gays, spoke directly with Coretta Scott King by phone, Mrs. King and other top leaders of the march agreed to have an out gay speaker.
Gerald, who isn’t involved in this year’s march, said he is hopeful that an LGBT person will be chosen as a speaker.
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
Maryland
Md. Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlines 2026 priorities
Expanded PrEP access among objectives
Maryland’s Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlined legislative priorities for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 2026 term during a press conference on March 5.
State Del. Kris Fair (D-Fredrick County) led the press conference. State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and other caucus members also spoke.
Caucus members are sponsoring 12 bills and supporting four others.
Martinez is sponsoring House Bill 1114, which would expand PrEP access in Maryland.
“PrEP is 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission,” he explained, noting PrEP’s cost often turns away potential users.
The bill aims to extend insurance coverage and expand pharmacists’ ability to prescribe PrEP along with other HIV treatments and testing. Martinez is working with state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) and FreeState Justice on the bill.
The House Health Committee had a hearing last week that included HB1114.
“Ending the HIV epidemic is about expanding access and providing these life-saving tools to all persons in Maryland,” Martinez said.
Several other pieces of legislation were highlighted during the press conferences. They included measures focused on youth and education, birth certificate markers, so-called conversion therapy, and hormone medications.
State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County) is cosponsoring Senate Bill 950, which would update and strengthen conversion therapy laws. State Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) has introduced an identical bill that would extend the statute of limitations on individuals who facilitate conversion therapy.
Kagan explained the bill would allow conversion therapy victims to come to terms with their experience undergoing the widely discredited practice that “creates shame and it silences survivors.”
When questioned, Fair explained the press conference happened late into the legislative session because “we [the caucus] are constantly having to respond in real time to what’s happening in Washington” while drafting and considering pieces of legislation.
The Frederick County Democrat described this session’s bills as the “most ambitious list of priorities to date.” Fair also described the caucus’s goals.
“It’s decency, it’s dignity, and its humanity,” he said.
District of Columbia
Owner of D.C. gay bar Green Lantern John Colameco dies at 79
Beloved businessman preferred to stay ‘behind the scenes’
John Colameco, owner of the popular D.C. gay bar Green Lantern, has died, according to a March 7 announcement posted on the bar’s website and Instagram account. The announcement didn’t provide a date of his passing or a cause of death.
Green Lantern manager Howard Hicks said Colameco was 79 at the time of his passing.
“It is with great sadness that Green Lantern announces the death of our beloved owner, John Colameco,” the announcement says. “Most of our patrons might have heard John’s name, but might not have known his face,” it says.
“He was a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of guy who avoided the limelight,” the announcement continues. “He preferred to stay in the back of the house with staff and team ensuring everything was running smoothly so that everyone out front was having a good time.”
The announcement adds, “As a veteran and businessman, John wasn’t a member of the LGBTQ + community, but he was one of the best damn allies our community has ever had.”
It says he “long provided spaces for the queer community to come together” since the 1990s when he owned and operated a popular restaurant on 17th Street, N.W. called Peppers.
According to the announcement, Colameco and his then business partner Greg Zehnacker opened the Green Lantern in 2001 in an alley off of 14th Street, N.W., between Thomas Circle and L Street, N.W.
The announcement points out that the Green Lantern first opened in the same location in the early 1990s before it later closed when the original owners decided to purchase and open other bars, one of which was the gay bar Fireplace near Dupont Circle. Colameco and Zehnacker were able to reopen the bar with the Green Lantern name.
“When Greg died unexpectedly in February 2014, John remained steadfastly committed to carrying on their vision and ensuring that Green Lantern remained part of the fabric of D.C.’s queer community,” the announcement says.
“Over the years, through Green Lantern, John has provided support to many community organizations, most notably Stonewall Sports, the Gay Men’s chorus of Washington, and ONYX Mid-Atlantic with Green Lantern serving as a gathering hub for their activities,” it states.
The announcement adds that Colameco’s family was planning a memorial for him in his hometown of Philadelphia.
“His Green Lantern family will celebrate his life by operating the bar as usual and we encourage you to stop by and join us,” it says. “Community coming together and having a good time – it’s exactly what John would want.”
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