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Obama opposes boycott of Sochi Olympics

President wants gay athletes to win medals as a way to protest homophobic law

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Barack Obama, same-sex marriage, gay marriage, gay news, gay politics dc, Washington Blade

President Obama said Friday he opposes a boycott of the 2014 Olympics in Russia (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key).

President Obama said categorically during a news conference on Friday he opposes a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia over the country’s anti-propaganda law.

“I want to just make very clear right now, I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics,” Obama said. “We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed.”

In the lieu of a boycott, Obama suggested a better way to protest the Russian law ā€” which criminalizes making pro-LGBT statements to minors ā€” is gay athletes winning medals at the Sochi games.

“And one of the things I’m really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we’re seeing there,” Obama said. “And if Russia doesn’t have gay or lesbian athletes, then that would probably make their team weaker.”

Obama made the remarks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in response a question from the Associated Press’ Julie Pace about the state of the relationship between the United States and Russia. Earlier this week, the White House had announced that it had canceled a bilateral meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Initially in his remarks, Obama identified “human rights issues” as a reason why he decided to cancel the meeting without specifically mentioning the law but later enumerated his opposition to it by saying no one is “more offended than me” about the measure.

“Nobody’s more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia, but as I said just this week, I’ve spoken out against that not just with respect to Russia, but a number of other countries where we continue to do work with them, but we have a strong disagreement on this issue,” Obama said.

Andre Banks, executive director of the LGBT international grassroots group All Out, said Obama struck the right chord on the anti-gay law during the news conference.

“We appreciate President Obama’s strong words opposing Russia’s anti-gay laws and his willingness to speak out against governments that force people to sacrifice their family and sometimes their freedom because of who they are or who they love,” Banks said. “All Out continues to believe that the 2014 Olympic Games are a perfect opportunity to speak out, rather than walk out. We call on the International Olympic Committee, Olympians, fans, and other governments to follow President Obama’s lead and go public to demand an end to the anti-gay laws.”

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District of Columbia

43 known LGBTQ candidates win election to D.C. ANC seats

33 ran unopposed on ballot, 23 were incumbents

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Vince Micone was among at least 43 LGBTQ ANC candidates to win their races on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Micone)

At least 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election on Nov. 5 for seats on the cityā€™s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in ANC districts in each of the cityā€™s eight wards.

The 43 winning candidates, about half of whom were incumbents, were among 47 known LGBTQ candidates running this year for ANC seats. Results released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 33 of the winning known LGBTQ candidates ran unopposed on the ballot.

Among the winning LGBTQ candidates were incumbent Vincent Slatt in the Dupont Circle ANC district 2B03, who serves as chair of the ANCā€™s LGBTQ Rainbow Caucus.

Also, among the known LGBTQ ANC candidates, in just two single member districts, two LGBTQ candidates ran against each other. One was in district 1B03 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which incumbent Jamie S. Sycamore defeated challenger J. Swiderski.

The other was in district 2G01 in the Shaw neighborhood in which Howard Garrett, who serves as president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, defeated challenger Parker Griffin. The two were competing for an ANC seat in which the incumbent did not run for re-election.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city government on a wide range of neighborhood issues. City officials are required to give ā€œgreat weightā€ to their recommendations, but government officials are not required to accept the recommendations.

Winning LGBTQ ANC candidates

Following is a list of the known LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. The candidates who won are shown in bold type.

1A04 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)
Jeremy Sherman, he/him

1A07 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)
Mukta Ghorpadey, she/her

1A10 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)

Billy Easley, he/him

1B03 ā€“ (Columbia Heights/U Street)J. Swiderski, they/he
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him

1B06 ā€“ (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill)
Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him

1B07 ā€“ (U Street)
Matthew Holden, he/him

1D01 ā€“ (Mount Pleasant)

Jay Falk, she/her

1E01 ā€“ (Park View)
Brad Howard, he/him

1E07 ā€“ (Howard University/Pleasant Plains)
Brian Footer, he/him

2A05 ā€“ (Foggy Bottom)
Luke Chadwick, he/him

2B02 ā€“ (Dupont Circle)
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him

2B03 ā€“ (Dupont Circle)
Vincent Slatt, he/him

2B09 ā€“ (Dupont Circle/U Street)
Christopher Davis, he/him

2C01 ā€“ (Penn Quarter)
Michael D. Shankle, he/him

2F05 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
Christopher Dyer, he/him

2F06 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
John Fanning, he/him

2F07 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
Kevin Cataldo, he/him

2G01 ā€“ (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him
Howard Garrett, he/him

2G02 ā€“ (Shaw)
Alexander ā€˜Alexā€™ Padro, he/him

2G04 ā€“ (Shaw)
Steven McCarty, he/him

3B06 ā€“ (Wesley Heights)
S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him

3F05 ā€“ (Van Ness/Cleveland Park)
Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him

4B01 ā€“ (Takoma)
Doug Payton, he/him

4B10  ā€“ (Lamond Riggs)
Jinin Berry, she/her

4C06 ā€“ (Petworth)
Christen Boss Hayes, they/them

4E02 ā€“ (16th Street Heights)
Vince Micone, he/him

5B02 ā€“ (Brookland)
Nandini Sen, she/her

5B04 ā€“ (Brookland)
Ra Amin, he/him

5B05 ā€“ (Brookland)
MĆ³nica MartĆ­nez LĆ³pez, she/her

5D05 ā€“ (Trinidad)
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him

5D06 ā€“ (Trinidad/Carver)

Charquinta (Char) McCray, she/her

5E05 ā€“ (Bloomingdale)
Tyler Lopez, he/him

5F06 ā€“ (Eckington)
Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him 

6B03 ā€“ (Capitol Hill)
David Sobelsohn, he/him

6B09 ā€“ (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle)
Karen Hughes, she/her

7B05 ā€“ (Hillcrest)
Elizabeth Reddick, she/them

7C01 ā€“ (Deanwood)
Brian Glover, he/him

7C03 ā€“ (Lincoln Heights)
Carlos Richardson, he/him

7C04 (Deanwood)

Anthony Lorenzo Green

7C08 ā€“ (Capitol View)
Brandon M. Scott, he/him

7E06 ā€“ (Benning Ridge)
Ravi K. Perry, he/him

8A01 ā€“ (Fairlawn)
Tom Donohue, he, him

8B06 ā€“ (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him

8C08 ā€“ (Douglass)
Elizabeth Carter, she/her

6/8F04 ā€“ (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels

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District of Columbia

D.C. police release photos of suspects in anti-gay attack at 14thĀ & U

In separate case, gay couple attacked on Metrobus on Halloween night

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D.C. police released these images of suspects in the McDonaldā€™s attack. Anyone who can identify these suspects should call police at 202-727-9099.

D.C. police on Nov. 5 released photos of seven suspects linked to the Oct. 27 assault of a 22-year-old gay man at the McDonaldā€™s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W. that a police report lists as a suspected hate crime.

The police report says the victim, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, told police as many as 15 people, mostly men and some women, punched him repeatedly in the face and body, with some yelling the word ā€œfaggot,ā€ after one of the women criticized him for not saying ā€œexcuse meā€ when he walked past her.

ā€œThomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man,ā€ Lascarroā€™s husband, Stuart West, said and who noted that Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas. ā€œThis horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma,ā€ West said.

 In a No. 5 statement, D.C. police said the photos of the suspects were obtained from nearby surveillance cameras. D.C. police chief Pamela Smith told the Washington Blade police investigators were working with McDonaldā€™s officials to obtain the video recordings from security cameras inside and outside the MacDonaldā€™s.

ā€œAnyone who can identify these suspects or who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at 202-727-9099,ā€ the police statement says. The statement adds that police are offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for a violent crime in D.C., including the crime targeting Lascarro.

In a separate incident, FOX 5 News has reported this week that a gay male couple said they were the victims of a violent attack on a D.C. Metrobus on Halloween night, Oct. 31, and the two believe the incident should be listed as a hate crime.

According to FOX 5, Nico Nieves and Roy Capell said the incident took place around 1:30 a.m. after they left a gay bar on U Street, N.W., and boarded a Metrobus.

ā€œThey were all hitting us from all different angles,ā€ FOX 5 quoted Capell as saying. ā€œI was in the middle trying to block them and protect my partner from getting hit. I took a lot of punches to the back of the head, he took a lot of punches to his face,ā€ FOX 5 quoted him as saying.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, which operates the Metro bus and subway system, didnā€™t immediately respond to a request by the Washington Blade for further information on the Metro Police investigation of the incident. The Blade also couldnā€™t immediately reach Nieves and Capell for comment.

FOX 5 reports that WMATA officials said the assault occurred after a group boarded the bus at New Jersey Avenue in the cityā€™s Shaw neighborhood.

ā€œA Metro spokesperson indicated that preliminary investigations and video reviews suggested that Nieves and Capell were ā€˜belligerent and antagonisticā€™ toward other passengers, which led to a verbal altercation before they were assaulted and robbed of Nievesā€™s necklace and watch,ā€ FOX 5 reports.

But the TV news stationā€™s report adds that Nieves and Capell dispute that claim, saying they were ā€œsimply being affectionate when a woman began yelling at them.ā€ It further quotes Nieves as saying, ā€œThey were just calling us names, questioning why we are gay and f****, bunch of names. They started throwing punches because I said it was none of their business who we are, if Iā€™m gay or not.ā€

Following a Nov. 4 press conference about security plans for election night activity in D.C. at which Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Smith spoke, Smith told the Blade police were actively investigating the McDonaldā€™s assault against Lascarro. She also responded to concerns raised by West, Lascarroā€™s husband, that police did not initially list the attack as a possible hate crime until he contacted police the next day to ask about that.

ā€œWeā€™ve taken the time to review the body worn camera footage from the officer who conducted the investigation with the victim of that particular crime,ā€ Smith said. ā€œAnd during that interview there was nothing that was said from the victim that there were any anti-gay or gay or racial slurs being shared with him,ā€ according to Smith.

ā€œWe do recognize that often times when individuals go through a significant amount of trauma, they may forget details of what may have occurred,ā€ she told the Blade. ā€œBut when we were made aware of the fact that there were some homophobic comments being made, we sent out an investigator, a detective, to do that investigation.ā€

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Politics

Democratic congressmen win re-election in Md.

6th Congressional District race remains too close to call

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Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin speaks at a panel sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 18, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Maryland’s Democratic congressmen on Tuesday won re-election in their respective districts.

Congressman Jamie Raskin defeated Republican Cheryl Riley in the 8th Congressional District by a 76-22 percent margin. Congressman Glenn Ivey defeated Republican George McDermott in the 4th Congressional District by an 88-12 percent margin. Congressman Steny Hoyer defeated Republican Michelle Talkington in the 5th Congressional District by a 66-34 percent margin. Congressman Kweisi Mfume defeated Republican Scott Collier by a 79-109 percent margin in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District.

Republican Congressman Andy Harris won re-election in the 1st Congressional District with 63 percent of the vote.

Democrat Sarah Elfreth will succeed U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, who did not run for re-election, after she defeated Republican Robert Steinberger in the 3rd Congressional District by a 57-40 percent margin. Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski defeated Republican Kim Klacik by a 56-42 percent margin in the race to succeed retiring Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger in the 2nd Congressional District.

The race between Democrat April McClain Delaney and former state Del. Neil Parrott (R-Washington County) in the 6th Congressional District remains too close to call. The winner will succeed Congressman David Trone, who unsuccessfully challenged now-U.S. Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks in the race for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin’s seat.

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