Local
Furloughed employee: Tea Party Republicans holding us ‘hostage’
Signs of shutdown seen, felt throughout D.C.
Level One and Cobalt offered special furlough prices to furloughed federal employees on Thursday, Oct. 3. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Nick Vera, an administrative technician at the National Institutes for Health, has spent a lot of time resting and working on home projects since he was furloughed on Tuesday when the federal government partially shut down. The Kensington, Md., resident who is deaf also went for a bike ride during the day on Thursday to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather that has enveloped the D.C. metropolitan area in recent days.
“I enjoy working with people every day,” Vera told the Washington Blade through an interpreter during the monthly Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Employees of the Federal Government (GLOBE) happy hour that took place at Cobalt in Dupont Circle on Thursday night. “I’m missing people; I’m now missing pay.”
Signs of the partial government shutdown that has left more than 800,000 federal employees furloughed abound throughout D.C.
The lesbian-owned Pizza Paradiso, which has restaurants in Dupont Circle, Georgetown and Alexandria, will offer a $2 beer special to any furloughed federal employee who shows their government identification during the shutdown. JR.’s on 17th Street, N.W., has a similar offer, while nearby Level One referenced furloughed employees in a sign outside its Dupont Circle location on Thursday that advertised $6 burgers.
The shutdown inspired a number of team names during Nellie’s weekly trivia night on Wednesday. These include “Turned-Away NIH Cancer Kids,” “Cruz Makes a Boehner Shutdown, Too” and “Obamacare Killed the Panda Porn Star.”
Ken, a furloughed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staffer who did not give the Blade his last name, has been with the agency since 1993. He told the Blade during the Federal GLOBE happy hour that he took a long bike ride on Wednesday.
He, like Vera, has also tackled some household chores.
“That’s all I really can do,” Ken said. “We couldn’t take any work home with us and that’s really what’s left for me to do.”
Dennis Palaganis, a D.C. resident who has been a software engineer at the Department of Homeland Security since May, has also done errands he’s “ignored for a long time” since he was furloughed on Tuesday. He told the Blade he has also reconnected with people and spent a lot of time on Facebook since the partial government shutdown.
“It wasn’t really something I had prepared for,” Palaganis said during the Federal GLOBE happy hour. “I didn’t have a bucket list of things that I wanted to do—oh in case of shutdown do these things. I’m just kind of playing it by ear.”
The furloughed federal employees with whom the Blade spoke on Thursday all blamed Congress – and Tea Party Republicans in particular – for the partial government shutdown.
“Their style of government is not geared toward compromise,” Palaganis said, referring to their efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare that took effect on Tuesday. “They’re basically holding the federal workers and contractors hostage.”
Federal GLOBE President Len Hirsch, who has worked for the Smithsonian for 24 years and is currently furloughed, said members of Congress whom he described as “jerks” are “playing games with the” U.S. economy and its ability to help people around the world. He also lamented the impact the shutdown will have on police officers, security guards, cafeteria workers, gift shop clerks and others with less financial means than he.
“They’re being made to pay an awful price for the egos of a bunch of our senators and Congress people,” Hirsch told the Blade. “That’s just not right.”
Furloughed employees with whom the Blade spoke were not optimistic they would return to work in the coming days or even weeks.
“I think it’s going to go on for a little while,” said Mark Lerro, a Capitol Hill resident who has worked with the Transportation Security Agency for five years.
Observers have begun to note it is possible President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other congressional leaders could reach a deal to fund the federal government around the Oct. 17 debt ceiling deadline.
Vera told the Blade he is “hopeful” as he discussed the meeting between Obama, Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that took place at the White House on Wednesday. He added, however, he feels it is “really hard to predict” when he and other furloughed federal employees will return to work.
“Both parties and the president really have to come together,” Vera said. “I’m going to wait and see.”
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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