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Mayor attends grand opening of D.C. Center’s new home

Groups pledge $76,000 in donations

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Jack Evans, D.C. Center, gay news, Washington Blade
Jack Evans, Vincent Gray, D.C. Center, David Mariner, gay news, Washington Blade

Mayor Vincent Gray and four members of the D.C. Council were on hand for the D.C. Center’s grand opening on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Blake Bergen)

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and four members of the City Council joined more than 100 guests on Saturday for the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community’s grand opening celebration of its new offices in the Reeves Center municipal building at 14th and U streets, N.W.

With Gray and Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) standing before an overflowing crowd in the Center’s conference room, Center President and CEO Michael Sessa drew loud applause and cheers when he shouted, “We’re finally here – hooray!”

Also attending the event were Council members David Grosso (I-At-Large) and Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Busboys and Poets restaurant owner Andy Shallal, who donated food from his restaurant.

Shallal, Evans and Bowser have announced they are candidates for mayor in the April 1, 2014 D.C. Democratic primary. All three as well as Gray, who has yet to announce whether he will run for re-election, have been longtime supporters of the LGBT community.

Gray reiterated statements he made earlier this year that the city will make sure the D.C. Center finds another suitable space in which to move if the Reeves Center closes over the next two or three years to make way for a new development project linked to a land swap deal to build a soccer stadium next to the city’s Southwest waterfront.

“I just want to put that to rest as best we can, that we didn’t come this far to have this be just a temporary stopover,” Gray said. “We’ve come this far to make sure that the D.C. Center has a place in the future that it can count on to be able to do its work.”

Gray and the Council members attending the grand opening celebration called the D.C. Center a vital part of the LGBT community and an important part of the cultural fabric of the city.

Gay sports advocate Brent Minor announced at the gathering that on behalf of the Dupont Social Club, which organizes the city’s annual Miss Adams Morgan drag pageant, he was presenting the D.C. Center with a check for $16,000 to help support the Center’s programs.

Martin Espinoza of Stonewall Kickball, a D.C.-based LGBT sports league, announced his group has donated $10,000 to the D.C. Center and has pledged $50,000 in contributions to the Center over the next five years.

Bernie Delia, executive director of Capital Pride, the organization that sponsors the city’s annual LGBT Pride parade and festival, said Capital Pride has pledged $5,000 to the D.C. Center. Capital Pride rents office space at the Center.

D.C. Allen, co-owner of the Crew Club, a D.C. gym and spa catering to gay men, said the Crew Club was pleased to have donated $25,000 to the D.C. Center earlier this year to “jump start” the Center’s campaign to raise money to complete the renovation work needed to get its new space at the Reeves Center ready for occupancy.

Saturday’s celebration marked the culmination of a competitive bidding process that began more than two years ago in which the Center submitted a bid to rent space at the Reeves Center under a city program that invited both commercial businesses and non-profit organizations to propose different ways the space in the city-owned building could be used that would benefit the city and the community. Gray announced last December that the D.C. Center won the bid after a restaurant that initially had been selected for the space withdrew.

“I want to thank the mayor and his staff,” Sessa said. “They have been wonderful to work with. They have been gracious. They have been patient. They have really helped us establish this fabulous space.”

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Maryland

VIDEO: Salisbury University students attack gay man

Suspects recorded homophobic assault; video posted to TikTok

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(Editor’s note: The accompanying video contains graphic violence and homophobic slurs. Viewer discretion is advised.)

The assault of a gay man by a group of Salisbury University students in Maryland has drawn national media attention since last week. 

So far, 12 men ages 18-21 have been arrested in the brutal attack. The students allegedly lured the man to an apartment because of his “sexual preferences,” according to local police. 

The victim, a male in his 40s, allegedly propositioned someone on Grindr who claimed to be 16 years old, an attorney for one of the suspects told the Baltimore Banner. The age of consent in Maryland is 16. 

Once the victim arrived at the apartment, a group of more than 12 suspects emerged from the bedrooms and attacked, punching, kicking, and spitting on the victim while using anti-gay slurs.

The Washington Blade obtained video of the attack apparently recorded by one of the suspects that was posted to TikTok and circulated among students at Salisbury University. In the video, the victim can be seen being struck from behind while seated in a chair, then repeatedly punched as he tries to flee. The Blade is not identifying the victim and not posting the full video in which the man’s face is clearly visible.

The suspects are charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, and hate crimes. The suspects are: Cameron Guy, 18, of Baltimore; Jacob Howard, 19, of Elkridge; Eric Sinclair, 21, of Mount Airy; Patrick Gutierrez, 19, of Salisbury; Dylan Pietuszka, 20, of Friendship; Zachary Leinemann, 18, of Crofton; Ryder Baker, 20, of Olney; Bennan Aird, 18, of Milton, Del.; Riley Brister, 20, of Davidsonville; Cruz Cespedes, 19, of Jarrettsville; Dylan Earp, 20, of Gambrills; and Elijah Johnson, 19, of Crofton.

The Banner reported that all 12 students have been suspended along with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, to which some of the suspects belonged.

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District of Columbia

D.C. to conduct first-of-its-kind LGBTQ veterans’ survey

Forum on trans, gender diverse service members set for Nov. 15

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From left, Mayor's office of LGBTQ Affairs Director Japer Bowles, Department of Defense official Shawn Skelly, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Director Charlotte Woodward, Crush Dance Bar co-owner Stephen Rutgers, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs official Pip Baitinger, and drag performer MacKayla Starr attend the 'Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military' event at Crush Dance Bar on Sept. 20. (Photo courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs)

As Veterans Day is celebrated in D.C. and across the nation, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of Veterans Affairs announced it has recently drawn up an LGBTQIA+ veterans’ survey that it will begin distributing in the next few months.

“This attempt to survey the LGBTQIA+ veterans population in D.C. will be the first of its kind,” according to Pip Baitinger, who serves as LGBTQIA+ Veterans Outreach and Relation Specialist in the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.

“Barriers have existed in surveying this population due to issues of trust and neglect of the community by institutions in the past,” Baitinger told the Washington Blade. “However, this survey will attempt to accurately represent the number of LGBTQIA+ veterans in D.C. and better understand their needs,” she said.

Baitinger pointed out that in addition to working on the survey, the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs is hosting a special forum on Nov. 15 called Empowering Voices: Health and Wellness for Transgender and Gender Diverse Veterans.

The forum, which will be held from 1-3:30 p.m. at the D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center at 50 Irving St., N.W., will include discussion, workshops, and provide resources on topics such as gender affirming care and support from experts, a flyer announcing the event says.

The D.C. LGBTQ veterans survey and the Nov. 15 forum follow a Sept. 20 LGBTQ veterans event hosted jointly by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs called “Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military.”

The event, which was held at the D.C. LGBTQ Crush Dance Bar, was not open to the press because organizers wanted to ensure that LGBTQ veterans could discuss issues that may be sensitive or private that could impact their ability to obtain certain veterans’ benefits.

Baitinger provided the Blade with a summary of the issues discussed and raised at the event and identified some of those who spoke at the event. Among them was U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel And Readiness Shawn G. Skelly, who is the highest-ranking transgender official in the Department of Defense. 

Others participating in the event, Baitinger said, were U.S. Air Force member MaKayla Starr, who performed in drag; Charlette Woodward, an official with the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs; Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; and Baitinger herself.

The mayor’s office noted at the time that the event was scheduled to take place on the 13th anniversary of the repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that banned LGBTQ people from serving openly in the U.S. military. Mayor Bowser issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring the day LGBTQIA+ Veterans Day in the District of Columbia.

“Discussions during the event included the need for greater LGBTQIA+ representation in the military and the progress that has thus far been achieved,” Baitinger said. 

“One of the primary areas of concern is that of transgender and nonbinary veterans and service members, who are in vital need of gender affirming care and resources, such as hormones, surgeries, and just general affirming care from doctors who will use correct pronouns during routine doctor visits,” Baitinger said in describing the issues discussed at the Sept. 20 event.

She said an additional issue deemed important at the event was ongoing efforts to upgrade the discharges of LGBTQ veterans, many of whom received so-called “undesirable” discharges under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law before it was repealed. President Joe Biden earlier this year issued a presidential pardon that enabled veterans discharged under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law to apply for an upgrade of their discharge to the status of honorable discharge.

A list of resources for LGBTQ veterans offered by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs can be accessed at the department’s website.

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Delaware

Delaware advocacy group to host panel on media’s role in countering hate

Blade editor among journalists participating in Wednesday event

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Blade editor Kevin Naff is among journalists participating in a panel discussion on hate this week.

LEWES, Del. — Speak Out Against Hate (SOAH) will hold its bi-monthly community meeting at 5 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Lewes Library and via Zoom. The meeting will concentrate on the role of the press in responding to the divisiveness and rising tide of hatred in our country and communities. 

The meeting will feature a panel of journalists comprised of Chris Rauch, owner and publisher of the Cape Gazette; Benjamin Rothstein, journalist at the Daily State News and its sister paper the Greater Dover Independent; Kevin Naff, editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade; and Jake Owens, editor-in-chief of Spotlight Delaware.

Patty Maloney, president of SOAH said, “Following a national and state elections that saw our country nearly evenly divided, this important discussion with our local press will shine a light upon the role of the press locally and nationally in confronting the obvious chasm within our citizenry.”

For more information about the event and to register, please visit Speak Out Against Hate at soah-de.org.

Speak Out Against Hate was formed to confront and counter the rising tide of hate, whenever and wherever it exists.

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