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Gray to embrace ‘two-way dialogue’ with LGBT community

Activists begin to take sides in hotly contested mayoral race

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Freedom Plaza, marriage equality, gay marriage, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, gay news, Washington Blade, Vince Gray
Freedom Plaza, marriage equality, gay marriage, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, gay news, Washington Blade, Vince Gray

Mayor Vincent Gray announced Monday he plans to run for re-election. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The manager of D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s just-announced re-election campaign called Gray’s record on LGBT issues “rock solid” and said the campaign will be open to an ongoing, “two-way dialogue” with LGBT people throughout the city.

Chuck Thies, a longtime D.C. political consultant who Gray picked to lead his 2014 campaign, told the Blade he believes LGBT people understand that Gray’s longtime support for their rights and dignity is based on the mayor’s deeply held beliefs that are not motivated by politics.

“So will there be a focused outreach to the LGBT community? Absolutely,” Thies said. “And I think it will not just be outreach. I’m expecting a two-way dialogue.”

Gray’s announcement on Monday that he plans to run for a second term came in the form of an open letter to D.C. voters, which he released as he and Thies visited the offices of the Board of Elections and Ethics to register Gray as a candidate. The two also picked up petitions to obtain the 2,000 signatures from registered Democrats needed for Gray to run in the April 1, 2014 Democratic primary. The deadline for filing the petitions is Jan. 2.

Gray became the 11th candidate to enter the Democratic primary contest at a time when four members of the D.C. City Council, a restaurant owner-political activist and five lesser-known candidates have vowed to challenge his record, among other things, on grounds of ethics and political corruption.

Similar to political activists across the city, several LGBT activists told the Blade that despite Gray’s solid record on LGBT issues they are reluctant to support the mayor’s re-election bid out of concern that he might be implicated in a two-and-a-half year ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office into Gray’s 2010 election campaign.

Four people associated with the 2010 Gray campaign have pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from allegations that they helped operate a secret “shadow” campaign that raised $655,000 without reporting the existence of those funds in violation of campaign reporting laws.

Gray has said he knew nothing about the shadow campaign or alleged illegal activity by some of his campaign aides.

Among those considered his main rivals are D.C. Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6). Also entering the race last month was Council member Vincent Orange (D-At-Large), who ran and lost his bid for mayor in 2006 to former Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Political observers say Wells and Andy Shallal, owner of the local restaurant chain Busboys and Poets who has been a longtime advocate for progressive causes, could attract support from progressive voters because of their outspoken calls for campaign finance reform and stronger ethics-in-government laws.

Veteran D.C. gay activist Bob Summersgill, a Ward 3 ANC commissioner and former president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, is among the LGBT activists that supported Gray in 2010 but aren’t supporting him now. Summersgill said he’s backing Wells for mayor.

“All of the major candidates have excellent records on LGBT issues,” Summersgill said in response to a Blade survey of the city’s LGBT activist leaders. “I have largely looked at other issues in deciding who to support.”

Summersgill and Deacon Maccubbin, owner of the now closed Lambda Rising bookstore and a longtime Democratic Party supporter, said they are backing Wells, among other things, because he has taken the lead in speaking out against political corruption and pushing for campaign finance and ethics reforms.

Other prominent LGBT activists who backed Gray in 2010 said they remain strong supporters of Gray and plan to work to help the mayor win election to a second term.

“I’ve been waiting to see what the mayor was going to do,” said gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson. “Now that he’s announced he will seek re-election I am 110 percent in support of that.”

Hudson added, “I think he’s probably the most competent mayor we have ever had. He understands the D.C. government better than anyone that I know. He has been accessible and he’s a hard worker.”

On LGBT issues, Hudson said of Gray, “There’s never been anyone who’s had a better record on LGBT issues in D.C. politics.”

Others backing Gray are D.C. transgender activists Jeri Hughes and Alexandra Beninda, who called Gray the nation’s most supportive mayor on transgender issues.

Hudson, Hughes and Beninda each said the fact that Gray has not been implicated in wrongdoing related to his 2010 mayoral campaign leads them to believe Gray’s long-stated assertion that the wrongdoing took place without his knowledge or approval.

Barrie Daneker, treasurer of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, and John Fanning, a Ward 2 gay civic activist, are among a sizable number of LGBT activists backing Evans. The two note that Evans’ strong support for LGBT rights dates back to the beginning of his tenure as a Council member 20 years ago.

Christopher Dyer, the gay Democratic activist who served as director of the city’s Office of GLBT Affairs under Mayor Fenty, is among the LGBT advocates backing Bowser’s mayoral bid.

Veteran gay activist A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin is among those who remain undecided in the mayoral race.

“I believe Gray has done a credible job as mayor,” Jones-Hennin told the Blade, “however, the cloud of his 2010 election woes is still lingering. I’m impressed by the campaign of Bowser.”

One of the lesser-known mayoral candidates, Reta Jo Lewis, a former State Department official, has said she is a strong supporter of LGBT rights.

The positions on LGBT-related issues among the remaining candidates that took out petitions to get on the Democratic primary ballot for mayor couldn’t immediately be obtained. They include Christian Carter, Michael Green, Frank Sewell and Octavia Wells.

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Maryland

Seven Salisbury University students arrested, charged in hate crime investigation

Suspects reportedly used Grindr to target victim

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(Bigstock photo)

Seven Salisbury University students have been arrested and charged in an alleged attack on a gay man that police are investigating as a hate crime.

Salisbury Police said the seven men, ages 18 to 20, used a social media account to invite a man to an apartment complex near the university on Oct. 15 “under false pretenses” and then attacked the man, whom they said was targeted for his sexual orientation.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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District of Columbia

D.C. voters approve controversial Initiative 83

Proponents hope measure will allow more minority votes to be heard

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Initiative 83 supporters celebrated at Crush Bar on election night. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

It’s ironic that the city that is home to the federal government gets almost no say in how the federal government is run.

From license plates that display the phrase “No Taxation Without Representation” to countless “51st State” stickers seen everywhere, the residents of Washington are well aware that their vote carries less weight than other Americans.

Despite this, one group in Washington is attempting to expand residents’ electoral power through Initiative 83. The group ‘Yes On 83’ has been the driving force behind the measure. They have put up signs across the city, handed out flyers, and spoken to people about what the initiative would change.  

“Initiative 83 is a two-part ballot initiative,” said Porter Bowman, the volunteer communications director for Yes On 83. “It does two things. One, would implement ranked choice voting in primaries and general elections in D.C., as well as let independents vote in the primary of their choosing.”

On Tuesday after the polls closed, the Yes on 83 team gathered at Crush Dance Bar on 14th Street for an election watch party. There, groups of purple wearing volunteers gathered on the dance floor to celebrate their work and watch election results trickle in.

One of those volunteers is Ruby Coleman, the student engagement coordinator for the Yes On 83 campaign and an American University student who was passionate about the measure. She explained this is a win for Washington voters, regardless of how they voted on the measure.

“It will hold our politicians accountable,” Coleman said as her co-volunteers danced behind her. “Ranked choice voting will make it easier to vote out politicians who do not work for us, since they need the 50% threshold, it’ll make it a lot easier for us to vote them out.”

 In ranked choice voting, 51% is the golden number. The way ranked choice voting works is voters rank their preferred candidates in order of preference (first, second, third). Then, only the first choices of voters are counted. If a candidate wins more than 50% of the vote they win the race. 

If no candidate reaches that 51% threshold, then the person with the least number of votes is eliminated and everyone who voted for the now eliminated candidate has their second option vote counted. This process of eliminating the lowest supported candidate continues until one of the candidates reaches above 50% of the vote.

This in theory encourages voters to research all the potential candidates’ platforms and ideas, as well as provide more balanced voting by eliminating “spoiler” votes where similar candidates split the vote causing neither to win. 

In addition to ranked choice voting, Initiative 83 also allows for independents, or those not registered to any party, to vote in Washington’s primary elections. Washington has formerly only allowed registered partisan voters to partake in primary votes.  

There are many reasons why residents may not register under a major party. Some people feel party platforms don’t reflect their ideas, others, like journalists and high-level federal workers, may not register to avoid appearing partisan.

At about 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the Yes On 83 group celebrated a premature victory. At this point, approximately 55% of Washingtonians’ votes had been counted. The ‘Yes’ vote for Initiative 83 held a strong lead, with 72% in favor, while the ‘No’ vote trailed at less than 30%.

Lisa D. T. Rice, the proposer of the initiative, was beaming on Crush’s stage as she addressed the volunteers on the dance floor. 

“After a full, tiring, but momentous day, I’m especially proud and looking over the sea of faces, I know what an amazing team we have here,” Rice said to start her nearly eight-minute-long speech. “As a native Washingtonian woman of persistence, I proposed Initiative 83 here in my hometown to put voters first. I love this city, and I think we deserve a political system where politicians have to work harder to earn our votes.”

Proponents of Initiative 83 have said the ranked choice system will allow for more voices to be heard, including those of the LGBTQ community. 

“In ranked choice voting, you have the opportunity to vote based on your values and not necessarily strategically,” Coleman told the Blade. “That means that you can vote for someone who you want to win over someone who you think is going to win.”

“A very easy example of this is if you’re looking at the presidential election and you want to vote third party, but you think the Democratic candidate might win, you can still vote third party first and put the Democratic candidate second,” Coleman continued. “You’re not losing any votes. You’re not wasting your votes. And so that’s the same minority candidates, including LGBTQ candidates. Studies have shown that ranked choice voting elects women, minority candidates, and candidates of color at a higher rate because people are not afraid to vote for them, to put them first.”

Opponents of ranked choice voting have said the process is too complicated and will lead to voter confusion, a longer counting process, and may not reflect the true majority preference.

Despite this opposition, Washington has approved the initiative; 186,277 (or around 72%) of Washington voters said yes to the initiative, while 70,045 (27%) voters said no. 

“Ranked choice voting is a proven system to hold politicians accountable to a majority of voters, and letting independents like me, independents like me, vote in these taxpayer funded primaries, is just the right thing to do,” Rice continued in her victory speech. “We built a strong coalition of voters across the district, all wards, backgrounds, races, classes and political ideologies, who realized it’s time to make politicians work harder for us. Thank you to those who believed in us and joined us on this journey.”

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District of Columbia

Juvenile arrested in case of anti-gay attack at 14th & U McDonald’s

Move comes on same day D.C. police released photos of suspects

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Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro was attacked by a group of suspects on Oct. 27. (Photos courtesy of Stuart West)

D.C. police on Nov. 6 announced they had arrested one day earlier a 16-year-old juvenile male in connection with the Oct. 27 incident in which as many as 15 men and women allegedly assaulted a gay man at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W., with some of them shouting an anti-gay slur.

A police statement says the 16-year-old, a resident of Northwest D.C., was arrested Nov. 5 and charged with Assault With Significant Bodily Injury.

Under longstanding law enforcement policy, police do not release the names of juveniles under the age of 18 who are arrested unless a decision is made by prosecutors to charge the juvenile as an adult.

The arrest came several hours after police on the same day released photos of seven suspects linked to the McDonald’s incident. Police said they obtained the photos from one or more video security cameras at or near the McDonald’s.

But the brief police statement announcing the arrest does not say whether the juvenile was identified by someone who recognized him from one of the photos of suspects released that day. However, the statement announcing the arrest includes the photos of the seven suspects and urges anyone who can identify one or more of them to contact police.

“Anyone who can identify these suspects or who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at 202-727-9099 or text your tip to the Department’s TEXT TIP LINE at 50411,” the statement says.

(Images courtesy of MPD)

The victim in the McDonald’s attack, 22-year-old Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment of serious but non-life-threatening injuries on the night of the attack before being released the next day. His husband, Stuart West, said Lascarro had been at two gay bars in the 14th and U Street area and stopped at the McDonald’s on his way home.

He told police, who have listed the incident as a suspected hate crime, that the multiple assaults began inside the McDonald’s when one of the female attackers criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.

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