Local
Horseshoe Casino may be good luck charm for gays
Parent Caesars supports LGBT causes
The glitzy new Horseshoe Casino, which held its grand opening on Aug. 26 in Baltimore, may be a large, well-heeled ally for LGBT causes. Among the items listed in the Baltimore casinoās website are several links to careers, investor relations, things to do, restaurants and other information. Included in that listing is a link to āLGBT Prideā in which the parent company of Horseshoe, Caesars, touts its contributions and efforts to achieve LGBT equality and its membership in various LGBT organizations.
On the page is the slogan, āWe always root for 2 of a kindā with two overlapping hands as a graphic.Ā It also says, āTotal Rewards by Caesars Entertainment is the premier casino company for the LGBT community.ā
District of Columbia
43 known LGBTQ candidates win election to D.C. ANC seats
33 ran unopposed on ballot, 23 were incumbents
At least 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election on Nov. 5 for seats on the cityās Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in ANC districts in each of the cityās 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 ANCās 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 āgreat 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 āAlexā 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
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
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 McDonaldās 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 āfaggot,ā after one of the women criticized him for not saying āexcuse meā when he walked past her.
āThomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man,ā Lascarroās husband, Stuart West, said and who noted that Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas. āThis horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma,ā West said.
Ā In a Nov. 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 McDonaldās officials to obtain the video recordings from security cameras inside and outside the MacDonaldās.
āAnyone 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.
āThey were all hitting us from all different angles,ā FOX 5 quoted Capell as saying. āI 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, didnāt immediately respond to a request by the Washington Blade for further information on the Metro Police investigation of the incident. The Blade also couldnāt 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 cityās Shaw neighborhood.
āA Metro spokesperson indicated that preliminary investigations and video reviews suggested that Nieves and Capell were ābelligerent and antagonisticā toward other passengers, which led to a verbal altercation before they were assaulted and robbed of Nievesās necklace and watch,ā FOX 5 reports.
But the TV news stationās report adds that Nieves and Capell dispute that claim, saying they were āsimply being affectionate when a woman began yelling at them.ā It further quotes Nieves as saying, āThey 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 Iām 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 McDonaldās assault against Lascarro. She also responded to concerns raised by West, Lascarroās 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.
āWeāve 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. āAnd 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.
āWe 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. āBut 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
District of Columbia
Activists hold chalk art protest at McDonaldās after anti-gay assault
Police say victim attacked, beaten by 15 people for not saying āexcuse meā
Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others used chalk to draw LGBTQ supportive messages on the sidewalk outside the McDonaldās restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W. at 9 a.m. Sunday Nov. 3, one week after D.C. police say a gay man was attacked and assaulted by 15 men and women at that McDonaldās while shouting the word āfaggot.ā
Police say they are investigating the Oct. 27 assault against Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, 22, that Lascarro has said began inside the McDonaldās at about 1 a.m. when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying āexcuse meā when he walked past her.
āHe ignored her, and he walked away,ā Lascarroās husband, Stuart West, told the Washington Blade. West said his husband told him the woman then called him a faggot and her friends, who were mostly men, blocked the exit door at the McDonaldās, preventing Lascarro from leaving and about 10 of the attackers began to punch him repeatedly in the face and body.
He was taken by ambulance to Howard University Hospital, where he was treated for multiple cuts and bruises before being released the next day.
Minervini released a series of photos he took of the Nov. 3 chalk protest, a few of which show the words āEXCUSE ME We All Belongā drawn in rainbow colored chalk on the sidewalk in front of the McDonaldās entrance. Other messages they drew on the sidewalk included, āWe all belong here,ā and āD.C. For You And Me,ā with a drawing next to it with fingers making the peace sign.
Joining Minervini for the protest was D.C. artist and muralist Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, who operates a local chalk art and mural business called CHALK RIOT, Minervini told the Blade. He said one of his friends, Darren Pierre, also participated in doing the chalk art drawings.
Minervini said most passersby, including customers entering and leaving the McDonaldās, appeared to be supportive of the protest, with some taking pictures of the chalk drawings.
āThe vibe there was positive,ā he said. āSome people were unaware of what we were doing, so I explained to them a gay man was attacked for apparently not saying āexcuse me.ā So, thatās why we were chalking the words āexcuse meā to reclaim the phrase,ā Minervini said. āWe were doing it there to reclaim the space a little bit.ā
He said he did not see any of the McDonaldās employees come out to look at the drawings up until the time the three ended their chalk art action about 10:15 or 10:30 a.m. Minervini said he and a friend walked past the McDonaldās around 5 p.m. Sunday evening and the chalk drawings were still on the sidewalk.
D.C. police have listed the attack against Lascarro as a suspected hate crime. But they have not provided an update on their investigation, including whether investigators have interviewed McDonaldās employees who were present during the attack or whether they have requested video footage from the security cameras at the McDonaldās.
West, Lascarroās husband, said the ambulance took Lascarro to the hospital before police arrived and police officers first spoke to Lascarro about the attack at the hospital rather than at the scene of the assault.
āThankfully, he has been recovering from his injuries, the scrapes, cuts, bruising and swelling have all started to heal, but I fear the real damage canāt be seen,ā West said in an updated message in a GoFundMe posting he set up to help defray the costs of Lascarroās medical expenses.
āUnfortunately, after this incident, heās battling with many emotions including anxiety, depression, fear of leaving the house and worse, questions whether D.C. is the right fit for him,ā West says in his posting.
West told the Blade Lascarro, who goes by his middle name of Thomas, is a recent immigrant from Colombia who has permanent U.S. resident status. He said Lascarro had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker before stopping at the McDonaldās on his way home.
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