District of Columbia
Former Council member Brown running for D.C. congressional delegate
Says he will be more ‘proactive’ in supporting LGBTQ issues than Holmes Norton
Michael A. Brown, who served as an independent At-Large member of the D.C. Council from 2009 to 2013 and emerged as a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights, says he is running in the city’s June Democratic primary for D.C.’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Brown and five other lesser-known candidates are challenging incumbent Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who has held the seat since 1991 and announced she is running for re-election for her 18th two-year term in office.
Norton has been a longtime outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights, and her supporters say she has done all she could to fight anti-LGBTQ amendments and other hostile initiatives introduced by Republican House members in recent years.
Brown told the Washington Blade in an interview last week he has picked up nominating petitions to begin the process of obtaining a required 2,000 signatures to get on the primary ballot. He said he has no disagreements with Norton on the issues facing D.C. in Congress.
“And I have a great amount of respect for her,” he said. “I just think it’s time for a new voice, a new, more aggressive and proactive voice that wants to get into the fight against people that are trying to harm the LGBT community” and the city, he told the Blade
“So, my respect for her, again, is tremendous,” he said. “I just think it’s time for a new voice. And with the track record I have with the LGBT community, I look forward to that fight. And I look forward to their support.”
He points out that he was among those who pushed for D.C. Council legislation legalizing same-sex marriage and strengthening the city’s hate crimes law.
Brown, 57, an attorney, currently works as Senior Adviser for the D.C.-based international law firm Potomac International Partners, Inc., which specializes in lobbying on behalf of both nonprofit advocacy organizations and corporations. Prior to his term on the D.C. Council, he worked for three other law firms that engage in lobbying and prior to that he worked as a legislative assistant to former U.S. Rep. Peter Rodino (D-N.J.).
He told the Blade that his longtime experience as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill gives him the inside knowledge of the workings of Congress that he will use for D.C.
Most D.C. political observers have said Norton is highly regarded among most D.C. voters, who have re-elected her by lopsided margins and she is expected to win another term once again in office. Some observers say that now, those who run against her most likely want to build name recognition for a future race for the non-voting delegate seat after Norton, who is 86 years old, retires.
In response to a request from the Blade for comment on Michael A. Brown’s decision to run against her, Norton released a short statement.
“I’m running again to represent my District of Columbia constituents for Congress,” she said. “I will be using my valuable seniority to continue to bring home benefits and to make progress on D.C. Statehood where it has passed twice in the House of Representatives.”
Among other things, Brown said he would take a more aggressive approach to fighting efforts by far-right Republican House members to introduce amendments to federal spending bills targeting LGBTQ rights, including those targeting transgender-related issues.
“We as a city seem to sit back and we’re always reactionary,” he said. “I would love to be more proactive about these particular issues. So, maybe these amendments never get put in in the first place,” Brown said, adding, “I would continue to work with Sen. Schumer to block these amendments.” He was referring to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who currently serves as Senate Majority Leader.
Brown also acknowledged that his conviction on a federal bribery charge in 2014 after pleading guilty to accepting $55,000 in cash payments from undercover FBI agents posing as officials with a company trying to do business with the D.C. government will surface as an issue in his campaign for the congressional delegate seat. He was sentenced to a 39-month federal prison term before being released in 2017.
The Washington Post has reported Brown’s attorney attributed Brown’s illegal actions to personal financial challenges, including expenses related to a 2011 divorce. At the time of his sentencing Brown apologized for his actions and said he was “caught up in a culture of corruption running rampant in our city,” according to the Post.
“Obviously, people are aware of my history,” Brown told the Blade. “I’ve taken full responsibility for it and paid a price,” he said. “But you know, I’m not perfect. But I’m perfect for this job,” he said, referring to his run for the D.C. congressional delegate seat.
“And obviously I’m looking forward to really fighting hard for statehood and to keep these amendments from popping up related to the LGBT community,” Brown said.
District of Columbia
Hands Off the Arts to form ‘human chain’ around Kennedy Center
Drag performer Tara Hoot among event organizers
An organization called Hands Off the Arts has announced it is holding a protest on Friday, Sept. 18, in which between 400 and 800 participants are expected to create a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center to voice their strong objection to President Donald Trump’s call for possibly demolishing the Kennedy Center.
“Hands Off the Arts is organizing a rally Sept. 18 against the president’s defacing of JFK’s memorial, his removal and censorship of art, and the threat to demolish the center if he can’t remake the site in his image,” a statement released by the group says.
The statement says the event will start with a rally at 6:30 p.m. on the Kennedy Center steps and culminate with a “human chain” around the building. “There will be musical performances, testimonials from current and former employees, along with other special guest speakers,” it says
A separate announcement by the group says longtime D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in past years, was among the organizers of the Sept. 18 protest.
The planned protest follows Trump’s decision last year to use his authority to replace the existing members of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors with new members loyal to him. Over the objection of longtime Kennedy Center supporters, the Trump-appointed board changed the name of the center, at Trump’s request, from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But following the threat of legal action by opponents who pointed out that the name change could not be legally made unless approved by Congress, the name change was cancelled, with Trump saying he would take steps to restore it later.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports in a Sept. 13 news story that because of negative publicity related to Trump’s actions, the Kennedy Center was facing “fiscal collapse” and possible bankruptcy and could be forced to shut down as early as this week.
According to the Post report, a 57-page document presented to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees says the center was facing a financial and structural building crisis, with the recent collapse of part of the building’s inside ceiling, indicating the building was unsafe for employees and the public. Among other things, the document says the Kennedy Center may not be able to make payroll or pay for routine maintenance “within a matter of weeks,” the Post reports.
Some LGBTQ advocates were among those who joined others in boycotting the Kennedy Center to express their objections to Trump’s actions, including a statement by Trump that he objected to the Kennedy Center’s practice of hosting drag performances.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has been among the LGBTQ performing arts groups and artists that have performed at the Kennedy Center.
“With the future still very much uncertain, now more than ever, the Center needs you to stand up for freedom of expression and against authoritarian overreach into arts and culture institutions,” the Hands Off the Arts group says in its announcement of the Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest.
“You have the opportunity to make a difference — show up with Hands Off the Arts and show your power as part of Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” it says.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
District of Columbia
Blade welcomes fall intern
Alexis McLean is student at University of North Florida
The Washington Blade this week welcomed Alexis McLean as its fall intern.
Alexis is studying political science at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. She is interning with the Blade as part of a continued partnership with the Washington Center.
“I am looking forward to spending my time in the fall with the Washington Blade, as this is a new experience for me,” said Alexis. “I have not experienced any journalist jobs in the past so this would be my first time, and I am excited to better my writing and communications skills with this internship.”
Alexis’s internship with the Blade ends in early December.
District of Columbia
‘People don’t see me. They see a trend’
New popularity of all things Asian warps view of multiple cultures
As I was growing up, my parents often shared stories about how they were bullied when they were my age, just for being Asian. My mom is Cambodian and my dad is “Wasian,” Chinese and white. Students teased them for their looks, their homemade lunches, and treated their traditional holidays as jokes.
I once asked my mom when I was little if she could pack me dumpling leftovers for lunch. “Yes,” she said with a surprised look, adding, “I would have never wanted to bring dumplings to school when I was your age because I would always get bullied for them. I’m glad times have changed.”
At the time, I was confused. Whenever I brought a homemade Asian dish to school for lunch, I was happy to hear intriguing and curious questions from the other kids. It felt good to have my meal be popular and different from the Lunchables everyone else had.
Though times have changed, racism still continues. It just has a new face. Today, social media pretends to flatter our cultures in an insincere way trying to gain popularity just for clicks. Think anything from K-pop to Japan’s surge in international tourism. Even Starbucks has added drinks with the flavor of ube yam, native to the Philippines, onto its menu.
I feel that now when people see me, they don’t see me, they see a trend.
For years, Asian people have been portrayed as foreign or exotic. The new embrace of foods and fashion at first felt good. Asians have never been represented as much as they’ve deserved.
But this new popularity warps what non-Asians see. Instead of the blunt and direct racism my parents faced, everything now is a gray area, more discreetly hidden behind some TikTok video. It actually normalizes racism and stereotypes.
Whitewashing my culture
As a 15-year-old Asian American who lives in D.C., I’ve always been one of the few Asian kids in school; my high school today counts less than 2 percent of students as being of Asian descent. I remember always being called “that one Asian girl” or some slur a kid learned from their parents. Every time I search for something related to Asian culture, such as a recipe or maybe a holiday, it’s always the same thing: some white person whitewashing my culture.
Social media is the main culprit, of course. I realized this when I entered high school and got a phone and was introduced to the internet. That is when I realized how messed up the new stereotypes around Asians are.
One pattern I started to notice was people wanting to be Asian just because it was popular. It was hurtful, patronizing, and annoying. They made assumptions about our race and then only found us “cool” because we were trending. How can people go from hating us or finding us weird, to then only liking us because we’re popular?
There was a trend going around on TikTok called “race change to another” or RCTA. It is this trend of people manifesting certain physical traits to change their appearance in order to change races. According to journalist Emi Tran, writing then as an intern for NBC Digital, the trend started when a white woman wanted to be Japanese. The woman began posting TikTok videos of herself wishing for different features such as monolids. Tran wrote in that 2023 article that “the overwhelming majority of the RCTA community wants to be East Asian.”
People also look up to K-pop culture, idolizing the pop groups pulled together by big entertainment companies. Most people expect all Koreans to be K-pop fans. Korean friends are asked about K-pop all the time even though they are not into the South Korean music genre.
Although I am not South Korean — I am half Cambodian and Chinese — I still get asked, almost like I’m expected, “You’re really into this group, right?” or “Can you tell me how to pronounce this member’s name?”
I was asked even worse questions during COVID-19. Suddenly, discrimination and violence were increasing specifically toward Asians everywhere. Suddenly, almost everyone was blaming Chinese people for spreading and causing COVID-19.
I remember going to school for one of the last times before quarantine had started and hearing kids whisper, “Oh, she’s going to give us the Coronavirus.” President Donald Trump had publicly posted his opinions about the situation on social media, blaming China for the pandemic, even calling it the “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus.” According to NPR, anti-Asian hate crimes in U.S. cities surged 149 percent that year.
The topic of Asians in the media has always been complicated. One moment people can hate us for being weird and different and the next we’re suddenly popular and cool for the same reasons.
I feel conflicted on whether I should feel happy that we’re being represented or angry that it’s all for the wrong reason and has the wrong effects.
Lily Brugman is a sophomore at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, one of Youthcast Media Group’s journalism class partners. She worked with YMG volunteer and Professor Emerita in journalism at American University Amy Eisman on this piece.
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