Local
Marine biologist Kristian Fauchald dies at 79
Local LGBT advocate spent 35 years at Smithsonian
Kristian Fauchald (left) died at age 79 in April. He’s pictured here with his husband, Leonard Hirsch. (Photo courtesy Hirsch)
Kristian Fauchald, a marine biologist internationally recognized for his research on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and a longtime supporter of LGBT rights, died April 4 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 79.
His husband, Leonard Hirsch, said the cause of death was complications associated with the sudden onset of a bronchial and heart-related condition.
Fauchald most recently served as Research Zoologist Emeritus at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, where he continued his life’s work of studying a family of ocean living worms known as Polychaetous Annelids.
During his tenure of more than 35 years at the Smithsonian, Fauchald traveled to oceans throughout the world collecting samples of the marine organisms he and his collaborators studied. His scientific papers and two books considered groundbreaking in his field have been credited with advancing the world’s knowledge of ocean ecosystems.
“He impacted people around the world and in this country, of course – students, scientists and LGBT folks,” Hirsch said. “He was a truly outstanding human being.”
Fauchald was born in Norway in 1935. He received Norway’s equivalent of bachelor and master’s degrees at the University of Bergen before moving to California in 1965, where he entered and completed a doctorate degree program at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles.
In 1969, he became assistant professor of biology at USC and a short time later he was appointed curator of marine annelids at the California-based Allan Hancock Foundation, according to a write-up on Fauchald’s career and life prepared by Hirsch and several of Fauchald’s friends.
The write-up by Fauchald’s friends says Fauchald moved to D.C. in 1979 to begin what became a 35-year association with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History. His first position there in 1979 was with the museum’s Department of Invertebrate Zoology.
“He also involved himself in the gay community in the District, initiating rap sessions at the Gay Community Center on Church Street,” the write-up says. “He was active in the early days of the D.C. Adventuring Group [a gay outdoors organization].”
Hirsch said he and Fauchald met in 1983 and became domestic partners in 2001. They bought and began renovating a house on Q Street, N.W. in 1984, the write-up says, “that became known as ‘gay central” for LGBT organizations and causes as well as a gathering place for the couple’s extended circle of friends they considered to be family.
Fauchald and Hirsch married in California in 2008.
Hirsch said that during his years at the Smithsonian, Fauchald played an important role in helping Hirsch carry out Hirsch’s duties as president of Federal GLOBE, an organization that represents LGBT federal employees.
“Beyond his own scientific research, Kristian was a mentor for many, and the Q Street home became a haven to a long list of biologists,” the write-up says. “His deep knowledge of worms and the breadth of philosophy constantly urged inquiry,” it says.
“He was always willing to listen, and the esteem with which he is held in the scientific community can be seen in the over 30 species named for him!” says the write-up by his friends.
In a recently published obituary for Fauchald in the scientific publication World Register of Marine Species, for which Fauchald was a founding editor, the publication printed the names of all of the species bearing his name, including the most recent one in 2013 called Chirimia fauchaldi Light.
In addition to Hirsch, Fauchald is survived by his brothers Jens and Per Fauchald of Norway along with their wives and his numerous nieces and nephews.
Smithsonian officials and Fauchald’s longtime associates and friends were expected to pay special tribute to him on July 1 when they celebrate International Polychaete Day, which falls on Fauchald’s 80th birthday. Polchaetes are a class of marine worms that Fauchald devoted much of his life to studying.
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
Maryland
Md. Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlines 2026 priorities
Expanded PrEP access among objectives
Maryland’s Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlined legislative priorities for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 2026 term during a press conference on March 5.
State Del. Kris Fair (D-Fredrick County) led the press conference. State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and other caucus members also spoke.
Caucus members are sponsoring 12 bills and supporting four others.
Martinez is sponsoring House Bill 1114, which would expand PrEP access in Maryland.
“PrEP is 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission,” he explained, noting PrEP’s cost often turns away potential users.
The bill aims to extend insurance coverage and expand pharmacists’ ability to prescribe PrEP along with other HIV treatments and testing. Martinez is working with state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) and FreeState Justice on the bill.
The House Health Committee had a hearing last week that included HB1114.
“Ending the HIV epidemic is about expanding access and providing these life-saving tools to all persons in Maryland,” Martinez said.
Several other pieces of legislation were highlighted during the press conferences. They included measures focused on youth and education, birth certificate markers, so-called conversion therapy, and hormone medications.
State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County) is cosponsoring Senate Bill 950, which would update and strengthen conversion therapy laws. State Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) has introduced an identical bill that would extend the statute of limitations on individuals who facilitate conversion therapy.
Kagan explained the bill would allow conversion therapy victims to come to terms with their experience undergoing the widely discredited practice that “creates shame and it silences survivors.”
When questioned, Fair explained the press conference happened late into the legislative session because “we [the caucus] are constantly having to respond in real time to what’s happening in Washington” while drafting and considering pieces of legislation.
The Frederick County Democrat described this session’s bills as the “most ambitious list of priorities to date.” Fair also described the caucus’s goals.
“It’s decency, it’s dignity, and its humanity,” he said.
District of Columbia
Owner of D.C. gay bar Green Lantern John Colameco dies at 79
Beloved businessman preferred to stay ‘behind the scenes’
John Colameco, owner of the popular D.C. gay bar Green Lantern, has died, according to a March 7 announcement posted on the bar’s website and Instagram account. The announcement didn’t provide a date of his passing or a cause of death.
Green Lantern manager Howard Hicks said Colameco was 79 at the time of his passing.
“It is with great sadness that Green Lantern announces the death of our beloved owner, John Colameco,” the announcement says. “Most of our patrons might have heard John’s name, but might not have known his face,” it says.
“He was a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of guy who avoided the limelight,” the announcement continues. “He preferred to stay in the back of the house with staff and team ensuring everything was running smoothly so that everyone out front was having a good time.”
The announcement adds, “As a veteran and businessman, John wasn’t a member of the LGBTQ + community, but he was one of the best damn allies our community has ever had.”
It says he “long provided spaces for the queer community to come together” since the 1990s when he owned and operated a popular restaurant on 17th Street, N.W. called Peppers.
According to the announcement, Colameco and his then business partner Greg Zehnacker opened the Green Lantern in 2001 in an alley off of 14th Street, N.W., between Thomas Circle and L Street, N.W.
The announcement points out that the Green Lantern first opened in the same location in the early 1990s before it later closed when the original owners decided to purchase and open other bars, one of which was the gay bar Fireplace near Dupont Circle. Colameco and Zehnacker were able to reopen the bar with the Green Lantern name.
“When Greg died unexpectedly in February 2014, John remained steadfastly committed to carrying on their vision and ensuring that Green Lantern remained part of the fabric of D.C.’s queer community,” the announcement says.
“Over the years, through Green Lantern, John has provided support to many community organizations, most notably Stonewall Sports, the Gay Men’s chorus of Washington, and ONYX Mid-Atlantic with Green Lantern serving as a gathering hub for their activities,” it states.
The announcement adds that Colameco’s family was planning a memorial for him in his hometown of Philadelphia.
“His Green Lantern family will celebrate his life by operating the bar as usual and we encourage you to stop by and join us,” it says. “Community coming together and having a good time – it’s exactly what John would want.”
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