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Baltimore mayoral candidates talk LGBT issues

Emotional forum tackles HIV, homelessness

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Catherine Pugh, gay news, Washington Blade
Catherine Pugh, gay news, Washington Blade, mayoral forum

Catherine Pugh addresses the crowd at Tuesday’s forum. (Washington Blade photo by Steve Charing)

More than 100 members of the Baltimore’s LGBT community and allies attended an emotional mayoral forum hosted by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) on March 8. The event, which took place at the University of Baltimore’s H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons, featured a dozen mayoral candidates out of the 29 vying for the office held by outgoing Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Democratic candidates who participated included: Elizabeth Embry, chief of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office criminal division; Patrick Gutierrez, former operations manager; DeRay Mckesson, a gay civil rights activist; Council member Nick Mosby; State Sen. Catherine Pugh; Council member Carl Stokes; academic researcher Cindy Walsh; and engineer Calvin Allen Young III.

Former Mayor Shelia Dixon, a Democrat and who is perceived as the frontrunner, did not attend.

Other participants who will compete in the general election only include: Green Party candidate and activist Joshua Harris as well as unaffiliated candidates dispute resolution manager Nicholas Caminiti, state employee LaVern Murray and activist Andre Powell.

None of the five Republican candidates attended.

The candidates, following opening statements, fielded pre-determined questions regarding their records on advancing LGBT rights, what they would do to stop police profiling and violence against LGBT people, particularly transgender people of color, what they would do to support homeless LGBT youth, and what they would do to ensure equal education and employment opportunities for LGBT people, particularly youth, seniors and transgender people of color.

In addition to responding to those questions, the candidates explained other matters relating to governance, such as the need for new leadership for opportunity, education and the ills of crime and poverty.

Each candidate offered their personal commitment to LGBT equality with some more familiar with the issues than others. Stokes said he has a long history with LGBT rights. “I am not a friend of the community but am a part of the community,” he said.

Sen. Pugh cited several legislative initiatives she led, including group life insurance policies for domestic partners and co-sponsoring the Religious Freedom and Civil Rights Protection Act.

Walsh said she has fought for equal protection for many years. “We have gay rights but not equal protection,” she explained.

On the other hand, both Caminiti and Murray indicated that while they support full equality for all, they admit to not having much experience with LGBT issues.

The forum was interrupted by activist Akil Patterson who questioned why none of the candidates have addressed the HIV/AIDS crisis among young black gay and bisexual men.  Lynda Dee, founder of AIDS Action Baltimore criticized the current and past administrations for not overtly publicizing HIV/AIDS in Baltimore and demanded that each candidate pledge to use a public information campaign to call attention to HIV/AIDS.

Another audience member, Kinji Scott, who is running for City Council, said, “We have to do something about HIV in the African-American community.”

Mosby responded to Patterson’s question by pointing out the issue is preventable and treatable. “We must take the trajectory of young African-American men seriously,” he said.

Harris added that there was $6 million being held up by the city’s Health Department earmarked for the Ryan White program, which recently had to fold due to lack of funding. He also said that sexual orientation and gender identity ought to be taught in schools as part of the sex education curriculum.

The candidates fielded questions from the audience on a variety of matters. Longtime activist Monica Yorkman, a trans woman, emotionally described being fearful of police because of her experiences of being harassed by police and how she, as a homeless person, had been afraid to go to a homeless shelter even more so now as a 62-year-old transgender person of color.

Many candidates decried lack of management and accountability in the current city government. “This city is corrupt,” Stokes said. When asked what issue left behind by the current mayor that she would like to tackle, Embry pointed to “so little accountability.”

Jabari Lyles, president of the GLCCB was pleased with the forum.

“The candidates provided enough insight to their platform to where our community can make an informed decision at election time,” Lyles told the Blade.  “We have 29 candidates running for mayor. Only one will win but based on tonight, we should have 28 leaders that can still be held accountable.”

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District of Columbia

43 known LGBTQ candidates win election to D.C. ANC seats

33 ran unopposed on ballot, 23 were incumbents

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Vince Micone was among at least 43 LGBTQ ANC candidates to win their races on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Micone)

At least 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election on Nov. 5 for seats on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in ANC districts in each of the city’s 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 ANC’s 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 “great weight” 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 – (Columbia Heights)
Jeremy Sherman, he/him

1A07 – (Columbia Heights)
Mukta Ghorpadey, she/her

1A10 – (Columbia Heights)

Billy Easley, he/him

1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street)J. Swiderski, they/he
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him

1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill)
Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him

1B07 – (U Street)
Matthew Holden, he/him

1D01 – (Mount Pleasant)

Jay Falk, she/her

1E01 – (Park View)
Brad Howard, he/him

1E07 – (Howard University/Pleasant Plains)
Brian Footer, he/him

2A05 – (Foggy Bottom)
Luke Chadwick, he/him

2B02 – (Dupont Circle)
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him

2B03 – (Dupont Circle)
Vincent Slatt, he/him

2B09 – (Dupont Circle/U Street)
Christopher Davis, he/him

2C01 – (Penn Quarter)
Michael D. Shankle, he/him

2F05 – (Logan Circle)
Christopher Dyer, he/him

2F06 – (Logan Circle)
John Fanning, he/him

2F07 – (Logan Circle)
Kevin Cataldo, he/him

2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him
Howard Garrett, he/him

2G02 – (Shaw)
Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him

2G04 – (Shaw)
Steven McCarty, he/him

3B06 – (Wesley Heights)
S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him

3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park)
Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him

4B01 – (Takoma)
Doug Payton, he/him

4B10  – (Lamond Riggs)
Jinin Berry, she/her

4C06 – (Petworth)
Christen Boss Hayes, they/them

4E02 – (16th Street Heights)
Vince Micone, he/him

5B02 – (Brookland)
Nandini Sen, she/her

5B04 – (Brookland)
Ra Amin, he/him

5B05 – (Brookland)
Mónica Martínez López, she/her

5D05 – (Trinidad)
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him

5D06 – (Trinidad/Carver)

Charquinta (Char) McCray, she/her

5E05 – (Bloomingdale)
Tyler Lopez, he/him

5F06 – (Eckington)
Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him 

6B03 – (Capitol Hill)
David Sobelsohn, he/him

6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle)
Karen Hughes, she/her

7B05 – (Hillcrest)
Elizabeth Reddick, she/them

7C01 – (Deanwood)
Brian Glover, he/him

7C03 – (Lincoln Heights)
Carlos Richardson, he/him

7C04 (Deanwood)

Anthony Lorenzo Green

7C08 – (Capitol View)
Brandon M. Scott, he/him

7E06 – (Benning Ridge)
Ravi K. Perry, he/him

8A01 – (Fairlawn)
Tom Donohue, he, him

8B06 – (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him

8C08 – (Douglass)
Elizabeth Carter, she/her

6/8F04 – (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels

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District of Columbia

D.C. police release photos of suspects in anti-gay attack at 14th & U

In separate case, gay couple attacked on Metrobus on Halloween night

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D.C. police released these images of suspects in the McDonald’s attack. Anyone who can identify these suspects should call police at 202-727-9099.

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 McDonald’s 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 “faggot,” after one of the women criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.

“Thomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man,” Lascarro’s husband, Stuart West, said and who noted that Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas. “This horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma,” West said.

 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 McDonald’s officials to obtain the video recordings from security cameras inside and outside the MacDonald’s.

“Anyone who can identify these suspects or who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at 202-727-9099,” 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.

“They were all hitting us from all different angles,” FOX 5 quoted Capell as saying. “I 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,” FOX 5 quoted him as saying.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, which operates the Metro bus and subway system, didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Washington Blade for further information on the Metro Police investigation of the incident. The Blade also couldn’t 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 city’s Shaw neighborhood.

“A Metro spokesperson indicated that preliminary investigations and video reviews suggested that Nieves and Capell were ‘belligerent and antagonistic’ toward other passengers, which led to a verbal altercation before they were assaulted and robbed of Nieves’s necklace and watch,” FOX 5 reports.

But the TV news station’s report adds that Nieves and Capell dispute that claim, saying they were “simply being affectionate when a woman began yelling at them.” It further quotes Nieves as saying, “They 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 I’m gay or not.”

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 McDonald’s assault against Lascarro. She also responded to concerns raised by West, Lascarro’s 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.

“We’ve taken the time to review the body worn camera footage from the officer who conducted the investigation with the victim of that particular crime,” Smith said. “And 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,” according to Smith.

“We do recognize that often times when individuals go through a significant amount of trauma, they may forget details of what may have occurred,” she told the Blade. “But 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.”

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District of Columbia

Activists hold chalk art protest at McDonald’s after anti-gay assault

Police say victim attacked, beaten by 15 people for not saying ‘excuse me’

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Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others drew supportive messages in chalk at the site of an anti-gay attack. (Photo courtesy of Joey Minervini)

Local gay activist Joey Minervini and two others used chalk to draw LGBTQ supportive messages on the sidewalk outside the McDonald’s 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 McDonald’s while shouting the word “faggot.”

Police say they are investigating the Oct. 27 assault against Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, 22, that Lascarro has said began inside the McDonald’s at about 1 a.m. when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying “excuse me” when he walked past her.

“He ignored her, and he walked away,” Lascarro’s 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 McDonald’s, 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 “EXCUSE ME We All Belong” drawn in rainbow colored chalk on the sidewalk in front of the McDonald’s entrance. Other messages they drew on the sidewalk included, “We all belong here,” and “D.C. For You And Me,” 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 McDonald’s, appeared to be supportive of the protest, with some taking pictures of the chalk drawings.

“The vibe there was positive,” he said. “Some people were unaware of what we were doing, so I explained to them a gay man was attacked for apparently not saying ‘excuse me.’ So, that’s why we were chalking the words ‘excuse me’ to reclaim the phrase,” Minervini said. “We were doing it there to reclaim the space a little bit.”

He said he did not see any of the McDonald’s 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 McDonald’s 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 McDonald’s employees who were present during the attack or whether they have requested video footage from the security cameras at the McDonald’s.

West, Lascarro’s 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.  

“Thankfully, he has been recovering from his injuries, the scrapes, cuts, bruising and swelling have all started to heal, but I fear the real damage can’t be seen,” West said in an updated message in a GoFundMe posting he set up to help defray the costs of Lascarro’s medical expenses.

“Unfortunately, after this incident, he’s battling with many emotions including anxiety, depression, fear of leaving the house and worse, questions whether D.C. is the right fit for him,” 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 McDonald’s on his way home.

(Photo courtesy of Joey Minervini)
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