Local
Peroutka’s operatives guilty in Arundel robocalls
Fusaro, Waters sentenced to a year in jail
Dennis Fusaro, former campaign manager of anti-LGBT Council member Michael Anthony Peroutka, and Stephen Waters, an independent political consultant, were found guilty on Feb. 21 by Anne Arundel County District Court Judge John P. McKenna Jr. stemming from robocalls made against Peroutka’s gay opponent.
Both men, who are from Virginia, were sentenced to a year in jail with all but 30 days suspended for misdemeanor charges of violating and conspiring to violate the authority line requirements of Maryland election laws. They were also sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation and a $1,000 fine, according to the Capital Gazette. The ruling is being appealed.
Patrick Armstrong, then 31, an openly gay candidate who ran unsuccessfully for the District 5 Council seat in Anne Arundel, was a victim of robocalls on Oct. 31, 2014. The call, which stated it was from “Marylanders for Transgenders,” a fake group, asked voters to call his mother’s house where he had lived at the time to thank him for coming out of the closet and his support for “all transgenders” in the Fairness for All Marylanders Act “so that they can go to any bathroom of their choice based their own confused gender identity.”
The message also said, “Call Patrick today and thank him for his bravery in coming out of the closet.”
Armstrong’s opponent, Republican Michael Peroutka, 64, is a Christian Reconstructionist and secessionist. He had allegedly said that gay people are out to “recruit your children” into their “death style” and that legislators’ passing of marriage equality “violates God’s law.”
Peroutka denied any involvement in the robocall but some recipients of the call filed a complaint with the state Board of Elections, which forwarded it to the state prosecutor’s office.
Approximately 5,000 calls were made to Anne Arundel County residents. Armstrong lost by fewer than 2,000 votes though he was ahead in the polls. He told WJZ-TV that the call was a dirty trick.
“I am extremely pleased with the outcome of the trial and look forward to winning again in the appeal,” Armstrong told the Blade. “The robocall was a disgusting slur against the trans community and a clear attempt to use my sexuality against me. The trial, however, focused on an election law violation rather than the message itself. These two individuals wanted to spread this message of hate but were too cowardly to attach their names to it.”
Armstrong said he’s grateful to the Maryland state prosecutor’s office for tracking this call to these men.
“I oppose bullying of all kinds whether against the gay community, the trans community or anyone else,” Armstrong said. “This behavior cannot be tolerated and we must continue to educate those who are filled with anger or hatred or fear towards the LGBT community because they are fueled by ignorance.”
Cameroon
Gay Cameroonian immigrant will be freed from ICE detention — for now
Ludovic Mbock’s homeland criminalizes homosexuality
By ANTONIO PLANAS | An immigration judge on Friday issued a $4,000 bond for a Cameroonian immigrant and regional gaming champion held in federal immigration detention for the past three weeks.
The ruling will allow Ludovic Mbock, of Oxon Hill, to return to Maryland from a Georgia facility this weekend, his family and attorney said.
“Realistically, by tomorrow. Hopefully, by today,” said Mbock’s attorney, Edward Neufville. “We are one step closer to getting Ludovic justice.”
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Bowser appoints first nonbinary person to Cabinet-level position
Peter Stephan named Office of Disability Rights interim director
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower has named longtime disability rights advocate Peter L. Stephan, who identifies as nonbinary, as interim director of the D.C. Office of Disability Rights.
The local transgender and nonbinary advocacy group Our Trans Capital and the LGBTQ group Capital Stonewall Democrats issued a joint statement calling Stephan’s appointment an historic development as the first-ever appointment of a nonbinary person to a Cabinet-level D.C. government position.
“This milestone appointment recognizes Stephan’s extensive expertise in disability rights advocacy and marks a historic advancement for transgender and nonbinary representation in District government leadership,” the statement says.
The statement notes that Stephan, an attorney, held the position of general counsel at the Office of Disability Rights immediately prior to the mayor’s decision to name him interim director.
The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Bowser plans to name Stephan as the permanent director of the Office of Disability Rights. John Fanning, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), said the office’s director position requires confirmation by the Council.
Stephan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“At a time when trans and nonbinary people ae under attack across the country, D.C. continues to lead by example,” said Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats. “This appointment reflects what we have always believed that our community is always strongest when every voice is represented in government,” he said.
“This is a historic step forward,” said Vida Rengel, founder of Our Trans Capital. “Interim Director Stephan’s career and accomplishments are a shining example of the positive impact that trans and nonbinary public servants can have on our communities,” according to Rangel.
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
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