Local
Lesbian D.C. official named in school favoritism probe
Deputy mayor says placement of son in desirable school was within rules
Courtney Snowden (Photo courtesy the Raben Group)
Courtney Snowden, who serves as D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity, was identified this week as the subject of an investigation by the D.C. Inspector General into allegations that former city Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson gave preferential treatment to some city government officials by allowing their kids to enroll in prestigious schools.
The Washington Post cited unnamed but knowledgeable sources as saying Henderson in 2015 allowed Snowden to bypass a school lottery required of parents to apply for enrollment of their children in certain schools and allowed Snowden to enroll her son in the Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan school, which had a waiting list of more than 1,000 families seeking to enroll their kids.
Snowden, a lesbian, told the Post that neither she nor Henderson did anything wrong, pointing out that Henderson invoked her authority under school system rules to make a “discretionary” exemption to the lottery system based on her showing her son’s “unique needs” for enrolling in the school.
Inspector General Daniel W. Lucas informed the D.C. Council last month that an investigation conducted by his office found that Henderson “failed to act impartially and gave preferential treatment to certain District government officials and members of the public,” by placing their children in schools outside the lottery system, according to the Post.
The Post, which published stories linking Snowden to the investigation for three consecutive days last week, reported that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had been informed of the Inspector General’s investigation but was not told which city officials may have benefited from Henderson’s alleged favoritism.
“Courtney Snowden is an outstanding public servant who has taken on the critical task of ensuring that economic opportunity is available to all District residents,” mayoral spokesperson Kevin Harris said in a statement.
“The opportunity to petition the school chancellor for a waiver is available to all District parents,” he said in the statement. “Deputy Mayor Snowden did what any parent would do by pursuing every available option when her child faced a challenge.”
Henderson, who resigned from her post as chancellor last year, released a statement last month responding to the initial findings in a report that the Inspector General presented to the D.C. Council about her alleged improper favoritism actions.
Among other things, she said she stood by her decision to make “a very limited number of discretionary placements of students when extraordinary circumstances applied,” the Post reported.
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
A season of renewal for D.C. theater
Ensuring safer drinking water
BMA celebrates enduring influence of Henri Matisse
Gay Venezuelan man ‘forcibly disappeared’ to El Salvador files claim against White House
Trump proclamation targets trans rights as State Dept. shifts visa policy
Capital Stonewall Democrats set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Fla. House passes ‘Anti-Diversity’ bill
Housewives head to Capitol Hill to promote PrEP coverage
Far-right Chilean President José Antonio Kast takes office
