Local
Clinical psychologist, former teacher Roger Bartman dies at 77
Met longtime partner via Blade personals ad in 1987
Erwin “Roger” Bartman, a high school teacher in Baltimore and Silver Spring, Md. before becoming a clinical psychologist in private practice in Reston, Va., for 42 years, died on Jan. 12 at his home outside Leesburg, Va. of complications associated with Leukemia. He was 77.
Peter Kelpinski, Bartman’s life partner since 1987 and husband since 2004, said Bartman was extraordinarily dedicated to his patients and improved the lives of countless people who sought his services as a mental health professional.
Bartman was born in Lawton, Okla., and grew up in Louisville, Ky., where he graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1961 and entered the Xavarian Brothers Roman Catholic order. Kelpinski said that after completing his novitiate and taking his first vows he began his studies at Catholic University in D.C.
He received bachelor’s degrees at Catholic University in 1967 in mathematics and religious education. He received his master’s degree in mathematics education at Johns Hopkins University the following year.
According to Kelpinski, under the name of Brother Raphael, Bartman began his career teaching advanced math courses at Xavarian High Schools in Baltimore and Silver Spring, Md. His resume provided by Kelpinski says he held the positions of assistant dean at Xaverian Junior College in Silver Spring from 1965 to 1967 and served as a summer camp counselor in his role as Xaverian brother in Maryland and Kentucky from 1964 through 1966.
His resume shows that he returned to Catholic University to enter its doctoral program in psychology and received his Ph.D. there in clinical psychology in 1976. Upon completion of his doctorate degree, he began an internship at the Fairfax County Northwest Center for Community Health in Reston, Va. and soon began work there as a clinical psychologist. He served in that position through 1986.
Kelpinski said Bartman and four partners, while still working at the Northwest Center, started their own private practice in 1977 called Reston Psychotherapy. Bartman later withdrew from his position at Northwest Center to devote his full time work to the Reston Psychotherapy practice, where he remained until his retirement in 2019, Kelpinski said.
Kelpinski said he and Bartman first met in January 1987 through a classified personals ad that Kelpinski placed in the Washington Blade seeking to meet someone for a relationship. He said Bartman was one of many people who responded to the ad, but it was Bartman who immediately stood out from the others.
Kelpinski’s ad in the Blade, among other things, mentioned he had a “Catholic background,” which he later learned caught Bartman’s attention. It turns out that both men were involved with a Catholic religious order in their early adult years, with Kelpinski becoming involved with the Marians of the Immaculate Conception after considering becoming a priest.
Similar to Bartman, who chose to leave the Xavarian Order on amicable terms, as Kelpinski recalls Bartman telling him, to enter a secular life as a practicing psychologist, Kelpinski also chose to leave his religious order for a career as a florist.
Upon speaking by phone for the first time in January 1987 after Bartman responded to Kelpinski’s Blade ad, the two men had their first date over brunch at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. “And then we walked around Old Town and just gabbed and gabbed,” as Kelpinski tells it.
“And we kind of clicked,” Kelpinski said. “We got along immediately. We were from the same background. It was really amazing.”
Among the many things they did together that year was to participate in the October 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights, which drew hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people to the nation’s capital.
Not long after that, the couple bought a house on a large tract of land just outside Leesburg, Va., where they lived until Bartman’s passing on Jan. 12 of this year.
“He was the love of my life,” said Kelpinski. “He’s one of those few people who could say they changed the world because he helped so many people in their own lives so that they actually were able to live better lives,” said Kelpinski in referring to Bartman’s role as a psychotherapist. “And they made the world better.”
Memorial services for Bartman were being planned for this summer in Reston and Louisville. Bartman’s ashes were to be interred in Bay City, Mich., where Kelpinski plans to move to return to his hometown.
In addition to Kelpinski, Bartman is survived by his siblings Kathy Furlong and James Bartman of Louisville, Ky., and Lally House of Woodbury, Ky.; an aunt and uncle, Dolores and Frank Lally of Louisville; sisters and brothers-in-law Nancy and Jack MacKenzie and Sandi and Hank Bridges of Bay City, Mich.; and many nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, cousins, and numerous friends.
He was predeceased by his parents Erwin R. and Mary Kathryn Bartman and grandparents Erwin R. and Louise Bartman and Frank and Orvilla Lally.
Contributions in Bartman’s name can be made to Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Va.
Rehoboth Beach
Auction of Rehoboth’s Blue Moon canceled
Details on sale of iconic bar, restaurant not disclosed
The Blue Moon in Rehoboth Beach, Del., has been an iconic presence in the local LGBTQ community for four decades but its status remains murky after a sheriff’s auction of the property was abruptly called off on Tuesday.
The property was listed for sale in December. At that time, owner Tim Ragan told the Blade that he is committed to preserving its legacy as a gay-friendly space.
“We had no idea the interest this would create,” Ragan said in December. “I guess I was a little naive about that.”
Ragan explained that he and longtime partner Randy Haney were separating the real estate from the business. The two buildings associated with the sale were listed by Carrie Lingo at 35 Baltimore Ave., and include an apartment, the front restaurant (6,600 square feet with three floors and a basement), and a secondary building (roughly 1,800 square feet on two floors). They were listed for $4.5 million.
The bar and restaurant business is being sold separately; the price was not publicly disclosed.
But then, earlier this year, the Blue Moon real estate listing turned up on the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office auction site. The auction was slated for Tuesday, April 21 but hours before the sale, the listing changed to “active under contract” indicating that a buyer has been found but the sale is not yet final. As of Wednesday morning, the listing has been removed from the sheriff’s auction site.
Ragan didn’t respond to Blade inquiries about the auction. Back in December, he told the Blade, “It’s time to look for the next people who can continue the history of the Moon and cultivate the next chapter,” noting that he turns 70 this year. “We’re not panicked; we separated the building from the business. Some buyers can’t afford both.”
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed, nor was the sale price.
Delaware
Delaware school district remains supportive after Trump attacks on trans students
Cape Henlopen has gender identity nondiscrimination policy
The Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, one of five school districts in several states where the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month rescinded agreements protecting the rights of transgender students, says it will continue to provide a “safe and supportive learning environment” for all students.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Cape Henlopen district sent the Washington Blade a short statement on its response to the federal Education Department’s action under orders from the Trump administration that ended what were called school district “resolution agreements” put in place under the administration of President Joe Biden.
Among other things, the federally initiated agreements required schools to train faculty on responding to a student’s preferred name and pronouns and to implement policies that allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.
“The Cape Henlopen School District has received correspondence from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights regarding the resolution agreement entered in March 2024,” the Cape Henlopen School District’s statement says. “As always, we are committed to providing a safe and supportive learning environment where all students can succeed,” it says.
“We will continue to work collaboratively to ensure our practices and programs support the well-being, growth, and achievement of every student in our District,” the statement concludes.
Although it did not respond specifically to the Trump-initiated action ending federal protections for trans students, a statement on the Cape Henlopen School District’s website says the district has a policy of non-discrimination based on a wide range of categories, including race, religion, creed, gender, and “sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The Trump administration’s latest action does not take away nondiscrimination policies put in place by school districts on their own.
The Cape Henlopen district is in Sussex County, a short distance from Rehoboth Beach, a Delaware resort town with many LGBTQ residents and summer visitors.
The other school districts for which the U.S. education department ended the trans nondiscrimination agreements include the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, Sacramento City Unified School District in California, Fife School District in Washington State, and La Mesa Spring Valley School District also in California.
Kimberly Richey, the Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said in a statement that the decision to terminate the school agreements highlighted the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent trans students from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams and accessing shared locker rooms.
“Today, the Trump administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior administrations imposed on schools in its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” she said in her statement.
Shiwali Patel, an official with the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement that the action removing protections for trans students would negatively impact all students.
“There is absolutely no basis for what the Department of Education is doing, and it is unimaginably cruel,” she said. “Parents, teachers, and students need the Department to focus on addressing real harms on campuses instead of rolling back policies that keep all students safe.”
Virginia
Va. voters approve HRC-backed redistricting plan
10 of state’s 11 congressional districts now favor Democrats
Virginia voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a congressional redistricting plan ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The referendum passed by a 51-48 vote margin.
Virginia’s last Census happened in 2020. The next time maps would have been redrawn was intended for 2030, but the referendum results allow for redistricting to happen this year, while allowing the standard district procedures to resume after the 2030 Census.
Many congressional maps have been redrawn since the Trump-Vance administration took office, adding seats for both Republicans and Democrats. Ten of 11 of Virginia’s congressional districts will now favor Democrats.
The Human Rights Campaign PAC supported the referendum.
“Virginians made their voices heard today, rebuking Republicans’ attempts to stack the deck in their favor in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond,” said Human Rights Campaign PAC President Kelley Robinson in a statement. “This year, we’re going to take Congress back from the fringe extremists who have bent the knee to President Trump’s historically unpopular agenda at every turn.”
“Virginians just put anti-equality, anti-democracy, and anti-freedom lawmakers on notice — together, we are fighting for a future where every single American’s vote matters and where every elected official must earn their constituents’ trust,” she added.
Auction of Rehoboth’s Blue Moon canceled
Delaware school district remains supportive after Trump attacks on trans students
Va. voters approve HRC-backed redistricting plan
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Top EU court strikes down Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law
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