Connect with us

Local

Vice president’s husband visits vaccination station at D.C. gay bar

Second Gentleman Emhoff expresses support for nightlife outreach

Published

on

Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Second Gentleman at Pitcher’s on Thursday.

The D.C. gay sports bar Pitchers, which opened its first-floor space as a COVID-19 vaccination site on Thursday afternoon, June 3, received a surprise visit by Douglas Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris who holds the title as the nation’s first Second Gentleman.

Pitcher’s customers and employees, including owner David Perruzza, joined D.C. government officials in greeting Emhoff and members of his staff who accompanied him warmly. The D.C. officials said they came to lend support for the city’s efforts to expand vaccination sites to nightlife establishments such as bars and restaurants.

Emhoff said he had heard that Pitcher’s and League of Her Own, the lesbian bar located in Pitcher’s lower floor space, would be serving as a vaccination site and he wanted to stop by to show his support while he was in the Adams Morgan neighborhood where Pitchers is located for another engagement.

He readily agreed to numerous requests by customers to allow them to stand next to him for photos as he greeted people in Pitcher’s outdoor and indoor space. He stood a few feet away from three tables where members of the staff of Giant Food’s pharmacy waited to administer vaccine shots to interested customers.

Emhoff stayed for about 30 minutes before leaving to attend another nearby engagement. He was accompanied by staff members and members of the Secret Service.

Among those present who greeted Emhoff was Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which worked with the D.C. Department of Health to arrange for a vaccination site at Pitchers.

“We’ve been doing these all over the city,” Alexander-Reid said in discussing the vaccination site. “So, this was like a natural next step to reach out to the LGBTQ community,” she said. “And because Pitcher’s is a part of the community this was kind of a no-brainer to do this here,” Alexander-Reid told the Washington Blade.

Among the D.C. government officials joining Alexander-Reid at the event was Shawn Townsend, director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture, who played a role in arranging for the vaccination station to be set up at Pitcher’s as well as other D.C. bars.

“The idea was to go to different sectors of business in different communities to encourage folks to get the vaccine,” Townsend said. “I think that if you wanted a vaccination, you’ve gotten it at this point,” he said. “So, moving forward we have to think about how to reach others in different communities in the city,” he said, who up until now have chosen not to get vaccinated.

Other D.C. officials who came to Pitcher’s to support the vaccination site were Ben DeGuzman, director of the Mayor’s Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs; Jim Slattery, former head of the LGBTQ charity group Brother Help Thyself who serves as Correspondence Officer for the Office of the D.C. Mayor; and Patrick Ashley, senior deputy director at the D.C. Department of Health.

Perruzza said some of his customers came forward to get vaccinated as of around 5:30 Thursday evening, 90 minutes after the Giant Pharmacy staff set up their vaccination tables. He said a larger number of customers would be arriving at Pitcher’s and League of Her Own in the next few hours and he expected more people to consider taking the vaccine.

“I’m grateful they’re here and I immediately said yes when the mayor’s office approached me to do this,” Perruzza said. “But from talking to a lot of people I think most people in the gay community have been vaccinated,” he said.

The vaccination site was scheduled to stay at Pitcher’s until 8 p.m.

(Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

District of Columbia

D.C. police investigating anti-gay assault at 14th & U McDonald’s

In separate incident, gay man found unconscious near Florida Avenue bar

Published

on

Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro was attacked at a McDonald’s at 14th and U streets. (Photos courtesy of Stuart West)

D.C. police are investigating an incident in which a group of as many as 15 men and women allegedly assaulted a gay man while some of them called him a “faggot” at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27,  at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W., according to a police report and the victim’s husband.

The report, which lists the incident as a suspected hate crime, says the victim, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, was taken to Howard University Hospital for treatment. A police spokesperson said he was released from the hospital the next day.

A GoFundMe page posted by Stuart West, Lascarro’s husband, who said Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas, states, “Medical bills, therapy costs, and ongoing recovery needs will continue to increase and any help to ensure he gets the care he needs to regain his health and peace of mind will be a blessing.”

The GoFundMe message adds, “Thomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man. This horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma.”

In response to an inquiry from the Blade about the 14th and U Street incident, a D.C. police spokesperson disclosed that a man whose friends identify him as gay was found unconscious on the ground suffering from a head injury about 5 a.m. also on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. just off Florida Avenue near the gay bar Uproar.

A police report lists the case as a robbery but doesn’t say how the injuries he suffered to his head happened. And like the case of the gay man attacked at the McDonald’s, friends of the man found unconscious posted a GoFundMe page identifying the man.

“Bryan Smith (aka the barber) recently suffered immense trauma to his head and will be hospitalized for the foreseeable future,” it says. “Bryan is a dear friend and a pillar in the D.C. queer and nightlife communities,” the GoFundMe appeal says. “Any amount of donations would be greatly appreciated to go towards the upcoming expenses he will incur.”

One of the friends who posted the GoFundMe told the Washington Blade they would have no further comment at this time. However, D.C.’s Fox 5 News reports members of Smith’s family said he remains in a coma, with D.C. police saying they have video footage of two possible suspects who reportedly took Smith’s phone and wallet containing credit cards.

Although people who knew Smith said he had worked for many years as a hairstylist, the Fox 5 News report says he had recently been serving as a DJ. It points out that police are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the perpetrators responsible for Smith’s robbery and assault.

West, the husband of Lascarro, when contacted by the Blade, said Lascarro, 22, had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker, and he stopped at the McDonald’s on his way home. West said the assault began inside the McDonald’s, which was crowded with customers. He said the police report correctly states that Lascarro told police the incident began 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,” West told the Blade, adding that 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 demanded that he apologize to the woman.

“And when he said he was not going to apologize and he raised his hand to try and move the door to get out, that’s when more than 10 individuals started to assault him,” West said. “And so, they started punching him all over his face and body, and it eventually moved to outside the McDonald’s on the D.C. sidewalk, where more people got involved and started hitting him and assaulting him.”

At one point when Lascarro was sitting on the ground, “bloodied, dazed, and confused, they decided to throw drinks and trash at him,” West said. He said when two people walking by asked him if he needed help, Lascarro was able to dial 911 on his phone, and an ambulance arrived minutes later, which took him to the hospital.

“They performed a full CT scan and thankfully there were no critical injuries discovered,” West said. “So, the only injuries are bruises and scrapes and cuts and a very sore jaw,” he said, adding that the head injuries have caused his husband to suffer migraine headaches.

West said he later visited the McDonald’s and asked two supervisors if they would release to him a copy of the video surveillance camera images from their security cameras from the night of the attack. He said the two declined his request but said they were cooperating with the police investigation.

D.C. police officials have said investigators routinely obtain video camera footage from businesses or from city security cameras along public spaces such as parks or streets when investigating crimes.

Police have said anyone with information that could lead to the identification of the perpetrators involved in the crimes targeting Lascarro and Smith should contact police at 202-727-9096.

The GoFundMe pages for the two men are here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thomass-recovery-from-hate-crime

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bryan-smiths-medical-recovery

Continue Reading

Local

Alsobrooks leads Hogan in Md. Senate race: polls

Previewing regional races in Md., Va., Del.

Published

on

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and Republican Larry Hogan are competing for a U.S. Senate seat that could determine control of the chamber. (Photos courtesy of the Baltimore Banner)

Polls indicate Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is comfortably ahead of former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted between Oct. 17-22 found Alsobrooks ahead of Hogan by a 52-40 percent margin. Alsobrooks, a Democrat, was ahead of her Republican rival by a 48-39 percent margin in a poll the University of Maryland Baltimore County conducted between Sept. 23-28.

Alsobrooks during an interview with the Washington Blade before she defeated Congressman David Trone in the May 14 primary said she supports the Equality Act. Alsobrooks also highlighted her support for Maryland’s marriage equality law that voters upheld in a 2012 referendum.

Hogan in 2018 signed a bill that banned so-called conversion therapy in Maryland. He criticized Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law during a 2023 interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”

A bill that created the Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in the Governor’s Community Initiatives Office took effect in 2021 without Hogan’s signature. Hogan also did not sign a bill that banned the so-called LGBTQ panic defense in Maryland.

Hogan marched in this year’s Annapolis Pride parade.

Campaign spokesperson Blake Kernan on Wednesday referred the Blade to the campaign’s final ad it released earlier in the day.

“I’m not just another Republican,” says Hogan. “I’ll make your life more affordable, and support a woman’s right to choose.”

(video courtesy of hogan’s campaign)

Kernan defended Hogan’s record on LGBTQ rights in an article the Blade published on Aug. 7. Kernan in a May 22 statement criticized Alsobrooks over her comments about Hogan’s abortion rights record.

The Alsobrooks campaign on Tuesday told the Blade it is “ready to defend our Democratic Senate Majority, protect our freedoms, and fight for our families.”

“Angela continues to travel across the state and can feel the enthusiasm and energy from all voters — from young people concerned about the cost of living, women concerned about access to reproductive freedoms, seniors concerned about the cost of prescription drugs, and all Marylanders who want a future where their families can thrive,” said the campaign in a statement. “Angela is in this fight for every one of them, for every Marylander.” 

Democrat April McClain Delaney is running against former Maryland state Del. Neil Parrott (R-Washington County) in the race to succeed Trone in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District.

A Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies poll conducted between Aug. 24-31 found Parrott ahead of Delaney by a 41-39 percent margin. A Public Opinion Strategies poll conducted between Aug. 6-11 found Delaney ahead of Parrott by a 42-40 percent margin.

Delaney, a former Commerce Department official who is married to former Maryland Congressman John Delaney, in her campaign ads has noted Parrott in 2005 said people who test positive for HIV should be tattooed. Parrott in 2014 led an unsuccessful effort to prompt a referendum on Maryland’s transgender rights law that then-Gov. Martin O’Malley signed.

In Virginia, state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Loudoun County) is running against Republican Mike Clancy in the state’s 10th Congressional District. The winner will succeed Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, who announced last September she would not seek re-election after doctors diagnosed her with an aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease.

“When I think about who will best continue my legacy and deliver real results for us in Congress, I can think of no one better than state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam,” said Wexton in an Oct. 16 press release in which she and former U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) endorsed Subramanyam’s campaign.

Democrat Eugene Vindman is running against Republican Derrick Anderson for outgoing Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s seat in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

In Delaware, state Sen. Sarah McBride is poised to become the first transgender person elected to Congress. Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester is also likely to become the first Black person to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.

“There’s no one better to represent us in Washington, D.C., and in the United States Senate than Lisa Blunt Rochester,” said President Joe Biden in a recent endorsement.

Continue Reading

District of Columbia

46 known LGBTQ candidates running for D.C. ANC seats

32 running unopposed on ballot, 22 are incumbents

Published

on

Kent Boese continues in his role as director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. (Photo courtesy of Boese)

At least 46 known LGBTQ candidates are running for seats on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in the Nov. 5 D.C. election, with a half dozen or more LGBTQ candidates running in each of the city’s wards except for Ward 3, where just two known LGBTQ candidates are running.

Among the 46 known LGBTQ candidates, 22 are incumbent ANC commissioners seeking re-election to another four-year term. The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which consists of LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website it currently has 27 incumbent commissioners, most of whom are running for re-election.

That appears to indicate the percentage of LGBTQ ANC members seeking to run for re-election is greater than the percentage of the overall number of ANC members running for another term. According to reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets, many ANC members have chosen not to run for re-election this year, based in part on the stress that goes with the job

Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city government on a wide range of neighborhood issues, including the approval of liquor licenses for bars and restaurants and zoning regulations. City officials are required to give “great weight” to the ANC recommendations, but government officials are not required to accept the recommendations.

The official list of ANC candidates on the D.C. election ballot released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 51 of the 345 ANC Single Member Districts, or SMDs, do not have a candidate running on the Nov. 5 election ballot. The Board of Elections has released a separate list of registered write-in candidates that includes several ANC candidates.

The Board of Elections list shows there are a far larger number of ANC single member districts in which a single candidate is running unopposed. Among the 46 LGBTQ ANC candidates, 32 have no opponent on the election ballot.

Gay ANC commissioner Vincent Slatt, who represents  the Dupont Circle ANC district 2B03, and who serves as chair of the ANC Rainbow Caucus, said ANC members face a considerable amount of stress.

“ANCs are volunteer, uncompensated positions that we do in addition to our day jobs,” Slatt told the Washington Blade. “There is an extremely high turnover rate due to the lack of support we receive from the executive agencies, and the perception of our neighbors that we provide constituent services that our Council members provide,” he said.

Slatt added that residents sometimes lack full understanding of the role of ANC members, which “has created a large amount of turnover, and the problem is getting worse.”

The Blade obtained its list of known LGBTQ ANC candidates in part from the ANC Rainbow Caucus, which compiled its own list of LGBTQ candidates, and from the LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national group that supports LGBTQ candidates for elective office, which released a list of 13 Victory Fund  “approved” ANC candidates. The Blade obtained a few  additional names of LGBTQ ANC candidates not on the Rainbow Caucus or Victory Fund lists from people who knew the candidates.

Also, among the known LGBTQ ANC candidates, in just two single member districts, two LGBTQ candidates are running against each other. One is in district 1B03 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which J. Swiderski is challenging incumbent Jamie S. Sycamore.

The other is in district 2G01 in the Shaw neighborhood in which Howard Garrett, the recently elected president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s LGBTQ Democratic group, is running against community activist Parker Griffin. The two are competing for an ANC seat in which the incumbent is not running for re-election.

Similar to past election years, the largest number of known LGBTQ ANC candidates are running this year in districts in Ward 2, including the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Shaw neighborhoods. However, more LGBTQ candidates this year are running in Wards 4, 5, and 8 than in past years. 

Gay former ANC commissioner Kent Boese, who until 2022 had represented the Ward 1 SMD in the Park View neighborhood, continues in his current role as director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, to which he was appointed in October 2022. Among his duties is to oversee fiscal and administrative operations of ANCs across the city.

Following is a list of the LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running.

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

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

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

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

8B05 – (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him

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

8F04 – (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular