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Mayor joins Whitman-Walker in groundbreaking for new building

Health organization to open largest-ever facility at St. Elizabeth’s East

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Mayor Bowser at Thursday’s groundbreaking; to her left are Whitman-Walker CEO Naseema Shafi and Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio. (Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council members Trayon White (D-Ward 8) and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) joined other city officials and community leaders in a groundbreaking ceremony on July 15 for Whitman-Walker Health’s new healthcare center at the city’s rapidly developing site in Ward 8 known as the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus.

The six-story, 118,000-square-foot building, scheduled to open in the middle of 2023, will be Whitman-Walker’s largest-ever healthcare facility and will expand the health services currently provided in Ward 8 by Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Center in nearby Anacostia, according to a Whitman-Walker statement.

“This new health care home will reflect the vibrancy of the community and will give us an opportunity to expand care in ways we have been dreaming of for decades,” said Whitman-Walker CEO Naseema Shafi. “We are humbled to be working with Mayor Bowser and her team on this project,” Shafi told participants in the groundbreaking event.

Whitman-Walker describes itself as a non-profit community health center serving the D.C. metropolitan area with a special expertise in HIV/AIDS healthcare and LGBTQ healthcare. It says it currently provides services and care to more than 20,000 people annually.

In a statement released on the day of the groundbreaking event, Whitman-Walker said the new building will provide, among other services, primary, behavioral, dental, and “substance misuse” treatment services. Shafi said the new facility, similar to Whitman-Walker’s other facilities in Northwest D.C., will provide HIV-related care and care for transgender people and LGBTQ people in general.

According to the statement, the new facility will also include a ground-floor pharmacy and increased care for young people. In addition, it will provide administrative office space for over 100 Whitman-Walker staff, the statement says.

“This expansion will also allow Whitman-Walker to diversify and expand its research portfolio,” said Whitman-Walker spokesperson Jewel Addy. “Whitman-Walker has conducted research since 1987, studying nearly every HIV and Hepatitis C treatment on the market today,” Addy said.

“It’s difficult to say how important Whitman-Walker has been to D.C. residents,” Mayor Bowser told close to 100 people who turned out for the groundbreaking. “You’ve been part of the community for almost 50 years,” the mayor said. “And as you have grown and expanded, you have always prioritized the needs of the community. And because of that, Whitman-Walker has earned the trust of D.C. residents,” she said. “And we can’t wait to welcome you to St. Elizabeth Campus.”

White said he was pleased that Ward 8, which he represents on the D.C. Council, will be the host to the new Whitman-Walker facility. He and Gray, who represents nearby Ward 7, said they were looking forward to the expanded healthcare services the new facility will provide for people in need who live in the eastern section of the city, which historically has been underserved in healthcare.

John Falcicchio, the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, told the gathering that the new Whitman-Walker building will be one of several public and commercial buildings and facilities that either have already opened or will soon open at the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus.

He noted that the campus is home to the already operating St. Elizabeth’s East Sports and Entertainment Arena, which is home to the world champion Washington Mystics women’s basketball team. He said the campus will soon become home to a 252-unit housing facility, about 80 new townhomes, a new parking garage, a new city library, and a new hospital.

The Whitman-Walker statement says the D.C. development companies Redbrick LMC and Gragg Cardona Partners are working with Whitman-Walker to arrange for the construction of the new building.

“This groundbreaking represents the beginning of the realization of a bold vision shared by our partners at Whitman-Walker, Gragg Cardona Partners, District leadership and members of the community to build a new engine for economic vitality and quality healthcare,” said Louis Dubin, managing partner at Redbrick LMD.

Whitman-Walker, gay news, Washington Blade
Whitman-Walker’s six-story, 118,000-square-foot building is scheduled to open in the middle of 2023.
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District of Columbia

D.C. to conduct first-of-its-kind LGBTQ veterans’ survey

Forum on trans, gender diverse service members set for Nov. 15

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From left, Mayor's office of LGBTQ Affairs Director Japer Bowles, Department of Defense official Shawn Skelly, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Director Charlotte Woodward, Crush Dance Bar co-owner Stephen Rutgers, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs official Pip Baitinger, and drag performer MacKayla Starr attend the 'Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military' event at Crush Dance Bar on Sept. 20. (Photo courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs)

As Veterans Day is celebrated in D.C. and across the nation, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of Veterans Affairs announced it has recently drawn up an LGBTQIA+ veterans’ survey that it will begin distributing in the next few months.

“This attempt to survey the LGBTQIA+ veterans population in D.C. will be the first of its kind,” according to Pip Baitinger, who serves as LGBTQIA+ Veterans Outreach and Relation Specialist in the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.

“Barriers have existed in surveying this population due to issues of trust and neglect of the community by institutions in the past,” Baitinger told the Washington Blade. “However, this survey will attempt to accurately represent the number of LGBTQIA+ veterans in D.C. and better understand their needs,” she said.

Baitinger pointed out that in addition to working on the survey, the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs is hosting a special forum on Nov. 15 called Empowering Voices: Health and Wellness for Transgender and Gender Diverse Veterans.

The forum, which will be held from 1-3:30 p.m. at the D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center at 50 Irving St., N.W., will include discussion, workshops, and provide resources on topics such as gender affirming care and support from experts, a flyer announcing the event says.

The D.C. LGBTQ veterans survey and the Nov. 15 forum follow a Sept. 20 LGBTQ veterans event hosted jointly by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs called “Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military.”

The event, which was held at the D.C. LGBTQ Crush Dance Bar, was not open to the press because organizers wanted to ensure that LGBTQ veterans could discuss issues that may be sensitive or private that could impact their ability to obtain certain veterans’ benefits.

Baitinger provided the Blade with a summary of the issues discussed and raised at the event and identified some of those who spoke at the event. Among them was U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel And Readiness Shawn G. Skelly, who is the highest-ranking transgender official in the Department of Defense. 

Others participating in the event, Baitinger said, were U.S. Air Force member MaKayla Starr, who performed in drag; Charlette Woodward, an official with the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs; Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; and Baitinger herself.

The mayor’s office noted at the time that the event was scheduled to take place on the 13th anniversary of the repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that banned LGBTQ people from serving openly in the U.S. military. Mayor Bowser issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring the day LGBTQIA+ Veterans Day in the District of Columbia.

“Discussions during the event included the need for greater LGBTQIA+ representation in the military and the progress that has thus far been achieved,” Baitinger said. 

“One of the primary areas of concern is that of transgender and nonbinary veterans and service members, who are in vital need of gender affirming care and resources, such as hormones, surgeries, and just general affirming care from doctors who will use correct pronouns during routine doctor visits,” Baitinger said in describing the issues discussed at the Sept. 20 event.

She said an additional issue deemed important at the event was ongoing efforts to upgrade the discharges of LGBTQ veterans, many of whom received so-called “undesirable” discharges under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law before it was repealed. President Joe Biden earlier this year issued a presidential pardon that enabled veterans discharged under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law to apply for an upgrade of their discharge to the status of honorable discharge.

A list of resources for LGBTQ veterans offered by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs can be accessed at the department’s website.

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Delaware

Delaware advocacy group to host panel on media’s role in countering hate

Blade editor among journalists participating in Wednesday event

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Blade editor Kevin Naff is among journalists participating in a panel discussion on hate this week.

LEWES, Del. — Speak Out Against Hate (SOAH) will hold its bi-monthly community meeting at 5 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Lewes Library and via Zoom. The meeting will concentrate on the role of the press in responding to the divisiveness and rising tide of hatred in our country and communities. 

The meeting will feature a panel of journalists comprised of Chris Rauch, owner and publisher of the Cape Gazette; Benjamin Rothstein, journalist at the Daily State News and its sister paper the Greater Dover Independent; Kevin Naff, editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade; and Jake Owens, editor-in-chief of Spotlight Delaware.

Patty Maloney, president of SOAH said, “Following a national and state elections that saw our country nearly evenly divided, this important discussion with our local press will shine a light upon the role of the press locally and nationally in confronting the obvious chasm within our citizenry.”

For more information about the event and to register, please visit Speak Out Against Hate at soah-de.org.

Speak Out Against Hate was formed to confront and counter the rising tide of hate, whenever and wherever it exists.

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District of Columbia

Gay man found unconscious near D.C. gay bar dies

Police release video of suspects in incident listed as robbery

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D.C. police released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Bryan Smith that led to his death. (Screen capture via MPD YouTube)

D.C. police have confirmed that a gay man who worked as a hairstylist and a DJ and who was found unconscious about 5 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. near the gay bar Uproar has died.

Friends who knew the victim, Bryan Smith, stated in a GoFundMe message seeking support for his medical expenses that he was hospitalized for a severe head injury. His family members told Fox 5 News that he was in a coma.

A D.C. police spokesperson confirmed that Smith died on Nov. 7 and the cause and circumstances surrounding his death were pending with the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office. “Once we have more information, we’ll be putting that out,” D.C. police spokesperson Thomas Lynch told the Washington Blade.

The information released by D.C police indicates Smith at some point was transferred from a D.C. hospital where he was taken by ambulance at the time he was found unconscious to a Virginia hospital, most likely at the request of family members.

Police also released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Smith.

“The ongoing investigation has determined that the man was robbed by two suspects while walking on the block,” according to an Oct. 30 police statement released before Smith died. “Detectives are still working to determine how the victim sustained his injuries,” the statement says.

The statement adds that the suspects have been linked to three other offenses that took place that same morning, two of which were attempted robberies and one of which was a robbery of victims on nearby streets.

Smith was found unconscious on Oct. 27 about five hours after another gay man, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarra, 22, was reportedly attacked and beaten by as many as 15 men and women at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Street, N.W., according to a D.C. police report and information provided by Lascarra’s husband.

D.C. police announced they made an arrest Nov. 5 of a 16-year-old juvenile male in connection with the McDonald’s case. The arrest came on the same day police released photos of seven suspects in the McDonald’s assault case taken from video cameras at or near the McDonald’s.

In their release of the video showing the two suspects in the Smith case, police are asking that anyone who may recognize the two individuals should contact police at 202-727-9099 or text their tip to the department’s TEXT TIP Line at 50411.

“Anyone who may have seen or heard something suspicious in the 500 block of T Street, NW, or the surrounding area around 5:00 a.m. Sunday [Oct. 27] is asked to call the police or text police,” the statement accompanying the release of the police video says. 

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