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District of Columbia

Ward 3 candidates express support for LGBTQ issues at Stonewall Dems forum

Eight of nine in hotly contested race participate in virtual debate

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4 years ago

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Capital Stonewall Democrats President Jatarious Frazier, center, participated in this week’s forum. (Blade file photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

Eight of the nine candidates running in the city’s June 21 Democratic primary for the Ward 3 D.C. Council seat being vacated by longtime LGBTQ supportive incumbent Mary Cheh expressed strong support on a wide range of LGBTQ issues at an April 25 virtual candidates’ forum organized by the Capital Stonewall Democrats, the city’s largest local LGBTQ political group.

The 90-minute forum, which was co-sponsored by the D.C. Democratic State Committee, touched on topics ranging from anti-LGBTQ violence, especially hate crimes targeting transgender women of color; efforts to address homelessness faced by LGBTQ youth and seniors; the overall impact of D.C.’s high cost of living on the LGBTQ community; and whether LGBTQ-related curricula should be put in place in the city’s public schools.

Kurt Vorndran, a longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist and one of the Capital Stonewall Democrats’ former presidents, and Elizabeth Callanan Mitchel, a member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, served as co-moderators of the forum.

The candidates participating in the forum, all of whom have been Ward 3 civic activists, included:

• Eric Goulet, longtime D.C. Council staff official and city budget director under former Mayor Vincent Gray;

• Ben Bergmann, former teacher, attorney, and ANC commissioner in the Palisades and Spring Valley neighborhoods; 

• Matt Frumin, attorney, former Cheh campaign official, and ANC commissioner;

• Deirdre Brown, Realtor, small business owner, and former ANC commissioner; 

• Henry Cohen, 18-year-old high school senior and longtime youth political activist who would become the Council’s youngest ever member if elected

• Tricia Duncan, former chemical industry researcher turned real estate company official and president of the Palisades Community Association

• Beau Finley, attorney, union leader, ANC commissioner, and Democratic campaign consultant who worked on the campaigns to help elect gay College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn and transgender Virginia House of Delegates member Danica Roem;

• Phil Thomas, Ward 3 community activist, chair of the Ward 3 Democratic Committee, and former director of the D.C. Office of Clean City under Mayor Muriel Bowser.  

Monte Monash, CEO of the D.C. public affairs and communications consulting firm Monash Advisory Group and longtime Ward 3 community activist, was the only one of the Ward 3 D.C. Council Candidates who did not attend the LGBTQ candidates’ forum.

In keeping with D.C.’s long history of having mostly LGBTQ supportive candidates who run for public office, each of the eight Ward 3 candidates participating in the form appeared to agree with each other on their proposals for policies in support of the city’s LGBTQ community. None of them criticized or disagreed with each other during the discussions and several praised their fellow candidates for being knowledgeable and enthusiastic in their advocacy for LGBTQ rights.

At the conclusion of the forum, when Capital Stonewall Democrats President Jatarious Frazier asked each of the candidates if LGBTQ people were working on their respective campaigns as volunteers or paid staffers, each of them raised their hands to give a “yes” answer to that question.

Frazier said the April 25 forum was the first of five candidate forums the LGBTQ group would be holding between April 25 and May 11. The next forum, scheduled for Thursday, April 28, was to be for D.C.’s U.S. Congressional Delegate seat and for the so-called shadow U.S. Representative seat.

On May 2, Capital Stonewall Democrats is scheduled to hold its forum for Democratic candidates running for D.C. Mayor and D.C. Attorney General. On May 4, the group will hold its forum for Democrats running for D.C. Council in Ward 1 and Ward 5, where an openly gay candidate is running in each of those two races.The last of the series of forums, scheduled for May 11, will be for Democrats running for D.C. Council Chair and the At-Large D.C. Council seat.

Frazier said that due to concerns over the COVID pandemic, the group decided to hold each of the forums virtually.

He said the organization’s voting members will receive an electronic ballot to cast their votes on which candidates Capital Stonewall Democrats should endorse beginning on May 1 and will have until May 15 to cast their ballots electronically. He said the group would announce its endorsements on May 17.

Similar to its practice in past elections for many years, a 60 percent majority vote will be needed in order for a candidate to win the organization’s endorsement, Frazier said. He said that if no candidate receives a 60 percent majority vote after two rounds of voting, no endorsement will be made for that particular race in the June 21 primary. Frazier said under club rules, an endorsement for a race where no endorsement was made in the primary can be made later for the November general election.

The April 25 forum, which was recorded on video in its Zoom broadcast, can accessed for viewing here: https://fb.watch/cEfNwZkAtF/

A Washington Blade transcript of the closing statements delivered by the eight candidates participating in the April 25 forum can be read below:

Deirdre Brown

Thank you so much. I just want to thank you all for having us here. On my website you can read about my LGBTQ+ policy positions. I will mainly in my work on the Council make sure we reduce the number of LGBTQ+ homeless youth by providing temporary housing and wrap around services. I will advocate for support policies to protect and empower transgender sex workers. We didn’t get a chance to talk about that tonight. And of course, I support the Equality Act and an end to workplace discrimination. I view LGBTQ+ rights as similar to the other rights that are for other marginalized communities, including undocumented immigrants as well as of course people of color. And we all need to work together to make sure that our community is safe for everyone. Thank you.

Matthew ‘Matt’ Frumin

So, I work on a whole lot of issues and honestly LGBTQ issues have not been at the top of the list of the things that I work on. I get educated on these issues in part from my children, in part from watching the world and in part from things like this. And this has been educational to me. I’ve been stunned by a number of the different things that have been raised here. And I would really want to be a partner to work on these issues with this group and with others in the community. I want to learn. I want to work with you, and I want to address these critical things that are out there. And all I can say is I offer myself as a partner to do and learn with you going forward. So, thank you very much.

Beau Finley

Thank you, Capital Stonewall Democrats, for hosting and thank you to my fellow candidates for a great discussion. You know, I got into this campaign because I care about one thing. And that is dignity. We need to treat each other with dignity and respect. And we need to make sure our policies take into account the dignity of each person. And so, I’m not perfect. I don’t know everything. I’ve got a lot of proposals, a lot of ideas. But I’m not going to be right all the time and I appreciate partnering with you and learning and moving forward together. I think together, we can make a much stronger, much more just District. And I look forward to working with you as a Council member. My website is BeauFinley.com. And it has a number of my policies up. I believe at least as of about a week and a half or two weeks ago I was still the only candidate with an LGBTQ platform. So, thank you all for a wonderful evening.

Phil Thomas

Thank you, Capital Stonewall, and thank you Elizabeth and Kurt as Ward 3 Dems came strong today as both of you are on the Executive Committee. And as someone who has worked with the LGBTQ community as director at the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ as well as Check It Enterprises. I would say I will continue to be a partner as the next Ward 3 Council member, as a bridge builder and as someone who continues in working in the neighborhood…I know nothing can be accomplished alone so I ask you to go to my website at PhilforWard3.com, and I thank you for having me today.

Ben Bergmann

Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you, Kurt. Thank you, Stonewall Democrats, for hosting. I think the thing that this whole forum focused on is how can we make a city that is inclusive, that is just, that is fair, that is beautiful, that is a loving place? And that means making the city affordable. That means making sure the city government works properly. One of the reasons why I’m running and one of the reasons I jumped in this race is that I think that we have a true crisis of epic proportions along one of the policy fronts. But one of the big problems is because we have a Council that is afraid to hold people accountable…They don’t want to ask hard questions. And that is on so many issues. And we need independent people to hold people accountable. That’s why I’m running. Please go to BenGergmann.com. You can read my policy plans. Go at the end of the week – we’re planning a relaunch of some stuff. But go now and go a few days from now as well. Thank you so much.

Eric Goulet

Well, I thank you. It’s just been a fantastic forum. We have all eight of us here. We’re strong Democrats who have been Democrats who have fought against the Trump administration and the hate that’s been there. And anyone of us would be a great advocate for the LGBTQ population here in the District and would fight hard against any hate that tried to get into this city. So, I think it’s great to sit on a panel with so many great people that we have today.

The one issue I just want to conclude with at this moment that we didn’t have time to speak about at the forum. So, in lieu of a traditional closing statement I’d like to just quickly mention employment. Because I think that is one of the biggest issues a Council member can tackle. For we see a gap, particularly with our transgender community still, even after efforts to try to close that gap. So, I’d like to work very closely with the Department of Employment Services to set up a training program where we make sure we connect residents – our transgender community, the LGBTQ community to jobs here in the city. And that involves having training programs that are culturally appropriate. And then making sure we have a list of available residents who want jobs. And then when employers come in — to help educate employers who may not understand the community. And to connect those employers to the residents who need jobs here in the District. Because the unemployment gap for our LGBTQ+ community, particularly the transgender community is still large here in the city and we need to do more about it. And I think that’s something a Council member can really get done here in the District.

Tricia Duncan

Thank you for a great forum tonight. I feel like this is one of our best ones that we’ve had with the unique issues that the LGBTQ community faces. As your Council member, I would be a willing partner. I was very impressed with the advocacy that you have done on behalf of your community. I’ve been a lifelong Democrat. And a lot of my heart with the Democratic Party when I joined was that the government had a role in helping the marginalized. And that is my philosophy of government. So, you hear all these stories and specifics, and we need to get to work. We need to do better. And as your Council member I’ll do that. Thank you very much.

Henry Cohen

So, I’d like to make a closing statement to tell you about somebody very close to me. In preparation for this I’ve been speaking with LGBTQ students at my school because I know that myself specifically had the opportunity to speak with those students. One person who is a very close friend of mine is a trans woman. Her name is Eliana and she asked me to talk about her [inaudible]. So, I’m going to tell you a little about Eliana’s experience living in D.C. She loves having the opportunity to live in this city more than anything in the world. If you talk to her about it, her eyes light up the second anybody asks her what she thinks of D.C. But she’s scared because there is a lot going on.

There is a lot of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric going on. And nationally, there are a lot of anti-LGBTQ laws being passed. And for her to have to see that growing up – she’s only a year younger than me. Somebody growing up at almost 18, it’s a terrifying thing. And we should make sure that as a city that we’re stopping that from happening. That we’re making sure that we are an accepting place for anybody, no matter who they are, no matter what their gender, race, sexuality – any of that. We need to make sure that people like Eliana can stay in the city that they love and feel safe in the city that they love. To do that we have to radically reform our systems in order to better represent LGBTQ people.

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District of Columbia

D.C. Council approves increased funding for Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs

Increase attached to 2027 budget bill

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2 weeks ago

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July 22, 2026

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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at the 2024 Pride month flag raising ceremony at the Wilson Building. (Washington Blade photo by Emma Hanna)

The D.C. Council on July 14 gave final approval for the city’s fiscal year 2027 budget that includes an amendment calling for increasing the number and size of funding grants that the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs provides for local organizations providing services for the LGBTQ community.

The amendment, called the “LGBTQ Community Grant Amendment Act of 2026,” was introduced earlier this year by D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member.

The D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition called the Parker amendment “a historic measure that establishes the District’s most sustainable model for a vehicle for investing in LGBTQ communities.”

The Council approved the version of the FY 2027 budget bill with the attached Parker amendment in its first of two required votes on June 9. Shortly after voting unanimously to give final approval of an earlier version of the two-part budget measure on July 7 that includes the Parker amendment, the Council sent the bill to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature.  

Bowser has expressed strong opposition to several provisions in the $22 billion budget measure passed by the Council that are unrelated to the Parker amendment regarding the Office of LGBTQ Affairs. The mayor has yet to say whether she will sign, veto, or choose not to sign the bill.

The latter option would allow the bill to become law if Congress does not choose to overturn it during its required 30-day legislative review period for all D.C. bills. Political observers believe the Council will vote to override a veto if Bowser chooses to veto the bill.

When contacted by the Washington Blade on July 22 to determine where the mayor stands on the budget bill, mayoral spokesperson Daniel Gleick said only, there was “no update on the budget just yet.”

Among other things, the Parker amendment calls for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to issue a $980,000 grant in FY 2027 to a private, nonprofit organization in partnership with the office “for the purpose of supporting programs that promote the welfare of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community.”

It would allocate $680,000 of that funding total from existing funds from the city’s community affairs grants program and calls for $200,000 in newly appropriated funds.  

It says the organization selected would also initiate its own fundraising effort to expand the amount of funds beyond the amount the office would provide, enabling it to provide larger grants to a greater number of local LGBTQ organizations.

“The legislation arrives at a critical moment, as LGBTQ-serving organizations face unprecedented uncertainty,” the D.C. Budget Coalition said in its comment on the Parker amendment. “Growing demand for services is colliding with shrinking resources, federal attacks on LGBTQ programs, and ongoing threats to local funding streams,” the coalition’s statement says.

In what some observers have called a highly controversial action; the budget bill approved by the Council reverses and restores millions of dollars in budget cuts proposed by Bowser in the budget she submitted to the Council earlier this year.

Among other things, the Council’s budget preserves the current level of funding for housing vouchers, childcare, paid family leave, and other programs slated to be cut in the mayor’s proposed budget, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Bowser points out that the Council approved budget bill calls for using $150 million from the city’s reserve fund, which she and others have said could put the city in jeopardy in future years. The mayor has said the cuts were needed to prevent a major funding shortfall brought about by the action by Republicans in Congress to cut the city’s budget by over a billion dollars.     

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District of Columbia

Is the Metro safe for riders?

WMATA says crime dropped 37 percent on system in 2025

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2 weeks ago

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July 22, 2026

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

I was inside Benning Road train station in April waiting for my train with two friends on the way to school. It usually took me 25-30 minutes to get from Benning Road Station to school at Congress Heights. As I waited for the train, I kept noticing that every train that got to five minutes away would disappear from the Metro screen before it got to my stop. 

I found out from one of my friends that a Metro work vehicle had crashed into a train at Metro Center and that all trains were now delayed. While my friends were able to call their family to pick them up, I had no such luxury. The train was my only option. It took me more than an hour to get to school. I missed my first period because of it and had to make up my work later in the day. I was marked absent because when a student misses one class, they’re marked absent for the day and an email is sent to their parents. I felt irritated knowing that I had to deal with all of these problems that weren’t even my fault due to an incident that happened on a different side of town. 

The incident at Metro Center isn’t the only incident that I have experienced on the subway. I have experienced kids fighting and almost pushing me on the tracks, massive delays because a woman was passed out on the train and Metro police pulling out their assault rifles and arresting someone in the station, which caused people to panic and start running.  

I later learned the crash that led to me being late to school caused 11 injuries to people who were on the train, according to media reports. And the Metro has experienced other dangerous incidents this year. A man was beaten so badly on Cinco de Mayo that he needed staples in his head and another man was beaten to death by a stranger at the Addison Road station. 

However, I’ve never experienced any incident that has led to me getting hurt, nor actually seen anyone get hurt.  

So, is the Metro safe? 

Metro experienced the lowest crime rate in its history in 2025, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said. The crime rate decreased by 37 percent in 2025 compared to 2024. 

Last year, the Metro Transit Police Department increased enforcement efforts department-wide by more than 25 percent, Metro said. WMATA said it is in the process of installing upgraded video systems on our 6000 and 7000-series rail cars, which make up most of the cars in the system. This new camera system allows for live video access to rail cars from Metro’s Integrated Command and Communications Center.

Asked if he felt unsafe using the Metro, Dr. Aruna Rajam, a teacher at Bard High School Early College DC and George Washington University, recalled being on the train with a man who was smoking weed and yelling.  

“It didn’t turn physically violent, but it was alarming and made me feel like the situation could go sideways quickly,” said Rajam, who takes the train to both of his jobs, traveling day and night. 

Incidents like these are what make Rajam feel unsafe occasionally when he is riding the subway at night: “Late at night — like my 8:45 ride from Foggy Bottom to Springfield — it’s a different atmosphere.” 

Jayden Payne, a rising sophomore at Bard, worries even more. 

“There was a man who seemed intoxicated, moving around his phone, pretending it was a gun-all up in ladies’ faces,” he said in an interview. 

When asked if he would recommend the subway to others, he gave a firm “no” due to all of the incidents that he has heard about that have happened on the Metro. 

Erin Bray, who graduated from Bard in June, recalled an incident when a man brought a gun on the train when she was on it. Asked if she felt safe on the subway, Bray said: “No, because there’s not enough security and people keep bringing [weapons] on there.” 

Metro said it launched a Safety Risk Reduction Plan to improve riders’ safety and employs several other safety tactics, including Safe Passage patrols to help students in D.C. get to and from school safely. 

While all of the people interviewed said that they saw or experienced an uncomfortable incident, Metro said it is increasing its security and safety protocols. 

WMATA data coincides with what one of my interviewees said about his experience on Metro. 

“I feel safer now than I felt riding the Metro today than I did 10 years ago,” Dr. Samuel Slattery, a social science teacher at Bard High School Early College, said.  

He spoke of his experience with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority subway in Philadelphia in comparison: “… That’s what an unsafe train system feels like,” Slattery said. 

The week before he was interviewed in May, Slattery said he was on SEPTA and there was a woman “eating beans off the floor of the train,” a homeless man “passed out in the middle of the train,” and a mentally ill woman yelling in his and other passengers’ faces that, “‘Jesus was watching her’ and the rest of us were in contact with demons.” This incident agitated Slattery so much that he said, “Screw this” to his friend and decided to pay extra for an Uber.

Metro riders who want to report an incident or safety concern can call Metro Transit Police (MTPD) at 202-961-2121 or text MYMTPD (696783). Metro also posts a daily Crime Blotter on its website where the public can see the calls MTPD responded to on a given day.  The Crime Blotter can be found here: https://www.wmata.com/about/transit-police/crime-stats.cfm 

Christian Jennings, a 2026 graduate of Bard High School Early College DC, is a rising freshman at North Carolina State University, where he plans to major in nuclear engineering. He worked with journalist-instructors at Youthcast Media Group on this article. 

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Wanda Alston Foundation announces passing of founding executive director Brian Watson

D.C. activist praised as “passionate advocate” for homeless LGBTQ youth

Published

2 weeks ago

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July 20, 2026

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Brian Watson in 2008. (Washington Blade photo by Henry Linser)

The Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing and support services for homeless LGBTQ youth in the D.C. metro area, announced on July 20 that its founding executive director, Brian Watson, has passed away.

In a statement the Alston Foundation called Watson “one of Washington, D.C.,’s most passionate advocates for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness.”

Neither the statement nor others who knew Watson have disclosed the cause of death or his age. Longtime LGBTQ community activist Rayceen Pendarvis said she heard only that Watson’s passing followed “a long time illness.”

“The origins of the Wanda Alston Foundation can be traced to a meeting convened by then-Mayor Anthony Williams at the request of Wanda Alston, the Mayor’s Director of LGBTQ Affairs,” the statement says.

“During that meeting, Brian spoke powerfully about the growing crisis of homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth in the District of Columbia and the urgent need for dedicated housing and support services,” it says. “His advocacy helped crystalize a vision that every young person deserves a safe place to call home.”

The statement points out that following Alston’s untimely death, Watson joined other community leaders “to transform that vision into reality by establishing the Wanda Alston Foundation in her memory.”

It says that today the Alston Foundation “proudly carries forward the mission Brian helped create by providing emergency and transitional housing, counseling, workforce development, life-skills training, and other supportive services that empower LGBTQ+ youth to achieve stability, independence, and hope for the future.”

Watson’s LinkedIn page says he served as executive director of the Alston Foundation from July 2013 to March 2014.  The Washington Blade reported in April 2014 that the Alston Foundation announced in a March 11, 2014, statement that Watson had resigned to “pursue other opportunities.”   

His LinkedIn page shows he worked for or with in a supporting role three local nonprofit organizations since leaving the Alston Foundation, including serving from February 2019 to November 2019 as a Methamphetamine Services Specialist for the D.C. group HIPS, which provides services for drug users and sex workers.

According to his LinkedIn page, from October 2014 to “present,” he also served as Chief Innovation Officer for the Propel Foundation, Inc., which he described as a “501c3 nonprofit organization founded in D.C. that works to strengthen nonprofit organizations through fiscal sponsorship and capacity building.”

A Facebook posting by his brother, Vidale Watson, says his family will be making arrangements for a memorial service and will share the date, time, and location once the details have been finalized.

“There are no words to describe the heartbreak our family is feeling,” Vidale Watson wrote. “While we are grateful for every prayer, kind word, and act of support we’ve received over the past week, this loss is still incredibly fresh.”

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