District of Columbia
Independent at-large D.C. Council candidates endorse LGBTQ rights at forum
Race considered only contest on ballot with uncertain outcome
Four of the five independent candidates running in the Nov. 8 election for two at-large D.C. Council seats expressed strong support for LGBTQ rights at a virtual candidates forum Monday night, Oct. 17, sponsored by the Capital Stonewall Democrats.
The D.C. LGBTQ Democratic group limited the forum to the five independent candidates running against a Democrat, Republican, and a Statehood Green Party candidate for two at-large seats, one of which must go to a non-majority party candidate under D.C.’s election law.
The four independents who participated were incumbent D.C. Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At-Large), attorney Karim D. Marshall, businessman Fred Hill, and former corporate manager and small business advocate Graham McLaughlin. The fifth independent running, incumbent D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-Ward 5), was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, according to Capital Stonewall Democrats President Jatarious Frazier.
Frazier noted that the Stonewall Dems group has endorsed the other at-large incumbent Council member, Anita Bonds, a Democrat. He said the group decided against endorsing a second at-large candidate on grounds that the other candidate would be running against the group’s Democratic endorsee.
But Frazier said Capital Stonewall Democrats decided to organize the forum to help its members and other LGBTQ voters decide whom to support for the second at-large Council seat that cannot go to a Democrat.
Both Bonds and McDuffie have longstanding records of support on LGBTQ related issues. With all the at-large candidates having expressed support on LGBTQ issues, local activists have said LGBTQ voters will likely select the two candidates they vote for based on non-LGBTQ issues.
The remaining two of the eight at-large Council candidates on the ballot are Republican Giuseppe Niosi, who marched in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade in June, and Statehood Green Party candidate David Schwartzman, who has expressed support for LGBTQ rights.
The two co-moderators of the forum, Rebecca Bauer, a member of the board of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, and Larry Miller, WUSA 9 TV anchor and morning show host, asked the candidates questions on a wide range of both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ issues.
Longtime D.C. political observers point out that with the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, the Democratic candidate running for mayor – incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser – and incumbent Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), along with the Democrats running for Council seats in Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6 are all considered odds-on favorites to win. Among them is gay Ward 5 Democratic candidate Zachary Parker, who is considered the strong front-runner in the Ward 5 race.
It’s just the at-large race, where only one Democrat is allowed to run, in which the outcome is uncertain, observers have said.
Among the independent candidates appearing at the Capital Stonewall Dems forum on Monday, which was broadcast over Zoom and which Frazier said will be available for viewing online, McLaughlin was the only one who claimed to have worked directly with LGBTQ organizations and LGBTQ people in his role as an advocate for homeless youth.
“In a nation where 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBTQ, and that number is pretty high into one’s 20s as well, I opened my home to a member of that community who was homeless,” McLaughlin told the forum. “I have partnered and walked with individuals who are of color and who are in the LGBTQ community to be able to help launch businesses,” he said, adding that he has collaborated with the Trevor Project, a national organization that provides suicide prevention and crisis intervention services for LGBTQ young people.
Silverman, Marshall, and Hill each told of their own efforts to improve the services that city agencies provide for LGBTQ youth and seniors.
Following is a Washington Blade transcript of the opening remarks of each of the four who participated in the Capital Stonewall Democrats forum.
Fred E. Hill (Independent)
Thank you so much for the invitation to share with you this evening. My name is Fred Hill. I’m Number 3 on the ballot. And I’m an independent running in this race for at-large. Many know that I’m a 25-year successful business owner here in the city and a veteran and a father and a grandfather.
More importantly, for my standing for the last 25 years is my desire to change this government. We have watched how the government right now is running almost as a failing enterprise and it does not consider the concerns and the management of money and the trust of the residents here in the District of Columbia. I seek to change that. I bring the courage, the understanding and knowledge of what is needed on this Council right now.
We have watched where public safety, housing, and education all have been the same concerns in the last four years repeating itself again. So, I should tell everyone that those who were on the Council in its entirety did not do what the people needed and it’s time to make a change for that. Again, my name is Fred Hill. I’m Number 3 on the ballot and I’m asking for one of your two votes. Thank you.
Karim D. Marshall (Independent)
Good afternoon. And thank you to the Stonewall Dems for hosting this event for independents. It is a pleasure to be here before the only political organization in the city that’s named after a righteous riot. My name is Karim D. Marshall. I’m running to be the next at-large Council member and I’m asking for one of your two votes. I’m Number 2 on the ballot. I’m a third generation Washingtonian, a proud product of the District of Columbia public school system, a graduate of Dartmouth College and an American law school.
But most importantly, I’m a father and a husband. I’m currently general counsel for a nonprofit foundation and a professor of environmental justice. But before that, I had more than a decade of experience for the District of Columbia government, writing laws, implementing programs, and advancing equity. I know what this government does well, what it does poorly, and I know how to make broken systems work to serve the residents of our city.
I wish we could stay together in person and talk about the issues that will be covered today in the detail they deserve. But I will do my best to put as much information into each answer as possible. I’m looking forward to hearing about what your community needs to be successful and what could be improved in protection and service programs, what our nonprofits can be doing more effectively to serve you, and what the government can be doing to meet the needs before they become a crisis.
Again, my name is Karim Marshall. I’m number two on the ballot and I’m asking for one of your two votes.
Graham McLaughlin (Independent)
Hello, and I echo Karim in saying thank you to the Stonewall Dems for hosting this and letting us have important discussions on some of these critical issues for the city. You have two votes, as you know. And it really comes down to who do you think has the head and the heart to deliver the results that this city needs, and the LGBTQ community needs. From a heart perspective in a nation where 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBTQ, and that number is pretty high into one’s 20s as well. I opened my home to a member of that community who was homeless.
When we’re in a country, unfortunately, that still, if you are an LGBTQ person of color, you have lower wages, harder opportunities to become employed, etcetera. I have partnered and walked with individuals who are of color and who are in the LGBTQ community to be able to help launch businesses. From a head level, I lead a help equity program focused on critical issues that we’re going to talk about today. I’ve partnered with the Trevor Project to ensure that LGBTQ youth of color who desire the same access to mental health service as their white peers but have significantly less access to it, would be able to receive those same services and would have the outreach necessarily by culturally competent support professionals to do so.
Having shared that 18 percent of transgender individuals who are turned away from care would not do so at a health level. I’ve been doing this work significantly. I’d love the opportunity to be able to do it in government.
D.C. Council member Elissa Silverman (Independent)
Good evening, Rebecca and Jatarious and Larry and everyone watching. My name is Elissa Silverman. And for the last eight years I have been serving you as an at-large Council member. I’m the incumbent. I’m an independent. And I am as well asking you for one of your two votes. I’m asking you to return me back to the Council for another four years.
I’ve worked my heart out these last eight years in trying to make life better for working families, including LGBTQ working families in this city. I think a lot of people know me for paid family leave and the benefits that brings to LGBTQ families. Beyond that, as the Labor chair I’ve had a real focus on making sure people have access to good living wage jobs. And I’ve also been able to survive these past two years in COVID.
I have a big focus on oversight, which is clear, as Colby King said, being kind of a solitary voice in trying to highlight the issues with the D.C. Housing Authority. I think we can spend your tax dollars better so our city can be more equitable and just. And I ask for one of your votes to do that.
The Capital Stonewall Democrats’ independent candidate forum can be viewed in its entirety here.
District of Columbia
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
Fr. Tom Oddo’s biographer speaks at Dignity Washington event
The author of a biography of a U.S. Catholic priest said to have advocated for support by the Catholic Church of gay Catholics in the early 1970s has called Father Thomas ‘Tom’ Oddo a little known but important figure in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Tyler Bieber, author of the recently published book “Against The Current: Father Tom Oddo And the New American Catholic,” told of Oddo’s life and work on behalf of LGBTQ rights at a March 22 talk before the local LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity Washington.
Among Oddo’s important accomplishments, Bieber said, was his role as a co-founder of the national LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity U.S.A. in 1973 at the age of 29.
But as reported in the prologue of his book, Bieber presented details of the sad news that Oddo died in a fatal car crash in 1989 at the age of 45 in Portland, Ore., where he was serving as the highly acclaimed president of the University of Portland, a Catholic institution.
“He was a major figure in the gay rights movement in the 1970s, an unsung hero of that movement,” Bieber told Dignity Washington members, who assembled for his talk in a meeting room at St. Margaret Episcopal Church near Dupont Circle, where they attend their weekly Catholic mass on Sundays.
“And Dignity U.S.A. saw intense growth in membership and visibility” during its early years under Oddo’s leadership, Bieber said. “The story of Father Tom and his contemporaries is a story largely untold in the history of the gay rights movement, but one worth knowing and considering,” he said.
As stated in his book, Bieber told the Dignity Washington gathering Oddo was born and raised in a Catholic family on Long Island, N.Y., and attended a Catholic high school in Flushing Queens. It was at that time when he developed an interest in becoming a priest, according to Bieber.
After studying at the University of Notre Dame and completing his religious studies he was ordained as a priest in 1970 and began his work as a priest in the Boston area, Bieber said. It was around that time, Bieber told the Dignity Washington audience, that gay Catholics approached Oddo to seek advice on how they should interact with the Catholic Church. It was also around that time that Oddo became involved in a group supportive of then gay Catholics that later became a Dignity chapter in Boston.
In a development considered unusual for a Catholic priest, Bieber said Oddo in 1973 testified in support of gay rights bill before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and collaborated with then Massachusetts gay and lesbian rights advocate Elaine Noble.
In 1982, at the age of 39, Oddo was selected as president of the University of Portland following several years as a college teacher in the Boston area, Bieber’s book states. It says he was seen as a “vibrant and capable administrator who delivered real results to his campus,” adding, “His magnetism was obvious. One student described him as ‘John Kennedyesque’ to the university’s student newspaper.”
Bieber said that although Oddo was less active with Dignity U.S.A. during his tenure as UP president, he continued his support for gay Catholics and what is now referred to as LGBTQ rights.
“For those that knew him prior to his term at UP, though, he represented something greater than an accomplished university administrator and educator,” Bieber’s book states. “He was a new kind of priest, a gay man living and ministering in a world set loose from tradition by the Second Vatican Council,” the book says.
It was referring to the Vatican gathering of worldwide Catholic leaders from 1962 to 1965 concluding under Pope Paul VI that church observers say modernized church practices to allow far greater participation by the laity and opened the way for sympathetic consideration of gay Catholics.
District of Columbia
HRC to host National Rainbow Seder
Bet Mishpachah among annual event’s organizers
The 18th National Rainbow Seder will take place at the Human Rights Campaign on Sunday.
The sold out event is the country’s largest Passover Seder for the Jewish LGBTQ community.
Organizations behind the event include Bet Mishpachah, a local D.C. LGBTQ synagogue that Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin leads, and GLOE, an Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center program that sponsors events for the queer Jewish community. The theme for this year’s Seder is “Liberation For All Who Journey: Remembering, Resisting, Rebuilding.” Rabbis Atara Cohen, Koach Frazier, and Avigayil Halpern will lead it.
The Seder will honor the late GLOE co-chair Michael Singer. Singer also served on the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s board.
“This Seder is both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to continue building a more just and inclusive world.” Bet Mishpachah Executive Director Joshua Maxey told the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
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Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
‘How We Survived’ panel set for March 25
Calendar: March 21-26
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