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D.C. Council considers LGBTQ Pride license plates

Similar bill died in committee in 2022

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D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large) reintroduced a bill this week calling for the creation of LGBTQ Pride license plates. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large) reintroduced a bill this week calling for the creation of “LGBTQ Pride” license plates for motor vehicles licensed in the city for a small annual fee that will help fund the city’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.

Eight other Council members joined White as co-introducers of the bill, indicating it has at least nine members of the 13-member Council as supporters of the bill.

The legislation, called the Pride Plates Amendment Act of 2023, states that, “The Mayor shall design and make available for issue one or more LGBTQ Pride motor vehicle tags demonstrating support for the LGBTQ community.”

The bill calls for amending the existing law that created the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Affairs to create an Office of LGBTQ Affairs Fund. The revenue received by the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles from a fee to be charged for the LGBTQ Pride tags will be deposited into the newly created Office of LGBTQ Affairs Fund, according to the bill.

“Money in the Fund shall be used by the Office to support programs that promote the welfare of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community,” the bill states.

“A resident ordering an LGBTQ Pride tag shall pay a one-time application fee and a display fee each year thereafter,” the bill declares. “The application fee shall be $25, and the display fee shall be $20, or such other amount that may be established by the Mayor by rule,” the bill says.

The LGBTQ Affairs Office, among other things, awards grants to community based organizations that provide services to the LGBTQ community, including groups that provide support for homeless LGBTQ youth. Japer Bowles, a longtime local LGBTQ rights advocate, is the current director of the office.

Although the office is funded through the city’s annual budget, the revenue generated by the fees for the proposed Pride license plates is expected to strengthen its ability to support local LGBTQ related programs and services.

In a development that most LGBTQ activists were unaware of, White introduced a similar bill last year, but it appears to have died in the Council’s Committee on Transportation & The Environment, which never took a vote to release the bill to the full Council.

The committee at the time was chaired by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) who chose not to run for re-election last year and is no longer on the Council. At a public hearing on the bill last July, Cheh expressed concern that an LGBTQ Pride license plate could be interpreted by a court to be a political message that would require the city to approve other political messages on license plates such as opposition to abortion.  

Council records show that the bill last year had also been sent to the Council’s Committee on Government Operations and Facilities, which was chaired by Robert White. In a Sept. 22, 2022 report announcing its approval of the bill, the committee disputed Cheh’s suggestion that the political nature of a license plate supportive of the LGBTQ community could result in the city being forced to release license plates with political views opposing abortion or other views at odds with the city’s progressive positions.

“The committee does not share this concern,” the committee report says. “Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, governments are allowed to decide the content of their own speech,” the report states.

Cheh, who is a professor at George Washington University Law School, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Committee on Transportation & The Environment, where the newly introduced bill was sent this week, is currently chaired by Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who is one of the co-introducers of White’s bill.

A statement released by White’s office on Wednesday points out that the city’s Department of Motor Vehicles currently offers a wide variety of other specialty license plates expressing support for causes such as veterans with disabilities, breast cancer awareness, bicycle safety, protection for the Anacostia River, and opposition to taxation of D.C. residents without congressional representation.

“The District’s LGBTQ community is incredibly vibrant and active across our city,” White says in the statement released by his office. “Unfortunately, LGBTQ people around the country are being persecuted,” he says in the statement. “This bill reaffirms the District’s dedication to our LGBTQ residents and visitors, and also gives drivers an opportunity to make a difference with small but meaningful recurring contributions to OLGBTQA” [the Office of LGBTQ Affairs].

White added in the statement that he is excited that D.C. could have its Pride plates when the city hosts World Pride 2025, the international LGBTQ Pride event.

The other Council members who signed on as co-introducers of the bill include Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only openly gay member; Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) Christina Henderson (I-At-Large), Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), and Matthew Frumin (D-Ward 3).

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District of Columbia

Billy Porter, Keke Palmer, Ava Max to perform at Capital Pride

Concert to be held at annual festival on June 9

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Billy Porter (Photo courtesy of Republic Records)

The Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced this week the lineup of performers for the Sunday, June 9, Capital Pride Concert to be held during the Capital Pride Festival on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. near the U.S. Capitol.

Among the performers will be nationally acclaimed singers and recording artists Billy Porter and Keke Palmer, who will also serve as grand marshals for the Capital Pride Parade set to take place one day earlier on Saturday, June 8. 

The Capital Price announcement says the other lead performers will be Ava Max, Sapphira Cristal, and the pop female trio Exposé.

“The beloved pop icons will captivate audiences with upbeat performances coupled with their fierce advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, echoing the vibrant spirit of this year’s theme, ‘Totally Radical,’” according to a statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.

“With Billy Porter and Keke Palmer leading the parade as Grand Marshals, we’re not only honoring their incredible contributions to the LGBTQ+ community but also amplifying their voices as fierce advocates for equality and acceptance,” Capital Pride Alliance Executive Director Ryan Bos said in the statement.

“The concert and festival serve as a platform to showcase the diverse array of LGBTQ+ talent, from the chart-topping hits of Ava Max to the iconic sounds of Exposé and the electrifying performances of Sapphira Cristal,” Bos said in the statement. “Capital Pride 2024 promises to be a celebration like no other.”  

The concert will take place from 12-10 p.m. on the main stage and other stages across the four-block long festival site on Pennsylvania Avenue.  

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District of Columbia

200 turn out for ’Love Fest’ Drag Story Hour at Freddie’s

Performer reads stories to kids and parents as three protest outside

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Freddie’s hosted a ‘Love Fest’ Drag Story Hour on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Between 200 and 250 people, including parents and their children, turned out on Saturday, May 4, for a “Love Fest” Drag Story Hour brunch hosted by the Arlington, Va., LGBTQ establishment Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant.

Local drag performer Tara Hoot, who read children’s stories and handed out coloring books to the kids attending the event, was joined by members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which sang several songs before Hoot began reading from children’s books in keeping with the tradition of drag queens conducting Drag Story Hour events across the country.

The May 4 event at Freddie’s in the Crystal City section of Arlington took place four weeks after the start of a similar event hosted by Freddie’s was delayed by a bomb threat, forcing those who had arrived  to exit through a rear door and wait in a parking lot as Arlington police conducted a search of the premises with a bomb sniffing dog. No trace of a bomb was found.

All the customers, including parents and their kids, were invited back inside and the show took place as planned.

Tara Hoot entertains at ‘Love Fest’ on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

No similar threat occurred at the May 4 event. But three male protesters assembled on the sidewalk next to the parking lot behind the Freddie’s building, with one of them shouting from a bullhorn passages from his Bible that he said indicated the Drag Story Hour event was an “abomination.”

The three protesters were outnumbered by nearly a dozen counter protesters who were  members of the Rainbow Defense Coalition, an LGBTQ organization. They carried bright, rainbow-colored umbrellas while chanting messages of support for the Drag Story Hour event.

Freddie Lutz, Freddie’s Beach Bar owner, called the event a “smashing success” that brought an “outpouring of love from the community.” Lutz released a flier on social media promoting the Love Fest event shortly after the earlier event interrupted by the bomb threat as a showing of love “to stop the hate.”

“Join us for the next story time brunch dressed in your favorite rainbow/hippie outfit” and “carry your favorite homemade signs of support,” Lutz said in his promotional flier. He came to the event dressed in what he called his hippie protest outfit.

Lutz said while the protesters did not interrupt the event, he was concerned that their shouting was scaring some of the kids as they and their parents walked by the protesters to enter Freddie’s.

“I went out back and tried to talk to one of them and it was kind of like talking to a brick wall,” Lutz told the Washington Blade. “He was screaming at the parents that were crossing their kids on the crosswalk,” Lutz said. “And I said, you’re screaming at those kids, you’re scaring them.”

Lutz said the man told him he was yelling at the parents, not the kids. “And I said, no you’re not. The kids are hearing you. You’re scaring them.”

Added Lutz, “And to have such a fun-loving, happy show and then walk out on the sidewalk to that is very disheartening. It’s really sad. I told him my God is a forgiving and loving God.”

One of the protesters, who declined to disclose his name, said he and his two fellow protesters came to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

“We want them to know this is an abomination to the Lord,” he told the Blade. “We want them to know those children don’t have a voice and they’re being brainwashed in there. We’re here to call out their sin.”

A protester stands outside of Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. flanked by several LGBTQ rights supporters. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Stephanie Krenrich, who brought her two-year-old daughter to the event, said she strongly disputes the claims of the protesters.

“I brought my daughter here because I think that it was a beautiful and wonderful show, and it was great for her,” she said. “And I think it’s pretty offensive when people come to Arlington and tell parents what to do, especially for something so beautiful and so fun and so wholesome,” she told the Blade.

“So that’s why I brought her,” Krenrich said. “I think that it’s really important that we stand up for our values and people just being themselves, being happy and being them.”

Among those who attended the event were four elected officials from Arlington – Virginia State Sen. Barbara Favola, Virginia State Del. Adele McClure, Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffee, and Arlington and Falls Church State’s Attorney Parisa Dehgani-Tafti.

Also attending was Nick Benton, editor and publisher of the LGBTQ supportive Falls Church, Va., News Press; and Kellen McBeth, president of the LGBTQ group Equality Arlington.

“It was fantastic to see so many people come out to support Freddie’s, to support the LGBTQ+ community,” McBeth said. “It was a great event and we’re happy to be a part of it.”

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District of Columbia

Another successful Taste of Point fundraiser

Scholars praise financial, networking support

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Taste of Point was held last Thursday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Point Foundation hosted its annual Taste of Point DC fundraising event on Thursday with nine participating restaurants, a drag performance, and a silent auction. 

The event was hosted on the rooftop of the Room & Board on 14th Street, with an afterparty at Shakers. Point donors, scholars, and alumni circled the rooftop eating chips and guacamole from Mi Vida and drinking Pinot Grigio from Barkada. 

After about an hour of mingling the events began with event committee member, Kelly Horton and Kevin Kim Wright, chief of staff welcoming the crowd and speaking about the importance of their presence during this pivotal time in queer youth history. Then, Wright welcomed BIPOC Scholar Katherine Guerrero Rivera, saying she was a model of a Point scholar. 

“We’re always impressed with all of our scholars and Katherine is another example of a student who is deeply engaged in their campus life and a myriad of projects, everything from creating her own podcast to being a part of a number of student organizations.” Wright said. 

Rivera said that the Point Foundation scholarship helps her resist the pressure to drop out. She pointed out that just over 50 percent of Latina students who attend college graduate. 

“The Point BIPOC Scholarship is not just financial support, Point has connected me with hundreds of people like me studying on campuses across the country.” she said.

Rivera is a criminology major and poetics minor at University of Maryland and said she hopes to use her degree to bring knowledge to her community through art and advocacy. She said it is important for her to take academic jargon and make it accessible to her community. 

“Too often, the history of LGBTQ and people are ignored and silenced during our education,” she said. “I want to use my access to higher education and the chance to develop my creative skills to bring light to societal issues.”

She finished her speech with applause for the audience, then Horton came back with drag queen Tara Hoot to discuss ways donors could continue to support the Point Foundation. 

After the lineup of events Wright said he felt great about the event, because it was a celebration of Point’s scholars. 

“Some are interning for United States senators, some are volunteering for leading national non-profits, so to be able to celebrate all that’s being done here is truly amazing,”

Wright continued, thanking the D.C. restaurant community for consistently showing up in force to support Point. 

“This really helps to paint the picture that this movement is growing,” he said. “People believe in this mission to provide LGBTQ young people with the opportunity to pursue their higher education goals, to improve their leadership abilities and then go on to make a significant impact on society.”

CLICK HERE to see more photos from Taste of Point.

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