District of Columbia
Nex Benedict honored at D.C. candlelight vigil
Upwards of 100 people paid tribute to nonbinary Okla. student at As You Are
Nearly 100 people turned out on Feb. 22 for a candlelight vigil hosted by the D.C. LGBTQ cafƩ and bar As You Are to pay tribute to 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict.
Benedict died Feb. 8 at a hospital in Owasso, Okla., one day after family members say Benedict was beaten up by three older female students in an Owasso High School bathroom after a fight broke out. Owasso police have said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding Benedictās death but said preliminary autopsy findings do not show the death was caused by physical injuries.
Family members, including Benedictās mother, told news media outlets that Benedict suffered severe bruises to their face and head and the family believes the injuries from an assault caused their childās death. Family members have also said Benedict had been targeted for bullying at school because of their status as a nonbinary person.
People who spoke at the As You Are candlelight vigil said they considered the death an anti-LGBTQ hate crime.
āToday we are brought together to mourn the loss of Nex Benedict,ā As You Are co-owner Rachel “Coach” Pike told the gathering, which was held on the As You Are outdoor patio and surrounding sidewalk. āNex Benedict, your life matters. It will always matter, and more than that your life was precious,ā Pike said.
āYou had the right to live as you were and all parts of your identity were beautiful and should have been celebrated, supported, and safe,ā Pike added.
Pike and other speakers, some of whom identified as nonbinary and transgender, pointed out that Benedict’s family are members of the Choctaw Nation, a Native American community. A speaker at the vigil who identified himself as Bo and said he identified as a two-spirit individual called on the gathering to pay tribute to Benedictās role as one of the Choctaw people.
āWhen I first heard the news of Nex Benedictās murder I was shocked,ā Bo said. āI thought of how young. I thought about how much life was taken from this child.ā
Another speaker, native American advocate Shiala King, whose family are members of the Sicangu Lakota Nation in South Dakota, arranged for her father, Frank John King, a faith leader and medicine man, to speak to the gathering by phone hookup from his residence in South Dakota. After greeting the gathering and expressing his condolences over the death of Benedict, Frank King further honored Benedict by singing a spiritual song in the Lakota language as part of a tradition of uplifting the spirit of beloved people who pass away.
Jo McDaniel, the other co-owner of As You Are whose also Pikeās spouse, said they were pleased with the response to their announcement of the vigil on social media.
āTo see this child taken from us this way, itās chilling and itās horrible and itās not right and itās not fair,ā McDaniel told the Washington Blade after the vigil ended. āAnd so, we knew that the only thing we could do to help our community heal was to gather. And we wanted to do that in as honorable and wonderful a way as possible as that kid deserves,ā she said.
Sue Benedict, Nex Benedictās mother, told the British newspaper The Independent that Nex was a ācourageous, smart teenager who had simply been living their true identity.ā The Independent reports that Sue Benedict said Nex had been subjected to taunts, insults and bullying due to their gender fluid identity for over a year.
Owasso police officials have said detectives were interviewing school officials and students to obtain more details on how the fight started and whether charges will be brought against those who allegedly assaulted Benedict. A police spokesperson told The Independent police were awaiting the findings of toxicology and autopsy reports from the Oklahoma Medical Examinerās Office to determine whether anyone will be charged with a criminal offense.
District of Columbia
NYC Council candidate advocates for LGBTQ refugees
Edafe Okporo fled homophobic violence in Nigeria eight years ago
Edafe Okporo, an author and immigrant rights activist, on Sept. 26 headlined the 25th anniversary celebration of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a nonprofit providing legal services to immigrants facing detention and deportation, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Before taking the stage to read from his book āAsylum: A Memoir and Manifesto,ā Okporo spoke to the Washington Blade about his experiences as an asylum seeker and the challenges faced by LGBTQ refugees in the U.S.
āImmigration detention centers are jails, but special jails for migrants,ā Okporo, who is running for New York City Council, said.
In 2016, he was detained in an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., for more than five months. He had fled to the U.S. from his home country of Nigeria ā which in 2014 criminalized same-sex relationships with penalties of up to 14 years in prison ā after being beaten unconscious by a group of people who broke into his apartment and dragged him out onto the street. They had targeted him for helping found an LGBTQ rights organization.
He had imagined the U.S. as a place of safety and refuge, but after informing immigration officers he was seeking asylum, he was detained in a cell with 44 other inmates while officials evaluated his asylum plea.
He eventually won asylum with the help of immigration attorneys, but once he was released from detention, he initially experienced homelessness and a deep sense of isolation.Ā
āIn detention centers,ā Okporo explained, āitās hard for you to be able to have a sense of connection to American society.ā
Today, he is the executive director of Refuge America, a nonprofit that aims to limit the time LGBTQ refugees like himself spend in detention centers by organizing Americans sponsors to secure housing and other needs before their arrival. Prior to founding the organization, he was the director of the RDJ shelter, New York City’s only full-time refuge for asylum-seekers and refugees.
Okporo noted that integrating into life in America can be especially challenging for LGBTQ refugees, many of whom come from countries where they had to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity. This often makes it difficult for them to open up and seek the services they need.
āThey are thinking within the hierarchy of needs. āCan I tell the service provider that Iām gay?ā Then, āCan I tell them Iām HIV positive?ā Then, āCan I tell them that I need testosterone hormones?āā Okporo said.
He explained that the immigrant communities refugees might seek out for support might not be accepting of LGBTQ people. At the same time, however, the LGBTQ community in the U.S. āis very white-centric, especially in the coastal areas,ā he said, contributing to a broader sense of isolation for some LGBTQ immigrants.
Through his work at the RDJ shelter and Refuge America, Okporo has been helping LGBTQ immigrants integrate into U.S. society. However, he noted that the scale of these organizationsā efforts is limited due to the fact that the “political narrative in America frowns upon immigration.”
āThe narrative on immigrants is very toxic,ā he said. āWe have a presidential candidate who is anti-immigrant, and even the mayor of New York City is using āmigrants versus New Yorkers.āā
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges last week, called for the rollback of some of the cityās āsanctuaryā policies that protect migrants accused of crimes from being turned over to federal authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, in February.
Okporo is running to represent District 7, which includes the Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights and West Harlem ā where the RDJ shelter is located ā in the 2025 New York City Council elections. He aims to make housing more affordable and address the needs of New York Cityās significant immigrant population in the council.
āThey say representation is one of the best ways to lift up issues. We donāt have anyone in city hall right now who has an understanding of what it is to come to America and build a life in New York City. I hope to bring that diversity and perspective to city council,ā he said.
In the section of the book he read from at the Amica Centerās celebration, he reflects on feeling āutterly alone in America,ā when he first arrived.
But eight years later, following protests by advocacy groups against the detention center where Okporo was held, the facility is poised to close. And Okporo has found his community in New York City, sharing dinner with fellow gay immigrants and playing soccer with others on Sunday mornings.
āAs a foreigner who came to America, I was able to build a life here, and people see me, people support me ā people want me to succeed. That gives me a sense of like, there is a reason to continually go on,ā he said. āAnd that is what I try to do with my work, to show others that they too, should go on.ā
District of Columbia
Trans employee awarded $930,000 in lawsuit against D.C. McDonaldās
Jury finds franchise failed to stop harassment, retaliation by staff
A D.C. Superior Court jury on Aug. 15 ordered a company that owned and operated a McDonaldās restaurant franchise in Northwest Washington to pay $930,000 in damages to a transgender employee who charged in a lawsuit that she was subjected to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation because of her gender identity in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act.
The lawsuit, which was filed in January 2021 by attorneys representing Diana Portillo Medrano, says Medrano was first hired to work at the McDonaldās at 5948 Georgia Ave., N.W. in 2011 as a customer service representative and was recognized and promoted for good work until she began to transition as a trans woman two years later.
It says she was fired in 2016 after she filed a discrimination complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on grounds that she did not have legal authorization to work in the U.S. as an immigrant from El Salvador. One of her attorneys, Jonathan Puth, said the jury agreed with the lawsuitās allegation that the reason given for the firing was a āpretextā and the real reason was retaliation for her discrimination complaint.
Puth said evidence was presented during the eight-day civil trial that the McDonaldās had knowingly hired other immigrant employees who did not have legal authorization to work and never held that against them.
āDespite a successful five-year career with McDonaldās marked by raises, promotions, and awards and absence of discipline, Plaintiff Diana Medranoās supervisors and co-workers subjected her to a barrage of taunts, laughter, ridicule, and harassment because she is a transgender woman,ā the lawsuit states.
āManagers and supervisors routinely referred to her as male despite her expressed request that they respect her gender identity as female, encouraging co-workers to harass her relentlessly in like fashion,ā it says.Ā āWhen she complained to her managers, they claimedĀ Ithat the harassment was justified because she hadnāt legally changed her name,ā the lawsuitās complaint continues.
āAfter she formalized and elevated her complaints, Defendants fired her on pretextual grounds. Defendants discriminated against Ms. Medrano because of her gender identity and retaliated against her in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act,ā the lawsuit complaint states.
The lawsuit names as defendants International Golden Foods LLC and MCI Golden Foods LLC, two companies based in Burke, Va. that it says were owned and operated by Luis Gavignano, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the two companies held the franchise rights to own and operate the McDonaldās where Medrano worked.
The Washington Bladeās attempts to reach a spokesperson for the two companies and for Gavignano as well as two of the attorneys that represented them in contesting the lawsuit through email and phone messages were unsuccessful.
In a nine-page written answer to the lawsuit filed Feb. 12, 2021, on behalf of International Golden Foods, which is referred to as IGF, attorneys Amy M. Heerink and Kelvin Newsome dispute the allegations that Medrano was targeted for discrimination and harassment because of her gender identity.
The written answer to the complaint highlights the companyās claim that Medrano was fired because she didnāt have legal authority to work in the U.S. It refers to the companyās personnel official, Carla Vega, who informed Medrano that she could no longer work for the McDonaldās outlet.
āIGF admits that Ms. Vega informed Plaintiff that her employment had to be terminated due to Plaintiffās voluntary and unprompted statement during the investigation that she was not authorized to work in the United States,ā the written answer to the lawsuit states. āIGF admits that Plaintiffās employment was terminated based on her ineligibility to work in the United States,ā it says.
āThe jury clearly found that IGF continually used unauthorized employees, hired and employed unauthorized workers knowingly,ā Puth, Madranoās attorney, told the Blade. āAnd they never fired anyone for that reason at any of their stores except for Diana,ā Puth said.
āAnd so, the jury found that the reason given was a pretext for retaliation,ā he said. āThat was what was motivating them. They were motivated to retaliate against her because she kept complaining about discrimination.ā
Puth noted that Medrano initially filed her complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and was represented at that time by an attorney with Whitman-Walker Healthās legal clinic. He said Whitman-Walker later referred her to his law firm, Correia & Puth, after determining the case could not be resolved at the Office of Human Rights.
The juryās verdict of $930,000 in damages included $700,000 in punitive damages and $230,000 in damages for the emotional distress Medrano suffered due to the discrimination and harassment to which she was subjected.
A statement released by the law firm representing her says the action by the jury is believed to be the first jury verdict in a transgender employment discrimination case under the D.C. Human Rights Act.
Attorney Puth and his law firm partner, attorney Andrew Adelman, were the attorneys of record representing Medrano in her lawsuit.Ā
āWhen you are sure of what you have experienced, no matter how much time passes, the truth will come to light,ā Medrano said in the statement released by her attorneys. āOur truth is our best weapon to achieve justice,ā she said. āIt is truth, justice, and faith in God that have helped me get here.ā
In his law firmās statement, Puth called the juryās verdict a vindication of Medranoās 11-year battle for her legal rights.
āDiana is our hero,ā he said. āShe stood up for her rights in the face of terrible harassment and kept fighting even after she was fired for doing so. This verdict puts other employers on notice that tolerating harassment of transgender employees is both unlawful and costly.ā
Puth said earlier this year Medrano was approved for U.S. political asylum based on discrimination and harassment she faced in El Salvador. He said she is currently working full-time as a counselor for Empoderate, an LGBTQ health organization providing services for the Latina/Latino community that is affiliated with the D.C.-based La Clinica del Pueblo.
District of Columbia
Man charged with assaulting gay men in D.C.ās Meridian Hill Park acquitted
Defense lawyer argued victims misidentified defendant
A U.S. District Court jury in D.C. on Sept. 27 found a Virginia man not guilty of multiple charges that he assaulted five men, four of whom he believed to be gay, with pepper spray between 2018 and 2021 in D.C.ās Meridian Hill Park, which is also known as Malcolm X Park.
The verdict came a little over two years after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment charging Michael Thomas Pruden, 50, with five counts of assault on federal park land, one count of impersonating a federal officer, and a hate crime designation alleging that he assaulted four of the men because of their perceived sexual orientation.
The indictment states, and witnesses at the trial testified, that Meridian Hill Park is well known as a ācruisingā place where men seek out other men for consenting sexual encounters during nighttime hours.
“Michael Thomas Pruden frequented Meridian Hill Park after nightfall on multiple occasions, including those described below, assaulted men in Meridian Hill Park by approaching them with a flashlight, giving them police-style commands, and spaying them with a chemical irritant,ā the indictment states. The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury on June 29, 2022.
Court records show that Pruden was arrested two weeks later on July 14, 2022, in Norfolk, Va., where he was living at that time. Records show he had been living in Oxon Hill, Md., at the time he allegedly committed the assaults in Meridian Hill Park.
Reports surfaced at the time of Pruden’s arrest that he is a former Maryland elementary school teacher.
Prudenās lead attorney, Alexis Morgan Gardner, who is an assistant federal public defender, argued during the trial that Pruden himself is a gay man who regularly visited Meridian Hill Park. She told the jury that Pruden was misidentified as the perpetrator in the attacks by each of the victims who testified that they recognized Pruden as their attacker.
The two lead prosecutors in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Cherry and Timothy Visser, argued that each of the victims who testified at the trial identified Pruden as the person who sprayed them with pepper spray after shining a flashlight in their eyes. The prosecutors pointed out that during an investigation of the assaults by the U.S. Park Police, each of the victims identified Pruden from an array of photos that included photos of several other men and Pruden.
The prosecutors noted that Meridian Hill Park is among the federal parks in D.C. that U.S. Park Police oversee.
The victims testified that their attacker identified himself as a police officer or a security guard and gave them police-like commands to leave the park on grounds that it is closed to the public after nightfall.
But during intense cross examination of the victims on the witness stand, Gardner argued that each of their accounts of the attacks during their trial testimony conflicted with statements they made to police or FBI agents, who also became involved in the investigation, at the time they were interviewed by either police or the FBI during the investigation.
At one point during Gardnerās questioning one of the victims, Carl Williams, Williams yelled at Gardner, angrily saying he believed the police reports of his account of what happened were inaccurate in some of the details and that his statements during his trial testimony were the correct version of what happened at the park on the night he says he was assaulted by Pruden.
āIām not sure what I may have said,ā he told Gardner while testifying. āI did not say it the way it was written,ā he said, referring to a police report that Gardner told the jury had conflicting information from what Williams said when he was questioned by one of the prosecutors on the witness stand.
Gardner also pointed out that Williams himself has been charged and convicted of violating park rules at Meridian Hill Park by going there at night when it was legally āclosedā to the public.
The juryās verdict came on the second day of its deliberations and after U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb instructed the jury that, as in all criminal cases, they should not render a verdict of guilt unless they believe the evidence presented by the government proved the defendant committed the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prudenās acquittal on Sept. 27 marked the second time he has been acquitted by a jury in a trial on charges that he targeted gay men for assault in a park.
In September 2021, a U.S. District Court jury in Alexandria, Va., found him not guilty of a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly pepper spraying and striking in the head with a tree branch a man in Daingerfield Island park in Alexandria. That park is also known as a gay male cruising site.
Federal court records in Virginia show that the Daingerfield Island assault took place on March 21, 2021, five days before the D.C. grand jury indictment against Prudent says he allegedly assaulted the fifth victim in the Meridian Hill Park attacks on March 26, 2021.
During the trial in the Meridian Hill case, Cherry and Visser argued that any inconsistencies between the testimony by the victims and their statements to police investigators two years or more earlier did not change the overall evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pruden committed each of the offenses he was charged with.
The juryās decision to acquit Pruden on all charges indicates jurors believed Gardner and co-defense attorney Courtney Millian from the Office of the Federal Public Defender for D.C. provided sufficient evidence that prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Gardner did not respond to a request from the Washington Blade for comment on the juryās verdict.
Although the U.S. Attorneyās Office for D.C. almost always issues a press release announcing a jury conviction in cases that it prosecutes, in this case spokesperson Patricia Hartman said no statement would be released.
āWe respect the juryās decision,ā Hartman told the Blade.
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