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Minister denounces HRC silence on Wone verdict & more
Minister denounces HRC silence on Wone verdict
A D.C. minister who emerged as an outspoken opponent of the city’s same-sex marriage law has denounced the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBT groups for not speaking out against the acquittal of three gay men implicated in the Robert Wone murder case.
Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, was referencing a D.C. Superior Court judge’s decision June 29 acquitting Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward of charges stemming from the 2006 murder of local attorney Robert Wone.
Judge Lynn Leibovitz, who presided over the non-jury trial, ruled that prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the three defendants committed any crimes.
“In the past, the National Black Church Initiative has spoken out against violence against homosexuals,” Evans said in his July 21 statement. “But none of the local or national gay groups have spoken out against this miscarriage of justice.
“Outcries are heard loud and clear when these organizations or members of their community are wronged,” he said. “What kind of hypocrisy is at play when they refuse to respond when homosexuals perpetrate a wrong?”
Michael Cole, an HRC spokesperson, said the group speaks out on hate crimes against gays and other minorities, but it’s not within its purview to comment on other criminal cases. Police and prosecutors did not classify the Wone case as a hate crime.
“We follow and comment on issues of crimes against our community because one of the critical pieces of work that we deal with is protecting our community from hate crimes,” Cole said.
David Greer, one of three gay editors of the Who Murdered Robert Wone blog, said the editors and numerous contributors to the blog have spoken out in the blog on what they consider the injustice of the unsolved Wone murder.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Rehoboth attack not bias-related: police
The assault and robbery of a gay man on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk was one of at least four muggings in the popular resort town over the past two weeks and does not appear to be a hate crime, according to Rehoboth’s police chief.
But Stephen Gerard, the victim of the July 17 boardwalk mugging, said the trauma of the attack was heightened when two police officers responding to the scene asked him if he provoked the incident by making a pass at one or more of the perpetrators.
“The officers who took my statement were skeptical of me,” he said in an e-mail. “They determined I was gay and accused me of looking for prostitutes who frequent that end of the beach.”
Gerard said the incident was unprovoked and took place seconds after he walked past a group of about five young men who were hanging around a bench on the boardwalk.
“After I passed them, I noticed a shadow coming from behind to the left,” he said. “Then everything went black. When I awoke, I was bleeding profusely and my wallet was stolen. A straight couple nearby called 911.”
Gerard was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and released.
Rehoboth Police Chief Keith Banks told the Blade he regrets that Gerard interpreted the officers’ questions as being accusatory. He noted that the south end of the boardwalk — where Gerard was attacked — has been known as a gay male cruising spot and that some gays have been targeted for assaults there in past years.
“For a very long time we haven’t had anything like this,” Banks said, so when Gerard’s case surfaced last week, the officers arriving at the scene wanted to cover every possible angle.
“As soon as I saw that, I was in contact with the officers working that night, the shift commander, to see what exactly was going on, if it could have been handled better, how it was worded,” he said. “We don’t want to add any more trauma to a victim. I can assure you of that. We want to get these guys just as bad. We have a wonderful community here and we don’t want it harmed by some thugs doing this type of crime.”
Banks said the victims in the other three incidents are not believed to be gay. He said each gave similar descriptions of the attackers, leading police to believe the same group of perpetrators is committing the muggings.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Lesbian chef challenges Dupont restrictions
The acclaimed chef and owner of the Dupont Circle restaurant Hank’s Oyster Bar, who is lesbian, has created a stir by challenging a longstanding city practice backed by some civic groups calling for restaurants and bars to agree to certain restrictions on their operations.
The restrictions are outlined in documents known as voluntary agreements, which Advisory Neighborhood Commissions and some neighborhood activists have demanded in exchange for not opposing a business’s liquor license. Nightlife advocates, gay and straight alike, have complained that the voluntary agreements are forced upon the businesses and unfairly impose restrictions, such as early closing hours and bans on dancing or entertainment, that are not required by law.
Supporters of the agreements say they are needed to protect residential areas from noise and other disturbances that they say some bars, restaurants and nightlife venues create.
Hank’s Oyster Bar owner Jamie Leeds has applied for permission with the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to expand her popular restaurant to an adjacent building near 17th and Q streets, N.W. She has requested that the voluntary agreement she signed five years ago when she opened the restaurant be terminated because, among other reasons, it forbids her from expanding to a larger space.
In a development viewed as recognition of Hank’s as a well-liked and trouble-free business, the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission voted not to challenge Leeds’ expansion proposal or demand she sign a new voluntary agreement.
But the Dupont Circle Citizens Association and five nearby residents filed challenges with the liquor board requesting that it reject her request to terminate the voluntary agreement. The challengers say they are open to negotiating an amended voluntary agreement that might allow Hank’s to expand into the adjacent building if Leeds complies with various restrictions.
Nightlife advocates have hailed Leeds for standing up to what they call unfair and unreasonable restrictions imposed in voluntary agreements.
David Mallof and Alexis Rieffel, two of the residents opposed to dropping the agreement, say in their challenge that any decision by the liquor board approving Leeds’ request “would be widely viewed as aggressive, anti-resident regulatory behavior.” The two called for the board to reject a “sweeping, draconian, unwarranted, and overreaching possible termination of an appropriately and legally promulgated, valid and in-force, mutually and contractually agreed upon voluntary agreement.”
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Maryland
What Anne Arundel County school board candidates think about book bans
State lawmakers passed Freedom to Read Act in April
BY ROYALE BONDS | Parents’ efforts to restrict content available to students in school libraries has become a contentious issue in Maryland. Conservative parent groups, such as Moms for Liberty, have been working to get books they believe are inappropriate removed from libraries in Carroll and Howard counties, sparking protests, new policies, and even a state law.
The Freedom to Read Act, passed in April, sets standards that books cannot be removed from public and school libraries due to an author’s background. Library staff that uphold the standard are protected under this act. The law, however, does not prohibit removing books deemed “sexually explicit,” the stated reason local Moms for Liberty chapters challenged school library books.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner website.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council member proposes change for Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs
Parker also seeks increased funding for LGBTQ programs in FY 2025 budget
D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only LGBTQ member, has asked his fellow Council members to support a proposal to change the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to become a “stand-alone entity outside the Executive Office of the Mayor to allow for greater transparency and accountability that reflects its evolution over the years.”
In an April 30 letter to each of his 12 fellow Council members, Parker said he plans to introduce an amendment to the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Support Act to make this change for the LGBTQ Affairs Office.
His letter also calls for adding to the city’s FY 2025 budget two specific funding proposals that local LGBTQ activists submitted to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that the mayor did not include in her budget proposal submitted to the Council. One calls for $1.5 million to fund the completion of the build out and renovation for the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community’s new building in the city’s Shaw neighborhood and $300,000 in subsequent years to support the LGBTQ Center’s operations.
Parker’s second budget proposal calls for what he said was about $450,000 to fund 20 additional dedicated LGBTQ housing vouchers as part of the city’s existing program to provide emergency housing support for LGBTQ residents and other residents facing homelessness.
“The Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs currently manages about 90 vouchers across various programs and needs,” Parker said in his letter to fellow Council members. “Adding an additional 20 vouchers will cost roughly $450,000,” he wrote, adding that dedicated vouchers “play a crucial role in ensuring LGBTQ+ residents of the District can navigate the complex process of securing housing placements.”
In her proposed FY ’25 budget, Bowser calls for a 7.6 percent increase in funding for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which amounts to an increase of $132,000, bringing the office’s total funding to $1.7 million.
“To be clear, I support the strong work and current leadership of the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs,” Parker says in his letter to fellow Council members. “This push for change is in recognition of the office’s notable achievements and the significant demands being placed on it, which require a greater level of accountability.”
Parker told the Blade in an April 30 telephone interview that he believes Japer Bowles, the current director of the Office of L|GBTQ Affairs is doing an excellent job in operating the office, but he believes the office would be able to do more for the LGBTQ community under the change he is proposing.
“Making it a stand-alone office versus it being clustered within the Community Affairs division of the mayor’s office, it will get more attention,” Parker told the Blade. “The leadership will have greater flexibility to advocate for the interest of LGBTQ residents, And we will be able to conduct greater oversight of the office,” he said, referring to the Council’s oversight process.
Parker noted that other community constituent offices in the mayor’s office, including the Office of Latino Affairs and the Office of Veterans Affairs are stand-alone offices that he hopes to bring about for the LGBTQ Affairs Office. He said Council member Brianne Nadeau, who chairs the Council committee that has oversight for the LGBTQ Affairs Office, has expressed support for his proposal.
Also expressing support for Parker’s proposal to make the LGBTQ Affairs Office a stand-alone office is the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission Rainbow Caucus. Vincent Slatt, the caucus’s chairperson, submitted testimony last week before the D.C. Council Committee on Public Works and Operations, which is chaired by Nadeau, calling for making the LGBTQ Affairs Office a stand-alone office outside the Executive Office of the Mayor.
Slatt also stated in his testimony that the office has a “chronic staffing shortage” and recommended that at least three additional staff members be assigned to the office.
Daniel Gleick, the mayor’s press secretary, told the Blade the mayor’s office is reviewing Parker’s budget proposals, including the proposed change for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
But in testimony at a May 1, D.C. Council budget hearing before the Council’s Committee on Executive Administration and Labor, Lindsey Parker, Mayor Bowser’s Chief of Staff, appeared to express skepticism over making the LGBTQ Affairs office a stand-alone office. Lindsey Parker expressed her thoughts on the proposed change when asked about it by Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), who chairs the committee that held the hearing.
“I would proffer that it doesn’t matter whether the agency is within the EOM [Executive Office of the Mayor] or not,” Lindsey Parker told Bonds. “They will still be reporting up into one would argue the most important agency in the D.C. government, which is the one that supports the mayor,” Lindsey Parker said. “So, it’s the closest to the mayor that you can get,” she said “So, you could pull it out and have a different budget chapter. I actually think that’s confusing and convoluted.”
Lindsey Parker added, “The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, with their six FTEs right now, if they were a stand-alone function they wouldn’t have all the non-personnel services in order to operate. They need to be under sort of the shop of the EOM in order to get those resources.”
By FETs Lindsey Parker was referring to the term Full Time Equivalent employees.
Rehoboth Beach
Former CAMP Rehoboth official sentenced to nine months in prison
Salvator Seeley pleaded guilty to felony theft charge for embezzlement
Salvator “Sal” Seeley, who served as an official with the Rehoboth Beach, Del., CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ community center for 20 years, was sentenced on April 5 by a Sussex County Superior Court judge to nine months in prison and to pay $176,000 in restitution to the organization.
The sentencing took place about five weeks after Seeley pleaded guilty to a charge of Theft in Excess of $50,000 for allegedly embezzling funds from CAMP Rehoboth, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice told the Washington Blade.
Seeley’s guilty plea came shortly after a grand jury, at the request of prosecutors, indicted him on the felony theft charge following an investigation that found he had embezzled at least $176,000 from the nonprofit LGBTQ organization.
“Salvatore C. Seeley, between the 27th day of February 2019 and the 7th day of September 2021, in the County of Sussex, State of Delaware, did take property belonging to CAMP Rehoboth, Inc., consisting of United States currency and other miscellaneous property valued at more than $50,000, intending to appropriate the same,” the indictment states.
“The State recommended a sentence of two years of incarceration based on the large-scale theft and the impact to the non-profit organization,” Delaware Department of Justice spokesperson Caroline Harrison told the Blade in a statement.
“The defense cited Seeley’s lack of a record and gambling addiction in arguing for a probationary sentence,” the statement says. “Seeley was sentenced in Superior Court to a nine-month prison term and to pay a total of $176,000 in restitution for the stolen funds,” Harrison says in the statement.
Neither Seeley nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
At the time of Seeley’s indictment in February, CAMP Rehoboth released a statement saying it first discovered “financial irregularities” within the organization on Sept. 7, 2021, “and took immediate action and notified state authorities.” The statement says this resulted in the investigation of Seeley by the state Department of Justice as well as an internal investigation by CAMP Rehoboth to review its “financial control policies” that led to an updating of those policies.
“As we have communicated from day one, CAMP Rehoboth has fully cooperated with law enforcement,” the statement continues. “At its request, we did not speak publicly about the investigation while it was ongoing for fear it would jeopardize its integrity,” according to the statement. “This was extremely difficult given our commitment to transparency with the community about day-to-day operations during the recent leadership transition.”
The statement was referring to Kim Leisey, who began her job as CAMP Rehoboth’s new executive director in July of 2023, while the Seeley investigation had yet to be completed, following the organization’s process of searching for a new director. It says Seeley left his job as Health and Wellness Director of CAMP Rehoboth in September of 2021 after working for the organization for more than 20 years.
“Mr. Seeley’s actions are a deep betrayal to not only CAMP Rehoboth but also the entire community we serve,” the statement says.
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