Local
Local news in brief: May 13
Kameny papers exhibit opens, Pride schedule announced and more
Kameny papers exhibit opens at Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has added two documents “of major historical significance” from the papers of gay rights leader Frank Kameny to a widely viewed public exhibit about the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
The library quietly placed the Kameny documents on display at its Thomas Jefferson Building across the street from the U.S. Capitol in late April without publicly announcing the development.
On Monday, organizers of the Kameny Papers Project announced in a press release that the documents were on display as part of the library’s “Creating the United States” exhibit.
The release says inclusion of the Kameny documents represents the first time “the history of gay and lesbian Americans” has been included by the library “in the story of the Constitution and its evolution as a living instrument of freedom.”
In 2006, the Kameny Papers Project donated about 50,000 documents and artifacts to the Library of Congress on Kameny’s behalf that the gay rights pioneer had produced during his more than 50 years of work on behalf of LGBT equality. The documents and artifacts, such as gay rights protest signs from the 1960s, are available to researchers. Kameny, 85, began working on gay rights activities in the late 1950s.
One of the documents now on display at the Library of Congress is Kameny’s 1961 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court contesting a decision in 1957 by the then U.S. Army Map Service to fire him as a civilian astronomer because he was gay. The petition is the first such document ever filed before the Supreme Court pertaining to a civil rights violation based on sexual orientation.
The Supreme Court denied Kameny’s petition, upholding the longstanding policy of the then U.S. Civil Service Commission banning gays and lesbians from working for the federal government. The policy remained in effect until 1975.
The second Kameny document included in the library’s exhibit is the original copy of a 1966 letter from John W. Macy Jr., the then director of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, to the Mattachine Society of Washington, the city’s first gay rights group that Kameny founded in the early 1960s.
In the letter, Macy sought to justify the federal government’s ban on gay employees by citing “the revulsion of other employees by homosexual conduct.”
The two Kameny documents are scheduled to remain on display at the library until October.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Delaware gays celebrate as Markell signs civil unions
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell was scheduled to sign into law a sweeping civil unions bill late Wednesday after Blade deadline.
The signing was scheduled to take place at the World Café Live in Wilmington and a large celebration of local LGBT people was expected to follow.
The new law extends all state rights of marriage to same-sex couples in a civil union. The measure passed the Senate last month by a 25-15 vote.
STAFF REPORTS
D.C. Pride events set to begin this month
Events associated with D.C.’s two main LGBT pride festivals — D.C. Black Pride and Capital Pride — are set to begin this month, and organizers say they are looking forward to a record turnout from local and out-of-town participants.
As it has since its founding, Black Pride is set to take place Memorial Day weekend, with events beginning on Thursday, May 26, and ending Sunday, May 29, with the annual Black Pride Health and Wellness Festival. The festival will take place 1-7 p.m. at D.C.’s Fort Dupont Park located at Minnesota Avenue and F streets, S.E. The location represents a change from last year’s festival, which was held at the D.C. Convention Center.
A series of Black Pride workshops covering a wide variety of topics ranging from domestic violence and heath care to black youth and transgender acceptance in the black community is scheduled to take place 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, May 27, at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel at 14th and K streets, N.W.
A full list of Black Pride events can be viewed at dcblackpride.org.
The 36 annual Capital Pride celebration is set to take place June 2-12. The Capital Pride Parade will take place Saturday, June 11, and similar to past years, will begin at 23rd and P streets, N.W., travel around Dupont Circle to the 17 Street entertainment strip before ending at 14th Street, N.W., at Thomas Circle.
Also similar to past years, the Capital Pride Festival is set to take place 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., near the U.S. Capitol.
A wide variety of Capital Pride events are scheduled for the week preceding the parade and festival, including a June 1 kick-off party and panel discussion at the National Press Club; a June 5 Pride in the Park event at Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro, Md.; and a June 6 Spirituality in the Gay Community Town Hall meeting at the Hotel Palomar at 2121 P St., N.W.
A weekly “Pride Idol” singing contest, to be held every Wednesday night beginning May 11 at Cobalt bar at 17th and R Sts., N.W., is a new addition to the Capital Pride events. Organizers say a final winner in the ongoing singing contest will be selected June 8. The prize: a three-month lease for a new Saab automobile, which is being donated by Saab as part of the company’s sponsorship of Capital Pride.
A full list of Capital Pride events can be viewed at www.capitalpride.org.
These additional Pride events are set to take place in conjunction with Capital Pride and Black Pride:
• Asian Pacific Islander Pride, May 23, 6-8:30 p.m., Café Asia, 1720 I St., N.W.
• Trans Pride, June 4, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Metropolitan Community Church of D.C., 474 Ridge St., N.W.
• Latino Pride, June 10, 6-9 p.m., Town nightclub, 2009 8th St., N.W.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Director of Baltimore’s LGBT community center resigns
Craig Wiley, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) has resigned. He held the position for more than seven years and became the longest-tenured executive director in GLCCB history.
Wiley also served on the board of Centerlink: The Community of LGBT Centers. According to his bio on Centerlink, “Since joining the GLCCB he has systematically implemented expense-reduction strategies and indentified new and diverse revenue streams for the organization. Mr. Wiley has also fostered relationships with many organizational and community partners and municipal agencies, including the Baltimore City Health Department, the Baltimore Police Department, the Office of the Mayor, local colleges and universities, businesses, and nonprofits serving diverse constituencies that touch the LGBT community either directly or indirectly.”
“It is with regret that I write you to let you know Craig Wiley has stepped down as Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB),” GLCCB Board President Trevor Ankeny said in a statement. “Craig’s involvement with the GLCCB spanned more than a decade. From volunteering to serving as a board member to assuming the position of executive director, his support for the GLCCB has touched all facets of our work. In his role as executive director for the past seven years, Craig has tirelessly devoted himself to making the GLCCB a stronger institution so that we may better serve the community.”
In other Baltimore news, Trans-United Director Sandy Rawls has been named as Grand Marshall in the upcoming Baltimore Pride Parade, and Del. Mary Washington will be the Honorary Grand Marshall.
BALTIMORE OUTLOUD
Arts & Entertainment
Washington Blade’s Pride on the Pier and fireworks show returning June 8
The annual Pride on the Pier Fireworks Show presented by the Leonard-Litz Foundation will take place on Saturday, June 8 at 9 p.m.
The Washington Blade, in partnership with LURe DC and The Wharf, is excited to announce the 5th annual Pride on the Pier and fireworks show during D.C. Pride weekend on Saturday, June 8, 2024, from 2-10 p.m.
The event will include the annual Pride on the Pier Fireworks Show presented by the Leonard-Litz Foundation at 9 p.m.
Pride on the Pier extends the city’s annual celebration of LGBTQ visibility to the bustling Southwest waterfront with an exciting array of activities and entertainment for all ages. The District Pier will offer DJs, dancing, drag, and other entertainment. Alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase for those 21 and older. Local DJ’s Heat, Eletrox and Honey will perform throughout the event.
3 p.m. – Capital Pride Parade on the Big Screen
3:30 p.m. – Drag Show hosted by Cake Pop!
9 p.m. – Fireworks Show Presented by Leonard-Litz Foundation
The event is free and open to the public. The Dockmasters Building will be home to a VIP experience. To learn more and to purchase tickets go to www.prideonthepier.com/vip. VIP tickets are limited.
Event sponsors include Absolut, Buying Time, Capital Pride, DC Brau, DC Fray, Burney Wealth Management, Infinate Legacy, Leonard-Litz Foundation, Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, MISTR, NBC4, The Wharf. More information regarding activities will be released at www.PrideOnThePier.com
Maryland
Trone discusses transgender niece
Blade interviewed Md. congressman, Angela Alsobrooks last week
Editor’s note: The Washington Blade last week interviewed both U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. The full interviews with both Democratic candidates for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)’s seat will be on the Blade’s website later this week.
Maryland Congressman David Trone last week discussed his transgender niece during an interview with the Washington Blade about his U.S. Senate campaign.
Trone, who is running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), on May 1 told the Blade during a telephone interview that his niece transitioned when she was in her early 20s. Trone also noted she attended Furman University, a small, liberal arts university in Greenville, S.C.
“I was concerned about how she would be able to transition there,” said Trone.
Trone, who founded Total Wine & More, attended Furman University as an undergrad and is on the school’s board of trustees. Trone told the Blade he donated $10 million to the university to “build out their mental health capacity, which I felt was a way that she could have the best mental health care possible when she worked her way through (her) transition.”
Trone’s niece graduated from the university after she spent five years there.
“She had a great relationship with Furman,” said Trone.
Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are the leading Democrats running to succeed Cardin. The winner of the May 14 Democratic primary will face former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in November.
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
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.
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.”
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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