Local
Md. state senator says casino firm paid for NGLTF gambling mailer
LGBT advocacy group says ballot measure on gambling will hurt marriage equality vote
A state senator in Maryland told the Washington Post that the Penn National Gaming company paid more than $340,000 for a mailing that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force sent to Maryland households in August opposing a bill to expand gambling in the state.
According to the Post, Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georgeās County), who voted against Marylandās same-sex marriage law, said a Penn National vice president told him the casino company gave the money for the mailer to the DCI Group, a D.C. based consulting firm. The Post reported that Muse said the DCI Group then gave the money to the Task Force.
At that time, Monique Hall, a member of the NGLTF Action Fund board of directors, also served as a vice president for the DCI Group, a Republican-leaning consulting firm. Sources familiar with DCI Group told the Blade in August that DCI had been retained by one of the Maryland casinos to campaign against the gambling bill.
Hall, DCI Group, and Penn National have not responded to calls from the Blade seeking comment. NGLTF spokesperson Inga Sarda-Sorenson could not be immediately reached for comment.
The gambling bill calls for allowing a sixth casino to operate in the state in Prince Georgeās county and would allow casinos approved for five existing sites in Maryland as well as the one in P.G. County to operate table games. The existing sites are currently required to operate only slot machines.
Casino owners involved with the five existing sites, including Penn National, are vehemently opposed to allowing a new casino to open in P.G. County, saying the new casino would take away customers from their locations. They have spent millions of dollars on TV commercials calling on voters to vote no on the gambling expansion measure on the November ballot.
At the time it sent out its mailing in August, NGLTF said the gambling bill, introduced by Gov. Martin OāMalley, would be detrimental to efforts to save the stateās same-sex marriage law, which will come before voters in a referendum in the November election.
NGLTF noted that if the Maryland General Assembly approved the gambling bill ā which it did in late August — it would come before voters in a referendum in November at the same time that the stateās marriage equality law appears on the ballot in a separate referendum.
The group noted that a gambling referendum would likely attract a larger than usual number of conservative voters to the polls who oppose both gambling and gay marriage. This would make it more difficult for marriage equality advocates to persuade voters to cast their ballot in support of same-sex marriage, the Task Force argued.
āWe do not have a position on gambling, but rather on marriage equality,ā NGLTF Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper said in a statement released in August.
āThe purpose of the marriage equality mailer, funded by the Task Force Action Fund, which like other nonprofits includes many donors, some named and some who are not, is to get marriage equality over the finish line,ā Nipper said. āIt was sent to a portion of registered Democratic households in Maryland.ā
NGLT has declined to disclose who paid for the expensive mailer, saying only that it was funded by contributors to its Action Fund, which gets involved in political campaigns in support of LGBT equality.
Josh Levin, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the organization leading the effort to uphold the same-sex marriage law, said the groupās internal polling has shown that a gambling referendum would have no impact on the marriage equality vote.
āWeāve been looking at this carefully for a long time and have yet to see any data that suggest there are any voters who would come out in the election because of the gaming initiative who were not already going to be out for a presidential election or to vote on the question of marriage equality,ā he told the Blade.
However, at least one pollster, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a gambling referendum could bring out more conservative voters than usual, despite the relatively high turnout expected for a presidential election.
Gay Republican strategist Tom Synhorst, the founder and chair of the DCI Group, also did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment on what specific role DCI is playing in the campaign to oppose the gambling bill or whether it acted as a conduit for transferring funds for the NGLTF mailer from a gaming company.
The DCI website describes it as a public affairs company that āHelps corporations navigate their most challenging political, legislative and regulatory problems anywhere in the world.ā
District of Columbia
Weekend brings two shootings in U Street, Dupont Circle areas
Man dies after incident at Desperados
A man was shot to death shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, inside the Desperados Burgers & Bar at 1342 U St., N.W., which is located on the same block a short distance away from the LGBTQ nightclub Bunker D.C. and around the corner less than a block away from the recently opened LGBTQ bar Crush on 14th Street, N.W.
The incident prompted Bunker to post on its Facebook page a message saying its security team quickly ushered patrons standing outside to enter the club and as a precautionary measure prevented patrons from leaving until it was deemed safe to do so.
A D.C. police statement identifies the shooting victim as Kenneth Goins, 43, of Salisbury, Md. The statement says officers on patrol in the 1300 block of U Street, N.W. heard gunshots at about 1:12 a.m. and immediately arrived at Desperados to investigate the incident.
āOfficers located a man inside with multiple gunshot wounds,ā the statement says. āDespite all life saving efforts, the victim was pronounced dead on the scene,ā it says. Neither the statement nor a police incident report pertaining to the shooting provides a description of the person who committed the shooting nor discloses whether any of the customers inside the restaurant and bar witnessed the shooting.
The statement says the police Homicide Branch is investigating the shooting and urges anyone with knowledge of the incident to call police at 202-272-9099. Like all homicide cases, it says the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for a homicide committed in the District.
āThere was a shooting incident on U ST. N.W., just 4 doors down from BUNKER,ā the Bunker Facebook post says. āOur security team promptly responded, ensuring the safety of everyone by ushering them inside for cover,ā it says. āCurrently, the courageous police officers are outside, handling the situation and working diligently to maintain a secure environment for our guests,ā the message continues.
āAs a responsible establishment, we strongly prioritize your safety, and as a precautionary measure, we will not permit anyone to exit the building until we deem it safe to do so,ā the posting says. āRest assured, we, as the owners, take this matter very seriously, and your safety remains our highest priority.ā
The U Street shooting at Desperados Burgers & Bar took place a little over two hours after six people were shot and wounded outside the Decades nightclub at 1219 Connecticut Ave., N.W. near Dupont Circle and near several gay bars on P Street and 17th Street in the Dupont Circle area. Police said none of those who were shot suffered life-threatening injuries
A separate police statement says with the help of several witnesses, police identified and arrested Rennwel Mantock, 29, of Hyattsville, Md., in connection with the shooting on charges of Assault with Intent to Kill, Possession of Unregistered Ammunition, and Possession of an Unregistered Firearm. The statement says a gun belonging to Mantock was recovered on the scene. Court records show a judge has ordered him to be held without bond until a May 7 preliminary hearing.
āThe detectivesā investigation determined Mantock opened fire after employees removed him from a nightclub following a dispute,ā according to the statement.
A police arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court says Mantock told police at the time he was apprehended on the scene that he was dancing with a woman at the club when a security guard ordered him to leave and then āgrabbed him by the neck and punched him in the face right before dragging him down the steps.ā The Decades club states on its website that it has several floors with multiple bars.
According to the arrest affidavit, Mantock told police that one of the security officials punched him in the face again and threw him to the ground after dragging him out the door. It says Mantock āstated that he then pulled out his gun and started shootingā because āhe was very upset about the security punching him in the face,ā adding that he ābegan firing at the Decadesā security.ā
The affidavit says five of the six people shot were Decades employees.
Gay former Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Mike Silverstein, who lives near where the shooting took place, said Decades is not known as a place that LGBTQ people patronize but said the surrounding neighborhood is home to many LGBTQ residents and draws many LGBTQ visitors.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday signed a bill that seeks to combat efforts to ban books from state libraries.
House Bill 785, also known as the Freedom to Read Act, would establish a state policy āthat local school systems operate their school library media programs consistent with certain standards; requiring each local school system to develop a policy and procedures to review objections to materials in a school library media program; prohibiting a county board of education from dismissing, demoting, suspending, disciplining, reassigning, transferring, or otherwise retaliating against certain school library media program personnel for performing their job duties consistent with certain standards.ā
Moore on Thursday also signed House Bill 1386, which GLSEN notes will ādevelop guidelines for an anti-bias training program for school employees.ā
District of Columbia
Catching up with the asexuals and aromantics of D.C.
Exploring identity and finding community
There was enough commotion in the sky at the Blossom Kite Festival that bees might have been pollinating the Washington Monument. I despaired of quickly finding the Asexuals and Aromantics of the Mid-AtlanticāI couldnāt make out a single asexual flag among the kites up above. I thought to myself that if it had been the Homosexuals of the Mid-Atlantic I wouldāve had my gaydar to rely on. Was there even such a thing as ace-dar?
As it turned out, the asexual kite the group had meant to fly was a little too pesky to pilot. āHave you ever used a stunt kite?ā Bonnie, the event organizer asked me. āI bought one. It looked really cool. But I canāt make it work.ā She sighed. āI canāt get the thing six feet off the ground.ā The group hardly seemed to care. There was caramel popcorn and cookies, board games and head massages, a game of charades with more than its fair share of PokĆ©mon. The kites up above might as well have been a coincidental sideshow. Nearly two dozen folks filtered in and out of the picnic throughout the course of the day.
But I counted myself lucky that Bonnie picked me out of the crowd. If thereās such a thing as ace-dar, it eludes asexuals too. The online forum for all matters asexual, AVEN, or the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, is filled with laments: āI donāt think itās possible.ā āDude, I wish I had an ace-dar.ā āIf it exists, I donāt have it.ā āI think this is just like a broken clock is right twice a day type thing.ā What seems to be a more common experience is meeting someone you just click withāonly to find out later that theyāre asexual. A few of the folks I met described how close childhood friends of theirs likewise came out in adulthood, a phenomenon that will be familiar to many queer people. But it is all the more astounding for asexuals to find each other this way, given that asexual people constitute 1.7% of sexual minorities in America, and so merely .1% of the population at large.
To help other asexuals identify you out in the world, some folks wear a black ring on their middle finger, much as an earring on the right ear used to signify homosexuality in a less welcoming era. The only problem? The swinger communityāwith its definite non-asexualityāhas also adopted the signal. āItās still a thing,ā said Emily Karp. āSo some people wear their ace rings just to the ace meet-ups.ā Karp has been the primary coordinator for the Asexuals and Aromantics of the Mid-Atlantic (AAMA) since 2021, and a member of the meet-up for a decade. She clicked with the group immediately. After showing up for a Fourth of July potluck in the mid-afternoon, she ended up staying past midnight. āWe played Cards against Humanity, which was a very, very fun thing to do. It’s funny in a way thatās different than if we were playing with people that weren’t ace. Some of the cards are implying, like, the person would be motivated by sex in a way that’s absurd, because we know they aren’t.ā
Where so many social organizations withered during the pandemic, the AAMA flourished. Today, it boasts almost 2,000 members on meetup.com. Karp hypothesized that all the social isolation gave people copious time to reflect on themselves, and that the ease of meeting up online made it convenient as a way for people to explore their sexual identity and find community. Online events continue to make up about a third of the groupās meet-ups. The format allows people to participate who live farther out from D.C. And it allows people to participate at their preferred level of comfort: while many people participate much as they would at an in-person event, some prefer to watch anonymously, video feed off. Others prefer to participate in the chat box, though not in spoken conversation.
A recent online event was organized for a discussion of Rhaina Cohenās book, āThe Other Significant Others,ā published in February. Cohenās book discusses friendship as an alternative model for āsignificant others,ā apart from the romantic model that is presupposed to be both the center and goal of peopleās lives. The AAMA group received the book with enthusiasm. āIt literally re-wired my brain,ā as one person put it. People discussed the importance of friendship to their lives, and their difficulties in a world that de-prioritized friendship. āI can break up with a friend over text, and we donāt owe each other a conversation,ā one said. But there was some disagreement when it came to the bookās discussion of romantic relationships. āIt relegates ace relationships to the āfriendā or āplatonicā category, to the normie-reader,ā one person wrote in the chat. āOur whole ace point is that we can have equivalent life relationships to allo people, simply without sex.ā (āAlloā is shorthand for allosexual or alloromantic, people who do experience sexual or romantic attraction.)
The folks of the AAMA do not share a consensus on the importance of romantic relationships to their lives. Some asexuals identify as aromantic, some donāt. And some aromantics donāt identify as asexual, either. The āAromanticā in the title of the group is a relatively recent addition. In 2017, the group underwent a number of big changes. The group was marching for the first time in D.C. Pride, participating in the LGBTQ Creating Change conference, and developing a separate advocacy and activism arm. Moreover, the group had become large enough that discussions were opened up into forming separate chapters for D.C., Central Virginia, and Baltimore. During those discussions, the group leadership realized that aromantic people who also identified as allosexual didnāt really have a space to call their own. āWe were thinking it would be good to probably change the name of the Meetup group,ā Emily said. āBut we were not 100% sure. Because [there were] like 1,000 people in the group, and theyāre all aces, and itās like, āDo you really want to add a non-ace person?āā The group leadership decided to err on the side of inclusion. āYou know, being less gatekeep-y was better. It gave them a place to go ā because there was nowhere else to go.ā
The DC LGBT Center now sponsors a support group for both asexuals and aromantics, but it was formed just a short while ago, in 2022. The founder of the group originally sought out the centerās bisexual support group, since they didnāt have any resources for ace folks. āThe organizer said, you know what, why donāt we just start an ace/aro group? Like, why donāt we just do it?ā He laughed. āI was impressed with the turnout, the first call. Itās almost like we tapped into, like, a dam. You poke a hole in the dam, and the water just rushes out.ā The group has a great deal of overlap with the AAMA, but it is often a personās first point of contact with the asexual and aromantic community in D.C., especially since the group focuses on exploring what it means to be asexual. Someone new shows up at almost every meeting. āAnd Iām so grateful that I did,ā one member said. āI kind of showed up and just trauma dumped, and everyone was really supportive.ā
Since the ace and aro community is so small, even within the broader queer community, ace and aro folks often go unrecognized. To the chagrin of many, the White House will write up fact sheets about the LGBTQI+ community, which is odd, given that when the āIā is added to the acronym, the āAā is usually added too. OKCupid has 22 genders and 12 orientations on its dating website, but āaromanticā is not one of them ā presumably because aromantic people donāt want anything out of dating. And since asexuality and aromanticism are defined by the absence of things, it can seem to others like ace and aro people are āmissing something.ā One member of the LGBT center support group had an interesting response. āThe space is filled byā¦ whatever else!ā they said. āWeāre not doing a relationship āwithout that thing.ā Weāre doing a full scale relationship ā as it makes sense to us.ā
CJ Higgins is a postdoctoral fellow with the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
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