Local
Gay senior commits suicide after eviction
Lifelong D.C. resident’s death prompts activists to assess city services
Maurice “Twan” Coplin
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), transgender activists Earline Budd and Toni Collins, and gay activist and acting program director Greg Mims of the local social services group RAP, Inc. each took steps to help him at a time of need.
But to their shock and dismay, Maurice “Twan” Coplin, a 62-year-old gay man, took his own life on April 7, 10 days after being evicted from the Columbia Heights apartment that had been his home for more than 10 years.
Graham, who knew Coplin as a Ward 1 constituent, said he and his office worked with Coplin in the spring and early summer of 2012 to resolve an issue that could have led to his eviction.
“We thought the matter had been resolved,” Graham told the Blade.
Budd and Collins, who were friends of Coplin’s, said in an email exchange after learning of Coplin’s death that they tried their best to help him. But they said Coplin didn’t reach out to them until after his March 28 eviction landed him and his belongings on the street outside the Columbia Uptown Apartments at 1375 Fairmont St., N.W.
“I have tried to search my heart and soul in trying to figure out is there anything else that could have been done to prevent this tragedy,” Budd, an official with the local group Transgender Health Empowerment, said in an email.
Collins stated in an email to Budd and other activists on April 9 that she took Coplin into her home after he called her and asked her to pick him up on the street following the eviction. She said he stayed with her until April 2, when he told her he was going to the city’s housing department to seek help in obtaining temporary housing.
“I lost contact with him after that until the call from the detective last night informing me of his suicide,” Collins wrote.
She was referring to a call from a Montgomery County police detective who informed her that Coplin’s body was found in a hotel room in Rockville and that the death was believed to be a suicide.
A spokesperson for the Maryland State Medical Examiner said the cause of death was determined to be an alcohol and drug overdose and the manner of death was ruled a suicide. The drug was identified as oxycodone, the spokesperson said.
“We need to do something about how seniors are treated in the eviction process and resources made available at the time of eviction so that they have a place to stay and also encompass any medical or mental health issues they may have,” Collins wrote.
In a series of interviews in the weeks following Coplin’s death, people who knew him and those who took steps to help him – including Graham – told the Blade that numerous programs at D.C. government agencies and from private community organizations existed that could have provided all of the help Coplin needed.
The fact that he didn’t call on people he knew to set in motion the help and resources he needed until after the eviction raises questions about his emotional state, friends said. They also have asked how friends and family members might recognize signs of distress, even if a loved one doesn’t choose to talk about it.
“We have all these questions lingering,” said Jackie Reyes, a constituent services staffer in Graham’s D.C. Council office who worked with Graham on Coplin’s case. “Something happened that he didn’t want to talk about this,” Reyes said.
Mims said he has known Coplin since the two went to high school in D.C. Both became involved in D.C.’s gay social circles in the late 1960s, when there were few bars and gay life centered on social groups, especially in the city’s black gay community.
Mims said he only learned recently that Coplin served in the U.S. Navy before beginning a career as a hairstylist. According to Mims, Coplin’s career was cut short after he was diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s and illness prevented him from working and resulted in his going on disability.
Coplin continued to become involved in gay community activities over the years, Mims said, including participating in LGBT Pride-related events.
For at least the past 10 years, Mims said, Coplin received financial assistance for his rent through a federally funded program that provides rent subsidies through vouchers issued by the city.
Friends and others who knew him said problems with his apartment appear to have surfaced shortly after owners of the high-rise apartment building completed an extensive renovation project that some viewed as a “gentrification” effort to attract new tenants that could afford far higher rents.
In early 2012 Coplin fell behind in his rent and records from the D.C. Superior Court’s Landlord-Tenant Branch show that eviction proceedings were filed against Coplin. That’s when Graham’s office stepped in and helped Coplin navigate through the problem and catch up on his rent through city programs available to him, Graham said.
But just a few months later, according to court records, the landlord filed a new eviction proceeding against him that was unrelated to his rent payments. Instead, the eviction filing accused him of violating his lease by allegedly assaulting a woman on the premises who worked as a childcare provider for another tenant.
Court records show that the case went to trial in January of this year and a judge ruled in favor of the eviction after Coplin and witnesses for the landlord testified under oath. The records show that Coplin did not have a lawyer and represented himself.
Some who knew Coplin say they are suspicious of the motives of the landlord since the eviction proceedings took place at a time when Coplin was among the few if not the only longtime tenant remaining in the building from the days before the renovation project.
John Raftery, one of several attorneys representing Van Metre Columbia Uptown Apartments, LLC, the landlord, said Coplin admitted in court in his testimony that he committed the assault. Raftery told the Blade the building had no choice but to take steps to evict a tenant who commits an act of violence in the building.
“I think the issue in that particular building was several people had vouchers,” said Mims. “And they sort of moved them out of the building. I don’t know if gentrification was part of it or not.”
Regardless of the actual cause of the eviction, Mims and others who knew Coplin said the state of Coplin’s mental health appeared to play a role in some of Coplin’s actions near the end of his life.
“My concern was that we didn’t learn about everything until later,” Mims said. “Had he told us I would never have let him sit on the street…The thing that bothers me is I think he felt so hopeless.”
Courtney Williams, a gay official with the D.C. Office of Aging, said he didn’t know Coplin personally but learned about his case from activists. He said his office specializes in coordinating services for seniors facing problems similar to Coplin.
All people need to do is call us,” he said.
“We heard nothing about it until it actually happened,” Graham said in commenting on Coplin’s March 28 eviction. “That’s when he contacted me. And once an eviction happens it’s very hard to respond. But we did respond,” Graham said.
Graham said his office arranged for the building to put most if not all of Coplin’s possessions in storage.
“And then he vanished,” said Graham. “We couldn’t reach him anymore. And I contacted MPD and asked them if there had been a missing person’s report.
Days later Graham learned of Coplin’s suicide from Collins.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council gives first approval to amended PrEP insurance bill
Removes weakening language after concerns raised by AIDS group
The D.C. Council voted unanimously on Feb. 3 to approve a bill on its first of two required votes that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
The vote to approve the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act came immediately after the 13-member Council voted unanimously again to approve an amendment that removed language in the bill added last month by the Council’s Committee on Health that would require insurers to fully cover only one PrEP drug.
The amendment, introduced jointly by Council members Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), who first introduced the bill in February 2025, and Christina Henderson (I-At-Large), who serves as chair of the Health Committee, requires insurers to cover all U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved PrEP drugs.
Under its rules, the D.C. Council must vote twice to approve all legislation, which must be signed by the D.C. mayor and undergo a 30-day review by Congress before it takes effect as a D.C. law.
Given its unanimous “first reading” vote of approval on Feb. 3, Parker told the Washington Blade he was certain the Council would approve the bill on its second and final vote expected in about two weeks.
Among those who raised concerns about the earlier version of the bill was Carl Schmid, executive director of the D.C.-based HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, who sent messages to all 13 Council members urging them to remove the language added by the Committee on Health requiring insurers to cover just one PrEP drug.
The change made by the committee, Schmid told Council members, “would actually reduce PrEP options for D.C. residents that are required by current federal law, limit patient choice, and place D.C. behind states that have enacted HIV prevention policies designed to remain in effect regardless of any federal changes.”
Schmid told the Washington Blade that although coverage requirements for insurers are currently provided through coverage standards recommended in the U.S. Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, AIDS advocacy organizations have called on D.C. and states to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP in the event that the federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced or ended federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
“The sticking point was the language in the markup that insurers only had to cover one regimen of PrEP,” Parker told the Blade in a phone interview the night before the Council vote. “And advocates thought that moved the needle back in terms of coverage access, and I agree with them,” he said.
In anticipation that the Council would vote to approve the amendment and the underlying bill, Parker, the Council’s only gay member, added, “I think this is a win for our community. And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
During the Feb. 3 Council session, Henderson called on her fellow Council members to approve both the amendment she and Parker had introduced and the bill itself. But she did not say why her committee approved the changes that advocates say weakened the bill and that her and Parker’s amendment would undo. Schmid speculated that pressure from insurance companies may have played a role in the committee change requiring coverage of only one PrEP drug.
“My goal for advancing the ‘PrEP DC Amendment Act’ is to ensure that the District is building on the progress made in reducing new HIV infections every year,” Henderson said in a statement released after the Council vote. “On Friday, my office received concerns from advocates and community leaders about language regarding PrEP coverage,” she said.
“My team and I worked with Council member Parker, community leaders, including the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute and Whitman-Walker, and the Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking, to craft a solution that clarifies our intent and provides greater access to these life-saving drugs for District residents by reducing consumer costs for any PrEP drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” her statement concludes.
In his own statement following the Council vote, Schmid thanked Henderson and Parker for initiating the amendment to improve the bill. “This will provide PrEP users with the opportunity to choose the best drug that meets their needs,” he said. “We look forward to the bill’s final reading and implementation.”
Maryland
4th Circuit dismisses lawsuit against Montgomery County schools’ pronoun policy
Substitute teacher Kimberly Polk challenged regulation in 2024
A federal appeals court has ruled Montgomery County Public Schools did not violate a substitute teacher’s constitutional rights when it required her to use students’ preferred pronouns in the classroom.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision it released on Jan. 28 ruled against Kimberly Polk.
The policy states that “all students have the right to be referred to by their identified name and/or pronoun.”
“School staff members should address students by the name and pronoun corresponding to the gender identity that is consistently asserted at school,” it reads. “Students are not required to change their permanent student records as described in the next section (e.g., obtain a court-ordered name and/or new birth certificate) as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their identified name. To the extent possible, and consistent with these guidelines, school personnel will make efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the student’s transgender status.”
The Washington Post reported Polk, who became a substitute teacher in Montgomery County in 2021, in November 2022 requested a “religious accommodation, claiming that the policy went against her ‘sincerely held religious beliefs,’ which are ‘based on her understanding of her Christian religion and the Holy Bible.’”
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in January 2025 dismissed Polk’s lawsuit that she filed in federal court in Beltsville. Polk appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit.
District of Columbia
Norton hailed as champion of LGBTQ rights
D.C. congressional delegate to retire after 36 years in U.S. House
LGBTQ rights advocates reflected on D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s longstanding advocacy and support for LGBTQ rights in Congress following her decision last month not to run for re-election this year.
Upon completing her current term in office in January 2027, Norton, a Democrat, will have served 18 two-year terms and 36 years in her role as the city’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House.
LGBTQ advocates have joined city officials and community leaders in describing Norton as a highly effective advocate for D.C. under the city’s limited representation in Congress where she could not vote on the House floor but stood out in her work on House committees and moving, powerful speeches on the House floor.
“During her more than three decades in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton has been a champion for the District of Columbia and the LGBTQ+ community,” said David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, the D.C.-based national LGBTQ advocacy organization.
“When Congress blocked implementation of D.C.’s domestic partnership registry, Norton led the fight to allow it to go into effect,” Stacey said. “When President Bush tried to ban marriage equality in every state and the District, Norton again stood up in opposition. And when Congress blocked HIV prevention efforts, Norton worked to end that interference in local control,” he said.
In reflecting the sentiment of many local and national LGBTQ advocates familiar with Norton’s work, Stacy added, “We have been lucky to have such an incredible champion. As her time in Congress comes to an end, we honor her extraordinary impact in the nation’s capital and beyond by standing together in pride and gratitude.”
Norton has been among the lead co-sponsors and outspoken supporters of LGBTQ rights legislation introduced in Congress since first taking office, including the currently pending Equality Act, which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Activists familiar with Norton’s work also point out that she has played a lead role in opposing and helping to defeat anti-LGBTQ legislation. In 2018, Norton helped lead an effort to defeat a bill called the First Amendment Defense Act introduced by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which Norton said included language that could “gut” D.C.’s Human Rights Act’s provisions banning LGBTQ discrimination.
Norton pointed to a provision in the bill not immediately noticed by LGBTQ rights organizations that would define D.C.’s local government as a federal government entity and allow potential discrimination against LGBTQ people based on a “sincerely held religious belief.”
“This bill is the latest outrageous Republican attack on the District, focusing particularly on our LGBT community and the District’s right to self-government,” Norton said shortly after the bill was introduced. “We will not allow Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community under the guise of religious liberty,” she said. Records show supporters have not secured the votes to pass it in several congressional sessions.
In 2011, Norton was credited with lining up sufficient opposition to plans by some Republican lawmakers to attempt to overturn D.C.’s same-sex marriage law, that the Council passed and the mayor signed in 2010.
In 2015, Norton also played a lead role opposing attempts by GOP members of Congress to overturn another D.C. law protecting LGBTQ students at religious schools, including the city’s Catholic University, from discrimination such as the denial of providing meeting space for an LGBTQ organization.
More recently, in 2024 Norton again led efforts to defeat an attempt by Republican House members to amend the D.C. budget bill that Congress must pass to eliminate funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and to prohibit the city from using its funds to enforce the D.C. Human Rights Act in cases of discrimination against transgender people.
“The Republican amendment that would prohibit funds from being used to enforce anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination regulations and the amendment to defund the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs are disgraceful attempts, in themselves, to discriminate against D.C.’s LGBTQ+ community while denying D.C. residents the limited governance over their local affairs to which they are entitled,” Norton told the Washington Blade.
In addition to pushing for LGBTQ supportive laws and opposing anti-LGBTQ measures Norton has spoken out against anti-LGBTQ hate crimes and called on the office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. in 2020 to more aggressively prosecute anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.
“There is so much to be thankful for Eleanor Holmes Norton’s many years of service to all the citizens and residents of the District of Columbia,” said John Klenert, a member of the board of the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “Whether it was supporting its LGBTQ+ people for equal rights, HIV health issues, home rule protection, statehood for all 700,000 people, we could depend on her,” he said.
Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, called Norton a “staunch” LGBTQ community ally and champion for LGBTQ supportive legislation in Congress.
“For decades, Congresswoman Norton has marched in the annual Capital Pride Parade, showing her pride and using her platform to bring voice and visibility in our fight to advance civil rights, end discrimination, and affirm the dignity of all LGBTQ+ people” Bos said. “We will be forever grateful for her ongoing advocacy and contributions to the LGBTQ+ movement.”
Howard Garrett, president of D.C.’s Capital Stonewall Democrats, called Norton a “consistent and principled advocate” for equality throughout her career. “She supported LGBTQ rights long before it was politically popular, advancing nondiscrimination protections and equal protection under the law,” he said.
“Eleanor was smart, tough, and did not suffer fools gladly,” said Rick Rosendall, former president of the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. “But unlike many Democratic politicians a few decades ago who were not reliable on LGBTQ issues, she was always right there with us,” he said. “We didn’t have to explain our cause to her.”
Longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein said he first met Norton when she served as chair of the New York City Human Rights Commission. “She got her start in the civil rights movement and has always been a brilliant advocate for equality,” Rosenstein said.
“She fought for women and for the LGBTQ community,” he said. “She always stood strong with us in all the battles the LGBTQ community had to fight in Congress. I have been honored to know her, thank her for her lifetime of service, and wish her only the best in a hard-earned retirement.”
Netflix’s ‘The Boyfriend’ is more than a dating show
Snow, ice, and politics: what is (and isn’t) happening
50 years later, it’s still worth a return trip to ‘Grey Gardens’
Marc Shaiman reflects on musical success stories
Human Rights Watch sharply criticizes US in annual report
Unconventional homes becoming more popular
Out dancer on Alvin Ailey’s stint at Warner Theatre
LGBTQ Minnesotans speak out amid ICE crackdowns
D.C. Council urged to improve ‘weakened’ PrEP insurance bill
