Local
Fenty urged to invalidate award to anti-gay group
6 Council members say mayor’s apology isn’t enough
Six members of the D.C. City Council and seven LGBT-supportive organizations have signed a petition calling on Mayor Adrian Fenty to invalidate a certificate of appreciation he awarded to the leader of the anti-gay group Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays.
The mayor’s office has issued an apology for what it said was a “staff error” that led to the award being mistakenly issued last November to PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs for her “dedication, commitment and outstanding contributions” to the group.
The petition says its signers appreciate Fenty’s acknowledgment that the award was a mistake. But it says further action by the mayor is needed.
“This mistake has empowered an anti-gay organization to increase its fundraising and to legitimize itself in ways it would not have otherwise been able to,” it says.
“PFOX believes that homosexuality is a mental disorder that needs to be cured by ‘reparative therapy,’” says the petition. “Not only is this harmful to young people struggling to understand their sexuality, but every major medical, psychological, and educational association in America says it is wrong, ineffective, and dangerous.”
The Council members who added their names to the petition are Michael Brown (D-At Large), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), and Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7).
Also adding their names to the document were gay Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jack Jacobson and four gay elected officials from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. They include Rich Madaleno and Anne Kaiser of the Maryland House of Delegates, Adam Ebbin of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Patrick Wojahn of the College Park, Md., City Council. Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff also signed on.
“It is incredibly important for Mayor Fenty to make it clear that PFOX doesn’t have the support of the District of Columbia,” the petition says. “To do that, he must invalidate the certificate of appreciation and publicly condemn PFOX for its policies that undermine the dignity of LGBT people and threaten the mental and physical health of the most vulnerable of our community.”
It adds, “We find this course of action to be necessary and our names below indicate our formal request for the mayor to act affirmatively to bring this situation to a prompt and meaningful end.”
The organizations signing the petition include Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays National; Metro D.C. PFLAG; Trevor Project; Americans for Democratic Action; Greater Washington Americans for Democratic Action; and the Capital Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Mafara Hobson, a spokesperson for the mayor, said last week that the mayor’s office had not received the petition on May 12, when gay activist Lane Hudson said he planned to deliver it.
Hudson told the Blade he e-mailed the petition to the mayor’s office on that day through a section of the D.C. government web site that invites the public to submit comments to the mayor. Hudson said he decided to submit it through the web site rather than personally deliver it because the site is a designated way for the public to communicate with the mayor.
Hobson could not be reached by mid-week to confirm whether someone from the mayor’s office retrieved the petition from the web site.
Hudson, who said he was among a small group of local activists to start the petition effort through Facebook, said most of the organizations signing the document were approached because they support LGBT people likely to be negatively affected by groups like PFOX.
He noted that the Trevor Project, for example, works to prevent LGBT teen suicide. LGBT activists have said the “reparative therapy” programs advocated by PFOX have been shown to harm self-esteem among LGBT youth, putting them at greater risk for depression and suicide.
Hudson said organizers of the petition did not immediately hear back from all D.C. Council members approached to add their names.
A spokesperson for gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At Large), whose name wasn’t on the petition that was submitted to Fenty’s office, said Catania was not asked to sign the document.
“Council member Catania was not asked to sign this petition,” said Ben Young, Catania’s chief of staff. “But rest assured that he believes PFOX is a reprehensible organization.”
Hudson, who is supporting D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s candidacy for mayor, noted that he didn’t ask Gray to sign the petition because doing so would give it the appearance of a partisan political effort.
“I didn’t want to put him in the position to look like this is a political move on his part, because this is about more than politics,” he said.
Gray issued a statement calling the mayor’s certificate of appreciation for the PFOX leader an “embarrassment” to the city and an insult to the LGBT community.
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.
Maryland
Christian Siriano to serve as grand marshal of Annapolis Pride Parade
Fashion designer is an Annapolis native
BY JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | He’s conquered fashion week. His designs have slayed the red carpet during award season. And now Christian Siriano is coming home.
The Annapolis native will serve as grand marshal and keynote speaker June 1 for the annual Annapolis Pride Parade and Festival, which is a major coup as the event enters its fourth year.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
As You Are bar closes temporarily, citing problems with building
Shutdown comes two months after fundraising appeal brought in $170,000
As You Are, the LGBTQ café and bar located in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill near the Eastern Market Metro station, has announced on its Instagram page that problems associated with its building at 500 8th St., S.E., forced it to “temporarily” close on April 8.
“As you may be aware, As You Are’s location in Eastern Market has been closed since April 8, when we began to have concerns about the physical condition of the building,” the Instagram message states. “We worked quickly to alert our landlord, and they have assessed the building with their engineers,” the message says.
“We understand that certain repairs need to be made to ensure the safety of our staff, patrons, and community,” the message concludes.
In one of two more recent videos posted on Instagram on April 17 and 26, As You Are co-owners Jo McDaniel and Rachel Pike said they did not have any update on when they can reopen. “The engineers and contractors have all come into the space, and we’re just waiting on a plan and a timeline from our landlord,” McDaniel said in the video.
Pike mentioned in one of the videos that As You Are has a Venmo app set up, and said they appreciate the support they have been receiving from the community. McDaniel added, “We’re really interested in supporting our team through this, as this is an unexpected loss of income for all of us.”
McDaniel didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for a further update on where things stand with the building repair project and the specific nature of the problems with the building. An earlier message posted on the As You Are website said, “Heavy rain damaged the back wall of our building, and we are closed to assess and repair.”
The message added, “Regular updates and ways to support can be found on our Instagram page @asyouaredc.”
The April 8 shutdown came a little over two months after As You Are issued a GoFundMe appeal on Feb. 5 seeking emergency financial support to prevent it from closing in February due to a $150,000 debt. In a display of strong community support, its $150,000 fundraising goal was reached in less than a week. By the following week, the GoFundMe appeal had pulled in more than $170,000 from more than 3,000 individual donations.
Many of the donors left messages on the GoFundMe page for As You Are expressing their strong support for the bar and café, saying it served as a uniquely supportive space for all members of the LGBTQ community.
In the GoFundMe message, McDaniel and Pike said their goal in opening their business in March 2022 was to offer community center type programming beyond just a bar and café.
“AYA is a café, bar and dance floor that hosts diverse programming nearly every night of the week, including social sport leagues, Queer youth socials, weekly karaoke, book clubs, open mics, Queer author events, dance parties, and much more,” the two said in their message.
The building’s owner and the As You Are landlord, Rueben Bajaj, who is the principal operator of the Bethesda, Md., based real estate firm White Star Investments, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The Washington Post reported that he contributed $500 to the As You Are GoFundMe appeal, saying, “I personally want to see As You Are succeed.”
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