‘Yes’ from Conway puts measure over the top
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.lchibbaro@washblade.com
At least 23 members of Maryland’s 47-member State Senate have publiclydisclosed they will vote for a same-sex marriage bill next week, drawing at-tention to a senator from Baltimore who promised she would cast the decid-ing vote in favor of the bill if supporters were just one vote short.Twenty-four votes are needed to pass legislation in the State Senate, andLGBT advocates monitoring the marriage bill say they are reasonably certainthat Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore City) will fulfill her private commit-ment to vote “yes” if 23 of her colleagues also vote for the measure.The Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee was expected to vote onThursday to approve the bill and send it to the full Senate for debate and afloor vote next week.Earlier this week, Conway told the Baltimore Sun she was still strugglingover which way to vote on the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Pro-tection Act, which calls for allowing lesbian and gay couples to marry in
localnews
Whitman-Walkerrebounding aftereconomy took tollon donors, grants.
PAGE 2
nationalnews
Anti-LGBT conservativesturned out for last week’sCPAC gathering to talkmarriage and ‘Don’t Ask.’
PAGES 12 & 14
the lgbtq community news source
washingtonblade.com • vol. 42, issue 07 • february 18, 2011 • Still sharp after 40 years
Longtime organizer seekssupport for 2012 event
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.lchibbaro@washblade.com
Veteran lesbian activist Robin Tyler of Los Angelessays she’s talking to LGBT leaders and organizationsacross the country about the possibility of a nationalmarch on Washington for equality in May 2012.In a statement released to the Blade last week, Tylersaid she first proposed the idea of a 2012 LGBT marchin the weeks following the election of Barack Obama aspresident in 2008. Tyler has helped to organize LGBTWashington marches in 1979, 1987, 1993 and 2000.She said an LGBT march on Washington held in Oc-tober 2009 and a series of street protests during thepast year by the direct action group GetEqual playeda key role in what she called the few LGBT advancesunder the Obama administration, including the repeal of“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She was not involved in organiz-ing the 2009 march.“The fact is, without continuous protests that GetE-qual, Dan Choi, Robin McGehee and others did, I be-lieve, as so many others do, that DADT would not havebeen struck down,” Tyler said.She said the main objection by some activists toholding another national march is it would take awayresources and divert attention from needed LGBT activ-ism in the states. At the time the 2009 LGBT march wasbeing planned, skeptics said it would have little impact
Md. senator key to marriage vote
Another LGBT march on Washington?
socialagenda
PFLAG official on newly formed Loudoun support group for teens.
PAGE 24 Continues on page 18 Continues on page 16
washingtonblade.com
Former Army Lt. Dan Choi speaks out at CPAC.
VIDEO@ WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
black andpositive
Local men talkabout their newcampaign to fightHIV in Washington.
PAGE 23
The last national LGBT march on Washington was held in October of 2009 with attendance estimated between 30,000 and 100,000.
Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key
Maryland Sen.
JoanCarter Conway
Hundreds rallyfor marriage inAnnapolis
, Page 18
Result of Thursday’scommittee vote
,washingtonblade.com
LOCALNEWS
2 washingtonblade.com • february 18, 2011
Alston House theaterbenefit called a success
A Black History Month outing at D.C.’s Studio The-ater and a post-theater reception at the nearby PlaybillCaé on Feb. 13 served as a “successul” benet orthe Wanda Alston House or LGBT homeless youth, ac-cording to Alston House ocial Brian Watson.The Alston House, named ater the late D.C. lesbianactivist and city ocial Wanda Alston, provides hous-ing and supportive services to homeless LGBT youth,“most o whom have been abandoned or kicked out otheir homes because o their identity,” according to anannouncement promoting the benet.The D.C. non-prot organization Transgender HealthEmpowerment created the Alston House and operatesit through unding provided, in part, by the city andthrough private contributions.Among those attending the benet were D.C. Coun-cil member Sekou Biddle (D-At-Large), who is runningto retain his seat in an upcoming special election; andthree candidates competing against Biddle or the seat— ormer Ward 5 Council member Vincent Orange andcandidates Jacque Patterson and Joshua Lopez.Jerey Richardson, who was named earlier thismonth by Mayor Vincent Gray as director o the city’sOce o GLBT Aairs, also attended.Others attending included gay activists Phil Pan-nell, Rick Rosendall, and Kurt Vorndran, who servedas hosts o the event.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
GLOV elects
new leaders
Members o Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence(GLOV), a D.C. group that monitors anti-LGBT hatecrimes, elected A.J. Singletary as the group’s chairand Hassan Naveed as vice chair during GLOV’s an-nual meeting on Feb. 10.Singletary and Naveed, who ran unopposed andwere elected by acclamation, succeed Kelly Pickardand Joe Montoni, who served as the organization’s co-chairs during the past year.At Singletary’s recommendation and with Naveedin agreement, members voted earlier in the meeting tochange the leadership structure rom two co-chairs withequal responsibilities to a chair and vice chair system.Singletary, an Arkansas native, says he’s been aD.C. resident since 2008 and has been active withGLOV or the past three years. Naveed said he movedto D.C. last year rom Santa Barbara, Cali., where heworked with an anti-LGBT violence group at the Uni-versity o Caliornia at Santa Barbara.GLOV is a project o the D.C. Center or the LGBTCommunity, which has oces and meeting spaceat 1318 U St., N.W. GLOV’s mission, according to astatement on its website, is to work to reduce violenceagainst LGBT people through community outreach,education and monitoring o incidents o anti-LGBThate crimes. The group also assists victims o anti-LGBT violence and participates in the training o D.C.police ocers on LGBT-related issues.Singletary said his objectives or GLOV in 2011 in-clude expanding its outreach to lesbians and minori-ties within the LGBT community and continuing to workwith the police department, the mayor’s oce and theCity Council to improve reporting o anti-LGBT violenceand developing strategies to reduce hate violenceagainst LGBT people. He said GLOV would continueto participate in police training on anti-LGBT violence.He also called or GLOV to develop its own report onhate crimes targeting LGBT people in the District. Thepolice department’s annual report on hate crimes hasshown that the highest number o such crimes targetLGBT people. But activists have long complained thatthe police report does not refect the true number oanti-LGBT hate crimes, which they believe is ar higherthan the ocially reported gure.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Restructuring credited withWhitman-Walker revenue gains
The Whitman-Walker Clinic’s ability to operate witha positive cash fow last year or the rst time in nearly10 years – and its expectation o remaining in goodnancial shape or the oreseeable uture – is due toits transormation rom a volunteer-based AIDS servicegroup to a ull-service community health center, ac-cording to executive director Don Blanchon.In a brieng or the Washington Blade, Blanchondisplayed charts and graphs showing what he calleda dramatic change in the Clinic’s sources o revenue.At a time when other community clinics providingservices to the LGBT community and other communi-ties are acing nancial hardship due to diminishinggovernment unding and a drop in private donations,Whitman-Walker has become ar less reliant on bothgovernment unds and revenue rom private donors,Blanchon said.He noted that in 2005, Whitman-Walker received51.5 percent o its total revenue rom governmentgrants. That same year, the Clinic received 38.4 per-cent o its revenue rom undraising eorts seekingcontributions rom the public or businesses. Just 8.7percent o its revenue came rom third-party entitiessuch as patient health insurance carriers or patientscovered by Medicaid, Blanchon said.In 2010, ater the Clinic completed its transorma-tion into a health center, 21.1 percent o its revenuecame rom third-party entities, with many more clientscovered by private health insurance or Medicaid. Henoted that 31.5 percent o the Clinic’s revenue in 2010came rom its operation o a pharmacy on its premises.At the same time, its revenue rom governmentgrants dropped to 15.8 percent o total revenue, andrevenue rom private undraising dropped to 15.8 per-cent o total revenue.According to Blanchon, Whitman-Walker continuesto rely on private donors and looks orward to its an-nual D.C. AIDS Walk undraiser in October. But he saidthe new structure decreases the Clinic’s reliance ongovernment and private donor revenue at a time whenthe national recession has orced government agen-cies and many donors to drastically cut back on givingmoney to charitable groups like Whitman-Walker.As a nancially stable institution, compared to itsnear nancial collapse ve years ago, the Clinic is nowtaking on more patients in need, especially low-incomepatients with HIV, Blanchon said. At the same time, it isseeing a growing number o LGBT patients who don’thave HIV but preer to use Whitman-Walker as their pri-mary care provider, he said.Data that Blanchon pointed to or 2010 show that theClinic saw about 13,000 patients that year, 22 percento whom were HIV positive. Although the total numbero HIV patients appears to be dropping, he noted that60 percent o all medical visits to the Clinic in 2010were HIV-related, showing that HIV remains the mainarea o service or the Clinic.The 2010 data show that 49 percent o all patients sel-identiy as being LGBT; 69 percent were male, 29 percentemale, and 3 percent transgender. In terms o ethnicity,47 percent were black, 35 percent white, 15 percent La-tino, and 3 percent alling into another category.“We began this journey a little more than ve yearsago and it has not been without its hardship, sacrice orpublic debate,” Blanchon said. “Through it all our boardo directors, employees, volunteers, donors and publicand private unders remained steadast to our mission ocaring, especially our longstanding commitment to theLGBT community and persons living with HIV/AIDS.”
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Police seek help
identifying body
U.S. Park Police are asking the public or help inidentiying the body o a man ound in a wooded areao o Branch Avenue and the Suitland Parkway whowas wearing our rings on his let hand and multiplenecklaces.Park Police spokesperson Sgt. David Schlossersaid investigators have no specic inormation to indi-cate the man was gay or transgendered, but they haveyet to conrm what his sexual orientation was.The man’s body was ound Feb. 6 near where BranchAvenue and the Suitland Parkway intersect in Oxon Hill,Md., just over the D.C.-Prince George’s County line,according to a police statement. He is described as ablack male over the age o 45, with a light complexion.The Maryland State Medical Examiner’s oce said anautopsy ound no evidence o oul play and said thedeath appears to have been due to natural causes.“He was wearing our rings on his let hand and mul-tiple necklaces around his neck,” a Park Police state-ment says. “He may have been homeless and mayhave walked with a limp,” the statement says.Photos o his jewelry are available on the Park Policewebsite at uspppressroom.blogspot.com. Anyone withinormation that might help authorities identiy the manshould contact Park Police Det. Freeman at 202-610-8760.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
D.C. Council hopeuls and several LGBT activists, including
Earline Budd
, turned out or a beneft or the Wanda Alston House on Feb. 13.
Washington Blade photo by Michael Key
february 18, 2011 • washingtonblade.com 3
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