AUGUST 05 2011 VOLUME 42 ISSUE 31 •
OUR COMMUNITY, OUR STORIES SINCE 1969
• WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
‘There are still goodpeople in the world’
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.lchibbaro@washblade.com
Kadeem Swenson, a 19-year-old gayman, is far more interested in talking
about his future than he is about his past.Last week, at the Blade’s request,
Swenson talked about what his activistfriends and city officials are calling anextraordinary journey over the pasttwo years from his status as a homelessyouth to his current role as a college
student and intern in the office of D.C.Mayor Vincent Gray.
“There are still good people in theworld,” he said, when asked whatlessons he learned from his recent
experiences.
Swenson is taking summer courses
at the Community College of theUniversity of the District of Columbia.He will begin a full-time class schedule
at the community college as a
freshman in September.He’s doing his internship under a
city youth leadership program in the
Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, with the
office’s director, Jeffrey Richardson,
acting as his supervisor and mentor.
Richardson said he was pleased toallow Swenson to take a few days off two weeks ago to attend a studentleadership camp on the campus of
Vanderbilt University in Nashville,Tenn. The event was organized byCampus Pride, a national LGBTorganization working with students
that invited Swenson to attend
through a scholarship.“I got a lot out of it,” Swenson said.
“There were a lot of workshops and
some real great keynote speakers.
They work on action planning to buildrelationships and bring about change,not only on campuses but just in
general.”Shane Windmeyer, founder andexecutive director of Campus Pride,
said he invited Swenson to attend theevent after reading about Swenson’splight as a homeless gay youth in the
Blade last November.
Once homeless, gay youth is college bound
Prevention, drug
programs threatened byagreement
By CHRIS JOHNSONcjohnson@washblade.com
The resolution of the debt ceiling
negotiations between the White Houseand congressional leaders has HIV/AIDS
advocates concerned that federal fundsfor prevention and drug initiatives couldbe on the chopping block as a result of
the agreement.
The agreement — which enables
President Obama to raise the debtceiling by $2.1 trillion and eliminates the
need for another increase until 2013 —
also requires a total of nearly $2.5 trillion
in spending cuts to reduce the federaldeficit, which could affect federally
funded HIV/AIDS programs.Carl Schmid, deputy executivedirector of the AIDS Institute, said any
cuts to federal spending as a result of the
deal will likely “impact HIV programs in anegative way.”
“There will be less money to goaround and it will be more competitionover that smaller amount of funding,”
Schmid said. “And there can be direct
cuts to our programs particularly if they
are taken across the board. Not going in
the right direction if we are going to end
AIDS let alone prevent new infections
and provide care and treatment to
CONTINUES ON PAGE 14 CONTINUES ON PAGE 10
Are you ready forsome football?
Local gay players model
for fundraising calendar.
PAGE 19
Debt deal could jeopardize HIV/AIDS funds
NOW
: Today, Swenson is off the streets,interning in Mayor Gray’s office and preparing
to start college full time in the fall.
WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KEY
THEN
: Last November,
KADEEM SWENSON
posed in shadow for this Blade photo, homelessand fearful of being recognized.
PRESIDENT OBAMA
signed a deal to raisethe federal debt ceiling that calls for nearly
$2.5 trillion in spending cuts that could impactHIV/AIDS prevention and other programs.
WASHINGTON BLADE FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
Melissa Etheridge raising moneyfor Maryland Del. Mizeur
Lesbian singer Melissa Etheridge is scheduled tohost a fundraising reception for Maryland Del. HeatherMizeur (D) on Tuesday in Baltimore.Mizeur is a lesbian running for re-election to theHouse of Delegates, where she has representedTakoma Park and Silver Spring since 2007.Etheridge, who will be in Baltimore for a concert at Pier SixPavilion that night, will host a pre-concert meet-and-greet at 7p.m. for Mizeur supporters. Tickets are $1,000 and mostly soldout, according to Mizeur who added that donors interested inattending should contact her campaign directly. Attendance isbeing capped at “no more than 20,” she added.For those who can’t afford the $1,000 price tag, thecampaign is offering a chance to win a ticket in anonline raffle. To enter, visit secure.actblue.com/page/melissaformizeur and make a $5 donation. One winnerwill be chosen to attend the reception and concert.Mizeur met Etheridge during the 2008 presidentialcampaign, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clintonwere wooing the votes of Democratic superdelegatesduring the primary, including Mizeur. Etheridge calledMizeur on behalf of Obama’s campaign.“We hit it off on the phone, because of our sharedlove of politics,” Mizeur said. “She’s a Midwesternerand we have the same values and got on really well.”The two met that June at a concert and have becomefriends since then. Etheridge stayed with Mizeur andher spouse during Obama’s inauguration.Mizeur, reacting to last month’s news that Maryland Gov.Martin O’Malley plans to introduce a marriage equality billduring the 2012 legislative session, said the announcementprovides a “significant boost for our efforts.”“We really do believe his sponsorship of the bill is theshot of momentum we need to win support for the billthis session,” she said. “There’s no bigger megaphonein the capital than the governor’s office.”
KEVIN NAFF
Mayor Gray to meet withtransgender activists
Mayor Vincent Gray was scheduled to meet onThursday with representatives of the transgendercommunity, marking the first known time that aD.C. mayor has devoted a meeting exclusively totransgender-related issues.Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor’s Officeof GLBT Affairs, said Gray accepted a request bylocal transgender activist Jeri Hughes to hold such ameeting to discuss, among other things, ways that thecity can boost employment opportunities within thetransgender community.Hughes told the Blade she would ask the mayor tocall on the D.C. Department of Employment Servicesand the city’s Office of Human Rights to curtail whatshe calls flagrant discrimination by employers againsttransgender residents seeking entry-level jobs.Hughes said transgender residents have reported suchdiscrimination from private sector employers as well assome D.C. government agencies.According to Hughes, employers appear to be violatingthe D.C. Human Rights Act, which bans discriminationbased on gender identity, by denying jobs to transgenderpeople, especially young transgender women, solely onthe basis of their gender identity.“These are girls who are qualified for these entrylevel jobs at places like McDonald’s and the like,”Hughes said. “They are being turned away and their job applications ignored.”Hughes said she would ask Gray to arrange forthe Department of Employment Services and Officeof Human Rights to hire or designate at least onefull-time staff member to work on transgender-related employment and transgender-related non-discrimination issues.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
White House honors AIDSactivists Simmons and Tenner
Two leaders of AIDS advocacy organizations inD.C. were honored last month by the White Houseas “Champions of Change” through a program thatrecognizes Americans who help the country meetchallenges of the 21st century.The White House selected Ron Simmons, executivedirector of Us Helping Us, and Adam Tenner, executivedirector of Metro Teen AIDS, in June for the category of “Champions of Change: Fighting AIDS.”A White House statement announcing theirselection says that under Simmons’ leadership, UsHelping Us grew into one of the nation’s largest blackAIDS organizations. The group provides services forHIV-infected black gay men, women, transgenderpersons and youth. The statement notes that since1992 Simmons raised more than $22 million to fund theprograms and services of Us Helping Us.The White House statement says Tenner, who hasheaded Metro Teen AIDS since 2001, has worked ina variety of HIV prevention and adolescent healthpromotion capacities for more than 20 years. It says heinitiated D.C.’s first HIV prevention programs for younggay men as well as programs that make sure youngpeople with HIV receive needed services.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Sibley Hospital disputes lesbians’allegation of discrimination
A spokesperson for D.C.’s Sibley Memorial Hospitaldisputed a claim by three members of the D.C. CityCouncil that the hospital appears to have discriminatedagainst a married lesbian couple last month by makingit more difficult for them to obtain a birth certificate fortheir newborn child.In a July 28 letter to Sibley Hospital President RobertSloan, Council members Phil Mendelson (D-At-large),David Catania (I-At-Large), and Muriel Bowser (D-Ward4) said they were contacted by a lesbian mother whohad given birth at Sibley. The Council members saidthe mother told them the hospital had a policy of requiring married same-sex couples to “prove thelegitimacy of their relationship, a burden not placedon opposite-sex couples, before they can obtain theirnewborn’s birth certificate.”According to the letter, the hospital informed thelesbian couple that same-sex couples were required toprovide a marriage certificate to verify their marriagewhile opposite-sex couples were “presumed married”and were not required to provide additional informationto document their marriage.“This requirement, whether isolated to this incidentor an aspect of hospital policy, is wrong, discriminatory,and antithetical to the District’s laws providing equalrights and equal dignity to all residents,” the threeCouncil members said in their letter.Sheilah Roy, Sibley’s director of public relations andmarketing, told the Blade on Monday that the hospitalwas following a directive it received from the D.C. Officeof Vital Records. Roy said the directive came in an e-maildated Jan. 22, 2010, and calls on all city hospitals to verifythe marriage of same-sex couples before providingthose couples with a birth certificate of a child bearingthe names of both members of the couple.“The parents must provide a copy of the certifiedmarriage license or domestic partnership registration,”Roy quoted the directive as saying. “Attention mustbe paid to the relationship between the partners,”she quoted the directive as saying. “Close relativesregistered as domestic partners may not have thesecond partner added [to the birth certificate] when thepartner is related by blood.”The last sentence Roy quoted pertains to a provisionin the D.C. domestic partnership law that allows bloodrelatives, such as a parent and an adult child or siblings,to become domestic partners.“In other words, it says that we are required to ask fora marriage license or domestic partner registration,”Roy said. “So we were following what we were told todo by the D.C. government.”American University law professor Nancy Polikoff,a recognized expert on family law pertainingto same-sex couples, said the city’s domesticpartnership law and a separate parental rights lawrequire that same-sex couples be treated the sameas opposite-sex couples in all areas, includingthe issuance of birth certificates by hospitals.She said the directive issued by the city’s Officeof Vital Records, if correctly described by theSibley spokesperson, appears to be an incorrectinterpretation existing D.C. law.Mahlori Isaacs, a spokesperson for the D.C.Department of Health, of which the Office of VitalRecords is a part, said she would make inquires toconfirm the accuracy of the directive that the Office of Vital Records sent to Sibley and other city hospitals.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.washingtonblade.com
02 • AUGUST 05, 2011LOCAL NEWS IN BRIEF
Maryland Del.
Heather Mizeur
and singer Melissa Etheridgestruck up a friendship during the 2008 presidential election.
WASHINGTON BLADE FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
AUGUST 05, 2011 • 03
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