washingtonblade.com, volume 45, issue 30, july 25, 2014

8/12/2019 Washingtonblade.com, Volume 45, Issue 30, July 25, 2014

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Executive order bars anti-LGBT job bias among contractors

By CHRIS [email protected]

Fulfilling a long-awaited action that LGBT advocates had pursued since the start of hisadministration, President Obama this week signed an executive order barring anti-LGBTdiscrimination among federal contractors and in the federal workforce.

Seated before nine LGBT advocates — some of whom had experienced anti-LGBTdiscrimination on the job — Obama signed the directive in the East Room of the WhiteHouse at 10:45 a.m., but not before speaking out against the continued lack of protectionsagainst LGBT workplace discrimination throughout the country.

“It doesn’t make any sense, but today in America, millions of our federal citizens wakeup and go to work with the awareness that they could lose their job, not because ofwhat they do and fail to do, but simply because of who they are — lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender — and that’s wrong,” Obama said. “We’re here to do what we can to make it

Killings of Mia Henderson andKandy Hall remain unsolved

By MICHAEL K. [email protected]

The unsolved murders of two transgender women

of color in Baltimore in recent weeks have left thecity’s trans residents on edge.

Vann Michael of Black Transmen, a Dallas-basedadvocacy group that works in Baltimore and D.C., toldthe Washington Blade during an interview on Mondaythat some trans women with whom he has spoken areafraid to leave their homes after police offi cers found

Mia Henderson’s body near Lake Ashburton on July 16.Authorities on June 3 found Kandy Hall dead in a

field near a post offi ce on the 1400 block of Fil lmoreStreet in the city’s Coldstream-Homestead-Montebelloneighborhood.

Henderson’s brother is Los Angeles Clippersshooting guard Reggie Bullock.

“This has sparked a level of anxiety, maybe a

little post-traumatic stress I guess because of theirhistories,” Michael told the Blade.

Meredith Moise, an ordained minister of color inBaltimore, echoed Michael when she spoke with the Blade.

“A lot of black trans women are very nervous,” saidMoise. “The community is extremely on edge. Peopleare very upset.”

The Baltimore Police Department on Tuesday didnot return the Blade’s requests for comment.

Court records indicate that a person who was thesame age as Henderson and shares her birth namewas arrested for prostitution in Baltimore on severaloccasions in 2012.

This person was charged with prostitution, second-degree assault and resisting arrest on Dec. 12, 2012.

Court records indicate this person was convicted onthe assault charge.

Court records indicate Hall was charged withprostitution four times in Anne Arundel Countybetween 2001-2003 and twice in Baltimore in 2010.

JUL Y 25 20 14 VOL UM E 4 5 IS SU E 3 0 • CELEBRATING 45 YEARS AS AMERICA’S GAY NEWS SOURCE • WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

CONTINUES ON PAGE 14

CONTINUES ON PAGE 06

SOUTHERNSTRUGGLETransgender residents of

the South on their fight

against poverty, violence.

PAGE 12 PAGE 13 PAGE 23

BOLDBREWSLesbian couple part of

team behind new brewery

in Silver Spring.

AIDS‘PROGRESS’Int’l AIDS Conference

underway amid mourning

for those lost aboard MH-17.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA signed an executive order barring anti-LGBTworkplace discrimination among federal contractors on Monday.

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY


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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM JULY 25 , 2014 • 03


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Trans women denied photoIDs at D.C. DMV of ce

In response to an inquiry fromtransgender advocate Ruby Corado, thedirector of the D.C. Department of MotorVehicles said on Monday she would takeimmediate steps to make sure DMV

employees approve photo identificationcards for transgender applicants whoqualify for them.

DMV Director Lucinda Babers issuedthat assurance in response to an emailfrom Corado, founder and director ofD.C.’s Casa Ruby community center, inwhich Corado informed her that DMVemployees earlier this month denied

non-driver’s license photo ID cards totwo transgender women who are fullyqualified to receive them.

Corado said the two women were clientsof Casa Ruby, which provides services tothe transgender community. She said theDMV employees denied approval of theID cards despite the fact that the womensubmitted the appropriate identificationdocuments and a properly completedDMV Gender Designation Form showinga change in their gender identity.

“I apologize for the inconveniences

your two clients experienced at DC DMV,”Babers told Corado in a July 21 email, whichCorado released to the Blade. “Your emailhighlights that we have not done a suffi cient

job to ensure the 30+ new DMV employeesrecently hired have been trained on theuse of our Gender Designation Form asprovided on our website,” she said.

“We have a meeting this week with allmanagers/supervisors/leads which willallow me to provide refresher training,”Baber said in her email.

In a reply email, Corado thanked Babersfor her quick response but said one ofher two clients still needs assistance inobtaining the ID card. For many transwomen, especially trans women of color,“obtaining a picture ID is crucial for themto obtain services and/or employment,”said Corado, who urged Babers tocarefully review the DMV’s procedures foraddressing transgender related issues.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Mayoral candidates to holdLGBT ‘meet & greet’ events

Gay Democratic activist Lane Hudson

is co-hosting a Young Professionals Meet& Greet for D.C. Council member andmayoral candidate David Catania (I-At-Large) on July 31.

Hudson says the event, to be heldat the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fundheadquarters downtown, is expected toattract mostly LGBT young professionals.

The Catania meet & greet is oneof a series of such events that LGBTsupporters of Catania and his two leading

rivals in the mayor’s race — City Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) andformer Council member Carol Schwartz,Republican turned independent — areplanning to host over the next two months.

Gay businessman and LGBT activistEverett Hamilton, who’s supporting Bowser,and longtime gay rights and AIDS activistCornelius Baker, who’s backing Schwartz,said several LGBT meet & greet receptionsare being planned for their respectivecandidates in the next several weeks.

Baker said he’s hosting a Schwartz

meet & greet at his home on July 27, justdays after he was to return to Washingtonfrom attending the International AIDSConference in Australia. Hamilton saidBowser hosted a transgender communitymeet & greet at her own home earlier this

month and several of her supporters areplanning more such events for the fullLGBT community in the coming weeks.

All three candidates have beenlongtime supporters of LGBT rights.Catania and Schwartz supporters arguethat their respective candidates havebeen involved in LGBT issues longer thanBowser, whom most political observersconsider to be the frontrunner in the raceat this time.

Bowser’s LGBT supporters argue that sheis younger than Schwartz and Catania and

hasn’t held elective offi ce as long as theyhave but nevertheless has a strong pro-LGBTrecord during her tenure on the Council.

Gay mayoral candidate Bruce Majors,who’s running for the Libertarian Party,says he’s been an LGBT rights advocate formany years and also has been reaching outto the LGBT community for support.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Md. extends health coverageto transgender employees

Maryland will now cover proceduresand other transition-related health careof its transgender state employees undera new policy the Free State Legal Projectannounced on Tuesday.

The so-called Gender DysphoriaBenefit, which takes effect immediately,covers hormone therapy, surgicalprocedures and other “transition-relatedtreatment that is medically necessary.”The new policy applies to employees andretirees who are enrolled in the state’shealth benefit program, along with their

spouses and dependents.Free State Legal Project on Tuesday said

the announcement came in response to a2013 complaint it filed against the state onbehalf of Sailor Holobaugh, a Universityof Maryland-Baltimore employee whoserequest to receive reimbursement forwhat his doctors deemed a medicallynecessary double mastectomy throughthe state employees’ health insuranceand benefits program was deniedbecause he is trans.

Free State Legal Project in January

filed an additional complaint with theMaryland Commission on Civil Rights,alleging the exclusion of trans-relatedhealth care violates an executive orderbanning anti-trans discrimination in stateemployment that Gov. Martin O’Malleysigned in 2007. The state agreed toreimburse Holobaugh for his mastectomyas part of its agreement.

“My experience as a social worker anda scout has made me appreciate theimportance of persevering for change andequality,” said Holobaugh in a Free State

Legal Project press release. “I am thrilledthat people who serve Maryland as stateemployees now have increased access tohealth services, and that they can extendthese benefits to their dependents.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Victory Fund endorses gaycandidates in D.C. races

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group that raises money and

provides campaign support for LGBT candidates for public offi ce, announced onTuesday that it has endorsed at-large D.C. Council candidate Courtney Snowdenand D.C. State Board of Education candidate Scott Simpson.

The two candidates, who have longstanding ties to LGBT rights causes, arerunning in the city’s Nov. 4 general election in hotly contested races.

“As a native Washingtonian, Courtney Snowden has been a staunch advocatefor students and education from the start,” said Victory Fund president and CEOChuck Wolfe in a statement. “Her commitment to creating a city of integrity andtransparency will be a tremendous asset on the City Council.”

Wolfe called Simpson, who’s running for the Ward 1 school board seat, a“passionate advocate for District schools” and someone who understandsthe challenges facing city schools. “He brings the experience and dedicationnecessary to help the District of Columbia Public Schools deliver a more quality

education that the children deserve,” said Wolfe.Snowden is running as an independent for one of two at-large seats on the

Council up for election this year that is reserved under the city’s election lawfor a non-majority party candidate. The restriction means that a Democratis ineligible for the seat, a development that has prompted 13 independentcandidates, including Snowden, to take out petitions to run for the seat.

Gay Republican Marc Morgan and candidates nominated by the Statehood Greenand Libertarian parties are also running for the so-called non-Democratic seat.

Under the election law, the non-Democratic candidates are eligible for bothseats. But because the city’s registered voters are overwhelmingly Democratic,Democratic nominee Anita Bonds, who currently holds one of the two at-largeseats, is considered the strong favorite to win re-election. The second seat iscurrently held by gay Council member David Catania (I-At-Large), who’s giving

up the seat to run for mayor.The Victory Fund endorsed Catania for mayor in February.Simpson is a former offi cial with the local LGBT youth advocacy group

SMYAL and the current press secretary for the Leadership Conference on Civiland Human Rights. He is competing against four other candidates in the non-partisan race, including education advocate David Do, who’s also gay.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

04 • JULY 25, 2014 LOCAL NEWS

At-large D.C. Council candidate COURTNEY SNOWDEN won the support of the VictoryFund this week.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RABEN GROUP


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A possible motive behind Hall andHenderson’s murder has yet to emerge,but Michael told the Blade that some transwomen who “aren’t necessarily on the stroll,but have now been able to get themselvestogether to get jobs and things” are “afraidto actually leave their homes.”

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told the Blade in a statementon Tuesday that Police CommissionerAnthony Batts and other departmentpersonnel have met “several times” withtrans residents and advocates to discussHenderson and Hall’s murders.

“He has assured them that thesecases are top priority and he is drivingthe agency to solve these crimes,” shesaid. “I have made clear to my entireadministration, that the protection and

advocacy for LGBT rights is a top priority.Commissioner Batts along with thePolice Commissioner’s LGBT AdvisoryCouncil and the police department’sLGBT liaison offi cer have all emphasizedhow important information from the

community will be in closing these cases.”Rawlings-Blake added members of her

administration plan to meet with “a largergroup of the transgender community in thevery near future to hear their concerns.”

“My administration has repeatedly

stated that we want to develop strongrelationships with every part of our

community, including the transgendercommunity,” she told the Blade.

Henderson’s murder comes less thana month after Quamar Edwards allegedlyshot Tiffany Edwards, a trans woman ofcolor, to death in a Cincinnati suburb.

Police in Fort Myers, Fla., on June 19 foundthe burned body of Yaz’min Shancez behinda local business. Authorities in Anaheim,Calif., a few days earlier found Zoraida Reyes,an LGBT and immigrant rights advocate,dead behind a local Dairy Queen.

“Anytime any life is lost to senselessviolence it is a tragedy and my heartaches,” Rawlings-Blake told the Blade.

Anyone with information aboutHenderson and Hall’s deaths is urgedto call Metro Crime Stoppers at (866)7-LOCKUP.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

06 • JULY 25, 2014 LOCAL NEWS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

Baltimore trans women on edge after two murders

Lt. J. ERIC KOWLACZYK of the Baltimore Police Department addressing the media after offi cersfound Mia Henderson’s body on July 16.

PHOTO BY STEVE CHARING

By LOU CHIBBARO [email protected]

Rudi Appl, a bartender at Mr. Henry’srestaurant and pub on Capitol Hill fornearly 50 years, died July 16 at his homefrom complications associated with heartdisease. He was 79.

Longtime friends and co-workersat Mr. Henry’s say Appl’s bright andcharming personality, his skills as alistener and conversationalist along withhis distinctive accent as a native of CzechRepublic appeared to immediately winover the affection of everyone that camein contact with him.

“I never heard him ever say a bad wordabout anybody,” said Walter Quetsch,a longtime Capitol Hill resident andMr. Henry’s patron in whose basementapartment Appl lived for the past 33years as a tenant.

“For him, everybody had a redeeming

feature,” Quetsch said. “He mixed witheverybody. He knew how to mix with peopleas well as he knew how to mix drinks.”

Chuck Sharman, a fellow bartender atMr. Henry’s and a friend of Appl’s, said hehas a copy of one of Appl’s immigrationdocuments that shows he was born

June 6, 1935 in Brno, the largest city inthe region of Moravia in what was thenCzechoslovakia and is now part of theCzech Republic.

“I well recall my first shift with Rudi atMr. Henry’s, on a slow night upstairs,”

Sharman told the Blade. “With hoursto kill, he led me through a lengthy andcolorful autobiography.”

Friends point to what they call Appl’sfascinating and colorful background

prior to his move to Washington in 1966that emerges from people like Sharmanand others who knew Appl. More detailsof Appl’s background surfaced in a aninterview and detailed profile of Applwritten in May of this year by localbusinessman and writer Joe Englert forthe Washington City Paper.

Englert reports that Appl told him that atthe age of 9 his father arranged for him toescape World War II in Europe by sendinghim to Beirut, where he was enrolled in theAmerican School. After the war the family

reunited in Frankfurt, Germany, and settledthere for a number of years, Appl said in hisinterview with Englert.

At about the age of 21 he and hisparents moved to Canada and settledin the Canadian Rockies, where Applworked for a while in the oil fields asa “roughneck.” He later began work inthe hospitality industry at a resort nearAlberta before going to Nassau in theBahamas to work at the Paradise Islandresort owned by famed businessmanand A&P Supermarket heir HuntingtonHartford, according to Englert’s profile.

Appl says in the interview that hebecame Hartford’s drinking buddy andassistant and had a chance to mingle withthe rich and famous at the resort andduring trips with Hartford to Hollywood.He first came to D.C. in 1963, becameattracted to the U.S. capital, and traveledback and forth between Paradise Islandand Washington until he decided to settle

in D.C. for good in 1966, Englert reportsin his profile.

Alvin Ross, the current owner of Mr.Henry’s, said he met Appl and becamefriends with him when the two firststarted working there as bartenders. Thelate Henry Yaffe, the founder and originalowner of Mr. Henry’s, had just bought theestablishment, which, at the time, hadbeen operating as a country-western barcalled the 601 Club, Ross told the Blade.Ross said Appl had been working at the601Club “and came with the bar as part of

the deal” when Yaffe bought the business.Yaffe transformed the place into a

Victorian pub, with furnishings anddecorations of the Victorian period ofthe late 1800s, when many of Capitol

Hill’s homes and buildings, including thenearby Eastern Market, sprung up in thesurrounding neighborhood.

Appl, who was gay, got along well with thehighly diverse crowds that have patronizedMr. Henry’s, both gay and straight, blackand white, and families with children,according to longtime customers.

Ross noted that Appl at some pointmoved into the second-floor apartmentabove Mr. Henry’s as a tenant shortlyafter Yaffe became the owner. Ross andothers who knew Appl have said he lovedto tell the story of how he was “evicted”from the apartment as a result of famedsinger and songwriter Roberta Flack, whogot her career start at Mr. Henry’s.

As Appl told friends, he took a vacationin Europe to visit relatives after Flack beganperforming there in the late 1960s. Duringhis absence Flack became such a sensationand an attraction that Yaffe converted theapartment into an extended space for

Mr. Henry’s, where Flack performed tooverflowing audiences.

Upon his return to WashingtonAppl discovered he no longer had anapartment, joking to friends that hewas evicted because of Roberta Flack.However, he quickly found anotherapartment and continued to work at Mr.Henry’s as a bartender. A short time later,he moved into the English basementapartment at Quetsch’s townhouse onthe 300 block of C Street, S.E., where heremained until the time of his death.

“Somehow or other we came to anagreement that he didn’t have to payrent,” Quetsch said.

� CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

Beloved bartender Rudi Appl dies at 79

RUDI APPL worked as a bartender at Mr.Henry’s restaurant and pub on Capitol Hillfor nearly 50 years.

WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINKCLE


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Michael Sam accepts ESPY award

LOS ANGELES — Gay St. Louis Rams defensive end Michael Sam on July 16gave an emotional speech as he accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Awardduring the ESPY Awards that aired on ESPN.

“Great things can happen when you have the courage to be yourself,” saidSam as the Associated Press reported.

The news wire reported several people who attended the annual awardsceremony became emotional as Sam spoke. The AP said the out defensive endthanked his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano, who accompanied him to the ESPYs,

and the Rams.Sam, a former University of Missouri defensive end, came out in February.He became the first openly gay man drafted into the National Football League

in May after the Rams picked him during the seventh round. The team lastmonth signed Sam to a four-year, $2.65 million contract.

Tony Dungy, a former coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and IndianapolisColts, on July 20 sparked controversy when he told a Florida newspaper that hewould not have drafted Sam.

Cross-dresser to face Calif. congressman

SAN DIEGO — A cross-dressing Republican this November will square off

against an incumbent California congressman.The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Stephen “Stephanie” Meade, 88,

is a World War II veteran who will face U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas who represents thestate’s 51st Congressional District that includes Imperial County and portions ofSan Diego County along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Meade told the newspaper he backs a $5 minimum wage and opposes federalfunding to any group that seeks to expand access to abortions. He said he alsosupports instituting the metric system for measurements.

“I haven’t worn men’s clothes in years,” Meade, who has been married to hiswife for 41 years, told the Union-Tribune. “After I turned age 80, I said enough isenough. I’ve always been straight and never gay, but I dress as a woman becauseI’ve always wanted to and should have done it years and years ago.”

Voters in 2012 elected Vargas, who is a former member of the California

Legislature, to Congress after then-Congressman Bob Filner retired to run formayor of San Diego.California’s 51st Congressional District is heavily Democratic.The Times-Union reported the Republican Party of San Diego County has

declined to endorse Meade.

Dance festival raises $533,000 for AIDS fight

FIRE ISLAND PINES, N.Y. — The annual Fire Island Dance Festival last weekendraised more than half a million dollars for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The 20th annual event, which took place on New York’s Fire Island on July 18-20,raised $533,860 for Dancers Responding to AIDS. The dance festival featured nearly50 professional dancers during multiple performances, according to its website.

“At moments like this, we must take time to remember all the talent, creativityand friendships we’ve lost, while celebrating the progress we’ve made and theopportunities we have to make a difference for those who need our help the most,”said Denise Roberts Hurlin, founding director of Dancers Responding to AIDS.

Illinois commission vacates

decision to dismiss case

By CHRIS [email protected]

A complaint alleging anti-gay biasin hiring practices at oil-and-gas giantExxonMobil can move forward now thatthe Illinois Human Rights Commissionoverturned a lower body’s decision todismiss the case.

In a decision dated July 14 and obtainedTuesday by the Washington Blade, the

Illinois Human Rights Commission —a 13-member body that determineswhether unlawful discrimination hasoccurred under Illinois state civil rightslaw — remanded the case back to theIllinois Department of Human Rights,which had thrown out the case in Januaryon the basis of lack of jurisdiction.

“The Respondent’s dismissal ofFreedom to Work’s charge is VACATEDand Freedom to Work’s charge isREINSTATED and REMANDED to theRespondent for FURTHER INVESTIGATION

and other proceedings to consistent withthis Order and the Act,” states the order,which was signed by Illinois HumanRights Commission Executive Director N.Keith Chambers.

In May 2013, Freedom to Work filedthe complaint alleging anti-gay bias atExxonMobil in hiring practices on the basis oftwo fictitious resumes sent to the companyin response to a job posting in Illinois.

One was from a more qualifiedapplicant who outed herself as LGBT onher resume by noting work at the Gay &

Lesbian Victory Fund; the other was a lessqualified applicant who gave no indicationabout her sexual orientation or genderidentity. The less qualified non-LGBTapplicant received multiple callbacks, themore qualified LGBT applicant did not.

After the paired resume testing,Freedom to Work filed the complaintbefore the Illinois Department ofHuman Rights, contending the companyviolated a 2005 law in Illinois prohibitingdiscrimination against LGBT people.The relief sought by Freedom to Workincludes a change in ExxonMobil’s equalemployment opportunity policy toenumerate protections based on sexualorientation and gender identity as well asattorney’s fees.

Although the Illinois Department of

Human Rights dismissed the case onthe basis of no employer-employeerelationship between Freedom to Workand ExxonMobil, the order indicatesthat both Freedom to Work and thedepartment later petitioned the IllinoisHuman Rights Commission to remandthe case so a thorough investigationcould proceed.

The petition from the IllinoisDepartment of Human Rights attached tothe order also indicates that ExxonMobildenies that it refused to offer the fictitiousmore-qualified LGBT applicant the jobbased on anti-gay bias.

Peter Romer-Friedman, counsel atFreedom to Work and attorney at CohenMilstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, say now thatthe case has been remanded, ExxonMobilwill have to explain why it elected to hirethe less-qualified straight candidate.

“We are relieved but not surprised bythe state agency’s decision that Freedomto Work and other civil rights groupshave the right to challenge unlawfuldiscrimination, including Exxon’s sexualorientation discrimination,” Romer-Friedman said. “This decision means

that Exxon will have to answer toughquestions about why it treated a well-qualified LGBT applicant far worse thana straight applicant who had lesserqualifications. The decision also pavesthe way for other non-profit groups toenforce civil rights laws.”

Sabrina Miller, an Illinois Departmentof Human Rights spokesperson, said it’sunlikely any final decision will be made inthe case prior to the end of summer.

The order affi rms that Seyfarth Shaw,a Chicago-based international law firm, is

handling defense of ExxonMobil in the case.The lawfirm didn’t respond to the Blade’srequest for comment on whether it wouldcontinue to fight the charge of discrimination.

Scott Silvestri, an ExxonMobilspokesperson, said Freedom to Work’scomplaint is “baseless and without merit”and denied his company engaged in anti-LGBT bias in its hiring decision.

“Sexual orientation played no role in thehiring decision,” Silvestri said. “ExxonMobilhas a longstanding policy that strictlyprohibits any form of discrimination by ortoward employees, contractors, suppliersand customers in any ExxonMobilworkplace. Our global, zero-tolerancepolicy applies to all forms of discrimination,including discrimination based on sexualorientation and gender identity.”

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

08 • JULY 25, 2014 NATIONAL NEWS

Gay St. Louis Rams defensive end MICHAEL SAM on July 16 became emotional ashe gave a speech after accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the ESPYAwards.

PHOTO BY MARCUS QWERTYUS; COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Lawsuit alleging anti-gay bias atExxonMobil to move forward


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Hochberg leads fight to saveFDR-era institution fromshutdown by Tea Party

By LOU CHIBBARO [email protected]

Fred P. Hochberg, the gay presidentand CEO of the U.S. Export-Import Banksince 2009, has emerged as the Obamaadministration’s lead defender of the

bank in the midst of efforts by Tea PartyRepublicans to shut it down.Opponents are calling on Congress

not to renew the bank’s charter, whichexpires Sept. 30.

The little-known bank was createdby Congress in 1934 at the request ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt to helpU.S. companies sell products overseasat the height of the Depression. Amongother things, it lends money to foreigncompanies to help them pay forAmerican-made products and services.

Hochberg has been praised by the bank’ssupporters for becoming a persuasivepromoter and defender of the bank’s longrecord that Hochberg says has helped tocreate millions of American jobs during its80-year history by enabling U.S. companies

to sell more products abroad.“The stakes could not be higher,”

Hochberg told the House FinancialServices Committee during a June 25hearing. “We should not cede American

jobs to China, Russia or other countries.”But the mild-mannered Hochberg,

himself a businessman who servedas CEO of a home products companystarted by his mother in New York, hascome under attack by critics of the so-called Ex-Im Bank from both conservative

Republicans and environmentalists.Tea Party activists and their allies in

Congress have accused him and the bank ofadvancing what they call “crony capitalism”— a form of government handout, say thecritics, to the largest and most politicallyconnected U.S. corporations.

The GOP-leaning Heritage Foundation,the Club for Growth, and the ultra-rightbillionaire Koch brothers have all sidedwith this faction, saying the Ex-Im Bankshould be closed and its lending rolepicked up by private banks rather than

the U.S. government.On the other side the of politicalspectrum, the Sierra Club has denouncedboth Hochberg and the Export-ImportBank for lending money to controversialcoal mining projects in Australia and India.The Australian project has come underfire from environmentalists because itwould require an expanded harbor nearthe mines to export coal. The harborexpansion, in turn, requires dredging thatenvironmentalists say would threatenAustralia’s Great Barrier Reef, considereda world ecological treasure.

“The U.S. Export-Import Bank and itspresident Fred Hochberg have never meta coal project they didn’t like,” Sierra Cluboffi cial Justin Guay said in a 2012 statement.

Since that time Hochberg has pointed

out that the Ex-Im Bank has lent moneyto dozens of foreign projects involvingenvironmentally friendly renewable energysuch as wind mills and solar energy facilities— all of which have purchased American-made equipment such as windmill bladesand wind turbine generators.

The Sierra Club has since moderated itscriticism, saying Congress should renewthe Ex-Im Bank’s charter while directingthe bank to put in place additionalreforms to ensure it finances projectsthat don’t harm the environment.

Justin Nelson, president of the NationalGay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce,said his organization strongly supportsrenewal of the Export-Import Bank’scharter. According to Nelson, LGBT-ownedbusinesses throughout the country areworking with the NGLCC to enter theexport trade and stand to benefit greatlyfrom the Ex-Im Bank’s work.

“We have been doing a seriesof educational workshops at ourconferences over the last couple of yearsso LGBT business owners start to realizethe opportunity in exporting,” Nelsontold the Blade. “Ninety-five percent of theworld’s consumers live outside the U.S.borders,” he said.


Gay Obama of cial battling over Export-Import Bank

Retired U.N. offi cial leadsLGBT initiatives at USAID


A retired U.N. offi cial who spent twodecades with the global body has broughthis experience promoting LGBT rightsissues to the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment.

Todd Larson, who worked in a varietyof positions at the U.N. between 1990 and2010 where he spearheaded efforts toextend domestic partner benefits to thesame-sex partners of U.N. employees,in March became USAID’s Senior LGBTCoordinator. He was also a member ofthe International Gay and Lesbian HumanRights Commission Board of Directorsbetween 2007-2013.

Larson’s primary responsibility at

USAID is to ensure the agency implementsPresident Obama’s 2011 memorandumthat instructed agencies charged withimplementing American foreign policy topromote global LGBT rights.

He noted in a 2012 Huffi ngton Post op-ed that highlighted his support of Obama’s

efforts to promote global LGBT rights onthe eve of his re-election that his partner,

who worked for the U.N., died shortly afterhe began working for the global body.

“In the aftermath I had no offi cialstanding to do basic things such asobtain copies of reports describingthe circumstances surrounding hisdeath,” wrote Larson. “Though I

eventually prevailed, under internal U.N.advances shepherded by the Obamaadministration, I would not face thatchallenge today.”

He told the Washington Blade duringan interview earlier this month that helearned “how to effect change within alarge bureaucracy” through his work atthe U.N.

“I don’t find engagement in institutionalchange daunting,” said Larson. “I find itprofoundly satisfying, by virtue of thebreadth of favorable impact that will last farlonger than I. That which makes my workat USAID a particular pleasure is the factthat I’m not working against the tide. I am,rather, working with a team of committedand experienced folks to guide and focus aninstitution which is already very committedto LGBT inclusion in how it operates bothinternally and externally.”

Larson spoke with the Blade roughlya week after National Security Adviser

Susan Rice announced the National Gayand Lesbian Chamber of Commerce had

joined the LGBT Global DevelopmentPartnership, a public-private partnershipthat USAID launched in April 2013designed to support LGBT advocacygroups in developing countries. The

initiatives’ first two trainings took place inColombia last year.

USAID on Monday announced duringthe 2014 International AIDS Conferencein Melbourne, Australia, that it willcontribute an additional $503 million tothe global fight against HIV/AIDS overthe next five years through three public-private partnerships.

“Under the President’s Emergency Planfor AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), for which USAID islead implementing agency, I am proud thatUSAID has invested hundreds of millionsof dollars per year in the war against thepandemic — much of this has gone to thebenefit of key populations,” said Larson.

Larson, who graduated from CarletonCollege in 1983, spent two years in theWest African country of Togo with thePeace Corps. He earned a master’sdegree in international relations from theUniversity of Washington in 1988.

“When I joined the Peace Corps, fresh

out of college and off the farm, it wasmy first time living and working in thedeveloping world,” Larson told the Blade.“This sounds perhaps Pollyanna-ish, but itwas a lesson I needed to learn.”


WASHINGTONBLADE.COM


Advancing Obama’s LGBT rights agenda abroad

TODD LARSON (left) is USAID’s Senior LGBTCoordinator.

PHOTO COURTESY OF USAID

‘We should not cede American jobs to China,Russia or other countries,’ said FRED P.HOCHBERG, the gay president and CEO ofthe U.S. Export-Import Bank.

WASHINGTON BLADE FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY


11/40


12/40

Residents share stories ofviolent attacks, strugglesfinding work


LAUREL, Miss. — Caylee, a youngtransgender woman, was leaving a localWalmart earlier this month with her fiancé,Michael, when she said three “rednecks” inthe lobby “said something smart.”

Caylee told the Washington Bladeduring a July 9 meeting of the DandelionProject, a support group for LGBT peoplewho live in Laurel and surrounding areasof the Mississippi Pine Belt, that themen called her and her fiancé “faggots”and asked them “what kind of sex actswe would be performing on each otherthat night.” She said they chased her and

Michael to their car and jumped on top ofit as they drove away.

“After that she wouldn’t hold my handfor a week in public and didn’t want to bearound me in public because of the fear,”said Michael as he and Caylee sat on acouch in the living room of DandelionProject co-founder Brandiilyne Dear’ssmall house on the outskirts of Laurel.

The trans people with whom theBlade spoke earlier this month inMississippi, Louisiana and Alabama saidthey routinely experience harassment,

discrimination and even violence becauseof their gender identity and expression.

Aiden, a 21-year-old trans man fromLaurel, Miss., said during the DandelionProject’s July 9 meeting that peoplesometimes tell him to “stop trying to actlike somebody that you’re not.” He toldthe Blade that some of his classmatesalso harass him.

“I had people that didn’t care about it,and then I had some people that bulliedme for it,” said Aiden.

Nathan Gage, a 19-year-old from

Waynesboro, Miss., who came out as“gender queer” earlier this year, told hismother he was a lesbian when he was inninth grade.

“She thought that my school did itto me,” Gage told the Blade during theDandelion Project’s July 9 meeting. “Shethought that the people I was hangingout with like that she knew turned meinto being gay. She took my phone. Shetook everything from me. I wasn’t allowedto do anything.”

Gage said his mother has grown toaccept his sexual orientation — and genderidentity and expression, but he said hisstepfather has become less accepting ofit. He told the Blade that the pastor of achurch his family previously attended oncepreached about trans people.

“He had these bathroom signs thatwere not male or female,” recalled Gage.“He would preach about how it is a sinand there was one particular scripturethat he would read. When he would readit he would look my way.”

Elizabeth Anne Jenkins, president ofLouisiana Trans Advocates, told the Bladeduring a July 13 interview at a coffee shopin the New Orleans suburb of Metairie

that she received anonymous prayersand stares when she went to restaurantsafter she began to transition in 2008.

Jenkins at the time lived in Hammond,La., a small city about 60 miles northwestof the Crescent City. She now lives inMetairie with her partner, Donna JeanLoy, who she met on a suicide preventionwebsite for trans people in 2009.

“I was glad to get out of Hammond andcome over here,” Jenkins told the Bladeas Loy, PFLAG New Orleans Co-President

Julie Thompson, Mary Catherine Roberts of

Equality Louisiana and her partner, JohannaWilliams, listened. “Hammond’s a smalltown and everybody knows everybody. Iwas big news for at least a couple of weeksuntil the newness wore off.”

A trans man of color who spoke oncondition of anonymity said during a July14 interview at a beachfront mall in Biloxi,Miss., that his friends and family were notsurprised when he came out in 2011. Hesaid people nevertheless continue to usefemale pronouns to refer to him.

A black male security guard looked

at him as the Blade took his picture infront of a sandcastle a local casino builtadjacent to a group of seats and coucheson which parents with their children andolder people were sitting.

“I don’t make a big deal out of itanymore,” said the trans man as Jenaand Jennifer Pierce, a lesbian couple fromBiloxi who legally married in Connecticutlast December, listened. “If that’s whatthey see, you know I can’t really get upset. Ihaven’t started any hormones or anythingyet. So I just kind of go with it, but it does

bother me to be called he, she or it.”Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama’santi-discrimination and hate crimes laws donot include gender identity and expression.

The U.S. Census indicates Mississippiis the poorest state in the country, withslightly more than 22 percent of itsresidents living below the poverty levelbetween 2008-2012.

Nearly 19 percent of Louisianans wereliving below the poverty level during thesame period. The U.S. Census indicatesslightly more than 18 percent of Alabamaresidents lived below the poverty level

between 2008-2012.Roughly 15 percent of Americans

lived below the poverty level during thesame period.

A 2012 report from the National Center

for Transgender Equality and the NationalGay and Lesbian Task Force found transand gender non-conforming people werenearly four times more likely to have anannual household income of less than

$10,000 than the general population.Ninety percent of respondents said theyexperienced employment discrimination.Those who took part in the survey were alsotwice as likely to be unemployed becauseof their gender identity and expression.

These economic and employmentdisparities are even higher among transpeople of color.

Ksaa Zair, a 29-year-old trans womanfrom Baton Rouge, La., who identifies asdemisexual, told the Blade during a July12 interview at a local restaurant withmembers of the Louisiana Trans Advocates,

PFLAG Greater Baton Rouge, Baton RougePride and Equality Louisiana that she has“never been successful at finding a job.”

She said she is “fairly sure” potentialemployers have refused to hire her

because of her gender identity andexpression. As a result, Zair’s best friendand roommate, Sergio Oramas, worksas much overtime as he can at the Searswarehouse where he has worked for two

months. They pay $600 a month for atwo-bedroom apartment in the St. Johnneighborhood of Baton Rouge.

Oramas uses blue painters tape to holdhis broken glasses together because hecan’t afford to fix them.

“We actually have the cheapest placein this city,” Zair told the Blade. “Weeffectively live in one of the top fiveghettos in Baton Rouge.”

Gage told the Blade that he had appliedfor jobs at local supermarkets, gasstations and fast food restaurants.

He said one potential boss with whom

he had spoken was “iffy about it” becauseof his gender presentation.

“She barely shook my hand,” said Gage.


WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

12 • JULY 25, 2014 SPECIAL REPORT

Trans Southerners face rampant discrimination, poverty

Members of the Dandelion Project gather to discuss LGBT issues in Laurel, Miss., on July 9.


A trans man on the Mississippi Gulf Coast who asked to remain anonymous.



13/40


Malaysian Airlines has confirmed sixHIV/AIDS researchers and advocates wereamong those who were on an airliner that

pro-Russian separatists shot down overeastern Ukraine last Thursday. Joep Lange, a prominent Dutch HIV

researcher who is a former presidentof the International AIDS Society, whichorganizes the biennial International AIDSConference, and his partner, Jacquelinevan Tongeren, were among the 298passengers and crew members whowere on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 fromAmsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

A passenger list that Malaysian Airlinesreleased on Saturday also confirms Pimde Kuijer, another Dutch national who

worked for Stop AIDS Now, and GlennThomas, a former BBC journalist whowas a press offi cer for the World HealthOrganization, were also on Flight 17.

The airline also confirmed Lucie

van Mens, another Dutch HIV/AIDSresearcher, and Martine de Schutter, aprogram manager for Bridging the Gaps,were on the flight.

They were traveling to the 2014International AIDS Conference in Melbourne,

Australia, that began on Sunday.“The extent of our loss is hard tocomprehend or express,” said InternationalAIDS Society President Françoise Barré-Sinoussi after Malaysian Airlines releasedthe names of the passengers who wereon Flight 17. “We grieve alongside all thosethroughout the world who have lost friendsand family in this senseless tragedy.”

President Obama acknowledged theHIV/AIDS researchers and advocates whodied on Flight 17.

“These were men and women who haddedicated their own lives to saving the

lives of others,” he said. “They were takenfrom us in a senseless act of violence.”

Reports indicate many of those whoare attending the 2014 InternationalAIDS Conference learned about Flight 17

— and those who were on it — as theyarrived in Melbourne.

“It’s a cold, somber and bittersweetmorning in Melbourne on the eve ofthe opening of AIDS 2014,” wrote RodMcCullom, a Chicago-based journalist

who reports on global HIV/AIDS andhealth issues, on his Facebook page.Sean Strub, founder of POZ, an

influential HIV/AIDS publication, said onFacebook he and others “were greetedwith the horrific news” from Ukraine asthey arrived in Melbourne on Friday.

“It feels like the entire city of Melbourneis involved with the conference, or at leasttrying to make delegates feel welcome,even amidst the mourning,” he wrote.

The Star Observer, an Australian LGBTnewspaper that is an offi cial mediasponsor of the 2014 International AIDS

Conference, on Saturday reporteddelegates who attended a forum on theepidemic’s impact on men who have sexwith men held a moment of silence inhonor of the victims of Flight 17.

The publication said many of those whoattended the forum were “still visibly shaken.”

“The death of so many of the chieflyDutch AIDS scientists and activists hasmade a very big hole in the talent andintegrity and energy of the global AIDSresponse, which we’ll all feel throughoutthis conference and beyond,” said DonBaxter, who co-chaired the gathering, asthe Star Observer reported.

“Those of us who have been engagedin AIDS work for many years are morepracticed at grief than any human shouldever have to become,” wrote Strub.“It’s a familiarity that can create copingmechanisms others don’t understand,sometimes including an external stoicism.”

He added this struggle is what willhelp him and others during the 2014International AIDS Conference.

“We learned long ago how to crawlthrough the rubble of human destructionto carry on, despite the deaths of closefriends and allies,” said Strub. “That’swhat we’re going to do in the days ahead.”

HIV researchers among MH-17 victims

‘Extraordinary progress’since previousgathering in D.C.

By BENJAMIN RILEY

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Star Observer, an Austra-lian LGBT newspaper, is providing the Wash-ington Blade with coverage of the 2014 Inter-national AIDS Conference from Melbourne.Visit washingtonblade.com for updates.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Withthe International AIDS Conferenceoffi cially open, delegates will continueto remember the victims of MalaysiaAirlines flight MH17, even as they arespurred to action in the global responseto the epidemic.

Speaking at a media conference beforethe opening of the International AIDSConference in Melbourne on Sunday,

International AIDS Society (IAS) president-elect Chris Beyrer said it had been anemotional start to the week.

“As we all know, it has been a longand very emotional 48 hours, but I thinkthat I can speak for all of my colleagueshere when I say that we are ready anddetermined to make this conference thehuge success it deserves to be,” he said.

Human rights advocate and formerAustralian High Court Justice MichaelKirby echoed Beyrer’s sentiment, and saidhis Dutch partner gave meant the disaster

had hit particularly close to home.

“It is a very painful moment, and it’s

painful for all of us, and there’s no pointdenying the pain,” he said.

UNAIDS executive director MichelSidibé said it was important to understandthe rapid increase in the pace of progresson HIV in recent years.

“Since the last conference in Washingtonthere has been extraordinary progress. Weestimated that by July, 14 million peoplehad access to treatment,” he said.

“More has been done in the last threeyears than in the last 25 years.”

Sidibé said widespread stigma and

criminalization of HIV and key affected

populations meant a frighteningly high

number of people around the world livingwith HIV, as many as half, did not knowtheir HIV status.

Current IAS president FrançoiseBarré-Sinoussi said addressing barriersto accessing treatment and preventionmethods, including the criminalization ofmen who have sex with men and otherkey populations affected by HIV, would bea focus for the conference.

Kirby said delegates should not beshy about using the conference as anopportunity to increase explicit pressure on

governments engaged in criminalization.

“We shouldn’t all be too polite. We

should be naming names and beingvery clear about the fact that the worldis not going to put 30 million people onantiretrovirals if the countries wherethere are very high levels within inepidemic don’t take steps to protectthemselves,” he said.

Living Positive Victoria executive offi cerand AIDS 2014 local co-chair Brent Allansaid the Melbourne Declaration made inMay this year should highlight the role ofpeople living with HIV in the response tothe epidemic, and the vital importance of

ending HIV stigma.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

INTERNATIONAL NEWS JUL Y 25 , 201 4 • 13

Int’l AIDS Conference begins in Australia

Six prominent HIV/AIDS researchers who were traveling to the 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, were passengers ona Malaysian airliner that was shot down in eastern Ukraine last week.

PHOTO BY STEVE FOREEST; COURTESY OF THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY


14/40

right, to bend that arc justice just a littlebit in the other direction.”

The effects of the executive orderare two-fold: It prohibits anti-LGBTdiscrimination among companies thatdo $10,000 a year or more in businesswith the U.S. government in addition tobarring discrimination against federalworkers who are transgender.

Obama amended ExecutiveOrder 11246 — which prohibitsfederal contractors from engaging indiscrimination based on race, color,religion, sex, or national origin — toprohibit these companies from engagingin anti-LGBT bias in employment basedon sexual orientation and gender identity.

“America’s federal contracts shouldnot subsidize discrimination against theAmerican people,” Obama said.

Additionally, Obama amendedExecutive Order 11478 — which prohibits

discrimination in the federal civilianworkplace — to bar discrimination basedon gender identity. In 1998, PresidentClinton amended the directive to prohibitdiscrimination against employees of the U.S.government based on sexual orientation.

The action from Obama barring federalcontractors from engaging anti-LGBTbias was sought by LGBT advocates foryears. LGBT advocates had called such anexecutive order a 2008 campaign promisefrom Obama, and media had questionedthe White House about why it hadn’t been

signed since 2011.“Many of you have worked for a longtime to see this day come,” Obamasaid. “You organized, you spoke up, yousigned petitions, you sent letters — Iknow because I got a lot of them...Thanksto your passion and advocacy and theirrefutable rightness of your cause, ourgovernment — the government of thepeople by the people and for the people— will become just a little bit fairer.”

Tico Almeida, president of Freedomto Work, was among those who madethe executive order a priority in hisengagement with LGBT advocacy andwas present at the ceremony when thedirective was finally signed.

“It’s an honor to witness President Obamasigning this LGBT executive order and to behere for such a watershed moment in ourcountry’s march toward LGBT equality underthe law,” Almeida said. “We’re celebratingthe successful conclusion of a strong andsustained campaign by Freedom to Workand so many other LGBT advocates whokept reminding the White House aboutthis delayed campaign promise, and we’re

celebrating that President Obama hascontinued to secure his legacy as the greatestpresidential champion for LGBT Americans.”

The nine individuals who joinedObama on stage were Virginia Gov.

Terry McAuliffe (D), Deputy Secretary ofLabor Chris Lu, Offi ce of Federal ContractCompliance Programs Director Pat Shiu,Maryland pastor Rev. Delman Coates,Director of the Religious Action Center ofReform Judaism Rabbi David Sapersteinas well as LGBT workplace equalityadvocates Kylar Broadus, Michael Carney,Anne Vonhof and Faith Cheltenham.

Among those present in the EastRoom during the signing ceremony, but

not on stage, were lesbian Sen. TammyBaldwin (D-Wis.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley(D-Ore.), who have led efforts to passthe Employment Non-Discrimination Actin the Senate, as well as Human RightsCampaign President Chad Griffi n; theCenter for American Progress’ WinnieStachelberg; the National Gay & LesbianTask Force’s Rea Carey; and gay lobbyistSteve Elmendorf.

Stachelberg was among a handful ofLGBT advocates who met privately withObama on Monday prior to the signingof the executive order. About a dozenpeople were part of this private group,Stachelberg said.

“Among those were those who joinedthe president on stage and a few of us whohave worked on the EO for the past severalyears,” Stachelberg said. “Brad Sears,Chad Griffi n and I were honored to bepart of that group who had the chance tothank the president for his leadership andcommitment as he had the opportunity tothank us for our advocacy.”

Now that Obama has signed the order,federal contractors are expected to

include explicit protections in their equalemployment opportunity policies forLGBT workers. According to the WilliamsInstitute, the order will protect 34 millionworkers, or about 22 percent of the

Americans workforce.Chief among federal contractors without

explicit LGBT workplace protections isoil-and-gas giant ExxonMobil, which hasreceived more than $1 billion in federalcontracts over the past 10 years. For the17th time, shareholders in June rejecteda resolution to amend the company’spolicies with these protections.

Richard Keil, an ExxonMobil spokesperson,on Saturday told the Blade that company

has “an across-the-board no tolerance policyfor any form of discrimination,” but had noupdates on whether the company wouldchange its policy.

According to the White House, thepart of the executive order barring anti-transgender discrimination in the federalworkforce take effects immediately, butthe component anticipate barring federalcontractors from engaging in anti-LGBTdiscrimination should take effect “earlynext year” after regulations are written bythe Labor Department.

The executive order, which is enforcedby the Labor Department, governsfederal contractors and federally-assisted construction contractors andsubcontractors doing more than $10,000in business with the federal governmenteach year, but doesn’t impact theadministration of federal grants.

Prior to the signing, faith leaders calledon Obama to include an exemption forreligiously affi liated organizations in theexecutive order so they could engage inanti-LGBT discrimination while still beingable to receive federal contractors. After

subsequent pushback from civil rightsorganizations, House Democrats andlegal scholars who called for the exclusionof such language, Obama didn’t include inhis directive any sweeping carve-out for

religious organizations.However, Obama left in Executive

Order 11246 an amendment fromPresident George W. Bush that allowsreligiously affi liated federal contractorsto discriminate on the basis of religion byfavoring workers of the same religion inhiring practices.

LGBT advocates hold differing viewson whether religiously affi liated federalcontractors could continue discriminate

against LGBT workers under the pretext ofreligion, although the general agreementis that it would be unlikely.

Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director ofsocial policy and politics for the centristknown as the Third Way, said thatlanguage could enable a scenario whereLGBT employees could be subject todiscrimination from religously affi liatedfederal contractors, but it would be up forthe courts to decide.

“Just as under Title VII, religiousorganizations will still be able to requiretheir employees to abide by theirreligious tenets,” Erickson Hatalsky said.“That means they can’t fire someone forbeing gay, but they could argue theycould apply a standard to all e mployeesequally that says they cannot be engagedin premarital sex, or marry outside therequirements of the religion. The courtwould then have to determine whetherthey were applying that rule equally toall employees. They can’t be just usingit as a pretext for firing gay people.But they can still prefer employeeswho follow their religious principles,

as long as those principles are neutralwith regard to sexual orientation andapplied equally.”


CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01Obama signs executive order barring anti-LGBT job bias

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM


Advocates lauded PRESIDENT OBAMA for once again taking action on LGBT rights issues.



15/40

Doc examines

marriage fight,black church

Equality Maryland is sponsoring thescreening of “The New Black,” which will takeplace on Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m.at the Chase Brexton Building CommunityMeeting Room, 1111 N. Charles St. inBaltimore. Admission is free.

“The New Black” is a documentaryby Yoruba Richen that tells the story ofhow the African-American community isgrappling with gay rights issues in light of

the marriage equality movement and thefight over civil rights. The film documentsactivists, families and clergy on bothsides of the campaign to legalize gaymarriage and examines homophobia inthe black church and reveals the Christianright-wing strategy of exploiting thisphenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda.

Following the film, panelists will continuethe discussion about LGBT issues in blackcommunities. Among the panelists will beVanessa Bowling, a member of EqualityMaryland’s staff who was involved in theMaryland Black Family Alliance as far backas 2008. Another will be Mark McLaurin,who helped found MBFA and was integralto the work during Question 6.

“We’re excited to screen ‘The New Black’and continue the momentum workingon LGBT issues in black communitiesacross the state,” Keith Thirion, directorof advocacy and programs for EqualityMaryland, told the Blade. “While Maryland’sLGBT community has gained equalmarriage rights and anti-discriminationprotections, much work remains to ensure

everyone can live their full lives free fromdiscrimination. This event is an importantopportunity to reflect on the successes ofthe Question 6 campaign, and discuss thechallenges and opportunities ahead.”

Gay physician wins

AMA Leadership AwardDr. Carl Streed Jr. recently received

the AMA Foundation Excellence inMedicine Leadership Award. Streed hasadvocated for the inclusion of LGBThealth issues in the Johns HopkinsSchools of Medicine, Nursing, andPublic Health curricula and successfullyworked for transgender equity in healthinsurance coverage.

Nationally, Streed has served as the

American Medical Student Association(AMSA) LGBT Policy Coordinator andLiaison, advised the American MedicalAssociation Board of Trustees as amember of the Advisory Committeeon GLBT Issues, and served on aboard of the Gay and Lesbian MedicalAssociation.

“The AMA Foundation Excellence inMedicine Award validates much of thework I and many others have been doingto address LGBT disparities in health care,from medical school training to insurancecoverage,” Streed told the Blade.

Equality Md. celebrates

passage of FAMA Equality Maryland has scheduled a series

of celebrations around the state to mark thepassage of the Fairness for All MarylandersAct. At these casual happy hour celebrationsthere will be food and drink specials and nocover charge. All ages are welcome.

The next celebration will take place inBaltimore on July 29 between 5:30-7:30 p.m. atthe Waterstone Bar and Grille, 311 W. Madison St.

STEVE CHARING

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

BALTIMORE NEWS DIGEST JUL Y 25 , 201 4 • 15

‘The New Black’ is a documentary by YorubaRichen that tells the story of how theAfrican-American community is grapplingwith gay rights issues.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHEN

are you listening?

Streaming live at wamu.org

Edward R. Murrow Awards

earned this year:

Website

Use of Sound

News Documentary

News Series

Sports Reporting, Small Market-WRAU 88.3

Award-Winning Journalism.Insightful Storytelling.


16/40

HIV doctor assigned new post in New York

NEW YORK — Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, an AIDS doctor and activist credited for hison-the-ground work with meningitis vaccines last year in New York City, has beennamed the city’s new assistant health commissioner in charge of the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. He’ll start in September at a $180,000-per-year salary, theNew York Times reports.

At the height of the meningitis outbreak last year among gay and bi men, Daskalakisspent many nights in the city’s sex clubs and bathhouses administering meningitis

vaccines. He had been given the go-ahead to do so after city offi cials found their ownefforts were met with suspicion, the article said.

In his new role, he and his colleagues at the health department hope that he will beable to leverage his acceptance among gay people, and history of taking HIV treatmentinto the trenches, to reach a population that has not always trusted authority. Theyalso hope he will be able to reach marginalized groups like young black and Latino menwho have sex with men but who, for social or cultural reasons, do not identify as gay orbisexual, the Times article said.

Daskalakis takes over one of the largest bureaus within the health department, with200 employees and a $200 million budget, at a critical moment in the history of the virusthat causes AIDS, the Times reports.

Study finds Truvada adherence dif cult to maintain

WASHINGTON — Men and transgender women who have sex with men who tookTruvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) four or more days a week were 100 percentprotected against HIV in a recent study, AIDSmeds reports. However, participantsactually took Truvada that frequently just 33 percent of the time during the 72-weektrial, and overall adherence declined throughout the study.

Daily adherence to Truvada was detected just 12 percent of the time. When consideringall participants who received Truvada, regardless of their adherence, the study showedthat PrEP lowered the risk of acquiring HIV by about half, the HIV care journal reports.

Uptake of Truvada was high at 76 percent, and those at higher risk of HIV were morelikely to take the drug. However, in an accompanying editorial in the Lancet, Dr. Raphael

J. Landovitz of the UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research and Education at the David

Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, asked if suchuptake was high enough, considering all the participants had come from previousclinical trials of PrEP, making them more likely to take the drug than the average personat risk or HIV, the AIDSmeds article said.

One study participant who took Truvada contracted HIV and developed resistance tothe drug.

Publishing their findings in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers from theopen-label extension phase of the iPrEx study (iPrEx OLE) enrolled 1,603 participantsfrom three previous PrEP studies and offered them the chance to take daily Truvada ifthey were HIV negative. Participants were enrolled between June 2011 and June 2012.The study results were also presented at the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2014) in Melbourne, Australia.

Success of fake Grindrprofiles quells criticism

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Earlier this year, San Mateo County Health Systemoffi cials were taken to task by LGBT bloggers and activists for creating falseprofiles on a gay mobile dating application to expand HIV and Hepatitis C testing,though recent numbers highlighting the program’s success shows little dividewithin the health and science community, the San Mateo Daily Journal reports.

San Mateo County health offi cials set up false Grindr profiles and, whencontacted, would provide information about sexually transmitted infections testingrather than the expected response. The practice came to light after the Bay Area

Reporter published a March article that exposed how they were doing outreach.“It is deceptive. It’s also patronizing,” blogged Peter Lawrence Kane of the BoldItalic. “Who wants to click on a hot dude’s profile only to find that it’s actuallysomeone in an offi ce who assumes you’re too irresponsible to take care ofyourself and wants to give you a little talking-to about safe sex.”

San Mateo County’s health offi cials defend the effort to reach a communitythat at one time they had no access, the article said.

In many ways, health offi cials contend going online is a more effective wayto get important information out there rather than through fliers or otheroutreach, the article said.

San Mateo County health offi cials set up false Grindr profiles and, when contacted, wouldprovide information about sexually transmitted infections.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

16 • JULY 25, 2014 HEALTH NEWS

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17/40

Jumping a great wayto smash through afitness plateau

I’m a July baby so this is one of myfavorite months. It’s hot, it’s beach timeand it’s vacation time. What’s not to love?

I’ve been bombarded with tweets andemails about how to drop that last fivepounds just before hitting the beachvacation. It seems as if half of D.C. has hit

the same plateau at the same time.When it comes to shedding excess fat,

my favorite and most effective exercisesinvolve jumping. Whether it’s box jumps,knee tucks, jumping rope, lunge jumps,bounds or one-legged jumps, I love to puton some House of Pain and jump around.As you can see there are a lot of jumpsout there and I love them all.

Jumping is great because it requires noequipment, limited space and it burns alot of calories. Jumping is one of the onlyexercises that truly uses every muscle in

your body and gets your heart rate upfast. Besides blasting those calories, italso fires your type two fast twitch musclefibers, which helps you build muscle andmakes you better at sports. When I’mtrying to stay camera- and beach ready, Iintertwine a set of 10-20 explosive jumpsbetween each of my weighted exercises.If I’m jumping rope, I just make it a solidminute of skipping as fast as I can. Thisgives my body that high intensity calorieand fat blast I need. My two most effective

jumping exercises for burning caloriesare tuck jumps and lunge jumps.

Tuck jumps: No, tuck jumps havenothing to do with a drag queen quicklygetting ready for stage. These are jumpsused by every track sprinter in the world.

Start by standing with your feetshoulder width apart. Then start bendingdown at your knees and waist to gainmomentum, jump up as high as youcan while simultaneously shooting yourknees up toward your chest. This is a lotharder than it sounds. When starting,perform each jump individually to makesure your form is correct. As you advance

in skill and conditioning, your goal shouldbe to repeat the jumps as quickly andpowerfully as possible.

Bring out your inner Olympic gymnast.Think that you want your feet on the

ground as little amount of time aspossible. If you have knee issues, I wouldslowly work my way up to these or stick toa fast squat for a variation. As always, letpain be your guide. If it hurts, don’t do it.

Lunge jumps: Time to step your gameup. Lunge jumps and I have a love-haterelationship because they are one of thehardest exercises I do and they alwaysleave me falling on the floor. Still, you

should try them.Start in the bottom portion of a lungingposition: one foot about two normalstep lengths in front of the other withboth knees and hips bent at 90-degreeangles. From this position, push into thefloor to explode your entire body into theair while switching one leg in the frontand the other in the back. The landingposition is the same as the starting, butthe feet have alternated.

This takes a lot of balance, so take yourtime. If it sounds hard, that’s because it is.Before starting this exercise, make sureyour core is very strong (see my favoritecore exercise on my Coach G FitnessYouTube channel) and you are comfortablewith normal bodyweight lunges.

Progress yourself from traditional lungesto this exercise by starting to perform yournormal lunges as fast as possible. Youeventually will build the power and balanceto get some serious airtime.

Adding in jumping exercises to yournormal workout and healthy nutritionalregimen can help you unlock the bodyyou want. Remember to start slowly

and eventually advance yourself to themore diffi cult jumps. Incorporate theseexercises into your workout and you’llhave those last stubborn pounds of fatrunning back in the closet.

Tuck jumps and lunge jumps are great cardioexercises.

GERARD BURLEY is a D.C.-based per-sonal trainer. Reach him via @CoachGFit [email protected].

Blasting those final five

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Executive order is latestpro-LGBT move by Obama

President Obama on Monday signedthe executive order barring anti-gay biasby federal contractors that many of ushave written about and asked him forsince 2008 when he first promised to doit. We need to thank him for keeping his

promise and taking another step towardsecuring full civil and human rights forthe LGBT community. We have come along way during his presidency.

This executive order is not a new initia-tive. What the president has done is toadd sexual orientation and gender iden-tity to a list of protected categories thatwere applied to federal contractors in anexecutive order first approved by Presi-dent Lyndon Johnson in 1965. As reportedin the New York Times, “He is also addinggender identity as a protected category to

a 1969 directive by President Richard M.Nixon that applies to federal employees,which was later amended by PresidentBill Clinton to include sexual orientation.”

This is a great step forward but it ap-pears that while this EO applies to fed-eral contracts it does not apply to federalgrants whose criteria are usually left toeach individual agency. The LGBT com-munity takes heart that we have been

heard and the EO does not carve outany new religious exemptions that don’talready exist for other protected catego-

ries. It is estimated this executive order

applies to 24,000 companies that are des-ignated as federal contractors and whose28 million workers make up about a fifthof the American workforce.

Monday’s signing was done against abackdrop of the fight for legislation includ-ing ENDA ongoing for many years. Thatfight and the issue of exemptions for reli-gious organizations have been impacted bythe recent Supreme Court decision in theHobby Lobby case. The first comprehensivelegislation to ban discrimination against theLGBT community was introduced by Bella S.

Abzug (D-N.Y.) in 1974. That legislation didn’tpass and there has ensued a long and some-times bitter battle to pass the EmploymentNon-Discrimination Act, which first passedthe House of Representatives in 2007 butdidn’t get through the Senate. This past year,it passed the Senate but looks like it will failin the House so we will be back to squareone in the next Congress.

President Obama ran in 2008 and

made a number of promises to the LGBTcommunity including repealing “Don’tAsk, Don’t Tell” and signing this execu-

tive order to get support in the election

and it clearly worked. The problem manyin the community have had is that everymove forward on his part including mak-ing these issues a priority once he was inoffi ce seemed to coincide with a diffi cultelection, either the mid-term congres-sional or his own reelection. Forwardmomentum seemed designed politicallyto recharge and energize the LGBT com-munity to vote in and raise more moneyfor a coming election. That strategy hasworked and includes his well-timed deci-sion to evolve, or as some suggested re-

volve, as he once before did support it, onthe issue of marriage equality.As someone deeply involved in the po-

litical process for more than 40 years I findthis strategy understandable. As an activ-ist it is my hope as we move beyond theObama presidency we will move LGBT is-sues away from being just a political foot-ball and that they will be as ingrained inthe continuing fight for civil and humanrights as are the fights for the civil rights ofAfrican Americans and women’s rights. Wealso need to move the fight for immigra-tion reform away from the politics of themoment to the politics of full inclusion.

President Obama will always be seen asa hero to the LGBT community for how farwe have come during his presidency. He isby nature a decent man. But let us hopethat his elections will be the last in whichthe issues of full civil and human rights forthe LGBT community are even debatedin the Democratic Party. Unfortunately atthis time we can’t say the same for the Re-publican Party but we can always hope fora better future even there.

We know as we have seen the arc of

history with regard to civil rights andwomen’s rights that we will always haveto be vigilant to maintain any forwardmomentum. But that will be a differentfight thanks to this president.

18 • JULY 25, 2014 INSIDE LGBT WASHINGTON

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

V O L U M E 4 5 I S S U E 3 0

The LGBT community takes heart that

we have been heard andthe EO does not carve out anynew religious exemptions that

don’t already exist forother protected categories.

EDITORIAL CARTOON

PETER ROSENSTEIN is a D.C.-based LGBT rightsand Democratic Party activist. He writes regularlyfor the Blade.

Thank you, Mr. President


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Award-winning actress anirreplaceable force of nature

An inimitable, outrageously funny, un-flinchingly honest, irreplaceable force ofnature has left us. On July 17, Elaine Stritch,the Tony and Emmy Award-winning, star ofstage, screen and TV, died at age 89 at herMichigan home after living and performingfor years at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City.

Stritch, a gay icon, was beloved for her

acting talent, performance of StephenSondheim’s music, perfectly aimed rep-artee, and sartorial audacity. (Who elsecould have pulled off dressing in tights,a white shirt, sans pants?) Straight andqueer audiences from Broadway to Holly-wood, and all points in between, are feel-ing her loss. Stritch, who struggled withstage fright, alcoholism and diabetes andkept performing until nearly the end of

her life, was a “true trailblazer,” said LizaMinnelli. “Her talent and spunk will begreatly missed by so many of us.”

It’s hard to imagine a time when

Stritch wasn’t a star. She first appearedon Broadway in 1946 in “Loco.” Stritch’smany stage roles in her nearly seven de-cades in show business included: Gracein William Inge’s play “Bus Stop” in 1955;a cruise ship social director in the 1961Noel Coward musical “Sail Away” (in apart that “The Master” shaped for her);

Parthy Ann Hawks in the 1994 revival of“Show Boat”; an alcoholic in a 1996 pro-duction of Edward Albee’s play “A DelicateBalance.” And, who could ever forget herindelible performance of the Sondheimclassic “The Ladies Who Lunch” in theoriginal New York production of “Compa-ny” in 1970? Hearing her sing this iconicsong, whatever your sexuality or gender,you can’t help but dissect and identify

with the middle-aged au courant Manhat-tan women in the show.

Her last Broadway appearance was asMadame Armfeldt in the 2010 revival of the

Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little NightMusic.” In the same year, Stritch was paro-died on “The Simpsons.” At camp, Lisa Simp-son learns to make wallets with Stritch andAndrew Lloyd Webber. “That’s worth beingin the business for 150 years,” Stritch said.

Stritch was no stranger to the screen.Her many films include “A Farewell to

Arms” (1957), “September” (1987), “Au-tumn in New York” (2000) and “Monster-in-Law” (2005). Woody Allen, who directed“September,” respected Stritch’s talent,but knew of her reputation for being, attimes, hard to work w

washingtonblade.com, volume 45, issue 30, july 25, 2014

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