The Hyattsville City, Md., Council voted 9-0 Monday to approve the Hyattsville Human Rights Act, a bill that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based upon a person's age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or physical characteristics.
Mayor Marc Tartaro and Ward Four Councilmember Edouard Haba, were absent, but both supported the Human Rights Act as written, according to Ward 3 Councilmember Patrick Paschall, the chief sponsor of the measure.
Hyattsville.org
In passing the Human Rights Act, the city of less than 18,000 joins Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County and Montgomery County in passing LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination legislation, which is seen as a first step in the fight to gain statewide protections. Currently, a little under half of the state's population lives in jurisdictions with such protections.
Bills granting statewide protections to transgender individuals have passed the Maryland House of Delegates, but have failed to gain the necessary votes in the Maryland Senate.
Paschall, also a senior policy counsel at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, says that passing a law reflecting Hyattsville's diversity has been his priority since being elected in May.
''The very first thing I wanted to do, the signature initiative I wanted to put my name on, was the Human Rights Act,'' says Paschall. ''We have the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of civil rights in Maryland, and we can send a message to Annapolis that residents overwhelmingly support gender-identity-inclusive laws.''
Carrie Evans, executive director of LGBT rights organization Equality Maryland, was among those who testified in support of the legislation, along with several Hyattsville residents, including LGBT-rights activist Candace Gingrich, associate director of the Human Rights Campaign's Youth and Campus Engagement Program and half-sister of former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In her testimony, Evans noted the importance of passing local laws to build momentum at the state level.
''Passing this ordinance in Hyattsville will make measurable differences in people's lives,'' Evans testified. ''Equality Maryland is part of the Maryland Coalition for Trans Equality, a coalition of more than 50 organizations, working on passing similar protections at the state level and your passage of this local law will help greatly in that effort.''
Passage of the Human Rights Act also makes Hyattsville the first small city in Maryland and the first jurisdiction in Prince George's County to provide nondiscrimination protections to transgender individuals. Transgender activists and allies have been trying to get Prince George's County – as the last remaining county in the state that can pass legislation independently – to approve protections similar to those included in Hyattsville's Human Rights Act, but Prince George's County Council leadership, particularly Council Chair Andrea C. Harrison, has been blocking a vote on such action.
Dr. Dana Beyer, executive director of Gender Rights Maryland, which is focused on passing transgender-inclusive protections at the state level, says Gender Rights Maryland is monitoring pending leadership elections in Prince George's County, but cautions that any leadership change will not necessarily ensure the five votes needed for passage of any transgender-inclusive legislation through the County Council.
Beyer notes, however, that polling by LGBT activists during the 2012 marriage-equality fight showed that more than 60 percent of Prince George's County residents support gender-identity protections, far more – at least at the time – than those who supported marriage equality.
The biggest fight for gender identity protections, says Beyer, remains at the state level, which may require a reshuffling of senate committees by Senate President Thomas V. ''Mike'' Miller (D-Anne Arundel, Prince George's counties) or the threat of a primary challenge to some of the Democrats on the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee who have been blocking gender-identity protections.
Paschall says he expects to see other municipalities take steps to pass protections for transgender residents in the coming months, and is calling on fellow lawmakers across Maryland to show leadership on the issue. He adds that there is ''no excuse'' for the Prince George's County Council not to pass similar legislation.
''Until we see a county law passed – and, more importantly, a state law passed – we as government leaders have a responsibility and an opportunity,'' says Paschall, ''to provide protections for our transgender citizens.''
...moreNot long ago, I submitted myself to a full physical at my doctor's office after much concerned haranguing from husband and family. It's heartwarming that so many were concerned for me as I entered my prime heart-attack years of middle age.
I wasn't particularly nervous given that my primary health problems come down to tennis-related knee and arm pain, along with stress levels that occasionally push me into drama queen territory. But the blood pressure was fine and the heart seemed strong, so I was feeling relaxed until near the end when we got to the blood draw and my doctor mentioned all the different things I would be tested for.
I was getting an HIV test. And that's the moment I stopped being relaxed.
Just to be clear, the routinization of HIV testing as part of our everyday medical care is something I deeply believe in and have diligently worked for in the past. Getting the test myself should be as routine for me as it should be for the entire medical system.
But it's not.
Thinking about it rationally, I know I shouldn't be reverting to my early 1990's emotional state at the idea of having an HIV test. The test should have been just another box checked on the list, along with liver function and a prostate exam, two things I actually should be more worried about at this point in my life.
But a part of me has always been irrational about getting an HIV test because a part of me believes that I'm supposed to have HIV.
Shortly after World AIDS Day on Sunday, a transcript of an October 1982 press conference at the Reagan White House made the rounds on Facebook. Responding to a reporter's question on the emerging AIDS epidemic, press secretary Larry Speakes kicked off a series of jokes about homosexuals, to the merriment of much of the White House press corps. Because fags dying from an unknown disease was then the height of Washingtonian, inside-the-Beltway humor. And it happened more than once.
Transcript of 1982 White House press conference
As sickening as it is read from a distance of 30 years, it was even harder to hear those things at the time they happened. I was a 14-year-old, closeted, high school student in rural Kentucky when Ronald Reagan's top spokesman responded to a plague with a fag joke. Those same jokes and more — ''What's 'gay' stand for? Got AIDS Yet?'' — from my government, my school, my friends and even sometimes my family drilled the message deep into me: To be gay is to be diseased.
So getting tested in the 1990s was always a fearful experience for me, not only because I knew I had done things at times that put me at risk, but because over the years so many of my friends seroconverted. Too many of them died. No matter how much I worked in HIV prevention, no matter the progress I made in maturing into a happy homosexual man, some part of me has always thought of HIV as inevitable. After all, that's what I'd always been told.
In response to that White House transcript, I mentioned on Facebook that it's a miracle my generation grew up even halfway normal, at least those of us who got the chance to grow up. That's why I'm so incredibly thankful for the changes we've seen over the past decade and to live in a time when, despite the many challenges that remain, men like Larry Speakes and the 1982 White House press corps have been left behind in history — today's LGBT kids will learn much different lessons than I did.
And perhaps after another decade or two, that small part of me stuck in the past will finally accept that nothing is inevitable.
Sean Bugg is the editor emeritus of Metro Weekly. He can be reached at // .. Follow him on Twitter at @seanbugg.
...moreAbout 70 people, lit candles in hand, gathered Sunday evening at the ''Pillar of Fire,'' a sculpture at 14th and S Streets NW that marks the location of the first Whitman-Walker Clinic – now Whitman-Walker Health – D.C.'s front line at the dawn the AIDS epidemic and beyond.
World AIDS Day, held annually Dec. 1 since 1988, this year emphasized ''Shared Responsibility: Strengthening Results for an AIDS-Free Generation,'' a theme underscored by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), echoing statements he made when the District became the first U.S. city in 22 years to host the XIX International AIDS Conference in June 2012.
2013 World AIDS Day Candlelight Memorial with Councilman Jim Graham (center) and Mayor Vincent Gray (center right)
(Photo by Ward Morrison)
''The day is coming, ladies and gentlemen, when we will have eradicated the infection and eradicated full-blown AIDS in our society, and we want to be the first to do that, here in the District of Columbia,'' Gray said, noting that the District's HIV-infection rate, while still more than twice the rate considered to be an epidemic, has dropped from 3 percent to 2.4 percent due to efforts by District health officials and community health centers specializing in HIV/AIDS care like Whitman-Walker Health, to encourage people to get tested and seek treatment. ''We are going in the right direction.''
Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), David Grosso (I-At large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) were among the local officials attending the vigil. Graham, who served as the executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic from 1984 to 1999, eulogized the former clients and health workers – some of whom were also infected with the virus - who had worked at the clinic and dedicated their lives to serving those less fortunate than themselves and fighting AIDS.
''It's always interesting to me … that World AIDS Day is celebrated a couple of days after Thanksgiving, when we're all so grateful for so many blessings in our lives,'' Graham said, extending his thanks to several of the current employees of Whitman-Walker who dotted the crowd. ''I know I am grateful for Whitman-Walker Health, and everything that is going on every single day here.''
Whitman-Walker Health's Executive Director Don Blanchon tried to rally those in attendance to reach out to those who could be at risk of infection by encouraging them to know their HIV status and provide support for those who may be out of the reach of places like Whitman-Walker.
''On World AIDS Day, we think globally, obviously, but I want you to act locally,'' Blanchon said. ''And I mean that: Get tested, know your status, practice safe sex, and one of the many things you can do to help us right now … is take the effort to reach out to one human being in your life, and bring them in to get tested. There's nothing more important than knowing your status. And if you're living with HIV, stay in treatment, come and see us. We're absolutely there when you need it.''
Near the close of the candlelight vigil, Rabbi Laurie Green of Bet Mishpachah, a local LGBT Jewish congregation, led the group in a short prayer and lighting of a menorah to celebrate the fifth day of Hanukkah. Following the menorah lighting, attendees were invited to speak aloud names of those lost to HIV/AIDS over the years. Rev. Courtenay Miller, the senior pastor of the Norbeck Communty Church in Silver Spring, Md., who also offered prayers throughout the vigil, then led the crowd in singing the first verse of ''Amazing Grace,'' with the last notes echoing in the dark night air as the candles were extinguished and the attendees went their separate ways.
...moreOn his show Monday, O'Reilly praised the antigay Alliance Defending Freedom for helping him fight back in the supposed war on Christmas.
The newly out Olympic diver is dating one of the most prominent gay screenwriters in Hollywood.
Mad magazine's year-end '20 Dumbest People, Events, and Things' issue includes Russia among the worst of 2013 for the country’s appalling treatment of LGBT people.
Obama made the announcement when speaking before a group of HIV/AIDS advocates at a White House event observing World AIDS Day in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
“The United States should be at the forefront of new discoveries in how to put HIV into long-term remission without requiting live-long therapies, or better yet, eliminate it completely,†Obama said.
In a fact sheet published after the event, the White House clarified the $100 million would be distributed over the course of three years and would catalyze further research for new therapies to improve outcomes for people with HIV.
Read More at Washington Blade!
This musical has a bunch of wickedly subversive undercurrents that belies its fastidious Edwardian trappings, making it much more to my personal taste than, say, Edwin Drood. The most obvious undercurrent is right there in the title â€" how to be gentlemanly when pursuing serial murder â€" but there are others, including gay seduction in […]
The post Theatre Review: “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
After much speculation about his sexuality, 19-year-old British diver Tom Daley admitted in a YouTube video  he is dating a man.  Daley tweeted the video to his more than 2.4 million Twitter followers early Monday, according to the Huffington Post.  In the video Daley confesses he met the guy this past spring and it “made […]
The post Olympic Bronze Medalist Diver Tom Daley Comes Out on YouTube (Video) appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
Paul Walker, best known for starring in The Fast and Furious franchise, was tragically killed in a car accident this Saturday afternoon in Santa Clarita, California. Â He was 40 years old. Â TMZ was the first to report the news that Walker was a passenger in a Porsche when the driver somehow lost control of […]
The post Paul Walker Dies in Car Crash appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
Ann Hampton Callaway is one of the most powerful singers in cabaret, and she sustains that power throughout her entire new cabaret act, “Songs I Wish I’d Writtenâ€. A songwriter herself â€" best known for writing and singing the theme from the TV hit The Nanny, as well as three songs for Barbra Streisand â€" […]
The post Cabaret Review: Ann Hampton Callaway appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
This year at GaySocialites.com, we’re thankful for you. Without you, we wouldn’t be here today! The GaySocialites family wishes you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
The post Happy Thanksgiving from GaySocialites.com appeared first on GaySocialites.com.
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