Author Archives: Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Gay DC psychiatrist named head of APA

Saul Levin, gay news, Washington Blade

Dr. Saul Levin was named CEO and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Dr. Saul Levin, who last year became the first openly gay head of the D.C. Department of Health, was named on May 15 as the new chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association.

An APA spokesperson said Levin, a psychiatrist who has specialized in substance abuse treatment, becomes the first known out gay person to head the APA, which was founded in 1844 and represents more than 33,000 psychiatric physicians in the U.S. and abroad.

The APA serves as a “national medical specialty society whose physician members specialize in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and research of mental illnesses including substance use disorders,” according to a statement on the organization’s website.

“I have known Saul for over 20 years,” said Dr. James H. Scully Jr., the current APA CEO and Medical Director who is retiring in the fall, when Levin will take over his duties following a transition period set to begin in mid-July.

“He brings extraordinary intelligence, vision and great energy to the challenges ahead for our profession,” Scully said in a statement. “I look forward to working together with him as we transition to new leadership.”

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who appointed Levin as interim director of the DOH last July, issued a statement on May 15 congratulating Levin on his new appointment.

“While this is a great loss for the District government, it is a great gain for the American Psychiatric Association,” Gray said. “Dr. Levin has done an exemplary job leading DOH in this interim period, and I wish him the best in his future endeavors and thank him for his good work for us.”

The APA has played a key role in the advancement of LGBT rights since the early 1970s when, following years of advocacy by gay activists, the organization removed homosexuality from its longstanding classification as a mental illness in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders.

Last December, the APA removed Gender Identity Disorder (GID) from its latest updated edition of the DSM and replaced it with a condition known as Gender Dysphoria.

Transgender rights advocates have said the removal of GID from the APA’s DSM is comparable to the APA’s removal of homosexuality from its classification as a mental disorder in 1973.

Levin is scheduled to remain in his DOH post until July 12, when he will join the Arlington, Va., based APA as CEO-designate, according to an APA statement. He will work closely with Scully until Scully retires in the fall, “at which point Dr. Levin will transition to his role as CEO and Medical Director of APA,” the statement says.

The APA statement says Levin has had a “long history” of working on APA committees and projects beginning in 1987, when he first became a member of the organization. Among other duties, Levin has served on the APA’s Political Action Committee Board, its Scientific and Program Committee and as a consultant to its Finance and Budget Committee.

A native of South Africa, Levin received his medical degree at a leading medical school in Johannesburg before completing his residency in psychiatry at the University of California’s Davis Medical Center.

Levin joined the staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he later became coordinator of a program within the department’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Following that position he returned to school, receiving a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1994.

After that, Levin started a heath care consulting company for which he served as president for the next 10 years.

He next served as president and CEO of a U.S.-based educational trust that provided scholarships to South African black youth before becoming vice president of the American Medical Association for Science, Medicine, and Public Health.

After joining the staff at the D.C. Department of Health, Levin, among other things, served as Senior Deputy Director of the department’s Addiction and Recovery Administration.

Levin was in San Francisco this week attending the APA’s annual national conference and couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

HUD secretary speaks to gay Realtors

Shaun Donovan

‘HUD and this administration have taken historic steps in the area of housing to ensure that we fulfill our nation’s commitment to equality,’ said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told members of a gay Realtors group on May 15 that HUD will release next month a first-of-its-kind study of housing discrimination against same-sex couples.

In remarks before a meeting in Washington of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals, Donovan said the upcoming release of the study comes after HUD has adopted during the Obama administration a series of policies and rules that seek to ban housing-related discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in federal housing programs.

“HUD and this administration have taken historic steps in the area of housing to ensure that we fulfill our nation’s commitment to equality,” Donovan said.

He praised the NAGLREP for its successful effort to persuade the National Association of Realtors, the nation’s largest trade association, to amend its code of ethics in 2010 to oppose discrimination in the real estate profession based on sexual orientation.

Boca Raton, Fla., gay Realtor Jeff Berger, founder and chair of NAGLREP, said that at the group’s request, the NAR’s Professional Standards Committee and board of directors last year approved a proposal to further amend its code of ethics by adding gender identity as a protected class. The NAR’s membership is expected to vote on the gender identity proposal at the NAR’s national meeting later this year in San Francisco.

Donovan said the HUD study of housing discrimination against same-sex couples is based on 6,833 email responses from participants of a survey conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the country from June through October 2011.

“I know it will be an important study both for what it tells us and for the increase in light that it shines on this problem,” he said.

Earlier this year HUD reached what Donovan called an historic legal settlement with Bank of America over an allegation that the bank’s lending division refused to approve a mortgage for a lesbian couple based on the couple’s sexual orientation and marital status.

According to Donovan, the couple provided all of the necessary loan application documents. He said Bank of America initially had no problem with the applicant listing her partner’s mother as a co-applicant on the loan.

“Then one business day prior to closing B&A denied the mortgage because it did not consider the loan applicant and the co-applicant directly related because the state didn’t recognize same-sex marriage,” Donovan said.

He said after HUD opened an investigation into loan denial, Bank of America agreed to a settlement in which it would pay the maximum possible penalty. It also agreed to “notify its residential mortgage loan originators, processors and underwriters of this agreement with HUD,” said Donovan.

“The agreement is the first enforcement action taken against a lender under this new rule and sends a strong signal to the lending industry that we will not tolerate discrimination in HUD programs on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status,” he said.

Berger said NAGLREP provides a national referral service for helping members of the LGBT community and others find LGBT or LGBT-friendly real estate agents. He said the organization has real estate agents and professionals in the real estate industry throughout the country, including in the D.C. area. Information about the referral service is available at naglrep.com.

Gay API leaders meet with Obama

Gregory Cendana, gay news, gay politics dc

Gregory Cendana (Courtesy photo)

Two gay men and a lesbian were among 15 leaders of Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations that met with President Obama at the White House on May 8 to discuss immigration reform legislation pending in Congress.

The groups headed by the gay male and lesbian participants at the White House meeting support including language in the legislation that would provide equal immigration rights to foreign born same-sex partners of American citizens.

“I was proud to share with President Obama that I was gay and one of many LGBT Americans who supported him,” said Gregory Cendana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance of the AFL-CIO.

“APALA members and coalition partners…will continue to mobilize so Congress passes a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a fair, just and affordable roadmap to citizenship, reunites families, including siblings and same-sex partners, as well as provides worker protections for all regardless of status,” Cendana said in a statement.

But Cendana and Tom Hayashi, executive director of the Asian American group OCA National Center, were cautious about disclosing whether their respective groups would agree to drop the bi-national same-sex couple provision if they thought it would prevent the bill from passing.

Miriam Yeung, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, who also participated in the meeting with Obama, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

All three are identified as gay or lesbian on their respective organizations’ websites. Yeung is identified in her staff biography has having worked for 10 years in various positions at the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

“I share President Obama’s commitment of keeping commonsense immigration reform a legislative priority, and he reaffirmed this during our meeting,” Cendana told the Blade in an email.

“We must remind ourselves that we are at the beginning of a longer legislative process where we have opportunities to fight for improvements that reflect the values and principles of family unity, inclusion and fairness,” he said.

Hayashi told the Blade in a separate email that while he and the organization he heads support a gay-inclusive immigration bill he understands that a “significant political challenge” may be involved in the effort to pass such a bill.

“The personal and organizational view on immigration and other social justice issues is that we must be ready for a fight in the long haul and to leverage from the incremental gains by building momentum to achieve change,” he said.

Chances for passage of a gay-inclusive immigration bill came under question earlier this week when Republican senators threatened to drop their support for a compromise immigration measure if Democrats added two proposed amendments that allow gay Americans to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency in the U.S.

Obama has expressed support for including a same-sex couple provision in the immigration bill but has hinted that it may not be possible to obtain the provision in the current legislation.

“[A]s is true with every bill, if there are things that end up being left out in this bill, or things that I want to take out of a bill, but I if it’s meeting those core criteria around a comprehensive immigration bill that I’m looking for, then we go back at it and we fix what’s not there and we continually improve what’s been presented,” he said at a news conference during his May 3 trip to Costa Rica.

Steve Ralls, a spokesperson for the LGBT advocacy group Immigration Equality, said a vote on the bill in the full Senate was not expected to take place until the end of June.

New AIDS group debuts as NAPWA successor

Frank Oldham, NAPWA, National Association of People With AIDS, National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, gay news, Washington Blade

Frank Oldham, Jr. is the former CEO of NAPWA, which closed in bankruptcy earlier this year. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

A newly created national coalition called Pozitively Healthy will advocate for people with HIV and AIDS following the closing in February of the 30-year-old National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), according to the coalition’s organizers.

In a May 10 statement, organizers said the new coalition will be an arm of the Washington, D.C.-based national AIDS group HealthHIV, which will manage the coalition’s finances and infrastructure.

“Pozitively Healthy’s mission is to ensure the strong independent voice of the 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States,” the statement says.

It says the coalition will advocate for “access to quality health care and the most impactful prevention, care and treatment services in this era of health reform implementation.”

The statement says organizations, including the Names Project Foundation associated with the national AIDS Quilt, and AIDS-related publications will be a part of the coalition in addition to individuals.

“Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Pozitively Healthy coalition will develop and drive an advocacy and education agenda to address issues impacting People Living With HIV/AIDS, with special attention to African-American MSM [men who have sex with men], women, and transgender populations,” the statement says.

Brian Hujdich, executive director of HealthHIV, said HealthHIV and organizers of Pozitively Healthy are inviting AIDS activists and their supporters from throughout the country to apply for membership on a national steering committee created to set the coalition’s agenda and mission.

He said organizers are also inviting activists and others supportive of the coalition’s efforts to become members of the coalition. He said membership is free. Information about Pozitively Healthy and a sign-up form to become a member is available at HealthHIV.org.

Five members of the steering committee, which had 16 members as of early this week, are former officials at NAPWA, including NAPWA’s former executive director and CEO Frank Oldham.

Veteran Washington State AIDS activist Judi Billings, a former NAPWA board chair, has been named co-chair of the Pozitively Healthy steering committee.

David Waggoner, founder and publisher of the Albany, N.Y.-based national AIDS magazine A&U, has been named as the other co-chair.

The prominent role being played by former NAPWA officials and staffers prompted AIDS activists and bloggers Michael Petrelis of San Francisco and Greg Milward of Wisconsin to raise concern, saying events leading up to NAPWA’s financial collapse and bankruptcy took place under their watch.

With creditors owed more than $750,000, NAPWA filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at the time it announced it was shutting its doors permanently in February.

Oldham announced his resignation from his post as NAPWA’s executive director and CEO in October and left the organization in November before news of the impending bankruptcy surfaced. A document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Maryland lists Oldham as owing NAPWA more than $80,000 in “accounts payable.”

Oldham and all other former officials at NAPWA have declined to comment on any of the details that surfaced in the public records associated with the bankruptcy filing.

Stephen Bailous, NAPWA’s former deputy executive director and a current member of Pozitively Healthy’s steering committee, told the Blade shortly after the bankruptcy filing that NAPWA’s financial problems stemmed from the organization’s difficulty in raising funds during the downturn in the economy, which he said led to a mounting debt.

Hujdich of HealthHIV told the Blade that Oldham, Billings and the other former NAPWA officials were named to the Pozitively Healthy steering committee because of their years of experience in AIDS-related matters and their distinguished record of advocacy for people with AIDS.

He said that similar to all members of the steering committee, the former NAPWA officials’ role in the coalition would be limited to policy and advocacy matters.

“We’re handling the management of it so that we’ll handle everything financial and any infrastructure with regards to how to help support it,” Hujdich said.

“As it relates to the way NAPWA was managed, none of the former NAPWA board or staff members that are part of the coalition are connected in any way to the running of the coalition financially,” he said. “And so they have no role in anything fiscal.”

According to Hujdich, Pozitively Healthy will operate as an all-volunteer entity, with a membership and most steering committee members located throughout the country.

Added Hujdich, “There shouldn’t be an issue about their involvement. And all the more reason — not just those who were involved with NAPWA but others who are long committed to HIV advocacy — why wouldn’t we want to include their voice and give them an opportunity to do this?”

Just three days after the announcement of the creation of Pozitively Healthy, Oldham testified on behalf of the new coalition at a D.C. City Council hearing on Tuesday.

The hearing, before the Council’s Committee on Health, reviewed the city’s implementation of President Obama’s healthcare reform program related to insurance exchanges created to enable consumers to select affordable health insurance policies.

Trans birth certificate bill set for hearing

D.C. Council, Phil Mendelson, David Catania, Washington Blade, Gay News

D.C. Council members Phil Mendelson and David Catania (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Two D.C. Council committees were scheduled to hold a joint hearing Thursday, May 16, on a bill that would enable transgender people to obtain a new rather than amended birth certificate to reflect their new gender.

The JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013 was co-introduced by seven Council members, including Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and Council member David Catania (I-At-Large).

Another five Council members, including Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, leaving Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) as the only one on the 13-member Council not to either introduce or co-sponsor the bill.

The bill calls for amending the city’s Vital Records Act of 1981 “to require the Registrar to issue a new certificate of birth designating a new gender for any individual who provides a written request and signed affidavit from a licensed health-care provider that the individual has undergone a gender transition, to require that an original an original certificate be sealed when a new certificate is issued.”

The bill also exempts an individual from an existing city law requiring that a name change application be published in a local newspaper if the name change is “requested in conjunction with a request to change the individual’s gender designation.”

Representatives of the D.C. Trans Coalition, which has taken the lead role in lobbying for the bill, and the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, were expected to testify at the hearing and to call for some changes in the bill’s wording.

Gray holds LGBT Youth Summit

Vince Gray, Washington D.C., Gay News, Washington Blade

D.C. Mayor Vince Gray. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

About 80 people turned out on Saturday, May 11, for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s First Annual LGBT Youth Summit, which was held at the Eastern Market’s meeting hall on Capitol Hill.

Those attending the event appeared to be equally divided between high school age youth and adults, including city officials, teachers and school administrators.

Gray served as moderator of the event, presenting opening remarks outlining the city’s policies and laws that support LGBT equality and fielding questions from the youth.

“We had modest goals – that is to give the youth a chance to be able to express who they are and to talk about some of the challenges of what it means to be gay, bisexual, transgender, and lesbian in our city,” Gray told the Blade after the summit ended.

“And the second goal was to be able to communicate that the mayor’s office, the highest office in this government, is not going to tolerate any kind of discrimination and bias in the city,” he said.

Among the city officials that spoke at the event were Sterling Washington, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs; Elliot Imse, an official with the Office of Human Rights; and Sgt. Matthew Mahl, acting supervisor of the D.C. police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.

Imse said the Office of Human Rights has launched an anti-bullying program that allows youth, including students, to file complaints against people who bully them.

Also speaking at the event was Andrew Barnett, executive director of the D.C. LGBT youth advocacy and services group SMYAL.

DeQuan Barclift, a 10th grade student at Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts, said he experienced bullying beginning in the third grade.

“I’ve been called the famous ‘F’ word for faggot,” he said. “I’m used to the word. It doesn’t affect me.”

Barclift added, “If anyone here has been bullied my advice to you would be hold your head up.”

He said he’s had a more positive experience in high school, noting that he recently wrote a letter to his school newsletter telling about his coming out.

“I got more positive feedback than negative feedback,” he said.

Will ‘land swap’ displace LGBT Center again?

Reeves Building, D.C. Center, gay news, Washington Blade

Reeves Building (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

As the D.C. LGBT Community Center gets ready to move into its new home in the Reeves Center municipal building at 14th and U Street, N.W. unconfirmed reports have surfaced that the city is considering turning the building over to a developer as part of a high stakes land swap.

According to an article in the local blog Greater Greater Washington, the Akridge development company would demolish the Reeves building under the terms of the land swap to make way for an upscale condominium and retail development project in the highly desirable U Street, N.W. corridor.

The city, in return, would obtain from Akridge vacant land it owns in the Buzzards Point section of Southwest Washington near the Anacostia River, which would become the site for a new stadium for the D.C. United Soccer team.

“I don’t know anything about it so I’m not going to comment at this time,” said LGBT Center President Michael Sessa, who earlier this year signed a 15-year lease for the Center’s rental of space in the Reeves building.

Although the city would most likely provide some compensation to the Center for the early termination of its lease, the Center would be forced to undergo another search for a home at a time when property values are rising sharply in the city.

Greater Greater Washington and other news outlets have reported that a land swap involving the Reeves Center and other older city buildings to facilitate the building of a soccer stadium was under discussion between city officials, Akridge, and D.C. United. But the news outlets have not identified their sources for the reports.

“We do not comment on anonymously sourced articles,” said Darrell Pressley, a spokesperson for the D.C. Department of General Services, which oversees city properties.

But Pressley added, “We are continuing our discussions with D.C. United about a stadium and we’re hopeful about their future in the District. Commenting beyond that is premature at this point.”

Prosecutor offers reduced charge in murder case

1630 Fuller St., N.W., The Mozart, gay news, Washington Blade

The victim was stabbed to death in his apartment at 1630 Fuller St., N.W. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Prosecutors have offered to lower the murder charge against a 21-year-old D.C. man arrested in February for allegedly stabbing his 72-year-old former roommate, Howard Venable, to death in exchange for a guilty plea.

At a May 8 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Holly Schick, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the government would lower the charge against David Jamal Wilson from second-degree murder while armed to voluntary manslaughter while armed if Wilson agrees to a guilty plea by May 31.

Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr. scheduled another hearing for May 31, at which time Wilson is expected to disclose through his attorney whether he accepts the offer.

A D.C. police homicide detective testified at a Feb. 20 preliminary hearing that the murder took place a few days after Wilson moved out of the apartment and on the same day Wilson and Venable exchanged text messages arranging for Wilson to return to the apartment to engage in sex with Venable.

According to Det. King Watts, the two men had a longstanding arrangement in which Venable paid Wilson for sex every two weeks. Watts testified that Wilson and another witness whom police haven’t identified told police about the sex for money arrangement.

The Feb. 20 hearing took a dramatic turn when Wilson’s court-appointed attorney, Jacqueline Cadman, told the court that Venable and Wilson had been in a longstanding “abusive” sexual relationship since Wilson was a “child.”

Cadman introduced a motion calling for the charge against Wilson to be lowered to manslaughter because of the alleged abuse. But Judge Stuart Nash, who presided over the case at that time, denied the motion, court records show.

Court records show that on April 25 Wilson dismissed Cadman as his attorney and retained a new attorney, James W. Beane, who represented him at the May 10 hearing.

A D.C. police affidavit filed in court at the time of Wilson’s arrest in February says Venable’s body was found lying face down in a pool of blood on the floor of his one-bedroom apartment at 1630 Fuller St., N.W., in a building known as the Mozart.

The affidavit says an autopsy found “multiple slashing wounds” on Venable’s neck, minor cuts on both hands “consistent with defensive wounds,” and two stab wounds to his upper torso, one of which struck his aorta.

According to the affidavit, police discovered Wilson used bank cards he allegedly stole from Venable’s apartment to withdraw more than $600 in cash from ATMs in District Heights, Md., on the night of the murder.

Detectives found Wilson at a residence in District Heights on Feb. 3, and Wilson agreed to go with the detectives to the homicide branch offices in Southwest D.C. to undergo questioning about the case, the affidavit says.

It says he gave “numerous inconsistent accounts” of his involvement in the murder, including an account that unknown intruders stabbed Venable. In one version, Wilson said Venable threatened him with a kitchen knife and the two argued and he and Venable struggled over the knife. Wilson told detectives Venable fell on the knife during the struggle and stabbed himself, the affidavit says.

The autopsy, however, found that the nature of Venable’s multiple wounds confirms that he could not have stabbed himself and that the manor of death was murder.

Court records show that Wilson had at least two encounters with police and the courts prior to his arrest for Venable’s murder.

In August 2012 he and two other men were charged with armed robbery for allegedly stealing a bicycle from another man at knifepoint in Meridian Hill Park. The charge was dropped after the victim, who was to be the lead witness, failed to show up at the trial.

In July 2011, court records show Wilson’s wife filed papers seeking a civil protection order against him after he allegedly assaulted her in the apartment where the two lived with their two children.

At the Feb. 20 court hearing, then defense attorney Cadman said Wilson’s wife was in the courtroom to show her support for him and favored a defense motion to release Wilson on bond. Judge Nash denied the motion, ordering Wilson to remain in custody.

Members of the D.C. group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) have complained in the past that the U.S. Attorney’s office has unnecessarily lowered charges against defendants charged with acts of anti-LGBT violence. A GLOV spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office to lower the change against Wilson.

D.C. attorney Dale Edwin Sanders, who represents clients in criminal cases, said concern about possible complications at a jury trial over the sexual relationship between Venable and Wilson may have prompted prosecutors to issue the plea bargain offer.

But Sanders said he doesn’t think reducing the charge would make a significant difference in the sentence Wilson would receive if Wilson accepts the offer.

He noted that second-degree murder while armed carries a maximum sentence of life in prison compared to a 30-year maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter while armed. However, Sanders said the voluntary sentencing guidelines that most judges follow would likely provide a range of sentences that overlap between second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

“I’m sure the guidelines would not call for life in prison on the Murder II charge,” Sanders said. “So the functional difference between the two would probably be modest if any … The issue is they aren’t giving anything away. They just have a different label on it but essentially he would be pleading guilty to a homicide.”

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that Howard Venable was 72 at the time of his death. D.C. police initially reported that Venable was 68 in a press release in February at the time of the murder and the Blade reported that age before new information surfaced that he was 72.

Mayor confirms D.C. withholding funds from trans group

Vince Gray, Washington D.C., gay news, Washington Blade

‘We’ll work with them to try to get this resolved,’ said Mayor Vince Gray about T.H.E. ‘But they’re going to have to pay the taxes.’ (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray acknowledged that tax liens filed against Transgender Health Empowerment by the IRS has forced the city to discontinue its funding for the organization, even though it has provided important services for the transgender community.

In an interview with the Washington Blade on Saturday, Gray said he was aware of ongoing financial problems at THE, the city’s oldest and most prominent transgender advocacy and services organization.

Among other things, the group has provided HIV and housing-related services for transgender clients through funding from city grants.

“I don’t know the details of how much and that sort of thing,” Gray said in referring to how much money THE owes the IRS.

“But any organization that has a grant from the government is going to have to comply with the basic rules of conformance with the requirements of the government, including paying your taxes,” he said.

“So while they certainly have been helpful and I have a lot of admiration for that organization, they are going to have to straighten this out,” Gray said. “It wouldn’t be fair if organization X is absolved of responsibility and organization Y would be held accountable for this.”

Added Gray, “So we’ll work with them to try to get this resolved. But they’re going to have to pay the taxes. There’s no question about that….It’s a basic, fundamental rule that any organization that has a grant or contract with the government – they have to take care of these basic administrative responsibilities.”

Gray’s comments came at a time when transgender activists have expressed concern that the D.C. Department of Health, which is responsible for monitoring THE grants, has not said whether it’s taking steps to redirect the group’s clients to other service providers.

“Transgender Health Empowerment (THE) has had to dramatically curtail their services due to financial difficulties,” said the D.C. Trans Coalition in a statement on May 9.

“This reduction happened very suddenly, and services trans community members depend on have been abruptly cut off,” the statement says. “Immediate action must be taken to ensure THE clients get services they need to ensure continuity of care.”

The statement says D.C. Trans Coalition “stands with THE’s clients and calls on the D.C. government, as THE’s primary funder, to act quickly to make sure that necessary services continue.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health, as well as its gay interim director, Dr. Saul Levin, and the gay head of the department’s HIV/AIDS office, Dr. Gregory Pappas, have not responded to requests for comment and requests for information on the THE situation from the Blade.

THE’s executive director, Anthony Hall, has also declined to comment. Brian Devine, THE’s finance manager, told the Blade the group’s board of directors, which met recently, decided the organization would not issue a statement at the present time.

Transgender activist Ruby Corado, director of Casa Ruby, an LGBT community center in Columbia Heights that reaches out to the Latino and transgender communities, said THE clients have approached Casa Ruby for assistance after discovering that services at THE were no longer available to them.

She said officials with the Department of Health had not responded to her request for information about who, if anyone, would provide help for the THE clients displaced by THE’s reduction in services.

“I have an issue with the government doing that,” Corado said. “You just don’t drop people like that. If you are withholding money from an agency that is providing services you need to make sure that in the meantime you are able to transition the clients,” she said. “And I don’t think that has happened.”

Public records at the D.C. Office of the Recorder of Deeds show that the IRS filed at least 10 liens against THE since early 2010. Most are due to THE’s failure to pay employee payroll taxes, the records show.

As a non-profit organization, THE is not required to pay taxes on income from private donations, government grants or other income sources.

Another sign of THE’s financial problems surfaced last week when its web hosting company suspended the group’s website. “This site has stepped out for a bit,” a note on the only remaining page of the site says. A phone number on the page directed to the “site owner” takes callers to the billing department of the web hosting company Go Daddy.

Mayor confirms D.C. withholding funds from trans group

Vince Gray, Washington D.C., gay news, Washington Blade

‘We’ll work with them to try to get this resolved,’ said Mayor Vince Gray about T.H.E. ‘But they’re going to have to pay the taxes.’ (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray acknowledged that tax liens filed against Transgender Health Empowerment by the IRS has forced the city to discontinue its funding for the organization, even though it has provided important services for the transgender community.

In an interview with the Washington Blade on Saturday, Gray said he was aware of ongoing financial problems at THE, the city’s oldest and most prominent transgender advocacy and services organization.

Among other things, the group has provided HIV and housing-related services for transgender clients through funding from city grants.

“I don’t know the details of how much and that sort of thing,” Gray said in referring to how much money THE owes the IRS.

“But any organization that has a grant from the government is going to have to comply with the basic rules of conformance with the requirements of the government, including paying your taxes,” he said.

“So while they certainly have been helpful and I have a lot of admiration for that organization, they are going to have to straighten this out,” Gray said. “It wouldn’t be fair if organization X is absolved of responsibility and organization Y would be held accountable for this.”

Added Gray, “So we’ll work with them to try to get this resolved. But they’re going to have to pay the taxes. There’s no question about that….It’s a basic, fundamental rule that any organization that has a grant or contract with the government – they have to take care of these basic administrative responsibilities.”

Gray’s comments came at a time when transgender activists have expressed concern that the D.C. Department of Health, which is responsible for monitoring THE grants, has not said whether it’s taking steps to redirect the group’s clients to other service providers.

“Transgender Health Empowerment (THE) has had to dramatically curtail their services due to financial difficulties,” said the D.C. Trans Coalition in a statement on May 9.

“This reduction happened very suddenly, and services trans community members depend on have been abruptly cut off,” the statement says. “Immediate action must be taken to ensure THE clients get services they need to ensure continuity of care.”

The statement says D.C. Trans Coalition “stands with THE’s clients and calls on the D.C. government, as THE’s primary funder, to act quickly to make sure that necessary services continue.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health, as well as its gay interim director, Dr. Saul Levin, and the gay head of the department’s HIV/AIDS office, Dr. Gregory Pappas, have not responded to requests for comment and requests for information on the THE situation from the Blade.

THE’s executive director, Anthony Hall, has also declined to comment. Brian Devine, THE’s finance manager, told the Blade the group’s board of directors, which met recently, decided the organization would not issue a statement at the present time.

Transgender activist Ruby Corado, director of Casa Ruby, an LGBT community center in Columbia Heights that reaches out to the Latino and transgender communities, said THE clients have approached Casa Ruby for assistance after discovering that services at THE were no longer available to them.

She said officials with the Department of Health had not responded to her request for information about who, if anyone, would provide help for the THE clients displaced by THE’s reduction in services.

“I have an issue with the government doing that,” Corado said. “You just don’t drop people like that. If you are withholding money from an agency that is providing services you need to make sure that in the meantime you are able to transition the clients,” she said. “And I don’t think that has happened.”

Public records at the D.C. Office of the Recorder of Deeds show that the IRS filed at least 10 liens against THE since early 2010. Most are due to THE’s failure to pay employee payroll taxes, the records show.

As a non-profit organization, THE is not required to pay taxes on income from private donations, government grants or other income sources.

Another sign of THE’s financial problems surfaced last week when its web hosting company suspended the group’s website. “This site has stepped out for a bit,” a note on the only remaining page of the site says. A phone number on the page directed to the “site owner” takes callers to the billing department of the web hosting company Go Daddy.