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LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, March 11, 2005
Gay activists reacted with shock and horror Wednesday night when they learned police discovered the body of Wanda Alston, director of Mayor Anthony Williams’ Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Affairs, in her home in Northeast Washington.
D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, who spoke to reporters outside Alston’s home, said police found a woman unconscious and without signs of life inside Alston’s townhouse at 3808 East Capitol Street, NE, about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16. Police later identified the victim as Alston. She was 45.
Alston’s friends said her partner informed them that she discovered Alston’s body when she arrived at Alston’s house late Wednesday afternoon. The partner went to the house after Alston’s co-workers at the mayor’s office raised concerns when Alston did not show up for work and had not called her office, friends said.
Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, said a 2000 silver-gray Nisson Maxima was missing from the home and identified as that of Alston’s, and police were asking the public to help them locate the vehicle. Parson said the four-door Maxima had a D.C. license plate number AZ9597. Friends said the vehicle belonged to Alston.
Parson said he was driving his police cruiser to a meeting of the executive committee of the mayor’s GLBT Advisory Council, for which Alston served as chair, when he was dispatched to the crime scene at Alston’s house.
Police later said there was no sign of forced entry into Alston's home. An autopsy will be performed to determine exact cause of death, but in a statement, police said Alston sustained multiple stab wounds. Parson declind to comment about whether there were signs that the slaying was a hate crime.
Ramsey told reporters shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday that blood was found beside the body and the death was ruled a homicide.
“Everyone is in a state of shock,” said Everett Hamilton, a friend of Alston’s and a former official with the D.C. Coalition, a group representing black gays.
Friends, including some of the gay activists who had dealings with Alston through the mayor’s office, assembled Wednesday night at Hamilton’s home on Capitol Hill to share their grief over learning of Alston’s death.
Among those who arrived at Alston’s home as police investigators processed the crime scene were D.C. City Administrator Robert Bobb and D.C. School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz.
Williams in September signed an executive order creating a mayoral Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs and named Alston, his then special assistant for LGBT affairs, as head of the new office. Williams gave the office cabinet-level status, with Alston serving on the cabinet and attending cabinet meetings with all city department and agency heads.
“We’re raising the stakes here in the nation’s capital, establishing a cabinet level office to address the important concerns of lesbian and gay citizens,” Williams said at a Sept. 8 signing ceremony in his office. “I’m proud to be establishing this office with Wanda Alston leading it.”
In April of last year, the D.C. Democratic State Committee — in its final meeting to round out the District’s delegation headed for the Democratic National Convention — elected Alston to the convention as a delegate.
Alston was among a large contingent of gay activists who worked on Williams’ 1998 mayoral campaign. Following his election, Williams appointed Alston to a position in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. Williams later named Alston as his liaison to the gay community.
She became director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs after Williams created the office last September.
Alston had been working as lead organizer of an LGBT summit called by Williams and scheduled to take place in April. Williams was to play an active role in the summit.
Prior to joining the Williams administration, Alston worked for the National Organization for Women. Among her duties was to represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community at an International Conference on Women in Beijing, China.
“Wanda did it all,” Hamilton said. “She was more than a GLBT activist. She worked on violence against women issues, she worked on young people’s issues.”
In her role as head of the mayor’s LGBT office, Alston became well known to a wide rage of gay community activists, including members of gay sports and religious groups, health organizations, and political and social groups. Hamilton said she was especially active in the African-American gay community.
“There is not a black lesbian activist or black gay male activist that Wanda did not rub shoulders with,” Hamilton said. “She pulled me into local activism. She pulled in a lot of folks.”
Rev. Dyan McCray of the Unity Fellowship Church Washington knew Alston for 10 years. She described her as a gentle spirit who gave money to homeless people she encountered on the street.
“There will never be another Wanda Alston,” McCray said. “She’s always been on the front lines of social justice issues for people who didn’t have a voice.”
McCray added that she never knew Alston to have enemies.
“I pray to God that it’s not a hate crime,” she said.
McCray said she was planning to open her church at 1226 Vermont Ave. on Sat., March 19 at noon for community members to come together and remember Alston. For more information, call 202-246-6299.
contributed to this report.
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