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By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
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discussed how the Center could help Whitman-Walker in a variety of ways, including
the Capital Pride events. But he said the Center has not issued a proposal to
operate the Capital Pride festivities.
“There was never a discussion about the Center taking over Capital Pride,”
he said.
When told that sources familiar with the Center said he and Stansbury discussed
the possibility of the Center hiring Capital Pride Director Robert York, an
employee of Whitman-Walker, to run Capital Pride for the Center, Sessa said,
“We have had some conversations. I can’t say anything more than
that.”
Sessa added, “There will never, as long as I’m on the board, be
a hostile takeover of Pride. We support Whitman-Walker as long as it wants to
retain Capital Pride.”
When asked two weeks ago about reports that Center officials approached him
about the possibility of running Capital Pride for the center, York said he
was unaware of any such overtures.
“This is all news to me,” he told the Blade.
York could not be reached this week for comment by deadline.
Stansbury said this week that Center president Sessa wrote a letter to Billy
Cox, president of the Whitman-Walker board of directors, specifically raising
the issue of the Center’s interest in either co-sponsoring or taking on
full responsibility for Capital Pride if the clinic’s financial problems
prevent it from continuing to run the Pride events.
Stansbury said Cox never responded to Sessa’s letter. Geidner-Antoniotti
said this week that Cox asked her to respond to the Sessa letter on Cox’s
behalf. She said she contacted the Center by phone and informed Center officials
that the clinic had no immediate plans for giving up its role as sole sponsor
and operator of Capital Pride.
“We feel this is an important part of our mission,” Geidner-Antoniotti
said.
Stansbury said discussion about a possible Center involvement in Capital Pride
began long before the center learned about the clinic’s financial problems.
“The original discussions were based entirely on the mission of the Clinic
versus the mission of the Center,” said Stansbury, the longtime executive
director of Brother Help Thyself, a gay charitable group in D.C. and Baltimore.
“I’m aware that there are persons associated with the Clinic that
feel Capital Pride is not directly related to the Clinic’s mission as
a health organization.”
While refusing to release Capital Pride financial statements, Geidner-Antoniotti
said Capital Pride has been a “break
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