Feb 02, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

A disagreement has surfaced among gay advisers to Mayor Adrian Fenty over whom he should pick to head the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs, sources said this week.

Two factions within the ranks of these informal advisers are each promoting a candidate for the position, even though Fenty has yet to announce whether he will retain Darlene Nipper, the director of the office that former Mayor Anthony Williams appointed two years ago.

Fenty has said he asked Nipper to remain in the post on a conditional basis until he decides whether to appoint someone else. Most insiders expect Fenty to name his own person for the position, which has cabinet level status in the city government.

According to sources familiar with the Fenty administration, some of Fenty’s gay campaign supporters who emerged as advisers to the new mayor are promoting lesbian activist Khadijah Tribble, a human relations consultant who recently moved to Washington from Maryland. Lesbian activist Sheila Alexander-Reid is among the Fenty advisers backing Tribble.

The sources spoke on condition that they not be identified because they are not authorized to speak about the Fenty administration’s internal decisions and deliberations.

The other faction, the sources said, is promoting gay activist Jeff Marootian, the civilian manager of a community affairs program at the D.C. Police Department. Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein is among the Fenty advisers backing Marootian, sources familiar with the Fenty administration said, though Rosenstein declined to say whom he supports.

Both Tribble and Marootian are members of Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest gay political group.

“We have decided not to take sides on this,” said Stein Club President Mario Acosta-Velez. “I hear they are both finalists, and I wish each of them well.”

Acosta-Velez and other local activists have said a key qualification for the position should be an understanding and familiarity with the city’s diverse community of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons as well as an understanding of the goals and objectives of the gay civil rights movement.

But a disagreement among some activists appears to have surfaced over whether the head of the gay affairs office should also have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of city government.

The legislation passed by the City Council that created the Office of LGBT Affairs mandates, among other things, that the office “provide information and technical assistance with respect to programs and services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to the mayor, council and other District of Columbia agencies and departments, and the community.” The legislation, which gay Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced, also calls on the office to identify “areas of need for service or improvement” in the city government that affect the gay community and to help community groups obtain city grants.

Backers of Marootian point to his background as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, his work in a local fellowship program involving D.C. government and his status as a city government official with the police department.

Marootian, 27, serves as manager of the police department’s community partnership, which coordinates the department’s community policing programs, including outreach programs in each of the seven police districts throughout the city. He began work at the department three years ago after working at positions with the city’s Department of Transportation and Department of Human Services under a city fellowship program created by Mayor Williams.

Alexander-Reid and other supporters of Tribble note that she has been involved in community organizing work for nearly 20 years in gay rights-related activities as well as her career work in human relations and management. Before starting her own Washington company last year, Trifecta Consulting, Tribble worked as a youth coordinator for the D.C. based Covenant House, which works with minority youth. Prior to that, she served as volunteer services coordinator for the Alexandria, Va.,-based Catholic Charities USA. Before moving to the D.C. area from her native state of Alabama, she served as manager of volunteer programs for the Alabama Region of the American Red Cross.

Tribble worked with the D.C. Coalition of Black Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Men and Woman and the National Black Justice Coalition in lobbying for black gay inclusion in the Millions More March, a national black civil rights event in Washington last year.

Some of those backing Marootian have said that Tribble, while highly accomplished in the field of minority affairs and social services, moved into the city about a year ago from Prince George’s County, Md., and appears to have more experience in Maryland rather than D.C. government and politics.

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