Aug 10, 2007  | COMMENTS     

Washington, D.C.’s Metro Police Department has completed its series of community meetings to gauge input on how to improve and expand services provided by its Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit. Though turnout was low at most of the sessions, Lt. Alberto Jova, who oversees the GLLU under Chief Cathy Lanier, said the series was worthwhile and informative. “There’ve been good discussions at each of them,” Jova said. “People seemed impressed that the chief solicited their input.” The last was held Monday at the Metro Teen AIDS center in the 1st District. One was held in each of the city’s seven districts but an additional session was held in late July for the 3rd and 4th districts though they each had an individual session as well. That joint session, held at Us Helping Us, was the best-attended, Jova said, as it coincided with a regularly scheduled meeting at the center. Some of the topics discussed at various sessions included how many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents live in the various districts, the logistics of having non-GLLU officers trained in the basics of handling gay-related calls sensitively, whether the GLLU’s pager system should remain, if having GLLU officers spread throughout the city will dilute the unit’s effectiveness, what public events the GLLU should attend and what infrastructure should be in place for these changes to occur. Jova will consider the discussions as he writes a GLLU expansion proposal for the chief.

JOEY DiGUGLIELMO

Gay Democrats honor senator, House members

More than 150 gay Democrats from across the country turned out Aug. 2 at the National Press Club in Washington to honor Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and former Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) as “Capitol Champions” for the rights of gays and transgender persons. The event was sponsored by National Stonewall Democrats, which bills itself as the “national voice for LGBT Democrats.” The event also honored as “champions” Patricia Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO; and Olga Vives, executive vice president of the National Organization for Women. Cantwell and Conyers said they were hopeful the Senate would soon pass a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes prevention bill that the House passed earlier this year. Both pledged to push for Congress to pass this year the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Conyers, a long-time black civil rights leader who has been in Congress 41 years, drew rousing applause at the gathering when told of how famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against anti-gay discrimination years ago as a means of advancing social just for all people. Gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who introduced Conyers at the event, referred to Conyers as his “leader, mentor and friend.”

LOU CHIBBARO JR.