Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - July 27, 2006
Lou Chibbaro Jr
The July 22 event, held at the Reeves Municipal Building at 14th and U Streets, N.W., drew more than 80 transgender participants, according to local transgender activists who helped promote the event. Among other features, the event included presentations by experts from the D.C. Department of Personnel and D.C. Department of Health on how to apply for city jobs.
"I consider it our highlight of the month," Nipper said during a July 25 meeting of the Mayor's LGBT Advisory Committee.
Since taking office in January, Nipper has resumed meetings of the LGBT Advisory panel and resurrected the LGBT office itself, which had been dormant for nearly a year following the murder of Wanda Alston, the office's first director, according to Cornelius Baker, a member of the advisory panel and former executive director of D.C.'s Whitman-Walker Clinic.
Baker said Nipper has been receptive to suggestions from the committee that she and her office take steps to ensure that each of the city's agencies and departments are sensitive and attentive to the needs of the gay community.
"This mayor and past mayors have all been pretty good on policy issues," Baker said. "What we need to do now is make sure that the policies related to LGBT people and AIDS are carried out throughout the bureaucracy," he said.
Members of the LGBT Advisory Committee who have worked with Nipper over the past six months praised her for reaching out to diverse segments of the community, including gay Latino and Asian-Pacific Islander groups.
"It's been my impression that Darlene has been doing a great job," said committee member Adam Tenner, who is director of the local gay group Metro Teen AIDS.
During the past few months, a long-awaited report on the mayor's April 2005 LGBT Citizen Summit finally appeared on the LGBT Affairs Office website.
Also posted on the site was an announcement that the mayor had hired M'Bwende N. Anderson, an official with the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, a gay group, as program coordinator for the LGBT Affairs Office, bringing the size of the office staff to three.
Although these and other activities and proposals remain posted on the office's website, the mayor's office has not issued a public announcement or news release on the developments. No effort was made to publicize the trans job fair through articles in the local LGBT press, including the Washington Blade.
The website this week had no information on when or where the LGBT Advisory Committee met. Ronald Collins, director of the Mayor's Office of Boards & Commissions, said all citizen advisory bodies such as the LGBT advisory panel must open all meetings to the public and must give reasonable advance notice of such meetings.
"It's very interesting," said gay Democratic activist and former mayoral adviser Peter Rosenstein. "Are they doing this in secret?"
No response to Interview request
Nipper did not respond to a request for an interview when contacted this week by the Blade. Vincent Morris, the mayor's press secretary, said he planned to arrange for a telephone interview with Nipper for the Blade this week, but he did not do so by press time.
On previous occasions when Nipper was contacted by the Blade for comment on gay-related District news, she either has not returned phone calls or has insisted she does not have permission to speak to the media.
Morris did indicate this week that he would participate in any press interview with Nipper. Because Nipper's position has cabinet rank in District government, such restrictions on press access are unusual.
Williams announced Nipper's appointment Nov. 30, 2005, at a time when some activists had criticized him for taking too long to name Alston's replacement.
Nipper, 41, a close friend of Alston's, previously served as executive director of the Black Entertainment Television Network Foundation and, before that, as vice president of public education for the National Mental Health Association.
Williams raised eyebrows among some of the city's veteran gay leaders when he passed over several well-known activists to hire Nipper for the LGBT Affairs Office post.
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