Washington Blade - October 29, 2004
Lou Chibbaro Jr., Yusef Najafi & Joe Crea

The board of directors of One in Ten, the organization that sponsors the Reel Affirmations film festival and other gay events in the District, has appointed Daniel S. Meloy as its new executive director. According to a news release from OIT Board President Dierck Casselman, Meloy was chosen to replace Carlos Raul Arias, executive director for the past five years, upon his retirement. The 10-day Reel Affirmations International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 14 concluded on Saturday, at the Goethe Institut, JCC Theater and the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. Although exact numbers were not available at press time, OIT program manager Joe Bilancio said about 30,000 people attended the screenings this year. "We had the highest number of highest rank films ever," Bilancio said. "Brother to Brother" won the audience award as best film. Meloy, who takes over on Nov. 15, has more than a decade's worth of experience working for various national and regional nonprofit organizations. Prior to accepting the position at OIT, Meloy was the associate director of development for Food & Friends, a volunteer-supported organization that works to feed people living with HIV and other illnesses, in D.C. At Food & Friends, Meloy supervised the company's $8.65 million capital campaign, in addition to handling gifts, donors and public funding.

Gay ANC commissioners vote 'no' on stadium deal

The four openly gay members of the seven-member Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Southwest D.C., ANC 6D, voted on Oct. 25 to oppose Mayor Anthony Williams' $440 million proposal to finance a new baseball stadium on the Anacostia waterfront. The vote came one day before gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham announced he might withhold his support for the stadium proposal unless Williams makes certain changes, including an agreement by the city to find a new location for six gay businesses slated to be displaced by the stadium. The four gay ANC commissioners were joined by one of their colleagues in a vote of 5 to 1 against the stadium proposal. One commissioner did not vote. Among the gay commissioners to vote against the proposal was Bob Siegel, the owner the buildings that house five of six gay clubs that would be displaced by the proposed stadium. Siegel has emerged as a leading opponent of the stadium proposal, saying the Montreal Expos team, which is to move to D.C. next year, should use RFK Stadium as its permanent home. The mayor and D.C. Council are required to give "great weight" to the recommendations of ANCs, but are not obligated to follow their recommendations. The D.C. Council has the sole authority to approve the stadium proposal. The Oct. 25 ANC meeting was held jointly with the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, a local civic group that voted the same night to support the stadium on the condition that the city makes certain changes in the financing proposal. In addition to Siegel, the gay ANC commissioners who voted against the stadium were Andy Litsky, Roger Moffatt, and Ed Johnson. Litsky said he opposes the stadium, among other reasons, because it would likely create excessive traffic congestion and parking problems in the Southwest D.C. neighborhood, which is located less than a mile from the stadium site. Siegel and representatives of the other gay clubs located in the path of the stadium were expected to testify Thursday, Oct. 28, at a D.C. Council hearing on the stadium proposal. The Council is expected to hold the first of two votes on the stadium on Nov. 9.

Va. brief filed arguing for gay adoption rights

Lambda Legal filed a brief on Monday in the Virginia Supreme Court seeking birth certificates for children who were born in Virginia and adopted by same-sex couples out of state. The case involves three families, two in D.C. and one in New York, who adopted children born in Virginia. "A birth certificate is one of the most basic and important documents used by both child and parent in all sorts of situations," said Jack Senterfitt, senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. "The parent of a child may be denied access to school records and most significantly, a hospital will not treat a child until they are convinced they have a valid parental identification." The state has refused to issue birth certificates that reflect both legal parents. The families filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond where the Commonwealth of Virginia argued that listing two parents of the same sex on a birth certificate would confuse the record-keeping system that must be "uniform and consistent." Presently, it only lists a mother and a father. The state has also argued that because unmarried couples in Virginia cannot adopt children, the state could not recognize legal adoptions that occur out of state by such couples. Oral arguments have not been set for the case, Davenport vs. Little-Bowser, Lambda Legal officials said.

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