Washington Blade - November 26, 2004

For the second time in his long career in D.C. politics, former District Mayor Marion Barry has helped local gay and AIDS activists achieve a legislative objective by defeating an incumbent D.C. Councilmember who blocked that objective. Barry's defeat of Ward 8 Councilmember Sandra Allen in the September primary and his easy win in the November general election clears the way for the Council to split up its Committee on Human Services, which Allen has chaired for more than five years. The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and local AIDS activists have complained for years that no single councilmember - including Allen - had the time and capacity to oversee the vast city operations under the committee's jurisdiction. Among the city agencies covered by the committee are the Department of Health and the HIV/AIDS Administration, which oversees the city's AIDS programs, as well as various social welfare programs. AIDS activists said city AIDS programs suffered because the Council was unable to provide adequate oversight. GLAA had urged the Council to split up the committee by creating at least one separate panel whose jurisdiction would cover only the Department of Health, which includes the AIDS office. -- Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Councilmember's gay staffer mugged after Metro ceremony Friday, November 26, 2004

A gay man who works for D.C. Councilmember Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) scolded a pair of District police officers on Nov. 20 for taking more than 30 minutes to respond to his call for help after he was mugged around noon while walking to his car from a ceremony for the opening of a new Metro station on New York Avenue. Skip Coburn, a constituent services aide to Ambrose, whose ward includes the site of the new Metro station, said two youths jumped him and demanded money as he approached his car at the corner of New York Avenue and North Capitol Streets, NE. He said one of the two attackers claimed to have a gun concealed under his coat. Although the attack did not appear to be related to his sexual orientation, Coburn said large numbers of gays who live and work in nearby neighborhoods are expected to use the new Metro station. He said gay Metro users along with others could be subjected to similar muggings unless D.C. and Metro police step up patrols in the area. Acknowledging he disregarded good judgment, Coburn said he refused to turn over his wallet and fought with the muggers, instinctively using fighting skills that he learned years earlier in the Air Force. Coburn said the muggers fled after a motorist began honking the horn of his car when one of the attackers wrestled Coburn to the ground and the two rolled into a traffic lane on North Capitol Street. When two officers from the First District police station arrived on the scene, they immediately recognized Coburn as an Ambrose staffer and as the chair of the First District Citizens Advisory Council, Coburn said. "I told them, 'What took you so long,'" Coburn told the Blade. He said D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey and First District Commander Thomas McGuire called him to express concern over the incident. Both promised to arrange for a review of the audiotapes used by the department's emergency "911" call center to determine the cause of the slow police response, Coburn said. -- Lou Chibbaro Jr.

National City's embattled minister steps down

Rev. Alvin O. Jackson, one of only a handful of gay-supportive black ministers in mainline denominations nationwide, announced on Nov. 3 his intent to resign as senior pastor at National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. National City is considered the flagship church for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant denomination that claims about 800,000 members in the United States and Canada. Jackson, who had been senior pastor there for six years, suggested in a letter to church members that opposition to his vision of an "inclusive, multi-cultural, multi-racial community of faith," led him to step down. "From the early months of my ministry, there has been resistance to the radical transformation that is required to make the vision a reality" at the church, Jackson wrote, noting that this resistance had "greatly intensified" in the last year. Officials at National City did not return calls from the Blade seeking comment. Chrys Lemon, a church elder and member of National City's personnel committee, told the Washington Post that 88 of the church's 400 active members had signed a petition calling for a "no confidence" vote in Jackson by National City elders. Lemon said the disagreement involved Jackson's relationship with the church's lay leadership and how National City was being managed. -- Yusef Najafi

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