Washington Blade - May 11, 2006
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

"We have not altered our core mission," said Kim Mills, Whitman-Walker's communications director. "It's exactly the same as it was. We're here to serve the LGBT community."

The Clinic has long treated non-HIV patients through its sexually transmitted disease program for gay men and its lesbian services program. But the Clinic announced in January it would be shifting its operations to offer a full range of primary care health services unrelated to HIV/AIDS.

This new focus was reflected in the Clinic's choice for a new executive director, Donald Blanchon, who was named to the post March 21. Roberta Geidner-Antoniotti, who took over as interim director after previous CEO Cornelius Baker resigned in December 2004, is returning to her position as chief operating officer, Mills said.

Blanchon, who is straight, has a background in primary care and community-based clinics that make him well-suited for Whitman-Walker's plan to offer more primary care services, Mills said.

"Capital Pride should be run by an organization that is capable of running it and has LGBT peoples' rights as part of its mission, which we certainly do," Mills added.

David Mallory, who is gay, is the associate director of special events for Whitman Walker and will serve as the new Capital Pride director. He organized the 2005 AIDS Walk and has planned events with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Out of the Darkness, a national suicide prevention event.

Mallory, a native Virginian, also was board president of the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance. At this year's Capital Pride, a coalition of Virginia groups will participate to raise awareness about the state's anti-gay marriage amendment, he said.

Mallory said he hopes to emphasize the "diversity of our community and build bridges among our community toward equality and social justice."

Capital Pride will feature a week's worth of events from June 2-11. The Pride parade is scheduled for June 10. The following day, the Pride festival will feature performances by CeCe Peniston, Kimberley Locke and Thelma Houston.

Whitman-Walker began operating Capital Pride in partnership with One in Ten, the gay film festival group, in 1997. The Clinic took over sole sponsorship in 2003.

"Whitman-Walker really stepped in at a time when Pride was in desperate need of someone to take over, when One in Ten could no longer do it themselves," said Robert York, former director of Capital Pride who began in 1999 and served as past director of the Clinic's AIDS Walk. York left the clinic in July 2005.

"The message from the Clinic is that they still want to be involved in the community," he said.

Asked whether a gay rights group would be better suited to run Pride, York said, "For me diversity is good on all levels. When you start trying to pick and choose who can be at the table, you can run into roadblocks."

Capital Pride should continually reinvent itself to keep the event fresh, he said.

"If it comes to a point where [Pride] doesn't fit with what they're doing with primary care, it's good to have that discussion," said York.

Last July, the Blade reported that leaders of the D.C. Center for GLBT People asked Whitman-Walker Clinic officials to consider turning over Capital Pride to the Center, a move that allegedly created tension among the Center's board members and raised questions about the Clinic's ability to run Pride activities, according to sources.

Center president Michael Sessa and then vice president Larry Stansbury proposed at the time that the Center co-sponsor D.C. Capital Pride with Whitman-Walker in 2005, according to sources familiar with the D.C. Center, and take steps to become the sole operator of the Capital Pride festivities in 2006, the Blade reported last year.

No organization has approached Whitman-Walker about assuming sponsorship of the event this year, Mallory said.

Center officials were not available for comment.

Pride organizations vary in size, resources

In other major cities, Pride events are often run by independent, non-profit organizations.

"Most Pride committees are not under the auspices of other groups," said Richard Pfeiffer, coordinator of PrideChicago. "In the early days of Pride in the 1970s, [Pride] was under the auspices of another group."

But according to William Urich, regional director of Northeast Regional Prides, having Whitman-Walker operate Capital Pride is "not a unique situation."

"Some Pride organizations are incorporated and operate under their own [nonprofit status]," he wrote in an e-mail to the Blade. "Some don't and are umbrellaed under their community's Community Center or other organization which serves their community."

The resources allocated to Pride also vary by city. In some places, the event is organized by an all-volunteer group, while in others several paid staffers run Pride.

PrideChicago, for example, is a collection of about 30 volunteers with no paid employees. In other cities, like Atlanta and San Francisco, nonprofit organizations are dedicated entirely to Pride and employ full-time staff.

Atlanta Pride is an independent nonprofit organization with three full-time employees and one part-time staff person, said the group's executive director, Donna Narducci. In 1995 the group was granted nonprofit status.

"As the organization became more sophisticated, we realized we needed to have someone in a paid position," said Narducci. "It started out as a part-time, administrative position and evolved into what it is today."

Lindsey Jones, executive director of San Francisco Pride, applauded Whitman-Walker's leadership in Capital Pride. The Clinic's participation helps keep HIV and AIDS in the forefront as the country enters the 25th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, she said.

Heterosexuals should also be included in Pride organizing, she said.

"Twenty percent who come to San Francisco Pride are straight allies," she said. "It's crucial to include straight allies in our work."

AIDS activist and Poz magazine founder Sean Strub, who has been critical of HIV/AIDS organizations that don't include HIV-positive people in their leadership, said he doesn't have an opinion on whether gay-specific groups should run Gay Pride.

"A question that is more interesting to me is what is the purpose of Gay Pride, now that we are so visible in so many ways and places," said Strub, who is gay. "I would like to see the energy behind local Pride celebrations be used to make the connection into political activism and social change work."

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