Dionne Bussey-Reeder has raised more than $36,000 in her bid for City Council.
A roundup of LGBTQ news from the region and around the world courtesy the Washington Blade
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Lesbian D.C. Council candidate leads in fundraising Restaurant owner Dionne Bussey-Reeder, who is running for one of two at-large D.C. Council seats up for election in 2018 and who would become the Council’s first out lesbian member if she wins her race, has raised $36,100 for her campaign in the eight weeks since she entered the race. According to candidate finance reports released on Monday by the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, Bussey-Reeder is far ahead of the two incumbent at-large Council members she’s running against – Independent Elissa Silverman, who has yet to officially file papers to run for re-election; and Democrat Anita Bonds, whose report says she had raised just $150 as of the Dec. 10. Both Silverman and Bonds are expected to raise a significant sum for their re-election campaigns once they officially launch their fundraising efforts. But political observers consider the $36,100 that Bussey-Reeder raised from 230 individual small and moderate size donors to be a respectable showing for a political newcomer in the early stages of her campaign. “I’m humbled and blessed to get so many supporters and volunteers – all in less than eight weeks,” Bussey-Reeder told the Washington Blade. So far she is the only other independent to enter the race against independent Silverman in a contest that D.C.’s election law requires one of the two at-large seats to be held by a non-majority party member – meaning a non-Democrat. Although independents and members of other parties are eligible for both of the at-large seats, a Democrat is only eligible for one of the seats. So far, four Democratic candidates have entered the race to challenge Bonds for the Democratic Party nomination in the city’s June 19, 2018 Democratic primary. Some political observers believe Bussey-Reeder has a shot at winning more votes than Silverman in the November 2018 general election in a two-candidate race for the non-Democratic seat. Silverman, a strong supporter of LGBT rights, came under fire from many of the city’s small business owners in her role as the lead sponsor of a controversial family leave bill approved by the Council that imposes a tax on employers to pay for part of the leave program. As the owner of Cheers at the Big Chair Restaurant in Anacostia, Bussey-Reeder has been among the small business owners expressing opposition to the paid leave bill. “I’m definitely in favor of some type of family leave for D.C. employees,” BusseyReeder said. “But the funding shouldn’t come on the backs of small businesses like mine that are already struggling.” Silverman has disputed claims that the leave legislation is unfair to businesses, saying it helps businesses provide needed leave for their employees. Meanwhile, two gay men running as Democrats for the Ward 1 Council seat against incumbent Democrat Brianne Nadeau say they are confident they too have a shot at winning the seat in an upset victory. Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and law librarian Kent Boese raised what observers also say is a respectable $33,503 as of the Dec. 10 campaign finance reporting period for his campaign. Boese announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 seat in July. Ward 1 gay civic activist and American Sign Language interpreter Jamie Sycamore, who filed papers for his candidacy in October, raised $681 for his campaign as of the Dec. 10 filing deadline. He said he has raised several hundred dollars more since the Dec. 10 filing as he formally launched the fundraising phase of his campaign. (Lou Chibbaro Jr.)
DECEMBER 20, 2017
Trump not done fighting trans military enlistments No fewer than three courts have ruled against President Trump’s transgender military ban, but the Trump administration isn’t done fighting potential transgender enlistments, which are set to begin Jan. 1 as the result of the rulings. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed a request before the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a stay on a ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis against the transgender ban. The request is limited to the order requiring the U.S. military to allow qualified transgender people to enlist starting Jan. 1. “Absent further relief from this court...the military will be forced to implement a significant change to its accession standards before it decides how to resolve this issue,” the request says. “As military leadership has explained, this timetable will place extraordinary burdens on our armed forces and may harm military readiness.” The Garbis ruling, as well as the two other court decisions against the transgender ban, made Jan. 1 the target date for transgender accessions. That was the date Defense Secretary James Mattis selected in a June 30 memo before Trump announced in July via Twitter he would ban transgender people from the military and followed that up with a directive in August. The Justice Department proposes several ways the Fourth Circuit could stay Garbis’ ruling. The first option is staying the ruling as it pertains to constraining Mattis’ own ability to extend the delay on transgender military service. Also proposed is scaling back the nationwide scope of the injunction, which could mean staying transgender accessions except the one transgender plaintiff who was a potential enlistee and found to have standing in the case. Finally, the Justice Department suggests staying accessions in their entirety on the basis the Garbis order “rests on legal errors concerning jurisdiction, the equities, and the merits.” “Without a stay, the military will, at the risk of harming its readiness posture, have to rush to provide the requisite training to the tens of thousands of service members across the country responsible for implementing accession standards,” the brief says. (Chris Johnson)
Bermuda Senate approves marriage repeal bill The Bermuda Senate last week approved a bill that would rescind marriage rights for same-sex couples in the British island territory. The 8-3 vote took place less than a week after the Bermuda House of Representatives approved the measure, which would allow same-sex couples to enter into domestic partnerships as opposed to get married. The bill will become law unless Gov. John Rankin refuses to sign it. LGBT rights advocates urged lawmakers to oppose the measure, which is known as the Domestic Partnership Bill. The Bermuda Tourism Authority in a letter it sent to senators on Tuesday noted North Carolina’s economy lost $3.76 billion after then-Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016 signed a bill that banned transgender people from using public bathrooms consistent with their gender identity and banned municipalities from enacting LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination measures. The letter also noted Indiana’s religious freedom bill that then-Gov. Mike Pence signed in 2015 had a similar impact on his state’s economy. “We are convinced it will result in lost tourism business for Bermuda,” said the Bermuda Tourism Authority. “While we cannot responsibly estimate what the scale of those losses will be, we can point to contemporary examples that tell a cautionary tale.” More than 60 percent of Bermuda voters in 2016 rejected marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples in a non-binding referendum. Same-sex couples have nevertheless been able to marry in Bermuda since Charles-Etta Simmons, a judge on the territory’s Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the issue. (Michael K. Lavers)
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