C4 gay from C1
tions on gay and lesbian issues, it could boil down to personalities. Estimated by political strat- egists to make up 10 to 20 percent of the city’s electorate in the Dem- ocratic primary, gay men and les- bians have played a major role in city elections since 1978, when their votes were widely credited with giving now-council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) the margin he needed to prevail in a three-way race for mayor.
Mixed reviews
After Fenty became the only leading mayoral candidate in 2006 to endorse same-sex mar- riage, gay voters flocked to his candidacy, according to election results from precincts with high concentrations of gay voters. But despite his support of the law, Fenty has yet to solidify the com- munity’s backing this year. “The community is probably
pretty divided,” said Richard J. Rosendall, vice president for po- litical affairs for the Gay and Les- bian Activists Alliance. “Fenty has done some things that are good, but the main criticism is his sense of style and aloofness and
S
KLMNO D.C.’s gay community wields power in mayor’s race
arrogance.” Gay rights activists have sparred with the Fenty adminis- tration in recent years over Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s efforts to re- organize the department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, and this spring, they criticized the mayor’s decision to issue a certif- icate honoring the director of a group that thinks homosexuality can be treated with psychothera- py. Although Fenty apologized, the dust-up reflected an effort by some gay advocates to be more aggressive in holding city leaders accountable. “Very few people have the bully pulpit that the mayor of Washing- ton, D.C., has,” said Peter Rosen- stein, a gay rights activist who supported Fenty in 2006. “Adrian has that, and Adrian hasn’t used it on any of our issues, and I think very often the gay community wants to see someone use that.” Many activists say Gray de-
serves credit for getting the mar- riage bill through the council, but Fenty delivered a passionate speech at a bill-signing ceremony in December equating the strug- gle for same-sex marriage to the challenges his parents faced as an interracial couple in the 1960s.
In an interview last week after renaming parts of 17th Street NW for veteran gay rights leader Frank E. Kameny, Fenty defended his record on gay issues. “The marriage equality bill was a huge step for the city, and we will con- tinue to do everything we can to make sure not only the GLBT community, but anyone who may have been marginalized in soci- ety, feels like the District govern- ment and the city are for them,” he said.
‘I see improvements’
Despite some of the activists’ concerns over Fenty, many at a Capital Pride reception Wednes- day said he deserves credit for im- proving city services and neigh- borhoods. “I see improvements everywhere I go,” said Nicholas DiBlasio, 39, who recently mar- ried. “I called 311 for a clogged sewer on 13th Street, and the next day they were out there. . . . That’s a big deal for me.” At the reception, several atten- dants said they didn’t know Gray, underscoring his own challenge in becoming better known city- wide and making inroads with the gay community. In an inter- view, Gray said he has “been ex-
cellent on the issues” and, unlike Fenty, “didn’t make the mistake of endorsing a group that’s anti- gay.” Reflecting what polls say is a broader split in the city’s elector- ate, white and black gay men and lesbians appear to view Fenty dif- ferently. “I think it’s coming down to racial politics, ” said Sheila Al- exander-Reid, an African Amer- ican lesbian who is active in the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club. Earl Fowlkes, who helps orga- nize the annual Washington Black Gay Pride event, said Fenty has refused to attend, even though Barry and former mayors Anthony A. Williams and Sharon Pratt had attended when they were in the office. “We live in a city that is very progressive, and we’d like to think we had a mayor who sup- ports us,” said Fowlkes, who is on the board of Black Gay Pride. “It would have been very important and symbolic for us to see our mayor, who is of color, be there.” In response, Fenty said he
“can’t make all the functions.” Despite their uncertainty about the mayor’s race, black and white gay activists said they have more allies than ever running for
Capital Pride Festival
The 35th annual Capital Pride street festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday on Pennsylvania Avenue between Third and Seventh streets NW.
Sunday Street Festival D ST.
ARCHIVES– NAVY MEMORIAL
D.C. Courthouse C ST.
Family area
Information CONSTITUTION AVE. Beverages
Nat’l Gallery of Art
NOTE: Streets closed Sunday through 6 p.m.
SOURCES: DDOT, Capital Pride
office this year. In the race for council chair- man, former council member Vincent Orange has joined his ri- val, Kwame Brown, in endorsing same-sex marriage. Four years ago, when he was a
mayoral candidate, Orange cam- paigned as a same-sex marriage opponent. At a recent D.C. for De-
MADISON DR.
Nat’l Gallery of Art East Bldg.
THE WASHINGTON POST
mocracy forum, Orange said he now supports same-sex marriage. Orange joined Brown, an at-large council member who voted for same-sex marriage, in pledging at the forum to support civil disobe- dience if Congress overturns the law. “Times change,” Orange said.
craigt@washpost.com
Observer newspaper of N.Va. shuts down
by Derek Kravitz
The Observer, a family-owned community newspaper in North- ern Virginia that for more than a quarter-century provided an in- sider’s glimpse of life in Washing- ton’s rapidly growing suburbs, has shuttered after years of falling ad- vertising revenue and worsening circulation. The weekly newspaper, which
at its peak in 2000 had a 13- person staff and a circulation of 100,000 with editions in Hern- don, Reston and Loudoun County, had struggled for the past three years, said publisher Christopher L. Moore. “We just couldn’t keep up,” he said. “It wasn’t just one thing; the economy, the changes in the industry. It had just run its course.” It is the latest community
PHOTOS BY ALEXANDRA GARCIA/THE WASHINGTON POST Seth Goldstein carries Oriental bittersweet vine — a deadly threat to trees — that he and wife Paula Stone collect for their sculptures. An artistic tale with a bittersweet twist weeds from C1
has a prominent place on the list of the most destructive nonna- tive invasive plant species in the United States. Brought to the country as an ornamental plant in the mid-1800s, the vine’s bright orange berries look pretty on the Thanksgiving table, but in parks, recreation areas and resi- dential yards, Oriental bitter- sweet is a mass murderer. “It’s one of the worst, with kudzu and porcelainberry,” says Carole Bergmann, a forest ecolo- gist with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Com- mission. “I call bittersweet the anaconda vine, because it really strangles trees. The vines are tak- ing over in areas where they’re not treated, and the problem is getting worse and worse.” Eleven years ago, Bergmann began training volunteer vine- cutters. More than 700 outdoor activists have since become certi- fied Weed Warriors, fanning out across 34,000 acres of Mont- gomery County parkland to kill invasive vines. “This is D.C.; there are a lot of people who are aware of a lot of things here,” Bergmann says. “People see what’s going on environmentally and want to help.” Stone and Goldstein love the outdoors; they live within walk- ing distance of the C&O Canal towpath and own matching Sier- ra Club daypacks. They also wanted access to more sculpting material. So they were quick to
washingtonpost.com/local Video: Watch artists Paula Stone and Seth Goldstein in the fields taking down the pesky vines and in the studio turning them into art.
pieces can be seen in an outdoor sculpture show in Foggy Bottom, at 835 25th St. NW, through Oct. 23.
Stone and Goldstein learned recently that one of their favorite pieces — “Wheedle Dee,” which might or might not resemble a robot crab with ears — was ac- cepted by the American Vision- ary Art Museum in Baltimore for an upcoming exhibit, “What Makes Us Smile.” But right now, they’re out in a
steamy section of parkland, hunting and gathering and hop- ing they can avoid ticks and poi- son ivy. “The art is the least of it,” Stone says. “Cutting the vines is one task, and that’s hard work. Then we have to schlep this stuff out of here and fit it in the Prius.” “Normal sculptors would just
go to the store, I think,” Gold- stein says. “I guess we’re not nor- mal.”
ALEXANDRA GARCIA/THE WASHINGTON POST For Goldstein, left, and Stone, cutting the vines is only the first step in the artistic process.
enlist as county Weed Warriors and signed up for a similar Na- ture Conservancy program that allows them to go weed-whack- ing on Park Service property in the Potomac Gorge. “We’re not going to get rid of Oriental bittersweet, but we can surely slow it down,” Stone says. “There’s a limit to what a per- son can do,” Goldstein says. “But
what the hell. We’re getting stuff for our sculptures, and they may turn people’s attention to the problem.”
Deep in Cabin John, they find their prey. “Could be the neck or body of our next brontosaurus,” Goldstein says excitedly. The couple dabble in abstract sculp- tures but specialize in whimsical pieces that resemble other life
forms — dinosaurs, insects, cam- els, cowboys, seals and such, of- ten with cheeky names, all craft- ed from the weeds they gather in the wilds of suburbia. (Expect to see a cow added to their menag- erie soon, possibly bearing the name Bo-vine.)
Some of their work is on dis-
play at Brookside Gardens in Sil- ver Spring, and one of their
So here they are, looking for killer pieces of a killer vine, all in the name of art. “Look at that helix!” Goldstein
says. “That’s an incredible piece of vine.” You see a coil. Goldstein sees an animal’s belly. You see a multi-pronged piece of wood. Stone sees a squid. “Honey, here’s a really nice
piece,” she shouts. “You might say we don’t get out enough,” Goldstein says, laughing as the couple trudges deeper into the woods.
dulacj@washpost.com
newspaper in the region to fold. The Loudoun Easterner, a 41- year-old weekly in Sterling, the Blue Ridge Leader in Purcellville and the Clarke Times-Courier in Berryville have ceased publica- tion in the past year. And in a sign of the times, Moore is moving to AOL, where he will lead its new Northern Virginia regional news Web site on the
Patch.com net- work. The online-only operation is hiring reporters and has affili- ates set to open across the Wash- ington area. “I’m going to translate what we did with the Observer into the on- line model at AOL,” said Moore, whose paper’s final edition was June 4.
Patch.com, a host of sites started in February 2009 for com- munities of less than 70,000 peo- ple, has posted several job open- ings for editors in Maryland. The Observer was started in 1976 by Margaret “Peggy” Dow- ney Vetter, a former Detroit Free Press correspondent who pub- lished the paper’s first editions out of her Fairfax County home. It was bought for $200,000 in 1990 by Moore’s in-laws, Tom and Betsy Grein. Moore and his wife, Katie, took over the paper from the Greins in 2003. Vetter stayed on as a reporter until shortly before her death in 2000 and told the trade publica- tion Editor & Publisher in a 1996 interview that the Observer watched over local governments when few other news organiza- tions bothered to reach Northern Virginia’s once-tiny communities. “The only communication that the town had with citizens was a mimeograph sheet public works employees dropped off when run- ning trash routes,” she said. “We started as a twice-monthly, using the basement of my home to put it together. My kids used to call it ‘Mom’s Underground News- paper.’ ” The Observer was notable for
its careful attention to the some- times mundane trappings of com- munity news, but it also covered some of the region’s biggest sto- ries: a years-long terrorism probe after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with raids on Herndon’s al-Qae- da-connected Islamic charities; the three-week-long Beltway snip- er shootings that forced many businesses to temporarily close; and Herndon’s controversial day- laborer center for immigrants, which sparked a national debate.
kravitzd@washpost.com
Corporate sponsors
Courthouse U.S.
Main Stage
Beverages Municipal Center 0 MILE 1/8 Road blocked NW D.C.
Detail SW
NE SE
SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010
INDIANA AVE.
3RD ST.
4TH ST.
6TH ST.
7TH ST.
PENNSYLVANIA AVE.
Vendors
Vendors
PA. AVE.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158