Metro Weekly

2012: The Year in Review

Sticking to an LGBT perspective, the year rode a relatively rising trajectory


DECEMBER

While still underway, December has already been busy.

With Dec. 1 being World AIDS Day, Whitman-Walker Health and others gathered for the annual candlelight vigil in Dupont Circle. In a sort of coincidence, Dec. 1 also marked longtime HIV/AIDS activist and educator Michael Kaplan‘s full-time return to Washington as head of AIDS United.

Aside from candles, Dec. 1 also saw electric lights. They formed a message reading, ”Reject Ugandan Homophobia.” Standing along 16th Street NW, in front of the Embassy of the Republic of Uganda, the message was intended for members of the Ugandan Parliament who were again considering the so-called ”Kill the Gays Bill,” which first surfaced in 2009. Though the Parliament adjourned Dec. 14 before the bill was brought to the floor, it may well return in 2013.

Most of Washington’s LGBT-related news happened Dec. 11. During this big day, Mayor Gray held a press conference at the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center. It seems that while The DC Center’s initial bid for a vacant space in the Reeves Center was denied, that was not the last word. Instead, Gray announced that the city’s LGBT community center’s bid for a 15-year lease was approved. Adding to the day’s news, Gray also announced that popular D.C. activist Sterling Washington would be the new director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, filling a vacancy left when Jeffrey Richardson accepted the post of heading Serve DC, the city’s volunteerism office. – Will O’Bryan

Check out Metro Weekly‘s Year in Scene next week. And for a look at what’s ahead in 2013, pick up Metro Weekly‘s Jan. 3, 2013, issue.

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