Gay men targeted Meridian Hill Park by fake p, prosecutors say - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.
• GAY FORMER POLICE OFFICER NNG FOR WARD 1 COUNCIL
• GAY ARAB-AMERIN FORMER P IS A STRONG NTENR DC CY COUNCIL BRAWL
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR LIAISON UN (LGBTLU)
• D.C. POLICE ARRT 26 MEN FOR GAY SEX FERAL PARK, LAWYER SAYS IT'S ENTRAPMENT
• WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
• WASHGTON BLA: LGBTQ NEWS, POLICS, LGBTQ RIGHTS, GAY NEWS
• D.C. GAY UPLE ROBBED, PISTOL WHIPPED BUT U.S. ATTORNEY HAS YET TO PROSECUTE
• WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”
• MAN POSG AS FERAL OFFICER ASSLTED GAY MEN SERI OF ATTACKS AT D.C. PARK, OFFICIALS SAY
• GAY MEN TARGETED MERIDIAN HILL PARK BY FAKE P, PROSECUTORS SAY

HE WAS ONE OF THE NATN’S MOST REVERED GAY PS. HIS ARRT CHANGED EVERYTHG.

Miller/TWP) RIGHT: Parson, shown here 2005, was known natnally and ternatnally as a pneer of gay rights policg. ’ ”The teenager began to tell the officers the story he would repeat at least three tim that night, cludg at the sexual asslt treatment center where he was taken after his parents were ’d met Parson on Growlr, a datg app for gay men that requir ers to be 18. The man who had jt driven away was known natnally and ternatnally as a pneer of gay rights the natn’s pal, Parson built an award-wng liaison un that vtigated hate crim, beiend advot and marched Pri paras, slowly revolutnizg the relatnship between the police and the cy’s LGBTQ muny.

GAY FORMER POLICE OFFICER NNG FOR WARD 1 COUNCIL

”Endg ‘fairy shakg’Parson’s reputatn as a gay hero began wh a sndal. Officer was statng himself outsi a gay club Southeast Washgton. ”The chief stalled after the sndal, Charl Ramsey, saw a solutn to that problem: bolsterg and broang a newly formed Gay and Lbian Liaison, then his early 30s, had been openly gay sce he joed the force.

“I was really, really aaid that my reputatn was gog to change om beg a good p who happened to be gay, to beg a gay p that ed to be a good p.

Rather than raid gay clubs, Parson and the five to 15 members of his un would announce themselv over the loudspeaker, then walk around, troduce themselv and pass out reigerator mags wh their phone number on . The number was the workaround for those the muny who need help, but worried about the repercsns of llg 911: a gay man experiencg domtic abe om his partner or a transgenr woman wantg to report a hate crime.

GAY ARAB-AMERIN FORMER P IS A STRONG NTENR DC CY COUNCIL BRAWL

(Carol Guzy/The Washgton Post) Wh three years of Parson’s beg put charge, the un won a distguished service award om the cy’s Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance, an anizatn formed part to prott discrimatn by law enforcement. Parson boasted that, on a police force wh few openly gay ps, his imposg figure earned him rpect.

” The term is sometim ed by adults the gay muny who intify or prent as and the teenager unlocked the app’s “private media” feature, allowg them to see revealg pictur of each other. Advot who work wh gay youth say ’s mon for teenagers to explore on datg apps that allow them to meet strangers, pecially if they don’t feel safe exprsg themselv at home or vulnerable kids also e datg apps to seek out adults who will pay them, though mors nnot legally nsent to beg purchased for sex. “I don’t thk a life should be stroyed over one foolish event late one night, pecially when the ntact was ma on a se where everyone is supposed to be a mimum of 18, ” said Rick Rosendall, former print of the Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR LIAISON UN (LGBTLU)

Dubbed the “don’t say gay” law by opponents, s supporters bandied about terms like “groomg” to create false lks between homosexualy and child abe, which is mted by people of all sexual orientatns.

“Somethg like this jt plays right to their narrative, ” said John Guggenmos, owner of several gay nightclubs D.

Gay D. Police litenant who head the cy’s former Gay and Lbian Liaison Un, garnerg a natnal reputatn for buildg tst between law enforcement and unr-served muni. In explag the ratnale for droppg the se, assistant state attorney Danielle Lennox said the two had met on Growlr, a gay datg applitn.

D.C. POLICE ARRT 26 MEN FOR GAY SEX FERAL PARK, LAWYER SAYS IT'S ENTRAPMENT

In one of the most petive rac recent DC Council history, a gay former Metropolan Police Department officer and son of a Paltian refugee is poised to unseat the progrsive cumbent Ward 1. Related: GOP ndidate Herschel Walker’s very flamboyantly not-gay son attacks Pri Month. Sure polics is a tough bs but as the son of a refugee and immigrant, a gay man, and someone who was part of MPD’s rponse to the Jan 6th surrectn, havg that vile p photoshopped on my cloth is ceptive and unte.

“I mean, I’m an Arab Amerin gay man. Should he be elected, Czapany will fill the seat of longtime, openly gay Ward 1 uncil rep Jim Graham, who died 2017. Jim, and those of his generatn, broke barriers that have ma possible for me, a gay Arab-Amerin man, the son of refuge, to participate fully ernment and public service and to ntue the fight towards full equaly for all.

Czapany’s foc on LGBTQ issu would clu “makg sure DC remas open and welg to people fleeg persecutn, ” cludg transgenr and gay youth, and addrsg a hog and LGBTQ-affirmg re crisis those groups. I was 19 years old the first time I acknowledged, to myself, that I was gay. “I was more worried g out to my parents as a Democrat, ” says Czapany, “than tellg them I was gay.

WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'

The Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Liaison Un (LGBTLU) is a team of dited officers that foc on the public safety needs of the gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and their allied muni. Contactg the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr Liaison Un (LGBTLU). ""[It's] remiscent of the Stonewall days when gay men were often the target of police discrimatn.

"Sargeant Delgado was unable to nfirm whether the arrts were at the hands of uniformed or placloth Washgton Post scrib Meridian Hill Park as a "gatherg place for all of the District's disparate trib: black and whe, rich and poor, young and old, immigrant and lol, gay and straight, borg and bizarre. " It's also long been nsired cisg spot for gay men of lor. "Defense attorneys argued the Pleasure Emporium is such a bs, "well-known and advertised as a gay cisg 'hookup' area.

WASHGTON BLA: LGBTQ NEWS, POLICS, LGBTQ RIGHTS, GAY NEWS

But the other driver, a 16-year-old boy, told police he and Parson had jt engaged sexual boy reported that he first nnected wh Parson on Growlr, a datg app for gay men. A new book exam the unknown or barely known liv of gay people workg and livg our natn’s pal, a cy known for s mix of power and secrets. “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, " by Jam Kirchick, is a 654-page tome that took years of rearch and an exhstive vtigatn to printial archiv, historil terviews and once-classified ernment rerds.

"Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton" by Jam, Henry & Company, Inc. “I realized that all the stori I was readg, and the personali and phenomena, whether was McCarthyism or the Reagans, FDR or JFK, that there were the gay stori lurkg the background, ” Kirchick said.

Those stori lurked the background out of necsy: The st of g out as gay — or, more likely, beg outed agast one’s will — was enormo profsnally and socially. Even beg associated wh a spected homosexual uld e the untry’s most powerful men to quiver.

D.C. GAY UPLE ROBBED, PISTOL WHIPPED BUT U.S. ATTORNEY HAS YET TO PROSECUTE

“It was the specter of homosexualy that provoked the first and only suici by a member of Congrs his Capol Hill office, ed Lyndon Johnson to et that his historil lead would evaporate, and seized the paranoid md of Richard Nixon send only to the plots of his ever-expandg enemi list, ” Kirchick wr.

WHAT MA WASHGTON, D.C., THE “GAYT AND MOST ANTIGAY CY AMERI”

” Rumors of homosexualy were tastrophic to those who were acced of , but Kirchick also asks the rear to nsir the broar human and societal impact of such wch hunts on gay Amerins workg ernment.

“To asss the full sle of the damage that the fear of homosexualy wrought on the Amerin polil landspe, one mt take to acunt not only the reers ed and the liv cut short, but somethg vaster and unquantifiable: the possibili thwarted, ” Kirchick wr.

Although openly LGBTQ people have ma their way to the hight ranks of ernment today, was not long ago that spected homosexuals workg for the feral ernment were hunted down, publicly huiated and termated wh the full force of the ernment. “I don’t thk people unrstand or realize that was more dangero to be gay than was to be a munist.

MAN POSG AS FERAL OFFICER ASSLTED GAY MEN SERI OF ATTACKS AT D.C. PARK, OFFICIALS SAY

Waldron’s secret was that he was gay. But one man said Waldron had “homosexual tennci” and shared a story about Waldron’s makg a pass at him.

”There was not one person whose power uld not be danger of beg promised if there was even a whisper of possible homosexualy activy. There were whispers that Reagan was possibly participatg “homosexual nduct, ” and some Republins saw Reagan’s potential nomatn as a “danger to the Republin Party and the untry. Y., a former Buffalo Bills and San Diego Chargers quarterback, to be his vice printial nng mate — another person mored to be gay.

GAY MEN TARGETED MERIDIAN HILL PARK BY FAKE P, PROSECUTORS SAY

The possibily that Kemp uld jo the ticket was evince that there was a “homosexual rg” around Reagan and that he was “the ventriloquized pawn of shadowy and sister forc, ” Kirchick wr.

When a ngrsman later asked Reagan’s munitns ai about the loss of the nomatn for Kemp, he reportedly said, “It was that homosexual thg, ” Kirchick wr. “Secret Cy” ends wh the princy of Bill Clton, who said a mpaign speech ont of a largely gay dience Los Angel 1992, “I have a visn, and you are a part of . ” Wh those words, Clton would do somethg that would have seemed unfathomable to most, if not all, of his precsors: make an explic appeal to gay Amerins for their support a printial electn.