D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray wants to condemn hate.
On Monday, May 5, Gray announced a resolution condemning hate that he planned to introduce at the City Council’s May 6 legislative meeting.
While the language of the resolution points to 75 D.C. hate crimes in the past two years, Gray, who said he expects it to pass unanimously, introduced longtime local gay-rights activist Peter Rosenstein to add personal emphasis.
”We must speak out each time a hate crime is committed,” Rosenstein told the crowd of about 70 people, including many recognizable local GLBT activists, at the John A. Wilson Building Monday morning. ”We have to talk about these issues.”
Gray credited Rosenstein with being instrumental in crafting the ”sense of the Council” resolution. Others Gray mentioned as supporting the effort included Brian Watson of the D.C. Coalition of Black LGBT Men and Women and Transgender Health Empowerment; Mario Acosta-Vélez of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; and Barrett Brick of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C.
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