Photo by brettbattjer

Both Mayor Adrian Fenty and Council Chairman Vincent Gray have strong records on supporting LGBT rights in D.C. — but Gray’s record is a smidge better, if the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club’s endorsement is any indication. Lou Chibbaro Jr. reports that Gray has narrowly won the Stein Club’s endorsement, meeting a 60-percent threshold by just 3 votes. According to Chibbaro, activists expected Gray to lead Fenty but figured that the candidates would ultimately split the vote. In absolute numbers, though, Gray won twice the votes Fenty received.

A couple of news items over the last few weeks may have led Mayor Fenty’s standing within the community to slip. Questions still linger over the sudden resignation of D.C. HIV/AIDS czar Shannon Hader a week ago. In one sense, Mayor Fenty may have become a victim of Hader’s success. Her appointment as the director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration marked the beginning a period of unprecedented successes for D.C. data collection, testing and drug distribution. To many eyes, “success” and “Hader” became correlative. As Mayor Fenty’s office has indicated, interim director Nnemdi Kamanu Elias has the resume for the job. But confidence in the candidate isn’t the issue. It’s how to keep her once she’s there.

On another issue that recently stirred the LGBT community, Mayor Fenty re-issued and clarified his apology. During a mayoral forum on Monday, one Stein Club member submitted a question asking why Mayor Fenty has yet to invalidate a mayoral honor awarded to the anti-gay group PFOX, Chibbaro reports. Mayor Fenty, who signed the award, sounded as surprised as Wale to have found himself linked to an anti-gay posture.