Grant awards reception rescheduled

February 13
1 p.m.
The Dignity Center
721 8th Street
Washington, DC 20003


It was very unfortunate that the snow kept us from celebrating what a great job BHT has done this year and giving out the much earned recognition awards.

We’ve been able to obtain the Dignity Center's main meeting room for a somewhat scaled back reception at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 13.

At this new reception the grantees will receive their checks. Food will be served and we will have the opportunity to toast one and all with wine beer and soft drinks.

I hope that you all can attend and bring your club presidents and others from your club and community.

We will be finished in time to attend Scarlet's bake sale, which begins at 5pm.

Best regards,

JoAnn Kokindo
President, Brother Help Thyself

BHT awards more than $120,000 in grants

Brother, Help Thyself, a community-based organization that provides financial and other support to non-profit organizations serving the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/questioning and and HIV/AIDS community in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metro area, recently awarded grants totaling $120,472.33 to 27 organizations.

BHT was founded in 1978 by four gay motorcycle clubs and is one of the first organizations in the United States to provide funding for GLBTQ health, cultural, and social services. The first fund drive by The Capital Area Board of Leather and Levi Motorcycle Clubs raised $4,518. BHT was formed to award that grant to the Gay Men's VD Clinic, which was having financial difficulties at that time. Not only did this grant make it possible for the clinic to continue to provide health services, but also made it possible for it to separate from the Free Clinic. This separation lead to the creation of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which expanded its services to the lesbian community at that time.

BHT has grown and diversified over the years. In response to the AIDS crises in our community, we financially support many AIDS service providers. During the past 30 years, we have raised over $2.1 million and distributed it to more than 130 groups in our community. Brother, Help Thyself raises funds throughout the year and then disburses direct and matching funds, partners with grantees on fundraisers and other events, acts as a clearinghouse for donated goods and services, and serves as an information resource to the GLBTQ community.

Grant recipient and the amounts they received for 2009 include:
AIDS Action Baltimore, $5,518.33;
ARRIBA Center, Washington, $2,165;
Charlie's Place, Washington, $6,425;
Damien Ministries, Washington, $6,500;
Ellington Fund/Wayne M. Nesbitt, Washington, $2,210;
Emmaus Services for the Aging, Washington, $3,185;
Equality Maryland Foundation, Baltimore, $1,115;
GLBT Arts Consortium, Washington, $500;
Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, $5,870;
Health Options and Positive Energy Foundation (HOPE), Washington, $2,600;
Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Washington, $12,930;
Interfaith Fairness Coalition of MD, Baltimore, 4,335;
Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington, 2,000;
Mautner Project, Washington, $2,490;
Metropolitan DC GLBT Community Center, $3,494;
Metro Teen AIDS, Washington, $8,353;
Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry, Falls Church, Va., $1,720;
Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care, Washington, $6,135;
PFLAG of Metro Washington, DC, $5,510;
Pets-DC, Washington, $9,055;
Positive Voices of Baltimore (POZVOX), $4,420;
Prevention Works, Washington, $4,030;
Rainbow Youth Alliance of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville, $5,895;
Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), Washington, $2,135;
Third Millennium Ensemble, Washington, $845;
Transgender Health Empowerment, Washington, $7,552; and
Washington Renegades Rugby Football Team, $3,485.

Awards Ceremony canceled due to snow

The Grant Awards Ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, in Baltimore, has been canceled due to inclement weather.

2010 Grants Award Ceremony

Brother, Help Thyself will award over $100,000 in grants to HIV/AIDS and GLBT non-profit organizations on Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Hippo, 1 W. Eager St., Baltimore, Md. Doors will open at 1 p.m. for a silent auction. There will also be cocktails and hors d'ouvres. The awards ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Please come out and support BHT and the deserving charities that do so much for our community.

Brother, Help Thyself's office is moving

Brother, Help Thyself's offices are moving as of Jan. 1, 2010. We will now be located in the Dignity Center, 721 8th Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Our email address and phone number will remain the same. Also, correspondence should continue to be mailed to Brother, Help Thyself, PO Box 77841, Washington, DC 20013-8841

One Man's Mark

Larry Stansbury offered decades of service to the LGBT community

by Yusef Najafi
Published on November 12, 2009, in Metro Weekly

During his final days Larry Stansbury didn't quite resemble the dedicated community activist and organizer so many in the D.C. area remember. Lying in a bed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the District, he was immobile, his eyes and mouth closed. Each day included a barrage of about 45 pills that would help Stansbury survive to the next day as comfortably as possible.



Yet there was a quality Steve Blum, Stansbury's roommate and close friend of nearly 30 years, recognized a certain look on Stansbury's face, facial expressions hinting at his determination to fight the ailments resulting from a broken hip the 61-year-old suffered after falling from his bed eight weeks earlier. It was the same look of determination Stansbury had given him in the 1990s when he was diagnosed with diabetes.

''I would stand over him and tell him, 'Hi Larry, it's Steve,'" says Blum. "[I would] stroke his arm and his eyebrow would move up a little bit, so he was aware I was there. But he was very sick at that time.''

For Stansbury, a two-time kidney transplant recipient, the diabetes diagnosis was a turning point in the wrong direction because he knew the condition would make him less eligible for successful transplants in the future.

''Once he developed diabetes, he kind of knew that they wouldn't want to give him a transplant, because it's going to reject,'' Blum says. ''Then he started to develop a cyst that caused his kidney to fail, which started to develop on his liver too. It wasn't until the very end until the liver went. He managed to control that with some aggressive treatment.''

Stansbury was already familiar with his ailments, as he had already watched his mother and sister die of similar illness.

''He was born with that,'' Blum says of Stansbury's renal problems. ''It's hereditary genes, and he would say, 'I'm going to have to battle this all the way.'''

Stansbury, who died on Saturday, Oct. 31, was prominent in the local LGBT community as the first executive director of the gay philanthropic group Brother Help Thyself (BHT). He was also a founding board member of Capital Pride, and a member of the Spartan Motorcycle Club.

According to Blum, Stansbury became an activist as a result of his inability to work shortly following his first kidney transplant in 1984. Blum met Stansbury just a few years before that after moving to Alexandria from Harrisburg, Pa., in 1980.

Stansbury was working at the DC Eagle at the time and the two, along with Stansbury's then-partner James Kenner, became roommates. Though Kenner died from AIDS-related complications many years ago, Blum and Stansbury remained roommates. Before working at the DC Eagle, Stansbury served in the United States Navy from 1969 to 1973.

''He was in the medical field, so he went to work for hospitals,'' Blum says. ''He was what they call the materials guy -- he was the purchaser for the hospital. He did that for years.

''When he stopped working, he got involved with one organization after another,'' Blum says. ''He went to Whitman-Walker Clinic, then BHT. He was already active with the Spartans, and he started doing charity work. He just wanted to keep busy.

"He wasn't all that sick," Blum continues. "He was able to function very well, but he wasn't able to go out and get a job, so he just dedicated his life [to volunteerism]. And he was relentless.''

As an example of what could be accomplished with Stansbury's dedication, Blum points to BHT's budget. The group awarded only a few thousand dollars per year in grants when Stansbury first got involved. Under Stansbury's leadership, the number grew to approximately $100,000 per year in awarded grants.

Mark Meinke of the Rainbow History Project says Stansbury has played an important role in D.C.'s local LGBT community since the 1960s.

''He was very active with the leather community," says Meinke. "He was very active with BHT, from its beginnings. He was active in the Pride celebrations from the late '70s on. He did security after he retired, because of his disability. He liked having a good time. He was one of the organizers of Gay Day at King's Dominion each year. Larry never struck me as a man who sat still very long. He was always doing something."

While Stansbury's dedication to the community was unwavering, Blum says there was one goal that went unaccomplished: an HIV/AIDS memorial monument or park in the District.

In a directive Stansbury entrusted to Blum, Stansbury asked that those wishing to remember him in some way upon his death should make donations to BHT, the Capital Pride Alliance, or the Spartan MC. Stansbury also directed that his remains be cremated.

A memorial celebration of Stansbury's life has been set for Saturday, Dec. 12, at 1 p.m. in the lobby-level reception room of the Alexandria Knolls West condominiums, 6101 Edsall Road, Alexandria.

Larry Stansbury, longtime D.C. activist, dies at 61

Co-founded Brother Help Thyself, supported Capital Pride and D.C. Center

By Rebecca Armendariz
in the Washington Blade, Nov. 6, 2009

Larry Stansbury, the first executive director of Brother Help Thyself and a Capital Pride Alliance founding board member, died Saturday in D.C. of complications stemming from a broken hip, according to Steve Blum, Stansbury’s roommate of 29 years. Stansbury was 61.

He first came to the District from Richmond, Va., in the 1970s after a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy ending in 1973. He worked at the D.C. Eagle, where he eventually became manager, and became involved in local LGBT activities largely through his memberships to the Centaur and Spartan gay motorcycle clubs, the latter of which he served in several roles, including president.

Stansbury had a kidney transplant in 1984, a development that allowed him to receive federal disability benefits and use his time to volunteer for LGBT nonprofits, Blum said.

Blum called Stansbury his “lifelong friend.” Stansbury’s partner of 12 years, James Kenner, died in 1990.

“He had a very limited family,” Blum said. “But he was my mother and my sister and my brother and everything else.”

In 1978, Stansbury helped create Brother Help Thyself, which provides funds for LGBT health, cultural and social services, said current executive director Tom Yates. After stepping down as the group’s director in 2006, Stansbury served on the organization’s board of directors as the Spartan representative.

Groups that have received donations from Brother Help Thyself include the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, the Whitman-Walker Clinic and the Mautner Project.

“He was the one who answered the phone, he got the mail, he was the point person,” Yates said. “When people needed to get a hold of Brother Help Thyself, they got a hold of Larry. He was the eyes and ears of the organization.”

Under Stansbury’s direction, Brother Help Thyself grew from an organization collecting $2,000 in grants to one bringing in more than $2 million, according to Rainbow History Project.

Stansbury also served on the Alexandria Task Force on AIDS, was vice president of the D.C. Center, and was involved with Capital Pride for more than 30 years.

Most recently, Stansbury served on the Capital Pride Alliance, which formed from a handful of Capital Pride organizers in 2008 and took over the task of planning the annual celebration from the Whitman-Walker Clinic.

“Larry was a fiery, passionate, dedicated individual who truly understood what it meant to be a servant leader,” said Capital Pride Board of Directors President Michael Lutz in a statement.

Lutz said that Stansbury sat on Pride’s planning committee, served on the board, and acted as an historian and head of security.

Blum said as Stansbury’s eyesight began to fail him this year from diabetes-related complications, he became less active in his charitable endeavors, but still served as the board’s treasurer.

Michael Sessa, the D.C. Center’s current volunteer president, said he worked with Stansbury and knew him through the leather community.

“He was executive director of [Brother Help Thyself] for 20 years, which I’m sure took skill and patience,” Sessa said. “He was definitely someone who liked volunteering in the community, and he could have given his time elsewhere. No one can deny his lasting commitment to the LGBT community.”

Paul Rose, a fellow Spartan Motorcycle Club member and a Brother Help Thyself founder, said he knew Stansbury for more than 25 years.

“When I stepped back after eight years, Larry filled in and developed [Brother Help Thyself] beyond whatever I had envisioned, and I was thrilled with that,” Rose said. “The organization will and has sorely missed him.”

Stansbury was elected as one of the Rainbow History Project’s Community Pioneers in 2007. The Community Pioneers program honors those who have shaped the District’s LGBT community.

“He was always busy,” said Mark Meinke, chair of the Rainbow History Project. “When you want to get something done, you don’t go to somebody who has time to do it. You go to somebody who has no time, but knows how to get it done. He was one of those kinds of people.”

In honor of Stansbury, Meinke published a memorial page on the Rainbow History Project’s web site.

A memorial service will be held Dec. 12 at 1 p.m. at Stansbury and Blum’s shared residence, Alexandria Knolls West Condominiums, 6101 Edsall Rd., Alexandria, Va. In lieu of flowers, Blum asked that donations be made to Brother Help Thyself.