Comings & Goings

By PETER ROSENSTEIN

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: comingsandgoings@washblade.com.

The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.

Congratulations to Glenn D. Magpantay, Esq. on his appointment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The commission is an independent, bipartisan federal agency, to advise Congress and the White House on the enforcement of federal civil rights laws and development of national civil rights policy. Magpantay will be the third Asian American, third openly LGBTQ, and first LGBTQ Asian American to serve on the commission. On his appointment Magpantay said, “It’s an enormous honor to serve my country and represent my community. We’ve been overlooked too long. This would not have happened without Sen. Schumer, Rep. Meng, and my community’s support. I hope to make you all proud.”

Magpantay is a longtime civil rights attorney, professor of his friends Joe Price and Victor Zaborsky and their roommate Dylan Ward. All three are gay. Wone was found stabbed in the chest lying in bed; later, syringe marks were found on his neck suggesting he’d been drugged or incapacitated before being stabbed. Police noted a surprising lack of blood at the scene, which led many to speculate the crime scene had been cleaned. Adding to the spectacle, police released details of a collection of S&M devices found in the home, prompting speculation Wone had been sexually assaulted.

The three men were never charged with the murder and a D.C. Superior Court judge later found them not guilty of obstructing justice in the case, even though the court rejected a defense theory that an intruder killed Wone. The three gay men were later named as defendants in a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit and agreed to an out-ofcourt settlement in the case with Wone’s widow.

Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr., who covered the Wone murder for years, was interviewed extensively for the Peacock documentary and is featured in the series. Visit washingtonblade.com for extensive coverage of the case and its aftermath.

FROM STAFF REPORTS law and Asian American Studies, and LGBTQ rights activist. He has been organizing in the community for more than 30 years. He is currently a principal at Magpantay & Associates, a nonprofit consulting and legal services firm. He was selected for a prestigious George Soros Equality Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations.

Magpantay co-founded and served as the executive director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), a national federation of Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander LGBTQ organizations for nearly a decade. His efforts were recognized by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) with its Trailblazer Lifetime Achievement Award and Walter & Evelyn Haas, Jr. Fund Outstanding LGBTQ Leadership Award for Immigrants’ Rights.

Magpantay was a nationally recognized civil rights attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) for nearly 20 years. Instinct magazine showcased Magpantay as one of the nation’s “25 Leading Men” in 2004. He organized the first-ever LGBTQ testimony before The White House Initiative on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders in 2000 and spoke at the National March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993.

Magpantay has brought 15 briefs to the United States Su- preme Court; testified before the United States Congress; published 20 scholarly legal and academic articles; authored impactful public reports; and has given commentary to The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, MSNBC-TV, NBC Asian America, and others. He served as a trustee to the Boehm Family Foundation, and currently serves on the Gold Futures Challenge Selection Committee of Asian American Futures Fund. He chairs the LGBT Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York.