Inability to forward bias diode in a simple circuit
Diode is not the problem. You can remove it and replace it with a piece of wire to see that for yourself. Make a simpler circuit work first. Then when you add the diode it'll keep on working (as long as there's enough voltage driving the circuit).
You assumed that the diode is a problem, whereas before such assumption you should ask yourself: do you know enough to know that the diode is a problem? Remember that the voltage drop across a diode is ~logarithm of the current, so all you're seeing here is a diode acting like a rather sensitive current meter and telling you that microamps are flowing through it. You can replace the diode with a microammeter and see what the current is. I'd expect anywhere between 0.1uA and 10uA.
Once you get the circuit working, you should play with that diode - put it in series with a resistor, measure voltage across the resistor to determine the current, then measure the voltage across the diode. Use various resistors to &quot;sweep&quot; the current across the measurement range. Plot the diode voltage vs. current over at least 4 order of magnitude - say between 0.1mA and 100mA, and see whether the response is logarithmic (after all, I can be talking nonsense - you really should see it for yourself since it's easy and thus no reason at all to blindly trust me).