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‘Housewives’ charity event a bust & more
‘Housewives’ charity event a bust
A party for “Real Housewives of D.C.” held at the now-closed EFN Lounge on Aug. 5 with show stars Tareq and Michaele Salahi raised no money for an AIDS charity.
Ads for the event said an unspecified portion of the proceeds would be given to Dab the AIDS Bear Project, an organization that, according to its founder, works in collaboration with the Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, a registered 501c3 organization.
The Blade could not independently confirm the connection between the two organizations before deadline, but Dab Garner, founder and CEO of Dab the AIDS Bear Project said Howard Cromwell, a gay Washingtonian who publishes D.C.’s Most Fabulous Magazine, told him that the event, was not successful and therefore no donation would be made.
Cromwell, who asked that questions about the event be submitted via e-mail and then did not respond, told Garner in an e-mail dated Aug. 12 that he couldn’t send any money to the charity because the event was not profitable.
“The goal was to donate 40 percent of the profit to each organization,” Cromwell wrote in the e-mail, which Garner shared with the Blade. “Unfortunately, we did not pull a profit from this event as expected. We barely broke even. Even though this event wasn’t financially successful for the charity organizations involved, we feel that it was still a huge success media-wise shedding a national spotlight on your organization.”
Garner said he sent teddy bears for the housewives to pose with for publicity shots at the party, but Michaele Salahi was the only cast member to attend. Other cast members attended a separate and official premiere party for the show.
Cromwell, Garner said, forgot to bring the teddy bears to the party and hasn’t returned them. Garner uses the teddy bears to promote his charity.
Garner, a 29-year HIV survivor, met Cromwell last year at an AIDS Drug Assistance Program Summit in Washington and said Cromwell approached his organization about being a benefactor of the “Housewives” party.
Other groups appear to have also been jilted. The New York Post reported that Honor & Remember was to receive 40 percent of the profits from Cromwell’s event, but also was told the event made no money so no donation would be given. Staff at Honor & Remember did not respond to the Blade’s requests for comment.
Tickets for Cromwell’s party ranged from $25 to $500. Press that attended described EFN Lounge as somewhat full downstairs, but not packed.
Bill Gray, who was manager of EFN Lounge at the time of the event and on scene that night, said the event seemed chaotic.
“They comped most of the tickets for press and their friends,” he said. “It seemed like a joke.”
Gay comedian to entertain at Alston House benefit
D.C.-based gay standup comedian Sampson will entertain tonight at 10 p.m. at the D.C. Arts Center in Adams Morgan with his routine, “Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings.”
Tickets are $15 and benefit the Wanda Alston House, Washington’s only home for homeless LGBT youth.
Sampson, born Korrell McCormick, grew up in North Carolina, but has been in the D.C. area for 10 years. The 25-year-old has been doing standup for about eight years and mixes social commentary with personal experiences about the foibles of the black and gay worlds, which often collide, a point he uses for comedic effect.
He performs in straight and gay venues alike and says it hasn’t been a problem.
“I’m just as funny as some of the straight comedians,” he says. “I don’t use the N-word and a bunch of [expletives]. It’s a different perspective, being openly gay. I can get away with more. Even flirting with men in the audience. Even the straight ones. They’re there to laugh and have fun, so they just go with it.”
Sampson, who has performed at Titan, Town, EFN Lounge and Phase 1, says tonight’s performance is inspired by his sense of activism.
But how does he balance the seriousness of his convictions with the lighthearted approach of a comedian?
“I still don’t know,” he admits. “Honesty can be very funny and open a lot of dialogue through pointing out the absurd. That’s what makes it funny. People don’t stop to examine how they sound.”
Brian Watson, who oversees Wanda’s House as a division of Transgender Health Empowerment, says the benefit was Sampson’s idea. Watson says he’s grateful for the aid.
“Things are going OK at the House, but we received a budget cut last year and are expecting one this year also,” he said. “Due to limited income this year, we aren’t even having our annual anniversary reception usually held in September.”
Watson said the House is full and has “a good group of kids,” but Transgender Health Empowerment will have to close its trans drop-in center on New York Avenue, N.W., this year because of the lack of funding through D.C. City Council members’ earmarks, which helped keep the drop-in center’s doors open.
Tickets for tonight’s performance can be purchased at the door or reserved by calling 202-462-7833. Guests are asked to arrive around 9:45 p.m. Visit www.sampson313.freehomepage.com for more about Sampson.
Two gay men punched en route to Nellie’s
A gay man who was walking along the U Street corridor with another gay man toward Nellie’s on Aug. 20 was attacked at about 11:30 p.m., one of the men told the Blade.
And minutes after being punched, the man said, they encountered another gay man who also was attacked.
The gay man who wasn’t attacked, a 27-year-old Columbia Heights resident who asked not to be identified because he does security work for an overseas non-profit, said he and his friend, who’s 31, had met on the corner of 14th and U streets, N.W., and were walking east on U Street when the attack happened near the Rite Aid between 13th and 14th streets.
“There were tons and tons of people out,” said the man who wasn’t attacked. “We were just walking and talking, passing tons of people, and all of a sudden I saw someone turn around and I had that ‘something’s not right’ feeling really quickly.
“They hit my friend on the side of the head. … My friend turned and was like, ‘What happened?’ and was looking to see, and the same person and one other person threw a couple more punches and then it just kind of ended itself. I got my friend sort of distanced away enough and those people kept walking.”
The man who wasn’t attacked said the group consisted of three young black men and two young black women whom he guessed were either coming or going from one of the straight bars on U Street. He said the group didn’t say anything to them or appear to be trying to rob them.
He said one man in the group was “thin and wiry.” Another was “heftier,” and a third was a “bigger guy” with shoulder-length dreads who did most of the punching. He noted that there was no verbal exchange during the attack, but the two girls laughed while his friend was being punched.
Seconds after the attack, another gay man approached them and asked if they’d been attacked, saying he had just been punched as well. The man who wasn’t attacked said the other gay man, whom he didn’t know, also was en route to Nellie’s when he was punched by the same group. They called police and waited together. Neither man who was attacked was seriously injured.
The man who wasn’t attacked said he believes they were targeted because they are gay.
“I don’t know for sure because they didn’t say anything, but there were so many people around, they could have caused problems with anyone, but we were attacked. Then like 15 seconds later another gay guy is attacked on the same block? There’s no doubt in my mind that’s what it was.”
Police arrested Tracee Freeman on Aug. 20 on simple assault and hate crime charges stemming from an incident at 1448 U Street at 11:16 p.m. that day. It wasn’t immediately clear if the incident tied to Freeman’s arrest was the same attack reported above or another attack. The victim cited in the police report said Freeman punched him in the chest and called him a faggot, according to the report.
Virginia
Winsome Earle-Sears ‘Life and Marriage Tour’ to include Northern Va. stops
Voters to consider marriage equality, reproductive rights referenda in November
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has announced her campaign against efforts to enshrine marriage equality and reproductive rights in the state constitution will make several stops in Northern Virginia.
Her “Life and Marriage Tour” will include stops in Manassas, Winchester, and Harrisonburg. Earle-Sears said the “Life and Marriage Tour” will also travel to Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, and other cities across Virginia “throughout September and October.”
The announcement did not include specific dates.
“Virginia, you’ve been asking where the Life and Marriage Tour is headed — here’s a look at our current tour locations,” she said on X on Tuesday. “We’ll be traveling across the commonwealth throughout September and October, and we’re still building the journey.”
Current Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, last November defeated Earle-Sears, a Republican, in the race to succeed Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which defined marriage in Virginia as between a man and a woman.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Youngkin a decade later signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
Spanberger signed bills that finalized the marriage equality and reproductive rights referenda’s language.
The referenda will take place on Nov. 3.
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 [email protected].
Congratulations to Carla Lester, LICSW on her new position as Chief Program Officer with SMYAL. Upon accepting the position she said, “SMYAL deeply aligns with my passion for honoring, protecting, and upholding the rights of all individuals, particularly LGBTQ+ youth and others who have been historically underserved, to belong to communities that affirm their identities, treat them with dignity and respect, and support their well-being. At this point in my career, I was ready to transition to an organization whose mission more closely reflected my values and was rooted in the community. SMYAL offered the opportunity to serve both an organization and a population whose mission not only resonates deeply with me but also intersects with my own multiple identities.”
Lester is a healthcare and human services executive with more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health, federal and state health insurance programs, housing, health care, education, and community-based services. She has held senior roles at Carelon Behavioral Health, Pathways to Housing and N Street Village, leading clinical programs, Housing First initiatives, homeless outreach, trauma-informed services, and integrated case management.
She earned master’s degrees in Social Work and Divinity, and maintains active clinical social work licenses in D.C. and Maryland.
Congratulations also to Tad Czyzewski on his new position as Chief Development Officer at SMYAL. On accepting the position, he said, “While I’ve spent much of my nonprofit career in the arts, the current social and political environments made me want to apply my skills and passion more directly toward supporting and strengthening our community. SMYAL and this role felt like the right place to do that.”
Czyzewski brings more than two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership and strategy, fundraising, and business development. Prior to joining SMYAL, he served for eight years as executive director of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, where he led fundraising, financial management, and community engagement. During his tenure, he helped raise more than $15 million in contributed revenue. He guided the organization through a major rebrand and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to that Czyzewski served as Business and Development Director for Washington Revels, and held leadership and advisory roles with Chorus America, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He began his career in the corporate sector, including at Capital One, where his work in product development and marketing contributed to new financial products and more than $2 billion in deposits.
Czyzewski is a lifelong musician, has performed professionally as a classical singer, including with the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra.
District of Columbia
Gay ANC commissioner sues D.C. over police ‘failure’ to pay reward money
Lawsuit says information led to conviction in murder, armed robbery cases
Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Donohue on Aug. 11 filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court charging that D.C. police acted improperly and violated a local law by not paying him $30,000 in reward money for his role in helping police identify and arrest — and obtain the subsequent conviction — of one man charged with murder and another man charged with armed robbery in separate cases.
Although the lawsuit alleges improper action by D.C. police in carrying out the city’s Crime Solvers reward program, it names as defendants the District of Columbia and the Office of the Attorney General for D.C., which, among other things, defends the city against lawsuits.
Donohue, who is a member of the city’s ANC Rainbow Caucus consisting of LGBTQ elected ANC members, held a news conference outside the D.C. Superior Court building on Aug. 11 to talk about the lawsuit before entering the courthouse to officially file it.
The lawsuit states that Donohue “provided key video evidence that led to the arrest and conviction” of a man initially charged with first degree murder for allegedly running over a bicyclist with his car after the two got into an argument.
The lawsuit states that police had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the defendant in that case, but police “arbitrarily slashed the payment to $5,000 without prior notice or policy justification.”
Court records show that D.C. resident Eric Beasley was charged with first degree murder for killing David Farewell, 45, by hitting him with his car on Sept. 4, 2020, on the 2100 block of Young Street, S.E. The records show the evidence for the case was based in large part on video camera footage of the incident obtained by police. Donohoe has said he provided that video camera evidence.
The records show that during Beasley’s October 2023 trial a jury was unable to reach the required unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial.
According to the records, Beasley later agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced in September 2024 to eight years in prison, a development that angered the victim’s family members who called it a “slap on the wrist,” according to a Fox 5 News report.
Donohue’s lawsuit says the second case in which he provided police with pivotal information involved a series of armed robberies known as the Fairlawn Serial Armed Robbery Spree that occurred in the Fairlawn neighborhood in Southeast D.C. in 2023 near where Donohue lives.
The lawsuit says evidence consisting of video surveillance footage provided by Donohue to police enabled police to determine they initially wrongfully arrested an 18-year-old male for the robberies. “Using Plaintiff’s security video, MPD identified, arrested, and convicted the actual robber, David Crocker, who was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison,” the lawsuit states.
It says one of the detectives investigating the case recommended a $10,000 reward for Donohue’s help in the case based on the police Crime Solvers reward program. The detective’s recommendation was approved by then-Assistant D.C. Police Chief Kyle Ramey on Aug. 4, 2025, according to the lawsuit.
But it adds, “Nevertheless, MPD improperly withheld payment.”
When contacted by the Washington Blade for comment on Donohue’s lawsuit allegations, a D.C. police spokesperson said “MPD does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”
Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein, who serves as press secretary for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which will be defending the city against the Donohue lawsuit, said he would look into obtaining a possible comment but said the office has a similar longstanding policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
“This action arises from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s arbitrary, bad-faith, and legally unsupportable failure to honor its public reward promises and administrative obligations to Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
It says the MPD violated the city’s Freedom of Information Act or FOIA law by not responding to Donohue’s request for information and documents related to the decision not to pay him the full reward money.
“MPD’s reduction of Plaintiff’s homicide reward from $25,000 to $5,000, and its withholding of his approved $10,00 robbery reward, were undertaken completely devoid of written standards, making such decisions inherently arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of administrative discretion,” it says.
It calls for Donohue to be awarded $30,000 in compensatory damages consisting of the $20,000 “unpaid balance” for the homicide case reward and $10,000 for the robbery case reward. It also calls for reimbursement for “reasonable” litigation costs and attorney’s fees. Donohue told the Washington Blade that at this time he is representing himself without an attorney.
Donohue told the Blade that the refusal by D.C. police to pay him the full reward money also limited his plans to donate some of that money to the family of murder victim David Farewell to help pay for a burial stone. He said that due to the family’s limited resources Farewell is buried in an unmarked grave
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