Local
Mara enters race for D.C. City Council
Patrick Mara (Photo courtesy of Mara)
Pro-gay Republican Patrick Mara, who won election last year to the D.C. school board from Ward 1, announced Wednesday he is entering the race for the at-large City Council seat up for grabs in a special election set for April 26.
Mara is among at least 17 candidates running for the seat, which became vacant Jan. 2 when Council member Kwame Brown (D-At-Large) was sworn in as the new City Council Chair.
The special election is open to candidates of all parties as well as independents who obtain 3,000 valid petition signatures from registered D.C. voters.
Many of the city’s LGBT activists have already lined up behind former Ward 4 school board member Sekou Biddle, a Democrat who won an interim appointment to fill the Council seat by the D.C. Democratic State Committee, which approved the interim appointment earlier this month.
Some political observers believe the interim appointment gives Biddle, a strong supporter of LGBT rights, the advantage of incumbency. But other observers note that less than 10 percent of the city’s registered voters usually turn out for special elections, making it possible for a lesser known candidate like Mara to win, especially in a race with as many as 17 candidates.
Another lesser-known candidate vying for an upset win is 26-year-old Joshua Lopez, who served as a political adviser to former Mayor Adrian Fenty and organized a Fenty write-in campaign after Fenty lost the Democratic primary last September to City Council Chair Vincent Gray. Gray won election as mayor in November and took office Jan. 2.
Gray has so far remained officially neutral in the special Council election, but some of his key political operatives are backing Biddle.
Among the other candidates considered viable in the race is Vincent Orange (D), the former Ward 5 Council member. Others running for the seat are Leo Alexander (D), an unsuccessful mayoral candidate last year; Arkan Haile (I), an attorney and political newcomer; Jacque Patterson (D), a Ward 8 political activist; and Kelvin Robinson (D), an unsuccessful candidate last year for the Ward 6 Council seat held by incumbent Tommy Wells (D).
The Blade will provide information on all of the candidates and their positions on LGBT issues in the coming weeks. The final number of candidates to be placed on the ballot won’t be determined until late February, when the election board confirms which ones have obtained the required number of petition signatures.
Baltimore
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
Leon’s closed in July after its owner’s death
By JULIE SCHARPER and WESLEY CASE | Soon after Jim Becker came out as gay in 1967, he ducked into a Mount Vernon bar called Leon’s.
In the dark, smoky bar, men used pseudonyms for fear of being outed, as homosexual acts were illegal in Maryland. Bartenders, wary of vice squad raids, would blow a whistle if couples leaned in for a kiss.
But to Becker, arriving at Leon’s was a kind of homecoming. He could explore his identity, connect with other gay men and build community in the anxious years before the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
Dolly Parton dies at 80
Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Not all trans people are the same
Calendar: August 21-27
