Local
End of an era, as Lambda Rising to close
Lambda Rising will close in January after a 35-year run. (DC Agenda photo by Aram Vartian)
Lambda Rising, a bookstore serving the LGBT community in the nation’s capital for 35 years, is closing its D.C. store in Dupont Circle and its remaining out-of-town store in Rehoboth Beach, Del., in January.
The closings, announced last week, become another in a series of gay bookstores that have shut down in recent years in other cities, including New York and Baltimore.
Deacon Maccubbin, 66, the store’s founder and co-owner, told D.C. Agenda in an exclusive interview that he plans to retire soon and that he and co-owner Jim Bennett, his domestic partner of 32 years, decided they would rather close the stores than sell them to a new owner who might change their focus and mission.
“The phrase ‘mission accomplished’ has gotten a bad rap in recent years but in this case, it certainly applies,” Maccubbin said.
“When we set out to establish Lambda Rising in 1974, it was intended as a demonstration of the demand for gay and lesbian literature,” he said, noting that few if any mainstream bookstores and newsstands carried gay-related books and periodicals at the time.
“Today, 35 years later, nearly every general bookstore carries GLBT books, often featuring them in special sections,” he said.
Maccubbin said the Internet also enables people today to access LGBT-related information from almost any location in the country, accomplishing yet another part of Lambda Rising’s mission: to provide up-to-date information to a community that could not obtain it elsewhere.
He said he first opened the store in June 1974 in a converted townhouse on 20th Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, with an initial investment of $3,000 and an additional $1,000 borrowed from a local gay activist. The shop consisted of 300 square feet of space and just 250 gay and lesbian book titles.
“That’s all there were at the time,” Maccubbin said.
The store, along with the LGBT community and gay civil rights movement, grew dramatically over the next three decades, moving in 1977 to a larger storefront space on S Street, N.W., a few blocks away. In 1984, the store moved to its current location at 1625 Connecticut Ave., N.W., in a storefront building that Maccubbin and Bennett own.
Lambda Rising, which opened in 1974, will close in January as its owners prepare to retire. (DC Agenda photo by Aram Vartian)
In the intervening years, the two opened branches of the store in Baltimore, Norfolk, Va., and Rehoboth Beach. In 2003, Lambda Rising bought the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York’s Greenwich Village, recognized as the nation’s first gay bookstore, having opened in 1967. Maccubbin said Lambda Rising bought that store to save it from closing.
After more than three years of helping rebuild the Oscar Wilde store, Lambda Rising sold it to its manager, to return it to its status as a locally owned business. But earlier this year, due to the national economic downturn, the New York owner said he was forced to close the store.
In its three decades of operation, Lambda Rising became one of the nation’s first gay businesses to advertise in mainstream publications and the first to advertise on TV in the 1970s. It has brought in hundreds of authors to its various store branches, including Andy Warhol, Sandra Bernhard, Armistead Maupin and Rita Mae Brown.
“Closing the store now will certainly leave something of a hole in Washington’s literary and political scene, and even though I’m excited about the opportunities that will open up for us as we move into the next phase of our life, there is a bittersweet component to it all,” said Maccubbin.
“But the book market has been changing dramatically, the GLBT community has been making progress by leaps and bounds, and 35 years is enough time for any person to devote to any one thing,” he said. “It’s just time to move on.”
Maccubbin said he and Bennett are happy to offer advice and support for someone interested in opening another LGBT bookstore in Washington.
Veteran D.C. gay activist Frank Kameny, who described himself as a loyal customer of Lambda Rising since it opened, said Maccubbin and the store deserve “enormous credit” as a nationally recognized gay community resource.
But he said he regrets that at least one aspect of the store’s mission has not been accomplished.
“No non-gay bookstore that I know of has a gay section with content remotely comparable to that of Lambda Rising,” he said. “And many of the publications found there will be unavailable elsewhere. Lambda Rising will be truly missed. Progress is often sad.”
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, called Lambda Rising a “landmark” for the LGBT community.
“It will certainly be a major loss for our community,” he said.
Maccubbin said the store will begin a holiday sale as early as this weekend for many of its books and other products, such as gifts items. He said a “huge liquidation sale” will begin immediately after Christmas, with the store expected to close in early January.
District of Columbia
Whitman-Walker Health to present ‘Pro Bono Excellence’ award to law firm
Health center set to celebrate 40th anniversary of legal services program
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, announced it will present its annual Dale Edwin Sanders Award for Pro Bono Excellence to the international law firm McDermott Will & Schulte at a May 6 ceremony.
“This year’s award is especially significant as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of Whitman-Walker Health’s Legal Services Program, marking it as the nation’s longest running medical-legal partnership,” a statement released by Whitman-Walker says.
“As a national leader in public health, Whitman-Walker celebrates our partnership with McDermott to strengthen the health center and to enable Whitman-Walker to reach more medical and legal clients,” the statement adds.
“McDermott’s firm-wide commitment to Whitman-Walker’s medical-legal partnership demonstrates a shared vision to serve those most in need,” Amy Nelson, Whitman-Walker’s director of Legal Services, says in the statement. “Our work protects individuals and families who face discrimination and hostility as they navigate increasingly complex administrative systems,” Nelson said.
“Pro bono legal services – like that of McDermott Will & Schulte – find solutions for people who have no place else to turn in the face of financial and health threats,” she added.
“Our partnership with Whitman-Walker Health is a treasured commitment to serving our neighbors and communities,” Steven Schnelle, one of the law firm’s partners said in the statement. “We are deeply moved by Whitman-Walker’s unwavering dedication to inclusion, respect, and equitable access to health care and social services,” he said.
The statement notes that the award for Pro Bono Excellence honors the legacy of the late gay attorney Dale Edwin Sanders. It says Sanders’s pro bono legal work for Whitman-Walker clients “shaped HIV/AIDS law for more than four decades by securing key victories on behalf of individuals whose employment and patient rights were violated.”
It says the Whitman-Walker Legal Services program began during the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s at a time when people with AIDS faced widespread discrimination and often needed legal assistance. According to the statement, the program evolved over the years and expanded to advocate for transgender people and immigrants.
Whitman-Walker spokesperson Lisa Amore said the presentation of the Dale Edwin Sanders Pro Bono Excellency Award will be held at the May 6 fundraising benefit for Whitman-Walker’s Legal Services Program. She said the event will take place at the offices of the DC law firm Baker McKenzie and ticket availability can be accessed here: https://www.whitman-walker.org/gtem-2026/
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Congratulations to Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
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