Local

End of an era, as Lambda Rising to close

Published

16 years ago

December 11, 2009

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.

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Maryland

Md. Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlines 2026 priorities

Expanded PrEP access among objectives

Published

3 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Sam Epner

State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George's County) has introduced a bill that would expand PrEP access in Maryland. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Maryland’s Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus outlined legislative priorities for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 2026 term during a press conference on March 5.

State Del. Kris Fair (D-Fredrick County) led the press conference. State Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and other caucus members also spoke.

Caucus members are sponsoring 12 bills and supporting four others.

Martinez is sponsoring House Bill 1114, which would expand PrEP access in Maryland.

“PrEP is 99 percent effective in preventing HIV transmission,” he explained, noting PrEP’s cost often turns away potential users.

The bill aims to extend insurance coverage and expand pharmacists’ ability to prescribe PrEP along with other HIV treatments and testing. Martinez is working with state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) and FreeState Justice on the bill.

The House Health Committee had a hearing last week that included HB1114.

“Ending the HIV epidemic is about expanding access and providing these life-saving tools to all persons in Maryland,” Martinez said.

Several other pieces of legislation were highlighted during the press conferences. They included measures focused on youth and education, birth certificate markers, so-called conversion therapy, and hormone medications.

State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County) is cosponsoring Senate Bill 950, which would update and strengthen conversion therapy laws. State Del. Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) has introduced an identical bill that would extend the statute of limitations on individuals who facilitate conversion therapy.

Kagan explained the bill would allow conversion therapy victims to come to terms with their experience undergoing the widely discredited practice that “creates shame and it silences survivors.”

When questioned, Fair explained the press conference happened late into the legislative session because “we [the caucus] are constantly having to respond in real time to what’s happening in Washington” while drafting and considering pieces of legislation.

The Frederick County Democrat described this session’s bills as the “most ambitious list of priorities to date.” Fair also described the caucus’s goals.

“It’s decency, it’s dignity, and its humanity,” he said.

District of Columbia

Owner of D.C. gay bar Green Lantern John Colameco dies at 79

Beloved businessman preferred to stay ‘behind the scenes’

Published

6 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

John Colameco, owner of the Green Lantern, died of undisclosed causes.

John Colameco, owner of the popular D.C. gay bar Green Lantern, has died, according to a March 7 announcement posted on the bar’s website and Instagram account. The announcement didn’t provide a date of his passing or a cause of death.

Green Lantern manager Howard Hicks said Colameco was 79 at the time of his passing.

“It is with great sadness that Green Lantern announces the death of our beloved owner, John Colameco,” the announcement says. “Most of our patrons might have heard John’s name, but might not have known his face,” it says.

“He was a ‘behind-the-scenes’ kind of guy who avoided the limelight,” the announcement continues. “He preferred to stay in the back of the house with staff and team ensuring everything was running smoothly so that everyone out front was having a good time.”

The announcement adds, “As a veteran and businessman, John wasn’t a member of the LGBTQ + community, but he was one of the best damn allies our community has ever had.”

It says he “long provided spaces for the queer community to come together” since the 1990s when he owned and operated a popular restaurant on 17^th Street, N.W. called Peppers.

According to the announcement, Colameco and his then business partner Greg Zehnacker opened the Green Lantern in 2001 in an alley off of 14^th Street, N.W., between Thomas Circle and L Street, N.W.

The announcement points out that the Green Lantern first opened in the same location in the early 1990s before it later closed when the original owners decided to purchase and open other bars, one of which was the gay bar Fireplace near Dupont Circle. Colameco and Zehnacker were able to reopen the bar with the Green Lantern name.

“When Greg died unexpectedly in February 2014, John remained steadfastly committed to carrying on their vision and ensuring that Green Lantern remained part of the fabric of D.C.’s queer community,” the announcement says.

“Over the years, through Green Lantern, John has provided support to many community organizations, most notably Stonewall Sports, the Gay Men’s chorus of Washington, and ONYX Mid-Atlantic with Green Lantern serving as a gathering hub for their activities,” it states.

The announcement adds that Colameco’s family was planning a memorial for him in his hometown of Philadelphia.

“His Green Lantern family will celebrate his life by operating the bar as usual and we encourage you to stop by and join us,” it says. “Community coming together and having a good time – it’s exactly what John would want.”

Rehoboth Beach

CAMP Rehoboth hires new executive director

Dr. Robin Brennan’s background includes healthcare, fundraising roles

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

Staff reports

Dr. Robin Brennan

CAMP Rehoboth, the Delaware LGBTQ community center, on Monday announced Dr. Robin Brennan as the organization’s new executive director.

Brennan, who is relocating full time to Rehoboth Beach with her wife and daughter, will start on March 23. The position opened up following the retirement of Kim Leisey after more than two years in the role.

Brennan’s background is in health systems. At Nemours Children’s Health in Wilmington, Del., she held senior roles in evaluation, population health, and DEI education, according to a CAMP Rehoboth statement. Most recently, she served as vice president and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Redeemer Health. Brennan is an experienced fundraiser, according to the statement.

“After conducting a comprehensive national search, the Board of Directors selected Robin because of her depth of leadership experience, her fundraising acumen and her overall joyful, focused approach,” said Leslie Ledogar, president of the CAMP Rehoboth board of directors and chair of the Executive Director Search Committee. “The fact that core to her leadership is her belief that community well-being is inseparable from access to health, culture, education and the arts – an approach that mirrors CAMP Rehoboth’s holistic mission – makes Robin the exact next person to lead CAMP Rehoboth today and into the future.”

“I am deeply honored to serve as CAMP Rehoboth’s executive director as we enter an exciting new chapter,” said Brennan. “I was drawn to CAMP Rehoboth because of its unwavering mission, deep roots in the community, and the meaningful role it plays in bringing people together. I look forward to meeting members of the community, listening to their stories, and building meaningful relationships with the many people who make CAMP Rehoboth such a vital community anchor.”