Local
Halo bar to change name, go green
The D.C. gay bar Halo is changing its name to MOVA and will evolve over the next year into an environmentally friendly “green” business with an expanded program to support both LGBT and broader community causes and projects.
Gay attorney and businessman Babak Movahedi, owner of Logan Circle Spectrum, LLC, the company that owns Halo bars in D.C. and Miami Beach, said the name change and plans for the business’s community-related projects would be formally announced during a Jan. 1 celebration at the club in D.C. at 7 p.m. Halo is located at 1435 P St., N.W.
“The event is the beginning of a year-long process for Logan Circle Spectrum to institute a philosophical shift in corporate culture and set the foundation for national expansion of a new entertainment concept,” Movahedi said in a statement announcing the changes.
“The LGBT community today has evolved and we want to create a place where people can have fun while having the opportunity to make a more direct impact in our local communities,” he said.
In an interview with DC Agenda, Movahedi said some of his environmental or “green” plans include using furnishings and products in his bars in D.C., Miami Beach and other locations yet to open that are produced by manufacturers that use processes to minimize environmental harm.
He said the newly named MOVA bar in D.C. will soon institute other changes to support LGBT and D.C.-area community causes and projects. He noted that some will involve sponsorship nights for a particular community organization in which the club will publicize the group and ask patrons to make a donation.
According to Movahedi, Halo in Miami, for example, offers a free drink to customers for every $15 they donate to a community group during nights in which the group is highlighted at the club.
“That’s just one idea,” he said. “We will launch different things for different cities depending on what the needs of that location are.”
He said his staff will get more involved, too, with efforts such as “having a cleaning the park day [in D.C.] or cleaning the beach day in Miami — things that give back to the community.”
Movahedi said he decided to change the name of his two bars after discovering that a bar in Minnesota owns the trademark for the Halo name and that other bars and clubs have been opening recently in a number of cities using that name. He noted that the name and concept for other bars he’s planning to open, including a soon-to-be-opened bar in Fort Lauderdale, would result in confusion among customers if he retained the Halo name.
The new name, MOVA, was taken from the first four letters of Movahedi’s last name.
“So for us, it’s a good time to include everything that we’re trying to do into a new brand and a new name and go forward with this in a new decade,” he said.
City argues against voter initiative in marriage case
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles argues in a court brief that the city’s congressionally approved Home Rule charter gives it full legal authority to prohibit a voter initiative calling for banning same-sex marriage in the District.
Nickles filed the 46-page legal brief Dec. 18 in D.C. Superior Court for the city in opposition to a lawsuit filed by same-sex marriage opponents, including Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of a church in Beltsville, Md.
The lawsuit calls for overturning a ruling by the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics that a voter initiative seeking to ban same-sex marriage cannot be held because it would violate the city’s Human Rights Act. The board held that the city’s election law governing initiatives and referenda bars such ballot measures if they would take away rights from minorities, including gays.
“[I]n exalting the people’s supposedly fundamental right of initiative above all else (except apparently the prohibition on popular appropriation of funds), petitioners disregard the basic republican principles that have governed the nation since its founding,” Nickles says in the brief.
“While petitioners treat the right of initiative as fundamental, the Founding Fathers recognized the threat that an unchecked majority posed to the liberty of disfavored minorities and thus created a republican form of government, even requiring the newly created Congress to ‘guarantee’ that form of government to ‘every state in the Union,’” Nickles says.
In their opposition to a ballot initiative on the marriage issue, LGBT activists have made similar arguments — that the city’s republican form of government empowers a City Council elected by the voters to pass laws, such as a same-sex marriage bill, and that laws providing civil rights for minorities should not be subjected to a popular vote.
Nickles called on the court to dismiss the lawsuit on other grounds, including a claim that it would be counter to the Supreme Court decision of Lawrence v. Texas, in which the high court overturned state sodomy laws. According to Nickles, the Lawrence decision, among other things, held that “moral objections are not a sufficient basis for infringing on the fundamental rights of homosexuals.
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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