Local
Local firm working toward a greener D.C.
Local gay businessman Joe Andronaco said his sexual orientation was never an issue in the workplace. (DC Agenda photo by Michael Key)
Ask someone how to save the earth from ourselves and you likely will get a range of advice. Trade your gas-guzzler in for a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle, or better yet, an electric car. Attach solar panels to the roof of your home and use them to wean your house off of non-renewable resources. Invest in tree replanting efforts.
Local gay businessman Joe Andronaco has a less expensive, though admittedly less sexy suggestion that he says will not only have a greater collective environmental impact, but will also end up saving you money before too long: have your home inspected for energy inefficiencies, and take steps to address those inefficiencies.
“Conservation is something that doesn’t require new technologies or a major investment,” said Andronaco. And with an estimated 75 percent of the city’s carbon emissions coming from building energy use, the potential environmental benefit “is huge.”
Andronaco not only sees value in conservation, he also believes there is a good business opportunity there. Last year, he helped launch a company called Access Green, which conducts home energy audits in the greater Washington area. The company’s base product, the knowledge audit, provides homeowners with valuable information about their home – where air is coming into the house, which appliances are creating dangerous chemical emissions, and how their energy consumption stacks up against comparable dwellings, to name but a few of the items addressed in the audit.
“One of the biggest issues with green,” observed Andronaco, “is follow through. You can talk green all you want but are you going to get it done?”
For those who choose the company’s premium product, the fulfillment audit, Access Green technicians will come to your home and make some of the repairs and upgrades recommended in the knowledge audit, from changing out HVAC filters to caulking windows and doors. It is this marriage of green advice and implementation that Andronaco says sets his company apart as an innovator.
“We come with a trades knowledge to green,” said Andronaco. “We know how to practically do the things that will achieve the savings. There are lots of inexpensive, couple-hundred-dollar items that can save you thousands.”
Access Green is part of a larger corporation called USA Technologies, a $12 million business that Andronaco has led since 2003. The well-known local commercial heating and air conditioning company Argent, which received the Angie’s List Super Service Award for the past two years, is also part of USA.
“We really take a whole house approach to the way we do systems,” explained Andronaco. “Before you do something like put a new heating or air conditioning system into your home, you really need to do a whole house analysis.”
Access Green is the first company that Andronaco himself has launched, along with lawyer David Julyan and environmental lobbyist Sam Brooks, known by many locally for his spirited attempts a few years ago to win a seat on the D.C. City Council. Brooks and Julyan are principals of 360 Green, a firm that markets green knowledge and services to the business community.
Andronaco was born in Caracas to a Venezuelan mother and an American father. The family moved to Miami when Andronaco was eight and he lived there until going to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to get a degree in history. He got his start in business while working for local utility giant Washington Gas. After leaving D.C. briefly to get his MBA from the Wharton School of Business, which he received with honors, Andronaco came back to D.C. and again worked for Washington Gas before leaving to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur.
Though Andronaco has been openly gay since his days at business school, his sexual orientation isn’t something that he trumpets in the workplace. So imagine Andronaco’s surprise when his mentor, USA founder Mike Berard, an elderly, staunchly Republican, Vietnam veteran he befriended while working at Washington Gas, called Andronaco into his office to discuss Andronaco’s “lifestyle.”
“He goes, ‘I’m not going to have someone run my business and be in a closet.’ I said, ‘Mike, some people might be offended.’ He said, ‘I don’t give a shit. If they have a problem, I’ll fire them.’”
Aside from one of the company’s top salesmen expressing misgivings about how company morale would fare with a gay man in charge, a line of questioning that Berard quickly shut down, Andronaco said he has received zero negative reaction in the workplace.
“Most people thought that especially these sort of roughneck good ‘ole boy electricians and HVAC guys would have issues, but they don’t,” said Andronaco. “People are multi-faceted and you can’t take them for caricatures that are created by the media and even by ourselves.”
The 43 year old is quick to stress that being gay is just one facet of who he is, and he is extremely active in the wider community. He sits on several local boards of directors, including Goodwill and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington, and is active with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund as well. He is also on the D.C. Mayor’s Green Collar Jobs Advisory Council and the Sustainable Energy Utility advisory board, which partners with the D.C. Council to administer sustainable energy programs. In 2008, he was recognized by the Washington Business Journal with a Greater Washington Minority Business Leader Award.
A proud D.C. resident, Andronaco lives with his partner in the Northwest neighborhood of Crestwood. Their 1925 Dutch colonial home doubles as a training and demonstration facility for his company. Earlier this week, in fact, Andronico’s colleagues at Argent used his house to demonstrate how to install programmable thermostats.
Andronaco is also a strong supporter of the city and he sees expansion of the green economy as a way to boost the District’s tax base and address its high unemployment rate. He made a conscious choice to base Access Green in the District, along the H Street corridor in Northeast, and said he likewise makes a point of hiring city residents.
Access Green conducted more than 200 home energy audits last year. According to Sara Loveland, who left her job at D.C. Greenworks last year to be Access Green’s chief operating officer, 2010 is already off to a strong start.
The company is working with the Corcoran on its green roof and recently it scored a contract with the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative to be the sole provider of home energy audits for SMECO clients in Prince George’s and Calvert counties. They are also busy supporting legislation before the D.C. Council right now that would simplify funding options for energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy products.
“The homeowner wouldn’t have to go through a credit application as long as they have equity in their home,” explained Brooks. “If they move before the loan is paid off, it’s attached to the house and stays there. “ This is an innovative way to finance energy improvements, particularly for homeowners, that Brooks said will solidify D.C.’s place at the leading edge of the green movement.
Brooks is quick to note that this legislation is one of the rare instances where the public interest is perfectly in alignment with the interests of “green collar” businesses like his, a trend he sees continuing.
“The better a firm like ours does,” he said, “the closer the government comes to realizing its object to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.” Moreover, he added, there is opportunity here for private sector companies like Access Green to provide market-based solutions to environmental challenges, rather than rely wholly on the government for leadership.
Said Loveland: “People are so dazzled by super sexy projects like solar paneling. Not enough attention is paid to conservation. We can generate all the alternative energy we want, but without conservation we won’t achieve the results we need to meaningfully reduce our carbon footprint.”
The Access Green knowledge audit currently runs $249 while the fulfillment audit starts at $599. For more information on Access Green’s products, visit http://www.greenerhome.com or call 202-559-6061.
Delaware
Delaware fines Rehoboth bar $15,000 for discriminating against trans woman
Hideout told patron she had to use men’s room due to gender marker on driver’s license
The Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission voted to fine Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille $15,000 last month due to a discrimination complaint filed by a trans woman over her use of the bathroom.
Katie Sorber, a transgender woman, said that on April 5, 2023, she was stopped by employees and told she could only use the men’s bathroom due to the “male” gender marker on her driver’s license. This occurred after Sorber presented her ID upon entering the bar and ordering a drink.
Sorber took to Facebook to complain about her experience at the bar after she was told to use the men’s bathroom.
On April 12, 2023, Sorber returned to the Hideout but was barred from entering due to her post on social media.
Following Sorber’s post, Bryan Derrickson, the owner of Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille, allegedly began enforcing a policy in which patrons had to use the bathroom that corresponded to the gender marker on their ID.
Derrickson was ordered to pay $10,000 to Sorber, $5,000 to the Special Administration Fund, as well as conduct anti-discrimination training with employees, remove the ban on Sorber from the establishment, and revise the bar’s bathroom policy.
The commission ruled that the bar and Derrickson had wrongfully discriminated against Sorber on the basis of her gender.
Derrickson’s explanations for the denial included safety concerns, a third-party patron complaint, and a reference to the health code. The panel found this to be inconsistent and lacking factual support upon cross-examination.
The case was evaluated under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, which explicitly prohibits discrimination and retaliation in places of public accommodation based on gender identity.
This was the second time that the bar has been fined for discriminating against a transgender woman. The bar received a $2,000 penalty in September of last year for denying a transgender woman entry in 2023.
Half of the fine went to Kathy Carpenter Brown, the trans woman who experienced the discrimination. Brown is the founder of TransLiance, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Delaware.
District of Columbia
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
31 of 43 known LGBTQ ANC members elected in 2024 seeking re-election
A 2026 list of candidates released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 31 of the 43 known LGBTQ candidates who won election in 2024 as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have filed the required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot this year to run for re-election.
The Washington Blade reported in 2024 that 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election to ANC seats that year in the November election
In a related development, the president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the group this year has recruited at least 39 LGBTQ candidates to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats in the city’s Nov. 3 general election.
The group’s president, Stevie McCarty, an incumbent ANC member in the city’s Shaw neighborhood who is running for re-election, said the 39 candidates and possibly more responded to the group’s Queering ANCs campaign launched on July 7 that includes a website with detailed instructions for how best to run for an ANC seat.
“Since launching in early July, the site has drawn more than 20,000 views, and 39 candidates have used it to actually run,” McCarty said in a statement. He said he wasn’t sure if all the 39 candidates wanted to be identified as LGBTQ, and he was reviewing the list of incumbent LGBTQ ANC members who won election in 2024 to determine if any of the 39 candidates recruited were among those incumbents. He said he was not ready to release the names of the 39 candidates he said his group recruited to run for an ANC seat.
If none of the 39 candidates recruited by Capital Stonewall Democrats are among the 31 known LGBTQ ANC incumbents running for re-election, it would mean at least 70 LGBTQ ANC candidates will be on the city’s November election ballot.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will send candidate questionnaires to the known LGBTQ ANC candidates as part of its process for endorsing candidates in the November election. He said he expects the group to help campaign for and provide financial support for the ANC candidates it endorses.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, zoning, liquor licenses, and economic development. Although ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or actions by city agencies, the agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty said in the Capital Stonewall Democrats statement announcing the launch of the Queering ANCs campaign in July. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
Some local LGBTQ activists, who asked not to be identified, said they were not aware of a significant boost in new LGBTQ ANC candidates from the Queering ANCs campaign. However, they praised the effort to recruit more LGBTQ ANC candidates and said the campaign could have yielded more candidates if it had started sooner than less than a month before the deadline for becoming a candidate.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will continue to recruit LGBTQ D.C. residents to run as write-in candidates for ANC seats, especially in the 45 single member districts in which no candidate will be on the ballot. The Board of Elections candidate list shows many ANC single member districts that have just one candidate running without an opponent.
Following is a list of 33 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in D.C.’s November 2026 election and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. All but two – Vita Rangel and J. Swiderski – are incumbents running for re-election. The Washington Blade will update this list if and when more LGBTQ ANC candidates become known.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights) Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A10 – (Columbia Heights) Vita Rangel, she/ her [non-incumbent candidate]
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street) J. Swiderski, they/he [non-incumbent candidate]
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill) Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street) Matthew Holden, he/him
1E01 – (Park View) Brad Howard, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle) Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle) Vincent Slatt, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter) Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle) Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle) Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw) Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw) Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights) S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park) Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma) Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs) Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth) Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights) Vince Micone, he/him
5B04 – (Brookland) Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland) Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad) Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington) Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill) David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle) Karen Hughes, she/her
7C01 – (Deanwood) Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights) Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C04 (Deanwood) Anthony Lorenzo Green
7C08 – (Capitol View) Brandon M. Scott, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn) Tom Donohue, he, him
8B06 – (Garfield Heights) Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
Congress
Chris Van Hollen says the Democratic Party needs change. Is he the one to lead it?
Senator is backing anti-establishment Democrats across the country
By LEE O. SANDERLIN | The Democratic Party is having something of an identity crisis — losing to President Donald Trump twice in three elections will do that.
Should the party embrace anti-establishment figures who espouse progressive policy ideas like Medicare for all and rhetoric about unrigging the economy for the 1 percent? Or should Democrats try to appeal to moderates who want to return to semi-normalcy in a time of political upheaval?
Although he’s been in Congress since 2002, with key leadership roles throughout his tenure, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, 67, counts himself firmly in the anti-establishment camp.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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