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‘Housewives’ charity event a bust & more
‘Housewives’ charity event a bust
A party for “Real Housewives of D.C.” held at the now-closed EFN Lounge on Aug. 5 with show stars Tareq and Michaele Salahi raised no money for an AIDS charity.
Ads for the event said an unspecified portion of the proceeds would be given to Dab the AIDS Bear Project, an organization that, according to its founder, works in collaboration with the Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, a registered 501c3 organization.
The Blade could not independently confirm the connection between the two organizations before deadline, but Dab Garner, founder and CEO of Dab the AIDS Bear Project said Howard Cromwell, a gay Washingtonian who publishes D.C.’s Most Fabulous Magazine, told him that the event, was not successful and therefore no donation would be made.
Cromwell, who asked that questions about the event be submitted via e-mail and then did not respond, told Garner in an e-mail dated Aug. 12 that he couldn’t send any money to the charity because the event was not profitable.
“The goal was to donate 40 percent of the profit to each organization,” Cromwell wrote in the e-mail, which Garner shared with the Blade. “Unfortunately, we did not pull a profit from this event as expected. We barely broke even. Even though this event wasn’t financially successful for the charity organizations involved, we feel that it was still a huge success media-wise shedding a national spotlight on your organization.”
Garner said he sent teddy bears for the housewives to pose with for publicity shots at the party, but Michaele Salahi was the only cast member to attend. Other cast members attended a separate and official premiere party for the show.
Cromwell, Garner said, forgot to bring the teddy bears to the party and hasn’t returned them. Garner uses the teddy bears to promote his charity.
Garner, a 29-year HIV survivor, met Cromwell last year at an AIDS Drug Assistance Program Summit in Washington and said Cromwell approached his organization about being a benefactor of the “Housewives” party.
Other groups appear to have also been jilted. The New York Post reported that Honor & Remember was to receive 40 percent of the profits from Cromwell’s event, but also was told the event made no money so no donation would be given. Staff at Honor & Remember did not respond to the Blade’s requests for comment.
Tickets for Cromwell’s party ranged from $25 to $500. Press that attended described EFN Lounge as somewhat full downstairs, but not packed.
Bill Gray, who was manager of EFN Lounge at the time of the event and on scene that night, said the event seemed chaotic.
“They comped most of the tickets for press and their friends,” he said. “It seemed like a joke.”
Gay comedian to entertain at Alston House benefit
D.C.-based gay standup comedian Sampson will entertain tonight at 10 p.m. at the D.C. Arts Center in Adams Morgan with his routine, “Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings.”
Tickets are $15 and benefit the Wanda Alston House, Washington’s only home for homeless LGBT youth.
Sampson, born Korrell McCormick, grew up in North Carolina, but has been in the D.C. area for 10 years. The 25-year-old has been doing standup for about eight years and mixes social commentary with personal experiences about the foibles of the black and gay worlds, which often collide, a point he uses for comedic effect.
He performs in straight and gay venues alike and says it hasn’t been a problem.
“I’m just as funny as some of the straight comedians,” he says. “I don’t use the N-word and a bunch of [expletives]. It’s a different perspective, being openly gay. I can get away with more. Even flirting with men in the audience. Even the straight ones. They’re there to laugh and have fun, so they just go with it.”
Sampson, who has performed at Titan, Town, EFN Lounge and Phase 1, says tonight’s performance is inspired by his sense of activism.
But how does he balance the seriousness of his convictions with the lighthearted approach of a comedian?
“I still don’t know,” he admits. “Honesty can be very funny and open a lot of dialogue through pointing out the absurd. That’s what makes it funny. People don’t stop to examine how they sound.”
Brian Watson, who oversees Wanda’s House as a division of Transgender Health Empowerment, says the benefit was Sampson’s idea. Watson says he’s grateful for the aid.
“Things are going OK at the House, but we received a budget cut last year and are expecting one this year also,” he said. “Due to limited income this year, we aren’t even having our annual anniversary reception usually held in September.”
Watson said the House is full and has “a good group of kids,” but Transgender Health Empowerment will have to close its trans drop-in center on New York Avenue, N.W., this year because of the lack of funding through D.C. City Council members’ earmarks, which helped keep the drop-in center’s doors open.
Tickets for tonight’s performance can be purchased at the door or reserved by calling 202-462-7833. Guests are asked to arrive around 9:45 p.m. Visit www.sampson313.freehomepage.com for more about Sampson.
Two gay men punched en route to Nellie’s
A gay man who was walking along the U Street corridor with another gay man toward Nellie’s on Aug. 20 was attacked at about 11:30 p.m., one of the men told the Blade.
And minutes after being punched, the man said, they encountered another gay man who also was attacked.
The gay man who wasn’t attacked, a 27-year-old Columbia Heights resident who asked not to be identified because he does security work for an overseas non-profit, said he and his friend, who’s 31, had met on the corner of 14th and U streets, N.W., and were walking east on U Street when the attack happened near the Rite Aid between 13th and 14th streets.
“There were tons and tons of people out,” said the man who wasn’t attacked. “We were just walking and talking, passing tons of people, and all of a sudden I saw someone turn around and I had that ‘something’s not right’ feeling really quickly.
“They hit my friend on the side of the head. … My friend turned and was like, ‘What happened?’ and was looking to see, and the same person and one other person threw a couple more punches and then it just kind of ended itself. I got my friend sort of distanced away enough and those people kept walking.”
The man who wasn’t attacked said the group consisted of three young black men and two young black women whom he guessed were either coming or going from one of the straight bars on U Street. He said the group didn’t say anything to them or appear to be trying to rob them.
He said one man in the group was “thin and wiry.” Another was “heftier,” and a third was a “bigger guy” with shoulder-length dreads who did most of the punching. He noted that there was no verbal exchange during the attack, but the two girls laughed while his friend was being punched.
Seconds after the attack, another gay man approached them and asked if they’d been attacked, saying he had just been punched as well. The man who wasn’t attacked said the other gay man, whom he didn’t know, also was en route to Nellie’s when he was punched by the same group. They called police and waited together. Neither man who was attacked was seriously injured.
The man who wasn’t attacked said he believes they were targeted because they are gay.
“I don’t know for sure because they didn’t say anything, but there were so many people around, they could have caused problems with anyone, but we were attacked. Then like 15 seconds later another gay guy is attacked on the same block? There’s no doubt in my mind that’s what it was.”
Police arrested Tracee Freeman on Aug. 20 on simple assault and hate crime charges stemming from an incident at 1448 U Street at 11:16 p.m. that day. It wasn’t immediately clear if the incident tied to Freeman’s arrest was the same attack reported above or another attack. The victim cited in the police report said Freeman punched him in the chest and called him a faggot, according to the report.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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