Local
D.C. prepares for primary
Election outcome not likely to change Council support on LGBT issues
Political observers say Democratic opponents with the backing of LGBT activists have a shot at unseating Council member Vincent Orange in next week’s primary. Orange once opposed marriage equality but later changed his mind. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The District’s influential LGBT vote was expected to be divided on April 3 in the hotly contested race for an at-large D.C. Council seat held by Democratic incumbent Vincent Orange.
Orange and four of his Council colleagues — Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) — are running for re-election in the Democratic Party primary. Evans, a longtime supporter of LGBT rights, is running unopposed.
Similar to nearly all past elections, the winner in the primary is expected to win the general election in November in a city where registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans.
But unlike most D.C. primaries in recent years, where almost all incumbents win, political observers say Democratic opponents with the backing of LGBT activists have a shot at unseating Orange and Alexander.
And the president of the gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans of D.C., Robert Turner, says gay Republicans are joining their moderate to progressive fellow party activists to wage a spirited challenge for at least three Council seats in the November election.
Based on the candidates running, most LGBT activist leaders say they don’t expect the election outcome in the April primary or November general election to change the D.C. Council’s overall longstanding support for LGBT equality.
“I do not see any changes that will impact the LGBT community,” said gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein. “We are a strong community with the support of the majority of the Council today and that will continue,” he said.
Alexander and Barry were the only two Council members that voted against the city’s same-sex marriage law when it passed in the Council by a vote of 11-2 in 2009. Both have been supportive on most other LGBT issues in the past.
However, the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance this year assigned Alexander and Barry a -3.5 rating on LGBT-related issues in a rating system with -10 as the lowest possible score and +10 the highest. (A full listing of GLAA’s ratings of all D.C. Council candidates and the candidates’ responses to GLAA’s questionnaire on LGBT-related issues can be viewed at glaa.org.)
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, has endorsed both Alexander and Barry in past elections. This year the club endorsed Ward 7 challenger Tom Brown over Alexander. The club didn’t make an endorsement in the Ward 8 race after none of five Democratic candidates running were able to obtain a 60 percent vote from club members to secure an endorsement.
The club also endorsed Bowser in the Ward 4 race, who’s favored to emerge as the winner over five Democratic challengers. Bowser, who voted for the same-sex marriage bill, received a +6.5 rating from GLAA.
Orange wasn’t on the Council at the time of the same-sex marriage vote. He came out against same-sex marriage when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2006 but said he changed his mind on the issue a short time later. He says he now strongly supports the city’s marriage equality law and points to his past support on a wide range of other LGBT-related issues during his tenure as a Ward 5 Council member from 1999 to 2007.
GLAA, which assigned Orange a rating of +0.5, says Orange lost points for backing a number of initiatives opposed by GLAA, including a bill to make permanent certain locations in the city designated as “prostitution free zones.” Many of the city’s gay activists have joined transgender rights leaders and civil liberties advocates in calling for repeal of the law that created temporary prostitution free zones, saying it has been used to target and “profile” transgender women for police harassment on grounds that they appear to be engaging in prostitution by merely standing in certain parts of the city designated as prostitution free zones.
Orange said he no longer supports the bill to make the zones permanent. The bill calling for making them permanent was introduced by Alexander.
He is being challenged by former D.C. school board member Sekou Biddle, who was appointed to the at-large Council seat for less than a year in 2011, before losing it to Orange in an April 2011 special election. The seat became vacant in January 2011 after Council member Kwame Brown, who held the seat, won election to the post of Council chairman. Biddle received a GLAA rating of +5.5.
Also competing for the seat in the April 3 Democratic primary are Peter Shapiro, a former Prince George’s County Council member who recently moved to D.C., who also received a +5.5 GLAA rating, and E. Gail Anderson Holness, a Ward 1 Democratic activist and pastor of D.C.’s Christ Our Redeemer AME Church, who received a -1.5 GLAA rating.
Biddle and Shapiro have expressed strong support on LGBT issues. Both have lined up support in the LGBT community, with the largest number of prominent LGBT activists backing Biddle. Holness, who has called for a voter referendum on the city’s same-sex marriage law, failed to obtain a single vote at a Stein Club endorsement meeting earlier this month.
Biddle finished ahead of Orange in the Stein endorsement vote but fell five points short of the 60 percent needed for an endorsement. Gay supporters of Orange and Shapiro said support for their respective candidates prevented Biddle from winning the club’s endorsement, saying the development indicates Biddle’s support in the LGBT community may be declining.
They note that the Stein Club endorsed Biddle over Orange in the April 2011 special election, in which Biddle finished in third place behind Republican Patrick Mara and Orange, who won the election.
Biddle supporter John Fanning, a longtime gay Democratic activist, said polling data shows that Biddle has emerged as Orange’s strongest challenger and has a shot at beating Orange if the opposition vote isn’t evenly divided between Biddle and Shapiro.
Biddle has been endorsed by gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large), and former rival Mara, a pro-LGBT school board member from Ward 1 who campaigned for the city’s same-sex marriage bill when it was pending before the Council.
Stein Club President Lateefah Williams said she believes challenger Tom Brown has a reasonable chance of beating Alexander in the Ward 7 primary. But similar to the at-large race, Williams and others seeking to replace Alexander say Alexander is likely to win if what they believe is a majority of the electorate opposing Alexander is divided among several candidates. Brown received a GLAA rating of +3.5.
Five candidates in addition to Brown are running against Alexander in the primary, including Kevin Chavous Jr., son of former Ward 7 Council member Kevin Chavous Sr., who also received a +3.5 GLAA rating.
Also running unopposed in the primary is D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is considered to be among the strongest supporters of LGBT rights in the U.S. Congress; and shadow U.S. House candidate Nate Bennett-Fleming. Both received endorsements from the Stein Club. GLAA doesn’t issue ratings for federal offices.
The Stein Club didn’t make an endorsement in the race for the city’s shadow Senate seat, in which incumbent Michael D. Brown is being challenged in the Democratic primary by Pete Ross. Both have expressed support for LGBT rights.
Republican Mary Brooks Beatty is running unopposed in the April 3 D.C. Republican primary for the at-large Council seat. In the Statehood-Green Party primary, Ann Wilcox and G. Lee Aikin are also competing for the at-large Council seat. Brooks received a “0” GLAA rating for not returning the group’s questionnaire and not having a known record on LGBT issues. Wilcox received a +0.5 rating. GLAA said she, too, did not return the questionnaire but received a half point for her record of support as an attorney for the gay direct action group Get Equal.
In the Ward 7 Council race, longtime community and anti-crime activist Ron Moten, who has helped the former LGBT gang Check It convert into a youth organization promoting a fashion clothing line, is running for the Republican nomination. He is being challenged by GOP candidate Don Folden Sr. The Log Cabin Republicans of D.C. has endorsed Moten and Brooks. Moten received a +1.5 GLAA rating.
District of Columbia
New queer bar Rush beset by troubles; liquor license suspended
Staff claim they haven’t been paid, turn to GoFundMe as holidays approach
The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board on Dec. 17 issued an order suspending the liquor license for the recently opened LGBTQ bar and nightclub Rush on grounds that it failed to pay a required annual licensing fee.
Rush held its grand opening on Dec. 5 on the second and third floors of a building at 2001 14 Street, N.W., with its entrance around the corner on U Street next to the existing LGBTQ dance club Bunker.
It describes itself on its website as offering “art-pop aesthetics, high-energy nights” in a space that “celebrates queer culture without holding back.” It includes a large dance floor and a lounge area with sofas and chairs.
Jackson Mosley, Rush’s principal owner, did not immediately respond to a phone message from the Washington Blade seeking his comment on the license suspension.
The ABC Board’s order states, “The basis for this Order is that a review of the Board’s official records by the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) has determined that the Respondent’s renewal payment check was returned unpaid and alternative payment was not submitted.”
The three-page order adds, “Notwithstanding ABCA’s efforts to notify the Respondent of the renewal payment check return, the Respondent failed to pay the license fee for the period of 2025 to 2026 for its Retailer’s Class CT license. Therefore, the Respondent’s license has been SUSPENDED until the Respondent pays the license fees and the $50.00 per day fine imposed by the Board for late payment.”
ABCA spokesperson Mary McNamara told the Blade that the check from Rush that was returned without payment was for $12,687, which she said was based on Rush’s decision to pay the license fee for four years. She said that for Rush to get its liquor license reinstated it must now pay $3,819 for a one-year license fee plus a $100 bounced check fee, a $750 late fee, and $230 transfer fee, at a total of $4,919 due.
Under D.C. law, bars, restaurants and other businesses that normally serve alcoholic beverages can remain open without a city liquor license as long as they do not sell or serve alcohol.
But D.C. drag performer John Marsh, who performs under the name Cake Pop and who is among the Rush employees, said Rush did not open on Wednesday, Dec. 17, the day the liquor board order was issued. He said that when it first opened, Rush limited its operating days from Wednesday through Sunday and was not open Mondays and Tuesdays.
Marsh also said none of the Rush employees received what was to be their first monthly salary payment on Dec. 15. He said approximately 20 employees set up a GoFundMe fundraising site to raise money to help sustain them during the holiday period after assuming they will not be paid.
He said he doubted that any of the employees would return to work in the unlikely case that Mosley would attempt to reopen Rush without serving liquor or if he were to pay the licensing fee to allow him to resume serving alcohol without having received their salary payment.
As if all that were not enough, Mosley would be facing yet another less serious problem related to the Rush policy of not accepting cash payments from customers and only accepting credit card payments. A D.C. law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2025, prohibits retail businesses such as restaurants and bars from not accepting cash payments.
A spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which is in charge of enforcing that law, couldn’t immediately be reached to determine what the penalty is for a violation of the law requiring that type of business to accept cash payments.
The employee GoFundMe site, which includes messages from several of the employees, can be accessed here.
District of Columbia
Brian Footer suspends campaign for Ward 1 D.C. Council seat
Race’s third LGBTQ candidate cites family reasons for ‘stepping back’
Gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Brian Footer, who was one of three out LGBTQ candidates running for the open Ward 1 D.C. Council seat in the city’s June 16, 2026, Democratic primary, announced on Dec. 17 he has decided to “suspend” his campaign to focus on his family.
“After deep reflection and honest conversations with my family, I have decided to suspend my campaign for the D.C. Council,” he said in a statement. “This moment in my life requires me to be present with the people I love most and honor the responsibilities I carry both at home and in the community,” he states. “This was not an easy decision, but it is the right one for me and my family at this time.”
Footer, a longtime Ward 1 community activist and LGBTQ rights advocate, announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 Council seat in July, one month before bisexual Ward 1 community activist Aparna Raj announced her candidacy for the Council seat on Aug. 12.
Gay Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Miguel Trindade Deramo announced his candidacy for the Ward 1 Council seat on Nov. 18, becoming the third out LGBTQ candidate in what appeared to be an unprecedented development for a race for a single D.C. Council seat.
At least three other candidates who are not LGBTQ are running for the Ward 1 Council seat. They include Ward 1 ANC member Rashida Brown, longtime Ward 1 community activist Terry Lynch, and Jackie Reyes-Yanes, the former director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs.
In his statement announcing the suspension of his candidacy, Footer said he would continue to be involved in community affairs and advocate for the issues he discussed during his campaign.
“I want to be clear: I am stepping back from the race, not the work,” he says in his statement. “Public service has always been my calling. I will continue advocating for affordability, for safer streets, for stability for small businesses, and for a government that responds to people with urgency and respect,” he wrote. “And I will continue showing up as a partner in the work of building a stronger Ward 1.”
Footer concluded by thanking and praising his campaign supporters and calling his campaign suspension a “transition,” suggesting he is not likely to resume his candidacy.
His campaign press spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if Footer might later resume his campaign or if his latest action was in effect an end to his candidacy.
“To everyone who knocked on doors, hosted conversations, donated, shared encouragement, and believed in this campaign, thank you,” he says in his statement. “I am deeply grateful for every person who helped this campaign take root,” he added. “This isn’t an ending, it’s a transition. And I’m excited for the work ahead, both in Ward 1 and at home with my family.”
Longtime gay D.C. Democratic Party activist Peter Rosenstein said in a statement to the Blade, “I respect Brian Footer’s decision to end his campaign for Council. It is not easy to run a campaign in D.C. and there are many others running in Ward 1.” He added, “While not living in Ward 1, I thank Brian for all he has done and clearly will continue to do for the people in the ward.”
Local
LGBTQ, LGBTQ-friendly congregations to hold holiday services
Bet Mishpachah’s Hanukkah service to take place on Friday
LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly congregations in D.C. will hold services and other events throughout the holiday season.
Bet Mishpachah on Friday will hold its Sparks in the Dark Happy Hour at Spark Social on 14th Street from 5:30-7:30 p.m. It’s Chanuka Shabbat Service will begin at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th St., N.W.) at 8 p.m.
Hanukkah began on Sunday and will end on Dec. 22.
Two gunmen on Sunday killed 15 people and injured more than two dozen others when they opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Jake Singer-Beilin, Bet Mishpachah’s chief rabbi, in a Facebook post mourned the victims.
“We grieve for the victims and send heartfelt prayers of healing for those who were wounded,” he wrote.
“This Chanuka, our lights will shine brightly in the darkness, but our hearts will be heavy with mourning for those who were murdered on Bondi Beach while observing what should have been a joyous day,” added Singer-Beilin. “We will still celebrate our Festival of Lights and we will commit ourselves to illuminating and repairing our broken world. Let us channel the bravery of the Maccabees who found hope where there seemed to be none, and who fought to create a better future. We must do the same.”
LGBTQ Catholic group to hold annual Christmas Day Mass
Dignity Washington’s Christmas Day Mass will take place at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church (1820 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) on Dec. 25 from 6-7 p.m. Parishioners can attend in person or watch it online via Facebook.
The Metropolitan Community Church of Washington D.C.’s Christmas Eve service will take place at the church (474 Ridge St., N.W., on Dec. 24 at 6 p.m.
St. Thomas Episcopal Church (1517 18th St., N.W.) in Dupont Circle will hold its Christmas Eve Festival Eucharist from 5-6 p.m. A Christmas Eve dinner will take place in the Parish Hall from 6-8:30 p.m. The church’s Christmas Eve Festival Eucharist will occur on Dec. 25 from 10-11 a.m.
Washington National Cathedral throughout the holiday season has a number of services and events scheduled. These include the virtual Gospel Christmas Service on Dec. 21 from 6-7:30 p.m., the Family Christmas Service on Dec. 23 from 11 a.m. to noon, the Christmas Eve Festival Holy Eucharist on Dec. 24 from 10-11:45 p.m., and the Christmas Day Festival Holy Eucharist on Dec. 25 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
The Foundry United Methodist Church (1500 16th St., N.W.) in Dupont Circle will hold its Christmas Eve Family Service on Dec. 24 at 4:30 p.m. Its Carols and Candlelight Service will take place at 8 p.m.
Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum to celebrate Kwanzaa
The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum (1901 Fort Place S.E.) in Anacostia will mark the first day of Kwanzaa on Dec. 26 with storytelling and drumming with Mama Ayo and Baba Ras D from noon to 2 p.m. The museum will hold a series of other events through the 6-day celebration of African American culture that ends on Jan. 1.
The Creative Suitland Arts Center (4719 Silver Hill Road) in Suitland, Md., on Friday will hold their Almost Kwanzaa: A Creative Kind of Holiday event from 6-8:30 p.m.
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