A lawsuit filed in April 2024 by Town 2.0, the company that planned to reopen the popular LGBTQ nightclub Town in a former church on North Capitol Street that accused its landlord of failing to renovate the building as required by a lease agreement was dismissed in a little-noticed development on Sept. 6, 2024.

A document filed in D.C. Superior Court, where the lawsuit was filed against Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, the company that owns the church building, shows that a “Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice” was jointly filed by the attorneys representing the two parties in the lawsuit and approved by the judge.

Jemal’s Sanctuary is a subsidiary of the Douglas Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest real estate development firms. 

An attorney familiar with civil litigation who spoke to the Washington Blade on condition of not being identified said a stipulation of dismissal indicates the two parties reached a settlement to terminate the lawsuit on conditions that are always confidential and not included in court records.

The attorney who spoke with the Blade said the term “with prejudice” means the lawsuit cannot be re-filed again by either of the two parties.

The public court records for this case do not include any information about a settlement or the terms of such a settlement. However, the one-sentence Stipulation Of Dismissal With Prejudice addresses the issue of payment of legal fees.

“Pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the District of Columbia Superior Court Civil Rules, Plaintiff Town 2.0 LLC and Defendant Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, by and through their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate that the lawsuit be dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice, as to any and all claims and counterclaims asserted therein, with each party to bear its own fees and costs, including attorneys’ fees.”

The Town 2.0 lawsuit called for the termination of the lease and at least $450,000 in damages on grounds that Jemal’s Sanctuary violated the terms of the lease by failing to complete renovation work on the building that was required to be completed by a Sept. 1, 2020 “delivery date.”

In response to the lawsuit, attorneys for Jemal’s Sanctuary filed court papers denying the company violated the terms of the lease and later filed a countersuit charging Town 2.0 with violating its requirements under the lease, which the countersuit claimed included doing its own required part of the renovation work in the building, which is more than 100 years old.

Court records show Judge Maurice A. Ross, who presided over the case, dismissed the countersuit at the request of Town 2.0 on Aug. 20, 2024, on grounds that it was filed past the deadline of a three-year statute of limitations for filing such a claim.

Neither the owners of Town 2.0, their attorney, nor the attorney representing Jemal’s Sanctuary responded to a request by the Washington Blade for comment on the mutual dismissal of the lawsuit.

Town 2.0 co-owner John Guggenmos, who also owns with his two business partners the D.C. gay bars Trade and Number Nine, did not respond to a question asking if he and his partners plan to open Town 2.0 at another location.

What was initially known as Town Danceboutique operated from 2007 to 2018 in a large, converted warehouse building on 8th Street, N.W., just off Florida Avenue. It was forced to close when the building’s owner sold it to a developer who built a residential building in its place.

It was the last of the city’s large LGBTQ dance hall nightclubs that once drew large crowds, included live entertainment, and often hosted fundraising events for LGBTQ community organizations and causes.  

A group that promotes LGBTQ rights in Africa has called for a boycott of WorldPride in D.C.

The African Human Rights Coalition in a press release it issued on Monday said it is “calling on LGBTQI+ Africans and LGBTQI+ people worldwide to refrain from attending WorldPride in the United States of America, because the event is being held in a venue, Washington D.C., the USA, governed now by an antagonistic fascist regime which presents distinct dangers to foreign LGBTQI+ attendees.”

“While commending WorldPride, Capital Pride Alliance, and InterPride for all the hard work, over several years, to put this event together, no one could have predicted the current state of the USA, and the organizations must revisit this contextuality and with deep concern,” said the African Human Rights Coalition.

The group acknowledged it is “probably impossible to hold (WorldPride) elsewhere at such late notice.” The African Human Rights Coalition nevertheless said WorldPride “must consider withdrawing the event from the USA, and come out with a strong statement condemning the U.S. for the dangerous environment it presents to LGBTQI+ people entering the country, the current human rights infractions, and the decimation of democracy, trans rights and the general attack on LGBTQI+ communities, in the U.S. and around the world.”

“This is not business as usual and not a time for celebration, but rather the time for resistance,” said the African Human Rights Coalition.

WorldPride is scheduled to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8.

President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders have sparked growing concern among governments and advocacy groups around the world.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office on March 5 issued a travel advisory for trans and nonbinary people who are planning to visit the U.S. It specifically notes Trump’s executive order that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.

InterPride, the organization that coordinates WorldPride events, last week issued its own advisory for trans and nonbinary people who want to travel to the U.S. for WorldPride. Egale Canada, one of Canada’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations, in February announced its members will not attend WorldPride and any other event in the U.S. because of the Trump-Vance administration’s policies.

The African Human Rights Coalition said it has “reached out to” WorldPride. Capital Pride on Monday told the Washington Blade it was “not aware” of the boycott call, but is “working on a response and doing more digging on this.”

Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a Republican who long championed LGBTQ rights, died on Friday at age 93.

After serving in the Senate from 1979 to 1997, including a stint as the GOP whip from 1985 to 1995, Simpson continued to maintain an active role in American politics for decades. Much of his work on behalf of LGBTQ issues came through his appointment as honorary chair of the Republican Unity Coalition, gay-straight alliance group within the party, starting in 2001.

The former lawmaker spoke with the Washington Blade’s Lou Chibbaro Jr. for an interview in 2013 about how he was able to reconcile his work in Republican politics with his support for expanding rights and protections for LGBTQ people.

“All I know is we have made great strides for gays and lesbians and transvestites,” he said when asked if he thought Congress would soon approve the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, a bill calling for banning job discrimination against LGBT people.

The legislation did not ultimately pass, but at the time Simpson said he was hopeful the effort would overcome obstruction from some corners of the Republican conference because “other people know these people and they love them.”

“And I’m very pleased,” the former senator added. “Anyone who is on the side of justice and freedom and caring about fellow human beings is pleased about what’s going on.”

Simpson explained that his approach to LGBTQ rights was informed by his commitment to fairness and equality for everyone, telling the Blade that he shares these convictions with his wife of (then) 59 years, Ann Schroll Simpson, who survives him.

The couple had come to know gay people over the years, he said. “I had a gay cousin who was a war hero in World War II — a wonderful man.”

Asked whether he has received flak from some fellow Republicans and others over his support for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, Simpson said, “Everything I’ve done has had flak. I’m 82 now and I’ve effectively pissed off everyone in America. So yeah, but I just say we’re all God’s children. We’re all human beings.”

After leaving the Senate, Simpson’s advocacy for LGBTQ people included helping to convince former President Gerald Ford to join a gay rights organization, a first for a U.S. president; signing on to amicus briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support cases that that led to the overturning of state sodomy laws and established marriage equality as the law of the land; supporting the movement to overturn the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law; writing to the late former Rev. Fred Phelps in objection to his protests of gay events, including funerals of gay people; and supporting creative works about the anti-gay advocacy of the late former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the hate crime against murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard.

An obituary published Friday in The New York Times notes Simpson’s work on behalf of immigration reform and reproductive rights including abortion in addition to his stances on LGBTQ issues including his longtime support for same-sex marriage.

Simpson in 2017 published an opinion piece in the paper objecting to efforts by “fringe-right groups and raging extremists” to convince President Donald Trump to sign an executive order “that would allow discrimination against gays, women and religious minorities.”

In 2022, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Joe Biden.