Local
D.C. officials mark National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Gray and others spoke at a press conference in Freedom Plaza
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Mayor Vincent Gray stressed Thursday during a press conference at Freedom Plaza to mark National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day that testing positive for the virus no longer amounts to “a death sentence.”
“If you get into treatment and stay in treatment, you can live as long a life as anybody else,” he said.
First held by the National Association of People with AIDS in 2008, National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day seeks to raise awareness of the epidemic’s impact on men who have sex with men. NAPWA President Frank Oldham, Jr., who has lived with HIV since the late 1980s, noted that the epidemic has killed 280,000 gay men since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first cases of what became known as AIDS in 1981.
“We’re here today because 280,000 gay men — white gay men, black gay men, Latino gay men, Asian and Pacific Islander gay men have lost their lives to AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic,” he said. “We honor them and we’re here to save the gay men who are living today from destruction by HIV and AIDS.”
Although Department of Health statistics indicate that new HIV diagnoses dropped 36 percent among white Washingtonians and 24 percent among black men in D.C. between 2006 and 2010, 2.7 percent of city residents were still living with the virus at the end of 2010. DOH interim director Dr. Saul Levin noted that between 14 and 20 percent of gay and bisexual men — and an estimated 30 percent of black MSM — in the nation’s capital live with HIV. He further pointed out that a third of all new HIV/AIDS cases were transmitted through MSM.
“Like the mayor, NAPWA has been a voice and a conscience of both the District and the nation in ensuring HIV’s discussed, prevention programs and treatment being the goal we must achieve and continue to achieve,” said Levin. “I’ve seen many of my friends in the gay community grapple with the epidemic since the 1980s. We need to make sure that now when we have these great medications that make it a chronic disease, that we do not see new people coming in and getting HIV/AIDS. And if they do, we need to get them into treatment as soon as possible.”
Doctor Gregory Pappas of the DOH’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Disease and Tuberculosis Administration joined Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs; Venton Jones of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition; David Mariner, executive director of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community and other HIV/AIDS service providers and activists at the press conference.
“We recognize that when one discovers that they’ve tested positive, it’s no longer a death sentence, but far too many people have become cavalier about it,” said former Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly. “And so what is the purpose of today? To remind everybody that we can still move forward, but we can do it with the two T’s: testing and treatment. Well you’ve got to test, and then you’ve got to treat. We’ve got to encourage people to recognize that this is something that impacts all of us and all of us therefore need to test and treat. And eventually it won’t be the two T’s; it will be the one C for the cure.”
President of the National Association of People with AIDS Frank Oldham, Jr. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
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Congratulations to Jamie Leeds, chef extraordinaire, on celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hank’s Oyster Bar in Dupont Circle. Leeds said, “I am feeling grateful that Hanks has been in such a supportive and friendly neighborhood for 20 years.”
Leeds is a pioneering and tenacious entrepreneur who has spent her career fostering community, mentoring other female business owners and culinary professionals, and supporting sustainable practices across her restaurants and the seafood industry at large.
She has 40 years of experience, from kitchens in Europe, to the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia-area. A self-taught chef, she began her career in New York in the early 1980s at Danny Meyer’s famed Union Square Cafe, working her way up from potato peeler to sous chef. With Meyer’s encouragement, she moved to France in 1991, where she spent a year honing her skills before returning stateside to work for Rich Melman, of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, in Chicago.
From the moment she appeared on the D.C. culinary scene, Leeds garnered positive reviews and accolades, earning nominations in 2003 as a “Rising Culinary Star” in the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s Capital Restaurant & Hospitality Awards, and a “Rising Star Chef” by Starchefs’ local awards program.
I met Leeds in early 2005 as she was trying to open Hank’s in D.C.’s Dupont Circle, serving what she coined “urban beach food.” The restaurant was named for her father, whom she credits as her inspiration for becoming a chef. It debuted to wide acclaim. A few of us joined with Jamie to fight some local neighborhood residents who were trying to stop her opening for a host of invalid reasons. Thankfully, they lost, and the neighborhood, and people of D.C., won. Now celebrated for its range of proprietary oysters and other locally sourced seafood, Hank’s Oyster Bar continues to draw recognition as a D.C. institution and industry stalwart, recently winning “Best Raw Bar” in Washingtonian’s Best of Washington Readers’ Poll 2019, “Best Bloody Mary” and “Best Chef-Jamie Leeds” (a second consecutive win) from Washington Blade’s Best of Gay D.C. in 2019, 2020, and 2021 among numerous other accolades. Leeds now has a Hank’s Oyster Bar in Old Town Alexandria, Va., and her largest location, Hank’s on the Wharf, which opened in October 2017.
In June of 2021 she was recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for inspiring LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in the DMV area, and her approach to sustainable and inclusive business practices. A resident of North Chevy Chase, Md., when she’s not busy at the helm of her burgeoning restaurant empire, she enjoys spending time with her wife, Tina, and two children, Hayden and Hazel.
Rehoboth Beach
Ashley Biden to speak at Blade’s Summer Kickoff Party in Rehoboth Beach
May 16 event to honor Beau Biden, feature speech from Gov. Matt Meyer
The Washington Blade’s 18th annual Summer Kickoff Party is scheduled for today in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Ashley Biden, daughter of President Joe Biden, has joined the list of speakers, the Blade announced on Friday. She will accept an award on behalf of her brother Beau Biden for his LGBTQ advocacy work as Delaware attorney general.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has also joined the list of speakers.
The event, held at the Blue Moon (35 Rehoboth Ave.) from 5-7 p.m., is a fundraiser for the Blade Foundation’s Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism, which funds a summer position reporting on LGBTQ news in Delaware. This year’s recipient will be introduced at the event.
The event will also feature remarks from state Sen. Russ Huxtable, who recently introduced a state constitutional amendment to codify the right of same-sex couples to marry. CAMP Rehoboth Executive Director Kim Leisey and Blade editor Kevin Naff will also speak. The event is generously sponsored by Realtor Justin Noble, The Avenue Inn & Spa, and Blue Moon.
A suggested donation of $20 is partially tax deductible and includes drink tickets and light appetizers. Tickets are available in advance at bladefoundation.org/rehoboth or at the door.
District of Columbia
LGBT exhibition at D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum opens May 16
‘LGBT Jews in the Federal City’ arrives for WorldPride and beyond
The D.C. Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is opening a special exhibition called “LGBT Jews in the Federal City” on Friday, May 16, that will remain at the museum at 575 3rd St., N.W. until Jan. 4, 2026.
Museum officials have said they are pleased that the LGBT exhibition will be open concurrently with WorldPride 2025 D.C., which takes place May 17-June 8. The exhibition also takes place during Jewish American Heritage Month in May and during LGBTQ Pride Month in June, the museum points out in a statement.
“This landmark exhibition explores a turbulent century of celebration, activism, and change in the nation’s capital led by D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Jewish community,” the museum statement says. “This is a local story with national resonance, turning the spotlight on Washington, D.C. to show the city’s vast impact on LGBTQ+ history and culture in the United States.”
LGBT Jews in the Federal City includes “more than 100 artifacts and photographs representing the DMV region’s Jewish LGBTQ+ celebrations, spaces, struggles, joys, and personal stories,” the stamen points out.
A pre-opening tour of the exhibition provided for the Washington Blade shows that among the displays are first-ever shown materials from Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ supportive synagogue, which is the nation’s fourth-oldest LGBTQ friendly synagogue.
Also included is a prominent display about Barrett Brick, a longtime D.C. LGBT rights advocate and Jewish community leader who served as a board member and president of Bet Mishpachah in the 1980s and as executive director of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish organizations from 1987 to 1992. Brick passed away following a 10-year battle with cancer in 2013.
Another display in the museum’s several rooms accommodating the exhibition includes the ability to listen to audio clips of local LGBTQ community members sharing in their own voices their oral histories provided by D.C.’s Rainbow History Project.
Other displays include campaign posters and photos of prominent gay rights icon Frank Kameny, who led efforts to end discrimination against LGBTQ people from the federal government; and a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt that includes the name of a prominent Jewish Washingtonian who died during the AIDS epidemic.
“Through prompts, questions, and thoughtful design throughout the exhibition, visitors will be encouraged to ponder new ways to understand Jewish teachings and values as they relate to gender and sexuality,” the museum’s statement says.
“After leaving the exhibition, visitors can contribute to the Museum’s collecting and storytelling by sharing photographs, personal archives, or by recording stories,” it says.
The museum is open for visitors to see the LGBT exhibition and other museum exhibits 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Admission to LGBT Jews in the Federal City is $12.
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Down to shuck!
