Local
Concern over Stead Park renovation plan
Co-founder of local gay sports club opposes renovation of Dupont park that the would reduce by 25 percent the size of its fields
A gay kickball league is among the groups that make use of Stead Park. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The co-founder of the local gay group Stonewall Sports is circulating a petition opposing a proposal to renovate the Dupont Circle area’s Stead Park in a way that the group says would reduce the size of its sports fields by 25 percent.
Martin Espinoza states in his petition that a park renovation project proposed by Friends of Stead Park would “jeopardize current community leagues like soccer, volleyball, and kickball from using the fields.”
Espinoza, who is running for a seat on the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, is one of the organizers of a gay kickball league that uses the park.
Friends of Stead Park is a non-profit group that has helped maintain the park through an endowment from the Stead family, which donated the land in which the park is located to the city about 40 years ago.
Friends of Stead Park invited members of the community to weigh in on the renovation proposal at a meeting scheduled to take place 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3, at the D.C. Jewish Community Center at 16th and Q Streets, N.W.
Stead Park is located on P Street, N.W., between 16th and 17th Streets.
“We would like to see the limited funds being received be used to renovate the existing field with re-sodding, enhanced fencing, added benches and upgraded lighting,” Espinoza states in the petition.
Gay ANC Commissioner Jack Jacobson, who’s giving up his ANC seat to run for the Ward 2 D.C. school board seat, has expressed support for what he says is the park renovation proposal’s goal of expanding the number of people who use the park.
“I’m a member of the community,” Jacobson told the Blade. “I pay taxes. I don’t play kickball and I don’t play basketball. But I would rent a community garden plot or maybe utilize an amphitheater or picnic tables or a number of other things that don’t exist right now,” he said.
Adding more amenities to the park than just sports fields would benefit a greater number of people in the community, Jacobson and others supporting the renovation proposal have said.
Espinoza told the Blade retaining the current size of the sports field would not prevent other park improvements. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation is expected to make the final decision on any significant changes for the park.
Baltimore
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
Leon’s closed in July after its owner’s death
By JULIE SCHARPER and WESLEY CASE | Soon after Jim Becker came out as gay in 1967, he ducked into a Mount Vernon bar called Leon’s.
In the dark, smoky bar, men used pseudonyms for fear of being outed, as homosexual acts were illegal in Maryland. Bartenders, wary of vice squad raids, would blow a whistle if couples leaned in for a kiss.
But to Becker, arriving at Leon’s was a kind of homecoming. He could explore his identity, connect with other gay men and build community in the anxious years before the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
Dolly Parton dies at 80
Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Not all trans people are the same
Calendar: August 21-27
