Local
Police mum about suspect in theft of Blades
Vandalism of newspaper distribution boxes continues
(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
D.C. police have so far declined to confirm whether they have tracked down the license plate number of a car driven by a suspect that multiple witnesses have said is systematically removing bundles of the Washington Blade and Metro Weekly magazine from distribution boxes throughout the city.
Blade publisher Lynne Brown said she and others have given the license plate number of a white Toyota Camry and a description of its middle age, white male driver to the police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit. She has not heard back about whether police have traced the identity of the driver or owner of the car, Brown said.
Witnesses say the license plate on the car in question is a Maryland vanity plate with the letters “JS.”
“Theft of all bundles of Washington Blade newspapers from their street boxes around the city continues,” Brown told GLLU Officer Justin Markiewicz in a Jan. 10 email. “It happens weekly. It happens in different neighborhoods. It most often happens, by eyewitness accounts, early Friday mornings.”
D.C. police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said in a statement late Wednesday that the police department is “very committed” to addressing reports of vandalism against the newspaper boxes.
“However, we consulted with the U.S. Attorney’s office and they determined that it is not a crime to take a free paper,” Crump said. “The criminal statute is that you cannot steal something that is free. It’s not about quantity.”
Inquires about the status of a possible police investigation into the removal of large quantities of the two LGBT publications from their distribution boxes follows reports in September that Blade and Metro Weekly boxes also were being vandalized in the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and 17th Street gay entertainment areas.
Brown said one or more suspects have been systematically breaking a clear plastic clip that holds a single issue of the Blade in the window of the distribution boxes, allowing readers to view the front page of the paper to find out when the new edition is delivered each Friday. She said the vandalism is continuing.
Metro Weekly co-publishers Sean Bugg and Randy Shulman didn’t reply to a Blade email seeking comment this week.
In a Metro Weekly story in September about the vandalism and thefts, Bugg said one or more vandals had deposited trash and human or animal feces in some of the LGBT publication’s boxes. The article, in which Bugg described the vandalism as an anti-LGBT hate crime, said Metro Weekly was expending large sums of money to clean and sterilize the distribution boxes, only to have the perpetrator or perpetrators vandalize the same boxes again.
Brown said GLLU members have told her informally that the removal of a free newspaper from a distribution box doesn’t appear to fall under the definition of a theft, even if large quantities of the paper are taken. Brown said she was told that the United States Attorney’s office was being consulted to advise police over whether a suspect could be arrested and prosecuted for removing a free publication from a distribution box.
“I would like the owner of the car identified and an arrest warrant sworn out,” she said.
William Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said he would make inquiries about whether prosecutors in his office were looking into the matter.
Brian Moore, an aide to D.C. City Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), said Mendelson would be open to studying whether the Council should consider legislation to make it illegal to remove large quantities of a free newspaper or other publications from distribution boxes.
The Metro Weekly article suggested that the motive behind the removal of large quantities of the magazine from its boxes appeared to be anti-LGBT animus in at least some of the cases because stacks of the magazines were found in city trash cans near the site of the boxes.
Brown said another possible motive could be the potential sale of bulk quantities of newspapers to recycling centers that pay for newspapers. An aide to D.C. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who monitors the city’s recycling programs for Cheh’s Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment, said most commercial recycling centers don’t pay for newspapers unless they are delivered in quantities of at least one or more tons, making it difficult for an individual to carry out such a task in a private car or even a small truck.
“The police have been polite and helpful,” Brown said. “However the message has been this is a low, low level of priority.”
District of Columbia
D.C. Latinx Pride celebrates culture and heritage
Your guide to events throughout June
Organizers with the Latinx History Project have planned a host of events this Pride season with parties, poetry, drag and more.
The festivities begin with the DC Latinx Pride 2026 Kickoff at Crush Dance Bar (2007 14th Street, N.W.) on Friday, June 12 from 6-10 p.m. The party will include a coronation ceremony for the 2026 Royal Court: Ms. DC Latinx Pride Vida Rangel and Mx. DC Latinx Pride Steph Niaupari. RSVP at latinxhistoryproject.org. The event is free, though donations are accepted.
An outdoor event is planned for Sunday, June 14 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Anacostia River Park (1500 Anacostia Dr., S.E.). Cultivating Queer Outdoor Joy is a “peaceful outdoor community event focused on grounding, connection, and queer joy in nature.” The event is free.
A panel discussion is planned for The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Rd., N.W., 2nd floor) on Monday, June 15 from 6-8 p.m. La Plática: The Future of 2 Spirits and Trans Natives will focus upon the “stories, leadership and vision of Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer and Trans Native people.” RSVP to the free event at latinxhistoryproject.org.
A sex-positive poetry workshop, “Hoetry: Writing Erotic Poetry,” is planned for Wednesday, June 17 from 6-8 p.m. at The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road, N.W.). The event is free.
The workshop So You Wanna Do Drag? is planned for Thursday, June 18 from 5:30-8 p.m. at The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road, N.W.). Featured guests Ricky Rose and Mari Con Carne will hold a style showcase to discuss the basics of developing a drag persona. RSVP to the free event at latinxhistoryproject.org.
The Latinx History Project is collaborating with Rumba Queer DC to produce an official Latinx Pride Party: Sin Vergüenza. The event is at the multi-level venue, Transmission (1353 H Street, N.E.) on Thursday, June 18 from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. There are dance lessons, vendors and three different music experiences in the sprawling venue. There will also be a drag showcase from 10-11 p.m. The event is 21+ and tickets are available at shotgun.live/en/events/sin-verguenza. Tickets are $15 for entry into the party. Tickets to participate in the dance lesson are $29.98. Participants may choose between a bachata lesson or a salsa lesson from 7-8 p.m.
La Fiesta: Official DC Latinx Pride Party is planned for Friday, June 19 from 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. at Bunker (2001 14th Street, N.W.). Serena Morena from “Drag Race México” and “Drag Race UK vs The World” is slated to headline the 21+ event. Early tickets are available for $15 (plus $0.38 service fee) until June 16. The door cover charge without early tickets is $20. Attendees can also purchase a meet and greet experience with Serena Morena for $30. Tickets are available at latinxhistoryproject.org.
The Latinx History Project plans to march in the Capital Pride Parade on Saturday, June 20 and to have a table at the Capital Pride Festival on Sunday, June 21. Visit latinxhistoryproject.org to register to march alongside LGP in the parade or to staff the table at the festival.
The DC Latinx Pride 2026 Closing Event is scheduled for Friday, June 26 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Mexican Cultural Institute (2829 16th Street, N.W.). The free event is a panel discussion “centering the experiences of immigrants who have lived in Latin America and now call the United States home.”
Visit latinxhistoryproject.org for more information.
District of Columbia
JR.’s hosts meet & greet for mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George
Event organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, Queers for Janeese
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George spoke to a crowd of LGBTQ supporters on June 1 at a meet & greet event held at JR.’s on 17th Street in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
The event, organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, which has endorsed Lewis George for mayor, with support from a group called Queers for Janeese, was followed by a “get out the vote” canvassing endeavor in which several of those attending the meet & greet visited the homes of nearby residents known to be Lewis George supporters.
The purpose of the canvassing was to remind Lewis George supporters to return their mail-in ballots or go to the polls on June 16 to elect Lewis George as the city’s next mayor, according to Matthew Kavanagh, one of the leaders of Queers for Janeese who attended the meet & greet event at JR.’s.
Local political observers consider Lewis George, a Ward 4 D.C. Council member, and former At-Large D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, to be the two leading candidates in this year’s race for mayor. The two are among seven mayoral candidates competing in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary.
Lewis George told those attending the meet & greet, which was held on the JR.’s outdoor patio, that she has a long record of advocating for and initiating city polices and laws in support of the LGBTQ community. She said large corporate donors were backing her opponents and urged her LGBTQ supporters to help raise funds for her in the remaining days of the campaign.
Among those attending the meet & greet was gay longtime Dupont Circle civic activist Randy Downs who last November opened a nearby eatery called Protest Pizza. “I am queer and I am a Janeese supporter,” Downs told the Blade.
Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, who also spoke at the meet & greet event, said his group would organize events in support of Lewis George in the remaining days of the campaign. Among them, he said, was an LGBTQ bar crawl in which supporters of Lewis George, including the candidate herself, would visit LGBTQ bars to promote her candidacy.
Virginians for Marriage Equality on Monday launched a campaign in support of repealing Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman, former state Sen. Adam Ebbin, former state Del. Mark Sickles, and American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Executive Director Mary Bauer are among those who spoke at the launch that took place in Richmond. State Del. Kirk McPike (D-Alexandria), who co-chairs the campaign, also participated.
“This amendment is about making clear that the government has no business deciding which marriages or which families are worthy of recognition,” said Bauer. “The ACLU of Virginia has been fighting for Virginians’ right to marry who they love since the landmark case, Loving v. Virginia, which struck down the ban on interracial marriage. Now we are proud to carry that legacy forward by standing with our coalition partners in the fight to pass this amendment and finally enshrine the right to marriage equality in the commonwealth’s constitution.”
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is a Republican, in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger in February signed a bill that finalized the referendum’s language.
The referendum will take place on Nov. 3.
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