Arts & Entertainment
On the road again
DC2NY adds summer Delaware service
Company owners and life partners Asi Ohana and Richard Green of DC2NY bus service parked in downtown Rehoboth Beach. (Photo courtesy DC2NY)
Tens of thousands of travelers have already experienced the convenience of going back and forth between Washington, D.C. and New York, complete with WiFi, complementary water and a first-class experience thanks to the DC2NY bus company.
Company owners and life partners Asi Ohana and Richard Green operate with a mission to provide an upscale experience based on comfortable buses with clean restrooms from convenient locations.
“Small businesses, especially when owned by a couple who are life partners, sometimes make formal goals and sometimes make informal goals. Our short-term goals were to be profitable within the first year of business, and we were very fortunate that we were profitable within 90 days,” Green says. “We are currently carrying about 120,000 people a year and are definitely ahead of where we thought we would be.”
The genesis of the company dates back five years to when Israeli-born Ohana was working dispatching buses from D.C. to New York for Vamoose, and quickly learned the ins and outs of the bus business.
His career was moving up and soon, so was his love life. Ohana met Richard Green, a hospitality veteran working for Marriott, and they started dating. It didn’t take long for the two to decide to share a life together.
Taking what he had learned, Ohana wanted to start his own bus business, complete with a better payment system, guaranteed reservations and seat, providing a bottle of water to customers and most important, on-board internet access. He convinced Green to join him in his venture (Green has a 20 percent ownership share because he continues to work for Marriott full time) and the rest is history.
“Asi was the first to figure out how to put Internet on the busses and he knew that would differentiate the company,” Green says. “My thought was to give a little extra, which is why we started with the cold water given upon boarding.”
The Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission overwhelmingly supported DC2NY’s application for curbside pickup at Dupont Circle and in July 2007, Ohana and Green joined forces to start DC2NY, running routes between Washington, D.C. and New York City.
“We tend to be priced a little more than our nearest competition but that says that people are OK to expect a little more,” Green says. “We don’t let our clients touch their luggage once they put it on the curb, the drivers and dispatchers do it for you.”
The gay-owned company understands that the LGBT market is one of its niches—after all, its most popular stop is Dupont Circle—but to be a success it has catered to all people, young and old, different social classes, and multi-ethnicities.
“We are both gay, and like to think we’re the bus of choice for the community, but we don’t cater to it,” he says. “We had a bus in the Gay Pride Parade this year. We do sponsorship at certain events in Rehoboth, and put the brand forward for two dances that are fundraisers for Camp Rehoboth.”
The company has grown from three stops to a total of seven stops—one in New York, two in D.C., two in Virginia and two in the Delaware beach towns of Rehoboth and Dewey.
It started service to the Delaware beaches from D.C. a few years ago and just expanded service from New York City to Rehoboth. “The Beach Bus” runs from New York’s Penn Station to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware weekends beginning June 28 at 3:30 p.m., and includes one stop in Wilmington and drop-offs at the gay-popular Rehoboth and Dewey Beaches. Tickets are $45 each way from NYC.
“We’ve been doing the Rehoboth/D.C. route for four seasons and we started it because another company ran Rehobus, but stopped running it and we thought it made sense to pick up that opportunity to serve not only our gay clientele, but all people who want to go to the beach and not drive a car,” he says. “Our New York passengers started to request a bus that leaves out of New York, so we are running this as an experiment, and will run right up to Labor Day and see how we do.”
There will also be a stop at the Amtrak station in Wilmington to take advantage of the market in Philadelphia.
Separating their personal and business lives isn’t always easy, but Ohana and Green have found a way to make both a success.
“It’s fun to build something together with your life partner. Our board meetings often happen at the dining room table,” Green says. “We work off-hours, weekends, driving to the beach, vacationing. It’s hard to put boundaries around that. I look at it as I don’t have to put all my eggs in the small business basket and the rewards feed my entrepreneurial spirit.”
New routes that may happen in the next year include journeys from D.C. to Philadelphia and Boston and one from Baltimore to New York.
a&e features
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
Loraine Hutchins remembered as a ‘force of nature’
The Montgomery County Pride Center will host a celebration honoring the life and legacy of Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., on May 2. People are invited to attend the onsite memorial or a livestream event. The on-site event will begin at 10 a.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer before moving into a memorial service around the theme “Loraine a Force of Nature!” at 11 a.m., a panel talk at 12 p.m., break out sessions for artists, academics, and activists to build on her legacy at 1 p.m. and a closing reception at 2 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to register for the on-site memorial gathering or the livestreamed memorial. The goal of this event is also to collect stories and memories of Loraine. Attendees and others can share their stories at padlet.com.
An obituary for Hutchins was published in the Bladelast Nov. 24, where people can learn more about her activism in the bisexual community. A private service for friends and family was held in December but this memorial service is open to all.
Alongside her groundbreaking work organizing for U.S. bisexual rights and liberation including co-editing “Bi Any Other Name: BIsexual People Speak Out” (1991), she also integrated faith into her sexual education and advocacy work. Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, “Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends,” offered a pointed queer and feminist analysis to sex-neutral and sex-positive spiritual traditions in the United States. Her thesis was also groundbreaking in exploring the intersections between sex workers and those in caregiving professionals, including spiritual ones.
In an oral history interview conducted by Michelle Mueller back in August 2023, Hutchins described herself as a “priestess without a congregation.” While she has occasionally had a sense of community and feels part of a group of loving people, she admitted that “I don’t feel like we have the shape or the purpose that we need.”
“I’ve often experienced being the Cassandra in the room, the Cassandra in the community. Somebody who’s kind of way out there ahead, thinking through the strategic action points that my community hasn’t gotten to yet, and getting a lot of resistance and hostile responses from people who are frightened by dissent and conflict and not ready for the changes we have to make to survive,” she said.
“For somebody who’s bisexual in an out political way and who’s been a spokesperson for the polyamory movement in an out political way, it’s very exposing. And it’s very important to me to be able to try to explain and help other people understand the connection between spirituality and sexuality,” she explained citing how even as a graduate student she was “exploring how to feel erotic and spiritual, and not feel them in conflict with each other in my own spiritual contemplative life and my own sensual body awareness of being alive in the world.”
“Every religion has a sense of sacred sexuality. It’s just they put a lot of boundaries and regulations on it, and if we have a spiritual practice that is totally affirming of women’s priesthood and of gay people, queer people’s ability to minister to everyone and to be ministered to be everyone, what does that do to the gender of God, or our understanding of how we practice our spirituality and our sexuality in community and privately?”
“There’s no easy answer,” she concludes, and she continued to grapple with these questions throughout her life, co-editing another seminal text, “Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual, and Polysexual Perspectives,” published in 2012. Her work blending spiritual and queer liberation remains groundbreaking to this day.
Rev. Eric Eldritch, a local community organizer and ordained Pagan minister with Circle Sanctuary who has worked for decades with the DC Center’s Center Faith to organize the Pride Interfaith Service, is eager to highlight this element of her legacy at the memorial service next month.
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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I don’t see the point in a relationship
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
