Local
Team DC assists youth with scholarships
Seeks to encourage inclusion, empower athletes
One of Team DC’s scholarship recipients, Sarah Kerndt (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Team DC, the Washington area’s largest LGBT athletics organization, has a mission beyond organizing sports leagues and events for D.C.’s LGBT community. With its student-athlete scholarships, handed out annually to four to six outstanding LGBT athletes in the region, Team DC helps empower gay youth and encourage inclusion.
“By doing things like [the scholarships], I think we help push the conversation forward to be inclusive of LGBT athletes, and LGBT athletes themselves know they are supported and not alone,” said Brent Minor, executive director of Team D.C. “The scholarship program has given us more to be about than just organizing participation in the Gay Games. This helps to establish a stronger and a fuller identity for Team DC”
Team DC’s scholarships provide up to $2,000 for graduating high school seniors who reside in the D.C. metropolitan area and identify as LGBT. Recipients are chosen based not only on athletic success, but also on academic excellence and their promise of serving as positive role models for other LGBT youth.
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A diverse committee of educators and parents of LGBT student-athlete college graduates decide which students in the area fulfill the scholarship’s criteria. Although the scholarships are exclusively for LGBT youth, Team DC does not require the recipients to publicly disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“People think all gay youths are coming out now, but that’s definitely not true,” Minor says. “This program is not outing anybody at all. We’re happy to respect their desire to not be out. It adds extra difficulty to talk about not just openly gay students, but openly gay athletes.”
Team DC awarded four local LGBT student-athletes scholarships this year, including Laura Ventura and Sarah Kerndt.
Laura Ventura (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Ventura, a Silver Spring, Md., native who identifies as pansexual, received the Team D.C. scholarship for her talent as a rower on the crew team at Walter Johnson High School where she recently graduated. Ventura had positive experiences being out to her teammates, despite sometimes having to explain what pansexuality — attraction to people of all gender identities and biological sexes — is.
“A lot of people on my team were extremely accepting, or somewhere on the LGBT spectrum themselves. I had to explain [pansexuality], but after the initial explanation that was it,” Ventura says. “My team is a very close-knit team, where we call each other family.”
Ventura was heavily involved with raising awareness of LGBT issues at Walter Johnson, particularly as the president of the school’s Queer-Straight Alliance.
“We did a lot of events,” she says. “We went to D.C. Pride together, saw a lot of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington shows and did Day of Silence. We did a lot of events not just with the club, but with the whole school. I was really excited to win the scholarship because I felt like I had done a lot for my school in trying to gain awareness — on my team and at the school in general. It shows that what I’ve done to teach acceptance has been appreciated by the scholarship committee.”
Ventura is studying nursing at Pace University in New York City next year, which does not have a rowing team. She plans to row for outside clubs in the city.
Sarah Kerndt is a lesbian from Springfield, Va., who graduated earlier this year from West Springfield High School. Team DC awarded her with a scholarship for her gift as a forward on her high school’s basketball team and as a lacrosse goalie. Like Ventura, she largely had positive experiences being out on both teams and was able to confront teammates who made homophobic remarks.
“There were only a couple of incidents where somebody made a remark like ‘That’s so gay.’ I felt comfortable enough around my teammates to approach them about it,” Kerndt says. “I had other teammates who would support me.”
Basketball had always been Kerndt’s sport, but during her junior year she picked up lacrosse. Next year she starts her college career at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., and plans to play for the school’s lacrosse team rather than continuing basketball.
Kerndt was initially waitlisted by Christopher Newport, which was her top-choice, but a chat between her high school lacrosse coach and the university’s lacrosse coach helped to expedite a decision. She wants to play college lacrosse not only because she loves the sport, but also to honor her coach who helped her out.
“I started applying to colleges, and from Christopher Newport I actually got waitlisted. My coach told me she knew the lacrosse coach there, and she told me she could probably get me off the waitlist and she did,” Kerndt says. “I definitely love lacrosse, but I also want to play it for my coach who helped me out.”
Kerndt was ecstatic to win the Team DC scholarship because she says it demonstrates the support LGBT students can find from their community and allows her to tell younger students about this support.
“My first reaction was freaking out over it, because I guess, it’s amazing to see that there are scholarships like Team DC out there,” Kerndt says. “There is a strong LGBT community out there to support everybody, including athletes. I was really honored to be accepted for this — who wouldn’t be?”
Kerndt’s sense of responsibility in educating others and setting a good example is precisely the goal of the Team DC scholarship program.
“Coaches and administrators are often unaware that gays and lesbians play sports, or that that’s even an issue. Sports are one of the last bastions where LGBT participation is not particularly encouraged,” Minor says. “The core mission of Team DC is how to dispel stereotypes. It’s about educating people about the LGBT community and offering more opportunities to play sports.”
Applications for the 2014 Team DC scholarships will start being accepted on Sept. 1. Visit teamdc.org for more information, or to apply for or donate to the Team D.C. scholarship program.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
District of Columbia
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Darren Pasha accused of stalking organization staff, board members, volunteers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb.18 agreed to rescind his earlier ruling declaring local gay activist Darren Pasha in default for failing to attend a virtual court hearing regarding an anti-stalking lawsuit brought against him by the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events.
The Capital Pride lawsuit, initially filed on Oct. 27, 2025, accuses Pasha of engaging in a year-long “course of conduct” of “harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior” targeting Capital Pride staff, board members, and volunteers.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
Judge Robert D. Okum nevertheless on Feb. 6 approved a temporary stay-away order requiring Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, volunteers, and board members until the time of a follow-up court hearing scheduled for April 17. He reduced the stay-away distance from 200 yards as requested by Capital Pride.
In his two-page order issued on Feb. 18, Okun stated that Pasha explained that he was involved in a scooter accident in which he was injured and his phone was damaged, preventing him from joining the Feb. 6 court hearing.
“Therefore, the court finds there is a good cause for vacating the default,” Okun states in his order.
At the time he initially approved the default order at the Feb. 6 hearing that Pasha didn’t attend, Okun scheduled an April 17 ex parte proof hearing in which Capital Pride could have requested a ruling in its favor seeking a permanent anti-stalking order against Pasha.
In his Feb. 18 ruling rescinding the default order Okun changed the April 17 ex parte proof hearing to an initial scheduling conference hearing in which a decision on the outcome of the case is not likely to happen.
In addition, he agreed to consider Pasha’s call for a jury trial and gave Capital Pride 14 days to contest that request. The Capital Pride lawsuit initially called for a non-jury trial by judge.
One request by Pasha that Okum denied was a call for him to order Capital Pride to stop its staff or volunteers from posting information about the lawsuit on social media. Pasha has said the D.C.-based online blog called DC Homos, which Pasha claims is operated by someone associated with Capital Pride, has been posting articles portraying him in a negative light and subjecting him to highly negative publicity.
“The defendant has not set forth a sufficient basis for the court to restrict the plaintiff’s social media postings, and the court therefore will deny the defendant’s request in his social media praecipe,” Okun states in his order.
A praecipe is a formal written document requesting action by a court.
Pasha called the order a positive development in his favor. He said he plans to file another motion with more information about what he calls the unfair and defamatory reports about him related to the lawsuit by DC Homos, with a call for the judge to reverse his decision not to order Capital Pride to stop social media postings about the lawsuit.
Pasha points to a video interview on the LGBTQ Team Rayceen broadcast, a link to which he sent to the Washington Blade, in which DC Homos operator Jose Romero acknowledged his association with Capital Pride Alliance.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos didn’t immediately respond to a message from the Blade asking whether Romero was a volunteer or employee with Capital Pride.
Pasha also said he believes the latest order has the effect of rescinding the temporary stay away order against him approved by Okun in his earlier ruling, even though Okun makes no mention of the stay away order in his latest ruling. Capital Pride attorney Nick Harrison told the Blade the stay away order “remains in full force and effect.”
Harrison said Capital Pride has no further comment on the lawsuit.
District of Columbia
Trans activists arrested outside HHS headquarters in D.C.
Protesters demonstrated directive against gender-affirming care
Authorities on Tuesday arrested 24 activists outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in D.C.
The Gender Liberation Movement, a national organization that uses direct action, media engagement, and policy advocacy to defend bodily autonomy and self-determination, organized the protest in which more than 50 activists participated. Organizers said the action was a response to changes in federal policy mandated by Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
The order directs federal agencies and programs to work toward “significantly limiting youth access to gender-affirming care nationwide,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides independent, fact-based information on national health issues. The executive order also includes claims about gender-affirming care and transgender youth that critics have described as misinformation.
Members of ACT UP NY and ACT UP Pittsburgh also participated in the demonstration, which took place on the final day of the public comment period for proposed federal rules that would restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Demonstrators blocked the building’s main entrance, holding a banner reading “HANDS OFF OUR ‘MONES,” while chanting, “HHS—RFK—TRANS YOUTH ARE NO DEBATE” and “NO HATE—NO FEAR—TRANS YOUTH ARE WELCOME HERE.”
“We want trans youth and their loving families to know that we see them, we cherish them, and we won’t let these attacks go on without a fight,” said GLM co-founder Raquel Willis. “We also want all Americans to understand that Trump, RFK, and their HHS won’t stop at trying to block care for trans youth — they’re coming for trans adults, for those who need treatment from insulin to SSRIs, and all those already failed by a broken health insurance system.”
“It is shameful and intentional that this administration is pitting communities against one another by weaponizing Medicaid funding to strip care from trans youth. This has nothing to do with protecting health and everything to do with political distraction,” added GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz. “They are targeting young people to deflect from their failure to deliver for working families across the country. Instead of restricting care, we should be expanding it. Healthcare is a human right, and it must be accessible to every person — without cost or exception.”
Despite HHS’s efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth, major medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society — continue to regard such care as evidence-based treatment. Gender-affirming care can include psychotherapy, social support, and, when clinically appropriate, puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
The protest comes amid broader shifts in access to care nationwide.
NYU Langone Health recently announced it will stop providing transition-related medical care to minors and will no longer accept new patients into its Transgender Youth Health Program following President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting trans healthcare.
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