D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced on July 15 that the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences will pay $316,413 to the District as part of a settlement of civil allegations that it engaged in an illegal kickback scheme with doctors to promote and sell its HIV medication.

A statement released by Schwalb says Gilead allegedly violated D.C. and federal false claims laws “by paying doctors and other healthcare providers to promote and prescribe its suite of HIV medications over those marketed by its competitors.”

The statement adds, “Because the resulting insurance claims filed with the District’s Medicaid program were induced by kickbacks, they violated the District’s False Claims Act ((FCA).”

Gilead’s $316,413 payment to D.C. is part of a total of $202 million the drug company agreed to pay in April of this year to 46 states and the District to settle a lawsuit initially filed against it in 2016 over illegal kickback allegations.

“For years, Gilead Sciences illegally boosted sales by paying lavish kickbacks to doctors, and in so doing, cheated both District patients and taxpayers,” Schwalb said in his statement.

“Gilead develops, manufacturers, and sells medications for the treatment of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS,” the statement continues. “A federal and multistate investigation revealed that between 2011 and 2017, Gilead administered a kickback program for its suite of HIV medications whereby 548 healthcare providers received over $23.7 million in honoraria payments, in addition to extravagant meals and paid travel expenses,” the statement says.

It says these payments were part of Gilead’s “HIV Speaker Programs” intended to entice the doctors to prescribe Gilead’s drugs. “Throughout this period, Gilead caused claims for payment for its HIV medication – induced by the illegal kickbacks – to be submitted to the District’s Medicaid program,” Schwalb’s statement says.

In a statement at the time of the settlement in April, Gilead said it “entered into this agreement to avoid the cost and distraction of potential litigation regarding this legacy compliance matter.”

The statement adds, “Gilead’s speaker programs have served to educate healthcare professionals about the appropriate use and benefits of these important medications … Gilead’s therapies have transformed the treatment paradigm for HIV, and Gilead will continue to drive innovation to meet patients’ needs.”

While under criticism for the alleged  kickback scheme, Gilead received favorable news coverage in June when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new HIV prevention medication developed by Gilead called lenacapavir that needs to be taken by injection once every six months.

Public health experts and AIDS activists called the new HIV prevention, or PrEP, drug, which testing showed to be greater than 99 percent effective in preventing HIV infection, a major advancement in the years-long effort to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and worldwide. 

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected]. 

The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success. 

Congratulations to Ted Lewis M.ED. on being named executive director of Rainbow Families. On their appointment they said, “Right now, when we are facing tremendous opposition to our very existence, is the time to build up our community and our community resources. LGBTQ+ families are innovative, supportive, loving, and resilient and we will need all those tools and more in this moment. My hope as Rainbow Families’ Executive Director is to expand our membership and welcome the vast community resources, expertise, and lived experiences to support new family formation and new parents. I hope to bring education, advocacy and support to LGBTQ+ families, parents, and prospective parents when we are worried about our rights disappearing. I’m also excited to join the joyous and thriving community at Rainbow Families and expand on fun events that bring families together from our weekend camping trip, to picking pumpkins at Cox Farms, and dancing at family parties. It is within a beloved community that we can both prepare for challenges ahead and celebrate our fabulousness together.”

Prior to this, Lewis served as director of Youth Well-Being for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Lewis served as project manager for Project THRIVE, a multi-year campaign with 30+ national organizations committed to the thriving of LGBTQ youth resulting in industry specific resources and professional development on LGBTQ best practices. Lewis was also founder and CEO of Ted Lewis Consulting, advising K-12 school districts, Fortune 500 companies, higher education institutions, and non-profits on LGBTQ inclusive practices. They also served as assistant director for Sexual/Gender Diversity, UNC Charlotte, responsible for LGBTQ student programming as well as Men’s & Women’s programming for the institution. Lewis has presented on numerous panels including: “Othermuvas: How Black LGBTQ+ Chosen Families Provide Support to Black LGBTQ+ Youth” National Mentoring Summit, 2025; “Addressing the Issues of LGBTQ+ Cultural Competency, Parity and Inconsistency” Richmond Bench-Bar Conference, 2019; and “The Unmasking: Race & Reality in Richmond” Richmond Magazine Panel, 2017. Lewis was named in Style Weekly’s 40 Under 40, in 2018; and received the VA Pride Firework Award in 2019.

Lewis earned a bachelor’s degree in English and History, University of Mary Washington; Master of Education, University of South Carolina, and an Education Master Certificate in Women & Gender Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. 

Gay nightlife in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro and other cities with great tourist, is going through a difficult time. If in the past there were countless LGBTQ nightclubs scattered around the city, with the vast majority of them in Copacabana, today there are no more than six in the area. 

The emergence of the internet and later dating apps made it possible to meet someone through a small screen without having to go to a nightclub. But it wasn’t just the digital world that had an influence on this; several other issues also contributed to the decline of Brazilian gay nightlife. To better understand this new scenario, the Washington Blade spoke to veteran artists from Brazil’s LGBTQ scene to understand the roots of this complex enigma.

The cost of maintaining a nightclub involves high and fixed expenses, such as rent, staff for various functions, attractions, and other bills, when financial return was guaranteed in the past, but not today. Brazil’s gay nightlife, especially in Rio, hasn’t gone extinct, it’s still resisting, but competing with new trends: sex parties. In recent years, they have become more and more frequent in the “Cidade Maravilhosa” or the “Marvelous City” as Rio is known and their main focus is group sex.

Spread between the city’s South and Central Zones, they take place on regular dates, in fixed or itinerant locations, such as saunas and old mansions. They are always on a differentiated schedule that can involve go-go boys, open bars, and other attractions.

It’s impossible to talk about the success of these spicy parties without having a look at gay nightlife in the past; and the changes that took place during the 1990s and 2000s, when the internet was just becoming popular and a new generation was being born. If in the past, gay nightclubs were a place to dance, drink, flirt, and maybe end the night with someone, these stages have been skipped for something much more immediate.

MachoMan, one of Rio’s most famous sex parties, brings together a male audience of around 130 participants at each edition. The event has grown and is currently held in three different places: a mansion, a sauna, and a bar. Over the seven years of its existence, the party’s creator, Maurício Code, estimates that 25,000 men have been there. Asked about the popularity of adult parties in parallel with the decline of nightclubs, he replied: “In times of immediacy when it comes to libido, many people want to skip the flirting phase and get straight to the point. Less talk and more action is the premise of the new times.” 

For the organizer, there are guarantees at a carnal party, which can be uncertain at a nightclub. 

“At sex parties, the guarantee of some sexual interaction is a certainty,” he says.

MachoMan has had upwards of 220 parties. Some of them offer an open bar, changing rooms, showers, a steam room, and even places for BDSM and other fetishes. Unlike the nightclubs that had darkrooms for anonymous pleasure in the dark, the pleasure at these parties is collective and in front of everyone.

Another issue to be considered is that the cost of these sex parties is lower than that of nightclubs; since the events take place on specific dates, the professionals involved (bartenders, DJs, cleaners, go-go boys, bodyguards, etc.) are hired just for that occasion. The rented space can host other events — straight or gay — on other dates — with our without erotic appeal. Because they don’t take place on specific days, this also creates an expectation among the audience for the next party..

In fact, the only obstacle to these libidinous parties is competition. 

There are currently dozens taking place almost simultaneously in Rio and other cities. The schedule varies little, but they always have beautiful naked men with bodies sculpted in the gym entering a male audience eager for pleasure. Raphael Habbib is one of them.

Although he is Brazilian, he has Arab features and is one of the most sought-after go-go boys, appearing at many libertine parties with his sensual performances. For him, the phenomenon of erotic parties is associated with a change in behavior.

“The gay audience has changed, we are now more willing to experience sexuality in a more genuine way, exploring all forms of enjoyment,” said Habbib. 

Regarding the collapse of nightclubs, he reflects: “Sex parties have a nightclub atmosphere, music, booze, and lots of sex with no compromise, in other words, they have everything that nightclubs used to have and more.”

A portrait of the past gay scene

In the 1980s and 1990s in Brazil; nightlife was a meeting of tribes, of subcultures, each occupying their own space and, above all, expressing their sexuality after a full day of repression at work. In this sense, nightlife was a place to let loose, enjoy, drink, and interact, even if the hangover came the next day. The big urban centers had endless nights, streets full until dawn, and pleasant encounters came about by chance. There has been a transformation that not only involves the rise of the internet, but also economic crisis and violence. Nightlife is quieter, and there is no single culprit.

However, since the 2000s, the LGBTQ nightlife scene has been changing by leaps and bounds. Nightlife entrepreneurs have had to reinvent themselves as their audiences have migrated elsewhere; and some, even though they were looking for innovation, ended up closing their doors a few years later. 

Veteran drag queen Eula Rochard has been on stage since 1984 and has followed all these changes closely. For her, the advance of LGBTQ policies in Brazil since the late 1990s has caused the gay community to spread to other places where they were not welcome before.

While in terms of rights it was progress, on the other hand, there was a move away from gay “ghettos.”

“People who used to hide from home to go to nightclubs no longer hide,” said Rochard. “In the 1980s, everything was hidden, the nightclubs were ghettos, there were several at the time, the fees were bad, but there was a lot of work. I traveled the country.” 

Rochard, however, recognizes the importance of these policies. 

“That was great, because in my time people were killed and nothing happened (impunity), but businessmen no longer wanted to invest in nightclubs, if a gay person could go or kiss anywhere, so the nightlife for us gays has weakened a lot, it’s almost non-existent,” she said.

Rochard in 2023 made international headlines when she revealed that former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was once a drag queen known as Kitara Ravache who performed in Rio and in the nearby city of Niterói, 

Trans artist Angelika Rawaxi shares the same opinion.

“Nowadays we have the chance to go to other places, we have laws in our favor, and we don’t have to be in ghettos anymore,” said Rawaxi. “What has contributed is the freedom we’ve been given to go to other places and expand our work.” 

Both don’t believe that the internet has harmed gay nightlife, on the contrary. In terms of relationships, however, the online world has presented a problem.

“People used to go to gay clubs to kiss, to find a boyfriend, and that’s over,” lamented Rawaxi. “Today gay people go to dating apps, no one meets by looking, by touching, by dancing to a song like they used to.” 

The now-closed Le Boy was Rio’s most popular gay nightclub. 

The 1970s inspired its decor, with mirrored globes, sofas, and a Studio 54 vibe. Calvin Klein, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Rupert Everett, Rihanna, and Katy Perry are among the celebrities who were seen at Le Boy. It remained open from 1992-2016, but succumbed to the economic crisis and its French owner put the property up for sale after 24 years. Another gay nightclub opened in the same place in 2024, and it is one of the few remaining in Copacabana.

As the LGBTQ establishments closed their doors, the drag queens and crossdressers who used to perform on stage had to look for other ways. 

Businessman Júnior Barbosa, owner of Rio’s most notorious gay sauna, was a pioneer when he hired these artists to perform at his establishment in Copacabana. The initiative represented a new field of work for those who depended on LGBTQ nightclubs. Others, like drag queen Gabrielly Rodin, were able to reinvent themselves and migrated to straight parties and other events. 

“I went to other venues, and I always had acceptance and financial return,” Rodin told the Blade.

Rodin attributes the decline of LGBTQ nightlife to the replacement of drag queens by DJs, and to the open bar that devalued the artists, as if the crowd were more interested in drinking than enjoying a performance.

LGBTQ nightlife decline is not unique to Brazil

Germany since the 1990s has seen the same transition as Brazil. 

“Clubsterben” is a German expression that means “death of nightclub culture,” especially in Berlin, a previous oasis of the techno scene. 

The Wilde Renate, a nightclub in a poorly maintained building, will close at the end of the year, while the Watergate closed its doors at the end of 2024 after 22 years. A report carried out in November by an organization representing Berlin’s clubs revealed that half of the 250 or so nightclubs in the German capital are at risk of closing their doors this year. Berlin’s nightlife is not at its best, and the rest of the world in general. 

The Guardian reported there were 1,700 nightclubs in the U.K. in 2013; 11 years later there were only 787 left. 

Another noticeable change in Brazil has been the open bar, which has increased the cost of entry, coupled with the country’s economic instability. Therefore, the death of the Berlin or Rio nightclubs is not an isolated situation, but a reality in the ever-changing world, as well as a generational change.

Against the backdrop of the Brazilian crisis, La Cueva nightclub is an exception. 

It has been in business since 1964 and is Latin America’s oldest gay club. The underground nightclub in Copacabana has withstood the dictatorship of the 1960s and 1970s, the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, the economic crises of the 1990s. Its longevity may be associated with its strictly mature audience (on average over 55) who still prefer eye-to-eye contact and dancing to flashbacks, and are probably not so adept at virtual media.

What is the gay scene’s future?

For many, the night has lost its shine, it has become empty. Interaction between people seems to have lost a bit of its meaning. They’re not disconnected from the virtual world, even when they are with friends in bars. They’re always with their eyes fixed on their cell phone, sometimes forgetting about the real world. Going to a club in the hope of not only dancing, but also meeting someone interesting, having a relationship, and perhaps a night of sex, has become too slow-paced.

“What is the future of the gay nightlife scene for drag queens and trans women, who in the past performed several times a night in nightclubs? Opinions differ. 

“The future of LGBTQ+ artists in Rio is tragic, nowadays, we’re working for very low fees, because many are doing shows for free,” complains Rawaxi. 

Rodin is more confident. 

“Today we can occupy all spaces and not just the ‘ghettos,’ we are renewing ourselves, being seen by everyone, we can’t just accept the bubble that society forces us to live in,” they said. 

Rochard doesn’t have the same optimism.

 “I don’t see a future in Brazil as far as nightlife is concerned, the clubs need to reinvent themselves, they won’t cease to exist; but they won’t be the same as in the past, but our drag queen culture will never end,” she said.