Local

Nightlife advocate Skip Coburn dies at 70

Veteran was executive director of D.C. Nightlife Association

Published

11 years ago

March 25, 2015

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Skip Coburn (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Dick Edward “Skip” Coburn, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who worked for the past 12 years as executive director of the D.C. Nightlife Association where he’s credited with improving relations between bar and nightclub owners and regulators who oversee the city’s booming nightlife businesses, died March 18 at Howard University Hospital. He was 70.

His close friend Marge Francese said the cause of death was complications associated with double pneumonia.

“It is a loss for the city,” said Francese. “He would help anyone in the world. There was nobody I knew who would help so many people.”

Frederick Harwood, founder and president of the D.C. Nightlife Association, said Coburn’s desire to help people and the city he loved prompted him to bring about dramatic change for the better in the way bars and nightclubs interact with the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, D.C. police, and citizens who live near nightlife businesses.

“It’s a devastating loss for nightlife in Washington,” Harwood said. “He was such an advocate, and an advocate in the best sense that he developed relationships on both sides. He was a neighborhood activist.”

“He went out of his way to develop a relationship with the chief of police, with many of the police commanders, with the Fire Department, and with the building inspectors,” Harwood said. “He was so dedicated to his job. People understood how committed he was to nightlife.”

Added Harwood: “The whole atmosphere has changed because of the work that Skip did to bring the regulatory authorities and the police and the owners together to understand each other’s needs.”

Coburn, who identified as bisexual, was born in Richmond, Va., but grew up on military bases in the U.S. and Europe as the child of a military family, Francese said.

A resume Coburn prepared shortly before his death says he graduated from the Paris-American High School in Paris in 1964 and received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Colorado in 1967.

The resume says he entered the U.S. Air Force in 1967 as a commissioned second lieutenant and was stationed in multiple locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia until the time of his retirement in 1990 as a lieutenant colonel.

A biographical write-up of his military career says he flew airborne reconnaissance missions during the Vietnam War, served as an instructor and manager at the Defense Intelligence College at Bolling Air Force Base in D.C., and later was assigned to the Pentagon.

After retiring from active duty service Coburn served as a civilian operations officer for the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Squadron at Bolling Air Force Base from 1990 to 1998, his career write-up says.

Francese said Coburn joined the staff of then-D.C. Councilmember Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 8) in 1998, where he served as a researcher until the time of Ambrose’s retirement in 2002.

Harwood said Coburn’s impact on the city’s nightlife scene began shortly after he started in his job as executive director of the D.C. Nightlife Association in 2002. Others who knew Coburn said he provided important advice and assistance to the city’s gay bars and nightclubs on regulatory matters.

“The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Skip Coburn,” said ABRA Director Fred Moosally in a statement to the Washington Blade. “Skip was passionate about nightlife issues in the District. He played a significant role in representing the nightlife community before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and was dedicated to helping promote public safety in the District.”

Local nightlife advocate and business columnist Mark Lee called Coburn a “tireless and dedicated advocate” for D.C. nightlife as well as for community businesses.

“As the hospitality industry became even more important to the economic and development success of D.C. and enjoyed growing support from both longtime residents and new arrivals, he helped city officials understand how critical it is to create a better business environment,” Lee said.

Francese said Coburn’s brother, Dale Coburn, arranged for Skip Coburn’s remains to be cremated, with his ashes to be interred at his parents’ gravesite in Orcus Island off the coast of Washington State.

A Requiem Mass for Coburn has been scheduled to be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, May 2, at St. Mary Mother of God Roman Catholic Church, 727 5th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

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Virginia

Gay Va. State Sen. Ebbin resigns for role in Spanberger administration

Veteran lawmaker will step down in February

Published

9 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin will step down effective Feb. 18. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Alexandria Democrat Adam Ebbin, who has served as an openly gay member of the Virginia Legislature since 2004, announced on Jan. 7 that he is resigning from his seat in the State Senate to take a job in the administration of Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger.

Since 2012, Ebbin has been a member of the Virginia Senate for the 39^th District representing parts of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax counties. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria from 2004 to 2012, becoming the state’s first out gay lawmaker.

His announcement says he submitted his resignation from his Senate position effective Feb. 18 to join the Spanberger administration as a senior adviser at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.

“I’m grateful to have the benefit of Senator Ebbin’s policy expertise continuing to serve the people of Virginia, and I look forward to working with him to prioritize public safety and public health,” Spanberger said in Ebbin’s announcement statement.

She was referring to the lead role Ebbin has played in the Virginia Legislature’s approval in 2020 of legislation decriminalizing marijuana and the subsequent approval in 2021of a bill legalizing recreational use and possession of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. But the Virginia Legislature has yet to pass legislation facilitating the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use and limits sales to purchases at licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I share Governor-elect Spanberger’s goal that adults 21 and over who choose to use cannabis, and those who use it for medical treatment, have access to a well-tested, accurately labeled product, free from contamination,” Ebbin said in his statement. “2026 is the year we will move cannabis sales off the street corner and behind the age-verified counter,” he said.

Maryland

Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat, to retire from Congress

Md. congressman served for years in party leadership

Published

10 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Baltimore Banner

At 86, Steny Hoyer is the latest in a generation of senior-most leaders stepping aside, making way for a new era of lawmakers eager to take on governing. (Photo by KT Kanazawich for the Baltimore Banner)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and LISA MASCARO | Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and once a rival to become House speaker, will announce Thursday he is set to retire at the end of his term.

Hoyer, who served for years in party leadership and helped steer Democrats through some of their most significant legislative victories, is set to deliver a House floor speech about his decision, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

“Tune in,” Hoyer said on social media. He confirmed his retirement plans in an interview with the Washington Post.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

District of Columbia

Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash

Artists who cancel shows threatened; calls for funding boycott grow

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, threatened to sue a performer who canceled a holiday show. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to add President Trump’s name to the D.C. arts institution continue to spark backlash.

A new petition from Qommittee , a national network of drag artists and allies led by survivors of hate crimes, calls on Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding to the center until “artistic independence is restored, and to redirect support to banned or censored artists.”

“While Trump won’t back down, the donors who contribute nearly $100 million annually to the Kennedy Center can afford to take a stand,” the petition reads. “Money talks. When donors fund censorship, they don’t just harm one institution – they tell marginalized communities their stories don’t deserve to be told.”

The petition can be found here.

Meanwhile, a decision by several prominent musicians and jazz performers to cancel their shows at the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center in D.C. planned for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve has drawn the ire of the Center’s president, Richard Grenell.

Grenell, a gay supporter of President Donald Trump who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term as president, was named Kennedy Center president last year by its board of directors that had been appointed by Trump.

Last month the board voted to change the official name of the center from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. The revised name has been installed on the outside wall of the center’s building but is not official because any name change would require congressional action.

According to a report by the New York Times, Grenell informed jazz musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a 2025 Christmas Eve concert that he has hosted at the Kennedy Center for nearly 20 years in response to the name change, that Grenell planned to arrange for the center to file a lawsuit against him for the cancellation.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution,” the Times quoted Grenell as saying in a letter to Redd.

“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” the Times quoted Grenell’s letter as saying.

A spokesperson for the Trump-Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Washington Blade asking if the center still planned to file that lawsuit and whether it planned to file suits against some of the other musicians who recently cancelled their performances following the name change.

In a follow-up story published on Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that a prominent jazz ensemble and a New York dance company had canceled performances scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.

The Times reported the jazz ensemble called The Cookers did not give a reason for the cancellation in a statement it released, but its drummer, Billy Hart, told the Times the center’s name change “evidently” played a role in the decision to cancel the performance.

Grenell released a statement on Dec. 29 calling these and other performers who cancelled their shows “far left political activists” who he said had been booked by the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership.

“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” the Times quoted him as saying in his statement.