Local
Blue Moon owners to wed
Rehoboth’s Tim Ragan and Randy Haney met in 1979
Tim Ragan and Randy Haney, co-owners of the Blue Moon in Rehoboth Beach, will wed on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of the couple)
Tim Ragan and Randy Haney, co-owners of the popular Blue Moon restaurant and bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del., are to be married on Saturday, May 9, at the Nassau Valley Vineyards in nearby Lewes.
Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, is to officiate. About 275 guests, including family members and friends, are expected to attend the ceremony and a reception in a banquet hall on the grounds of the vineyard.
Ragan, 59, and Haney, 57, met in 1979 when Ragan worked as an administrator and Haney was a student at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Md., where the two lived.
“We’ve been together ever since,” Ragan said. “So it’s as much a celebration of the past as it is of the future.”
Haney, who received a degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting, began his career in finance for car dealerships in the Salisbury area. Ragan left his job at the college to start a printing business in the same area, and Haney soon became co-owner of that business.
The two began their association with the Blue Moon in the 1980s when Joyce Felton, one of its first owners, retained Ragan and Haney’s printing company to do various projects for the restaurant, including the printing of menus and display advertising.
According to Ragan, he and Haney later joined the staff of the Blue Moon, where they met chef Lion Gardner and his wife Meghan Gardner, who also worked there. Ragan said it was at a time when he and Haney – who had vacationed in the Rehoboth-Lewes area for years – decided they wanted to move to that area and enter into semi-retirement.
But instead of retiring, the two became full-time employees of the Blue Moon, Ragan said.
Around 2008, after he and Haney had become good friends with Lion and Meghan Gardner, the two couples decided to take steps to open their own restaurant.
“We enjoyed working together so much that we were going to open our own business,” Ragan said. “And then Joyce decided she didn’t want to do it anymore and offered to sell it to us.”
As part of their business partnership, Haney serves in the role of comptroller handling the finances and number crunching, a write-up on the Blue Moon’s website says. Ragan, among other things, oversees promotion as well as the booking of the popular entertainers that the Blue Moon has become known for hosting.
Lion Gardner serves as executive chef, with wife Meghan operating the Blue Moon’s bustling catering business, which includes catering for weddings.
Ragan said he and Haney currently live in Lewes in a home they recently had built next to a pond.
“We have four dogs and plenty of room for them to play,” said Ragan, in reflecting on their many years as life partners and business partners. “So for almost our entire time together we have not only worked together but lived together – and stayed together.”
The couple has asked that guests make a contribution to one or each of three charities in lieu of a wedding gift — CAMP Rehoboth, Jusst Soup Ministries, and Delaware Humane Association — through this site: http://www.idofoundation.org/TimAndRandy.
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Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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