a&e features
QUEERY: Deacon Maccubbin
The founder of D.C.’s Pride celebration answers 20 gay questions
Deacon Maccubbin (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
It’s not unusual to see Deacon Maccubbin at Capital Pride events but it will be even easier to spot him this year. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the event he founded in 1975, he will serve as grand marshal of the parade Saturday along with actor Wilson Cruz.
Maccubbin, who owned the Lambda Rising bookstore that closed in 2010 says the two ventures — Pride and the shop — were heavily intertwined.
“Lambda Rising was never envisioned as a money-making enterprise. If someone had told me you could make a profit selling gay books back then, I would have laughed,” says the 72-year-old Norfolk, Va., native. “But, in fact, Lambda Rising did well enough to grow and expand, to move into larger and larger quarters and, eventually, to have stores in five states and online, as well as a major mail order component shipping LGBT books and rainbow flags around the world. Lambda Rising was never just a business. It served as a de facto community center back before D.C. had one and was a huge stimulus for the visibility of the LGBT community.”
He says the first D.C. Pride event, a one-day community block party-type event on 20th Street, N.W., looked a lot different then.
“That first Pride drew 2,000 people. By the fifth year, it was 10,000 people and had outgrown the space we had for it, so we turned it over to a non-profit which moved it to a larger space nearby. This year, attendance is expected to approach a quarter million. Yes, that blows my mind,” he says.
Maccubbin and partner Jim Bennett live in a Dupont Circle condo filled with antique art and sculpture of nude male figures. Maccubbin also collects copperplate engravings from the 17th and 18th centuries and has many rare and sometimes autographed LGBT books. He enjoys travel, music and theater in his free time.
Jim Bennett and Deacon Maccubbin (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I’ve been out since 1969 when I was 26. The first person I told was the hardest, but also gave the best reaction. He was a straight friend and we were close as brothers but I was feeling guilty that I hadn’t been honest with him about being gay. After many months of fretting about it, I finally screwed up my courage and told him. His reaction was instantaneous and priceless. “Is that all that’s been bothering you?” he said. “Heck, I knew that all along. I don’t give a fuck.” At that moment in time, he meant more to me that just about anyone, and if he didn’t care, then I felt free to tell the world.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
I have several, but Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Bayard Rustin, Harvey Milk and Leonard Matlovich have always been at the top of my list. They were all people who were willing to take huge risks to advance equality.
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
The Lost & Found was my favorite when it first opened. … And I loved the piano bar at Friends on P Street. These days I’m partial to Nellie’s and Town, though in truth I’ve never been much of a bar goer. I’m more likely to be found at the Kennedy Center or Wolf Trap or Strathmore.
Describe your dream wedding.
Ours! It was our Holy Union on Feb. 26, 1982 at MCC (then meeting at Congregational Church at 10th and G Streets, NW). I think it was only the second such event held in a public way in D.C. and about 350 people attended. Rev. Troy Perry and Rev. Larry Uhrig officiated and Julia & Company (featuring Julia Nixon, star of “Dreamgirls” on Broadway) performed at the reception. The Blade and the Post both covered it. But as wonderful as it was, it wasn’t any more special than our second wedding, held on the same day in February this year, when we got our actual marriage license and renewed our vows at home in front of our three closest friends.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
Getting corporate money out of elections and ensuring the right to vote. Because success on so many other issues depends on it.
What historical outcome would you change?
The assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harvey Milk.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
I had the opportunity to interview Jimi Hendrix, Eric Burden & the Animals, James Brown and other music icons of the ‘60s. And I worked as a production assistant on the D.C. location set of director Michael Bay’s “Terminator 3.” But the best was having Lambda Rising used as the set for a scene in “Enemy of the State.” Will Smith used my office at the bookstore as his changing room and some of our employees got to be extras in the film. That was fun.
On what do you insist?
Full equality for all. Nothing less. And I make no apologies for it.
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
I rarely do either but my most recent post was to spread the good news of Ireland’s vote on marriage equality.
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Just Do It.” Most of the things I’m proudest of accomplishing in my life were things other people said would never work or couldn’t be done. I listened to them, considered their points, then did it anyway. … It was even true with myself — there was a time when I thought I would never find a soulmate, but then I met this handsome, loving redhead named Jim Bennett and, 37 years later, we’re still joined at the heart.
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
I’d wonder why anyone would want to change.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
Despite being heavily involved in the church in my early years, I believe in the scientific method, which is why I’m now an atheist. But I do believe in the spirit that lives within every individual and I believe we should honor that.
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
Keep your eyes on the big picture, the long-term goals, but never underestimate the importance of small victories as well. Strengthen ties with allies. All of us are stronger when we stand together.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
How about YOU walk across hot coals and I’ll meet you at the other side with a bucket of cold water?
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
That bisexuals are really gay people who can’t commit. It’s a stereotype that our own community sometimes buys into and it’s both harmful and untrue.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
“Milk.” Or the original “La Cage aux Folles.”
What’s the most overrated social custom?
Facebook. And Twitter is a close second. Mostly meaningless blather intermingled with spam. Why does anybody waste their time on it? Why do I?
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
I don’t covet anything, but I’m most grateful for a Pioneer Award given me by the Lambda Literary Awards some years ago, as well as the Rainbow History Project’s Community Pioneer Award.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
How fleeting life is. How much I’d regret the things I didn’t do, the trips I didn’t take, the friends I lost touch with, the friends I lost. I learned those things in the ‘80s and have tried to make up for lost time since.
Why Washington?
I first came to Washington on a two-week vacation in 1969, fully intending to return to Norfolk. I got a $15-a-week room in a boarding house just off Dupont Circle and set out to explore the city. The juxtaposition of the buttoned-down bureaucrats, the high-powered politicians, the diplomatic staffs from around the world, the counterculturists, the hippies, the civil rights workers, the anti-war protesters — it was all so fascinating and I plunged right in. After two weeks, I called home and told them to sell everything I owned, “I’m staying in D.C.” I’ve been here ever since, mostly in Dupont Circle. I think Washington is still one of the most fascinating, most vibrant, most livable cities in the world. I don’t think I could have created Lambda Rising anywhere but in D.C.
a&e features
New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
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Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
a&e features
Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
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