Local
Town hall addresses Pride, financial concerns
Celebration slated for July 23-24 despite declining revenue


GLCCB board president Jabari Lyles addresses the town hall meeting. (Washington Blade photo by Steve Charing)
Under pressure from members of the community to account for the income and expenditures incurred during Pride 2015, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB), held a town hall meeting on Nov. 10 at the Chase Brexton Mount Vernon Center. The gathering allowed new board president Jabari Lyles to address Pride-related issues, offer an overview of the organization and to welcome community input.
Lyles described the GLCCB’s structure and the financial data from the most recent Pride to a crowd of about 60. Pride, which is the GLCCB’s principal source of revenue, made a profit of $49,400 this year. In 2014, Pride netted $64,000.
Some in the community raised concerns about the absence of accounting for the outlays and questioned specific expenditures. These issues, coupled with the sudden resignation of Pride coordinator and deputy executive director Paul Liller, motivated GLCCB’s leadership to hold the town hall.
Lyles and others charged that Liller used bad judgment in procuring the amount of T-shirts for Pride, for example, as well as creating a fundraising Halloween event called OutRageous without authorization. OutRageous was cancelled because of a lack of sales and ultimately cost the GLCCB $9,000 with nearly half of that amount to be used as a credit for a future event involving the same caterer.
Liller, who was not present at the meeting, rejected the criticisms. “Regarding allegations of mismanagement for both OutRageous and Pride T-Shirts, I will say that during my time at the GLCCB, all my decisions were either run through the former executive director Joel Tinsley-Hall or the board of directors,” he told the Blade via email. “Accurate financials were provided monthly during board meetings (which strangely there are no minutes for). The GLCCB board was involved in decisions made as they chose to be at the time.”
Lyles stated that tighter financial controls have already been put in place including the hiring of a bookkeeper. Moreover, he announced that the next Pride celebration would take place July 23-24, 2016.
He also unveiled an updated strategic plan that was developed in 2012 but had largely been relegated to the back burner due to an ongoing turnover in leadership. Indeed, since the last town hall took place in July 2014, there have been four different board presidents and four different individuals in the role of executive director.
Nonetheless, Lyles who has been the board president since July and is acting as the interim executive director since Liller’s departure last month, promised a better accounting of funds, greater transparency, a stronger effort to make the board more inclusive and to expand services and programs.
He also announced the resurrection of the GLCCB Advisory Council and that the organization is actively pursuing new office space. The GLCCB has been housed on the third floor of the Waxter Center on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon since February 2014.
While not nearly as contentious as the last GLCCB town hall meeting 15 months ago, this meeting also afforded community members an opportunity to sound off on matters of concern. Many of those who participated in the “open mic” portion of the program focused on the GLCCB’s mission and the need for diversity on the board.
Some members advocated for more youth programs while others support elder programs to cope with the aging LGBTQ population. A few offered to assist in partnering with other LGBT organizations and allies while some volunteered to help with fundraising. More involvement with faith-based groups and activities was also urged.
Overall, Lyles was pleased with the nearly three-hour meeting. “It’s refreshing to see the community willing to help us and be dedicated to our mission,” he told the Blade. He promised another town hall in March and that they will take place biannually.
Photos
PHOTOS: Black Pride Opening Reception

The Opening Reception for the 34th annual D.C. Black Pride was held at the Capital Hilton on Friday, May 23. Presenters, speakers and entertainers included Ts Madison, Monroe Alise, Billy the Goat, Kerri Colby, Apple Brown Betty, Heather Mahogani, Lyrical Mar, Lolita Leopard, Ink, and Bang Garçon. Anthony Oakes was the host.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)





















The 2025 Silver Pride Resource Fair and Tea Dance was held at the Eaton Hotel on Wednesday, May 21.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)










District of Columbia
Sinners and Saints bar vandalized in suspected anti-LGBTQ hate crime
Blade spoke with General Manager Blair Nixon after incident

On Thursday, shattered glass, broken doors, and homophobic slurs were discovered in the entryway of Adams Morgan queer bar Sinners and Saints (2309 18th St. N.W.) Images of the destruction were posted to the bar’s Instagram, and news of the break-in began to spread.
The Washington Blade sat down with one of the co-partners and general manager of Sinners and Saints, Blair Nixon, to discuss the break-in and the overwhelming response from the LGBTQ community.
“Our door was broken-so the glass was shattered,” Nixon told the Blade when describing the damage done to the space. “They wrote a slur on our wall, and unfortunately-we’re not sure to the extent that it was, but there’s a bunch of inventory missing from our liquor closet. It does seem like it was targeted because of what they wrote on the wall.”
Nixon, who has been with Washington’s only QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color) bar since its opening last August, explained that upon learning of the break-in, fear was his first reaction.
“It was really scary,” Nixon said. “To know that somebody was in our space, vandalizing it-it was very scary and honestly, devastating.”
He went on to say that if it weren’t for the restaurant above Sinners and Saints, La Grotta, they wouldn’t have known until hours later.
“We found out because of the restaurant upstairs that we’re partnered with,” he said. “The electricity to the entire building was turned off-including apartments and the restaurant above us. Whoever broke in went into the closet that’s outside of the building and turned the electricity off to the entire building. When the restaurant owners got there, they tried to figure out why there wasn’t any electricity. They went downstairs and saw the shattered glass, the door broken, and the slur on the wall.”
Once Sinners and Saints staff arrived to survey the damage, they posted the images to their Instagram and called the Metropolitan Police Department. Nixon was grateful for both MPD and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs’s quick reaction.
“We were really happy with the response,” Nixon said. “The mayor’s office reached out relatively quickly, and I had a conversation with them, and the police came shortly afterwards, and they did a really good job. So we’re very appreciative of the response. They took a statement, they looked at the damage, took photos of everything, and made a report.”
“They actually sent, like, the entire department,” he added. “There were multiple police officers, multiple detectives, and the LGBTQ liaison came a little bit later. In general, I just really appreciated the response overall.”
The Blade obtained a copy of the filed police report, which described the break-in as a felony-more specifically, MPD considered it a second-degree burglary. MPD’s report also classified the break-in and subsequent graffiti as having “a hate bias or motivation” against sexual minorities who own and frequent the bar.

Unfortunately, there were no cameras on the premises at the time of the break-in, which MPD estimates happened sometime between 2-6 p.m., but Sinners and Saints were able to obtain footage from nearby businesses.
“We did have some camera footage from the hostel next door, and we submitted that to law enforcement,” he said. “We’re just going to let them do their investigation, and I don’t want to make any suppositions about what might have happened.”
When asked what he believed motivated the assailant(s), Nixon didn’t offer a definitive answer. He suggested it was likely someone hostile to LGBTQ businesses in Washington but assured the Blade that Sinners and Saints would not back down-and that the LGBTQ community stands firmly behind them.
“I don’t want to make any statements about what we think happened. We’re going to let the police do their job. But, as the only QTBIPOC bar in D.C., I think it’s important to note that we’re still here. We’re not going to close. We appreciate the support of our community, and I think that overall, it’s really important that we’re a safe space for the underserved and marginalized communities in D.C. Given that D.C. has, you know, one of the largest queer populations-but there aren’t very many spaces for the communities that we serve-we’re very proud to serve those communities. And we aren’t going to stop.”
Nixon had one critique for MPD, but was overall with their quick response.
“We hope that law enforcement would have a greater presence in Adams Morgan,” he said. “I think that, especially from talking to other establishment owners and bar owners, there’s definitely been some increased issues in Adams Morgan, and we hope that that doesn’t continue. We talked to the Mayor’s Office about it and to the police when they came-to have a greater presence in Adams Morgan.”
Since its opening, Nixon said the support from the QTBIPOC and broader LGBTQ community felt strong-but now, after the break-in, that connection has only grown stronger.
“We opened in August of last year, and we think that D.C. in general has really responded to our mission, and the community has really shown up for us-just like the same way that we’ve shown up for them.”
That community support for Sinners and Saints, Nixon said, extends past the diverse group of QTBIPOC people buying shots and tipping 20 percent nightly. Some of the city’s LGBTQ organizations showed up, offering to help. One of those community members who reached out owns a popular gay bar just up 18th Street.
“The response has been really strong, and we definitely appreciate the support. A few of the other LGBT bar owners in Adams Morgan actually stopped by in person. We really appreciated that Dave Perruzza from Pitchers came by, and just in general that the community has been rallying around us.”
On Thursday night, Sinners and Saints opened as planned and hosted their “Sapphic Sailor Moon” party. Despite the break-in, the LGBTQ community came out to support them.
“I was working-actually bartending,” Nixon said. “I wasn’t originally supposed to be working, but I thought it was important for all the partners to be there. So everyone that’s involved in Sinners and Saints’ leadership team came out. Obviously, we were dealing with the incident, but being there the entire night, we thought that the response from the community was really strong. We wanted to make sure that we posted on social media the fact that we were still open, because a lot of people were contacting us and asking if we were going to be continuing on, if we were going to close. We thought it was really important to make sure that we were there and still open and still available.”

That community, Nixon said, includes members of the LGBTQ population who are often overlooked-which makes the attack on a space intentionally dedicated to them-particularly trans people and people of color-even more painful.
“I think that DC in general, as one of the cities with the biggest queer populations, has adopted the LGBT community in general-and it’s great. However, the adoption of people of color and the overall QTBIPOC community, you know, our trans community, hasn’t been the same. It’s super important to us to make sure that that community is protected and that there are safe spaces for them, and that’s what our core mission is. We never want that to stop. The most important thing is that the safe space for those marginalized and underrepresented communities continues. And I would hope that the acceptance of the community that we serve continues-and is just as important as the acceptance of the LGBT community as a whole.”
If you have any information about the break in, please contact MPD at (202) 727-9099. Sinners and Saints has set up a GoFundMe page for repairs. It can be accessed here.