Local
Comings & Goings
CAGLCC announces new officers, board members
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
The Comings and 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 Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (CAGLCC) is the local affiliate of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). CAGLCC began as the Potomac Executive Network many years ago, founded to provide LGBT professionals in D.C. with a place to meet. As an original member of the group there are fond memories when together with Jay Muzychenko we started the PEN Association Network bringing together association professionals to share information and ideas intended to further their careers and organizations with businesses having products and knowledge they wanted to sell. We held monthly luncheons and had an informal membership list of 250.
Nearly 12 years ago, I wrote a column in the Blade suggesting we needed an organization to demonstrate the strength of LGBT business and the clout we could have as a business community to promote full LGBT civil and human rights. Shortly after, two young men began such an organization and their hard work and dedication has seen it grow into a powerful group with influence around the world. PEN then morphed into its local affiliate.
Today, CAGLCC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, largely volunteer network of more than 430 LGBT members in addition to the nearly 5,000 LGBT professional supporters who own or are employed by businesses, nonprofits and government agencies in D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
The chamber’s primary focus is to further acceptance of LGBT people, help overcome adversity and then advocate, empower, promote and facilitate the common economic interests of all the commercial enterprises of LGBT businesses, professionals and their allies in the metropolitan D.C. region. The chamber has a full slate of activities each month. It recently announced its new officers and board members for 2016.
The president is Donald Uttrich, an attorney at Jackson & Campbell, and longtime active member of the LGBT community. The new vice president is Brian Haney, an agency managing associate at MassMutual Greater Washington Area and vice president at the Haney Company. New members of the board include; Mike Boyd, principal/owner of Nice Work Company; Frantzces Lys, a Realtor with Keller Williams; Van Goodwin, owner of Van Allen; and Phillip Cotton, vice president and branch manager at SunTrust Bank. Members continuing on the board for 2016 include John Quattlebaum, Eleasa Du Bois, JC Cummings and Holly Goldmann.
Each of these individuals deserves our congratulations and thanks for the time and effort they commit to ensuring that CAGLCC continues to make a difference in the community. For more information on the organization and how to become involved, visit caglcc.org.
Donald Uttrich is the new president of CAGLCC.
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 Yadiel Meléndez, on their new role as Community Associate, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Meléndez is piloting a new role as a Community Associate at the Wanda Alston Foundation, where they support queer and trans young people in finding their footing, building independence, and experiencing a housing community where they are seen, valued, and affirmed. They are coming into this role with more than a decade of experience as a community organizer and operations specialist, supporting diverse communities through service, advocacy, and program coordination.
Previously they worked for Right Proper Brewing Shaw as a server and bartender and at Sephora, Washington, DC, and at FreshFarm, DC, in bilingual food access. They also worked freelance to build foundational structures for local queer BIPOC performance art coalitions, producing variety shows to curate space for marginalized performance artists in the community. They were a production manager for Haus of Hart Productions, a BIPOC centric performance art production. They also worked as field staff with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Stafford, Va.
Meléndez is bilingual, Spanish and English. Their work is guided by a commitment to dignity, safety, and trauma-informed engagement, particularly within LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
Congratulations also to Ben Rosen LICSW, on his new role as program director, with the Wanda Alston Foundation. Rosen previously worked with Fountain House’s OnRamps program, helping to build a new, innovative outreach program for individuals considered chronically homeless, and living with serious mental illness, in the Times Square area of New York. Rosen is a Psychotherapist, having worked with SG Psychotherapy, and as the psychotherapist with the Nest Community Health Center (URAM).
Rosen has a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts: Musical Theatre, Minor in Psychology (Cum Laude) from Malloy University Conservatory; and his M.S.W. in Clinical Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups, from The Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, N.Y. He is independently licensed in New York and Washington, D.C.
Rehoboth Beach
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Attendees encouraged to wear appropriate gear
Diego’s in Rehoboth Beach hosts a monthly leather happy hour. April’s edition is scheduled for Friday, April 10, 5-7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to wear appropriate gear. The event is billed as an official event of BLUF, the free community group for men interested in leather. After happy hour, the attendees are encouraged to reconvene at Local Bootlegging Company for dinner, which allows cigar smoking. There’s no cover charge for either event.
District of Columbia
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
Two memorial events scheduled in D.C.
Two celebrations of life are planned for Sean Christopher Bartel, 48, who was found deceased on a hiking trail in Argentina on or around March 15. Bartel began his career as a television news reporter and news anchor at stations in Louisville, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before serving as Senior Video Producer for the D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union from 2013 to 2024.
A memorial gathering is planned for Friday, April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the IBEW International Office (900 7th St., N.W.), according to a statement by the DC Gay Flag Football League, where Bartel was a longtime member. A celebration of life is planned that same evening, 6-8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.).
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Comings & Goings
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BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
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