Local
Comings & Goings
Honor for Corado; new post for Nosanchuk
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].
Dan Flave-Novak
Congratulations to Roosevelt University student Dan Flave-Novak, for winning a prestigious fellowship. “Dan’s groundbreaking PsyD dissertation looks at body image in the gay community. He will have the rare honor of becoming one of only nine U.S. Veterans Administration post-doctoral fellows to be trained beginning later this year in helping veterans with LGBTQ mental health issues,” according to a press release.
“I’m very excited to be a part of this new initiative which will allow me to make a difference in the lives of veterans who have recently begun to identify as LGBTQ in the VA system,” Flave-Novak said. “I believe it will be a great opportunity for me to have influence and an impact on how the VA system works with LGBTQ veterans now and in the future.” Dan will be spending his year as a post-doctoral fellow at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center.
Flave-Novak has been a doctoral student since 2011 in Roosevelt’s nationally recognized PsyD program. He trained in several psychology and counseling departments, including Chicago’s Howard Brown Center, one of the largest LGTBQ health organizations in the nation. He worked for many years for Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown in Washington, assisting in the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
Matt Nosanchuk
Congratulations also to Matt Nosanchuk who joined the State Department as Senior Advisor in the Office of Religion and Global Affairs in the Office of the Secretary. Nosanchuk has served President Obama in several positions prior to starting at the State Department. Most recently he was the President’s Liaison to the American Jewish community in the Office of Public Engagement and also served as Director for Outreach on the National Security Council. During the first three years of the administration, Nosanchuk was Senior Counselor in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, where he was the point person on LGBT issues and worked on challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act that led to the Supreme Court’s historic decision in United States v. Windsor.
Nosanchuk was born in Windsor, Canada, grew up in the Detroit area and went to college and law school at Stanford. Since moving to Washington, he has worked in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, including on Capitol Hill on the House Judiciary Committee Minority Staff, and as Counsel for Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. In 2013, he received the American Bar Association’s inaugural Stonewall Award in recognition of his professional contributions to advancing LGBT civil rights and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for his work on the Defense of Marriage Act litigation.
Ruby Corado
(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Congratulations also to Ruby Corado, who will be honored along with the LGBTQ women of the Obama administration at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice 2016 Fueling the Frontlines dinner.
Born in El Salvador, Corado fled to the United States at age 16 when the Salvadoran Civil War erupted. She eventually moved to Washington, D.C. Self-identifying as a “D.C. Humanist-Transgender woman” Corado has spent more than 20 years advocating for the inclusion of transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in mainstream society.
In 2004, she founded Casa Ruby in D.C. Last year, Corado told NPR, “Most of the people who come to Casa Ruby don’t have a family that accepts them, or that loves them for the most part. So we have a family here, and it is the concept of a chosen family.” Casa Ruby now has three homes, which include housing for homeless youth and adults, food service, job training, and medical and employment advocates.
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.).
District of Columbia
D.C. Council member honored by LGBTQ homeless youth group
Doni Crawford receives inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award
About 100 people turned out Tuesday evening, April 7, for a presentation by D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation of its inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award to D.C. Council member Doni Crawford (I-At-Large) for her support for the foundation’s mission to support homeless LGBTQ youth.
Among those who attended the event was Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, who delivered an official proclamation issued by Bowser declaring April 7, 2026 “A Day of Remembrance for Wanda Alston.”
Alston, a beloved women’s and LGBTQ rights activist, served as the city’s first director of the then newly created Office of LGBTQ Affairs under then-Mayor Anthony Williams from 2004 until her death by murder on March 16, 2005.
To the shock and dismay of fellow LGBTQ rights advocates, police and court records reported Alston, 45, was stabbed to death inside her Northeast D.C. house by a man high on crack cocaine who lived nearby and who stole her credit cards and car. The perpetrator, William Martin Parrott, 38, was arrested by D.C. police the next day and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced in July 2005 to 24 years in prison.
Crawford was among those attending the award event who reflected on Alston’s legacy and outspoken advocacy for LGBTQ and feminist causes.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to receive this inaugural award,” Crawford told the Washington Blade at the conclusion of the event. “I think the world of Wanda Alston. She has set such a great foundation for me and other Council members to build on,” she said.
“Her focus on inclusivity and intersectionality is really important as we approach this work,” Crawford added. “And it’s going to guide my work at the Council every day.”
Crawford was appointed to the D.C. Council in January of this year to replace then Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), who resigned to run for D.C. mayor as a Democrat. She is being challenged by four other independent candidates in a June 16 special election for the Council seat.
Under the city’s Home Rule Charter written and approved by Congress, the seat is one of two D.C. Council at-large seats that cannot be held by a “majority party” candidate, meaning a Democrat.
A statement released by the Alston Foundation last month announcing Crawford’s selection for the Wanda Alston Legacy Award praised Crawford’s record of support for its work on behalf of LGBTQ youth.
“From behind the scenes to now serving as an At-Large Council member, she has fought fearlessly for affordable housing, LGBTQ+ funding priorities, and racial justice,” the statement says. “Council member Crawford’s leadership reflects the same courage and conviction that defined Wanda’s legacy.”
Organizers of the event noted that it was held on what would have been Wanda Alston’s 67th birthday.
“Today’s legacy reception was a smashing success,” said Cesar Toledo, the Alston Foundation’s executive director. “Not only did we come together to celebrate Wanda Alston on her birthday, but we also were able to raise over $10,000 for our homeless LGBTQ youth here in D.C.,” Toledo told the Blade.
“In addition to that, we celebrated and we acknowledged a rising star in our community,” he said. “And that is At-Large Council member Doni Crawford, who we named the inaugural Wanda Alston Legacy Award recipient.”
At the request of D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) the Council voted unanimously on Jan. 20, 2026, to appoint Crawford to the Council seat being vacated by McDuffie.
Council records show she joined McDuffie’s Council staff in 2022 as a policy adviser and later became his legislative director before McDuffie appointed her as staff director for the Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development for which McDuffie served as chair.
An effort to increase the number of psychiatrists of color
Calendar: April 10-16
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
The ‘X’ returns to court
Police mental health struggles gain growing attention
Trump budget would codify expanded global gag rule
Man faces first S.C. ‘hate intimidation’ charge
Cuba under pressure and without answers
