Local
Comings & Goings
McCabe’s new PR shop; Washington lands consulting gig
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].
Congratulations to Patrick McCabe on opening his new public relations agency, McCabe Message Partners. Its focus is health and the issues that affect it. McCabe, an expert in healthcare communications, co-founded GYMR Public Relations, which closed May 31 after 18 years.
Patrick McCabe (Photo courtesy McCabe)
When announcing the new firm, he reported all of his more than three-dozen clients from GYMR have signed on with the new agency and his entire team of 20 joined him in launching the new venture. McCabe said, “We help clients talk about health—plain and simple—whether it’s how policies affect it, how care is provided and paid for, or how the health of people and communities can be improved.”
McCabe Message Partners provides a wide range of communications services including media relations, message development and testing, strategic communications planning, tailored outreach to influential policymaker and stakeholder communities, orchestrating meetings and events, and other services.
The team helps lead communications for the award-winning Choosing Wisely campaign, in which more than 70 healthcare provider organizations identified common medical tests and procedures they say are overused and should be questioned. The team also leads communications for a series of more than 100 influential health policy briefs developed by researchers at The Urban Institute and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
For nearly three decades, McCabe has designed successful, affordable strategies that reach policymakers, consumers, healthcare providers, educators and minority populations. His work on the importance of affordable, accessible health insurance, for example, resulted in coverage in all of the nation’s top 100 newspapers and every network news program. He has been published numerous times on topics including crisis management, user-tested message development, strategic communications planning, media relations and training, increasing communications capacity for nonprofits and others.
Prior to co-founding GYMR Public Relations, he was a vice president at Fleishman Hillard; a lobbyist and spokesperson for a health-related trade association; and journalist in metropolitan Washington, D.C. McCabe graduated with high honors from the University of Notre Dame.
Congratulations also to Sterling Washington who added another consulting position to his resume. His new role is as a consultant and personal stylist for J. Hilburn Custom Menswear. The company was started by two young Wall Street executives, who said, “We studied the men’s luxury market and saw that nobody was delivering quality custom clothing and personal service at a price that didn’t break the bank. So we set our vision, and J.Hilburn was born.”
Sterling Washington
Washington is currently doing consulting in several different areas. He is an editor and writer. Many in D.C. know him from when he served as Mayor Vincent Gray’s director of the Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Affairs. While there, his accomplishments included: training more than 40 percent of District government employees in LGBT cultural competency as well as numerous federal government employees and staff at several local long-term care facilities; and coordinating a multi-agency working group that successfully barred discrimination by health insurance companies on the basis of gender identity and expression.
Washington’s background includes serving as resource and grant development manager for the Center for Black Equity; working on grants, newsletters and community relations at US Helping US; serving as a presidential appointee in the White House during the Clinton administration first as Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Administration and later as the Information Technology Management Team Coordinator. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the George Washington University, and a bachelor’s degree in music history from Howard University where he also led the Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay Organization of Students at Howard.
Baltimore
‘Heated Rivalry’ fandom exposes LGBTQ divide in Baltimore
Hit show raises questions about identity, cultural representation
By JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | “Heated Rivalry,” the surprise gay hockey romance that has captivated global audiences and become a cultural phenomenon, has inspired sold-out parties celebrating the characters from the steamy series, including in Baltimore.
For some, love of the show has exposed the loss of a once-vibrant gay nightlife in Charm City and splintered its LGBTQ community. It also brings up layered questions about identity, cultural representation, and the limits of identity politics.
In Baltimore, the majority of the parties also appear to be missing a key ingredient that has been a part of the show’s success: gay men at the helm. Last month, women hosted a dance party at Ottobar, a straight establishment.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Virginia
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Gay Alexandria City Council member becomes 8th LGBTQ member of legislature
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike emerged as the decisive winner in a Feb. 10 special election for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria.
McPike, a Democrat, received 81.5 percent of the vote in his race against Republican Mason Butler, according to the local publication ALX Now.
He first won election to the Alexandria Council in 2021. He will be filling the House of Delegates seat being vacated by Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria), who won in another Feb. 10 special election for the Virginia State Senate seat being vacated by gay Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).
Ebbin is resigning from his Senate next week to take a position with Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
Upon taking his 5th District seat in the House of Delegate, McPike will become the eighth out LGBTQ member of the Virginia General Assembly. Among those he will be joining is Sen. Danica Roem (D-Manassas), who became the Virginia Legislature’s first transgender member when she won election to the House of Delegates in 2017 before being elected to the Senate in 2023.
“I look forward to continuing to work to address our housing crisis, the challenge of climate change, and the damaging impacts of the Trump administration on the immigrant families, LGBTQ+ Virginians, and federal employees who call Alexandria home,” McPike said in a statement after winning the Democratic nomination for the seat in a special primary held on Jan. 20.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate, has served for the past 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and has remained in that position during his tenure on the Alexandria Council. He said he will resign from that position before taking office in the House of Delegates.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. moderated a panel at Dupont Underground on Feb. 8. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
Home is where the heart is
‘Heated Rivalry’ fandom exposes LGBTQ divide in Baltimore
Magic is happening for Round House’s out stage manager
Four bisexual women on stereotypes, erasure, representation, and joy
Unconventional love: Or, fuck it, let’s choose each other again
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Meet D.C.’s Most Eligible Queer Singles
Top Democrats re-introduce trans bill of rights
A dozen Senegalese men arrested for ‘unnatural acts’
