Arts & Entertainment
Blade ‘Eligible Single’ marries
Hank’s Oyster Bar owner finds love

Jamie Leeds (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Jamie Leeds, one of Washington Blade’s Most Eligible Singles in 2015, has married her partner Tina McDaniel, according to the Washington Post.
The Hank’s Oyster Bar owner described her ideal mate to the Blade as someone who “Likes to laugh, traveler, adventurous, fun-loving, loves to eat good food/drink wine, confident.” Her Eligible Singles profile came out on Feb. 9 2015. Days later on Feb. 15 2015 she attended a party where she met independent communications consultant McDaniel, who fit the ideal mate description.
Washington Post reports a mutual friend introduced Leeds, 54, and McDaniel, 40. The couple spent the night talking about food, among other topics.
“I would consider myself a foodie . . . and I was very fascinated with the fact that Jamie was a chef. I remember asking her all of these questions like, ‘What’s your favorite bite? What’s your favorite restaurant?'” McDaniel told Washington Post.
McDaniel went home after their meeting and Googled Leeds, discovering she had been named one of Washington Blade’s Most Eligible Singles.
Leeds was also interested in McDaniel from the start.
“From the minute I met Tina and we started talking, it was like everything fell from around us,” Leeds told Washington Post. “I was totally enamored by her and felt like I could just be myself around her. I didn’t have to put on an act . . . and that felt really comfortable.”
After a few weeks of dating, Leeds asked McDaniel to be her girlfriend. Leeds planned to propose to McDaniel in Greece, but after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Marriage Equality Act she decided not to wait. According to Washington Post, Leeds proposed at the Salamander Resort and Spa in a room with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne.
The couple were married at Hank’s Pasta Bar in Old Town Alexandria last month.
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Washington Blade held the seventh annual Pride on the Pier at The Wharf DC on Saturday, June 13.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)



















The 2026 Lost River Pride Festival was held on the scenic grounds of the Lost River Farmers Market in Lost City, W.Va. on Saturday, June 13. Headliner Tom Goss performed at the festival and gave a second performance at the nearby Guesthouse Lost River.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)




















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