Local
Relatives, activists mourn trans advocate
Sharmus Outlaw succumbed to lymphoma
Sharmus Outlaw’s family members at a memorial service at MCC Church (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
More than 20 family members of internationally known transgender and sex worker rights advocate Sharmus Outlaw joined LGBT activists for a memorial celebration of Outlaw’s life on Aug. 20 at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C.
Outlaw, who most recently served a national policy advocate for the sex workers rights organization Best Practices Policy Project, died on July 7 at a hospice in Arlington, Va., from complications associated with lymphoma. She was 50.
Friends said she was a beloved figure and mentor to many in the D.C.-area transgender community through her advocacy work and numerous friendships.
“Sharmus Outlaw understood those who society marginalizes and the disenfranchised,” said Rev. Dyan Abena McCray-Peters, pastor of Unity Fellowship Church in D.C., in a eulogy for Outlaw.
“Sharmus was the Rosa Parks for the transgender community,” McCray-Peters said. “She was the Martin Luther King Jr. for those challenged with HIV/AIDS,” she said, adding, “God sent Sharmus Outlaw to this earth to do something special and she did it.”
Among those attending the memorial were Outlaw’s siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and nieces and nephews, including one baby and two small kids.
“We love you,” some of them said as McCray-Peters and others spoke of their interactions with Outlaw both professionally and personally.
D.C. transgender activists Ruby Corado, Earline Budd, and Darby Hickey each said Outlaw played an important role over the past dozen or more years in helping to improve the lives of transgender people.
Several of Outlaw’s family members, including her brother, referred to Outlaw as “he” and “him,” saying they understood and respected her transition as a trans woman but they could not think of her other than the person they knew and loved while growing up in North Carolina and later in suburban Maryland.
“We know they loved her and respected her despite the wrong pronouns,” said Budd, who noted that she has helped organize memorial services for numerous transgender women whose family members often grapple with how to describe their deceased loved ones.
At the conclusion of the service, Outlaw’s family members posed for a group photograph while standing in front of a poster size photo of Outlaw at the front of the church.
Baltimore
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
Leon’s closed in July after its owner’s death
By JULIE SCHARPER and WESLEY CASE | Soon after Jim Becker came out as gay in 1967, he ducked into a Mount Vernon bar called Leon’s.
In the dark, smoky bar, men used pseudonyms for fear of being outed, as homosexual acts were illegal in Maryland. Bartenders, wary of vice squad raids, would blow a whistle if couples leaned in for a kiss.
But to Becker, arriving at Leon’s was a kind of homecoming. He could explore his identity, connect with other gay men and build community in the anxious years before the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
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