Local
Comings & Goings
Mason Davis joins Gill; Denny Lyon to Bastille
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
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].
Masen Davis
Congratulations to Masen Davis who is joining the Gill Foundation as Senior Director of Special Projects. In making the announcement, president & CEO Courtney Cuff said, “We are excited to welcome Masen as a senior member of our team. He brings incredible knowledge and experience to the table. From ushering in sweeping changes to California’s non-discrimination law to increasing healthcare access for transgender people across the country, Masen’s leadership and proven track record are a critical addition to the foundation at this pivotal juncture.”
In accepting the position, Davis said, “After focusing on international equality for transgender people in recent years, I’m ready to dive back into the work that’s needed to protect and secure equal treatment here at home. The Gill Foundation team is smart, strategic and relentless in pursuit of equality. I can’t wait to get to work.”
Davis has more than 20 years of advocacy and nonprofit leadership experience. He most recently served as co-director of Global Action for Trans Equality (2015-16) and executive director of Transgender Law Center (2007-2015). Under his leadership, Transgender Law Center became the nation’s largest transgender advocacy organization. Davis’s work was critical to the elimination of discriminatory insurance exclusions in California, creating a pathway for transgender Americans to access transition-related care. He was also an integral part of the coalition that helped pass California’s School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266), ensuring transgender students have access to facilities and activities that match their gender identity.
Davis will oversee several key program areas. He will manage a grant portfolio focused on advancing equal treatment and opportunity for transgender people and assist in efforts to increase and diversify funding for the movement. Davis earned his bachelor’s from Northwestern University, a master’s from UCLA, and completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Congratulations also to Wallace (Denny) Lyon who has joined Bastille Restaurant in Alexandria as its new general manager. Bastille’s chef/owners are Christophe and Michelle Poteaux.
Christophe said, “We’ve known Denny for many, many years, have first-hand knowledge of his professionalism and dedication. His success at Nellie’s, Bobby Van’s and the PassionFood Group convinced us that he would be a great team leader for Bastille Brasserie and Bar.”
Lyon brings a wealth of restaurant industry experience to Bastille, formerly serving as manager of D.C.’s Ten Penh and general manager of Ceiba, Passionfish, and Teatro Goldoni. The LGBT community most likely knows him best as director of operations at Nellie’s Sports Bar.
Lyon’s passion for the industry crosses over to his personal life where he enjoys hosting dinner parties and cooking. On an unrelated note, he’s an avid collector of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and owns 55 pairs. Perfect for a man on his feet. He earned his B.B.A with honors at University of Michigan.
Bastille is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. serving brunch, lunch, dinner and all-day dining with café and bar menu offered.
Denny Lyon
Congratulations also to Vincent Ryan who has been named by Trinidad Navarro, Insurance Commissioner-elect of Delaware as senior adviser to the commissioner. Navarro said, “Vince is a trusted adviser and was instrumental in the campaign. I’m excited to bring him on board. His political skills, ability to assist in navigating complex government and legislative channels, and communicate with various stakeholders will make him an asset to the department and our team.”
Ryan was the campaign manager for Navarro for Insurance Commissioner. He previously worked in a local government relations practice helping to present matters before the Delaware Legislature. Active in politics since 2008, he has also assisted other officeholders and campaigns on various levels. Many know Ryan from his activism on LGBT issues in Delaware and from his work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Delaware and Philadelphia. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware. The commissioner-elect and his administration took office this week.
Vincent Ryan
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
District of Columbia
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
Kevin Naff marks 24 years with publication this year
Longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff will be inducted into D.C.’s Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June, the group announced this week.
Hall of Fame honorees are chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. Naff and two other inductees — Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for the AP and Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio — will be celebrated at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. The dinner’s emcee will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
“I am tremendously honored by this recognition,” Naff said. “I have spent a lifetime in the D.C. area learning from so many talented journalists and am humbled to be considered in their company. Thank you to SPJ and to all the LGBTQ pioneers who came before me who made this possible.”
Naff joined the Blade in 2002 after years in print and digital journalism. He worked as a financial reporter for Reuters in New York before moving to Baltimore in 1996 to launch the Baltimore Sun’s website. He spent four years at the Sun before leaving for an internet startup and later joining the mobile data group at Verizon Wireless working on the first generation of mobile apps.
He then moved to the Blade and has served as the publication’s longest-tenured editor. In 2023, Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality — And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away.”
Previous Hall of Fame inductees include luminaries in journalism like Wolf Blitzer, Benjamin Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and Edgar Allen Poe. The Blade’s senior news reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. was inducted in 2015.
Maryland
Supreme Court ruling against conversion therapy bans could affect Md. law
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed statute in 2018
By PAMELA WOOD, JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV, and MADELEINE O’NEILL | The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ kids in Colorado, a ruling that also could apply to Maryland’s ban on the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide whether it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court’s majority, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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