Local
Reagan adviser, Log Cabin supporter Bob Bonitati dies at 79
Accompanied president to Hilton Hotel on day of assassination attempt
Bob Bonitati died at age 79. (Photo by Tony Burns)
Robert “Bob” Bonitati, a longtime government affairs specialist in Washington who worked as White House special assistant to President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to Log Cabin Republicans in the 1990s, died Oct. 31 in Tampa, Fla. He was 79.
His friend Phil Sparrow said during his retirement in recent years he spent summers in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and winters at his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Sparrow said Bonitati was participating in an experimental cancer treatment protocol in Tampa at the time of his passing.
A write-up about his career prepared by Sparrow and his longtime friend Robert Kabel says Bonitati, a native of Bridgeport, Conn., graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in political science. It says he did graduate work at Arizona State University and the University of Tennessee.
While at Tennessee he met then-U.S. Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) and worked on Baker’s re-election committee before joining Baker in 1967 as his Senate chief of staff. Among the positions he held after leaving his Senate job for the private sector was heading the government affairs office for the Airline Pilots Association for six years.
According to Sparrow and Kabel’s write-up, Bonitati joined the Reagan White House as a Special Assistant to the President, where he served as White House liaison to organized labor.
The write-up says Bonitati was with Reagan on March 30, 1981 at the Washington Hilton Hotel where the president delivered a speech to the Building Trades Union.
“As they were walking out of the hotel together to return to the White House Bob was stopped momentarily by a friend just as the President exited and was shot,” says the write-up. “Bob credited his friend with saving his life.”
Minutes later Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital where doctors said a gunshot wound by would-be assassin John Hinckley came close to taking his life.
Bonitati lived at the time in D.C.’s Dupont Circle area and had a wide range of Washington friends, both Republicans and Democrats, people who knew him said. Following his White House job he became part owner of a flower shop while working for the Kamber Group, a prominent public relations and government affairs firm. He later joined The Hawthorne Group, another public affairs firm.
Kabel and Rich Tafel, who served as president of the national gay group Log Cabin Republicans in the 1990s, said Bonitati played an important role as an informal, behind-the-scenes adviser to Log Cabin.
“We opened our D.C. office in 1993, and Bob was a key adviser for Log Cabin and me in the 1990s,” Tafel said. “He gave great advice, great strategy. He was particularly helpful to me, especially in the early years when I was new to D.C.”
Kabel said that in marked contrast to the current toxic, highly partisan atmosphere in Washington, Bonitati was a product of the old school mold where Republicans and Democrats were able to engage in bipartisan efforts to get things done in Congress.
“Bob enjoyed his many years as a visitor and then in retirement as a homeowner in Rehoboth and Ft. Lauderdale,” Sparrow and Kabel said in their write-up. “He was a longtime supporter of CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBT community center in Rehoboth,” the two said.
“Bob Bonitati was an amazing man who did good in his life and who made friends wherever he went,” said friend Peter Rosenstein. “He was a Republican who I could talk and communicate with. He was a member of a Republican Party that seems to no longer exist. He was a decent man who cared about people. Bob, may you rest in peace, knowing you brought joy and smiles to many during your life and that you will be remembered and missed each day by all of them.”
Bonitati is survived by his sister, Peggy Person of Tampa, Fla.; his niece, Sandra Butte; his nephew, Richard Person, and his great nephew, Ryan Butte. Sparrow and Kabel said he is also survived by “many wonderful friends in Rehoboth Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Washington, D.C.”
A Celebration of Life for Bonitati was scheduled to be hosted by family members, Sparrow and friends on Dec. 2 from 5-7 p.m. at the Vantage View Condominium where Bonitati lived at 2841 North Ocean Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale. Plans for a Celebration of Life in Rehoboth and D.C. were expected to be announced in the near future.
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.
Calendar: April 10-16
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