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Comings & Goings

Uritus named CEO of Out & Equal

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Erin Uritus, Comings & Goings, gay news, Washington Blade

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].

Erin Uritus

Congratulations to Erin Uritus who has been named CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is a nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving LGBT workplace equality. According to its website “We partner with Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies to provide executive leadership development, comprehensive training and consultation, and professional networking opportunities that build inclusive and welcoming work environments.”

Board Chair Michael Cox said, “Erin joins Out & Equal with unparalleled domestic and international experience as an executive in the corporate, government and nonprofit sectors – a critically important combination to us at Out & Equal.”

Uritus said, “As we look to the future, I am fervently committed to leveraging the spirit of and driving Out & Equal to be the transformational force needed to create global LGBT workplace equality. I’m eager to get down to the important work of ensuring everyone — no matter who you love or how you identify — finds inclusion, belonging and equality at work.”

Prior to joining Out & Equal, Uritus was a senior leader at Booz Allen and the education powerhouse nonprofit International School Services (ISS). She has worked internationally, including for nine years in the Middle East where she supported efforts to modernize government in the midst of the Arab Spring. Uritus opened the African Women’s Media Center in Dakar, Senegal – funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In this work and at the early dawn of Internet access in Africa, she collaborated with U.S. embassies and international NGOs to convene the first-ever online training in multiple cities for journalists covering HIV/AIDS. She also supported the annual IWMF “Courage in Journalism Awards,” including facilitating the participation of women actively reporting while in hiding from governments and terrorist groups trying to silence their voices.

At Booz Allen, Erin spent much of her time as a leader on the Strategic Communications Team helping government agencies navigate the massive challenges brought on by modernization programs. She is a member of the All-Souls Unitarian Church in D.C. – a progressive religious community. While in the Middle East, she met and married her now ex-partner, and they are the proud parents of two girls Amira and Haneen who share American and Egyptian heritage.

Congratulations also to Rob Keast who is the new Vice President of External Affairs at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). The Progressive Policy Institute is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in D.C. Its mission is to create pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock.

Before joining PPI, Keast spent four years running his own consulting firm focused on strategic development, third-party outreach, advocacy building, fundraising, relationship management, and policy communications for non-profits and various other organizations. Prior to that he spent more than six years at Third Way as the Vice President for Outreach and worked in government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, where he helped oversee outreach to Capitol Hill and the administration. He also worked at the Welfare to Work Partnership.

Keast earned his bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of America and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in El Paso, Texas and spent one year as a National Service Fellow at the Corporation for National and Community Service. He is a board member of “Q” Street.

Rob Keast

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Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach’s iconic Purple Parrot is sold

Popular restaurant/bar purchased by local entrepreneurs

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Drew Mitchell (left) and Tyler Townsend recently completed their purchase of the Purple Parrot.

After 25 years of success, owners Hugh Fuller and Troy Roberts recently sold Rehoboth Beach’s Purple Parrot restaurant and bar. 

During those 25 years, they built it into an iconic establishment in Rehoboth Beach, Del., popular with locals and tourists alike.

 “I think you know that this has basically been my entire adult life,” Fuller said. “Selling wasn’t something I was even contemplating until my health took a turn after contracting COVID, which took a toll on my everyday health. I went from working almost every day to barely going in.” 

Fuller added that when local entrepreneurs Tyler Townsend and his partner Drew Mitchell reached out, he knew it was time to sell. 

“We knew we made the right decision going with some young blood that knew the staff, the restaurant, and us,” Fuller said. “We know that our baby is in good hands and will breathe for another 25+ years with them at the helm. I plan to take some time and bring my mom back to her hometown in Germany to visit her family, which she hasn’t seen in over 30 years.” 

Roberts added, “It is bittersweet selling a business you created, nurtured, and ran for 25 years. It is much easier knowing who is going to love it next. More importantly, we really wanted our staff to be OK and again picking the right guys offering that security to them was a major plus. I’ve learned so much being in the restaurant business for 30+ years. You meet so many great people, so many loyal customers, amazing locals, and even better staff. It truly does become a family situation. I will always be grateful to every single one of them past and present. I cannot wait to see what the next chapter of the Purple Parrot Grill has in-store.”

The new owners, Townsend and Mitchell, are already a big part of the Rehoboth scene. Townsend is a successful restaurateur, part of the Second Block Hospitality Group, which owns The Pines, Drift, and Bodhi Kitchen. Townsend is also one of the owners of Aqua Bar and Grill.  Townsend and the other three partners in Second Block Hospitality, were named restaurateurs of the year by the Delaware Restaurant Association earlier this year. Mitchell has a company that does corporate branding, but is no newcomer to hospitality. He is the owner of the Fathom Gallery on 14th Street in D.C., a popular event space. 

Townsend told the Blade he and Mitchell are not planning any big changes for the Parrot. The staff will remain the same and the food and drinks will continue as they are now. They will continue to be open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, as a home for those looking to have a great place to spend the holidays with old, and new friends. While the Parrot is independent of Townsend’s other businesses, he believes there can be some synergy among them, and if the time and event are right, there will be collaboration. 

Reaction to the news from locals has been overwhelmingly positive.

Christopher Chandler, who has worked as a bartender and manager at the Parrot for years, is well respected in the community and has been voted best bartender in Rehoboth Beach a number of times by Blade readers. Chandler said, “Hugh and Troy were, and are, like family to me. They treated me and the staff of the Parrot as part of theirs. I’m sad they are gone but if anyone is capable of continuing their legacy it is Tyler and Drew.

“In the short time since their purchase of the Purple Parrot they have continued on that tradition. I’m excited about continuing into the future what the Parrot has been to the community, and to the employees, just with new owners.”  

Bob Suppies, who is a partner with Townsend in Second Block Hospitality said, “I couldn’t be more excited for Tyler and Drew having purchased The Purple Parrot. When Tyler, Kevin McDuffie and I bought Aqua Bar & Grill from the famed Bill Shields, it was important for us to honor the brand and legacy of a great Rehoboth Beach institution. I know Tyler and Drew will do an outstanding job protecting what Hugh and Troy have built and given to our community.” 

Steve Fallon, owner of local retail store Gidget’s Gadgets, said, “The Purple Parrot is a monumental institution produced by the hard work of Hugh, Troy, Cathy, and their loyal staff. We will be sad not to yell “Hey Hugh!” across the street. But I also know that Tyler and Drew will carry on the history of the Parrot with a fresh approach and always keep the customers happy. I wouldn’t fear that they would do as others have done and try changing a functioning landscape into a horror show.” 

The Purple Parrot (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)
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Maryland

Hate crime charges dropped against most Salisbury students in off-campus attack

Suspects allegedly used Grindr to target victim

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Students walk outside the Guerrieri Academic Commons at Salisbury University, where 15 students were charged in an off-campus attack. (Photo by Wesley Lapointe of the Baltimore Banner)

BY MIKE HELLGRIN, CHRISTIAN OLANIRAN, AND ELLIE WOLFE | Prosecutors in Wicomico County are dropping felony assault and hate crime charges against at least 12 of the 15 Salisbury University students charged in an off-campus attack in October.

Misdemeanor false imprisonment and second-degree assault charges remain for most of the defendants, and many trials are set for late January.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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District of Columbia

D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs moving to new location

LGBTQ community center also set to leave Reeves Center

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There are plans to demolish the Reeves Center and replace it with a redevelopment project. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which is currently located at the city’s Reeves Center municipal building at 14th and U Street, N.W., was scheduled to move during the week of Dec. 9 to a new location at 899 North Capitol St., N.E., according to Japer Bowles, the office’s director.

Bowles said the LGBTQ Affairs office will be located on the seventh floor of the privately owned office building in which the city has rented space for several other city agencies, including the D.C. Department of Health.

The move comes about amid longstanding plans to demolish the Reeves Center and replace it with a redevelopment project that will include a mix of housing, office space, a hotel, and retail stores along with a public plaza and a 200-seat amphitheater.

The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center, which has been located in the Reeves Center for about 10 years, also expects to be moving out of the building in the spring of 2025, said Kimberley Bush, the LGBTQ center’s executive director.

Bush said the LGBTQ center looks forward to moving into its new, larger space in a building at 1827 Wiltberger St., N.W. in the city’s Shaw neighborhood, which is located one block away from the Shaw-Howard University Metro station.

The LGBTQ center entered a joint lease to rent space in the Wiltberger Street building with the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most of D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride events, including the upcoming World Pride 2025 events set to take place in D.C. May 17-June 8.

In response to a request by Bowser, the D.C. Council earlier this year approved $1 million in funding for fiscal year 2025 to support the build-out and construction of the LGBTQ Center’s space in the Wiltberger Street’s converted warehouse building.

But shortly after the Council approved that funding, the D.C. Center and Capital Pride Alliance announced the launch of a fundraising campaign called “Welcome Home – Building Together, Thriving Together” to raise an additional $1.5 million needed to complete the renovation of the new building.

“This endeavor is more than just the construction of a building; it represents a commitment to carve out a generous 7,000 square feet of space devoted to nurturing unity, empowerment, and support across the LGBTQ+ spectrum,” a statement announcing the fundraising campaign says.

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