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Comings & Goings
LGBT Congressional Staff Association names new board
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].
Congratulations to Tom Sommers, who was elected chair of Center Global. This is the organization within the DC Center supporting LGBTQ asylum seekers who’ve arrived in the area to start their new lives.
Center Global is in its fifth year and provides a safe, stable community along with financial and housing support to help asylum seekers who are legally present as they’re going through the multi-year asylum-application process. Asylum seekers, unlike refugees, receive no government aid and must rely on friends, family and organizations like ours to sustain themselves. Sommers said, “Our goal for 2018 is to continue the great work that Matt Corso and Eric Scharf began five years ago and to increase awareness of our efforts and needs to the larger DMV, LGBTQ community.”
Sommers has been involved with the D.C. LGBTQ community for seven years most recently serving on the LGBTQ National Task Force’s initiative to host the 30th Creating Change conference. He is also a past president of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) DC/Metro chapter.
He is a principal with Explorations & Insights, an insight-based communication and data-solutions company. Prior to that he was a senior account director with GfK Custom Research, NA; sales director with MarketTools (now MetrixLab); and a communications specialist with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Congratulations also to David Perez on his new position as senior director of Donor Relations at the Hispanic Federation (HF), which provides grants and services to a broad network of Latino non-profit agencies serving the most vulnerable members of the Hispanic community and advocates nationally with respect to the vital issues of education, health, immigration, economic empowerment, civic engagement and the environment. HF programs include Proyecto Somos Orlando founded after the Pulse nightclub tragedy to provide bilingual wrap-around services and LGBTQ community education; Immigrants Get the Job Done coalition founded with Lin Manuel Miranda, and the UNIDOS Disaster Relief and Recovery Program, which has raised $30 million to serve the immediate and long-term needs of families and communities in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Previously, Perez served as director of development for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights volunteer membership organization in the U.S. He co-founded the annual Unión Hace La Fuerza Latino Institute at the Creating Change Conference, which annually gathers 250 LGBT Latino grassroots activists for a full day of networking and bilingual issue and skill-based training. David currently serves as the chair of the District of Columbia Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Committee and is on the Community Advisory Board for ¡Empodérate! Youth Center at La Clínica del Pueblo. He has received awards from The DC LGBT Center, Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, Next Generation Leadership Foundation, Capital Pride and Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence.
Finally, congratulations also to the new board members of the LGBT Congressional Staff Association, an official, non-partisan congressional staff organization whose mission is to advance the interests of current as well as prospective members and the LGBT community at-large. The LGBT CSA is dedicated to developing the careers of its membership and advocating on behalf of the LGBT community. New board members are; President, Robert Edmonson, Chief of Staff, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); Vice President, Christopher Cunningham, Legislative Assistant & Correspondent, Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT); Communications Director, Pablo A. Sierra-Carmona, Press Assistant, Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA); Professional Development Director, Jayson Schimmenti, Legislative Assistant, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ); Social Events Director, Hector Colón, Legislative Correspondent, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY); Membership Director, Sarah Jackson, Legislative Assistant, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); At-Large Director, Christofer Horta, Policy Assistant, House Democratic Caucus; At-Large Director, Matthew Ramirez, Legislative Correspondent, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
The new board of the LGBT Congressional Staff Association. (Photo courtesy LGBT CSA)
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
BLUF leather social set for April 10 in Rehoboth
Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
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