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Comings & Goings
Kinney publishes photo book on Clinton’s 2016 campaign
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].
Barbara Kinney (Photo courtesy of Kinney)
Congratulations to Barbara Kinney on the publication of her new book. “#Still With Her; Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Moments that Sparked a Movement.” It’s a 268-page coffee table book of amazing photographs Kinney took during Clinton’s 2016 campaign for president. Anyone interested in great photography will want this book.
The book is written by Sandra Sobieraj Westfall with an introduction by Clinton and short essays by those who have known and supported her including: John West, Cecile Richards, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chad Griffin and Mary Steenburgen among others. But it’s a book of photographs and they are incredible. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words they are clearly talking about those taken by Kinney. They make you laugh and cry; they bring back good memories and leave you wanting more. She dedicates the book to the 65,845,063 who voted for Clinton.
Kinney was a staff photographer for President Bill Clinton during his time in the White House. The photograph she took of President Clinton and the leaders of the Middle East straightening their ties before a press event won her First Place for “People in the News” in the World Press Photo competition. It is currently on display in the exhibit “Pictures of the Year: 75 Years of the World’s Best Photography” at the Newseum in D.C. through January 2019. Her photographs have graced the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines.
Kinney has been close to Hillary since those Clinton White House years. In 2008, she spent five months traveling with Hillary during the primary. She photographed Chelsea’s wedding. This time she spent the presidential campaign with Hillary being given unprecedented access to everything.
When not working with the Clintons, Kinney has worked for various foundations and non-profit groups helping them to document their work around the world. Photographing the Mobility Project distributing wheelchairs in Afghanistan; Operation Smile during a trip to Nairobi, Kenya; maternal health care in Tanzania with CARE; and a congressional delegation traveling to West Africa with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. She has traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Ben Affleck and his Eastern Congo Initiative and has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation photographing their leadership team and grantees in Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi, India and Mexico. Kinney was a photo editor and lead photographer for the 2014 “Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink” and was selected as one of 20 photographers to be featured in the American Society of Media Professionals Best of 2011 Portfolios for her project on Alzheimer’s, also for the Shriver Report.
In addition, she was one of a few very select photographers to work on the “A Day in the Life of the American Woman” and “A Day in the Life of the U.S. Armed Forces” book projects. She has worked as a photo editor on staff at USA Today, Reuters, The Seattle Times and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
If you are in D.C. on Jan. 19, 2019, you will have a chance to hear Kinney talk about the book and her photography at Politics and Prose. Barbara currently lives in Marin County with her 14-year-old daughter and their two cats. She joined the Emerson Collective in Palo Alto, Calif., in January 2017 as senior photo editor and photographer.
Congratulations also to David Gonce, Tyler Townsend and Bob Suppies, of the much-anticipated The Pines restaurant and bar in Rehoboth Beach, which has secured its certificate of occupancy. The first event held in the new space was the annual Thanksgiving weekend bash hosted by Marvin Miller, Dan Kyle and Tony Burns. The place is beautiful and the food was delicious. The Pines will soon open to the public and be a welcome addition to Baltimore Avenue.
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.
Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Not all trans people are the same
Calendar: August 21-27
