Local
Comings & Goings
Sklarz takes new role at SAGE; Zumwalt lands promotion
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 Scott Paul Zumwalt on his appointment as a managing director at Bully Pulpit Interactive (BPI). Bully Pulpit Interactive is a modern communications agency that builds believers for brands, causes and candidates. Founded by leaders of the Obama campaign, they apply their expertise to create customized strategies for companies, causes and candidates. Upon his promotion Zumwalt said, “I’m especially proud of our team’s work to drive innovation in the fight for LGBTQ equality. Whether through our work the last six years with the Human Rights Campaign or this past year in Massachusetts where we successfully fought to protect transgender rights in Massachusetts, the BPI team has been an amazing partner to our movement.”
Zumwalt has been at BPI for six years helping to develop BPI’s metrics-driven approach to many of their largest corporate and public affairs clients. He has more than a decade of experience in digital strategy and marketing for Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits and progressive political campaigns. In his time at BPI, he’s also served as a lead digital marketing consultant for the Human Rights Campaign for the past six years and worked on multiple campaigns and initiatives. He has also served on the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund Campaign Board since 2014.
Before joining BPI, Zumwalt was a freelance consultant and owner of Empowered Media Strategies. As a digital innovator in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, he was the chief digital strategist that helped launch and develop the award-winning It Gets Better Project in 2010. Zumwalt earned his bachelor’s in Political Economy from Georgetown University where he graduated cum laude and he was president of the Georgetown University College Democrats and then the D.C. College Democrats. He is anticipating finishing his Executive MBA at Columbia Business School in May.
Congratulations also to Melissa Sklarz who has started her new position with SAGE, Advocacy and Services for LGBT Elders as a Senior Government Relations Strategist. She will be advocating for SAGE at the city and state level in New York to help with their legislative agenda including fighting for LGBT veteran services and protection in long-term care. She will work on the capital campaign to provide resources for the Ingersoll Senior Residences in Brooklyn. Sklarz said, “This position is a good fit for my skills and I am very grateful to Lynn Faria and Michael Adams for the opportunity.”
She has broken ground in many ways for the transgender community. In 1999, Sklarz became the first transgender person elected to office in New York when she was elected a Judicial Delegate from the 66th Assembly District. In 2004, she became the first transgender person from New York to be part of the state delegation at the Democratic National Convention, by being appointed to the Credentials Committee and again on the Rules Committee in 2008. In 2016, she became the first New York trans person elected to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Later that year, Sklarz became the first trans American to be selected for the Electoral College.
She is a past board co-chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and of National Stonewall Democrats. She is a former president of Stonewall Democratic Club of New York and of Gay & Lesbian Independent Democrats. In 2008, she served as a co-chair for Obama Pride NYC, helping to organize the LGBT community for the campaign and was one of 250 activists invited to the first LGBT Pride in White House in June 2009.
Sklarz worked for two years as director of development for the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund resigning in 2018 to run for Assembly. She also had a featured role in the film “Transamerica.”
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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