Local
GLAA celebrates 48th anniversary
D.C. Council members join activists at reception
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and fellow Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) were among more than 50 community leaders and LGBT activists and their supporters that turned out on April 18 for the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington’s 48th anniversary reception.
GLAA is the nation’s oldest continuously active LGBT civil rights organization. It has been credited with playing a lead role in advocating for and monitoring the implementation of virtually all of D.C.’s LGBT rights laws and policies, including the city’s 2009 law legalizing same-sex marriage, since its founding in 1971.
The event took place at the Lost Society restaurant and nightclub at 2001 14th Street, N.W.
Also attending the event were Monica Palacios, director of the D.C. Office of Human Rights; and members of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s LGBT Liaison Unit, including the unit’s supervisor, Sgt. Nicole Brown, and Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees all of the department’s liaison units.
Mendelson and Evans presented the non-partisan GLAA with a ceremonial resolution passed unanimously by the D.C. Council praising GLAA for its work on behalf of the LGBT community and the city as a whole, among other things, for its longtime advocacy for D.C. home rule and against congressional interference in D.C.’s local affairs.
Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of the Mayor’s Office on LGBTQ Affairs, presented the group with a proclamation issued by Mayor Muriel Bowser recognizing GLAA’s work over its 48-year history and declaring April 18 Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance Day in the District of Columbia.
D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) earlier this month spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about GLAA and its work.
“Today, I rise to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the 48th anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C.,” Norton said in a message recorded in the Congressional Record.
GLAA used the occasion of its anniversary reception to present its annual Distinguished Service Award to two organizations and an individual in recognition of their service to the LGBT community and the city.
The Distinguished Service Award recipients this year included Center Global, a program of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community that provides support and services to LGBT immigrants seeking political asylum in the United States; Compassion & Choices, a national organization that advocates for end-of-life care and choices for terminally ill patients; and Diego Miguel Sanchez, an award-winning international public relations, marketing, and diversity management expert, transgender rights advocate and current Director of Advocacy, Policy & Partnerships for the national LGBT group PFLAG.
“A lot of folks think that with the accomplishment of marriage equality in the District the work of GLAA has passed,” Mendelson told the Blade at the GLAA reception. “But civil rights is never ending and the work of GLAA needs to continue,” he said.
Evans agreed with that assessment, saying it’s important that the younger generation of activists know about GLAA’s long history in pushing for LGBT equality in D.C.
“Our work is never done. It can slip away as fast as we got it,” Evans said. “And particularly what you see with the Trump administration there are those who would turn the clock back,” he said. “And so we have to be vigilant, we have to be ever forceful and we have to always advance the cause, and that’s why GLAA is here today and will be here tomorrow,” Evans said.
“I felt we had a wonderful event,” said GLAA President Bobbi Strang. “We could not have done it without all the assistance from our different members and we had wonderful honorees this year,” she said.
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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