Local
Longtime Postal Service worker Catherine Barnes dies at 85
‘She was a wonderful, wonderful person’
Catherine H. Barnes, who worked for 33 years at the U.S. Postal Service in Washington and served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the city’s Capitol View neighborhood where she lived, died of natural causes at her home on Oct. 13, 2018. She was 85.
Barnes was born and raised in the small town of Middlesex, N.C., and received a bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina’s Shaw University, according to her eldest son, Chris Barnes.
Chris Barnes said his mother moved to D.C. in the early 1950s where she was married and later divorced while raising her six children, five boys and one girl.
In the role of a working mom, she began work at the D.C. main U.S. Postal Service building on North Capitol Street and later transferred to the new D.C. U.S. Postal Service facility in the Brentwood neighborhood, according to Chris Barnes. He said she worked for the Postal Service for 33 years before retiring in 2004 or 2005.
Chris Barnes said his mother was an active parishioner at Open Door Baptist Church near her and her family’s home for many years. He said she was also active in local civil affairs and served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the Capitol View neighborhood in Ward 7, where she and her family lived.
He said his brother and his mom’s third son is a gay man who his mother accepted and loved like each of her other children.
“On a Post Office salary she raised six wonderful children,” Chris Barnes said. “And looking at an old pay stub, it wasn’t a whole lot of money, but she kept us all clean and a roof over our heads,” he said. “She was a wonderful, wonderful person.”
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PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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