Local
Longtime Gay Men’s Chorus member Russell Capps dies at 54
Served as executive for large non-profits
Russell Craig ‘Russ’ Capps, a longtime resident of Kensington, Md., who worked for most of his career as a chief financial officer and chief operating officer for large non-profit organizations and who served many years as a singer and board member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., died Aug. 19 at the age of 54.
His friend Michael Hill said the cause of death was complications associated with a heart attack.
A write-up about his life provided by Hill on behalf of Capps’ family says that since 1997, when he first met the man who later became his husband, Kenneth Yazge, in Rehoboth Beach, Del., the two shared more than two decades together, among other things, “hosting some of the most incredible dinner parties” and traveling with a large circle of friends and loved ones.
“The number of people who claimed Russ as their best friend is countless,” the write-up sent to the Washington Blade by Hill says. “He had an intensity for those he loved and would go to the ends of the earth to help anyone who needed him,” it says.
The write up notes that for much of his adult life Capps was a “bedrock leader” for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. Among other things, he served as the chorus’s treasurer and on its board of directors.
His deepest love, the write-up says, was his 14-year stint as a member of the chorus’s ensemble known as Potomac Fever, with whom he traveled for singing engagements and performed at the first inaugural concert for President Barack Obama and later at the first LGBT reception at the Obama White House.
According to the write-up, Capps most recently worked as COO for the American Foreign Service Association. Prior to that he served as CFO for the Construction Specifications Institute and held similar positions at the American Dental Education Association and the D.C.-based Center for Development & Population Activities
He also served for 12 years as CFO at the Association of Corporate Counsel and was active for many years as a leader and panelist for the American Society of Association Executives, the write-up says.
Capps received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Virginia’s Radford University and was a graduate of Rebert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Va.
The write-up says Capps and Yazge, who married in 2013, “saw each other through life’s great ups and downs, including renovating their Kensington house, selling and starting businesses and new jobs, and buying a second home in Rehoboth Beach, an escape that they fled to any time they could and one that they shared generously with family and friends.”
Capps is survived by his husband, Kenneth M. Yazge; his brother, Robert L. Capps, Jr.; his niece, Brittany Capps; and his nephew, Stephen Capps. He is predeceased by his parents, Robert and Mary.
A celebration of Capps’ life is scheduled to be held at Foundry United Methodist Church in D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, at 1 p.m. The write-up provided by Hill says donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. at gmcw.org.
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.
Dolly Parton dies at 80
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
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
Not all trans people are the same
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Calendar: August 21-27
