Local
Comings & Goings
Frisch elected to Fairfax County School Board
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].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.
Congratulations to Karl Frisch who has been elected to the Fairfax County School Board from the Providence District. Frisch is the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to local office in Fairfax County. Upon his election, he said “I’m excited about the work ahead and grateful that voters responded favorably to my message of making sure every student has the tools they need to succeed no matter who they are, where they are from, or how much money their parents make.” A former small business owner, Frisch helped clients like the National Education Association, Rock the Vote, several technology companies, and others refine their public relations and marketing strategies to more effectively break through the cluttered national media environment.
He serves as executive director Allied Progress. Founded in 2015, Allied Progress is a watchdog organization that stands up for consumers by holding policymakers and predatory financial institutions accountable. Allied Progress is a project of Accountable. US, a nonpartisan watchdog group committed to making sure public officials are advancing policies in the public interest across a wide range of issues. Previously, he was communications director at Media Matters for America. Frisch is a member of the campaign board at the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute. He is an avid traveler and photographer. He lives next door to Mosby Woods Elementary School with his partner Evan, a product of Fairfax County Public Schools and a teacher in the system for nearly 15 years. He attended El Camino College in California.
Congratulations also to Hassan Syed Naveed, the new deputy executive director for The Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the OPHC in summer 2019. Embedded in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, OPHC will take a holistic approach to preventing hate crimes, developing and coordinating community-driven prevention strategies to address biases fueling such crimes, and fostering healing for victims and their communities. The new office will coordinate city efforts to prevent and respond to hate crimes through an interagency committee, which includes the City Commission on Human Rights, Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, Department of Education, Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, ThriveNYC, and Department of Youth and Community Development.
Previously, Naveed served as director of outreach for the New York City Department of Investigation’s Office of Inspector General with the NYPD. Prior to working for New York City, he worked as an associate with McKinney & Associates Public Relations Firm. His clients included civil rights organizations, human rights groups and philanthropists.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his master’s in public administration, policy and management from New York University, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He served as chair of the D.C. Anti-Violence Project and is a board member of Casa Ruby. Naveed was also awarded the “Engendered Spirit Award” from D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance in 2014, recognizing his advocacy efforts for transgender people.
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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Celebrations of life planned for Sean Bartel
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