Local

Beloved D.C. nightclub figure Reggie Tyson dies at 62

Arkansas-native was part owner of Tracks nightclub

Published

6 years ago

February 21, 2020

Reggie “Reg” Tyson, whose involvement as a bartender, manager, and part owner of the D.C. gay nightclub Tracks in the 1990s and his later role in other D.C. gay nightlife venues in which numerous friends and patrons say he influenced their lives for the better, died Feb. 15 at a hospital in Silver Spring, Md., from complications associated with kidney disease and diabetes. He was 62.

His brother, Herb Tyson, said Reggie Tyson was surrounded by loving family members at White Oak Adventist Healthcare Medical Center in Silver Spring at the time of his passing.

Herb Tyson said he and his brother came from a family in which their father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer. He said his brother Reggie attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and had an interest in international affairs.

He began his career by “dabbling a little bit” in the import-export field, according to Herb Tyson. “But he always kind of ended up back in restaurants and nightclubs,” the brother said.

“He was an incredible host,” Herb Tyson recalls of his brother Reggie. “He loved to entertain people. And he wanted to make sure everybody got what they needed in life, whether it was food, drink, love or a roof over their head.”

Gay nightlife advocate Mark Lee, a longtime nightclub event producer and the current coordinator of the D.C. Nightlife Council, said Reggie Tyson was well-known and liked by customers and co-workers at the clubs where he worked.

“Throughout a two-decade career as part of the operational team and a bartender at Tracks and Velvet Nation, Reggie Tyson was one of the kindest souls and most welcoming personalities working in the local club scene, always with a broad smile and a big laugh who was everyone’s friend in a humbly gracious manner that few extend or achieve,” Lee said.

Herb Tyson said Reggie was born in Little Rock, Ark., on May 25, 1957, where the family lived until his father’s work as a Foreign Service officer eventually brought the family to the D.C. area in the mid-1960s. Reggie Tyson graduated from Wootton High School in Rockville, Md., before beginning college at Georgetown University, according to his brother.

One of Reggie Tyson’s ventures in the restaurant business, his brother said, brought him to St. John’s in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Reggie lived from around 2001 to 2006 to operate a restaurant that catered to tourists arriving on large cruise ships.

D.C. gay businessman John Guggenmos, who has been a partner and operator of numerous D.C. gay bars and nightclubs for over 30 years, credits Reggie Tyson with playing an important role as a friend and business partner in Guggenmos’ successful business ventures, including Tracks and Velvet Nation nightclubs in Southeast D.C.

Guggenmos said he first met Tyson in 1989 at the 17th Street gay bar JR’s at a time when Guggenmos was searching for a place to live while getting ready to attend graduate school at George Washington University. He had just arrived in D.C. from his hometown of Laramie, Wyo.

He said Tyson offered to rent him a room in the Logan Circle House where Tyson was living at the time, and the two soon became friends and a short time later business partners when Guggenmos, Tyson and others took over the operation of Tracks.

“Many people didn’t know Reg was a business partner of mine in Tracks and a big part of his legacy will be the unassuming foundation he provided, how he connected people, played a role in shaping D.C. gay nightlife and for believing in me before I believed in myself,” Guggenmos told the Blade.

Guggenmos’ account of how Tyson had a positive impact on his life was repeated by others in an outpouring of Facebook postings by people who knew Tyson upon learning of his passing.

“Reggie was the first face to ever greet me at my first gay club before I was even out,” wrote Christopher Wiggins in a Facebook post. “Back in 2000 I walked into Nation terrified and he looked at me from behind the bar and smiled,” Wiggins continued. ‘Here … have a Reggie Special …’ and he handed me a drink,” Wiggins wrote, saying the gesture eased his tension and brightened his visit to the club.

“Reggie was such a presence and you always knew you were safe whenever you saw his smile or he gave you a loving hug,” wrote Scott Jimenez in another Facebook post. “R.I.P. Reg and heaven has most welcomed an Angel home.”

Reggie Tyson is survived by his mother, two brothers, a sister, “tons of nieces and nephews,” and countless friends, his brother Herb Tyson said. He is predeceased by his father, who passed away two months ago. A memorial service is being planned for the spring and an announcement of the details will be made at that time, Herb Tyson said.

Virginia

Gay Va. State Sen. Ebbin resigns for role in Spanberger administration

Veteran lawmaker will step down in February

Published

3 days ago

January 8, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin will step down effective Feb. 18. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Alexandria Democrat Adam Ebbin, who has served as an openly gay member of the Virginia Legislature since 2004, announced on Jan. 7 that he is resigning from his seat in the State Senate to take a job in the administration of Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger.

Since 2012, Ebbin has been a member of the Virginia Senate for the 39^th District representing parts of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax counties. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria from 2004 to 2012, becoming the state’s first out gay lawmaker.

His announcement says he submitted his resignation from his Senate position effective Feb. 18 to join the Spanberger administration as a senior adviser at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.

“I’m grateful to have the benefit of Senator Ebbin’s policy expertise continuing to serve the people of Virginia, and I look forward to working with him to prioritize public safety and public health,” Spanberger said in Ebbin’s announcement statement.

She was referring to the lead role Ebbin has played in the Virginia Legislature’s approval in 2020 of legislation decriminalizing marijuana and the subsequent approval in 2021of a bill legalizing recreational use and possession of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. But the Virginia Legislature has yet to pass legislation facilitating the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use and limits sales to purchases at licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I share Governor-elect Spanberger’s goal that adults 21 and over who choose to use cannabis, and those who use it for medical treatment, have access to a well-tested, accurately labeled product, free from contamination,” Ebbin said in his statement. “2026 is the year we will move cannabis sales off the street corner and behind the age-verified counter,” he said.

Maryland

Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat, to retire from Congress

Md. congressman served for years in party leadership

Published

3 days ago

January 8, 2026

Baltimore Banner

At 86, Steny Hoyer is the latest in a generation of senior-most leaders stepping aside, making way for a new era of lawmakers eager to take on governing. (Photo by KT Kanazawich for the Baltimore Banner)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and LISA MASCARO | Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and once a rival to become House speaker, will announce Thursday he is set to retire at the end of his term.

Hoyer, who served for years in party leadership and helped steer Democrats through some of their most significant legislative victories, is set to deliver a House floor speech about his decision, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

“Tune in,” Hoyer said on social media. He confirmed his retirement plans in an interview with the Washington Post.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

District of Columbia

Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash

Artists who cancel shows threatened; calls for funding boycott grow

Published

3 days ago

January 7, 2026

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, threatened to sue a performer who canceled a holiday show. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to add President Trump’s name to the D.C. arts institution continue to spark backlash.

A new petition from Qommittee , a national network of drag artists and allies led by survivors of hate crimes, calls on Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding to the center until “artistic independence is restored, and to redirect support to banned or censored artists.”

“While Trump won’t back down, the donors who contribute nearly $100 million annually to the Kennedy Center can afford to take a stand,” the petition reads. “Money talks. When donors fund censorship, they don’t just harm one institution – they tell marginalized communities their stories don’t deserve to be told.”

The petition can be found here.

Meanwhile, a decision by several prominent musicians and jazz performers to cancel their shows at the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center in D.C. planned for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve has drawn the ire of the Center’s president, Richard Grenell.

Grenell, a gay supporter of President Donald Trump who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term as president, was named Kennedy Center president last year by its board of directors that had been appointed by Trump.

Last month the board voted to change the official name of the center from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. The revised name has been installed on the outside wall of the center’s building but is not official because any name change would require congressional action.

According to a report by the New York Times, Grenell informed jazz musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a 2025 Christmas Eve concert that he has hosted at the Kennedy Center for nearly 20 years in response to the name change, that Grenell planned to arrange for the center to file a lawsuit against him for the cancellation.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution,” the Times quoted Grenell as saying in a letter to Redd.

“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” the Times quoted Grenell’s letter as saying.

A spokesperson for the Trump-Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Washington Blade asking if the center still planned to file that lawsuit and whether it planned to file suits against some of the other musicians who recently cancelled their performances following the name change.

In a follow-up story published on Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that a prominent jazz ensemble and a New York dance company had canceled performances scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.

The Times reported the jazz ensemble called The Cookers did not give a reason for the cancellation in a statement it released, but its drummer, Billy Hart, told the Times the center’s name change “evidently” played a role in the decision to cancel the performance.

Grenell released a statement on Dec. 29 calling these and other performers who cancelled their shows “far left political activists” who he said had been booked by the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership.

“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” the Times quoted him as saying in his statement.