Local
Petition signature challenge against Ward 7 gay candidate dismissed
Person who filed complaint is not a D.C. resident
The D.C. Board of Elections last week dismissed a challenge against gay Ward 7 D.C. Council candidate Anthony Lorenzo Green’s petition signatures needed to qualify him to be placed on the ballot in the city’s June 2 Democratic primary.
According to Rudolph McGann, the election board’s senior staff attorney, a board investigation found that the person who filed the challenge against the petition signatures for Green and three other Ward 7 Council candidates, attorney Martinis Jackson, is not a registered D.C. voter.
McGann noted that D.C. election rules require that petition signature challenges must be filed by registered D.C. voters. McGann said Green has now been approved to appear on the ballot in the June primary.
In a statement, Green said he also confirmed from property records that Jackson is a resident of New Carrollton, Md., and Jackson listed his New Carrollton address when he made a $50 contribution last year to the campaign of rival Ward 7 Council candidate Veda Rasheed who Jackson appears to be supporting.
“This individual’s request to challenge me and other candidates was effectively denied after I submitted evidence to the D.C. Board of Elections that he was a Maryland resident, effectively exposing the truth about the corruption and misleading information being spread by others in this race,” Green said in his statement.
Green is a Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights. He and Rasheed are among five candidates challenging incumbent Ward 7 Council member and former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray in the June 2 primary. Jackson filed his challenge against Green and three other candidates – James Leroy Jennings, Rebecca Morris, and Kelvin Brown – but not against Rasheed and Gray.
McGann said all of Jackson’s challenges have been dismissed on the same grounds – that Jackson isn’t a registered D.C. voter.
A spokesperson for Gray said Gray had nothing to do with the challenge against the four candidates, including Green.
Jackson didn’t return a call from the Blade seeking comment.
Gray is a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights. He is considered the favorite to win the primary and the general election in November. Political observers in Ward 7, however, have said Green is running a credible campaign, leading all of his rivals except Gray in fundraising for his campaign.
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
