Local
Comings & Goings
Parson forms new consulting firm
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].
Congratulations to Brett A. Parson on the formation of his consulting firm, Brett A. Parson Consulting. Parson has more than 25 years’ experience in local, state, and federal law enforcement. He is an internationally recognized leader who has championed award-winning innovations in multiple areas. During his time with the Metropolitan Police Department, in Washington, D.C., he created the Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, which received Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Innovations in Government Award, along with a $100,000 grant to help replicate the program. His roles have taken him across almost all aspects of MPD, working in vice, narcotics, gun recovery, alcohol-related crimes, bias-related (hate) crimes, domestic violence, violent crimes (sexual abuse and homicides), and supervising the city’s elite Narcotics Strike Force.
Currently he is working for The Georgetown University Law Center’s Innovative Policing Project ABLE. He said, “I am super excited about this project. ABLE seeks to change the culture of policing, by teaching officers when to intervene and how to effectively intervene when they see a fellow officer about to do something harmful or stop harm while it is occurring.” He added, “Imagine if the three officers who were present when Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd had this training and skills and confidence to save Mr. Floyd. The added benefit is that departments where this program has been implemented have seen a wholesale change in their culture.”
Parson is working with Out to Protect, a group of police officers who are creating a network of liaison officers around the world. He is a member of their board. He also works for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Association (IACLEA). He is president of the local chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors and the Shomrim Society.
Parson was recognized by MPD many times including as Officer of the Year, and Supervisor of the Year and received awards from groups including U.S. Attorney’s Office – Washington, D.C., the Human Rights Campaign, and Children’s National Medical Center.
Congratulations also to Derek Smith who is the new manager at HalfSmoke, in D.C. He said, “Come visit me as your resident manager for an amazing experience at HalfSmoke at Florida and 7th Streets NW! Especially for unlimited Happy Hour!” He reminds all COVID precautions are fully observed.
For the past eight years, he worked as a private chef in East Hampton, N.Y. and D.C. He has worked as catering sales specialist at Breadline (by La Madeleine); dining assistant manager at Hay-Adams Hotel; and catering manager at Marriott Food Service, Northfield, Vt.
Smith served in the United States Air Force and received a number of medals including the Air Medal (twice), for combat missions flown in Afghanistan; the aerial Achievement Medal, for combat support missions flown in the Middle Eastern theater; and Air Force Commendation Medal for Quick Diagnosis and repair of C-130 aircraft while under attack.
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
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Not all trans people are the same
Calendar: August 21-27
