Local
Comings & Goings
Cline joins Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
The ‘Comings & Goings’ column chronicles important life changes of Blade readers.
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 Troy Cline on his new position as Public Outreach Project Manager at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Upon taking the position, he said, “The new job is great but keeping me busy as I learn my way around. I’ll have to say that the team at APL is awesome! In my new role I will focus on Public Outreach and Engagement in the Communications Department. The missions I will work with include Parker Solar Probe, and several others. Each is unique and incredible. I love being in a position where I can remind people we are all part of the same universe and made from the same materials created when the stars were born.”
Before coming to APL, Cline was the director of the NASA STEAM Innovation Lab that provided a collaborative (physical and virtual) space for the exploration and development of new ideas related to infusion of media and educational technology into STEAM activities, programs, and approaches. Prior to that he was the E/PO Lead for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) and was responsible for mission-level public outreach activities and coordination of overall EPO efforts. Before coming to NASA, Cline spent 11 years as a teacher in a variety of challenging locations including the Navajo Indian Reservation, the United States Peace Corps and as an Educational Technology Coordinator at an alternative high school where he worked with ‘at-risk’ students.
Cline was honored with two NASA Silver Achievement Medals: Eclipse Team 2017, Parker Solar Probe Team 2019 and 10 NASA Group Achievement Awards. He was an invited TEDx speaker in Punjab, India in 2019. He received the Pirelli International Award, as co-creator in the development and design of NASA’s Sun-Earth Media Viewer. This Pirelli award is the world’s first Internet multimedia award aimed at the diffusion of scientific and technological culture worldwide.
Cline earned his bachelor’s in education (K-8) at West Virginia University, graduating summa cum laude. He earned his master’s in Educational Technology and Leadership from George Washington University in D.C.
Congratulations also to Steve Alexander on his new position as Director of Philanthropy at KUOW, part of the NPR family. On landing the job, Alexander said, “I’m immensely proud to step into the Director of Philanthropy role at KUOW, and to join a huge NPR family. I sure do miss D.C. though. From Food and Friends to Miss Adams Morgan, WAMU and the Duplex Diner — so many fantastic memories. I’m a whole lot quieter these days. Grateful to be a husband and stepdad, and to call Seattle home. It’s beautiful here! Don’t believe what they tell you about the rain.”
Prior to this job he was founder and principal of Alexander Strategies in Seattle. His clients included USA for UNHCR, Amnesty International, Everytown for Gun Safety, SOS Children’s Villages, Coalition for the Homeless, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Before that, he served as senior director of Direct Response USA for UNHCR in D.C. and was vice president of strategy and analytics for Sanky Communications in New York. His previous positions include director of fundraising systems for Doctors Without Borders, also in New York.
Many know Alexander from his roles as vice president of development at the Victory Fund and Leadership Institute; and director of events and corporate giving for Food and Friends, in D.C.
Steve Alexander
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
