Local
Crew Club plans to reopen in existing 14th Street building
Owners decide not to sell; new business partners to help operate club
The Crew Club, D.C.’s gym, sauna and bathhouse for gay men that has been closed since the city’s COVID-19 related restrictions were put in place over a year ago, “hopes” to reopen possibly as soon as later this month, according to its founder and co-owner DC Allen.
Allen told the Washington Blade that he and his husband Ken Flick, the other co-owner, have decided not to sell the Crew Club building at 1321 14th St., N.W., near Logan Circle after placing it on the market for sale last fall.
He said he and Flick are in the process of taking on new partners to help operate the club now that coronavirus restrictions have been lifted for city gyms, health clubs and similar establishments.
“We are reopening soon…hopefully late July 2021,” a message posted last week on the Crew Club’s website says.
“We are getting the place ready,” the message says. “Cleaning up, replacing things, and getting ready to open (hopefully) late July!” the message adds. “Get ready…”
Allen said negotiations were under way and he was not at liberty to say whether the new partners are the same ones that he announced last February were going to operate the Crew Club after he reversed an earlier decision to permanently close the club and sell the building to the Douglas Development Company, the city’s largest real estate development firm.
Allen told the Blade last February that the sale to Douglas Development fell through and he and Flick arranged to take on new partners to operate the club indefinitely. But Allen told the Blade last October that the arrangement with the new partners “fell apart” when the coronavirus pandemic hit the city in full force, forcing the club to remain closed for an undetermined length of time. That prompted him and Flick to once again put the building on the market for sale or lease.
At that time, he said it would be up to the building’s new owner or leaseholder to decide whether to continue to operate the Crew Club or a similar club with a different name at the 14th Street building. “It is unlikely the club will reopen,” Allen said last October.
But now, he said, he is “hopeful, and hope is the biggest word in there,” that the Crew Club will reopen under an arrangement with new partners.
Prior to its closing last year, the Crew Club had been operating at the 1321 14th St., N.W. building for just over 25 years.
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
