District of Columbia
Buttigieg attends opening of As You Are bar
Soft opening of Capitol Hill LGBTQ space while owners await final city approvals
Gay U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband were among several dozen people who turned out on Tuesday for the surprise opening of As You Are, the Capitol Hill LGBTQ bar and café that faced initial delays in obtaining city permits to open at 500 8th St., S.E.
Lesbian activists and businesswomen Jo McDaniel and Rachel Pike, the owners of As You Are, said they decided to delay their planned expansion of a second-floor bathroom, which is needed under city regulations to allow them to have an occupancy capacity of 180 people. Instead, by opening now prior to the completion of the bathroom expansion, they can open with an occupancy capacity of 149.
Earlier this year, McDaniel and Pike told LGBTQ community supporters as well as supportive neighbors that the bathroom renovation was being delayed by what they thought was bureaucratic red tape by the city’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which must approve permits for various aspects of bars, restaurants, and other small businesses.
According to McDaniel, earlier this month a DCRA official told them that design plans for the expanded bathroom that an architect they hired had already prepared would have to be redone by an engineer, which McDaniel said would cost at least $2,000 or more for the hiring of the engineer. That prompted her and Pike to decide to temporarily postpone the bathroom expansion to give them time to generate revenue by opening the bar and café now, McDaniel said.
The two said that without the expanded bathroom they will have to hold off on their plans for a second-floor dance bar with a DJ and live entertainment such as drag shows. They said they expect to complete the bathroom expansion sometime later this year that will enable them to offer dancing and entertainment.
The two women told the Washington Blade concerns over obtaining permits were put aside on Tuesday, March 22, when supporters and others came in on opening day to order a drink or a lunch or dinner from the menu in As You Are’s first floor café.
“It really filled up here last night,” McDaniel said during a Blade visit on Wednesday afternoon. “It was wonderful. It was like a salon of people who sat together and chatted, and many stayed the whole night.”
McDaniel said she and Pike decided not to have an official grand opening ceremony and instead decided to have a less formal soft opening to give their staff a chance to adjust to the operation of the bar, kitchen, and other aspects of the place. She said they put out the word of the opening on social media.
“And it was really just sort of a word of mouth,” said McDaniel, who added that she, Pike, and many of the customers were delighted when Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten Buttigieg showed up.
“They wanted to show their support,” she said. “They live in the neighborhood. And he took a lot of pictures with people, which was nice,” McDaniel said in referring to Pete Buttigieg.
McDaniel and Pike, who are business and life partners, have said As You Are will welcome people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, and gender identities as well as drinkers and non-drinkers as customers. The two have called As You Are an inclusive space that “welcomes anyone of any walk of life that will support, love, and celebrate the mission of queer culture.”
Under an agreement reached with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission that has jurisdiction over As You Are’s location, the establishment will be open Tuesdays through Thursdays from noon to midnight and on Fridays and Saturdays from Noon to 3 a.m. McDaniel and Pike said they decided the bar and café will be closed on Mondays.
District of Columbia
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
Fr. Tom Oddo’s biographer speaks at Dignity Washington event
The author of a biography of a U.S. Catholic priest said to have advocated for support by the Catholic Church of gay Catholics in the early 1970s has called Father Thomas ‘Tom’ Oddo a little known but important figure in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Tyler Bieber, author of the recently published book “Against The Current: Father Tom Oddo And the New American Catholic,” told of Oddo’s life and work on behalf of LGBTQ rights at a March 22 talk before the local LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity Washington.
Among Oddo’s important accomplishments, Bieber said, was his role as a co-founder of the national LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity U.S.A. in 1973 at the age of 29.
But as reported in the prologue of his book, Bieber presented details of the sad news that Oddo died in a fatal car crash in 1989 at the age of 45 in Portland, Ore., where he was serving as the highly acclaimed president of the University of Portland, a Catholic institution.
“He was a major figure in the gay rights movement in the 1970s, an unsung hero of that movement,” Bieber told Dignity Washington members, who assembled for his talk in a meeting room at St. Margaret Episcopal Church near Dupont Circle, where they attend their weekly Catholic mass on Sundays.
“And Dignity U.S.A. saw intense growth in membership and visibility” during its early years under Oddo’s leadership, Bieber said. “The story of Father Tom and his contemporaries is a story largely untold in the history of the gay rights movement, but one worth knowing and considering,” he said.
As stated in his book, Bieber told the Dignity Washington gathering Oddo was born and raised in a Catholic family on Long Island, N.Y., and attended a Catholic high school in Flushing Queens. It was at that time when he developed an interest in becoming a priest, according to Bieber.
After studying at the University of Notre Dame and completing his religious studies he was ordained as a priest in 1970 and began his work as a priest in the Boston area, Bieber said. It was around that time, Bieber told the Dignity Washington audience, that gay Catholics approached Oddo to seek advice on how they should interact with the Catholic Church. It was also around that time that Oddo became involved in a group supportive of then gay Catholics that later became a Dignity chapter in Boston.
In a development considered unusual for a Catholic priest, Bieber said Oddo in 1973 testified in support of gay rights bill before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and collaborated with then Massachusetts gay and lesbian rights advocate Elaine Noble.
In 1982, at the age of 39, Oddo was selected as president of the University of Portland following several years as a college teacher in the Boston area, Bieber’s book states. It says he was seen as a “vibrant and capable administrator who delivered real results to his campus,” adding, “His magnetism was obvious. One student described him as ‘John Kennedyesque’ to the university’s student newspaper.”
Bieber said that although Oddo was less active with Dignity U.S.A. during his tenure as UP president, he continued his support for gay Catholics and what is now referred to as LGBTQ rights.
“For those that knew him prior to his term at UP, though, he represented something greater than an accomplished university administrator and educator,” Bieber’s book states. “He was a new kind of priest, a gay man living and ministering in a world set loose from tradition by the Second Vatican Council,” the book says.
It was referring to the Vatican gathering of worldwide Catholic leaders from 1962 to 1965 concluding under Pope Paul VI that church observers say modernized church practices to allow far greater participation by the laity and opened the way for sympathetic consideration of gay Catholics.
District of Columbia
HRC to host National Rainbow Seder
Bet Mishpachah among annual event’s organizers
The 18th National Rainbow Seder will take place at the Human Rights Campaign on Sunday.
The sold out event is the country’s largest Passover Seder for the Jewish LGBTQ community.
Organizations behind the event include Bet Mishpachah, a local D.C. LGBTQ synagogue that Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin leads, and GLOE, an Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center program that sponsors events for the queer Jewish community. The theme for this year’s Seder is “Liberation For All Who Journey: Remembering, Resisting, Rebuilding.” Rabbis Atara Cohen, Koach Frazier, and Avigayil Halpern will lead it.
The Seder will honor the late GLOE co-chair Michael Singer. Singer also served on the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s board.
“This Seder is both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to continue building a more just and inclusive world.” Bet Mishpachah Executive Director Joshua Maxey told the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
DeSantis signs emergency bill that restores Fla. ADAP funding
Menaka Guruswamy celebrated as India’s first openly LGBTQ MP
Trans-led HIV clinic in Portsmouth struggles amid funding cuts
D.C. goes gaga for Gaga
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
‘How We Survived’ panel set for March 25
Calendar: March 21-26
PHOTOS: Capital Stonewall Democrats 50th anniversary
‘Inherit the Wind’ isn’t about science vs. religion, but the right to think
