District of Columbia
Destination DC participates in Florida travel conference
State’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law has prompted boycott calls
Like many corporate accounts during the month of June, Destination DC’s twitter handle currently sports a bright, rainbow-colored logo. One of the first pop-ups on its website is a list of “can’t miss” Pride events, proclaiming the organization’s celebration of Pride Month.
However, just days before D.C. Pride was scheduled to begin, Destination DC travelled to Orlando, Fla. — a city home to heated debate over Florida’s recently signed “Don’t Say Gay” law — for the 22nd annual U.S. Travel Association IPW Conference.
The conference that Destination DC attended last week was described on the IPW website as “the travel industry’s premier international marketplace bringing together major industry players and buyers from around the world.” Destination DC President CEO Elliot Ferguson said the group stayed true to its mission of inclusivity while at the conference.
“At IPW specifically, we partnered with the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association on its pride reception, an annual fundraiser for the IGLTA Foundation since 2017,” said Ferguson in a statement. “IGLTA works to bring more awareness to safety and equality for LGTBQ travelers. Its foundation provides scholarship funds for emerging students as well as grant programing for new and small LGBTQ+ businesses across the globe.”
Ferguson’s statement did not specify where exactly the funding for Destination DC’s conference travel came from; but he said that the group is a private, nonprofit organization funded by less than 1 percent of D.C.’s hotel tax (a tax paid when people check into hotels.)
Ultimately, Ferguson argued that “weaponizing travel by boycotting destinations always hurts those in our industry who are the most vulnerable and need paychecks.”
However, the move to boycott states in response to discriminatory legislation is not unprecedented, and sometimes it can lead to meaningful legislative change.
Boycotts were a central feature of the civil rights movement, which spurred the passage of many legal protections on which LGBTQ people depend on today. In 2021, boycotts and corporate backlash followed Georgia’s passage of a restrictive voting rights bill. After North Carolina passed an anti-transgender “bathroom bill” in 2017, the state’s financial losses from corporate boycotts were estimated at a staggering $3.76 billion.
So why are companies still flocking to Florida for lucrative conferences, and how are they justifying their travel?
This year marked the eighth time Orlando has hosted the IPW conference — more than any other city — and the relationship between businesses and Florida has a long history of being both amicable and lucrative. If banning discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms won’t spur a corporate boycott, what will?
“Florida destinations, travel businesses and attractions from the Panhandle to the Keys remain some of the most open and welcoming places in our country for all travelers in and to our nation, evidenced by inclusive campaigns and events, Pride Days, and direct outreach to the LGBTQ+ community,” said a U.S. Travel Association spokesperson in an emailed statement to the Washington Blade. “Meeting together, face-to-face, to conduct business and learn from one another is a core function of the travel industry and a value that we uphold.”
While meeting in-person for a conference is certainly a valid goal for many, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s notably homophobic rhetoric begs the question if Florida is really as “open and welcoming” — at least legislatively — as the U.S. Travel Association claims.
DeSantis’s administration seems unbothered by the idea that their legislation might be off putting to some corporations.
Press Secretary Christina Pushaw recently told Forbes “if anyone actually boycotts Florida because they’re upset about the lack of sex and gender theory instruction in our kindergarten through third grade classrooms, I’m confident that our state is better off without them.”
Corporations like Destination DC tread a fine line between being present to advocate for LGBTQ people and indirectly (and financially) supporting Florida’s recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. However, according to Ferguson, in the case of IPW 2022, the need for participation won out — even though it was in Florida.
“Wherever we are in the world, we embrace and promote D.C.’s diverse community and we’re proud that it includes a large LBGTQ+ population,” said Ferguson. “Our sales and media missions are opportunities to reiterate that we are unapologetically inclusive and welcome the world to Washington, D.C.”
The Blade has reached out to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office for comment.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
LGBTQ political group set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Longtime Democratic Party activists Stevie McCarty and Brad Howard won election last week as president and vice president for administration for the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
In a Feb. 24 announcement, the group said McCarty and Howard, both of whom are elected DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, ran in a special Capital Stonewall Democrats election to fill the two leadership positions that became vacant when the officers they replaced resigned.
Outgoing President Howard Garrett, who McCarty has replaced, told the Washington Blade he resigned after taking on a new position as chair of the city’s Ward 1 Democratic Committee. The Capital Stonewall Democrats announcement didn’t say who Howard replaced as vice president for administration.
The group’s website shows its other officers include Elizabeth Mitchell as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, and Monica Nemeth as Treasurer. The officer position of secretary is vacant, the website shows.
“As we look toward 2026, the stakes for D.C. and for LGBTQ+ communities have never been clearer,” the group’s statement announcing McCarty and Howard’s election says. “Our 50th anniversary celebration on March 20 and the launch of our D.C. LGBTQ+ Voter’s Guide mark the beginning of a major year for endorsements, organizing, and coalition building,” the statement says.
McCarty said among the organization’s major endeavors will be holding virtual endorsement forums where candidates running for D.C. mayor and the Council will appear and seek the group’s endorsement.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to Capital Stonewall Democrats. McCarty said the 50th anniversary celebration on March 20, in which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council are expected to attend, will be held at the PEPCO Gallery meeting center at 702 8th St., N.W.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
District of Columbia
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Darren Pasha accused of stalking organization staff, board members, volunteers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb.18 agreed to rescind his earlier ruling declaring local gay activist Darren Pasha in default for failing to attend a virtual court hearing regarding an anti-stalking lawsuit brought against him by the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events.
The Capital Pride lawsuit, initially filed on Oct. 27, 2025, accuses Pasha of engaging in a year-long “course of conduct” of “harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior” targeting Capital Pride staff, board members, and volunteers.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
Judge Robert D. Okum nevertheless on Feb. 6 approved a temporary stay-away order requiring Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, volunteers, and board members until the time of a follow-up court hearing scheduled for April 17. He reduced the stay-away distance from 200 yards as requested by Capital Pride.
In his two-page order issued on Feb. 18, Okun stated that Pasha explained that he was involved in a scooter accident in which he was injured and his phone was damaged, preventing him from joining the Feb. 6 court hearing.
“Therefore, the court finds there is a good cause for vacating the default,” Okun states in his order.
At the time he initially approved the default order at the Feb. 6 hearing that Pasha didn’t attend, Okun scheduled an April 17 ex parte proof hearing in which Capital Pride could have requested a ruling in its favor seeking a permanent anti-stalking order against Pasha.
In his Feb. 18 ruling rescinding the default order Okun changed the April 17 ex parte proof hearing to an initial scheduling conference hearing in which a decision on the outcome of the case is not likely to happen.
In addition, he agreed to consider Pasha’s call for a jury trial and gave Capital Pride 14 days to contest that request. The Capital Pride lawsuit initially called for a non-jury trial by judge.
One request by Pasha that Okum denied was a call for him to order Capital Pride to stop its staff or volunteers from posting information about the lawsuit on social media. Pasha has said the D.C.-based online blog called DC Homos, which Pasha claims is operated by someone associated with Capital Pride, has been posting articles portraying him in a negative light and subjecting him to highly negative publicity.
“The defendant has not set forth a sufficient basis for the court to restrict the plaintiff’s social media postings, and the court therefore will deny the defendant’s request in his social media praecipe,” Okun states in his order.
A praecipe is a formal written document requesting action by a court.
Pasha called the order a positive development in his favor. He said he plans to file another motion with more information about what he calls the unfair and defamatory reports about him related to the lawsuit by DC Homos, with a call for the judge to reverse his decision not to order Capital Pride to stop social media postings about the lawsuit.
Pasha points to a video interview on the LGBTQ Team Rayceen broadcast, a link to which he sent to the Washington Blade, in which DC Homos operator Jose Romero acknowledged his association with Capital Pride Alliance.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos didn’t immediately respond to a message from the Blade asking whether Romero was a volunteer or employee with Capital Pride.
Pasha also said he believes the latest order has the effect of rescinding the temporary stay away order against him approved by Okun in his earlier ruling, even though Okun makes no mention of the stay away order in his latest ruling. Capital Pride attorney Nick Harrison told the Blade the stay away order “remains in full force and effect.”
Harrison said Capital Pride has no further comment on the lawsuit.
Transmission DC breathes new life into a storied sound space
Criteria for supporting a candidate in D.C.
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
Moving doc ‘Come See Me’ is more than Oscar worthy
The global cost of Trump’s foreign aid ideology
PHOTOS: Cupid’s Undie Run
US Embassy in Mexico issues shelter in place order for Puerto Vallarta
Sweat DC expands to Shaw
2026: prices, pace, and winter weather
