District of Columbia
Vote in D.C.’s ‘LGBTQ precincts’ divided between Bowser, White
Bonds loses in 10 of 13 precincts with high concentration of queer voters
Voters in 13 of the city’s 144 electoral precincts that LGBTQ activists have long said include a high concentration of LGBTQ residents and voters divided their vote between D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Councilmember Robert White, her lead rival, in the city’s June 21 Democratic primary.
In the D.C. Board of Elections final but unofficial vote tally for the primary, which it released on July 3, Bowser beat Robert White (D-At-Large) in seven of the 13 so-called LGBTQ precincts. Robert White won in six of the precincts. The two mayoral candidates won or lost in the 13 precincts mostly by a close margin of less than 5 percent.
The other two Democratic mayoral candidates, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White and former attorney and former Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner James Butler, received less than 10 percent of the vote in each of the 13 precincts in question.
The precincts include the neighborhoods of Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Shaw, Capitol Hill, Anacostia, and the Southwest Waterfront.
In the race for the D.C. Council Chair, incumbent Phil Mendelson and his only Democratic opponent, attorney and community activist Erin Palmer, each won six of the 13 LGBTQ precincts. The two finished in a tie vote in Precinct 90, which is part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, with each receiving 294 votes or 49.75 percent of the vote in that precinct, according to the Board of Elections final returns.
In the At-Large Council race, incumbent Councilmember Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), a longtime supporter of the LGBTQ community, did not fare as well as Bowser and Mendelson in the LGBTQ precincts. Bonds won in just three of the 13 precincts – those in Logan Circle, Shaw, and Anacostia.
Among her three opponents in the four-candidate race in the primary, attorney Nate Fleming won six of the precincts and ANC Commissioner Lisa Gore won in four of the LGBTQ precincts.
The fourth candidate running for the at-large seat, former DC Council staffer and former Howard University community relations official Dexter Williams, received less than 10 percent of the vote in each of the 13 precincts and lost in all of them.
The candidates challenging Bonds for the at-large Council seat – as well as all the Democratic candidates running for mayor and the Council Chair seat – expressed strong support for LGBTQ rights. Bonds’s poor showing in the LGBTQ precincts suggests that at least some LGBTQ voters may have voted for Fleming and Gore instead of Bonds based on other issues.
Bonds won the primary with 35.85 percent of the vote, with Gore receiving 28.08 percent of the vote and Fleming receiving 27.73 percent, according to the Board of Elections final vote count.
In the race for mayor, Bowser won the primary with 49.01 percent of the citywide vote. Robert White received 40.5 percent, Trayon White received 8.79 percent, and Butler received 1.38 percent.
In the Council chair race, Mendelson, a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter, won the citywide vote with 53.16 percent compared to challenger Palmer, who received 46.44 percent.
Four of the 13 precincts considered to have a high concentration of LGBTQ residents and voters are in Ward 1. They include Precincts 24 and 25 in Adams Morgan and Precincts 23 and 36 in Columbia Heights.
The final vote count for those four precincts show that incumbent Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) beat her gay opponent in the Ward 1 race, former D.C. police officer Salah Czapary, in each of the four precincts. Nadeau won in three of the four precincts by a margin greater than 10 percent of the vote.
In a development that surprised some in the LGBTQ community, Capital Stonewall Democrats, the city’s largest local LGBTQ political organization, endorsed Nadeau over Czapary in the Ward 1 Council race. Czapary received the endorsement of the national LGBTQ Victory Fund as well as from the Washington Post and former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.
Activists following the race have said LGBTQ voters who backed Nadeau were clearly basing their vote on issues other than LGBTQ rights, for which Nadeau and a third candidate in the race, community activist Sabel Harris, have expressed support.
Nadeau won the Ward 1 primary with 48.46 percent of the vote. Czapary received 30.94 percent, with Harris receiving 20.36 percent.
In the Ward 5 D.C. Council contest, gay D.C. Board of Education member Zachary Parker won the primary in a seven-candidate race, placing him in a strong position to win the November general election and become the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015. The Blade couldn’t immediately identify precincts in Ward 5 that may have significant numbers of LGBTQ voters.
In the mayor’s race, Bowser and Robert White each won and lost one of the two LGBTQ precincts in Dupont Circle and Logan Circle by close margins. Bowser beat Robert White in Dupont Circle Precinct 14 by a margin of 50.26 percent to 45.42 percent. But Robert White won in the adjacent Dupont Circle Precinct 15 by a margin of 49.0 percent to 48.17 percent over Bowser.
The mayor won the Logan Circle Precinct 16 by a vote of 54.29 percent compared to Robert White, who received 41.12 percent. In the Logan Circle Precinct 17, Robert White beat Bowser by a margin of 48.29 percent to 46.33 percent.
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Citywide Vote Count
Board of Elections
DC MAYOR
James Butler 1,753 1.38%
Muriel Bowser 62,391 49.01%
Trayon White 11,193 8.79%
Robert White 51,557 40.5%
Write-In 406 0.32%
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Precinct Vote Count
Precincts with High Concentration of LGBTQ voters
Board of Elections
DC MAYOR
Precinct 14 – Dupont Circle
James Butler 21 2.16%
*Muriel Bowser 488 50.26%
Trayon White 16 1.65%
Robert White 441 45.42%
Write-In 5 0.51%
Precinct 15 – Dupont Circle
James Butler 16 1.33%
Muriel Bowser 579 48.17%
Trayon White 17 1.41%
*Robert White 589 49.0%
Write-In 2 0.17%
Precinct 16 – Logan Circle
James Butler 21 1.55%
*Muriel Bowser 734 54.29%
Trayon White 34 2.51%
Robert White 556 41.12%
Write-In 7 0.23%
Precinct 17 – Logan Circle
James Butler 32 2.24%
Muriel Bowser 663 46.33%
Trayon White 43 3.0%
*Robert White 691 48.29%
Write-In 2 0.14%
Precinct 24 – Adams Morgan
James Butler 14 1.2%
Muriel Bowser 541 46.48%
Trayon White 9 0.77%
*Robert White 594 51.03%
Write-In 6 0.52%
Precinct 25 – Adams Morgan
James Butler 20 1.1%
Muriel Bowser 883 48.49%
Trayon White 19 1.94%
*Robert White 895 49.15%
Write-In 4 0.23%
Precinct 23 – Columbia Heights
James Butler 20 1.87%
Muriel Bowser 455 42.6%
Trayon White 49 4.59%
*Robert White 541 50.66%
Write-In 3 0.58%
Precinct 36 – Columbia Heights
James Butler 18 1.32%
Muriel Bowser 508 37.27%
Trayon White 102 7.48%
*Robert White 731 53.63%
Write-In 5 0.39%
Precinct 129 – Shaw
James Butler 43 1.67%
*Muriel Bowser 1,300 50.37%
Trayon White 148 5.73%
Robert White 1,081 41.88%
Write-In 9 0.35%
Precinct 89 – Capitol Hill
James Butler 12 0.98%
*Muriel Bowser 677 55.22%
Trayon White 14 1.14%
Robert White 521 42.5%
Write-In 2 0.16%
Precinct 90 – Capitol Hill
James Butler 7 1.14%
*Muriel Bowser 349 56.75%
Trayon White 11 1.79%
Robert White 246 40.0%
Write-In 3 0.51%
Precinct 127 – Southwest Waterfront
James Butler 13 0.84%
*Muriel Bowser 778 50.23%
Trayon White 128 8.26%
Robert White 628 40.54%
Write-In 2 0.13%
Precinct 112 – Anacostia
James Butler 18 3.59%
*Muriel Bowser 277 45.35%
Trayon White 107 21.36%
Robert White 148 29.54%
Write-In 1 0.2%
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Citywide Vote Count
Board of Elections
DC COUNCIL CHAIR
Erin Palmer 56,671 46.44%
*Phil Mendelson 64,877 53.16%
Write-In 406 0.32%
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Precinct Vote Count
Precincts With High Concentration of LGBTQ Voters
Board of Elections
DC COUNCIL CHAIR
Precinct 14 – Dupont Circle
*Erin Palmer 492 52.34%
Phil Mendelson 446 47.45%
Write-In 2 0.21%
Precinct 15 – Dupont Circle
*Erin Palmer 627 53.5%
Phil Mendelson 543 46.33%
Write-In 2 0.17%
Precinct 16 – Logan Circle
Erin Palmer 580 44.68%
*Phil Mendelson 715 55.08%
Write-In 3 0.23%
Precinct 17 – Logan Circle
*Erin Palmer 739 54.02%
Phil Mendelson 628 45.91%
Write-In 1 0.07%
Precinct 24 – Adams Morgan
*Erin Palmer 593 53.09%
Phil Mendelson 522 46.73%
Write-In 2 0.18%
Precinct 25 – Adams Morgan
Erin Palmer 866 48.93%
*Phil Mendelson 900 50.85%
Write-In 4 0.23%
Precinct 23 – Columbia Heights
*Erin Palmer 546 53.46%
Phil Mendelson 474 46.2%
Write-In 6 0.58%
Precinct 36 – Columbia Heights
*Erin Palmer 746 58.37%
Phil Mendelson 527 41.24%
Write-In 5 0.39%
Precinct 129 – Shaw
Erin Palmer 1,144 46.62%
*Phil Mendelson 1,299 52.93%
Write-In 11 0.45%
Precinct 89 – Capitol Hill
Erin Palmer 556 46.8%
*Phil Mendelson 629 52.95%
Write-In 3 0.25%
Precinct 90 – Capitol Hill
Erin Palmer 294 49.75%
Phil Mendelson 294 49.75%
Write-In 3 0.51%
Precinct 127 – Southwest Waterfront
Erin Palmer 674 45.66%
*Phil Mendelson 796 53.93%
Write-In 6 0.41%
Precinct 112 – Anacostia
Erin Palmer 168 35.52%
*Phil Mendelson 303 64.06%
Write-In 2 0.42%
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Citywide Vote Count
Board of Elections
DC COUNCIL AT-LARGE
Lisa Gore 33,225 28.08%
Nate Fleming 32,815 27.73%
*Anita Bonds 42,421 35.85%
Dexter Williams 9,356 7.91%
Write-In 504 0.43%
DC Democratic Primary
June 21, 2022
Final Pre-Certified Precinct Vote Count
Precincts With High Concentration of LGBTQ Voters
Board of Elections
DC COUNCIL AT-Large
Precinct 14 – Dupont Circle
Lisa Gore 309 34.14%
*Nate Fleming 311 34.36%
Anita Bonds 207 22.87%
Dexter Williams 72 7.96%
Write-In 6 0.21%
Precinct 15 – Dupont Circle
*Lisa Gore 421 38.34%
Nate Fleming 355 32.33%
Anita Bond 222 20.22%
Dexter Williams 97 8.83%
Precinct 16 – Logan Circle
Lisa Gore 371 29.87%
*Nate Fleming 437 35.19%
Anita Bonds 350 28.18%
Dexter Williams 82 6.6%
Write-In 2 0.16%
Precinct 17 – Logan Circle
*Lisa Gore 413 30.87%
Nate Fleming 401 29. 97%
Anita Bonds 420 31.39%
Dexter Williams 101 7.55%
Write-In 3 0.22$
Precinct 24 – Adams Morgan
*Lisa Gore 384 36.4%
Nate Fleming 330 31.28%
Anita Bonds 261 24.74%
Dexter Williams 80 7.58%
Write-In 0 0%
Precinct 25 – Adams Morgan
Lisa Gore 571 34.19%
*Nate Fleming 595 35.63%
Anita Bonds 362 21.68%
Dexter Williams 132 7.9%
Write-In 10 0.6%
Precinct 23 – Columbia Heights
*Lisa Gore 336 34.46%
Nate Fleming 273 28.0%
Anita Bonds 278 28.51%
Dexter Williams 85 8.72%
Write-In 3 0.31%
Precinct 36 – Columbia Heights
*Lisa Gore 418 33.76%
Nate Fleming 318 25.69%
Anita Bonds 386 31.18%
Dexter Williams 112 9.05%
Write-In 4 0.32%
Precinct 129 – Shaw
Lisa Gore 662 28.03%
Nate Fleming 695 29.42%
*Anita Bonds 800 33.87%
Dexter Williams 195 8.26%
Write-In 10 0.42%
Precinct 89 – Capitol Hill
Lisa Gore 336 29.87%
*Nate Fleming 460 40.89%
Anita Bonds 254 22.58%
Dexter Williams 68 6.04%
Write-In 7 0.62%
Precinct 90 – Capitol Hill
Lisa Gore 164 29.55%
*Nate Fleming 206 37.12%
Anita Bonds 153 27.57%
Dexter Williams 30 5.41%
Write-In 2 0.36%
Precinct 127 – Southwest Waterfront
Lisa Gore 323 22.62%
Nate Fleming 394 27.59%
*Anita Bonds 594 41.6%
Dexter Williams 115 8.05%
Write-In 2 0.14%
Precinct 112 – Anacostia
Lisa Gore 74 15.95%
Nate Fleming 103 22.2%
*Anita Bonds 249 53.66%
Dexter Williams 37 7.97%
Write-In 1 0.22%
District of Columbia
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
Artists who cancel shows threatened; calls for funding boycott grow
Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to add President Trump’s name to the D.C. arts institution continue to spark backlash.
A new petition from Qommittee , a national network of drag artists and allies led by survivors of hate crimes, calls on Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding to the center until “artistic independence is restored, and to redirect support to banned or censored artists.”
“While Trump won’t back down, the donors who contribute nearly $100 million annually to the Kennedy Center can afford to take a stand,” the petition reads. “Money talks. When donors fund censorship, they don’t just harm one institution – they tell marginalized communities their stories don’t deserve to be told.”
The petition can be found here.
Meanwhile, a decision by several prominent musicians and jazz performers to cancel their shows at the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center in D.C. planned for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve has drawn the ire of the Center’s president, Richard Grenell.
Grenell, a gay supporter of President Donald Trump who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term as president, was named Kennedy Center president last year by its board of directors that had been appointed by Trump.
Last month the board voted to change the official name of the center from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. The revised name has been installed on the outside wall of the center’s building but is not official because any name change would require congressional action.
According to a report by the New York Times, Grenell informed jazz musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a 2025 Christmas Eve concert that he has hosted at the Kennedy Center for nearly 20 years in response to the name change, that Grenell planned to arrange for the center to file a lawsuit against him for the cancellation.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution,” the Times quoted Grenell as saying in a letter to Redd.
“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” the Times quoted Grenell’s letter as saying.
A spokesperson for the Trump-Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Washington Blade asking if the center still planned to file that lawsuit and whether it planned to file suits against some of the other musicians who recently cancelled their performances following the name change.
In a follow-up story published on Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that a prominent jazz ensemble and a New York dance company had canceled performances scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.
The Times reported the jazz ensemble called The Cookers did not give a reason for the cancellation in a statement it released, but its drummer, Billy Hart, told the Times the center’s name change “evidently” played a role in the decision to cancel the performance.
Grenell released a statement on Dec. 29 calling these and other performers who cancelled their shows “far left political activists” who he said had been booked by the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership.
“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” the Times quoted him as saying in his statement.
District of Columbia
New interim D.C. police chief played lead role in security for WorldPride
Capital Pride says Jeffery Carroll had ‘good working relationship’ with organizers
Jeffery Carroll, who was named by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Dec. 17 as the city’s Interim Chief of Police, played a lead role in working with local LGBTQ community leaders in addressing public safety issues related to WorldPride 2025, which took place in D.C. last May and June
“We had a good working relationship with him, and he did his job in relation to how best the events would go around safety and security,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance.
Bos said Carroll has met with Capital Pride officials in past years to address security issues related to the city’s annual Capital Pride parade and festival and has been supportive of those events.
At the time Bowser named him Interim Chief, Carroll had been serving since 2023 as Executive Assistant Chief of Specialized Operations, overseeing the day-to-day operation of four of the department’s bureaus. He first joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in 2002 and advanced to multiple leadership positions across various divisions and bureaus, according to a statement released by the mayor’s office.
“I know Chief Carroll is the right person to build on the momentum of the past two years so that we can continue driving down crime across the city,” Bowser said in a statement released on the day she announced his appointment as Interim Chief.
“He has led through some of our city’s most significant public safety challenges of the past decade, he is familiar with D.C. residents and well respected and trusted by members of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as our federal and regional public safety partners,” Bowser said.
“We have the best police department in the nation, and I am confident that Chief Carroll will meet this moment for the department and the city,” Bowser added.
But Bowser has so far declined to say if she plans to nominate Carroll to become the permanent police chief, which requires the approval of the D.C. City Council. Bowser, who announced she is not running for re-election, will remain in office as mayor until January 2027.
Carroll is replacing outgoing Chief Pamela Smith, who announced she was resigning after two years of service as chief to spend more time with her family. She has been credited with overseeing the department at a time when violent crime and homicides declined to an eight-year low.
She has also expressed support for the LGBTQ community and joined LGBTQ officers in marching in the WorldPride parade last year.
But Smith has also come under criticism by members of Congress, who have accused the department of manipulating crime data allegedly showing lower reported crime numbers than actually occurred. The allegations came from the Republican-controlled U.S. House Oversight Committee and the U.S. Justice Department
Bowser has questioned the accuracy of the allegations and said she has asked the city’s Inspector General to look into the allegations.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the D.C. police Office of Public Affairs did not immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade about the status of the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit. Sources familiar with the department have said a decline in the number of officers currently working at the department, said to be at a 50-year low, has resulted in a decline in the number of officers assigned to all of the liaison units, including the LGBT unit.
Among other things, the LGBT Liaison Unit has played a role in helping to investigate hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ community. As of early Wednesday an MPD spokesperson did not respond to a question by the Blade asking how many officers are currently assigned to the LGBT Liaison Unit.
District of Columbia
Imperial Court of Washington drag group has ‘dissolved’
Board president cites declining support since pandemic
The Imperial Court of Washington, a D.C.-based organization of drag performers that has raised at least $250,000 or more for local LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ charitable groups since its founding in 2010, announced on Jan. 5 that it has ended its operations by dissolving its corporate status.
In a Jan. 5 statement posted on Facebook, Robert Amos, president of the group’s board of directors, said the board voted that day to formally dissolve the organization in accordance with its bylaws.
“This decision was made after careful consideration and was based on several factors, including ongoing challenges in adhering to the bylaws, maintaining compliance with 501(c)(3) requirements, continued lack of member interest and attendance, and a lack of community involvement and support as well,” Amos said in his statement.
He told the Washington Blade in a Jan. 6 telephone interview that the group was no longer in compliance with its bylaws, which require at least six board members, when the number of board members declined to just four. He noted that the lack of compliance with its bylaws also violated the requirements of its IRS status as a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c) (3) organization.
According to Amos, the inability to recruit additional board members came at a time when the organization was continuing to encounter a sharp drop in support from the community since the start of the COVID pandemic around 2020 and 2021.
Amos and longtime Imperial Court of Washington member and organizer Richard Legg, who uses the drag name Destiny B. Childs, said in the years since its founding, the group’s drag show fundraising events have often been attended by 150 or more people. They said the events have been held in LGBTQ bars, including Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, as well as in other venues such as theaters and ballrooms.
Among the organizations receiving financial support from Imperial Court of Washington have been SMYAL, PFLAG, Whitman-Walker Health’s Walk to End HIV, Capital Pride Alliance, the DC LGBT Community Center, and the LGBTQ Fallen Heroes Fund. Other groups receiving support included Pets with Disabilities, the Epilepsy Foundation of Washington, and Grandma’s House.
The Imperial Court of Washington’s website, which was still online as of Jan. 6, says the D.C. group has been a proud member of the International Court System, which was founded in San Francisco in 1965 as a drag performance organization that evolved into a charitable fundraising operation with dozens of affiliated “Imperial Court” groups like the one in D.C.
Amos, who uses the drag name Veronica Blake, said he has heard that Imperial Court groups in other cities including Richmond and New York City, have experienced similar drops in support and attendance in the past year or two. He said the D.C. group’s events in the latter part of 2025 attracted 12 or fewer people, a development that has prevented it from sustaining its operations financially.
He said the membership, which helped support it financially through membership dues, has declined in recent years from close to 100 to its current membership of 21.
“There’s a lot of good we have done for the groups we supported, for the charities, and the gay community here,” Amos said. “It is just sad that we’ve had to do this, mainly because of the lack of interest and everything going on in the world and the national scene.”
Colombians protest against Trump after he threatened country’s president
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
New interim D.C. police chief played lead role in security for WorldPride
2026 Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles nominations
Gay Venezuelan man who fled to Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
The year in photos
Safer Ways to Pay for Online Performances and Queer Events
Two pioneering gay journalists to speak at Thursday event
Queer highlights of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards: Aunt Gladys, that ‘Heated Rivalry’ shoutout and more
Blade travels to Colombia after U.S. forces seize Maduro in Venezuela
-
Photos4 days agoThe year in photos
-
Sponsored3 days ago
Safer Ways to Pay for Online Performances and Queer Events
-
District of Columbia2 days ago
Two pioneering gay journalists to speak at Thursday event
-
a&e features2 days ago
Queer highlights of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards: Aunt Gladys, that ‘Heated Rivalry’ shoutout and more
