District of Columbia
D.C. lawsuit claims AARP Services illegally fired gay man
Five-year-old case set for February 2024 trial
A gay former manager for the D.C.-based AARP Services, Inc., an arm of the AARP that interacts with businesses supportive of the nation’s seniors, filed a little-noticed lawsuit in May 2018 charging AARP Services with firing him because he’s gay and married to a man.
Richard A. Deus, Jr., who worked for AARP and AARP Services for 11 years and held the title of director of program management at the time of his termination in February 2018, charges in his lawsuit that AARP officials falsely accused him of accepting gifts for travel from businesses affiliated with AARP that violated AARP employee ethics policies.
The lawsuit says AARP Services cited these alleged violations as the reason for its decision to fire him.
But, according to a 26-page amended complaint filed by Deus’s attorney in D.C. Superior Court, Deus sought and received permission from his supervisor and an official with the AARP’s general counsel’s office to take two separate trips, one to New Orleans and the other to New York City, as being work related.
The New Orleans trip involved attending the Sugar Bowl football game at the invitation of the Allstate insurance company, which has a longstanding business relationship with AARP Services, the lawsuit says. The trip to New York involved seeing a show with a vendor after the workday, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit identifies as many as a dozen or more other AARP and AARP Services employees who have taken business trips like the two taken by Deus who were not fired or disciplined. A few faced disciplinary actions but were allowed to retain their jobs, the lawsuit says.
“Despite the fact that heterosexual employees were permitted to participate in work related trips to sporting events, Plaintiff was terminated purportedly for taking a work-related trip to the Sugar Bowl after receiving approval,” the complaint says.
“Terminating Plaintiff’s employment as a result of his work-related trip to the Allstate Sugar Bowl after his supervisor and the General Counsel’s office approved the trip and despite that other AARP employees participated in the same business-related activity without adverse actions being taken against any of them, is discriminatory on the basis of Plaintiff’s sexual orientation and marital status, in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act,” the complaint states.
The Washington Blade attempted to obtain a response from the AARP to the allegations made in the Deus lawsuit, but an official said the AARP would have no comment at this time.
“Thank you for reaching out but we do not comment on pending legal matters,” said Colby Nelson, AARP’s Senior External Relations Director, in an email to the Blade.
In its response to the lawsuit filed in court, AARP Services denies it engaged in discrimination against Deus.
“All decisions made by Defendants with respect to Mr. Deus’ employment were based solely on legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons, wholly without regard to his sexual orientation, marital status, and/or any other protected classification, and were made in good faith and in compliance with applicable laws,” a Nov. 8, 2018, court filing by AARP Services says.
As part of its defense, AARP Services also filed a counterclaim against Deus, accusing him of obtaining the reimbursement of $2,155.14 for travel expenses “through fraud.” The counterclaim says Deus refused a request that he repay the reimbursement payment. It calls on the court to order him to repay the reimbursement plus interest incurred since the time the money was given to him and to pay for attorney’s fees.
Deus’s attorney, Darrell Chambers, said the allegations in the counterclaim are false and called it a form of retaliation against Deus for filing his discrimination lawsuit.
Deus’s lawsuit calls for a judgement against AARP Services of $10 million, $5 million for compensatory damages and $5 million for punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees and court costs.
“I took hundreds of business trips for AARP over the course I was there for 11 years,” Deus told the Blade. “I did what everybody else did,” he said, adding that his trips helped AARP and AARP Services obtain millions of dollars in revenue through arrangements with businesses supportive of AARP.
On its website, AARP Services, Inc. describes itself as the “professional services arm of AARP,” adding, “we support the Association’s mission of disrupting aging by helping bring new products to drive market innovation and build richer connections with consumers.”
Deus told the Blade he was dedicated to helping AARP fulfill its mission in supporting the nation’s seniors and his firing came as a devastating blow.
Court records show that at the request of the judge presiding over the case, two attempts were made to reach a conciliation agreement to settle the lawsuit, but no agreement could be reached.
The lawsuit says AARP allegedly fired at least one other gay employee, who also filed suit and an out-of-court settlement was reached. The terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed.
Court records also show that at the request of AARP Services, D.C. Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini, who is presiding over the case, agreed to a motion by AARP Services to dismiss two AARP officials named in the lawsuit as defendants and to dismiss the lawsuit’s claim of negligence against AARP Services for its firing of Deus.
Attorney Chambers said the judge dismissed the two officials because a third AARP Services official named in the lawsuit as a defendant admitted to making the decision to fire Deus.
Court records show that the judge denied motions by AARP Services to dismiss the entire case, upholding for trial the allegations of sexual orientation and marital status discrimination.
“At this time, Rick would like to share his story,” attorney Chambers told the Blade in a statement. “As a gay man who has lived in D.C. for 22 years and was discriminatorily fired by an organization that states they are gay friendly, Rick believes that his story should be heard,” Chambers said.
“The fact that he has been entrenched in a bitter and expensive legal battle with AARP Services, Inc. for five years is a cautionary tale for anyone interested in an employment relationship with AARP,” he said.
Court records show that a trial for the case has been scheduled for Feb. 12, 2024.
District of Columbia
Push to elect more LGBTQ ANC members yields results
31 of 43 known LGBTQ ANC members elected in 2024 seeking re-election
A 2026 list of candidates released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 31 of the 43 known LGBTQ candidates who won election in 2024 as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners have filed the required petition signatures to be placed on the ballot this year to run for re-election.
The Washington Blade reported in 2024 that 43 known LGBTQ candidates won election to ANC seats that year in the November election
In a related development, the president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the group this year has recruited at least 39 LGBTQ candidates to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats in the city’s Nov. 3 general election.
The group’s president, Stevie McCarty, an incumbent ANC member in the city’s Shaw neighborhood who is running for re-election, said the 39 candidates and possibly more responded to the group’s Queering ANCs campaign launched on July 7 that includes a website with detailed instructions for how best to run for an ANC seat.
“Since launching in early July, the site has drawn more than 20,000 views, and 39 candidates have used it to actually run,” McCarty said in a statement. He said he wasn’t sure if all the 39 candidates wanted to be identified as LGBTQ, and he was reviewing the list of incumbent LGBTQ ANC members who won election in 2024 to determine if any of the 39 candidates recruited were among those incumbents. He said he was not ready to release the names of the 39 candidates he said his group recruited to run for an ANC seat.
If none of the 39 candidates recruited by Capital Stonewall Democrats are among the 31 known LGBTQ ANC incumbents running for re-election, it would mean at least 70 LGBTQ ANC candidates will be on the city’s November election ballot.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will send candidate questionnaires to the known LGBTQ ANC candidates as part of its process for endorsing candidates in the November election. He said he expects the group to help campaign for and provide financial support for the ANC candidates it endorses.
The D.C. local government is believed to be unique among U.S. cities in currently having 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consisting of 345 single member districts in neighborhoods throughout the city in which unpaid Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners are elected for two-year terms.
The commissions are charged with considering a wide range of policies and programs impacting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, zoning, liquor licenses, and economic development. Although ANCs do not have authority to set or reject policies or actions by city agencies, the agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, according to the law creating the ANCs.
“As an ANC member, I know firsthand how these seats shape our neighborhoods, from housing and public safety to sanitation,” McCarty said in the Capital Stonewall Democrats statement announcing the launch of the Queering ANCs campaign in July. “I’m proud to lead this effort to ensure more LGBTQ+ Washingtonians see themselves as leaders in their communities,” he said.
Some local LGBTQ activists, who asked not to be identified, said they were not aware of a significant boost in new LGBTQ ANC candidates from the Queering ANCs campaign. However, they praised the effort to recruit more LGBTQ ANC candidates and said the campaign could have yielded more candidates if it had started sooner than less than a month before the deadline for becoming a candidate.
McCarty said Capital Stonewall Democrats will continue to recruit LGBTQ D.C. residents to run as write-in candidates for ANC seats, especially in the 45 single member districts in which no candidate will be on the ballot. The Board of Elections candidate list shows many ANC single member districts that have just one candidate running without an opponent.
Following is a list of 33 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in D.C.’s November 2026 election and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running. All but two – Vita Rangel and J. Swiderski – are incumbents running for re-election. The Washington Blade will update this list if and when more LGBTQ ANC candidates become known.
1A04 – (Columbia Heights) Jeremy Sherman, he/him
1A10 – (Columbia Heights) Vita Rangel, she/ her [non-incumbent candidate]
1B03 – (Columbia Heights/U Street) J. Swiderski, they/he [non-incumbent candidate]
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him
1B06 – (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill) Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him
1B07 – (U Street) Matthew Holden, he/him
1E01 – (Park View) Brad Howard, he/him
2B02 – (Dupont Circle) Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him
2B03 – (Dupont Circle) Vincent Slatt, he/him
2C01 – (Penn Quarter) Michael D. Shankle, he/him
2F05 – (Logan Circle) Christopher Dyer, he/him
2F07 – (Logan Circle) Kevin Cataldo, he/him
2G01 – (Shaw)Parker Griffin, he/him Howard Garrett, he/him
2G02 – (Shaw) Alexander ‘Alex’ Padro, he/him
2G04 – (Shaw) Steven McCarty, he/him
3B06 – (Wesley Heights) S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him
3F05 – (Van Ness/Cleveland Park) Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him
4B01 – (Takoma) Doug Payton, he/him
4B10 – (Lamond Riggs) Jinin Berry, she/her
4C06 – (Petworth) Christen Boss Hayes, they/them
4E02 – (16th Street Heights) Vince Micone, he/him
5B04 – (Brookland) Ra Amin, he/him
5B05 – (Brookland) Mónica Martínez López, she/her
5D05 – (Trinidad) Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him
5F06 – (Eckington) Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him
6B03 – (Capitol Hill) David Sobelsohn, he/him
6B09 – (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle) Karen Hughes, she/her
7C01 – (Deanwood) Brian Glover, he/him
7C03 – (Lincoln Heights) Carlos Richardson, he/him
7C04 (Deanwood) Anthony Lorenzo Green
7C08 – (Capitol View) Brandon M. Scott, he/him
8A01 – (Fairlawn) Tom Donohue, he, him
8B06 – (Garfield Heights) Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him
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.
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