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17th Street bars hit with D.C. liquor agency crackdown during High Heel Race

Official says no citations issued for patrons illegally carrying drinks on sidewalk

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Last week’s annual High Heel Race saw a crackdown on public drinking. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Investigators with the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) created a stir during the annual LGBTQ Halloween High Heel Race on Tuesday night, Oct. 24, when they showed up at several bars and restaurants located along the two-block stretch of 17th Street, N.W. near Dupont Circle where the race and costume celebration took place.

According to observers attending the event, as thousands of spectators lined the street and sidewalks and capacity crowds filled the restaurants and bars, the ABCA investigators reportedly ordered some of the businesses to stop selling alcoholic beverages in their outdoor areas because they failed to prevent customers from carrying their drinks outside the establishments and onto the street and sidewalks.

An ABCA official told the Washington Blade that under D.C. law, bars, restaurants, and other businesses that sell and serve alcoholic beverages are required to prevent patrons from taking their drinks with alcohol off the premises of those businesses.

The official, ABCA Chief of Staff Jared J. Powell, said the ABCA investigators directed the bars and restaurants not to allow patrons to take drinks with alcohol off their premises, but he said the businesses were not told to stop serving alcohol in outdoor spaces for which they were licensed to sell and serve alcohol.

“ABCA responded to the scene in response to requests for assistance from two District government agencies, including MPD [D.C. Metropolitan Police Department], due to patrons leaving licensed establishments with open containers of alcohol and patrons drinking in the street,” Powell told the Blade in a statement.

“ABCA responded to the scene and observed more than 50 patrons leaving licensed establishments with open containers and drinking alcoholic beverages on the public street,” he said in his statement, adding that the ABCA agents advised the business to stop allowing this to happen.

“D.C. Code 25-113(a)(2)(A)(ii) makes it a violation for a restaurant or tavern to knowingly allow a patron to exit the licensed establishment with an alcoholic beverage in an open container,” Powell said in the statement.

But he said despite what ABCA agents believed were multiple violations no citations or official warnings were issued to any business visited by the ABCA investigators.

Ann Blackwell, executive director of Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets, a business advocacy organization that promotes historic preservation, said the illegal action by some businesses may have been prompted by confusion over whether the law Powell cited applied to a large outdoor event in which the streets were closed to vehicle traffic.

“I’m not quite sure which hand was not talking to the other because the event was set up just like it was in past years,” Blackwell told the Blade.  She said she was informed that in past years the city did not enforce restrictions against taking drinks out of bars and restaurants and onto the street or sidewalk because people thought the race was an enclosed event.

“So, all those same rules applied,” she said. “It’s just that in years past there’s never been a crackdown. So, I’m not quite sure how it happened.”

People attending the event said the businesses visited by the ABCA investigators and told to stop allowing customers to take drinks off their licensed premises included Dupont Italian Kitchen, which has a gay bar on its upper floor; Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, which has a large LGBTQ clientele; and JR.’s.

Powell said bars and restaurants under current D.C. law can apply for a one-day “substantial change” to temporarily extend their outdoor drinking areas to public or private spaces. He said none of the 17th Street businesses applied for that extension for the Oct. 24 event.

Blackwell said one reason the businesses may not have applied for the extension is because under city rules the expanded area must be enclosed in a fence, which she said would likely be very expensive to install in the two-block area where the High Heel Race took place.

“ABCA did not advise licensed establishments to stop selling, serving or allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages on licensed outdoor spaces, including Streeteries,” Powell said in his statement. “Rather, ABCA advised MPD that establishments were legally allowed to operate, sell, serve and consume alcoholic beverages outdoors, including on licensed Streeteries.”

Powell was referring to the extended outdoor spaces, including spaces in city streets, known as Streeteries, that came into use during the COVID pandemic when indoors spaces were closed.

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District of Columbia

Juvenile arrested for anti-gay assault in D.C.

Police say suspect targeted victim in house with Pride flags

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The gay man who was hit in the face by a rock thrown through the front window of his house, shown here, by the juvenile who was arrested told the Blade he and his husband covered the now boarded up window with a large Pride flag. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

D.C. police announced on June 16 that they have arrested a 13-year-old juvenile male on a charge of Assault With Significant Bodily Injury for allegedly throwing a rock through the window of a house in Northeast D.C. and “striking the victim in the face.”

In a statement announcing the arrest, police said the incident took place on Friday, June 6, and  “LGBTQ+ flags were displayed at the front of the home.”

A separate D.C. police incident report obtained by the Washington Blade states, “Victim 1 reports he was sitting in his living room at the listed location watching television when a rock came through the front window and struck him about his left eye. Victim 1 suffered a laceration under his left eye.”

The report adds, “Victim 1 states he observed Suspect 1 running away.”

According to the June 16 statement issued by police, “On Sunday, June 15, 2025, officers located the suspect and placed him under arrest. [A] 13-year-old juvenile male of Northeast D.C., was charged with Assault With Significant Bodily Injury (Hate/Bias).”

The statement says the house where the incident occurred is located on the 400 block of 20th Street, N.E.

Similar to statements D.C. police have issued regarding LGBTQ bias-related cases in the past, the statement announcing this case says that while the case is being investigated as being potentially motivated by hate or bias, that designation could be changed at any time during the investigation.

It adds that a hate crime designation by D.C. police may not be prosecuted as a hate crime by prosecutors. Under D.C. law, juvenile cases are prosecuted by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General. 

Since court records for cases involving juveniles are sealed from public access, the Blade could not immediately determine whether prosecutors designated the case as a hate crime.

It also could not immediately be determined if the juvenile charged in the case was being held in detention while awaiting trial at juvenile court or whether he was released to a parent or guardian and whether a judge set any conditions for release.

The police statement concludes by saying that the department’s Special Liaison Branch, which includes the LGBT Liaison Unit, is assisting with the investigation. 

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District of Columbia

Drive with Pride in D.C.

A new Pride-themed license plate is now available in the District, with proceeds directly benefiting local LGBTQ organizations.

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A sample of the license plate with the "Progressive" Pride flag. (Screenshot from the DCDMV website)

Just in time for Pride month, the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles has partnered with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to create a special “Pride Lives Here” license plate.

The plate, which was initially unveiled in February, has a one-time $25 application fee and a $20 annual display fee. Both fees will go directly to the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Affairs Fund.

The MOLGBTQA Fund provides $1,000,000 annually to 25,000 residents through its grant program, funding a slew of LGBTQ organizations in the DMV area — including Capital Pride Alliance, Whitman-Walker, the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community, and the Washington Blade Foundation.

The license plate features an inclusive rainbow flag wrapping around the license numbers, with silver stars in the background — a tribute to both D.C.’s robust queer community and the resilience the LGBTQ community has shown.

The “Pride Lives Here” plate is one of only 13 specialty plates offered in the District, and the only one whose fees go directly to the LGBTQ community.

To apply for a Pride plate, visit the DC DMV’s website at https://dmv.dc.gov/

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District of Columbia

Drag queens protest Trump at the Kennedy Center

President attended ‘Les Misérables’ opening night on Wednesday

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(Photo by Julian Applebaum from Qommittee)

On Wednesday night, four local drag performers attended the first night of the Kennedy Center’s season in full drag — while President Donald Trump, an outspoken critic of drag, sat mere feet away. 

Three queens — Tara Hoot, Vagenesis, and Mari Con Carne — joined drag king Ricky Rosé to represent Qommittee, a volunteer network uniting drag artists to support and defend each other amid growing conservative attacks. They all sat down with the Washington Blade to discuss the event.

The drag performers were there to see the opening performance of “Les Misérables” since Trump’s takeover of the historically non-partisan Kennedy Center. The story shows the power of love, compassion, and redemption in the face of social injustice, poverty, and oppression, set in late 19th century France. 

Dressed in full drag, the group walked into the theater together, fully aware they could be punished for doing so.

“It was a little scary walking in because we don’t know what we’re going to walk into, but it was really helpful to be able to walk in with friends,” said drag queen Vagenesis. “The strongest response we received was from the staff who worked there. They were so excited and grateful to see us there. Over and over and over again, we heard ‘Thank you so much for being here,’ ‘Thank you for coming,’ from the Kennedy Center staff.”

The staff weren’t the only ones who seemed happy at the act of defiance. 

“We walked in together so we would have an opportunity to get a response,” said Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in full drag before. “It was all applause, cheers, and whistles, and remarkably it was half empty. I think that was season ticket holders kind of making their message in a different way.”

Despite the love from the audience and staff, Mari Con Carne said she couldn’t help feeling unsettled when Trump walked in.

“I felt two things — disgust and frustration,” Carne said. “Obviously, I don’t align with anything the man has to say or has to do. And the frustration came because I wanted to do more than just sit there. I wanted to walk up to him and speak my truth  — and speak for the voices that were being hurt by his actions right now.”

They weren’t the only ones who felt this way according to Vagenesis:

“Somebody shouted ‘Fuck Trump’ from the rafters. I’d like to think that our being there encouraged people to want to express themselves.”

The group showing up in drag and expressing themselves was, they all agreed, an act of defiance. 

“Drag has always been a protest, and it always will be a sort of resistance,” Carne said, after pointing out her intersectional identity as “queer, brown, Mexican immigrant” makes her existence that much more powerful as a statement. “My identity, my art, my existence — to be a protest.”

Hoot, who is known for her drag story times, explained that protesting can look different than the traditional holding up signs and marching for some. 

“Sometimes protesting is just us taking up space as drag artists,” Hoot added. “I felt like being true to who you are —  it was an opportunity to live the message.”

And that message, Ricky Rosé pointed out, was ingrained with the institution of the Kennedy Center and art itself — it couldn’t be taken away, regardless of executive orders and drag bans

“The Kennedy Center was founded more than 50 years ago as a place meant to celebrate the arts in its truest, extraordinary form,” said Ricky Rosé. “President Kennedy himself even argued that culture has a great practical value in an age of conflict. He was quoted saying, ‘the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense, not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding the futility of struggle’ and I believe that is the basis of what the Kennedy Center was founded on, and should continue. And drag fits perfectly within it.”

All four drag performers told the Washington Blade — independently of one another — that they don’t think Trump truly understood the musical he was watching.

“I don’t think the president understands any kind of plot that’s laid out in front of him,” Vagenesis said. “I’m interested to see what he thinks about “Les Mis,” a play about revolution against an oppressive regime. I get the feeling that he identifies with the the rebellion side of it, instead of the oppressor. I just feel like he doesn’t get it. I feel it goes right over his head.”

“Les Misérables” is running at the Kennedy Center until July 13.

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