Local
Top 10 local news stories for 2023
Hate crimes continue, new queer bars open, and much more
It was another busy year in queer news. Here are the Blade staff picks for the top 10 local news stories of 2023.
#10: Florida prosecutor drops sex with minor charges against Brett Parson
A prosecutor with the Broward County, Fla., State Attorney’s Office on March 13 dropped two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor filed against gay former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson by Boca Raton, Fla. police in February 2022. Parson’s arrest came shortly after he retired from the police force after 26 years of service, including his role as supervisor of the D.C. police LGBT Liaison Unit.
A memorandum released by the State Attorney’s Office disclosed that prosecutors decided to drop the charges after it became clear that the then 16-year-old boy, who told authorities that his sexual encounter with Parson was consensual, did not want to participate in the prosecution against Parson.
Court records show the youth met Parson after he posted a message on the gay hookup site Growlr and claimed he was 19 years old. The age of sexual consent in Florida is 18, although in several other states, including D.C., the age of consent is 16 and the sexual encounter between Parson and the youth would have been legal in those other states and D.C.
#9: Four new D.C. LGBTQ bars open in 2023
Four new LGBTQ bars opened in D.C. in 2023, bringing the total number of LGBTQ identified bars in the nation’s capital to 19. The first of the four new ones to open was Little Gay Pub at 1100 P St., N.W. near Logan Circle. Its owners and business partners, Dito Sevilla, Dusty Martinez, and Benjamin Gander, have years of experience working at other nearby bars and restaurants, with Martinez and Gander having worked at other gay bars.
The gay nightclub and dance bar Bunker opened a short time later in a large basement space at 2001 14th St., N.W., steps away from the bustling nightlife intersection at 14th and U streets, N.W. Co-owners Zach Renovates and Jesus Quispe for many years produced LGBTQ entertainment events through their company KINETIC Presents. Next to open was Shakers at 2014 9th St., N.W. in the busy 9th and U Street entertainment corridor, which bills itself as a “full spectrum bar, with everything from family nights to ANC meet-and-greets to drag shows.”
And in December Thurst Lounge opened at 2204 14th St., N.W. Owners Brandon Burke and Shaun Mykals describe it as a “space that represents and honors the unique and culturally rich Black gay experience.”
#8: D.C. gov’t holds ‘LGBTQIA Emergency Training’ event
About 25 representatives of local LGBTQ organizations turned out on April 5 for the first in what was expected to be a series of LGBTQIA+ Emergency Preparedness Training sessions offered by the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
Japer Bowles, director of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said the initial training session was for nonprofit LGBTQ organizations aimed at helping them take steps to minimize potential threats of violence and to recognize behaviors by individuals who may pose a threat. He said among those attending the April 5 training session were representatives of the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community, one of the city’s largest local LGBTQ organizations that is about to move into a new, larger space in a building in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.
#7: Proud Boys target local drag queen story hour events
The far-right group Proud Boys targeted bookstores in Silver Spring, Md. and D.C. in February for protests against the reading of children’s stories by drag performers in an event known as Drag Queen Story Hour. But the group only showed up at the Loyalty Bookstore in Silver Spring. Silver Spring police dispersed the Proud Boys members and counter protesters who supported the drag event after the two groups shouted at each other and reports surfaced that a Proud Boy member assaulted one of the supporters.
One week later, after news surfaced that the Proud Boys planned to hold a protest targeting a Drag Story Hour event at the gay-owned Crazy Aunt Hellen’s restaurant in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill in D.C., dozens of supporters turned out in anticipation of the Proud Boys protest. D.C. police, who closed the one-block section of 8th Street, S.E. in anticipation of the protest, said the Proud Boys never showed up.
#6: D.C. mourns loss of two community leaders and a beloved bartender
Many in D.C.’s LGBTQ community in July mourned the unexpected deaths of two gay longtime supporters of LGBTQ causes, Jocko Fajardo and Tarik Pierce, and a beloved bartender, Brooks Davis. Fajardo, a skilled chief, florist, and event planner, and Pierce, an official with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, each died in their homes at the age of 45 in D.C. within one week of each other of undisclosed causes. About 300 people turned out in D.C. ‘s Logan Circle for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the two men.
Also mourned by a large circle of friends in July was gay bartender Brooks Davis, 29, who died on July 17. Family members asked that the cause of death remain private. Davis worked at the D.C. gay nightclub Bunker after having worked for the luxury retail outlet Louis Vuitton and later operated his own exotic plant business before beginning work as a bartender.
#5: Partner says police botched probe into death of Washington Wizards chef
The longtime domestic partner of Ernest Terrell Newkirk, 55, who worked as chef at D.C.’s Capital One Arena for the Washington Wizards basketball team, expressed strong concern that D.C. police failed to adequately investigate Newkirk’s initially unexplained death.
The partner, Roger Turpin, pointed out that Newkirk was found deceased on a residential street in the 1100 block of 46th Place, S.E., shortly after 3 a.m. on May 28, with his wallet, watch, jewelry, and his car all missing. There were no signs of injury on Newkirk’s body, and it took the D.C. medical examiner four months to complete toxicology tests to finally determine the cause of death, which was acute alcohol intoxication.
D.C. police have said they investigated the case. But Turpin says investigators appear to have declined to follow up on information Turpin provided them to track down someone who may have stolen Newkirk’s car, phone, and credit cards. Turpin says he gave police phone numbers that someone used on Newkirk’s stolen phone to make calls that Turpin obtained from the phone records.
#4: Two area trans lawmakers make history
Two transgender elected officials in the greater D.C. region made history in 2023. Virginia state Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) won a decisive victory for a seat in the Virginia state Senate in the state’s Nov. 7 election, becoming the second openly transgender person to win election to a state Senate in the country.
And earlier in the year, Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who became the first transgender person to win a seat in a state Senate in 2020, declared her candidacy for the single Delaware seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Recent polling data show McBride is far ahead of her closest rival in the 2024 Democratic primary. If she wins the primary, as expected, and wins in the November 2024 general election in the solidly Democratic state of Delaware, McBride would become the first transgender person in the U.S. Congress.
#3: Spate of assaults targets LGBT people for possible hate crimes
Two gay bar customers were stabbed in the neck with nonfatal wounds on Aug. 18 outside the Dupont Circle gay bar Fireplace by a woman who D.C. police arrested on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon and a judge ordered to undergo a mental health examination. That incident followed the arrest by D.C. police in January of three juveniles for four separate armed robberies in the Dupont Circle area near gay bars.
And in August, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. continued to decline to prosecute two male suspects identified by D.C. police who robbed and pistol whipped a D.C. gay couple in January 2022 after the couple appealed to prosecutors to move ahead with a prosecution. A spokesperson for the U.S. The Attorney’s office said there was insufficient evidence to charge the suspects. Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vincent Slatt, who heads the ANC’s Rainbow Caucus, expressed concern that police were not disclosing sufficient information on whether the growing number of crimes in Dupont Circle and other city neighborhoods are LGBTQ related and whether the assaults against them may be hate crimes.
With this as a backdrop, D.C.’s new police chief, Pamela Smith, told the Blade in an interview she pledges “fair and equal treatment” for the LGBTQ community.
#2: Violence continues against D.C.-area trans women
At least three transgender women were murdered in the D.C. region and a fourth was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 2023, prompting transgender activists to continue their ongoing efforts to address what they consider a nationwide epidemic of anti-trans violence.
The first of the incidents took place Jan. 7 when Jasmine “Star” Mack, 36, was found stabbed to death on the 2000 block of Gallaudet St., N.E. D.C. police say they are actively investigating the case. On March 24, Tasiyah Woodland, 18, was shot to death outside the Paradise bar and grill in Lexington Park, Md. With the help of D.C. police, St. Mary’s County police charged D.C. resident Darryl Parks Jr., 29, with first-degree murder and additional gun related charges in connection with the murder. Police said the shooting followed a dispute between Parks and Mack, but Mack’s family members believe it was a hate crime.
On Oct. 2, 30-year-old trans woman Skylar Harrison Reeves’s partially naked body was found on a park bench in D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park. Police say there were no obvious injuries found and they are waiting for the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death upon completion of toxicology tests. Reeves’s aunt says she believes foul play led to the death. And on Oct. 18, D.C. resident A’nee Roberson, 30, was fatally struck by a car on the 900 block of U Street, N.W., after witnesses say she was assaulted by one or more unidentified suspects and chased into the street in the path of an oncoming car. D.C. police have listed the incident as a homicide, saying the person or persons who assaulted her and forced her into the street committed second-degree murder.
#1: Gay College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn pleads guilty to child porn charges
A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge on Nov. 20 sentenced gay former College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn to 30 years in jail just over three months after Wojahn pleaded guilty to 140 counts of possession or distribution of child pornography.
The sentencing followed news that surfaced in March, which shocked Wojahn’s friends and longtime political supporters, including LGBTQ activists, that he had been arrested after police raided his College Park house and confiscated multiple devices, including computers and cell phones, containing hundreds of images or videos of child pornography depicting pre-pubescent boys.
At the sentencing hearing over a dozen of Wojahn’s friends and family members, including his husband, urged the judge to consider Wojahn’s own statements saying mental health issues were at play in his actions and that he cooperated with the police investigation and deeply apologized for what he did. Under Maryland sentencing rules, Wojahn will be eligible to apply for release on parole after serving 12 and a half years of incarceration.
Honorable mention: Zachary Parker sworn in as new D.C. Council member
Former D.C. school board member Zachary Parker was sworn in on Jan. 2 as the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015 at an inaugural ceremony in which other elected officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and six other Council members were also sworn in.
Parker, a Democrat, won election in November 2022 to the Ward 5 Council seat by a wide margin after winning a hotly contested Democratic primary for the Ward 5 seat.
In his inaugural speech after being sworn in as a Council member, Parker said he ran on a vision that “all District residents deserve good and accountable government” and pledged to work to help serve the needs of the city’s diverse residents, including LGBTQ residents.
“With this honor comes the responsibility to address the ridiculously high rates of queer youth homelessness” and “ensure that we’re investing in the people and organizations that are fighting every day for our LGBTQIA plus neighbors,” he said in his speech.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Congratulations to Carla Lester, LICSW on her new position as Chief Program Officer with SMYAL. Upon accepting the position she said, “SMYAL deeply aligns with my passion for honoring, protecting, and upholding the rights of all individuals, particularly LGBTQ+ youth and others who have been historically underserved, to belong to communities that affirm their identities, treat them with dignity and respect, and support their well-being. At this point in my career, I was ready to transition to an organization whose mission more closely reflected my values and was rooted in the community. SMYAL offered the opportunity to serve both an organization and a population whose mission not only resonates deeply with me but also intersects with my own multiple identities.”
Lester is a healthcare and human services executive with more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health, federal and state health insurance programs, housing, health care, education, and community-based services. She has held senior roles at Carelon Behavioral Health, Pathways to Housing and N Street Village, leading clinical programs, Housing First initiatives, homeless outreach, trauma-informed services, and integrated case management.
She earned master’s degrees in Social Work and Divinity, and maintains active clinical social work licenses in D.C. and Maryland.
Congratulations also to Tad Czyzewski on his new position as Chief Development Officer at SMYAL. On accepting the position, he said, “While I’ve spent much of my nonprofit career in the arts, the current social and political environments made me want to apply my skills and passion more directly toward supporting and strengthening our community. SMYAL and this role felt like the right place to do that.”
Czyzewski brings more than two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership and strategy, fundraising, and business development. Prior to joining SMYAL, he served for eight years as executive director of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, where he led fundraising, financial management, and community engagement. During his tenure, he helped raise more than $15 million in contributed revenue. He guided the organization through a major rebrand and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to that Czyzewski served as Business and Development Director for Washington Revels, and held leadership and advisory roles with Chorus America, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He began his career in the corporate sector, including at Capital One, where his work in product development and marketing contributed to new financial products and more than $2 billion in deposits.
Czyzewski is a lifelong musician, has performed professionally as a classical singer, including with the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra.
District of Columbia
Gay ANC commissioner sues D.C. over police ‘failure’ to pay reward money
Lawsuit says information led to conviction in murder, armed robbery cases
Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Donohue on Aug. 11 filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court charging that D.C. police acted improperly and violated a local law by not paying him $30,000 in reward money for his role in helping police identify and arrest — and obtain the subsequent conviction — of one man charged with murder and another man charged with armed robbery in separate cases.
Although the lawsuit alleges improper action by D.C. police in carrying out the city’s Crime Solvers reward program, it names as defendants the District of Columbia and the Office of the Attorney General for D.C., which, among other things, defends the city against lawsuits.
Donohue, who is a member of the city’s ANC Rainbow Caucus consisting of LGBTQ elected ANC members, held a news conference outside the D.C. Superior Court building on Aug. 11 to talk about the lawsuit before entering the courthouse to officially file it.
The lawsuit states that Donohue “provided key video evidence that led to the arrest and conviction” of a man initially charged with first degree murder for allegedly running over a bicyclist with his car after the two got into an argument.
The lawsuit states that police had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the defendant in that case, but police “arbitrarily slashed the payment to $5,000 without prior notice or policy justification.”
Court records show that D.C. resident Eric Beasley was charged with first degree murder for killing David Farewell, 45, by hitting him with his car on Sept. 4, 2020, on the 2100 block of Young Street, S.E. The records show the evidence for the case was based in large part on video camera footage of the incident obtained by police. Donohoe has said he provided that video camera evidence.
The records show that during Beasley’s October 2023 trial a jury was unable to reach the required unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial.
According to the records, Beasley later agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced in September 2024 to eight years in prison, a development that angered the victim’s family members who called it a “slap on the wrist,” according to a Fox 5 News report.
Donohue’s lawsuit says the second case in which he provided police with pivotal information involved a series of armed robberies known as the Fairlawn Serial Armed Robbery Spree that occurred in the Fairlawn neighborhood in Southeast D.C. in 2023 near where Donohue lives.
The lawsuit says evidence consisting of video surveillance footage provided by Donohue to police enabled police to determine they initially wrongfully arrested an 18-year-old male for the robberies. “Using Plaintiff’s security video, MPD identified, arrested, and convicted the actual robber, David Crocker, who was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison,” the lawsuit states.
It says one of the detectives investigating the case recommended a $10,000 reward for Donohue’s help in the case based on the police Crime Solvers reward program. The detective’s recommendation was approved by then-Assistant D.C. Police Chief Kyle Ramey on Aug. 4, 2025, according to the lawsuit.
But it adds, “Nevertheless, MPD improperly withheld payment.”
When contacted by the Washington Blade for comment on Donohue’s lawsuit allegations, a D.C. police spokesperson said “MPD does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”
Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein, who serves as press secretary for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which will be defending the city against the Donohue lawsuit, said he would look into obtaining a possible comment but said the office has a similar longstanding policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
“This action arises from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s arbitrary, bad-faith, and legally unsupportable failure to honor its public reward promises and administrative obligations to Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
It says the MPD violated the city’s Freedom of Information Act or FOIA law by not responding to Donohue’s request for information and documents related to the decision not to pay him the full reward money.
“MPD’s reduction of Plaintiff’s homicide reward from $25,000 to $5,000, and its withholding of his approved $10,00 robbery reward, were undertaken completely devoid of written standards, making such decisions inherently arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of administrative discretion,” it says.
It calls for Donohue to be awarded $30,000 in compensatory damages consisting of the $20,000 “unpaid balance” for the homicide case reward and $10,000 for the robbery case reward. It also calls for reimbursement for “reasonable” litigation costs and attorney’s fees. Donohue told the Washington Blade that at this time he is representing himself without an attorney.
Donohue told the Blade that the refusal by D.C. police to pay him the full reward money also limited his plans to donate some of that money to the family of murder victim David Farewell to help pay for a burial stone. He said that due to the family’s limited resources Farewell is buried in an unmarked grave
Delaware
New LGBTQ visitor center slated for Wilmington, Del.
The Collective to feature gift shop, queer museum, more
During Pride month this year, the Delaware Sexuality and Gender Collective (DSGC) announced plans for The Collective, which will become Delaware’s first LGBTQIA+ visitor center and Wilmington’s first dedicated LGBTQIA+ space in nearly 40 years.
“We’ve been talking about the concept of a brick-and-mortar space for a long time,” said Noah Duckett, co-founder of DSGC.
A licensed clinical social worker, Duckett co-founded DSGC with his mother, Julissa Coriano, in 2018. DSGC is an independent nonprofit organization that provides vital clinical and educational support, social programming and direct-need support to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Some of the programs DSGC offers include a free clothing closet for the trans community, meal support for people recovering from gender-affirming surgery, connections to pro bono legal services, a biannual Pride Market featuring over 100 LGBTQIA+-owned small businesses, and more.
“Our vision for The Collective is a place where our community can come to learn, create, work and be inspired,” said Coriano.
The Collective will feature a visitor center and gift shop highlighting LGBTQIA+-owned businesses in Delaware.
“I think that this is something that’s going to benefit our community so much,” said Duckett.
Some of the LGBTQIA+-owned businesses that DSGC has already partnered with include Stress Induced Art Attack, Moonbeam Art Collaborative, Voce Coffee, Groovy Gemini Co., Scout Cafe, Macaron Social and Huxley and Hiro.
“Specifically in Wilmington, we haven’t had an LGBTQIA+-dedicated space in almost 40 years,” said Duckett.
The Griffin Community Center, which operated from 1986 to 1990, was Delaware’s first LGBTQ+ community center. The Griffin was founded by Ivo Dominguez Jr. and James C. Welch and provided a range of community services during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, including AIDS hotlines, organizational offices and meeting space. The center ultimately closed because of a lack of financial support.
Duckett said DSGC hopes The Collective will carry on The Griffin’s legacy while building a sustainable space for the LGBTQIA+ community.
“I think now more than ever, there’s more and more spaces closing their doors. More and more spaces are losing funding, seeing reduced funding and reduced access, especially LGBTQ+ organizations and communities,” said Duckett.
The Collective will also feature Delaware’s first LGBTQ+ history museum, curated by LGBTQ+ historian Carolanne Deal.
“We don’t have any permanent displays in the state about Delaware’s queer history, and we want people to be able to access that history any day of the year, not just during Pride Month,” said Deal.
With a master’s degree in art history for museum professionals, Deal has more than seven years of experience in curatorial work and hands-on collections care.
“It’s mainly going to be a graphic display with photographs, articles and accessible text that draws people in and creates a story for the community,” said Deal.
Although the museum will not initially have an object collection, Deal said she hopes to add physical archival pieces in the future.
“Delaware has been at the forefront of a lot of queer civil rights, and it’ll be really amazing to have that enshrined in a permanent display that’s not only up for Pride Month,” said Deal.
Duckett said DSGC is currently raising funds with the goal of beginning construction this summer and opening by the end of the year.
Duckett told the Blade that fundraising efforts have reached just under $29,000 and that the organization is awaiting several major donations from community partner organizations.
However, he said DSGC continues to be denied many grants tied to federal or state funding because of restrictions on those funds being used for LGBTQ+-serving organizations.
“Private and corporate donations are absolutely vital,” said Duckett.
Anyone interested in supporting the construction and renovation of The Collective can donate online or contact [email protected] for more information.ose funds being used for LGBTQ-serving organizations.
“Private and corporate donations are absolutely vital,” said Duckett.
Anyone interested in supporting the construction of The Collective can donate online or contact [email protected] for more information.
Live music drag cabaret set for Shaw’s Tavern
Calendar: August 14-20
Comings & Goings
Beloved pastor, AIDS activist Rainey Cheeks dies at 74
Supreme Court ruled Boy Scouts could exclude James Dale. Now he says that same rule protects LGBTQ scouts from Trump
Don’t miss summer productions at Clear Space in Rehoboth Beach
Todd Blanche’s record on LGBTQ issues comes under scrutiny as he takes over DOJ
2 former NBA players launch cheap anti-trans stunt to exploit WNBA rules
HISTORIC: Susan Stewart elected Rehoboth’s first out mayor
Same-sex couples challenges India income tax law
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Theater4 days agoDon’t miss summer productions at Clear Space in Rehoboth Beach
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Federal Government4 days ago
Todd Blanche’s record on LGBTQ issues comes under scrutiny as he takes over DOJ
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Sports3 days ago
2 former NBA players launch cheap anti-trans stunt to exploit WNBA rules
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Rehoboth Beach4 days ago
HISTORIC: Susan Stewart elected Rehoboth’s first out mayor
