District of Columbia
Two nonprofits partner to support local LGBTQ military youth
Blue Star Families, MMAA launch ‘Safe Spaces for Belonging’ meet up
Two of the nation’s largest nonprofits supporting military families have joined forces to provide newly relocated LGBTQ military youth and their families safe meeting spaces, fun activities and vital resources about affirming services available across the district.
Blue Star Families, a community-based nonprofit supporting military-connected families, has partnered with the Modern Military Association of America, the nation’s largest organization serving LGBTQ military and veteran communities, to form “Safe Spaces for Belonging,” a monthly meet up for queer military youth and their families to meet local LGBTQ youth and allies while adjusting to their new environment.
“Military life is inherently transitory,” said Cathy Marcello, assistant director of programs for MMAA and the mother of a transgender military youth. “Every time LGBTQ military youth move, they have to come out again – and they move often before graduating from high school. We want them to know they’re not alone and give them literally a space where they belong.”
Past events, programmed for youth aged 13-19 who identify as LGBTQ or ally, have included an inaugural resource fair at MLK library, pronoun button making, rock climbing and a virtual trivia night. Events are open to all area LGBTQ-affirming youth to foster connections and help integrate queer military youth into their new communities.
Marcello noted military moves have been particularly stressful for queer military youth over the past few years. More than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in 2023 alone, according to the Williams Institute.
LGBTQ youth with at least one parent in the military reported significantly higher rates of mental health challenges and suicide risks than their peers, according to the Trevor Project, due to deployment separations and fears of harm for the service member, in addition to stress related to potential moves.
“We’ve got military families in these states right now with family members who do not have equal rights under the law,” Marcello said. “The family programming that we do is in response to the emergence of these anti-LGBTQ laws.”
Military parents attending Safe Spaces events with their queer youth receive information on LGBTQ-specific resources across the district and can ask questions, such as if continuing their child’s transition care would be considered “abuse” under local laws, without risking their positions or security clearances.
“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell [the repealed LGBTQ open service ban] happened during my lifetime, and this is an outgrowth of ending that time of serving in silence,” said Julie Riggs, executive director of the Sheila and George Casey National Capital Region Chapter of Blue Star Families. She’s also the wife of a retired Navy service member and the mother of two queer teens who are former military youth. “In contrast, we’re proud of all service and proud to have queer kids.”
While the Safe Spaces program is currently only available in D.C., Riggs said she hopes to see it expand across the country. The program falls under the Blue Star Families’ larger Campaign for Inclusion initiative.
Under the initiative, last year Blue Star Families partnered with Howard University and The Chamberlain Project to host a panel symposium at Howard recognizing the 75th anniversary of military desegregation.
The initiative also covers the position of Angie Cherikos, the Lockheed Martin National Capital Region DEPLOY (Diversifying and Expanding the Pipeline of Leadership) Fellow at Blue Star Families. Cherikos is a recent college graduate who describes herself as a former “military brat” who grew up in the D.C. area. While she only came into her queer awareness within the past two years, she always felt different and closely aligned herself with the LGBTQ community.
“It can be frustrating not knowing where to go and how to integrate into the communities I identify with,” Cherikos explained. “I wanted to ease that experience for others.”
As a queer person of color, Cherikos said she wanted to ensure the Safe Spaces program reached out and connected to diverse communities.
She pointed out the generational trauma inflicted on her age group was not just from the rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation, but also from a variety of issues impacting different groups in different ways, including the protests and national reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, rising gun violence, and the visible impacts of climate change.
Cherikos said one way for her generation to work through this trauma was to connect and support each other when they can.
In February, Safe Spaces is meeting up for a Valentine’s Day cookie decorating event in Arlington, where Cherikos said a goal is to open up conversations about who they’re dating or to encourage self-love in an affirming environment. A yoga and mindfulness event is scheduled for March in Georgetown. Each event helps queer military youth learn and explore the area while sharing experiences with their new friends.
“One participant said the hardest part of his transition was not the hormones or anything like that, it was moving from D.C. to Tennessee and not seeing anyone who looked like him,” she said. “So, if you see someone who looks like they just need one friend, use opportunities like this to be that friend for them. That’s how you make an impact. That’s how you make change happen.”
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.
District of Columbia
Trans activists arrested outside HHS headquarters in D.C.
Protesters demonstrated directive against gender-affirming care
Authorities on Tuesday arrested 24 activists outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in D.C.
The Gender Liberation Movement, a national organization that uses direct action, media engagement, and policy advocacy to defend bodily autonomy and self-determination, organized the protest in which more than 50 activists participated. Organizers said the action was a response to changes in federal policy mandated by Executive Order 14187, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
The order directs federal agencies and programs to work toward “significantly limiting youth access to gender-affirming care nationwide,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides independent, fact-based information on national health issues. The executive order also includes claims about gender-affirming care and transgender youth that critics have described as misinformation.
Members of ACT UP NY and ACT UP Pittsburgh also participated in the demonstration, which took place on the final day of the public comment period for proposed federal rules that would restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Demonstrators blocked the building’s main entrance, holding a banner reading “HANDS OFF OUR ‘MONES,” while chanting, “HHS—RFK—TRANS YOUTH ARE NO DEBATE” and “NO HATE—NO FEAR—TRANS YOUTH ARE WELCOME HERE.”
“We want trans youth and their loving families to know that we see them, we cherish them, and we won’t let these attacks go on without a fight,” said GLM co-founder Raquel Willis. “We also want all Americans to understand that Trump, RFK, and their HHS won’t stop at trying to block care for trans youth — they’re coming for trans adults, for those who need treatment from insulin to SSRIs, and all those already failed by a broken health insurance system.”
“It is shameful and intentional that this administration is pitting communities against one another by weaponizing Medicaid funding to strip care from trans youth. This has nothing to do with protecting health and everything to do with political distraction,” added GLM co-founder Eliel Cruz. “They are targeting young people to deflect from their failure to deliver for working families across the country. Instead of restricting care, we should be expanding it. Healthcare is a human right, and it must be accessible to every person — without cost or exception.”
Despite HHS’s efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth, major medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society — continue to regard such care as evidence-based treatment. Gender-affirming care can include psychotherapy, social support, and, when clinically appropriate, puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
The protest comes amid broader shifts in access to care nationwide.
NYU Langone Health recently announced it will stop providing transition-related medical care to minors and will no longer accept new patients into its Transgender Youth Health Program following President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting trans healthcare.
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