District of Columbia
Medical Examiner: Two beloved D.C. gay men died of accidental drug ‘toxicity’
Christmas week deaths prompted response by LGBTQ community
The D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed for the Washington Blade that the cause of death of two widely known and beloved gay men found unconscious at one of their homes in Northwest D.C. on Dec. 27 was an accidental consumption of several drugs that created a fatal ‘toxic’ effect.
D.C. police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department reports show that prominent D.C. attorney and LGBTQ rights advocate Brandon Roman, 38, and historic preservation expert and home renovation business owner Robert “Robbie” Barletta, 28, were found unconscious when police and emergency medical personnel arrived on the afternoon of Dec. 27.
The reports show that Roman was declared deceased at the scene shortly after D.C. police and an ambulance arrived at the house in response to a 911 call. According to one of the reports, Barletta was taken to Washington Hospital Center where he died on Dec. 29.
The D.C. gay bar Shakers hosted a celebration of life for the two men on Feb. 3, And people who knew them told the Blade their sudden and unexpected deaths prompted many in the community, including several gay bars, to take steps to address the overdose problem in the LGBTQ community, even though the cause of death of Roman and Barletta had not been confirmed at that time.
The Medical Examiner’s office lists the cause of death for Barletta as, “Cocaethylene, cocaine, fentanyl, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethanmphetamine toxicity.” It lists the manner of death as “Accident/Intoxication.”
It lists the cause of death for Roman as, “Combined toxic effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethanphetamine, cocaethylene, cocaine, fentanyl, ketamine, and xylazine.” Like Barletta, it lists the manner of death for Roman as “Accident/Intoxication.”
A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Blade for an explanation of whether one or more of the multiple drugs found in the two men’s bodies may have been the main cause of death.
The D.C. Department of Health and officials with health departments in other locations have said one of the leading causes of drug overdose deaths is fentanyl, which victims often do not know is present in other drugs, such as cocaine.
The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration state on their websites that cocaethylene is formed within the human body when someone consumes both cocaine and an alcoholic beverage. The write-ups say cocaethylene has a longer lasting and more intense psychoactive effect than just cocaine.
According to the NIH and DEA write-ups, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy or MDMA, acts as a stimulant and hallucinogen, producing feelings of euphoria and is often used as a so-called party drug. The write-ups say ketamine has been used medically as an anesthetic but is also used as a party drug for its hallucinogenic and “dissociative sensations.”
The NIH and DEA write-ups say Xylazine, often called “tranq” or “tranq dope,” is a non-opioid sedative or tranquilizer approved for veterinary use but not for humans. The write-ups say it has been linked to a large number of drug overdose cases in humans, especially when used, most likely unintentionally, with fentanyl as a party drug. Because it is a non-opioid drug, the life-saving opioid overdose prevention medication naloxone or Narcan does not work to stop an overdose of Xylazine, the NIH write-up says.
Johnny Bailey, Community Outreach Coordinator for HIPS D.C., an LGBTQ-supportive organization that provides services and support for those who use recreational drugs, said he strongly believes that Barletta and Roman did not intentionally consume some of the drugs found in their system.
“I’m going to say I do believe this was a poisoning,” Bailey told the Blade. “I think it unfair to call some things an overdose because an overdose is when you do too much of a drug and you die from that drug,” he said. “This is like if you have a few glasses of wine every night and someone puts arsenic in your wine, no one would be like, ‘oh, they drank themselves to death.’ They were poisoned. And that’s what I think is happening here,” he said in referring to Barletta and Roman.
D.C. police spokesperson Tom Lynch told the Blade in February that police were investigating the Barletta and Roman deaths, but investigators had to wait for the Medical Examiner’s official determination of the cause and manner of death before the investigation could fully proceed. He said the deaths were not being investigated as a homicide at that time.
Police and court records in D.C. and other jurisdictions show that police and prosecutors have filed criminal charges against drug dealers and suppliers in cases involving drug overdose deaths. In some cases, when the drug dealer is found they have been charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment, or related charges.
When contacted this week to ask about the status of the D.C. police investigation into the Barletta and Roman deaths now that the Medical Examiner has determined the cause and manner of death, Lynch declined further comment.
“The investigation into these deaths remains open,” he said. “There are no updates on the investigation that we are ready to release to the public.”
Bailey said in January that one development that has emerged from the Barletta-Roman deaths is a stepped-up effort to raise awareness of the problem and support by LGBTQ bars in D.C. to host training sessions and to distribute the lifesaving Narcan treatment nasal spray as well as fentanyl test kits.
“It’s horrible when it takes a tragedy for things to come together,” Bailey said. “But this tragedy has truly triggered a powerful response. It was a real wakeup call for a lot of people.”
He said the local gay bars Trade, Pitchers, and JR.’s are among the LGBTQ bars that have hosted training sessions or tables set up by HIPS to provide related information along with test kits and Narcan.
According to Bailey, HIPS is partnering with Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s LGBTQ supportive health care center, to officially launch on April 5 a new Harm Reduction Vending Machine Project, “that seeks to put free harm reduction/overdose prevention supplies in areas with high rates of overdose deaths and other barriers to care.” The launch event will take place at Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Center in Southeast D.C.
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 32 of the 44 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 – Vida 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) Vida Rangel, she/they [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
1C01 – (Adams Morgan) Howard Bauleke, 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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