District of Columbia
D.C. trans woman files bias lawsuit against Whole Foods, Amazon
Co-workers accused of ‘threats to do bodily injury,’ ‘lewd, obscene acts’
A lawsuit filed by a D.C. transgender woman in July 2022 accuses the Whole Foods supermarket company and its parent company Amazon.com, Inc. with failing to stop as many as 20 Whole Foods employees in six D.C.-area Whole Foods stores from allegedly subjecting the trans woman who worked in those stores with sexual harassment and assault, threats of assault, anti-trans name-calling, and lewd and obscene gestures.
Court records show two separate complaints, one against Whole Foods and the other against Amazon, were initially filed July 11, 2022, in D.C. Superior Court by Vanessa Navarrete, who later changed her name to Ximena Navarrete, after the case was transferred in August 2022 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The records show Navarrete’s initial filing in U.S. District Court called for $1 million in damages from Whole Foods, with a second filing two months later in the same federal court calling for $1.5 million in damages from Amazon.
An initial answer to the complaint filed Nov. 3, 2022, by attorneys representing Amazon states, “Amazon denies that it engaged in any wrongful conduct with respect to Plaintiff,” among other reasons, on grounds that Amazon “was not Plaintiff’s employer.”
But a 57-page amended complaint filed as part of the lawsuit on Jan. 5, 2023, names as defendants in the lawsuit Amazon.com, Inc.; Prime Now LLC, the Amazon-owned company that operates the Whole Foods supermarket chain; and D.C.-area Whole Foods employees listed as “John Doe 1-10” and “Jane Doe 11-20.”
In subsequent court filings, Amazon attorneys repeatedly assert that the defendant in the case is Prime Now LLC “improperly identified as Amazon.”
The complaint describes in graphic terms the allegations made by Navarrete in her lawsuit.
“During the course of Plaintiff’s employment, Plaintiff was subjected to a pattern of discrimination, harassment, threats to do bodily injury, lewd, indecent, and/or obscene acts, indecent exposure, offensive language, offensive and unwanted physical contact, due to Plaintiff’s sex, perceived sex, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, national origin, age and disability,” the complaint states.
“During the course of Plaintiff’s employment, Defendant Amazon and members of management were indifferent to the discrimination, harassment, threats to do bodily injury, lewd, indecent and/or obscene acts, indecent exposure, offensive and unwanted physical contact to which Plaintiff was subjected,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit says Navarrete, 46, worked at the D.C. Whole Foods stores at the 1400 block of P Street, N.W. and in D.C.’s Tenleytown and Friendship Heights neighborhoods as well as the stores in Silver Spring, Md. and Arlington and Springfield in Virginia from Sept. 20, 2020, to Oct. 6, 2021, as a “Prime Now – Whole Foods Shopper,” a position in which she fulfilled food orders placed by customers online.
Supporting documents filed with the lawsuit say the alleged mistreatment of Navarrete began on her first day at work at one of the Whole Foods stores when a manager required her to wear a name badge with her birth name. Court documents show that she disclosed her birth name at the time she applied for the job and openly identified as transgender and requested, with Whole Foods managers initially agreeing, that she be identified and addressed as a female with her female name.
Her wearing a name tag with the male dead name played a key role in prompting co-workers to begin harassing her, court documents show.
Court records also show she identified herself as “Victor Navarrete (Vanessa)” in the first, handwritten version of her lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court, which she filed herself without an attorney. Her first amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court identifies her as “Victor Navarrete a/k/a Vanessa Navarrete.” However, the lawsuit repeatedly states that she made it clear to managers and officials with Whole Foods Human Resources Department that she identifies as a female and wants to be addressed and listed in work-related documents by her female name.
According to the lawsuit, her employment with Whole Foods was terminated in October 2021 due to discrimination based, among other things, on her status as a Latina transgender woman and “for seeking redress from the discrimination and/or harassment.”
The Jan. 5, 2023, amended complaint charges Amazon and Whole Foods with violating the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, the D.C. Human Rights Act, and the D.C. Bias Related Crimes Act for their “wrongful employment practices against Plaintiff.”
The Washington Blade reached out by phone and email to the two lead attorneys representing Amazon in the lawsuit – Michael A. Chichester Jr. and Brandon Robert Mita of the D.C. law firm Littler Mendelson PC for comment on the case on behalf of Amazon and Whole Foods. Neither responded to the request for comment.
The Blade similarly reached out by email to spokespersons for Amazon and Whole Foods seeking comment on the lawsuit. As of Aug. 1, neither had replied.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a national LGBTQ advocacy organization, has awarded Amazon, Inc. its highest score of 100% in its 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index rating that evaluates LGBTQ supportive policies for employees.
The HRC Corporate Equality Index did not have a rating for Prime Now LLC or Whole Foods.
Court records show that Navarrete also filed a discrimination complaint against Amazon regarding her employment at Whole Foods with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on April 5, 2021, and another discrimination complaint against Amazon for the same alleged improper treatment with the D.C. Office of Human Rights on that same day.
The court records show that the EEOC on Jan. 4, 2023, issued a “right to sue” letter clearing the way for Navarrete to file her lawsuit in federal court under court rules that require people alleging employment discrimination to seek an “administrative” remedy before going to court.
The most recent court records show that U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the lawsuit case, in April of this year denied a motion by Navarette’s attorneys to file another amended complaint with new allegations against Whole Foods employees. Among the new allegations, court records show, is that a Whole Foods male employee allegedly “groped” Navarrete’s buttocks and breasts, another employee allegedly exposed his genitals to her, and another allegedly sent her “explicit text messages and photographs of male genitals.”
Yet another new allegation, the record shows, is a security guard working for Whole Foods allegedly visited Navarette at her home and raped her after asking her for sex in exchange for helping her resolve her problems at work.
The Blade couldn’t immediately find in the court records a reason given by the judge for denying the motion to file the new amended complaint. But a motion filed by Amazon’s attorneys opposing the request by Navarette to amend the complaint argues that the new allegations are significantly different from the allegations in her original complaint and would be legally “untimely” in violation of court rules.
In reference to its call for monetary damages and compensation, the lawsuit states that because of Amazon’s “unlawful conduct,” Navarrete “has suffered, and continues to suffer, mental anguish and emotional distress, including but not limited to, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and confidence, and emotional pain and suffering, as well as physical injury, for which she is entitled to an award of compensatory damages and other relief.”
As of Aug. 1, the court records show that no trial date has been set for the case. The records do show that as required by court rules, the two sides entered mediation last year in an effort to reach a resolution to settle the case, but the mediation ended with no agreement being reached.
Erica Bilkis, one of two attorneys with the D.C. law firm Alan Lescht & Associates representing Ximena Navarrete, pointed out that 55 years after the Stonewall Rebellion started the modern LGBTQ rights movement, “trans women of color are still being persecuted and fighting for equal treatment in their personal and professional lives.” Bilkis added, “We are hopeful that we will not only bring justice on behalf of Ms. Navarrete, but also encourage others to bravely speak out against this systemic issue.”
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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