District of Columbia
Two prominent LGBTQ candidates drop out of race for ANC seats
Musa, Rangel among 46 hit with signature petition challenges
D.C. Capital Pride Alliance board member Anthony Musa and transgender D.C. government official Vida Rangel have withdrawn as candidates in the city’s Nov. 5 election for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats after separate challenges were filed questioning the validity of the signatures on their required nominating petitions.
Musa was one of at least four LGBTQ candidates running unopposed for seats on ANC 2B, which represents the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
Rangel, who described herself as the first Latina trans person of color to run for public office in D.C., was running for the ANC single member district seat 1A10 in the city’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. She was running against incumbent Billy Easley, who identifies as a gay man. Rangel currently serves as director of operations for the D.C. Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments.
Under D.C. election rules, ANC candidates must obtain the signatures of at least 25 registered voters who live in their ANC single member district to gain access to the election ballot. Under the D.C. government, ANCs are unpaid, voluntary elected positions given the role of advising city government officials on neighborhood issues, with city officials required to give “great weight” to the ANCs’ recommendations.
Musa told the Washington Blade on Sept. 3 that he withdrew his candidacy after realizing he only obtained about 26 or 27 signatures, with a few of them appearing to be from people who did not live in his ANC single member district 2B01. He said the person challenging his petition, whom he called a neighborhood rival, would likely have succeeded in the challenge and invalidated his candidacy.
“With the signatures, I just didn’t meet the level,” he said. “There were several people that I thought lived in my district, but they didn’t. So, if I ever do this again, I’ll make sure I get like triple the amount that I need.”
Rangel told the Blade on Sept. 4 that after receiving the challenge to her petition she too realized she fell short on the number of needed petition signatures. “After reviewing that challenge and checking records of what I could correct, I would have ended up coming just four signatures short,” she said. “So, in the end I decided to withdraw. It’s very disappointing.”
She said she also decided not to run for the ANC seat as a write-in candidate. “I think as a write-in I wouldn’t be anywhere as viable with my opponent Billy Easley running for re-election and with the name recognition he has,” Rangel said. “So, I think it’s best for me to step back and let him continue his service.”
Gay D.C. political activist Joe Bishop-Henchman filed the challenge against Rangel and seven other ANC candidates.
Bishop-Henchman disputed claims by some neighborhood activists who said he and others who challenged the signature petitions of ANC candidates were targeting those candidates because they disagreed with the candidates’ positions on issues impacting their respective neighborhoods. He insisted he only files challenges against “the candidate that says they have the 25 valid signatures but doesn’t.”
Vincent Slatt, who serves as chair of the ANC Rainbow Caucus, which includes LGBTQ ANC members from across the city, said he recognized the names of about three or four other LGBTQ ANC candidates whose petitions were also being challenged.
Slatt said he believes most of the challenges were “petty” and motivated by neighborhood political rivalries. He and Musa pointed out that the person who challenged Musa’s petition, Martha ‘Marcy’ Logan, serves on the board of directors of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association. Some Dupont Circle neighborhood activists, including LGBTQ activists, consider the organization, referred to as the DCCA, to be biased against nightlife businesses, including some of the gay bars in the Dupont Circle area.
Musa said he believes Logan targeted him for a petition challenge because she believes he sides with the nightlife businesses. He describes himself as a “pro-growth” advocate from a neighborhood business perspective as opposed to the DCCA, which Musa considers “anti-growth” regarding community businesses that he feels are an asset to the neighborhood.
The DCCA didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Blade for comment and for contact information for Logan.
Musa said he too decided not to run for the ANC seat as a write-in candidate. With his withdrawal from the race, there will be no candidate on the November election ballot for the 2ANC 2B01 seat.
At the time she announced her candidacy in July, Rangel said among her priorities as an ANC commissioner would be improving language access for the large number of Spanish-speaking residents in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
“We need a commissioner who is going to push for Spanish language resources so that our government officials can hear the voices of all Columbia Heights residents, not just the ones who speak English,” she told the Blade.
District of Columbia
Doc on Blade reporter Chibbaro scores Emmy nomination
‘Lou’s Legacy’ chronicles 50-year career
“Lou’s Legacy: A Reporter’s Life at the Washington Blade” has been nominated for a Capital Emmy in the “Documentary – Historical” category by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
“Our members include all of the video content producers who serve our local audiences in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia—from the Atlantic to the Appalachians, from Bristol to Baltimore,” said Capitol Emmys President Adam Longo in a press release.
Broadcast last June by WETA PBS in Washington, D.C. and MPT in Maryland, the documentary was directed and produced by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Patrick Sammon in association with the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Additional nominees who worked on the film include producer Julianne Donofrio and editor Amir Jaffer.
“Lou’s Legacy” tells the story of two D.C. icons — legendary Washington Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. and beloved drag performer Donnell Robinson, known to generations of Washington audiences as “Ella Fitzgerald.” Through Chibbaro’s nearly five-decade career at the Blade and Ella’s return to the stage after a three-year hiatus following COVID, the 29-minute documentary explores the history of Washington’s LGBTQ community and today’s rising backlash against LGBTQ rights, including laws targeting drag performers.
“We’re honored that Lou’s Legacy has been recognized alongside such an impressive group of historical documentaries,” said Sammon. “This nomination is especially meaningful because the film preserves and celebrates the stories of people who helped shape queer history in Washington, DC — often without recognition from mainstream institutions. We’re deeply grateful to the Mattachine Society, Lou Chibbaro Jr., Donnell Robinson, WETA PBS, and everyone who helped bring this project to life.”
“Lou’s Legacy” premiered on WETA PBS in June 2025 during Pride month. The documentary also broadcast on Maryland Public Television and is streaming nationally on PBS.org. WETA will rebroadcast “Lou’s Legacy” several times during Pride month, including June 15 th at 9 p.m. Winners of the Capital Emmy Awards will be announced at the Capital Emmy Gala on June 20 at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel.
District of Columbia
D.C. Black Pride set for Memorial Day Weekend
Dozens of events to reflect theme of ‘New Black Renaissance’
D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Black Pride celebration is scheduled to take place May 22-25 as it has since its founding 35 years ago on Memorial Day Weekend with several dozen events in locations across the city.
Like recent years, most of the official events are scheduled to take place at the Westin D.C. Downtown Hotel, including the Opening Reception on Friday, May 22, when Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Durand Bernarr was scheduled to be among the performers.
“This high-energy reception brings together community leaders, creatives, tastemakers, and visitors from across the globe for a night rooted in connection, joy, and celebration,” according to a statement on the Black Pride website.
Also, like past years, the second day of official Black Pride events set for Saturday, May 23, will include a dozen workshop sessions on a wide range of issues and topics. The workshop sessions will take place at the Westin Hotel.
On that same day, Black Trans Pride is scheduled to take place at the hotel from 1- 6 p.m., according to the official schedule of events.
“The goal is and always has been to make sure we have events for everybody, regardless of their financial situation, regardless of their agenda,” said Kenya Hutton, president and CEO of the Center For Black Equity, the D.C. LGBTQ group that organizes D.C. Black Pride.
Hutton said this year for the first time there will be a D.C. Black Pride Fun Run. The Black Pride website says the 5k run will take place Saturday, May 23, from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. starting at the Frederick Douglass Bride near the D.C. Navy Yard.
He said another first will be a film screening of the documentary film “Not Your Average Girl,” about the life of trans woman, author, and advocate Hope Giselle, scheduled for May 22 at the nearby Eaton Hotel.
Also, like in past years, this year’s Black Pride will feature a Rainbow Row organization and vendor expo at the Westin from 5-9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday that includes information tables set up by organizations and vendors.
The annual Pride In The Park event will take place Monday, May 25, from 12-7 p.m. at Fort Dupont Park located at 3600 F St., S.E. And the seventh annual “Brunch & Babes” drag event was scheduled for Sunday, May 24, at Hook Hall nightclub at 3400 Georgia Ave., N.W.
Among the other events taking place at other locations is a Sunday, May 24 “G-Spot Day Party” organized by local gay activist Geno Dunnington to be held at Bravo Bravo nightclub at 1001 Connecticut Ave., N.W. from 3-9 p.m. Dunnington told the Washington Blade the event will include the playing of house music, which he says played a role in local D.C. Black LGBTQ culture and in the first Black Pride celebration in 1991. The Black Pride website includes a write up of how that came about.
“From 1976 until1990, the ClubHouse in Washington, D.C. was a remarkable nightclub founded by Black members of D.C.’s LGBTQ community, widely known for its signature event – the Children’s Hour,” the write-up says. “This event was a true celebration and took place annually during Memorial Day weekend,” it says.
“When the ClubHouse closed in 1990, many feared the Memorial Day tradition would be lost,” the write-up continues. “However, three men – Welmore Cook, Theodore Kirkland, and Ernest Hopkins – envisioned creating an event that would continue the tradition of the Children’s Hour while also bringing awareness to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in their community.”
The write-up adds, “Their vision and hard work gave life to the first Black Gay and Lesbian Pride event on May 25, 1991, on the grounds of Banneker Field,” which is located near Howard University. “This first event drew 800 people, who were centered around the theme of ‘Let’s All Come Together.’”
It says organizers expanded the scope of the Black Pride events over the next several years as it evolved and prompted Black Pride events in other cities and the formation of the International Federation of Black Prides, which later became the Center for Black Equity.
“D.C. Black Pride was the catalyst for what is now regarded as the Black Pride Movement,” the writeup says. “Since its birth, more than 50 other Black Pride celebrations now take place throughout the world, many using D.C. Black Pride as its model.”
It adds, “Today, more than 500,000 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of African descent and their allies come to Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the beauty of a shared community and raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS in the name and spirit of Black Pride.”
Hutton said D.C. Black Pride has grown to a point where organizers cannot keep track of all the unofficial events taking place.
“There are a number of events that are not even on our website,” he said. “They’re parties. People are having cookouts. There are all kinds of things that are happening over the weekend, that are official listed events, partner events, and non-partner events.”
Hutton said that while D.C. Black Pride’s support from corporate and business sponsors has remained stable, Black Pride organizations in other cities have been hit hard by the growing reluctance by businesses to sponsor LGBTQ related events and LGBTQ organizations brought about by the Trump administration’s opposition to so-called diversity, equity and inclusion or “DEI” programs.
He said several Black Pride groups have had to curtail their annual celebrations’ scope, with some facing the prospect of cancelling their celebrations due to a sharp decrease in funds from business donors. D.C. Black Pride has also faced the impact of anti-DEI pressure from the Trump administration, according to Hutton, from businesses that have asked not to be publicly identified as sponsors.
“The administration has put pressure on some of our traditional sponsors, and we have some sponsors this year who have told us don’t put our ad, don’t put our logo, don’t put anything out” to publicly identify them as sponsors, Hutton said. “They still want to support us but can’t announce they are financially supporting us in any kind of way,” he said.
As she has in recent past years, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser this year issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring May 22-25, 2026 as “DC BLACK PRIDE WEEKEND.”
A list of the official 2026 D.C. Black Pride and partner events and their locations can be accessed at dcblackpride.org.
District of Columbia
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day set for May 18
Whitman-Walker joins nationwide recognition of efforts to develop vaccine
Whitman-Walker Health, the D.C.-based community healthcare center that specializes in HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ-related health services, will join health care advocates from across the country to support efforts to develop an HIV vaccine on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day on May 18.
“HIV Awareness Day, observed annually on May 18, was established to recognize and thank the volunteers, scientists, health professionals, and community members working toward a safe and effective prevention HIV vaccine,” Whitman-Walker said in a statement.
“Led by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the day is also an opportunity to educate communities about the critical importance of preventive HIV vaccine research,” the statement says.
It adds, “The reality is that any new vaccine discovery must be built community by community, institution by institution, and then it must reach everyone – especially the communities who have carried the heaviest burden of this epidemic.”
On its own website, the National Institutes of Health says HIV Vaccine Awareness Day also highlights its longstanding efforts, coordinated by its Office of AIDS Research, to support researchers’ efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
“Researchers are making promising headway in efforts to develop a safe, effective HIV vaccine,” it says in a statement on its website.
A Whitman-Walker spokesperson said Whitman-Walker was not holding a specific event to observe HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, but it will recognize the day as a way of encouragement for its ongoing work to address the AIDS epidemic and support for vaccine research.
“Today, no one has to die from HIV,” said Whitman-Walker’s Health System division’s CEO, Dr. Heather Aaron in the Whitman-Walker statement. “We have the treatments, the technology, and the research to change outcomes, and yet people in our community are still dying from HIV//AIDS,” she said in the statement.
“That is unacceptable, and it is exactly why our work continues,” she added. “Here in D.C. with more focus on Southeast D.C., the Whitman-Walker Health System remains committed to making a difference through cutting-edge research, policy advocacy, and philanthropy, because fair access to life-saving treatment is not a privilege. It is a right.”
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