District of Columbia
Trans community removed from National Park Service’s Dupont Circle website
Description changed to ‘LGB community’ gathering place
The National Park Service, which owns and maintains Dupont Circle as one of the National Capital Region’s national parks, has removed all references to transgender people from its website devoted to Dupont Circle’s history.
The website’s change in use of the term “LGBT” to “LGB” appears to have come shortly after the National Park Service on Feb. 13 removed all references to trans people from its website for the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which drew expressions of outrage from the LGBTQ community.
Other than removing the “T” and all other references to trans people, the National Park Service left in place on its Dupont Circle website a detailed description of the circle’s “LGB History.”
“Located at the intersection of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire Avenues in Northwest Washington, D.C., Dupont Circle has served as the anchor of a neighborhood of diplomats, government officials, war commemorations, and the LGB community for over 200 years,” the website states.
“In the 1970s, Dupont Circle became a welcoming place for the city’s LGB community,” the description of Dupont Circle’s history continues. “Activist Deacon Maccubbin opened Earthworks, a craft store and ‘headshop’ that was the city’s first openly gay business that wasn’t a bar,” it says.
It goes on to say Maccubbin a short time later opened the Lambda Rising bookstore in the Dupont Circle area, and other “gay” organizations were located in the neighborhood, including the Gay Blade which later became the Washington Blade.
It points out that Maccubbin also organized the city’s first “Gay Pride Day” in 1975 in the Dupont Circle neighborhood that evolved into D.C.’s annual Pride festival and parade.
The website includes a photo of Dupont Circle taken during the 2022 DC Pride Festival, which includes someone displaying a flag representing the trans community.
Local LGBTQ groups in D.C. didn’t immediately comment on the removal of trans references to the National Park Service website on Dupont Circle. But LGBTQ groups, including those representing the trans community in New York, denounced the removal of trans references to the Stonewall National Monument.
“Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement.
Longtime D.C. trans rights advocate Earline Budd points out the removal of trans references from the National Park Service’s Dupont Circle website is part of the national effort by the Trump-Vance administration to remove trans rights from all federal programs.
“So, it’s not just here. We’re being removed from everything,” Budd told the Washington Blade. “Anything federal we’re being removed based on the president’s mandate,” she said. “It’s really a scary time for what’s going on with this administration.”
Maccubbin on Wednesday issued this statement.
“As long as the current administration is in power, we can no longer depend on any agency of the federal government to tell the truth about our community and its rich and colorful history. It is, therefore, up to us to keep that history alive, to maintain an accurate historical record.
Dupont Circle has long embraced people of all races, all faiths, all sexual orientations and gender expressions. Likewise, our Lambda Rising Bookstore, from its earliest days, embraced and employed gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and welcomed them all as customers, patrons and friends. We didn’t call it DEI then. They were just parts of a large, loving and valued family, each bringing their unique perspectives and contributions to our common good.
Gay Pride Day (now DC Pride) was founded in 1975 with a commitment to the whole community and every shade in the rainbow was welcome to celebrate with us. That remains the case today.
The National Park Service seeking to erase transgender people from this history is un-American and unacceptable. It’s a despicable lie. As Frank Kameny did in the 50’s, as our community did in the 60’s, as we did when we opened Lambda Rising and when we founded Gay Pride Day in the 70’s, now again we must resist.”
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.
District of Columbia
Man charged with anti-gay assault in D.C. accepts plea offer
Community service offered in exchange for dismissing hate crime charge
A Germantown, Md., man arrested by D.C. police on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation for allegedly assaulting a gay man while using “homophobic slurs” has agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to simple assault without the hate crime designation and with the promise of having the charge dismissed if he completes, among other requirements, 48 hours of community service work.
Dean Edmundson, 26, standing beside his attorney, officially accepted the offer of a Deferred Sentencing Agreement at an Aug. 18 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court after Senior Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo explained the details of the agreement and confirmed Edmundson’s decision to waive his right to a trial.
Among other things, the judge said the agreement offered by prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. includes the requirement that he successfully completes 48 hours of community service work, stays away from the victim of the assault, writes a letter of apology to the victim, and does not violate any other laws or get into trouble for the next 12 months.
Puig-Lugo then announced he scheduled a sentencing hearing for Edmundson for Aug. 18, 2027, at which time a determination will made on whether he has fulfilled all the requirements under the agreement and whether the simple assault charge will be dismissed. The judge added that if it is determined that Edmundson did not fulfil the terms of the agreement the charge would remain in place and he could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Edmundson, who appeared in court wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie, was released on his own recognizance following his arrest by D.C. police on Feb. 7, 2026.
Police and court records show he was initially charged by arresting officers with simple assault with a hate crime designation. In a statement announcing the arrest, D.C. police said, “On Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and kept walking,” the statement says.
A follow-up arrest affidavit filed by police states that Edmundson followed the victim and called him “bald, ugly, and gay,” and then “pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push.” The affidavit adds, “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay.”
According to the court records, the Office of the U.S. Attorney filed its official charge of simple assault against Edmunson on Feb. 9 without the hate crime designation. The office has not responded to a request by the Washington Blade for its reason for dropping the hate crime designation. The office has also not immediately responded to a follow-up inquiry from the Blade this week asking if prosecutors consulted the victim to obtain the victim’s thoughts about the plea offer.
The Blade, which has a policy of not disclosing the identify of crime victims in cases like this without their consent, could not immediately obtain contact information to reach the victim for comment.
Court records show that Edmundson rejected an earlier plea agreement offer by prosecutors and he was scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 18. The records show his attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to convert the trial into status hearing on that same day after his client accepted the Deferred Sentencing Agreement offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The judge approved the motion without objection from prosecutors.
Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
Not all trans people are the same
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
NYC lawmakers seek to repeal bathhouse ban
