District of Columbia
As D.C. upholds tipped wage law, LGBTQ bar charts its own path
Spark Social rethinks its pay strategy as lawmakers block controversial I-82 plan
Last week, the D.C. Council considered removing one of the most contentious ballot initiatives in D.C. government’s history — but for now, it stays.
In a 7-5 vote, an amendment to the D.C. budget — proposed by Ward 4 Council member Janeese Lewis George — ended the repeal of Initiative 82, keeping the incrementally rising tipped wage in the District.
In November 2022, D.C. residents overwhelmingly — at 73.94% — voted for the “District of Columbia Tip Credit Elimination Act of 2021” ballot measure (a.k.a. Initiative 82), which would slowly phase out the tipped wage in the District.
This act had a goal to increase the wages of everyone working in the District, promote wage fairness, and reduce wage theft by gradually raising the tipped minimum wage over five years. From restaurant owners’ perspectives, though, the act is doing more harm than good.
In many parts of the United States, people who earn a “tipped wage” are paid less than the minimum wage — with the expectation that the tips they earn on shift will make up the difference and ideally push them above the minimum. These tipped wages vary by state (or district), but are often significantly lower than the minimum wage.
In 2021, when this act was proposed, tipped workers made $5.05 per hour plus tips, while minimum wage workers earned $15.20 an hour. The ballot initiative passed with the hope that it would uplift those working in the service industry.
Since the initiative passed, there have been small increases to the tipped minimum wage in D.C. — rising to $6 in May 2023, $8 in July 2023, and then $10 in July 2024. Another $2 increase was scheduled for this July, but on June 3, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation to pause the jump for 90 days.
Since the pause, there’s been pushback from both sides of the initiative picket line.
Supporters of Initiative 82 argue the measure prevents wage theft and ensures adequate income, especially as inflation and the cost of living continue to rise.
Opponents — most notably the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) — claim the initiative will prompt “44% of full-service casual restaurants in D.C. [to] close by the end of 2025.”
At Spark Social House (2009 14th St NW), D.C.’s first nonalcoholic LGBTQ bar, the management team is rethinking not just what goes in the glass, but how staff are paid behind the bar. They opened in March of 2025, with Initiative 82 affecting how they pay their tipped staff.
“We actually started out paying minimum wage at $17.50 and then found that that was not actually sustainable,” owner Nick Tsusaki explained. “We had a group staff meeting, and decided to do $12 an hour for our hourlies, and then more for our managers on duty. We don’t have bar backs or any roles like that, so everybody just kind of makes the same amount.”
Rather than follow the traditional tipped wage system, Spark implemented a more collective structure designed to promote equity, while still allowing for the business to financially work.
“We’re just focused on ourselves. The way that our tips work is we pool tips over a two-week pay period, and then portion those out evenly based on the number of hours that you’ve worked in that two-week window,” Tsusaki said.
One key aspect of this step toward equity in tipped roles is their standard automatic gratuity charge.
“For us, it felt like the fairest way to distribute the tips was to do the 20% autogratuity to make it more equitable,” he said. “I went from bar back to business owner within the past two years so I’ve been in each of these positions. When I was looking to open Spark, I tried to think of how we could reimagine the payment system within the confines of what is possible as a business. And that’s what we came up with to try to make things feel more equally distributed.”
But for Tsusaki, Spark is about much more than margins and payroll — it’s about building community and offering something that goes beyond the drink itself.
“What I want people to understand is that what you’re paying for is not what’s in your cup – you are not paying for the actual value of this cup of coffee. We know that you can make that at home for free, basically. You are paying your portion of the rent, the utilities, the labor costs, insurance– all of these other costs that go into creating one of the 20 plus LGBTQ spaces in the city. I understand being frustrated about prices or tipping, but it’s more about understanding the larger business.”
Ultimately, that sense of building a space — with a dedicated mission inherently in its pay structure to provide for its staff members rather than an arbitrary sales quota goal — is another factor that distinguishes Spark.
“I think what we value, and understand is that what we have here is not just the best coffee, which we do, but it’s that we have this space that is so unique and versatile to host different groups and events. It feels really safe to people from all parts of the LGBTQ community – that is what our ‘product’ is, more than anything.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who initially opposed Initiative 82 in 2022, proposed a full repeal of the law in her 2026 budget, which was passed in May. Bowser cited multiple reasons for backing a repeal — echoing RAMW’s concerns over rising costs for restaurants, increased closures, and job losses.
The Washington Blade reached out to D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson prior to the vote to determine the fate of Initiative 82. His message was clear — he’s siding with the vote count.
“If the votes are there to repeal the initiative, I will leave it in,” Mendelson told the Blade. “If the votes are not there, I will take it out.”
The votes weren’t there, leading to a repeal of the repeal — and a slightly higher paycheck for tipped wage workers in the District.
In an official statement released at the reveal event Capital Pride Alliance described its just announced 2026 Pride theme of “Exist, Resist, Have the Audacity” as a “bold declaration affirming the presence, resilience, and courage of LGBTQ+ people around the world.”
The statement adds, “Grounded in the undeniable truth that our existence is not up for debate, this year’s theme calls on the community to live loudly and proudly, stand firm against injustice and erasure, and embody the collective strength that has always defined the LGBTQ+ community.”
In a reference to the impact of the hostile political climate, the statement says, “In a time when LGBTQ+ rights and history continue to face challenges, especially in our Nation’s Capital, where policy and public discourse shape the future of our country, together, we must ensure that our voices are visible, heard, and unapologetically centered.”
The statement also quotes Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President Ryan Bos’s message at the Reveal event: “This year’s theme is both a declaration and a demand,” Bos said. “Exist, Resist, Have Audacity! reflects the resilience of our community and our responsibility to protect the progress we’ve made. As we look toward our nation’s 250th anniversary, we affirm that LGBTQ+ people have always been and always will be part of the United States’s history, and we will continue shaping its future with strength and resolve,” he concluded.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride board member resigns, alleges failure to address ‘sexual misconduct’
In startling letter, Taylor Chandler says board’s inaction protected ‘sexual predator’
Taylor Lianne Chandler, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors since 2019 who most recently served as the board’s secretary, submitted a letter of resignation on Feb. 24 that alleges the board has failed to address instances of “sexual misconduct” within the Capital Pride organization.
The Washington Blade received a copy of Chandler’s resignation letter one day after she submitted it from an anonymous source. Chandler, who identifies as transgender and intersex, said in an interview that she did not send the letter to the Blade, but she suspected someone associated with Capital Pride, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, “wants it out in the open.”
“It is with a heavy heart, but with absolute clarity, that I submit my resignation from the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors effective immediately,” Chandler states in her letter. “I have devoted nearly ten years of my life to this organization,” she wrote, pointing to her initial involvement as a volunteer and later as a producer of events as chair of the organization’s Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex Committee.
“Capital Pride once meant something profound to me – a space of safety, visibility, and community for people who have often been denied all three,” her letter continues. “That is no longer the organization I am part of today.”
“I, along with other board members, brought forward credible concerns regarding sexual misconduct – a pattern of behavior spanning years – to the attention of this board,” Chandler states in the letter. “What followed was not accountability. What followed was retaliation. Rather than addressing the substance of what was reported, officers and fellow board members chose to chastise those of us who came forward.”
The letter adds, “This board has made its priorities clear through its actions: protecting a sexual predator matters more than protecting the people who had the courage to come forward. … I have been targeted, bullied, and made to feel like an outsider for doing what any person of integrity would do – telling the truth.”
In response to a request from the Blade for comment, Anna Jinkerson, who serves as chair of the Capital Pride board, sent the Blade a statement praising Taylor Chandler’s efforts as a Capital Pride volunteer and board member but did not specifically address the issue of alleged sexual misconduct.
“We’re also aware that her resignation letter has been shared with the media and has listed concerns,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “When concerns are brought to CPA, we act quickly and appropriately to address them,” she said.
“As we continue to grow our organization, we’re proactively strengthening the policies and procedures that shape our systems, our infrastructure, and the support we provide to our team and partners,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “We’re doing this because the community’s experience with CPA must always be safe, affirming, empowering, and inclusive,” she added.
In an interview with the Blade, Chandler said she was not the target of the alleged sexual harassment.
She said a Capital Pride investigation identified one individual implicated in a “pattern” of sexual harassment related behavior over a period of time. But she said she was bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that applies to all board members and she cannot disclose the name of the person implicated in alleged sexual misconduct or those who came forward to complain about it.
“It was one individual, but there was a pattern and a history,” Chandler said, noting that was the extent of what she can disclose.
“And I’ll say this,” she added. “In my opinion, with gay culture sometimes the touchy feely-ness that goes on seems to be like just part of the culture, not necessarily the same as a sexual assault or whatever. But at the same time, if someone does not want those advances and they’re saying no and trying to push you away and trying to avoid you, then it makes it that way regardless of the culture.”
When asked about when the allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced, Chandler said, “In the past year is when the allegation came forward from one individual. But in the course of this all happening, other individuals came forward and talked about instances – several which showed a pattern.”
Chandler’s resignation comes about five months after Capital Pride Alliance announced in a statement released in October 2025 that its then board president, Ashley Smith, resigned from his position on Oct. 18 after Capital Pride became aware of a “claim” regarding Smith. The statement said the group retained an independent firm to investigate the matter, but it released no further details since that time. Smith has declined to comment on the matter.
When asked by the Blade if the Smith resignation could be linked in some way to allegations of sexual misconduct, Chandler said, “I can’t make a comment one way or the other on that.”
Chandler’s resignation and allegations come after Capital Pride Alliance has been credited with playing the lead role in organizing the World Pride celebration hosted by D.C. in which dozens of LGBTQ-related Pride events were held from May through June of 2025.
The letter of resignation also came just days before Capital Pride Alliance’s annual “Reveal” event scheduled for Feb. 26 at the Hamilton Hotel in which the theme for D.C.’s June 2026 LGBTQ Pride events was to be announced along with other Pride plans.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
LGBTQ political group set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Longtime Democratic Party activists Stevie McCarty and Brad Howard won election last week as president and vice president for administration for the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
In a Feb. 24 announcement, the group said McCarty and Howard, both of whom are elected DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, ran in a special Capital Stonewall Democrats election to fill the two leadership positions that became vacant when the officers they replaced resigned.
Outgoing President Howard Garrett, who McCarty has replaced, told the Washington Blade he resigned after taking on a new position as chair of the city’s Ward 1 Democratic Committee. The Capital Stonewall Democrats announcement didn’t say who Howard replaced as vice president for administration.
The group’s website shows its other officers include Elizabeth Mitchell as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, and Monica Nemeth as Treasurer. The officer position of secretary is vacant, the website shows.
“As we look toward 2026, the stakes for D.C. and for LGBTQ+ communities have never been clearer,” the group’s statement announcing McCarty and Howard’s election says. “Our 50th anniversary celebration on March 20 and the launch of our D.C. LGBTQ+ Voter’s Guide mark the beginning of a major year for endorsements, organizing, and coalition building,” the statement says.
McCarty said among the organization’s major endeavors will be holding virtual endorsement forums where candidates running for D.C. mayor and the Council will appear and seek the group’s endorsement.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to Capital Stonewall Democrats. McCarty said the 50th anniversary celebration on March 20, in which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council are expected to attend, will be held at the PEPCO Gallery meeting center at 702 8th St., N.W.
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