District of Columbia
From synagogue to Stonewall: LGBTQ Jewish stories in D.C.
Capital Jewish Museum exhibit showcases resiliency of local LGBTQ Jews
From clandestine Shabbat dinners with chosen family in Dupont Circle in the 1950s to proudly marching in the world’s biggest Pride celebration in 2025 under the Bet Mishpachah banner, LGBTQ Jews are deeply intertwined in the queer history of Washington. Despite their consistent presence in the fight for equality, LGBTQ Jews have not, historically speaking, received their flowers.
One museum in Judiciary Square is trying to change that by highlighting the historic contributions LGBTQ Jews have made to D.C. The Capital Jewish Museum officially opened its doors to its “LGBTQ Jews in the Federal City” exhibit in May and has been educating the community — and history fans — since.
The Washington Blade sat down with the two major forces behind bringing the exhibit to life at the Capital Jewish Museum to discuss some often-neglected parts of D.C.’s queer history.
The exhibit begins with a timeline of important moments in both Judaism, like the establishment of the six genders mentioned in ancient rabbinical writings, and in America’s LGBTQ history, like the Stonewall Riots. As you walk further in, the timeline begins to highlight important events for LGBTQ Jews in Washington, spanning from the 1800s to the current day.
When asked why produce an exhibit on LGBTQ Jews, Sarah Leavitt, the director of Curatorial Affairs, was quick with an answer and a smile. Aside from teaching the detailed ways LGBTQ Jewish icons—like Frank Kameny, for example, who led the fight for gay and lesbian people to work openly in the federal government—alongside other spectacular histories, it was clear it was also meant to inspire.
“‘Why not?’” Leavitt said. “This is an important story to tell. We wanted to tell it, so that’s what we did… It encourages people to do the work of the next stage, as whatever that is.”
Jonathan Edelman, collections curator at the Capital Jewish Museum, explained that for him, the exhibit was more than showcasing the revolutionary work of LGBTQ Jews in D.C.—it was also about making the museum’s archives more accurately reflect all colors of the Jewish rainbow.
“My number one responsibility… is to help enhance our archives, so that it’s a collection that more accurately reflects the Jewish community we claim to represent,” Edelman said. “This exhibit helped us start to fill one gap… But we have a lot more work to do.”
That work began at kitchen tables across the DMV — and took off from there.
“I sat at a lot of kitchen tables and listened to people tell their stories,” he said. “When we started collecting, I really got the sense, especially from LGBTQ Jewish elders, that people were just waiting for someone to ask about their story… a button from a protest in 1979 that meant so much to them… was also empowering.”
In addition to the multitude of political buttons that announce “LOUD PUSHY JEW DYKE” and the piece of the AIDS memorial quilt hung on the wall with a square highlighting some of the Jewish people who died alongside a sewn synagogue, there is an astonishing number of artifacts in the exhibit. The two creators of the exhibit shared their favorite artifacts for all to see. Edelman’s favorite is one of the earliest editions of the Washington Blade (known as the Gay Blade back in 1969). Leavitt’s is a copy of meeting minutes from Bet Mishpachah, Washington’s LGBTQ Jewish congregation—both representing queer resilience in Washington.
Jocelyn Kaplan was one of those people who shared their special objects and stories with Edelman and Leavitt. She gave the museum stacks of old “Gay Blade” prints from when they were a single sheet of paper.
“She thought she was the only one who had these feelings,” Edelman explained. “One night she was at a bar or a restaurant, and saw copies of the Blade, and she picked one up, and discovered community for the first time. And so this very ordinary piece of paper may have saved her life. And the power that this publication had in helping people find community before the internet is meaningful.”
Leavitt’s favorite piece, the meeting minutes, was made more special after a member of Bet Mishpachah found herself in the notes.
“Several of the people at the meeting were listed without their last name because it was the early ’90s,” Leavitt said. “They were worried that somehow their boss was gonna get a copy of these meeting minutes from their synagogue… she remembered that fear. … That was a moment from 35 years ago that kind of stabbed her in the heart again.”
The exhibit is eye-opening, to say the least. Touching on cultural icons of D.C. history like Esther Goldberg, a well-known Jewish drag queen—complete with a disco ball and gown—to signs of progress toward a more inclusive space for LGBTQ Jews, like the Hebrew workbook on display without gender-specific pronouns for non-binary Hebrew learners.
While sitting on the couch in the middle of the exhibit, next to rotary phones that have LGBTQ Jewish elders sharing their stories with the spin of the wheel, Leavitt admitted that the exhibit wouldn’t do justice to LGBTQ history if it were a perfect balance of struggle and success. One struggle some Jewish people had internally wrestled with was the inclusion—or rather lack of inclusion—of the history of gay men in the Holocaust. Some wanted these museums and memorials to honor only the Jewish people who suffered the most during the time. Others wanted gay men who died alongside Jewish people to be memorialized and recognized.
“It’s not always a pretty story, but it can be one,” Leavitt said about the twisting of LGBTQ and Jewish histories. “I think grief weaves its way through all of our stories… But we can’t do a show like this without talking about trauma.”
On the opposite side, there are remarkable accounts across the exhibit floor that show the relationship between the LGBTQ community and the Jewish community supporting each other. Bet Mishpachah, for example, has been marching in D.C.’s Pride celebrations since the 1970s.
“Some felt that this was holy work—their activism,” she added.
When asked what they hoped visitors to the museum would take away from the exhibit, they gave different answers, but both put LGBTQ Jews at the center.
“I hope queer Jewish elders feel seen, like their story is finally being told,” he said. “I hope younger queer people learn the history of this movement… and then I hope our non-queer visitors understand that queer history is Jewish history.”
“I hope it shows we can do it, and that the community can trust us with their stories,” she finished. “Hopefully this is just the beginning.”
Admission to the Capital Jewish Museum’s LGBTQ exhibit is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 65+ and students with valid ID, and free for children 12 and younger.
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 – 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
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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