District of Columbia
D.C. LGBTQ bars ‘hanging in there’ amid tough economy
Shakers to close; others struggling in wake of gov’t shutdown, rising prices
The owners of several of D.C.’s at least 24 LGBTQ bars, some of which also operate as restaurants or cafes, say they are being negatively impacted by the same forces impacting most other D.C. bars and restaurants at this time.
Among the lead issues impacting them have been the deployment by President Donald Trump of National Guard troops on city streets, the nearly two-month long federal government shutdown that just ended, and skyrocketing prices for food and other supplies brought about by the Trump administration’s controversial tariff program.
The Trump administration’s decision to lay off thousands of federal workers shortly after Trump took office in January also appears to have resulted in a decline in the number of people going out to restaurants and bars, including LGBTQ restaurants and bars, according to some of the owners who spoke to the Washington Blade.
Observers of LGBTQ nightlife businesses have pointed out that although nationwide the number of LGBTQ or “gay bars” has declined significantly since 1980, the number of LGBTQ bars in D.C. has increased from just six in 1980 to at least 24 so far in 2025.
If the popular Annie’s Paramount Steak House near Dupont Circle, Mr. Henry’s restaurant, bar and Jazz music performance site on Capitol Hill, and the Red Bear Brewing Company bar, restaurant and music performance site in Northeast near Capitol Hill – each of which have a mixed but large LGBTQ clientele — are included in the D.C. gay bar list, the total number climbs to 27.
As if that were not enough, yet another D.C. gay bar, Rush, was scheduled to open on Nov. 21 at 2001 14th Street, N.W. at the intersection of 14th and U streets, near the location of 10 other LGBTQ bars in the U Street nightlife corridor. That will bring the number of LGBTQ-identified bars to 28.
Among the first of the LGBTQ bar owners to publicly disclose the economic hardships impacting their establishment was David Perruzza, who owns the gay bar and café Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar A League of Her Own in the city’s Adams Morgan neighborhood.
In an Oct. 10 Facebook post, Perruzza said he was facing “probably the worst economy I have seen in a while and everyone in D.C. is dealing with the Trump drama.”
He added, “I have 47 people I am responsible for, and I don’t know how to survive in this climate. If I have ever sponsored you or your organization, now is the time to show the love. Not only for me but other bars. I went out tonight and it was depressing. If you want queer bars, we all need your help.”
Asked on Nov. 10 how things were going one month after he posted his Facebook message, Perruzza told the Blade business was still bad.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” he said. “Again, we’re busy. The bar’s busy, but people aren’t buying drinks.” He added, “No, they’re coming in and drinking water and dancing. They’re not buying drinks.”
Like most of the city’s bars, including LGBTQ bars, Perruzza said he provides water jugs and plastic cups for patrons to access drinking water by themselves as needed or desired.
Jo McDaniel, co-owner of As You Are, an LGBTQ bar and café in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill at 500 8th Street, S.E., which has a large lesbian clientele, said she, too, was hit hard by the National Guard deployment. She said National Guard troops carrying guns began walking up and down 8th Street in front of As You Are around the last week in August and have continued to do so.
“And then from the 7th [of September] they went from pistols to rifles,” McDaniel said. “Nothing has happened. They’ve just been walking back and forth. But now they have big guns. It’s pretty terrifying.”
She noted that the National Guard presence and the other issues, including the federal shutdown, caused a sharp drop in business that prompted her and her partner to launch a GoFundMe appeal in August, a link to which was still on the As You Are website as of Nov. 16.
“We’re reaching out to you, our community, our allies, and those who believe in safe spaces for marginalized folks to help us get past this challenge so we can all ensure AYA’s survival and continued impact in D.C. and the community at large,” a message on the GoFundMe site says.
Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s Beach Bar, the LGBTQ bar and restaurant in the Crystal City section of Arlington, Va., just outside D.C., said the federal shutdown, rising costs, and even the deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. appears to have had a negative impact on businesses across the river from D.C., including Freddie’s.
“Freddie’s is doing OK but not as good,” he said. “We’re down a little bit. Let’s put it that way,” he added. “I just feel like with all the chaos going in this administration and everything that’s happening it’s like we just have to hang in there and everything will be alright eventually,” he told the Blade.
“But business is down a little bit, and we can use the support of the community just like David Perruzza has been saying,” Lutz said. He said the drop in businesses for at least some of the LGBTQ bars may also be caused by the large and growing number of LGBTQ bars in D.C.
“There are a lot of new gay bars, which are also impacting the rest of us,” he said. “I’m all for it. I want to support them. But it is taking away from some of us, I think.”
Mickey Neighbors is the owner of Sinners and Saints, an LGBTQ bar at 2309 18th Street, N.W. in Adams Morgan located a few doors away from Pitchers and A League of Her Own. He said his business has mostly rebounded from a slowdown caused by the National Guard deployment.
“At first, everyone was kind of scared,” he said. “But then it kind of blew over and there really aren’t that many other bars where the demographic people that come to mine really go to.” He described Sinners and Saints as catering to a younger “BIPOC” crowd, a term that refers to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
“We had a downturn of business for a few weeks, but everything is back to normal,” he said.
Stephen Rutgers, co-owner of the LGBTQ bar Crush located at 2007 14th Street, N.W., a few doors down from where the new bar Rush is about to open, said Crush like most other bars was impacted by the National Guard deployment.
“Some bars are going to be fine,” he said. “We are trying to do some creative things to keep people coming in. But overall, everyone is seeing cutbacks, and I don’t think anyone is not seeing that,” he said.
Rutgers said Crush, which in recent weeks has had large crowds on weekends, said he was hopeful that his and other LGBTQ bars would fully rebound when the federal shutdown ends, which occurred the second week in November.
Among other things, Rutgers said a decline in the number of tourists coming to D.C. in response to the Trump administration’s policies has impacted all bars and restaurants, including LGBTQ bars. He said this, combined with the record number of LGBTQ bars now operating in D.C., is likely to result in fewer patrons going to at least some of them.
One of the D.C. LGBTQ bars that put in place a significant change in the way it operates in response to the developments impacting all bars is Spark Social House, a bar and café located on 14th Street, N.W. next door to Crush. In the past week, Spark Social House announced it was ending its status as the city’s only LGBTQ bar that did not serve alcoholic beverages and instead sold a wide range of alcohol-free cocktails.
Owner Nick Tsusaju told the Blade he and his associates made the difficult assessment that under the current economic environment in D.C., which is impacting all bars and restaurants, Spark Social would need to offer both alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages
“You can imagine that if the bars that are selling alcohol are struggling, we are struggling just like other small businesses with the same issues,” he said. “And I think that introducing alcohol is not really an abdication of our values.”
He noted that beginning in December, after Spark Social obtains its liquor license, “we’re introducing a one for one menu where every cocktail comes in two options, booze and boozeless.”
Ed Bailey, co-owner of the D.C. gay bars Trade and Number Nine located near the intersection of 14th and P Streets, N.W., told the Blade in September his two establishments were “ramping up for a busy fall after an unusual summer” impacted by the National Guard deployment.
His predictions of a busy fall appear to have come about at least on weekend nights, including Halloween night, where there were long lines of Trade’s mostly gay male clientele waiting to get into the bar.
Stephen Thompson, a bartender at the Fireplace, a longtime gay bar located at 2161 P Street, N.W., near Dupont Circle, said the National Guard presence and other issues impacting other bars have not negatively impacted the Fireplace.
“We are doing fine,” he said. “The National Guard has not hurt our business. The soldiers do walk by a few times a week, but we’ve been looking pretty good the last couple of months.”
One of the at least 10 LGBTQ bars in the U Street, N.W., entertainment corridor, Shakers, at 2014 9th Street, N.W., announced in a statement this week that it will close its doors on Nov. 23.
“After many, many difficult discussions, we ultimately decided it is time for Shakers to close its doors,” says the statement posted by Shakers owners Justin Parker and Daniel Honeycutt. “While we are in so many ways saddened, we are also looking forward to spending a bit more time with our three-year old son,” the statement says.
It also announces that the nearby gay bar Kiki, located around the corner on U Street, will acquire use of the Shakers building and “keep the space dedicated to our LGBTQ+ community.”
In his own statement on social media, Kiki owner Keaton Fedak said, “To now have two LGBTQ+ bars at 9th & U under the Kiki umbrella is a true full-circle moment – rooted in friendship, history, and the community that continues to grow here.”
The owners of several other D.C. LGBTQ bars couldn’t immediately be reached for comment or declined to comment for this story.
Edward Grandis, a D.C. attorney who has worked with some of the D.C. LGBTQ bars, said the COVID pandemic, which led to the temporary shutdown of all bars and restaurants, appears to have had a lasting impact on LGBTQ bars long after the pandemic subsided.
Among other things, Grandis said he has observed that happy hour sessions at most bars, including LGBTQ bars, have not returned to the level of patronage seen prior to the COVID pandemic. He notes that happy hour times, usually in late afternoon or early evening during weekdays, where bars offer reduced price drinks and some offer free drinks to attract large numbers of patrons, have not been drawing the crowds they did in past years.
“The COVID shutdown assisted the online social meeting sites,” Grandis said. “Bars were closed so guys turned to the internet for setting up parties and this has continued even though there are more bars,” he said in referring to the D.C. gay bars. According to Grandis, the gay men in the age range of their 20s and 30s appear to be the largest group that is no longer going to gay bars in large numbers compared to older generations.
“So, I think the trend started before what the feds are doing,” he said in referring to the National Guard presence and the federal shutdown. “And I think what we are witnessing right now is just sort of like another obstacle that people in the gay and entertainment community need to figure out how to attract the 20-year-olds and young 30s back to the bars.”
District of Columbia
Blade welcomes fall intern
Alexis McLean is student at University of North Florida
The Washington Blade this week welcomed Alexis McLean as its fall intern.
Alexis is studying political science at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. She is interning with the Blade as part of a continued partnership with the Washington Center.
“I am looking forward to spending my time in the fall with the Washington Blade, as this is a new experience for me,” said Alexis. “I have not experienced any journalist jobs in the past so this would be my first time, and I am excited to better my writing and communications skills with this internship.”
Alexis’s internship with the Blade ends in early December.
District of Columbia
‘People don’t see me. They see a trend’
New popularity of all things Asian warps view of multiple cultures
As I was growing up, my parents often shared stories about how they were bullied when they were my age, just for being Asian. My mom is Cambodian and my dad is “Wasian,” Chinese and white. Students teased them for their looks, their homemade lunches, and treated their traditional holidays as jokes.
I once asked my mom when I was little if she could pack me dumpling leftovers for lunch. “Yes,” she said with a surprised look, adding, “I would have never wanted to bring dumplings to school when I was your age because I would always get bullied for them. I’m glad times have changed.”
At the time, I was confused. Whenever I brought a homemade Asian dish to school for lunch, I was happy to hear intriguing and curious questions from the other kids. It felt good to have my meal be popular and different from the Lunchables everyone else had.
Though times have changed, racism still continues. It just has a new face. Today, social media pretends to flatter our cultures in an insincere way trying to gain popularity just for clicks. Think anything from K-pop to Japan’s surge in international tourism. Even Starbucks has added drinks with the flavor of ube yam, native to the Philippines, onto its menu.
I feel that now when people see me, they don’t see me, they see a trend.
For years, Asian people have been portrayed as foreign or exotic. The new embrace of foods and fashion at first felt good. Asians have never been represented as much as they’ve deserved.
But this new popularity warps what non-Asians see. Instead of the blunt and direct racism my parents faced, everything now is a gray area, more discreetly hidden behind some TikTok video. It actually normalizes racism and stereotypes.
Whitewashing my culture
As a 15-year-old Asian American who lives in D.C., I’ve always been one of the few Asian kids in school; my high school today counts less than 2 percent of students as being of Asian descent. I remember always being called “that one Asian girl” or some slur a kid learned from their parents. Every time I search for something related to Asian culture, such as a recipe or maybe a holiday, it’s always the same thing: some white person whitewashing my culture.
Social media is the main culprit, of course. I realized this when I entered high school and got a phone and was introduced to the internet. That is when I realized how messed up the new stereotypes around Asians are.
One pattern I started to notice was people wanting to be Asian just because it was popular. It was hurtful, patronizing, and annoying. They made assumptions about our race and then only found us “cool” because we were trending. How can people go from hating us or finding us weird, to then only liking us because we’re popular?
There was a trend going around on TikTok called “race change to another” or RCTA. It is this trend of people manifesting certain physical traits to change their appearance in order to change races. According to journalist Emi Tran, writing then as an intern for NBC Digital, the trend started when a white woman wanted to be Japanese. The woman began posting TikTok videos of herself wishing for different features such as monolids. Tran wrote in that 2023 article that “the overwhelming majority of the RCTA community wants to be East Asian.”
People also look up to K-pop culture, idolizing the pop groups pulled together by big entertainment companies. Most people expect all Koreans to be K-pop fans. Korean friends are asked about K-pop all the time even though they are not into the South Korean music genre.
Although I am not South Korean — I am half Cambodian and Chinese — I still get asked, almost like I’m expected, “You’re really into this group, right?” or “Can you tell me how to pronounce this member’s name?”
I was asked even worse questions during COVID-19. Suddenly, discrimination and violence were increasing specifically toward Asians everywhere. Suddenly, almost everyone was blaming Chinese people for spreading and causing COVID-19.
I remember going to school for one of the last times before quarantine had started and hearing kids whisper, “Oh, she’s going to give us the Coronavirus.” President Donald Trump had publicly posted his opinions about the situation on social media, blaming China for the pandemic, even calling it the “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus.” According to NPR, anti-Asian hate crimes in U.S. cities surged 149 percent that year.
The topic of Asians in the media has always been complicated. One moment people can hate us for being weird and different and the next we’re suddenly popular and cool for the same reasons.
I feel conflicted on whether I should feel happy that we’re being represented or angry that it’s all for the wrong reason and has the wrong effects.
Lily Brugman is a sophomore at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, one of Youthcast Media Group’s journalism class partners. She worked with YMG volunteer and Professor Emerita in journalism at American University Amy Eisman on this piece.
District of Columbia
Gay men linked to 2006 Wone murder failing to make lawsuit settlement payment
Stabbing death of D.C. attorney in house near Dupont Circle startled community
The wife of D.C. attorney Robert Wone, who was found stabbed to death on Aug. 2, 2006, in the Dupont Circle area home of three gay men, has filed a complaint in court accusing two of the men of failing to make the payments they promised to make to settle a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit the wife filed against them in 2008.
The court filings in D.C. Superior Court in May of this year by Katherine Wone provide new details of the lawsuit settlement related to a 20-year-old murder case that observers have compared to a murder mystery novel involving three gay men and the fatal stabbing of their friend whose wife insists was straight.
Court records and D.C. police reports show that Robert Wone was said to have arrived at the townhouse of his long-time college friend Joe Price after spending all day and part of the night working late at his downtown office at Radio Free Asia.
Price, a gay rights attorney at that time associated with the LGBTQ group Equality Virginia, and his partner Victor Zaborsky and their housemate Dylan Ward – who were also friends of Wone – said later that they invited Wone to spend the night in their guest bedroom so he wouldn’t have to drive home to Oakton, Va., where he and his wife lived, before having to return to work in D.C. the next morning.
Court records show that later that night D.C. police responded to a 911 emergency call made by Zaborsky to the gay men’s house at 1509 Swann Street, N.W. and found Wone stabbed to death on what appeared to be a neatly arranged bed.
The three men told police they were certain an intruder entered the house and stabbed Wone while they were asleep in their bedrooms. But homicide detectives reported that the crime scene appeared to have been cleaned up and possible evidence tampered with.
After the investigation dragged on for more than two years, prosecutors obtained an indictment against the three men on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and evidence tampering in connection with the Wone murder. No murder-related charges were brought, prompting legal observers to conclude that authorities didn’t have sufficient evidence to charge the men with murder.
But a detailed arrest affidavit filed and released at the time the charges were brought against the three gay men startled those who knew them and created a sensation in the surrounding community, especially the LGBTQ community.
Among other things, it said autopsy findings and physical evidence indicated that Wone had been restrained or immobilized by a paralytic drug before being stabbed. It said three stab wounds on Wone’s chest and abdomen were surgical in nature, with no indication that Wone moved or tried to defend himself while being stabbed.
In addition, the affidavit said the autopsy found needle marks on Wone’s body that were not made by emergency medical technicians that arrived on the scene and examined Wone.
At the advice of their attorneys, the three men chose to wave their right to a jury trial and requested that Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz preside over the trial and render the verdict. Following testimony by expert witnesses on both sides, after the men chose not to testify, and dramatic closing arguments by prosecutors and the defense attorneys, the judge found the men not guilty on all three charges.
In a lengthy written verdict, she read from the bench, Leibovitz said while she believed there was significant evidence implicating the defendants, there continued to be reasonable doubt on all charges against them. However, she said she did find that prosecutors established beyond probable cause that Wone was not murdered by an intruder who entered the house while the three men were asleep.
“Nevertheless, after lengthy analysis of the evidence, I conclude that the government has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of obstruction of justice or evidence tampering,” Leibovitz said in delivering her verdict.
While greatly relieved by the not guilty verdict, Price, Zaborsky, and Ward were still facing a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit that Katherine Wone filed against them prior to their criminal trial. As the two sides prepared for a civil trial the defense team announced the three gay men would invoke their Fifth Amendment constitutional right to refuse to testify at the civil trial on grounds that their testimony could lead to self-incrimination.
Possibly because of that or other reasons, Katherine Wone announced that she and the three men had reached an out of court monetary settlement of the lawsuit, the terms of which would not be publicly disclosed.
In her recent court filings in May on behalf of the Estate of Robert Wone, which were filed against Price and Zaborsky but not against Ward, Katherine Wone charges the two men with failing to pay thousands of dollars as part of the settlement agreement. Separate complaints she filed against them disclose for the first time that Price had agreed to an $80,000 settlement amount in 2011 to be paid through monthly installments over the next 20 years.
The non-payment complaint filed against Zaborsky by Wone states that he had agreed to a settlement in 2011 of $66,000 also to be paid over 20 years in 240 monthly payments.
Although the initially filed $20 million lawsuit also named Dylan Ward as a defendant, court records do not show any complaint filing against Ward for nonpayment, leading some observers to speculate that Ward may have already paid the full sum of whatever amount Wone’s lawsuit sought from him.
The Washington Post has reported that court filings show that as of May 29 of this year, Price owed $56,893.75 and Zaborsky owed $31,753.75 in missed payments and bounced checks plus fees and interest.
The two complaints filed by Wone against the two men also state that the settlement agreement they signed allows the Wone estate to call for the “immediate” payment of the entire amount they agreed to pay if they default on their monthly payments.
Court records show that a “remote scheduling conference” before a debt collection judge was scheduled to take place in D.C. Superior Court on Sept. 22.
Price, Zaborsky, and Ward have declined to respond to press inquiries including inquiries from the Washington Blade regarding the criminal trial and lawsuit. The non-payment complaints filed by Katherine Wone show that Price’s current residence is in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and Zaborsky now resides in Tamarac, Fla.
News of the latest complaints filed against Price and Zaborsky for nonpayment of the lawsuit settlement payments was first reported on Aug. 2 by the website called Who Murdered Robert Wone, which was created by four gay men shortly after Wone’s 2006 murder.
“We’re left to wonder if the threesome, or whoever remains of it now, will ever come clean on what they know and may have done,” Craig Brownstein, one of the men who created the website stated in the Aug. 2 posting. “The optimists will hope for a confession of some sort, an explanation, the pessimists are convinced they’ll take their secrets to the grave,” Brownstein wrote. “Time will tell.”
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