Local
Halo bar to change name, go green
The D.C. gay bar Halo is changing its name to MOVA and will evolve over the next year into an environmentally friendly “green” business with an expanded program to support both LGBT and broader community causes and projects.
Gay attorney and businessman Babak Movahedi, owner of Logan Circle Spectrum, LLC, the company that owns Halo bars in D.C. and Miami Beach, said the name change and plans for the business’s community-related projects would be formally announced during a Jan. 1 celebration at the club in D.C. at 7 p.m. Halo is located at 1435 P St., N.W.
“The event is the beginning of a year-long process for Logan Circle Spectrum to institute a philosophical shift in corporate culture and set the foundation for national expansion of a new entertainment concept,” Movahedi said in a statement announcing the changes.
“The LGBT community today has evolved and we want to create a place where people can have fun while having the opportunity to make a more direct impact in our local communities,” he said.
In an interview with DC Agenda, Movahedi said some of his environmental or “green” plans include using furnishings and products in his bars in D.C., Miami Beach and other locations yet to open that are produced by manufacturers that use processes to minimize environmental harm.
He said the newly named MOVA bar in D.C. will soon institute other changes to support LGBT and D.C.-area community causes and projects. He noted that some will involve sponsorship nights for a particular community organization in which the club will publicize the group and ask patrons to make a donation.
According to Movahedi, Halo in Miami, for example, offers a free drink to customers for every $15 they donate to a community group during nights in which the group is highlighted at the club.
“That’s just one idea,” he said. “We will launch different things for different cities depending on what the needs of that location are.”
He said his staff will get more involved, too, with efforts such as “having a cleaning the park day [in D.C.] or cleaning the beach day in Miami — things that give back to the community.”
Movahedi said he decided to change the name of his two bars after discovering that a bar in Minnesota owns the trademark for the Halo name and that other bars and clubs have been opening recently in a number of cities using that name. He noted that the name and concept for other bars he’s planning to open, including a soon-to-be-opened bar in Fort Lauderdale, would result in confusion among customers if he retained the Halo name.
The new name, MOVA, was taken from the first four letters of Movahedi’s last name.
“So for us, it’s a good time to include everything that we’re trying to do into a new brand and a new name and go forward with this in a new decade,” he said.
City argues against voter initiative in marriage case
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles argues in a court brief that the city’s congressionally approved Home Rule charter gives it full legal authority to prohibit a voter initiative calling for banning same-sex marriage in the District.
Nickles filed the 46-page legal brief Dec. 18 in D.C. Superior Court for the city in opposition to a lawsuit filed by same-sex marriage opponents, including Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of a church in Beltsville, Md.
The lawsuit calls for overturning a ruling by the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics that a voter initiative seeking to ban same-sex marriage cannot be held because it would violate the city’s Human Rights Act. The board held that the city’s election law governing initiatives and referenda bars such ballot measures if they would take away rights from minorities, including gays.
“[I]n exalting the people’s supposedly fundamental right of initiative above all else (except apparently the prohibition on popular appropriation of funds), petitioners disregard the basic republican principles that have governed the nation since its founding,” Nickles says in the brief.
“While petitioners treat the right of initiative as fundamental, the Founding Fathers recognized the threat that an unchecked majority posed to the liberty of disfavored minorities and thus created a republican form of government, even requiring the newly created Congress to ‘guarantee’ that form of government to ‘every state in the Union,’” Nickles says.
In their opposition to a ballot initiative on the marriage issue, LGBT activists have made similar arguments — that the city’s republican form of government empowers a City Council elected by the voters to pass laws, such as a same-sex marriage bill, and that laws providing civil rights for minorities should not be subjected to a popular vote.
Nickles called on the court to dismiss the lawsuit on other grounds, including a claim that it would be counter to the Supreme Court decision of Lawrence v. Texas, in which the high court overturned state sodomy laws. According to Nickles, the Lawrence decision, among other things, held that “moral objections are not a sufficient basis for infringing on the fundamental rights of homosexuals.
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.
Virginia
Va. activists preparing campaign in support of repealing marriage amendment
Referendum about ‘dignity and equal protection under the law’
Virginia voters in November will vote on whether to repeal their state’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Feb. 6 signed House Bill 612 into law. It facilitates a referendum for voters to approve the repeal of the 2006 Marshall-Newman Amendment. Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling extended marriage rights to same-sex couples across the country in 2014, codifying marriage equality in Virginia’s constitution would protect it in the state in case the decision is overturned.
Maryland voters in 2012 approved Question 6, which upheld the state’s marriage equality law, by a 52-48 percent margin. Same-sex marriage became legal in Maryland on Jan. 1, 2013.
LGBTQ advocacy groups and organizations that oppose marriage equality mounted political campaigns ahead of the referendum.
Equality Virginia has been involved in advancing LGBTQ rights in Virginia since 1989.
Equality Virginia is working under its 501c3 designation in conjunction with Equality Virginia Advocates, which operates under a 501c4 designation, to plan campaigns in support of repealing the Marshall-Newman Amendment.
The two main campaigns on which Equality Virginia will be focused are education and voter mobilization. Reed Williams, the group’s director of digital engagement and narrative, spoke with the Washington Blade about Equality Virginia’s plans ahead of the referendum.
Williams said an organization for a “statewide public education campaign” is currently underway. Williams told the Blade its goal will be “to ensure voters understand what this amendment does and why updating Virginia’s constitution matters for families across the commonwealth.”
The organization is also working on a “robust media and voter mobilization campaign to identify and turn out voters” to repeal Marshall-Newman Amendment. Equality Virginia plans to work with the community members to guarantee voters are getting clear and accurate information regarding the meaning of this vote and its effect on the Virginia LGBTQ community.
“We believe Virginia voters are ready to bring our constitution in line with both the law and the values of fairness and freedom that define our commonwealth,” said Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman. “This referendum is about ensuring loving, committed couples and their families are treated with dignity and equal protection under the law.”
The Human Rights Campaign has also worked closely with Equality Virginia.
“It’s time to get rid of outdated, unconstitutional language and ensure that same sex couples are protected in Virginia,” HRC President Kelley Robinson told the Blade in a statement.
District of Columbia
D.C. police arrest man for burglary at gay bar Spark Social House
Suspect ID’d from images captured by Spark Social House security cameras
D.C. police on Feb. 18 arrested a 63-year-old man “of no fixed address” for allegedly stealing cash from the registers at the gay bar Spark Social House after unlawfully entering the bar at 2009 14th St., N.W., around 12:04 a.m. after it had closed for business, according to a police incident report.
“Later that day officers canvassing for the suspect located him nearby,” a separate police statement says. “63-year-old Tony Jones of no fixed address was arrested and charged with Burglary II,” the statement says.
The police incident report states that the bar’s owner, Nick Tsusaki, told police investigators that the bar’s security cameras captured the image of a man who has frequently visited the bar and was believed to be homeless.
“Once inside, the defendant was observed via the establishment’s security cameras opening the cash register, removing U.S. currency, and placing the currency into the left front pocket of his jacket,” the report says.
Tsusaki told the Washington Blade that he and Spark’s employees have allowed Jones to enter the bar many times since it opened last year to use the bathroom in a gesture of compassion knowing he was homeless. Tsusaki said he is not aware of Jones ever having purchased anything during his visits.
According to Tsusaki, Spark closed for business at around 10:30 p.m. on the night of the incident at which time an employee did not properly lock the front entrance door. He said no employees or customers were present when the security cameras show Jones entering Spark through the front door around 12:04 a.m.
Tsusaki said the security camera images show Jones had been inside Spark for about three hours on the night of the burglary and show him taking cash out of two cash registers. He took a total of $300, Tsusaki said.
When Tsusaki and Spark employees arrived at the bar later in the day and discovered the cash was missing from the registers they immediately called police, Tsusaki told the Blade. Knowing that Jones often hung out along the 2000 block of 14th Street where Spark is located, Tsusaki said he went outside to look for him and saw him across the street and pointed Jones out to police, who then placed him under arrest.
A police arrest affidavit filed in court states that at the time they arrested him police found the stolen cash inside the pocket of the jacket Jones was wearing. It says after taking him into police custody officers found a powdered substance in a Ziploc bag also in Jones’s possession that tested positive for cocaine, resulting in him being charged with cocaine possession in addition to the burglary charge.
D.C. Superior Court records show a judge ordered Jones held in preventive detention at a Feb. 19 presentment hearing. The judge then scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on Feb. 20, the outcome of which couldn’t immediately be obtained.
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