a&e features
Newsom pardons LGBTQ and Black icon Rustin, stained by ‘historic homophobia’
‘Laws have been used as legal tools of oppression’
It was a patch of blue in the dark storm stalled over the divided states of America. On Feb. 5, California Gov. Gavin Newsom parted the pall and pardoned Bayard Rustin, mentor to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Though President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Medal of Freedom in 2013, the gay civil rights icon still had the stain of a 1953 “morals charge” arrest in Pasadena on his lifetime of achievement.
“In California and across the country, many laws have been used as legal tools of oppression, and to stigmatize and punish LGBTQ people and communities and warn others what harm could await them for living authentically,” Newsom said in a statement. “I thank those who advocated for Bayard Rustin’s pardon, and I want to encourage others in similar situations to seek a pardon to right this egregious wrong.”
Excerpt of the pardon certificate
Rustin’s pardon launches a new clemency initiative for people who were prosecuted in California for being gay. In 1970, after the Stonewall riots and the movement for Gay Liberation, Assemblymember Willie Brown introduced the Consenting Adult Sex Bill to repeal the sodomy law and decriminalize gay sex. Five years later, with help from San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, the bill was finally passed and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on May 12, 1975. But those convicted of engaging in consensual adult sexual conduct remained on the Sex Offender Registry until 1997, when a new law established a process enabling individuals to request removal. However, the original criminal conviction remained.
Newsom’s announcement acknowledges the systemic persecution of LGBTQ people and offers legal reparation.
“In California and across the country, charges like vagrancy, loitering, and sodomy have been used to unjustly target [LGBTQ] people. Law enforcement and prosecutors specifically targeted LGBTQ individuals, communities and community spaces for criminal prosecution. Now, as a proudly LGBTQ-allied state, California is turning the page on historic wrongs,” says the press release.
“There’s a cloud hanging over him because of this unfair, discriminatory conviction, a conviction that never should have happened, a conviction that happened only because he was a gay man,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, chair of California’s legislative LGBTQ caucus said Jan. 21 at a news conference with Assemblymember Shirley Weber, chair of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, formally asking for a pardon.
“I’m thrilled that Governor Newsom is pardoning Bayard Rustin and that he acted so quickly and decisively in response to our request. I also applaud the Governor for broadening this work to provide other criminalized LGBT people with a path to clear their records of wrongful convictions on homophobic charges. These actions are consistent with the Governor’s deep and longstanding support for the LGBT community,” Wiener said in a statement. “Generations of LGBT people – including countless gay men – were branded criminals and sex offenders simply because they had consensual sex. This was often life-ruining, and many languished on the sex offender registry for decades. The Governor’s actions today are a huge step forward in our community’s ongoing quest for full acceptance and justice.”
“On behalf of the Black Caucus, I want to thank the Governor for granting this posthumous pardon. The Arc of Justice is long, but it took nearly 70 years for Bayard Rustin to have his legacy in the Civil Rights movement uncompromised by this incident. Rustin was a great American who was both gay and black at a time when the sheer fact of being either or both could land you in jail,” said Weber. “This pardon assures his place in history and the Governor’s ongoing commitment to addressing similar convictions shows that California is finally addressing a great injustice.”
“Civil rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ For our friend Governor Newsom, that time is today. We are grateful to the governor for demonstrating our California values by pardoning civil rights hero, Bayard Rustin — a trusted aide to Dr. King — and for creating a system for other LGBTQ+ people to seek pardon from unjust convictions, said Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur. “Today, Governor Newsom, and indeed the entire Golden State, did the right thing.”
That the pardon comes at the beginning of Black History Month is notable. On the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote on The Root: “I ask that if you teach your children one new name from the heroes of black history, please let it be Bayard Rustin.”
“For decades, this great leader, often at Dr. King’s side, was denied his rightful place in history because he was openly gay,” said President Obama, presenting Rustin’s medal to his longtime partner, Walter Naegle on Aug. 8, 2013. “No medal can change that, but today, we honor Bayard Rustin’s memory by taking our place in his march towards true equality, no matter who we are or who we love.”
Born in 1912, Rustin learned about racism early on learned from his a Quaker grandmother in his West Chester, Pennsylvania hometown. She was also a member of the NAACP and intellectual civil rights leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were house guests.
In high school, Rustin challenged the racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws by defying the rules to sit in the segregated balcony of a movie theater — for which he was arrested, as he recalled in the documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin.
“I once went into the little restaurant next to the Warner Theatre, and—can you believe it?—there was absolute consternation. That was the first occasion in which I knew West Chester had three police cars. They surrounded the place as if we were going to destroy motherhood. I purposely got arrested, and then I made an appeal that all the black people and white people who were decent-minded should give 10 cents to get me out of jail. And I got out, because they took up a collection.”
Rustin knew he was gay in high school, he told Washington Blade reporter Peg Byron on Feb. 5, 1986. But he remained closeted until 1947 after an encounter with a child on a bus trip in the South:
“One of the reasons that I decided that I should no longer remain in the closet came from an experience I had as a black. One day, in 19…, way back as far as 1947, I walked into a bus in the South, all prepared to do what I had always done in the South. Take a seat in the rear.
As I was going by the second seat to go to the rear, a white child reached out for the red necktie I was wearing and pulled it. Whereupon its mother said, “Don’t touch a nigger.”
Something happened, and I said to myself, If I go and sit quietly in the back of that bus now, that child who was so innocent of race relations that it was going to play with me, will have seen so many blacks go in the back and sit down quietly that it’s going to end up saying, “They like it back there, I’ve never seen anybody protest against it.” That’s what people in the South would say.
So I said, I owe it to that child, not only to my own dignity, but I owe it to that child that it should be educated to know that blacks do not want to sit in the back, and therefore I should get arrested letting all these white people in the bus know that I do not accept that.
Now, it occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality, because if I didn’t I was a part of the prejudice. I was aiding and abetting…
Peggy Byron: Sitting in the back, yeah…
BR: … the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me. And that in the long run the only way I could be a free whole person was to face the shit.
But from my own experience I know how long it can take till you free yourself. Thirty-four years is a long time to free yourself.”
During those closeted years, he organized strikes in college, advocated to free the Scottsboro Boys, in 1936 joined the Young Communist League which fought segregation but left disillusioned when they dropped fighting Jim Crow to fight to get the US into World War II. Rustin then found two other pacifists – A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), who both became mentors.
By now Rustin was on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s radar. Muste hired him to handle race relations. In 1941, the three pacifist socialists proposed a march on Washinton to protest segregation in the military and employment. After a meeting with President Roosevelt in the White House, FDR issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act) banning discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies. As an act of good faith in response, Randolph cancelled the march over Rustin’s objections. The military was finally desegregated in 1948 by President Truman, meaning black Americans fought racism and the Nazis and fascism, only to come home to Jim Crow.
Meanwhile, Rustin came to California to try to help Japanese Americans who were losing their property and their rights as the federal government imprisoned them in internment camps. He also foreshadowed the Freedom Rides by trying to desegregate interstate bus travel in 1942, for which he was arrested outside Nashville, beaten but never charged.
By 1948, the year after he came out, Rustin was well-known enough to be invited to India for an international pacifist conference.
“Mahatma Gandhi had been assassinated earlier that year, but his teachings touched Rustin in profound ways. ‘We need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers,’ he wrote after returning to the States. ‘The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn,’” Prof. Gates writes.
The incident for which Rustin was pardoned happened in 1953. By now a respected organizer, Rustin traveled around the country giving speeches. After a speech one January night in Pasadena, police officers found him having sex with two white men in a parked car. Rustin was arrested, sentenced to jail for 60 days and was forced to register as a sex offender for the “morals charge.”
The arrest severely damaged his career in a country terrified by McCarthyism. He was forced to cancel speaking engagements and resigned from his leadership position with Muste’s Fellowship for Reconciliation.
He struggled to find work, resorting to manual labor as a furniture mover, Naegle said later.
“I know now that for me sex must be sublimated if I am to live with myself and in this world longer,” he wrote in a March 1953 letter.
In 1955, Rustin secretly wrote “Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence.“In 1956, he found his way back into the civil rights movement, traveling to Alabama to advise Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on how to organize his Montgomery Bus Boycott using Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. The two were introduced by Rustin’s friend Coretta Scott.
“King really had a very, very limited idea about nonviolence,” Julian Bond, who helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman. “It is Bayard Rustin who really tutored him, who said, ‘This is what you have to do.’ Rustin was horrified to see these pistols in King’s home, you know, and these armed guards around King’s home, because it just went against everything he believed in about nonviolence. If it hadn’t been for Bayard Rustin, Dr. King wouldn’t have had any understanding, I don’t think, of nonviolence. And Rustin tutored him and made him into the person we know he became.”
But that arrest record and the “open secret” of his homosexuality haunted him. Rustin was forced to resign from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference he co-founded after the powerful New York Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to tell the press that he and King were lovers.
Gay historian, John D’Emilio author of “Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin,” told Amy Goodman:
“Bayard himself was very aware that given social attitudes towards homosexuality and gay men and lesbians, he couldn’t wear it on his sleeve. He couldn’t, you know, be out there with the rainbow flag. This was before gay liberation. So Bayard himself was perfectly happy to keep this in the background and to move out of the way, if that was going to be good for the movement.
What made him unhappy and what made him feel like he had been done wrong was when people disavowed him. And there was a point, in 1960, when Rustin and Mr. Randolph and Dr. King were part of organizing major demonstrations at the presidential conventions, Republicans and Democrats, and at that point Representative Adam Clayton Powell from Harlem didn’t like the fact that these radicals, someone like Bayard Rustin, was getting so much attention and moving into his sphere in the Democratic Party.
And he put out the word to Dr. King that if you don’t distance yourself from Bayard Rustin, I am going to claim that there is something going on between the two of you. And that scared Dr. King, and Bayard made the decision to resign from his position. But he also expected at that point that he would be defended. And when he wasn’t defended, it was—it was painful. It was very painful. And he spent a couple of years, mostly—in the early ’60s, mostly involved in the peace movement rather than in the civil rights movement because of that rupture. And it’s the March on Washington that brought him back into the center of things.”
“That was around 1962,” Rustin told the Washington Blade via the special Making Gay History podcast. “And, naturally, I took the position that if people feel that I am a danger to some important movement, I would leave. But the thing which distressed me was that if… if Martin had taken the strong stand then that he took a year later, in ’63, vis-à-vis Strom Thurmond, he could have overcome it and kept me. But I understand his doing it, and I hold no grief with him about having done it. I just wish that he had shown the strength in ’62 that he showed when he backed me completely in ’63. But he was a year older and had another year’s experience.”
A. Philip Randolph brought Rustin back into the fold to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom but NAACP’s Roy Wilkins saw Rustin as a liability and forced him to take a deputy position.
But then FBI Director J. Edger Hoover slipped Rustin’s arrest record to rabidly anti-gay South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond – who had secretly fathered a child with his African-America maid. Three weeks before the march, Thurmond went public, trying to destroy the unprecedented event by denouncing Rustin as a gay communist and placing his arrest record in the congressional record.
Rustin told the Washington Blade:
“Now this became very clear to me in 1963, when I was organizing the March on Washington. And Strom Thurmond stood up in the Senate of the United States and for three-quarters of an hour, attacked me as a draft dodger, which was untrue, because I was a conscientious objector and well known as being a Quaker opposed to all violence. He attacked me as a former member of the Young Communist League, which was true. I had been. He attacked me as a homosexual. Which of course I was.
PB: You were the original commie-pinko-fag of the day, I suppose.”
BR: Yeah, exactly. Now, there were 10 leaders of that march. One of the most important Jews, the most important Catholic, the most important Protestant, Walter Reuther representing the trade union movement, and six black civil rights leaders.
When he attacked me, I had absolutely no basic apprehension and for a very good reason, because I had spent a great deal of my life defending prejudice against Catholics, against trade unions, against Jews, against blacks, against Protestants, and therefore I inwardly knew that those leaders, knowing of my history, had to come to my defense. And they did. And the important thing was that they voted that only one person should speak, and that was the founder of the march, Mr. A. Philip Randolph.”
For what spans five pages in the Congressional Record, Thurmond not only submitted the arrest record but the news articles about the arrest and conviction.
“The article states that he was convicted in 1953 in Pasadena, California, of a morals charge. The words ‘morals charge’ are true. But this is a clear-cut case of toning down the charge. The conviction was sex perversion,” says Thurmond.
“The senator is not interested in me if I were a murderer, a thief, a liar or a pervert. The senator is interested in attacking me because he is interested in destroying the movement. He will not get away with this,” Rustin said.
King and the other Big Six backed Rustin up this time because the attacks came from one of the worst Southern white supremacists. But after the march, Rustin was quietly denied his role as the seventh in the Bix Six group of civil rights leaders who called for the march: A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Jim Farmer, Whitney Young when the chief organizer of the march was disinvited to the White House to celebrate with President John F. Kennedy.
And yet, according to an extensive CNN report commemorating the 50th anniversary of the march, it was Rustin who saved the march for the organizers – from a Kennedy take over.
“The Kennedys were almost morbidly afraid of this march. They understood there’d been nothing like it,” Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-District of Columbia, who helped plan the march, told CNN.
“The Kennedy administration was afraid that if there was violence on the march, it would mean that the Civil Rights Act, which John F. Kennedy had just introduced, would never get passed,” said march planner Rachelle Horowitz. “When we first began planning the march, there was a concerted effort by the Kennedy administration to get it called off and to not let it take place.”
“They kept a watchful eye on the planning of the march,” said John Lewis, the 23-year-old elected to lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. “They stayed in touch with the (march) leadership,” which had been broadened to include four white leaders, representatives of the Protestant, Jewish and Catholic faiths, and civil rights advocate and United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther.
Reuther was recruited by the White House “to infiltrate the march and steer it away from radical rhetoric and direct action,” wrote Charles Euchner in his book “Nobody Turn Me Around,” about the historic march. “And so he did.”
Though JFK had come around to the idea of the march, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s office inside the Justice Department’s room 5110 “was the command center,” Jack Rosenthal, who was the department’s assistant press officer at the time, told CNN.
“There was a proposal on the table that Kennedy speak to the March on Washington,” march planner Courtland Cox told CNN. “And Bayard knew this would have been a disaster because it would’ve been taken over by (Kennedy) just because he’s president. It would’ve been Kennedy’s march.”
From CNN:
“So, Cox said Rustin and he excused themselves from that particular meeting and took a walk to the bathroom. Clearly flummoxed about the problem, Rustin took a sip from his back-pocket flask and came up with an idea on the fly.
“And Bayard got back into the meeting and he literally made this up,” Cox recalled. “He said that he heard … if the president spoke the Negroes were going to stone him.”
After that, the idea of Kennedy speaking at the march was never considered.”
None of the feared outbreaks of violence occurred.
“After the March on Washington was over, President Kennedy had invited us back down to the White House,” Lewis said. “He stood in the door of the Oval Office and he greeted each one of us. He was like a beaming, proud father. He was so pleased. So happy that everything had gone so well.”
Kennedy told King: “And you had a dream,” added Lewis.
Rustin’s role was overshadowed – as were his remarks at the march that August 28, 1963:
“We demand that segregation be ended in every school district in the year 1963! We demand that we have effective civil rights legislation—no compromise, no filibuster—and that include public accommodations, decent housing, integrated education, FEPC and the right to vote. What do you say? We demand the withholding of federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists. What do you say?”
Rustin died of a perforated appendix on August 24, 1987, survived by Walter Naegle, his partner of 10 years.
One last thing, Julian Bond told Amy Goodman:
“I could not think of anybody else who at the time would have stepped forward, taken hold of this March on Washington, pull together all these hundreds of thousands of peoples, the buses, the trains. You know, I saw something just recently: They made 800,000 sandwiches. Imagine that. And it was all done at Bayard Rustin’s desire.
One thing I think we’re not hearing about Bayard Rustin is his sense of humor. He once said that Dr. King couldn’t bring vampires to a bloodbath. That was the kind of organizer Dr. King was not. But Bayard Rustin knew he was an organizer and was just wonderful at getting people to do things that they didn’t think they could do or didn’t know they wanted to do. He was just a great, great person….
I think those of us who were there in 1963 didn’t immediately realize how significant this was. As you said during the program, we didn’t see many people there early in the morning. The crowd grew and grew and grew. But even when they were all there, you had no idea how many there were. You know, you can’t look out at this mass of people and say, “This is 250,000 people.” You just have no idea who they are. And I think, for me, driving back to Atlanta later that day and then reading newspapers the next day in Atlanta and hearing what other people had to say about it, only then would we began to understand the significance of this thing—the largest gathering ever at a civil rights protest.
People came together to demand civil rights in America, and that was tremendously significant. But, as you say, if you compare these demands that Bayard read at the march with where we are today, you can see that clearly most of these things have not been achieved, and we still have a long, long way to go.”
While Rustin didn’t attend the White House meeting, he and A. Philip Randolph did make the cover of LIFE magazine.
“Rustin was one of the most important social justice activists in the U.S. in the 20th century,” says historian John D’Emilio.
That 1953 arrest record hung like an invisible chain around Rustin’s neck. Now he is really, finally free.
If you think you are eligible and would like to seek clemency, you can apply for a pardon and receive updates and information on the clemency initiative at www.gov.ca.gov/clemency
a&e features
Exhibit showcases trans, nonbinary joy in Maryland and Virginia
‘Becoming Ourselves’ proclaims that our lives are ‘expressions of divine creation’
Gwen Andersen was putting up posters for her photography exhibition “Becoming Ourselves” in and around Takoma Park shortly following the death of Nex Benedict. “Everybody’s heart was heavy,” the lesbian photographer said, “and I’m waltzing around town putting up these posters.” At a bookstore, she asked the person working at the front desk if she could put up one of the posters. They immediately looked at it more closely because of the trans flag, and said yes.
“When they read it and saw that it was something positive, beautiful, happy, they started to cry,” Andersen said, and she instinctively asked if she could give them a hug. With permission, she walked around the counter and embraced them — and in many ways, herself — in a world where negativity and violence takes aim at and harms the LGBTQ community. It was a powerful moment, she admitted, because “the first person didn’t even see the pictures.”
“That’s when I realized.” she said, “just how the idea of this is making an impact.”
“Becoming Ourselves” is an exhibition of 26 photos featuring happy and joyful trans and nonbinary adults and children that has been displayed at six different spaces of worship and one gallery in Maryland and Virginia. From the United Universalist Congregation of Rockville (UCCR) to its eighth spot that opened at the Sandy Springs Meeting House on Oct. 1, the exhibition originally started after Andersen’s friend Marian Bowden connected her with Sandra Davis, then president-elect for the Women’s Caucus of Art. Davis, seeing that Andersen had something critical to say during a time of intense anti-trans violence, became her mentor.
Andersen decided to host the exhibition at the UCCR based on the suggestions of her friend Rev. Jill McCrory, an affirming pastor and justice advocate, who along with Stevie Neal had previously invited Andersen to help found Montgomery County (MoCo) Pride. McCrory recommended UCCR and Davis shared that the church had their own hanging system, but for Andersen, their eager acceptance of the show sealed the deal.
“They were so happy to have been asked,” Andersen said. “They weren’t just consenting. They were wildly enthusiastic about it. I could not have had a better first place to host this.”
Rev. Dr. Rebekah Savage echoed this affirmation. Andersen approached her in October 2023 and from the very beginning, Savage acknowledged, we knew it would be a vital gift to congregants. Showcasing queer and trans people in spaces of worship, as the portraits hung in the Sanctuary during Sunday morning worship for Transgender Day of Visibility is critical, Savage explained, and it “does more than challenge exclusion,” Savage said. “It proclaims to the world that LGBTQ+ lives are sacred, beautiful, and an essential expression of the divine creation.”
“This visibility is both healing and life-saving, especially right now: for trans youth and families who need to know that there are faith communities ready to celebrate with them fully,” Savage continued. “Becoming Ourselves,” she said, visualized the leadership of our trans loved ones and held space for joy and celebration during times of intense violence. It has, Savage said, “become a beacon of hope, within our congregation and beyond, witnessing to the power of love, equality, and justice as sacred commitments.”
But there was a time crunch — the exhibition would open in March 2024, so all photos had to be taken by December 2023 and to her surprise, there was great interest in being part of the project. She had taken some photos already, but when a friend’s child asked if their friends could be part of it, they realized they would need extra enforcements to get the photos taken and processed in time for printing, so she connected with Salgu Wissmath, a nonbinary photography who recently opened their own exhibition “Divine Identity,” and other photographers from Los Angeles, London, and Baltimore.
She also reached out to Natasha Nazareth from Gaithersburg and Elias Nikitchyuk who worked locally and contributed photos to the exhibition.
She also brought a child — Emery — on as the Formal Youth Adviser, recognizing that the show’s most important audience would be trans and nonbinary children. The resulting 26 photos of joyful trans and nonbinary adults and children were chosen by LGBTQ young people from across the United States who shared their selections through a virtual survey, and the group just made the tight deadline. Sadly, Stevie (a nickname for the beloved Petra Stephanie) Neal passed before the project was put on display, but their estate covered photography printing costs.
Soon, the UCCR was filled to the brim with photos of happy and joyful trans people. While UCCR has designated a room for its display, there were too many so the photos spilled out into the hallway, entryway, and anywhere else they would fit. It was only the first of many surprises.
She anticipated just displaying the show at the church in Rockville, but at the opening, McCrory shared that she would love for the show to be on display at Bethesda United Church of Christ (UCC) where she was then and is now working as an interim pastor, so it went to Bethesda UCC next, but that wasn’t its final stop as church members attended other parishes, they shared that they wanted the photos displayed in their own spaces of worship, and soon the photos had travelled to Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Gaithersburg, Pilgrim Church in Wheaton, Hope United Church of Christ in Alexandria, PhotoWorks at Glen Echo, and finally, Third Space in Baltimore — its most recent stop at the recommendation of one of the photographers. A friend of Octavia Bloom, a Baltimore photographer, wanted the show to come to their hometown.
The exhibition at Third Space came to an end on Aug. 8, but as before, another church —this one Sandy Springs Meeting House — stepped up to host the show. The brick Sandy Springs Meeting House was originally constructed in 1817 and has stood ever since, making the Sandy Spring Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends one of the oldest Quaker Meetings in Maryland. Sandy Spring just put up their hanging system, on loan from a local artist, this month and aims to have the show on display to the public soon.
For some, the choice to display the exhibition in churches may seem like a strange or at least surprising one, but for Andersen, it was a meaningful choice. For Andersen, it helps counter the narrative of churches being places of hostility and part of campaigns against us. While recognizing the history of harm that churches and other religious institutions have caused through conversion therapy, exclusion, hate speech, and more, Andersen’s exhibition showcases how spaces of faith can also be key centers of LGBTQ advocacy and organizing. In fact, D.C. has a rich history of LGBTQ activism based out of and supported by faith communities.
“The fact that it was held in a church made so many people so happy. It also made many people cry because the church has been a place of hostility because the resistance, the hatred, of lesbians, gays, bis and transgender people has been biblical, both in terms of its size and in terms of its purported origin, and so having churches hold this exhibit was dearly important symbolically,” Andersen said.
Andersen shared that so many friends of hers who came to the show had not visited churches in decades because they (justifiably in some cases) viewed them as completely hostile locations. When they went to the exhibitions in the churches and were treated well, she said, she believes it was a healing experience, as it was for many trans and nonbinary children and adults and their parents who are facing a world of negative representation — either hostile from conservative, Christian nationalist groups or media portraying trans and nonbinary people as victims.
Andersen wanted to create a show that offered hope to trans and nonbinary kids, as It Gets Better did many years before. sharing videos and photos of happy and joyful LGBTQ adults as a way to share positivity and hopefully prevent suicide among LGBTQ children. It was more than timely than ever following Benedict’s death in February 2024. The previous day, Benedict was assaulted by other high school students in a girls’ restroom and later died by suicide.
“The purpose of the show was to counter all of the negativity because with Republicans running and now Trump in office there was so much animosity and hostility and people trying to pass these hateful laws that I knew this had to be having a negative impact on the mental health of trans kids.”
Andersen hopes that this exhibition enriches this rich tradition and sparks new conversations — and maybe even more happy tears — at Sandy Springs Meeting House this fall.
The show will be open most days between about 10 and 4 except for Mondays and Saturdays. Viewers are advised to call Sandy Springs Meeting House at 301-774-9792 first on weekdays. The show will continue until the end of December.
In a challenging year for D.C. and the local LGBTQ community, it’s important to remember that there are people, places, and organizations that work hard each day to support us. From activists to bartenders, politicians to drag queens, the Blade’s annual review of D.C.’s best is a welcome break from the news.
We need to support our queer-owned businesses now so please review the list and then patronize as many of them as you can. Our community has a long history of pulling together and dancing our way to better days, so you know what to do.
This was a big year for our annual friendly competition with more than 5,000 nominations in 75 categories and nearly 20,000 votes. The Blade’s Stephen Rutgers coordinated the voting, while Michael Key shot most of the photos. This year’s contributing writers are: Lou Chibbaro Jr., Michael K. Lavers, Joe Reberkenny, Kevin Naff, Tinashe Chingarande, Shreya Jyotishi, Evan Caplan, and Patrick Folliard.
This year’s Local Hero Award goes to Stonewall Sports, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month, in recognition of all its leaders do to promote unity in our community and to give back. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.
Local Hero: Stonewall Sports
Sports, for a lot of LGBTQ people, stir up complicated feelings — for some, they bring back memories of uncomfortable gym classes or the sense of not quite fitting in with other teammates. Stonewall Sports, a community-based nonprofit for LGBTQ people and their allies, was created to push back against the idea that sports aren’t a welcoming space for queer people — and to build a place where the community can grow, thrive, and support one another.
Founded in D.C. in 2010 by Martin Espinoza, Mark Gustafson, Melvin Thomas, Scott Moorehead, and Scott Filter, Stonewall Sports began as a small kickball team. Fifteen years later, it has exploded into a national network with 27 chapters across the U.S., offering a wide range of sports in the DMV — including billiards, bocce, climbing, dodgeball, and kickball.
“We seek to be the premier social sports organization for LGBTQIA+ individuals in the DMV and nationwide, really focusing on building community that lasts,” Stonewall President Stu Wales told the Blade. “This is an opportunity for people to feel comfortable in their own identity in organized sports… to participate fully without having to worry about who they are.”
Stonewall Sports’s mission is clear: sports for all. At a time when trans athletes are being singled out and excluded from participation, the organization continues to provide inclusive, affirming spaces for every member of the LGBTQ community. “We make sure everyone feels welcome — from how we recruit to how we build teams — so no one ever has to question if they belong here,” Wales said.
But building community isn’t the only thing Stonewall Sports has achieved. Over the past 15 years, the organization has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities.
“We’re as much a philanthropic organization as we are a social sports organization,” Wales said. “There was one year where we raised over $100,000 just in a single year, and that really demonstrated our commitment to one of our key pillars — that was part of what we were founded on and what sets us apart from other local social sports organizations in the DMV.”
From donating money to Whitman-Walker Health, DC Black Pride, The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington, and House with a Heart senior pet sanctuary — just to name a few — the organization continues to reinvest in the community in a wide array of ways.
Whether it’s on the National Mall on Sundays for kickball or in Logan Circle on Wednesdays for bocce, Stonewall Sports continues to bring people together — on and off the field — proving that in D.C., sports can be competitive, impactful, and community-driven.
NIGHTLIFE
Best Drag Queen: Cake Pop!
From her larger-than-life costumes to her beat-thumping DJ sets and growing “Pop” drag family, Cake Pop has quickly become a fixture in D.C.’s drag scene. The Chicago-born, D.C.-based queen is constantly on the move — whether she’s hosting a show, spinning a set, or running her “Pop-Up” bar that took over the top floor of Pitchers earlier this year. After first winning Best Drag Queen in 2022, Cake Pop is once again taking the crown — proving she’s a true D.C. favorite.
Editor’s Choice: Sasha Adams Sanchez
Best Drag King: King Molasses
For the fourth year in a row, the freshly crowned “King of Drag” has taken home another honor. King Molasses knows how to command a stage — delivering performances that get the crowd cheering for the sticky-sweet king. With more than 37,000 Instagram followers, Molasses showcases a bold mix of color, confidence, and masculine flair. Fresh off winning the first-ever drag king reality TV competition in July, this is one king D.C. is more than happy to bow down to.
Editor’s Choice: Dylan Dickherson
Best Transgender Performer: Gigi Paris Couture
Hailing from Arlington across the Potomac, Gigi Paris Couture is a celebrated name in DMV drag and beyond. With a career spanning decades, Miss Couture has dazzled audiences nationwide with her stunning performances and sexy, show-stopping costumes. Her trophy case is as impressive as her talent: most recently winning Miss Perry’s in 2023, along with Miss Freddie’s 2015, Miss Diamond International 2007, Miss Tennessee Continental 2003, Miss New York, New York Continental 2002, and Miss Luchos Continental 2001. With so many crowns, it’s a wonder she has room for them all.
Editor’s Choice: Brooke N Hymen
Best Drag Show: Daddy Issues at Kiki
915 U St., N.W.
Who says drag is only for the weekends? Not Daddy Issues! Each Wednesday at 10 p.m., some of the DMV’s best drag performers take over the second-floor stage at Kiki with incredible performances, games, and a vibe that “might help you catch a daddy!” Hosted by Evry Pleasure and featuring a rotating cast including Cake Pop, Druex Sidora, Indiana Bones, and Crimsyn, this midweek extravaganza proves that drag in D.C. never takes a day off.
Editor’s Choice: Freddie’s Follies
Best LGBTQ Party: Flower Factory
1223 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Since its debut in 2021, this queer DJ collective dance party has become a staple of D.C.’s LGBTQ nightlife. Held once a month at Zebbie’s Garden in Dupont Circle, Flower Factory turns the neighborhood into a cross between a daytime rave, Studio 54, and your favorite gay bar. If it’s the second Sunday of the month and you spot fabulously dressed revelers radiating color, florals, and queer joy, odds are they’re heading to Flower. The collective has grown immensely over the past few years, spinning sets at Somos in Mexico City, venues across Provincetown and New York City, and even hosting a special WorldPride party in 2025 — and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Editor’s Choice: Grizzly Bear Happy Hour
Best Bartender: Stephen Sides, Little Gay Pub
1100 P St., N.W.
With his warm smile and handsome facial hair, Stephen Sides is one face you definitely want to see on the other side of the bar. Sides has an extensive history in the food service industry, and an even longer list of friends who request LGP’s signature espresso martini poured by him. Whether it’s a busy Friday night or a quiet weekday, Stephen makes every guest feel like part of the little gay family.
Editor’s Choice: Ben Oursler, Annie’s
Best DJ: DJ Honey
Honey Johnson, better known as DJ Honey, continues to break barriers as a Black lesbian DJ, spinning at venues across the country. From BET events to World AIDS Day celebrations and even the Library of Congress, her resume proves that success comes from hard work. Her unique style gives a platform to underrepresented musical talent in Thurst Lounge and beyond, making every set unforgettable.
Editor’s Choice: DJ Matt Bailer
Best Neighborhood Bar: As You Are Bar
500 8th St., S.E.
As You Are doesn’t just see itself as a café turned nightclub — it proudly brands itself as home. Owners Jo McDaniel and Rach “Coach” Pike are no strangers to LGBTQ nightlife, both having worked at A League of Her Own in Adams Morgan. This dynamic duo built their own “haven for queer expression and connection,” with a special spotlight on Sapphic events and DJs, a scene that can be hard to find elsewhere. Whether you’re coming for coffee, cocktails, or a night of dancing, As You Are makes everyone feel welcome.
Editor’s Choice: Number Nine
Best Outdoor Drinking: Trade
1410 14th St., N.W.
Edging out LGP, which won last year, Trade snagged the top spot this year likely due to its sizeable patio, newly expanded during Pride season. With echoes of erstwhile Town patio, Trade’s outdoor space brings the gay community together to enjoy its XL happy hour around the brightly lit tree that stands at attention in the center of the space.
Editor’s Choice: Little Gay Pub
Best Happy Hour Presented by ABSOLUT: Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse
1607 17th St., N.W.
Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse has been a Dupont Circle fixture for more than 75 years. George Katinas opened the restaurant in 1948 on the corner of 17th and Church streets, N.W., where JR.’s is now located. He later renamed it in honor of his sister Annie. Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, which is now located on 17th Street between Corcoran and R streets, continues to welcome locals and visitors alike with its signature cocktails, food, and camaraderie.
Editor’s Choice: Crush
Best LGBTQ Bar: Crush
2007 14th St., N.W.
Crush Dance Bar, which opened in the busy U Street corridor in 2023, is one of the city’s most popular LGBTQ establishments.
Its walls — adorned with posters of Lady Gaga, Kylie Mingoue, Janet Jackson, and myriad other pop divas — provide the perfect backdrop for revelers who are looking to let loose. Owners Stephen Rutgers and Mark Rutstein have succeeded in making Crush the city’s “all-inclusive nightlife destination on 14th Street.”
Editor’s Choice: Trade
Best LGBTQ-Friendly Bar: Dacha Beer Garden
Multiple locations
Dacha, a longstanding popular outdoor watering hole, is not officially a gay bar. Yet, you will consistently see groups of D.C.’s LGBTQ community hanging out at Dacha Beer Garden drinking boots of beer and enjoying a selection off the German-style beer garden’s extensive menu. With its giant murals of gay icons Elizabeth Taylor at the Shaw location and Jackie Onassis in the Navy Yard spot, it’s easy to see why gay, straight, and truly everyone can find something to enjoy.
Editor’s Choice: Jane Jane
Best LGBTQ Bar Outside the District: Freddie’s Beach Bar
555 23rd St. S
Arlington, Va.
The DMV LGBTQ bar scene discussion must mention longstanding Freddie’s Beach Bar in National Landing, Arlington. Freddie’s has been a staple in the area since it opened more than 20 years ago. Serving classic cocktails and a full menu, the bar is also known for its infamous Sunday Buffet Brunch, and daily events including drag shows, bingo, and karaoke, it makes sense that Washington Blade readers have voted Freddie’s the best “LGBTQ+ but straight friendly restaurant and bar” outside of the District for several years.
Editor’s Choice: Baltimore Eagle
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Best Theater Presented by Wild Side Media: Arena Stage
1101 6th St., S.W.
Famous for its in-the-round productions, the Tony Award-winning Arena Stage located just steps from the Wharf, is the country’s largest theater committed to presenting American plays and playwrights.
Arena is currently presenting the Broadway bound revival of “Damn Yankees” (through Nov. 9) directed by Sergio Trujillo and starring Rob McClure as Applegate, Ana Villafañe as Lola, and Jordan Donica as Joe. It’s a fresh take on a beloved classic.
Editor’s Choice: Studio Theatre
Best Theater Production: “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Gala Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th St., N.W.
In September, GALA Hispanic Theatre in Columbia Heights kicked off its 50th anniversary season with an exciting revival production of out playwright Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman”
First a novel published in 1976 (the same year GALA was founded), then a play, followed by a Broadway musical and films, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a stunningly enduring work. GALA’s production was brought to life by a triad of queer talent including director José Luis Arellano, and appealing actors Martín Ruiz and Rodrigo Pedreira
Editor’s Choice: “Summer, 1976,” Studio Theatre
Best Live Music in D.C. Presented by Wild Side Media: 9:30 Club
815 V St., N.W.
No stranger to the Blade’s “Best of,” the 9:30 club has been a favorite of DMV audiences in search of live entertainment since 1980. Over the years, the key destination venue has hosted a wide range of artists ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Alison Moyet to Tony Bennett, making it one of the most respected live music spots in America.
Editor’s Choice: The Anthem
Best Live Music Outside of D.C.: Wolf Trap
1551 Trap Rd.
Vienna, Va.
In nearby Northern Virginia, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts boasts a sprawling green campus with a major theater as well as smaller other venues all with pitch perfect acoustics.
Arvind Manocha, the out president and CEO of Northern Virginia’s Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts for more than a decade, loves his job. And for him, part of that means promoting diversity and queer inclusion.
As part of its impactful lineup, Wolf Trap presents “Out & About,” an annual two-day outdoor music festival spotlighting LGBTQ artists and vocal allies. With the new musical event, Manocha and his programming team bring together entertainment and visibility by featuring big queer names like headliner Brandi Carlisle.
Editor’s Choice: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Best Local Artist Presented by Wild Side Media: Miss Grace David
Miss Grace David is a Black, queer, and non-binary femme performance and textile artist based in the D.C. area. By using character performance, textile production, world-making, and storytelling, their work connects human emotion and personal experience with visual abstraction.
Editor’s Choice: Diane D’Costa
Best Museum: National Museum of African American History & Culture
1400 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Since opening its doors in 2016, the museum has engaged millions of people worldwide, sharing the unvarnished truth about African-American experiences, advances, and contributions. The anti-DEI crusade of the Trump administration serves as a reminder of the important role museums play in telling the full American story. The museum remains closed due to the federal government shutdown.
Editor’s Choice: National Gallery of Art
Best Professional Sports Team: Washington Spirit
For the second year in a row, Blade readers voted the Washington Spirit, D.C.’s premier professional women’s soccer team, as the best local professional sports team. The highly regarded team last year was ranked second in the National Women’s Sports League.
It has consistently supported local LGBTQ groups like SMYAL, and its many LGBTQ fans believe Washington Spirit understands the importance of playing hard and supporting LGBTQ representation in sports.
Editor’s Choice: Washington Commanders
COMMUNITY & BUSINESS
Most Committed Activist: Preston Mitchum
An acclaimed D.C. attorney and digital creator, Preston Mitchum is described online by people who know him as a Black, queer advocate and activist, with a focus on the power of Black people, young people, and queer, trans, and non-binary people
With more than a decade of legal and policy experience, he has worked for and or provided support for more organizations and causes you can shake a stick at in the areas of racial and gender justice, LGBTQ liberation, and reproductive health, rights, and justice policies.
As a respected public speaker, he has appeared on TV news programs and was quoted in news publications, including the Washington Post, on the wide range of issues on which he has worked. “A force to be reckoned with, Preston Mitchum isn’t just a name, it’s a symbol of commitment, passion, and the embodiment of change,” one of his admirers states in an online posting.
Editor’s Choice: Jordyn White
Best LGBTQ Public Official: George Garcia
D.C. Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism and Partnership
George Garcia served as Director of Operations for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs since September 2024, and prior to that he served as the LGBTQ Affairs office’s Grants and Partnerships Specialist since February 2023. In early October of this year, he began a new job as Deputy Director of Operations and Finance for the Mayor’s Office of Volunteerism and Partnerships, which is also known as Serve DC.
He is described in an LGBTQ Affairs Office statement as a dedicated community leader with more than 14 years of experience advocating for underserved populations, especially within the LGBTQ community. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from D.C.’s American University, where he honed his expertise in public policy, strategic planning, and leadership. While working in the LGBTQ Affairs Office, he played a lead role in the city’s support for WorldPride events this year, “coordinating 10 community coalitions and managing a $5 million budget.”
Editor’s Choice: Council member Zachary Parker
Best Community Ally: Robert White
An At-Large member of the D.C. City Council since 2016, Robert White has emerged as one of the Council’s strongest supporters and allies of the LGBTQ community. He currently chairs the Council’s Committee on Housing. And in September he announced he is a candidate for the D.C. congressional delegate seat for which he is running in the city’s June 2026 Democratic primary.
A self-described proud fifth generation Washingtonian and an attorney, he has served prior to being elected to the Council as the city’s first Director of Community Outreach for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. He currently also serves as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Editor’s Choice: Erin Palmer
Best Medical Provider: Whitman-Walker Health
1201 Sycamore St., S.E.
Whitman-Walker Health was founded in 1973 as the Gay Men’s VD Clinic as a volunteer operation in a church basement before incorporating as the Whitman-Walker Clinic in 1978. It was named after poet Walt Whitman and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a physician who worked in D.C. during the Civil War before becoming a women’s rights activist.
It became a leading first responder to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, providing medical care and support for gay men and others impacted by the epidemic. It has since expanded into a comprehensive community health center with services that include primary care, dental, mental health, and legal aid, with a continued focus on serving the LGBTQ community in the D.C. metro area.
Editor’s Choice: AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Best Non-Profit: SMYAL
410 7th St., S.E.
Celebrating its 41st anniversary this year, SMYAL continues its role as an acclaimed service provider for LGBTQ youth in the D.C. area. Through its after-school programs, counseling services, and LGBTQ youth drop-in center, SMYAL provides LGBTQ youth with safe spaces to express themselves, find support, and build community.
Among other things, it awards $35,000 in scholarships to students each year and provides education and training for adults working with LGBTQ youth in schools, housing programs, local government agencies, and hospitals. SMYAL’s Youth Housing Program provides transitional housing for at least 55 LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness.
Editor’s Choice: The D.C. Center
Best LGBTQ Center Outside of D.C.: Pride Center of Maryland
2418 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, Md.
The Pride Center of Maryland, which serves as an LGBTQ community center, provides a wide range of services for youth, adults, seniors, and families. It states on its website that its programs “are designed to meet the diverse needs of our community and provide a safe and welcoming space for all.”
Its programs include mental health counseling, HIV health services, support groups, education and training, a computer lab, and a game room along with space for community events and meetings. While its headquarters is based in Baltimore, its website points out it has “a presence throughout the state, including Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Frederick, and Charles counties, and conducts outreach and education activities within those counties.”
Editor’s Choice: CAMP Rehoboth
Best Day Trip: Annapolis
downtownannapolispartnership.org
Less than an hour from D.C., Annapolis makes the perfect day trip. With its charming streets, historic waterfront, and the Naval Academy’s good-looking midshipmen, Maryland’s state capital is filled with visual pleasures. What’s more, Annapolis offers a range of attractions, including parks, galleries, and museums that cater to the LGBTQ community. For more information go to annapolispride.org.
Editor’s Choice: Baltimore
Best Adult Store: Bite the Fruit
1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W. (second floor)
Go ahead, succumb to the temptation found at Bite the Fruit. The busy queer-owned Dupont Circle retailer of adult novelties and provocative apparel specializes in promoting “healthy sexual and sensual exploration.”
Editor’s Choice: What’s Your Pleasure DC
Best Local Content Creator: Bri Battle, @queertalkdc
Bri Battle’s @queertalkdc promises to inform readers about “everything queer in the DMV and beyond.” Some of the events and organizations Battle has promoted include DMV Dyke Camp 2025, All Things Go, and the Columbia Mental Health clinics. Battle has also championed taking oneself out as a form of self-care.
Editor’s Choice: AJ Dronkers, @aj_dc
Best Local Website: Washingtonian Problems
instagram.com/washingtonianprobs
Washingtonian Problems is a website that revels in “celebrating the quirks and spirit of the District.” Some of its recent posts highlight the impact of the federal government shutdown in D.C., such as asking readers about local businesses that are “doing government shutdown specials.” Others note U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and other Capitol Hill personalities who try to make their mark in the nation’s capital.
Editor’s Choice: Popville
Best Local TV/Radio Personality: Tommy McFly, NBC4
Tommy McFly has been a fixture on local airwaves for more than a decade. Washingtonians can currently watch him doing “The Scene” on NBC4.
“I’m proud to be surrounded by so many incredibly talented queer media professionals in D.C.,” McFly told the Washington Blade. “Just like on the airwaves, our vibrant community is made better because so many people feel they can live their lives authentically here — at work, in public, and at home. I know that isn’t the case everywhere. It’s something we need to cherish. And we have a responsibility to keep bringing everyone along.”
McFly was in the closet when he moved to D.C. in 2006. He said the city since then “has embraced me and my husband, Chrys, in countless ways.”
“But the opportunity to be your neighbor — a friendly face on TV, at live events, in your feed and on the street — is the most incredible gift, and one I’ll never take for granted,” said McFly.
Editor’s Choice: Lorenzo Hall, WUSA 9
Best Fitness or Workout Spot: VIDA Fitness
Multiple locations
For the second year in a row, VIDA Fitness is the most popular gym among LGBTQ Washingtonians.
Vida has locations in Logan Circle, the Navy Yard, City Center, U Street, Ballston, and Reston. The exclusive Penthouse Pool at the U Street location remains the go-to summer destination for locals who don’t want to schlep to the beach.
Editor’s Choice: Barry’s Bootcamp
Best Lawyer: Erin Palmer
Erin Palmer has been the associate director of the Pro Bono Institute’s Corporate Pro Bono project since 2024. The organization’s website notes she “brings extensive experience in legal ethics, litigation, and public interest advocacy.”
She is an alum of the American University Washington College of Law and of the University of Pennsylvania. Palmer is also a former member of the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
Runner-up: Chase Strangio
Best Dentist: Dr. Robert McKernan, Big Gay Smiles
Dr. Robert McKernan of Big Gay Smiles continues to make Washingtonians “smile with Pride.”
“Big Gay Smiles Dental is an LGBTQ2IA+ owned practice that prioritizes comfort, quality, and community,” says Big Gay Smiles on its website. “We understand the stressors related to going to the dentist and actively work to redefine what it means to provide queer- (and ally-) focused dental care.”
Big Gay Smiles also donates 10 percent of its annual revenue to HIV/AIDS service organizations.
Editor’s Choice: Dr. Gregory Martin, DDS
Best Amateur Sports League: Rogue Cornhole
Rogue Cornhole describes itself as a “fun, socially minded, LGBTQ+ non-profit that strives to better our communities through volunteer efforts and raising funds for local non-profit organizations. The group, while championing cornhole, pledges to “have fun, cherish friendships, meet new people, and to be engaged with and committed to bettering our community through educational efforts.”
Editor’s Choice: DC Front Runners
Best LGBTQ Social Group: Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC, has inspired gay men and many others since its founding more than 40 years ago. The chorus, which has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center, and many other famed institutions, currently includes more than 250 members. It remains “the LGBTQ+ voice of equality in the nation’s capital.”
Editor’s Choice: Capital Sapphics
Best Local Businessperson: Russwin Francisco, Bite the Fruit
1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W. (second floor)
Established in 2012 in D.C., Bite the Fruit is gay-owned, straight-friendly and kink forward. It is a peerless retailer of adult novelties and provocative apparel that promotes healthy sexual and sensual exploration.
Editor’s Choice: Gregory Jones, Capital Center for Psychotherapy & Wellness
Best Clergy: Bishop Thomas Wieczorek
Thomas Wieczorek is a priest with the D.C.-based affiliate parish of St. Mary’s National Catholic Church of North America; he was elected auxiliary bishop in 2022.
Wieczroek has held many titles during his lifetime: award-winning newspaper reporter, baker, police officer, fire chief, deputy and director of public safety, city manager, and consultant. He is active in D.C. and other communities, having been the vice chairperson of Capital Pride, chairperson of Ionia-Montcalm County Domestic Violence Program, and other groups.
Editor’s Choice: Rev. Dr. Adalphie Johnson
Best Real Estate Agent: Michael Moore, Compass
1313 14th St., N.W.
Michael Moore cares about doing good work for people through each step of the buying and selling process. For him, the client experience is the heart of the business, and his commitment to investing in the longevity of those relationships defines his career. He’s also been a longtime advocate for AIDS LifeCycle bike rides, Caron Treatment Centers, and Food and Friends.
Editor’s Choice: Lamar Brathwaite, Coldwell Banker
Best Real Estate Group: Bediz Group, RLAH
Multiple locations
202-642-1616
The Bediz Group is a real estate team of seven agents and this is its fifth win in this category. In addition to real estate services, Bediz Group also offers an in-house creative team that provides high-caliber marketing collateral that ensures your property stands out. The group’s weekly emails reach more than 3,600 readers and it promotes its listings on its social media platforms.
Editor’s Choice: The Tom Buerger Team, Compass
Best LGBTQ-Owned Business: LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative
This collaborative is a dedicated team of queer and trans-identifying psychotherapists serving LGBTQ+ clients, their families, and allies. The group’s mission is to provide culturally competent, social justice oriented, queer affirming, neurodiverse-informed, and trauma informed therapeutic services to clients who want to actively engage in healing and processing around personal history, generational cycles, and systemic issues with clinicians who have similar lived experiences and values.
Editor’s Choice: Urban Adventures
Most LGBTQ-Friendly Workplace: Stratus Firm
Stratus specializes in events that are dynamic, large-scale, and production-heavy and produces high-impact experiences for a wide range of corporations, associations, and nonprofits.
Editor’s Choice: Whitman-Walker Health
Best Home Furnishings: Miss Pixie’s
1830 Columbia Rd., N.W.
Established in 1997, Miss Pixie’s opened at 1810 Adams Mill Rd. NW in Adams Morgan in a tiny 550-square-foot space with 18-foot ceilings. Miss Pixie quickly learned to “stack it deep and sell it cheap,” and most of the weekly inventory was gone by the end of each week.
Sadly, Miss Pixie’s announced the store is closing on Oct. 31 so stop by soon for 20 percent off many items.
Editor’s Choice: West Elm
Best Pet Business or Vet: City Paws Animal Hospital
1823 14th St., N.W.
City Paws has assembled a team of caring, compassionate, and highly skilled veterinary professionals who share the same dedication to delivering the highest quality veterinary care while building solid and lasting client relationships.
Editor’s Choice: Canino Dog Boutique
Best Salon/Spa: Logan 14
1314 14th St., N.W.
Logan 14 Aveda Lifestyle Salon & Spa is the winner for the ninth consecutive year. The salon places an environmentally conscious, queer-affirming focus on hair, skin and makeup services. The LGBTQ-owned salon strives to create a nurturing environment and uses entirely naturally derived Aveda products. Guests can opt for medspa treatments in addition to traditional salon services, all of which promote rejuvenation. The 14th Street salon opened in 2010 and features a 75% LGBTQ clientele.
Editor’s Choice: Bang Salon
Best Med Spa: ProMD Health
1003 K St., N.W. #835
Editor’s Choice: Javan Wellness
Best Hotel: Eaton DC
1201 K St., N.W.
Eaton DC was the 2024 Editor’s Choice in this category. A member of World Rainbow Hotels, Eaton DC is focused on diverse cultural programming, equitable community-building, and environmental sustainability. This flagship location is LGBTQ-friendly and offers an inclusive safe space for guests. The boutique hotel is also home to a Pride-themed hotel suite, featuring Marsha P. Johnson’s quotes on the wall, rainbow decor and decorations based on feedback from LGBTQ hotel staff. The hotel is nestled downtown, walking distance from the National Mall. Eaton Workshop’s original location is in Hong Kong.
Editor’s Choice: Dupont Circle Hotel
Best House of Worship: Sixth & I
600 I St., N.W.
Sixth & I is the winner for the second year in a row. The multi-denominational and non-membership institution is housed in a historic 1908 synagogue. The synagogue offers cultural and spiritual programming ranging from comedy, concerts, and live podcasts. Past live entertainment included talks from Janelle Monáe, Jonathan Van Ness and Ocean Vuong. Sixth & I also offers a range of LGBTQ-inclusive services and events, including Pride Shabbat services, gay weddings and other community events.
Editor’s Choice: Metropolitan Community Church of DC
Best Tattoo Parlor: Second Son Tattoo
1712 14th St., N.W. (third floor)
This tattoo and piercing shop located just north of Logan Circle prioritizes safe and enjoyable experiences for its clients. While the shop isn’t LGBTQ owned, Second Son Tattoo strives to create custom tattoos best fit to customers’ wishes. The shop’s eight artists specialize in a variety of artistic specialties, including black and grey realism, florals, anime, and line work.
Editor’s Choice: Tattoo Paradise
Best LGBTQ Event: Capital Pride
Capital Pride, an annual LGBTQ parade and festival held in June, is Washington’s premier Pride celebration. A parade featuring community organizations, corporate sponsors and local businesses, a street festival, a gala and a block party are just some of Capital Pride’s many featured events, all organized by the Capital Pride Alliance. The event originated as Gay Pride Day, a one-day block party, in 1975; the event is now a multi-day celebration that lights up a variety of neighborhoods. Capital Pride is set to be held from June 8-14 in 2026.
Editor’s Choice: Miss Adams Morgan Pageant
Best WorldPride Event: WorldPride Music Festival
worldpridedc.org/events/music-festival-global-dance-party/
The WorldPride Music Festival served as the District’s dance party on June 6 and 7 for the 50th year of Capital Pride. The two-day music festival was held on RFK Festival Grounds on the banks of the Anacostia River. Featured artists included Jennifer Lopez, Troye Sivan and Reneé Rapp. The WorldPride Music Festival is set to be held in Amsterdam in 2026.
Editor’s Choice: MIXTAPE Pride Party
Best Diversity of Pride: DC Black Pride
1001 16th St., N.W.
DC Black Pride, held on Memorial Day weekend, raises awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS while celebrating Black Pride and community. The event began with a Black Gay and Lesbian Pride event in 1991 and has since blossomed into an event of 500,000 Black LGBTQ attendees and allies. As the catalyst for Black Pride events, more than 50 cities globally center their celebrations around Washington’s model. The Center for Black Equity produces DC Black Pride annually.
Editor’s Choice: Trans Pride
Best Pride Outside of DC: Baltimore Pride
Baltimore Pride is the best non-D.C. winner for the second consecutive year. The Pride Center of Maryland hosts Baltimore Pride annually in celebration of LGBTQ contributions and diversity. The event began in 1975 with a peaceful activist demonstration and has since evolved into a range of events spread throughout the downtown area. The celebration takes place in and near Mount Vernon, Baltimore’s “gayborhood.” Typical events include the Pride Parade and Block Party, the Twilight on the Terrace Gala, Youth Pride and Pride in the Park.
Editor’s Choice: Virginia Pride, Richmond
Best Car Dealership: BMW of Fairfax
8427 Lee Hwy
Fairfax, Va.
Editor’s Choice: DARCARS
Best Private School: Edmund Burke
4101 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Editor’s Choice: Maret School
FOOD & DRINK
Best Coffee Shop: Spark Social House
2009 14th St., N.W.
Spark Social House, which opened in March 2025, is Washington’s first LGBTQ alcohol-free bar, but is also so much more than that. A community gathering place in the heart of D.C.’s LGTBQ nightlife center at 14th and U Streets, N.W., the two-story space serves coffee and tea during the day, bringing in friends, colleagues, and dates in an inclusive, welcoming space. And in the evening, it becomes a sober party, with DJs, performances, and events.
Editor’s Choice: Three Fifty Bakery & Coffee Bar
Best Outdoor Dining: Hank’s Oyster Bar
Multiple locations
With locations in Dupont, the Wharf, and Alexandria, this 20-year-old institution has collected numerous Blade awards, like Best Chef (owner Jamie Leeds) and Best Craft Cocktails. In Dupont, the outdoor patio is a classic scene, located right off 17th Street, for everything from first dates to catch-ups to events. As a community-oriented space, Hank’s has placed a sincere focus on being inclusive for its two decades, meaning that everyone is welcome on its breezy patio with both great food and great people watching. On the Wharf, The sweeping vistas pair especially well with oysters and lobster rolls.
Editor’s Choice: Barcelona
Best Restaurant: Tabard Inn
1739 N St., N.W.
One of the oldest hotels in Washington, D.C., the Tabard Inn opened in 1922 in the style of an English manor and has been oozing charm ever since. While not gay-owned, it’s become a welcoming gathering space for LGBTQ locals and visitors, owing to its geography in Dupont Circle, eccentric nature, somewhat hidden locale, and diverse staff and clientele. The restaurant, started as a tea room, is full of art and warmth, and places a focus on mid-Atlantic cuisine.
Editor’s Choice: Red Hen
Best Brunch: Shaw’s Tavern
520 Florida Ave., N.W.
Shaw’s Tavern has been a mainstay of the LGBTQ community for many years, with LGBTQ management and a prime location by nightlife and culture. Boasting a large outdoor patio, this New American restaurant is primed for big brunch business (running an impressive seven hours, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.), especially wrapped around its bottomless mimosas and brunch cocktails and shots. Brunch brings sandwiches, flatbreads, waffles, lots of eggs, and a healthy dose of socializing.
Editor’s Choice: HER Diner
Best Brewery: Red Bear Brewing Company
209 M St., N.E.
Having taken home Best Brunch, Best Neighborhood Bar, and Best Local Brewery awards in the past, this year, it’s back to win the Best Brewery award yet again. This gay-owned venue in the District hosts drag shows (including brunch), trivia, and stand-up performances, among other events, along with a big space for board games and casual conversation. It has poured brews with suggestive titles like “Hefe Don’t Preach,” “OktoBEARfest,” and “Tall, Dark and Nutty,” to name a few.
Editor’s Choice: DC Brau
Best Distillery: Republic Restoratives Distillery
1369 New York Ave., N.E.
Winning this honor multiple times, Republic Restoratives is women-owned, community-led, made in the District, and as activist-oriented as they come. Republic’s vodka, Civic Pride, was created out of frustration with popular brands co-opting the rainbow flag while also supporting organizations or efforts that directly harm LGBTQ people. It created and then quickly sold out bottles of “Madam” a bourbon-rye whiskey on whose label Kamala Harris’s smiling visage is featured.
Editor’s Choice: Cotton & Reed
Best Burger: Duke’s Grocery
Multiple locations
The 2021, 2023, and 2024 winner, Duke’s Grocery serves burgers with a British accent. With locations in Dupont Circle (recently refreshed), Woodley Park, Navy Yard, and Foggy Bottom, this restaurant serves guests hearty portions of bar food. The burger has landed it on a whole bunch of lists, from Zagat to the Washington Post. Besides its famed Proper Burger, it also has salmon, Impossible, and Wagyu burgers. The Dupont location was closed for a year, undergoing a renovation, and recently reopened to royal fanfare.
Editor’s Choice: Lucky Buns
Best Pizza: Andy’s Pizza
Multiple locations
Andy’s Pizza serves up pizza straight from the long and storied New York tradition. Featuring stone deck ovens, long-fermented dough, Wisconsin mozzarella, California tomatoes, and a skilled pizzaiolo named Andy, this neighborhood pizzeria brings New York to D.C. while serving classic combinations. Andy’s has seven spots across the area, including one spot in Shaw across from 9:30 club and near popular gay bars. Options include flavors like pepperoni and white sauce, but the whole pies come in a range of options, including a Buffalo crispy chicken and a vegan pie with plant-based cheese.
Editor’s Choice: We the Pizza
Best Ice Cream/Gelato: Yala Greek Ice Cream
3143 N St., N.W.
The newest scoop on the block, Yala Greek Ice Cream, started by Chrys Kefalas and Salah Czapary, blends flavors from their heritage with sugar and cream to create D.C.’s latest frozen treat obsession. From classics like chocolate and vanilla to adventurous flavors like “Mornings with Thea,” a Greek yogurt ice cream with orange preserves, Yala uses mix-ins like pistachios sourced from the EU and milk from Maryland “A2” cows, known for being easier to digest. With lines often stretching around the block, it’s easy to see why Yala has quickly become a favorite for locals craving something sweet and unique.
Editor’s Choice: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream
Best Winery: Chester Gap Cellars
4615 Remount Rd.
Front Royal, Va.
chestergapcellers.com
Located in Front Royal, Virginia, just a little over an hour from Washington, gay-owned and gay-friendly Chester Gap Cellars offers the best in valley vistas and delightful vintages. The small estate winery’s owners also have an Airbnb where guests can eat, sleep, enjoy the outdoor fire pit, and indulge in more vino.
Editor’s Choice: District Winery
REHOBOTH BEACH
Best Rehoboth Drag Queen: Magnolia Applebottom
She’s done it again. Magnolia Applebottom (aka Jeremy Bernstein) is your pick for Best Rehoboth Drag Queen for the fourth consecutive year. At a time of anti-DEI crackdowns and legislative attacks on everything from drag to trans healthcare, the queens will show us the way as they have bravely done for decades. Magnolia remains a constant fierce and fearless presence not just in Rehoboth but throughout the Eastern Shore, from Salisbury to Milton, Del. Catch her at Diego’s in Rehoboth and during the month of October at the Milton Theater where Bernstein stars as Frank N Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Editor’s Choice: Regina Cox
Best Rehoboth Drag Show: Splash Party with Magnolia at Diego’s
37298 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
A second win for Magnolia this year and a repeat winner in this category from last year. The Splash Party at Diego’s remains one of the hottest events in town, Saturdays at 5 p.m. on the outdoor patio.
Editor’s Choice: Follies at the Beach, Freddie’s
Best Rehoboth-Area Live Show: Pamala Stanley at Diego’s
37298 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
diegosbarnightclub.com
The beloved Pamala Stanley celebrated her 20th year of performing in Rehoboth Beach this summer with her Sunday night dance party and Monday night piano show. The Monday event is on pause now that the summer season is over, but you can still catch Pamala on Sundays starting at 5 p.m. through New Year’s. After 20 years, Pamala’s show remains the place to be seen on Sundays as locals and tourists alike come together to party. It’s two hours of upbeat, infectiously joyful pop and disco peppered with Pamala’s inimitable humor and wit.
Editor’s Choice: Naughty Bingo with Magnolia Applebottom at Diego’s
Best Rehoboth Outdoor Dining: The Back Porch Café
59 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Many locals know about the important role that the Back Porch Café played in elevating Rehoboth’s culinary scene but not many realize how pivotal the 51-year-old restaurant was in bringing together the quiet town’s gay, straight, and trans communities. The Back Porch was an important gathering place for the town’s creative residents and a place not just for excellent food but for art exhibitions. Today, the Back Porch continues to serve up top-notch French fare in an unpretentious, welcoming setting. The outdoor patio is one of the few places in Rehoboth where you can dine al fresco in a private, convivial courtyard. After dinner, take time to stroll the restaurant and take in the art that adorns the walls. There’s a lot of fascinating history to be found in this irreplaceable icon of Rehoboth Beach.
Editor’s Choice: The Purple Parrot
Best Rehoboth Coffee Shop: Rise Up
502 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Rehoboth’s coffee scene is in flux after the recent closure of the town’s Starbucks. Rise Up is part of a small regional chain of coffeehouses that offers a small menu and a cocktail bar. But most visitors grab a coffee or latté and relax in the spacious lounge or outdoor patio complete with complimentary Wifi enabling you to work or just quietly doom scroll.
Editor’s Choice: The Coffee Mill
Best Rehoboth Restaurant: Blue Moon
35 Baltimore Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Perennial favorite Blue Moon remains on top after winning this category last year. With so much competition from regional and out-of-town chains like Atlas Restaurant Group, it’s nice to see a local, gay-owned restaurant continue to serve up the best food in town. Go early for the Moon’s excellent happy hour specials or to hear John Flynn on the piano then indulge in the luxurious lobster risotto or perhaps a comforting bowl of short rib stroganoff.
Editor’s Choice: Henlopen City Oyster House
Best Rehoboth Real Estate Agent: Andy Staton
18949 Coastal Highway, Suite 304
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
After seven consecutive wins in this category by local legend Lee Ann Wilkinson, there’s a new agent atop the list. Longtime local Realtor Andy Staton is your pick for Best Rehoboth Realtor. The Andy Staton Group at Monument Sotheby’s “combines concierge style attention to customer detail to meet seller and buyer needs in a modern service-oriented approach,” according to its website. You may have seen Andy in his role as a TV host for the American Dream Network or in one of his videos promoting his love of pickleball.
Editor’s Choice: Chris Beagle
Best Rehoboth Business: Diego’s
37298 Rehoboth Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Diego’s dominated this year’s awards with multiple wins, showcasing the hard work of owners Darryl and Joe Ciarlante-Zuber to create an unabashedly queer space with year-round entertainment, friendly bartenders, and multiple indoor/outdoor spaces to gather with friends. Whether you come for an intimate happy hour with friends, a Sunday T-dance with Pamala Stanley, or late-night dancing with internationally renowned DJs, Diego’s never disappoints.
Editor’s Choice: Freddie’s Beach Bar
Best Rehoboth Bartender: Katie Lyell, Aqua Bar& Grill
57 Baltimore Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Katie Lyell is a first-time winner in this competitive category but she’s no stranger to the regulars at Aqua. Fighting the crowds to the bar in summer, you will be greeted by Katie’s always-smiling face.
Lyell, 39, is straight and has been married for two years. She grew up in Newark, Del., and attended Frostburg State University.
She’s in her eighth year bartending at Aqua and says the bar has become much more of a year-round destination since she started.
“We’ve been able to extend our season because of it,” she said, noting Aqua will hold its annual closing party on Jan. 1 and likely reopen for St. Patrick’s Day in March.
She plans to “hibernate” during the break and travel with her husband.
The best part of working at Aqua? “Getting to meet so many different people, even if it’s just for a 60-second interaction. I enjoy chatting with everyone. I really love my community.”
What’s her most dreaded drink order? “Three martinis at one time because I can only make two in a shaker.”
Lyell says the highlight of her summer was Memorial Day Weekend because customers count down to the unofficial summer kickoff weekend.
“I also really love Bear Weekend, it’s always a great time.”
Editor’s Choice: Eddie Adam, Diego’s
a&e features
Jennifer Lopez talks ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ queer representation
Latest version of iconic story ‘a love letter to humanity’
With its riveting storyline and gorgeous dance scenes, it’s no wonder that one of the standout films this awards season is “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” Originally a bold novel published by Argentine writer Manuel Puig in 1976, it was adapted into a play and then a screenplay. In 1985, the film earned four Academy Award nominations, with William Hurt winning Best Actor — the first ever awarded for a portrayal of an openly queer character.
Ten years later, in 1993, the story was turned into a Broadway musical starring the iconic Chita Rivera, and won several Tony Awards. Fast forward to 2025: for this new version, Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna both play dual roles in the film, which also stars newcomer, Tonatiuh.
The film takes place in 1983, during Argentina’s troubled times; two prisoners are forced to share a confined cell in Buenos Aires. Valentín (Luna), a Marxist revolutionary, is committed to his political idealology, despite being tortured and deprived by the guards. Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay window dresser who is in jail because of his sexual orientation, survives the insanity by fantasizing about his favorite movie, telling Valentin all the details. While their connection begins as a way for them to emotionally escape, it grows deeper, in the most profound way.
Through stories, confessions, and sacrifice, the duo discover unexpected tenderness and the possibility of love in a place designed to annihilate the human spirit.
“These two men who could not be different in every single way, everything is stripped away from them in their lives, the politics, class, education, all this stuff goes away, and they start to see themselves as individuals,” said Bill Condon, the Academy Award-winning writer-director known for such films as “Gods and Monsters,” “Chicago,” “Dreamgirls” and “Beauty and the Beast,” who was deeply moved as he wrote the script.
Producing the updated version of the film was vital to Lopez, who is also an executive producer. “I think it’s more relevant than ever,” she said at a recent Golden Globes press event.
“The idea of a trans or gay character in this movie…the kind of divisiveness that we’ve experienced in the world in the past few years. A story about two people who are thrown together, who are so opposite, who are so different from each other. And find the humanity and fall in love with each other. Who would never probably even find themselves in the same circles. That’s really important to have queer representation in movies. In my own family, I know how important that is for people to see that.”
Tonatiuh, who steals every scene he is in, lost 45 pounds for the role.
“I think there’s a certain moment that’s happening right now that we need to remind ourselves that dignity and humanity and love transcend gender,” he said. “They transcend sexual orientation. They transcend all of those things. And so, yes, we deal with queer themes in our film, but I do think that it is a love letter to diversity. It is a love letter to humanity as a whole.”
Condon loved every version of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” each of them was “revolutionary” for its time.
“But when you read that novel, it’s taken us this long to really catch up to what it was saying. And specifically, this was well before the election season and well before we knew what was going to happen. But it was clear that trans people were going to be demonized, that they were going to be a part of the conversation…it did feel that this was something that was bubbling up and happening. So that’s what made it feel very urgent.”
Lopez added: “The revolution that you’re saying that we need right now is exactly the reason why I think the movie is so important right now for people to see. Because it reminds you that it’s really, at the end of the day, about two people getting along and falling in love, when you really forget about all of the other things, that we’re all just human. And it is about humanity.”
Tonatiuh hopes that the film inspires people to step up.
“We constantly see the news, we see everything that’s going around and we wonder, ‘What is it that I can do? I’m just one person.’ But this isolationist mentality is the thing that gets us here. Every one of us has little actions to take and little moments to do. And especially in a moment where Latinos in general in this country are experiencing massive negative public relations, just attack after attack after attack, it’s really wonderful to showcase what Latino dignity is and reminding people of, like the talent, the joy that our culture adds to the United States and the world.”
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