Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club, which has offered adult entertainment in the nation’s capital involving nude female dancers since it first opened in 1969 at 1520 K St., N.W., will offer nude male dancers beginning Saturday night, June 20, according to co-owner Thom Naylor.

The female dancers will continue as usual on the upper two floors of Archibald’s three-story building, according to Naylor, who released a flier promoting the opening of the male dancer venue as an event “for Gay Pride.”

He told the Washington Blade he expects a dozen male dancers to perform beginning at 9 p.m. Saturday when D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride Parade will take place earlier in the day.

Following its opening night for the male dancers, Naylor said he plans to continue offering male nude dancers on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. The club is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

“I want to have an official Champagne grand opening probably in July,” he said referring to the male dance venue. “This is like a soft opening just to get going and to get everybody acclimated.”

The decision by Archibald’s to offer nude male dance entertainment for an LGBTQ clientele will mark the first time such entertainment will take place in D.C. since March 2020, when the LGBTQ nightclub Ziegfeld’s-Secrets, which featured nude male dancers, was forced to close at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The owner of the building at 1824 Half St., S.W., discontinued the Ziegfeld’s-Secrets lease a short time later to demolish the building and construct a high-rise residential condominium.

Naylor, who identifies as gay, said he has long believed nude male entertainment should be available in D.C. for a gay clientele as well as anyone else interested in that type of entertainment.

“So, we decided to go with three days in the summer and then come September go into a full swing when we’re open five days a week,” he said, referring to the male dancers.  

About 250 people turned out on Friday, June 12, for D.C.’s annual Silver Pride celebration, which honors and recognizes LGBTQ seniors and their role in advancing LGBTQ rights.

The event was held in a large conference hall in the building of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, which was among the event’s sponsors

According to local event organizer and longtime LGBTQ rights advocate Rayceen Pendarvis, who served as host of the event, the D.C. Department of Aging and Community Living and the D.C.-based Seabury Resources for Aging, a nonprofit group that provides services and support for seniors, were the two lead organizers of this year’s Silver Pride.  

In addition to presentations by several speakers, a DJ played music for dancing and two popular local drag performers — Shi-Queeta Lee and Capri Bloomingdale — performed at the event drawing loud applause.

Among the speakers were Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; Jody Wright, a member of the board of the Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes D.C.’s annual Pride events; Craig McCullough, board chair of Seabury Resources for Aging; Jermaine Dillon, an official with the D.C. Department of Aging and Community Living;  and Bianca Ward, an official with the ViiV Healthcare company, which was one of the sponsors of the event.

“It is a joy to be a senior in this community,” Pendarvis told the crowd in opening remarks at the event. “And every part of every Pride movement is built on the backs and the foundations of the elders,” she said.

“We have to have a day when we’re celebrated and we are honored and we are represented in our fullness,” Pendarvis told the Washington Blade. “Because sometimes unfortunately, various Prides forget about our elders. And we have to let them know that we’re here, we’re queer, and we ain’t going anywhere,” Pendarvis said.

“It is my distinct honor and privilege to be here among the elders,” Wright, the Capital Pride board member, told the gathering. “Because what we do at Capital Pride is because of what you’ve done and you continue to do, because we are standing on the shoulders of giants,” he said, in referring to LGBTQ seniors.

The D.C. Council on June 9 gave its first round of approval to an amendment to the city’s fiscal year 2027 budget that calls for increasing the number and size of funding grants that the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs provides for local organizations providing services for the LGBTQ community.

The amendment, titled the “LGBTQ Community Grant Amendment Act of 2026,” was introduced by D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member. 

The amendment calls for the LGBTQ Affairs office to issue a $980,000 grant in fiscal year 2027 to a private, nonprofit organization in partnership with the office “for the purpose of supporting programs that promote the welfare of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community.”

The organization would also initiate its own fundraising effort to expand the amount of funds beyond the amount the office would provide, enabling it to provide larger grants to a greater number of local LGBTQ organizations.

Among other things, the amendment says the organization chosen for this new role should have a “proven track record of success in grant making and fundraising” and agree to undergo an annual audit and submit quarterly reports to the office on its use of the funds it receives. 

Under its rules for approving legislation, the Council must hold the second vote on the budget bill with the Parker amendment before it is sent to Mayor Muriel Bowser for her signature. It must then go to Congress for a congressional review that does not require approval, but could result in a vote to disapprove the measure, an action Congress usually does not take.

In a June 12 statement, the D.C. LGBTQ Budget Coalition called the D.C. Council’s initial approval of the Parker amendment, “a historic measure that establishes the District’s most sustainable model for a vehicle for investing in LGBTQ communities.” 

The statement adds, “The legislation arrives at a critical moment, as LGBTQ-serving organizations face unprecedented uncertainty. Growing demand for services is colliding with shrinking resources, federal attacks on LGBTQ programs, and ongoing threats to local funding streams.”

It says the new program that the Parker amendment would create, if it reaches final approval, “creates a durable mechanism to protect and expand investments in the organizations that thousands of District residents rely upon every day.”

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said he was looking into the mayor’s position on the Parker amendment but didn’t immediately get back with a response.