Capital Pride Heroes 2026 – Clockwise from top left: Charity Blackwell, Benjamin Coy, Darryl Hamilton, Dr. Thea Kano, Kendall Martinez-Wright, and Lee Livingston Perine
For the first time, the Capital Pride Alliance, D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride organization, will host a brunch — rather than an evening reception — to honor local leaders and organizations that have made significant contributions to the region’s LGBTQ community.
Dubbed “The Audacity Brunch: In Full Fuchsia,” the event will be held Sunday, June 7, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel. Guests are encouraged to wear fuchsia tones to “symbolize empowerment and unapologetic self-expression.”
The event will begin with a pre-program cocktail social at 11:30 a.m., followed by the official program at noon. The brunch will feature chef-curated Mediterranean, Latin American, Asian, All-American, and D.C.-inspired cuisine served at various stations, along with desserts, cocktails, and mocktails. Entertainment will include drag and burlesque performances.
At the brunch, Capital Pride Alliance will honor local changemakers and community leaders with several awards.
Recipients of this year’s Heroes Awards are:
Benjamin Coy, a media personality and digital strategist who co-hosts the Cocktails and Culture podcast and hosts the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Instagram Live series, X Is a Queer Issue.
Charity Blackwell, an award-winning spoken word artist, poet, educator, and cultural curator.
Darryl Hamilton, a community advocate and social worker focused on creating spaces for Black queer communities.
Thea Kano, the artistic director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC and its ensembles Rock Creek Singers and Potomac Fever.
Kendall Martinez-Wright, a community organizer who works on public health issues as the government relations and policy associate at Treatment Action Group.
Lee Livingston Perine, a D.C.-based curator, creative producer, and community historian and the founder of Black in Space, an LGBTQ+ arts collective dedicated to Black joy, creativity, and liberation through storytelling, archival work, and public programming.
This year’s Paving the Way Award will be presented to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a longtime civil rights advocate recognized for decades of leadership advancing voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, workers’ rights, and equitable access.
Mayor Muriel Bowser will receive The Key to Capital Pride Award for her consistent support of LGBTQ equality, visibility, and community initiatives in the District. Among other achievements, Mayor Bowser was critical in helping the Capital Pride Alliance secure the honor of hosting WorldPride Washington, DC in 2025.
Capital Pride Alliance will also recognize people who have made significant contributions to the transgender and nonbinary community with the SaVanna Wanzer Visibility Award, named for the late transgender activist SaVanna Wanzer, who passed away in April. The honorees are Dylan Drobish, the co-executive director of Trans USA National Pageantry, who previously served as Mr. Trans USA 202 and operations manager for the Gay United States Pageantry System, and Tyler Hack, founder and executive director of the pro-trans advocacy group Christopher Street Project.
Receiving the Larry Stansbury Award for making “exemplary contributions” to Pride are Cheer DC, a volunteer-led nonprofit that raises spirits, awareness, and funds for LGBTQ communities in D.C., and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, the D.C. government agency that advocates for and supports LGBTQ people and businesses.
The Bill Miles Award, given for outstanding volunteer service to individuals who have made “exemplary contributions” to Capital Pride Alliance and its programs, will be presented to photographer Judy Schloss, who has volunteered at Capital Pride events and served on the organization’s Media Team, and Patrick Magee, a volunteer photographer and Media Team member with Capital Pride Alliance.
The Breaking Barriers Award will be presented to Darrell Wood, a Norfolk, Virginia-based nonprofit leader, artist, and technologist whose work centers on creative healing, community advocacy, and LGBTQ empowerment. As founder and executive director of Cues For Cancer, Wood has advocated for LGBTQ people struggling with cancer. Also being honored is Tyler Cargill, a genderfluid educator, anthropologist, and DEI advocate who uses activism, art, and fashion to foster cultural understanding and uplift marginalized voices.
The Bernie Delia Award, named for the late Capital Pride Alliance co-founder who died in 2024, will be presented to Dai Nguyen, a public sector leader, advocate, Capital Pride Alliance board member, and longtime volunteer.
“The Audacity Brunch: In Full Fuchsia” will be held Sunday, June 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Visit tickets.capitalpride.org.
Ginger's is canceling most of its DJ events for Pride Month after receiving dozens of noise complaints from neighbors.
The popular lesbian bar, located in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, opened in 2000 and is best known as an Irish dive bar with billiards tables and an outdoor patio that hosts a range of events, from drag king shows and LGBTQ storytelling to DJ nights. Each year, it typically hosts a schedule of various DJs spinning and mixing during Pride Month.
But in a May 18 Instagram post, Ginger's wrote, "Due to ongoing noise concerns in the neighborhood, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the majority of our DJ events during Pride this year.... As much as we love turning up the music and creating space for queer joy, we also want to remain respectful of the neighborhood we have called home for the past 26 years, and of our space, which has been a neighborhood bar for more than 100 years."
Colorado has approved a bill allowing survivors of conversion therapy to sue licensed providers regardless of when the therapy occurred.
The measure, sponsored by State Reps. Alex Valdez (D-Denver), an out gay man, and Karen McCormick (D-Hygiene), along with Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Littleton) and Kyle Mullica (D-Northglenn), allows people subjected to sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts to sue licensed mental health professionals for damages. Entities that hired or supervised providers engaging in conversion therapy could also be sued.
The Oktyabrsky District Court in Saratov -- about 500 miles southeast of Moscow -- has fined local news agency SaratovBusinessConsulting (SarBC) 500,000 rubles, or roughly $6,600, for publishing a review of the widely banned HBO gay romance series Heated Rivalry, according to the Russian independent outlet Mediazona.
The charge stems from Russia’s law banning the dissemination of "LGBT propaganda." While the series is barred from television and streaming services in the country, some viewers have still accessed it through virtual private networks or pirated sites.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.