Local

Beloved D.C. nightclub figure Reggie Tyson dies at 62

Arkansas-native was part owner of Tracks nightclub

Published

6 years ago

February 21, 2020

Reggie “Reg” Tyson, whose involvement as a bartender, manager, and part owner of the D.C. gay nightclub Tracks in the 1990s and his later role in other D.C. gay nightlife venues in which numerous friends and patrons say he influenced their lives for the better, died Feb. 15 at a hospital in Silver Spring, Md., from complications associated with kidney disease and diabetes. He was 62.

His brother, Herb Tyson, said Reggie Tyson was surrounded by loving family members at White Oak Adventist Healthcare Medical Center in Silver Spring at the time of his passing.

Herb Tyson said he and his brother came from a family in which their father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer. He said his brother Reggie attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and had an interest in international affairs.

He began his career by “dabbling a little bit” in the import-export field, according to Herb Tyson. “But he always kind of ended up back in restaurants and nightclubs,” the brother said.

“He was an incredible host,” Herb Tyson recalls of his brother Reggie. “He loved to entertain people. And he wanted to make sure everybody got what they needed in life, whether it was food, drink, love or a roof over their head.”

Gay nightlife advocate Mark Lee, a longtime nightclub event producer and the current coordinator of the D.C. Nightlife Council, said Reggie Tyson was well-known and liked by customers and co-workers at the clubs where he worked.

“Throughout a two-decade career as part of the operational team and a bartender at Tracks and Velvet Nation, Reggie Tyson was one of the kindest souls and most welcoming personalities working in the local club scene, always with a broad smile and a big laugh who was everyone’s friend in a humbly gracious manner that few extend or achieve,” Lee said.

Herb Tyson said Reggie was born in Little Rock, Ark., on May 25, 1957, where the family lived until his father’s work as a Foreign Service officer eventually brought the family to the D.C. area in the mid-1960s. Reggie Tyson graduated from Wootton High School in Rockville, Md., before beginning college at Georgetown University, according to his brother.

One of Reggie Tyson’s ventures in the restaurant business, his brother said, brought him to St. John’s in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Reggie lived from around 2001 to 2006 to operate a restaurant that catered to tourists arriving on large cruise ships.

D.C. gay businessman John Guggenmos, who has been a partner and operator of numerous D.C. gay bars and nightclubs for over 30 years, credits Reggie Tyson with playing an important role as a friend and business partner in Guggenmos’ successful business ventures, including Tracks and Velvet Nation nightclubs in Southeast D.C.

Guggenmos said he first met Tyson in 1989 at the 17th Street gay bar JR’s at a time when Guggenmos was searching for a place to live while getting ready to attend graduate school at George Washington University. He had just arrived in D.C. from his hometown of Laramie, Wyo.

He said Tyson offered to rent him a room in the Logan Circle House where Tyson was living at the time, and the two soon became friends and a short time later business partners when Guggenmos, Tyson and others took over the operation of Tracks.

“Many people didn’t know Reg was a business partner of mine in Tracks and a big part of his legacy will be the unassuming foundation he provided, how he connected people, played a role in shaping D.C. gay nightlife and for believing in me before I believed in myself,” Guggenmos told the Blade.

Guggenmos’ account of how Tyson had a positive impact on his life was repeated by others in an outpouring of Facebook postings by people who knew Tyson upon learning of his passing.

“Reggie was the first face to ever greet me at my first gay club before I was even out,” wrote Christopher Wiggins in a Facebook post. “Back in 2000 I walked into Nation terrified and he looked at me from behind the bar and smiled,” Wiggins continued. ‘Here … have a Reggie Special …’ and he handed me a drink,” Wiggins wrote, saying the gesture eased his tension and brightened his visit to the club.

“Reggie was such a presence and you always knew you were safe whenever you saw his smile or he gave you a loving hug,” wrote Scott Jimenez in another Facebook post. “R.I.P. Reg and heaven has most welcomed an Angel home.”

Reggie Tyson is survived by his mother, two brothers, a sister, “tons of nieces and nephews,” and countless friends, his brother Herb Tyson said. He is predeceased by his father, who passed away two months ago. A memorial service is being planned for the spring and an announcement of the details will be made at that time, Herb Tyson said.

Virginia

DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room

Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate

Published

3 days ago

December 12, 2025

Staff reports

Loudoun County Public Schools building. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.

The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.

The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.

The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”

“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”

“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.

Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.

The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”

District of Columbia

Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival

Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change

Published

3 days ago

December 12, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

A scene from the 2024 Capital Pride Festival. (Washington Blade file photo by Emily Hanna)

The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.

“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250^th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.

The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.

“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.

Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80^th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250^th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.

The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.

Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14^th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14^th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2^nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7^th Street, N.W.

“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.

District of Columbia

Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board

Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader

Published

6 days ago

December 9, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Capital Pride Alliance announced three women will lead its board. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.

“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.

“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.

In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.

It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.

According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.

The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.

• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”

• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”

• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.

Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.

“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”

Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.

The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.

“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.

“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.