Our Spring Affair fundraiser returns
On behalf of our Board of Directors, GMCW is thrilled to invite you to our annual fundraiser, Spring Affair on May 17, 2025, at the glamorous Ritz-Carlton, Washington, DC. This year’s event, The Color Ball, embraces the vibrancy, boldness, and rich diversity of the LBGTQ+ community at a time when some would rather see us dull our true colors!
Join us for dinner, entertainment, special presentations, an open-bar reception, the Harmony Award recipients, live and silent auctions, plus our special celebrity guest performer Nina West! We look forward to seeing you there!
Spring Affair 2025
May 17, 2025
The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, DC
1150 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20037
6:30pm Cocktails and Silent Auction
8:00pm Dinner, Entertainment, Harmony Awards presentation, and Live Auction
Attire: Creative Black Tie
Let us see your true colors shining through!
The 2025 Harmony Honorees will be Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Keygan Miller, and Atlas Performing Arts Center.
Click HERE to see photos from Spring Affair 2023: Spring A-Cher.
Click HERE to see photos from Spring Affair 2024: A Night At The Museum.
For a list of past Harmony Award honorees, scroll down.
Special Guest Star Nina West
We are thrilled to announce that Nina West will be the special guest star at Spring Affair 2025: The Color Ball. Nina West is an American actor, singer, songwriter, author, and LGBTQ+ activist played by Andrew Levitt. In 2020, Nina released a charity partnership with country music legend Dolly Parton — the “Dolly X Nina: Kindness is Queen” collection, with all proceeds going to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and The Nina West Foundation to benefit LGBTQ+ youth and literacy. Nina headlined the 20th anniversary national tour of Hairspray in the lead role of Edna Turnblad, for which she received rave reviews. In 2022, Nina made her big screen debut as legendary queen Divine in the award-winning Weird: The Al Yankovic Story starring Daniel Radcliffe. We are so thrilled to have Nina join us for Spring Affair!
Past Harmony Award Honorees
Individuals from the Community:
Peter D. Rosenstein, LGBTQ+ community activist, 2004
David Catania, DC Councilmember, 2005
Frank Kameny, Gay rights movement pioneer, 2006
Adrian Fenty, DC Mayor, 2007
Noi Chudnoff*, business proprietor and arts patron, 2008
The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop, 2009
John Berry, Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2010
Barney Frank, U.S. Congressman, Massachusetts, 2012
Eric Schaeffer, Signature Theatre Artistic Director, 2014
Kevin Jennings, GLSEN founder & Obama “safe schools” appointee, 2015
Marsha Pearson, GMCW founder, 2016
Muriel Bowser, DC Mayor, 2018
Wendy Rieger, NBC4-TV news anchor, 2019
Phil Mendelson, DC Council Chairperson, 2022
Tammy Baldwin, US Senator, 2023
Joaquin “Jocko” Fajardo*, 2024
Organizations:
The Mautner Project, national Lesbian health organization, 2004
Holland & Knight, international law firm, 2005
Food and Friends, food and nutrition service providers, 2006
Metro DC PFLAG, education and advocacy organization, 2007
SMYAL, 2008
Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, 2009
Immigration Equality, 2010
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, 2011
Washington Blade, 2012
Team DC, 2014
Williams Institute, 2015
National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, 2017
Whitman-Walker Health, 2018
Casa Ruby and NBC Out, 2019
Metro Weekly, 2022
The Wanda Alston Foundation, 2023
GLSEN, 2024
Individuals from the Chorus family:
Steve “Soph” Herman, 2004
Gary Regan and Roger Bergstrom, 2005
Carl Baldwin & Gary Turner and David Streit, 2006
Phil Rogerson, 2007
Laurence Rosen, 2008
Michael Baker, 2009
Jeff Buhrman, 2010
Greg Kubiak, 2011
Mark Hennen, 2012
Joe Vignali, 2013
Tom Nichols & Dan Chadburn, 2014
Michael E. Hill, 2015
Christopher Grieder & Stuart Kopperman, 2016
John Moran* and Jack Reiffer, 2017
Marcus Brown and Rob Hall, 2018
Charles Berardesco, 2019
Robert T. Boaz*, 2022
Timothy Allmond & Robert Klein, 2023
Thea Kano and Theodore Guerrant, 2024
* Awarded posthumously
Note: No Harmony Awards were given out in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID pandemic.