Joel Lawson, 42, is the newly elected president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association.
How long have you lived in Dupont?
Since 1991. I’m in the 1400 block of Swann Street. You could say east Dupont. Some people call in Borderstan.
What attracted you to the neighborhood?
I moved to Northern Virginia in 1989, then to east Dupont in 1991. Fantastic neighborhood. Diversity and also coming out. And back then it was an affordable neighborhood for a young Capitol Hill aide looking for affordable housing. I worked on the Hill from 1989 to 1995. I co-founded the Lesbian-Gay Congressional Staff Association.
What is it about Dupont that attracts the LGBT community?
It branched out from a Bohemian neighborhood in the ’60s to an LG neighborhood. It really sort of took off from there.
What led you to run for association president?
I’ve been on the board for about a year. I was a little more involved in the local LGBT community back in the mid-1990s, but really for a long time was not too civically involved. It’s reallya return to civic organization.
But president after only a year?
My partner says it’s perfectionism without healthy ambition.
Specifically, what do you want to tackle?
There are two things. One, the state of Dupont Circle park itself is troubling to me. The image that visitors have and potential residents have is not a good one. We have to work with the National Park Service to ensure their full attention to the park. The other big challenge facing the neighborhood, especially the corridor on 17th Street, is that we have some vacant storefronts. We have to bring residents and businesses together. There is some bad blood, but we have got to bring the moderate voices together to chart a dynamic future for 17th Street.
Any hobbies?
I’ve always been an avid photographer, and I’ve been commissioned for several works. I was the official photographer for the King of Sweden’s two days of events in Washington this year. It was a pinch-yourself type of thing.
