Second Gentleman and SBA Administrator visit LGBTQ owned small businesses
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman visited three LGBTQ owned small businesses in Washington, D.C.
on Thursday, a White House official told the Washington Blade. The two “met with the owners of each location and toured their businesses,” the official said, where Emhoff “spoke about how he navigated owning a small law firm for 8 years” and Guzman “highlighted the actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to help small businesses and the resources that are available.” First up on the ShopProud tour was LGBTQ owned confectionary The Capital Candy Jar, where Emhoff picked up a milk chocolate caramel cloud candy for his spouse, the Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Then, at Little District Books, a queer-owned bookshop on Barracks Row, he bought lesbian chef and cookbook author Zoe Adjonyoh’s “Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen.” Emhoff and Harris, herself an avid cook, visited Ghana in late March on a trip that also included stops in Tanzania and Zambia.
Finally, the pair visited As You Are DC, an LGBTQIA+-focused event space that functions as an all-ages café by day and a 21+ bar and dance lounge by night. “We have an SBA backed line of credit with TD Bank and we have a piece of equipment we were able to purchase with that line of credit that we’re excited about,” said Dave Burton, owner of The Capital Candy Jar.
