KEEPING THE LIZARD LOUNGE ALIVE

Gay Event Promoter Mark Lee Is Focused on Throwing Good Parties - And
Ensuring That Local Nightlife Survives

Mark Lee knows all about throwing a good party. After all, he's been
doing it for most of his life.

"I was once asked how I got into the event productions business," says
Lee, the owner of ATLAS Events. "I always tell people that I threw my
first event at the age of 6, when I organized a neighborhood carnival
in my childhood neighborhood. That was a lot of fun. Everyone in the
neighborhood came."

Lee's events are grander in scope now. He has been an event promoter
in Washington for 16 years, and his popular Lizard Lounge party, held
every Sunday night at the 1223 Club, just celebrated its fifth
anniversary this past Sunday. But there's more to Lee than event
promotion: for the last few years, he's also become heavily involved
in defending D.C. nightlife interests.

Actually, it was political activism that brought Lee to D.C. in the
first place. The Indianapolis native moved to Washington to work for
the Community for Creative Non-Violence, a local homeless shelter. But
a birthday party changed his direction in life.

In 1987, Lee threw a birthday party for a friend at Dakota, a
now-defunct bar in Adams Morgan. He describes it as "a big, big
success," and the club asked him to launch a regular Sunday night gay
dance party.

Lee worked at the club until it was sold, eventually also introducing
a Wednesday night gay event called Ozone.

He founded ATLAS Events in 1990, and has been presenting well-attended
parties ever since. Lee has also helped produce events with the Design
Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), as well as the Lesbian &
Gay Freedom Festival, now known as Capital Pride.

He launched Lizard Lounge in June 1998. Five years later, the Sunday
night party is still going strong. But like a Grammy Award winner, Lee
says he couldn't have done it alone.

"Everyone likes to go to a party," he says. "And I very much
appreciate the fact that I have had the opportunity to throw parties
on an ongoing basis, and that the response from the community has
allowed me to do something that I have a great amount of fun and
enjoyment doing."

Fighting for nightlife But there are forces out there trying to quash
nightlife, both here and nationally, Lee says. And he's not about to
go down without a fight.

Lee was one of the most vocal opponents of the Reducing Americans'
Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act, which sought to hold club owners
and event promoters criminally liable for "knowingly" allowing drug
use.

"He definitely has been an outspoken critic of the RAVE Act, and has
done a lot more work than a lot of promoters have," says Bill Piper,
associate director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance,
another vocal opponent of the RAVE Act.

"My experience has been that a lot of promoters have either been too
afraid or didn't want to spend the money S Mark has been fighting it
ever since [it was introduced]."

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) introduced the bill last year; it passed in
April with a different title but the same agenda. It was included as
part of the "Amber Alert" bill, a child safety law that had widespread
bipartisan support.

Lee says the law will be used to shut down parties and infringe upon
free speech. To that end, he points to a May 30 incident at the Eagle
Lodge in Billings, Mont., in which a Drug Enforcement Administration
agent told the lodge's managers they could be fined $250,000 if anyone
smoked marijuana during a planned benefit to raise money for a
campaign to change the state's medical marijuana law. The lodge
ultimately decided to cancel the event.

"It raises serious concerns about the implications of the bill for a
wide range of public, social and political organizations and groups
around the country," Lee says.

He is also concerned with many attempts locally to inhibit D.C.'s
nightlife, which he sees as counterproductive to the city's desire to
bring in more residents.

"We all have to continue to address these issues, because in fact
these issues have a very big impact on the quality of life in
Washington," Lee says.

For the foreseeable future, he is going to keep doing what he does
best: throwing great parties, and staying politically active to ensure
there will still be parties left to attend.

Aside from that?

"I've always been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right
time," Lee says. "I don't necessarily try to predict where roads of
opportunity may lead. And even though I don't always have a map, I've
learned to be good at navigating my way to the next
destination."