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D.C. police chief assailed at hate crimes hearing

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Representatives of the LGBT community and the head of the D.C. police union told a City Council hearing on Nov. 20 that District Police Chief Cathy Lanier has failed to take adequate steps to curtail hate crimes targeting gays and transgender people.

Kris Baumann, chair of the Fraternal Order of Police, and officials with five local LGBT organizations said Lanier has turned down their repeated request to assign more officers to the departmentā€™s highly acclaimed Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, whose ranks have been reduced from seven to two members since Lanier became chief in 2007.

ā€œWhat the chief has done is decimate that unit,ā€ said gay activist Peter Rosenstein.

Lanier took strong exception to that assessment, telling the Councilā€™s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary that she is expanding the GLLU and other special liaison units in the department by assigning officers ā€œaffiliatedā€ with the units to each of the departmentā€™s seven police districts.

She said her plan calls for assigning a total of 57 officers or supervisors to all four of the special liason units, including the GLLU. She said about 20 of the 57 would be assigned to the GLLU, making it far more responsive to the community than a seven-member centralized unit.

Lanier told the committee she would keep her promise to LGBT activists to retain a small, centralized GLLU office.

But Baumann and Chris Farris, co-chair of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, each said Lanier has ā€œsystematicallyā€ dismantled the GLLUā€™s operations under the promise of replacing it with a decentralized unit that she has yet to produce more than two years after she first proposed the reorganization.

ā€œI am unfortunately significantly less optimistic today about this cityā€™s willingness to tackle the difficult issue of hate crimes than I was a year ago,ā€ Farris told the committee.

ā€œI do not see what I think is needed ā€“ most importantly, leadership at the top, and a firm commitment to roll up our sleeves and treat the issue as it must be treated ā€“ holistically,ā€ he said. ā€œThis means the MPD, the U.S. Attorneyā€™s office, the D.C. Public School system, the mayor, and this City Council must all be unequivocally committed to the fight.ā€

Farris questioned recent police data showing the number of LGBT-related hate crime has decreased since 2006. He said he believes the decrease is due to a lack of reporting that came about as a result of GLLUā€™s reduction in staff and its inability to push more aggressively for reporting hate crimes.

Lanier and Assistant Chief Diane Grooms testified that a long-awaited training course for prospective GLLU officers would begin shortly. Lanier said she has found from her own conversations with LGBT officers that they prefer to remain in their regular units in the police districts rather than be ā€œpigeonholedā€ in a special gay related unit.

She angered some of the activists attending the hearing when sheĀ said she didnā€™t believeĀ they represent the views of LGBT peopleĀ in the neighborhoodsĀ across the city.

Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), who chairs the committee, said he would continue to monitor the departmentā€™s response to hate crimes against all city residents. He and the LGBT representatives that testified at the hearing noted that anti-LGBT hate crimes in the city far outnumber hate crimes targeting other groups.

A report released last week by Mayor Adrian Fenty and Lanier, ā€œBias-Related Crime in the District of Columbia,ā€ shows that ā€œsexual orientationā€ related hate crimes comprised more than 70 percent of the total number of hate crimes in the city each year from 2005 through 2009.

So far this year, out of a total of 36 reported hate crimes, 30 were classified as ā€œsexual orientationā€ related hate crimes.

Alison Gill, an official with the D.C. Trans Coalition, and Julius Agers, a transgender activist, told the committee they were pleased that Fenty and Lanier published the bias-related crime report ā€“ three years after the report was due under rules set by the City Council.

But the two said they were troubled that the report did not break down the statistics to show the number of hate crimes specifically targeting transgender people in the city. They noted that a number of widely reported anti-trans hate crimes have occurred in the District in recent years.

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D.C.-area schools to protest Trumpā€™s ā€˜assault on public educationā€™

Students unite against Trumpā€™s education cuts in unprecedented protest

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U.S. Department of Education (Photo public domain)

Student government leaders from multiple D.C.-area schools are coming together to protest recent Trump administration actions aimed at restricting student rights in America.

On Friday, April 4, at 4 p.m., the student governments of Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, American, George Mason, and Temple plan to protest the Trump-Vance administrationā€™s efforts to dismantle public education at the Department of Education building (400 Maryland Ave., S.W.), just south of the National Mall. This ā€œunprecedented coalitionā€ of higher education student governments in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region, representing 130,000 students, will gather to tell the administration to keep its ā€œHands Off Our Schools.ā€

In a statement emailed to the Washington Blade, Asher Maxwell, press coordinator for the Georgetown University Student Association, called this a ā€œhistoric coalitionā€ and said the protest will highlight how Trumpā€™s policiesā€”dismantling the Department of Education, eradicating DEI initiatives, eliminating funding for academic programs and financial aid, and silencing student voicesā€”are affecting students.

Former middle school principal and U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, along with campus free speech advocate Mary Beth Tinker, known for her role in Tinker v. Des Moines, are slated to speak at the rally about the importance of public education and free speech amid what they call the administrationā€™s disregard for the rule of law and constitutionally protected acts such as protesting and speaking out against the government.

The rally is expected to draw thousands of students, from college to kindergarten, as well as First Amendment supporters and those angered by the administration’s efforts to minimize the federal government. Since taking office, Trump has laid off tens of thousands of federal employees, including many within the Department of Education, as he and his senior adviser, Elon Musk, strip away protections and federal spending that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people, people of color, and students.

The Washington Blade reached out to the White House for comment but has not received a response.

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D.C. police investigating anti-gay assault in Shaw

Police say suspect punched victim in face after shouting ā€˜homophobic slursā€™

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The victim said he was punched in the face while walking in front of the 7th Flats apartment building at 1825 7th St., N.W. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)

D.C. police are investigating a March 7, 2025, assault case listed as a suspected hate crime in which an unidentified male suspect punched a man in the face on the sidewalk outside an apartment building after calling the victim and his male friend ā€œfaggots.ā€

The victim, Destin Karol, and his friend, Ian Dotson, both residents of Arlington, Va., told the Washington Blade the assault took place about 10 p.m. while they were walking along 7th Street, N.W. on their way to the Shaw-Howard University Metro station.

The two men said while walking in front of the upscale 7th Flats apartment building at 1825 7th St., N.W., they saw the male suspect and a woman he was with get out of a car parked in front of the building. Seconds later, they saw the woman vomiting on the sidewalk as they walked past her, the two men told the Blade.

 At that time, the male suspect yelled, ā€œWhat are you looking at, faggots,ā€ Karol and Dotson told the Blade. The suspect then punched Karol in the face ā€œseveral times,ā€ according to a D.C. police report.

Karol said he was diagnosed the next day at a hospital in Arlington near his home with a broken jaw that required the jaw to be wired shut.

Dotson said D.C. police arrived on the scene after he called 911 after witnessing the suspect punching Karol, knocking him down and kicking Karol in the face while he was lying on the sidewalk.

Karol said an ambulance arrived on the scene and paramedics treated his facial injury with an ice pack and offered to take him to the hospital. He said he declined the offer, choosing to go home first. But upon experiencing intense pain the next day, he visited a medical clinic whose doctors told him to immediately go to the nearby hospital emergency room.

An initial version of the D.C. police incident report did not list the incident as a suspected hate crime. But a revised version of the report, which was issued after the Blade contacted police to ask about the earlier report, classifies the incident as a ā€œsuspected hate crime.ā€

The revised report states that the suspect, after telling the victim, ā€œWhat are you looking at,ā€ proceeded to ā€œclose fist strike Victim 1 in the left jaw area several times.ā€ It says Subject 2, who was Dotson, told police the suspect ā€œyelled out homophobic slurs.ā€  

The report concludes by saying, Suspect 1 ā€œwas last seen heading inside 1825 7th Street, N.W.ā€

According to Karol, police so far have not changed the report, at Karolā€™s request, to list the incident as an ‘aggravated assaultā€™ rather than its current listing as a ā€œsimple assault.ā€ Karol points out that under police policy, an assault-related injury that causes a broken bone should be classified as an aggravated assault.

Karol and Dotson said the police report also does not mention that they told the two police officers who arrived on the scene that they saw the suspect and the woman he was with get out of a car and they showed the two officers which car it was as it was parked in front of the apartment building.

Karol told the Blade he and Dotson asked at least one of the officers to take down the license plate number of the car, but the officer said it was not necessary for him to do so. Dotson said he recalls that the car was a white, 4-door Volkswagen hatchback with a Virginia license plate.

Dotson said he and Karol were disappointed that the police did not appear to take down the license number and he regrets that he did not write it down himself. But he said he recalls that the Virginia license tag consisted of all letters and no numbers, with the letters ā€œINā€ as part of it.

He described the suspect as a white male appearing to be between 35 or 45 years old with brown hair and a goatee or beard.

D.C. police spokesperson Paris Lewbel said a Third District police detective has been assigned to the case and the case remains under active investigation. He said he could not comment on the issues raised by Karol and Dotson under a police policy of not disclosing specific details in an ongoing investigation.

Karol said he has been speaking with Detective Wilson, whose first name he does not recall, and said he most recently spoke with her on Tuesday, April 1. ā€œTheyā€™re trying to get the license plate of this individual and theyā€™re trying to get the camera footage from the apartment building and the adjacent buildings,ā€ Karol said the detective told him.

Dotson said at the time the police arrived on the scene on the night of March 7, an employee from the 7th Flat apartment building who identified himself as the concierge came out of the building and told one of the police officers that he saw the male suspect and the woman he was with enter the building.

Police spokesperson Lewbel said he could not disclose whether the concierge was able to help police identify the suspect under the policy of not disclosing details of an ongoing investigation.

Police urge members of the public who may have witnessed an incident like this or who may know something about it, including the identity of a suspect, to call the police information line of 202-727-9099.

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District of Columbia

Hundreds in D.C. rally for ‘trans dignity and justice’

‘We bow down to your charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent’

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Before any visible signs of political protest or activism appeared in “America’s Front Yard,” the sounds of cheers, applause, and the faint melody of Madonna’s Vogue echoed through the air, audible from blocks away. As the Capitol came into view and the crowd neared 3rd Street, small groups of people adorned in bright pink, blue, and white gathered along the pebble-covered pathways and the soft, lush grass of the National Mall. The sun peeked in and out of the clouds as the Transgender Day of Visibility Rally began.

Since its official designation in 2009, March 31 has marked International Trans Day of Visibility. This year, with one of the most anti-trans administrations ever holding power in the White House (and in Congress), the urgency of visibility has never been more keenly felt. For those gathered, holding signs and standing in solidarity, this moment was a call to make trans people seen and heard.

The rally, organized by the Christopher Street Project, a trans advocacy group and PAC, brought together nearly 20 Democratic lawmakers on the National Mall to speak out against the Trump-Vance administrationā€™s efforts to erase the trans community.

Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project and one of the driving forces behind the event, took the stage first. The tall, curly haired redhead was perfectly framed against the dome of the Capitol and the increasingly darkening sky ā€” a fitting backdrop to the growing frustration with the lawmakers inside.

As the crowd settled, Hack took a deep breath and began.

ā€œThank you to the hundreds of people who showed up,ā€ Hack said. ā€œWe have buses on their way, we have people who are coming after work, and we’ll make room for those folks as they keep joining us. And thank you to all of you for showing up to celebrate, to make your voices heard and to fight together for trans dignity and justice.ā€

Tyler Hack speaks at the Transgender Day of Visibility rally on the National Mall on Monday, March 31. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Hack founded the Christopher Street Project in January as a direct response to President Donald Trump and the far-rightā€™s growing influence ā€” and their attempts to erase the transgender community. As Hack spoke, it became clear that the fight for trans rights was, at its core, a fight for survival.

ā€œWe at Christopher Street Project believe that being a Democrat means more than just your party affiliation,ā€ Hack said. ā€œIt’s about unapologetic defense of trans people wherever they’re being attacked, and in the face of this massive threat to all of our rights, in the face of what Trump and his billionaire cronies are unleashing. We demand more from the people we elected to protect us. We deserve more, and we say with all of the power that we have, powers have no place in Congress.ā€

Hack continued, ā€œOur guiding principle is courage; 56 years ago, that courage was demonstrated by the queer and trans people who led the Stonewall riots. My great uncle, Mark Scheer, was one of them. Beaten up in the Stonewall Riots for standing up for people like himself and standing side by side with his trans siblings. It was his courage and the courage of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera that ensured we would never be erased.ā€

The crowd, now slowly filling the grassy lawn, erupted in cheers and clapping as Hack introduced the next speaker. Behind them, members of Congress began to exit their cars, re-reading their speeches for a final time while Christopher Street Project volunteers worked to keep the rally moving.

Rabbi Abby Stein, a trans activist and author, took the stage next. Her passionate speech felt like a sermon and a call to action against the transphobic forces in power.

ā€œIt is our moral obligation to make sure that we are visible, so that all the people who came before us and the people coming after us will know that who they are is beautiful, that being trans isn’t just OK,ā€ Rabbi Stein said. ā€œIt is something that is worthy to celebrate, and it is something that no one in the world can ever take away from you, regardless of how much military or police or physical abuse they try to use on us. A world without trans people never existed and never will, no matter how much they try. We have defeated fascist titans before and we will defeat them again.ā€

Several speakers at the rally also highlighted the current administrationā€™s disturbing parallels to fascist leaders of history. Democratic Whip Katherine Clark was one of those who called out transphobia and provided the crowd with insight into the Republicans’ strategy.

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) speaks at a Transgender Day of Visibility rally on the National Mall on Monday, March 31. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

ā€œRepublicans are trying to divide us and distract us so they can funnel more money and more power to a select few,ā€ said Clark, the House Minority Whip (D-Mass). ā€œWe’ve been in these moments before, we know the playbook, whether it’s the ’30s in Berlin or the ’60s in New York or right now in Washington, D.C. They distract and divide and scapegoat so they can tear everybody down. This time they’re using this community, our trans community. They want Americans to believe that our LGBTQ neighbors are to blame for the challenges we face as a country. They hope that if we’re focused on all of us, we won’t notice that the Republicans are closing our public schools that they’re defunding Social Security, slashing our health care, firing veterans, increasing costs of housing and groceries and starting trade wars with our allies. And what is the point? What is the point of this reckless agenda to enrich the billionaire class? And it’s all part of one corrupt plot in MAGA America. The 1% have access to wealth, freedom, power and voting rights, but not for the rest of us.ā€

Other members of Congress addressed Trumpā€™s escalating attacks on the trans community.

ā€œThe reason theyā€™re attacking all of these things is because they know what every authoritarian knows: Organized people, organized workers, marginalized people with autonomy and without fear, thatā€™s a threat to their power,ā€ Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) explained. ā€œThatā€™s why theyā€™re coming for our books, our doctors, our teachers, our workers, and especially our trans youth. But theyā€™re not just a talking point.ā€

ā€œI want to say whatā€™s happening right now, especially to our trans siblings, is cruel,ā€ Lee continued. ā€œItā€™s bullshit. It is not normal, and we will stand up against it. But this is not just a policy disagreement, itā€™s not a debate. Itā€™s by design. Itā€™s targeting. And they are purposely going after some of the most marginalized people in our society.ā€

Lee went on to address the chilling effects of Trumpā€™s anti-trans executive orders on transgender Americans’ lives, particularly in places like Pittsburgh.

ā€œThis is what Trump’s anti-trans agenda looks like,ā€ Lee added. ā€œEven without a national ban, the fear, the pressure and the silence they create is doing the work for them. It’s making health care providers hesitate. It’s making institutions retreat. It’s making families feel isolated or abandoned or unsafe, and I just want to say it here, when you make it harder for children to be seen, to be loved, to be treated with dignity. That’s not just a policy failure. That is a moral failure.ā€

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) bluntly stated that Trumpā€™s policies will lead to the deaths of LGBTQ people both in the U.S. and abroad, citing the severe consequences of his cuts to foreign aid programs like PEPFAR, the Presidentā€™s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

ā€œHis actions and those of Republicans who bend the knee have severe consequences,ā€ Kelly said. ā€œIt threw global healthcare programs into chaos, especially PEPFAR. For over 20 years, PEPFAR saved over 26 million lives worldwide, and has been a lifeblood and a lifeline for LGBTQ plus people in the face of stigma and discrimination in many countries, especially in places where being true to yourself comes with immense risk. PEPFAR is the only program that provides HIV prevention, treatment, and care.ā€

ā€œWe are just five years away from ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic,ā€ she added. ā€œOur progress cannot stop.ā€

The rally ended with an unexpected but powerful appearance by actress, director, and producer Lena Dunham, who spoke about her experiences living with her trans sibling, Cyrus Dunham.

ā€œWhen I asked my sibling what he might want to hear me say today and what he did not want me to say, which included phrases like ā€˜boots the house down, mama,ā€™ he made it clear that there would be enough dialogue about what impossible odds are faced right now for the trans community, especially trans youth and trans people of color, and enough conversation about the horrific abuses that the government is attempting to commit and the rights they’re attempting to take away and already in the process of doing,ā€ Dunham shared. ā€œHe said, my only job is to express how special, sweet, fab, fun, delightful and divine it is to be embraced by trans people, to live in proximity to trans lives, and to call this community our community.ā€

ā€œWe love you, we see you. We bow down to your charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent, and we are so lucky to love you and to fight with you and for you, to learn from you and to ensure that our rights are inseparable from yours,ā€ the “Girls” star added. ā€œTrans lives don’t just matter. They transform the world into a place of possibility, joy, and discovery.ā€

As the sun began to set and the rally wound down, Hack reflected on the significance of the event.

ā€œBeing resilient in this moment is about continuing to be yourself and continuing to exist, because being a trans person in this moment is, in and of itself, resistance,ā€ they said. ā€œMaking sure that folks have the support that they need, being a good ally to those people is resistance and making sure that trans people in your life know that they have your support is critically important, and is the number one way that we can resist these attacks.ā€

For more information on the Christopher Street Project, visit christopherstreetproject.org.

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