Local
Fenty urged to invalidate award to anti-gay group
6 Council members say mayor’s apology isn’t enough
Six members of the D.C. City Council and seven LGBT-supportive organizations have signed a petition calling on Mayor Adrian Fenty to invalidate a certificate of appreciation he awarded to the leader of the anti-gay group Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays.
The mayor’s office has issued an apology for what it said was a “staff error” that led to the award being mistakenly issued last November to PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs for her “dedication, commitment and outstanding contributions” to the group.
The petition says its signers appreciate Fenty’s acknowledgment that the award was a mistake. But it says further action by the mayor is needed.
“This mistake has empowered an anti-gay organization to increase its fundraising and to legitimize itself in ways it would not have otherwise been able to,” it says.
“PFOX believes that homosexuality is a mental disorder that needs to be cured by ‘reparative therapy,’” says the petition. “Not only is this harmful to young people struggling to understand their sexuality, but every major medical, psychological, and educational association in America says it is wrong, ineffective, and dangerous.”
The Council members who added their names to the petition are Michael Brown (D-At Large), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), and Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7).
Also adding their names to the document were gay Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jack Jacobson and four gay elected officials from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. They include Rich Madaleno and Anne Kaiser of the Maryland House of Delegates, Adam Ebbin of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Patrick Wojahn of the College Park, Md., City Council. Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff also signed on.
“It is incredibly important for Mayor Fenty to make it clear that PFOX doesn’t have the support of the District of Columbia,” the petition says. “To do that, he must invalidate the certificate of appreciation and publicly condemn PFOX for its policies that undermine the dignity of LGBT people and threaten the mental and physical health of the most vulnerable of our community.”
It adds, “We find this course of action to be necessary and our names below indicate our formal request for the mayor to act affirmatively to bring this situation to a prompt and meaningful end.”
The organizations signing the petition include Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays National; Metro D.C. PFLAG; Trevor Project; Americans for Democratic Action; Greater Washington Americans for Democratic Action; and the Capital Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Mafara Hobson, a spokesperson for the mayor, said last week that the mayor’s office had not received the petition on May 12, when gay activist Lane Hudson said he planned to deliver it.
Hudson told the Blade he e-mailed the petition to the mayor’s office on that day through a section of the D.C. government web site that invites the public to submit comments to the mayor. Hudson said he decided to submit it through the web site rather than personally deliver it because the site is a designated way for the public to communicate with the mayor.
Hobson could not be reached by mid-week to confirm whether someone from the mayor’s office retrieved the petition from the web site.
Hudson, who said he was among a small group of local activists to start the petition effort through Facebook, said most of the organizations signing the document were approached because they support LGBT people likely to be negatively affected by groups like PFOX.
He noted that the Trevor Project, for example, works to prevent LGBT teen suicide. LGBT activists have said the “reparative therapy” programs advocated by PFOX have been shown to harm self-esteem among LGBT youth, putting them at greater risk for depression and suicide.
Hudson said organizers of the petition did not immediately hear back from all D.C. Council members approached to add their names.
A spokesperson for gay D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At Large), whose name wasn’t on the petition that was submitted to Fenty’s office, said Catania was not asked to sign the document.
“Council member Catania was not asked to sign this petition,” said Ben Young, Catania’s chief of staff. “But rest assured that he believes PFOX is a reprehensible organization.”
Hudson, who is supporting D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s candidacy for mayor, noted that he didn’t ask Gray to sign the petition because doing so would give it the appearance of a partisan political effort.
“I didn’t want to put him in the position to look like this is a political move on his part, because this is about more than politics,” he said.
Gray issued a statement calling the mayor’s certificate of appreciation for the PFOX leader an “embarrassment” to the city and an insult to the LGBT community.
Virginia
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Gay Alexandria City Council member becomes 8th LGBTQ member of legislature
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike emerged as the decisive winner in a Feb. 10 special election for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria.
McPike, a Democrat, received 81.5 percent of the vote in his race against Republican Mason Butler, according to the local publication ALX Now.
He first won election to the Alexandria Council in 2021. He will be filling the House of Delegates seat being vacated by Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria), who won in another Feb. 10 special election for the Virginia State Senate seat being vacated by gay Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).
Ebbin is resigning from his Senate this week to take a position with Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
Upon taking his 5th District seat in the House of Delegate, McPike will become the eighth out LGBTQ member of the Virginia General Assembly. Among those he will be joining is Sen. Danica Roem (D-Manassas), who became the Virginia Legislature’s first transgender member when she won election to the House of Delegates in 2017 before being elected to the Senate in 2023.
“I look forward to continuing to work to address our housing crisis, the challenge of climate change, and the damaging impacts of the Trump administration on the immigrant families, LGBTQ+ Virginians, and federal employees who call Alexandria home,” McPike said in a statement after winning the Democratic nomination for the seat in a special primary held on Jan. 20.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate, has served for the past 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and has remained in that position during his tenure on the Alexandria Council. He said he will resign from that position before taking office in the House of Delegates.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. will be moderating a panel at Dupont Underground on Sunday. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
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