Local
Marine charged with killing another Marine after anti-gay slur claims self-defense
Judge orders defendant held without bail; finds probable cause
Marine Barracks on Capitol Hill (Blade photo by Michael Key)
A Marine charged with fatally stabbing another Marine on a D.C. sidewalk after allegedly calling the victim an anti-gay name told police he acted in self-defense.
A police affidavit released Monday during a court hearing says Michael Joseph Poth, 20, told police he stabbed Marine Lance Cpl. Philip Bushong, 23, on April 21 after Bushong followed him on the sidewalk across the street from the Marine Barracks on Capitol Hill and after Bushong allegedly punched him in the face.
A police homicide detective who prepared the affidavit says in the document that there were no signs of an injury or bruise on Poth’s face or head when police questioned him at the Homicide Branch office a short time after the incident occurred.
Police charged Poth with second-degree murder while armed after Marine guards who witnessed the stabbing apprehended Poth. A police statement says the incident took place about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, April 21, on the sidewalk in front of 727 8th Street, S.E.
The affidavit says police found a blood-stained pocket knife attached to Poth’s pants pocket at the time they took him into custody. The D.C. Medical Examiner’s office says an autopsy found that Bushong died from a puncture wound to the heart caused by a knife penetrating his upper chest.
“Information uncovered during the course of the preliminary investigation indicates that there was a verbal exchange, and during the exchange a homophobic slur was heard from the suspect prior to the stabbing,” a police statement says.
D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Karen Howze ruled at Monday’s presentment hearing that prosecutors provided sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that Poth committed second-degree murder in connection with the case. She ordered him held without bond and scheduled a preliminary hearing for the case on May 15.
No mention was made during the hearing about the police statement that a witness heard Poth make an anti-gay slur at the time Poth and Bushong got into a verbal altercation on the street that turned violent.
A police incident report doesn’t list the murder as a hate crime. Lt. Robert Alder, commander of the Homicide Branch, said a hate crime designation could be added to the report depending upon the findings of an ongoing police investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Liebman, the prosecutor in the case, said during Monday’s hearing that a witness observed someone believed to be Poth walking along 8th Street near where the stabbing took place but between 30 and 60 minutes earlier. He said the witness reported that the person, who fits the description of Poth, stated in an agitated way, “I’m going to stab somebody, or cut their lungs out. They are fucking with the wrong person.”
Liebman also said at the hearing that prior to the incident Marine officials were in the process of discharging Poth under less than honorable circumstances as a result of drug related offenses and “belligerent” behavior toward other Marines.
727 8th Street, S.E. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
David Benowitz, Poth’s attorney, disputed the significance of Poth’s pending discharge to the case at hand. He pointed to the police arrest affidavit’s account by another Marine guard witness who said he saw Bushong retract his arm as if he was about to punch Poth just prior to the stabbing.
Benowitz said the account by the Marine witness supports his contention that Poth acted in self-defense. He told the court that a second-degree murder charge isn’t supported by the facts of the case.
In responding to questions by reporters after the hearing, Benowitz declined to discuss the allegation by one of the Marine witnesses that Poth hurled an anti-gay slur at Bushong shortly before the stabbing.
Gay activists, including officials of the local group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), had not weighed in as of Monday on whether they agreed with the initial police decision not to list the murder as an anti-gay hate crime.
Friends of Bushong said he was neither gay nor homophobic, according to the Washington Post, which interviewed some of his friends. The Post reported that friends described Bushing as a “warm and sincere young man who loved to read” and “shattered the stereotype” of a Marine rifleman.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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