Local
Probation for D.C. cop in trans shooting case
Judge rejects prosecutor’s request for five-year jail term
D.C. police officer Kenneth Furr was sentenced in a case related to the firing of his gun through the windshield of a car with the five people inside. (Washington Blade photo by Phil Reese)
An off-duty D.C. police officer accused in August 2011 of firing his service revolver into a car occupied by three transgender women and two male friends was sentenced on Thursday to three years of supervised probation, a $150 fine, and 100 hours of community service.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Russell Canan also sentenced Officer Kenneth Furr, 48, to five years in prison but suspended all but 14 months of the prison term and credited Furr with the 14 months he already served between the time of his arrest and his trial last October.
Canan released Furr October 26 while awaiting sentencing after a Superior Court jury convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon and solicitation for prostitution but acquitted him on six other charges, including the most serious charge of assault with intent to kill while armed.
The latter charge was linked to his firing of five shots into the car where the transgender women and their friends were sitting.
Police and prosecutors have said the shooting occurred following a confrontation that started when Furr solicited one of the transgender women for sex for money at 5th and K Streets, N.W., and followed the woman after she rejected his offer. Furr then argued with one or more of her friends who asked Furr leave her alone.
At the time of his arrest, police said Furr’s blood alcohol level was twice that of the legal limit for drivers.
Canan rejected a request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Worm, the lead prosecutor, that Furr be given the maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for the assault with a deadly weapon charge. He also denied her request for an additional three months incarceration for the solicitation conviction.
News of the shooting outraged LGBT activists as well as Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the D.C. City Council, who called for stepped up efforts to curtail violence against the city’s transgender community.
The D.C. Trans Coalition issued a statement late Thursday calling the sentence of no additional jail time for Furr “outrageous” and said it would heighten longstanding fears by the transgender community of mistreatment and abuse by police officers.
“This result is the product of a legal system that constantly devalues trans lives, particularly trans people of color,” said D.C. Trans Coalition member Jason Terry. “Officer Furr’s defense team actively sought to portray the victims as somehow deserving of this violence, and apparently they succeeded,” he said.
“If roles had been reversed and a black trans woman had gotten drunk and shot a gun at a police officer, the results would be drastically different,” Terry said.
Court observers said the jury’s decision to find Furr not guilty on the assault with intent to kill while armed charge most likely resulted from a successful effort by Furr’s attorneys to portray the shooting as an act of self-defense.
Canan said his suspension of 46 months of the 60 month (five year) prison term was contingent upon Furr’s successful completion of his three year probation period and other restrictions, including a requirement that he stay away from the five complainants.
Court records show Canan also ordered Furr to stay away from “the area bounded by: New York Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, 7th Street, N.W. and North Capitol Street, N.W.,” which is widely known as one of the city’s transgender prostitution zones.
In addition, Canan set as a condition for the parole that Furr enter an alcohol treatment program and enroll in anger management classes.
In the sentencing memorandum on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s office, Worm said one reason why Furr was not a good candidate for a sentence involving parole and no prison time was that he failed to immediately comply with his pre-sentencing release conditions. She noted that although he was instructed to report immediately after his release on Oct. 26 for regular alcohol testing and other conditions, he did not report for the testing until a full month after his release.
The charge of assault with a deadly weapon, on which he was convicted, stemmed from allegations by prosecutors that Furr pointed his gun at one of the transgender women’s friends outside a CVS store on the 400 block of Massachusetts Ave., N.W. at about 5 a.m. on Aug 26, 2011.
According to testimony by the victims, Furr solicited one of the trans women propositioning sex for money minutes earlier on the street at 5th and K Streets, N.W. The woman rebuffed his request and walked away, but Furr followed her to the CVS store, where one of her male friends called on Furr to leave her alone, witnesses reported.
Furr then started an argument that continued outside the store, where Furr pulled out his gun and pointed it at the women’s friend.
Although Furr did not fire the gun, prosecutors argued his action constituted an assault with a deadly weapon and persuaded the jury to convict him on that count.
During the trial the defense presented evidence, which prosecutors acknowledged was factually correct, that the trans women and their male friends responded by following Furr in their car after Furr drove away from the CVS store.
Trial testimony showed that the group followed Furr to the area of 3rd and K Street, N.W., where they observed Furr attempting to solicit another transgender woman for sex. At that point, two of the people in the car got out and confronted Furr and one or both of them assaulted Furr, witnesses testified during the trial.
Furr then returned to his car and drove away, with the trans women and their male friends following him again, witnesses testified. This prompted Furr to stop his car at First and Pierce Streets, N.W., and fire his gun at the other car, which Furr’s lawyer said was in pursuit of his, according to testimony at the trial.
One of the male friends driving the vehicle ducked to avoid being shot and unintentionally rammed the car into Furr’s car, witnesses testified.
Furr responded by climbing on the hood of the car occupied by the transgender women and their friends and fired five times through the front windshield, causing three of the occupants to suffer non-fatal gunshot wounds.
Within minutes D.C. police rushed to the scene and arrested Furr, who was found to have a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit under D.C. law.
David Knight, Furr’s lead defense attorney, appeared to have persuaded the jury that the people he shot at were the aggressors and Furr acted in self-defense, court observers said.
“He was alone, outnumbered and under attack,” the Washington Post quoted Knight saying to the jury. “He was threatened, assaulted and pursued by a car full of people who wanted to harm him.”
In her sentencing memorandum, Worm said that at no point did Furr identify himself as a police officer to the complainants nor did he call for police help if he believed he was in danger.
“To be sure, some of the complainants involved in this incident engaged in risky behavior and bad judgment,” she said in the memo.
“The government does not minimize the fact that both parties had opportunities to withdraw from this conflict, but the government’s view, as exhibited in its charging decisions, is that the defendant bore criminal responsibility for provoking and escalating the conflict, and introducing a deadly weapon into a situation that could have otherwise been resolved,” Worm wrote in the memo.
“Many of the witnesses who testified at trial were associated, in some way, with Washington, D.C.’s transgender community,” Worm said in the memo. “That community has historically suffered discrimination from a variety of sources. Moreover, the members of the transgender community bear a heightened risk that they will be victims of violent crime,” she wrote.
“This defendant was a police officer charged with protecting and serving the citizens of the District of Columbia,” she said. “Defendant Furr’s actions on the night of this offense increased the transgender community’s already significant safety concerns and their distrust of the Metropolitan Police Department.”
D.C. police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said Furr has been suspended without pay and that the department will follow its standard procedure for dealing with an officer convicted of a felony. Police observers have said a felony conviction, especially one associated with violence, usually results in the firing of a police officer.
Rehoboth Beach
Rehoboth’s ‘Poodle Beach’ to be honored with historical marker
Delaware Public Archives to hold ceremony June 27
The Delaware Public Archives is set to unveil a new State of Delaware Historical Marker recognizing Rehoboth’s Poodle Beach Saturday, June 27, at 9 a.m. The unveiling will take place at the corner of Prospect Street and the South Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
The unveiling ceremony is free and open to the public and will include remarks from members of the community, government officials, and representatives from the Delaware Public Archives.
Located at the southern end of the boardwalk near Queen Street, Poodle Beach is one of the most famous sections of Rehoboth Beach, having served as a gathering place for the LGBTQ community for decades.
The Delaware Public Archives said that, “The marker recognizes the site’s longstanding role in the social and cultural history of both Rehoboth Beach and the State of Delaware.”
The petition to have Poodle Beach recognized with a historical marker was started by a group of Rehoboth Beach residents in June 2020 and was officially approved in December 2020.
Although the origins of where Poodle Beach got its name are unknown, its history can be traced back to du Pont heiress and well-known lesbian Louisa Carpenter. Carpenter and her LGBTQ group of friends would travel to ‘Carpenter Beach’ toward Dewey Beach in the19 30s and ‘40s.
Over time, the beach grew in popularity and began to be used predominantly by gay men in the following decades. It wasn’t until the ‘80s when the beach spread back toward the boardwalk as people stopped making the journey to Carpenter beach.
Poodle Beach was initially called “Lazy Gay Beach” because gay men got tired of walking so far from the boardwalk to get to Carpenter Beach.
There are multiple theories that explain how the name ‘Poodle Beach’ came to be. One of the most popular is the ‘Two cousin theory’ where it is rumored that a pair of cousins would drive up from Maryland and bring their poodle dogs onto the beach.
Poodle was also the site of the popular Labor Day weekend drag volleyball games that were started in 1988 and ended with COVID in 2020.
District of Columbia
McDuffie concedes to Lewis George in D.C.’s mayoral primary
Democratic Socialist presumed winner while official vote count continues
D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) emerged as the presumed winner in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary for D.C. mayor as her lead opponent, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-At-Large) conceded the race Thursday, June 18.
Both Lewis George and McDuffie have strong records of support for the for the LGBTQ community, and local LGBTQ rights activists appeared divided in their support between the two mayoral candidates.
“Earlier this morning, I called Councilmember Janeese Lewis Geroge to congratulate her on her victory and wish her success as she prepares for the general election,” McDuffie said in a statement. “The campaign may be over, but the work of building a safer, more affordable, more prosperous city continues,” he said
It its most recent release of the official first-choice vote count at 1:54 p.m. on Thursday, June 18, the D.C. Board of Elections reported Lewis George had 55,214 votes or 52.87 percent of the vote. McDuffie had 38,033 votes, or 36.42 percent.
Each of the five other Democratic mayoral candidates had less than 4 percent of the vote, including Rini Sampath, who self-identifies as queer, who had 3.093 votes or 3.02 percent.
With about 75 percent of D.C. voters registered a Democrats, Lewis George’s status as the apparent Democratic nominee makes here the odds-on favorite to win the general election in November. Board of Elections records show that no Republican candidate ran for mayor in the D.C. Republican primary on June 16 and one Statehood Green Party candidate — Robert G. Gross — ran unopposed. The latest vote count shows he received 312 votes from registered Statehood Green Party members.
With Lewis George running as a democratic socialist and left leaning “progressive” candidate and McDuffie running as a more moderate Democrat on a wide range of issues, LGBTQ activists, like voters in general, appear to backed either of the two on non-LGBTQ issues since both are strongly supportive of the LGBTQ community, including transgender-related issues.
Lewis George received the endorsement of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.s largest local LGBTQ political group.
D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large), who supported Lewis Geroge for mayor, emerged as the apparent winner in the race for D.C. delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. He received 62.9 percent of the vote in a five-candidate race. His closest opponent, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who conceded the race to White, received 21.52 percent of the vote. White and Pinto have been longtime supporters of the LGBTQ community.
In other races, D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member, received 76.51 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race, making him the clearcut winner in the primary.
In the Ward 1 D.C. Council race, where five LGBTQ supportive candidates were competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Brianne Nadeau, who is not running for re-election, community activist Aparna Raj, who identifies as bisexual, has emerged as the apparent winner with 46.91 percent of the vote. Her closest opponent, gay candidate and LGBTQ rights advocate Miguel Trindade Deramo, had 20.63 percent.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and Councilmember Matthew Frumin (D-Ward 3) ran unopposed for re-election in the primary and emerged as winners. Also emerging as apparent primary winners were Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), with 74.4 percenter of the vote, and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, with 90.4 percent.
In the At-Large D.C. Council race where nine Democrats were competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Anita Bonds, who is retiring, local pharmacist and community activist Oye Owolewa, who was endorsed by Capital Stonewall Democrats, was leading with 33.89 percent
In the special election to fill the other At-Large Council eat that under the city’s Home Rule Charter must go to a non-Democrat, former Councilmember Elissa Silverman was leading with 54.87 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race. Incumbent Doni Crawford, who was temporarily appointed to the seat, was in second place with 24.09 percent.
At least 14 known LGBTQ candidates were among several dozen candidates competing for seats on the D.C. Democratic State Committee in the June 16 primary.
Longtime local gay Democratic activist and Ward 8 community leader Philip Pannell emerged as the apparent winner in the race for D.C. Democratic National Committee, one of the two highest-level State Committee positions, along with the National Committeewoman post. Pannell received 40,073 votes or 49.32 percent of the vote, according to the latest vote count.
Coming in second place in the National Committeeman race was gay Democratic activist David Meadows, who had 34,875 votes or 42.92 percent. The third candidate in the race, Mike Panetta, had 5,904 votes or 7.27 percent.
The winners couldn’t immediately be determined in the races where most of the other LGBTQ State Committee candidates were running. Two of the presumed winners who had a sufficient number of votes to win prior to the final vote count were trans candidate Vida Rangel for the Ward 1 Democratic Committeewoman seat; and Stevie McCarty for the Ward 2 Democratic Committeeman seat.
District of Columbia
Pride is here!
Parade, festival, parties planned for 51st annual D.C. celebration
The 51st annual Capital Pride is already underway with parties and events throughout D.C. The Capital Pride Parade and Capital Pride Festival are the two large signature events slated for this weekend, though there are many other LGBTQ Pride celebrations planned for venues throughout the city in the days to come.
Friday, June 19
The Capital Pride Alliance and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs are hosting the LGBTQ+ Women’s Symposium at Arlo Washington DC (333 G St., N.W.) with sessions scheduled from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and a day party from 3-7 p.m. The symposium brings together community leaders and advocates for panel discussions and dialogue. RSVP for the free event on capitalpride.org.
The RIOT! Official Capital Pride Opening Party is scheduled for 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m. at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.). Bob the Drag Queen will be running a DJ set and Myki Meeks scheduled as the headlining performer. Area DJs and performers include: Bambi, Baphomette, Bumper, Cake Pop!, Connor, DJ Ed Bailey, DJ Diyanna Monet, Evry Pleasure, Jakknife Complex, Mari Con Carne, Pussy Noir and WessTheDJ. Advance tickets run from $49-$59 and will be $69 at the door. Capital Pride General and VIP pass packages also include admission and can be purchased on capitalpride.org. The event is 18+.
KINETIC Presents is holding a Pride opening party, UNCUT XXL: Heavy Load from 10 p.m.-4 a.m at A.i. Warehouse (530 Penn St. N.E.). There will be music by Alex Acosta, Felipe Lira and Mitch Ferrino. Tickets are $80.33-$96.62 + fees on Eventbrite. The event is 21+.
Saturday, June 20
A Capital Pride Family Fun Festival will be held at Stead Park (1625 P St., N.W.) from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The event is designed for families and children with games, crafts, glitter tattoos, hair tinsel, story time, an inflatable obstacle course, and more. The event is free and especially designed for children ages 2-10, though is open to everyone.
The Crack of Noon Parade Brunch is scheduled for 12-3 p.m. at Viceroy Washington DC (1430 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). It is an all-you-can-eat gourmet brunch with mimosas. Tickets for the event are limited and range from $75-$90 or as a part of the VIP package available on capitalpride.org. The event is 21+.
The 17th Street Pride Block Party will run concurrently with the Capital Pride Parade from noon-10 p.m. on 17th St., N.W. between P and S streets. The event is presented by Absolut.
The Capital Pride Parade is one of the largest in the region and is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants and spectators. The annual parade is scheduled for 3-7:30 p.m. and will move through the Shaw, Logan Circle, Downtown and Penn Quarter neighborhoods. The parade is anticipated to begin at 14th Street and T Street, N.W. and end at Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street, N.W. The event is free to spectate and open to people of all ages, however, there are grandstand bleachers set up at Franklin Park (957 14th St., N.W.) for a shaded, seated spot for $40 in advance. Tickets for the grandstand bleachers are available on capitalpride.org. Monroe Alise and David Archuleta are serving as the parade grand marshals.
The Official Capital Pride Women’s Party, ELIX-Her, is slated for 10 p.m.-3 a.m. at Decades DC (1219 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) The multi-floor event has a different “vibe” for each floor: Latin/reggaeton/Caribbean, house/dance/pop, and hip-hop/rap/afro/reggae musical genres. Tickets are $32.15-$42.59 + fees and can be purchased on capitalpride.org. The event is 21+.
The MIXTAPE Pride Party is scheduled for 10 p.m. at the 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) with DJs Shea Van Horn and Matt Bailer. Tickets are $45.65 and are available on ticketmaster.com. The dance party is 21+.
KINETIC Presents partners with Capital Pride to produce the Official Main Event party, Toy Land, from 10 p.m.-4 a.m at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.). Toy Land is 18+ and features music by GSP and Matt Suave. There will be a special performance by Alaska from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Tickets are $63.35-$69.15 and available on ticketmaster.com.
Sunday, June 21
The Capital Pride Festival is scheduled for 12-10 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. The event will include food courts, multiple beverage gardens, vendors, community organizations, games, art, performances, dancing and more. Donations are appreciated by organizers, but the event is free. There are designated beverage garden areas for attendees 21+, but the majority of the festival is open to people of all ages. The Capital Pride Concert on the main stage of the festival runs from 1-8 p.m. with a sunset dance party with DJ Tracy Young planned for 8-10 p.m. The stage is at the east end of the festival on Pennsylvania Ave. at 3rd Street. The event is free and open to the public, but VIP passes for an area near the stage for attendees 21+ are available on capitalpride.org and range from $230-$290 or as a part of a $450 Capital Pride VIP package. Concert headliners include Maren Morris, Myki Meeks, Leikeli47 and Harrison. Other performers include Carlos Ova Dupress, Kora Edge, Ruepratt, RenRiot, Vagenesis, Kitty Lovelace, Ari Voxx, RAYSHARD, Bryce Bowyn, the 2026 Capital Pride royal court, Lisa Lisa, Ms. DC Black Pride and Destiny B. Childs. An accessibility zone is available with ASL interpretation and accessible seating.
KINETIC’s discoVERS closing party is scheduled from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. at SAX (734 11th St., N.W.). Music is provided by Alexis Tucci and Clinton Foster. Tickets are $41.76-$69.46 + fees and are available at kineticpresents.com. The event is 21+.
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McDuffie concedes to Lewis George in D.C.’s mayoral primary
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