Local
Town hall addresses Pride, financial concerns
Celebration slated for July 23-24 despite declining revenue
GLCCB board president Jabari Lyles addresses the town hall meeting. (Washington Blade photo by Steve Charing)
Under pressure from members of the community to account for the income and expenditures incurred during Pride 2015, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB), held a town hall meeting on Nov. 10 at the Chase Brexton Mount Vernon Center. The gathering allowed new board president Jabari Lyles to address Pride-related issues, offer an overview of the organization and to welcome community input.
Lyles described the GLCCB’s structure and the financial data from the most recent Pride to a crowd of about 60. Pride, which is the GLCCB’s principal source of revenue, made a profit of $49,400 this year. In 2014, Pride netted $64,000.
Some in the community raised concerns about the absence of accounting for the outlays and questioned specific expenditures. These issues, coupled with the sudden resignation of Pride coordinator and deputy executive director Paul Liller, motivated GLCCB’s leadership to hold the town hall.
Lyles and others charged that Liller used bad judgment in procuring the amount of T-shirts for Pride, for example, as well as creating a fundraising Halloween event called OutRageous without authorization. OutRageous was cancelled because of a lack of sales and ultimately cost the GLCCB $9,000 with nearly half of that amount to be used as a credit for a future event involving the same caterer.
Liller, who was not present at the meeting, rejected the criticisms. “Regarding allegations of mismanagement for both OutRageous and Pride T-Shirts, I will say that during my time at the GLCCB, all my decisions were either run through the former executive director Joel Tinsley-Hall or the board of directors,” he told the Blade via email. “Accurate financials were provided monthly during board meetings (which strangely there are no minutes for). The GLCCB board was involved in decisions made as they chose to be at the time.”
Lyles stated that tighter financial controls have already been put in place including the hiring of a bookkeeper. Moreover, he announced that the next Pride celebration would take place July 23-24, 2016.
He also unveiled an updated strategic plan that was developed in 2012 but had largely been relegated to the back burner due to an ongoing turnover in leadership. Indeed, since the last town hall took place in July 2014, there have been four different board presidents and four different individuals in the role of executive director.
Nonetheless, Lyles who has been the board president since July and is acting as the interim executive director since Liller’s departure last month, promised a better accounting of funds, greater transparency, a stronger effort to make the board more inclusive and to expand services and programs.
He also announced the resurrection of the GLCCB Advisory Council and that the organization is actively pursuing new office space. The GLCCB has been housed on the third floor of the Waxter Center on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon since February 2014.
While not nearly as contentious as the last GLCCB town hall meeting 15 months ago, this meeting also afforded community members an opportunity to sound off on matters of concern. Many of those who participated in the “open mic” portion of the program focused on the GLCCB’s mission and the need for diversity on the board.
Some members advocated for more youth programs while others support elder programs to cope with the aging LGBTQ population. A few offered to assist in partnering with other LGBT organizations and allies while some volunteered to help with fundraising. More involvement with faith-based groups and activities was also urged.
Overall, Lyles was pleased with the nearly three-hour meeting. “It’s refreshing to see the community willing to help us and be dedicated to our mission,” he told the Blade. He promised another town hall in March and that they will take place biannually.
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.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
Darren Pasha claims action is linked to his criticism of Pride organizers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 6 partially approved an anti-stalking order against a local LGBTQ activist requested last October by the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based LGBTQ group that organizes the city’s annual Pride events.
The ruling by Judge Robert D. Okun requires former Capital Pride volunteer Darren Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, board members, and volunteers until the time of a follow up court hearing he scheduled for April 17.
In his ruling at the Feb. 6 hearing, which was virtual rather than held in-person at the courthouse, Okun said he had changed the distance that Capital Pride had requested for the stay-away, anti-stalking order from 200 yards to 100 feet. The court records show that the judge also denied a motion filed earlier by Pasha, who did not attend the hearing, to “quash” the Capital Pride civil case against him.
Pasha told the Washington Blade he suffered an injury and damaged his mobile phone by falling off his scooter on the city’s snow-covered streets that prevented him from calling in to join the Feb. 6 court hearing.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him by Capital Pride, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
The Capital Pride complaint initially filed in court on Oct. 27, 2025, includes an 18-page legal brief outlining its allegations against Pasha and an additional 167-page addendum of “supporting exhibits” that includes multiple statements by witnesses whose names are blacked out.
“Over the past year, Defendant Darren Pasha (“DSP”) has engaged in a sustained, and escalating course of conduct directed at CPA, including repeated and unwanted contact, harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior targeting CPA staff, board members, volunteers, and affiliates,” the Capital Pride complaint states.
In his initial 16-page response to the complaint, Pasha says the Capital Pride complaint appears to be a form of retaliation against him for a dispute he has had with the organization and its then president, Ashley Smith, last year.
“It is evident that the document is replete with false, misleading, and unsubstantiated assertions,” he said of the complaint.
Smith, who has since resigned from his role as board president, did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment at the time the Capital Pride court complaint was filed against Pasha.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos and the attorney representing the group in its legal action against Pasha, Nick Harrison, did not immediately respond to a Blade request for comment on the judge’s Feb. 6 ruling.
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Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
