Local
D.C. police add 23 ‘affiliate’ officers to gay liaison unit
In a little-noticed development, a D.C. police official last week released the names of 23 officers assigned as “affiliate” members of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.
The affiliate officers, who are based in the department’s seven police districts, represent the culmination of Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s long-awaited plan to expand and decentralize the GLLU and three other special liaison units.
“The Metropolitan Police Department is pleased to announce the expansion of the Special Liaison Unit to better serve the needs of the community,” said Capt. Edward Delgado, supervisor of the SLU, which oversees the individual liaison units, in a Jan. 13 announcement.
In addition to the GLLU, the special liaison units include the Latino Liaison Unit, Asian Liaison Unit, and Deaf & Hard of Hearing Liaison Unit.
Delgado issued his announcement through an online listserve group created by the SLU to communicate with civic activists and members of citizen advisory councils linked to each of the seven police districts.
In his announcement, Delgado included a list of 50 affiliate officers and the individual liaison unit to which they are assigned. It shows that nearly half of the offers — 23 — are assigned to the GLLU. Sixteen affiliate officers are assigned to the Latino Liaison Unit and five each are assigned to the Asian and Deaf & Hard of Hearing liaison units.
Delgado told DC Agenda on Thursday that upon completing an SLU training course, officers were allowed to choose the specific liaison unit to which they would be assigned, and the GLLU was a popular choice.
“I was totally shocked that almost half of them wanted to be GLLU members,” he said. “I thought not that many would want to be dealing with some of the issues within the gay community. But the feedback that I’ve gotten from the officers has been all positive as it relates to working in the community. They’re on target and they have done an excellent job.”
Although his announcemt about the affiliate officers came Jan. 13, he said all of the affiliates started in their posts in the first and second week of December.
Delgado’s announcement did not discuss the status of the GLLU’s headquarters office in Dupont Circle, which has decreased from seven full-time officers three years ago to just one in November.
Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes told DC Agenda in an e-mail Wednesday that the department has designated four officers and three supervisors to the GLLU’s central or headquarters unit.
Groomes noted that it would be up to the individual GLLU members to disclose their own sexual orientation and the department would not say which members, if any, are gay.
Groomes said the headquarters unit consists of Officers Joe Morquecho, Juanita Foreman, Zunnobia Hakir and Kevin Johnson. She said Delgado, along with Sgt. Carlos Mejia, supervisor of the GLLU and the Latino Liaison Unit, and Lt. Allan Thomas are designated as GLLU supervisory members.
Lanier has told LGBT activists in the past that GLLU headquarters staff decreased due to attrition as officers sought new assignments or left the department. She told activists that a reduced police budget and urgent deployment needs in high-crime areas of the city prevented her from filling the vacant positions.
In recent years, Lanier said she was holding off filling the vacant posts while she arranged for the expanded and decentralized liaison units that went into effect last week.
Officials with Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence had complained that Lanier effectively “dismantled” the GLLU before she put in place the decentralized units with the affiliate officers. Chris Farris, co-chair of GLOV, could not be immediately reached for comment on the department’s latest expansion of the GLLU.
In announcing the 50 affiliate officers for the liaison units, Delgado also provided advice on how people should contact the units.
“In case of emergency, or for immediate police response, always call 911,” he said. “Once police are on the scene, you may request that an on-duty affiliate or liaison officer be contacted.”
He said that for other police-related services, such as requests for an affiliate or liaison officer to attend a meeting or for other non-emergency issues, the individual liaison offices can be contacted directly. The number for the GLLU is 202-727-5427.
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 next 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. moderated a panel at Dupont Underground on Feb. 8. 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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