Local
Slain D.C. middle school principal was gay
Brian Betts hailed as innovative educator, hero to students
Brian Betts (Photo by Bel Perez Gabilondo; courtesy of D.C. Public Schools)
Brian Betts, the highly acclaimed D.C. middle school principal who was found shot to death April 15 at his home in Silver Spring, Md., was out as a gay man to a circle of friends and D.C. public school system colleagues, multiple sources have told the D.C. Agenda.
Montgomery County police said they discovered Betts’ fully clothed body in a second floor bedroom in his house along the 9300 block of Columbia Boulevard in Silver Spring. Police noted there were no signs of a forced entry into the house, leading them to believe that Betts, 42, invited his killer or killers inside.
Police spokesperson Sgt. C. Thomas Jordan said he could not comment on whether Betts’ murder was related to the slain principal’s sexual orientation, saying only that homicide detectives were investigating all possible angles of the case to identify a suspect or suspects.
“I know our investigators are talking to everyone they know of to get to the bottom of the case,” he said. “We are going to investigate every avenue. Our role is to solve a homicide.”
Betts established a reputation as a rising star in the Montgomery County public school system as a teacher and assistant principal before D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee recruited him to join her and Mayor Adrian Fenty’s efforts to overhaul the District’s long troubled school system.
In 2008, Rhee named Betts principal of Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson, a recently reorganized school in the city’s historic Shaw neighborhood. School officials said he quickly emerged as one of the school system’s most innovative principals.
The Washington Post reported that students liked him so much that they asked and Rhee agreed to allow 100 students to remain at the middle school for their ninth grade instead of the normal process of advancing to another school for that grade.
“The unexpected death of Brian Betts is unspeakably tragic for his family, for the Shaw Middle School community, and for all of D.C. Public Schools,” Rhee said in a statement.
“Brian Betts had the courage to take on the leadership of a struggling, underperforming DCPS school,” she said. “He was an inspirational leader for the teachers and for the students, and that leadership was bringing results. He knew what the children under his care were capable of, and he was determined to show them how to get there.”
Montgomery County police disclosed that D.C. police found Betts’ blue Nissan Xterra SUV on April 16 along the 3900 block of Fourth Street, S.E., in D.C., where it was believed to have been abandoned by two suspects between noon and 3 p.m. Police sources said investigators learned from a nearby resident that two males were seen leaving the vehicle, but as of Tuesday police declined to release a description of them.
On Monday, a Montgomery police spokesperson issued another statement saying investigators established that Betts was alive at least until 11:30 p.m. April 14. News media have reported neighbors observing that Betts had hosted a barbeque cookout for one or more people in his back yard on the night of April 14. Police would neither confirm nor deny that report.
Police arrived at Betts’ house about 7:30 p.m. April 15 after a co-worker called to report he had failed to show up at work that morning and could not be reached. The co-worker arrived at the house to investigate his whereabouts and entered the house after discovering the front door was unlocked, police said. Rather than investigate further, the co-worker called police, and police discovered Betts’ body in an upper floor bedroom.
One gay man who knew Betts from the time Betts lived in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood said Betts had a circle of gay friends and was seen patronizing the Dupont Circle gay bars Omega and Fireplace.
Another gay man who knew him said he assumed Betts was “out” as gay because many people in the gay community knew him in gay circles.
“He was definitely a member of the GLBT community,” said the man, who spoke to D.C. Agenda on condition that he was not identified.
Capt. Paul Starks, director of the Montgomery County police’s public affairs office, declined to comment on Betts’ sexual orientation or whether police were looking into whether the case was a possible hate crime or pick-up murder.
Gay activists and LGBT anti-violence groups in D.C. and other cities have expressed concern in the past that police investigators sometimes failed to seek help from the LGBT community in cases where mostly gay men were robbed or killed by men they met in gay clubs or meeting places and invited home.
In an investigative series of stories in the 1980s and 1990s, the Washington Blade reported more than 20 murders of gay men in the D.C. metropolitan area believed to be pick-up murders remained unsolved. Police confirmed that in each of the cases, investigators found no signs of a forced entry into the victims’ homes, where their bodies were found.
Following the murder of D.C. gay resident Anthony Perkins in December, when police found him shot to death inside his parked car in Southeast D.C., the D.C. police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit distributed flyers with Perkin’s photo to local gay clubs seeking information from members of the LGBT community.
The GLLU issued a similar flyer in February following the murder of a gay man from Maryland who also was shot inside his car on a Northeast Washington street.
D.C. police have arrested and charged suspects with first-degree murder while armed in both cases.
“Brian Betts was by all accounts an amazingly dedicated teacher and administrator,” said Peter Rosenstein, a D.C. gay activist. “Nothing can ever take that reputation from him. I never knew Brian, but friends did and according to them he was a brilliant, charming, funny, committed-to-his-family-and-students gay man.
“If this is true, my question to the police is: If his murder could be related to his being gay, are they using the GLBT community to help find his murderer?” Rosenstein said. “Are notices being sent out through the GLLU and other avenues to find this murderer and bring him [or] them to justice? Brian deserves no less from society than that we find who is responsible for this heinous crime.”
Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which monitors violence against LGBT people, said her group defers to police, family members and relatives of LGBT crime victims on whether to disclose the sexual orientation of such victims.
But she added, “Certainly the stigma and fear about being outed is something that can be an obstacle to investigating cases where someone may identify as LGBT.”
“We want people to feel free to come forward if they think that they have information that would be helpful,” Stapel said. “But all of those decisions have to be made in the context of what’s going on in their lives and in the victims’ lives and in the lives of other folks who care for the victim.
“And the reality is we still live in a very violent and very dangerous homophobic world.”
Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, called Betts “a remarkable example of many, many, many men and women who are gay and lesbian who dedicate their lives to education.”
Pointing to Betts’ work to help transform D.C.’s public schools through his job as a middle school principal, Byard characterized him as “a real example of the amazing work that lesbians and gay men are doing as leaders in schools every single day, whether they are principals or teachers, and the contributions they are making to our schools.”
District of Columbia
Gay ANC commissioner sues D.C. over police ‘failure’ to pay reward money
Lawsuit says information led to conviction in murder, armed robbery cases
Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Donohue on Aug. 11 filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court charging that D.C. police acted improperly and violated a local law by not paying him $30,000 in reward money for his role in helping police identify and arrest — and obtain the subsequent conviction — of one man charged with murder and another man charged with armed robbery in separate cases.
Although the lawsuit alleges improper action by D.C. police in carrying out the city’s Crime Solvers reward program, it names as defendants the District of Columbia and the Office of the Attorney General for D.C., which, among other things, defends the city against lawsuits.
Donohue, who is a member of the city’s ANC Rainbow Caucus consisting of LGBTQ elected ANC members, held a news conference outside the D.C. Superior Court building on Aug. 11 to talk about the lawsuit before entering the courthouse to officially file it.
The lawsuit states that Donohue “provided key video evidence that led to the arrest and conviction” of a man initially charged with first degree murder for allegedly running over a bicyclist with his car after the two got into an argument.
The lawsuit states that police had offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the defendant in that case, but police “arbitrarily slashed the payment to $5,000 without prior notice or policy justification.”
Court records show that D.C. resident Eric Beasley was charged with first degree murder for killing David Farewell, 45, by hitting him with his car on Sept. 4, 2020, on the 2100 block of Young Street, S.E. The records show the evidence for the case was based in large part on video camera footage of the incident obtained by police. Donohoe has said he provided that video camera evidence.
The records show that during Beasley’s October 2023 trial a jury was unable to reach the required unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial.
According to the records, Beasley later agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced in September 2024 to eight years in prison, a development that angered the victim’s family members who called it a “slap on the wrist,” according to a Fox 5 News report.
Donohue’s lawsuit says the second case in which he provided police with pivotal information involved a series of armed robberies known as the Fairlawn Serial Armed Robbery Spree that occurred in the Fairlawn neighborhood in Southeast D.C. in 2023 near where Donohue lives.
The lawsuit says evidence consisting of video surveillance footage provided by Donohue to police enabled police to determine they initially wrongfully arrested an 18-year-old male for the robberies. “Using Plaintiff’s security video, MPD identified, arrested, and convicted the actual robber, David Crocker, who was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison,” the lawsuit states.
It says one of the detectives investigating the case recommended a $10,000 reward for Donohue’s help in the case based on the police Crime Solvers reward program. The detective’s recommendation was approved by then-Assistant D.C. Police Chief Kyle Ramey on Aug. 4, 2025, according to the lawsuit.
But it adds, “Nevertheless, MPD improperly withheld payment.”
When contacted by the Washington Blade for comment on Donohue’s lawsuit allegations, a D.C. police spokesperson said “MPD does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”
Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein, who serves as press secretary for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which will be defending the city against the Donohue lawsuit, said he would look into obtaining a possible comment but said the office has a similar longstanding policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
“This action arises from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department’s arbitrary, bad-faith, and legally unsupportable failure to honor its public reward promises and administrative obligations to Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
It says the MPD violated the city’s Freedom of Information Act or FOIA law by not responding to Donohue’s request for information and documents related to the decision not to pay him the full reward money.
“MPD’s reduction of Plaintiff’s homicide reward from $25,000 to $5,000, and its withholding of his approved $10,00 robbery reward, were undertaken completely devoid of written standards, making such decisions inherently arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of administrative discretion,” it says.
It calls for Donohue to be awarded $30,000 in compensatory damages consisting of the $20,000 “unpaid balance” for the homicide case reward and $10,000 for the robbery case reward. It also calls for reimbursement for “reasonable” litigation costs and attorney’s fees. Donohue told the Washington Blade that at this time he is representing himself without an attorney.
Donohue told the Blade that the refusal by D.C. police to pay him the full reward money also limited his plans to donate some of that money to the family of murder victim David Farewell to help pay for a burial stone. He said that due to the family’s limited resources Farewell is buried in an unmarked grave
Delaware
New LGBTQ visitor center slated for Wilmington, Del.
The Collective to feature gift shop, queer museum, more
During Pride month this year, the Delaware Sexuality and Gender Collective (DSGC) announced plans for The Collective, which will become Delaware’s first LGBTQIA+ visitor center and Wilmington’s first dedicated LGBTQIA+ space in nearly 40 years.
“We’ve been talking about the concept of a brick-and-mortar space for a long time,” said Noah Duckett, co-founder of DSGC.
A licensed clinical social worker, Duckett co-founded DSGC with his mother, Julissa Coriano, in 2018. DSGC is an independent nonprofit organization that provides vital clinical and educational support, social programming and direct-need support to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Some of the programs DSGC offers include a free clothing closet for the trans community, meal support for people recovering from gender-affirming surgery, connections to pro bono legal services, a biannual Pride Market featuring over 100 LGBTQIA+-owned small businesses, and more.
“Our vision for The Collective is a place where our community can come to learn, create, work and be inspired,” said Coriano.
The Collective will feature a visitor center and gift shop highlighting LGBTQIA+-owned businesses in Delaware.
“I think that this is something that’s going to benefit our community so much,” said Duckett.
Some of the LGBTQIA+-owned businesses that DSGC has already partnered with include Stress Induced Art Attack, Moonbeam Art Collaborative, Voce Coffee, Groovy Gemini Co., Scout Cafe, Macaron Social and Huxley and Hiro.
“Specifically in Wilmington, we haven’t had an LGBTQIA+-dedicated space in almost 40 years,” said Duckett.
The Griffin Community Center, which operated from 1986 to 1990, was Delaware’s first LGBTQ+ community center. The Griffin was founded by Ivo Dominguez Jr. and James C. Welch and provided a range of community services during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, including AIDS hotlines, organizational offices and meeting space. The center ultimately closed because of a lack of financial support.
Duckett said DSGC hopes The Collective will carry on The Griffin’s legacy while building a sustainable space for the LGBTQIA+ community.
“I think now more than ever, there’s more and more spaces closing their doors. More and more spaces are losing funding, seeing reduced funding and reduced access, especially LGBTQ+ organizations and communities,” said Duckett.
The Collective will also feature Delaware’s first LGBTQ+ history museum, curated by LGBTQ+ historian Carolanne Deal.
“We don’t have any permanent displays in the state about Delaware’s queer history, and we want people to be able to access that history any day of the year, not just during Pride Month,” said Deal.
With a master’s degree in art history for museum professionals, Deal has more than seven years of experience in curatorial work and hands-on collections care.
“It’s mainly going to be a graphic display with photographs, articles and accessible text that draws people in and creates a story for the community,” said Deal.
Although the museum will not initially have an object collection, Deal said she hopes to add physical archival pieces in the future.
“Delaware has been at the forefront of a lot of queer civil rights, and it’ll be really amazing to have that enshrined in a permanent display that’s not only up for Pride Month,” said Deal.
Duckett said DSGC is currently raising funds with the goal of beginning construction this summer and opening by the end of the year.
Duckett told the Blade that fundraising efforts have reached just under $29,000 and that the organization is awaiting several major donations from community partner organizations.
However, he said DSGC continues to be denied many grants tied to federal or state funding because of restrictions on those funds being used for LGBTQ+-serving organizations.
“Private and corporate donations are absolutely vital,” said Duckett.
Anyone interested in supporting the construction and renovation of The Collective can donate online or contact [email protected] for more information.ose funds being used for LGBTQ-serving organizations.
“Private and corporate donations are absolutely vital,” said Duckett.
Anyone interested in supporting the construction of The Collective can donate online or contact [email protected] for more information.
Rehoboth Beach
HISTORIC: Susan Stewart elected Rehoboth’s first out mayor
Thanks LGBTQ supporters and vows to protect city’s small town charm
Residents of Rehoboth Beach elected City Commissioner Susan Stewart with 61% of the vote on Aug. 8, making her the city’s first openly gay mayor.
Stewart beat fellow commissioners Craig Their and Suzanne Goode in the race, as well as newcomer Jake Raak.
The final mayoral vote results were:
- Susan Stewart: 632
- Craig Their: 203
- Suzanne Goode: 177
- William “Jake” Raak: 23
“I’m very grateful because the LGBTQ+ community not only voted for me, but also supported me,” said Stewart.
Stewart said that she is particularly grateful for the support she received on social media from members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’ve had incredible support,” said Stewart.
Stewart said that her campaign showed her just how much residents of Rehoboth are engaged and care about the city.
“They really want to see what’s best for the community,” said Stewart.
Stewart spoke about the master planning initiative she has been working on as a commissioner, which she plans to continue as mayor.
“We’ve undertaken rewriting the commercial zoning code, and that’s foundational to the next step of the initiative,” said Stewart.
She said that she was proud of the results of charette week that was held last month where residents and business owners had the opportunity to speak with hired urban planners to give feedback for a zoning code update.
Stewart said that Rehoboth is at a tipping point as the city must find a way to balance the growth of the commercial district while improving the quality of life for residents.
“I don’t believe there needs to be tension between the business community and the residential experience,” said Stewart.
“I’m excited about a new master plan because we have a couple hotels coming, and we also have Clear Space Theatre looking for a new home, and we’re working with them,” said Stewart. “We want businesses to stay here.”
Stewart also said that she aims to embrace the concept of a ‘15-minute city,’ making the city much more accessible in terms of transportation in the downtown area for residents.
“The goal is to protect the small town charm and natural beauty of Rehoboth,” said Stewart. “I want to keep the momentum going.”
The Blade asked Stewart about any concerns she might have working with Commissioner Goode, whom she has criticized for sending inappropriate and offensive emails to city staff. Goode finished a distant third in the mayoral race and her husband fell short in his bid for a Commissioner’s seat. In that race, Jeffrey Goode received 239 votes; Patrick Gossett, who’s gay, received 813 votes and Mark Saunders 852. Saunders and Gossett will be sworn in next month.
“I’m really eager to move past this issue with Commissioner Goode,” said Stewart.
She said that she’s heard ‘loud and clear’ from the city that they want to move past this situation as best as they can while Goode remains in her seat as commissioner.
“There are no mechanisms for us to remove a sitting commissioner. Our laws don’t allow it,” said Stewart.
Stewart clarified that she has always focused on Goode’s behavior toward city staff.
“One thing I feel really passionate about is that the city employees have to know that they are heard. They are real people with real jobs, real professional reputations, and they’ve been harmed,” said Stewart.
The Blade also asked if Stewart had made a final decision on whom she plans to nominate to fill her Commissioner seat.
“I’m considering who to appoint and I have not made any final decisions,” said Stewart.
She noted that, as mayor, she only has the power to nominate a candidate and that the board of commissioners will have the final vote on whom to appoint to the board.
Stewart shared that she has received interest from a number of people and finds that to be a good sign.
“I think that’s a great sign because people want to serve. I’m eager to have someone in that seat who’s smart and has the best interests of the city,” said Stewart.
Stewart will be sworn in during the Board of Commissioners meeting on Sept. 18.
Flanagan beats Craig in Minn. Senate primary after winning key LGBTQ endorsements
Gay ANC commissioner sues D.C. over police ‘failure’ to pay reward money
New LGBTQ visitor center slated for Wilmington, Del.
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