Local
Police, prosecutors pledge renewed fight against hate crimes
Police Chief Cathy Lanier. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and officials with the United States Attorney’s Office and the Office of the D.C. Attorney General called for improvements in the city’s juvenile justice system as a means of addressing a sharp increase in hate crimes targeting the LGBT community.
Lanier and the other officials answered questions and pledged to redouble efforts to combat anti-LGBT hate crimes at an April 14 town hall meeting sponsored jointly by the D.C. group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, the Office of the D.C. Attorney General and the D.C. Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.
GLOV Chair A.J. Singletary opened the meeting, held at the city’s Reeves Center municipal building at 14th and U Streets, N.W., by reviewing recent D.C. police crime statistics showing that hate crimes in the city targeting LGBT people increased by 40 percent over the past year.
“This troubling increase in hate crimes against the LGBT community must be stopped,” he said. “GLOV is committed to ensuring the District government is doing all that it should to protect our community, and we must ensure that the community is doing what it can to protect itself.”
Singletary and GLOV Vice Chair Hassan Naveed told of GLOV’s programs aimed at educating LGBT people on steps they can take to avoid being targeted for a hate crime and how best to respond when threatened with anti-LGBT violence. Details of the group’s anti-violence programs can be accessed at glovdc.org.
Lanier and Robert Hildum, deputy D.C. Attorney General for public safety, said a large number of hate crimes targeting the LGBT community are committed by juveniles, who, upon arrest, must be processed through a juvenile justice system they described as flawed. The strict privacy rules required under D.C.’s juvenile justice laws often prevent D.C. police from properly investigating crimes of violence by sometimes barring them from questioning youth charged in crimes.
In addition to Singletary and Naveed, others speaking at the town hall were Andrew Barnett, executive director of the LGBT organization Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL); Chris Farris, former GLOV co-chair; and Wendy Pohlhaus, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney for External Affairs.
Pohlhaus said the U.S. Attorney’s office, which prosecutes criminal cases in D.C., must carefully decide which cases should be prosecuted as hate crimes based on the language in the city’s hate crimes statute.
“It’s sometimes hard for the community to understand that the government must prove that a crime was committed because of hatred or prejudice” in order to successfully prosecute a case as a hate crime, she said.
Singletary said it was significant that much of the top brass of the police department attended the town hall meeting, including Deputy Chief Diane Groomes and the heads of the police units that oversee the GLLU.
Virginia
Black transgender woman murdered in Va.
Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray killed in Petersburg on March 13
A Black transgender woman was murdered in Petersburg, Va., on March 13.
Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray, who was also known as Mable, was a drag queen who won the Miss Mayflower EOY pageant in 2015. Reports also indicate she was a well-known community activist in Virginia and in North Carolina.
Local media reports indicate police officers found Sanchez-McCray, 42, shot to death inside a home in Petersburg. These initial media reports also misgendered her.
“My heart is shattered and heavy with grief at the news of Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray’s murder — the first trans life stolen from us this year,” said Victoria Kirby York, director of public policy and programs for the National Black Justice Coalition, in a statement.
Kirby York in her statement also criticized the media coverage of Sanchez-McCray’s murder.
“The early reports of Shyyell’s death stripped her of her identity by misgendering her, a deeply damaging and persistent failure by law enforcement and media that haunts these cases again and again,” she said. “Misgendering doesn’t just erase a person’s truth — it can derail justice entirely, or worse, bury a case in silence as investigators chase the wrong identity, the wrong face, the wrong name.”
Authorities have not made any arrests.
The Petersburg Bureau of Police has asked anyone with information about Sanchez-McCray’s murder to call Petersburg-Dinwiddie Crime Solvers at 804-861-1212.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
Virginia
Virginia General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session ends
Voters in November will consider repealing marriage amendment
The Virginia General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session ended on March 14.
Lawmakers have yet to approve a budget, but they did pass a resolution that paves the way for a referendum on whether to repeal the state’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Lawmakers also advanced House Bill 60, which would protect PrEP users from insurance discrimination.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has until April 13 to decide to pass, amend, or veto legislation before it goes back to the House of Delegates on April 22.
Spanberger on Feb. 6 signed the bill that sets the stage for the marriage amendment referendum. Voters will consider whether to “remove the ban on same-sex marriage; (ii) affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and (iii) require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?”
Equality Virginia has been working during this legislative cycle to urge lawmakers to allocate funding towards LGBTQ rights. The budget would expand funding for schools, competency training for the 988 suicide hotline, and funding to provide gender affirming care to LGBTQ youth.
“As the budget moves through conference and the Reconvene Session approaches on April 22, Equality Virginia remains focused on ensuring our victories this session translate into durable protections,” Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Progress on marriage equality, nondiscrimination protections, and HIV care funding was essential, but Virginia must do more.”
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