Local
Orange edges Biddle, wins D.C. primary
Supporters say he will be an LGBT ally despite a low rating by GLAA
Vincent Orange won the Democratic primary for City Council after absentee ballots were counted. The April 3 race was initially too close to call as Orange led Sekou Biddle by just 523 votes.
D.C. Council member Vincent Orange (D-At-Large), who emerged last Friday as the winner in the city’s April 3 Democratic primary, will be a strong supporter of the LGBT community, according to gay Democratic activist Barry Doneker.
Doneker, a longtime Orange supporter, is first vice president of the Ward 5 Democrats and treasurer of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group.
“I have no doubt in my mind that he will be a good friend of our community,” said Doneker.
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics on April 13 declared Orange the winner over Democratic rival Sekou Biddle in a four-candidate race after it completed the counting of absentee and provisional ballots.
On the day following the April 3 primary, the board said the race was too close to call, with Orange leading Biddle by just 523 votes. As many as 3,000 absentee and provisional ballots remained to be counted.
When those ballots were counted, Orange’s lead over Biddle increased to 1,746 votes, with a final tally of 40.39 percent for Orange and 37.41 percent for Biddle.
A Washington Blade analysis of voter precincts shows that Biddle beat Orange in 12 of 14 precincts considered to have high concentrations of LGBT residents.
The Stein Club didn’t make an endorsement in the race after no candidate was able to obtain a required 60 percent vote from the membership for an endorsement. Club members were divided between Biddle, Orange and Democratic challenger Peter Shapiro, who received 10.56 percent of the vote in the primary.
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, a nonpartisan group, gave Biddle a rating of +5.5 percent on LGBT-related issues compared to a +0.5 percent rating for Orange. The group’s ratings are based on a scale of +10, the highest possible rating, to -10, the lowest rating.
Doneker said the GLAA rating didn’t accurately reflect Orange’s overall support and commitment on LGBT issues. GLAA says Orange lost rating points due to his support for a school voucher program, which the group says it opposes because it provides government funds to private religious schools that aren’t covered by the city’s non-discrimination laws. Orange also lost points for his opposition to cultivation centers for medical marijuana and licenses for nude dance clubs in Ward 5, and his initial support for making permanent prostitution free zones.
LGBT activists say the existing “prostitution free zones” law has been used to unfairly target transgender women for police harassment and arrest. Orange said he changed his mind and came out against making the prostitution free zones permanent.
Doneker points to Orange’s past support on issues such as funding for the city’s LGBT community center and his role as co-sponsor of a bill to make the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs a permanent part of the city government. In 2006, Orange came out against a same-sex marriage law for D.C. He later changed his position on the issue and now says he fully supports the city law allowing same-sex couples to marry.
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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