Local
David Catania forms mayoral exploratory committee
Five-term Council member could be nation’s capital’s first gay mayor
Council member David Catania (I-At-Large) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At-Large) filed papers on Wednesday to create an exploratory committee for a possible run for mayor, raising the possibility that he could become the first openly gay mayor of the nation’s capital.
As a 16-year veteran on the Council, Catania has been credited with taking the lead on many far-reaching legislative initiatives; including the city’s same-sex marriage law, the expansion of health insurance coverage to nearly all city residents long before Obamacare, and sweeping reforms at the Department of Health and the AIDS office.
In a letter to city residents posted on his exploratory committee’s newly launched website, Catania said improving the D.C.’s public education system is currently his top priority as a Council member and would be his highest priority as mayor should he choose to enter the already crowded mayoral competition in 2014.
Mayor Vincent Gray and four of Catania’s Council colleagues are among the 11 candidates that have entered the Democratic mayoral primary. A Statehood Green Party candidate and Libertarian Party candidate have also entered the race and are expected to be on the ballot in the November general election along with Catania should he decide to run.
“In 1997, as a political outsider, I ran for the Council of the District of Columbia,” he said in his open letter. “I believed that through hard work and standing up for what’s right, I could contribute to a brighter future for our city and its residents. Since then, we have made incredible progress as a city, and I am proud to have played a part in it,” he said.
Catania won his first race for the Council in 1997 as a Republican running in special election to fill a vacant at-large seat. He won re-election the following year followed by election wins in 2002, 2006, and 2010.
In 2004, Catania withdrew from the Republican Party in response to the support by then-President George W. Bush and the Republican Party leadership of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He has remained an independent since that time.
Should he decide to run for mayor next year he would have to give up his Council seat since that seat is also up for election in 2014. But as an independent, Catania would have the advantage of knowing who wins the Democratic primary scheduled for April 1 before the deadline for filing as an independent mayoral candidate in June.
And if he chooses to run, he would be considered a significant challenger to the Democratic nominee in a city where the mayoral contest has almost always been effectively decided in the Democratic primary. No non-Democratic candidate has ever won election as mayor since D.C.’s first home rule election for mayor in 1974.
Although Catania has wide name recognition and has won a citywide election for the Council six times, he has always competed for one of the two at-large seats up for grabs every two years that by law must go to a non-majority party or independent candidate. While Catania has won his races by large margins he – along with all other non-Democrats competing for the non-Democratic seat – has received about half the votes that the Democratic candidate running for the other at-large seat.
Political observers say the drop off in the vote for the non-Democrat may be due more to the fact that many voters don’t realize they can vote for two candidates rather than one in the at-large race, with the top two vote-getters winning the seat. Even with the so called “drop-off” vote, Catania has always received strong support from Democratic voters, a factor that could make him competitive against a Democratic mayoral candidate.
Catania said in a telephone interview on Wednesday the fact that the Blade was the only news media outlet so far to ask him about his sexual orientation out of more than a dozen interviews throughout the day was indicative of the “extraordinary progress” the city has made on LGBT equality.
“16 years ago when I was first elected to the Council in every sentence in every report, every story that came out in the weeks following my election there was always a comma – openly gay,” he said. “It was a label that no matter what I was talking about it always included my sexual orientation. And 16 years later we don’t see that anymore.”
Catania said he had no objections to being labeled as openly gay then or now. But he said the apparent disinterest in his sexual orientation as he launches a mayoral exploratory committee this week shows that the city has progressed to a point where someone’s sexual orientation is no longer a big deal.
“I think it underestimates the independence of all of our voters to suggest that they will vote for someone simply by virtue of their sexual orientation, or their gender or their color or geography,” Catania said. “I think we are entering an era where people no longer feel that they have to or are inclined to support a person who may demographically be similar to them.”
He added, “We have a smart and sophisticated electorate that will make a decision based on who they believe best represents their value system and that they trust. And in that debate I think I’m going to do well across all demographics.”
Catania said he’s optimistic that if he decides to run his record as a Council member and a concerned city resident will likely be how he will be judged.
“I’m very proud of what I feel I’ve contributed to over these last 16 years,” he said. “The renaissance of the city and particular initiatives I’m proud of includes things like marriage equality, smoke-free D.C. I’m proud of offering the medical marijuana initiative. I’m proud of the work I did to bring health insurance to 40,000 people. I’m proud of the work I did on HIV/AIDS and on so many other subjects.
“But an enduring challenge remains, and that is the quality and the state of our public education system,” Catania added. “And that is the singular focus of this exploration at this point. How to set our kids up to succeed. We are never going to tackle the income inequality in this city if we continue to do things as we have done them. And at the moment, while our schools are showing a modest improvement, that improvement is uneven and is leaving vast portions of our city behind because we do not have excellence in every school for every child. We do not. And until we make it a top priority of this city we are not going to be the city that we can be.”
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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