Local
New leader takes helm of Virginia Partisans
The new president of Virginia’s LGBT Democratic group says reaching out to other organizations and raising money to elect pro-gay candidates will be the main priorities for the organization.
Terry Mansberger, 48, a gay resident of Annandale, Va., was announced as the new president of Virginia Partisans on Saturday. The group selects new leaders — as well as other officers — every two years through a mail-in vote.
Mansberger, a product manager for AT&T, said that when he takes office Jan. 1 he wants to start work on building membership and will reach out to other LGBT organizations to accomplish that goal.
“I want to grow membership and I want to grow access to the state — beyond where we’ve been traditionally in Northern Virginia,” he said.
The goal of building membership, Mansberger said, “goes hand-in-hand” with the goal to support the Democratic candidates Virginia Partisans wants to elect.
Still, Mansberger predicted that 2010 would be somewhat of a breather for his organization, noting that only congressional seats in Virginia will be up for grabs. Elections for offices within Virginia will next occur in 2011.
Mansberger said Virginia Partisans would play a role in policy-making in Richmond by influencing Democratic officials. Even with more limited Democratic influence following Republican wins in the 2009 election, Mansberger pointed to some areas where progress can be made.
“There’s some areas around workplace equality and non-discrimination, things like that, that I think would have a broader appeal than that hot-button marriage issue,” he said.
Despite its losses on the ballot this year, Mansberger said the Democratic ticket for the most part did a good job in embracing LGBT Virginia residents. He noted that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds reached out early to LGBT people in his campaign and attended some Virginia Partisans events.
“We had a good relationship with Creigh Deeds,” he said. “I talked to him quite a bit and his campaign was certainly supportive, [and] wanted our support.”
By comparison, Mansberger said Steve Shannon, the Democratic candidate who sought to become Virginia attorney general, didn’t embrace the state’s LGBT population until later in the campaign cycle.
“I would have liked to seen him go after [Virginia attorney general-elect Ken] Cuccinelli’s radical positions on GLBT [issues] a bit earlier, but he waited to the 11th hour and it was too late,” he said. “His campaign is the only one that really didn’t seriously reach out to us.”
Mansberger said he was frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm among Democrats in this year’s races. He acknowledged that Deeds voted twice for the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but said he had “come a long way on the issue” and “was willing to help and support us.”
“Given the alternative, I really don’t understand why people would sit on the sidelines the way they did,” he said.
While saying he wants to reach out to other LGBT groups, Mansberger noted a distinction between Equality Virginia and Virginia Partisans. He said Equality Virginia serves a more educational role, while Virginia Partisans is geared toward electing candidates and influencing the Democratic Party.
“We support Democrats first and foremost and we make sure that we hold the Democratic Party to the fire on our issues and make sure that we’re not just getting lip service, but we actually have candidates that embrace and work for us,” he said.
In recent years, there has been some occasional friction between Equality Virginia and Virginia Partisans. The groups sometimes support different candidates in state House races. And tensions rose last year when Equality Virginia honored former Republican Del. Vince Callahan at its annual dinner.
Callahan had supported some pro-LGBT legislation, but sometimes during his political career voted against pro-gay measures and voted twice in favor of the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Virginia Partisans criticized the choice, while Equality Virginia defended the decision as advancing its non-partisan role.
Mansberger said “certainly it’s important” to make differences of opinion known when they exist between the two organizations, but noted that he doesn’t think such differences have caused a “real rift” between the two groups.
Virginia Partisans elected a number of officers Saturday. Tiffany Joslyn, an Arlington, Va., resident, was as elected as vice president; Alexandra Beninda, a transgender Arlington, Va., resident, was elected as treasurer; Brian Cook, a gay Arlington, Va., resident, was elected as secretary; and Clifton Taylor, a Falls Church, Va., resident, was elected as assistant secretary.
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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