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Gansler dodges impeachment attempt & more
Gansler dodges impeachment attempt
Saber-rattling from Maryland Republicans against Attorney General Douglas Gansler’s same-sex marriage ruling, including calls for impeachment and state funding cuts for agencies that recognize out-of-state marriage licenses, have so far amounted to nothing.
Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) demanded a House floor vote on his resolution to impeach Gansler, but was denied by Speaker Michael Busch, who acted on advice from the parliamentarian that any resolution should be referred to the House Judiciary Committee first.
Only delegates were permitted to speak at a hastily arranged hearing at 3 p.m. March 31, but Dwyer declined to speak to the substance of the impeachment charges, saying to do so would legitimize what he labeled a “kangaroo court.”
Dwyer, a Judiciary Committee member, instead used his allotted time to declare that he would bring charges against Busch.
Gansler did not attend the hearing, but Democratic delegates on the committee defended him and his marriage opinion during their allotted times.
The committee voted 17-5 that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with impeachment. A second vote was held to dismiss the resolution.
Later that day, Equality Maryland operated a phone bank to persuade delegates to oppose Dwyer’s announced state budget amendment to cut funding for recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses. Ultimately, no such amendment was presented before either legislative chamber.
“We’re pretty confident this is over for now,” said Morgan Meneses-Sheets, Equality Maryland’s executive director.
A committee hearing on House Bill 462, which would add LGBT non-discrimination protections for teachers in public schools, was scheduled for Wednesday, after DC Agenda deadline. To become law, the bill must pass the Senate before April 12.
HARLEY DENNETT
Hearing set for suspect in gay man’s murder
More information surrounding the murder of a gay man inside his car in Southeast D.C. is expected to surface during a court hearing this month for the 20-year-old man arrested in the case.
Police on March 12 charged Antwan Holcomb of D.C. with first-degree murder while armed in connection with the shooting death of Anthony Perkins, 29, on the 2900 block of Fourth Street, S.E.
Police said Perkins was pronounced dead on the scene around 5:15 a.m. Dec. 27 after neighbors reported hearing gunshots. Officers found Perkins unconscious inside his car, which had steam billowing from its engine.
A friend of Perkins said the man might have been the target of a thug who had been “terrorizing” the Congress Heights neighborhood. Rev. Anthony Motley, a D.C. minister running for an at-large seat on the D.C. City Council and a longtime friend of Perkins, said a mutual friend told him that the killing might be linked to a man believed to be responsible for a string of robberies that Perkins learned about.
“It is said that the individual Anthony knew who was robbing people had become paranoid that Anthony would talk [to police],” Motley told DC Agenda in January. “It’s assumed that is why he was shot.”
Police said Holcomb was being held at the D.C. Jail on an unrelated matter when he was charged with Perkins’ murder. Police have not said whether Holcomb is the person Perkins’ friend believes was robbing people in the neighborhood where Perkins was killed.
Holcomb, who is being held without bond, is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court on April 21. Prosecutors could at that time outline the evidence that police obtained linking him to the murder.
LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Md. group steps up gay marriage support
The Maryland Black Family Alliance is taking a more public profile in the fight for same-sex marriage.
“We wanted to make sure that people know who we are what we stand for,” said Lea Gilmore, one of the group’s founders. “We want it known that there is significant and organized support in Maryland’s black communities for marriage equality and LGBT civil justice.”
Gilmore said to counter the perception that there are no visible straight black allies in the LGBT civil rights movement, MBFA recently conducted a photo shoot outside Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
“The images will be included in ads that will appear in our very respected African-American local and regional media,” Gilmore said. “We will do a broader campaign in the near future.”
The ads, funded by the Human Rights Campaign, are intended to illustrate black support for same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights issues.
“As African Americans, we more than most know the pain that injustice causes,” Gilmore said, “so we hope with these ads to galvanize even more organized support for equality.”
STEVE CHARING/BALTIMORE OUTLoud
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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