Local
Questions surface over resignation of AIDS director
Catania calls loss of Hader ‘catastrophic’
The announcement Tuesday that Dr. Shannon Hader, director of the city’s HIV/AIDS administration, had resigned after serving three years at an agency she is credited with greatly improving drew expressions of puzzlement and concern among LGBT and AIDS activists.
Speculation that the resignation could be linked to disagreements between her and the director of the Department of Health, Dr. Pierre Vigilance, under whom she served, surfaced when the department omitted any mention of Hader in a statement announcing her interim replacement.
“I share the concern of the community about the abrupt departure of Dr. Hader,” said Peter Rosenstein, a local gay activist. “We have to make sure we don’t fall back into the hole again on AIDS,” he said, referring to the AIDS administration’s reputation for being trouble-plagued prior to Hader’s tenure there.
Mayor Adrian Fenty formally announced Hader’s resignation at an impromptu news conference Tuesday afternoon, when he introduced Dr. Nnemdi Kamanu Elias, the AIDS administration’s chief medical director, as Hader’s temporary replacement.
“Our city has made considerable strides in the fight against communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, increasing the number of HIV testing programs and investing in HIV/AIDS awareness and research,” Fenty said. “I am confident that Dr. Kamanu Elias and the District will continue to ensure that city residents are armed with the necessary tools to protect and improve their health.”
The mayor’s office said a nationwide search would be conducted to find a permanent replacement.
Fenty told the Blade on Thursday that Hader, whom he described as having done “a fantastic job” at the city’s HIV/AIDS administration, felt it was time to “move on” in her career.
“Just like everything else in life, there’s a time when you move on and do something bigger, better and/or different,” he said. “And I think it was that time for her.”
Fenty said he had no comment on speculation of friction between Hader and Vigilance.
Hader will leave her current post July 15 and will begin a new job sometime this summer as vice president of the D.C.-based Future’s Group, an international consulting firm that works on public health issues.
Hader told the Blade in an e-mail that she would leave it to the mayor’s office to comment on details surrounding her resignation rather than discuss the matter herself.
“I will continue to be involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, just changing hats from time to time,” she said. “I look forward to putting on the new hat of ‘expert & engaged community member’ with regards to the fight against HIV/AIDS in D.C. I am a resident, I am a constituent, I am passionate about our community and feel privileged to be (and continue to be) a part of it!” she said in her e-mail.
Gay D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who have been outspoken advocates for city programs on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Washington Post, which contacted Catania, reported he declined to comment on speculation that he was deeply troubled that Fenty and Vigilance did not take adequate steps to keep Hader in her post as D.C.’s AIDS administration head.
“Her loss is catastrophic,” the Post quoted Catania as saying.
Catania told the Blade in an interview last week, before news of Hader’s resignation surfaced, that she played an instrumental role in improving the city’s AIDS programs, helping to transform the AIDS administration from what he called an agency in “total chaos.”
Although few people use its full name, the administration was merged two years ago with other health department agencies and renamed the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis & Sexually Transmitted Disease Administration.
As chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, Catania is also credited with focusing attention on the problems at the AIDS administration through numerous committee oversight hearings.
Before becoming head of the city’s AIDS administration, Hader had served as an epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program in Zimbabwe.
Kamanu Elias became chief medical officer for the D.C. AIDS administration in February 2009. The statement from the mayor’s office says her duties included ensuring “the technical and programmatic quality of HIV/AIDS and related programs throughout the DOH.”
Before joining the D.C. government, she worked as senior manager at the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership in the Netherlands. The organization is an arm of the European Commission and was created to support the development of “clinical interventions for HIV and other diseases in Africa and to build the capacity of developing country scientists,” the statement from the mayor’s office says.
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 this 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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