Local
Could 2014 Gay Games move to runner-up D.C.?
Organizers in ‘sensitive discussions’ over Cleveland
The international LGBT sports organization that chose Cleveland over D.C. to host the 2014 Gay Games says it’s engaging in “sensitive discussions” with a Cleveland-based foundation that reportedly has faltered in its role of coordinating the quadrennial event.
In a cautiously worded statement issued July 23, the Federation of Gay Games said it was “cooperating with its Cleveland partners” and would make “any further announcements” about the status of the 2014 games following meetings in Germany in August.
The statement said the FGG board and Membership Assembly “must now turn our full attention to supporting our colleagues in Germany as we all celebrate the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne,” which begin Saturday.
The statement follows reports that FGG took steps earlier this month to revoke the license it awarded last fall to the Cleveland Synergy Foundation, a non-profit group that submitted the winning bid for Cleveland and nearby Akron, Ohio to host the 2014 Gay Games.
Kelly Stevens, the FGG’s communications officer, told the Blade this week that the FGG would have no further comment on any aspect of its discussions with the Synergy Foundation until after its meetings in Cologne. He also declined to comment on whether the FGG would consider moving the 2014 Gay Games to D.C. if developments in Cleveland deteriorated to the point where it would be impractical to stage the event there.
The Synergy Foundation fueled speculation about a conflict with the FGG when it suggested in a July 19 statement that the FGG may not have followed proper procedures in beginning the process to terminate its license.
“As outlined in the mutually endorsed agreement, this process should begin with a meeting of the two groups’ steering committees,” says the statement. “If that meeting leaves questions unanswered, the groups’ boards of directors are then required to meet. Only if those first two meetings result in an impasse would mediation [be] an appropriate third step, according to the agreement.”
A letter sent to Synergy Foundation by the head of Cleveland’s Department of Economic Development, which has pledged to help finance the 2014 Gay Games, says the FGG has begun the license revocation process and scheduled a 14-day mediation period aimed at resolving “issues” between the two groups.
Stevens told the Blade he could not comment on the outcome of the mediation.
“There will be a general report explaining the status of the 2014 games when we complete our meetings in Cologne,” he said. “We can’t get into further details now.”
Officials with the Metropolitan Washington Gaymes, Inc., the non-profit coalition of LGBT sports groups that submitted a bid to hold the 2014 games in D.C., have said they were designated as the “runner up” venue to host the games should problems arise with Cleveland.
Gay People’s Chronicle, an LGBT newspaper in the Cleveland area, has reported that “financial irregularities and reporting issues” appear to be the reason the FGG has taken steps to revoke Synergy’s license to organize and run the 2014 Gay Games.
In the letter to Synergy, Traci Nichols, director of the Cleveland Department of Economic Development, said the office had suspended its approval of $38,000 to help finance a contingent of Synergy staffers to travel to Cologne to promote the 2014 Games in Cleveland.
As part of Synergy’s bid to operate the games, Cleveland’s mayor and City Council agreed to contribute at least $700,000 in city funds to help finance the games. LGBT sports observers have said the prospects of holding the games in Cleveland would be seriously jeopardized if the city withheld those funds.
Others familiar with the situation, including high-level city officials in Cleveland, have pledged to set up a new entity to organize and operate the games if the FGG revokes Synergy Foundation’s license.
In a statement released July 30, Synergy Foundation founder Jeff Axberg says his “organization licensed to produce the 2014 Gay Games” remains committed to ensuring that the games remain “an event created by the LGBT community.”
Axberg could not be immediately reached to determine whether he was suggesting that removing Synergy as the coordinator of the games in Cleveland would put the event in the hands of a non-gay entity, such as a city agency.
Axberg’s statement also noted that Synergy was sending its own representatives to Cologne, apparently at its own expense.
“In accordance with the rights and privileges afforded to the Cleveland Synergy Foundation through its licensing agreement with the Federation of Gay Games, we are very honored to send a delegation of four members of our Board of Directors to receive the Federation of Gay Games Flag during the Cologne Gay Games’ closing ceremony,” says the statement. “We very much look forward to helping make the 2014 Gay Games a tremendous success.”
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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Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
