Local
A somber night for Fenty supporters
Exuberance of early hours gave way to disappointment for mayor’s faithful
The early exuberance at Adrian Fenty’s campaign headquarters on Tuesday night slowly changed to disappointment as election results rolled in showing the D.C. mayor wouldn’t retain his job.
As polls closed at 8 p.m., Fenty supporters were optimistic, despite polls showing that he was several points behind D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray.
Clad in green T-shirts, Fenty campaign workers stood outside the headquarters waiving signs as they shouted “four more years!”
One Fenty supporter inside the building clapped her hands as she sang “Victory is ours … We told Gray … Get thee behind!”
As the night progressed, hip-hop music filled the headquarters as one supporter shouted, “C’mon, ya’ll. There’s a celebration here!” Signs were posted in the building reading “4 More for Fenty” and “Fenty is Fantastic!”
Supporters announced Fenty victories in precincts they said he had won, including precinct 17 in Ward 2, an area with a significant LGBT population that Fenty carried by a margin of 731-334.
One gay Fenty volunteer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity early in the evening, said he was “pretty optimistic” based on “preliminary numbers and general sentiment.”
The volunteer dismissed polls showing that Gray was leading Fenty on the day of the primary and said early voting would help the mayor retain his position.
“We were out there every day helping folks get to the precincts,” the volunteer said.
But the mood became more somber as the night progressed and the headquarters filled with supporters anxiously awaiting returns.
Some waited for hours for the results to become public online as one supporter quipped, “Are the people counting the votes the same people responsible for shoveling the snow last winter?”
As early results began to trickle in from wards across the District, one supporter noted the numbers showed Gray with a 40-point lead over Fenty.
“It’s still early and our strength hasn’t yet come in,” the supporter said with strained optimism.
The impatience over waiting for the results gave way to alarm at one point as one campaign volunteer fell and shattered a glass wall at the campaign headquarters. Supporters looked on with concern as an ambulance and police cars arrived to care for the injured worker.
The mood turned somber as it became clear late in the evening that Fenty lost to Gray. Unofficial election results the next day showed Gray leading with 53 percent of the vote compared to the 46 percent that Fenty claimed.
Christopher Dyer, director of the Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, said he’s anticipating the new leadership from Gray in the wake of Fenty’s loss.
“Obviously, the mayor didn’t win, but [I’m] looking forward to being as helpful as I can to Chairman Gray as he assumes leadership of our great city in January,” Dyer said.
Dyer said he doesn’t think the LGBT vote played a major role in the outcome.
“I haven’t looked at all the results, but I think that the … gay vote pretty much mirrored the non-gay vote,” Dyer said.
Still, Dyer said the residents of Ward 2 — a part of the District with a significant LGBT population — were “predominantly Fenty supporters.”
“It’s hard to tell,” Dyer said. “The results would indicate that in LGBT-friendly precincts, Fenty did well, but in precincts where there are LGBT residents east of the river, Gray did well.”
But Dyer maintained it’s time to focus on bringing the city together under the new leadership.
“It would be nice to know what the gay vote is, but I think the real important thing is for the city to come together and be supportive of whomever our leaders are,” Dyer said.
Asked whether he thinks he would take a role in the Gray administration, Dyer replied, “I serve at the pleasure of the mayor and it’s a great pleasure.”
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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