Local
Stein Club endorses Biddle
Former councilmember Orange makes strong showing in D.C. Council bid
Sekou Biddle (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, endorsed Democrat Sekou Biddle Monday night for an at-large seat on the D.C. City Council that’s up for grabs in an April 26 special election.
Biddle beat former Council member Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) and four other Democratic candidates competing for the club’s endorsement in a second ballot vote, capturing 61.2 percent of the ballots cast. He needed at least 60 percent of the vote for the endorsement under the club’s election rules. Both candidates are straight.
The D.C. Democratic State Committee appointed Biddle, a former Ward 4 school board member, to the at-large Council seat on an interim basis in January under rules established for filling vacant Council seats. The seat became vacant when Council member Kwame Brown (D-At-Large) became Council Chair after winning election to that post in November.
Stein members voted on the endorsement following a candidates’ forum held at Town nightclub in which Biddle and each of the other five candidates appearing before the club expressed strong support for LGBT issues, including support for the city’s same-sex marriage law.
Biddle won the club’s endorsement in 2007 in his successful race for a school board seat and was considered the favorite for winning an endorsement again Monday.
But Orange, in a stronger showing than expected, received 16 votes, or 38.7 percent, of the 53 votes cast on the first ballot, preventing Biddle from capturing the needed 60 percent to win. Biddle received 30 votes, or 56 percent, on the first ballot.
Ward 8 Democratic Committee president Jacque Patterson received four votes in the first ballot voting. Joshua Lopez, an aide to former Mayor Adrian Fenty; Bryan Weaver, a former Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner; and Dorothy Douglas, a former Ward 7 school board member, received one vote each in the first ballot vote.
On the second ballot, which was limited to Biddle and Orange, Biddle received 30 votes compared to 19 votes received by Orange.
Three additional candidates running in the April 26 special election were ineligible to compete for the Stein Club’s endorsement because they are not Democrats. They include Patrick Mara, a Republican and longtime supporter of LGBT rights; Alan Page, a Statehood Green Party candidate; and independent candidate Arkan Haile.
Democratic candidate Tom Brown did not return a Stein Club questionnaire required for the club’s endorsement and for participation in the forum. Although he attended the forum, he was not allowed to speak. He has since promised to complete and return the questionnaire, and the club will post it on its website, according to club officials.
The questionnaire responses by the six candidates who attended the club’s endorsement meeting, which cover a wide range of LGBT issues, can be viewed at steindemocrats.org.
“It’s exciting to get the support of Gertrude Stein Democratic Club members,” Biddle said after the vote. “I think I’ve shown in the four years since I’ve been serving the city that I’ve made people proud and I’ve led and have really been a champion for the LGBT community.”
The Stein club’s interim president, Lateefah Williams, said the club’s officers and members would decide within the next week on the amount of a campaign contribution the club would make for the Biddle campaign. She said the club would also provide volunteers to help the campaign.
“We endorsed a candidate who’s very committed to LGBT issues,” Williams said. “We’re very fortunate that all of our at-large Council candidates are indeed supportive of our issues.”
Nearly all special elections in D.C. have been known for attracting a low voter turnout, making the outcome hard to predict, according to political observers.
The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics issued a ruling on Tuesday disqualifying Patterson as a candidate in the April 26 election, saying it determined he failed to submit the required 3,000 petition signatures needed to be placed on the ballot for an at-large Council seat. In a separate ruling, the board confirmed that Mara obtained more than 3,000 signatures and qualifies for placement on the ballot. The board investigated Patterson, Mara and Weaver’s petitions in response to challenges filed by the Biddle and Lopez campaigns. A board spokesperson said the challenges against Weaver’s petitions were dropped.
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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