Local
Sibley Hospital disputes lesbians’ allegation of discrimination
Allegedly had to “prove the legitimacy of their relationship” to obtain newborn’s birth certificate
A spokesperson for D.C.’s Sibley Memorial Hospital disputed a claim by three members of the D.C. City Council that the hospital appears to have discriminated against a married lesbian couple last month by making it more difficult for them to obtain a birth certificate for their newborn child.
In a July 28 letter to Sibley Hospital President Robert Sloan, Council members Phil Mendelson (D-At-large), David Catania (I-At-Large), and Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) said they were contacted by a lesbian mother who had given birth at Sibley. The Council members said the mother told them the hospital had a policy of requiring married same-sex couples to “prove the legitimacy of their relationship, a burden not placed on opposite-sex couples, before they can obtain their newborn’s birth certificate.”
According to the letter, the hospital informed the lesbian couple that same-sex couples were required to provide a marriage certificate to verify their marriage while opposite-sex couples were “presumed married” and were not required to provide additional information to document their marriage.
“This requirement, whether isolated to this incident or an aspect of hospital policy, is wrong, discriminatory, and antithetical to the District’s laws providing equal rights and equal dignity to all residents,” the three Council members said in their letter.
Sheilah Roy, Sibley’s director of public relations and marketing, told the Blade on Monday that the hospital was following a directive it received from the D.C. Office of Vital Records. Roy said the directive came in an e-mail dated Jan. 22, 2010, and calls on all city hospitals to verify the marriage of same-sex couples before providing those couples with a birth certificate of a child bearing the names of both members of the couple.
“The parents must provide a copy of the certified marriage license or domestic partnership registration,” Roy quoted the directive as saying. “Attention must be paid to the relationship between the partners,” she quoted the directive as saying. “Close relatives registered as domestic partners may not have the second partner added [to the birth certificate] when the partner is related by blood.”
The last sentence Roy quoted pertains to a provision in the D.C. domestic partnership law that allows blood relatives, such as a parent and an adult child or siblings, to become domestic partners.
“In other words, it says that we are required to ask for a marriage license or domestic partner registration,” Roy said. “So we were following what we were told to do by the D.C. government.”
American University law professor Nancy Polikoff, a recognized expert on family law pertaining to same-sex couples, said the city’s domestic partnership law and a separate parental rights law require that same-sex couples be treated the same as opposite-sex couples in all areas, including the issuance of birth certificates by hospitals. She said the directive issued by the city’s Office of Vital Records, if correctly described by the Sibley spokesperson, appears to be an incorrect interpretation existing D.C. law.
Mahlori Isaacs, a spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Health, of which the Office of Vital Records is a part, said she would make inquires to confirm the accuracy of the directive that the Office of Vital Records sent to Sibley and other city hospitals.
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.
Magic is happening for Round House’s out stage manager
Four bisexual women on stereotypes, erasure, representation, and joy
Unconventional love: Or, fuck it, let’s choose each other again
Pride flag raised at Stonewall after National Park Service took it down
Trans students not included in new India University Grants Commission equity rules
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
N.Y. lawmaker vows ‘Pride flag will fly again’ at Stonewall Monument
Meet D.C.’s Most Eligible Queer Singles
