Local
Kameny burial ceremony postponed over estate dispute
Headstone, ‘Gay is Good’ marker in place for viewing at Congressional Cemetery
Frank Kameny’s headstone and grave marker are now in place and are open for visitors at the cemetery, which is located at 18th Street and Potomac Avenue, S.E. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
An interment ceremony in honor of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny that was scheduled to take place Saturday, March 3, was abruptly postponed Friday due to a dispute between Kameny’s estate and a local group that purchased the gravesite, according to a cemetery official.
News of the postponement came early Friday morning in an e-mail sent to the Blade by Bob Witeck, a longtime friend of Kameny’s who helped organize two earlier memorial services for the gay rights leader.
“The original plans on Saturday, March 3, 2012 for the gravesite services for Dr. Franklin Kameny are on hold, in deference to the estate of Dr. Kameny,” said Witeck, owner of the D.C. firm Witeck Communications. “There will be no services or ceremony at Congressional Cemetery held this weekend.”
Reached Friday morning, Witeck declined to provide further details at this time. An attorney representing the estate said he was unaware of the cancellation until contacted by the Blade.
Patrick Crowley, interim senior manager for Congressional Cemetery, told the Blade on Friday that the attorney representing Kameny’s estate contacted the cemetery on Monday to request that the interment of Kameny’s ashes be postponed.
“It’s my understanding that it has been postponed because of the wishes of the estate,” Crowley said. “All I can say is there is a disagreement between the parties that own the plot and the estate of Mr. Kameny.”
Crowley said the gay D.C. charitable group Helping Our Brothers and Sisters (HOBS), which had provided Kameny with financial assistance during the last years of his life, purchased the gravesite earlier this year.
Marvin Carter, an official with HOBS, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
D.C. attorney Glen Ackerman, whose law firm represents Timothy Clark, whom Kameny named in his will as the sole representative and heir to the estate, issued a statement to the Blade.
“The Estate of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny was surprised to learn from a member of the local media that Bob Witeck, of Witeck Communications, Inc., disseminated a press release announcing the gravesite service planned for Saturday, March 3, 2012 at Congressional Cemetery is on hold in deference to the Estate,” Ackerman said in the statement. “My colleague, J. Max Barger, is working with Timothy Lamont Clark, the Personal Representative of the Estate, for the purpose of administering the Estate according to Dr. Kameny’s Last Will and Testament.”
“Our instructions originally were to bury the ashes before the service,” said Crowley of Congressional Cemetery. “And then we received notice from the estate that they did not want that to happen until some things got resolved. So that’s where it stands.”
He said he understood that part of the disagreement was over a request by the estate that HOBS sign over to the estate the ownership rights of the gravesite.
Crowley said Kameny’s burial situation was unusual in that the estate does not own the burial site.
“Usually the estate or some family member owns the burial site and there’s no question,” he said. “But in this case the estate and site owners are different parties. It’s an unusual situation for us. As long as the estate has different instructions, we have to go with what they want with the ashes.”
The Kameny gravesite is located next to the gravesite of Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force sergeant who challenged the U.S. military policy of barring gays from service. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Clark told the Blade in an interview last week that he planned to attend the interment ceremony. He said that he planned to keep half of the ashes and donate the remaining half to be buried at the cemetery, where the LGBT community and the public could visit what is to be an historic gravesite to remember Kameny’s legacy.
The Kameny gravesite is located next to the gravesite of Leonard Matlovich, the Air Force sergeant who became the first service member to publicly declare he was gay in 1975 and challenge the U.S. military policy of barring gays from serving in the military.
Kameny served as an adviser to Matlovich and later became friends with the gay Air Force sergeant, who was discharged a short time later under the military’s gay ban.
Crowley said the cemetery is holding two urns containing each of the divided half amounts of Kameny’s ashes until it receives notice that the dispute is resolved and the interment can take place.
He said Kameny’s headstone and grave marker are now in place and are open for visitors at the cemetery, which is located at 18th Street and Potomac Avenue, S.E.
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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