Local
Anti-violence activists to launch independent hate crime reporting project
Project will allow hate crime victims to report assaults to community organizations without going through the MPD
Hundreds joined a hastily assembled March 2012 demonstration organized after anti-gay violence in the nation's capital. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Anti-violence activists have begun to lay the groundwork for a project they maintain will provide a more accurate count of the number of anti-LGBT hate crimes and incidents of domestic violence among same-sex couples in Washington, D.C.
The initiative would allow victims to report attacks to service providers without going through the Metropolitan Police Department. Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, the D.C. Trans Coalition, the Rainbow Response Coalition and other member groups would enter information about crime victims, the location in which their assailants attacked them and other demographic information into a database.
GLOV Vice Chair Hassan Naveed told the Blade that the project remains in the preliminary planning stages. Rainbow Response Coalition Treasurer Paul Ashton said that the coalition hopes to send its initial data to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs at the end of the year. NCAVP would then use it in its 2012 report that it will release in 2013.
This would mark the first time that the agency would include District-specific data on LGBT bias-motivated crimes and domestic violence among same-sex couples in its annual publication.
“We can actually capture in our community what it looks like and determine who is a survivor of a hate crime, who is a survivor of intimate-partner violence,” said Ashton. “It really gives us the legs to advocate for policy changes as well as money to ensure service providers are trained properly to handle hate crimes and domestic violence cases in our community.”
MPD statistics show that there were 12 reported bias-related crimes based on sexual orientation from January through April, compared to two that were based on gender identity and expression.
The agency indicated that there were 43 reported bias-related crimes based on sexual orientation in 2011, compared to 35 in 2010 and 30 in 2009. MPD statistics show that there were 11 bias-related crimes based on gender identity and expression in the District in 2011, compared to 10 in 2010 and five in 2009.
Naveed was quick to applaud what he described as MPD’s improved outreach to immigrants and LGBT Washingtonians. He said he always encourages victims to report hate crimes to the police, but he stressed that many victims of anti-LGBT bias attacks remain afraid to come forward to the police because of their immigration status or previous experiences with law enforcement.
Naveed further stressed that the MPD officers who refused to take a report of an anti-gay attack against five lesbians outside the Columbia Heights Metro station last July and other high-profile incidents can dissuade victims of anti-LGBT bias crimes from going to the police.
“We want to create a process accessible to people who can go and report hate crimes to service providers in the city,” said Naveed. “GLOV’s efforts are to get a bigger picture of hate crimes in the city through these statistics. This would be an accessible way for the LGBT community to be able to report these hate crimes in a comfortable setting.”
MPD spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump responded to the reporting initiative late on Tuesday.
“We welcome input from community organizations, which can be a valuable source for information about people who have not reported information to the police,” she told the Blade. “However, it must be understood that Department figures are based on reported incidents that meet legal definitions of both a crime and a crime that was specifically motivated by a legally defined bias. More importantly, we would caution that we cannot help victims or protect the community if people do not make a report to the police. We urge anyone who has been a victim of crime or a hate crime to report it to police. Individuals who believe they have been the victim of a hate crime can contact police in a number of ways, including calling 911, reaching out to the relevant liaison office or an officer working in their neighborhood, or leaving a message on the Hate Crime Hotline.”
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
