Local
D.C. Man charged in murder of gay principal killed
Police say Joel Johnson — charged in 2010 murder of middle school principal — shot in Southeast D.C. while committing armed burglary
Joel Johnson was one of four charged in the 2010 shooting death of popular Shaw Middle School principal Brian Betts. (Blade file photo)
One of four young men charged in the April 2010 murder of gay D.C. middle school principal Brian Betts was shot to death on Sept. 19 by a man he attempted to rob at gunpoint in the victim’s Southeast Washington apartment, according to D.C. police.
Joel Johnson, 21, died in the apartment from a single gunshot wound to the head 15 months after he was released from prison upon his completion of an 18-month sentence in connection with Betts’ murder.
Montgomery County prosecutors allowed Johnson to plead guilty in 2011 to accessory after the fact, rather than murder, because he wasn’t the one who shot Betts and he cooperated with police and prosecutors.
D.C. police said Johnson and Jaren Holley, 21, each in possession of a handgun, approached a male victim as he was about to enter his apartment on the 4200 block of 1st Street, S.E., about 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 19.
In a statement, police said Johnson and Holley forced their way into the victim’s third floor apartment where the victim and a woman, who was also present in the apartment, lived. The police statement says investigators believe Johnson and Holley were planning to rob the victim.
Once inside, a struggle broke out between Johnson and the man he and Holley attempted to rob, the police statement says.
“During the course of the struggle, the decedent was fatally shot. The other suspect fled the scene,” the statement says.
Members of the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and determined that Johnson showed no signs of life, according to the statement. It says Johnson was pronounced dead a short time later by a member of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Police said they apprehended Holley on Sept. 24 and charged him with first-degree burglary while armed.
D.C. police homicide detectives, who were assigned to investigate the case, had not filed any charges against the man who shot Johnson in the apartment. One police source said the investigation would likely determine that the man acted in self-defense.
On the day of the incident, D.C. police identified the dead man as Joel Johnson but didn’t immediately disclose that he was the same Joel Johnson implicated in the Betts murder case. That confirmation came from a spokesperson for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s office.
The spokesperson, Ramon Korionoff, told the Blade on Friday that Johnson’s cooperation with police and prosecutors helped authorities obtain a guilty plea of felony first-degree murder from Alante Saunders, the then 19-year-old youth that prosecutors say shot Betts to death inside the bedroom of the popular principal’s Silver Spring, Md., house on April 15, 2010. A judge later sentenced Saunders to 40 years in prison in connection with the Betts murder.
In the weeks following Betts’ murder, Montgomery County police and prosecutors disclosed that Saunders met Betts through a sex chat line that catered to gay men. Police said Saunders contacted Betts through the chat line and expressed an interest in getting together with Betts.
Betts, 42, apparently invited Saunders to his house, police said. As part of a plan to rob Betts, Saunders, Johnson and two others – Deontra Gray and Shariff Lancaster, both 19 — drove to Betts’ house. Prosecutors said Johnson was in the house when Saunders fatally shot Betts in what police described as a “robbery that went bad.”
Police apprehended all four men by tracing their whereabouts when they began making purchases with a credit card they stole from Betts’s houses.
Korionoff said Johnson was sentenced to five years in prison but a judge suspended all but 18 months of the sentence at the recommendation of prosecutors, who persuaded Johnson to plead guilty to the lesser charge as part of a plea bargain arrangement.
Betts had served as principal of D.C.’s Shaw Middle School at the time of his death. D.C. public school officials, who expressed shock and sadness upon learning of his death, described him as a highly acclaimed educator and innovative principal credited with boosting the academic achievement of his school’s students.
On the day Saunders was sentenced to the 40-year prison term an attorney representing Betts’ parents announced that the parents were calling on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether Betts’ murder should be classified as an anti-gay hate crime.
In a news conference at the courthouse where Saunders was sentenced, attorney Gloria Allred, who is well known for taking on high-profile celebrity cases, said Betts’ family retained her to explore whether Betts’ murder should be prosecuted under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
“Brian was a gay man and we believe an investigation should be opened under that law to determine whether a hate crime has or has not been committed by defendant Saunders and if it has whether it is appropriate to proceed with a federal prosecution under that law,” Allred said.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told reporters at the courthouse that day that his office investigated the possibility that Betts’ murder was a hate crime and could not find evidence to substantiate a hate related motive in the case.
“If we had seen evidence of a hate crime, we would have charged it,” he said.
The Justice Department declined to become involved in the case.
Last week, the Betts family released a statement on Johnson’s death.
“We are deeply saddened that after Joel Johnson was given a second chance to become a productive member of society that he chose to continue to follow a path of crime and self-destruction which ultimately resulted in his death,” the statement says. “The loss of our family member, Brian K. Betts, a beloved educator and inspirational member of the community, has left a void for those who had the privilege to know him that will remain forever. Our sympathy is with the Johnson family at this time.”
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
District of Columbia
Capital Pride announces change in date for 2026 D.C. Pride parade and festival
Events related to U.S. 250th anniversary and Trump birthday cited as reasons for change
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, has announced it is changing the dates for the 2026 Capital Pride Parade and Festival from the second weekend in June to the third weekend.
“For over a decade, Capital Pride has taken place during the second weekend in June, but in 2026, we are shifting our dates in response to the city’s capacity due to major events and preparations for the 250th anniversary of the United States,” according to a Dec. 9 statement released by Capital Pride Alliance.
The statement says the parade will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2026, with the festival and related concert taking place on June 21.
“This change ensures our community can gather safely and without unnecessary barriers,” the statement says. “By moving the celebration, we are protecting our space and preserving Pride as a powerful act of visibility, solidarity, and resistance,” it says.
Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President, told the Washington Blade the change in dates came after the group conferred with D.C. government officials regarding plans for a number of events in the city on the second weekend in June. Among them, he noted, is a planned White House celebration of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and other events related to the U.S. 250th anniversary, which are expected to take place from early June through Independence Day on July 4.
The White House has announced plans for a large June 14, 2026 celebration on the White House south lawn of Trump’s 80th birthday that will include a large-scale Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event involving boxing and wrestling competition.
Bos said the Capital Pride Parade will take place along the same route it has in the past number of years, starting at 14th and T Streets, N.W. and traveling along 14th Street to Pennsylvania Ave., where it will end. He said the festival set for the following day will also take place at its usual location on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 2nd Street near the U.S. Capitol, to around 7th Street, N.W.
“Our Pride events thrive because of the passion and support of the community,” Capital Pride Board Chair Anna Jinkerson said in the statement. “In 2026, your involvement is more important than ever,” she said.
District of Columbia
Three women elected leaders of Capital Pride Alliance board
Restructured body includes chair rather than president as top leader
The Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced it has restructured its board of directors and elected for the first time three women to serve as leaders of the board’s Executive Committee.
“Congratulations to our newly elected Executive Officers, making history as Capital Pride Alliance’s first all-women Board leadership,” the group said in a statement.
“As we head into 2026 with a bold new leadership structure, we’re proud to welcome Anna Jinkerson as Board Chair, Kim Baker as Board Treasurer, and Taylor Lianne Chandler as Board Secretary,” the statement says.
In a separate statement released on Nov. 20, Capital Pride Alliance says the restructured Board now includes the top leadership posts of Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, replacing the previous structure of President and Vice President as the top board leaders.
It says an additional update to the leadership structure includes a change in title for longtime Capital Pride official Ryan Bos from executive director to chief executive officer and president.
According to the statement, June Crenshaw, who served as acting deputy director during the time the group organized WorldPride 2025 in D.C., will now continue in that role as permanent deputy director.
The statement provides background information on the three newly elected women Board leaders.
• Anna Jinkerson (chair), who joined the Capital Pride Alliance board in 2022, previously served as the group’s vice president for operations and acting president. “A seasoned non-profit executive, she currently serves as Assistant to the President and CEO and Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a national member collaborative of leading philanthropic foundations and financial institutions committed to closing income and wealth gaps in the United States and building an economy that works for everyone.”
• Kim Baker (treasurer) is a “biracial Filipino American and queer leader,” a “retired, disabled U.S. Army veteran with more than 20 years of service and extensive experience in finance, security, and risk management.” She has served on the Capital Pride Board since 2018, “bringing a proven track record of steady, principled leadership and unwavering dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.”
• Taylor Lianne Chandler (Secretary) is a former sign language interpreter and crisis management consultant. She “takes office as the first intersex and trans-identifying member of the Executive Committee.” She joined the Capital Pride Board in 2019 and previously served as executive producer from 2016 to 2018.
Bos told the Washington Blade in a Dec. 2 interview that the Capital Pride board currently has 12 members, and is in the process of interviewing additional potential board members.
“In January we will be announcing in another likely press release the full board,” Bos said. “We are finishing the interview process of new board members this month,” he said. “And they will take office to join the board in January.”
Bos said the organization’s rules set a cap of 25 total board members, but the board, which elects its members, has not yet decided how many additional members it will select and a full 25-member board is not required.
The Nov. 20 Capital Pride statement says the new board executive members will succeed the organization’s previous leadership team, which included Ashley Smith, who served as president for eight years before he resigned earlier this year; Anthony Musa, who served for seven years as vice president of board engagement; Natalie Thompson, who served eight years on the executive committee; and Vince Micone, who served for eight years as vice president of operations.
“I am grateful for the leadership, dedication, and commitment shown by our former executive officers — Ashley, Natalie, Anthony, and Vince — who have been instrumental in CPA’s growth and the exceptional success of WorldPride 2025,” Bos said in the statement.
“I look forward to collaborating with Anna in her new role, as well as Kim and Taylor in theirs, as we take on the important work ahead, prepare for Capital Pride 2026, and expand our platform and voice through Pride365,” Bos said.
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