Local
Campaign seeks to gain more support for Va. anti-discrimination bill
SupportSB701.org is designed to increase support for measure to protect LGBT state employees from discrimination
Gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin is a Senate Bill 710 co-sponsor (Photo courtesy of Adam Ebbin)
Equality Virginia and ProgressVA have launched an online campaign designed to increase support for a measure that would ban discrimination against LGBT state employees.
SupportSB701.org allows Virginians to sign petitions in support of Senate Bill 701 that state Sens. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) have co-sponsored. Equality Virginia and ProgressVA will then forward them to their respective legislators in Richmond.
“Employment and advancement should be solely dependent on job performance. No one should be subject to discrimination on the job, including sexual orientation or gender identity. Now is the time to move forward and protect our state workers,” McEachin said in a press release that announced the campaign. “All Virginians deserve equal opportunity, fairness and justice.”
James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, told the Washington Blade on Tuesday his organization has already begun working to build additional support for the measure among Virginians and local businesses. Eighty percent of the state’s 25 largest private employers have added sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies, while 60 percent of them also include gender identity and expression.
Eighteen of the 29 Virginia-based companies listed on the 2013 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Index include LGBT-specific protections in their non-discrimination policies.
“One of our priorities is working to create a Virginia that reflects our values, and that includes an open and affirming environment where every Virginian is supported and protected regardless of who they love,” Anna Scholl, executive director of ProgressVA, which supports a number of progressive causes, told the Blade. “That’s definitely a priority for us, and this was a great opportunity to partner with Equality Virginia who does fantastic work to help further build our working relationship but also to achieve some really tangible victories for members of our communities.”
The state Senate has passed bills similar to SB 701 twice, but they have stalled in the House of Delegates.
Parrish conceded the measure’s chances of passing in the House of Delegates once the 2013 legislative session begins in January are “very slim.” He said a vote on SB701 will allow Virginians to know where their legislators stand on the issue.
James Parrish (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
“While we expect it to pass the Senate as it [has twice before,] the House will be challenging,” said Parrish. “It will also give voters a chance going into 2013 to hold delegates mean-spirited accountable who are out of touch with equality.”
Scholl had a similar outlook.
“It can often be difficult to tell what some of the ultra-conservative elements of the GOP are going to do down in Richmond,” she said. “There is wide support for this legislation across the commonwealth and it’s really a common sense bill to create the same protections for state employees that dozens of large employers across the commonwealth offer their own workers. And if we’re serious about making Virginia a place for workers, a place for employers and a job-friendly environment than we do everything we can to make sure that we are a lace that welcomes all potential employees and encourages them to devote their time and energy to make where we live a better place.”
Equality Virginia and ProgressVA unveiled the SupportSB701.org campaign four days before the release of statistics on the Transgender Day of Remembrance that indicate the majority of trans Virginians have suffered discrimination.
Eighty percent of Virginia respondents who took part in the 2011 report on trans-specific discrimination the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released said they experienced harassment or mistreatment in the workplace: 22 percent said they lost their jobs, while 26 percent said their employers denied them a promotion.
Forty-four percent of respondents said prospective employers simply did not hire them.
Equality Virginia, the Coalition for Transgender Rights in Virginia, Richmond Transformers, Black Transmen, Inc., the Gender Expression Movement and Ladies of the Blue Ridge-Transgender Alliance participated in the survey.
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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