Local
Stein Club election results upheld at special meeting
Challenge to validity of election dropped, proposed bylaw changes to be considered at next regular meeting
(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
More than 70 members of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club voted by an overwhelming margin Wednesday night to uphold the election two weeks ago of three new officers who gained control of the club in an upset victory.
The vote came in a special meeting called one week earlier by the club’s current officers to consider whether to invalidate the Dec. 3 club election of Martin Garcia, 27, as president; Angela Peoples, 26, as vice president for legislative and political affairs; and Vincent Villano, 26, as vice president for administration.
“We were all very excited to reaffirm the election of Marin Garcia and his slate,” said outgoing Stein Club President Lateefah Williams, who lost to Garcia by a vote of 47 to 45.
“And I’m very happy that we’re going to be moving forward as a united Stein Club,” Williams told the Blade after the meeting. Williams later said she misspoke and that she meant to say, “As a whole, we overwhelmingly reaffirmed the election of Martin Garcia and his slate.”
In a gesture aimed at avoiding a rift between the club’s old and new members, Williams withdrew from contention for the club presidency in the event that the special meeting voted to invalidate the election of the new officers and called for a new election.
“The new members have a hill to climb here with the old members,” said Stein Club treasurer Barrie Daneker, who won re-election unopposed after Garcia and his supporters chose not to run candidates for the treasurer and secretary’s position.
Berrie Daneker (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
“But I’m confident that once they see their leadership and if they produce, then Gertrude Stein will be stronger than we’ve ever been in our 37 years of existence,” Daneker told the Blade.
Some feared that a bitter argument would erupt at the special meeting over a proposed challenge to the validity of 17 of the 46 new members who joined the club less than a week before the election.
The new members, who Garcia and his supporters recruited, are believed to have given Garcia, Peoples, and Villano their razor-thin margin of victory over Williams and her slate of candidates seeking the two vice president positions.
But during nearly two hours of discussion, no one moved to take action against the 17 new members, who came under question during the past week when the home addresses for 11 of them couldn’t be verified. Others questioned the qualification of six of the 17 new members who joined under a special membership category with a reduced fee of $15 restricted to students, senior citizens, and limited income people. The club’s regular membership costs $35.
Although many expected the special meeting to divide along the lines of the longtime club members and the new insurgent members who gained control of the club, those speaking in support of upholding the election and withdrawing the challenge came mostly from the ranks of the old members.
Gay Democratic activist and longtime Stein Club member Bob Summersgill said no one presented any evidence or valid rationale for disqualifying any of the new members.
“There is nothing in the bylaws that says anything about where you have to live,” he said. “There is nothing in the bylaws to define low income.”
Gay activists Lane Hudson and Steve Gorman, who are also club members of longstanding, said they were impressed with Garcia and his supporters’ political organizing skills that enabled them to bring in close to 50 new members.
Garcia told the meeting that he and the new members that supported him have been involved in local and national politics and Democratic Party activities. He said his objective is to strengthen the Stein Club by bringing in more members with diverse backgrounds so it can do more in its longstanding role as the city’s largest LGBT political organization.
Transgender activist and longtime Stein Club member Jeri Hughes, who was one of the members who challenged the club election, surprised some at the special meeting when she said the meeting should not vote on the question of invalidating the election or challenging memberships.
Instead, Hughes proposed bringing up the invalidation question at the club’s next regular meeting in January.
As she has in Facebook postings and in a Blade commentary, Hughes called the election a “farce,” saying the winning side “stacked” the election meeting with people who were “strangers” to the club.
While the new members acted within the club’s rules and bylaws, “that doesn’t make what they did right,” she said.
However, when fellow club member Ed Craft told her later that he planned to withdraw from the club because of his objection to the new officers’ takeover, Hughes urged him not to do so.
“I don’t think these are bad people,” she told Craft in a Facebook message Wednesday night. “I think they did something wrong…and foolish, but the club does good work and has done good work. We can still do good work. Leaving serves no purpose.”
Gertrude Stein Democratic Club President-elect Martin Garcia (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Former club president Kurt Vorndran, who was among the longtime members who called for letting the election of the new officer’s stand, introduced a resolution calling for changing the club’s bylaws to restrict the ability to vote in the election of club officers to people who have been members for at least 30 calendar days.
The club voted to table Vorndran’s motion, with the intent to bring it up at the next regular meeting in January.
Craft told the Blade he believes many of the old members will withdraw from active participation in the club due to the flap over the election and for what he said was the failure of the special meeting to enable longtime members to raise concerns and ask questions.
“I feel the meeting tonight was a complete farce,” he said. “I feel it was staged, that Lane Hudson through his motions made it impossible for the meaningful exchange of information that was the purpose of this meeting to take place.”
Craft was referring to a set of rules governing the meeting that Williams and the existing Stein Club officers proposed at the beginning of the meeting but that were changed by motions introduced by Hudson and other members supportive of Garcia’s slate.
The changes, among other things, reduced the length of time for people to speak from three minutes proposed by Williams and the club’s board, to two minutes. Toward the end of the meeting, when a question and answer period called for by the rules proposed by Williams and approved by the meeting participants began, Hudson introduced a motion to end it after just two questions were raised and answered. The meeting attendees — the majority of whom were new members supportive of Garcia’s slate of officers — quickly voted to approve Hudson’s motion.
Craft said the abrupt termination of the question and answer period upset him and other longtime club members who wanted to ask more questions of Garcia and the other newly elected officers.
While Craft spoke to the Blade immediately after the meeting adjourned, club member Robert Brannum shouted to the members collecting their belongings and leaving the meeting room that he was outraged he wasn’t allowed to speak during the closing session of the meeting. When Brannum, who spoke earlier in the meeting, requested to speak at the closing session, Hudson and other members objected, saying the rules adopted at the start of the meeting prevented him from doing so.
“The whole purpose of having an orderly meeting is to achieve the objectives of the meeting, and that’s what we did,” Hudson told the Blade. “People had their say, they came together and we’re in a much better place than when the meeting began.”
In a statement she sent to the Blade Thursday morning, Williams said more effort will be needed to heal the rift between all of the old and new members.
“I think the meeting was successful as an initial first step at dialogue between long term and new members and bringing both groups together,” she said. “Unfortunately, due to some motions that ended the dialogue early, some members still feel that they did not have an opportunity to have their questions addressed.”
Williams added, “I think the key is to look at this meeting as the beginning of the process of healing and not the culmination of it. I hope that all members continue to engage one another to work through any concerns that may still exist. I wish the new board well and I hope that they continue efforts to help bridge the gap between long term and new members.”
District of Columbia
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith to step down Dec. 31
Cites plans to spend more time with family after 28 years in law enforcement
In a surprise statement on Dec. 8, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith will step down from her job on Dec. 31 after a little over two years as the city’s police chief.
In August of 2023, after Bowser named Smith as Acting Chief shortly before the D.C. Council approved her nomination as permanent chief, she told the Washington Blade in an interview she was committed to providing “fair and equal treatment” for all of the city’s diverse communities, especially the LGBTQ community.
She pointed out that in her role as the department’s Chief Equity Officer before she was appointed chief, she worked in support of what she said was the significant number of LGBTQ police officers serving in the department and also worked closely with the department’s LGBTQ Liaison Unit.
“We also have LGBTQ members serving in the reserve and volunteer corps supporting many functions in the department, including support for the LGBTQ Liaison Unit,” she told the Blade. “We have a nationally recognized LGBTQ Liaison Unit.”
Bowser’s statement announcing Smith’s resignation praised Smith for playing a lead role in significantly lowering the city’s crime rate.
“Chief Smith dramatically drove down violent crime, drove down the homicide rate to its lowest levels in eight years, and helped us restore a sense of safety and accountability in our neighborhoods,” the mayor said in her statement. “We are grateful for her service to Washington, D.C.”
Bowser’s statement did not provide a reason for Smith’s decision to step down at this time. But in a Monday morning interview with D.C.’s Fox 5 TV, Smith said she was stepping down to spend more time with her family based in Arkansas.
“After 28 years in law enforcement I have been going nonstop,” she told Fox 5. “I have missed many amazing celebrations, birthdays, marriages, you name it, within our family,” she said. “Being able to come home for Thanksgiving two years after my mom passed really resonated with me,” she added in referring to her family visit in Arkansas for Thanksgiving last month.
Smith said she plans to remain a D.C.-area resident following her departure as police chief. Bowser said later in the day on Dec. 8 that she needs some time to decide who she will name as the next D.C. police chief and that she would begin her search within the MPD.
Smith served for 24 years in high-level positions with the U.S. Park Police, including as Park Police Chief in the D.C. area, before joining D.C. police as Chief Equity Officer in 2021. A short time later she was named an assistant chief for homeland security before Bowser nominated her as Police Chief in 2023 and installed her as acting chief before the D.C. Council confirmed her as chief.
She became D.C. police chief at a time when homicides and violent crime in general were at a record high in the years following the pandemic. Although Bowser and Smith have pointed to the significant drop in homicides through 2024 and 2025, Smith was hit with President Donald Trump’s decision in August of this year to order a temporary federal takeover of the D.C. Police Department and to send National Guard Troops to patrol D.C. streets on grounds, according to Trump, that the D.C. crime rate was “out of control.”
Both Bowser and Smith have come under criticism from some local activists and members of the D.C. Council for not speaking out more forcefully against the Trump intervention into D.C. law enforcement, especially over what critics have said appeared to be D.C. police cooperation with federal immigration agents sent in by the Trump administration.
During a mayoral End of Year Situational Update event called by Bowser on Dec. 8, shortly after announcing Smith’s resignation, both Bowser and Smith said they cooperated with federal law enforcement officials to a certain degree as part of the city’s longstanding practice of cooperating with federal law enforcement agencies since long before Trump became president.
“We are currently on pace to be at the lowest number of homicides in over eight years,” Smith told those attending the event held at the D.C. Department of Health’s offices. “To date, homicides are down 51 percent compared to 2023, and we are down 30 percent compared to the same time last year,” she said.
She also noted that homicide detectives have been closing murder cases by arranging for arrests at a significantly higher rate in the past two years.
In her 2023 interview with the Blade, Smith said she would continue what she called the department’s aggressive effort to address hate crimes at a time when the largest number of reported hate crimes in the city were targeting LGBTQ people.
“What I can say is in this department we certainly have strong policies and training to make sure members can recognize hate crimes,” Smith said. “And officers have to report whether there are any indications of a possible hate crime whenever they’re investigating or engaged in a case,” she added. “We have a multidisciplinary team that works together on reported hate crimes.”
District of Columbia
Third LGBTQ candidate running for Ward 1 D.C. Council seat
Community organizer Aparna Raj a ‘proud daughter of immigrants’
In what appears to be an unprecedented development in local D.C. elections, three known LGBTQ candidates are now running for the open Ward 1 D.C. Council seat in the city’s June 16, 2026, Democratic primary.
Longtime Ward 1 community organizer Aparna Raj, a bisexual woman who identifies herself on her campaign website as a “queer woman of color,” announced her candidacy for the Ward 1 Council seat on Aug. 12 of this year.
The Washington Blade didn’t learn of her status as an out-LGBTQ candidate until late last month when one of her supporters contacted the Blade after publication of the Blade’s story about the second of two gay male candidates running for the Ward 1 Council seat – Ward 1 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Miguel Trindade Deramo.
Trindade Deramo’s candidacy announcement on Nov. 18 followed the announcement in July by fellow gay Ward 1 ANC commissioner Brian Footer that Footer is running for the Ward 1 Council seat in the upcoming Democratic primary.
If any of the three Ward 1 LGBTQ candidates were to win the primary and win in the November general election, they would likely become the second LGBTQ member of the D.C. Council. Then gay D.C. Board of Education member Zachary Parker, a Democrat, won election to the Ward 5 Council seat in 2022. Parker, who is up for re-election in 2026, is considered by political observers to have a strong chance of winning the upcoming election.
“Aparna Raj is a community organizer, union member and proud daughter of immigrants,” her campaign website states. “She is running for D.C. Council in Ward 1 because she believes everyone – from Adams Morgan to Park View, from Spring Road to U Street – can and should have what they need to survive and thrive,” the statement on her website continues.
It adds, “Aparna is a renter, a queer woman of color, and a democratic socialist fighting for a better world … She lives in Columbia Heights with her husband, Stuart, and their little dog, Frank.”
In a Dec. 5 interview with the Blade, Raj said she identifies as a bisexual woman and has been a longtime supporter of D.C.’s “queer and trans communities” on a wide range of issues that she says she will continue to address if elected to the Council.
She said she currently works as a communications manager for a nonprofit organization that supports local elected officials across the country on issues related to economic justice.
As the daughter of parents who immigrated to the U.S. from India, Raj said she will continue her work as an advocate for D.C.’s immigrant communities, especially those who live in Ward 1.
“And I feel very strongly that we need someone who will organize and fight for the working class, who will fight for renters and workers and immigrants and families, to not just be able to get by but to be able to live a full life here,” she told the Blade. “Making sure that we’re providing enough for renters and for workers means that is an LGBTQ+ issue,” she said. “That is an issue that benefits the LGBTQ+ community.”
Among the things she will also address as a Council member, Raj said, will be to push for the city to do all it can to counter the policies of the administration of President Donald Trump.
“When the LGBTQ community is so under attack right now and when queer and trans folks are facing homelessness, are making less money on the job than their cis counterparts – when folks are scared about whether they will be able to continue healthcare or be able to hold on to their job through this period, having someone that takes on their landlord, that will stand on picket lines with workers and will certainly fight the Trump administration – all that is an LGBTQ justice issue,” she told the Blade.
Raj, Trindade Deramo, and Footer are among a total of six known candidates so far who are competing in the June 16 Democratic primary for the Ward 1 Council seat.
The other three, who are not LGBTQ, are Ward 1 ANC member Rashida Brown, longtime Ward 1 community activist Terry Lynch, and Jackie Reyes-Yanes, the former director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs.
Similar to Raj, Trindade Deramo and Footer have been involved as community activists in a wide range of local LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ issues as described on their respective campaign websites.
And like all candidates on the ballot for the city’s 2026 primary, the three LGBTQ Ward 1 candidates will be competing for voters under the city’s newly implemented rank choice voting system. Under that system, voters will have the option of designating one of the LGBTQ candidates as their first, second, or third choice for the Council seat,
“I’m really excited about ranked choice voting,” Raj said. “And I think it’s great that there’s so many incredible candidates who are dropping into the Ward 1 race,” she said. “We’ll also be including a lot of voter education into our campaign materials as well since this will be the first year that D.C. is doing ranked choice voting.”
The three LGBTQ Ward 1 candidates are running at a time when local political observers are predicting the largest change in local D.C. elected officials, including the office of mayor and D.C. Council, in decades following the 2026 election. Longtime D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), announced on Dec. 5 that she will not run for re-election in 2026.
Her announcement came shortly after Mayor Muriel Bowser announced she too is not running for a fourth term in office as mayor and about a month after incumbent Ward 1 Council member Brienne Nadeau (D) announced she is not running for re-election.
Bowser’s announcement prompted speculation that more Council members will run for mayor, some of whom will give up their Council seats if they either win or lose the mayoral race because their respective Council seats are also up for election in 2026.
Thus the 2026 D.C. election shakeup, in addition to bringing about a new mayor, could result in five or six new Council members on the 13-member Council.
Maryland
FreeState Justice launches 501(c)(4) group
FreeState Equality will focus on policy and advocacy
FreeState Justice, an LGBTQ organization that provides legal services, community programs, and public education in Maryland, announced the launch of FreeState Equality on Wednesday.
The new, independent organization intends to pursue advocacy and policy work beyond the legal capability of FreeState Justice, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. FreeState Equality functions as a 501(c)(4) organization, meaning it can partake in political activity.
“We are committed to transparency throughout this process and look forward to continuing our work together in service of LGBTQ+ Marylanders,” said FreeState Justice Executive Director Phillip Westry.
FreeState Equality will take on policy, advocacy, and civic engagement initiatives while FreeState Justice will pursue legal and direct-service work, according to Westry.
While both organizations adhere to similar values, they will feature separate leadership, operations and compliance.
FreeState Equality is hosting its first launch fundraiser on Dec. 10 at the Brass Tap in Baltimore. The event, held from 5-7 p.m., will feature insight from FreeState Equality staff about how Maryland policy can support the state’s LGBTQ community.
Attendees can purchase fundraiser tickets on Zeffy for $25 general admission, which includes a free first drink. The organization also welcomes additional donations.
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