Local
DREAM Act event features lesbian wedding
Fiji native faced deportation before DOMA struck down
Prerna Lal, an immigrant from Fiji, and her American partner, Lindsay Schubiner, were married this week at a DREAM Act event.
A crowd of more than 200 mostly Latino teenagers and young adults cheered at a Capitol Hill church on Tuesday as a lesbian bi-national couple exchanged marriage vows at an annual event organized to promote passage of immigration reform legislation pending in Congress.
The decision by organizers of the 2013 Annual DREAM Act Graduation Ceremony to include a same-sex wedding as part of the event held at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation was viewed by activists as a sign of solidarity between the LGBT community and the U.S. immigration reform movement.
“We are working for the rights of all Americans, and whether you are straight or gay or bisexual or whatever your national origin or religion, our country draws its strength from our diversity,” gay U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) told the gathering.
“And together we are one, and everyone here is part of that very special country that we live in,” Polis said. “And it’s only a matter of the paperwork catching up.”
Polis spoke to the gathering shortly before Prerna Lal, an immigrant from the Republic of Fiji who recently graduated from George Washington University Law School, and her American born partner, Lindsay Schubiner, were joined in marriage in a ceremony at the church altar.
Lal told the Blade after the ceremony that U.S. immigration authorities had begun deportation proceedings against her due to her undocumented status. With the Supreme Court overturning the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act and she and Schubiner obtaining a marriage license, the deportation proceedings will be halted, Lal said.
“My parents brought me from the Island of Fiji when I was 14 years old,” she said in recounting her lengthy saga to remain in the U.S. “We settled in the Bay Area of California. I grew up there. I went to high school there. I went to college and graduate school there,” she said.
“My parents got their papers eventually but I was aged out of the process,” she said, noting that under a quirk in the immigration law, she was no longer eligible for permanent residence status even though her parents were because she was older than 21.
“I moved to D.C. to go to law school and to become an immigration lawyer and fight my case,” Lal said. “And in the middle of that I met Lindsay and we started living together and I fell in love. And so she asked me to marry her.”
Lal and Schubiner, a policy adviser on health and immigration issues, each said they plan to continue their work in the D.C. area to push for immigration rights for others.
“I’m thrilled to be able to celebrate my union with Prerna here today with everyone,” Schubiner told the Blade. “We’re so blessed to be able to spend our lives together and we finally have all the rights that we deserve,” she said.
“And now we’re going to spend the rest of our time making sure everyone has all of those rights regardless of marital status and regardless of immigration status.”
D.C. immigration attorney Andres Benach, one of the organizers of the event at which Lal and Schubiner were married, said the gathering has served each year as a symbolic graduation ceremony for the children of undocumented immigrants who themselves are undocumented.
Although many have graduated from high school they often are blocked from enrolling in college because they are ineligible for student loans due to their undocumented status. The DREAM Act, among other things, would lift the ban on student loans for undocumented immigrants.
The National Immigrant Youth Alliance and Dream Activist.org, youth led groups that advocate for the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform legislation, are the lead sponsors of the Dream Act Graduation event.
Polis noted that the Obama administration recently put in place a federal policy directive temporarily halting the deportations and providing work permits for DREAM Act-eligible students.
But opposition to the directive by immigration reform opponents in the House of Representatives raised concern among immigration reform advocates that the deportations could resume if the House doesn’t pass a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill approved by the Senate earlier this year.
Rachel Tiven of Immigration Equality has led efforts by that group to push for federal legislation allowing partners of bi-national same-sex couples to obtain legal immigration status. Now that the Supreme Court ruling overturning DOMA has brought about that objective, Tiven said Immigration Equality will continue to work for comprehensive immigration reform that covers both LGBT people and everyone else.
“That’s why we’re so proud to be here today,” she told the gathering. “We will fight all the way to the end until every person can live their life and their full potential in freedom and safety in this country.”
Polis urged those attending the event to redouble their efforts to persuade the House of Representatives to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.
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.
Unconventional love: Or, fuck it, let’s choose each other again
Pride flag raised at Stonewall after National Park Service took it down
Trans students not included in new India University Grants Commission equity rules
Calendar: February 13-19
FOIA lawsuit filed against State Department for PEPFAR records
I keep getting rejected on the apps
Pride flag removed from Stonewall Monument as Trump targets LGBTQ landmarks
Gay man details secret struggle with bulimia
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
