Local
Grosso discusses first months in office
At-large councilmember said ethics and election reform remain top priorities
D.C. Council member David Grosso (D-At-Large) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
D.C. Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) reflected upon his first seven months in office during an interview with the Washington Blade on Monday.
“It’s been a fairly exciting seven months,” Grosso said while speaking to the Blade in his office in the John A. Wilson Building. “I’ve been getting my feet wet, but also getting a well-rounded education on what happens up here.”
Grosso, who was an aide for then-D.C. Councilmember Sharon Ambrose from 2001-2006 and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s legislative director from 2006-2007, defeated then-incumbent D.C. Councilmember Michael A. Brown last November for the at-large D.C. Council seat reserved for a non-Democratic candidate.
Grosso said ethics and election reform remain his top priority.
He and Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5) in February introduced a bill – the Public Financing of Political Campaigns Amendment Act of 2013 – that would allow candidates to qualify for public financing if they receive contributions of $100 or less from individual donors. Each $100 a political hopeful raises would be matched by $400 under the measure.
“It gets more individuals engaged in the political process,” Grosso said, noting Connecticut and other states have implemented similar systems. “Somebody who donates $10 or $20 can see themselves as having the same political impact as somebody who donates $1,000. It kind of just opens up the doors of the political system.”
Grosso spoke with the Blade less than a week after the D.C. Board of Ethics and Accountability filed Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) $13,600 for accepting gifts from two city contractors.
The Washington Post on July 11 reported that Barry said in a statement he voluntarily disclosed the gifts and his “character and integrity remain intact.” He denied any assertions of an ethics scandal during an interview with MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry two days later.
“I find it extremely disappointing, just in general,” Grosso, who sits on the committee charged with reviewing the allegations against Barry and determining whether the Council should investigate them, said. He also pointed out he recuses himself from votes on city contracts of more than $1 million. “Councilman Barry has shown time and time again an unwillingness to play by the same rules as everybody else. And for me I think that’s just inexcusable.”
Grosso also supports non-partisan local elections and instant run-offs in contests where no candidate wins with a majority of votes.
“That’s a huge problem in our city, especially in special elections,” he said. “You have people winning with 15, 20, 30 percent of the vote, which is not a representative democracy.”
Government has ‘obligation’ to stop anti-LGBT discrimination
Grosso pointed out LGBT rights issues also remain an important part of his agenda.
The Council last month unanimously approved a bill that Grosso introduced alongside Barry and Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6,) Jack Evans (D-Ward 2,) David Catania (I-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) that expands the list of people who can officiate a wedding in D.C. Grosso also co-sponsored a bill his colleagues passed that will allow transgender Washingtonians to change the gender on their birth certificates without having undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Grosso, who received an endorsement from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance during his campaign, noted the country continues to make “great strides” on LGBT-specific issues, but noted it has “a long way to go.”
“Every single day we’re going to find a new thing where discrimination was prevalent, and we’re going to have to fix it,” he said. “It’s our obligation as a government to fix those things.”
Councilman blasts AG vote, supports liveable wage bill
Grosso blasted the Council’s late night vote on July 10 to delay next year’s attorney general election that D.C. voters approved in 2010. He specifically criticized Evans and Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) — who are both running for mayor in 2014 — for supporting the postponement of the referendum’s implementation.
“These people are running for mayor and they think they can just snap their fingers and do away with the peoples’ will,” Grosso said. “But they’re going to turn around in less than a year and ask for the people’s vote. I ask, when are people going to step up and say no, enough is enough with this kind of stuff.”
Grosso, who declined to tell the Blade whether he would support D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray if he were to seek another term in office, has also signed onto a bill that Wells introduced last week that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in the nation’s capital. Grosso said he is also working on a separate measure that would legalize the drug in D.C.
Grosso on July 10 also voted for the so-called Wal-Mart bill that would require the company and other large retailers to pay their D.C. employees at least $12.50 an hour – twice the city’s minimum wage of $8.50 an hour. Gray has yet to publicly say whether he will sign the measure into law.
“We must balance the interest of attracting large retailers to our less developed Wards 5, 7 and 8, while also attracting quality jobs to support our residents and their families,” Grosso said in a blog post on Wednesday.
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 this 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. 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.
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