Local

Fisette not running for U.S. House seat

Gay Arlington official cites ‘dysfunctional climate’ in Congress

Published

11 years ago

January 23, 2014

Gay Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette won’t run for Rep. James Moran’s seat. (Washington Blade file photo by Jeff Surprenant)

Gay Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette announced late Wednesday that he has decided not to run this year for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Rep. James Moran (D-Va.).

Fisette was among about a dozen prominent Northern Virginia politicians, including gay State Sen. Adam Ebbin, mentioned by political observers as potential candidates to run in the June 10 Democratic primary to seek the nomination for Moran’s seat in the 8th Congressional District.

The overwhelmingly Democratic district includes parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties and most of the City of Alexandria. The winner of the primary is expected to easily win the general election in November.

“Many friends and colleagues have asked of my interest in running for this seat and have encouraged me to run,” Fisette said in a statement. “While appreciative of those comments, I have decided that I will not seek this position,” he said.

“One reason for my decision is the contrast between the dysfunctional climate on Capitol Hill and the can-do atmosphere in Arlington,” Fisette said. “The state of politics at the national level is disheartening, with the outsized influence of shrill, well-financed forces and the disintegration of sincere efforts to forge compromise, respect one’s colleagues and realize the potential of government to make people’s lives better.”

Fisette became the first known openly gay elected official in Virginia in 1997 when he won election to an at-large seat on the five-member Arlington Board, which serves as the county’s governing body. He has won re-election four times since then by wide margins, with his latest electoral victory last year.

Although Ebbin has yet to make an official announcement, a prominent gay Democratic activist in Arlington has said “the word is out” that Ebbin plans to run for the congressional seat.

Ebbin became the first out gay to win election to the Virginia General Assembly in 2003 when he won his race for a seat in the House of Delegates. He won election to the State Senate in 2011 in a district that covers most of the territory of the 8th Congressional District.

In a related development, the Washington Post reported that Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) planned to announce on Thursday he was forming an exploratory committee to assess whether to run for the 8th District congressional seat. Businessman and former Navy fighter pilot Bruce Shuttleworth announced his candidacy for the congressional seat last week. Both are Democrats who have expressed strong support for LGBT rights as have all of the Democrats thought to be considering running for Moran’s seat.

In his statement saying he isn’t running, Fisette added, “There are many qualified Democrats who could represent the Eighth District very capably. I will work with our party’s nominee to secure a victory in the November election and keep the Eighth District in the progressive ranks.”

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Maryland

Maryland Congressman Andy Harris is new chair of the House Freedom Caucus

Republican replaces U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) who lost primary

Published

1 hour ago

September 18, 2024

Baltimore Banner

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is the new leader of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Photo by Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner)

BY PAMELA WOOD | Maryland’s lone Republican in Congress, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, is the new chair of the right-wing Freedom Caucus.

Harris has replaced prior Freedom Caucus chair U.S. Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, who lost his Republican primary earlier this year.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

District of Columbia

Man who had sex with cucumber in driveway wanted by D.C. police

Homeowner provides police with video; incident listed as ‘lewd, indecent,’ act

Published

12 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Police are looking for this suspect.

D.C. police are seeking help from the community to identify a man captured on video performing a sex act on himself with a cucumber in the driveway of a home in the city’s Truxton Circle neighborhood near Dunbar High School, according to both a police press release and police incident report.

“On Friday, September 6, 2024, at approximately 5:00 p.m. the suspect was in the 200 block of N Street, NW.,” the police press release says. “The suspect performed a lewd act in view of the public,” it says. “The suspect then left the scene.”

The police incident report lists the offense committed by the unidentified man as “Lewd, indecent, or Obscene Acts.” The report says the homeowner called police to report the incident.

The local online publication DC News Now spoke to the homeowner whose security camera video, which she posted on Reddit, shows the man removing a cucumber from what appears to be a lunch box and crouching down and appearing to insert the cucumber in his anus while standing behind the homeowner’s car parked in a driveway.

“I was so disgusted, and freaked out,” DC News Now quotes the homeowner, Catherine Baker, as saying. “I want people, I want my neighbors to know and keep an eye out for this person,” Baker told DC News Now. “There’s a lot of kids, there are high school students, they walk themselves to and from school, but we all have to be vigilant about this kind of thing,” Baker is quoted as saying.

The police report, which identifies Baker as having contacted police to report the incident, describes what appears to be the suspect’s actions as captured on the video, which Baker provided to police. It says the man, identified as Suspect 1, “went on to move from the front of the vehicle to the rear of the vehicle in front of respondent 1’s [Baker’s] window and continued to perform lewd and obscene acts to the cucumber.”

The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately reach Baker for further comment.

She told DC News Now that she had not seen the suspect in her neighborhood prior to seeing him in the video from her security camera. The publication reports that Baker noticed that at one point the suspect appears to notice the security camera as seen in the video.

“It was that eye contact that really unsettled me, because it then continues for longer than one would imagine,” DC News Now quotes her as saying. “And of course, then he saves the cucumber for later, so it really leaves one with a lot of questions that no one wants to have on their mind,” she told DC News Now.

She was referring to the video that shows the suspect placing the cucumber back in his lunchbox before he walks away from the scene carrying the lunch box through an alley next to the driveway where the incident took place.

The police press release includes two photos of the suspect taken from the video. It says anyone who can identify the suspect or has further information about the incident should contact police at 202-727-9099.

A NSFW video of the incident was posted on Reddit here.

Virginia

Federal judge denies motion to dismiss gay student’s complaint against Va. school district

Complaint alleges Prince William County School District did not stop bullying

Published

1 day ago

September 17, 2024

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

A gay former Prince William County middle school student alleges the county’s school board and school district failed to stop bullying against him because of his sexual orientation.

InsideNoVa.com reported the student’s mother filed the Title IX complaint in June 2023.

The website notes the complainant was a student at Ronald Reagan Middle School in Haymarket from 2019-2022, and his classmates subjected him to “regular and relentless anti-LGBTQ+ bullying.” InsideNoVa.com reports the complaint states the student and his mother “were met with victim blaming and inaction” when they approached the school’s principal and assistant principal.

The complainant is no longer a student in the school district.

U.S. District Court Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr., in Alexandria on Aug. 22 denied motions to dismiss the complaint.

“PWCS remains committed to providing an inclusive and excellent education for every student and has no tolerance for harassment, bullying or intimidation of students,” Prince William County Public Schools Communications Director Diana Gulotta told the Washington Blade on Monday in an emailed statement.

“Regarding this specific case, PWCS does not comment on active litigation,” she added.