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Judge finds probable cause in Bachelor’s Mill stabbing

Customer slashed outside bar after altercation

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police, stabbing, MPD, Metropolitan Police Department

A Maryland man is charged in a stabbing that reportedly occurred outside Bachelor’s Mill. (Photo by Cliff; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled on Feb. 7 that prosecutors established probable cause that Terrill Terry Jr., 22, of La Plata, Md., committed an assault with intent to kill while armed outside the Capitol Hill gay bar Bachelor’s Mill five days earlier.

D.C. police arrested Terry on Feb. 4 for allegedly slashing a Bachelor’s Mill customer multiple times on the street one block from the bar following an altercation he allegedly started in the bar minutes earlier.

Judge John R. Johnson ordered Terry held without bond while he awaits trial during a Feb. 7 court hearing in which a D.C. police detective testified that jealousy may have been the motive behind Terry’s action.

An arrest affidavit prepared by Det. David Gargac says the incident began inside the Bachelor’s Mill at 1104 8th St., S.E., about 2:15 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, when Terry struck an acquaintance in the head with a beer bottle while the two men were on the dance floor.

Gargac testified that witnesses told police that Terry believed the acquaintance was making advances toward someone he described as his “husband” at a private party earlier that evening. The detective said several of the people at the party – including Terry and the acquaintance – went to the Bachelor’s Mill after leaving the party.

The affidavit says that when Terry struck the acquaintance with the bottle a scuffle broke out on the dance floor and bar employees escorted the acquaintance and Terry out of the club. According to the affidavit, bar security personnel and police officers out front did not respond to the acquaintance’s assertion that Terry assaulted him with the bottle, and the acquaintance and a friend walked away in one direction and Terry walked in the opposite direction.

But minutes later, according to the affidavit, Terry approached the acquaintance and charged toward him, prompting the acquaintance’s friend to block Terry’s path and urged him to back off. It was at that point that Terry slashed the friend at least six times with a sharp object that Det. Gargac said witnesses think may have been a box cutter, the affidavit says. The weapon has not been found.

Gargac testified that the friend suffered slash wounds to the neck, face, shoulder and wrist, among other places, and was bleeding “profusely” before an ambulance took him to Washington Hospital Center’s Med Start Unit, where he underwent emergency surgery.

He has since been released and is recovering from injuries that could have been fatal had they landed in a slightly different place, said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Petkun at the Feb. 7 court hearing.

The acquaintance spoke to the Blade on condition that he not be identified by name. He said the person Terry called his “husband” came on to him at the party and he politely declined that person’s overtures.

He said Terry expressed annoyance that he and Terry’s friend had a brief conversation at the party, but he never thought that interaction would prompt Terry to become violent when group left the party and arrived at the Bachelor’s Mill.

Webster Knight, Terry’s attorney, argued during the court hearing that the government presented insufficient evidence to show probable cause that Terry committed an assault with intent to kill. Knight did not disclose what, if any, explanation his client has for how the altercation started or whether or not Terry acknowledges hitting the acquaintance and slashing the acquaintance’s friend.

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Virginia

Education Dept. probes pro-trans policies in Northern Virginia schools

Investigation targets schools in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County

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The Lyndon Baines Johnson Building, Washington D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education (Photo Credit: GSA/U.S. Dept. of Education)

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating five school districts in Northern Virginia for pro-trans policies that may violate provisions of Title IX and run afoul of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order prohibiting federally funded educational institutions from promoting what his administration calls “gender ideology.”

The Hill reported news of the probe on Monday, citing a Feb. 12 letter from the agency to America First Legal, a conservative organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, which indicated that an investigation had been opened into the Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County school districts.

The letter comes in response to a complaint filed by America First Legal, which argued that “These school districts violate Title IX by maintaining policies that permit ‘gender
expansive and transgender students’ the ability to feel safe and comfortable by using
sex-segregated intimate facilities consistent with their ‘gender identity,’ while
denying similarly situated individuals, whose ‘gender identity’ is the same as their sex, the ability to feel safe and comfortable in the use of the sex-segregated common
restrooms and locker rooms of their sex.”

Per the Education Department’s letter, “the specific polices challenged by complainant are as follows: Alexandria City Public Schools’ ‘Nondiscrimination in Education’ policy; Arlington County Public Schools’ ‘Transgender Students in Schools’ policy; Fairfax County Public Schools’ Regulation 2603.2; Loudoun County Public Schools’ Policy 8040; Prince William County’s Regulation 738-5.”

America First argues that the five policies constitute unlawful sex-based discrimination as defined under Title IX because the “only option” available to cisgender students in these school districts who “feel unsafe and uncomfortable” in these spaces is to use “a private restroom or an alternative that ‘minimize[s] the loss of instructional time.'”

The organization further argues that provisions in these policies that instruct educators and staff to use the names and pronouns chosen by their students violate a provision of Trump’s executive order prohibiting schools from helping to facilitate their “social” gender transitions.

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District of Columbia

‘AG Schwab! Do your job!’ D.C. activists protest for trans youth healthcare

Action comes days after anti-trans executive order

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Activists hold signs and chant, 'A.G. Schwab, do your job!' while walking in a picket line outside of the D.C. Attorney General's office. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

About 100 activists protested outside of the offices of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Thursday, Feb. 13. The assembled protesters held signs in support of access to gender-affirming care and support for trans youth.

The activists called upon the D.C. Attorney General to “issue public guidance affirming that denying care based on gender identity is unlawful under D.C.’s anti-discrimination laws as well as use the full authority vested in their office to ensure this care is reinstated,” according to a statement.

This action comes days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning gender-affirming care nationwide for minors. D.C. hospitals, including Children’s National Hospital, began to comply.

Speakers at the rally included Rebecca York, director of youth development and community engagement for the D.C.-area LGBTQ youth services organization, SMYAL.

Rebecca York speaks at a rally outside the Office of the D.C. Attorney General on Thursday, Feb. 13. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“SMYAL has long been a partner of Children’s National, a partnership we have been incredibly proud of, especially working with their Pride Clinic team,” York told the crowd. “Their dedication to providing gender-affirming care has been a lifeline for many young people and their families in our communities, offering relief, comfort and hope. But now those lifelines have been cut off. We are incredibly disappointed in and concerned by the hospital’s decision to suspend gender-affirming care to comply — in advance — with the administration’s executive order attempting to restrict healthcare for trans youth.” 

“This decision was made out of fear: the fear of losing funding,” York continued. “And it has abandoned the very youth who need it most. This executive order, barely two weeks old has already had devastating impacts on the lives of trans and non-binary youth. These cruel policies are not abstract. They are real, they are dangerous and they are hurting our young people today.”

“Gender-affirming care saves lives for trans youth,” said York.

Also speaking at the event was Dr. Omar Taweh.

“In our youthful, vibrant, queer city, doctors provide compassionate care for trans people literally all the time.” Taweh told the assembled protesters. “And we’re just here to demand that our local government leaders, including AG Shwalb over here, join the rest of the states that are taking stances …to defend trans and gender-affirming care.”

Protesters formed a picket line and began a series of chants, including, “AG Schwab! Do your job!”

The action was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America.

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District of Columbia

Death of D.C. gay robbery victim ruled a homicide

Police pursuing additional charges against two juveniles

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Bryan Smith (Photo via GoFundMe)

D.C. police announced on Feb. 15 that the death of gay DJ and hairstylist Bryan Smith, 39, who police say was assaulted and robbed Oct. 27, 2024, in the 500 block of T Street, N.W., has been ruled a homicide.

Police said Smith was found unconscious at about 5 a.m. on the street where they believed he was assaulted and robbed and taken to a D.C. hospital. A short time later he was transferred at the request of family members while in a coma to a Northern Virginia hospital, where he died on Nov. 7.

“On Thursday, February 13, 2025, the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office advised that the cause of death for the victim was blunt force trauma and the manner of death a homicide,” the D.C. police statement says.

The statement notes, as the Washington Blade and other media outlets have reported, that D.C. police on Nov. 14, 2024, arrested two juvenile males, 14 and 16 years of age, on robbery and assault charges in connection with the assault and robbery of Smith.

 At the time of the arrest, police said they had evidence showing the two juveniles were implicated in three other assault and robbery incidents that occurred on the same night as the assault and robbery of Smith in nearby locations.

According to the statement, D.C. police detectives are working with the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes crimes committed by juveniles, to determine whether “additional charges” should be brought against the two juveniles following the determination that Smith’s death was a homicide.

The arrest of the two juveniles was announced by D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith at a Nov. 15  press conference near the site where Smith was attacked.

“We are here today to announce the arrest of two suspects responsible for a series of robberies in this community on Sunday, Oct. 27, including the robbery of 39-year-old Bryan Smith, who was walking home in the 500 block of T Street, N.W.,” Chief Smith told reporters attending the press conference.

“On behalf of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as myself, I send my deepest condolences to Mr. Smith’s family as well as his friends,” Chief Smith said. “While nothing can undo this senseless loss, we hope today’s arrests are of some measure of justice and a step toward healing,” she said.

Chief Smith also said that police investigators had no evidence to indicate the assault and robbery of Bryan Smith was “motivated by hate or bias.”

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