Local
Federal GLOBE founder Len Hirsch dies at 59
Spent 26 years at Smithsonian
Leonard Hirsch (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Leonard P. “Len” Hirsch, a senior policy adviser at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for 26 years and founder of the organization representing LGBT employees of the federal government known as Federal GLOBE, died June 12 at the National Institutes of Health Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 59.
Friends said the cause of death was cancer.
Hirsch has been credited with playing a key role in bringing together scientists and public policy makers in his role as senior policy adviser at the Smithsonian’s Office of International Relations and the Office of the Under Secretary for Science from 1988 to 2014.
A statement released by those who knew him at the Smithsonian says Hirsch, who specialized in global environmental issues, helped to found the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international data gathering operation that “allows anyone, anywhere to access data about all types of life on earth, shared across national boundaries via the Internet,” according to its website.
The statement says Hirsch represented the Smithsonian before national and international meetings and organizations, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, a group founded by a 1992 international agreement on conservation of natural resources.
“He also dealt with a wide range of issues in history, art and culture, as well as astronomy,” the statement says.
Information released by D.C.’s Rainbow History Project says Hirsch in 1988 organized the first meeting of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Employees of the U.S. government that became known as Federal GLOBE. It happened during his first year working at the Smithsonian.
A short time later he was elected president of Federal GLOBE, a position he held for more than 10 years.
Hirsch also played a lead role in founding a GLOBE chapter at the Smithsonian and helped others form GLOBE chapters at more than a dozen federal government agencies.
“He was an important, early voice for LGBT rights for U.S. federal government personnel,” said Selim Ariturk, president of GLIFAA, the GLOBE-affiliated group representing LGBT employees in U.S. foreign affairs agencies. “Len was a great friend and supporter of GLIFAA since our organization’s inception in 1992.”
Richard Socarides, who served as the White House liaison to the LGBT community during the administration of President Bill Clinton, said Hirsch worked hard behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for an executive order that Clinton issued in his second term banning sexual orientation discrimination in the federal workforce.
“I remember Len as a tireless advocate not only for LGBT federal employees but for civil rights for all Americans,” Socarides said. “He was such a warm and dignified presence, even while a most vigorous advocate.”
Hirsch was born and raised in Queens, N.Y. Nancy Gray, a friend since the two were teenagers, said Hirsch graduated from Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens before starting at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., where he received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations in 1976.
He received both a master’s degree in 1978 and his Ph.D. in 1980 in political science at Northwestern University in Chicago.
After completing his doctorate degree Hirsh landed a teaching job at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he helped start an LGBT faculty organization, according to a Rainbow History Project write-up on Hirsch at the time he was named one the of group’s LGBT Pioneers.
The write-up says that during the 1984 annual conference of the American Political Science Association, Hirsch helped organize the first meeting of what became the association’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus.
It says Hirsch moved to D.C. in 1985 to join his partner, Kristian Fauchald, whom he met in 1983. Fauchald, a marine biologist, began a 35-year career at the Smithsonian in 1979, where he conducted research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
In his first three years in D.C. prior to joining the Smithsonian, Hirsch worked for a data management firm, started a company that produced a personal computer, and conducted research under a U.S. Department of Education grant at Prince George’s Community College, the Rainbow History Project’s write-up says.
During their years together in Washington, Hirsch and Fauchald became domestic partners in 2001 and married in 2008 in California. The couple’s 32-year relationship ended when Fauchald died in April of this year at the age of 79.
“We are heartbroken from the loss of Len so soon after Kristian passed away, but find comfort believing they are now together again,” said Merete Fauchald, a member of the Fauchald family, in a Facebook posting earlier this week.
Scott Miller, the Smithsonian’s Deputy Undersecretary for Collections and Interdisciplinary Support, said he worked closely with Hirsch for 15 years.
“He knew what was going on in both the science community at large and across the Smithsonian very well,” said Miller. “He was one of those people who were good at building bridges between what was going on somewhere else, what was going on at the Smithsonian, and who should know each other,” he said.
“He was a professional networker before the term was trendy,” said Miller.
Gray, an attorney in Los Angeles, called Hirsch a “brilliant and generous” person. “Len was dedicated to the pursuit of truth and scientific fact,” she said. “And he was blessed to have an extraordinary group of friends around him, and several of us were there when he died.”
She said that in keeping with his wishes, Hirsch was to be cremated. Gray said a memorial service is being planned for July 28 in Washington at a location to be announced soon.
He is survived by his father, Michael Hirsch, and a wide circle of friends and relatives.
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. 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.
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