Local
Robert E. Barker dies at 69
Former deputy assistant director of OMB
Robert E. Barker
Robert E. Barker, a retired deputy assistant director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and longtime volunteer for the Washington Home and Community Hospices, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, and the Whitman-Walker Clinic, died Sept. 9 in the Intensive Care Unit of the George Washington University Hospital. He died of an infection that occurred following August surgery. He was 69.
Barker was born to Samuel and Margaret Barker on Sept. 24, 1945 in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Peters Township High School in 1963 and from Wheeling Jesuit University in 1967. In his senior year at Wheeling Jesuit, Barker was elected to Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit honor society, for his excellence in academics, leadership and commitment to the values represented by the Jesuit tradition. After a time as a seminarian at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., Barker joined the U.S. Army and after his tour was over in 1970, he moved to Washington where he worked as a civil servant for the U.S. Navy Department.
Barker worked for OMB from 1973 until his retirement in 2000. In his last two years at OMB, he was deputy assistant director for budget review and concepts, responsible for the preparation of the president’s budget and for tracking the president’s budget proposals through the congressional budget process. Earlier, he served as a staff member, then deputy, and then chief of the Budget Preparation Branch. In 1998, he received the prestigious Meritorious Presidential Rank Award.
Barker was a committed volunteer who provided care and support for terminally ill patients and their families. He began his volunteer work with Whitman-Walker in 1984, during the height of the AIDS crisis, serving as a case manager, team leader, and ultimately, a member of the board of directors. Since 1997, he had been a volunteer at the Washington Home and Community Hospices on Upton Street where, by the end of 2014, he had amassed a total of 3,635 volunteer hours. He received an award for excellence from the Community Hospices in 2003.
Barker was also a volunteer assistant to the music ministry at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on Rhode Island Avenue, organizing a variety of concerts and helping raise funds for completion of the church organ. He also served for several years as a board member of the Webster House Condominium on P Street N.W., where he lived.
Barker frequented 17th Street, N.W. and was a regular patron of Trio Restaurant. He cared for Marjorie C. “Margo” MacGregor, a former Trio manager, until her 2007 death.
Survivors include his brother, William Barker of Pittsburgh; and friends in Washington and elsewhere. Two of his closest friends of more than 25 years, Mary Wheeler and Robert (“Dr. Bob”) Williams, both of Washington, were frequent companions.
A funeral Mass will he held on Monday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. at St. Matthew the Apostle (1725 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Barker’s name may be made to the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, Washington Home and Community Hospices or to St. Matthew for the completion of its organ.
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
Pride flag removed from Stonewall Monument as Trump targets LGBTQ landmarks
I keep getting rejected on the apps
Gay man details secret struggle with bulimia
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
