U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Tuesday was elected top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in a vote that signaled the conference’s overwhelming support for a newer voice on Capitol Hill who will play a key role taking on President Donald Trump.

With a margin of 150-63, the 47-year-old openly gay congressman defeated U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), alongside U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) who exited the race after the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee backed Garcia.

Serving only since 2023, the congressman has had a remarkably quick ascent leading up to his election this week as ranking member of one of the most powerful House committees, awarded a leadership position serving under House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and selected as a co-chair of former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Democratic members began jockeying for the top seat on the oversight committee this spring after the late-U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia stepped away amid news that his esophageal cancer had returned. He died in May.

Connolly last year fended off a challenge from one of the most well known House Democrats, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), though with a narrower margin that signaled intra-party tensions over whether leadership roles should still be awarded based on seniority.

Garcia positioned himself as a bridge between the two camps — a consensus candidate with executive managerial experience as the former mayor of Long Beach, Calif. At the same time, particularly since the start of Trump’s second term, the congressman has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the new Republican regime.

In a statement on X Tuesday, Garcia thanked his colleagues and promised to “hold Donald Trump and his administration accountable.”

I'm honored to have been elected by @HouseDemocrats to serve as Ranking Member on @OversightDems.

We will hold Donald Trump and his Administration accountable for their corruption – and work to make our government more effective for the American people.

Let's get to work.

— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) June 24, 2025

If Democrats win control of the House next year, the oversight committee will be able to exercise powers that are now available only to Republicans under the chair, U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), which include the authority to investigate virtually any matter across the federal government, to issue subpoenas, and to compel testimony.

In the meantime, Garcia on Monday promised that Democrats on the committee would “vigorously fight” Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s (La.) plans “to dismantle the Government Accountability Office.”

Addam Lee Schauer-Mayhew, the gay man who was struck in the face by a rock thrown through the front window of his house in Northeast D.C. on June 6 allegedly by a 13-year-old juvenile male says he and his husband think it’s important for the community to know more of the details surrounding this incident.

Schauer-Mayhew spoke to the Washington Blade about the incident after the Blade reached out to him for comment. He said he and his husband, Bryan C. Schauer, wanted to point out that the rock-throwing attack was the most recent in a series of incidents in which the same juvenile and others accompanying him have targeted them with anti-gay slurs and throwing rocks at their house and car since last October.

D.C. police announced on June 16 that they had arrested a 13-year-old juvenile male one day earlier on Sunday, June 15, on a charge of Assault With Significant Bodily Injury, in connection with the rock-throwing attack against Schauer-Mayhew.

A police report says the rock struck Schauer-Mayhew in the left eye causing a laceration under the eye.

A separate police statement said the charge against the juvenile was listed as a “Hate/Bias” incident and noted that “LGBTQ+ flags were displayed at the front of the home.”

Schauer-Mayhew told the Blade he and his husband have displayed at least one Pride flag at the front of their house since they purchased it in the city’s Kingman Park neighborhood four-and-a-half years ago, essentially “coming out” to their neighbors. He said the neighbors have been fully supportive of the two as a gay couple since they moved into their house.

But around October of last year, around the time of Halloween, a few juvenile males began targeting the couple at their house by yelling  homophobic slurs, including the word “faggot,” Schauer-Mayhew said, with the juvenile who assaulted him on June 6 of this year being among them.

Last November, over Thanksgiving weekend, the same juvenile male and a few of his cohorts broke into the couple’s backyard and carport while the couple was out of town visiting relatives, according to Schauer-Mayhew.

He said the break-in, as was the rock-throwing attack, was captured on video by surveillance cameras they have installed in several places on their house and property. Schauer-Mayhew said the couple provided D.C. police with video footage of the rock-throwing incident, in which he said the juvenile can be seen walking up to the house and throwing the rock through the window.

“I was sitting on our sofa in our living room, and I was just sitting there minding my own business,” Schauer-Mayhew told the Blade, while watching a tennis tournament on television.

“I heard the window break and then I felt something hit my face,” he said. “And my husband was upstairs, and he comes running down the stairs. And he was the one that called 911.”   

He added, “My face was covered with blood. My hands were covered with blood. I walked over to my kitchen sink, and I collapsed on the floor.”

But when paramedics arrived in an ambulance in response to the 911 call, he said he declined an offer to take him to a hospital.

Schauer-Mayhew pointed out that the attack occurred on the day he and his husband planned to attend the WorldPride Music Festival held at the RFK Stadium grounds located close to where they live.

“I did decline to go in an ambulance to the hospital because I very much still wanted to be able to enjoy Pride weekend,” he said. “I did receive a lovely black eye. But it has since subsided, and the wound is healing well. But I will have a gash on my face,” he told the Blade.

“And after all of this happened, and everything calmed down, I soldiered up and we went to the festival,” he said. But while there he said bleeding under his eye resumed, prompting him to go to an emergency medical services tent on the festival grounds. “I was able to get the proper attention, and then the wound kind of glued up and then I rejoined the rest of the festival.”

According to Schauer-Mayhew, people in the neighborhood played an important role in helping D.C police locate and arrest the juvenile who assaulted him. The arrest took place on June 15.

He said the youth who assaulted him and others who hung out with him were known as neighborhood troublemakers who, among other things, broke into homes and cars to engage in thefts. 

Just by chance, Schauer-Mayhew said he was in his car driving to a nearby grocery store on June 15 when he saw the juvenile who assaulted him leaning out of the window of another car driving nearby.

“And I instantly called my husband, and I said they’re back,” he said. By the time he arrived home he and his husband learned through an online “neighborhood chat chain” that others had also seen the juvenile and his cohorts and called police. The calls and follow-up sightings the next day, on June 16, enabled police to track down and arrest the 13-year-old juvenile.

“My message has always been I feel no malice toward them,” Schauer-Mayhew said when asked if he had a message for the juvenile who assaulted him and those he hung out with. “I just want them to get help and go down a better path than terrorizing people they don’t even know.”

Because court records of cases involving juveniles are sealed from public access, the Blade could not immediately determine the status of the case, including whether prosecutors with the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes juvenile cases, was prosecuting the case as a hate crime.

A newly released report based on a nationwide U.S. survey of 1,267 LGBTQ young people from the age of 15 to 24 shows that LGBTQ youth living in rural communities face greater hurdles in coping with their sexual orientation or gender identity.

But the report, released by the youth advocacy organizations Hopelab and Born this Way Foundation, also shows that rural LGBTQ youth have benefited significantly by accessing online resources and support services.

The 20-page report, which was released on June 24, is entitled, “Exploring Pride and Support of LGBTQ+ Young People In Rural Communities.”

Here are the key findings of the research as stated in the report:

• Rural LGBTQ+ young people report that their schools (28% vs. 49%), communities (13% vs 35%), and households (47% vs 61%) are less supportive than those of their suburban/urban peers.

• Rural LGBTQ+ young people are significantly more likely than their suburban/urban peers to give (76% vs 70%) and receive (57% vs 51%) support through online friends and communities.

• Rural LGBTQ+ young people are significantly more likely than their suburban/urban peers to meet the threshold for depression (57% vs 45%) and report less flourishing than their suburban/urban counterparts (43% vs 52%).

• Rural LGBTQ+ young people who receive support from those they live with are more likely to be categorized as flourishing (50% vs 35%) and less likely to meet the cutoff for depression (52% vs 63%)than their counterparts with little or no support.

• Despite having less support for LGBTQ+ people in their in-person environments, rural young people report high LGBTQ+ pride at all levels comparable to their suburban/urban peers (85% vs 86%).

 “The survey was developed through a collaborative process that included young people in every step, from co-designing survey methods to youth-centered co-distillation support in interpreting results,” a statement released by Hopelab and Born This Way Foundation says.

The statement adds, “The insights directly center on the perspectives of LGBTQ+ young people, ages 15-24, examining how they give and receive support online, their experiences with mental health and well-being, and ways they show kindness and offer support in the face of challenges.”

The report includes a quote from a survey interview of a participant it describes as a white, nonbinary young adult: “Being neurodivergent and Queer in a small town in the South means you’re not very likely to have friends. Finding these people online was my first gateway to being treated like a normal person by my peers. It has greatly shaped who I am today in a positive way. I think I’d still be terribly depressed had I never met them.”

The report concludes by pointing out that despite facing challenges, rural LGBTQ+ young people “demonstrate levels of pride and identity connection that are comparable to their suburban and urban peers.” It adds, “This suggests that even when direct support is lacking, many rural LGBTQ+ young people are still able to find avenues to connect to others similar to them and develop a sense of identity.”

The full report can be accessed at hopelab.org.