Local
Family, friends celebrate birthday of slain gay man
Mickens-Murrey found stabbed to death on May 30
Matthew Mickens-Murrey would have turned 27 on Nov. 9.
Nine members of the family, including the mother and sister, of a 26-year-old gay man who was found stabbed to death in his Hyattsville, Md., apartment on May 30 traveled from Pennsylvania to D.C. on Nov. 9 to celebrate what would have been Matthew Mickens-Murrey’s 27th birthday.
Mickens-Murrey’s family members joined more than a dozen of his friends and supporters in the upstairs lounge of Nellie’s Sports Bar at a gathering organized by Impulse D.C., an entertainment and advocacy group that provides HIV and education related services for black gay men.
With at least three local TV news camera crews looking on, the family members and friends, led by Impulse D.C. President Devin Barrington-Ward, called on Prince George’s County police to step up the investigation into the unsolved murder. Petitions were circulated calling on police and local political leaders to “put more effort into ensuring Justice for Matt.”
Barrington-Ward said in a statement that the event was aimed at celebrating the life of the well-liked guy they knew as Matt, raising awareness, and “re-engaging the public in the cold case murder” of Mickens-Murrey.
“Matt, who publicly identified as a Black gay man, frequented Nellie’s Sports Bar, an LGBTQ establishment, and one of the last places he was seen alive,” the statement says.
It says Impulse D.C. and Mickens-Murrey’s friends and family members were also calling on D.C. police to more aggressively investigate the unsolved murders of two other black gay men in D.C.
A model and rapper named Demencio Lewis, 23, was shot to death in a hail of gunfire on March 13, 2014, on a street in Southeast D.C., according to police. A little over a year later, D.C. police found Stephon Marquis Perkins, 21, lying unconscious on a street in Southeast D.C. suffering from a gunshot wound to the head on June 25, 2015. Police said he was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Neither Prince George’s County police nor D.C. police responded to a request by the Washington Blade last week for an update on the status of the investigations into the three murders.
Melody Murrey, Mickens-Murrey’s mother, told the Blade at the gathering at Nellie’s last week that a P.G. County police investigator said her son was stabbed multiple times. She said the investigator also said there were no signs of a forced entry into the apartment, leading police to believe Mickens-Murrey knew his attacker and invited him into the apartment.
“They said they found DNA but they were still waiting for it to be tested by the FBI,” Melody Murrey said. “We just don’t know why it’s taking so long.”
Melody Murrey and her daughter Naja Murrey said Mickens-Murrey was out to his family and was loved “for who he was.”
“What message does it send to the community when they constantly see other black LGBTQ people being murdered over a short span of time and those victims, their families, friends, and community never receive justice?” said Barrington-Ward. “This is about accountability as well as public safety for black LGBTQ people,” he said. “Black Lives Matter and that includes Black LGBTQ people too.”
Delaware
Delaware marriage equality bill advances out of committee
Measure will now go before full state Senate
The bill that would amend Delaware’s state constitution to codify same-sex marriage advanced out of the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday and now goes to the Senate chamber for a vote. If passed, the vote would go on to the House.
Three members of the committee voted favorable and one voted on its merits, meaning the member recommends the chamber take action on the legislation but does not take a position on what action should be taken.
Senate Bill 100 was introduced in April by Democratic Sen. Russ Huxtable of the sixth district of Delaware and has 21 co-sponsors. It is the first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution. The act would “establish the right to marry as a fundamental right and that Delaware and its political subdivisions shall recognize marriages and issue marriage licenses to couples regardless of gender.”
Senate Substitute One was adopted in lieu of the original bill on May 16. SB 100 originally focused exclusively on marriage equality relating to gender and the bill was tweaked to include protection for all classes that fall under Delaware’s Equal Rights Amendment, including race, color, national origin, and sex.
The Wednesday committee meeting heard testimony on SS 1 for SB 100 from individuals and organizations, including John Reynolds, Deputy Policy and Advocacy Director of Delaware’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“After hard fought recent victories, the rights of LGBTQ Americans are under attack in many places across our country,” Reynolds said during his testimony. “It is important that Delaware be proactive and serve as a firewall protecting individual civil liberties. SS 1 for SB 100 is an example of this important work cementing the protections for marriage equality in our state constitution.”
According to Sen. Huxtable, the ACLU helped provide feedback on some of the bill’s language. Reynolds said the ACLU thought it was important to testify because this is a moment when so much is changing.
“These attacks are not just on specific communities, they’re on this concept of equality and liberty,” Reynolds told the Washington Blade. “We need to build these firewalls to both prevent harm to folks on the frontline of these attacks but also ensure that we don’t set very problematic and damaging standards that can be used to roll back protections for large [swaths] of our population.”
SS 1 for SB 100 requires a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to pass. If passed, the next General Assembly after the next general election also has to pass it. Delaware is the only state in the country that can amend its state constitution without a vote of the people.
The Respect for Marriage Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2022 and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden. It codifies the right to same-sex and interracial marriage, requiring all states to recognize validly performed marriages from other states, regardless of whether they allow same-sex marriage within their own borders.
In Virginia, a bill codifying marriage equality was signed into law in 2024. California, Colorado and Hawaii have also passed amendments to codify same-sex marriage into their constitutions.
“We at the ACLU of Delaware are very excited that SS 1 for SB 100 passed out of committee yesterday,” Reynolds said. “It represents both Sen. Huxtable and the Delaware Legislature’s clear commitment to proactively protecting people’s rights within the LGBT community and outside to ensure that in this moment of uncertainty, we don’t sit idly by and wait for the worst to happen but take control of the things that we can to build the communities that we want.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
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