Local
Banking analyst, Realtor Victor Saulsbury dies at 66
Lifelong D.C.-area resident loved to travel
Victor Saulsbury, a lifelong D.C. area resident. died Jan. 4.
Victor Saulsbury, a lifelong D.C. area resident who worked for 30 years as a financial analyst and writer for the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation before switching careers to become a Realtor, died Jan. 4 at the Manor Care Health Services rehabilitation center in Chevy Chase, Md., from complications associated with spinal lymphoma. He was 66.
His longtime friend, Gary Mastroddi of Philadelphia, said Saulsbury was active socially in the D.C. gay community since the 1970s and enjoyed spending time in the summer in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Provincetown, Mass.
He said Saulsbury, an only child, was born and raised in D.C. as the son of Lewis J. Saulsbury and Dorothy Graury. He received his primary and secondary education in D.C.-area military schools.
According to Mastroddi, Saulsbury graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He received a master’s degree in business administration from George Washington University in 1976.
After completing college he worked for the Western Union communications company before beginning work in 1974 for the FDIC as a financial analyst and author, where he wrote numerous technical papers and articles on the banking industry and banking regulation. His career at the FDIC lasted for 30 years.
An online search shows that his name appears on a wide variety of articles as a contributor on topics such as problems associated with the Savings and Loan industry and bank failures.
Mastroddi said Saulsbury retired from his job at the FDIC in 2004 and took a year off to travel before obtaining a real estate license and beginning a new career as a real estate broker at the Long & Foster realty office in Georgetown. Five years later, in 2009, he retired “for good” and, among other things, pursued his love for travel, Mastroddi said.
Italy and France, along with his favorite get-away destinations in Rehoboth Beach and Provincetown, were among the places to which he traveled in his retirement years, said Mastroddi.
Beginning in the 1970s, Saulsbury became a behind-the-scenes supporter of LGBT rights causes, assisting in fundraising efforts for LGBT groups in D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, Mastroddi said.
“He lost a lot of friends to AIDS and also helped in fundraising for AIDS organizations,” Mastroddi told the Washington Blade.
Mastroddi said Saulsbury cared for his mother, his only surviving relative, until she passed away in 2014.
He said Saulsbury lived in a house he bought in 1974 on Corcoran Street, N.W. until he sold the house in 2009 and moved into an apartment in the Crystal City section of Arlington where he remained until he became ill last year following a diagnosis of lymphoma of the spinal cord.
Mastroddi said Saulsbury underwent complicated spinal surgery last September and was admitted to the Manor Care rehabilitation facility in Chevy Chase in October, but complications related to the cancer and its treatment took its toll on him. A short time later he was transferred to a hospice unit at the Manor Care facility.
“He was witty and intelligent and he was an amazing writer,” said Mastroddi in commenting on Saulsbury from the many years Mastroddi and his and partner, Ettore Mastroddi, have known him.
“He said I am fine with moving on. I’m tired,” Gary Mastroddi quoted Saulsbury as saying a short time before his passing. “But he said we had a wonderful life. I enjoyed every moment of it.”
Mastroddi said Saulsbury is survived by many friends in D.C., Rehoboth Beach, and Philadelphia, among other places, including Mastroddi and his partner and longtime D.C. gay activists Paul Kuntzler and Richard Maulsby.
Plans for what Mastroddi said would be an informal memorial service among friends, in accordance with Saulsbury’s wishes, would be announced sometime soon.
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.
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