Local
Rehoboth theater seeks support for new building
Town officials uncommitted on waiver for parking space requirement
Many residents and visitors to Rehoboth Beach, the popular Delaware resort destination, are urging the mayor and city officials to back a proposed change in the city code needed to allow a beloved performing arts theater to move into a larger building.
The Clear Space Theater Company, founded in 2004, has produced highly acclaimed Broadway style plays and musicals and operates an Arts Institute that teaches theater to students of all ages in a former church building it rents on Baltimore Avenue near the boardwalk.
Last September, the theater announced plans to build its own larger building that would include a 300-seat theater on Rehoboth Avenue next to the traffic circle at the entrance to the beach city. The current theater in the space once used by Epworth United Methodist Church has 192 seats and has become too cramped for rehearsals, classes and other activities, according to its staff and board.
Clear Space Theater officials said they made adjustments to the architectural plans for the new 25,600-square-foot building, including lowering its height, so it meets all city codes except for a requirement that it include 128 on-site parking spaces.
Wesley Paulson, the Clear Space executive director, said the nonprofit theater company doesn’t have the funds to include more than 28 parking spaces, which would be located in a basement garage under the current plans and budget for the new theater.
He has asked Rehoboth Mayor Paul Kuhns and the Board of Commissioners, which serves as the city’s legislative body, to consider designating the land on which the new theater is slated to be built as a performing arts district. Such a designation would exempt the theater from the parking space requirement.
During a Board of Commissioners workshop meeting on Feb. 4 two residents who said their houses are located directly behind where the new theater is planned to be built told commissioners it is far too large for what they say is a mostly residential area.
Paulson said the decision to lower the building’s height places it in compliance with the city code in terms of the theater’s size.
The Board of Commissioners, of which the mayor is a member, initially announced it would hold a vote on whether to make a code change or find another way to exempt the theater from the parking requirement at its Feb. 15 meeting. But during its Feb. 4 workshop meeting Kuhns and other commissioners said they prefer not to be bound by a vote or final decision on the matter by Feb. 15.
Kuhns said he believes the matter should be referred back to the city Planning Commission, which he said should make a recommendation on the best course of action the city should take in resolving the parking issue.
Kuhns noted, however, that he and commission members have received numerous emails and other messages urging them to support Clear Space Theater’s efforts to build its new theater at its chosen location.
Some of the messages are posted on the Rehoboth city website. Several point out that the theater brings people into Rehoboth from other parts of Delaware and nearby states who patronize the city’s restaurants and stores.
“We are encouraging people supportive of the theater to write to the mayor and city manager to urge them to support this project,” said Laura Mason, a member of the theater’s board.
“Seventy-five percent of our patrons dine in town at a restaurant when they come to the theater from outside of Rehoboth,” Mason told the Blade. “These are people who would not be coming to Rehoboth if not for a theater performance,” she said.
Among the plays performed at Clear Space Theater last year was “The Normal Heart,” the internationally acclaimed play by gay writer and activist Larry Kramer about how gay men grappled with AIDS during the early years of the epidemic.
Those interested in weighing in can email Mayor Kuhns at [email protected].
Maryland
Anne Arundel schools updates gender identity regulation following Trump administration threats
District facing federal lawsuit, White House threats over guidelines
By JESSICA CALEFATI | Under pressure from the Trump-Vance administration, Anne Arundel County Public Schools Supt. Mark Bedell announced Wednesday the district had updated a regulation intended to protect transgender students’ right to be called by their chosen name.
The revised language makes clear that district rules on gender identity do not block parents’ rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as the federal government alleged last month, and that a student’s gender identity will not be treated as confidential medical information.
“No policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA,” Bedell wrote in a Wednesday letter to the community. “This includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
District of Columbia
Man charged with anti-gay assault in D.C. accepts plea offer
Community service offered in exchange for dismissing hate crime charge
A Germantown, Md., man arrested by D.C. police on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation for allegedly assaulting a gay man while using “homophobic slurs” has agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to simple assault without the hate crime designation and with the promise of having the charge dismissed if he completes, among other requirements, 48 hours of community service work.
Dean Edmundson, 26, standing beside his attorney, officially accepted the offer of a Deferred Sentencing Agreement at an Aug. 18 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court after Senior Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo explained the details of the agreement and confirmed Edmundson’s decision to waive his right to a trial.
Among other things, the judge said the agreement offered by prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. includes the requirement that he successfully completes 48 hours of community service work, stays away from the victim of the assault, writes a letter of apology to the victim, and does not violate any other laws or get into trouble for the next 12 months.
Puig-Lugo then announced he scheduled a sentencing hearing for Edmundson for Aug. 18, 2027, at which time a determination will made on whether he has fulfilled all the requirements under the agreement and whether the simple assault charge will be dismissed. The judge added that if it is determined that Edmundson did not fulfil the terms of the agreement the charge would remain in place and he could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Edmundson, who appeared in court wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie, was released on his own recognizance following his arrest by D.C. police on Feb. 7, 2026.
Police and court records show he was initially charged by arresting officers with simple assault with a hate crime designation. In a statement announcing the arrest, D.C. police said, “On Saturday, Feb. 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 kept walking,” the statement says.
A follow-up arrest affidavit filed by police states that Edmundson followed the victim and called him “bald, ugly, and gay,” and then “pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push.” The affidavit adds, “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay.”
According to the court records, the Office of the U.S. Attorney filed its official charge of simple assault against Edmunson on Feb. 9 without the hate crime designation. The office has not responded to a request by the Washington Blade for its reason for dropping the hate crime designation. The office has also not immediately responded to a follow-up inquiry from the Blade this week asking if prosecutors consulted the victim to obtain the victim’s thoughts about the plea offer.
The Blade, which has a policy of not disclosing the identify of crime victims in cases like this without their consent, could not immediately obtain contact information to reach the victim for comment.
Court records show that Edmundson rejected an earlier plea agreement offer by prosecutors and he was scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 18. The records show his attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to convert the trial into status hearing on that same day after his client accepted the Deferred Sentencing Agreement offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The judge approved the motion without objection from prosecutors.
Virginia
Winsome Earle-Sears ‘Life and Marriage Tour’ to include Northern Va. stops
Voters to consider marriage equality, reproductive rights referenda in November
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has announced her campaign against efforts to enshrine marriage equality and reproductive rights in the state constitution will make several stops in Northern Virginia.
Her “Life and Marriage Tour” will include stops in Manassas, Winchester, and Harrisonburg. Earle-Sears said the “Life and Marriage Tour” will also travel to Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, and other cities across Virginia “throughout September and October.”
The announcement did not include specific dates.
“Virginia, you’ve been asking where the Life and Marriage Tour is headed — here’s a look at our current tour locations,” she said on X on Tuesday. “We’ll be traveling across the commonwealth throughout September and October, and we’re still building the journey.”
Current Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, last November defeated Earle-Sears, a Republican, in the race to succeed Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which defined marriage in Virginia as between a man and a woman.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Youngkin a decade later signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
Spanberger signed bills that finalized the marriage equality and reproductive rights referenda’s language.
The referenda will take place on Nov. 3.
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