Local
Rehoboth’s Pamala Stanley raises $2,725 for Beebe Healthcare
Online tea dance to become weekly event
A one-time concert to raise money for Delaware’s Beebe Healthcare has turned into a weekly show for singer Pamala Stanley.
Owners of The Pines Rehoboth Beach restaurant and nightspot announced the singer’s first concert on April 26 was so successful that she’ll perform a virtual tea dance to benefit Beebe every Saturday until The Pines can open again.
“We raised a lot of money for a very fantastic cause,” said Pines co-owner David Gonce, during a break in the show. “We’ll be doing this every Saturday until this terrible pandemic is over and our beautiful town reopens.”
“The beauty of a local community is what we’re doing here tonight,” added Tom Protack, president of the Beebe Medical Foundation, the fundraising arm for Beebe Healthcare. “Local singer, local restaurant, local supporters making it happen…What better way to spend a Saturday night?”
Pines representatives said the concert raised $2,725 for the medical foundation — $2,150 in cash and $575 from the sale of $25 gift cards to be given to first responders. They said future benefits will be held on Saturdays from 7-9 p.m. on Facebook and may have guest performers joining Stanley.
Located in Lewes, Del., Beebe Healthcare serves Sussex County, which includes Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach and other communities in lower Delaware.
Saturday’s benefit, which drew hundreds of viewers, was Stanley’s first virtual tea dance after years of live performances in Rehoboth Beach and elsewhere. Dressed in a sparkling red jumpsuit, she sang from The Top of the Pines, the second-floor piano lounge above the restaurant at 56 Baltimore Ave.
The Pines isn’t open for table service during the COVID-19 pandemic but was offering prix fixe dinners and drinks to go, with a portion of the proceeds going to first responders. It also had gift cards that viewers could buy and donate to first responders, as well as gifts that viewers could bid on, including designer face masks and a “COVID relief package.” Sponsors included Jack Lingo Realtor, Visit Rehoboth and Jungle Jim’s water park.
Stanley, who has a large gay following, walked out on stage wearing a face mask but took it off once she started singing. She sang nearly two dozen songs during her two-hour performance, told stories between songs and even showed off her fan-dancing skills.
Stanley dedicated one of her biggest hits, “Coming Out of Hiding,” to all her fans who are getting restless after weeks in quarantine: “This is for everybody,” she said, “because we have been in hiding for way too long, don’t you agree?” She said she’ll be taking requests in future virtual shows and expressed hope that The Pines will be able to be open for more than curbside service by Memorial Day.
At one point, Stanley demonstrated a new option for when the bars are open again: a “COVID drinking mask” that enables the wearer to have a drink in a bar or on a plane without potentially endangering the lives of others.
“Just because we have to wear masks does not mean we shouldn’t enjoy a drink,” she reasoned. “Am I right?”
The drinking mask comes from Totes of the Town, an online accessories shop (totesofthetown1.com) that’s based in Rehoboth Beach and features “seasonal and coastal” wine totes, pillows and other items, including face masks. Owner and resident mask designer Joseph Scott joined Stanley online, QVC-style, to demonstrate the mask and explain how it works.
Scott showed that the drinking mask has a small grommet strategically located where the mouth is, so wearers can stick in a straw and sip their Rose Kennedys or Cosmos without fear of spraying respiratory “droplets” in the air, one of the ways COVID-19 can spread.
“Everybody has been wondering how they’re going to drink in COVID,” Scott told Stanley. “So here we have it.”
Although Totes of the Town offers a variety of face masks for sale online, Scott said the drinking masks aren’t on the market yet. But he hinted they may be soon.
“These are not COVID-compliant,” he warned. “They’re not for sale. They’re not yet. Let’s be COVID compliant for a while. These will be coming, shortly.”
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 this 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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