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Gay physician challenges anti-LGBTQ incumbent in Va. House race

Dr. Doug Ward faces ‘very tough race’ in rural district

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Dr. Doug Ward is challenging an anti-LGBTQ incumbent in a conservative district. (Photo courtesy Doug Ward campaign)

Doug Ward, a physician in private practice for 34 years with a specialty in HIV medicine, is running as a Democrat for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in a rural district held by Republican incumbent Michael Webert, who has repeatedly voted against LGBTQ supportive legislation.

Ward, 71, states on his campaign website that he and his husband, Rev. Earl Johnson, have been married for 22 years. He acknowledges he is facing a “very tough race” in the November general election in the GOP leaning 18th District that includes large sections of Rappahannock and Fauquier Counties.

Ward notes that President Joe Biden and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam each lost in the 18th District by sizable margins while incumbent Webert has won in the rural district that includes parts of the Shenandoah National Park since first winning election to the district in 2011.

“It is a really conservative district,” he told the Washington Blade. “It will be a very tough race for me. But we need someone to run against him,” said Ward, who points out that Webert has voted against virtually all the progressive legislation passed in 2020 by the Democratic-controlled Virginia Legislature, including LGBTQ bills.

Among the bills approved by the legislature that Webert voted against were the Virginia Values Act, which expands the state’s nondiscrimination law to include LGBTQ people in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. Webert also voted ‘no’ on a bill that bans use of the so-called LGBTQ “panic” defense in criminal trials and against a bill to ban the use of conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors.

He also voted against a bill approved by lawmakers to repeal a provision in the Virginia Constitution outlawing same-sex marriage in the state. Although the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide made the Virginia Constitution provision unenforceable, civil rights advocates called for its repeal on grounds that it was a symbol of anti-LGBTQ bias.

In its legislative scorecard, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Virginia gave Webert a rating of 6 percent out of a possible perfect score of 100 percent for his voting record on LGBTQ-related bills in the 2020 legislative session.  

Ward said he would have voted for all of the dozen or more LGBTQ measures passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020, which Equality Virginia called a historic development for Virginia. 

In addition to being a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights, Ward said that, if elected, he would support improving medical services to rural parts of the state such as his district, raising the minimum wage, and expanding broadband and cell phone service in parts of the state such as the 18th District, where service is lacking.

“Broadband and even cell coverage is a major problem in rural areas,” he said. “This is more than a problem of convenience, but impacts education, healthcare, and the economy. It’s embarrassing that our access to this is so poor.”

On his campaign website, Webert describes himself as a “family man, a farmer, and a business owner” with “strong ties to the environment and conservation.” His website says he has and would continue to be a strong advocate for 2nd Amendment gun owner’s rights, protecting the unborn, and reducing taxes.

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Arts & Entertainment

Help choose the 2022 DC Brau Pride Pils can design

For the 5th time, DC Brau partners with the Blade Foundation & SMYAL on a specially packaged pilsner in honor of Pride.

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Pride is back and it is time for you to help us choose the 2022 Pride Pils can design. This year DC Brau, DC’s original craft brewery, has partnered with local artist Chord Bezzera of District Co-Op to design this year’s Pride Pils. Chord has designed two distinct cans for the public to choose from. 

Restaurants, bars and retailers will be selling the specially branded DC Brau Pride Pils cans for the fifth year with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit SMYAL (smyal.org) and The Blade Foundation (bladefoundation.org). Since 2017, DC Brau has donated a total of $42,083.92 and sold over 81,576 cans through the Pride Pils program. This year the can labels have been generously donated by Blue Label Packaging Company.

The public can vote below or at washingtonblade.com/pridepils through March 31st. The winning design will be unveiled in June and will be available across the city for purchase during DC Pride. 

Design 1 – Pride Pilsner  

Design 1 was inspired by the 1970s, a transformational decade for LGBTQ+ culture that saw the rise of activism and the establishment of Pride Week. This design reflects the vibrant optimism and that freedom of thought that is still needed today.

Design 2 – Proud to Say Gay Pilsner

Design 2 is in direct response to the passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which limits what classrooms can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity thereby disenfranchising vulnerable youth. This design seeks to counter the bills harmful message and celebrate Pride across the LGBTQ+ community.

Vote below or by clicking HERE.

The Washington Blade was founded in 1969 and is known as the “newspaper of record” for the LGBT community both locally and nationally. For more information, visit washingtonblade.com and follow on Facebook (@WashingtonBlade) & Twitter (@WashBlade).

DC Brau has been producing award-winning craft beer at its brewery in Northeast DC since 2011. For more information, visit www.dcbrau.com, and follow on social media @dcbrau.

District CoOp is a collection of artists celebrating design, diversity and the culture of D.C. We’re all about supporting and empowering local artists and creating a brand for the people by the people. All designs are available in both men’s and women’s and as a tank or crew. Follow us on Instagram (@District_CoOp) or Facebook (@DistrictCoOp).

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District of Columbia

Plea deal for D.C. man charged with attack on gay Asian man, parents

U.S. Attorney offers to drop two of three hate crime designations

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Sean Lai, 30, an out gay man of Chinese ancestry, was beaten last August. (Photo courtesy of Lai)

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office have offered to lower two assault charges from a felony to a misdemeanor and to drop a bias-related crime designation for two of three assault charges pending against a D.C. man arrested for the Aug. 7, 2021, hate crime attack against gay Asian man Sean Lai and his parents in Northwest Washington.

According to a document filed on March 4 in D.C. Superior Court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which serves as the lead prosecutor in most adult criminal cases in D.C., offered to lower the charges against Patrick Joseph Miller Trebat, 39, in exchange for his agreement to plead guilty to the reduced charges.

Court records show that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Trebat’s attorney, Brandi Harden, are in “negotiations” presumably over the plea offer, with a felony status hearing scheduled for April 20. D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael O’Keefe, who is presiding over the case, was expected to ask the two parties at the April 20 hearing if an agreement over the plea deal has been reached.

The March 4 document filed in court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office disclosing the plea offer says the offer will expire on April 1, 2022.

Charging documents filed by D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the time of Trebat’s arrest last August state that Trebat allegedly attacked and assaulted Lai, an out gay man of Chinese ancestry, and his parents, who are also from China, while they were walking along the 3700 block of Fulton Street, N.W., near where they live.

The charging documents and a detailed arrest affidavit state that Sean Lai told D.C. police, who arrived on the scene as the incident was unfolding, that during the alleged attack Trebat called him and his parents, “faggots” and shouted, “You are not Americans!” A police report says Trebat also shouted, “Get out of my country.”

According to the police report, the family of three was transported to a local hospital for treatment of injuries listed as non-life threatening shortly after police arrested Trebat on the scene. The report and other charging documents say Trebat allegedly punched, kicked, and pushed all three family members, who at one point fell to the ground, causing various injuries.

Trebat, who lives in a Northwest D.C. apartment located near the scene of the attack, was released pending trial three days after his arrest under the court’s high intensity release program. The program imposed a nighttime curfew on Trebat and a strict order to stay away from the three people he is charged with assaulting.

The current charges pending against him include two counts of felony assault with significant bodily injury and one count of misdemeanor simple assault. Each of the three counts is designated with a bias-related enhancement based on the Asian “national origin” status of the victims.

For reasons it has declined to disclose, the U.S. Attorney’s Office chose not to include a sexual orientation bias-related designation for the assault charges filed against Trebat, even though the arrest affidavit states Trebat shouted the word “faggot” at Lai and his parents.

According to its March 4 plea bargain offer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in exchange for a guilty plea by Trebat, will lower the two felony counts of assault with significant bodily injury to misdemeanor counts of simple assault. The offer would retain the existing single count of simple assault.

Under the D.C. Criminal Code, assault with significant bodily harm carries a maximum sentence upon conviction of three years in prison and a possible fine of $12,500. Simple assault carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The plea offer for Trebat also calls for withdrawing the bias-related designation for the simple assault counts pertaining to Lai and his mother while leaving just one bias-related count for the alleged assault against Lai’s father.

Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crimes Act, the conviction of a person charged with a crime with a bias-related enhancement allows a judge to increase the penalty, including a fine or jail sentence, by one-and-a-half times greater than the maximum penalty of the underlying crime such as assault.

One other provision in the plea offer gives prosecutors the option of asking the judge to order Trebat held in jail from the time he pleads guilty to the lower charges to the date when he is sentenced, which usually takes place a month or two after the plea is accepted. Another final provision says prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office are not including in the plea offer a promise to ask the judge to limit the length or severity of the sentence.  

Lai couldn’t immediately be reached for comment to obtain his and his parents’ reaction to the plea offer. Harden, Trebat’s attorney, did not respond to a phone message from the Blade asking whether Trebat will agree to the plea offer.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has a longstanding policy of not publicly disclosing its reasons for offering plea bargain deals to people charged with various crimes. Local attorneys practicing criminal law, including D.C. Attorney Jamison Koehler, have said prosecutors sometimes issue plea bargain offers if they believe there is a chance that a jury will find a defendant they are prosecuting not guilty in a trial.

A plea offer that is accepted by a defendant ensures that the defendant will at least be convicted of an offense, even if the charge is reduced, and eliminates the possibility of a complete acquittal by a jury, according to Koehler and other attorneys familiar with the criminal justice system.

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District of Columbia

Trans candidate withdraws from Ward 3 D.C. Council race

Nemeth was one of two LGBTQ hopefuls

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ANC Commissioner Monika Nemeth dropped out of the Council race citing personal reasons. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Ward 3 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Monika Nemeth, who became the first known transgender person to win election to public office in D.C. when she won her ANC seat in 2018, announced in a Twitter post on Sunday that she has withdrawn her candidacy for the Ward 3 D.C. Council seat.

Nemeth was one of at least eight candidates running in the city’s June 21 Democratic primary for the Ward 3 Council seat, which became open when longtime incumbent Council member Mary Cheh (D) announced in February that she would not seek re-election to the seat.

“After much reflection, I have decided to withdraw from the Ward 3 D.C. Council race,” Nemeth said in her Twitter post. “I wish to thank my supporters. All donations received will be refunded,” she said.

In response to a question from the Washington Blade asking about her reason for dropping out of the Council race, Nemeth said in a text message, “There were multiple reasons for my decision. Much of it is personal.”

She also said she was unlikely to decide until at least June whether she will run for re-election to her ANC seat in the city’s November general election. She holds the seat for ANC 3F O6, which represents the neighborhoods of North Cleveland Park and Wakefield.

With Nemeth no longer a Council candidate, gay former D.C. police officer Salah Czapary becomes the only known remaining LGBTQ candidate running for a D.C. Council seat in the 2022 election at this time. Czapary announced on Feb. 12 that he is running in the June 21 Democratic primary for the Ward 1 Council seat currently held by incumbent Democrat Brianne Nadeau, who has been a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter.

Czapary’s campaign website lists a wide range of issues he says he will be addressing. But he told the Blade that public safety will be among the lead issues he will run on at a time when the city’s rising murder rate and gun violence have alarmed many city residents.

Nemeth is a former president of the D.C. Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBTQ political group, which last year changed its name to the Capital Stonewall Democrats. She has also served as chair of the ANC Rainbow Caucus, which advocates for LGBTQ issues.

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