District of Columbia
Brett Parson arrested in Florida on sex with minor charges
Former D.C. police lieutenant served as head of LGBT Liaison Unit
Former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson, who served as supervisor of the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit before retiring from the force in 2020, was arrested in Boca Raton, Fla., on Feb. 12, for allegedly having sex with a consenting 16-year-old boy in violation of Florida’s age of consent law, which is 18, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court.
The affidavit, which was prepared by a detective with the Coconut Creek (Fla.) Police Department, says the 16-year-old told police he and Parson met on the gay online dating app called Growlr and agreed to meet for a possible sexual encounter after exchanging “explicit” photos of each other.
An arrest warrant obtained by Coconut Creek police charges Parson with two counts of “Unlawful Sexual Activity with a Minor.” A separate incident and investigative report filed in court by Boca Raton police says officers with that department, in cooperation with Coconut Creek police, arrested Parson outside the Boca Raton residence of his parents where Parson was staying while visiting Florida from D.C.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately reach Parson for comment or determine the status of his case. Fox News reported it obtained court records showing Parson was being held at the Main Detention Center in Palm Beach County without bond as of Feb. 14, and it wasn’t clear if he had retained an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The incident report filed by Boca Raton police says Parson was arrested on Feb. 12, several hours after Coconut Creek police say he and the 16-year-old allegedly had a sexual encounter in a car belonging to Parson’s father that Parson was driving and after he and the 16-year-old arranged to meet at a gas station in Coconut Creek near where the youth lives.
Criminal defense lawyers have expressed concern on behalf of clients in similar cases that an adult arrested for having consensual sex with a 16 or 17-year-old in a state where the age of consent is 18 would not have violated the law in states where the age of consent is 16. An online search of U.S. age of consent laws shows that at least 16 states and D.C. have established the age of consent for sexual acts at 16.
At the time of his retirement in 2020 after 26 years on the D.C. police force, Parson announced he was starting a consulting business to advise law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad on police-related issues. He also announced he would become a part-time volunteer D.C. police reserve officer as part of the department’s Reserve Officer Corps.
When asked to confirm media reports that Parson had been removed from his position as a reserve officer, D.C. police spokesperson Sean Hickman sent the Blade a short statement confirming those reports.
“We were made aware of the retired member’s arrest early Sunday morning,” the statement says. “MPD immediately terminated him from our Reserve Corps.”
According to the arrest affidavit filed by Coconut Creek Police Det. Sgt. John McKinney, officers on routine duty during the early morning hours of Feb. 12 observed a vehicle driven by the 16-year-old being followed by a vehicle driven by Parson. The affidavit says the officers approached both vehicles after they observed the vehicle driven by the 16-year-year-old, a Ford Focus, turned into a “restricted access facility owned by Comcast.”
It says the vehicle driven by Parson, a red Buick convertible, “waited in the middle of the roadway,” prompting officers to approach Parson. The affidavit says Parson told the officers he was a police officer visiting his parents from D.C. and wasn’t familiar with the area and simply got lost. It says the officers allowed Parson to leave the area after he told them he did not know the person in the other vehicle.
“The officers then made contact with the driver of the gray Ford Focus, later identified as the 16-year-old minor hereinafter referred to as ‘RT,’” the affidavit says. “RT advised the officers that he was using Growlr, a dating application for gay men, to communicate with a male who identified himself as Brett,” the affidavit continues. “He stated that Brett told him he was looking for no strings attached casual sex, repeatedly asked him to meet, and sent each other explicit photographs.”
After initially meeting at a Shell gas station, at about 1 a.m. on Feb. 12, he and Parson arranged to drive to another location and park their cars in a secluded parking lot at the site of a daycare center in Coconut Creek, where RT got into the car Parson was driving, according to the affidavit. He told police the two talked for a while before they began kissing and a short time later performed oral sex on each other, the affidavit says RT recounted to police.
It says that the two attracted the attention of police when RT became nervous after someone walked past the parked car where he and Parson were engaging in intimate acts and the two decided to drive in their separate cars to find another location. That’s when police noticed that RT drove his vehicle into a restricted area and officers approached him to find out what was going on.
The affidavit does not say what prompted RT to disclose the intimate details of his alleged sexual acts with Parson when the officers would not otherwise have learned about that. The affidavit also doesn’t explain how it came about that RT’s parents arrived on the scene where police were interviewing their son as stated in the affidavit, although it’s likely that RT provided police with his parents contact information.
“We first spoke with RT’s parents and explained what we knew up to this point and the process involved in a case of this nature,” the affidavit states. “After a detailed explanation of their options, RT’s parents stated they would like to press charges against Brett Parson and together with their son would consent to the necessary steps for evidence collection,” it says.
“We then spoke with RT,” the affidavit says in recounting the action by McKinney and other police investigators. “It should be noted that RT is a thin build male who clearly does not appear to be 18 years of age or older,” it says. The affidavit says RT then repeated his account of his interactions with Parson that he gave to the officers who stopped him in his car earlier that morning.
The affidavit says RT turned over his phone to police to allow them to read the text messages that he and Parson exchanged after they met on the Growlr dating site. It quotes RT texting Parson to say “so sexy” after Parson sent him a shirtless photo of himself. After RT sent Parson a clothed photo of himself, Parson replied, “You are so cute,” the affidavit says. It says the two subsequently exchanged “explicit” photos of each other.
The affidavit’s recounting of the text messages between Parson and RT makes it clear that RT willingly chose to meet Parson for a sexual encounter knowing that Parson was an older man. The affidavit says Parson is 53.
After interviewing RT and his parents, the affidavit says detectives escorted them to the Coconut Creek Police’s Sexual Assault Treatment Center “for a physical examination, evidence collection and sworn recorded statement.” It says RT was then shown a group of photos of others along with Parson’s photo and he “positively identified Brett” as the person with whom he engaged in sexual activity.
“Based on the facts above, probable cause exists for the issuance of an arrest warrant for Brett Parson because Parson, who is over 24 years of age, did engage in sexual activity, in this case oral sex with each other, involving the victim who is only 16 years of age,” the affidavit concludes.
By mentioning that Parson was older than 24 years or age the affidavit was referring to the Florida age of consent statute that allows a person between the age of 18 and 23 to legally engage in consensual sex with a person who is 16 or 17 years old.
The affidavit does not say — and it could not immediately be determined — whether RT self identifies as gay, whether he was out to his parents as a gay person before the incident with Parson surfaced, or whether his parents are supportive of his sexual orientation. LGBTQ youth advocates have reported that many LGBTQ young people are confronted with hostile parents who disparage their sexual orientation or gender identity and sometimes prompt the young LGBTQ people to run away from their homes.
Gay former D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alex Padro, who says he has known Parson for many years in Padro’s role as a community activist in the city’s Shaw neighborhood, said Parson “earned my respect and that of many in our city and beyond” during Parson’s career as a police officer.
“Brett Parson served our city proudly for 26 years before his retirement in 2020,” Padro said. “Just like anyone else accused of a crime, Mr. Parson deserves to be treated as being innocent until proven guilty, and is entitled to mount a defense,” he said.
“MPD’s action in terminating a 26-year veteran of its ranks from the Reserve Corps without due process, without even hearing his side of the story is both un-American and unjust, depriving our citizens and MPD of his years of experience and demonstrating to those volunteer reservists that MPD does not have their back,” Padro said.
D.C. gay activist Rick Rosendall said Parson’s arrest raises the issue of teenage sexuality that the prevailing political and social climate does not appear ready to address.
“A 16-year-old cruising on Growlr may be a poor choice for a sexual partner, but he is not a victim,” Rosendall said. “Our society continues to have the most absurdly counterproductive attitudes regarding teenage sexuality, as if it could be wished away,” he said. “The result of this denialism is teen pregnancies and STDs.”
“Brett Parson has done our community considerable service and I hold him in high regard,” added Rosendall.
Legal observers have said age of consent laws are based on the long-held belief that a person under the age determined to be the legal “age of consent” is incapable of giving informed consent to sexual acts.
District of Columbia
Drag queens protest Trump at the Kennedy Center
President attended ‘Les Misérables’ opening night on Wednesday
On Wednesday night, four local drag performers attended the first night of the Kennedy Center’s season in full drag — while President Donald Trump, an outspoken critic of drag, sat mere feet away.
Three queens — Tara Hoot, Vagenesis, and Mari Con Carne — joined drag king Ricky Rosé to represent Qommittee, a volunteer network uniting drag artists to support and defend each other amid growing conservative attacks. They all sat down with the Washington Blade to discuss the event.
The drag performers were there to see the opening performance of “Les Misérables” since Trump’s takeover of the historically non-partisan Kennedy Center. The story shows the power of love, compassion, and redemption in the face of social injustice, poverty, and oppression, set in late 19th century France.
Dressed in full drag, the group walked into the theater together, fully aware they could be punished for doing so.
“It was a little scary walking in because we don’t know what we’re going to walk into, but it was really helpful to be able to walk in with friends,” said drag queen Vagenesis. “The strongest response we received was from the staff who worked there. They were so excited and grateful to see us there. Over and over and over again, we heard ‘Thank you so much for being here,’ ‘Thank you for coming,’ from the Kennedy Center staff.”
The staff weren’t the only ones who seemed happy at the act of defiance.
“We walked in together so we would have an opportunity to get a response,” said Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in full drag before. “It was all applause, cheers, and whistles, and remarkably it was half empty. I think that was season ticket holders kind of making their message in a different way.”
Despite the love from the audience and staff, Mari Con Carne said she couldn’t help feeling unsettled when Trump walked in.
“I felt two things — disgust and frustration,” Carne said. “Obviously, I don’t align with anything the man has to say or has to do. And the frustration came because I wanted to do more than just sit there. I wanted to walk up to him and speak my truth — and speak for the voices that were being hurt by his actions right now.”
They weren’t the only ones who felt this way according to Vagenesis:
“Somebody shouted ‘Fuck Trump’ from the rafters. I’d like to think that our being there encouraged people to want to express themselves.”
The group showing up in drag and expressing themselves was, they all agreed, an act of defiance.
“Drag has always been a protest, and it always will be a sort of resistance,” Carne said, after pointing out her intersectional identity as “queer, brown, Mexican immigrant” makes her existence that much more powerful as a statement. “My identity, my art, my existence — to be a protest.”
Hoot, who is known for her drag story times, explained that protesting can look different than the traditional holding up signs and marching for some.
“Sometimes protesting is just us taking up space as drag artists,” Hoot added. “I felt like being true to who you are — it was an opportunity to live the message.”
And that message, Ricky Rosé pointed out, was ingrained with the institution of the Kennedy Center and art itself — it couldn’t be taken away, regardless of executive orders and drag bans
“The Kennedy Center was founded more than 50 years ago as a place meant to celebrate the arts in its truest, extraordinary form,” said Ricky Rosé. “President Kennedy himself even argued that culture has a great practical value in an age of conflict. He was quoted saying, ‘the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense, not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding the futility of struggle’ and I believe that is the basis of what the Kennedy Center was founded on, and should continue. And drag fits perfectly within it.”
All four drag performers told the Washington Blade — independently of one another — that they don’t think Trump truly understood the musical he was watching.
“I don’t think the president understands any kind of plot that’s laid out in front of him,” Vagenesis said. “I’m interested to see what he thinks about “Les Mis,” a play about revolution against an oppressive regime. I get the feeling that he identifies with the the rebellion side of it, instead of the oppressor. I just feel like he doesn’t get it. I feel it goes right over his head.”
“Les Misérables” is running at the Kennedy Center until July 13.
District of Columbia
Man arrested for destroying D.C. Pride decorations, spray painting hate message
Prosecutors initially did not list offense as hate crime before adding ‘bias’ designation
D.C. police this week announced they have arrested a Maryland man on charges of Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property for allegedly pulling down and ripping apart rainbow colored cloth Pride ornaments on light poles next to Dupont Circle Park on June 2.
In a June 10 statement police said the suspect, identified as Michel Isaiah Webb, Jr., 30, also allegedly spray painted an anti-LGBTQ message on the window of a private residence in the city’s Southwest waterfront neighborhood two days later on June 4.
An affidavit in support of the arrest filed by police in D.C. Superior Court on June 9 says Web was captured on a video surveillance camera spray painting the message “Fuck the LGBT+ ABC!” and “God is Real.” The affidavit does not say what Webb intended the letters “ABC” to stand for.
“Detectives located video and photos in both offenses and worked to identify the suspect,” the police statement says. “On Sunday, June 8, 2025, First District officers familiar with these offenses observed the suspect in Navy Yard and made an arrest without incident.”
The statement continues: “As a result of the detectives investigation, 30-year-old Michael Isaiah Webb, Jr. of Landover, Md. was charged with Destruction of Property and Defacing Private Property.”
It concludes by saying, “The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating this case as potentially being motivated by hate or bias. The designation can be changed at any point as the investigation proceeds, and more information is gathered. A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
The online D.C. Superior Court docket for the case shows that prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. charged Webb with just one offense – Defacing Public or Private Property.
The charging document first filed by prosecutors on June 9, which says the offense was committed on June 4, declares that Webb “willfully and wantonly wrote, marked, drew, and painted a word, sign, or figure upon property, that is window(s), without the consent of Austin Mellor, the owner and the person lawfully in charge thereof.”
But the initial charging document did not designate the offense as a hate crime or bias motivated crime as suggested by D.C. police as a possible hate crime.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office on Tuesday didn’t immediately respond to a request from the Washington Blade for an explanation of why the office did not designate the offense as a hate crime and why it did not charge Webb in court with the second charge filed by D.C. police of destruction of Property for allegedly destroying the Pride decorations at Dupont Circle.
However, at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, the spokesperson sent the Washington Blade a copy of an “amended” criminal charge against Webb by the U..S. Attorney’s office that designates the offense as a hate crime. Court records show the amended charge was filed in court at 10:18 a.m. on June 11.
The revised charge now states that the criminal act “demonstrated the prejudice of Michael Webb based on sexual orientation (bias-related crime): Defacing Public or Private Property” in violation of the D.C. criminal code.
The U.S. Attorney’s office as of late Wednesday had not provided an explanation of why it decided not to prosecute Webb for the Destruction of Property charge filed by D.C. police for the destruction of Pride decorations at Dupont Circle.
The online public court records show that at a June 9 court arraignment Webb pleaded not guilty and Superior Court Judge Robert J. Hildum released him while awaiting trial while issuing a stay-away order. The public court records do not include a copy of the stay-away order. The judge also ordered Webb to return to court for a June 24 status hearing, the records show.
The arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police says at the time of his arrest, Webb waived his right to remain silent. It says he claimed he knew nothing at all about the offenses he was charged with.
“However, Defendant 1 stated something to the effect of, ‘It’s not a violent crime’ several times during the interview” with detectives, according to the affidavit.
The charge filed against him by prosecutors of Defacing Public or Private Property is a misdemeanor that carries a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a fine up to $1,000.
District of Columbia
D.C. police investigating threat of shooting at WorldPride festival
Police chief says weekend was ‘success without incident’
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a June 9 press conference that police investigators are looking for a man who reportedly threatened to “shoot up” the WordPride festival on Sunday, June 8, inside the fence-enclosed festival grounds.
Smith, who joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at the press conference to discuss public safety issues, said aside from the shooting threat, WorldPride events took place “without an incident’ and called WorldPride 2025 D.C. a success.
“I think last evening at the festival footprint there was an individual inside the festival who said there was an individual who was there and that they were going to shoot up the place in some terminology they used,” Smith told news media reporters.
“As you know, the event went off without incident,” she said. “We did have appropriate resources down there to address it. We did put out a photo of the individual – white male. That’s all we have right now. But our team is working very diligently to find out who that individual is.”
Smith added that D.C. police made 15 arrests during the WorldPride weekend with at least 23 violent crimes that occurred across the city but which she said were not related to WorldPride.
“There was a lot going on,” she said. “But I’m so grateful we were able to have a WorldPride 2025 in this city that was very successful.”
In response to reporters’ questions, Bowser said she regretted that an incident of violence took place in Dupont Circle Park shortly after she persuaded the U.S. Park Service to reverse its earlier decision to close Dupont Circle Park during WorldPride weekend.
The mayor was referring to an incident early Saturday evening, June 7, in which two juveniles were stabbed inside the park following a fight, according to D.C. police. Police said the injuries were nonfatal.
Bowser noted that she agreed with community activists and nearby residents that Dupont Circle Park, which has been associated with LGBTQ events for many years, should not be closed during WorldPride.
Park Service officials have said their reason for closing the park was that acts of vandalism and violence had occurred there during past LGBTQ Pride weekends, even though LGBTQ Pride organizers have said the vandalism and violent acts were not associated with Pride events.
“I think if I were standing here this morning and we hadn’t opened up the park you would be asking me were there any requests for not pushing hard to have a D.C. park opened that’s important to the LGBT community during Pride,” Bowser told reporters.
“So, any time that there is harm to someone, and our responsibility, we regard it as our number one responsibility to keep the city safe and keep from harm’s way, certainly I have some regrets,” she said. “But I know I was working very hard to balance what our community was calling for with our preparations. And that was the decision I made,” she said, referring to her call to reopen Dupont Circle Park.
Bowser also noted that the National Park Service would not likely have agreed to reverse its decision to reopen Dupont Circle Park if an event had not been planned to take place there over the WorldPride weekend.
She was referring to a Saturday, June 7, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation “DISCO” party in Dupont Circle Park, which took place after the decision to reopen the park.
“Step Outside, Feel The Beat, And Shine With Pride,” a flyer announcing the event states.
Drag queens protest Trump at the Kennedy Center
Padilla forcibly removed from federal building for questioning DHS secretary
Pride and Progress: Supporting LGBTQ+ Communities in Quitting
Comings & Goings
Indigo Girls coming to Capital One Hall
WorldPride recap: Festival, parade, fireworks, and Doechii
Judge temporarily blocks executive orders targeting LGBTQ, HIV groups
PHOTOS: WorldPride Parade
PHOTOS: WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert
