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District of Columbia

Fla. judge allows Brett Parson to return to D.C. while awaiting trial

Former cop arrested in February on sex with minor charges

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Brett Parson was arrested in February. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

A Broward County, Fla., Circuit Court judge has approved a request by former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson allowing him to return to his D.C. home and to spend the summer at his Provincetown, Mass. residence while he awaits the start of his trial on two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

In a June 9 order, Circuit Court Judge Tim Bailey reversed an earlier order handed down by another judge requiring Parson to remain in Florida at the home of his parents in Boca Raton until further notice from the court.

The earlier order came shortly after Parsonā€™s arrest on Feb. 12 on charges that he allegedly had sex with a consenting 16-year-old boy in violation of Floridaā€™s age of consent law, which is 18, according to an arrest affidavit filed in court by a detective with the Coconut Creek Police Department.

The affidavit 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 sexual encounter after exchanging ā€œexplicitā€ photos of each other. Court records show that the 16-year-old falsely listed his age as 18 on the Growlr site, which requires anyone using the site to be at least 18.

Under Florida law, a claim of not knowing the true age of a minor with whom someone has a sexual encounter is not grounds for a legal defense. Also under Florida law, a minor under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to a sexual encounter with someone older than 24. Parson, who retired from the D.C. police force in 2020, was 56 at the time of his arrest.

Court records show that a motion Parsonā€™s lawyer filed in court requesting that Parson be allowed to return to D.C. and spend time at his Provincetown home was unopposed by prosecutors with the Broward County Stateā€™s Attorneyā€™s Office.

Judge Bailey states in his order that Parsonā€™s ā€œPretrial Release shall be modified in that Defendant shall be permitted to immediately relocate to his primary residence at [street address] Washington, D.C.ā€ The order adds, ā€œFurther, beginning July 2, 2022, and until September 2, 2022, Defendant shall be permitted to reside at his other home located at [street address], Provincetown, MAā€¦and thereafter, on September 3, 2022, Defendant shall be permitted to return to his previously listed residence in Washington, D.C.ā€

The online court docket for Parsonā€™s case shows that his next court appearance at the Broward County Courthouse was scheduled for Sept. 23. No date on the court records has been listed for the start of the trial.

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District of Columbia

D.C. police investigating anti-gay assault at 14th & U McDonaldā€™s

In separate incident, gay man found unconscious near Florida Avenue bar

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Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro was attacked at a McDonaldā€™s at 14th and U streets. (Photos courtesy of Stuart West)

D.C. police are investigating an incident in which a group of as many as 15 men and women allegedly assaulted a gay man while some of them called him a ā€œfaggotā€ at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 27,  at the McDonaldā€™s restaurant at 14th and U Streets, N.W., according to a police report and the victimā€™s husband.

The report, which lists the incident as a suspected hate crime, says the victim, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, was taken to Howard University Hospital for treatment. A police spokesperson said he was released from the hospital the next day.

A GoFundMe page posted by Stuart West, Lascarroā€™s husband, who said Lascarro goes by his middle name Thomas, states, ā€œMedical bills, therapy costs, and ongoing recovery needs will continue to increase and any help to ensure he gets the care he needs to regain his health and peace of mind will be a blessing.ā€

The GoFundMe message adds, ā€œThomas was attacked by a mob who used hateful, derogatory language targeting his identity as a gay man. This horrific hate crime left him hospitalized overnight, facing serious physical injuries and emotional trauma.ā€

In response to an inquiry from the Blade about the 14th and U Street incident, a D.C. police spokesperson disclosed that a man whose friends identify him as gay was found unconscious on the ground suffering from a head injuryĀ about 5 a.m. also on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. just off Florida Avenue near the gay bar Uproar.

A police report lists the case as a robbery but doesnā€™t say how the injuries he suffered to his head happened. And like the case of the gay man attacked at the McDonaldā€™s, friends of the man found unconscious posted a GoFundMe page identifying the man.

ā€œBryan Smith (aka the barber) recently suffered immense trauma to his head and will be hospitalized for the foreseeable future,ā€ it says. ā€œBryan is a dear friend and a pillar in the D.C. queer and nightlife communities,ā€ the GoFundMe appeal says. ā€œAny amount of donations would be greatly appreciated to go towards the upcoming expenses he will incur.ā€

One of the friends who posted the GoFundMe told the Washington Blade they would have no further comment at this time. However, D.C.ā€™s Fox 5 News reports members of Smithā€™s family said he remains in a coma, with D.C. police saying they have video footage of two possible suspects who reportedly took Smithā€™s phone and wallet containing credit cards.

Although people who knew Smith said he had worked for many years as a hairstylist, the Fox 5 News report says he had recently been serving as a DJ. It points out that police are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the perpetrators responsible for Smithā€™s robbery and assault.

West, the husband of Lascarro, when contacted by the Blade, said Lascarro, 22, had been at the nearby gay bars Crush and Bunker, and he stopped at the McDonaldā€™s on his way home. West said the assault began inside the McDonaldā€™s, which was crowded with customers. He said the police report correctly states that Lascarro told police the incident began when one of the attackers, a woman, criticized him for not saying ā€œexcuse meā€ when he walked past her.   

ā€œHe ignored her, and he walked away,ā€ West told the Blade, adding that the woman then called him a faggot and her friends, who were mostly men, blocked the exit door at the McDonaldā€™s, preventing Lascarro from leaving and demanded that he apologize to the woman.

ā€œAnd when he said he was not going to apologize and he raised his hand to try and move the door to get out, thatā€™s when more than 10 individuals started to assault him,ā€ West said. ā€œAnd so, they started punching him all over his face and body, and it eventually moved to outside the McDonaldā€™s on the D.C. sidewalk, where more people got involved and started hitting him and assaulting him.ā€

At one point when Lascarro was sitting on the ground, ā€œbloodied, dazed, and confused, they decided to throw drinks and trash at him,ā€ West said. He said when two people walking by asked him if he needed help, Lascarro was able to dial 911 on his phone, and an ambulance arrived minutes later, which took him to the hospital.

ā€œThey performed a full CT scan and thankfully there were no critical injuries discovered,ā€ West said. ā€œSo, the only injuries are bruises and scrapes and cuts and a very sore jaw,ā€ he said, adding that the head injuries have caused his husband to suffer migraine headaches.

West said he later visited the McDonaldā€™s and asked two supervisors if they would release to him a copy of the video surveillance camera images from their security cameras from the night of the attack. He said the two declined his request but said they were cooperating with the police investigation.

D.C. police officials have said investigators routinely obtain video camera footage from businesses or from city security cameras along public spaces such as parks or streets when investigating crimes.

Police have said anyone with information that could lead to the identification of the perpetrators involved in the crimes targeting Lascarro and Smith should contact police at 202-727-9096.

The GoFundMe pages for the two men are here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thomass-recovery-from-hate-crime

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bryan-smiths-medical-recovery

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District of Columbia

46 known LGBTQ candidates running for D.C. ANC seats

32 running unopposed on ballot, 22 are incumbents

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Kent Boese continues in his role as director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. (Photo courtesy of Boese)

At least 46 known LGBTQ candidates are running for seats on the cityā€™s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in the Nov. 5 D.C. election, with a half dozen or more LGBTQ candidates running in each of the cityā€™s wards except for Ward 3, where just two known LGBTQ candidates are running.

Among the 46 known LGBTQ candidates, 22 are incumbent ANC commissioners seeking re-election to another four-year term. The ANC Rainbow Caucus, which consists of LGBTQ ANC members, shows on its website it currently has 27 incumbent commissioners, most of whom are running for re-election.

That appears to indicate the percentage of LGBTQ ANC members seeking to run for re-election is greater than the percentage of the overall number of ANC members running for another term. According to reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets, many ANC members have chosen not to run for re-election this year, based in part on the stress that goes with the job

Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city government on a wide range of neighborhood issues, including the approval of liquor licenses for bars and restaurants and zoning regulations. City officials are required to give ā€œgreat weightā€ to the ANC recommendations, but government officials are not required to accept the recommendations.

The official list of ANC candidates on the D.C. election ballot released by the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 51 of the 345 ANC Single Member Districts, or SMDs, do not have a candidate running on the Nov. 5 election ballot. The Board of Elections has released a separate list of registered write-in candidates that includes several ANC candidates.

The Board of Elections list shows there are a far larger number of ANC single member districts in which a single candidate is running unopposed. Among the 46 LGBTQ ANC candidates, 32 have no opponent on the election ballot.

Gay ANC commissioner Vincent Slatt, who represents  the Dupont Circle ANC district 2B03, and who serves as chair of the ANC Rainbow Caucus, said ANC members face a considerable amount of stress.

ā€œANCs are volunteer, uncompensated positions that we do in addition to our day jobs,ā€ Slatt told the Washington Blade. ā€œThere is an extremely high turnover rate due to the lack of support we receive from the executive agencies, and the perception of our neighbors that we provide constituent services that our Council members provide,ā€ he said.

Slatt added that residents sometimes lack full understanding of the role of ANC members, which ā€œhas created a large amount of turnover, and the problem is getting worse.ā€

The Blade obtained its list of known LGBTQ ANC candidates in part from the ANC Rainbow Caucus, which compiled its own list of LGBTQ candidates, and from the LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national group that supports LGBTQ candidates for elective office, which released a list of 13 Victory Fund  ā€œapprovedā€ ANC candidates. The Blade obtained a few  additional names of LGBTQ ANC candidates not on the Rainbow Caucus or Victory Fund lists from people who knew the candidates.

Also, among the known LGBTQ ANC candidates, in just two single member districts, two LGBTQ candidates are running against each other. One is in district 1B03 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which J. Swiderski is challenging incumbent Jamie S. Sycamore.

The other is in district 2G01 in the Shaw neighborhood in which Howard Garrett, the recently elected president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.ā€™s LGBTQ Democratic group, is running against community activist Parker Griffin. The two are competing for an ANC seat in which the incumbent is not running for re-election.

Similar to past election years, the largest number of known LGBTQ ANC candidates are running this year in districts in Ward 2, including the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Shaw neighborhoods. However, more LGBTQ candidates this year are running in Wards 4, 5, and 8 than in past years. 

Gay former ANC commissioner Kent Boese, who until 2022 had represented the Ward 1 SMD in the Park View neighborhood, continues in his current role as director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, to which he was appointed in October 2022. Among his duties is to oversee fiscal and administrative operations of ANCs across the city.

Following is a list of the LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running.

1A04 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)
Jeremy Sherman, he/him

1A07 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)
Mukta Ghorpadey, she/her

1A10 ā€“ (Columbia Heights)
Billy Easley, he/him

1B03 ā€“ (Columbia Heights/U Street)
J. Swiderski, they/he
Jamie S. Sycamore, he/him

1B06 ā€“ (Columbia Heights/Meridian Hill)
Miguel Trindade Deramo, he/him

1B07 ā€“ (U Street)
Matthew Holden, he/him

1D01 ā€“ (Mount Pleasant)
Jay Falk, she/her

1E01  ā€“ (Park View)
Brad Howard, he/him

1E07 ā€“ (Howard University/Pleasant Plains)
Brian Footer, he/him

2A05 ā€“ (Foggy Bottom)
Luke Chadwick, he/him

2B02 ā€“ (Dupont Circle)
Jeffrey Rueckgauer, he/him

2B03 ā€“ (Dupont Circle)
Vincent Slatt, he/him

2B09 ā€“ (Dupont Circle/U Street)
Christopher Davis, he/him

2C01 ā€“ (Penn Quarter)
Michael D. Shankle, he/him

2F05 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
Christopher Dyer, he/him

2F06 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
John Fanning, he/him

2F07 ā€“ (Logan Circle)
Kevin Cataldo, he/him

2G01 ā€“ (Shaw)
Parker Griffin, he/him
Howard Garrett, he/him

2G02 ā€“ (Shaw)
Alexander ā€˜Alexā€™ Padro, he/him

2G04 ā€“ (Shaw)
Steven McCarty, he/him

3B06 ā€“ (Wesley Heights)
S. Robert Rodriquez, he/him

3F05 ā€“ (Van Ness/Cleveland Park)
Adrian Jesus Iglesias, he/him

4B01 ā€“ (Takoma)
Doug Payton, he/him

4B10Ā  ā€“ (Lamond Riggs)
Jinin Berry, she/her

4C06 ā€“ (Petworth)
Christen Boss Hayes, they/them

4E02 ā€“ (16th Street Heights)
Vince Micone, he/him

5B02 ā€“ (Brookland)
Nandini Sen, she/her

5B04 ā€“ (Brookland)
Ra Amin, he/him

5B05 ā€“ (Brookland)
MĆ³nica MartĆ­nez LĆ³pez, she/her

5D05 ā€“ (Trinidad)
Salvador Sauceda-Guzman, he/him

5D06 ā€“ (Trinidad/Carver)
Charquinta (Char) McCray, she/her

5E05 ā€“ (Bloomingdale)
Tyler Lopez, he/him

5F06 ā€“ (Eckington)
Joe Bishop-Henchman, he/him 

6B03 ā€“ (Capitol Hill)
David Sobelsohn, he/him

6B09 ā€“ (Capitol Hill/Barney Circle)
Karen Hughes, she/her

7B05 ā€“ (Hillcrest)
Elizabeth Reddick, she/them

7C01 ā€“ (Deanwood)
Brian Glover, he/him

7C03 ā€“ (Lincoln Heights)
Carlos Richardson, he/him

7C08 ā€“ (Capitol View)
Brandon M. Scott, he/him

7E06 ā€“ (Benning Ridge)
Ravi K. Perry, he/him

8A01 ā€“ (Fairlawn)
Tom Donohue, he, him

8B05 ā€“ (Garfield Heights)
Marcus Thomas Hickman, he/him

8C08 ā€“ (Douglass)
Elizabeth Carter, she/her

8F04 ā€“ (Navy Yard)
Edward Daniels

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District of Columbia

D.C. votersā€™ guide: Council, school board, Initiative 83 on ballot

Harris poised to win cityā€™s three electoral votes next week

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Longtime LGBTQ ally Vincent Gray is not seeking re-election to the Council. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

In a city whose voters, including LGBTQ voters, are overwhelmingly Democratic, D.C. Democratic elected officials ā€“ including four members of the D.C. Council and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton ā€“ are considered the strong favorites to win re-election in the cityā€™s Nov. 5 election.

Also expected to win is gay Ward 2 D.C. State Board of Education member Allister Chang, who is running unopposed on the ballot for re-election to a second four-year term in office.

Chang is one of two out gay members serving in a D.C. elective office other than Advisory Neighborhood Commission position. The other gay non-ANC elected official is D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), who won election to the Council in 2022.

Like all D.C. elections over the past 30 years or longer, nearly all candidates with any chance of winning have either a strong record of support for LGBTQ rights or have expressed support for the LGBTQ community.

The only exception to the cityā€™s history of electing to office pro-LGBTQ candidates is the U.S. presidential candidates who are on the D.C. ballot every four years, including this year. Republican presidential candidates with a less than supportive record on LGBTQ issues, including Donald Trump, have won election as president, while losing by a wide margin in D.C

D.C. voters on Nov. 5 are expected to vote in overwhelming numbers for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris and her vice-presidential running mate Tim Walz, providing the Harris-Walz ticket with D.C.ā€™s three electoral votes.

Also on the D.C. election ballot on Nov. 5 is Initiative 83, a controversial proposal calling for creating a ranked choice voting system in D.C. and open primaries, which would allow independents to vote in the cityā€™s primary elections that are currently open to only registered Democrats, Republicans, and Statehood-Green Party members.

LGBTQ activists, similar to voters in general, appear to be divided over whether to support or oppose the initiative. Among its strongest supporters is longtime local gay Democratic activist Philip Pannell, who is serving as treasurer of the committee leading the campaign in support of the measure called Make All Votes Count DC.

Among the D.C. Council seats up for election on Nov. 5 are the two At-Large seats held by Democrat Robert White and independent Christina Henderson. Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, one of the two At-Large Council seats, cannot be held by a member of the cityā€™s majority party, which is the Democratic Party.

Robert White and Henderson have been longtime LGBTQ rights supporters. Both were endorsed this year by the Capital Stonewall Democrats, the cityā€™s largest local LGBTQ political group. The two are being challenged by Republican Rob Simmons and Statehood-Green Party candidate Darryl Moch. Under D.C. election law, voters can vote for two candidates on the ballot for the two At-Large seats, with the highest two vote getters declared the winners.

Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who have also been strong LGBTQ community supporters, are running unopposed for re-election.

In Ward 7, Democrat Wendel Felder is running against Republican Noah Montgomery for the seat being vacated by incumbent Council member and former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), who LGBTQ activists consider one of the strongest LGBTQ supporters among city elected officials.

Similar to many city voters, LGBTQ Democrats have struggled over who to support in the Ward 8 D.C. Council race in which incumbent Trayon White (D) was indicted earlier this year on federal bribery charges. Whiteā€™s indictment came after he won the Democratic primary by a wide margin. His only opponent on the Nov. 5 election ballot is Republican Nate Derenge, although five others are running against him as write-in candidates.

At an LGBTQ community candidates forum in September organized by Team Rayceen Productions and the Washington Blade, Derenge told the Blade he is generally supportive of efforts to ban discrimination against all minorities, but he opposes city government offices that he said are catering to ā€œspecial interest groups.ā€ 

Among the offices he would call for disbanding, he said, were the Mayorā€™s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the other mayoral constituent offices such as the Latino, African American, Asian American, and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Affairs offices.  

The Capital Stonewall Democrats decided against making an endorsement in the Ward 8 race, with Trayon White becoming the only Democrat on the D.C. election ballot that the group has not endorsed, even though White has a record of support for the LGBTQ community. Political observers, noting White is a beloved figure in Ward 8, are predicting that White will likely win re-election, although by a smaller margin than his past election wins.

Chang, meanwhile, is among six candidates running for re-election or election to the D.C. State Board of Education, which is a nonpartisan body under the cityā€™s Home Rule Charter.

The others running include the boardā€™s president and Ward 7 member Eboni-Rose Thompson, who is being challenged by candidate Toni Criner; the boardā€™s vice president and at-large member Jacque Paterson, who is also running unopposed; and Ward 4 member Frazier Oā€™Leary, who is being challenged by candidate T. Michelle Colson.

ā€œI will say every single one of the current members has been supportive of my efforts to push forward more inclusive LGBTQ standards, our educational standards,ā€ Chang told the Washington Blade, referring to the incumbent members, including those running for re-election. He said Ward 8 candidate LaJoy Johnson-Law has also been a strong supporter of LGBTQ school related issues.

In the race for D.C. Congressional Delegate, longtime incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is being challenged by Republican Myrtle Patricia Alexander, Statehood Green Party candidate Kymore Freeman, and independent candidate Michael A. Brown.

Brown, a former D.C. Council member and LGBTQ rights supporter, has said he has been a longtime admirer of Norton, and he believes she has done an excellent job representing D.C. in Congress on a wide range of issues, including LGBTQ issues. But he told the Blade he thinks a change is needed after Nortonā€™s 33 years in office. Among other things, he said he would be more aggressive in representing D.C. interests before Congress.

Members of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, like many D.C. residents, have said Nortonā€™s long record as a champion for D.C., including the LGBTQ community, merits that she be re-elected as D.C. Congressional Delegate.

Democrat Ankit Jain and longtime D.C. Republican candidate Nelson Rimensnyder are competing to replace Democrat Michael D. Brown as D.C. U.S. Senator, a position known as the cityā€™s Shadow Senate seat. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Oye Owolewa, who holds the office known as the D.C. Shadow U.S. House seat, is being challenged by Republican Ciprian Ivanof.  

Jain and Owolewa, who have been endorsed by Capital Stonewall Democrats, are expected to win their races with the cityā€™s ā€œdeep blueā€ Democratic electorate.

GLAA D.C, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, has issued ratings this year for just four of the 10 D.C. Council candidates running in the Nov. 5 election. Under a recently adopted policy, GLAA limits its ratings to candidates that complete and return a GLAA questionnaire, which asks candidates to respond to mostly non-LGBTQ specific issues that GLAA says have an impact on LGBTQ residents like all other D.C. residents.  

But unlike GLAA, Team Rayceen Productions has conducted video interviews of nearly all the candidates on the D.C. election ballot, including D.C. Council, school board, Congressional Delegate, and shadow House and Senate candidates. 

The video interviews can be accessed at Team Rayceenā€™s YouTube channel. The GLAA questionnaire and candidate ratings can be accessed at glaa.org.

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