District of Columbia
Unexplained death of D.C. gay man caused by ‘acute’ alcohol intoxication
Partner of Washington Wizards chef urges police to continue investigation
A D.C. gay man whose body was found on a street in Southeast Washington around 3 a.m. on May 28 with his car, wallet, phone, and jewelry missing died of “acute ethanol intoxication,” according to a finding by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s office, who released the cause and manner of death of Ernest Terrell Newkirk, 55, in response to a request from the Washington Blade, said “ethanol” is a technical term for alcohol as used in alcoholic beverages.
In a brief statement, the Medical Examiner’s office told the Blade other significant conditions that contributed to Newkirk’s death were “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease” and “end stage renal disease of unknown etiology.” Etiology is a medical term used for the cause of a medical condition.
The statement says the manner of death was determined to be an “accident” rather than an intentional attempt by Newkirk to take his own life or by homicide.
The disclosure of the cause and manner of Newkirk’s death came more than three months after an initial autopsy found no signs of injury. The Medical Examiner’s office says it normally takes about 90 days for the completion of toxicology tests to determine a cause and manner of death due to a large backlog of cases.
Newkirk’s domestic partner of 21 years, Roger Turpin, said neither the Medical Examiner’s office nor D.C. police, who have been investigating the death, contacted him to inform him of the finding of the cause and manner of death. He said he learned about it for the first time from the Blade.
Newkirk worked as a chef for several years at D.C.’s Capital One Arena for the Washington Wizards basketball team and operated a home-based landscaping and lawn care business.
On Saturday evening, May 27, Newkirk drove from his and Turpin’s home at 19 Anacostia Rd., N.E. to attend a Black Pride dance party held at the Ugly Mug bar and lounge in the Barrack’s Row section of Capitol Hill, Turpin told the Blade.
At about 12:30 a.m. on May 28, Newkirk called his partner on his cell phone to say he was leaving the Ugly Mug Black Pride event and would soon be on his way home, Turpin said. But he never made it home and did not answer Turpin’s repeated calls to find out where he was.
Unknown to Turpin at the time, D.C. police received a call at around 3 a.m. on May 28 about an unconscious man lying in the street on the 1100 block of 46th Place, S.E. A police report says the call was made by a man who was driving in the area, saw the unconscious man in the street, and attempted to provide CPR to revive the man before police and an ambulance arrived.
Police later told Turpin the unconscious man had no identification on him and after being pronounced dead was listed as a “John Doe” at the city’s morgue. It was only after Turpin filed a missing person’s report one day later and provided police with a photo of Newkirk that police identified the deceased man found on the street as being Newkirk.
Turpin said that around the time his partner’s body was found, he discovered calls were made on Newkirk’s cell phone from phone records he had access to. He learned a short time later from his partner’s bank and credit card records that someone had made purchases with his debit card and traffic tickets were issued to someone driving Newkirk’s missing car before it was found a little over a mile away from where Newkirk’s body was found.
When the car was eventually returned to Turpin, Turpin said police appeared uninterested in obtaining two bags he found in the car that did not belong to him or Newkirk. He said a police detective would not respond to his question about whether police attempted to obtain fingerprints from the inside of the car.
A D.C. police spokesperson told the Blade in July that the case remained under investigation and police were waiting for the Medical Examiner’s findings of the cause and manner of death. The spokesperson said an autopsy found no signs of injury on the body, which prompted police to rule out homicide.
The spokesperson, Paris Lewbel, also said there were no initial signs of “foul play,” despite Turpin’s belief that one or more suspects may have stolen Newkirk’s car and belongings as part of a carjacking.
The NBC News online LGBTQ news site called Out News did a follow-up story on the Newkirk case after learning about it from the Blade’s story on July 20. The NBC Out story reports that D.C. police disputed Turpin’s claim that police were not adequately investigating the case.
The NBC Out News story also reports that a friend of Newkirk told NBC that he spoke with Newkirk for about a half hour outside the Ugly Mug around midnight during the Black Pride event and that Newkirk appeared to be intoxicated.
But the friend did not know what Newkirk did after he left the Ugly Mug, according to the NBC Out story. The story also reports that the Ugly Mug’s owner said police never asked him to view the bar’s security camera footage to see if Newkirk may have left the bar with someone else. At the time NBC asked about the security camera footage, the owner said the video recordings from the time Newkirk was at the bar over Memorial Day weekend had been erased.
D.C. police spokesperson Lewbel, who told the Blade in July the case was still under investigation, did not respond to a Blade inquiry this week asking how or whether the finding of the cause of Newkirk’s death would impact the police investigation.
Turpin this week said he very much wants police to continue the investigation to determine what happened to his partner, even if the cause of death was alcohol intoxication.
“How did his body get in the middle of the street?” Turpin asked. “And his car was gone, his wallet, his phone, everything was gone,” he said. “They really should continue the investigation. They really should.”
Turpin acknowledged that his partner began drinking on the same day at another event before he attended the Ugly Mug event. Regarding the Medical Examiner’s finding of “renal disease,” Turpin said Newkirk several years earlier had one of his kidneys replaced after being on dialysis prior to the kidney transplant surgery.
District of Columbia
GLAA releases ratings for 18 candidates running for D.C. mayor, Council, AG
Mayoral contender Janeese Lewis Geroge among those receiving highest score
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, a Democrat, is among just four candidates to receive the highest rating score of +10 from GLAA D.C. who are competing in the city’s June 16 primary election.
GLAA, formally known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, has rated candidates for public office in D.C. since the 1970s. It rated 18 of the 36 candidates on this year’s primary ballot for mayor, D.C. Council, and D.C. attorney general based on its policy of only rating candidates who return a GLAA questionnaire asking for their positions on a wide range of issues, most of which are not LGBTQ-specific.
Among the candidates who did not return the questionnaire and thus did not receive a rating, according to GLAA, was Democratic mayoral contender Kenyan McDuffie, who along with Lewis George, is considered by political observers to be one of the two leading mayoral candidates running in the Democratic primary.
GLAA President Benjamin Brooks said that when the McDuffie campaign learned that GLAA announced it had released its candidate ratings and McDuffie was not rated because a questionnaire from him was not received a McDuffie campaign worker contacted GLAA. Brooks said the campaign worker told him they didn’t initially believe they received the questionnaire but they discovered this week that it landed in the spam folder of the campaign’s email account.
Brooks told the Washington Blade he informed the campaign worker it was too late for GLAA to issue a rating for McDuffie since the submission deadline for all candidates had passed. But he said GLAA will allow McDuffie to submit a completed questionnaire that it will post on its website along with the questionnaire responses of the other candidates who submitted them to GLAA.
Lewis George and McDuffie, who each have long records of support for the LGBTQ community, are among a total of eight candidates running for mayor on the June 16 primary ballot: seven Democrats and one Statehood Green Party candidate. In addition to Lewis George, GLAA rated just two other mayoral candidates. Rini Sampath, a Democrat who self identifies as queer, received a +6.5 rating, and Ernest E. Johnson, also a Democrat, received a +4.5 rating
Under the GLAA rating system, candidate ratings range from a +10, the highest score, to a -10, the lowest possible score. In its ratings for the June 16 primary, the lowest score issued was +4.5. GLAA said in a statement that each of the 18 candidates it rated expressed strong support for LGBTQ-related issues in their questionnaire responses, indicating that the overall rating scores reflect the candidates’ positions on mostly non-LGBTQ-specific issues.
The three other candidates who received a +10 GLAA rating are each running as Democrats for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat. They include gay candidate Miguel Trindade Deramo; Aparna Raj, who identifies as bisexual; and LGBTQ ally Rashida Brown. The only other Ward 1 candidate rated by GLAA is LGBTQ ally Terry Lynch, who received a +5.5 rating.
Ward 5 D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker, the Council’s only gay member who is facing two opponents in the Democratic primary, received a +7 GLAA rating. The two challengers did not return the questionnaire and were not rated.
“In seven out of 10 of our priorities, every candidate indicated agreement,” GLAA said in its statement to the Washington Blade in referring to the candidates it rated. “Total consensus on core issues signals that whomever is elected to Council and mayor, we should expect to hold our elected officials accountable to our goals of protecting home rule, resisting federal overreach, advancing transgender healthcare rights, and eliminating chronic homelessness in the District,” the statement says.
“While candidates agree on the basics, they distinguish themselves in the depth and creativity in their responses, and their record on the issues,” according to the statement, which adds that candidates’ full questionnaire responses and ratings can be accessed on the GLAA website, glaa.org.
Like past election years, GLAA does not rate candidates running for the D.C. Congressional Delegate seat or the so-called “shadow” U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate seats.
With the exception of one question asking about transgender rights, none of the other nine of the 10 questionnaire questions are LGBTQ-specific. But most of the questions mention that LGBTQ people are impacted by the issues being raised, such as affordable housing, federal government intrusion into D.C. home rule, and access to healthcare and public benefits for low-income residents.
One of the questions asks candidates if they support decriminalization of sex work in D.C. among consenting adults, which GLAA supports. Lewis George is among the candidates who said they do not support sex work decriminalization at this time. The other two mayoral candidates that GLAA rated, Sampath and Johnson, said they support sex work decriminalization.
In the race for D.C. attorney general, GLAA issued a rating for just one of the three candidates running: Republican challenger Manuel Rivera, who received a +4.5 rating. Incumbent Democrat Brian Schwalb and Democratic challenger J.P. Szymkowicz were not rated because they didn’t return the questionnaire.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D), who is running unopposed in the primary, received a +6.5 rating. Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who is facing three Democratic challengers in the primary and who is a longtime LGBTQ ally, received a +6.5 rating.
In the special election to fill the at-large D.C. Council seat vacated by the resignation of then-Independent Councilmember McDuffie to enable him to run for mayor as a Democrat, GLAA has rated two of the three Independent candidates competing for the seat. Elissa Silverman received a +5.75 rating, and Doni Crawford received a +5.6 rating.
Finally, in the At-Large D.C. Council race GLAA issued ratings for five of the 11 candidates running in the primary, each of whom are Democrats. Oye Owolewa received a +9; Lisa Raymond, +7.5; Dwight Davis, +6.5; Dyana N.M. Forester, +6; and Fred Hill, +6.6.
The full list of GLAA-rated candidates and their detailed questionnaire responses can be accessed at glaa.org.
District of Columbia
Anti-LGBTQ violence prevention efforts highlighted at D.C. community fair
Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs organized May 8 event
Detailed advice on how LGBTQ people can avoid, defend themselves against, and prevent themselves and loved ones from becoming victims of violence, with a focus on domestic and intimate partner violence, was presented at a May 8 LGBTQIA+ Safety in Numbers Community Fair.
The event, organized by the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, included five workshop sessions and information tables set up by 14 LGBTQ-supportive organizations and D.C. government agencies or agency divisions, including the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s LGBT Liaison Unit and the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center.
Also playing a lead role in organizing the event was the D.C. LGBTQIA+ Violence Prevention and Response Team, or VPART, a coalition of D.C. officials and leaders of community-based organizations that work with the Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
The event was held in meeting space in the building where the Office of LGBTQ Affairs is located at 899 N. Capitol St., N.E.
The workshop topics included de-escalation training on healthy relationships, bystander intervention, self-defense training, violence prevention grants, and suicide prevention.
“This will be a public safety and violence prevention event where community partners will educate attendees on various methods of violence intervention and trauma-informed practices,” according to a statement released by the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs prior to the start of the event.
The statement adds, “We will have live demos, interactive games, and workshops focused on strategies for self-defense, protecting vulnerable communities, increasing access to mental health resources, providing tools for recognizing domestic violence/intimate partner violence signs in intimate relationships, and assistance for substance abuse.”
Sonya Joseph, associate director of engagement for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, told the Washington Blade that studies have shown rates of domestic or intimate partner violence are higher in the LGBTQ community than in the community at large.
“Domestic violence and intimate partner violence are two very big prevalent issues in the LGBTQ community,” she said, adding that some of the workshops at the event would be providing “training on healthy relationships and how to recognize and prevent intimate partner violence and the signs of it.”
About 35 to 40 people attended the workshop sessions.
Experts specializing in violence impacting the LGBTQ community have said domestic violence refers to violence among people in domestic relationships that can include spouses but also siblings, parents, cousins, and other relatives. Intimate partner violence, according to the experts, refers to violence perpetuated by a partner in a romantic or dating relationship.
These D.C. based organizations or agencies that participated in the LGBTQIA+ Safety in Numbers event, and which can be contacted for assistance, include:
• Defend Yourself
• DC LGBTQ+ Community Center
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• Joseph’s House
• Us Helping Us, People into Living, Inc.
• MCSR (formerly known as Men Can Stop Rape)
• MPD LGBT Liaison Unit
• Volunteer Legal Advocates
• DC SAFE
• Destination Tomorrow
• D.C. Office of Victims Services and Justice Grants
• Life Enhancement Services
• ONYX Therapy Group
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.
District of Columbia
Maren Morris to headline Capital Pride Concert
Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter came out as bisexual in 2024
Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, announced on May 7 that nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Maren Morris, who identifies as bisexual, will be the headline performer at this year’s Capital Pride Concert scheduled for June 21.
The concert takes place as part of the annual Capital Pride Festival held on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., usually between 3rd Street near the U.S. Capitol and 9th Street.
“Morris, known for her genre-blending sound and outspoken support of LGBTQ+ rights, will be joined by a standout lineup, including acclaimed queer rapper Leikeli47, pop icon Lisa Lisa, Juno-nominated producer and DJ from the ‘Heated Rivalry’ soundtrack, Harrison, and ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 18 winner Myki Meeks,” according to a statement released by Capital Pride.
“In a moment when LGBTQ+ people are being challenged across the country, the Capital Pride Concert is a space where our community is fully seen and heard,” Ryan Bos, the Capital Pride Alliance CEO and president, said in the statement. “Bringing Maren Morris to the stage reflects this year’s theme: Exist, Resist, Have the Audacity,” Bos said.
The statement notes that the concert takes place as part of the annual D.C. Pride Festival, which is open to the public free of charge, with tickets available for purchase for specific areas listed as the Capital Stage Pit Zone and the VIP Concert Zone.
It says the festival takes place from 12 –10 p.m. and points out that in addition to the music performed by multiple other performers on several stages, festival attendees “can explore hundreds of exhibitors, community organizations, and artisans, along with multiple food courts and beverage gardens throughout the festival footprint.”
Information on the Capital Pride Alliance website shows that the festival takes place one day after the annual Capital Pride Parade, scheduled for June 20 and which is expected to travel from 14th and T Streets, N.W., to Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., where it is expected to end at 9th Street.
The statement adds that following the stage performances during the June 21 festival, which are expected to conclude around 8 p.m., “the celebration will continue with the Capitol Sunset Dance Party, closing out the evening against the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol.”
The online publication Today, which is part of the NBC “Today” television show, reported that Morris came out as bisexual in a 2024 during Pride. It reports Morris “shared several images of herself holding a Pride flag to mark the occasion, writing, ‘Happy to be the B in LGBTQ+’”
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