District of Columbia
New appeal for help in solving 1987 D.C. gay murder case
U.S. Navy commander was fatally stabbed outside Chesapeake House gay bar
The family of a 43-year-old gay U.S. Navy commander who was stabbed to death shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 1987, minutes after he left a D.C. gay bar in a yet unsolved case considered a hate crime, is appealing to the public for help in providing police with a tip that may lead to the identity of two male suspects.
D.C. police at the time of the murder said Commander Gregory Peirce, an Alexandria, Va., resident who served as a staff officer at the Pentagon, was approached by two men appearing to be in their early 20s as he and a man he was with left the Chesapeake House, a gay bar at 946 9th St., N.W. at about 12:15 a.m.
A Washington Blade story published on Jan. 9, 1987, reported that police sources familiar with the investigation said one of the male suspects stabbed Peirce in the chest and neck, then kicked him repeatedly while he lay unconscious at the site of the stabbing in a parking lot behind the Chesapeake House.
The second suspect chased the man who was with Peirce toward the entrance of the bar, slashing the back of the man’s coat with a knife as the man sought help from the Chesapeake House doorman, Tom Vaughn, police sources told the Blade.
A police spokesperson said Peirce was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later at George Washington University Hospital as a result of a severed neck artery, the Blade reported. The man he was with, who told police what he observed, was not injured.
Amanda Soderlund, Peirce’s niece, told the Blade she and her family remain hopeful that the two young men involved in the fatal stabbing 36 years ago could be brought to justice.
She said her beloved uncle, who did not openly identify as gay while serving in the Navy, was just a few months away from retiring and being honorably discharged from the Navy.
“My uncle was an incredible man,” Soderlund said in an Oct. 5 phone interview. “We have a very large family,” she said, and family members have long tried to find out exactly what happened and why when Gregory Peirce became D.C.’s first homicide victim of 1987.
Longtime D.C. police homicide Detective Danny Whalen, who is assigned to the homicide unit’s Cold Case Squad, told the Blade last week that the Peirce murder case is among the large number of old homicide cases that cannot be solved unless new information surfaces.
“You know, we would love nothing more than to bring these people to justice,” Whalen said of the two unidentified suspects in the Peirce murder. “The detectives who worked the case at the time exhausted everything in their power,” said Whalen. “And if they could have made an arrest, they would have.”
Whalen noted that the two suspects, who witnesses said appeared to be in their 20s, would likely be in their late 50s or early 60s at this time, assuming they are still alive. Whalen and other law enforcement officials have said for investigators to make an arrest in an old case like this, one or more people who know something about the case and who may have known the two suspects need to come forward with information.
Soderlund, Peirce’s niece, said she has reached out to the Blade and may reach out to other news media outlets to draw attention to the case, with the hope that someone reading about it in the press might just come forward with a tip that could lead to an arrest.
“The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for each homicide committed in the District of Columbia,” according to a D.C. police statement issued at the time police announce a new unsolved murder case.
The statement says anyone with information about a case should call police at 202-727-9099. It says anonymous information can be submitted to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by sending a text message to 50411.
Although other news media outlets, including the Washington Post, initially reported that police said the motive for the attack against Peirce and his companion appeared to be a robbery gone bad, police sources and witnesses from the Chesapeake House told the Blade the incident appeared to be an anti-gay hate crime or gay bashing.
The man who was with Pierce told police the incident began when the two male suspects approached the two men as they left the Chesapeake House and one of them said, “Wonder if they have any money,” according to an account by the Washington Post.
But the man accompanying Peirce also told police the two attackers never specifically asked for or demanded money. Words were exchanged between the four men in the parking lot and a fight broke out, police sources said, which led to Peirce being stabbed.
At least two police sources said the man who stabbed Peirce had time to search for Pierce’s wallet while Pierce was lying unconscious in the parking lot, but the attacker did not do so.
Instead, the attacker began kicking Pierce repeatedly while he lay motionless and bleeding, one of the police sources told the Blade back in January 1987. “For all practical purposes [Pierce] was dead when this guy was kicking him,” the source said.
In its Jan. 9, 1987, story on the Peirce murder, the Blade reported that experts familiar with anti-gay violence, including police investigators, consider the action by one of the two suspects in the Peirce case who repeatedly kicked Peirce while he lay unconscious as a form of “over kill” often triggered by a deeply held hatred toward and fear of homosexuality.
Chesapeake House employee Michael Sellers told the Blade the week following the murder that a group of young males were yelling anti-gay names, such as “faggot” and “queer,” at several Chesapeake House patrons and another of the bar’s employees when the patrons and employee stood outside the bar about an hour before Peirce was stabbed.
One of the employees and two of the patrons told the Blade the males who were shouting at them appeared to match the descriptions of the two men who attacked Peirce and the man with Peirce. But homicide detective Whalen told the Blade last week that there is no definitive evidence that the young man who stabbed Peirce was among the group that shouted anti-gay names prior to the stabbing.
The Chesapeake House, which opened sometime in the 1970s and featured nude male dancers, closed in 1992 shortly before its building was demolished to make way for a new high rise office building.
In reviewing the information he is aware of about the case Det. Whalen said that while it appears to be a hate crime, the exact motive of the murder has yet to be confirmed.
“It’s one of those things where it was a street attack,” said Whalen. “Their intentions were never stated,” he said. “However, it was either a hate crime or a street robbery or a combination of both.”
LGBTQ activists at the time said they believed it was a hate crime. And they expressed concern and anger that the news media at the time, other than the Blade, did not report that the stabbing incident took place minutes after Peirce and the man he was with left a gay bar.
In a Jan. 2, 1987, story, one day after the murder took place, the Washington Post reported that Navy officials told Peirce’s brother that Peirce and a group of friends had come to D.C. that night to attend the city’s New Year’s celebration at the Old Post Office building at 12th and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., which is located about a half mile away from the Chesapeake House.
Other news media accounts left the impression that the murder may have been related to assaults that had taken place among the large crowds of people who turned out for past New Year’s celebrations outside the Old Post Office building.
The Post article reported that police said the stabbing took place in the 900 block of H Street, N.W. and that Peirce and the man he was with had just left a bar that the article did not identify by name.
“The truth was being held back,” Chesapeake House employee Michael Sellers told the Blade.
Soderlund said she and other Peirce family members have speculated that officials with the Navy may have wanted to downplay or hide the fact that a Navy commander who worked at the Pentagon was gay and was attacked after leaving a gay bar.
At that time, under longstanding U.S. military policy, active-duty military members discovered to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual were almost always discharged from the service as potential security risks. The so called ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy initiated by President Bill Clinton, which eased the anti-gay policy to a small degree, did not take effect until 1994.
Soderlund told the Blade she and her family members thought there was more to Peirce’s murder than a street robbery, but they had little information to go on until she contacted one of the two Washington Post reporters who wrote the Post’s initial story on the case. That reporter, John Ward Anderson, who has since retired, informed her about the Blade’s possible coverage of the story and suggested she contact the Blade.
Anderson told the Blade that the Post was not aware of information by police sources that the murder was a possible hate crime at the time the Post published its initial story on the case. He said the Post would have mentioned the possible anti-gay angle to the case had it known about it.
When Soderlund contacted the Blade, the Blade sent her a copy of the Blade’s Jan. 9, 1987, story, which Soderlund said provided information about the case that she and other family members were not aware of, including information that the murder was likely an anti-gay hate crime.
In yet another development in the ongoing saga of her uncle’s murder, Soderlund said she reached out to Det. Whalen, who gave her the name of the man who was with Peirce at the time of the murder and informed her that the man had died of natural causes in 1994 at the age of 58. In doing an online search, she found a May 1, 1997, Washington Post story about this man, Orrin W. Macleod, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and member of the U.S. Merchant Marines before becoming a ground crew employee at Washington National Airport.
“He never reached out to our family,” Soderlund said. “We never heard from him,” she said, adding that she has long assumed, like her uncle, Macleod was not out as gay and most likely did not want to speak out publicly about the Peirce murder.
But the Post article about him said he became a hero of sorts in Fairfax County shortly before he died of leukemia when he donated most of his life savings and inherited wealth of $1 million to the Fairfax County Public Library.
“The money, at Macleod’s request, will be invested in books on tape, which he used near the end of his life when his vision was impaired,” the Post article states.
Soderlund said it’s her understanding that Fairfax Public Library officials were unaware that the generous donation they received was from a gay man who survived a violent attack that took the life of her uncle.
Shortly after the murder, D.C. police spokesperson Quintin Peterson described one of the men involved in the Peirce murder as being Black, with dark-complected skin, about 5-feet-9 inches tall, slender, with a mustache and wearing dark glasses, a blue knit hat, a dark blue jacket, and dark pants.
Peterson described the second man involved in the murder as being Black with a medium complexion, about 5-feet-9 inches tall, with hair on his chin, and wearing a green coat, a light-colored knit hat, and dark pants.
Police sources said witnesses told police the two attackers calmly walked away from the scene of the crime along H Street, with their whereabouts unknown.
In keeping with longstanding D.C. police policy, a reward of up to $25,000 is offered to anyone providing information leading to an arrest and conviction of persons responsible for a homicide committed in D.C.
Anyone with information should contact police at 202-727-9099 or submit an anonymous tip to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by sending a text message to 50411.
District of Columbia
Activists praise Mayor Bowser’s impact on city, LGBTQ community
‘She made sure LGBTQ residents knew they were seen, valued, loved’
Members of D.C.’s LGBTQ community offered their thoughts on the impact Mayor Muriel Bowser has had on them, the city, and LGBTQ people in statements and interviews with the Washington Blade in the week following Bowser’s announcement that she will not run for re-election in 2026.
Bowser’s Nov. 25 announcement came during the third year of her third four-year term in office as mayor and after she served as a member of the D.C. Council representing Ward 4 from 2007 to Jan. 2, 2015, when she took office as mayor.
The LGBTQ activists and mayoral staffers who spoke to the Blade agreed that Bowser has been an outspoken and dedicated supporter on a wide range of LGBTQ-related issues starting from her time as a Council member and throughout her years as mayor.
Among them is one of the mayor’s numerous openly LGBTQ staff members, Jim Slattery, who has served in the Cabinet-level position as the Mayor’s Correspondence Officer since Bowser first became mayor.
“As Mayor Muriel Bowser’s longest serving LGBTQIA+ staffer – dating back to her first term as the Ward 4 Council member – and a proud member of her Cabinet since day one of her administration, I have had the opportunity to witness her at work for the people she serves and leads,” Slattery said in a statement. “Noteworthy is that throughout the entirety of my 27 years in District government, I have always been able to do so as an out and proud gay man,” he stated.
Slattery added that he has witnessed first-hand Bowser’s “absolute belief” in supporting the LGBTQ community.
“She has led on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, on shelter for vulnerable members of our community, housing for older members of the community, and has been a reliable and constant presence at events to LGBTQIA+ residents,” Slattery said. Among those events, he said, have been World AIDS Day, the D.C. Pride Parade, the 17th Street LGBTQ High Heel Race, and WorldPride 2025, which D.C. hosted with strong support from the mayor’s office.
Ryan Bos, CEO & president of Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. group that organizes the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride events and served as lead organizer of WorldPride 2025, praised Bowser for being a longtime supporter of that organization.
“She played a very supportive role in helping us as an organization grow and to be able to bring WorldPride to Washington, D.C.,” Bos told the Blade. “And we commend her years of service, And our hope is that she helps us to continue to advocate for the support from the D.C. government of the LGBTQ+ community, especially during these times,” Bos said.
Bos, who was referring to the Trump administration’s hostility toward LGBTQ issues and sharp cutbacks in federal funds for nonprofit organizations, including LGBTQ organizations, said Capital Pride Alliance appreciated Bowser’s efforts to provide city funding for events like WorldPride.
“She provided support through the event process of WorldPride and ultimately along with the D.C. Council provided necessary funding to ensure WorldPride was a success,” Bos said. “And we are proud that we are able to show that Capital Pride and WorldPride had such a large economic impact for D.C. and the D.C. government,” he added.
Marvin Bowser, Mayor Bowser’s gay brother who operates a local photography business and has been active in the D.C. LGBTQ community for many years, said he has also witnessed first-hand his sister’s support for the LGBTQ community and all D.C. residents since the time she became a Council member and even before that.
Among his vivid memories, he said, was his sister’s strong support for the marriage equality law legalizing same-sex marriage in D.C. that the Council approved in 2009 under then-Mayor Adrian Fenty.
“I remember the first time she was standing up and giving clear and unequivocal support to the community when that law passed,” Marvin Bowser told the Blade. “And she was front and center in speaking very strongly in support of marriage equality,” he said.
Marvin Bowser also credits his sister with expanding and strengthening the then-Mayor’s Office of GLBT Affairs, among other things, by appointing advocate Sheila Alexander Reid as the office’s director in 2015.
Reid, who for many years prior to becoming director of the GLBT Affairs office was founder and publisher of the national lesbian publication Women In The Life, had the reputation of a “rock star,” according to Marvin Bowser.
He recalls that Mayor Bowser also played a lead role in D.C.’s bid to host to the quadrennial international LGBTQ sports competition Gay Games for 2022.
D.C lost its bid for the 2022 Gay Games after the Federation of Gay Games selected Hong Kong to host the event in an action that Marvin Bowser says was unfair and based on the effort to hold the Gay Games for the first time in Asia even though D.C. had a stronger bid for carrying out the event.
“Everything she’s done for the community has been very visible and from the heart,” he said of Muriel Bowser. “And in my personal relationship with her, she has also been nothing but absolutely supportive of me and my partner over the years,” he said.
“And we were just at her house helping her put up Christmas decorations,” he added. “And so, it’s been wonderful having her as a sister.”
Veteran D.C. LGBTQ advocate Japer Bowles, who serves as the current director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, discussed the mayor’s record on LGBTQ issues in his own statement to the Blade.
“Mayor Muriel Bowser has been an unwavering champion for D.C.’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual community and movement,” he said. “Her more than 20 years of leadership brought consistent and historic investments for our LGBTQIA+ youth, seniors, veterans, and residents experiencing homelessness as well as impactful violence-prevention initiatives,” he added.
“Under her leadership, the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs grew into a national leader, delivering more than $10 million in community grants for LGBTQIA+ programs and managing 110 Housing Choice vouchers,” Bowles said in his statement.
“Because of her work, we are stronger, safer, more visible, and, proudly, ‘the gayest city in the world,’” he said in quoting Bowser’s often stated comment at LGBTQ events about D.C. being the world’s gayest city.
In a statement that might surprise some in the LGBTQ community, gay D.C. small business owner Salah Czapary, who served from 2022 to 2024 as director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture as a Bowser appointee, criticized some of the city’s non-LGBTQ related polices under the Bowser administration as being harmful to small businesses.
Bowser appointed Czapary, a former D.C. police officer, to the nightlife office position shortly after he lost his race as an openly gay candidate for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat held by incumbent Brianne Nadeau.
“Mayor Bowser led D.C. through turbulent years and major growth, and we can all be proud of her leadership on many fronts,” Czapary said in a statement to the Blade. “She is also setting an example that more leaders should follow by stepping aside to allow a new generation to lead,” he said. “But as we turn the page, we must be honest about what the next mayor should deliver,” he says in his statement.
Without mentioning Bowser by name, he went on to list at least four things the next mayor should do that implied that Bowser did not do or did wrong. Among them were treating the D.C. Council as a “true governing partner,” not letting residents and small businesses “feel the weight of outdated, slow, and unresponsive systems,” and the need for leadership that “values competence over loyalty.”
He added that a “reversal” by the city of the city’s streetery program that was put in place during the COVID pandemic to allow restaurants to install outdoor seating into street parking lanes, was a “roll it back” on progress for small businesses.
He concluded by stating, “LGBTQ rights and inclusion are among the many fronts on which we can be very proud of the mayor’s leadership.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to an offer by the Blade to give the office an opportunity to respond to Czapary’s statement.
A significantly different perspective was given by Sheila Alexander Reid, who said she was proud to serve as director of the Mayor’s LGBTQ Affairs Office during the first six-and-a-half years of Bowser’s tenure as mayor.
“I watched her evolve from a newly elected mayor finding her footing into a confident, seasoned leader who met every challenge head-on and time after time slayed the competition,” Alexander Reid said in a statement to the Blade.
“With each year in office, her voice grew stronger, more grounded, and more fearless,” her statement continues. “And she needed that strength, because being a Black woman mayor is not for the faint of heart, But Mayor Bowser never backed down. Instead, she showed the city what courageous, compassionate leadership truly looks like.”
Alexander Reid added that Bowser funded a new LGBTQ Community Center facility, expanded a workforce development program for the transgender community, and “made D.C. the first jurisdiction in the nation to require LGBTQ+ cultural competency training for healthcare providers.”
She also pointed to the mayor’s LGBTQ “safety nets” through low-barrier shelters and housing vouchers and her support for LGBTQ celebrations like the 17th Street High Heel Race.
“But what inspired me most was this,” Alexander Reid stated. “At a time when some elected officials across the country were retreating from LGBTQ support, Mayor Bowser was doing the opposite. She leaned in, she doubled down. She made sure LGBTQ residents knew they were seen, valued, protected, and loved by their city.”
District of Columbia
HIV/AIDS activists block intersection near White House
World AIDS Day provided backdrop for calls to fully fund PEPFAR
Upwards of 100 HIV/AIDS activists on Monday blocked an intersection near the White House and demanded the Trump-Vance administration fully fund PEPFAR.
Housing Works, Health GAP, Treatment Action Group, AIDS United, ACT UP Philadelphia, and the National Minority AIDS Council organized the protest that took place at the intersection of 16th and I Streets, N.W. The activists then marched to Lafayette Park.
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
Activists since the Trump-Vance administration took office in January have demanded full PEPFAR funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Jan. 28 issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Washington Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department in September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates. The first doses of the breakthrough HIV prevention drug arrived in Eswatini and Zambia last month.
The New York Times in August reported Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought “apportioned” only $2.9 billion of $6 billion that Congress set aside for PEPFAR for fiscal year 2025. (PEPFAR in the coming fiscal year will use funds allocated in fiscal year 2024.)
Bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate prompted the Trump-Vance administration in July withdraw a proposal to cut $400 million from PEPFAR’s budget. Vought on Aug. 29 said he would use a “pocket rescission” to cancel $4.9 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention and global health programs and other foreign aid assistance initiatives that Congress had already approved.
“Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has defied the appropriations authority of Congress, slashing the budget for the program despite full funding enacted by lawmakers, stealing $1.6 billion despite the direction of Congress that PEPFAR be fully funded,” notes a press release that detailed Monday’s protest. “As a result, lifesaving treatment and prevention programs have closed across dozens of sub-Saharan African countries, while Vought has refused to release money ringfenced by Congress to save lives.”
Monday’s protest coincided with World AIDS Day.
The White House has not publicly acknowledged World AIDS Day. A State Department directive the New York Times obtained last week mandated employees and grantees “to refrain from messaging on any commemorative days, including World AIDS Day.”
“Trump thinks by banning commemoration of World AIDS Day, he can hide from the death and destruction that he’s causing around the world,” said Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell in Lafayette Square. “But we’re here to say, we can see him. We see him stealing medicine, stealing support services, stealing HIV testing, stealing life-saving care from communities all around the world suffering and dying without access.”
The Clinton Health Access Initiative in a report it published last month said more people with HIV or are at risk of contracting the virus because of “HIV treatment and prevention cascades” during the first half of 2025. Specific figures include:
• 3.4 million fewer adults tested for HIV
• 24,000 fewer infants tested for HIV
• A 22 percent decline in new HIV diagnoses due to a reduction in testing among the most vulnerable, highest-risk people
• An 8 percent decline in people living with HIV receiving CD4 tests to diagnose advanced HIV disease
• 2,000 fewer infants and children with HIV started on life-saving medication
• A 37 percent reduction in PrEP initiations for people at risk for HIV
• 26,000 fewer infants and children on antiretroviral medications
• A 5 percent reduction in adults starting antiretroviral medications
• A 10 percent increase in people living with HIV disengaging from treatment
The Clinton Health Access Initiative also said more children around the world will die “due to undiagnosed and un- or under-treated HIV infection” if “these trends persist.”
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation in its 2025 Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey notes more than 20 percent of adults said “policies the federal government have made accessing HIV prevention and treatment care more difficult in the last year.” The report indicates 30 percent of respondents identify as LGBTQ.
District of Columbia
Bowser announces she will not seek fourth term as mayor
‘It has been the honor of my life to be your mayor’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a longtime vocal supporter of the LGBTQ community, announced on Nov. 25 that she will not run for a fourth term.
Since first taking office as mayor in January 2015, Bowser has been an outspoken supporter on a wide range of LGBTQ related issues, including marriage equality and services for LGBTQ youth and seniors.
Local LGBTQ advocates have also praised Bowser for playing a leading role in arranging for widespread city support in the city’s role as host for World Pride 2025 in May and June, when dozens of LGBTQ events took place throughout the city.
She has also been credited with expanding the size and funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which was put in place as a Cabinet level office by the D.C. Council in 2006 under the administration of then-Mayor Anthony Williams.
It was initially called the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Affairs. At Bowser’s request, the D.C. Council in 2016 agreed to change the name as part of the fiscal year 2016 budget bill to the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Affairs.
As she has in numerous past appearances at LGBTQ events, Bowser last month greeted the thousands of people who attended the annual LGBTQ Halloween 17th Street High Heel Race from a stage by shouting that D.C. is the “gayest city in the world.”
In a statement released after she announced she would not run for a fourth term in office; Bowser reflected on her years as mayor.
“It has been the honor of my life to be your mayor,” she said. “When you placed your trust in me 10 years ago, you gave me an extraordinary opportunity to have a positive impact on my hometown,” her statement continues.
“Together, you and I have built a legacy of success of which I am immensely proud. My term will end on Jan. 2, 2027. But until then, let’s run through the tape and keep winning for D.C,” her statement concludes.
Among the LGBTQ advocates commenting on Bowser’s decision not to run again for mayor was Howard Garrett, president of D.C.’s Capital Stonewall Democrats, one of the city’s largest local LGBTQ political groups.
“I will say from a personal capacity that Mayor Bowser has been very supportive of the LGBTQ community,” Garrett told the Washington Blade. “I think she has done a great job with ensuring that our community has been protected and making sure we have the resources needed to be protected when it comes to housing, public safety and other areas.”
Garrett also praised Bowser’s appointment of LGBTQ advocate Japer Bowles as director of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs,
“Under the leadership of the mayor, Japer has done a fantastic job in ensuring that we have what we need and other organizations have what they need to prosper,” Garrett said.
Cesar Toledo, executive director of the D.C. based Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing services for homeless LGBTQ youth, credits Bowser with transforming the Office of LGBTQ Affairs “into the largest and most influential community affairs agency of its kind in the nation, annually investing more than $1 million into life-saving programs.”
Toledo added, “Because of the consistent support of Mayor Bowser and her administration, the Wanda Alston Foundation has strengthened and expanded its housing and counseling programs, ensuring that more at-risk queer and trans youth receive the safety, stability, and life-saving care they deserve.”
Gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein is among those who have said they have mixed reactions to Bowser’s decision not to run again.
“I am sorry for the city but happy for her that she will now be able to focus on her family, and her incredible daughter,” Rosenstein said.
“She has worked hard, and done great things for D.C,” Rosenstein added. “Those include being a stalwart supporter of the LGBTQ community, working to rebuild our schools, recreation centers, libraries, gaining the RFK site for the city, and maintaining home rule. She will be a very hard act to follow.”
Local gay activist David Hoffman is among those in the city who have criticized Bowser for not taking a stronger and more vocal position critical of President Donald Trump on a wide range of issues, including Trump’s deployment of National Guard soldiers to patrol D.C. streets. Prior to Bowser’s announcement that she is not running again for mayor, Hoffman said he would not support Bowser’s re-election and would urge the LGBTQ community to support another candidate for mayor.
Bowser supporters have argued that Bowser’s interactions with the Trump-Vance administration, including her caution about denouncing the president, were based on her and other city officials’ desire to protect the interests of D.C. and D.C.’s home rule government. They point out that Trump supporters, including Republican members of Congress, have called on Trump to curtail or even end D.C. home rule.
Most political observers are predicting a highly competitive race among a sizable number of candidates expected to run for mayor in the 2026 D.C. election. Two D.C. Council members have said they were considering a run for mayor before Bowser’s withdrawal.
They include Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who identifies as a democratic socialist, and Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), who is considered a political moderate supportive of community-based businesses. Both have expressed strong support for the LGBTQ community.
The Washington Post reports that Bowser declined to say in an interview whether she will endorse a candidate to succeed her or what she plans to do after she leaves office as mayor.
Among her reasons for not running again, she told the Post, was “we’ve accomplished what we set out to accomplish.”
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