District of Columbia
D.C. Council member Gray won’t seek re-election
Former mayor hailed as dedicated supporter of LGBTQ rights
D.C. Council member Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7), a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, released a statement on Wednesday, Dec 20, announcing he will not run for re-election in 2024.
Gray, 81, a former one-term D.C. mayor, issued his announcement a little over two years after he had a stroke in December 2021 that has limited his mobility, but he says he will remain fully engaged during the remainder of his current term, which ends in January 2025.
“Much work remains to be done, as does the task of ensuring continued progress on many fronts,” Gray said in his statement. “My final year in office will be no different than any other; every day I will put my shoulders to the stone and serve the people who sent me here,” he said.
“It has been one of the great honors of my life to serve District of Columbia residents as Ward 7 Councilmember, Council Chair and Mayor,” his statement says. “With determination and by working together, we achieved what we set out to accomplish, overcame great challenges and, most importantly, uplifted people from all walks of life.”
LGBTQ activists have said Gray, who emerged as a strong LGBTQ community ally since he was first elected to the Council in 2004, played a lead role as Council Chair in 2009 in helping to pass D.C.’s historic law legalizing same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital.
He continued as a strong supporter of other LGBTQ legislation and policies in subsequent years. Transgender activists have said Gray has also been a strong supporter and ally of the transgender community. Trans activists note that Gray put in place transgender supportive policies during his term as mayor.
Political observers have credited Gray with playing an important role in expanding educational opportunities, health care, and economic development in sections of the city east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8.
Gray won election as mayor in 2010 after defeating then incumbent mayor and LGBTQ rights supporter Adrian Fenty in the Democratic primary. LGBTQ District residents were placed in the position of having to choose between two political supporters. A similar choice among LGBTQ city residents between two friends emerged four years later when then Ward 4 D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser challenged Gray in the 2014 Democratic primary for mayor.
Bowser won the primary and general election and has held the position as mayor since that time. But Gray made a political comeback two years later in 2016 when he ran again and won in the race for the Ward 7 Council seat. Gray has consistently received a +10 rating from the nonpartisan D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), the highest possible rating from the group on mostly but not exclusively LGBTQ-related issues.
In his 2020 race for re-election to his Ward 7 Council seat, GLAA gave Gray a candidate rating of +8, which the group called a good rating and said it reflected his support on all the LGBTQ specific issues the group asked about in its candidate questionnaire. But GLAA said Gray lost points for not agreeing with GLAA’s position in support of full decriminalization of prostitution.
“Our mission will never be complete,” Gray said in his statement announcing he will not be running for re-election. “Our shared desire to make the District a better place each and every day is enduring,” he said. “I will continue to be an advocate for our city and our people who call it home, but the time has come for me to pursue that as a private citizen. Therefore, I will not seek re-election in 2024.”
Six candidates filed paperwork to run for the Ward 7 Council seat before Gray announced he will not run again, according to the Washington Post. The Post named the six candidates, but one name not on the Post’s list was gay Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Anthony Lorenzo Green. Green ran unsuccessfully against Gray in the 2020 Democratic primary. The Blade could not immediately reach Green to determine whether he’s considering running again for the Ward 7 Council seat in 2024.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
District of Columbia
Man charged with anti-gay assault in D.C. accepts plea offer
Community service offered in exchange for dismissing hate crime charge
A Germantown, Md., man arrested by D.C. police on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation for allegedly assaulting a gay man while using “homophobic slurs” has agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to simple assault without the hate crime designation and with the promise of having the charge dismissed if he completes, among other requirements, 48 hours of community service work.
Dean Edmundson, 26, standing beside his attorney, officially accepted the offer of a Deferred Sentencing Agreement at an Aug. 18 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court after Senior Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo explained the details of the agreement and confirmed Edmundson’s decision to waive his right to a trial.
Among other things, the judge said the agreement offered by prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. includes the requirement that he successfully completes 48 hours of community service work, stays away from the victim of the assault, writes a letter of apology to the victim, and does not violate any other laws or get into trouble for the next 12 months.
Puig-Lugo then announced he scheduled a sentencing hearing for Edmundson for Aug. 18, 2027, at which time a determination will made on whether he has fulfilled all the requirements under the agreement and whether the simple assault charge will be dismissed. The judge added that if it is determined that Edmundson did not fulfil the terms of the agreement the charge would remain in place and he could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Edmundson, who appeared in court wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie, was released on his own recognizance following his arrest by D.C. police on Feb. 7, 2026.
Police and court records show he was initially charged by arresting officers with simple assault with a hate crime designation. In a statement announcing the arrest, D.C. police said, “On Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and kept walking,” the statement says.
A follow-up arrest affidavit filed by police states that Edmundson followed the victim and called him “bald, ugly, and gay,” and then “pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push.” The affidavit adds, “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay.”
According to the court records, the Office of the U.S. Attorney filed its official charge of simple assault against Edmunson on Feb. 9 without the hate crime designation. The office has not responded to a request by the Washington Blade for its reason for dropping the hate crime designation. The office has also not immediately responded to a follow-up inquiry from the Blade this week asking if prosecutors consulted the victim to obtain the victim’s thoughts about the plea offer.
The Blade, which has a policy of not disclosing the identify of crime victims in cases like this without their consent, could not immediately obtain contact information to reach the victim for comment.
Court records show that Edmundson rejected an earlier plea agreement offer by prosecutors and he was scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 18. The records show his attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to convert the trial into status hearing on that same day after his client accepted the Deferred Sentencing Agreement offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The judge approved the motion without objection from prosecutors.
Dolly Parton dies at 80
Monument to LGBTQ Canadians officially unveiled
The fight to save one of Baltimore’s last gay bars
When home becomes a journey: migration, memory, and the African diaspora
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Trump-Vance administration’s LGBTQ brain drain: what you need to know
Not all trans people are the same
UPDATE: Impulse Group’s ‘PrEP Pool Party’ cancelled
Calendar: August 21-27
