Local
Danica Roem takes office in Va. Senate
2024 legislative session began in Richmond, Annapolis on Wednesday
State Sen. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) on Wednesday became the first transgender person seated in the Virginia Senate.
The Manassas Democrat last November defeated Republican Bill Woolf to represent the 30th Senate District. Roem in 2018 became the first trans person seated in a state legislature in the country when she assumed her seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
“The voters have shown they want a leader who will prioritize fixing roads, feeding kids and protecting our land instead of stigmatizing trans kids or taking away your civil rights,” said Roem after she defeated Woolf.
Democrats last November regained control of the House of Delegates. They have a 21-19 majority in the state Senate. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will remain in office until his term ends in 2025.
State Dels. Rozia Henson (D-Prince William County), Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax County) and Adele McClure (D-Arlington County) took office on Wednesday. They are gay, bisexual and queer respectively. State Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg), a bisexual man who was in the House of Delegates from 2020-2022, returned to Richmond on Wednesday.
House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) is the first Black House of Delegates speaker.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) and state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County), who are both gay, won re-election last November. State Dels. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D-Virginia Beach) and Marcia “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), who are bisexual and pansexual respectively, returned to the House of Delegates.
Ebbin and Sickles have introduced resolutions in their respective chambers that seek to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Ebbin and Henzon have also sponsored bills that would reaffirm marriage equality in Virginia.
Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014.
The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.
The state Senate last year approved Ebbin’s resolution that sought to repeal the marriage amendment. Senators in 2023 also passed the gay Alexandria Democrat’s marriage equality affirmation bill.
A House of Delegates subcommittee last year tabled the resolution. State delegates also did not consider the marriage equality affirmation bill before the 2023 legislative session ended.
“Virginians want a chance to remove the noxious marriage language that was added to our constitution in 2006,” said Sickles in a press release.
The marriage equality resolutions and bills are among Equality Virginia’s 2024 legislative priorities.
Roem on Tuesday noted to the Washington Blade during a telephone interview that Republican lawmakers have once again introduced anti-LGBTQ bills. These include a measure to ban trans athletes from school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
“Those bills died last year,” said Roem. “The patrons of those bills lost their election.”
“They learned nothing from the election,” she added.
Md. General Assembly’s 2024 legislative session begins
The Maryland General Assembly’s 2024 legislative session also began on Wednesday.
FreeState Justice in a press release notes the organization this year is “working with our partners in government and advocates across the state to remove statutes that stigmatize and criminalize HIV, to codify protections for gender affirming care and to respond to a recent state Supreme Court decision that weakened our anti-discrimination protections.”
“We will fight against harmful rhetoric and mean-spirited bills targeting LGBTQ+ youth and students,” said FreeState Justice. “We are collaborating with advocates and government officials to secure real oversight and other reforms for our criminal justice system. We’re working to make vital documents more trans-inclusive, advocating for healthcare access and affordability, urging state leaders to push their federal counterparts to publish the Equal Rights Amendment, and seeking necessary updates to pay practices for the benefit of workers.”
State Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery County) has reintroduced a bill that would create a Commission on History, Culture and Civics in Education. The Montgomery County Democrat on Wednesday told the Blade the commissioners would represent African American, Latino, LGBTQ, Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
“Their responsibility is to essentially look at our school curriculum, figure out how it can be more inclusive and teaching of the various histories of all these groups,” he said.
State Del. Ashanti Martínez (D-Prince George’s County) has introduced a bill that would explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in insurance and credit lending in Maryland.
“We have federal protections that are already in place, but it’s always good to have state level protections, especially with what potentially can happen on the national level with the Trump presidency,” Martínez told the Blade on Wednesday. “We want to make sure that our communities are protected here in Maryland, no matter who’s in the White House.”
This year’s legislative session began weeks after Meghan Lewis, a trans woman, was killed outside her Bel Air home. FreeState Justice in its press release notes it supports “efforts to keep our communities safe by reducing gun violence, stepping up enforcement against hate crimes, and expanding victims’ access to emergency shelter and other resources.”
“The General Assembly has an excellent opportunity to continue its work uplifting Maryland’s LGBTQ+ community during this legislative session,” said Phillip Westry, the group’s executive director.
Local
Local LGBTQ groups, activists to commemorate Black History Month
Rayceen Pendarvis to moderate Dupont Underground panel on Sunday
LGBTQ groups in D.C. and elsewhere plan to use Black History Month as an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate Black lives and experiences.
Team Rayceen Productions has no specific events planned, but co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis will attend many functions around D.C. this month.
Pendarvis, a longtime voice in the LGBTQ community in D.C. will be moderating a panel at Dupont Underground on Sunday. The event, “Every (Body) Wants to Be a Showgirl,” will feature art from Black burlesque artists from around the country. Pendarvis on Feb. 23 will attend the showing of multimedia play at the Lincoln Theatre that commemorates the life of James Baldwin.
Equality Virginia plans to prioritize Black voices through a weekly online series, and community-based story telling. The online digital series will center Black LGBTQ voices, specifically trailblazers and activists, and contemporary Black queer and transgender people.
Narissa Rahaman, Equality Virginia’s executive director, stressed the importance of the Black queer community to the overall Pride movement, and said “Equality Virginia is proud to center those voices in our work this month and beyond.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, which hosts Pride events in D.C., has an alliance with the Center for Black Equity, which brings Black Pride to D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. The National LGBTQ Task Force has no specific Black History Month events planned, but plans to participate in online collaborations.
Cathy Renna, the Task Force’s director of communications, told the Washington Blade the organization remains committed to uplifting Black voices. “Our priority is keeping this at the forefront everyday,” she said.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center is also hosting a series of Black History Month events.
The D.C. Public Library earlier this year launched “Freedom and Resistance,” an exhibition that celebrates Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain on display until the middle of March at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St., N.W.
District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
Case remains under investigation and ‘further charges’ could come
D.C. police announced on Feb. 9 that they had arrested two days earlier on Feb. 7 a Germantown, Md., man on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation after the man allegedly assaulted a gay man at 14th and Q Streets, N.W., while using “homophobic slurs.”
But D.C. Superior Court records show that prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which prosecutes D.C. violent crime cases, charged the arrested man only with simple assault without a hate crime designation.
In response to a request by the Washington Blade for the reason why the hate crime designation was dropped, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office provided this response: “We continue to investigate this matter and make no mistake: should the evidence call for further charges, we will not hesitate to charge them.”
In a statement announcing the arrest in this case, D.C. police stated, “On Saturday, February 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 continued walking,” the statement says.
“The suspect assaulted the victim and used homophobic slurs,” the police statement continues. “The suspect was apprehended by responding officers.”
It adds that 26-year-old Dean Edmundson of Germantown, Md. “was arrested and charged with Simple Assault (Hate/Bias).” The statement also adds, “A designation as a hate crime by MPD does not mean that prosecutors will prosecute it as a hate crime.”
Under D.C.’s Bias Related Crime Act of 1989, penalties for crimes motivated by prejudice against individuals based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and homelessness can be enhanced by a court upon conviction by one and a half times greater than the penalty of the underlying crime.
Prosecutors in the past both in D.C. and other states have said they sometimes decide not to include a hate crime designation in assault cases if they don’t think the evidence is sufficient to obtain a conviction by a jury. In some instances, prosecutors have said they were concerned that a skeptical jury might decide to find a defendant not guilty of the underlying assault charge if they did not believe a motive of hate was involved.
A more detailed arrest affidavit filed by D.C. police in Superior Court appears to support the charge of a hate crime designation.
“The victim stated that they refused to High-Five Defendant Edmondson, which, upon that happening, Defendant Edmondson started walking behind both the victim and witness, calling the victim, “bald, ugly, and gay,” the arrest affidavit states.
“The victim stated that upon being called that, Defendant Edmundson pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push,” the affidavit continues. “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay,” it says.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
Darren Pasha claims action is linked to his criticism of Pride organizers
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Feb. 6 partially approved an anti-stalking order against a local LGBTQ activist requested last October by the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C.-based LGBTQ group that organizes the city’s annual Pride events.
The ruling by Judge Robert D. Okun requires former Capital Pride volunteer Darren Pasha to stay at least 100 feet away from Capital Pride’s staff, board members, and volunteers until the time of a follow up court hearing he scheduled for April 17.
In his ruling at the Feb. 6 hearing, which was virtual rather than held in-person at the courthouse, Okun said he had changed the distance that Capital Pride had requested for the stay-away, anti-stalking order from 200 yards to 100 feet. The court records show that the judge also denied a motion filed earlier by Pasha, who did not attend the hearing, to “quash” the Capital Pride civil case against him.
Pasha told the Washington Blade he suffered an injury and damaged his mobile phone by falling off his scooter on the city’s snow-covered streets that prevented him from calling in to join the Feb. 6 court hearing.
In his own court filings without retaining an attorney, Pasha has strongly denied the stalking related allegations against him by Capital Pride, saying “no credible or admissible evidence has been provided” to show he engaged in any wrongdoing.
The Capital Pride complaint initially filed in court on Oct. 27, 2025, includes an 18-page legal brief outlining its allegations against Pasha and an additional 167-page addendum of “supporting exhibits” that includes multiple statements by witnesses whose names are blacked out.
“Over the past year, Defendant Darren Pasha (“DSP”) has engaged in a sustained, and escalating course of conduct directed at CPA, including repeated and unwanted contact, harassment, intimidation, threats, manipulation, and coercive behavior targeting CPA staff, board members, volunteers, and affiliates,” the Capital Pride complaint states.
In his initial 16-page response to the complaint, Pasha says the Capital Pride complaint appears to be a form of retaliation against him for a dispute he has had with the organization and its then president, Ashley Smith, last year.
“It is evident that the document is replete with false, misleading, and unsubstantiated assertions,” he said of the complaint.
Smith, who has since resigned from his role as board president, did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment at the time the Capital Pride court complaint was filed against Pasha.
Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos and the attorney representing the group in its legal action against Pasha, Nick Harrison, did not immediately respond to a Blade request for comment on the judge’s Feb. 6 ruling.
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