Virginia
Arlington police announce arrests for stolen Pride flags
Matthew Henshaw to be arraigned on Feb. 8
Police in Arlington announced on Friday evening that they have arrested two men for allegedly stealing LGBTQ Pride flags from the home of a lesbian couple who reported their flags were stolen on five separate days between September 2023 and January 2024.
In a statement, police said they charged Matthew Henshaw, 20, of Fort Myer, Va., with three counts of Unlawful Entry – Bias Motivated and three counts of Petit Larceny for the flag thefts that occurred Sept. 16, Sept. 30 and Jan. 27. The statement says he was released on a secured bond.
The statement says Arlington police also arrested Joseph Digregorio, 23, of Bay Shore, N.Y., on one count of Petit Larceny for the flag theft that occurred on Jan. 21. He was released on a summons, according to the police statement.
“This remains an active criminal investigation,” the police statement says. “Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Arlington County Police Department’s Tip Line at 703-228-4180 or [email protected].”
Police spokesperson Ashley Savage declined to disclose whether Henshaw is a member of the U.S. military, possibly the U.S. Army, in response to a question from the Washington Blade. The police announcement says Henshaw is “of Fort Myer, Va.,” which is a U.S. Army base located a short distance from the house where the lesbian couple lives and where the flags were stolen. The couple lives in the 200 block of South Courthouse Road, according to information released by police.
Online court records show that Henshaw was scheduled to appear for an arraignment at Arlington General District Court at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8.
“Within hours after it would come down, we would put it back up,” Michaelle Logan, 30, told the Washington Post in describing the repeated thefts of the couple’s Pride flag. “It was just a constant wave of putting it back up and it being taken down,” she told the police in a Jan. 29 Post story.
Logan and her partner, Jenna Burnett, 27, also told the Post that their home security camera captured images of a man wearing a cowboy hat pulling down the flag on two of the five times it was removed.
Virginia
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Gay Alexandria City Council member becomes 8th LGBTQ member of legislature
Gay Alexandria City Council member Kirk McPike emerged as the decisive winner in a Feb. 10 special election for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria.
McPike, a Democrat, received 81.5 percent of the vote in his race against Republican Mason Butler, according to the local publication ALX Now.
He first won election to the Alexandria Council in 2021. He will be filling the House of Delegates seat being vacated by Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-Alexandria), who won in another Feb. 10 special election for the Virginia State Senate seat being vacated by gay Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria).
Ebbin is resigning from his Senate this week to take a position with Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
Upon taking his 5th District seat in the House of Delegate, McPike will become the eighth out LGBTQ member of the Virginia General Assembly. Among those he will be joining is Sen. Danica Roem (D-Manassas), who became the Virginia Legislature’s first transgender member when she won election to the House of Delegates in 2017 before being elected to the Senate in 2023.
“I look forward to continuing to work to address our housing crisis, the challenge of climate change, and the damaging impacts of the Trump administration on the immigrant families, LGBTQ+ Virginians, and federal employees who call Alexandria home,” McPike said in a statement after winning the Democratic nomination for the seat in a special primary held on Jan. 20.
McPike, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate, has served for the past 13 years as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and has remained in that position during his tenure on the Alexandria Council. He said he will resign from that position before taking office in the House of Delegates.
Virginia
Spanberger signs bill that paves way for marriage amendment repeal referendum
Proposal passed in two successive General Assembly sessions
Virginians this year will vote on whether to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday signed state Del. Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax County)’s House Bill 612, which finalized the referendum’s language.
The ballot question that voters will consider on Election Day is below:
Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to: (i) remove the ban on same-sex marriage; (ii) affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and (iii) require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is a Republican, in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
A resolution to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment passed in the General Assembly in 2025. Lawmakers once again approved it last month.
“20 years after Virginia added a ban on same-sex marriage to our Constitution, we finally have the chance to right that wrong,” wrote Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman on Friday in a message to her group’s supporters.
Virginians this year will also consider proposed constitutional amendments that would guarantee reproductive rights and restore voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their sentences.
Lieutenant Gov. Ghazala Hashmi on Monday opened Equality Virginia’s annual Lobby Day in Richmond.
The Lobby Day was held at Virginia’s Capitol and was open to the public by RSVP. The annual event is one of the ways that Equality Virginia urges its supporters to get involved. It also offers informational sessions and calls to action through social media.
Hashmi, a former state senator, has been open about her support for the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups. Her current advisor is Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman, and the group endorsed her for lieutenant governor.
Hashmi historically opposes anti-transgender legislation.
She opposed a 2022 bill that sought to take away opportunities from trans athletes.
One of the focuses of this year’s Lobby Day was protecting LGBTQ students. Another was protecting trans youth’s access to gender-affirming care.
Advocates spent their day in meetings and dialogues with state legislators and lawmakers about legislative priorities and concerns.
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