District of Columbia
DC man charged with killing partner in gay domestic violence case
Charging document says victim, 58, stabbed to death
D.C. police announced they have arrested 54-year-old Ted Anthony Brown on a charge of second-degree murder while armed for allegedly fatally stabbing his domestic partner, Tommy Hudson, 58, inside Brown’s apartment at 517 Harvard St., N.W., on May 26.
A four-page arrest affidavit filed by police and prosecutors in D.C. Superior Court says police arrested Brown two days later on May 28 after an investigation by Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives identified Brown as a suspect in the case through information provided by witnesses.
The affidavit says Brown, following his arrest, waved his Miranda rights to remain silent and confessed to having stabbed Hudson after the two got into an argument and after Brown claimed his partner punched him in the face.
“Brown reported that he and the decedent have been involved in a romantic relationship for a significant period and that he was very jealous of the decedent’s possible infidelities,” the affidavit states. “Suspect 1 [Brown] reported to detectives that he believed the decedent punching him to the face did not justify Suspect 1 stabbing the decedent, which ultimately killed him,” the affidavit continues.
“Suspect 1 reported that he had stabbed the decedent in the past and threatened to kill him if he learned of subsequent cheating within their relationship,” the affidavit says. “Suspect 1 reported that he was the aggressive and argumentative party in their relationship and that the decedent would never like to argue,” it says.
Court records show that a D.C. Superior Court Judge Renee Raymond ordered Brown held without bond pending a detention hearing scheduled for June 17.
A D.C. police statement says that at about 8:57 a.m. on May 26, police responded to a call for a stabbing on the 500 block of Harvard Street, N.W. The arrest affidavit says that upon their arrival, officers found a man later identified as Hudson unconscious while sitting on the steps leading up to the front door of one of two apartments located in a two-story attached row house at 517 Harvard St., N.W.
The affidavit says an autopsy conducted by a physician with the Office of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death was a stab wound to the right shoulder that severed an artery. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
It says a crime scene investigation found a trail of blood leading from the apartment where defendant Brown had been living to the outside steps where Hudson was found and subsequently taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced deceased.
The affidavit states that two witnesses told detectives that they knew Brown as a resident of the neighborhood and encountered Brown on the day of the murder. Both witnesses told detectives that Brown told them he stabbed Hudson during an argument.
“Witness 1 reported that IT asked Ted what had transpired inside his residence on Sunday, May 26, 2024, and Ted stated words to the effect of, ‘My boyfriend assaulted me, look at my head, and I stabbed him in the heart!’” the affidavit states.
The affidavit also states that Brown has a history of prior domestic violence complaints lodged against him and that he had been arrested at least once for a prior domestic violence incident targeting Hudson.
Neither the arrest affidavit nor the D.C. police report states whether Hudson had been living in Brown’s apartment. But the D.C. police report lists Hudson’s address as 1355 New York Ave., N.E. An online search by the Washington Blade of that address shows it is listed as a men’s shelter operated by Catholic Charities.
Todd S. Baldwin, Brown’s court appointed attorney, when contacted by the Blade, said, “Mr. Brown is pursuing all legal options and defenses, and he’s presumed innocent. And I would ask that the public and all news media allow the justice system to work its way to justice.”
Asked if his client might pursue an argument of self-defense after telling police he stabbed his partner Hudson after Hudson allegedly punched him in the face, Baldwin replied, “I think that’s certainly a possibility. But we’re waiting for a full investigation to take place.”
Local LGBTQ rights advocate Vincent Slatt, who serves as chair of the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissions’ Rainbow Caucus, which monitors crime targeting the LGBTQ community, said the murder of Tommy Hudson was yet another example of how intimate partner violence is an “alarming problem” in D.C.
“The vast preponderance of it is straight men beating and killing women,” Slatt told the Blade. “But this case demonstrates, yet again, that LGBTQ people also use violence against their partners, too,” he said. “More information on this case will come forward in the days and weeks ahead, but one thing is already clear from the charging documents,” Slatt said.
“This death was not the first domestic violence incident for this couple,” he noted. “It was the escalation of a pattern that went back several years. Obviously, they did not receive the intervention they needed to end the cycle of violence.”
Slatt also noted that the Hudson murder underscores the need for more social services to address the issue of domestic violence. He said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs includes a Violence Prevention and Response Team that provides services for LGBTQ people who experience domestic violence, but he said that program is underfunded. Slatt called on the mayor’s office and the D.C. Council to add additional funds for that program and other domestic violence response programs in the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
In an official statement released at the reveal event Capital Pride Alliance described its just announced 2026 Pride theme of “Exist, Resist, Have the Audacity” as a “bold declaration affirming the presence, resilience, and courage of LGBTQ+ people around the world.”
The statement adds, “Grounded in the undeniable truth that our existence is not up for debate, this year’s theme calls on the community to live loudly and proudly, stand firm against injustice and erasure, and embody the collective strength that has always defined the LGBTQ+ community.”
In a reference to the impact of the hostile political climate, the statement says, “In a time when LGBTQ+ rights and history continue to face challenges, especially in our Nation’s Capital, where policy and public discourse shape the future of our country, together, we must ensure that our voices are visible, heard, and unapologetically centered.”
The statement also quotes Capital Pride Alliance CEO and President Ryan Bos’s message at the Reveal event: “This year’s theme is both a declaration and a demand,” Bos said. “Exist, Resist, Have Audacity! reflects the resilience of our community and our responsibility to protect the progress we’ve made. As we look toward our nation’s 250th anniversary, we affirm that LGBTQ+ people have always been and always will be part of the United States’s history, and we will continue shaping its future with strength and resolve,” he concluded.
District of Columbia
Capital Pride board member resigns, alleges failure to address ‘sexual misconduct’
In startling letter, Taylor Chandler says board’s inaction protected ‘sexual predator’
Taylor Lianne Chandler, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors since 2019 who most recently served as the board’s secretary, submitted a letter of resignation on Feb. 24 that alleges the board has failed to address instances of “sexual misconduct” within the Capital Pride organization.
The Washington Blade received a copy of Chandler’s resignation letter one day after she submitted it from an anonymous source. Chandler, who identifies as transgender and intersex, said in an interview that she did not send the letter to the Blade, but she suspected someone associated with Capital Pride, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, “wants it out in the open.”
“It is with a heavy heart, but with absolute clarity, that I submit my resignation from the Capital Pride Alliance Board of Directors effective immediately,” Chandler states in her letter. “I have devoted nearly ten years of my life to this organization,” she wrote, pointing to her initial involvement as a volunteer and later as a producer of events as chair of the organization’s Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex Committee.
“Capital Pride once meant something profound to me – a space of safety, visibility, and community for people who have often been denied all three,” her letter continues. “That is no longer the organization I am part of today.”
“I, along with other board members, brought forward credible concerns regarding sexual misconduct – a pattern of behavior spanning years – to the attention of this board,” Chandler states in the letter. “What followed was not accountability. What followed was retaliation. Rather than addressing the substance of what was reported, officers and fellow board members chose to chastise those of us who came forward.”
The letter adds, “This board has made its priorities clear through its actions: protecting a sexual predator matters more than protecting the people who had the courage to come forward. … I have been targeted, bullied, and made to feel like an outsider for doing what any person of integrity would do – telling the truth.”
In response to a request from the Blade for comment, Anna Jinkerson, who serves as chair of the Capital Pride board, sent the Blade a statement praising Taylor Chandler’s efforts as a Capital Pride volunteer and board member but did not specifically address the issue of alleged sexual misconduct.
“We’re also aware that her resignation letter has been shared with the media and has listed concerns,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “When concerns are brought to CPA, we act quickly and appropriately to address them,” she said.
“As we continue to grow our organization, we’re proactively strengthening the policies and procedures that shape our systems, our infrastructure, and the support we provide to our team and partners,” Jinkerson said in her statement. “We’re doing this because the community’s experience with CPA must always be safe, affirming, empowering, and inclusive,” she added.
In an interview with the Blade, Chandler said she was not the target of the alleged sexual harassment.
She said a Capital Pride investigation identified one individual implicated in a “pattern” of sexual harassment related behavior over a period of time. But she said she was bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that applies to all board members and she cannot disclose the name of the person implicated in alleged sexual misconduct or those who came forward to complain about it.
“It was one individual, but there was a pattern and a history,” Chandler said, noting that was the extent of what she can disclose.
“And I’ll say this,” she added. “In my opinion, with gay culture sometimes the touchy feely-ness that goes on seems to be like just part of the culture, not necessarily the same as a sexual assault or whatever. But at the same time, if someone does not want those advances and they’re saying no and trying to push you away and trying to avoid you, then it makes it that way regardless of the culture.”
When asked about when the allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced, Chandler said, “In the past year is when the allegation came forward from one individual. But in the course of this all happening, other individuals came forward and talked about instances – several which showed a pattern.”
Chandler’s resignation comes about five months after Capital Pride Alliance announced in a statement released in October 2025 that its then board president, Ashley Smith, resigned from his position on Oct. 18 after Capital Pride became aware of a “claim” regarding Smith. The statement said the group retained an independent firm to investigate the matter, but it released no further details since that time. Smith has declined to comment on the matter.
When asked by the Blade if the Smith resignation could be linked in some way to allegations of sexual misconduct, Chandler said, “I can’t make a comment one way or the other on that.”
Chandler’s resignation and allegations come after Capital Pride Alliance has been credited with playing the lead role in organizing the World Pride celebration hosted by D.C. in which dozens of LGBTQ-related Pride events were held from May through June of 2025.
The letter of resignation also came just days before Capital Pride Alliance’s annual “Reveal” event scheduled for Feb. 26 at the Hamilton Hotel in which the theme for D.C.’s June 2026 LGBTQ Pride events was to be announced along with other Pride plans.
District of Columbia
Capital Stonewall Democrats elect new leaders
LGBTQ political group set to celebrate 50th anniversary
Longtime Democratic Party activists Stevie McCarty and Brad Howard won election last week as president and vice president for administration for the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
In a Feb. 24 announcement, the group said McCarty and Howard, both of whom are elected DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, ran in a special Capital Stonewall Democrats election to fill the two leadership positions that became vacant when the officers they replaced resigned.
Outgoing President Howard Garrett, who McCarty has replaced, told the Washington Blade he resigned after taking on a new position as chair of the city’s Ward 1 Democratic Committee. The Capital Stonewall Democrats announcement didn’t say who Howard replaced as vice president for administration.
The group’s website shows its other officers include Elizabeth Mitchell as Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, and Monica Nemeth as Treasurer. The officer position of secretary is vacant, the website shows.
“As we look toward 2026, the stakes for D.C. and for LGBTQ+ communities have never been clearer,” the group’s statement announcing McCarty and Howard’s election says. “Our 50th anniversary celebration on March 20 and the launch of our D.C. LGBTQ+ Voter’s Guide mark the beginning of a major year for endorsements, organizing, and coalition building,” the statement says.
McCarty said among the organization’s major endeavors will be holding virtual endorsement forums where candidates running for D.C. mayor and the Council will appear and seek the group’s endorsement.
Founded in 1976 as the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the organization’s members voted in 2021 to change its name to Capital Stonewall Democrats. McCarty said the 50th anniversary celebration on March 20, in which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council are expected to attend, will be held at the PEPCO Gallery meeting center at 702 8th St., N.W.
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