District of Columbia
D.C. police seek help in Dupont Circle murder probe
Records show victim was arrested three times for area assaults
D.C. police are seeking help from the public in their investigation into the Dec. 30 Dupont Circle stabbing death of a 36-year-old man who had been arrested at least three times between 2016 and 2023 for assault related incidents in the neighborhood, according to police and court records.
A police announcement says D.C. police and U.S. Park Police officers responded at about 3:58 p.m. Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, to Dupont Circle for a report of a stabbing. It says an adult male later identified as Dominique Ratiff of Southeast D.C. was found unresponsive suffering from a stab wound.
According to the statement, he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Police said they have made no arrest in the case, but a police liaison officer told the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission that a suspect was described as a male wearing a purple beanie and baggy sweatpants leaving the scene on a bicycle on New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Police have said the stabbing occurred at the western side of Dupont Circle that intersects with Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. near the CVS Pharmacy and a PNC Bank.
Court records show that Ratiff was first arrested on June 2, 2016, on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon and simple assault for allegedly hitting a woman with his walking cane following a “verbal altercation” in Dupont Circle.
D.C. Superior Court records show he was arrested again on June 15, 2016, for allegedly repeatedly punching a homeless man outside the man’s tent near 901 27th St., N.W., while wearing boxing gloves. That incident did not occur at Dupont Circle, but court records show prosecutors combined that case with the earlier assault case against the woman.
The records show both cases were dismissed by a judge after Ratiff complied with his pre-trial release requirements and successfully completed a “mental health” diversion program.
Records show Ratiff’s third arrest took place on April 16, 2022, when he was charged with Robbery Force and Violence, Theft Second-Degree, and Simple Assault for allegedly pushing a male victim against the wall outside of the CVS Pharmacy at Dupont Circle and taking money from the man after threatening to stab him.
Again, court records show all charges were dismissed against Ratiff after he complied with his pre-trial release requirements and successfully completed a court diversion program that included community service.
His fourth arrest occurred on July 18, 2023, court records show, when he was charged with Unlawful Entry-Private Property and Simple Assault for allegedly entering the CVS Pharmacy at Dupont Circle after having been barred from the premises one year earlier and assaulting a CVS manager who told him he had to leave.
The records show that a remote “citation” hearing was held on Aug. 9, 2023, which Ratiff attended with his attorney. According to the records, a judge ordered him to return to court on Sept. 20, 2023, for an arraignment and a judicial summons with the order was mailed to his address at 2863 Denver St., S.E.
The summons was returned as “undeliverable” on Aug. 22, 2023, and Ratiff failed to appear at the Sept. 20 hearing, the records show, prompting the judge to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. But the records show no further action, such as an arrest, had taken place and authorities did not learn of Ratiff’s whereabouts until the time he was found fatally stabbed in Dupont Circle.
Gay Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vincent Slatt has called Ratiff’s murder a tragedy that possibly could have been prevented by better social services programs that Slatt said could have been arranged by the court system.
“This guy had gone through the system multiple times, and the social services have failed him,” Slatt told the Washington Blade. “And it resulted in him getting killed.”
Slatt added, “So, he was in several of these deferment programs. But ultimately, he still needed the social services, and it cost him his life,” Slatt said. “This is an indication that we need to improve our social services. And these people are falling through the cracks.”
D.C. police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Ratiff’s murder. Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call the police Homicide Branch at 202-645-9600.
District of Columbia
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
Fr. Tom Oddo’s biographer speaks at Dignity Washington event
The author of a biography of a U.S. Catholic priest said to have advocated for support by the Catholic Church of gay Catholics in the early 1970s has called Father Thomas ‘Tom’ Oddo a little known but important figure in the LGBTQ rights movement.
Tyler Bieber, author of the recently published book “Against The Current: Father Tom Oddo And the New American Catholic,” told of Oddo’s life and work on behalf of LGBTQ rights at a March 22 talk before the local LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity Washington.
Among Oddo’s important accomplishments, Bieber said, was his role as a co-founder of the national LGBTQ Catholic group Dignity U.S.A. in 1973 at the age of 29.
But as reported in the prologue of his book, Bieber presented details of the sad news that Oddo died in a fatal car crash in 1989 at the age of 45 in Portland, Ore., where he was serving as the highly acclaimed president of the University of Portland, a Catholic institution.
“He was a major figure in the gay rights movement in the 1970s, an unsung hero of that movement,” Bieber told Dignity Washington members, who assembled for his talk in a meeting room at St. Margaret Episcopal Church near Dupont Circle, where they attend their weekly Catholic mass on Sundays.
“And Dignity U.S.A. saw intense growth in membership and visibility” during its early years under Oddo’s leadership, Bieber said. “The story of Father Tom and his contemporaries is a story largely untold in the history of the gay rights movement, but one worth knowing and considering,” he said.
As stated in his book, Bieber told the Dignity Washington gathering Oddo was born and raised in a Catholic family on Long Island, N.Y., and attended a Catholic high school in Flushing Queens. It was at that time when he developed an interest in becoming a priest, according to Bieber.
After studying at the University of Notre Dame and completing his religious studies he was ordained as a priest in 1970 and began his work as a priest in the Boston area, Bieber said. It was around that time, Bieber told the Dignity Washington audience, that gay Catholics approached Oddo to seek advice on how they should interact with the Catholic Church. It was also around that time that Oddo became involved in a group supportive of then gay Catholics that later became a Dignity chapter in Boston.
In a development considered unusual for a Catholic priest, Bieber said Oddo in 1973 testified in support of gay rights bill before a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature and collaborated with then Massachusetts gay and lesbian rights advocate Elaine Noble.
In 1982, at the age of 39, Oddo was selected as president of the University of Portland following several years as a college teacher in the Boston area, Bieber’s book states. It says he was seen as a “vibrant and capable administrator who delivered real results to his campus,” adding, “His magnetism was obvious. One student described him as ‘John Kennedyesque’ to the university’s student newspaper.”
Bieber said that although Oddo was less active with Dignity U.S.A. during his tenure as UP president, he continued his support for gay Catholics and what is now referred to as LGBTQ rights.
“For those that knew him prior to his term at UP, though, he represented something greater than an accomplished university administrator and educator,” Bieber’s book states. “He was a new kind of priest, a gay man living and ministering in a world set loose from tradition by the Second Vatican Council,” the book says.
It was referring to the Vatican gathering of worldwide Catholic leaders from 1962 to 1965 concluding under Pope Paul VI that church observers say modernized church practices to allow far greater participation by the laity and opened the way for sympathetic consideration of gay Catholics.
District of Columbia
HRC to host National Rainbow Seder
Bet Mishpachah among annual event’s organizers
The 18th National Rainbow Seder will take place at the Human Rights Campaign on Sunday.
The sold out event is the country’s largest Passover Seder for the Jewish LGBTQ community.
Organizations behind the event include Bet Mishpachah, a local D.C. LGBTQ synagogue that Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin leads, and GLOE, an Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center program that sponsors events for the queer Jewish community. The theme for this year’s Seder is “Liberation For All Who Journey: Remembering, Resisting, Rebuilding.” Rabbis Atara Cohen, Koach Frazier, and Avigayil Halpern will lead it.
The Seder will honor the late GLOE co-chair Michael Singer. Singer also served on the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center’s board.
“This Seder is both a celebration of how far we have come and a call to continue building a more just and inclusive world.” Bet Mishpachah Executive Director Joshua Maxey told the Washington Blade.
District of Columbia
Trans Day of Visibility events planned
Rally on the National Mall scheduled for Saturday
The Christopher Street Project has a number of events planned for the 2026 Trans Day of Visibility, including a rally on the Mall and an “Empowerment Ball” at the Eaton Hotel. Plenaries, panel discussions and meetings with members of Congress are scheduled in the three days of programming.
Announced speakers include N.H. state Rep. Alice Wade; Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Precious Brady-Davis; activist and performer Miss Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”); Lexington, Ky. Councilwoman Emma Curtis; Rabbi Abby Stein; D.C. activist and host Rayceen Pendarvis; Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland; among other leaders, advocates and performers.
Conference programming on Thursday and Friday includes an educational forum and a Capitol Hill policy education day. Registration for the two-day conference has closed.
The “Trans Day of Visibility PAC Reception” is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 from 7:30-9 p.m. at As You Are (500 8th St., S.E.). Special guests include Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). Tickets are available at christopherstreetproject.org starting at $25.
The National Council of Jewish Women and the Christopher Street Project host a “Trans Day of Visibility Shabbat” on Friday, March 27 from 7-8 p.m. at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). The service is to be led by Rabbi Jenna Shaw and Rabbi Abby Stein.
The “Now You See Me: Trans Empowerment Social & Ball” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 6-11 p.m. at the Eaton Hotel (1201 K. St., N.W.). The trans-themed drag ball is hosted by the Marsha P. Johnson Institute with support from the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, the Capital Ballroom Council, the Christopher Street Project, the Center for Black Equity, Generation for Common Good, and Parenting is Political. RSVP online at christopherstreetproject.org.
The National Transgender Day of Visibility Rally is scheduled for Saturday, March 28 on the National Mall at 11 a.m. The rally will include speakers and performances. Following the rally, attendees are encouraged to participate in the “No Kings” rally being held at Anacostia Park.
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