Local
Levine loses Lt. guv and delegate races in Va. primary
Three other Va. LGBTQ delegates secure nomination for re-election
Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his bid to become the state’s first gay lieutenant governor on Tuesday by finishing in third place in the Democratic primary with 11.2 percent of the vote in a seven-candidate race.
In a development that surprised some political observers, Levine also lost his primary race for the Democratic nomination to keep his House of Delegates seat to Alexandria Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker by a margin of 59.3 percent to 40.6 percent of the vote.
Under Virginia’s election law, Levine was allowed to run for the two offices at the same time, enabling him to secure renomination for his delegate seat if he won the primary for that seat while losing his race for lieutenant governor.
Virginia Del. Hala Ayala (D-Prince William County) won the primary for the lieutenant governor’s race with 37.3 percent of the vote. She had been endorsed by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a strong LGBTQ rights supporter.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, another longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, was the decisive winner in the Democratic primary for governor, finishing with 62.1 percent of the vote in a five-candidate race. Under Virginia’s constitution, governors cannot run for a second consecutive term but can run again after leaving office for four years. Northam also endorsed McAuliffe.
Levine, an attorney, has been an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights issues in the House of Delegates, where he has served since 2016. He currently holds the seat for the 45th District, which includes most of the City of Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties.
Although he lost his bid for renomination for his delegate seat, Levine came in first place in Alexandria in his race for lieutenant governor, capturing 30 percent of the vote in that seven-candidate race.
Meanwhile, three other LGBTQ members of the House of Delegates, all Democrats, easily secured renomination for their seats and will be running in the November general election against Republican nominees.
However, in what may have been yet another surprise to some LGBTQ activists, gay Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) endorsed Bennett-Parker over Levine in that House of Delegates race. Ebbin, who is not up for re-election this year, told the Washington Blade he considered Bennett-Parker an excellent candidate who is highly qualified to serve in the Virginia General Assembly.
Levine couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The other LGBTQ candidates who won renomination include Danica Roem (D-Prince William County), who four years ago became the nation’s first transgender person to win election and to be seated in a U.S. state legislature. Roem was not challenged in the Democratic primary this year.
Similarly, gay House of Delegates member Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) was unchallenged in Tuesday’s primary, securing his nomination to run against a Republican in the November general election.
Lesbian Del. Dawn Adams (D-Richmond) did face an opponent in the Tuesday primary, which she won decisively by a margin of 61.1 percent to 38.8 percent against challenger Kyle Elliott.
In the hotly contested race for six at-large seats on the Alexandria City Council, 13 candidates, including two gay men, competed for the seats. One of the two gay candidates, Kirk McPike, who currently serves as chief of staff for gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), won the nomination for one of the seats by finishing in 6th place with 7.2 percent of the vote.
Gay civic activist James Lewis, who serves as vice chair of the Alexandria Traffic and Parking Board, finished in 8th place with 5.9 percent of the vote, disqualifying him from being nominated for one of the six seats up for election.
Under election rules for the primary in the Alexandria City Council race, the highest six vote getters are declared the winners. The candidate who finished in first place, John Taylor Chapman, received just 12 percent of the vote.
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 next 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.
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. moderated a panel at Dupont Underground on Feb. 8. 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.
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