District of Columbia
Trans woman found dead in D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park
Police cite possible drug overdose, but victim’s aunt says it was a hate crime
D.C. police are investigating the unexplained death of a 30-year-old transgender woman, Skylar Harrison Reeves, whose partially naked body was found on a park bench in a secluded section of Marvin Gaye Park on Oct. 2.
A Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told the Washington Blade detectives from the department’s natural death squad are investigating the case as detectives await a determination by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the cause and manner of death, which could take up to 60 days or more.
“This case remains under investigation, and at this time there is no additional information to provide,” said police spokesperson Elizabeth Grannis.
But Rhonda Hailes, Skylar’s aunt, told the Blade that a homicide detective came to her house in Capitol Heights, Md., where Skylar was living, to inform her that her niece was found deceased in a D.C. park with her belongings missing and the dress she was wearing pulled up over her head, with her breasts exposed.
Hailes said the detective, whose last name she recalls is McWilliams, came to her home on Monday, Oct. 2, shortly after he said her niece’s body was found in a secluded section of Marvin Gaye Park.
The park, which a Blade reporter visited on Oct. 16, consists of a long, narrow wooded area with a creek running in the middle with trees and bushes, park benches, a nature trail, and fitness equipment located throughout the park.
According to Hailes, Det. McWilliams said police think Skylar may have died from a drug overdose, but he didn’t say how police came to that possible conclusion. Hailes said the detective’s graphic description of what he saw after park employees initially found the body and called police leads her to believe her niece did not die from a drug overdose, even though she may have occasionally used drugs.
“Her dress was up over her head off her body, her hand was over her genitals, her breasts were exposed,” Hailes said the detective told her. “I have a history with drugs myself,’ Hailes said. “I’m not bragging about it, but I’ve ODed myself,” she told the Blade, adding that the circumstances surrounding the body of her niece made it unlikely if not impossible that the cause of death was a drug overdose.
“How was she outside partially naked?” said Hailes. “How was she there with her dress over her head and her tits exposed and her hand over her genital area? That does not happen when you OD,” she said, adding that someone experiencing an overdose loses consciousness and could not take off their clothes.
“And the way my niece was found, it was a hate crime,” Hailes said, pointing to additional details she said the police detective told her. “Her purse, her phone, her credit cards, all of that stuff was gone.”
And, according to Hailes, the detective also told her investigators could not find any footprints from the tennis shoes Skylar was wearing on the muddy ground along the path leading to where she was found.
As if that were not enough, Hailes said Skylar, who was gainfully employed at the time of her death, never hung out at Marvin Gaye Park, which has a reputation of being a place where transgender sex workers sometimes congregate. She said she went to the park a short time after her niece’s death and showed photos of Skylar to the people who were hanging out in the park. None of them said they recognized Skylar as among those who hang out at Marvin Gaye Park.
“So how did she get there?” Hailes continued, saying she asked the detective if someone might have carried her niece into the park to the site where her body was found. She said the detective would only say the investigation was continuing.
“I’m not saying my niece is perfect,” Hailes said. “Nobody is. But I will stake my life and tell you I know my niece. My niece never hung out on Division Avenue,” which runs along the border of part of Marvin Gaye Park and is an area where trans sex workers sometimes congregate.
Under longstanding D.C. police protocol, homicide detectives are almost always called to the scene of an unexplained death. But the homicide detectives usually turn over the case to the natural death squad detectives, who continue the investigation until the medical examiner makes a determination of the cause and manner of death. If the medical examiner rules the death a homicide, then the homicide unit takes over the investigation.
“She has been shunned and persecuted all her life for being who she is,” Hailes said of her niece Skylar. “Yet my niece, she was a beautiful beacon of life. She could have been in the darkest room and shined it bright.”
Transgender activist Iya Dammons, who heads the recently opened D.C. Safe Haven, which provides services to the local trans community as well as to the LGBTQ community, said Safe Haven helped to organize a candlelight vigil in honor of Skylar on Oct. 9 at the entrance to Marvin Gaye Park at the intersection of Division Avenue and Foote Street, N.E.
Dammons noted that Skylar’s death is among many deaths of transgender women of color in the D.C. area in recent years, some of which are related to a drug overdose, but others involve anti-trans violence.
“And my thought here is there is an outcry that this is happening, and I don’t think D.C. is actually paying attention to the crisis,” Dammons said.
Like all possible crimes that have yet to be solved, D.C. police ask anyone who has information that may help in their investigation to contact police at 202-727-9099. An anonymous tip can also be sent by text message to the police TEXT TIP LINE at 50411.
District of Columbia
D.C. Latinx Pride celebrates culture and heritage
Your guide to events throughout June
Organizers with the Latinx History Project have planned a host of events this Pride season with parties, poetry, drag and more.
The festivities begin with the DC Latinx Pride 2026 Kickoff at Crush Dance Bar (2007 14th Street, N.W.) on Friday, June 12 from 6-10 p.m. The party will include a coronation ceremony for the 2026 Royal Court: Ms. DC Latinx Pride Vida Rangel and Mx. DC Latinx Pride Steph Niaupari. RSVP at latinxhistoryproject.org. The event is free, though donations are accepted.
An outdoor event is planned for Sunday, June 14 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Anacostia River Park (1500 Anacostia Dr., S.E.). Cultivating Queer Outdoor Joy is a “peaceful outdoor community event focused on grounding, connection, and queer joy in nature.” The event is free.
A panel discussion is planned for The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Rd., N.W., 2nd floor) on Monday, June 15 from 6-8 p.m. La Plática: The Future of 2 Spirits and Trans Natives will focus upon the “stories, leadership and vision of Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer and Trans Native people.” RSVP to the free event at latinxhistoryproject.org.
A sex-positive poetry workshop, “Hoetry: Writing Erotic Poetry,” is planned for Wednesday, June 17 from 6-8 p.m. at The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road, N.W.). The event is free.
The workshop So You Wanna Do Drag? is planned for Thursday, June 18 from 5:30-8 p.m. at The Festival Center (1640 Columbia Road, N.W.). Featured guests Ricky Rose and Mari Con Carne will hold a style showcase to discuss the basics of developing a drag persona. RSVP to the free event at latinxhistoryproject.org.
The Latinx History Project is collaborating with Rumba Queer DC to produce an official Latinx Pride Party: Sin Vergüenza. The event is at the multi-level venue, Transmission (1353 H Street, N.E.) on Thursday, June 18 from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. There are dance lessons, vendors and three different music experiences in the sprawling venue. There will also be a drag showcase from 10-11 p.m. The event is 21+ and tickets are available at shotgun.live/en/events/sin-verguenza. Tickets are $15 for entry into the party. Tickets to participate in the dance lesson are $29.98. Participants may choose between a bachata lesson or a salsa lesson from 7-8 p.m.
La Fiesta: Official DC Latinx Pride Party is planned for Friday, June 19 from 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. at Bunker (2001 14th Street, N.W.). Serena Morena from “Drag Race México” and “Drag Race UK vs The World” is slated to headline the 21+ event. Early tickets are available for $15 (plus $0.38 service fee) until June 16. The door cover charge without early tickets is $20. Attendees can also purchase a meet and greet experience with Serena Morena for $30. Tickets are available at latinxhistoryproject.org.
The Latinx History Project plans to march in the Capital Pride Parade on Saturday, June 20 and to have a table at the Capital Pride Festival on Sunday, June 21. Visit latinxhistoryproject.org to register to march alongside LGP in the parade or to staff the table at the festival.
The DC Latinx Pride 2026 Closing Event is scheduled for Friday, June 26 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Mexican Cultural Institute (2829 16th Street, N.W.). The free event is a panel discussion “centering the experiences of immigrants who have lived in Latin America and now call the United States home.”
Visit latinxhistoryproject.org for more information.
District of Columbia
JR.’s hosts meet & greet for mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George
Event organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, Queers for Janeese
D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George spoke to a crowd of LGBTQ supporters on June 1 at a meet & greet event held at JR.’s on 17th Street in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
The event, organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, which has endorsed Lewis George for mayor, with support from a group called Queers for Janeese, was followed by a “get out the vote” canvassing endeavor in which several of those attending the meet & greet visited the homes of nearby residents known to be Lewis George supporters.
The purpose of the canvassing was to remind Lewis George supporters to return their mail-in ballots or go to the polls on June 16 to elect Lewis George as the city’s next mayor, according to Matthew Kavanagh, one of the leaders of Queers for Janeese who attended the meet & greet event at JR.’s.
Local political observers consider Lewis George, a Ward 4 D.C. Council member, and former At-Large D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, to be the two leading candidates in this year’s race for mayor. The two are among seven mayoral candidates competing in the city’s June 16 Democratic primary.
Lewis George told those attending the meet & greet, which was held on the JR.’s outdoor patio, that she has a long record of advocating for and initiating city polices and laws in support of the LGBTQ community. She said large corporate donors were backing her opponents and urged her LGBTQ supporters to help raise funds for her in the remaining days of the campaign.
Among those attending the meet & greet was gay longtime Dupont Circle civic activist Randy Downs who last November opened a nearby eatery called Protest Pizza. “I am queer and I am a Janeese supporter,” Downs told the Blade.
Stevie McCarty, president of Capital Stonewall Democrats, who also spoke at the meet & greet event, said his group would organize events in support of Lewis George in the remaining days of the campaign. Among them, he said, was an LGBTQ bar crawl in which supporters of Lewis George, including the candidate herself, would visit LGBTQ bars to promote her candidacy.
District of Columbia
D.C. kicks off Pride month with flag raising ceremony
Mayor, Council members join LGBTQ activists in 4th annual event
Members of the D.C. Council joined Mayor Muriel Bowser and a crowd of LGBTQ activists and supporters on June 1 for the city’s fourth annual LGBTQ Pride flag raising ceremony held outside the John A. Wilson Building, which serves as the D.C. City Hall.
Since its inception four years ago by Mayor Bowser, the event has served as the official kickoff of D.C. Pride month, which culminates this year with the annual Capital Pride Parade on June 20 and Pride festival on June 21, which takes place on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. near the U.S. Capitol.
“As I like to say, we’re celebrating Pride month in the gayest city in the world,” Bowser told a crowd that included city officials and Council members joining her on the front steps of the Wilson Building.
“Fifty-one years of Pride in the future 51st state,” she said, adding, “And both movements are rooted in the same belief – every person deserves to be seen, heard, and fully represented.”
Among those who spoke at the event in addition to Bowser were Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb; and D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large).
“This year is special,” Bowles told the gathering. “It’s special because we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs,” he said. “For two decades this office has helped make Washington, D.C. one of the most welcoming and affirming cities in the world.”
He added, “We have expanded LGBTQ services across agencies, invested millions of dollars into community organizations, championing culturally competent care and training, supporting LGBTQ supportive businesses and workers and celebrated our history.”
Schwalb said his Office of the D.C. Attorney General continues to safeguard the city’s laws protecting residents against discrimination but expressed concern about “high court” rulings that he said continue to roll back civil rights, voting rights, and human rights.
He said, “We’re seeing cases limiting medical care for transgender youth while at the same time green lighting so-called conversion therapy.” He pointed to cases or policies “excluding transgender girls from participating in sports and excluding story books with LGBTQ characters from our school libraries.”
He said his office is committed to protecting all residents, including LGBTQ residents, from all forms of discrimination. “And that includes the right to be our authentic selves, to freely express our identities and ourselves to be who we are and to love who we love.”
Mendelson, who also expressed strong support for the LGBTQ community and for the upcoming Pride events, said 10 of the Council’s 13 members were attending the Pride flag raising event, including gay Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5).
“I’m just here with gratitude,” Parker told the Washington Blade. “There’s a lot to be grateful for and a lot more to fight for,” he said. “And so, raising this flag is a reminder that our government is here to serve all of our residents regardless of how you identify or who you love.”
Shortly after Mendelson spoke, D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who is running for mayor in the city’s June 16 primary, arrived at the event, becoming the 11th Council member to turn out for the event.
Among those also attending the event were Ryan Bos and June Crenshaw, the two top officials of the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events.
Bowser, who is not running for re-election this year and will be stepping down as mayor in January 2027, thanked those attending the Pride flag raising event for playing a role in an all-inclusive city.
“We speak with one clear voice – that D.C. is a welcoming city,” she said in her remarks. “But also, we know that our work has been robust, but it is not done. We fly this flag in front of the John A. Wilson Building because it tells a story,” she said.
“It tells a story of a city that takes care of itself,” she added. “And we take care of each other. We are a city that is diverse and welcoming.”
Serving as the event’s master of ceremony and who introduced Bowles as the first speaker was longtime D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot.
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