Local
Top 10 local news stories for 2023
Hate crimes continue, new queer bars open, and much more
It was another busy year in queer news. Here are the Blade staff picks for the top 10 local news stories of 2023.
#10: Florida prosecutor drops sex with minor charges against Brett Parson
A prosecutor with the Broward County, Fla., State Attorney’s Office on March 13 dropped two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor filed against gay former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson by Boca Raton, Fla. police in February 2022. Parson’s arrest came shortly after he retired from the police force after 26 years of service, including his role as supervisor of the D.C. police LGBT Liaison Unit.
A memorandum released by the State Attorney’s Office disclosed that prosecutors decided to drop the charges after it became clear that the then 16-year-old boy, who told authorities that his sexual encounter with Parson was consensual, did not want to participate in the prosecution against Parson.
Court records show the youth met Parson after he posted a message on the gay hookup site Growlr and claimed he was 19 years old. The age of sexual consent in Florida is 18, although in several other states, including D.C., the age of consent is 16 and the sexual encounter between Parson and the youth would have been legal in those other states and D.C.
#9: Four new D.C. LGBTQ bars open in 2023
Four new LGBTQ bars opened in D.C. in 2023, bringing the total number of LGBTQ identified bars in the nation’s capital to 19. The first of the four new ones to open was Little Gay Pub at 1100 P St., N.W. near Logan Circle. Its owners and business partners, Dito Sevilla, Dusty Martinez, and Benjamin Gander, have years of experience working at other nearby bars and restaurants, with Martinez and Gander having worked at other gay bars.
The gay nightclub and dance bar Bunker opened a short time later in a large basement space at 2001 14th St., N.W., steps away from the bustling nightlife intersection at 14th and U streets, N.W. Co-owners Zach Renovates and Jesus Quispe for many years produced LGBTQ entertainment events through their company KINETIC Presents. Next to open was Shakers at 2014 9th St., N.W. in the busy 9th and U Street entertainment corridor, which bills itself as a “full spectrum bar, with everything from family nights to ANC meet-and-greets to drag shows.”
And in December Thurst Lounge opened at 2204 14th St., N.W. Owners Brandon Burke and Shaun Mykals describe it as a “space that represents and honors the unique and culturally rich Black gay experience.”
#8: D.C. gov’t holds ‘LGBTQIA Emergency Training’ event
About 25 representatives of local LGBTQ organizations turned out on April 5 for the first in what was expected to be a series of LGBTQIA+ Emergency Preparedness Training sessions offered by the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
Japer Bowles, director of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said the initial training session was for nonprofit LGBTQ organizations aimed at helping them take steps to minimize potential threats of violence and to recognize behaviors by individuals who may pose a threat. He said among those attending the April 5 training session were representatives of the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community, one of the city’s largest local LGBTQ organizations that is about to move into a new, larger space in a building in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.
#7: Proud Boys target local drag queen story hour events
The far-right group Proud Boys targeted bookstores in Silver Spring, Md. and D.C. in February for protests against the reading of children’s stories by drag performers in an event known as Drag Queen Story Hour. But the group only showed up at the Loyalty Bookstore in Silver Spring. Silver Spring police dispersed the Proud Boys members and counter protesters who supported the drag event after the two groups shouted at each other and reports surfaced that a Proud Boy member assaulted one of the supporters.
One week later, after news surfaced that the Proud Boys planned to hold a protest targeting a Drag Story Hour event at the gay-owned Crazy Aunt Hellen’s restaurant in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill in D.C., dozens of supporters turned out in anticipation of the Proud Boys protest. D.C. police, who closed the one-block section of 8th Street, S.E. in anticipation of the protest, said the Proud Boys never showed up.
#6: D.C. mourns loss of two community leaders and a beloved bartender
Many in D.C.’s LGBTQ community in July mourned the unexpected deaths of two gay longtime supporters of LGBTQ causes, Jocko Fajardo and Tarik Pierce, and a beloved bartender, Brooks Davis. Fajardo, a skilled chief, florist, and event planner, and Pierce, an official with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, each died in their homes at the age of 45 in D.C. within one week of each other of undisclosed causes. About 300 people turned out in D.C. ‘s Logan Circle for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the two men.
Also mourned by a large circle of friends in July was gay bartender Brooks Davis, 29, who died on July 17. Family members asked that the cause of death remain private. Davis worked at the D.C. gay nightclub Bunker after having worked for the luxury retail outlet Louis Vuitton and later operated his own exotic plant business before beginning work as a bartender.
#5: Partner says police botched probe into death of Washington Wizards chef
The longtime domestic partner of Ernest Terrell Newkirk, 55, who worked as chef at D.C.’s Capital One Arena for the Washington Wizards basketball team, expressed strong concern that D.C. police failed to adequately investigate Newkirk’s initially unexplained death.
The partner, Roger Turpin, pointed out that Newkirk was found deceased on a residential street in the 1100 block of 46th Place, S.E., shortly after 3 a.m. on May 28, with his wallet, watch, jewelry, and his car all missing. There were no signs of injury on Newkirk’s body, and it took the D.C. medical examiner four months to complete toxicology tests to finally determine the cause of death, which was acute alcohol intoxication.
D.C. police have said they investigated the case. But Turpin says investigators appear to have declined to follow up on information Turpin provided them to track down someone who may have stolen Newkirk’s car, phone, and credit cards. Turpin says he gave police phone numbers that someone used on Newkirk’s stolen phone to make calls that Turpin obtained from the phone records.
#4: Two area trans lawmakers make history
Two transgender elected officials in the greater D.C. region made history in 2023. Virginia state Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) won a decisive victory for a seat in the Virginia state Senate in the state’s Nov. 7 election, becoming the second openly transgender person to win election to a state Senate in the country.
And earlier in the year, Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who became the first transgender person to win a seat in a state Senate in 2020, declared her candidacy for the single Delaware seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Recent polling data show McBride is far ahead of her closest rival in the 2024 Democratic primary. If she wins the primary, as expected, and wins in the November 2024 general election in the solidly Democratic state of Delaware, McBride would become the first transgender person in the U.S. Congress.
#3: Spate of assaults targets LGBT people for possible hate crimes
Two gay bar customers were stabbed in the neck with nonfatal wounds on Aug. 18 outside the Dupont Circle gay bar Fireplace by a woman who D.C. police arrested on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon and a judge ordered to undergo a mental health examination. That incident followed the arrest by D.C. police in January of three juveniles for four separate armed robberies in the Dupont Circle area near gay bars.
And in August, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. continued to decline to prosecute two male suspects identified by D.C. police who robbed and pistol whipped a D.C. gay couple in January 2022 after the couple appealed to prosecutors to move ahead with a prosecution. A spokesperson for the U.S. The Attorney’s office said there was insufficient evidence to charge the suspects. Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vincent Slatt, who heads the ANC’s Rainbow Caucus, expressed concern that police were not disclosing sufficient information on whether the growing number of crimes in Dupont Circle and other city neighborhoods are LGBTQ related and whether the assaults against them may be hate crimes.
With this as a backdrop, D.C.’s new police chief, Pamela Smith, told the Blade in an interview she pledges “fair and equal treatment” for the LGBTQ community.
#2: Violence continues against D.C.-area trans women
At least three transgender women were murdered in the D.C. region and a fourth was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 2023, prompting transgender activists to continue their ongoing efforts to address what they consider a nationwide epidemic of anti-trans violence.
The first of the incidents took place Jan. 7 when Jasmine “Star” Mack, 36, was found stabbed to death on the 2000 block of Gallaudet St., N.E. D.C. police say they are actively investigating the case. On March 24, Tasiyah Woodland, 18, was shot to death outside the Paradise bar and grill in Lexington Park, Md. With the help of D.C. police, St. Mary’s County police charged D.C. resident Darryl Parks Jr., 29, with first-degree murder and additional gun related charges in connection with the murder. Police said the shooting followed a dispute between Parks and Mack, but Mack’s family members believe it was a hate crime.
On Oct. 2, 30-year-old trans woman Skylar Harrison Reeves’s partially naked body was found on a park bench in D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park. Police say there were no obvious injuries found and they are waiting for the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death upon completion of toxicology tests. Reeves’s aunt says she believes foul play led to the death. And on Oct. 18, D.C. resident A’nee Roberson, 30, was fatally struck by a car on the 900 block of U Street, N.W., after witnesses say she was assaulted by one or more unidentified suspects and chased into the street in the path of an oncoming car. D.C. police have listed the incident as a homicide, saying the person or persons who assaulted her and forced her into the street committed second-degree murder.
#1: Gay College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn pleads guilty to child porn charges
A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge on Nov. 20 sentenced gay former College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn to 30 years in jail just over three months after Wojahn pleaded guilty to 140 counts of possession or distribution of child pornography.
The sentencing followed news that surfaced in March, which shocked Wojahn’s friends and longtime political supporters, including LGBTQ activists, that he had been arrested after police raided his College Park house and confiscated multiple devices, including computers and cell phones, containing hundreds of images or videos of child pornography depicting pre-pubescent boys.
At the sentencing hearing over a dozen of Wojahn’s friends and family members, including his husband, urged the judge to consider Wojahn’s own statements saying mental health issues were at play in his actions and that he cooperated with the police investigation and deeply apologized for what he did. Under Maryland sentencing rules, Wojahn will be eligible to apply for release on parole after serving 12 and a half years of incarceration.
Honorable mention: Zachary Parker sworn in as new D.C. Council member
Former D.C. school board member Zachary Parker was sworn in on Jan. 2 as the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015 at an inaugural ceremony in which other elected officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and six other Council members were also sworn in.
Parker, a Democrat, won election in November 2022 to the Ward 5 Council seat by a wide margin after winning a hotly contested Democratic primary for the Ward 5 seat.
In his inaugural speech after being sworn in as a Council member, Parker said he ran on a vision that “all District residents deserve good and accountable government” and pledged to work to help serve the needs of the city’s diverse residents, including LGBTQ residents.
“With this honor comes the responsibility to address the ridiculously high rates of queer youth homelessness” and “ensure that we’re investing in the people and organizations that are fighting every day for our LGBTQIA plus neighbors,” he said in his speech.
District of Columbia
‘Sandwich guy’ not guilty in assault case
Sean Charles Dunn faced misdemeanor charge
A jury with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, Nov. 6, found D.C. resident Sean Charles Dunn not guilty of assault for tossing a hero sandwich into the chest of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent at the intersection of 14th and U streets, N.W. at around 11 p.m. on Aug. 10.
Dunn’s attorneys hailed the verdict as a gesture of support for Dunn’s contention that his action, which was captured on video that went viral on social media, was an exercise of his First Amendment right to protest the federal border agent’s participating in President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal troops on D.C. streets.
Friends of Dunn have said that shortly before the sandwich tossing incident took place Dunn had been at the nearby gay nightclub Bunker, which was hosting a Latin dance party called Tropicoqueta. Sabrina Shroff, one of three attorneys representing Dunn at the trial, said during the trial after Dunn left the nightclub he went to the submarine sandwich shop on 14th Street at the corner of U Street, where he saw the border patrol agent and other law enforcement officers standing in front of the shop.
Shroff and others who know Dunn have said he was fearful that the border agent outside the sub shop and immigrant agents might raid the Bunker Latin night event. Bunker’s entrance is on U Street just around the corner from the sub shop where the federal agents were standing.
“I am so happy that justice prevails in spite of everything happening,“ Dunn told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict while joined by his attorneys. “And that night I believed that I was protecting the rights of immigrants,” he said.
“And let us not forget that the great seal of the United States says, E Pluribus Unum,” he continued. “That means from many, one. Every life matters no matter where you came from, no matter how you got here, no matter how you identify, you have the right to live a life that is free.”
The verdict followed a two-day trial with testimony by just two witnesses, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Gregory Lairmore, who identified Dunn as the person who threw the sandwich at his chest, and Metro Transit Police Detective Daina Henry, who told the jury she witnessed Dunn toss the sandwich at Lairmore while shouting obscenities.
Shroff told the jury Dunn was exercising his First Amendment right to protest and that the tossing of the sandwich at Lairmore, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, did not constitute an assault under the federal assault law to which Dunn was charged, among other things, because the federal agent was not injured.
Prosecutors with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. initially attempted to obtain a grand jury indictment of Dunn on a felony assault charge. But the grand jury refused to hand down an indictment on that charge, court records show. Prosecutors then filed a criminal complaint against Dunn on the misdemeanor charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers of the United States.
“Dunn stood within inches of Victim 1,” the criminal complaint states, “pointing his finger in Victim 1’s face, and yelled, Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!”
The complaint continues by stating, “An Instagram video recorded by an observer captured the incident. The video depicts Dunn screaming at V-1 within inches of his face for several seconds before winding his arm back and forcefully throwing a sub-style sandwich at V-1.
Prosecutors repeatedly played the video of the incident for the jurors on video screens in the courtroom.
Dunn, who chose not to testify at his trial, and his attorneys have not disputed the obvious evidence that Dunn threw the sandwich that hit Lairmore in the chest. Lead defense attorney Shroff and co-defense attorneys Julia Gatto and Nicholas Silverman argued that Dunn’s action did not constitute an assault under the legal definition of common law assault in the federal assault statute.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo, the lead prosecutor in the case, strongly disputed that claim, citing various provisions in the law and appeals court rulings that he claimed upheld his and the government’s contention that an “assault” can take place even if a victim is not injured as well as if there was no physical contact between the victim and an alleged assailant, only a threat of physical contact and injury.
The dispute over the intricacies of the assault law and whether Dunn’s action reached the level of an assault under the law dominated the two-day trial, with U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols, who presided over the trial, weighing in with his own interpretation of the assault statute. Among other things, he said it would be up to the jury to decide whether or not Dunn committed an assault.
Court observers have said in cases like this, a jury could have issued a so-called “nullification” verdict in which they acquit a defendant even though they believe he or she committed the offense in question because they believe the charge is unjust. The other possibility, observers say, is the jury believed the defense was right in claiming a law was not violated.
DiLorenzo and his two co-prosecutors in the case declined to comment in response to requests by reporters following the verdict.
“We really want to thank the jury for having sent back an affirmation that his sentiment is not just tolerated but it is legal, it is welcome,” defense attorney Shroff said in referring to Dunn’s actions. “And we thank them very much for that verdict,” she said.
Dunn thanked his attorneys for providing what he called excellent representation “and for offering all of their services pro bono,” meaning free of charge.
Dunn, an Air Force veteran who later worked as an international affairs specialist at the U.S. Department of Justice, was fired from that job by DOJ officials after his arrest for the sandwich tossing incident.
“I would like to thank family and friends and strangers for all of their support, whether it was emotional, or spiritual, or artistic, or financial,” he told the gathering outside the courthouse. “To the people that opened their hearts and homes to me, I am eternally grateful.”
“As always, we accept a jury’s verdict; that is the system within which we function,” CNN quoted U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro as saying after the verdict in the Dunn case. “However, law enforcement should never be subjected to assault, no matter how ‘minor,’” Pirro told CNN in a statement.
“Even children know when they are angry, they are not allowed to throw objects at one another,” CNN quoted her as saying.
Maryland
Democrats hold leads in almost every race of Annapolis municipal election
Jared Littmann ahead in mayor’s race.
By CODY BOTELER | The Democratic candidates in the Annapolis election held early leads in the races for mayor and nearly every city council seat, according to unofficial results released on election night.
Jared Littmann, a former alderman and the owner of K&B Ace Hardware, did not go so far as to declare victory in his race to be the next mayor of Annapolis, but said he’s optimistic that the mail-in ballots to be counted later this week will support his lead.
Littmannn said November and December will “fly by” as he plans to meet with the city department heads and chiefs to “pepper them with questions.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Democrats on Tuesday increased their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.
The Associated Press notes the party now has 61 seats in the chamber. Democrats before Election Day had a 51-48 majority in the House.
All six openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual candidates — state Dels. Rozia Henson (D-Prince William County), Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax County), Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg), Marcia Price (D-Newport News), Adele McClure (D-Arlington County), and Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) — won re-election.
Lindsey Dougherty, a bisexual Democrat, defeated state Del. Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield County) in House District 75 that includes portions of Chesterfield and Prince George Counties. (Attorney General-elect Jay Jones in 2022 texted Coyner about a scenario in which he shot former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican.)
Other notable election results include Democrat John McAuliff defeating state Del. Geary Higgins (R-Loudoun County) in House District 30. Former state Del. Elizabeth Guzmán beat state Del. Ian Lovejoy (R-Prince William County) in House District 22.
Democrats increased their majority in the House on the same night they won all three statewide offices: governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
Narissa Rahaman is the executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, the advocacy branch of Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, last week noted the election results will determine the future of LGBTQ rights, reproductive freedom, and voting rights in the state.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2024 signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
The General Assembly earlier this year approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment that defines marriage in the state constitution as between a man and a woman. The resolution must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.
Shreya Jyotishi contributed to this article.
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