District of Columbia
GLAA releases ratings for only four of 10 D.C. Council candidates
Defends decision to base scores on non-LGBTQ issues
GLAA D.C., formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, announced on Oct. 8 that it has issued ratings for only four of the 10 D.C. Council candidates running in the city’s Nov. 5 general election.
Under a policy adopted earlier this year, GLAA only rates candidates that return a GLAA questionnaire, the responses to which GLAA uses to determine its ratings. In resent years, GLAA has also limited its ratings to D.C. Council candidates and candidates for mayor in years when a mayoral race takes place.
The GLAA ratings for the four candidates, three of whom are incumbent Council members, include Council members Robert White (D-At-Large) +9; Christina Henderson (I-At-Large) +8.5; and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) +9.5. Ward 7 Democratic candidate Wendell Felder received a rating of +2 rating.
Felder is running for the seat being vacated by Council member and former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter who is not running for re-election.
Under the GLAA rating system, the candidate ratings range from a +10, the highest possible score, to a -10, the lowest possible score.
When GLAA, a nonpartisan LGBTQ advocacy group, began its candidate ratings in the 1970s, it based its ratings on the candidates’ positions and record on specific LGBTQ-related issues. But in recent years, with D.C.’s local government having long ago passed LGBTQ supportive nondiscrimination legislation, the group has based its ratings on issues raised in its candidate questionnaire that are mostly non-LGBTQ specific.
Among the issues raised in the GLAA candidate questionnaire this year include asking candidates if they support decriminalizing sex work among consenting adults; removing criminal penalties for possession of drugs that are currently illegal for personal use; increased funding for programs to reduce drug overdose deaths; and “addressing concentrated wealth in the District” by raising revenue “through taxing the most wealthy residents.”
Just one of the nine questions on the questionnaire asks about a potentially LGBTQ-specific issue. The question asks if the candidate supports sufficient funding in the city’s budget for the D.C. Office of Human Rights to adequately investigate cases of discrimination. The Office of Human Rights has investigated LGBTQ discrimination cases and could investigate those cases in future years.
GLAA President TyrONE Hanley has argued that each of the specific issues it raises in its questionnaire has an impact on LGBTQ people and should not be dismissed as non-LGBTQ issues.
“We believe all of the issues are LGBTQ issues as they impact LGBTQ people,” he told the Washington Blade. “LGBTQ people are disproportionately impacted by the lack of affordable housing, incarceration, and overdoses,” he said. “To ignore the questions in our questionnaire would mean abandoning LGBTQ people who are most impacted by the failures of our government and community inaction.”
The D.C. Council candidates that were not rated because they did not return the GLAA questionnaire included Council members Brooke Pinto (D-At-Large), and Trayon White (D-Ward 8). The non-incumbent candidates who GLAA did not rate include Rob Simmons (R-At-Large), Darryl Moch (Statehood-Green Party-At Large), Noah Montgomery (R-Ward 7), and Nate Derenge (R-Ward 8).
Under its policy of only rating D.C. Council and mayoral candidates, GLAA also does not rate candidates running for the D.C. Board of Education, Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and the shadow U.S. Senate and U.S. House seats, which are unpaid offices with no voting authority in Congress.
Among those who disagree with GLAA’s focus on non-LGBTQ specific issues for its candidate ratings is gay Democratic activist Peter Rosenstein.
“GLAA has moved from asking candidates questions related to the LGBTQ+ community to asking general questions,” Rosenstein said. “I don’t believe that is their role, or that anyone consults the GLAA ratings anymore before they vote,” he said. “My recommendation is we as a community thank GLAA for all their past work, when activists like Rick Rosendall ran the organization, and now they should close their doors and disband.”
The questionnaire and candidate ratings can be accessed at glaa.org.
District of Columbia
Gay-owned pizzeria in Dupont Circle burglarized
Protest Pizza owners say community has expressed support
Gay activist Randy Downs said he and his business and life partner Ricky Bennett are grateful for the support they have received from the Dupont Circle community after they released a video showing a suspect breaking into their recently opened pizza shop and taking money from a cash register shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21.
The surveillance video shows a man wearing black clothing with his face covered, smashing the glass front door of Protest Pizza, located at 1633 ½ P St., N.W. The video, which Downs and Bennett provided to D.C. police, also shows the suspect climbing over the bar to get to a cash register, which he opened to take out cash.
A D.C. police report obtained by the Washington Blade lists the incident as a Burglary in the Second Degree and says the owners reported “approximately $78 in cash” was taken from the cash register. The report says the incident is not listed as a suspected hate crime.
Downs told the Washington Blade that after he and Bennett reported the break-in and theft on social media, they received an overwhelming showing of support from neighbors and others, including business owners, from across the nation.
“The break-in was upsetting, but it is not what will define Protest Pizza,” Downs said. “What defines us is how quickly people showed up,” he told the Blade. “One person came looking for a cash register; our community saw a gathering place worth protecting. The response reminded us that Protest’s real value was never in the register.”
Downs said he and Bennett, who live around the corner on the section of 17th Street, N.W., near several other bars and restaurants, including the gay bar JRs are located, opened Protest Pizza in November 2025.
“Ricky and I built Protest Pizza as a positive, welcoming, queer owned neighborhood restaurant and bar — a space for protest and joy,” he said.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect responsible for the type of burglary and theft that occurred at Protest Pizza. Police say anyone with information to help solve this type of crime should call the police tipline at 202-727-9099.
District of Columbia
Advocates honored at Engendered Spirit Awards
Annual ceremony held at conclusion of Trans Pride DC
The 2026 SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards ceremony took place at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. on Saturday. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the day-long Trans Pride DC: Encore.
Honorees included D.C. Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Deputy Director Vida Rangel; the LGBT+ Counseling Collaborative, Inc.; and Connor Keuntje, CLP, CLPC.
Trans Pride DC: Encore was held throughout Saturday with several workshop sessions and a virtual conversation with actress and advocate Dominique Jackson.
The annual Engendered Spirit Awards were renamed the “SaVanna Wanzer Engendered Spirit Awards” in honor of SaVanna Wanzer, founder of D.C. Trans Pride. Wanzer died on April 24 of this year.
Speakers at the ceremony included Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and Bianca Sprague, executive director of D.C. Trans Pride.
“The intent behind this award and honoring members of our communities, organizations, and allies, is to really elevate all of the work that they’re doing to provide resources, tools, learning opportunities and connections: centering trans folks, gender non-conforming, and gender diverse individuals,” Sprague said.
District of Columbia
Man charged with anti-gay assault in D.C. accepts plea offer
Community service offered in exchange for dismissing hate crime charge
A Germantown, Md., man arrested by D.C. police on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation for allegedly assaulting a gay man while using “homophobic slurs” has agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to simple assault without the hate crime designation and with the promise of having the charge dismissed if he completes, among other requirements, 48 hours of community service work.
Dean Edmundson, 26, standing beside his attorney, officially accepted the offer of a Deferred Sentencing Agreement at an Aug. 18 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court after Senior Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo explained the details of the agreement and confirmed Edmundson’s decision to waive his right to a trial.
Among other things, the judge said the agreement offered by prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. includes the requirement that he successfully completes 48 hours of community service work, stays away from the victim of the assault, writes a letter of apology to the victim, and does not violate any other laws or get into trouble for the next 12 months.
Puig-Lugo then announced he scheduled a sentencing hearing for Edmundson for Aug. 18, 2027, at which time a determination will made on whether he has fulfilled all the requirements under the agreement and whether the simple assault charge will be dismissed. The judge added that if it is determined that Edmundson did not fulfil the terms of the agreement the charge would remain in place and he could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Edmundson, who appeared in court wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie, was released on his own recognizance following his arrest by D.C. police on Feb. 7, 2026.
Police and court records show he was initially charged by arresting officers with simple assault with a hate crime designation. In a statement announcing the arrest, D.C. police said, “On Saturday, Feb. 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 kept walking,” the statement says.
A follow-up arrest affidavit filed by police states that Edmundson followed the victim and called him “bald, ugly, and gay,” and then “pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push.” The affidavit adds, “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay.”
According to the court records, the Office of the U.S. Attorney filed its official charge of simple assault against Edmunson on Feb. 9 without the hate crime designation. The office has not responded to a request by the Washington Blade for its reason for dropping the hate crime designation. The office has also not immediately responded to a follow-up inquiry from the Blade this week asking if prosecutors consulted the victim to obtain the victim’s thoughts about the plea offer.
The Blade, which has a policy of not disclosing the identify of crime victims in cases like this without their consent, could not immediately obtain contact information to reach the victim for comment.
Court records show that Edmundson rejected an earlier plea agreement offer by prosecutors and he was scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 18. The records show his attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to convert the trial into status hearing on that same day after his client accepted the Deferred Sentencing Agreement offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The judge approved the motion without objection from prosecutors.
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