Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 27, 2022 to clarify which groups operate GLO Harrisburg.
Brice Williams, a local drag queen who counseled LGBT youth in Harrisburg, has been charged with downloading photos and videos of child pornography two years ago, court documents said.
Williams, 26, of Chambersburg, is charged with 25 counts of child pornography for at least 49 photos and 25 videos of naked, prepubescent boys that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said he downloaded between May and December 2020.
The sexually-explicit content showed genitalia and boys performing sex acts on one another — sometimes with an adult man, as well, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Thursday.
Authorities said the boys were under 18 years old, but did not specify their ages.
The affidavit said the photos and video downloads were linked to Williams’ email and home addresses. The pornography was also allegedly downloaded by someone under the username “Ana D,” the affidavit said. “Anastasia Diamond” is Williams’ drag queen persona.
Williams sat down with PennLive in July 2021, just before he was expected to work with GLO Harrisburg, a center that offers a “safe space” for LGBTQ+ youth of color, to do HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness work with LGBTQ+ youth. Before GLO Harrisburg, Williams was an HIV medical case worker for Keystone Health in Chambersburg.
The LGBT Center of Central PA gave Williams the 2020 Rising Star Award.
“I feel as though this is so important because I know there are little kids like me who are queer who are Black who are still not able to look up to anyone,” Williams told PennLive last year. “So that’s the reason why I got into this line of work. I wanted to make ... a big impact for folks in my community.”
GLO Harrisburg is a collaborative program from UPMC Central PA, Hamilton Health Center and LGBT Center of Central Pa.
When investigators visited Williams’ Chambersburg home Thursday, he said the two email addresses linked to the pornography were his, according to the affidavit. He also reportedly confirmed the phone number listed as the recovery number for one of the email addresses was his.
The affidavit said the child porn was also connected to a Comcast subscription that was registered under Williams’ home address.
At first Williams denied downloading child pornography, but later said he first viewed child porn in 2014 on a messaging app before moving to cloud-based storage apps — like Dropbox, where at least nine of the photos were found, the affidavit said.
Williams is charged with one count of criminal use of a communication facility, in addition to the 25 child pornography charges.
Online court records show Williams was arraigned Thursday afternoon and taken to the Franklin County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 5 in front of Magisterial District Judge Kristin Nicklas.
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