Bright Light x2 - Metro Weekly: April 30, 2020 by Metro Weekly

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Contents

April 30, 2020

Volume 26 Issue 50

WORKING-CLASS WARRIOR Ward 7 candidate Anthony Lorenzo Green says the D.C.’s Democratic Party must re-prioritize the needs of working people. By John Riley

MUSIC OF THE LIGHT

Bright Light x2 is celebrating the LGBTQ community through his newest songs, one thrilling track at a time. Interview by Doug Rule

SCREEN QUEENS

Hollywood spotlights the salacious side of Tinseltown, but still makes time for starry-eyed romance and social justice. By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: FOND FAREWELL p.7 GET UP AND DANCE p.9 IN THE KITCHN p.10 OUT ON THE TOWN p.11 THE FEED: UNJUST ACTIONS p.15 TEACHING MOMENT p.16 BASELESS BAN p.17 UNNEIGHBORLY p.19 TROUBLING PRECEDENT p.20 DIGITAL FESTIVALS p.21 PITCH PERFECT p.22 GALLERY: INTERPRETING A PANDEMIC p.35 MUSIC: DANCE GAVIN DANCE p.36 SELFIE SCENE p.39 LAST WORD p.40 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 25 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint George Michael Cover Photography Warren Piece Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Spotlight

Fond Farewell

FTER 11 SEASONS AND 246 EPISODES, WILL & Grace broadcast its series finalé on NBC on Thursday, April 23, for the second time in its history (it ended its initial eight-year run on May 18, 2006). Created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the sitcom centered on a quartet of friends, including the neurotic yet loveable gay lawyer Will Truman and the wackily flamboyant and equally loveable Jack McFarland. The hit show, through a perfect blend of sharp verbal and stunningly physical humor, as well as deep relatability to its core gay characters, changed network television history by putting the LGBTQ community’s issues front and center into millions of homes on a weekly basis. We reached out to Alphonso David, President of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s most influential LGBTQ political organizations, to discuss the show’s legacy. What follows are excerpts from our conversation. —Randy Shulman METRO WEEKLY: What do you think Will & Grace has meant to the

LGBTQ community? ALPHONSO DAVID: Will & Grace arose at an important time in our nation’s history. It changed how LGBTQ people see themselves, how their stories are represented on television. I remember being in law school in 1998 and reading a case called Bowers v. Hardwick — it was a Supreme Court case that upheld a sodomy statute in Georgia. Will & Grace premiered in 1998, Bowers v. Hardwick was still good law, which meant that LGBTQ people

could be considered criminals in several parts of the country. The Defense of Marriage Act, which is a federal law that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, was good law. DOMA, a federal law that prohibited LGBTQ people from serving in the military, was good law. So when Will & Grace became the phenomenon that it became in the late nineties, we were in a very, very different political landscape for LGBTQ people. It also was a very different media landscape. Only a year before [it premiered], Ellen came out on television. And that certainly was a watershed moment, but there was also a significant backlash. Her show was canceled. So for me, Will & Grace felt as if it was the next step forward in advancing LGBTQ visibility on television, even though our lives were not being respected in the political landscape and in law. MW: Why do you think NBC took a risk on the show, given what happened with Ellen’s show? DAVID: I can speculate. You had some very, very creative producers and writers who thought that they could take the opportunity for another shot at bringing LGBTQ people into the living rooms of people who live in this country and thought they could potentially do it in a way that wouldn’t be confrontational, wouldn’t be adversarial, wouldn’t be off-putting. They were going to take a different approach and try to humanize LGBTQ people. I’m speculating, of course. But when I saw the show, that’s what I saw. I saw two different gay characters — one who was an arguably openly, out gay but not really with many people, APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

TODD FRANSON

Spotlight

David

and another who was very open. They presented both sides of the spectrum to see whether or not that would resonate with viewers. But, most importantly, I felt what they were trying to humanize LGBTQ people to make sure that a person living in a certain part of the country who has never met a gay person would have an opportunity to connect with a gay person on television. MW: One thing that always interested me about the show was how it dealt with the differences between the two gay leads, Will and Jack. Will was funny but placid in comparison to Jack, who veered headlong, often with eye-popping ferocity, into gay stereotype territory. Yet in the two presentations, the creators coyly balanced the equation for viewers. For all his hijinx and frivolity, Jack became as meaningful and resonant a character as Will. DAVID: I completely agree with that. Some would argue the show advanced stereotypes, but I would also argue that it challenged stereotypes. You had two different images of gay men, arguably not representing the entire spectrum of the community, because they were both white men, but they were representing images of gay men along the spectrum, and in some ways challenging the perception that some members of our community and also the non-LGBTQ community had of gay men. MW: Will & Grace did not shy away from sexuality the way a lot of other shows had done with gay men. There was almost a persistent reference to how many men Jack slept with. It was unusual for a series to take that approach at the time. DAVID: It was certainly unusual for any show at that time on network television. On cable, we had images in the early 2000s with Six Feet Under, and we had Noah’s Ark, which reflected the lives of black gay men. But on network television, you certainly didn’t have any images of gay men embracing their sexuality in a way that Will & Grace attempted to. MW: Not many shows get a second wind like Will & Grace. How do you feel about it ending its run for good? DAVID: I think Will & Grace will forever own a part of LGBTQ history. They contributed to LGBTQ visibility and representation in the media. I also think that they helped change the 8

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

political landscape and inform the views of policymakers across the country. But as with all good things, I don’t want to question the creators and the writers about whether or not they thought it was time to end the show because they were the ones writing and creating it. But I do want to say, I think they really added something to our canon, something quite meaningful that we can look back on. When you put it within the context of where we were politically, they made a meaningful contribution to LGBTQ visibility across the country. MW: The TV landscape is so very different now. Are you pleased with LGBTQ representation on television right now, across the board, including both network and cable? DAVID: Answering that question is difficult because you have to think about what is the demarcation line. What is the threshold? For me, I think it’s worth noting that we have more representation now than we ever have before. The question is whether or not the representation is inclusive, whether or not the representation is broad enough that it actually reflects the true diversity and scope of our community. Unfortunately, it does not. We have shows like Pose and Transparent that represent certain parts of our community that have not been represented adequately over the years. But we don’t have enough representation of, say, black gay men on television. We don’t have enough representation of bisexual members of our community. We don’t have enough representation of lesbians in the media. It’s much, much better than what it was in the late nineties by any objective standard, but I would like to see more, and I think we’re pushing and pushing and pushing to get there. It’s important for us to do that because we have to appreciate that representation in the media actually matters. When people see themselves reflected in television and film, they actually see validation in a way that unfortunately the film industry and the television industry did not support for decades. So I think it’s very important. And we’re going to continue to support creators and writers and producers who are including LGBTQ characters in their stories, because it’s really, really important as we think about the public discourse and as we think about public policy. We can’t divorce how we’re represented in the media from how elected officials and politicians think about us. MW: Our cover story last week was HBO’s new drag makeover docuseries, We’re Here. One of the things we discussed with the creators was the impact that RuPaul has had on the gay community. What are your thoughts on RuPaul? DAVID: RuPaul’s Drag Race is a revelation. RuPaul was able to represent the trans community and drag queens specifically and humanize the culture in a way that we owe RuPaul huge dividends for. I think the Drag Race has been a revelation for culture, for pop culture, for public discourse, and for our community. MW: Last question. What are three things you’re watching while you self-isolate? DAVID: Oh, that’s a good question. I’m a huge film buff, so I just rewatched a few movies that Sidney Poitier did. The Defiant Ones, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? I’m a huge fan of his. In terms of television shows, Schitt’s Creek is probably my favorite TV show at this point. I think Dan Levy is a genius. I am also a fan of How To Get Away With Murder and a really old TV show that used to be on HBO called The Wire. It had LGBTQ characters as well. It’s a very, very good show. l For more information on the Human Rights Campaign, visit www.hrc.org.

Spotlight

Get Up and Dance

HE PANDEMIC HAS REALLY CHANGED THE WAY improvisation, modern, clogging, and even fitness. Participants that we work together,” says choreographer Jane are encouraged to go at their own pace, and even modify the Franklin. “What we have done — and I think many people lessons to suit their abilities. are using this as a solution — is trying to make material together “There's nothing that advanced,” says Franklin. “The only using online tools like Zoom. In a way, it's totally the opposite of class that's kind of tough is ‘Abs With Amy,’ held Saturday mornwhat dance is about, because a lot of dance is about the relation- ings at ten. She runs marathons, so she's doing these abdominal ship with the other people in the room. And certainly, touch is exercises that are pretty intense. But you don't have to do 10, you involved in that. But all of a sudden, you're not in the room with can do five, and then rest for the last five.” anybody. Your focus is very much outward on the computer The classes are free, but participants are encouraged to make screen, and there's none of that kind of sensing of a donation to Franklin’s Artist Support Fund “to help another person. It's very external.” offset the loss of income due to canceled rehearsals, Watch the Franklin’s namesake company, Jane Franklin after school programs, projects, and Trailer for residencies, Dance, has operated out of Arlington since 1997. performances.” All proceeds go directly to the artists. Aflight Originally from Colorado, the artist came to the Franklin has also made available several popular D.C. area in 1990, as a visiting guest artist at George works by the company. Four shows are currently Mason University, and has “been here ever since.” In addition to featured at Stream, under the performance menu on the website: a slate of performances throughout the year, the company prides Aflight, Splatter, Shorthanded, and Beauty and the Beat. Prices itself on community involvement as well as an abundance of spe- range from $8 to $25 to either rent or own. Money raised also cialized dance classes for both young and old. goes to the Artist Support Fund. The company is currently holding dance classes as daily “The one I put up most recently — Aflight — can be rented for livestreams using Zoom, with each designed to connect partic- eight dollars,” says Franklin. “You can watch it with your whole ipants to a different style of movement. Offerings include ballet family, and you can stream it more than once. So it’s much less barre, Bartenieff-based floor work, jazz, Zen-inspired stretching, than if you had to buy tickets to see it live.” —Randy Shulman

For a full schedule of dance classes and information about streaming content, visit www.janefranklin.com. APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF KITCHN

Spotlight

In the Kitchn

NE THING THAT MAKES THE KITCHN UNIQUE,” revamped last fall, bolstered with the addition of video. “We felt says Grace Elkus, Deputy Food Director of the online like that was really crucial in actually helping people to learn cooking site, “is that all of our recipe developers [create] skills, like how to tell when your oil is hot in the pan, or how to and test recipes in their home kitchens. And they’re scattered hold a knife — things you really need to see in order to learn and throughout the country. So it gives us a unique view on what's can be a little trickier just to read about. A lot of these things realavailable in different parts of the country. We're not going to ly can transform the way you cook once you start doing it right.” develop a recipe that requires any sort of fancy equipment, or Inspired by a real-life, in-person culinary school, the full that dirties a ton of dishes, because we're the ones cleaning up course runs 20 days, with each video focused on a specific topic. after ourselves.” “We start with basic knife skills, move on to working with vegePart of a family of websites founded 15 years ago, the Kitchn tables, cracking and separating eggs, beans and grains, and work started life “as a scrappier, more blog-type website, with all the our way up to meat and poultry.” editors shooting their own photos and writing the recElkus, who recently became a pescetarian, writes ipes,” says Elkus. It has evolved in the years since into the site’s “Tonight We Veg” column, which is focused Sign Up a much more professionally slick operation. on sharing recipes for vegetarian entrees that “are For Free “All of our recipes are tested by multiple editors,” complete meals in and of themselves.” Asked for a parHere says Elkus. “They go through many rounds of edits. ticular highlight, she points to Parmesan-Herb Dutch We feel very confident they'll work for you.” She notes Baby with Garlic-Butter Mushrooms, a staff favorite. that, in light of recent events, the editors are mindful of provid“It sounds fancy,” she says, “but it's so easy. You feel so proud ing “as many substitutions as we can in all of our recipes...[since] when you pull this puffed-up, savory pancake out of the oven we’re often cooking with what we have” on hand. and then cover it in buttery mushrooms. It's really, really easy to The free cooking school component to The Kitchn was make and is just the best comfort food right now.” —Doug Rule For more information about the free Kitchn Cooking School, visit www.thekitchn.com/collection/cooking-school. 10

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VirtVual

Out On The Town

WHISKEY SOUR HAPPY HOUR

Last week, actor and comedian Ed Helms, best known from NBC’s The Office as well as The Hangover film trilogy, kicked off a new “21st-century online variety show” along with his band the Bluegrass Situation. Presenting a mix of music, comedy, and interviews, the four-part series was launched to raise money for charities supporting both the musical and medical communities through MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief. Confirmed guests include Chris Thile, Yola, Sarah Jarosz, Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, Rodney Crowell, Aoife O’Donovan, Robert Ellis, and Watkins Family Hour, with additional guests to be announced. The series continues with shows on Wednesday, May 6, and Wednesday, May 13, both at 8 p.m. The first two shows remain available for streaming. Visit www.thebluegrasssituation.com. Compiled by Doug Rule

STAGE HOMEBOUND Round House Theatre won’t reopen its recently renovated space in Bethesda until the next season starts up in the fall, but the company has hired back nine actors who were slated to appear in three canceled spring productions for Homebound. An original web series that explores life under Stay-at-Home orders in the Nation’s Capital, the series stars Craig Wallace and Maboud Ebrahimzadeh and is progressing in a 10-episode “chain story” style, with each episode — one available for free every Monday evening — building off what came before but written by a different area playwright. Launched this week with “Connect!,” a 12-minute episode written by humorist and Washington Post columnist

Alexandra Petri, the series will continue in subsequent weeks with episodes from Karen Zacarías, Farah Lawal Harris, Liz Maestri, Psalmayene 24, Tim J. Lord, Audrey Cefaly, Dani Stoller, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, and Caleen Sinnette Jennings. The company’s artistic director Ryan Rilette and associate artistic director Nicole A. Watson are offering remote direction during rehearsals to the actors, who are filming their parts from home with additional guidance on home lighting by designer Harold F. Burgess II and wardrobe by Ivania Stack. Through June 29. Visit www.RoundHouseTheatre. org/Homebound. MOSAIC ALIVE Until it returns to regular programming at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in August, the Mosaic Theater Company has taken to Zoom and Facebook for

twice-weekly discussions with its artists and other experts on relevant topics. The next planned event is the company’s Season 6 announcement this Friday, May 1, at 4 p.m. Artistic director Ari Roth will share the lineup for the season that starts up in the fall, followed by a live discussion and Q&A with members of the Mosaic team in charge of casting, design, direction, and production. From there, the company will continue to elaborate on Season 6 themes and preview the upcoming offerings through its alternating Monday series of Peace Cafe and Book Club programming, as well as planned Livestream Round Tables as well as pre-recorded Watch Party Happy Hour panels on Fridays, all on Zoom. Visit www. mosaictheater.org/alive. STREAMING SHAKESPEARE The Folger Shakespeare Library is offering every play, sonnet,

and poem written by William Shakespeare, free on its website. But you can go well beyond the page to the stage courtesy of the institution’s Folger Theatre and its current offerings, such as a video-recorded performance of the company’s 2008 Macbeth, starring Ian Merrill Peakes in the title role. Previously only available for purchase from Simon & Schuster, the video comes with special features, such as interviews with the cast and creative teams. Additionally, Folger has made available full-cast audio recordings of seven Shakespearean classics, produced with Simon & Schuster Audio and featuring professional actors from the company. Titles include everything from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Romeo and Juliet, from Richard III to Macbeth. All video and audio recordings will be available for free through July 1. Call 202-544-4600 or visit www.folger.edu.

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porary opera, recorded in 2018 and featuring Isabel Leonard, Iestyn Davies, and Christopher Maltman, on Thursday, April 30; “Verdi’s Luisa Miller,” a lesser-known work from the master also recorded in 2018 and starring Sonya Yoncheva, Piotr Beczała, and Plácido Domingo on Saturday, May 2; and director Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new vision for “Borodin’s Prince Igor,” a 2014 production starring Oksana Dyka, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Ildar Abdrazakov, on Sunday, May 3. Visit www.metopera.org.

SPACE SONGS

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is offering a special virtual concert with performances from pop and folk artists, all filmed in their own homes, sharing songs about space and isolation. Sting, Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, Dan Deacon, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Valerie June, Lukas Nelson, Grace Potter, Vagabon, Clipping, and Wolf Parade are featured in a concert, hosted by Adam Savage of MythBusters, that is intended “to spotlight the creativity and community that can be found in distance and isolation, in both music and spaceflight.” A collaboration with Grammywinning designer Lawrence Azerrad and BYT Media, the #SpaceSpongs special, free and open to the public, premieres on YouTube this Thursday, April 30, at 8 p.m. Visit www.airandspace.si.edu/events/space-songs.

MUSIC A NIGHT IN WITH THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA: BEETHOVENNOW In lieu of presenting spring concerts, including the return of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra to the Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts has been promoting a “DIY package of content” through its Digital Engagement Focus Team for at-home cultural consumption. One highlight is the world-renowned orchestra’s “BeethovenNOW: Symphonies 5 & 6” program. On March 12, music director Yannick NézetSéguin led the symphony in a concert, closed to the public due to COVID-19, that was performed and recorded in an empty Verizon Hall. The program opened with the world premiere of Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht,

written in dialogue with the two celebrated symphonies from the German master, who was born 250 years ago this year. Visit www.philorch.org/performances/special-performances/livestream. METROPOLITAN OPERA’S NIGHTLY STREAMS The Met continues sifting through its trove of “Live in HD” recordings of past productions for free nightly streams from its website. The upcoming lineup of encore presentations, starting at 7:30 p.m. and remaining available up to 23 hours later, ranges from a classic screening — “Viewer’s Choice: Verdi’s Aida,” a 1985 production starring Leontyne Price, Fiorenza Cossotto, James McCracken, and Simon Estes, on Friday, May 1 — to several relatively new productions, including “Nico Muhly’s Marnie,” a contem-

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

SONIA: DIGITAL ACTS OF KINDNESS Sonia Rutstein was supposed to be on her annual concert trek through Germany right now. Instead, the Baltimore-based folk-pop singer-songwriter, who records and performs as SONiA disappear fear, has entered the brave new world of livestreaming. While many of the physical appearances in Germany are being rescheduled for later this year or early 2021, all the virtual concerts are being performed on their original dates, most organized to celebrate a different album from SONiA’s 30-plus year recording career. The roughly hour-long shows, captured from her home music room, are presented on Facebook for free, though donations through PayPal are accepted. The lineup over the next week includes: a toast to the 2010 album Blood, Bones & Baltimore on Friday, May 1; a tribute to the songs of the late Phil Ochs as inspired by the 2011 recording Get Your Phil on Saturday, May 2; a show focused on the 2013 album Broken Film on Friday, May 8; and another featuring Rutstein’s “favorite covers” on Sunday, May 10. All concerts are livestreamed at 2 p.m. and available afterwards at www.facebook.com/disappear.fear. STRATHMORE: “LIVE FROM THE LIVING ROOM” Every Wednesday, Strathmore offers livestreams primarily featuring solo performances of its multi-genre Artists in Residence, both those from the current 2020 class as well as a select few alumni of the esteemed A.I.R. program. Each concert presents bite-sized performances — roughly 20 minutes in length — captured live from the living rooms of local musicians and streamed via Facebook Live starting at 7:30 p.m. The lineup continues with Josanne Francis, an acclaimed steelpan musician and educator (May 6), Mark G. Meadows, a well-known local theater pianist and vocalist (May 13), AYO, a

smooth pop vocalist known for confident lyrics and empowering messages (May 20), and urban jazz harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet (May 27). Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

DANCE CHAMBER DANCE PROJECT’S VIRTUAL CHAT SERIES A month after launching its first-ever online auction to make up for a canceled spring gala, the young contemporary ballet company debuted another virtual component, “Get Closer to the Art.” This series of free multimedia Zoom sessions features the company’s choreographers, dancers, and designers discussing and previewing their craft, particularly as it pertains to the company’s work and its upcoming seventh season, New Works 2020. Launched in midApril with artistic director Diane Coburn Bruning’s “300 Years of Ballet History in 1/2 Hour” presentation and discussion, the virtual series continues every Tuesday at 5 p.m. Dancer Grace Ann Powers kicks off May with a presentation on pointe ballet slippers (May 5), followed by ballet master Julia Erickson (May 12), dancers demonstrating classical ballet (May 19), and dancers demonstrating contemporary ballet (May 26). All sessions are free, although donations are invited, and open to those who request the Zoom link by noon on the day-of. Call 202.499.2297 or visit www. chamberdance.org. CHRISTOPHER K. MORGAN & ARTISTS: COCKTAIL HOUR & SCREENING Until it can reopen its doors, Dance Place will continue offering virtual programming options, including the free livestreaming presentation series featuring artists whose performances have been postponed. Next up in the series is the Dance Place resident company originally scheduled to debut a new evening-length work, Native Intelligence, Innate Intelligence, the first weekend in May. The presentation includes a discussion with the company’s namesake, who is also Dance Place’s artistic director, as moderated by Christy Bolingbroke of the National Center for Choreography, plus a Q&A session with the “at-home” audience, and video excerpts from the company’s work. Saturday, May 2, at 6:30 p.m., with a rebroadcast on Facebook Sunday, May 3, at 6:30 p.m. Visit www.danceplace.org/ virtual-presentation-series.

DISSONANCE DANCE THEATRE: HIS EYES SAW DANCE Earlier this year, Dissonance Dance Theatre and the company’s artistic director Shawn Short debuted a new streaming docu-series, one that has landed in this COVID-19 time when the company’s regular programming has been put on hold. His Eyes Saw Dance follows the day-today work and artistry of Short, the gay black choreographer who leads both Dissonance and its school, the Ngoma Center for Dance, as he works to navigate — to quote the official release — “the white-dominated world of D.C. concert dance” and to chart a black dance legacy. Short’s company is the only “nationally recognized, black-managed contemporary ballet” organization, despite D.C. having a majority-black population. In a recent interview with Metro Weekly, Short revealed that the idea for the series came from a former student of his who now works for Netflix. As Short recalled director Donovan Johnson’s pitch: “As much as you’ve done, it would be really cool if there was some type of episodic something that we could watch. So that if you die today or tomorrow, everybody knew what the hell you did.” The first three episodes, ranging in length from 15 to 40 minutes, are now available for streaming through Vimeo, with a fourth being released in the coming weeks. Visit www.ngcfddt.org/ hiseyes.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS MOLLY’S SALONS AT ARENA STAGE While the Mead Center for American Theater remains dark until September with the start of its next season, Arena Stage has come up with an eclectic package of free online programming, mostly taped discussions and performances. Among the offerings is this free, weekly series of half-hour discussions led by the company’s artistic director Molly Smith and featuring a rotating mix of Arena artists, leaders, and outside affiliates. Available for streaming from Arena’s website every Thursday night at 7 p.m., the upcoming lineup includes New York-based actor and singer Nicholas Rodriguez, New York-based performer and choreographer Phil LaDuca (Arena’s Newsies), and Camille Busette of the Brookings Institution’s Race, Prosperity and Inclusion

AN ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER CELEBRATION

The new YouTube Channel The Shows Must Go On was launched by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to provide “theater lovers with a West End and Broadway experience in their own homes, online for free.” A new show is available to stream for free each weekend — but only for that weekend — starting at 2 p.m. ET on Fridays and continuing to Sunday, 48 hours later. A new title is announced at the start of each week. The series continues on Friday, May 1, with Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration, a recording from 1998. Glenn Close, Elaine Paige, Donny Osmond, and Antonio Banderas were among the stars who toasted Webber and his songs to mark his 50th birthday. Viewers are encouraged to make donations that will go to charities supporting theater professionals impacted by COVID-19. Visit www.youtube.com/theshowsmustgoon.

Initiative (April 30); playwright Craig Lucas, set designer Ken MacDonald, and Maria Manuela Goyanes, artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (May 7); Jenn Sheeetz, Arena’s properties director, Aerica Shimizu Banks, public policy and social impact manager of Pinterest, and singer-songwriter Mary McBride (May 14); and playwright Lauren Yee, Kirk Johnson of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and Anita Maynard-Losh, Arena’s director of community engagement and senior artistic advisor (May 21). Visit www.arenastage. org/tickets/intermission.

choice that inspired them. The discussions are livestreamed every Thursday at 7 p.m., allowing participants to submit questions for the playwrights in real-time via comments. The series continues with Charly Evon Simpson (it’s not a trip it’s a journey) discussing A Midsummer Night’s Dream on April 30, Sarah Ruhl (Stage Kiss) on May 7, Tim J. Lord (“We declare you a terrorist...”) on May 14, and Mfoniso Udofia (Sojourners) on May 28. Visit www.roundhousetheatre. org/RHathome.

ROUND HOUSE’S PLAYWRIGHTS ON PLAYS One of the earliest offerings in its new digital programming slate “Round House at Your House,” this series features Round House Theatre-affiliated artists engaging in conversation with the company’s literary manager Gabrielle Hoyt, with a focus on the artists’ own work and a play of their

CLYDE’S, KNEAD HOSPITALITY: FOOD IT FORWARD INITIATIVE The public is encouraged to “buy a meal for those in need” from participating restaurants in the Clyde’s Restaurant Group and Knead Hospitality chains — including Clyde’s, The Hamilton, Old Ebbitt Grill, Succotash, and Mi Vida. The two local restaurant groups are also working to keep some of their restaurant work-

FOOD & DINING

ers employed through this initiative, a partnership also including Martha’s Table, which will work to distribute the prepared meals to those directly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. A donation of $13 feeds an individual for one night while $54 covers a family of four, with $91 covering an individual’s meals for a week and $378 feeding four for a week. Visit www.fooditforwarddc.com. SLATE WINE BAR, XIQUET: MOTHER’S DAY TO-GO MEALS, GIFTS You can’t go with a simple restaurant reservation to celebrate mom on her special day this year, set for Sunday, May 10. Among the many creative ideas for a culinary offering that doesn’t require much time at all in the kitchen while also adhering to our current stay-at-home predicament, consider the extensive Heat & Eat menus that Danny Lledó has put together as a culinary toast to both your mother and his motherland. At the chef/owner’s two restaurants in Glover Park, Lledó offers

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an extensive selection of small plates and entrées-to-go chiefly inspired by the diverse cuisine of Spain, including that of his hometown of Denia in Valencia — all of it available for take-out or delivery only if ordered at least 24 hours in advance. At his revamped Slate Wine Bar, in addition to the to-go items offered a la carte, you could spring for one of two packaged multi-course options: the Vegetarian Meal for 2 ($45), which includes a Cheese Platter with three types of cheese, three types of salads, and two chocolate chip cookies, or the Mediterranean Feast for 4 ($140), including Cheese and Charcuterie Platters with three types of cheese and three types of cured pork, plus two types of salad, four Meat Pies, Four Chicken Lollipops with hot sauce and chips, Oxtail Stew with potatoes, and four chocolate chip cookies. Meanwhile, upstairs at Xiquet, the Valencian-focused restaurant the chef opened at the start of March, meal options for two include a Roasted Amish Chicken Meal ($60), the WoodFire Grilled Salmon Meal ($50), and the Xarcuteria Ibèrica Platter with ham, loin, and chorizo offerings served with crostini ($30), while a family of four could enjoy the Roasted Duck Meal ($170) or the Roasted Strip Loin ($90) — all capped off with a Biscuit de Carlota Carrot Cake ($20) for dessert. To wash it down, consult Slate’s curated list of 16 red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines, available at prices ranging from $19 to $90 per bottle, or Xiquet’s wine list with eight varieties priced from $23 to $90 per bottle. Xiquet also offers a Mimosa Kit, including sparkling wine and orange juice, for $20. If that’s all too much — or not quite enough — Lledó also offers two sure-to-please specialty gift baskets: The Spanish Gift Box, which includes full-sized bottles of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cava from the Mediterranean nation as well as packages of Tartana bomba rice, Agromar white tuna in olive oil, and milk chocolate pieces, all for just $68, or the Happy Hour Gift Set, featuring a full-sized bottle of Tierra Tempranillo Crianza wine, 7oz packages of manchego cheese and Iberico chorizo, and Carr’s cracker collection ($75). Slate Wine Bar and Xiquet are at 2404 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Call 202-913-4671 or visit www.slatewinebar.com or www.xiquetdl.com.

ARTS & EXHIBITS BECOMING JANE To honor Jane Goodall’s 86th birthday, the National Geographic Society gave new, virtual life to a recent exhibition, developed in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute, whose run at the museum was cut short due to COVID-19. Refashioned into a Virtual Tour, enhanced with 360-degree videos capturing the layout of the physical exhibition, Becoming Jane online allows viewers to explore at their own pace and immerse themselves in whatever details they desire. The multimedia-rich Becoming Jane tells the story of the intrepid explorer and renowned scientist through multi-screen experiences and iconic images, plus video captures of the original exhibition’s advanced projections and augmented-reality features — the latter including footage of a hologram-like projection of Goodall regaling viewers with her memories of Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, which is then shown and explored through a virtual expedition. Gombe is where Goodall launched her groundbreaking career 60 years ago, ultimately helping pioneer the genre of nature documentary as the subject of National Geographic’s very first television program. The exhibition highlights the key breakthroughs and scientific achievements of Goodall’s career working with chimpanzees while also showcasing her more recent work in conservation. Visit www. nationalgeographic.org/events/ exhibition/becoming-jane. DE NOVO GALLERY’S SPECIAL ONLINE EXHIBITION A Capitol Hill bankruptcy lawyer by day, avid art collector Ryan Dattilo launched his first pop-up gallery last year. Now, in response to COVID-19 and its impact on visual artists through the loss of shows, sales, and side hustles, Dattilo has revived De Novo Gallery as an online incarnation. The display includes works of art in a range of media created by a mostly local crop of 10 artists, all of whom were featured last year at the physical gallery, including Adrienne Gaither, Tom Bunnell, Alex Ebstein, Rex Delafkaran, Dean Kessmann, and Nara Park. The gallery will forego its customary cut of sales to further help the artists. Visit www.denovo-gallery.com. OUTBREAK: EPIDEMICS IN A CONNECTED WORLD The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History offers tours of its current and perma-

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nent exhibitions from its website, enhanced with Simulated WebVR (or Real WebVR if viewed through a WebVR-compatible browser, or if you happen to own a VR headset). And this exhibition has become timelier than ever in recent months. Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World is set up with displays about how “to prevent animal viruses from spilling over into humans” as well as how to properly respond to disease outbreaks — always in “quick, effective, and cooperative” fashion — all supplemented with case studies of historical epidemics, including smallpox, HIV/ AIDS, Ebola, and SARS. Visit www.naturalhistory.si.edu.

THE STORY OF TELL ME A STORY Virginia’s Del Ray Artisans kicked off March with the exhibition Tell Me a Story, which was nearly double the size of a typical show at the gallery, featuring 189 works of narrative art from 95 artists. After COVID-19 forced it to close just a few weeks later, organizers created a Flickr album to continue showcasing the art, and continues that with The Story of Tell Me a Story, an online exhibition in which visual art and literary works offer viewers an imaginative journey. The works are on display online and available for purchase until June 10. Visit www.delrayartisans.org/tell-mea-story.

QUEER ART LIVES HERE: DIGITAL CONTENT AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES Just last year, the New York Times referred to the Leslie-Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art as “the only museum in the world dedicated to artwork that speaks to the LGBTQ experience.” If you’ve never been to the gallery in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, now is as good a time as any to visit — but only online, of course. While the physical location, like every other arts organization, remains closed due to COVID-19, organizers have been working to enhance the museum’s digital offerings, with its Instagram page in particular updated regularly to include virtual tours, collection highlights, and artist profiles. Meanwhile, the museum has stocked its Vimeo page with recordings of lectures and panel discussions from past events. You can also browse the museum’s vast collection by selecting Random Images in the fully searchable Online Collections Database available through its website. Visit www. leslielohman.org.

ABOVE & BEYOND

THE DEADLY VIRUS: THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC OF 1918 For a deep dive into a deadly virus from a century ago that has echoes in today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the National Archives offers this online exhibit telling the story of the spread of the 1918 influenza pandemic through assembled documents and artifacts including letters, telegrams, and photos — many featuring face mask-wearing officials and public citizens. That epidemic directly affected one-fifth of the world’s population and is responsible for an estimated 50 million deaths, killing “more people than any other illness in recorded history.” Visit www.archives.gov.

GEORGETOWN’S VIRTUAL FRENCH MARKET Every year, on the last weekend in April, the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID) presents an outdoor event in its charming Book Hill corridor intended to evoke the outdoor markets of Paris. Since there can be no open-air market and sidewalk sale this year, the affair — minus whimsical street performers, face painters, and live French music and gypsy jazz — will still take place online, as more than 15 locally owned boutiques, cafés, and galleries on that particular stretch of Wisconsin Avenue will offer online promotions plus special programming ranging from virtual storytime and music for children to a French baking demonstration. Specific promotions include: A “Survival Six-Pack” of six French wines for only $60 (plus donated delivery fee) from Bacchus Wine Cellar; a selection of croissants, cakes, and quiches available for order from Patisserie Poupon; a sale with discounts on antique prints, paintings, and drawings, plus 200 new promotion-specific artworks, from Calloway Fine Art & Consulting; a specially priced collection of limited-edition photos of France from Washington Printmakers Gallery; a sale granting 10-percent off gift cards and all online sales of $40 or more from the British-centric home and furnishings store Pillar & Post; and a half-off sale at T&U Mongolian Cashmere by GOBI. The online market runs from Friday, May 1 through Friday, May 8, when 10 percent of sales from participating retailers will benefit the COVID-19 relief efforts of Martha’s Table and Christ Child Opportunity Shop. Visit www.georgetowndc.com/ frenchmarket. l

CHRISTOPHER E ZIMMER

theFeed

Unjust Actions

DHHS

Amid pandemic, Trump administration focused on revoking transgender health care protections. By John Riley

HE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS POISED TO ISSUE a rewrite of a section of the Affordable Care Act that protected LGBTQ individuals from insurance discrimination. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is close to finalizing its proposed rewrite of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which, under the Obama administration, was interpreted to prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals, whom LGBTQ advocates and health care experts say were being turned away when seeking care. The provision also extended protections available to women who had undergone abortions. Religious organizations and conservative interest groups objected to the Obama-era rule, arguing it violated their religious liberty. Several sued in court, resulting in a federal judge in Texas blocking those protections from being enforced in 2016, and overturning the provision entirely in 2019 by finding the section overly burdened the religious beliefs of Christian medical providers. Last Thursday, the final rule was circulated at the U.S. Department of Justice, a step toward publicly releasing the reg-

ulation in the coming days, two sources with knowledge of the rule told Politico. The Trump administration — and notably, Roger Severino, the head of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights — has long objected to the Obama-era interpretation of the statute, and has been working for the last few years to rewrite Section 1557. Under the proposed rewrite, a version of which was made public last year, language would be added to explicitly state that the ACA’s prohibitions on sex-based discrimination only pertain to instances where someone is discriminated against because of their assigned sex at birth. As part of that revision, HHS also proposed changes that sought to eliminate LGBTQ protections in other federal regulations. “If the final rule is anything like the proposed rule, HHS is adopting changes that would be harmful in the best of times but that are especially cruel in the midst of a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities and exacerbating disparities,” Katie Keith, a lawyer and Georgetown professor who’s tracked the rule, told Politico. HHS declined to comment on the possibility of a pending APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

theFeed LGBTQ people are protected by Title VII, a nondiscrimination law explicitly mentioned in the original version of Section 1557. In the possible, but unlikely, event that the court sides with LGBTQ advocates, it could force health officials to rework their revision of Section 1557 to conform to the court’s rulings. The Human Rights Campaign balked at the Politico report, and blasted the Trump administration for seeking to weaken what few LGBTQ protections exist in law. “News flash Mr. President — we get sick, we need health care and we should be protected under law,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “Time after time, the Trump-Pence administration has methodically worked to undermine the rights and welfare of LGBTQ people by rolling back existing protections. “Amid a global pandemic — which is already disproportionately affecting LGBTQ people — the Trump administration’s efforts to remove existing non-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community is unacceptable, blatantly offensive, and cruel,” David added. “We cannot accept an administration that continues to treat us like second class citizens. We will fight this policy and fight to get a pro-equality President into office this November who represents all of us.” l

@CHASTEN / TWITTER

rule. But a Trump administration official pushed back against assertions that the administration was stripping away LGBTQ protections, noting the federal court’s decision to overturn the gender identity provision. “A federal court has vacated the gender identity provisions of the regulation and we are abiding by that court order,” the spokesperson said. “We do not comment on the rulemaking process and refer you to recent public filings made by the Department of Justice before the Supreme Court on what constitutes sex discrimination under civil rights laws.” Severino released his own statement defending his office’s approach to the issue. “As we have shown in our recent efforts to protect persons from disability and age discrimination during the pandemic, HHS will vigorously enforce civil rights laws as passed by Congress, before, during, and after any rulemaking,” Severino said. He noted that the Obama administration had “declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under Obamacare, and HHS proposed to leave that judgment undisturbed” in last year’s proposed rule. The rewrite could also potentially be affected by a pending decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the extent to which

Teaching Moment Chasten Buttigieg on being homeless after coming out: “It felt like nobody believed in me.” By Rhuaridh Marr

HASTEN BUTTIGIEG, FORMER HIGH SCHOOL teacher and husband of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, has spoken about the hopelessness he felt during a period of homelessness after he came out as gay. Buttigieg appeared alongside his husband in an interview with Billy Eichner for GLAAD’s fundraising event “Together in 16

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Pride: You Are Not Alone” last week. Last year, Buttigieg spoke about experiencing homelessness after he came out to his family and received a negative reaction from one of his brothers. He told the Washington Post that he moved out of the family home, stayed on friends’ couches, and even slept in his car in the parking lot of his community college.

theFeed up and I knew what it was they were saying,” he said. “It was very humbling to hear that they were moved to think about my candidacy in the context of that struggle. He said that it was “a struggle I don’t even fully understand.” “And to even be able to do this, for Chasten and me to be married, certainly for me to be an out candidate, we are standing on their shoulders,” he continued. “There was something so powerful about that.” As for the pushback he received online, particularly from younger members of the LGBTQ community, Buttigieg said, “Part of that is how social media works. Part of that comes along with politics. And I wonder if for some people it was empowering.” “I mean there’s one generation that’s astonished there can even be a candidate and they have the freedom to vote for a candidate that’s queer,” he said. “For some others it may have been empowering to be able to be queer and not vote for a candidate who is queer. I get that. I just hope that people can have whatever political views and not be mean. I don’t believe we need to add any more meanness to this world.” Buttigieg — who ended his campaign in March and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden — also highlighted the significance of November’s elections, and urged LGBTQ people to get out and vote. “It couldn’t be more important,” he said. “If you care about the climate, if you care about wages, if you care about rights for our community, if you care about what’s going to happen on the courts, if you care about each other, this is even more important than ever a time to vote.’ GLAAD’s event, Together in Pride, raised more than $225,000 for CenterLink, a coalition of LGBTQ community centers. l

Baseless Ban

BRAVO, VIA YOUTUBE

Speaking at the GLAAD event, Buttigieg again spoke about his homelessness while discussing LGBTQ youth and his experiences while out on the campaign trail. “I think young people across the board in this country are so fed up with power and Washington and politics that has continually failed them,” he said. “I remember when I came out growing up in northern Michigan I ran away from home and I absolutely felt like nobody understood me.” He added: “I remember being 17, sleeping in the back of my car feeling like nobody believed in me and that there was never going to be a future for me. And there are still over 40% of homeless youth in this country are LGBTQ.” Buttigieg noted visiting an LGBTQ youth center and meeting trans youth who told him “you don’t get my story.” “I’d say that’s exactly why I’m here,” Buttigieg said. “Because it’s time we bring your story to Washington and have leaders in Washington who believe in you and see you. So I think a large part of leadership is just showing up and shutting up.” He later added: “That’s why it’s so important for us to go out there, do the work and listen. So [LGBTQ youth] absolutely see leaders who are committed to telling their story and showing up for them.” Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg also spoke at the event about his historic campaign for president, which saw him become the first openly gay person to win a state in a major party’s presidential primary. Eichner asked Buttigieg about a generational divide in terms of LGBTQ support for his campaign. Buttigieg agreed that the “LGBTQIA+ community is going through that generational experience.” “I saw and was so moved by that same thing you are talking about where people, especially from an older generation, sometimes would come up to me and couldn’t form words, they’d tear

Andy Cohen, Yuval David call out FDA restrictions on gay and bi male blood and plasma donors. By John Riley

WO GAY CELEBRITIES WHO RECENTLY RECOVered from COVID-19 are calling out the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for prohibiting gay and bisexual males from donating blood plasma if they’ve had sex in the past three months. Andy Cohen, the Bravo executive and host of Watch What Happens Live, told his viewers at the end of Thursday night’s

episode that he had recovered from COVID-19 earlier this month, and wanted to donate his blood plasma — which contains antibodies that might be helpful in combating the virus — to help others who are infected. But because Cohen is openly gay, he was informed that he could not donate, unlike other COVID-19 survivors. “I was told that due to antiquated and discriminatory guideAPRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

theFeed lines by the FDA to prevent HIV, I am ineligible to donate blood because I’m a gay man,” Cohen said, according to The Daily Beast. He noted that even under the new “relaxed” rules — which were recently adopted due to concerns over decreased donations and a dwindling blood supply — men who have had sex with men are required to abstain from sexual contact for three months prior to donating blood or other blood products, such as plasma. He also noted that “no such blanket restrictions” are imposed on heterosexual donors. “Here’s the thing, this virus is ravaging our planet,” Cohen said. “The FDA says there’s an urgent need for plasma from survivors. All donated blood is screened for HIV. And a rapid HIV test can be done in 20 minutes or less. So why the three-month rule? Why are members of my community being excluded from helping out when so many people are sick and dying? “Maybe because we’re valuing stigma over science,” Cohen added. “My blood could save a life, but instead it’s over here boiling! This pandemic has forced us to adapt in many ways. We’re quarantining, we’re social distancing. We’re wearing masks! Why can’t we adapt when it comes to this rule? “It is bad enough that quarantining has us wondering what day it is,” Cohen concluded. “I’m sitting here wondering what year it is! We need to think about this and do better.” Yuval David, an actor, filmmaker, and LGBTQ advocate who also recently recovered from COVID-19, penned an article for Medium.com in which he took the FDA to task for its threemonth deferral period. “I attribute my strong and complete recovery [from COVID19] to my leading a health conscious lifestyle, not having any pre-existing conditions, along with being physically active and fit, having a great and nutritious diet, and being informed and attentive to health and wellness. And, maybe I was also just lucky,” David wrote. “I know I am lucky, because I lost friends who died from COVID-19. “As I am now feeling back to normal, I want to donate blood, especially because my body has developed antibodies that can help those who are struggling with the virus,” he added. But David, like Cohen, is also not permitted to donate blood or plasma because of his sexual orientation. “During this coronavirus epidemic, with the current need for blood donations, the FDA changed the policy again,” David wrote. “In order to encourage donations during the coronavirus epidemic, the MSM population can now donate blood, but only if we have abstained from sex for at least three months. How are we supposed to prove that?” He added: “Even though the FDA guidelines now state that centers could begin accepting donations from the MSM population, if following new eligibility criteria, thousands of blood centers across the United States are still turning away men who have sex with men.” David cast blame on outdated health-history questionnaires, as well as human error on the part of staff who have been categorically turning away gay and bisexual men, regardless of sexual history. “The truth is that blood banks, along with the FDA and AABB [formerly the American Association of Blood Banks] are reduced to expedience and are subject to political influence,” notes David. “So, even the centers with the best intentions are caught up in red tape and forced policies. “My experience through all of this evokes a greater concern. If these blood banks rule out the MSM population for socio-political reasons and for quick expediency, does that mean appro18

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priate tests are not done on all blood donated? Are they even capable of doing so due to limited time and budgets? If my blood cannot be trusted, why should I trust any blood that comes from a blood bank?” In a follow-up interview with Metro Weekly, David said he knew of the history of the blood ban, which was changed from a categorical ban to a 12-month deferral period in 2015 before most recently being reduced to three months, but it had not been as much of a focus compared to the other issues, such as discrimination or marriage equality, that grabbed the bulk of the LGBTQ community’s attention in recent years. “When I fully recovered from COVID-19, I knew, immediately, that I would want to donate blood so my plasma and my white blood cells could be used to help other people,” he said. “On the news, we hear these stories of people who are seriously struggling with this virus. So because I’m a healthy individual, and because I overcame the virus, I stand to help others, no matter who they are. But when I tried to do that, I was turned away.” David called the idea of a deferral period that only applies to gay and bisexual men, no matter how short, “ridiculous,” instead advocating for a behavior-based risk screening for all donors. “Why do we have to have a deferral period? What makes my blood different than the blood of a 20-something-year-old woman or man who is single and sleeping around with people every week?” he asked. “Why would my blood, as a person who is married and leads a health-conscious lifestyle, be undesirable? It’s actually a hobby of mine to be into health and wellness and fitness and nutrition. I love it. All of that would make me an ideal candidate. Yet what I do in my bedroom disqualifies me, and makes me have to abstain from sex for three months.” David said he wrote the article on his experience being turned away from donating plasma in the hope that it would “inform and activate people” to push for changes to the FDA policy. He noted that the current FDA policy has been undermined by the pleas of blood banks and public health officials, including the U.S. Surgeon General, urging people to donate in order to replenish the dwindling blood supply. In addition to supporting the LGBTQ organizations that have been at the forefront of the fight to lift the blood donation restrictions, David said that people can contact and appeal to their elected representatives to place political pressure on the FDA to amend its policy. “We have the ability to reach out and say, ‘I am one of your constituents. I am affected by this. I am trying to help my fellow Americans. Help me help you,'” he said. “We are the citizens of this country. The FDA is a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Our tax dollars pay for the FDA to function. If the FDA is responsible for protecting us, that means all of us. And that means that all of us have a say in their policies.” The FDA recently responded to a story that aired on Friday morning on Good Morning America featuring another gay man who recovered from COVID-19 but was banned from donating plasma. In its statement, the FDA said it is “considering alternatives to the time-based deferral for men who have sex with men by generating the scientific evidence that will support an effective individual risk assessment-based blood donor questionnaire.” The agency also claimed to be “working to commence a pilot study that will enroll about 2,000 men who have sex with men and who would be willing to donate blood.” The LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD blasted

theFeed and medical authorities plainly state that gay and bi man should not be restricted from donating blood,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “All blood donations, regardless of sexual orientation, are screened to ensure healthy samples and now the American Medical Association, leading elected officials, and more than 600 medical professionals have all done the work for the FDA and unequivocally state that this ban needs to end.” l

FRANCOIS CLEMMONS, VIA WIKIMEDIA

the FDA for dragging its feet, saying that there is already plenty of scientific evidence — Italy moved over to a behavioral-based screening years ago, without any corresponding increase in the number of bloodborne infections — to support eliminating the categorical restrictions currently in place. “The FDA is placing American lives on the line as they debate stigma, not science. During the current crisis, the FDA is wasting time and money on a pilot study when all the scientific research

Unneighborly Gay Mister Rogers co-star says Fred Rogers told him to stay closeted and marry a woman. By John Riley

RANCOIS CLEMMONS, THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED Officer Clemmons on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, says in a soon-to-be-released memoir that his co-star and mentor Fred Rogers advised him to stay in the closet and marry a woman after finding out that Clemmons was gay. In the memoir, Officer Clemmons, slated for release on May 5, Clemmons details his relationship with Rogers, the show’s titular character and producer, whom he looked to as a father figure. The men met through Rogers’ wife, Joanne, at church, when Clemmons was 23 and a student at Carnegie Mellon University. Rogers, then 43, invited him to join the show, where he appeared over the course of the next two decades, making him one of the first African-Americans with a recur-

ring role on a children’s TV series. In one notable skit, Clemmons and Rogers put their feet in a kiddie pool together, a subversive message to some at a time, following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, when people were still fighting laws that attempted to bar people of color from using the same swimming pools as whites. Clemmons told People magazine that he and Rogers became very close through their work relationship, becoming something of a “marriage.” “Fred never stopped listening and I never shut up,” Clemmons says. “He was the spiritual love of my life.” In the interview with People, Clemmons recounted Rogers serving as a substitute father figure to him. “I didn’t know what I was so hungry for, until I heard Fred APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

theFeed one to go and be a boy with. I was just vulnerable. He got in a few slaps, some tough love, a good spanking. But I was not kicked out of the family.” Rogers reportedly told Clemmons: “The world doesn’t really want to know who you’re sleeping with — especially if it’s a man. You can have it all if you can keep that part out of the limelight.” Rogers then said: “Have you ever thought of getting married? People do make some compromises in life.” “By the time I left his office,” Clemmons writes in his memoir, “I had made up my mind to marry La-Tanya Mae Sheridan. At the wedding reception, Fred and Joanne approached me and my new wife. It felt as if Fred and I were sealing some kind of secret bargain.” He and Sheridan later divorced in 1974 and he began living life as an openly gay man. He says he holds no animosity towards Rogers. “Lord have mercy, yes, I forgive him,” Clemmons told People. “More than that, I understand. I relied on the fact that this was his dream. He had worked so hard for it. I knew Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was his whole life.” l

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

Rogers say, ‘I love you,'” Clemmons said. “When I was growing up, men were rough and macho — you had to be a ‘man.’ I didn’t fit any of that.” But Clemmons also recalled being called into Rogers’ office at the studio after Rogers found out about his sexual orientation. “Franc, you have talents and gifts that set you apart and above the crowd,” Rogers told Clemmons, according to the memoir. “Someone has informed us that you were seen at the local gay bar downtown. Now, I want you to know, Franc, that if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter to me at all. Whatever you say and do is fine with me, but if you’re going to be on the show as an important member of the Neighborhood, you can’t be out as gay.” Clemmons told People he began to sob. “I could have his friendship and fatherly love and relationship forever,” he said. “But I could have the job only if I stayed in the closet. “I was destroyed,” he added. “The man who was killing me had also saved me. He was my executioner and deliverer. But, at the same time, I knew that he would know how to comfort me. I didn’t have another mother or father to comfort me. I had no

Troubling Precedent Turkey’s president defends religious leader who said homosexuality “brings illnesses” and “corrupts generations.” By Rhuaridh Marr

URKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN HAS defended a religious leader who said that homosexuality “brings illnesses,” and called criticism of the cleric an “attack on the state.”Ali Erbas, president of the state-funded Directorate of Religious Affairs, claimed last week that homosexuality causes disease, corruption, and is condemned in Islam during a weekly sermon. The Directorate of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, trains Turkey’s imams, provides Quranic education to children, and 20

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prepares a weekly sermon delivered in Turkey’s 85,000 mosques. During his sermon on Friday, April, 24, Erbas said that homosexuality “brings illnesses and corrupts generations,” according to Reuters, and said that it causes HIV. “Come and let’s fight together to protect people from such evil,” Erbas urged. Erbas’ comments were criticized by lawyer’s group the Ankara Bar Association, which said they could lead to hate crimes against LGBTQ people and that his comments “came

theFeed He added that “[what] is abnormal is demanding the contrary,” and accused the Ankara Bar Association of a “fascist mentality.” Homosexuality is currently legal in Turkey. However, the country has become more conservative in recent years due to Erdogan’s Islamist-influenced government, which has made moves away from the Muslim-majority nation’s previously secular nature. Last year, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) said that Turkey was one of a number of European countries “moving backwards” in their treatment of LGBTQ people. l

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from ages ago.” But Erdogan pushed back against the criticism, saying “an attack against the Diyanet chief is an attack on the state,” The Jakarta Post reports. Erdogan added: “What he said was totally right.” Government officials defended Erbas on Twitter, with Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s spokesman, saying Erbas had “voiced divine judgment” and was “not alone.” “It is the most natural right for people to speak according to the value system they believe in,” Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, wrote on Twitter.

Digital Festivals O

Folsom Street Fair and Up Your Alley to be held virtually in 2020. By John Riley

RGANIZERS OF FOLSOM STREET FAIR AND UP Your Alley, two San Francisco street festivals geared towards the leather, kink, and fetish communities, have announced that both events will be moved online for 2020. Both events draw hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the globe each year, and generate more than $200 million in revenue, with proceeds from the event going to benefit local San Francisco nonprofits. Up Your Alley was originally scheduled for the weekend of July 26, and Folsom was scheduled for the weekend of September 27. Folsom Street Events, the producer behind both festivals, said that organizers had been talking about a possible virtual move ever since residents began sheltering in place back in

March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We feel it is the ethical and the responsible choice to make before fair planning and production proceeds any further,” Angel Adeyoha, the interim executive director of Folsom Street Events, said in a statement. “The safety and wellbeing of our attendees and community members are our top priority.” “While we will miss the fairs this year, I commend Folsom Street Events for taking this proactive step to protect public safety,” Maggie Weiland, the executive director of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, said in a statement. San Francisco Mayor London Breed also backed the decision, thanking FSE for “making a decision that is in the best interest APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

theFeed vendors online. The festivals will also be working with a digital partner to stream adult content during the events. In keeping with the events’ charitable mission, FSE encouraged fans and attendees of both festivals to consider donating to the SF Queer Nightlife Fund and the Bay Area Leather Lifeline Fund in lieu of travel expenses. “If you have some spare funds, please consider donating to assist queer nightlife workers and members of the leather community who are heavily effected by this pandemic,” the organization tweeted. l

Pitch Perfect

Randy Rainbow skewers Trump’s disinfectant comments with “Spoonful of Clorox.” By Rhuaridh Marr

ANDY RAINBOW HAS OFFERED UP ANOTHER delightfully brilliant musical parody roasting the Trump administration, this time focused on Donald Trump’s suggestion that disinfectant could be injected into the body in order to fight COVID-19. “I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,” Trump said during a White House briefing last week. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” He continued: “Because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on them, so it’d be interesting to check that.” Medical experts, disinfectant manufacturers, and countless others have urged Americans not to heed the president’s words and attempt to ingest or inject bleach or cleaning fluids in order to treat COVID-19. Trump later tried to dismiss criticism over the comments by saying they were made “sarcastically.” Now, Rainbow offers his own take on the scenario with “A Spoonful of Clorox,” a parody of “A Spoonful of Sugar” from Disney’s Mary Poppins, filled with the usual zingers

Rainbow has offered in his other parodies. “A spoonful of Clorox makes your temperature go down,” Rainbow sings. “It’s the latest COVID craze.” He continues: “A politician who distracts has very little time for facts, the scientists he’s hired are perplexed. While Dr. Birx is ’bout to barf, and hang herself with her own scarf, he diatribes and recklessly prescribes.” After singing that “some Pledge on your pancakes makes coronavirus pass,” Rainbow tackles Trump’s suggestion that UV light could also be used to tackle COVID-19. “If it gives you gas, try some bleach in your beer and shove a flashlight up your ass,” he sings. “Heal yourself with UV rays.” Noting that Trump is “no M.D., he only plays one on TV,” Rainbow offers some handy advice. “A little Drano in your cup will clear your sinuses right up,” he sings, “and quench your thirst, unless it kills you first.” Later, he sings: “There’s no vaccine, so try some Mr. Clean.” Then, because this is our new reality, Rainbow reminds viewers, “Do not actually drink cleaning fluids.” l

Click Here to Watch

RANDY RAINBOW / YOUTUBE

of public health but still allows people to celebrate virtually.” Details of how the festivals will be carried out virtually remain scarce, but Adeyoha told SFist in an interview that FSE is trying to ensure that the sense of togetherness remains intact. “People come to [these events] to be in community, to see and be seen,” they said. Adehoya noted that there will be music and performances from DJs and live entertainers, and that organizers will be trying to find ways that attendees can interact with participating

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

GREEN FOR WARD 7

Working-Class Warrior

Ward 7 candidate Anthony Lorenzo Green says the D.C.’s Democratic Party must reprioritize the needs of working people. By John Riley

AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS FELT, FOR a long time, that my voice wasn’t being heard and that I didn’t see myself represented on the Council,” says Anthony Lorenzo Green, a lifetime resident of Washington and one of only two openly gay candidates seeking a seat on the D.C. Council. Green is right when he says there aren’t many like him in the world of D.C. politics. He hasn’t worked for a think tank, or headed a major political organization. He hasn’t worked his way through the ranks of various government positions, and he wasn’t a political appointee in charge of a major city agency

— as was Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray, the incumbent he’s challenging, who oversaw the D.C. Department of Human Services under the chaotic administration of former Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly. But the 34-year-old resident of Ward 7’s Deanwood neighborhood and local ANC commissioner, says his atypical resumé — which includes stints as a consultant, a claims examiner for the D.C. Department of Employment Services, and a rideshare driver, primarily for Uber — as well as his experience as a community organizer outside of work hours, are benefits that put him more in touch with the feelings and concerns of workAPRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

ing-class Washingtonians. “We’ve always seen a certain type of leadership that caters to a certain crowd,” he says, “while so many working-class families are getting up every day trying to find ways to make ends meet, and are not seeing policies that uplift their lives.” Green is keen to highlight the anxiety and stress that burden the District’s working class, as well as the seeming lack of attention that those worries receive in relation to other issues. For Green, it’s a personal fight. He sees himself and his closest neighbors struggling to pay bills in a rapidly gentrifying city that has become very unaffordable. “I woke up one day, with my own apartment and my own car, and realized, ‘I’m working more than 40 hours per week and I still can’t pay this rent,” he says. “And I’m in a position of: do I pay rent this month, or do I buy food? And when you try to apply for help, you realize my income is slightly above what you’ve set as the limit, but what I’m making now isn’t putting food on my table, so where do I go for help? So that’s what really pushed me to get involved in politics.” Born in Southwest Washington, Green was primarily raised by his grandmother in the Deanwood neighborhood of Northwest, D.C. He attended public schools, matriculating at H.D. Woodson High during the “Tower of Power” years, when the school’s seven-story frame loomed large over the ward, making a young Lorenzo feel as though he was entering a penitentiary more than a place of learning. He dropped out in twelfth grade, but with the assistance of a concerned and dedicated teacher, managed to earn a GED instead of having to repeat his senior year. Soon after, he began working at the National Business Travel Association as a global relations and programs coordinator, a job that not only introduced him to business travel, but his first experience flying on a plane. Although he later lost that job due to cutbacks after the financial crisis in 2009, he landed a position as a visa and passport specialist for CIBT, and another, a few years later, in the call center of the District’s Department of Employment Services, where he fielded calls regarding unemployment compensation. He was later promoted to the level of examiner, serving until October 2017, when he left to open up his own consulting business while working part-time as a rideshare driver to supplement his income. Green, who identifies as “same-gender-loving,” says he knew from a young age that he was different, eventually acknowledging his sexual orientation by the time he was eleven. But because he was raised in a very religious home — and in the Holiness denomination — there was conflict, resulting in what he calls a “traumatic upbringing” in terms of his spiritual life. “With many black churches, homosexuality was not something accepted at all,” he says. “I was told it was a phase, and you’re going to break out of it.” When he was nine years old, he was “prayed over” by several ladies in the church, as well as by his pastor on a separate occa24

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sion, in hopes that they could “pray the demon out.” “The ladies pinned me down on the floor and prayed over me for three hours,” he recalls. “I was scared and screaming for them to let me up. The second two hours, I just gave up and went to sleep.... To this day, I have this very strange relationship when working with churches. I consider myself very spiritual, but I do not appreciate the trauma that young boys like myself had to go through to figure out who we are.” Green also had to battle for acceptance closer to home. “My uncle, who was the only person who was a father figure in my life, had a moment where he pulled out a gun and said I could not be gay, that he would not allow it,” Green recalls. “Now, mind you, that same night, he came back drunk, crying, and apologizing for what he did, because I was his baby.... He was raised a certain way and thought he could force it out of me. I forgave him, because I understood where he was coming from.” As one of six candidates challenging Gray in the Ward 7 Democratic primary, Green has keyed in on economic justice as a crucial plank of his pitch to voters. It’s something that comes naturally to him, having advocated for pro-union and pro-worker policies as an ANC Commissioner, both in Ward 8, where he lived until mid-2016, and in Ward 7, where he now lives with his elderly grandmother, serving as her caretaker. His bid for office has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, which seeks to elect politicians who will push for worker-friendly public policies once in office. “I am progressive, and I’ve gotten comfortable with owning the title of ‘radical,’ because certain people have been throwing that label on me,” he says. “But we’re in a time when you need radical leadership, because incrementalism has been destructive for the lives of many working families, which is why I’m proud to have the Working Families Party endorsement.” Asked to diagnose what ails his community and others like it, Green says there’s a great deal of disengagement because people often feel they’re being “talked at, as opposed to listened to” by politicians. “When you listen to folks, they’ll tell you ‘I’d love to get a college education, or a skill that would allow me to have a lifetime career. But I’m not seeing programs to support that. I’m not getting help to make it able for me to survive just to make it to next week,’” he notes. “People want someone who’s going to advocate on their behalf and direct them in a certain way that’s going to make them able to resolve their problems.” Green also retains a good amount of criticism for the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, for straying from its working-class roots in an attempt to pursue the votes of the historically Republican-leaning professional-managerial class. “We’re seeing a trend of young black millennials and Generation Zs who are not registering as Democrats, who bristle at the Democratic Party label because they see it as a corporate entity, a party that caters to capitalism as opposed to working

“My uncle, who was the only person who was a father figure in my life, had a moment where he pulled out a gun and said I could not be gay, that he would not allow it.” people, and the few working people they do cater to seem to have a white face and be from Middle America. Every election cycle, there’s an initiative to get down to the grassroots level, where they’re pushing hard for black and brown voters to turn out, but when it comes to the policies that will help them, we’re not seeing that push. “That whole pitch of the ‘return to normalcy,’ the nostalgia for the Obama years doesn’t sell, because it ignores the fact that those were some hard years for many people as well,” Green warns. “We can’t go back. We need policies that are actually going to protect us and get back to the root causes of poverty. “Even at this moment, you’re seeing organizers on the ground say, ‘You know what, maybe this [COVID-19] crisis is the opportunity to flip some of these political tables,’ and push policies that address the issues affecting people struggling every day to put food on their table, clothes on their back, and make sure their kids get to school with a good education. That’s all we want is the basics, and that’s how we look at it: as the basics. What we’ve been doing for years is not something that seems to be benefitting working folks.” To further his point, Green points to the elected Democrats in positions of power in D.C. “I believe we have a trend of electing Democrats in this city who tend to govern like Republicans,” he says. “You have these people who are afraid of going back to an era in D.C. where there was so much entrenched poverty everywhere. So they always return to this narrative of needing to invest in developers to put up buildings that are unaffordable.” In his own ward, Green ticks off a number of issues of concern to his neighbors, many of which are long-festering problems that have gone largely unresolved since his own childhood. People are concerned about the scarce number of grocery stores east of the Anacostia River, and the quality of the products at those specific locations. Rents are rising and even so-called “affordable housing” developments that are being built seem to be marketed toward more affluent city residents. People, particularly young black males, are concerned about the use of increased police presence to solve social ills, and the at-times strained relationships that can exist between police and community members. One of the issues that has come to a head in Green’s neighborhood is the issue of sex workers who seek out customers along the Eastern Avenue corridor, often putting themselves at risk of violence, with two transgender women losing their lives last year. As a result, Green has come out in favor of decriminalizing sex work in the District, a position that puts him at odds with some of his fellow residents, as well as city politicians including Mayor Muriel Bowser, who opposes decriminalization. “We have a historic stroll that’s been around on Eastern Avenue since I was a baby,” he says. “And the solution that people wanted to follow was to put as many police officers as possible in that corridor and have them try to arrest their way out of the problem. That has led to police officers abusing their power, on both sides of the border, using their badge and gun to get services for themselves, using their badge and gun to strike fear in people who are on the street.” From Green’s perspective, the abundance of sex workers is testament to the lack of policies to address the economic insecu-

rity, housing insecurity and homelessness that many sex workers face. Additionally, arresting the women and charging them with crimes makes it harder for the women to find employment or housing once they try to leave sex work. “I know people will use the pain of others to politicize the issue and say ‘Lorenzo just wants more prostitution.’ That’s false,” Green says. “But I’m sick of sitting in church pews, with police at the table in front of us, having the same-old conversations we’ve been having since I was little. Now I’m at the table, and I’m not gonna sell you the same old story. We have to peel back these layers and provide resources to people at the margins of our society.” If elected, Green says he would develop programs intended to create a “dedicated pipeline for employment opportunities” in D.C. government that allows transgender individuals to be hired. He notes that it can’t be a temporary, one-off, or “token” program where only one person or a handful of people get hired in a small number of departments. Of course, some of Green’s positions have already earned him derision, particularly from his opponents. “There have already been folks trying to assassinate my character on the low, as we say,” he notes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some PAC that ultimately decides to try to come for me and spread false narratives about me.” While Green has support from some LGBTQ individuals in his ward, he doesn’t enjoy a substantial amount from the larger LGBTQ political establishment in the District. But he suggests that those establishment figures may have subliminal or internal biases that lead them to favor incumbent politicians, or candidates who are more educated, from professional backgrounds, or white, when determining who to support. “It goes deeper than just politics,” he says of the divides between white LGBTQ community leaders and LGBTQ people of color. “I’ve had friends who have been sex workers.... Even with my friends who have made this a career, when you listen to stories of who their clientele is, it’s often white gay men who like to spend their time with black gay men, but when it comes to pushing for policies that would uplift the lives of black boys or black men, they’re not there to fight for them. “It really goes to the issue of ‘Who fights for whom?’ and who shows up when we need them,” he adds. “And it goes far beyond gay marriage. We all need the opportunity to marry who we love, but we also want to see that same organizing strength to ensure that black LGBTQ folks can actually have a place to live in this city, and can actually operate in a city that is not constantly criminalizing them. “We need people who are part of this big, diverse community to understand we have to fight for all of us, not just a certain segment that is attached to money, power and privilege,” Green says. “White supremacy is something deeper than just a white nationalist entity, it’s deep in the structures of our society. So we need folks who are going to be willing to show up and tear down those barriers in our society so we can all fulfill our fullest potential in life.” l For more information on Anthony Lorenzo Green’s campaign for D.C. Council, visit www.greenward7.com. APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Music of the L Bright Light x2 is celebrating the LGBTQ community through his newest songs, one thrilling track at a time. Interview by Doug Rule

T'S WILD, THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT I'VE MET on my career path that have worldwide fame,” says Rod Thomas. “It's mind-blowing.” It all started with Elton John, whom Thomas met while living in London, before he adopted the moniker Bright Light Bright Light — often stylized as Bright Light x2. “I met Elton in 2009 when I was with his management company, which didn't go very well,” Thomas says. “We met at one of his shows and got to talking. But then I left his management company and set up as Bright Light Bright Light, and felt like, ‘Oh well, that's my chance, and now I'm gone.’” Fast forward to 2012, when Thomas released his Bright Light x2 debut, Make Me Believe in Hope. John called to congratulate him on garnering a four-star review in the U.K.’s popular music magazine Q, and waved away Thomas’ plea to send him a copy of the album. “‘I've ordered it, don't worry,’” Thomas recalls John saying. “Then he rang the next week and said, ‘I love it. Come to lunch.’” John would go on to collaborate on several of Thomas’ songs and to take him on multiple tours as his opening act. The two remain friends and in touch. Beyond Elton John, Thomas has gone on to meet everyone from Ellie Goulding to Erasure to, most recently, Cher. And it was while serving as Cher’s opening act on a tour through Europe last year that Thomas solidified plans for Fun City, his forthcoming fourth album. “I got a bit tongue-tied one night on stage, and I just kind of off-the-cuff said, ‘Well, as you can see, we're really gay,’ and the whole room erupted,” says Thomas, recounting a moment on stage at a stadium in Cologne, Germany. “It was just such a flippant comment, just something that I say all the time, but people kept messaging me saying how important it was to hear somebody on a stage saying something like that. And that really struck a chord. Even in places as forward-thinking as Cologne, it's still rare to have a young, gay man say that to that size of a crowd. So that was when I thought, ‘Okay, I'm definitely going to focus this album around the queer community and visibility.’” Fun City, set for release this fall, is a tribute to the LGBTQ community, particularly the LGBTQ community as Thomas has found it in New York City, which the Wales native has called home for years now. Fun City is also a tribute to the many out musicians that New York has inspired before Thomas — including Scissor Sisters and the band’s frontman, Jake Shears, who sings a duet on the newest Bright Light x2 single, “Sensation.” “Scissor Sisters are one of my biggest inspirations, so it's really

cool to have a proper duet with Jake. It's a big, uplifting anthem about just being your gay self,” he says. “It’s about celebrating and meeting people who are like-minded and who lift you up. It was meant to be the kind of like, ‘let's go out and get together’ song, which, obviously, we're not doing now, unfortunately.” The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on Thomas and his career as an independent musical artist and DJ, keeping him isolated at home alone, away from the clubs and the concert halls that his career depends on. It has also upended some of his plans with Fun City, including performances at now-cancelled pride events the world over. And it further threatens to curtail plans for a proper fall tour to promote the new set. Thomas kicked off his initial promotional plans last month with the release of the album’s first single, “This Used To Be My House.” The song’s video features many of the characters that make Thomas’ East Village neighborhood tick. There’s Colt Adam Weiss, a bartender from Club Cumming, home to his retro music-themed DJ event “Romy and Michele’s Saturday Afternoon Tea Party.” (“Colt is a big part of why the party’s a success, basically,” Thomas says.) Also featured dancing in one scene is Bill Coleman, a behind-the-scenes powerhouse “who has been making the city what it was and what it is and what it will be in terms of its musical output.” The video was shot in and around New York in February, before the pandemic hit. “It’s taken on new meaning as a reminder of what nightlife was like before COVID,” he says. “The tone of it has shifted a little bit, but the message is still that these are the people that make up the wonderful day-to-day life that we have. And we should appreciate them even more now that we don't have that.” Thomas worries about the pandemic’s impact on his future as well as all of those celebrated on Fun City. But he’s been heartened by the outpouring of support from fans, and hopes they’ll continue to support him — chiefly, and simply, by sharing his music. “Honestly, just share the music, that's the biggest support at the moment,” he says. “Helping get the message out. Don't give me your money — or don't donate, if you can't afford to. Just share the songs with a friend, make a playlist. Do something that is free for you and helps me get the message out to more people. That's more important things than giving a dollar or $10 or whatever. Just help me reach the people I can't reach. That's the best thing anyone could do right now.”

METRO WEEKLY: Let's talk about where you’re from and how you

And I had been on tour with Scissor Sisters, who were based in New York. And then I got my visa to work in America, which meant that I could stay for a year. And I thought, "Well, I'll just move there for three months and I'll see how it goes and just have a different experience." And after the first few days I was like, "Oh, god, this is amazing." So I just decided to relocate, and it's been so marvelous. MW: Did the Scissor Sisters help motivate you to make the move? THOMAS: Yeah. We talked about doing some stuff together, at

got to New York. How long have you been in America, and what prompted the move? ROB THOMAS: I just had my seventh year anniversary in March, so it's been a while now. Before that, I had been in London for nine years, and I felt like I had learned as much as I possibly could from being in the same place for that length of time. I played a show or two in New York, and I really loved the city. I thought it was amazing, and I met some really good people here. 26

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

WARREN PIECE

Light

APRIL 30, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY.COM

WARREN PIECE

“People are always like, ‘Why don't you come to X town?’ Because I can't afford to lose the thousands of dollars it would cost to get there and have 40 people come. I would love to play for those 40 people if it didn't cost $2,000 to get there.”

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

least me and Del Marquis. And when I was talking to him about moving over here, in his building there was an apartment free on the ground floor. So it was like, "Oh, my god. Well, let's move in that." And so we had a really nice Friends kind of situation where I lived below him, and we used to go out and collaborate together and work. It was honestly my favorite time in my life. Living there and just having that kind of collaborative friendship was really cool. I'm obviously very happy now, in general, but it was such a moment in time, it's like, "Wow, what a turnaround from just living in gray London to being in New York living [near] one of my best friends and making music." It was really cool. MW: What was it like growing up in Wales? THOMAS: I grew up very, very rurally. I grew up, on paper, in a gorgeous part of the world — it's very green, very beautiful. I tell people it's a little bit like a Welsh Twin Peaks because I grew up in this old coal mining valley that had been forgotten about, pretty much, when the industry died. So it was very peaceful. My parents have a lovely house, and we had grass all around us and farmland all around us. It was very idyllic, but it was just so sleepy that I think anybody with a sort of creative brain would really have to look at moving somewhere else because there just wasn't enough going on around there, especially when I was growing up. There weren't really any big art or music initiatives. It was just quite peaceful. And I'm very glad for that because it did give me a lot of time and space to do things, like get obsessed with listening to the radio and watching TV and movies and things like that, which really showed me a lot about the world outside of where we lived — looking to films, snapshots of America or Australia or France. I'm very lucky in terms of my upbringing. My family is amazing. And it was definitely sort of a safe place to grow up. MW: When did you come out? THOMAS: When I was 17, so just before going away to college. MW: How did it go? THOMAS: Well, it wasn't fun. I really struggle talking about this. I get asked all the time, and I really hate it. It was really not great. I didn't grow up anywhere near a village, but connected to that sort of area was a town that a lot of other villages sort of fed into. So I had a group of gay friends that lived, technically quite close, but, actually very far away, and they really were my rock during that period of time, and helped massively to sort of deal with the pressures of coming out in a place that is not tolerant of gay existence. MW: When did you realize that you wanted to become a musician? THOMAS: It wasn't really a conscious choice. I wanted to do music PR, to do press for bands. So I did an internship in college where I worked at a record label in London just as an assistant doing whatever I could basically. And then after college I moved to London, and went back there to be a receptionist and kind of worked my way up to being a marketing assistant over two years. And was making my own music on the side, which I always thought just had to be how it was. I got as far as I could with the job, and then didn't really see how I could move forward with it and do anything creative with that particular role or that company, so I quit. And I was trying to get a job in an art gallery or a record store. But there was this scheme in London where you could apply to get a license to sing on the subway. So I applied for that and got it. I did that a couple of days a week and some bartending jobs, and ended up paying my rent from doing that, which was very unexpected. I did that for a while. And then I kind of took what I learned from working at that record company into practice and set up my own little record label and started releasing music. And then, the third song got some attention, and then it kind of snowballed from there. MW: Growing up, were you making music, playing instruments? THOMAS: Yeah, all the time. I started writing songs when I was about 13. And I was always playing something. The flute is my first instrument — hi, Lizzo! — piano, guitar, stuff like that. I was always making music, but without really thinking about it too much. It wasn't, "I'm going to be a musician," it was just one of those things that I did as a kid. I played video games, but I never thought that I was going to be a videogame designer. In my mind it was never a feasible career option to become a musician. MW: Did you also grow up singing? THOMAS: Yeah, I grew up singing. Wales is sort of known as "The Land of Song,” APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

that’s its reputation, or its claim to fame. And singing is a very big part of Welsh heritage, but again, it was just one of those things that you do because most people would sing in school, or in a choir or something. So it didn't really make you feel like you were doing anything extraordinary to be singing all the time. MW: How did touring as an opening act for Ellie Goulding come about? THOMAS: That was the first big tour that I had ever done, in 2010. It was amazing. I had recently changed my management company, and it was the same company that managed Ellie. While they were planning her tour, I was just about to put out my first single. They thought of pitching her that I might be a fun, up-and-coming person to take on the road. And so I made a mix CD of some of my songs and some songs that I liked and sent that to her, and she said, "Yeah," which is crazy. She was so lovely, and so welcoming, and really didn't have to take somebody unknown on the road. It was really cool watching her work so hard that early on in her career, how dedicated she was and how talented she was. It was a really cool experience, and it really set up everything that came after that. It was a really great kickoff. MW: You went from Goulding to the Scissor Sisters two years later. THOMAS: Scissor Sisters is one of my favorite bands of all time. The fact that they had a huge hit album in the U.K. as fiercely gay people really did redefine the landscape and the possibility, for me, anyway. "Queer people have a voice now, and people do still care, and they will buy the records." So to have them as a band was really important. I don't remember what really happened, but I think somebody on Elton's team, when I was in New York, they were like, "Oh, Del [Marquis] lives in New York. You should see him, you should drop him a line," so I did. And then we went out for drinks, and we went to watch Depeche Mode together at Madison Square Garden, and hung out a little bit, and had coffee and talked about music. And then we started bouncing ideas back and forth over email when I was back in London and he was in New York. And that's when we started writing his Slow Knights project, which I wrote a couple of pop lines for, and I asked him to sing and play guitar on “Cry at Films” on my first album. And then we ended up going on tour together, which is just one of my favorite things I've ever done. It was so gay. It's like if you go on tour with one of your favorite bands in the world, what could be better than that? Because they were so important to the possibility of becoming a musician, to then go on tour opening for that band really gave me a ray of hope. It was such a come-to-fruition moment. It was just so amazing to have friends of mine in attendance, watching them be like, "Oh, my god, my friend is opening for them!" MW: I know Pet Shop Boys is another one of your influences, and I’m assuming you’d love to collaborate with them. Are there other acts you’d love to work with but haven’t? THOMAS: Oh god, there are so many. The Pet Shop Boys, they’re one of the last feasible musical heroes that I could possibly collaborate with that I have done nothing with to date. Also Kate Bush, who I think would be an amazing person to work with. Her music has shaped so much stuff that I've done. Mariah Carey, I love to death. I would love to do something with her. Madonna, obviously. Royksopp are an incredible production and writing duo. They're amazing. MW: Have you done anything with Robyn? THOMAS: I haven't, no. That would be really cool. I did have a song that I wanted to pitch to her team for this next record, but it didn't end up going through. She's, obviously, completely amazing, and that would be fantastic. But actually, for this new album I only wanted to work with LGBTQ+ people, and seeing as she's not actually LGBTQ, I kind of felt like I will hold off and will try and work with her at a different point in time when there's a song that isn't really about that kind of specific community. I know that she's a gigantic ally, but for this new record it actually was important to me to prop up some people from the direct community first before I work with anybody else. MW: Let’s talk more about the new album Fun City and your concept with it. THOMAS: It's an album that's a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community. I feel like at this point in time, it's important to recognize who you are, where you're from, and what's really important in your life. Since moving to New York particularly, I've been so aware of all of the people from the LGBTQ+ spectrum who really enrich my life, like all of the bartenders 30

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“Since moving to New York, I've been aware of all of the people from the LGBTQ+ spectrum, like all of the bartenders and the DJs and people who make safe spaces for everybody. It’s important to recognize the fact that they just enrich your life so much.”

WARREN PIECE

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and the frontline workers and the musicians and the actors and the writers and DJs, and just people that I see every day — people who run local businesses that make these safe spaces for everybody. It’s so important to recognize the fact that they just enrich your life so much. The title of the album comes from a quote from the mayor of New York City in 1966 [John Lindsay], when he took over on his first day. There was a gigantic power outage, everything fell to shit, and New York became this crippled place. And somebody was like, "Are you still glad to be the mayor of New York?" And he's like, "I still think it’s a fun city," which I thought was an amazing quote. I liked the idea of this very fractured, problematic utopia where things definitely aren't right, and they definitely aren't perfect, but you still make the most of what you've got. And you make it beautiful in whatever way you can. That's the premise of the album, which is sort of inspired by how queer musicians made music to dance through pain, or took the struggles that queer people have had throughout history, and turned them into defiant anthems, like Sylvester or Bronski Beat, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor Sisters, Hercules and Love Affair. We have all of these amazing people that remind us of people like Sylvia Rivera and all of the actual frontline workers who were doing community work and vocalizing the pain of society in the real world who inspired all of these queer musicians to be a defiant voice on record. I want people to know about our history and the incredible people that are working in our community day to day. Every artist that is involved in it — and there are a lot of people on the record — are all from the LGBTQ+ world. And I wanted to show everybody I could in that world, from super-famous people to complete newcomers, so that people can learn a little bit more about the artists that you just don't hear about. I wanted people to be able to hear artists that aren't just the same six people that get featured in everybody's tracks. MW: I like that idea, and that you have a mix of people. Is the music also going to be a mix? THOMAS: It's mostly upbeat until the last couple of songs. I kind of wanted it to sound a bit like a fairground comes to town. And I wanted it to be a celebratory record. I didn't want it to be a downbeat, "Woe is us," kind of thing. Most of the tracks are celebrating our culture, and then the last two are the more somber side of things. It's a diverse record in terms of its sound, but I hope it kind of works together. MW: Looking over the featured lineup, I see you have gay rapper Big Dipper, who is a hoot. THOMAS: I love him. I love him so much. He really is a fucking hoot. I really wanted him on the record just because I love his energy so much. He's so joyful. He just makes everybody smile so much. You can't even see a picture of him without just bursting into joy. He's so great. MW: There’s also Andy Bell of Erasure, who you’ve toured with. THOMAS: He’s an icon. He's one of my true heroes. He's one of the first people I remember listening to as a child. I just didn't know anyone like him. You have the Eltons and the George Michaels, but they were so famous, they were kind of in their own realm. And then you had Erasure, a million-selling act in the U.K., but they would do bonkers things like the ABBA-esque EP and go in drag as the ABBA girls. They were just fucking wild, and I couldn't process how fun and how important they were to the visibility of gay people, even though Vincent [Clarke] isn't gay. Andy, obviously, was a huge pioneer for gay rights and gay

visibility. And his voice is just so perfect. It's just amazing. MW: Was the album originally going to be released in the fall, or did you push it back because of the current situation? THOMAS: No, it was going to be in the fall. I don't come from a record label with a ton of money behind me, so I have to play things very differently than a lot of the bigger artists. And I wanted to have a longer run up to the record, teasing music as I go along and building a community. The idea of this album is the community aspect of it, so I wanted to be able to have conversations before it came out about who was involved, why they're involved, what made me want to work with them [and also] focus on different LBGTQ charities that tie into some of the songs’ themes. I wanted to have those conversations before the record came out so that people could understand why I made it. MW: Obviously, COVID-19 threatens to get in the way of those plans. How has the pandemic impacted you and how are you coping? THOMAS: Well, obviously, it could be much worse. I could be working in a hospital. There's such a level of comfort that I have that many people don't. It's, obviously, very strange. I've been completely alone now for six weeks, which is really tough to cope with. It's very unusual for somebody like me as well. Most days I work by myself, that's fine, but then the evenings I'm usually at a show, doing a show, DJ-ing, or on tour. And so it's a real adjustment, and it's really, really lonely. But through touring and the downtime that you have on that and working at home, I'm kind of good at keeping myself active and busy. One of the things that I was really looking forward to in the long run up to the album — I was supposed to be playing at lots of Pride festivals this year, which is super important to me, given the topic of the album itself. I'm really disappointed that I don't get to connect with those queer communities in the run up to an album that is about them, so that's a shame. And obviously, I've lost all of the live earnings that I would have had from now until god knows when, which is a huge hit. And you just don't know when you're going to be able to do anything again that really helps you get your message across or helps you reach an audience. People say, "You can do the livestreaming.” I am doing the livestreaming, and it's great, but it's not the same as being able to go out and meet people, or to do the things that independent artists have to do. Because the reality is, the artists getting the most coverage now are the artists who got the most coverage before now. It's Dua Lipa, it’s Lizzo, it's the same couple of people that have the audience already that manage to reach the audience now. That's not a slight on them — I love them. I think they're amazing. But the reality is, the artists who are already exposed to all those people are the artists that everybody is caring about because you can't break through that wall of sound. So I think that artists who are struggling to get that foothold and establish themselves and grow their careers are still struggling at the moment because the minute that live shows stopped, everything went online. So there’s already that volume of stuff online. How do you get heard above that? MW: Had you done online work prior to COVID-19? THOMAS: Yeah, I've done a couple of things. I was doing little acoustic sets from my studio online with Facebook and things like that just to test out new material, or I would perform requests. I had tested out that model so I knew that people liked it. I haven't been doing live performances this time around. I've just been doing the livestream DJ sets because the party that I

Wat ch “ This Was M y House”

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

created in New York is about community, and it's a way to make people forget what's been going on all week for five hours and just come to the bar, listen to silly music with no snobbery, no music policy, and just meet like-minded people. And so it was really important to me to take that online first and keep that party going, and it's been amazing. It's been so fun. I've had thousands and thousands of people tuning in to listen to it. Also, I'm doing these parties online ahead of live stuff because I don't feel like it's satisfying to watch a low-quality live performance. I would much rather give a high-quality DJ set that brings people some joy. MW: You accept donations with the livestreams, but that's about the extent of it, as far as what you might make, right? Would it be fair to say the majority of your income, at least pre-COVID-19, is from live concerts? THOMAS: It depends. Sometimes, yes. When you do bigger shows, or if you're able to do a headline set, say, at a festival or whatever, that's a good earner. Honestly, if you're an independent musician and you're playing smaller venues, you really don't make much money. But if you have merchandise or whatever, people often buy that a lot, which kind of offsets the cost. It's really like a wheel of fortune — some shows you make a good amount of money, others you lose a tremendous amount of money. It's about the balance that you have to have in planning those. People are always like, "Why don't you come to X town?" Because I can't afford to. I can't afford to lose the thousands of dollars it would cost to get there and have 40 people come. I would love to play for those 40 people if it didn't cost $2,000 to get there. It's such a weird economy. A lot of my earnings, it's like Frankenstein. MW: It’s unclear when it will be safe and appealing to crowd in with thousands of others to see a live show. THOMAS: Here's the thing, the person in charge at the moment is giving absolutely not one fuck about making it safe to do anything. There's no testing, there's no information. He's spreading misinformation. So I don't know at what point sensible people are going to feel confident enough to be in a room that's packed full of people. I don't personally want to be on a stage, touching things that everybody has touched. There is literally no way you can physically walk around a live space without touching 150 things. And how does a venue keep all of that sterilized? There's no way you can do that. So until there's some kind of vaccine or whatever, I don't know if people are going to feel confident in a live venue. How do you line up at the bar to get a drink? It's a simple, practical question. How can you possibly stand in line at the bar when there's a hundred people in the room? The whole concept of it is so wild. I don't really understand how reintegration into normal existence can happen at this point. MW: Are you okay, personally? Can you apply for unemployment? THOMAS: I don't know if I'm eligible, honestly. I'm not a citizen, so I haven't received any COVID check. I'm fine for now because of that Frankenstein earnings thing. I have residual royalties

that kind of trickle in once in a while, but that's not sustainable. I really worry at the moment for everybody who has a non-traditional job, which is practically everyone I know, how they can kind of ride out this pandemic. It's a really, really tough time because people are being very kind, and they're donating to help in every way they can. But, of course, a lot of those people aren't working either. So it's not like there's this endless pit of money people have to just donate. It's not sustainable. MW: Until you can actually perform in a live venue and tour again, will you offer a full concert performance through a livestream? THOMAS: No. On a very practical level, because I live in a New York apartment building, I can't really make that loud of noise. I sing quite loudly. If you're on a stage singing at normal volume, I can't really stomp around and do a performance in my apartment with a house band. I don't think that's going to be happening. MW: Years ago, you said that when you DJ you don’t like to drop your own songs into your sets. Is that still true, even when it comes to online? THOMAS: I don't tend to. Some of the virtual parties — I did play “This Was My House” quite a few times around the weeks when it came out. I gave an exclusive play, and people were asking to hear it, actually, which is really nice. So I did play it. It's kind of different than, for example, at my party at Club Cumming — not everybody has come there for my party or knows who I am. So playing your own song there feels kind of mortifying. Online, they definitely have tuned in because they follow your page, so it makes more sense to play that song, and maybe I'll lip-sync along with it or whatever. But that's a different playing field than if you're in a bar where people are just turning up because they're drunk off brunch, you know? It's not the same thing. For all of its ups and downs, [the DJ livestream] has become a good platform to be able to get some kind of personality or message across online. And I have really enjoyed that aspect of it. The good thing with a DJ set is that it's very interactive, and I think that's much more fun than just talking at somebody through a screen. That's not as fun to me or as fun to watch. I like the interaction of it, so I'm hoping I can find a way to make it a bit more performative and make you feel like you're actually in the room with me, versus just watching a performance. l Bright Light Bright Light will release Fun City on Sept. 18. To stay informed of upcoming single and video releases, and any tour and concert announcements, follow him @BrightLightx2 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Twitch. Or visit www.brightlightx2.com. Bright Light x2’s next scheduled DJ livestream is “ME. I Am A Mariah Fan - All Mariah DJ Party,” on Wednesday, May 6, from 5 to 9 p.m. on his Facebook page and Twitch account. APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

APRIL 30, 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ METROWEEKLY.COM

Gallery

Interpreting a Pandemic T HE HIRSHHORN’S “ARTISTS IN QUARANTINE” is a video diary series offering quick, personal takes on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on contemporary artists from around the world. Artist Theaster Gates leads the ongoing series that will ultimately feature responses from nearly 100 fellow artists and become part of the museum’s record of the impact of the global pandemic on artists, their practices, and their views of the world. It comes as part of #HirshhornInsideOut, a slate of alternative, online programming to give the public access to a world of contemporary art at a time when the physical museum remains closed due to the crisis. The artists to be featured in the series,

says Hirshhorn director Melissa Chiu, are “those creating, at this very moment, the works that will live on and become a part of our collective memory.” Chiu adds that in the interim, she hopes “these entries will inspire, challenge, comfort, and galvanize.” The initiative opened with five such entries, short videos of between one and two minutes in length, posted to the museum’s Instagram and YouTube channel from Gates, Shirin Neshat, Christine Sun Kim, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Tony Oursler. Several additional posts — from Marilyn Minter, Kent Monkman, and Hank Willis Thomas — are expected to be posted this week, with more to follow each week effectively until COVID-19 fades into history. —Doug Rule

Click Here to Watch

Visit www.instagram.com/hirshhorn for the latest entries in the series. APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

LINDSEY BYRNES

Music

stab wounds!” into Pearson’s top-40ready crooning on “Three Wishes.” It’s hard to imagine the album being as energetic or addictive to listen to were it not for how much fun Dance Gavin Dance is clearly having with it. Avoiding the Dance Gavin Dance prove to be masters of controlled chaos self-seriousness that so often plagues the on their new album, Afterburner. By Sean Maunier genre, Dance Gavin Dance is knowingly nonsensical and self-deprecating. “I need LREADY KNOWN FOR THEIR PROPENSITY TO BORROW BITS AND PIEC- some time to focus on my brand,” Pearson es from multiple genres, Dance Gavin Dance can be difficult to pin down at the cheekily sings in the opening lines to best of times. Their latest album might be their most slippery yet, blending their “Lyrics Lie,” shortly before trading some dense post-hardcore sound with whole sections of prog rock, Latin, funk, and, most hoarse screaming with Mess. Hearing him interestingly, a distinct pop-rock sound that calls to mind clean vocalist Tilian Pearson’s sing in Spanish on “Calentamiento Global” solo electropop project, produced mononymously under the name Tilian. If this all is one of the biggest surprises in an album sounds chaotic, that’s because it absolutely is, but it all comes together shockingly well in filled with them. Afterburner has so much going on that the highly addictive Afterburner (HHHHH), the band’s most unique record yet. As out of control as it all might seem on a first impression, the album is impressively taking it all in on one listen would be diffiwell-crafted. As sudden and jarring as the transitions are at times, they are handled cult to say the least. The album threads the expertly, somehow managing to feel natural. Back-to-back tracks “Parody Catharsis” needle expertly between extremes, leaning and “Strawberry’s Wake” are standout examples of this, starting out slow in almost-pop into the band’s heavier hardcore elements territory before Jon Mess comes in with his unmistakable, unclean vocals amid a riot of one moment and abruptly switching to light, melodic, and at times guitars. Pearson’s vocals often take the spotlight, but Mess does get a blatantly poppy the next. few songs where his growling voice is clearly the main event, includWatch The space between these ing on the dark, semi-industrial “Say Hi,” which largely has Pearson Strawberry’s Wake extremes is where Dance running backup behind powerful, urgent guitar lines. Gavin Dance seems most The band’s ability to embrace and embody both moods at once is Video Here comfortable. In refusing one of the album’s greatest strengths. The transitions between these moods are sudden and sometimes nonsensical, but for Dance Gavin Dance, this is a to be tied down to a single approach or feature rather than a bug, and the deliberate absurdity of the songwriting is a constant vision, they have found an approach that source of charm. Pearson’s clean vocals duel with Mess’ unclean ones throughout the works amazingly well for them, and the album, creating a back-and-forth that is as fun to listen to as it is technically impressive. result is their most complex, expansive, There’s something undeniably fun about listening to Mess growl-shouting “Multiple and energetic release yet. l

Burning Bright

Afterburner is available on most streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music, and for sale on www.amazon.com. 36

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Television

Screen Queens

Hollywood spotlights the salacious side of Tinseltown, but still makes time for starry-eyed romance and social justice. By André Hereford

IKE MANY SHARP SHOWBIZ CHRONICLES, NETFLIX’S JUICY PERIOD drama Hollywood (HHHHH) limns a tale of two cities — the pitiless company town that is, and the golden Dreamland the town portrays itself to be. Duality courses through the show’s plot and atmosphere, extending to the characters, several of whom lead double lives, or at least secret lives, while scheming and striving towards big-screen success, circa 1946. Whereas in the movies good conquers evil, in the boardrooms and bedrooms behind the scenes, scoundrels often prosper before saints. As far as this story is concerned, the sun-kissed synergy of sin and virtue is the spark that keeps Hollywood shining. No naif is too virtuous to harbor their own share of secrets, and most secrets worth keeping revolve around sex. That might ignore the myriad other ways people get screwed over in Hollywood, but it turns out that the series, led by creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, and executive producer Janet Mock, merely uses sexuality as a tool for prying open the complicated history of gays, women, and people of color in the land of make-believe. Murphy directed the pilot episode, which pulsates with jazz and can-do energy establishing Jack (David Corenswet) and Archie (Jeremy Pope), eager Hollywood hopefuls who meet while both are turning tricks to make ends meet. War vet Jack, who’s straight and white, dreams of being the next Clark Gable, while Archie, who’s gay and black, hopes to be the first black screenwriter to have a script produced by a major studio. Their lives intersect at the Golden Tip gas station, run by aging pimp Ernie (Dylan McDermott) as a discreet pickup spot for customers craving service from any of Ernie’s hunky young pump jockeys. Clearly based on the real-life exploits of late Hollywood pimp and procurer Scotty Bowers, the Golden Tip sits at the show’s swinging junction between fact and legend. Ernie’s boys service moguls and movie stars, housewives and society matrons, including glamorous Avis (Patti LuPone), wife of old-school studio chief Ace Amberg

(Rob Reiner). Ace asserts that actors “are all whores,” but the show offers a soft rebuttal that some actors aren’t. Some are just honest, hard-working up-and-comers like Camille (Laura Harrier), a black actress romantically involved with idealistic, young white director Raymond (Darren Criss). They and nearly everyone else in the story get caught up in the fervor to produce the hottest script floating around the Ace Studios lot, a haunting portrait of real-life cautionary tale Peg Entwistle, who famously leapt to her death from atop the Hollywoodland sign in 1932. Brimming with exquisite period costumes and detail, and true Hollywood lore, the series captures an image of the film capital that’s both sentimental and deeply cynical. Dreams are just as easily granted or crushed, and a stab in the back might come with a smile and a handshake. This crowd loves and supports each other, while also choking on the air of mistrust. It’s a peculiar paranoia, cleverly encapsulated in the moment one character learns that a rival has arranged an opportunity on her behalf and asks, “Why? Is this some kind of trick?” Hollywood generally plays such comedy with a defter touch than it applies to its crusading social commentary. Modern identity politics as much as persuasive character development shape Camille and Archie’s respective storylines about trying to break racial barriers in Hollywood. And a similar heavy-handedness weighs on the

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subplot following Raymond’s quixotic attempts to revive the career of discarded early screen star Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec). For the sake of their intended message, some storylines steer through too many convenient coincidences. The show fares better with its #TimesUp-conscious, fictionalized depiction of Hollywood newcomer Rock Hudson (Jake Picking), a strapping innocent from Winnetka, Illinois, snapped up by predatory agent Henry Willson (Jim Parsons). The subject of Robert Hofler’s revealing 2005 biography The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, professional creep and abuser Willson fills the fable’s role of most hissable villain, coercing clients like Hudson, who is gay, into supplying sexual favors to him and others. The writing doesn’t necessarily nail the landing for this viperous user, but Parsons’ performance is a bold stroke of bald-

faced nastiness that captivates the entire way opposite Picking’s endearingly dim Rock Hudson. LuPone goes bold, naturally, playing Avis, a woman who claims her power, sexually and otherwise, over the course of seven episodes — starting with the pilot, where Avis stops at the Golden Tip for a fill-up. Broadway vet Pope also brilliantly carries Archie’s story of fighting to claim his seat at the Hollywood table, while Joe Mantello adds a nuanced supporting turn as an Ace Studios exec struggling with his sexuality. Mira Sorvino is touching as the studio’s insecure B-list player Jeanne Crandall, and the recurring cast entertains many welcome, unexpected guests, like Lord of the Rings’ Billy Boyd as a duly snippy Noel Coward and Harriet Sansom Harris as Eleanor Roosevelt, among other cameos. This can be one eclectic party, bouncing from flashbacks to film sets to naked poolside orgies, covering post-war pop culture from famous first ladies to Tallulah Bankhead. Bawdy cocktail chatter might precede or follow earnest discussions of queer and minority representation on film and television. Characters living out their dreams on one day combat stinging racial or sexual transgressions the next. Making movies is both the entire point and beside the point for this scandal-soaked look at how the commodities of flesh, money, talent, and power fuel the savage and beautiful Hollywood machine. l

Hollywood is available for streaming on Netflix. Visit www.netflix.com.

SelfieScene Take a selfie, make it fun! TEXT it to

202-527-9624 Be sure to include your name and city

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

SelfieScene

Be Scene! Take a selfie, and make it fun if you like, and TEXT to 202-527-9624.

Be sure to include your name and city. YOU could appear in next week’s Selfie Scene!

Jimbo (Washington, DC)

Greg (Washington, DC)

Justin (Severn, MD) Ben (Washington, DC)

Brian (Philadelphia, PA)

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

LastWord. People say the queerest things

“Facilities that were completely inadequate before the pandemic are now death traps for the innocent people locked inside.” —GREGORY COPELAND of the Rapid Defense Network, one of several organizations demanding in a lawsuit that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release all transgender detainees being held by the agency. Transgender Law Center’s Lynly Egyes said, “A humane response to address COVID-19 is possible: release transgender people that are currently in ICE detention so that they can receive care and safety in the community.”

“Is there something in this religion that is anti-homosexuality and anti-woman? Does that complicate the issue?” —JEFF GOLDBLUM, in the Friday, April 24, episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Goldblum was speaking about Jackie Cox’s “Stars and Stripes” runway look, which featured a starry hijab and striped caftan, celebrating her Iranian heritage. “I’m just raising it and thinking out loud and maybe being stupid,” Goldblum added. Cox later said, “You can be Middle Eastern, you can be Muslim, and you can still be American…. I had to show America that you can be LGBT and from the Middle East, and there’s gonna be complicated shit around that, and that’s okay.”

“I thought Grindr was something that you cut metal with.” —CHRISTIAAN OTTO, a South African man whose anti-LGBTQ social media comments have led to a human rights complaint against him, speaking to Mamba Online after an LGBTQ group claimed to have found his secret Grindr profile. Otto denied operating the profile and seeking sex with other men, as well as messaging men on WhatsApp, saying, “They just took old photos off of my Facebook account and they created this profile. It’s not rocket science.”

“It shows that Tunisia will not be able to resist the natural course of history in the world. It will also have consequences in terms of law. ” —MOUNIR BAATOUR, leader of Tunisian LGBTQ rights group Shams, in a Facebook post announcing that a court in Tunisia has granted l egal recognition to a same-sex marriage — a potential first for an Arab nation. The marriage in question is between a Tunisian man and a French man who, after marrying in France, returned to Tunisia. The Tunisian man’s spouse was added to his birth certificate, recognizing the validity of their marriage.

“I think that kind of bringing it up in this very casual way is important because it doesn’t need to stand out.” —JAMIE GRAY HYDER, who plays Officer Katriona Tamin in NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, speaking to E! News after her character casually came out as bisexual. “I think by it not totally standing out to the members of the squad, it really will help the community with acceptance when it comes to that community,” Hyder said.

APRIL 30, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Bright Light x2 - Metro Weekly: April 30, 2020

Articles inside

Last Word.

Burning Bright

Interpreting a Pandemic

Music of the Light

Working-Class Warrior

Pitch Perfect

Digital Festivals

Troubling Precedent

Unneighborly

Baseless Ban

Out On the (virtual) Town

Teaching Moment

Screen Queens

Unjust Actions

Cooking with The Kitchn

Get Up and Dance!

Fond Farewell