Stonewall 50 Special Issue - June 27, 2019

NSO POPS GOES OVER THE RAINBOW • CHAOS FROM MADONNA

50 ON

STONEWALL Commentary by Miguel Ayala - Ba’Naka - Nicholas Benton - Keith Boykin - Gillian Branstetter Destiny B. Childs - Charlotte Clymer - Larry Cohen - Ray Daniels - Yuval David - John Fanning Russwin Francisco - H. Lee Gable - Joan Garry - Jack Gerard - Holly Goldmann - Leti Gomez Jose Gutierrez - Edward Harper - Christopher Henley - Shin Inouye - Joseph Izzo Anthony LeCounte - Linda Lewis - Denny Lyon - Eileen Maxwell - Blair Michaels Nell Minow - Taissa Morimoto - Jack Newman - Will O’Bryan - Hannah Olanoff Dominion ONYX - Philip Pannell - Rayceen Pendarvis - Randy Pumphrey - Neal Racioppo Alexa Rodriguez - David Rojas - Michael Sainte-Andress - Diego Miguel Sanchez Ron Simmons - Mary Snider - John Stoltenberg - Rich Tafel - Vernon Wall - David Winer Dr. Imani Woody - Robert York - Zar

CONTENTS

June 27 & July 4, 2019

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Volume 26 Issue 9

RAINBOW CONNECTION NSO Pops conductor Steven Reineke toasts gay icon Judy Garland this weekend at the Kennedy Center.

By Doug Rule

50 ON STONEWALL

To honor the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, fifty members of the LGBTQ community (and a few allies) talk about what the uprising meant to them, how things have improved, and where the future of the movement lies. A Metro Weekly Forum.

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Introduction by John Riley

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RISE & SHINE

Dive into an exploration of LGBTQ history at the Newseum, or just sleep surrounded by history at The Hamilton.

By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 RAINBOW CONNECTION: NSO POPS TOASTS JUDY GARLAND p.12 SCENE: CHEF’S BEST DINNER & AUCTION p.21 THE FEED: DASTARDLY DIOCESE p.23 THE FEED: RIGHTFUL REFUND p.24 COMMUNITY: ANNAPOLIS PRIDE PARADE AND FESTIVAL p.25 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.25 THE SPARK OF STONEWALL: DANA BEYER p.25 SCENE: DC CENTER’S VIGIL AGAINST THE VIOLENCE p.31 COVER STORY: 50 ON STONEWALL p.32 RISE & SHINE: RISE UP p.42 FILM: YESTERDAY p.45 STAGE: BYHALIA, MISSISSIPPI p.47 STAGE: EVERY BRILLIANT THING AND TWISTED MELODIES p.48 MUSIC: MADONNA’S MADAME X p.51 NIGHTLIFE: KIM PETRAS AT TRADE p.53 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.54 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.55 SCENE: NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR p.60 LAST WORD p.62 Publisher’s Note: Metro Weekly will not be publishing an issue the week of July 4. Visit www.metroweekly.com for all the latest news or join our email list at www.metroweekly.com/join. Happy 4th! See you on July 11!

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 Illustrator Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, 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 The Stonewall Inn 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.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

URSA WAZ

Spotlight

A People’s History M IKE DAISEY IS KICKING OFF the Capital Fringe festival a few days early and in spectacular style. Rather than perform just one show as part of his new partnership with Fringe, the provocative stage monologist, known to Woolly Mammoth audiences for 2016’s The Trump Card and 2011’s The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, will be performing 18 full-length monologues, nearly one per show during the production’s 21-date run.

The arguments he’s making about American history — and particularly what the average American wasn’t taught and

doesn’t know on the subject — amount to a 30-hour production. Daisey’s work tells a tale of two American histories, taking its title from Howard Zinn’s decades-old but still eye-opening account A People’s History of the United States. The other source? The U.S. History textbook his teacher at his rural Maine high school taught from 25 years ago.

Flipping back and forth between the two helps Daisey, according to the promotional material, “confront the legacy of our nation, our complicity, our responsibility, and the future.” – Doug Rule

Opens Friday, July 5. Runs to July 28. The Cradle in Arena Stage’s Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $35 for each theatergoer’s first performance, $20 for any subsequent performance. Fringe Festival passes not applicable to this production. Call 202-488-3300 or visit www.arenastage.org.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Spotlight THE CHOCOLATE LOUNGE BURLESQUE SHOW

STEREO VISION

Burlesque and the art of striptease will be represented at this year’s DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival through a revue featuring local burlesque artist GiGi Holliday and performers of color from D.C. and Baltimore, all accompanied by a live band. “We are celebrating the history of the past, creating history in the present, and ensuring that black burlesque has a future,” says Holliday in an official release.

“These performers are pulling out all the stops to delight you, mesmerize you, and most of all, entertain you with black girl magic and black boy joy." Thursday, June 27, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, June 29, at 9 p.m. THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Ave. SE. Tickets are $15. Call 202889-5901 or visit www.dcblacktheatrefestival.com/chocolate-lounge.

Adapted by Dennis Kelly from Roald Dahl’s book, the award-winning show, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, centers on a precocious young girl discovering her magical powers while also coming to the realization that ours is a cruel world full of dastardly people. (If only she could think of some way to change things.) In the hands of director Peter Flynn, fresh from his wry and whimsical Into The Woods at Ford’s Theatre, everyone should find joy, if not magic, at Olney. The sharp cast is worth noting too, including Felicia Curry, Rayanne Gonzales, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Michael Mainwaring, and Tom Story as — what else? — a villain in drag. Now to July 21. Olney Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.

GWEN & IDA: THE OBJECT IS OF NO IMPORTANCE

TONY HITCHCOCK

Nu Sass Productions and Uncle Funsy team up to present the world-premiere of a play about two of history’s forgotten heroines, penned by David S. Kessler. Not one to hold back, Ida has opinions about what happened to neglected painter Gwen John, who becomes her case in point when she asks Jack for a break.

Lynn Sharp Spears directs Aubri O’Connor, Rebecca Ellis, and Matty Griffith in the production. To June 29. Caos on F, 923 F St. NW. Tickets are $20. visit www.nusass.com.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

STAN BAROUH

MATILDA THE MUSICAL

Spotlight SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

Landmark’s Capital Classics series presents one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made. Set during the early days of talkies and a rollicking satire of the era in Hollywood, Singin’ In The Rain traces the seismic transition from silence to speech in film, as matinee idol Gene Kelly and his partner Donald O’Connor search for a solution to a dud film and a shrill co-star. Debbie Reynolds saves the day in this all-singing, all-dancing visual spectacle from 1952 that made Reynolds a star. Wednesday, July 10, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

ANGIE STONE

One of the best singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1990s neo-soul movement, Angie Stone has a penchant for mid-tempo balladry, balancing modern hip-hop’s breezy beats with old-school soul humidity. After forays into other realms of the entertainment industry — including playing herself in the final two seasons of TV One’s R&B Divas: Atlanta — Stone has fully returned to music and touring in 2019. Full Circle, her ninth studio set and first in four years, is expected next month — a week after her debut at City Winery DC, in fact. Friday, July 5. Doors at 8:45 p.m. 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $55 to $65. Call 202-250-2531 or visit www.citywinery.com.

WILLY LUKATIS

NICK MURPHY

When he first emerged on the international pop scene nearly a decade ago, Australian Nick Murphy adopted the moniker Chet Faker in slighly cheeky homage to jazz musician Chet Baker. In recent years Murphy dropped that alias, to disabuse people of any notion that this is a tribute act. His 2017 EP Missing Link and this year’s full-length Run Fast Sleep Naked are noteworthy sets of eclectic tunes in a signature hybrid style one might call atmospheric electronic-folk. Murphy’s music is a dazzling hodgepodge of electro-pop, rock, and hip-hop.

The New York-based electronic duo Beacon opens.

Wednesday, July 10. Doors at 7 p.m. 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $36, including a $1 donation to PLUS1.

Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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CAPITAL CONCERTS

Out On The Town

A CAPITOL FOURTH

Everyone who calls the nation’s capital home should experience the National Symphony Orchestra’s A Capitol Fourth concert at least once in their lifetimes. The lineup makes a strong argument in favor of doing so this year — most notably for fans of singer-songwriter Carole King, who will perform along with the Broadway cast of the King-centric musical Beautiful. John Stamos returns to host the 39th annual show, held on Thursday, July 4, starting at 8 p.m. on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. (It will be simulcast on PBS for you homebodies.) Scheduled performers include Lindsey Stirling, Keala Settle, Vanessa Williams, Lee Brice, Colbie Caillat, Yolanda Adams, Laine Hardy, Angelica Hale, Maelyn Jarmon, and the cast of Sesame Street. And then there’s the NSO, led by Jack Everly, in a performance of American favorites and classical masterworks — culminating a few minutes after 9 p.m. with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and the soundtrack to what organizers tout as “the biggest, most distinctive fireworks display in the nation.” Free but get there early to claim a spot. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org/nso for more information.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM BEFORE STONEWALL

An early, groundbreaking LGBTQthemed documentary, Greta Schiller’s 1984 film, narrated by Rita Mae Brown, charts the evolution of LGBTQ life and culture in America from the early 1900s to the early ’80s, when the modern LGBTQ movement was still emerging. Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community features eye-opening historical footage and illuminating interviews with some brave, openly LGBTQ pioneers, from Harry Hay, Frank Kameny, and Barbara Gittings, to Audre Lorde, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Allen Ginsberg.

A salute to pride and to the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, the run, ending on the 4th of July, kicks off with a special screening and introduction by Montgomery

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County Councilmember Evan Glass on Thursday, June 27, at 7 p.m.

8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring.

Tickets are $13 general admission.

Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi. com/Silver.

MIDSOMMAR

Hereditary writer-director Ari Aster’s new horror film is drenched in color, light, and sunshine — all of it belying the dark underbelly that toils just below the surface.

A young woman (Florence Pugh) joins her boyfriend (Jack Reynor) on a trip to Sweden, where they encounter a beautiful small town that reveals itself to have cult-like tendencies. Naturally, from there, it’s a steep, sun-soaked descent into hell. Opens Wednesday, July 3. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com.

(Rhuaridh Marr)

ROCKETMAN

Rocketman isn’t a straight-laced biopic. It’s best described as a musi-

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

cal fantasy biopic drama — a mouthful that only begins to scratch the surface of its enjoyable take on Elton John’s early years, his first break into music, and then his descent into drug-and-alcohol-fuelled hedonism. And it does it all while being a sung-through, choreographed, honest-to-goodness musical. Director Dexter Fletcher’s film is a constant visual splendor, held together by Taron Egerton’s incredible performance. Egerton makes Elton’s songs his own, and in turn produces a characterization that, while injected with perhaps a touch too much square-jawed machismo, brings to life a charismatic, deeply flawed, sympathetic man who has it all but deep down yearns only to be loved.

In a world of straight-laced biopics, Rocketman tries for something different, and it thoroughly succeeds.

Now playing. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com. (RM)

THE NEVERENDING STORY

Upon release 35 years ago, this West German fantasy film registered as the most expensive film produced outside the U.S. or the Soviet Union. Adapted from the novel by Michael Ende, The Neverending Story follows a boy’s reading of a magical book about a young warrior tasked with stopping a dark force called The Nothing. The first English-language film from director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot), who also co-wrote the script, returns to screens on the eve of Independence Day as the next in the Capital Classics series at Landmark’s West End Cinema. Wednesday, July 3, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

Landmark's E Street Cinema pres-

ents its monthly run of Richard O’Brien’s camp classic, billed as the longest-running midnight movie in history. Landmark's showings come with a live shadow cast from the Sonic Transducers, meaning it's even more interactive than usual.

Friday, July 12, and Saturday, July 13, at midnight. 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www. landmarktheatres.com.

STAGE A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2

RAINBOW CONNECTION

NSO Pops conductor Steven Reineke toasts gay icon Judy Garland this weekend at the Kennedy Center.

W

HY IS THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY PAYING TRIBUTE TO JUDY GARLAND THIS month of all months? The answer lies a half-century ago.

“June is the month that Judy was born in, [and] she died on June 22, fifty years ago,” says Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke. “Her funeral was on June 27, the night before our first concert, June 28 — [and] of course, the Stonewall Riots happened 50 years ago. There's been a great amount of urban folklore that the grief over Judy's death and funeral helped spur on the Stonewall Riots.”

Reineke, who is gay, says “there’s no denying that Judy was truly a gay icon. You’ve got to think of the term ‘Friend of Dorothy’” — the old euphemism named after Garland’s character in the American classic The Wizard of Oz. “So it's just a whole bunch of nice connective tissue tying in to celebrate Pride month, and to celebrate 50 years of the loss of this great artist.”

The evening is modeled after a 2011 concert Reineke led with the New York Pops marking “50 years after Judy’s very famous Carnegie Hall appearance” — the 1961 comeback performance that begat a Grammy-winning live double album and featured 26 of Garland’s most popular staples and signatures. Featuring three strong vocalists, the aim is for “a song-for-song recreation” that goes beyond mere imitation.

“There will never be another Judy Garland,” Reineke says. “So I would never go into something like this trying to pick somebody that would be like Judy. She was just so singular in her vocal quality, and her style of entertainment. I wanted three very different artists that would be able to put their own spin on these great songs, to pay tribute to such an amazing entertainer.”

Reineke recruited two-time Tony-nominated singer Laura Osnes (Bonnie & Clyde, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella), calling her “a wonderful Broadway soprano [with] one of the most gorgeous voices there is.” Also on tap is fellow Broadway veteran Capathia Jenkins (Newsies and Caroline, or Change), a “very soulful” vocalist as well as an “audience favorite” from previous guest turns with the NSO. Finally, there’s Jimmie Herrod, a Portland, Oregon-based jazz professor who regularly performs with Pink Martini. Herrod has “a ridiculous voice,” and “sings in Judy’s keys.” “I'm really excited to have him on board, doing this as well. I thought having a guy put his spin on these songs would be a nice touch.” — Doug Rule The NSO performs “50 Years Over The Rainbow: A Judy Garland Celebration” on Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, at 8 p.m., in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $24 to $99. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Holly Twyford, Craig Wallace, and Nancy Robinette lead a powerhouse cast in this clever and sharp “sequel” to the Ibsen classic, circa 1879 from contemporary playwright Lucas Hnath (currently represented on Broadway with Hillary and Clinton).

Nicole A. Watson directs a Round House Theatre production staged at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s secondary house while the Bethesda company’s venue undergoes a dramatic renovation. To June 30.

Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW. Call 202-547-1122 or visit www. roundhousetheatre.org.

A MISANTHROPE

Matt Minnicino’s new contemporary distillation of Molière's classic comedy The Misanthrope is the last show of WSC Avant Bard’s 29th season. Where the 17th-century original skewered the hypocrisy of the French aristocracy, A Misanthrope is set in the present, and further characterized per official publicity materials as “a send-up of trendy suck-ups and phonies during a booze-fueled pool party with the wealthy and wanna-be famous.”

The 90-minute intermission-less production is overseen by Megan Behm, directing a sizable 10-member cast including Sara Barker, Elliott Kashner, Thais Menendez, Tendo Nsubuga, and Hannah Sweet. To June 30. Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $40.

Call 703-418-4804 or visit www. wscavantbard.org.

CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL

Southwest D.C. once again serves as the hub for this year’s Capital Fringe, with seven stages set up at venues throughout the neighborhood, including Arena Stage and several area churches — all within easy walking distance of one another. Although festival organizers have curated a few professional shows it will officially present, including the first-out-the-gate Mike Daisey’s A People’s History (see separate entry), most Fringe shows are selected through an unjuried, open-invitation process — first-come, first-staged — with works largely created and produced by new or relatively inexperienced theatermakers. The festival kicks off on Tuesday, July 9, with nearly

3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md. Tickets are $17 to $23.

Call 301-699-1819 or visit www. joesmovement.org.

RIPCORD

Megan Thrift directs Keegan Theatre’s latest, a production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s dramatic comedy about a seemingly harmless bet between two old women that quickly escalates into a dangerous game of one-upmanship.

The setting is a sunny room on an upper floor in a senior living facility, which the cantankerous Abby (Deb Gottesman) had to herself before the arrival of the infuriatingly chipper Marilyn (Claire Schoovoner), setting the stage for the bet. Jared Shamberger, Kari Ginsburg, Oscar Ceville, and Robert Bowen Smith round out the cast. To July 6.

Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW. Call 202-265-3767 or visit www.keegantheatre.com.

DO THE RIGHT THING

Spike Lee’s joint from 1989 screens for a one-week-only run at the AFI Silver Theatre as a toast to its 30th anniversary with a new 4K restoration and exclusive behind-the-scenes pre-show montage. Do The Right Thing, which introduced the world to Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez, has been lauded by AFI as one of the greatest films of all time. And yet, because of its forthright examination of persistent racial tensions that stoke violence, it’s also one of “The 25 Most Controversial Movies Ever,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

It’s worth adding that Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power,” the hip-hop classic that was written for the movie as its theme song, also registers every bit as timely and provocative today as back then. Opens Friday, June 28. 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. Tickets are $13. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/afidocs.

20 shows running in staggered repertory to July 28. Tickets are $20 per show, and multi-show passes range from $72 to $500. Call 866811-4111 or visit www.capitalfringe. org. Pick up our July 11 issue for a full rundown of every show on offer this year.

FOREST TREÁS

Pointless Theatre presents a newly commissioned work devised by company member Navid Azeez and inspired by the Beltway Sniper from 2002, in which a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city decides to put cameras everywhere and live-stream what transpires. What could possibly go wrong? Directed

by Kelly Colburn, Forest Treás — pronounced as “Triage” — examines the unforeseen effects of the Information Age on a community in violent crisis. The setting has been described as “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood meets Dogville, with live video-streaming as a form of post-modern puppetry.” To June 30. Dance Loft on 14 Theater, 4618 14th St. NW 2nd Floor. Tickets are $15 to $32. Call 202-733-6321 or visit www.pointlesstheatre.com.

GREASE

you’d like to go back in time — all the way back to the 1950s — for Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s production of Grease, the hit musical circa 1971 by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical-writing duo set the show in a mid-20th century American high school — one where even cool kids can’t resist breaking out into the sing-along fun of such hit staples as “Summer Nights,” “You’re The One That I Want,” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” Mark Minnick directs and choreographs a that stars Matt Hirsh as Danny and Nicki Elledge as Sandy. To July 28. 5900 Symphony Woods Rd. Columbia, Md. Tickets are $47.50 to $63, including buffet-style dinner and coffee and tea. Call 301-5966161 or visit www.tobysdinnertheatre.com.

GREY GARDENS

Journey deep into the wild and wonderful walls of Grey Gardens, where it all began for the legendary mother-daughter duo, and follow along as they become the Edies, Big and Little. To July 13. Richmond Triangle Players, The Robert B. Moss Theatre, 1300 Altamont Ave. Richmond. Call 804-346-8113 or visit www.rtriangle.org.

Go for a drive up to Columbia if

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

HELLO, DOLLY

Tony-winning Broadway legend Betty Buckley (the original Grizabella in Cats) stars as Dolly Levi, following in the formidable footsteps of Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters (and way before them, Carol Channing and Barbra Streisand). The touring production of Jerry Herman’s masterpiece, per Jerry Zaks’ swell Tony-winning revival, now settles in for a monthlong run at the Kennedy Center.

Also starring Lewis J. Stadlen. To July 7. Opera House. Tickets are $49 to $159. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

PANTHEON

Celebrated local devised company Happenstance Theater explores ancient Greek mythology with its latest original work, with guest artist Craig Jaster generating a live musical score. The company’s founders Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell are joined by Gwen Grastorf, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Alex Vernon, and Craig Jaster as performers who regularly invoke the Muses, offer Sacrifice, suffer Hubris, consult Oracles, and meet Fate as they portray an array of mortals and gods whose flaws reflect their own. To July 1. Joe’s Movement Emporium,

THE CAT IN THE HAT

A rainy day is turned into a miraculous, mayhem-filled adventure in an adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic imported from across the pond, via the National Theatre of Great Britain. The theater for young audiences production out at Adventure Theatre-MTC in Glen Echo Park is directed by Adam Immerwahr, who has become known for works that are far more serious and adult in his day job as the artistic director of Theater J. Surely The Cat in the Hat is a nice change of pace, maybe even allowing him, to paraphrase from the late Mr. Geisel’s book, “good fun that is funny.” Now to Aug. 18. 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Call 301634-2270 or visit www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI

Both entertaining and provocative, Bertolt Brecht’s play is a powerful parable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, while also eliciting comparisons to those today seizing more power and control over us. Presented by Scena Theatre, the tale focuses on the meteoric rise of a small-time gangster in 1930s Chicago who ruthlessly disposes of his competitors to enrich himself and gain power. To July 14. Lab Theatre II in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $25 to $45. Call 202-399-7993 or visit www.atlasarts.org.

TWISTED MELODIES

A powerful one-man show — written and performed by Kelvin Roston, Jr. — based on the life of ’70s soul singer Donny Hathaway, which imagines the troubled and brilliant musician’s last day on Earth. Derrick Sanders directs the production for Mosaic Theater Company of DC in collaboration with Baltimore Center Stage,

Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $45.

Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www. wolftrap.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF URQUIAGA

JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: HENDRIK MEURKENS QUARTET, JOGO PROJECT

CHRIS URQUIAGA

A former Strathmore Artist-in-Residence, Urquiaga has made a gradual move away from classical compositions and into pop. Last summer, he served as music director for Signature Theatre’s cabaret “Everything Elvis” and also performed at the venerable Blues Alley. He’s released two pop albums — I’m Here and Complete — and calls his style of music a blend of pop with R&B and Latin influences, owing to his Brazilian and Peruvian heritage. Currently working on his third Latin pop album, Urquiaga is likely to give a sneak peek into some of his newer material at a concert at DC9 at the end of the month that features two other D.C.-based artists as opening acts. There’s the gritty rock/folk quintet Rock Creek Kings, which was formed by songwriters Evan Sharess, Jonah Belser, and Erich Collins and also features jazz saxophonist Christopher Lawrence and bassist Evan St. John. And there’s also Anjali Taneja, a jazzy/R&B artist of Indian descent who is in at least one sense following in Urquiaga’s footsteps: She’s a current Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore. Sunday, June 30. Doors at 7:30 p.m. 1940 9th St. NW. Tickets are $10. Call 202-483-5000 or www.dcnine.com.

Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre, and New York’s Apollo Theater.

To July 21. Lang Theatre in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $20 to $68.

Call 202-399-7993 or visit www. atlasarts.org.

MUSIC EN VOGUE

From the start, the Bay Area-formed girl group’s sound was fresh. Often playful and sassy, it drew from its early hip-hop era — think 1992’s “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” — and was always confident and empowering, courtesy of the group’s signature sound of tight vocal harmonies initially inspired by doo-wop (1992’s “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”). And unlike most other girl groups, En Vogue has always been about collaboration and teamwork. There has never been one member known as lead singer, and every member alternates between lead and back-

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ing vocal duties. (Just try to imagine Diana Ross or Beyonce agreeing to that.) Originally a quartet, En Vogue has been a trio the last few years, with Cindy Braggs, fellow founder Terry Ellis, and Rhona Bennett, who first joined the group in 2003. The trio returns to the area at the end of the month, or exactly four years after a Capital Pride performance that may have taken place during a steady downpour, yet no one’s spirits were dampened. The ladies definitely gave their all to make sure of that — and fans certainly felt it.

Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, at 8 p.m. Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $79.50 to $94.50, plus $20 minimum purchase per person.

Call 240-330-4500 or visit www. bethesdabluesjazz.com.

ERIC ROBERSON

Also known as Erro by family and fans, Philadelphia’s indie-soul singer-songwriter returns to the city of his alma mater, Howard University.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

He tours in advance of forthcoming new album LNS, which stands for Late Night Session, as well as in support of his 2017 trilogy of EPs Earth, Wind & Fire, paying homage to the ’70s group by way of all-original songs. Saturday, June 28, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $59. Call 202467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

JACKSON BROWNE

With hit songs from 30 and 40 years ago, including “Rock Me on the Water,” “The Pretender,” “Running On Empty,” and “Somebody’s Baby,” Jackson Browne helped pioneer a style of passionate, heartfelt rock that artfully expresses political and personal views. Coming in at No. 37 in Rolling Stone’s 2015 ranking of the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time,” Browne returns to Wolf Trap as an early birthday present to America. Wednesday, July 3. Gates open at 8 p.m. The Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551

A summertime staple for 19 seasons, the National Gallery of Art offers free outdoor concerts immediately after work every Friday through late August. Bands offering a range of jazz styles, from swing to Latin to ska, perform amidst the museum’s collection of large-scale sculptural works while patrons enjoy food and drinks, including beer, wine, and sangria, as sold by the Pavilion Café.

New menu items for 2019 include the popular vegetarian Teriyaki Impossible Burger, a Bahn Mi Turkey Burger with ginger soy aioli, and more traditional sandwiches of pulled pork and beef brisket, all available at grill stations throughout the Sculpture Garden. The series continues with the New York-based Hendrik Meurkens Quartet, named after the legendary German-born jazz harmonica player, on June 28, and D.C.’s JoGo Project, formed in 2014 by saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed and member of the Chuck Brown Band until the Godfather of Go-Go’s death in 2012, on July 5. Evenings from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

Sculpture Garden, between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-289-3360 or visit www.nga.gov.

NEWMYER FLYER’S LAUREL CANYON

A wide array of talented pop/folk vocalists from around the area are brought together to perform songs from the first golden age of California-based singer-songwriters circa the late 1960s to the early 1970s — including standards by the Mamas & Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, the Doors, Jackson Browne, the Byrds, and Frank Zappa. The concert will offer tributes to those legendary acts from the Kennedys, Margot Macdonald, Luke Brindley, Sara Curtin & Maureen Andary of the Sweater Set, Flo Anito, Timmie Metz, and Colin Sidley.

Also featured: Dave Ylvisaker, Dave Egelhofer, Tom Helf, Mike Mills, Brian Goddard, Buddy Griffin, Matt Spielman, and Elizabeth Lademan & Arch Alcantara. Saturday, June 29, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.

Tickets are $29.50. Call 703-5497500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

NSO POPS: HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE IN CONCERT

Steven Reineke leads the National Symphony Orchestra in a production of the first score in the J.K. Rowling franchise that was not written by the ubiquitous John

formed live — and of course never will, given the “bad blood” between Byrne and the others. The “antigenre indie pranksters” known as SeepeopleS and led by songwriter/producer Will Bradford open.

Saturday, June 29. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $18 to $25.50. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

DANCE

MIM ADKINS

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE: SWAN LAKE

LIVINGSTON TAYLOR

He’s the fourth of five in a family where pretty much everyone has worked as a musician or singer at some point and in some fashion — although none of them as famously as the second-born James. As it happens, James and Livingston work and perform together every now and then, and the two-years-older Taylor has even had a few hits with songs written

by Liv, including “I Can Dream of You” and “Boatman.” A longtime professor at Berklee College of Music, Livingston celebrated his 50th year in the music business in 2017 by releasing Safe Home, which includes both original tunes as well as covers of showtunes and standards, including “Over The Rainbow,” (an update of his original 1973 cover of the classic) “Penny Lane,” “People Will Say We’re In Love” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, and “Try To Remember” from The Fantasticks — any of which would sound great performed live. Friday, June 28. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $24.75 to $49.75. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

Williams, due to his unavailability. Instead, director Mike Newell hired Scottish composer Patrick Doyle to soundtrack 2005’s Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the eight-film series, which will be shown on a giant HD screen inside the Filene Center as well as on screens on the Wolf Trap lawn, all while the NSO performs. Meanwhile, Harry Potter fans are encouraged to dress as their favorite wizarding-inspired character. Friday, July 5, and Saturday, July 6, at 8:30 p.m. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $35 to $60. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www. wolftrap.org.

SERENADE! 9TH ANNUAL CHORAL FESTIVAL

Co-presented by Classical Movements Inc., the Kennedy Center offers a free festival of choral music featuring nine professional ensembles from around the world. The concerts this year reflect on the far-reaching cultural effects of migration, exile, and refuge per the Kennedy Center’s year-long, multi-venue series, “The Human Journey: Music,

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Migration & Identity.” The festival presents two Millennium Stage concerts: the first with France’s Barbara Furtuna, a mostly a cappella, Corsican polyphonic male quartet, and the Crystal Children’s Choir from San Francisco, especially known for performing Chinese folk songs and newly commissioned works, on Saturday, July 6; and the second with Germany’s Calmus, a 20-year-old organization carrying on the rich choral tradition of Bach’s and Mendelssohn’s hometown of Leipzig, Ecuador’s Choir Cedemusica, a children’s choir presenting Ecuadorian culture through indigenous wardrobes and songs, and Canada’s Toronto Beaches Children’s and Youth Chorus, focused on the stories and music of the First Nations of Canada, on Sunday, July 7. The festival closes with a Grand Finale Concert on Monday, July 8, in the Concert Hall featuring all five previously cited ensembles, plus Mexico’s Túumben Paax Female Vocal Sextet, performing pre-Hispanic music and modern arrangements of traditional folk song as well as contemporary

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

pieces, Chicago’s Anima-Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, the four-time Grammy-winning leader in the field of North American youth choruses, and the Mongolian/Iranian ensemble Sedaa, which includes two traditional Mongolian singers and two traditional Iranian instrumentalists performing music connecting the “genuinely exotic world between the Orient and Mongolian steppe.”

Each ensemble will perform individually and then join for the Serenade! mass choir led by Doreen Rao and the world-premiere performance of Refuge, a work by soprano and composer Patrice Michaels. All shows at 6 p.m. Kennedy Center.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

START MAKING SENSE W/SEEPEOPLES

Jon Braun leads this New Yorkbased seven-piece band that pays tribute to David Byrne by faithfully recreating the music of Talking Heads including the hits “Once In A Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House,” and “Psycho Killer,” as well as other songs the band never per-

New York’s ABT returns to Wolf Trap with the quintessential classic ballet, a romantic fable of ill-fated passion, dreamlike transformation, and ultimate forgiveness, set to Tchaikovsky. In addition to the awe-inspiring sight of seeing the corps de ballet moving in magical unison as swans — per artistic director Kevin McKenzie’s take on the classic choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov — each performance in the Filene Center features a different duo of principal dancers as the lovers Princess Odette and Prince Siegried: Hee Seo and Cory Stearns on Thursday, July 11, Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo on Friday, July 12, and Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell on Saturday, July 13. All performances at 8:30 p.m. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $25 to $80. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www. wolftrap.org.

COMEDY THE SECOND CITY: AMERICA; IT’S COMPLICATED

The legendary comedic troupe from Chicago returns to the Kennedy Center for another allnew, made-for-Washington politically minded show mixing sketch comedy, improv, satire, and original music. Mary Catherine Curran, Cody Dove, Jillian Ebanks, Jordan Savusa, Adam Schreck, and Holly Walker are the featured players for America; It’s Complicated. To Aug. 11. Theater Lab. Tickets are $49 to $59. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS STORY DISTRICT: OUT/SPOKEN

Out/Spoken: True Stories through an LGBTQ+ Lens is the full title to the 9th annual LGBTQ storytelling showcase from Story District, this year falling a month after pride and over the July 4th weekend.

Among the featured speakers this year: veteran Charles McCaffrey, who will share his experiences of serving in the military back when

gays and lesbians had to suppress their identities and emotions, from new romance to personal loss; young activist Charlotte Clymer, who famously fought back against anti-trans discrimination at Cuba Libre just last summer; and local comedian Chelsea Shorte, recounting a police encounter during which she had to quickly decide whether “acting feminine” would better help and protect her. Rayceen Pendarvis returns to host the show, directed by writer and filmmaker Phill Branch of Howard University.

Saturday, July 6. Doors at 8 p.m.

9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $25. Call 202-265-0930 or visit outspoken.splashthat.com.

of which date to the 19th century — are items of clothing belonging to Matthew Shepard, protest signs from gay rights activist Frank kameny, the first transgender pride flag, and even lesbian tennis pro Billy Jean King’s tennis dress. Now to Spring 2020. Exhibit is located on the second-floor of the National Museum of American History, 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. Admission is free. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanhistory.si.edu.

QUEER AS GERMAN FOLK: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF TRANSATLANTIC RAINBOW FRIENDSHIP

More than 40 artists and small presses will be on hand to sell their (largely paper-based) works — including books, ’zines, comics, prints, art, and creative knickknacks — at this third annual curated fair hosted at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Organized by the DC Art Book Collective, participants were chosen by a panel of judges And because the fair takes place as part of July’s Free Community Day, admission to the museum is also free that day.

Sunday, July 7, from noon to 5 p.m.

The Great Hall at 1250 New York Ave NW. Call 202-783-5000 or visit www.nmwa.org.

The Goethe-Institut Washington and the DC Center for the LGBT Community have teamed up for a joint, two-part exploratory exhibition featuring a hands-on deconstructed archive that visitors can browse at their own pace and according to their own interests.

The archive includes materials drawn from the Schwules Museum Berlin as well as D.C.-based archives and partner resources such as the Rainbow History Project, WhitmanWalker Health, local photographer Elvert Barnes, and the DC Public Library. The similarities and differences in the push for LGBTQ equality in both capitals will be highlighted. To Aug. 23. Goethe-Institut/ German Cultural Center, 1990 K St. NW. Ste. 03. Also The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW. Ste. 105. Free.

Visit www.goethe.de/washington and www.thedccenter.org.

HOT!

REFIK ANADOL: INFINITE SPACE

ART & EXHIBITS DC ART BOOK FAIR #3

The Focus Gallery of the Arlington Artists Alliance presents a group show featuring member artistic interpretations on the topical — and tropical — theme of summertime heat and humidity. The “sizzling artistry” — per the words of the organizers — will be on display in the air-conditioned comfort of the gallery, which is located in the Crystal City Shops. Also on display: Our National Mall in Color, a show featuring vivid depictions of national landmarks from watercolorist Tony Neville, the gallery’s featured artist of the month.

Opening Reception and Meet the Artists night is Friday, July 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition will be on display through July 26. Gallery Underground, 2100 Crystal Drive.

Call 571-483-0652 or visit www.galleryunderground.org.

ILLEGAL TO BE YOU: GAY HISTORY BEYOND STONEWALL

The National Museum of American History celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with a yearlong display of artifacts from the Smithsonian’s LGBTQ collections, intended to examine the complexity of LGBTQ history both before and after Stonewall. Among the objects, buttons and graphics in the special exhibit — some

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D.C.’s technology-focused art gallery ArTecHouse presents the first major retrospective of Refik Anadol, a thoroughly 21st-century-focused artist who uses data and computerized networks to create radical visualizations of our digitized memories, expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative, and the movement. Through site-specific, parametric data sculptures and immersive installations, the L.A.based Turkish artist helps rethink the physical world, our relationship to time and space, and the creative potential where humans and machines interact. The exhibition’s title derives from an infamous, internationally touring immersive installation featuring three infinity boxes and a selection of multimedia works spanning Anadol’s career. To Sept. 2. 1238 Maryland Ave. SW. Tickets are $13 to $20, with “after hours” sessions featuring a bar with exhibition-related Augmented Reality cocktails. visit www.artechouse.com.

STONEWALL AT 50: LGBTQ+ ACTIVISM IN THE UNITED STATES

The Library of Congress celebrates “LGBTQ+ Pride Month” with a new display commemorating the 50th

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Drawing from the papers of early LGBTQ rights pioneers Lilli Vincenz and Franklin Kameny, the exhibit puts that turning point in the LGBTQ movement in context with materials representing activism from the time periods before — those from the education-focused homophile movement of the 1950s — and after, or the more radical gay liberation movement. The display also includes flyers and ephemera from the very first pride event, the Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1970. On display through July 11. The Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE. Call 202-707-8000 or visit www. loc.gov/events.

WOMEN CELEBRATING WOMEN

Bethesda’s Triangle Art Studios honors the women’s suffrage movement and the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution with an exhibition and open house featuring studio artists Jill Newman, Maruja Quezada, Barbara Siegel, and Clare Winslow. Through June.

Cheval Condominium, 7711 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda. Call 301-215-6660 or visit www.bethesda.org.

ABOVE & BEYOND DAVID DIMITRI: THE ONE-MAN CIRCUS

With his latest feat, this veteran of Cirque du Soleil and the Big Apple Circus and an acrobat and highwire dancer that the New York Times has called the “Lord of the Wire,” isn’t just a circus act — he’s the whole darn show. Performed in an intimate, one-of-a-kind tent, L'homme Cirque is a one-man show featuring what Dimitri refers to as “unique magic” as he balances dramatic feats, such as high-wire flips or a human cannon launch, with humor, poetry, and accordion serenades. Strathmore welcomes Dimitri to help christen the Bernard Family Foundation Pavilion, the new addition to the Music Center.

To July 7. 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $20 to $33, or $75 for Opening Night VIP Reception and Meet & Greet. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

DC BLACK THEATRE & ARTS FESTIVAL

Now in its 9th year, this festival showcases local talent in practically all realms of the arts, performative as well as visual. This year’s event offers several live painting demonstrations from local mural and street artists. It also presents another film “festival within a festival,” featuring screenings and competitions in six film categories, including shorts, documentaries, and music videos. The primary focus, how-

ever, remains on theatrical works, including monologues and one-act plays, with competitions for both, plus the New Works Reading Series offering lightly staged readings, and full-length plays presented in the grouped categories: traditional, urban, and gospel stage plays. The festival runs through Friday, July 5, at venues including the Anacostia Playhouse (2020 Shannon Pl. SE.), THE ARC (1801 Mississippi Ave. SE), and the Anacostia Arts Center (1231 Good Hope Rd. SE). Visit www.dcblacktheatrefestival.com for more information.

SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL

Partly as a result of the prolonged government shutdown, organizers of this annual festival scaled things back from the usual twoweek to-do and concentrated things over one weekend with concerts highlighting the “social power of music.” The 53rd annual event kicks off at noon on Saturday, June 29, with an all-afternoon D.C. Music Preservation Pop-Up co-sponsored by DC Public Library Punk & Go-Go Archives and featuring hands-on activities, demonstrations, and performances, especially focused on the art and appreciation of D.C.’s homegrown go-go sound. There will also be a Local Record Label Market showcasing D.C.’s independent labels, including Crooked Beat, Dischord, and Electric Cowbell records plus Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. After a two-hour DC Bluegrass Union Jam comes the evening-length program “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Modern Troubadours, Poets, and Wordsmiths” featuring Ruby Ibarra, Quetzal ft. Alice Bag and La Marisoul, and Kokayi ft. Jenna Camille. Sunday, June 30, kicks off at 10:30 a.m. with the four-hour celebration “Smithsonian Folkways Family Concert Honoring the Legacy of Pete Seeger” in honor of what would have been the folk legend’s 100th birthday and featuring performances by The Bright Siders, Sonia De Los Santos, Dan & Claudia Zanes, and children’s music singer Elizabeth Mitchell and her group You Are My Flower.

There’s also the afternoon Baltics Song & Dance program, several 10-minute Community Sing sessions led by Nolan Williams, Jr., and then, at 5 p.m., concluding with “Hip-Hop: People, Places, and Things,” a performance and discussion with hip-hop legend and storyteller Grandmaster Flash.

This year’s festival takes place on the National Mall, with Jefferson Drive closed to traffic between 7th and 12th Streets S.W. Food and beverages will be available for purchase, but there won’t be a Festival Marketplace. Call 202-633-1000 or www.festival.si.edu for event details and schedule. l

Scene

Chef’s Best - Tuesday, June 11 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

GAGE SKIDMORE

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RIGHTFUL REFUND

Elizabeth Warren says gay couples should be refunded $57 million for tax returns filed before marriage equality. By Rhuaridh Marr

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EMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL SEN. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) believes that same-sex couples should be refunded money from tax returns filed prior to marriage equality.

Warren’s Refund Equality Act, introduced last week, would directly target married same-sex couples who were denied the same refund benefits as married heterosexual couples under the U.S. Tax Code. Prior to the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013, married same-sex couples were not allowed to file their tax returns jointly — even if their union was recognized in their home state.

NBC News estimates that up to $57 million in eligible refunds were lost due to the discrepancy — an amount Warren wants to see passed back to same-sex couples. She noted the discrepancy in refunds by referencing her home state of Massachusetts, where marriage equality became law in 2004.

“The federal government forced legally married samesex couples in Massachusetts to file as individuals and pay more in taxes for almost a decade,” Warren said in a statement. “We need to call out that discrimination and to make it right — Congress should pass the Refund Equality Act immediately.”

It’s particularly notable in Massachusetts, because after DOMA was repealed the IRS allowed same-sex couples to amend their tax returns to reclaim refunds for three years prior to the repeal. However, that left couples in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire short-changed — all passed marriage equality prior to 2010, the cut-off for the IRS’s three year refund backdate.

“It wasn’t until marriage equality became law that gay & lesbian couples could jointly file tax returns — so they paid more in taxes,” Warren said in a tweet. “Our government owes them more than $50M for the years our discriminatory tax code left them out. We must right these wrongs.”

Warren’s Refund Equality Act mirrors similar legislation the senator introduced in 2017, which was co-sponsored by 37 members of Congress but ultimately stalled in the Senate.

The new version of the presidential candidate’s legislation also complements similar legislation introduced in the House of Representatives last week by Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Andy Levin (D-MI). The Promoting Respect for Individuals’ Dignity and Equality (PRIDE) Act of 2019 would similarly allow same-sex couples who married prior to DOMA’s repeal to file for refunds.

“This bill will correct an older injustice against same-sex couples and put money directly back into the pockets of families who have earned it,” Chu said in a statement. “For too long, discriminatory laws penalized same-sex married couples by denying them the ability to file jointly and claim tax refunds they were entitled… Because of IRS restrictions, these couples cannot amend their returns to claim reimbursement credits for many prior tax years. The PRIDE Act solves this problem.”

Warren, no stranger to fighting for LGBTQ equality, also last week demanded to know why the Trump administration banned American embassies from flying Pride flags during Pride Month.

Eighteen senators, all Democrats, wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questioning the rationale behind the ban, as well as asking why the State Department had failed to recognize Pride Month or provide guidance on LGBTQ issues to American missions abroad.

At least four embassies in Germany, Israel, Brazil and Latvia requested permission to fly Pride flags on embassy flag poles, but were rejected by the State Department.

The department argued that only the American flag should fly on embassy flagpoles, a reversal on department policy under former President Barack Obama’s tenure.

Speaking earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News that it was “the right decision.”

“As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said. “We both feel that way very passionately, but when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.” l June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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theFeed

DASTARDLY DIOCESE

Indianapolis Archdiocese criticized after calling for firing of two gay Catholic schoolteachers. By John Riley

T

HE INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE is currently in the midst of purging gay teachers in same-sex marriages from its schools.

The Archdiocese has been criticized for forcing schools to fire the individuals in question, or otherwise revoke the schools’ ability to identify as “Catholic.”

Most recently, Cathedral High School was forced to fire a married gay teacher after Archbishop Charles Thompson ordered them to do so or risk forfeiting their “Catholic identity.” In a letter to the community, Cathedral High’s board of directors explained their decision to “separate from” the teacher.

“Archbishop Thompson made it clear that Cathedrals continued employment of a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage would result in our forfeiting our Catholic identity due to our employment of an individual living in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage,” the board wrote in the letter. “If this were to happen, Cathedral would lose the ability to celebrate the Sacraments as we have in the past 100 years with our students and community.

“Additionally, we would lose the privilege of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in our chapel’s tabernacle, we could no longer refer to Cathedral as a Catholic school, our diocesan priests would no longer be permitted to serve on our Board of Directors, and we would lose our affiliation with The Brothers of Holy Cross,” the letter continues.

“Furthermore, Cathedral would lose its 501(c)(3) status thus rendering Cathedral unable to operate as a nonprofit school.”

The decision to comply with Thompson’s demands by firing the teacher came one week after the archdiocese severed ties with Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School over its refusal to fire a teacher in a same-sex marriage. And last year, two teachers in same-sex marriages who taught at a third school, Roncalli High, were fired under similar circumstances, reports The New York Times.

In a statement on its website referring to the firing of one of the Roncalli employees last August, the archdiocese said that it had nothing to do with their sexual orientation, but Catholic Church teaching that marriage is a covenant, blessed by God, between a man and a woman. The statement said that employees of the archdiocese’s Catholic schools are expected, and obligated, to act as “ministers of the faith” who must “convey and be supportive” of the Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality. The archdiocese released a similar statement this week echoing those sentiments.

By choosing to retain the openly gay married teacher, thus forfeiting its “Catholic” identity, Brebeuf will no longer be formally recognized by the archdiocese as a Catholic school, bringing the number of formally recognized high schools down to 10. In a short video message posted to Facebook, School President Father Bill Verbryke announced the archdiocese’s decision to sever its relationship with the

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

school, but assured members of the school community that Brebeuf would continue to operate as an “independent, Catholic” school.

What makes Brebeuf unique from its fellow Catholic schools is that it is sponsored and run by the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order with a liberal reputation known for their emphasis on intellectual curiosity and questioning authority. Additionally, Brebeuf was never financially dependent on the archdiocese, thus allowing it a degree of freedom to defy the archbishop’s orders, whereas Roncalli and Cathedral were forced to comply when the archdiocese threatened to withdraw financial and institutional support.

New Ways Ministry, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ reconciliation and inclusion within the Catholic Church, praised Brebeuf for its “courageous” stance and decision to follow its conscience, even at the risk of being penalized by the archdiocese.

“In Catholic teaching, violation of conscience is one of the most serious errors one can commit, certainly more serious than any violation of sexual ethics,” Francis DeBernardo, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “They were faced with a choice: lose the name ‘Catholic’ or lose what it really means to be Catholic. They chose the path of conscience, integrity, and justice.”

DeBernardo, who notes that New Ways Ministry has catalogued over 80 similar cases of LGBTQ employment disputes in the Catholic Church, dating back to 2008, also criticized the archdiocese for its “punitive policies,” and said that the archdiocese and other church officials failed to understand that “firing LGBTQ teachers and pastoral ministers is a losing and self-defeating policy.”

“Instead of accomplishing the task of defending a narrow orthodoxy focused solely on sexuality and gender issues, firing LGBTQ church workers causes more and more Catholics to see that the Church’s teaching on these matters does not reflect human reality or the mercy of God,” he said.

“And these leaders ignore the demands of the Church’s social justice teaching, so clear to Catholics in the pews, that every person’s human dignity must be respected.”

DeBernardo added that the move could potentially alienate Catholics, particularly younger generations who value tolerance for LGBTQ individuals.

“Having already faced an uproar from the Brebeuf situation, the archdiocese would have been wise to avoid a second conflagration by having another LGBTQ employee fired. They did not,” he said. “They should have chosen the path of pastoral reconciliation with a community already hurting, instead of exacerbating the wounds and extending them to yet another school community. Grave pastoral harm has been done, and it is now up to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to reverse its decisions, and help heal the damage that they have created.” l

Community THURSDAY, June 27

The DC Center holds a roundtable discussion as part of its

COMING OUT DISCUSSION GROUP on the second Tuesday and fourth Thursday of each month. This group is for those navigating issues associated with coming out and personal identity. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

LGBTQ square-dancing group, features an opportunity to learn about and practice various forms of modern square dancing. No partner required. Please dress casually. 7:30-9:30 p.m.

National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members.

All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@gmail.com.

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar.

For more information, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY BROWNING

The DC ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT, a group dedicated to combating anti-LGBT hate crimes, holds its monthly meeting at The DC Center. The meeting is open to all and the public is encouraged to attend.

7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

SHOWING PRIDE

Annapolis hosts its first-ever Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 29.

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AVING A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND OFFICIAL PRIDE celebration is a big development for Annapolis,” says Jeremy Browning. “There were no Pride flags in Annapolis, and now you’re starting to see them pop up everywhere.”

Browning and several friends first came up with the idea for Annapolis Pride at the start of 2018. They went to Mayor Gavin Buckley and asked for an official proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month, and held a small celebration.

Buckley’s office then suggested holding an official parade and festival in 2019, which the organizers set about planning.

“Our mission is to celebrate, engage, and unite the local LGBTQ community,” says Browning. “We want to build community, and increase visibility and awareness.

Previously, the community wasn’t unified. It was very fragmented and there was no infrastructure. But now with social media, we’re able to come together in a way we couldn’t before.”

The parade, which will feature about 50 different marching contingents, will kick off from the intersection of Amos Garrett Boulevard and West Street at noon on Saturday, June 29. The parade will proceed down West Street and Calvert Street. The Pride Festival, featuring 80 different vendors, will be held in the block along West Street between Calvert Street and Church Circle, and at Whitmore Urban Park, from noon to 5 p.m. Performers at the festival stage include Al Rogers, Third Sunday Band, Mac + Blue, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, and Priddy Music Academy.

While Annapolis and the surrounding Anne Arundel County have reputations for being socially conservative, the Pride celebration has attracted a significant amount of support from the local community.

“So many residents who live here say, ‘It’s so great I can be myself where I live,’” says Browning. “I never thought I’d see the day when I saw Pride flags flying on West Street.

And with the city’s blessing.” —John Riley The Annapolis Pride Parade and Festival is Saturday, June 29 from Noon to 5 p.m. For locations of events and more information, visit www.annapolispride.org.

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:30-5 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment, call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker Lane,

Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703-823-4401.

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-849-8029.

STI TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www. whitman-walker.org.

US HELPING US hosts a

Narcotics Anonymous Meeting.

The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100.

FRIDAY, June 28 CAMP REHOBOTH holds its annual CAMP FAMILIES WEEKEND outing on June

28-30. The weekend kicks off with a much-needed Parents Night Out (babysitting services provided by the YMCA).

Saturday’s events include a boat ride, storytime at the Rehoboth Public Library, time on the beach, a bonfire around dusk, and a night trip to Funland on the boardwalk. Sunday morning begins with brunch, free time, dinner, and drag bingo at CAMP Rehoboth Community Center and another trip to Funland. Dolphin watching boat tour costs $20 and departs from Anglers Fishing Center, 213 Anglers Road, Lewes, Del.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Arrive no later than 9:45 a.m. on Saturday. Beach bonfire and dinner costs $10 per person. For tickers and more information, visit www. camprehoboth.com.

GAMMA is a confidential, volun-

tary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman.

7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

The DC Center holds its CENTER AGING MONTHLY LUNCH for members of D.C.’s senior community. Participants take part in a group yoga class, with lunch served afterwards. Class is open to all skill levels, abilities, and mobility. 12-2 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or call 202-682-2245.

The DC Center’s TRANS SUPPORT GROUP provides a space to talk for transgender people and those who identify outside of the gender binary. 7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social discussion and

6th St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBT-

affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-3190422, www.layc-dc.org.

SMYAL’S REC NIGHT provides a

social atmosphere for LGBT and questioning youth, featuring dance parties, vogue nights, movies and games. 4-7 p.m. For more info, email rebecca.york@smyal.org.

SATURDAY, June 29 HOPE DC, a support group for

HIV-positive gay men and allies, hosts a MONTHLY SOCIAL at a private home. 7-10 p.m. For address and more information, call 202670-1792 or visit www.hopedc.org.

Join BallstonGives and AGLA in celebrating Pride Month with a PRIDE DRAG BRUNCH featuring live performances by Miss Gay Arlington 2019 Deja Diamond and ohers at Punch Bowl Social. Open to the public, but RSVP preferred.

12-4 p.m. 4238 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1180, Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.agla.org.

The DC Center holds a

FACILITATOR TRAINING session

activity group for queer women, meets at The DC Center on the second and fourth Friday of each month.

Group social activity to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

for those interested in leading discussions and serving as a facilitator for any of The DC Center’s community support groups. 12-2 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, email justin@ thedccenter.org or visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events

Weekly Events

BET MISHPACHAH, founded by

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m.

1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a prac-

tice session at Howard University.

6:30-8 p.m. Burr Gymnasium, 2400

26

practice session at Montgomery College Aquatics Club. 8:30-10 a.m.

7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For more information, visit www. swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environ-

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

ment, with socializing afterwards.

Route distance will be 3-6 miles.

Walkers meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

include sorting through book donations, taking inventory, or assembling safe-sex packets. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

SUNDAY, June 30

TUESDAY, July 2

ADVENTURING outdoors group

Join Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ synagogue, for a BOARD GAME NIGHT at The DC Center.

New classics like Qwirkle and Blockus will be on hand, as well as old favorites like Monopoly.

This group is open to all who are interested in connecting with other queer Jews in a fun atmosphere.

Light snacks will be provided.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite games and snacks as well. 6:30-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.betmish.org or www. thedccenter.org.

hikes 9.5 moderately strenuous miles in Rock Creek Park, starting at the Van Ness Metro and ending in Silver Spring, Md. Optional trip to LGBT-owned brewery follows.

Bring plenty of water, snacks, sturdy hiking boots, bug spray, sunscreen, and the $2 trip fee. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the top of the Metro escalators on the eastern side of Connecticut Avenue near Van Ness Street. For more information, contact Jeff, 301-775-9660, or visit www.adventuring.org.

CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

visits the National Gallery of Art to see its exhibition on the American Pre-Raphaelite Painters of the late 19th century. Free. Lunch in the Gallery’s Cascades Cafe. Meet at noon inside the 6th and Constitution Avenue NW lobby of the Old (West) Building. For more information, contact Craig, 202-462-0535 or craighowell1@verizon.net.

WEDNESDAY, July 3

MONDAY, July 1

JOB CLUB, a weekly support pro-

CENTER AGING, an LGBTQ

seniors group of The DC Center, will hold its MONTHLY ADVOCACY MEETING to gauge feedback on The Center’s programs and services for older adults, and see what other issues may need to be addressed. This meeting will be immediately after the Center’s regularly scheduled weekly Coffee Drop-In from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. (See weekly listings below.) 12:30-1:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

The DC Center holds a monthly VOLUNTEER NIGHT for those interested in giving back to the local LGBTQ community. Activities

BOOKMEN DC, an informal men’s

gay-literature group, discusses Craig M. Loftin’s Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America at the Cleveland Park Library. All are welcome. 7:30 p.m.

3310 Connecticut Ave. NW. Visit www.bookmendc.blogspot.com. gram for job entrants and seekers, will hold a special U.S. CENSUS BUREAU JOB FAIR. Gregory Entwhistle from the Census Bureau will be here to answer any questions about open positions, and attendees will have the chance to apply for those jobs online and receive assistance with their online applications.

6-7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more info, email centercareers@thedccenter.org or visit www.thedccenter.org/careers.

The LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB meets at the Dignity Center, across from the Marine Barracks, for Duplicate Bridge. No reservations needed.

Newcomers welcome. 7:30 p.m. 721 8th St. SE. Call 202-841-0279 if you need a partner.

THURSDAY, July 4 Happy Fourth of July!

ADVENTURING outdoors group

sponsors its Ninth Annual Independence Day Hike, an easy 5-mile hike on the C&O Canal Towpath and nearby trails near Great Falls Tavern, Md. Bring beverages, a picnic lunch, sunscreen, bug spray, and a few dollars for fees.

For more info, contact Jeff, 301-7759660, or visit www.adventuring.org.

FRIDAY, July 5 GAY DISTRICT, a group for

GBTQQI men between the ages of 18-35, meets on the first and third Fridays of each month. 8:30-9:30 p.m. The DC Center. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.gaydistrict.org.

Join LGBTQ people all over the D.C. area for GoGayDC’s monthly

FIRST FRIDAYS HAPPY HOUR SOCIAL at Pinzimini Lounge in

the Westin Arlington Gateway.

Ballston Metro is two blocks away.

Free to attend. Everyone welcome.

6:30-8:30 p.m. 801 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.gogaydc.org.

SATURDAY, July 6 ADVENTURING outdoors group

hikes 9 miles with 2600 feet of elevation gain at Buck Hollow/Mary’s Rock/Buck Ridge in a portion of Shenandoah National Park. Bring plenty of beverages, lunch, snacks, sturdy hiking boots, sunscreen, bug spray, and a few dollars for fees. For more info, contact Jeff, 301-7759660, or visit www.adventuring.org.

Join Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ synagogue, for an informal PARSHA BRUNCH and discussion of this week’s Torah portion.

Bagels will be served. 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The DC Center, 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

SUNDAY, July 7 Weekly Events LGBT-inclusive ALL SOULS

MEMORIAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH

celebrates Low Mass at 8:30 a.m., High Mass at 11 a.m. 2300 Cathedral Ave. NW. 202-232-4244, www.allsoulsdc.org.

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

Catholic Mass for the LGBT community. All welcome. Sign interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more information, visit www.dignitywashington.org.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST wel-

G St. NW. For more info, visit www. firstuccdc.org or call 202-628-4317.

HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria.

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

INSTITUTE FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, God-centered

new age church & learning center.

Sunday Services and Workshops event. 5419 Sherier Place NW. Visit www.isd-dc.org.

LUTHERAN CHURCH OF REFORMATION invites all to

Sunday worship at 8:30 or 11 a.m.

Childcare is available at both services. Welcoming LGBT people for 25 years. 212 East Capitol St. NE. Visit www.reformationdc.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

services at 9 a.m. (ASL interpreted) and 11 a.m. Children's Sunday School at 11 a.m. 474 Ridge St. NW. For more info, call 202-638-7373 or visit www.mccdc.com.

RIVERSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH,

a Christ-centered, interracial, welcoming-and-affirming church, offers service at 10 a.m. 680 I St. SW. For more info, call 202-5544330 or visit www.riversidedc.org.

UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ARLINGTON, an LGBTQ welcom-

ing-and-affirming congregation, offers services at 10 a.m. Virginia Rainbow UU Ministry. 4444 Arlington Blvd. For more info, visit www.uucava.org.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

invites LGBTQ families and individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire Ave. For more info, visit www.uucss.org.

MONDAY, July 8 The YOUTH WORKING GROUP of The DC Center holds a monthly meeting focusing on upcoming projects and initiatives aimed at positively impacting the lives of D.C. area LGBTQ youth. 6-7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org/youth.

WEDNESDAY, July 10 The DC Center hosts a GET

EMPOWERED! SELF-DEFENSE WORKSHOP on how to defend

yourself if you are verbally or physically harassed. Open to women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people ages 16 and up.

6:30-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. To register, or for more information, visit www.defendyourself.org. l

comes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Forum

THE SPARK OF STONEWALL A half-century ago, an Uprising took hold in New York City, creating a movement.” By Dana Beyer

night), while the images today during Pride are in OLEDquality color. The lights of sirens, street lights and trashcan fires in the black night contrast with the vivid polychrome parade-goers of today. I can see that night, and still even feel it, but I now find them hard to grasp, the way the aging vets of the Uprising appear increasingly incorporeal during their interviews.

I suppose all history is like that, particularly when you not only lived in the time under consideration but were present at the events. I was in awe of the veterans who visited the beaches of Normandy this year, and I feel the same way about those who not only had enough that night in 1969 to do something about it, but were willing and eager to organize and channel that frustration to create a movement.

One irony is the profusion of articles about the anniversary in The New York Times, my hometown paper. Today they can’t seem to publish enough — fifty years ago, they didn’t report on the Uprising until two days later. But, critically, they did report, and it was the first time the national media took significant and persistent note of the LGBTQ community.

That’s why Stonewall is considered the beginning — it was the first time America became aware of something that was more than a local melee. Cooper’s Donuts, Compton’s Cafeteria, the Black Cat, Frank Kameny and friends in front of the White House — all were important, but their actions didn’t reverberate across the country. Stonewall did, and was then branded as “the first.” So now it is.

As an accidental veteran of DANA BEYER / FACEBOOK

A

S I WANDERED AMONG THE CROWD AT THE Dyke March during DC Pride weekend, grateful that the crisis over Jewish participation and Zionist iconography had been resolved, I was struck by a number of feelings. I had been celebrating these moments in public for twenty-five years, and the edginess had transformed into comfort — and, I will admit, some boredom. I saw familiar faces, old veterans, and new families, as well as some first-timers who were visibly thrilled to be present.

And that was just the Dyke March on Friday night, not the much larger Pride Parade the following afternoon.

The most profound feeling, though, was the gratitude I felt for just being alive, to both observe this moment and experience it. In the new Netflix reunion series of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, Ysela (Daniela Vega, of A Fantastic Woman fame) asks Anna Madrigal (Jen Richards, in a 1966 flashback of the Olympia Dukakis character) how she, Ysela, a 26-year-old, will be able to survive to age 40 as Anna has done. She states that, in her community in San Francisco, trans women rarely live to that age.

My sense is that is still too common a feeling today, but more people than ever are alive and out. It was not hard for me during Pride to flash back to that Saturday night, a half-century ago, on June 28, 1969, when I was on Seventh Avenue in lower Manhattan during the Stonewall Uprising.

My panic tinged with exhilaration then, in contrast to unadorned satisfaction today.

My memories are in black and white (it helps that it was

“Stonewall is considered the beginning. It was the first time America became aware of something that was more than a local melee.”

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

29

Forum that spark — one who has long been in awe of the Anna Madrigals and Yselas who lived their truth back during dark days, and is grateful to be alive, having lived through a personal trauma when it was literally touch-and-go for me — this last half-century means a great deal to me. I’m glad I chose to live. I’m glad I found the strength to survive and personally rise up and contribute. And as a Jewish woman whose ancestors dreamed of return and liberation and freedom for two thousand years, I’m stunned by the rapidity and tenacity of the progress over the course of my lifetime.

We in America are living through dark days, but they are dark for all Americans, not just the LGBTQ community.

Yes, the trans community, in particular, is often singled out for hateful rhetoric and discarded guidance and regulation. But our legal advocates are handling those federal actions, the law is still on the side of a majority of LGBTQ Americans, and while our movement leaders need to do a better job countering the hate speech, we have a lot more friends than ever.

It has been noted that the “gay rights movement” has been more successful in a shorter period of time than any other civil or human rights movement. It’s an interesting question as to why, but that question doesn’t change the fact that it has happened and is real. There are still problems, some severe in a number of our sub-communities, but we’re able, with sufficient will, to tackle them today because of the journey that led to this moment.

We should thank the men and women who first organized in the dark in the ’50s and ’60s; the men who composed the

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance and, with all their faults, created a movement; those who had homosexuality and then gender identity disorder excised from American psychiatry, and then the law; and the women who nursed the ill and dying and rose to community participation and leadership.

Finally, thank the trans women who pushed back against our future allies at the inception, and then created their own street presence which became a movement in the next generation, joining the greater gay community and rising to advocate on the Hill and in state legislatures — and even join a legislature and council in recent times.

As a result, fifty years after Stonewall, and 45 years after a limited version was first introduced, the House of Representatives passed a revision to the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add the queer community to its protections.

That it was a no-brainer is testament to the distance we’ve traveled from Stonewall. l Dana Beyer is the recently retired executive director of Gender Rights Maryland. She has served on numerous regional and national LGBTQ boards, led the campaigns to pass the Maryland gender identity bills, and was instrumental in having Gender Identity Disorder removed from the DSM in 2011.

She can be reached at danamd@danabeyer.com.

The opinions expressed in Forum do not necessarily reflect those of Metro Weekly or its employees. Add your voice to Forum. Learn how at www.metroweekly.com/forum.

Scene

DC Center’s Vigil Against the Violence at Dupont Circle - Friday, June 21 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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50 ON

STONEWALL

To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, fifty members of the LGBTQ community (and a few allies) talk about what the uprising meant to them, how things have improved, and where the future of the movement lies.

A Metro Weekly Forum.

Introduction by John Riley

T

HE SPARK STARTED WITH A POLICE RAID. Fifty years ago, when the queer patrons of New York’s Stonewall Inn left their homes for a night on the town, they could not have predicted that they would be remembered and honored by generations of LGBTQ people. For them, the riots that followed a police raid in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, were a natural, perhaps even inevitable, reaction to an occupying force that frequently invaded the places where they sought refuge, pushing them beyond the breaking point.

Tempers flared. Bottles were hurled. And police clashed with Stonewall’s patrons, as well as the homeless youths who came to their aid. The skirmishes that ensued over the next few days would awaken a revolutionary spirit within the LGBTQ community across the country — people who, perhaps for the first time, began to realize they did not have to accept mistreatment at the hands of police, the government, or the greater society in which they lived.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

While LGBTQ people, under the leadership of Frank Kameny and others like him, had peacefully picketed outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and the White House earlier in the decade, the Stonewall Riots marked the first time in recent memory that the community had pushed back with such force.

Within a few years of the riots, LGBTQ advocacy groups and political clubs began sprouting up in cities across America.

While the riots were the match that set the world aflame, the kindling that twirled the fire had been in place for some time.

Centuries of queer people, many closeted, were forced to suffer indignities, both small and large, stemming from years of secretive relationships, torment, and abuse by their fellow citizens, violence at the hands of police, social ostracization, and even a coordinated campaign by the U.S. government to purge known homosexuals from all federal service jobs.

Even in the decades following Stonewall, while the existence of LGBTQ people could not be disputed, we were all too often

ignored or outright rejected. Yet we persisted, even as our cries for equal treatment fell — and, in some instances, continue to fall — on deaf ears. Whether it was the blind eye turned to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the demonization of the community as degenerates during the culture wars of the 1990s, or even the flood of same-sex marriage bans approved by voters in the early 2000s, LGBTQ people and our allies have proven indefatigable and resilient.

In recent years, we have enjoyed several successes, including the repeal of a ban on gay military service, the legalization of marriage equality, and a host of federal court decisions recognizing the dignity of LGBTQ people. But recent actions have proven that many of the freedoms we enjoy are merely an election or a Supreme Court decision away from being removed. It will be up to future activists to preserve the community’s place within society.

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, 50 prominent local and national figures shared their reflections of the anniversary, the changes they’ve seen in their lives, and the evolution of the modern-day civil rights movement. What follows are highlights from their responses, providing testament to how far we’ve come, and how far we still have to travel along the path to not just nominal equality, but full, lived equality.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT STONEWALL? WHAT DOES STONEWALL MEAN TO YOU? BA’NAKA, 34, Queer, Entertainer: It was the mid-nineties. I must

have been 10 or 11, and I came across a movie called Stonewall.

All I knew about gay was that it was bad, shameful, and it was how you got AIDS — oh, and that I might just be one. That movie told the tale of a group of transwomen and queens who, on that fateful night had had enough, and took a stand. Sure, the movie was campy and had a cis white male lead, but the story was there and for once I was shown LGBTQ people in a powerful light.

Stonewall for me will always be that moment in our history where we said “NO MORE, NOT HERE, NOT NOW!” NICK BENTON, Newspaper Editor: I came out just prior to

Stonewall in San Francisco with the help of an existing gay advocacy organization, the Council for Religion and the Homosexual.

Most of us in the West did not hear much about Stonewall for at least six months. To us, it was just part of the ongoing unfolding of our movement that was being fueled by the civil rights and anti-war movements. Nonetheless, there is no doubt, in retrospect, that Stonewall was a turning point and led to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front, of which I was a co-founder in Berkeley, and of a gay press, including the Gay Sunshine in Berkeley, for which I wrote the editorial in its first edition.

KEITH BOYKIN, 53, Gay, Author: I first heard about Stonewall

after I came out in 1991 and learned about LGBTQ history. For me, Stonewall is a symbol of resistance against oppression and a reminder of the power we have when we fight for liberation.

I'm proud that trans women of color like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera helped to lead that fight.

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER, 30, Transgender, Media Relations

Manager: Stonewall holds a central place in the history of LGBTQ people in this country, but I worry it's in danger of being sanitized to the point of futility. We as a country have a habit of gentrifying our memories of specific events. Labor Day is no

longer about the importance of workers, but about cookouts.

Stonewall and Pride, too, are quickly losing their historic intention and being replaced by parades, banners, and marketing.

YUVAL DAVID, Gay-Bi-Queer, Actor/Filmmaker: The historic

Stonewall Riot and the history of the LGBTQ Community was first introduced to me as a student in U.S. history class at the Jewish Day School. We discussed Equal Rights and how that battle is one that we must all stand up for in representing our fellow citizens. I assumed this was part of a “normal” education in U.S. schools. It saddened me when I found out that other kids at other schools were not exposed to that part of U.S. history.

H. LEE GABLE, 58, Gay, Producing Artistic Director for Rainbow

Theatre Project: Stonewall means to me that a person can only take so much abuse before you fight back. Stonewall means standing up for oneself, no matter how scared you might be.

JACK GERARD, 65, Gay, Retired: Stonewall eventually led to so

many monumental things: the reversal of the psychological definitions of various sex-identity mental illnesses. It led to opening the dialogue about what queer people could freely be, without fear of reprise, job and housing discrimination, and/or imprisonment. It led to compassionate treatment of people with AIDS, Marriage Equality, and so many more victories.

EDWARD HARPER, 48, Gay, Program Specialist: I first heard about

Stonewall as a twentysomething in NYC for the first time. At the time when it was explained to me by a peer it was framed in the context of white gays only. As I have grown older, I quickly have come to understand that it was about gays, period! The fact that trans women, men, and POCs were at the front of the event and have become poster children makes it even more valuable to all who identify as LGBTQ. It means that as a gay male I am able to be my authentic self and know that I have value and should continue to fight for my rights.

SHIN INOUYE, 40, Gay, Communications: I don’t remember

when I first heard about Stonewall, but it has certainly come to represent one of the first main acts of civil disobedience for the LGBTQ community. It was an incident when a community that had long been oppressed said enough is enough. But it’s important to remember it wasn’t the first protest. Four years earlier, Frank Kameny, who was fired from his government job for being gay, led a protest outside the White House. It was touching that at his first Pride event at the White House, President Obama recognized him, saying, “Frank was fired from his job as an astronomer for the federal government simply because he was gay. And in 1965, he led a protest outside the White House, which was at the time both an act of conscience but also an act of extraordinary courage.” All these events are part of the larger struggle.

ANTHONY LECOUNTE, 30, Gay, Student: I first heard about Stonewall as an iconic part of LGBTQ culture after I went to college in New England. I had never learned anything about LGBTQ history, culture, or identity before then, so I didn’t understand the reference and for a long time was too embarrassed to ask. Part of that embarrassment, beyond how everybody else seemed to be “in the know,” was that I was confused.

As a Southern kid who graduated from high school in Virginia, the only “Stonewall” I knew of was Stonewall Jackson, and I could not for my life figure out why all those Northern gays were so obsessed with him.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

33

LINDA LEWIS, 64, Lesbian, Left of Center Productions: Back in the

’70s, I heard about what was going on in NYC and the uprising of the Gay Movement, but never really understood until the ’80s and ’90s what this was all about. I never understood why our own community did not support the trans community and the bisexual community, for that matter. We all need to support each other and learn to accept everyone’s differences.

EILEEN MAXWELL, 62, Ally, Public Relations Professional: I first

head about Stonewall over 14 years ago when the Hirshhorn Museum had an exhibition on gay protest signs and art. I was horrified. Stonewall became very personal for me when I befriended Jack seven years ago — he had been part of the Stonewall protests themselves. His firsthand accounts shook me to the core.

TAISSA MORIMOTO, 28, Queer, Policy Counsel at The Task Force: I

first heard about Stonewall when I was in college, but my understanding of the riot and what it means to me changes every year.

To me, Stonewall means resilience. It means fighting for our lives because we have to. It's about community — about people in the LGBTQ community who are experiencing the greatest hardships. It's about coming together for justice and equity.

WILL O’BRYAN, 49, Gay, Operations Manager at MetroNando/

RLAH Real Estate: I started building an idea of the Stonewall Riots in high school, via mentions in news magazines like Time or Newsweek. Reading any mention of Stonewall was really powerful to me, realizing I was born the same weekend. My mom had always called me a “moon baby” because I was born a couple weeks before the moon landing. I made my own identity as a “Stonewall baby.”

DOMINION ONYX, 48, Gay, Program Manager: Stonewall stands as

a constant reminder to me that sometimes we have to fight for our rights in the face of a society that continues to find ways to chip away at them. I think about the courage of those black and brown gay, lesbian, and trans people who fought for our rights to exist. Stonewall is a reminder not to let your history be erased, because mainstream gay culture has tried to erase those people from the movement.

PHILIP PANNELL, 68, Gay, Executive Director of a Non-Profit

Organization: I attended Fordham University in New York City and I used to hang out in Greenwich Village in 1968 and 1969. I was aware of how resentment was building toward the police because of the way they treated gays in the bars. On the night of the Stonewall Riot, I was in the Bon Soir, a gay bar a few blocks from the Stonewall Inn. I remember someone running into the bar shouting that the Stonewall was being raided and that some of the patrons were fighting with the police. Many of us in the Bons Soir rushed out toward the Stonewall. I remember the crowd gathering and the shouts of support for those fighting the police. I remember some folks in the crowd throwing pennies at the police and shouting how the cops were paid off by the Mafia.

NEAL RACIOPPO, 50, Ally, Director of Marketing: In 1988, I was

a freshman at UCLA and my friend John invited me to stage manage a production of Torch Song Trilogy he was directing.

Shortly thereafter, I learned he was gay. I was a young, straight, theater kid with absolutely no gaydar whatsoever. I was completely shocked. John and I went out to a diner that served tiny ice cream sundaes and we ate about 30 of them while he gave 34

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

me a crash course in gay America — everything from his own personal coming out story to the coming out stories of friends.

He told me about Harvey Fierstein and the importance of Torch Song, what bathhouses were, how Bette Midler started there, the AIDS epidemic, the quilt, Liberace, Rock Hudson, Tennessee Williams, the significance of the gay community being visible, how gay men were the first targets in the Holocaust, how he could be out but his boyfriend wasn't ready to be and, perhaps most importantly, why Jennifer Holiday's “And I am Telling You” is the greatest fucking show tune of all time. He also taught me about the Stonewall Riots and how they happened right after Judy Garland had died. The police came to fuck with the queers like they always did and the queens were not having it. I like that part of the story. How everyone was in mourning for Judy and they weren't going to let the cops disrespect her memory, so they stood up to them. That's fierce.

MARY SNIDER, 56, Lesbian, Insurance Agency Owner: Stonewall

means the world to me. Courage, resistance, empowerment, pride. We owe the Stonewall activists a debt of gratitude that cannot be overstated. It is a debt that cannot be repaid except in one way: to ensure we continue to improve the lives of the LGBTQ community, so that we don't ever have to experience oppression and violence towards us like that ever again. We cannot go back.

RICH TAFEL, 57, Gay, Pastor, Social Impact Investor: Stonewall

holds a sense of historic respect. However, it also frustrates me. Knowing LGBTQ history, I know about Harry Hay and the Radical Fairies, George Kamney and Mattachine Society and Barbara Gittings of Daughters of Bilitis. There were so many people taking personal risk to advocate for our rights that are forgotten. So it frustrates me that a police raid, which is terrible, eclipses the rest of history because it is dramatic. I'm glad I got to know a few of these and many other icons. Many of the bravest were those in who came out in the gay conservative movement.

Stonewall is great, but let's not forget those who preceded it.

DEVON TROTTER, 35, Life Coach/DJ: I can't remember when I

first heard about Stonewall, but it almost feels as if the event is embedded in my DNA. Much like being gay, it was there, and I just didn't know what it was. It finally hit home for me in 1999 when I was 15 and there was a news story about the anniversary of the riots. At that point I had already begun exploring my sexuality, and felt very secure in it. And learning about the riots made me secure in my queerness. I was always “alternative.” Black, poor, gay, skater, surfer, raver kid. Stonewall validated my subversiveness and confirmed that I was part of something much larger than I could conceive at that point in my life.

DAVID WINER, 59, Gay, Restaurant Operator: I was in my late

teens, just coming out, had heard of the riots but not a lot of info.

Being gay in Boston and NYC in the late ’70s was easy and fun.

Stonewall, though just a decade earlier, seemed very distant.

ROBERT YORK, 51, Gay, Director of Development, NMAC:

Stonewall is vitally important to our history and the uprising for our rights as LGBTQ citizens in the United States. Female impersonators have always been on the front lines speaking up, acting out and raising money for our community in the times we needed them the most and they used their artform and platforms to fight for equality and justice with their transgender activists as well.

STONEWALL WAS A SANCTUARY FOR MANY LGBTQ PEOPLE. IN 2019, WHERE DO YOU FEEL SAFE AS AN LGBTQ PERSON?

ings more. I mostly feel safe, but I’m thinking that’s changing.

BA'NAKA: Fifty years after Stonewall I feel my safest and truest

munity, a popular phrase was “Home is where the Army sends us.” I feel similarly about safety with LGBTQ people: Home is where the community is. In an obvious sense, that means overt LGBTQ spaces like gay bars, clubs, and so on. But it also means any space, including house parties, churches, hiking trips, guerrilla queer bars, Pride events, where there is a critical mass of LGBTQ family to create the sense of belonging and rootedness that is evocative of what home should be.

self in gay bars. To be surrounded by your community in shining lights, dancing and laughter. It's a place of celebration, of union.

It's my version of church, I exercise my demons on the dance floor, the DJ is my Choir, the Drag Queen my confessional, and I have plenty of Saints to pray to — the Blessed Mother Madonna, Beyonce, Britney, Gaga, Ariana....

NICK BENTON: The Stonewall Inn was one of a number of gay

bars in the Village, but unique for allowing go-go dancers and dancing. It was a haven as part of a wider environment for so many displaced youth in that time, but on the downside, the bar was run by the mob, which also used it for money laundering and underage prostitution/blackmail operations. After the riots, a key element of the gay organizing was to kick the mob out of the gay scene, but it gave way when the mob tried to co-opt it by, among other things, changing the direction of the Pride marches so that they would end, rather than begin, in the Village and add tons of revenue to the mob coffers as a result. Bars remain our best “safe places” to this day.

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER: I’ve actually found creative communities

— and poetry readings in particular — to be fantastic outlets. D.C. has a fantastic collection of readings and venues including Split This Rock, Capital Q, and events hosted by Busboys & Poets or the Potter’s House.

CHARLOTTE CLYMER, 32, Gay/Queer/Lesbian, Press Secretary

for the Human Rights Campaign: Honestly, I’m not sure I feel entirely comfortable anywhere as an LGBTQ person. We live in an era of unprecedented attacks by our government on our community, which enables cultural shaming, violence, and discrimination. It’s why it’s so important to fight back and be heard.

We need to take up space today for other LGBTQ people to feel safe tomorrow.

LARRY COHEN, 63, Gay, Psychotherapist: I generally feel safe

everywhere in this city now. That wasn't true when I first moved to D.C. in 1988. The Lambda Rising bookstore felt like a sanctuary to me then.

ANTHONY LECOUNTE: When I was growing up in the Army com-

LINDA LEWIS: With the current administration that we have in

office, it is hard for anyone to feel totally safe in public places.

Hatred is accepted and encouraged with a racist President. The LGBTQ community is always at risk, especially trans women of color. “Public Display of Affection” is something I would never think of displaying unless I was within a safe environment within my own community.

DENNY LYON, 74, Gay, Unemployed: I currently don’t feel “unsafe”

anywhere. I’m out and open to everyone. I fly the rainbow flag along with Old Glory at my home in Virginia. I’ve never received any kind of negativity or backlash as a result.

TAISSA MORIMOTO: Just three or four years ago, I would have

responded that I felt safe in queer spaces, in LGBTQ clubs and bars, but that has changed so quickly and so drastically. The reality for so many people in oppressed communities is that we don’t feel safe anywhere. We don’t feel safe in our own skins.

This means that we are always anxious and on alert for danger. I invite you to imagine what that feels like — to live in a world that is so committed to putting our lives in danger. People in LGBTQ communities — especially Black and Latinx people, transgender and nonbinary people, and people of different faiths — often never feel safe.

DOMINION ONYX: I rarely feel unsafe, in that I feel a threat to my

person. I have been made to feel unwelcome. But I feel the most welcome in leather spaces, among those with whom I share common interests in kink and politics (mostly).

ALEXA RODRIGUEZ, 42, Transgender, Trans-Latinx DMV Director:

spaces as an LGBTQ person. I feel less safe as Black Man. Unless I self-identify or am with a group of friends, folks don't immediately recognize me as gay, but I am always Black.

I’m gonna be honest. I only feel safe in my apartment when I am all alone. Nineteen trans women have been killed, and as an immigrant brown trans woman I feel in danger every day, while coming to work, when I go shopping for my groceries, or doing laundry.

JOAN GARRY, 62, Lesbian, Consultant/Author: I feel an over-

MICHAEL SAINTE-ANDRESS, 68, Gay, Actor/Writer: Hardly any-

RAY DANIELS, 52, Gay, Corporate Manager: I feel safe in most

whelming sense of fear today. I “feel” safe with my wife and kids, but I also feel it is tenuous and something of an illusion. During the Obama administration, I felt welcomed and seen. Today, that sense of security has been taken from us. Feeling safe and then not? It’s even more frightening in some ways. And one of my three kids is a lesbian. She is 24 and I worry about her most of all.

HOLLY GOLDMANN, 42ish, Intersex but identify with Trans

umbrella, Development Director at Casa Ruby: Writing this, I just returned from the vigil at Dupont Circle about the rash of hate crimes in D.C. And reminded that 10 trans women of color have been murdered this year. Plus there was a death at Rikers and ICE. So I’ve been on guard. I find myself looking at my surround-

where, if the truth be known. Just this past weekend in D.C, two young men were accosted and robbed in what’s considered a “gay area” in the U Street corridor. All around the city I witness and have been a target of potential “gay-response violence.”

Slurs, name calling, threats, insults, and ridicule are daily endurances that many LGBTQ people face and suffer through. It is very disturbing because those who perpetrate these behaviors feel justified and indeed “empowered” to do what they do.

RON SIMMONS, 69, Bodemé, Retired: Being a Black person in

America, I have learned to always be on guard. I don’t take my safety for granted no matter where I am.

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MARY SNIDER: I generally feel safe as an LGBTQ person in D.C.,

though I realize how privileged I am as a white lesbian to be able to make that statement. I walk around the city, especially on 14th Street, and see all these rainbow flags and signs everywhere expressing support. It is amazing. A few years ago, you could barely get a shop to put a small rainbow sticker in the window.

ZAR, 34, LGBTQ Adjacent, Project Manager, Team Rayceen Event

Production: I honestly feel fairly safe just about anywhere in D.C. Perhaps I’m a bit of an anomaly because I have never had any significant incidents with bias in that regard. But I am a bit more apprehensive when I’m outside of D.C., especially in suburban and rural areas beyond the Beltway.

THE STONEWALL RIOTS WERE SPARKED BY A POLICE RAID. HOW DO YOU FEEL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY AND POLICE HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? MIGUEL AYALA, 40, Gay, Manager of the DC Eagle: I appreciate

the LGBTQ Liaison’s outreach and presence at many events. I know that there are some members of the community who feel triggered by their presence, but I hope we can get to a place where we can appreciate the safety and security our police provide for everyone.

NICK BENTON: Generally, police and related organizations have

been among the best to address issues of hate crimes and violence against the LGBTQ community, although that of course is a mixed bag and more effort needs to go into it. Back in the Stonewall day, of course, police violence against gays was very common and sanctioned, and many corrupt police used it to extract bribes and payoffs from bar owners, including the mob.

KEITH BOYKIN: I think the largest problem with police relations

is for LGBTQ people of color. Black trans women are still being murdered every month, and it’s not clear to me that many police departments treat these crimes seriously. In addition, black and Hispanic LGBTQ people still face racial profiling and police brutality on a regular basis because of their race or ethnicity.

I’ve been profiled, stopped and harassed by police in New York and Washington, D.C. For black gay men like myself, our sexual orientation does not save us from racism in policing.

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER: I honestly don’t know that they have.

Law enforcement has worked to change their image by pursuing “band-aid” policies like LGBTQ liaisons that don’t address a lack of training, affirmative policies, or accountability.

DESTINY B. CHILDS, 41, Gay, Federal Government Employee: I

feel the police respect us as a community and treat us with the respect any human is due.

CHARLOTTE CLYMER: Many members of law enforcement have

worked in good faith to be better allies to the LGBTQ community, but the sad reality is that many, if not most, are still ignorant of the challenges that face us and hostile to cultural literacy. I have great respect for law enforcement, and therefore, I demand they be held to the very highest standards of professional conduct. They should reflect and honor all citizens, including LGBTQ people.

YUVAL DAVID: In New York City, the NYPD [recently] apologized

for the raid and for their attacks on the LGBTQ Community.

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That apology took 50 years! But we are also at a time when police in major cities in the U.S. have LGBTQ representation among themselves. Yet, that is only in the major U.S. cities. We have so much further to go.

RUSSWIN FRANCISCO, 53, Gay, Retailer: I believe the D.C. police

are very sensitive to the issues facing the LGBTQ community. Although there is a 36% increase in hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people in the District — the percentage is higher for black transgender women. I don’t believe the uptick in hate crimes is caused by insensitivity or lack of awareness on the part of the MPD. Perhaps, increased police presence or visibility near LGBTQ establishments may help. Although these statistics are not comforting, there was a time when these incidents were not called “hate crimes.” The MPD has had an LGBTQ liaison unit for nearly 20 years. Today, there are visible signs of the mayor’s office and the MPD working to swiftly address issues facing the LGBTQ community.

H. LEE GABLE: Generally, relations have improved, at least in

the more urban areas. However, there is a lot of work to still be done. There are a lot of individuals who look at their positions as police as a means to assert authority. A power game. I saw this a lot when I was in the military. The majority of people want to do what is right and join the police (like the military) for the right reasons, to serve and help others. A small group of people join for other reasons, because they like the sense of power and they exploit that. I think the fact that there are police officers who want to march in Pride parades is a plus for our community.

JOAN GARRY: Visibility drives understanding and understanding

drives acceptance. In 1969, the police understood us the way everyone else did. Sick, disordered, deeply depressed, suicidal, incapable of relationships. Society told law enforcement we were essentially inhuman.

Today thanks to the courageous men and women who stood up and came out, who said “no more,” and to the efforts of so many individuals and organizations, the LGBTQ community is seen as human. We marry, we have kids, we are even law enforcement officers! Again the challenge is our societal climate.

Now giving permission to those in power to treat all minorities as second class citizens, as less than. In this context, law enforcement officials are now emboldened to be bullies. When the leader of the free world is a bully, it offers police license to abuse their power.

JOSEPH IZZO, 71, Non-Binary, Retired Psychotherapist: When

I first came out there was still a very adversarial relationship between the police and the LGBTQ community. Over time, and thanks to enlightened city politicians like Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and even former Mayor Marion Barry, the relationship improved with the guidance and education of the police force

by Sgt. Brett Parson and his colleagues. We are very fortunate in this city since in other locations in this country and around the world, the police continue to harass, demean and persecute LGBTQ people.

JACK NEWMAN, 18, Gay, Student: I believe the tension between

the LGBTQ community and law enforcement has grown increasingly worse. For example, the Queer Liberation March taking place at World Pride in NYC will have zero law enforcement.

This goes to show that members of the LGBTQ community are still affected by the violent incidents such as the Stonewall

movement and what we view in the media today.

HANNAH OLANOFF, 57, Lesbian, Therapist: I think it’s situational.

I think in general police have come to rely on a military mentality rather than one more oriented to community. As a result, when any kind of tensions arise it develops into an adversarial “Them vs. Us” situation far too quickly. I think it is also geographic. I think trans folks are most often still in danger from the police everywhere.

RANDY PUMPHREY, 61, Gay, Psychotherapist, Senior Director of

harassing and trying to entrap people. Now, I invite the police department to Mary’s House for Older Adults events. There is an LGBTQ police liaison in the hierarchy of the police structure that is connected with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.

Look, there is an Office in the Mayor’s office for LGBTQ Affairs, connected to the police. I'd call that change.

WHAT ARE THE WORST ANTI-LGBTQ SLURS YOU HAVE EVER BEEN CALLED? MIGUEL AYALA: I’ve been referred to as a faggot or maricon plen-

Behavioral Health at Whitman-Walker Health: I’ve had both amazing experiences and deeply frustrating ones. I’ve worked side by side with officers who were kind, compassionate and not only willing, but wanting to be affirming, while helping me get my clients to a hospital for care. But I have also worked with some who are arrogant and self-willed, that embarrass the uniform they wear.

ty of times — too many to count.

ALEXA RODRIGUEZ: I am still scared. I have suffered verbal vio-

CHARLOTTE CLYMER: I don’t know how to explain how shatter-

lence from police officers in PG County for being trans — and I was the victim! The only thing that has changed is that today we have social media — technology to prove when our rights are violated, and also to spread the word within our community about what is going on around the globe. Yes, there are trans people in law enforcement, there are LGBTQ Liaison Units, but that doesn’t guarantee that we will be protected. They will always be police officers first, you know!

RON SIMMONS: In D.C., a great deal since we have gay liaison

police units. But I think it is also a question of race and class.

In other parts of the country, I’m not sure if the interaction between the police and a Black, gay, homeless teenager would be the same if he was white, adult and middle-class.

JOHN STOLTENBERG, 75, Gay, Writer: While it’s true that in many

places, police officers can be out and proud, too many male cops are still under compulsion to prove their manhood through violence — and that will always have brutal consequences.

DEVON TROTTER: The problem I have with this question is that

it, much like the LGBTQ community at large, neglects intersectionality. Sure, strides have been made between the community and the police in attempts to have a better relationship. Yes, some agencies have LGBTQ units strictly devoted to the needs of the community, but until the police stop murdering and over-policing Black men and actually devote adequate resources to solve the murders of trans women of color, and protect young Black girls from sex trafficking, then there will never be and should never be good relations. If one segment of the community is hurting, we’re all hurting.

VERNON WALL, 59, Gay, President of One Better World: Black and

brown people and trans folk continue to be murdered at the hands of law enforcement at alarming rates. This is a fact. And, the D.C. Metro Police have been incredibly open, progressive and responsive in having conversations with our community and develop mechanisms for change to happen. In times like these, we need to be developing relationships with the law enforcement community, not pushing them away.

DR. IMANI WOODY, 60+, Lesbian, Founder, CEO Mary's House for

Older Adults: I remember the police coming in LGBTQ spaces,

BA'NAKA: I’ve heard them all and probably have said them all.

Words hurt, we shouldn’t allow them the power, but we do. It’s awful. But I will say this, call me a faggot in the streets, we are gonna have words — unless that’s how you are catcalling me, at that point we can negotiate. ing it is to be misgendered purposefully. It hurts like hell because it is a wholesale invalidation of my humanity. It is a denial that I exist.

LARRY COHEN: Faggot. Queer (before it got reclaimed). Sissy.

This began in middle school, and continued off and on through the early ’90s, maybe a little longer. Now its very, very rare. I was the victim of anti-gay violence in Detroit in the mid ’80s, and in D.C. in the late ’80s, with accompanying anti-gay slurs. This shook me up and made me scared and hyper vigilant for a while.

But it did not send me back into the closet.

RAY DANIELS: I have been called faggot a few times, but nothing

more. It was mostly whispered and never directly to my face. I have faced far worse as a black man.

YUVAL DAVID: I was walking toward the LGBTQ Pride Parade,

wearing a rainbow colored outfit, and holding a pride flag with a Jewish Star on it. As I was on route to this important parade — a place where we celebrate pride in who we are, as a diverse LGBTQ Community — a group of guys started calling out slurs, “Fag! Jew-Fag!” It emboldened my need to boldly be me, to boldly represent all of me, each element of my identity.

JOHN FANNING, 56, Gay, Business Compliance Specialist: I was

once physically assualted and robbed in a what they called back then a gay-bashing after leaving a gay club one evening here in Washington, D.C. The assailants shouted out homophobic slurs — faggot and queer motherfucker. The situation made me fear for my life and safety, and that there’s individuals that struggle with acceptance and hate.

H. LEE GABLE: Faggot, cocksucker, queer, sissy. I got called sissy a

lot when I was growing up, mostly from relatives. That stopped when I was an adult and began telling them that I did not like it when they used the word. Surprisingly, they pretty much stopped saying it, at least in my presence.

JOAN GARRY: The worst? Pure silence. For 25 years, my wife’s

mother never said my name out loud. I was never welcome in their home. Until I was able to secure a second parent adoption, I lived in fear that if something happened to Eileen, her mother would come and take my children from me. That said, I did not June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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allow her to diminish me. I think had a strong sense of myself.

But I lived in abject fear that she could steal my children from me.

JACK GERARD: Sissy in my childhood, faggot in my later years.

I was extremely sensitive as a child, I always felt vulnerable around bullies or macho, more aggressive guys. Being called sissy was very shameful.

HOLLY GOLDMANN: I don’t think it’s publishable.

LETI GOMEZ, 64, Lesbian, Manager in Department of Navy: I was

mowing my front lawn once. My house was on a busy street near a traffic light. Traffic was stopped and I heard a guy yell from his car, “Dyke!” I don’t think of “Dyke” as a slur, but I was annoyed that he felt he had the right to yell it at me.

JOSE GUTIERREZ: Two months ago I was walking by 17th Street

and an individual called me profanities. He was driving a bicycle and I felt fear, intimidated, and scared for my life. I was thinking to call the police and I walked really fast to a restaurant and the person disappeared.

CHRISTOPHER HENLEY, 62, Gay, Actor/Theater Director: Faggot,

Cocksucker, Fem (junior high, that was considered an insult).

I’ve been called gay and queer, but those are also terms we embrace. I embrace them all. “Cocksucker? You say that as if it were a bad thing!”

ANTHONY LECOUNTE: I’ve been called just about everything in

the book. Since I’m also black, Christian, and a conservative, I’ve gotten a whole slew of extra invective in more contexts than I can count from folks who take issue with any nexus of my race, politics, or sexual orientation. The most common are along the lines of “faggot,” “house faggot,” “faggot nigger,” and so on.

They’re not terribly original nor, thankfully, all that common, but the experience is invariably jarring. Sometimes, the slurs come with either implicit or overt threats of violence, and I’ve been nearly hate-crimed on several occasions around D.C. These experiences inspired me to be more mindful of my surroundings, the people I’m with, and ways to identify and deal with potential threats. They also inspired my fiancé and I to train for and acquire concealed carry licenses for self-defense, should it ever come to that. Thankfully, it hasn’t yet, and I hope it never will.

EILEEN MAXWELL: I’m an ally but I have felt those slurs like a

knife in my heart when, several years, ago my 18-year-old gay nephew came home after a Saturday night out distressed and told me, “Well, it finally happened. Someone called me a faggot.”

BLAIR MICHAELS, 54, Gay, Entertainer: While living in San

Francisco, California in the early ’80s I was chased up the streets of San Francisco (while in drag) being called “AIDS spreader.”

It was the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had to this day.

JACK NEWMAN: I have been called a “he/she/thing/it” and a

“faggot.” I have often felt indignant and frustrated when faced with oppression.

HANNAH OLANOFF: Dyke. Pussy-eating bitch. Queer. It wasn’t

the words themselves, it was how they were spewed with a snarl.

With intimidation and disgust. It made me feel vulnerable and small, as if I had done something wrong for just being.

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PHILIP PANNELL: When I was growing up I was called sissy,

punk, faggot, and queer so often that when I finally saw my birth certificate I was shocked that those names were not on it. The worst slurs I was called was when I was raped.

RAYCEEN PENDARVIS, AARP Qualified, Emcee/Columnist: Gump,

a term which comes from prison slang, which I was called on the street by a group of men when I was a teenager. It stunned me and made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, but I knew I wasn't being complimented on my outfit.

RANDY PUMPHREY: I was recently conducting a job interview at

Whitman-Walker Health. My colleague asked about their experience working with LGBTQ persons. The candidate said that her godson was gay and that she told him, “He could still be a man, he didn’t need to be a FAGGOT!” I was stunned. Here I was sitting in an interview in D.C.’s largest and oldest LGBTQ health care provider and someone just said “FAGGOT.” MICHAEL SAINTE-ANDRESS: A “dick-sucking, AIDS-spreading,

nigger faggot!” by a co-ed group of Black teenagers in a D.C. subway station and, “You lost, sick soul” by a prominent Black D.C. minister. In both instances I felt not only dehumanized and disrespected but betrayed.

DIEGO MIGUEL SANCHEZ, 62, Transgender, Director of Advocacy,

Policy & Partnerships at PFLAG National: You name it, I’ve been called it, but the feelings from the people who name-called, not just the words, are what create the greatest risk, danger, and harm.

JOHN STOLTENBERG: I was called “soy boy” in online attacks on

me for a critique of masculinity I’d published. I had to look it up.

RICH TAFEL: In my political life as founder of Log Cabin

Republicans I spoke at many events with hostile anti-gay audiences and they used every name you can imagine. The worst circumstance was at a rally in Ft. Worth, Texas, where an angry mob threatened violence and jumped on stage. Also, the left wing of the LGBTQ movement has used words to try to suppress gays who are conservative. They often used the expression “Jews working for Hitler” when we lobbied on LGBTQ rights and AIDS funding.

No one likes being called names, but I always consider the source.

DEVON TROTTER: I’ve been called them all. My favorites are the

anti-LGBTQ and racist combintations. I’ve had them yelled at me from a car while walking down the street, I’ve had family members of close friends use them against me, homeless people on the street after denying their panhandling. I’ve had white gays call me racial slurs. But for me, the worst situation is when I hear anti-LGBTQ slurs from a Black person. I recently read a quote that sums up my feelings about it perfectly, “We shouldn’t have to fight you AND white supremacist capitalist patriarchy at the same time, all while supporting YOU against white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

HOW HAS THE OVERALL RISE IN LGBTQ ACCEPTANCE AFFECTED YOUR LIFE? BA'NAKA: I’m shocked and delighted, but I’m still not moving out

to the suburbs.

KEITH BOYKIN: When I came out in 1991, my mother warned me

not to tell too many people for fear that it would hurt my career.

Now, 28 years later, it’s obvious that coming out was exactly the right thing to do for me. I've worked on LGBTQ issues in politics, participated in the first ever presidential meeting between a U.S. president and LGBTQ leaders, led two LGBTQ organizations and written four LGBTQ books. Coming out didn’t hurt my career — it’s been a big part of making my career.

DESTINY B. CHILDS: It is amazing to be able to go to work and

speak about my husband and not fear repercussions. It is great to walk down the street holding my husband’s hand and not worry what others think.

CHARLOTTE CLYMER: I can’t imagine where I would be today

were it not for all the trans women, particularly those of color, who came before me. I am able to live my authentic self because of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Sarah McBride, Danica Roem, and so many others who have lived proudly and communicated to me that my true self is worth showing to the world.

LARRY COHEN: It feels like I am leading a normal life now, and

not the life of a social outcast. But again, as a cisgender white gay male, it’s easier for me than for some others.

RAY DANIELS: I fought hard for marriage equality as I felt it was

the gateway to break down other civil inequities. I served in the military during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, so I know firsthand what it is like to live an inauthentic life. The rise in LGBTQ acceptance has enabled me to live my life out loud and proud. I do not accept closet doors as my reality any longer. Like they say, it does get better.

JOHN FANNING: It has definitely allowed me to feel more com-

fortable in public spaces, and with meeting other people because my sexuality really isn’t an issue and our LGBTQ lifestyle is more accepted in today’s society. It’s offered me several opportunities that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have had.

RUSSWIN FRANCISCO: I live an “out” life. My store [Bite the

Fruit] flies the rainbow flag throughout the year. I participate in LGBTQ community events, fundraisers, political meetings. I mostly speak my mind when given the opportunity. There was a time when I held my tongue, opting to listen or observe instead.

I believe one can learn a lot by listening. However, these days, when state sanctioned bigotry under the guise of “religious freedom” can mean being denied health care, child adoption or a wedding cake, I believe it is not time to hold back. When transgender people are banned from military service, I believe our voices need to be broadcasted as loudly, clearly and plainly as possible.

HOLLY GOLDMANN: I was raised as a little boy, but would say I

evolved into a woman. It’s never caused me issues.

EILEEN MAXWELL: Beautifully! My 28-year-old nephew, who

is gay, and I are so close — we are like mother and son and we always have been. But I decry that he could not come out to me when he was a child and when I could have helped him through puberty. I don’t believe parents should wait until their children come out to them about their sexuality as so many psychologists recommend. Gay children don’t typically open up to their parents even when their parents are totally accepting of the LGBTQ community — they still fear they will be unloved. This has to change. Parents should be proactive and open and loving with their children about their sexuality — even if they don’t know or feel that their child could be gay, they could be. For christsake, they’re the parent. It is wrong that only heterosexual children get parental guidance on dating and falling in love. All children need their parents during puberty. Parents need training! Don’t ask, don’t tell doesn’t work in family life either!

DOMINION ONYX: It certainly made it easier for me to come

out. It opened possibilities for my life that my 16-year-old self couldn’t have imagined. My biggest fears at the time were that I would never be happy, that I’d never have kids, that I would never have a normal life. LGBTQ acceptance has stripped away almost all of those barriers. I think 16-year-old Dominion would be shocked at the ways the world has changed.

RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: It has opened doors for me in many areas,

allowing me to host various events that are not LGBTQ-specific and to be one of the first openly LGBTQ people elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in D.C. I now have more opportunities to be visible and teach people about diversity in our communities.

RANDY PUMPHREY: I’ve never been an apologist and have been

proud of myself as a gay man and as a part of a larger community of queer people. That said, in 2013 I married my partner of 20 years. I have a rainbow flag on my house and my 90-year-old mom lives with my husband and I and says she is the luckiest woman in the world.

ALEXA RODRIGUEZ: Fleeing violence and transphobia in El

Salvador, and coming to the U.S. seeking asylum, opened doors to continue to be alive, to change my name and to be who I always knew I was, to live free. Ten years ago, I rebirthed and now because of all the hard work in my community, because of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, I can be free. On Monday, June 17, I became a U.S. Citizen, and that gives me hope to continue working for my siblings in the community who are in the shadows and afraid. There is a lot of work to do and I am ready.

DAVID ROJAS, 45, Gay, Business Development Specialist: A lot, the

current awareness has allowed me to be me — not only where I live but where I grew up, in Colombia, because now we do not need to hide, we are an active community that keeps growing.

I now feel more comfortable saying who am I, acting the way I like, becoming an example that we are humans.

DIEGO MIGUEL SANCHEZ: I’m glad there are more Pride celebra-

tions and other landmark events each year across more jurisdictions, but people still struggle in too many places to go to school or work safely, so I’m reluctant to say that acceptance everywhere for everyone is greater. As an elder transgender Latinx man living with disabilities, the issues of race, ethnicity, ability, age, culture and as an immigrant, even nationality still intersect to keep the sky from being as blue as we are working to make it.

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RON SIMMONS: I couldn’t do the work I have done, taught at an

HBCU, write the essays I have written, or said the things I have said, if I was not a free and openly gay (Bodemé) man. I couldn’t have done any of it without LGBTQ acceptance.

JOHN STOLTENBERG: I no longer give any fucks what haters say

or think about me.

DEVON TROTTER: This is hard to say: I’ve never felt unaccepted

for being queer, but the gays have made me feel unwelcomed as a Black person.

VERNON WALL: It’s been great to see out entertainers and actors

become mainstream. There is more visibility of queer stories in television and movies. Allies and accomplices and stepping forward and speaking out in support of us. Straight people are using the word: “YASSSS” with ease. Which means we need to have a meeting and officially ban that word from gay language.

more than Stonewall. There’s a long way to go, but the broad acceptance in many communities of a near-infinite range in gender presentation has been more progress than I ever hoped for.

WILL O’BRYAN: The level of acceptance today would be hard to

reverse. But there are plenty of places around the world that haven’t come quite as far, and they’re backsliding. Russia, for example, wasn’t some kind of LGBTQ wonderland, but it’s still heartbreaking to see Putin throw our entire community under the proverbial bus as his scapegoat in challenging “Western decadence” or whatever. We have our own backsliding with bad policy like bankrupt Trump’s transgender military ban.

I’m stunned that this bigotry seems to be thriving in 2019. But I nevertheless have confidence in the future. One, because I’m an optimist, and two, because I’ve had the honor of meeting LGBTQ activists from around the world, from Bucharest to Bangladesh, and they’re kickass people.

RANDY PUMPHREY: More hopeful. Sure, it is still hard and this

backs inflicted by the Trump Administration.

Administration is intentionally targeting our community like with the recent “Denial of Care Rule” put out by HHS. But I see what Whitman-Walker is doing, I celebrate as my nephew’s transition, and I’m proud of the evolution that is occurring in our communities as we find our voices and become more authentic as LGBTQ persons.

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER: I think we cannot confuse progress with

NEAL RACIOPPO: I feel hopeful. As Dr. King said: The arc of

FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE STONEWALL RIOTS, ARE YOU FEELING MORE OR LESS HOPEFUL ABOUT THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY'S FUTURE? MIGUEL AYALA: I’ve been hopeful — but I keep an eye on the set-

victory, and we cannot take any progress for granted. Our evolution as a society is not something that we build and walk away from; it is something that must always be defended, supported, and fought for. I worry how much attention will be paid to the inequities faced by marginalized people once Donald Trump is out of office, because our community needs attention and support even when we are not so visibly threatened and in danger.

RUSSWIN FRANCISCO: We have made great strides in terms of

LGBTQ rights in the last 50 years, however, the threat to our freedoms still exists. For as long as there are laws that allow LGBTQ people to be treated differently, we are not safe. Over the years, I am convinced that real change doesn’t begin in Washington, it is generated by ordinary people who demand it.

So, we knock on closed doors. We march in our streets. We write letters to Congress. I am hopeful that we will succeed. Because we are in the right.

JOAN GARRY: Until Election Day 2016, the answer was “more

hopeful.” Today? “Less hopeful. Much less hopeful.”

SHIN INOUYE: We’ve seen great strides forward — from marriage

equality to the repeal of DOMA, to general acceptance and positive portrayals in popular culture, we’ve made a lot of progress.

But we still lack full legal protections, which is why Congress needs to pass the Equality Act. While Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, we have a commander in chief that doesn’t think transgender people should be permitted to serve in our military.

We’ve helped make AIDS a manageable disease, but there’s still too much stigma towards those who are HIV-positive or living with AIDS. We should celebrate the gains we’ve made but commit ourselves to doing better.

NELL MINOW, Ally, Writer: As devastatingly tragic as it was, the

AIDS crisis did a lot to galvanize the gay community and create more openness about gender and sexual orientation, I think 40

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. Or, as it would later be rephrased in a TV theme song: “All things just keep getting better.”

RON SIMMONS: Very hopeful. As Congresswoman Eleanor

Holmes Norton reminds us, we are the first oppressed group to win our rights in less than 50 years. From bar raids then to legal marriage now, no other oppressed community has achieved as much in such a short time.

DEVON TROTTER: If the goal for the future is to become more het-

eronormative and mainstream and accepted as “normal” then, yeah, sure, I’m hopeful. We are well on our way to achieving that. But that goal, in and of itself, is scary and disheartening and erases all that makes our community so beautifully dynamic. If the goal for the future is to truly protect and uplift our own, I’m not so optimistic. We are segmented and judgemental and biased and ignorant. When the riots first occurred, everyone united to fight a common enemy. Now that we don’t have such an enemy, we are fighting each other and leaving our most vulnerable behind. No one will win.

DAVID WINER: Hopeful. Our rights are better established, we

have been more openly accepted and our lives seem parallel to most straights — we knew that all along, now they do too. The younger people today also seem to be far less concerned about it all. Hopefully, the future leaders of this world realize we are all the same, they seem to.

ZAR: I think the trajectory of justice continues in the right direc-

tion, but from my personal perspective, I’m less hopeful. I think too many people have the wrong priorities, especially those in leadership positions. Some are more concerned with maintaining power and control than preparing the next generation of leaders. People are pushing personal agendas. There is infighting and disunity. Cronyism runs rampant. Money is misallocated.

Opportunities are not seized. Various factions don’t communicate. Elders are disrespected. Young people are not supported.

There is a conspiracy of silence about incompetence, corruption, and scandalous behavior, and everyone who doesn’t speak out is complicit. I think the LGBTQ community has adopted many of the policies it once fought against, including maintaining the status quo. If more people knew the shenanigans that went on, I think they would be outraged.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR LGBTQ EQUALITY? MIGUEL AYALA: ENDA. Guaranteeing employment rights for

everyone in every state.

NICK BENTON: “Equality” is an important concept to be written

into laws and the Constitution.

KEITH BOYKIN: Black lesbian author Barbara Smith wrote an

excellent piece in the New York Times recently for Pride Month about LGBTQ inclusion. The next step for LGBTQ equality is full inclusion of our diverse and intersectional community components. I believe in liberation, not just assimilation. That means we have to give people the freedom to be different, not just the freedom to fit in with a mainstream culture that may not represent them. We can never be truly free until those of us who are most marginalized in our community are also free. As Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER: Pass the Equality Act. Decriminalize sex

work. Appoint fair-minded judges. Support those marginalized even within queer spaces.

CHARLOTTE CLYMER: I am not content with simply surviving.

We were meant to live, to love, to thrive, and to shine. I am not happy with simply avoiding erasure. I want LGBTQ people out, proud, and leading in every conceivable space, as common as the air we breathe.

RAY DANIELS: We need legislation that secures full equality.

Protection from work and housing discrimination would be a great start. We as activists and citizens must start at the local level. Every election counts and every vote counts. If we can not find leaders who will support our humanity, then we must become those leaders. We are close, but the fight for full equality is far from over.

JOAN GARRY: 1) Trump must be defeated. Another 4 years could

be catastrophic for the LGBTQ community. 2) Workplace equality. Note: some folks think workplace equality should have come first. I disagree. The struggle for marriage equality humanized like nothing else could.

JOSE GUTIERREZ: Immigration, discrimination, transgender

rights and LGBTQ rights and services.

CHRISTOPHER HENLEY: I’m old. Maybe this question needs an

answer from one who has a perspective that is better informed than someone whose formative experiences are 20th Century.

That said, what if gender was removed entirely from things like pronouns, so that we refer to each other as fellow humans, without gender category?

NELL MINOW: Federal legislation guaranteeing equal rights in

housing and employment. I like Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for back tax refunds for couples who were not able to get the tax benefits of marriage.

WILL O’BRYAN: In a word, intersectionality. Bigotry has always

been part of the American experience, but it’s been unleashed anew. Charlottesville, for example, showed us that contemporary bigotry doesn’t feel much need to hide in the shadows. It wants to come out into the open and piss on everything and everyone it doesn’t like. There are regular headlines of white nationalists, misogynists, anti-Semites, transphobes — on and on and on — attacking us. But there are far more of us being hated for whatever reasons than there are haters. The stronger we forge our alliances, the less threatening that hate becomes.

Together, we can make it absolutely impotent.

RAYCEEN PENDARVIS: Our first openly LGBTQ president. I look

forward to being appointed to the cabinet.

MARY SNIDER: The Equality Act, which would amend the Civil

Rights Act to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Most Americans have no idea that people can and are fired and denied housing simply because they are LGBTQ. We need to focus on local, state and federal elections until we have these protections in place for the entire country. We also need more women — specifically lesbians — in elected office.

RICH TAFEL: I think we’ll be seen as simply part of the fabric of

America. I do worry that we added “T” to LGB without much education either within our own community or within the general public. I expect those who opposed us in the ’80s will now seize on the transgendered community and the same education needs to be done again. This lack of strategy worries me on our part.

DEVON TROTTER: What is LGBTQ equality actually? Does it

occur when trans women of color can feel safe? Or when we stop sero-shaming the HIV positive in our community? Is it when we are no longer ageist and sexist and racist? Or, I bet, for the cismale white gays, it’s when an anti-discrimination bill is passed and signed into law, right? Or if Buttigieg gets the nomination.

That’s definitely equality for the cis-male white gays, isn’t it?

So again, what is LGBTQ equality and, most importantly, who is it for?

VERNON WALL: Continued support of our transgender commu-

nity. An acknowledgement of the racism that exists within the LGBTQ+ community. Support for HIV research and funding.

Electing candidates who are allies for the LGBTQ+ community.

Let’s also limit the number of clacking fans that can be in a space at one time.

ROBERT YORK: It remains to be seen. The next cycle of elections

are important because we may have to fight for a lot of our victories again if rulings are overturned by a conservative court that has been installed by the current administration and the GOPled Senate. We Shall Overcome and Love Will Always Win! We have to remain calm, vigilant and steadfast in our work and stay the course for full equality and equity! l The opinions expressed in Metro Weekly’s Forum do not necessarily reflect those of Metro Weekly or its employees or contributors.

Add your voice to Forum. Learn how at www.metroweekly.com/forum.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Rise & Shine

Dive into an exploration of LGBTQ history at the Newseum, or just sleep surrounded by history at The Hamilton.

By André Hereford

V

ISITORS WITH KNOWLEDGE OF QUEER HISTORY might approach the Newseum’s Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement exhibit with their own established angle on the story being told in this exploration of 50-plus years of change. The exhibit follows its own unique approach, reflecting the Newseum’s mission to increase public understanding of a free press and the First Amendment.

“We take a newspaper, periodical skew at things,” says the Newseum’s exhibit writer Christy Wallover. “The intersection between the LGBTQ rights movement and our mission is such a fantastic, depthful one, because it really is everyday Americans seeing an injustice or being discriminated against, seeing prejudice and making a change through petitioning their government, through protesting peacefully, trying to really cross that division and see change.”

The Newseum doesn’t have curators on staff, so, for the exhibit — on view through December, on the building’s sixth floor — Wallover met with consultants from the LGBTQ community to identify the stories that should definitely be covered. “And then I worked with our collections department and our visual resources department to select artifacts and images for the exhibit.”

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Of those artifacts, films, photos, and personal items on display — from seminal gay ’zines and Jim Obergefell’s wedding rings, to an original colors rainbow flag by the flag’s creator, artist Gilbert Baker, and an AIDS quilt panel made in tribute to legendary trans activist Cheryl Courtney Evans — Wallover lists the exhibit highlights as “all of it, because all of it is so really cool.”

Still, she points out that the three Newseum-produced films in the exhibit should not be missed. “One is called LGBTQ Voices, and you see that right when you come off the elevators.

That film interviews everyday people.

We did a casting call throughout D.C. for people to come in and tell us about their stories. People of all different ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations and gender expressions and identity came in, to share with us their experiences. It's a wonderful, fascinating, personal touch narrative,” she says.

Another film in the exhibit, The Hollywood Effect, “discusses how the portrayal of LGBTQ Americans has changed over time and shifted from a portrayal of sad and depressed and suicidal people, to one of thriving and successful and happy individuals.” Featuring interviews with film and cultural critics, as well as celebrities like George Takei, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Sarah Ellis of GLAAD,

The Hollywood Effect also explores “how the shifting of the narrative in mainstream pop culture has helped shift the stories that people read and think about,” says Wallover.

But it’s the third Newseum-produced film in the exhibit, Into the Streets, that will likely have the biggest impact for those familiar with LGBTQ history. A film about “Pride and people harnessing their First Amendment freedoms to assemble in protest for change,” according to Wallover, Into the Streets gathers footage of Stonewall in ’69 and the first Pride march, then known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. Interviews with activists like Nicole Murray-Ramirez and with Mark Segal and Martin Boyce, who were at the Stonewall Uprising, prove not only enlightening but deeply affecting.

Equally moving are exhibit displays acknowledging those vital mini-uprisings that pre-dated Stonewall, like the Frank Kameny-led protest in front of the White House in 1965, demanding equal treatment in the workplace, or the 1966 “sip-in” staged by the New York Mattachine Society at one of the city’s many cocktail bars that refused to serve gays and lesbians.

While bringing to light some forgotten heroes, the Rise Up exhibit does not wade into the ongoing debate about who threw the first brick at Stonewall. “From my research, it's really speculative of who did it, there's not one person,” says Wallover, “so we don't cover that in depth. What we do cover is how the uprising galvanized the community, and we also talk about how it was the most marginalized of the LGBTQ community to fight against police harassment. So street youth, transgender youth, and the most effeminate men at the time were really the ones throwing punches and getting punched by police.

So we covered that, but we don't necessarily try to identify who threw the first brick. It was many people who took part in the Stonewall Riots and protesting that afterwards as well.”

Without precisely acknowledging who did what during the Riots, the exhibit does include details about the pioneering work of trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Those who know and cherish those women might discover other beloved figures in the movement missing from action here. And The Hollywood Effect — the exhibit, in general — certainly could do more to clarify the relationship between the mainstream and the underground. Ellen and Will and Grace and Rupaul all moved culture, and so did John Waters and Divine and Sylvester and Mapplethorpe and Tom of Finland.

Senator Tammy Baldwin’s suit is on display, but if Bayard Rustin is featured somewhere in there, we missed him. Visitors will get their fill of Anita Bryant, though, and how her anti-gay campaigning galvanized a liberation movement. In fact, Rise Up, accounting for all its components, does capture the fight for liberation — but then skips over the actual being liberated (i.e.: the sex and sexuality), to dive right into the AIDS era.

Sex, for the most part, is left out of what is still an inclusive, accessible journey. And, in any case, the timing couldn’t be more right to reconsider the half-century since Stonewall through the Newseum’s pro-First Amendment lens.

The exhibit certainly will add some new angle to each visitor’s personal story, if only for the opportunity to view one

small, special item: a bullet-riddled letter that was tucked inside Harvey Milk’s jacket pocket when he was assassinated. The handwritten note, about an item of civic business Milk planned to attend to, offers a subtle, powerful notion of the leader the LGBTQ movement lost that day in 1978. What if Harvey had lived to take on the AIDS epidemic, or marriage equality? How would he celebrate Pride in 2019?

Milk’s story is just one of the personal narratives of LGBTQ icons that are extended from the Newseum’s exhibit galler-

ies into the nearby Hamilton Hotel, on 14th and K Streets. In commemoration of LGBTQ Pride and the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, The Hamilton has decorated its fourteenth-floor Newsroom suite with Rise Up artifacts, specially curated by a modern iconic gay, Alan Cumming.

Guests in the luxurious suite get a really fabulous room, plus a birds-eye view overlooking Franklin Square, free tickets to the Newseum, and their very own in-room museum displays, featuring, among other things, a copy of the script of Ellen’s coming-out episode, signed by Ellen; a program from the first Gay Games in 1982; an LP by The Village People; a novelization of the groundbreaking PBS series An American Family (a cheeky choice by Cumming); and a particularly illuminating page from a 1967 issue of The Los Angeles Advocate, with a story on a meeting between cops and LGBTQ community leaders.

The suite is a sweet way for queer folks and allies to celebrate their freedoms, by spending the night with whatever consenting adult they feel like bringing. Although, they might have to get used to the idea of sleeping under the watchful eyes of reformed Trump-booster Caitlyn Jenner, who stares down sultrily over the bed from a framed poster of her Annie Liebovitz-shot Vanity Fair cover. Maybe The Village People might make for more fun in the Newsroom bedroom. l Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement is on exhibit through December 31, 2019 at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets for general admission are $24.95 for adults, $19.95 for seniors, and $14.95 for children ages 7 to 16; ages 6 and under free. Call 202-292-6100 or visit www.newseum.org.

The Hamilton Hotel is located at 1001 14th St. NW. For rates, call 202-682-0111 or visit www.hamiltonhoteldc.com.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Movies

Ticket to Ride

A supergroup is erased from cultural history, while a lone musician cashes in on their music in Yesterday. By André Hereford

I

T’S ONLY FITTING THAT DANNY BOYLE’S SWEET, SONG-FILLED ROMANtic comedy Yesterday could imagine that in a world where The Beatles never existed, The Rolling Stones are, of course, still alive and kicking. In the real world, Mick Jagger is hip-shaking his way back from heart surgery to lead The Stones on another world tour, while The Beatles stopped touring in 1966.

In Yesterday (HHHHH), the band’s been wiped out entirely, erased from history by a 12-second global blackout of mysterious origins. But, just as mysteriously, their songs survive in the memory of struggling singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a humble big-box store employee in Suffolk, England, who also gigs at tiny clubs and inside the saddest tent of a nearby music festival.

Jack recalls not only a host of Beatles songs and how to play them, but how universally influential and successful they were. So, unbeknownst to anyone, even his best mate and manager Ellie Appleton (Lily James), Jack passes off The Beatles’ songs as his own, and rides those rippling melodies to the heights of musical stardom.

Another film from Slumdog Millionaire Oscar-winner Boyle about a clever South Asian kid who hits the jackpot, this film’s more cute than funny, although frequently it is damn funny. Usually, that’s when face-pulling Kate McKinnon is on hand as the hilariously venomous Hollywood agent who swoops in to take Jack all the way to the top. Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar are also a consistent delight as Jack’s mildly supportive parents, Sheila and Jed. They don’t exactly show the proper reverence when Jack plays his new song “Let It Be.” The world goes wild, though, especially Jack’s most famous new fan, Ed Sheeran, who does an admirable job playing a low-key cocky caricature of himself. Superstar Sheeran begrudgingly concedes that one of the greatest songs The Beatles ever record-

ed is better than a ditty he supposedly wrote in ten minutes.

Part of the fun built into the premise is the canny way the movie coaxes its audience into hearing these exceedingly familiar songs anew, along with all the actors onscreen pretending they’re hearing “Yesterday” or “Hey Jude” for the very first time. The earnestly rapturous reactions to Jack’s genius songs don’t get old. They are great songs — and yet they prove that The Beatles weren’t just purveyors of great songs. The four lads from Liverpool also collectively harnessed an incomparable “It Factor” and great timing in cultural history.

The film doesn’t invest much time delving into how erasing The Beatles would alter that cultural history. As Jack discovers, the world can still rock out to Sheeran, The Stones, The Killers, Radiohead, and Childish Gambino — but no Fab Four also means no Oasis, apparently. That nugget of info doesn’t shock Jack, as much as news of a few other major cultural touchstones that it turns out inexplicably didn’t survive the blackout. Beset by something like survivor’s remorse, he starts to feel a fool and a fraud for pilfering The Beatles catalog. Still, he keeps on singing.

The songs aren’t new, of course, but Patel is something of a revelation

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45

singing them. Although the arrangements generally stick to the standard Beatles versions, Patel’s performance connects each song to the moment, including several will-theyor-won’t-they scenes between Jack and Ellie, who’d like to be more than just his manager. Jack’s punky live take

on “Help!”, sung to Ellie, is a highlight in a soundtrack filled with Beatles classics, as well as fine contributions from Sheeran and other contemporary artists.

Strangely, the visuals and editing aren’t as powerful in concert with the music as one might expect from the Trainspotting and 127 Hours auteur. The script is, for better and worse, exactly what one might expect from Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love, Actually screenwriter Richard Curtis. The lead characters are well-drawn — with the glaring exception of Jack’s obnoxious roadie Rocky (Joel Fry) — and there’s plenty of sparkling dialogue. Less persuasive is a final-act buildup to one of those grand romantic gestures so favored in British romcoms, or at least in those written by Richard Curtis. A movie that starts out by turning the whole world upside down, ultimately coasts down a long and winding road to a pat happy ending. l

Yesterday is rated PG-13, and is now playing everywhere. Visit www.fandango.com.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

JEREMY DANIEL

Stage

Family Ties

Though well-acted, Evan Linder’s Byhalia, Mississippi starts with a ton of promise, but stumbles on the landing. By Kate Wingfield

I

F THERE IS ONE MESSAGE FOR THE CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHT, IT has to be: trust in your audience. Put another way, if you are writing for people interested in seeing live theater, you have already selected for a discerning group.

The people engaged with your story will be readers, thinkers, and contemplators of the human condition. Chances are, they will have a better than average attention span. Why not treat them so?

Too often, playwrights write as if audiences will throw cabbages unless they are treated to outsized plot-movers and a full cataloguing of the day’s social issues. What’s wrong with picking a theme, maybe adding a couple of subplots, and then having a good old-fashioned drill down into the human psyche?

Case in unfortunate point is Evan Linder’s Byhalia, Mississippi (HHHHH). As is typical, it all starts with tons of promise. Filling the stage with a house only a couple of paychecks above a semi-wide, designer Cameron Anderson sets the mood for a frank and funny drama in an unpretentious corner of hardscrabble America.

The rooms are soon filled with the lively dynamics of young marrieds Laurel and Jim, baby on the way, Laurel’s hilariously uncompromising mother Celeste, and Jim’s buddy-since-childhood, Karl. Steering clear of Roseanne territory, Linder (at least initially) gives these people enough dimension to avoid cliché. Laurel may be flopping around barefoot in trailer-trash shorts, but she works in education and seems keenly intelligent. Jim may be cart-stacking at the local Walmart, but he sees the redneck humor in his temporary lot. Celeste may deliver the laughs, but she has an edge that has likely damaged Laurel and may well hamper her future.

By the time the first scene draws to a close, these people are authentic, interesting, funny, and the stage is set for a massive tipping of the applecart (no spoilers here).

Unfortunately, as scene two arrives, along with the baby, Linder seems to lose faith in his characters. Instead of letting them carry on being true to themselves, he pumps up the theatrical volume. There are fisticuffs, theatrically self-conscious fights, improba-

ble silences, and the taking of stands, but nowhere near enough genuine grappling with the rupture in these lives. Instead of focusing on the relationships — marital, friend and parent-child — he composes situations that trigger sound and fury but not much else. The racial experiences of two African-American characters Karl and Ayesha and the religious convictions of Celeste are grafted on at nonsensical junctures.

Linder’s biggest misstep is squandering his portrait of Laurel. There is something intriguing in his suggestion that she inhabits two identities: Southern working-class at home, modestly upwardly-mobile at work. But once in the throes of raising a baby who is causing a rift in both her family and her small town, she becomes little more than a vehicle for grand ideas. She may raise questions of truth, fairness, race and a little about gender, but it all comes across as tiresome self-indulgence. And the more adamant Laurel becomes, the less sense she makes as a person. Is she educated or not? Principled, stubborn or stupid? Nothing ties her to a past or a life.

Matters aren’t helped by Linder’s injection of theatrics: her come-to-Jesus with a seriously estranged Jim in which she demands he get her water and a banana before she will explain herself, is painfully contrived. Without more, it’s hard to believe Linder meant to make her this unsympathetic. continues on page 49

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

47

TEDDY WOLFF

Stage

Solo Flights

Two brave, and very different, one-person plays use laughter and music to probe depression, inside and out. By André Hereford

A

PPLYING A DEFTLY LIGHT TOUCH TO A DEEPLY TROUBLING SUBJECT, Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing (HHHHH) is an interactive work that manages the trick of never breaking the fourth wall. Because no walls are erected between the audience and Alexander Strain, who practically welcomes each theatergoer personally to Jason Loewith’s immersive staging at Studio Theatre.

Macmillan’s international hit — originally performed Off-Broadway by British comedian Jonny Donahoe, who’s also credited for the script — envelops the house in an engaging, kumbaya spirit that feels genuine and earned. The audience really is in it together with Strain, as becomes clear when he greets random patrons with a note card or slip of paper. Each note is labeled with its own number, and at least one inspiring thought or fact about life that might make it all worth living.

With the cards handed out, and everyone seated, Strain then fully inhabits scenic designer Paige Hathaway’s cozy, carpet-strewn set. And Max Doolittle’s lighting stays alert to Strain’s every move, as the actor plays host, emcee, improv partner, and narrator, drawing a portrait of a young man first introduced to the concept of mortality through the death of his beloved pooch. But that fairly common rite of passage was soon followed, when our unnamed narrator was just six years old, by a more devastating brush with death: a suicide attempt by his mother.

Desperate to string together a lifeline that might tug his mother from the depths of suicidal depression, the frightened boy started a list to share with her, of a thousand brilliant things that make life wonderful. Through the years, and his mother’s battle with depression, as well as his own struggles, the boy’s list becomes the man’s passionate pursuit, often an obsession. The list serves as his lifeline when he doubts the brilliance of living through pain.

Ticking off the list — 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on — Strain conducts the audience as a chorus that chimes in, on cue, with the simple joys and surprises of life, the tiny coincidences that bring solace or laughter, the rich and fertile experiences that lead to happiness or a reminder of it. He also casts various audience members in the roles of his emotionally 48

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

distant father, and the woman who will become his first love. As active listeners and actors in the drama, everyone has a part to play, and the game works because everyone present has a relationship to life and death, and to the terrifying reality of suicide.

Strain keeps it real, while also keeping it fun for the audience. His energetic, heartfelt performance blurs any line between the insecure, grief-stricken narrator of the story, and the confident, responsive artist who’s portraying it. And, guided by Loewith’s sensitive directorial hand, the evening takes shape as one more brilliant thing about life — that is, the power of storytelling to create a community from a room full of strangers.

BY SOME GRACE NOTE OF COINCIDENCE, soul music legend Donny Hathaway, who is name-checked among a list of famous suicides in Every Brilliant Thing, also takes center stage across town in Mosaic Theater’s scintillating musical drama Twisted Melodies (HHHHH).

Also an immersive solo play about life, love, and suicide, Twisted Melodies, written and performed by Kelvin Roston, Jr., grants Hathaway an audience to tell his own story of battling the demons in his head. Of course, Roston is the one doing the telling, via his script, based on Hathaway’s life, that imagines the Grammy-winner’s final hours holed up

JOHN CHAVEZ

in his Essex House hotel room in New York City, 1979.

The songs are Donny’s, though, many of them familiar, and Roston, accompanying himself on keys, more than does them justice. His charged, soulful performance captures the late singer’s voice, while his script gives light to the darkness that ultimately subsumed a brilliant artist.

Where the script might falter — in its general looseness of plot and occasional repetitiveness in tone — the bold direction of Derrick Sanders illuminates the meaning behind Donny’s reveries and rants. Moody, impressionistic projections surround Hathaway, while harsh pounding from the hall or the room above distracts him from his songwriting. Disembodied voices intrude on his monologue, before and after Donny showers the hotel room carpet with the litany of pills he’s been prescribed. His internal demons are made dramatically external, his paranoia made real, without the stagecraft stepping on Roston’s consistently captivating take on Hathaway’s tortured mind.

Out of that terrible storm, Hathaway still found a way to move millions with his music. He talks about needing to grasp the tumultuous energy inside him and twist it into melodies. And he makes sense. Roston and Sanders make their version of sense of the unfathomable: that this loving father, and vital musician, who topped the charts cooing “The Closer I Get to You” to his Howard U. chum Roberta Flack, couldn’t find one brilliant thing to make him want to go on living with his demons. Although,

what he called demons, his doctors called schizophrenia. Roston offers a profound and truthful look at a man who simply can’t control the disruptive energy coursing through him.

Hathaway’s final act of letting go — beautifully realized through Sanders’ directorial vision, Courtney O’Neill’s remarkable set, and great lighting and projections by Alan C. Edwards and Mike Tutaj, respectively — seems no less tragic, even if by then, we think we understand him. Yet, Twisted Melodies revels in the songs he left behind, full of the yearning and romance and joy that must have certainly served as a lifeline for someone in need. l

Twisted Melodies runs through July 21 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $20 to $65.

Call 202-399-7993, ext. 2 or visit www.mosaictheater.org.

Every Brilliant Thing runs through July 7, at the Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets are $45 to $55.

Call 202-332-3300, or visit www.studiotheatre.org. continued from page 47

Though she can’t get past Linder’s mission for Laurel, Caroline Neff offers a certain hard-bitten charisma as this embattled woman and admirably has no interest in being likable.

But although there is a certain downhome chemistry with Jim, they don’t fight like people who have a history. Between this and Laurel’s single-minded principles, their conflict and reconciliation carry little weight.

Though his Jim has the right kind of personable warmth and his rapport with old pal Karl is credible, Jack Falahee can’t reconcile Linder’s need to make him a brawler and a thrower of baby monitors. As the affable buddy Karl, Blake Morris brings much subtlety to a thinly sketched role and could have brought

some much needed emotional intimacy.

Super-memorable here are Cecelia Wingate as Celeste and Aime Donna Kelly as Ayesha, the woman whose marriage has been rocked by Laurel and her choices. Utterly inhabiting the role with gratifying commitment, Wingate is frighteningly good as a woman utterly the product of her place and time. As the accomplished but compromised Ayesha, Kelly plays it large enough to beat back Linder’s improbable encounter with the “other” woman, so bold it doesn’t matter that no one ever talks like this.

Despite a clever start and some good moments, Linder never quite trusts in his powerful ear for American life and humor. If he can kick it up a notch — or, better yet — down a notch, he has much to say on life in these complicated times. l

Byhalia, Mississippi runs to Sunday, July 7 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets are $25 to $89.

Call 202-467-4600, or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

49

STEVEN KLEIN

Music

Chaotic by Design With Madame X, the Queen of Pop delivers her most bizarre, challenging work yet. By Sean Maunier

N

O STRANGER TO CRAFTING A NEW PERSONA FOR EACH TOUR, Madonna’s latest creation feels a bit like cheating. Among other things, the eponymous Madame X, she tells us, can be a professor, prisoner, student, mother, child, teacher, nun, singer... the list goes on. She spends very little time on her new album exploring these archetypes, however, perhaps keeping them in her back pocket for the tour set to kick off later this year. Madame X ( ) is more interested in exploring the many faces of modern pop, a thinly veiled way of shrugging off pretense and giving herself license to indulge her many creative whims.

Madame X is a deliberately challenging album that demands to be taken on its own terms. For Madonna, this is very much a pet project along the lines of the conceptual, politically charged, and near-universally panned American Life, to which it thankfully bears little similarity. The tone here is bleak, moving erratically between styles and genres, sometimes all in the very same song. To call this a late-career reinvention would be to miss the mark. Madonna is long past the need to reinvent herself. This time, we are along for the ride, and we can take it or leave it.

Never shy about expanding her ever-growing debt to the cultures and subcultures she draws inspiration from, this time Madonna borrows from trap, disco, Latin pop, and reggaeton, among others. Granted, she has tread much of this ground before, although she has never stitched quite so many influences together into such a chaotic package. The chill, downtempo opener, “Medellín,” is the most on-brand track on the whole album, recalling her many forays into Latin pop. As opening tracks go, it works in no small part because she shares the spotlight with her collaborator Maluma. The second single launched in advance, “Crave,” is an arresting and ethereal pop ballad

that sounds like it comes from a different world entirely.

As it turns out, these introductory singles are some of the most tame work on Madame X, absolutely failing to prepare us for an album that is Madonna at her most manic and experimental. The accordion solo that introduces “Crazy” serves as a rejoinder to anyone still expecting to find some coherence in the album midway through it. “Dark Ballet” takes her weirdness to an extreme on an infectiously weird track about her deeply held belief in God that breaks out midway through into a bizarre vocoder solo set to lines from The Nutcracker Suite. Elsewhere, she belts out nonsensical lyrics like the instantly iconic lines from “God Control.” “People think that I’m insane/The only gun is in my brain/Each new birth, it gives me hope/ That’s why I don’t smoke that dope.” The dark, drum-heavy call-and-response track “Batuka” may be the greatest departure for Madonna, with vocals autotuned almost out of recognition and accompanied by the all-women Batukadeiras Orchestra, producing an absolutely otherworldly effect.

The line between the fantastically and off-puttingly weird can be a thin one, and Madonna spends most of this album balancing precariously on top of it. Occasionally, she falls off and lands in

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

51

STEVEN KLEIN

an absolute clunker, but even the songs that do not quite land are something to be experienced. “Killers Who Are Partying” is an undoubtedly well-intentioned, yet deeply tone deaf number fraught with comparisons between herself and the oppressed of the world, including the gays, the impoverished, Muslims, women, and the entire continent of Africa.

In a way, the savior complex, incoherent political message and lack of self-awareness on display here are all very authentically Madonna, although she does find some redemption on “I Rise,” a sober political track that rages against gun violence.

True to form, Madonna is at her best when reflecting inward on herself. “Extreme Occident” is a surprisingly vulnerable ballad reflecting on her life and work. “I’ve got the right to choose my own life,” she sings, leaving us to wonder who could possibly be thinking otherwise. It is a sentiment apparently intended more for her own benefit than for her audience — the one identifiable thread running through the album.

Between its high concept and occasionally choppy execution, Madame X is unlikely to be remembered as more than a footnote in her career, which is a shame, given that it delivers some of the most strange, outlandish and purely self-indulgent work she has ever produced. At this point, Madonna can be forgiven for wanting to mess around and have a little fun. l Madame X can be purchased on Amazon.com and iTunes, and is available on most major streaming services.

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

53

Scene

Kim Petras at Trade - Sunday, June 16 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, June 27 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets

of Bud Products all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am

Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close • Democratic Debate Watch Party, 9pm • $5 Stoli Flavors and $5 House Wines TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm

PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Blush: House and Techno Party, featuring DJ Keenan Orr, 10pm-close • $5 Cover (includes clothes check)

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com

AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 54

Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-

Destinations

Friday, June 28

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Special Friday Edition of Piano Bar/Karaoke, 9pm

Saturday, June 29 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule

GAYBORHOOD NIGHT PIANO BAR WITH JOHN FLYNN A Philadelphia native, Flynn is a regular presence pretty much year-round in his adopted hometown of Rehoboth Beach. Most nights of the week, you’ll find him tickling the ivories at popular dining and drinking establishments, everywhere from Café Azafrán to Murph’s Beef & Ale to Blue Moon, all to inspire and accompany patrons in singing along to show tunes, standards, and piano-led renditions of pop hits new and old. But on the last Sunday of most months, the gay pianist ventures inland to our neck of the woods, to incite to chorus the colorful patrons at a venue that outbeaches ’em all — all the way in Northern Virginia, no less. This “Gayborhood” event at the “straight-friendly” Freddie’s is meant to foster greater community among LGBTQ patrons and allies: “Enjoy happy hour specials and meet your neighbors.” Sunday, Jan. 30, starting at 5 p.m. Freddie’s Beach Bar is at 555 South 23rd St., Arlington. Call 703-685-0555 or visit freddiesbeachbar.com.

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night

NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

CHURCH! AT TRADE “You’re going to church? On a Wednesday?!?” Of course, next Wednesday, July 3, ain’t just any Wednesday — it’ll feel like a Friday, given the big ol’ work-free holiday the next day. Also, this ain’t just any worship service, at any kind of church. Church! — note the punctuation — features DJs as opposed to preachers in its pulpit, and drag queens who get down and dirty with the crowd rather than blue-haired and big-hatted ladies who sit back and judge — naughty beats haughty any day, can I get an amen? Helping to whip all the proud parishioners into a firecracker frenzy for the 4th will be wessthedj plus special guest DJ Keenan Orr, with a show hosted by Pussy Noir and featuring Sasha Adams Sanchez, Bombalicious Eklaver, and Ricky Rosé. Service starts at 10 p.m. Trade is at 1410 14th St. NW. Call 202-986-1094 or visit www.tradebardc.com.

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS: FREAKY FRIDAYS The veteran Daryl Wilson Promotions offers another freaky deaky bonanza on both levels of Southwest’s large LGBTQ nightclub and entertainment complex starting at 10 p.m. Entertainment for the evening will come via 20 all-nude male dancers — including The Kandyman — house DJ Sedrick and hip-hop DJ Tim Nice, plus a “variety show.” Friday, July 5. Ziegfeld’s/Secrets is at 1024 Half St. SW. Call 202-863-0607 or visit www.secretsdc.com.

PITCHERS, ALOHO’S CHARITY EMPLOYEE DRAG PICNIC You can picnic with drag queens every second and fourth Saturdays, but the first Saturday in July offers a special summer spread, one featuring “Pitchers employees in their drag debut.” Make that Pitchers and A League of Her Own employees, including Darin Louis, Doug Edwards, Jayson Smith, Ally Clover, Brixton Millner, Juliemay Syquio, Rachel King-Pike, and more — with special guest hostess Chris Huskins, better known as Isis Deverroux. The point isn’t just to hoot and holler at all the specially packed “baskets” on display, but also to raise money for the Wanda Alston Foundation. All tips received will go toward the organization’s critical work in providing shelter and support for D.C.’s LGBTQ youth. Best of all, you don’t need to pack your own basket, as food will be available along with drinks at the bar. It all goes down Saturday, July 6, starting “on f*cking time” at 1 p.m. Pitchers is at 2317 18th St. NW. Call 202-733-2568 or visit www.pitchersdc.eventbrite.com to make reservations.

GREEN LANTERN’S REWIND: REQUEST LINE Darryl Strickland was one of the most prolific DJs in gay D.C. in the ’90s, which makes him eminently qualified to serve as VJ for this first-Saturdays party focused on playing the best video hits of the ’80s and ’90s. There are drink specials on offer and the ability to make requests all night long. Saturday, July 6, starting at 9 p.m. Green Lantern is at 1335 Green Ct. NW. No cover. Call 202-347-4533 or visit greenlanterndc.com. l

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

55

glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

Sunday, June 30 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Gayborhood Piano Bar with John Flynn, 5-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • All Day Happy Hour • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft

56

beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

• PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables

PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Monday, July 1 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm

Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • Tickets available at www.nelliessportsbar.com

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Piano Bar with Jill, 8pm

Tuesday, July 2

Wednesday, July 3

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted

by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, 6:30-7:30pm • $10 per class • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Absolutely Snatched Drag

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • CHURCH: Church-Themed Dance Party, featuring house music and pop-up performances • Special guest hosts and performers • Music by WesstheDJ, Jesse Jackson, and other guest DJs

Thursday, July 4 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in

Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets of Bud Products all night • Sports Leagues Night NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close • Fourth of July Drag Show with Kristina Kelly, 10pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

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Friday, July 5 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Davon Hamilton Events presents District First Fridays Underwear Party: Jocks and Socks, featuring DJ Tryfe, 10pm-close • $5 Cover before 10pm, $10 Cover after (includes clothes check) • Male GoGo Dancers • $5 Margaritas and $8 Long Islands NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4

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(7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night

glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm

NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge

Saturday, July 6 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW LGBTQ Dance Party, featuring DJ Matt Bailer, 10pm-4am • $15 Cover, $20 Cover for VIP • Drink specials • Drag Show,

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

10:30-11:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and a rotating cast of drag queens • Open Bar on Tito’s and Jameson, 11pm-midnight • Visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • REWIND: Request Line, an ‘80s and ‘90s Dance Party, 9pm-close • Featuring DJ Darryl Strickland • No Cover NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and

1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Time Machine and Power Hour, featuring DJ Jack Rayburn, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $15 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks •

Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

Sunday, July 7 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Freddie’s Monthly Zodiac Contest, hosted by Ophelia Bottoms, 8-10pm • $5 Cover • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon,

9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge

glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • GLAM BOX: A Monthly Dress-Up Dance Party, 10pm-close • Come in a look, or find one from one of our house glam boxes • Walk-Off Contest at 10:30 p.m. • Music by Joann Fabrixx • Special Guests hosts

Monday, July 8 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Tuesday, July 9 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Burgers and Pizzas, 5-10pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 l

NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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Scene

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Nellie’s Sports Bar - Friday, June 21 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“On Friday, the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.

That was when our community said enough is enough.”

— LADY GAGA, in a speech during a concert in New York City, celebrating LGBTQ people and the importance of Pride.

“It’s Pride week. I wish it could exist 365 days of the year, but I’ll take a fucking global week,” Gaga, who is bisexual, said.

She also paid tribute to a Stonewall icon: “All hail to so many, including Miss Marsha P. Johnson. What bravery, what courage.

In the spirit of acceptance, the spirit of tolerance, the spirit of courage to be seen as you see yourself.”

“When their trans sisters and brothers get murdered, they feel it.

We have to support them.”

— JANELLE MONAE, speaking to Paper Magazine about trans women like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox who are “putting themselves and their lives on the frontline every day.” Monae said that LGBTQ people should “protect those who may not be as privileged,” adding, “It’s just a responsibility I feel. I could do better. I’ll do better.”

“I promise you this, I will fight for each and every one of us.”

— ALPHONSO DAVID, civil rights lawyer and advocate, in a video for the Human Rights Campaign. David has been named the new

president of HRC, the nation’s largest LGBTQ organization, becoming the first person of color to lead the group. David added: “If we want to win full equality, that’s going to require us to come together, to dig deep, to be resilient, to embrace our differences, to tenaciously defend the most vulnerable among us, to fight with every ounce of determination we have.”

“I think, you really don’t start thinking about that until you are a parent, and I think — obviously absolutely fine by me.”

— PRINCE WILLIAM, speaking at an event for an LGBTQ homeless youth charity, responding to how he would feel if one of his children came out as LGBTQ. “It worries me not because of them being gay,” the future British king said, “it worries me as to how everyone else will react and perceive it and then the pressure is then on them.”

“I love men and women equally and so I would definitely want one man, one woman. ” — WILLOW SMITH, speaking to her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, and grandmother Adrienne in an episode of Red Table Talk on Facebook. Smith opened up about her sexuality and interest in polyamory, saying, “I feel like I could be polyfidelitous with those two people. I’m not the kind of person that is constantly looking for new sexual experiences. I focus a lot on the emotional connection and I feel like if I were to find two people of different genders that I really connected with and we had a romantic and sexual connection, I don’t feel like I would feel the need to try to go find more.”

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June 27 & July 4, 2019 • METROWEEKLY