Washingtonblade.com, Volume 49, Issue 14, April 6, 2018

APRIL 06,

2018

VOLUME 49

ISSUE 14

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AMERICA’S LGBTQ NEWS SOURCE

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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

Taking sides in Cuomo vs. Nixon N.Y. guv finds key LGBT support as bisexual actress mounts challenge

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com

Actress and activist CYNTHIA NIXON is hoping to unseat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary.

In the aftermath of “Sex and the City” star and LGBT progressive activist Cynthia Nixon’s recently announced primary challenge to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the LGBT community isn’t lockstep in whom to support, but key LGBT rights supporters — including the Human Rights Campaign — are staying loyal to the incumbent governor.

Chris Sgro, a spokesperson for HRC, said Wednesday the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group — which endorsed Cuomo in January months

before Nixon entered the race — would commit resources to support the governor for the primary on Sept. 13.

“HRC will absolutely be mobilizing our nearly quarter of a million members and supporters across the Empire State to support our endorsed candidates, including Andrew Cuomo,” Sgro said.

HRC is sticking with the incumbent even though it has ties to both Cuomo and Nixon. In February, the organization honored Nixon with a visibility award at its New York gala, but also gave a platform to Cuomo to address attendees.

HRC’s position is consistent with other LGBT Democratic activists in New York, many of whom said they were wary of a primary at a time of ongoing antiLGBT attacks under the Trump administration.

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PHOTO VIA FLICKR

D.C. servers concerned about ‘tipped wage’ proposal Confusion over June 19 initiative that some fear will reduce earnings for waiters

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com

LGBT customers and employees at D.C.’s gay bars, restaurants and nightclubs are viewing with interest a June 19 ballot initiative asking city voters to decide whether the socalled “tipped wage” exemption should be eliminated and replaced by requiring tipped workers to be paid the full city minimum wage as part of their base pay.

Several tipped workers at D.C. gay bars and

clubs, speaking on condition that they not be identified, have said they are unclear about the full implications of the initiative but are worried that it would result in lower tips and lower overall income.

The ballot measure, called Initiative 77, calls for ending a provision in the city’s minimum wage law that allows restaurants, bars and other businesses that employ tipped workers to pay those workers less than the prevailing minimum wage for non-tipped workers.

The “base” minimum wage for tipped workers is $3.33 per hour compared to the full minimum wage of $12.50 per hour for all other city workers. However, a provision in the current law requires restaurants, bars

‘I think it’s a solution in search of a problem,’ said DITO SEVILLA, who works at Floriana Restaurant, about his opposition to Initiative 77.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 15

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

CONGRATS!

LET THERE BE ...

SHE’S BAAACK

Our own Chris Johnson honored for coverage of Trump AIDS council.

Light City! Meet one of the artists illuminating Baltimore this month.

A closer look at revival of ‘Roseanne’ and its role in the culture wars.

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LO CA L N E W S

Nellie’s apologizes for displaying ‘blue line’ police flag the bar last Friday and saw it hanging from a flag pole attached to the Nellie’s building at 9th and U Streets, N.W. He said the member took a picture of the flag.

“We saw it as an issue and we posted about it pretty quickly,” Ambrogi said. “And it got a lot of traction on Facebook and a lot of people were concerned and called Nellie’s and sent letters to Nellie’s.”

A representative of Nellie’s couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

In its Facebook posting, Nellie’s said it would be sending a donation to No Justice No Pride.

“We messed up,” says the posting. “There is no excuse. We will learn from this and try harder to make Nellie’s the safe, welcoming space for all that we want it to be.”

In a separate development, D.C. police last week posted on the department’s Facebook page and Twitter handle a message expressing support for the Transgender Day of Visibility.

Nellie’s management quickly removed a flag that has been used by white supremacist groups.

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY WYATT REID WESTLUND

Complaints received about links to anti-Black Lives Matter movement

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com Nellie’s Sports Bar posted a message on its Facebook page on Saturday apologizing for displaying a flag created in the 1960s to honor police officers but which in recent years has been embraced by white supremacists.

The apology and a decision by Nellie’s to take down the flag came after the local LGBT group No Justice No Pride reported on social media, including Facebook, that Nellie’s had been displaying a flag used by opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as by white nationalist groups to disparage efforts to curtail police shootings of black men.

The flag in question, known as the Thin Blue Line flag, consists of a black and white colored American flag with a thin blue line running across the middle of the flag. There are no other symbols or words written on the flag.

“At the end of this week, a group of LGBT police officers were meeting at Nellie’s to gather in a welcoming space,” the Nellie’s Facebook statement says. “This happened to fall just as we were taking down our Irish flag for St. Patrick’s Day, and we opted to welcome them with what we thought was just a flag representing the police,” the statement says.

“Soon after the flag was hoisted, we learned from our customers and the community that this flag is also used to undermine the work of the Black Lives Matter movement, and we promptly removed it,” the statement continues. “We in no way meant to state that we are opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, especially in the wake of Stephon Clark’s tragic death and the disturbing new facts coming to light in the Alton Sterling case.

The statement was referring to two fatal police shootings of black men, one in 2016 in Baton Rouge, La., and the other last month in Sacramento, Calif.

“We now understand that flying this flag – at this point in time, in particular – was at best done deaf, and at worst offensive,” the Nellie’s statement says. “We sincerely apologize to our customers and our neighbors for this egregious mistake, and want to assure you that this flag will never fly at Nellie’s again.”

Representatives of police departments across the country and an organization that manufactures and distributes the flag have said the flag was never intended to be used as a symbol of discrimination or racial injustice.

“The thin blue line stands for the sacrifice law enforcement officers of this nation make each day,” USA Today quoted Thin Blue Line, an organization that distributes the flags, as saying last year at the time white supremacists carried the flag at a protest in Charlottesville, Va., that turned violent.

“We reject in the strongest possible terms any association of our flag with racism, hatred, and bigotry,” the organization told USA Today. “To use it in this way tarnishes what it and our nation believe in.”

No Justice No Pride organizers Drew Ambrogi told the Washington Blade the group learned about the flag being displayed at Nellie’s when one of its members walked past

Correspondents’ Association honors Blade reporter The White House Correspondents’ Association this week announced the winners of its annual journalism awards and the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson was among them.

Johnson, the Blade’s White House reporter, won honorable mention for the Merriman Smith Award for print, which honors presidential news coverage under deadline pressure. Josh Dawsey of Politico won the award.

“Chris Johnson was the first Blade reporter CHRIS JOHNSON covers the to report that President Donald White House.

Trump had fired all the members WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY of his AIDS advisory committee,” the award committee said in a statement. “Despite the fact that the firings occurred a few days after Christmas, Johnson was able to track down sources to confirm the story on the record. Other media outlets quickly picked up the story, crediting Johnson’s reporting. His quick deadline story was crisply written and provided extensive detail and background.”

Johnson finds himself in esteemed company. Other awards announced this week included the Aldo Beckman Award to Maggie Haberman of The New York Times; the Merriman Smith Award for broadcast to Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein of CNN; and the Edgar A. Poe Award to a team from Reuters for the report, “Shock Tactics.”

“I’m so grateful the White House Correspondents’ Association has recognized our ongoing coverage of the Trump administration, especially as many of its policies have had a negative impact on LGBT people,” Johnson said.

The award comes as the Blade and other outlets that have criticized Trump — including April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks — have complained about not being called on in the briefing room.

“Although the White House often fails to recognize our community by refusing to call on the Blade during briefings, the Blade’s presence as the sole LGBT media outlet in the White House press corps is important because we can stay on top of Trump policies affecting LGBT people and symbolically represent the voice of our community at the center of the U.S. government,” Johnson said.

Blade editor Kevin Naff echoed those sentiments.

“Congratulations to Chris on this richly deserved honor,” he said. “Chris works tirelessly under frustrating conditions to cover this administration and its recurring attacks on our community. It’s important that he’s in the room and this honor from the White House Correspondents’ Association validates the Blade’s commitment to aggressive coverage of the administration.”

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NATIONAL NEWS

Joint chiefs not briefed before Trump went public with trans military ban Top officials learned of the news with the public: sources

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com The joint military service chiefs were not briefed on the recommendations

by Defense Secretary James Mattis against the transgender military ban or the Trump memo seeking to implement them before the White House went public with them last Friday, according to two sources familiar with the process.

One source said the top uniformed officials at the Pentagon had to download the documents online just like the rest of the public late on March 23 to obtain them for the first time.

Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon

Gen. JOSEPH F. DUNFORD, JR. wasn’t briefed on the trans military ban before the White House made it public last week.

spokesperson, wouldn’t deny the joint chiefs weren’t briefed on the recommendation before it went public, but said their representatives were on the panel of experts that advised Mattis on transgender service before he made his recommendation.

“Recommendations and conversations between the secretary and the president are private, however, each service was represented on the panel of experts,” Gleason said.

Gleason said the group of experts on which Mattis relied before making his recommendation on February 22 to the White House was “a panel of service and joint staff senior leaders.”

A defense official said the service chiefs may not have had the documents in hand before they went public Friday, but that wasn’t unusual because it was a part of a process in which Mattis was tasked with producing a recommendation and there was no actual policy before the White House issued its memo March 23.

There’s a history of Trump not consulting the joint chiefs on his plan to ban transgender people “in any capacity”

from the armed forces, which he announced via Twitter in July. A Buzzfeed report last month on an email exchange immediately after Trump tweeted out his announcement revealed Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford called the move “unexpected” and intended to tell Congress he was “not consulted.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday on why the administration elected not to brief the service chiefs before making the transgender policy public.

Even after the White House made the transgender policy public last week, the Pentagon has insisted it will continue to assess and retain transgender troops in accordance with multiple court orders against Trump’s earlier policy that found banning transgender service members is unconstitutional.

Air Force lifts penalty on officer who won’t recognize gay airman’s spouse Trump administration awards officer religious accommodation

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com In a move LGBT rights supporters say amounts to allowing discrimination in the U.S. military, the U.S. Air Force has lifted the penalty on an officer who refused to recognize the marriage of a gay subordinate in retirement materials.

Col. Leland Bohannon, commander of the Air Force Inspection Agency at Kirtland Air Force Based in New Mexico, was removed from command and consideration for promotion after he refused to sign a certificate of spousal appreciation as part of the retirement package for a master sergeant in a same-sex marriage. (The name of the master sergeant isn’t named in any legal documents for the case.)

But the Air Force announced this week it reversed its decision on appeal.

In a letter dated April 2 to Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) that she posted on her website, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson informed the anti-LGBT lawmaker the service determined Bohannon “had the right to exercise his sincerely held religious beliefs and did not unlawfully discriminate when he declined to sign the certificate of appreciation for the samesex spouse of an airman in his command.”

“The Air Force has a duty to treat people fairly and without discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, or sexual orientation and met that duty by having a more senior officer sign the certificate,” Wilson concluded.

According to the letter, the director of the Air Force Review Boards Agency was responsible for the determination Bohannon should be granted a religious exemption over his opposition to same-sex marriage, despite the earlier conclusions of the service.

The Air Force confirmed to the Washington Blade the accuracy of the news Bohannon’s penalty had been lifted upon appeal.

According to the legal group First Liberty, which is representing Bohannon, the certificate of spousal appreciation is “an optional, unofficial certificate, similar to a bouquet of flowers” and is one component of the standard awards, gifts, and honors presented to retiring service members. Although Bohannon signed other documents related to his subordinate’s retirement, he felt his religious views precluded him from signing the certificate of spouse appreciation because it would amount to endorsing same-sex marriage.

After seeking guidance from his chaplain and his military attorney, Bohannon requested a religious accommodation to opt out of signing the document. A twostar general who was Bohannon’s superior volunteered to sign in Bohannon’s place, and Bohannon accepted the deal.

But when the master sergeant learned Bohannon did not personally sign the certificate, the retiring airman filed an Equal Opportunity complaint, contending Bohannon engaged in discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The U.S. military’s Equal Opportunity policy bars discrimination on the basis of the sexual orientation as a result of a change made by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during the Obama years.

Air Force Col. LELAND BOHANNON won’t recognize his subordinate’s same-sex marriage.

An initial investigation determined the allegations of anti-gay discrimination were substantiated. According to First Liberty, the Air Force investigation found even if Bohannon obtained a religious exemption, it wouldn’t change the outcome or Bohannon’s “guilt.”

According to the appeal, the Air Force suspended Bohannon from command and withheld his decoration. A letter to to the Air Force Brigadier General promotion board — the rank for which Col. Bohannon is eligible —recommended Bohannon not be promoted.

The Air Force reversed its conclusions this week after First Liberty began representing Bohannon upon appeal and others who sympathized with him called on the service to make a religious accommodation.

A coalition of 31 anti-LGBT advocates signed a letter against the initial conclusion against Bohannon, calling it “a blatant violation of Col. Leland Bohannon’s religious freedom with

respect to his beliefs about marriage.” In another letter, eight senators — Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) — said the Air Force must “see that justice is restored” and clarify its position on religious freedom.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, praised the reversal at the Air Force and credited President Trump with creating a climate that led to the change.

“As most service members understand all too well, religious hostility in the military didn’t disappear when Barack Obama did,” Perkins said. “President Trump has had to walk a long and determined road to weed out the bureaucrats still loyal to the intolerance of the last administration. And thankfully, he has leaders like Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson to help him do it.”

But LGBT rights advocates had a different take and said the restoration of Bohannan’s command gives a green light to discrimination in the U.S. military.

Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partners Association, said the Air Force reversal was “alarming.”

“At the end of the day, every service member and their spouse deserves to be treated equally with dignity and respect, especially by a commanding officer,” Broadway-Mack said. “Personal religious beliefs should never be used as an excuse to discriminate against a subordinate.

This colonel’s action sent a dangerous message to the entire command that he disapproves of every same-sex spouse that supports their service member throughout their military career. That’s a severe failure of leadership.”

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In adults with HIV on ART who have diarrhea not caused by an infection IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION This is only a summary. See complete Prescribing Information at Mytesi.com or by calling 1-844-722-8256. This does not take the place of talking with your doctor about your medical condition or treatment.

What Is Mytesi?

Mytesi is a prescription medicine used to improve symptoms of noninfectious diarrhea (diarrhea not caused by a bacterial, viral, or parasitic infection) in adults living with HIV/AIDS on ART. Do Not Take Mytesi if you have diarrhea caused by an infection.

Before you start Mytesi, your doctor and you should make sure your diarrhea is not caused by an infection (such as bacteria, virus, or parasite).

Possible Side Effects of Mytesi Include:

Tired of planning your life around diarrhea?

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Mytesi (crofelemer): • Is the only medicine FDA-approved to relieve diarrhea in people with HIV • Treats diarrhea differently by normalizing the flow of water in the GI tract • Has the same or fewer side effects as placebo in clinical studies • Comes from a tree sustainably harvested in the Amazon Rainforest What is Mytesi?

Mytesi is a prescription medicine that helps relieve symptoms of diarrhea not caused by an infection (noninfectious) in adults living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Important Safety Information Mytesi is not approved to treat infectious diarrhea (diarrhea caused by bacteria, a virus, or a parasite). Before starting you on Mytesi, your healthcare provider will first be sure that you do not have infectious diarrhea. Otherwise, there is a risk you would not receive the right medicine and your infection could get worse. In clinical studies, the most common side effects that occurred more often than with placebo were upper respiratory tract (sinus, nose, and throat) infection (5.7%), bronchitis (3.9%), cough (3.5%), flatulence (3.1%), and increased bilirubin (3.1%).

For Copay Savings Card and Patient Assistance, see Mytesi.com

Should I Take Mytesi If I Am: Pregnant or Planning to Become Pregnant?

• Studies in animals show that Mytesi could harm an unborn baby or affect the ability to become pregnant • There are no studies in pregnant women taking Mytesi • This drug should only be used during pregnancy if clearly needed A Nursing Mother?

• It is not known whether Mytesi is passed through human breast milk • If you are nursing, you should tell your doctor before starting Mytesi • Your doctor will help you to decide whether to stop nursing or to stop taking Mytesi Under 18 or Over 65 Years of Age? • Mytesi has not been studied in children under 18 years of age • Mytesi studies did not include many people over the age of 65.

So it is not clear if this age group will respond differently. Talk to your doctor to find out if Mytesi is right for you

What Should I Know About Taking Mytesi With Other Medicines?

If you are taking any prescription or over-the-counter medicine, herbal supplements, or vitamins, tell your doctor before starting Mytesi.

What If I Have More Questions About Mytesi?

For more information, please see the full Prescribing Information at Mytesi.com or speak to your doctor or pharmacist.

To report side effects or make a product complaint or for additional information, call 1-844-722-8256.

Rx Only Manufactured by Patheon, Inc. for Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. San Francisco, CA 94105 Copyright © Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Please see complete Prescribing Information at Mytesi.com.

NP-390-17

• Upper respiratory tract infection (sinus, nose, and throat infection) • Bronchitis (swelling in the tubes that carry air to and from your lungs) • Cough • Flatulence (gas) • Increased bilirubin (a waste product when red blood cells break down) For a full list of side effects, please talk to your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or does not go away.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

RELIEF, PURE AND SIMPLE

Mytesi comes from the Croton lechleri tree harvested in South America.

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NATIONAL NEWS

Rainbow flag lawsuit dismissed by federal judge in D.C. Tenn. lobbyist sued House members for displaying Pride symbol

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com A federal judge in D.C. on March 26 dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Tennessee lobbyist and lawyer calling for forcing four U.S. House members to take down rainbow flags hanging above the door to their offices in two congressional office buildings on Capitol Hill.

Chris Sevier filed the rainbow flag lawsuit in March 2017 against U.S. Reps.

Don Beyer (D-Va.), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.), and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). The lawsuit followed earlier lawsuits he filed against

U.S. Rep. DON BEYER said he is proud to display the rainbow flag above his office door along with the American flag.

at least three states for denying his request to marry his laptop computer as a protest against same-sex marriage, In a 21-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss said the claims Sevier made in the rainbow flag lawsuit that homosexuality is a religion and that

displaying a “homosexual” flag in public buildings violates his constitutional right to be free from such a religion have no basis in law.

In his lawsuit Sevier stated, “The Plaintiff respectfully moves the Court to declare that the Gay Pride Rainbow Colored Flag is a ‘religious symbol’ for the homosexual denomination within the overall church of ‘western expressive individualism postmodern moral relativism.”

In the same lawsuit Sevier called on the D.C. federal court to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states and to reverse the high court’s 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling that overturned state sodomy laws.

Moss’s ruling to dismiss the lawsuit came in response to a motion calling for dismissal filed by Sarah Edith Clouse, an attorney with the House

of Representatives’ Office of General Counsel in her official role representing the House in legal matters.

“The gay rights movement bears no trappings of ‘religion’ as that concept is widely understood, and Sevier has not plausibly alleged that a reasonable person would perceive the display of the rainbow flags as religious in nature,” Moss states in his ruling.

Aaron Fritschner, Beyer’s press secretary, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said Beyer, whose district includes the city of Alexandria, is proud to display the rainbow flag above his office door along with the American flag.

Lowenthal, whose California district includes the city of Long Beach, released a statement praising Moss’s decision dismissing the lawsuit.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

CVS accused of releasing patients’ HIV status Lawsuit says ‘HIV’ appeared through envelope windows mailed to 6,000

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com In a little-noticed development, three HIV-positive residents of Ohio on March 22 filed a class action lawsuit against the CVS pharmacy and healthcare company for what they claim was its “unauthorized public disclosure” of their HIV status and the HIV status of over 6,000 others in Ohio in July and August of 2017.

The three residents, saying they wish to protect their privacy, filed the lawsuit under the names John Doe One, John Doe Two, and John Doe Three before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The lawsuit says the unauthorized and “illegal” disclosure of the patients’ HIV status occurred when the letters “HIV” appeared above the patients’ names through the window of envelopes used in a mass mailing by a CVS affiliate of information to patients related to their enrollment in Ohio’s version of the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

The Ohio Drug Assistance Program, or OhDAP, pays some or all of the cost of HIV medication for low-income people in the state, including those with limited or no health insurance coverage. Ohio officials retained two CVS affiliate companies, Caremark LLC and Caremark Rx LLC, to administer parts of the program and to arrange for providing the patients’ HIV medication.

The two affiliates retained two

CVS is being sued by patients who claim their HIV status was revealed in a mass mailing.

contractors, FISER V, Inc. and FISER V Solutions LLC, to carry out the mailings, the lawsuit says. The parent company CVS Health Corporation, the two CVS Caremark affiliates and the two FISER V companies are each named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the three HIV-positive residents who are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking to represent as part of a class action all participants in the Ohio Drug Assistance Program “whom Defendants sent a mailing…in which the participant’s name and the letters ‘HIV’ were visible through the envelope window.”

It says the number of those potentially eligible for class action status in the lawsuit could exceed 6,000.

CVS has said it took immediate steps to eliminate any reference to HIV in envelope windows as soon as it learned about the mailing in question.

“Beginning in approximately late July or early August 2017, Defendants mailed a letter containing membership cards and information about the CVS program and how persons would access their HIVrelated prescriptions,” the lawsuit says.

“This letter was mailed to an estimated 6,000 participants in the OhDAP, regardless of whether they were active pharmacy customers of CVS,” it says.

According to the lawsuit, although the letters contained highly confidential information about the patients’ HIV status, they were sent in envelopes that had two “glassine windows” through which information on the letter could be seen by anyone handling the unopened envelopes, including U.S. Postal Service employees.

One of the windows in the upper left side of the envelope contained the “CVS/Caremark” logo, the words “Ohio Department of Health,” and the notation “new prescription benefits,” the lawsuit says.

“A second window contained the recipient’s name and address, with the designation ‘PM 6402 HIV’ directly above the person’s name,” the lawsuit states.

“This reference to the recipient’s HIV status was plainly visible through the glassine window,” it says.

“Persons with HIV are still subject to stigma, humiliation, mental anguish, embarrassment, and stress based on their HIV status,” the lawsuit says. “They may also run the risk of the loss of housing, relationships, and employment when their HIV status is revealed,” it says.

John Doe Two and Three live in small Ohio towns and are fearful that disclosure of their HIV status could subject them to harmful repercussions, says the lawsuit. It adds that the two are experiencing “significant distress” over who might have seen their HIV status exposed in the envelope window of the mailing they received.

“John Doe One feels that CVS has essentially handed a weapon to anyone who handled the envelope, giving them

the opportunity to attack his identity or cause other harm to him,” the lawsuit says.

When contacted by the Washington Blade for comment on the lawsuit, CVS spokesperson Gary Serby sent a statement similar to the one CVS issued last August when news about the mailing with the “HIV” designation above the patients’ names first surfaced.

“CVS Health places the highest priority on protecting the privacy of those we serve, and we take our responsibility to safeguard confidential information very seriously,” the statement says.

“Last year, as part of a CVS Caremark benefits mailing to members of an Ohio client, a reference code for an assistance program was visible within the envelope window,” the statement continues. “This reference code was intended to refer to the name of the program and not to the recipient’s health status. As soon as we learned of this incident, we immediately took steps to eliminate the reference code to the plan name in any future mailings,” it says.

“We have no further comment due to the pending litigation,” the CVS statement says.

As of early this week, CVS had not filed an official response in court to the lawsuit.

Under court rules, the company has 21 days from the time it was served papers about the lawsuit on March 22 to file its “answer” to the lawsuit or to file a motion seeking certain action by the court.

The lawsuit calls for the court to declare the HIV “disclosure” through the mailings a violation of Ohio law and to order the company not to make future unauthorized disclosures of patients’ HIV status.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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AN ICONIC DC TRADITION

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A federal jury in Orlando, Fla., on March 30 acquitted NOOR SALMAN on charges that she helped her husband carry out the Pulse nightclub massacre.

Widow of Pulse nightclub gunman acquitted A jury last week acquitted Noor Salman of charges that she helped her husband carry out the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Federal prosecutors charged Salman with obstruction of justice and providing material support to a foreign terrorism organization in connection with the June 12, 2016, shooting that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured. Salman’s trial began earlier this month at a federal courthouse in downtown Orlando that is roughly two miles from the Pulse nightclub.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Salman was crying after the jury reached its verdict. The newspaper also noted Barbara Poma, owner of the Pulse nightclub, and several of the victims’ relatives did not speak when they left the courtroom after Salman was acquitted.

“I respect the criminal justice process, and we all have to trust that the jury made its decision free of bias and emotion,” wrote Poma on her Facebook page. “Those of us directly affected by this tragedy must find peace in our hearts and remember that he (the gunman) was the one who pulled the trigger that night. He was the perpetrator, and he should not have one more minute of power over our lives.”

The massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history until a gunman on Oct. 1, 2017, killed 58 people and injured nearly 500 others during a country music festival in Las Vegas.

Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub massacre who is vice president of the Dru Project, a gun control advocacy group, is among the hundreds of thousands of people who participated in the “March for Our Lives” that took place in D.C. on March 24.

“I have not been watching the trial,” he wrote on his Facebook page after the jury acquitted Salman. “I am not personally invested in the outcome, but I know this: True justice, in my eyes, comes from creating a world our 49 angels would be proud of. A world where we are celebrating life, not running from bullets.”

“I love you all,” added Wolf. “Stay strong. We do it for them.”

Poma in her Facebook post said the verdict “cannot and will not divide us.”

“The survivors, families, and first responders as well as the community of Orlando and everyone around the world must now focus on the work ahead of us,” she wrote. “We will always carry the pain of what happened at Pulse, and we will never forget those who were taken. We will wrap our arms around all affected today and in the days to come.”

“It will be difficult, but we will focus now on healing, and we will continue to work to help communities emerge from violence and hate,” added Poma. “It is as important today as it was 21 months ago.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Washington State bans ‘ex-gay’ therapy Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law last week a ban on “ex-gay” conversion therapy, making the Evergreen State the 11th in the nation to prohibit the widely discredited practice for youth.

Inslee signed the measure, SB 5722, at a ceremony in Olympia, Wash., making it illegal for licensed mental health therapists to engage in conversion therapy for individuals under the age of 18.

“Conversion therapy is not so much therapy, it’s abuse, and we are today prohibiting the abuse of our children, conversion therapy, which has caused scars for decades across the country of something that is inhumane and not acceptable in the State of

NATIONAL NEWS

Washington,” Inslee said.

Joining Inslee at the signing ceremony were several LGBT advocates, including Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, who commended Washington State for enacting the measure.

“For far too long, con artist peddling junk science have been allowed to get away with inflicting deep, lasting and irreparable harm to far too many LGBTQ people,” Griffin said.

“Make no mistake about it: So-called conversion therapy is a child abuse.”

The practice of therapy aimed at changing an individual’s sexual orientation or transgender status is considered ineffectual at best and harmful at worst. Major medical and psychological institutions, including the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, widely reject conversion therapy.

Carolyn Reyes, “Born Perfect” campaign coordinator and youth counsel for the National Center for Lesbian Rights Youth Policy Counsel, praised Inslee for signing the bill.

“We are heartened by the progress made by legislators to uphold the safety, health, and well-being of LGBTQ individuals in Washington state,” Reyes said.

A total of 11 states and D.C. have banned “ex-gay” therapy for youth either by law or regulations. The 11 states are Connecticut, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Vermont, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island and now Washington.

CHRIS JOHNSON

Trump gets poor numbers in poll on LGBT rights A recent EconomistYouGov poll on President Trump and a range of other issues gives him poor numbers for his handling of LGBT rights just days after the administration reaffirmed its ban on transgender military service.

A total of 29 percent of U.S. adults said they approve of the way Trump is handling gay rights, with 12 percent saying they strongly A recent poll of U.S. adults gives PRESIDENT TRUMP approve and 17 percent poor numbers on LGBT rights. saying they somewhat WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY approve.

Meanwhile, a total of 44 percent said they disapprove of his handling of this issue, with 9 percent saying they somewhat disapprove and 35 percent saying they strongly disapprove. Twentyseven percent had no opinion.

The poll was conducted between March 25 and March 27 among 1,500 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent. The poll also asked respondents about a variety of issues, including views of foreign countries, trade and social media websites.

On whether respondents approved of Trump’s performance as president generally, a total of 39 percent said they approve, with 19 percent saying they strongly approve and 20 percent saying they somewhat approve. But 49 percent said they disapprove, with 9 percent saying they somewhat disapprove and 40 percent saying they strongly disapprove. Twelve percent weren’t sure.

Respondents were specifically asked about their views on transgender people in the U.S. military and Trump’s attempt to ban them from the armed forces — a move he reaffirmed with a memo last week. Despite the memo, the Pentagon is continuing to assess and retain transgender service members in accordance with court orders against his earlier policy.

A plurality of 49 percent said they support openly transgender service, with 31 percent saying they favor it strongly and 18 percent saying they favor it somewhat. Meanwhile, 11 percent said they oppose it somewhat, 23 percent said they strongly oppose it and 17 percent didn’t know.

CHRIS JOHNSON

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NATIONAL NEWS

Cuomo has key LGBT support as Nixon launches primary challenge CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

Andrew Lane, a prominent gay donor in New York, predicted Cuomo “will win this race” and said the reasoning behind a primary challenge against him “while the rest of the country is on fire, with the barbarians literally at the gate, is beyond me.”

“Andrew Cuomo has been an exceptional advocate for LGBT issues,” Lane said. “Securing the freedom to marry in New York and protecting the rights of people of diverse gender identities through administrative action were significant victories, both here and nationally; they simply would not have happened without his leadership and the support of his staff. Ms. Nixon cannot, aside from appearances, lay claim to a similar record.”

Nixon, who’s said she’s bisexual and is in a same-sex relationship with education activist Christine Marinoni, is challenging Cuomo with a pledge to shake up New York with a strong progressive message. An advocate for equitable funding for school districts, Nixon has made support for public schools a cornerstone of her campaign.

The race is different from other insurgent candidacies because Nixon has enormous name recognition as a celebrity actor and built a record as a progressive. Although Nixon faces an uphill challenge stealing the Democratic nomination away from an incumbent it’s not impossible. In 2014, the Democratic challenger secured 34 percent of the vote in a primary challenge to Cuomo. That’s considered the basement of support on which Nixon could build her campaign.

Nixon formally kicked off her bid to become governor at the historic Stonewall Inn in New York City, which is considered the birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement. Undecided members of the LGBT community in New York may look for her vision on LGBT rights as they determine whom to support in the primary.

“Being visible and queer has been one of the great unexpected pleasures of my life,” Nixon told the Blade in a statement.

“But right now we’re at a critical moment for the LGBTQ community. Many of us are being left behind: queer people who are black or Muslim or undocumented or trans or working class. While some part of our community is enjoying new positions of relative privilege, many other parts of our community are being targeted every single day. We need a governor who is going to fight for all New Yorkers, not just their big money donors.”

Elliot Imse, a spokesperson for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said on Tuesday Nixon “has not yet applied” for an endorsement from the organization, which seeks to elect openly LGBT candidates.

“If she applies, however, we will review her application as we do for all candidates seeking our endorsement,” Imse said.

New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO is running for a third term and facing a primary challenge from actress Cynthia Nixon.

PHOTO VIA FLICKR

“Our criteria for endorsement require the candidate to be openly LGBTQ, supportive of reproductive freedom and full LGBTQ equality, and to be viable. We would consider her endorsement in the totality of those criteria.”

Nixon is one of several openly LGBT candidates running for governor in 2018 at a time when expectations are high for Democrats in the mid-term elections. Others are U.S. Rep. Jared Polis in Colorado, Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon, State Sen. Rich Madeleno in Maryland and former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in Texas.

Whatever plan Nixon articulates on LGBT rights, she’ll run against a twoterm incumbent who has already built a strong record on the issues both through legislative and executive action.

The crown jewel of Cuomo’s record on LGBT rights is mobilizing the split New York Legislature — the Democrats controlled the Assembly for years, and the Republicans control the Senate — to legalize same-sex marriage in the state in 2011, years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality nationwide.

New York was the only state that legalized same-sex marriage through the legislative process with Republicans controlling a chamber of the state legislature. Cuomo was credited with helping convince Republican Senate leaders to allow a floor vote on same-sex marriage and enough Republicans in the chamber to back the measure to ensure it passed.

With Republicans still in control of the legislature, Cuomo has turned to executive orders to make other

changes for people in New York. In 2015, Cuomo signed a directive against antitransgender discrimination by ordering the state to interpret its human rights law against sex discrimination to apply to transgender people. In 2016, Cuomo signed an order barring public and private health care insurers from covering widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy in New York.

But one transgender activist in New York took issue with Cuomo seeking to advance transgender rights through executive action when legislation that would have enshrined those rights into law remains stagnant.

Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, said the executive order was in fact responsible for the inability of the legislature to pass a transgender nondiscrimination law in New York.

“Andrew Cuomo loves to brag about getting the same-sex marriage bill signed into law, but of course the real credit for getting marriage equality enacted by the state legislature belongs to the hard-working LGBT activists who made it happen; and what Cuomo doesn’t mention is the fact that he refused to lift a finger to get the Gender Expression NonDiscrimination Act through the New York State Senate, which his cronies control,” Park said. “In fact, the governor’s executive order effectively killed GENDA in the Senate and the transgender non-discrimination regulations he promulgated do not have the force of statute law.”

Park said she won’t support Cuomo for re-election for governor because his “record as governor is an extremely

mixed one and in most areas, he’s been anything but progressive,” and said she’s leaning toward backing Nixon.

“Cynthia Nixon isn’t just an actor and a celebrity, she’s an activist who has been actively involved with education and other public policy issues for years,” Park said.

Representatives from the Cuomo campaign didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. On Wednesday, Nixon gave her first campaign interview to Wendy Williams, a former radio DJ who hosts a nationally syndicated talk show in New York City.

Cathy Renna, a lesbian Democratic activist who’s a New York native, but now lives in New Jersey, said both Cuomo and Nixon have compelling backgrounds for the LGBT community, but the issue of experience and the fact Nixon has never held political office may be a deciding factor.

“Running for governor is very different than running for state Senate, or even a city council,” Renna said. “Running a state government is a gigantic responsibility, so my hope is that if she’s really serious about this run that she will, understanding that, make sure she’s surrounded by people who can support her.”

For LGBT people in New York, Renna said deciding whom to support in the primary will “be very difficult” and predicted it may be a divisive issue.

“I think it’s fair to say there will be some division,” Renna said. “There always is. It’s New York, and it’s the queer community.

How could there not be, right? But I also think it could elevate the conversation about how LGBT issues fit into a larger progressive agenda, and how there still is a tremendous amount of work to do in New York, in particular for the transgender community.”

That division already played out publicly after lesbian former New York City Speaker Christine Quinn, a Cuomo supporter, called Nixon an “unqualified lesbian.” The two have an antagonistic history because Nixon backed Bill de Blasio, not Quinn, for mayor in 2013.

Quinn later apologized for the comment, but Nixon capitalized on it when her campaign began selling T-shirts printed with the message “unqualified lesbian.”

At the end of the day, Renna said the primary is beneficial because it demonstrates in New York during the Trump era “we have an abundance of support and riches when it comes to politicians who are going to stand for us.”

“Politics can be very rough and tumble in New York, but for our community, I think this could be a positive in terms of elevating the level of conversation about what’s really needed, and talking about some issues that are related to things that we need to still tackle, whether it’s trans issues, anti-violence, non-discrimination in schools,” Renna said. “There’s a lot still to be done in New York.”

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LGBT servers concerned about ‘tipped wage’ ballot measure CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

and other employers of tipped workers to pay tipped workers the difference if their tips fall short of the $12.50 per hour minimum wage.

Under a law passed by the D.C. Council in 2016, the full minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour in 2020 and the tipped worker base minimum wage will increase to $5 per hour.

The 2016 law calls for further increases in the minimum wage after 2020 based on the U.S. consumer price index that measures inflation. The 2016 law leaves in place the requirement that tipped workers must be paid the difference if their tips fall short of the full minimum wage.

Initiative 77 would require tipped workers’ base minimum wage to gradually increase to $15 per hour over the next seven years, with the $15 wage taking effect in 2025. If approved by voters on June 19 and cleared by Congress, as all D.C. laws are required to do, the tipped workers’ base minimum wage would $4.50 an hour by July 1 of this year and go up $1.50 per year until the $15 wage is reached in 2025.

Opponents of the initiative, led by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, say the elimination of the lowered tipped base wage will create an economic hardship for most of the city’s restaurants and bars, which operate on a tight profit margin in D.C.’s highly competitive hospitality market.

They say many restaurants would be forced to put in place a service charge for customers or raise the price of their menu items and beverages, potentially resulting in a sharp decrease in tips for servers and bartenders.

“Restaurant owners and staff are united in opposition to this initiative for the disastrous consequences it could have on D.C.’s restaurant industry, its employees and customers – and greater economy as a whole,” according to a statement released by Cathy Hollinger, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

“By their own admission, the groups pushing this proposal designed it for the Applebees, IHOPS and Denny’s model of national chains, a type of restaurant that barely exists in D.C.,” Hollinger said in her statement. She added that as many as 96 percent of the city’s restaurants are owned by independent operators running mostly small businesses and which employ most of the city’s tipped workers.

Supporters of the initiative, led by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, or ROC United, which gathered the signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot, dispute Hollinger’s and the restaurant association’s assessment.

Diana Ramirez, the lead coordinator of ROC United in D.C., told the Washington

D.C. Council member ELISSA SILVERMAN (D-At-Large) has said the Department of Employment Services has yet to provide data showing the degree to which employers of tipped workers are complying with the minimum wage law.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELISSA SILVERMAN

Blade that a large percentage of tipped workers in D.C. are women of color who don’t work at the high end “white tablecloth” restaurants and bars in the city’s upscale neighborhoods. She said many tipped workers associated with ROC United say their employers don’t comply with the requirement of paying the difference if servers don’t make the full minimum wage in tips.

Ramirez said under the current system, tipped workers have to file a complaint with the D.C. Department of Employment Services if their employer doesn’t pay them the difference to make the full minimum wage. She said it’s unrealistic to expect “low wage” tipped workers to file a complaint, which could jeopardize their jobs.

“If they don’t get it resolved at the DOES they have to file private litigation and that’s costly,” said Ramirez. “We have to fix the system by having one fair wage for everybody rather ask these people to resort to litigation,” she said.

In its literature supporting the initiative, ROC United points to seven states that require a single minimum wage for all workers, including tipped workers. The states include Alaska, California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Montana.

“The sky didn’t fall in these states,” Ramirez told the Blade, claiming that restaurants continue to do well there and customers have continued to tip servers.

The one gay server who agreed to speak to the Blade on the record, bartender and bar manager Dito Sevilla, who works

at Floriana Restaurant on 17th Street near Dupont Circle, expressed strong opposition to Initiative 77.

“I think it’s a solution in search of a problem,” he said. “Everyone I know in this business is making at least the minimum wage. I don’t know a single person in Washington in a restaurant that isn’t making at least double the minimum wage,” Sevilla said.

Lesbian server Quantina Pringle, who supports the initiative, said she has worked as a waitress in various D.C. restaurants over the past 16 years and has struggled to make the equivalent of the city’s minimum wage through tips. She noted that because tips vary depending on the day or hours she has worked based on how many customers come in, she has had to work at least five to seven days with at least an eight hour shift in order for her tips to reach the city’s $12.50 per hour minimum wage.

“It’s hard if you need to work part time,” she said, noting that she recently underwent cancer surgery and was unable to work full-time shifts until last month.

She said her current employer, Manny and Olga’s pizza restaurant, has not objected to her volunteer work with ROC United in support of the initiative.

In a development that has surprised observers of the initiative campaign, Local 25 of Unite Here, the D.C.-area chapter of the nationwide union representing hospitality industry workers, including hotel, restaurant, bar, and casino workers, has decided not to take a position on Initiative 77.

John Boardman, an official with Local 25, declined to provide a reason why the union isn’t supporting the initiative at this time.

At least one source familiar with Unite Here, who spoke on condition of not being identified, said rank and file members of Local 25 don’t support the initiative and have made their feelings known to the union’s leaders.

Restaurant association officials dispute ROC United’s claims that many employers aren’t complying with the requirement that they pay the difference for tipped workers that don’t make the full minimum wage through tips and the lower minimum wage currently paid by the employer.

They note that the city now requires restaurants to submit quarterly reports showing the earnings of tipped workers and whether the employer is making up the difference if tips fall short.

However, D.C. Council member Elissa Silverman (D-At-Large), who chairs the Council committee that oversees the Department of Employment Services, has said the department has yet to provide the committee data showing the degree of compliance by employers of tipped workers.

In a statement submitted to the committee, the department said it has recently put in place a thorough monitoring system that includes unannounced visits to restaurants and interviews with employees to ensure that employers are complying with the requirement that tipped works make the equivalent of the full minimum wage of $12.50 an hour.

Keep your promise to protect each other.

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H E A LT H N E W S

Grindr backpedals on sharing HIV user info

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NEW YORK — Grindr, a popular gay hookup app, said this week it would stop sharing users’ HIV status with third parties after encountering a firestorm of controversy vwhen news broke that previously it had been, many media outlets are reporting.

The data sharing, made public by European researchers on Saturday and reported by BuzzFeed on Monday, set off an outcry from many users. By Monday night, the company said it would stop sharing HIV data with outside companies, the New York Times reports.

The criticism of the company continued on Tuesday, with officials in Europe and the United States joining in. A consumer group in Norway filed a formal complaint with the country’s data protection agency, accusing the company of breaching European and Norwegian laws. Two United States senators sent a letter to Grindr’s chief executive, asking whether the app had asked users to opt in before it shared their most personal details with third parties, the Times reports.

In a statement on Monday, the company said that sharing user data with outside companies was a standard industry practice and that Grindr had “policies in place to further protect our users’ privacy from disclosure.” On Tuesday, in response to questions about the Norwegian group’s accusations, a Grindr spokesman said: “We welcome the questions about our policies and always look for opportunities to improve,” the Times reports.

Grindr, which is owned by the Kunlun Group, a company based in Hong Kong, has more than 3.6 million active users.

Fear mongering as Calif. seeks to bolster law LOS ANGELES — The war on so-called “conversion therapy,” raged on in California this week.

Monday night, LGBT nemesis Karen England of the anti-LGBT conservative Capitol Resource Institute, shot out an Action Alert: “Bill Attacking Pastors & Counselors Before Committee.” The email peddled the usual fear-mongering, this time foregoing diatribes against transgender youth and going for the bigger picture: “California to Outlaw Speech.”

What AB 2943 actually does is expand existing California prohibitions on the practice, deemed both junk science and psychological abuse of minors in an earlier bill, SB 1172, by then-State Sen. Ted Lieu that Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2012. That bill protects minors so once in Congress, Rep. Lieu introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act (TFPA), the first federal bill to stop so-called “conversion therapy” as fraud.

The bill came up for a vote on Tuesday in the California Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee. It passed overwhelmingly (8-2) with Republican Assembly member Catharine Baker of Dublin, recently endorsed for re-election by Equality California, joining the seven committee Democrats. AB 2943 now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Trans youth fare better under chosen name: study

HOUSTON — A new study finds that trans youth allowed to use their chosen name are considerably less at risk for depression and suicide, the Houston Chronicle reports.

ADVERTISING R O Odoing F “I’veP been research on LGBT youth for almost 20 years now and even I ISSUE DATE: 10.26.12 SALES REPRESENTATIVE: BRIAN PITTS (bpitts@washblade.com) was surprised by how clear the link was,” Stephen T. Russell, professor and chair of human development and family science and the paper’s lead author, said in REVIEW AD FOR COPY AND DESIGN ACCURACY. Revisions must be submitted within 24 hours of the date of proof. Proof will be considered final and will be submitted for publication if revision is not submitted within 24 hours of a statement. “The more contexts or settings where they were able to use their the date of proof.

Revisions will not be accepted after 12:01 pm wednesday, the week of publication.Brown naff pitts NS omnimedia llc (dba the washington blade) is not responsible for the content and/or design of your ad. Advertiser is preferred name, the stronger their mental health.” responsible for any legal liability arising out of or relating to the advertisement, and/or any material to which users GN can link through the advertisement. Advertiser represents that its advertisement will not violate any criminal laws or EVISIONS any rgihts of third parties, including, but not limited to, such violations as infringement or misapporpriation of any The study from the University of Texas-Austin was published this week in copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, music, image, or other proprietary or propety right, false advertising, unfair /LOGO REVISIONS competition, defamation, invasion of privacy or rights of celebrity, violation of anti-discrimination law or regulation, or any other right of any person or entity. Advertiser agrees to idemnify brown naff pitts omnimedia llc (dba the ADVERTISER SIGNATURE the Journal of Adolescent Health. It reports on interviews with 129 transgender SIONS washington blade) and to hold brown naff pitts omnimedia llc (dba the washington blade) harmless from any and all By signing this proof you are agreeing to your contract obligations with the liability, loss, damages, claims, or causes of action, including reasonable legal fees and expenses that may be incurred 15-21, in three U.S. cities, one each on the West Coast, in the washington blade newspaper. This includes youths, but is not limitedages to placement, by brown naff pitts omnimedia llc, arising out of or related to advertiser’s breach of any of the foregoing representations payment and insertion schedule. and warranties.

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Russell’s team found 71 percent fewer symptoms of severe depression and 65 percent fewer suicidal attempts in transgender young people who could use their chosen name at school, home, work and with friends, compared with their We also host private events peers who couldn’t use their chosen name in any context.

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VIEWPOINT

Seven shorts ‘in the spirit of Holy Week’ Sharing and reflection are useful habits in a contentious season

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL is a writer and activist.

Reach him at rrosendall@starpower.net.

I was in my mother’s womb when Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a bus boycott at a meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association. I turned 12 just five days before his murder 50 years ago.

A brief span for so consequential a public ministry. He challenges us still.

1. Never Again. Martin would be 89 now, and awfully proud of his 9-yearold granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King.

The call-and-response that she led at the March for Our Lives on March 24, beaming with confidence and poise, set the tone for our continued work, as her granddad put it, to make real the promise of democracy. We must not underesti-

mate the resistance we face, as exemplified by Republican state legislators moving to impeach judges who rule against their aggressively undemocratic gerrymandering. But the student survivors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are impressive in their clarity, toughness, and inclusiveness in seeking gun reforms.

They are not afraid of the bullies.

2. Sensible reforms, not repeal. The call for Second Amendment repeal by retired Justice John Paul Stevens is at best counterproductive. The Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller made clear that the Second Amendment allows such “presumptively lawful” restrictions as barring gun possession by felons and mentally ill persons; barring gun possession in places like schools and government buildings; and establishing conditions for commercial sale of guns. If we alienate responsible gun owners with talk of repeal, we will squander this opportunity for reform.

3. Turning the tables on hate. Fox News host Laura Ingraham invoked Holy Week when she apologized for taunting 17-year-old shooting survivor David Hogg.

Her continued hemorrhage of advertisers, however, led her to announce a Bill O’Reillystyle vacation. May it end similarly. Apologies and Easter blossoms do not erase her E DIT OR IA L C A R T OON

career of capitalizing on hate since she was outing gay students at Dartmouth.

4. The brain snatchers. As I sat beside a soccer field on Easter, Russian bots on social media were rallying behind Ingraham.

How refreshing to hear the players’ shouts and laughter for an unhurried hour instead of invasive mental noise. Go out. Breathe the spring air. Recharge your values. Check your sources. Don’t let your thoughts be changelings placed by strangers.

5. Unequal use of deadly force. The hail of bullets that killed unarmed Stephon Clark (father of two) in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento demonstrated once again the refusal by many police to examine their own biases. If you are black, anything you are holding is likelier to be mistaken for a gun by police than if I held it. This is an example of my white privilege.

Recognizing disparate racial treatment is not apologizing for my whiteness. We are all human beings. White people are not entitled to exclusive possession of power.

We have to learn to share, as Miss Swan taught my kindergarten class in 1961. The public grief of the Clark family should sear our souls. We must change.

6. No, you’re the racist! Andrew Sullivan continues his fascination with racial differences in IQ scores. Last week he called Ezra Klein racist for observing that podcaster Sam Harris and guest Charles Murray, co-author of “The Bell Curve,” are white. Considering that their podcast touting race science was titled “Forbidden Knowledge” rather than “Disputed Claims,” it is unsurprising that Sullivan’s indignation over Klein’s reference to white privilege resembles a wrestling promotion more than a defense of academic freedom.

There is no neutral zone for discussing controversial issues free of personal animus. The frequent tendentious misuse of social science should inspire restraint.

We must examine our cultural biases, especially after centuries of racial oppression. Who gets to drive the discussion?

Try the Atticus Finch test and climb inside the other’s skin. How would you like your group being subject to evaluation at any moment by people who don’t look like you and face no similar treatment? And spare us the poses of victimhood: Murray has flourished remarkably well for someone being smothered.

7. Julian Assange. Dear Ecuador, this is very simple: alert the British Foreign Office, instruct your embassy in London to escort Assange out the door, and have some tea.

Copyright © 2018 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.

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Andrew Cuomo for governor of New York Don’t be fooled by celebrity — re-elect an accomplished pragmatist

PETER ROSENSTEIN is a D.C.-based LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

New York is the place I was born, went to school, and had my first job teaching elementary school in Harlem. I first met Andrew Cuomo when he was 19 years old and we both worked for his dad’s run-off campaign against Ed Koch for mayor of New York. He has come a very long way since then.

In the intervening years, no one can question the successes he has had both in his own career or his many accomplishments for the people of the State of New York and the nation. The son of a highly respected three-term governor he always had to work doubly hard to prove his own merit. By the time Andrew Cuomo won his first term as governor in 2010 he had a wealth of experience enabling him to hit the ground running and successfully turn around the $10 billion deficit the state

faced when he assumed office.

Cuomo first learned about state government as an aide to his father. He then served in the Clinton administration in positions leading to his becoming Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

He was elected and served successfully as Attorney General of the State of New York. Cuomo did his homework.

Cuomo is a pragmatist and that has often gotten him criticized by both the left and the right. But he has used his pragmatism to move the state forward in a very progressive direction. In one major success he joined with the LGBTQ+ community and put his reputation on the line to push through the 2011 marriage equality act in New York.

But Cuomo has been able to accomplish much more in his seven years as governor with his talent for governing. By any standard he is a progressive who has managed to move forward and sign progressive legislation, including: a statewide $15 minimum wage; the nation’s strongest paid family leave program; one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation; and protected the state’s water supply with a ban on hydraulic fracturing, just to mention some of his signature accomplishments.

Cuomo has implemented comprehensive policies to combat sexual violence on college campuses; passed reforms to combat New York’s heroin and opioid epidemic; and created a path to ending the

AIDS epidemic in New York State by 2020.

In the seven years since he became governor state education aid has increased by $6.1 billion or 31 percent to its highest level ever. And in the new budget just passed he added another $1 billion.

He is committed to providing a quality education for every child.

While the federal government has not been able to move forward an infrastructure plan, Cuomo has advanced a host of infrastructure projects, including the long-stalled Second Avenue Subway extension and the much-needed improvements to LaGuardia Airport. Since Cuomo became governor the unemployment rate has declined in every region of the state, and New York now has 7.9 million private sector jobs, more than at any point in state history.

Despite this strong, progressive record, politics today basically guarantees incumbents will face a primary and Cuomo is no exception. He is being challenged by a wealthy celebrity who will have a host of supporters who claim Cuomo isn’t progressive enough despite all he has done.

This celebrity happens to have zero administrative experience but feels ready to run the nation’s third largest economy and will attract attention and more money that will intrigue the media. We have seen it before. It is good to see at least one New York Times columnist has already written about

her lack of experience.

Politics today seems more ego driven than ever before. Celebrities with some money or access to it apparently feel that is enough to enable them to govern. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has announced he is seriously considering running for president and, why not, Trump did it? But governing is serious business.

Unfortunately political jobs such as governor don’t have any requirements other than being of age and your place of residence. You can’t be a teacher without a license; you can’t cut hair in New York without a license; but you can be governor without any relevant experience.

The current celebrity running in the Democratic primary for governor of New York is a smart person and claims many years of advocacy for education, women’s rights and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community are enough experience for the job.

Unfortunately for her she is running against an incumbent who has actually done something positive about each of those issues. I urge New Yorkers not to be fooled by the gloss and the claim that being a smart advocate and hosting political fundraisers for other candidates makes one ready to run the State of New York, the 12th or 13th largest economy in the world. It doesn’t!

Based on his stellar progressive record I urge New Yorkers to elect Andrew Cuomo to a third term.

raised $1,400 for Lucie’s Place. I was told

by Lucie’s Place administrators that that amount is enough to run one house – everything from clean sheets and meals and bus passes – for over a month.

The whole thing got me thinking.

Though there are, of course, several great charities here in Washington, D.C., with the same goals and aspirations as Lucie’s Place, what exactly is owed by us here to those back home? It’s often said that no one is actually from D.C., so what about those that either can’t leave or just don’t want to. And what about those of us that left? It’s certainly easy, easier anyway, to nestle ourselves in our urban queer bubbles, with our fluttering rainbow banners adorning our streets and LGBT-friendly politicians sitting in our highest offices.

Let’s not forget that for many back home the struggle is both real and every day.

Yes, there was a great deal of collective, larger group self-esteem wrapped up in Milk’s election, or the striking of homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses. But there’s also sort of a micro-esteem boost

that comes along with knowing you have clean sheets, the self-esteem that comes along with walking into a room and having someone welcome you. In that sense, the kids back home might be all right.

When I was a senior in high school, I basically snuck out to see the weekday late showing of “Philadelphia.” Tom Hanks was playing gay, and though I wasn’t out at the time, that was certainly the endgoal once I got to college. And seeing a mainstream actor play gay was an incredible sight. Kids back home now have “Love, Simon” to go see. Some have bemoaned the film’s saccharin-sweet, neatlittle-package ending, to which I say, so what? Like Tom Hanks in “Philadelphia,” we have been dying or outright murdered in films for years. We typically met rather pathetic ends. After all these years we certainly deserve a “Love, Simon.”

Thanks to organizations like Lucie’s Place, the kids indeed might be all right.

And after what they may have endured trying to get there, they certainly deserve a happy ending.

BR OCK PA PER SCISSORS

The kids are all right Transient urban gays should give back to home communities

BROCK THOMPSON is a D.C.-based freelance writer. He writes regularly for the Blade.

I was born in March of 1977 in Little Rock, Ark. That same year in California, Harvey Milk won his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. This was a full three years after the American Psychological Association finally took homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses.

All in all, not a bad time for a gay child to come into the world. Some historians credit those two events as hugely important milestones in American gay history

– that is realizing we were both electable and, you know, collectively ‘un-crazy.’

This March, for my birthday, I took advantage of Facebook’s new charitable giving option. I chose a little charity back home in Arkansas, Lucie’s Place, as my cause. Lucie’s Place provides young adults experiencing homelessness in Central Arkansas with a safe living environment, even job training and counseling services, and is just generally a queer presence in the middle of a largely red and rural state – a glittery queer beacon. You might wonder, is LGBT homelessness in Arkansas a real problem? In a word, yes. And it may be getting worse.

Large and increasingly influential evangelical churches basically encourage parents to throw out queer kids, now coming out as young as 12 or 13. In places like Arkansas, there aren’t a lot of homeless shelters to begin with. And many, often funded by religious organizations, aren’t equipped to deal with LGBTQ kids, if they take them in at all. Through the Facebook charitable giving option, my friends

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Local artist HOESY CORONA at his studio in Washington. The Baltimore native will have a performance art exhibit at Light City Baltimore this month.

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

Light bulb artistic moments Local artist Hoesy Corona explores identity, environment in Light City performance art

By KEITH LORIA Baltimore was the first city outside of England to adopt gas streetlights and to celebrate the distinction, the city is holding its third annual Light City Baltimore, billed as “America’s first and largest international light, music and innovation festival.”

The month-long festival takes place April 6-21 and features 21 large-scale light installations, featuring 10 Baltimore artists standing shoulder-to-shoulder with artists from Belgium, China, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom as well as Virginia and Illinois.

Full details at lightcity.org.

One of the artists on display is Hoesy Corona, whom art aficionados around D.C. and Baltimore may not immediately connect with his more familiar alter ego — Dr. H. Corona.

“I think of myself as an artist of change.

My performative alter egos are part of my larger inquiry into who we are and how we construct ourselves and our identities,” Corona says. “And how so often those who exist on the margins of society have to change who they are simply to survive.”

He describes his project-based work as “predicated on a multimedia approach that encompasses installation, performance, sculpture, painting and public art,” exploring what it means to be a queer Latino person in a place where there are few. In his work, Corona considers the psychological and physical ramifications of never seeing oneself reflected anywhere.

“My work is content driven but aesthetically motivated,” he says. “As such, I’ve developed a personal creative vocabulary that I implement in the studio

when constructing a new piece. Recurring themes of queerness, immigration, climate change, alienation and celebration are all present throughout my work. I create otherworldly colorful manifestations that seduce and draw in the audience closer to the work while challenging their preconceived notions.”

The 30-year-old, Mexican-American multidiscipline artist is originally from Baltimore, but now lives in Washington, working full-time as an artist and CONTINUES ON PAGE 32

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Q U E E RY : 2 0 Q U E ST I O N S F O R CA LLI E E H LE RS- CO O K

CALLIE EHLERS-COOK How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?

I’ve been out since college, so about 20 years now. The hardest people to tell were absolutely my parents. They didn’t respond in the way I had expected.

PHOTO COURTESY EHLERS-COOK

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com Callie Ehlers-Cook is going out on a limb. Next week she’ll stand before a room full of strangers and read selections from her childhood diaries.

It’s all in good fun, though. It’s the schtick of Mortified, an event series in which participants do just that — share embarrassing stories from childhood.

Mortified D.C. has its final show at Town Danceboutique (2009 8th St., N.W.) on Wednesday, April 11 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 in advance or $20 at the door. Search for the event on Facebook or Eventbrite for details or visit getmortified.com.

Mortified started in Los Angeles 15 years ago and has been in Washington for 10 years. There are 20 chapters in the U.S. and beyond. Interested participants can petition to become future readers via getmortified.com.

Anything embarrassing one created as a child — diary entries, letters, lyrics, etc. — can be fodder. The more cringe-inducing, the better.

Ehlers-Cook attended a Baltimore Mortified event in February to hear a friend read and decided she’d like to do the same although she admits to being slightly reluctant. A mutual friend introduced her to Alexandra Hewett, the Baltimore/D.C. Mortified coordinator, after a recent yoga class.

“This is my first time participating in this or anything like it,” Ehlers-Cook says. “I plan to share selections from my childhood diaries that ultimately relate my coming-out story.”

Ehlers-Cook, who identifies as queer, calls herself a “geographical mutt” (“we moved around a lot when I was a kid,” she says) and teaches art in Baltimore City Public Schools. She’s married to her genderqueer wife Alex Ehlers-Cook. They live with daughter Xaria in Nottingham, Md. Ehlers-Cook enjoys making art, hunting for shark teeth and fossils, cooking, hiking and daily yoga in her free time.

Serving Our Community for 35 years

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FamiLY | eState PLaNNiNG | emPLoYmeNt | immiGratioN ComPLeX LitiGatioN | CiviL riGHtS | LGBt | adoPtioN | BuSiNeSS

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Who’s your LGBT hero?

My heroes are the queer high school students I’ve worked with throughout my years as a teacher. Specifically those who worked to make GSAs possible in the Baltimore City Public Schools they attended.

That’s a tough thing to do. It was really tough in 2002 when I helped kids start the first GSA in the city at a large neighborhood high school. It’s still challenging today.

What’s Baltimore’s best nightspot, past or present?

Honestly, I’m a homebody.

Describe your dream wedding.

I wanted a very small courthouse wedding with lunch afterward at Georgia Brown’s. That’s what I got in April of 2012!

We also had a combination housewarming party/baby shower/wedding re-enactment in September of that year. That was also pretty perfect — casual open house style with one of my dearest friends unofficially officiating. Homemade cupcakes. Lots of love and great conversation.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

There are so many. On the political spectrum I come up pretty far on the left and most of my beliefs line up in that direction.

What historical outcome would you change?

Honestly, right now I’d like to undo the Russian interference in the 2016 election.

I think it would change the outcome.

What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?

The publishing of J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book. I’ve always been a big reader and I have loved all the Harry Potter books. I’m reading the second book to my daughter now.

On what do you insist?

Making art. Collecting mementos.

Daily yoga practice (or as close as I can get with a 5 year old and child care demands). Plenty of time in nature and specifically at the beach.

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

The last thing I posted on FB was a

selfie with my grandma. I just visited her for what will probably be the last time.

If your life were a book, what would the title be?

“This is the Thing”

If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?

Seriously doubt that’s really a “thing.”

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

Karma. Vonnegut’s Tralfamadorian conceptualization of time. I also believe that there are many things going on around us that can’t be detected with the conventional five senses. I’m open to possibilities.

What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

I’m not sure I’m the one who should be giving anyone else any serious advice!

What would you walk across hot coals for?

My 5-year-old daughter. She is absolutely the best thing in the world.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

Definitely the assumption that all dykes love and are good at sports. I’ve always been awful at team sports and couldn’t care less about professional sports.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“But I’m a Cheerleader.” There’s no other possible answer for me.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Small talk. I like to keep it real and keep it moving.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

I want to win the lottery. You know, pay off student loan debt and maybe remodel my kitchen or landscape my lawn.

Possibly hire someone to clean the house for me. Nothing crazy, just to have a more comfortable life and also the ability to have the extra to support causes I care about and/or directly help others.

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

I wish I’d known myself better. That would’ve saved a lot of heartache.

Why Baltimore?

I love that it’s a city of neighborhoods.

I love the feeling that it’s small despite that it’s not. Smalltimore is for real.

W A SH I N GTO NB LAD E.C OM

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24 • A PR IL 06, 2018

Orchestras in Motion!

April 9–15, 2018 Four adventurous orchestras. $25 concerts at the Kennedy Center.

Plus exciting FREE performances and other events around the city!

Learn more at SHIFTfestival.org.

This year’s orchestras:

Albany Symphony (New York)

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Texas)

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (Indiana)

National Symphony Orchestra (D.C.)

Plus local participating orchestras, ensembles, and artists!

Tickets and info at (202) 467-4600 or SHIFTfestival.org

For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

Presented in cooperation with the League of American Orchestras Generous support of the SHIFT Festival is provided through a matching grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts;

by Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; and by Michael F. and Noémi K. Neidorff and The Centene Charitable Foundation.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Abramson Family Foundation, Betsy and Robert Feinberg, and Morton and Norma Lee Funger.

THEATER

Heading West Out playwright mines personal experience for comedic fodder

By PATRICK FOLLIARD After successful runs in L.A., Provincetown and New York, out playwright Kevin Michael West’s gay comedy “Top and Bottom” has come to D.C. Now at the LGBT-centric Rainbow Theatre Project in a full production directed by Christopher Jansen and featuring actors Dmitri Gann and Ryan Townsend, the provocatively titled twohander asks audiences to imagine an awkward nerd as a gay dominant leather top and see where that leads.

WASHINGTON BLADE: What inspired you to write “Top and Bottom”?

KEVIN MICHAEL WEST: As a playwright, I’m always on the lookout for an interesting premise that involves two people in a room trying to figure something out. It makes good theater. When I was much younger, long before I met my husband, I met a guy and went to his place. When we got there he wanted me to tie him up.

I wasn’t really into it and I was really bad at it. It was really funny. As a playwright I thought I should recreate it as a play, so I wrote a more comically extreme version of the experience. But the first draft wasn’t really working. The top character didn’t really care. So maybe we should raise the stakes? He wants to be good, but wasn’t.

And that’s where the play came alive.

BLADE: Was any further research involved?

WEST: I did some poking around online, and I placed an ad on Craigslist looking for gay guys into bondage and S&M. I explained it wasn’t about meeting up, and that I just wanted to talk on the phone about their interest in kink for a project I was doing. I talked to a couple of tops and bottoms. I didn’t know a lot about that world. One of the bottoms called from a Starbucks and he was talking quite openly and audibly, explaining how he liked to be spanked and tied up, utterly without any self-consciousness at all.

It was very new to someone like me who grew up in repressed Catholic household, so I made it part of the character. The play goes into the psychology of the encounter. Part of the irony is that you’d expect the top to be the vocally dominant, experienced one and the bottom to be more insecure and ambivalent.

But it’s actually the other way around. The bottom is the boss where he works and the top is more of corporate drone.

BLADE: I suppose I must ask. Are you a top or bottom?

WEST: That would be very boring to your readers, I’m sure.

BLADE: Well then, I’ll ask are you more screenwriter or playwright?

PHOTO COURTESY WEST

Playwright KEVIN MICHAEL WEST says his play ‘Tom and Bottom’ has found fans beyond the target audience he initially imagined.

WEST: I’m half and half. After attending Emerson College in Boston where I got my BFA, I lived in L.A. for 10 years. There I got an MFA from the University of Southern California Film School and pursued screenwriting. But it seems it’s the plays that really get produced. Ideally, I’d like to have a David Mamet-type career where I do plays and screenplays.

BLADE: And how did you become connected with Rainbow Theatre Project?

WEST: My LGBT-themed play about DOMA (the defense of marriage act), “The DOMA Diaries,” had a successful run in the Capital Fringe Festival in the summer of 2016. That December, the production was remounted by Rainbow Theatre Project. After success of that production I submitted a couple scripts, one of which was “Top and Bottom.”

BLADE: What’s “Top and Bottom” about exactly?

WEST: In the play, a cute gay twink named Tommy responds to a personals ad and hooks up with James, an insecure, socially awkward bondage top. They meet in a hotel room to explore a roleplay fantasy where Tommy will be the submissive slave and James will play the dominant leather master. James’ insecurities and inexperience makes him a hilariously inadequate bondage master.

As the attempt to make their fantasy work, their initial defenses come down and they get to know each other simply as people. By the end of the play, the two strangers have formed a special bond.

BLADE: Why see “Top and Bottom” now?

WEST: For the interesting characters and the play’s broad appeal. I had assumed that it would only appeal to gay men, particularly those interested in alternative sexual themes, but the play has been embraced by many audiences, both gay and straight, kinky and vanilla, male and female. In the end, we all want to be loved for the people we are, and that’s a message with a universal resonance.

‘TOP AND BOTTOM’ Through April 29 District of Columbia Arts Center 2438 18th St., N.W. $35 rainbowtheatreproject.org

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TV

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PHOTO COURTESY ABC

The original cast of ‘Roseanne’ includes lesbian actress SARA GILBERT (first from left in back row).

She both reprises her role as Darlene and is executive producing the eight-episode arc.

Ban the Barr?

‘Roseanne’ reboot is sticky subject for gays

By DAVE CHILDS The twang of a harmonica, the blare of a saxophone, that grating laugh.

Last week, ABC continued the pop culture wave of ‘90s nostalgia by airing the premiere of its much buzzed-about “Roseanne” revival. The original was never afraid to take an unflinching and unapologetic look at working-class life in America or serve as a showcase for its brash and controversial star, Roseanne Barr. True to form, “Roseanne’s” reboot debut proved the show would be just as bracing and willing to tackle controversial issues head-on through its distinct blend of biting humor and tough love.

It’s off to a gangbusters start with its first new episode in 20 years on March 27 drawing 25 million viewers and a massive 73 rating among adults 18-49. With 6.6 million viewers watching it later, it set a time-shifting record, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Another 4.3 million watched an encore broadcast Sunday night. Hulu and ABC streaming will only add to those numbers. It has the best numbers of a any “new” show since the 2014 premiere of “how to Get Away with Murder.” It’s already been renewed for a second season.

Reassuringly, the revival begins with Roseanne and husband Dan waking up in their old bed. Roseanne says she thought he’d died (cue Dan’s deadpan reply, “Why does everyone always think I’m dead?”), expediently erasing the divisive last season, which revealed the show was a story written by Roseanne, Dan had died and the family never won the lottery (don’t ask).

The rest of the Connor family is reintroduced, including Aunt Jackie, whose conflict with big sister Roseanne anchors the premiere. The two have barely spoken since the 2016 election.

Roseanne is pro-Trump (mirroring the actor’s real-life support of the president), and Jackie, sporting a Nasty Woman shirt that would have looked appropriate on her 20 years ago, is ardently not.

Much has been made of Roseanne incorporating its star’s pro-Trump views and I was admittedly hesitant about watching the show and possibly liking it. Would my viewership (and potential enjoyment) tacitly endorse Roseanne’s views and those of her pro-Trump fans?

Roseanne has rightfully been praised as a realistic depiction of working-class life in America, and although I may disagree with its star and vast numbers of the show’s viewers, there is no escaping the fact that Trump struck a chord with them for a reason that should not be ignored.

Roseanne saying she voted for Trump because “he talked about jobs” may have been played for a laugh, but she was speaking for a lot of people like the Connors. Although a sitcom isn’t going to resolve the political rift in the country, it can promote real discourse. The tension between Roseanne and Jackie was effective because not only was it true to the characters, it was also real. You could see families like this having these kinds of conversations and therein lies the strength of this show for much of its audience: relatability.

“Roseanne” also focused on middle daughter Darlene’s 9-year-old son, Mark, a happy boy who enjoys doing things like wearing skirts and painting his nails.

Darlene supports his self-expression and doesn’t want the family to make him feel self-conscious because of it.

Although they don’t understand why a boy would “dress like a girl,” the family embraces Mark. When Dan affirms that Mark shouldn’t go school like that, it isn’t because he’s ashamed, but because he fears Mark will be bullied.

I didn’t expect the show to deal with gender identity and expression so matter-of-factly. That Mark was portrayed as a fully formed person rather than a stereotype, and that the family rallied around him, was an explicit argument that we can all get behind: we should be proud of who we are and able to express that fully without fear of judgment or reprisal.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

100 YEARS

OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

FREE CONCERTS! Monday, Apr. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

The U.S. Air Force Concert Band & The Central Band of the Royal Air Force

D.A.R. Constitution Hall Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, Apr. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

The Airmen of Note & The Royal Air Force Squadronaires

The Music Center at Strathmore North Bethesda, MD

FREE! Tickets Required.

For ticket info, please visit our website:

www.usafband.af.mil

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26 • APR IL 06, 2018

O U T & A BO U T

PHOTO BY RYAN AYLSWORTH; COURTESY TICKETMASTER

Pink brings ‘Trauma’ tour to D.C. Pop star Pink stops by the Capital One Arena (601 F St., N.W.) for her “Beautiful Trauma World Tour” on Monday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Pink will perform her classic hits such as “Get the Party Started,” Just Like a Pill” and “So What.” She will also sing songs from her latest album “Beautiful Trauma” including “What About Us” and “Revenge” along with her usual acrobatics. Tickets range from $47-314. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

For more details, visit ticketmaster.com.

By MARIAH COOPER

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY DANIEL TRUITT

Cherry dance parties galore Cherry, a dance benefit to support HIV/AIDS community service and prevention, holds multiple parties April 12-16.

Catalyst is at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) on Thursday, April 12 from 9 p.m.2 a.m. DJ Kenneth Rivera and DJ Danny Verde will spin house and dance-pop tracks. Tickets are $20.

Synergy hosts DJ Tom Stephan from London and DJ Victor Calderone from New York City at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.) on Friday, April 13 from 9 p.m.-4 a.m. Tickets are $35.

Moodin Rouge, a birthday party for Moody, is at Town (8th St., N.W.) on Saturday, April 14 from 2-7 p.m. DJ Joe Gauthereux will play music all day. Tickets are $25.

Chroma, Cherry’s main event, is at Town on Saturday, April 14 from 10 p.m.4 a.m. DJ X Gonzalez and DJ Micky Friedmann will spin tracks. Whitman Walker Health will have HIV/AIDS testing on site from 10 p.m.-midnight. Tickets are $20.

Mirage, Cherry’s after hours event, is at Flash (645 Florida Ave., N.W.) on Sunday, April 15 from 3:30-9:30 a.m. DJ Alex Acosta and DJ Eddie Martinez will be playing house music all morning. Tickets are $60.

Aurora will be on Sunday, April 15 from 6 a.m.-noon on Flash’s rooftop deck.

DJ Steve Sidewalk and DJ Isaac Escalante from Miami will play a mix of tribal beats, vocal mashups and tech music. Admission is included in ticket price for Chroma/Mirage.

Iris is at L8 (727 15th St., N.W.) on Sunday, April 15 from 2-7 p.m. DJ Joe Pacheco will play music for the day party. Tickets are $25.

Infinity, Cherry’s closing party, is at Soundcheck (1420 K St., N.W.) on Sunday, April 15 from 9 p.m.-4 a.m. DJs will be Alain Jackinsky and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Nina Flowers. Tickets are $30.

General admission weekend passes and VIP passes are available. For a complete list of events and ticket prices, visit cherrydc.com.

Night of Champions is April 14 Team D.C. has its annual Night of Champions at the Washington Hilton (1919 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) on Saturday, April 14 at 6 p.m.

The event will support the Team D.C. College Scholarship Program for LGBT student athletes. There will be a cocktail reception and silent auction at 6 p.m. followed by a three-course awards dinner at 7:30 p.m. This year’s scholarship recipients will give speeches throughout the night. Dress code is business casual.

For more details, visit teamdc.org.

LezLink plans scavenger hunt LezLink hosts a scavenger hunt at the National Portrait Gallery (8th St., and F St., N.W.) on Saturday, April 14 from 2-4:30 p.m.

Each person will be put into a group of four. During the two-hour hunt, groups will look for items through numerous exhibits. At 4 p.m. teams will be scored and the winner will be announced.

After the hunt, there will be dinner and drinks at a nearby restaurant. Attendees should arrive at 1:45 p.m at the museum entrance. Tickets are $10 until April 10 and $15 afterwards.

For more information, visit facebook. com/lezlinkevents.

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PHOTOS COURTESY THE SUBJECTS

PAUL HEATON, left, and AUSTIN BLAKESLEE are passionate about D.C. Strokes.

Gently down the stream …

D.C. Strokes enjoy medals, de-stressing effects of sport

By KEVIN MAJOROS The spring rowing season is in full swing for the LGBT-based D.C. Strokes Rowing Club with its competitive and club programs already practicing on the Anacostia River. Its learn to row program will start on April 28 followed by their novice program in June. On June 3, members will host the 25th annual Stonewall Regatta.

This week in the Washington Blade All Star series, we meet two gay rowers who found their way back to the sport and are thriving.

After moving to D.C. in 2011, Paul Heaton noticed dragon boats on the Anacostia River. While he was researching them online, he discovered the local LGBT rowing club. Many years earlier, he had completed a learn to row program in Ithaca, N.Y. and decided to join the D.C. Strokes novice program.

“I fell in love with the team and the sport and bonded with other people who were also just coming into the club,” Heaton says. “My closest friends today are those same people who were in that novice class with me.”

Growing up in Elkhart, Ind., Heaton was a self-described geeky nerd type who was involved in theater and orchestra. While

completing his journalism degree at Indiana University, he spent most of his time in the office of the school’s newspaper.

After completing the Strokes’ novice program, Heaton advanced to the club program and began competing for the first time in his life. Heaton rows 4s and 8s and there were certain aspects of the new experience that left him wanting more.

“Everyone on the team is always supportive and trying to help each other get better. When I walked down the dock carrying the boat with my teammates for my first race, there were other teammates cheering us on. I got a little verklempt,” Heaton says. “In 4s and 8s rowing, you are always looking to match your teammates for that perfect stroke — the swing of the boat. Once you get a hint of it, you want it again.”

Heaton, who works in educational fundraising and marketing for a nonprofit, went on to win gold, silver and bronze at the 2014 Cleveland Gay Games. This summer he’ll join his team at the 2018 Paris Gay Games. He has also competed with the Strokes throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in both sprint and head races.

Fully immersed in the club, Heaton is in his second year as race director for the Stonewall Regatta and volunteers as a coxswain for beginner classes. He remains on the club team instead of the competitive team because he enjoys their nighttime practices.

“I love being involved with the new people who join the club every year. Their enthusiasm is infectious,” Heaton says.

“Rowing at night is so beautiful and peaceful and melts away any stress from the workday.

It’s the perfect way to end the day.”

Austin Blakeslee started rowing the summer after seventh grade and continued through his years at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria in its fall, winter and spring programs. Even though he didn’t consider himself to have an innate athletic ability, he felt comfortable in the sport and did well.

He joined the club rowing program at Tulane University, but his experience was interrupted when he studied abroad and when Hurricane Katrina hit the area. He stayed at Tulane through law school and moved to D.C. proper in 2016.

He had sculled periodically in years prior to coming to D.C. and was ready to return to the sport.

“I knew about D.C. Strokes and I sought them out specifically because they are LGBT-based. There is a level of comfort when there is no elephant in the room,” Blakeslee says. “The people have been friendly and accepting and I like having the structure of a planned workout.”

Blakeslee, who works as an intellectual property attorney, joined the morning competitive team and rows 4s and 8s. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, his height is considered an advantage in the sport.

“My first race with the Strokes was the 2016 Stonewall Regatta,” Blakeslee says. “It was exciting to remember and embrace the feelings that come along with racing.”

He has since competed throughout the region with his teammates including at the prestigious Head of the Charles in Boston.

He is also serving as the program director for the Strokes which includes running the aforementioned programs along with the youth program and the adaptive rowing program, Athletes Without Limits. He had some tips tucked under his belt which have helped him in the position.

“My mom was the crew boosters president at T.C. Williams, so I had knowledge on the mechanics of running a boathouse, trailering for regattas and other aspects,” Blakeslee says. “Listening to her all those years gave me perspective on how much goes on behind the scenes.”

Blakeslee points to the great core group that rows with the Strokes and adds that everyone has the opportunity to make it into a competitive boat. He says the goal is to have fun and win some medals along the way.

“This is a low-impact sport that offers a great overall body workout,” Blakeslee says. “For anyone that is coming back from an injury, rowing is an opportunity to find a new sport.”

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This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com DANCE Nederlands Dans Theater. Thru Apr 6. Ballet 360°: Robbins, Bernstein, and NYCB. Apr 7. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

UpRooted Dance. Apr 7-Apr 8. Dance Place. danceplace.org.

Spring New Dances. Apr 12-Apr 14.

GMU Center for the Arts at Harris Theatre. cfa.gmu.edu.

Bowen McCauley Dance. Apr 6-Apr 7.

Bowen McCauley Dance at

In the midst of the holiday bustle, young Brooklyn couple Elias and Jenny escape on a much-needed getaway to a cozy bed-and-breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. However, under the watchful eye of the cheery, if slightly off, innkeeper, a ghost seems to haunt their crumbling relationship.

Virginia Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor Apr 7-Apr 8. GMU Center for the Arts. cfa.gmu.edu.

This intense tale of star-crossed lovers revolves around two feuding Scottish families, the Ravenwoods and the Lammermoors. Lucia di Lammermoor loves Edgardo Ravenwood, but when her brother’s political activity puts him at odds with the king, he decides to reestablish his family’s status by forcing Lucia into an arranged marriage that culminates in the most spectacular mad scene in all of opera.

Blossom Bash Apr 6. National Cherry Blossom Festival at The Anthem. nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.

Blossom Bash features alternative rock icons Bush and Third Eye Blind and hypnotic indie-pop group lovelytheband to The Anthem at The Wharf.

Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings Thru May 28. National Gallery of Art. nga.gov.

Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings explores how her relationship with the South has shaped her work. Some 125 photographs, many of which have not been exhibited or published previously, offer both a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievement and a focused exploration on the continuing influence of the South on her work.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIGNATURE THEATRE

THEATRE The Winter’s Tale. Thru Apr 22. Folger Theatre. folger.edu.

Between the World and Me. Apr 7. The Improvised Shakespeare Company. Thru Apr 8. Shear Madness. Thru Aug 31. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Paper Dolls. Thru Apr 22. Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas. mosaictheater.org.

Three’s Comedy. Apr 11-May 9. DC Arts Center. dcartscenter.org.

The Wiz. Thru May 12. Ford’s Theatre. fords.org.

The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail.

Thru Apr 8. GMU Center for the Arts at Harris Theatre. cfa.gmu.edu.

Chicago. Thru Apr 14. Keegan Theatre. keegantheatre.com.

Translations. Thru Apr 22. Studio Theatre. studiotheatre.org.

Roz and Ray. Thru Apr 29. Theater J. theaterj.org.

600 Highwaymen: The Fever. Thru Apr 6. The Clarice. theclarice.umd.edu.

The Ars Nova Production of Underground Railroad Game.

Thru Apr 29. Woolly Mammoth. woollymammoth.net.

GALLERIES

Bobby McFerrin & spirit you all. Apr 6. Ranky Tanky. Apr 6. The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Apr 8.

Michael Brown, piano. Apr 12. AIR: Chao Tian. Apr 11-Apr 25. Strathmore. strathmore.org.

Erin Harpe & The Delta Swingers. Apr 6. AMP. ampbystrathmore.com.

Aaron Diehl Trio. Apr 7. Washington Performing Arts at Sixth & I. washingtonperformingarts.org.

Pascal Salomon, piano. Apr 12.

Embassy Series. embassyseries.org.

Artemis Quartet. Apr 6. Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier. Apr 11. Library of Congress. loc.gov.

Heinavanker Ensemble. Apr 8.

National Gallery of Art. nga.gov.

Carpe Diem! Apr 12. Washington Revels. Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza. revelsdc.org.

Spiritual Concert. Apr 8. Anderson House. societyofthecincinnati.org.

A BandHouse Gigs Tribute To Leon Russell. Apr 7. Cameron Crozman, Cello. Apr 8. Pat McGee Band with Chris Trapper. Apr 12-Apr 13. Wolf Trap at The Barns. wolftrap.org.

UMD Wind Orchestra: Serenades and Symphonies. Apr 7. The Clarice. theclarice.umd.edu.

Strathmore. Still Lives: Jennifer Allevato. Thru Apr 29. Up in the Air. Thru Apr 29. Jennifer Kahn Barlow.

Thru Dec 1. strathmore.org.

DC Arts Center. Letters to MOM: Prints by EJ Montgomery. Thru Apr 8. dcartscenter.org.

District Architecture Center. reBirth::Washington DC 50 Years after 1968. Thru Jun 1. aiadac.com.

Dupont Circle. First Friday Dupont Circle Art Walk. Apr 6. dupontcirclemainstreets.org. gallery neptune & brown. (Inside) Out: New Work by Erick Johnson. Thru Apr 14. galleryneptunebrown.com.

Gallery Underground. “Spring Break” Exhibition. Thru Apr 27. arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

Glen Echo Park. I Draw the Line: Oil Paintings by Robert LeMar. Thru Apr 28. glenechopark.org.

Goethe-Institut. Early UFA Film Posters: Projecting Women. Thru Apr 30. goethe.de.

Hill Center. Viewfinders: 8 Photographers. Thru Apr 29. hillcenterdc.org.

The Art League. Robert Gilbert’s A Study of Manhattan: Power, Dominance, & Excitement. Thru May 6. theartleague.org.

Waverly Street Gallery. Photography

by Stephane Themeze. Thru Apr 7. waverlystreetgallery.com.

Zenith Gallery. Light Up Your HeART. Thru Apr 14. zenithgallery.com.

MUSEUMS

AND MORE...

National Archives. Remembering Vietnam. Thru Jan 6. archivesfoundation.org.

Dumbarton Oaks. Outside/IN: Martha Jackson Jarvis. Thru Aug 19. doaks.org.

Kreeger Museum. Reinstallation of the Permanent Collection. Thru Dec 31. kreegermuseum.org.

Library of Congress. Drawn to Purpose. Thru Oct 20. loc.gov.

National Gallery of Art. Outliers and American Vanguard Art. Thru May 13. nga.gov.

National Geographic. Day to Night: In the Field with Stephen Wilkes. Thru Apr 22. Tomb of Christ. Thru Aug 15. nglive.org.

National Museum of Women in the

National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Thru Apr 15. Various locations. nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.

National Archives. Betty Ford: The Real Deal. Apr 6. archivesfoundation.org.

National Gallery of Art. Avant-Garde to Underground: Outliers and Film, Part Two. Apr 7-Apr 29. Outliers and Film, Part Two. Apr 7-May 13. nga.gov.

Ford’s Theatre. Book Talk: Treating People Well. Apr 8. fords.org.

National Geographic. Extreme Ocean: Exploring the Deep. Apr 10. Film: Jerusalem 3-D. Thru Aug 12. nglive.org.

MUSIC John Thru Apr 29. Signature Theatre. sigtheatre.org.

Arts. Women House. Thru May 28.

Hung Liu In Print. Thru Jul 8. nmwa.org.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian. Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image. Thru Apr 15.

One Life: Sylvia Plath. Thru May 20. npg.si.edu.

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CA LE N D A R

E-mail calendar items to calendars@washblade. com two weeks prior to your event. Space is limited so priority is given to LGBT-specific events or those with LGBT participants. Recurring events must be re-submitted each time.

TODAY Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts Spring Fling Underwear Party tonight from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Beaux Banks and Brian Nieh will host the party. DJTryfe will play music. There will be giveaways for Andrew Christian merchandise. Drink specials will include $5 margaritas, Svedka and Fireball and $8 Long Island iced teas.

There is limited free entry before 11 p.m. with online registration. Admission is $10 all night without registration. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.

ADODI-DC Black Same Gender Loving Men’s social/spiritual group hosts its bi-monthly potluck discussion meeting at Metropolitan Community Church of Washington (474 Ridge St., N.W.) tonight from 7-9:30 p.m. The discussion will be “50 Years Later: the Impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy on SGL People and Bayard Rustin’s Role Model of SGL Inclusion.” Attendees are asked to bring a dish to share. For more details, search “ADODI-DC” on Facebook.

Go Gay DC hosts a happy hour social at Pinzimini Lounge in Westin Arlington Gateway (801 N Glebe Rd., Arlington Va.) today from 6:30-8:30 p.m. No cover. Everyone is welcome. For more information, visit gogaydc.org.

GaySpirits Retreat will take place at Little River United Church of Christ (8410 Little River Tpke., Annandale, Va.) today at 6:30 p.m. This overnight retreat will explore spirit, meditation, internalized homophobia and God’s love with gay and bisexual men. For more details, search “Gay Spirits” on Facebook.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 Patti LaBelle performs at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $97.50. For more details, visit warnertheatredc.com.

Swazz Bar (2218 18th St., N.W.) hosts its Queer Hedonistic Masquerade Party tonight from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. DJ Alex DB will spin tracks. Dress code is masquerade or come as you are. There will be go-go dancers, themed drinks and a costume contest with prizes. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. For more information, visit facebook.com/swazzbar.

Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts a Kylie Minogue album release party tonight from 10 p.m.-3:45 a.m. DJ Aaron Riggins, DJ Jeff Prior and DJ Ed Bailey will play Kylie music all night. Pussy Noir and Summer Camp will give Kylie drag performances.

Drag show starts at 10:30 p.m. Cover is $15 from 10 p.m.-midnight and $12 after midnight. For more details, visit towndc.

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

Food & Friends’ annual Dining Out for Life is Thursday, April 12. Visit diningoutforlife.com for a full list of participating restaurants.

com.

DILF Washington D.C. and Joe Whitaker host “Damn Daddy,” a jock and underwear party, at the D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Rd., N.E.) tonight from 9 p.m.3 a.m. DJ Dean Sullivan will spin tracks.

There will be a clothes check locker.

Tickets will be available at the door based on venue capacity. For more information, visit dceagle.com.

Gay Gal Pool Crew, a casual pool and game bar group for queer-identified women, meets at Buffalo Billiards (1330 19th St., N.W.) today from 5:30-8 p.m. All pool skill levels welcome. For more details, visit facebook.com/gaygaypoolcrew.

National Cherry Blossom Festival hosts Petalpalooza at Wharf D.C. (690 Water St., S.W.) today from 1-9:30 p.m. There will be interactive art installations, games, activities, live music on three outdoor stages and a beer garden. There will be a fireworks show at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit nationalcheryblossomfestival.org.

SUNDAY, APRIL 8 Victory Fund hosts its National Champagne Brunch at the Omni Shoreham Hotel (2500 Calver St., N.W.) today from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Senator Mark Warner and Delegate Danica Roem will speak at the event. There will also be food and bottomless champagne. Tickets are $250. For more information, visit victoryfund.org.

GLOE hosts “Of Blessed Memory: Honoring the LGBT Lives Lost to the Holocaust” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., S.W.) today from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. This private tour will be guided by curatorial assistant Jonathan Edelman and gay Holocaust survivor Dr. Alfred Munzer. After the tour, the group will have a discussion with Dr. W. Jake Newsome, a program officer at the U.S.

Holocaust Memorial Museum with a PH.D in LGBT history of the Holocaust. Gay rabbi Adam Rosenwasser of Temple Sinai D.C. will lead a liturgy and ritual including a recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish.

Admission is free but registration is required. For more details, visit thejdc. convio.net.

MONDAY, APRIL 9 Pride Outside hosts an LGBT history walking tour of Capitol Hill today from 6:30-8 p.m. Phillip Clark will guide the tour which will visit the sites of gay and lesbian bars, community centers, book stores, a publishing house and more. The group will meet at Eastern Market (701 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E.). For more details, visit facebook.com/prideoutside1.

TUESDAY, APRIL 10 Story District hosts “Seriously: Stories About Things You Cannot Believe Happened” at Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) tonight from 8-10 p.m. Seating is first come, first served. Attendees can bring food but no outside beverages. Tickets are $19.50. For more information, visit facebook.com/storydistrict.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11 Lesbian band Antigone Rising performs at Jammin Java (227 Maple Ave., Vienna, Va.) tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Doors open at 6 p.m. General admission tickets are $17. Premier tickets, which gives access to a raised seating area and a server, are $20. A full dinner and drink menu will be available. For more details, visit jamminjava.com.

Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts a benefit to promote the sixth annual D.C. Front Runners Pride Run 5K , which takes place on June 8, tonight from 6-9 p.m. Drag show starts at 10 p.m.

Admission is $5. There will be discounted drinks, a raffle, free snacks and a silent auction. All proceeds will benefit the Pride Run 2018 beneficiary charities, which include Casa Ruby, SMYAL, Team D.C. Student-Athlete Scholarship and the Wanda Alston Foundation. For more information, visit nelliessportsbar.com.

Big Gay Book Group meets at Trio Bistro (1537 17th St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss “Smash Cut: A Memoir of Howard & Art & the ‘70s & the ‘80s” by Brad Gooch. For more details and to RSVP, email biggaybookgroup@hotmail.com.

THURSDAY, APRIL 12 LezLink hosts its April happy hour for queer women at District Distilling Co. (1414 U St., N.W.) tonight from 6-9 p.m. Happy hour specials end at 7 p.m.

Admission is free. District Distilling Co. will also be offering tasting tours tonight for $10. Registration is required for the tour. For more details, visit facebook. com/lezlinkevents.

Dining Out For Life, an annual charity event to raise money for AIDS service organizations, is today from 11 a.m.10:15 p.m. Participating restaurants will donate 25-110 percent of proceeds to Food & Friends. For a complete list of restaurants and more information, visit diningoutforlife.com.

Oz Restaurant & Bar (2950 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, Va.) hosts a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” viewing party and “Real Housewives of Potomac” Q&A tonight from 7-9 p.m. At 7 p.m., guests can mingle with “Real Housewives of Potomac” cast members Ashley Boalch Darby, Monique Samuels and Candiace Dillard. Before the screening, the cast will answer questions about the upcoming third season. At 8 p.m., “RuPaul’s Drag Race” will be shown.

There will be an extended happy hour until 9 p.m. For more details, search “Oz Restaurant & Bar” on Facebook .

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Too late for love?

55-year-old wallows in pity, keeps hooking up

MICHAEL RADKOWSKY, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist who works with gay individuals and couples in Washington. He can be found online at michaelradkowsky.com. All identifying information has been changed for reasons of confidentiality. Have a question?

Send it to michael@michaelradkowsky.com.

HI MICHAEL, I’m a 55 year-old gay man, basically just feeling empty.

I haven’t had a relationship in a long time. I have a group of friends I hang with, but going out drinking has been feeling old for a while.

Lately I’ve become aware that I feel really sad after I hook up, like I’ve been used. The other guy isn’t interested in anything about me except using me to get off.

I hate that feeling after we come and then one of us gets up to leave. I feel totally alone and wish we could stay and cuddle. But on the rare occasion when that happens, I feel distant and wonder why I’m hugging some stranger.

Does anyone date anymore? I have some friends who have been together forever but the guys I spend time with who are single just are on Grindr or Scruff or whatever, no strings attached.

I worry that after being alone for a while I’m too set in my ways to really share my life with someone else again. Even when I was in relationships we never lived together so I wonder if I just wasn’t meant to ever be really close to someone.

I also think that after you get past a certain age you aren’t that attractive anymore and there’s no chance of getting a partner. So that leaves me stuck with hooking up, which makes me feel bad.

Is it realistic to think I could have a less empty life or is it is just too late for me?

MICHAEL REPLIES: I’m not a fortuneteller, so I can’t say whether or not it’s too late for you to have a more fulfilling life. But I do believe that you can influence how your life goes forward.

For starters, consider challenging your thinking that you aren’t “meant” to be close to someone. If you do indeed want someone in your life in the future, you

are far more likely to find him if you make this a goal than if you decide that you are fated to be alone and keep living just as you are. Even if none of your friends date, you can.

Now let’s look at how you’re running your life. You feel really sad after you hook up. So why are you continuing to hook up? If you’re afraid that you won’t have sex if you don’t hook up, you have a choice: continue having sex in a way that leaves you feeling sad, or run the risk of not having sex. Which do you prefer? By the way, I don’t think anyone has ever died from not having sex.

Next point: I am curious why you think that you’re too old and unattractive to find a relationship, while you’re confident in your ability to find partners for hookups.

In a relationship, your face and body would likely be a draw, just as in a hookup. But in addition, who you actually are would be important, from the get go, and especially, going forward.

So I suspect that it isn’t your looks that you’re worried about in terms of finding a relationship. The real problem may well be that you don’t think much of yourself as relationship material, given how empty you describe feeling.

If I’m right, you have a challenge ahead: to start building a meaningful life for yourself. Doing so would increase your likelihood of getting dates. More importantly, you would be striving to make the most of your life.

Toward this goal, here are a few ideas to consider: You describe yourself as lonely and disconnected. What can you do to find companionship and establish connections based on something more fulfilling than going out drinking? Not incidentally, alcohol is a depressant.

Regarding your lifelong discomfort with closeness: This is common among gay men. We’ve often spent our younger years hiding who we are, for fear of all sorts of consequences. Keeping people at a distance feels safe and letting our guard down is risky. But unless we’re willing to take that risk, we can’t ever be close to another.

These are big, hard-to-tackle issues. If you want to take them on, you’re going to have to be willing to continually challenge your own thinking and push yourself to make moves that feel scary.

Many of us don’t have the internal strength or wisdom to do this on our own. So I want to suggest you find a therapist to work with who knows a lot about gay men, our emotional development and the difficulties we face, with whom you feel a good connection. You really could use support.

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A RT S & E N T E RT A I N ME N T

Latino culture, sense of self inform local queer artist CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

fulfilling a fellowship at Halcyon Arts Lab, an organization that nurtures the development of socially engaged artists.

He’s been creative for as long as he can remember, with his earliest memories being of holding pencils or playing with non-hardening clay. Corona attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and studied painting and independent curatorial studies.

“I was trained as a painter so some early influences include Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Hockney and Paula Rego,” he says. “As I developed my practice, I started to embrace the notion of being an uncategorized artist — as such I’ve been influenced by national artists Teresita Fernandez, Coco Fusco, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Guillermo Gomez Peńa, Nick Cave and Kalup Linzy; and local artists Valeska Populoh, Joyce J. Scott, Melissa Webb, Paul Rucker, Ada Pinkston and Laure Drogoul.”

His work has appeared at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, Current Space, Delicious Spectacle and Panoply Performance Laboratory.

“I am also an arts organizer as the founding co-director of Labbodies, a nomadic arts organization that creates opportunities for new media and performance artists to exhibit their work,” Corona says. “With Labbodies, we have a strong focus of working with artists of color, queer artists and non-conforming artists.”

For Light City Baltimore, Corona’s project is entitled “Alien Nation 2,” and he focuses on bringing to life a small excerpt from a larger project that took place last summer at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

“For that project, I wanted to do something of a global scale that implicated a broad audience and included as many people as possible,” he says. “So, I conceived of the idea of climate-induced migration as a very real issue of our time that needs to be voiced.”

In Alien Nation, he considers the impending plight of climate immigrants worldwide. The performers will wear what he calls “climate ponchos,” which include head gear that obscures their faces, an approach he chose because of the mystery and anonymity it affords and because of its ability to absorb laser and

light effects. Always silent, these figures will roam about the festival’s two-mile space at the Inner Harbor and in various locations create repetitive sculptural forms and movements for attendees.

The clear wearable climate ponchos are adorned with images that depict the archetype of the “traveler,” with the people depicted wearing backpacks, carrying suitcases, wearing hats and some holding children.

“They are all on their way somewhere, in one direction a lot of the times,” he says. “This simple showing of people in movement, in transition, resonates with a world-wide issue and echoes the reality of the festival goers as they themselves traverse the festival footprint to see light installations.”

In his ongoing series, the Nobodies (2009-present), Corona utilizes colorful sculptural garments fitted to the human body to create other worldly experiences for the viewer.

“I revel in the simultaneous visibility and invisibility that the garments bring to the wearer. In these public performances, I invite audience members to play a part in the act of nobodying, an operation that consists of making somebody, nobody,”

he says. “Nothing all of a sudden becomes individualized, becomes body and eyes becomes no one.”

Corona’s roving performance at Light City will take place on April 14-15 from 8-11 p.m. His work can also be seen in the “Queer(ed) Performativity” group show at D.C. Arts Center curated by Andy Johnson, April 13-May 20; and in May, he will be traveling to Athens, Greece with Transformer D.C. as part of a Sister Cities grant. In September, he will be part of a group show at the Strathmore curated by Laura Irene.

And who is Corona aside from his artwork?

“I love my friends and family, I love drag queens and I know I’m procrastinating when I start a new series on Netflix,” the Scorpio, who’s single, says. “I love fresh empanadas and my go-to morning drink is fresh cold brew with coconut milk.”

He devours podcasts like “Latinos Who Lunch” and “Modern Art Notes” and is himself at work on a forthcoming Latino podcast with artist Mercedes Estefani called “Vale N. Tina Podcast,” dubbed in honor of Valentina from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which he says will focus on art, politics and Latino culture.

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REALESTATE

Why you should hire a good buyer’s agent When purchasing a home, you need more than a door opener

By SHERRI ANNE GREEN

Here is a little secret, if you are hiring an agent just to help you find a home, to unlock doors, and schedule appointments, you are hiring the wrong one.

A good buyer’s agent does so much more than open lockboxes and point out which room is the kitchen. A good agent is your guide, advocate, sounding board, negotiator, project manager, resource provider, and more. A good buyer’s agent is the one person working for you at every step of the process. They help you bring the entire team together—lender, home inspector, title company, and potentially others—to get you to the closing table.

Today, technology brings homes to you—on your laptop, tablet, or phone.

Search engines and apps like Homesnap put listed homes, their stats, and their photographs right in the palm of your hand.

While there is no replacing an in-person visit to a house, you can “find” a home you like on your own. And, of course, a buyer’s agent should point out home and community features and their benefits as you tour. Sometimes your agent even can tell you specifics about a home you can’t find online, they may have insights to the

A good buyer’s agent does much more than just take you on tours.

BIGSTOCK PHOTO; COURTESY OF FIZKES

neighborhood, and they may know of listings before they come on the market. So yes, touring with your agent is important.

But that’s just a small part of their role.

A good buyer’s agent serves a different purpose. Navigating the home buying process can be daunting. There are contracts, addenda, negotiations, inspections, a mortgage to obtain, and settlement questions to be answered—just to name the basics. A buyer’s agent should serve as your trusted advisor through the entire process. You need one person who understands your situation, your desires in a new home, your motivations, your likes, and other factors that will impact your purchase.

The best way to set up that relationship is through a buyer consultation. A good agent will offer to host an in-person meet-

Q

ing with you to go over the entire process.

Yes, it is more exciting to just head out on tours, but a good agent knows that an educated buyer is less stressed, more confident in their decision making, and has a better chance to present a winning offer.

With the consultation meeting complete, you will be ready to get started. One of the most important steps is being pre-approved or pre-qualified for a loan. In the D.C. market, where inventory is low and property can move quickly, being pre-approved, or prequalified, for a loan is a must, not a “nice-tohave.” Sellers will not even consider accepting an offer without a letter from a lender or proof of funds if you are paying with cash. A good agent can provide you with the names of several lenders so you can find the best match for your situation.

With pre-approval in hand, you find the house! Your agent will advise you on offer pricing strategies and other contract points to help you put together the best offer for your situation. Your agent will write up the offer, present it on your behalf, and negotiate the terms should a counter situation ensue.

Once under contract, your agent will help you locate all of the professionals who help you get to the closing table. From home inspectors, to a title company, a mover, and others, a good agent can give you resources to make the road to settlement smoother for you. Let’s talk about a few.

• Home Inspection: Your agent will help you find and schedule the inspector, attend

the inspection with you both, and help you understand the inspector’s report. Should you find items during the inspection you want the seller to repair or compensate you for, your agent will present your position and again negotiate on your behalf working to get you the best terms possible.

• Title Company: Your agent will help you identify a title company to work with.

A title company—in simplest terms— helps pull everything together for settlement—loan documents from your lender, title work to ensure the home can transfer from the current owner to you, property taxes from the jurisdiction, and your title insurance policy. A good agent will help you understand all of these pieces.

• Other professionals: If there are other services you need along the way— movers, contractors, utility companies—your agent can provide suggestions there too.

Yes, it’s a lot; and this is just a quick overview. Being a good buyer’s agent is so much more than scheduling tours, locating keys and unlocking doors—they navigate your entire process from consultation to close.

SHERRI ANNE GREEN is an award-winning Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Focusing on custom, data-driven marketing and client service, she provides impeccable service tailored to her clients’ unique situation. Reach her at 202-798-1288, sherri.green@ cbmove.com or on Facebook, facebook.com/ SherriAnneGreen/, or on Instagram: SherriAnneGreen.

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