Washingtonblade.com, Volume 50, Issue 4, January 25, 2019

JA NUARY 25, 2019 • VOLUM E 50 • I S S UE 04 • WA S HI N GTONB LAD E.CO M

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02 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

Lease a 2019 Maserati Levante for $599/mo.

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JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 03

VOLUME 50 ISSUE 04 ADDRESS

PO Box 53352 Washington DC 20009 PHONE

Looking back:

17

Cannabis Culture

50 years of the Blade

19

Viewpoint

Cuba Libre to host restaurant

24

‘Seasons’ of performance

workshop on trans issues

26

Queery: Cathy Fink

Trans women play visible

28

Pride Party is Jan. 31

role in Women’s March

31

Revisiting an AIDS-era classic

Supreme Court OKs Trump’s

32

‘The Favourite’ leads

202-747-2077 E-MAIL news@washblade.com INTERNET washingtonblade.com PUBLISHED BY Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, Inc. PUBLISHER LYNNE J. BROWN lbrown@washblade.com ext. 8075 EDITORIAL EDITOR KEVIN NAFF knaff@washblade.com ext. 8088 FEATURES EDITOR JOEY DIGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com ext. 8081 SR. NEWS REPORTER LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com ext. 8079 NEWS REPORTER CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com ext. 8083 REPORTER & INTERNATIONAL NEWS EDITOR MICHAEL K. LAVERS mlavers@washblade.com POP CULTURE REPORTER MARIAH COOPER PHOTO EDITOR MICHAEL KEY mkey@washblade.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PETER ROSENSTEIN, MARK LEE, LATEEFAH WILLIAMS, KATE CLINTON, KATHI WOLFE, RICHARD J. ROSENDALL, ERNESTO VALLE, NICOLÁS LEVY, FELIPE ALFACE, YARIEL VALDÉS, LYNARE ROBBINS, RACHAEL ESPINET, KATLEGO K. KOL-KES, VICTOR MAUNG NEWS INTERN JAMES WELLEMEYER CREATIVE DESIGN/PRODUCTION AZERCREATIVE.COM SALES & ADMINISTRATION DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING STEPHEN RUTGERS srutgers@washblade.com ext. 8077 SR. ACCT. EXECUTIVE BRIAN PITTS bpitts@washblade.com ext. 8089 ACCT. EXECUTIVE JOE HICKLING jhickling@washblade.com ext. 8094 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION PHILLIP G. ROCKSTROH prockstroh@washblade.com ext. 8092 NATIONAL ADVERTISING RIVENDELL MEDIA 212-242-6863; sales@rivendellmedia.com

LGBT-inclusive Oscar noms

For distribution, contact Lynne Brown at 202-747-2077, ext. 8075. Distributed by MediaPoint, LLC

A scene from a protest last year in which trans rights supporters denounced President Trump’s trans military ban.

Washington Blade File Photo by Michael Key

06 08 10 11

trans military ban 12

Gay mayor Peter Buttigieg enters

33

Making it ‘official’

2020 fray

34

MAL

13

Harris enters 2020 race

37

Pride of place – the evolution

14

Former Obama LGBT liaison to lead PFLAG

15

Blade returns to Central America

of D.C. 38

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04 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 05

The musical group Betty performs 30 years ago

By STAFF REPORTS Thirty years ago, the musical group “Betty” performed at Lisner Auditorium to a throng of fans — including many gay fans. The group was founded in D.C. around the 9:30 Club scene and is comprised of Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth “Bitsy” Ziff.

The group, known for putting on zany performances, is still at it today. Betty performed recently at the Whitman-Walker Health gala on Sept. 7, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis.

This write-up on their performance appeared in the Jan. 27, 1989 issue of the Washington Blade.

TOP PHOTO: Washington Blade photo by Michael Key BOTTOM PHOTOS: Courtesy of Betty.

Blade seeks volunteers for archive project: The DC Public Library and Washington Blade are seeking volunteers to help catalog 15 years of issues of the Blade. Training sessions are expected to begin in late spring/early summer 2019 (just in time for the Blade’s 50th anniversary!) and no library experience is required. As a community archivist, you will receive training in digital archival basics, such as standardized keyword tagging, and will use your knowledge of LGBTQ history in the District to make the Washington Blade digital collection the best it can be. View completed issues from 1969 through 1989 at digdc.dclibrary.org. Email lbrown@washblade.com if interested in learning more.

06 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

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For more information on getting involved with the 50th Anniversary please contact Stephen Rutgers at srutgers@washblade.com JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 07

Cuba Libre to host restaurant workshop on trans issues

CHARLOTTE CLYMER filed a complaint against Cuba Libre last year that was amicably resolved.

Photo courtesy of Clymer

A D.C. restaurant that resolved a transgender discrimination complaint filed against it last year will host a first-of-its-kind workshop next week to train area restaurant owners and managers on how to comply with city laws and regulations protecting the transgender community from discrimination.

The workshop, Understanding the Transgender Community and Ensuring Compliance with D.C. Regulations, will take place Jan. 28 on the premises of Cuba Libre Rum Bar and Restaurant at 801 9th St., N.W. In a statement released last week, Cuba Libre owner Barry Gutin said he has retained veteran trans activist Ruby Corado, founder and executive director of Casa Ruby LGBT community services center, to conduct the workshop.

“Creating a welcoming atmosphere and dining environment for guests and staff members is vital for all public facing businesses operating today,” Gutin said.

“This workshop will help restaurateurs understand the challenges of the LGBTQ community, steps that can be taken to ensure compliance with local regulations and how to foster an inclusive and safe environment,” he said.

The workshop was scheduled to take place less than two weeks after D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced his office reached a settlement with Cuba Libre that requires the restaurant to adopt policies and procedures to prevent it from discriminating against transgender people.

Racine said the settlement came after his office opened an investigation into a complaint by a transgender woman last June that a Cuba Libre manager and bouncer violated the city Human Rights Act by forcing her to leave the restaurant because she used the women’s bathroom without complying with its requirement that she show legal identification confirming that her gender was female.

Charlotte Clymer, the woman who filed the complaint, said the manager ignored her attempt to explain that such an identification policy violates the Human Rights Act. The settlement, which is similar to an earlier settlement that the restaurant reached with the city’s Office of Human Rights, requires it to take a series of steps to train employees and place signs stating that customers can use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

“Immediately following this regrettable incident, Cuba Libre implemented all training and signage requirements expressed today in the settlement with the Attorney General, Gutin said in his statement. “Our focus now is to help ensure safety for D.C.’s transgender community at all area restaurants,” he said.

Corado said that Gutin retained her to conduct a training workshop on trans related issues for Cuba Libre employees last July and has made a financial contribution to Casa Ruby as a gesture of support for the transgender community.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Food & Friends reaches out to furloughed federal employees Food & Friends, the D.C. area nonprofit organization, announced this week that it is encouraging furloughed federal employees grappling with a serious illness, either personally or in their family, to contact the organization for assistance.

The statement noted that Food & Friends, which got its start during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, currently delivers nutritionally tailored meals “not just for the individual living with illness, but also to caregivers and dependents.”

In addition, the statement says the organization is reaching out to its current clients and their households impacted by the furlough to let them know they can receive additional meals if needed.

“Any furloughed federal employee battling a serious illness, or caring for a loved one with a serious illness, may qualify for free meal or grocery deliveries,” the statement says. “Food & Friends’ services are available to anyone who has a medical need for nutritionally tailored meals, as well as their caregivers and dependents,” says the statement.

“The furlough is placing additional strain on many families in our area and we are here to help,” said Carrie Stoltzfus, the Food & Friends executive director. “When serious illness strikes, families often face the difficult decision of choosing whether to buy food or afford medication and treatments,” she Stoltzfus said.

“Food & Friends’ mission is to eliminate that barrier to health and is especially committed to those experiencing financial hardship during the shutdown,” she said.

Also this week, the faith-based charity Central Union Mission invited furloughed federal employees in need of food to visit its Family Ministry Center at 3194-B Bladensburg Rd., N.E. Monday through Thursday from 2:30-4 p.m.

“Groceries will be available while supplies last through our Emergency Referral Program,” a statement released by the mission said. “People seeking assistance must bring a governmentissued I.D. and agency work badge/ID,” the statement says.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Lawsuit seeks to overturn Md.’s conversion therapy ban A Virginia-based licensed professional counselor who sees clients in Maryland filed a lawsuit on Jan. 18 seeking to overturn Maryland’s law banning conversion therapy for minors on grounds that it violates his and his clients’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.

The lawsuit, filed by Christopher Doyle in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, names Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) as defendants in their official capacity as government officials.

It was filed on Doyle’s behalf by the Christian litigation group Liberty Counsel, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as an anti-LGBT hate group.

The lawsuit targets the law known as SB 1028, which was approved by the Maryland General Assembly and signed by Hogan on May 15, 2018, making Maryland the 11th state to ban so-called conversion therapy by licensed mental health professionals for people under the age of 18.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Hogan and Frosh declined to immediately comment on the lawsuit. The state has several weeks to file its official response in court.

The lawsuit identifies Doyle as both a licensed professional counselor and a licensed clinical professional counselor.

The American Counseling Association says people holding both positions have at least a master’s degree and provide mental health services for individuals, families and groups.

“Plaintiff engages in licensed, ethical, and professional counseling that honors his clients’ autonomy and right to selfdetermination that permits clients to prioritize their religious and moral values above unwanted same-sex sexual attractions, behaviors, or identities, and that enables clients to align their values with a licensed counselor who can address these values,” the lawsuit states.

“By denying Plaintiff’s clients and all minors access to counseling from licensed counselors that can best help minors who desire to reduce, eliminate, or resolve their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity, SB 1028 infringes on the fundamental rights of Plaintiff’s clients, and the rights of the parents of Plaintiff’s clients…,” the lawsuit says.

Similar to lawsuits challenging conversion therapy bans in other states, Doyle’s lawsuit disputes the official findings of professional mental health organizations such as the American Psychological Association that oppose conversion therapy for minors and adults. Nearly all U.S. professional mental health organizations have said conversion therapy has been shown to be harmful to the mental health of those who undergo it and that it often leads to depression and thoughts of suicide.

Professional mental health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, have also said existing data does not substantiate that conversion therapy succeeds in changing someone’s sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.

Doyle’s lawsuit argues that the American Psychological Association’s opposition to conversion therapy was based on the findings of a task force stacked with conversion therapy opponents.

In addition to calling for the court to declare SB 1028 unconstitutional and in violation of the Maryland state constitution, the lawsuit requests that the court issue a preliminary and permanent injunction ordering the state to immediately stop enforcing SB 1028 while the lawsuit is pending.

Federal courts in California and New Jersey have rejected similar constitutional claims against laws banning conversion therapy for minors in those states. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take those cases on appeal from supporters of conversion therapy thus upholding the laws.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

08 • WA S HI N GTON B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT MASON 2018/2019 SEASON

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Opus Cactus Friday, January 25 at 8 p.m.

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Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar Friday, February 8 at 8 p.m.

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JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 09

Located on the Fairfax campus, six miles west of Beltway exit 54, at the intersection of Braddock Road and Rt. 123.

Trans women play visible role in Women’s March

Police can’t confirm threat against Md. drag pageant ‘Faggot community needs to learn they are not wanted here’

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

The National Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 19, drew thousands of people from across the country.

Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.

Two transgender women gave rousing speeches on the main stage at a rally for the National Women’s March on Washington on Saturday.

The third annual Women’s March and rally took place one day after march organizers released a sweeping 68-page Women’s Agenda document that includes strongly worded support for LGBT equality, including a call for Congress to pass the LGBT rights bill known as the Equality Act. Organizers said the Washington march was one of more than 300 marches and related events held on Saturday in U.S. cities and abroad in which hundreds of thousands of women and their allies participated.

Due to predictions of inclement weather, organizers moved the location of the Washington march and rally from the National Mall to Freedom Plaza in downtown D.C. A shortened march route began at Freedom Plaza and traveled east on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., to the Trump Hotel at 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue before returning to Freedom Plaza.

Thousands of participants filled the street for several blocks and created a scene of a sea of people carrying colorful signs with a wide range of messages, many of which were critical of President Trump. “Abort Trump in the first term,” said one sign. “The Warden is coming,” said another.

Most, however, promoted women’s rights, with many calling for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

“We drove down from New York last night because I can’t imagine being anywhere else today,” said a woman who identified herself as Morgan and who was with her friend Michelle.

Both identified themselves as lesbians.

“It was just really important for us to be here,” said Michelle. “We weren’t just going to sit down and let this all happen.”

Most observers familiar with the first two women’s marches said Saturday’s event drew far fewer people in D.C., New York and Los Angeles than the 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches. Some observers said the smaller turnout could have been due to a controversy surrounding allegations of anti-Semitism among members of the national Women’s March organization.

But the two trans women speakers at the rally and LGBT participants in the Washington march praised march leaders for bringing together what they called a diverse coalition of progressive organizations and individuals, including Jewish, African-American and Latino leaders who strongly support an agenda of intersectionality.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Officials with the Maryland State Police and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office say they cannot verify a claim by the organizer of a drag pageant planned for Feb. 16 on Solomons Island that someone posted a threat against the event that mentioned the Pulse nightclub shooting.

George Connelly one of the lead organizers of the event, the Miss Gay Southern Maryland America Pageant, emailed a message to the Washington Blade last week saying that after consulting with local police and the manager of the Holiday Inn at Solomons Island where the event was to be held, a joint decision was made to cancel it.

“So, over the weekend/and yesterday there were some very vicious comments written on one of my posts in a public forum about the Miss Gay Southern Maryland pageant,” Connelly said in his message. “The host venue and I both filed police reports in regards to the one comment made in particular, that dealt with the Pulse nightclub incident, how the ‘faggot’ community needs to learn they are not wanted here in ‘our’ community and how it was open hunting season on gays,” Connelly wrote.

Although Connelly didn’t mention the Holiday Inn by name he said in his email that he met with the general manager of the “host venue” and representatives of “local and state police” about the apparent threats. The Holiday Inn in Solomons was listed as the host venue in online advertising for the event. “[I]t was determined that everyone thinks it is no longer safe to continue with the pageant as planned and with that in mind and acting on the advice of the local police department, the pageant is now cancelled,” Connelly stated in his message.

“Today bigotry and hatred won,” he said. “I’m feeling personally defeated but the show will go on in other places, at other venues, and in the future, maybe we can have a pageant or more shows in Southern Maryland,” he said.

Spokespersons for the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, which has law enforcement jurisdiction over Solomons Island, and the Maryland State Police, which also has jurisdiction over Solomons Island, told the Blade that Connelly never contacted them about the alleged threats and no police

report was ever filed.

Jeff Shepherd, general manager of the Holiday Inn in Solomons, said he never met with Connelly and that it was the “event organizer’s” sole decision to cancel the drag pageant.

“I’m not aware of anything other than that,” Shepherd told the Blade. “It was a private function and it was his decision to cancel it.”

Capt. David Payne, the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said his office first learned about the alleged threats when a reporter from the Calvert Recorder, the local newspaper, called the office to ask about the cancellation of the pageant. Payne said the reporter told him she saw Connelly’s announcement of the cancellation posted on social media.

“So, I called him and he says no, I don’t have any complaints,” Payne said. “I didn’t file anything,” he quoted Connelly as saying. “I think the Holiday Inn did.”

Payne said when he called the Holiday Inn he was told they knew little more than that Connelly said he was getting some threats and he wanted to cancel the event.

Payne said that when he mentioned to a Holiday Inn official that Connelly told him a threat may have appeared on the Holiday Inn website, “the Holiday Inn says they don’t know what he’s talking about.”

He said Connelly also declined his request to send the Sheriff’s Office any evidence he had such as the text of the alleged threatening posting or a screen shot of the posting.

Connelly also declined a request by the Blade for a copy of or screen shot of the postings he said mentioned the Pulse nightclub massacre.

“I am not comfortable sharing the screen shot,” he told the Blade in a text message. “At this time, I’ve been advised by my attorney to give the above statement,” he said. “While I would love to share more, I think it best to leave it there. I apologize for not being able to be more helpful,” he said.

The “above statement” he referred to said, “As this cancellation and the issues around it play out in the civil and criminal legal systems, I unfortunately have no other comment than the event was cancelled due to security concerns. The safety of the attendees, guests and participants are of the utmost importance to me as an event organizer.”

10 • WA S HI N GTON B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

Supreme Court OKsTrump’s trans military ban ‘Discrimination is not a national security strategy’

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director MARA KEISLING speaks in front of the White House on Oct. 22, 2018.

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued stays on lower court orders against President Trump’s transgender military ban, essentially giving a green light to allow the policy to go into effect.

In orders from the court, the Supreme Court granted stays the U.S. Justice Department requested in two separate cases challenging the ban before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Karnoski v.

Trump and Stockman v. Trump. The stays mean Trump’s policy against transgender service will be allowed to go into effect as litigation moves forward.

The orders note U.S. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have denied the application for a stay.

(Since at least five justices are required for the Supreme Court to grant a stay, the order suggests Chief Justice John Roberts as well as U.S. Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas agreed to grant the stay.)

In a separate entry, the orders note the Supreme Court also rejected petitions for certiorari from the U.S. Justice Department calling for the Supreme Court to review these cases even before the Ninth Circuit had rendered a decision. It would have been a rare move for the Supreme Court to grant the cases at this stage without decisions yet from the appellate courts.

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the interpretation of the orders to

mean Trump’s policy can go into effect is “unfortunately” correct.

“The court declined to hear the cases now, which permits our challenges to proceed in the lower courts, but it also is allowing the Trump administration to enforce the ban in the meantime,” Minter said.

But Minter added the Supreme Court’s stay order is “only temporary and is in place only until the Ninth Circuit issues its decision and the Court decides whether to accept review of that case.”

At the start of the year, four court orders were in place barring the Trump administration from enforcing the transgender military ban. All that has changed with the Supreme Court orders.

The Supreme Court grants the stay weeks after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its own order lifting a lower court stay against the transgender military ban, which reduced the number of orders to three.

Technically, another order against the transgender military ban issued by a federal court in Maryland still stands, but it’s hard to see how that will be the case for long given the Supreme Court orders lifting orders in two other cases.

Sharon McGowan, legal director for Lambda Legal, pointed out the Maryland court order against the ban is in a precarious position.

“As a technical matter, there is still one remaining nationwide injunction in place – the ACLU’s injunction in the Maryland case

N AT I O NAL NE WS • JA NUA RY 25, 2019 • WA SHI NGTON BL A DE . COM • 11

(Stone),” McGowan said. “But we suspect that DOJ will likely be back in federal court in Maryland renewing their motion for a stay in light of what SCOTUS issued this morning.”

A Defense Department official noted one court injunction against the transgender military ban remains in effect, thus “nothing would change today.”

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on the next steps in the aftermath of the Supreme Court orders.

If the transgender military ban as developed by former Defense Secretary James Mattis is implemented, the change won’t affect transgender people currently in the armed forces.

The Mattis plan allows transgender service members who are already serving openly to continue to do so, and to receive necessary medical care. However, the plan prohibits openly transgender people from enlisting in the armed forces, and service members who later come out as transgender are at risk of discharge and ineligible for treatment.

Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a spokesperson for the Defense Department, said the Pentagon is “pleased” with the order from the Supreme Court and denied the Trump policy is a ban.

“We will continue to work with the Department of Justice regarding next steps in the pending lawsuits,” Gleason said. “As always, we treat all transgender persons with respect and dignity. DOD’s proposed policy is not a ban on service by transgender persons. It is critical that DOD be permitted to implement personnel policies that it determines are necessary to ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world. DOD proposed policy is based on professional military judgment and will ensure that the U.S. armed forces remain the most lethal and combat effective fighting force in the world.”

According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, an estimated 15,500 transgender people are currently serving in the U.S. military.

A 2016 RAND Corp. study came up with a smaller number, estimating between 1,320 to 6,630 are currently in the active duty component of the armed forces.

Laura Durso, vice president of the LGBT Research & Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, condemned the Supreme Court for allowing the transgender military ban to go into effect.

“Allowing this dehumanizing policy to remain intact for even one more day gives credence to a bogus rationale about the fitness of transgender people to serve their country,” Durso said. “This is the cruel centerpiece of the Trump administration’s agenda to prevent the full inclusion of transgender people in public life. It undermines military readiness and perpetuates the fear across the transgender and allied communities that this government will not protect them, not even those who would sacrifice everything to protect our nation.”

Also criticizing the Supreme Court for allowing the transgender military ban to go into effect was Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“The court’s extraordinary action today puts the honorable service of thousands of troops and military readiness on the line,” Keisling said. “The military sets a core standard of unity and acceptance for American society, with implications extending far past military bases and recruitment offices, and that is the goal of the Trump-Pence administration. Today’s action is an attack on transgender people around the nation. President Trump’s attempts to defend this ban are as farcical as ever and only serve to defame thousands of transgender troops. It is more important than ever for Congress to act immediately to defend thousands of brave and honorable transgender service members from this thoughtlessly destructive president.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez rebuked Trump’s ban in the aftermath of the Supreme Court orders.

“Prejudice is not patriotism,” Perez said.

“Discrimination is not a national security strategy. This ban is nothing more than bigotry codified into law and an insult to all who have worn our nation’s uniform.

Not only does it go against our values as Americans, it also makes us less safe.”

Perez also said the Democratic Party would fight the anti-trans policy upon its implementation.

“Democrats believe diversity is our nation’s strength,” Perez said. “We believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who you love or how you identify. The brave service members who defend our freedoms should be able live freely. And we will keep fighting for the transgender community and all those who put themselves in harm’s way to protect our country.”

Gay mayor Pete Buttigieg enters 2020 fray

Former Sen. Harris Wofford dies at 92

By STAFF REPORTS

Joins growing crowd of Democratic prez hopefuls

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

Pete Buttigieg, a combat veteran and mayor of South Bend, Ind., has signaled he plans to throw his name into the pool of 2020 presidential candidates, raising the possibility of a Millennial and an openly gay candidate joining the growing Democratic field.

Buttigieg announced in a video Wednesday he’s forming an exploratory committee for a 2020 bid, which is considered the first step in running for president.

Speaking to viewers as images of small town America and farmland pan across the screen, Buttigieg says in the video, “There’s no going back and there’s no such thing as again in the real world.”

“We can’t look for greatness in the past,” Buttigieg says. “Right now our country needs a fresh start.”

As Buttigieg touts having “propelled our city’s comeback by taking our eyes off the rearview mirror,” one image in the video shows Buttigieg walking through an abandoned, dilapidated warehouse that suddenly converts to a modernized, polished building.

Another image displays Buttigieg with his spouse, Chasten Glezman, as they make dinner and pet the family dog.

“I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now,” Buttigieg says. “We’re the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in the wars after 9/11. And we’re the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents.”

Born in 1982, Buttigieg would represent not only the LGBT community, but Millennials in the 2020 presidential field. A Rhodes Scholar who graduated magma cum laude from Harvard University in 2004, Buttigieg has served as mayor of South Bend, Ind,, since 2012. Commissioned as a naval intelligence officer in 2009, Buttigieg deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 and remains a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve.

In 2010, Buttigieg tried his hand at statewide office and ran to become Indiana State Treasurer, but came up short against incumbent Richard Mourdock after obtaining just 37.5 percent of the vote.

Buttigieg first rose to national prominence when he ran in 2017 to become chair of the Democratic National Committee. His performance in the debates impressed political pundits as well as former President Obama, who met with Buttigieg. (Buttigieg ended up withdrawing from the race and endorsing Keith Ellison, who lost to DNC Chair Tom Perez.)

In a February 2017 interview with the Washington Blade at the newspaper’s office in D.C., Buttigieg talked in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016 about the importance of the Democratic Party connecting with the heartland of America.

“For a party that really needs to reconnect across our 50-plus states and territories, I think I’m in a better position than most to deliver on that based on my experience, based on my bread and butter, which is local government and political organizing,” Buttigieg said.

Serving as a mayor in the Midwest, Buttigieg has sometimes taken a nuanced approach to criticism of the Trump administration. When students at Notre Dame University staged a walk out during Vice President Mike Pence’s commencement speech over his anti-LGBT views, Buttigieg told the Blade he “of course” backs the students and their reasons for protest, but still has “respect the office of the vice presidency, too.”

Buttigieg isn’t the first openly gay person to seek a major party’s nomination for president. Gay activist Fred Karger unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in a long-shot bid in 2012.

However, Buttigieg could become the first candidate the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which has worked to support LGBT candidates since its founding in 1991, endorses for president. (Former Victory Fund CEO Chuck Wolfe told the Blade in 2014 that a qualified LGBT candidate would run for the White House “within the next five presidential cycles, which is the next 20 years.”)

Annise Parker, former mayor of Houston and current CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said in a statement Buttigieg’s candidacy “would be a welcome contribution” to the 2020 field.

“And while he is not running on his sexual orientation, his presence will undoubtedly elevate LGBTQ issues in the Democratic primary,” Parker added. “LGBTQ voters are an important part of the primary base, and with Mayor Buttigieg on the campaign trail and on the debate stages, other Democratic presidential candidates will need to be outspoken and well-versed on LGBTQ equality issues.”

Parker added Buttigieg is “well-positioned for this political movement” and “brings a sense of optimism and American solidarity that is entirely absent from the current national dialogue.”

“He brings a unique set of skills and values to the race as a successful two-term executive, a first-generation American and a gay war veteran from a deep red state,” Parker concluded. “Mayor Buttigieg understands that Americans are tired of politics as blood-sport and instead want politicians to address real issues affecting real lives.

He sees the similarities between the blue-collar worker in Indiana, the undocumented immigrant in Arizona, and the young lesbian in middle school in rural Virginia – and he believes with strong leadership all their lives can be improved. Our country is in crisis and it is essential diverse perspectives are heard in this presidential race.”

HARRIS WOFFORD died Monday at age 92 after suffering a fall.

Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who came out late in life, died at a Washington, D.C. hospital Monday after suffering a fall. He was 92.

Wofford had a long career in civil rights activism before joining the Senate. He graduated from Howard University Law School, a historically black institution, and marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. He served in the Kennedy administration as special assistant for civil rights and was instrumental in creating the Peace Corps before moving to academia where he served as a university president.

Wofford was married to his wife Clare for 48 years before she died in 1996. They had three children. He recalled their romance in a 2016 New York Times essay, writing, “Our romance and adventure continued for five decades. When I was running for election to the Senate in 1991, Clare gave up her job to become an all-out campaigner, helping us win in a landslide. In my narrow losing re-election campaign of 1994, astute Pennsylvanians observed that if Clare had been the candidate, she would have won.”

In that same essay, Wofford shared his coming out story. At age 75, he met Matthew Charlton, 50 years his junior, on a Fort Lauderdale beach. The two became close friends, eventually lovers, and married in 2016.

“Too often, our society seeks to label people by pinning them on the wall — straight, gay or in between,” Wofford wrote. “I don’t categorize myself based on the gender of those I love. I had a half-century of marriage with a wonderful woman, and now am lucky for a second time to have found happiness.”

Wofford was appointed to fill the Senate seat of John Heinz, who was killed in a 1991 plane crash.

He later held the seat in a special election, defeating Richard Thornburgh. Three years later, Wofford was defeated in his re-election bid by Rick Santorum.

Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff worked for Wofford in 1993 in his Senate press office and reconnected with him years later after coming out in the Times essay.

“I teased him that he should have come out in the Blade,” Naff said. “He was an intellectual with a passionate commitment to social justice causes and was the epitome of a gentleman. I used to interview him for his office’s weekly radio service and we had many meaningful conversations. After reconnecting at an Obama White House event, I had the pleasure of meeting Matthew. They were a loving, dashing couple and my sincerest condolences to Matthew and to Harris and Clare’s children and extended family. Our country could use more smart, thoughtful, considerate people like Harris Wofford in public service these days.”

12 • WA S HI N GTONB L A D E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 • N AT IO N AL N EW S

Harris enters 2020 race Takes responsibility for briefs against surgery for trans inmates

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

In her first news conference after announcing her 2020 presidential run, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said she takes “full responsibility” for legal briefs as California attorney general seeking to deny gender reassignment surgery for transgender inmates and called for a “better understanding” of needs — medical or otherwise— for transgender people.

Harris made the comments during a news conference Monday at Howard University in D.C. in response to a question from the Blade, asking her about representing the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation in seeking to deny gender reassignment surgery prescribed to two transgender inmates in the California state prison system.

Initially, Harris defended her actions by asserting she was obligated to defend the state agency in her role as California attorney general, implying her personal position was contrary to that of the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation.

“I was, as you are rightly pointing out, the attorney general of California for two terms and I had a host of clients that I was obligated to defend and represent and I couldn’t fire my clients, and there are unfortunately situations that occurred where my clients took positions that were contrary to my beliefs,” Harris said.

Harris also suggested lawyers working for her in her role as California attorney general were taking approaches to these cases without her knowledge.

“And it was an office with a lot of people who would do the work on a daily basis, and do I wish that sometimes they would have personally consulted me before they wrote the things that they wrote?” Harris said. “Yes, I do.”

Ultimately, Harris said she takes responsibility for the litigation approach of her office because she was responsibe as California attorney general.

“But the bottom line is the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for what my office did,” Harris said.

Harris indicated she also helped the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation come to an agreement to set up a process where transgender inmates could obtain transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery. That’s similar to what her office later told the Blade in response to an article about concerns over her legal support for the position of the agency.

“On that issue I will tell you I vehemently disagree and in fact worked behind the scenes to ensure that the Department of Corrections would allow transitioning inmates to receive the medical attention that they required, they needed and deserved,” Harris said.

Transgender advocates have made the case that transgender inmates are entitled to receive the taxpayer-funded procedure because denying them medical treatment amounts to cruel and unusual punishment — a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But a series of briefs signed by Harris during her tenure as California attorney general made the opposite case. In one brief dated April 10, 2015, Harris and other state attorneys dismiss the importance of gender reassignment surgery in seeking to appeal a court order granting the procedure to transgender inmate Michelle-Lael Norsworthy.

“Norsworthy has been treated for gender dysphoria for over 20 years, and there is no indication that her condition has somehow worsened to the point where she must obtain sex-reassignment surgery now rather than waiting until this case produces a final judgment on the merits,” the brief says.

It should be noted California didn’t come to an agreement to grant transgender inmates gender reassignment surgery until after a court decision ordering Norsworthy be granted the procedure. At least one transgender advocate in California has also said the California Department of Correction has built a reputation for not fulfilling the agreement reached on behalf of transgender inmates.

N AT I O NAL NE WS • JA NUA RY 25, 2019 • WA SHI NGTON BL A DE . COM • 13

Gillibrand vows new bill targetingTrump’s trans military ban Measure faces uphill climb in GOP Senate

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

Sen. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-N.Y.) has vowed to introduce new legislation against President Trump’s transgender military ban.

Photo by Chief National Guard Bureau; courtesy Wikimedia Commons

In the aftermath of orders from the U.S. Supreme Court allowing President Trump’s transgender military ban to go into effect, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has vowed to introduce updated legislation to ensure transgender people can serve and enlist in the U.S. armed forces.

Gillibrand, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said Tuesday she’d introduced the legislation in the U.S. Senate, recalling an earlier version of legislation she introduced with the late Sen. John McCain.

“I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to allow this discriminatory ban to take effect, and I will continue to do everything I can to reverse this hateful policy,” Gillibrand said. “I was proud to introduce bipartisan legislation with the late Sen. John McCain to protect our currently serving transgender service members and ensure that they can continue to do their jobs and serve with dignity. New transgender recruits have joined our military since then, and I will be introducing an updated version of the bill that will also ensure that any transgender American who meets the standards can sign up to join our armed forces.”

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gillibrand last year questioned each of the military service chiefs during congressional hearings on whether having transgender people in the military harmed unit cohesion. Each of the

service chiefs answered “no.”

In her statement, Gillibrand commended transgender people for serving in the armed forces and said Trump’s ban is unnecessary.

“Transgender service members have been serving in our military with honor and distinction” Gillibrand said. “They are willing to die for this country, they make extraordinary sacrifices for our freedom, and they are unafraid to fight for our most sacred values as Americans. Banning them from military service is a rebuke of their patriotism, it undermines our military readiness, and it goes against the congressional testimony of the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, who each confirmed that transgender service members are serving in our military without any problems.”

After Trump announced in 2017 he’d refuse to allow transgender people in the military “in any capacity,” Gillibrand introduced with McCain legislation seeking to codify an ongoing review at the Pentagon on transgender service and prevent Trump from interfering with it.

That bill, however, was focused on retention of transgender service members currently in the military as the Pentagon review was ongoing.

The policy former Defense Secretary James Mattis ended up developing as a result of the review is now out. It allows transgender people currently in the armed forces to remain — consistent with Gillibrand’s old bill — but bars new transgender enlistments. Any legislation Gillibrand would introduce now would have to be different and focus on enlistment.

Any such legislation would face a significant uphill climb in a Senate where Republicans gained seats after the 2018 election. The new Senate Armed Services Committee chair, James Inhofe (R-Okla.), has already pledged legislation that would codify Trump’s transgender military ban.

It remains to be seen whether any Republicans will join Gillibrand in cosponsorship in the aftermath of McCain’s death.

Other Republicans, including Sen. John Ernst (R-Iowa), have indicated they support allowing transgender people in the military, but they may stop short of co-sponsoring the bill.

In the House, legislative action to ensure openly transgender military service has greater prospects under the new Democratic majority. It remains to be seen what action the House will take in the aftermath of the Supreme Court orders.

Former Obama LGBT liaison to lead PFLAG A former White House liaison to the LGBT community in the Obama administration has been named the new chief of PFLAG National, the organization announced last week.

Brian Bond, who was the first White House LGBT liaison during the Obama administration, is set to become executive director of PFLAG effective Feb. 1.

Kathy Godwin, board president of PFLAG, said she’s “thrilled” to welcome the veteran of the Obama administration, who also grew up in Missouri and was once chief of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.

“He has a proven record of success unifying people across communities, building strong alliances and partnerships and working in challenging BRIAN BOND is the new chief of PFLAG National, the organization announced last week. environments and moments to effect change,” Photo courtesy of Bond Godwin said. “His personal story — as a young gay man raised in rural America — will resonate with so many people, including our supporters and members. I know Brian is the leader PFLAG needs to continue our work, and greatly expand our reach.”

Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to former President Obama, praised both Bond and PFLAG upon the announcement of his new position.

“During my time at the White House I saw firsthand PFLAG’s legacy of loving, affirming families and actively engaged allies at work,” Jarrett said. “PFLAGers are changing hearts and minds in every corner of our country in support of equality for the LGBTQ+ community.”

PFLAG named Bond as executive director after its previous head Jaime Grant left the organization in March 2018 only six months into the job in a move that puzzled some LGBT activists. PFLAG has gone nearly a year without an executive director.

Aditi Hardikar, another former White House LGBT liaison, said in a statement that Bond “embodies leadership.”

“He has earned the trust and respect of diverse communities and coalitions over his lifetime because he has worked tirelessly to uplift people of all ages and backgrounds every step of the way,” Hardikar said. “I count myself in that category, first as his summer intern and later as his successor as the White House LGBT Liaison and a committed partner in the fight for equality and justice.”

CHRIS JOHNSON

Court: Anti-gay bias in housing case not sex discrimination A federal court in Missouri has ruled anti-gay discrimination doesn’t amount to sex discrimination in a case in which an elderly lesbian couple was denied housing at a religiously affiliated retirement home, bucking a growing trend of courts finding laws against sex discrimination cover sexual orientation.

In a 10-page decision, U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton, a George H.W. Bush appointee, dismissed a case filed on behalf of Mary Walsh, 72, and Beverly Nance, 68, a same-sex couple who married in Massachusetts in 2009 and were denied housing at St. Louis-based Friendship Village retirement home.

Despite claims from the couple, Hamilton determined the couple isn’t eligible for relief under the Fair Housing Act, a federal law barring discrimination in housing on the basis of sex, because “sexual orientation rather than sex lies at the heart of plaintiffs’ claims.”

“Plaintiffs…assert they have presented a straightforward case of sex discrimination under the FHA, as but for their sex, plaintiffs would not have been denied housing at Friendship Village,” Hamilton writes. “Upon consideration the court rejects this analysis, finding instead that sexual orientation rather than sex lies at the heart of plaintiffs’ claims.”

As Hamilton describes in her decision, Walsh and Nance filed their initial complaint in federal court late last year after the couple received notice from Friendship Village rejecting their housing application. As described in a July 29, 2016 letter from Michael Heselbarth, Corporate Operations Director of Friendship Village, the home rejected the couple’s application because they’re lesbians.

“It is the policy of Friendship Village Sunset Hills, consistent with its long-standing practice of operating its facilities in accordance with biblical principles and sincerely-held religious standards, that it will permit the cohabitation of residents within a single unit only if those residents, while residing in said unit, are related as spouses by marriage, as parent and child or as siblings,” the letter said. “The term ‘marriage’ as used in this policy means the union of one man and one woman, as marriage is understood in the Bible.”

A growing a number of courts have found sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination and thus is illegal under federal civil rights laws against sex discrimination, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The U.S. Second Circuit and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals have reached this conclusion, although the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the opposite way. Petitions seeking nationwide clarification on the interpretation of Title VII are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hamilton, however, writes she’s bound by precedent in the Eighth Circuit, a 1989 decision called in Williamson v.

A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., which found Title VII “does not prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.”

CHRIS JOHNSON

Photo by Jesse Korman; Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Ocasio-Cortez calls into gamer’s stream for trans youth YouTube star Harry Brewis, known online as Hbomberguy, started a 57-hour video game stream of “Donkey Kong 64” to aid transgender youth and was surprised by guest appearances from congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and transgender rights activist Chelsea Manning.

Brewis announced in a video that he would raise money for U.K.-based nonprofit Mermaids, which provides resources to transgender youth.

“I chose to support this charity because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion surrounding this issue in my country, especially in its tabloids, to be woefully misinformed,” Brewis said. “I’d like to do my bit to help support the people who do the hard work of contributing to people’s thinking on an important issue.”

He also explains that he chose the charity out of “spite” because comedy writer Graham Linehan, known for his work on “Black Books” and “The It Crowd,” wanted people to protest the organization from receiving funding from the U.K.’s National Lottery.

“So well done, Graham,” Brewis says in the video.

“You have a massive audience and the power to choose to fight for progress in all the many forms we need in the world right now and you used it to make sure some children won’t have access to helpful resources.”

Brewis decided to raise money for Mermaids himself and chose the 1999 Donkey Kong video game because he had never finished it as a child.

GameRevolution reports that Manning and “Doom” creator John Romero popped into the Twitch stream.

Ocasio-Cortez also called into the stream.

“Thank you so, so much for calling in,” Brewis tells Ocaso-Cortez. “How’s it going over there? The government is shut down?”

Ocaso-Cortez replies that that the U.S. is experiencing the “longest government shutdown in history.”

“It’s kind of a mess right now, and we’re doing everything that we can,” she explains.

“Keep fighting. I think what you’re doing is phenomenal,” Brewis replies.

MARIAH COOPER

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Blade returns to Central America

A U.S. Border Patrol truck seen from behind a wall in Tijuana, Mexico, that marks the Mexico-U.S. border.

Washington blade photo by Yariel Valdés González

WASHINGTON — The Washington Blade, the country’s oldest LGBT newspaper, announced this week that International News Editor Michael Lavers will return to the Southwest U.S., Mexico and Central America to continue reporting on the impact that President Trump’s immigration policy is having on LGBT migrants and asylum seekers.

Lavers will be in the region through Feb. 5.

He will interview LGBT migrants who continue to be impacted by Trump’s policy. Lavers will also speak with activists who are providing assistance to them, and government officials.

Lavers reported from Arizona, California, Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador in July 2018. This latest reporting trip is part of the Blade’s multi-year project to provide in-depth coverage of LGBT issues in Latin America. Mexico Correspondent Yariel Valdés González and El Salvador Correspondent Ernesto Valle are part of the Blade’s growing number of reporters who are covering these issues in the region.

“President Trump’s immigration policy continues to have a very real impact on the lives of LGBT migrants and communities along the Mexico-U.S. border,” said Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff. “It remains vitally important to provide our readers with in depth, on-the-ground coverage of these issues. It is also imperative for the Blade to provide reporting that challenges the rhetoric and misinformation around LGBT migrants and the situation in border communities.”

STAFF REPORTS

New migrant caravan leaves Honduras More than 1,000 Honduran migrants who hope to reach the U.S. left the country earlier this month.

A source in Honduras told the Blade the migrant caravan left the city of San Pedro Sula on Jan. 14.

The source noted Guatemalan officials said 890 men, 354 women, 161 boys and 130 girls have entered their country from Honduras. Erick Martínez, an activist who is based in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, told the Blade on Wednesday that some of the migrants who are traveling with the caravan are LGBTI. Rampant violence, poverty and a lack of economic opportunities are among the reasons that have prompted thousands of Central Americans to join migrant caravans. Many of them hope to seek asylum in the U.S., despite President Trump’s immigration policy that includes the separation of migrant children from their parents once they enter the country.

Efforts to end the partial federal government shutdown remain stalled over Trump’s insistence that Congress appropriate more than $5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump earlier this month during a televised address from the White House said there is “a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.” Trump on Friday tweeted he will “be making a major announcement concerning the humanitarian crisis on our southern border, and the shutdown” on Saturday from the White House.

Trump has also threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if their governments don’t do more to prevent migrants from leaving their countries.

“Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,” reads Article 13 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which the U.S. voted in favor in 1948.

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution,” reads Article 14.

The U.S. has also faced international criticism over the treatment of migrants who have been detained.

Roxsana Hernández, a transgender Honduran woman with HIV, died in ICE custody on May 25, 2018. Two migrant children have died in U.S. custody over the last month.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

I N T E R NATI O NAL NEWS • JA NUA RY 25, 2019 • WA S HI NGTON BL A DE . COM • 15

U.S. gay activist harassed by Cuban officials A prominent LGBT activist from San Francisco says Cuban authorities “harassed” him during his recent trip to the country.

Michael Petrelis had 10,000 “Love is Love” rainbow stickers and 1,200 Pride bracelets in his luggage when he arrived at Havana’s José Martí International Airport on Jan. 2.

Petrelis told the Washington Blade during a series of exclusive interviews from Cuba and San Francisco that an immigration official in street clothes “tapped on the shoulder from behind” shortly after he went through customs. Petrelis said the official asked to see his passport before bringing him to an “upstairs interview room.”

Petrelis wrote several Facebook posts about his trip before he left San Francisco. He told the Blade there were printouts of them on the table when he was brought into the room.

“The agent asked why I was bringing in so many rainbow items to Cuba and on a tourist visa,” said Petrelis, telling the Blade he planned to distribute them to people across the country. “I explained that these gifts would be shared with gay Cubans and no fee charged.”

Petrelis said he was asked where was staying in Havana and “took down the information about the location and the number of days I would stay there.” Petrelis told the Blade the interrogation lasted about 30 minutes.

“He said not to worry, which made me worry, and that I would be allowed into the country as a tourist,” he said.

“Neither he nor any other agent ever opened my luggage, which I thought (was) quite odd, but I didn’t object.”

Petrelis told the Blade a “uniformed agent” from Cuba’s Interior Ministry on Jan. 3 “showed up” at the home in which he was staying and “was again questioned why I brought so many rainbows with me.” Petrelis said the official summoned him to a meeting at what he described as a ministry barracks.

Petrelis said two men — the man who he said interrogated him at the airport the day before and another official who identified himself as Carlos — interrogated him for two hours. Petrelis told the Blade that he spoke with a woman at the ministry before he left.

“It was at the first meeting with him that he stated, through a young translator, I was not to attend ‘manifestations’ and certainly not the human rainbow at the (Cuban Capitol) that I had proposed, but which was never agreed to actually take place,” said Petrelis, recalling the interrogation.

Petrelis said Carlos told him he could not attend any meetings, “but he never defined what constituted a meeting and I said I wanted to meet with friends from Facebook in Havana, Matanzas and Santa Clara.”

Petrelis said Carlos called the National Center for Sexual Education, an organization directed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTI issues on the island. Petrelis told the Blade that Carlos told him to bring his rainbow stickers and bracelets to CENESEX’s headquarters in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

“Oddly, when I showed up at CENESEX, as ordered by Carlos with my rainbows, my friends there really wanted to convene a meeting with the national gay network of theirs,” said Petrelis.

Petrelis told the Blade that one of the CENESEX staffers who greeted him said “not to worry about the Interior Ministry ban on meetings.” Petrelis said he was also confident that CENESEX would be able to quickly distribute the stickers and bracelets across Cuba.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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Cannabis Culture Phil Murphy: New Jersey Kate Brown: Oregon Jay Inslee: Washington Of the 24 Republican governors receiving a letter grade, only five (21 percent) received a passing grade of ‘C’ or higher. Of the 22 Democratic governors receiving a letter grade, all of them (100 percent) received a passing grade of ‘C’ or higher. Among the 20 governors taking office for the first time in 2019, six (30 percent) received an ‘A’ grade. All are Democrats.

There exists now, for the first time, significant political support among U.S. governors for marijuana policy reform. However, this support is more partisan than ever before. While almost half of all Democratic governors are now on record in support of adult use regulation, no Republican governors publicly advocate for this policy. This partisan divide is not similarly reflected among the general public. According to national polling data compiled

by Gallup in October 2018, 66 percent of the public – including majorities of self-identified Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – favor legalization.

AG nominee would leave state marijuana programs alone

Nine US governors – all Democrats – received an ‘A’ grade for their marijuana positions, including gay Gov. JARED POLIS of Colorado.

Washington blade photo by Michael Key

More governors advocating for marijuana legalization To kick off the 2019 state legislative season, NORML released its 2019 Gubernatorial Scorecard. This database assigns a letter grade ‘A’ through ‘F’ to states’ governors based upon their comments and voting records specific to matters of marijuana policy.

“Following the publication of our 2018 Scorecard, there has been a dramatic shift in opinion among elected officials in favor of marijuana policy reform,” NORML’s Political Director Justin Strekal said. “Never before have we seen so many governors go on record and pledge their support for legalizing the responsible use of cannabis by adults. As a result, we expect there to be unprecedented levels of legislative activity at the state level surrounding the need to regulate the commercial cannabis market in 2019 and in 2020.”

Key Findings: 27 U.S. governors received a passing grade of ‘C’ or higher (22 Democrats, 5 Republicans). Of these, nine governors – all Democrats – received an ‘A’ grade; this marks a significant increase since 2018, when only two governors received ‘A’ grades. They are: Gavin Newsom: California Jared Polis: Colorado Ned Lamont: Connecticut J.B. Pritzker: Illinois Gretchen Whitmer: Michigan Tim Walz: Minnesota H E A LT H • JANUARY 25, 2019 • WA SHINGTON B L A DE . COM • 17

In Senate testimony last week, nominee for Attorney General William Barr committed to not use the limited resources of the Department of Justice to prosecute state-regulated and compliant marijuana businesses. His statements came response to questions from Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)

— each of whom represent states where marijuana is legally regulated for either medical or recreational purposes.

In January 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded what is known as the Cole Memo, a 2013 Justice Department memorandum, authored by former Deputy Attorney General James Cole to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states. This memorandum directed prosecutors not to interfere with state legalization efforts and not to prosecute those licensed to engage in the plant’s production and sale — provided that such persons do not engage in marijuana sales to minors or divert the product to states that have not legalized its use, among other guidelines.

Thirty-three states, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. territories of Guam and Puerto Rico have enacted legislation specific to the physician-authorized use of cannabis. Moreover, an estimated 73 million Americans now reside in the 10 states where anyone over the age of 21 may possess cannabis legally. Additional states have passed laws specific to the possession of cannabidiol (CBD) oil for therapeutic purposes.

Members of Congress in recent years have approved amendments protecting those who engage in the state-sanctioned use and dispensing of medical cannabis from undue prosecution by the Department of Justice. The amendment maintains that federal funds cannot be used to prevent states from “implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.” However, this amendment does not provide protections to state-regulated activity governing activities specific to the adult use of marijuana.

Sixty-eight percent of registered voters “support the legalization of marijuana,” according to national polling data compiled by the Center for American Progress. The percentage is the highest level of support for legalization ever reported in a nationwide, scientific poll.

Majorities of Democrats (77 percent), Independents (62 percent), and Republicans (57 percent) back legalization. The results of a 2017 nationwide Gallup poll similarly found majority support among all three groups.

(Cannabis Culture news in the Blade is provided in partnership with NORML. For more information, contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at paul@norml.org.)

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RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

is a writer and activist. Reach him at rrosendall@starpower.net.

KATHI WOLFE

is a regular contributor to the Blade and winner of the 2014 Stonewall Chapbook competition.

VI E WPO I NT • JANUA RY 25, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 19

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

AHMAR MUSTIKHAN

is known as the first openly gay Baloch among more than 40 million people of Balochistan. He now resides in the D.C. area and can be reached at mustikhan.

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RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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is a writer and activist. Reach him at rrosendall@starpower.net.

At Lincoln’s memorial, the social divide erupts Trump’s white nationalism beclouds our shared spaces

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The Lincoln Memorial is a popular destination where disparate groups often interact. This was illustrated the Friday before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by an encounter whose aftermath recalled Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 movie “Rashomon,” in which an event is remembered differently by different people.

Two demonstrations were scheduled on the National Mall on Jan. 18. One was the Indigenous Peoples March, to protest injustices against indigenous peoples. The other was the annual March For Life, dedicated to overturning women’s reproductive freedom. The latter assembly included a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, who were mostly white and wore “Make America Great Again” hats.

Afterward, a video went viral showing Omaha Nation elder and Vietnam War veteran Nathan Phillips chanting and beating a ceremonial drum, surrounded

by Covington students who were mocking him. Many on social media, and Covington officials, condemned their disrespectful behavior. Then more details came out.

Right wing sites started claiming Phillips was the aggressor. On Sunday, according to The New York Times, Phillips clarified that he had approached the crowd to intervene because racial tensions between the students and a group of black men were “coming to a boiling point.” Phillips said, “I stepped in between to pray.”

The mother of one of the Covington students wrote that the boys were harassed by “black Muslims yelling profanities.” She was apparently referring to a group called Hebrew Israelites, who, the Times reports, were “preaching their beliefs and shouting racially combative comments at the Native Americans and the students.” Apparently, any loud black man is automatically taken for a Muslim; except that even-toned black men, like Barack Obama, get the same biased assumption.

Hebrew Israelites believe they are descended from the ancient Israelites, which must disconcert people who think Jesus was a fair-skinned European. The Hebrew Israelites, requiring no more permission than anyone else, embrace teachings and practices of Christianity and Judaism.

I’m almost surprised that Women’s March organizer Tamika Mallory has not been

asked to apologize for them, even though she had nothing to do with the incident. She has resisted a flood of demands that she denounce Minister Louis Farrakhan. Her sin was working with the Nation of Islam on antiviolence initiatives after her son’s father was murdered. The Women’s March movement she helps lead embraces the Jews, LGBT people, and women who are Farrakhan’s favorite targets. Nobody demands that I prove my respectability by denouncing anyone.

We are constantly immersed in double standards without even noticing. We treat them as wallpaper. The slogan on the students’ hats, like an old racist song, stirs an ersatz nostalgia for a time when white racial dominance was seldom questioned. Tapping white resentment was Trump’s ticket to power; the attendant social division beclouds our shared spaces and frays our nation’s fabric.

On Sunday night, as I was reading news updates about the confrontation near where Dr. King gave his most famous speech, and as others were deciding what to wear to the King Day march in sub-freezing weather, a rare phenomenon occurred: a total lunar eclipse.

On my building’s roof, as the moon entered the darkest part of the earth’s shadow, a young woman arrived with a tripod and a digital SLR camera. I only had hot tea and the Redshift astronomy app on my iPhone. Several neighbors came out briefly to glimpse the cosmic spectacle. The weather recalled Obama’s first inauguration, when it was too cold for the eminent musicians to tune their Strads.

As totality began, I looked up at the “super blood wolf moon,” and remembered my late friend Barrett, an amateur astronomer with whom I spent similar nights on his roof years ago.

The red moon was high to the south, between Gemini and Cancer, awesome and beautiful. I fleetingly wished that all those squabbling people on the Mall could fit on my roof with me and look up humbly together, realize our common destiny, and have an epiphany about the folly of letting demagogues divide us. But it was past midnight, bitter cold, and I was out of tea. I walked back to my apartment, climbed into bed, and trusted in the daily miracle of morning.

Copyright © 2019 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.

20 • WA S HI N GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 • V IEW P O IN T

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KATHI WOLFE

is a regular contributor to the Blade and winner of the 2014 Stonewall Chapbook competition.

Saying goodbye to Carol Channing and Mary Oliver There’s now a lot more laughter and poetry in heaven I don’t know if there’s an afterlife. But, if there is, there’s a lot more laughter and poetry in heaven.

Two icons, legendary Broadway star Carol Channing and beloved poet Mary Oliver, have died.

Channing, who won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Dolly Gallagher Levi in “Hello Dolly,” died on Jan. 15 at age 97 at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Channing’s warmth, gravel-toned voice, false eyelashes and fabulous talent will be missed by her many fans, hetero and queer — from eight to 80. Some aficionados remember seeing Channing when she became a star in 1949. Then, she appeared as Lorelei Lee in the musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Others loved watching Channing on “The Muppet Show” or hearing her read the audiobook “Peter Rabbit and Other Stories.”

Though she was not as successful in movies as she was on the stage, Channing was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for her performance in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” (Marilyn Monroe was Lorelei Lee in the movie version of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and Barbra Streisand was Dolly in the film of “Hello Dolly.”)

At 92, the “New York Times” reported, she appeared in Town Hall in New York to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Hello Dolly,” which opened on Jan. 16, 1964. “Performing is the only excuse for my existence,” Channing said. “What can be better than this?”

She had particular affection for her queer fans. “The gay community is responsible for so much of my success, and I love them,” GLAAD quoted Channing as saying in a Tweet, “It’s a mutual love affair, really. They make the better audiences, too, because they laugh often and loudly.”

“Thank you, Carol Channing for a brilliant career and for being a friend,” GLAAD added.

Channing’s peers in the entertainment world from George Takei to Margaret Cho remembered her on social media. “She rejoins the heavens as a new diamond in the night sky,” Takei said.

“A star...a legend…an inspiration,” Cho said.

Channing was as warm off stage as she was on stage. When I was 11, my mother took me to see “Hello Dolly” for my birthday. I don’t know why. Maybe Channing could see that we were enchanted by her performance. But she came over to us and smiled at me. It was

as if the sun had smiled at me.

“My father was a drama critic,” poet Clarinda Harriss told me over the phone, “He loved Channing!”

He and Channing exchanged friendly notes, she said. “One day, my parents had lunch with her at the Owl Bar in Baltimore,” Harriss said. ”Channing was for real, they said – as bubbly as when she performed!”

R.I.P. and thank you, Carol!

Nothing seems more of an oxymoron than the idea of a best-selling poet. Yet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver, who published 20 collections of poetry and five volumes of prose, was just that.

Her work was beloved by everyone from Oprah to Hillary Clinton to Laura Bush to Maria Shriver to clergy to psychotherapists to teenagers. My friend’s daughter, who is an artist and a baker, loved Oliver’s poetry.

Fans flocked to her readings as if they were going to a rock concert.

Oliver died on Jan. 17 at 83 at her home in Hobe Sound, Fla. The cause of death was lymphoma. Cook, her life partner who was also her literary agent, died in 2005.

“I had a very hard childhood,” she told Maria Shriver in an interview in “O: The Oprah Magazine.” “So I made a world out of words.”

Oliver lived for several years at the home where Edna St. Vincent Millay had lived.

After she and Cook met there, the couple moved to Provincetown, Mass. After Cook’s death, she moved to Florida. Oliver received a Pulitzer Prize for her collection “American Primitive” and won a National Book Award for her collection “New and Selected Poems.”

In her poetry, Oliver is concerned with the natural world and with spirituality. “What I want to say is/that the past is the past, and the present is what your life is,” she wrote in her poem “Mornings at Blackwater, “and you are capable/of choosing what that will be/ So come to the pond/or the river of your imagination, and put your lips to the world.”

Perhaps, because of its conversational style and accessible imagery, her work is dismissed by some critics. Yet, Oliver’s work is admired by others. “She was just adored by people who felt that she had just the right words for them at the most difficult periods of their lives,” author and critic Ruth Franklin said on NPR’s “Here and Now.” Oliver ranks in the top of contemporary poets, she said.

VI E WPO I NT • JANUA RY 25, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 21

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PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

Trump incites incivility and takes hostages Federal workers, immigrants suffer for foolish wall

Donald Trump is desecrating the White House and the Office of the presidency through his behavior. It has become clear over the past two years he is not only not up to the job he is also overseeing and instigating the collapse of decency in our society.

While Trump hides behind milquetoast statements and doesn’t give explicit approval to what is happening by his usual silence and lack of strong condemnation for the acts of intolerance and hate taking place he is giving his implicit approval. Just last Friday we saw the horrendous video of a group of Catholic high school boys from Covington, Kentucky, bussed here to participate in the Right to Life rally, bully an elder statesman of the indigenous community as he demonstrated.

What those boys didn’t know and were most a d v i C e • m e d iat i o N • L i t i G at i o N • a P P e a L S • C o L L a B o r at i o N likely clearly incapable of understanding was Nathan Phillips, the person they were bullying, is not only a respected member of his community but a Vietnam veteran who fought for his country and their right to march and speak out with their MAGA hats on.

The boys’ school in Kentucky put out a strongly worded statement saying they FamiLY | eState PLaNNiNG | emPLoYmeNt | immiGratioN would investigate the incident and would ComPLeX LitiGatioN | CiviL riGHtS | LGBt | adoPtioN | BuSiNeSS hand out punishment possibly to include expulsion. But what the statement neglected is the fact the behavior these boys exhibited is learned. From whom did they learn hate at tor N e YS at L aw • d C | m d | va and intolerance? Did it come from their 3 0 1 . 8 9 1 . 2 2 0 0 • S P - L aw. C o m school or from their parents? Who will take 6 9 3 0 C a r r o L L av e , S u i t e 6 1 0 • ta k o m a Pa r k m d responsibility to teach them what they did was wrong and why it was wrong. Clearly it ADVERTISING PROOF won’t be the Trump/Pence administration.

ISSUE DATE: 171208 SALES REPRESENTATIVE: JERYL PARADE (jparade@washblade.com) Just this week it was reported Karen Pence, Vice President Pence’s wife, is going 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 back to teaching at a religious school that 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 responsible for any legal liability arising out of or relating to the advertisement, and/or any material to which users GN openly discriminates against gay students, 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 faculty and parents. They claim it is their right 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, to discriminate based on freedom of religion. or any other right of any person or entity. Advertiser agrees to idemnify brown naff pitts omnimedia llc (dba the ADVERTISER SIGNATURE 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 washington blade newspaper. This includes but is that not limitedcan to placement, While be debated what should 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. not be debated is when Pence accepted the role of vice president he and his wife took on the responsibility of representing everyone in our country and that includes Chic Middleburg Cottage | $399,000 the members of the LGBTQ+ community. So 800 Blue Ridge Avenue, Middleburg, VA 20117 while this school might have a right under law to discriminate, knowing the idea of Cindy Polk Brandy Greenwell cpolk@ttrsir.com bgreenwell@ttrsir.com his wife teaching there would be abhorrent +1 703 966 9480 +1 540 974 7791 to so many in the country, she should have understood doing so is the wrong message to send from the administration. But then this

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administration with its total lack of decency believes the only message they have to send is to keep the 35 percent of the voters still supporting them happy.

Then we hear hardly a peep out of the White House when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) says in an interview with the Times, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King has a history of such racist language and leanings but because of the national outcry this suddenly became offensive even to other right-wing leaders of the GOP in the House. As the New York Times wrote “National Republicans courted his political support in Iowa: He was a national co-chairman of Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential effort and of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ 2018 election.

House leadership appointed him chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution and civil justice. And President Trump boasted in the Oval Office that he raised more money for Mr. King than for anyone else.” Because of the bad publicity the Republican Party was receiving even Mary Cheney (R-Wyo.), another rightwinger in the House GOP leadership, called on King to resign his seat, which he has said he won’t. But again barely a peep from the White House, which over time has clearly courted white nationalists and white supremacists.

We are seeing a racist president under siege for lying and running a campaign that was in collusion with the Russians. He is now fighting for a wall on the border with Mexico to satisfy the voters who bought his scare tactics about immigrants. A president who has no compunction about holding over 800,000 government workers hostage to get his way and using another million immigrants including Dreamers as trading chips in his fight to get his way. He is being aided and abetted by the dregs of the Republican Party led by Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) who are afraid of their shadows and think they might lose their seats if Trump’s 35 percent won’t support them. So they willingly sell their souls to keep their seats.

We must stay positive and believe in a better future for our country. I support Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Schumer and urge Democrats in Congress to stand strong and tell Trump in no uncertain terms, “We will not negotiate with a hostage taker! Open the government and we will then negotiate with you on all border security issues.”

22 • WA S HI N GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 • V IEW P O IN T

AHMAR MUSTIKHAN

琀栀攀

is known as the first openly gay Baloch among more than 40 million people of Balochistan. He now resides in the D.C. area and can be reached @mustikhan.

Afghanistan’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Activist, author Nemat Sadat to debut sweeping ‘Carpet Weaver’

By AHMAR MUSTIKHAN Nemat Sadat, the LGBTQIA activist, and author of upcoming novel “The Carpet Weaver,” says he first felt attracted to the same sex from a very young age. But as an adult his sexual preference for males has come with a hefty price tag.

When he first came out to his immediate family in December 2009, Sadat’s parents said, “You should not announce your sexuality.” Sadat’s parents dismissed his wish to live an openly gay life and his elder brother distanced himself. Sadat’s family were more concerned that the revelation of Sadat’s sexual orientation would besmirch the family honor since gay men are treated as an outcast and called kuni, the homophobic slur for gay men in Afghanistan. Sadat’s coming out was not instant, though.

“The first person I dated was a woman when I was 22 and I was living in Southern California. After 15 months of being in a sham relationship with her, I realized that I cannot live this lie for the rest of my life.” Sadat says his eyes opened up to the possibility of living honestly and openly after he traveled to New York City in December 2002 and attended a Christmas party in New York City where he met LGBTQ people and imagined a better future for himself.

“That was around the time I started meeting other gay and bisexual men through an online dating site called Gay.com and eventually accepted myself as a gay man when I was 23,” he recalled.

Fast forward to August 2013 when Sadat, after returning to Kabul and spending a year working as an assistant professor of political science at the American University of Afghanistan, became the first person in the Afghan community to come out as gay to the entire world. For the past six years Sadat has worked exclusively on his debut novel. Sadat says his desire is to see “The Carpet Weaver” enter the wider canon as an

epic gay romance as “Romeo and Juliet” is for straight folks. But at its core, the novel is primarily, a Kunstlerroman, the coming-ofage of an artist, in this case the development of Kanishka as a carpet weaver.

“My novel’s hero is Kanishka Nurzada who I named after the Buddhist emperor who ruled over much of Afghanistan from 127-150 CE during the Kushan dynasty. In The Carpet Weaver, Nurzada struggles to reconcile his sexuality with the society of his birth,” says Sadat, adding, “Kanishka’s love with Maihan gets more complicated once civil war erupts in Afghanistan in April 1978.” Sadat hopes his novel will fill a void in gay literature. “There is a total lack of LGBTQ Muslim coming-of-age stories and love stories. Even in the Western world, the experience of LGBTQ immigrants and people of color is quite limited.”

Kanishka Gupta, a literary agent, said he found the story both universal and unique. “It tells the coming of age story of a gay Afghan boy, who has to deal with his complex emotions and hidden love in a country that is fraught with political turmoil,” Gupta said in response to an email query. “It is a story of fighting against, and conforming to one’s familial and social customs, surviving hardship, broken hearts, and finding one’s peace despite geography and politics. I think the story has a heart, the writing is engaging, and paints a vivid picture of family life in Afghanistan.”

According to the publisher of the novel, Penguin Random House India, “The Kite Runner meets Brokeback Mountain in this sweeping tale of a young gay man’s struggle to come of age and find love in the face of brutal persecution.

Set largely in Afghanistan in the 1970s, The Carpet Weaver traces the odyssey of Kanishka Nurzada, who must grapple with heartbreak and fear because his gay identity is incompatible with his faith and the values his family and community hold dear... And when war comes to Afghanistan, it brings even greater challenges—and danger—for the two lovers.”

VI E WPO I NT • JANUA RY 25, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 23

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The cast of ‘Rent: Live,’ which airs Sunday night on Fox. Photo courtesy The Karpel Group

‘Seasons’ of performance

Actress/singer Keala Settle gears up for ‘Rent: Live’

By BRIAN T. CARNEY

“I am brave/I am bruised/I am who I’m meant to be/This is me” In December 2017, singer and actress Keala Settle leapt into international prominence when she sang those words in the proudly defiant anthem “This Is Me” in the movie “The Greatest Showman” about entrepreneur and entertainer P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman). The movie got mixed reviews but Settle received rave reviews for her searing performance as one of Barnum’s performers, Lettie Lutz the Bearded Lady.

On Sunday, Jan. 27, audiences around the world can again cheer Settle as she sings the inspirational ballad “Seasons Of Love” in Fox’s live television broadcast of “Rent.”

A Tony-nominated performer, Settle says it was important for her to circle back to her theatrical training.

24 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

LEFT: KEALA SETTLE says she would love to tackle Shakespeare in some capacity next. Photo courtesy

KEALA SETTLE as the Bearded Lady in ‘The Greatest Showman.’

The Karpel Group. RIGHT: Photo courtesy 20th Century Fox.

“It’s been a really intense year,” she says. “I wanted to go back to my roots and work in a live situation. I missed that a lot.”

The original production of “Rent” debuted on Broadway in 1996. Directed by Michael Greif, the musical tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished young artists living in New York City’s East Village during the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Greif is also directing Fox’s live television version, which features an all-star cast. Vanessa Hudgens (“Grease Live” and Broadway’s “Gigi”) will play the flamboyant

performance artist Maureen Johnson and out actress Kiersey Clemens (“Hearts Beat Loud”) will play her sometimes girlfriend, the uptight lawyer Joanne Jefferson.

Brandon Victor Dixon (“Hamilton” on Broadway and “Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert”) will play Tom Collins and Valentina (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) will appear as his love interest Angel Dumont Schunard, a young drag queen and street percussionist. The principle cast is rounded out by recording artists Jordan Fisher as Mark Cohen, Brennin Hunt as

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 25

Roger Davis, Mario as Benjamin Coffin III and Tinashe as Mimi.

When Settle heard that a live television production of “Rent” was in the works, she knew she wanted to be part of it.

“I heard through the grapevine that Michael was doing ‘Rent.’ I didn’t remember a lot about it, but I knew there was a ‘Seasons of Love’ solo. I didn’t remember all of the lyrics, but I knew I wanted to do it,” she says.

Settle emailed Greif (the two had worked together on a 2014 concert version of the musical “Bright Lights, Big City”) to ask if she could do the number and “he immediately called me back and said, ‘Of course you can.’”

Settle says the song “is a small but impactful number and I am very proud to be part of it. The moment is kind of volatile.

The production itself is a reminder that any of us could go at any minute. We only have one life and all we can do is make the most of it.”

Settle, a straight LGBT ally, studied at Southern Utah University and after graduation moved to Las Vegas where she worked both backstage and as a performer, doing studio work and appearing as a backup singer for artists like Gladys Knight.

In 2005, Settle was cast as Tracy Turnblad in the national tour of “Hairspray” and then won rave reviews for her performance as Bloody Mary in the national tour of the Lincoln Center production of “South Pacific.”

Following the tours, Settle created (or recreated) roles in several iconic Broadway productions including “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert;” “Hands on a Hardbody,” for which she earned a Tony nomination; the second Broadway revival of “Les Misérables;” and “Waitress.”

Then Hollywood called. Pre-production was underway for “The Greatest Showman”

and actors were needed to perform the developing script. A casting agent called Settle and asked her to play the Bearded Lady. By the next round of drafts, a song was added for the character.

“It was a fair enough song, but it didn’t really have the impact they wanted,” Settle says. “At the final reading, they showed me ‘This Is Me’ and said you have to sing this. I was petrified, but I reluctantly sang it and it changed my life.”

“This Is Me” won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Although Settle and her colleagues did not win the Oscar, their stunning live performance earned them a standing ovation from the audience and helped remind Settle of the song’s message.

“To see everyone in that room come to their feet was amazing. When you open yourself up and you realize there are so many other people who are afraid. We’re all afraid. When you connect with that feeling in the room and everybody knows we’re on the same page no matter what.

We’re all on the same page. That’s how we’re connected.”

After she performs the classic “Seasons of Love” on “Rent: Live,” Settle will return to the recording studio to work on a new album.

After that, she has some dream roles in mind.

“A lot of them are Shakespeare,” she says, “because I was trained in Shakespeare.

I would love to play the Fool in ‘King Lear.’

I would love to play Hamlet. I’d love to play Macbeth — any of those roles.”

Challenge is what inspires her.

“I love challenges, I love challenging what everybody thinks is the norm because I’m not the norm. I have to work on it every day, but I love who I am and I’m so secure in who I am and where my life is now.”

QUEERY Cathy Fink Photo by Jonathan Timmes; courtesy Fink

How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?

Marcy and I have been together for 35 years. The hardest person to tell was probably my mother. She, like the rest of my family, easily saw how amazing Marcy was and those still alive are still crazy about her. Who wouldn’t be?

QUEERY: Cathy Fink The local musician and activist answers 20 gay questions

By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO JOEYD@WASHBLADE.COM

You wouldn’t necessarily think of the D.C. region as being a hotbed of folk or bluegrass music but Cathy Fink says there’s a lot more than you might guess.

“There are many music communities around here,” the 65-year-old Baltimore native says. “Some overlap and some do not. We hang in a bunch of them — traditional and contemporary folk, old-time string band songs and dance tunes on fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, etc., swing music … and others. There is so much good music and musicianship in the D.C. area.”

Fink and her long-time singing partner and wife Marcy Marxer will be joined by their friend Sam Gleaves for a concert at AMP Strathmore (11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda, Md.) on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-20 at ampbystrathmore.com. Expect lots of vocal harmonies and instrumental virtuosity on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, ukulele and guitar. The Bluegrass Situation

called their collaboration a “perfect illustration of cross-generational mind and musical melds.”

Fink and Marxer met at a folk festival in 1980 and have been making albums and touring together for decades. They met Gleaves, who’s gay, five years ago and perform both with and without him. Fink says he’s a “great extension of our duo work. … We work together when it fits our schedules and the opportunity is right.”

Fink says the folk world has always been fine with lesbian musicians and the bluegrass realm is “slowly opening its doors.” Fink has released about 47 albums over the years. Her latest, “Shout and Shine,” was released in summer 2017. Find out more at cathymarcy.com.

Fink moved to the D.C. area in 1979.

She and Marxer live in Silver Spring, Md. Fink enjoys music, quilting, writing short stories, hiking, cycling and volunteering in her free time.

Who’s your LGBT hero?

Wow, there are many. Cleve Jones’ brilliance in starting the AIDS Memorial Quilt was a huge inspiration. I wrote five songs about the quilt. Holly Near sings loud songs that question, educate and inspire us to action.

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

Concert halls or theaters such as Round House Theater, The Birchmere, AMP by Strathmore, Strathmore Mansion, The Hamilton, Woolly Mammoth or even a local summer park show.

Describe your dream wedding.

I had my dream wedding. Marcy and I had a two-hour wedding and the party was part of the ceremony with several musical friends performing. It was happy, profound and an extension of the commitment we had already made to each other.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

There are so many. We have always been passionate about helping children and families. Tomorrow I’m volunteering at Nourish Now, a Gaithersburg food pantry. I’m also passionate about mentoring the upand-coming musical generations and volunteer a lot of time doing that. I’m most passionate about the thing I’m currently doing, whatever it is.

What historical outcome would you change?

Trump. Over and out. And out the sooner the better.

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

My first big folk music concert was Pete

Seeger and Arlo Guthrie in Montreal.

It was amazing and opened my eyes to the wide word of audience engagement, social justice in music and the simple concept of putting on a great show as a folk singer. I later got to work and record with Pete Seeger and have shared a few stages with Arlo. Thrilling!

On what do you insist?

Respect

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

I posted about yesterday’s Women’s March, including a few favorite signs.

And today I posted about local lesbian songwriter Crys Matthews’ brilliant concert in honor of Martin Luther King at the Reston Community Center.

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

I am actually working on a memoir.

Don’t know what it will be called.

Possibly something along the lines of “You Can’t Make This Shit Up.”

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

I loved and lived with a male partner for five years. When that was over, it never occurred to me to think of myself as a lesbian. When I fell in love with Marcy, I had to come to terms with r ecognizing a love that would take some adjustments on my part in thinking about who I was. Honestly, I don’t think hard about whether I am this label or that label. I understood that I was one half of a magnet and she was the other half and we have lived happily ever after. I wouldn’t change a thing for myself, but I would be supportive of people who understood that they needed to make a change.

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

I believe that energy is neither created nor destroyed. I believe in karma, but have no clue how it works. I believe I have met people that I was closely associated with in other lives or times.

I believe there is some form of energy out there we can all contribute to.

26 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

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appointment@citydentaldc.com 1221 Massachusetts Ave., NW 703 D St., NW What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

Remember that music has powered many a great movement. “We Shall Overcome” went from hymnals to tobacco workers to the Highlander Center to Guy Carawan to Pete Seeger to the world and it still powers movements. There are a lot of us out there ready to support events and communities.

What would you walk across hot coals for?

To save a life.

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What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

Most of them.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“Cloudburst” with Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker (2011). And the closing song, “Ain’t Life Sweet” just happened to be by a friend of mine from Canada, Penny Lang.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Changing the fork from left hand when cutting food to right hand when eating it.

It is strictly an American thing and hopefully, a custom long done. But too late, my parents insisted I do it and I can’t help it.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

Last weekend, I was in the studio in Raleigh, ADVERTISING PROOF ADVERTISING N.C., mentoring two 16-year-old musicians.

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JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 27

Clockwise from top: Last year’s Pride Reveal party: SULTAN SHAKIR, executive director of SMYAL and INES NASSARA, who performs at an Aretha Franklin tribute concert at AMP by Strathmore tonight.

SMYAL and Pride photos from Blade files; Nassara photo courtesy Strathmore

Pride party is Jan. 31 Capital Pride hosts its 2019 Pride Reveal at City Winery (1350 Okie St., N.E.) on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m.

The event will spotlight the upcoming Pride events and activities for the year.

Capital Pride will also reveal its Pride 2019 theme. Early bird tickets are $30. General admission tickets are $40. Tickets will be $50 at the door, if available. Admission includes three complimentary drinks,

passed hors d’oeuvres and entertainment.

For more details, visit capitalpride.org.

SMYAL is ready for the new year SMYAL for the New Year takes place at Franklin Hall (1348 Florida Ave., N.W.) on Sunday, Feb. 10 from 3-5 p.m.

SMYAL’s Young Donors Committee, SMYAL allies and members for the board

28 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

TODAY

and staff will celebrate the new year.

Attendees are invited to learn about SMYAL and its upcoming plans. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served. Tickets range from $10-500.

Proceeds will be donated to SMYAL. For more information, visit smyal.org.

Brother Help Thyself turns the big 4-0 Brother Help Thyself celebrates its 40th anniversary at the Belvedere Hotel (1 E Chase St., Baltimore, Md.) on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.

The event theme is “A Dressier Affair.”

Dress code is dress to impress. There will be hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Email brotherhelpthyself@gmail.com to RSVP. For more details, visit brotherhelpthyself.net.

New Satur-Gays event launches The Rowan Tree (1633 S Charles St., Baltimore) hosts its first Satur-Gays, a karaoke and mini-drag show, on Saturday, Feb. 2 from 8:15 p.m.-2 a.m.

Shawnna Alexander hosts the event which includes a mini-drag show at 8:30 p.m. and Sip N Gossip karaoke at 10 p.m.

There will be a rotating cast of performers.

No cover. Parking passes available at the bar. It’s a monthly event and will be held the first Saturday of each month.

For more information, search “SaturGays” on Facebook.

AMP by Strathmore (11810 Grand Park Ave., Bethesda, Md.) presents “Respect the Queen: an Aretha Franklin Tribute” tonight at 8 p.m. Ines Nassara, Crystal Freeman and Shayna Blass will perform Franklin classics such as ‘Son of a Preacher Man,” “A Natural Woman” and more.

Tickets range from $18-35. For more information, visit ampbystratmore.com.

Annapolis Pride presents “Drag After Dark,” a benefit for Annapolis Pride, at Rams Head On Stage (31 West St., Annapolis, Md.) tonight at 8:30 p.m. Victoria LeAnne D. Bohmore and Shawnna Alexander will host. Chris Jay, M’ara Diamond, Ganivah Cache and Kedra will perform. Special guest performers include Gassy Winds and Angelica Lize. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $25. For more details, visit ramsheadonstage.com.

The D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Rd., N.E.) hosts Pup Night tonight from 8 p.m.-3 a.m.

There will be a mosh pit and drink specials.

No cover before 8:30 p.m. Drag show begins upstairs at 10:30 p.m. Attendees must be 18 to enter and 21 to drink. For more information, visit dceagle.com.

Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts Ottermatic, a new dance party, tonight from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. The Barber Streisand and Jesse Jackson will spin tracks. Grant Collins hosts the party. Matt Strother and Scott M. Douglass will serve drinks. “Vibrant and expressive” looks are encouraged. Cover is $5. For more details, visit greenlanterndc.com.

Black Folks Don’t Swim?, a regional queer black women’s band, Mourning [A] BLKstar, a gender non-conforming Cleveland band and Lightmare, a sixperson soul-punk group from D.C., perform at Rhizome D.C. (6950 Maple St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. This is an all-ages show. For more information, visit rhizomedc.org.

Saturday, Jan. 26 D.C. Fray hosts Hungry Human Hippos on Ice at the Wharf (690 Water St., S.W.) today from 3-5 p.m. Teams of foursix players will work together as Hippo, Rangler or Kitchen Guard to collect the most balls on ice. Top teams will advance to the championship round for the chance at

JA NUARY 25, 2019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 29

a grand prize. Tickets are $30 and include entry to the competition with a minimum of three games for each team and access to the player’s bar which serves food and happy hour specials. Participants can choose to sign up as a team, group or free agent. For more details, visit dcfray.com.

Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) hosts Qwerty, a queer dance party, tonight from 10 p.m.-2:45 a.m. DJ Adam KoussariAmin, DJ Dvonne and DJ Jeff Prior will play a mix of vogue house, hard pop, queer step, disco and more. LaBellela Ziah will give a special performance. No cover.

For more information, visit facebook.com/ tradebardc.

Freddie’s Beach Bar (555 23rd St., S Arlington, Va.) hots Freddie’s Follies Drag Show tonight at 8 p.m. A rotating cast of queens will perform. Showtime is 8 p.m. Karaoke starts at 10 p.m. Cover is $5.

Reservations are highly recommended. For more details, visit freddiesbeachbar.com.

Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts Jox: The GL Underwear Party tonight from 9 p.m.-3 a.m. DJ C-Dubz and DJ Chaim will spin tracks. Cover is $5.

Free clothes check provided. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.

Sunday, Jan. 27 D.C.’s Different Drummers hosts its ninth annual drag show fundraiser at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) today from 3-4:30 p.m. There will be drag kings, drag queens and go-go dancers. Sylvanna Duvel hosts the fundraiser. There will be a silent auction with prizes such as musical instruments, concert tickets, bottomless brunch for four and more. For more information, visit dcdd.org.

Capital Pride hosts “Rent: Live” karaoke and viewing party at Shaw’s Tavern (520 Florida Ave., N.W.) tonight from 7-11 p.m. The night begins with an hour of “Rent” karaoke followed by a viewing party for the live musical at 8 p.m. Tables and seating is first come, first served. $6 Tito’s cocktails will be served all night. For more details, visit facebook. com/capitalpridedc.

Fruity Boi Productions presents Action: After-hours at Tropicalia (2001 14th St., N.W.) today from 3:30-9 a.m. New York Citybased DJ Aaron Aanenson will spin tracks.

Tickets range from $22.85-38.77. For more information, visit facebook.com/fruityboi.

Monday, Jan. 28 The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W..) hosts coffee drop-in hours this morning from 10 a.m.-noon for the senior LGBT community. Older LGBT adults can come and enjoy complimentary coffee and conversation with other community members. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Sauf Hus Bier Hall and Garden (1216 18th St., N.W.) hosts Queer Songwriters Showcase, a benefit show for Trans Women of Color Collective, tonight from 7:30-10:30 p.m. Selena Benally, Christiana Rayne, Dawn Manning and Miss Understand Me will perform. Quique Cunningham of Petty Indulgences will host the show. For more details, search “Queer Songwriters Showcase” on Facebook.

Tuesday, Jan. 29 The D.C. Center hosts Suicide Prevention and Awareness Program in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention this evening from 6:30-8 p.m. There will be a presentation and discussion on concerns and factors in regard to suicide in the LGBT community, signs of someone who may be contemplating suicide and ways to help.

For more details, visit thedccenter.org.

Wednesday, Jan. 30 LGBT Congressional Staff Association hosts its January happy hour at the Big Board (421 H St., N.E.) this evening from 5:30-8 p.m. Those interested in meeting Association members are welcome. For more information, visit facebook.com/lgbtcsa.

Thursday, Jan. 31 Miss Gay Glamour Girl, Maryland America is at Leon’s Backroom (227 W. Chase St., Baltimore, Md.) tonight at 8:30 p.m. Bella Forte and Inferno Lee Sephora host the show. Man Kelley, Exstacy Cache, Jada Bee, Brie Devine and Gabrielle Remsen Ruby will all make appearances.

Drink specials run until 10 p.m. No cover.

For more details, visit facebook.com/ mgggmda19.

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Full name: Michael Moore Occupation: Realtor Favorite local restaurant: Sushi Ogawa Favorite local bar/lounge: Rooftop at the W hotel Favorite vacation spot: Italy (anywhere will be fine) Favorite Charity: Food & Friends Favorite thing to do on a weekend: Spending the weekend in NYC

Michael is wearing the latest items from the Spring 2019 collection.

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30 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

Revisiting an AIDS-era classic

‘Jeffrey’ navigates fraught gay sex issues with humor

By PATRICK FOLLIARD Touted as the first AIDS comedy when it successfully debuted off-Broadway in 1993, out playwright Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” feels a little dated today, almost like a period piece, but that’s a good thing.

When we meet Jeffrey, he’s negotiating sex in the age of AIDS. His encounter with a prospective partner wrapped extra safely in Saran Wrap, sets the tone of the evening.

Rudnick pokes sharp fun without trivializing the seriousness of the epidemic. From the start, audience members are laughing, relating and perhaps remembering.

Now playing at Rainbow Theatre Project, “Jeffrey” is a perfect fit for the company whose mission is presenting plays and musicals that reflect LGBT experiences, interests and history.

The plot is simple. Jeffrey (a stoic Rinaldo Martinez), an aspiring actor who works as a cater waiter at some of Manhattan’s swankiest events, which in the ’80s and early ’90s includes splashy AIDS fundraisers and frequent memorial services for gay men struck down way too soon, is feeling emotionally battered.

Surrounded by sickness and death, Jeffrey vows no more sex. Instead, he’ll focus on career and fitness. But on his very next visit to the gym, Jeffrey meets and is immediately attracted to sexy Steve (Reginald Richard) who is HIV positive.

Further complicating matters, Jeffreys’ closest friend Sterling (Matthew Pauli), a snooty but unerringly practical interior decorator, and his much younger, dumbas-a-fox boyfriend Darius (Randyn Fullard), a dancer in “Cats,” like Steve and are rooting for the relationship.

Determined to remain celibate, Jeffrey, who owns up to 5,000 sexual encounters, looks for answers everywhere from a support group for sexual compulsives to a downtown jerkoff club. However, unexpected meetings with Steve make his newly adopted lifestyle increasingly difficult to maintain.

Director Robert Mintz, who helmed Rainbow’s staged reading of “Jeffrey” in 2016, lucidly segues from reality to wild fantasy scenes including a choreographed

orgy at a hoedown-themed AIDS fundraiser, Jeffrey’s phone call home to Wisconsin in which his square parents offer him safe sex tips, and a game show for gays. The quizmaster asks “Who is your sexual fantasy?” Sterling answers, “Yoko Ono. To see the apartment.”

Set designer PJ Carbonell makes smart use of the tiny D.C. Arts Center space with a romantic full moon hanging over a striped, carnival-colored New York City skyline. Projections deftly move the action from Manhattan gyms to swank department stores to gay clubs to hospital waiting rooms.

As Jeffrey and Steve, Martinez and Richard share a subdued chemistry.

Richard believably portrays Steve’s frustrations as he endeavors to live a normal life despite everything. His is a memorable performance. The remainder of the eight-person cast (Craig Houk, Emily Levey, Joshua Street and Rick Westerkamp) plays a wide range of multiple roles: Mother Teresa, a society doyenne, a sexual compulsive with a 14-inch penis, and an out-and-proud pre-operative transsexual lesbian and her mother and more.

Hough is a comedic standout as a handsy Catholic priest (“Historically,” he says, “that falls somewhere in between chorus boy and florist.”) whose idea of heaven is gay sex and a good show tune.

Martinez’s Jeffrey serves as perfect foil to Hough’s priest.

While there have been hotter and slicker takes on “Jeffrey,” Rainbow’s version is undeniably entertaining. Equally important, the production has a heart that beautifully captures Rudnick’s message: embrace joy wherever and whenever you can.

‘Jeffrey’

Through Feb. 10 Rainbow Theatre Project D.C. Arts Center 2438 18th St., N.W. $35 rainbowtheatreproject.org

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 31

RINALDO MARTINEZ as the title character in ‘Jeffrey.’

Photo by RCG Photography

Colonel Don Schofield, Commander and Conductor

Oscar-nominated EMMA STONE in ‘The Favourite.’

9

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‘The Favourite’ leads LGBT-inclusive Oscar noms ‘Rhapsody’ frontman Malek gets nod for playing Freddie Mercury

By MARIAH COOPER MCOOPER@WASHBLADE.COM The 91st Academy Awards announced the nominees for its class of 2019 Tuesday with “The Favourite” and “Roma” tying for the most recognition with 10 nominations each.

“The Favourite” earned nominations for its three lead actresses with Olivia Colman scoring a Best Actress nomination for portraying Queen Anne and Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz receiving Best Supporting Actress nominations.

“A Star is Born” came in an overall close second pulling in eight nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Original Song nominations for Lady Gaga and a Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Bradley Cooper.

Other LGBT-inclusive nominations include the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which became the highest grossing music biopic of all time upon its release last year. Rami Malek, fresh off a Golden Globe win, was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. “Green Book” also earned Viggo Mortensen a Best Actor nomination and Mahershala Ali a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of musician Don Shirly.

Melissa McCarthy was nominated for her role as lesbian writer Lee Israel in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Richard E. Grant received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for playing her gay friend Jack Hock.

LGBT nominees on the list were Jeff Whitty for co-writing “Can You Ever Forgive

Me?,” filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for their Netflix documentary “End Game,” Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for writing the original song “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” and Shaiman for Original Score for “Mary Poppins Returns.” The LGBT-inclusive film”Marguerite,” which tells the story of a nurse and an aging woman’s friendship, was also nominated for Live Action Short.

The Academy also finally gave some overdue credit to acting veterans Regina King and Sam Elliot with their first nominations. King was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Elliot received a nom for Best Supporting Actor for “A Star is Born.”

Notable snubs in this year’s Academy Awards crop were a Best Director nomination for Cooper for his directorial debut in “A Star is Born” and Timothée Chalamet for Best Supporting Actor in the drug addictionfueled drama “Beautiful Boy.” Two film nominations were also historical film moments. Netflix received its first Oscar nomination for “Roma” and “Black Panther,” which earned seven nominations, became the first Marvel film to be nominated for Best Picture.

The Academy Awards air on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. on ABC. A full list of nominees is online at washingtonblade.com.

32 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

MICHAEL RADKOWSKY

P R E S E N T S

BASED ON THE BOOK BY

Making it ‘official’

STUDS TERKEL

If it looks and feels like a relationship, is it?

HI MICHAEL, I’ve been dating Zack for a few months.

He’s smart, kind and we share a number of interests. I like being around him.

Zack is coming out of a bad period. He was in a long-term relationship that ended about a year ago. This has left him with a marked increase in anxiety that he hasn’t addressed due to his current financial situation.

When we first started dating, Zack let me know that he has some anxiety around being in an “official relationship” and it might take him some time to become comfortable referring to us as a couple.

Nevertheless, Zack says he is committed to dating me exclusively and being open and communicative with me.

We spend lots of time together and I’m having fun.

However, twice now Zack has had minor anxiety about his “growing feelings,” wanting to be with me and also being nervous about being “tied down” again.

For my part, going slow is fine. I honestly can’t think of anything I’m missing out on by not being “official.” In addition to the time we spend together, he’s responsive to the things I ask of him, such as meeting my friends, going on dates and joining me in activities.

If Zack does not come to the point of wanting to be in an “official” relationship on his own sometime in the next six-ish months, I will need to start a conversation with him about this. And if he does not think he can be, I will need to move on. But the need for that conversation is several months away.

Cut to a recent dinner where a friend told me he thinks Zack has me in a pushand-pull relationship and is emotionally unavailable.

I don’t feel like this is the case but, considering other relationships that have not been as good on reflection, I want to make sure that I am not willfully avoiding some obvious relationship landmine.

What is your take?

MICHAEL REPLIES: Start talking with Zack about all this now, rather than waiting. While you say you aren’t in a hurry, you would be wise to start seeking a better understanding of Zack.

If you’re hesitating because tough conversations are difficult for you, then you have your own work to do around being more comfortable in an intimate relationship.

Closeness includes talking with each other about what is going on. Every conversation you start with Zack could help you get more comfortable with this.

If you’re afraid of “pressuring” Zack, keep in mind that pressure is an unavoidable feature in all relationships. Two people will always want different things from each other at times, so we all need to be able to tolerate pressure if we are in a relationship.

And a conversation about what Zack is feeling is not a tremendous request.

Here are several questions for Zack that may help you clarify the situation: Do you know how Zack’s last relationship ended? If he was dumped by a guy he loved and had his heart broken, you’ve got cause to be patient with him. If he ended the relationship because things were going too fast for him, or some variation on that, you’ve got cause to be wary.

What do you know about Zack’s relationship history? If he’s had some meaningful relationships with men in the past, that is a better indicator of his ability to sustain a serious relationship with you than his having had short relationships that ended abruptly.

How does Zack feel about dating another man? If he has some discomfort, this would contribute to his ambivalence about being in a serious relationship. Is he out to his family? Friends? You note that he meets your friends, but are you meeting people from his world?

Your letter suggests that you’re doing all the work to move the relationship along, planning dates and suggesting activities. Is he contributing? If not, what’s up with that?

And what does it mean to be in an “official relationship”? The two of you are dating exclusively and you get together with friends. So you already define yourselves as a couple, and people see you as a couple.

What is Zack’s underlying concern here?

I’m gathering that Zack is fearful of being in a relationship with defined expectations for togetherness in the future. Or as he puts it, “tied down.” It is true that being in a committed relationship limits you in some ways, but seeing this as “tied down” is a rather bleak and narrow view of commitment. I wonder if Zack is open to challenging and broadening his perspective.

This leads to my last question: Are finances the only reason Zack is not looking for help to address his anxiety around being in a relationship?

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 33

ADAP TED BY

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ & NINA FASO

A MUSICAL

FEB 9 AT 8PM | FEB 10 AT 3PM SONGS BY

ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY GORDON GREENBERG CRAIG CARNELIA, MICKI GRANT, LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, MARY RODGERS & SUSAN BIRKENHEAD, STEPHEN SCHWARTZ, JAMES TAYLOR

FOR TICKETS CALL 202-399-7993 OR VISIT GMCW.ORG FOR

TICKETS & GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL 202-293-1548 ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER | 1333 H ST NE

Working (2012 Revised Version) is presented through special arrangement with Music Theater International (MTI).

All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.

MAL The 2019 Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather competition was held on Sunday at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. The judges granted this year’s title to Emerson Aniceto of Pittsburgh.

Washington Blade photos by Michael Key

34 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

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3050 Military Road NW • Washington, DC www.ircdc.org

701 King Farm Blvd. • Rockville, MD www.inglesidekingfarm.org

Ingleside at Rock Creek and Ingleside at King Farm are CARF accredited, not-for-profit, Life Plan communities.

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 35

Help us find D.C.’s top 20 LGBT singles for the Blade’s Singles Issue on February 8th, then meet them at the Singles Party on February 9th.

Nominate yourself or your friends from January 3rd-14th at

washingtonblade.com/singles

36 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

Pride of place – the evolution of D.C.

Enjoying the architecture, diversity, arts of this great city

By JENNIFER BOLICK So this came as somewhat of surprise to me. Apparently, I have a great love of my adopted hometown. After many years of living in this fascinating city, with all of its complexities and contradictions, I find myself falling in love all over again.

Of course, I’ve enjoyed much of what the city has to offer, the very things that first attracted me – the beauty of the architecture, the diversity of the population, the multicultural, global aspects, the arts, the parks, restaurants and entertainment, the walkability, relative affordability, and the history. But over time I started to take it for granted, unless of course I had visitors from out of town (or the burbs). It’s true that I’ve always enjoyed showing people around, or guiding them on their way to explore the typical tourist attractions and local neighborhoods, but I hadn’t played the urban explorer myself in quite a while, until I started riding my bike, commuting to work in Georgetown, to meetings across town by Union Station, to visit friends on The Hill or Columbia Heights, Shaw or Southwest.

It seems that I’ve always been tuned in to architecture, design and the physical environment and know intuitively that our physical environments affect our behavior, the way we feel, interact with one another, maybe even the way we think. I chose the area I live in because it reflects my values – and I got really lucky being at the intersection of a couple of amazing neighborhoods, brimming with character and in having amazing neighbors that give my world a small town feel within our larger city. We’ve seen gradual change, but nothing like what I’ve seen in other neighborhoods, like Chinatown, Georgetown Waterfront, Anacostia, 14th Street NW, H Street NE, NoMa, Chinatown,

D.C. has much to offer, from its excellent dining scene to history and art.

Photo by Lee Snider photo images; photo courtesy of Bigstock

Navy Yard and now the Wharf. We’re talking transformative, with a “Capitol T.” In some cases, areas of the city that never recovered from the 1960’s riots have finally seen some love; and in others, communities and parks have sprung up where only warehouses and parking lots existed before.

There is so much to take in and one has to wonder how this all came about so fast. Well, of course it wasn’t all fast and took visionaries and planners and risk takers and community makers; government and business and commerce – all collaborating through tough decisions and formidable obstacles to make this happen. It’s beautiful and complex and it’s not complete, but what we have is a city that is becoming united, where many of the gaps have been filled with humancentric places — new schools and libraries, parks and entertainment venues, public squares, grocery stores, fresh markets, retail and office space. Design and scale, multi-use concepts, community building

JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 37

and inclusion are key. D.C. has offered opportunity to so many through the years and will continue to navigate that path to keep long-time residents in place and open doors for newcomers too.

While each facet of the city has its own personality and reflects the people who live there, you can’t help noticing many of the common elements. Not surprisingly, food is often at the heart of it, with developers taking great care to incorporate a mix of national brands and local restaurants to create a sustainable combination and attract residents and tourists alike. There is a kaleidoscope of ethnic and health-conscious options in fast food, white tablecloth and the evergrowing “fast casual” dining. In some sectors there are also food trucks and food halls where entertainment and family fun are encouraged. The communal table is making it big and residential and office spaces alike are incorporating it in their common areas to help build community

and offer that feeling of the third space, so successfully marketed by Starbucks so many years ago.

All of this change has broadened my view and opened up a multitude of options to explore. These communities are linked by their location within the borders of D.C. and by their offering a sense of community, of belonging and identity – and yes, for me pride of place and more chances to explore our nation’s capital and my home. I’m often asked why I’ve stayed in D.C. so long, I simply respond with much of what I’ve said here – and the fact that I don’t need to move to have change, the city has changed around me.

Jennifer Bolick is a D.C. resident and project manager at Van Eperen, a PR, marketing and advertising firm in the region. Reach her at Jennifer@VanEperen.com.

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Place your HOUSING TO SHARE ad online at washingtonblade.com and the ad prints free in the paper and online.* *25 words or less prints free - anything more is $1/word.

EMPLOYMENT

PLACE YOUR CLASSIFIEDS ONLINE

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

MASSAGE Rosslyn – Massage low key spot near Rosslyn, Sun-Tues, spa in DC, Thurs-Sat.Call or text Gary 301-704-1158, mymassagebygary.com.

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WHOLISTIC SERVICES, INC. Seeking Full Time Direct Support Professionals to assist intellectually disabled adults with behavioral health complexities in group homes & day services throughout D.C. Requirements: Valid Driver’s License, able to lift 50-75 lbs., complete training program, become Med Certified within 6 months of hire, pass security background check. (Associates degree preferred) For more information please contact Human Resources @ 301-392-2500.

LOCKER ROOM ATTENDANTS NEEDED! The Crew Club, a gay men’s naturist gym & sauna, is now hiring Locker Room Attendants.

We all scrub toilets & do heavy cleaning. You must be physically able to handle the work & have a great attitude doing it. No drunks/ druggies need apply. Please call David at (202) 319-1333. from 9-5pm, to schedule an interview.

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TELL ‘EM YOU saw their ad in the Blade classifieds!

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Specializing in Bears & Big men. Steve 703-861-4422.

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See website for NPR story on my work

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38 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • JAN UARY 2 5 , 2 0 1 9

DEADLINES

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All Classified Ads - Including Regular & Adult Must Be Received

By Mondays at 5PM So They Can Be Included in That Week’s Edition of Washington Blade and washingtonblade.com

Place your HOUSING TO SHARE ad online at washingtonblade.com and the ad prints free in the paper and online.* *25 words or less prints free - anything more is $1/word.

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Drywall, paint, electric & wallpaper. Trevor 703-3038699.

PLUMBERS DIAL A PLUMBER, LLC - FULL SERVICE PLUMBER JUST SAY: I NEED A PLUMBER!

Bathroom Sinks, Tubs, Vanities, Kitchen Sinks, Disposals, Boilers & Furnaces, Hot Water Heaters, Drain Service! 202-251-1479.

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Place your HOUSING TO SHARE ad online at washingtonblade.com and the ad prints free in the paper and online.* *25 words or less prints free - anything more is $1/word.

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Mention the ‘Blade’ for 5% off of our regular rates. Call today 202.734.3080. www. aroundtownmovers.com

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JA NUARY 25, 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.CO M • 39

Playmates and soul mates...

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