Washingtonblade.com, Volume 50, Issue 8, February 22, 2019

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Cuts to Medicare Drug Coverage Will Put Patient Health at Risk.

New insurance rules come between doctors and patients Millions of people with serious diseases like cancer, epilepsy, mental health conditions and HIV are being targeted for insurance company cuts to their Medicare drug coverage.

A one-size-fits-all approach could deny patients access to the individualized therapies they depend on.

And these new Medicare rules will only lower costs 0.01% over ten years, while today’s treatments are saving taxpayers many billions more by helping patients live healthier lives.

Government restrictions on the therapies a doctor can prescribe will put patient health at risk.

Call the White House at 202-456-1111. Protect Medicare Drug Coverage.

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2/8/19 6:08 PM

VOLUME 50 ISSUE 08 ADDRESS

PO Box 53352 Washington DC 20009 PHONE

Oscar controversies brew in advance of Sunday night’s ceremony.

PAGE 26

06 08

10

Looking back:

17

Cannabis Culture

50 years of the Blade

18

Health

Trial of two men charged in

21

Viewpoint

2016 DC trans murder

26

The 2019 Oscar mess

nearing completion

28

Queery: Patrick DiBattista

Former teacher alleges Va.

30

Farrow to speak at Frederick’s

school district urged her to dress

11

Weinberg Center

more feminine

32

Arts & Culture

LGBT Democrats play visible role

34

‘Front Runner’ author Warren

at DNC winter meeting 12

HRC releases black LGBT

remembered for gay fiction 36

youth report 13 14 15

Revisting ‘The Heiress,’ Arena shines

LGBT groups wary as William Barr

38

Third party upsets fruit basket

confirmed as US attorney general

40

Gay sports summit planned next

Transgender woman deported

month in Tel Aviv

from U.S. murdered in El Salvador

42

Sunday Funday

Venezuelans with HIV/AIDS dying

45

Kondo-ize your home

due to lack of antiretroviral drugs

46

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AIDS issues considered in ’89 Out spoken feature The Blade continues its 50th anniversary series looking back through our archives with this Out spoken column from the April 7, 1989 edition by late Blade photographer Doug Hinckle.

On the occasion of our 50th anniversary year, the Blade is looking for couples to profile who met via Blade classified ads and are still together.

If interested, please contact Features Editor Joey DiGuglielmo at joeyd@washblade.com or 202-731-0829.

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Trial of two men charged in 2016 DC trans murder nearing completion Additional defendants are cooperating with prosecutors

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

DEENIQUIA ‘DEE DEE’ DODDS was killed on July 4, 2016.

Photo courtesy Facebook

Prosecutors presented autopsy photos on Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court of the gunshot wound to neck that took the life of D.C. transgender woman Deeniquia “Dee Dee” Dodds, 22, in a July 4, 2016, shooting incident during the final week of the trial of two men charged with her murder.

The trial, which began over three weeks ago, has included testimony from multiple witnesses that prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office say have provided convincing evidence that defendants Monte Tyree Johnson, 23, and Jolonta Little, 28, were responsible for Dodds’ murder as part of an armed robbery.

The lead prosecutors in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ahmed Baset and Thomas Saunders, told the jury in opening arguments and subsequent questioning of witnesses that the evidence would show that Johnson, Little, and two other men targeted at least eight trans women, including Dodds, for robbery in the early morning hours of

July 4, 2016, in different locations.

Court records show that shortly after Little was arrested on Sept. 9, 2016, and after Johnson was arrested on Feb. 9, 2017, the two were charged with first degree murder while armed and 15 additional charges, including “conspiracy bias related (hate) crime,” armed robbery, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and assault to commit robbery while armed.

The prosecutors said evidence that the men were targeting trans women for the robberies prompted prosecutors to classify the attack against Dodds as a hate crime, which could lead to an enhanced sentence if Johnson and Little are convicted.

The other two men – Shareem Hall, 25, and his younger brother, Cyheme Hall, 23, – were also charged with first degree murder while armed in connection with Dodds’ death.

But according to the Washington

She has argued that Little was driving the car in which the men who allegedly were committing robberies used but claimed he was unaware that the others were committing robberies when they got out of the car Also on Tuesday Saunders and Baset presented their final two witnesses.

Zachary McMenanin, who was identified as an investigative analyst, testified on the methods police and investigators used to track the cell phone calls and cell phone locations of the four defendants on the day Dodds was shot.

Charging documents filed by homicide detectives at the time Johnson and Little were arrested show that investigators used GPS tracking from cell phone signals to place the defendants at the locations where the robberies and the murder took place.

The other government witness testifying on Tuesday was Dr. John Stash, an assistant medical examiner for the state of Maryland, who said he performed the autopsy on Dodds after her death on July 13, 2016, nine days after she was shot.

Although Dodds lived in D.C. she was taken to Prince George’s County Medical Center for emergency care at the time of the shooting.

In response to questions by Baset, Stash described in detail the location of the bullet lodged in Dodds’ neck and how it severed a blood vessel to her brain that ultimately resulted in her death.

It was during Stash’s testimony that Baset brought out graphic photos of Dodds’ body lying on the autopsy table so that Stash could point to the location of the gunshot wound and describe how it resulted in Dodd’s death. He said the death was officially listed as being caused by complications from a gunshot wound to the neck.

The trial is expected to end in the coming days.

Post, prosecutors disclosed at the start of the trial that the Hall brothers were cooperating with police and prosecutors and would be testifying at the trial as government witnesses. The Post reported that the two reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors in which they would plead guilty to a lesser charge of second degree murder.

In dramatic testimony earlier this month Cyheme Hall told the jury he and Johnson jumped out of a car carrying guns and rushed to where Dodds was standing along a street in Northeast D.C. near where she lived and demanded her money, according to an account by the Post.

But unlike their holdups of the other trans women that night, Dodds fought back, Hall testified. He told the jury that Johnson pointed his gun to her face and that Dodds grabbed the barrel of the gun with both hands, the Post reported.

Hall testified that Johnson fired his gun after which the two men took Dodd’s purse and cellphone as she was bleeding while sprawled on the sidewalk, the Post reported, adding that Hall testified that the plan was never to kill anyone.

“The plan was just to rob a person,” the Post quoted Hall as telling the jury. “I was in shock. He shot a person for nothing.”

Johnson’s attorney, Kevin Irving, and Little’s attorney, Brandi Harden, have argued that their clients are innocent of the murder and the Hall brothers are lying to deflect the blame from them to Little and Johnson.

During the trial on Tuesday before the jury entered the courtroom Harden raised strong objections to the hate crime designation of the murder charge against her client, saying the designation would be unfairly prejudicial in the eyes of jurors. She said she would argue that the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that “hate” was involved in her client’s involvement in a robbery case.

DC Eagle for sale

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

The D.C. Eagle, one of the city’s oldest continuously operating gay bars, is for sale, according to an online business real estate listing.

In addition to the sale of the Eagle’s building at 3701 Benning Road, N.E., the online ad by Papadopoulos Properties says the sale price of $2,999,000 includes the “business, all assets and licenses.”

Eagle co-owner Ted Clements couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

D.C. property records show that DC Eagle Development LLC, the company that owns the Eagle, purchased its current building in June 2014 for $925,000 after being displaced from its previous location on New York Avenue, N.W., near the D.C. Convention Center.

The New York Avenue building, which the Eagle rented, was preserved as a historic site as part of a large office building project with retail stores developed by the Douglas Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest real estate developers.

The Eagle has been operating as a gay bar in D.C. catering to the leather and gay biker community for over 45 years in at least in four locations. One of its founding owners, Don Bruce, is credited with building bridges between the leather community and local gay activist groups that helped push through D.C.’s many LGBT rights initiatives.

08 • WA S HI NGTON B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EWS

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Former teacher alleges Va. school district urged her to dress more feminine Dina Persico has filed a Title VII lawsuit

By JAMES WELLEMEYER

DINA PERSICO, a former civics teacher in Chesterfield County, Va., claims in a federal lawsuit that school administrators urged her to dress more feminine.

Photo courtesy of Dina Persico

A former civics teacher in Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit against her school district, alleging administrators harassed her because of her gender presentation.

Dina Persico, a lesbian who taught in the Chesterfield County Public Schools, claims administrators at both the middle school and high school where she taught criticized her masculine appearance and created an unwelcoming environment. Persico left her job soon after she suffered a mini stroke she says was caused by stress at work.

The suit claims the school district violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employers from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. Colleen Quinn, Persico’s lawyer, says the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) along with several similar cases count discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender expression in the category of sex-based discrimination.

Persico taught at Hampton City Schools, another Virginia school district, for a decade without experiencing any problems. Persico said the harassment began at the beginning of her second year

working at Providence Middle School in Richmond after its administration changed.

“I don’t think the new administration knew how to relate to me. I think I made them uncomfortable,” Persico told the Washington Blade on Feb. 14 during a telephone interview. “Then they start nitpicking on me and harassing me to the point where I have a medical problem.”

At the middle school, Persico was once barred from using the women’s bathroom.

“I was going to the bathroom, and [a male teacher] put his arm out and said, ‘Woah, hey, there are girls in there.’”

“At first, I really thought he was just giving me a heads up because there were a bunch of kids in there after school,” Persico said. “But then he didn’t move his arm.”

She said she threw up later the evening due to the incident.

Providence Middle School administrators also suggested she change her appearance. One afternoon, the assistant principal met with both Persico and her wife, Erin Guthe, who also taught at the school. In the meeting, he called Persico’s look “harsh” and suggested she get “bangs” to soften it.

“Both of us were a bit in shock,” said Guthe. “I didn’t say anything because I thought, ‘Is this really happening right now?’”

Persico said the harassment continued after the school district transferred her from the middle school to Midlothian High School.

During her first month at Midlothian, she said she was asked by her assistant principal to explain her sexual orientation at a parent-teacher conference.

“At the end of the conference, [the parent] goes, ‘This is a nonissue and I hesitate to bring it up, but why does my daughter know that you’re a lesbian?’”

Persico recalled.

She said her previous administration at Hampton City Schools had an official response to such questions. At Midlothian, however, the assistant principal “just looked at me and said, ‘You want to explain yourself there?’”

“I was just taken aback because it was so aggressive,” Persico said.

In a similar incident, a parent requested her child be switched out of Persico’s class because she didn’t like that Persico wore pants.

After the principal told Persico that he would be removing the child from her class — a decision she opposed — he said to her, “If you would just throw on a skirt or a dress every once in a while, I wouldn’t have all of these problems.”

“I was floored,” Persico told the Blade.

“After that meeting, I had a pretty big panic attack. I vomited and had to leave quickly.”

Beyond those two incidents at the high school, Persico said she felt singled out and generally unwelcome at the school.

She said administrators consistently referred to her appearance as “flamboyant.”

Persico wore pink sneakers to school, which she said an administrator described as overly colorful.

“The kids loved them, but I was called into the principal’s office, and I was docked points from my annual teacher observation for those shoes,” said Persico.

Persico also claims administrators forced her to present a medical note to justify wearing sneakers of any color.

Other teachers, she claims, did not have to do the same.

“The woman across the hall from me could wear them every day and never had an issue,” Persico told the Blade.

Persico said the harassment and stress she faced ultimately left her with ongoing health issues.

“I’ve never had any problems with blood pressure whatsoever,” Persico said, noting her blood pressure began to rise during her time at the school district and was especially high at doctor’s appointments after work.

This high blood pressure resulted in a mini-stroke that Persico said left her with lasting memory loss and coordination issues.

She is suing the school district for $700,000 worth in damages. She, her wife and their lawyer also hope the case brings systemic changes to the schools.

“Our faculty is diverse as well. I think we need some training that says, ‘diversity is okay,’” Persico said.

“We’re hoping to build awareness and tolerance and acceptance,” Quinn added.

Timothy Bullis, executive director of community relations for the Chesterfield County Public Schools, on Tuesday declined to comment to the Blade about Persico’s lawsuit.

“Since this matter is in litigation, it would be inappropriate to comment at this time on Ms. Persico’s allegations and the EEOC’s determination letters,” said Bullis in an email.

GLCCB changes name to Pride Center of Maryland

By JAMES WELLEYEMER The board of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) voted on Feb. 7 to officially change its name to the Pride Center of Maryland.

The name change is part of a long-term effort from the Pride Center to be more inclusive.

Established in 1977, the Center was first known as the Gay Community Center of Baltimore Limited.

“But as years progressed and our identities as a community continued to grow stronger the word ‘gay’ was not enough to represent the entire community,” the Center wrote in a press release.

In 1985, the word “lesbian” was added to the Center’s name. In October 2000, so were “bisexual” and “transgender.” And in 2012, the Center began using the term “sexual and gender minorities” instead of the LGBT acronym.

“LGBTQIA did not represent everyone,” the press release stated.

Despite these changes, the Center continued using “GLCCB” as its name.

Twelve days ago, the board voted to change this, too.

“While recognizing and celebrating the diversity of our community within our mission statement was great, leaving the branding of the center the same did no one justice,” the Center wrote.

In the future, the Center and all associated logos and products will be recognized as the Pride Center of Maryland.

10 • WA S HI NGTON B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EWS

Brothers’ grand jury testimony in Jussie Smollett case postponed Gay black ‘Empire’ actor’s assault allegations under increased scrutiny DNC Chair TOM PEREZ is among those who spoke at the Democratic National Committee’s 2019 Annual Winter Meeting that took place in D.C. from Feb. 14-16, 2019.

By MARIAH COOPER MCOOPER@WASHBLADE.COM

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

Jussie Smollett may have avoided being indicted after his attorneys made a last minute “Hail Mary” phone call on Tuesday.

A source told CBS News that brothers Ola and Abel Osundairo, who were arrested in connection with the case and later released, were waiting outside the grand jury chambers ready to testify when Smollett’s defense team called the prosecutors. There was no indication of what was said, but the Cook County state’s attorney postponed the brothers’ testimony.

The brothers were arrested on Feb. 13 but released without charges two days later. Multiple unnamed sources have stated that the brothers told police Smollett paid them to help stage the attack. Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi did not confirm that information but told the Associated Press that “the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation.”

Chicago police are still trying to further interrogate Smollett about the alleged attack, but Smollett has not complied. Police also investigated a tip this week that Smollett and the brothers were together the night of the alleged attack. After investigation, the tip was dismissed.

As police continue to investigate the case, TMZ reports that “Empire” has cut Smollett’s scenes from the second to last episode of the season, which is currently filming. Smollett was meant to appear in nine scenes in the episode but the number has been reduced to four. One of the cut scenes was a major musical number. Smollett will no longer be the focus of the rest of the remaining four scenes which has shifted to feature an ensemble.

This week, conservative artist Sabo mocked the mounting skepticism around Smollett’s case in parody movie posters across Los Angeles. The poster for “BlackKkKlansman” has Smollett wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. The other poster is titled “Black Prankster,” a play on “Black Panther,” and has him nominated for Best Fictional Story.

LGBT Democrats play visible role at DNC winter meeting Party Chair Tom Perez speaks at caucus meeting

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM The Democratic Party’s support for LGBT rights and the election of a record number of LGBT people — nearly all Democrats — to public office in the 2018 midterm elections were widely discussed at the Democratic National Committee’s 2019 Annual Winter Meeting held Feb. 1416 in D.C.

Among those hailing the election of LGBT Democrats to local, state and congressional offices in what is being called the 2018 “rainbow wave” was DNC Chair Tom Perez.

Perez mentioned what he called the importance of LGBT Democratic candidates in a rousing keynote speech

N AT I O NAL NE WS • F EBRUA RY 22, 2019 • WA S HI N GTONB L A DE . COM • 11

at the closing session of the annual DNC Winter Meeting on Feb. 16. The meeting was held at D.C.’s Marriott Marquis Hotel.

Perez also elaborated on what he said was the importance of LGBT Democrats running for public office at a meeting of the DNC’s LGBT Caucus held on the opening day of the DNC winter gathering on Feb. 14. Among other things, Perez praised the LGBT community and LGBT Democrats for emerging as a strong force in opposition to the Trump administration’s rollback of LGBT rights policies as well as other issues.

“Our democracy was on fire. You stepped up. You were the first responders,” he told about 85 people attending the LGBT Caucus meeting, including many of the 42 LGBT DNC members who make up the caucus.

“One of the things we learned is candidate quality matters,” said Perez in referring to the Democratic candidates who won their races on the local, state and congressional level in the 2018 midterm election.

“And when they had the likes of Danica Roem running for state legislative seats those things matter,” he said. “And that’s been a huge formula for our success over this cycle.”

He was referring to Danica Roem, the transgender Virginia lawmaker who beat an entrenched anti-LGBT GOP incumbent for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, becoming the nation’s first openly trans person to be seated in a state legislature.

In his remarks before the LGBT Caucus and in his speech at the closing session of the meeting, Perez also hailed the election last year of openly gay U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) as governor of Colorado.

He called Polis’ election as the nation’s first openly gay governor “truly historic.”

Perez served as an assistant attorney general and Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration. He told LGBT Caucus members he is confident LGBT people and the other diverse communities and working people that make up the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition will succeed in helping a Democratic presidential candidate defeat President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

“You’ve been leading the charge to make sure that we are calling out these efforts to turn the clock back,” he said.

“It’s painful to me as someone who spent a heck of a lot of time in the Obama administration fighting for equality to see what the Education Department is doing, to see what the Labor Department is doing, to see what the military is doing to turn

the clock back for so many communities, including the LGBTQ community,” he said.

Gay Democratic activist Earl Fowlkes, immediate past president of D.C.’s Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, an LGBT group, serves as chair of the DNC’s LGBT Caucus.

He outlined the caucus’s plans for working with the DNC to help elect more LGBT delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention than any previous convention.

“This is one of the first caucus meetings of the whole weekend,” he told the Washington Blade after the LGBT Caucus meeting on Feb. 14. “And it was very positive. We are still in an afterglow from the rainbow wave that came across the country as part of the blue wave of 2018,” he said.

“There are new faces here,” he continued.

“A lot of people are coming as vice chairs and party officials in their own states. So, we can see the movement growing visibly just by the people in this room.”

Among those in attendance were Ray Buckley, the openly gay chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and Terje Anderson, the openly gay chair of the Vermont Democratic Party. Also attending were gay Wisconsin DNC member Jason Rae, who serves as the DNC’s National Secretary; LGBT Caucus Vice Chair Evangeline Beechler, who serves as Vice Chair of the Idaho Democratic Party; and LGBT Caucus Secretary Laurence Zakson, who holds positions with the California and L.A. County Democratic Party committees.

Also speaking at the LGBT Caucus meeting were leaders of three national LGBT political groups who briefed caucus members and others attending the meeting on the status of LGBT rights initiatives, including the Equality Act, an LGBT civil rights bill pending in Congress.

Among them were former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who is the executive director of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which helps elect LGBT people to public office. The others who spoke were JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs for the Human Rights Campaign; and Stacey Long Simmons, director of advocacy and action for the National LGBTQ Task Force.

Polis greeted LGBT Caucus members on a video recording projected on a large screen at the caucus meeting. He mentioned some of the initiatives he and his new administration were working on in his first year in office.

“I’m busy being the governor of the great state of Colorado,” he said. “Come visit us some time.”

HRC releases black LGBT youth report Announcement took place at Time to Thrive conference in Calif.

By KAREN OCAMB

JOSIE TOTAH speaks at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Time to Thrive conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Photo courtesy of Human Rights Campaign

Time is moving too fast. The world seems like a constantly shaken snow-globe as the chaotic Trump administration tries to promote diametrically opposed policy positions at the same time such as banning transgender servicemembers from the military, and forcing LGBT asylum-seekers back to the countries that then murder them—while at the same time, on Feb. 19, ostensibly calling for the international decriminalization of homosexuality.

What’s a young LGBT person to think?

The Human Rights Campaign tried to help with that during the sixth annual Time to Thrive conference in Anaheim Feb. 1517. Bringing together hundreds of youth and professionals working with youth to discuss and develop best practices, the conference featured speakers, panels and honored actress Josie Totah, Olympic ice skating medalist Adam Rippon, Beverly Hills-based advocate E.J. Johnson, heroic advocate/allies Judy and Dennis Shepard and American School Counselor Association 2019 Counselor of the Year, Brian Coleman.

One theme running through the conference was uttered simply by FreeMomHugs founder Sara Cunningham.

“Together I believe we can change the world so it is a kinder, safer, more loving place,” she said.

Trans actress Josie Totah explained her “dark time” growing up, how she prayed to get sick so she could go home from school and leave behind all the anxiety of

not playing with classmates on the school yard. 5th grade was the worst — her mom was always getting phone calls about what someone had done to her. Then the class took a vote on whether they wanted her at their school.

“According to the principal, it was unanimous and I was asked to leave because I didn’t ‘fit in.’ I felt unwanted and unloved,” she told the Time to Thrive audience. But things changed when she moved to Los Angeles where “the most incredibly loving teachers” made her feel welcomed and accepted.

“Last week I became the first transgender person to join a sorority at my university,” she said.

Coleman, who was thrilled to be acknowledged during Black History Month, talked about how he was the first black winner of the national American School Counselor Association 2019 Counselor of the Year, and noted his appreciation for being named both the Illinois High School Counselor of the Year and Illinois School Counselor of the Year by the Illinois School Counselors Association in 2018.

“I know how important visibility is,” he said.

Coleman also acknowledged the “impactful work of the school community” of Jones College Prep “working together to make a campus where LGBTQ youth can feel safe, live authentically and be accepted for who they are.”

But, he noted, the school community is not perfect, “still trying to find best way to

support all youth – especially our students of color.”

“Black, Latinx, API, Indigenous students who identify as LGBTQ need to feel seen,” Coleman said. “Their stories and intersectional experiences need to be heard and their value as the beautiful wonderful individuals they are needs to be fully affirmed,” he said.

Reflecting on one student he counseled about depression and self-harm, Coleman recalled how the student told him: “You saw me. You validated me. And I would not be here today if not for the work that you do.”

Coleman encouraged fellow “youthfacing support providers to think about how we can center our youth in our work.

We need to hear and listen to what youth have to say and how they conceptualize their own needs.”

Youth need to be “at the table” for discussions of their future. But, he stressed, “it’s so much easier for them to come to the table if they can trust that we have seats. Our youth are not going to trust who and what they do not see. They are not going to see who and what does not become visible so it’s incredibly important that we represent, we be visible, and fierce and brave and that we slay the house down. And we’ve got to slay it down with kindness, empathy, authenticity, and most of all respect.”

The admonition was particularly of import in conjunction with the joint HRC & UCONN survey underscoring the heightened risk for discrimination at home and school faced by Black LGBTQ youth.

The survey presents data at a time when federal agencies appear to be intentionally erasing, ignoring or dismissing the persistent plight of youth facing racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and religious bias.

The 2019 Black and African American LGBTQ Youth Report stems from a 2017 online survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation with researchers at the University of Connecticut of over 12,000 LGBTQ youth; nearly 1,700 Black and African American LGBTQ youth between the ages of 13 to 17 responded to the survey.

HRC President Chad Griffin delivered the news from “the largest LGBTQ youth survey in the history of our movement.”

The respondents told researchers “that they are not only experiencing

heartbreaking levels of stress, anxiety, and rejection – they also feel overwhelmingly unsafe in their own classrooms,” Griffin said.

Griffin shared some of the data: “90 percent of respondents have experienced racial discrimination, and only 5 percent believe black and African American people are regarded positively in the U.S. 67 percent of respondents — and 82 percent of transgender and genderexpansive youth — have been verbally insulted because of their LGBTQ identity.

63 percent of black and African American transgender and genderexpansive youth try to avoid using the restroom during the school day.

More than three-fourths of black and African American LGBTQ youth have heard family members say negative things about LGBTQ people, and nearly half have been taunted or mocked by family for being LGBTQ. Sadly, this family rejection is consistent with nearly all the LGBTQ youth we heard from, regardless of race.”

These young people, Griffin said, “are navigating life with at least two identities that are stigmatized in this country and carry an enormous weight. This is unacceptable, it must change, and it is on us to help change it.”

But he added, “these young people are also leading the way forward. And that should give us all hope. As this report makes clear, there are also stories of empowerment, resilience, activism, and advocacy. Across the country, Black and African American LGBTQ youth are taking a stand and advocating for inclusivity and equality in their homes, in their schools, and in their communities — and increasingly demanding the same of their elected officials.”

Griffin said it is the “responsibility and our duty” as adults “to address these disparities in health and well-being, and to secure a brighter, better, and more inclusive tomorrow for all LGBTQ young people.”

Now more than ever, Griffin said, “it is crucial for each of us to do all we can to protect LGBTQ youth with a grand sense of urgency. They are the future, and we must ensure they are protected and feel safe, valued, equal, and loved.

“And in the polarized country we live in today, it’s more important than ever that we elevate our stories to change hearts and minds and to dispel myths and lies,” Griffin said.

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LGBT groups wary as William Barr confirmed as US attorney general Jeff Sessions successor confirmed by 54-45 vote margin

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

The U.S. Senate has confirmed WILLIAM BARR as attorney general.

Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key

The U.S. Senate on Feb. 14 confirmed William Barr as President Trump’s next U.S. attorney general — a move that has made LGBT rights supporters wary amid indications he’d continue anti-LGBT policy at the U.S. Justice Department.

The Senate confirmed Barr on a largely party-line 54-45 vote, although Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) broke with Democrats to vote for the nominee and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke with Republican to vote against him. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) didn’t vote.

Each of the 2020 presidential candidates or potential hopefuls in the Senate — Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) — voted against Barr.

Many Democrats expressed concern about Barr over a 2018 memo he wrote asserting a more limited authority for Special Counsel Robert Mueller as well as the nominee’s refusal to make public Mueller’s upcoming report on the Russia investigation.

LGBT rights supporters, however, had different reasons to oppose his confirmation.

Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, was among the LGBT rights supporters who expressed concern over Barr’s anti-LGBT record.

“There’s little doubt that William Barr N AT I O NAL NE WS • F EBRUA RY 22, 2019 • WA S HI NGTON BL A DE . COM • 13

will carry on this administration’s ongoing efforts at rolling back the progress LGBTQ Americans have made in recent years,” Ellis said. “This confirmation today reminds us once again that the Trump administration is no friend to us.”

During his confirmation hearing, Barr hinted he’d continue the anti-LGBT policies of Jeff Sessions, who resigned on the behest of Trump following the midterm elections after he recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Barr’s answers suggested he’d continue to uphold the Justice Department’s view that LGBT people aren’t protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964, which bars sex discrimination in the workforce.

Additionally, Barr suggested he’d uphold religious freedom even at the expense of anti-LGBT discrimination.

But Barr also said during his confirmation he’d have “zero tolerance” for hate crimes, including those committed against LGBT people, and make investigating and prosecuting them a “priority” as attorney general.

Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer for the LGBT group Lambda Legal, said in a statement that Barr must uphold civil rights as attorney general.

“As attorney general, William Barr will be responsible for defending the civil

rights of all people, not just the wealthy and the powerful,” McGowan said. “From his first day on the job, he must make clear that, unlike his predecessor, he will not use the Department of Justice as a weapon of discrimination and bigotry. He must bring new leadership to the Department of Justice, and get it back in the business of defending civil rights and equal justice under law for all people.”

But Barr, who also served as attorney general 30 years ago during the administration of George H.W. Bush, also has a record troubling to LGBT rights supporters.

The Trump appointee once made antigay comments expressing concerns about greater tolerance for the “homosexual movement” in the U.S. than the religious community in a 1995 article for “The Catholic Lawyer,” a conservative Catholic publication for St. John’s University School of Law. “It is no accident that the homosexual movement, at one or two percent of the population, gets treated with such solicitude while the Catholic population, which is over a quarter of the country, is given the back of the hand,” Barr once wrote. “How has that come to be?”

During his tenure at the Justice Department under Bush, Barr also acted to keep in place an administrative ban on people with HIV from entering the United States. Barr implemented a policy using the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to detain people with HIV from entering the United States, including Haitians seeking asylum in the country.

Despite this record, one longtime gay friend of Barr’s, former Time Warner general counsel Paul Cappuccio, has come to his defense. Upon Barr’s nomination, Cappuccio told the Blade, “He’s not going to ever let people be discriminated against, OK?” David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Barr’s confirmation spells trouble for LGBT people.

“William Barr has made clear that as attorney general he would not defend and uphold civil rights laws for all Americans — including LGBTQ people,” Stacy said.

From his deeply disturbing opposition to nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people to his record of undermining HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and awareness — Barr would perpetuate Jeff Sessions’ work to license discrimination and double down on the Trump-Pence administration’s harmful attacks on the LGBTQ community.”

Transgender woman deported from U.S. murdered in El Salvador Camila left country after receiving threats

By MICHAEL K. LAVERS AND ERNESTO VALLE

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A transgender woman who the U.S. deported back to her native El Salvador died earlier this month after she was attacked outside the country’s capital.

Asociación Aspidh Arcoiris Trans, a Salvadoran trans advocacy group, told the Washington Blade that Aurora, who was also known as Camila, had been reported missing at the end of January.

The group looked for Camila at various hospitals and eventually learned she had been admitted to Rosales National Hospital in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, on Jan. 31 with multiple injuries. Camila passed away on Feb. 3.

She was found on Carretera de Oro above the municipality of Soyapango outside of San Salvador. It remains unclear what happened to Camila.

Activists with whom the Blade spoke said threats that Camila received prompted her to travel to the U.S. with one of the migrant caravans that left Central America last year. They said the U.S. deported Camila and she had been in El Salvador for 4-5 months before her death.

“She migrated to the U.S. because of threats that she had received, but she was deported because they didn’t believe her,” Aislinn Odaly’s, an independent LGBTI rights advocate, told the Blade.

Camila is the second trans women reported killed in El Salvador this month.

A trans woman who used the name Lolita was killed with a machete on Feb. 8. The murder took place in Sonsonate, but trans rights organizations don’t have any additional information.

El Salvador’s National Civil Police and the country’s attorney general have not classified either murder as a hate crime, in part, because Lolita and Camila died in public hospitals where the reports that were made did not mention they were victims of violence.

“We want justice and that these cases are investigated and the reformed penal code procedures to be applied when those who are responsible are found,” Aspidh Arcoiris Trans Projects Coordinator Ambar Alfaro told the Blade, referring to a 2015 amendment to El Salvador’s legal code that enhances penalties for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “Although we have begun the year badly, we hope these crimes establish precedents for there to also be a positive legal framework that regulates the situation of trans people, especially the situation of violence and insecurity.”

The lack of action on the part of the judicial system to investigate hate crimes has created a widespread feeling of anxiety among El Salvador’s LGBTI activists. “It is unfortunate that although we have articles in the penal code that (allow for the classification of) crimes committed against trans people as hate crimes, they are not put into practice,” Miss Trans El Salvador 2018 Tatiana Molina, who is also an LGBTI activist, told the Blade. “Such is the case of all the crimes that have occurred in recent years and specifically the cases of Camila and Lolita. That is why we are demanding justice and the prompt investigation and prosecution of these cases.”

The increase in anti-LGBTI hate crimes and the lack of prosecution of them has sparked increased fear among community members. “I feel outraged, insecure and even more so I am afraid of any reaction of a homophobic or transphobic person who can harm us while walking in the streets,” said Odaly’s.

Aspidh Arcoiris Trans has made formal complaints in Camila’s case and continues to give special attention to it. Advocacy groups have also filed formal complaints in Lolita’s case, but it remains unclear whether any investigation into either murder or those who may be responsible has begun.

A spokesperson for the National Civil Police has not returned the Blade’s request for comment.

Casa Ruby working with trans ICE detainees El Salvador, which borders Guatemala and Honduras, has one of the world’s highest per capita murder rates. Thousands of people — including trans women who are even more vulnerable to violence from gang members, police and family members because of their gender identity — have migrated from El Salvador in hopes of reaching the U.S. and other countries that include Mexico.

The Blade earlier this month confirmed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was housing 45 trans women at a privately-run detention center in Texas. Some of the detained trans women for whom the D.C.-based Casa Ruby is working to provide housing are from El Salvador.

Trump administration launches global effort to decriminalize homosexuality Gay U.S. ambassador to Germany to lead campaign

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

The Trump administration is launching a new initiative to encourage countries to decriminalize laws against homosexuality.

NBC News first reported the initiative kicked off on Tuesday in Berlin, where the U.S. embassy flew in LGBT activists from across Europe for a strategy dinner.

Leading the initiative is U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest ranking openly gay official in the Trump administration. Grenell is widely reported to be on President Trump’s short list to become U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in the aftermath of his previous pick, Heather Nauert, withdrawing her name from consideration of that post.

The initiative is reportedly aimed at drawing attention to the human rights record of Iran, which criminalizes homosexuality with the death penalty. The Jerusalem Post, a conservative publication in Israel, reported recently the Iran executed a gay man in a public hanging.

Iran, which has long had an antagonistic relationship with the U.S., has also been the target of Trump’s ire. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal, much to the consternation of its supporters and European allies who say it was preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Other countries besides Iran continue to criminalize homosexuality, including those that are considered U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. According to an annual report by the ILGA, more the 70 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality, with eight of them still having the death penalty on the books.

The initiative stands in contrast with Trump administration policy seeking to undermine LGBT rights, such as the transgender military ban, “religious freedom” initiatives seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination and legal filings from the Justice Department asserting LGBT people aren’t under protected under civil rights law.

Leading LGBT groups not invited to Berlin meeting The Blade has learned that LGBT groups

in the U.S. working to advance LGBT rights overseas and major LGBT groups in Europe weren’t invited to the Berlin meeting.

Three LGBT rights groups within the U.S. — OutRight Action International, the Human Rights Campaign and the Council for Global Equality — confirmed they weren’t invited to attend the event that took place at the U.S. embassy in Germany.

As far as LGBT groups outside the United States, one LGBT advocate said LSVD, the largest LGBT rights organization in Germany, and ILGA-Europe weren’t included, although an LGBT rights group from Ukraine had a presence.

Jeremy Kadden, HRC’s senior international policy advocate, said in a statement the new global initiative stands in contrast to the Trump administration’s previous record on international LGBT rights.

“Donald Trump and Mike Pence have turned a blind eye to a campaign of violence and murder targeting LGBTQ people in Chechnya that has stretched on for two years,” Kadden said. “They have turned away LGBTQ people fleeing violence and persecution and sent them back to countries that criminalize them, and have consistently worked to undermine the fundamental equality of LGBTQ people and our families here at home from day one. If this commitment is real, we have a lot of questions about their intentions and commitments, and are eager to see what proof and action will follow.”

A State Department spokesperson said Grenell hosted 11 activists from different countries in Europe for a meeting that was “an opportunity to listen to and discuss ideas on how the U.S. can advance decriminalization of LGBTI status and conduct around the world.”

“The United States continues to work to protect and defend human rights for all,” the spokesperson said. “Governments have an obligation to ensure that all people can freely enjoy the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled.”

The Blade has placed a follow-up email in with the State Department seeking identification of the 11 activists in attendance.

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Venezuelans with HIV/AIDS dying due to lack of antiretroviral drugs Service providers urge government to release warehouse stockpile

By MICHAEL K. LAVERS MLAVERS@WASHBLADE.COM

People wait in the waiting room at an HIV/STI clinic in Caracas, Venezuela, on Feb. 13. 2019.

Venezuelan HIV/AIDS service providers tell the Washington Blade that people with HIV/AIDS are dying because of an acute shortage of available anti-retroviral drugs in the country.

Photo courtesy of Alianza Lambda de Venezuela

People with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela are dying because of an acute lack of available antiretroviral drugs in the country, according to service providers and activists with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in recent days.

César Sequera, founder of Alianza Lambda de Venezuela, a Venezuelan LGBTI advocacy group, told the Blade on Feb. 8 during a telephone interview from the country’s Vargas state that he has been able to obtain antiretroviral drugs from non-governmental organizations or from donations he received from outside the country. Sequera, who is also a priest at an Anglican church outside of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, acknowledged “there are other people who aren’t receiving them.”

“The situation is critical and alarming,” he told the Blade.

Hendriel Briceño, a 26-year-old public university professor who lives in Caracas, tested positive five years ago.

He told the Blade during a WhatsApp interview on Feb. 8 that he did not take antiretroviral drugs for a year “because there weren’t any.” Briceño said he currently has a month’s supply.

“We have a very serious situation,” said Eduardo Franco, secretary of Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva, a Caracasbased HIV/AIDS advocacy group, during a telephone interview on Monday.

Sequera, Briceño and Franco all told the Blade that Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crises have further exacerbated the country’s HIV/AIDS crisis.

A report from the International Council for AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), Aid for AIDS International, Global Development and three Venezuelan organizations —

Asociación Civil Impacto Social, Alianza Venezolana para la Salud and Sociedad Venezolana de Salud Pública — cites statistics from the Pan-American and World Health Organizations, the Venezuelan Ministry of Health and other agencies that note 25,000 more people died from HIV between 20102018. The statistics also indicate the number of people with HIV increased from 97,000 to more than 120,000 during the same period.

PAHO, WHO and UNAIDS representatives traveled to Caracas last June in order to observe the Venezuelan government’s efforts to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

The organizations subsequently announced a plan to combat the diseases that includes input from Venezuelan health care providers, NGOs and government representatives.

“The plan was subsequently presented to the national authorities who gave approval of the document, as well as to State coordinators, the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases, Pulmonology, Pediatrics and Gynecology/Obstetrics,” reads the plan of which the Blade obtained a copy.

The Global Fund board of directors on Sept. 24, 2018, approved $5 million “to help alleviate the gaps in the provision of HIV treatment in Venezuela.”

The PAHO Strategic Fund received $4.9 million to purchase antiretroviral drugs. Venezuelan NGOs received the remaining $100,000 from UNAIDS in order to oversee the distribution of the medications to people with HIV/AIDS. The first shipment of the antiretroviral drug Tenofovir, Lamivudine and Dolutegravir (TLD), which contained 100,000 bottles, arrived in Venezuela on Dec. 23, 2018.

A second shipment of TLD with 200,000

bottles arrived in the country on Jan. 16.

Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva and more than two dozen other Venezuelan HIV/ AIDS service and advocacy organizations in a Feb. 4 letter to Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said none of the bottles from the two shipments had been distributed from a warehouse that is located on a military base in Miranda state. The letter also notes “millions and millions of pills of antiretroviral drugs are stored and withheld without justification” at the warehouse.

“Venezuelan civil society organizations working on HIV are writing to you to demand your urgent intervention in the release and delivery of antiretroviral medicines that will save the lives of more than 70,000 people living with HIV and AIDS in Venezuela,” reads the letter.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Feb. 6 wrote in a tweet that “apparently (President Nicolás) Maduro is blocking $5 million Global Fund shipments of HIV and AIDS medicine from Venezuela.”

“This is a death sentence to those who depend on anti-virals (sic) for survival,” said the Florida Republican.

A Rubio spokesperson last week told the Blade she did not “have any additional information” about the antiretroviral drug shipment.

The Venezuelan government has said a lack of working trucks has prevented it from distributing the drugs throughout the country.

ICASO Executive Director Mary Ann Torres, who is originally from Venezuela, on Feb. 12 told the Blade during a telephone interview from Toronto the Venezuelan Ministry of Health indeed only a handful of trucks that are working.

She said officials distributed some of the drugs in Valencia, a city in Carabobo state, after the open letter to Alvarado and Rubio’s tweet.

Venezuelan police on Feb. 15 raided the offices of Fundación Mavid, an HIV/ AIDS service organization in Valencia.

Social media and press reports indicate police took donated infant formula and medications for people with HIV/AIDS and arrested three human rights activists who work for the organization. Fundación Mavid is among the groups that wrote to Alvarado on Feb. 4 about the antiretroviral drugs warehoused on the military base in Miranda state.

‘The government doesn’t care’ Venezuela, which has the world’s largest known oil reserves, was once Latin America’s most prosperous country. Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crisis has prompted millions of Venezuelans to migrate to neighboring Colombia and other countries in recent years.

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Juan Guaidó, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, last month declared himself president after the country’s disputed presidential election that took place in May 2018. The U.S. is among the countries that have officially recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim leader.

Briceño said he has seen well-dressed people in Caracas “picking through the garbage” for food.

One source who asked the Blade not to identify them by name because of safety concerns said three condoms and a bottle of lubricant costs a month’s salary for someone who is making minimum wage. Madonna Badillo, a transgender woman of indigenous descent who lives in the Colombian city of Maicao, which is a few miles from the country’s border with Venezuela on the Guajira Peninsula, told the Blade last March during an interview at her home that Venezuelan women sell their hair to wigmakers for less than $10 “out of necessity.”

“One of the things I have seen is the government doesn’t care,” Torres told the Blade. “It’s a mixture of bad policies. It’s a mixture of ideology over evidence.”

Torres said other issues that have contributed to the crisis include corruption and the mismanagement of Venezuela’s nationalized oil and mining industries.

“It’s not about sanctions,” she told the Blade. “It’s about the mismanagement of a country and a government that is overpowerful and over-present everywhere. They have left the infrastructure to be destroyed completely. You see pictures of the hospitals and you understand why health is the way it is. Everything is falling apart.”

Sequera noted some Venezuelans still support Maduro, despite the deepening crisis. He also told the Blade there will be “a civil war” in the country if the U.S. stages a military intervention to oust Maduro.

“The entire population will come out on the street,” said Sequera.

Humanitarian aid is ‘urgently needed’ in Venezuela Rubio is among those who have sharply criticized Maduro for preventing humanitarian aid from the U.S. from entering Venezuela.

Media reports note Guaidó has told supporters at a Caracas rally the aid would be brought into the country on Saturday.

Torres told the Blade that humanitarian aid is “urgently needed” in Venezuela. She also said the country needs to be completely rebuilt.

“The problem is the reconstruction won’t start with Maduro in power just because he doesn’t accept there is a problem,” said Torres.

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Cannabis Culture

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Rep. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.) have introduced bills to expand veterans access to medical cannabis.

Veterans medical marijuana access legislation introduced in House, Senate WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation, The Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act, to expand and facilitate medical cannabis access to military veterans suffering from chronic pain, PTSD, and other serious medical conditions.

Under existing regulations, VA doctors are not permitted to fill out the mandatory paperwork necessary to recommend cannabis therapy in those 33 states that regulate it. Passage of The Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act ends this discrimination against veterans and prevents sanctions against VA doctors who wish to recommend medical cannabis treatment to their patients.

“The Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act would provide crucial medical and civil protections for the men and women who put their lives on the line to serve this country.

It is unconscionable that these brave individuals who protect our nation’s freedoms would be treated as criminals when they return home just for treating their medical ailments with a safe and effective option,” said Justin Strekal, NORML Political Director. “We applaud and appreciate the leadership by Sen. Schatz and Rep. Lee in putting forward this legislation.”

“Historically, veteran and military communities have long been at the forefront of American social change, catalyzing the widespread acceptance of evolving cultural norms and perceptions surrounding racial, gender, and sexual equality. The therapeutic use of cannabis by veterans follows this trend and members of Congress should follow their lead and pass the Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act,” Strekal concluded.

“In 33 states, doctors and their patients have the option to use medical marijuana to manage pain — unless those doctors work for the VA and their patients are veterans,” Sen. Schatz said. “This bill gives VA doctors in these states the option to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, and it also promises to shed light on how medical marijuana can help with the nation’s opioid epidemic.”

“As the daughter of a veteran, I am committed to ensuring that our veterans have access to the quality and comprehensive medical care they deserve — including medical marijuana. The current federal prohibitions on cannabis are unnecessary, harmful, and counterproductive,” said Lee. “The federal government should never stand between our veterans and their medicine.

This critical legislation is a long overdue step to empower veterans and their doctors to make informed health care decisions, without political interference.”

WHO committee calls for changes in cannabis international classification GENEVA — Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence have proposed amending the classification of cannabis under H E A LT H • FE BR UA RY 22, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 17

international law.

According to reporting in the British Medical Journal, the WHO policy reversal “takes account of the growing evidence for the medical applications of the drug,” and marks the first time that the agency has reviewed its stance on cannabis in nearly 60 years.

The recommended changes, outlined in a letter by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, call for cannabis to be removed from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Schedule IV is the most restrictive classification under the treaty. Instead, the committee advises that whole-plant cannabis and THC be designated as Schedule I controlled substances under international law.

“The current [international] scheduling of cannabis is as strict as that for heroin,” the BMJ summarizes. “[T]he committee believes that keeping cannabis at that level of control would severely restrict access to and research on potential therapies derived from the plant.”

In a separate recommendation, the committee reiterated its 2017 request that preparations containing “pure cannabidiol ... and not more than 0.2 percent of delta-9tetrahydrocannabinol” no longer be scheduled within the international drug conventions.

The committee’s policy recommendations now await action from the 53 participating members states of the United Nation’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The Commission is anticipated to vote on the issue in March.

In October, NORML delivered over 10,000 public comments to the US Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to recommend that WHO reschedule cannabis internationally.

Study: Cannabis use associated with metabolic benefits SANTANDER, Spain — Cannabis use is associated with sustained effects on weight and metabolism, including lower body mass index (BMI) and lower overall cholesterol levels, according to the results of a three-year longitudinal study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Spanish researchers assessed the relationship between cannabis and weight over a three-year period in a cohort of 510 subjects. Participants in the study were classified as either “continuers,” “discontinuers” and “non-users.”

At the study’s initiation, cannabis users presented “lower weight, body mass index, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol compared to non-users,” investigators reported. Differences in weight, BMI, and LDL levels remained consistent over the threeyears among those subjects who continued to consume cannabis. By contrast, those patients who discontinued using cannabis use over the course of the study “presented a higher increase in weight, body mass index, and triglyceride-high-density lipoprotein ratio than the ‘non-users’ and ‘continuers.’”

Authors concluded, “Thus, we may interpret that cannabis consumption has a protective effect on metabolism, which is reflected in clinical terms.”

The study’s results are consistent with a number of prior trials — such as those here, here, and here — finding that a history of marijuana use is associated with a lower prevalence of obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes (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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Campus doc charged with shaming gay students LOS ANGELES — Six recent gay/bi male graduates are suing the University of Southern California and its former sexual health physician for a number of serious allegations, Campus Safety Magazine reports.

They filed their complaint on Monday against the university and Dr. Dennis A. Kelly, the only full-time men’s sexual health doctor during their time at the school, reports NBC Los Angeles.

Their allegations include sexual battery, gender violence, sexual harassment, negligence and fraud.

This lawsuit comes just days after the school agreed to a $215 million settlement with the victims of former USC gynecologist, George Tyndall.

According to the suit, Kelly shamed and humiliated the plaintiffs for being sexually active, questioned their sexual history and used “demeaning and derogatory” terms, Campus Safety reports.

The suit alleges that Kelly demanded the men to disrobe and get on their hands and knees while he performed rectal exams.

One plaintiff said he complained about Kelly to another doctor about a rectal exam he experienced and the doctor responded that it “shouldn’t have happened.”

“Plaintiffs are informed and believed, and thereon allege, that Dr. Kelly was targeting the gay and bisexual and male student population, all of whom were young adults and many of whom were visiting the doctor without a parent for the first time,” the suit says.

Kelly, who retired last year after working at the school for nearly 20 years, has denied all of the allegations, Campus Safety reports.

“I can’t second-guess or question anything I’ve done,” the 72-year-old physician told the LA Times. “I know I did it all professionally and without any other motive.”

He says he’s gay and has devoted much of his career to counseling LGBT patients about ways to reduce the risks of their sexual behavior.

The men are seeking compensation from USC for negligent hiring and supervision, Campus Safety reports. A USC representative said the school is “aware of the lawsuit concerned by its allegations.”

“We’re working to understand the facts of this matter,” a statement from the school said. “We care deeply about our entire Trojan family, including our LGBT community and take this matter very seriously.”

Medical world improving on gay issues NEW YORK — There is increasing research and awareness in the medical world about the need for more inclusive and LGBT-friendly health care, WebMD reports. This is seen as especially important because research shows LGBT people face several health disparities, meaning they have higher rates of several conditions including mental health disorders, substance abuse problems, suicide and more.

A January study outlines the challenges in cancer care. It found the vast majority of 450 oncologists surveyed at the nation’s top 45 cancer centers say they’re comfortable treating LGBT patients, but most aren’t sure they fully understand the needs of this group of patients. Those numbers were especially stark with transgender patients, people whose gender identity does not match their biology at birth. The study found 83 percent of oncologists would be comfortable treating transgender patients, but only 37 percent felt they know enough to do so, WebMD reports.

Researchers found an eagerness to learn — 70 percent of oncologists wanted health education about the health needs of LGBT people, and many do seem to need it, based on survey responses that show a lack of understanding about issues affecting these patients, WebMD reports.

The study shows oncologists didn’t realize LGBT patients are more likely to spend time in the sun, smoke tobacco and have substance abuse problems. Many didn’t realize women are still at risk for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which raises the chances of having many other cancers, if they haven’t had sex with men. Cancer doctors also didn’t fully understand the family and personal dynamics, social stressors and lack of support networks that might be at play for LGBT patients, WebMD reports.

This study is one of many new bodies of research looking to better understand LGBT patients and their needs and concerns. Others include: • A November 2018 study that looked at fears that older LGBT patients have when they are dying in long-term care facilities. It found they worry about discrimination and their personal safety.

• And a study released this month that shows people who received hormone treatment as part of gender transitioning had a greater risk of stroke and heart attacks, WebMD reports.

18 • WA S HI N GTONB LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9 • H EALT H N EW S

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PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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

VI E WPO I NT • FE BRUA RY 22, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 21

MARK S. KING

is an award-winning blogger, author, and HIV/AIDS advocate. His blog, My Fabulous Disease, was awarded the NLGJA’s “Excellence in Blogging” honor in 2014 and 2016.

KATHI WOLFE

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

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Anti-Semitism must be called out It is scary to see anti-Semitism on the rise around the world once again. A recent CNN poll found anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade. “More than a quarter of Europeans polled believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said Jews have too much influence in conflict and wars across the world. One in five said they have too much influence in the media and the same number believe they have too much influence in politics.”

“A third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust, the mass murder of some six million Jews in lands controlled by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s. Lack of Holocaust knowledge is particularly striking among young people in France: One out of five people there between the ages of 18 and 34 said they’d never heard of it.”

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “After the Paris terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery, much attention has focused on growing numbers of French Jews leaving France for Israel and increasing anti-Semitism in Europe.”

Today we see the word “Juden” painted in red across the window of bagel store in Paris and in the United States hear Louis Farrakhan say, “the powerful Jews are my enemy. White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through.”

I am a first generation American Jew who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Washington Heights, a community in New York City. My mother, born in Vienna, Austria, fled the Nazis at 14 with my grandmother going to London for two years before immigrating to New York. Her father finally got out and met them there. My father escaped the Nazis from Hamburg, Germany, getting the last boat to New York. He had to leave his parents behind and they were rounded up by the Nazis and gassed in Auschwitz.

Growing up in Washington Heights it seemed everyone around me was Jewish. I never knew what anti-Semitism was until I heard the word “Kike” at the age of 13 on a Boy Scout trip across the country. I didn’t know then what it meant.

In the last couple of years anti-Semitism has raised its ugly head in the District of Columbia when a councilmember said, “It just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man,

this climate manipulation. And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschild’s controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” Some leaders of the Women’s March gave support to the words of Farrakhan and now Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) attacked AIPAC saying, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” suggesting Jewish money is the only reason the U.S. supports Israel. When these comments were called out those making them apologized and I want to accept their apologies. What their comments did was reinforce my belief anti-Semitism must be called out every time it raises its ugly head. I am waiting for the National LGBTQ Task Force leadership to call out and condemn those who hijacked one of their Creating Change conference sessions by spouting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slogans.

I went to Israel in 1970 to visit my father’s great aunt who had helped found a kibbutz there after escaping Nazi Germany. Seeing the country through her eyes was amazing. I met many people there who escaped the holocaust and heard their stories and why Israel was so important to them; it reinforced my continued support for the State of Israel.

I do not support the Netanyahu government and many of their policies. I believe in a two-state solution. When friends ask how I can support Israel with its current government my response is the criminal acts of Hamas don’t change my support for the Palestinian people or an eventual Palestinian State. Trump’s disgusting policies don’t stop me from believing in the United States. If there ever is a Palestinian State I want the United States to help build it and make it strong.

I focus on anti-Semitism because as a Jew it is frightening. I also understand as a society we must focus on what is frightening to others. Together we must commit to calling out every bias and respond to all hate as unacceptable. That includes condemning racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, antiMuslimism and attacks on dreamers and other immigrants. We must stand together and call out anyone who would spread hate by either word or deed. We must correct the structural racism existing in our country and work to have Congress pass a fair national immigration policy which recognizes it was immigrants who helped build our nation and new immigrants who will continue to make it vibrant and strong.

If we learn to accept each other and honor our differences we will be a better people for it and will have a better world.

22 • WA S HI NGTO N B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9 • V IEWP O IN T

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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

A cure for political pathology: 2020 vision This is no time for Democrats to lose their nerve Since Jan. 20, 2017, America has been like Olivia de Havilland in “The Snake Pit”, trapped in a mental hospital with no memory of how she got there.

The president, after his rambling “national emergency” announcement last week, is even more of a walking argument for the 25th Amendment than before — except that he packed his cabinet with likeminded loons and grifters. Maybe he’ll go away if we can persuade the Norwegian Nobel Committee to give him the Peace Prize his Obama jealousy demands.

But if Magic Vikings fail to rescue us, we’ll need a better backup plan than drinking ourselves into a stupor or praying that William Weld can mount a successful primary challenge in Trump’s invertebrate GOP. That leaves us with Democrats — the witchhunting globalists, according to Alex Jones of InfoWars, who use MS-13 to kill people, celebrate infanticide, and ally with Chinese Communists to infiltrate Silicon Valley. Jones, you understand, inhabits an alternate universe.

In reality, the mass shooters are usually white people who were born here; Trump’s racist border policy is what’s killing children; and the Chinese granted Ivanka a trademark for voting machines. Seriously, what better brand for replacing Diebold!

It is increasingly difficult to distinguish mass delusion from acquiescence. When yet another person talks as if snowstorms disprove climate change, is he stubbornly ignorant or just worn down? In any case, Trump’s fanciful pronouncements do not eliminate our problems. Sea levels rise as ice sheets melt and warming seawater expands. Most states lack “red flag laws” to permit removal of firearms from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. Conservative state legislatures devise cruel new anti-LGBT bills. Our spirit of innovation is being superseded by circled wagons, scapegoating, and loss of nerve.

With moderation considered treachery, evidence mocked, and nuance cast as weakness, we are divorcing higher brain functions from public affairs like despots criminalizing elites.

James Madison distrusted direct democracies such as ancient Athens, preferring representative democracy and reasoned deliberation. Poor sap! Trump is doing an end run around Madison’s separation of powers.

What will non-Fox viewers do about it?

Other than suing, we start in the House with a resolution disapproving the emergency declaration. We pass legislation addressing gun safety, healthcare, and greenhouse gas emissions. When the Republican Senate fails to act, we run on the contrast. We defend reproductive choice. The latest anti-choice ploy focuses on “late-term abortions” (a term used misleadingly by opponents), which are rare and mostly involve fatal conditions. The right seeks to ban all abortions. The question is whether we’ll lose our nerve or defend our sisters against coercion.

If we ignore Trump’s provocations and distortions, we will make the same mistake Hillary made in 2016 when she resisted the impulse to turn around and tell Trump to back up when he loomed behind her during a debate.

In December, before Nancy Pelosi retook the Speaker’s chair, she proved her mastery when she calmly rebuked Trump’s patronizing at an Oval Office meeting. He apparently thought the presence of news cameras would play to his advantage; he underestimated the daughter of Thomas D‘Alesandro, Jr. Democrats must not be deterred by absurd claims that supporting reproductive choice makes us pro-infanticide; that supporting a Green New Deal means we’ll avoid working on the details; or that supporting LGBT equality means arresting disagreeable ministers.

Private hand-wringing by GOP lawmakers cowed into public submission will not restrain their rampant man-child. Restoring political sanity and finding solutions requires voting for the Democratic grownups in the room.

Democrats’ diversity can sometimes lead to contentiousness, but Republicans have been reduced to attack dogs or abused pets.

Trump never touches alcohol, which only makes his mental state more troubling. One might say he is emulating the Roman emperor Caligula, though the latter was far more prodigious in his cruelties and debaucheries.

Suetonius wrote, “Such was still the dread of imperial power, though vested in the hands of so weak and despicable a sovereign, that no insurrection was attempted ... but the obnoxious emperor fell at last a sacrifice to a few centurions of his own guard.”

Our present tyrant, contrastingly, will be removed by an election.

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

VI E WPO I NT • FE BRUA RY 22, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 23

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is an award-winning blogger, author, and HIV/AIDS advocate. His blog, My Fabulous Disease, was awarded the NLGJA’s “Excellence in Blogging” honor in 2014 and 2016.

The struggle to maintain access to lifesaving HIV meds Trump proposing dangerous changes to Medicare Part D When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, there were no medications to treat it. Not one.

I never imagined that the medical community would achieve the advancements in HIV treatment and prevention we see today. In fact, President Trump actually proposed a plan in his State of the Union address to end the HIV epidemic in America by 2030. This lofty goal would be thwarted, however, by proposed changes to Medicare Part D that jeopardize the advancements we’ve made in the fight against HIV. I have lived with HIV for almost 35 years. I’ve dealt with more doctors, stubborn insurers, and drug formulations than I care to count. But I do it to stay alive.

What other choice do I have?

By 1995, 10 years after I contracted the virus, AIDS claimed as many as 50,000 lives per year. Today, fewer than 7,000 people die from HIV related causes. And recent data shows that although there are nearly 19,000 people living in Baltimore with HIV and 15,000 in D.C., less than a quarter of all new Baltimore and D.C. HIV diagnoses develop into an AIDS diagnosis within three months. This means that approximately 80 percent of these individuals newly diagnosed with HIV are taking steps to control and reduce their viral loads.

Becoming an “empowered” patient with consistent and unimpeded access to my medications through Medicare Part D has kept me alive. Had I not been relentless in my pursuit of the latest research, drug trials, and newly approved treatment regimens — while also educating my own providers — I likely would have been counted among the nearly half million Americans who perished from AIDS between 1981 and 2000.

For many years after my diagnosis, insurance companies rejected my prescriptions or tried to force me to rely upon medications that had been proven ineffective. When I became disabled due to HIV, my newfound access to Medicare Part D changed all of that.

Medicare Part D and its protections against insurer interference finally brought some certainty to my treatment plan. With reliable access to effective medication, I

was suddenly free to divert my time and energy away from day to day survival and focus it towards my friends, my family, and a better quality of life.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration is proposing a change to Medicare Part D in a way that would remove many of these certainties.

The change — in the name of reducing drug pricing — removes the protected class status for HIV medication and would expose hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV to “step therapy” and “prior authorization.”

Step therapy allows insurers to require Part D enrollees living with HIV to prove that less effective medications don’t work before agreeing to cover more effective, but more expensive treatments, as determined by our doctor. Prior authorization forces doctors to pre-clear prescriptions for certain HIV medication with insurers before the insurer agrees to cover the costs, a time consuming and complicated process that delays treatment.

As someone who has failed multiple drug categories over the years, I know these changes are dangerous because they would force me to fail on one medication before trying another. I need highly customized, effective therapies to keep my viral load in check. When a viral load is rendered undetectable, I cannot transmit HIV to someone else. Successful treatment, then, also prevents new HIV infections.

Interfering with access to effective treatment formularies for Medicare Part D enrollees under the guise of pricing reductions will cause more harm than good. In fact, a recent study published in the American Journal of Managed Care estimates that there would be 16,200 more cumulative deaths by 2025 if more restricted treatment options are allowed to take effect.

The priorities for people living with HIV are stark. First you pay your insurance premiums, then you pay your prescription costs, and then you pay for food and housing.

That is how important our medications are to our survival. For us, failure is not an option.

We must fight this new proposal that would end guaranteed access to the treatments we need to stay alive.

‘The Wizard of Oz’ turns 80 this year The iconic film has particular resonance in queer community I’d known for some time that I was queer. But I didn’t feel comfortable with myself until I saw “The Wizard of Oz” at a cinema in the Castro in San Francisco.

Seeing the film in color on the big screen with other gay moviegoers, I felt ready, with Glinda and everyone in Oz to “come out, come out” wherever I was.

“The Wizard of Oz”, released on Aug. 11, 1939, turns 80 this year. I’d wager that nearly everyone has their own “Oz” story.

I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t seen the movie. The kids in my family, as I did, still quake before the Wicked Witch. My neighbor Grace saw the movie when she was growing up in Guatemala. My (late) aunt, then in her 30s, watched “Oz” when it first came out in Southern, N.J. “Times were hard then {during the Depression},” she said, “All the color ... the music ... Toto — cheered us up.”

I remember little of the theology that I studied at Yale Divinity School. Yet I vividly recall talking about “The Wizard of Oz” as part of a class on “alienation and commitment.” It’s hard to imagine a story that resonates more with what makes us human: the search for courage, wisdom, a heart, for home — and the discovery that these things are in ourselves. Though, many over the decades have seen themselves in this narrative, “Oz” has had a particular resonance in the culture of the queer community.

“Oz” still rocks today. The film grossed a record-setting (for a classic movie) when it was screened in theaters at special 80th anniversary showings on Jan. 27-29, Feb. 3 and Feb. 5, reported the “Hollywood Reporter.”

The movie “The Wizard of Oz” is based on the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, which was published in 1900.

(More than 30 Oz books, written by Baum and other writers were published through the early 1960s.) The “OZ” book and movie are “propelled by magic and adventure and anchored in a search for identity.”

Willard Carroll writes in the preface to “The Wonderful World of Oz: An Illustrated History of the American Classic” by John Fricke.

Who doesn’t love the “magic and adventure” of “Oz?” If you’re queer and grew up from mid-century through 2000, the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch encountered by Dorothy, Toto and their friends in “OZ” likely metaphorically mirrored the difficulties of your coming out.

As they journey through Oz, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion “evolve into a wildly functional extended family,” Carroll writes.

Historically, we in the LGBTQ community, fighting against homophobia and transphobia, have had to form our own family. Though “The Wizard of Oz” is a fantasy beloved by generations of children, it is a model of how people who are quite different from each other in backgrounds, talents, etc. can become a family.

My 20-something friend Seth grew up watching “Oz” with his family on TV and on DVD. To him, “The Wizard of Oz,” doesn’t have these heavy connotations: It’s a fabulous entertainment. “I love the music, the singing, the dancing — all the color!” he told me.

Your friend is right, Fricke said to me over the phone. Baum started telling Oz stories to entertain kids in his neighborhood in the late 1880s,” he said. “MGM was interested primarily in entertainment. They wanted to make a good movie,” Fricke added.

Much of the lure of “Oz” comes from Judy Garland’s performance as Dorothy.

“Judy wasn’t acting,” Fricke said, “she was being herself. She made it real. Judy made you believe in that little girl {Dorothy}.”

LGBTQ people find a particular joy in the color, music, singing, dancing and acceptance in “The Wizard of Oz”, he added.

In these dark, divisive times, the joy and acceptance of “The Wizard of Oz” are needed more than ever.

Happy anniversary, “Oz!”

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Top photo: LADY GAGA with co-star BRADLEY COOPER in ‘A Star is Born.’ Photos courtesy Warner Bros.

Bottom photo: RAMI MALEK in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ Nick Delaney for 20th Century Fox

The 2019 Oscar mess

Nominees solid but Academy lurches from backlash to backlash with inane policy changes

By BRIAN T. CARNEY

This year’s Oscars show, which will be broadcast on ABC this Sunday (Feb. 24), will be like a cinematic Zen koan. The 91st annual Academy Awards honoring movies from 2018 will be its queerest show ever, but there won’t be many openly LGBT people onstage.

And since there are no clear front runners, there shouldn’t be any upsets or controversies during the ceremony.

Instead, thanks to some wild missteps by the Academy, most of the Oscar drama happened before the red carpet was even rolled out.

Following years of bad reviews, falling ratings and bloated runtimes, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to make changes for the 2019 awards ceremony.

In August 2018, in an ill-conceived attempt to bridge the gap between popular favorites (which don’t win Oscars) and critical favorites (which do), the Academy announced the creation of a new category: Best Popular Film. The Academy did not release any criteria for how these films would be selected and the proposal met with widespread derision.

The following month, the Academy announced that the introduction of the category would be delayed to “examine and seek additional input regarding the new category.”

In October, the Board of Governors announced that producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd would be replaced

by Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss.

In December, the Academy announced that comedian Kevin Hart would host the Oscars ceremony. When homophobic jokes and tweets from the actor surfaced, LGBT film fans and their allies instantly demanded that Hart be removed as host.

Despite Ellen DeGeneres’ attempt to serve as an intermediary between a somewhat apologetic Hart and the Academy, Hart quickly stepped down as host.

Since the awards date was rapidly approaching, and since a number of previous hosts (including DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Seth McFarlane, Chris Rock and Jimmy Kimmel) publicly stated they had no interest in hosting the 2019 show, the Academy announced that there would not be an official host for the ceremony.

Instead, a long string of performers and celebrities would present the awards. The last time the Academy tried this at the 61st ceremony in ’89, it was widely panned.

Last month, the Academy shot itself in the foot again. In order to shorten the show, the Academy announced that only two of the five nominated songs would be performed live. Kendrick Lamar would sing “All the Stars” from “Black Panther” and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper would sing “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born.”

There was an immediate backlash

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

from audience members and industry musicians, most notably previous nominee and “Mary Poppins Returns” star Lin Manual Miranda. The Academy reversed its decision six days later.

Finally, earlier this month, in another attempt to shorten the broadcast, the Academy announced that awards in four categories (Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Live Action Short Film and Best Makeup and Hairstyling) would be presented during commercials breaks.

Audiences could stream the presentations live online and edited acceptance speeches would be aired later in the ceremony.

Led by angry fans, the Hollywood guilds and several prominent directors, the backlash was again fast and furious.

The Academy reversed course four days later and announced that all 24 awards would be presented on live television.

In the midst of all these self-inflicted injuries, the announcement of the nominees went off remarkably smoothly.

In the wake of #OscarsSoStraight and #OscarsSoWhite, the slate of 2019 Oscar contenders seemed much more diverse, despite the inevitable stumbles and snubs.

Of the eight films nominated for Best Picture, out of a possible 10, five had significant LGBT content. “The Favourite” was a bawdy reexamination of English history focusing on a lesbian love triangle in the court of Queen Anne. “A Star Is Born” featured Ally’s gay BFF and “Vice” featured Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter Mary. Reallife gay musicians were front and center in “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book.”

In a robust show of inclusion, the other Best Picture nominees included a strong female-centered narrative in “Roma,” an African-American cop named Ron Stallworth fighting the Klan in “BlacKkKlansman” and a black superhero (with some fierce female colleagues) in “Black Panther.”

However, once the initial celebrations of LGBT representation died down, some problems became apparent. Three of the Best Picture nominees engaged in significant straight-washing.

In “BlacKkKlansman,” writer/director Spike Lee and his colleagues left out the fact that in real life, Stallworth and his partner thwarted the bombing of two gay bars in Denver.

In “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a film billed as a biopic of Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) turned out to be a well-made concert film about the creation of Queen’s big hits and their performance of those hits at Live Aid. Mercury’s bisexuality is largely erased and his sexual life is reduced to a redemption narrative as he staggers from the bad influence of his manager (Allen Leech) to the good influence of his monogamous boyfriend (Aaron McCusker).

Despite great performances and good

intentions, “Green Book” relies on tired cinematic tropes to tell the story of civil rights pioneer Don Shirley, a classically trained, African-American musician who toured the South in the early 1960s with the assistance of his white driver Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga. The script combines the feel-good racial sentimentality of “Driving Miss Daisy” with the uplifting appeal of the Hollywood legend of the “Great White Savior.” In this case, Tony Lip becomes the “Straight White Savior” who, among other things, teaches Shirley how to be a black man by making him listen to R&B songs and feeding him fried chicken.

Along with these problem with LGBT representation, the Best Picture nominees also have a problem with LGBT inclusion.

None of the queer characters are played by queer actors and none of the writers or directors are LGBT. But it is interesting to note that the bisexual Lady Gaga plays a straight character in “A Star Is Born.” That’s a small but important step for Tinsel Town.

In addition to these problems with representation and inclusion, two major LGBT films were not nominated for Best Picture, even though two of the 10 possible slots were unfilled.

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is the true tale of a lesbian literary forger and her gay accomplice. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant won well-deserved nominations for their outstanding acting. Screenwriters Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, the openly gay creator of “Avenue Q,” were nominated for their adaptation of Lee Israel’s memoir.

However, the movie was not nominated for Best Picture and Marielle Hiller was not nominated for Best Director. In fact, no women were nominated in the Best Director category.

“Will You Be My Neighbor?” was popular with both critics and audiences but was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Documentary. In telling the story of groundbreaking and boundary-breaking broadcaster Fred Rogers, director Morgan Neville featured the story of François Clemens, the black gay opera singer who played Officer Clemens on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.”

Outside of the major categories, a handful of LGBT artists and films with LGBT themes were nominated for Academy Awards this year. The lesbian-themed “Marguerite,” one of four Oscar nominees that was screened at D.C. Shorts, is up for Best Live Action Short. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, the openly gay directors of the Oscar-winning “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt” are nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject for “End Game.” Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are nominated for their musical work on “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Other out nominees include Scott Rudin, who produced “Isle of Dogs,” a

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 27

Top photo: The Oscar nominees this year are a mixed bag following several herky-jerky announcements from the Academy. Washington Blade file photo.

Bottom photo: EMMA STONE and RACHEL WEISZ in ‘The Favourite.’ Yorgos Lanthimos for 20th Century Fox

nominee for Best Animated Feature Film, and John Ottman who is up for Best Film Editing for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The LGBT-themed “Mary Queen of Scots” was also nominated in two design categories.

This year’s field is wide open; the usual predictors are all pointing in different directions.

As for my personal preferences, I’m surprised that John C. Reilly wasn’t nominated for Best Actor for his great performance in “Stan and Ollie,” especially given the lackluster field in that category.

Among the nominees, I don’t care much.

I also wish Andrew Dice Clay had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor instead of his “A Star Is Born” castmate Sam Elliott. He gave an indelible performance in a more interesting role. Choosing among the nominees: Adam Driver.

The female acting categories are an embarrassment of riches. All the nominees

were great and I still wish there was room for Felicity Jones in “On the Basis of Sex,” Annette Bening in “The Seagull,” Linda Cardellini in “Green Book,” Kiki Layne in “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicole Kidman in “Boy Erased” and the practically perfect Emily Blunt in “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Among the nominees, I pick Glenn Close and Amy Adams. That means Lady Gaga had better win Best Original Song.

Along with “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” I also wish “Dark Money,” the powerful documentary about campaign finance by trans director Kimberly Reed had been nominated. Among the nominees: “RBG.” As for the other categories, although “Roma” may prove unconquerable, I hope “The Favourite” sweeps everything else.

It was, after all, the best — and queerest — film of 2018.

QUEERY Patrick DiBattista Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

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

I think I was born out. … While there was no single person, my most difficult outing was when I was teaching high school in Texas and I was outed on the local news, for my work with people who had HIV. I was removed from my job and had to fight to get it back.

By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO JOEYD@WASHBLADE.COM

Who’s your LGBT hero?

As a young man, I worked with a group in Houston called the Kaposi Sarcoma Foundation. At the time we didn’t have a name for AIDS. A number of the people who I worked with at the foundation learned that they carried the virus and died, even as they were working to stop its spread. Those people — that generation that we lost — are my heroes.

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

I like diversity — a place with women and men, that’s multiracial, has a range of ages and different body types.

We had that at Town as part of Town and Country and we have that now at Ziegfeld-Secrets as part of Country at Secrets.

on both floors. The next vent is Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. (lessons) and 8-11 p.m. (dancing). An intermediate/advanced line dance will be taught upstairs (“Hold Your Horse”) and the beginner/intermediate dance (“Walk the Line”) will be downstairs.

“Same-sex partner dancing is a longstanding tradition in the area,” DiBattista says. “We plan to keep it alive. I like being able to dance with anothr man and know that it won’t elicit a negative response.”

Details at dcrawhides.com.

DeBattista came to Washington 20 years ago for his husband Alfredo Gomez’s job. They live in a four-story row house built in 1869 in Logan Circle.

He enjoys dancing (of course!) in his free time.

Describe your dream wedding.

I think we have to be careful about confusing weddings with marriage. I have been with my partner for over 30 years and even though we are legally married, the wedding had nothing to do with the strength or quality of our marriage. It was a 10-minute civll ceremony and I remember asking the officiant to speed things up because we had more important things to do.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

I hope LGBT issues encompass social justice for anyone systematically disenfranchised from society. The “golden rule” can seem simplistic, but

QUEERY: Patrick DiBattista

The D.C. Rawhides organizer answers 20 gay questions

Despite all the nightlife changes in the region, organizers always manage to find a place for same-sex country line dancing.

Ten years ago, Remingtons, D.C.’s former gay country bar, was waning and gay line dancers wanted a new place to dance and an organization that could provide structure to make that happen so D.C. Rawhides was born.

Patrick DiBattista was one of the organizers and is involved to this day.

“I dance every chance I get,” he says. “I would be lost if I couldn’t dance.”

The Rawhides do country western two step, waltz, west coast swing and line dances to country music and other contemporary songs. The group meets twice monthly at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.)

its not a bad model for how one might want to move in the world.

What historical outcome would you change?

I didn’t know we could change history. Maybe we should shoot for the smaller but more reachable goal of not repeating bad history.

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

The first Apple computer.

On what do you insist?

Faith, hope and love.

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

I am so grateful that we didn’t have social media when i was young. If we had, I would have so much more to look back on with regret. I only use Facebook to post about the D.C. Rawhides dances. I am not on Twitter. I really don’t want to give Facebook information about myself that it can then sell and Twitter seems like a medium best suited for dogs that want to howl at the moon.

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

“He Had More Ambition than Talent or Time Allowed”

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

I love variety and trust that nature does too. I would like to be taller, have broader shoulders and a smaller nose, but I am more than good with the idea that I am physically attracted to other men.

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

I like to believe that we are divine and when we leave this physical world, that divinity is reunited with the universe.

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

To gain the world, would you sell your soul?

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1221 Massachusetts Ave., NW What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

My advice to anyone leading: lead by being a servant of good.

What would you walk across hot coals for?

My spouse, my friends, my community, the greater good of humanity and the planet.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

A simple rule for being happy: don’t worry about what other people think. Maybe a “stereotype” is a real part of who someone is. They should embrace it. If it doesn’t belong to you, don’t own it.

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What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“Aimee & Jaguar,” “God’s Own Country,” “Milk,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post.”

What’s the most overrated social custom?

The questions, “Where do you work?” followed by “Where did you go to school” as the openers to any D.C. introduction.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

I try to not put too much stock in things. That said, we have this bust of a PROOFwoman # ISSUE DATE 190208 SALES REPRESENTATIVE wearing a wimple. My dad found it in a thrift shop in OhioREVIEW and 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 used his senior citizens discount to ofbuy the date proof. Revisions will not be accepted after 12:01 pm wednesday, the week of publication.Brown naff pitts REVISIONS omnimedia llc (dba the washington blade) is not responsible for the content and/or design of your ad. Advertiser is REDESIGN it for us. It gives me pleasure. responsible for any legal liability arising out of or relating to the advertisement, and/or any material to which users

can link through the advertisement. Advertiser represents that its advertisement will not violate any criminal laws or TEXT REVISIONS any rgihts of third parties, including, but not limited to, such violations as infringement or misapporpriation of any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, music, image, or other proprietary or propety right, false advertising, unfair IMAGE/LOGO REVISIONS defamation, invasion of privacy or rights of celebrity, violation of anti-discrimination law or regulation, What you wish you’d known competition, atany18? or other right of any person or entity. Advertiser agrees to idemnify brown naff pitts omnimedia llc (dba the NOdo REVISIONS washington blade) and to hold brown naff pitts omnimedia llc (dba the washington blade) harmless from any and all liability, loss, damages, claims, or causes of action, including reasonable legal fees and expenses that may be incurred That I didn’t have to invest emotional by brown naff pitts omnimedia llc, arising out of or related to advertiser’s breach of any of the foregoing representations and warranties. energy in someone or something unless I chose to.

Why Washington?

I first saw Washington when I was 19 and fell in love with the place and decided then that I would live here. It took me 20 years to get back, but I always knew this was home. It’s like a small college town that just happens to be one of the capitals of the world.

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 29

Faust March 16–30 | Opera House ADVERTISING

PROOF

Music by Charles Gounod / Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe’s Faust: Part One Sung in French with projected English titles. Casting available at Kennedy-Center.org/wno ADVERTISER SIGNATURE

By signing this proof you are agreeing to your contract obligations with the washington blade newspaper. This includes but is not limited to placement, payment and insertion schedule.

Kennedy-Center.org (202) 467-4600

Major support for WNO is provided by Jacqueline Badger Mars.

David M. Rubenstein is the Presenting Underwriter of WNO.

Groups call (202) 416-8400 For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540

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Top photo: The cast of ‘Finding Neverland.’ Photo by Jeremy Daniel Bottom photos: RONAN FARROW makes an appearance next week in Frederick, Md. Photo courtesy Weinberg Center. JONATHAN VAN NESS of ‘Queer Eye’ fame has two appearances in the region next weekend Photo by Matt Monath; courtesy Slate PR

Farrow to speak at Frederick’s Weinberg Center Ronan Farrow appears at Weinberg Center for the Arts (20 W Patrick St., Frederick, Md.) on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist spearheaded the #MeToo movement with his exposé of Harvey Weinstein. Farrow also investigated similar allegations for Attorney

General of New York Eric Schneiderman and CBS Chairman and CEO Les Moonves.

Both Schneiderman and Moonves announced their resignations shortly after Farrow’s investigations. Farrow came out as “part of the LGBTQ community” in 2018.

Tickets range from $46.75-66.75.

For more details, visit weinbergcenter.org.

Md. queens face off in pageant Miss Lodge 2019: Diva Renaissance, a drag pageant, is at The Lodge (21614 National Pk., Boonsboro, Md.) on Friday, March 1 at 9:30 p.m.

Chi Chi Ray Colby, Stephanie Michaels, Araya Sparxx, Brooke Lane, Sasha Renee and Ashely Banks will compete for the crown.

Nicole James, Miss Gay Maryland American 2018, will make an appearance. Truly Fabu and Ingenue will host the pageant. Cover is

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

$7. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

For more information, visit facebook. com/thelodgemd.

Van Ness in region back to back nights “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness brings his “Road to Beijing” comedy tour to the region twice next weekend. He plays The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) on Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m. and Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre (12 North Eutaw St.) on Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m.

Van Ness is the grooming expert on the hit Netflix series “Queer Eye.” He is also known for his web series “Gay of Thrones” and for hosting his podcast “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.” “Road to Beijing” is Van Ness’ first stand-up comedy tour. Tickets range from $65.50-102.50 for Baltimore and $29-174 for Washington.

For more details, visit ticketmaster.com or kennedy-center.org.

TODAY

Saturday, Feb. 23

Monday, Feb. 25

“Schitt’s Creek: Up Close and Personal” is at DAR Constitution Hall (1776 D St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. “Schitt’s Creek” cast members will appear including Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Levy, Annie Murphy, Emily Hampshire and Noah Reid. Tickets range from $45-100. For more information, visit ticketmaster.com.

Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) hosts Night of 1000 Moiras, the official “Schitt’s Creek: Up Close and Personal” after party, tonight from 11 p.m. to close.

Catherine O’Hara, who portrays Moira Rose on “Schitt’s Creek” will be the special guest. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their best Moira Rose costume. The best Moira Rose look will receive a bag of Schitt. Summer Camp hosts the party and DJ Ed Bailey will spin tracks. For details, visit facebook.com/tradebardc.

DCATS hosts a screening of the documentary “A Year in Transition: A Trans Film by Trans People” at Human Rights Campaign (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) tonight from 6:30-8:30 p.m. “A Year in Transition” follows a 20-year-old Arab American transgender man during his first year of transition. Seating for those who RSVP’d is from 6:30-6:45 p.m. Open seating is from 6:45-7 p.m. The screening is from 7-8:15 p.m. followed by a conversation with director Lorne Clarkson from 8:15-8:30 p.m. Light fare will be provided. Tickets are sold out but seats will be available on a firstcome, first-served basis for those who don’t have tickets. For more information, visit facebook.com/dcatsociety.

The Rowan Tree (1633 S Charles St., Baltimore) hosts Love Stinks Drag show tonight from 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Amanda Chase hosts the anti-Valentine’s Day drag show.

Karaoke follows the show at 10 p.m.

No cover. For more information, visit facebook.com/rowan.tree.baltimore.

Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts Ottermatic 2: Electric Boogaloo tonight from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Cover is $5 and includes clothes check. The Barber Streisand and Kris Sutton will play music.

Grant Collins hosts the party. Matt Strother and Scott M. Douglass will serve up drinks for the night. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.

Gamma D.C., a support group for men in mixed-orientation relationships, meets at Luther Place Memorial Church (1226 Vermont Ave., N.W.) tonight from 7:309:30 p.m. The group is for men who are attracted to men but are currently, or were at one point, in relationships with women.

For more information, visit gammaindc.org.

Washington Scandals Rugby host a rugby-watching brunch at Across the Pond Restaurant & Pub (1732 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) today from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. The group will have brunch while watching the France vs.

Scotland match at 9:15 a.m. followed by the Wales vs. England match at 11:45 a.m. There will be drink specials. No cover. For more information, visit facebook.com/scandalsrfc.

Capital PAH hosts a pet play class and mosh at the Crucible (412 V St., N.E.) today from noon-4 p.m. There will be a puppy play class taught by Mid-Atlantic Handler 2016 Vyvyan and Mid-Atlantic Puppy 2018 Biff Skunk. The event starts at noon and the class is at 1 p.m. Admission is $10 for Crucible members and $15 for non-Crucible members. For more details, visit facebook.com/captialpah.

The D.C. Chamber Musicians present a free concert at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (301 A St., S.E.) today at 3 p.m. The program includes “Sinfonietta” for Double Quintet

by Joachim Raff, “Andante e tema con variazione” by Gioacchino Rossini and Wind Quintet led by Carl Nielsen. Admission is free but donations are accepted. Proceeds benefit the D.C. Orchestra Society. RSVP is recommended. For more details, visit dccos.org/public-events.

CTRL hosts Qwerty, a queer dance party, at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) tonight from 10 p.m.-2:15 a.m. DJ Adam Kourssari, DJ Dvonne and DJ Jeff Prior will play a mix of vogue-house, hard-pop, queer-step, disco and more. D.C. Drag Wars season 3 winner Vagenesis will give a special performance. No cover. For more details, visit facebook.com/ctrldc.

The D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Rd., N.E.) hosts Beast Bash XXL tonight from 10 p.m.6 a.m. DJ RyanDoubleYou will play music.

DJ Icy Funk will kickstart the night with an opening set. Go-go boys Pup Kalino and Otter Grant will dance for the night. For more information, visit dceagle.com.

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.

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 31

Sunday, Feb. 24 Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) has a drag brunch today with shows at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Drag entertainers will perform as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Pink and more. Tickets are $41.91 and include an all-you-can-eat buffet and one mimosa or bloody Mary. For more details, visit nelliessportsbar.com.

Tuesday, Feb. 26 The National Theatre (1321 Pennsylvania Ave., N.E.) premieres “Finding Neverland” tonight at 7:30 p.m. “Finding Neverland” tells the origin story of how playwright J.M. Barrie found the inspiration for Peter Pan from four brothers and their widowed mother. The show runs until March 3. Tickets range from $54-99. For more information, visit thenationaldc.org.

GenderQueer D.C., a support group for people who identify outside of the gender binary, holds its monthly support group at the D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) today from 7-9 p.m. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.

Wednesday, Feb. 27 The Health Working Group holds its February meeting at the D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) this evening at 6:30 p.m. The group will discuss LGBT health efforts in D.C. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.

Thursday, Feb. 28 D.C. gays will venture to Freddie’s Beach Bar (555 23rd St., S Arlington, Va.) for a missionary trip tonight from 7:30-10:30 p.m. Freddie’s Beach bar will have Crazy Hour, a version of happy hour, earlier in the day from 4-8 p.m. There will also be karaoke from 10 p.m.-1:30 a.m. For more information search “DC Gay’s Missionary Trip to Freddies Beach Bar in Virginia” on Facebook.

D.C. Lambda Squares hosts an open house at National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle N.W.) tonight from 7:309:30 p.m. The event will be an introduction to square dancing. No dance experience or dance partner needed. Dress code is casual attire. For more details, visit dclambdasquares.org.

This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com

Noc-turne. Feb 23. Next. Feb 23.

Border. Feb 23. Beyond. Feb 23. Nomad Pathways: Dance Across Time. Feb 24.

Dance ICONS: Through their Lens. Feb 24. Atlas Intersections Festival. atlasarts.org.

MUSIC

Cirque Mechanics Feb 22. Mason’s Center for the Arts. cfa.gmu.edu.

Experience the latest invention from the creative minds of Cirque Mechanics with their signature blend of acrobatics, mechanical marvels, and a good bit of clowning around. This new production tells the story of an iconic 42-foot circus ring with talented acrobats and aerialists performing astonishing feats of strength and agility, presenting their mechanical interpretation of traditional circus entertainment.

Atlas Intersections Festival Thru Mar 3. Atlas Performing Arts Center. atlasarts.org.

An 11-day festival of dance, theatre, music, visual arts and the spoken word, Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival is “Where the Art World and Real World Intersect”. See schedule below for this weeks performances.

Oil Feb 27-Mar 31. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

“Scorchingly ambitious,” (The Guardian) this genre-busting American premiere follows mothers and daughters over two centuries, from the dawn of the age of oil in 1889 to its “peak-oil” demise sometime in the not-to-distant future. In five separates but connected playlets, a single mother named May defies the odds to provide for her daughter by any means necessary.

Lara Downes, piano Feb 23. Washington Performing Arts at Sixth & I. washingtonperformingarts.org.

Inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s words, the trailblazing, NPR chart-topping Lara Downes has channeled her prodigious creativity and “luscious, moody, and dreamy” (New York Times) sound into an intimate program of solo and ensemble works that pays tribute to women past and present who are composers and poets.

Photo Courtesy of George Mason University Center for the Arts

THEATRE A Two Woman Hamlet. Feb 22-Feb 24.

Avant Bard at Gunston II. wscavantbard.org.

Admissions. Thru Mar 10. Studio Theatre. studiotheatre.org.

Ain’t Misbehavin’. Thru Mar 10. Masterpieces.

Feb 26-Apr 7. Signature Theatre. sigtheatre.org.

Neverland. Feb 26-Mar 3. National Theatre. thenationaldc.org.

Cirque Mechanics. Feb 23. Hylton Center. hyltoncenter.org.

The Old Man, the Youth, and the Sea. Thru Mar 3. GALA Hispanic Theatre. galatheatre.org.

The Language of the Fan. Feb 22. Folger Shakespeare Library. folger.edu.

Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite. Thru Feb 24. Arts on the Green at Arts Barn. gaithersburgmd.gov.

Nell Gwynn. Thru Mar 10. Folger Theatre. folger.edu.

Once. Thru Mar 10. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

Shear Madness. Thru Jun 19. Kennedy Center. shearmadness.com.

DANCE Kalanidhi Dance. Feb 23-Feb 24. Dance Place. danceplace.org.

TolumiDE presents Suya Soul Music!

Feb 22. Benjamin Gates. Feb 22. Baby Beats! with Max and Root. Feb 23. A Cantar y Bailar. Feb 23. Capital City Symphony. Feb 23. Hannah Jaye and the Hideaways. Feb 24. Flo Anito. Feb 24. Bomba Pathways. Feb 24. Atlas Intersections Festival. atlasarts.org.

Curtis Opera Theatre Vocal Quartet. Feb 24. National Gallery of Art. nga.gov.

Czech NSO. Feb 23. Mason’s Center for the Arts. cfa.gmu.edu.

Delphi Trio. Feb 23. Dumbarton Concerts. dumbartonconcerts.org.

Jubilee Voices. Feb 23. Washington Revels at Trinity Episcopal Church. revelsdc.org.

Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel. Feb 24. Mason’s Center for the Arts. cfa.gmu.edu.

The Debut. Feb 23. National Philharmonic at Strathmore. nationalphilharmonic.org.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Thru Feb 23. NSO: Shaham & Mozart. Feb 28-Mar 2. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

The Apollo Orchestra. Feb 23. The Apollo Orchestra at Church of the Epiphany. apolloorchestra.com.

Wu Han and Friends. Feb 22. The Barns at Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

MUSEUMS AU Museum at the Katzen. Michael B. Platt + Carol A. Beane. Thru Mar 17. Nancy at Ninety. Thru Mar 17. american.edu.

Dumbarton Oaks. Juggling the Middle Ages. Thru Feb 28. doaks.org.

Folger Shakespeare Library. First Chefs: Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas. Thru Mar 31. folger.edu.

Library of Congress. Baseball Americana.

Thru Jun 29. loc.gov.

National Gallery of Art. Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project. Thru Mar 17. nga.gov.

National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Ambreen Butt—Mark My Words. Thru Apr 14. nmwa.org.

Smithsonian Anacostia Museum. A Right to the City. Thru Apr 20. anacostia.si.edu.

Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire. Thru Jun 1.. americanindian. si.edu.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now. Thru Mar 10. Orchids: Amazing Adaptations.

Thru Apr 28. npg.si.edu.

GALLERIES Atlas Intersections Festival.

Art Activation: The Immersive Quilt. Thru Mar 3. atlasarts.org.

DC Arts Center. Lush: Reinvention Wayson R. Jones. Thru Apr 7. dcartscenter.org.

Del Ray Artisans. New Beginnings Art Exhibit. Thru Feb 24. delrayartisans.org.

District Architecture Center.

Transforming Cities, Transforming Lives: The Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme.

Thru Mar 29. From Architect to Artist: Public Art by Charles Bergen, AIA. Thru Mar 29. aiadac.com.

Gallery Clarendon. Places Real and Imagined Art Exhibit. Thru Feb 28. arlingtonartistsalliance.org. gallery neptune & brown. Jowita Wyszomirska: The Distance Of Blue. Thru Mar 9. galleryneptunebrown.com.

Gallery Underground.

Shades of Red Art Exhibit. Thru Feb 22. arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

Glen Echo Park. Out of the Woods: Julia Purinton. Thru Feb 24. glenechopark.org.

Hill Center. Regional Juried Exhibition.

Thru Mar 2. hillcenterdc.org.

JCCNV. The Norman and Jane Rosenthal Collection. Feb 22-Mar 27. jccnv.org.

Korean Cultural Center DC. Tradition Transformed: Bojagi, the Traditional Korean Wrapping Cloth. Thru Feb 22. Painted in Light. Feb 22-Apr 22. koreaculturedc.org.

Takoma Park Community Center. The Beauty of Decay Art Exhibition. Thru Mar 6. takomaparkmd.gov.

Waverly Street Gallery. Waverly Street Gallery Invitational Exhibition. Thru Mar 2. waverlystreetgallery.com.

Zenith Gallery. Love in all Mediums. Thru Mar 23. zenithgallery.com.

Zenith Sculpture Space. Women who Work, Care, and Create. Thru Apr 13. zenithgallery.com.

AND MORE...

Alliance Française.

The Military Enlightenment, book talk & signing.

Feb 22. Digital Activism Debate. Feb 28. francedc.org.

National Archives. Academy AwardNominated Documentaries and Short Subjects Showcase. Feb 23-Feb 24.

Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery. Feb 27. Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French. Feb 28. archivesfoundation.org.

Old Greenbelt Theatre. The Sandlot. Feb 23. What Happened 2 Chocolate City?.

Feb 28. Storytime on Screen. Feb 25-Jun 24. greenbelttheatre.org.

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

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F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 33

PATRICIA NELL WARREN died last week. Her fiction series ‘The Front Runner’ was considered groundbreaking in its day.

Washington Blade photo by Karen Ocamb

‘Front Runner’ author Warren remembered for gay fiction Positive, queer-themed sports novel was groundbreaking upon ’74 release

By KAREN OCAMB Patricia Nell Warren was noticeable anywhere.

That shock of curly white hair crowning the famous Montana-born lesbian was a beacon for nervously thrilled gay men to find the writer holding court at whatever event she attended. “You saved my life,” they told “The Front Runner” author over and over until the day before her death, according to her close friend Gregory Zanfardino. He and his best friend Darryl Davis were with Warren when she died on Saturday, Feb. 9 at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica after an almost three-year struggle with lung cancer.

Warren was 82.

“She was an amazing friend. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for her,” Zanfardino said in a Blade interview. “Up until her last moments, she was very clear. And she was constantly getting emails all the time from young people and older people who literally told her ‘The Front Runner’ saved their lives.

That book still, to this day, inspires people.”

“The Front Runner” was a landmark gay novel published in 1974, five years after the Stonewall riots, one year before California officially decriminalized homosexuality; the first to print the word “gay” on the cover and the first to make the New York Times bestseller list.

But while it is often tagged as a “gay

love story of Coach Harlan Brown and his Olympic runner Billy Sive” in the 1970s, as publisher William Morrow first framed it, Warren intended it to be broader in scope.

“The Front Runner” is really about how closeted, masculine, conservative Vietnam Marine veteran Harlan Brown, 39, gave up his own dream of running in the Olympics, of coaching prospective Olympic athletes at a prestigious college, of quelling his own humanity out of fear of being exposed as gay. When he and gay distance runner Billy Sive, 22, fall in love at a small New England college, the world of sports rears up against Sive representing the U.S. in the Olympic, where he meets with a horrific end.

“The book’s prose had to be the voice of a conservative ex-Marine veteran who is at war with himself. He knows he’s gay and attracted to men, but he refuses to let himself feel, to let himself be that person he knows he is, because of his repressive Bible-taught family upbringing and military background,” Warren wrote for thefrontrunnermovie.com. “When Harlan finds himself falling secretly in love with Billy Sive, the conflict only intensifies and almost drives him mad, until he is finally ‘human’ enough to give in and let himself be in love.”

After Billy is murdered in a hate crime on live TV, how can Harlan Brown go on?

What becomes of him?

“One big reason why I wanted to paint the story so broadly, yet so personally, was that I hoped non-gay people would read the book as well as gay people,” Warren wrote. “When the book was written, as well as today, stereotypes of gay males as limp-wristed liberals is embedded in people’s minds. Harlan is a crusty gay ex-Marine, a drill-sergeant kind of guy. I wanted to confront readers with the inner reality of such a man because I know they exist.”

In 2011, Warren told The Bay Area Reporter that Sive was “inspired in part by distance runner Steve Prefontaine, as well as a few closeted runners that I got to know while being involved in opendistance running myself.”

Prefontaine, who was straight, helped inspire the “running boom” of the 1970s.

He died in a car accident when he was 24.

While Warren’s legacy is “The Front Runner” and the power of presenting gay men as masculine athletes and former fighting Marines, Warren’s life was more than just that book. In fact, she was her own version of an activist.

Patricia Nell Warren was born in 1936 and grew up on the Grant Kohrs cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, Mont. She started writing professionally in her teens in the 1950s, moving to New York in 1955 to attend Manhattanville College. She worked first as a copy editor, then a book editor at Reader’s Digest from 1959-1980.

She married a Ukrainian emigre writer in 1960 and wrote four books of Ukranian poetry while stationed in Spain. She also wrote her first gay novel about a Spanish bullfighter’s relationship with a peasant under Franco’s fascism. “The Wild Man” would be published in in 2001 with an opening set in the gay West Hollywood bar Numbers. Warren divorced her husband in 1973, according to a summary accompanying her papers at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

Warren started jogging while in Spain.

“For me, at age 32 in 1968, distance running started out as a personal female challenge. Indeed, the runner’s need to reach deep inside and ‘find more’ spurred my selfdiscovery as a woman and my consciousnessraising concerning women’s rights,” she wrote in The Advocate in Aug. 1998.

“Only then, through running, could I finally catch up with those long-festering questions about sexual orientation. It dawned on me that sports are a major arena in which American society hard-wires ‘traditional’ notions about gender roles and orientation into its citizens,” she wrote.

Warren took that consciousness-raising seriously. In 1969, she and 11 other women “outlaws crashed the Boston Marathon and ran the race without numbers, another fist was raised” in protest in the “athletes’ rights movement” that was “battling antiquated and hypocritical rules that still ran U.S. sports,” she wrote.

Warren was part of a cadre of women athletes and distance runners intent on forcing the Amateur Athletics Union to change the discriminatory rules under which women were permitted to run.

“Women had been barred from road

races since 1961, as experts claimed distance running was damaging to their health and femininity. Some officials infamously warned that a woman’s uterus might fall out should she attempt to run such distances,” according to a story in the New York Times about the women runners who broke and changed the rules.

Warren fought battles off the running course, as well. She was the plaintiffs’ spokesperson for Susan Smith v. Reader’s Digest, a landmark case that resulted in a class-action victory for women.

“I was one of 18 women who filed Title VII charges against the Reader’s Digest,” Warren told Gay Today in 2003. “It was one of several major lawsuits against the media in the 1970’s. The media were full of talented and ambitious women who had been blatantly discriminated against — the very media that kept America informed on news from the civil-rights movement.”

The Digest tried to dismiss the class-action aspect of the case. “But the federal judge – who was a woman – didn’t buy their arguments. If the Digest had succeeded, it would have set a disastrous precedent for class actions,” she said.

Warren also worked on behalf of LGBT youth.

In 1994, she volunteered as a teacher at the West Hollywood-based EAGLES Center, a program for at-risk LGBT high school students.

In 1996, she served on the LAUSD’s school Gay & Lesbian Education Commission and then in 1999, joined the Human Relations Education Commission. As a commissioner, she supported Project 10 and helped organize Youth Lobby Day, which became key in pressuring legislators during the knock-down fight for State Senator Sheila Kuehl’s AB222, the Dignity for All Students Act. In 2007, Warren ran for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council. Though it was a long shot, she nonetheless did the due diligence producing astute policy analysis.

That included a white paper on developing a true, single-payer comprehensive Universal Healthcare Coverage plan, as published by Smart Voter.

In it, she scrutinized the progressive health care system created by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, which she compared unfavorably to SB 840, legislation proposed by out Sen. Sheila Kuehl, Chair of the Senate Health Committee.

Warren also had an impact on her fellow writers. Anne Stockwell, former editor in chief of The Advocate and a cancer activist, visited Warren in a Glendale rehab facility a few months ago.

“She also told me she had cancer but didn’t make a big deal of that. She was sitting up in bed with her laptop, typing away on her fourth novel in ‘The Front Runner’ series, which she apparently finished a couple weeks ago,” Stockwell says.

“Patricia really lived the values of her Montana childhood,” Stockwell says. “She didn’t wait for permission to create or publish or act. She took the heat and led.

She was an extraordinary American — we say that about a lot of people, but in her case it was true — and her vision of proud gay love helped to save a lot of lives, including mine.”

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

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LAURA C. HARRIS and JAMES WHALEN in ‘The Heiress’ at Arena.

Photo by C. Stanley Photography; courtesy Arena

Revisiting ‘The Heiress,’ Arena shines Mid-1800s-set drama follows plight of young woman in search of suitor

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

“The Heiress,” Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s 1947 drama, is prime for retelling.

Based on the novella “Washington Square,” by the brilliant and deeply closeted Henry James, it’s the story of seriously socially awkward Catherine Sloper, a rich young woman without a suitor in sight. Until there is.

Now at Arena stage in a straightforward production helmed by Seema Sueko, Catherine’s saga unfolds lucidly, alternating between humor and sadness, dashed hopes and empowerment. It’s 1850, and Catherine (Laura C. Harris) resides with her hyper-critical father, Dr. Austin Sloper (James Whalen doing some of his best work), in a stately townhouse on Washington Square in lower Manhattan.

Catherine’s recently widowed Aunt Lavinia Penniman (Nancy Robinette) has joined them on an extended visit. But don’t let the widow weeds fool you, Lavinia is happy to raise a glass and eager to assist in changing the circumstances of her niece’s nonexistent love life.

When alone with Lavinia, Catherine is almost relaxed. She amuses her aunt with an anecdote from her day. But when her father — or guests, heaven forbid — are on the scene, it’s another thing altogether.

Harris’ Catherine, tiny and beetle-browed, transforms into a bundle of nerves mutely hopping in and out of the expansive rooms, avoiding contact as best she can.

Exacting Dr. Sloper admires a clever woman. Unlike her accomplished and beautiful mother who died in childbirth, Catherine is unquestionably not clever.

When pressed to count Catherine’s qualities, her father notes that she embroiders neatly. And yet despite the immense fortune she is destined to inherit, Catherine remains overlooked. But when

a young Morris Townsend (a terrifically ingratiating Jonathan David Martin), genteel but impoverished, comes calling, he can’t possibly be interested in for any reason other than her money, or can he?

It depends whom you ask. And herein lies the crux of the drama.

Catherine’s new love gives her increased confidence. After a brief and abrupt courtship, Catherine is convinced she has found the one. Morris’ claim of love at first sight makes sense to her.

Though her aunt is aware of Catherine’s shortcomings, she sees no reason for Catherine to be deprived of romance even if her wooer were a fortune hunter.

It seems Lavinia has developed something of a crush on fawning Townsend.

In an attempt at distraction, Dr. Sloper takes Catherine abroad for six months of European travel. She returns slightly more cultured, but still marriage minded as evidenced by her haul: scores of gowns and a trousseau fit for a minor princess.

But here, her plans go awry.

Mikiko Suzuki Macadams transforms Arena’s Fichlander Stage into the Sloper’s well-appointed drawing room and front parlor with exits to a below stairs kitchen, and a long, long staircase leading to upper floors of unseen bedrooms and Catherine’s sitting room. Despite the largeness of the in-the-round space, the actors maintain intimacy when required.

Others entering the house include Morris’ principled sister Mrs. Montgomery, a small but important part played by Lise Bruneau, and Catherine’s friendly Aunt Elizabeth (Janet Hayatshahi) and pretty cousin Marian played by Lorene Chesley.

Kimberly Schraf plays Maria, the efficient Irish maid.

Today, while crossing Washington Square where a row of those grand 19th century houses still stands, you can imagine Catherine (as played by Olivia de Havilland in the 1949 film version, in my case) safely entrenched behind tall closed doors. But the passing reverie is ended by the cries of children, noisy buskers or maybe the hushed calls from a smalltime drug peddler.

Still, Catherine’s story endures.

‘The Heiress’ Through March 10 Arena Stage 1101 Sixth St., S.W. $41-95 202-488-3300 Arenastage.org

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Third party upsets fruit basket

Boyfriend of three years balks at new play pal despite open rules MICHAEL, I’ve been in an open relationship for the past three years with Jack. We’re both in our 20s and we’ve been very happy with this arrangement.

Last summer I hooked up with Ben and we really hit it off. Jack was out of town for the weekend and when he came home, the three of us got together and played.

The chemistry wasn’t great between Ben and Jack but between me and Ben, it’s off the charts.

We’ve continued to hook up and I would say we’re dating. We go out to clubs, to dinner, spend time at his place and I even sleep over a few nights a week.

We’re really excited to be with each other.

Jack isn’t happy about this and says I’m spending too much time and having too much sex with Ben. He says I’m hurting our relationship. But we never put limits on what we can/can’t do so I don’t understand why he’s mad. We always said we weren’t going to have rules.

Jack and I still have great sex and I don’t see how my spending time with Ben is damaging my relationship with Jack. Especially as Jack also continues to play with other guys and even spends the night elsewhere pretty often.

I think he’s being hypocritical.

I want to continue with Ben. While he’s fine with our arrangement, he says he would like to really be boyfriends.

Jack’s sour attitude makes me think about leaving him for Ben. How do you balance what one person wants with what the other person wants?

Related question, how to deal with one person wanting to put limits on the other in an open relationship?

If Jack and I are going to survive we need to figure those two things out.

MICHAEL REPLIES: What is keeping you and Jack together? Why would you want to stay in a relationship with him?

The only thing you mention enjoying about being with Jack is the sex. If that’s your primary connection to your boyfriend, that isn’t a heck of a lot to build a serious relationship on.

Don’t get me wrong: Many relationships start out based largely on sexual attraction.

But sex, no matter how great, is usually not reason enough to be in more than a shortterm or casual relationship with someone.

Nothing in your letter indicates that you care about what’s important to Jack. If you do care, ask him to tell you in depth how he thinks your actions are hurting your relationship, rather than hiding behind your previous agreement not to have rules. Doing so will help you better understand what’s bothering him and get to know him more deeply.

About that no-rule agreement: Because people change over time, agreements and rules have to be renegotiated over time.

If you come to understand Jack’s position better and if you do want to be with him, you might challenge yourself to consider his request, even if limiting your Ben time is not what you want. Or you might talk with Jack in depth about what you want, so that he can better understand your choice and make his own decision.

All of this — knowing another person deeply, learning more about yourself, being challenged by your differences, having to define what is most important to you — is what helps to keep relationships interesting over time. If the only connection you value with Jack is sex, you’re missing out on this dimension of closeness.

You don’t have to change a thing about how you’re conducting yourself. You can keep having the sort of relationship you’re having for as long as you wish, as long as you have a willing partner. But you’re being handed an opportunity to take yourself and your relationship with Jack to a different level, if you’re interested.

Regarding Jack’s sour mood: You make it clear that he is sour because he is unhappy about your new relationship with Ben. While Jack is responsible for his mood, don’t ignore your own part in your relationship with him being exactly where it is.

And regarding your connection with Ben: As with Jack, you report sex being the main appeal. If you do wind up leaving Jack and being in a relationship with Ben, you are likely to face the same challenges.

Life often hands us similar dilemmas over and over, giving us one opportunity after another to decide how we want to respond.

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Gay sports summit planned next month in Tel Aviv

Athletes will compete in running, volleyball, soccer, swimming and more

By KEVIN MAJOROS A singular experience can sometimes change your life path. One lone swimmer from Israel traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to compete in the 2014 Gay Games. He was part of a group of eight Israeli athletes who made the trip halfway around the world to participate.

Exhilarated and wanting to share his experience, he returned to Tel Aviv and became involved in creating an organized LGBT sports community. When the Washington Blade caught up with Sagi Krispin in 2016, the TLV LGBT Sports Club was already a thriving entity.

Krispin wasn’t done though. In 2017, the Tel Aviv Games launched as a multisport biennial LGBT sports tournament. The first iteration included basketball, soccer, swimming and tennis.

The LGBT sports community in Tel Aviv has continued to grow and at the 2018 Paris Gay Games, 52 Israeli athletes competed in six sports including 22 participants in swimming.

The second edition of the Tel Aviv Games will be held from March 27-30 with road running, volleyball and same-sex dance being added to the previous roster of sports.

“This year’s TAG will be bigger, more visible and prouder,” says Krispin, head of the organizing committee. “There will also be more involvement from the local community outside of the sports community.”

With that in mind, they added venues around town and a Pride Run 5K/10K that will be open to anyone. Proceeds from the Pride Run will benefit a Tel Aviv youth organization, Israel Gay Youth.

“The people here are very committed to TAG,” Krispin says. “We have partnered with

City Hall and will be hosting events there.”

Europe has a series of LGBT multisport events that are held in cities such as Vienna, Prague and Stuttgart. Most of the participants at the first Tel Aviv Games came from European countries.

“This time we are also expecting athletes from North America, Australia and Asia,” Krispin says. “We have a selling point that isn’t found in the other host cities. Europe will still be recovering from winter, but you can go to the beach in Tel Aviv in March. We are excited to welcome everyone.”

Never one to pass up an opportunity for sports and travel, the District of Columbia Aquatics Club is sending five swimmers to compete in the Tel Aviv Games.

John Tustin joined D.C. Aquatics in 2009 and has traveled extensively with the team.

The competition in Tel Aviv will be a segue to stops in Jordan, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. “I have always wanted to go to these places as a tourist and it is nice to have a structured activity to go along with travel,” Tustin says. “The competition along with the events and parties gives you the opportunity to eat and hangout with locals. It makes it much easier to experience how they live.”

Tustin will be stopping in Jordan on his own before the competition and then will be joined by his teammates for the trips to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. “I am fine traveling independent, but it is nice combining travel with friends and teammates,” Tustin says. “Our common interest in swimming will enrich the experience of my vacation. I am excited to see the history of the area along with modern Israel.”

40 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 41

Sunday Funday Capital Pride and the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community held the networking mixer ‘Sunday Funday with a Purpose’ at Uproar Lounge on Feb. 17.

Washington Blade photos by Molly Byrom

42 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 43

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Kondo-ize your home Employ the ‘Tidying Up’ wisdom and your house will be easier to sell

By SHERRI ANNE GREEN Everyone’s gone Kondo crazy.

“Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” has taken Netflix and America by storm.

She’s cleaning out and spreading joy in urban cities and rural towns from East to West. Facebook has been inundated with people’s posts on how they are putting the KonMari Method to work in their own homes. And so should you.

Applying the KonMari clean up method to your home can be very therapeutic.

There is something cathartic to letting go of things that are useless, embracing what’s important, sharing items that you no longer need with others so they can enjoy them and getting rid of trash. It’s freeing. It’s liberating.

And it’s filling up Goodwill Donation Centers faster than the promise of a tax write off.

As a homeowner, certainly cleaning out can help you enjoy your home more.

Yet, as a seller, it’s imperative. There are multiple steps necessary to prepare a property for the market and applying the KonMari Method is your best first step.

Buyers need to find joy in your house.

A clean, organized and well-designed house can help. So where to start? While Marie suggests starting with categories of items, when preparing your home to sell, it’s perfectly fine to start with areas. You want to feel a sense of accomplishment and progress right away so you don’t get discouraged. My first suggestion is closets.

Storage is a significant feature for many buyers. We often live in tight quarters in the city, so showing buyers that their personal belongings will fit in your house should they buy it becomes more important. If your closet is packed to the ceiling and

Getting rid of your clutter will help you when it’s time to sell.

Photo by Milkos; Photo courtesy of Bigstock

things are piled up on the floor, buyers can get the impression that there’s not enough storage space in your house.

Clean out off-season clothes. Donate what you no longer need or want and store the rest.

Remove your summer wardrobe and sports gear from your closets in the winter and in the spring/summer store those coats and winter boots, skis, shovels, etc. Remember, you’re going to move out, so give yourself a head start and pack up those out-of-season items.

For what remains, get to folding. Using the KonMari Method of folding creates a beautiful display. Use shoeboxes and other small vessels to organize your drawers. Add hooks to the walls or to the back of the door to hang belts, ties and bags. If done correctly, it can actually look like art. Invest in hangers.

Return every wire hanger to your drycleaner and buy slim velvet ones. They will help free up space and add a designer touch to your organization. Label your shelves and storage bins — skinnies, denim, cords, hats, scarfs,

F EB R UARY 1 5 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 45

etc. For items on hangers, organize by type, then color, to create visual harmony.

Do the same to the linen closet. Pack up the blankets if you list in the summer and beach towels if you list in the fall or winter. Get them out of the closet and free up some space.

Fold your remaining towels and sheets in the KonMari Method way to add visual interest and better organization. Stay focused on the bathroom and check under the sink and in the drawers. In those places, purge, purge, purge.

Next, tackle the kitchen. The pantry or cabinet where you store dry goods, is typically hiding old spices and seasonings.

Check expiration dates and toss items that are beyond their prime. Want to make it look extra organized? Plan a trip to The Container Store to invest in a food storage system. They stack well, show off the contents, make your shelves look professionally organized and typically they keep everything from cereal to pasta fresher, longer. The same goes for the

refrigerator. Old condiments, sauces, halfeaten containers of food — all need to go.

So go Kondo on your house. Clean up. Toss out. Tidy up. Fold with abandon.

Embrace what you love — the things that bring you joy, and toss or donate what you no longer need. Free up space for buyers to find the joy in your home, so they can make it their own.

Sherri Anne Green is an award-winning realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage having earned the prestigious International Sterling Society and numerous Top 100 awards. Focusing on custom, data-driven marketing and client service, Green provides impeccable, high-touch service tailored to her client’s situation. She can be reached via phone or text (202-798-1288), email (sherri.green@ cbmove.com) or social media.

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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.

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

LEGAL SERVICES ADOPTION, DONOR, SURROGACY legal services.

Jennifer represents LGBTQ clients in DC, MD & VA interested in adoption or ART matters. 240-863- 2441, JFairfax@jenniferfairfax.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY STEVE O’TOOLE PHOTOGRAPHY Fine Art Photographer for Portraits & Weddings & more! Check out my website - www. steveotoolephotography.com.

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

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Results-Oriented • Affordable

Larry Cohen, LICSW

30 years serving the LGBT community

202-244-0903 socialanxietyhelp.com

See website for NPR story on my work

SIMPLE AFFORDABLE PROVEN RESULTS

CALL TODAY TOPLACE YOUR AD

202.747.2077

DAVE LLOYD & ASSOCIATES Top 1% Nationwide NVAR Life Member Top Producder

703-593-3204

WWW.DAVELLOYD.NET ENTHUSIASTICALLY SERVING DC & VIRGINIA

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.

SIMPLE AFFORDABLE PROVEN RESULTS

CALL TODAY TOPLACE YOUR AD

202.747.2077

46 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • FEB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 1 9

DEADLINES

SHARE ADS ARE FREE.

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

SHARE ADS ARE FREE

Place your HOUSING TO SHARE ad online at washingtonblade.com and the ad prints free in the paper and online.*

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.

HANDYMAN BRITISH REMODELING HANDYMAN Local licensed company with over 25 years of experience. Specializing in bathrooms, kitchens & all interior/exterior repairs.

Drywall, paint, electric & wallpaper. Trevor 703-303-8699.

Playmates and soul mates...

*25 words or less prints free - anything more is $1/word.

PLUMBERS CLEANING FERNANDO’S CLEANING: Residential & Commercial Cleaning, Reasonable Rates, Free Estimates, Routine, 1-Time, Move-In/Move-Out. (202) 234-7050, 202-486-6183.

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.

Licensed, Bonded & Insured.

DC Plumbers License #707.

Visa, MasterCard, American Express accepted.

MOVERS AROUND TOWN MOVERS. Professional Moving & Storage. Let Our Movers Do The Heavy Lifting.

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

F EB R UARY 2 2 , 2 0 19 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 47

Washington:

202-448-0824

SHARE / DC CAPITAL HILL ROOMMATE 1400 F Street NE. Unfurnished room $600.00 / month, plus utilities. One month sec. deposit. No drugs, no pets. Avail to see Thurs & Sundays.

Call Tomas 202-397-7132.

BODYWORK THE MAGIC TOUCH: Swedish, Massage or Deep Tissue.

Appts 202-486-6183, Low Rates, 24/7, In-Calls.

18+ MegaMates.com