Washingtonblade.com, Volume 50, Issue 14, April 5, 2019

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

SLAIN TRANS WOMAN REMEMBERED AT VIGIL, PAGE 10

A PRIL 05, 2019 • VOLUM E 50 • I S S UE 14 • WA S HI N GTONB LAD E.CO M

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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.

Washington Blade_Denied_FullPage.indd 1

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2/8/19 6:08 PM

VOLUME 50 ISSUE 14 ADDRESS

PO Box 53352 Washington DC 20009 PHONE

About 100 people turned out for a vigil Tuesday in honor of Ashanti Carmon, who was shot to death March 30.

PAGE 10

06

Looking back:

17

Cannabis Culture

50 years of the Blade

18

Maloney seeks to restrict

08

Reeder’s restaurant forced to close

10

Slain trans woman

21

Viewpoint

remembered at vigil

28

Eli’s song

CDC chief ‘totally confident’

30

QUEERY:Tad Czyzewski

in plan to beat HIV by 2030

32

Women’s Fest is next weekend

Spurious claims, far-fetched

34

Arts & Culture

GOP fears dominate

37

‘I share my story’

Equality Act hearing

38

Dynamic duo

HISTORIC: Chicago elects its

40

‘If you could swim, you could live’

first black lesbian major

41

Cautious or paranoid?

Buttigieg raises $7

42

40 Under 40 Party

million in first quarter

45

Beach market is heating

11 12

13 14 15

‘conversion’ therapy

Mariela Castro group to honor Cleve Jones

up like the weather 46

202-747-2077 E-MAIL news@washblade.com INTERNET washingtonblade.com PUBLISHED BY Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia, Inc. PUBLISHER LYNNE J. BROWN lbrown@washblade.com ext. 8075 EDITORIAL EDITOR KEVIN NAFF knaff@washblade.com ext. 8088 FEATURES EDITOR JOEY DIGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com ext. 8081 SR. NEWS REPORTER LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com ext. 8079 NEWS REPORTER CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com ext. 8083 REPORTER & INTERNATIONAL NEWS EDITOR MICHAEL K. LAVERS mlavers@washblade.com POP CULTURE REPORTER MARIAH COOPER PHOTO EDITOR MICHAEL KEY mkey@washblade.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS PETER ROSENSTEIN, MARK LEE, LATEEFAH WILLIAMS, KATE CLINTON, KATHI WOLFE, RICHARD J. ROSENDALL, ERNESTO VALLE, NICOLÁS LEVY, FELIPE ALFACE, YARIEL VALDÉS, LYNARE ROBBINS, RACHAEL ESPINET, KATLEGO K. KOL-KES, VICTOR MAUNG NEWS INTERN JAMES WELLEMEYER CREATIVE DESIGN/PRODUCTION AZERCREATIVE.COM SALES & ADMINISTRATION DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING STEPHEN RUTGERS srutgers@washblade.com ext. 8077 SR. ACCT. EXECUTIVE BRIAN PITTS bpitts@washblade.com ext. 8089 ACCT. EXECUTIVE JOE HICKLING jhickling@washblade.com ext. 8094 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION PHILLIP G. ROCKSTROH prockstroh@washblade.com ext. 8092 NATIONAL ADVERTISING RIVENDELL MEDIA 212-242-6863; sales@rivendellmedia.com For distribution, contact Lynne Brown at 202-747-2077, ext. 8075. Distributed by MediaPoint, LLC All material in the Washington Blade is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Washington Blade. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, writers and cartoonists published herein is neither inferred nor implied. The appearance of names or pictorial representation does not necessarily indicate the sexual orientation of that person or persons. Although the Washington Blade is supported by many fine advertisers, we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers. Unsolicited editorial material is accepted by the Washington Blade, but the paper cannot take responsibility for its return.

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Coat: Jewels 50407095 $545 Shirt: T-Christo 50405258 $228 Trousers: Genesis 50404480 $198

Full name: Gary Unger Occupation: Healthcare Executive Favorite local restaurant: The Dabney Favorite local bar/lounge: Morris American Bar Favorite vacation spot: Sydney, Australia Favorite Charity: Whitman-Walker Health Favorite thing to do on a weekend: Washington, D.C./Sports teams

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

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April is perm month — ad from the April 12, 1979 Blade FROM STAFF REPORTS

Forty years ago this month, it was “Perm Month” for men at the Young Executive Salon in Alexandria.

From the photo, it looks like they were promising a fuller head of hair as well. All perms reduced this month only.

Well, hey, if it worked for Mike Brady! (And we all know he was gay too.)

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LESLIE JORDAN is scheduled to perform in D.C. on June 5.

Lesbian businesswoman DIONNE REEDER says her Anacostia restaurant closed on March 22 after its landlord refused to renew the lease.

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

Reeder’s restaurant forced to close Lesbian businesswoman Dionne Reeder announced on Facebook that her popular Anacostia restaurant called Cheers @ The Big Chair closed on March 22 after her landlord refused to renew her lease.

Reeder, who ran unsuccessfully last year for an at-large seat on the D.C. City Council, has operated the restaurant with her partner for the past four years at 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E., in the heart of the Anacostia business district.

It took its name from the nearby statue of a giant chair in downtown Anacostia known as The Big Chair. Cheers @ The Big Chair became one of just a few sit-down restaurants in Anacostia and other places in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

“Today is our last day at this location,” she wrote in her Facebook post. “Come and show us some love as we say see you later not goodbye.”

The company that owns the building, Curtis Investment Group, Inc., has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Reeder couldn’t immediately be reached by the Washington Blade for comment. But she has stated on social media that the Curtis Investment firm spurned her repeated attempts to reach out to negotiate a new lease.

Ron Moten, senior adviser for the Anacostia-based LGBT youth advocacy and business group Check It Enterprises, which is located near Reeder’s restaurant, said Reeder told him her business had not been adversely impacted by the recent opening of a Busboys & Poets restaurant less than a block away.

“In fact, Busboys & Poets actually gave her more business,” Moten said. “She was packed almost every day. Same thing with us,” he said. “We get more traffic now since Busboys has come here.” He was referring to people visiting the Check It Enterprises offices at 1921 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E., where the group, among other things, sells its own line of clothing.

Moten said he suspects the Curtis Investment Group, which is also known as the Curtis Brothers’ company, is holding out for what it expects to be a more lucrative offer from one or more large real estate development companies that are descending on Anacostia as part of the relentless gentrification process throughout the city.

“All these people are trying to buy up all this property over here,” said Moten, who added that Check It Enterprises is in the process of putting together supporters and investors to help it buy the building it rents and two adjacent buildings.

“We’re trying to put it all together because we’ll be gone in two and a half years when our lease is up,” he said, noting that Check It will likely be displaced and forced out of its current space like Reeder was if it doesn’t purchase its building.

He said Check It is having discussions with Reeder to determine if she wants to partner with Check It on a food service type project in addition to her plans to reopen her restaurant.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Comedian Leslie Jordan to perform during Pride week Emmy Award-winning actor, playwright and activist Leslie Jordan is scheduled to perform in D.C. during the 2019 Pride week celebrations.

Join the Washington Blade in celebrating the new show from Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Leslie Jordan in “EXPOSED,” live at Union Stage at the Wharf (740 Water St., S.W.). Two shows are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, June 5 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Best known for his standout roles in “Sordid Lives,” “American Horror Story,” “The Help,” Beverley Leslie on NBC’s hit series “Will & Grace,” and now playing a lead role in the new comedy series “The Cool Kids” on FOX, Jordan has charmed fans for more than four decades.

In “EXPOSED,” Jordan invites his audiences behind the scenes of his childhood and career, offering a charming and hilarious look back at his life experience as a flamboyant youth raised as a Southern Baptist, as well as the “unbelievable real-life stories” and treasured anecdotes from his renowned stage and television performances.

Visit washingtonblade.com for ticketing information.

STAFF REPORTS

Trans woman ordained as ‘Catholic’ priest

A D.C. transgender woman has been ordained as one of the first known transgender priests by a breakaway Catholic denomination called the National Catholic Church of North America.

Colleen Fay, 74, who says she’s a former lifelong member of the Roman Catholic Church and has a master’s of theology degree, is inviting members of the D.C. LGBT community to attend the first mass she will be celebrating as a transgender woman next month. The mass will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, at the Universalist National Memorial Church at 1810 16th Street, N.W.

Similar to some other breakaway Catholic denominations, the National Catholic Church of North America welcomes LGBT people, performs same-sex marriages, and allows women, married people, and LGBT people to become priests.

“You will know, of course, that not only does the Roman Catholic Church not ordain women, but it does not recognize the existence of transgender persons,” Fay told the Blade in statement. “My ordination by the bishops of the National Catholic Church will mean that I will be automatically excommunicated from the RC church,” she said.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Dignity Washington’s headquarters up for sale

The local LGBT Catholic organization Dignity Washington announced in its weekly church bulletin last month that it has placed its Dignity Center building on Capitol Hill on the market for sale.

Tom Bower, a member of the group’s board of directors, told the Blade the board, after consulting with the group’s membership, determined the building is larger than the space the group needs for its various social and religious services and meetings. The building at 721 8th St., S.E., across the street from the U.S. Marine Barracks, has a sale price of $2.5 million.

Bower said Dignity Washington plans to use the proceeds from the sale to buy another smaller building and to help fund various “mission directed” programs and projects.

City property records show that Dignity Washington bought the Capitol Hill building in 1998. Bower said the purchase price was $250,000. He said the group paid off a mortgage it had for the building a little over 10 years ago.

Among its main activities, Dignity Washington organizes a Catholic Mass for LGBT Catholics and their friends and families at 6 p.m. every Sunday at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 1830 Connecticut Ave., N.W. LOU CHIBBARO JR.

08 • WA S HI NGTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

Since 2013, Give OUT Day has raised $5+ million for 600+ LGBTQ organizations.

This year, on April 18, let’s make history by raising $1 million more.

Join us: giveoutday.org

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Slain trans woman remembered at vigil Nearly 100 turn out on street where Ashanti Carmon was shot to death

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

Left photo: ASHANTI CARMON was shot to death on Saturday. Photo via Facebook. About 100 people turned out Tuesday night for a vigil honoring Ashanti Carmon. Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

Close to 100 people turned out in the rain and chilly weather for a candlelight vigil Tuesday night on a quiet residential street in Fairmount Heights, Md., to honor the life of transgender woman Ashanti Carmon, 27, who was found shot to death there at 6:20 a.m. on Saturday, March 30.

Prince George’s County Police, who are investigating the murder, have released little information about the case other than that Carmon had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said she was found at the intersection of Jost and Aspen streets one block away from Eastern Avenue, which serves as the boundary between D.C. and Prince George’s County. The area where she was found is known as a place where both transgender and cisgender female sex workers congregate.

But friends of Carmon who spoke at the vigil and at a press conference held on Aspen Street immediately prior to the vigil said Carmon had a stable job at a Dunkin’ Donuts shop in Alexandria, Va., where she lived. They said they were not aware that she engaged in sex work and pointed out that the area where she was shot is also known as a place where trans women go to socialize who are not involved in sex work.

“What I know is that transgender people congregate on Eastern Avenue and K Street and all of that,” said transgender activist Earline Budd.

Budd served as the lead organizer of the vigil and press conference in her role as a case manager with the D.C. social services group HIPS, which hosts a drop-in center for the transgender community.

Budd told the press conference that gay bars in D.C. that once provided a welcoming place for transgender people

have closed in recent years.

“So we congregate wherever we can and we hang out,” she said. “And I understand that at Eastern Avenue there may be folks that do commercial sex work. But also there’s folks who are just looking for a safe space to go and hang out with their colleagues and with their friends,” Budd said.

Budd said she got to know Carmon as one of the trans women who occasionally visited the HIPS drop-in center and was deeply troubled over learning of her death.

Other speakers at the press conference and vigil, most of whom were transgender women, said Carmon’s murder was another in a long list of murders of trans women of color in D.C. and across the country over the past 10 years or longer.

“It seems like only yesterday the last murder happened,” said Tamica Spellman, a transgender activist who also works at HIPS. “And here we are back at the same place again, someone taking someone’s life. I’m angry. I’m hurt. And I’m scared,” she said.

Spellman said she was also troubled that some members of the news media appeared to be focused on the question of whether Carmon was a sex worker who engaged in prostitution.

“It doesn’t matter if she was or was not,” she said. “She was a human being.

She was a human being who should have been protected,” Spellman told the press conference. “And for her to be gunned down in the manner that she was in inexcusable. It’s unfathomable that we are still losing transgender women in today’s world. It has to stop.”

Among those attending the press conference and vigil were officials and officers of the Prince George’s County Police Department, the D.C. police LGBT

Liaison Unit, and the Fairmount Heights police department, including its Chief of Police Stephen Watkins.

Watkins told the Blade that Carmon was a familiar face to his officers who patrol the Eastern Avenue area and the nearby side streets where trans women congregate.

He said his officers considered her a “nice person” who never caused problems.

P.G. police handed out fliers about the Carmon case that announced a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment. Police are urging anyone with information about the case to call the department’s Homicide Unit at 302-772-4925 or its anonymous tips line at 1-866-411-TIPS. Also attending the vigil were Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBT Affairs, and gay Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Anthony Lorenzo Green, who spoke at the vigil in support of the transgender community.

Trans activist Charmaine Eccles said at the press conference that she believes Carmon had a “promising career ahead of her” in the food service industry.

“Just this weekend I was told by her boyfriend that she would have been promoted to be a manager,” Eccles said in referring to Carmon’s job at the Alexandria Dunkin’ Donuts. “And her boss was trying to call her this whole weekend,” she said.

“They were calling her to let her know that she was going to be promoted to a manager” before they learned of her death, Eccles told the gathering.

Veteran transgender activist Ruby Corado, founder and executive director of the D.C. LGBT community services center Casa Ruby, which helped Budd organize the vigil, urged vigil participants

to get involved in efforts to help change attitudes that create a climate of hate toward transgender people that may have prompted the unidentified shooter to take Ashanti Carmon’s life.

“What happened this weekend can be prevented,” Corado said in referring to Carmon’s shooting death. “We don’t have to die on the streets of this city waiting for our life to get better with no support,” she said. “Those of you who knew Ashanti know that struggle.”

Added Corado, “So as we sit here today I want us to not just remember Ashanti but to remember the other 23 – the other 23 who today still don’t have any justice.” She was referring to the unsolved murders of LGBT people in D.C. over the past 20 years.

Among the others who attended the vigil but did not speak were Carmon’s boyfriend and fiancé Philip Williams. Budd said she was hopeful that some of Carmon’s family members would attend the vigil, but none showed up. She said she was troubled that Williams, Carmon’s boyfriend, stated in a TV news interview that Carmon’s family may not have been fully accepting of her status as a trans woman.

“But what I want to say to Ashanti’s family is it’s alright,” Budd said. “I went through that. Many of us have gone through that. But at the end of the day you need to know that we stand by you.”

Budd added, “Don’t make us your enemy, make us a friend. We’ve done many of these. We can help you through this. We mourn and you mourn. So today I beg her family to please reach out to us.”

At the conclusion of the vigil the crowd chanted “Ashanti! Ashanti! Say her name!” and “Trans lives matter!”

10 • WA S HI N GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

CDC chief ‘totally confident’ in plan to beat HIV by 2030 Redfield says push to end Obamacare won’t impact initiative

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director ROBERT REDFIELD said he’s confident in President Trump’s plan to beat HIV by 2030.

A top Trump health official leading the charge on the administration’s effort to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 said Thursday he’s “totally confident” about achieving the ambitious goal.

Robert Redfield, director of Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, made the remarks during an exclusive interview with the Blade on the initiative and the continued stigma facing the LGBT community in health settings.

President Trump announced the initiative during his State of the Union address, pledging to seek resources to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030. The subsequent budget request to Congress sought $300 million for the first year of the initiative (while simultaneously seeking cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, programs on which many people with HIV rely).

Top health officials within the administration, Redfield said, developed the initiative and submitted the proposal to Secretary of Health & Human Services Alex Azar, who in turn submitted the plan to Trump in time for his State of the Union address.

“We presented that initiative to our secretary of health, who has fully embraced it as one of his major priorities,” Redfield said. “He was successful in presenting this to the president, who was also very committed and engaged, but I don’t know the actual process of how words get into his speech.”

Although the administration is also seeking to roll back the Affordable Care Act and to cut Medicare and Medicaid, Redfield said he doesn’t think changes to

other health programs will affect the main HIV initiative.

“At least for individuals who are at risk for HIV infection or who have HIV infection, these persons will get access to the medical and preventive care independent of other issues they may come about related to the broader health care issues of our nation,” Redfield said.

Redfield, who worked as a medical researcher at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center at the height of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, also marveled at the advancements in treatment and prevention that he said enables the plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030. “[I was] involved in the first trial to ever use AZT, and I remember how ecstatic we all were when we increased survival from 10 months to 26 months,” Redfield said. “Who would believe today that when you’re 20 years old and you get HIV, you can expect to live between the age of 70 and 75?”

Read the interview below: Washington Blade: Now that the budget request is out, how confident are you the administration can achieve President Trump’s goal of ending new HIV infections by 2030?

Robert Redfield: I’m totally confident that we’re going to succeed. And, again, I just want to clarify the goal is to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, and so, what that technically means is to bring new infections down to less than one per 100,000, so that would be less than 3,000. Obviously, we would like to do all the way down to zero,

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but the goal is to end the AIDS epidemic in America by decreasing new infections below 1 infection per 100,000 group of people.

Blade: The president announced the initiative during his State of the Union address. What was the process like to make sure those words would be included in the speech?

Redfield: Well, I really don’t know that process as much other than I can say that this was a very thoughtful initiative that was put together by key principals from CDC, NIH, HRSA, the Indian Health Services, the assistant secretary of health, who really did work together for months to look in detail whether we felt that the targeted initiative, a highly focused initiative could meet the goal of bringing the HIV epidemic to an end.

Once we were confident among ourselves that, as you know well, Chris, we had the tools, whether it’s successful treatment to get people diagnosed and treated, virally suppressed, so not only they can live a full life, but also, importantly, that if you’re virally suppressed that…you would no longer be able to transmit, and if you could couple that with getting people at risk for HIV infections in comprehensive prevention programs, including PrEP, that the epidemic would come to an end.

And the question was how would we do that. And when we looked at the new infections in America that have stabilized around 40,000 and just spotted the infections where they occurred, we noticed that over half the infections were in 48 counties and D.C. and San Juan — which is just 50 jurisdictions out of over 3,000, so immediately if you look at that map, everyone said, “Wait a minute. This is highly focused. We can do this.”

It’s also highly focused, as you know, demographically that most of the new infections that we’re seeing are in men who have sex with men, and not just men who have sex with men, but African-American and Latino men, and not just AfricanAmerican and Latino men, but men that are between the ages of 25 and 34. So it’s very geographically focused and it’s very demographically focused.

So we came together with an initiative, which we all believed was no longer aspirational, but was practical. We presented that initiative to our secretary of health, who has fully embraced it as one of his major priorities. He was successful in presenting this to the president, who was also very committed and engaged, but I don’t know the actual process of how words get into his speech. Clearly, I do know how

the secretary became very committed and made this one of the major objectives of his tenure as secretary and he presented it to the president. He wanted to make it one of the major initiatives of his presidency.

Blade: The president’s budget request calls for $300 million for the initiative. Will future requests seek similar resources, or was that a one-time request?

Redfield: As you know the president’s budget request, as you said, nearly $300 million, $291 million. That was the budget that the experts within the department, the agencies that I mentioned, thought that we needed in Year One. This is a multi-year initiative, and people can anticipate that there’ll be additional requests in a second, third, fourth and fifth year. And people can anticipate that those resources obviously will be — requested will be significantly greater than the resources that were in the president’s budget for 2020.

Blade: The budget also requests an $845 billion cut to Medicare and seeks to roll back Medicaid as it was expanded under the Affordable Care Act. Could the administration achieve the 2030 goal if Congress agrees to the cuts as well?

Redfield: You know, Chris, that’s outside my expertise other than to say that I am confident, as are the other leaders, confident that within the president’s HIV initiative, we will have the resources needed to make sure that all — I’m going to keep saying that “all,” because people when I say “all,” they say but what about these people? I say all people with HIV infection we will work to get diagnosed, engaged in care and on retroviral therapy and virally suppressed.

And we did our current calculations with a five-year budget outline and eventually, as you know, it’s a 10-year program, but we did outline the first five years. We did it assuming that there was no significant change in expanded Medicaid and any change in services. The second thing we did is [ensure] all people at risk for HIV infection would get access to comprehensive prevention strategy, including PrEP. So, at least for individuals who are at risk for HIV infection or who have HIV infection, these persons will get access to the medical and preventive care independent of other issues they may come about related to the broader health care issues of our nation.

CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

Spurious claims, far-fetched GOP fears dominate Equality Act hearing Republicans obsessed with men playing women’s sports

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

Rep. DAVID CICILLINE, lead sponsor of the Equality Act, touted the importance of the legislation in ending discrimination during his remarks at the hearing.

Photo courtesy of Richard Luchette of Office of David Cicilline

A congressional hearing Tuesday on the Equality Act, legislation seeking to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in fundamental aspects of life such as employment and housing, quickly got sidetracked into fears over men participating in women’s sports.

The issue became a central focus during the nearly four-hour congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban anti-LGBT discrimination under federal law.

Avoiding the issue of general anti-LGBT discrimination, critics of the Equality Act claimed the bill would allow men to infiltrate the safe spaces of women. Key among those arguments was the assertion the bill would undermine girls’ sports by allowing transgender women to participate, or at least men who would feign being transgender women to win easy gold medals.

Julie Beck, a lesbian and former law and policy co-chair for Baltimore City’s LGBTQ Commission, testified against the Equality Act based on anti-transgender arguments, including opposition to transgender women in sports.

Among Beck’s assertions were that male rapists would go to women’s prison and assault female inmates, female survivors of rape would be unable to contest male presence in women’s shelters, men would dominate women’s sports and girls who would have taken first place will be denied scholastic opportunities.

“Everything I just listed is already happening, and it’s only going to get worse if gender identity is recognized in federal law,” Beck said. “The authors of this bill have done a lot of work to make it sound like gender identity is well understood and has been around for a long time, but it’s a new concept that can only ever refer to stereotypes and unverifiable claims.”

Instead of the prohibition on gender identity discrimination in the Equality Act, Beck urged the committee to approve legislation that would ban discrimination on sex-stereotyping, which she said could “equally cover both RuPaul and Caitlyn Jenner and their rights to housing and employment — but only if we accurately recognize everyone’s biological sex.”

Although Beck once worked as a gay rights advocate for the City of Baltimore, she was terminated for expressing antitrans views and now has ties to the antiLGBT Heritage Foundation and spoke recently at the organization in opposition to the Equality Act. Presenting a more nuanced approach was Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a law professor at Duke University.

Coleman, who has worked on Title IX in terms of women’s participation in sports, said the Equality Act should be modified with respect to transgender women’s participation in sports in schools and federally funded programs.

“Those of us who are athletes know that separation on the basis of sex is necessary to achieve equality in this space,” Coleman said. “With respect, it is accepted, beyond dispute, that males and females are materially different with respect to the main physical attributes that contribute to athletic performance.”

Coleman added she thinks transgender women should be allowed to take part in sports, but the Equality Act should be modified to allow some basis for sex-based attributes, such as reduced testosterone levels, for transgender women’s participation.

Advocates of the Equality Act pushed back by insisting the legislation was about ending discrimination and transgender women should have equal opportunities in sports.

Rep. Val Butler Demings (D-Fla.) fumed over the concerns of sports, which she called a “technicality,” dominating the hearing about ending LGBT discrimination.

“You all know the history of our country,” Demings said. “Our past is so ugly in this area. I would think that we would all do

everything we can within our power to make it right, but instead, we sit here today, at least my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and look for a technicality to continue to justify discrimination in what I do believe is the greatest country in the world.”

Defending the Equality Act as written was Sunu Chandy, legal director for the National Women’s Law Center, who said claims the Equality Act would jeopardize women in sports were spurious.

“There’s no evidence to support the claims that allowing trans athletes to play on teams that fit their gender identity will create a competitive imbalance,” Chandy said. “Trans children display the same variations of size, strength and athletic ability as other youth, and there’s no recorded instances of a boy pretending to be transgender, presenting as a girl to fraudulently join a sports team.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chair of the committee, anticipated concerns about sports in his opening statement.

“Many states have sexual orientation and gender identity non-discrimination laws,” Nadler said. “All of them still have have women’s sports. Arguments about transgender athletes participating in sports in accordance with their gender identity having competitive advantages has not been borne out.”

But, nonetheless, Republicans on the committee sought to amplify these concerns about transgender women in sports to stir opposition.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), top Republican on the committee, said the Equality Act would “harm countless people who understand themselves to be transgender and would demolish the hard-won rights of women, putting them at the mercy of any biological man who identifies at any moment as a woman.”

“The biological differences between the sexes remain scientifically certain,” Collins said. “Men are physically stronger than women, which has made it necessary for women to access clear legal protection.”

Asserting the Equality Act “privileges the rights of men who identify as women over biological women and girls,” Collins cited as an example two individuals in Connecticut who won ahead of a cisgender woman in a track and field event last year.

In response to that incident, Chandy said the women’s sports “haven’t been overcome” with transgender athletes winning races. Those two individuals in Connecticut, she said, went on to nationals, but one didn’t participate and the other

came in 30th or 31st place.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who has a notoriously anti-LGBT record in Congress, said although men competing in women’s sports may not be widespread now, “there is no question that problem will continue to arise.”

“I think when we consider laws to say something is equal like testosterone, the testimonies already indicate it’s clear in the medical literature, it does make a difference,” Gohmert said.

Asserting the Equality Act would amount to telling women “it’s just too bad” men should be allowed in their safe spaces, Gohmert concluded the Equality Act amounts to a “war on women that should not be allowed.”

After Gohmert’s remarks, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) delivered a zinger questioning whether the Republicans were genuine in their concerns about women and not just finding reasons to oppose the Equality Act. “There is now interest on the other side of the aisle in women’s athletics that has never existed before,” Deutch said.

Gohmert responded he’s the father of three girls and, in fact, does care about women’s issues.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), famed for his tweets insinuating Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen has engaged in adultery, said the bill would enable “bad actors who would exploit the provision for their own gain.”

That’s when Gaetz delivered his line ridiculed both in the media and with guffaws in the hearing room.

“Consider as a possibility if Trump were to say I am now the first female president,” Gaetz said. “Who would celebrate that? Would those who support the legislation think that’s a good thing, or would they be dismayed?”

With all opponents of the Equality Act making hay over claims the bill would compromise women’s right, the stories of anti-LGBT discrimination were easy to miss, but nonetheless present.

Carter Brown, who founded Black Transmen, Inc. and spoke at the news conference, testified about the discrimination he faced on the job in Texas after being outed as transgender.

“Everything around me shattered,” Brown said. “In the months that followed, I was the subject of cruel office gossip and forced to endure invasive and offensive questioning from colleagues on the subject of my identity.”

CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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HISTORIC: Chicago elects its first black lesbian mayor Lightfoot to lead third-largest U.S. city in LGBT milestone

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

Chicago Mayor-elect LORI LIGHTFOOT Photo courtesy of the Lightfoot Campaign

The run-off election Tuesday night in Chicago resulted in a historic victory for Lori Lightfoot, who became the first openly lesbian and black woman elected mayor of the city.

The Associated Press called the race for Lightfoot, who was running against Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, at 8 p.m. local time.

According to early results, Lightfoot claimed 74.2 percent of the vote compared to the 25.8 percent won by Preckwinkle.

Lightfoot’s victory will make Chicago the largest city in the United States with an openly gay mayor. Previously, that distinction was held by Houston, where Annise Parker served as mayor from 2010 to 2016.

Parker, who’s now executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, was on the ground in Chicago and commended Lightfood in a statement.

“A Black lesbian taking power in the nation’s third-largest city is a historic moment for so many communities that are too often ignored in American politics,” Parker said. “Chicago’s enormous influence on the national dialogue provides a platform for Lori to promote more inclusive solutions to the challenges facing our cities and nation – and to be a credible messenger as well. Lori will certainly remain focused on the issues facing Chicago. But as the highest-ranking LGBTQ person ever elected mayor of an American city – a title she takes from me – she is also now a key leader in the movement to build LGBTQ political power nationwide.”

Also commending Lightfoot was Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, who said her victory extends the treads of milestone victories after the 2018 election.

“As the first openly LGBTQ woman of color to be elected mayor in any of America’s 100 largest cities and the first black woman to serve as mayor of Chicago, Lightfoot is an inspiration to thousands of LGBTQ people of color who have a new role model in elected office,” Perez said.

Two other lesbian candidates — Satya Rhodes-Conway in Madison, Wisconsin, and Jolie Justus in Kansas City — were running for the offices of mayor elsewhere in the country. Both won their races. Justus will now face Quinton Lucas in the June general election. Rhodes-Conway ousted longtime Mayor Paul Soglin in another landslide to become Madison’s first openly gay mayor.

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U.S. designates Grindr a national security risk Users weigh in on move to sell popular hookup app

By JAMES WELLEMEYER The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has designated Grindr a national security risk, according to an exclusive report from Reuters published on March 27.

Reuters could not obtain CFIUS’s specific concerns about Grindr for its report, but the designation has prompted Chinese tech company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. to put the world’s largest LGBT dating app with more than 3 million daily users up for sale.

Kunlun, which paid $93 million for a majority stake in Grindr in 2016 and purchased the rest of the company two years later, will sell the dating app through an auction. Grindr has hired American investment bank Cowen Inc. to orchestrate the sale. The Reuters report claims executives at the dating app are hoping to attract interest from U.S. investment firms as well as competing apps.

The news of Grindr’s national security risk designation comes at the same time that the U.S. government has been attempting to increase the safety of personal data of U.S. service members and intelligence personnel.

Grindr declined to comment for the story when the Blade reached out to its press division through email on March 30.

The gay dating app has come under fire previously for security issues, most notably last year when it shared some of its users’ HIV statuses with companies Apptimize and Localytics. The tech analytics firms were hired to test the performance of the app and given users’ HIV statuses and most recent test dates in the process.

Grindr President Scott Chen sparked controversy last November when he said in a Facebook post that “marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman.”

The Blade spoke to several Grindr users through the dating app about their positions on the CFIUS’s designation and Grindr’s forthcoming sale. Many users who were willing to talk for the story and provide their names were not surprised by the security risk label.

“I can see the argument for Grindr being a potential threat, particularly because — if I’m not mistaken — a Chinese company has bought this app. Their data privacy laws are a little different than in the U.S.,” CJ Clark, a Grindr user, said.

Daniel Klein, a 22-year-old university student, said that while his knowledge of U.S. cybersecurity systems is limited, “Grindr

is relatively easy to grab information off of.” He cited the release of individuals’ HIV statuses by the company as an example.

But he said security issues on the gay dating app go further than these leaks. Profiles do not require a public photo, name, age, bio, or any information a user does not want to include.

“There is generally no security on Grindr itself,” Klein said. “Anyone can pretend to be anyone. It’s very open to catfishing.”

Despite the potential problems with the privacy Grindr permits its users to have, Klein doubts that the app presents significant national security risks.

“Most government personnel have government phones and personal phones,” Klein said. He speculated that it’s “unlikely they keep Grindr on their government phone.”

Therefore, the app “presents as much of a risk as any other app that requires an email and password but has limited security.”

Some users went further, calling the CFIUS’s decision to force Beijing Kunlun Tech to sell Grindr “a double standard” on the part of the U.S. government.

“Bloomberg has reported multiple examples of U.S. companies, specifically DNA/ genealogy companies such as FamilyTreeDNA, as having shared user data with 3rd parties such as the FBI and life insurance companies,” Matthew Paloscio, a Grindr user, said. “In the future, life insurance companies could decline or selectively rate applications for life insurance, based upon genetic data even if the applicant is currently in perfect health. Companies voluntarily handing over user data to government agencies in the U.S. has happened and will continue to happen.”

Others view the sale of Grindr as positive, regardless of the reasoning behind it.

Cole Guye, another Grindr user with whom the Blade spoke, said he’s hoping the sale, if to a competitor, brings changes to the popular dating app.

“Honestly, this app is so toxic and tries to gouge people for a cost more than Netflix and I shouldn’t be scared to have a face picture,” he said. “People I’m not interested in who are scary close have sent me threats and making new accounts is too easy for creeps that get banned.”

Some researchers share Guye’s concerns and worry that Grindr and similar apps may have a negative effect on gay men’s health.

Buttigieg raises $7 million in first quarter

PETE BUTTIGIEG has raised $7 million for his potential 2020 campaign for president.

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

Pete Buttigieg claimed a $7 million haul in first quarter fundraising for the exploratory committee for his 2020 presidential bid — an impressive score for an openly gay candidate who was virtually unknown months ago.

Buttigieg announced the figure Monday on Twitter, saying his campaign was “out-performing expectations at every turn.”

The fundraising total doesn’t list the number of donors, but a quarterly campaign finance report with more details is due April 15.

In comparison to Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders raised $5.9 million and Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million on the first day of their presidential bids.

Buttigieg’s standing in the polls has increased dramatically. A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed he had support from 4 percent of Democratic voters. Last week, an Emerson poll in Iowa put him in third place in the state, which holds the Iowa caucuses and the first presidential contest of the primary season.

But Buttigieg still faces challenges. A report in Politico found Buttigieg lags in campaign infrastructure in comparison to other Democratic contenders.

“Local operatives said the 37-year-old lags in the sprawling pack of 2020 candidates in building infrastructure in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — a problem that Buttigieg’s campaign is trying to correct quickly as money starts rolling in,” the report says.

Jaime Harrison, the former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, is quoted as saying “there’s a lot of interest” in Buttigieg in the state, but “at the end of the day, you have to have an operation, and he doesn’t have one here yet.”

“That’s not to say he can’t put it together quickly,” Harrison added.

CHRIS JOHNSON

Gay, trans detainees allege abuse in N.M.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week again defended the treatment of its detainees amid allegations that a dozen gay men and transgender women suffered abuse while they were being held at an ICE detention center in New Mexico.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Dreamers Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in a March 25 letter to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security said the gay and trans detainees suffered “rampant sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse” at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, N.M. Otero is located roughly 30 miles north of El Paso, Texas, which is on the U.S.Mexico border. Management and Training Corporation, a Utah-based company that operates two dozen private prisons across the country, operates Otero.

“People detained at Otero report that guards bark transphobic commands like, ‘Walk like a man! You better sit like a man!’,” reads the letter, which was also sent to Otero Warden Dora Orozco. “They force transgender women to bathe and sleep in units with men who sexually harass and threaten them. Some of the men even intrude on women while they are bathing in the shower, leering at them and offering to ‘help’ them bathe. Other men ask women for sex while they try to sleep.”

The letter notes guards “subject the gay men and transgender women to frequent pat-down searches.” It also says the dozen gay and trans detainees “cannot eat in the cafeteria or walk through the detention center without enduring homophobic and transphobic slurs from other detained people, which the guards do not address.”

The letter notes medical staff do not provide the detainees with “necessary medical care,” noting trans women have been told that ICE “won’t give you hormones.” The letter also notes guards have placed the inmates into solidary confinement after they complained about the conditions.

“Moreover, about two weeks ago, the guards separated all of the transgender women and gay men and reassigned them to housing units with cisgender, heterosexual men,” reads the letter, which says the facility may not be in compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. “PREA requires Otero to consider several factors when assessing risk and making housing decisions,” says the letter. “After ICE reassigned her to an allcisgender, heterosexual male barracks, one woman told us, ‘I am afraid to be with them [the men] because I feel like all their eyes are on me.’”

A 20-year-old gay man from Honduras who was detained for three months at Otero said in a press release the ACLU of New Mexico, the Santa Fe Dreamers Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center released on March 22 that he “was repeatedly groped while I slept, asked to perform sexual favors in exchange for food, and verbally insulted

by other detainees.”

“When I complained, I was thrown into solitary confinement for five days and threatened with further punishment if I complained again,” said the man. “Now that I am released from custody, I am free to speak up because I do not fear retaliation.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Google drops ‘conversion therapy’ app Internet giant Google announced last week that it has removed from its online store a controversial app submitted by an antiLGBT religious group that promotes so-called conversion therapy to “help homosexuals leave their destructive lifestyles.”

The action by Google came after more than 142,000 people signed a petition initiated in January by the LGBT rights group Truth Wins Out on Change.org that demanded Google pull the app, which was created by Living Hope Ministries.

Google’s decision to drop the app also came on the same day that the Human Rights Campaign announced it had suspended Google from its Corporate Equality Index, which rates corporations on their LGBT rights policies, because the company had up until that time refused to pull the app.

“After consulting with outside advocacy groups, reviewing our policies, and making sure we had a thorough understanding of the app and its relation to conversion therapy, we’ve decided to remove it from the Play Store, consistent with other app stores,” Google said in a statement.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, said — unlike Google — Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon quickly agreed to drop the same app when his organization contacted those companies and informed them of the app’s content and what Besen called the “destructive” impact that conversion therapy has on LGBT youth.

Besen noted that nearly a dozen elected officials from across the country, including gay Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), called on Google to drop the app.

“We applaud Google for making the right decision to pull this app from their online store,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “So-called conversion therapy is a debunked practice that’s tantamount to child abuse and is proven to have dangerous consequences for its victims,” Griffin said in a statement.

“Google and other platforms that have pulled this app are taking an important step to protect LGBT youth,” he said.

In its app, Living Hope Ministries calls homosexuality an addiction caused by “deep-seated wounds” and refers to gay men as “sexually broken guys” who can leave their “false identities.” It says transgender people suffer from “gender confusion.”

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

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Mariela Castro group to honor Cleve Jones

CLEVE JONES will be honored by Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education in May during its annual series of events that commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

Photo by Gil Goldstein via Wikimedia Commons

State Dept. criticizes Brunei penal code The State Department on Tuesday said Brunei’s decision to implement provisions of its new penal code that would impose the death penalty against anyone found guilty of engaging in homosexuality “runs counter to its international human rights obligations.”

“All governments have an obligation to ensure that all people can freely enjoy the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled,” said deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino in a statement. “The United States strongly opposes violence, criminalization and discrimination targeting vulnerable groups, including women at risk of violence, religious and ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons.”

“We continue to encourage Brunei to ratify and implement the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which it signed in 2015, and to sign, ratify, and implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” he added.

Provisions of the new penal code, which is based on Shariah law, are scheduled to take effect on Wednesday.

The new penal code has sparked widespread outrage around the world and prompted renewed calls to boycott the Beverly Hills Hotel and and other properties that Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei owns.

Germany is among the other countries that have also criticized Brunei over the new penal code. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday said the country, which is on the island of Borneo, must respect international human rights and norms.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Cayman Islands legalizes same-sex marriage The chief justice of the Cayman Islands Grand Court on March 29 ruled same-sex couples can legally marry in the British territory.

Chief Justice Anthony Smellie issued his ruling in the case of Chantelle Day and Vicky Bodden, a lesbian couple who tried to apply for a marriage license in 2018.

Local media reports indicate Day and Bodden have been together for seven years and are raising their adopted daughter. Day and Bodden were among those who were in the courtroom when Smellie issued his ruling.

“Love wins,” Day told the Cayman News Service.

The Cayman Islands are located in the western Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and Cuba.

The British territory’s government in 1998 refused to allow a gay cruise ship with 900 passengers to dock. Religious officials in the Cayman Islands in 2010 pressured authorities to prohibit an Atlantic Events vessel from visiting the territory.

Bermuda’s top court last November ruled a law that rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples in the British island territory is unconstitutional.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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An organization the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro directs will honor LGBT rights activist Cleve Jones in Havana in May. The Rainbow World Fund, a San Franciscobased organization that describes itself as “the world’s first and only all-volunteer, LGBTQbased humanitarian aid organization,” on Tuesday said in a press release that Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education will honor Jones on May 10 during a gala at Havana’s Karl Marx Theater. The press release also notes Jones has been chosen as a grand marshal for a march that will take place in the Cuban capital the following day.

The march and gala are part of a series of CENESEX-organized events in Havana and in Camagüey that will commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

The Rainbow World Fund press release says CENESEX Director Mariela Castro invited Jones to Cuba. It also notes Jones will travel to the Communist island with a delegation from the Rainbow World Fund.

“This is a great honor and a wonderful opportunity to learn about and give support to the Cuban LGBTQ movement,” said Jones in the Rainbow World Fund press release.

“I’m excited to visit Cuba for the first time and to learn what life is like for LGBTQ Cubans and for people living with HIV/AIDS.” Jones founded the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and is a co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Jones was also the lead organizer of the 2009 National Equality March in D.C. The Rainbow World Fund press release says sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display in Cuba for the first time.

It also notes the Rainbow World Fund has pledged to raise a total of $50,000 “to support projects” in the country.

The Rainbow World Fund notes CENESEX has asked the Rainbow World Fund “to fund” $25,000 in scholarships “to allow hundreds of LGBTQ activists from all 16 Cuban provinces to participate in several days of training and educational programs during the” IDAHOBiT events.

“For many, this will be the first time to travel outside of their home provinces, let alone

attend a large LGBTQ gathering,” reads the Rainbow World Fund press release. “This will be a unique opportunity for the activists to share resources, tools and strategies to reach the next level in their movement to achieve full civil rights and recognition in Cuban society.”

The organization says it plans to use the additional $25,000 “to fund other humanitarian projects on the island.”

CENESEX’s IDAHOBiT events will take place less than three months after Cuban voters overwhelmingly approved their country’s new constitution.

A draft of the new constitution once contained an amendment that would have extended marriage rights for same-sex couples, but the Cuban government in December announced it had been removed amid criticism from evangelical churches in the country. LGBTI rights advocates who work independently of CENESEX sharply criticized the decision.

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, a gay Cuban blogger who supports Mariela Castro, wrote after the Feb. 24 referendum the new constitution “expressly prohibits and punishes (anti-LGBTI discrimination) under law,” recognizes “the right of all people to form a family and protects all families” and defines marriage as “a social and legal institution.” Mariela Castro and her supporters have said they plan to seek changes to Cuba’s Family Code that would extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Cuban LGBTI activists who work independently of CENESEX have told the Washington Blade they face harassment or even arrest if they publicly criticize Mariela Castro and/or the Cuban government.

Access to the website of Tremenda Nota, the Blade’s media partner in Cuba, was blocked on the island on the eve of the referendum.

Cuban authorities in January interrogated Michael Petrelis, another San Francisco-based activist, several times after he brought 10,000 rainbow stickers and 1,200 Pride bracelets into the country that he planned to distribute. Petrelis was scheduled to fly to Havana last week, but he was not allowed to board his flight from Mexico because the Cuban government would not allow him to enter the country.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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Cannabis Culture older adults to better manage symptoms associated with health conditions that can interfere with productivity and quality of life,” authors reported. “Our findings suggest that there are potentially important social benefits to MMLs that must be considered in policy decisions regarding medical marijuana regulation.”

The findings expand upon a previous working paper authored by the pair in 2016.

Washington: Teens not using more pot after legalization

New Jersey Gov. PHIL MURPHY backs a plan to legalize marijuana.

N.J. lawmakers delay legalization vote TRENTON, N.J. — Lawmakers have postponed scheduled floor votes on legislation that sought to legalize and regulate the adult use marijuana market. The delay was announced after it became unclear whether the measure possessed enough votes to pass on the Senate floor.

Despite the delay, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy continues to back the plan, as does Senate President Stephen Sweeney. “The fight is not over,” Sen. Sweeney said. “Anybody who thinks this is dead is wrong. This is not an issue that’s going away. Marijuana will get passed in the state of New Jersey one way or another.”

Commenting on the delay, NORML Political Associate Tyler McFadden said: “Voters and lawmakers both agree that the practice of treating marijuana consumers as second-class citizens must end.

Unfortunately, legislative intransigence regarding how best to create a regulatory framework has resulted in, at least for now, a continuation of the failed policy of marijuana criminalization in the Garden State.”

Medical marijuana linked to greater employment in elders BALTIMORE — The enactment of medical cannabis access laws is associated with better reported health outcomes among older Americans and greater labor participation, according to data published in The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

A pair of researchers from the John Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore and Temple University in Philadelphia assessed the relationship between medical marijuana laws and health in those ages 51 and older.

They found that those who qualified for medical cannabis access reported experiencing less pain, and greater overall health compared to matched respondents in non-medical states. Those eligible for medical cannabis access also showed increased participation in the workplace.

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SPOKANE, Wash. — The enactment of adult use marijuana sales in Washington State is not associated with upticks in self-reported marijuana use by most teens, according to data published in The Journal of Adolescent Health.

A team of investigators from Washington State University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Colorado School of Public Health assessed trends in teen marijuana use and employment in the years immediately prior to and immediately following the enactment of retail marijuana sales (2010 to 2016).

They reported that, “marijuana use decreased significantly among working and non-working 8th and 10th graders.”

Marijuana use similarly declined among 12th graders who were not employed. Among 12th graders who were employed more than eleven hours per week, self-reported cannabis use increased over the study period. The study’s authors acknowledged that this latter finding was not unexpected because “the workplace may expose adolescents to peer or adult coworkers’ potentially unhealthy behaviors, including substance use.” Authors further acknowledged that working youth were also more likely to have reported using cannabis prior to the passage of legalization.

Texas official removes hemp from controlled substances act AUSTIN, Texas — An amendment authored by the Texas Department of State Health Services removes industrial hemp and certain hemp-derived cannabinoids from the state’s controlled substances act. The order takes effect on April 5.

The order states that under Texas law, “The term marihuana does not include hemp,” as defined under the provisions of the 2018 Farm Act. The language also exempts certain compounds extracted from industrial hemp from the state list of controlled substances.

In December, the president signed legislation into law amending the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 so that hemp plants containing no more than 0.3 percent THC are no longer classified as a schedule I controlled substance under federal law. The Act also broadens the definition of ‘hemp’ (Section 297A) to include “any part of the plant, including ... extracts [or] cannabinoids” that do not possess greater than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis. The new order comports Texas’ statutes with the federal law.

Speaking to Congress in March, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that the Department is working to create federal hemp regulations by 2020. Under the provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill, US states that wish to license commercial hemp cultivation must submit their plan to the USDA. Currently, there are no specific Texas statutes establishing regulations for the commercial production of industrial hemp. The state does regulate the production and dispensing of CBD, but only through a narrow medical program.

Maloney seeks to restrict ‘conversion’ therapy

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NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) last week introduced a federal bill that would restrict “conversion” therapy calling it “medieval-style nonsense,” “outrageous,” “barbaric” and “cruel,” Rolling Stone reports.

Maloney’s bill takes a novel approach to banning conversion therapy, a loosely defined set of practices that can include everything from “praying the gay away” and talk therapy to the extreme of shock treatment or worse. Known as the Prohibition of Medicaid Funding for Conversion Therapy Act, it would block the use of Medicaid funds for these treatments, Rolling Stone reports.

Conversion therapists often exploit loopholes to receive reimbursements through Medicaid through deceptive billing tactics. Because there’s no diagnostic code for conversion therapy, the treatment is sometimes coded as “depression.”

Sam Brinton, head of advocacy and government affairs for the Trevor Project, says there are countless ways to cheat the system. According to Brinton, counselors with the national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention hotline hear “from youth harmed by conversion therapy every week,” and many of those young people are likely receiving taxpayer-funded treatment, Rolling Stone reports.

“By limiting the means by which licensed mental health professionals can be reimbursed for their horrific practice, the Prohibition of Medicaid Funding for Conversion Therapy Act will make clear that conversion therapy is far outside the mainstream,” Brinton told Rolling Stone in a statement.

While conversion therapy has been banned in 15 states, Maloney’s bill is one of just a handful of attempts to regulate orientation change efforts at the federal level. A pair of bills co-sponsored Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) in the House and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in the Senate that would define conversion therapy as “fraud” failed to make it out of committee in 2017, Rolling Stone reports.

Maloney, an openly gay Democrat, says he was inspired to try again after seeing the movie “Boy Erased.”

The legislation’s introduction follows several major milestones in the movement to outlaw conversion therapy across the United States. In January, New York became the 15th state to outlaw “gay cure” treatments after years of obstruction

from Republican leadership in its State Senate. Colorado is poised to be next after legislation passed its House and Senate last month.

So far, the federal conversion therapy bill has been met with resistance from conservatives in Congress. Of the 63 cosponsors who have signed onto Maloney’s legislation, not a single one is a member of the GOP, Rolling Stone reports.

Chemsex more common among Brits, gays LONDON — Combining sex and drugs is common among all genders and sexual orientations, with people in Britain more likely to engage in the practice than Americans, Australians or other Europeans, according to a global survey reported on by Reuters.

The findings suggest that messages about reducing potential harm from the practice — including overdosing, date rape and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases — should be targeted at all genders and sexual groups, researchers said.

The findings, published on Tuesday in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, showed that alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, or MDMA, are the drugs most commonly combined with sex, and that users say MDMA in particular enhances “intimacy.”

Survey respondents from Britain were the most likely to combine drugs with sex (known as “chemsex”) as compared with America, other European countries, Australia and Canada, Reuters reports.

And while people of sexual orientations reported engaging in substance-linked sex, gay and bisexual men were more likely to have done so. Gay men were 1.6 times as likely as straight men to have used drugs with the specific intent of enhancing sexual experience in the last year, Reuters reports.

“While using drugs in combination with and to specifically enhance the sexual experience tends to be associated with gay and bisexual men, we found that in our sample, men and women of all sexual orientations engaged in this behavior,” said Will Lawn, an expert at University College London’s Psychology & Language Sciences department who co-led the research.

Alcohol, cannabis, MDMA and cocaine were most commonly used, while the socalled “club drugs” GHB/GBL and ecstasy/ MDMA, were rated most favorably. For example, MDMA was reported to increase “emotionality/intimacy” the most, while GHB/GBL was said to heighten “sexual desire” the most, Reuters reports.

18 • WA S HI N GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • H EALT H N EW S

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2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9

PATRICK COCHRAN

is a program manager from the D.C. area.

KATHI WOLFE

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

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

VI E WPO I NT • APRIL 05, 2019 • WA SHINGTON BL A DE . COM • 21

ROGER DOUGHTY

is president of Horizons Foundation.

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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

PATRICK COCHRAN

is a program manager from the D.C. area.

Pete Buttigieg is gay enough + Largest LGBT owned title company + Billions of dollars in transactions closed annually + 6 in house attorneys + Residential and commercial transactions + In home and in office refinance settlements + Licensed in DC, DE, MD, NJ, VA & WV

Yes, his homosexuality counts as diversity

It took less than four years after the Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide for the first openly gay Democratic candidate in U.S. history to announce his intention to run for president.

“Mayor Pete” is generating significant interest in his campaign. He very quickly reached the fundraising threshold to gain a spot on the debate stage of the Democratic primaries and is now, according to one poll, in third place in Iowa. He also just announced a $7 million first quarter fundraising haul. But none of this seems to impress Christina Cauterucci at Slate.

In an article published on March 28, Cauterucci asks whether “[Buttigieg’s] Gayness Count[s] as Diversity.” This strikes me as a question with an easy answer: yes. Buttigieg is the first openly gay Democratic candidate for president. (Fred Karger, who’s gay, ran a long shot campaign for the GOP nomination in 2012.) His run is historic and, more importantly, significant for millions of LGBTQ people living in America. For the first time, this community, As I was eating lunch in which includes both Cauterucci and myself, Shaw I glanced around is being represented on the national political with renewed awe; stage. Rather than applauding the decadeslong efforts of LGBTQ activists that made it the area where I once possible for Buttigieg to run, or reflecting on the leased has since been progress this country has made on gay rights christened “Logan East.” while acknowledging the work that still needs to be done, Cauterucci chooses to quibble.

“Buttigieg isn’t just gay,” Cauterucci begins, “he’s also white, male, upper-class, Midwestern, married, Ivy League–educated, VALERIE M. BLAKE, Associate Broker, GRI, Director of Education & Mentorship and a man of faith.” She’s correct —Buttigieg Dupont Circle Office • 202-518-8781 (o) • 202.246.8602 (c) Valerie@DCHomeQuest.com • www.DCHomeQuest.com is white, male, relatively wealthy, and educated. He enjoys more than his fair share ADVERTISING PROOF of privileges. His whiteness and masculinity ISSUE DATE: 181026 SALES REPRESENTATIVE: are immediately visible and will afford him protections from persecution that women REVIEW AD FOR COPY AND DESIGN ACCURACY. Revisions must be submitted within 24 hours of the date of proof. Proof will be considered final and will be submitted for publication if revision is not submitted within 24 hours of and racial minorities will never have. It is the date of proof.

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Cauterucci doesn’t stop there, though: “A marginalized sexual orientation can remain SPEAK WITH OUR PREPLANNING ADVISOR, unspoken and unnoticed for as long as a queer JAMIE ARTHURS AT (202) 966-6400 OR EMAIL person desires [emphasis added].” I don’t JAMIE.ARTHURS@DIGNITYMEMORIAL.COM know Christina Cauterucci personally. I don’t know her coming out story. But I can’t imagine she believes the closet is a desirable place to be for a queer person. I can’t imagine she felt that being closeted was a desirable state of being. And I can’t imagine she thinks that Pete Buttigieg desired to hide a part of himself from 5130 Wisconsin Ave. NW • DC • (202) 966-6400 • www.JosephGawlers.com

the world until he was in his 30s.

I came out to my parents almost two years ago. It went well. They supported me and have welcomed my boyfriend, Chris, as part of the family. I consider myself lucky; many of the gay and bisexual men I’ve met had much more harrowing experiences with coming out. I’m even luckier to live in the D.C. area, where gay couples can feel relatively safe publicly holding hands, kissing, and even just leaning against each other on the train. Chris and I don’t have to return to the closet when we leave our apartment.

This isn’t true when we visit his parents.

They live in Woodstock, Va., less than 100 miles outside of Washington. Those 100 miles take us from an urban area to a rural one, from Clinton country to Trump country. It takes us from a place where we can hold hands in public to one where we can’t. Being in public in Woodstock means going back into the closet.

I am a privileged person. I’m white, I’m a cisgender man, and I grew up in a well-off family with two college-educated parents.

But I also live with a man in Fairfax County, Va., where we can be evicted from our apartment or lose our jobs for our sexual orientation. I don’t love my boyfriend less when we leave the safety of the D.C. area, but I have to act like I do. This act, playing it straight when we go to Woodstock, is not something Chris or I desire to do. It is something we must do. It is an act of selfpreservation, not the fulfilling of a desire.

I haven’t met Mayor Pete, but I think I can safely say that he didn’t want to go through life with everyone assuming he was straight, feeling as though he was hiding a key part of his identity from his constituents. His coming out in 2015 was brave. He and his husband, Chasten, are out and proud. They are comfortable being who they are, despite rising numbers of hate crimes against LGBTQ individuals and despite the Trump administration’s rabidly anti-LGBTQ agenda. While Pete Buttigieg is a long way from claiming the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, his journey as an openly gay candidate is an inspiration.

Cauterucci may dismiss him as a man with “sturdy ties to straight culture,” and an “apotheosis of respectability politics.” Many more will dismiss him because he is married to a man. Mayor Pete has done more than enough to deserve serious consideration.

He doesn’t need to be “gayer,” or change who he is in any way. He just needs to be Pete Buttigieg.

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

KATHI WOLFE

琀栀攀

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

Thank you, Mayor Pete

一䄀䬀䔀䐀 夀伀䜀䄀 䴀漀渀搀愀礀猀 ☀ 眀攀搀渀攀猀搀愀礀猀

㘀㨀㌀ 倀䴀

Buttigieg defies history by considering White House bid Dear Mayor Pete: A few years after the Stonewall uprising, as a college student, I struggled to make sense of my sexuality and of “Ulysses” by James Joyce. Yet my younger self, a kid who couldn’t wait to escape from South Jersey, understood what Joyce meant when he wrote, “Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”

Back then, I’d never have thought I’d find this Joyce quote in your memoir “Shortest Way Home.” Or that you, mayor of South Bend, Ind., would be the first out gay Democratic presidential candidate. I wouldn’t have guessed that, as I write this, an Axios headline would say “2020 election polls: Pete Buttigieg’s surge is the biggest polling story of the week.” According to Axios, you’ve gone from 1 percent to 4 percent in the Quinnipiac Poll. Though the jump is small, CNN’s Harry Enten says it’s “likely statistically significant.”

Back in the day, there were few openly LGBTQ folks: Rita Mae Brown, Truman Capote – James Baldwin. Someone leading a city, let alone running for the highest office in the land, would have seemed more improbable than flying cars.

(We’d seen flying cars on the “Jetsons.”)

“History,” Stephen Dedalus says in “Ulysses,” “ is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

Thankfully, though only 0.1 percent of elected officials in the United States are openly LGBTQ, according to a recent Victory Institute report, we’re emerging from this nightmare. Out queer politicos have been elected as state legislators, congressional representatives and senators as well as governors.

It would have been unimaginable as recently as 2008. Yet, now it would be unthinkable for any of the many Democratic presidential candidates to oppose marriage equality or the Equality Act. Even so, your campaign is historic! I wouldn’t dare try to predict how many LGBTQ people would vote for you. But, I’d wager that most of us, whether we agree with you on political issues and policies,

are cheering for you! For the first time, everyone from a trans middle-schooler in the Midwest to myself, a queer woman in Virginia, can see someone from our community competing for the top prize in the political arena.

You remind me so much of Barack Obama! Especially of Obama when he first ran for president in 2008. Like Obama’s memoir “Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” your memoir “Shortest Way Home” is interesting and smart. Unlike most political memoirs (which help me sleep), your book kept me up.

Though some might scoff at your youth (if you won, you’d be our youngest president), I think, at 37, you’ve done more than most of us would ever do if we lived to be 100. In “Shortest Way Home,” you take us through your years at Harvard, as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, your election and reelection as mayor of South Bend and your deployment in Afghanistan.

I was moved by your understated account of your deployment and by your stories of coming out and falling in love. Realizing that you had to have “a meaningful personal life,” you came out when you ran for reelection for mayor.

You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by your account of your first date with Chasten, the man who would become your husband. “Nothing in my life, from shaking hands with a president to experiencing my first rocket attack,” you wrote, “matched the thrill of holding Chasten’s hand for the first time.”

You’ve been seeking support from LGBTQ organizations and called out Mike Pence for his anti-gay record. Yet, you’re working hard to not have being gay define you. I applaud this. All of us are more than our sexual orientation and gender identity.

Your campaign is centered around “intergenerational justice” and issues ranging from climate change to health care to national security.

You’re facing tough odds, but I wish you luck. You’re one of the few grown-ups in the room. Thank you, Mayor Pete, for throwing your hat in the race.

VI E WPO I NT • APRIL 05, 2019 • WA SHINGTON BL A DE . COM • 23

琀甀攀猀搀愀 礀猀 ㄀⼀㈀ 瀀爀椀挀攀 氀漀挀欀攀爀猀 ☀ 爀漀漀洀猀 㠀 愀洀 ⴀ 洀椀搀渀椀最栀琀

猀愀 琀甀爀搀愀 礀猀 最爀愀戀 愀 ␀㔀 漀昀昀 挀愀爀搀 愀琀 吀刀䄀䐀䔀 昀愀挀攀戀漀漀欀⸀挀漀洀⼀琀栀攀挀爀攀眀挀氀甀戀

㄀㌀㈀㄀ ㄀㐀琀栀 猀琀 一圀

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

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

Time to check out of Trump’s madhouse 45’s vaunted ‘exoneration’ makes a crash landing After House Intel Chair Adam Schiff’s blunt response to Republican colleagues’ demand for his resignation on March 28, it should have been as clear to them that they had prematurely celebrated the stillunreleased Mueller report as when an NFL player spikes the football at halftime.

Here is an excerpt from Schiff’s litany of Trump wrongs: “You might think it’s okay that the campaign chairman of a presidential campaign would offer information about that campaign to a Russian oligarch in exchange for money or debt forgiveness.... You might think it’s okay that that campaign chairman offered polling data to someone linked to Russian intelligence.... You might think it’s okay that the president himself called on Russia to hack his opponent’s emails, if they were listening. You might think it’s okay that later that day, in fact, the Russians attempted to hack a server affiliated with that campaign. I don’t think that’s okay.”

Schiff concluded, “I think it’s immoral, I think it’s unethical, I think it’s unpatriotic and, yes, I think it’s corrupt — and evidence of collusion.”

Despite even Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary saying Mueller had not exonerated Trump of obstruction, a chorus of know-it-alls, many of them conservative, had quickly told Democrats to take their lumps and move on. They said it was time to change the focus to solving the nation’s problems—as if Democrats are not already working on that, as if they cannot multitask, and as if Trump’s corruption and incompetence are not among our chief problems.

Turning from DOJ to Foggy Bottom: the State Department announced plans to cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras over the flow of migrants to our border. That will only make it worse, which is why Trump is doing it. He specializes in creating chaos, whose handmaiden is ignorance. On March 31, Fox & Friends Weekend ran a banner stating, “Trump Cuts U.S. Aid to 3 Mexican Countries.”

Geography is not this crowd’s strong suit.

Trump inhabits an alternate realm where the arsonist poses as a firefighter.

He surrounds himself with enablers.

His education secretary, Betsy DeVos, defended Trump’s proposed elimination of Special Olympics funding; then, when public outrage caused him to reverse

himself, she said how glad she was that he agreed with her. This is an entire administration of Baghdad Bobs.

Trump’s abuse of his office includes meddling in court cases like that involving actor Jussie Smollett, where the facts of his alleged staging of a hate crime remain unclear. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his police superintendent were outraged by the dismissal of charges against Smollett, despite having expressed no similar outrage over their police shooting Laquan McDonald in the back or raiding a child’s birthday party with guns drawn. In 2018, Chicago spent over $113 million on police misconduct lawsuits. Spotting an opportunity to sow discord, Trump promised to have the FBI and Justice Department investigate the Smollett case, calling it a national embarrassment.

This is supposed to distract us from 45’s own daily embarrassments.

Happily, Trump has encountered resistance from courts. Just last week, a federal judge overruled his order opening Arctic waters to oil drilling. Another blocked his Medicaid work requirements for lowincome people. A third struck down his smallbusiness health insurance plan as an “end run” around Affordable Care Act protections.

Reality is something to be overcome in Trumpworld. Vice President Pence declared the urgent need to resume landing people on the moon, replacing NASA’s scientific mission with photo ops.

Laura Ingraham had a guest who said transgender people want to create a new half-human, half-machine species, resistance to which is presumably futile.

Alex Jones of InfoWars, in deposition footage released by opposing attorneys, blamed “psychosis” for his conspiracy theory calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre a “false flag” attack.

Unless we wish to take up residence in this madhouse, we have no choice but to resist it vigorously as Rep. Schiff has done.

Sen. Lindsey Graham quipped in 2017 that he doubted the charge of collusion with the Russians because “Trump can’t collude with his own government.” (Hat tip: George Conway.)

That would make a fine 2020 campaign slogan.

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

Voters decide what is disqualifying behavior for a candidate

‘Uncle Joe’ is handsy but not an abuser Who decides what is disqualifying behavior for a political candidate? Is there a standard that keeps them from even putting their hat in the ring? As we move into the new world of politics that is a question that will be continually asked. More and more it seems voters will decide these things at the polls.

In Virginia we see the top three statewide elected officials still in their jobs despite what political pundits and other politicians thought would happen when their individual scandals broke.

Democratic candidates for president have encountered their own issues some pundits think are disqualifiers but in the age of Trump they seem almost trivial.

Amy Klobuchar has been accused of demeaning and mistreating her staff and even throwing a binder at one of them. This week it was Joe Biden’s behavior toward a woman he was endorsing in 2014. People questioned whether it was fake news.

Some attacked the woman claiming it was false and she only spoke up because she is a supporter of another candidate calling it all political. Anyone who has followed Joe Biden wouldn’t question that it happened yet we can rightfully question her motive for bringing it up now nearly five years later as he is about to announce his candidacy.

It wasn’t something that happened in private and it wasn’t a violent attack on her.

And yes I believe it might have made her feel uncomfortable. But then what she claimed Biden did to her he has done to others and those instances have been captured on video.

‘Uncle Joe’ seems simply to be an older touchy feely guy who is likely a little too handsy. This isn’t new and he and his campaign staff must surely have been prepared for the issue to come up. Biden is not a sexual predator but his behavior was well enough known that in 2015 Jon Stewart did a shtick about Biden he called ‘The Audacity of Grope’.

We are living in different times and I think it will be up to voters what they accept in a candidate. Just look at what they accepted from the disgusting pig in the White House — all of it much more disgusting than anything we have seen a Democratic candidate do. But these issues will be discussed and Democrats can’t blame only Republicans

for the discussion. Elizabeth Warren felt she had to comment on the Biden report and socalled journalist Chuck Todd brought it up to John Hickenlooper on “Meet the Press” and he was forced to respond. You could tell how uncomfortable Hickenlooper was trying to walk that fine line of believing the woman and not attacking Biden.

Campaigns have certainly changed and so have the mores of the country. What was once hidden by the press, everything from Franklin Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair to JFK’s affairs, would now all be out in the open. In the ‘MeToo’ world we are living in every man who wants to run for office must take a long look at his life from the age of puberty to see if he did anything that could be remotely considered inappropriate and be prepared to respond.

Then there are the more trivial things candidates are saying bringing the wrath of god down on their heads. Mayor Pete spoke out and criticized Hillary Clinton and her 2016 campaign. My FB strand went wild asking why he would do that and many saying he lost their support with those comments.

Hillary Clinton isn’t running and all candidates might remember she did get 66 million votes.

No one did a better analysis of her loss than she herself in the book “What Happened.”

So, yes, meet with your advisers behind the scenes and strategize on how you will run your campaign clearly looking at the past. But publicly attacking the last standard bearer and candidate of the party who is not running makes little sense especially for someone who seems as smart as Pete Buttigieg.

If Democrats are to win the presidency, then whoever wins the Democratic nomination will need the support of every faction of the party. There are likely no figures in the party who have more personal loyalty from their hardcore voters than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

You alienate those voters at your peril.

Democrats can win this but it will not be easy. It will take every one of us from the far-left to the furthest right of the Democratic Party. We will need Sanders and AOC supporters and supporters of the likes of Sens. Doug Jones and Joe Manchin. It is going to be a long primary season let’s try not to have too thin a skin.

24 • WA S HI N GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • V IEW P O IN T

AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 25

ROGER DOUGHTY

is president of Horizons Foundation.

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Donate on Give OUT Day and join the legacy of pride and progress Annual event aims to raise more than $1 million for LGBTQ charities Fifty years ago, patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back. As trans women, drag queens, lesbians, and gay men alike fought back against police brutality and mistreatment at the Stonewall Inn, they started a new chapter in LGBTQ history.

Stonewall changed history – forever – because of what LGBTQ people did together. Their actions those nights began with a few hundred people and quickly spread to thousands – and then to millions – standing up for our rights across the country.

On April 18, 2019, LGBTQ people and our allies will have another chance to show the dramatic change that’s possible when we act together. That’s because April 18 is Give OUT Day, the only national day devoted to giving to support the nonprofit groups that advocate for, meet the needs of, and celebrate the lives of LGBTQ people every single day.

The idea of Give OUT Day is simple and profound: to help those nonprofit organizations to raise the funds they need to do their work. Give OUT Day provides tools to our community’s nonprofits – including a free web platform – so they can tell their stories and ask for support.

Give OUT Day will unite donors and organizations across the country in the shared goal of improving our lives, our friends’ lives, our families’ lives, and the lives of all people who love and are loved by our community.

A lot has changed in 50 years. And a lot hasn’t. We all know there is no aspect of life within the LGBTQ community that is not vulnerable to discrimination and bias. Fighting back isn’t just a matter for the history books. For some of us, fighting back may mean simply getting dressed in the morning and going out into a sometimes unfriendly world. Fighting back today means calling out injustice – of

all kinds – when we see it. Fighting back is resisting government actions that harm any member of the LGBGTQ community – anyone, anytime, anywhere.

The nonprofit organizations that serve and advocate for our community fight back day in and day out. They need us – all of us – to fight back with them. Every single day, our nonprofits make thousands and thousands of LGBTQ people safer, healthier, stronger, and more equal.

They are the backbone of our national movement and in LGBTQ communities in every part of the country.

For some of us, it can be easy to overlook the work that community nonprofits do – at least until we need them their services or their advocacy. Give OUT Day is a day for all LGBTQ organizations to shine, and for all of us not to overlook them.

Last year, Give OUT Day raised just short of $1 million for more than 450 different organizations. This year, we plan on surpassing that. No donation is insignificant. That’s not only because every donation means more funds for nonprofits’ vital work, but also because every gift made on Give OUT Day becomes part of something much larger than any one of us.

Through giving, we are community.

There is immense power in our community. And just as the Stonewall Riots became something much larger than that first brick, Give OUT Day is greater than the sum of its parts. We are all part of that community. Please come out for Give OUT Day – and join the legacy of power, pride, and progress.

Join us on April 18 for #GiveOUTDay, the only national day of giving for the #LGBTQ community. Support hundreds of LGBTQ nonprofits. Learn more at www.giveoutday.org. Join us and RSVP on Facebook.

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EN AR JO TS Y A AT LL CF THE A!

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT MASON 2018/2019 SEASON

Pablo Sáinz Villegas

Russian National Ballet

Giselle

Saturday, April 6 at 8 p.m.

Americano ff

The Sleeping Beauty Sunday, April 7 at 2 p.m.

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Parsons Dance Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m.

Friday, April 12 at 8 p.m.

Keyboard Conversations® with Jeffrey Siegel Chopin in Paris

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Sunday, April 28 at 7 p.m.

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Family Friendly performances that are most suitable for families with younger children

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 703-993-2787 OR CFA.GMU.EDU

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

Get Your Tickets to the Maker of Zoe Today!

Friday, May 17th at 7:00 PM Saturday, May 18th at 1:00 PM & 7:00 PM Doors Open One Hour Before ShowTime.

Late Seating Ends Thirty Minutes After ShowTime

In the heart of Washington DC, Avery, an outwardly confident and whimsical toy designer, finds true meaning and purpose, after a supernatural encounter with an angelic messenger. Avery is transported to the Land of Zoe and embarks on a journey filled with mystery and wonder. This moving and suspenseful tale will delight and intrigue audiences, as it unfolds the truth of The Maker’s Love for all and looks at the common misconceptions of Scripture concerning homosexuality. You will be moved by this inspirational and entertaining performance, enjoy a delicious Italian Dinner served right to your table, and help support God’s message of love for all people!

$37.50 Includes Admission to the Play & your choice of: ~ Regular or Gluten Free Pasta ~ Meat Sauce, Turkey Meat Sauce or Vegetarian Sauce ~ Fresh Garden Salad w/Dressing Choice & Garlic Bread ~ Decadent Chocolate or Lemon Pound Cake ~ Water, Tea, or Lemonade Concessions Available For Sale in the Lobby

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All Proceeds Support the MCCDC Drama Ministry!

474 Ridge St. Washington DC 20001 mccdc.com/mccdc-fund-raising-events/

202-638-7373

ELI CONLEY is comfortable using his music to advocate for LGBT issues.

Photo by Brooke Porter; courtesy Conley

Eli’s song

Out singer/songwriter finds joy in roots, folk music reflecting trans themes

By KEITH LORIA

Contemporary folk singer Eli Conley found critical acclaim with the release of his debut album, “At The Seams” in 2013, and the central, Va.-born musician and storyteller has become a big success within the LGBT and music scenes in his current home in the Bay Area.

“I describe my music as country-tinged folk,” Conley says. “I do a lot of storytelling and I do a lot of talking about folks like me who were queer kids from small towns, and there’s a lot of harmony in my music.

An openly gay transgender man, Conley’s music address important themes such as gender, aging and death. For

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instance, on his newest record, “Strong and Tender,” he has a song about his grandmother’s death called “I Miss You.” “She recently passed and the songs is about what it’s like at the end of a life when someone is ready to die and we’re not ready to let them go yet,” Conley says.

On April 10, Conley will perform at D.C.’s Gypsy Sally’s Vinyl Lounge, accompanied by Joel Price on mandolin, violin and harmonies.

“I love coming back to the Mid-Atlantic and the D.C./Virginia area. It’s so special to come back home and the place my whole life I would go on field trips and take family trips,” he says. “I have a lot of friends in the area and it’s just a place I have a lot of connections to.”

As a singer who references where he’s from a great deal in his tunes, a gig like this is important to Conley and feels the audience gets more out of the show than people may in the West Coast.

“Even though I love California, it is kind of a different place,” Conley says. “What’s really cool about Gypsy Sally’s, it features local and touring acts in their smaller room and I’ll be playing two sets of songs on the night, one at 7:30 and the other at 9.”

Plus, as a queer transperson, Conley says he doesn’t often feel like he has a lot of community and doesn’t know how people will feel about him and his music when he’s in a smaller space and that’s a very multilayered thing for him.

“I think there are people who live in D.C., who are maybe from a smaller place, a more rural time, and my music resonates a little differently,” he says. “When I’m writing, I don’t consciously think, ‘This is the message that I want to have,’ but I do find that the characters that show up in my songs do have experiences relate to feeling a little like a misfit or as an outsider, and trying to find out how to fit in to the bigger picture of the world.”

For Conley, 33, the path to coming out as trans was a long one. “I have come out as so many different things over the years,” he says.

He first came out as a bi woman at age 15. He and some friends started the first gay/straight alliance at Maggie Walker High School in Richmond. Facing opposition from both the Virginia General Assembly, which was trying to pass a ban

on “sexually related clubs” on school campuses, as well as their own high school administrators, they persevered.

“They’d banned a burrito club a year earlier and tried to argue that they couldn’t go approving everything students wanted,” Conley says. “But in the end, we were allowed to do it and I remember we did the Day of Silence … and a big percentage of the school participated. It was a powerful moment.”

A high school friend came out as a trans man freshman year but Conley still wasn’t sure how he identified.

“He had a much more traditional transgender narrative where he knew that he was a boy from a very young age,” he says. “My childhood was a lot more genderfluid and I liked it that way. My favorite colors were pink and purple and I love dresses for a while. I also loved climbing trees and going around the neighborhood without my shirt off with the boys. By the time I graduated from high school in 2004 I’d come to identify as genderqueer, what many people these days call non-binary.”

It was in college that Conley started going by the name Eli and asking people to refer to him with gender-neutral pronouns and became a trans activist working on health care issues on campus working on issues such all-gender restrooms, nongender-restricted dorm rooms, etc.

Over the course of college, Conley began to identify as male and decided to medically transition.

“That was 13 years ago now and it never felt for me like a linear process or a switch flipping,” he says. “I was a genderfluid kid and then an androgynous teenager and eventually a young man. My gender identity has stayed consistent since then, but I’m not so young anymore.”

Conley has a deep background as a community organizer and working on racial and economic justice at events, and feels those themes often show up in his music as well.

“For me, the politics of living in the world as someone who stands opposed to capitalism and stands opposed to white supremacy in this country, particularly in this moment when we see really clearly how those things have never gone away, it

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shows up organically in my music,” he says.

“But I’ll also write songs that have nothing to do with being queer or trans.”

Conley’s father is from the southern part of West Virginia and introduced him to roots music and bluegrass at an early age. When he first started writing music, he had a background in musical theater and classical voice, and married those musical influences to create his sound.

“I listened to a lot of different kinds of music but always felt the songs I wrote came from more of a folk, country place,” he says. “I often found my accent came out when I sang, and though I didn’t grow up in the mountains, my songs seemed to be influenced by what my dad had me listen to.”

Conley has known all his life he was attracted to men, recalling crushes on boys in kindergarten.

“By adolescence, I knew that I wasn’t a straight woman but all the language around gender and sexuality was super binary and I didn’t have many people in my life or in the media who reflected what I felt. … I’m still attracted to people of many genders, but I mainly fall in love with men.”

Conley isn’t particularly worried his trans identity might usurp his musical abilities.

“I want queer and transgender people to be able to find me and see themselves in my music. I think we are hungry for that and it’s an honor to be a link in the long chain of songwriters who lay our souls bare so that others may see themselves reflected.

Straight, white, cisgender men see themselves reflected back everywhere all the time in our culture, the music industry in particular. I think it’s time everyone else was given the space and resources to create art that speaks to our experiences.”

How up front Conley is about being a gay/ trans artist depends on the arena, he says.

“I love LGBTQ media and I’m happy to talk about my identity in a paper like this because I know your readers get that,” he says. “I feel conflicted about marketing myself as a gay transgender artist in the mainstream media, putting the identity pieces upfront. Straight artists aren’t asked when they first knew they were straight, you know? They get to talk about their music. I find that sometimes being transgender becomes sensationalized and that becomes the whole focus. I

have identified as trans since I was 17.

It’s not novel to me, it’s just a part of my experience in the world. Of course, it is a huge privilege to be able to say that.”

He knows many trans folks don’t have that luxury.

“I am a white middle class man who isn’t perceived as transgender by strangers. It’s been many years since I’ve had to think about how every piece of clothing I put on will affect how people will read me on street.

I make my choices based on what feels good, not how they will affect my safety.

Most trans women and trans feminine people and other gender non-conforming people don’t have that experience.”

When not performing live or writing music, Conley is a certified teacher of Somatic Voicework. He and his partner of seven years (they recently married) live together in Berkeley. His husband, whom he declines to name, is an artist and vegan cook who works in research at U.C. Berkeley.

Teaching, he says, is a joy.

“I teach private singing lessons and also group classes for LGBTQ folks and allies in the Bay Area and I feel both teaching and performing are very meaningful to me,” he says. “I do think I would like to spend more time on the road touring as things go forward, but I’ll probably always also be teaching because it’s really important to me.”

The music he will be sharing at the show he calls “music from his heart” and feels the songs are great to bring people together.

“I find more and more as I get older, I’m less interested in being this perfect person and more interested in being honest and real,” Conley says. “The more that I do that, the more folks tell me they are crying in my songs and there are places where they really feel connections and have an emotional experience they didn’t expect coming in.

That’s what I strive to do as a songwriter.”

Eli Conley

Wednesday, April 10 7:30 p.m.

Vinyl Lounge at Gypsy Sally’s 3401 K St., N.W. free gypsysallys.com eliconley.com

QUEERY Tad Czyzewski Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

QUEERY: Tad Czyzewski

The Choral Arts Society executive director answers 20 gay questions

By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO JOEYD@WASHBLADE.COM Churches, concert halls, more churches, more concert halls, maybe once in a great while outside — performance spaces for choral ensembles don’t typically change that often.

But The Choral Arts Society of Washington is mixing things up for its weekend concerts (April 5-6) when it will perform in the Dupont Underground, a former subterranean streetcar station that has been transformed into a public art space. Organizers say the space will be “particularly apt” for the chosen repertoire which includes “Different Trains” by Steve Reich, “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber and “The Moon and Her Maidens,” a new work by Scott Tucker, artistic director of the society, which he composed to take advantage of the acoustics of the space.

“There’s a 3.5-second sound delay down there and all the selections have been picked to maximize this phenomenon,” says Tad Czyzewski, executive director of the society. “It will also allow the audience to come into close proximity to the performers and the sound they produce.”

Czyzewski says the idea came about as the choir sought for deeper ways to engage audiences.

“A common concert format is the audience sitting statically watching

performers on a stage,” he says. “What if we remove that barrier and let people experience music in a more immersive way? Music so often produces profound, emotional reactions and we hope people will experience these emotions even more viscerally in this unique location.”

The concert — dubbed “Into the Light” — will be performed this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. each night. Tickets are $20. Details at choralarts.org.

Formed in 1965, the society is a Grammy-winning choir that has recorded 17 albums, performed with leading orchestras and conductors and received widespread acclaim. Its Chamber Singers, Youth Choir and New Orchestra of Washington (about 64 people total) will perform this weekend with the Aeolus Quartet. About 10 percent of the players are LGBT, Czyzewski says, though half its office staff is LGBT. Czyzewski joined the organization in September, 2016 as executive director.

The Old Saybrook, Conn., native came to Washington 19 years ago with former employer Capital One. He and husband Matt live in Brookland.

Czyzewski enjoys cooking, urban farming, travel, the beach and crossword puzzles in his free time.

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

Sixteen years. My parents. I expected to hear “You haven’t met the right girl, yet” but they just wondered why I waited so long.

Who’s your LGBT hero?

George Takei

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

No idea. My nights consist of rehearsals, performances and other events.

Describe your dream wedding.

Already happened. Very small. It was just the closest friends we’ve shared during our time together, then a private dinner with lots of wine and Champagne.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

Animal rescue

What historical outcome would you change?

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016

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

Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

On what do you insist?

Authenticity

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

I try to keep some separation between my work and personal lives, so probably best not to print it here.

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

“It’s Not How Much You Spend, It’s How Much You Save”

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

I would not change it, but I wouldn’t fault anyone who did. Everyone has their own story.

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

I haven’t made up my mind, but after helping my dad take care of my terminally ill mom, I don’t fear not knowing.

What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

Don’t forget the LGBTQ people in small towns all across the U.S. I think we, in larger, more accepting cities, put an enormous amount of focus on policy and macro issues. There are so many

3 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9

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What would you walk across hot coals for?

Our cats. My 6’7” husband could leap across so he’s on his own.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

That we all cook, garden and listen to show tunes. I mean, I love those things, but not everyone does.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“The Object of My Affection.”

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What do you wish you’d known at 18?

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Why Washington?

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for FREE tickets, please visit:

www.usafband.eventbrite.com

Counterclockwise from top: RUTHIE FOSTER is slated to perform at next weekend’s CAMP Rehoboth Women’s Fest Photo courtesy CAMP Rehoboth, KRISTEN CHENOWETH is slated to perform at the Strathmore Monday night File photo courtesy the Karpel Group, and Team D.C. has its Night of Champions event April 13 Washington Blade by Michael Key.

Women’s Fest is next weekend

CAMP Rehoboth hosts its 18th annual Women’s Fest April 11-14 at the Atlantic Sands Hotel (1 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del.) Rehoboth Beach Convention Center (229 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del.), and other area venues.

Events include a welcome dance party, all-day book fair, women’s fest expo, a singles mixer and more. Keynote speakers for the weekend include Pamela Stewart, a Coca-Cola exec; author Blanche Wiesen Cook; author and historian Marcia Gallo; Mei-Ling Ho-Shing, a Parkland shooting survivor and gun reform activist, et. al. Fest passes are sold out but tickets to individual events are still available.

Alternative rock band BETTY and singer/ songwriter Ruthie Foster will co-headline a concert at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. Tickets

are $40. Singing/songwriting team Mouths of Babes performs their song “Hey Robert Mueller” on Saturday, April 13 at 4 and 7:30 p.m. at the Atlantic Sands Hotel. Tickets are $25. Comedian Karen Williams performs on Saturday, April 13 at 9 p.m. at the Atlantic Sands Hotel. Tickets are $25. Author and comic Fay Jacobs brings her tour “Still Aging Gracelessly: 50 Shades of Fay” to the Atlantic Sands Hotel on Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit camprehoboth.com.

CherryPop Weekend is April 11-15

The Cherry Fund hosts CherryPop Weekend, a weekend dance benefit to support HIV/AIDS and mental health service

organizations in D.C. April 11-15. DJs from all over the country and world will spin tracks at nine parties over the weekend.

Glam is at Ultrabar (911 F St., N.W.) on Thursday, April 11 from 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

Dress code is glam rock or glamorous gym looks. DJ Enrico Meloni from Rome and DJ Sean Morris from D.C. will provide music for the night. Tickets are $20.

Cherrypop is at Echostage (2135 Queens Chapel Rd., N.E.) on Friday, April 12 from 9 p.m.-4 a.m. DJ Alex Lo from Mexico City and DJ Tom Stephan from London will spin tracks for this comic book-look inspired party. Tickets are $50.

On Saturday, April 13 from 3:30 a.m.-9 a.m., DJ Shane Marcus (New York City) and DJ Jerac Acevedo (Columbia) pay tribute to the iconic Roxy hotel with an after-hours party at Tropicalia (2001 14th St., N.W.).

Tickets are $40. Sundance, a sunrise party, is on Sunday, April 14 from 6:30 a.m.9:30 a.m. at Flash (645 Florida Ave., N.W.) featuring music from DJ Sidewalk (NYC)

and DJ Isaac Escalante (Miami).

VIP passes are $309 and includes VIP access to all nine parties. Weekend passes are $259 and includes general admission access to all parties. Cherry Fast Pass tickets are $199 and gives fast pass entry to all parties except Roxy, Shag and Sundance. Friday Power Pass Combo tickets are $85 and give entry to all Friday parties plus Roxy after hours. Saturday Power Pass tickets are $95 and give access to all Saturday parties and Sundance.

For a complete list of parties and ticket prices, visit cherrydc.com.

An evening of ‘Champions’ Team D.C. hosts its Night of Champions Awards Dinner at the Omni Shoreham Hotel (2500 Calvert St., N.W.) on Saturday, April 13 from 6-10 p.m.

3 2 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9

TODAY

Bisexual singer Amanda Palmer performs at the National Theatre tonight at 7:30 p.m. The co-founder of the Dresden Dolls will perform in support of her first solo album “There Will Be No Intermission.”

Tickets range from $39-54. For more information, visit thenationaldc.org.

Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) hosts Church Night, a party/comedy act, tonight at 9 p.m. The event parodies the American church in a vein similar to “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Eddie Morison and Michele Sometimes will perform. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Attendees must be 21 and over. For more details, visit blackcatdc.com.

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society and CAMP Rehoboth present the third Delaware LGBT+ Cine-bration Film Festival at the Cinema Art Theater (17701 Dartmouth Dr., Lewes, Del.) today through April 7. “Snapshots” will be screened today at 4 p.m. The film tells the story of Rose who is visited by her daughter and granddaughter. The visit sparks her memory of when she met and fell in love with Louise.

Monda Schwartz, Sharon Miken, David Stabilea and Cine-brations committee members will host the screening. “A Million Happy Nows” will be screened at 7 p.m. hosted by PFLAG. The film follows Lainey and Eva as they struggle to deal with Lainey’s early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Admission is $10 per film. For more information, visit rehobothfilm.com.

Saturday, April 6

The event supports the Team D.C. College Scholarship Program for LGBT student-athletes. The cocktail reception and silent auction is at 6 p.m. The seated awards dinner kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Dress code is business casual. Tickets are $125.

Visit teamdc.org for details.

‘Laramie Project’ is April 11-12 The theater department of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts presents “The Laramie Project” April 11-12 at 7:30 p.m. and April 13 at 2 p.m.

The work by Moises Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project explores the murder of Matthew Shepard, a hate crime victim killed for being gay in Wyoming in 1998.

Performances will occur in the Ellington Theatre (3500 R St., N.W.). Tickets are $10-35 and can be purchased online at ellingtonschool.org/box-office.

The D.C. Chamber Musicians present a Chamber Music Master Class at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (1314 New York Ave., N.W.) today at 10 a.m. The program will include “Serenade for Winds Op. 44” by Antonin Dvorak, “String Quartet No. 2” by Aleksandr Borodin, “Violin Viola Duet K. 424”

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and “Clarinet Quintet Op. 115” by Johannes Brahms.

Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted to benefit the D.C. Concert Orchestra Society. Seating is open but RSVP is recommended. Visit dccos.org/public-events for more details.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church (2589 Chain Bridge Rd., Vienna, Va.) hosts “Keyboard Flourishes,” a free concert, today at 4 p.m.

Emmanuel’s Director of Music Ministries Robert Morehead will play the piano and organ accompanied by his brother James Morehead, director of the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, on piano. The Morehead brothers will perform Brahms, Mozart, Gershwin, Joe Utterback and more. Refreshments and a reception will follow. Free admission. For more details, visit elcvienna.org.

FYM Productions hosts the largest Depeche Mode dance party on the East Coast at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) tonight at 9 p.m. DJ Steve EP, DJ Missguided and DJ Killa K will spin Depeche Mode tracks. Tickets are $12 in

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advance and $15 at the door. For more details, visit blackcatdc.com.

Bent, a new LGBTQ dance party, is at 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight at 11:30 p.m.

DJ Tezrah, Sippi, Lemz, Bratworst, Too Free, Jacq Hill, DJ Abby, Diyanna Monet and JJ202 will perform. HellBent will spin tracks in the backbar. Tickets are $15. Sidebent, a pre-party, will be at Satellite Room (2047 9th St., N.W.) at 10 p.m. with music by DJ MadScience. For more information, visit 930.com.

The D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Rd., N.E.) hosts Daddy, a dance party, tonight from 8 p.m.-4 a.m. DJ Strike Walton Stone and DJ Dean Douglas Sullivan will play music for the night. Tickets are $12. For more details, visit dceagle.com.

D.C.’s Different Drummers’ Capitol Pride Symphonic Band hosts Pride in Concert at the Church of the Epiphany (1317 G St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The concert will honor the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The concert will include compositions that are each inspired by the colors of the Pride flag. General admission tickets are $25. Student/senior tickets are $15. For more information, visit facebook. com/dcs.different.drummers.

The GenOUT Chorus, Potomac Fever and Rock Creek Singers join together for the Small Ensemble Extravaganza at the Theater of the Arts at the University of D.C. (4200 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. The ensembles will perform “Africa,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “I Was Here,” “Jolene,” “Take On Me,” “Not Over You,” “Go the Distance” and “Imagine.” Adult tickets are $39. Senior tickets are $35.

Young professionals tickets (25 and under) are $20. For more details, visit gmcw.org.

“Triptych (Eyes of One on Another,” a multimedia work depicting the obscenity trial of late gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, will be performed tonight at 8 p.m. at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.). No ticket information was available as of Blade press time because of a technical glitch on the center’s website. Check back at kennedy-center.org for details for this one-night-only performance.

Sunday, April 7 Victory Fund hosts its sold-out National Champagne Brunch at the JW Marriott (1331 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) today from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Tammy Duckworth will be the featured guests. Names are still be accepted for the wait list if additional seats open up. For more details, visit victoryfund.org.

Monday, April 8 Tony- and Emmy-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth performs at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301

Tuckerman Ln., North Bethesda, Md.) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $68158. For more details, visit strathmore.org.

Tuesday, April 9 Republic (6939 Laurel Ave., Takoma Park, Md.) hosts Alegre Happy Hour, an LGBT happy hour, this evening from 5-7 p.m. For more information, visit republictakoma.com.

Wednesday, April 10 The National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals LGBT Housing Policy Summit is Human Rights Campaign (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) today and Thursday. The summit offers NAGLREP members and guests the opportunity to write legislation in support of NAGLREP’s call-to-action. Speakers include Sen. Tim Kaine, Jillian Lenson from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Shannon McGahn from the National Association of Realtors and more. The welcome reception is tonight from 6-8 p.m. Tomorrow there will be summit panels from 8:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., a keynote luncheon from 12:30-1:30 p.m., a visit to Capitol Hill from 1:45-4:30 p.m. and networking at the W Hotel Rooftop from 4:305:30 p.m. Tickets for NAGLREP members are $149. Tickets for non-NAGLREP members are $199. For more information, visit naglrep. com/events/housing-policy-summit.

Big Gay Book Group meets at Trio Restaurant/Bistro (1537 17th St., N.W.) to discuss “All This I Will Give You” by Dolores Redondo. Newcomers welcome. For more details, visit biggaybookgroup.com or email biggaybookgroup@hotmail.com.

Thursday, April 11 The Committee of Government Operations holds a budget hearing for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs in Room 500 of the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) today from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Community members can speak with Councilmember Brandon Todd about the budgetary needs of the LGBT community.

The Office of Latino Affairs will be first followed by the Office of LGBTQ Affairs. For more details, search “LGBTQ Affairs Budget Hearing” on Facebook.

Pretty Boi Drag presents #OpenKingNight at D.C. Comedy Loft and Bier Baron Tavern (1523 22nd St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. This drag king open mic is open to both new and seasoned kings.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. The show will be ASL interpreted. For more information, visit prettyboidrag.com.

This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com New York City Ballet: New Works & New Productions. Thru Apr 6. Works by Reisen, Balanchine & Robbins. Thru Apr 7. Open Working Rehearsal: Mariinsky Ballet. Apr 9. Mariinsky Ballet: Le Corsaire. Apr 9-Apr 14. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Giselle. Apr 6. Sleeping Beauty. Apr 7.

Russian National Ballet at Mason’s Center for the Arts. cfa.gmu.edu.

MUSIC Kristin Chenoweth Apr 8. Strathmore. strathmore.org.

This Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer delights audiences in every show and role, from film and television to voiceover and stage. We fell in love with her as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Glinda in Wicked, and in fabulous roles on West Wing, Glee, and Pushing Daisies, but it’s Chenoweth’s gorgeous jazz standards, gospel songs, and opera works that fill concert halls with her loyal fans time and again.

Into the Woods Thru May 16. Ford’s Theatre. fords.org.

In Stephen Sondheim’s imaginative, darkly comical remix of beloved fairy tales, a baker and his wife set out to reverse a witch’s curse in hopes of having a child of their own. The couple’s quest takes them into the woods, where they encounter Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and his beanstalk, a cautious Cinderella, a sequestered Rapunzel and a couple of lovelorn princes. Peter Flynn returns to direct this fanciful tale about the lengths to which we’ll go to get what we wish.

Into the Light Apr 5-Apr 6. Choral Arts Society at Dupont Underground. choralarts.org.

The program will make use of the shimmering acoustics of the Dupont Underground with Steven Reich’s Different Trains, a choral and double string quartet arrangement of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and a new piece by Artistic Director Scott Tucker specifically composed for the acoustics of the venue.

Other works will feature unconventional methods of singing and instrument playing known as extended musical techniques.

Petalpalooza Apr 6. National Cherry Blossom Festival. nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.

A day that includes: interactive art installations, larger-than-life games and activities, live music, a beer garden, a spectacular firework show, and much more!

Fireworks begin at 8:30pm weather permitting.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STRATHMORE

THEATRE Hands on a Hardbody. Thru Apr 6.

Keegan Theatre. keegantheatre.com.

Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors. Apr 10-May 12. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Thru Apr 7.

SigWorks: Torgus & Snow. Apr 8.

Grand Hotel, The Musical. Thru May 19.

Signature Theatre. sigtheatre.org.

One Destiny. Thru Oct 26. Ford’s Theatre. fords.org.

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

The Jewish Queen Lear. Thru Apr 7.

Theater J at Davis Performing Arts Center, Georgetown University. theaterj.org.

The Me I Want to Sing. Apr 11-Apr 13.

Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

The Shooting Gallery. Apr 7-Apr 27.

Native Son. Thru Apr 28. Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas. mosaictheater.org.

Topdog/Underdog.

Thru Apr 14.

Avant Bard at Gunston Arts Center. wscavantbard.org.

DANCE Farafina Kan. Apr 6-Apr 7. Dance Place. danceplace.org.

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Amanda Palmer. Apr 5. National Theatre. thenationaldc.org.

The Music of Luther Vandross. Apr 6.

American Pops Orchestra at THEARC. theamericanpops.org.

Pianist, Peter Orth. Apr 7. The Apollo Orchestra at Church of the Epiphany. apolloorchestra.com.

Black Violin. Apr 9-Apr 10. Strathmore. strathmore.org.

Brad Linde’s DIX OUT. Apr 5. Jazzy Orchestra Cafe Concert Series. Apr 5.

Jazz: Herb Scott Quartet. Apr 6. Silent Film: Comedy Shorts of the Jazz Age. Apr 7. Atlas. atlasarts.org.

Capitol Cantata Series. Thru May 6.

Washington Bach Consort at St. Peters Catholic Church. bachconsort.org.

Carmen Lundy. Apr 5. BlackRock. blackrockcenter.org.

Carolina Eyck, thereminist. Apr 11.

Calista Garcia, singer-songwriter. Apr 10-Apr 24. The Mansion at Strathmore. strathmore.org.

Chamber Music Concert. Apr 7. DC Concert Orchestra Society at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church. dcconcertorchestra.org.

Chucho Valdés. Apr 6. Dreamers’ Circus.

Apr 10. Washington Performing Arts at Sixth & I. washingtonperformingarts.org.

Debussy’s La mer. Apr 11-Apr 13. NSO at Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Phantom Limb Company: Falling Out. Thru Apr 5. Henry Threadgill]]. Apr 5.

Du Yun with OK Miss. Apr 5. Vijay Iyer Sextet. Apr 6. Triptych (Eyes of One on Another). Apr 6. Caroline Shaw and Friends. Apr 6. Brooklyn Rider and Magos Herrera. Apr 7. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Eva Salina and Peter Stan: Serbian and Roma music. Apr 11. Library of Congress. loc.gov.

Haimovitz–Iyer Duo. Apr 7. National Gallery of Art. nga.gov.

Howard University 50th Anniversary Concert. Apr 7. Howard Gospel Choir at Howard University-Cramton Auditorium.

Klezmer Concert and Reception. Apr 7.

Bender JCC. benderjccgw.org.

Los Gallos Negros. Apr 5. Arlington Cultural Affairs at Columbia Pike Branch Library. arlingtonarts.org.

Ms. Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton. Apr 6.

Strathmore. strathmore.org.

Bruno Monteiro, Violin; Nuno Marques, Piano. Apr 8. Embassy Series at Portuguese Ambassador’s Residence. embassyseries.org.

Shenson Chamber Music Concert:. Apr 10. National Museum of Women in the Arts. nmwa.org.

Sounds of Spring. Apr 5. Washington Bach Consort at First Congregational United Church of Christ. bachconsort.org.

The Swingles. Apr 5. Calidore String Quartet. Apr 7. The Barns at Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

MUSEUMS AU Museum at the Katzen. Squire Broel.

Apr 6-Aug 11. Forward Press: 21st Century Printmaking. Apr 6-Aug 11. american.edu.

Anderson House. Revolutionary Reflections.

Apr 5-Oct 27. societyofthecincinnati.org.

Dumbarton Oaks.

Undeciphered Accounts of Andean Life. Thru Aug 18.

Wari and Inka Tunics from the Collection.

Thru Aug 18. doaks.org.

Library of Congress. Baseball Americana.

Thru Jun 29. loc.gov.

National Gallery of Art. Venetian Prints in the Time of Tintoretto. Thru May 26.

Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice.

Thru Jul 9. nga.gov.

National Geographic. Queens of Egypt.

Thru Sep 2. nationalgeographic.org.

National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Ambreen Butt. Thru Apr 14. Ursula von Rydingsvard. Thru Jul 28. nmwa.org.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Orchids: Amazing Adaptations. Thru Apr 28. Lincoln’s Contemporaries. Thru May 19. Champions. Thru May 19. npg.si.edu.

Postal Museum. Beautiful Blooms: Flowering Plants on Stamps. Thru Jul 14. postalmuseum.si.edu.

GALLERIES DC Arts Center. Lush: Reinvention Wayson R. Jones. Thru Apr 7. Then/Again. Thru Apr 28. dcartscenter.org.

Del Ray Artisans. (No) Comfort Zone. Apr 5-Apr 28. delrayartisans.org.

District Architecture Center. Architecture over Architecture. Apr 8. aiadac.com. gallery neptune & brown. Foon Sham: Twist of Lime. Thru Apr 20. galleryneptunebrown.com.

JCCNV. Meaning Making Through Art Making. Thru May 10. jccnv.org.

Korean Cultural Center DC. Painted in Light: Digital Media Artist HyeGyung Kim. Thru Apr 22. Breaking Boundaries. Apr 5-Apr 26. koreaculturedc.org.

Glen Echo Park. Space Cowgirls: Ciara Barsotti. Apr 6-Apr 27. glenechopark.org.

Waverly Street Gallery. Unstuck in Space and Time: An Annotated Exhibit by Jeffrey Human. Thru Apr 6. Kristina Penhoet : Indeterminate Identities. Apr 7-May 4. waverlystreetgallery.com.

Zenith Sculpture Space. Women who Work, Care, and Create. Thru Apr 27. zenithgallery.com.

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Kings & Queens of Prom Charity Event Cross the Street is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster positive changes in the lives of inner-city youth throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. As our official introduction to the community, Cross the Street is partnering with local LGBTQ-focused businesses and organizations to bring you the prom experience of a lifetime.

This event will be raising funds for the youth in our community. Sure to be fabulous and completely over the top with special guests and performers, get ready to dance the night away!

SPECIAL GUESTS:

DC Different Drummers Queens of Drag Reunion (Sasha Adams Sanchez, Brooklyn Heights, Iyana Deschanel & Shaquita Lee) Mayor Bowser DJ Tez Rah Super B*tch ...& MORE!!!

TICKETS:

General Admission - $60.00 VIP - $150.00

THEME:

Express Yourself

WHO:

LGBTQ + Community Allies

WHAT:

Kings & Queens of Prom Charity Event

WHEN:

7:30 pm- 12:00 am June 21st, 2019 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm

(VIP cocktail hour & Special guest Meet & Greet)

8:30 pm - 12:00 am (General Admission)

WHERE:

Dock5 - Union Market

WHY:

To have the night you always wanted ...the way you always wanted to have it

Visit here for more information www.kingsandqueensofprom.com www.kingsandqueensofprom.eventbrite.com www.facebook.com/events/267105364211662/

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GINA CHAVEZ credits her public school education with exposing her to a wide variety of musical styles.

Photo by Lisa Donato; courtesy Strathmore

‘I share my story’

Singer/songwriter Gina Chavez thrives on eclectic repertoire

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

Gina Chavez is the kind of artist who sings about her own experiences.

“My performance persona is me, and that’s exactly what you get at my shows,” she says. “I share my story. Part is discovering my Latin roots through music and part is being a practicing Catholic who fell in love with a woman and got married.”

On Sunday, Gina Chavez brings her life and music to AMP by Strathmore, a cabaretstyle venue at the Pike & Rose area in North Bethesda. Backed by a five-piece, all-male band, Chavez takes her audiences on a bilingual journey, incorporating sounds from the Americas and the Middle East.

“It’s a wide variety of music. You’ll get singer/songwriter to Latin dance band, and we have a blast. My shows often turn into mini-dance parties,” she says.

Though she’s of Mexican descent, Chavez, 36, didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. The Austin, Texas native embraced her Latin roots during a semester abroad in Buenos Aires where she fell in love with chacarera, the rhythmic folk music she heard at street fairs.

She ended up writing her own version.

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album and she still plays it live. It “holds a special place in my heart” because it came to her quickly — she wrote it in 10 minutes.

She credits her education at Austin public schools for giving her appreciation for a wide variety of music. She sang material as varied as show tunes to classical works like Mozart’s “Requiem.”

Today, Chavez and her band travel the world playing dates throughout the U.S. and Latin America, and far-flung spots like Uzbekistan and Jordan as cultural ambassadors with the U.S. State Department.

“I never intended to have this awesome life with music. In fact, it might not have happened,” she says.

In 2009, just when Chavez was becoming a name on the Austin music scene, she and Jodi Granado, her wife (then girlfriend), spent eight months in El Salvador teaching English to underprivileged girls.

“Everybody thought I was crazy, but El Salvador was an experience that informed my life, career and relationship with my wife. We didn’t go to change social norms or give the finger to the establishment. We were helping girls going through a rough situation in large part caused by the U.S. Despite dealing with horrendous crime, everyone we encountered were incredibly kind and giving. We received more love than we could have given.”

Shortly after their return to Austin in 2010, Chavez recorded “Siete D,” her award-winning single, which takes a stand against gang violence in Central America.

At the same time, the couple established Niñas Arriba (ninasarriba.wordpress.com), an ongoing college fund that offers full scholarships for young women in El Salvador.

Chavez met Granado in school, at the

University Catholic Center at the University of Texas Austin.

“Looking back, it was love at first, but I didn’t realize it was love until later. I just knew that I was intrigued and wanted to be around her all the time. Oblivious to the fact I was gay. It just wasn’t on the table as an option. My counselor had to asked me on three different occasions it I’d discerned my sexuality before I came out.”

Thirteen years later, Chavez and Granado (a high school math teacher and sports coach who additionally helps to manage Chavez’s career) are happily married and remain practicing Catholics.

They attend Mass with Chavez’s parents every Sunday.

“Mother Church is big slow-moving tanker. She doesn’t turn quickly. The church isn’t going to change if everyone who knows there’s need for change leaves.

Our decision at this time is to stick around.

For a long time, I was a practicing Catholic but didn’t own my faith. Because I’m gay, I felt I couldn’t own it, but that’s bullshit.

I’m as Catholic as Pope Francis, And I talk about this in the show.”

In her song “Heaven Knows,” she sings, “Heaven knows our souls, our story/the shape of your heart when you hold me/ wouldn’t tear us apart or disown me.”

Also on April 7 at AMP, Chavez and her band are playing “Kids Pajama Jam Party,” a lively, bilingual, all-ages matinee concert with an educational twist.

“It’s a lot of fun. The audience is encouraged to dance and sing along,” says Chavez who is thinking about having children of her own. “That’s a subject currently in discussion,” she adds with a twinkle in her voice.

“I’ve been privileged with a loving family and opportunity. I like to think that through my music I can bring people together who otherwise might not know each other,” she says. “I have a platform and want to put love in the world.”

Gina Chavez in concert

April 7 AMP by Strathmore 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda, Md. $25-30 301-581-5100 ampbystrathmore.com

MICHELLE WILLIAMS as Gwen Verdon and SAM ROCKWELL as Bob Fosse in ‘Fosse Verdon.’

Photo by Pari Dukovic; courtesy FX

Dynamic duo

Broadway legends Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon revisited in uneven new FX series

By BRIAN T. CARNEY “Fosse/Verdon” is a giddy ride through the long tumultuous relationship (professional and personal) between showbiz legends Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.

When the eight-episode limited FX series, which starts April 9, pulls in tight on Fosse and Verdon and their circle of friends, the results are amazing, a passionate portrait of ground-breaking artists who thrive on applause and follow spots while they try to outrun their doubts and insecurities.

Unfortunately, when the focus pulls away from the central relationships, things get a little fuzzy. Even for the most dedicated musical theater queen, it’s hard to cram decades of Broadway and Hollywood history into an eight-hour miniseries.

Bob Fosse (1927-1987) wanted to be the next Fred Astaire. Instead he became a legendary director and choreographer, winning eight Tony Awards between 1956 (“The Pajama Game”) and 1986 (“Big Deal”), an Oscar (“Cabaret”) and an Emmy (“Liza With a Z”) and creating iconic dance moves and production techniques that changed theatre history.

Gwen Verdon (1925-2000) started dancing on stage when she was 6 years

old. She won four Tony Awards between 1953 (“Can-Can”) and 1959 (“Redhead”), but suffered a long professional dry spell between her Tony nominations for “Sweet Charity” (1966) and “Chicago” (1976).

Fosse (a stunning Sam Rockwell) and Verdon (a luminous Michelle Williams) met in 1955 when they were working on the stage production of “Sweet Charity.” She became his chief muse, one of the greatest interpreters of his choreography and often his unbilled collaborator. The pair married in 1960 and had one daughter, Nicole. They separated in 1971, but never divorced. After his death, she became the guardian of his artistic legacy and began a successful second career as a film and television actress.

“Fosse/Verdon” ambitiously tackles their entire relationship and even includes flashbacks to their childhood performances.

It sometimes gets exhausting, confusing and a little repetitive. He uses alcohol, drugs and chorus girls to keep his demons at bay; she raises Nicole, comes to Bob’s rescue and waits for her next great role.

Yet, in the middle of all this muddle, there are some magical moments that slow down and shine a spotlight on these fascinating people. When Fosse and Verdon meet, for example, creative and erotic sparks fly and the audition quickly becomes a mutual seduction. It’s amazing to watch the two of them work together on the sets of “Sweet Charity” and “Cabaret.”

He is too inarticulate and impatient to explain his innovative choreography to the dancers; she coaches the dancers, works with the technicians and finds the right costumes for Sally Bowles. He, of course, gets the Oscar.

There’s also a powerful episode where

the principal characters gather at a beach house to mourn the death of Joan Simon (Aya Cash) after Bob is released from a psychiatric hospital. Bob is with his new girlfriend Ann Reinking (Margaret Qualley) and Gwen is with her new boyfriend Ron. Also in attendance are Nicole (who gets sick after smoking a cigarette) and family friends and award-winning writers Neil Simon (Nate Corddry) and Paddy Chayefsky (Norbert Leo Butz).

The rainy weekend at the beach is a great chance to get to know the characters better. Episode writer Charlotte Stoudt and episode director Thomas Kail (Broadway’s “Hamilton”) dive deep into relationships old and new and offer fresh insights into the personal and professional passions that drive the characters. Stoudt, Kail and the designers also capture the 1970s with great flair; there’s a chocolate souffle for dessert and a bight yellow fondue pot on the counter. Best of all. Michelle Williams offers a heart-rending performance of “Where Am I Going?” from “Sweet Charity.”

Throughout the series (or at least the five episodes that were available for review), the acting is superb. Williams is simply magnificent as Verdon; she brings the legendary dancer to fiery life in a richly nuanced performance that throbs with passion. Whether onstage or off, Williams dazzles. Rockwell is terrific as Fosse, even when the role gets a little repetitive. Both actors sing and dance very well and embody their legendary characters with admirable ease. Instead of relying on heavy prosthetics, they appropriately accomplish their transformations with theatrical flair, relying on vocal mannerisms, costumes, wigs and makeup, and those fabulous Fosse movements.

The terrific supporting cast also includes a sensational Paul Reiser as embattled “Cabaret” producer Cy Feuer, Evan Handler as Hal Prince and a great Susan Misner as Joan McCracken, Fosse’s second wife.

The editing is crisp and the pacing is assured, but sometimes the writing trips over itself. Most notably, the script borrows heavily from “All That Jazz,” Fosse’s stunning fictional cinematic autobiography. Montages of Fosse’s selfdestructive behavior are lifted directly from the movie, as is Nicole’s tearful musical eulogy for her father. Luckily, Sam Rockwell never repeats Roy Schneider’s classic line, “It’s showtime.”

There’s also very little context for the action. There’s almost no mention of Fosse’s rivals Michael Bennett and Jerome Robbins. Supporting characters come and go in a confusing blur and most of the celebrity impersonations (Liza Minnelli!

Ben Vereen! Joel Grey!) are unremarkable and indistinct. It’s also a little odd that there are no visible LGBT characters.

Despite these weaknesses in the writing, “Fosse/Verdon” is a must-see for LGBT fans. The performances are sensational, the show looks great and the story is entrancing. It’s a great show to watch in a queer bar surrounded by other enthusiastic fans; if you’re watching at home, make sure you have a musical theater maven on hand to help you follow along.

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Mariinsky Ballet Valery Gergiev, Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre Yuri Fateev, Acting Director of the Mariinsky Ballet

Le Corsaire

Renata Shakirova and David Zaleyev, photo by Natasha Razina

with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Vladislav Karklin, conductor See website for star-studded principal casting

(202) 467-4600

Photo by Kevin Majoros

‘If you could swim, you could live’ West Hollywood Aquatics doc slated for D.C. screening

By KEVIN MAJOROS

April 9–14 | Opera House

Kennedy-Center.org

JACK MARKEY, JIM BALLARD and JON BAUER at the Team New York Aquatics training camp in Palm Springs last week.

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

Support for Ballet at the Kennedy Center is generously provided by Elizabeth and C. Michael Kojaian.

International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

After the inaugural Gay Games in 1982, a group of gay athletes from West Hollywood formed a swim team and water polo team that would eventually be renamed West Hollywood Aquatics. It was the same year that AIDS surfaced in the gay community and it became part of the teams.

With their teammates dying around them, the athletes rose above the darkness using the power of sports and community to build a foundation that many of them are still leaning on today.

The film “Light in the Water” debuted with a shortened version on the Logo Network last June to critical acclaim.

It chronicles the journey of the West Hollywood teams and offers a glimpse of what it was like to be gay and an athlete in the 1980s.

Not only is it a story about swimming, water polo and the HIV/AIDS crisis, it is a story about hope, perseverance and the battle for acceptance.

“Swimming helped because in a way, it was a distraction,” says West Hollywood swimmer Jim Ballard in the film. “If you could swim, you could live. Or at least you were alive for that moment. At one point in time, there was a funeral every week.”

After the Logo debut, “Light in the Water” began running a different, longer version at film festivals and screenings all over the world. Just two weeks ago, the film picked up a Daytime Emmy nomination from its screening on Logo.

It will be screened in Washington (but is sold out) on Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. at AMC Georgetown 14. The event is being co-hosted

by LGBT-based District of Columbia Aquatics Club. A panel discussion will follow.

Appearing on the panel will be director Lis Bartlett, cast member Charlie Carson from Team New York Aquatics and Jack Markey, cofounder of District of Columbia Aquatics Club.

Both Carson and Markey were also at the swim training camp last week which is hosted annually

by LGBT-based Team New York Aquatics.

Bartlett moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to pursue filmmaking. A swimmer since middle school, she chose LGBT-based West Hollywood Aquatics over the many straight teams in the area to continue her swimming.

Over time, she began to realize the team was a microcosm for the city of Los Angeles.

It made her think about what everyone has in common as athletes and what they share from the experience of exercising.

She pitched the idea of a documentary with Nathan Santell, a film producer and West Hollywood swimmer, and began the process of interviewing surviving long-time members.

“My first interview was with Jon Bauer and he really allowed himself to be vulnerable during our filming,” Bartlett says. “When I realized how powerful the team was for him during that time, I knew it was going to be a multi-layered project.”

Jon Bauer has been a member of the team since 1988 and was a pioneer as a dentist in Los Angeles for treating patients with AIDS. He reflects on that first interview with Bartlett.

“We were talking about swimming and then they shifted gears and asked about AIDS. I was ripe for the question,” Bauer says.

“I was in the trenches as a dentist and it was overwhelming. I actually treated the very first person in Los Angeles that we are aware of that died from AIDS in 1978. We didn’t know why he died; he was very young and healthy and six months later he was gone. I have lost hundreds of patients, partners, my brother — there was a lot there and the question went deep.”

Both Bauer and Ballard are still swimming and reaping the benefits that result from being active and part of a greater community. Just last week they attended a seven day training camp in Palm Springs with 70 LGBT swimmers from around the country.

“The film is an exquisite opportunity to experience what we have been through and to bring up opportunities to heal. To relate that to healing from swimming and what exercise did for me, and to share that, was a gift,” Bauer says. “People want to be heard and to know that they have been seen. Lis and Nathan did an incredible job capturing stories and they reflect beautifully on every aspect of life.”

“These people who I swim with every day have been through so much, yet they are so joyful,” Bartlett says. “They have become my family and my community.

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Register Today | RainbowFamilies.org Town Hall Meeting | Workshops | Kids Activities | Resource Fair | Giveaways | Guest Speakers | Networking

Now more than ever

Rainbow Families

tm

2019 Family Conference

May 4 2019 • Georgetown Day School • Washington DC Information and Registration: www.RainbowFamilies.org Education, Networking, Guest Speakers Workshops for Families of All Stages, Families to Be, Allies Resource Fair, Giveaways and Discounts Kids’ Activities and More Shannon Minter

Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights

Julie Kruse

Director of Federal Policy, Family Equality Council

Guest of Honor, NBC4’s Barbara Harrison

Featured Speaker, Trystan Angel Reese

Town Hall Presenters

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AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 41

Photo of Bobby Smith by Christopher Mueller

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Now through May 19 Pride Night: May 3

SigTheatre.org 703 820 9771

40 Under 40 Party

The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs partnered with the Washington Blade to produce the 40 Under 40 Party recognizing the accomplishments of queer women under 40 in D.C. The party was held at the Google office in D.C. on Wednesday, March 27.

Washington Blade photos by Michael Key

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Stop Cannabis Arrest & Prosecution in Washington DC

We the people of Washington DC ask that Mayor Bowser and the city council direct the Metropolitan Police Department to stop arresting and prosecuting citizens for Possession or Distribution of any amount of Cannabis , Cannabis oils and Cannabis Edibles .

Arresting citizens for Cannabis Crimes is Immoral and against the community standard of the citizens of Washington DC Arresting citizens is a waste of the cit city’s resources and affects People of Color disproportionately.

The People of Washington DC have spoken that they want the right to purchase recreational cannabis and smoke cannabis in private clubs overwhelmingly in 2015 .

Stop All Arrest & Prosecutions of Cannabis We started this petition because...

King Weedy Collective is a 501c3 non profit . Our mission is to bring safe access of Cannabis to all citizens and visitors of Washington DC

Please visit www.kingweedy.org to sign this petition AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 43

We believe that to create an exceptional community of culture, it takes all kinds.

The Ingleside Communities Are Proud We are proud to be advocates for an entire new generation of diversity, of our great history, and heritage of serving Washington, DC area seniors. Our legacy of promoting a culture of inclusion provides extraordinary service and exceptional care.

Visit us today, and discover what engaged living can mean to you!

An Ingleside Community

An Ingleside Community

3050 Military Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015 202-470-3413 | www.ircdc.org

701 King Farm Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20850 240-380-2678 | www.inglesidekingfarm.org

Ingleside at Rock Creek and Ingleside at King Farm are not-for-profit, CARF accredited, continuing care retirement communities.

4 4 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • AP R IL 0 5 , 2 0 1 9

Beach market is heating up like the weather Find an agent and start your house hunt

By LEE ANN WILKINSON

Probably the No. 1 question I hear from clients, both brand new customers and clients who have bought and sold multiple beach properties (and there are quite a few!), is: “How’s the market?” I love answering this question because I really love talking about real estate. Also, responding to this question helps real estate agents like myself consider not only buyers’ interests and expectations, but how best to market our sellers’ homes. So, it’s win-win!

The answer to “how’s the market” really depends on what you’re looking for: People buy and sell beach real estate to retire, downsize, move into a bigger home, get closer to the water, buy a primary home, second home/beach house, or purely to invest for rental income. The answer to this question at any given time depends on your specific real estate goals.

Generally, the answer today is that the market is heating up like the weather. It may seem like beach Realtors make this claim like meteorologists to draw people to the beach (sunny all weekend), however homes that are priced well are in fact going quickly this spring, probably much like the D.C. market. As an example, in the past few weeks, we have had several properties go under contract within days of going on the market and have been involved in several multiple offer situations. In-town Lewes and Rehoboth Beach homes are in demand, as are pristine, move-in perfect homes. Spring and summer are great times to look since inventory tends to be highest this time of year.

My team tracks statistics annually on Lewes home and lot sales, including the average ‘days on market.’ In 2018, this

Buyers in nearby coastal Delaware are looking for a wide array of homes, from rentals to downsized retirement properties.

Photo courtesy of Bigstock

number shrunk by 50 percent - from 160 days in 2017 to 81 days in 2018. That trend continues so far this year. Given the recent ‘days on market’ for well-priced, well-located homes, I would recommend contacting a local real estate agent as soon as you see something you like online.

Here are a few of the other great questions buyers ask: “Do I need an agent if I’m looking at new construction?” I wish I would hear this question more often – because the answer is YES! And you have plenty of new communities to choose from if you are shopping for a brand new home. As a buyer, it costs you nothing to work with a Realtor but you get someone working for you – with your interests in mind - paid by the seller (or the builder, in the case

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of new construction). Many on-site sales representatives work exclusively for the builder, and are not required to be licensed Realtors. At least in our relatively small beach market, most agents have worked with these sales centers before and already have a rapport with these folks.

“Should I call my own (out of town) bank or should I use a local lender?”

Most real estate agents would prefer that you work with local lenders and other professionals that know the nuances of our coastal Delaware market. Of course, some lenders in D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc., may understand and have experience here, but if you have a relationship with someone you want to use for your Delaware home purchase, it is really important that he or she keeps

close contact with your Delaware Realtor.

Finding the home is often the ‘easy’ part. A lender who’s up to speed on things unique to our Delaware market (leased land, for example) will help you get to closing. Ask your agent for a few recommendations for mortgage lenders – they’ll be glad to help.

“Where do I start?” If you are starting to dip your toes in the waters of beach real estate, you will naturally begin with an online search. Last year, the Sussex County Association of Realtors switched to Bright MLS, which feeds to all of the local real estate company sites like ours (LeeAnnGroup.com), as well as to Zillow, realtor.com, etc., and casts a wide net of properties available in Delaware and into Maryland. Of course, searching online can give you a great overview of price ranges in different communities and towns, and virtual tours. By the time new buyers call or email us, they have often picked out a few specific homes to see.

Technology is a great supplement to home buying, but we invite you to reach out to our local real estate agents. Especially in our fast-paced spring market, we know what is going under contract and we know about homes that are about to go on the market and can get you a first/early look.

Our team’s focus and specialty, like many of our local colleagues, is to keep the “real” in real estate – and nothing takes the place of an actual conversation to understand what you are looking for and how we can help you get that home at the beach.

Lee Ann Wilkinson is a Realtor and CEO of The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gallo Realty, the topselling real estate team in Delaware and #4 nationally for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Visit LeeAnnGroup.com, email LeeAnn@LeeAnnGroup.com, or call her at 302-645-6664 for information on living at the beach.

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