Washingtonblade.com, Issue 50, Volume 30, July 26, 2019

PARTING IS SUCH SWEETSORROW A TRIBUTE TO SHAKESPEARE THEATRE’S MICHAEL KAHN, STEPPING DOWN AFTER 33 YEARS, PAGE 26

J ULY 2 6, 2019 • VOLUME 50 • I S S UE 30 • WA S HI NGTON B LAD E.CO M

The Washington Blade’s

50th Birthday Gala Celebrating five decades of LGBTQ journalism

Friday, Oct. 18 Cocktails at 6 p.m.

Dinner & Program at 7 p.m.

Festive cocktail attire

Intercontinental Hotel 801 Wharf St., SW

WA S H I N G TO N D. C . – T H E W H A R F

Special guests and speakers to be announced

Tickets available at Blade50th.com

Benefitting the Blade Foundation. A portion of ticket price is tax deductible.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

VIDA Fitness

Whitman-Walker Health

0 2 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9

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JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 03

VOLUME 50 ISSUE 30 ADDRESS

PO Box 53352 Washington DC 20009 PHONE

Shakespeare Theatre’s Michael Kahn steps down after 33 years of pioneering work that helped transform D.C.’s cultural scene, PAGE 26.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

06 08

Looking back:

21

Viewpoint

50 years of the Blade

26

Michael Kahn bids farewell

Mayor urges community to

30

Queery: Saida Agostini

join campaign against

32

‘Love, Sex & Marriage’

illegal guns 10

plays Black Box Theatre

Mayor says budget

34

Arts & Culture

‘appropriate’ as LGBT groups

36

‘Sword of Trust’ delves into

seek $3 million more 11

Marianne Williamson: ‘I honor

Civil War mythology 39

gay love because it’s love’ 14 16

make splash with the Wetskins

Ortiz Jones to challenge

40

21 and lost

Texas congressman again

45

Finding pet-friendly

Thousands attend HIV/AIDS conference in Mexico City

19

Globetrotting athletes

apartments for rent 46

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A 1979 court case challenges ban on gays immigrating to U.S. FROM STAFF REPORTS

Forty years ago this week in the summer of 1979, a court case challenging the ban on gays immigrating to the United States grabbed national headlines.

A gay photographer from London arrived at the San Francisco airport to cover the Pride celebration when

he was stopped for being gay. His subsequent court case challenging the INS ban on gays helped galvanize opposition to the discriminatory policy.

With immigration issues very much in the national dialogue today, it’s important to remember that the

LGBTQ community was once the target of discriminatory laws that now seek to ban other groups from the country.

Take a walk down memory lane — visit washingtonblade. com/archives to research and browse the Blade’s unique 50-year archive of LGBTQ news and features.

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Mayor urges community to join campaign against illegal guns Gunfire claimed lives of 8 of 12 LGBT people murdered in D.C. area since 2000

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

Mayor MURIEL BOWSER and D.C. Police Chief PETER NEWSHAM at a news conference on Monday urged city residents to anonymously report to police people they know who possess illegal firearms.

Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

The LGBT community should join all District residents in responding to a special appeal made by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Peter Newsham on Monday for city residents to inform police of people they know who have illegal guns, according to District Police Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit.

Bowser and Newsham issued their call for city residents to contact a police anonymous Firearm Tip Line following a five-day period beginning July 17 in which at least 19 people were shot in D.C., with eight of them shot fatally.

Among those shot to death was 11-yearold Karon Brown, who police say was struck by bullets fired by a suspect outside a McDonald’s restaurant at Naylor and Good Hope roads, S.E., where a fight broke out between adults and juveniles. Newsham said tips by outraged residents helped homicide detectives identify the suspect, who has been charged with second-degree murder.

Although none of the 19 shootings were known to be LGBT related, Parson noted that the large majority of murders of LGBT people in the D.C. area in recent years, especially murders of transgender women of color, have been the result of gunfire.

According to D.C. police records, at least six transgender women and two gay

men murdered in the D.C. area since 2000 died from gunshot wounds.

The mayor and Newsham made their appeal for residents to alert police of people they know who are in possession of illegal firearms at a July 22 news conference at D.C. police headquarters on Indiana Ave., N.W. They urged people who know someone in possession of an illegal firearm to anonymously text a message to the Tip Line at 50411 or by calling the anonymous Tip Line at 202-727-9099.

A reward of up to $2,500 is being offered to people whose tips lead to the confiscation of illegal firearms or the arrest of those in possession of such firearms.

“We need you to help us make our neighborhoods safe by letting us know about illegal guns, letting us know about people you know who are prepared to use them and have access to them,” Bowser said.

“Let us know before they kill somebody,” she said. “Let us know before they ruin their own lives by committing these tragic homicides.”

The latest spate of shootings follows the March 30 shooting death of transgender woman Ashanti Carmon, 27, and the June 13 shooting death of trans woman Zoe Spears, 23, within a four-block area in Fairmount Heights, Md., just across the D.C. line in Prince George’s County.

Last week, P.G. County Police arrested 33-year-old Baltimore resident Geraldo Thomas in connection with the Spears murder. They said they have yet to determine a motive for the killing.

“Gun violence knows no gender, it knows no sexual orientation,” Parson told the Blade when asked about the impact on the LGBT community of the city’s effort to persuade city residents to report people who possess illegal guns.

“Gun violence impacts our entire community,” he said. “And to the extent that anybody that lives, works, does business in the District of Columbia knows about an illegal fire arm, we want them to tell us,” Parson said.

“If you’re asking me if we have a specific appeal to the LGBT community, I don’t think you need to look very far to realize that Ashanti Carmon, Zoe Spears – and those are just the ones on the top of my head – they have all died as a result of gun violence,” he said in referring to recent and past LGBT murders in the D.C. area.

“Gun violence touches this community and it should be something this community is concerned about regardless of their race, their gender, or their sexual orientation,” Parson said.

In response to a question from the Blade, Newsham said at the news conference on Monday that D.C. police continue to investigate five separate incidents of assaults or threats against LGBT people in D.C. that have occurred over the past two months.

“As you know, we take that very seriously,” Newsham said. “The Special Liaison Unit has been in contact with all of the victims in those cases. I don’t have any significant progress to report,” he said. “But as we have updates I will provide them to you and make sure you have them.”

He noted that following the murders of Carmon and Spears, who lived in D.C., District police have been in close contact with P.G. County police.

“We have offered them our special services with our Special Liaison Unit if they want to take advantage of that because we do have such a great relationship with the LGBT community here in Washington, D.C.,” Newsham said.

Newsham told the Blade after the news conference that he disagrees with the interpretation of D.C.’s juvenile justice law that information cannot be disclosed

about the disposition of cases in which juveniles are arrested for violent crimes, including crimes against LGBT people.

He was referring to one of the five recent cases of anti-LGBT assaults in D.C. where two juvenile males and an adult male were arrested by D.C. police for assaulting a gay male couple on U Street, N.W. near the gay bar Nellie’s on June 16. One of the two victims was hospitalized and treated for broken teeth and other injuries.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said it dropped an assault charge against the adult on grounds that insufficient evidence existed to secure a conviction if the case went to trial. But the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which prosecutes crimes committed by juveniles, has declined to say whether the two juveniles were still being prosecuted, saying the city’s juvenile justice law prevents the release of any information pertaining to a juvenile case.

“I would say I would personally disagree with the assessment that you can’t release the disposition of a [juvenile] case,” Newsham told the Blade. “My reading of the law is you keep the juvenile’s name and personal information private. I think the disposition of the case is something you should have access to,” he said.

“If it requires a legal change I would 100 percent support that legal change.

I truly believe that the victim of a crime should know what’s going on with the case regardless of whether or not a juvenile or an adult is the subject,” he said.

Assistant D.C. Attorney General Elizabeth Wieser, who serves as director of the Attorney General’s Division of Public Safety, said Newsham’s interpretation that the city’s juvenile justice law allows the release of the disposition of juvenile cases is incorrect. She said the law specifically prohibits the public release of any information about a juvenile case.

She said Newsham was also incorrect in implying that victims of crimes committed by juveniles are denied access to information on the disposition of their cases. Wieser said the law explicitly allows crime victims in juvenile cases to be informed of the disposition of such cases. She said her office routinely informs victims of crimes committed by juveniles of the status of their case and the outcome of the case such as whether the juvenile is found innocent or guilty and what the sentence a juvenile receives if convicted.

08 • WA S HI NGTO N B LAD E.CO M • J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

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JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 09

Mayor says budget ‘appropriate’ as LGBT groups seek $3 million more Bowser asserts city agencies are supporting community

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

‘I don’t think any additional request came up to us during the budget formulation process or the budget engagement forums that I host across the city,’ said MAYOR BOWSER of the $3 million sought by a coalition of city LGBT rights groups.

Washington Blade photo by Damien Salas

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser weighed in for the first time publicly last week on a request by a coalition of 15 local LGBT and LGBT supportive organizations for an additional $3 million in funding for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.

Earlier this year the groups unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the D.C. City Council to add $3 million to the city’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget to create within the Office of LGBTQ Affairs “a competitive grant program focusing on health equity to support LGBTQ organizations.”

To the dismay of the LGBT activists pushing for the funding, the Council did not include the proposed funding in its budget. Some Council members said privately that the LGBT groups didn’t do a sufficient job in advocating for the funding in a budget process where the council must choose between dozens of competing interests for funds.

Members of the coalition dispute that claim, saying they testified before a Council committee requesting the funds and met with members of D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson’s staff to discuss the funding request.

In an interview with the Washington Blade at a D.C. statehood rally on July 18, Mayor Bowser raised what some

activists and political observers say is a philosophical difference over what the role of the mayor’s LGBTQ Affairs Office should be within the city government.

Similar to the view initially taken by some D.C. Council members, the mayor appeared to take the position that individual city agencies rather than the LGBT Affairs Office should operate and fund specific programs that serve the LGBT community.

When asked what her position is on the now revised request by the LGBT groups that she reallocate $3 million from the city’s existing budget for the grants program, the mayor gave this reply: “Well we think we have advanced the appropriate budget for the office,” she said. “But certainly the office supports making sure that all D.C. government agencies are supporting the community.

So their job is outreach and coordination and facilitation of policy and initiatives among all the agencies,” the mayor told the Blade.

“So if you look at the [Office of] Aging budget you’ll see commitments to LGBTQ Affairs,” Bowser continued. “If you look at the Department of Human Services or the Department of Housing and Community Development there are investments in LGBTQ issues. So that’s where we see the additional

investments – in the agencies themselves.”

When told that the LGBT groups wanted the LGBTQ Affairs Office to use the $3 million to directly fund LGBT organizations that provide services to LGBT people in need such as the LGBT youth services group SMYAL, the Wanda Alston Foundation, or Casa Ruby, the mayor said she wasn’t aware of receiving such a request during the budget process.

“I don’t think any additional request came up to us during the budget formulation process or the budget engagement forums that I host across the city,” she said. “And we feel like we landed in the right spot for the office itself, but also the additional investments in housing, aging issues, and youth homelessness.”

She said funding for LGBT-related programs for those subject areas went to individual city agencies.

Transgender rights advocate Monika Nemeth, who serves as president of the city’s Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, said she understands where the mayor is coming from in her apparent preference for LGBT programs to be operated by city agencies. Nemeth said members of the coalition of the 15 organizations along with LGBT Advisory Neighborhood Commission members who recently formed an ANC Rainbow Caucus are

seeking a meeting with the mayor to discuss these issues.

“We have met with several Council members over the last few days,” said Nemeth. “We look forward to meeting with the mayor.

Among other things, Nemeth said the coalition members will urge the mayor to look for unspent funds from city agencies that surface every budget year as well as other available funds within the budget to go toward some or all of the $3 million grants program they would like the Office of LGBTQ Affairs to operate.

Nemeth and gay rights advocate Mike Silverstein, a member of the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, each said the coalition hopes to clarify why its members feel local LGBT groups rather than city agencies should operate some LGBT-related programs, especially those that serve members of the LGBT community with special needs.

“Specifically those who are the most vulnerable and the most at risk is where the entire focus of this is,” said Silverstein.

He noted that the coalition has become aware of programs operated by city agencies, including some from the Office on Aging, which recently has become the Department of Aging and Community Living, where LGBT seniors were mistreated by other seniors participating in activities such as free lunch drop-in centers. He said the DC Center for the LGBT Community has been unsuccessfully seeking city funds to expand its LGBT seniors program, and the Center would be a good candidate for a grant to do that from the LGBTQ Affairs Office if the office receives the $3 million to allocate such grants.

While pushing for the reallocation of funds for fiscal year 2020, Nemeth and Silverstein said the coalition is taking steps to push for funding for the grants program by the D.C. Council for fiscal year 2021.

The coalition’s 15 groups include Capital Pride Alliance, Capital Trans Pride, Casa Ruby, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, DC Center for the LGBT Community, Federal City Performing Arts Association, Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, HIPS, LGBT Bar Association of D.C., Mary’s House for Older Adults, Rainbow Theater Project, SMYAL, Team D.C., Us Helping UsPeople Into living, Inc.

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Marianne Williamson: ‘I honor gay love because it’s love’ 2020 hopeful reflects on early AIDS activism, strong support of LGBT rights

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON says love can defeat President Trump.

Photo by Marcn via Facebook

One underdog Democratic presidential candidate with firsthand experience of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s wants to wield love — including gay love — as her weapon of choice to take on President Trump in 2020.

Marianne Williamson, an author whose vision for a “Politics of Love” is the subject of her latest book and drew attention at the first Democratic debate, said in an interview Thursday with the Washington Blade her vision applies to LGBT people.

“I don’t think that there’s gender to love, I don’t think there’s sexuality to love,” Williamson said. “I think that sexuality and gender are the containers and the ways we express our love, but I think love is love. I honor gay love because it’s love. I honor love.”

Williamson, 67, said her work during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s is “well-documented.” At the time, she founded the Los Angeles and Manhattan Centers for Living, which sought to provide free non-medical care to people with HIV, and Project Angel Food, which delivers food to homebound people with AIDS. “I’ve worked with thousands of people during that time, during the AIDS crisis, spiritual support groups, food, etcetera,” Williamson said. “So actually, my activism on behalf of that community has been ongoing and began during the AIDS crisis, so my connection to that community has been strong and has been going on for a very long time.”

In the aftermath of racist tweets from President Trump and presiding over a N AT I O NAL NE WS • J ULY 26, 2019 WA SHINGTON BL A DE . COM • 11

rally in which supporters chanted “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Williamson likened the current administration to Nazi Germany before World War II. Asked what aspect of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBT record bothers her the most, Williamson identified the transgender military ban, saying Trump “in many ways, leads the pack” in cultural attitudes against transgender people.

When the Blade asked Williamson why she thinks Vice President Mike Pence seems so uncomfortable with the idea of gay rights, she laughed and referenced rumors that Pence is himself gay without explicitly saying so.

“Well, there are all kinds of theories about that, aren’t there?” Williamson said.

“Everyone can have their own — can have their own. I have no idea, but I have a sense that other people do.”

Remembering Los Angeles as being hard hit by AIDS in the 1980s because it affected many people in the entertainment industry and LGBT people, Williamson became emotional and unable to speak when she reflected on the ravages of the disease.

“Those of us who did experience it, it imprints them,” Williamson said. “You’re imprinted with something. I can’t even talk about it now and not —“ David Kessler, a gay longtime friend of Williamson, said the candidate is “brilliant and articulate and she has always been someone who thinks a little out of the box,” marveling at her work during the height of

the AIDS epidemic.

The two met, Kessler said, as a result of an AIDS support group she held in his living room every Monday night when he was in another section of town doing a support group.

Recalling the days when medical practitioners would decline to treat people with AIDS, Kessler said Williamson would visit gay men as they were dying in hospitals and came up with the idea for the Los Angeles Center for Living.

“Even back then, I said, ‘Well, do you have a business plan?” Kessler said. “And she goes, ‘No. I don’t have a business plan.

I’m just trying to make this happen. And I’m like, ‘Well, you’re going to need a business plan for an organization.’ And she goes, ‘I’m going to just make this happen.’ And she started calling people, and started saying we have to this place for people to come, and the next thing I know, she started this amazing LA Center for Living.”

Kessler said Williamson started Project Angel Food when she realized gay men with AIDS had stopped coming to the center because they were too sick to leave their homes.

“They were getting sicker and they couldn’t come in for lunch,” Kessler said.

“And she said, ‘Well, we have to bring them lunch,’ and that turned into Project Angel Food, which still exists today, and just the other day served its 12 millionth meal.”

Williamson has taken flak for once calling vaccine mandates “Orwellian” and “draconian” — a statement for which she has since issued an apology — and bristled when asked whether she would support a hypothetical HIV vaccine.

“I think my quote unquote, concern over vaccines has been vastly misrepresented,” Williamson said. “I am pro-vaccine. I am also pro-independent scientific research.

And I am aware of how often in our country today because of the influence of Big Pharma, independent research through such sources as the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health so forth, is diminished. I also am never happy with the suppression of independent consultation In the United States.”

Regarding the AIDS vaccine, Williamson said she “knows that it exists.”

Just last week, the National Institutes for Health announced the start of trials in the United States and abroad for a potential HIV vaccine.

Kessler defended Williamson as a CONTINUES ON PAGE 12

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

supporter of medicine, saying “there’s been things said that she’s against medicine, which is completely utterly wrong.”

“I remember Marianne giving men money and taking them to UCLA for the AZT study and giving them money for prescriptions,” Kessler said. “There’s no part of Marianne that was anti-medicine.”

Despite Williamson’s record of working for LGBT people, many LGBT voters have been drawn to other candidates, including gay South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (whose success to date Williamson called “wonderful.”)

One gay Democratic advocate with familiarity of LGBT donors in Los Angeles, who spoke on condition of anonymity for greater candor, said eyes have been on other candidates who appear better poised to win in the general election.

“I know that there are a number of folks here who look very kindly on all of the work that she did in the community in the past — but most are now focused on more serious candidates who stand a real chance at beating our current threat: Donald Trump,” the advocate said.

The interview follows: Washington Blade: Let me just get right into it. The Washington Blade is the nation’s oldest LGBT newspaper. We’re celebrating our 50th anniversary, in fact, this year.

And so to start off with, I want to ask you, because you’re running in a field of Democratic candidates with records in support of LGBT rights, what makes you think your candidacy and vision for a “politics of love” is the best choice for the LGBT community?

Marianne Williamson: Well, I actually have a very long record of activism on behalf of the LGBTQ community. Starting in 1983, starting in the 80s, with the AIDS crisis, my activism is well documented, having founded the Los Angeles Centers for Living, and the Manhattans Center for Living, both which gave non-profit, gave free nonmedical services to people living with AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses.

And one of the programs of the Centers for Living was Project Angel Food. This was a “Meals on Wheels” program I founded in the late 80s, to feed homebound people with AIDS. Today, the organization still exists and has served over 11 million meals. I did numerous — I’ve worked with thousands of people during that time, during the AIDS crisis, spiritual support groups, food, etc.

So actually, my activism on behalf of that community has been ongoing and began during the AIDS crisis. So, my connection to that community has been strong and has been going on for a very long time.

Blade: And I think, as you said, that your work with the Los Angeles and Manhattan Centers for Living, and Project Angel Food is well documented. But what about the future? To what extent will your signature plans — the institution of a Department of Children & Youth, the Department of Peace and reparations — address issues

facing LGBT people?

Williamson: I don’t think the Department of Children & Youth or even necessarily the Department of Peace specifically speak to that.

The issue of LGBT rights to me is a basic justice and civil rights issue in the United States. Discrimination against gay people, particularly against trans people today, is unfortunately, it could be argued at an all-time high. It seems in some ways, and in some ways, it is true, great strides have been made.

Also, I’d like to point out that I was — among public figures — I was very, very early in support of marriage equality, long before most democratic politicians were, I was out there publicly talking about how gay people should be able to marry while a lot of other people, even on the left in public positions, we’re saying, oh marriage is — what did they say? — you know, between a man and a woman or whatever. So I have always been very, very vocal about my support.

In terms of what’s happening today.

Well, obviously great strides have been made, marriage equality, etc. When you look at some of the discrimination, and also some of the cultural attitudes, particularly against trans people, it’s very disturbing what is happening today. And of course, unfortunately, this president in many ways, leads the pack.

So I have, as I have always had, a very acute awareness and sensitivity to the propensity of certain forces, to scapegoat the LGBTQ community, and to — through legislation, as well as the propagation of very unjust cultural attitudes — make life harder for them. I’m very aware of always to the best of my ability, within the purview of the power that’s been given me, stood up not just in word, but in action, and will definitely continue to do that as president of the United States.

Blade: I did want to ask you some questions about President Trump. He’s had quite a controversial week to put it politely.

On Sunday, he told four congresswomen to go back to their home countries in racist tweets and held the rally last night, and which supporters chanted “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar. What’s your reaction to all that?

Williamson: I’d be glad to send you the link to the CNN interview with Anderson Cooper that I gave right after the rally.

I thought it was one of the most disturbing speeches a president of the United States has ever given. It was beyond disturbing, it was dangerous. These are elected — these are American women. They are elected representatives in Congress, and our political opponents are not our enemies. We do not do that in America.

And all people of goodwill and conscience — in fact, all patriotic Americans, whether on the left or on the right, need to be very alert and aware of the danger that is posed by this kind of dictatorial behavior. This kind of saying this demonization of one’s political opponents is straight out of a fascist playbook.

Continues at washingtonblade.com

Catholic adoption agency seeks right to discriminate

By CHRIS JOHNSON CJOHNSON@WASHBLADE.COM A new petition filed before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a Catholic adoption agency seeking to refuse placement into LGBT homes calls for a ruling that could enable anti-LGBT discrimination in the name of “religious freedom” — even if justices affirm in separate pending litigation LGBT protections are included under federal civil rights law.

The petition was filed Monday by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — an organization that takes up religious freedom lawsuits, such as the Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor cases — and seeks to establish a First Amendment right for Catholic Foster Services in Philadelphia to refuse to place children into LGBT homes.

“Here and in cities across the country, religious foster and adoption agencies have repeatedly been forced to close their doors, and many more are under threat,” the petition says. “These questions are unavoidable, they raise issues of great consequence for children and families nationwide, and the problem will only continue to grow until these questions are resolved by this court.”

The petition presents three questions: 1. Whether free exercise plaintiffs can only succeed by proving a particular type of discrimination claim — namely that the government would allow the same conduct by someone who held different religious views — as two circuits have held, or whether courts must consider other evidence that a law is not neutral and generally applicable, as six circuits have held.

2. Whether Employment Division v. Smith should be revisited.

3. Whether the government violates the First Amendment by conditioning a religious agency’s ability to participate in the foster care system on taking actions and making statements that directly contradict the agency’s religious beliefs.

The case came about after the City of Philadelphia learned in March 2018 Catholic Social Services, which the city had hired to provide foster care services to children in the child welfare system, were refusing to license same-sex couples despite a contract prohibiting these agencies from engaging in anti-LGBT discrimination.

When the city said it would terminate the contract, Catholic Social Services sued on the basis it can maintain the contract and refuse placement into LGBT homes for religious reasons under the guarantee of free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied a preliminary injunction in favor of Catholic Adoption Agencies. The Third Circuit, which declined to revisit the case “en banc” before the full court, based its decision in part on the 1990 ruling in Employment Division v. Smith, which says states aren’t required to accommodate otherwise illegal acts in the name of religious liberty under the First Amendment.

A key component of the Becket Fund petition is reconsideration of the Smith decision. Although the petition insists Smith doesn’t support the Third Circuit decision, it says “the propensity of lower courts to read Smith so narrowly is powerful evidence that Smith has confused rather than clarified the law and should be reconsidered.”

Catholic Social Services also seeks a religious right to refuse placement into LGBT homes in a broader sense under the First Amendment — which could affect not just city contracts, but federal non-discrimination law against anti-LGBT discrimination — asserting the current situation “effectively denies CSS a license if it does not speak and act as the government prefers.

A ruling from the Supreme Court on the free exercise claim presented in the third question could give justices wiggle room in separate litigation to determine anti-LGBT discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under federal law. Those cases — Bostock v. Clayton County, Zarda v. Altitude Express and EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes — call on the Supreme Court to clarify whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex — also applies to cases of anti-LGBT discrimination.

A ruling from the Supreme Court in favor of the idea Title VII covers LGBT people would make Catholic institutions liable if they deem it necessary to fire a worker for being gay, much like Catholic schools have fired gay teachers for entering into same-sex marriages.

Conceivably, if this ruling gives pause to justices like U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and U.S. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who are Catholic, but could be swing justices on the Title VII — they could find Title VII applies to cases of antiLGBT discrimination, but also give Catholic institutions an out from the decision in the Fulton case by finding they have a First Amendment right to discriminate.

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Ortiz Jones to challenge Texas congressman again Performer PATTI LUPONE

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

GINA ORTIZ JONES, a former Air Force captain who is an out lesbian, is once again challenging U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) Photo by Ana Isabel Photography

SAN ANTONIO — A former Air Force captain who is once again running against a Texas congressman whose sprawling district borders the U.S.-Mexico border on July 18 described the Trump administration’s immigration policy as “a moral crisis.”

“It’s shortsighted at best,” Gina Ortiz Jones told the Washington Blade during an interview at a Mexican restaurant near her home in San Antonio. “It’s cruel at worst.”

Jones in 2018 lost to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) by 926 votes. She announced in May that she will challenge him again.

Hurd represents Texas’s 23rd congressional district, which includes 40 percent of the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Border Patrol Station in Clint, Texas, where hundreds of migrant children have been kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions, and the border cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio are located within the district.

Jones said Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, who is gay, recently told her his city loses $40,000 a day in revenue because of vehicles have stopped traveling to Del Rio because of long wait times to drive over the Del Rio International Bridge that separates it from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. Jones also said Del Rio officials have tapped into their budget to help migrants who are in their city.

“It’s an economic crisis,” said Jones, referring to the Trump administration’s immigration policy. “It’s certainly a moral crisis when you think about what’s happening in some of these detention centers and Texas 23 is on the frontline of this, I mean literally and figuratively.”

Jones, 38, is a first-generation Filipina American whose single mother immigrated from the Philippines.

Jones and her sister grew up on San Antonio’s West Side. Jones graduated from John Jay High School.

She was an intelligence officer in the Air Force during the Iraq war. Jones served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

She would be the first openly LGBT person to represent Texas in Congress if she were to beat Hurd in November. The LGBTQ Victory Fund is among the organizations that have endorsed Jones.

“We obviously challenged a lot of assumptions about what it takes to win in Texas,” she said. “926 votes is all that I came up short the last time.”

Jones added her sexual orientation is “not something obviously that I have hidden or shied away from discussing, everything from my coming out story to how that experience allows me to identify with, empathize with communities that have been left behind.”

“That’s everything from our Dreamers to people who live in a rural area that feel like no one’s paying attention to them, no one’s looking out for them,” she said.

Jones last month attended Del Rio’s first Pride event. She was the grand marshal of the Eagle Pass Pride Parade that took place in October 2018.

Jones told the Blade that Hurd’s stance on LGBT issues is among the reasons that prompted her to challenge him again. Jones pointed out Hurd, who is seen as a moderate Republican, has voted against the expansion of Social Security and Medicare and opposed an increase in the federal minimum wage.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

LuPone slammed for telling Lindsey Graham to come out Broadway star Patti Lupone came under fire after she told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to “come out” on Twitter.

Graham supported Donald Trump after the president made comments telling four congresswomen of color to “go home.”

Trump also stood in silence while a crowd of supporters at his rally chanted “send her back,” referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

LuPone tweeted that Graham is a “disgrace” and should just “come out.”

“Lindsey Graham you are a disgrace,” she wrote. “On a personal note, why don’t you just bite the bullet and come out. You might just come to your senses.”

Comedian Chelsea Handler also accused Graham of being in the closet with a tweet back in October. She was also slammed by some who thought the joke was homophobic.

“If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay,” Handler tweeted. “Looking at you @ LindseyGrahamSC.” The tweet was considered to be homophobic by some users while others defended the comment.

Graham responded to Handler’s joke by telling TMZ, “Number one, she knows zero about me. To the extent that it matters, I’m not gay.”

MARIAH COOPER

Lawmakers ‘deeply concerned’ over State Dept. human rights commission Fifty members of the U.S. House of Representatives last week said they are “deeply concerned” over the State Department’s new human rights advisory commission.

The lawmakers — including U.S. Reps.

Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.) — in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his “plan to establish a Commission on Unalienable Rights is an attempt to make an end run around career experts, statutorily established State Department structures and widely accepted interpretations of human rights law to push a narrow, discriminatory agenda that decides whose rights are worth protecting and whose rights the administration will ignore.”

Advocates have criticized the commission, in part, because it will stress “natural law and natural rights.” Pompeo on July 8 announced Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard Law School professor who is known for her vocal opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples, will chair it.

The letter notes “a group of career, non-partisan human rights experts has been doing this work (of promoting human rights) for decades” through the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and its Office of the Legal Adviser. The lawmakers also ask Pompeo why the State Department “is proposing this seemingly redundant, unaccountable body.”

“The answer to us is clear: To push aside the modern human rights norm that the United States helped establish in favor of narrower protections for women, including reproductive rights; for members of the LGBTQI community and for other minorities,” reads their letter.

“While centuries ago, the concepts of ‘unalienable rights’ and ‘natural law’ were used by Enlightenment thinkers, today their use sits outside the rich body of international human rights norms and law,” it adds. “These terms imply ‘Godgiven’ or religiously-based rights, affecting issues including gender, sexuality and reproductive rights. Establishing a commission to advance these concepts represents a sharp departure from longstanding American foreign policy and legal traditions and threatens critical gains toward gender equality, LGBTQI human rights and other fundamental rights.”

The lawmakers have requested the State Department to provide “any and all records, sent, received, created or edited by officials” related to the commission by July 25.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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Thousands attend HIV/AIDS conference in Mexico City

Yariel Valdés González, a Blade contributor from Cuba who has asked for asylum in the U.S., appeared before an immigration judge in Louisiana on July 23.

About 6,000 people from around the world attended the International AIDS Society’s Conference on HIV Science that took place in Mexico City this week.

Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers

MEXICO CITY — Upwards of 6,000 people from around the world attended the International AIDS Society’s Conference on HIV Science that took place in Mexico City this week.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases at the National Institutes of Health is among those from the U.S. who participated in the conference.

AIDS Institute Deputy Executive Director Carl Schmid, who co-chairs the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and A. Cornelius Baker are among the U.S.-based HIV/AIDS activists who also attended.

The conference showcased numerous HIV/AIDS studies from around the world that received support from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development. These include studies on how the use of crystal methamphetamine and group sex among men who have sex with men with HIV contributes to a Hepatitis C epidemic in Bangkok and the effectiveness of STI screenings among MSM in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.

HIV/AIDS service providers from Mexico, Venezuela and more than 100 other countries took part in the conference, alongside AIDS Healthcare Foundations.

Gilead and Roche are among the pharmaceutical companies that also participated.

The conference primarily focused on scientific advances and research designed to curb the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Other participants sought to highlight how the lack of access to PrEP and basic health care, discrimination and violence puts LGBTI people at increased risk for HIV. Maria Amelia de Sousa Mascena Veras of the Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences on Monday noted during a panel on the prevention of HIV/AIDS among transgender people that Brazil is “one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of income and economic opportunities,” even though universal health care is enshrined in the Brazilian constitution. Veras also pointed out Brazil has one of the highest rates of violence based on gender identity in the world.

“Stigma creates a complex environment in which the factors that could contribute to resilience, such as housing, education and social support, are also limited,” she said. “In Brazil, stigma towards transgender people is a barrier to not only access to PrEP but to health care in general.”

Erin Wilson of the San Francisco Department of Public Health noted her city provides access to sex-reassignment surgery and other health care treatments for trans women. Wilson nevertheless added a lack of access to housing and poverty are among the factors to contribute to high rates of HIV among this population.

“We see these huge structural barriers in a city with a lot of access to HIV services,” she said.

Reshmie Ramautarsing of the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Center noted a study found 15 percent of health care providers in Thailand thought a person with HIV should “be ashamed.” Ramautarsing also noted PEPFAR and USAID are among the funders of a trans-led health clinic in Bangkok.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Blade writer from Cuba appears before immigration judge A Washington Blade contributor from Cuba who has asked for asylum in the U.S. appeared before an immigration judge in Louisiana on Tuesday.

Yariel Valdés González went in front of Judge Grady A. Crooks from the Bossier Parish Medium Security Facility in Plain Dealing, La., where he remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Crooks scheduled a second hearing for Sept. 6 in order to consider additional evidence that supports Valdés’ case.

“I’m happy,” Valdés told the Blade during a telephone interview after the hearing.

Valdés, 28, entered the U.S. on March 27 through the Calexico West Port of Entry between Calexico, Calif., and Mexicali, Mexico. Valdés has asked for asylum based on the persecution he said he suffered in Cuba because he is a journalist.

Cuban authorities routinely harass and detain journalists who work for independent media outlets.

Authorities in October 2016 arrestedMaykel González Vivero, publisher of Tremenda Nota, the Blade’s media partner for which Valdés has contributed, when he was in the city of Baracoa in eastern Cuba to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. González and his partner, Carlos Alejandro Rodríguez Martínez, who is Tremenda Nota’s editor, were taken into custody in September 2017 when they tried to interview a Cuban Communist Party official in Villa Clara province about Hurricane Irma preparations.

Ricardo Fernández, a reporter for 14ymedio, a website founded by Yoani Sánchez, a journalist who is a vocal critic of the Cuban government, was arrested

earlier this month in Havana. Authorities on Sunday released Fernández in Camagüey province after nine days in custody.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Russian LGBT activist stabbed to death A prominent Russian LGBT activist was found dead in St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to activists and local media. The woman, Yelena Gregoryeva, 41, was an outspoken and prominent activist in the city.

Authorities on Sunday said they found the body of a woman who had been stabbed. She was later identified as Gregoryeva by activists and family, the Russian outlet Fontankareported.

Police have detained a 40-year-old man in connection with the killing.

Gregoryeva campaigned with the Alliance of Heterosexual and LGBT for Equality. Svetlana Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian LGBT Network, told the Blade she also worked with other civil society groups.

Zakharova said not enough details about what exactly happened have been released yet. However, she said that Gregoryeva had been targeted recently on a website that drew inspiration from the horror movie franchise “Saw” and targeted LGBT people.

“What we know is that her name was on the so-called Saw website,” Zakharova said. The website, “collected and published personal information on LGBT activists like names, photos and addresses.”

The site, which called for people to hunt those listed on it, was taken down by Russian authorities last week.

It had appeared in 2018. The fact it took so much time for the police to respond to the website, Zakaharova said, shows antiLGBTI attitudes among the authorities.

ALEX COOPER

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Cannabis Culture

DEA: Fewer marijuana seizures but more arrests Federal agents seized fewer total marijuana plants in 2018, but made more arrests for cannabis-related offenses, according to annual data compiled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to figures published in the DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Statistical Report, the agency and its law enforcement partners confiscated an estimated 2.82 million marijuana plants nationwide in 2018. This total represents a 17 percent decline from the agency’s 2017 totals and a 66 percent decline since 2016.

Driving much of the year-over-year decline was a nearly 40 percent reduction in the seizure of outdoor plants in California, which fell from 2.24 million in 2017 to 1.4 million in 2018. Adultuse retail sales of cannabis began in California in 2018.

Separate data published recently in the journal Ecological Economics identifies an association between the passage of adult-use marijuana regulatory laws and the reduction in the number of grow operations in national forests.

However, while the total number of DEA-seized plants fell in 2018, seizures of indoor cannabis plants nearly doubled – rising from 304,000 plants in 2017 to just under 600,000 in 2018. The agency also reported 5,632 marijuana-related arrests in 2018, a 20 percent increase over 2017 figures. The agency reported over $52 million in confiscated assets in 2018, more than twice what the agency reported in 2017.

Jurisdictions reporting the greatest number of total plant seizures in 2018 were California (1.8 million marijuana plants seized), Kentucky (418,000), Washington (112,000), Mississippi (70,000), and West Virginia (68,000).

Senate banking committee takes up cannabis reform Members of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs were scheduled to hear testimony this H E A LT H • JU LY 2 6, 2019 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E . COM • 19

week regarding the need to provide greater access to financial services for state-licensed marijuana-related businesses.

The Senate hearing, titled “Challenges for Cannabis and Banking: Outside Perspectives,” marks the first time that members of the Senate have officially considered the need for marijuana-related banking reform.

Federal law and regulations currently discourage banks and other financial institutions from working directly with state-licensed cannabis businesses. According to recently published data from the Treasury Department, fewer than 500 financial institutions nationwide currently provide services to cannabis-specific establishments.

Members of the House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Consumer Protections and Financial Institutions previously heard testimony on the issue in February.

Legislation (HR 1595 | S 1200 – The SAFE Banking Act) is pending in both chambers to create new federal protections for financial operators who work with state-compliant marijuana businesses. The House version of the Act, which was passed out of Committee earlier this year, has more than 200 congressional co-sponsors while the Senate version has 31 cosponsors.

Wisc. sees dramatic racial disparity in marijuana arrests MADISON, Wisc. — African Americans in Wisconsin are four times more likely than whites to be arrested for violating marijuana possession laws, according to an analysis of 2018 arrest data by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

The finding is consistent with those of prior analyses.

According to a nationwide study by the American Civil Liberties Union, “[O]n average, a Black person is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates.”

The Center’s analysis also reported a slight increase in total marijuana possession arrests in Wisconsin in 2018 to just under 15,000. The counties with the highest percentages of possession arrests per 1,000 people are Green Lake (6.4), Walworth (5.4), Dunn (5.3), Monroe (5.1), and Marinette (5.0). Under state law, low-level marijuana possession offenses are classified as criminal misdemeanors, punishable by up to six-months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Commenting on the state-specific study, University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor Pamela Oliver said: “The only possibility for these statistics to happen is for police to be stopping blacks more than whites. ... We know the usage patterns are not different, so if you’re generating a difference in arrests, it has to be differential policing.”

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed eliminating both criminal and civil penalties for minor marijuana possession offenses, stating, “[W]e are spending too much money prosecuting and incarcerating people – and often persons of color – for non-violent crimes related to possessing small amounts of marijuana.”

Cannabis Culture news in the Blade is provided in partnership with NORML. For more information, visit norml.org.

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is a longtime LGBT rights activist based in D.C.

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

VI E WPO I NT • JU LY 26, 2019 • WA SHINGTONB L A DE . COM • 21

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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

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PETER ROSENSTEIN

LANE HUDSON

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

is a longtime LGBT rights activist based in D.C.

Companies must Michael Kahn — end support of worst leader, innovator, anti-gay politicians icon, friend ‘Zero for Zeros’ campaign highlights PAC contributions The first time I saw large contingencies of employees proudly marching under their employers’ banners in a Pride parade, I felt a sense of awe that these large corporations supported their LGBT employees in such a public way. It was reassuring that corporate America had our back.

However, when we took a look at their corporate PAC contributions, we realized that isn’t always the case. That’s why the Zero for Zeros campaign was created, so we could call attention to corporate PAC contributions to the worst of the worst Members of Congress from our best corporate allies. We hold strong that our allies should stop giving to the politicians who work every day to turn back the progress we have worked together to achieve.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation manages and makes public both their Corporate Equality Index and Congressional Scorecard. This is where our research began, with all of the politicians who scored a 0%.

Then we applied an extra filter for other aggressive and anti-LGBT actions outside of the HRC Scorecard to find the worst of the worst, producing a list that includes 10 House members and 19 senators.

Then we researched publicly available campaign contribution data. We looked to see who among the almost 600 companies with a 100% on the HRC CEI contributed to the 29 worst of the worst politicians.

We found 49 companies whose corporate PACs support these anti-LGBT politicians who lead the charge against equality.

We understand that LGBT equality isn’t the only issue important to corporate America.

However, these companies have made it absolutely clear that diversity and inclusion are a core part of their identities. They invest heavily in their LGBT employees having a safe and productive work space, they support their employees’ LGBT employee resource groups, they sponsor and march in Pride all over America and abroad, they don’t support anti-LGBT organizations, they market to the LGBT community and they have signed onto court briefs to overturn Prop 8 and DOMA, to support marriage equality and recently to support inclusion of sexual orientation and

gender identity under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. They do all this good while propping up those who stand directly in the way of full equality. It’s misleading, counterproductive to progress and violates their corporate values.

We are not asking for the moon. We are simply asking our best corporate allies to end their PAC contributions to a small group of politicians that work against us at every turn.

After an internal review of past giving, these companies will find this is indeed not a heavy lift.

Our target group is less than 5% of Congress, leaving plenty of room for companies to spread their PAC money to people who don’t actively undermine our work on equality.

These companies have excellent track records on LGBT equality and should rightfully be proud of that. HRC should be incredibly proud of their role in guiding corporate America along a pathway to being staunch allies to our community. The Zero for Zeros campaign is appreciative of all this and thankful for the work done that makes this new effort timely and reasonable. And yet we believe more can and should be done.

Last week, the campaign began by mailing letters to the CEOs of the first wave of companies we are looking to work with.

It’s important that they know we are seeking productive conversations with them. We are also launching an online advertising campaign to generate support in targeted areas. So far, we have gotten favorable press coverage from Buzzfeed, NY Daily News, Mic, and Gay City News, among others.

The Zero for Zeros campaign is well researched and narrowly focused. We are running this campaign professionally and treating folks with respect. Our ask is reasonable and we expect our corporate allies to work with us in good faith. Our core values are an aligned vision. We share a common vision of a future that is inclusive and diverse that will make us stronger.

Our campaign aims to send a message that it is unacceptable to work against the basic rights of the LGBT community.

This is simple and an easy lift for our best corporate allies.

I have been fortunate over the years living in Washington, D.C. to meet and become friends with many incredible people. Leaders in the LGBTQ+ movement, politicians, and thought leaders in many areas. But one person stands out among those I have met. He is a leader, innovator, icon and now friend. That person is Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC).

At the end of this month Michael is retiring after 33 years in Washington as one of the most influential people in the D.C. theater scene. His legacy includes the incredible STC, which he has dedicated years to building. But it’s more. Michael is credited with being a major impetus to the growth of downtown D.C., which began when he took the audacious step of moving the theater to the Lansburgh on 7th Street downtown. Today that theater and the new Harman Hall are part of his amazing legacy and a thriving downtown. STC has produced and hosted more than 150 productions and entertained more than 2.5 million audience members. Since 1986, STC has won a Tony award, 104 Helen Hayes Awards and earned 438 nominations.

I first met Michael at Java House coffee shop in Dupont Circle. He would come sit and read, which he does to this day. He would often work on issues related to the current play he was directing or helping other directors with their projects. Michael became a friend. We go to the same gym, FIT Personal Training on 17th Street, and he introduced me to many of his friends over the years. One of those friends is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She officiated at Michael and his husband Charles’ wedding and I had the chance to sit next to her and chat at an STC event. Michael has a lot of friends the rest of us mortals can only read about. He was recently in England and posted a picture on his FB page having lunch with Dame Judith Dench and Dame Eileen Atkins. Oh to be a fly on the wall at that luncheon.

In return, I introduced Michael to members of my morning coffee group and he would join us when he got up early enough, which for a theatre person who lives a late night life wasn’t all the time. Everyone enjoyed listening to his stories and I started arranging theater parties to the plays he directed. He was enormously

generous with his time and suggested after the plays he would invite the cast to join us for cocktails. This became a regular thing for many years. I found out from some cast members it was more of a command performance for them when the esteemed Kahn invited them. But it turned out they and we all enjoyed ourselves at these events. We continued this tradition right up to Michael’s last play at the Shakespeare, “The Oresteia.” Through these events our coffee group got the opportunity to meet some amazing actors, including Nancy Robinette, Holly Twyford, Tom Story, Michael Urie, and most recently Josiah Bania and Kelley Curran.

I learned that a brilliant director like Michael working with talented actors can make any theater experience exciting.

In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, “What the theater has taught me about Washington,” he shares his love for the city.

Michael writes, “Over the years, however, I’ve seen this city change its character dramatically.

A city that hosted fewer than 10 theaters in the early 1980s now has more than 90 professional companies, alongside opera, ballet, musical acts of all kinds and a thriving food scene.

Aspiring actors and writers used to leave D.C. looking for work; now they move to the District to make careers.” Michael is responsible as much as anyone else for all that.

Each year, the Shakespeare Theatre holds a gala and presents the WILL award to a deserving actor. Through Michael I would get an invitation to attend a brunch prior to the event at the home of the British ambassador.

At these events Michael graciously introduced me to his friends who included the likes of Chelsea Clinton, Ian McKellen, who joked about how appropriate it was that he had been invited by the ambassador to stay in what was normally the ‘Queen’s bedroom’; Annette Bening and her husband Warren Beatty and Elizabeth McGovern.

I will miss my conversations with Michael at the Java House when he moves more permanently to his home in New York. Like so many of us, he came to the District for a job and stayed because he fell in love with the city and in his case the city fell in love with him. I recently kidded him that maybe like Cher he will do many comebacks and if we are very lucky we have not yet seen the last play directed by Michael Kahn in D.C.

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

Panic early and avoid the rush!

Liberals, don’t be spooked by the right Pardon me, dear reader, but after 30 months of misrule by a cruel, reckless, morally treasonous sexual predator, I am sick of being told that it is Democrats who are extreme.

A colleague tells me that the top four Democratic presidential candidates are a clown car, ignoring all the rest, despite the party conventions still being a year away.

Excuse me, but I’ve been to the circus, and four people do not a clown car make. Four people are a carpool. Bad metaphors are devouring our brains. But I digress.

One alleged clown is Sen. Kamala Harris, whom I consider one of the most impressive people running—smart, tough, likable, quick on her feet—but she is dismissed as an unelectable extremist because my colleague says so, his preferences being father to his analysis.

Who knows how Kamala will fare in the campaign? Plenty of smart people were wrong in 2016. A little intellectual humility, never abundant in political circles, can steer us around our blind spots.

What is the supposed extremism?

Universal healthcare? Reproductive freedom?

Compassion for migrant families who behave like many of our own ancestors? Trump treats four progressive congresswomen of color as if they were space aliens, like the moon rocks in Apollo 18 that turn out to be alive. I hate to mention it, but the moon rocks already run the government. What sense does it make to be so spooked by a few sketchy policy proposals that you’re ready to run into the changing rooms at Bergdorf’s with Donald Trump?

Unlike 1960, when Kennedy decried a fictional “missile gap” and Nixon waxed bellicose over obscure Chinese islands Quemoy and Matsu, Democrats in this election cycle are addressing real problems. No, I don’t support taking away people’s private health insurance. We’re looking at the menu, not pushing candied cockroaches in your mouth.

Let’s discuss extreme policies. Why should the working class subsidize tax cuts for plutocrats? Why should we privatize corporate profits while socializing losses?

How can any conservative or patriot admire a leader who coddles murderous dictators? Why is a white domestic terrorist treated to Burger King by police while

a black motorist with a broken taillight is killed? Is “Turn off the camera” our new national motto?

As D.L. Hughley says, “Your nostalgia is our nightmare.” When we say, “America is better than this,” we ignore our history.

The professed Christians backing Trump have exchanged the Gospel for a primitive tribalism. Core teachings of Christ like the parable of the good Samaritan and the call to welcome strangers are cast aside. Their God is an agent of revenge—or scapegoating.

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” 45 declares. He is not trying to persuade his critics or the press, but playing to supporters he successfully gaslighted.

They are unlikely to be persuaded by anything Robert Mueller tells Congress.

When Trump describes immigrants as animals, he echoes Hutus demonizing Tutsis in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide in 1994. When he incites “Send her back!” chants, he promotes violence.

A local right-wing troll treats me like an imbecile online, then comes up and speaks pleasantly at a cafe. I consider this deranged, but also fascinating.

Maybe I’ll draft better insults for him, as upperclassmen used to do at the political union in college. Recently I saw Tucker Carlson referred to as a latter-day William F. Buckley. The writer was aware of the absurdity; alas, much of what calls itself the conservative movement nowadays is not.

In this environment, restoring reality to public discourse is an uphill battle. At least we can keep learning from people of different backgrounds and perspectives, and not surrender to the mob or to lectures from those who do not share our concerns and will suffer the fewest adverse consequences of our losing.

Brit Hume says Trump’s “go back” comments “were nativist, xenophobic, counterfactual and politically stupid,” but not racist. What a comforting assurance for a woman of color to receive from someone who is not so targeted.

Do not succumb to panic. Make a daily vow to keep it as real as you can. You will have less to regret afterward.

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

is executive director of DC Vote.

D.C. statehood is winnable Recent deceptive poll ignores surging support for action

Photo by MaksymKapliuk; Courtesy of Bigstock

In the column titled, “DC Statehood, LGBT Polls Shock,” columnist Mark Lee missed an opportunity to understand the breadth of support for DC Statehood, instead relying on a single data point built off a horribly vague polling question.

It is irresponsible to present the idea that this one question is an accurate measure of where the Statehood movement stands. It does not explain the level of support for the Statehood bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. It certainly doesn’t explain the monumental coalition of organizations now supporting DC Statehood.

The actual facts make it clear that statehood is moving forward and closer to success than ever before.

First, competing polling, from a similar national sample in April, showed nearly half of those polled support Statehood for D.C. when asked the question in this way – “Do you support making Washington, D.C. a state with full representation in Congress?”

When presented with just one additional sentence about Washingtonians paying full federal taxes without having equal representation, the support for D.C. grows to 66 percent.

But single question polling does not paint the full picture.

Support for DC Statehood is increasing.

The last time DC Statehood was last voted on in the House of Representatives was in 1993 when 153 Members voted

yes for Statehood. Today, H.R. 51, the DC Statehood Bill has 216 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and is moving toward passage by the full House.

There is movement in the House. And there is a movement for Statehood being built in D.C. and across this country.

DC Vote has been working to expand the coalition of organizations that support Statehood. In 2017, we began that process with fewer than 50 groups signing on to support limited autonomy for D.C. Today, more than 100 national organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, Pride at Work, the National Education Association, Clean Water Action, United Food and Commercial Workers, March for Our Lives, representing millions of Americans, have endorsed H.R. 51 and DC Statehood. These groups represent a broad cross-section of the American electorate and are working to expand the knowledge about the District to all 50 of the states.

As you can see, DC Statehood is winnable. It is a right that we are advocating for and we will continue to do so until our voices are heard and we have our full and equal representation as Americans.

We believe there is power in being informed. As we continue to educate people across this country about DC Statehood, they will join us in fighting for our wonderful, diverse district, to become the 51st state.

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JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 25

MICHAEL KAHN has spent 33 years at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Michael Kahn bids farewell

After 33 years, Shakespeare Theatre’s iconic leader moving on

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

After thirty-three years, Michael Kahn’s splendid tenure as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company is over.

“It’s been a great ride,” he says. “And the funny thing is, I sort of just fell into it.”

Kahn first came to D.C. in 1986 to advise The Folger Theatre on how to keep classical theater afloat. He stayed on as the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, and then took the newly named Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) to the larger Lansburgh location.

Later he oversaw construction of the impressive Sidney Harman Hall, allowing the company to further expand.

During his time at STC, Kahn staged more than 60 productions and shepherded seasons that have included works by Pinter, Molière, Wilde, Shaw, Williams, and, of course, Shakespeare for which he deservedly garnered an international reputation for incisive, inspiring work.

As a stage-struck youth, Kahn filled scrapbooks with collected playbills autographed at stage doors. Gloria Swanson and Jimmy Durante ranked high with the Brooklyn born fan. (“Why? They were nice to me. I was stage-struck then. I am no longer.”)

After graduating from Columbia University, Kahn was certain of one thing — he didn’t want to do stupid plays on Broadway. But otherwise, he was uncertain what his future held.

His career began in earnest in the 1960s. Early on, Kahn directed for gay playwright Edward Albee. Doing Shakespeare didn’t occur to him until Joseph Papp tapped him for Shakespeare in the Park. Broadway successes, including revivals of “Showboat,” “The Royal Family” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (starring a young and gorgeous Elizabeth Ashley), followed.

Prior to D.C., he served as artistic director for the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Conn., producing director for Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, and founder and head of The Chautauqua Conservatory Theater. Through those gigs, he discovered his love for directing and entrepreneurship. He was prepared to succeed in Washington.

Simultaneously, he forged a parallel career as an educator, commuting to Manhattan as instructor and later head of the Drama Division of New York’s prestigious Juilliard School until 2006.

To end his last season at STC, Kahn

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thought he might do Chekhov or Gorky and fill it with entirely familiar faces.

But after a patron with deep pockets granted him carte blanche to do whatever he desired, Kahn jumped at the opportunity to mount Aeschylus’ tragedy “The Oresteia,” not a translation but an entirely new version penned by playwright Ellen McLaughlin and featuring mostly new actors.

Certainly, a courageous approach to one’s STC swan song. Reactions were resoundingly positive: Kahn’s work was deemed masterful and stunning.

While STC’s theatrical triumphs take place in its Penn Quarter performance spaces, the administrative decisions are made on Capitol Hill.

At the end of a narrow hall lined with shelves holding a bust of the Bard and scads of honors including 10 Helen Hayes Awards (the company’s 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award is displayed in the lobby of Harman Hall), lies Kahn’s packed up office.

Seated on a rose-colored couch, Kahn gestures to stacked moving boxes and makes droll reference to Madame Ranevskaya bidding farewell to the estate in Chekhov’s “A Cherry Orchard.”

Despite having a long list of loose ends that need tying up, Kahn is relaxed and ready to give his last official interview as STC’s head honcho.

WASHINGTON BLADE: First off, thank you. You’ve shaped the theater experience for Washington audiences. You’ve entertained us, and given us an education in the classics. We’re grateful.

MICHAEL KAHN: Well, I had a good time doing that. It’s been a lot of fun.

And I couldn’t have done it the same way anywhere else.

BLADE: Looking back, could you do what you’ve done if you were starting out today?

KAHN: It would be harder. Younger audiences are just not interested in lesser known shows like Musset’s ‘Lorenzaccio,” Schiller’s “Don Carlo,” or David Ives’ adaptation of Regnard’s 1706 masterpiece ‘The Heir Apparent.’ I can’t see getting today’s audiences all excited about that.

BLADE: Actors rave about you. How would you characterize exactly what you do?

KAHN: What other people say about

JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9

‘Plays are like mysteries. And I’m the detective figuring it out with some help,’ says STC’s MICHAEL KAHN. Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

me is that I leave them alone and see what they’re doing and then shape it and I change it. I think that I’ve learned how to tell a story on stage and how to make moments very clear. I’m actually good at it now.

And especially with Shakespeare, I know how to link scenes. You have to tell the story in between. I love it. I love the complications of that. And how to make it work.

Plays are like mysteries. And I’m the detective figuring it out with some help. I need and want smart available open-minded, inventive actors. And it’s good to work with them again, there’s a shorthand you use and you don’t have to start all over again.

BLADE: Please talk about the queer lens. Do you make art through a gay perspective?

KAHN: I’ve essentially been out since I was seduced — quite willingly — by a boy in high school. When I came to D.C., I outed myself in a Washington Post interview.

Four years ago, I was married to Charles [Mitchem] in a ceremony officiated by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, so I’m gay and very out.

There are directors who direct from a queer point of view, politically or aesthetically. I don’t think that’s what I set out to do. But I’m very careful to protect an image of a gay person on stage.

Though I’ve done productions of “Richard II,” there was a time when I didn’t want to do it, because he’s a gay king who does bad things. Of course, there are gay people who aren’t good, but it wasn’t the right time to put that out into the universe.

I got tremendous pleasure directing

• WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 27

“Torch Song Trilogy” and Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud Nine” at Studio Theatre. Both were really happy experiences for me, and those are gay plays.”

BLADE: STC threw you a big sendoff celebration. Were you OK with all of the testimonials?

KAHN: I am comfortable that a lot of people feel that I’ve meant something to them in their lives. I get that a lot. And I’m grateful for that. But I also know how ephemeral all of this is. When those people are gone no one will remember. And that’s OK, what do I care?

At the goodbye, actor John Benjamin Hickey said he liked me as a teacher but it was very important that Julliard was being run by an out and proud gay man. I liked that.

I’ve said jokingly, I wanted my memorial service while I’m still alive. That happened. So, I told Charles, he doesn’t need to give me a memorial service. He can show the tape.

BLADE: You’re not big on legacy. You once said that you just want to make STC financially stable so someone good will want to take the reigns after you.

KAHN: That’s still true. And that’s why I stayed on longer than originally planned.

The idea was to balance things financially.

It has sort of worked, but not entirely.

But I’ll look back upon this time with an enormous sense of excitement. And I feel significant accomplishment. I’m not leaving without being aware that we made an impression on the city, and I’m very grateful the city supported me, and made it possible for me to do the work I wanted.

The community supported a classical theater that stayed a classical theater as best it could the last couple of years.

And STC will be in good hands. They made absolutely the right choice in selecting my successor, classical director Simon Godwin [Associate Director of London’s National Theatre].

BLADE: What are your thoughts on the future of classical theater in Washington?

KAHN: Theater is precarious. D.C. is blessed with many good theaters but not necessarily an audience that’s grown along with theaters as they got bigger. There are nights when theaters are less than full, and when small theaters are very much less than full.

Theater makers are excited. There is an audience that’s excited but that audience doesn’t seem to be growing. Time will tell.

BLADE: Your papers have been sent to Yale. Your Dupont condo is sold. Besides living in your native New York, what’s next for Michael Kahn? Will there more plays?

KAHN: I’m not sure. I don’t see myself freelancing with a play like “Loot” – one four-character play with one set in different cities. But at one point I was happy to do that and maybe I’ll be happy to freelance like that again.

But I don’t feel an urgency to do just any play.

BLADE: What will you miss most?

KAHN: I’ll miss looking forward to the next creative project. And I’ll miss the phone ringing.

Paying tribute to Michael Kahn STC’s iconic leader has inspired countless actors

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

‘I spent my entire time in school working toward the opportunity to work for Michael [Kahn],’ says out actor MICHAEL URIE. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy STC

Shakespeare Theatre’s Michael Kahn is stepping down after 33 years at the helm.

He has mentored countless actors and other theater professionals over the years.

Here, a few of them pay tribute.

Franchelle Stewart Dorn, actor (“The Oresteia”): “A memory that stands out is the day, when during rehearsal, after a particularly difficult tit for tat I was having with him about something he ‘thought’ he told me, he announced, ‘Fran! When I want you to have the last word, I’ll tell you!!!’

“However, most of my memories of Michael involve his keen mind and insight to character and storytelling. He has always consistently asked the best questions to elicit the best theatrical outcome. I still trust him implicitly to bring out my best performance. I will be forever indebted.”

Alan Paul, STC Associate Artistic Director: “I have spent 12 years working at Michael’s side. Most people assume that he has taught me techniques and skills as a director of classical theater, which he certainly has. But, the greatest lessons he has given me have been about leadership itself, and how one person can make something amazing and very difficult happen.”

Michael Urie, actor (Hamlet): “As I finished my audition for Juilliard, Michael Kahn asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked what it was about Juilliard that HE liked. He said he liked that actors who graduated from the institution were

ready to work for him at the Shakespeare Theatre. I didn’t know it then, but I spent my entire time in school working toward the opportunity to work for Michael.

Everything we do in ‘Hamlet’ is traceable back to the things I learned at Juilliard when he was in charge. I’m sad I didn’t get to do more with Michael while he ran the Shakespeare Theatre, but very grateful for the lessons I take with me everywhere.”

Veanne Cox, actor (“The School for Lies”): “Prior to knowing Michael I’d done very little classical theater. Because of him, my career is flourishing in new ways. My best work experiences have been at STC, better than Broadway and off-Broadway.

The actors are exquisite to work with, and D.C. audiences are better educated than New York audiences about the works.

Because of Michael, they understand language and themes. He has trained them how to appreciate and understand classical theater.”

Ellen McLaughlin, playwright/actor (“The Oresteia”): “I was so moved to be part of Michael’s final project at the theater, ‘The Oresteia,’ which I adapted, making the three plays into one three-act play with a single company of 15 actors.

When Michael asked me to take the project on, three years ago, I knew that, if it worked, it would be a deeply important and rewarding achievement for both of us, since the stakes were so high — the plays we were working with are virtually the

source of all western drama. It was going to matter, in any case.

“There wasn’t a step of the way, during my development of the script, when Michael wasn’t merely supportive of my process, but challenging me to embrace with yet more confidence my own way of making meaning from those ancient texts.

As I turned in and revised draft after draft, he kept saying, “I am not interested in doing some production of ‘The Oresteia’ (if I had wanted to do that, there are plenty of good translations), I want to realize YOUR response to these plays.” And gradually all my dutiful and clever homages to the “Classics” began to drop away entirely as I found my own true connection to the work and made something wholly new and actually mine. I have never been given that kind of freedom and support as a playwright, and the play that resulted is a kind of culmination of everything I have been attempting all these years in my work with these ancient texts. I will always be grateful to him for that.

“Once we got into rehearsal, Michael was open to my comments and invited me into rehearsal as an active collaborator on a level that, in my long years of being a playwright, I have never experienced.

It was the generosity of a master who no longer needs to prove himself or dominate at all times — he has long been an acknowledged giant in the field — but invites new influences in because he has the capacity to sift through all the voices and ideas to find what will really sing.

“There was never a moment when he wasn’t in control, but everyone in the room felt welcome to contribute what they had to give and there was a clear sense that everyone was expected to do more than show up and take orders.

“He was working with an entirely female artistic team, from me to every one of the designers, and he had not worked with a single one of us before. He had personally directed only two of the actors. Deciding at the end of his STC career to do a major production of perhaps the most difficult plays in the canon and with a whole crew of people he didn’t know? I can’t think of another person in the American theater who would have the courage and the serene confidence in his artistry to do that.

That takes guts.”

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JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 29

QUEERY Saida Agostini Photo by Photo by Kabzuag Vaj

Queery: Saida Agostini

The OutWrite poet answers 20 queer questions

By MARIAH COOPER Saida Agostini wrote her first poem, a piece about flowers, at 8 years old.

“My granny told me I was a genius, so I kept writing,” the 37-year-old non-profit organization program director says.

Agostini’s poetry skills led her to become a moderator and speaker at several panels at OutWrite, D.C.’s annual LGBTQ literary festival. She will be promoting her first book “Not Without Our Laughter,” an anthology of poems by the Black Ladies Brunch Collective. She also has published her new manuscript, “let the dead in.”

For Agostini, queer poets are important because they document the feelings and experiences of LGBTQ people.

“Poetry is a truth telling ritual. We

have to build our own histories. Without it so much of us what makes us beautiful, complex people would disappear,” Agostini says.

It’s also why she says an LGBTQ literary festival such as OutWrite is essential.

“OutWrite is a necessary space for LGBTQ writers to come together, and celebrate the breadth and span of our voices,” she explains.

At the moment, poetry writing is only Agostini’s passion project.

“I keep trying to get my girlfriend to support my poetry habit, but she won’t let me be great. Therefore, I have a full-time job,” Agostini jokes.

Agostini lives with her girlfriend in

Silver Spring, Md. She enjoys talking about Luther Vandross, planning surprise parties for friends and binging “Fraiser” on Netflix.

Outwrite is from Friday, Aug. 2 to Sunday Aug. 4 at the DC Center (2000 14th St., N.W.). The weekend begins with a kickoff event on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Ten Tigers Parlour (3813 Georgia Ave N.W.). The event will include poetry readings, tarot readings, bookselling and more. Saturday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. there will be readings, panels, a zine-making table, a used book sale and LGBTQ vendors. On Sunday from 10 a.m.3 p.m. there will be writers’ workshops that are free and open to the public.

Visit thedccenter.org/outwrite for a complete list of events.

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

I came out when I was 20. The hardest person to tell was my father. I come from a pretty strict Guyanese family, so I knew it would be difficult. However, I got a lot of new poems out of it!

Who’s your LGBTQ hero?

Audre Lorde and June Jordan. Two bad ass, black queer women dedicated to black liberation.

What LGBTQ stereotype most annoys you?

That lesbians drink herbal tea and wear ugly shoes.

What’s your proudest professional achievement?

What I’m working on with the Rooted Collective — creating a black, queer healing festival for Baltimore.

What terrifies you?

The ongoing deportation of black and brown folks seeking safety.

What’s something trashy or vapid you love?

“Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

What’s your greatest domestic skill?

Cooking and telling other people what needs to be cleaned.

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What’s your favorite LGBTQ movie or show?

“Noah’s Arc.” What’s your social media pet peeve?

Getting tagged with 500 other people in a post about a party I’m not going to attend.

What would the end of the LGBTQ movement look like to you?

Liberation for black trans women.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Small talk.

What was your religion, if any, as a child and what is it today?

I grew up Episcopalian.

I’m more spiritual now.

What’s D.C.’s best hidden gem?

Sunday Kind of Love at Busboys on K Street.

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

Seeing Big Freedia and Baltimore Pride take over an entire neighborhood.

What celebrity death hit you hardest?

Luther Vandross.

If you could redo one moment from your past, what would it be?

Getting bangs in 5th grade.

Just don’t do it.

What are your obsessions?

Throwing a music lyric into every conversation, black romance movies from the ‘90s, cooking every recipe possible from smitten kitchen, my next birthday party.

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What do you wish you’d known at 18?

It’s okay, just put on a great outfit and make it happen.

Why Washington?

It’s Chocolate City — the birthplace of go go, mambo sauce and Meshell Ndegeocello.

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Counterclockwise from left: KATYA brings ‘Help Me, I’m Dying’ tour to Lincoln Theatre; Things to Do D.C. presents a scavenger hunt at Madame Tussauds. Courtesy of Things to Do DC; and The LGBT stage play ‘Love, Sex and Marriage’ is at Black Box Theatre on Aug. 2. Photo courtesy of Tre Floyd

‘Love, Sex & Marriage’ plays Black Box Theatre

Dog Days of Summer kick-off party is Aug. 2

The LGBT stage play “Love, Sex and Marriage” continues its 10-city tour on Friday, Aug. 2 at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre (8641 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Md.) starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets range from $30-50 and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

The story follows the life of Darrin, a mega celebrity and closeted gay man signed to a homophobic music label. He ultimately has to choose between life as a mainstream artist or with being the man he loves.

For tickets and information, visit trefloyd.com.

Midcity Dog Days, D.C.’s summer sidewalk sale and festival, runs Aug. 3-4 with a kick-off party on Aug. 2 at Miss Pixie’s (1626 14th St., N.W.) from 6-8 p.m.

Now in its 20th year, the event covers 25 blocks in the east of D.C. and centered around 14th and U Streets. Founded in 2000 by Home Rule, this event has grown from a one-block festival to now include the area on 14th Street between Thomas Circle and Florida Avenue, and U street from 7th Street to 17th Street.

This year’s event is supported by the Midcity exploratory committee, which seeks to form a business improvement

district to beautify and promote the surrounding neighborhoods.

More information is available at dogdaysdc.com

Katya’s comedy tour comes to D.C. Drag queen comedian Katya takes the stage Thursday, Aug. 1 at the Lincoln Theatre (1215 U St., N.W.) for her “Help Me, I’m Dying” comedy tour. The show runs 7-10 p.m. with the performance beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $12 and can be purchased on Ticketfly.com.

Katya Zamolodchikova performed in “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season seven and was an “All-Stars” season two finalist. “Help Me, I’m Dying” is a multi-media, multicharacter live stage show which fuses

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stand-up comedy, storytelling, video, dance and music. The show talks frankly about what it means to be a woman from the perspective of a person who performs as one.

For more information, visit thelincolndc.com.

Madame Tussauds Scavenger Hunt is Aug. 3 An after-hours scavenger hunt at the Madame Tussauds D.C. (1001 F St., N.W.) wax museum is hosted by Things to Do D.C. on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 7:30-11:30 p.m. Tickets are $38 and first prize is free admission to the Italian Embassy’s black tie gala.

Participants are invited to team up and race around the multi-level museum solving clues, taking pictures and collecting information. The winning team will be the one who has collected the most points by solving clues, gathering items and completing tasks. All teams will be able to travel through history with images of world leaders, celebrities, sports legends and more.

For tickets and information, visit Eventbrite.com.

TODAY

Rich Asians.” Visit lincolncenter.org for tickets and information.

Otakon 2019 starts today at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (801 Mount Vernon Pl., N.W.) and runs until Sunday, July 28. Otakon is an annual Asian pop culture convention held to celebrate anime, manga, music, movies, video games as well as its eclectic fandom known as “otaku.” The event has a packed weekend schedule that includes film showings, cosplay contests, lip-sync and panel discussions. This year’s concert line up includes performances by Bradio, Fat Jon, Shing02, EyeQ and more. Tickets and information are at otakon.com.

Monday, July 29

Saturday, July 27 Culture Carnival D.C. is today from 2-9 p.m. at the Karma D.C. (2221 Adams Pl., N.E.). High Society D.C. presents a Caribbean experience featuring local Latin/Caribbean talent, a Brazilian Samba group, cultural food vendors, henna body art, spiritual cleansing and more. The event is 21 and up with I.D. Tickets start at $10.

For more information, visit Eventbrite.com.

Sunday, July 28 For those in New York for the weekend, the 1993 film “Farewell, My Concubine” will show today at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th St., N.Y.) at 12:30 p.m. This film, in Mandarin with English subtitles, depicts a love story that emerges in a Peking opera troupe as they enact the fabled tale of a besieged warlord and his self-sacrificing concubine and was nominated for two Oscars. An interesting experience for fans of the recent hit “Crazy

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Dave Meder performs tonight on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St. N.W.) starting at 6 p.m. Meder, a pianist and composer was a recent finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and is known for his genre-bending approach to music. With support from bassist Dean Torrey and drummer Kenneth Salters, Meder will perform rarely-played Thelonious Monk pieces, gospel hymns as well as original compositions touching on the entire American musical spectrum. For tickets and information, visit kennedy-center.org.

Tuesday, July 30 Queen and Adam Lambert continue “The Rhapsody Tour” tonight at the Capital One Arena (601 F St., N.W.) starting at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $49.

Founded in 1971 this legendary band is known for such iconic stadium hits as “We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which is also the title of the Academy Award winning biopic of the band’s late frontman, Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991. Adam Lambert rose to fame in 2009 as a runner-up on “American Idol” and has since sold over three million albums and five million singles worldwide.

For tickets and information, visit ticketmaster.com.

Wednesday, July 31 NBC News National Justice Correspondent Pete Williams joins the

fourth annual Lawyers for SMYAL fundraiser tonight from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at Skadden Arps (1440 New York Ave., N.W.). The event will connect the legal community and raise funds to support and empower LGBT youth. SMYAL’s youth housing program provides shelter, food, case management services, crisis intervention and community support for area LGBT youth. More information and tickets are available at etapestry.com and Facebook events.

Thursday, Aug. 1 Queer Tango Taster Thursdays continues tonight at Bloombars (3222 11th St., N.W.) from 7-8:30 p.m. The cost is $20 for a single class, but attendees may purchase six or more classes at a discounted rate. This is an all-levels class focusing on the fundamentals and hosted by program manager Liz Sabatiuk at Tango Mercurio. The program goal is to create a safe, inclusive space to dance whatever roles you like with whomever you like. All are welcome. For more information, visit tangomercurio.org.

VIDA Fitness presents its second annual Glow Up Challenge starting today. Participants will receive detailed weekly workouts, advice for proper nutrition from a registered dietitian, weekly personal assessments and more.

All locations will have special events throughout the month. The Yards will host Yoga and Wine by the Pool on Aug. 7; U Street will have a Sweatbox Class on Aug. 14; Logan Circle and Gallery Place will host a nutrition talk with registered dietician Addie Claire Merletti on Aug. 21 and City Vista will have a Gauntlet Style Workout on Aug. 28. The first 1,000 participants to sign up will receive a free bullet journal. Sign up at vidafitness. com/glowup.

This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com The Band’s Visit. Thru Aug 4. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Treasure Island. Thru Aug 18. Synetic Theater. synetictheater.org.

Want and Need presented by Zach Mason and Kristin O’Brien. Jul 26-Aug 17. DC Arts Center (DCAC). dcartscenter.org.

DANCE Tiger Style Thru Aug 18. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

In this outrageous satire about stereotypes, political correctness flies out the window as two Chinese-American siblings search for their authentic selves.

Albert Chen is a computer programmer so modest he lets others take credit for his work. His sister Jennifer, a doctor, is so professionally driven she can’t sustain a relationship (even if she could find someone worthy of her work ethic).

Twilight & Tipple Tours Jul 30-Oct 22. Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House. woodlawnpopeleighey.org.

A rare chance to see one of Wright’s houses illuminated against a night sky, bringing a whole new dimension and radiance to the typical tour experience. Grab a drink or two, which is included in the price of your ticket, and walk through the house on a leisurely, open house style tour with plenty of time to take stunning photos.

The Second City’s America; It’s Complicated!

Thru Aug 11. The Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Comedy legends The Second City return to the Kennedy Center with an allnew, all-hilarious show that reaches way, way across the aisle for non-stop equal opportunity laughs. From searing social satire to poking fun at pop culture, you won’t want to miss Second City’s hallmark mashup of sketch comedy, world famous improv, and original music. No two shows are ever the same!

Open Site: Mixed Media Works Thru Aug 7. Korean Cultural Center DC. koreaculturedc.org.

Works by Korean artist Tae Eun Ahn, whose tactile and visceral art seeks to expand our perception of the world by examining the role of the body as a bridge between internal and external existence. Open Site features works in a variety of media that attempt to capture traces of the body in motion, including six videos and installations, six photographic works, four paintings, one sculpture created primarily out of clay, and a live performance by the artist herself.

Photo Courtesy of Olney Theatre

THEATRE Capital Fringe Festival. Thru July 27.

Seventy-eight performances this weekend including. 33 1/3 Chorus Girls. Thru Jul 27. E Pluribus Screw ‘Em. Would You Rather…. at Arena Stage. 52 Pick Up, Amelia, Caribbean Command and Ghosts of Saturday Night at St. Augustine’s Church. Beyond These Walls, An Eye for an Eye at Christ United Methodist Church. See full schedule at capitalfringe.org.

Applause Series: Children of Eden. Jul 26. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

Aria Jukebox - with Wolf Trap Opera Filene Artists. Jul 28. The Barns at Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

Bootleg Shakespeare: Richard III. Jul 27.

Folger Theatre. folger.edu.

Murder at the Mansion Dessert Theater: Calamity in Camelot. Jul 26Jul 28. Arts Barn at Kentlands Mansion. gaithersburgmd.gov.

Prologue Theatre: The Explorers Club.

Thru Aug 4. Prologue Theatre at Studio Theatre at Gallaudet Uni. prologuetheatre.org.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Jul 26-Aug 3. Arts on the Green at Arts Barn. gaithersburgmd.gov.

A Short History of Unfortunate Animals.

Jul 26. Capital Fringe at Arena Stage. capitalfringe.org.

DancEthos. Jul 26-Jul 27. EyeSOAR. Jul 28. Little White Lies. Thru Jul 27. Oizys in the Waiting Room. Thru Jul 27. Capital Fringe at St. Matthews Lutheran Church. capitalfringe.org.

NPM Tribute to Gregory Hines on National Dance Day. Jul 27. Postal Museum. postalmuseum.si.edu.

MUSIC Dark Star Park – Janel and Anthony Performance. Aug 1. Arlington Cultural Affairs at Dark Star Park. arlingtonarts.org.

Herbie Hancock with Kamasi Washington. Jul 30. Lyle Lovett & His Large Band With Special Guest Mavis Staples. Aug 1. Noseda Conducts Tchaikovsky & Beethoven with the NSO. Jul 26. Reba Mcentire. Jul 28. Steve Miller Band with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives and Matt Andersen. Jul 31.

Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

Jazz in the Garden: Incendio. Jul 26.

National Gallery of Art at NGA Sculpture Garden. nga.gov.

Ladygod. Jul 27. Dupont Underground. dupontunderground.org.

Live from the Lawn: Miss Tess & The Talkbacks. Jul 31. Strathmore. strathmore.org.

Mariachi Los Amigos. Jul 26. Shamans of Sound. Jul 27. Arlington Cultural Affairs at Lubber Run. arlingtonarts.org.

NSO Summer Music Institute Orchestra.

Jul 28. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Strauss - Ariadne Auf Naxos. Thru Jul 27.

The Barns at Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

MUSEUMS AU Museum at the Katzen. Maia Cruz Palileo. Thru Aug 11. Passages: Keith Morrison, 1999-2019. Thru Aug 11. american.edu.

Anacostia Neighborhood Library. Right to the City. Thru Apr 20. anacostia.si.edu.

Anderson House. French Memories of the War for America. Thru Oct 27. societyofthecincinnati.org.

Dumbarton Oaks. Written in Knots: Undeciphered Accounts of Andean Life.

Thru Aug 18. doaks.org.

Folger Shakespeare Library. Miniature Shakespeare Books from the Harner Collection. Thru Dec 31. The Architecture of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Thru Jan 5. folger.edu.

Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain. La Cascada by Luzinterruptus.

Thru Sep 27. Water: The Mirror of Life. Thru Sep 27. spainculture.us.

Library of Congress. Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote. Thru Sep 1. loc.gov.

National Archives. Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. Thru Jan 3. archivesfoundation.org.

National Gallery of Art. The Life of Animals in Japanese Art. Thru Jul 28.

Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings. Thru Sep 15. A Century of Lunar Photographs from the 1850s to Apollo 11. Thru Jan 5. nga.gov.

National Geographic. Queens of Egypt.

Thru Sep 2. nationalgeographic.org.

National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Ursula von Rydingsvard . Thru Jul 28. More is More: Multiples. Thru Sep 15. New York Ave Sculpture Project. Thru Sep 20. nmwa.org.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today.

Thru Aug 18. Portraits of the World: Korea Exhibition. Thru Nov 17. npg.si.edu.

The Kreeger Museum. Charles Hinman: Structures, 1965–2014. Thru Jul 31. kreegermuseum.org.

GALLERIES Atlas. Art Connection in the Capital Region Presents: Moving Walls. Thru Jul 31. atlasarts.org.

CHAW. Winners’ Circle Exhibit. Thru Aug 17. chaw.org.

DC Arts Center (DCAC). Wallmountables.

Jul 26-Aug 16. Richard Siegman New Work. Thru Aug 18. dcartscenter.org.

Del Ray Artisans. Uncommon Alexandria Art Exhibit. Thru Sep 29. delrayartisans.org. gallery neptune & brown. Chinese Art Deco Posters: 1914-1935 & Dennis Lee Mitchell: Smoke Drawings. Thru Jul 27. galleryneptunebrown.com.

Glen Echo Park. Escape from Between the Lines: Jeanne McManus and Sara Maddox.

Thru Jul 27. More Obsessions: Thoughts and Things That Keep Living in My Head.

Thru Jul 28. 10 Years of Silver Works: Looking Back and Forward Looking. Thru Jul 28. glenechopark.org.

Hill Center. Solo Exhibitions. Thru Sep 8. hillcenterdc.org.

The Art League. The Art League July Open Exhibit. Thru Aug 4. Inna Skidan Shadowed Solo Exhibit. Thru Aug 4. theartleague.org.

Waverly Street Gallery. Off the Wall. Thru Aug 3. waverlystreetgallery.com.

Zenith Gallery. Organic. Thru Aug 17.

Play - Protection - Peril. Thru Aug 25. zenithgallery.com.

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The cast of ‘Sword of Trust.’

Photo courtesy IFC Films

‘Sword of Trust’ delves into Civil War mythology

Bi director Shelton’s latest filled with humor, warmth

By BRIAN T. CARNEY Now playing in an exclusive engagement at the Landmark E Street Cinema, “Sword of Trust” is a low-key finely observed hardscrabble comedy about dreams and schemes and conspiracy theories.

As the movie opens, Cynthia (Jillian Bell) has traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to claim her inheritance from her grandfather.

She and her wife Mary (Michaela Watkins) are expecting a house, but they learn that the property has been reverse-mortgaged and now belongs to the bank.

Instead, Cynthia inherits a prized family heirloom—a Civil War-era sword that her grandfather brandished at birthdays, holidays and other special occasions. It comes with a questionable certificate of authenticity and a long rambling letter from her grandfather that says the sword proves

that the South really won the Civil War. Cynthia and Mary head to a pawn shop to sell the sword, but the pawnshop owner Mel (Marc Maron) is skeptical. Things change when his Internet-obsessed assistant Nathaniel (Jon Bass) discovers that there is a lively market for the sword among die-hard conspiracy theorists who are searching for relics that prove that the Confederacy really won the “War of Northern Aggression.”

The unlikely quartet decide to sell the sword and enter into the high-stakes (and high-comedy) world of Civil War mythology.

“Sword of Trust” is directed by Lynn Shelton, who also co-wrote the script with Mike O’Brien. Shelton identifies as bisexual and her award-winning indie films often deal with themes of sexuality and identity.

The hilarious “Humpday” (2009) is about two straight friends who drunkenly agree to star in a gay porn movie for a local amateur porn contest; “Your Sister’s Sister” (2011) is about an isolated cabin, family secrets and a bottle of tequila; and, the awkwardlytitled “Laggies” (2014) is about the unlikely friendship between a 30-year-old woman and a 16-year-old high school girl. She’s also known for directing episodes of “GLOW” and “Fresh Off the Boat.”

A member of the “mumblecore” movement, Shelton uses her usual techniques to draw fascinating performances from her handpicked cast, most of whom she has worked with before.

She lets the actors improvise, which in her capable hands gives the dialogue a natural feel and lets the comedy rise from the quirky characters and the outlandish situations they wander into. The pacing sometimes lags, but Shelton quickly gets

the action back on track.

The central cast is strong and creates dynamic and believable relationships.

Maron’s outstanding performance is the solid anchor of the movie. Well known for his landmark podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” (which averages more than six million downloads per month) as well his popular comedy specials and his leading role on the Netflix series GLOW, Maron brings a wry sensibility to the well-worn pawnshop owner. A reluctant transplant to the Deep South, Mel has been kicked around by life, but he’s trying hard to maintain his sense of decency and optimism. Maron’s performance is assured, with a superb sense of timing and a knack for straddling the line between comedy and drama.

Bell (“Rough Night”) and Watkins (“Transparent” and Hulu’s “Casual”) have a delightful and believable chemistry as a long-term lesbian couple. Both are gifted physical comedians. Both create interesting and well-rounded characters with lots of quirks and surprises. Let’s hope Shelton is already thinking about a followup movie about what will happen when Cynthia and Mary become mothers.

Bass (“Loving” and Comedy Central’s “Big Time in Hollywood, FL”), the fourth member of the central quartet, turns in a finely tuned performance as Nathaniel, the clueless and credulous pawnshop assistant. Although he misses a lot of social cues, he displays a deep sense of compassion and gives the movie heart.

Nathaniel doesn’t talk a lot, but Bass maintains a lively screen presence with a wide array of unintentionally goofy expressions, and when he does talk, he’s hilarious. He may even convince you the Earth is flat.

The supporting cast is also excellent.

Shelton makes a cameo appearance as Deirdre, Mel’s ex-girlfriend who has fallen on hard times. Her fine performance keeps the movie grounded in economic and emotional realities. Al Elliott and Elise Mayfield have fun as Jimmy the snack shop owner and Phyliss the Realtor; Daniel Bakkedahl, Toby Huss, Tim Paul and Whitmer Thomas also have great fun as a variety of Civil War conspiracy theorists.

The multi-talented Maron also provides the movie with a haunting bluesy score.

Director of Photography Jason Oldak nicely captures the dusty despair and stubborn resilience of people living on the wrong side of the tracks.

Filled with outrageous humor and a genuine warmth, “Sword of Trust” is a great way to spend a summer afternoon or evening at the movies.

3 6 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9

Beach Weekend Vacationers and residents in Rehoboth Beach, Del. enjoyed happy hour at Aqua and a drag show at the Purple Parrot over the weekend.

Washington Blade photos by Daniel Truitt

JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 37

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Globetrotting athletes make splash with the Wetskins

琀栀攀

By KEVIN MAJOROS

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KEVIN IREDELL and KEVIN DIBB of the Washington Wetskins.

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Photo courtesy the Washington Wetskins

This week in the Washington Blade All-Star series, we catch up with two globetrotting LGBT athletes who have settled in with the Washington Wetskins water polo team.

Growing up in Prince Georges County, Kevin Iredell found organized sports daunting but still participated in soccer, lacrosse and swimming.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, he attended graduate school at Tulane University where he joined the water polo team. His sports path was put on hold when he signed up for a two-year stint with the Peace Corps.

Living in a tiny village in Burkina Faso with no electricity or water, Iredell served as a health officer fostering social and behavioral change.

His days were spent going door-to-door providing testing and medication for malaria.

Next up for Iredell was a backpacking adventure through Belgium, Netherlands and France in the Workaway program where he lived with and worked for local families in each of the countries.

He was starting to get antsy to settle down and began researching gay sports in D.C. while he was still living in Europe. After arriving back in the area in April 2018, he joined the Washington Wetskins.

“I wanted something that was not like the other sports offered and water polo is definitely different,” says Iredell. “It is extremely important for the LGBT community to have safe spaces outside of the bar scene.

For those spaces to be focused on sports is unique and very much needed.”

Iredell has also started a new job and is working as a business manager in international development of health projects. His introductory tournament with the Wetskins was at their hosted Fall Invitational in D.C. last October. It was his first step back into competitive sports.

“It was pretty intimidating at first – whistles blowing, referees, teammates – but then it became comfortable,” Iredell says.

“The sense of community is so strong with

the Wetskins. We practice three days a week and I always run into teammates outside of the pool. It’s very close-knit.”

Iredell traveled with his teammates to a tournament in Toronto last April and recently returned from competing at the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics world championships in New York City which coincided with World Pride.

The Wetskins sent 30 players and fielded two full teams for the multi-day tournament.

“After meeting a lot of players from the IGLA community in Toronto, it was a blast to see them all again in New York City,” says Iredell. “The LGBT sports community is special, and I am happy to be involved in it.”

Kevin Dibb grew up in Long Beach, Calif., and spent seven years in karate with his brother and sister. Long Beach is a water polo mecca in the United States, and he began playing the sport at age nine.

He came out at age 14 and then to his teammates on the high school water polo team in his sophomore year. He spent his junior year living with a host family in Belgium.

After high school, he used his gap year to log a second senior year of high school in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange in Wuppertal, Germany.

Dibb’s undergrad work was at University of California, Santa Barbara where he was a member of their club triathlon team. He spent the first six months of his senior year in Moscow.

“Russia had just invaded Crimea and I was living in an international dorm. It was a crazy six months – super awkward,” says Dibb. “I was dating even though everything there is anti-gay. They have an active LGBT culture, but it is all underground.”

His completed his grad work at the University of Colorado, Boulder where he spent one year in Boulder and one year in Regensburg, Germany. While in Germany, he played on an underwater rugby team.

JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 39

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21 and lost

Is it better to fit in or be myself and risk being alone?

MICHAEL,

MICHAEL REPLIES:

I am 21 and feeling a little lost.

I am in D.C. for a summer internship that I hope will turn into a job, and this has been my first opportunity to really be out.

I finished college in May at a school close to my hometown where a lot of the people I grew up with went, and just wasn’t ready.

Now I am on my own in a big city where I don’t need to worry about my friends telling their parents I am gay and then word getting back to my parents, and I’m finally feel free to be myself.

I am going out a lot, joined a sports league, got my summer gym membership.

But I’m not having that good of a time and I’m wondering what’s wrong with me.

I really want to have a boyfriend but the guys I’ve hooked up with so far don’t seem interested in more, or take sex seriously.

I try to be funny like the other guys I’ve gotten to know, but I feel like I’m playing a part. I’m actually not a joking around kind of guy and am pretty serious. When I try to be witty or catty in a funny kind of way, it seems to fall flat or I feel mean.

The guys I know dress a lot different than I did when I got to D.C. I have tried to dress more like my new friends even though I feel awkward rather than stylish.

One other thing is the drinking. I’m trying to keep up with my friends when we go out. But I don’t like the taste of alcohol; I don’t like the feeling of being drunk; and I definitely don’t like being hung over. I’m trying to do a good job at my internship but if I am hung over and didn’t sleep well after a late night with people I want to be friends with, that is difficult.

I feel like I am trying to be good at something that I’m not good at, and this is discouraging. I’m hoping to stay in D.C. and want to fit in and have a great gay life but so far I feel mediocre.

I also feel a little bit like an outcast.

People are pretty nice to me on my team but I know that sometimes a lot of them are getting together and not inviting me, and that is hurtful. It reinforces the feeling I have that I am doing something wrong.

Can you give me advice about how to fit in more? Does everyone have to work at this?

“Fitting in” can feel good, but often comes at a cost. You have been trying to please everyone around you without considering who you really are and what is important to you. No wonder you are feeling lost.

In college, you weren’t out in part because you were concerned about how others — including your parents — would react.

Yes, it’s scary to come out and risk your friends’ rejection, and there’s a lot at stake when coming out to your parents, especially when you are young and financially dependent on them. We all have to grapple with the possible negative consequences of being honest and living authentically.

Here in D.C. you are facing the same dilemma. While it sounds like you have a fair idea of what is right for you, you are again trying to be what you think others want you to be. Even though you have come out, you are still afraid that your genuine self isn’t good enough. And this time, the people you’re afraid will reject you are other gay men.

This is your life to live. Do you want to spend it pretending to be someone you’re not?

Being gay does not mean you have to act just like the other gay guys you know.

You may not fit in with the particular group you’ve found in D.C. But there are other young gay men in D.C. (and all over the place) who don’t go out all the time, drink too much, focus on stylish clothes, view sex mainly as meaningless fun, or liberally sprinkle their conversations with wit and catty remarks.

Moreover, you might find that you have a better time with the friends you have, if you stop trying to force yourself to come across as a clone to them. Perhaps they are keeping you at a distance because they are picking up on your discomfort with yourself. They might actually like being with you more, if you drop the act.

Life keeps handing you the same dilemma: Do you want to come across as the person you think other people will like, even if this can mean selling yourself out? Or do you want to live in a way that is consistent with your selfrespect, even when there may be negative consequences to doing so?

4 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9

REGISTER AND WALK

WITH US! SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 | 11:00 AM | BARDO BREWING

WASHINGTON, DC | DCWALKFORTHEANIMALS.ORG

BENEFITING THE HUMANE RESCUE ALLIANCE

DC

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7/23/2019 5:11:07 PM

Adopt a cat for free at the Humane Rescue Alliance through July 31

By Sam Miller, media relations manager at the Humane Rescue Alliance

The summer months are a busy time for animal shelters as the weather gets warmer and an influx of homeless cats and kittens enter their doors.

Known as “kitten season,” animal shelters and rescues across the country become overrun with these adorable furballs and are often caring for double the usual number of cats and kittens – and sometimes even more -- during this time of year.

At the Humane Rescue Alliance, we never turn an animal in need away. In 2018, we took in 1,273 kittens, and nearly all of them – about 900 – came in during kitten season.

Just this year, we’ve already welcomed about 800 kittens.

While it may seem like a dream to be surrounded by jelly-bean toed kittens who provide endless cuteness and entertainment, neonatal kittens are one of the most vulnerable and resource-intensive populations in a shelter environment, and the influx requires more resources and support from every staff department, fosters, and volunteers.

What’s more, older cats in our care also still need adopting, yet are more likely to be overlooked with so many kittens stealing the spotlight.

To help encourage cat adoption during this busy time, the Humane Rescue Alliance is waiving adoption fees for all cats six months and older through Wednesday, July 31, as part of our summer in the (kitty) city adoption promotion. The promotion applies to all adult cats who are searching for their new families at our two adoption centers and foster homes.

“We are in critical need of adoptive homes so we can continue to provide refuge to the dozens of animals in need who come through our doors each and every day,” said Stephanie Frommer, senior director of operations at the Humane Rescue Alliance. “We have more than 120 adult cats waiting in our adoption centers and foster homes ready to go home with their new families, and we encourage people to come and meet them. They get a new home, and the next animal through our door gets their welldeserved chance at adoption too.”

Cats make purrfect companions. Whether you’re looking for a lap cat to give all your attention to or a cool cat who likes to lounge in the sun and watch the world go by, the Humane Rescue Alliance has the animal for you.

Before they head to their forever homes, all of our adoptable animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped, and fully vaccinated.

Those interested in adopting a cat should visit one of the Humane Rescue Alliance’s two adoption centers: 71 Oglethorpe St. NW and 1201 New York Ave. NE. You can also visit humanerescuealliance.org/adopt to see all animals available for adoption.

If you’ve been thinking about adding a new furry companion to your family, now is the time. Meet, adopt, and go home with your own cool cat today!

Samantha Miller is the media relations manager at the Humane Rescue Alliance.

You can reach her at smiller@humanerescuealliance.org or 202-375-7752.

JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 41

Dog daycares are here to help By: Dave Liedman

You’re probably familiar with the quote “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Well, what if you’re not sure you’re ready for dog ownership? Dog daycares are here to help. While dog daycares such as City Dogs first sprang up in the DC area about 20 years ago, you may not really understand why you would bring your dog to one. After all, it sounds extravagant to put your dog in daycare, right? But just think of raising children without ever having a babysitter… now you’re getting it. Dog daycares are facilities ready to stand in when you don’t have the time or energy for all of your pet parent duties.

People have all sorts of reasons for using dog daycare. Maybe you just want your dog to have a great day with doggie friends, or maybe it’s that sad look when you’re leaving your dog home alone as you head to work for a long day that has you feeling guilty. A change in living situation may also call for time at dog daycare. Daycare can help a dog adjust to a newly adopted family. Most daycares are open at least 12 hours, so if you have an aggressive work schedule, you can work knowing that your poor pup is not left all alone for so long. Many daycares now also have hourly daycare rates, so your dog can have his playtime while you’re running errands. Regardless of the reason, having your dog come home tired and ready to “chill and Netflix” at the end of your long work day can be invaluable.

If you’re getting a puppy, socialization should be your priority on day 1. That’s because puppies are in a socialization phase from about 3 to 12 weeks of age. Playing with her mother and litter mates is one way of socializing a puppy. Most people get puppies around the age of 8 weeks, however, leaving you a full month of the most important socialization that will result in a well adjusted dog. Schedule frequent play dates with other puppies and gentle adult dogs who are known to be healthy and vaccinated. Expose your puppy to a variety of friendly humans as well. While a puppy of this age is too young for daycare (puppies are not considered vaccinated and ready for daycare until after their last puppy booster shot at 12-16 weeks), learning and socializing is life-long.

Just like humans, dogs are social animals. At dog daycare, your dog will have the chance to find suitable doggie friends, as well as making human friends. Younger dogs will wrestle and play chase, while older dogs may be interested in finding a cuddle bud. Dogs just want time to act like dogs around other dogs. Some dogs are not very interested in socializing at all, which is ok too. Most daycares will tell you if your dog is one such dog, as an unhappy or anxious dog does not make for a good playgroup at daycare. If your dog is happier at home, you shouldn’t try to force a dog to be more social than her natural disposition.

One thing to keep in mind is that, just like at a child’s daycare, incidents will happen. Anytime dogs are together is a chance to catch an illness – a cough, the flu, or conjunctivitis. Sick dogs should stay home until symptoms have passed and the dog is feeling normal again. Playtime at the playground also means there is a chance for injury. They may misunderstand social cues from time to time, they may get jealous (“resource guarding” in the canine world), or they may just have a bad day. A good daycare will keep you informed of any of these issues. Yep, you may get a note from the teacher! If you’re thinking of getting a dog, remember you don’t have to do it alone. Dog daycares are here to help!

DAVE LIEDMAN IS CO-OWNER OF CITY DOGS AND CAN BE REACHED AT DAVID@CITY-DOGS.COM

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JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 43

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Finding pet-friendly apartments for rent Options expanding as millennials become pet parents

By VALERIE M. BLAKE Millennials are one of the fastest growing segments of homebuyers. In fact, this year they are slated to outpace baby boomers, even as boomers retire to different locations, downsize in place, or purchase second homes for vacation and part-time living.

According to the American Pet Products Association, 73% of millennials currently own a pet. The website www.realtor.com tells us that 89% of millennials who bought a home last year were pet parents, so it’s not surprising that the longing for a dog or a cat fuels the need to nest.

It used to be much harder to find an apartment for rent that would take pets.

Now, there are whole websites devoted to finding them. For example, Abodo (www. abodo.com) lists 120 apartments in DC that will allow a cat, a dog, or both. My New Place (www.mynewplace.com) also allows you to filter your search for pet-friendly long and short-term rentals.

When I am selling a condominium or a cooperative apartment, I am routinely asked about the building’s pet policy.

Knowing that, I always ask the association for this information in advance. Since part of buying a condo or coop includes a document review, a buyer can check the rules for specifics such as the type of animals allowed, the maximum number and size, and any breed restrictions before continuing with the purchase.

One would think there wouldn’t be as many rules when purchasing a townhouse or a detached house but in the suburbs, where homeowners’ associations abound, communities may also have specific rules.

Some have a limit on the number of animals you can keep and control whether your cat can remain outdoors, where you can walk

It’s getting easier to find an apartment for rent that takes pets.

Photo courtesy of Bigstock

your dog, and what kind of fencing, if any, you can have.

If you have a dog or plan to get one, living near a dog park is often a priority. If not, having a fenced yard will suffice, but beware that there’s always a little bit of open space under a wooden fence. If you have diggers like my Schnauzers, they will make that space large enough to crawl under in no time.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re searching for your new home. Perhaps you’re not yet a pet parent but the owner of the house you want to see is. Your agent walks up to the door and sees this sign: Please do not let the cat out. She turns to you and whispers, “escape cat” while opening the door gingerly, expecting to see a furry blur run past her feet and into the street. No cat appears.

Instead of looking at the house, you start hunting for the cat. It’s not under the bed, it’s not in the closet, it’s not in the basement. Finally, you start paying attention to the house and, while standing

JU LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 9 • WA SHINGTONBLA D E.COM • 45

in the kitchen, you look out the window and see the cat in the back yard. Your agent runs out, picks up the cat, and brings it back in the house. Later, she gets a call from the listing agent inquiring, “Why is there an extra cat in my seller’s house?”

Yeah, it happened. I have scars.

Or maybe you enter a home and spy a new puppy in a crate in the living room. Who can resist a puppy? You spend ten minutes cooing over the cute, little critter and then, when you turn and start to look at the house, the puppy begins to cry, so you go back a few times to play with him. When you leave, your agent asks what you thought about the house and all you can remember is the puppy.

The lesson: Don’t be distracted. Also, do your homework by researching limits on domestic animals, leash laws, and licensing regulations for the area you are considering before you buy. Then you and your cats can enjoy avocado toast together (no pits or peels, please), or you and your dog can share a cuddle as you watch The Secret Life

of Pets on your streaming service.

And when you have your housewarming party and are searching for lodging for your furparent visitors, consider one of the ten local hotels in the Kimpton chain. Their policy reads, “We invite you to bring your pet no matter their size, weight, or breed, all at no extra charge. If your pet fits through the door, we will welcome them in.”

Next time I vacation in the Canary Islands, I’ll be staying at the Kimpton Seafire Resort and Spa, so meet me at the pool bar. I’ll be the one with the pony.

Valerie M. Blake is a licensed Associate Broker in D.C., Maryland and Virginia and Director of Education & Mentorship at RLAH Real Estate. Call or text her at 202-2468602, email her via DCHomeQuest. com, or follow her on Facebook at TheRealst8ofAffairs.

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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PROBATE DIVISION DANIEL ESPEJEL, Name of Decedent Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs Anthony Joseph Purcell, Jr., whose address is 450 Randolph Street, NW, Washington, DC 20011 was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Daniel Espejel who died on May 20, 2019 with a Will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this preceding. Objections to such appointment (or to the probate of decedent’s Will) shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, on or before January 12, 2020. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register off Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before January 12, 2020, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its first publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.

Date of first publication: July 12, 2019.

Anthony J. Purcell, Jr., Personal Representative Nicole Stevens, Acting Register of Wills.

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