Washingtonblade.com, Volume 50, Issue 36, September 6, 2019

BISEXUAL NFL FREE AGENT COMES OUT, PAGE 13

SEPTEM BE R 06, 2019 • VOLUME 50 • I S S UE 35 • WA S HI N GTONB LAD E.CO M

The Washington Blade’s

50th Birthday Gala Celebrating five decades of LGBTQ journalism Presented by

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

Dinner & Program at 7 p.m.

Festive cocktail attire

Intercontinental Hotel 801 Wharf St., SW

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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 MedStar Health BeADonor.org

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S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 03

VOLUME 50 ISSUE 36 ADDRESS

PO Box 53352 Washington DC 20009 PHONE

Ryan Russell talks football, poetry and overcoming loss in new interview after coming out last week.

PAGE 13

06

Looking back:

18

50 years of the Blade 10 11 12 13 14 17

Anti-gay attitudes blamed for high HIV rates in Hong Kong

Casa Ruby, partner groups open

21

Viewpoint

S.E. LGBTQ Wellness Center

26

New role for Candace Gingrich

3,000 expected to attend AIDS

28

Queery: Chrissy Burke/aka Ginger

conference in D.C. this week

30

Ruby anniversary for B-52s

HRC’S new leader Alphonso

32

Arts & Culture

David recruiting more troops

34

Band of misfits

Out NFL bisexual Ryan Russell

36

‘Vita & Virginia’ sadly vapid

just wants to play

37

All Stars spotlight: Rogue Cornhole

Hong Kong turmoil raises

41

Mid-life crisis

questions about 2022 Gay Games

43

What owners will try to cover up

Cannabis Culture

when selling a house 46

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S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 05

6/26/19 3:43 PM

Summer of 1979 sees lesbians turned away at Canadian border FROM STAFF REPORTS Forty years ago, in the summer of 1979, an immigration ban story captivated Blade readers. But it wasn’t the plight of Central American migrants looking for a better life in the United States and being denied entry or, worse, locked in cages.

It was the story of at least 55 lesbians who were denied entry to the country at the Canadian border because they were suspected of traveling to the Michigan Women’s Music Festival. It was believed at the time to have exceeded any previous effort to ban gays and lesbians from entering the United States.

Forty years later and the lead stories today are strikingly similar to this one from the summer of 1979.

Visit washingtonblade.com/archives to peruse the Blade’s unique 50-year archive in partnership with the D.C. Public Library.

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Important Facts About DOVATO

This is only a brief summary of important information about DOVATO and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and treatment.

What is the Most Important Information I Should Know about DOVATO? If you have both human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, DOVATO can cause serious side effects, including: • Resistant HBV infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV infection before you start treatment with DOVATO. If you have HIV-1 and hepatitis B, the hepatitis B virus can change (mutate) during your treatment with DOVATO and become harder to treat (resistant). It is not known if DOVATO is safe and effective in people who have HIV-1 and HBV infection.

• Worsening of HBV infection. If you have HIV-1 and HBV infection, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking DOVATO. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before. Worsening liver disease can be serious and may lead to death. ° Do not run out of DOVATO. Refill your prescription or talk to your healthcare provider before your DOVATO is all gone. ° Do not stop DOVATO without first talking to your healthcare provider. If you stop taking DOVATO, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your liver.

What is DOVATO? DOVATO is a prescription medicine that is used without other antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV-1 infection in adults: who have not received antiretroviral medicines in the past, and without known resistance to the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine.

HIV-1 is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It is not known if DOVATO is safe and effective in children.

Who should not take DOVATO? Do Not Take DOVATO if You: • have ever had an allergic reaction to a medicine that contains dolutegravir or lamivudine.

• take dofetilide.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before using DOVATO? Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: • have or have had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C infection.

• have kidney problems.

• are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. One of the medicines in DOVATO (dolutegravir) may harm your unborn baby. ° You should not take DOVATO if you are planning to become pregnant or during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Your healthcare provider may prescribe a different medicine if you are planning to become pregnant or become pregnant during treatment with DOVATO. ° If you can become pregnant, your healthcare provider will perform a pregnancy test before you start treatment with DOVATO. ° If you can become pregnant, you should consistently use effective birth control (contraception) during treatment with DOVATO. ° Tell your healthcare provider right away if you are planning to become pregnant, you become pregnant, or think you may be pregnant during treatment with DOVATO.

Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you: (cont’d) • are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take DOVATO. ° You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby. ° One of the medicines in DOVATO (lamivudine) passes into your breastmilk. ° Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

Some medicines interact with DOVATO. Keep a list of your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

• You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for a list of medicines that interact with DOVATO. • Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider can tell you if it is safe to take DOVATO with other medicines.

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO? DOVATO can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “What is the Most Important Information I Should Know about DOVATO?” section.

• Allergic reactions. Call your healthcare provider right away if you develop a rash with DOVATO. Stop taking DOVATO and get medical help right away if you develop a rash with any of the following signs or symptoms: fever; generally ill feeling; tiredness; muscle or joint aches; blisters or sores in mouth; blisters or peeling of the skin; redness or swelling of the eyes; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue; problems breathing.

• Liver problems. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening changes in certain liver tests during treatment with DOVATO. Liver problems, including liver failure, have also happened in people without a history of liver disease or other risk factors. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your liver.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following signs or symptoms of liver problems: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark or “tea-colored” urine; light-colored stools (bowel movements); nausea or vomiting; loss of appetite; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms that could be signs of lactic acidosis: feel very weak or tired; unusual (not normal) muscle pain; trouble breathing; stomach pain with nausea and vomiting; feel cold, especially in your arms and legs; feel dizzy or lightheaded; and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Lactic acidosis can also lead to severe liver problems, which can lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the signs or symptoms of liver problems which are listed above under “Liver problems.” You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female or very overweight (obese).

©2019 ViiV Healthcare or licensor.

DLLADVT190008 June 2019 Produced in USA.

Learn more about Kalvin and DOVATO at DOVATO.com

08 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

SO MUCH GOES INTO WHO I AM HIV MEDICINE IS ONE PART OF IT. Reasons to ask your doctor about DOVATO: DOVATO can help you reach and then stay undetectable* with just 2 medicines in 1 pill. That means fewer medicines† in your body while taking DOVATO

You can take it any time of day with or without food (around the same time each day)—giving you flexibility

DOVATO is a once-a-day complete treatment for adults who are new to HIV-1 medicine.

Results may vary. *Undetectable means reducing the HIV in your blood to very low levels (less than 50 copies per mL). † As compared with 3-drug regimens.

KALVIN‡ Living with HIV

What are Possible Side Effects of DOVATO (cont’d)?

• Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines.

Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having new symptoms after you start taking DOVATO. • The most common side effects of DOVATO include: headache; diarrhea; nausea; trouble sleeping; and tiredness.

These are not all the possible side effects of DOVATO. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Where Can I Find More Information?

• Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

• Go to DOVATO.com or call 1-877-844-8872, where you can also get FDA-approved labeling.

Trademark is owned by or licensed to the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

Compensated by ViiV Healthcare

‡

Could DOVATO be right for you? Ask your doctor today.

S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 09

Casa Ruby, partner groups open S.E. LGBTQ Wellness Center More than 300 turn out for grand opening ceremony in Anacostia

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

community organization she operates, the Empowerment Justice Center, which provides services for people in need in Southeast D.C., is also serving as one of the partner organizations for the LGBTQ Wellness Center.

She and Corado noted that also providing support for the Center is the nearby Union Temple Baptist Church headed by longtime community activist Rev. Willie Wilson. The LGBTQ Wellness Center is located next to Union Temple Baptist Church’s large parking lot, and the church is allowing the Center to use the lot for parking and other activities.

On Thursday, the Wellness Center used a large part of the parking lot for an outdoor dance party and to set up tables and chairs where food was served. The parking lot was

also used to set up speakers and a makeshift stage for participants to listen to music played by a DJ and watch performances of singers and poetry readings by the Center’s clients and supporters – all as part of the grand opening event.

Among those who will be providing mental health services for LGBTQ Wellness Center clients is Andrae L. Brown, who has a doctorate degree in psychology. Brown told the Washington Blade during the opening gathering at the Center that he expects to be helping, among others, Center clients who suffer from trauma or stress caused by mistreatment from family members or others in the community who are unaccepting and hostile toward them because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

D.C. AIDS report shows slight decrease in new HIV cases

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

From left, BISHOP ALLYSON ABRAMS, GISELLE HARTZOG, Wellness Center staff member, and RUBY CORADO at the entrance of the just opened S.E. DC LGBTQ Wellness Center.

Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

More than 300 people turned out on Aug. 29 for the official opening ceremony for a first-of-its-kind Southeast D.C. LGBTQ Wellness Center to be operated by the LGBT community services center Casa Ruby, the LGBT supportive Empowerment Liberation Cathedral and at least one other partner organization.

The newly opened center will be operating in a two-story wood framed townhouse at 1254 Pleasant St., S.E. located in the heart of the city’s Anacostia historic district. The house has been converted into a facility with office space and meeting rooms, and a lounge area.

Ruby Corado, founder and executive director of Casa Ruby, and Bishop Allyson Abrams, founder and pastor of Empowerment Liberation Cathedral, said the Wellness Center will provide a wide range of services for LGBT people in Southeast D.C., including mental health and substance abuse related services and violence prevention and intervention programs.

Corado said that similar to Casa Ruby’s headquarters center at 7530 Georgia Ave.,

N.W., she and her fellow organizers want the new facility in Anacostia to serve as a dropin center for LGBT people in Southeast, especially young gay and transgender people of color.

“We want to provide them with a safe space,” she said. “We want it to be a home for them,” said Corado, not a place to live but a place where everyone accepts them for who they are.

Among those participating in a ribbon cutting ceremony held on the front porch of the house now serving as the Southeast D.C. LGBTQ Wellness Center were Sheila Alexander-Reid, director of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; D.C. Council member Trayon White, who represents Ward 8, where the Wellness Center is located; and Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Anthony Lorenzo Green, who’s gay and a candidate for the Ward 7 D.C. Council seat.

Longtime gay rights and Ward 8 community activist Phil Pannell also attended the LGBTQ Wellness Center opening event.

Abrams noted that another

The number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in D.C. dropped slightly from 368 in 2017 to 360 in 2018, the most recent year in which data has been analyzed, according to the city’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration (HAHSTA) annual report for 2018.

The report, which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released on Thursday, Aug. 29, also shows there has been “continued improvement in the health outcomes of people living with HIV.” It notes that although the decline in new HIV cases from 2017 to 2018 was small, there has been an overall 73 percent decline from 1,374 cases in 2007 to the most recently annual figure of 360 in 2018.

“By working hand in hand with our community partners, we have been able to not only prevent new cases, but also more quickly deliver treatment to residents who are diagnosed with HIV,” Bowser said in a statement.

The report includes these additional findings: • There were no babies born with HIV in 2018.

• There are 12,322 current residents in D.C., or 1.8 percent of the population, who are living with HIV. “Black and Latino residents with HIV exceeded 1 percent of their respective populations, with black residents disproportionately impacted at 2.7 percent.”

• There were 9,007 cases of chlamydia, 4,249 cases of gonorrhea, and 282 cases of primary and secondary syphilis reported in 2018.

• There were 1,515 people with newly reported hepatitis C in 2018.

• For the first time, more than half of people living with HIV in D.C. are older than 50 years.

• The number of new HIV cases among young people ages 20-24 remained level for the past three years. Young people ages 13-24 represent 20 percent of new HIV diagnoses.

• Sexual contact remains the leading mode of transmission reported among newly diagnosed and identified HIV cases.

The 2018 report says that among people newly diagnosed with HIV, 57 percent were linked to medical care within seven days after the diagnoses and 84 percent were linked to treatment within 30 days.

“The report confirms people getting on treatment quicker as the more than two thirds achieved viral suppression within six month,” according to a statement released by the mayor’s office. “Also, D.C. is close to reaching one of the mayor’s goals with 85 percent of persons on treatment having attained viral suppression.

Research has shown that suppression of the HIV virus in the human body through anti-viral drug treatment to the point where the virus is undetectable in medical tests results in close to a zero percent chance that such a person can transmit the HIV virus to someone else.

10 • WA S HI NGTON B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9 • LO CAL N EW S

3,000 expected to attend AIDS conference in D.C. this week Experts to focus on Trump plan to end epidemic by 2030

Fanning in 4th place in fundraising for Ward 2 Council race Five competing for seat held by longtime incumbent Evans

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM More than 3,000 public health officials, community activists, health care providers, people living with HIV and others from throughout the country were expected to come to D.C. this week to attend the 23rd Annual United States Conference on AIDS. The conference, which is organized each year by the D.C.-based National Minority AIDS Council, was scheduled to be held Sept. 5-8 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

Organizers say the focus of this year’s conference will be the plan announced by President Donald Trump at his State of the Union Address in January and developed by top federal health officials to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

Details of that plan were disclosed in February by Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was scheduled to speak at the conference on Thursday.

Among them, Redfield said, is a “laserfocused program” that will target 48 U.S. counties, D.C., San Juan, Puerto Rico, and seven states where the HIV epidemic is mostly in rural areas. According to Redfield, those areas are mostly where new HIV infections are occurring in the U.S. He and other federal health officials said much of the program will involve aggressively promoting the scientifically proven practices of “treatment as prevention” and PrEP, the HIV prevention regimen in which people who are HIV negative take the anti-retroviral drug Truvada that’s been shown to be 97 percent effective in preventing HIV infection.

Federal health officials and communitybased organizations working on HIV prevention have also pointed to scientific findings showing that people who take anti-viral medication at the recommended dosage can achieve what has become known as U=U – an undetectable HIV viral load that results in the virus becoming un-

transmittable to someone else.

“We are betting on the promise of biomedical HIV prevention, specifically PrEP and U=U,” said Paul Kawata, executive director of National Minority AIDS Council, known as NMAC. “While we know the science works, we have yet to figure out how to bring the promise of that science to all of the communities that are highly impacted

by HIV,” he said in a statement in the conference program book.

Kawata said conference participants, among other things, will look at ways to reach an estimated 400,000 people living with HIV who are not currently in treatment or who are unaware of their HIV status.

“Unfortunately, HIV impacts some of the most marginalized people in our society,” he said. “People who daily face discrimination, stigma, and even violence because of their HIV status, skin color, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.”

Among those scheduled to speak at the conference’s opening plenary session on Thursday were Kawata; CDC Director Redfield; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Laura Cheever, associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration; and Rear Admiral Michael D. Weahkee, deputy director of Indian Health Service at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Several of the conference workshop sessions were to include presentations on issues related to gay men and men who have sex with men, including gay men of color, who remain among the groups considered at high risk for HIV infection, according to government data on HIV .

Further details on the conference and the full agenda can be obtained at 2019usca.org.

LO CAL NE WS • S EPTEMBER 06, 2019 • WA SHI N GTONB L A DE . COM • 11

JOHN FANNING is among five candidates seeking to replace Jack Evans on the Council.

Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner John Fanning came in fourth place in the money he raised for his campaign for the Ward 2 D.C. Council seat in the June 2020 Democratic primary, according to his Aug. 29 campaign finance report.

Fanning, 56, who has worked on the staffs of five D.C. mayors and who currently serves as chair of the Logan Circle ANC, is one of five Democrats running for the seat held by incumbent Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans, who has yet to say whether he will run for re-election.

Evans was considered unbeatable as the Council’s longest-serving member until news surfaced last year that he was under investigation by a federal grand jury for allegations that he used his Council office and his status as chair of the Metro Board to advance his private law practice in which he represented companies that do business with the city.

Evans has denied engaging in any illegal actions and told supporters earlier this year that he planned to run for re-election. However, he has yet to file for reelection with the city’s Office of Campaign Finance.

Fanning, meanwhile, has said he expects to raise sufficient funds to wage a strong campaign for the Council seat. He said the three candidates ahead of him in fundraising started their campaigns before he did.

All five candidates, including Fanning, have entered a new D.C. election public financing program in which they become eligible for matching campaign funds if they meet various requirements and limitations on individual contributions. The requirements include a maximum contribution of $50 from any individual donor and a ban on receiving corporate contributions.

All four of Fanning’s opponents have expressed strong support for LGBT rights and have reached out to LGBT voters.

The campaign finance reports filed by the candidates on Aug. 30, including some who submitted amended reports after Aug. 30, show the total amount each had raised as of that date and the total number of individual contributors that have given money to the candidates, among other information.

HRC’s new leader Alphonso David recruiting more troops ‘We should be focused on winning in 2020’

By KAREN OCAMB

HRC President ALPHONSO DAVID Photo via HRC

LOS ANGELES — There is something reminiscent of black gay author James Baldwin in Alphonso David’s intense bearing, though the new president of the Human Rights Campaign is considerably more down-to-earth and welcoming than the defiant intellect who scorched racist America in “The Fire Next Time.”

For David, it is the fire this time that is fueling his drive for full equality and his fight against the dark amoral forces demolishing democracy through the rapacious black hole that is President Donald Trump.

David may be uniquely qualified to meet the LGBTQ leadership challenge of this historic moment.

Born in Silver Spring, Md., in 1970, he was one year old when his family moved to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia founded in 1822 by freed Black American slaves. David’s great uncle was the country’s president and his father was elected the city’s mayor in 1977 while his mother worked in the Liberian Department of Finance.

In 1980, David’s world was violently overturned as a military coup assassinated his uncle, imprisoned his father and kept the family under house arrest for 18 months.

When his father was released a few years later, he applied for political asylum in the U.S., which was granted because Alphonso had been born in Maryland.

“My interest in the law is fairly selfevident,” David told The New Amsterdam News in 2014, “in part because of the war and understanding democracy and understanding how things work.”

After graduating from Temple University Law School, David clerked for Clifford Scott Green, the African-American District Court judge who found that there was, indeed, racial discrimination in the Philadelphia Police Department. David then joined a

Philadelphia law firm before moving to Los Angeles for work as a litigation associate at Blank Rome LLP to help pay off “substantial” student debt. He also got heavily involved in pro bono work, such as helping victims of domestic violence.

David was in LA when the Supreme Court issued its watershed ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, decriminalizing homosexuality. That was an inflection point, motivating him to give up private practice to join Lambda Legal in 2004.

In 2007, David took a job as Special Counselor at the New York State Division of Human Rights, which led to Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and eventually, in 2015, his historic appointment as the first black man and first openly gay man to serve as Chief Counsel to Gov. Cuomo. He was dubbed the third most powerful person in New York state government.

So why HRC? “We are living in very complex, perilous times,” David tells the Los Angeles Blade in a brief interview at a Hollywood coffee shop. “I have worked in government for 12 years, but I thought, at this moment in time, it was more important for me to serve in this capacity as the head of the Human Rights Campaign to push for change on the national level, to educate people about the challenges that marginalized communities face, and affect change.”

David started Aug. 9 and embarked on a 10-city/state swing to introduce himself to HRC activists and equality allies. But he quickly acts when action is required.

Moments after the interview concluded, David was on Twitter producing a thread that excoriated Trump for his inane statement that he has the support of the LGBTQ community, citing the recent reelection

endorsement by Log Cabin Republicans.

“Every credible LGBTQ organization is mobilizing to defeat Trump, Pence & their anti-LGBTQ extremist allies in 2020,” David tweeted. “Those who claim this administration is pro-LGBTQ are out of touch with facts and reality.”

David promises new plan rollouts soon but spoke to a few top priorities.

“First, we have to elect pro-equality candidates on every single level. We’re not only focused on the presidency, we’re focused on Congress. We’re focused on state elections, both Senate and House,” he says, and local elections if HRC should weigh in.

“We want to make sure that we are creating environments for people to be realized in the way that they should be realized, that their identities are being respected by government and by the law,” David says. “The electoral work is very, very important.”

Second, HRC is focused on making sure that “legislative priorities are being advanced at every single level,” with special attention on the Equality Act “that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, ranging from employment to credit.” Third is programmatic work that deserves more awareness and possible expansion such as the All Children, All Families program helping LGBTQ kids in the foster care system.

Another program deserving elevation focuses on historically Black colleges.

“When we say ‘LGBTQ,’ I want to make sure that people are not looking at a white male face—that they see the spectrum of our community reflected and they understand that the Human Rights Campaign is representing all interests, not just some,” David says.

David is keenly aware of intersectionality but understands that there are different LGBTQ communities living in silos. “Gay,” for instance, often equates with rich, white men. A similar impression of HRC has followed suit.

“That’s part of the challenge,” says David, to change the old perception of HRC as catering only to one segment of the community. “I think we can make that change. With my appointment as the [first Black] president of Human Rights Campaign, I hope that people will see that the organization is really focused on all members of the community.”

Alphonso David pauses before having a James Baldwin moment. “I’m not going to put my reputation at risk to run an organization that will not put its money

where its mouth is,” he says, believably.

“So I’m going to make sure that people understand that when we are pushing the electoral work or the legislative work or litigation—you pick the category—we are representing the interests of the community, and our interests are very different, as a matter of fact. The lesbian community may have very different concerns than the transgender community and we need to make sure that all of those concerns are being represented equally.”

David is a data man, very familiar with Brad Sears and the Williams Institute.

He intends to use some of their work to inform his own. He is also plugged into the “progressive web of organizations” his predecessor Chad Griffin cultivated, whose leaders he knows well.

“How we talk about issues is so important,” David says. “When we say there’s a problem in our community and we use a statistic to highlight that problem and we fail to identify certain communities or classify our language in a way that elevates that issue for a specific community, we’re not presenting a comprehensive picture.”

He wants to make sure that “we’re able to elevate the plight of the LGBTQ community in the various sectors, utilizing our various relationships, making sure that we are communicating in a very smart, strategic way because it’s not enough to say LGBT kids are homeless. We need to really talk about what actually is informing the homelessness. Why are they homeless? What are the resources that are being provided?”

Trump talking about ending AIDS is only a talking point, he notes as an example. The money he’s identified is insufficient and hasn’t been secured.

Meanwhile, Trump wants to end the Affordable Care Act that protects preexisting conditions like HIV/AIDS, among other disastrous rollbacks. “To now suggest that he’s interested in ending AIDS is laughable, and the Log Cabin Republicans are really divorced from reality, so I don’t want to even give them any additional time or attention.”

David intends to navigate the waters of political purity “with due diligence,” he says. “We should be focused on winning in 2020, making sure we have a sound, viable candidate who can beat Donald Trump,” as well as winning candidates down ballot. HRC will not automatically endorse an incumbent.

CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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Out NFL bisexual Ryan Russell just wants to play The defensive gladiator is also a published poet

By KAREN OCAMB

RYAN RUSSELL spoke to the Blade about his desire to play in the NFL again after coming out as bisexual.

LOS ANGELES — It was a long two days. NFL free agent Ryan Russell came out twice in a personal column on ESPN on Aug. 29 and during the subsequent whirlwind of press—first as a bisexual and second as a defensive end who writes poetry and romance stories.

“My primary objective right now is football and getting back in the NFL and playing. And I think the biggest way that I could also kind of help be a more visible figure in professional football, for other LGBT players, is to be on the field,” Russell who continues to train at the NFL’s Exos sports program in Carson, tells the Blade. “I know that there’s an opportunity for me, and I know that my best years of playing are ahead of me and I can’t wait to show the world what I can do.”

Russell is diligent about how he frames what others see as a blatant civil rights issue.

“I want to live my dream of playing the game I’ve worked my whole life to play, and being open about the person I’ve always been,” Russell wrote on ESPN. “Those two objectives shouldn’t be in conflict. But judging from the fact that there isn’t a single openly LGBTQ player in the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball or the NHL, brings me pause. I want to change that — for me, for other athletes who share these common goals, and for the generations of LGBTQ athletes who will come next.”

While football is a life-long dream, writing is a necessity of the soul. Russell, 27, started writing at age seven after his stepfather died. Writing helped keep him sane after his best friend Joe Gilliam, with whom he played football at Purdue, died of cancer on Sept. 11, 2018 at age 27.

“Joe’s death definitely brought the aspect of life being short to the forefront,” says Russell. “He was the best man that I knew. And he was a great athlete, a great brother, a great husband. He did everything right. He never drank, he had an amazing diet. He was, literally, everything that I aspire to be every day.

“He died at 27, so of course, it was a wakeup call for me,” Russell continues. “I wanted to live my life openly and honestly and give people in my life the opportunity to know me and support me. It was definitely a moment in my life where a lot of changes happened and I don’t want to take these days or these years for granted.”

Russell has written about Joe and his own hopes and dreams in his “poetic memoir” entitled “Prison or Passion,” available at his website, RKRelentless.com.

“I’ll always write. That’s a huge part of me,” Russell says. “It’s been a part of this process of coming out and I’ll continue to write stories. But right now, the focus is football. It’s plan A, B, and C.” Russell and his boyfriend Corey O’Brien, a professional dancer and fitness model, also created an 11-minute coming out video for YouTube. In the “more intimate setting,” he and Corey lightly kiss and awkwardly address the camera. Finally, Russell starts sharing what had been a burden for so long, encouraging others to find and share their authentic truth, too.

He talks about how he started to experiment with his sexuality while on a full football scholarship at Purdue University.

He watched as Michael Sam, all-American at the University of Missouri in 2013 and Southeastern Conference co-defensive player of the year, came out in 2014, was drafted in the seventh round as the NFL’s first openly gay player and was cut, never having played in the league.

That prompted Russell to virtually go back in the closet before being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the fifth round in 2015. He subsequently played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and briefly for the Buffalo Bills before being sidelined with a shoulder injury that required surgery. It was a recent meeting with the San Francisco 49ers that spurred him to come out as bisexual.

“When I interviewed with the 49ers and they talked about just my potential to play in this league again, that I deserved

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to play in this league again and I have the ability to, I also thought about maybe not being open and being honest and doing what I did these past three years in the NFL of just keeping these two worlds separate.

And that thought, it just kind of seemed unbearable,” Russell says.

After talking with manager/documentary producer David McFarland and others, “I realized that my story could reach a larger audience and hopefully impact LGBT athletes— or just even give the NFL a chance to know that there’s an LGBT athlete who knows that they’re ready to open up and to accept players of different sexualities. That’s kind of when the vision got a little bigger,” Russell tells the Blade.

“Now that I’ve been in LA and I’ve been living my truth and I’ve lost my best friend and I know how fragile life is—I didn’t want to have to compromise. And I thought that the NFL was in a great place to support an LGBT athlete now and moving forward.”

Russell thinks making big plays with ESPN calling out his name “would speak volumes to the NFL and to the organization that had signed me and to LGBT athletes and LGBT kids—and just the whole community,” he says.

“I have the drive to do that, I have the ability to do that. So that is at the forefront, the next step, the step thereafter, and the step after.”

But Russell does not want to stand alone.

“Athletes also have to take the steps to be visible and to let the NFL and to let sports organizations support us and embrace us and stand with us. If we don’t make the step to first come out, then the NFL or any other professional sports organization doesn’t have the opportunity to be there for us,” Russell tells the Blade. “With that being said, coming out is just a journey all on its own and I understand everyone’s journey is different.”

But can the masculine-dominated, militaristic-like multibillion-dollar working world of NFL entertainment learn to accept out LGBTQ players, coaches and staff—as the U.S. armed forces did when Congress lifted the ban on open LGBT military service before Donald Trump?

McFarland thinks so, as do some of those interviewed in his documentary “Alone in the Game” about homophobia and transphobia in sports.

“If we can end discrimination in the U.S. military, where lives are at stake, we can absolutely do it in the world of organized sport,” says Nathaniel Frank, Researcher at Columbia Law School.

Gay former Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning also discusses the injury to athletes when they have to pretend to be someone else on the playing field—a detriment to mental health on the battlefield under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well.

“There’s a huge psychic cost to either denying that part of yourself or not being able to share it with those people around

you, particularly if you are working in a really intense environment like people in sports are,” says Fanning.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that leadership in sport, not just the leagues but at the collegiate level and at the Olympic elite level and the age group level have questions come up,” says McFarland. “How do we identify and deal with an athlete that is struggling in the closet? Because until those athletes come forward to either ask for help or come out and take that brave, courageous move like Ryan did, we don’t know. So, it’s really important that athletes follow in Ryan’s footsteps.”

Additionally, it’s incumbent on the LGBTQ community to “raise the profile and concern around these issues in sport,” McFarland says.”If the environment and the leadership within sport in general made it more conducive where people felt like they belonged, maybe that’s a starting point.”

The Human Rights Campaign sees homophobia and transphobia in sports as an LGBTQ workplace civil rights issue.

“No workplace should be free of accountability, and no worker, regardless of their job, should be subject to vile hatred in any form,” Charlotte Clymer, HRC Press Secretary, Rapid Response, tells the Blade.

“This is why the Human Rights Campaign has long spoken out against instances of antiLGBTQ conduct within the NFL while praising the moments the league has taken a stand for equality, as well as individual players who speak out against anti-LGBTQ bigotry.

“But that’s not enough,” Clymer continues.

“The NFL must resolutely fight white supremacy in all forms, sexual and physical violence of any kind, particularly misogyny, and ensure that the safety, respect, and dignity of all people is a touchstone of their culture.

No business is perfect, but imperfection does not absolve us from improvement.”

It’s a personal issue for Clymer. “As a queer trans kid from Central Texas who grew up loving football, I’m proud of Ryan Russell’s brave authenticity,” she says. “But that will not be enough until everyone in the NFL has a shoulder-to-shoulder pride in the values of true inclusion. If the NFL wishes to maintain its positioning as inextricable from American culture and values, it needs to realize that the vast majority of Americans demand true inclusion in every workplace. Anything short of that is a failure of morality and patriotism.”

“I don’t have a big call to action for the NFL,” Russell says. “I just want young athletes to know that it’s okay to be exactly who they are. And if you come to terms with your truth at your own pace, that’s fine, too. There is a place for you in this world of sports, and there are players, teams, and organizations who are waiting to support you and encourage you the same way as they have done for me these past couple days.”

Hong Kong turmoil raises questions about 2022 Gay Games Organizers of LGBT sports event to discuss situation at October meeting

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. LCHIBBARO@WASHBLADE.COM

effective for everyone 3+ years from now.”

The Hong Kong Gay Games organizers will also make a presentation to the FGG Board of Directors during the time of the General Assembly meeting in Guadalajara, “which I am sure will be asking questions about the current situation,” Fitzgerald told the Blade.

China has been tolerant of LGBT-related organizations and events in recent years, observers have said, as long as those groups and events steer clear of politics and do not challenge the Communist Party government.

The local, semi-autonomous government of Hong Kong has been generally supportive of the LGBT community, according to Hong Kong Gay Games organizers.

But experts have said China has taken an increasingly more assertive role in local Hong Kong affairs in recent years following the 1997 agreement with the United Kingdom in which the British turned over Hong Kong, a longtime British colony, to China. The agreement calls for China to allow Hong Kong to govern itself in a

semi-autonomous way for 50 years after the 1997 agreement, but experts say there would be little that the U.K. or other countries, including the U.S., could do if China violates the agreement other than possibly imposing economic sanctions.

It couldn’t immediately be determined whether D.C. would make another bid to host the Gay Games if it is determined that Hong Kong is no longer a viable host city.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Gay Games Bid Committee Chair Brent Minor were part of a 32-member D.C. contingent that traveled to Paris in October 2017 to advocate for the D.C. bid before the FGG. “I really have no specific comment on the situation in Hong Kong,” Minor told the Blade in an email message on Tuesday.

“Team D.C. plans to send our representative to the Annual Meeting in October and have them report back on any updates,” he said.

“Team D.C. remains a strong supporter of the Gay Games movement and will support the efforts for Gay Games XI.”

6,000 attend first-ever Bermuda Pride

Recent unrest in Hong Kong has some wondering about viability of the Gay Games there in 2022.

Photo by Studio Incendo; courtesy of Flickr

The escalating violent street clashes between Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement protesters and local authorities taking orders from China that have taken place each week since June have raised questions about whether Hong Kong can remain a viable host city for the 2022 Gay Games.

In 2017, the Federation of Gay Games, which organizes the quadrennial international LGBT sports event that attracts as many as 15,000 athletes and thousands more spectators, selected Hong Kong as the host city for the 2022 Gay Games.

The decision by the FGG to select Hong Kong over D.C. and Guadalajara, Mexico came after all three cities – which the FGG named as finalists in its competition to select a host city – presented detailed proposals on why they believed they were best suited to host the 2022 LGBT mega sports event.

In keeping with the Gay Games tradition, the three cities’ proposals included cultural events such as LGBT rights related gatherings to accompany the athletic events associated with the Games.

Although the Gay Games in Hong Kong are scheduled to take place in November 2022, more than three years from now, international observers of Hong Kong and China have said it is hard to predict how things may be in Hong Kong at that time.

Among other things, China has hinted that it will send in military forces to crush the pro-democracy street protests that have halted much of Hong Kong’s downtown business and transportation system during

the weekend protests despite local police crackdowns. Hundreds of thousands have taken part in the protests.

A full China takeover of Hong Kong could raise questions about whether an LGBT event like the Gay Games would be welcome, some observers have said.

Sean Fitzgerald, co-president of the FGG, told the Washington Blade the FGG has asked Hong Kong organizers to address the situation in Hong Kong at the FGG’s annual General Assembly meeting scheduled to take place Oct.31-Nov. 2 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“Since successfully winning the host city bid, the Gay Games 11 Hong Kong team has been making good progress on our plan to organize a successful and inclusive sports and cultural event in November 2022,” Fitzgerald said in a statement to the Blade.

“Mindful of the importance of safety and security, the team has been working closely with the Hong Kong Government Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Tourism Board, security companies, and other key stakeholders to develop, amongst others, a full security plan to ensure that we deliver a safe and inclusive event for all participants and spectators,” he said.

“Although the current events in Hong Kong are unsettling, we note that all major trade fairs, events and exhibitions scheduled for the second half of this year, are reported to be going ahead,” Fitzgerald said. “We are closely monitoring the evolving situation, and remain vigilant to ensure that the security plans for our event will be operational and

More than 6,000 people attended Bermuda’s first Pride parade that took place on Aug. 31.

Photo courtesy of Linda Bogle-Mienzer

More than 6,000 people attended Bermuda’s first-ever Pride parade that took place in the British island territory’s capital of Hamilton on Aug. 31.

Activists from Barbados, Jamaica and other English-speaking countries in the Caribbean are among those who traveled to Bermuda for the parade and other Priderelated events. Clarien Bank, which is based in Bermuda, ahead of Pride announced a $10,000 donation to OUTBermuda, a local LGBTI advocacy group.

“It was historically epic,” Linda Bogle-Mienzer, a long-time LGBTI activist in Bermuda, told the Blade. “It was this incredible feeling of a sense of belonging … it felt like I had been welcomed home by this big wave of rainbow hugs.”

“It was incredible,” added Bogle-Mienzer.

The parade took place roughly 14 months after Bermuda became the first jurisdiction in the world outside the U.S. to rescind marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Supreme Court Justice Charles-Etta Simmons in May 2017 issued a ruling that paved the way for gays and lesbians to legally marry in Bermuda. The Domestic Partnership Act — a law Gov. John Rankin signed that allows same-sex couples to enter into domestic partnerships as opposed to get married — took effect on June 1, 2018.

Bermuda’s top court last November ruled the Domestic Partnership Act is unconstitutional. Same-sex couples are currently able to legally marry in Bermuda, even though the territory’s government has appealed the ruling to the Privy Council in London, which has the final say in legal cases from Bermuda and other British territories.

“Yesterday sent a powerful message to the world that there is a place in Bermuda where, for a couple of hours, everybody just came together,” Bogle-Mienzer told the Blade.

“I was happy. That’s really was what it was all about. They just came together, were happy.

And there was love and there was peace and there was laughter and there wasn’t any fear.

It was just acceptance of whether you were black, white, gay, poor, straight or whatever.”

“There is a lot of places we can move from there,” added Bogle-Mienzer.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

14 • WA S HI N GTONB L A DE . COM • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9 • IN T ER N AT IO N AL N EWS

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Cannabis Culture 26 percent of those surveyed ranked marijuana as “very harmful.”

Eighteen percent of those surveyed opined that cannabis was “not harmful at all.” By contrast, only two percent of respondents believed the same about alcohol and only one percent said so about tobacco.

N.J. governor vetoes expungement measure

New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO signed a compromise measure after lawmakers failed to agree on provisions of a marijuana legalization bill.

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

N.Y. law reducing possession penalties takes effect ALBANY, N.Y — Legislation reducing marijuana possession penalties and facilitating the expungement of past cannabis convictions took effect last week.

Assembly Bill 8420-A reduces the penalty for minor marijuana possession violations (up to one ounce) to a $50 fine.

It also amends penalties for offenses involving the possession of more than one ounce but less than two ounces of cannabis from a criminal misdemeanor (formerly punishable by up to three months in jail) to a non-criminal violation punishable by a $200 fine – regardless of an offender’s prior criminal history.

The new law also amends the classification of offenses involving the use or possession of marijuana in public from a criminal misdemeanor, formerly punishable by up to 90 days in jail, to a fine-only offense. In New York City, police have made over 700,000 arrests for ‘public view’ violations. Eighty-six percent of those arrested were either black or Latino.

Finally, A. 8420-A establishes procedures to allow for the automatic expungement of criminal records specific to crimes involving the possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana.

Several hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are eligible for expungement under the plan.

Assembly Bill 8420-A was negotiated in the closing days of the 2019 legislative session after lawmakers failed to agree on provisions of a marijuana legalization measure.

Poll: Alcohol, cigarettes worse than cannabis BOSTON — Most Americans perceive cigarettes and alcohol to pose greater risks to public health than cannabis, according to survey data compiled by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and first reported by MarijuanaMoment.net.

According to the survey, 81 percent of respondents believe that tobacco cigarettes are “very harmful.” Fifty-one percent of respondents similarly view alcohol as “very harmful.” By contrast, only H E A LT H • S E PT E MBER 06, 2019 • WA SHINGTON BL A DE . COM • 17

TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed Senate Bill 3205, which sought to expand the pool of crimes eligible for expungement and establish an expedited process for those with minor marijuana offenses to petition the court to have their records vacated.

“I believe this bill can go further for the cause of justice, and I am hopeful that we can move forward together with a bill that provides a path to automatic expungement and allows for relief for those convicted for those convicted of low-level marijuana offenses,” the governor said. “I will continue to work with the legislature to build a more complete system of expungements, so that more New Jerseyans are given a second chance and can better reintegrate into our society.”

The governor recommended several changes to the bill, including having criminal records specific to low-level marijuana offenses “immediately sealed” upon disposition and passing a supplemental appropriation of $15 million to hire additional employees to facilitate the expungement process.

It remains unclear whether lawmakers will revisit the legislation this year and amend it in a manner that concurs with the governor’s recommendations.

Okla. sees expanded protections for cannabis patients OKLAHOMA CITY — Legislation took effect last week expanding protections for state-qualified medical cannabis patients.

House Bill 2612, which was signed into law in March, strengthens patient protections by explicitly stipulating that registered cannabis consumers may not be denied public assistance, access to firearms, or certain types of employment solely based upon their patient status. It states, “No employer may refuse to hire, discipline, discharge or otherwise penalize an applicant or employee solely on the basis of a positive test for marijuana components or metabolites.”

Oklahoma is the 15th state to explicitly protect medical cannabis patients from workplace discrimination, according to California NORML. The new law also seeks to facilitate standards for banks who wish to partner with medical cannabis businesses, and prohibits local governments enacting “guidelines which restrict or interfere with the rights of a licensed patient or caregiver to possess, purchase, cultivate or transport medical marijuana.” It also allows podiatrists to make medical cannabis recommendations, among other changes.

More than 146,000 Oklahomans are registered with the state to access medical cannabis therapy.

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

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Anti-gay attitudes blamed for high HIV rates in Hong Kong HONG KONG — HIV diagnosis rates in Hong Kong have climbed over the past decade, unlike in other places in the world where there has been a consistent decline in the numbers of new HIV cases, the South China Morning Post reports.

Between 2010-2016, the annual number of new HIV diagnoses in Hong Kong increased by nearly 80 percent, to a total of 692 new cases in 2016. By contrast, between 2010 and 2017, the annual rate of new HIV diagnoses declined by 14 percent in Asia and the Pacific as a whole, the Post reports.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s annual government expenditure on HIV prevention policies has soared in an attempt to address this entrenched health scourge. By 2020, prevention costs are projected to reach a total of $400 million in Hong Kong dollars, the Post reports.

Statistics show a solid majority of HIV diagnoses in Hong Kong have been in the group of men who have sex with men (MSM). Dr Tim Brown, HIV epidemiologist from the East West Centre in Hawaii, once characterized HIV in Hong Kong as an epidemic within that group, the Post reports.

Andrew Chidgey, chief executive of AIDS Concern Hong Kong, has argued that a major cause of the rapid growth in HIV-infection rates in Hong Kong is the pervasive cultural taboo against homosexuality among Hong Kong Chinese families, leading to men’s unwillingness to disclose either a gay or HIV-positive identity, the Post reports.

No single gene, but genetics a one-third factor in gay sex NEW YORK — The findings of what is being touted as the largest-ever study of the role genetics plays in same-sex sexual behavior found that genetics plays about a third of the influence on whether someone has same-sex sex but there’s no single “gay gene,” the New York Times and many other outlets reported last week citing findings published in the journal Science.

The influence comes not from one gene but many, each with a tiny effect — and the rest of the explanation includes social or

environmental factors — making it impossible to use genes to predict someone’s sexual orientation, the Times reports.

The study of nearly half a million people, funded by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, found differences in the genetic details of samesex behavior in men and women. The research also suggests the genetics of same-sex sexual behavior shares some correlation with genes involved in some mental health issues and personality traits — although the authors said that overlap could simply reflect the stress of enduring societal prejudice, the Times reports.

The study analyzed the genetic data of 408,000 men and women from a large British database, the U.K. Biobank, who answered extensive health and behavior questions between 2006-2010, when they were between the ages of 40-69.

The researchers also used data from nearly 70,000 customers of the genetic testing service 23andMe, who were 51 years old on average, mostly American, and had answered survey questions about sexual orientation. All were of white European descent, one of several factors that the authors note limit their study’s generalizability. Trans people were not included, the Times reports.

The researchers mainly focused on answers to one question: whether someone ever had sex with a same-sex partner, even once.

A much higher proportion of the 23andMe sample — about 19 percent compared to about 3 percent of the Biobank sample — reported a same-sex sexual experience, a difference possibly related to cultural factors or because the specific 23andMe sexual orientation survey might attract more LGB participants, the Times reports.

Despite its limitations, the research was much larger and more varied than previous studies, which generally focused on gay men, often those who were twins or were otherwise related.

There might be thousands of genes influencing same-sex sexual behavior, each playing a small role, scientists believe. The new study found that all genetic effects likely account for about 32 percent of whether someone will have same-sex sex, the Times reports.

Using a big-data technique called genome-wide association, the researchers estimated that common genetic variants — single-letter differences in DNA sequences — account for between 8 percent and 25 percent of same-sex sexual behavior.

The rest of the 32 percent might involve genetic effects they could not measure, they said.

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20 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

PETER ROSENSTEIN

KHELIL BOUARROUJ

DANA WHITE

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

is an activist who writes about LGBTQ issues.

VI E WPO I NT • S E PTEMBER 06, 2019 • WA SHIN GTONB L A DE . COM • 21

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

is a programs manager at SMYAL.

PETER ROSENSTEIN

RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

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

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

Rising to our moment Rehoboth Beach a against Trump’s madness place for all seasons The idea of America needs defenders When most of us launch into a new morning it is nothing like storming Normandy Beach on D-Day. Most of us are not being shot, deported, jailed, evicted, or starved. Whatever brutal measures Trump and his minions have in mind, most of our freedoms have not yet been blotted out by a fascist state. We still have our voices and our power to act. It is for us to use them.

Some say we’re letting Trump distract us from the harm he’s doing. Really? We can’t multitask? What is he up to that we’re missing? Lining his pockets? Packing the courts? Rolling back environmental protections? Gutting USDA? Raiding FEMA funds to cage more migrant children?

Promising pardons to staff who follow his unlawful orders? Attacking immigrants and people of color at every turn? Deporting students and sick children? Mocking journalists and scientists who don’t echo his desires? Letting Wayne LaPierre lead him around on a leash? Jerking off on the drapes? What?

If we are so unserious that we cannot keep track of this demagogue’s despoilments, we are done. I do not believe it. We will not all sleep through the next 14 months. I may not be Edward R. Murrow reporting from a London rooftop during the Blitz, and you may not be Julia Child spying in Sri Lanka, but we can rise to our moment.

We bring different gifts, but we all have a part in the election. Each of us can contribute: register voters, reach out to neighbors and family, have the difficult discussions, challenge our representatives, give our time and money to candidates, run for an office ourselves.

One of the best things we can do is simply not surrender to the erosion of standards. We don’t have to accept diminished expectations because of Trump’s unrelenting trash talk and provocations. We can stand our ground. We can defend things we care about regardless of what the manchild and his rabble say.

Reality provides a backstop. Gay and trans people do not disappear because some wish to erase us. Women, people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities do not become devils or infestations or

denizens of The Handmaid’s Tale because of a sociopath’s rants. Sea levels do not stop rising nor storms growing more extreme by ignoring (or nuking) them. Mass shootings are not stopped by thoughts and prayers.

Crumbling infrastructure is not rebuilt by neglect. Pesticides don’t stop killing bees because of Monsanto’s denials. Sooner or later, the truth bites us in the ass. Trump’s alternate facts (that is, lies) do not become true by repetition.

His incompetence causes harm that mean tweets do not mitigate. He weakens our standing in the world with his obliviousness to soft power.

We, in the meantime, continue in our diversity to create, innovate, inspire, and enlighten. We do not require permission to step up and assert ourselves. We build and rebuild alliances and go where others haven’t because, as Murrow said in confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, we are not descended from fearful people.

The campaign ahead will be long and nasty. When you feel overloaded, you may have wandered into Trump’s funhouse.

“Aha!” his trolls love to cry, as if Putin’s useful idiot is above reproach and every journalist who issues a correction (as honest people do) should be dragged off in chains. Break out. Look around you to clear your head and reorient yourself toward the reality-based community.

The idea of America, if it lives at all, lives in us. That is our wellspring. All of us are its guardians. Federal employees in particular, including DOJ attorneys and Secret Service agents, take oaths to defend the Constitution. The great majority take their oaths seriously, as I did during my own federal career. Pledges of service do not morph into plunder because a toddler scribbles over them.

Don’t give Trump’s band of saboteurs rent-free space in your head. We might win, we might not. We don’t know. Cable news is full of experts who were wrong about the last presidential election. Much is at stake. There is no point in handwringing or giving up without a fight. We can do this. Let’s go.

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

After another successful Sundance, fall beckons

Labor Day 2019 and CAMP Rehoboth’s annual Sundance party is now history and another summer season in Rehoboth has come to an end. But everyone should know Rehoboth Beach is no longer just a place to go in the summer. It has become a yearround destination with great restaurants, shops and activities to enjoy.

Rehoboth Beach itself is one square mile but the surrounding community in Sussex County has become a place where many in the LGBTQ+ community are buying second homes and retiring. Fall is a great time to make an appointment with one of the many Realtors who would be happy to show you around.

Sundance was again a huge success with hundreds attending both the auction on Saturday and the dance on Sunday. It was also when CAMP, Rehoboth’s LGBTQ community center, introduced its new executive director David Mariner to the community. People walked from the restaurants and bars on Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth’s gayest block, to the convention center where the party was held along recently dedicated Steve Elkins Way. The restaurants and bars on Baltimore Avenue including The Pines, Aqua Grill, the Blue Moon, Lori’s Café, Iguana Grill, Eden, Jam, Le Fable, and Café Azafran were all busy with end of summer revelers.

But don’t despair, many like The Pines are open all year long.

As we look forward to fall and winter at the beach there are many events planned.

They include CAMP’s fourth annual Block Party which this year will take place on Sunday Oct. 20. Following that the everpopular 30th Annual Sea Witch Festival will be held Oct. 25-27. Then among other events is the town’s annual Christmas tree lighting and concert on Nov. 29 during Thanksgiving weekend. Then there is the Christmas parade.

While Baltimore Avenue may be the gayest block it’s surely not the only block with shops and restaurants staying open all year long. There are three main commercial blocks in Rehoboth — Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Avenue and Wilmington Avenue.

They, along with 1st and 2nd streets between Rehoboth and Wilmington, make

up the bar, restaurant and shopping district.

Open all year is my favorite place to get a cup of java, The Coffee Mill, in the mews between Rehoboth and Baltimore Avenues.

Then there is BRASHhh on 1st a great men’s boutique and gift store and on Rehoboth Avenue stop in Gidget’s Gadgets, a fun place that has a huge selection of vinyl records. There is the ever-popular Purple Parrot restaurant open all year with great food at reasonable prices and a fun happy hour.

Rehoboth is also the place to enjoy great theater all year long at Clear Space Theatre on Baltimore Avenue. Its fall/ winter productions include Three Tall Women, Ghost the Musical, James and the Giant Peach and A Christmas Story the Musical. Before an evening at the theater you can window shop or buy some great art on Baltimore Avenue at the Ward Ellinger Gallery or head to Wilmington Avenue and peruse the art at Gallery 50. If you just can’t do without some beautiful designer jewelry for yourself or a loved one stop in at Elegant Slumming or browse some great art and designer furniture at Philip Morton Gallery or get new glasses at Shademakers Eyewear all on Baltimore Avenue.

More people each year are waking up to the fact Rehoboth Beach has become a year-round community that doesn’t close up shop after Labor Day. There are some places that may still close a couple of days mid-week so call for reservations at restaurants and if you are coming to the beach to shop at a specific store give them a call just to confirm they will have the welcome mat out when you get to town.

One of the great things about coming to the beach in what has always before been called off-season is traffic is lighter.

There are also no parking meters in town from mid-September to Memorial Day. So if you haven’t been to the beach offseason this is the year to visit. The beach and the boardwalk are always there. Think about an afternoon stroll on the mile-long boardwalk in colder weather with a hot chocolate in your hand looking out at the ocean before going for a great meal. There is nothing that can compare.

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DANA WHITE

KHELIL BOUARROUJ

is a programs manager at SMYAL.

is an activist who writes about LGBTQ issues.

Should queers support Palestine?

Addressing high level of hate violence in D.C.

Yes, queen! We need to show our solidarity

SMYAL, CASS among groups taking action

Recently, pro-Israel partisans had a field day mocking queer solidarity with Palestinians in response to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) decision to ban an event hosted by the Palestinian queer group alQaws. The social media schadenfreude was exemplified by Emory University professor and pro-Israel advocate Deborah Lipstadt’s tweet, “When a LGBT group on your campus supports BDS in solidarity with the oppressed tell them this: Palestinian Authority bans LGBT activities in West Bank.”

The whole affair raises the question: Should queer solidarity activists continue to support the Palestinian cause for self-determination?

Yes, queen!

A Palestinian grassroots organization being harassed by the PA isn’t a reason to suspend support for the Palestinian people. Maybe Lipstadt and her fellow partisans confuse Israelis with the Israeli government and both of them with Jews, but the distinction between people and state (or, in the PA’s case, protostate) isn’t lost on BDS activists. When occupied Palestinian queers are denied freedom by the PA, that’s more reason for solidarity.

The PA is no longer a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Its legislative arm hasn’t met since 2007. Its president’s term expired a decade ago. Its popular support has long evaporated; in fact, Palestinians rate corruption in the PA as more detrimental to their daily lives than the occupation. The authoritarian PA maintains power through its security alliance with Israel and suppression of dissent. Its leaders are widely derided by many Palestinians as collaborators.

Its action must be judged in the context of occupation. As alQaws wrote in response to the event cancellation, “Singling out incidents of homophobia in Palestinian society ignores the complexities of Israel’s colonization and military occupation being a contributing factor to Palestinian LGBTQ oppression.”

Homophobia is common in Palestinian society, but that doesn’t delegitimize Palestinian aspirations for self-determination. Liberation movements have almost always had moral blind spots. The post-Stonewall gay rights movement, for instance, was heavily dominated by men and marginalized women and people of color. Anti-colonial struggles benefited from the sacrifices of women but then built postcolonial states restricting female autonomy.

The first Intifada (1987-93) was largely led by Palestinian women after Israel imprisoned

and exiled many of the men. It was women who helmed the committees that organized demonstrations and support networks to sustain popular resistance. But after the Oslo Accords were signed, Palestinian women were sidelined; the men were back in charge. It is for this reason that many on the left have embraced intersectionalism: to avoid the pitfalls of the past when certain struggles for equality were deemed irrelevant to the main cause.

Calling out homophobia in Palestinian society is right and necessary, but what was wrong and opportunistic about Lipstadt’s representative tweet is that it expresses no concern for Palestinian queers but only in gleefully instrumentalizing their setback as a wedge against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. It should be noted that Israel’s Knesset has repeatedly voted down proLGBTQ laws and Israeli Prime Minister “Bibi” Netanyahu has an electoral alliance with an avowedly anti-gay party. According to Lipstadt’s logic, queers shouldn’t support Israel.

But Lipstadt implicitly argues queers should stand with Israel because of its relatively more progressive record on gay rights. This is a reductivism of queer lives that, as Maya Mikdashi has argued, is arguably homophobic.

Queers do not derive their politics solely from their sexuality. Queer solidarity activists are not oblivious to the fact that Palestinian society is socially conservative but know solidarity is an opportunity for disarming homophobia through the power of queer visibility.

At heart, the social media mockery of LGBTQ solidarity with Palestine illustrates the bad faith and willful blindness all too common amongst pro-Israel partisans who see nothing abhorrent about Israel’s occupation and assume critics of Israel must be animated by ignorance or malice. Bill Maher called BDS a “bullshit purity test” whose supporters only oppose the occupation because of identity policies pitting the “browner” Palestinians against the “mostly white” Israelis.

Support for Israel is falling among liberals and many of Israel’s supporters remain befuddled. Several pro-Israel campaigns have failed to reverse this trend. Neither smearing Palestinians as radical Muslims nor selling Israel as a liberal paradise has worked. Here’s a suggestion in good faith: Keep calm and try to honestly grapple with the arguments and history put forth by Palestinian solidarity activists.

You might learn something, and we might all get closer to a better place.

With more anti-LGBTQ attacks investigated here in D.C. in 2018 than in much larger cities like New York and San Francisco, addressing this high level of hate violence requires that we explore all possible solutions. Considering the complex reasons why not everyone in our community views police and court involvement as the effective, right, or even safe option, solutions outside of the criminal justice system must be included in our exploration.

In my two years at SMYAL working directly with LGBTQ+ young people from throughout the District, most of whom live east of the river, several have shared details of either being assaulted or harassed due to their perceived sexual orientation or gender expression. It’s happening not just in their schools, but in their neighborhoods. They’ve expressed needing to be constantly alert and prepared to face street harassment or defend themselves from physical attacks, both from their peers and adult strangers. Most of them have never reported these incidents to police due to distrust.

As we’ve recently seen, it’s not just adults who are committing these acts of violence.

In the August 2 attack of Alica Love, a Black trans woman who works as a manager at the D.C. Eagle, several teenagers followed and ultimately assaulted her in a gas station in Northeast. The young assailants were captured on camera and at least one, 17 years old, has since been arrested.

In a city where Black, trans, young, undocumented, and sex working members of our community have experienced violence both from the community as well as under the abused power of police, there’s arguably a responsibility for all of us to leverage community expertise to inform processes in which there’s accountability for harm, uncompromised safety and healing for those harmed, as well as prevention.

One seemingly underutilized approach to preventing violence against LGBTQ+ individuals in the District is widespread and ongoing education about marginalized identities and their intersections.It’s an education in empathy and acceptance, with the intent of eliminating the bias from which violence stems, which should begin at an early age. When we integrate empathy and compassion into every interaction we have with young people, we are building the foundation for a more equitable and empowered generation.

It’s through work in schools and community-based youth programs that we

intentionally reach young people. At SMYAL, we’ve dedicated ourselves to working directly with school administrators, teachers, and students in facilitating that education, building policies and practices for accountability, and fostering support for LGBTQ+ youth in public and charter schools throughout the DMV. This means ensuring that students have heard from their queer counterparts about everything from what it means to be trans, to why pronouns are important. It looks like ensuring that teachers have the language to demonstrate cultural competency in the classroom, and that they know why it’s critical for them to stop antiLGBTQ bullying, even if it just seems like a “harmless” joke.

Additionally, exploring partnerships with organizations like CASS, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, which is a D.C.-based grassroots organization, will help us empower queer and trans young people and their allies with skills to intervene as bystanders or legally defend themselves when other efforts have not been a deterrent and avoidance is not possible.

“It is imperative for D.C. to invest in noncarceral solutions to addressing violence and holding harm-doers accountable. Many survivors want solutions that take place within communities, not in courtrooms,” says alicia sanchez gill, outgoing Interim Executive Director at CASS. By equipping community members with the tools to respond to abuse and prevent future harm, CASS aims to break the cycle of violence.

SMYAL Executive Director Sultan Shakir says, “In responding to hate crimes, it is imperative that we utilize multiple approaches to keeping our community safe and supporting members of our community who are disproportionately affected. At SMYAL, we take a holistic approach to supporting and empowering youth, and we also take a holistic approach to addressing the challenges they face.”

For more information about becoming involved with programs at SMYAL as an LGBTQ youth seeking an affirming space and empowerment, as a volunteer, or as a potential partner organization, contact programs@smyal. org. To learn more about the work CASS is doing to eliminate public gendered street harassment, visit collectiveactiondc.org. Both organizations are committed to continuing this conversation and creating community solutions to prevent and heal from violence.

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CANDACE GINGRICH says the stigma associated with marijuana needs to be erased.

Photo by Angelika Bermingham; courtesy Revolution Enterprises

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New role for Candace Gingrich Long-time HRC staffer moves on to cannabis advocacy

By KEITH LORIA Noted LGBTQ leader Candace Gingrich, who spent 23 years working for the Human Rights Campaign, has a new gig. The longtime advocate was named vice president and head of business development for Revolution Florida, a cannabis operator that’s the sister company of Illinois-based Revolution Enterprises.

Working with the Human Rights Campaign, Gingrich traveled throughout the U.S. discussing the importance of coming out, mobilizing the next generation of activists and promoting LGBTQ equity, including in health care. Gingrich saw firsthand the barriers LGBTQ people face to medical treatment, including with cannabis.

For that reason, Gingrich — half-sister of Newt, with whom she’s cordial — will also serve as the company’s LGBTQ ambassador.

In Gingrich’s role, organization leaders have plans to establish LGBTQ-focused medical cannabis treatment centers and increase economic opportunities for LGBTQ people.

Gingrich, who is married to Illinois state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D) — the lead House sponsor of a landmark marijuana legalization measure signed into law this summer, won’t be involved in any financial or voting interest in any Illinois-based business license that might be issued to Revolution under the new law for two years. Additionally, Gingrich’s business development work will only be focused on non-Illinois markets.

Gingrich recently chatted with the Blade about the position and plans for the future.

WASHINGTON BLADE: What got you interested in this position?

CANDACE GINGRICH: It was a number of things. One was looking at Revolution as as an entity itself and their reputation as

a company that not only cares about the bottom line, but cares about the people that are involved — really focusing on social justice, social equity and providing the best science to make the best product for medical cannabis patients. Here is a company that is doing a lot of things well.

Plus, I had an opportunity to kind of mesh that with my queer activism, because in a lot of the conversation, we talk about the failed war on drugs and we talk about the importance of bringing black and brown people into the industry to be part of it and to be engaged. But a lot of times, we weren’t talking about queer people, which has also been a historically marginalized community. With Florida, it’s a purely medical market. All of the dispensaries are a medical cannabis market. And with HRC, I’ve learned how often queer people have issues interfacing with the health care community and oftentimes they have to work with health care providers that are not culturally competent and are not fully aware of the particular needs of LGBTQ patients.

This was a way to kind of combine those two things to be part of a company that’s bringing a first-class product to market for patients and also finding a way so that we can bring LGBTQ people into it, as patients and also as a part of the company as well.

BLADE: You talked about a barrier of medical treatment being understanding needs. Are there other barriers as well?

GINGRICH: Well, there’s still stigma in using cannabis, even when it is medically called for. I see some parallels to the LGBTQ movement in that there still remains a lot of ignorance and a lot of misconception and stereotypes about cannabis use that we need to kind of get beyond and do the educating on. The studies show that

S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 27

cannabis is a health care product that can vastly improve peoples’ lives, but there’s still those stereotypes of that dude on the corner selling you a dime bag. We need to get beyond the stigma and help people view cannabis as a medical treatment.

BLADE: As part of this role, you’re going to help establish LGBTQ-focused medical treatment centers. What are your plans there?

GINGRICH: We’re still figuring that out.

Florida is one of our newest markets and we have a vertically integrated license, and we are building a great center—the place where the plants will all be grown and then a processing center where they can be processed. And then we have a license for 35 dispensaries throughout the state of Florida, doing a couple at a time and we will build from there. One of the ideas that we had was why not create a couple of the dispensaries as LGBTQ-focused and LGBTQ forward. That’s to provide not only a welcoming place for queer people to go, but an informing place. We really want to bring in queer people, we want to bring in people of color, we want to bring in veterans. Because we’re going to have a need for staff at the dispensaries, we’re going to have a need for people to work in the growth center, to work in the processing, to do transportation. I see it as not only queer people as patients, but also as a way to provide job opportunities for people that sometimes still face barriers to employment.

BLADE: What are some of your other main responsibilities?

GINGRICH: With every place that we want to put a dispensary, we have local stakeholders that we need to develop relationships with and we’re building

relationships with. There’s still municipalities that are still relying on stereotypes and the misconceptions about what it means to have a medical dispensary. So part of it is getting to know them and building partnership. It’s Revolution working with local government, working with the regulators, and making sure that we are good corporate partners.

I also see building relationships with the community in general. One of the things that Revolution does in Illinois is really partners with the community. There is an MS walk that we were a cosponsor of. There was a letter writing effort for cancer patients where the community came together, created care packages for people in the community who were going through cancer. That’s the kind of thing that drew me to Revolution — it is about doing good business, but it’s also about doing good, period.

BLADE: What’s the future look like for Revolution?

GINGRICH: Just that Florida is one of the newest markets and we’re looking to expand around the country. We’ve got a growth site in Arkansas. We are going to be opening a medical dispensary in Maryland. Looking at what we’re going to do in Florida over the next six months to a year, I’m hopeful that the LGBTQ-focusedfacing work will help us create a template so no matter what state Revolution is in, we’re able to engage those communities and replicate it.

BLADE: What else are you excited about in your life?

GINGRICH: I’m excited to be living in Chicago and being here full-time with my family. We have a 5-month-old massive puppy named Jack who is ridiculously fun. And I’m always excited about the Chicago Cubs.

QUEERY Chrissy Burke/aka Ginger RUDY and GINGER. Photo courtesy ICDC

QUEERY: Chrissy Burke/aka Ginger

The incoming Imperial Court Empress VIII answers 20 queer questions

By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO JOEYD@WASHBLADE.COM The Imperial Court system welcomes all so while there’s a huge drag component to the proceedings, not all monarchs serve in drag.

Rudy and Ginger, this year’s incoming emperor and empress are both cisgender monarchs. They’ll be installed this weekend in a flurry of festivities — officially on Saturday night at Gala of the Americas Coronation VIII at The Sphinx Club (1315 K St., N.W.) at 7 p.m. (cocktails at 6). Tickets are $100 at imperialcourtdc.org. The court raises money for various LGBT and AIDS causes.

Ginger B. Sparkles Childs Dennis is the Imperial Court name of Chrissy Burke, who’s currently Imperial Crown Princess Royale. She and Rudy were elected in June at the Czar Ball in Richmond. They decided lounging by the pool in Ft. Lauderdale at its coronation, they would unite forces for the Washington titles. “(The Court) is important to me for a lot of reasons,” Burke says. “It has provided me with a safe environment to be me — an organization that has literally saved my

life. I was at a point where I was extremely depressed and just did not want to continue with life. When I was introduced to the Court, I was very standoffish at first because I have always felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. (They) made me open my eyes and realize I am important.”

Burke, a lesbian, heard about the court through friends she calls her “chosen dads.”

“I attended a few events and was absolutely taken aback at the welcoming and loving group of individuals who were involved,” the 41-year-old Pittsburgh native says. “It’s helped bring me back to life.”

She says court involvement can be as much or as little as one wants.

“For me, I’m all in, so I spend the majority of my downtime helping (the court) and our community.”

Burke works as assistant manager at Dogtopia. She and her wife, Madie Doll, live in Alexandria with two “furbabies,” Kekoa and Eevee. Burke enjoys dancing, crafts, travel and community work in her free time.

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

I have been out for four years to my friends and some of my family. The hardest person to come out to was my Dad. Before he passed I was able to tell him.

Who’s your LGBTQ hero?

I do not have a specific LGBTQ hero. To me, everyone in our community is a hero for one reason or another.

What LGBTQ stereotype most annoys you?

They are all sick.

What’s your proudest professional achievement?

The day I was sworn in as a correctional officer.

What terrifies you?

Leaving this world alone.

What’s something trashy or vapid you love?

This empress will never tell her secrets! Ha ha.

What’s your greatest domestic skill?

Baking

What’s your favorite LGBTQ movie or show?

“Jenny’s Wedding” gets me every time.

What’s your social media pet peeve?

Cyber bullying and vaguebooking.

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

That we can just love who we want to love without any sort of repercussions.

That we have educated all communities about each entity of our communities and unite together.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

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

I was raised Catholic. Now, I believe there is a higher power.

What’s D.C.’s best hidden gem?

D.C. Eagle What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?

Being able to sit and talk with Tree Sequoia and hearing all the amazing stories.

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Disney and anything that sparkles.

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Counterclockwise from left: MARGARET CHO returns to town next weekend Photo by Got Megaera; courtesy Ken Phillips Publicity Group); The B-52s play the Anthem Sept. 17 Photo courtesy IMP; and NEIL PATRICK HARRIS will be in town Sept. 11 Photo by Mark Veltman

Ruby anniversary for B-52s The B-52s brings their “40th Anniversary Tour” to the Anthem (901 Wharf St., S.W.) on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m.

The new wave band has sold more than 20 million albums since they came on the music scene 40 years ago. They are best known for their hits including “Love Shack,” “Planet Claire,” “Private Idaho,” among others. Tickets range from $55-95.

For more details, visit ticketmaster.com.

Cho plays Improv next weekend Comedian Margaret Cho stops by the D.C. Improv Comedy Club (1140

Connecticut Ave., N.W.) on Friday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. and Saturday, Sept.

14 at 7 and 9:30 p.m.

Cho, who’s bi and a huge LGBT supporter, has received five Grammy Award nominations including for her two music albums “Cho Dependent” and “American Myth.” She is also an Emmy nominee for her role on “30 Rock.” General admission tickets are $30. VIP tickets are $35.

For more information, visit dcimprovcom.seatengine.com.

raised during the event will contribute to community-based programs and services in the D.C. area. Youth/student tickets are $50. Senior tickets are $50. Standard tickets are $75.

For more details, visit thedccenter.org

Center’s Fall Reception is Sept. 13

The Sapphire Sapphos: 40 Years Later, a retelling of the group’s history, is Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Founded in 1979, the group became D.C.’s “first ongoing political, social, and cultural group” for black lesbians.

Admission is free. Seating is on a firstcome, first-served basis.

For more information, visit facebook. com/washingtoniana.

The D.C. Center hosts its 2019 annual Fall Reception on the rooftop of the Warner Building (1299 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) on Friday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.

The fundraising event will celebrate the Center’s 15 years of LGBT service. Funds

Sapphire Sapphos reunite

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TODAY Gay District meets at the D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) tonight from 8:309:30 p.m. The facilitated group discussion covers building understanding of gay culture and personal identity and awareness of community events for LGBT men between the ages of 18-35 in the D.C. area. For more details, visit gaydistrict.org.

Red Bear Brewing (209 M St., N.E.) hosts Slay Them, a drag competition, tonight at 9 p.m. Desiree Dik and Wang Newton host the competition. The prize is $50 and the chance to co-host and perform at a future event with Desiree Dik at Red Bear. For more information, visit facebook.com/redbearbrewing.

Saturday, Sept. 7 TheatreWashington hosts its kickoff party at Arena Stage (1101 6th St., S.W.) today from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. There will be performances, demonstrations, conversations and giveaways. Performers include Felicia Curry, Hasani Allen, Erin Driscoll, Rayanne Gonzales, Aaron Bliden and more. Admission is free. For more information, visit facebook.com/ theatrewashington.

Sunday, Sept. 8 La Ti Do hosts Jazz Night La Ti Do presents Jazz Night featuring Sarah Anne Sillers at Le Mirch (1736 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) on Monday, Sept.

16 at 8 p.m.

The evening will include music and spoken word featuring Sillers and La Ti Do’s spotlight feature Eric Brooks. Guest performers include Hannah Gilberstadt, Erin Granfield, Annie Ottati, Allison Saba and Michael Santos Sandoval. Don Michael Mendoza and Anya Randall Nebel host the show. General admission is $20. Student/ senior tickets are $10. Non-performing LTD alumni tickets are $5. Doors open at 7:55 p.m. Show starts at 8 p.m.

For more details, visit facebook.com/ latidodc.

DCATS hosts Naming Yourself, an event for the transmasc community, at WhitmanWalker Health (1525 14th St., N.W.) today at 5 p.m. General information will be provided on how to change your name but it will not focus on the legal process. DCATS meetings are for individuals assigned female at birth but who believe this is an inaccurate description of themselves. For more information, visit facebook.com/ dcatsociety.

DCATS hosts Partners of Transmasc Folx, a support group for partners of transmasc individuals, at WhitmanWalker Health (1525 14th St., N.W.) today at 5 p.m. The group will share stories on their experiences having a transmasc partner. For details, visit facebook.com/ dcatsociety.

Monday, Sept. 9

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TheatreWashington hosts ShowTunes and Cocktails at the Beacon Bar & Grill (1615 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The event will be hosted by pianist Glenn Pearson. Guest artists include Greg Maheu and Monique Midgette. Tickets are pay-what-you-can. Ten percent of the night’s proceeds will benefit the Beacon Bar & Grill. For more information, visit facebook.com/theatrewashington.

D.C. Startup Week welcomes Ebone Bell, found and editor of Tagg Magazine, at Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center (901 15th St., N.W.) to moderate a panel at 3:30 p.m. on closing the equity gap in your workplace. Registration is free. For more details, visit dcstartupweek.com.

“A Night For Kristina Kelly” is tonight at 8 p.m. at Trade (1410 14th St., N.W. first floor) with performances by many local drag and performance D.C. regulars, some of whom are coming out of retirement for this one-time benefit event for Kelly, one of D.C.’s drag legends. Kelly is having gastric bypass surgery and is insured, but needs about $3,000 for her recovery needs.

Friends are uniting to help. Look for the event on Facebook for details.

Tuesday, Sept. 10 “Queer Eye” food and wine expert Antoni Porowski appears at the Lincoln Theatre (1215 U St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. to discuss his new cookbook “Antoni in the Kitchen.” Porowski will demo recipes from the book, answer audience questions and discuss why food and healthy living is important to him. Tickets range from $45-95.

For more information, visit thelincolndc.com.

The Office of LGBTQ Affairs hosts its Advisory Committee Meeting at the Reeves Center Municipal Building (2000 14th St., N.W.) this evening from 6:30-9:30 p.m. The meeting will advise the mayor on LGBTQ issues for D.C. residents and offer recommendations on the focus of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.

The D.C. Chapter of StartOut moderates a panel for D.C. Start Up Week at CrossLead (1445 New York Ave., N.W.) this evening at 6 p.m. The panel focuses on alternative ways to fund a startup. The introduction begins at 6 p.m. followed by the panel discussion at 6:30. There will be a post-event networking event at 7:30 p.m.

Registration is free. For more details, visit

dcstartupweek.org.

Leslie Jones tapes comedy specials at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St., N.W.) tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets are $37. For more information, visit warnertheatredc.com.

Wednesday, Sept. 11 The National Book Festival presents Neil Patrick Harris at the Library of Congress (101 Independence Ave., S.E.) tonight at 7 p.m. Harris will discuss his book “The Magic Misfits: The Minor Third,” the third book in his New York Times bestselling book series. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Admission is free but tickets are required for entry. Seating is first-come, first-served.

Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/libraryofcongress.

WeDC House presents Building an Inclusive Culture at Your Startup, a panel discussion for D.C. Start Up Week, at Eaton (1201 K St., N.W.) at 11 a.m. The panel discussion will focus on LGBTQ issues in hiring and startup life. For details, visit dcstartupweek.org.

The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and new comers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703407-6540.

Big Gay Book Group meets at Trio Bistro Restaurant (1537 17th St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss “Like a Love Story” by Abdi Nazemian. Newcomers welcome. For more details, visit biggaybookgroup.com or email biggaybookgroup@hotmail.com.

Thursday, Sept. 12 Pitchers D.C. (2317 18th St., N.W.) kicks off Pitchers Drag World Series, a new drag competition, tonight at 10 p.m. Ten contestants will compete for the crown.

Venus Valhalla hosts the show. For more information, visit facebook.com/pitchersdrag-world-series.

Metropolitan A.M.E. Church (1518 M St., N.W.) presents 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams today at 6:30 p.m.

Abrams will discuss fighting voter suppression and ensuring that every American is counted in the 2020 Census. Tickets are $40. Proceeds benefit Metropolitan A.M.E. Church. For more details, visit thefamilyroom.eventbrite.com.

This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com

Love Sick Thru Sep 29. Theater J. theaterj.org.

From an extraordinary collaboration of international artists comes Love Sick, the critically-acclaimed new musical that fuses a thrilling original score, MiddleEastern harmonics, dazzling choreography, and an inspired story of passion and awakening. Based on The Song of Songs, Love Sick tells the story a young wife in a lifeless marriage who discovers she has a secret admirer.

Ben Levine / Extreme Lengths Sep 6-Sep 8. Dance Place. danceplace.org.

Produced by technical mastermind Ben Levine, ‘I made this dance and nobody cares but you’ is a series of performances experienced by a single audience member at a time. Audiences get up close and personal with dancers and designers through unexpected lenses – in a single-seat proscenium, through a peephole, within a crowded field of dancers and more.

Global Sounds on the Hill: Che Apalache Sep 10. Hill Center. hillcenterdc.org.

Hill Center welcomes Che Apalache – “Latingrass from Argentina” as part of the Global Sounds series and Multiflora Productions annual music festival, Flash of the Spirit.

Immigration is a powerful topic for Che Apalache bandleader Joe Troop. Che Apalache features three powerhouse Latin American musicians – two from Argentina, Franco Martino (guitar) and Martin Bobrik (mandolin), and Pau Barjau (banjo) from Mexico – and has been taking audiences by storm with their fusion of Latin and American roots music.

Queens of Egypt Thru Sep 15. National Geographic. nationalgeographic.org.

This multisensory exhibition will bring you back in time some 3,500 years, to the 18th and 19th dynasties of ancient Egypt. Get to know such legendary queens as Nefertari, Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, and Cleopatra VII; see more than 300 prestigious objects, including monumental statues, sparkling jewelry, and impressive sarcophagi; and take a 3-D tour of one of the most well-preserved tombs in the Valley of the Queens.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATER J

THEATRE

Life is a Dream. Sep 12-Oct 13. GALA Hispanic Theatre. galatheatre.org.

1 Henry IV. Thru Oct 13. Folger Theatre. folger.edu.

Assassins. Thru Sep 29. Signature Theatre. sigtheatre.org.

Cabaret. Thru Oct 6. Olney Theatre. olneytheatre.org.

Dear Evan Hansen. Thru Sep 8. Kennedy Center. kennedy-center.org.

Fabulation or the Re-Education of Undine. Thru Sep 22. Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas. mosaictheater.org.

Butterfly. Thru Sep 22. In Series at Source Theatre. inseries.org.

DANCE Jones Benally Family Dancers. Sep 10.

Library of Congress. loc.gov.

The Broadway Collective. Sep 9.

Kennedy Center at REACH Plaza Stage. kennedy-center.org.

MUSIC American Roots Concert Series. Sep 8.

Hill Center. hillcenterdc.org.

Brandee Younger. Sep 8. Kennedy Center at Studio K of the REACH. kennedy-center.org.

DC Strings Workshop. Sep 11. Keali’i Reichel. Sep 10. The Chuck Brown Band with Special Guest Bootsy Collins. Sep 7. Kennedy Center at REACH Plaza Stage. kennedy-center.org.

Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes and Tonino Baliardo. Sep 8. Kacey Musgraves with Yola. Sep 7. The Piano Guys. Sep 6. Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.

Hip Hop Violin Night. Sep 8. Dupont Underground. dupontunderground.org.

John Patitucci Trio. Sep 6. AMP. ampbystrathmore.com.

Maritime Voices. Sep 8. Washington Revels at Takoma Park Middle School. revelsdc.org.

Renée Fleming VOICES ft. Soloman Howard, Afro Blue, and The Mellow Tones. Sep 12. Kennedy Center at Skylight Pavillion. kennedy-center.org.

Snarky Puppy. Sep 12. Strathmore. strathmore.org.

MUSEUMS AU Museum at the Katzen. Grace Hartigan and Helene Herzbrun: Reframing Abstract Expressionism. Moves Like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection. Our World Above: Monoprints and Glass by Annette Lerner.

Prints & Artists: WD Printmaking Workshop 1970-Present. Topographies of Life: Pam Rogers, Lynn Sures, Mel Watkin. Thru Oct 20. american.edu.

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

Anderson House.

Revolutionary Reflections: French Memories of the War for America. Thru Oct 27. societyofthecincinnati.org.

Dumbarton Oaks. Asian Art from the Bliss Collection. Thru Jun 1. 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. l oc.gov.

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

National Museum of Women in the Arts.

More is More: Multiples. Thru Sep 22.

Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change. Thru Oct 31.

New York Ave Sculpture Project. Thru Sep 20. nmwa.org.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.

Recent Acquisitions. Thru Nov 3. Portraits of the World: Korea Exhibition. Thru Nov 17. Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. Thru Jan 5. In Mid-Sentence.

Thru Mar 29. One Life: Marian Anderson.

Thru May 17. Women of Progress: Early Camera Portraits. Thru May 31. Storied Women of the Civil War Era. Thru May 8. npg.si.edu.

GALLERIES CHAW. Veronica Melendez Photography Exhibit. Thru Sep 9. Capitol Hill Art League presents Pop-up Earth Wind & Fire Exhibit.

Sep 6-Sep 30. chaw.org.

DC Arts Center (DCAC). Reparations Realized. Sep 6-Oct 13. dcartscenter.org.

Del Ray Artisans. High Note Art Exhibit at Del Ray Artisans Gallery. Sep 6-Sep 29.

Uncommon Alexandria Art Exhibit. Thru Sep 29. delrayartisans.org.

Gallery Clarendon. La Città Italiana: Solo Show by Matthew Miller. Thru Sep 6.

Liminal Solo Show by Liz Vance. Sep 9-Oct 6. arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

Gallery Underground. Draftsman Solo Show by Barry Barnett Keith. Thru Sep 27. arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

Glen Echo Park. Art Walk in the Park. Sep 6. glenechopark.org.

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

JCCNV. Rachel Braun — Embroidery and Sacred Text. Thru Oct 11. jccnv.org.

Korean Cultural Center DC. Newly Connected. Sep 6-Sep 27. koreaculturedc.org.

The Art League. August Solo Show B.D. Richardson Gone Fishin’. Thru Sep 8. Illustration Exhibit. Sep 10-Oct 6.

September Zeitgeist Exhibit. Sep 10-Oct 6. October Open Exhibit juried by Debbie Millman. Sep 8-Nov 3. theartleague.org.

Waverly Street Gallery. Line of Sight. Sep 8-Oct 5. waverlystreetgallery.com.

Zenith Gallery. Over the Line. Thru Oct 12. 6@35 - Fabricating Culture. Thru Jan 4. zenithgallery.com.

AND MORE...

Docs in Progress. Vintage Movie Night with Richard Hall: Films About Immigrants and Refugees. Sep 12. At Takoma Park Community Center. docsinprogress.org.

JCCNV. Stand-up Comedian Mike Capozzola. Sep 7. jccnv.org.

Library of Congress. The Recent Discovery of Organic Matter on Mars. Sep 12. Conversation with Jaime Hernandez.

Sep 12. loc.gov.

Old Greenbelt Theatre. Man in the Red Bandana. Sep 11. greenbelttheatre.org.

The Art League. The Art History Book Club. Sep 12. theartleague.org.

Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House.

Twilight & Tipple Tours at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House. Sep 10-Oct 22. woodlawnpopeleighey.org.

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SAM LUDWIG as Lee Harvey Oswald in ‘Assassins’ at Signature Theatre.

Photo by Margo Schulman

Band of misfits

Signature’s witty, clever ‘Assassins’ production teeming with talent

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

Step right up and get your gun.

Stephen Sondheim’s insanely entertaining Tony Award-winning musical “Assassins,” (music and lyrics by out genius Sondheim and book by John Wiedman), tells the stories of nine would-be and actual presidential assassins, revealing their hopes and motivations through the lens of a warped American dream.

Now at Signature Theatre, the terrific production unfolds in two hours without intermission. Set in a sort of decaying, burned-out Ford’s Theatre (compliments of James Kronzer), it’s a vaudeville of poorly laid plans and cockeyed aspirations. Director Eric Schaeffer strikes just the right tone of wry humor and seriousness; he’s assembled a team of savvy designers and a cast of actors able to nail each character’s mixture of madness and understandable disaffection with America. Sondheim’s transporting score that samples American music styles from over the years, is played by an excellent unseen eight-person band impeccably led by musical director Jon Kalbfleisch.

The show opens with a carnival feel. A barker called Proprietor (Kurt Boehm) is doling out firearms to a band of alienated, misfits — background checks not required.

There’s Santa suit-wearing Samuel Blyck (Christopher Bloch) who has it in for Nixon; Reagan’s nemesis John Hinckley (Evan Casey); Giuseppe Zangara (Ian McEuen) who takes a pop at FDR and missed; McKinley’s assassin Leon Czolgosz (Lawrence Redmond); Garfield’s killer Charles Guiteau (Bobby Smith); and hapless bad shots Sara Jane Moore (a wonderfully crazy-eyed Tracy Lynn Olivera) and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Rachel Zampelli) who both went after Ford, unsuccessfully.

Joining this odd posse, the most famous of assassins emerges from the shadows.

With his ghostly pallor, headful of wavy dark hair and black suit, he’s unmistakably John

Wilkes Booth (Joseph Kempski). Booth has come to flatter and gently cajole his newfound fellow zealots, malcontents and kooks, encouraging them to kill a president and join his rarified fraternity.

Armed with pistols and itchy trigger fingers, the shooters shoot for different reasons: Fromme and Hinckley do it for love. She thinks by offing Ford, she might give her boyfriend, madman Charles Manson, a national platform from which to espouse his manifesto; and seemingly mild-mannered Hinckley is proving his ardor for young actress Jodie Foster. (Little did he know, he was barking up the wrong tree in so many ways.) Rachel and Casey’s duet “Unworthy of Your Love” in which they profess love for respective crushes is a beautifully sung and funny high point.

Garfield’s deluded killer Guitreau (played with a kind of insouciant hilarity

by Smith) seeks revenge. He has been passed over for ambassador to France, a position he long imagined was coming to him. Distress leads Byck (played to crank perfection by Bloch) to rid the world of Richard Nixon by crashing a plane into the White House. And middle-aged mom Moore — dressed to sit behind the wheel of a wood-paneled station wagon circa early ’70s (the exquisite ordinariness of Kathleen Geldard’s costumes is inspired) — just wants to make a statement.

Throughout the show, sunny, upbeat Balladeer (Sam Ludwig) serves partly as narrator and America incarnate before unexpectedly morphing into Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK’s assassin. His unconventional life has led him nowhere. When we meet Oswald, he’s working for little money in a book depository in Dallas, poised to end it all.

But before Oswald can kill himself, sexy shooter John Wilkes Booth arrives on the scene, offering these persuasive words: “They will hate you with a passion, Lee. Imagine people having passionate feelings about Lee Harvey Oswald.”

And so, it goes.

‘Assassins’

Through Sept. 29 Signature Theatre 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, Va. sigtheatre.org

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GEMMA ATHERTON as Vita (left) and ELIZABETH DEBICKI as Virginia in ‘Vita & Virginia.’

Photo courtesy IFC Films

‘Vita & Virginia’ sadly vapid

Lesbian affair of yesteryear doesn’t translate well to film

By BRIAN T. CARNEY

As writer/director Chanya Button’s new film “Vita & Virginia” demonstrates, sometimes the journey from stage to screen can be a perilous one.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) were central figures in the Bloomsbury Group, a looseknit collective of intellectual and sexual rebels. The legendary “set” also included Virginia’s husband Leonard, founder of the Hogarth Press; Virginia’s sister Vanessa, a post-impressionist painter and her husband Clive Bell, an art critic; the painter Duncan Grant; the economist John Maynard Keynes, the biographer Lytton Strachey; and author E.M. Forster.

Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki, “Widows”) became a literary icon, a modernist pioneer known for “Mrs. Dalloway,” “Orlando: A Biography” and “To the Lighthouse,” as well as the highly influential feminist essay “A Room of One’s Own.” Although her works were popular at the time, Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is now best known for her scandalous extra-marital affairs with women.

Woolf met Sackville-West at a dinner party in 1922. While their sexual affair was

passionate but brief, they remained devoted friends until Woolf’s suicide in 1941. Their relationship propelled both women into the most productive periods of their literary lives, and Sackville-West’s popular novels helped keep the Hogarth Press solvent.

The two women exchanged hundreds of letters which became the basis for “Vita &Virginia,” a 1992 two-woman stage play by actress and playwright Dame Eileen Atkins (“Gosford Park” and “The Crown”).

Atkins played Virginia to rave reviews; her Vitas included Penelope Wilton and Vanessa Redgrave.

Filmmaker Chanya Button decided to turn the play into a movie, but sadly her adaptation never really catches fire.

She expands the cast by adding the two husbands, but never really fleshes out the two fascinating marriages. Peter Ferdinando is Leonard Woolf, Virginia’s devoted husband who encourages her writing and cares for her during her periods of severe depression. Rupert Penry-Jones is Vita’s husband, the diplomat Harold Nicholson. Both Nicholson and SackvilleWest had numerous affairs with same-sex partners, but Nicholson was frequently upset at her lack of discretion and her inability to be a proper society wife.

Neither husband gets much screen time.

Button also adds Lady Sackville (Isabella Rossellini), Vita’s imperious mother, to the cast. Button reduces the eccentric schemer to a haughty English aristocrat, but Rossellini looks great in the period costumes and has fun with the role.

Button also adds a few of Vita and Virginia’s Bloomsbury friends to the mix, but she never captures their groundbreaking intellectual accomplishments or their rebellious queer sexuality.

Duncan Grant (Adam Gillen), for example, comes off as a silly but pleasant fop, a characterization which does not do justice

to his complicated relationship with Vanessa (Emerald Fennell), his many male lovers (none of whom are seen in the film) or his art.

Button portrays the Bloomsbury Group as a bunch of decadent dilettantes who give cute costume parties and that lack of context robs the lead characters of depth. Woolf becomes a neurotic genius and Sackville-West becomes a predatory party girl. Debicki has a few fine moments, but Arterton and the rest of the cast seem adrift. The pacing is slow and the chemistry between the leads is weak. Arterton keeps throwing smoldering glances everywhere, but no one seems to notice, especially Virginia. The costumes and décor are lovely but bland, except for the imposing door to Virginia’s study.

There are a few moments that do show some cinematic life and give a hint of the movie that might have been. Sparks fly when Vita finally gets Virginia to bed.

The camerawork is lush and the passion is intense as Virginia finally lets down her guard and yields to Vita’s insistent advances.

Virginia’s hallucinations, including an attack by a flock of crows, are also an interesting expression of her unspoken panic that help to break the film from its stage roots.

Debicki and Button also create some fascinating sequences that show Woolf at work. It’s lovely to watch and hear Woolf’s fountain pen scratch across the page as she writes “Mrs. Dalloway;” it’s a great reminder that writing is hard work and that the past was a very different place than the present. It’s fascinating to watch Woolf dive into the writing of the genderand genre-busting “Orlando.” The lead character, who switches genders, is based on Vita, who seems both pleased and rather startled by the intense scrutiny.

There’s also a beautiful passage where contemporary music underscores Vita’s arrival at her first Bloomsbury party. It’s an effective evocation of her temporary disorientation and a reminder that Virginia and her friends really were ahead of their times.

But overall, Button’s adaptation of Atkins’ wonderful script doesn’t work. She never really finds the cinematic tools to move the material from the stage to the screen.

You may be better off exploring other works inspired by Virginia Woolf (like Michael Cunningham’s novel “The Hours” or its fine cinematic adaptation by Stephen Daldry, or Sally Potter’s magical adaptation of “Orlando” with Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I) or just diving into Woolf’s brilliant novels and letters (pro tip: read them aloud).

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All Stars spotlight: Rogue Cornhole

ASSASSINS THEATRE’S PRODUCTION IS KILLER

By KEVIN MAJOROS

“

“ SIGNATURE

– THE WASHINGTON POST

– MD THEATRE GUIDE

AUDACIOUS

– THE WASHINGTON POST

“IT MUST BE SEEN

“

TO BE BELIEVED – BROADWAY WORLD

ENTERTAINING

“

“

TO MISS THIS

“PERVERSELY

“

“YOU WON’T WANT

“

AND URGENT

– DC METRO THEATER ARTS

MICA WILLIS (left) and DANIEL FERUCCI. Photo courtesy John Jack Photography

without a beer in my hand. In the winter league, it’s a hot toddy and its part of my balance,” Willis says. “I need a two-three beer warmup before I am at my sweet spot. It is my hurdle to compete well.”

Daniel Ferrucci grew up in Grove City, Pa., and played high school basketball, golf and track & field as well as club volleyball.

He started his collegiate career at Adrian College before transferring to University of North Carolina Wilmington where he broke records in track & field. A job in corporate retail moved him to D.C. in 2009.

Fulfilling something he always wanted to do, Ferrucci started playing ice hockey and has been with the same group in Fairfax for eight years. His entry into the LGBT sports community began with Stonewall Kickball, Rogue Darts and Stonewall Dodgeball.

Ferrucci was running Cornhole for a Cause, which benefits SMYAL, when he was approached by Rogue League Sports for advice on starting a cornhole league.

“It has been exciting to watch the growth of it. One thing they have done well is grounding the competition — there is no judgement of anybody,” Ferrucci says. “It is very inclusive, and everyone gets a long really well. In cornhole, you get the opportunity to talk and meet people you wouldn’t normally meet.”

Along with hockey and Rogue Cornhole, Ferrucci is also playing Rogue Darts and Stonewall Kickball. He is joined in cornhole, darts and kickball by his partner John.

“I met John when we were teammates in 2014 in Stonewall Kickball,” Ferrucci says. “There is an unspoken rule that you shouldn’t date within the team, so we had to keep it under wraps.”

With so many sports commitments, Ferrucci still found it important to return to Rogue Cornhole for season three.

“After living in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina, I can say that cornhole has always been in my life,” Ferrucci says.

“My Rogue Cornhole team is part of my core group of friends and the laid back chill mentality of the league opens the door to new friendships. It is so much fun.”

S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 37

Photo of Vincent Kempski by Christopher Mueller

The Washington Blade All Star series showcases local athletes playing in LGBT sports leagues. This week we meet two players from Rogue Cornhole who are competing in season three of the league, which began Wednesday at The Midlands.

Originally from Washington, Mica Willis lived overseas in Saudi Arabia, Peru and Mexico while her mother worked for the State Department. At age 9, she began playing soccer while living in Saudi Arabia.

She continued playing as a goalie in women’s and co-ed soccer leagues while attending the College of William & Mary.

An internship and employment with the LGBTQ Victory Fund brought her back to the D.C. area in 2013.

Her first step into the LGBT sports community was with Stonewall Dodgeball in 2015, which she says was an intense experience. Her fiancé Emily is a Charm City Rollergirl and Willis subsequently suffered a broken ankle during a casual skate.

She had surgery in late 2016 and spent a year re-learning how to walk. It looked like her sports career was over and she joined a flip cup league to stay socially active.

Also playing in the flip cup league was Kevin Comerford who would go on to launch Rogue Cornhole last fall.

“I had been thinking a lot about the LGBT sports community and how there are not very many women playing, especially queer women,” Willis says. “I have a lot of gay male friends but not many lasting friendships with queer women.”

Recruiting co-workers at her current place of employment, NGP Van, Willis formed a lesbian-only team called the Funbags.

“I had all these friends at work, and we needed an excuse to hang out outside of the office,” Willis says. “Rogue Cornhole has a chill vibe and is not clique-y. Playing cornhole in a cool bar is a great ending to a stressful day at work.”

Willis is eventually hoping to try a few more low-impact sports such as golf or billiards. In the meantime, she has a technique that works for her in the sport of cornhole.

“There is a process and I can’t throw

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OAKLANDS This stunning 4-5 bedroom waterfront home offers open living area , including a gourmet kitchen with top of the line appliances. Breathtaking water-views from almost every room allow you to feel like you’re always on vacation. Beautiful waterside pool and private pier on a lovely site located in Oaklands, one of Easton’s most sought after communities. $1,495,000 Call Rob Lacaze 410-310-7835

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38 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

Rob Lacaze 28380 St. Michaels Rd .

Easton, MD 21601 410-770-3600

Cell: 410-310-7835 • lacazerob@gmail.com

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S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 39

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40 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

MICHAEL RADKOWSKY

Mid-life crisis

Gay guy chose the straight life but affair has him questioning it MICHAEL, I’m a 42 year-old man and am in a mess. I’m married to a woman, father of two children and I’m realizing I’m gay. I’ve been having a relationship with a guy I met online for the last few months and I’m falling in love.

I always knew I was attracted to men but wanted to have a normal life like everyone else. When and where I was growing up, being gay wasn’t accepted and I didn’t want to face a life of ostracism.

Also I wanted to have a family. I dated girls hoping I would stop thinking about guys, but I never stopped fantasizing.

I’ve been happy with Rachel overall and I wouldn’t have missed being a dad for anything. But I am feeling so much more passion and love with Chris. Plus, the sex is amazing, so much better than anything I ever experienced with a woman. Every time I’ve had sex with a woman, I’ve really been fantasizing about guys.

For about 25 years I’ve been telling myself I’m bisexual but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

If Rachel finds out she will be furious and I’m worried she’ll poison our kids against me. A few years ago she found some gay porn on my laptop. She sort of accepted I was “curious” and maybe a little bi but I promised I would never act on it. But I think she has been suspicious ever since.

On the other hand, I don’t want to spend the rest of my time hiding or being in a sham marriage. And Chris is pressing me to leave Rachel because he doesn’t want to be “the other woman.” I’m afraid he’ll leave me if I don’t leave Rachel. But then I go in a circle because of the kids issue. I’m so scared to make a move that could hurt my relationship with them.

I don’t see any clear way out and I’d be grateful for your expertise.

MICHAEL REPLIES: Yes, you are in a mess, and you have a lot of work to do on yourself.

Here are a few points to consider: First, I’m struck by how little regard or empathy you have for your wife. Your focus is on avoiding her wrath and keeping her clueless so that you can have things your way, rather than considering the kind of marriage

you’re giving her. She’s married to a guy who promised he would not have sex with men and then begins an affair with a guy he met online. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t have sex with men, but what about her right to honest dialogue about all this?

Second, I’m struck by how much your decision-making is driven by fear. You don’t want to tell your wife you’re gay because she might poison the kids against you. Conversely, you might tell your wife because otherwise Chris will leave you.

I’m not saying any of this to slam you.

I want to get you thinking about how you want to treat others, about how honest you want to be, about how you make your choices and about accepting the consequences of your choices.

Let’s go way back to your decision to date girls and get married.

True, it was a lot more difficult to be gay in the 1990s than it is today. But while there was far less acceptance then, there were plenty of out and visible gay people.

We’re talking the 1990s, not the 1950s.

So I’m wondering what’s up with your telling yourself this story. My hunch is that you haven’t wanted to struggle with the harder road in life. You’ve wanted to give yourself an out.

Problem is, there are often consequences to taking the (seemingly) easy road, and now you’re facing them.

If you want to be with Chris and don’t want to be with Rachel, it would be kind to do her the favor of letting her know you aren’t really into her so that she doesn’t squander the rest of her life in a sham marriage. Yes, there may be consequences to your being honest, though if you have a good relationship with your children, you may stand a good chance of staying connected to them.

Speaking of squandering, consider that you may in large part be squandering your own life, lying, living in fear and pretending to be someone you’re not. The path out of your “mess” is to figure yourself out, to take the time to consider who you want to be and to define the values by which you want to live.

We’re talking about you constructing a self for the first time, by challenging yourself to live with integrity. You’ve taken the first step on this road by telling yourself the truth. Good luck going forward.

S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 41

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List Price: Price REDUCED $749,900 This Penthouse Unit has it all. 3BR/3BA, exposed living, and more. Exquisitely designed, Unit #2 consists of the upper levels and features almost 1400sf of bright and open living and I, along w "Courtney space, waterfall island, walk in closets, linear gas fireplace, daughters, Nahla and Ava, live full size parking space and modern finishes throughout.

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571-235-4821 Khalil Alexander El-Ghoul,

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Principal Broker & Owner of Glass House Real Estate

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khalil@glasshousere.com 145 Church St NW #301, Vienna VA 22180 718 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001 www.glasshousere.com

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Licensed in DC, MD, & VA VA. If you are already working with an agent this is not your business.

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42 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

What owners will try to cover up when selling a house Foul odors, water damage and more can be cleverly hidden

By KHALIL ALEXANDER EL-GHOUL As a homebuyer, have you ever toured a house and wondered what, precisely, the sellers are trying to hide from you?

As Washington, D.C. real estate agents, we here at Glass House Real Estate have heard it all and witnessed most of it.

From minor nuisances to significant flaws, here are six things that homeowners try to cover up. #1 – Sour odors. Homeowners are embarrassed by some of the foul odors in their home. They try to hide odors from cigarette smoke to diaper pails by creative measures. Baking cookies, burning candles, and diffusing essential oils mask the smell temporarily. However, it usually just results in a funky blend of sweet and sour. This tactic means that buyers may question the actual source of the smell, as some smells—mold, mildew, or rot— indicate problems with the house. #2 – Pet stains. Going hand in hand with the funky smells are pet stains. Homeowners attempt to remove the stains, at least initially.

When that doesn’t work, they will toss down an area rug or move around the furniture in an attempt to conceal the telltale dark ring.

This casts doubts in buyers’ minds—if they are covering up something as relatively easy to fix as a pet stain, what else are they hiding? #3 – Cracks in the walls or ceilings.

Sellers often chalk up cracks in the walls or ceilings to the house settling and will use drywall compound, a spackling knife, and fresh paint to conceal these marks.

The problem with this is that cracks can be minor, but they can also be a sign of serious issues such as the foundation shifting. #4 – Water damage or mildew. If you notice the ceilings recently painted, especially in a bathroom or laundry room, it’s possible that the seller is covering up recently completed water damage repair work or rings where they had mold or mildew removed.

Houses for sale might look good, but what’s lurking beneath those freshly painted surfaces?

Photo by Imagenet; courtesy of Bigstock

This is a deliberate cover-up of something that should be in the disclosure documents. That’s not to say that the seller didn’t disclose it…they are just hoping you won’t notice it. #5 – A noisy street. Have you ever walked into tour a house and the seller left on the TV or had music playing? That seller realizes that most buyers will be polite and not turn it off. The problem is, the sellers could be trying to distract you from noise outside of the home.

The source of this noise could be an airport, a large family with 10 children screaming on a trampoline next door, or street noise. While these are completely out of the seller’s control, it could turn out to be a nuisance for the future homeowner, as well.

S EPTE MBE R 0 6 , 2 019 • WA SHINGTONBLA DE.COM • 43

#6 – Rotting exterior wood. While you’re scoping out the home’s exterior, take a look at any freshly painted trim work, window moldings, doors, and decks.

Two or three coats of exterior paint slapped up there hides damages resulting from rotten or cracked wood and insect damage. While it’s possible that they just painted to boost their curb appeal, give the paint job a meticulous look.

Protect yourself from cover-ups If you suspect that a home you’ve toured has been cleverly altered to misdirect you, well, you might be right. Don’t mention anything about it while you’re inside the home (nanny cams, creepy am I right?).

Once you’ve left the premises, discuss it with your Realtor.

About Glass House Real Estate: Glass

House Real Estate is a modern, more affordable way to buy and sell a home in Washington, D.C. Our team of accomplished agents proves that affordability doesn’t have to come at the expense of service or results.

We help you achieve your goals for a fraction of the cost. Unlike typical discount real estate firms, we are local and part of your community.

Let us reward you with exceptional results.

Khalil Alexander El-Ghoul is Principal Broker of Glass House Real Estate. Reach him at 571-235-4821 or khalil@glasshousere.com.

44 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • S EPT EM B ER 0 6 , 2 0 1 9

A Peaceful and Private Oasis In The City Welcome to this gated and professionally landscaped 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom residence in the Palisades neighborhood of Northwest Washington, DC. The home is a fabulous Mid-Century Modern contemporary with Japanese/Asian influences designed by a renowned local architect.

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4870 RESERVOIR ROAD NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20007 More information onURBAN this property and the virtual tour isHEART available at darylgelfarb.Lnf.com MODERN LIVING IN THE OF OLD TOWN! Exquisitely built & unique LEED Gold townhouse

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RENT / DC GEORGETOWN 1 BR Spacious, beautifully renovated, multi-level 1 BR/ 1 ½ Bath, w/ office area, 3 blocks from Georgetown Hospital/Georgetown University Highlights:•Living room features 14’ ceilings, with full height windows •Bamboo wood floors throughout; •Newly renovated kitchen w/ stainless appliances, stone countertops •Newly renovated bathrooms; •Full size washer/dryer; •Generous closet space and ample storage •Parking included at front door •Central A/C 12 month lease/ $2,500 per month; includes all utilities (Water, gas, electric, and internet); Shorter term available subject to rate adjustment. 703-969-1978.

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Washington:

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AHF Wellness Centers 1647 Benning Rd NE, Ste 300 (202) 350-5000

4302 Saint Barnabas Rd, Ste D (301) 432-1071