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Maryland House votes to repeal sodomy law State courts processed 300 ‘violations’ in 2019: report

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com In a little-noticed development, the Maryland House of Delegates voted 133 to 5 on Feb. 20 to repeal the state’s sodomy law, which criminalizes same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

The vote took place 17 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared such laws unconstitutional.

The Maryland Senate’s Judicial Proceedings Committee held a hearing on the bill the same day the House of Delegates approved it, but the chair of the committee, Sen. William Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery County), has not said whether he supports or opposes the bill.

Sandy Papp, a spokesperson for the committee, told the Washington Blade on Tuesday that the sodomy repeal bill is one of many bills scheduled for discussion and a possible vote at a committee “voting session” scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28.

A Senate committee vote of approval is needed before the bill can be sent to the full Senate for a final vote on whether the sodomy law should be repealed.

The law, known as the Sodomy and Unnatural or Perverted Sexual Practices Act, calls for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for anyone convicted of sodomy, which is defined as anal sex and other sexual practices, including oral sex or sex with an animal.

As of 2019, Maryland was one of 16 states that had yet to repeal statutes criminalizing sodomy, including consensual same-sex sexual relations. The sodomy laws in some of those states also criminalize oral and anal sex committed by heterosexual couples.

According to the Baltimore Sun, a report accompanying the sodomy repeal bill as introduced in the House of Delegates and Senate states that more than 300 violations of the Maryland sodomy law were filed in state courts in fiscal year 2019. The Sun says the report shows that 15 people were sentenced in 2019 under the sodomy law, but it doesn’t give specific information about what the sentences were and in what part of the state they occurred. The Blade couldn’t immediately obtain a copy of the report.

The report, as noted by the Baltimore Sun, appears to contradict assertions by state

Del. LUKE CLIPPINGER (D-Baltimore City) is the only one of the six gay or lesbian state lawmakers who signed on as a sponsor of the sodomy repeal bill.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

officials in the past that the Maryland sodomy law was not being enforced except in a few rare instances since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas decision. The decision declared state sodomy laws unconstitutional in cases involving noncommercial sex between consenting adults in a private setting.

Some states that had not repealed their sodomy law following the Lawrence decision, including Louisiana, used the laws to prosecute people charged with prostitution related offenses. In the case of Louisiana, LGBT activists said prosecutors used the sodomy law in addition to the state’s law banning prostitution against male and transgender sex workers because the sodomy law had a more severe penalty than the prostitution statute.

Prosecutors have argued that the Lawrence Supreme Court ruling doesn’t apply to cases involving prostitution, public sex, or nonconsensual sex.

Virginia repealed its sodomy law in 2014, with gay State Sen. Adam Ebbin (DAlexandria) playing a lead role in pushing for the repeal.

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A list of the sponsors of the Maryland sodomy repeal bill in the House of Delegates and Senate, which is posted on the legislature’s website, shows that Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) is the only one of the six gay or lesbian state lawmakers who signed on as a sponsor of the bill.

The gay and lesbian members of the legislature, called the General Assembly, who did not become a sponsor of the bill, include Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City) and Delegates Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City), Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County), Anne Kaiser (D-Montgomery County), and Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery County).

The recorded roll call vote on the bill in the House of Delegates shows that each of the five gay or lesbian delegates voted for the repeal bill’s approval on Feb. 20.

Attorneys familiar with the Maryland sodomy law have said that similar to Virginia, the Maryland law is linked to the enforcement and prosecution of the offenses of sexual assault and rape. They have pointed out that some of the state’s existing sexual assault statutes did not provide for the prosecution

of same-sex sexual assault cases because the sodomy laws had always been used for such prosecutions.

Similar to the Virginia sodomy repeal legislation, the Maryland repeal bill revises the state’s sexual assault laws to ensure that all sexual assault related offenses, including male-on-male rape cases, could be prosecuted while consensual sodomy between consenting adults is decriminalized.

In written testimony in support of the bill to repeal the Maryland sodomy law before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, the ACLU of Maryland noted that Maryland was among the states that had yet to repeal its sodomy law following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring such laws unconstitutional.

“While they may seem like antiquated laws that technically still exist but are not actually enforced, these laws have been frequently used to discriminate against the LGBTQ community,” the ACLU’s testimony says.

“As long as Maryland’s law is on the books, it will continue to endanger LGBTQ people, and leave them vulnerable to employment discrimination, unfair attacks in child custody cases, and being labeled as criminal,” the ACLU states in its testimony.

“States across the country have been repealing their sodomy laws since 1961. It is time for Maryland to join them, and live up to our state nickname, ‘The Free State,’” the ACLU testimony says.

Free State Justice, the Maryland statewide LGBT rights organization, has stated on its website that it also strongly supports the bill to repeal the Maryland sodomy law. The group’s executive director, Mark Procopio, couldn’t immediately be reached to find out if it is taking steps to lobby State Sen. William Smith to release the bill from his committee to allow a final vote on the bill in the Maryland Senate.

Montgomery County transgender rights advocate Dana Beyer told the Blade Smith is “absolutely not transphobic or homophobic.”

She said she is surprised that Smith hasn’t moved to arrange for his committee to immediately approve the sodomy repeal bill and send it to the full Senate for final approval.

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GLAA to bar Evans from candidate rating process

JACK EVANS is running for his old Council seat.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

The D.C. Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance announced on Monday that it would not issue a candidate rating on LGBTQ-related issues for former D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) because of the Council’s determination that Evans committed multiple ethics violations.

Evans resigned from his Council seat in December less than a week before his 12 colleagues on the Council were expected to expel him over what they stated were his serious violation of ethics and conflict of interest rules. In an action that further upset his Council colleagues, Evans announced a short time later he was running for the Council seat from which he had just resigned.

Evans filed papers to run for the seat in the regularly scheduled June 2 Democratic primary and in a June 16 special election to fill the seat for the remainder of its current term, which ends in January 2021.

Evans, a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, has received GLAA’s highest rating score of +10 in many of his past election campaigns for his Ward 2 Council seat. GLAA bases its ratings on candidates’ responses to its questionnaire and on their record on LGBTQ issues.

In what it calls an “Ethics Disclaimer” printed at the top of its 2020 candidate questionnaire, the group states, “GLAA believes that elected officials are stewards of the public trust and therefore must hold themselves accountable to the highest ethical standards.”

The disclaimer adds, “GLAA, therefore, will not issue a rating for candidates who, in their capacity as elected officials, were expelled from any elected post, or resigned,

for ethics violations that include, but are not limited to, conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and malfeasance.”

Although the disclaimer doesn’t mention Evans by name, GLAA Vice President for Strategy Rick Rosendall told the Blade the group will not rate Evans due to the ethics violation findings against him by the Council, which Evans disputes.

Evans couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the GLAA action.

Seven candidates are running against Evans in the Democratic primary, including gay Logan Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner John Fanning. All but one of the candidates challenging Evans in the primary is running against him in the nonpartisan special election.

The latest candidate to enter the race is Brooke Pinto, a former Assistant D.C. Attorney General who has been endorsed by current D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter.

The other candidates in the race, who also have expressed strong support for LGBTQ rights, include Democrats Jordan Grossman, Daniel Hernandez, Patrick Kennedy, Kishan Putta, and Yilin Zhang. All but Hernandez are also running in the special election. Also running in the special election is Republican Katherine Venice.

Founded in 1971, GLAA, a nonpartisan all-volunteer political organization, is the nation’s oldest continuously operating LGBTQ rights advocacy group. It has been rating D.C. candidates running for public office for more than 30 years.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

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Gay NRA official says gun group supports LGBTQs Gay D.C. resident William ‘Billy’ McLaughlin, who serves as Digital Director for the National Rifle Association, told members of Log Cabin Republicans of D.C. on Feb. 20 that the controversial gun rights advocacy group has welcomed him as an out gay employee.

McLaughlin, 24, was the guest speaker at the LGBTQ GOP group’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting held in a conference room at the Chastleton Apartments on 16th Street, N.W., where more than 50 people turned out to listen to him.

“When I started at the NRA I assumed a culture of anti-LGBTQ – but it was the opposite,” he said. “Our former executive director stood up at our annual meeting and said, ‘We fight for you whether you’re black, white, rich, poor, gay or straight, because your life matters equally. You have every right to be proud of it and every right to defend it, and the National Rifle Association is proud to represent you.’”

He was quoting from remarks by Chris W. Cox, former executive director of the

NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, which coordinates the NRA’s congressional lobbying efforts.

McLaughlin told Log Cabin members he went to work for the NRA because he strongly believes in the group’s mission, which he said is often misrepresented by the “liberal” news media and what he called the “anti-gun left.”

“The people I work with are courageous supporters of the Second Amendment and accepting of people from all walks of life,” he said. “The anti-gun movement amongst LGBTQ people is baffling to me, as hate crimes from 2016 to 2018 increased by 50 percent in D.C.,” he told Log Cabin members. He pointed to D.C. police data showing that anti-LGBTQ hate crimes have increased in recent years.

“I long for the day when the gay community will galvanize its significant political might and work toward making practical changes that would let gays better protect themselves when laws don’t,” he said.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Human Rights Office director resigns to run for at-large D.C. Council seat Former D.C. Office of Human Rights Director Monica Palacio, who has been credited with adopting aggressive policies to fight discrimination targeting transgender women and LGBTQ people in general, announced on Feb. 20 her candidacy for an at-large D.C. Council seat.

Palacio, who became a candidate less than a month after stepping down from her position as OHR director, is running as an independent for the seat currently held by Council member David Grosso (I-At-Large). Grosso announced last year he would not run for re-election.

At least 12 other independent candidates are running for the seat. Under the city’s election law, the seat must go to a non-majority party candidate, which means a non-Democrat.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser named Michelle M. Garcia, director of the city’s Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants, to replace Palacio as OHR’s interim director, with Garcia designated to continue to serve as head of the Victim Services and Justice Grants office.

LGBTQ activists view the Office of Human Rights as among the most

Former D.C. Office of Human Rights Director MONICA PALACIO is running for D.C. Council.

(Photo courtesy OHR)

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Steyer talks LGBTQ issues on eve of S.C. primary Says trans immigrants should be released if not given care

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com

Tom Steyer, the San Francisco-based businessperson who helped energize the drive to impeach President Trump before running for president, may be a longshot candidate for the White House, but he wants LGBTQ people — including transgender asylum seekers — to know he’s on their side.

OneconcernforLGBTQrightssupporters, if not a marquee issue, is treatment of LGBTQ asylum seekers in immigration detention.

At least two transgender women — Johana “Joa” Medina Leon from El Salvador and Roxsana Hernández from Honduras — died after being placed in immigration detention.

Asked by the Blade if trans immigrants in detention should be released, as a group of congressional Democrats recently urged, Steyer said “they should be released” if they can’t be held safely and given medical care.

“Well, look I’m not in favor of these extended detentions for anybody,” Steyer said. “And I think that there’s no question that transgender asylum seekers have got to be treated, specifically differently to protect them and to make sure they’re OK, and if they can’t be protected, then they should be released.”

Transgender asylum was just one issue discussed last week in a wide-ranging interview with the Blade days before the South Carolina primary, where Steyer is polling comparatively well among other candidates.

“One thing I can say about my record is the campaign itself is over 50 percent women, it’s over 50 percent people of color and it’s over 30 percent LGBTQ,” Steyer said.

“So, I can say that we have an extremely diverse campaign and, in particular, there’s a very high percentage of LGBTQ.” In an interview with the Blade, Steyer also ticked off support for the LGBTQ group Equality California (whose executive director, Rick Zbur, was his college classmate), a Los Angeles-based anti-bullying program called the Compton Kidz Club and support for AIDS hospice work as examples of his support for the LGBTQ community.

In terms of the future, Steyer’s campaign recently unveiled a 27-point LGBTQ platform, which includes major objectives sought by LGBTQ rights supporters, such as the Equality Act and overturning President

Trump’s transgender military ban.

“The Equality Act is the important piece, right? That’s the biggest thing, extending civil rights protections for all the basic stuff: Housing and employment and credit and public accommodations,” Steyer said. “That’s a thing that really hits in terms of impact in society.”

In the aftermath of video of Michael Bloomberg referring to transgender people as “it,” Steyer said those remarks were “almost unbearable” to watch.

“It hurts me to hear it, to be honest, and I’m sure he regrets it,” Steyer said of the video, in which Bloomberg also blamed transgender people for Democratic losses in 2016 Although Steyer isn’t among the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination, he has polled comparatively well among others in South Carolina, which will hold its primary on Saturday. A strong showing in the Palmetto State could translate into success the following week on Super Tuesday.

Zbur, whose organization Equality California has endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president, said Steyer nonetheless has been a strong ally to LGBTQ people in California.

“Tom is a friend and has been a champion for LGBTQ+ civil rights and social justice in California and a longtime supporter of Equality California’s work — including at a critical time in the organization’s history,” Zbur said.

The full interview follows: BLADE: What in terms of your record on LGBTQ issues distinguishes you from the other presidential candidates?

TOM STEYER: Well, one thing I can say about my record is the campaign itself is over 50 percent women, it’s over 50 percent people of color and it’s over 30 percent LGBTQ. So, I can say that we have an extremely diverse campaign and, in particular, there’s a very high percentage of LGBTQ. I’ve been supporting the premier LGBTQ group in California, Equality California, for years. It’s run by a guy who was my college classmate who’s been my friend for over 40 years named Rick Zbur. Equality California, we supported that for years.

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it. I have to ask you about it because he’s your competitor for the nomination. There was a video of him, describing transgender people, as “it,” and blaming them for Democratic losses in 2016. Have you seen that video and what’s your reaction to it?

STEYER: I simply was told he referred to a transgender person as it, and I almost couldn’t look. One of the things that’s true about Equality California is that they have — I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, are you with them?

Tom Steyer at the CNN and Des Moines Register’s Democratic presidential debate last week.

Photo courtesy CNN/Des Moines Register

We’ve also supported an anti-bullying program — that’s not explicitly about LGBTQ bullying, but is very substantially about that — for years through a guy named Fred Martin down in L.A., who runs something called the Compton Kidz Club.

There are various other things that we’ve done as a family that my wife and I have done to support — in terms of specifically AIDS hospice work, and there’s a whole bunch of policies that we’ve supported, but I think in general you can say in terms of things that actually point to activity, things, actions, things accomplished, those are some things.

Let me ask my my wife a question. Hold on one second. [pauses] I was just about to say we run a community bank … that has had a very high percentage of LGBTQ people, but I don’t think we’ve ever measured it. But it’s something that — we live in San Francisco, Calif., which has — the bank is actually headquartered in Oakland — but it is still a place where — the bank has a very high percentage of LGBTQ people…

BLADE: Right. Well speaking of records, there’s been some news about Mike Bloomberg just yesterday in which a recently.

STEYER: … so bad …

BLADE: Yeah, I want to ask you about

BLADE: Yes. STEYER: They do a gala twice a year one in L.A., and one in San Fran, and because Rick’s my friend, I try to always go to them, and he gives me the chance to speak as well.

And one of the things that happens at those galas is he tries to make sure every time to get a transgender young person to speak, usually somebody around 16 to 18 years old. They tend to be very polished, like a normal high school kid. Somebody who’s done public speaking, who’s very, very good.

But I remember years ago learning from one of those speeches that half of transgender people under 21 try to commit suicide, and I have always felt ever since that anyone whose heart does not go out to that community, must have a heart of stone.

That’s a level of suffering that nobody can fake and I know in San Francisco that 10 percent of the homeless population are transgender young people. It’s obviously grossly disproportionate.

So I know that you know that there’s a reason that’s true and I know what they’re going through on the street and the level of violence associated with it, and sex trafficking.

So in that context, to use that word, is really almost unbearable. I just — it hurts me to hear it to be honest, and I’m sure he regrets it. … I think it’s important to stand up against prejudice so that other people know that not everybody goes along with it, that other people feel really strongly the other way. And I try to do that with regards to every kind of person, and specifically if I know that people are suffering, I think it’s really important that they know that there are people on the other side pushing back hard.

It just made me sad. Very sad.

Pete’s predicament: Winning over Black voters on Super Tuesday Next week could be do or die for several candidates

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com

PETE BUTTIGIEG faces his toughest challenge in the coming week.

With Super Tuesday just a few days away, Pete Buttigieg will be required to make wins among Black and Brown voters to stay in the game as a viable presidential candidate — a Herculean effort given polls showing poor support among voters of color.

After the Democratic primary Saturday in South Carolina, the states that will hold contests on Tuesday are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, where the gay candidate had success early on in the Democratic presidential primary, South Carolina and the Super Tuesday states have a significantly higher population of racial minorities.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor for “Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball” at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the Black vote will be key for Buttigieg, which could prove challenging for him.

“Many of the states voting on Super Tuesday have significant nonwhite populations, including the two ‘megastates’ that award nearly half of all the delegates that day, California and Texas,” Kondik said. “Buttigieg has thus far not demonstrated much of any ability

to win significant support from non-white voters. In order to be a real threat to be the nominee, this cannot continue.”

Despite Buttigieg’s overtures to Black and Brown voters, which include plans for a massive “Douglass Plan” aimed at breathing new life into racial minority neighborhoods and showcasing Black support, such as an endorsement from Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), polls show Buttigieg struggles in that community.

In South Carolina, where the Black electorate has considerable sway in the Democratic primary, an NBC News/ Marist poll on Monday found Buttigieg has support from 9 percent of likely Democratic voters, compared to 27 percent support for Joseph Biden, 23 percent support for Bernie Sanders and 15 percent for Tom Steyer. The poll had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 6 points.

Nationwide, Buttigieg polls worse among Black voters. A Feb. 10 poll from Quinnipiac University found Buttigieg has just 4 percent support among Black voters, compared to 27 percent support for Biden, 22 percent support for Bloomberg, 19 percent support for Sanders, 8 percent for Warren and 4 percent for “someone else.”

In Virginia, his prospects are still not good. A Monmouth poll dated Feb. 18 placed Bloomberg and Sanders on top with 22 percent each, followed by 18

percent for Biden and 11 percent for Buttigieg.

Matt Corridini, a Buttigieg campaign spokesperson, pointed to a Feb. 25 campaign memo for Super Tuesday, emphasizing efforts will consist of minimizing Sanders’s wins and drawing out support.

“We are maximizing delegate accumulation by districts, not states, and this informs our strategy as outlined in the memo,” Corridini said. “As we have already shown, we’re going everywhere and talking to everyone in order to build a broad, diverse coalition.”

Issues with Buttigieg cited by Black community advocates are his handling as South Bend mayor of the shooting last year of a black man by a white police officer, his termination of a black police chief who was investigating racism on the police force and a housing initiative that eliminated low-income homes, many in Black or Brown neighborhoods.

But Buttigieg is trying hard to win them over. In the Democratic debate on Tuesday, Buttigieg was at the the forefront of the candidates expressing a commitment to racial justice.

“I’m not here to score points,” Buttigieg said. “I come at this with a great deal of humility because we have had a lot of issues, especially when it comes to racial justice and policing in my own community, and I come to this with some humility because I’m conscious of the fact that there’s seven white people on this stage talking about racial justice.”

Buttigieg continued that none of the candidates on stage have the experience of walking “in a mall and feeling eyes on us regarding us as dangerous without knowing the first thing about us just because of the color of our skin.”

Jennifer Victor, associate professor of political science at George Mason University, identified those remarks as a good moment “in a catfight of a debate.”

“I don’t think he hurt himself at all.”

Victor said. “He either stayed neutral or helped himself a bit. He was very cognizant of the African-American audience and may have swayed some voters with his statements on racial justice.”

As for Super Tuesday, Victor said a third place win in South Carolina is all but essential for Buttigieg.

“Assuming the top two vote-getters in Saturday’s contest [in South Carolina] are Biden and Sanders (in some order), the third place finisher will be key,” Victor said. “Whoever finishes third can make a reasonable case for staying in through Super Tuesday, especially Buttigieg because he already has a fair number of delegates. A third place finish would be great for him. But if he finishes lower than that, I think it makes it much harder for him — or anyone else who is fourth or lower — to make a case about staying in.”

Victor added most candidates have enough invested in Super Tuesday that she doesn’t expect anyone to drop out before then, but by this time next week when all the votes are tallied “the field will almost certainly be smaller.”

But in the same debate in which he called for racial justice, Buttigieg made other remarks that raised eyebrows.

Criticizing Bernie Sanders, who praised the Cuban government’s literacy programs despite its authoritarian nature, Buttigieg rejected “nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s,” comparing it to Trump policy seeking the social order of the 1950s.

Buttigieg tweeted that debate line out from his campaign account, then deleted it shortly afterward. Although the context was criticism of Sanders’s praise for Cuba, one might take away from those remarks he was referencing the Civil Rights movement, which also took place in the 1960s. A Buttigieg campaign spokesperson subsequently tweeted “the Civil Rights movement wasn’t implied nor referenced.”

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LGBT press to advertisers: ‘Don’t cut print’ Experts warn companies not to show up at Pride, then disappear

By SCOTT STIFFLER

Despite the paradigm shift declared by the Buggles during the debut moments of MTV, video didn’t kill the radio star—no more than the emergence of digital dealt a fatal blow to newsprint. But it did put another arrow in the quiver of advertisers, and gave readers a dizzying array of new destinations.

So with a world of news, information, and (we’ve heard) porn available on the phone you carry or the computer you use, why would the LGBT consumer choose to go the page-turning route?

“Well, I think the main thing is trust,” says Pride Source Media Group CFO Jan Stevenson. Along with her wife, Susan Horowitz, they publish Between The Lines, Michigan’s weekly LGBT newspaper.

“The LGBT print press,” says Stevenson, “has a certain level of quality and professionalism. We’re steeped in the ethics that center around publishing, that blogs and online sites just don’t have.

It’s been vetted, and there are reputable people standing behind the work.”

Concurring on the matter of credibility is Scott Seitz, who says, “I absolutely believe in digital, but I do believe that digital often does not have the same integrity as print.”

Seitz, whose SPI Marketing LLC counts Absolut Vodka among its clients, notes, “When you have a team of people slapping together a meme or a statement, they’re just checking boxes.”

As a result, says Seitz, “It becomes less and less meaningful. It’s more about, ‘What can I do today to get attention?’ People are doing mechanical stuff, and those people are not necessarily from the [LGBTQ+] community… It’s not being done with a high level of integrity or seriousness.”

Like the connection forged at a momand-pop shop that can’t be bought by shopping online, Stevenson says the print format creates a unique bond.

“If someone is running a print ad, it’s an affirmative, on-paper commitment to the community, a message that they want to do business with us,” she notes. “It’s not as fleeting as an online ad, that could be coming from anywhere…. People remember what they see [in print], and have more faith that the advertiser intends

for the ad to be there.” With digital ads, she says, “there’s not necessarily a connection between what you see and why it was put there.”

Stevenson says Pride Source Media has “very few clients who do digital only.”

Almost all of them do a mix, “and we still have a fairly large contingent that do print only, because they want this market. They know this is where to go, to reach the community.”

Although Stevenson says her own publication is actually increasing its circulation, “The print sector continues to be in trouble, regardless of general or niche markets,” observes Mike Wilke, whose AdRespect.org archive of nearly 6,000 LGBT-themed ads date as far back as 1917.

“In 2019,” Wilke says, “digital advertising revenues exceeded all traditional media ad revenues.”

“We have a digital world that is constantly wanting print to be dead, and I don’t know why,” says Todd Evans, president and CEO of Rivendell Media.

“The digital-only properties think that would be helpful, yet we estimate 90% of LGBTQ digital content comes directly from print products,” says Evans. “So I am not sure where digital would get its content.

But print is maintaining its place in a world where there’s a new cog in the wheel.”

Evans and his team place advertisements for the National LGBT

Media Association, whose 12 members, including the Washington Blade and Los Angeles Blade, have a combined estimated 500,000 weekly newspaper and online readers. Nationally, says Evans, there are about 130 LGBTQ-centric publications— most of them serving regional markets, and most of them distributed free of charge.

“Rivendell,” says Evans, “is 40 years old, and we’ve been tracking circulation since we started. We independently verify a publication’s printer’s receipts, so we know our clients are getting what they pay for and, thus have a real insight into circulation figures.”

Citing Rivendell’s 2019 Gay Press Report, Evans says, “Print circulation this year was up five percent [2,544,204]. It’s the only market I can think of where that is the case.”

But in order to create brand awareness that translates into brand loyalty, that market must be ministered to yearround, says Seitz. “We’re in a place where authenticity is over-communicated and under-realized,” he observes. “We have companies who do one quick thing at Pride every year, and then they do nothing else.”

Seitz’s SPI Marketing teamed up with BERA Brand Management to survey 5,000 LGBT attendees of last summer’s World Pride in New York City and LGBTQ Pride weekend in San Francisco.

They found that while Pride 2019 “provided a substantial lift to most of the sponsors,” the largest bumps in visibility and credibility “were among brands that didn’t just sponsor Pride, but that have history of directly supporting the LGBTQ community at large. Activations, advertising and promotions were strategically linked, and their history of support and engagement created trust in their messaging.”

“It all goes back to Marketing 101: Impact versus exposure,” says Evans, of the argument for maintaining a year-round presence in LGBT media and via brick and mortar events, rather than “spending it all on a one-shot wonder. Before there was digital, companies started to realize that Pride helped them [with LGBT community relations]. But if you only do that once a year, it’s out of sight, out of mind. One of the reasons Absolut Vodka always comes up, when you ask people about what companies really have our back, is that they stay in the game. The amount of [LGBT media] advertising they do will go up and down year to year, but they’ve always maintained a presence.”

That’s become even more important, says Seitz, “as we see Generation Z going back to being a little more physical, more likely to be out shopping and trying something on, as opposed to buying it online. So I thing we’re seeing the pendulum swing a little. They’ve never not been tactile, but it’s kind of shifting again, and that’s something to be studied and mindful of.”

Citing the strength of a regional publication whose hyperlocal content is a selling point to both the readership and advertisers, Stevenson says “circulation has actually gone up” over the last five years, “because more and more people are finding out about us, and want the papers.”

Many of those people, says Stevenson, are younger, and aren’t just accessing Between The Lines through digital means.

One of the newspaper’s largest distribution sites, she notes, is the local LGBT youth center.

“We can’t keep it in stock,” says Stevenson. “As soon as the new issue arrives, it’s gone.”

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Sen. Collins: Grenell lacks experience for DNI post Trump named gay official to job on acting basis

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com A top member of the Senate Intelligence Committee from President Trump’s own party said Monday Richard Grenell, the gay official Trump tapped to oversee intelligence agencies, lacks the right experience for the role, according to Politico.

“I care deeply about that position and believe the person needs experience in the intelligence community which regrettably ambassador Grenell does not have,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was quoted as saying.

Trump announced on Twitter last week Sen. SUSAN COLLINS says Richard Grenell that he has appointed Grenell, who has been doesn’t have the experience for the DNI job. serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany, as acting director of national intelligence. Grenell has been dubbed the highest-ranking openly gay presidential appointee and the first openly gay Cabinet member (although without Senate confirmation and obtaining the appointment on an ‘acting’ basis, that distinction is dubious).

By appointing Grenell, Trump had swapped former acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire with a Trump loyalist. Soon after the switch, news reports emerged Trump had fumed over intelligence officials briefing House lawmakers on Russia attempting to influence the 2020 race to re-elect him. Trump reportedly said he thought Democrats would use that against him.

Collins, who in 2004 helped write the law creating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reportedly said she wished Trump had retained Maguire for the position.

“I would have much preferred that the president nominate acting director Maguire for the post,” Collins reportedly said.

Although Trump has a penchant for making appointees on an “acting” basis even though they’re more or less permanent, Grenell’s appointment is limited under federal law and Trump said he expects to send soon to the Senate an official nominee to head DNI. Grenell said on Twitter the nominee is forthcoming and won’t be him.

Although Grenell made history with his appointment, Collins’s remarks didn’t seem to be directed at the appointee’s sexual orientation. The Washington Blade has placed a request with her office seeking to verify that. As U.S. senator, Collins took a lead role in the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Collins isn’t the only senator on the Intelligence Committee who objects to Grenell. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) issued a lengthy statement at the time of the appointment decrying Trump’s pick for his lack of experience. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, hasn’t commented on Grenell, according to Politico.

Prior to Grenell’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Germany, which was drawn out over objections by senators to mean tweets he made in the past about the physical appearance of some women and comments downplaying Russia’s influence in the 2016 election, Grenell served as a foreign affairs spokesperson and as a political operative.

Under the George W. Bush administration, Grenell became the longest serving U.S. spokesperson at the United Nations, working under four U.S. ambassadors. During the Obama years, Grenell founded Capitol Partners, an international consulting firm. (ProPublica reported Grenell declined to register as a foreign agent although he worked for a Moldovan oligarch who was later accused of corruption. A lawyer for Grenell said it wasn’t necessary for him to register.)

1 4 • WAS H I NGTO NBLA D E.COM • F EBRUA RY 28 , 2020 • N ATI ONA L NE W S

Supreme Court to hear if adoption agencies can reject LGBTQ families Case pits local ordinances against ‘religious freedom’

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday it has agreed to hear a case from a Philadelphia-based taxpayer-funded adoption agency seeking a First Amendment right to refuse child placement into LGBTQ homes — even though the agency consented to a city contract prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

The court listed the case, Fulton v. Philadelphia, on its order list Monday, which indicated the petition for certiorari filed by Catholic Social Services in July 2019 seeking review was granted. It takes a vote of four justices to issue a writ of certiorari — or agree to take up a case — but the vote for that decision isn’t public.

Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & HIV Project, said in a statement the case “could have profound consequences for the more than 400,000 children in foster care across the country.”

“We already have a severe shortage of foster families willing and able to open their hearts and homes to these children,” Cooper added. “Allowing foster care agencies to exclude qualified families based on religious requirements that have nothing to do with the ability to care for a child such as their sexual orientation or faith would make it even worse. We can’t afford to have loving families turned away or deterred by the risk of discrimination.”

The petition from Catholic Social Services — filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an organization that takes up religious freedom lawsuits — sought clarification on whether a government violates the First Amendment by conditioning a religious agency’s ability to participate in the foster care system “on taking actions and making statements that directly contradict the agency’s religious beliefs.”

The Becket Fund also called on the Supreme Court to revisit its 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, which determined Oregon could deny unemployment benefits to Native Americans for violating the state prohibition on the use of peyote, even for use in a religious ritual.

The decision affirmed states aren’t required to accommodate otherwise illegal acts in the name of religious liberty under the First Amendment.

The petition also called on the Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split among the federal appellate courts. The question was whether “free exercise plaintiffs can only succeed by proving a particular type of discrimination claim — namely that the government would allow the same conduct by someone who held different religious views — as two circuits have held, or whether courts must consider other evidence that a law is not neutral and generally applicable, as six circuits have held.”

Katy Joseph, policy and legislation adviser for Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement the decision to take up the case “indicates an openness by the Supreme Court to authorize discrimination in child welfare.”

“A decision in favor of Catholic Social Services would vastly distort our first freedom by allowing faith-based providers to needlessly restrict the pool of prospective foster and adoptive parents, forcing vulnerable children to suffer the trauma of state care longer than necessary,” Joseph said.

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

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

Gabbard ignores LGBTQ survey from HRC

#BobbyBerkforART Rep. TULSI GABBARD (D-Hawaii) ignored an LGBTQ survey from the Human Rights Campaign.

(Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Seven candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination were among respondents to an LGBTQ survey the nation’s leading LGBTQ group unveiled on Monday, but Tulsi Gabbard — who has been criticized for having an anti-LGBTQ past — wasn’t among them.

The seven current candidates who responded — Joseph Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren — responded affirmatively to each of HRC’s questions on LGBTQ issues, including whether they support the Equality Act, oppose President Trump’s transgender military ban and will commit to tackling anti-trans violence.

The lack of response from Gabbard sticks out, especially because she faced heavy criticism during the start of her presidential campaign for her opposition to LGBTQ rights as a Hawaii state legislator.

At the time in the early 2000s, Gabbard denounced LGBTQ rights supporters seeking to legalize civil unions as “homosexual extremists” and touted working for her father’s anti-gay organization, which fought marriage equality and promoted widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy.

Although Gabbard had previously apologized after winning election to Congress, she issued after the start of her presidential campaign another apology via video, saying her anti-LGBTQ remarks “were very hurtful for people in the LGBTQ community and to their loved ones.”

“I’m deeply sorry for having said that,” Gabbard says. “My views have changed significantly since then and my record in Congress over the last six years and reflect what is in my heart.”

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Gabbard since her election to Congress has endorsed marriage equality and become a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, legislation that would bar anti-LGBTQ discrimination under federal law.

But her record on LGBTQ issues isn’t spotless. The Hawaii Democrat was among a handful of congressional Democrats last year who didn’t sign a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, therefore illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Cullen Tiernan, a Gabbard campaign spokesperson, said via email to the Blade the candidate never obtained the LGBTQ survey, accusing the Human Rights Campaign of “spreading falsehoods.”

“We never received the questionnaire from HRC,” Tiernan said. “For HRC to claim that she did not respond to a questionnaire which she was never sent is false, and they should apologize for spreading falsehoods. Tulsi also deserves an apology from those outlets who used this falsehood to attack her commitment to equal rights for all.”

But HRC stood by its initial claim that it sent a survey and the Gabbard campaign didn’t respond.

Lucas Acosta, an HRC spokesperson, denied the allegation from the Gabbard campaign his organization never sent the survey.

“This is categorically false,” Acosta said.

“HRC sent our presidential questionnaire to candidates, including Tulsi Gabbard, on Jan. 12, 2020. As we’ve stated publicly before, we will happily receive and post her responses should she send them.”

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L.A. to dismiss 60,000 felony marijuana convictions

Serving the LGBT Community in DC/MD/VA since 1983 Lawrence S. Jacobs/McMillan Metro, PC

LOS ANGELES — The Office of the District Attorney for Los Angeles County has announced that it will dismiss an estimated 66,000 marijuana convictions.

Some 53,000 people are anticipated to have their records expunged. Nearly 60,000 of the cases under review are marijuana-related felony convictions, some of which date back to the 1960s.

“The dismissal of tens of thousands of old cannabis-related convictions in Los Angeles County will bring much-needed relief to communities of color that disproportionately suffered the unjust consequences of our nation’s drug laws,” D.A. Jackie Lacey said in a news release. “I am privileged to be part of a system dedicated to finding innovative solutions and implementing meaningful criminal justice reform that gives all people the support they need to build the life they deserve.”

Los Angeles County is one of several California counties participating in a pilot project that automatically reviews and expunges marijuana-related criminal convictions. To date, District Attorneys in other counties, such as Contra Costa, Sacramento, and San Francisco, have dismissed more than 85,000 marijuana-related convictions.

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QUEBEC —The use of marijuana is associated with a smaller waistline and lower levels of triglycerides, according to data published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

An investigator from the Canadian National Public Health Institute assessed the relationship between cannabis use, waist circumference, and triglyceride levels. Data analyzed in the study was extracted from a nationally representative database (the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).

The researchers reported that those subjects who consumed marijuana at least four times a week typically possessed a smaller waistline and lower triglycerides than either non-users or former consumers.

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“The refusal [of the federal government] to acknowledge the existence of legal cannabis jobs is a powerful act of shaming and stigmatization,” the report concludes.

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Bloomberg could be our best hope

Will two angry old guys kill the parties?

Will voters hold their noses over his past sins?

Sanders, Trump could propel dual-party destruction

Michael Bloomberg is a flawed candidate in many ways and I am as surprised as anyone that I would consider endorsing him. Yet, looking over the Democratic field still standing I am seriously considering it and clearly not the only one who is. This even after his disastrous debate performance in Las Vegas. Biden’s campaign is on a respirator.

More than 130 mayors from around the nation have endorsed Bloomberg representing small cities of 5,000 like Stephanie Bruder, mayor of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., to Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, the fifth largest city. His campaign co-chairs include Wellington Webb, former mayor of Denver; Michael Nutter former mayor of Philadelphia; and Muriel Bowser current mayor of D.C. Those mayors represent a diverse group, including black, white, Asian, Latino and even an immigrant from India, Dr. Kudlip Thusu, Mayor of Dinuba, Calif.

Yet winning the nomination surely won’t be easy. In 2020, a candidate needs to win 1,991 pledged delegates by the beginning of the convention in Milwaukee to win on the first ballot. If no one has that after the first vote there are approximately 750 super delegates (elected officials and party officials) who can then vote on the second ballot along with the pledged delegates (those who were won in the primaries and caucuses). According to the New York Times, “Super Tuesday, March 3, 15 states and territories will hold their primaries and caucuses and more than 1,300 pledged delegates are awarded that day. By the end of Super Tuesday, 38 percent of all the pledged delegates in 19 states and territories will have been allocated.”

So to have a chance, Bloomberg needs to have a healthy number of earned delegates by the end of Super Tuesday and hope the rest are split between the other candidates so it looks like no one can reach the required number to win on the first ballot. If that happens voters in the later primaries could well coalesce around a candidate like Mike Bloomberg.

Now to even have a chance, Bloomberg must overcome the anger of many in the African-American community for his ‘Stop and Frisk’ policy, which ruined the lives of many African-American young people.

He must account for the accusations of sexism from former employees detailed in a recent Washington Post expose.

Yet it is a fact of life especially in politics that ‘money talks’ and Bloomberg is spreading it around like water. According to a briefing from Bloomberg’s campaign he has 2,100 staffers across the nation and 500 in his New York headquarters.

There are now 325 in California, 220 in Texas with 20 offices. Since he began his campaign, Bloomberg has been in 63 cities in 26 states and the campaign has held 1,300 events, never asking anyone for a dime.

This kind of spending is unheard of with no end in sight. Bloomberg has committed to spending easily a billion dollars on his campaign to continue right through Nov. 3, even if he is not the nominee. Some say he is trying to buy the presidency but others suggest it is an amazing commitment of personal resources to defeat the lying pig in the White House who is destroying our democracy.

Bloomberg’s success will depend on whether Sanders can be held to a less than overwhelming delegate lead after Super Tuesday. If all the candidates continue on the trajectory they are now on, which except for Sanders and Bloomberg is either stagnant or going down, some will have to make the hard decision to drop out. They will lack funds and a real path to the nomination. Warren’s perceived bump from the Nevada debate didn’t happen and Buttigieg did not get black or Latino votes. South Carolina will determine whether Biden can keep his African-American base in large enough numbers to matter.

All those things will impact how much of a legitimate shot at the nomination Michael Bloomberg has. There appears to be a hunger among non-Sanders Democrats to choose a candidate with a real chance to beat Trump. Bloomberg could be lucky that many will be willing to hold their nose over past sins for the candidate who can do that.

The “revolution” that finger-hectoring lateseptuagenarian Bernie Sanders is promoting might turn out to be one he’s not overtly proposing. It could be the consequence, however, if the increasing odds of his being nominated for president results in the tsunami of electoral losses up-and-down the ballot for Democrats that many party activists and regulars now widely fear.

Sanders might not much care, not actually being a Democrat, but the socialist in both persona and policy could prompt an eventual massive realignment among voters toward multiple political parties with even fewer adherents. If nominated, and regardless of whether he wins or loses, destruction of the long-dominant two-party system could prove to be his legacy.

He would have to share responsibility, though, with norm-violating midseptuagenarian President Trump. While the mirror-image populist takeover of the Republican Party by Trump, himself a former Democrat, is more original screen script to Bernie’s derivative movie remake, they share a similar storyline. Although Sanders is unlikely to generate the same ballot-boxoffice success, both internal insurgencies would prove Oscar-worthy for creating legions of formerly red-or-blue affiliated voters feeling abandoned by parties and alienated on principles.

It’s difficult to overstate the panic taking grip of Democratic leaders, elected officeholders, and party loyalists caused by the suddenly ascendant possibility that Sanders could garner enough convention delegates to claim he should become the presidential nominee without having won either a majority of them or much more than a third of primary votes cast. Because the leadership of a deeply divided party desperately hopes to avoid igniting the venom of Bernie-backers, the cacophony of trepidation about Sanders as standardbearer has so far been strategically muted.

In contrast, the party’s cadre of nearly three-dozen moderates from swing districts elected in 2016 that allowed Democrats

to claw back control of the U.S. House are starting to separate themselves from Sanders by speaking out against his proposals. Knowing they will have to fight for both political survival and House control if he wins the nomination, they’ve been less shy about sounding alarms.

It may already be too late for the majority of Democrats to stop Sanders. The March 3 Super Tuesday primaries will determine national convention pledged delegate allocations in 14 states, comprising more than a third of the total. A lingering litany of competitors splitting the somebody-butSanders vote produces the probability he’ll shoot far ahead in the delegate tally and arrive in Milwaukee with a large plurality.

The far-left argues Sanders should be chosen even with insufficient delegates and only the support of a minority.

That scenario creates a dilemma for Democrats only Sanders could manage to cause: If he is bestowed the nomination, the party likely loses the election; if his supporters deem him to have been “denied” the nomination and revolt against supporting an alternate nominee, the party likely loses the election.

Even as the nominee, though, Sanders poses a threat to the party, win or lose in the general election.

Should Sanders be nominated and lose, perhaps by a large margin while also diminishing Democratic strength from statehouses to the Hill, the aftermath of dismay and despair borne by a defeat once believed a certain victory could split the party into irreconcilable factions.

Likewise, should Sanders win the election but face recalcitrant elected party members unwilling or unable to adopt his proposals, the dashed dreams of his devotees would cause disillusionment and disengagement.

With only about a quarter of the votingage population expressing allegiance to each major national political party, selfidentified independents have consistently been a huge plurality for years and a votingage majority of those under 35.

Weak party affiliation, feeble political parties, and political estrangement among dissatisfied partisans both Republican and Democratic is a formula for the gradual but eventual demise of the current two-party system.

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JONATHAN MATHIAS LASSITER, PH.D.

KATHI WOLFE

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

Honoring Renaissance woman Pauli Murray (Editor’s Note: This column is part of an occasional series highlighting queer women feminists.)

Sometimes we don’t know who our heroes are – even when we’re six degrees of separation from them.

That’s the case with me and Anna Pauline (a.k.a. Pauli) Murray, the black, queer, lawyer, poet, writer, priest, civil rights activist and National Organization for Women co-founder.

Friends of mine from my Yale Divinity School days knew who Murray, the first African-American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest, was. As I’ve written before in the Blade, Murray was helpful in the 1960s to my friend the Rev. Joan Forsberg’s (then) husband Bob. He was doing urban ministry in New Haven. “A white landlord was unfairly evicting a black woman from her apartment,” Joan told me, “...he called on Pauli Murray for free legal counsel and she was immediately responsive.”

As I write, it’s Black History Month.

As a white, cisgender queer woman, I’ve known intellectually that women of color, queer women and women from other marginalized groups have been largely erased from the history of feminism.

I knew it in my guts after hearing my friends’ stories about Murray on whose shoulders we all stand.

To say that Murray was a Renaissance woman is an understatement.

Murray earned three law degrees, organized sit-ins in the 1940s against eateries that discriminated against people of color (decades before the modern Civil Rights movement began) and took part in bus boycotts 15 years before Rosa Parks.

Her writing ranged from autobiography to poetry and jurisprudence. Murray wrote “Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage” and the poetry collection “Dark Testament and Other Poems.”

In 1948, at the request of the United Methodist Church women’s division, she wrote the book “States’ Laws on Race and Color.” Known as ‘the bible” of Brown v.

Board of Education, the volume became an invaluable resource for people working against segregation.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Murray was friends with not only Langston Hughes but Eleanor Roosevelt.

“The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice” by Patricia Bell-Scott tells the story of Murray’s friendship for nearly 25 years with Roosevelt. Their friendship began when Murray, 27, was working for the WPA, a New Deal program and continued until Roosevelt died in 1962.

(Bell-Scott’s book, a Lillian Smith Book Award winner, was nominated for the National Book Award.)

A Baltimore native, Murray was sent to Durham, N.C. at age three after her mother died. There, she was raised by her grandparents and two aunts, one of whom became her adoptive mother.

From her youth onward, Murray endured discrimination based on her sex and race. As a child she loathed having to sit in movie balconies for “colored” people. The University of North Carolina refused to accept her because she was black. Later, Harvard Law School wouldn’t admit her because she was a woman. In the 1940s, long before people talked of “intersectionality,” Murray wrote of living with both Jim Crow and Jane Crow.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg referred to Murray as a role model, Bell-Scott emailed the Blade.

It’s hard to know how people from a different time identified by gender or sexuality. Yet, Murray didn’t hide who she was. She wore boys’ clothes and had a loving, “Christian” 17-year relationship with a woman.

Homophobia kept Murray from being hired by the government. The discrimination she encountered often plunged her into financial insecurity.

Today, thankfully, Murray’s legacy is being honored. Yale University has named one of its residential colleges after her and the National Park Service has designated Murray’s childhood home as a National Historic Landmark.

“Hope is a song in a weary throat,” Murray wrote. Yet, she never stopped working for justice.

Let’s honor Murray by continuing to strive for justice. Thank you, Pauli! R.I.P.`

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is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor, and author.

All queer folk ain’t kinfolk Buttigieg moves beyond gayness like Obama moved beyond Blackness

Pete Buttigieg happens to be a gay man. Being gay appears less to be a central part of his identity and more of an added feature. I am not implying that one’s sexuality should be the totality of them or the thing that they lead with.

Nor do I think that there is a certain way to be gay. However, being part of a marginalized community should imbue one with a commitment to the most marginalized members of society.

It should fundamentally inform one’s worldview. I’m not sure this is the case with Buttigieg.

It is probably unrealistic to have a president like the one described by Zoe Leonard: “a dyke..fag..crossdresser.”

But is it unrealistic to have a Democratic president who does not willingly cede to the center? Is it unrealistic to want a president who unapologetically owns their minority status, sees it as a strength, a way to connect with the most vulnerable, and a motivation to lead based on conviction not consensus?

Pete seems to view his minority status as something he overcame, not through shunning but through taming it. His approach to being gay reminds me of Barack Obama’s approach to Blackness.

Pete is the white Obama wannabe.

He’s a Harvard alum, Rhodes Scholar, a veteran, a Christian, and a married man in a monogamous relationship.

He’s a symbol of gay exceptionalism just like Obama was a symbol of Black exceptionalism. He is not the norm. He moves beyond his gayness like Obama moved beyond his Blackness. His appeal to most is not that he is a queer with radical ideas but that he is not like those marching rainbow gays. He’s safe, and being gay is a bonus that centrist voters can feel good about. See, I’m openminded. It’s a sort of colorblindness that many people applied to former President Obama. Is this queer-blindfolding? Are people happy to pretend that sexual orientation does not make one different from another? That LGBTQ people

don’t have different experiences of life than heterosexual people? As people proclaimed the world post-racial after Obama’s election, will they announce that we’ve overcome homophobia if we have a President Pete?

But more than being post-queer, Pete’s ideas are a bigger problem. He is not progressive; he’s a centrist. While his policies like the Douglass Plan and Medicare for All Who Want It are fine enough, when put alongside his record of gentrification, poor race relations in South Bend, and cozy relationships with billionaires, they ring hollow.

He apes a pristine homonormative identity – privileging heterosexual norms and ideals within a LGBT context. These norms often emphasize corporate interests and market values. These are the characteristics that make him popular among cisgender, able-bodied, middleclass and affluent gay white men. If Pete is elected he will be the most heterosexual gay president possible, the same as Obama was the whitest Black president possible. Pete’s homonormativity makes him suspect among LGBTQ people who do not share a desire to move beyond queerness.

As a Black same-gender-loving man, I am just as enthused about Buttigeig as I was about Obama the second time around. After Obama’s first term he had failed to close Guantánamo Bay, sent more soldiers to Afghanistan, hosted a “beer summit” to address police racial profiling, and paid lip service to the murder of an unarmed teenager remarking: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Furthermore, by some estimates, Black Americans, in particular, were worse off than they were before his election. Obama was a symbol of postracialism more than anything else. And progressives like me wanted more substance than symbolism in 2012. I want more substance now.

Many older generations of Black Americans used to say “all skin folk ain’t kinfolk.” This saying highlighted the fact that belonging to (or claiming membership in) a group does not mean that you will fight for that group. Pete Buttigieg may be a gay man, but is he kin?

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Bobby’s bustling business

‘Queer Eye’ design star unveils regional premiere of new line this weekend at Belfort Furniture

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com

BOBBY BERK of ‘Queer Eye’ fame says his new line for ART Furniture has already been warmly received.

(Photo courtesy Gardner Group)

Bobby Berk, one of the “Queer Eye” Fab Five, will give the regional unveiling of his new furniture collection Bobby Berk for ART Furniture this weekend at Belfort Furniture in Dulles, Va. He spoke to the Blade Tuesday afternoon by phone from his home in Los Angeles about his designs, his costars, his gal pal Taylor Swift, his Hollywood adventures and a whole lot more.

WASHINGTON BLADE: How’s 2020 been for you so far?

BOBBY BERK: 2020’s been great, very

busy. Just wrapped up shooting a podcast a few minutes ago, I’ve got your interview, then I’m running to do a live interview with Channel 9 in Sydney Australia. Been filming some additional shows, been doing a lot of stuff with “Queer Eye,” a lot of great things with my furniture lines, so 2020 already feels like it’s been a full year.

BLADE: Tell us what you’ll be showing at Belfort Furniture this weekend.

BERK: So my new furniture line with ART, it’s great because you know people ask me, fans from the show all the time,

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you know, “I wish you could decorate my house, I with you could pick out furniture for me,” and obviously I can’t with everyone so I wanted to create a line that was accessible to almost anyone. I think it would have been kind of a dick move of me to talk on “Queer Eye” about how changing your home and help change your life and then go out and make a super expensive furniture line that nobody could afford. So I wanted to make sure I partner with a company like ART who is really good at finding that perfect happy medium on price points to where you’re getting good

quality furniture but you’re also getting it at a price point that most people can afford.

BLADE: What was the production timeframe roughly?

BERK: I believe we started the process when I was filming season three and four so that would have been late 2018, I think. … We launched it by spring of 2019 … (which) that was for stores to be able to come look at it like Belfort. Then by the time fall hit, it was in a lot of stores. And now this spring … additional stores are getting it that we weren’t able to fulfill in

the very beginning first order. We’re dong 10 in about two months, then we’re going to be launching the second collection as well.

BLADE: How has the reaction been so far?

BERK: It’s been a very great reaction.

We have had to stage out when retailers like Belfort start to carry it simply because there was such a great response to it, that we couldn’t open up all the stores that were wanting it. When we launched online, back in the fall, a lot of items instantly went out of stock, so it’s been a really great response.

You know, it was a line that inspired by things that I would want in my own home so nice, cool, clean aesthetic that can really go with anyone’s decor. When I design, I always try to make sure I think about the ways a piece can not just look good in a home where people like modern, but also a traditional home. My sofas, for example, can bridge the gap between traditional, transitional and modern.

BLADE: To what degree do you curtail or adjust your creative impulses into something you think will sell? Is there conflict in your own head between art and commerce?

BERK: Uh, yeah, ‘cause for me personally, I would go very minimalist and modern, that’s more of my personal aesthetic, so I would always have to kind of find the happy medium between too modern and cold and still keeping it warm where more people will love it.

all five of us feel that way but we also know that you know there’s not always a chance that things will be going this well, so we all need to, not take advantage of it, but utilize the recognition we’ve gotten from “Queer Eye” to do other things. Because of course “Queer Eye” could go on for 10 more years or it may go on for one more year. We never know, so we all want to make sure we’ve found those certain things in our wheelhouse that we’re able to continue to focus on. Before “Queer Eye,” I had a design firm and retail stores so, “Queer Eye” has just opened up more doors for me to be able to do more things with that like my collection at ART. So yeah, is this sustainable how much we travel and work? No, it’s not. But all five of us know that we’re not always going to have the amount of opportunities we have right now, so we need to take advantage of all the opportunities that present themselves and then, you know, in five years — I have a four-five year plan of moving to Santa Barbara and having kids and not working as much.

BLADE: How do you have time to keep all this stuff going with the TV show as well?

BERK: I don’t know (chuckles). I’m never home. I’m sadly gone probably 90 percent of the year the last few years so yeah, I’m just constantly on the road.

BLADE: On “Queer Eye,” the other guys spend a lot more face time with the heroes because you’re so busy remodeling. Do you ever feel left out?

BERK: Yeah, yeah, you know. With the other boys, they’re part of the show, they’re literally physically with the hero. You know, Jonathan is cutting their hair, Karamo is having a great conversation and helping them with self help, Antoni is teaching them to cook, Tan is helping them with their clothes — they have to physically be there with them whereas what I’m doing the hero can’t actually see, it’s actually against the rules for them to see it, so I’m often kept away from them simply because they’re not able to see what I’m dong and we want to see a surprise. So we have, I’m sure you’ve noticed in newer seasons, I am with the heroes more, but season one and two, I was barely with them at all.

When I would be asked by producers if I wanted to go on a shopping trip wth Tan and help with clothes, I’d be like, “No I’m busy, working, that makes no sense,” but then the show came out and it was like, “Oh, I’m so busy working I’m not on the show.” So, newer seasons, I have a bit more interaction with the heroes than in the past.

BLADE: Is this pace sustainable? What if “Queer Eye” goes another 10 years? Will you rip your hair out?

BERK: Uh, probably (laughs). No, this pace absolutely is not sustainable, I think

BLADE: How did you like Japan and what was challenging about taping there?

BERK: I loved Japan, I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan before, it’s one of my favorite places, especially Tokyo. I love it there just

BLADE: Are you doing other markets?

BERK: I’ve already done a few in other markets, so Belfort will be my first one in the D.C. area, the only one. We’re very specific about only allowing certain retailers to carry it so we’re not competing against each other. I have another presentation in Orange County next week as well, then an event in Austin, Texas as well. I think it’s next week.

because it’s so organized and clean and it’s such a respectable society. Some of the challenges filming there was space. People would sometimes think it’s easier to design a small space than a large space but it’s actually harder, especially in Japan where in rental spaces, you’re not allowed to hang anything on the walls, you’re not allowed to paint, you’re not allowed to do anything to the floors, so we had to get really creative on building functional loft furniture that we were able to make the space look super different than before without even painting or hanging a piece of art on the walls.

BLADE: There’s obvious camaraderie between you and your co-stars. Were you concerned at first whether your personalities would jell? To what do you attribute that camaraderie?

BERK: You know, the five of us from the start in casting, in final casting, there probably was between 40-50 guys around the various different design, fashion, food — what have you, and at first Karamo, Tan and I we just kind of gravitated to each other and were always hanging out. Then Antoni and Jonathan kind of came into the fold and none of us really thought, “Oh this is the Fab Five,” we just kind of naturally liked each other and I think the casting directors and executives from Netflix and Scout and ITV kind of saw that we had a natural chemistry, that we really naturally enjoyed each other and instead of it kind of being a competition, we were always in there telling each other what was going on and helping each other. So I think our camaraderie definitely helps. It’s not always a natural thing, you put five perfect strangers together who are with each other 24-7, but it’s grown definitely into kind of a sibling relationship. We’re brothers, we’re best friends, there are some moments where we want to wring each others necks, but the great thing about it is, we’ve spent so much time together, we really have developed a feeling of a sibling with each other. We can get mad at each other, but at the end of the day, we’re family, we’re brothers so we get over it and we’re very protective of each other. Sometimes it’s easy, most of the time it’s easy, but sometimes it’s hard. But I think that’s the thing with every relationship.

BERK: Uh, a little bit, but I definitely can’t share what he’s shared with me.

BLADE: What did you think of Jonathan’s decision to come out as HIVpositive? Had he shared that with you previously?

BERK: I was the first one that he told even before we started filming “Queer Eye,” he and I both lived in L.A. at the time and so after casting, we became very close very quickly and he was over at my house all the time and he shared it with me even before we started filming, so I’ve known about it for probably a couple years before he publicly came out about it, so it wasn’t a shock to me. I was happy that he had the strength to do that and that he’s able to help other people by being very public about his status.

Continues on page 29

BLADE: Are you going to Karamo’s wedding?

BERK: Of course.

BLADE: You helping with any of the design?

BOBBY BERK says loss of anonymity, old family wounds occasionally haunt him.

(Photo courtesy Gardner Group)

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and lives in Clinton, Md. She works full time “building her brand” and on the side as a Big Bus D.C. tour guide. She’s a mom to daughter Brookelyn Rayven. She enjoys performing, writing, TV, creating art and catching up on sleep in her free time.

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

I didn’t really tell anyone. One day I just showed up with a girlfriend.

QUEERY Rheandrea Monet

Who’s your LGBTQ hero?

Probably RuPaul. When I was growing up, I didn’t really have access to the lifestyle. So seeing him in “To Wong Foo” and “But I’m A Cheerleader” were game changers. Ellen is another big one.

Watching her come out on her show was incredible. It just gave me the warmest feeling. I remember being so excited I literally screamed and jumped around the room!

What LGBTQ stereotype most annoys you?

I don’t know if I’d call it a stereotype, but the whole “you’re going to hell” thing is pretty whack.

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

QUEERY: Rheandrea Monet (aka PoetRaeMonet) The local poet answers 20 queer questions

By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com

Rheandrea Monet (aka PoetRaeMonet) is one of the rare folks who has pretty much built a career out of her passion — poetry.

She remembers discovering it in school around sixth grade.

“All it took was one assignment to get me hooked,” says the native Washingtonian (she grew up in Ward 8). “I’m a self starter so by the time I was

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in high school, I had written over 100 poems.”

Monet describes herself as “an erotic poet” and uses her poems to “open the discussion about sex and sexual education,” a topic she says is often “shunned and overlooked.”

“It’s so massively important to me because I suffered sexual trauma as a child,” she says. “So now, I can use my experiences to help others.”

Monet is this year’s poet laureate for “The Ask Rayceen Show,” which has its season premiere on Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. (reception/happy hour at 6) at HRC (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). It’s free. KIDe, Ganja Kitty, Kent Black, DJ Mim, Monet and Krylios are this month’s guests.

The show continues the first Wednesday of each month through November. Details at askrayceen.com.

Monet was smitten with Rayceen the first time she met her as a show volunteer.

“I jumped right in helping to stuff the goodie bags,” she recalls. “When Rayceen came gliding in, welcoming us and thanking us all for our time, she came over and gave me a hug and a smile and that was it — I knew I needed to be a part of whatever she was doing.”

Monet has published four books of her poetry, an erotic fiction novel and is working on a workbook called “Expose Your Inner DIVA.” Find out more about her at whichrae.wordpress.com.

Monet is single (“and not looking”)

What’s your proudest professional achievement?

My proudest achievement is the publishing of my first book, “The Birds, the Bees and the Boudoir.” I have done some truly awesome things as a result of following my dream and I would not be where I am if I never took that first step.

What terrifies you?

Spiders and mold! Gross!

What’s something trashy or vapid you love?

4Loko! Ha! It’s terrible, I know, but it’s effective.

What’s your greatest domestic skill?

Cooking, I guess. But only if I’m in a good mood. Good mood equals good food. Bad mood — you don’t want that food.

What’s your favorite LGBTQ movie or show?

“But I’m A Cheerleader” What’s your social media pet peeve?

Spelling and grammar! Yes, I’m one of those people! It irks me the most when it’s a “professional” person posting these mangled messages that take forever to decipher. They lose credibility, in my mind.

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

World peace. Because by that point, everyone will have learned to mind their

business and their tongue.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Sending thank you notes. I’ve thanked you in person, via text and twice at the door already. Do you really need it written down as well?

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

I grew up Baptist. I’d say I still am at heart, but it’s 2020 and I’m more spiritual than I’ve ever been. I pray more. I try to tap into the universe more. I think I’m evolving above just religion. It’s about the whole universe working toward good.

What’s D.C.’s best hidden gem?

The Lounge of III on U Street! It’s tiny, but they have amazing drinks and awesome DJs who spin from the golden era of hip hop.

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

Justin Timberlake “revealing” Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl.

What celebrity death hit you hardest?

Aaliyah. That one hurt. I cried for days.

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

Nope. No regrets. No do-overs. I love who I am and any change might drastically alter everything that I am. I have to take the good with the bad and I have to accept me for all of my flaws.

What are your obsessions?

I’m only obsessed with two things right now: my daughter and my brand.

Building and shaping those two is all that matters to me.

Finish this sentence — It’s about damn time: … all of this hard work pays off.

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

I wish I knew that I didn’t have to wait to become an “adult” to start following my dreams.

Why Washington?

D.C. is home. It’s that electrical feeling you get when you hit the streets downtown. It’s power. The humming of traffic. Everyone is busy. Moving with a purpose. I have a tattoo of the D.C. flag on my back. The flag is inside of a heart that has been broken, bruised, bandaged and stitched. It’s because this city will always be a part of me. It IS me. Imperfect, but resilient as hell.

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CALENDAR

TODAY The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 12 opener watch party hosted by The Dirty Goose (913 U St., N.W.) is tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Host Shirley Gaye performs and all drinks are half off until 9 p.m. Details are available at thedirtygoosedc.com.

The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” viewing party is tonight at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing (209 M St., N.E.). Desiree Dik hosts the season 12 event followed by a drag show. For more information, visit redbear.beer.

Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts its “RuPaul Drag Race” season 12 watch party tonight at 8 p.m. There is no cover for this 21-and-over event with a DJ’ed dance party after. Visit nelliessportsbar.com for details.

Birds of Prey Drag Show featuring special guests Akashia and Nicole Paige Brooks from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is tonight at 10 p.m. at the D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Road, N.E.). This public event is followed by a dance party until 3 a.m. Tickets are $10 on eventbrite.com.

Kicks and Giggles: Go Wild! Is tonight at 10 p.m. at the Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.). There is no cover for this monthly queer underwear dance party. Visit greenlanterndc.com for details.

It’s Daddy Night tonight at 10 p.m. at UPROAR Lounge (639 Florida Ave., N.W.).

DJ Mike Babbitt mixes beats for daddies, admirers and friends. There is no cover for this event. For details, visit uproarlounge. com.

“Boots & Heels,” the Maryland Institute College of Art fifth annual benefit drag show is tonight at 8 p.m. at 1601 W. Mount Royal Ave., Baltimore. Proceeds will go to LGBTQ scholarships at the school. Miss Sue Nami, Dee Dee Dereon, Venus Faestrada, Gadfrie Arbulu and Chris Jay will perform. Tickets are $5 for MICA students, $10 general admission or $20 VIP. Look for the event on Facebook for details.

Sat, Feb. 29 The Harriet Tubman Historical Experience hosted by A Tour of Her Own is today from 8 a.m.-7 p.m., departing from the Navy Memorial (701 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.) sharply at 8. The $140 bus trip includes lunch and a journey through Dorchester County, Md., where Tubman was born, escaped slavery and returned to free others. More information is available at atourofherown. com.

Chanellie’s Drag Brunch is today at 11 a.m. at Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.).

Chanel Devereaux hosts a team of drag performers during an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet. Tickets are $41.91 on eventbrite.com.

Mind-Building for Children, a children’s library event at the Embassy of Finland (3301

NICKI MINAJ (right) joins (from left) MICHELLE VISAGE, RuPAUL and CARSON KRESSLEY at the judge’s table for the season 12 premiere of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’ Several watch parties are planned in the region tonight.

(Photo courtesy VH1)

Massachusetts Ave., N.W.) in collaboration with the D.C. Public Library, is today from 2:30-5 p.m. This free event follows the story of Moomintroll’s growth as he explores humanity, relationships and emotions.

Registration is available on eventbrite.com.

Melba Moore performs at City Winery D.C. (1350 Okie St., N.E.) tonight at 6 p.m.

Tickets start at $35 to see this three-time Grammy-nominated singer and awardwinning Broadway actress. Tickets and information are available at citywinery.com.

Trade (1410 14th St., N.W.) hosts QWERTY: All Black Everything tonight at 10 p.m. CTRL is throwing this special Black History Month event which has a special performance by Drag King Boi Band featuring Roman Noodle, Zillionaire and Majic Dyke. Visit Facebook events and tradebardc.com for details.

The Crew Club: The Closing Party is tonight at 11 p.m. at The Crew Club (1321 14th St., N.W.). The club closes its doors after 25 years with DJs Lemz and Aaron Riggins and special appearances by adult film stars.

Visit crewclub.net for more information.

Cie Herve KOUBI will perform its dance interpretation of “Boy’s Don’t Cry” tonight at 8 p.m. at Dance Place (3225 8th St., N.E.). The show will also be performed on Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15-30 at danceplace.org.

Sun, March 1 Harry Potter Drag Brunch hosted by Logan Stone is today at noon at St. Arnold’s (7525 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, Md.). Local drag performers bring Harry Potter characters to life during an a la carte brunch with bottomless cocktail specials. For more information, visit starnoldsdc.com and Facebook events.

Flashy Sundaze is tonight at 4 p.m. at Flashy Sundays (645 Florida Ave., N.W.).

There is no cover for this special party featuring music by TWiN and DJ Sean Morris.

More information is available at facebook. com/flashydc.

Queer/Trans Fusion Dance: Bachata Night with DJ Perez is tonight at 6 p.m. at

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the Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.).

Lessons are $10 with an open social dance following featuring Latinx music. Free self-serve popcorn is provided. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com and qtfusiondance.wordpress.com.

AEG Presents Trixie Mattel tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre (1215 U St., N.W.). Tickets are $39.50. This event features the season three “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winner performing music and comedy backed by a live band. Tickets and information are available on eventbrite.com.

Celebrate Diversity, the A Wider Bridge and Fuente Latina Reception, is tonight at 8:15 p.m. at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (801 Mt. Vernon Place, N.W.). For free tickets and information, register at awiderbridge.org/ AIPACreception.

Mon, March 2 Monday Night Trivia is tonight at 7 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing (209 M St., N.E.).

New host William Burlew, aka Logan Stone, curates questions from history, science, entertainment and more. Visit redbear.beer for details.

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will be performed tonight at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.). The Washington Opera delivers a tale of a lover who meets his fiery fate. Tickets start at $45 at kennedycenter.org.

Queer Tango lessons continue at the Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosted

by Tango Mercurio tonight at 7:30 p.m. The price is $120 for the entire series. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.

Tues, March 3 Iranian storyteller Poupeh Missaghi shares her work “trans(re)lating house one” tonight at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose at Union Market (1270 5th St., N.E.). The book uses reports and documents to tell the story

of a woman’s search first for statues then for missing demonstrators in the aftermath of Iran’s 2009 elections. Visit politics-prose. com/union-market for more information on this free event.

Michelle Wolf performs at the D.C. Improv Comedy Club (1140 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $40. Wolf made headlines in 2018 as the outspoken headliner of the White House Correspondents Dinner.

For tickets and information, visit dcimprovcom.

“Bandstand,” the Tony-winning Broadway musical about a young soldier rebuilding his life after WWII through friends and song, will be performed tonight at the National Theatre (1321 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $54 on thenationaldc.com.

Wed, March 4 The International Women’s Day Celebration with Female Ambassadors to the U.S. hosted by the Women and Politics Institute is tonight at 6 p.m. in the Abramson Family Founders Room of the SIS building (4400 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.).

Represented will be the female ambassadors from Oman, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iceland. Free tickets are available on eventbrite.com.

BOOKMEN DC, an informal men’s gay literature group, discusses Felice Picano’s 1979 novel, “The Lure,” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Park Library (3310 Connecticut Ave., N.W.). All are welcome to attend. For more information, visit bookmendc.blogspot.com.

Thurs, March 5 A Conversation with Speaker Nancy Pelosi hosted by the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service (37th & O St., N.W.) is today from 2-3 p.m. In celebration of Women’s History Month, Speaker Pelosi will discuss the impact the 19th Amendment had on history as well as the women who have influenced her. Visit politics.georgetown.edu for details.

Phillips After 5: Wonder Women is an exhibition at the Phillips Collection (1600 21st., N.W.) today at 5 p.m. celebrating International Women’s Day. The event includes music by R&B, soul and Afro beat artist TOMMI, brews from the women-owned Denizens Brewery Company and more.

Tickets are $12 at phillipscollection.org.

D.C. Lambda Squares holds its club night tonight (and every Thursday) at 7:30 p.m. at National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle). Details at dclambdasquares. org.

F E BR UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 2 7

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for more info call 311 or visit doee.dc.gov/udp To apply for the telephone Lifeline Service (Economy II),call 1-800-837-4966 These discounts are for DC residents only and are subject to income eligibility requirements.

Out comedian SAMPSON McCORMICK returns for a local engagement March 5-7.

(Photo courtesy Kola for 510 Media)

By PHILIP VAN SLOOTEN

Sampson returns Sampson McCormick, an award-winning gay comedian and D.C. native, performs at The Comedy Loft (1523 22nd St., N.W.) March 5-7. General admission tickets are $20 with a two-menu-item minimum.

McCormick is also an actor, writer and director whose body of work includes 2019’s “A Different Direction,” a film about a black, gay man in his 30s confronting life’s challenges, and “Party-N-Play,” a comedy-thriller about an obsessed Beyonce fan pushed to his limits.

For tickets and information, visit dccomedyloft.com.

Celine summons ‘Courage’ Celine Dion’s “Courage World Tour” takes the stage at Capital One Arena (601 F St., N.W.) Wednesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $98 on Ticketmaster.

Dion is a long-time supporter of the Quebec gay community and in 2018 launched Celinununu, a gender-neutral children’s clothing line.

Visit ticketmaster.com for more concert information.

Town DJs return Battle of the DJs: Ed Bailey vs. Wess presented by AVALON Saturdays is March 7 at 10 p.m. at Soundcheck (1420 K St., N.W.). Tickets start at $20.

This party features two popular DJs (they were Town regulars) known throughout the D.C. circuit as they take it to the dance floor for this one-night-only event. All are invited to this special 18-and-up event.

For details, visit dougiemeyerpresents.com and soundcheckdc.com.

Cho part of RIOT! lineup RIOT! An International Women’s Day Comedy Event featuring Margaret Cho, Dulce Sloan, Sasheer Zamata, Jen Kirkman and Catherine Cohen kicks off at the Kennedy Center Sunday, March 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $29.

This event brings together leading performers from music and comedy to celebrate women in the arts for an evening of song, laughter and empowerment. In a show intended for mature audiences, these celebrated entertainers embrace creative risk to comment on difficult times.

For tickets and information, visit kennedy-center.org.

Wolfe to read poetry Local queer poet Kathi Wolfe will read poems from her new collection “Love and Kumquats: New and Selected Poems” at Zed’s (8225 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring) on Friday, March 6 at 6 p.m.

Wolfe, a Blade columnist, is a nationally recognized poet. She’s a 2014 winner of the Stonewall Chapbook Competition.

It’s free and open to the public.

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Taylor, Ru, Adam and more circle Berk’s starry orbit Continued from page 23

BLADE: Have you had many chances to get to know the original “Queer Eye” cast?

BERK: Yeah, I was actually out with them all of them in L.A. two weeks ago.

I’ve known Thom Filicia for years, again, before I was on “Queer Eye” as a designer, I really am a designer, so he and I have been in the same industry, we’re always at the same events, we’re always at the same trade shows. And then Carson (Kressley), I’ve known for years. All the others I had met throughout the years, but I’m definitely closest to Thom simply because we’re in the same industry and we’ve known each other so long. But they’re all so amazing, they’re all so lovely, it’s amazing hanging out with them and seeing just how individually unique they all are, just like the five of us are, and how no matter how many years they’ve been apart since the original, when they get together, it’s like they’ve never skipped a beat, it’s cute.

BLADE: So you’d be totally down to do a crossover special of some kind?

BERK: Oh absolutely.

BLADE: Do you like Thom’s design aesthetic? (Filicia, too, has presented at Belfort Furniture.)

BERK: I think it’s beautiful. I think we have a very different design aesthetic. He’s definitely more transitional and traditional, I’m definitely more modern and minimalist, although I would say that both him and I design for the client or for the home.

So where my home is very minimal and there’s not a whole lot of stuff in it, for heroes on “Queer Eye,” I can be maximalist for people who want a lot of stuff. So his personal aesthetic is beautiful, he’s done some amazing homes, some amazing condo buildings. But yeah, I love it.

BLADE: Did it bother you that Taylor Swift was, some would argue, rather late to the game in terms of being an LGBT ally?

BERK: You know, of course we always wish somebody would be vocal from day one but I also can very much understand the pressure that she’s been through being basically owned by a record label and being told by a publicist and record labels what you need to say and shouldn’t say, what you shouldn’t get involved in.

You know as quote-unquote celebrities, we’re always told, “Oh be as neutral as possible, you don’t wanna offend people on the left or the right, stay out of politics, stay out of issues,” which some of us find much easier than others. You know, I often get myself in trouble because I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut. Jonathan’s

the same way and so I can understand why she felt pressured to not be an ally, to not get involved publicly, you know what I mean? … I don’t hold it against her, all I can do is be as very happy that she is using her power to make a difference now and I couldn’t love her more. She’s one of the most sweet, humble, down-to-earth people I’ve met. … You never really know what to expect when you meet somebody like her because a lot of people I’ve met in Hollywood and entertainment come across as one thing and then you meet them in person and they are not at all that thing and it can be very sad and disappointing, so it was a great feeling when I got to meet her and hang out with her and realize that she really is what she portrays out there, she really is this sweet, loving girl who just wants to make the world a better place.

BLADE: Who’s somebody you met who’s markedly different from his or her public persona?

BERK: Hmmm, so yes. So RuPaul, I actually met in 2003, I was a manager at Restoration Hardware in New York and she came in looking for some knobs for some dresser she was doing and he was just the kindest, sweetest most lovely person and then after I had my own stores, he started coming in and shopping in my stores and he would come in and just the sweetest, warmest person. And again, on the show he’s the same way and I’m not saying that he’s not sweet and warm, but one thing I was surprised about when I see him for example at the Emmys, the first time I saw him at the Emmys, he wasn’t very warm, and I was like, “Huh, fame has changed him.” But our publicist at Netflix used to work on “Drag Race,” so he’s very close to Ru, he knows Ru very well, and I mentioned it to him I was like, “Wow, you know, I’ve met Ru multiple times and he’s always like the sweetest, kindest person, I don’t get that from him anymore.” He was like, “No, he just doesn’t like being in the spotlight at events like this so he gets very shy and quiet,” so sometimes you think somebody is some way and they’re not and like. … I thought Ru had gotten cold, ‘cause this industry can do it to you, but then I find out that no, Ru is just as shy and terrified as the rest of us.

BLADE: What was it like filming (Taylor Swift’s) “You Need to Calm Down” video?

Surely all those celeb cameos — you were not all there at the same time I imagine?

BERK: All of us were but Tan. He was filming the season finale of “Next in Fashion” that day, so Jonathan and I went from watching the runway show of Tan’s

finale directly to Taylor’s set and we met Antoni and Karamo there, so four of us were there together but Tan filmed his separately.

BLADE: Was Ellen or Adam Rippon or any of those people there that day?

BERK: Adam was there, he and I are actually friends. Hannah Hart was there, um — who else was there that day? They’re the only ones I remember being directly around us. The set was so massive and they filmed it over I think a week, so different celebs would come in at different times.

Some would film in a studio in front of a green screen, for example Tan’s was shot in a studio, so yeah, we weren’t always there at the same time, that would have been chaos. Oh Todrick Hall was there as well.

BLADE: How is (husband) Dewey? Do you guys get enough time together?

BERK: No, we never get enough time together. He is definitely a very private, very introverted, shy guy. He couldn’t care less about any of the Hollywood stuff, which is actually great. I actually prefer it that way because when I’m at home, I’m back in my normal life. But yeah, no, we can never get enough time together. He’s a surgeon.

We’ve been together for 16 years and since “Queer Eye,” he’s just started working less.

He’s in private practice, so luckily he’s been able to take a step back a little back. He usually only works about two days a week then meets me wherever I’m filming.

BLADE: Do you know Nate Berkus? Do you like his stuff?

BERK: I love Nate Berkus. His stuff is great. Both he and Jeremiah. Their taste is impeccable, they’re handsome as hell, they’re the best dads. Yeah, I like them a lot.

BLADE: Do you miss your anonymity?

BERK: Absolutely (laughs).

BLADE: Give me an example.

BERK: I miss just being able to go to the grocery store. Or to Starbucks. You know, I miss being able to just roam around and just do regular things. There’s so many positive things about this and I’m not complaining about the loss of it at all, but, you know, sometimes I wish I could just go to the grocery store and go through all the fruit and shop around but I can’t really do that without getting stopped over and over, so I just pretty much order everything online.

Sometimes I’ll go into a Starbucks and a fan will be there and there’ll be a moment of the show that’s really touched them or helped somebody in their family, so they’ll start telling me a story in Starbucks and then

be crying, then I’ll be standing there in line holding them and hugging them thinking in my mind, “Oh this is amazing, this is so wonderful, but I really just wanted to get my coffee.” You know, it’s a double-edged sword. Sometimes I wish I could just run in, run out like I used to be able to.

BLADE: Please don’t think I’m asking this because I think you look fat — I truly do not. This is just something I’ve been meaning to ask someone who’s done a lot of TV. Does the camera add 10 pounds?

BERK: The camera adds 10 pounds of gay (laughs). Um, sometimes, yeah. But also when I started filming season five I was 210 pounds and now I’m like 183 so I went from being in very good shape before the show, to putting on a bit of weight during the show because our lives have just been so crazy to now really doubling down and focusing on fitness and not letting myself eat crap on set all the time and not work out.

BLADE: What did you mean 10 pounds of gay? Are gestures magnified?

BERK: Oh yeah, I’m always like, “Damn, do I sound that gay?” Yeah, and I also think it’s because the five of us together, we’re so comfortable together and able to be our true selves that sometimes we really queen out and not give a damn. It’s funny watching yourself.

BLADE: Was it hard to summon the courage to be so open about your past?

Leaving home at 15 and all that.

BERK: It was hard because, you know, for quite a few years, I didn’t have a good relationship with my parents …

BLADE: It’s better now?

BERK: Oh yeah, it’s great now. But that’s why it’s a little hard because publicly talking about it, you know, it definitely made my mom sad, it definitely opened up old wounds, it took me a while to be OK talking about it. Sometimes I’m still not OK. Sometimes I’ll get asked about my relationship with my parents in interviews, not in this, but people will really pry and they’ll be like, “Oh well you know, on the show you talked about how horrible they were to you and blah blah blah blah blah, why are you talking to them now?” I’m just like whoah — if I’m able to say I’ve been able to reconcile with my family and we have a good relationship now, why would you try to open those wounds? Why would you try to hurt my mama?

BLADE: Thanks for your time and good luck with your line.

BERK: Thanks!

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Queer biz

The Bieb is back

The path to LGBT acceptance in the workplace was long and convoluted

New album ‘Changes’ catches heat but only on repeated spins

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

By THOM MURPHY

Delivery for your company’s product isn’t what it used to be.

No, you can unequivocally say it’s better. With the internet, great shipping partners, better routing and better internal handling, you get product out faster and more efficiently. People sometimes resist, but change is good and in the new book “The Queering of Corporate America” by Carlos A. Ball, you’ll see another benefit of moving forward.

In the days before Stonewall, not many places would accept advertisements for organizations that worked primarily with gay or lesbian customers. Many B2B companies were also reluctant to work with LGBT-friendly entities.

That was common because, in the beginning of business in America, corporations were often at least partially funded by the state in which they operated; in many cases, a corporation couldn’t be created without the assent of the state legislature. By the latter 1960s, there was more leeway in forming a corporation and legalities were looser but, Ball writes, businesses had to tackle racial discrimination before they considered issues of discrimination against LGBTQ people.

In the years post-Civil Rights Movement and following Stonewall, corporations continued to deny jobs to “homosexuals,” not recognizing that LGBTQ employees were quietly toiling in their offices and factories all along.

It was in the 1970s that activists and organized groups began to target corporations through boycotts and demands that they stop discriminating against gay and lesbian individuals.

Ball says that many corporations went from a stance of anti-gay rights to being allies in the space of a decade or so, in part because they recognized that it was good business.

Even so, the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s set things back some, as fearful workers put their employers in positions to revisit discrimination in the workplace.

This led to scrutiny over discrimination in the granting of benefits in the workplace and domestic partnership laws.

By the beginning of this century,

(Photo courtesy Beacon Press)

Ball writes, most corporations finally realized that being a public advocate for LGBTQ rights made business sense.

It is “reasonable,” he says, to believe that activism was one of the main catalysts.

Although it’s dry as the Sahara Desert, “The Queering of Corporate America” has interesting moments of small histories: imagine, for instance, spotting a stealthy protester holding a sign behind the news anchor on live TV; or watching, with modern eyes, early and very clumsy attempts to examine the life of a “homosexual.”

These are the nuggets worth looking for inside this quite-scholarly book.

Without them, it may take a concerted effort to stay focused.

‘The Queering of Corporate America’

By Carlos A. Ball Beacon Press $28.95 256 pages

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Justin Bieber has bragging rights unique to most pop singers of his stature. He has never put out a bad album. Granted, like many performers who rose to fame in early adolescence, it’s unclear what should be considered his first “real” album. Mid-month, he released “Changes,” his first new record in five years.

Admittedly a former “Belieber,” I mark the beginning of Bieber’s mature musical production with the release of “Believe” in 2012. The popular single “Boyfriend” certainly feels like the work of an artist that has reached a degree of musical maturity. But his first truly great album is undoubtedly “Purpose” (2015).

And in many ways whatever followed it was bound to be something of a disappointment.

The same can be said of a number of popular singers.

“Changes,” a well-timed Valentine’s Day release, debuted at no. 1 on Billboard and Bieber now has more monthly listeners on Spotify (around 64 million) than any other artist, beating Ed Sheeran’s previous record. He now has seven Billboard no. 1 albums and at age 25, he surpasses Elvis as the youngest person to do so.

Listening, however, things get going slowly. For me, it wasn’t until about spin five that things started to jell.

In part, it’s difficult to appreciate the new album because it’s hard to see what makes it distinct. “Purpose” had a very distinctive sound — a break-up album with masterful production, snappy rhythms, stronger but restrained electronic influence and significantly cleverer lyrics. “Love Yourself” is the undisputed crown jewel. On a first listen, the new album “Changes” largely sounds like songs that did not make the cut of the last.

But give it a little time and the criticism does not seem entirely fair. Unsurprisingly, the production is fantastic and, yes, his voice is as angelic as ever. The first track on the album “All Around Me” sets the tone. “Changes” is not about any sort of music adventuring but rather is biographical. Troublemaker pop star party boy becomes devoted husband: “Never thought I could ever be loyal/To someone other than myself/I never thought I could ever be a spoiler/Guess anything is possible with your help.” It’s like R&B without the rhythm, which sounds like criticism but isn’t. A partly improvised-sounding melody over electric guitar and synth works surprisingly well. It’s

Justin Bieber’s new album ‘Changes’ breaks a long-standing Elvis industry record.

(Image courtesy Def Jam)

spacey and warm, as is the whole album.

“All Around Me” glides seamlessly into “Habitual,” where the bass begin to thump regularly a slow, sensuous beat. Track order is crucial and transitions are not far from the level of a concept album.

So far Bieber has released three singles, the best of which is “Intentions.” The song features Quavo and a great tune. It’s hard to describe but it sounds something like cotton candy tastes. It’s fluffy, sugary but interesting, though the lyrics, forgivably, tend toward the banal.

The lead single “Yummy” has had sustained radio and streaming play since its release just after the new year, but it takes the banal a step too far. The horrendous chorus in which Bieber just repeats “Yummy” is unforgivable. It sticks in your head, but you’ll hate yourself for it. Even in 2020, a chorus needs more substance than two syllables of semi-nonsense.

“Forever,” which features Post Malone and Clever, sounds like slightly faster “Intentions.”

The more appealing, sexier songs on the album are scattered all about. “E.T.A.” and “Changes” are fantastic acoustic-heavy tracks that offer a needed break from the slow bass groove and break up tracks that are remarkably similar. And the collaboration with rapper Lil Dicky on “Running Over,” which sounds like it samples Super Mario World, is another gem.

On the whole, the album perhaps rides the line between continuity and sameness a little too closely. It is not particularly easy to dislike, but it does little that is novel or notable.

“Changes” more of a sustained mood than a new concept.

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F E BR UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 3 1

Empanada emporium

Partners in life and work unveil dream product

By EVAN CAPLAN

HERNAN GIGENA (left) and his partner, CHRIS CASINELLA. (Photo courtesy Gigena)

In Spanish, La Buena means “the good one.” La Buena Empanada (labuenaempanada.com) aims to show how one gay couple has made a savory baked good even better.

Hernan Gigena and Chris Casinella (married in 2016) are pure Washington: they have each led careers in the private sector and at multinational organizations like the World Bank. But it is through the package of the empanada — bite-sized, hand-held, easy to eat — that they are able to express their deepest passion, founding La Buena Empanada earlier this year. Wunder Garten in NoMa (where one of the owners, Christopher Lynch, is gay) is their current pop-up post, where they will be serving their empanadas through the end of February.

Before meeting Gigena, Casinella had been married to a woman and was dedicating his life to career and family. It was with Gigena that the two decided to open La Buena.

“I told Chris that this was his time to finally open the food business that he’d dreamed of, but together with me,” Gigena

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says. “He has a new partner, and a new outlook on life — this was the opportunity.”

With their savings combined, they started making empanadas.

Gigena, born in Argentina, came up with the empanada idea. After his grandmother and mother both died, Gigena realized that he and Casinella could make empanadas to honor their legacy.

Plus, he says, “I think empanadas may become the new burrito. Twenty years ago, Mexican food wasn’t nearly as prevalent.

Today, Latin food is extremely popular.”

Gigena explains the background of the empanada. While originally from Spain, each Latin American country has developed its own style. Some are made using corn or plantain flour, for example.

Other countries deep-fry their versions, or even include sweet fillings.

Argentine empanadas, he says, are influenced by French and Italian cuisines that immigrants from these countries brought to their new homeland. The dough is light and flaky: reminiscent of European pastry. This leaves room for the

filling to shine.

La Buena currently offers three kinds of empanada: beef, ham and cheese, and spinach and feta. The beef option, with onions, garlic potatoes, egg and spices, is directly from the pages of his grandmother’s recipe book. The spinach and feta option comes from Casinella’s grandmother, using Italian seasonings — the same filling she utilized to make ravioli. The ham and cheese (mozzarella, provolone, pecorino) is a tried-and-true Argentine recipe.

To top it off, Gigena serves the empanada with a vibrantly green and punchy chimichurri sauce.

The couple crafts the empanadas by hand, pre-cooking the fillings. At service, they finish the empanadas in an air fryer for a mere four minutes to cook the dough, ensuring that it’s fresh and crispy.

“Empanadas are a simple dish to serve and consume,” Gigena says. “This removes extensive preparation that might be required at a full restaurant.”

Instead of swinging the food-truck route, as they had initially considered, the couple decided to serve the empanadas at pop-ups, for catering, and eventually, commercially.

“My idea is that customers can open a box of easy-to-prep empanadas along with popping a bottle of Argentine wine.

And at the pop-up so far, we have been overwhelmed with the positive reaction we have received.”

Beyond cooking, Gigena is also a visual artist, donating his work to LGBT causes in Washington for fundraising. The couple also partners with Tom of Finland vodka and its foundation to promote LGBT art.

As for future plans, La Buena has catering contracts with several institutions.

Gigena is in talks with other venues around the city for future pop-ups. And in time for National Empanada day (April 8), La Buena will be back at Wunder Garten.

“We hope to create a positive food experience using fresh ingredients and a healthier cooking alternative, while also honoring our family’s legacy and culture at a time that was perfect for us and for our audience,” Gigena says.

Fabulous films presents

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Indie fest unveils ‘LGBTQ-athon’ Thursday

By BRIAN T. CARNEY This year the D.C. Independent Film Festival, now celebrating its 21st anniversary, is adding an exciting new feature: a showcase featuring the work of independent queer filmmakers from around the world.

The LGBTQ-athon will take place on Thursday, March 5 at the screening room in the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign. The evening will start with a free cocktail reception at 6 p.m. followed by the screening and a panel discussion on “The State of LGBTQ Filmmaking” led by Ebone Bell of Tagg Magazine.

Bell and the artists will talk about how independent filmmakers can get more LGBTQ stories onto the big screen.

Deirdre Evans-Pritchard, festival executive director and programmer, is thrilled by the five outstanding films that will be presented during the inaugural LGBTQ-athon. She says the films demonstrate not only a high level of artistic excellence, but an exciting level of swagger and sexy confidence.

“These films are not only about the struggle,” she says. “They explore questions of identity in the context of the bigger world. They contribute to a discussion around ideas and not just issues. Overall, they’re pretty lighthearted, but they give audiences a lot to talk about.”

The five excellent films cover a dazzling array of themes and genres.

The American documentary “Where My Girls” by Mads Engel is an insightful portrait of three amazing female hip-hop artists as they reflect on the hustle needed to make it in the industry as they create art, build community, battle sexism and try to make a living.

“The Holocaust Is Over, Bitch” is a fascinating experimental film

by Israeli filmmaker Ella Altman about a broken-hearted lesbian Israeli artist who’s been left by her Polish lover. Altman weaves together faux documentary footage with an exuberant music video in a delightful exploration of love. loss and the restorative power of art.

A scene from ‘Going Steady.’

(Photo courtesy the festival)

“Free Fun,” directed by Fehmu Oztürk from Cyprus, is a narrative short. The intrepid Kika enters an adult VR game but encounters something she never expected.

“Good Genes” is a wildly inventive American sci-fi comedy web series by Hannah Welever. In this episode, a clever hybrid of Spike Lee and James Cameron, Tayla, a black, queer fashion intern is unexpectedly reunited with her deadbeat father; battles corporate greed, racism, sexism and homophobia; and, encounters killer space aliens.

Finally, in “Going Steady,” a stylish satire by American filmmaker Brydie O’Connor, a woman in 1950s Kansas fantasizes about the kind of relationship she truly desires.

D.C. Independent Film Festival LGBTQ-athon Thursday, March 5 6 p.m. cocktail reception, followed by screening and panel discussion Human Rights Campaign 1040 Rhode Island Ave., N.W. Tickets $15 (plus service charge) dciff-indie.org/2020-program-2/ lgbtq-athon/

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Double duty in ‘Mother Road’ Out Latinx actress savors role in ‘Grapes of Wrath’ sequel at Arena

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

NATALIE CAMUNAS has enjoyed having creative input beyond her roles in the various new plays she’s helped launch.

(Photo courtesy Arena)

When Natalie Camunas was asked to play Amelia, a young migrant worker in Octavio Solis’ “Mother Road,” a contemporary sequel to John Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl saga “The Grapes of Wrath,” she was excited to learn more about what she deems a very American experience.

Now making its East Coast premiere at Arena Stage with a production conceived

by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, “Mother Road” is about terminally ill William Joad’s search for a relative to whom he can leave his prosperous Oklahoma farm. Much to Joad’s surprise, his only living heir is Mexican-American, sometime-migrant worker Martín Jodes.

What follows is a tumultuous road trip filled with scrapes and discussion surrounding race, immigration, social justice, sexuality and family. Camunas plays Martín’s jilted bride.

“I get cast in these stories and I think it’s assumed because of how I look that there’s a narrative on my skin, that I’m

closer to the migrants’ story than other actors,” says Camunas, 32. “But for me, there’s no personal connection. What I know about migrants, I’ve learned through art.”

In 2018, Camunas understudied four of 12 parts in Luis Valdez’s “Valley of the Heart,” a Romeo and Juliet story of Japanese and Mexican farmworkers during the time of WWII Japanese internment. And now “Mother Road” with its storyline and details, has added to her knowledge. She says, “America was built on the backs of immigrant populations and there’s never really enough representation in the theater.

More would be better.”

Camunas, an enthusiastically selfdescribed queer second-generation Latinx actor, is particularly pleased that Arena, whose mission focuses on producing American works, markedly includes “Mother Road” in that canon.

“Latin immigrants and migrant workers have always been here,” she says. “So anytime we can dive into stories and put that experience in context on the main stage, or any experience that we have yet to see on stage for that matter, it’s compelling and necessary.”

Every show has its miracles, and “Mother Road” is no exception. One of the production’s magic moments has been getting its chorus right, says Camunas, who plays Chorus Leader in addition to Amelia.

“We had very little to do to restage the show in Arena’s in-the-round Fichandler space, and five of the members were new additions to the cast.”

Fortunately, adds Camunas, the production was helmed by out director, Bill Rauch.

“He’s a solution-based director. That alleviates worry. If the captain of the ship isn’t panicking that trickles down to the cast in a very good way. Also, Rauch is collaborative — entirely egoless about the story and the narrative. That’s so important to me.”

Because Camunas is primarily cast

in new works, she’s been afforded opportunities for collaboration. Typically, rehearsals begin with the playwright in the room making changes, prompting the shape of the work to shift as actors discover their characters.

“It’s very gratifying to have a director or playwright who affirms your input about dialogue, blocking and costume editing,” she says. “When everyone is on the same page like that, the work really pops.”

Her entry into showbiz was tentative.

After graduating from University of Southern California with a B.A. in communications in 2009, Camunas was unsure what to do next. On impulse, she took a marketing internship at The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company in Los Angeles. There she learned how a theater company actually worked and that artists could successfully forge careers in the arts.

Encouraged by her mentor, busy actor Matt Orduna, she reluctantly began studying acting. Turns out, she loved it, and after two years of training, she began working professionally and has worked consistently ever since — mostly regional theater, some TV and film, and a lot of voiceover work (where being bilingual in English and Spanish has been advantageous).

After “Mother Road,” Camunas plans to return to her home in Los Angeles and be with her girlfriend, a creative director in marketing, and their dog, a female Shiba Inu named Chuck. After going hard at regional theater for several years, she’d like to focus on TV and film. She says, “It’s time to stay put for a while.”

‘Mother Road’ Through March 8 Arena Stage 1101 Sixth St., S.W. $41-95 202-488-3300 arenastage.org

F E BR UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 3 5

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5 things to know before buying a second home Careful budgeting, understanding tax implications are key

By JEFF HAMMERBERG Without question, buying your first home is a momentous occasion. It’s a huge milestone in most people’s lives.

It’s exciting. It’s wonderful. And if we’re being honest, it can also be a little intimidating. After all there’s a lot to learn.

By the time you’re considering buying a second home, chances are that you’re at a different place in your life.

You probably feel more prepared, more knowledgeable, and less anxious – and understandably so. Certainly, when you buy your second home, you’ll have the benefit of knowing the basics about home buying because you’ve already been through it at least once. Despite this, however, buying a second home is also a momentous and significant decision, and there are some factors you’ll want to be aware of, and be sure to consider thoroughly.

At GayRealEstate.com, we’ve worked with countless clients looking to purchase a second home for one reason or another, and we have been honored to have the opportunity to help connect those clients with agents who have helped them find the second home of their dreams. In the course of doing that, here are five pieces of advice we’ve come to learn about making this exciting purchase: • Think Through Your Long-Term Needs and Goals: Spend some time to carefully think through what type of second home might best fit your needs and your lifestyle. Are you looking for a home that you can visit as a quick weekend getaway? If so, purchasing a home within a day’s drive of your current residence might be a smart move. Or perhaps instead, you may be considering purchasing your second home as a retirement spot. If this is the case, really think through what you’ll want and appreciate in a home and in a location as you grow older. Are you purchasing the home as an investment, and planning to rent it to others throughout most of the year? If so, investigate the popularity of

Buying a second home? Here are five things you should know.

the area, and any rental requirements that may apply.

• Thoroughly Consider Extra Expenses: A second home is more than just another mortgage payment, and it’s important to keep that in mind when you consider making a purchase of this nature. It also means a second set of utility bills, budgeting for any additional maintenance or home repairs that will be necessary, potential homeowners association costs if the neighborhood has an HOA, and potentially a second insurance policy for your second home, depending upon the rules set forth by your insurer. Generally, in fact, second homes tend to be more costly to insure, particularly if they are going to be vacant for any prolonged period of time, or if they are in popular vacation destination areas that can be sometimes more prone to things like floods, hurricanes, or high winds. As a result, it can be wise to truly think through and lay out a detailed budget, taking into account not only the mortgage, insurance costs, and taxes on your second home, but also any other contingent expenses that might arise.

• Understand any Renting Rules: Renting out your second home can be

an excellent way to supplement your monthly mortgage payment, but it is important to realize that renting does come with its fair share of responsibilities.

It means either hiring a qualified and capable property manager who can oversee the day-to-day rental needs, or being able and willing to take care of these matters capably and promptly on your own. There are also important things to realize about renting from a tax perspective as well. Generally, you don’t have to pay taxes on rental income if you rent out your home for fewer than 15 days a year. If you rent the home for more than 15 days a year, you do have to report the income on your taxes, but you will also be able to deduct expenses for maintenance and cleaning up to a certain amount. It’s also important to find out whether any rental rules exist in the community where you’re considering purchasing your second home. Some require a minimum rental time, and others have certain bylaws and other requirements that may apply.

• Take Taxes into Account: Depending upon where you purchase your second home, property taxes might add a significant amount to your

housing expenses. This is not to mention the fact that all vacation homes are either classified by the IRS as a personal residence, or as a rental property. If you rent the home out more than 14 days per year, then it is classified as a rental property, and you won’t be able to claim the mortgage interest tax deduction that you would be able to claim on a personal residence. It’s also important to remember that you can only deduct interest paid on mortgages of $750,000 or less in total, on all of your homes.

• Hire a Local Real Estate Agent: The truth of the matter is that no one will know and understand the area in which you’re interested in purchasing your second home like a resident of that area will. The value of having an agent who is familiar with and knowledgeable about the community in which you want to purchase your second home cannot be overstated. At GayRealEstate.com, we have access to the nation’s top gay real estate agents – agents who work in communities across the country, and who would be an excellent resource for your second home search.

Purchasing a second home is an exciting occasion – one that signals a wonderful new chapter of your future in a new place that you love. If you make that decision fully informed and aware of all the important factors that you should consider, chances are good that you’ll have many happy years ahead to enjoy the home you ultimately decide upon, and all that it has to offer.

At GayRealEstate.com, we would be honored to have the opportunity to help you with the search for the second home of your dreams. Contact us today!

Jeff Hammerberg

is the founding CEO of GayRealEstate. com. Reach him at 888-420-MOVE (6683), via e-mail, manager@gayrealestate.com, and on Facebook via gayrealestate.

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