Washingtonblade.com, Volume 51, Issue 26, June 26, 2020

Defund the police?

Locals weigh impact on LGBTQ community Page 09

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LGBTQ groups lower D.C. budget request Advocates mum on status of $10.6 million revised ask

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.comcjohnson@washblade.com A coalition of 10 local LGBTQ or LGBTQ supportive organizations that called on Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council in January to approve $22.6 million in the city’s fiscal year 2021 budget for LGBTQ related programs has lowered its request to $10.6 million.

In a June 4 joint letter to D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), the groups said that due to the city’s severe budget shortfall brought about by the coronavirus outbreak, the groups had pared down their original request by just under $12 million to ask for $10.6 million.

“In January, our Coalition advised the Mayor on important investments for the LGBTQ+ community in the FY 2021 Budget,” the groups stated in the joint letter. “Due to COVID-19, the Mayor had to make sacrifices and tough decisions and none of us envy the position she was placed in,” the letter says.

“However, members of the LGBTQ + community have continuously had to make sacrifices and tough decisions their entire lives,” the letter continues. “And, to continue to put their needs on the chopping block will only further put their lives and those of friends, family, and others at risk.”

The letter lists five specific requests for funding in the original budget proposal that the groups say they have dropped in their revised proposal. Among them was a request for $3.5 million for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs to establish a competitive grants program aimed at local LGBTQ organizations that provide social services for LGBTQ people.

Also removed from the revised request were calls for $700,000 from the D.C. Office of Aging and Community Living for a city community dining and cultural competence program for LGBTQ seniors and a $300,000 request of reserved funds for the Capital Trans Pride celebration.

Attached to the coalition’s letter to Mendelson was a 14-page outline of 11 specific funding requests for LGBTQ related programs in the revised proposal whose funds would come from at least seven D.C. government agencies totaling $10.6 million.

“We have been in constant contact with members and staff regarding these requests,” said coalition spokesperson Japer Bowles in a June 8 email to the Washington Blade. He was referring to the coalition’s interaction with staff and members of the D.C. Council to push for the funding requests.

“We look forward to getting these critical programs funded,” Bowles said.

But Bowles and other members of the coalition had not responded to a request by the Blade earlier this week for an update on whether members or the chairpersons of at least six D.C. Council committees that oversee the budgets of the agencies from which the LGBTQ coalition is seeking the funds are likely to approve the funding requests.

All Council committees were expected to vote on the budgets of the city agencies they oversee by the end of this week. The Council’s Committee of the Whole, which consists of all Council members, and the full 13-member Council were expected to vote on their final approval of the city budget by the end of July.

The organizations making up the LGBTQ coalition include the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s Rainbow Caucus, Casa Ruby, Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, SMYAL, Whitman-Walker Health, Capital Pride Alliance, The DC Center for the LGBT Community, HIPS, Wanda Alston Foundation, and Rainbow Families.

Among the new proposals in the coalition’s 11 specific budget requests is a $345,000 funding allocation from the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development for an “LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Synergy Home Sharing Pilot Program.” The program calls for 12 young LGBTQ adults ages 18 to 24 to be housed within the homes of 12 older LGBTQ adults ages 60 and older who live alone and have spare living space.

“Through the Pilot Program, a participating older adult homeowner will hire a participating young adult to perform basic housekeeping tasks several hours a week in exchange for occupancy within the older adults’ home,” the program’s proposal states.

“The Pilot Program is designed with special consideration towards low-to-moderateincome LGBTQ+ older adults and at-risk LGBTQ+ young adults, with particular focus on those who identify as transgender persons of color, and aims to alleviate a number of key disadvantages experienced by these individuals…”

David Meadows, a spokesperson for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), 0 6 • WAS H I NGTO NBLA D E.COM • J UNE 26, 2020 • LOCA L NE W S

A coalition of groups in the city has asked D.C. Council Chair PHIL MENDELSON to approve $10.6 for LGBTQ-related new programs.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

who chairs the Council’s Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization, said Bonds strongly supports the proposed pilot program but was uncertain whether there would be sufficient funds available to cover it in the mayor’s budget proposal submitted to the Council earlier this year.

Among the other LGBTQ budget related requests by the coalition include these proposals: • $630,000 added to the budget of the D.C. Office of Human Rights for six additional full-time employees to enhance OHR’s efforts to address anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

• A waiver of $400,000 in fees the city has charged the Capital Pride Alliance each year in recent years for street closings and other city services to enable the Capital Pride Parade, Festival and other Pride related events to take place in public spaces.

• A $700,000 allocation for the D.C. Department of Health and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) for the implementation of the LGBTQ+ Health Data Collection Amendment Act of 2018 that the city has not yet implemented.• • $20,000 for “rent abatement” for the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, which rents space in the city’s Reeves Municipal Building at 2000 14th Street, N.W. • $480,125 in additional funds for the D.C. Department of Human Services to fund “Programming to Support Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Youth Who are Homeless or at risk of Homelessness.”

• $480,000 to fund 20 city housing vouchers for low-income LGBTQ+ seniors struggling to avoid homelessness.

• A $350,000 increase in the Department of Employment Services budget to establish a “Trans tech social Hub” to help people who identify as transgender and queer to “combat employment discrimination and train for legal employment.”

• $5 million for a city procurement contract for a Transgender Employment, 24-Hour Wrap Around Services and Technical Trade Skills Academy to be operated by Casa Ruby. The program’s objective is to provide members of the transgender and LGBTQ community easier access to employment and “better lives.”

• $2.25 million annually for a total of $6.75 million for a three-year contract funded by the D.C. Department of Health for the sex worker advocacy and social services group HIPS to expand HIPS’ harm reduction and health services network program, which provides services for “homeless transgender and queer populations” in the city.

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You can’t pick and choose which black lives matter.

All Black

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LGBTQ activists express mixed views on defunding police Capital Pride, DC Center suggest diverting funds to queer programs

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com Local LGBTQ organizations and activists have expressed mixed views over whether the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department should be partially or completely “defunded” in the midst of a growing nationwide debate triggered by the Black Lives Matter movement to address police brutality and racial bias.

Several local LGBT groups and activists have said they support calls by the Black Lives Matter D.C. organization for significantly reducing the D.C. police budget and diverting police funds to social services and community-led violence interruption programs.

But none of the groups or activists who spoke to the Washington Blade has gone as far as others who say the D.C. police budget should be reduced each year “until we get to zero.”

However, the local LGBTQ group No Justice No Pride, which organized a June 13 protest rally and march in support of defunding the D.C. police that ended in front of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Northwest D.C. house, called on the mayor to “immediately defund MPD.” Some local LGBTQ activists, who appear to be in the minority, say they are cautious about any reduction in the D.C. police budget until the alternative crime reduction programs favored by Black Lives Matter D.C. and other groups are shown to be effective in reducing crime and protecting the safety of city residents.

These activists point out that LGBTQ people, especially transgender women of color, have been subjected to antiLGBTQ hate crimes and other violent crimes to a greater degree than other population groups.

“This is a very complex issue,” said longtime gay and Democratic Party activist Earl Fowlkes, who serves as executive director of the D.C.-based national LGBTQ organization Center for Black Equity.

“It has a lot to do with crime and why there is crime and what do we do to prevent crime before the police are even involved,” said Fowlkes, who expressed support for the social services programs advocated by Black Lives Matter and others to address the root causes of crime.

“But do we defund the police or eliminate the police? I don’t see that as a viable alternative at this time,” he said.

Officials with the DC Center for the LGBT Community and Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes the city’s annual Pride parade and festival, have expressed support for the “Defund MPD” calls by the local Black Lives Matter leaders, but have not called for a full defunding of the police budget.

In a joint email to local LGBTQ activists, the two groups have called for diverting funds from the police budget to help fund 11 specific LGBTQ-related programs proposed by a coalition of 10 local LGBTQ or LGBTQ supportive organizations of which the DC Center and Capital Pride are members.

Rehana Mohammed, chair of the DC Center’s board of directors, told a June 15 D.C. Council hearing on police issues that the Center opposes a proposal by Mayor Bowser to increase the police budget by $18.5 million for fiscal year 2021.

“We recommend instead investing those funds in community safety, social services, violence interruption programs, and community support programs,” Mohammed testified at the hearing. “The current strategies of creating reforms and increasing funding are simply not working,” she

A protest earlier this month calling for defunding D.C. police ended at the home of Mayor Bowser.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

said.

She attached to her written testimony the list of the 11 proposed LGBTQ programs that the coalition supporting them wants the D.C. Council to fund in the city’s FY 2021 budget that amount to $10.6 million.

Mohammed was referring to a sweeping police reform bill that the D.C. Council approved unanimously as an emergency measure on June 9. But the bill does not address the police budget, which the Council is expected to approve in July.

Ashley Smith, chair of the Capital Pride Alliance board of directors, said he too believes the traditional policing strategies in D.C. and other cities have failed to significantly reduce crime and create safer communities.

“I think Capital Pride, from an organizational perspective, we are totally advocating for funds to be diverted and greater investments to be made in supportive and preventive and community-based programs in order to address the needs of diverse communities,” Smith said.

Bobbi Elaine Strang, president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and a supporter of some degree of defunding the D.C. police, said she agrees with arguments by defunding advocates that much of the current funding for police goes to activities that police should not be doing.

“Our society asks police officers to act as drug counselors, mental health workers, and social workers,” Strang said.

“There are agencies and supportive services that are much better equipped to deal with those issues that should be sufficiently funded, which will allow us to limit the scope of the work we expect from police officers and enhance public safety,” she said.

Among those agreeing with Strang’s assessment is Naseema Shafi, CEO of Whitman-Walker Health, the city’s largest private healthcare agency serving the LGBTQ community.

“Whitman-Walker believes that funding for public safety should go to programs that create public safety,” Shafi told the Blade. “With that core belief, we support disinvesting in armed policing as a method of creating safety and in investing in our public safety budget including social supports that we know interrupt violence such as health care, education, housing, employment and other key areas,” she said.

“Sending armed police to respond to instances of intimate partner violence, mental health crises, and housing

instability has not safely or effectively served the LGBTQ community,” Shafi said. “Whitman-Walker believes that through listening to leaders in Black communities who have been envisioning a safer and more equitable future, we can create a public safety and justice system that makes our whole community safer and stronger,” she said. ongtime D.C. gay activist and Ward 8 community leader Phil Pannell expressed a differing view when he spoke during a June 15 webinar on the D.C. police funding issue hosted by Capital Pride and the DC Center. Among the panelists who spoke at the webinar in favor of reducing the police budget were Preson Mitchum, adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center; and Ward 4 D.C. Council candidate and community activist Janeese Lewis George.

“I’m going to be really honest, and it really hurts to say this,” Pannell said during the online forum. “But as a black gay senior citizen who lives in a poorer part of town, I’m more afraid of being on the streets of Ward 8 and being confronted by a young man in a hoodie than someone in a police uniform,” he said.

“I’ve been one of those folks who have been in the chorus of wanting more police in Ward 8 because I’ve been victimized so many times,” Pannell said. “And right on the block where I live I’ve had three neighbors and friends who have been killed. And none of them were killed by police,” Pannell said.

“I would hope that those of us in the LGBTQ community will at least engage in meaningful discussion with police officers,” he said. “And I truly feel that we can have an honest discussion about police brutality without brutalizing the police.”

Pannell told the Blade he acknowledges the need for police reforms to prevent the police killings of black men in other cities that have rocked the country and triggered ongoing protests against police abuse.

“But I don’t believe the behavior of rogue cops represents the general behavior of the police any more than I think the behavior of pedophile priests represents the general behavior of the Roman Catholic clergy,” Pannell said.

D.C. police spokesperson Dustin Sternbeck did not respond to a request by the Blade for the police view of what impact a substantial cut in the police budget would have on police efforts to curtail hate crimes, including anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.

The Blade also asked Sternbeck in an email whether police officials think a cut in the police budget would have a negative impact on the operation of the police LGBT Liaison Unit, which has responded for many years to calls for police help by LGBTQ people in the city. Sternbeck or another police spokesperson had not responded as of late Tuesday.

Gay former D.C. Police Lt. Brett Parson, who served as head of the department’s Special Liaison Branch that oversees the LGBT Liaison Unit, retired from the force last year. When asked last week about his views on the controversy surrounding calls for defunding the police and the impact it could have on the LGBT Liaison unit, Parson declined to comment. But he offered his view on the overall policing issues under debate across the country.

“I support the current discussions and calls for reform of policing in our nation,” he said. “If we are to have true peace CONTINUES ON PAGE 10

LOCA L NE W S • JUN E 2 6 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 0 9

Locals weigh in on calls to defund police CONTINUED FROM PAGE 09

and equality in our nation in communities, regardless of race or any other trait, police must gain the trust of all citizens through fair, compassionate, and effective reform,” Parson said. “I hope to be part of that reform movement.”

Gregory Pemberton, chair of the D.C. Police Union, told the Blade the union strongly opposes cuts to the police budget. When asked by the Blade if a significant budget cut would have an impact on the police response to calls for police help by LGBTQ people, he said police response to all calls for service would be hindered.

“MPD responds to over 700,000 911 calls per year,” he said. “That’s nearly 2,000 calls per day where someone is in distress. If we start reducing the number of police officers or their equipment like cars and bicycles, the response time will increase for all citizens,” Pemberton said.

“The first things that are going to be cut from police services are training and personnel,” he said in discussing the impact of a large budget cut. “These are the two tenets of responsible policing, having well trained police and having enough of them to respond to the citizens,” said Pemberton.

“The idea that cutting the budget would somehow improve policing is completely contradictory to common sense.”

When asked what he thought of proposals by Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ organizations to divert funds from the police to community-based violence interruption programs as an alternative to police involvement, Pemberton said he and the union would be “all ears” if such programs would lessen the need for a police response.

But he added, “Until someone provides us with a

blueprint of exactly how this would work, I’m leery of how successful these approaches would be.”

Among those expressing concern over police defunding are LGBTQ nightlife industry workers, many of whom are hoping to return to work at the city’s restaurants, bars, and nightclubs that have been forced to close or limit operations due to coronavirus.

“As a nightlife advocate, I know firsthand how special policing programs make our nighttime socializing areas safe for workers and accessible for patrons,” said gay nightlife business advocate Mark Lee. “As venues fully re-open in the next fiscal year, they want to ensure there are sufficient monies to reduce the major pre-shutdown crime spike in commercial districts,” Lee said.

“Cities across the country with robust nightlife economies like D.C. are working to create ‘best practice’ approaches for nighttime safety utilizing dedicated police teams,” Lee said.

“A merely symbolic slashing of the MPD budget threatens these initiatives.”

Lee said he was also troubled that requests by some local LGBTQ groups to redirect police funds to their organizations to operate proposed LGBTQ programs “smacks of opportunism and self-interest” and appears to be “less about how to improve policing than it is a money grab.”

Kent Boese, president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest local LGBTQ political group, serves as an elected member of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1A in Adams Morgan. He said that while the Stein Club and his ANC have yet to take a position on the police defunding

issue, he is concerned that while important city agencies such as the Office of Human Rights are slated for budget cuts, the mayor’s budget calls for an increase in funding for the police.

“While the current budget shows a strong priority for MPD, it does not similarly show a strong commitment to the critical services and programs that will make every District community a safer place,” Boese told the Blade. “So reducing the MPD budget is not only a legitimate option, it is a moral obligation provided the money is reprogrammed into the very services and programs that will result in safer, stronger communities – services and programs that have themselves been defunded for decades to the detriment of all.”

Adam Savit, president of the LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans of D.C., pointed to the separate April 2018 and June 2019 beatings of gay men by male attackers along the U Street, N.W. entertainment district as examples of why traditional policing is necessary to address incidents like these.

“Making moderate changes to the D.C. police budget and priorities may be helpful in solving existing problems in police-community relations,” Savit said. “However, massive funding cuts or defunding the police entirely shows a complete misunderstanding of why responsible use of force is needed to keep citizens safe,” he said.

“Perhaps more destruction than defunding is the moral and political undermining of the police to the point that they can’t do their job,” he said. “All citizens, including LGBT citizens, would be less safe if the MPD is defunded.”

Roem wants to repurpose middle school to commemorate Stonewall Virginia state Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) has called for the repurposing of a Prince William County middle school to commemorate the Stonewall riots.

The Prince William County Public School Board was scheduled to hold its second community input session over the renaming of Stonewall Jackson High School and Stonewall Middle School on Thursday. Roem has called for Stonewall Middle School in Manassas to be repurposed as a way to honor the Stonewall riots.

“We can celebrate the cause of liberation led by empowered Black and Brown trans women Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera that launched the LGBTQ civil rights movement at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969,” tweeted Roem on June 19.

However, she said the high school name should be changed entirely. State Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D-Prince William County) wrote a letter to the school board supporting Roem’s position.

“I write to support the recommendation given by Del. Danica Roem,” Foy stated. “To repurpose the name ‘Stonewall Middle School’ to celebrate a cause led by people of color who fought for equity, justice and liberation.”

The virtual public hearing was scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m., after Blade press time.

Visit washingtonblade.com for updates. Community members can also comment at the June 29 meeting when the school board votes on the renaming.

PHILIP VAN SLOOTEN

Virginia state Del. Danica Roem wants to honor Stonewall activism.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

Md. couple’s daughter born in Canada is U.S. citizen: judge A federal judge in Maryland last week said the State Department must recognize the U.S. citizenship of a gay couple’s daughter who was born in Canada via surrogate.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang ruled in favor of Roee Kiviti and Adiel Kiviti of Chevy Chase, Md., who were legally married in California in 2013. Their daughter, Kessem Kiviti, was born in February 2019.

A lawsuit the couple filed in the U.S. District Court of Maryland last September notes the Kivitis were both American citizens when their daughter was born. The lawsuit also notes

Section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act states “a baby born abroad to married parents is a U.S. citizen at birth when both parents are U.S. citizens and one of them has resided in the United States at any point prior to the baby’s birth.”

An official with the State Department on Wednesday told the Washington Blade it is “aware of the court’s ruling and is reviewing the decision with the Department of Justice.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS LOCA L N E W S • JUN E 2 6 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 0 9

Trump admin sued over anti-trans health care rule Supreme Court ruling countermands discriminatory policy

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com

With the Trump administration refusing to take back its rule permitting anti-transgender discrimination in health care following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights effectively countermanding it, LGBTQ legal advocates are returning to the courts to bring the federal government into compliance.

The LGBTQ legal group Lambda Legal sued the Trump administration Monday over a rule from the Department of Health & Human Services permitting health care workers to refuse service to transgender people, including transitionrelated care and gender reassignment surgery. The case and the 85-page complaint is now pending before the U.S. District Court for D.C. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, said in a HARPER JEAN TOBIN, center, speaks at a rally for transgender health in front of House on May 29, 2019.

Zoom call with reporters Monday the (Blade photo by Michael Key) lawsuit was necessary because the Trump administration has used the law as to the Trump administration’s health care rule, calling it “not a “weapon to target and hurt vulnerable in compliance with the law” in the aftermath of the landmark communities, particularly the LGBTQ community.” decision.

“They are seeking to harm those who have already “To be clear, Bostock’s holding that discrimination experienced alarming rates of discrimination when seeking on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status care,” Gonzalez-Pagan said. “Even now, in the midst of a constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex forecloses global pandemic, their actions are simply wrong, they are HHS’s attempts to deny the full protection of Section 1557 callous, they are immoral. More importantly, for purposes of to LGBTQ individuals and patients in health care settings,” today, they are illegally indefensible.” the lawsuit says.

The Trump administration rule change was based The lawsuit also seeks an injunction against the Trump on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars administration rule change on the basis of it being arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sex in health care. During and capricious, in excess of statutory authority, in violation the final year of the Obama administration, HHS issued a of due process and equal protection under the Fifth rule interpreting the definition of “sex” to apply to cases of Amendment and in violation of freedom of speech and discrimination in health care against transgender people, religion under the First Amendment. women who have had abortions and patients with limited “The Revised Rule violates the Establishment Clause English proficiency. by creating expansive religious exemptions for health However, in defiance of widespread legal precedent care providers, plans, and employees at the expense of affirming anti-transgender discrimination is unlawful — third parties – namely, plaintiffs, other providers, and most and refusing to wait until later in the month, when the U.S. importantly the patients and the individuals whom plaintiffs Supreme Court would issue the final word on the issue — the serve,” the complaint says. “It invites health care providers, Trump administration revoked those regulations earlier this including insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, and month with a rule change based on a narrow interpretation nurses, to deny LGBTQ patients necessary medical of the word “sex.” treatment based on their religious beliefs.”

The move prompted an outcry from transgender Although the lawsuit challenges theTrump administration advocates who said it would enable widespread rule change on legal grounds, representatives of plaintiffs in discrimination in health care during the time of a global the lawsuit made an impassioned plea for reversal of the coronavirus pandemic. LGBTQ legal advocates had Trump administration rule change based on immortality threatened to sue over the reversal, which came to pass on and widespread harm of denying health care to LGBTQ Monday. people.

Chief among the reasons cited in the lawsuit for the Naseema Shafi, CEO of the D.C.-based Whitmanunlawfulness of the Trump administration’s action was the Walker Health, said many D.C.-based LGBTQ patients come U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, to the clinic because they experience marginalization and which determined anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of rejection in health care. sex discrimination, thus illegal in the workplace under Title “Too often we learn of examples, such as a transgender VII of the Civil Rights Act. patient who is subjected to hostile questions about who Even though the Supreme Court ruling was based on they are when seeking help from a hospital emergency employment, the lawsuit says the Bostock decision applies

room for deep pain, questions that may have long-term impact on whether that person seeks care when they are in pain again,” Shafi said.

Other examples Shafi cited were a transgender woman with cancer who was refused an ultrasound after being openly mocked by a technician performing the procedure, or patients trying to fill a prescription for PrEP for HIV prevention being denied service at a pharmacy.

“This type of discrimination is routine, and as health care providers we are obligated to do better and to rectify a history of upholding barriers to health and well-being,” Shafi said.

According to a 2017 survey conducted by the Center for American Progress, about 29 percent of transgender people reported being denied health care because of their actual or perceived gender identity. Eight percent of survey respondents reported the White being denied health care because of their sexual orientation.

Terra Russell-Slavin, deputy director of the Policy and Community Building Department at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, said on the Zoom call the Trump administration rule change is particularly reprehensible during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Many of our clients come to the center because they face discrimination and dehumanization when they seek basic medical care from other providers,” Russell-Slavin said. “That our government would seek to restrict access to care during a worldwide pandemic is yet another attack on their humanity.”

It should be noted that regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, the underlying law on which the HHS rules are based, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, is still in place, as is its language prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in health care. If LGBTQ people feel they experienced discrimination in health care, they can still sue in court, even if they can’t take it up with the HHS Office of Civil Rights under the Trump administration regulations.

One wrinkle in the lawsuit against the Trump administration is an injunction issued in 2016 by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas against the Obama administration’s trans-inclusive interpretation of the law.

The U.S. government was enjoined from enforcing the rule regardless of an administrative rule change in the back end. The Trump administration had the opportunity to appeal that injunction, but declined.

But if the injunction against Obama-era trans-inclusive interpretation of the law stays in place, and the district court in D.C. issues an injunction against the Trump administration reversal, what action should HHS take?

Gonzalez-Pagan, asked about potential conflicting injunctions by the Blade, acknowledged higher courts may have to adjudicate conflicting injunctions to resolve them.

“Certainly if there are competing injunctions, we can see this move up to higher levels of courts, whether it’s a court of appeals, or at some point, even SCOTUS, if they so decide to take this case,” Gonzalez-Pagan said.

NATI ON A L N E W S • JUN E 2 6 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 1 1

Is LGBTQ fight finished after Bostock? Not so fast, advocates say Trans safety, federal legislation cited as priorities

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com “They pretty much adopted the Equality After rendering a 33-page decision on Act because while it only applies in that case workplace rights, the U.S. Supreme Court bestowed to employment, the best analogy here is the a capstone victory on the LGBTQ movement as it Supreme Court decision that separate but equal was envisioned by leaders just 10 years ago, raising is unconstitutional,” Frank said. “The principle questions about what will happen next — and even that where sex applies to sexual orientation and if the LGBTQ movement has largely achieved its gender identity applies to any other subject. chief goals.

So any place in the wall where discrimination The victory happened with little fanfare. Amid based on sex is outlawed, we’re covered. Credit, the coronavirus pandemic, members of the LGBTQ housing, etc.” community didn’t swarm the Supreme Court to Frank said the Bostock decision “will take celebrate like they did with the marriage equality care of our legislative agenda,” but when asked victories. Because of cancellations of Pride events if that will be the end of the LGBTQ movement, due to coronavirus, the major victory wasn’t he conceded a few issues remain, especially for celebrated in Pride parades or festivals. Some Pride transgender people. events were renewed at a time of national unrest, “We will have to go on the defense now against but the focus instead of LGBTQ rights was shifted the effort to expand the religious exemption to to systemic racism and police brutality. give a license to discriminate,” Frank said. “So I It didn’t help that President Trump’s don’t think we have to pass anything, we have response to the landmark decision was a vague Revelers lined Fifth Avenue near Manhattan’s Union Square on June 30, 2019, to make sure they don’t get stuff through that acknowledgement that “we live with the decision.” for the WorldPride parade. broadens the religious exemption. And if the In contrast, President Obama after the ruling for (Blade photo by Michael Key) Supreme Court were to broaden the religious marriage equality in 2015 summoned the White exemption, we would need a statute, we’d want House press corps to the Rose Garden to say in to go after that, but I don’t think we’re likely to see that.” same-sex couples, remains a personal issue for her. extended remarks the decision was a time when “justice In addition to saying “we’re pretty complete on the “There’s the law on the books, and then there’s the arrives like a thunderbolt.” legislative side,” Frank said tremendous strides have lived realities of people’s lives,” Parker said. “We can Nonetheless, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bostock been made for LGBTQ people in public opinion, which win lots of legal protections, but the lived reality can be v. Clayton County will go down in history for bestowing has enabled that legislative progress. different, as we have seen with Black Lives Matter…There’s LGBTQ non-discrimination protections in the workplace “I think prejudice based on sexual orientation — again, still a lot of work to do with institutions around our lives.” and achieving a long-sought goal many viewed as the not gender identity — is beginning to resemble antiThe goals of the LGBTQ movement weren’t always so final frontier in the LGBTQ movement.

Semitism in America,” Frank said. “Namely, still a problem broad.

So is it over? The answer is a resounding “no” from with some people with bad attitudes that will occasionally About 10 years ago, former Rep. Barney Frank would LGBTQ rights advocates. act out on that, but in general and legally and increasingly often tell a story in public settings about a conservative Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ politically, look around, you have Tim Cook, you had Pete lawmaker raising fears he’d enact with Nancy Pelosi the Task Force, said in an interview with the Washington Buttigieg, even the the informal barriers among most of “radical homosexual agenda.” Frank acknowledged that Blade on Tuesday, “we are not done by any stretch of the the society have substantially eroded.” charge was true, but then defined that agenda as the imagination.”

Organizational leaders in the LGBTQ movement simple goal of being able to join the Army, get married “We were nowhere near done when we won in are one thing, but another is LGBTQ people and and find a job. (Frank in a subsequent narration of the Windsor in 2013, we were nowhere near done when we commentators, some of whom are saying the Bostock incident would amend that agenda to include protections won Obergefell in 2015, and we’re certainly not done with ruling was the final word on LGBTQ rights. from hate crimes.) our win last week,” Carey said. “I would add that we have Andrew Sullivan, a gay conservative, anti-Trump Frank’s remarks were tongue-in-cheek, but no one a long way to go before we as a country realize full legal commentator, disparages U.S. Associate Justice Neil contradicted him. At the time, when LGBTQ people were rights for LGBTQ people and their families.”

Gorsuch in a column for New York Magazine for his hungry for any kind of victory, those goals were widely As the LGBTQ movement began to tally up victories, “constrained” logic in ruling for LGBTQ rights, but accepted as the correct parameters for the movement. its leaders have already begun to expand their goals to concedes the Bostock decision was nonetheless But if that’s the “radical homosexual agenda,” then tasks like banning conversion therapy, legalizing adoption “immediate and transformative.” it’s done. The Matthew Shepard & James Boyd Jr. Hate

by LGBTQ families as well as tackling intersectional issues, “Every single goal the gay-rights movement has set Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 instituted protections like ending barriers in immigration, Black Lives Matter and out to achieve in my lifetime has been won,” Sullivan against hate crimes. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal the next affordable health care. Transgender rights saw a victory in writes. “Gays can marry; we serve our country openly with year allowed openly gay people to serve in the military.

Bostock, but the community continues to struggle. pride; we are categorically protected from discrimination The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Section 3 Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund in employment and public accommodations in every of the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, then overturning and longtime LGBTQ rights activist in Texas, identified state. Many once thought it would happen in reverse state bans against same-sex marriage in 2015 brought full those issues as still being on the table, calling the idea order, with employment discrimination barred before marriage rights. that the LGBTQ movement is over “extremely shortcivl marriage was extended to gays and lesbians, but And now, being able to get a job is secured for LGBTQ sighted and unrealistic.” history has its surprises. Nonetheless, it’s done. Finished. people thanks to the decision in Bostock v. Clayton “In general, as we have seen, what the Trump Accomplished.”

County, which determined anti-LGBTQ discrimination is administration has done in trying to dismantle rights of Transgender people may tell a different story. Despite a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of people all across the country, including LGBTQ people, the historic ruling in Bostock and its affirmation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. the idea that ‘hey, we don’t have to worry about it anymore transgender rights in the workplace, the battle certainly Speaking with the Blade on Monday, Frank said those is a non-starter,” Parker said. isn’t over for trans Americans, who don’t even yet have remarks were “meant to make fun of the right wing,” As a wife and mother with four children, Parker said all the goals achieved as outlined by Frank’s tongue-inbut acknowledged those goals have been achieved, barriers surrounding adoption by LGBTQ families, such cheek “radical homosexual agenda.” especially because the Bostock decision apples to more a recently enacted rule from the Trump administration situations than just employment. allowing taxpayer-funded adoption agencies to reject 1 2 • WAS H I NGTO NBLA D E.COM • J UNE 26, 2020 • NATI ON A L N E W S

Pride Family Day Saturday, June 27, 10 a.m.

SAAM has moved its family events online!

Join us June 27 on Facebook Live as DC drag queen Ruth Allen Ginsburg reads classic nursery rhymes and tales for the whole family.

FREE. Registration required at AmericanArt.si.edu/pridekids

Our website also features step-by-step instructions for rainbow crafting at home and printable coloring pages based on artworks in SAAM’s collection.

Media sponsorship provided by the Washington Blade.

Photo courtesy of Ruth Allen Ginsburg

JUN E 2 6 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 1 3

Coronavirus leaves LGBTQ Salvadorans even more vulnerable Department.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — In the months since the “He spent a few days in that place with other LGBTI coronavirus pandemic began in China, it has affected the people who had arrived in the country,” an HT El Salvador entire world and El Salvador is no exception. Apart from representative told the Blade. “At no time was trans people’s not acquiring this virus and taking necessary sanitation gender identity respected.” measures, there are also concerns over the violation of The trans man was then transferred to another quarantine human rights and the lack of support for the most vulnerable center in Chalatenango Department, which did not have people who have been affected by the country’s mandatory adequate conditions. People who were housed there were lockdown. not healthy and were not given food.

One of the vulnerable groups that has been affected has “HT El Salvador later brought food and personal hygiene been the LGBTQ community.

El Salvador since March 11 has been under a mandatory national lockdown that has, among other things, closed down the country’s businesses and face-toface academic life. The situation has already had a significant impact on the Salvadoran economy.

“At the beginning, the situation in the country was handled correctly, such as the decision to close the airport in a timely manner; but there was poor planning,” Karla Guevara, a lawyer who is executive director of Colectivo Alejandría, told the Blade.

Guevara adds quarantine centers became “the epicenter ASPIDH ARCOÍRIS TRANS, a transgender rights group in El Salvador, has helped vulnerable of the pandemic” in El LGBTQ people during the national lockdown.

(Photo courtesy of Aspidh Arcoíris Trans) Salvador because they were “poorly … managed.” kits to this man that could also be distributed to more trans They have also been accused of violating the human rights people isolated there,” said HT El Salvador. of those who have been sent to them.

The organization does not know whether the kits were One such case involves a transgender man whose distributed to trans people, which led them to file complaints gender identity was not respected. with El Salvador’s human rights ombudsman’s office.

The El Salvador Transgender Men Organization (HT “It was a clear violation of human rights for those people El Salvador) told the Blade a trans man returned from who allegedly violated the lockdown to be in quarantine Guatemala on March 13, the day the country’s state of centers,” Erick Ortiz, an openly gay National Assembly emergency took effect. Authorities detained him and candidate for the Nuestro Tiempo party, told the Blade. “It temporarily sent him to a quarantine center in Usulután

was more complex for the LGBTI community, since there were no protocols in those quarantine centers that guaranteed an environment free of discrimination and violence; and there were unfortunately cases of discrimination and violence against gay men, lesbian women and trans people within these quarantine centers.”

ERNESTO VALLE

Activists demand cancellation of Puerto Rico gossip show Advocacy groups have joined calls for a Puerto Rican gossip show to be cancelled after its host mocked a lesbian woman of African descent.

Antulio “Kobbo” Santarrosa, host of “La Comay”, which is hosted by a life-sized puppet with the same name that he voices, mocked Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, a lawyer who is running for the Puerto Rico Senate, on the June 12 program.

WAPA, a Puerto Rican television station, aired Santarrosa’s “SuperXclusivo” program when Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ advocacy group, in 2013 launched a boycott after La Comay mocked a gay man who was murdered. WAPA subsequently cancelled “SuperXclusivo.”

Mega TV has aired “La Comay” since January 2019.

Serrano on Friday told the Blade that 11 of the program’s 12 advertisers have pulled their ads in response to Santarrosa’s comments against Rivera.

“We already took Kobbo off of WAPA TV in 2013, now we have to get him off of Mega TV and out of television forever,” said Serrano in a statement he released on June 14.

“Transphobia, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia and any other form of discrimination has no place on our television and much less in our society. We therefore demand that Mega TV remove Kobbo from television and cancel the program ‘La Comay’ for promoting hate.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Court blocks Trump from ending DACA AThe U.S. Supreme Court last week in a 5-4 ruling blocked the Trump administration from ending a program that allows young undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. and obtain work permits.

More than 600,000 immigrants have benefitted from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program since the Obama administration enacted it in 2012. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law notes this figure includes 39,000 LGBTQ “Dreamers.”

The Trump administration in 2017 announced it would end the Obama-era program, but this effort was challenged in court.

“Undocumented LGBT young adults are a particularly vulnerable population,” said Williams Institute Research Director Kerith J. Conron in a statement. “DACA helps many of them to get an education, find employment, and support

themselves and their families while contributing to the U.S. economy.”

The Human Rights Campaign and the National LGBTQ Task Force are among the LGBTQ advocacy groups that welcomed Thursday’s ruling.

“Today, the Supreme Court put a speedbump in the road for Trump’s attempt to use the lives of undocumented immigrants to drive his nationalist agenda,” said National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey. “The Supreme Court did the right thing by upholding the right of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients, many of whom are LGBTQ, to stay in the U.S. to work, attend school and be protected from deportation.”

The Supreme Court issued its DACA decision three days after it ruled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and

1 4 • WAS H I NGTO NBLA D E.COM • J UNE 26, 2020 • I NTE R N ATI ONA L NE W S

gender identity.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — who is among the attorneys general from 20 states and D.C. who challenged the Trump administration’s efforts to end DACA — praised the ruling.

“Today, justice prevailed for every ‘Dreamer’ who has worked hard to help build our country — our neighbors, teachers, doctors and first responders,” said Becerra in a statement. “Today, America told the Dreamers that this is their home.” form of discrimination has no place on our television and much less in our society. We therefore demand that Mega TV remove Kobbo from television and cancel the program ‘La Comay’ for promoting hate.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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KEVIN NAFF is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at knaff@ washblade.com

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Gorsuch’s sweeping ruling extends job protections to millions

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination against LGBTQ workers. It was a sweeping and unexpected ruling from a conservative-majority court.

The seeds for that milestone victory were planted nearly 50 years ago in 1974, when Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.) introduced the original Equality Act, an expansive measure that sought to amend Title VII to ban discrimination “on the basis of sex, marital status, or sexual orientation in public accommodations, public COMING SOON facilities, public education, federally assisted pro rams housin and financial services.”

That bill failed, of course, as did several others in the intervening decades, leaving millions of LGBTQ workers vulnerable to harassment and discrimination on the job.

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league. Their combined cases led to the historic court ruling that determines antiLGBTQ bias is a form of sex discrimination, thus prohibited under Title VII. n emplo er who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”

At a time of increasing attacks and rolling back of LGBTQ rights at the federal level, the decision — notably penned by Trump-appointee Gorsuch — is a welltimed Pride month reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

The ruling should apply to laws other than Title VII, including the Fair Housing Act, the Affordable Care Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1964.

That would mean LGBTQ people now have federal protections not only in employment, but also in housing, health care and in school systems.

As the Blade reported, because no federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in public accommodations or federal programs, the ruling does nothing for LGBTQ protections in those areas. For example, Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who refused to make a custom wedding cake for a samesex couple and narrowly won a previous case before the Supreme Court, would still be able to refuse service to LGBTQ customers under this ruling.

No federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the U.S. military, so President Trump’s ban on transgender military service will remain in effect.

So the road ahead for the LGBTQ movement will include efforts to finall pass the Equality Act, which remains bottled up in the Senate. It will likely take a Democratic Senate and president to finall reali e ep b u s dream of nearly 50 years ago.

In the meantime, LGBTQ Americans can finall report to wor as first class citi ens confident the will be ud ed by their performance and not based on whom they love.

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Trump the snake oil salesman

Tulsa campaign swing an unmitigated disaster

Anyone watching and listening to Trump at his failed rally in Tulsa had to think of a snake oil salesman or a carnival barker.

He put on a two-hour rant many think might have missed the mark even for his cult of followers.

Two hours of screaming lies presented by an unhinged person masquerading as a president. He actually spent nearly 15 minutes talking about walking down a ramp at the West Point graduation and why he drank a glass of water like he did. Telling the small crowd it was to avoid getting water on his tie with the sheen. Seriously this man is our president. Clearly the video of him bent over and gingerly walking down the ramp and using two hands to drink a glass of water got under his skin.

I felt sorry for his staff after the event.

Just seeing how he looked captured as he stepped off the helicopter on the White House lawn, I realized even he, who has a great way of fooling himself, saw the trip to Tulsa as a disaster. Prior to the event he and the campaign kept bragging about a million people having reserved tickets.

They set up a big stage outside the arena where he and the vice president would spea to the over ow crowd and then ended up with fewer than 10,000 people inside the fire department in ulsa said 6,200, in an arena that seats nearly 20,000. he cancelled the over ow event because no one was there.

The speech was a diatribe against every perceived and real enemy. It was a clumsy distraction from the real damage Trump suffered in the preceding week. The Supreme Court handed him three defeats in a row. One was a vote on LGBTQ rights, which went 6-3 in favor of the community saying the 1964 Civil Rights Act covers the LGBTQ community and employers cannot discriminate against them based on sex, which the court interpreted to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Then by a 5-4 vote, “The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children,

a reprieve for nearly 650,000 recipients known as dreamers.”

In a third setback the court refused to hear the Trump administration’s challenge to the California law that “prohibits state officials from tellin federal ones when undocumented immigrants are to be released from state custody and restricts transfers of immigrants in state custody to federal immigration authorities.”

In addition to the Supreme Court decisions a federal judge rejected Trump’s effort to stop publication of the tell-all book

by John Bolton, former National Security Adviser. Then on Friday night Attorney General Barr asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, to step down. When Berman refused, Trump himself had to step in and fire someone who was leadin an investigation into one of his sycophants, Rudy Giuliani, and other Trump friends.

This after telling reporters he knew nothing about the firin and that it was all arr o a ainst this bac drop he ew to Tulsa to reenter campaign mode, the thing he likes best. Unfortunately for him the effort was a disaster and we have heard no new rallies announced. The New York imes reported i o users and fans of orean pop music roups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Mr. Trump’s campaign rally as a prank.” While this hasn’t been confirmed as write this column it is disturbing in many ways. While I don’t want the Russians or the Chinese to interfere in our elections, I also don’t want any other social media groups to interfere with dirty tricks. Some Democrats laughed at this but those same groups can turn on Democrats at any time.

We need to ensure fair elections avoiding dirty tricks and accept that Trump seems perfectly capable of destroying himself. He appears to be doing just that during the dual crises our nation is facing. One the coronavirus and the other the protests against police brutality and demands by Black Lives Matter groups, joined by decent people everywhere, for long-denied judicial and economic equality for Black and Brown Americans.

We can rid ourselves of the snake oil salesman if Americans vote in record numbers on Nov. 3.

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AMANDA AYERS-RUIZ is an LGBTQ rights activist pursuing an undergraduate degree in Women & Gender Studies at Arizona State University.

Gender communications alive and (unfortunately) well

A need to change our view of clothes, makeup, and more

Gender communications, or “the social construction of masculinity or femininity as it aligns with sex at birth in a specific culture and time period” — as defined by Social Justice, Diversity Consultant, and Facilitator Jessica Pettitt — pervasively exists around the world.

We’re deluged by multiple verbal and nonverbal examples of gender communications each day, and each instance reinforces longheld, ideal standards of masculinity and femininity across society.

Three noteworthy examples of gender communications include: Work Attire.Day-to-day (non-uniformed) wardrobe styles worn by males and females in professional settings are a constant reminder of gender communications. Males typically wear shirts, slacks, sometimes suits, and occasionally, baggy clothing on more casual days. Women, on the other hand, wear skirts, blouses, dresses, tailored suits, and to some degree, tighter-fitting clothes.

Even though androgynous fashions have been finding their way into our closets, the steadfastness of gender-delineated wardrobes for work settings still prevails.

Gendered-fashion strictness seemingly originates from classical lessons in what both men and women are traditionally taught about clothing as they grow up. Men, for example, are often told that wearing formfitting clothes or loose fitting outfits, such as skirts or billowy fabrics, are inappropriate for their gender. Women, in turn, have a long history of being sexualized, therefore slightly tighter-fitting clothing and curve-accentuating garments that create more sex appeal are routinely promoted and socially encouraged.

Such wardrobe messaging underscores the unyielding power and unfurled breadth society’s gendered communications have on our individual fashion choices. As a nonbinary individual, I find yesteryear’s clothing stereotypes to be unnecessarily confining.

What we choose to wear, from buttons and fabrics to hems and stitches, is a form of highly individualized self expression and shouldn’t be subject to socially forced, gender-edited ideals. Yet that is the very world we live in — a world bombarded with media messages reinforcing what men and women ought to wear.

Cosmetics. On social media, we often 2 0 • WAS H I NGTO NBLA D E.COM • J UNE 26, 2020 • V I E W POI NT

see women wearing makeup to showcase their beauty or to reflect a ‘best selves’ image.

But men who wear makeup are known to be publicly shamed and ridiculed. Between drag queens and Internet personalities, like James Charles, a makeup-wearing segment of the male population has pushed back on makeup’s traditional “for women only” positions.

Thankfully, some cosmetics brands, like Cover Girl, are expanding their nongendered marketing campaigns and even including makeup-wearing males in some of their advertising. Ultimately, makeup application is much akin to an artform and should be something anyone can enjoy without suffering from public mockery or disdain.

Television Programming. Another area where gender communications exert almost limitless influence occurs during one of America’s favorite pastimes: watching television. Data from the American Time Use Survey compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measuring the amount of time people spend doing various activities reveals that nearly 80 percent of the population watches TV on a given day. In other words, watching TV is the choice leisure activity for many Americans. This means millions of Americans are therefore endlessly exposed to media messages directly and indirectly reinforcing gender communications.

Despite the deluge of gender-rigid programming, one bold Netflix series, “AJ and the Queen,” is shattering stubborn gender stereotypes by blurring gender lines in its portrayal of a routinely discriminatedagainst drag queen (played by RuPaul Charles). The series’s blurred gender lines help create more open-mindedness.

Moving Forward. Masculine and feminine ideals have been around for centuries, yet no matter which side of the gender communications fence you’re on, the fact is that communications as a whole are often used to express ideas and reinforce values.

As we continue making progress, however, I believe that gender fluid lifestyles will further blossom, no matter how painstakingly slow. With ongoing education and outreach, non-gendered acceptance can break through the thickness of mainstream gendered-thinking that presently lies in our wake.

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BROCK THOMPSON is a D.C.-based writer.

He contributes regularly to the Blade.

Oh Green Lantern, how I’ve missed you A peek inside one of D.C.’s most authentic bars Maybe you’ve been for “Shirtless Men Drink Free” where if you take off your shirt the beer is free. It’s their busiest night. Or maybe for the “Jox” party, which is boys in jockstraps, or “Rough House” which is a monthly underwear party. Or just for their In-person Touring Appointments Now Available. karaoke night. You’re wandering down 14th Street looking for it, maybe even thinking ‘this is the alley, right?’ Before (855) 226-3107 • guildloftsdc.com turning down Green Court just south of 1212 4th Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 Thomas Circle. It’s down there. Nestled in a man-made canyon of office buildings, a senior assisted living facility, and even Guild_BladePrintAd4.62x5.12_062020.indd 1 6/1/20 2:50 PMheadquarters of the National Association of the Education of Young Children.

It’s old-school gay in that the windows are blacked out, it’s off the street, and you really wouldn’t know what it was unless you walked in. The whole thing harkens back to a different time. It was initially built in 1900 as a carriage house for the palatial homes and luxury apartment buildings that used to occupy that part of town; you can still see the door in the ceiling where hay was hauled through to the second floor, now the dance floor.

But that’s the Green Lantern. And to describe it as old school is almost unfair, because it implies old fashioned, or outdated, or even obsolete. And that’s certainly not the Green Lantern. As I’ve gotten older I think I’ve gained a new appreciation for the Lantern, as most of the regulars refer to it. And during this time of COVID, it’s become one of D.C.’s queer spaces I’ve come to miss the most.

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•Cohousing is: privacy - community - home I sat down at the bar of the Green Lantern last Friday, enjoyed a club soda and chatted with Howard Hicks, manager Learn more - call Margaret at (561)714-8009 there since 2018. He assured me that or email VillageHearthCohousing@gmail.com they’re not going anywhere. In fact, the Green Lantern is back as of Monday. And they’ll be serving food, taking advantage of the city’s expanded food service Learn more at VillageHearthCohousing.com licenses, a sort of lifeline from the District

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to places initially left out of the pandemic re-openings.

The Green Lantern isn’t as old as you might think. Not as old as JR.’s on nearby 17th Street. That’s been around since 1986. The Lantern will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. But over these two decades the Lantern has grappled at times with its identity. Specifically, are they or are they not a dive bar? Hicks told me that “now we’ve come to embrace the term … as it’s come to mean an unpretentious place where you can relax,” adding, “we own it happily.” That sort of unpretentious dive aspect makes the bar one of the most authentic queer spaces in the city. The dive atmosphere works so much because other gay bars seem to franchise it out and borrow it as a theme. But the realness, the grittiness, is difficult to replicate. As a friend put it to me when I asked what he saw in the Green Lantern: “If you haven’t brushed up against a shirtless bear while a skinny twink danced in his underwear as a leather daddy looked on, you really haven’t gayly lived.”

As for the windows, “we don’t black them out now. . .we’re progressing there.” But that’s recent. Only the upstairs windows are blacked out now, but that’s more of a noise and neighbors issue. As for the raunchy reputation of what may or may not go on upstairs, “nothing shocks me anymore,” Hicks told me, “I’ve seen it all in this bar.”

When it comes to weathering the storm that is COVID, I was told that the Lantern has been through rough times before. The “dawn of the apps” was a rough period, Hicks said. “If it were up to me, by July 4th, we’d all be back dancing in our underwear. But that’s not the reality.” And if you’re waiting on the return of the “Rough House” party, it’s hard to imagine an event that’s tagline is ‘Hands On, Lights Off’ as making a quick comeback during the time of the coronavirus.

As our talk wrapped up I turned to leave, and thanked Hicks for the club soda. “See you soon, hopefully,” I said.

“We’ll be here,” he shot back. We should be so lucky.

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Global Pride poised to make history Virtual event to highlight Black Lives Matter movement

By MICHAEL K. LAVERS Celebrities, activists and politicians from around the world will participate in the world’s largest a virtual global Pride celebration on Saturday.

Laverne Cox, Olivia Newton John, Kesha, Adam Lambert, Deborah Cox, Pussy Riot, Mary Lambert, the Village People, Tom Goss, Martha Wash, Steve Grand, Leslie Jordan, Sophia Jiménez, Conchita Wurst, Denise Ho, Ahmed Alaa and Ahmed Umar are among those who will take part in Global Pride 2020. Former Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, Luxembourgish Xavier Bettel, Icelandic President Guðni Jóhannesson, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde; London Mayor Sadiq Kahn, former Italian MP Vladimir Luxuria, U.N. LGBTQ rights watchdog Victor Madrigal-Borloz and other officials will also participate.

A press release describes Global Pride as a “24-hour stream of music, performances, speeches and messages of support” that former “American Idol” contestant Todrick Hall will host on his YouTube channel. Global Pride will also be streamed on its website and iHeartRadio’s YouTube channel.

More than 500 Pride organizations around the world submitted videos and other content for Global Pride.

“We need community and connection more than ever,” said J. Andrew Baker, co-president of InterPride, in an April 1 press release that announced Global Pride. “This gives us an opportunity to both connect and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community’s resilience in the face of this pandemic and the true spirit of Pride.”

Natalie Thompson, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance’s board of directors who co-chairs the Global Pride organizing committee, on Monday told the Washington Blade during a telephone interview that Capital Pride submitted an “inspirational video” with “really notable people from the D.C. area” who are connected to Capital Pride.

“The idea was to highlight that we really are diverse, we really are large and we all bring our perspectives to what the Pride movement looks like, but also how we address LGBTQIA+ issues,” said Thompson.

“This is not just a one-sided community,” she added.

“We are really looking at a multi-faceted nature and intersectionalities in our space in D.C.” Pandemic cancelled, postponed global Pride events Capital Pride is among the hundreds of Pride celebrations in the U.S. and around the world that have been postponed or cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thompson told the Blade that LGBTQ activists in March began to discuss “how COVID-19 was affecting the Pride

movement.” Thompson said Global Pride came out of these conversations.

“It was really in response to what can we do to still celebrate Pride and highlight the joys and also remember from our past how we got to the space that we’re in and to also address some of the work that needs to be done,” she told the Blade.

Global Pride Executive Producer Michelle Meow is the former president of the San Francisco Pride board of directors.

Meow on Monday told the Blade during a Zoom interview that Global Pride “seemed like the perfect project for me.” Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, added there has been “a tremendous amount of support from people around the world” who wanted to participate in the event.

“COVID has changed the way that people can function and that has slowed things down,” said deHarte. “Your performers don’t have access to studios. They don’t have access to staffing and teams who would normally help facilitate participation in something like this.”

DeHarte told the Blade a Brazilian artist could not record a video for Global Pride because a coronavirus lockdown prevented them from leaving their home to go to their studio. Meow added the pandemic has raised additional questions for other participants.

“When people understood what we are trying to do here and understood the magnitude of the opportunity — which is bringing the entire world together for LGBTQ rights during a pandemic — the quick answer is how do I get involved and I want to help as much as possible,” said Meow.

“In some situations, its a matter of volunteering for your community or taking a gig that’s going to give you a paid opportunity during a pandemic,” she added. “If you’re someone who is high up there or you’ve got a specific role, you’re stretched thin, you’re stressed in terms of your time ... it’s more about people surviving during a pandemic, but when an idea is proposed, everyone understands the importance of what we’re trying to do.”

‘LGBTQIA+ community is a microcosm of the larger world’ Global Pride will take place roughly a month after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died when a thenMinneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Floyd’s death has sparked a worldwide protest movement against police brutality and racism. Activists and advocacy groups who support the Black Lives Matter movement have also sought to highlight the case of Tony McDade, a Black trans man who a white police officer in Tallahassee, Fla., shot to death on May 27.

Global Pride organizers earlier this month announced Global Pride “will be centered” around the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The LGBTQIA+ community is a microcosm of the larger world, so issues that happen outside the community are also happening inside the community as it pertains to Black lives, people of color, trans identities, non-binary identities,” Thompson told the Blade.

Thompson, who identifies as a Black woman, added Pride “is about all of our identities” and “about all of our differences and all of our similarities.”

“It would be incredibly irresponsible of us to not highlight what’s happening in the world,” she said. “People are paying attention to the fact that historically people of color have been pushed out to the margins, people of color have traditionally been underrepresented, underserved and discriminated against and that systemic racism not only plays a part in our policies, but systemic racism plays a part in everything that happens around the world.”

Dana Marsh, president of Fierté Canada Pride, a group that represents Pride organizations in Canada, made a similar point in the April 1 press release that announced Global Pride.

“Pride is not just a celebration, but a homage to our origins; the defiance and resistance against all systems of oppression,” said Marsh. “We acknowledge the intersections that join us in the global fight against homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, gender discrimination, racism, sexism, classism and colonialism.”

Meow said Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter who identifies as queer, is among those who are participating in Global Pride. Meow also referred to Hall.

“It had always been a part of our programming,” said Meow, referring to Global Pride’s decision to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement. “But with a lot of news coming out with regards to racial injustice we definitely did feel that we should absolutely let people know this is a part of our programming.”

DeHarte agreed, noting the Black Lives Matter announcement “was just another opportunity of what we see come from the platform of what Pride is.

“It gave us the opportunities to really focus attention and raise awareness on a particular issue,” said deHarte.

“The content that is coming ... is centered on advancing the political, human rights, social, racial justice issues, to bring equality for all people.”

“That is what we’re about,” he added. “This gave us an opportunity to really advocate against violence focused on particular persons of color.”

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Jaida’s debut This weekend’s Pride Castle event is ‘Drag Race’ champ’s first major post-victory performance

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com BLADE: Where is it?

HALL: In California, a little bit outside of Los Angeles.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 12 and the currently airing “All Stars” season five are mostly feeling pretty normal — they were taped pre-coronavirus. But when it came time for the season 12 reunion “Alone Together,” which aired May 22, and the “Grand Finale,” which aired May 29, it was unchartered terrain for the drag franchise juggernaut.

Season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall will join season 11 winner Yvie Oddly in a Werq the World Pride Castle event this weekend. She spoke with the Blade by phone June 19 from her Milwaukee home about life since winning, winning during a pandemic and how she plans to advance her career even amidst these crazy times. Her comments have been edited slightly for clarity.

BLADE: Will you be doing more of these?

HALL: I’m really hoping so. I’ve always dreamed of doing Werq the World and performing the shows. If you know anything about “Drag Race” and you know a lot about drag, you know a lot about Werq the World and it’s just like a major opportunity to be able to be a part of it so I’m hoping I can do a lot more of these.

BLADE: What was it like taping the reunion and finale from home?

HALL: It was kind of crazy because a lot of technology, I’m not the most tech-savvy person out there, but we received a lot of equipment and we had to set it all up so I was a little bit nervous like, “Am I gonna get this stuff right, will I be able to produce what the audience will expect of me,” so I was a little bit of nerves but at the same time I was also really excited because I knew this would be something that the world has never seen before and it would be a very unique experience and if it was done all the way right, the world would have something that they would really enjoy.

WASHINGTON BLADE: How are you?

JAIDA ESSENCE HALL: Pretty good, pretty good. I’m just excited for a lovely, sunny day.

BLADE: Congrats on your win! I was happy for you.

HALL: Thank you, I was too. I was really surprised.

BLADE: Tell us about Pride Castle.

HALL: Pride Castle is a really unique, really cute live stream show that will be taking place next week and the show is just some amazing queens from “Drag Race” and also the amazingly talented Candis Cayne. We’ll all just be secluded in a castle giving some amazing performances, some entertainment for some people who need it right now. We will also be benefitting the National Black Justice Coalition.

BLADE: How long had it been since you wrapped? It must have been months.

HALL: Oh yeah, it was at least a good maybe six months or so, it’s been awhile since we filmed everything.

It was actually quite awhile, so waiting for the finale was like the most nerve wracking thing so you leave and you know who’s in the top but then also at the same time, we have no idea who wins so you have to like just anticipate that for so long. It’s always in the back of your mind — finale finale finale.

BLADE: Is this your first time doing it?

HALL: This is my first time and also my first major event since winning. I’m really excited for it.

BLADE: How long does it take to tape a full “Drag Race” season? How long were you in L.A.?

HALL: Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to discuss that.

BLADE: What do you have planned?

HALL: I just really wanna take the people who watch it on a journey. It’s crazy — when you can have an opportunity to have like a really cute production and like a really beautiful space and let your mind wander off and come up with a really creative idea and so I just wanna take the viewers on a journey and like a little piece of my mind.

BLADE: But it’s a real place, not just some virtual thing edited together?

HALL: It’ll actually be all of us in the castle so we have this really beautiful backdrop.

BLADE: So you’ll just be giving each other space as you perform?

HALL: Oh of course, we’ll make sure we’re socially distanced. Right now there’s still a lot going on in the world so we’re taking all the major health precautions to make sure everybody is safe and we can still give them a great show.

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JAIDA ESSENCE HALL says winning season 12 of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ was a shock.

BLADE: What was your favorite challenge?

HALL: Oh my god, it was between two. I really loved the political challenge, because I got to showcase another side of myself but also I really loved the makeover challenge because it was super fans. I would never have the career I have in drag right now if it wasn’t for the people who came out and supported me and so to see them be able to be have a moment of time to fulfill their dream and their fantasy to come true too, it made me feel really, really good.

(photo courtesy Project Publicity)

Continues on page 30

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 BLADE: I can’t recall her name, but have you kept in touch with your partner from that challenge?

HALL: Oh my god, yes. Bethany, we called her Jazz, Bethany and I keep in touch. We talk all the time. We even did a zoom call with me, Heidi, Jackie, Crystal and all of the fans we all got on a zoom together and just chatted. We got to meet their partners and see some of their kids, it was so cute.

BLADE: Who was your favorite celebrity guest judge?

HALL: It had to be Whoopi, oh my God, I could not believe that Whoopi was there. That’s one of the things that completely shocked me. I could not believe she was there but I love her so much so I was just floored.

She could have been there and literally not said a single word and I still would have been over the moon.

BLADE: What did it mean to you when she hugged you?

HALL: Like I said, growing up where I’m from and my background, seeing like really talented, strong black figures was just so incredible and to see one of the most amazing black entertainers whose work transcends race and everything like that, it was so moving to me. Just like, “I’m in the presence of somebody who worked so hard and never gave up, had so many successes.” It just made me feel so good.

BLADE: Did she smell like cigarettes or perfume or anything?

HALL: No. All I can remember is the fact when she said, “Come down here and give me a hug,” I was like, “Do you really want me to come down here and give her a hug?” And then when she started to walk over, I almost had like a blackout moment. It was good to see it back on TV. BLADE: Did (season 12 finalists) Crystal (Methyd) and Gigi (Goode) reach out and congratulate you?

HALL: Oh yes, we always talk all the time. All of the girls from the season, we all communicate wth each other so much. And I actually got to have a full phone conversation wth both of them and they both explained how we feel about everything and they were really actually genuinely very happy for me too.

BLADE: What struck you most watching the show back? Were there any shady edits or mischaracterizations?

HALL: No. I think sometimes when we watch the show it’s always the show is almost you pull out the moments that happened the most and for me I’m always remembering like in the moment trying to remember everything that happened. So to see everything back it was just like a refresher. I’m so thankful it was recorded so we can always look back and be like, “Oh, I remember when this happened.”

BLADE: Ru certainly didn’t fix up much for the reunion or the finale. What was up with those weird masks?

HALL: Well, um … (manager interrupts and declines to comment) BLADE: Whom are you rooting for for “All Stars”?

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HALL: Oh my God, I love so many of the girls but Shea Coulee is like one of the first girls I ever met.

She’s from Chicago which is like an hour and a half way from me and I’ve always been a Shea fan so of course I’m rooting for her. But all the other girls are really fantastic too so whoever wins I would not be surprised.

BLADE: Did any of the past season winners reach out and congratulate you?

HALL: Yeah, so many of them. I already speak a lot with Aquaria, who I’m a little bit obsessed with.

It’s like, is there anything she can’t do? Yvie has been reaching out to me, Bianca is always sharing stuff, it’s like so many of the girls. BeBe (Zahara Benet), Raja, they’ve all reached out and been like, “We’re so proud of you for the work you’ve done.” Not just the winners but so many of the other contestants.

BLADE: Had you met many of them before?

HALL: Some of them I have, some I have not.

Like season 11, there were quite a few of the girls I knew prior to the show. Some I’ve met just through meet and greets.

BLADE: Have you kept in touch with Sherry Pie at all and do you think she deserved to be disqualified (the season 12 contestant, aka Joey Gugliemelli, was disqualified for a catfishing scandal)?

MANAGER INTERJECTS: We’re not able to comment on Sherry Pie. BLADE: Does the work room have four walls or is it more like a giant set?

HALL: No, it’s an actual room. I always wondered that too.

BLADE: Do you feel your victory has been diluted by the pandemic?

HALL: I think we all could have been working a lot more had this not happened but I also think everybody in the world could have been working a lot more had this not happened, so it’s one of those things in life where you have to like learn to roll with the punches and that’s something I’ve been doing quite often in my life. So yeah, I was like “Oh my god, I wish I could be traveling and meeting all the people that I normally would have met had I had the opportunity to travel but at the same time, I’ve met a lot of people through social media. That’s honestly been the best thing for me. That always makes me feel so much better even with everything going on in the world.

BLADE: How’s the rest of your summer shaping up?

HALL: I’m enjoying life as much as I can but also trying to stay as safe as possible. It seems like every single day details are changing of what we can do.

BLADE: Have you been going out much?

HALL: In Wisconsin everything is pretty much opened back up but it’s limited. They’re kind of saying you can, but if it’s something you really don’t have to do, it’s probably best to stay in.

JAIDA ESSENCE HALL says winning ‘Drag Race’ gave her a chance to connect with fans and former contestants the world over. (photo courtesy Project Publicity)

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QUEERY Eugene Galt (Photo courtesy Galt)

QUEERY: Eugene Galt The local author answers 20 queer questions

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com

Editor’s note: The Blade is always looking for compelling local LGBTQ folks for Queery. Subjects must be openly LGBT and D.C.-area residents who’ve never previously done it. Lesbians, trans men and women and people of color are especially encouraged to participate. Send suggestions to Blade Features Editor Joey DiGuglielmo at joeyd@washblade.com.

Local author Eugene Galt says he’s inspired to write gay-themed fiction because he often sees things happen in “real life” that are not reflected in books.

“There are many behaviors among gay men … that many authors of gay fiction seemingly either don’t notice or pretend not to notice and I’ve considered the unspoken motivations for such behavior,” the 58-year-old Kensington, Md., native says.

In his book “These Words Are True and Faithful,” one of Galt’s characters, a “Dom top,” ponders the ramifications of his sub partner having a more prestigious and better-paying job.

“Also, I have read many novels purporting to show what it means to be a gay man in our society but lacking the psychological insight needed to make that showing,” he says. “In many gay novels, the main characters come across as wind-up

toys that move at the speed of plot or as nothing more than mouthpieces through which the author can lecture the reader.”

“These Words” came out in May of 2018. He hopes to have a new book (the working title is “Beautiful Automaton”) out early next year. His book is available on Amazon. He’s also on Twitter.

Galt, a nearly lifelong Washingtonian (he has lived here since age 3), works by day as a patent attorney. He started writing on the side, which he does daily, in 2010.

He had a blog where he posted short fiction and decided to expand one of the stories to show how his character grew over time.

Galt is married to his partner of 21 years, whom he declines to name. They live in Foggy Bottom. Galt enjoys running, walking, working out and observing local wildlife in his free time.

today, but take yourself back to the time when it came out.

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

Since I was 21; my roommate in graduate school.

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

My religious upbringing was a mix of Catholic and independent fundamental Baptist. I am now an atheist.

Who’s your LGBTQ hero?

All the people whose names will never appear in bold in the LGBTQ press but who are changing the world, one mind at at time.

What LGBTQ stereotype most annoys you?

That we’re a collective entity with one opinion on every subject, as in “The LGBTQ community thinks ….”

What’s your proudest professional achievement?

In terms of my day job, a large client described us as “the best there is.” In terms of my writing, my proudest achievement was my first Amazon review, which was a five-star review by someone who clearly picked up on what I was trying to accomplish.

What terrifies you?

Squandering the only life for which I am aware of any evidence.

What’s something trashy or vapid you love? ’80s synth pop

What’s your social media pet peeve?

The volume of bad-faith argument.

Believe it or not, name calling, half truths and outright lies will not help anyone arrive at the truth or change the minds of people who actually understand the issue at hand.

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

I’m not sure there will be one, any more than there will be an end of the movement for African Americans or women. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Small talk. I’m more comfortable skipping to the large talk.

What’s D.C.’s best hidden gem?

The less well-known museums.

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

The public reception that “Brokeback Mountain” received, apart from what you may think about the merits of the movie.

What celebrity hardest?

Stephen Hawking

death

hit

you

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

My first long-term relationship.

What are your obsessions?

My plants, my art collection, gadgets.

Finish this sentence — It’s about damn time: … people recognized that their emotional reaction to a thing is not that thing.

What’s your greatest domestic skill?

Plumbing and electrical

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

I could write a book on that subject.

Oh, wait. I did.

What’s your favorite LGBTQ movie or show?

“Victor/Victoria.” It may seem hokey

Why Washington?

I grew up here. I made a career here. I found the love of my life here.

JUN E 2 6 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 3 3

CALENDAR OUT&ABOUT

BY PHILIP VAN SLOOTEN

July 4th is big protest day

The protests continue with several major Black Lives Matter protests planned in Washington on July 4.

(Blade file photo by Michael Key)

TODAY

Sunday, June 28

The Human Rights Campaign screens “Fade to Black,” a short film written and directed by Sham Tremaine, a Black LGBTQ social justice activist in Mississippi, at 7 p.m. tonight via Zoom.

Visit act.hrc.org to register for free tickets to this virtual event.

The D.C. Center Digital Drag Brunch is today at noon via Facebook Live. This fundraising event features performances

by Vagenesis, Citrine, Faye Kapology, Majic Dyke and Chicki Parm. Proceeds benefit the D.C. Center. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Saturday, June 27

Monday, June 29

Survivor ArtMake: Pain/Rebellion/ Pride hosted by the D.C. Center and the D.C. Anti-Violence Project is today at 3:30 p.m. Participants will create a three-panel collage showing their journey of turning a painful event into a resilient strength.

For more information and to register, visit thedccenter.org/events.

“Storytellers” Open Mic and Talent Showcase hosted by the Casa Ruby LGBT Community Center (7530 Georgia Ave., N.W.) is today at 4 p.m. Due to COVID-19 concerns, this fundraising event will be held via Zoom. Visit casaruby.org for more information on this and other events.

Today is Pride Family Day at the Smithsonian American Art Museum starting at 10 a.m. online via Facebook Live. Local drag queen Ruth Allen Ginsburg will read classic nursery rhymes and tales for all ages. Rainbow crafts and coloring pages will also be available for download. It’s free but registration is required at americanart. si.edu/pridekids.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church hosts a virtual discussion about “Just Mercy,” a film based on the true story of Walter McMillian, a Black man sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-yearold girl despite evidence proving his innocence, tonight at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. To receive the link and for more information, email htmmog@gmail.com.

Tuesday, June 30

P&P Live! Presents Jill Biden to discuss her husband, former Vice President and current Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, and her new children’s book, “Joey: The Story of Joe Biden” today at 2 p.m. You must purchase a copy of the book to attend the online event. Visit crowdcast.io/e/jillbiden-joey for more information.

La Clinica del Pueblo hosts Sesiones Educativas con el Centro Empoderate today at 5 p.m. via Facebook Live. This weekly event provides educational seminars, COVID-19 information and more for the Spanish-speaking LGBTQ

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community. For more information, visit the organization’s Facebook page.

La Fe — D.C. Latinx Pride 2020, an online virtual event hosted by the Latinx History Project, is today at 7 p.m. via Facebook Live. This event is a nondenominational chat to discuss spirituality and community building after coming out. Visit latinxhistoryproject. org and their Facebook page for more information on this and other Pride events.

Story District presents Out/Spoken hosted by Rayceen Pendarvis tonight at 7:30 p.m. via YouTube live stream.

This 10th annual Pride show focuses on stories about the LGBTQ experience and will feature a diverse group of storytellers telling true stories through a personal lens. For tickets and information, visit storydistrict.org.

Wednesday, July 1

Maryland Zoo Reopening Week continues today at 10 a.m. Timed entry reservations are required for all guests and zoo members and can be reserved online at marylandzoo.org.

Thursday, July 2

Book Club: “The Stonewall Generation” hosted by the Woodhull Freedom Foundation is today at 3 p.m. This virtual book discussion with the authors highlights of the sexual liberation movement and from those who led the fight. For more information, visit facebook.com/woodhullsfa.

This Independence Day the District will be filled with events to reflect on the problems and the promises of the nation’s history and current events.

Many organizations invite participants from across the racial, ethnic, sexual and gender spectrum to unite and make their voices heard.

A George Floyd Memorial March on Washington is Saturday, July 4 at 9:30 a.m. The march begins at the Lincoln Memorial (2 Lincoln Memorial Circle, N.W.) with speeches and continues down the National Mall to the Washington Monument before occupying The Ellipse just south of the White House.

All Americans Unite will gather at 10 a.m. at the Washington Monument (15th St., N.W.) in a show of solidarity across all communities regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Also at 10 a.m. is the Million Man March on Washington which begins at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, passes the White House and ends at the U.S. Capitol. All are welcome to this event as well.

The Black Lives Matter Protest and Unity Human Flag commemorating the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others lost to racial violence is at 12:30 p.m. at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (1400 Constitution Ave., N.W.). Participants should arrive no later than 12:45 p.m. for the march to the Washington monument to assemble the human flag.

For more information on these events, visit their respective Facebook pages.

Patriotic concert stream planned National Harbor, Washington Performing Arts and the U.S. Air Force Band are joining forces for a live streaming concert on Saturday, July 4.

Guests will be violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Larisa Martinez and bass Soloman Howard. NBC4 anchor Aaron Gilchrist will host.

“A Tribute to the American Spirit” will highlight the resilience of all Americans, honor veterans and celebrate Independence Day. Access the stream at nationalharbor. com/july4.

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LILLY WACHOWSKI came to fame with her sister Lana Wachowski for the “Matrix” franchise.

They are both trans. Lilly is in the new Netflix doc ‘Disclosure.’

(Photo by Ava Benjamin Shorr; courtesy Netflix)

Trans actor BRIAN MICHAEL SMITH in ‘Disclosure.’

(Photo by Ava Benjamin Shorr; courtesy Netflix)

‘Disclosure’ and then some

New Netflix doc explores transgender depictions in movies and TV

By BRIAN T. CARNEY Now streaming on Netflix, “Disclosure” is a remarkable documentary that dives into Hollywood’s fraught relationship with transgender folks from the silent movies of D.W. Griffith through the latest episodes of “Pose.” Directed by Sam Feder, the movie seamlessly weaves together archival footage with personal commentary from a dazzling panel of trans artists and activists including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Jen Richards, Chaz Bono, Brian Michael Smith, Yance Ford and others. (The Blade interviewed Cox and Feder in last week’s edition.)

Feder and his panel raise fascinating questions about the portrayal of trans characters in movies and on television and resist easy answers. They ask why trans issues have become front and center in the culture wars and why the same violent stories about trans characters keep getting told over and over. They explore complex issues of identification (why would a trans man identify with Barbra Streisand as Yentl?) and representation (why do straight cis actors keep winning Oscars for playing trans characters?).

They also dig into thorny issues of intersectionality, asking how depictions of race, class, sex, gender and sexuality work together to support or disrupt systems of power.

Why, for example, is cross-dressing seen as a rite of passage for black male comedians?

“Disclosure” is a thoughtful and compelling film about the complex ways trans people have been portrayed in movies and television.

Despite some of the horrible images that are discussed and dissected, the movie ultimately strikes a hopeful tone. “Disclosure” emphasizes that attitudes can change over time (and offers Oprah Winfrey as a prime example) but underscores that representation in Hollywood is only the first step to revolution in the real world. Hopefully this rich exploration of the past can help create a more inclusive future.

For further viewing: Here’s a list of movies (some discussed in “Disclosure” and some not) that highlight the complex relationship between the trans community and Hollywood over time.

“Glen or Glenda?” (1953). In the spirit of “Reefer Madness,” director and star Edward D. Wood Jr. explores gender nonconformity with an odd blend of sensationalism and a plea for tolerance and understanding.

“The Queen” (1968). Just in time for Pride month, Kino Lorber has released a restored version of this classic movie on DVD and Blu-ray and on a variety of streaming platforms. This revolutionary documentary introduced gay and straight audiences to the world of competitive drag at the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant

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organized by LGBT icon and activist Flawless Sabrina. The movie also includes an epic diatribe calling out the pageant’s bias delivered by Crystal LaBeija, who would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija featured in “Paris is Burning” (1990).

“The World According to Garp” (1982). John Lithgow won an Academy Award for playing the transgender character Roberta Muldoon. There’s also “Boys Don’t Cry” (1990) where Hilary Swank won an Oscar for playing trans teen Brandon Teena and “The Dallas Buyer’s Club” (2013) where Jared Leto won an Oscar for playing Rayon.

“Yentl” (1983). Barbra Streisand dresses as a boy. Other cross-dressing highlights of the 1980s include “Tootsie” (1982) and the camp classic “Victor/Victoria” (1982).

“Soapdish” (1991). A frothy all-star backstage comedy about rivalries on a soap opera set that hinges on a dramatic “disclosure” about one of the characters.

“The Crying Game” (1992). LGBT audiences figured out the big secret right away, but straight audiences took a while to catch on. The film was nominated for six Oscars (winning three). The “disclosure” scene was parodied in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” (1994) and countless other movies.

“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” (1994) starred straight cis actor Terence Stamp as a trans woman touring across the Australian Outback with two drag queens (Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) in a fabulous cabaret act. There’s also “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” (1995) with three straight cis men as three drag queens and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” with John Cameron Mitchell as a glam transgender rocker.

“The Celluloid Closet” (1995). Based on the groundbreaking book by activist and film historian Vito Russo, this award-winning documentary surveys the history of LGBT characters in Hollywood movies.

“Boy Meets Girl” (2014) is a funny, tender and sex-positive rom-com about a young trans woman in a small Kentucky town who finds the courage to pursue her personal and professional dreams.

“Tangerine” (2015). Shot entirely on iPhones, Sean Baker’s gripping drama explores a day in the life of two transgender sex workers in Los Angeles and starred two transgender actresses in their first movie roles.

“A Fantastic Woman” (2017). This Academy Award-winning picture starred trans actress Daniela Vega as a trans women whose life is torn apart by the transphobic family of her dead boyfriend.

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Lady in waiting

Local trans playwright Edidi shares new ‘Play at Home’ work

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

Local playwright, choreographer, performer, writer and trans activist Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi says U.S. society is in the throes of major change.

“What we’re facing now is a systematic reckoning,” says Edidi, 37. “We’re being invited to invest in a world free of oppression or invest in what used to be normal which was steeped in white supremacy and not good for most people. We’re being asked to align ourselves with the values we claim to avow. Exactly when the American theater reopens is part of a bigger question. It asks when will we care enough to take to the necessary precautions to be able to make sure most of us survive this thing.”

Best known for both writing and performing in “For Trans Black Girls …” and “Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem,” Edidi, the first trans woman of color nominated for a Helen Hayes Award, is currently swamped with Zoom panels and meetings, but still makes time for crafting thoughtful posts for her thousands of social media followers.

Edidi has contributed a new short play to an ingenious quarantine initiative, Play At Home. D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, along with other professional regional theaters with a stake in promoting new works, have commissioned dozens of original short plays that can be downloaded (playathome.org) for free and performed either privately or on Zoom.

LADY DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI says her formative years inspired her new work.

(Photo courtesy Edidi) “The guidelines were pretty simple — the play needed to be about 10 minutes long and spark joy. That was about it. And, yeah, the playwrights would be paid,” she says.

In less than two days, Edidi created “The Diaz Family Talent Show,” a 10-character In reference to the landmark Supreme Court decisions protecting LGBTQ piece about an Afro-Latin family (not unlike people in the workplace, Edidi says, “I smiled — I didn’t think that was going to Edidi’s real-life maternal lineage) coming together to help heal its youngest happen. I also ask how many black trans women have jobs? How many get hired for member (based on the author). jobs? So, while it’s good news. That happiness is also tempered by other realities.”

“In my own growing up, the times when I felt most safe and affirmed were At present, Edidi is also working on a book of poetry that started off as a at our informal family talent shows. Members of my musical family would give critique of colonization and white supremacy, but the content has changed in light impromptu performances. I used to put that little T-shirt on my head and do Patti of recent events.

LaBelle singing ‘Over the Rainbow.’ The play is really an homage to my own family.”

“Because I feel that a world free of oppression is closer than it has been for a When reminiscing, Edidi pauses — “It’s been an emotional time. The people I long time, I now want to include poems of hope, love and about the world that do speak to in my family are elderly and at risk. I may not be able to see them until might come after.” there’s a vaccine.”

Some days she’s discouraged by the sluggish pace of change. But then Edidi With quarantine, Black Lives Matter protests, court rulings and a reversal of tells herself, “Dane, you are an artist and one of the gifts of the artist is to help transgender health protections, there’s a lot happening. others imagine new ways of being. Go operate in your gift. It’s serious, but never “We all have the right to process our emotions, feel the emotions we’re feeling, punish yourself for feeling joy.” and work through them,” she says. “Don’t let anyone rush you through that.”

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Debut novel is frothy lesbian Hollywood rom-com Author Meryl Wilsner offers light, breezy read set in Tinseltown

By KATHI WOLFE

“You never know about love stories. When they’re good, you ravenously, even rapturously, turn the page. When they’re bad, you’re a kid on a car trip with your parents, whining, “Are we there yet?”

Thankfully, “Something to Talk About,” the debut novel by queer author Meryl Wilsner, takes you on an enthralling road trip. Wilsner’s tale of romance, featuring Hollywood, award shows, fashion and gossip, is an exhilarating ride.

“Something to Talk About” is the story of Jo Jones, a 42-year-old showrunner, and her 27-yearold assistant Emma Kaplan. Though, the novel is an entertaining rom-com, it deals with issues of our time — from racism to workplace sexual harassment.

Jo, who is Chinese-American and a (mostly) closeted lesbian, has been in show business since she was a teen. For seven seasons, beginning at age 13, she played Amanda, the adopted daughter of a white family on the TV show “The Johnson Dynasty.”

“Every other series regular was white. Jo never mentioned it. No one ever mentioned it,” Wilsner writes. “Jo had never known if people were ignoring it or simply didn’t notice.”

After the show ended, Jo stars in four blockbuster movies. Then she wrote about being ChineseAmerican in Hollywood.

“What it was like to be the butt or racist jokes on her own televison show. About casting notices for white actresses only,” Wilsner writes.

Work dries up for Jo for five years until she writes a script for a TV show. The network pats itself on the back for giving a second chance to a “disgraced actress” and Jo wins Emmys for the show.

Now Jo’s getting ready to be the executive producer of “Agent Silver,” an action movie franchise.

But skeptics wonder: how could she, a ChineseAmerican woman, succeed at a genre traditionally helmed by white men?

Emma, who’s openly bisexual and Jewish, dropped out of film school because she lacked confidence. But she loves being Jo’s assistant. She’s got Jo’s back, from bringing her coffee with a smile to keeping her organized. Nothing about Jo’s mood or needs escapes Emma’s notice. She knows when to get Jo another latte and when it’s going to be a bad day because Jo’s ponytail is, as Wilsner writes, “high and tight enough to look severe.”

From her vantage point as Jo’s right-hand-woman, Emma learns about making movies. Jo mentors Emma and encourages her to go for it when she says she wants one day to direct.

It’s no spoiler to say that “Something to Talk

About” is the story of a romance between Jo and Emma. Early on, you sense that they have feelings for each other. Emma goes with Jo to the SAG Awards.

She isn’t Jo’s date. She’s there to help Jo handle the paparazzi on the red carpet. But, after they smile at each other, rumors that they’re an item flood social media.

Emma and Jo are freaked out about the gossip.

At this point, they aren’t aware (or wouldn’t admit to themselves) of their attraction to each other. But they don’t want their careers to be tainted by rumors.

Emma dreads having people erroneously think that she got her job by sleeping with her boss. Jo, who’s never discussed her love life with the press, doesn’t wish to be falsely accused of sexually harassing an employee.

“You think people don’t look at pictures of us and think I’m corrupting this lovely young lady? I’m a predatory lesbian in the middle of a midlife crisis,” Jo says.

The passion between Jo and Emma is so slowburning that, at times, you want to stoke the flames.

How many smiles, accidental kisses and iced chai lattes will it take before they get that they’re in love?

When will Jo be fully out? But the romantic pay-off, though it seems to take forever to arrive, is worth the wait.

This romance will make you hungry, not only for love, but for food. Jo and Emma like to eat — everything from salmon with lemon butter sauce to pizza to latkes.

If you’re seeking romance that’s a perfect fit for these times, “Something to Talk About” is for you.

(Photo courtesy Berkeley)

‘Something to Talk About’

By Meryl Wilsner Berkeley May 26 $16 336 pages

MERYL WILSNER

(Photo by Brooke Wilsner)

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Buying a house? Be aggressive or cautious?

How to be confident and assertive in a competitive market

By JOSEPH HUDSON

If you are thinking of buying a home, some of your friends may have told you that you have to throw caution to the wind and just go all in. Or you may have heard of friends that bought a home and had to spend lots of money after the fact to repair things they didn’t know were wrong. How can you as a buyer feel protected yet also assert yourself in a competitive market?

That’s where your agent comes in to help. The buyer agent will call the listing agent and find out what is important to the sellers. It is important in these transactions that both sides are aware of what is important to each side of the transaction. There are situations where more money is being offered to a seller, but what they really want is a one or two week or a one month rent-back so they can have time to get all the moving parts together and move on to their next home. Some of my clients once won an offer situation because they wanted to renovate and update the home, not demolish it like a developer wanted to do.

A good agent knows the tools in their belt to keep their buyers confident in their purchase and assertive in a competitive market. Pre-inspections, negotiating techniques, and sometimes just a good reputation can go a long way. A good agent wants to make their clients happy but also wants to make sure they stay happy long after they have moved into the house.

I am hosting a virtual homebuyer seminar on Zoom on June 30 with Tina Del Casale of Sandy Spring Bank. If you have questions about homeownership and mortgages, please don’t hesitate to join us! Look for the event on Eventbrite.

Joseph Hudson

is a Realtor with The Oakley Group at Compass. Reach him at 703-587-0597 or Joseph.hudson@compass.com.

Here’s how you can feel protected as a buyer yet also assert yourself in a competitive market.

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