Washingtonblade.com, Volume 51, Issue 27, July 3, 2020

A less spectacular 4th

Restrictions, no fireworks as COVID spikes in Rehoboth Page 06

(Photo by John Bator)

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A less spectacular 4th in Rehoboth Beach Surge in COVID cases leads to pause in reopening

By JOSHUA KELLER Delaware Gov. John Carney on Tuesday announced the state will remain in Phase 2 and ordered the closure of beach bars this weekend amid a rise in coronavirus cases in the state.

“We’ve seen several clusters related to senior week and we’ve seen a cluster of cases among 17- and 18-year-olds … as well as a number of restaurant and bar employees who have become positive,” said Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Delaware Division of Public Health, during a Tuesday news conference. “We’ve seen an increase in COVID-19 cases among residents of the beach communities. ” In Dewey and Rehoboth Beach, officials have seen a “significant increase in percent positive cases recently.” Dr. Rattay said the lack of face coverings on the beach is problematic, The Purple Parrot is open in Rehoboth and observing strict social distancing protocols.

(Photo by John Bator) especially if you’re not six feet apart.

She praised the owners of the Purple Parrot and Dewey’s Starboard for “taking great measures to get staff tested and do the right thing,” noting it’s hard for these establishments to control crowds. Dr. Rattay said the state would step up enforcement actions ahead of the holiday weekend, which can include fines for businesses not enforcing social distancing and wearing of facemasks.

The moves follow a recent coronavirus cluster in Rehoboth Beach, Del., that led to mounting concerns over the expected influx of tourists for Fourth of July celebrations, though Rehoboth has cancelled fireworks.

After 102 people tested positive for the virus in Rehoboth last Thursday

By JOSHUA KELLER out of 1,000 tested, the Delaware Division of Public Health is asking people in Rehoboth Beach, Del. is a presidential Rehoboth and Dewey Beach to get tested. vacation town in waiting. With presumptive Among the positive cases in Rehoboth are three lifeguards. While local Democratic nominee Joe Biden owning a officials believe the lifeguards did not have any contact with the public, they home near the beach in North Shores, the city is are taking increased precautions. preparing to become the nation’s next Hyannis “We believe at this time there was very little contact with visitors,” Rehoboth Port, Kennebunkport, or Martha’s Vineyard.

Police Chief Keith Banks said in a Facebook post. “We immediately executed Although providing a getaway for the our COVID response protocol and contacted the local health department. All president would be a new challenge for lifeguards were notified of the exposure and will be tested within the next 24 Rehoboth, the resort town known as “the nation’s hours.” summer capital” is no stranger to high-profile The recent cluster brings the total number of confirmed cases in Delaware visitors — including Biden during his time as vice to 11,376. Sussex County is home to 40 percent of the positive cases despite president. making up less than a quarter of the state’s population.

Rehoboth Police Chief Keith Banks said The expected Fourth of July crowds at the beaches worry health officials. that his department’s role would be to “provide “We are also concerned by our own staff observations in the beach area and support” to the Secret Service to coordinate pictures seen on social media of people not wearing face coverings or social the president’s visits. Although the Bidens’ distancing while they are out and about, including at bars and restaurants,” house technically resides outside Rehoboth city Rattay told the Cape Gazette. “Make no mistake, continuing this behavior is a limits and is therefore under the jurisdiction of recipe for disaster.”

Delaware State Police, the local police anticipate Despite expectations that Delaware would move to Phase 3 of its reopening that the famously friendly Biden will want to on June 29, Gov. John Carney announced that the state would remain in Phase venture into town.

2, which began on June 15 and allows most businesses to open at 60 percent “Mr. Biden likes to get out and walk around capacity. and see people, so usually a crowd forms around Rehoboth businesses are adapting to the restrictions. If you’re planning him wherever he goes,” Banks said. to visit Rehoboth during the July 4th holiday weekend, you’ll find plenty of Browseabout Books and Double Dippers ice businesses open, though reservations are recommended. The Purple Parrot’s cream parlor are known to be among Biden’s popular Biergarten is open without reservations. Masks are required and strict favorite spots in town. social distancing protocols are being enforced.

While Mayor Paul Kuhns anticipates that Blue Moon owner Tim Ragan told the Blade in an email that he is

requesting reservations to “make the best use of our limited capacity.” The Moon features its Spotlight shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Friday; and Legends shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday. On Sunday, the Moon offers show tune Sunday with Nate Buccieri at 6 p.m. and “Climax with Magnolia” at 9 p.m. Buccieri plays piano at happy hour Monday-Thursday, 5-8 p.m.

And Monday brings “the Boy Band Project,” featuring performers from Broadway at 9 p.m.

Aqua and The Pines are open, with the upstairs lounge at the Pines hosting Pamala Stanley’s new summer schedule, which includes shows Thursdays-Sundays. Mona Lotts hosts a drag brunch Sundays at 11:30 a.m. Visit thepinesrb.com for more information.

Diego’s Hideaway is also open with expansive outdoor seating, temperature checks at the door and welcoming table service.

Rehoboth, the presidential getaway in waiting Beach town already thinking about impact of Biden visits should he win

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planning for potential presidential visits will fully begin after Labor Day, when the summer season begins to wind down, the resort town is prepared to host the Bidens in the coming months.

“I’m sure he’ll need some breaks from his campaign around the country,” Kuhns says. “He may want to come down to his property here in Rehoboth to relax.”

Banks expects that Biden will usually come to Rehoboth by car, but Kuhns notes that Rehoboth Elementary School provides a potential landing spot for Marine One — the call sign of most helicopters carrying the president.

Even though serving as a presidential vacation spot would provide the already popular resort town with increased publicity, Kuhns expects that visits from oglers hoping to catch a glimpse of Biden would eventually dissipate.

“He’s so friendly that there is no need to ask him for a picture or an autograph,” according to Faye Jacobs, a Rehoboth resident and author.

“He’s just a neighbor. He’s just a regular guy.”

Jacobs is also not too worried about the traffic that Biden might bring.

“One time his motorcade caused a traffic jam on Route 1,” she said, “but a lot worse happens to Route 1 than that!”

Black trans march activists call for justice

Black trans activists and allies march and ride in a caravan through the streets of D.C. on June 26.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

Activists from No Justice No Pride, HIPS and Baltimore Safe Haven organized a march and caravan to celebrate the lives and efforts of Black transgender and gender non-conforming people last week. The march began near Gallaudet University at Brentwood Hamilton Park at the corner of Penn Street and 6th Street, N.E., and culminated in a rally at Freedom Plaza.

While marching though the streets of Northeast D.C., activists chanted, “Black trans, they matter here — Black queers, they matter here!”

Marchers voiced their objections to the actions and tactics of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the criminalization of sex work. Activists chanted, “hey hey, ho ho: MPD has got to go!” and “Back up, back up. We want freedom, freedom. All these killer-ass cops, we don’t need ’em, need ’em.”

Kimberlee Taylor of No Justice No Pride and the Black Youth Project 100 addressed the crowd, invoking the names of trans women murdered in the D.C. area, “my God has been with me every step of the way, and I just want to say, rest in peace to my trans sisters who did not make it from these streets. Black trans lives matter. Rest in peace Zoe, rest in peace Ashanti, rest in peace Shay, rest in peace Deoni, rest in peace Na Na Boo . . . and many more. How many more lives have to drop to get America to understand that we are human too? And we still manage to love through all the hate that we get. When is it going to stop?”

Shereese Mone of HIPS stood on a flatbed truck with a megaphone pressed to a microphone and said, “It takes a lot to be trans. It takes a lot to be Black. It takes a lot to stand forward in broad daylight and say I am a nine to five worker and I need income.

It is hard to survive when you are on supplements and little bits of food that they are siphoning off to you. I don’t need a stipend. I want a 401(k)!”

The crowd roared in applause and Mone continued, “I want to learn to read grants, understand grants, write grants. I want to learn how to be productive for myself so I don’t have to do sex work. But in the meantime, sex work is getting me to where I need to be. I am not homeless anymore. I am not struggling anymore. I am understanding who I am and what my worth is!”

MPD officers riding on police motorcycles and in police vehicles escorted the marchers, stopping traffic as the activists proceeded through NOMA and Penn Quarter, past Judiciary Square and then onto Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Following the march, approximately 100 activists gathered at Freedom Plaza across from the Wilson Building, which houses the D.C. government.

MICHAEL KEY

D.C. police to investigate ‘mob’ attack on trans woman

A 55-year-old LGBTQ supportive straight woman says she intervened to help a transgender woman under attack by a “mob” of more than 20 young men who were punching the woman and yelling anti-transgender insults about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, June 20, on the 1200 block of U Street, N.W. Andrea Earls, who lives near where the incident occurred, told the Washington Blade she witnessed the attack unfold as she was walking home from the 7-Eleven store at 12th and U Streets, N.W. She said the attack took place on the sidewalk in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant at 1213 U Street, N.W. and extended to the sidewalk in front of an alley that separates Ben’s from the Lincoln Theatre.

“I walked out tonight at the 7/11 at 12 and U,” Earls says in a Facebook post. “As I proceeded along U St in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl…I encountered a mob attacking a transgender lady…granted she was 6 ft. tall and African American,” Earls wrote in her post.

“I jumped in and got between her and the men…So it went on back and forth for about 5 to 10 minutes,” she wrote in her post. “I was screaming for a taxi or an Uber.

Another young guy jumped in and kept grabbing my arm and telling me ‘It’s not your fight.’”

Earls stated in her Facebook post and told the Blade in an interview on June 25 that after her frantic and repeated attempts to hail a cab for the trans woman, a taxi driver finally stopped in the middle of U Street, enabling Earls to usher the trans woman into the cab after Earls gave money to the driver.

“Then the crowd turned on me,” Earls wrote in her post. The same young man who had gently told her the altercation wasn’t her fight asked her where she lived and she told him near 14th Street and Florida Ave., N.W., Earls told the Blade.

She said the young man then guided her away from the crowd, escorted her to the intersection of 13th and U Streets, and urged her to run as fast as she can up 13th Street toward where she lived. As she sprinted away she noticed that the young man diverted the crowd of people who had attacked the trans woman in a different direction – toward 14th and U Streets. “[T]here are guardian angels among us,” she wrote in her Facebook post in referring to the young man who helped her.

“I was fine,” she told the Blade. “Nobody touched me,” she said, adding that her only physical effect was the muscle ache she suffered for the next few days from her intense running.

During the emotional intensity of the moment, Earls said she didn’t think of removing her phone from her purse to call the police. But after the Blade contacted D.C. police to inquire about the incident, Earls agreed to a police request that she speak to police officers so a report of the incident could be taken and an investigation opened.

“We are standing by if the witness would like to be interviewed,” Lt. David Hong, director of the police Special Liaison Branch, which oversees the LGBT Liaison Unit, told the Blade in an email. Hong said the department’s Public Information Office might have more information about the incident later this week.

Earls said there were no police in sight while she witnessed the attack. And she said she does not recall seeing other people at the scene of the attack in an area that normally is bustling with nightlife activity on a Saturday night. The coronavirus shutdowns of many bars and nightclubs may have played a role in fewer people being in the area.

The Ben’s Chili Bowl website says the popular carryout restaurant closes at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights during the epidemic. Thus the restaurant would have been closed for more than an hour before the attack on the trans woman took place.

Police, meanwhile, did not respond to an inquiry by the Blade asking whether police or private video surveillance cameras are installed and operating along the 1200 block of U Street, N.W. D.C. police frequently use video camera footage to help identify suspects in crimes taking place in outdoor locations.

Earls said she did not know what precipitated the attack or why the men on the scene targeted the trans woman other than what she believes to be hostility toward transgender people.

Similar to other cities across the country, transgender activists in D.C. have said transgender people, especially transgender women of color, have been subjected to violent attacks in the D.C. area for years. Two young transgender women were shot to death just across the D.C. line in Prince George’s County, Md., in 2019. P.G. police have made an arrest in one of the two cases but say they have yet to determine a motive for the murder.

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Petition asks Catholic Univ. president to embrace Supreme Court LGBTQ ruling A gay former student and former staff member at D.C.’s Catholic University of America sent a petition on Monday to the university’s president, John Garvey, calling on him to issue a statement supporting the June 15 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination under federal law.

The petition, written and emailed to Garvey by Nicholas R. Atlas Jr., includes the signatures from 105 people from throughout the country, including from the D.C. area.

Atlas says he worked in administrative positions at Catholic University from 2012-2019. He received his bachelor’s degree from Catholic University in history in 2012 and a master’s also in history from the school in 2017.

“Recently the United States Supreme Court has made two landmark rulings,” Atlas’s petition states. “1) Federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination and 2) DACA protections will be upheld,” it says.

The petition was referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling, handed down three days after its pro-LGBTQ ruling, blocking the Trump administration from immediately dismantling an Obama administration immigration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has protected more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children from being deported.

Atlas’s petition states that Catholic University issued a statement supporting the DACA decision but has remained silent on the landmark LGBTQ decision, which holds that the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination under its Title VII provision banning discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender.

“CUA has a long history of not supporting the LGBTQ+ community, which includes students, staff and faculty,” the petition says. “The choice to not comment on this landmark ruling is yet another example of the lack of support,” it says.

“On behalf of CUA, President John Harvey should make a statement supporting this landmark ruling and how being THE Catholic University of America supports the rights of those who identify in the sexual minority,” the petition concludes.

Karna Lozoya, Catholic University’s executive director of strategic communications, told the Washington Blade, in

response to a request for comment, that the university was preparing a response to Atlas’s petition and she expected it would be released soon.

Garvey, an attorney specializing in constitutional law, religious liberty, and First Amendment issues, has taught law at the University of Kentucky and the University of Notre Dame before serving as dean of the Boston College of Law from 1999 to 2010, according to background on Garvey posted on the Catholic University website.

He began his tenure as Catholic University president in July 2010, the website says.

In a two-page June 29 letter that Atlas sent to Garvey that accompanied the petition, Atlas says that at the time he was a Catholic University student Garvey “continuously denied students the right to form an official group dedicated to those in the sexual minority” and that sexual minority students faced discrimination.

“Several years ago, Georgetown University revised its policy on LGBTQ+ students in favor of providing them protection and equal rights after several violent incidents took place on campus,” Atlas states in his letter. “At the same time this happened, you still refused to allow CUA a formally recognized LGBTQ+ student group despite the possibility of a similar situation happening at CUA,” the letter says.

Atlas said he sent copies of his letter and petition to Garvey to Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who Pope Francis appointed as the head of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. in April 2019. In his role as head of the D.C. Archdiocese Gregory also serves as the Chancellor of Catholic University.

It couldn’t immediately be determined whether Gregory, who has expressed support for LGBTQ people and has met with LGBTQ Catholics and their families, might call on Garvey to consider Atlas’s petition request. Pope Francis has also made supportive statements about LGBTQ people and has welcomed LGBTQ Catholics into the fold of the church.

The Blade will update this story to include any statement Catholic University or its president, John Garvey, may release in response to Atlas’s letter and petition.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Md., Va. Pride events honor Black lives

Cities across Maryland and Virginia celebrated Pride in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement through marches, motorcades and virtual events.

In Virginia, Diversity Richmond on June 27 hosted “Stonewall Rising: LGBTQ March for Black Lives” commemorating the work begun by transgender activists of color Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera following the 1969 Stonewall riots. Minority Veterans of America organized the event which Equality Virginia, VA Pride, Richmond Lesbian Feminists, Black Pride RVA and other Virginia groups supported.

“This Pride Month, we are reminded of the pivotal moments when LGBTQ+ Americans stood up to demand that they be treated with respect and dignity,” said Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in a statement commemorating Pride month and recognizing LGBTQ-inclusive laws taking effect on Wednesday.

“As we celebrate long-overdue progress in advancing LGBTQ+ rights in our country and commonwealth, we must also redouble our efforts to ensure Virginia

is inclusive and welcoming to all — no matter who you are, who you love, or how you identify.”

In Baltimore, Queers for Black Lives Matter, a coalition of LGBTQ activists committed to elevating the Black community and eradicating white supremacy through demonstrations and peaceful protests, hosted a march on June 27, which culminated in a peaceful sit-in at City Hall, according to the event’s Facebook page. The march and sit-in were efforts to elevate “Black voices and the voices of Black trans people.”

The event was promoted as part of Baltimore Pride’s mostly virtual Pride celebration which began with a “Coffee with Chris Juneteenth Telethon” on June 19 and continued with a “Racism in the Drag Community” discussion on June 23. A “Transmsculine Quarantine Session” event hosted by Baltimore Safe Haven on June 24 and a town hall on June 28 were among other scheduled events.

PHILIP VAN SLOOTEN

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A petition is asking Catholic University of America President JOHN GARVEY to recognize last month’s Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ workplace rights.

(Photo courtesy CUA)

Va. non-discrimination bill takes effect A bill that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to Virginia’s nondiscrimination law took effect on Wednesday.

The Democratic-controlled General Assembly earlier this year approved the Virginia Values Act. Governor Ralph Northam signed it into law on April 11.

Republicans, who lost control of the General Assembly last November, previously blocked efforts to ban antiLGBTQ discrimination in the commonwealth. Virginia is the first state in the South to enact these protections.

“This victory shows the world that with grit, determination, heart and purpose, we can achieve the civil rights that LGBTQ people need and deserve,” said Northam in a video for Global Pride, a 24-hour virtual Pride event that took place on Saturday.

The Washington Blade will update this story.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

LGBTQ Dignity Project Chair CASSY MORRIS, left, with Capt. JAMES MITCHELL of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

(Photo courtesy of Morris)

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Gill Foundation pledges $250K to protect Stonewall Inn Amid concerns the iconic Stonewall Inn in New York City may close due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Gill Foundation announced this week it will match contributions of up to $250,000 to protect the business from closure.

The news was timed for the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which started in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York City and was considered the start of the modern LGBTQ movement.

Scott Miller and Tim Gill, cochairs of the Gill Foundation, said in a statement, “Stonewall is a cornerstone The modern Stonewall Inn is about half the size of the original bar and was last sold in of LGBTQ history and it must be 2006.

(Photo by Travis Wise via Flickr) protected.”

“Queer people of color — including trans women of color like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major — led the uprisings against in a statement. police brutality at Stonewall and in doing so helped spark “As the first and only LGBTQ National Monument, the movement for LGBTQ equality,” Miller and Gill said.

Stonewall is home not only to the history of our community, “We must preserve that history and the legacy of the but also the history of our city and country,” Lentz and Kelly activists who led the charge.” said. “We are beyond grateful for this generous pledge According to a CNN report, the Stonewall Inn is faced that will help us keep the history alive.” with mounting bills and uncertainty around when it can In 2014, the Gill Foundation coordinated with the reopen during the coronavirus crisis. As a consequence, National Park Foundation to identify LGBTQ places and it has started an online fundraiser to ensure the LGBTQ events of historical significance. As part of that effort, the landmark won’t close for good.

Stonewall Inn was designated as a national monument in The monthly rent for the Stonewall Inn is over $40,000 2016, making it the first-ever LGBTQ National Monument. and although the bar received some Paycheck Protection According to the Gill Foundation, the ultimate goal Program funds, it was significantly less than the owners had for the Stonewall Inn is a permanent exhibition and expected, CNN reported. The bar sits next to the Stonewall visitors center near the Stonewall Inn to commemorate its National Monument, which is a national park, but does not important history. receive any federal funding, according to CNN. CHRIS JOHNSON The pledge of up to $250,000 from the Gill Foundation will be earmarked to support rent and utility costs.

Stacy Lentz and Kurt Kelly, co-owners of the Stonewall Inn, welcomed the commitment from the Gill Foundation

House approves bill for Pulse nat’l memorial The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a bill that would designate the Pulse nightclub as a national memorial.

A press release that U.S. Reps. Darren Soto, Val Demings, and Stephanie Murphy released notes House Resolution 3094 “grants a federal designation honoring the 49 lives taken on June 12, 2016, as well as the survivors, first responders and the entire Central Florida community.”

Soto, Demings and Murphy are Democrats who represent Orlando in Congress.

“I am grateful that the House has passed our legislation to make the Pulse site a national memorial,” said Demings.

“We will always honor the family, friends, and neighbors we lost that night. Today, the U.S. House moved forward legislation that will help to ensure that the memories of the victims will always be a part of our national identity and that they will never be forgotten.”

“Four years ago, we saw the atrocious and destructive

nature of hatred plague our Orlando community when 49 lives were taken and 53 others were injured,” added Soto.

“As we continue to honor the memory of those lost, I am proud to lead the fight with Congresswomen Val Demings and Stephanie Murphy to designate the National Pulse Memorial. Today, we remind the world that hate will never defeat love, grief can turn into strength and that a place of loss can become a sanctuary of healing. Together, we will continue to open minds and hearts. We will make the Pulse Memorial a national symbol of hope, love and light.”

The onePULSE Foundation, a group founded by Pulse owner Barbara Poma that is planning to build a permanent memorial, applauded the lawmakers who introduced HR 3094.

“Today, the House of Representatives passed a bill to recognize Pulse nightclub as a National Memorial Site, reminding the world that we will not let hate win,” said the onePULSE Foundation in a tweet.

June 12 marked four years since a gunman killed 49 people inside the nightclub during its Latino night. The massacre at the time was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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Obama, Biden reflect on LGBTQ Supreme Court wins

President BARACK OBAMA reflects on LGBTQ wins at the Supreme Court during a Pride Live event.

(Screen capture via Logo on YouTube)

Former President Barack Obama, in a video posted June 29 for a virtual celebration of Pride month, recognized Supreme Court decisions for LGBTQ rights as continuation of the work started by the Stonewall riots more than 50 years ago.

“We’re almost 51 years since the night when the patrons at the Stonewall Inn stood up for their rights and set off one of America’s defining victories for civil rights,” Obama says in the video. “Because of the movement they sparked and the decades of work that followed, marriage equality became the law of the land five years ago and just this month the Supreme Court ruled that employers can no longer discriminate against LGBTQ workers.”

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled in the decision of Bostock v. Clayton County anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The decision in favor of same-sex marriage in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges came down in 2015 during Obama’s second term in office.

“All that progress is worth celebrating and reflecting on,” Obama says. “The struggle and triumph for LGBTQ rights shows how protests and politics go hand in hand, how we’ve got to both shine a light on injustice and translate those aspirations into specific laws and institutional practices.”

The virtual celebration, called Pride Live, was a three-day event that raised funds for LGBTQ organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the event, Pride Live announced that philanthropists Tim Gill and Scott Miller of the Gill Foundation contributed $50,000 to the cause.

Joseph Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and his wife Dr. Jill Biden also appeared in a video for the event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pride month.

“Pride is particularly poignant this year,” Biden says in the video. “Even as the LGBTQ+ rights continued to be attacked, the Supreme Court has affirmed protections for LGBTQ+ people against employment discrimination.”

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Global Pride amplifies Black voices Celebrities, politicians and activists on Saturday united with Global Pride 2020, a 24-hour virtual event created in light of widespread cancellations of Pride events and festivals due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The event celebrated LGBTQ progress thus far and drew attention to the violence and oppression that Black LGBTQ and transgender individuals endure around the world. Global Pride organizers also collaborated with the founders of Black Lives Matter to amplify Black LGBTQ voices.

Musical acts, dance routines and speeches by drag queens, LGBTQ artists and allies filled the 24-hour special, as well as history lessons on past Pride festivals around the world and the foundations of the LGBTQ rights movement.

Testimonials, performances and speeches were submitted by individuals and organizations from 91 countries, with 1,500 entries in total.

Laverne Cox, Olivia Newton-John, Kesha, Adam Lambert, Pabllo Vittar, Deborah Cox, Pussy Riot, the Village People and Ahmed Umar and many other celebrities were featured at the event as performers, speakers and educators. Todrick Hall, an LGBTQ singer, songwriter, producer and YouTube star hosted the event.

“For many of us in the world, Pride is the only time we can visible,” said Hall. “Its the only time we can celebrate as one big glorious LGBTQIA+ family. For all of you, this is your Pride, this is your moment.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel were some of the event’s featured politicians and global leaders.

Many headliners referenced worldwide protests against the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other victims of police brutality in the U.S. This event took place about a month after Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died in police custody when a then-Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, said, “it is more important than ever to fight for all Black lives.”

Although there have been countless protests and marches, there is still work to be done, she said.

“We don’t want Black lives to only matter when we die,” added Garza. “We want Black lives to matter when we are alive. Black trans lives matter now, not just when Black trans people are murdered.”

Many global leaders acknowledged these sentiments: That Pride should act as a platform to continue the fight against systemic oppression and racism, in addition to being a time of celebration.

“This year’s Pride looks different than the Prides of yesteryear,” said Cox. “Let’s not forget the main reason we commemorate Pride. We fight oppression, violence and discrimination … We stand united on a global stage. We make space to advocate, educate and celebrate.”

Biden said this event is a chance to “return to the true roots of Pride.”

“The fight for LGBTQ equality is all our fight,” he said.

“We have a responsibility to create a world where who you are or who you love is celebrated, not denigrated.

Embraced, not delegitimized.”

Pelosi added Black trans women disproportionately endure higher rates of homelessness, violence and murder.

“It is an annual reminder of the struggle and violence that the LGBTQ+ community has endured for years,” Whitmer said. “That struggle is undoubtedly, disproportionately impacted Black and Brown people in the LGBTQ+ community.”

KAELA ROEDER

LAVERNE COX was one of a number of celebrities who took part in Global Pride last weekend.

(Photo courtesy Netflix)

State Dept. human rights bureau acknowledges Pride The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on Monday publicly acknowledged Pride month.

“The U.S. stands in solidarity with human rights defenders working around the world to protect fundamental freedoms of LGBTI persons and communities,” it said in a tweet. “All people are endowed with unalienable human rights and every government is obligated to provide equal protection under the law.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has yet to publicly acknowledge Pride month, even though a number of embassies have done so.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia draped a Pride flag on the side of its building in Moscow.

“Today we conclude the celebration of Pride month,” said the embassy in Russian on its Twitter page. “But we continue to protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all people around the world. Rights for LGBT people are human rights. Human rights are universal. It’s so simple.”

The U.S. Embassy in Lithuania on its Twitter page currently has the rainbow and transgender Pride flags as its banner picture. Ambassador Robert Gilchrist, one of five openly gay men who represent the U.S. abroad as ambassadors, on Monday participated in an Atlantic Council Pride month event.

The State Department has repeatedly told the Blade the U.S. continues to focus its LGBTQ-specific foreign policy efforts on decriminalizing consensual same-sex sexual relations and reducing violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The White House in 2019 tapped outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to lead an initiative that encourages countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Activists nevertheless continue to sharply criticize the Trump administration’s LGBTQ rights record, which includes the State Department’s controversial Commission on Unalienable Rights that Pompeo created last year.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Trump hosts anti-LGBTQ Polish leader President Trump last week met with the anti-LGBTQ president of Poland at the White House.

Two senior administration officials who briefed reporters said NATO and economic ties between Poland and the U.S. were among the topics that Trump and Andrzej Duda planned to discuss.

Duda is the first head of state the White House has hosted since the coronavirus pandemic began. Trump on Wednesday described Duda as a “friend” before they met in the Oval Office.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Poland than we are right now,” said Trump before their meeting.

“And we’re going to have a very important meeting on economic development, military and other things.”

Duda met with Trump ahead of Poland’s June 28 presidential election. The meeting also sparked condemnation from the Human Rights Campaign and Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia), a Polish LGBTQ advocacy group.

“I don’t care if they are going to talk about the army or electricity or whatever,” Justyna Nakielska of Kampania Przeciw Homofobii told the Blade during a WhatsApp interview from Warsaw, the Polish capital. “For me it sends a strong symbolic message and (a) practical (one) as well that each other supports the homophobic rhetoric of one another.”

Nakielska noted Duda last month said LGBTQ “ideology” is more harmful than communism.

Nakielska told the Blade that Duda’s Law and Justice party ahead of last October’s parliamentary elections noted that LGBTQ Poles, among other things “want to sexualize children” and “are a threat to the family.”

Nakielska also told the Blade that anti-LGBTQ groups began to lobby local governments to enact homophobic and transphobic resolutions.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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PATRICK HORNBECK is chair and professor of theology at Fordham University, where he is also a JD candidate at Fordham Law School.

Celebrate Bostock, for now

Religious questions continue to shape scope of legal protections

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In what is at least the biggest victory for LGBTQ Americans since the 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, last month the Supreme Court held that employers who fire employees for their sexual orientation or gender identity violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. But under what circumstances will religious employers be subject to, and their employees protected by, the rule the Court announced?

Let’s start with the positive. The decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and the two cases consolidated with it arguably expands the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans more broadly than the Court’s previous gay rights decisions. While the Court’s earlier decisions affirmed for LGBTQ people what retired Justice Anthony Kennedy dubbed “equal dignity in the eye of the law,” in practice they benefited LGBTQ people primarily in the context of our romantic, marital, and sexual relationships. Monday’s decision establishes the equality of LGBTQ individuals as individuals, of sexual orientation and gender identity as categories of human personhood.

This should be a time of nearly unalloyed celebration for LGBTQ Americans, our families, friends, and allies. Though we mourn the loss of two of the plaintiffs in the cases, Donald Zarda and Aimee Stephens, who did not survive to see justice done, the decision has far-reaching implications we have waited a long time for. But the Court’s opinion, authored by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and the court’s four liberal members, also signaled where the next front in the battle for LGBTQ equality will be drawn.

Religion, as Justice Stephen Breyer commented at October’s oral arguments, “is the elephant in the room.” It was not for nothing that numerous faith-based organizations attempted to sway the Court’s thinking. National evangelical associations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops weighed in on behalf of employers who had fired gay and transgender employees. But the Court heard from religious voices on the other side of the spectrum as well, with progressive Muslim, Jewish, and Christian groups urging the justices to affirm the God-given equality of all individuals and prohibit discrimination in our increasingly pluralistic society.

Justice Breyer was right about the place of religion in the cases decided in June, because they did not explicitly feature arguments about religious freedom. Title VII does include an exception for religious organizations that wish to make employment decisions on the basis of their employees’ religious beliefs.

Over the past 40 years, lower courts and the Supreme Court have added a separate, judge-made exception that, in the name of avoiding First Amendment problems, frees religious institutions from Title VII when it comes to the hiring and firing of those whom the courts deem “ministers.”

But most objections to the full equality of LGBTQ Americans rest on religious grounds, and so it is not surprising that questions about religion continue to shape the scope of legal protections for LGBTQ citizens.

We will not have to wait long for the next salvo in what has become an ongoing conflict between antidiscrimination laws and assertions about religious freedom.

In May, two Trump administration cabinet departments proposed enabling healthcare providers and homeless shelters to turn away, for reasons of conscience, those who identify as transgender. Later this term—maybe even this week—the Supreme Court will hand down its decision in a second set of discrimination cases. Teachers at two Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles claim they were fired for legally impermissible reasons: one because of a cancer diagnosis that rose to the level of a disability, the other because of age. The schools have argued that because the teachers performed “important religious functions,” they are covered by Title VII’s “ministerial exception” and, therefore, the schools’ employment decisions merit categorical immunity from antidiscrimination laws.

Whether in the context of sexuality, disability, or age, situations like these demand that courts and legislators walk a very narrow tightrope.

The Supreme Court did not need to, and therefore did not, resolve these complex questions in its landmark ruling in Bostock.

But the questions keep turning up, in cases involving bakers and photographers, teachers and organists. For the peace of mind of all who work in and patronize institutions with a religious mission, sooner or later the Court will have to decide. Whether that day will also be a day of celebration for LGBTQ Americans remains to be seen.

PETER ROSENSTEIN is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

Bowser shines as mayor

Many of us would be proud to call her ‘governor’

It is often said a crisis can bring out the best or the worst in people. We are confronting two crises at the same time: the coronavirus pandemic and the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests.

The protests forced us to face the rampant overuse of force by some members of police departments against Black and Brown members of the community. At the same time the pandemic forced us to recognize the healthcare discrepancies faced by Black and Brown communities and the economic inequality that exists often bringing them about.

Polling makes it clear the nation sees that in Trump, these crises have brought out the worst. D.C. is fortunate the crises have brought out the best in our mayor.

Muriel Bowser has stepped up to the plate and made residents proud. She has shown herself a leader and handled both crises with a steady hand. She has had the help of some of the best people in her administration, and we must recognize they are people she chose, who have also stepped up. They include among many others the Director of the Department of Health Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt; acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio (also doing double duty as the mayor’s chief of staff); Chief of Police Peter Newsham; and Jeff Marootian, director of the Department of Transportation.

Because D.C. is not a state, the mayor walks a fine line. D.C. is in many ways under the control of the federal government.

Often that means Trump. Our budgets and legislation need congressional approval and the president controls our National Guard and, in an emergency, could take over the police. So when the mayor chastised the president she had to be careful not to harm discussions she was having simultaneously with parts of the administration and Congress. She has walked that line brilliantly; including when she had BLACK LIVES MATTER painted in huge yellow letters on 16th

Street leading to the White House. It was like giving Trump our middle finger. Then she named the area in front of Lafayette Park and the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” Bowser also spoke out forcefully about keeping federal troops out of D.C., insisting the National Guard the president brought in from other states be removed.

At the same time, Bowser dealt daily with the coronavirus pandemic, facing a nearly complete shutdown of the economy and having to submit a totally revised budget to the Council. Her daily press conferences reporting to the residents gave comprehensive updates on the pandemic’s impact on each neighborhood and also explaining there would be a $750 million budget shortfall this year and an $800 million one next year. She has committed to try to address some of the inequalities rampant in D.C. between east and west. Because the mayor has been leading the city well there was an over $300 million surplus from the previous year so the impact of the cuts won’t be as drastic as they are in many other cities. While not everyone agrees with her response to the cry to “defund police,” she is being rational and standing strong for what she believes is best for the District. Many agree with her and some don’t. I hope the Council will rise to the occasion and work with the mayor to come to an agreement on this without individual members of the Council trying to grandstand for headlines. This discussion needs to be held in an open and systematic way taking into consideration the views and needs of all the people of the District.

In recent weeks, Mayor Bowser has appeared on numerous national television shows including “Meet the Press,” the “Today” show, and “ABC World News Tonight.” She has acquitted herself well and her ability to speak knowledgably and in a way people can understand has brought new and positive attention to D.C. Contrary to the opinion of some Republicans like outof-touch Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who spoke out against the winning vote for statehood for the District in the House by attacking the mayor, many like me are proud she is our mayor and would be proud to call her governor.

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MATHILDE LADERUD

KATHI WOLFE

is a Norwegian global philanthropic fundraiser and entrepreneur who spent the past 10 years working in New York City. She is currently working for the law and consulting company Simple Legal Consulting in Costa Rica.

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

Moving white people to be anti-racist We must struggle to fight the bigotry within ourselves One day when I was five, I sat on the floor, writing “KKK” on a tablet. “Don’t ever do that again!” my Dad said when he walked by and saw what I’d written.”

Those letters stand for the Ku Klux Klan – a very, very bad group,” he said, tearing up the paper I’d written on, “they are hateful people.”

On a Sunday evening in September 1963, our family gathered to celebrate my upcoming 11th birthday. Suddenly, in the midst of birthday cake, ice cream and presents, my Mom started to cry. She’d heard the news: the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., a center of civil rights activism, had been bombed.

Four girls had been killed, she told me, through her tears. “One of the girls was 11. Just a littler older than you,” she said.

A few weeks later, my parents and their friends are in our living room playing bridge. When they break for coffee and cake, my Dad launches into an imitation of Martin Luther King (as King had delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that summer). My Dad is making fun of Dr. King. The grownups laugh as they sip their coffee. I laugh, too. If everyone thinks it’s funny, I don’t want to be the dumb kid who doesn’t get the joke. Still, I wonder: why are they laughing? Weren’t they sad when the girls at the church were killed?

I’ve been revisiting these early memories of growing up white in South, N.J., as our nation grapples with racism in the ongoing protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery; police brutality and systemic racism. Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., the last surviving Ku Klux Klansmen, who were convicted for the Birmingham church bombing, died on June 25. Nearly a third of black Americans, compared with just 17 percent of white Americans, know someone who’s died of COVID-19,

according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll. Dominique Fellas and Riah Milton, two trans women, and Tony McDade, a black trans man, have been killed. The American Medical Association has said so many transgender people (most of whom are people of color) have been murdered – that it’s an epidemic.

Against this backdrop of childhood recollections and present day news, I, like many white people, queer and nonqueer, struggle to understand our own (systemic) racism. We wonder: What can we do to be allies to people of color?

How can we be anti-racists?

Like any self-identified progressive queer feminist, I emailed a black queer friend after George Floyd was killed. I informed her that his death was caused by racist, police brutality. (This was, I bet, news to her!). What did she think of it, I asked. I feel so bad, I said, I can’t sleep at night.

Thankfully, my friend still speaks to me after my well-intentioned, but whining e-mail. It’s not that I’m a bad person. My feelings of outrage and sadness were genuine. I’d just acted as many white people have acted. Without intending to, I’d asked my friend to comfort me. When people of color, especially trans people of color, are being killed by police as a result of systemic racism.

Next, I turned to some of the books on racism from “White Fragility” to “How to Be an Antiracist” to “Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movement” that are popular now with white progressives.

These books help us to understand that racism is systemic – not personal.

That good people can do and say things that are systemically racist. I see now that my Dad was a great guy, despite his racist dissing of King.

Yet, to be anti-racist, we must move beyond books. We must struggle all our lives to fight the racism within ourselves and our society.

In memory of Larry Kramer There is always something you can do, even if you are the only one fighting Larry Kramer was never afraid to speak his mind and continued to fight the system and status quo up until his death.

He was even writing a play this spring when the coronavirus first emerged.

“It’s about gay people having to live through three plagues,” he said.

At 84 he was still engaged and knew perhaps more than anyone the scale of what was to come.

My name is Mathilde Laderud. I am from Norway and have lived the past 10 years in NYC. I have worked for the U.N. and later in documentary and film production. I am writing this because I am a huge fan of Larry Kramer. I have been moved by his conviction and dedication and try to channel his strength whenever I feel that something is too much to handle for just one person. Larry taught us that there is always something you can do, even if you are the only one fighting.

During these past few months of irregular life schedules, people have begun to wake up and are asking themselves what parts of normal are no longer acceptable. The past few months of isolation has provided a vacuum of solitude away from regular distractions.

The injustices happening around the world are now right in front of us, visible and impossible to brush aside. We are seeing people organizing and no longer accepting the silence or the lies we’re fed from the media and our governments.

Larry said silence equals death. Today I am seeing people all over the world taking power into their own hands, going to the streets without fear and protesting, asking questions and demanding justice. Protesting is no longer only for the radicals, like Larry and his fellow protesters were called. In the U.S. and across the world people are protesting decades of systemic racism and the murders of so many innocent black men and women. Simultaneously minorities

and poor communities around the world are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus.

In the U.S. we have a health care system that denies access to its most vulnerable citizens. It’s a system that punishes you for being sick, or losing your job — a time when you need this support the most. if you lose your job in the U.S., you also lose your health insurance. Larry fought to change the healthcare system and demanded that everyone should have access to health care and new drugs. He said, “everyone should be angry.” Needless to say, the situation in the U.S. is very unstable and in need of a serious makeover.

Around a year ago we saw millions across the globe protesting climate change and demanding change from governments. The protests have already changed the way politicians and businesses leaders talk about climate change and added urgency to the political debate. The U.K.’s House of Commons has declared a “climate emergency,” and some cities have followed, including Sydney, New York and Paris.

I want to thank Larry for teaching us to say “no,” “I will not stand for this” and “we need to do better.” He fought against inaction from leaders and people in positions of power, and against the apathy he sometimes found within his own people.

“I am sick of everyone in this community who tells me to stop creating a panic. How many of us have to die before you get scared off your ass and into action? Aren’t 195 dead New Yorkers enough?” he wrote in his 1983 essay “1,112 and Counting” for the New York Native magazine. You don’t get anything unless you fight for it, united and with visible numbers. Without him, millions of people more would die from HIV/ AIDS. The drugs that are here today are because of Larry Kramer and no one in history can dispute that. We must all take Larry’s advice, to think big and try to change the world.

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’Rona’ reunion

By KAELA ROEDER & JOEY DiGUGLIELMO

The cast of ‘Noah’s Arc’ during its original mid-2000s run. From left are CHRISTIAN VINCENT (Ricky), RODNEY CHESTER (Alex), DARRYL STEPHENS (Noah) and DOUG SPEARMAN (Chance). (file photo courtesy LOGO)

‘Noah’s Arc’ cast reunites in character for Zoom event this weekend Intimacy, relationships, parenting, sexual health and social justice: these are just some of the topics covered in “Noah’s Arc,” the hit 2005-2006 series covering the daily life of a group of gay, Black men in Los Angeles.

Often described as being ahead of its time, this show was the first series to feature an all-Black, LGBTQ cast, making history in the industry. Dubbed a gay version of “Golden Girls” or “Sex and the City,” the show developed an active fan base that still loves it and its cast.

The cast and creator Patrik-Ian Polk are set to reunite for a new episode “Noah’s Arc: The ’Rona Chronicles.”

The group finds themselves navigating the global health crisis and mass protests for social justice and equal rights after a 12-year hiatus. It airs Sunday, July 5 at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PST) on YouTube and Facebook Live.

GLAAD and Impulse D.C. are supporting sponsors.

Several LGBT charitable groups such as the Birmingham AIDS outreach, GLITS (Gays & Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society), In the Meantime Men’s Group and D.C.’s own CASA Ruby are beneficiaries. Look for the event page on Eventbrite. Gilead will present the show

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dubbed “social distancing & social unrest brings them together.”

The starring characters of the show including Noah (Darryl Stephens), Alex (Rodney Chester), Ricky (Christian Vincent), Chance (Doug Spearman) and Wade (Jensen Atwood) will unite to film the episode.

Wrapping after two seasons on Logo TV and a 2008 feature film (“Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom”) that follows Noah (Stephens) and Wade’s (Atwood) marriage, the cast said they’re looking forward to reuniting.

The program will begin with a pre-show tailgate party hosted by the Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative, streaming testimonials from fans and clips from the original series. After the episode airs, there will be a live Q&A with the cast, including Stephens, Atwood, Chester, Spearman and Vincent. Karamo Brown of “Queer Eye” will moderate.

The Blade spoke by phone last week with cast members Chester (Alex), Jenson (Wade) and Stephens (Noah) to talk about their excitement for the reunion and what the group has been up to since the show ended.

RODNEY CHESTER (Alex) Portraying Alex Kirby, a confident and outspoken HIV counselor, Chester says he’s excited to reunite with the cast and “pick up where we left off” 12 years ago.

Alex opens his own non-profit HIV-awareness treatment center called the Black AIDS Institute in the show, and Chester says the real-life Black AIDS Institute helped develop “Noah’s Arc.” Chester says the character of Alex and others on the show helped contribute to the valuable messaging on the Black LGBTQ experience in TV and films seen in 2020. Successful LGBTQ Black men who owned their own non-profit were nonexistent at the time.

“We pioneered positive messaging that we are seeing today,” he says.

He learned a great deal about sexual health and HIV throughout the process of filming the show and even learned how to conduct STD testing.

Chester met (“Noah’s Arc” creator) Polk through playing Alexis in the movie “Punks,” a romantic comedy

that follows a group of Black LGBTQ men in West Hollywood in the late ‘90s. Chester, who played Alexis in the film, was connected to Polk from there. The part of Alex was written specifically by Polk for Chester to play.

“He wanted to get my energy on stage. It was fun, I never had someone write a character for me before,” Chester says.

This event could also kickstart the possibility of a reboot of the show, Chester says, which would possibly revolve around the parents of the characters.

Chester has been filling his time with acting and other creative projects since the show aired. Recently, he played Kevin in “As I Am,” a movie about a young Black LGBTQ man confronting his past and suppressed identity. The movie is in the process of finding a distributor.

Looking back on the original episodes of the sitcom, Chester is proud of the work his cast and Polk did to put the show on screen.

“I am happy to display positive characters … we don’t fight,” he says. “We show positive friendships. We are all best friends.”

JENSEN ATWOOD (Wade) Wade, a screenwriter who struggles with his sexual identity upon meeting Noah, showed the process of a

From left, JENSEN ATWOOD (Wade), DARRYL STEPHENS (Noah) and CHRISTIAN VINCENT (Ricky) in the 2012 reunion movie ’Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom.’ (file photo courtesy LOGO)

DARRYL STEPHENS (left) and JENSEN ATWOOD in 2010.

(Photo by Greg Hernandez via Wikimedia)

hyper-“straight” man coming to terms with being LGBTQ — a rare representation at the turn of the 21st Century.

Atwood described the reunion as “surreal.” He says the cast has been trying to coordinate a reunion since the show wrapped and is excited to be back with the group and get “back to the foundations of Wade.”

Because of the way the show tackled more sensitive issues “head on” that were barely covered in other TV or film programs, as Atwood says, “Noah’s Arc” was a catalyst for LGBTQ Pride.

When the show first aired in 2005, being gay was still seen as being an uncomfortable topic, Jenson says. When viewers and fans of the show would see him in public and ask him about the show, “their voice would change to a lower tone and almost whisper ‘Noah’s Arc.’” Now, Atwood says that attitude and stigma toward being LGBTQ and gay lifestyle has diminished and now LGBTQ is more a topic of pride and positivity.

Comparing the mid-2000s and 2020, Atwood says there has been a palpable societal impact in attitudes toward LGBTQ people and feels proud of the work he and the team did and will continue to do for “The ’Rona Chronicles.”

“People 15 years later still talk about it like it’s a brand-new show. I would say we all succeeded in the cast,” he says.

Atwood has kept his sexuality private for his career, as well, and has avoided speaking openly about his identity on public platforms. He says it’s “personal.”

He says playing Wade was “a challenge.” Atwood says he did not “associate with gay love,” but used the knowledge of love he did have to round out his character.

“It was confusing because it was a world that I’m not a part of. I was fearful that I wouldn’t be able to give the respect that the character needed,” he says.

He says his career since wrapping “Noah’s Arc” has been “nonstop.” Previous projects include

national commercials, short films and putting out an album with his band Dreamkillaz, a rock band based in Los Angeles.

Similar to the rest of the cast, Atwood says he’s excited to bring “The ’Rona Chronicles” to “Noah’s Arc” fans.

“I think the fans definitely deserve it. And the fans have been wanting it. And more than anything, I’m excited. I’m excited for the fans,” he says.

DARRYL STEPHENS (Noah) The first year he played the title role on “Noah’s Arc,” actor Darryl Stephens also played gay characters in two other movies, the 2006 releases “Boy Culture” and “Another Gay Movie.” Although the three characters were all gay, he thought they were diverse enough that he didn’t worry about getting pigeonholed as an actor.

“What I didn’t understand at the time was that TV characters resonate with audiences differently than film characters,” the 46-year-old, openly gay actor says.

“Because TV characters visit you in your living room every week. … People in the street don’t scream, ‘Andrew’ or ‘Angel,’ the scream, ‘Noah,’ right?”

So while he has played mostly gay roles since “Noah’s Arc,” (“It’s shifted a little bit more now toward bitchy desk clerks,” he says), “Arc” was also a blessing, he says.

“Oh my god, I wish I had friends like you guys.”

“Oh my god, I want a relationship like you had with Wade.”

“Oh my god, you were the first character I could really relate to,” and on and on the recurring comments go.

Stephens says it’s gratifying.

“I’ve worked a lot and nothing in my life has had the impact that this show and that character has had for me,” he says.

Playing Noah, he says, allowed him to get in touch with his softer side. He calls Noah “fragile” and an “sensitive, emotionally expressive Black gay man,” qualities he hasn’t seen as much in his subsequent roles.

Continues on page 22

JULY 0 3 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 1 9

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

Series star Stephens says signature role has been ‘blessing’ As of this June 26 interview, Actor DARRYL STEPHENS (Noah) today.

Stephens had not yet seen a (photo courtesy Stephens) reunion script — which will find the actors in character reuniting via Zoom — but says he’s curious to see how Noah will have matured.

So if the show had such a loyal audience, why was the run — 17 episodes plus the movie — so short? Stephens says LOGO was a fledgling network at the time that didn’t fully grasp what it had in the show. He says in some ways, now, with limitless content hours available via streaming, a show like “Arc” would likely have lasted longer.

On the other hand, he says, more queer characters on mainstream shows might lessen the demand for uber-queer shows.

“This notion that we need a show catered specifically to queer people became outdated,” he says. “Our stories started being told in the context of larger stories and I think once that was recognized, LOGO recalibrated.”

He’d be open to a reboot but says only if the characters and themes were fully brought The core cast stay somewhat in touch. up to date.

He says he and Rodney Chester “talk all “What was very groundbreaking in the time.” He and Doug Spearman have 2005, 2006 is very run of the mill now,” worked together and are both cast in an he says. “We’d really have to tackle those upcoming series called “Boy Culture.” He issues from a new perspective.” calls his relationship with series creator He remembers a scene in “Don’t Patrik-Ian Polk “good.”

Make Me Over” (season one, episode “We respect each other,” he says, four) as his favorite of the series. The although, “we don’t talk that often. But issue of gay men dressing and acting as when we do, it’s very, ‘hey girl.’ We fall straight as possible made for rich acting right back into it.” material, he says.

Stephens is in a relationship but won’t “Then we ended up blowing the lid say more other than, “I’m very happy.” He off it with all the characters ending up in lives in Los Angeles. drag,” he says.

If there’s been any downside to Filming was arduous he says but not “Noah’s Arc,” Stephens says it’s mostly just unusual. He expected long hours. What that fans are sometimes underwhelmed he remembers more, he says, is goofing when they seem him in person. off with his fellow castmates, all of whom “This is gonna sound dumb, but are on board for the reunion. Stephens people expect me to be way more kept a few of Noah’s clothes — boots from fashionable than I am,” he says. “I’m a the movie, a few T-shirts. He gave his jeans-and-T-shirt dude down. Sometimes mom the poncho Noah was gay bashed people see me on the street and they’re in. like, ‘Oh, that’s not a fierce outfit.’ That’s “I loved it but I just felt it was one of the curses of being such a cutting something I wouldn’t wear again,” he edge, provocative dresser on TV.” says. “She wears it every now and then.”

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Darryl Stephens shares thoughts on Black Lives Matter

I am incredibly encouraged to see that this movement has finally reached the masses in a way that feels significant. It’s been hard as a black person, or coming from me as a human — but I don’t know what it’s like to not be a black person — so it’s been hard for me to watch this story of black folks being killed unnecessarily.

Obviously it’s unnecessary because the police have no right to kill anybody right, they’re not judge and jury. If cops are not being shot at, they don’t need to pull their guns out as far as I’m concerned. And it’s been extraordinarily disheartening and heartbreaking to watch the nation see this story happen over and over and shrug., Finally people seem to respond with, “What the hell are y’all doing to Black people?” The moment they said that, the moment the masses turned around and said, “Yeah cops what are you doing,” the cops immediately jumped up and showed their asses and said, “Yeah we are not to be checked and we are not to be monitored, we are gonna do whatever we want and if white people want to come in the street and protest for the lives of Black people, we will beat you down too.”

So I am incredibly encouraged to see the reset of America and the world recognize the way Black people have been hunted and vilified and mischaracterized by the police and the justice system and I only hope that the movement from here effects actual policy change. I would hate for all of this to have been a few news cycles and to go away again.

Black Lives Matter was started by Black lesbians, so it’s always been a queer movement.

Organizations like GLAAD and HRC have overwhelmingly worked in the interests of white gays and lesbians. … I still see a lot of gay and lesbian people and cisgender people of all sexual orientations who don’t get it and don’t afford trans folks the respect they deserve. I’d say with respect to that, we have a long way to go.

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Harrowing history New HBO docs shed light on Roy Cohn, plight of gays in Chechnya

By BRIAN T. CARNEY Pride month is over, but there’s still goodies to be enjoyed such as two somber new documentaries from HBO. One reminds us that despite recent victories in the U.S., there is still much to be protect the lives of LGBT people around the globe. The other revisits the career of Roy Cohn, the controversial closeted gay lawyer who played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in shaping right-wing politics in this country from the 1950s to the present.

“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” reexamines the well-known highlights of Cohn’s career. In 1951, the 24-year-old Cohn served as a prosecutor for the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; his improper communications with witness David Greenglass (Ethel’s brother) and Judge Irving Kaufman led to a guilty verdict and the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953.

DAVID ISTEV in the gripping doc ‘Welcome to Chechnya.’

(Photo courtesy HBO)

President RONALD REAGAN and ROY COHN in the Oval Office in 1983. (photo courtesy HBO via White House Reagan Photographic Office Collection)

Cohn then served as the chief counsel for Sen. Joseph McCarthy and became one of the architects of the “Lavender Scare” which forced suspected communists and homosexuals from federal employment. Following the collapse of the Army-McCarthy hearings, Cohn entered private practice in New York City.

He became a fixture in high-power legal, political and social circles. His network included the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, reputed Mafia leaders, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager of the legendary Studio 54 and other luminaries of New York society. He was one of the architects of the Reagan Revolution and served as a mentor to real estate developer Donald Trump. He died of complications from AIDS in 1986.

HBO’s new movie promises a fresh look at Cohn’s fascinating career. It’s directed by Ivy Meeropol, a documentary filmmaker and granddaughter of the Rosenbergs and it opens with a shot of Cohn’s panel in the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The inscription on the panel gives the film its title.

Meeropol does offer some fresh insights into the Cohn saga. She provides interesting home movie footage of her family, especially her father Michael. She also provides insightful commentaries about Cohn’s unethical behavior during the trial; noted Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz voices the current scholarly consensus that her grandparents were “guilty but framed.”

But, while Meeropol makes a compelling case for Cohn as “bully,” she doesn’t make a clear case for Cohn as “coward” or “victim” and her family story gets lost in the overall Cohn saga. “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” is a well-made documentary, but Cohn’s story is better told in previous documentaries (“The Lavender Scare” and “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”) and in Tony Kushner’s monumental play “Angels in America.”

Directed by award-winning filmmaker and journalist David France, “Welcome to Chechnya” is a powerful documentary about the heroic activists who are fighting against the systematic persecution of LGBT people in the Russian republic of Chechnya.

Since 2016, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with the implicit support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led a brutal campaign of detention, torture and execution against LGBT people of Chechnya. With extremely limited international support, two groups of Chechen and Russian activists are helping LGBT refugees to flee to safety outside the Russian Federation.

Working with co-writer and editor Tyler H. Walk, France effectively deploys a variety of traditional and innovative guerilla filmmaking techniques to tell this incredible story. He focuses on three valiant freedom fighters: David Isteev, the crisis response coordinator for the Russian LGBT Network; Olga Baranova, the founding director of the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives; and, “Grisha,” a survivor of Chechen torture who is forced to flee with his boyfriend “Bogdan” and other members of his family. He weaves their stories together with the stories of other victims of homophobic violence (including “Anya” who is being threatened by members of her own family and gay Chechen pop star Zelim Bakaev who “disappeared” in 2017 after being detained by special security forces) and horrific footage showing the torture of LGBT Chechens.

In addition to using pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of his subjects, France also uses an innovative “face double” technology when interviewing his subjects. This new procedure means that France and Walk do not need to disguise the voices of their subjects or film them in shadows. It gives the documentary a visceral impact that underscores its timely message.

David France, whose previous work includes “How to Survive a Plague” and “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” has once again crafted an excellent hard-hitting documentary about LGBT people in crisis. In the face of international indifference and silence from the White House, “Welcome to Chechnya” is an urgent call to arms.

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

QUEERY Cornelius Joy

(Photo courtesy Joy)

QUEERY: Cornelius Joy The Equality Chamber board member answers 20 queer questions

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com

Cornelius Joy says growing up in St. Louis, he felt the pinch of a dearth of gay resources that would have been helpful to him. So now as a Washingtonian, he’s committed to helping where he can.

Joy is on the board of the Equality Chamber of Commerce and has volunteered for other organizations as well. He helps the chamber plan events of all sizes.

“My goal is to support the LGBT busi ness owners in the DMV area and make sure I do everything I can to make sure they have the support they need and help them

with resources,” he says. “I just want to make sure they know black queer people have a voice and that diversity is here, despite what someone may think or say.”

He says it’s important work that someone has to do.

“I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would always live my true self and do my best to help others,” he says.

Joy is a social butterfly who loves networking and meeting new people, a trait he says he got from his father.

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“I’m just not afraid to say, ‘Hi, I’m Cornelius’ and go from there,” he says.

He came to Washington five years ago after stints in Minneapolis and New York. Career and a chance to grow professionally drew him to the District. He finished a degree this year from George Washington University and has worked at Marriott Hotels, currently as operations manager, off and on for 15 years.

Joy is “single and looking for Mr. Right.” He lives in the U Street area, Northwest and enjoys tennis, cooking, social justice, traveling, friends and diversity building in his free time.

“Noah’s Arc”

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

I’ve been out since I was 17. My mom.

What’s D.C.’s best hidden gem?

D.C. has so much history that we see every day just walking and driving around.

Who’s your LGBTQ hero?

Bayard Rustin What LGBTQ stereotype most annoys you?

People still have issues with interracial relationships.

What’s your proudest professional achievement?

Just being true to myself knowing that I’m gay and still a professional no matter and I’m not going to let someone talk differently to me because of that.

What terrifies you?

Feeling that I’m not good enough.

What’s something trashy or vapid you love?

OMG potato chips! You don’t want to see me when they don’t have the kind I like!

What’s your greatest domestic skill?

I love being in control. I’m a planner.

What’s your favorite LGBTQ movie or show?

What’s your social media pet peeve?

Overuse of: #WTF What would the end of the LGBTQ movement look like to you?

I think it will never end.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Overuse of: #OMG #GURL What was your religion, if any, as a child and what is it today?

Grew up Baptist. Now I’m non-denominational and affirming.

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

My first Beyonce concert in 2014.

What celebrity death hit you hardest?

Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin If you could redo one moment from your past, what would it be?

I was in an LTR once and was told I would never be good enough. I should have ended it right then.

What are your obsessions?

Working hard and saying yes. Sometimes it’s hard for me to say no.

Finish this sentence — It’s about damn time: … the Blade featured me! LOL What do you wish you’d known at 18?

To listen more to my mother and never be afraid to live my truth.

Why Washington?

I feel like hubby and career are here, so everything else will fall into place.

The Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. (MCCDC) is excited to announce the launch of a Microloan Program for Young Adults in the DMV. Who Qualifies for a Loan?

Young adults, ages 20 to 30, who reside in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and who meet one or more of the following criterion:

 can create art in any medium,  are community activists,  make other contributions that benefit their communities.

Applicants may request a maximum of $1500.

Initial Application Period: July 13 – July 31, 2020.

For 49 years, MCCDC has served the greater Washington, D.C. area with special ministry to LBGTQIA people in our region. Now, as recipients of an Innovation Grant from Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lily Endowment, we are excited to offer this opportunity to young adults in our communities who may experience difficulty accessing more traditional forms of financial assistance.

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JULY 0 3 , 2 0 2 0 • WAS H IN GTO N B LAD E.CO M • 2 5

CALENDAR

BY KAELA ROEDER

Independence Day — this Saturday — is shaping up to be a huge Black Lives Matter protest day in Washington.

(Washington Blade file photo by Michael K. Lavers)

TODAY “FilmFest DC at Home,” an international film festival in Washington, ends today, running since April 23.

Viewing is free and current film offerings include “We Have Boots,” a new film on Hong Kong’s protests, and the “tenacious democratic aspirations of this semiautonomous Chinese city,” according to the film description. Learn more by visiting filmfestdc.org.

Saturday, July 4

A George Floyd Memorial March on Washington is today at 9:30 a.m.

The event begins at Lincoln Memorial (2 Lincoln Memorial Circle, N.W.) with speeches, and the march will start at 10 a.m. The route continues down the National Mall to the Washington Monument (15th St., N.W.) before occupying The Ellipse south of the White House.

All Americans Unite protesters will gather at 10 a.m. today at the Washington Monument in a show of solidarity across all communities regardless of ethnicity, race, sexual orientation or gender identity.

We Won’t Stand for This, hosted by the Liberty University Black Law Students Association, is also today at 10 a.m. This will be a demonstration in honor of the several Black women whose lives were lost as a result of police violence. The protest will be at the Supreme Court of

the United States (1 First St N.E.).

Also at 10 a.m. today is the 10 Million Man March on Washington. It begins at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and ends at the U.S. Capitol.

The Black Lives Matter Protest and Unity Human Flag commemorating the lives of George Floyd, Elijah McCain and others lost to violence is at 12:30 p.m. today 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. to the Washington monument to assemble the human flag for the march.

More information on these events can be found on their respective Facebook pages.

Sunday, July 5

The Sculpture Garden has reopened daily from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. daily with social distancing and required face coverings.

The available monuments are located along Constitution Ave., N.W. between 7th and 9th Streets N.W. The East and West buildings are currently closed to the public. Visit nga.gov for more information.

Monday, July 6

The D.C. Center for the LGBT Community hosts a “Center Aging Coffee Drop-In” via Zoom today and every Monday from 10 a.m.-noon. Older LGBTQ adults are invited to join the center for positive conversations or to

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talk about any hardships. Visit the Center Aging’s Facebook page to learn more.

Tuesday, July 7

P&P Live! Presents a virtual book reading today at 4 p.m. for Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s first children’s book together, “Grandma’s Gardens.” A Q&A with Lissa Muscatine, co-founder of Politics and Prose, and the audience will follow the reading. Tickets are $18.9924. Look for the event on Facebook for details.

Wednesday, July 8

A Kennedy Center “Couch Concert,” is today at 4 p.m., as well as every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesdays, the Kennedy Center spotlights a variety of different entertainers, including hip hop, comedy and D.C.-area artists to be streamed.

Learn more by visiting kennedy-center. org/whats-on.

Thursday, July 9

The D.C. Area Transmasculine society is hosting a “Transmasc and Nonbinary Game Night at 7 p.m. tonight on Jackbox.tv, a multi-player video game tool. The audience will be polled at the beginning of the event with four options: Guesspionage, Tee K.O, Quiplash 2 or Trivia Murder Party. Learn more by visiting dcats.org.

OUT&ABOUT

BY JOEY DIGUGLIELMO

Job fair is July 10 Chaleur Creative is offering an online LGBT Career Fair on Wednesday, July 10 from 5-7 p.m. for the D.C. metro area.

Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. Look for the event on Facebook for details.

Gay District meets Saturday Gay District, a social and discussion group for gay, bi and trans men ages 18-35, meets Saturday, July 11 at 8 p.m.

The group continues its meetings each Saturday night at the same time.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, members are meeting via Zoom for the forseeable future. Send an e-mail to supportdesk@thedccenter.org and a password will be sent to those wishing to attend.

Find out more at thedccenter.org.

Flashy returns July 11 Gay dance party Flashy Home Edition is Saturday, July 11 from 9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. via livestream. DC9 will host. DJs TWiN and Sean Morris will spin.

It’s free. Links are available at facebook.com/flashydc.

‘Olivia’ returns

Classic queer novel gets deserved reissue

By KATHI WOLFE “There’s breakfast in bed on your birthday, the text break-up, the great Valentine’s Day date and the night when your romantic partner prefers binge-watching Netflix to having sex. But nothing leaves you so blissed out, yet so sucker-punched as your first crush.

Especially if you’re young, queer and in the throes of your first love.

“Olivia,” by Dorothy Strachey, rereleased on June 9, is an elegant, evocative, absorbing love story. Set in the 19th century in Les Avons, a finishing school outside Paris, it takes us into the solar plexus of Olivia, 16, in the midst of her first infatuation. Olivia, an English girl who’s been sent by her family to Les Avons, has a crush on Mlle Julie, a founder of the school and one of its headmistresses.

The story is narrated by Olivia, decades later, as she recalls the first time she was possessed by love. Andrè Aciman, author of “Call Me

by Your Name,” has written a fascinating introduction to the volume.

Strachey’s tale would be a striking comingof-age story no matter when it was published.

What makes it even more remarkable — even groundbreaking — is that it was originally published in 1949.

A film of “Olivia” with the same name, directed by the French filmmaker Jacqueline Audry, released in France in 1951 and in New York in 1954, is streaming now on the Criterion Channel. The film with its Parisian scenes and repressed, but not totally hidden, queer desire, is well-worth watching with your favorite libation in hand.

Today, queer romances are Amazon bestsellers. But until recently (the late 1990s-early 2000s), most tales of LGBTQ passion ended with the illness, death or imprisonment of their queer protagonists.

Stories of open, unpunished LGBTQ love were frequently banned and their authors often used pseudonyms.

The history of “Olivia” is as engaging as the novella itself. When the volume was first published, Strachey used a pseudonym. It was released as “Olivia” by Olivia.

“Over the years, “the author’s true identity has stopped being the poorly guarded secret it once was,” Aciman writes.

Strachey wrote “Olivia” 15 years before it was published. In 1933, she sent her manuscript of “Olivia” to her friend, the renowned queer French author Andrè Gide.

As Aciman notes in his introduction, Gide wasn’t much impressed with Strachey’s work.

“Three evenings I delved into those pathetic reminiscences,” Gide wrote dismissively to Strachey, who was the translator of his works into English. “How few are the ashes that even today cover so much flame.”

After doing nothing with it for over a decade, in 1949, Strachey submitted it to the

‘Olivia’

By Dorothy Strachey Penguin Classics June 9 $15 128 pages Hogarth Press, which was helmed by Leonard Woolf, Virginia Woolf’s husband. After it was accepted for publication, Strachey wrote Gide (who when he was an editor at the French publisher Gallinard had rejected Proust).

“As repentant and embarrassed as with Proust,” Gide replied by telegram.

Since its initial release, “Olivia” has fallen in and out of print. In later editions, Strachey was named as its author.

Strachey, who was bisexual, was inspired to write “Olivia” by her experience as a student in Les Ruches, a girls school in France. Eleanor Roosevelt who had relationships with women was also a pupil at this school. Strachey’s mother was friends with Marie Souvestre, who ran Les Ruches.

Olivia’s love for Mlle Julie is heartstopping.

“Was this stab in my heart, this rapture, really mine or had I merely read about it?”

Olivia wonders.

Years later Olivia says of this time, “I was without consciousness, that is to say, more utterly absorbed than was ever possible again.”

Mlle Julie runs the school with Mlle Cara.

Though the word lesbian isn’t used, the two women who lived together, appear to have a same-sex relationship. Olivia’s passion grows as tensions develop within the couple.

It’s not too much of a reveal to say that Olivia’s affections are unrequited. Mlle Julie is aware of her crush. She likely is attracted to Olivia, yet, she’s the adult in the room; she doesn’t acquiesce to Olivia’s desire.

Though tinged with melancholy, “Olivia” is filled with hope. Without being sappy, this luminous, queer novel radiates love and beauty. It inspired Aciman to write “Call Me by Your Name.” What more could you ask of a book?

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Safety first this July 4th

Redoubling efforts to keep Del. beaches and businesses open

By LEE ANN WILKINSON

since early June. Beebe’s new CEO, David Tam, has been interviewed on national news Independence Day calls for more unity than ever this year. All of us at the Delaware networks to explain the approach he is leading locally and in partnership with the state, beaches — from real estate to retail and especially restaurants and hospitality — are trying like testing, contact tracing, and follow up. to navigate summer in the wake of COVID-19. The real estate market has been extremely What to Expect: So, if you busy, and months of quarantine are planning a visit to Delaware have made a beach vacation even beaches for the July 4 weekend, more attractive (and needed) than here are a few key points to keep usual. Yet after months of ‘flattening in mind. Some are common sense/ the curve’ in Delaware, we are now what you’re used to, and some are churning in the eddy of the virus new this week to our beach towns: and seeing an ebb and flow of • Wear a mask, everywhere. Yes, positive cases. We are redoubling masks are required everywhere our efforts to keep the beaches and (except while actually in the water) local businesses open, and get to - streets, sidewalks, businesses, and a sense of calmer waters, but July on the beach. Of course, continue 4 weekend will look a bit different to maintain social distancing, too. this year.

• Get there early: State parks are Memorial Day weekend operating at 60 percent capacity brought gradual openings of - these include Cape Henlopen, beaches, restaurants, and bars in Delaware Seashore, and Fenwick Delaware at limited capacity (first 30 Island. When the 60% capacity is percent and then up to 60 percent reached, all vehicles will be turned of approved patron capacity) away until vehicle volume within the while enforcing social distancing, parks is reduced. expanding outdoor seating, and • Call ahead: Most restaurants requiring masks. are operating at 60 percent capacity Many establishments opted to New signs remind beachgoers of the changes in store this holiday weekend.

(Photo by John Bator) for table service. Call ahead or stay closed or continue take-out check out online ordering to see only to try to keep employees and if they offer take out, too. Bars and taprooms, however, are closed for the foreseeable customers as safe as possible. As it turned out, June was a bit of a setback. For some, future, until the governor lifts the restriction, while we curb further spread of the virus. You it proved difficult to enforce a strict adherence to safety protocols. Especially at bars, can still get a cocktail at a restaurant; but no one is able to stand/sit at the bar. people were often less than compliant, and the culture of beach life and graduation • Spark joy: Fireworks displays have been officially canceled or postponed this year, parties added to a spike in cases among this industry demographic — lots of young, so make your weekend sparkle with a quieter July 4 celebration! college-aged workers. Fortunately, at least at the moment, an uptick in positive cases • Practice patience: Most of all, since this is the peak time of year for so many of among mostly young restaurant staff and lifeguards has not translated to an increase in our restaurants and businesses, please know that they are going above and beyond to hospitalizations, and many of the people testing positive are asymptomatic or have mild ensure your safety and the safety of employees with intensive and frequent cleaning and symptoms. We hope this trend continues, but time will tell. accommodations to make your beach vacation as special and safe as possible - and to In quick response, restaurants throughout Delaware beach towns including Rehoboth stay open for their livelihoods and local economy. and Dewey Beaches, are heightening vigilance for everyone’s safety. We ask for your As for real estate, we are seeing the market explode with interest from more crowded understanding and patience as we strike a balance of being open and being safe. metropolitan areas — and interest rates are at record lows. If you are looking for a place at Our local healthcare system, Beebe Healthcare, and the State of Delaware Division the beach to call your own, reach out to your local Realtor and explore. of Public Health were quick to respond with testing sites for local restaurant industry Wishing everyone a safe and happy Independence Day! workers. Delaware has actually had an easily accessible statewide testing program

Lee Ann Wilkinson

is a Realtor and CEO of the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gallo Realty, the top-selling real estate team in Delaware and #3 nationally for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. For more information about real estate in Coastal Delaware, visit LeeAnnGroup.com, email LeeAnn@ LeeAnnGroup.com, or call 302-645-6664.

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