Washington Blade, Volume 53, Issue 44, November 04, 2022

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EDICIÓN CIENTONCE, QUORUM, WDG, STEPHANIE MONDRAGÓN, ISAAC AMEND , TINASHE CHINGARANDE, DUNIA ORELLANA, REPORTAR SIN MIEDO, PARKER PURIFOY, PETER ROSENSTEIN, MARK LEE, LATEEFAH WILLIAMS, KATE CLINTON, KATHI WOLFE, ERNESTO VALLE, YARIEL VALDÉS GONZÁLEZ, LYNARE ROBBINS, PHILIP VAN SLOOTEN, KATLEGO K. KOLANYANE-KESUPILE, KAELA ROEDER, TREMENDA NOTA, ALBERTO J. VALENTÍN, MAYKEL GONZÁLEZ VIVERO, ORGULLO LGBT. CO, ESTEBAN GUZMAN

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By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

In a city whose voters, including LGBTQ voters, are overwhelmingly Democratic, D.C. Democratic elect ed officials – including Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson – are considered the odds-on favorites to win reelection in the city’s Nov. 8 election.

Among the non-incumbent Democrats expected to win is gay Ward 5 D.C. Council candidate Zachary Parker, who most political observers say will become the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015, when then gay Council members David Catania (I-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) left the Coun cil.

Statehood Green Party candidate Darryl Moch.

In a development that surprised some political ob servers, the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, endorsed D.C. Council member Robert White (D-At-Large) against Bowser and Democratic challenger Erin Palmer against Men delson in the June 21 Democratic primary.

A short time after the primary, when Bowser and Mendelson emerged as the clear winners, Capital Stonewall Democrats endorsed Bowser, Mendelson, and the Democratic nominees in all of the other races.

Among the other races is the contest for two at-large D.C. Council seats, which has emerged as the only race in which the outcome is considered uncertain in the Nov. 8 D.C. general election. And some political ob servers believe the LGBTQ vote could be the decisive factor in determining the two winners in that race.

Under the city’s Home Rule Charter approved by Congress in the early 1970s, two of the city’s four atlarge Council members must belong to a non-majority political party or be an independent.

Longtime LGBTQ rights supporter Anita Bonds holds the Democratic seat up for election this year. The oth er seat is held by independent incumbent Elisa Silver man, who has also been a strong supporter on LGBTQ issues. Six others are competing for the two seats, with voters having the option of voting for two of the eight contenders.

considered to be among the progressive-left faction of the Democratic Party, with Czapary falling into the mo derate Democratic faction. With the Democratic Party dominating D.C. politics, the liberal left versus mod erate factions appears to be the dividing line in D.C. Democratic primaries.

The remaining Council seat up for election this year is in Ward 6, where incumbent Democrat Charles Allen, yet another longtime LGBTQ rights supporter, is run ning unopposed on Nov. 8.

In the sometimes-overlooked race for the position of U.S. Representative to Congress, which is widely referred to as D.C.’s “shadow” U.S. House seat, incum bent Democrat Oye Owolewa is considered the favor ite over Statehood Green Party challenger Joyce Rob inson-Paul. Capital Stonewall Democrats has endorsed Owolewa, who has expressed support for LGBTQ rights.

The shadow House position, which has no congres sional powers, was created in an amendment to the D.C. home rule charter as a position to lobby Con gress for D.C. statehood and D.C. congressional voting rights.

In the race for D.C. Attorney General, Democrat Brian Schwalb, who won the Democratic primary in June, is running unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election. He, too, has expressed support for LGBTQ rights issues.

Parker is an elected member of the nonpartisan D.C. State Board of Education. He won the Ward 5 Democratic primary on June 21 in a hotly contested, seven-candidate race, beating, among others, former Ward 5 Council member Vincent Orange. He is consid ered the strong favorite against his lesser-known Re publican opponent, Clarence Lee, in the Nov. 8 general election.

Two other out gay candidates are also on the Nov. 8 D.C. election ballot, but they are considered far less likely to win than Parker. Both are running as Libertar ian Party candidates. Bruce Majors is running for the D.C. congressional delegate seat held by longtime in cumbent and LGBTQ rights supporter Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who is considered the strong favorite to win reelection. Also running for the congressional del egate seat is Statehood Green Party candidate Natalie Stracuzzi.

The other out gay Libertarian, Adrian Salsgiver, is running for the Ward 3 D.C. Council seat against Dem ocratic nominee Matthew Frumin and Republican Da vid Krucoff. The Ward 3 seat became open when in cumbent Democrat Mary Cheh announced she would not run for reelection. Both Frumin and Krucoff have expressed support for LGBTQ rights.

Bowser, who has a long record of support on LGBTQ issues, is similarly considered the strong favorite to fin ish ahead of her general election challengers, who in clude Republican Stacia Hall, Independent Rodney Red Grant, and Libertarian Party candidate Dennis Sobin.

Council Chair Mendelson, also a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter, is considered the favorite to win against his challengers – Republican Nate Darenge and

They include Democrat-turned-independent Ken yan McDuffie, who currently holds the Ward 5 D.C. Council seat; Republican Giuseppe Niosi, who, along with his wife and child, rode in D.C.’s Capital Pride Pa rade in June; Statehood Green Party candidate David Schwartzman; and independent candidates Graham McLaughlin, Fred Hill, and Karim Marshall. McDuffie has a record of support for LGBTQ rights on the Coun cil and the others have each expressed support for LGBTQ rights.

McLaughlin, a former corporate manager and small business advocate, has said he has worked with LGBTQ organizations, including the Trevor Project, in his role as an advocate for homeless youth.

The Capital Stonewall Democrats has endorsed Bonds for reelection but decided not to make an en dorsement for the non-Democrat seat, saying to do so would be backing someone running against Democrat Bonds.

In addition to the Ward 3 and Ward 5 Council races, D.C. Council seats in Wards 2 and 6 are up for election on Nov. 8. In the Ward 1 race, incumbent Democrat Bri anne Nadeau, a longtime LGBTQ rights supporter, is considered the strong favorite over Statehood Green Party challenger Chris Otten.

Capital Stonewall Democrats endorsed Nadeau in both the Nov. 8 general election and in the June pri mary when out gay Democrat and former D.C. police officer Salah Czapary challenged her.

LGBTQ activists who supported Czapary said the LGBTQ voters who backed Nadeau over Czapary based their decision clearly on non-LGBTQ issues – just as most LGBTQ voters are expected to continue to do on Nov. 8 in a city where all candidates with any chance of winning support LGBT rights.

In the case of the Nadeau-Czapary rivalry, Nadeau is

Longtime D.C. gay Democratic activist Earl Fowlkes, who serves as executive director of the D.C.-based na tional LGBTQ advocacy group Center for Black Equity, is among those who have said D.C.’s LGBTQ residents sometimes don’t appreciate the supportive political climate of the local D.C. government.

“One of the incredible things that’s happened in D.C. in the last 27 years I’ve been here is the fact that LGBTQ+ issues have been brought to the forefront and there is a universal agreement among almost anyone running for any position or office that they have to be strong in supporting LGBTQ+ issues,” Fowlkes told the Blade.

“This is one of the great places in the world to live in,” he said. “And thanks to our political system and the people who run for office who understand and have their finger on the pulse of the community, LGBTQ people are considered equal citizens in the District,” Fowlkes said. “And there’s a lot of places in this country not far from here who can’t say that.”

In races that traditionally have been nonpartisan, seats on the D.C. State Board of Education are up for election on Nov. 8 for Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6. The Capital Stonewall Democrats has not taken a position on Board of Education candidates.

And the D.C. Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), which rates candidates for mayor, D.C. Coun cil, and Attorney General, does not issue ratings for school board candidates, nor does it rate candidates for congressional delegate or the shadow House seat. For a list of GLAA’s ratings this year, visit washington blade.com.

The tipped wage law is the subject of an initiative on the Nov. 8 D.C. election ballot called Initiative 82, which calls for repealing the lower minimum wage for tipped workers and raising it to the full D.C. minimum wage. (See Page 08)

D.C. Council poised for first out gay member since 2015 Parker favored to win in Ward 5; Bowser, Mendelson expected to prevail

ZACHARY PARKER is expected to easily win the Ward 5 Council seat.

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D.C. queer bar owners oppose ballot initiative to end tip wage system

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

The owners of at least three of D.C.’s gay bars have joined representatives of nearly all the city’s restaurants, bars, and nightclubs in speak ing out against a measure on the Nov. 8 D.C. election ballot calling for ending the so-called tipped wage system.

The ballot measure, called Initiative 82, calls for ending an exemption to the city’s minimum wage law that allows employers of tipped workers to pay them less than the pre vailing minimum wage but requires them to make up the difference if the workers don’t earn the equivalent of the full minimum wage through their tips combined with the lower “tipped” wage.

D.C. restaurant industry officials argue that ending the tipped wage system, which is in place in all but seven states in the U.S., would create an economic hardship for their mostly small, community-based businesses by dramatically increasing labor costs at a time when they have yet to fully recover from the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pan demic.

They say most tipped workers make significantly more than the city’s current $16.10 per hour minimum wage. The current lower “tipped” minimum wage in D.C. is $5.35 per hour.

“I have not met a single server who wants this,” said David Perruzza, who owns the Adams Morgan bars Pitchers and A League of Her Own, which share the same building.

“My staff makes $30 or more an hour,” he said, noting that all except his small kitchen staff are tipped workers. “I pay my non-tipped workers more than the minimum wage,” Perruzza told the Blade. “The people who support this don’t know anything about the service industry.”

Like other bar and restaurant owners, Perruzza said end ing the tipped wage could result in the doubling of his pay roll, which could force him to raise prices and possibly lay off employees, most of whom are LGBTQ.

John Guggenmos, co-owner of the Logan Circle area gay bars Number 9 and Trade, and Jo McDaniel, co-owner of the recently opened Capitol Hill gay bar As You Are, said they too believe the approval of Initiative 82 by voters on Nov. 8 would have a negative impact on their businesses.

Guggenmos said the initiative would also have a nega tive impact on consumers because prices would have to be increased, and a service charge of as much as 20 percent could be put in place to offset the higher labor costs. Oppo nents of the initiative argue that a service charge of as much as 20 percent added to the customer’s bill would prompt at least some to cut back on tipping.

Ryan O’Leary, a gay former service industry employee who serves as chair of the Committee to Build A Better Restaurant Industry, the organization leading the campaign in support of Initiative 82, disputes the claims by restaurant and bar industry representatives that ending the lower tipped wage will seriously harm their businesses.

O’Leary told the Washington Blade that both tipped workers and the restaurants and bars for which they work are doing “very well” in the states that do not have a tipped wage system, including in California, where tipped workers earn $15 per hour minimum wage plus tips.

He said tipped workers in D.C. and other states where the

tipped wage is in place have reported that restaurant em ployers engage in subtle forms of retaliation against work ers who request to be paid the difference if they don’t earn the equivalent of the full minimum wage through tips.

According to O’Leary, a growing number of D.C. restau rants and bars are already paying their tipped workers the full D.C. minimum wage or just short of the full minimum wage, in part, because of staff shortages brought about by the COVID pandemic.

“Those that did this are doing very well,” he said. “Some restaurants are fear mongering about tipped workers losing money or losing their jobs if Initiative 82 passes.”

Among those who strongly dispute the arguments made by O’Leary and others backing Initiative 82 is Mark Lee, co ordinator of the D.C. Nightlife Council, a local organization that advocates for businesses such as restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

Lee said the decision by restaurant and bar owners to adopt a higher minimum wage is based on market con ditions such as staff shortages and that’s a “good thing” that should be left to the marketplace. He said Initiative 82 would force businesses to raise tipped employees’ min imum wage in circumstances where it is not needed, and which will hurt both the businesses and the employees.

“Federal data indicates that D.C. tipped employees at bars and restaurants earn well above the local minimum wage, currently at $16.10 per hour, and earn more than tipped workers in the handful of states that either never had a tipped-credit or outlawed the tip-credit more than 40 years ago,” Lee told the Blade in a statement.

By LOU CHIBBARO JR.

lchibbaro@washblade.com

At least 43 known LGBTQ candidates are running for seats on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in the Nov. 8 D.C. election, with at least one LGBTQ ANC candidate running in each of the city’s eight wards.

Only 12 of the 43 candidates are incumbents seeking election to another two-year term after 21 of the 33 known current LGBTQ ANC commissioners elected to office in 2020 chose not to run again this year.

Those who decided not to run again, including longtime gay ANC commissioners Mike Silverstein of the Dupont Circle ANC and John Fanning of the Logan Circle ANC, are among a record number of ANC members from across the city who chose not to seek reelection this year.

Gay law librarian Kent Boese, a longtime commissioner representing the city’s Park View neighborhood in Ward 1, withdrew his candidacy for reelection earlier this year when D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson nominated Boese to become executive director of the D.C. Office of Adviso ry Neighborhood Commissions. Boese, whose nomination was expected to be confirmed by the Council on Oct. 31, will assume the important role of overseeing the fiscal and administrative operations of the ANCs across the city.

In 2020, a record number of 47 known LGBTQ candi dates ran for ANC seats, as reported by the then-ANC Rainbow Caucus. The caucus, which consisted of LGBTQ commissioners and others listed as allies, has since be come inactive, making it more difficult to identify LGBTQ ANC candidates.

Nevertheless, the Washington Blade and the LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national group that provides financial support for openly LGBTQ candidates running for public office, were able to identify at least 43 known LGBTQ ANC candidates running in the Nov. 8 election. Out of that total, 28 are running unopposed.

Four of the LGBTQ contenders are running as write-in candidates in one of the record number 56 ANC single member districts in which no candidate is running on the ballot. Another LGBTQ contender, Zachary Ammerman of Ward 5, is running as a write-in candidate against an in cumbent commissioner.

Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, Advisory Neigh borhood Commissioners serve as unpaid elected officials charged with making recommendations to the city gov ernment on a wide range of neighborhood issues, includ ing the approval of liquor licenses for bars and restaurants and zoning regulations. City officials are required to give “great weight” to the ANC recommendations, but the gov ernment officials are not required to accept the recom mendations.

There are a total of 40 ANCs located throughout the city with each having between two and 10 single member districts representing the city’s diverse neighborhoods. There are currently a total of 345 single member districts citywide known as SMDs.

Like past election cycles, the largest number of LGBTQ ANC candidates running this year, 13, are running in Ward

2, with most running in the ward’s Dupont Circle and Lo gan Circle neighborhoods. Seven of the LGBTQ candi dates are running in Ward 1 and Ward 5; five are running in Ward 6; four in Ward 7; two in Ward 3; and one each in Wards 4 and 8.

Eighteen of the 43 LGBTQ candidates have been en dorsed by the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

For a list of the LGBTQ ANC candidates and the single member districts and neighborhoods in which they are running, visit washingtonblade.com.

‘I

KENT BOESE withdrew his candidacy for reelection when D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson nominated him to become executive director of the D.C. Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

By JOSH ALBURTUS

Candidates in races for statewide offices in Maryland are making their final pitches to voters ahead of next week’s highly anticipated midterm elections.

Approaching Election Day, each of the three races for governor, attorney general, and comptroller have offered their own dichotomies between candidates on the ballot.

Governor

Maryland’s gubernatorial race has pitted Democratic former CEO and U.S. Army veteran Wes Moore against state Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick County). The seat is seen as one of the most likely Democratic gubernatorial pick ups in what is expected to be a difficult year for the party.

As part of his campaign, Moore has sought to draw a stark contrast from his opponent when it comes to mat ters involving LGBTQ rights and diversity.

“So, we are going to make sure that Maryland is going to be an inclusive state, a state where people feel wel come and a state where we’re asking people to be com fortable with who they are,” Moore said in an Oct. 17 interview with the Washington Blade. “And to know that you’re going to have a state that ultimately enforces it.”

In the state legislature, Cox has endorsed efforts to restrict LGBTQ rights and topics in the state’s education system, referring to such as “classroom indoctrination.”

The latest polling in the race has shown Moore lead ing Cox by more than 30 points in a seat currently held by popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

“And people are saying, ‘Why are you going [to con servative areas] if there are not a lot of Democrats out there?’ My answer is simple: It’s because there’s a lot of Marylanders, and I’m planning on being their governor too,” Moore told the Blade. “ You know, when I was in the Army and leading soldiers into combat, one question I never wanted to ask my soldiers is, ‘What’s your political party?’ It didn’t matter. We had one goal and one job and one mission.”

Attorney general

Vying for the state attorney general’s office, Demo cratic Congressman Anthony Brown and former Repub lican Anne Arundel County Councilman Michael Perout ka have sought to counter each other in the race for the top law enforcement post in Maryland.

Aiming to succeed current Democratic Attorney Gen eral Brian Frosh, Brown told the Blade that his campaign hoped to address issues brought forth by constituents on the campaign trail.

“ This cycle, more people are raising the question about violence in the community, hate crimes, guns on the street more than any other time in the 20-plus years I’ve been doing this,” Brown said. “And that’s consistent with what a lot of national and Maryland polling shows as well.”

When it came to matters of diversity and legal equity for LGBTQ Marylanders and other communities, Brown said that he believed such matters to be paramount to the duties of the office he seeks and would work to en sure such was a reality.

“I think an important role of the attorney general is protecting the rights and the privileges and the interests of all Marylanders, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender,

gender identification, geography — ensuring that we have systems of justice whether its criminal or civil that ensures equity and equality and fair treatment of all,” Brown said.

Such legal representation and protections, Brown elaborated, cover a number of areas currently being de bate across the country.

“So that’s true whether you’re talking about the right of a woman to make decisions about her reproductive health and whether she wants to bring a pregnancy to term or whether it’s addressing the troubling rise that we see in violence against transgender Marylanders,” Brown said. “As attorney general, these are going to be top issues for me and I’m going to use the office to partner with local, federal officials to make sure we’re protecting the rights of all Marylanders.”

Peroutka did not immediately respond to the Blade’s request for an interview but has asserted his position on the campaign trail that, if elected to the post, his priori ties would include opposing the expansion of abortion access in the state and investigating potential election fraud that he believes may cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election results as well as future elections in the state if not addressed.

Comptroller

In the race for comptroller, Democratic state Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) and Republican Har ford County Executive Barry Glassman are aiming to be come the state’s next top financial officer.

The next comptroller would take on the responsibili ties of maintaining the state’s financial bookkeeping and collection of residents’ taxes. The office also participates as part of powerful state entities including having mem bership on the state’s Board of Public Works tasked with approving all state contracts of less than $200,000 in value.

Lierman told the Blade that, given issues in the state including racial wealth divide and the need for equity projects, her comptrollership would seek to hone in on issues of diversity should she take office.

“ There’s a broad mandate in our state constitution to oversee the general superintendence of the fiscal af fairs of the state but we can’t have a strong economy if we are not building in an inclusive way,” Lierman said.

“If we are leaving segments of the population behind, then it means that our economy isn’t working as well as it could.”

Ensuring that minority communities including com munities of color and LGBTQ Marylanders can be as sured equal access to succeed in the state’s economic landscape, Lierman said, has been a top priority of her campaign.

“It means making sure that, if you’re an LGBTQ Black woman from Cheverly, from Prince George’s County who’s a great architect, we want you to be able to com pete and win on contracts because we want to build a space where we have more competition, where more people are competing,” Lierman said. “And we want to make sure we’re meeting and exceeding our minority business enterprise goals because it means that we’re building an economy that is growing the entire state and we’re using our contract dollars to build a larger

state economy overall.”

Glassman told the Blade that, while equity in the eco nomic system is something that must be ensured, he would take what he characterized as a “more traditional view” of the duties of the office.

“I wouldn’t necessarily weigh in on programs — it doesn’t have to be partisan — but for the most part, pro grams and policy in Maryland are dictated by the exec utive branch and the legislative branch,” Glassman said.

“

As comptroller, you’re there to carry out the law [and] to make sure that contracts are awarded fairly and so forth. I think where [Lierman and I] agree, I think on our role on that Board of Public Works that lets out so much contracting and revenue that we make sure that those bids get out to all our communities to make sure they can capitalize or participate in the contracts that are put out by the state.”

Although aiming to achieve a multitude of initiatives, Lierman affirmed that she would aim to do so while agreeing with Glassman’s position against advocating for new taxes to fund them. Instead, she said she would aim to achieve such through holding wealthy taxpayers and entities accountable for paying taxes.

“ We have a $1.2 billion surplus right now and we need to make sure first and foremost that we are collect ing all the taxes owed especially from big companies or people who are seeking to evade their tax obligations,” Lierman said. “I will make sure that we’re cracking down on tax evasion and that we’re combatting fraud in our tax system by modernizing our systems and ensuring that Marylanders who can afford to pay their taxes are paying their taxes.”

While Lierman has sought to craft a platform that high lights such goals of development and diversity, Glass man has run a campaign anchored in the goal of fiscal responsibility, partisan balance and a record of staunch opposition to the creation of any new taxes during his time in government.

The race may prove to be more dynamic than other statewide races, with Glassman’s more moderate stance and separation from other Republican candidates for statewide office earning him the endorsement of pop ular local figures and entities including the Washington Post and Hogan.

Hogan has declined to publicly support the Republi can candidates for governor and attorney general.

Md. candidates make final pitches ahead of Election Day Wes Moore says he would make state ‘inclusive’ as governor

DAN COX and WES MOORE at the Maryland Governor Debate on C-SPAN on Oct. 12. (Screen capture via C-SPAN)

Mizeur: Campaign against Harris has ‘huge momentum’

By MICHAEL K. LAVERS | mlavers@washblade.com

Heather Mizeur on Wednesday said her campaign to unseat Republican Congressman Andy Harris has “a huge amount of momentum” in the final days before Election Day.

“We’ve really done something with this unity coalition that we’ve been putting together for almost two years now,” Mizeur told the Washington Blade during a tele phone interview.

Mizeur served on the Takoma Park City Council before she served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007-2015. Mizeur ran for governor in 2014.

Mizeur, who now lives on the Eastern Shore with her wife, announced her campaign against Harris in Mary land’s 1st Congressional District less than a month after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

She defeated David Harden in the Democratic prima ry that took place on July 19. Mizeur would be the first openly lesbian member of Congress from Maryland if she defeats Harris on Tuesday.

Harris has represented the 1st Congressional District — which currently encompasses the entire Eastern Shore and portions of Baltimore, Carroll and Harford Coun ties — since 2011. Mia Mason, a transgender veteran, ran against Harris in 2020.

The Cook Political Report currently ranks the district as R +11.

Campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Elec tion Commission indicate Mizeur raised $2,621,651.48 from Jan. 1, 2021, through Oct. 19, compared to $1,675,169.32 that Harris raised during the same period. The statements also indicate Mizeur as of Oct. 19 had $447,762.57 on hand, compared to Harris’ $1,099,702.25.

Mizeur ’s website notes former Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrist, former Cecil County Executive Alan Mc Carthy and Havre de Grace Mayor Bill Martin are among the Republicans who have endorsed her campaign.

Salisbury Mayor Jake Day, Havre de Grace Mayor Bill Martin, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, state Del. Lisa Belcastro (D-Baltimore County), House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) are among the elected officials who have endorsed Mizeur. The Victory Fund, LPAC, Emily’s List, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, SEIU and other groups have also backed her campaign.

The Human Rights Campaign notes Harris has voted against the Equality Act, which would add sexual orienta

tion and gender identity to federal civil rights laws. Har ris, among other things, has co-sponsored a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban marriage for same-sex couples.

Harris on Oct. 27 repeatedly attacked transgender people during a debate against Mizeur that took place at Cecil College in North East.

“This is not the Defense Department that I signed up for 1988,” said Harris, who is a U.S. Navy veteran. “It’s more interested in whether or not you fund transgen der surgery than whether you fund a missile system to counter the Chinese hypersonic threat. There is more in terest on the other side about whether we are going to use preferred pronouns in the Pentagon than whether or not our men and women in uniform have the backing of their higher ups and the investments in military weapon systems to protect their lives.”

Harris in his opening statement noted “the stripping of parental rights; whether that’s school curriculum, pro mote (a) transgender agenda in schools, keeping secrets from parents.”

Mizeur told the Blade that his comments were “not sur prising because it’s part of how he has governed.” Mizeur further described them as “disappointing.” “We don’t ever want to use trans kids or immigrants or

any othering to create division and fear in order to win an election and stay in power and my campaign is the to tal opposite,” she said. “I arrived with solutions and ideas and relationships that reflect the true reality of what’s go ing on in the district, what our needs are and how we’re going to solve problems and he showed up with just right-wing, fringe, extremist radical talking points that are completely out of touch.”

Mizeur during the debate also sharply criticized Harris over his position on abortion rights.

“He came out with this ridiculous suggestion that wom en in Maryland would carry a pregnancy to term and de cide to have an abortion because of the gender of the baby,” said Mizeur. “It is offensive to every woman in the state of Maryland.”

“He clearly knows nothing, surprisingly as a doctor, about the process of pregnancy, about what a woman endures in that process, about how all pregnancies lateterm are wanted pregnancies,” she added. “ The only time you’re going to have an abortion is if something goes tragically wrong and to suggest women would just cavalierly end a pregnancy because the baby wasn’t the gender she wanted is just an affront to every woman in America.”

Mizeur spoke with the Blade days after Harris’s cam paign shared on social media a picture of her wearing a T-shirt that says “America needs lesbian farmers.”

“I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m a lesbian and a farm er,” said Mizeur.

Mizeur said the T-shirt she was wearing was “making fun of right-wing extremism where Rush Limbaugh sug gested during the Obama administration that they were giving grants to lesbians to make them farmers so that the queer agenda would infiltrate conservative America and allow Democrats to win red states.”

“While being hilarious because I am a lesbian and a farmer, he was using it as an effort to trump up homopho bia in the district that is just going to be resoundingly re jected,” she told the Blade.

Mizeur also said her potential constituents’ reaction to Harris sharing the picture on social media was a combina tion of “more of Andy Harris’s divisive politics and smear campaigns and as a sign of how threatened he is that we are really closing this campaign with strong campaign.”

“He fears losing and he should,” said Mizeur.

LGBTQ candidates running for Md. Assembly, local offices

There are multiple LGBTQ candidates on the ballot in Maryland running for local offices and for seats in the Gen eral Assembly.

State Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City) and state Dels. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery County), Luke Clip pinger (D-Baltimore City), Anne Kaiser (D-Montgomery County), Bonnie Cullison (D-Montgomery County) and Lisa Belcastro (D-Baltimore County) are running for re-election. Kris Fair, who is running to become the first openly gay person from Western Maryland elected to the General As sembly, and Joseph Vogel, who is finishing his master’s in public policy at Harvard University, are running for office.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk Karen Bush ell, who is a lesbian, is seeking re-election. Montgomery

County Council Vice President Evan Glass is running for an at-large seat.

Krystal Oriadha would be the first openly bisexual per son elected to the Prince George’s County Council if she wins her race. Pamela Boozer-Strother, a member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education, is also on the ballot.

Howard County Register of Wills Byron Macfarlane ran unopposed in his primary, and will likely win re-election.

April Christina Curley is running for the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Curley would be the first openly genderqueer person elected in the city if she wins on Tuesday.

SCALA

‘He fears losing and he should’

HEATHER MIZEUR speaks to supporters at the Ten Eyck Brewing Company in Queenstown, Md., on July 19. (Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Maryland state Sen. MARY WASHINGTON (D-Baltimore City) (Photo courtesy of JDavis Photography)

2022 midterms: Dire consequences for LGBTQ Americans

By BRODY LEVESQUE

“There is always a lull after a tempest, and so the po litical world has subsided into an unwonted calm since the election,” commented a reporter for The New York Times. “The Republicans are naturally . . . exultant over their sweeping victories.” Actually not a crystal ball pre diction for next week’s elections outcome but a look back at a midterm cycle that presaged a violent presidential election cycle that followed two years later.

The American nation was reeling from a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision on a divisive subject matter, one of the two main political parties had fractured, addi tionally Congress and the president were caught up in social and cultural issues along with dealing with a con tinuing financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy.

racy and the events of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 that motivate them. Women’s reproductive rights in the aftermath of the demise of Roe v. Wade has also been a focal point of Democratic campaigns. Control of Con gress hangs in the balance, with pollsters predicting the GOP will retake the House comfortably, while the Senate remains close with key races in Pennsylvania and Georgia too close to predict.

The focus of many GOP campaigns is still pounding away at LGBTQ issues, “parents’ rights” a talking pointing rallying voters around stopping the so-called ‘LGBTQ+ agenda’ in schools.

More troubling has been the rise in domestic white na tionalistic groups, neo-Nazi and far-right extremists who target LGBTQ Americans and other minorities in increas ingly violent demonstrations such as those seen at ‘Drag Queen Story’ hours and then too targeting hospitals and healthcare for trans youth with threats of violence.

The rise in anti-LGBTQ animus, especially on trans youth has impacted the campaign trail as a major issue especially in swing states. Politico reported this week that former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, through his America First Legal non-profit political action commit tee, has targeted swing states with an avalanche of radio adverts and direct mail materials that target trans youth healthcare, which anti-trans pundits have labeled “gender mutilation.”

Governmental agencies have also targeted the trans community. Last week, the Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine Joint Rules/Legisla tive Committee Friday advanced a rule that will effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors in the state.

Against this backdrop, in a history making first, the LGBTQ Victory Fund, the only national organization ded icated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, re leased a report last month detailing that at least 1,065 out LGBTQ people ran or are running for offices with elections in all 50 states, the most in history.

men elected to the state legislature. Will be a vital vote against anti-LGBTQ legislation led by Greg Abbott.

• Janelle Perez, would be one of the first LGBTQ women elected to the state Senate in Florida. In the wake of “Don’t Say Gay,” she would also be the only LGBTQ parent in the state legislature.

• James Roesener of New Hampshire would be the first trans man elected to a state legislature in U.S. history.

New York’s Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a gay man and the first LGBTQ person to chair the Democratic Congres sional Campaign Committee — in his own reelection race in New York’s 17th congressional district — is in trouble after Republican nominee, state assemblyman Michael Lawler, has shifted the race from “lean Democrat” to “toss up.”

That the newly redrawn district is competitive has come as a shock, given that President Joe Biden won the area by 10 points in 2020, the Cook Political Report noted that if Lawler defeats Maloney, it would be the first time a Re publican has defeated the chair of the DCCC in 40 years.

The first out LGBTQ person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota, Angie Craig, who represents Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district; and out Rep. Christopher Pappas from New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district are also considered “toss ups” by Cook Political Report.

Elsewhere MAGA extremists, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) con tinue to bolster efforts to stymie LGBTQ equality rights and gains hitting the campaign trail on behalf of GOP candidates.

Cruz attacked transgender people and their support ers most recently during a rally for Virginia congressional candidate Yesli Vega that took place at a Prince William County church a week ago.

If any of that sounds familiar and ripped from today’s headlines it actually isn’t. Those were the conditions in America 164 years ago in 1858 two years before the American Civil War. There are parallels and the argument to be made that the current political environment nearly mirrors that time.

The issue of the day was slavery and Chief Justice Rog er B. Taney and the court’s Dred Scott decision, the nation reeling from the 1857 financial panic and then the na tion’s chief executive James Buchanan, an honest, talent ed and skillful politician, who was no match for the forces that tore at the country in the late 1850s, set the stage for the violence that followed as the country’s voters became polarized and divided.

The decision earlier this year by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. v. Wade, the current levels of inflation, the war in Ukraine, which has negatively impacted the world economy and the U.S., and then the fact that the Repub lican Party has turned the very existence of transgender Americans coupled with a rash of LGBTQ book bans and ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws both passed and proposed- and fi nally a nation still recovering from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic has created nearly a similar perfect storm.

The majority of voters in the Republican camp say it’s the economy while Democrats say it’s threats to democ

The following races are considered key in this midterm cycle:

• Tina Kotek, would be one of the nation’s first les bian governors.

• Maura Healey, would be one of the nation’s first lesbian governors.

• Becca Balint, would be the first woman and the first LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Ver mont. Vital to maintaining a pro-equality majority in Congress.

• Erick Russell, would be the first Black LGBTQ statewide elected official in U.S. history.

• Kris Mayes, will be critical to protecting LGBTQ and reproductive rights in Arizona. Arizona has a ban on abortion that Mayes has committed to not enforcing, while her opponent has committed the opposite.

• Kameron Nelson, would restore LGBTQ repre sentation in the South Dakota Legislature. South Dakota is one of four states with zero LGBTQ state legislators.

• Ally Layman, will be vital to restoring reproduc tive rights in West Virginia. West Virginia was the second state to pass an abortion ban after the fall of Roe.

• Venton Jones, will be one of the first LGBTQ Black

“Virginia is a parent state … this is a battle between sanity and insanity,” said the Texas Republican during the rally that took place at the Montclair Tabernacle Church in Dumfries. “These people are nuts. They can’t figure out what a woman is. The last I checked, that was not a trick question.”

Greene continues to publicly vilify LGBTQ people us ing disparaging terms like “groomer ” and accusing Dem ocrats of supporting an LGBTQ “pedophile” agenda.

On the West Coast in another critical race, out candi date Jamie McLeod-Skinner, an attorney and regional emergency manager from central Oregon, is locked in a tight race with Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer for the U.S. House in Oregon’s 5th District. Chavez-DeRemer backed Trump, previously indicated support of a ban be ginning around six weeks of pregnancy, the first point at which doctors can detect electrical activity in what would become a heart.

Political analysts see LGBTQ issues as a focal point in many local and state-wide races as school boards and communities continue efforts to ban LGBTQ-themed books and attacks on trans youth.

There are positive indicators, for example, as California is poised to become the first state in the nation to achieve 10% LGBTQ representation in its state legislature. (Cal ifornia’s four out LGBTQ senators are serving terms through 2024).

Many GOP campaigns touting so-called ‘parents’ rights’ as rallying cry

LA County residents ROBERT KEIR and ZACH ZAKAR vote inside Weho’s Plummer Park Community Center during California’s June 2022 primary elections. (Photo courtesy County of Los Angeles)

Lula defeats Bolsonaro in Brazil presidential election

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday defeated incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in the second round of the country’s presidential election.

Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal notes Da Silva was ahead of Bolsonaro by a 50.86-49.14 percent margin with 99.29 percent of electronic voting machines counted.

icism because of his rhetoric against LGBTQ and intersex Brazilians, women, people of African and indigenous descent and other groups.

He has encouraged fathers to beat their sons if they think they are gay.

Bolsonaro during a 2019 press conference in the White House Rose Garden stressed his “respect of traditional family values.” Bolsonaro has expressed his opposition to “gender ideology,” supports legislation that would limit LGBTQ-specific curricula in Brazil’s schools and condemned a 2019 Brazilian Supreme Court ruling that criminalized homophobia and transphobia.

A Brazilian Federal Police investigator in August called for prosecutors to charge Bolsonaro with incitement for spreading false information about COVID-19 after he said people who are vaccinated against the virus are at increased risk for AIDS.

Da Silva, a member of the leftist Workers’ Party, was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010.

Secretariat that, among other things, funded community centers and sought to make police officers and other law enforcement officials more friendly to LGBTQ and intersex people.

Da Silva during the campaign has publicly highlighted his support of LGBTQ and intersex rights.

Bolsonaro efforts to discredit Brazil’s electoral system have increased concerns that violence could erupt if he does not accept the election results. It is not immediately clear whether Bolsonaro will acknowledge he lost.

Sources throughout the country with whom the Washington Blade spoke on Sunday said they are “worried” about what will happen after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal determines the results.

Da Silva on Oct. 2 defeated Bolsonaro in the election’s first round, but neither man received at least 50 percent of the vote.

“Democracy,” tweeted Lula after nearly all of the voting machines had been counted.

Bolsonaro, a member of the right-wing Liberal Party, represented Rio de Janeiro in the Brazilian Congress from 1991 until he took office in 2018.

The former Brazilian Army captain has faced sharp crit-

Former Justice and Public Security Minister Sergio Moro, who was a judge before he joined Bolsonaro’s government, in 2017 sentenced Da Silva to 9 1/2 years in prison after his conviction on money laundering and corruption charges that stemmed from Operation Car Wash. The Supreme Court in November 2019 ordered Da Silva’s release.

Julian Rodrigues, who was the coordinator of the Workers’ Party’s National Working Group from 20062012, noted to the Blade during a previous interview that Da Silva in 2004 created the Health Ministry’s “Brazil without Homophobia” campaign. Rodrigues also highlighted Da Silva created the Culture Ministry’s Diversity

Edgar Souza, the country’s first openly gay mayor, in a WhatsApp message to the Blade proclaimed Lula “is our president.” Renato Viterbo, vice president of Parada LGBT+ de São Paulo (São Paulo LGBT+ Parade), echoed Souza.

“We waited so long for this moment,” Viterbo told the Blade. “Hope conquered fear.”

President Joe Biden is among the world leaders who congratulated Lula.

“I send my congratulations to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair and credible elections,” said Biden on Sunday in a statement the White House released. “I look forward to working together to continue the cooperation between our two countries in the months and years ahead.”

Lula’s inauguration will take place on Jan. 1.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Brazil’s first openly gay governor wins re-election

The first openly gay governor of Brazil on Sunday won re-election.

Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite, a member of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, defeated Onyx Lorenzoni of the right-wing Liberal Party who is President Jair Bolsonaro’s former chief-of-staff, by a 57.12-42.88 percent margin.

Lorenzoni defeated Leite in the election’s first round that took place on Oct. 2, but neither received at least 50 percent of the vote. A runoff election took place on Sunday.

“Rio Grande spoke louder,” tweeted Leite after he defeated Lorenzoni. “I appreciate all the votes (we) re ceived. It’s out of love, it’s out of respect, it’s for the proj ect. Starting today, we start another chapter of our his tory. It is all of us for all of us — and we go much further!”

Leite, 37, became governor of Brazil’s southernmost state in 2019. He came out in July 2021 during an inter view with a late-night talk show host.

Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who is also a

member of the Liberal Party, on Sunday lost to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party in the second round of Brazil’s presidential elec tion.

Leite in 2018 endorsed Bolsonaro, despite his rhet oric against LGBTQ and intersex Brazilians and his op position to marriage equality and other issues. Leite, who unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination to run against Bolsonaro in this year’s presidential election, has sharply criticized the soon-to-be-former president over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Leite is one of the 324 openly LGBTQ candidates who ran in this year’s gubernatorial, state legislative, con gressional and presidential elections.

Two transgender women — São Paulo Municipal Councilwoman Erika Hilton of the leftist Socialism and Liberty Party and Belo Horizonte Municipal Council woman Duda Salabert of the leftist Democratic Labor Party — on Oct. 2 won seats in Congress. Fábio Felix, a gay member of the Socialism and Liberty Party who is

a member of the Federal District’s Legislative Chamber in Brasília, the country’s capital, also won re-election on Oct. 2.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA (Photo courtesy of the Lula campaign)

Rio Grande do Sul Gov. EDUARDO LEITE (Screen capture via UOL YouTube)

KEVIN NAFF

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

It was a perfect fall afternoon at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., last weekend and I was enjoying a homecoming tailgate party at my alma mater when I noticed something strange.

Amid the peak fall foliage and tens of thousands of students and alumni playing corn hole or watching TVs perched in the back of pickup trucks broadcasting the game via portable satellite dishes, a handsome man in a suit and tie was making his way through the crowd. He had two camera men and a sound guy in tow. We watched with interest as he made his way toward our circle of camping chairs. Then he approached me.

“I’m Robert Costa with CBS News, can I interview you,” he said to me.

I told him I recognized him and asked what he wanted to talk about. He replied, “politics and the upcoming election.”

At a tailgate? My husband intervened and suggested that I decline as I’d already had a beer. But I couldn’t resist. Costa asked what I thought was at stake in next week’s elections.

“Our very democracy is at stake in this election and soon it could be taken from us,” I replied. “And that’s what this election, I think, is about. Because when these election deniers come into office as secretaries of state and in roles where they control the process, and somebody wins an election that they don’t like, they’ll overturn it. And will we care then? It’ll be too late.”

That may sound hyperbolic, but consider that CBS News has identified more than 300 Republican candidates for state and national office who are on the record as election deniers, falsely claiming that President Biden is illegitimate due to fraud in the 2020 election. It’s all demonstrably false and at least 60 lawsuits filed on behalf of Donald Trump and his enablers challenging the 2020 results were dismissed by judges across the country, including judges appointed by Trump himself.

But the lunatics of MAGA never let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory. The results of a former president endorsing Q-Anon conspiracy theories can be seen in last week’s horrific and brutal attack on Paul Pelosi. When presidents talk, people listen and act. When Trump denies the results of the 2020 election and spreads dangerous, reckless conspiracies, his followers act and one of them nearly killed Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

The antidote to all this madness infecting our politics? Well, until the MAGA nuts can be de-programmed — that’s what must happen to cult followers, after all — the rest of thinking people must vote like our democracy depends on it, because it does. Don’t let the talk of inflation and crime distract you from the key issue in this race: upholding our Constitution and our democratic principles of free and fair elections.

Nothing else will matter if we lose the integrity of our elections and make no mistake that GOP candidates on the ballot next week, if elected, will refuse to certify elections of Democrats and will undermine the process and continue to erect barriers to voting by people of color.

Stopping the MAGA lunatics won’t be easy and won’t happen in a single election. After all, they now have a super majority on the Supreme Court and have already overturned Roe; affirmative action is next and marriage equality not far behind.

But voters can blunt the progress and influence of these Trump cultists by sending a message on Nov. 8 that we won’t embrace authoritarianism and we will defend our democratic institutions from the MAGA crowd. They’ve already defiled and invaded our capitol, threatened the lives of scores of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and attacked the husband of the House Speaker. What’s next could be worse if they come into political power.

CBS aired Costa’s report on Sunday featuring my remarks from the Penn State tailgate as well as comments from Margaret Sullivan, the former public editor of the New York Times. She and I share concerns about Republican election deniers.

“I think we need to stop being asleep at the switch and sound the alarm more about what could happen if election denialists are, you know, in power and decide, ‘Oh, well, we only like the results of this election, but not that one,’” Sullivan said. “I mean, we no longer have a country anymore.”

Vote as if democracy depends on it GOP election deniers want to take our country away

NICK FULTON

is a Washington-based press professional who specializes in political advocacy communications strategy. He currently serves as Communications Lead at the Global Women’s Institute.

Midterm turnout is historically dismal, with most Americans more concerned with who sits in the White House rather than who walks the halls of Congress. But voters who are waiting until 2024 to cast a vote, should consider supporting a new wave of LGBTQ candidates fi ghting for their lives this election season.

More than 100 openly LGBTQ candidates have run or are running for a congressional seat this November. This marks a 16% increase from 2020 and a dramatic shift in the potential for a more diverse 118th Congress. The LGBTQ community, allies, and advocates should feel empowered now more than ever according to The Victory Fund’s President and CEO, Annise Parker.

“For those voters who are staying home this season because of hopelessness, because of one candidate, or because of one issue, I have a simple ask: suck it up. This election our lives are on the ballot, our rights are on the ballot, and our future is on the ballot,” said Parker.

The Victory Fund is an organization dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected offi cials at all levels of government, a mission that Parker knows intimately. In 2009, she was elected as the fi rst openly LGBTQ person to serve as mayor of a major American city, serving the city of Houston for several years.

The ask is simple: elected representation that refl ects the identity of the American people. According to the Victory Fund, we are 35,854 LGBTQ public servants short of this benchmark. Change begins this midterm season and the voting power of the LGBTQ community, and our allies, is growing with every ballot.

This election season, 11% of the eligible voting population identifi es as openly LGBTQ, a demographic with enough weight to sway a congressional race in most states. This voter bloc continues to grow with estimates that by 2040 almost onefi fth of eligible voters will identify as LGBTQ.

This voting bloc is not only growing rapidly but is also a consistent and dependable voice at the polls. In 2020, 93% of registered LGBTQ voters cast a ballot. Queer communities are a force in our electoral system, and collectively have the power to be instrumental agents of change in races across the country.

This could be a dramatic season of change, and voting is just the fi rst step to being engaged in electing a new diverse brand of leadership according to Parker.

“No candidate has ever been elected because of a majority of LGBTQ voters, it is essential to mobilize your circles in your locality and in campaigns across the country that are important to you … You can phone bank from your house and it will make an impact, you can give $10 to a school board candidate and it will make an impression,” stated Parker.

Activism does not begin and end at the polls, it is a consistent dedication to candidates that will defend your rights and freedoms. This is not just another midterm season, this is an opportunity to pull a seat up to the table, a seat that has been missing for generations. Amid waves of anti-LGBTQ legislation and attacks on our most vulnerable populations, there has never been a more urgent time to race to the polls.

More LGBTQ candidates and voters means a more diverse Congress There has never been a more urgent time to race to the polls

WORK with both political parties to lower your cost of living

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Paid for by Karina for Congress

VOTE

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

Simply stated, our democracy is at stake and our country’s populace starkly divided. Though Donald Trump is mainly to blame and he may never win again, Trumpism has taken hold. We see this in people’s response to the lies the Republican Party, now the party of Trumpism, are spreading.

A belief our elections aren’t fair despite irrefutable proof they are. A lack of under standing how global conditions, climate change, and immigration actually impact our lives. The fact supply chain issues stemming from the pandemic are still causing infla tion and no political party can wave a magic wand and end them. Not recognizing the Republican Party policies of appeasing corporate America, and reducing taxes on the rich, will simply make things worse. Just look at Great Britain.

Apparently, people will vote for a candidate who tells them they will take away their freedoms. They will vote for a candidate who turns away from the Constitution, who lies to them about everything. I try to stop myself from thinking these voters are just plain stupid, rather try to understand how they can be so gullible. However, if Trumpism (the Republican Party today) wins this election, I may just accept stupid.

I recognize my privilege as an older white man. I worked from the age of 10 and with savings, Social Security, and Medicare live a good life. Climate change, while horren dous, won’t impact me like it will young people who have a much longer life span than I have left. I am not a woman who lost my right to control my own healthcare and body. I care about all women and have fought for years for equal, quality healthcare, and to make choice the law of the land. But I am not directly impacted. I have no wife or daugh ter, and my sister is older also without children.

So I pray on Nov. 8th not to see election re sults and have to ask “where were the women, where were the young people? Why did they not come out to vote in huge numbers speaking out for their future with their ballot?” If they don’t vote, I will have no good answer. Neither will the pontificators who will try to give you one without success. If democracy and personal freedom lose in this election we will look back and say, “this really shouldn’t have been a difficult decision.” It should have been easy to come out and vote for the candidates who spoke to these issues and committed to fight for climate change legislation, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and the rights of workers. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to inform people about which candidates these were. How could people vote otherwise or stay home and not vote?

If Trumpism wins it will be easy to say “the American people got what they deserve.” But then I have never been one to wish bad things on others. So while they may not de serve it they will suffer. They will suffer from their own lack of action, from their own com placency, from their own unwillingness to stand up and speak out with their ballot. You can march till you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t vote in a democracy, you still lose.

If I sound depressed when I write this, you bet I am, after having spent a lifetime fighting for the things I believe in, and still fighting. I am still involved in politics and understand the need to vote. I am depressed because so many just don’t seem to get it.

There is still time to turn my depression into elation on Nov. 8th, still time to vote and make a statement. Maybe take a moment and look to Ukraine, and the Ukrainian peo ple, to know what it means to fight for your life, your country, and your democracy. If a bomb were dropped in their city like Trump’s friend Putin is doing in Ukraine, would our young people fight or would they give up?

Well, Republicans are dropping one bomb after another on our cities only they aren’t the kind that cause physical damage, they are the kind that kill the soul, kill the spirit, take away your rights, one by one. We have it easy today, we don’t need weapons to win, we have the ballot. Everyone must use it while there is still time.

Democracy and personal freedoms at stake on Nov. 8

We don’t need weapons to win, we have the ballot

A dangerous love triangle. A fortune-teller’s mysterious prophecy. What will be revealed at The Masked Ball?

SEASON OF VERDI VERDI’S

Un Ballo in Maschera

Our Season of Verdi continues with the master composer's deeply emotional audience into the masked ball of the

INDIRA MAHAJAN , soprano Amelia “Incandescent... unforgettable” (Opera News)

ARTURO CHACÓN-CRUZ , tenor )

Two Performances Only!

ALEKSEY BOGDANOV, baritone Renato

“Pitch-perfect” (The Washington Post)

DARYL FREEDMAN , mezzo-soprano

“Striking, sumptuous” performances (Opera News)

| Sunday, November 13 at 2:00 pm

THE MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE TICKETS & INFORMATION AT MDLO.org

By KATHI WOLFE

Some creators agonize for years before plunging into their art.

This wasn’t the case with queer, blind writer and teacher Caitlin Hernandez. Hernandez wrote her first “novel,” “Computer Whiz,” she writes in her bio, when she was in the fourth grade. She kept her monitor off so no one would see her “masterpiece.”

Reading and writing have been a part of Hernandez’s life for as long as she can remember. “I was writing, even as a little kid,” Hernandez, who was born in 1990 and grew up in Danville, Calif., said in a telephone interview with the Blade, “In first grade, I wrote stories in braille. They taught me to type. Because people were having to translate.”

As a kid, Hernandez used a tape recorder to tell stories. “That happens so often with blind kids,” said Hernandez, who lives in San Francisco with her partner Martha and Maite their Rottweiler.

Maite was Martha’s dog when the couple got together. “I call her my ‘stepdogter,’” Hernandez said. It’s clear from the get-go that she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Maite, her “stepdogter,” is “currently writing a picture book,” Hernandez jokes in her bio.

It’s commonly thought that disabled people lead sad, tragic lives. But Hernandez busts this myth. Martha, her partner, “reads braille with her eyes,” Hernandez whimsically writes in her bio.

Hernandez is committed to teaching and writing. But, she “loves eating coffee ice cream, watching Star Trek Voyager, singing, skipping and using her rainbow cane –sometimes all at once,” Hernandez writes in her bio.

Queerness is an integral part of Hernandez’s life: from her fiction, which tells stories of LGBTQ people, disabled people, and people of color to her rainbow cane.

“Queerness is considered cool now in many places,” Hernandez said, “it’s normalized.”

But that’s not true with disability, she added. “Generally, there’s more fear and misperceptions around disabled people,” Hernandez said.

Because of their discomfort with disabled people, she’s often left alone at social and literary gatherings.

“Because I’m blind, people frequently won’t talk to me,” Hernandez said, “even if I’ve read at an open mic.”

To make people feel more comfortable with her, Hernandez, totally blind since birth, sometimes uses a rainbow cane. “I designed it,” she said, “it has the colors of the rainbow flag. If you’re queer, you’ll get that.”

But it’s also beautiful because it’s a rainbow, Hernandez said, “It’s a great ice-breaker.”

(Hernandez uses her rainbow cane when she’s out with friends. When traveling by herself, she uses the white cane used by most blind people.)

Once people get to know [disabled people],” Hernandez said, “they’re chill with us.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), a landmark civil rights law, despite problems of enforcement and compliance, has done much to change life for disabled people.

The ADA generation (those born when or after the law was passed) has grown up with the expectation that disabled people have rights. They’re not surprised to see curb cuts or braille menus. They expect employers to make accommodations for disabled employees and hospitals to have sign language interpreters for Deaf people.

Yet despite the ADA, ableism persists (even within her own ADA generation), Hernandez said. A key reason why discomfort with and fear of disabled people is still so pervasive is the problem of representation, she said.

Hernandez, a Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Fellow in 2015 and 2018, is acutely aware of how disabled and queer and disabled people are portrayed in fiction and nonfiction.

“Our lives are often represented so badly,” Hernandez said, “often by nondisabled creators. There’s a lot of fear and inaccuracy.”

Thankfully, there are a few fab books with disabled characters by disabled authors, Hernandez said. She loves “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang, who is autistic. The novel portrays the romance of an autistic econometrician and her biracial male escort.

Hernandez is a fan of “The Silence Between us,” a young adult romance featuring a Deaf character, by hard-of-hearing author Alison Gervais.

“The Chance to Fly,” co-authored by Ali Stroker, the bisexual, Tony-winning actress who uses a wheelchair, and Stacy Davidowitz, is one of Hernandez’s faves. The book, a novel for middle-schoolers, tells the story of a theater-loving, wheelchair using girl, who defies ableist expectations.

Hernandez began to think she was queer when she was in high school. But, she didn’t come out then to anyone except a few of her friends. “They kinda didn’t believe me,” Hernandez said, “because a friend of ours had already come out as queer and they thought I was trying to copy him.”

After she was in college, Hernandez, who earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2012, came out to her parents.

Her folks, now divorced, were fine with her being queer.

Because nondisabled people frequently don’t see disabled people as datable or sexy, some aspects of coming out are more difficult if you have a disability, Hernandez said. “We often miss one of the rites of passage of coming out,” she said, “of saying ‘I am queer – here with my queer date (or partner).’”

Hernandez’s first relationship was with a woman who was closeted. “We couldn’t be out,” she said.

Hernandez got together with her partner Martha in November 2019. Then there was the pandemic and everything was cancelled. “So we didn’t get to go out as an out queer couple,” Hernandez said.

“Everybody knows I’m partnered with Martha,” she added.

But because of ableism, sometimes people don’t see her as Martha’s romantic partner, Hernandez said.

Like many, Hernandez navigates intersecting identities. “I’m thinking more about my being of mixed race,” Hernandez said, “My Mom is white. My Dad is one-half Mexican and one-half German. I can pass as white,” she added.

She’s grappling with what it means to have a Latinx last name, Hernandez said.

She wishes she had taken Spanish. “But I took French,” Hernandez said, “I wanted to do what my friends were doing.”

As a writer, Hernandez hopes to help children who live

(Editor’s Note: One in four people in America has a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Queer and disabled people have long been a vital part of the LGBTQ+ community. Take two of the many queer history icons who were disabled: Michelangelo is believed to have been autistic. Marsha P. Johnson, who played a heroic role in the Stonewall Uprising, had physical and psychiatric disabilities. Today, Deaf/Blind fantasy writer Elsa Sjunneson; actor and bilateral amputee Eric Graise who played Marvin in the “Queer as Folk” reboot; and Kathy Martinez, a blind, Latinx lesbian, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy for the Obama administration, are only a few of the queer and disabled people in the LGBTQ community. Yet, the stories of this vital segment of the queer community have rarely been told. In its monthly, yearlong series, “Queer, Crip and Here,” the Blade will tell some of these un-heard stories.)

with intersecting identities.

Her work has appeared in “Aromatica Poetica,” “Wordgathering” and in “Barriers and Belonging,” “Firsts: Coming Of Age Stories by People with Disabilities” and other anthologies.

In 2013, “Dreaming in Color,” a musical written by Hernandez, was produced by CRE Outreach at the Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica, Calif.

Hernandez’s unpublished young adult novel “Even Touch Has a Tune” is about a queer, blind girl falling in love with another girl and surviving sexual assault, Hernandez said in an email to the Blade. “It’s fiction but has a lot of autobiographical content,” she added.

If you’re disabled, you’re more vulnerable to sexual assault. When she was a freshman, Hernandez became friends with a fully sighted guy who she’d met in her classes. “He seemed nice,” she said, “but then he came over and touched me inappropriately.”

“I froze up,” Hernandez added, “if you’re disabled, you’re vulnerable. You’re taught to be polite – to keep quiet.”

While there’s more representation of disabled people in fiction, Hernandez is still discouraged.

Because of ableism, many literary agents may not want her “disabled and assault novel,” Hernandez said. (Her unpublished YA novel “Even Touch Has a Tune” is represented by Emily Keyes of Keyes Agency.)

Too frequently, representation of disabled people is focused on ableist tropes like “inspiration porn” and “overcoming,” Hernandez said. There isn’t interest in portraying scary, difficult aspects (like sexual assaults) of disabled people’s lives, she added.

But discouragement doesn’t stop Hernandez from writing or from connecting with kids as a teacher.

Hernandez earned a master’s degree in special education and her teaching credentials from San Francisco State University in 2016. Today, she is a resource specialist with the San Francisco Unified School District.

Hernandez enjoys forging a connection with disabled and nondisabled students. “Nondisabled kids come to me for extra help,” she said.

Hernandez has accomplished much. But, “I’ve learned I don’t have to be a role model,” she said, “I don’t have to be perfect.”

CAITLIN HERNANDEZ

Queer, Crip and Here: Meet blind writer Caitlin Hernandez Author navigates intersecting identities in life, work

PERFORMANCES

Mason Artist-in-Residence NRITYAGRAM DANCE ENSEMBLE Saturday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m.

A mesmerizing performance that brings Hindu epics to life

PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND

Pass It On: 60th Anniversary Musical Celebration Sunday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.

JEFFREY

Sunday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.

Passion-filled

by Chopin, Schubert,

The iconic and exuberant “Big Easy” sound Virginia Opera THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE Saturday, Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. Gilbert & Sullivan’s

operetta

NRITYAGRAM

CALENDAR

Friday, November 04

By TINASHE CHINGARANDE

Center Aging Friday Tea Time will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more details, contact Adam (adamheller@thedccenter.org).

There will be a movie screening of “Inside Out” at 7 p.m. at President Lincoln’s Cottage. This event is part of the free film screenings on the lawn of Lincoln’s summer residence. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Saturday, November 05

Virtual Yoga Class with Jesse Z. will be at 12 p.m. online. This is a free weekly class focusing on yoga, breath work, and meditation. Guests are encouraged to RSVP on the D.C. Center’s website, providing their name, email address, and zip code, along with any questions they may have. The link to the class will be sent out at 6 p.m. the day before the event.

LGBTQ People of Color Support Group will be at 1 p.m. on Zoom and in-person at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This peer support group is an outlet for LGBTQ people of color to come together and talk about anything affecting them in a space that strives to be safe and judgment-free. For more information and events for LGBTQ People of Color, visit thedccenter.org/poc or facebook.com/centerpoc.

Sunday, November 06

GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Coffee + Conversation” at 12 p.m. at As You Are. This event is for those looking to make more friends in the LGBTQ community and trying to meet some new faces after two years of the pandemic. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

AfroCode DC will be at 3 p.m. at Decades DC. This event is an experience of non-stop music, dancing, and good vibes and a crossover of genres and cultures such as hip hop, Afrobeats and soca.Tickets cost $60 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

Monday, November 07

Center Aging Monday Coffee and Conversation will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. LGBT Older Adults — and friends — are invited to enjoy friendly conversations and to discuss any issues you might be dealing with. For more information, visit the Center Aging’s Facebook or Twitter.

Not Another Drag Show will be at 8 p.m. at DuPont Italian Kitchen. Logan Stone will be hosting, there will also be a rotating cast of local DMV performers. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Tuesday, November 08

Coming Out Discussion Group will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a peer-facilitated discussion group and a safe space to share experiences about coming out and discuss topics as it relates to doing so. For more information, visit the Coming Out Discussion Group Facebook page.

Trans Support Group will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This group is intended to provide emotionally and physically safe space for transgender people and those who may be questioning their gender identity or expression to join together in community and learn from one another. For more details, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.

Wednesday, November 09

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email centercareers@ thedccenter.org or visit www.thedccenter.org/careers.

Queer Trivia Night will be at 7 p.m. at The Dew Drop Inn. This event is a monthly dose of all things nerdy and LGBTQ+. Admission to the event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Thursday, November 10

The DC Center’s Food Pantry Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. To be fair with who is receiving boxes, the program is moving to a lottery system. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org or call 202-682-2245.

“Wasted & Gay Thursdays” will be at 9 p.m. at Wasted Lounge. The event will be hosted by Nelly Nellz, and there will be music by DJ Ro. Guests are encouraged to come and enjoy good food, drinks, music and hookah. Cover costs $5 and tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.

OUT & ABOUT

Here’s your chance to see Randy Rainbow

Famed comedian and singer Randy Rainbow will perform on Friday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hippodrome at France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore.

Rainbow is best known for spoof interviews that blend musical parodies and political satire from a progressive perspective. Rainbow also published a memoir, “Playing with Myself,” that takes readers through his life − the highs, the lows, the lipstick, the pink glasses, and the show tunes.

Tickets to the show start at $57.95 and can be purchased on Ticketmaster’s website.

Congressional Chorus is back

The Congressional Chorus will open its 2022-2023 season, “Homesong,” on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at 945 G St. NW.

The Chorus’s mission is to perform American music, and this program challenges the boundaries of what is traditionally considered “American.”

Homesong will feature works by U.S. immigrant and first-generation composers, such as a newly commissioned work, “Chalo Re Mhaare Des,” by Gaayatri Kaundinya that fuses Hindi musical traditions with Western musical traditions.

Tickets start at $30 and can be purchased on the Chorus website.

RANDY RAINBOW brings his new show to Baltimore next week. (Book cover image courtesy St. Martin’s Press)

An expansive vision leads D.C.’s Elcielo to a Michelin star

A conversation with Pedro Mendoza, Colombian restaurant’s ambassador

Behind the 22 courses of Elcielo, the Michelin-starred, transportive Colombian restaurant that anchors the far end of La Cosecha in Northeast is a jack-of-all-trades translator. He is Pedro Mendoza, officially the Corporate Communications Officer of the Elcielo group, but more of a charismatic conductor, ensuring that the restaurant hits all the right notes coming from the composer – JuanMa Barrientos, owner and head chef, with a dozen-plus restaurants and bars and a hotel.

Colombian-born Mendoza, a gay man, has worked with the Elcielo group since 2016 across its restaurants (Bogota, Medellin, Miami, and DC). He has been based in the D.C. outpost since its opening in 2021. While he works front of house many evenings at Elcielo, his day is filled with public relations and operational work for the other Elcielo spots and JuanMa’s many other restaurants. He also works in outreach for the Elcielo Foundation, a nonprofit that supports victims of Colombia’s civil war violence.

Mendoza has a long history in the culinary space. He has worked various events across Colombia, including the wine exposition Expovinos, the Bogotá Wine and Food Festival, and other performing arts, culture, and health fairs and festivals.

Through his writings and work, Mendoza connected with Barrientos, who had by then established himself in the lofty Medellin food scene. He had founded Elcielo, a multi-sensory restaurant using modern, avant-garde techniques enmeshed with Colombian flavors and ingredients. Elcielo was what may have been the first fine-dining restaurant in Medellin, a tasting menu influenced by the country’s rich history but plated by JuanMa’s international vision. “It’s a fun luxury, not stuffy or rigid, it’s a fluid luxury,” says Mendoza.

When he moved to Elcielo full time in 2016, Mendoza was focused on producing editorial content and promoting the brand. In 2019, he moved to D.C. to open this local project, acting as everything from designer to waiter to press officer.

Mendoza also acts as ambassador of Colombia and Elcielo to D.C. and the world. “I am diplomatic and respectful, but also authentic and transparent,” he says.

By EVAN CAPLAN

“As a gay man with 11 ethnic ancestors from four continents (my DNA test says so), I feel like a citizen of the world. My imprint is to do everything with passion and dedication.”

Mendoza has seen plenty as an out Colombian who came of age during the terrors of its civil war. For that reason, working with the Foundation, which offers education and culinary training to wounded soldiers, ex-combatants, indigenous people, and other victims, is especially important.

“I love being a Colombian, succeeding in a market as demanding and cosmopolitan as D.C. is. Colombia is a special country whose inhabitants have suffered a lot from violence and the drug trade, which is a global problem, not just ours.” He is as proud of his Colombian heritage, of its bounty of fruits and vegetables and biodiversity, as he is of his personal life. “I was a flight attendant, I sang opera in a professional choir, I served in the army of my country. I don’t mind so much saying my sexual preference, because I think that belongs to people’s privacy; however, I don’t hide it, I show it with pride. If it is necessary to show myself as a 49-year-old gay man, I do.”

After just a year in business, Elcielo in D.C. was awarded with one Michelin star: the very first Colombian restaurant to attain this achievement. Earlier this year, the Elcielo outpost in Miami was also awarded one star, as part of the Michelin Guide’s first-ever selections for the Florida region. Michelin noted the expression of creativity and “serious culinary sorcery.”

It’s JuanMa’s expansive vision, a reflection of Elcielo’ s name (meaning “sky” or “heaven” in Spanish), “so we try to ensure that everyone is treated with special care,” says Mendoza. This goes for the food, the customer, and the employee, Mendoza adds.

“Elcielo is a very inclusive company,” says Mendoza. “I have had more diverse LGBTQ colleagues throughout the company: in administration, outreach, in the kitchen, and on the dining room floor, both in Colombia and in the U.S. I was able to start Elcielo DC from zero, and have now run communications and even visa logistics for other Colombian staff. This is an example of the company bringing opportunity to all types of people.”

D.C.’s Elcielo was awarded a coveted Michelin star earlier this year. (Photo by @Fleetstreetwriteup Rachel Paraoan)

Blanchett triumphs with tour-de-force in ‘Tár’

By JOHN PAUL KING

The only thing you need to know before going to see “Tár” is that it is not a true story.

Lydia Tár, the acclaimed female conductor profiled in Todd Field’s newest film, is entirely fictional, despite confusion online from people who mistakenly believed otherwise. It’s easy to see why; a story about a respect ed cultural figure’s fall from grace might easily be drawn directly from current headlines, and the world depicted onscreen – an exclusive, insular environment in which high art, big money, and base motives exist in uneasy tension with each other – comes across as completely authentic, down to each granular detail. It feels real, even if it’s not – and that, of course, is one of the things that make “Tár” such a singular film.

This shouldn’t surprise those familiar with writer-di rector Field, whose short-but-eloquent resume – he’s made only three films in 21 years, perhaps mirroring the less-than-prolific pace of former mentor Stanley Kubrick, and “Tár” is the first since 2006 – speaks vol umes about his mastery of cinematic craft. His earlier works – “In the Bedroom” (2001) and “Little Children” (2006) – were distinguished by a literary instinct for finding big truth in tiny details and for a keen, almost merciless understanding of the psychology of their characters. In each case, too, there was a focus on the uncomfortable corners of our lives – grief, adultery, domestic violence, pedophilia, murder – and on the way that our intimate secrets spin webs into our public lives. Above all, perhaps, those films were about the masks we wear to disguise the desires we don’t want others to see.

Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is the natural legacy of these previous explorations, a culmination of all those potent themes in one enigmatic character. As mae stro of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic, she’s at the peak of an already monumental career; she’s re nowned for her interpretations of the classical canon and an accomplished composer in her own right, a respected musical theorist and practitioner who has achieved world-class fame and success as a woman in a field overwhelmingly dominated by men. She’s also a lesbian, raising a young daughter with her wife, Sha ron (Nina Hoss).

None of these biographical facts, however, tell us anything about who she really is. To learn that, we have to watch as Field’s intricately crafted movie unspools her for us.

More a montage of slice-of-life episodes than a tra ditional narrative, “Tár” introduces us to its title char acter through a series of text messages about her between unknown others, just enough to imply that something about her is not what it seems. From then on, everything we see is tinged with suspicion. Field examines her life like a researcher documenting ob servations, drawing us in with a perspective height ened by specificity – more hyperreal than surreal – as he reveals the gradually widening cracks in her inscru table façade.

At first, she seems an aspirational figure – brilliant, poised, and supremely confident; gradually, her per sonal interactions – with overworked PA Francesca

(Noémie Merlant), or fawning associate-and-rival Eliot (Mark Strong), or promising young cellist Olga (Sophie Kauer), among others – reveal glimpses of more ques tionable qualities, perhaps even a hint of narcissism; finally, a pattern emerges, and we begin to recognize, even before she does, that Lydia’s compartmentalized life is about to come crashing down around her.

It’s an intensely visceral experience, a twist on the “unreliable narrator” motif that invites us to identify with a character that will later be revealed as a fraud. It’s hardly a new tactic, but in Field’s provocative mov ie, it strikes a hauntingly dissonant chord – in large part because of the cultural moment in which it comes.

Without revealing too much detail, it’s clear enough that sexual misconduct is part of the equation in “Tár,” so it’s not a spoiler to discuss the way the film subverts an all-too-familiar narrative. We are now, sadly, so sat urated with scandals around men who use their power as a vehicle for sexual predation that they are dan gerously close to becoming a trope. By suggesting that a woman might be the predator, Field challenges our assumptions about that dynamic; far from dimin ishing the culpability of male abusers by showing fe males are capable of the same behavior, he reminds us that “toxic masculinity” is a systemic phenomenon. Lydia Tár is the product of a long-established order in which the road to success is both paved and defined by male-centric hierarchy; though that order may have become more inclusive, the hierarchy remains un changed – and the gender lines around sexual preda tion have become blurred.

Some queer audiences, it should be said, may also find controversy in the film’s presentation of the queer woman as victimizer – an old and toxic bit of coded subtext that has been a part of cinematic storytelling ever since the days of the silent vamp. While this might feel particularly tone deaf when current conservative rhetoric includes terms such as “grooming” in its effort to stigmatize LGBTQ people, there’s no homophobic agenda in “Tár” – only a cautionary assertion that real

life is not subject to the expectations of the bubbles in which we find safe haven. More than that, Field argu ably accomplishes the fairest representation possible by allowing its queer protagonist – and despite what ever moralistic judgments his movie may invite us to explore, that’s what she is – to be as imperfect a human being as anyone else.

There are many other perspectives, as well, through which to view “Tár” – much has been made by com mentators about its focus on “cancel culture,” for ex ample, and the influence of social media and virtual discourse over our social mores and ethics – and it’s a testament to the genius – yes, we’ll use that word – of Todd Field that all of them are valid.

Great as his talent may be, though, none of what works about the movie would be possible without its star. Field has said he wrote the role for Blanchett – if she had declined it, the movie would never have been made – and she gives a career-defining performance as Lydia Tár; her dedication goes much further than simply learning the necessary musical skills required – which she did, playing piano for herself and conduct ing a live orchestra in front of the camera – to realize a monumental and multi-faceted character from the ground up. Fierce yet vulnerable, tender and loving yet cold and compassionless, she’s a walking contra diction, subject to the same hubris as the rest of us; because of this, we are able to find empathy for her no matter how far out of control she goes – and without that crucial element, the film would fall flat.

It doesn’t. Instead, it’s an engrossing piece of cine ma, even thrilling, that keeps us wrapped around its finger for a two-and-a-half-hour-plus running time that feels far shorter than that. It’s also the kind with which one must to sit for a while before deciding whether we loved it or hated it, and the kind for which there can really be no response in between.

That means we can’t guarantee which side you’ll come down on – but for our part, “Tár” might just be the best film of the year so far.

Year’s best film so far a testament to genius of Todd Field

CATE BLANCHETT stars in ‘Tár.’

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

You want stuff.

A nice wardrobe, say. Decent dishes, nice lamps, food and drink. Somewhere to relax and a place to sleep. You want stuff, and a home to put that stuff in, but that generally takes money, honey, and it usually comes from a j-o-b. Fear not, though: help is on the way with “Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood” by Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova.

If you must work, at least you should find a job that fits you, right? So grab Trixie and Katya’s guide and start with the career aptitude test. You might be surprised – or you might “qualify for 0 percent APR financing.”

Next, think about what you really want to do with your life. How about a career of service as a cleaner who removes “the carnage of lowly grifters, criminals, and monsters”? You might rather hang out with kids as a nanny, or be a “tipped laborer.”

Remember, always tip the waitstaff. You could work in publishing, “big tech,” financing, whatever you choose, always dress for the job. If that means drag, “grab a wig, some fabric, and two lashes... and poof!” You’re ready to hire.

But wait. First, you’ll have to go through an interview, so think about the skills you want to showcase, then “reel them in” with thoughtful answers to those silly interview questions. Once you’ve got a job offer in hand, be forearmed with the handy guide to the types of coworkers you might encounter. Remember:

work is not like college, where you can avoid “germs, viruses, and nonessential enzymes named Carol from Accounts Receivable.”

Know how to ask for a raise (do you even deserve one?). Be glad if they ask you to do a Zoom meeting from home. Know how to manage your time, know when it’s time to leave your job, and know how to be graceful if it wasn’t exactly your idea. Learn to recognize work scams. And then prepare for retirement. Yeah, you do deserve that.

It should be crystal-clear by merely looking at the cover of “Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood” that this book pokes plenty of fun at the world of work. It’s funny, saucy, and over-the-top and it actually includes surprisingly decent advice, too.

Just be willing to read between the lines, although that shouldn’t be a problem. Readers who are old enough to handle the theme of this book should be smart enough to know when authors Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova aren’t exactly trying for Dear Abby here; there’s an overload of snark and sarcasm in these pages, and it’s in neon. Still, the fact remains that there are usable nuggets inside this book – on working from home, on getting along with coworkers, on asking for more money, and on how to quit.

Bring your sense of humor when you tackle this book, but bring your resume, too. “Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood” is funny and useful, and, well, you want it.

‘Working Girls’ offers over-the-top advice on the workplace Drag stars tell you how to get along with co-workers, ask for a raise

‘Working Girls: Trixie & Katya’s Guide to Professional Womanhood’

By Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova c.2022, Plume | $28 | 224

HALLOWEEN DRAG BRUNCH

Desiree Dik leads show at Elevate (Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Desiree Dik was the host of a Halloween-themed drag show at Elevate at Officina on Sunday, Oct. 30. Performers included Baphomette, Bombalicious Eklaver and Javon Love.

The Future Depends on Us Laying the groundwork for a brighter and cleaner tomorrow

DC PLUG is a multi-year project that is designed to protect the District’s most vulnerable power lines by placing them underground and improving grid resiliency where you work, live and play. Visit dcpluginfo.com for more information.

HRC National Dinner

Vice President Harris gives keynote address

The Human Rights Campaign held its annual National Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, Oct. 29. Speakers included Vice President Kamala Harris and actor George Takei.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

What homebuyers vote for Location, style, and other factors to consider

By VALERIE M. BLAKE

Next Tuesday, if we haven’t already done so, we will be able to vote for congressional representatives, governors, state officials, mayors, attorneys general, council members, and more, depending on where we live. There may be new laws or resolutions in play as well.

Voting is a right not to be taken lightly and I encourage everyone who is eligible to do so. What I want to address this week, however, is what buyers vote for when selecting a home. Whether they choose their pre ferred candidates by internet or in person, it’s important that infor mation about the contenders is made available prior to selecting a favorite.

LOCATION:

When people move to the DMV from outside the area, I often hear, “I want to live in D.C.” Many times, that sentiment changes when they find out how much house you can get for the money inside the District.

They may canvass Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and Fairfax County in Virginia, and Montgomery and Prince Georges counties in Maryland, but some of those areas can be pretty pricey as well.

Nonetheless, voters research the credentials of their candi dates, including proximity to work, quality of schools, crime rates, and nearby amenities.

TYPE:

Once they have selected their location, price may also have an impact on the type of housing they choose. Up for debate are single family detached homes, townhouses and rowhouses, condominiums, and sometimes cooperatives.

Detached homes inside the Beltway seem to be reserved for those with the most money, whereas townhouses frequently represent our middle class. Condominiums are often preferred by the masses, especially if they are located near transportation and food. Cooperatives are lesser-known entities favored by some. It’s nice to know that there are still people interested in cooperating.

STYLE:

People often arrive with pre-conceived notions about the candidates for style of home here. Imagine coming from an area where the standard home is a 4,000-squarefoot ranch with a white picket fence, located on a cul-de-sac and finding out it either needs to be custom built or is a two-hour commute to work.

Although our area caters to the 2,200 square foot, two-story colonial with basement, other entries in the detached home primaries may include two-level split foyers, Victori an four squares with wrap-around porches, multi-level splits, contemporaries with clean lines, and yes, the occasional ranch.

Running in the category of rowhouses and townhouses are bowfront and box front Victorians, flat-front Federals, Wardmans with covered front porches (named for archi tect Harry Wardman), and traditional or transitional homes that are in the “also ran” cat egory because, like some politicians, nobody knows what they stand for.

In D.C., you can also find something innocuous that is simply a two-story box with no distinctive architecture or name, but with a purse-pleasing price. They may be old and nonde script, but they are dependable and plentiful.

EXTERIOR:

Our exteriors are transparent in how they present themselves to the public. We have the bricks – red, tan, white-washed, and painted in vibrant colors – or the sidings: wood, vinyl, aluminum, or Hardie plank. A few outliers in stone or stucco may garner some attention, too.

Porches and patios are popu lar, and yards always get a lot of votes. Some constituents consid er roof decks to be only for the elites; however, the desire for a parking space is a unifying posi tion throughout D.C. and in the downtown areas of proximate Vir ginia and Maryland suburbs.

INTERIOR:

Two major parties make up the interiors of our homes: the tradi tional floor plan party and the open floor plan party. The Green party, a third and smaller entity, features popular ideas that can transcend the other two parties, such as electric vehicle chargers, smart home features, and energy efficient systems and appliances.

Currently, the open floor plan party is polling ahead. It rejects a formal dining room in favor of a smaller eating area and a breakfast bar in the kitchen. This party’s agenda can include luxury vinyl plank flooring that mimics driftwood, as well as a plethora of stainless steel appliances, white cabinets, solid surface countertops, and grey walls for a clean, sterile look.

The traditional party values the architecture, unpainted wood trim, original heart pine or red oak floors, and tiger oak fireplace mantels of early 20th century homes. Interiors may feature darker colors or wallpaper, with more emphasis on historical and institu tional norms.

It remains to be seen what home buyers will vote for next, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for the latest trends, hoping that our choices will remain diverse, vibrant, and wel coming.

VALERIE M. BLAKE

is a licensed Associate Broker in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia with RLAH Real Estate / @properties. Call or text her at 202-246-8602, email her via DCHomeQuest.com, or follow her on Facebook at TheRealst8ofAffairs.

Whether you want a single-family home or a townhouse is just one decision to make during the buying process.

MASSAGE

BACK & RELAX

with a refreshing massage. Private studio near Courthouse in Arlington, Sun - Wed, 12-9 Gary @ 301-704-1158, mymassagebygary.com

COUNSELING

COUNSELING FOR LGBTQ People Individual/couple counseling with a volunteer peer counselor. GMCC, serving our community since 1973. 202-580-8661 gaymenscounseling.org.  No fees, donation requested.

EMPLOYMENT

HOME ASSISTANT-DUPONT, cleaning, handy work, errands, driving, downsizing... 5 hrs a week to start. For more info and interview, call 202-491-6399.

BUSINESS FOR SALE! CORY RUSSO DOG GROOMING

Come to Beautiful Palm Beach, Florida & groom nice dogs in clients homes! In Business 25 years, it’s time for me to retire! Very low overhead, just your car, fuel, & auto insurance. Be the owner & employee so you can interact with the owner & dogs easily, I have a 25 pound weight limit.(561)214-3110

nascarqueen9@gmail.com

This is a perfect opportunity for a dog lover who wants to be their own boss, work in a great climate, & build the business or keep it small. Experience is a plus, & I will train you for 4 weeks. Price is 50K which you will make back in a year!

services. Jennifer represents LGBTQ clients in DC, MD & VA

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LIVERY SERVICE

1987. Gay & Veteran Owner/Operator. Lincoln Continental Sedan! Proper DC License & Livery Insured.