Washington Blade, Volume 54, Issue 01, January 06, 2023

McCarthy humiliated as Santos keeps on lying, page 10

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

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Zachary Parker sworn in as new D.C. Council member

Former D.C. school board member Zachary Parker was sworn in on Monday as the first openly gay member of the D.C. Council since 2015 at an inaugural ceremony in which other elected officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and six other Council members, were also sworn in.

Parker, a Democrat, won election in November to the Ward 5 Council seat by a wide margin after winning a hotly contested Democratic primary for the Ward 5 seat in June.

“I stand here today knowing what I can give toward my neighbors and District residents is directly related to what I am willing to risk,” Parker said in his inaugural speech at D.C.’s Walter Washington Convention Center where the inaugural ceremony was held.

“By one of the widest margins seen in this election cycle, Ward 5 neighbors elected an educator born on the south side of Chicago with a simple based vision that all District residents deserve good and accountable government,” he said in referring to role as a teacher before running for public office.

“That means we must serve as responsible stewards of the District’s resources examining how we spend taxpayer

money while also making sure we extend support to those in greatest need,” Parker said in is speech. “It also means making government more accessible and accountable to you, the people,” he said.

“What’s more, for the first time since 2015, there will be an out gay on the Council,” Parker continued. “And for the first time ever, that Council member will be black,” he said.

“With this honor comes the responsibility to address the ridiculously high rates of queer youth homelessness, fight to protect federal protections that are under assault by officials just down the street, and ensure that we’re investing in the people and organizations that are fighting every day for our LGBTQIA plus neighbors,” Parker told the gathering to loud applause.

Also taking the oath of office at the ceremony were D.C.’s newly elected Attorney General Brian Schwalb and newly elected Ward 3 Council member Matthew Frumin, both Democrats.

The others, in addition to Mayor Bowser, who was sworn in to her third term in office, included incumbent Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) and incumbent Council members Anita Bonds (D-At-Large), Kenyan McDuffie (I-At-Large), Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6).

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Brown seeks to enforce state, federal civil rights laws

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown on Tuesday in his inaugural speech said he would seek the authority to enforce civil rights laws.

“To ensure that no entity or individual in Maryland deprive any person of their rights, regardless of faith or race, ethnicity or geography, identification, or orientation, and that all residents enjoy the privileges of living in Maryland, I’ll ask the governor and General Assembly for the statutory authority and the necessary resources to enforce federal and state civil rights laws,” he said.

Brown in his speech noted Maryland is the country’s fourth

“most diverse state.”

“We speak 117 languages, and the percentage of foreign-born residents is higher than the national average and our neighboring states,” said Brown. “Maryland reflects where America is going.”

“So, what deeply troubles me is the racial and ethnic disparities and inequities that still exist in Maryland, motivated by bias and even overt discrimination, in housing, in the marketplace and workplace, and in opportunities,” he added. “Elijah Cummings would often admonish us by saying, “We’re better than that!” While I commend the work of the Maryland Com-

mission for Civil Rights, that for 53 years has protected the civil rights of Marylanders, I firmly believe that we can do more.”

Brown, who previously represented Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, was the state’s lieutenant governor from 2007-2015. Brown last November defeated former Republican Anne Arundel County Councilman Michael Peroutka.

Democratic Congressman-elect Glenn Ivey will succeed Brown.

Gov.-elect Wes Moore and Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman — both Democrats — will take office on Jan. 16.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Comings & Goings

Etzkorn joins board of Cosmos Club Historic Preservation Foundation

By PETER ROSENSTEIN

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: comingsandgoings@washblade.com.

Congratulations to Lars Etzkorn on joining the board of the Cosmos Club Historic Preservation Foundation. Etzkorn had previously served as its legal adviser. The board is dedicated to stewardship of the club’s historic building, the Townsend House, and to promoting preservation in the Dupont Circle and Massachusetts Avenue neighborhoods.

On joining the board Etzkorn said, “It’s an honor to work with such esteemed people to preserve a historic treasure, the Townsend House, as well as to help in the rest of the board’s mission.”

Etzkorn has a legal practice that focuses on estate and life planning, trust and estate administration, charitable giving and governance. He works with individuals and families, and with local and national cultural, education and health organizations. He began his career as counsel with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transporta-

tion and has served as counselor to the vice chair at the Interstate Commerce Commission. Etzkorn also served in senior and cabinet appointments for four mayors in two cities — for Bosley and Harmon in St. Louis and Williams and Fenty in D.C. Etzkorn is Secretary of the Board of the Downtown DC Foundation; serves on the National Advisory Council of the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at Washington University in St. Louis; and is a member of the board of Dumbarton Arts & Education.

Etzkorn earned his undergraduate degree in history from Washington University and graduated cum laude from the Saint Louis University School of Law.

Congratulations also to Michael Anthony Vazquez, MTS, on founding The Maiden Group, a social impact agency and research and consulting firm facilitating partnerships that serve as a vanguard against autocracy and in pursuit of an inclusive democracy. He said, “Out of years of labor, long discussions with friends, coalition partners, and advisors, I launched The Maiden Group to provide a focused space to facilitate cross-sector engagement and strategic deployment in response to the rise of autocracy and the threats posed by Christian Nationalists and their associates.

The Maiden Group is but one member of an ecosystem in the fight to not only preserve democracy, but to bring into being the inclusive democracy that we dream of, even if we have never lived it. Through an ethic of shared work, or what mujerista theologians call en conjunto, I believe we can not only stop the threats we are facing, but also create the world we dream of.”

Vazquez currently serves as an adviser at Public Private Strategies. He formerly served as the Religion & Faith Director at the Human Rights Campaign; Senior Communications Strategist at the USAID Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; and Founder of Brave Commons.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Weber State University, Ogden, Utah; and his master’s of Theological Studies from the Divinity School at Duke University, Durham, N.C.

ZACHARY PARKER joined the Council this week, restoring out gay representation. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

LARS ETZKORN MICHAEL VAZQUEZ

D.C. trans group suspends operation of LGBTQ crime victim housing facility

Says court officials failed to provide promised number of residents

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

The D.C.-based LGBTQ organization Empowering the Transgender Community, known as ETC, was forced to suspend its operation of a temporary emergency housing facility for LGBTQ victims of violent crime because the D.C. Superior Court did not provide enough tenants to financially sustain the facility, according to ETC founder and executive director Earline Budd.

Budd and Benita Nero, ETC’s director of programs, told the Washington Blade an official in charge of the Superior Court’s Crime Victims Compensation Program informed ETC in March of 2022 that she expected the court program to provide tenants needing emergency housing to fill the ETC facility to its capacity of 26 individuals or families.

“That never happened,” Nero said. She and Budd said the overhead expenses for renting the small apartment building and hiring staff to oversee its 14 apartments and a capacity of accommodating about 26 to 28 people caused ETC to go into debt because the reimbursement they received from the court for far fewer people than initially promised did not cover the expenses.

“We have had to suspend the program during the last four weeks because we couldn’t keep having staff work and not get paid and not being able to pay the landlord,” Budd said.

“We weren’t even getting 15 people a month,” Nero said. “Fifteen a month would have kept the doors open. They were giving us three people, six people” per month, she said, during most of the time the facility was operating from May through November.

Nero said on a few occasions, the court sent over families with five or six children but provided insufficient reim-

bursement for the cost of feeding the children and their adult parent, further adding to the debt ETC incurred under the program. The court also was sometimes a month or two late in making its payments for ETC’s housing services, according to Nero.

A description of the crime victims housing program on the Superior Court website in March 2022 said the program establishes arrangements with housing providers for crime victims who could be subjected to danger if they remain in the residence where they had been living at the time they became victims, usually of a crime of violence.

Many of the individuals admitted to the program are victims of domestic violence and need emergency housing, Budd said. She said some of the victims may also be victims of a hate crime.

Budd said ETC was hopeful that it could reopen the emergency housing facility under a revised memorandum of understanding with the Superior Court.

Douglas Buchanan, a spokesperson for the D.C. Superior Court, declined a request by the Blade for an official comment by the court system in response to the concerns raised by Budd and Nero that the court did not fulfill its original commitment to provide a larger number of residents for the ETC housing facility.

Patricia Hawkins, vice chair of the ETC Board of Directors, told the Blade a key factor that caused fewer people than initially promised to be sent to the ETC housing facility was a decision by court officials to reverse an earlier decision to stop sending crime victims needing emergency housing to local hotels. Hawkins said court officials informed ETC in early 2022 that they were discontinuing

the hotel option for crime victims and expected to send far larger numbers of crime victim residents to the ETC facility.

Budd and Nero said staffing problems at ETC surfaced from what they say was a severe financial shortfall brought about when the court program did not provide sufficient tenants to pull in funds needed to keep up with the overhead expenses of renting the apartment building and paying the staff.

“I have the data to prove it,” said Nero, referring to the number of people the court program sent in as emergency tenants during the six months or so that the facility was open. “And I felt like if you open an entity, that means you needed it,” she said. “So, evidently you didn’t need it because we weren’t sent enough people to stay open. So, why would you approve an entity to open if you didn’t have the people to support it?”

Budd said an official with the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) has reached out to ETC about the possibility of using the ETC apartment building as a low barrier homeless shelter. She said the facility would not likely be able to be used as both a homeless shelter and a housing facility for the courts at the same time, requiring ETC to decide which of the two programs to pursue.

According to Nero, the financial shortfall caused by overhead costs far exceeding the reimbursement funds ETC received from the Superior Court’s Crime Victims Compensation Program resulted in a debt, including back rent, of close to $80,000. This has prompted Budd to launch a GoFundMe fundraising site seeking financial support from the community.

Longtime nightlife advocates opening new D.C. gay bar

Little Gay Pub set to debut near Logan Circle

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

Three longtime employees and managers of D.C. bars and restaurants, including two popular local gay bars, have announced plans to open a gay bar of their own called the Little Gay Pub on the first floor of a residential building two blocks from Logan Circle.

The new bar, which includes a large outdoor patio that could seat as many as 70 people, is located at 1100 P St., N.W. Its owners are business partners Dito Sevilla, longtime bartender and bar manager at Dito’s Bar located inside Floriana Restaurant on 17th Street near Dupont Circle; Dusty Martinez, former general manager at the nearby gay bar Trade; and Benjamin Gander, former general manager of the other nearby gay bar Number 9.

“Little Gay Pub aims to fill the needs of the LGBTQ community by offering a new and upscale drinking and snacking venue,” a statement released by the three owners says.

The long, narrow first floor space where the bar will be located is currently being renovated with plans for “comfortable customized leather seats,” an elegant marble top bar, artwork on the walls, and a lounge area and seating for a “delicious selection of crisps, snacks, and warm munchies ideally suited to accompany the cocktail or beverage of your choice,” according to the statement released by the owners.

Sevilla said the three were hopeful that the D.C. Alcoholic

Beverage Control Board would approve their application for a needed liquor license in time for them to open the new bar in early March.

But under rules and procedures for obtaining a D.C. liquor license, the approval process could be delayed by a month or two more if residents in an “abutting” building or the Advisory Neighborhood Commission with jurisdiction over the Logan Circle area file a protest to block the license and a negotiated “settlement agreement” cannot be reached with the ANC.

Brant Miller, a newly elected member of ANC 2F whose district includes the building in which Little Gay Pub plans to operate, told the Washington Blade he and his fellow ANC 2F commissioners support the opening of the new bar and were confident that a settlement agreement can be reached to enable the bar to open soon.

Miller said the ANC might follow a longstanding ANC policy of filing an initial protest of the license application to give the ANC legal standing to negotiate a settlement agreement. Settlement agreements usually include some restrictions on the operating hours of bars located in residential areas.

In other license application cases, ANCs have withdrawn their protest after a settlement agreement is reached. If such an agreement is reached quickly between ANC 2F and Little

Gay Pub, the new establishment could open by March assuming no one else files a protest.

“As far as I know, there is no opposition,” Miller told the Blade. “I haven’t heard anything from the community where they’re opposed to this operating as a business as it has in the past,” said Miller, who noted that bars and restaurants have operated in the building in the recent past.

“And we’re definitely super excited about another LGBT business in the ANC,” Miller said. “And I’m in particular very excited about having one in my district.”

Sevilla said he and his partners have received positive comments from nearby residents who have observed the construction taking place to renovate the inside space. On Monday, workers repainted the outside walls of the first-floor part of the building where Little Gay Pub will operate, sprucing up the building’s appearance.

Sevilla said the new bar will welcome everyone in the LGBTQ community, including allies.

“I think it is a place for everyone in the gay community, everyone who is a gay ally, everyone who supports us in any way can come in for a good drink,” he said. “There are absolutely no restrictions on anyone coming in.”

Martinez said there are sometimes long lines to get into the two nearby gay bars Trade and Number 9, which he said confirms his belief that there are more than enough LGBTQ customers to sustain three gay bars within a three-block area when Little Gay Pub opens its doors.

Little Gay Pub would become the 15th LGBTQ bar to operate in D.C. in addition to another bar, Freddie’s Beach Bar, operating in Arlington, Va.

Little Gay Pub is located at 1100 P St., N.W. (Photo via Dusty Martinez)

Chaos in the Capitol: McCarthy stumbles and Santos keeps lying

House GOP in disarray as right-wing members hijack proceedings

By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com

(Editor’s note: This story was reported as of Wednesday morning. Visit our website for updates.)

The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned Tuesday evening after failing to elect a new speaker for the 118th Congress in three ballots that saw Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) fail to secure sufficient votes from members in the conservative faction of his party.

The chamber reconvened Wednesday afternoon to hold a fourth vote.

ises regarding membership on standing committees to procedural agreements that would limit the power of the speakership.

Most important was a compromise struck ahead of the vote that would have allowed five members to file for a motion to vacate the speakership at any time, bringing back a House rule that cost John Boehner his speakership in 2015.

McCarthy served as House Majority Leader from 2014 to 2019 under Speakers Boehner and Paul Ryan, who both lost their gavels because of their resistance to the demands of the Freedom Caucus.

By contrast, McCarthy has embraced the most conservative members of the GOP caucus.

According to media reports, in a closed-door meeting with Republican members on Tuesday morning that preceded the floor vote, McCarthy delivered a defiant speech in which he refused to make additional concessions to the ultraconservative holdouts and told his colleagues, “I earned this job.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.) reportedly shouted, “Bullshit!”

Speaking with reporters after the closed-door meeting, Greene admonished the members of her caucus who opposed McCarthy’s speakership.

previously, mooched off him, likely stole and pawned his phone and lied to him.

That boyfriend, Pedro Vilarva, the Times reported, met Santos in 2014 when he was 18 and Santos was 26. They dated for a few months before Santos suggested they move in together. Vilarva said he felt on top of the world — even if he said he did find himself footing many of the bills.

Until a speaker is in place, the House will be unable to seat new members or take action with respect to new rules, committee assignments, or legislation.

With Republicans’ narrowly winning control of the House, McCarthy needed 218 votes to be elected but won only 203 in the first two rounds and 202 in the third vote, which took place after 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

Opposition to McCarthy’s speakership comes from the most conservative Republicans, most belonging to the House Freedom Caucus.

At the same time, some of the caucus’s most conservative members — like Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — were adamant in their support of the Republican leader.

Not since 1923 has the House failed to elect a speaker with the first floor vote.

Fractures in the GOP caucus were underscored by the fact that McCarthy secured support from more Republicans two years ago, despite having won more seats this time around.

But a group of about 20 Republican members had either publicly declared their opposition to McCarthy’s speakership or declined to signal their support for him leading up to Tuesday’s vote.

Initially, their votes were divided between Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who ran against McCarthy for the gavel, and Reps. Jim Jordan, Jim Banks (Ind.), Byron Donalds (Fla.) and Lee Zeldin (N.Y.).

The Republican defectors then lined up behind Jordan in their second and third votes for House speaker, despite Jordan having pledged his support for McCarthy.

Other members of the Republican caucus who were less calcified in their opposition to McCarthy had conditioned their support on winning concessions, from prom-

During the meeting, she said, “we found out that there were several members – three, in fact – that went in last night and were demanding positions for themselves. Demanding gavel positions, demanding subcommittees, demanding for people to be taken off committees for people to be put on committees.”

Greene noted that she had not conditioned her support for McCarthy on winning any concessions for herself, despite having been stripped of her committee assignments in 2021. “This is about electing someone to serve in the speaker’s chair so that we can get to work,” she said.

The congresswoman added that “the conservatives who our base believes in, let me remind everyone: They’re not perfect either. Scott Perry [Pa.], before his general election, refused to vote against the gay marriage bill [the Respect for Marriage Act]…Then, when it came back around after his election, he was able to vote against it. Conservatives would not like that.”

Santos keeps on lying

Meanwhile, embattled freshman Republican Rep. George Santos (N.Y.) also cast his vote for McCarthy on Tuesday, having evaded reporters who were gathered in front of his office in the Longworth House building.

A series of news reports over the past few weeks revealed the congressman lied about nearly every part of his life, education, identity, and career, while his alleged financial malfeasance has triggered investigations by federal and local prosecutors.

In the latest installment of what has turned into a political telenovela, the New York Times reported Monday that a former 18-year-old boyfriend of Santos, who was listed as being still being married to a woman two years

“He used to say he would get money from Citigroup, he was an investor,” Vilarva recalled. “One day it’s one thing, one day it’s another thing. He never ever actually went to work,” he said.

Things began to unravel between the two men in early 2015, Vilarva said, after Santos surprised him with tickets to Hawaii that turned out not to exist. Around the same time, he said he discovered that his cell phone was missing, and believed Santos had pawned it.

The paper said that it was at this point after finding online proof that Santos had faced legal charges in Brazil for forging checks Vilarva moved out.

The Times reported that in a 2008 incident, Santos, then 19 years old, stole a checkbook and was charged with making fraudulent purchases in Brazil.

“I know I screwed up, but I want to pay,” he allegedly wrote in a message in 2009 to the store’s owner on Orkut, a Google-operated social media website that is popular in Brazil.

“It was always my intention to pay, but I messed up,” he is recorded as saying.

Santos and his mother appeared before police and admitted his responsibility in November 2010, according to The Times. The next year, a judge ordered his response to the case, but he could not be found when the court tried to subpoena him three months later.

The Times also notes he is still wanted in the Rio de Janeiro case.

On Tuesday, Santos tweeted that he’d been sworn in as a congressman by the new House Speaker, even though no Speaker was elected and no members were sworn in. His office later deleted the tweet. Santos has dodged reporters’ questions amid growing calls for his resignation.

Brody Levesque contributed to this report

Rep. KEVIN MCCARTHY didn’t have the votes as of Wednesday for the speakership. (Screenshot via C-SPAN)

Rep.-elect GEORGE SANTOS falsely claimed he’d been sworn in on Monday. (Screenshot/YouTube)

Verdi’s final masterpiece, Falstaff is more than just the composer’s successful “comic” opera, but it is also a profound meditation on humanity from an artist reflecting back on his life and career. Shakespeare’s iconic characters come to vivid life as Verdi’s sublime music reminds us that “tutto nel mondo è burla”—all the world’s a joke!

MARK DELAVAN, baritone

Falstaff

“Half-divine, halfhuman voice” (Wall Street Journal)

BRIAN MAJOR, baritone Ford “Formidable in voice and stature” (New York Classical Review)

MARY FEMINEAR, soprano Alice Ford

“Breathtaking... standout performance” (Bachtrack)

JOSEPH COLANERI, conductor

Glimmerglass Festival Music Director, “inspired baton...indelible” (Opera Today)

Ruses rule in this bawdy comedy of seduction and sly revenge... but he who laughs last laughs best!

Iconic journalist Barbara Walters dies at 93

If ever there was a gold standard for American broadcast journalists the likely two top choices would be famed CBS reporter and anchor Walter Cronkite and the groundbreaking ABC News reporter and anchor Barbara Walters.

The news came late last Friday that the latter, a legendary broadcast journalist had died peacefully surrounded by family and friends at her home in New York at age 93. Walters shattered the glass ceiling in her profession and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men. Walters is survived by her adopted daughter Jacqueline.

Without a doubt Walters likely holds a record for the shear number of interviews of the rich and famous, political leaders, as well as celebrities from every walk of life and endeavor. Walters, who won 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989.

In her 50-plus year career as a broadcast journalist she had earned nearly universal acclaim, respect, and admiration for her work.

At ABC News as the co-anchor of the network’s extremely successful award winning “20/20,” she interviewed the people who made history in the mid-20th century into the early 21st century conducting her last interview, of then-businessman and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, in 2015.

Walters began her national broadcast career on NBC’s “Today” show as a reporter, writer and panel member before being promoted to co-host in 1974. Her rising popularity with viewers resulted in Walters receiving more airtime, and in 1974, NBC executives promoted her to be the cohost of the program, the first woman ever to hold such a title on an American news program

Walters joined ABC News in 1976 after becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of “20/20,” and in 1997, she launched “The View.”

Bob Iger, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, which is the parent company of ABC News, praised Walters as someone who broke down barriers.

“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself.” Iger said in a statement Friday.

She made her final appearance as a co-host of “The View” in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.

“I do not want to appear on another program or climb

another mountain,” she said at the time. “I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.”

From American presidents to her famed interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, along the way Walters touched on the lives of a diverse and dynamic cross-section of humanity.

Her interviews included face-to-face conversations with folks like actors Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne, Patrick Swayze, and Fred Astaire. She spoke with musicians such as Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Barbra Streisand and, without missing a beat, the significant political figures of her day like Henry Kissinger, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vladimir Putin, and Fidel Castro. Her interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Monica Lewinsky shot the network’s ratings through the roof.

The New York Times reported in 1999 that Walters’ interview with Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was a key component in the impeachment trial of then President Bill Clinton, “attracted an average of 48.5 million viewers, and an estimated 70 million people watched all or part of the two-hour program, in about 33.2 million homes.”

Walters directly asked Lewinsky, “You showed the president your thong underwear. Where did you get the nerve? I mean — who does that?” she said. She also asked the 25-year-old: “Where was your self-respect, where was your self-esteem?”

The list of people in front of the camera with her on the “Barbara Walters Specials” was breathtaking. Yet the stories of everyday folks, their lives, and struggles were a staple of her work searching out stories that needed to be told.

For the LGBTQ community, Walters often told the stories that painted a picture that was critical in putting a human face on an oft times maligned community. Her ABC documentary on transgender children originally broadcast in 2007, introduced the world to trans girl Jazz Jennings, who was six years old at the time, and her hugely supportive family.

The Hollywood Reporter noted in an honest interview, Ellen DeGeneres talked to Walters about everything from her movie career to her decision to come out as a lesbian. She also opened up about her stepfather sexually abusing her and how she broke through a window one night to get away.

Walters in later years did have her share of detractors among younger journalists and writers including Alex Pareene, the former editor-in-chief of online news site Gawker and later a staff writer at The New Republic in 2019.

Pareene penned an unflattering profile of Walters on May 13, 2013, in Salon headlined “Good riddance, Barbara Walters.”

He noted: “… current co-host of ‘The View,’ is a national icon and a pioneer, and probably as responsible as any other living person for the ridiculous and sorry state of American television journalism. She has announced her retirement a year in advance, so that a series of aggrandizing specials can be produced celebrating her long and storied career. So let’s get things started off right, by reminding everyone how her entire public life has been an extended exercise in sycophancy and unalloyed power worship.”

Pareene also took aim at her relationship with “Roy Cohn, the notorious scumbag McCarthyite mob attorney.”

Writing about the relationship between the two Pareene notes: […] “she, legendarily, pretended to be seeing (romantically) Roy Cohn, the notorious scumbag McCarthyite mob attorney who was also, notoriously, a closeted gay man (who had persecuted closeted ‘deviants’ while working with McCarthy.) Cohn was one of the slimiest and most detestable characters of the entire 20th century. … Walters said she was and remained close to him because he helped her father with a legal matter when she was a girl. But this also seems to explain why they were ‘dating’ in the 1950s.”

Did Cohn have a secret ‘nice’ side? She was asked.

“I would not use the word nice,” she laughs. “He was very smart. And funny. And, at the time, seemed to know everyone in New York. He was very friendly with the cardinal, he was very friendly with the most famous columnist in New York, Walter Winchell, he had a lot of extremely powerful friends.”

BRODY LEVESQUE

11th Circuit upholds Fla. school district bathroom policy

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled, in a 7-4 vote, that a Florida school district did not violate the U.S. Constitution nor federal civil rights laws by requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex as listed on their birth records.

All seven judges in the majority were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by former President Donald Trump, while the four dissenting judges were Democratic appointees.

Because other federal appellate courts have issued previous rulings allowing a student to choose to use bathrooms based on their gender identity, an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely.

In June 2021, the high court declined to hear arguments

in the earlier appeals court ruling of a former high school student who challenged his Virginia school district’s bathroom policy.

Gavin Grimm was a sophomore at Gloucester County High School when he filed a federal lawsuit against the Gloucester County School District’s policy that prohibited students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that did not correspond with their “biological gender.”

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond in 2016 ruled in Grimm’s favor.

The Biden administration had urged the 11th Circuit to strike down the Florida school board’s policy. The White House had no immediate comment in regard to Friday’s ruling.

The suit was brought by Drew Adams, a transgender man who sued in 2017 after being barred from using the boys’ bathroom when he attended the Allen D. Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

“This is an aberrant ruling that contradicts the rulings of every other circuit to consider the question across the country,” Tara Borelli, a lawyer with Lambda Legal representing Adams, said in a statement. “We will be reviewing and evaluating this dangerous decision over the weekend.”

In the suit Reuters reported that Adams contended that the high school’s bathroom policy violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education.

BRODY LEVESQUE

BARBARA WALTERS interviewed a host of LGBTQ celebrities, including Jazz Jennings and Ellen DeGeneres. (Screenshot from YouTube/ABC News)

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at 95

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died at the age of 95 last Saturday.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said Benedict passed away at 9:34 a.m. local time (3:34 a.m. ET) at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.

Benedict was born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl Am Inn in Germany’s Bavaria state on April 16, 1927.

The Associated Press notes Benedict in his memoirs acknowledged his forced enlistment in the Hitler Youth in 1941 and his desertion from the German army just before the end of World War II.

Benedict and his brother, Georg, in 1951 were ordained as priests. He became Munich’s bishop in 1977 and then-Pope Paul VI in 1980 elevated him cardinal.

Benedict assumed the papacy on April 19, 2005, after Pope John Paul II died. Benedict on Feb. 11, 2013, became the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII stepped down from the papacy in 1415. His successor, Pope Francis II, on Wednesday said Benedict was “very ill.”

Benedict as the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith enforced the Catholic Church’s moral doctrine.

He wrote in a 1986 letter that gay men and lesbians are “intrinsically disordered.” Benedict also said in the same document that gay organizations could no longer use church property.

Benedict described marriage rights for same-sex cou-

ples as “a manipulation of nature” and categorized marriage equality efforts around the world as a threat to “human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”

Activists during Benedict’s papacy also criticized the Vatican’s opposition to condom use as a way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Benedict during his papacy faced scathing criticism over his handling of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. The Vatican’s finances also came under scrutiny.

“Benedict’s approach to gay and lesbian issues was clearly hindered by the fact that he did not understand the human dimension of love and relationship that characterizes same-gender couples and individuals,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based organization that ministers to LGBTQ and intersex Catholics, in a statement. “He relied on centuries-old, abstract philosophical and theological ideas instead of learning about more recent understandings of sexuality. Most importantly, he failed to listen to the lived experiences of real people.”

“While clearly a man of faith seeking to act with good intentions; his resistance to engaging the lives, love and

faith of actual human beings means he will be remembered as a church leader who did not listen pastorally to those the church serves,” added DeBernardo in his statement. “In contrast, Pope Francis, his successor, has called for pastoral leaders to be listeners and learners, particularly in ministry with those on the margins of church and society, such as LGBTQ+ people.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of Dignity USA, an LGBTQ and intersex Catholic organization, in her statement also acknowledged Benedict’s anti-LGBTQ legacy.

“The death of any human being is an occasion of sorrow. We pray for Pope Benedict’s soul and express our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones,” said Duddy-Burke. “However, his death also calls us to reflect honestly on his legacy. Benedict’s leadership in the church, as pope and before that as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), caused tremendous damage to LGBTQIA+ people and our loved ones. His words and writings forced our community out of Catholic churches, tore families apart, silenced our supporters and even cost lives.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

LGBTQ groups protest as new Israeli gov’t takes office

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government was sworn in last week.

After a long and exhausting coalition negotiation in which the far-right parties reportedly blackmailed Netanyahu, they managed to insert into the coalition agreements a number of clauses that pose a clear danger to the continued promotion of the rights of the LGBTQ community in Israel, and even to the institutionalization of discrimination and its legalization.

will be amended — including gender segregation. Under these conditions, segregation will not be considered prohibited discrimination.”

Even before the swearing in of the government, the designated minister Orit Struck explained that according to the new law, a doctor could refuse to give his patients treatments that contradict his religious beliefs.

MK Simcha Rotman explained that businesses could refuse to commit “religious offenses” in their area, and when asked if hotels could refuse to host a gay couple, he replied: “Yes.”

The new list of ministers includes 36 ministers, many of whom hold anti-LGBT opinions. But two appointments appear to be particularly problematic for the LGBTQ community.

considered one of the five symbols of rule, stands out.

In his ceremonial speech in the Knesset, Ohana referred to the new coalition member’s statements of the members of the new coalition:

“This Knesset is the home of all the citizens of Israel. It is the true fortress of human rights and individual freedom,” he said. “Along with things we agree on, we hear very controversial things here. Really outrageous. But this is the place to discuss the most painful and sensitive issues and make decisions. This — and no other.”

During Ohana’s first speech as Knesset speaker, there was embarrassment when the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties bowed their heads and covered their faces when Ohana acknowledged his spouse and his children who were sitting in the hall.

The new government’s first goal in Israel is to weaken the judicial system and enact the superseding clause that will allow the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court decisions with a majority of 61 Knesset members.

Another law included in the coalition agreements is the Discrimination Law, according to which “in order to correct the distortion in the status quo that was recently made, the Law Prohibiting Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry to Entertainment Places and Public Places will be amended, so that the possibility of holding cultural events or studies for religious and ultra-Orthodox people, while taking into account their religious beliefs and needs,

The first is the appointment of Itamar Ben Gvir as National Security Minister, whose approval includes changes to the Police Order Law, also known as the “Ben Gvir law” in the framework of which additional powers were transferred to the Internal Security Minister and the labeling of police policy, which includes, among other things, the definition of priorities, work plans and powers in matters of the budget. This structural change in the police command gives Gvir the authority and the possibility to act harshly against future protests and even prevent them.

The second appointment is that of Amichai Shikli as Social Equality Minister.

Shikli, an MK from the Likud party, is among those responsible for the overthrow of the previous government of Naftali Bennett, spoke out against the LGBTQ community many times, and is currently in charge of the Social Equality Ministry under which the LGBTQ activity in the local authorities was budgeted, which is now in danger.

Amid all the homophobia, the appointment of MK Amir Ohana of the Likud who was elected Knesset speaker, and became the first LGBT MK to hold this position, which is

“Alon is with me … [he is] my anchor, the wise and good, and our beloved children Ella and David,” said Ohana. “This Knesset, led by this speaker, will not harm them or any child or family — P-E-R-I-O-D. And if there is a boy or girl watching me here today, know that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, you can get anywhere you want.”

The LGBTQ community marked the government’s inauguration with demonstrations and protests, along with dozens of civil society organizations.

Hundreds of “Love Will Win” signs in the colors of Pride were hung in dozens of local authorities across the country in the morning by the Aguda’s “local Pride” activists. Members of the community from north to south came out in the middle of the night and hung the signs in their homes in Ariel, Ashkelon, Beer Sheva, Gedera, Givat Shmuel, Petah Tikva, Haifa, Netanya, Pardes Hana Karkur, Jordan Valley, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Rehovot and Or Yehuda. LGBTQ organizations also held a demonstration in front of the Government Tower in Tel Aviv.

(By WDG, the Blade’s media partner in Israel)

Pope Emeritus BENEDICT XVI (Photo by hixnhix via Bigstock)

Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU (Photo by shganti777/Bigstock)

PETER ROSENSTEIN

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

Let’s fulfill all our hopes and dreams in 2023

Working for peace in Ukraine and sanity in the GOP

The first thing I hope for as 2023 begins is good health for myself and all my friends and their families. For me, that includes being able to remember where my keys, my wallet, and phone are, LOL. Recently someone shared a meme that showed instead of the welcome mat in front of your door facing outward; the mat faces inward so as you walk out your door you see written there — phone, keys, wallet, gas off, etc.

There is much I want to accomplish in 2023 and to see others accomplish. Some of the things on my want list I can do something about, others I can only pray for. The first in the pray for category is an end to the war in Ukraine. To see President Zelensky preside over an independent and at peace Ukraine with its courageous people given the chance to rebuild their lives and country. It will give me great pleasure to see Vladimir Putin defeated. Then to see the girls and women of Afghanistan again have the right to go to school, work, and live out their dreams to the fullest. To accomplish those things, those who control American foreign policy will need to stay strong, doing everything they can to make them happen. Then justice would be served if the recent embarrassment to the gay community, congressman-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.), ends up in prison. Depending on where he got the money for his campaign that could easily happen. Sadly, he fits the mold of the current Republican Party. In the “just dreaming” category, I hope the Republican Party finally dumps Trump and that it again becomes a party whose ideas and policies I may disagree with, but a party that nominates people who are at least honest, decent, and will defend our democracy. My opposing them at the ballot box won’t change, but it would be nice to again be able to sit with them and respectfully try to convince them why they are wrong.

Then there are things that I will try to impact with my writing, speaking out, and activism, including trying to influence who Democrats put up for office in 2024. Urging everyone to join me in speaking out against the disgusting, frightening rise of anti-Semitism and the rise in hate crimes committed against all minority communities. We must all continue to fight the scourge of guns. If we are to have any impact on any of these issues, we must join together to make our voices heard. We must use our individual financial ability to support candidates we believe in and donate to charities that support issues we care about. For me, those will include feeding and housing the homeless, and fighting hate. If we all do that, support the issues we care about, we will make a difference in the world. This is not a list of New Year’s resolutions. Those tend to be forgotten by the end of January. Rather, these are commitments I hope will be part of my life for the entire year and goals I hope to internalize to guide my life.

None of these commitments will stop me from living life to the fullest. My hope is in 2023, COVID begins to finally fade and we can enjoy our friends and families without fear. For me, life will include continuing to write and travel. One important commitment to myself is to get the memoir I have been working on published before the end of the year. I am already booked on a transatlantic cruise on the Celebrity Beyond out of Rome, on Oct. 30. I will be supporting the theater, including continuing to write theater reviews, which will be posted online in the Georgetown Dish. Everyone should support theater as it is part of the culture our society will be remembered for.

I look forward to hearing what my friends will be committing to in 2023, what their goals are and how they hope to accomplish them. While some may overuse or misuse social media, for me it is a great way to keep up with friends and acquaintances around the world.

So together let’s make 2023 an exciting year and successfully fulfill each of our hopes and dreams.

SHANNON MINTER

is legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the nation’s leading advocacy organizations for LGBTQ people.

abuse of government power

Even in a year of unprecedented attacks on transgender kids and their families, the news that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pressured state agencies to create a list of transgender people marks a dangerous new low.

According to the Washington Post, late last year Paxton ordered the Texas Department of Department of Public Safety to provide him with a list of everyone who had corrected the gender identifier on their Texas driver’s license within the past two years.

Just days later, the state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered Texas’ child protection agency to investigate parents of transgender children for alleged child abuse simply for providing their children with medical care.

Throughout our nation’s history, corrupt officials have abused their power to create or expose “lists” of disfavored groups. Recent examples include President Trump’s order directing immigration authorities to arrest undocumented women seeking protection from domestic violence in family courts, as well as allegations that the IRS may have targeted Trump’s political enemies for invasive audits that turned their lives upside down.

Historically, Alabama courts sought to destroy the NAACP by forcing the group to disclose its membership records—a practice the Supreme Court ultimately held to be unconstitutional.

When elected officials exploit access to private records for political ends, they betray the public’s trust and corrode our system of law. In this case, the negative fallout from Paxton’s misconduct is profound.

It punishes transgender individuals for exercising their legal right to obtain accurate government ID, just as other Texans are permitted to do. Texas law permits transgender people to correct their ID to match their gender, and doing so is essential to attend school, obtain a job, and engage in many other activities of daily life.

Paxton’s order directed state officials to treat transgender residents like lawbreakers stripping them of their rights to privacy, dignity, and equal treatment under the law. That is the behavior of a despot, not a democratically elected official.

In addition to harming transgender people, the exposure of Paxton’s order sends a message to all Texans. No one is safe. Any group can be targeted at the whim of an elected official. Any group can find its rights violated with no process or notice.

These messages silence dissent and make a mockery of our democracy. In such an environment, members of a targeted group understandably tend to suffer in silence rather than risk further reprisals. And those who support them are often afraid to speak up for fear they may be next.

Equally destructive, this type of abuse corrodes the public’s trust not only in state government, but in one another. It puts civil servants into a dreadful double bind. On the one hand, state workers often know what they’re being asked to do is wrong and even unlawful. On the other, they are being ordered to do it by the chief law enforcement officer of the entire state, and failure to comply is likely to lead to adverse consequences, possibly even including the loss of one’s job.

This is how democracies become authoritarian states in which ordinary citizens find themselves colluding in the persecution of their fellow citizens—of friends, neighbors, and even family members. Thankfully, thus far in Texas, most state employees have behaved with remarkable courage, either quietly refusing to comply with unlawful orders or, in some instances, leaving their jobs rather than harming innocent families.

As a Native Texan and a transgender man who loves my home state, I am sickened by Paxton’s betrayal of the spirit and values of Texas.

Nothing is more fundamental to being a Texan than having the freedom to be yourself and to be left alone by overreaching government. The corrupt officials who are behind this abuse are small-minded, misguided, and cruel. They are abusing the levers of power to make people afraid.

Paxton’s list is an abhorrent invasion of privacy and an attack on the dignity of an entire group of Texans. It is also a wake-up call for anyone who cares about the future of democracy in this country.

Paxton’s trans ‘list’ a chilling

An abhorrent invasion of privacy and attack on our dignity

Bloomsbury’

explores

queer family of choice in 1920s England

Meet the generation ‘That Redefined Love, Freedom, and Self-Expression’

By KATHI WOLFE

Safe spaces. Gender bending. Families of choice. Gender fluidity. Young queers being seen by their elders (hetero and queer). Throuples. Banned books. Conversion therapy.

At a party, a couple, two beautiful bisexual women, sing the latest show tunes and dance. One of them, wearing a purple dress, plays her saxophone.

We see you, Gen Z!

But you weren’t the first to embrace queerness in all its fab permutations.

A century ago in London at a time when being queer was illegal, a group of queer, gender-bending writers and artists — young members of the Bloomsbury group – broke through sexual and gender boundaries and formed families of choice.

In 1923, Henrietta Bingham and Mina Kirstein were the bisexual couple that danced and sang show tunes at the party. Bingham in her purple dress played the sax, author Nino Strachey writes in her illuminating, entertaining new book “Young Bloomsbury: The Generation That Redefined Love, Freedom, and Self-Expression in 1920s England.”

If you’ve had a queer friend rave about the gender-bending in “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf, or if you’ve seen the movie “Maurice” (of the novel with the same name), you’ve heard of the Bloomsbury group.

For Nino Strachey, the Bloomsbury group is up close and personal.

For starters, Nino Strachey is a descendent of Lytton Strachey, the queer, razor-sharp writer and founding member of the Bloomsbury group. She is the last member of the Strachey family to have grown up at Sutton Court in Somerset (U.K.), home of the Strachey family for more than 300 years.

Recently, Nino Strachey talked with the Blade about why she wrote “Young Bloomsbury,” the parallels between Young Bloomsbury in the 1920s and Gen Z today and the reaction to her book.

The formation of the Bloomsbury group began after Virginia and Vanessa Stephen’s father died in 1904. Virginia Stephens became Virginia Woolf after her marriage to Leonard Woolf. Vanessa Stephens became Vanessa Bell after her marriage to Clive Bell.

The Stephen sisters “escaped” to 46 Gordon Square in London, Strachey writes in “Young Bloomsbury.”

There, they could have a “life free from adult interference,” Strachey writes.

The Stephen sisters got to know their brothers’ — Thoby and Adrian — Cambridge University friends. These friends included John Maynard Keynes (who would become an acclaimed economist), Lytton Strachey, who would transform the art of biography, Duncan Grant who would revolutionize the art world and E.M. Forster, who would write “Maurice,” a novel with a queer love story that wouldn’t be published until after his death in 1970.

These queer artists and writers found “new ways to connect,” Strachey writes, “a commitment to honest communication between the sexes, to freedom in creativity, to openness in all sexual matters.”

The group was beginning to have critical support at the

onset of World War I. Though the group’s (which Strachey calls “Old Bloomsbury”) activities broke down during the war, the cohort’s work took off after the war.

By the 1920s, the Old Bloomsbury artists and writers, then nearly in their 40s, had become successful. Virginia Woolf was photographed in Vogue. Lytton Strachey’s biography “Eminent Victorians,” a satirical takedown of Florence Nightingale and other renowned Victorians, was the talk of the town. Duncan Grant’s paintings were popular.

A group of queer young writers and artists, who Nino Strachey calls Young Bloomsbury, became lovers, friends, and creative collaborators with members of Old Bloomsbury.

Called the “Bright Young Things” at the time by the press and notables such as novelist Evelyn Waugh, members of Young Bloomsbury included: Julia Strachey, niece of Lytton Strachey and author of the novel “Cheerful Weather for the Wedding”; journalist and literary critic Raymond Mortimer; music critic and novelist Eddy Sackville-West; journalist and socialist politician John Strachey; sculptor Stephen “Tommy” Tomlin and artist and illustrator Stephen Tennant.

Members of Bloomsbury who were younger than Old Bloomsbury and older than the group’s younger members included the painter and decorative artist Dora Carrington; and the bookseller, publisher and writer David “Bunny” Garnett.

Nino Strachey didn’t write “Young Bloomsbury” as an academic project. Her reasons for writing the book were personal.

“I wrote [Young Bloomsbury],” Strachey said, “because my child identifies as gender fluid and queer.”

“It’s been a delight,” she added, “Something for us to do together.”

It’s been lovely for Nino Strachey to look at the queer history of the Strachey family and their friends and lovers, and to find queer role models going back to the 19th century.

Strachey became interested in writing “Young Bloomsbury” a few years ago. “I was working for the National Trust,” Strachey said, “I was researching the house called Knole – the home of Vita Sackville-West [poet, novelist, gardener and a lover of Virginia Woolf] and her cousin Eddy Sackville-West.”

In the midst of this research, one of Nino Strachey’s colleagues told her that she’d found some boxes of Strachey family papers.

Until then, Nino Strachey hadn’t known that, in the 1920s, her cousin John Strachey had lived with Eddy Sackville-West in London. From their letters, “I learned that they were incredibly open about their gender identity and sexuality,” Strachey said. “I wouldn’t have expected that 100 years ago! I don’t think anybody had looked into the boxes since the 1920s.”

“I thought: this is something I must write about,” Strachey said.

In the past, people have concentrated so much on who had sex with whom in Bloomsbury, that they’ve forgotten how important friendships were to the group, Strachey said. “They would be lovers with each other. Have quarrels,” she said, “but they cared for each other. They formed life-long friendships.”

They didn’t have the words for it a century ago but Bloomsbury became a family of choice.

At a time when a man could be arrested for carrying a powder puff in public or a queer person subjected to conversion therapy, Bloomsbury became a safe space for young queer people.

“Older Bloomsbury members took on a parental role for queer young artists and writers,” Strachey said. “They nurtured not only their careers but their personal life choices at a time when many of their parents weren’t supportive.”

Young Bloomsbury members would be pressured to un-

dergo conversion therapy, Strachey said. “It was legal then. It was horrible,” she said, “involving painful injections.”

Conversion therapy wasn’t the only way in which queerness was repressed. Then as now, books with queer stories were banned.

Bloomsbury rallied around when lesbian writer Radclyffe Hall’s novel “The Well of Loneliness” was prosecuted for obscenity. Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster wrote letters of support for Hall. The book’s publication was blocked because it was judged to be obscene. (It was published in the U.K. in 1959.)

“You might have thought that ‘Orlando’ [the gender-bending novel by Virginia Woolf] would have been prosecuted for being obscene,” Strachey said, “but luckily that didn’t happen because it’s couched in this wonderful, historical, fanciful language.”

Strachey loved learning about how both Vita Sackville-West (with her masculine presentation) and Eddy Sackville-West (with his makeup and eye shadow) inspired Woolf’s writing of “Orlando.” “Virginia put these people into a single character who survives for 400 years,” Strachey said.

“Orlando,” which remains a “contemporary” classic novel, is having a moment today, Strachey said. “It’s on stage in London. For the first time, with a nonbinary actor playing the lead,” she added, “It’s getting rave reviews!”

People have misperceptions about Virginia Woolf, Strachey said. “Some interpretations see her, perhaps, as being quite harsh and judgmental,” Strachey said.

Yet, Woolf could be “absolutely supportive” and quite funny, Strachey said. “She and Lytton were really naughty,” she said, “they loved to tease people!”

“There’s a series of photographs where they’re together and smiling, and you can see how they’re riffing off each other,” Strachey said.

Virginia Woolf and other members of Bloomsbury listened to the romantic troubles of younger Bloomsbury members when their families wouldn’t. “Eddy Sackville-West read his diaries to Virginia Woolf,” Strachey said, “He talked to her about his love life.”

Old and Young Bloomsbury members loved Noel Coward and musicals. Younger members of Bloomsbury clued older members in on new technologies from radio broadcasting to flying lessons to movies to gossip columns. Young Bloomsbury “was tuned into the world of the stage – to film actresses like Mary Pickford,” Strachey said.

Strachey has been heartened by the feedback “Young Bloomsbury” has received. Not just from journalists and reviewers, but from people at festivals. “The warmest moments have been when people come up to me,” Strachey said, “to talk about chosen families and queer role models.”

“Cis, hetero couples ask: How can we support trans young people,” she added.

This is important to Strachey. We think society is so inclusive, but it’s not, she said.

“The statistics for LGBTQ+ youth regarding self-harm, bullying, prejudice remain really high,” Strachey said.

Anything one can do to raise support and awareness is a good thing, she added.

NINO STRACHEY

‘Young

CALENDAR |

Friday, January 06

Center Aging: Friday Tea Time will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ adults. Guests can bring their beverage of choice. For more information, email adamheller@thedccenter.org.

GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Social” at 7 p.m. at The Commentary. This event is ideal for making new friends, professional networking, idea sharing and community building. For more details, visit Eventbrite.

Saturday, January 07

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

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 the strives to be safe and judgment free. For more details, visit thedccenter.org/poc or facebook.com/centerpoc.

Sunday, January 08

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.

GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Dinner + Conversation” at 5 p.m. at Teaism Penn Quarter. This event is ideal for making new friends, conversation and community building. Guests are to order dinner or tea on their own. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Monday, January 09

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 in-

By TINASHE CHINGARANDE

formation, visit the Center Aging’s Facebook or Twitter.  Not Another Drag Show will be at 8 p.m. at Dupont Italian Kitchen. This event will be hosted by Logan Stone and will feature a rotating cast of local DMV performers. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Tuesday, January 10

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 details, 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/expression to join together in community and learn from one another.  For more information, email supportdesk@thedccenter. org.

Wednesday, January 11

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 monthly event is about all things nerdy and LGBTQ. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Thursday, January 12

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. 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. Tickets cost $5 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

OUT & ABOUT

D.C. arts club to start the year with poetry residencies

For the next six months, the Arts Club of Washington will sponsor five free poetry workshops beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 17. The workshops will be led by five talented and diverse LGBTQ writers-in-residence.

The first class will be on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Arts Club. Poet Kim Roberts will lead “They Walk on the Sea: Personification and Gender.” In this workshop, participants will look at some of the complex ways that gender operates as they create a voice for an inanimate object or abstract concept.

Residents will teach classes that allow the public to focus on an aspect of poetic inspiration. Classes will also allow participants to read and discuss selected poems, then write the draft of a poem in response. No prior poetry writing experience is required

There is no cost to participate, but advance registration is required. For more information, visit the Arts Club’s website.

Maryland Lyric Opera opens 2023 with Verdi

The Maryland Lyric Opera will host its third engagement of the 2022-2023 season with a performance of “Falstaff” by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi on Friday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore.

The opera is a profound meditation on humanity from Verdi reflecting on his life and career.

The performance will be sung in Italian, with projected English supertitles. Running time is 2 hours 20 minutes, with one 20-minute intermission.

Tickets are $60 and $10 with a student ID. For more information, visit the Lyric Opera’s website.

Baritone BRIAN MAJOR portrays Ford in ‘Falstaff.’ (Photo courtesy Maryland Lyric Opera)

‘Safe Word’ explores Dom-sub relationship

An emotionally stunted masochist confronts self-loathing

By PATRICK FOLLIARD

In “Safe Word,” out Venezuelan-American actor Mauricio Pita plays Cesar, an emotionally stunted masochist who’s forced to confront his self-loathing after his Dom, Bear (Jonathan Adriel), reinterprets the rules of their game.

“For the film’s characters, it’s about taking it to the next level,” says Pita, 37. “The experience has been very personal because a lot of the characters’ stories are also my own. Consequently, I put myself in a very vulnerable position. Still, I felt I had no choice but to tell this story.”

A short but visually and emotionally compelling work, “Safe Word” is produced by Tepui Media (a name inspired by the flat-top mountains in the Guiana Highlands of South America). Prior to the pandemic, Pita, who serves as the company’s executive director, was mostly involved in theater, but increasingly, film has become his medium of choice.

Pita also works at Arena Stage where he manages and collaborates with the director of education in executing the artistic vision of Arena’s devised theater program, Voices of Now (VON), which produces 10 original works each season. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mauricio managed VON’s transition from a theater festival to a feature film.

Filmed over about a week last summer in a rented D.C. apartment, “Safe Word” wasn’t easy for Pita who as producer, filmmaker, in addition to actor, likened the experience to exposing himself through layers. He says, “Awards and money would be great, but my measure of success was getting the film made, getting to the finish line.”

After debuting “Safe Word” at GALA Hispanic Theatre in November, the goal has been to get the film seen. It’s currently slated to screen at the upcoming Ocean City Film Festival and Washington International Cinema Festival at Miracle Theatre; they’re also focusing on LGBTQ festivals.

WASHINGTON BLADE : What was your inspiration for the piece?

MAURICIO PITA : My own inner voices. I’d share journal entries with Eva von Schweinitz, our storywriter, and she divided my experience into two characters. I really had no choice but to share my feelings. I felt compelled. I no longer wanted to feel scared.

BLADE : Was there a process?

PITA : It was a collaboration. I wrote up the idea that I wanted to make a film about my inner voices and self-conflict. I handed over journal entrees and she interviewed me. It was like therapy sessions.

Eva then presented me with story options including superhero/ romantic comedy/ and a bondage story, the one I thought was most dangerous and scariest to do. If we failed it would certainly be the most embarrassing.

BLADE : Can you talk about your inner dialogue?

PITA : Sure, it’s about me not being loveable. Me being queer made me think I wouldn’t be loved. Growing up I was scared of being gay, I saw being gay as a death sentence. Those feelings don’t just go away because you come out.

BLADE : Does it get better?

PITA : I’m 37, more open, but it’s not automatically fixed. Over many years of therapy new positive voices were introduced but even so those negative voices aren’t entirely wiped out. They argue in my head and that’s something I wanted to investigate.

“Safe Word” asks how comfortable are we at choosing our own pain? And what could hold us back from connecting to ourselves and to one another? In the film, they arrive at a paradigm-shifting result neither one of them expects.

BLADE : How did you select Jonathan to co-star? “Safe Word” is a very intimate piece.

PITA : By the third or fourth draft we were looking at casting. And though I didn’t know him that well, I immediately thought of him.

His body is insane, muscularly imposing. Yet there’s a softness that I was intrigued by. I suggested him to our director, Christopher Cunetto. We scheduled a screen test, basically looking for chemistry. Jonathan was phenomenal. He took it very seriously; he came prepared and ready. I had a really good time working with him.

BLADE : Are you into bondage offscreen?

PITA : Well, of course, I am. I like role playing. I’ve been ashamed about stuff like that my whole life. But fuck it. Why not? I’ve learned that you have power in those situations even when you’re the sub. After all, my character Cesar has the safe word. He can stop everything. That’s a lot of power.

MAURICIO PITA stars in ‘Safe Word.’ (Photo by Lauren Emerson)

Jeremy Pope earns respect in ‘Don’t Ask’ drama

By JOHN PAUL KING

With the now-rehabilitated Golden Globe Awards set to broadcast their presentation ceremony on Jan. 10, queer movie enthusiasts are probably aware that the nominees, as noted by most of the LGBTQ media when they were announced less than a month ago, are disappointingly light on nominations for out queer talent.

One notable exception, however, is Jeremy Pope, whose nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama makes him one of the community’s best hopes for recognition – not just on Tuesday night, but during the rest of the awards parade toward the Oscars, for which the Globes are traditionally considered a bellwether. Yet in the skewed post-pandemic landscape of the film industry, where it’s harder than ever for movies without a superhero to capture widespread public attention, even devout film buffs may not be familiar with Pope; they’re even less likely, perhaps, to be familiar with the film for which he is nominated – “The Inspection,” written and directed by Elegance Bratton –even though it was released over a month and a half ago. That’s a shame, but thanks to Pope’s well-deserved nomination, this truelife-inspired indie drama has been given its own boost into the spotlight.

A deeply felt roman à clef, it follows the efforts of a young gay Black man (Pope), struggling to survive on his own since being rejected by his single mother (Gabrielle Union) as a teen, who enlists in the Marines to escape from his hard life in the streets. Despite intense bullying, he manages to endure the rigors of boot camp, even finding fellowship with some of his peers and an unexpected connection with one of his superiors (Raúl Castillo) along the way. His hard work and strong resolve, however, may not be enough to overcome the opposition he faces as a gay man within a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era military hierarchy that doesn’t want him to succeed – nor is it likely to return him to the good graces of his mother, whose love and acceptance he still hopes to reclaim.

It’s not the first time Bratton – who, like the lead character in his movie, was thrown out by a homophobic mother and weathered homelessness before joining the military – has garnered acclaim by exploring themes that echoed his own past; his 2019 documentary “Pier Kids,” which profiled the lives of Black, queer and trans homeless youth on New York City’s Christopher Street Pier, was a standout favorite at LGBTQ film festivals throughout the circuit and scored a nomination for Outstanding Documentary from the GLAAD Media Awards.

With “The Inspection,” he gets even more personal. Though many of the events portrayed in this fictionalized autobiography are based on circumstances to which he was only a witness, and not a participant, it’s easy to sense his lived experience in the movie’s challenging blend of finely observed detail and conflicted morality; though we’ve seen scores of films about boot camp, few of them feel as real as this one. It captures the dehumanizing ordeal of basic training with an uneasy mix of dread and reverence that smacks of first-person familiarity, and it avoids shallow cliché by infusing its inevitable tropes with authenticity.

What goes even further toward making his movie resonate with audiences is the heartbreaking sincerity with which he illuminates its core relationship, the fractured bond between mother and son that fuels his protagonist’s determination perhaps more than his

urge to build a better future. It’s here that Pope shines the brightest, though his charismatic blend of strength, vulnerability, and total investment in the character are evident throughout the film. Paired with Union (herself giving an award-worthy supporting turn), he joins her in a delicately shaded emotional dance that captures the sad hopelessness of trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. Though their scenes together take up a comparatively small amount of screen time, their fraught interactions haunt us throughout the film and beyond, evoking a longing within us for to see them bridge their divide – and illuminating the heartbreak of the countless families splintered due to homophobia within the Black community.

It’s this keenly felt understanding of emotional impact that keeps “The Inspection” from falling into the easy sentiment that often turns well-intentioned social issue films into melodramas. By balancing a frank disdain for anti-queer bigotry with unshakable respect and empathy for its problematic maternal figure, Bratton’s film puts faces and names on an oft-quoted statistic to make it into something we can feel as a painfully human reality, but never resorts to a “victims and villains” dynamic.

The filmmaker bestows similar largesse on his filmic alter-ego’s other oppressors – even the openly hostile drill sergeant (Bokeem Woodbine) determined to sabotage his progress – in his effort to personalize the complex issues he raises. In its microcosmic depiction of military training, the experiences of a diverse handful of recruits – from a long-distance phone argument with a loved one at home, to hazing and humiliation at the hands of their peers, to an unexpected tender moment furtively exchanged in private – all ring a powerful bell of recognition that encourages us to see the human even in those whose choices and behavior seem monstrous to us. That might be a step too far for viewers with little patience for toxic masculinity or bigotry; faced with Bratton’s depiction of the prison-like environment of the camp and the hierarchy of intimidation that fuels its systematic dehumanization process, they might also have a hard time getting on board when “The Inspection” ultimately transcends the brutality of these circumstances to embrace and reinforce them as a pathway to “manhood.” His protagonist clings steadfastly to his queer identity with the same determination he applies to his training, and his rite of passage becomes as much about becoming a proud gay man as it does becoming a soldier; he wins the respect of even his most homophobic peers by proving masculinity doesn’t have to be toxic. That might feel like an inspiring message to many of us, but for those with their own painful memories of struggling to hide their sexuality during DADT military service, it might feel a bit like an apologist’s argument.

Bratton, however, is a skilled and compassionate storyteller, with a clear vision to acknowledge and honor the trauma of the experience he shows us while amplifying the transformation that comes through it. He wisely employs Pope’s superb performance to provide his movie’s essential core; without a single false note, the actor wins our hearts and inspires us, investing us in the film no matter what qualms we may have about the military’s complicated history with LGBTQ inclusion. He’s the most compelling reason to see “The Inspection,” and more than enough to ensure the most resistant viewers will be drawn in by it — even if they remain unconvinced by its perspective.

‘The Inspection’

Rite of passage is as much about becoming a proud gay man as becoming a soldier

JEREMY POPE and RAÚL CASTILLO in ‘The Inspection.’

New

book

‘Mad

Honey’

packed

full

of surprises

Teen relationships, family secrets explode in story you will savor

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

You’ve never been one to follow all the buzz. Gossip is not very reliable anyhow, and you have better things to do than celebrity watch. This star does that, and that star’s embroiled in scandal, nobody has any privacy anymore. Nah, that ho-hum has never been your thing. As in the new novel “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, the hive is rarely right.

If you move slow enough and don’t make any sudden moves, honeybees are generally peaceful creatures. Olivia McAfee knows this, and that’s why she often visits her hives without a protective suit: she’s relatively sure she won’t get stung.

That’s not the case when it comes to her son, Asher. A senior in high school, her 18 year old can be prickly sometimes, and sometimes, stings are part of parenting a teenager. This, Liv knows, is one of those times: Asher’s in love, and it’s not going well.

Nineteen-year-old Lily Campanello arrived in town with her mother at the end of the summer and she and Asher have had a stormy relationship since they started going out. Liv hates to see Asher so upset, but she knows that love is complicated. She loved Asher’s father, despite that she spent too much time hiding the bruises she got from him.

Asher knew he’d messed up.

When he found Lily’s father, a man she hadn’t seen in years, he’d meant to surprise her but the surprise was on Asher: Lily was angry and she wouldn’t exactly say why. She just walked, almost ran, away and she wouldn’t

talk about it. She wouldn’t even answer Asher’s texts and now he was getting angry. Should he worry about her, or just go to her house?

He chose the latter.

It was the middle of the night when the police came for him. They handcuffed Asher before they gave him his shoes, and hauled him away without a coat on a freezing night.

Olivia McAfee knows that mad honey is the result of bad foraging. It should be sweet, but it’s deadly. By the time you realize that, there’s no going back.

You know how your mind tries to figure out the ending of a book long before you’re even a third of the way there? Curiously, that doesn’t happen with “Mad Honey.” The story is too enjoyable not to savor and besides, you know what’s going to happen anyway, right?

Or not.

Nope, authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan sneak a two-fer surprise inside this book: the first one explodes with the force of a beehive full of nitroglycerin. The second is that you’ll still be left feeling smug enough to think you know how this culminates. Or not, but still: more distractions, more mini-explosions unspool with the right frequency to keep you happily eager to see how wrong you were.

This is one of those novels that’s done before you’re ready for it, leaving you slack-jawed when you close the back cover. “Mad Honey” is pretty sweet. Read it, and you’ll bee very happy.

‘Mad Honey’

By Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan c.2022, Ballantine Books | $29.99 | 464 pages

Discrimination based on gender identity and expression is illegal in the District of Columbia. If you think you’ve been the target of discrimination, visit www.ohr.dc.gov or call (202) 727-4559.

I’m a transgender woman and I’m part of

Patrons of Red Bear Brewing Co., Kiki, Pitchers, A League of Her Own and JR.’s celebrated New Year’s Eve on Saturday, Dec. 31 with drinks, drag and dancing.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

Balanced hormones are essential to health and well-being, as imbalances can lead to problems. The good news is that proper treatment can correct them. Millennium Wellness is proud to set the standard for bio-identical hormone replacement in Chevy Chase, Rockville, Silver Spring, MD & Washington, DC area, for both men and women. Our professionals can help get you started on therapy designed to deal with the discomforts that hormone deficiencies or imbalances cause. These can include:

Forget the headlines, here’s what’s really happening in the housing market

Building your portfolio of wealth is never a bad decision

By JOSEPH HUDSON

Last week I assisted an agent with his client’s final walk through and then accompanied him to settlement. The agent was stuck in all the airport madness that got many people stranded over the holidays. I got a chance to look at the numbers on his client’s purchase of a 1BR/1BA new construction condo in the Shaw neighborhood. The purchase price was around $440,000. He used the HPAP program that is offered in D.C. and got around $80,000 of down payment assistance. He put up $20,000 for his down payment. So the total down payment was around $100,000, and the loan was for around $340,000. Because it was new construction, he had given the builder a punch list of items to fix or repair, and they did everything on the list. He is not paying any PMI (private mortgage insurance), has a newly constructed unit in a great neighborhood, and all in his monthly payment was around $2,400.

That does not sound as dramatic as the headlines are making the current housing market out to be. Some agents I know are advising their buyer clients that this current market is a gift. People are mostly getting to have some closing costs covered, or a lower sales price, and they are getting to do inspections and get credits or concessions.

As you have heard many people say before, the rent you pay never comes back to you. Investing in a house or a condo means you are building wealth and gaining equity. After every recession or downturn in the economy over the last several decades, the housing prices in D.C. have always gone up. Many people who are purchasing right now will probably refinance the rates they currently have in the next few years, as the market changes and evolves.

Things are not as dire or dramatic as the headlines are making the current housing market out to be.

People will buy and sell when it is the right time for them, but if you are curious about purchasing right now, there is much less competition in most of the local markets and starting to build your own portfolio of wealth is never a bad decision.

JOSEPH HUDSON

is a Realtor with The Rutstein Group of Compass. Reach him at joseph@dcrealestate.com or 703-587-0597.

MASSAGE

ROSSLYN - RELAX & RECHARGE YOURSELF.

Massage in private studio located near Rosslyn, Fri-Mon, 12-8. www.mymassagebygary.com or text 301-704-1158.

Hope to see you soon!

BULLETIN BOARD

ACADEMY OF HOPE

Adult Public Charter School

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Real Estate Contractor

The Academy of Hope Adult Public Charter School located in Washington, DC requests proposals for Real Estate Contractor. Proposals are due January 6th, 2023. You can find the detailed request for proposal and submission information at https://aohdc.org/jobs/

5’ X 5’ BARBRA CANVAS

Email for Pic, looks art deco like latest album. Any offer considered, want a BABS fan to have it. Other Barbra items to a good home! george@boycegroup.com

CLEANING

FERNANDO’S CLEANING

Residential & Commercial Cleaning, Reasonable Rates, Free Estimates, Routine, 1-Time, Move-In/Move-Out 202-234-7050 / 202-486-6183

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

DIVERSITY HIRING FAIR

held in person, on Saturday, February 4, 2023 at The Potomac School-

For more information and to register, please visit: potomacschool.org/dhf

HOME ASSISTANT

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

LEGAL SERVICES ADOPTION, DONOR, SURROGACY

legal services. Jennifer represents LGBTQ clients in DC, MD & VA interested in adoption or ART matters.  240-863- 2441,  JFairfax@Jenniferfairfax.com.

LIMOUSINES

KASPER’S LIVERY SERVICE

Since 1987.

Gay & Veteran Owner/Operator. Lincoln Continental Sedan! Proper DC License & Livery Insured. www.KasperLivery.com. 202-554-2471

MOVERS

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Let Our Movers Do The Heavy Lifting. Mention the Blade for 5% OFF of our regular rates. Call today 202.734.3080