OUT & ABOUT CALENDAR

By TINASHE CHINGARANDE

Friday, April 07

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

GoGay DC will host “LGBTGQ+ Social” at 7 p.m. at The Commentary. This event is ideal for making new friends, professional networking, idea sharing, and community building or to just unwind and enjoy the extended happy hour. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Saturday, April 08

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.

Universal Pride Meeting will be at 1 p.m. on Zoom. This group seeks to support, educate, empower, and create change for people with disabilities. For more details, email andyarias09@gmail.com.

Sunday, April 09

GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Coffee & Conversation” at 12 p.m. at As You Are. This event is for those looking to meet new faces in the LGBTQ community. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

“Brewed Up Drag Brunch” will be at 11 a.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. The theme is “Miley vs. Dua Lipa.” This event will be hosted by Desiree Dik and will feature performances by Citrine, Hennessey, Athens Maraj Dupree and Krystalicious. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

Monday, April 10

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. This event, hosted by Logan Stone, will feature a rotating cast of local DMV performers. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Tuesday, April

11

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

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

Wednesday, April 12

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.

Foxxy Moron Comedy Hour open Mic will be at 7 p.m. at Aunt Helen’s. This “awfully good” night of laughs will be hosted by Andy Waterworth and Bailey Vogt. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Thursday, April 13

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce 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.

LGBTQ poet to perform works in ASL

Raymond Luczak, a deaf gay poet and writer with more than 30 titles published, will perform his work in American Sign Language at an event on Wednesday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at The Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library.

Luczak will discuss his latest books, “Widower, 48, Seeks Husband,” “A Quiet Foghorn: More Notes From a Deaf Gay Life,” and “Men With Their Hands.” The event will be ASL and voice-interpreted. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

DC Center to host spring fundraiser

The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host the “Spring Cocktail Celebration Fundraiser” on Thursday, April 13 at 6 p.m. at Dupont Italian Kitchen.

This event will be a night to remember in the Dupont Underground gallery, where guests will experience the magic of drag with performances by Drag King Ricky Rosé, who was recently crowned Mr. Trans Puerto Rico 2023, and local DC legend, Drag Queen KC B. Yoncé! DJ Jake Maxwell will also be spinning the beats.

The event will raise funds to support The DC Center’s upcoming relocation and new space renovation. The new center will be larger than the current space and advance an increase in community and service outreach.

Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased at the Center’s website.

By

Drag is all over the news these days, and rightly so. After all, drag queens and kings are currently standing alongside their trans siblings on the front lines of the latest raging battle against the queer community by extremist bigots bent on legislating us all out of existence.

What’s particularly chilling about the current focus on drag culture as a nexus for all that – according to the haters – is “evil” about the queer community is that, in the last decades, it has experienced a surge in popularity that extends deep into the mainstream. This, of course, is why it’s being targeted now; with LGBTQ acceptance already the norm for a rising generation of Americans, the anti-LGBTQ conservatives are ramping up their efforts to push back the tide, and they are doing it in the most time-honored (and insidious) way possible – by positioning themselves as “protectors” of children and advancing the lie that being queer is somehow synonymous with being a pedophile.

Drag, of course, is an ancient art that has nothing to do with sex or sexuality; there’s something deeply human about it, an expression of some natural fascination with gender lines that, by acknowledging it, gives us permission to cross them – or, at the very least, to not take them so seriously. What most “outsiders” to the culture know about drag (and the people who do it) is limited to what can be seen in the performance – the “show” part of the equation, rather than the “human” – and that leaves a dangerous amount of room for projection and interpretation from anybody who thinks that any divergence from strictly drawn social norms is an existential threat.

That’s why the April 4 VOD release of “Chrissy Judy” – the first feature film from writer, director, and star Todd Flaherty, which premiered at last year’s Provincetown Film Festival and went on to become a fan favorite at LA’s OutFest, New York’s NewFest, and multiple other queer film festivals on the circuit – feels particularly well-timed; while there have been plenty of movies about drag performers, it’s hard to think of another that gets past all the assumptions and clichés about drag (and queer life in general, for that matter) to connect with universal human experience as this one.

Presented in black-and-white and overcoming its lower-budget indie production values with an evocative, elegantly cinematic aesthetic, it’s the story of Judy (Flaherty), who is determined to make a breakthrough into the New York drag scene as part of a twoqueen act with his BFF and drag sister Chrissy (Wyatt Fenner) despite years of trying with little success. Now, on the eve of a potentially game-changing gig, Chrissy breaks the news that he’s leaving the act to move in with his Philadelphia boyfriend and settle down into a comfortable, domesticated life; forced to reinvent himself as an aging solo act (both onstage and off), Judy struggles to move forward, but he can’t quite let go of the severed connection that prevents him from discovering who he is capable of being on his own – and it doesn’t help that, without the balancing influence of Chrissy in his life, there’s nothing to prevent his “hot mess” appetites and impulses from getting in his way.

Most notably unique about “Chrissy Judy,” perhaps, is that it doesn’t treat its central relationship as if it were a “straight” one. It cannot be defined in strict terms of “friendship” or “love” but exists as a blend of the two, a complex mix of emotional attachments and desires that may not have an exact parallel in heterosexual experience. The nuances of this dynamic are played with exquisite delicacy by Flaherty and Fenner, whose chem- istry together helps us all connect to our own memories of that one special friend who has remained close to our heart despite all the time, distance, and drama that may have ever come between you.

There are also excellent performances from Joey Taranto, whose charm helps to keep him likable as a potentially toxic new acquaintance that enters Judy’s orbit, and James Tison, who has a hilarious and memorable turn as Samoa, an old friend who invites him to a party and spouts buzzy-sounding mantras about manifestation at him.

It’s Flaherty’s film, however, and he proves himself remarkably confidant and capable both as a filmmaker and as a star by delivering a well-wrought, shrewdly observational movie about queer life that doesn’t pander to the sensibilities of the heteronormative world.

“Chrissy Judy” isn’t interested in presenting drag – or queer experience in general, for that matter –through a safe and sanitized filter; Judy (his “real” name is James, but he doesn’t let anyone call him that) is not exactly an inspirational figure, and his unapologetically hedonistic, self-indulgent lifestyle isn’t likely to win over any conservative homophobes. Flaherty’s writing and fiercely authentic performance make no pretense of positive representation, and — just like its main character — his movie seems to delight in flaunting the very things that make the strait-laced crowd clutch their proverbial pearls.

That’s because it isn’t a movie made for them, though it’s certainly accessible enough for any non-homophobic viewer to connect with and even enjoy, but an authentic queer story told by a queer storyteller for a queer audience. There’s no need to be shy about its sex positivity, or ignore the importance of hook-up culture, or downplay the thrill of a sexually adventurous by moralizing about promiscuity.

There’s also no need for it to mimic the tropes of hetero-centric cinema. Indeed, it derives considerable effect by setting up our expectations – learned from the nostalgic classics so long embraced by queer culture – only to undermine them, such as with a “meet-cute” romantic subplot that takes an awkward (and messy) twist, or any number of “big break” scenarios which fizzle out and go nowhere. These details play out with a good deal of humor, but they also underscore the ironic gap between the glossy sentimentality stirred by the film’s silver-toned cinematography and the world-wise savvy reflected in a plot largely driven by the unexpected curves that real life continually throws our way.

There are things about “Chrissy Judy” we could quibble over – do we really need that many shots of makeup and hair being removed and applied in mirrors to represent Judy’s continual evolution? Even so, it succeeds in getting past the “drag” of drag and telling a story about a core human experience – the changes in our loves and our lives as we continue to grow, and the challenges of holding onto a relationship as those changes pull us further apart – with tenderness, candor, empathy, and a warm-if-sometimes-caustic sense of humor. Best of all, it manages to do all this without sacrificing its own proud sense of LGBTQ+ identity.

In a time when so much queer entertainment is marked by a self-conscious effort to curate our community’s cultural experience for the world at large, it’s refreshing to see something that allows itself simply to be queer.