Washington Blade, Volume 55, Issue 50, December 13, 2024
Supreme Court hears critical case on healthcare access, PAGE 10
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Rehoboth Beach’s iconic Purple Parrot is sold
Popular restaurant/bar purchased by local entrepreneurs
By PETER ROSENSTEIN
After 25 years of success, owners Hugh Fuller and Troy Roberts recently sold Rehoboth Beach’s Purple Parrot restaurant and bar.
During those 25 years, they built it into an iconic establishment in Rehoboth Beach, Del., popular with locals and tourists alike.
“I think you know that this has basically been my entire adult life,” Fuller said. “Selling wasn’t something I was even contemplating until my health took a turn after contracting COVID, which took a toll on my everyday health. I went from working almost every day to barely going in.”
Fuller added that when local entrepreneurs Tyler Townsend and his partner Drew Mitchell reached out, he knew it was time to sell.
“We knew we made the right decision going with some young blood that knew the staff, the restaurant, and us,” Fuller said. “We know that our baby is in good hands and will breathe for another 25+ years with them at the helm. I plan to take some time and bring my mom back to her hometown in Germany to visit her family, which she hasn’t seen in over 30 years.”
Roberts added, “It is bittersweet selling a business you created, nurtured, and ran for 25 years. It is much easier knowing who is going to love it next. More importantly, we really wanted our staff to be OK and again picking the right guys offering that security to them was a major plus. I’ve learned so much being in the restaurant business for 30+ years. You meet so many great people, so many loyal customers, amazing locals, and even better staff. It truly does become a family situation. I will always be grateful to every single one of them past and present. I cannot wait to see what the next chapter of the Purple Parrot Grill has in-store.”
The new owners, Townsend and Mitchell, are already a big part of the Rehoboth scene. Townsend is a successful restaurateur, part of the Second Block Hospitality Group, which owns The Pines, Drift, and Bodhi Kitchen. Townsend is also one of the owners of Aqua Bar and Grill. Townsend and the other three partners in Second Block Hospitality, were
named restaurateurs of the year by the Delaware Restaurant Association earlier this year. Mitchell has a company that does corporate branding, but is no newcomer to hospitality. He is the owner of the Fathom Gallery on 14th Street in D.C., a popular event space.
Townsend told the Blade he and Mitchell are not planning any big changes for the Parrot. The staff will remain the same and the food and drinks will continue as they are now. They will continue to be open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, as a home for those looking to have a great place to spend the holidays with old, and new friends. While the Parrot is independent of Townsend’s other businesses, he believes there can be some synergy among them, and if the time and event are right, there will be collaboration.
Reaction to the news from locals has been overwhelmingly positive.
Christopher Chandler, who has worked as a bartender and manager at the Parrot for years, is well respected in the community and has been voted best bartender in Rehoboth Beach a number of times by Blade readers. Chandler said, “Hugh and Troy were, and are, like family to me. They treated me and the staff of the Parrot as part of theirs. I’m sad they are gone but if anyone is capable of continuing their legacy it is Tyler and Drew.
“In the short time since their purchase of the Purple Parrot they have continued on that tradition. I’m excited about continuing into the future what the Parrot has been to the community, and to the employees, just with new owners.”
Bob Suppies, who is a partner with Townsend in Second Block Hospitality said, “I couldn’t be more excited for Tyler and Drew having purchased The Purple Parrot. When Tyler, Kevin McDuffie and I bought Aqua Bar & Grill from the famed Bill Shields, it was important for us to honor the brand and legacy of a great Rehoboth Beach institution. I know Tyler and Drew will do an outstanding job protecting what Hugh and Troy have built and given to our community.”
Steve Fallon, owner of local retail store Gidget’s Gadgets, said, “The Purple Parrot is a monumental institution pro-
duced by the hard work of Hugh, Troy, Cathy, and their loyal staff. We will be sad not to yell “Hey Hugh!” across the street. But I also know that Tyler and Drew will carry on the history of the Parrot with a fresh approach and always keep the customers happy. I wouldn’t fear that they would do as others have done and try changing a functioning landscape into a horror show.”
Whitman-Walker raises nearly $450,000 at Walk to End HIV
Whitman-Walker Health held the 38th annual Walk and 5K to End HIV at Anacostia Park on Saturday, Dec. 7. Hundreds participated in the charity fundraiser, despite temperatures below freezing. According to organizers, nearly $450,000 was raised for HIV/AIDS treatment and research.
MICHAEL KEY
Dupont’s Soho Coffee and Tea closes
Beloved Dupont Circle Soho Coffee and Tea has closed unexpectedly.
During the early evening of Nov. 25, Soho Coffee and Tea employees began taking down artwork and menus of the establishment. Within 12 hours, everything from the rolling counters to the patio furniture had disappeared. Today, only the yellow walls remain.
On May 30, 2018, Eduard Badalyan received his new business license: Group Soho and closed on the sale of Soho Tea and Coffee at 2150 P St., N.W., in Dupont Circle. Eduard’s sister Liana Badalyan became the manager. Conveniently, they lived in the neighborhood.
Eduard Badalyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia and earned his master’s in Public Administration. Liana had experience in the service industry. She was front office manager for the Remington Hotel Marriot in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, Calif.
So the stage was set for a great neighborhood coffee and tea shop.
Owner Edward and manager Liana transformed it into a clean and organized establishment. But business gradually fell off and the rent continued to rise so Edward closed Soho unexpectedly.
For many older gay residents, the closing brought back
fond memories when Soho Coffee and Tea was the gay hub of West Dupont Circle. At that time, 22nd and P Streets, N.W., aka West Dupont Circle, was D.C.’s gayborhood. Across the street from Soho was a section of Rock Creek Park known as P Street Beach, a large grassy area perfect for sunbathing. For many years starting in 1972, this was home for the unofficial Gay Pride celebration. In fact, for many years the Gay Pride Parade kicked off at 22nd and P streets.
Adjacent to the so-called P Street Beach was the Black Forest, a popular cruising area occasionally raided by the National Park Police. They chopped down many bushes and trees so their cruisers could drive directly onto P Street Beach.
Entrepreneurs and lesbians Helene Bloom and Fran Levine opened Soho in 1994. At that time, this was the center of many gay bars including the dance bar Badlands (1984-2002 which then became Apex) on 22nd Street; Fraternity House, which became Omega, was located down the Twining Alley (closed 2013); Friends Piano Bar on P Street then became gay Latino bar Escandalo; and finally Deco Cabana, as well as P Street Station (rebranded as The Fireplace) and Mr. P’s. Each night when the bars closed, the patrons would flood to Soho for eggs, bacon, and coffee.
Helene and Fran had envisioned a New York City-style eclectic restaurant hangout. It became a spot for book clubs, art shows, political meetings and wine parties.
Longtime Dupont Circle residents and Soho customers Gordon Binder and Michael Rawson lamented the loss of Soho.
“Soho was around the corner from where we live, we’ve been going to Soho several times a week since it opened in the ‘90s, 30 years enjoying the atmosphere, the patrons, the friendly albeit ever changing staff, the chicken salad sandwich, and so much more,” Binder said. “Sad news indeed. We will surely miss this neighborhood hangout.”
DREW MITCHELL (left) and TYLER TOWNSEND recently completed their purchase of the Purple Parrot.
Soho today, emptied of tables and artwork. (Photo courtesy Larry Ray)
D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs moving to new location
LGBTQ community center also set to leave Reeves Center
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which is currently located at the city’s Reeves Center municipal building at 14th and U Street, N.W., was sched-
uled to move during the week of Dec. 9 to a new location at 899 North Capitol St., N.E., according to Japer Bowles, the office’s director.
Bowles said the LGBTQ Affairs office will be located on the seventh floor of the privately owned office building in which the city has rented space for several other city agencies, including the D.C. Department of Health.
The move comes about amid longstanding plans to demolish the Reeves Center and replace it with a redevelopment project that will include a mix of housing, office space, a hotel, and retail stores along with a public plaza and a 200-seat amphitheater.
The D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center, which has been located in the Reeves Center for about 10 years, also expects to be moving out of the building in the spring of 2025, said Kimberley Bush, the LGBTQ center’s executive director.
Bush said the LGBTQ center looks forward to moving into its new, larger space in a building at 1827 Wiltberger St., N.W. in the city’s Shaw neighborhood, which is located one block away from the Shaw-Howard University Metro station.
Mayor, police chief highlight ‘significant’ drop in D.C. crime
Officials cite arrests in two LGBTQ-related
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser joined District Police Chief Pamela Smith and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah in crediting a series of steppedup crime fighting and crime reduction programs put in place over the past year with bringing about a 35 percent reduction in violent crime in the city over the past year.
Bowser, Smith, and Appiah highlighted what they called a significant drop in overall crime in the nation’s capital at a Dec. 9 news conference held at the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department headquarters’ Joint Operations Command Center.
Among other things, the city officials presented slides on a large video screen showing that in addition to the 35 percent drop in overall violent crime during the past year, the number of carjackings dropped by 48 percent, homicides declined by 29 percent, robberies declined by 39 percent, and assaults with a dangerous weapon also dropped by 29 percent.
“I want to start by thanking MPD and I want to thank all of our public safety teams, local and federal, and the agencies that support their work,” Bowser said in noting that the improved crime data this year was due to a combined effort in adopting several new programs to fight crime.
Bowser also thanked D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) who introduced legislation backed by the mayor and approved by the Council in March of this year called the Secure D.C. bill, which includes a wide range of new crime fighting and crime prevention initiatives.
In response to a question from the Washington Blade, Chief Smith said she believes the stepped-up crime
cases
fighting efforts played some role in D.C. police making arrests in two recent cases involving D.C. gay men who were victims of a crime of violence.
In one of the cases, 22-year-old Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarro, a gay man, was attacked and beaten on Oct. 27 of this year by as many as 15 men and women at the D.C. McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Street, N.W., with some of them shouting anti-gay slurs. D.C. police, who listed the incident as a suspected hate crime, arrested a 16-year-old male in connection with the case on a charge of Assault with Significant Bodily Injury.
The other case involved a robbery and assault that same day of gay DJ and hairstylist Bryan Smith, 41, who died 11 days later on Nov. 7 from head injuries that police have yet to link to the robbery. Police have since arrested two teenage boys, ages 14 and 16, who have been charged with robbery.
Smith said the police department’s Special Liaison Branch, which includes the LGBT Liaison Unit, will continue to investigate hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ community.
“And so, I think that what we will do is what we have been doing, which is really making sure that the reports are coming in or the incident reports are coming in and we’re ensuring that the Special Liaison Branch is getting out to the communities to ensure that those types of hate crimes are not increasing across our city,” she said.
Smith added, “We will continue to work with the community, work with our members, our LGBTQ, our other groups and organizations to ensure that we are getting the right information out and making sure that people, when they see something, they say something to share that information with us.”
The LGBTQ center entered a joint lease to rent space in the Wiltberger Street building with the Capital Pride Alliance, the group that organizes most of D.C.’s LGBTQ Pride events, including the upcoming World Pride 2025 events set to take place in D.C. May 17-June 8.
In response to a request by Bowser, the D.C. Council earlier this year approved $1 million in funding for fiscal year 2025 to support the build-out and construction of the LGBTQ Center’s space in the Wiltberger Street’s converted warehouse building.
But shortly after the Council approved that funding, the D.C. Center and Capital Pride Alliance announced the launch of a fundraising campaign called “Welcome Home – Building Together, Thriving Together” to raise an additional $1.5 million needed to complete the renovation of the new building.
“This endeavor is more than just the construction of a building; it represents a commitment to carve out a generous 7,000 square feet of space devoted to nurturing unity, empowerment, and support across the LGBTQ+ spectrum,” a statement announcing the fundraising campaign says.
D.C. Mayor
said the improved crime data this year was due to a combined effort in adopting new programs to fight crime. (Blade file
Data posted on the D.C. police website show from Jan. 1-Oct. 31, 2024, a total of 132 hate crimes were reported in the District. Among those, 22 were based on the victim’s sexual orientation, and 18 were based on the victim’s gender identity or expression.
During that same period, 47 hate crimes based on the victim’s ethnicity or national origin were reported, 33 were reported based on the victim’s race, and six were based on the victim’s religion.
The data show that for the same period in 2023, 36 sexual orientation related hate crimes were reported, and 13 gender identity or expression cases were reported.
There are plans to demolish the Reeves Center and replace it with a redevelopment project. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
MURIEL BOWSER
photo)
Expert challenges predictions that SCOTUS will uphold trans healthcare ban
NCLR’s Shannon Minter more optimistic about U.S. v. Skrmetti
By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com
Less than a week after oral arguments were concluded in the landmark U.S. v. Skrmetti case, most pundits and legal experts seem to agree the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to uphold Tennessee’s law banning gender affirming health treatments for minors.
Shannon Minter, however, is not convinced.
In fact, as the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights told the Blade during an interview on Tuesday, “neither I nor the lawyers I know who are following and have litigated these cases” buy into the “negative” analysis published by many mainstream press outlets after the parties addressed the justices at One First Street on Dec. 4.
“I was totally surprised,” Minter said, and “really disappointed,” in coverage of the oral arguments that appeared in places like SCOTUSblog, where Amy Howe wrote that “nearly all of the court’s conservative majority expressed skepticism about a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender teenagers.”
The article was hardly an outlier. The New York Times reported it was “probable” that “there were at least five votes for rejecting the equal protection challenge to the law,” while Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained that Skrmetti will determine whether “constitutional limits on sex discrimination” can “survive this 6-3 conservative supermajority” and then concluded that “after two and a half hours of arguments, it appears the answer will be no.”
From the interpretation of key exchanges between the justices and the parties last week to assessments of whether and to what extent certain conservatives might be inclined to join their liberal colleagues in this case and expectations for how precedent-setting decisions could shape its outcome, Minter offered a variety of reasons for why he is skeptical of the reasoning that undergirds much of the mainstream opinion on where the court is likely to land when a decision in Skrmetti is published, as expected, in June 2025.
Asked why his take on Wednesday’s oral arguments diverged so significantly from those offered by many reporters and legal analysts, Minter suggested that conservative Justice Samuel Alito might be responsible to some extent for “the negative perception [reflected] in the mainstream press” because he was “unremittingly negative and spoke a lot” and “took up most of the space.”
Last week aside, given his well established, deeply conservative ideological bent and record of skepticism toward LGBTQ rights, one might reasonably expect Alito to issue a decision that would uphold Tennessee’s trans healthcare ban. Likewise with respect to Justice Clarence Thomas who, compared to Alito, is hardly less conservative or more solicitous of opportunities to expand the LGBTQ community’s rights and freedoms.
Minter characterized both justices’ engagement with the Skrmetti litigants as “negative,” adding that another conservative on the bench, Brett Kavanaugh, was occasionally prickly but otherwise seemed eager to understand the nuances of the case and address questions like whether or how “a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, here” might “predetermine what we would have to do in a sports case.”
By contrast, it is difficult to predict where the other conservatives on the high court might land on legal questions central to the case. Neil Gorsuch, for instance, was difficult to read even before he declined to ask a single question or otherwise speak when the court heard oral arguments last week.
Minter noted that “less than four years ago when the court issued its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, it was Gorsuch whose majority opinion, which was cosigned by the conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and their liberal colleagues, recognized “that discrimination because a person is transgender is inherently based on sex, that it is a type of sex discrimination.”
“So the issue here” in the Skrmetti case “looks awfully similar,” Minter said, because the core legal questions concern the constitutionality of “a statute that targets trans-
gender people” and confronts the court with the question of “whether or not [the law] discriminates based on sex.”
Acknowledging that one should not read too deeply into Gorsuch’s decision to play his hand “extremely close to the vest” during oral arguments, Minter said, “I would like to think that if he had a significant change of view” since authoring the court’s landmark opinion on anti-trans discrimination in 2020, the justice would have “wanted to ask some questions to explore that.”
For these reasons, “just from the very outset,” one might reasonably expect or at least “be hopeful that Justice Gorsuch will continue to [treat] these issues the same way that he did in Bostock,” Minter said.
He added that Roberts, likewise, was careful last week not to indicate which direction he was leaning and instead asked both parties to address concise but challenging questions. While Minter conceded that “It’s hard to draw any definitive conclusion,” he said the chief justice’s performance offered little reason to suspect that he has “shifted his fundamental understanding of these issues from one case to another.”
In a more “encouraging” showing last week, the court’s sixth conservative justice, Amy Coney Barrett, appeared to be “taking these issues very seriously” and “very genuinely grappling with whether or not this is a sex based law, and even with whether discrimination against transgender people, which is considered in its own right, [should] be subject to some sort of heightened scrutiny,” Minter said.
Another major reason for optimism, Minter said, was the “very belabored” discussion of Bostock on Wednesday that was kicked off by the court’s interest in revisiting recent caselaw and the petitioners’ masterful application of relevant precedent to legal questions at issue in Skrmetti.
Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. solicitor general who represents the federal government and argues alongside the petitioners, did “such a beautiful job of saying that the analysis of Bostock itself was not new,” but rather “drew upon preexisting equal protection case law,” Minter said.
Importantly, he said Prelogar was careful to delineate how both the statutory proscriptions against workplace discrimination ordained by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the rights guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment “rely on something called but-for causation, where all you have to show is that sex, in this case, was a but-for cause of the discrimination — meaning it doesn’t have to be the only cause; there can be other factors at play, but as long as it is a cause, it’s discrimination.”
“The reason Bostock was a surprise is just that, sadly, we’re so accustomed to the law not being applied equally or fairly to transgender people,” said Minter, who credited Gorsuch for applying “the law and the preexisting analysis honestly and fairly to transgender people” and deciding, “correctly,” that “there’s just no way to apply this framework that we’ve always applied and not come to the conclusion that this is sex discrimination.”
After the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned decades-old abortion protections that were first established with Roe v. Wade in 1973, critics argued the conservative justices had cavalierly abandoned the principle of stare decisis, which holds that courts should abide or defer to previous precedent-setting decisions, where possible, especially in landmark decisions that govern how people live their lives.
Asked whether the Supreme Court might be less inclined to overturn decisions like Bostock that were issued more recently and authored by the justices who currently serve on the bench, Minter said “absolutely,” adding that it would be “extraordinary for them to not follow the analysis and reasoning in a decision they decided so recently.”
The stare decisis issue provides more reason for optimism about Skrmetti, Minter said. Overturning important precedent is “unsettling to the stability of the law and to the status and stature of the court,” and “it helps that Bostock was a 6-3 decision” rather than a narrower, more contentious case settled by a 5-4 majority.
The path by which U.S. Skrmetti reached the highest court in the land is a case study of the devastating consequences, the second and third-order effects, of scapegoating a vulnerable community with a moral panic that is allowed to fester thanks to fear and bigotry.
After several years in which state legislatures collectively introduced hundreds of bills targeting the rights of trans young people and their families, including access to healthcare, the Movement Advancement Project reports that 37 percent of transgender youth (ages 13-17) now live in places that legally prohibit them from accessing best practice medication and surgical care, with dozens of states enforcing these bans.
SHANNON MINTER (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Heritage Foundation praises trans healthcare ban for military families
In a statement released Tuesday, the conservative Heritage Foundation praised House Republicans’ military spending bill, including the provision added by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that would ban gender-affirming healthcare interventions for the children of U.S. service members.
Victoria Coates, vice president of the organization’s Kathyrn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, said the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by the U.S. House Rules Committee along party lines on Monday, marks an “important step toward a defense budget that flows from strategy and directs DOD to become as lethal as possible to protect the national security of Americans.”
“The bill authorizes resources for DOD at the border, retains the House’s ban on corrosive race-based policies, eliminates the Senate’s provision to draft our daughters, prohibits transgender surgeries for minors under TRICARE, supports military construction in the Indo-Pacific and shipbuilding, including a third Arleigh Burke–class destroyer, and incremental funding for a second Virginia-class submarine,” Coates said. “These policies in this bill, combined with new military leadership, will make America stronger.”
In April 2022, the Heritage Foundation published Project 2025, a comprehensive 920-page governing blueprint for President-elect Donald Trump’s second term that proposes radical reforms to imbue the federal government with “biblical principles” and advance a Christian nationalist agenda, including by stripping rights away
from LGBTQ Americans while abandoning efforts to promote equality for sexual and gender minorities abroad.
“The next conservative president must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors,” the authors explain on page four, beginning “with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term … out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
The document also lays the groundwork for the incoming administration to revive the ban on military service by transgender troops that Trump implemented during his first term, arguing that “gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service.”
Leading up to the election, when Project 2025 became a political liability for Trump, he tried to distance himself from the document and its policy proposals, but as the New York Times documented, an “analysis of the Project 2025 playbook and its 307 authors and contributors revealed that well over half of them had been in Mr. Trump’s administration or on his campaign or transition teams.”
The Times also noted that Trump has held meetings with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and a co-founder, Edwin Feulner.
In October, the Congressional Equality Caucus published a report entitled, “Ripping Away Our Freedoms: How House Republicans are Working to Implement Proj-
President-elect
About 15 protesters affiliated with the Gender Liberation Movement were arrested on Thursday for protesting the anti-trans bathroom policy that was introduced by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and enacted last month by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning and social justice advocates Raquel Willis and Renee Bracey Sherman were among those who were arrested in the women’s bathroom and the hallway outside Johnson’s office in the Cannon House Office Building.
Demonstrators held banners reading “FLUSH BATHROOM BIGOTRY” and “CONGRESS: STOP PISSING ON OUR RIGHTS!” They chanted, “SPEAKER JOHNSON, NANCY MACE, OUR GENDERS ARE NO DEBATE!” and “WHEN TRANS FOLKS ARE UNDER ATTACK WHAT DO WE DO? ACT UP, FIGHT BACK!”
Protests began around 12:10 p.m. ET. Within 30 minutes, Capitol Police arrived on the scene, began making arrests, and cleared the area. A spokesperson told Axios the demonstration was an illegal violation of the D.C. code against crowding, obstructing or incommoding.
Mace and her flame-throwing House GOP allies have said the bathroom policy was meant to target Sarah McBride, the Delaware state senator who will become the first transgender member of Congress after she is seated in January.
LGBTQ groups, elected Democrats, and others have denounced the move as a bigoted effort to bully and intimidate a new colleague, with many asking how the policy’s proponents would enforce the measure.
ect 2025’s Assault on LGBTQI+ Americans’ Rights.”
The group’s gay chair, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), noted that “When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last year, we saw an avalanche of attacks against the LGBTQI+ community.”
The congressman added, “During the past two years, they forced more than 70 anti-LGBTQI+ votes on the House floor. And nearly every bill and amendment idea was ripped out of the pages of Project 2025’s ‘Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise.’”
The NDAA filed by House Republicans is unlikely to pass through the U.S. Senate while the chamber remains under Democratic control, and President Joe Biden has vowed to veto legislation that discriminates against transgender and LGBQ communities, but the spending package will face far fewer obstacles after the new Congress is seated on Jan. 3 and Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Objecting to the spending bill’s inclusion of language prohibiting military families from accessing gender affirming care are congressional Democrats like U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), who serves as the ranking member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, and advocacy groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Protests against anti-trans bathroom policy lead
to arrests on Hill
Outside her office in the Longworth House Office Building, the Washington Blade requested comment from Mace about the protests and arrests.
“Yeah, I went to the Capitol Police station where they were being processed, so I’ll be posting what I said shortly,” the congresswoman said.
Using an anti-trans slur, Mace posted a video to her X account in which she says, “alright, so some tranny protesters showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill, but they got arrested — poor things.”
“So I have a message for the protesters who got arrested,” the congresswoman continued, and then spoke into a megaphone as she read the Miranda warning. “If you cannot afford an attorney — I doubt many of you can — one will be provided to you at the government’s expense,” she said.
“Everyone deserves to use the restroom without fear of discrimination or violence. Trans folks are no different. We deserve dignity and respect and we will fight until we get it,” Gender Liberation Movement co-founder Raquel Willis said in a press release.
“In the 2024 election, trans folks were left to fend for ourselves after nearly $200 million of attack ads were disseminated across the United States,” she said. “Now, as Republican politicians, try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are silent as hell.”
Willis continued, “But we can’t transform bigotry and hate with inaction. We must confront it head on. Democrats must rise up, filibuster, and block this bill.”
CHRISTOPHER KANE
Protest outside House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office in the Cannon House Office Building. (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)
DONALD TRUMP addresses the anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation in 2017.
(Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Claudia López mum on whether she will run for president of Colombia
LGBTQ+ Victory Institute honored former Bogotá mayor in D.C.
By MICHAEL K. LAVERS
Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Saturday did not specifically discuss the growing speculation over whether she will run for president of Colombia in 2026 when she spoke at the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s annual International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in D.C. and with the Washington Blade.
“In a week I am going to return to Colombia and I’m coming back with a very, very punctual task,” she said in a speech she gave after the Victory Institute inducted her into its LGBTQ+ Political Hall of Fame at the JW Marriott. “Democracy in the world in general needs emotional reconnection.”
López, 54, was a student protest movement leader, journalist, and political scientist before she entered politics.
She returned to Colombia in 2013 after she earned her PhD in political science at Columbia University.
López in her speech said Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a former governor of La Guajíra Department in northern Colombia, threatened to assassinate her because she wrote about his ties to criminal gangs. A Bogotá judge in 2017 convicted Gómez of ordering members of a paramilitary group to kill former Barrancas Mayor Yandra Brito, her husband, and bodyguard and sentenced him to 55 years in prison.
López in 2014 returned to Colombia, and ran for the country’s Senate as a member of the center-left Green Alliance party after she recovered from breast cancer. López won after a 10-week campaign that cost $80,000.
“I was the only woman, the only LGBTQ member of my caucus,” she said in her speech. “Of course I had the honor, but also the responsibility to represent them particularly well, [and] of course all the citizens who trust me and all the citizens of Colombia.”
“Once you are elected, you are elected to represent equally and faithfully all of the people, not only your own people,” added López.
López in 2018 was her party’s candidate to succeed then-President Juan Manuel Santos when he left office. López in 2019 became the first woman and first lesbian elected mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian capital and the country’s largest city.
“This of course speaks incredibly well of my city,” she said in her speech.
López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she married her wife, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. (López was not out when she was elected to the Senate.) Lozano was with López at the Victory Institute conference.
López’s term ended on Dec. 31, 2023. She will return to Colombia once her Advanced Leadership Fellowship at Harvard University ends this month.
“I ended my mayorship,” López told the
Blade. “It has been, of course, the honor of my life to be the first female mayor of my city. It was an absolutely beautiful job, but very challenging.”
“I needed a year of rest, of relaxation, and I was fortunate to receive a Harvard scholarship this year,” she added.
López during the interview called for an end to polarization and reiterated her support for democracy.
“We need to listen to each other again, we need to have a coffee with each other again, we need to touch each other’s skin,” she said.
López said parties, candidates, and their political coalitions in Colombia and around the world need to “listen, reconnect, and organize with people” at the grassroots. López also told the Blade there is a “global crisis of democracy.”
“Each country has its own contexts and challenges, but it seems to me that there is a common element there,” she said.
“So, I return to Colombia rested, grateful after a year of reflection, with proposals in mind, but determined to dedicate time to what I consider the most important work for democracy at this time, which is to reconnect from the grassroots,” added López.
‘I know what love and education can do for any person’
López took office less than three months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“We were full of hope, ready to go to offer a new social and environmental contract for Bogotá society for the 21st century,” she said. “But a couple of (months) after being sworn into office, the pandemic of COVID-19 came.”
Unemployment and poverty rates soared in Bogotá during the pandemic, and the city’s residents had less access to health care and other basic services.
López noted her administration in response to the pandemic offered scholar-
ships to young people, supported businesses, and increased funding of the city’s social services. López also said her administration implemented Latin America’s first city-based care system for female care givers, and build three more LGBTQ community centers in poor and working-class neighborhoods.
“I know what love and education can do for any person,” she said.
The U.N. Refugee Agency says upwards of three million Venezuelans are now in Colombia.
Then-Colombian President Iván Duque in February 2021 announced Venezuelan migrants who register with the country’s government will be legally recognized.
Former Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, a former senator who was once a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s, succeeded Duque as president on Aug. 7, 2022. Colombia and Venezuela restored diplomatic ties less than a month later.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on July 28 declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election. Tamara Adrián, the country’s first transgender congresswoman who ran in the presidential primary earlier this year, are among those who denounced voting irregularities.
WPLG, a South Florida television station, on March 16, 2021, reported López sparked controversy after she told reporters there have been “some very violent acts from Venezuelans.”
“First they murder, and then they steal,” she said. “We need guarantees for Colombians.”
López made the comments after a Venezuelan migrant murdered a Colombian police officer in Bogotá.
“The problem is not migration from Venezuela,” López told the Blade in response to a question about Venezuela. “The problem is authoritarianism in Venezuela and you have to keep the focus on it.”
“The problem is what it is: It is not the migrants, it is in Maduro, it is in the dictatorship, it is in authoritarianism.”
More than 200,000 people died in the war between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that began in 1962.
Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño on Sept 26, 2016, signed an LGBTQ-inclusive peace agreement.
Colombian voters a few days later narrowly rejected it a referendum that took place against the backdrop of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from religious and conservative groups.
Santos and Londoño less than two months later signed a second peace agreement,
which also contains LGBTQ-specific references.
López described herself as “a person totally committed to the peace process.” She added, however, she has “a bit of a bad taste in my mouth now that I look back.”
“The peace process with the FARC, which was to demobilize the FARC, period, certainly tried to have and had a gender focus, of course a diversity focus, a focus on human rights for all victims, and certainly (the) many LGBT victims who had been victims of FARC recruitment, abuse, stigmatization, etc.,” López told the Blade. “So, in some sense, or in many senses, having that gender and diversity perspective was a way of recognizing the victims of our community.”
She noted opponents lied about the LGBTQ-specific provisions “to deceive and delegitimize the peace agreement.”
“It is not about making anything invisible, or even downplaying anything, but rather about being much more strategic in understanding that we do not want our flags and causes to be exposed in a way that ends up being a boomerang for our own community,” López added. “So, I say that is why it is a disappointment, because I think it is a lesson. At least for me, it made me think and it makes me think, and I have said it openly since then, that we have to be much more careful and much more, above all, strategic, in how we raise our flags so that they really do not only have symbolic, but real advances and so that in no case do they become a boomerang against ourselves.”
‘I know how you feel’
López during the interview praised the recent elections of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Uruguayan Vice President Beatriz Argimón, and other women in Latin America. She also expressed sympathy with LGBTQ Americans who are concerned about the incoming Trump-Vance administration.
“I know how you feel,” said López in her speech. “I’ve been there when we lost the peace referendum in 2016. I’ve been there when three candidates who represented independent, new alternatives in Colombia, and policies were killed by mafia groups in 1990. I’ve been there when a mafia cartel was able to fund and elect a president for all of us. I’ve been there when paramilitary groups were able to support and elect another president in Colombia.”
“I know how obscure and difficult and challenging and painful democratic times are, but we cannot (back) democracy only when we win,” she added. “It’s precisely when things are challenging, when we suffer defeats that are painful, that we need to attach to our democratic and humanistic values and principles.”
Former Bogotá Mayor CLAUDIA LÓPEZ, left, with Minneapolis City Councilwoman ANDREA JENKINS at the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in D.C. on Dec. 8, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Octopus Umbrella. 44-inches in Diameter. $25.95. Available at nakeddecor.com
A PIC
AYMAN ECKFORD
is a freelance journalist, and an autistic ADHDer transgender person who understands that they are trans* since they were three years old.
Navigating holidays while estranged from ultra-religious parents
I never regretted decision to separate myself from my family
It will be the fifth Christmas season I will have as a person who is estranged from their ultra-religious and abusive parents.
I have never seriously regretted my decision to separate from my family, despite it sometimes feeling tough. Well, I regret not seeing my little brother, but all communication with him was controlled by my parents, and without them I was estranged from him as well. I hope he will find me one day, but I didn’t mourn not having my parents near me; it’s more like I’m mourning a perfect family I dreamed about and never actually had.
The holiday season could bring additional toughness for people like me, especially now, when more and more families are broken apart by a political turmoil that shattered and polarized American society after the election. Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election is more than just a regular political event; it is a social phenomenon that shows a lot of American trends.
Gen Z and Millennial adults are less likely to become Republicans and Trump supporters than their parents and grandparents who are Baby Boomers, Gen X, or members of the Silent Generation. Of course, it is not universal, because Trump somehow managed to win the hearts of alienated young men, while some Boomers turned left in this election. Not all LGBTQ people are Democrats, but the vast majority of them are.
This year the LGBTQ electorate moved away from Trump even more dramatically than in the previous election. Many young LGBTQ people felt like they were betrayed by the older generation and their cis-hetero peers; LGBTQ youth felt scared, angry, and helpless. Despite the fact that the majority of LGBTQ people are liberals who generally do not support free arms trading, after Trump’s victory, more and more LGBTQ people — and cis/hetero women — bought guns and are learning how to defend themselves. Folks do not feel safe near Trumpists!
You may see what tension exists in society if LGBTQ people need to take such a radical step as arming themselves or cutting family ties. And during the holidays, when our culture pushes families to meet together and makes you believe that there is something deeply wrong with you if you do not want to spend the festive season with your loved ones, this tension could move from streets to houses and could lead to serious problems.
It is particularly tough when we are speaking about conservative religious families that do not accept their queer children and siblings. Despite the fact that Christmas has had less religious and more cultural meaning in recent decades, it is still a deeply religious holiday, and so on that day all the religious-based, bigoted, homophobic, transphobic, and biphobic conversations with well-meaning relatives who “just wanted to save your soul” will be more likely to occur. It is especially true for white families. Despite the majority of Black religious people supporting Harris, MAGA supporters are often the white Christian religious people. According to a pre-election Pew Research Center survey, 61 percent of white Protestants were planning to support Trump during the last election, and among them 82 percent were white Evangelicals. NBC News showed a similar statistic, with 72 percent of white Protestants, including 82 percent of white Evangelicals, being Trump supporters.
Some of them even saw Trump as a savior with a divine mission.
I personally knew how it felt because my toxic father was trying to justify Russian military aggression as a divine mission and promoted Trumpism during our holiday dinners, and it was almost impossible to argue with a person who justified political violence by supernatural means.
You may dread the Christmas season like other folks dread medical procedures, or have a strong but fading hope that the Christmas miracle will occur, and the family will accept you for who you are. Unfortunately, it is not likely to happen, and there are always chances that home could be the most dangerous place.
I wouldn’t advise someone to shun their family because of political or religious beliefs, and I know a lot of cases where people had a good relationship with someone who has completely different beliefs from your own. The fact that someone is voting for Trump or visiting a homophobic conservative church does not automatically make a person dangerous, but if this person is trying to push their views on you and change who you are, it is a big red flag. Unfortunately, in our society we used to forgive parents for things we would never forgive any other human being. I had a pretty traumatic experience with it, and I spent years in therapy because of it.
If you are a well-meaning friend of an LGBTQ person who has family problems, the only good thing you may do is to let the person make their own decisions and not press them. Sometimes the home — and the church — is the least safe place in the world, and you may never know what is going on behind closed doors.
PETER ROSENSTEIN
GOP senators must reject unqualified Fox News host is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Is Pete Hegseth’s nomination Trump’s
sick joke?
Of all of Trump’s problematic Cabinet nominees, Pete Hegseth’s stands out as a sick joke. Unfortunately, if he is confirmed, the joke will be on the world.
Hegseth has ZERO qualifications to be Secretary of Defense. If merely serving in the military (and I thank him for his service in the National Guard) constitutes an acceptable qualification, then millions of veterans are qualified. While so many of them would be better qualified than Hegseth, they are still not qualified simply based on their service, and I think nearly all would agree on that.
The Department of Defense is one of the largest organizations in the world and the most lethal. What is coming out now as people look at Hegseth’s past is he was apparently forced to step down from one small veterans’ rights non-profit based on financial, and other issues. Then there are the issues his mother brought to light when he was in the process of divorcing his second wife, when she sent him an email saying he was a sleazebag all his life when it came to his dealing with women.
Then there are the allegations of excessive drinking from a number of sources, including those who worked with him at Fox News. So, it’s not just one thing, it’s a host of things added to his admission that he was investigated for sexual assault, and then paid off the woman who made the allegations. Hegseth’s views on the LGBTQ community have been made clear a number of times. GLAAD reported, “such as when he opposed the New York Times’s decision to announce same-sex marriages writing ‘that it was a path to incest and bestiality: At what point does the paper deem a ‘relationship’ unfit for publication? What if we ‘loved’ our sister and wanted to marry her? Or maybe two women at the same time? A 13-year-old? The family dog?”
Were he to be confirmed, we would be the laughing stock of the world. I am pretty confident that there will be at least four Republican senators who will vote against his confirmation, if it’s not withdrawn before a vote. How could Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) herself a veteran who served overseas during the Iraq war, vote for someone who has said women should not be allowed in combat? Ernst herself is clearly more qualified to hold the position than Hegseth. I am not supporting her, but compared to Hegseth, she is the superior choice. But then most people compared to Hegseth would be better. I see Ernst is now kowtowing to Trump, going as far as saying she is keeping an open mind on Hegseth, but it will be interesting if the FBI investigation comes up with even more negative reports on him.
The Republicans in the Senate are faced with working with Trump. They can go along with every dumb thing he wants to do, or face his wrath. I am betting there are four senators who will not go along with everything. They will show they have some balls. While I can’t off-hand name the four, it is my hope and prayer, they will materialize.
We are living in a weird world where Trump can nominate Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence , another nominee with absolutely no qualifications. Her support of deposed Syrian dictator Assad may come back to haunt her. Then there is Trump nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of HHS, with his dangerous views on healthcare. Republicans will somehow have to deal with these nominations and now they have added a new issue. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tweeted, “It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it out by the roots.” We will see what the Senate does with that, and what the House of Representatives does with it. We will be looking to see what the views of the person Trump named to head the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, thinks. Let’s hope the Senate committee vetting him will ask detailed questions. Then Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, hasn’t guaranteed he won’t support some cuts to Social Security.
If Congress cuts either Social Security or Medicare, it just might be the fastest way for Democrats to take back the House in 2026.
WILD GAME MENU HAS STARTED!
Taking reservations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with roasted goose as a menu option
is executive director, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. JUSTIN FYALA
Ready to raise your voice during World Pride?
Then make sure you get your COVID vaccine shot
At the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., we like to say that music is our “weapon” of choice and our performances are part activism rally. Activism takes many different forms and being advocates for protecting our community’s health is one way our collective voices make an impact.
Right now, we’re singing from the same song sheet as it relates to COVID. Yes, COVID. That five-letter word is still with us, nearly five years after the first case of this viral infection arrived in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the updated 20242025 COVID-19 vaccines to help protect against serious illness and hospitalization during the fall and winter.
Many remember that during the pandemic a CDC report found that gay and lesbian adults had greater confidence that COVID vaccines were safe and were more likely to be vaccinated than heterosexuals. There were important caveats in the research and there were disparities among some groups in the LGBTQ+ space. However, the fact was LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. were largely seen as understanding and accepting the science and taking the steps necessary for COVID protection.
This includes the leadership demonstrated when visitors to Provincetown “didn’t spread the virus; they, and their allies, controlled it. On the fly, they created a model for how a community can organize against a disease threat,” according to WIRED magazine. A feather in our cap, for sure, during a very intense time.
Since those early years of COVID, there have been important developments. Now, when selecting a COVID vaccine, there are different options available — mRNA and protein-based non-mRNA vaccines.
The mRNA vaccines, developed by Pfizer and Moderna, teach our cells how to make copies of the spike protein that triggers an immune response. The non-mRNA protein-based vaccine, developed by Novavax, uses protein fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 along with an ingredient called an adjuvant to help the immune system respond to the spike protein in the future.
It’s safe to mix and match COVID-19 vaccines, so if you previously received an mRNA vaccine, your next dose can be the non-mRNA protein-based vaccine developed by Novavax, and vice versa.
Ask your healthcare provider about your vaccine options. Also, be sure to visit vaccines.gov.
A chorus is beautiful because it symbolizes the power of diversity — each member has a distinct voice, but when we join together, we create something truly extraordinary.
This summer GMCW is excited to showcase our collective talent by producing the marquee arts and culture event for World Pride with the International Choral Festival. As we prepare to welcome over 3 million visitors from around the world, let’s show them that we take our health — and their health — seriously. Let’s put on the best World Pride that’s ever been organized by getting vaccinated now so we can sing, march, and celebrate safely in 2025.
Celebrate New Year’s Eve with Pride at the Rainbow Masquerade NYE Party 2025
Grab your glitter, don your mask, and get ready to slay into 2025 at the Rainbow Masquerade NYE Party! This isn’t your average New Year’s Eve celebration—it’s the ultimate queer bash brought to you by Capital Pride, serving glamour, inclusivity, and fierce vibes as DC counts down to World Pride 2025
Party with Purpose
This isn’t just a party—it’s a movement. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Capital Pride, ensuring that every drink you sip and every move you make on the dance floor supports advocacy, education, and programs for the LGBTQ+ community. As the world prepares to turn its eyes to DC for World Pride 2025, this event is your chance to show your pride and kick off the new year with purpose and panache.
Pick Your Experience
Whether you’re strutting solo, vibing with your chosen family, or ready to splurge on an epic NYE, we’ve got the perfect ticket for you:
• General Admission: Your ticket to the most fabulous party in town includes a standard open bar, live entertainment, and access to a night filled with laughter, love, and legendary vibes.
• Pride Privilege Pass: Go big or go home with premium open bar access, exclusive seating, and elevated spaces perfect for taking a breather (or snapping the perfect selfie).
• Queer Royale: For groups ready to slay together, reserve a private table and enjoy VIP seating, dedicated service, and all the perks that make you and your crew the stars of the night.
• Bubble Hideaway: Ready to turn up the heat? This exclusive hot tub cabana includes private seating, premium service, and a whole lot of bubbles—perfect for ringing in 2025 in true queer luxury. Only 1 available!
The Night’s Highlights
From jaw-dropping performances to a midnight champagne toast, the Rainbow Masquerade has it all:
• Electrifying Entertainment: Live drag acts and aerial performers will keep you gagged and gooped all night long.
• Immersive Decor: A photo-ready wonderland that’s as bold, beautiful, and diverse as our community.
• Endless Cocktails: Enjoy unlimited drinks tailored to your ticket tier—it’s time to toast, darling!
• Midnight Moment: Raise your glass as we countdown to midnight and step into a fabulous new year.
Why You Can’t Miss This
The Rainbow Masquerade isn’t just a party; it’s a celebration of everything that makes our community shine. As we look ahead to World Pride 2025, this event is your
chance to start the year surrounded by love, pride, and unapologetic joy.
Whether you’re here for the performances, the community, or just a reason to celebrate, the Rainbow Masquerade NYE Party is the place to be.
Plan Your Night
• Date and Time: Tuesday, December 31, 2024 | 10 PM – 2 AM
• Location: 3400 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC
• Tickets: scan the QR code above.
Cheers to a Fabulous Future
Ready to strut into 2025? Let’s make it one for the history books—full of pride, purpose, and a whole lot of glitter. Grab your ticket, bring your crew, and let’s start the countdown.
See you under the disco ball!
The holidays are upon us, and we’re here to help make your season merry and brite! If you need extra cash for gifts, travel, decorations, or other holiday expenses, consider our limited-time Holiday Loan Special. Don’t wait - get your holidays
A new album by a band you love, especially one that takes its time between releases is cause for celebration. For me, that celebration takes on special meaning when it comes to BETTY, an all-female trio I have been following since the mid-1980s, during the band’s early years. Since that time, BETTY has amassed a sizeable following via its connection to “The L Word,” performing on the HBO/CTW series “Encyclopedia,” appearing in an original off-Broadway musical, and playing Pride and women’s music festival events. The newly released “EAT” (hellobetty.com) has everything we’ve come to know and love about BETTY: fabulous harmonies, a splendid cover tune, and songs with messages of empowerment, as well as humor. Alyson Palmer, and sisters Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff generously made time for an interview to discuss the new album and their career. The D.C. natives perform their annual BETTY Holiday Show on Dec. 17 at Union Stage.
Blade: For those few who may not be in the know, please say something about how BETTY, the name of the band, came to be.
Alyson Palmer: We just needed a name fast for a party for Dodie Bowers, a dancer and music mogul who ran the legendary 9:30 Club on F Street in D.C. She invited us to sing without our full band at the time, On Beyond Zebra. There was a Nair ad on TV at the time where long-legged ladies walked past a besotted guy who said, “Helloooo, Betty!” and that’s what stuck with me. Surfer slang with a timeless appeal and just a smidge of street harassment. Elizabeth Ziff: We said we would love to and thought she wanted the whole band, but she just wanted the three of us. We had no idea we would be BETTY for almost 40 more years.
Amy Ziff: BETTY is the all-American, smart, sassy, can-do gal with a twist. That’s us!
Blade: In BETTY’s early days, the band began selling t-shirts that read BETTY Rules (which are still available at hellobetty.com). How did that slogan come about?
AZ: It didn’t come from us! I think it’s a catch phrase that fans and friends started.
EZ: I remember that people would shout it to us on the street in DC. It just stuck. It was better than BETTY rocks…. and it’s stood the test of time. Some people have theirs from back in the day, but lots of new, young fans are buying them now and wearing them proudly. It’s definitely a cult [laughs].
Blade: In addition to BETTY, the DC music scene has produced some legendary musical acts including Roberta Flack, Mary Timony, Fugazi, Trouble Funk, Shudder to Think, Minor Threat, E.U., Tommy Keene, Crystal Waters, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. What does it mean to you that BETTY is part of that legacy?
AZ: It means a lot. I love being part of that incredible music community.
EZ: It means everything. We played with a lot of those people. Roberta Flack, Trouble Funk, MCC, and the list goes on. It was such a great scene in DC In the 80’s. The underground go-go scene and the harDCore scene and the new wave scene. We all supported each other. As a matter of fact, Jason Carmer, who was in a lot of DC bands including 9353, is the producer on our new album “EAT.” DC was and always will be seminal to BETTY and our life.
AP: BETTY wouldn’t exist if it were for the bubbling
New album features everything we love about BETTY
An interview with Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff, and Elizabeth Ziff
By GREGG SHAPIRO
gumbo of music, art, spoken word and politics that defined DC in the 80’s. All of us were raging against Reagan and the diabolical, hateful conservatives who swept into town. Regardless of our mode of expression, we all poured our passion for a better world into our art. Because the scene was relatively small, we supported each other and ran from party to venue to see what and how other artists were busting out. Essex Hemphill and Wayson Jones were at packed house parties with Brenda Files and other poets like you Gregg, everyone snapping fingers at the smooth truths flowing. Trouble Funk played out on the street where we all danced wildly on swampy summer nights while Bad Brains showed us how to slam dance in steamy venues. Chapin sang at Kramer Books and pop idol Tommy Keene was everywhere. The nexus of all new music was the 9:30 Club where a wild blonde wailed an entire set from the top of a grand piano jammed onto the tiny stage with her band, soon to sing solo as Cyndi Lauper. Natalie Merchant hid behind drums, REM jangled, Iggy Pop bled, The Bus Boys preened, Red Hot Chili Peppers came out for their encore stark naked with just sweat socks covering their johnsons and Henry Rollins mesmerized the packed room of sweating punk boys by grinding slowly for long delicious minutes as he sang and grew the biggest bone I’ve ever seen on stage, literally having sex with the crowd and popping minds open left and right. Fine artists flourished, including Mapplethorpe causing scandal at the Corcoran with his show. It was an amazing time to be a feminist art rock trio with a lot to say!
Blade: BETTY has also made a name for itself via the activism of its members, including the founding of the 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization The BETTY Effect. Is being an activist something that was ingrained in you by your family or was it something you came to on your own?
AP: Great question, Gregg! I think each of us had formative experiences that made us warriors. My dad grew up with severe corporal punishment and tried to lessen the degree with my brother and me but used it liberally. I found it abusive, unfair and unacceptable even at a young age – not so much for myself, but when this raging giant of a man would lash my gentle, artistic brother I couldn’t take it. When I was about 10, I threw myself between the two of them and yelled from my soul that never again would I allow him to take out his anger on a small defenseless being, never. He never did again. I became a protector. Some would say bossy, but I can’t tolerate unfairness and cruelty to weaker beings.
EZ: It was ingrained in me as a kid. We were Air Force brats living overseas and we grew up Jewish in some very anti-Semitic places. Paris, Virginia, etc. So, I learned at a very young age that life wasn’t fair, and people could be mean for no reason. I grew up knowing that girls were getting the raw end of the deal, and I wanted things to be fair…it’s never stopped. The more you know, the more you become aware of the wrongs in the world, the more you want it to be right.
AZ: BETTY was born in DC. We knew early on that it was our responsibility and privilege to speak (and sing) out as artists about things that needed to change, and causes we believe in.
Blade: Please tell the readers something about the mission of The BETTY Effect.
AP: The BETTY Effect is an organization that uses music
and performance techniques to help strengthen, embolden and empower women, girls and LGBTQ+ folks. BETTY has found that anything can be achieved if done in harmony with community, no matter how long it may take. That’s why we travel around the world holding workshops and concerts to connect people in need of bolstering with the beauty of their inner rockstar, with their possees, and with local organizations that can serve their immediate needs and continue to help grow confidence. At the end of the day, that’s all it takes – believing in your mission and believing you are the right messenger. It’s so simple but can seem impossibly hard, until you have your crew wo believes in you. The BETTY Effect builds crews from inside out.
Blade: In late August, BETTY performed at the Women’s Equality Day event at Kennedy Center. What is that like for each of you playing for the hometown crowd?
AZ: Wonderful!
AP: I love DC. So many memories! Parties, playing and protests, like our first Pride Day hidden-away behind the trees on 21st Street to protect the still-closeted, Take Back the Night Rallies, and glorious Adams Morgan Day. At Kennedy Center we received our first award, “Entertainer of the Year,” so it’s a delight to be back at such a gorgeous place for celebrating all the arts, the best DC has to offer.
EZ: It’s been a long time since we’ve lived in DC. I love it there but consider myself a full-on New Yorker at this point. I still love going back to DC. It’s so cool there and political and fun. And it’s beautiful and the Kennedy Center is very posh, so I’ll have to wear clothes [laughs].
Blade: “EAT” is BETTY’s first new full-length album in a number of years. Were all the songs written over the course of the period or were they written in one burst for the purpose of the album?
BETTY features ALYSON PALMER, AMY ZIFF,and ELIZABETH ZIFF. They perform their annual BETTY Holiday Show on Dec. 17 at Union Stage. (Photo by Gene Reed)
The ultimate guide to queer gift giving
Fun and memorable ideas for everyone on your list
The holidays are an excellent distraction after a difficult election cycle. Instead of churning out endless political memes on social media (really, give it a rest), turn your attention to making memories and exchanging gifts, like these carefully curated selections that’ll lighten the mood, facilitate festiveness, and bring joy to those on your Nice List.
Le Creuset Bread Oven
Honed your sourdough skills during COVID lockdowns? Level ’em up in Le Creuset’s handsome enameled cast-iron bread oven, available in seven of the French manufacturer’s signature ombré hues, for stunning artisan loaves ideal for gifting or your own private gluttony. Make it a meal with Julia Turshen’s Fastest Chicken Noodle Soup recipe from the queer cook’s latest book, “What Goes with What.” $300, Food52.com; $26, Amazon. com
Imogene + Willie Tees/ Accessories
Streetwear takes the sophisticated track via imogene + willie’s audacious selection of graphic tees and accessories, like its popular “bolt” in black and increasingly prescient “burn it all” tees, along with accessories that include the standout “bronco” trucker and “dead wrong” knit watch cap. For queers of a certain age (you know who you are), these style-forward mix-ins give edge without looking desperately trendy or – God forbid –completely out of touch (you know who you are, too). $38-$68, imogeneandwillie.com
Beekman 1802 Advent Calendar
There’s no place like home when you’ve got Beekman 1802’s luxurious storybook-inspired advent calendar to see you through the holidays, each door revealing one of 24 cult-fave face and beauty products, including 16 full-size bestsellers. Bring the somewhere-over-the-rainbow sentiment 360 with a few selections from the boys’ “Wick-
By MIKEY ROX
ed”-branded lineup, like the Glamorous Gal Bodycare Gift Set or Make Your Own Magic 3-Pack Bar Soap Set, for all the good witches (and bad bitches) in your life. $179, Beekman1802.com
Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential
If you need a drink that packs a punch this holiday season, Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential is the American single-malt whiskey up to the task with its notes of caramel and vanilla combined with a persistent pepperiness that’s H-O-T-T-O-G-O. $60, CedarRidgeDistillery.com
La Boule Dinnerware Set
Villeroy & Boch brings a splash of panache to the home cook’s table with its multicolored, premium porcelain La Boule seven-piece dinnerware sets – in Miami and Memphis styles – which include two stackable regular bowls, two pasta bowls, two plates and one serving tray that form a single nesting round and an artistic conversation piece after the dishes are done. $450, Villeroy-Boch.com
Pasturebird Chicken/“Hot Ones” Season 25 10-pack
Read the reviews for Pasturebird freerange chicken products (five stars across the board, including its holiday-ready party wings), and you’ll be an instant convert – especially after you light ’em up with Heatonist’s “Hot Ones” Season 25 10-pack, featuring flavors like Little Dick’s Ghost Pepper Pear, Pepper North’s Jerk & Scotch Bonnet, and Hot Ones’ own The Last Dab: Xperience, an apropos name for the Pepper X-based sauce with a Scoville Heat Unit rating of over 2.6 million. (For reference, a classic buffalo clocks in at a mere 1,800 SHU.)
Santa might be S.O.L. on milk this year. $1025, Pasturebird.com; $120, Heatonist.com
Pepper Pong Game
Pepper Pong – a 2023 Best New Game winner – is ping pong’s “go-anywhere,
do-anything, challenge-anyone cousin… with a mean mullet and pickleball-infused DNA,” according to its website, and that translates to a whole lot of fun for the whole family. $70, PepperPong.com
The EnergyLounger
Need a timeout? You’ll get one with a kickback on the EnergyLounger wellness platform offering cutting-edge, full-body red and near-infrared light therapy sessions designed for relaxation and rejuvenation in the comfort of your own home. Benefits include reduced pain and stiffness, improved blood circulation, and cell regeneration for an experience that’ll take you away when Calgon ain’t cuttin’ it. $7,500-$9,998, EnergyLounger.com
DC Comics Style Guide/Batman DVD set
Pair a reissue of the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide – designed to assist licensees in delivering a consistent look for the brand’s celebrated Super Heroes – with the Batman 85th Anniversary 10-Film Collection, which includes fan-favorite animated classics like “The Killing Joke,” “The Long Halloween,” and “Soul of the Dragon,” among others, for a gift that’ll instantly elevate you to Super Friend. $95, StandardsManual.com; $200, Amazon.com
FinaMill Grinder
Save your knuckles from skin-chewing microplanes and graters with a convenient automated replacement in the rechargeable FinaMill Grinder that allows kitchen whizzes to season with ease thanks to its one-handed click-grind-release technology. Max and Pro Plus pods pulverize everything from cardamom seeds to coffee beans sans blood, sweat or tears, in complementary culinary mill colors that include black, white, red and gray. $100, FinaMill.com
Tom of Finland Duffel
Henry Cavill is a prime candidate for the
anatomical embodiment of a Tom of Finland illustration, and it’s hard not to fantasize about the oversized actor decked out in head-to-toe leather, especially after you cop Loqi’s Tom of Finland Day & Night Recycled Weekender, featuring all-over printed ToF artwork that looks suspiciously like Superman. $40, Loqi.com
Dwayne Chestnut Sunglasses
Did Vontélle sleep on the opp to name its Dwayne Chestnuts flip-up transitioning glasses the Dwayne Waynes, paying homage to the iconic spectacle-shades popularized by Kadeem Hardison on “A Different World”? Perhaps. But slap on a pair of these bad boys and you’ll bring all the early-’90s vibes (and maybe a few Whitleys or Ron Johnsons) to the yard. $189, Vontelle.com
Danish Creamery UCS
Danish Creamery – renowned for its freshchurned European-style butter – offers its branded ugly Christmas sweater that includes a tiny additional sweater to dress up your serving dish, in a twofer that’s both salty and sweet. $80, UglyChristmasSweater.com
Andy Warhol x Absolut Vodka
Art imitates life imitating art in Absolut Vodka’s full-circle Andy Warhol collaboration featuring elements of the pop icon’s overlooked 1985 blue bottle painting, rediscovered in 2020. With colors extracted directly from the original work and made with multi-layer screen printing to create an authentic sensory experience to touch, the spirited 2024 collector’s item also includes a QR code that opens a portal into the world of Warhol and the story behind both brands’ historic and enduring connection, this limited-edition release now among them. $26, ReserveBar.com
(Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBTQ lifestyle expert whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. Connect with Mikey on Instagram @mikeyroxtravels.)
CALENDAR |
Friday, December 13
“Center Aging Friday Tea Time” will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more details, email adam@thedccenter.org.
Women in their Twenties and Thirties will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social discussion group for queer women in the Washington, D.C. area. For more details, join their closed Facebook Group.
GoGayDC will host “ First Friday LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at Puro Gusto. This event is ideal for making new friends, professional networking, idea-sharing, and community building. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Saturday, December 14
GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including Allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
The DC Center of LGBT Community will host “Vogue Sessions” at 2 p.m. Sessions is open to all ages, genders, and experience levels and will be facilitated each-oneteach-one. No shade, no drama, no categories. DJ Tony Play starts spinning at 3PM. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.
LGBTQ People of Color Support Group will be at 1 p.m. on Zoom. This peer support group is an outlet for LGBTQ People of Color to come together and talk about anything affecting them in a space that strives to be safe and judgement free. For more information and events for LGBTQ People of Color, visit thedccenter.org/poc or facebook. com/centerpoc.
Sunday, December 15
GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Dinner” at 6:30 p.m. at Federico Ristorante Italiano Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. Guests are encouraged to come enjoy an evening of Italian-style dining and conversation with other LGBTQ+ folk. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
AfroCode DC will be at 4 p.m. at Decades DC. This event will be an experience of non-stop music, dancing, and good vibes and a crossover of genres and a fusion of cultures. Tickets cost $40 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Monday, December 16
Center Aging: Monday Coffee & Conversation will be at 10:00a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of their choice. For more details, email justin@thedccenter.org. Queer Book Club will be at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. This month’s read is “How to Excavate a Heart” by Jake Maia Arlow. For more details, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.
By TINASHE CHINGARANDE
Tuesday, December 17
Genderqueer DC will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a support group for people who identify outside of the gender binary. Whether you’re bigender, agender, genderfluid, or just know that you’re not 100% cis. For more details, visit www.genderqueerdc.org or Facebook.
BiRoundtable Discussion will be at 7 p.m. This is an opportunity for people to gather in order to discuss issues related to bisexuality or as Bi individuals in a private setting. For more details, visit Facebook or Meetup.
Wednesday, December 18
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.
Asexual and Aromantic Group will meet at 7 p.m. on Zoom and in person at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This is a space where people who are questioning this aspect of their identity or those who identify as asexual and/or aromantic can come together, share stories and experiences, and discuss various topics. For more details, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.
Thursday, December 19
The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. To be more fair with who is receiving boxes, the program is moving to a lottery system. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5:00 pm 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-
OUT & ABOUT
Christmas is here and so are the holiday markets
The DC Holiday Market will be extended one more week until Monday, Dec. 23 at Dupont Circle. The market will be open Monday to Friday from 12-8 p.m., and weekends from 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Whether you’re looking for unique gifts, local artisan creations, or delicious holiday treats, the DC Holiday Market is the perfect place to support small businesses and find festive treasures in the heart of Washington D.C.
The market features more than 30 small businesses offering a wide variety of handcrafted goods, boutique brands, and oneof-a-kind gifts. Enjoy the charming atmosphere with festive décor and popular holiday treats like Migue’s Mini Dotreats like nuts and hot roasted nuts from the Capital Candy Jar. 682-2245.
Virtual Yoga with Charles M. on Zoom. This is a free weekly class focusing on yoga, breathwork, and meditation. For more details, visit the DC Center for the LGBT Community’s website.
will be at 7 p.m. The DC Holiday Market will be extended one more week.
Taking on Dickens solo and playing more than 50 characters
Actor Michael Russotto on his many roles in ‘A Christmas Carol’
By PATRICK FOLLIARD
In an unmistakably husky voice, Elizabeth Ashley once told me, “When asked to help a friend, you don’t dick around.” The ever-candid actor was referring to when she replaced an unwell Dixie Carter in the 2010 Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “Mrs. Warren’s Profession.”
Similarly, when celebrated local actor Michael Russotto was more recently asked to cover for colleague and friend Paul Morella in Olney Theatre Center’s unique version of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas,” he didn’t hesitate.
When first asked to stand in for Morrello (who experienced a health event earlier this fall that has prevented him from performing over the holiday season), Russotto knew this wasn’t just any part. Faithfully conceived by Morrello, this “A Christmas Carol” is a one-man show and a beloved Olney tradition, re-
quiring the actor to portray more than 50 characters, ranging from miserly Scrooge to Tiny Tim.
“Of course, my immediate instinct was to help out, but then the panic set in. Suddenly I was faced with a daunting new role as well as a condensed rehearsal period,” says Russotto, 64. “There’s no magic to learning a dense piece of material. However, I would suggest the first thing is to break it up into chunks. And it’s important to remain calm, otherwise you’ll run out of the room screaming.”
Though he’s tackled some wordy two handers over the years, Olney’s “Carol” is Russotto’s first solo show. From the start, he recognized the size of the job, knowing from experience that there’s no substitution for the grind of sitting with the formidable script for hours and hours and do the memorizing and more memorizing.
Fortunately for him, it hasn’t been un-
pleasant. For starters, Russotto likes the story. “It’s a journey of redemption. And with its themes of greed and what goes with that, it’s a marvelous parable for the moment, especially for those of us who live in a capitalist society.”
Also, as a big fan of 19th century literature, Russotto was already fond of Dickens and his Christmas tale. Published in December of 1843, it fits right in with what the actor likes: “I like the parentheticals, its ins and outs, and the curlicues.”
Along with decades of terrific work on the D.C. stage, Russotto has narrated hundreds of audio books for Books on Tape and The Library of Congress. He says, “I’m often called on to narrate works from this era whether they be murder mysteries, or whatever. They’ll hand it to me, and that’s just fine.”
How might a show built by Morella who’s straight be different when played
by out actor Russotto?
“I’d say that being gay gives me a special perspective in that it affords me an unusual empathy with some of the characters and perhaps leads me to portray some of them in more of a rainbow light than they might otherwise be portrayed.”
And Russotto, who lives with his longtime partner in Adams Morgan, readily confesses to having a crush on the Ghost of Christmas Present who’s often portrayed as a bearded, bare-chested Dionysian sexpot.
However, reading aloud into a microphone is one thing, but to memorize and perform alone on stage at Olney’s Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab is something else.
Playing Scrooge and company wasn’t something he had previously imagined doing. Still, he’s found joy in voicing the novella’s many characters: “I especially love the three ghosts; the gentlemen who come and try to solicit for the poor and the ruffians who show up at the end of the play.”
In taking on Dickens solo, Russotto now finds himself in the company of some illustrious queers including Eddie Izzard who did “Dickens’ Great Expectations” in New York, and BAFTA award winning actor and fearless activist Miriam Margolyes who has successfully toured with her one woman hit show “Dickens’ Women.”
Actors are advised to challenge themselves now and them. It’s considered important to do something that you’re a little terrified of doing, push yourself a little bit. Well, this job is checking all of those boxes, he says.
And after the show’s run ends? How does an actor unwind from this?
Without hesitation, Russotto replies, “I’ll be having a big martini. And maybe we’ll make more of New Year’s in a way that we don’t usually do. That’s what I’m thinking.”
‘A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas’
Through Dec. 29
Olney Theatre Center
2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD
$51-$86 | Olneytheatre.org
MICHAEL RUSSOTTO in his solo show ‘A Christmas Carol: A Christmas Ghost Story’ at Olney Theatre Center. (Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography)
GLYN T. DAVIES
MICHAEL HAROLD
MARCIA V. MAYO
QUINN PEEPER
ANDREA COCHRANE TRACEY
TOBIN N. TRACEY
Daniel Craig shines in raw and romantic ‘Queer’
Drug abuse, alcohol, sex, and squalor figure in new Guadagnino
By JOHN PAUL KING
In an awards season largely devoid of LGBTQ content, one movie asserts itself as the exception by its very title.
Much-anticipated after its Venice Film Festival premiere, and buoyed by the buzz around star Daniel Craig’s performance and its well-publicized sex scenes, Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” has begun rolling into theaters. Naturally, queer cinema buffs are eager to see a move from the same filmmaker who delivered “Call Me By Your Name” and its leading man is arguably the sexiest of all the James Bonds – but if you’re expecting a feel-good story about LGBTQ Pride, this adaptation of a novella by famously countercultural “Beat era” writer William S. Burroughs is definitely not it.
Its setting in 1950s Mexico City is enough to let you know that any queerness it presents for us is likely to be furtive, conducted in secrecy and shrouded in a sense of forbidden desire. Against this backdrop, brilliant-but-dissolute American William Lee (Craig) trolls the streets and clubs looking for sex, love, and connection among the other expatriates who gather nightly in the bars that cater to them. When a much-younger ex-Navy man named Eugene (Drew Starkey) catches his eye and seems responsive to his bold-but-clumsy flirtations, he becomes enamored – despite his own insecurities and his uncertainty over whether his new crush is even queer to begin with – and persists in his effort to get close to this much-younger fellow American.
There’s definitely a spark; the two move quickly from being mere drinking companions when an after-bar nightcap at his place turns into a naked overnight stay, and they become de facto lovers, though Eugene continues to maintain an emotional distance. Eventually, Lee proposes a trip together to find a rogue botanist (Leslie Manville) in South America and experiment with ayahuasca; the young man agrees, and the two set off to share an experience that may push the boundaries of their relationship – and their consciousness – further than either of them are prepared to go.
It’s not a particularly “story-oriented” film; the plot flows, almost like a stream of consciousness, through the repetitive patterns of daily existence, moving between concrete reality, jarring memory, and hallucinatory exaltation to approximate an inner narrative rather than propel an outer one. This reflects the similar fluctuation in Burroughs’s writing, but also takes the audience into the subjective experience of Lee – a fictionalized version of the author himself – and allows us to see the threads of consistent meaning that turn the hedonistic blur into a visceral reminder of the intensity with which life often takes place, especially when longing, desire, and loneliness are involved. Ultimately, the adaptation by screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes treats the material almost as a “meta-biopic” of Burroughs himself, a bittersweet and characteristically raw collection of impressionistic memories given narrative structure by the conceit of fiction. In keeping with that choice, Craig delivers a masterful performance that succeeds in channeling the late author’s uniquely unfiltered personality while never feeling like an attempt at mimicry. The former 007 reminds us of the insightful talent that made him a star even before his run as the iconic super agent, discarding the familiar suave charisma for a nervous awkwardness that underscores Lee’s eternal sense of being an outsider, but
film
conveying with equal clarity the euphoric heights and humiliating lows of his emotional and intellectual landscape. Already the winner of the National Board of Review’s Best Actor prize, it’s a star turn that anchors the film and helps it achieve the homage to Burroughs – an under appreciated pioneer and alternative icon for the queer community, though he reportedly once disowned what was then called the “Gay Rights Movement” by saying “I have never been gay a day in my life and I’m sure as hell not a part of any movement” – that it rightly intends to pay.
As the object of his affections, costar Starkey brings more than just his compelling yet somehow unconventional good looks to the mix. He makes Eugene at once an enigma and a familiar archetype of sensitive-yet-callow youth, a pleasure-seeker able to embrace and delight in the joys of the moment with full authenticity. He has a palpable chemistry with Craig, only enhanced by those much-touted sex scenes (which manage to leave little to the imagination without showing anything explicit) and makes us feel both the deep bond that forms between them and the pang of inevitable loss that comes along with it.
Other strong performances come from Jason Schwartzman (almost unrecognizable in body padding and makeup) as a queer compatriot and confidant of Lee’s, and Manville (also almost unrecognizable under her character’s visual design) as the doctor-turned-shaman who serves as gatekeeper on his quest for psychedelic enlightenment; the always-winning Drew Droege also scores in a memorable supporting turn.
As for the direction, Guadagnino is at his best, guiding the actors through the story with insight and specificity while making sure his film gives them the best visual showcase to deliver it. Beautifully shot in a lush color palette on sumptuously designed sets, and composed with the visual eloquence of a painterly sensibility from start to finish, “Queer” very much evokes the big screen Tech-
nicolor aesthetic of the 1950s era in which it takes place, an effect that’s both reinforced by its romanticized international settings and jarringly contrasted by an anachronistic soundtrack that includes not only a distinctly contemporary-sounding score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross but numerous songs by artists like Nirvana, Prince, and New Order.
Yet excellent as it is, it’s a film that might disappoint some viewers. Though its name and its primary characters are queer, the “queerness” of the story has ultimately nothing to do with sexuality; for Burroughs, it was perhaps the way he saw through the madness of the world that set him apart from others, that kept him feeling alone in a crowd unless it was made up of the fellow “freaks” who were among his close circle. While “Queer” certainly offers plenty of celebratory, sex-positive scenes of intimacy, conveying a truth that the author knew first-hand, it also goes to the dark side, portraying Burroughs’s Gonzo lifestyle – including explicit scenes of drug use and seemingly endless appetite for alcohol – in all its matter-of-fact squalor. Some commentators have already pointed out the story’s echo of an old narrative trope, a “Death in Venice” style story of an aging gay man lured to despair by an obsession with a beautiful youth. If you’re after positive queer representation – or at least the generally expected kind – you’re not going to find that here, either.
Still, while such things may disturb our assumptions about what queer life - or any type of life, for that matter – is “supposed” to look like, they nevertheless represent a true lived experience, and truth is sometimes just as important as presentation. And “Queer” gives us plenty of beautiful moments, too, offsetting the ugly ones and often even turning them into something beautiful, too. That’s why, while it may not be the kind of inspirational call to arms many of us feel we need right now, it still earns our recommendation as one of the standout films of the year.
DANIEL CRAIG and DREW STARKEY in ‘Queer.’ (Image courtesy A24)
Photo by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
How to rebuild trust after infidelity
If your partner has cheated on you, there are steps you can take to rebuild trust.
You cannot use your partner’s bad behavior to justify your own
Last month’s column featured a letter from someone who had cheated on his boyfriend, and was struggling with the boyfriend’s unwillingness to forgive him despite his contrition. He wondered what he could do to earn back his boyfriend’s trust, and noted that he was feeling increasingly resentful over the nonstop scrutiny and contempt.
My reply in a nutshell: If you’ve stepped out of your relationship, and want to do better going forward, the main person whose trust you need to earn is your own. Figure out your own standards (with input from your partner, of course) to be a boyfriend who deserves his partner’s trust, and live up to those standards. Strive to honor your partner’s requests to demonstrate your trustworthiness, but when doing so comes at too high a cost to your self-respect or your affection for your partner, you may need to set a boundary.
Now I’d like to address the other side of this dilemma. If you’ve been cheated on, what can you do to build a trusting and loving relationship with your partner, going forward? Here’s what I would say to the boyfriend.
For starters: You’re in a tough spot. It’s natural and understandable to be hurt, heartbroken, and furious with your partner. But if you want to have a loving relationship with this guy going forward, you are going to have to find a way to not let these feelings run your show for too long.
As is true for your partner, the person whose trust you most need to earn is you. Can you get better at paying attention, going forward, to any signs that
By MICHAEL RADKOWSKY
your partner is stepping out of the relationship? Did you miss any hints that something was amiss? Were you ignoring data about your partner’s behavior and character?
You can’t go too far in either direction here. On the one hand, ignoring your “spidey sense” that something’s wrong is a terrible idea. On the other hand, ongoing scrutiny and interrogations create an imbalanced relationship and often lead to your partner wanting to get away with things. That’s just a natural consequence of being constantly watched.
A big part of your work is to determine if your partner is sincere in his desire to be honest going forward and devote himself to building the same kind of relationship that you want to build. This means assessing your partner’s character: Do you have a clear read on his values, and do you respect them? Can you get a good sense of whether he is just telling you what you want to hear in order to stay in the relationship, or being honest about where he really stands?
You can never know for sure. You can only do your best to see your partner and your relationship accurately. One thing is certain, though. If you are going to be in a close relationship, you must accept that you are going to be vulnerable to heartbreak. In any long relationship, partners do at times hurt each other, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. There is no way around this.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you must stay with someone who cheated on you. You get to decide whom you want to be with, what is not forgivable, and when you do not want to forgive.
If you decide that you have good reason to stay, you will have to develop your ability to calm yourself when it feels like something might be wrong and you are starting to freak out. Remember, your alarm system is likely on high alert after having been betrayed, which means you may easily panic when something might be amiss.
So when your partner doesn’t show up when he said he would, or doesn’t reply to a text or answer his phone, take a moment to quiet your mind — perhaps by taking some slow deep breaths, perhaps simply by reminding yourself that your judgment may be “off” right now — and not rush into accusations or a downward spiral.
Every time you are able to make this move, you will be strengthening your ability to remain calm and thoughtful under very tough circumstances. That is a great skill to have in all arenas of life.
One more point: If you want to be angry or walk around feeling like your partner owes you for the rest of your existence, you might as well end the relationship, because you’ll never have a loving relationship under those conditions. You cannot use your partner’s bad behavior to justify your own bad behavior. For a relationship to succeed, each partner must strive to be someone worth being in a relationship with.
(Michael Radkowsky, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist who works with couples and individuals in D.C. He can be found online at michaelradkowsky.com. All identifying information has been changed for reasons of confidentiality. Have a question? Send it to michael@michaelradkowsky.com.)
One of a kind. N o w t wo.
Ultra-equipped, finely appointed, meticulously kept apartment homes available now in Lanham, Maryland’s new Harkins District.
+ Studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, featuring open floor plans
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+ Washer and dryer in each apartment
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+ 1.5 blocks to New Carrollton Metro andAmtrak
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The Holiday Show
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performs at Lincoln Theatre (Washington
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performed “The Holiday Show” at Lincoln Theatre on Saturday. Future performances of the show are scheduled for Dec. 14-15. For tickets and showtimes, visit gmcw.org.
Blade photos by Michael Key)
D.C. real estate trends to be aware of in 2025
Commissions change thanks to pivotal court decision
By SCOTT BLOOM
Real estate news rarely grabs national headlines, but in 2024, all of us were glued to the news that commissions would change thanks to a pivotal court decision.
Real estate can be dramatic.
As a new year approaches, you are likely thinking about those new commission structures, and maybe you’re also wondering how to best position yourself and your Washington, DC real estate investments for 2025. We expect a good year, and we want to make sure you’re up to date on all the trends and shifts we see coming to our market specifically and the industry as a whole.
Navigating the real estate market can be complex, especially in a dynamic hub like Washington, D.C. For investors looking to make informed decisions in 2025, understanding the key trends and factors influencing the market will be critical. Here’s a deep dive into what you can expect in the coming year.
D.C. Home Values and Prices
Washington, D.C.’s real estate market has always been an expensive and competitive market, whether you’re buying in the accessible, urban neighborhoods or the residential, suburban spots in the northwest part of the city. This is a market driven by its status as the nation’s capital. Lots of people want to live and work here, which is good news when you have a home to sell or a property to rent out.
As 2024 begins winding to a close, many submarkets within Washington, DC are experiencing a drop in home values. It’s not extreme, but it has given owners pause before selling a property. While sites like Zillow and Redfin and Realtor.com have been reporting that overall, home values have dropped by about two percent, in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, home values have been rising.
Take a look:
According to Redfin.com, home values in Capitol Hill were up 8.5% in August of 2024 compared to August of 2023.
This is a good reminder of how nuanced the market really is. Performance always depends on the specific neighborhood you’re in. Those desirable areas are retaining their value and home prices are going up.
In 2025, home values are projected to continue their upward trajectory in specific neighborhoods, albeit at a more moderate pace compared to the rapid increases witnessed in the past few years. This moderation offers opportunities for savvy investors to capitalize on value growth while avoiding the high peaks of a volatile market.
The areas where we expect the best growth (based on reports from Baseline, a research firm) include Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Foggy Bottom, Navy Yard, and Columbia Heights.
Mortgage Rates and D.C. Home Sales
We anticipate more good news from the Fed in 2025, hoping that interest rates will continue to come down, making home buying more affordable and attractive to consumers. Market observers and experts are talking about 2025 mortgage rates resting between six and seven percent. Over the next 18 months, decreases seem rather inevitable.
An article in the Washingtonian magazine does a good job of explaining how dip-
ping mortgage rates are likely to affect our local housing market.
What does this mean for real estate investors? It means that you may have the opportunity to refinance if you’re currently paying down an expensive mortgage. It also means that if you’ve hesitated to buy, waiting for rates to become more attractive, it’s a good time to be thinking about acquisitions.
Investors should prepare for these potential changes by securing favorable financing terms and considering fixed-rate mortgages to hedge against rates that could always potentially rise again.
It’s also a good time to think about tenant retention. A lot of Washington, D.C., tenants who are qualified to own a home might have been putting off the purchase, thus staying in a rental home. They might think about buying in 2025 with more favorable rates.
D.C. Rental Market
Let’s talk more about those tenants.
With this being an election year, we could potentially see some new residents showing up in Washington, D.C. Turnover can be expected, but we can also expect an influx of new people looking for high-quality rental homes. Are you prepared to meet their needs?
The rental market in Washington, D.C. is anticipated to remain competitive, fueled by a steady stream of professionals drawn to the city’s political and economic opportunities. High demand for rental properties will likely keep vacancy rates low, making rental investments an attractive proposition.
As an investor, you don’t want to take high tenant demand for granted, however. There are some new trends in tenant preferences that you’ll want to be aware of and prepared for:
• There is an increasing demand for properties that offer more than just living space. Remote workers are a big part of the tenant population, and they’re looking for co-working space, great tech amenities, and an opportunity to build community.
• Smart home technology is in high demand for Washington, D.C., rental properties. Tenants are drawn to rental homes with digital keypads and smart locks, video doorbells, and smart thermostats.
• Energy-efficiency and sustainable properties matter more and more to tenants, too. Upgrade your lighting and replace aging appliances with those carrying the ENERGY STAR certification.
These are differentiators for modern and qualified tenants in 2025.
Supply and Demand Dynamics
D.C.’s supply and demand dynamics are shaped by several factors, including regulatory policies and the city’s finite land availability. While demand consistently outstrips supply, there are initiatives underway to boost housing development and meet the growing need. Check out that Washingtonian article we referenced earlier, where there’s a larger discussion about supply and demand and the impact that new construction is having throughout the city.
Investors will want to monitor zoning changes and development projects closely, as these can provide new opportunities and influence property values. Strategic investments in developing areas could yield significant returns as the market evolves. We are expecting some new buildings and communities to come online in the New Year.
Washington, D.C., remains a growing, diverse, and promising market for real estate investors in 2025. By understanding the relationship between home values, rental trends, mortgage rates, and supply-demand dynamics, investors can position themselves to maximize returns. As always, staying informed and adaptable will be an important part of navigating this dynamic market successfully.
(Please note this information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. The information shared is based on our personal and existing knowledge as a D.C.-area property manager, not as a legal or financial expert. Feel free to contact me for further details.)
SCOTT BLOOM
founded Columbia Property Management in 2012 and serves on the property management committee of Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors. For more information and resources, go to ColumbiaPM.com.
Local experts predict a strong year ahead for the D.C. real estate market.
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October
of Decedent Notice
Appointment of Foreign
Personal Representative and Notice to Creditors
Mary-Catherine Lois Deadman whose address is 12008 Park Shore Court, Woodbridge VA 22192 was appointed personal representative of the estate of Harold Albert Deadman, Jr., deceased, by the Circuit Court for Prince William County, Commonwealth of Virginia, on October 25, 2024.
Service of process may be made upon Erica F. Gloger, Griffin & Griffin LLP, 1320 19th Street NW, #800, Washington, DC 20036 whose designation as District of Columbia agent has been filed with the Register of Wills, D.C.
The decedent owned the following District of Columbia real property: 1304 Riggs Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Claims against the decedent may be presented to the undersigned and filed with the Register of Wills for the District ofColumbia, Building A, 515 5th Street, NW, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20001 within 6 months from the date of first publication of this notice.
Date of first publication: November 29, 2024
/s/Mary-Catherine Deadman, Personal Representative, 703-307-6246, A True Test Copy /s/Nicole Stevens, Register of Wills.
