Washington Blade, Volume 55, Issue 51, December 20, 2024
Last-minute local gifts, affirming religious services, and more, PAGE 20
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D.C. LGBTQ activists call for resilience, advocacy after election
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
About 100 people turned out on Dec. 12 at D.C.’s Eaton Hotel to listen and ask questions to a panel of six LGBTQ rights advocates who discussed the impact on the LGBTQ community of the election last month of Donald Trump as U.S. president and a Republican majority in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
The event, which was hosted by the Washington Blade, was entitled, “Charting Our Future: LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Resilience in a Changing Landscape.”
“There are a lot of complicated issues that are coming for our community in the next four years, “ Washington
Blade editor Kevin Naff told the gathering in opening remarks. “And we’re hoping this will be the first in a series of events. So please share your feedback with us,” he said.
The Blade organized the event in partnership with the D.C. LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, HME Consulting & Advocacy, the Eaton Hotel, the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center, Capital Pride Alliance, and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Heidi Ellis, CEO of the LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, served as moderator.
The panelists, who presented a wide range of views, including optimism and concern over the incoming Trump administration, included:
• D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only openly gay member
• Jordyn White, Vice President of Leadership, Development, and Research for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation
• Remmington Belford, Vice President of the Black Gifted & Whole Foundation, a member of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Advisory Committee, who serves as press secretary for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Tyler Cargill, Outreach and Training Specialist for
Man convicted in 2023 shooting of trans woman requests new trial
Prosecutor disputes claim that victim lied about role as sex worker
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
| lchibbaro@washblade.com
A man found guilty by a D.C. Superior Court jury on Sept. 24 of aggravated assault while armed and four additional gun related charges for the Nov. 29, 2023, shooting of a transgender female sex worker in a Northeast D.C. apartment building is requesting through his attorney that the verdict be overturned and a new trial be held.
Court records show that the attorney representing D.C. resident Jerry Tyree, 46, filed a motion on Sept. 29 requesting a new trial, five days after the jury handed down its guilty verdict, on grounds that “newly discovered evidence” shows the victim allegedly perjured herself while testifying at the trial about her role as a sex worker.
Testimony by key prosecution witnesses at the trial, including Kayla Fowler, the victim, and police investigators, pointed out that Tyree and Fowler first met at the intersection of Eastern Avenue, N.E. and Foote Street, N.E., an area known as a gathering place for female trans sex workers, around 2 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2023,
“After negotiating a price for oral sex, the defendant and the victim walked together into a nearby apartment building, where the victim performed oral sex on the defendant,” according to a statement released after the trial by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
“The defendant then accused the victim of robbing him, and when she denied doing so, the defendant pulled out a small silver handgun and shot the victim directly into the penis before leaving the scene,” the statement says. “Police were called by a neighbor, and the victim was transported to the hospital, where she underwent multiple surgeries,” it says.
Evidence presented by police and prosecutors at the trial showed that on Dec. 30, 2023, a month after the
shooting, police arrested Tyree after finding him in possession of a gun that was found to be the same handgun used to shoot Fowler.
Tyree testified at his trial that it was Fowler who had the gun and pulled it out after he accused her of stealing about $80 in cash from his pants pocket at the time she was performing oral sex on him. He told the jury he attempted to grab the gun from Fowler, which led to a struggle during which the gun fired, and Fowler was struck by a single bullet.
Court observers have said the jury clearly did not believe Tyree’s version of what happened and appeared to find the evidence presented by prosecution witnesses, including Fowler’s testimony, persuasive and prompted them to render a guilty verdict.
Prior to the defense motion for a new trial, a sentencing hearing for Tyree had been scheduled for Dec. 13. D.C. Superior Court Judge Errol Arthur, who is presiding over the case, changed the sentencing hearing to a status hearing pending the outcome of the motion calling for a new trial.
The Washington Blade couldn’t immediately obtain a copy of the defense motion seeking a new trial, which was not available in online court records and a court official couldn’t immediately access the document and provide it to the Blade. Tyree’s defense attorney, Sara Kopecki, didn’t respond to a Blade request seeking a copy of her motion.
But a court official was able to provide the Blade with the 21-page motion filed by the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Cocuzza, opposing the defense request for a new trial and disputing the defense claim that Fowler perjured herself on the witness
the D.C. Office of Human Rights
• Preston Mitchum, CEO of PDM Consulting, a D.C.based “multipurpose Black queer owned and operated consulting firm.”
• Ava Benach, immigration attorney and founding partner of Banach Collopy law firm
• Reginald ‘Reggie’ Greer, Senior Adviser to the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons at the U.S. State Department. Parker, like most of the panelists, expressed both deep concern and optimism over what may happen in the next four years.
“I will be honest with you,” he said. “We have a Republican president and Republicans control both chambers of the Congress. And they have said they want to install a level of oversight over the District that will not bode well for the folks in this room but also for the District,” he said.
“I’m concerned about our trans siblings, especially our Black and Brown trans siblings,” Parker said. “The last thing I will say quickly, though, is that we are not hopeless. And in thinking about advocacy and resilience in our title today, that’s what this community is all about. That’s what we’ve always known.”
stand during the trial.
According to prosecutor Cucuzza’s motion, the defense motion “patently misquotes the victim’s trial testimony” by claiming she testified that she “was now working as a peer educator for a nonprofit organization in Baltimore” and “no longer” working as a prostitute, feigning a “salvation story” to the jury.
Court records show that the nonprofit group she worked for was the LGBTQ supportive social services group Safe Haven, which has offices in Baltimore and D.C. Iya Dammons, Safe Haven’s executive director, told the Blade Fowler did well during the short time she worked there. Dammons said Fowler resigned from her job, saying she wanted to move to her mother’s home that may have been in North Carolina.
The prosecutor’s motion opposing a new trial states that the so-called new evidence that the defense motion refers to is a D.C. police report stating that Fowler went to the D.C. police Sixth District station to report that she was accosted by a man who threatened to kill her on Sept. 21 at 5920 Foote St., N.E., on the same block of the apartment building where she was shot.
The defense motion seeking a new trial, according to the prosecutor’s motion in opposition to a new trial, claims that Fowler was at the location where she was accosted while engaging in prostitution. The defense motion claims this proves Fowler lied on the witness stand when she said her work at Safe Have in Baltimore gave her an opportunity to “change my life after that incident where I got shot” and implied she was no longer engaging in sex work.
The defense motion points out that she was engaging in prostitution while Tyree’s trial was still going on and a short time after she testified at the trial.
In his motion opposing a new trial, prosecutor Cocuzza says Fowler never stated in her trial testimony that she was no longer engaging in sex work. “Thus, the defense’s filing patently misquotes the victim’s trial testimony, and the victim did not lie under oath based on this ‘new evidence,’” Cocuzza’s motion states.
‘Charting Our Future: LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Resilience in a Changing Landscape’ was held Thursday night. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Senate poised to pass NDAA despite anti-trans healthcare restriction
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, others object to the policy rider
By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com
The U.S. Senate appears poised to pass the National Defense Authorization Act later this week, voting 63-7 on Monday to invoke cloture on the annual defense budget bill, which contains controversial provisions, including a prohibition on covering transgender medical care for the children of U.S. service members.
While all signs now point toward a smooth journey for passage of the NDAA, 21 Senate Democrats led by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) signed on to an amendment introduced Monday evening that would remove the anti-trans policy rider.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.), a cosponsor of Baldwin’s resolution, held a press conference on Tuesday with LGBTQ advocates to raise awareness about the issue, telling reporters “It is unacceptable for politicians to use the NDAA to force themselves between families and their health care providers, all in pursuit of their discriminatory aims.”
“We cannot stand by as these attacks on health care freedom continue, and we cannot pass the NDAA with this language included,” the senator said. “Trans rights are human rights.”
Also on Tuesday, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), another co-sponsor, delivered a speech on the Senate floor in which he shared, “there’s one provision in this conference agreement that troubles me—a provision that would ban certain medical treatments for transgender children of service members,” which “eliminates the ability of military families to work with medical professionals and make their own decisions about the health care needs of their own children.”
Baldwin’s office said the rule could restrict healthcare access for 6,000 to 7,000 children of U.S. service members who rely on the military’s Tricare provider for coverage of guideline-directed, medically necessary gender
affirming treatments.
The rider was first added by House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) who passed the NDAA last week by a comfortable margin, 281-140 — with 81 Democrats including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) voting for the bill as others objected to the anti-trans provision.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, who said “Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, the gay chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a statement that “Speaker Johnson is playing political games with the health of our service members’ children by inserting himself into private medical decisions and overriding families’ choices—and our service members and their children will pay the price.”
Trump appoints Grenell to administration
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to his administration.
Grenell will serve as special missions envoy.
“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Trump said on Truth Social, according to the Associated Press.
Grenell, 58, was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018-2020.
The Trump-Pence administration later named him acting director of national intelligence, which at the time made him the highest-ranking openly gay presidential appointee in American history. Grenell was also the previous White House’s special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.
The Trump-Pence administration in 2019 tapped
Grenell to lead an initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Grenell and then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Knight Craft later that year organized an event on the sidelines of a U.N. Security Council meeting that focused on decriminalization efforts.
Many activists around the world with whom the Washington Blade has previously spoken questioned whether this effort had any tangible results. Grenell also faced sharp criticism when he told Breitbart News shortly after he arrived in Berlin that he wanted to “empower” the European right.
Grenell was among those who the president-elect reportedly considered to nominate to become the next secretary of state. Trump instead tapped U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Working on behalf of the American people for (Trump) is an honor of a lifetime,” said Grenell on X on Saturday. “President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous.”
Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran and Amir Ohana, the openly gay speaker of the Israeli Knesset, are among those who congratulated Grenell.
MICHAEL K. LAVERS
Also voting against the bill last week was every out LGBTQ member of the House, with the exception of U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), who told The Advocate that, “I strongly oppose the riders that Speaker Johnson included in the NDAA that would limit insurance coverage for military family members” and “will continue to fight for full equality for all members of the LGBTQ+ community, including transgender Americans, and my record in Congress demonstrates that.”
The Senate’s likely passage of the NDAA comes also despite last week’s letter by 45 Democratic members urging leadership to reject the “partisan, discriminatory, and harmful” policy riders added by House Republicans to must-pass spending bills, noting that most have tended to target reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
While the GOP caucus ultimately rejected more extreme anti-trans proposals, like a ban on funding gender transition surgeries for adults, the NDAA includes, along with the Tricare rule, a ban on contracting with advertising companies that “blacklist conservative news sources” and a freeze on hiring and recruiting for DEI-related roles pending the completion of an investigation into those programs.
Biden establishes national monument for first female Cabinet secretary
President Joe Biden on Monday signed a proclamation to establish a national monument in Newcastle, Maine, that will honor Frances Perkins, who became the first woman named to a Cabinet-level position when she was chosen by FDR to serve as secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
The move highlights the Biden-Harris administration’s record of advancing women’s rights and strengthening the labor movement while also commemorating Perkins’s achievements, including the establishment of pensions, unemployment, and workers’ compensation, the minimum wage and overtime pay, the 40-hour workweek, and child labor laws.
Perkins is also credited with helping to lay the blueprint for legislation like the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.
Research suggests she may have been a lesbian, perhaps even the first LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.
According to the National Park Service, “Perkins’ relationship with one roommate, Mary Harriman Rumsey,” who was a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, “was very intimate,” though an entry for the late labor secretary on the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project quotes her biographer Kirsten Downey’s assertion that “it is probably impossible to know whether Frances’s relationship with Mary was also sexual or romantic.”
CHRISTOPHER KANE
Sen. TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.) (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany RICHARD GRENELL speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
(Blade photo by Michael Key)
The dedicated life and tragic death of gay publisher Troy Masters
‘Always working to bring awareness to causes larger than himself’
By KAREN OCAMB
Troy Masters was a cheerleader. When my name was called as the Los Angeles Press Club’s Print Journalist of the Year for 2020, Troy leapt out of his seat with a whoop and an almost jazz-hand enthusiasm, thrilled that the mainstream audience attending the Southern California Journalism Awards gala that October night in 2021 recognized the value of the LGBTQ community’s Los Angeles Blade.
That joy has been extinguished. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, after frantic unanswered calls from his sister Tammy late Monday and Tuesday, Troy’s longtime friend and former partner Arturo Jiminez did a wellness check at Troy’s L.A. apartment and found him dead, with his beloved dog Cody quietly alive by his side. The L.A. Coroner determined Troy Masters died by suicide. No note was recovered. He was 63.
Considered smart, charming, committed to LGBTQ people and the LGBTQ press, Troy’s inexplicable suicide shook everyone, even those with whom he sometimes clashed.
Troy’s sister and mother – to whom he was absolutely devoted – are devastated. “We are still trying to navigate our lives without our precious brother/son. I want the world to know that Troy was loved and we always tried to let him know that,” says younger sister Tammy Masters.
Tammy was 16 when she discovered Troy was gay and outed him to their mother. A “busy-body sister,” Tammy picked up the phone at their Tennessee home and heard Troy talking with his college boyfriend. She confronted him and he begged her not to tell.
“Of course, I ran and told Mom,” Tammy says, chuckling during the phone call. “But she - like all mothers - knew it. She knew it from an early age but loved him unconditionally; 1979 was a time [in the Deep South] when this just was not spoken of. But that didn’t stop Mom from being in his corner.”
Mom even marched with Troy in his first Gay Pride Parade in New York City. “Mom said to him, ‘Oh, my! All these handsome men and not one of them has given me a second look! They are too busy checking each other out!” Tammy says, bursting into laughter. “Troy and my mother had that kind of understanding that she would always be there and always have his back!
“As for me,” she continues, “I have lost the brother that I used to fight for in any given situation. And I will continue to honor his cause and lifetime commitment to the rights and freedom for the LGBTQ community!”
Tammy adds: “The outpouring of love has been comforting at this difficult time and we thank all of you!”
No one yet knows why Troy took his life. We may never know. But Troy and I often shared our deeply disturbing bouts
with drowning depression. Waves would inexplicitly come upon us, triggered by sadness or an image or a thought we’d let get mangled in our unresolved, inescapable past trauma. We survived because we shared our pain without judgment or shame. We may have argued – but in this, we trusted each other. We set everything else aside and respectfully, actively listened to the words and the pain within the words.
Listening, Indian philosopher Krishnamurti once said, is an act of love. And we practiced listening. We sought stories that led to laughter. That was the rope ladder out of the dark rabbit hole with its bottomless pit of bullying and endless suffering. Rung by rung, we’d talk and laugh and gripe about our beloved dogs.
I shared my 12 Step mantra when I got clean and sober: I will not drink, use or kill myself one minute at a time. A suicide survivor, I sought help and I urged him to seek help, too, since I was only a loving friend – and sometimes that’s not enough. (If you need help, please reach out to talk with someone: call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They also have services in Spanish and for the deaf.)
In 2015, Troy wrote a personal essay for Gay City News about his idyllic childhood in the 1960s with his sister in Nashville, where his stepfather was a prominent musician. The people he met “taught me a lot about having a mission in life.”
During summers, they went to Dothan, Ala., to hang out with his stepfather’s mother, Granny Alabama. But Troy learned about “adult conversation — often filled with derogatory expletives about Blacks and Jews” and felt “my safety there was fragile.”
It was a harsh revelation. “‘Troy is a queer,’ I overheard my stepfather say with energetic disgust to another family member,” Troy wrote. “Even at 13, I understood that my feelings for other boys were supposed to be secret. Now I knew terror. What my stepfather said humiliated me, sending an icy panic through my body that changed my demeanor and ruined my confidence. For the first time in my life, I felt depression and I became painfully shy. Alabama became a place, not of love, not of shelter, not of the magic of family, but of fear.”
At the public pool, “kids would scream, ‘faggot,’ ‘queer,’ ‘chicken,’ ‘homo,’ as they tried to dunk my head under the water. At one point, a big crowd joined in –– including kids I had known all my life –– and I was terrified they were trying to drown me.
“My depression became dangerous and I remember thinking of ways to hurt myself,” Troy wrote.
But Troy Masters — who left home at 17 and graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville — focused on creating a life that prioritized being of service to his own intersectional LGBTQ people. He also practiced compassion and last August, Troy reached out to his dying stepfather. A 45-minute Facetime farewell turned into a lovefest of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Troy discovered his advocacy chops as an ad representative at the daring gay and lesbian activist publication Outweek from 1989 to 1991.
“We had no idea that hiring him would change someone’s life, its trajectory and create a lifelong commitment” to the LGBTQ press, says Outweek’s co-founder and former editor-in-chief Gabriel Rotello, now a TV producer. “He was great – always a pleasure to work with. He had very little dramaand there was a lot of drama at Outweek. It was a tumultuous time and I tended to hire people because of their activism,” including Michelangelo Signorile, Masha Gessen, and Sarah Pettit.
Rotello speculates that because Troy “knew what he was doing” in a difficult profession, he was determined to launch his own publication when Outweek folded. “I’ve always been very happy it happened that way for Troy,” Rotello says. “It was a cool thing.”
Troy and friends launched NYQ, renamed QW, funded by record producer and ACT UP supporter Bill Chafin. QW (QueerWeek) was the first glossy gay and lesbian magazine published in New York City featuring news, culture, and events. It lasted for 18 months until Chafin died of AIDS in 1992 at age 35.
The horrific Second Wave of AIDS was peaking in 1992 but New Yorkers had no gay news source to provide reliable information at the epicenter of the epidemic.
“When my business partner died of AIDS and I had to close shop, I was left hopeless and severely depressed while the epidemic raged around me. I was barely functioning,” Troy told VoyageLA in 2018. “But one day, a friend in Moscow, Masha Gessen, urged me to get off my back and get busy; New York’s LGBT community was suffering an urgent health care crisis, fighting for basic legal rights and against an increase in violence. That, she said, was not nothing and I needed to get back in the game.”
TROY MASTERS and KAREN OCAMB in West Hollywood. (Photo courtesy Ocamb)
Staff of Gay News City in New York City, which Troy Masters founded in 2002.
TROY MASTERS and his beloved dog Cody.
TROY MASTERS accepting a proclamation from the City of West Hollywood.
Queer actors celebrate Golden Globe nominations
Koch, Gadd, Domingo among year’s standout performances
By SUSAN HORNIK
Awards season arrived earlier this week with the announcement of the 2025 Golden Globes, which takes place on Jan. 5, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount +. Several LGBTQ actors are over the moon to be nominated.
Trans queer actress Karla Sofía Gascón was nominated for Best Female Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for the musical “Emilia Pérez,” making her the first out trans woman to be nominated for Lead Actress in a film category.
The riveting film, which tells the tale of a cartel leader who transitions to a trans woman, has received numerous Globes noms, for Best Motion Picture (musical or comedy), acting (for Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña), Jacques Audiard for Best Director (Motion Picture), Best Screenplay (Motion Picture), Best Original Score, and two nominations for Best Original Song.
“This has been an overwhelming morning,” acknowledged Gascón in a Netflix statement. “Tears filled my eyes when I heard the news. I want to thank all the members of the Golden Globes for this nomination. It’s incredible to be recognized alongside my costars. I’m so grateful to Jacques for the gift of Emilia. We couldn’t have created the world of ‘EMILIA PÉREZ’ without the amazing artistic technical team on the film. Thank you to Netflix and to all of you who support me and live with my successes as if they were yours. This nomination gives me hope for humanity.”
Bisexual actor Richard Gadd has been nominated for best television male actor in a limited series, anthology series or television motion picture for his hit Netflix series, “Baby Reindeer.”
In a prepared Netflix statement he said: “I am beyond thrilled that ‘Baby Reindeer’ has been nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Almost every year, I have watched the event, hoping that one day I might be there in the audience, sitting amongst the industry’s finest, getting roasted on an international scale. So it is a dream come true. Thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press for all they have done in championing the show.”
Gadd offered his “sincere gratitude” to Netflix for “taking a chance” on greenlighting the series, as well as Clerkenwell Films for their “enormous efforts” in producing it.
“And all the amazing cast and crew who worked tirelessly to bring the best version of the series to screen, a special shout out to my incredible team who I have the joy and privilege of working with every single day too. Whatever happens on the 5th of January, I cannot think of a better way to start the year. Javier Bardem, I’m coming for a photograph!”
Gadd is up against gay stars Cooper Koch for “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and Andrew Scott for “Ripley.”
Reindeer, to Netflix and Clerkenwell Films, to my friends and family for all their support along the way. And a huge thanks of course to Richard, without whom none of this would even be possible. This genuinely is such an incredible honour and I can’t wait to be in LA in January… what a way to kick off 2025! Thank you.”
“Wicked’s” Cynthia Erivo was equally elated: “Now that my feet are hovering off the ground, I cannot even come close to properly expressing what this moment means to me. Not just because of this individual nomination but because I get to watch as this project and my ‘WICKED’ family is celebrated too. Being a part of this project has been a dream come true, and playing Elphaba, a woman who speaks to everyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong and lets them know they have the power to defy gravity, has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Erivo’s best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy nomination is the fourth for her — she earned her first nominations for best drama actress and best original song for the 2020 film “Harriet.” The British actress and singer also received a nom in 2022, for best actress in a limited series nomination, portraying Aretha Franklin in Nat Geo’s “Genius.”
She also sent heartfelt wishes to director Jon Chu and producer Marc Platt. “Thank you for entrusting me with her. Donna Langley, Peter Cramer and the entire Universal team, thank you for all of your love, care, collaboration and hard work. Jon, you and your wonderful dedication to this work, your love of cinema and storytelling and care for each one of us on your set is why we’re all experiencing this now, thank you.”
“Wicked” has several nominations, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Ariana Grande-Butera for Best Supporting Female Actor.
Addressing Grande-Butera, Erivo said: “My little sister, baby girl I love you. I’m so proud of you. You’re so deserving of this moment and I’m glad I get to share the seconds and the moments and the days and the years with you. This journey has been so unbelievably special, and I believe it is the company we have kept together that has made it as special as it has been and will continue to be. May there be many many more journeys to take both on and off screen, it is an honor to be able to hold your hand.”
Angelina Jolie is also nominated for best female actor-drama for “Maria,” the Maria Callas biopic.
“Thank you to the Golden Globes for this honor,” she said in a Netflix statement. “I am humbled to be nominated alongside so many artists I deeply admire. I share this with my director, Pablo Larrain and all who were a part of making MARIA such a rewarding experience. It’s a privilege to have played Maria Callas and to be able to share her legacy with the world.”
Nonbinary star Emma D’Arcy also received a Globe nomination for Best TV Drama Actress for her work in HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”
“I feel completely delighted. This season felt very personal to me, and at times it was hard to make, so I’m really moved by this recognition. Making a show like this is the most extraordinary team effort — I’ll be honoured to represent my colleagues at the Globes in January.”
D’Arcy’s co-nominees are Kathy Bates (“Matlock”), Maya Erskine (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), Keira Knightley (“Black Doves”), Keri Russell (“The Diplomat”), and Anna Sawai (“Shōgun”).
Hannah Einbinder has now been nominated at the Golden Globes for all three seasons of “Hacks.”
“Getting to make ‘Hacks’ with the hardest working, most talented and lovely crew, saying words written by Paul Downs, Jen Statsky, and Lucia Aniello, looking into the eyes of Jean Smart and every actor on this show is a once in a lifetime, lightning in a bottle experience. I cherish this show so deeply and to be recognized for my work on it is a sincere honor.”
Luca Guadagnino is nominated for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for “Challengers” as well as for Best Song.
Noted Scott: “It was a true honor to bring Patricia Highsmith’s iconic literary character to life in this new way, to spar with the glorious Dakota Fanning and to work with a cast and crew of truly extraordinary talent. Thank you to the Golden Globes; I never dreamed murdering people on the Amalfi coast for a year would be recognized in this way. Grazie Mille.”
Also in the category are Colin Farrell (“The Penguin,”) Kevin Kline (“Disclaimer”), and Ewan McGregor (“A Gentleman in Moscow.”)
Gay castmate Jessica Gunning is also nominated for best supporting female actor-television.
“Wowza. Words can’t really do justice to how thrilled I am to be nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress alongside some of my idols as well no less! I think I might need someone to pinch me to check I’m not dreaming. Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this incredible honour, to the amazing cast and crew of Baby
“I am so proud today to the Globes for the recognition and love for Daniel and Zendaya in both drama and comedy. I am in awe of their talent. To then share best picture and song nods with more people I love — Amy and Rachel, Trent and Atticus, it is a beautiful and wonderful thing and I am grateful.”
Other LGBTQ highlights:
“Nickel Boys” and “Moana 2” were nominated for Best Motion Picture and feature queer actors Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Auli’i Cravalho.
“The Wild Robot,” which features queer actor Stephanie Hsu, is nominated for Best Motion Picture (Animated), Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Grammy-winning country-pop star Maren Morris, who identifies as bisexual, co-wrote and performed “Kiss the Sky.”
Singer Miley Cyrus is nominated for Best Original Song for “Beautiful That Way” from “The Last Showgirl.”
Both Jodie Foster and Kali Reis are nominated for “True Detective: Night Country.”
Colman Domingo is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, for “Sing Sing.”
COOPER KOCH (left) is nominated for best television male actor in a limited series, anthology series or television motion picture for ‘Monsters.’ (Photos courtesy of Netflix)
Gilead priced several HIV & hepatitis C drugs out of reach for people in developing countries.
Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee to include LGBTQ pilgrimage
A group of LGBTQ Christians in Italy has said the Vatican has approved its request to make a pilgrimage during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee.
The National Catholic Register on Dec. 11 reported La Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent) — an Italian Christian group that helps “LGBT people and their families feel welcome in their church” — asked members to “save the date” of Sept. 6, 2025, and invited “all associations and groups dedicated to supporting LGBT+ individuals and their families to join us as we officially cross the Holy Door of the Jubilee at St. Peter’s Basilica” at 3 p.m.
The National Catholic Register notes the pilgrims have also been invited to a Mass at the Jesuit Church of the Gesù that Msgr. Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will celebrate.
Church Jubilees take place every 25 years. Jubilee 2025 officially begins on Christmas Eve.
Jubilee spokesperson Agnese Palmucci confirmed to the National Catholic Register that La Tenda di Gionata’s proposed pilgrimage has been “included in the general calendar as a pilgrimage, along with all the other pilgrimages that other dioceses will make,” but noted it is “not a Jubilee event sponsored or organized by us.”
“It is a pilgrimage organized by this association which, like the other dioceses, bodies and associations, will make the pilgrimage as they wish,” said Palmucci.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization, on Dec. 10 noted he traveled to Rome in 2000, the last Jubilee year, and spoke at the first WorldPride that took place that summer.
“One of the things I remember most about that time was the anger expressed by the Vatican and the pope himself that World Pride was taking place in Rome
during the Jubilee year,” wrote DeBernardo on New Ways Ministry’s website. “Perhaps particularly galling to John Paul II was that the pride event was taking place in the first week of July, which was the same week that pilgrims from the pope’s native Poland were scheduled to flood the city. And indeed, everywhere you looked you saw people with bright red neckerchiefs, a symbol of Polish heritage.”
DeBenardo noted the “mood in” Rome “was incredibly tense.”
“Vatican anti-gay rhetoric had fueled anti-gay sen -
timent beyond the Catholic Church, and many rightwing Italian political groups were denouncing World Pride, which was to culminate in a march from the Porta San Paolo to the Colosseum,” he wrote. “Anti-gay messages were plastered all over the city buildings. One message in particular remains strong in my memory: ‘Gay al Colosseo? Sì, con i leoni.’ (Translation: ‘Gays at the Colosseum? Yes, with lions.’)”
DeBenardo wrote the inclusion of an LGBTQ pilgrimage during the 2025 Jubilee “touched my heart.”
“While 2025’s event may seem like a small step, when compared with how the Vatican reacted to the presence of gay people in Rome during 2000, we can see what a sea change has taken place in terms of responding to LGBTQ+ people,” he said.
The Vatican’s tone towards LGBTQ and intersex issues has softened since Pope Francis assumed the papacy in 2013.
Francis publicly backs civil unions for same-sex couples, and has described laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust.”
He met with two African LGBTQ activists — Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda and Rightify Ghana Director Ebenezer Peegah — at the Vatican on Aug. 14. Sister Jeannine Gramick, one of the co-founders of New Ways Ministry, organized a meeting between Francis and a group of transgender and intersex Catholics and LGBTQ allies that took place at the pontiff’s official residence on Oct. 12.
Francis during a 2023 interview with an Argentine newspaper described gender ideology as “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations” in the world because “it blurs differences and the value of men and women.” A declaration the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released in March with Francis’s approval condemned gender-affirming surgeries and “gender theory.”
MICHAEL
K. LAVERS
Saudi Arabia to host 2034 World Cup
FIFA has announced Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, despite concerns over its human rights record that includes the death penalty for homosexuality.
The Associated Press reported FIFA confirmed the decision on Dec. 18. The AP noted Saudi Arabia is the only country that bid to host the 2034 World Cup.
“This is a historic moment for Saudi Arabia and a dream come true for all our 32 million people who simply love the game,” said Sport Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al- Faisal, who is also president of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, in a statement the Saudi Press Agency posted to its website.
Saudi Arabia is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
A U.S. intelligence report concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “likely approved” the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. A federal judge in 2022 dismissed a lawsuit against
Prince Mohammed after the Biden-Harris administration said he was immune to the lawsuit because he is the country’s prime minister.
Human rights activists have also criticized the Saudi government over the treatment of women, migrant workers, and other groups in the country.
“No one should be surprised by this,” Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports website, told the Washington Blade in an email after FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. “FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, and many other world governing bodies routinely turn to authoritarian countries with terrible human-rights records to host major sporting events. There are simply few other countries willing to spend the billions of dollars it takes to build the needed infrastructure.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, in a statement described FIFA’s decision as “a betrayal of the values that football should stand for: Inclusivity, fair-
ness, and respect for human rights.”
“This is not about football; it’s about sportswashing,” said Tatchell. “The Saudi regime is using the World Cup to launder its international image and distract from its brutal abuses. By granting them this platform, FIFA is complicit in whitewashing their crimes.”
Qatar, which borders Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2022 World Cup.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia was the only country to bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup,” said Zeigler. “So, until FIFA, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and other governing bodies ban major human-rights violators from hosting, we’ll continue to see events like this in Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, and other countries with terrible LGBTQ rights issues.”
The Blade has reached out to FIFA and the Saudi government for comment.
MICHAEL
K. LAVERS
A group of LGBTQ Christians in Italy has said the Vatican has approved its request to make a pilgrimage during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee. (Photo by palinchak via Bigstock)
JAKE STEWART
is a D.C.-based writer and barback.
The tumultuous relationship between queers and religion
One lesbian’s story offers a glimmer of hope
It was a hot, humid Sunday in the middle of July when my ex suddenly crossed my mind. Of course, it didn’t help that it was his birthday, just like it didn’t help that I was sitting idly outside the bar since our bouncer was running late. It all made the perfect storm for some tortured self-reflection.
Thank God (pun intended) Alexa walked outside in that moment. Alexa was a bartender, and I’m certain all our staff would agree her mere presence brightened the business. Years of bartending rendered her with a keen sense of reading people, so it didn’t take long for her to inquire what was on my mind.
So, I let it all spill out. I explained he was no ordinary ex, for he was the first person I truly fell in love with. I recounted our days on end enjoying each other’s company, and how it always felt so easy, and never like a performance. There was, however, a teeny, tiny problem that later turned into a big problem: He was closeted.
It’s a tale as old as time, I suppose — queer self-rejection in the name of religion. In this case, my ex grew up Evangelical, resulting in an existential crisis that broke both of our hearts. Perhaps the right question, though, is why was I surprised? After all, the queer relationship with God has always been tense for reasons so obvious I don’t need to spell them out here.
Despite being obvious, it seems backwards, doesn’t it? Weren’t anti-gay religious biases so last millennium? Yet if the 2024 election was any indication, the unfortunate answer is no. Today religion still serves as the backdrop for anti-LGTBQ legislation, policy, and rhetoric. In fact, I often see fellow millennials, some of whom I grew up with, profess religious beliefs on social media. Many are parents who fear LGBTQ inclusion being taught in schools so much that they now home school their children to shield them from it.
Because of all this damn religion, I sat there brokenhearted, reminiscing on the love I lost. Alexa, meanwhile, listened intently throughout, and once I finished she told me she could relate. When I asked how, she replied, “I used to be a worship leader.”
To say you could have knocked me over with a feather would be an understatement. How someone goes from that to a proudly out bartender at a gay bar was a story I had to hear.
“I was going through a really low point in life,” she started, “and I turned to God and to Christianity to help me out of it. I had a sense that I needed to give up my lifestyle and ways to follow what I believed at the time that God had for me. This included turning away from my identity as a lesbian.
“I played into a lot of rhetoric that I thought was good and pure at the time but was slowly killing me on the inside. This mostly had to do with my sexuality. I believed for so long that being a lesbian was a sin and I couldn’t be in a loving relationship with a woman and God at the same time. However, as I became more depressed and in turmoil over this, I prayed and fasted for the desire to be lifted, so I began to dig deeper.”
Already I could spot similarities with my ex. While I didn’t grow up religious, coming out was still hard. I couldn’t imagine the thought of mortal sin hanging over me as I tried.
“I was involved in a high control group that made me mistrust myself,” Alexa continued. “They were controlling in a subtle way that ultimately led me to fear. I think that queers learn not to trust their instincts when it comes to how they naturally feel. Specifically, certain groups of Christianity teach that being queer is unnatural and an abomination to God. Though the term abomination is also highly misused, we understand it to mean the worst thing you could do against God, so we learn to go against our nature and to repress our feelings and to fight them as an attack of the enemy (the devil).
“This causes you to lose a sense of autonomy and a sense of self. You no longer can trust yourself to decide what is good, or natural, or right. That mistrust can easily lead you down a road where others take advantage and take that authority over you. This is how we see religious leaders get away with abuse. Though this doesn’t just apply to queer people. This can happen to anyone.”
I had been so angry with my ex when he chose scripture over us. Alexa’s perspec-
tive made me realize how unnecessary that was, since he was already angry at himself. My thoughts also swirled to friends who grew up in strict religious households. Amid all the types of queer trauma, religious trauma is a different beast. The tactics used to manipulate young minds are harsh, and even dangerous.
We ought to wonder how far any religion is willing to go to fight homosexuality from within. If sexual abuse was uncovered in one popular sect of Christianity, it’s probably further than we think. These queers are often trapped by an institution so set on keeping them straight, it costs them their truest self. This, in turn, catapults them into a crisis so deep, not all escape.
But Alexa did, so I had to ask how.
“I studied more,” she replied. “I looked at the scriptures dealing with this and discovered that they’d been translated within an agenda and cultural context that didn’t match what I was dealing with. The story of Soddom and Gomorrah, the mistranslation of homosexuality in the New Testament, etc. I began looking at the Bible differently — as less of the exact words that God spoke and as more of man’s interpretation of the world and God. I don’t claim to be a biblical scholar but the more I studied the more I saw that I was placing unnecessary restrictions on myself for the sake of man and not for the sake of my relationship with God.”
This I found most fascinating — that Alexa found her freedom not by hiding her orientation nor by suppressing her spirituality but rather by leaning into both.
It’s easy to presume God and homosexuality are diametrically opposed, but that would be an oversimplification. I mean, look around: there are churches throughout D.C. embracing pro-LGBTQ messages. Instead of scaring queers toward or away from religion, perhaps we ought to give them space to embrace both.
Alexa explained it well: “I wonder sometimes if I like the God of the Bible. There are so many things He proclaims, requires, and stands for that I don’t morally agree with. Though there are many things I have learned from Jesus that I would say kind of correct some of that. The Jesus that fought for the outcasts and helped them. Who advocated for the poor. Who recognized that piety and character are not always synonymous.”
I now see queers closeted by religion differently. No longer can I consider them cowardly, for they experience the worst torture of us all: sinister manipulation breeding deep inner conflict. Not only does my ex not deserve my anger, but he also deserves my empathy.
I asked Alexa’s advice to queers experiencing what she went through.
“Let the pressure go,” she replied. “That’s easier said than done. Especially if your whole existence is tied up in it. However, you really have to ask yourself who you are, what you believe, and what you’re willing to live and die for. In my experience being closeted especially due to religious pressure is a silent killer. The stress your body goes through kills you from the inside and may ultimately lead to risky and deadly decisions. It can not only hurt you but those around you.”
She didn’t need to share details, since when I last checked on my ex, I learned he fell into hard times. As painful as that is, at least I know a happy ending is still possible for him.
A few months after our conversation, Alexa married the love of her life. In fact, she and her wife had their reception in the bar, so I had the privilege of seeing how happy she is. Knowing her journey made it that much sweeter.
And just last week, Alexa gave birth to their son. He’s a lucky kid, for he has two wonderful parents who love him very much.
Alexa’s story is an important one. It details the lengths religious institutions are willing to go to suppress homosexuality. It reveals the internal strife religious queers still experience. Most importantly, though, it’s the story of a young, queer woman who found strength in her queer self through her personal relationship with God. It’s a story I’ll keep close to my heart, especially at this time of year — one that provides that glimmer of hope I need now more than ever.
In other words, her story gives me faith.
WILD GAME MENU HAS STARTED!
Taking reservations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day featuring our famous Roast Goose
is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Tulsi Gabbard is a disaster for the United States
Favoring Putin, Assad would be frightening for our country
Donald Trump is winning again with the headlines being about Biden pardoning Hunter, and transgender bathroom issues. Until the fall of the Assad government in Syria, I had not heard one newsperson talk in depth about Tulsi Gabbard, the scary person Trump has nominated to be Director of National Intelligence. This appointment is a total disaster for the United States if she actually gets confirmed.
The Director of National Intelligence is a Cabinet-level official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program. All 18 IC agencies, including the CIA, the DIA, and the NSA, report directly to the DNI.
In that position, if Trump wants, she would serve as the principal adviser to him and the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, on all intelligence matters. She would be involved in producing the president’s daily brief, which is a classified document and would include intelligence from all the IC agencies.
Over the years the role of the DNI has been further strengthened. George W. Bush did that with an executive order that solidified the DNI’s legal authority to direct intelligence gathering and analysis, and to set policy for intelligence sharing with foreign agencies and for the hiring and firing of senior intelligence officials. In 2012, President Obama gave the DNI even more responsibility.
Clearly what that shows is President Trump could change the authority of the DNI with more executive orders. Considering how cavalier he was with national secrets, I am worried.
Gabbard has no real experience in the intelligence community. Unlike past directors, she hasn’t held any senior government roles. She served for two years on the House Homeland Security Committee. More frightening are her connections to Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad. According to the New York Times “in 2017, when she was still a Democratic member of Congress, Tulsi Gabbard traveled to Syria and met the country’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad. She also accused the United States of supporting terrorists there. … The day after Vladimir V. Putin began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ms. Gabbard blamed the United States and NATO for provoking the war by ignoring Russia’s security concerns. She has since suggested that the United States covertly worked with Ukraine on dangerous biological pathogens and was culpable for the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany in September 2022. European prosecutors and U.S. officials say that sabotage was carried out by Ukrainian operatives.” These connections to Putin will make it much harder for our NATO allies to be comfortable sharing intelligence with the United States.
The BBC reports “Nikki Haley, Trump’s UN ambassador during his first term and a politician who challenged him for the Republican nomination in the 2024 election, said recently that Gabbard could not be entrusted with such a high-level intelligence role. ‘This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer,’ Haley said. Another Republican, James Lankford, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, ‘he and other senators will have many questions about Gabbard’s past comments, and the Assad meeting.’ They went on to report ‘Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer and Democrat who served with Gabbard in the House of Representatives, told media outlet Puck that Trump’s DNI nominee has expressed views that seem to preference adversaries. Certainly, it gave me pause, when I heard the nomination, added Slotkin, who will vote on Gabbard’s confirmation as a newly elected Michigan senator.”
It is my hope now that Trump signed the ethics agreement, the FBI will truly and exhaustively vet all his nominees, with special focus on those like Gabbard who will be so crucial to the long-term security of our country. If our allies cannot feel comfortable with those responsible for our intelligence community, they could easily hold back crucial information. Again, we know Gabbard isn’t the only Trump nominee that has our allies frightened. They are as frightened of having Pete Hegseth as Secretary of the Department of Defense, as those in our own military are. The world is frightened of RFK Jr. and what he could do to the world’s health.
So Gabbard is just one more of Trump’s outrageous choices. The DNI putting a spin on national intelligence that favors Putin and Assad could lead to frightening outcomes for our country.
Sleigh the season with our local holiday gift guide
D.C. artists and vendors have something for everyone on your list
By JOE REBERKENNY
If the Jennifer Coolidge tree covered in lights in front of The Little Gay Pub and familiar sounds of Mariah Carey’s classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blasting from every speaker in the city haven’t given it away, the holiday season is in full swing in Washington. Still searching for gifts that spread holiday cheer and support the local LGBTQ community? Look no further. With this gift guide you can sleigh the season with style.
For the friend who always needs to be doing something: The First Pride Was A Riot Embroidery Kit from Capital Stitch Co. This kit comes with everything you need to create a beautiful embroidery hoop worthy of display including a needle, thread, fabric, and detailed instructions. Not only will you be creating beautiful art, but you will also be supporting a local queer business. The kit is available at the Capital Stitch Co booth at the DowntownDC Holiday Market in Penn Quarter-Chinatown or on their Etsy shop. ($32)
For the luxury obsessed friend: Mini Bound Together Necklace from Automic Gold. This solid 14-karat gold necklace has two beautiful and simple circles linking together that will shine on anyone’s neck. Automic Gold is a trans-owned jewelry company whose goal is to make timeless and gender-less jewelry that everyone can enjoy. The necklace is handmade in New York City using recycled, reclaimed, and ethically sourced materials. This piece, as well as many other beautiful items that bring a queer sparkle to jewelry can be found at Automic Gold’s website. ($419)
For the friend who always has fresh flowers in their house: The DIY Pressed Flower Frame Kit from Wildry. This kit includes all you need to make a one-of-a-kind pressed flower display to hang in your home while also supporting a queer business duo. The kit includes flowers if you want them, but can be substituted for your own favorites instead. The kit is available at the Wildry booth at the DowntownDC Holiday Market, Relume in Capitol
Hill, Shop Made in DC in Georgetown, or at their website. ($32)
For the friend with kids: Santa’s Sequoias 500-piece puzzle from New York Puzzle Company. This puzzle includes 500 beautiful and bright pieces that will keep you (or your kid) entertained for hours. The New York Puzzle Company has varying sizes of puzzles so if 500 isn’t quite enough (or too many), they’ve got one that will work for you. The New York Puzzle Company was highlighted as one of the LGBTQ vendors at the DowntownDC Holiday Market, where you can pick up a box today before Christmas or from their website. ($23)
For the friend always in the kitchen: Washington, D.C. Season’s Greetings Tea Towel by Naked Decor. This incredibly detailed tea towel shows Washington’s famous monuments decorated to the nines for the season. This towel, along with all the rest of Naked Decor’s products, are designed by award-winning queer art director Supon Phornirunlit, who includes many Washington landmarks in their art, from King Kong clinging to the Washington Monument to giant octopuses taking over tour boats in the Tidal Basin. These charming tea towels add personality to any kitchen and, along with similar style artworks, can be purchased at the DowntownDC Holiday Market or at Naked Decor’s website. ($14)
For the friend always out and about: The “Colors of Washington” Travel Umbrella by Icons of D.C. In most cases, getting an umbrella can be an underwhelming gift but Icon’s of D.C. changes that perception with their “Colors of Washington” travel umbrella. The umbrella has 16 panels, each decorated with a different pantone color matching something uniquely Washington. From National Mall grass green to Chinatown Gate orange, this creative umbrella will brighten any rainy day. You can snag a colorful umbrella at the DowntownDC Holiday Market or on Icon’s of DCs website. ($26.95)
For the friend building their bar: Republic Restoratives Distillery’s Stocking Stuffer Pack. Imagine looking into your stocking on Christmas morning to see a cute bottle of vodka and bourbon, locally made. Republic Restoratives Distillery is selling a stocking stuffer pack with two 100ml bottles of Washington made spirits (each bottle makes two drinks). With a choice of two Civic Vodkas, two Borough Bourbons, or one of each, this stocking stuffer gift is a great way to test out locally created spirits. RRD’s spirits are available at Batch13 liquor store or online or at Republic Restoratives Distillery’s website. ($26)
For hat lovers: Blame Daddy’s “Transform Human Rights” Hat. Washington is getting colder day by day and one way to stay warm is with a hat.
Local queer-owned brand Blame Daddy has created 2024 BE LOUD collection of merchandise that spotlight important social issues within the queer community. These hats showcase the brand’s creative edge but also serve as a powerful statement advocating for the protection and recognition of transgender rights. These hats are available at Blame Daddy’s pop-up shops in various spots across the city, including Trade bar, as well as online. ($28)
than 20 different flavors, all of which make fantastic gifts that can be purchased at their DowntownDC Holiday Market booth or online at Tuck’s Truffles website. ($27)
For the book lover: HP Hardcover Book Purse by Rebound Designs. Queer artist Caitlin Phillips based out of Brookland in Northeast uses old and unwanted books to create beautiful custom handbags. While Phillips offers many purses designed with various books from The Great Gatsby to Nancy Drew, a set of Harry Potter cover clad purses seemed to grab the most attention from passersby at the DowntownDC Holiday Market.
children from selling Harry Potter products alone. The Book Purses are available at the DowntownDC Holiday Market or online as a custom order. ($130-$300)
For the chocolate lover: Peppermint Chocolate Truffle Tin by Tuck’s Truffles. These truffles, made with rich chocolate and crushed peppermint candy can be found at Tuck’s Truffles X The Fat Cactus pop up shop at the DowntownDC Holiday Market. The company was started by queer business owner Tucker Gaccione. Gaccione, who began selling the truffles at Christmas markets in Boston, uses a 130-year-old Dutch truffle recipe as the base of his creations. This has since grown to more
The Harry Potter purses, which Phillips has admitted feeling weary of selling due to the author’s problematic stance on transgender people, comes with a promise. For every Harry Potter product they sell, Phillips donates money to trans advocacy organizations across the country. Phillips told the Blade that they donated more than $1,000 last year to organizations that work to uplift trans
For the friend who is super into Halloween: Pearl Skull Soap Dispenser by Wrong World Ceramics. While it is difficult to find Halloween decor that looks good enough to stay up year round, Chase Brown, the creator of Wrong World Ceramics in Philadelphia, has found a perfect balance between edgy and pretty. The handmade soap dispenser, which is one of many handmade ceramic pieces Brown sells with the queer run Crafts Dept Philly art collective, is covered in a pearlescent glaze that will add a pop of whimsy- or spooky, to any bathroom. The soap dispenser is available online at Wrong World’s website or the DowntownDC Holiday Market. ($88)
If you are shopping for your best friend, partner, or even yourself there is no need to travel far. Many fantastic shops owned and operated by LGBTQ people exist all over Washington so skip the corporate stores and shop local.
CALENDAR |
By TINASHE CHINGARANDE
Friday, December 20
“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.
GoGayDC will host “ First Friday LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at DIK Bar. 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.
OUT & ABOUT
Ring in the New Year with Capital Pride
Capital Pride will host “Rainbow Masquerade NYE Party” on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. at 3400 Georgia Ave. NW.
There will be an all-night open bar, midnight Champagne, drag shows and aerial silk performances. There will also be dessert and midnight snack tables and themed photo ops.
Saturday, December 21
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.
and
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 judgment free. For more information and events for LGBTQ People of Color, visit thedccenter.org/poc or facebook.com/centerpoc.
To get tickets and a discount (Code: CAPPRIDE for $25 off), visit Capital Pride’s website.
Sunday, December 22
GoGay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Dinner” at 6:30 p.m. at Federico Ristorante Italiano. 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.
DC. This event will be an experience of non-
AfroCode DC will be at 4 p.m. at Decades DC. This event will be an experience of nonstop 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 23
“Wicked Mondaze Happy Hour” will be at 5 p.m. at Wild Days. This is DC’s hottest queer POC-centered happy hour. DJ Mim and Asha Santee will perform. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.
Wednesday, December 25
“A Christmas Gathering LGBTQIA+” will be at 4 p.m. at Creative Saints Loft. This will be a special evening filled with joy, love and connection and the hosts will create a true family environment where everyone feels at home. For more details, visit Eventbrite.
Thursday, December 26
Transmasculine Social Hour will be at 6 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. This is a safe and welcoming space for trans men, AFAB nonbinary, two-spirit and genderqueer folks. Admission is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
There are plenty of queer parties planned for New Year’s Eve around D.C., including one hosted by Capital Pride.
WMC’s ‘Comfort and Joy’ fuses drama, well-being, light
By PATRICK FOLLIARD
With its warmth and unfettered imagination,it’s no surprise that the Washington Master Chorale’s enduringly popular winter program remains a holiday favorite.
This December the Washington Master Chorale (WMC), helmed by out artistic director Thomas Colohan presents “Comfort and Joy” a selection of British and American works like “Lute-Book Lullaby,” “I Saw Three Ships,” “Puer Natus” by Samuel Scheidt and “Hosanna to the Son of David” by Orlando Gibbons.
In addition to these Christmas classics, WMC will perform 2022 Florence Price Commission Winner Mason Bynes’s “Ephiphanytide” and Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Northern Lights,” the firsthand accounts of arctic explorers Charles Francis Hall and Fridtjof Nansen and their experiences surrounding the fabled aurora borealis.
Described as “reverent and beautiful” by “Northern Lights” tenor soloist Opal Clyburn-Miller, “Comfort and Joy” fuses drama and well-being, and the import of light.
And as an artist who uses they/them pronouns, Clyburn-Miller says where classical music is concerned, “it seems people are put in their boxes and that’s where they stay.” They add, “there’s been some progress. It’s pretty much a traditional art form.”
With regard to their career, Clyburn-Miller, the Baltimore based Peabody Conservatory student, says the work usually comes through word of mouth: “You show up, you’re a good
colleague and people want to work with you again.”
The solo piece, according to Colohan, is perfect for Clyburn-Miller. The soloist says in response: “Maybe I have the imagination to think of what Northern Lights might look like in Eastern Europe. I’ve never been that far north but I can put myself in that sense of wonder and astonishment.”
But the gig hasn’t been entirely without its tests. The lyrics are in Latvian, a new language for the meticulous singer.
“It’s been a bit tricky getting the Latvian down,” they say. “Usually in my singing experience, it’s been German, Italian and French, and I’m familiar with Spanish and some Hungarian and Russian, but this is entirely new.”
A perfect chorale venue requires easy parking; good acoustics; a concert level Steinway, and an excellent organ; a sanctuary wide enough to accommodate a 50-person chorale; and audience friendly loos, says Colohan.
The Church of Epiphany meets most if not all of these requirements.
Raised Catholic in Richmond, Colohan came out at Ohio’s progressive Oberlin Conservatory. Around this time, he remembers visiting Washington for a music educator’s conference and partying at JR.’s, Badlands, and other bars. He says, “I saw that D.C. had a huge population of clean-cut gay boys. That journey which started with me being gay, prompted me to ask questions.”
As WMC artistic director since 2009, Colohan, who lives with his partner in Silver Spring, became increasingly interested in secular poetry and literature, especially the ways in which it intersects with chorale music. For him, that became the heart of the art form.
“My secular approach is wider than some. I’m like the curator of the museum going down to the basement to bring some stuff up. You cannot hear the music if we don’t sing it.”
He’s remained conservative as an aesthetic but not an ethos. “I can wear a blazer and not be crazy right wing. Spiritually speaking, I’m Zen Buddhist now.”
A lot of the concert is about darkness and light. Colohan says, “In ancient times when the world became darker, the days leading to the solstice were scary and then on the 22nd they saw that days were getting longer and it was lighter.”
“Comfort and Joy” closes with a candle lit chorale memorably singing “Silent Night.”
5:00 p.m. Festival Holy Eucharist Rite II with Choir, Brass and Harp
8:40 p.m. Christmas Prelude with Choral Ensemble, Brass and Harp
Christmas Prelude with Choir, Brass and Harp Immanuel Chapel
9:00 p.m. Festival Holy Eucharist Rite II with Choral Ensemble, Brass
11:00 a.m. Christmas Day Holy Eucharist with Organ and Carols Zabriskie Chapel
8:00 a.m. First Sunday After Christmas with Holy Eucharist Rite I Zabriskie Chapel
10:30 a.m.First Sunday After Christmas with Holy Eucharist Rite II Immanuel Chapel
8:00 a.m. Epiphany Sunday (transferred) with Holy Eucharist Rite I Zabriskie Chapel
10:30 a.m. Children’s Epiphany Pageant with Holy Eucharist Rite II followed by Festive Reception Immanuel Chapel
A mom goes to the dogs in ‘Nightbitch’
A meditation on the demands of being a mother
By JOHN PAUL KING
same time.
That iconic understatement might easily serve as the thesis statement for “Nightbitch,” the new horror-tinged offering from writer/director Marielle Heller. Yet while Wynette was lamenting the hardships of staying loyal to a partner, Heller is more interested in the hardships of staying loyal to one’s self – and takes on a rarely aired perspective on an even more quintessential feminine experience.
We’re speaking, naturally, of Motherhood, considered a definitive part of female identity ever since there have been women. Cloaked in sacrosanct reverence due to its association with the traditional imperative to “preserve the species,” it’s often seen as a rite of passage that illuminates and reinforces the traditional role of women as “givers of life,” and usually characterized as demanding deep personal sacrifice — the sublimation of oneself for the sake of another (who, in the words of Heller’s protagonist, would “pee in your face without blinking”) in obedient servitude to the greater good. Before you start clutching your pearls (“How DARE you suggest that being a mother is anything less than a blessing?!”), we’re not knocking motherhood; nor are we suggesting that children are life-sucking demons who exist only to torment us and disrupt every facet of our lives until we feel enslaved by them. Neither, in fact, is Heller’s movie, despite the clucking of anti-“woke” commentators who have tried to dismiss it as feminist propaganda.
Indeed, “Nightbitch” is very much cognizant of “walking the line” when it comes to its inarguably challenging meditation on the demands of being a mother, though it dares to transgress societal dogma around the subject nonetheless. Based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder, it’s the story of a woman (Amy Adams) who has “paused” her promising career as an artist to be a stay-at-home mom so that her husband (Scoot McNairy) can focus his energies on the job that keeps him away in the city for five days – and nights – out of every week. Rigidly defined by banal routine, her daily life is dominated by serving the needs of their child (Arleigh and Emmett Snowden, dual-cast twins in a single role), and weekend reunions with his dad seem only to reinforce the disconnectedness in their relationship, not to mention their parallel-but-discordant understanding of what it means to be a parent, a partner, and a person, all at the
The situation is bad enough as it is when we meet her, an endless loop of sleepless nights, repetitive feeding rituals, and putting on her bravest face around the implausibly perfect other moms who congregate around her with their toddlers for storytime sing-alongs at the library. Things start to take an even more depressing turn for her, however, when she begins to notice strange physical anomalies – new and oddly located patches of hair, a heightened sense of smell, an increased appetite – taking place in her body. Though she at first shrugs them off, these changes soon escalate to include uncontrollable outbursts of aggression, resurfacing memories of her childhood and her own mother, and recurring dreams of nocturnal runs with the neighborhood dogs, who in waking life have become inexplicably drawn to her. Recognizing that these new developments might threaten the already delicate balance of her domestic status quo, she decides to seek answers – and discovers an arcane and disturbing secret history that stretches back across generations of mothers before her.
Hinged on a premise that naturally points in that direction, “Nightbitch” is handled by Heller as if it were a horror film – which, to a certain extent, it is – and unfolds through a carefully stacked progression of generic tropes as blatantly as any “Friday the 13th” sequel. Yet while certain moments do provide us with unexpected jolts and the gross-out “body horror” elements definitely strike notes of revulsion, it operates in a manner that more closely resembles a dark satirical comedy flavored with magical realism. Adams’s character (billed simply as “Mother”) accepts these alarming changes with as much detached resignation as she does the rigors of rearing her child, but her narrative moves definitively into action when she decides to embrace what is happening to her, drawing inspiration from the wilder self that is pressing from within to make bolder, more instinctual choices.
Ultimately, of course, the film’s lycanthrop-ish trappings serve as a metaphor for an inner beast kept caged inside that clamors to be unleashed. Its central character – who, as we see in flashback memories, was raised in what many would call an “extreme” conservative environment – has built an entire self-actualized life and abandoned it, over a traditionalist sense of duty, for something that feels like an existence of endless servitude. Why wouldn’t she feel the need
to assert her natural autonomy?
And yes, there’s an obvious feminist message that emerges as “Nightbitch” lopes toward its denouement, yet while it mercilessly explores the grueling side of child-rearing and throws subtextual shade at the patriarchal attitudes that make the experience even harder, it works to reconcile all those seemingly dissonant viewpoints and reinforce the notion that being a mother is a path to self-actualization.
Heller keeps the root of the Mother’s strange transformation enigmatic, but her film could not be clearer about its purpose: spurring her protagonist to reclaim her autonomy, and to forge a balance between her roles as an empowered woman, a selfless mother, and an artist with the potential to reconcile them all into one. If, that is, she can keep herself from going feral.
Adams, whose talent as an actress has often been underappreciated despite critical acclaim and multiple industry accolades, shines here in a way she’s previously never been allowed, taking on a glamourless yet compelling role and embodying it without reservation or ego. Her character walks a razor’s edge of likability, but she brings the kind of truth to her performance that keeps us on her side. In a similar fashion, Scoot McNairy (billed as “Husband”) manages to represent “The Patriarchy” yet also surprise us with his adaptability and empathy; together, they embody a couple we are somehow happy to root for, whose relationship – like all relationships – is a work-in-progress. The ‘70s cult cinema icon Jessica Harper also makes a significant impression as a vaguely “witchy” librarian who facilitates Adams’s quest for knowledge.
The quality of these performances - and Heller’s meticulous crafting of the film, which mostly keeps its supernatural elements in the nebulous realm between real life and imagination, though there are some legitimately disturbing moments – help to push “Nightbitch” beyond its genre pretensions and use it to express feelings that will doubtless be familiar to millions of woman, yet rarely explored onscreen. Viewers looking for horror might see this as a “bait-andswitch,” but it’s this frankness that distinguishes it, especially in a time when women might well be facing the real horror of a future without bodily autonomy.
If that’s not enough to make it one of the season’s essential films to see, then it should be.
As Tammy Wynette once sang, sometimes it’s hard to be a woman.
AMY ADAMS runs with the pack in ‘Nightbitch.’
(Image courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)
A tale of lesbian romance and growing into your place in life
‘I’ll
Get Back to You’ an enjoyable holiday read
By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER
Christmas tree lots, ugh. Santa, New England, snowflakes, mistletoe, blah blah blah.
The cable TV lineup is full of that stuff this time of year but it’s nowhere near as magical as Hollywood wants you to believe. Honestly, thinking of romance (or the lack thereof) right now is almost enough to bring out your humbug. Get this, though: There’s plenty of romance to go around this Yuletide, but in “I’ll Get Back to You” by Becca Grischow, it might take some planning to find it. It was supposed to be a great dual-birthday celebration.
Murphy and her BFF, Kat, were planning a “Blackout Wednesday” of drinking and debauchery, followed by a sleepover and snacks at Murphy’s house before they went to Kat’s parents’ place for Thanksgiving. That was the plan, until Kat ruined it by bringing her new boyfriend, Daniel, along and assuming that Murphy wouldn’t mind.
Murphy minded very much. She hated being the gay third wheel, and it was doubly annoying when they all ran into Ellie, who’d graduated a few years before Kat and Murphy.
Wait, Ellie was straight in high school, wasn’t she? Well, she wasn’t now and when Ellie, Kat, and Daniel started comparing notes about attending the University of Illinois, it was all Murphy could do not to roll her eyes.
She wasn’t feeling this holiday thing. She was feeling kind of loser-ish, in fact: still living in her childhood bedroom in her parents’ house, working a job she’d had since she was 16, still at community college and failing accounting.
And, apparently, failing at love, too, because Ellie told Murphy that they could be friends, and that was all. But when Murphy realized that Ellie’s mother was the professor who was about to fail her in accounting class, Ellie came up with a plan.
If they could pretend to have a relationship, then maybe Ellie’s mother would grant Ellie her dream of attending college in New York City. And maybe she’d “play favorites” and give Murphy a passing grade.
It was a weird plan. Super weird.
Alright, let’s just admit this: A book like “I’ll Get Back to You” isn’t going to change the world or influence people in high places. It’s probably not going to land on the bestseller list. It’s just a light, fun little story – and isn’t that what you need during the holiday season?
With your typical girl-meets-girl, struggle-and-argument, wacky-plan-happy-ending format, author Becca Grischow tells a tale of friendship and romance and growing into the place in life that’s meant to be, which is a good but subtle reminder for some readers who need it. Grischow gives readers a cast of characters who are kind but authentic, fallible but trustworthy, and mostly pretty likable, too, which makes this an easy book to enjoy at just the right time.
If you haven’t found your holiday romance for the season yet, here’s one to look for beneath the mistletoe. Find “I’ll Get Back to You” and you’ll like it a lot.
‘I’ll Get Back to You’ By Becca Grischow c.2024, Penguin Books | $19 | 320 pages
SUV rundown: ‘tis the season for traveling 6 standouts whether trekking home for the holidays or taking daily commutes
By JOE PHILLIPS
Here are six standout SUVs from which to choose if you’re looking for a new ride this holiday season.
BMW X5
Price range: $67,000-$90,000
MPG: 23 city/27 highway
0 to 60 mph: 5.3 seconds
Cargo space: 72.3 cu. ft.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: With a base model nudging $70,000, the midsize BMW X5 costs a pretty penny. Yet this dream machine offers a choice of boffo engines, exciting handling and enticing features. Four trim levels, including a plug-in hybrid and gnarly M60i (a V8-powered ride that costs—yikes!—$20,000 more but scoots from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds). Spacious, too, with oodles of room. And if you’re jonesing for glitz, there’s a glass-trimmed shifter that looks like real crystal, massaging seats, panoramic roof with embedded LED lighting, rear window shades and more. There’s also the latest tech: 12.3-inch digital display, 14.9-inch infotainment touchscreen, wireless charger and 20-speaker Bowers & Wilkins stereo. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Drive one and see.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: Buick keeps hitting the high notes with its bravura designs, and the Encore—a sassy subcompact—is no exception. Surprisingly spry, with comfy seats, concise handling and a classy cabin. There’s beaucoup standard gear, including remote start, LED headlights, smartphone integration and the latest safety systems. Open your wallet a bit more to add larger wheels, 360-degree camera, handsfree liftgate, Bose audio and other niceties. A big plus: lotsa storage. Alas, not the peppiest engine, but capable enough
to not feel sluggish. Compared to upscale divas—Audi Q3, BMW X1,Mercedes GLA 250—the affordable Encore deserves, well, an encore.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: The third-gen Acadia, redesigned for 2024, is the best yet. This full-sizer is now larger, more potent and full of gizmos, including hands-free driving assist, wireless charging, Wi-Fi and more. For off-roading, there’s a tighter suspension, all-terrain tires and even a steel skid plate. My only beef was with the automatic braking system, which scared me silly the first time I was backing into a garage. The driver’s seat began vibrating and buzzing wildly, even though there was nothing nearby. Then the brakes slammed on—hard. Most vehicles only beep or apply the brakes when too close to an object. This, though, felt and sounded like a manic whoopee cushion. But yes, after driving the Acadia for a week, I missed having such a quirky alert on my next test vehicle.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: A glam ride on a gutsy chassis. Earlier this year I reviewed the mid-range Overland model. Now it was time for the top-of-the-line Summit Reserve. Mixing pizzazz, power and pampering, this gung-ho SUV spoiled me good. And at $69,000, it should. This is BMW X5 territory, yet the Jeep delivers virtually the same creature comforts and advanced safety monitors. The seats may not be as taut, but that’s a minor quibble. A trailer-tow package also can’t
be beat: automatic headlight leveling, load-leveling rear suspension, and heavy-duty cooling and electrical systems.
LINCOLN NAUTILUS
Price range: $52,000-$75,000
MPG: 21 city/29 highway
0 to 60 mph: 7.2 seconds
Cargo space: 71.3 cu. ft.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: Lincoln previously appealed mainly to Gramps and G-ma, but now the target is a younger crowd. For the midsize Nautlius, this means mod styling, a finely crafted interior and eye-popping features like a four-foot digital display. The ginormous screen is part of a sweeping dashboard that stretches onto the door panels. Handling and cornering are smooth yet sporty, especially in the new hybrid model. When the Nautilus was parked, I could indulge in some guilty pleasures with a multisensory setup that integrated the panoramic screen, surround-sound stereo, massaging seats and a fragrance diffuser into a truly spa-like ambiance. Nirvana, indeed.
SUBARU FORESTER
Base model: $29,000-$38,000 MPG: 26 city/33 highway 0 to 60 mph: 9.3 seconds Cargo space: 74.2 cu. ft.
WHAT’S TO LIKE: Solid, steady, a sure thing. Thanks to all-wheel drive, the Forester’s handling is excellent—especially in rain or snow. And even though this is no speedster— the powerplant is a tad pokey—the fuel economy outshines most rivals. My test drive was the midrange Sport model, which boasted 18-inch black-painted wheels, raised roof rails, foglights, tinted rear windows and an all-weather package with a windshield-wiper de-icer. Best of all: the cargo room was big enough for all my holiday shopping, including a very wicked outfit for my husband—my own Prince Fiyero.
BMW X5
BUICK ENCORE
GMC ACADIA
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
LINCOLN NAUTILUS
SUBARU FORESTER
Miss Gay D.C.
The 2024 Miss Gay D.C. pageant was held at Penn Social on Saturday, Dec. 14. Kofi was crowned the winner and qualified to compete in the Miss Gay America competition in Little Rock, Ark. in January.
crowned winner in drag pageant
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
A guide to LGBTQ-affirming holiday religious services in D.C.
Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa arrive next week
The holiday season has arrived, bringing with it family gatherings, chilly weather, and opportunities for spiritual connection. For those seeking inclusive spaces this season, here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of affirming religious services that warmly welcome and celebrate the LGBTQ community.
Jewish Services
By JOE REBERKENNY
On Dec. 27, Bet Mishpachah, Washington’s Egalitarian Synagogue that embraces diverse sexual and gender identities, is hosting its Shabbat Chanuka. Starting at sundown the Bet Mishpachah congregation will light their Menorahs to continue the celebration of Chanuka at the Edlavitch Washington DC Jewish Community Center (EDCJCC), located at 1529 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. The synagogue will also have a movie and Chinese food outing on Dec. 25 at 2 p.m. For more information visit betmish.org
On Dec. 25, the Ohr Kodesh Congregation (8300 Meadowbrook Lane) will host a Chinese food dinner and movie night for the first night of Hanukkah. Visit ohrkodesh.org for more information.
Christian Services
Augustana Lutheran Church (2100 New Hampshire Ave., N.W.) is hosting a Swedish Lutheran Church Nordic Christmas Eve Service on the 24th from 2:30-4 p.m. Later in the day, Augustana will also host its Christmas Eve Lessons & Carols from 7:30 to 8:30 in the sanctuary. For more information visit augustana dc.org.
On Dec. 22, the Lutheran Church of the Reformation (212 E. Capitol St., N.E.) will host its last Advent Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and again at 11 a.m. On Christmas Eve the Reformation is set to host two services: a family-friendly service at 4 p.m. and a “traditional” service at 7 p.m. In between the two services there will be a Choral Prelude at 6:30 p.m. For Christmastide on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 and Jan. 5, 2025, the church will host a service at 11 a.m. The full service is available at any time on the Reformation’s Facebook or YouTube account. For more information visit www.reformationdc. org
Metropolitan Community Church of Washington D.C. (474 Ridge St., N.W.) will host its Christmas Eve Service on Tuesday, Dec. 24 from 6-7:30 p.m. For more details, visit mccdc.com. Dumbarton United Methodist Church (3133 Dumbarton St., N.W.) will host Christmas Eve Worship from 5:30- 6:30p.m. available both in person and online. For more information and to join the Zoom service, visit https://www.dumbartonumc.org/
National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle, N.W.) will host a Christmas Eve Service beginning at 7 p.m. with Prelude Music and then the Candlelight Communion Worship at 7:30 p.m. For more details, visit nationalcitycc.org.
Christ Church on Capitol Hill (620 G St., S.E.) will host its children’s Christmas Eve Service at 11 a.m. on the front lawn with a petting zoo. At 4:30 p.m. the church will host a worship service with a Christmas pageant. At 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. the church will hold more worship services. Between the two late services at 10
p.m. there will be carols and music. For more details, visit washingtonparish.org.
Saint John’s Episcopal Church (340 O St., N.W.) will host a family service, Christmas pageant, Festival Holy Eucharist starting at 4 p.m. The second service begins at 7:30 p.m. with a Choral Prelude, followed by an 8 p.m. Festival Holy Eucharist with traditional Christmas Carols. On Christmas Day Saint John will hold a service at 10 a.m. For more details, visit stjohnsgeorgetown. org.
Washington National Cathedral (3101 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) will host a Family Christmas Service on Dec. 23 from 11 a.m. In-person passes are no longer available but can be watched via livestream. On Dec. 23 and 24 the Cathedral will host its Christmas Lessons & Carols service at 6 p.m. In-person passes are no longer available but the service can be watched via livestream. Christmas Eve services at 10 p.m. are also only available online as passes are no longer available. The Christmas Day service at 11:15 a.m. doesn’t require advance passes. For more details, visit cathedral. org.
Seekers Church (276 Carroll St., N.W.) will host a Christmas Eve service at 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. with Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols. For more details, visit seekerschurch.org.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (301 A St., S.E.) will have a Christmas Eve pageant and Holy Eucharist at 4 p.m. in the Nave. Then the church will hold Congregational Caroling at 8:30 p.m. right before the Christmas Festival Eucharist at 9 p.m. On Christmas day the church is holding a Holy Eucharist at 10 a.m. For more details, visit stmarks.net.
St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church (1830 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) will host Christmas Eve services starting with service at 5 p.m. followed by another service at 9 p.m. with a prelude between the two at 8:30 p.m. On Christmas Day the church will host services at 6 p.m. For more details and zoom login information, visit stmargaretsdc.org.
Kwanzaa
Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ (3845 South Capitol St., S.W.) will host a nativity scene on Dec. 22 at 10 a.m. On Dec. 29 at 10 a.m. the Covenant will hold its Kwanzaa service at 10 a.m. The service will feature reflections by seven members of Covenant on the principles of Kwanzaa. For more details, visit cbuccdc.org.
The Annual Umoja Candle-lighting Ceremony and Umoja Celebration by LCPAN will be held on Dec. 26, at the Metropolitan AME Church (1518 M St., N.W.) and will include African drum and dance performances, double dutch, spoken word, and more including dinner sales and an African marketplace. The program starts at 6 p.m. Call 202-529-3635 for more information.
The DC Kwanzaa Planning Committee is the coordinating committee for Kwanzaa celebrations throughout the Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Visit their site at kwanzaadc.org for a range of local events.
The National Cathedral hosts several holiday services next week, though some are only available for streaming. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
The night before closing
Happy holidays! Wishing you good health and happy closings in 2025
By VALERIE M. BLAKE
Although I’ve often written contracts and settled home sale transactions on holiday eves, I am winding up my business for 2024 a little bit early – this week, in fact. I have planned a well-deserved vacation after the first of the new year, but upon my return, I will be reading articles by real estate pundits, following interest rate fluctuations, keeping my ear to the ground, and anticipating what a change in administration will portend for the DMV real estate market.
So, I leave you with a column in verse, apropos for the season, with apologies to settlement attorneys and closing agents.
’Twas the night before closing, in an office downtown.
Two agents were stirring and running around:
Linda, the buyers’ rep, bold and astute, And the sellers’ rep, Robert, in his sharp, tailored suit.
The buyers were giddy, their excitement quite clear,
Would they be in their house by the start of next year?
The sellers, meanwhile, had been packing all day, Now exhausted and glad to be moving away.
Linda looked down at the phone in her hand,
And questioned how much more of this she could stand.
The pings came like sleighbells; her battery spent.
She wondered aloud where that missing file went.
As she tried to remember - had this been declared?
She then texted Robert, restating the plea, And the response that came back: “LOL. Not from me.”
Robert sat back and surveyed his domain, Feeling smug that his work had not been in vain.
Meanwhile, poor Linda was losing her cool, Dealing with buyers who broke every rule.
“Do NOT buy a couch! Don’t apply for a loan!
“If this deal falls apart, you will be on your own!”
“Don’t open a credit card! Don’t lease a car,”
“Or you’ll have to continue to live where you are.”
At the house, an inspector popped in for a peek,
And pronounced that the HVAC would die in a week.
And the funds transfer quickly was expertly fixed.
But Nick wasn’t finished; he said with a glare:
As midnight drew closer, more chaos ensued: An appraisal adjustment! A snowstorm was due!
The lender went silent, their system was fried,
A typo was found, and the printer had died.
Then out in the street, there arose such a clatter,
Both agents dashed out to see what was the matter.
A self-driving Tesla crashed into a pole, But they couldn’t see anyone there to console.
And then, on the sidewalk, a figure appeared,
In a blazer and boots, with his clipboard and beard.
The buyers erupted: “We need 20 grand!” And Linda just sighed with her head in her hand.
“Relax,” she said calmly, “We’ll get it repaired,”
His alpaca haircut, his teeth all aglow, It had to be Slick Nick, the settlement pro.
He carried a satchel, with papers galore, And his eyes had a twinkle as he neared the front door.
His stride was assertive, his voice was imposing.
“I get it. I’m early. I’m here for the closing.”
Nick adjusted his glasses, and gave things a glance,
“I’ve seen awful deals, but this one? Slim chance.”
“Enough of the drama, the last-minute stalls,
Let’s settle this now—no more late-night calls!”
He summoned the lender in a threatening voice,
“Explain yourself now--there is no other choice;”
The lender, chagrined, muttered “technical glitch,”
“You buyers and sellers - sit down in a chair!”
“Just sign all the papers while I make a call.
“Now wrap it up! Wrap it up! Wrap it up all!”
The signing all happened with relative ease, Then came pictures and handshakes, and transfer of keys.
The agents high-fived and sat back in their chairs,
Reflecting with pride on the day’s closed affairs.
The buyers were thrilled, their joy had no bounds.
“Can we now post on Insta? Announce to the town?”
The sellers smiled too, with a huge check in hand,
To build a new house on a large plot of land.
Linda just nodded, her patience worn thin, While wondering which closing was next to begin.
And Robert remarked on the goal they’d achieved,
Grateful the process had gone as conceived.
Then Nicky stood tall, his work finally done, And he grumbled, “Good grief, this one wasn’t much fun.”
He climbed back in his Tesla, his phone in his grip,
And he turned to the agents with one final quip:
“Let’s hear it for teamwork,” he said with a sneer,
“I’m off to join friends for a shot and a beer.”
Happy Holidays!
Wishing you good health, good times, and happy closings in 2025.
VALERIE M. BLAKE is a licensed Associate Broker in D.C.,
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