Volume 47, Issue 26, June 24, 2016

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
JUNE 24, 2016 VOLUME 47 ISSUE 26 AMERICAS LGBT NEWS SOURCE WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
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JUNE 24, 2016 03
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
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O RLA N D O
Obama, Biden travel to Orlando

President describes
massacre as attack on
the LGBT community
By MICHAEL K. LAVERS
[email protected]
ORLANDO, Fla. President Obama on
June 16 described the massacre at a gay
Orlando nightclub as an attack on the
LGBT community.
This was an act of terrorism but it was
also an act of hate, he told reporters
after he and Vice President Biden placed
bouquets at a makeshift memorial in
downtown Orlando that pays tribute to
the 49 people who died inside the Pulse
nightclub on June 12. This was an attack
on the LGBT community. Americans were
targeted because were a country that
has learned to welcome everyone, no
matter who you are or who you love. And
hatred towards people because of sexual
orientation, regardless of where it comes
from, is a betrayal of whats best in us.
Obama and Biden visited the memorial
after they met with the families of the
victims for about two hours at a nearby
arena in which the Orlando Magic play.
The president and the vice president also
met with survivors and the nightclubs
owners and staers who were working
when the gunman opened re.
For so many people here who are
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, the
PresidentBARACK OBAMAspeaks to
reporters in front of a makeshift memorial to
the victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre
in downtown Orlando on June 16.
WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL K. LAVERS
Pulse nightclub has always been a safe

haven, a place to sing and dance, and
most importantly, to be who you truly
are, said Obama.
The president noted that many of the
victims were from Puerto Rico.
Sunday morning, that sanctuary was
violated in the worst way imaginable,
said Obama.
Obamas remarks appeared to be
directed towards Florida Gov. Rick Scott,
who has come under re from activists
and their supporters for not specically
mentioning the LGBT community in his
public remarks about the massacre.

Scott described the massacre as an
attack against the gays in an exclusive
statement he gave to the Washington
Blade on June 14 after he visited the same
memorial from which Obama and Biden
spoke. CNNs Anderson Cooper directly
challenged state Attorney General Pam
Bondi over her opposition to marriage
rights for same-sex couples and other
LGBT-specific issues in Florida.
The fact that they cant even say
LGBT is incredibly oensive, Tim Evanicki,
entertainment manager at Parliament
House, a gay hotel and entertainment
complex near downtown Orlando, told
the Blade on June 14.
Obama spoke at the memorial three days
after presumptive Republican presidential
nominee Donald Trump reiterated his call
to temporarily ban Muslims from entering
the U.S. and suspend immigration from
areas when there is a proven history
of terrorism against the United States,
Europe and our allies.
The president earlier in the week
sharply denounced Trump over his
comments. The Human Rights Campaign
on June 16 organized a protest against
the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee as he arrived at a D.C. law rm
to give a deposition.
You cant make up the world into us
and them, and denigrate and express
hatred towards groups because of the
color of their skin, or their faith or their
sexual orientation and not feed something
very dangerous in this world, said Obama

as he spoke at the memorial. So if there
was ever a moment for all of us to reect
and rearm our most basic beliefs that
everybody counts and everybody has
dignity, now is the time, he added. Its a
good time for all of us to reect on how we
treat each other, and to insist on respect
and equality for every human being.
Obama in his remarks also reiterated
his calls for gun control.
Today, once again, as has been true
too many times before, I held and hugged
grieving family members and parents,
and they asked, why does this keep
happening? said Obama. They pleaded
that we do more to stop the carnage.
Obama traveled to Orlando hours after
Democrats ended a 15-hour libuster
to try to block gun sales to those on the
federal terrorism watch list. The president
in his remarks said he welcomed the news
that the Senate could vote on the issue
and on another proposed amendment
to a spending bill that would require
background checks for rearm sales at
gun shows and online.
I truly hope that senators rise to the
moment and do the right thing, said
Obama. I hope that senators who voted
no on background checks after Newtown
have a change of heart. And then I hope the
House does the right thing, and helps end
the plague of violence that these weapons
of war inict on so many young lives.
The gun control measures failed in the
Senate this week.
Susan Rice: Orlando massacre a jolt

Top Obama adviser praises
global response to attack
[email protected]
ORLANDO, Fla. National Security
Advisor Susan Rice told the Washington
Blade on June 16 that the global response
to the Pulse nightclub massacre is a direct
challenge to the so-called Islamic State
and those who foster hate and division
in the U.S. and abroad.
Orlando has been unbelievable
in showing the world who we are
as Americans, Rice told the Blade
during a telephone interview. It is the
counterpoint not only to ISIL, but those
who foster hate and division domestically
and abroad.
Rice spoke with the Blade shortly after
President Obama and Vice President
Bidenmet with the families of the victims
of the June 12 massacre and Pulse
nightclubs owners and employees who

were working when Omar Mateen of Fort
Pierce, Fla., opened re.
Obama described the massacre asan
attack on the LGBT community after he
and Biden visited a makeshift memorial
in downtown Orlando that pays tribute
to the 49 people who died inside the
nightclub.
Were just grieving for those who are
lost, Rice told the Blade.
No evidence to suggest gunman tied to
extremist group
The gunman pledged his allegiance to
ISISin a 911 call he made after he opened
re inside the gay nightclub, even though
there is no evidence to suggest the Sunni
militant group prompted him to carry out
the massacre.
Reports indicate ISIS, which is also
known as Daesh, has executed dozens
of men in Syria and Iraq who had been
accused of committing sodomy.
ARA News, an independent Syrian news
agency, reported members of the Sunni
militant group publicly stoned a 15-year-old

boy to death in the Syrian city of Mayadin
on May 23. An LGBT activist in the Libyan
city of Benghazi told the Blade last month
that ISIShas also killed gay menin areas of
his country under their control.
Their ideology is viciously, violently
homophobic, Rice told the Blade. Its
anti-everything.
She noted that the U.S. and 65 other
countries are part of a coalition that seeks
to ght ISIS and discredit and defeat
its ideology. Rice spoke with the Blade
hours before Iraqi Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi announced that his countrys
army had defeated the Sunni militant
group in the city of Fallujah.
There will be no caliphate, said Rice.
There will be no glory for those killing in
the name of ISIL.
Obama last week sharply criticized
presumptive Republican presidential
nominee Donald Trump for reiterating
his call to temporarily ban Muslims
from entering the U.S. and suspend
immigration from areas when there is

a proven history of terrorism against the
United States, Europe and our allies.
Rice did not mention Trump by name
when she spoke with the Blade. She did,
however, note there are those who still
hate all sorts of people in our society and
there are those who dont view us as a
single body of humanity.
This is a jolt, Rice told the Blade,
referring to the Pulse nightclub massacre.
What we are seeing sadly more recently is
an infusion of hate-lled rhetoric into public
discourse and a greater degree of attention
being paid to it and then in some peoples
mind it becomes more acceptable.
She added she looks at what happened
inside the gay nightclub through the
lens of an African-American woman
over 50 years old with a lot of horror or
chagrin harkening back to an era that was
thankfully ending when I was a child.
Hate crimes are not new in this
country, Rice told the Blade. Theyve
been sadly directed at all sorts of groups.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
O R L ANDO
JUNE 24, 2016 05
Nearly 2,000 attend Orlando vigil in Dupont Circle

Speakers called for end
to religion-based bigotry
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
[email protected]
An estimated 2,000 people lled
Dupont Circle on June 15 for a candlelight
vigil commemorating the 49 people who
lost their lives and the 53 wounded in the
shooting massacre at the Orlando, Fla.,
gay nightclub Pulse.
The event, which was organized by the
LGBT Catholic group Dignity Washington,
included more than a dozen speakers from
local churches and faith-based organizations
who said they wanted to join the LGBT
community to mourn the loss of the mostly
LGBT Latino and Latina patrons at Pulse.
With hundreds holding lit candles,
Dignity Washington President Vin Testa
opened the vigil by calling for 102 seconds
of silence to commemorate the 49 people
killed and the 53 wounded during the
Orlando incident.
Speakers then read the names of the
victims as the audience called out the
Spanish world presente, or present,
after each name was read.
Several of the speakers, including Dignity
USA ocial Allen Rose, called for an end
to the condemnation of LGBT people by
religious leaders of many denominations
that they said most likely prompted lone
gunman Omar Mateen to target a gay
nightclub for his shooting rampage.
The FBI and Orlando police have said
Mateen called 911 during his attack on
Speakers denounced religious bigotry at a Dupont Circle vigil on June 15.

the nightclub and told a dispatcher that he

supported the radical Islamic group ISIS.
It is becoming clear that the perpetrator
of this evil was responding, at least in
part, to religious based homophobia that
he internalized, said Rose.
Many of us here are actively involved in
religious denominations that still preach
negative and dehumanizing things about
LGBTQ people, he said. I pray that all of
us who are involved in these churches
commit to redoubling our eorts to seek
justice by getting our denominations to
arm the gift and lives of LGBTQ people.
Similar to a Dupont Circle vigil
commemorating the Orlando gay nightclub
tragedy held on June 13, speakers at this
vigil called for solidarity between the LGBT
community and the Muslim community,
saying they would do all they could to

denounce eorts to scapegoat Muslims
for the Orlando incident.
Darren Phelps, pastor of Bethel Christian
Church of D.C., drew loud applause and
cheers when he cited his own relationship
with his church as an example of how
LGBT people can and should be a part of
their communities of faith.
The truth is I was in that club at one
point in my life, he said. Im out. Im gay.
Im black. Im same-gender-loving and Im
a Christian pastor, he shouted.
You cannot silence me with the Bible
that you read from because my Bible
points to a God of love and grace that is
for everyone. Enough is enough, he said.
Its time for these bully pastors to stop
using the pulpit to bash people.
The vigil which began at 8 p.m.,

followed an LGBT community dialogue
held several blocks away at the Foundry
United Methodist Church, which drew
more than 200 people.
Ocials with the D.C. Center for the
LGBT Community and Whitman-Walker
Health, who were among the LGBTsupportive groups that organized the
event, said it was aimed at providing a
safe place for LGBT people to express
their feelings about the Orlando tragedy.
Lesbian activist and psychologist
Patricia Hawkins told the gathering that
the grieving process over an incident like
a mass killing sometimes brings about
depression and other mental health
issues and those who experience them
should seek out support from friends
and family and possibly counseling or
therapy from a licensed mental health
professional if needed.
Other speakers at the event announced
that trained counselors were present
and would be pleased to talk to anyone
attending the community dialogue forum
who wished to approach them.
All of you have had experiences with
grief in your life, Hawkins said. But this
is dierent. It is an act of violence against
a community.
Hawkins said that although everyone
has their own way of dealing with grief, she
cautioned that in some cases the grieving
process could lead to post traumatic
stress disorder, which should be treated
by a mental health professional.
CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
Va. Pride festival honors Orlando massacre victims

Event took place with
increased security,
police presence
[email protected]
NORFOLK, Va. Hampton Roads Prides
annual Pride Fest took place on June 18
against the backdrop of increased security
in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub massacre.
Volunteers searched the bags of those
who entered Norfolks Town Point Park
in which the festival took place. Hampton
Roads Pride said ina statementthat it was
working closely with the Norfolk Police
Department and state and federal agencies
to support the safety of our events.
We didnt consider for a moment
not continuing, Hampton Roads Pride
President Michael Berlucchi told the
Washington Blade during the festival.
This festival is a celebration of the rich
diversity of our community and it makes

Hampton Roads a better place to live.
Berlucchi told the Blade that he
expected a record 30,000 people would
attend this years Pride Fest.
Hampton Roads Prides annual Pride
Boat Parade on the Elizabeth River was
among the events that took place on
June 18. Many of the boats paid tribute
to 49 people who died inside the Pulse
nightclub in Orlando, Fla., six days earlier.
Ohef Sholom Temple, a Reform Jewish
synagogue in Norfolk, placed a wooden
memorial on its boat. It contained 49 candles
in honor of each of the massacre victims and
a handwritten slogan with the Pulse Nightclub
emblem that read, Love has a pulse.
Community groups and businesses
that took part in Hampton Roads Pride
also paid tribute to the Pulse Nightclub
massacre victims.
Its extremely important that we
are here, Claus Ihlemann, who owns
Decorum, a furniture store in Norfolks
Ghent neighborhood with his husband,

Robert Roman, told the Blade. If we
pulled back and showed fear than people
like the guy who assaulted the people in
Orlando (would) end up winning.
Congressman Bobby Scott, state Sen.
Lynwood Lewis (D-Accomack County),
Norfolk Mayor-elect Kenny Alexander and
Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms and
members of the Virginia Beach Human
Rights Commission were among those
who spoke at Hampton Roads Pride.
A member of U.S. Sen. Mark Warners
(D-Va.) sta read a statement on his behalf
to the crowd. Berlucchi also read letters he
received from Virginia Gov. Terry McAulie
and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
I stand with you, said state Del. Scott
Taylor (R-Virginia Beach) as he spoke
from the stage.
The Virginia Beach Republican, who is
a former Navy SEAL, defeated incumbent
Congressman Randy Forbes earlier this week
in the newly redrawn 2nd Congressional
Districts Republican primary.

Leaders in Virginia stand with you
because the attack in Orlando was not
just an attack on the gay community, said
Taylor. It was an attack on all Americans
and what we stand for and our freedom
and tolerance and being able to live our
lives the way that we want to in happiness.
Hampton Roads Pride also presented a
scholarship in honor of Xulhaz Mannan,
a prominent LGBT activist in Bangladesh
who was hacked to death by members
of an al-Qaida branch in his home in the
countrys capital of Dhaka on April 25.
Mannans nephew, Raj Islam, who is
a member of the Virginia Beach Human
Rights Commission, said from the stage
that his uncle was killed because of his
work elevating and validating the LGBT
community in Bangladesh.
His work touched and enabled
members of the community to come out
through Internet dark sites and through
peaceful protests, Islam said.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
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D.C. gay clubs say security measures in place

Businesses express
solidarity with Pulse
nightclub victims
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
[email protected]
Representatives of D.C.s LGBT nightclubs
and bars and an ocial with an organization
representing them said last week they
have been preparing for incidents like
the Orlando gay nightclub shooting that
claimed the lives of 49 people.
Longtime gay nightlife advocate Mark
Lee, who serves as executive director of
the D.C. Nightlife Hospitality Association,
said his organization provides regularly
scheduled training sessions in the eld
of security to most of the citys popular
nightlife establishments, including those
catering to the LGBT community.
According to Lee, his association cohosted a brieng for club owners and their
security personnel in January in which D.C.
police and the citys Homeland Security
Bureau joined the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and the FBI in presenting
updated recommendations on measures to
prevent and respond to situations similar to
the Orlando shooting incident.
Lee said the Association also arranges
for a security training consulting rm to
provide ongoing training sessions for
security personnel and other employees
of D.C. bar and nightclub establishments.
He said the next session is scheduled for
July 25-26.
Its an intensive, two-day, 12-hour
program, Lee said. Its very hands on,
practical and interactive, he said. And
it provides certication in the training
program for managers, owners, operations
sta, and door and security personnel who
are sometimes known as bouncers.
Several D.C. gay clubs, including Town,

issued statements expressing solidarity with
the customers, sta and owners of Pulse.
WASHINGTON BLADE FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
In the aftermath of the Orlando tragedy,

several D.C. gay clubs issued statements,
some on Facebook, expressing solidarity
with the customers, sta, and owners
of Pulse nightclub, the Orlando gay
establishment where the shooting
rampage took place.
Ocials with the gay clubs Town
Danceboutique, Cobalt, JR.s, and Green
Lantern said they have stepped up
existing security procedures following the
Orlando incident. David Perruzza, general
manager of JR.s, joined ocials at Cobalt
and Green Lantern in not allowing
customers to bring bags into their clubs.
Already people trying to bring bags in,
Perruzza said in a Facebook posting on
June 12. Seriously people dont put me
in the awkward position today to tell you
no if youre a regular customer, he said.
Cause I am not bending the rules.

Town issued a statement on June
13 outlining its longstanding security
measure that includes multiple video
cameras and the presence of uniformed
D.C. police ocers outside the clubs
main entrance. The statement says
the club also has a number of policies
and procedures in place that we do not
discuss publicly as divulging those details
would undermine their eectiveness.
Capt. Cheryl Crawley who oversees the
D.C. police LGBT Liaison Unit, stated in
an email to LGBT activists last week that
ocers with the LGBT unit have been
assigned to monitor LGBT clubs on a more
frequent basis since the Orlando attack.
Channing Phillips, the United States
Attorney for D.C., issued a statement on
June 14 expressing condolences over
the Orlando shooting and pointing to his

oces ongoing eorts to work with the
local LGBT community to combat antiLGBT violence, including hate crimes.
Together with our law enforcement
partners, we will do all that we can to
assist the LGBT community during this
troubling time and to strengthen safety
and security, Phillips said.
Lee said the nations capital is lled with
places that are potential targets for attacks,
including the Metro system and other
public spaces such as parks and plazas.
I would suggest that because of the
attentiveness, training, and security
awareness and just practical control over
their environment that, in fact, the citys
restaurants, bars and nightclubs are
among the safest public spaces in the
city, Lee said.
Burned rainbow ag at D.C. restaurant replaced

Vandalism took
place after Orlando
nightclub massacre
By HUGH CLARKE
From left,Jason Keller,James WoodsandMorgan Tepper(DJ Lisa Frank) display the new
rainbow flag for Bourbon.
WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY HUGH CLARKE
Members
of
the
community
presented Bourbon with a new rainbow
flag during a gay-in at the 18th
streetestablishmenton June 17.
James Patrick Woods, the owner of the
Adams Morgan bar,had reported thelarge
rainbow ag he hung from a pole attached
to his restaurants outside wall was set on
re and destroyed sometime during the
early morning hours of June 12.

Everything is completely uplifting, said
Woods upon receiving the new ag. The
community has given a quick response.
The community has shown fortitude and
courage through this whole thing.
Jason Keller, a friend of the owner,
added, last Saturday was such a
celebration for the city anywhere you
went there was just pure celebration. For
[the vandalism]to happen is just sad.
After the installation of the new ag,
one of those in attendance could be heard
shouting, make Bourbon gay again!
Bourbon then opened its second oor
bar to the LGBT community and allies to
dance and mingle.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
O R L ANDO
JUNE 24, 2016 07
Republicans acknowledge LGBT victims of Orlando massacre

GOP lawmakers remain
mum on rights
By CHRIS JOHNSON
[email protected]
In the aftermath of the Orlando
shooting, many Republicans who oppose
LGBT rights are recognizing LGBT people
in an unprecedented way, but theres no
evidence theyre willing to advance legal
protections as a result.
High-ranking Republicans, including
presumptive Republican presidential
nominee Donald Trump and U.S. House
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), were among
those who said LGBT people were victims
at a gay nightclub shooting that left 49
people dead and 53 wounded, which likely
marks the rst time individuals in their
positions have used the LGBT acronym.
Although Ryan initially omitted the
victims identity in a statement condemning
the shooting, he made clear LGBT people
were the target in subsequent remarks to
reporters, according to a report inthe Wall
Street Journal.
Lets be clear: This was another act
of war against America by radical Islam,
Ryan said. At the same time lets also be
clear members of the LGBT community
were the targets. They were simply
attacked for who they are. This is an
ideology that rejects who we are as a
country: open, tolerant, free.
In fact, Ryan enumerated LGBT
people when criticizing the Obama
administration for its now reversed
decision to omit references to the socalled Islamic State in the transcript of
Orlando shooter Omar Mateens call to
911 at the time of his attacks.
Selectively editing this transcript is
preposterous, Ryan said. We know
the shooter was a radical Islamist
extremist inspired by ISIS. We also
know he intentionally targeted the LGBT
community. The administration should
release the full, unredacted transcript so
the public is clear-eyed about who did
this, and why.
After the attacks, Trump also identied
LGBT people as targets as the Orlando
shooting making the claim he would be
better for LGBT Americans that his rival
Hillary Clinton as he made the case for
his plan to ban Muslims from the U.S. and
temporarily suspend immigration from
parts of the world when there is a proven
history of terrorism against the United
States, Europe or our allies.
A radical Islamic terrorist targeted the
nightclub not only because he wanted to
kill Americans, but in order to execute
gay and lesbian citizens because of their
sexual orientation, Trump said. It is a
strike at the heart and soul of who we are
as a nation. It is an assault on the ability
U.S. House SpeakerPAUL RYAN (D-Wis.)has

recognized the LGBT victims of the Orlando
shooting, but made no new commitment on
legal rights.
of free people to live their lives, love who

they want and express their identity.
Mitt Romney, who made support for
a U.S. constitutional amendment that
would ban same-sex marriage nationwide
part of his 2012 presidential campaign,
also identied LGBT people on Twitter as
the victims of the attacks.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott identied both
gay people and Latinos as the victims of
the attacks in an exclusive statement to
the Washington Bladeafter he paid tribute
by laying down owers at a makeshift
memorial in downtown Orlando.
This was an attack against the gays,
an attack against Hispanics, an attack
against our country, our nation and its
disgusting, Scott told the Blade.
At a vigil for victims, Utah Lt. Gov.
Spencer Cox apologized to LGBT people,
saying his heart has changed in the
aftermath of the shooting.
I regret not treating them with the
kindness, dignity and respect, the love
that they deserved, Cox said. For that, I
sincerely and humbly apologize.
But while these Republicans identied
LGBT victims, many others, including
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen.
Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Susan
Collins (R-Maine), declined to enumerate
them as the target. The Republican
National Committee initially issued a
statement that decried violence against
any group of people simply for their
lifestyle or orientation, but it was later
redacted online.
Moreover, none of the Republicans
who identied LGBT victims have made
new commitments to support LGBT
rights or repudiated opposition to them.
Ryans oce didnt respond to the Blades
request to comment Wednesday on
whether the speaker would allow LGBT
rights legislation to move to the House

oor in the aftermath of the shooting.
Days after the shooting, House Rules
Committee Chair Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
blocked a proposed amendment from
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) to a
defense spending measure that would
have protected President Obamas 2014
executive order prohibiting anti-LGBT
discrimination among federal contractors.
Even after the tragic shooting in
Orlando, giving LGBT Americans basic
workplace protections is simply too much
for House Republican Leadership they
refuse to even allow a vote, Maloney said
in a statement. Americans deserve to
know where their representative stands
on discrimination its time to stand
up and be counted. Speaker Paul Ryan
rigged the vote, rigged the bill and then
changed the rules to rig the process in
order to protect discrimination, even in
the aftermath of Orlando they should
be ashamed.
After asserting he would be better than
Clinton on LGBT rights, Trump unveiled
a 26-member evangelical advisory board
that consists of a whos who of individuals
who have sought to undermine LGBT
rights. A top of the list of members is
former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.),
who made opposition to LGBT rights a
cornerstone of her political career.
Gregory Angelo, president of Log Cabin
Republicans, nonetheless said hes seen
a new commitment from Republicans on
LGBT issues even before Orlando, pointing
to 43 GOP members of Congress whovoted
in favor of LGBT non-discrimination
amendment to a spending bill before the
underlying measure wasscuttled.
The direct acknowledgement of the
LGBT community in the aftermath of
the Pulse nightclub shooting shows that
Republicans want to be compassionate,
and are working to become uent in

the way they discuss LGBT issues with
members of our community, Angelo said.
Angelo said Republican congressional
oces that had never had any deep
relationship with Log Cabin contacted
the organization for suggestions on how
to address the LGBT community with
respect and compassion in the aftermath
of Orlando.
He declined to identify the oces,
saying that information is condential.
Thats encouraging, and hopefully
indicative of where the Party is heading,
Angelo said. The rst step toward ghting
discrimination is acknowledging it.
According to Buzzfeed, Rep. Charlie
Dent (R-Pa.) is preparing to introduce a
Republican-led LGBT nondiscrimination
bill before the end of next month that will
have signicant religious exemptions to
make it more palatable to his colleagues.
It remains to be seen whether this
measure will advance in the Republicancontrolled Congress.
TJ Helmstetter, spokesperson for the
Democratic National Committee, said
Republicans have scapegoated and
attacked our community whenever
they havent been ignoring us and any
recognition of LGBT victims in Orlando
must be coupled with actions to advance
LGBT rights.
Republican politicians have yet to
join Democrats in the 21st century in
advancing equality, Helmstetter said.
If the Republican Party wants support
from LGBT voters, then they should
immediately allow a vote in Congress
on the Equality Act and they need to
disavow their support for anti-gay and
anti-trans measures like HB2 or so-called
religious freedom legislation that allow
businesses and government employees
to discriminate against us.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
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O RLA N D O
Covering a massacre in the Happiest Place on Earth

Worst mass shooting
in modern U.S. history
was personal
[email protected]
NAGS HEAD, N.C. The beach has
always been a place that has brought me
solace and peace.
Some of my best early childhood
memories were made at my paternal
grandparents bay front house in Quincy,
Mass., that had an unobstructed view of
the Boston skyline. I drove to a beach in the
Florida Keys last month after I returned from
Cuba in order to write about the human
rights abuses that I sawwhile on assignment
in the Communist island. I was at Coquina
Beach in North Carolinas Outer Banks on
June 19, a week after a gunman killed 49
people inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
It was shortly after 7 a.m. on June 12
when I read a WhatsApp message from an
activist in Jerusalem who asked me, What
is going on Orlando? I initially thought
he was referring to Christina Grimmie,
a singer on The Voice who was shot to
death in Orlando two days earlier as she
was signing autographs outside a theater
where she had just performed. I turned on
MSNBC and saw a breaking news report
about a shooting at a gay nightclub.
Ocials announced that at least 20
people died inside the Pulse nightclub.
The news grew steadily more grim
throughout the morning.
My partner and I were among those
who marched inthe annual Capital Pride
Parade through Dupont and Logan Circles
less than 24 hours before the massacre
took place. I had been scheduled to work
at the Washington Blade booth at the
Capital Pride Festival on June 12, but I
instead found myself at Ronald Reagan
National Airport shortly after noon about
to board a 1:45 p.m. ight to Orlando. I
was in the city that is known around the
world as the Happiest Place on Earth
less than three hours later.
The next ve days were nothing short
of heartbreaking.
Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the
GLBT Community Center of Central Florida,
could barely speak through his emotion
when I interviewed him shortly after he and
other activists, clergy and service providers
held a press conference in Orlando on
June 12. A local television station a few
hours later broadcast live images of body
bags that contained the victims of the
Pulse nightclub massacre being placed
onto gurneys. Florida Gov. Rick Scott and
state Attorney General Pam Bondi caused
further heartbreak and outrage by
not specically mentioning the LGBT
A large American ag has been placed behind the picture of a gay couple who died inside the Pulse Nightclub at a memorial in downtown
Orlando, Fla.
WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL K. LAVERS
community in their public comments about

this unspeakable tragedy.
There is absolutely nothing that a
reporter can possibly learn in journalism
school that will prepare him or her to
adequately cover the deadliest mass
shooting in modern U.S. history. There
is absolutely nothing that a reporter
can possibly learn in journalism school
that will prepare him or her to properly
interview someone who lost their loved
one or friend to a senseless act of violence.
There is absolutely nothing that a reporter
can possibly learn in journalism school
that will prepare him or her to adequately
cope with the emotional toll that such a
story will inevitably take on them.
The Pulse nightclub massacre was also
personal.
I am openly gay man who writes for
the countrys oldest LGBT newspaper.
I go out to gay bars and clubs in D.C.
and elsewhere including when I am
on assignment overseas when my
schedule permits. I had also worked with
Eddie Sotomayor, one of the 49 victims

who died inside the Pulse nightclub, on a
story that I wrote in April about the rst
cruise ship to sail from the U.S. to Cuba in
more than 50 years.
I broke down several times while in
Orlando, including each time that I visited
the makeshift memorial between City
Hall and the Dr. Phillips Center for the
Performing Arts. Outrage towards Scott
and Bondi over their failure to publicly
acknowledge the LGBT community
increasingly consumed my thoughts
as the days passed. I also felt anger
and disgust towards a certain White
House aspirant who claimed to speak
on my behalf in the days after the Pulse
nightclub massacre.
These emotions and conicting feelings
came to the fore on June 16 when
President Obama and Vice President
Biden traveled to Orlando.
I was among the four reporters the
White House asked to be part of the local
press pool for the president and vice
presidents visit.
I was about 50 feet away from Obama
and Biden when they placed bouquets
with 49 owers at the same memorial at
which I had broken so many times over
the last ve days. I vowed to myself that I
would not cry in front of the president, but
that personal pledge became moot when
Obama mentioned a gay Pulse nightclub
massacre victim who once said, We cannot
be afraid, inhis remarksto the assembled
press pool.
I didnt hear the last paragraph of
Obamas comments because I was
sobbing. A fellow member of the press
pool who realized I had broken down put
her hand on my back to console me.
Orlando was anything but the Happiest
Place on Earth during the ve days I was
there to report on the deadliest mass
shooting in modern U.S. history. I very
much look forward to the opportunity to
return to Orlando and report on eorts
to reclaim and rearm this moniker for
which is known around the world.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
O R L AN DO
JUNE 24, 2016 09
Local Latino community hit hard by Orlando shootings

Mourning dovetails
with resolve in
massacres aftermath
By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO
[email protected]
We asked members of the D.C.-area
LGBT Latino community to weigh in on
the Orlando tragedy and the issues they
face at the intersection of race and sexual
orientation.
California native Martin Garcia, 30,
came to Washington eight years ago and
works as director of campaigns for the
Latino Victory Project. Jose Plaza, also from
California, has been in D.C. four years.
Hes a doctoral student and is president
of the Latino GLBT History Project, an
organization founded 10 years ago by Jose
Gutierrez, a medical case manager and
LGBT and AIDS activist whos been in D.C.
since 1993. Maria Alejandra Baltuano grew
up in the D.C. area and works in youth
organizing and education issues. They all
identify as gay except for Baltuano, 26,
who identies as queer.
On the D.C.-area Latino community:
GARCIA: Very strong, a very large and
vibrant community. Every time Im at a
Latino night or a GLBT History Project event
Im always amazed at the turnout. Were
helpful, intentional, conscious. We always
invest in each other and lift each other up.
PLAZA: We have a really strong
network of social activism here and I think
because D.C. is so small and a lot of the
Latinos here know each other, its easier to
be active. But theres also a bubble here in
the world of policy and politics and I think
one of the key dierences is that we also
have Latinos who are laborers who are
not part of the D.C. political hype. It allows
us to deal with issues of housing, labor,
immigration and nd examples right up
the street in Columbia Heights of people
who dont have the policy connections.
BALTUANO: We have Maracuyeah, a DJ
and live music collective, here that is really
about creating safe spaces for queer women
of color. Its really hard to be a Latinx woman
of color because the gay culture in D.C. is
so male dominated. We need those queer
spaces to be our truest selves. Theres a lot
of leadership and organizing for social justice.
A lot of people coming together to end police
violence, brutality and discrimination, to end
all borders, raise the minimum wage here
in D.C., (work on) educational justice and so
on. There are queer women of color here
pushing the envelope.
Your reaction to the Orlando
tragedy:
GUTIERREZ: I am still very sad, upset,
devastated and in pain. Especially last
Wednesday when I read some of the names
Hundreds braved the rain on June 16 to attend an Orlando fundraiser at Town Danceboutiqe.
of the victims during a healing service at

Foundry Church. I didnt know any of the
victims, but my love and support are the
same for all, the families, our community
and all the victims of Orlando.
BALTUANO: My initial reaction
last Sunday was just crying. I couldnt
stop. Even now, I choke up. I was just
devastated and just wanted to be around
other queer Latinx folks.
The atmosphere at the victim
fundraiser at Town Danceboutique on
June 16:
GARCIA: It was such an overwhelmingly
positive response. It was raining that night
and to still see that amount of people who
turned out in droves to just feel community
and remember the brothers and sisters we
lost and be in that space, and just see how
they did not hesitate to donate whether
it was $2 or $100, it was just an amazing
experience for me, to see the love and
strength and support we have.
PLAZA: I was moved to tears as I sat
in the background with (Town owner)
Ed (Bailey). It was amazing how resilient
the LGBT community and the Latinx
community was in our ability to come
together and say, Not one more. Not
in our house. (Plaza says between 600800 attended the event which raised
about $32,000 for Equality Floridas Pulse
Victims Fund. Visit latinoglbthistory.
org to donate. Another event is being
held Tuesday, June 28 from 7-10 p.m. at
Commissary, located at 1443 P St., N.W.)
On why a fundraiser was important:

PLAZA: People need to be aware of
the challenges the Latinx community
faces. Thats why we said right up front,
it needed to be a fundraiser. I think close
to $5 million has been raised. That may
sound like a lot, but if you think about
dividing that up among a hundred victims,
its nothing. A hospital bill alone can be
$100,000 or more. You have the bodies
of undocumented victims that need to be
shipped back. Their families cannot come
here and pick up the bodies. What about
the mother who left behind 11 children?
Forty-thousand dollars is nothing for
them. These are issues we deal with on
a daily basis.
On LGBT integration within the
Latino community:
PLAZA: We have to rally together
because we dont have the luxury of
having a lesbian bar, a bear bar and so
on. We have one space that is welcoming
for all because thats the only thing we
can aord. Often when you step into a
Latinx club, if you think about it, its really
not a Latinx club. Its a place that has a
Latinx party once a month at one of the
clubs. So when those nights are held, all
our community comes out.
BALTUANO: Even that event at Pulse,
that was one night a week for a few hours.
Its not like they had that club available to
them anytime. So, you know, as people of
color, as immigrants and queer people,
we go to those places that have events for
us and thats why you saw such diversity

among the victims.
PLAZA: You dont see a lot of Latinx
people at Cherry or Bear Happy Hour
and all that. Theres a strong I dont
really want to say underground, but there
are Latinx parties that are thriving with
dierent club promoters. They might be
out in Maryland or in Columbia Heights, but
there is a sense of community there that
isnt quite mainstream. Its where our drag
performers are coming out of. There is a
queer community in D.C. that exists outside
of Nellies and Town and its important that
we recognize that its completely queer.
Its almost like the early days of the gay
movement with Stonewall these are
promoters and restaurants opening up their
businesses after hours as a dance oor.
GUTIERREZ: Theyre like community
centers, our houses, our temples, our
supporters, our organizers, our place to be
and meet friends and spend quality time.
On the impact of the Orlando tragedy
vs. other recent mass shootings:
GARCIA: Theyre all horric tragedies
Sandy Hook, Aurora and many others.
But being in this progressive community,
in this progressive space, as the details
unfolded, it denitely struck a deeper
chord. I could easily have been in that
club that night.
GUTIERREZ: I felt sadness and pain
for all the incidents, but my reaction was
more intense considering the Latino LGBT
community was targeted. My feelings of
frustration were magnied. We need to
change the laws around guns and ries.
On contributing factors:
GARCIA: If youre looking for any sort
of common denominator in the factors,
in terms of whether it was a hate crime
or a terrorist attack or he was mentally
ill, the underlying premise to all that is
hate, whether it was systemic or cultural
or societal, he clung to something that
led him to do this. Whether were talking
about gun reform or heightened security,
we have to continue to not try to turn this
horric, horric event into a means of
spreading more hate in the world.
BALTUANO: This was denitely not
just some random, isolated event. Yes,
the shooter was killed and the media has
tried to make it out to be some isolated
act of terrorism, but its an act of hate.
Of transphobia, of homophobia, of
xenophobia. It may not happen to us 50
people at once, but it happens all the time.
Were losing black trans women every day
and its troublesome and scary to think
about this happening at this magnitude
again but I feel all this xenophobia is
especially stirred up right now because
of the presidential election. What Donald
Trump is saying is hate speech, the way
he speaks about black, Latinx and Muslim
people. Were not being seen as people.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
1 0 J UNE 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
O RLA N D O
LGBT Muslims feel Orlandos double sting

Rejection comes from
many sides, locals report
By MARIAH COOPER
[email protected]
When news broke of the Pulse
nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., Sahar
Shafqat and her partner were preparing
for Iftar, the time when Muslims break
their sunrise-to-sunset fast during
Ramadan. The couples family and friends
sent messages asking if plans for the Iftar
celebration should be cancelled. Shafqat
couldnt imagine not getting together
after such a tragic event.
We responded by saying, Of course
not. If there was ever a time where we
should all be with each other, it was
absolutely on that Sunday. So we all did
actually meet that night, Shafqat said.
Shaftqat serves as a committee
member for the Muslim Alliance for
Sexual and Gender Diversity and helped
organize a vigil for the victims because
she was extremely sad and grieved by
the tragedy.
Individuals who spoke with the
Washington Blade within D.C.s gay
Muslim community are heartbroken by
the shooting, but also feel driven to stand
against homophobia and Islamophobia.
One seemingly universal thought spoken
by a few members of the community is
there is no fear surrounding D.C.s gay
bars and clubs.
Yassir Islam, co-founder of local South
Asian LGBT support group KhushDC, says
he has been enjoying D.C.s gay nightlife
ever since moving to the area 25 years
ago. He says the events in Orlando wont
change how he approaches spending
time in gay bars or clubs.
Its not going to aect me at all. You
cant hide and you cant stay in because
these things happen. You have to just get
out there and do what you need to do
and enjoy your life, Islam said.
Shafqat enjoyed the local nightlife in
the past and plans to continue. However,
Shafqat said because of her many
identities, nding a safe space is always
fragile.
I am Muslim, I am queer, Im also
an immigrant, Im also not white and
a woman.There are so many spaces
where Im not armed and accepted so
I think that I will continue to go, but will
denitely be mindful. This has basically
been a reminder that there are no safe
spaces especially for someone like me,
Shafqat said.
Urooj Arshad, associate director for
International Youth Health and Rights, has
been advocating for LGBT communities of
color, especially regarding issues such as
Islamophobia and violence, for 17 years.
A gay muslim at a world Pride event in London in 2012. Local queer Muslims say they feel
rejection from both the Muslim and LGBT communities.
PHOTO BY SU-MAY; COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA
Arshad said the timing of the Orlando

massacre was particularly sensitive for
gay Muslims because it happened during
Pride and Ramadan.
Arshad has noticed people in the LGBT
Muslim community checking on one

another and having a heightened sense
of concern for each others safety because
of the dual issue of homophobia and
Islamophobia. Arshad fears it could lead to
long-term isolation of the community from

other groups, yet she has also witnessed a
more positive outcome from the situation.
Ive talked to people who are saying,
I wasnt out but I want to be out now.
Its making people more personable.
Its totally a personal choice and its not
always the safest, but it seems like folks
are more wanting to be out and seeking
each other out in this way, Arshad said.
Worries about the D.C. communitys
reaction weigh on Shafqats mind.
D.C. being such a political town, I think
were such a political city that its even
more dicult in our city to not encounter
people who dont have an opinion on
what happens. Which means we are
kind of even more on edge about what
somebody might think about us or might
falsely generalize about our community,
Shafqat said.
On a more global scale, the rst
European-Islamophobia
Summit
takes place this weekend in Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina. European
and U.S. leaders will discuss the extent
of
Islamophobia
across
dierent
countries, policy practices to ght against
Islamophobia and the signing of a joint
Istanbul-Sarajevo Declaration, which will
arm a commitment to combatting antiIslam hate crimes in both cities.
Participants will include former British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw; Chairman of
the BosnianPresidencyBakirIzetbegovic;
Founder of Mdecins Sans Frontires
Bernard Kouchner; international media
anchor Mehdi Hassan; and the Grand
Mufti of Sarajevo, Husein Kavazovic.
Back at home, the need to dialogue
with dierent communities about both
homophobia and Islamophobia is
important to the co-founder of KhushDC.
Were caught between a rock and
hard place because as gay Muslims we
are rejected by other Muslims and then
also as gay people we then face prejudice
from the larger straight community as
well, Islam says.
Islam says he thinks queer Muslims
need to speak with mainstream Muslim
organizations about accepting them. But,
he also urges queer Muslims to speak
within the gay communities to advocate
for change as well.
We just have to be more vigilant and
engage more, but also make sure our
voices get heard. Because even within
the gay community its not always that
progressive. It can also be dominated by
white men and so minority voices often
dont get heard within the discourses
of the gay community, Islam said. So
within the gay community we have to
step up and say, You know what? Were
queer and were Muslim. It works for us.
We found a way and we need to have a
greater voice.
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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
LO C A L NEW S
JUNE 24, 2016 13
Comings & Goings

New faces at HRC; Agers joins Brother Help Thyself
By PETER ROSENSTEIN
The Comings and Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us
at [email protected].
A fundraiser at Town netted $31,875 for Pulse victims.

Fundraiser yields
$31,000 for Orlando
massacre victims
Town and Latino GLBT
History Project organized
June 16 event
By LOU CHIBBARO JR
[email protected]
A fundraiser held at D.C.s gay nightclub
Town Danceboutique and organized jointly
by Town and the Latino GLBT History Project
on June 16 raised $31,875 for a special fund
established in Florida to help families of
the 49 victims of the mass shooting at the
Orlando gay nightclub Pulse.
The statewide LGBT advocacy group
Equality Florida created the Pulse Victims
Fund to provide assistance to the families
and other surviving loved ones of the
victims of the largest mass shooting in
modern U.S. history.
Community leaders in Orlando have
said most of the victims were members of
the LGBT Latina and Latino communities

who assembled at Pulse for the clubs
weekly Saturday Latino night dance party.
Organizers of the fundraiser at Town
said $31,875 raised came from individual
donations from attendees, donated
bartender tips and 100 percent of all bar
sales at Town.
That is certainly a solid number to be
proud of and now we want to take the
weekend to see if we can double it, a
statement released by organizers says.
Please join us this weekend and make
any contribution you can to the eort,
the statement says. Collection jars will
be at the front door and behind the bars.
Organizers said collection jars will be
stationed at Town and the two other D.C.
gay bars owned by Towns owners
Number Nine and Trade.
Contributions for the fundraising drive can
also be made through the Latino GLBT History
Project at latinoglbthistory.org/donate.
There are new faces at Human Rights

Campaign.
Sarah McBride was set to join the team
this week as national press secretary for
the HRC Foundation, supporting various
programs and campaigns designed to
increase understanding of LGBT issues
and encourage LGBT-inclusive policies in
schools, the workplace, health care facilities
and faith communities, HRC ocials said.
McBride
was
campaigns
and
communications manager for the LGBT
Research and Communications Project at
SARAH MCBRIDE
PHOTO COURTESY OF MCBRIDE
the Center for American Progress. There
she managed a diverse portfolio and has
routinely represented the organization on
multiple media platforms.
Shes a native of Wilmington, Del., and
serves on the board of directors of Equality
Delaware, the states primary LGBT advocacy
and educational organization. McBride
helped lead and served as the primary
spokesperson for the successful eort to
add gender identity and expression to her
states non-discrimination and hate crimes
laws during the 2013 legislative session.
She has also worked for Gov. Jack Markell
(D-Del.) and former Attorney General Beau
NICK MORROW
PHOTO COURTESY OF MORROW
Biden (D-Del.).
McBride is an American University
graduate. She was student body president
there and came out as transgender in the student newspaper. She was the rst
openly trans woman to intern at the White House.
Nick Morrow will be press secretary for HRCs Project One America, a
comprehensive, multi-year campaign to dramatically expand LGBT equality in
the South through permanent campaigns in Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
Morrow returns to HRC from SKDKnickerbocker, where he worked on a range
of high-prole issue campaigns and corporate projects. He has previously worked
with HRC for several years and was an integral part of HRCs communications
eort to win nationwide marriage equality and helped launch HRCs Project One
America in 2014.
He has a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Tennessee
and a masters degree in global communication from George Washington
University.
Julius Agers has joined the board of Brother, Help Thyself as secretary. He
was recently honored with the 2016 Engendered Spirit Award by Capital Pride.
Agers is a transgender man active in the local and national LGBTand twospirited communities. He has served as vice president of political aairs for
the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and currently serves on D.C. Mayor Muriel
Bowsers Advisory Committee to the Oce of LGBTQ Aairs.
I was thrilled when Julius accepted my call to serve as BHTs Secretary,
said Jim Slattery, Brother Help Thyself president. He is a legend in the LGBTQ
community both locally and across the country and we look forward to working
with him in this capacity.
Agers said the organization does such great work. He hopes to build strong
relationships with his fellow Brother board members.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
1 4 J UNE 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
NEWS
Draft D.C. constitution would allow anti-LGBT ballot measures

Ban on referenda to
overturn anti-discrimination
laws being considered
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
[email protected]
In a development that some believe was
an oversight, a panel of lawyers appointed
by Mayor Muriel Bowser to prepare a
draft D.C. statehood constitution omitted
language from existing city law that
prohibits voter referenda that would repeal
nondiscrimination protections provided
under the D.C. Human Rights Act.
Some observers have said the proposed
constitution, as currently written, would
eectively repeal a clause in a 1978 law
amending the D.C. City Charter to prohibit
ballot measures that would take away
nondiscrimination protections, including
protections for LGBT people.
The law, which has been on the books
for 38 years, empowers the citys Board
of Elections to refuse a ballot measure if
the measure authorizes, or would have
the eect of authorizing, discrimination
prohibited under Chapter 14 of Title 2
[the D.C. Human Rights Act].
The draft constitution calls for retaining
all existing city laws at the time D.C.
converts from a city to a state except

for those that are modied by the
constitution. Since the draft constitution
modies the citys existing law establishing
a voter initiative and referendum process,
sources familiar with the constitution
have said the more limited wording in the
constitution would prevail.
The D.C. City Council passed the
Initiative,
Referendum
and
Recall
Procedures Act of 1978 at the request of
LGBT rights activists, including the late gay
rights leader Frank Kameny. He argued
that the law was needed to prevent a
situation in D.C. that occurred in Dade
County, Fla., a short timer earlier in which
voters overturned a gay rights law at the
urging of singer and Florida orange juice
promoter Anita Bryant. The city of Miami
is located in Dade County.
In 2010 the statute was successfully
invoked by the city to prevent anti-gay
advocates led by Bishop Harry Jackson
to place the citys newly passed samesex marriage law on the ballot in a
referendum calling for its repeal. The law
banning discriminatory ballot measures
was upheld by the D.C. Court of Appeals
and the U.S. Supreme Court after Jackson
and a team of conservative lawyers
challenged its validity in a lawsuit.
The question of whether the
proposed constitution includes a ban on

discriminatory ballot measures comes
at a time when most political observers
believe a statehood petition accompanied
by the nal draft of the constitution
would be dead on arrival in the current
Republican-controlled Congress.
Bowser and members of the City
Council have joined statehood advocates
in expressing hope that chances for
statehood will improve next near if
Democrats retain control of the White
House and gain control of Congress in the
November election.
In an eort to advance statehood
for the city, the D.C. Council in 2014
created the New Columbia Statehood
Commission as a body charged with
mapping plans to submit a petition to
Congress in 2017 applying for statehood
for New Columbia, the name chosen for
the proposed state. The commission
consists of the D.C. mayor, City Council
chair, the citys two shadow senators and
its one shadow representative.
In response to an inquiry from the
Washington
Blade,
Beverly
Perry,
senior advisor to the mayor and a sta
advisor to the New Columbia Statehood
Commission, which approved the current
draft of the constitution, pointed out in
an email that the draft includes language
that prohibits voter initiatives that

authorize discrimination.
Perry was referring to Article VI, Section
1a of the draft constitution, which states,
The term initiative means the process
by which the citizens may propose laws
(except laws appropriating funds or
authorizing discrimination) and present
such proposed laws directly to the voters
of the state of New Columbia for their
approval or disapproval.
Perry noted that the language in this
section would ban initiatives that propose
new laws with anti-LGBT provisions.
But she acknowledged that Section
1b of Article VI in the draft constitution
establishes a referendum process for
repealing laws that does not include
any restrictions on the repeal of antidiscrimination laws such as the D.C.
Human Rights Act, which prohibits
discrimination against LGBT people and
other minorities.
Section 1b states, The term referendum
means the process by which the voters of
the state of New Columbia may repeal acts
of the House of Delegates. This provision
shall not apply to emergency acts, acts
levying taxes, acts appropriating funds or
advisory referenda.
Head Ocean City lifeguard apologizes for anti-trans email

Resorts government
criticized Capt. Butch
Arbin
By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
[email protected]
The head of the Ocean City, Md.,
beach patrol apologized last week after
news surfaced that he sent a June 12
email to more than 80 beach employees
instructing them to use the locker room
that corresponds to your DNA.
Capt. Butch Arbin, who has been a
lifeguard in the popular beach resort
for 40 years, told his beach patrol sta
in a follow-up email that his rst email
was aimed at non-transgender male
employees, including lifeguards, who were
using the womens locker room because
the male locker room was overcrowded.
Although people familiar with the
beach patrol say no problems have
surfaced involving trans employees, at
least some employees were oended by
Arbins comments in his initial email on
June 12, according to an employee who
asked not to be identied.
We are NOT Target, Arbin wrote in his
email, in a reference to the widely publicized
policy of Target stores that allow employees

and customers to use the bathroom that
corresponds to their gender identity.
USE the locker room that corresponds
to your DNA, Arbin continued in his
email, a copy of which the Washington
Blade obtained from someone who
received it from Arbin. IN plain words,
Males use the Mens locker room ONLY!
Females use the Womens locker room
ONLY! the email states.
If youre NOT SURE go to Target.
Patrick Paschall, executive director of the
statewide LGBT advocacy group Free State
Legal-Equality Maryland, said that although
Arbin didnt specically use the word
transgender, his message came across as
oensive and demeaning to trans people.
Arbin issued his apology after several
local and state news media outlets received
his email presumably from one or more
employees who were troubled over it.
The apology also came after a
spokesperson for the Ocean City
government issued a statement criticizing
his email message.
We are disappointed with his actions
and in no way do his comments represent
the town of Ocean City or the ocial city
policy, said Jessica Waters, the citys
communications manager.
While I cannot discuss personnel
matters in detail, I can assure you that we

take this matter seriously and the situation
will be addressed administratively, she
said, suggesting that Arbin could face
disciplinary action.
In the rst of two emails expressing
regret for his initial email, Arbin stated on
June 14 that he used humor to make his
point about restricting use of employee
locker rooms to the appropriate gender.
The males that have used the womens
locker room are not using out of necessity
or because they are identifying as a
woman, he said. They are using it out of
convenience and this was not the purpose
in establishing two separate locker rooms
in our new headquarters.
Arbin added: I was ONLY looking out
for the women of the patrol and was
not attempting to put down any group
or individual, only (to) maintain a nice
facility for the women who choose to use
a gender specic facility, he said.
In a follow-up email that same day,
Arbin said, My careless attempt at
humor was inappropriate and in poor
taste. I hope you will accept this heartfelt
apology and allow us to move forward,
with a positive and more tolerant attitude
for each other, our colleagues, our
residents and our guests.
City ocials noted that the Ocean City
policy toward trans people is consistent

with Marylands recently enacted state
law that bans discrimination based on
gender identity and expression.
Fortunately, were really glad to hear
that the city of Ocean City acted quickly
and appropriately, Paschall told the
Blade this week.
They claried that their policy is not
the policy he stated and that they in fact
follow the states law regarding shower
and locker room access for employees,
he said. They called his comments
inappropriate and they said publicly
that they were going to take appropriate
action to reprimand him.
Paschall said his group is recommending
that the city require Arbin and other
employees to undergo training on how
to comply with state law regarding trans
employees and how to interact with the
transgender community in ways that are
instructive and inclusive.
Although Free State Legal-Equality
Maryland is pleased with Ocean Citys
response, Paschall said he was troubled
over a June 17 editorial published by
Ocean City Today, a local newspaper,
which
argued
that
critics
were
overreacting to Arbins email.
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1 6 J UN E 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
NEWS
Marriage resistance persists after Obergefell ruling

Roy Moore insists decision
does not apply to Ala.
By CHRIS JOHNSON
[email protected]
The rst anniversary of the U.S.
Supreme Court decision that brought
marriage equality to the entire country is
on Sunday, but there are areas in which
same-sex couples face challenges in
obtaining a marriage license.
Although the decision is overwhelmingly
enforced throughout the U.S., the South
remains a region where in some places
same-sex couples arent assured a
marriage licenses despite the decision
in Obergefell v. Hodges nding that said
banning gay nuptials is unconstitutional.
Jasmine
Beach-Ferrara,
executive
director of the Campaign for Southern
Equality, said same-sex couples by and
large are able to marry in the South,
but LGBT people in the region still face
discrimination as a result of state laws
that undermine their rights.
A year into marriage equality we see
two competing realities in the South,
Beach-Ferrera said. On the one hand,
same-sex couples are marrying across
the South, living more openly and
experiencing increasing support. But at
the same time, anti-LGBT politicians are
devising laws like HB 1523 in Mississippi
and SB 2 and HB 2 in North Carolina
that are a backlash to Obergefell and that
Resistance to same-sex marriage remains in certain pockets of the country.

target the LGBT community for continued

discrimination.
LGBT
Southerners
navigate the tension between these
realities everyday in countless ways.
Alabama
Alabama is the state where obstruction
to same-sex marriage is the most
pervasive. According to the American
Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, 12 of the
states 67 counties are still not granting
marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Of these 12, 11 counties Choctaw,
Washington, Marengo, Clarke, Covington,
Geneva, Pike, Bibb, Autauga, Elmore and
Cleburne are enforcing a no licenses
policy to all couples, gay or straight, in
the aftermath of the decision. Another

county, Coosa, is issuing licenses, but
says its unable to grant them to same-sex
couples because of technical diculties.
Brock Boone, sta attorney for the
ACLU of Alabama, said she was told by the
clerk these technical diculties started
around the time of this same-sex stu.
I asked her in December when they
plan to x it, and she was unsure, Boone
said. I asked in February when it has
no been xed, again she was unsure.
Then I asked in June, still unsure and no
plans for it to be xed. They have been
marrying opposite-sex couples since
Obergefell, but have not married any
same-sex couples.
Unlike other states, Alabama has
seen additional confusion despite the

Obergefell decision as a result of now
suspended state Chief Justice Roy Moore
and the Alabama Supreme Court insisting
federal court decisions on same-sex
marriage dont apply to the state. Even
after the U.S. Supreme Court decision
was handed down, the Alabama Supreme
Court in March refused to withdraw its
order against same-sex marriage.
U.S. District Judge Callie V. Granade, who
issued the initial ruling in favor of samesex marriage in Alabama,issued an order
earlier this month clarifying marriage
equality has come to the state despite the
failure of the Alabama Supreme Court to
set aside its earlier mandamus order.
Despite the order, Boone said there
is no indication that after the latest
ruling these counties will now issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples,
but additional litigation could happen
once we have a couple willing to serve as
plaintis.
North Carolina
In North Carolina, an obstruction to
marriage equality is Senate Bill 2, which
enables magistrates in the state to opt
out of performing marriages if they
have a religious objection. Invoking the
opt out means a magistrate cannot
perform any marriage, gay or straight, for
a six-month period. After the six months
passes, the exemption can be renewed.
Bill to loosen gay blood ban introduced

White House defends
one-year deferral policy
By CHRIS JOHNSON
[email protected]
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) has
introduced legislation in Congress that
would loosen the ban on gay and bisexual
men donating blood.
The two-page bill, dubbed the Deliver for
Our Nation at Times of Emergency Act, or
DONATE Act, would require the Department
of Health and Human Services to provide
for increased exibility in the blood donor
supply at times of national or local need.
It was a horric irony that gay and
bisexual men could not donate in a time of
local need, Honda said in a statement. This
is not a problem of science; its a problem of
morality. Its time for the secretary to use
her authority, while respecting all safety
controls, to give our local blood banks
resources today so they can respond to the
demand of tomorrow.
Honda introduced the legislation days
after a horric shooting at a gay nightclub in
Orlando, Fla., that killed 49 people LGBT
and overwhelmingly Latino and wounded
53 others. According to the Florida-based
group One Blood, there was an urgent need
for O-negative, O-positive and AB-plasma
blood donors following the incident.
Under policy implemented by the
Food and Drug Administration, gay and
bisexual must abstain from sex with other
men for a year to be eligible to donate
blood. The policy, implemented late last
year, replaces a lifetime ban instituted in
1983 at the height of the AIDS crisis that
prohibited men donating blood if they
had sex with a man even once.
Hondas proposal falls short of calls
from LGBT advocates to replace one-year
deferral with a blood donation policy
that evaluates potential donors on an
individual risk basis without taking into
account sexual orientation.
A Honda aide said the lawmaker
supports lifting the ban entirely, but the

legislation was drafted with the impact of
the Orlando shooting in mind.
This legislation sends a clear message
that the secretary should be more
proactive during and accountable for
meeting local and national needs, the
aide said. By elevating the debate to the
secretary, the congressman is hopeful
we can get better answers to questions
about blood shortages and disparities in
blood screening requirements.
The legislation has no co-sponsors, but
the aide said Honda intends to send a
dear colleague to colleagues next week
to collect them.
Among the supporters of the bill are
Equality California, National Gay Blood
Drive, the National Center for Lesbian
Rights and California Assembly member
Evan Low.
Ryan James Yezak, executive director
of the National Gay Blood Drive, said
his organization proudly supports the
DONATE Act.
As long as there is a discriminatory policy

in place that reduces the available pool of
potential blood donors, then there should
be a way to ensure that donors who are
unnecessarily deferred can contribute to
the blood supply in critical times of need,
Yezak said. The safety of recipients is the
number one priority. Blood collected under
the DONATE Act would still follow FDA
standards, ensuring the safety of recipients
as is done under normal conditions.
The Washington Blade has placed
a request in to comment on Hondas
proposal with the Department of Health
and Human Services and the White House.
White House Press Secretary Josh
Earnest last week defended the one-year
deferral for donation of blood from gay and
bisexual men as based on scientic advice.
That is a policy change that was made
consistent with the advice of our best
scientists and public health professionals,
Earnest said. The president believes that
when it comes to these kinds of questions
that were going to rely on scientic advice.
Keep your promise to protect each other.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
BA L T I MO RE N E W S
J U N E 24, 2016 17
Baltimore police bolster security efforts
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In the wake of the massacre at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June
12, the Baltimore Police Department has taken steps to reassure the local LGBT
community. At vigils, which took place on June 12-13, BPD Commissioner Kevin
Davis reassured community members that the Department stands behind the
community in solidarity.
Davis released a letter to the members of the LGBT community that was posted to
BPS Facebook page and Twitter account that said, As with all acts of terror and mass
shootings, we are reminded of our vulnerabilities and that such evil acts can occur
anywhere. While there s no immediate threats against Baltimore, we are providing
additional attention and dedicating assets to the Citys LGBTQ bars and nightclubs.
Davis stated he is oering the local gay establishments a security assessment
conducted by experienced BPD personnel. The experts can oer advice
regarding security infrastructure, security plans and camera systems.
He listed Lieutenant Jerey Shorter as a contact (Jerey.Shorter@
baltimorepolice.org) for businesses seeking this service.
However, Don Davis, owner of Grand Central, is not likely to take up the oer
as he prefers to employ his own security.
We have now taken extra precautions with anyone carrying any kind of bag;
we now check them, Davis said. I think we all need to move forward and live
our lives. We cannot let these random acts change our lives.
This summer, Carroll County Public Schools will form a committee to evaluate
regulations concerning transgender students in the school system. Based on
a directive contained in a Dear Colleague letter from the U.S. Department of
Education and the U.S. Department of Justice on May 13 and an opinion released
on May 25 from the attorney general of Maryland, which states that Maryland
public schools should comply with the directive, Superintendant Stephen Guthrie
is moving forward, according to the Carroll County Times.
Guthrie wrote in an email on June 16 that the committee will review all policies,
regulations, procedures and practices to ensure that they comply with the Dear
Colleague letter. That letter states, according to the Times, public schools must
allow students to use restrooms that correspond to their gender identity or risk
losing federal funding, and also addresses other related issues.
Assistant Superintendent Steven Johnson will head the committee, which will
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The Times states that Johnson plans to divide the committee into six
subcommittees focusing on specic issues. Among them would be bathrooms and
locker rooms, overnight eld trips, student dress codes, athletics, student records
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and any other policies that dont t into the other ve categories,PROOF
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SALES REPRESENTATIVE: BRIAN PITTS ([email protected])
Joy Fisher, president of the Westminster-Carroll County chapter of PFLAG,
wishes to be a member of the committee. She told the Times, We are very
REVISIONS
pleased with what has transpired. Its very encouraging.
REDESIGN
Anne Stoner, the chapters vice president and an instructional assistant
for
the
TEXT
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district, told the Blade that she is very encouraged by the superintendents
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statement and email and has been asked to serve on one of the subcommittees.
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We
liability, loss, damages, claims, or causes of action, including reasonableMoDel
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oW
She had spoken to Johnson regarding the necessity to have LGBT community
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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
18 J U N E 24, 2016
H E A LT H N E W S
Increased HIV testing reported for UK gay men

LONDON More gay and bisexual men than ever are getting tested for HIV,
according to new data from the National Gay Mens Sex Survey, News Medical
reports. The survey is the largest of its kind in the UK and sheds light on the
sexual health of men who have sex with men.
The survey found that 77 percent of gay and bisexual men have been tested
for HIV, more than in surveys from previous years (in 2010, this stood at 72
percent). More than half (55 percent) of gay and bisexual men had been tested
in the past 12 months, compared to 36 percent in the 2010 survey, the article
notes.
However, one in four gay and bisexual men have never had an HIV test, while
one in three (36 percent) are not denite about their HIV status. The research
also found that only 60 percent of those surveyed were happy with their sex life,
with the over 65s most likely to be happy with their sex lives, and men in their
40s least likely to be happy, News Medical reports.
This major new survey was carried out by Sigma Research at the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. More than 15,300 men took part to build a
picture of sex between men in the UK and what men need to stay safe. The UKs
leading HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust commissioned the
report as part of the HIV Prevention England program, funded by Public Health
England, News Medical reports.
Ignorance about how HIV is and is not transmitted were fairly common. One
in ve men were not condent that even deep kissing cannot pass on HIV, and
one in four were not aware that eective HIV treatment reduces the risk of HIV
being transmitted, the study found.
The survey showed that condom use continues to be an issue. One in three
sexually active gay men had unprotected anal sex with at least one non-steady
partner in the past 12 months, News Medical reports.
Fla. county considers converstion therapy ban

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Palm Beach County, Fla., could become one of the
rst communities in Florida to ban conversion therapy for children, a practice
in which therapists attempt to change a persons sexual orientation or gender
identity, the Sun Sentinel reports.
County Mayor Mary Lou Berger said Tuesday she would support the ban if
county legal sta determines its within the County Commissions authority. The
Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, an advocacy group, is pushing for
county commissioners to take up the issue, the Sentinel reports.
It is still something licensed practitioners here in Florida can do, Rand Hoch,
president and founder of the council, told the Sentinel. Other states have taken
position this is not good medicine, not good psychology. This is actually harmful.
If successful, the county would become the rst county in Florida to ban
conversion therapy for people under the age of 18, according to Equality Florida,
the states LGBT advocacy organization. Eorts to pass a ban at the state level
have failed in the Florida legislature and Miami Beach is the only local government
board to prohibit conversion therapy for minors, according to the group.
Equality Florida receives reports every few months of children being forced
to undergo conversion therapy, but no statewide tracking exists on how often
it occurs, said Mallory Garner-Wells, the organizations public policy director,
according to the Sun Sentinel.
As far as people reaching out to us, we do hear about it pretty regularly,
she was quoted as having said. Its such a dangerous practice to force minors
to go into conversion therapy. If policies like this one could help just one or two
children, its absolutely worth it.
Gay teenagers have been told in counseling sessions they are not actually
gay and can change, Garner-Wells said. The therapy stresses being a true man
or a feminine woman, playing up traditional gender notions, she told the Sun
Sentinel.
Conversion therapy is not taught in accredited psychiatric or mental health
training programs, and leading medical groups have denounced it. The American
Psychological Association has concluded trying to change someones sexual
orientation can cause depression, suicidal thoughts and substance abuse.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
FI T NES S
J U N E 24, 2016 19
Getting started
Dont postpone tness and health
Many times in tness articles and
blogs, we experts focus on specic
training modalities or how to maximize
your workout, but rarely outside of the
month of January do we address how
to get started.
Improving your tness, like most
things
in life, can be quite a daunting
GERARD BURLEY is a D.C.-based personal
task for most people who have been
trainer. Reach him via @CoachGFit or coachg@
coachgtness.com.
out of the routine a while or who have
never gotten into a routine. It feels like
you are looking at a 20-foot pile of dirt and youre there with a spoon preparing to
start shoveling. This is how I feel when I need to clean my house, so I get it.
Many times the process starts with questions like, Where do I start? and How do
I start? and ends with frustrating thoughts of, I cant do this and, This isnt for me.
The frustration can lead you back to the comfort zone of unhealthy foods and the
negative cycle continues without progress. Well, have no fear. Im going to lace you
with my three best tips to help you get moving in the right direction on to a healthier
happier you.
Theres no right time: Ill start on Monday, has to be the most common lie I hear
people tell themselves. January is no better time to start getting t than the rest of the
year, yet most people wait until the new year to start their tness and wellness plans.
Weve all used these excuses in various aspects of our lives, but truth is that the right
time is as soon as you get that thought that you need to focus on your health.
Steve Jobs said to always follow your instincts because they somehow always know
where you truly need to be. That inside voice is the navigation GPS of your soul telling
you its time, so take that as a message to get it going as soon as you hear it. As a
trainer, I have only heard one regret repeatedly among clients across the board and
thats that they shouldve started this process earlier. At the end of the day in life, we
can regain everything except time. The earlier you decide with conviction that this
is the time for you to make a change, the more time you will live a happier, more
complete life.
Start how you start: Theres no wrong way to eat a Reeses and theres also no
wrong way to start your path to tness. When people ask my advice on what type
of training they should participate in I rst ask them, What do you like to do? What
exercise plan you choose and stick with has a lot to do with your personality and what
moves you. The biggest thing we want to achieve in the beginning is building exercise
consistency. Its important you nd something that matches your personality type
and will keep you coming back even through the hard times.
Before starting, think about what drives you and motivates you in other aspects of
your life. If youre driven by competition, then nding a program with digital feedback,
a scoring system or activities where you are matched against other participants may
be a great way to motivate you to do your best. If youre inspired by working together
in a fun environment, you may want to try dance tness or other group tness classes
geared toward building the group as one. Once you get into the routine of staying
active, your next step is to nd a few workouts that are out of your comfort zone and
dierent from the ones that you vastly enjoy. Having that balance and variety in your
workouts will keep you progressing and avoiding plateaus.
Build a disaster plan: You have insurance in every aspect of life just in case stu
doesnt go right, but when building a tness, nutrition or wellness plan, people rarely
think about that what if. What if a month down the road you fall o the plan? Whats
the plan then? Will you hire a personal trainer? Will you call in a therapist to help you
to stay focused on the mental side? If you fall o on the nutrition side, maybe its time
to order some healthy delivery meals to make it easier to eat healthier. Whatever
your plan is, have a reboot plan to come into play just in case things dont work like
you thought they would. Its very important to remember that we all have fallen out of
shape or o of our nutrition plans, but those who can get back on the wagon always
have a system to propel them back on the path to success.
The dierence between success and failure can really be a matter of having a
few tools prepped in your wellness tool box including having backup plans. Staying
healthy, t and well is a lifelong mission that many people each year continue to fail at
because they lack the support and planning to get to their goals. The most important
thing to remember is that this race is a marathon not a sprint. Always get started
and no matter how many times you fall down, its never too late to get back up. Stay
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Will we ever be truly equal?

Orlando raises questions
about just how far weve come
KEVIN NAFF is editor of the Washington Blade

and can be reached at [email protected].
It starts at an early age. Usually in elementary or middle school with kids saying, Thats so gay in a derogatory manner, uncorrected by parents and teachers.
From there it escalates. To the playground, bus stops and school hallways
where LGBT students rst encounter
overt and violent displays of homophobia
and transphobia.
In preparation for college, Ive had students ask me if they should self-identify
as LGBT on resumes and college applications, whether to list membership in Gay
Straight Alliances and other LGBT-specic
organizations. Already, the calculating begins.
The process starts anew while hunting
for that rst job. Yes, even in 2016 in
industries as diverse as nance and construction. Do you come out during the
interview process or stay closeted and
quiet until youre in the door and getting
rid of you would be something of an HR
problem?
All that bigotry stoked and armed by
legions of politicians mostly Republicans who have cynically used social
issues for decades to court former rural,
southern Democrats to the GOP cause on
promises of attacking minorities. Abortion restrictions for women. Voter ID
laws for African Americans. Immigration
restrictions for Hispanics. Marriage bans,
bathroom bills and religious freedom
laws for LGBT people. The Republican
establishment may yet live to regret that
strategy, which led to short-term success,
but that ultimately deposited Donald
Trump at their doorstep. After all those
bigoted, empty promises to mostly poor
white Americans, the GOP failed to stop
marriage equality. Or the success of a
two-term black president. Or end abor-
tion or thwart immigration. They failed

and those voters nally gured out they
were being exploited by a Republican Party that didnt really care much about those
issues. Instead of returning America to a
1950s straight/white/Christian utopia for
those voters, the GOP exported their jobs
overseas and gutted the middle class
while enriching their Wall Street masters.
So now theyre pissed o and prefer the
chaos of a Trump administration to four
more years of Bush-Romney-McCain status quo.
What does this have to do with Orlando, which will haunt our movement and
our nightmares for years to come? Orlando didnt occur in a vacuum. It didnt
spring forth from the mind of a crazy, disconnected lone gunman. It took years to
nurture that kind of hate. Years of our society tolerating anti-gay name calling and
bullying. Years of political attacks on our
right to work free of discrimination. Attacks on our right to marry. Or to serve in
the military. Decades of messaging from
political and religious leaders that we are
less than. Second class. Other.
After the Obergefell ruling just one year
ago, we got carried away and naively believed wed won. That everyone loves the
gays now. Every straight couple now has
a fun gay couple next door that they barbeque with on the weekends, right? Were
nally accepted and equal, right?
Processing Orlando is a struggle. We

all know intellectually that the proper response is love to love those who hate
us. To endure the taunts and insults and
bullets with a patient smile, knowing
were on the right side of history and that
our time will inevitably come.
But the devil on my other shoulder
isnt so sure. Will they ever really accept
us? Will we ever be truly equal? Are we
forever relegated to second-class status?
Remember that the Obergefell ruling was
decided by a single straight, white guy
Anthony Kennedy in a 5-4 decision that
could just as easily have gone the other
way. We thought the courts were catching
up to popular opinion, but maybe we got
it backward. Maybe the courts are leading
the charge and the people arent ready
for the sight of two men kissing after all.
So after years of political and religious
messaging that LGBT people dont matter, and fears that the gays (as Florida
Gov. Rick Scott refers to us) were getting
ahead of themselves after Obergefell, the
backlash arrives. In the form of religious
freedom bills. And states defying the
Obama administration directive on trans
bathroom access. And a gunman targeting one of our sacred spaces for an unprecedented massacre.
I still hope that love will conquer hate.
But its going to take a lot longer than we
thought.
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JUNE 24, 2016 21
Will marriage ruling help in Texas abortion case?

Outcome could force closure
of 75 percent of state clinics
By CAMILLA TAYLOR
When the U.S. Supreme Court took the
bold step last year of striking down all remaining laws banning same-sex couples
from marrying, it may have also created a
path to victory for the womens health providers behind Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, the most important abortion rights
case in decades.
That case likely to be decided this
month seeks to strike down two provisions of a Texas anti-abortion law that could
force 75 percent of Texas abortion clinics to
close. That would leave just nine clinics open
in a state where women are already forced
to drive hundreds of miles, contend with
long wait times and pay high nancial costs
to access their constitutional rights. If the law
stands, many of Texass 5.4 million women of
reproductive age would lose access to their
rights altogether.
In arming a womans fundamental right
to abortion, the Supreme Court has historically looked to the Constitutions Due Process
Clause, which protects individual liberty and
autonomy against government interference.
The test for whether restrictions on abortion
violate due process is whether those restrictions amount to an undue burden on abortion access.
However, the Supreme Court now has additional justication for striking down abortion restrictions like the Texas law, thanks
to last years Obergefell v. Hodges decision

securing the freedom to marry for same-sex
couples as well as two other recent landmark rulings vindicating the civil rights of lesbian and gay people, United States v. Windsor and Lawrence v. Texas.
Many scholars (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
among them) have argued for decades that
the right to an abortion is an issue of sex equality. As a result, the right is guaranteed under
not only the Due Process Clause but also the
Equal Protection Clause. Thats because abortion restrictions impact not only a womans autonomy, but also her ability to participate fully
and equally in society relative to men.
Laws restricting abortion access implicate
equality because of the unequal organization
of work and family roles in our society, which
continue to reect deep and enduring dierences in gender roles, and double standards
in sex and parenting. Control over whether
and when to give birth disproportionately
aects womens health and sexual freedom,
ability to enter and end relationships, education and job training, and ability to negotiate
work-family conicts in institutions organized
on the basis of traditional sex-role assumptions. As Justice Ginsburg wrote in 1984:
Society, not anatomy, places a greater
stigma on unmarried women who become
pregnant than on the men who father their
children. Society expects, but nature does not
command, that women take the major responsibility ... for child care and that they will
stay with their children, bearing nurture and
support burdens alone, when fathers deny
paternity or otherwise refuse to provide care
or nancial support for unwanted ospring.
group of equal dignity. Followed to its logical

conclusion, Obergefell requires that courts
reject unduly burdensome abortion restrictions because they violate both liberty and
equality guarantees.
Even apart from Obergefell, the history of
LGBT rights in our country provides valuable
lessons with respect to womens access to
abortion. People who have an abortion
whether members of the LGBT community
or not experience something familiar to
all LGBT people: stigma. This stigma causes
many to feel as though they must conceal
that they have had an abortion eectively
keeping them in the closet.
Courts have recognized this dynamic in
equal protection cases involving lesbian and
gay people by carefully scrutinizing the legislative justications for laws targeting them.
Equality principles similarly require courts
to carefully scrutinize the legislative justications for abortion regulations to determine
whether they serve their stated purposes,
and whether those purposes have a basis
in fact not just because the Due Process
Clause requires it, but because the Equal
Protection Clause does, too. In the case of
Whole Womans Health, the court should see
through the states false justications and
rule in favor of womens equality and dignity.
Even though Justice Ginsburg wrote those

words 30 years ago, gender inequality in parenting responsibilities has endured. Furthermore, those who exercise their constitutional
right to abortion historically, around one in
every three women by the age of 45 often
face signicant stigma. Because abortion restrictions both reect and reinforce double
standards and sex stereotypes, these laws
subordinate women as a group relative to
men and deprive them of equal personhood.
In Obergefell, the court struck down marriage bans not only because they violated the
fundamental right to marry (protected by the
Due Process Clause), but also because they
deprived same-sex couples and their children
of equal dignity, thereby violating the Equal
Protection Clause. The decision recognized
that laws trampling a fundamental right
particularly when that right concerns a persons intimate choices about whether, when,
and with whom to create a family prevent
that person from participating equally in society relative to other people.
In doing so, the court explained that equality and liberty principles are interlocking,
and converge when the right at stake is nothing less than the ability to dene for ourselves
whether and with whom to create a family.
Although most prior Equal Protection
cases have focused on whether a law targets
a disfavored group for purposeful unequal
treatment, Obergefell emphasized a dierent thread of equality doctrine. That thread
examines whether a law that intrudes on a
fundamental right serves to disrespect and
subordinate one group relative to another
and thereby deprives the subordinated
CAMILLA TAYLOR is a lawyer with Lambda

Legal, the oldest and largest national legal
organization committed to achieving full
recognition of the civil rights of LGBT people
and people with HIV. Taylor served as the
National Marriage Project Director at Lambda
Legal from 2010 through 2015.
ly as he can, thanks the reporter for doing

such a great job.
He cocks an eyebrow, leans into the
camera and practically coos, Bob, whats
it like there in Orlando now, 36 hours after the incident?
Bob begins, Well, Brian, its a real
wake-up call
Watch, wince, spin, repeat.
We LGBTs were already awake. We
celebrated our Supreme Court federal
marriage decision. But after our victory
parties, when we slept it o, we kept
one eye open. We knew there would
be backlash. Sure enough. Whining civil
servants refused to do their jobs and
issue marriage licenses to same-sex
couples. Southern legislatures passed
transphobic public accommodations
laws in the dead of night. And now the
mass shooting in Orlando. Its the em-
bodiment of a public health crisis fueled

by Christo/ISIS extremists, funded by
the gun industry.
To really stay awake we need a howling, screeching Larry Kramer-type wakeup call. We need to act up.
Lets shut down Wall Street again to
draw attention to the proteering gun industry that subsidizes the NRA.
Lets turn our sad vigils into constant,
full-throated protests at NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Va. Lets cover the whole
thing in a bullet-proof rainbow ag. Lets
get some homos home on their rie
range.
Lets go to St. Patricks Cathedral again
and have a high Mass protest, a die-in
to protest the violence that comes from
their twisted love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin
logic.
Let this be our gay agenda.
CO MM UNI K A TE
Its time to get angry

Spiraling events worthy
of Larry Kramer-caliber
righteous indignation
KATE CLINTON is a longtime humorist and

regular Blade contributor.
A couple of hours into breaking news

coverage of the latest mass shooting,
white cop acquittal or climate disaster,
some poor schlub of a local cable correspondent who just happened to be at
a nearby Krogers becomes the on-the-
scene, go-to expert in the eld.

The deer-in-the-headlights-looking reporter is often in an actual eld. Just outside the gay club, elementary school or
movie theater where the shooting took
place. Outside the church where members of a prayer circle were killed. Kneedeep in rising oodwaters. He can only
report that at this point details are still
sketchy.
After one news cycle, he is sleepdeprived and jacked up on Red Bull. He
has talked for hours and has run through
every single word in his vocabulary three
times. He knows hes probably on a career track to his own hour-long cable
show. Hes feeling more expert.
By the second news cycle, the network
has nally located a real news man. While
their branded disaster footage loops endlessly behind him, the anchor, as sincere-
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
2 2 J UN E 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
I N SI D E LG BT W A SH I N G T O N
True colors shine through in Council showdown

Gray in, Orange out in D.C.
elections
PETER ROSENSTEIN is a D.C.-based LGBT rights

and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly
for the Blade.
There was a major shakeup on the

D.C. Council last week. Pundits were
maybe too quick to suggest results
of the recent primary elections in the
District were a rebuke to Mayor Muriel
Bowser. That may be a too-simplistic
analysis of the results.
If we look at the individual races,
we see many reasons why the winners
were successful. D.C. voters make decisions based on individuals and how
they relate to them. Maybe a big loser
was the Washington Post, which had
little endorsement clout. Its editorial
team may want to look at who is making endorsement recommendations in
the District and consider a change.
In Ward 7, it was clear early in the

race Vincent Gray would defeat Yvette
Alexander. There is a widespread feeling Gray had been poorly treated by the
federal prosecutor and if he wanted to
return to elected office, the people of
the Ward were going to give him the
chance. It was less a rejection of Alexander than a positive vote for Gray.
I supported Vincent Gray for Mayor
against Adrian Fenty and supported
him in the primary against Mayor
Bowser. He is a good, decent man and
has worked hard for the people of the
District. He will continue to be a strong
advocate for his new Ward 7 constituents.
Ward 8 elected Trayon White who apparently ran a great campaign against
LaRuby May. We should remember in
the special election held after the passing of Marion Barry, White only lost
by a few votes. Both May and White
represented change and White did his
homework and the voters of Ward 8
responded believing he has the ability
and independence to serve them well. I
look forward to seeing him do that as a
new voice on the Council. The needs of
many people in Ward 8 are great.
Then there was the defeat of Vincent Orange for the at-large seat.
That wasnt a race one could call in

advance, but voters clearly wanted a
change. Orange has been around for
many years and lost all his efforts to
reach higher office. People were ready
to elect someone who would bring not
only new ideas, but a new perspective
on how to continue to grow the District. The winner, Robert White, was
a great candidate. He ran before and
is an eloquent spokesperson for what
many call the new D.C. He will bring
substance to the Council. The third
candidate in the race, David Garber,
did really well getting 15,000 votes,
which reinforced how ready people
were for change.
So what this election signaled to
some is the end to what people thought
was a citywide Green Team. But the
reality is political coattails in local elections are very rare. The community
Green Team in Ward 4, named for the
color of campaign signs first chosen by
Fenty then adopted by Bowser, did help
Brandon Todd, an effective, hardworking Councilmember, win reelection.
Bowser surprised many with her willingness to be fully engaged and take
strong positions on a host of important
issues. From statehood, to raising the
minimum wage, to closing D.C. Gen-
eral, she has spoken out. She may not

have always been polite in the way she
has dealt with those who disagree, but
I attribute that to her passion to make
a difference. Bowser has the next twoand-a-half years to continue to show
her ability to make her mark as the
city continues to grow and change.
Bowser has used her connections to
the Obama administration well and
through her connection to and support
of Hillary Clinton should continue to
get her positive support for the District
from the next administration.
The District of Columbia is coming of
age with a new cast of politicians. We
have an independent Attorney General, Karl Racine, who is doing a great job.
The City Council now has a group of
younger politicians all looking to make
their mark. They will impact the future
of the city in a positive way if they can
work with our smart, vigorous mayor.
The question for all of them is how
to be independent yet move forward
together? The District government
must serve our current residents while
continuing to effectively plan for the
influx of new ones. They will all have
to make sure their personal ambitions
dont override and impede their ability
to make progress.
O U R BU SI N E SS MA T T E RS
Gay groups taking on gun issues could backre

LGBT activists run risk of
fracturing efforts with other issues
MARK LEE is a long-time entrepreneur

and community business advocate. Follow
on Twitter: @MarkLeeDC. Reach him at
[email protected].
LGBT activists have tough issues to

grapple with in the wake of the Orlando
tragedy.
Do gay activists and organizations run
the risk of fracturing equality eorts
and the continuing support among constituents for their work by engaging on
other political issues, especially when

many potential topics enjoy much less
than universal, or even broad, support?
Is the sudden addition of advocating
for gun control legislation as a component of LGBT political action to become
a new line item on the infamous gay
agenda? Will the political endorsements and candidate rankings of gay
rights organizations now include measuring political commitments to specic
gun regulations?
These fundamental and problematic
observations arise from the political
response gay rights groups have proffered in recent days on gun control. It
may portend a denitive fork in the
road for LGBT political leadership and,
in particular, some gay activists who
have been arguing for a political shift
away from a solitary focus on gay equality to encompass other progressive political issues.
The answer could largely determine

whether there will continue to be viable political representation on issues
directly aecting gays and eectively
addressing intrinsic LGBT concerns, or
whether gay organizations will instead
shift toward engaging in external issues
on which not all agree.
When we start scratching below the
surface of strong support for background checks for gun purchases, keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists
and banning the sale of assault weapons, LGBT opinions begin to diverge on
more nite gun control proposals.
Yet gun control laws might be the easiest among the political notions some
activists desire intermingling on their
preferred long litany of advocacy items,
given the relatively strong popular support for specic limited legislation. What
happens when left-leaning activists and
political party loyalists attempt further
extending the issues of gay concern

to other topics enjoying much less unanimity among an increasingly diverse
population with little more than sexual
orientation in common?
As assimilation integrates each of us
into society, we will more often than not
discover that there is a wider range of
political opinions in our relatively modest-sized subset than was readily apparent when we were solely focused on
shared and unifying personal concerns.
Having largely gained the freedom to
view our lives and our politics in a more
holistic and individualistic manner, any
semblance of commonality on non-gaycentric social constructs or political issues is unlikely to prevail.
Local and national gay rights groups
should tread carefully on this. If they
dont, LGBT leaders and organizations
may nd fewer and fewer willing to support them.
JUNE 24, 2016 23
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Tiffany Walton
SaVanna Wanzar
Paul Warren
Shavon Washington
Chavonne Washington
Jessie Washington
Brooke Wheeler
Justin White
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Ryan Williams
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From streets to screens

D.C. QUEER YOUTH GANG FEATURED IN NEW DOCUMENTARY
By BRIAN T. CARNEY
ARTS
AND
ENTERTAINMENT
The new documentary Check It

starts with two powerful titles.
The rst provides a sobering statistic
for Washingtons LGBT community:
Washington, D.C. has one of the nations
highest rates of hate crimes against its
LGBTQ community.
The second announces a brave and
unexpected act of resistance against that
statistic:
In 2009, three gay ninth graders started
a gang in Washington, D.C. to defend
themselves against bullying. Today the Check
It has over 200 members and counting.
Directed by Dana Flor and Toby
Oppenheimer, Check It has been
selected for the coveted Spotlight
Screening on Saturday night of the AFI
Docs festival. AFI Docs Director Michael
Lumpkin, who is gay, has been a fan of
the lm for a long time.
I love Check It, he says. Before I came
to AFI, I ran the International Documentary
Association. We had a grant program
to provide production support for
documentaries. Toby and Dana applied for
funding for their lm three or four years
ago. When I was watching the clip they
provided with their application, I knew this
was going to be a very special lm.
AFI Docs announced last week that
Check It was one of 10 lms selected
to participate in the prestigious AFI
Docs Impact Lab. The intensive program
will provide Flor and Oppenheimer,
who identify as straight allies, with
advanced training in the areas of
advocacy, grassroots communication and
engagement.
Check It tells the stories of the
founding members of the group.
According to Flor and Oppenheimer,
Washington has the dubious distinction
of having the only organized gang of
LGBT youth in the country. The AfricanAmerican gang started in the Trinidad
neighborhood in northeast Washington.
The youth already faced the grueling
social pressures of poverty, broken
homes, prostitution and a broken web of
social services. On top of that, they faced
violent bullying because of their sexual
orientation and their gender-bending
fashion sense.
According to Flor, It came about as a
necessity. They banded together because
they wanted to protect each other. They
became famous and infamous for
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
VOLUME
47
ISSUE
26
A still from Check It, a documentary on local LGBT youth.

PHOTO COURTESY OF OLIVE PRODUCTIONS
being good at defending themselves.

Nobody messes with them because they
will ght. And not only do they ght, they
do not censor who they are. Theyre
amboyant. They walk around with little
Hello Kitty bags and platform shoes and
dresses and lipstick. You dont do that
in the neighborhoods they come from.
Theyre from very tough neighborhoods
with very conservative ideas about
masculinity. They didnt want to back
down, they just wanted to be who they
wanted to be. Thats how it formed. And
its ourishing because kids are still being
kicked out of their houses and being
kicked out of school and taking to the
streets. They form their own family.
As one of the Check It members
announces in the lm, To be in the
Check It, you have to have a good sense
of fashion wild, crazy, colorful. To walk
with us, you have to have a heart. You
have to believe youre not gonna take no
bullshit from nobody.
The members of the Check It found
supportive mentors to help turn their
energy in a more positive direction.
The rst was Ronald Mo Moten, one
of the founders of the controversial
Peaceoholics organization which worked
with city residents and gang members to
reduce violence in the city.
Basically. Flor says, he deals with gang
conict resolution. He is a beloved gure,

especially in the worst neighborhoods of
the city, especially because he has helped
gang members get out of the gang and
go to college, and he has squashed a lot
of beefs. Hes like a father gure to these
kids and he is very fond of them.
Then theres local fashion entrepreneur
extraordinaire Jarmal Harris. He founded
the Jarmal Harris Project a non-prot
organization that works with D.C.-area
youth to provide them with opportunities
in the fashion industry and beyond.
Harris runs a fashion camp for high
school-age kids that trains them in
all elements of the fashion industry,
Oppenheimer says. The lm follows
some of the Check It kids through six
weeks of this fashion camp. Then a
handful of them are chosen to go to
Fashion Week in New York City. Thats
kinda the spine of the lm.
Lumpkin is thrilled to be hosting the
Spotlight Screening of Check It.
It has been on my radar for years and
Im really happy to present the hometown
premiere at AFI Docs, Lumpkin says. Its
the screening I cant wait for. Its going to
be electric.
This lm is about a community that
isnt given visibility very often, he says.
The concept of a queer gang was just
something I had never considered. For
JUNE
24,
2016
PAGE
25
most gay people, those two ideas just

dont match up. But when you learn about
their story, it makes perfect sense. For
this community, thats how they protect
themselves; thats how they survive.
People who are queer have to come up
with mechanisms for how theyre going to
survive the world they come into.
Lumpkin is also full of praise for the
lmmakers.
Its fresh and new, he says. It was
the subject matter that drew me to
the lm. But it was also the approach
the lmmakers took to the subject
matter. Its honest, its respectful. Like all
excellent documentaries, they provide
their subjects with the space for them to
have a voice. It takes a lot more than just
putting a camera in front of somebody
and lming them.
The members of the Check It agree
with Lumpkins assessment of their
crew and the lm. In the lm, one of the
members says, It was because of the
Check It that these faggots feel more
comfortable within themselves to come
outside. We can go out in public without
being criticized. If they criticize us, they
know there will be consequences.
Toward the end of the movie, another
member says, No one was gonna stand
up for us. We stood up for ourselves.
Tray, one of the lms subjects,
has started actively promoting the
documentary at lm festivals around the
county. Although he initially didnt want
to be in the lm, his late mother talked
him into it, hes been delighted by the
lms reception. I wasnt sure if people
would understand the movie, he says,
but they actually loved it and they gained
something from it. That was the most
important thing we wanted.
Tray says some of the attention has
been overwhelming.
Everywhere we go, people know who we
are, but we dont know who they are. They
know our names, but we dont know theirs.
CHECK IT
AFI Docs Festival
Saturday, June 25
9 p.m.
Newseum
555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Sold out
silver.a.com
checkitlm.com
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
2 6 J UNE 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
Q U E E RY : 2 0 Q U E ST I O N S F O R A RA M V A RT I A N
ARAM VARTIAN
PHOTO COURTESY OF VARTIAN
By JOEY DiGULIELMO
[email protected]
Many folks dream of spinning their passions into something protable or
even sustainable. Aram Vartian, a self-described Dungeons & Dragons geek who,
like many, discovered the role-playing fantasy game as a kid, is almost there.
Godsfall (godsfall.com) is an original fantasy world told through a game of
Dungeons & Dragons played each week with Vartian recording himself as the
Dungeons Master and three other players over a four-hour session. He then
cuts it down to one hour and layers in music, voice overs and special eects
until it sounds more like a radio drama than an actual play podcast. It ends up
being one long saga about four young people who have been given the powers
of the Old Gods, making them superheroes in a time of knights and castles.
The LGBT-embracing (several characters are matter-of-factly out) podcast
has proven wildly successful. Vartian and his cohorts get about 50,000
downloads a month and a Kickstarter campaign launched last week raised
$20,000, which will be used to publish a 200-page full color book with maps,
art and characters from the Godsfall world. It can work with any Dungeons &
Dragons game.
Vartian was 8 when a babysitter introduced him to the D&D world.
I was completely obsessed from the moment I rolled up a wizard and cast
my rst Magic Missle, he says. Now to see how supportive the actual play
podcast comment is, is amazing. I have never been involved in media that was
less about individual success and more about the success of the community.
Its very refreshing.
Vartian freelances by day as a multimedia producer. The 40-year-old
almost-D.C. native (his family moved to Fairfax, Va., when he was 3) is single
and lives in Logan Circle. He enjoys photography and, of course, Godsfall in
his free time.
Logan 14 saLon spa/med spa

haircuts, body waxing, laser hair removal
How long have you been out and who

was the hardest person to tell?
I came out shortly after my 15th
birthday. The hardest person to tell was
my friend Chris whom I told by saying,
Im gay and Im in love with you. He
was (and remains) straight, and we were
both kids in 1991 Virginia . He held me
until I stopped crying.
Whos your LGBT hero?
Alan Turing. He beat the Nazis, helped
invent modern computing and was still
too delicate to understand that neither
accomplishment would save him from
intolerance.
Whats Washingtons best
nightspot, past or present?
Tracks. I know my memories will always
be rosier than the reality, but that place
had a special magic Ive yet to see again
in D.C.
Describe your dream wedding.
Im standing next to someone I truly
love and admire who challenges
and supports me. Everything else is
decoration.
What non-LGBT issue are
you most passionate about?
The school-to-prison pipeline. As a
nation, we are obliterating a generation
of youth for convenience and prot.
What historical outcome
would you change?
It would be impossible to change any
signicant historical event without
creating an earthquake throughout all of
time that came after. Too risky, Ill pass.
Whats been the most memorable pop
culture moment of your lifetime?
Woodstock 99. It was every bit insane as
it looked on television.
On what do you insist?
Treating everyone working for the public
waiters, bus drivers, DMV clerks
with kindness and patience because
their job is hard.
1314B 14th St. NW WDC 20005 202.506.6868 Logan14salonspa.com
What was your last Facebook

post or Tweet?
Me yelling about politics and/or the
police. This interview could be published
any time before or after now and my
answer would be accurate.
If your life were a book,

what would the title be?
Question Everything
If science discovered a way
to change sexual orientation,
what would you do?
Assuming this is something as easy as I
take a red pill to switch and a blue one to
switch back, Id buy one of each and see
what it was like to be straight for a week.
If I could take both at once and turn bi,
Id probably just stay with that.
What do you believe in
beyond the physical world?
I believe there is much that currently
lies beyond what we understand as
our physical world only because we
lack the technology to explore or even
recognize it. There is no cosmic mystery
given time and resources, humanity
will unlock every secret of the universe.
Whats your advice for
LGBT movement leaders?
Pay more attention to our LGBT youth
than our Pride parade sponsors.
What would you walk
across hot coals for?
The iced mochas at Dolcezza are so
damn good.
What LGBT stereotype
annoys you most?
The idea that equality can be gained
through a pair of rings and a bridal
registry.
Whats your favorite LGBT movie?
Transamerica
Whats the most overrated
social custom?
College
What trophy or prize

do you most covet?
Ive got my sights on an ENnie Award at
the moment. I like obtainable coveting.
What do you wish youd known at 18?
That my life would change when I picked
up a camera.
Why Washington?
Washington is a truly lovely city that is
eminently walkable. And if you dont like
anyone, no worry most of them will
be gone in two or three years.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
T HE ATE R
J U N E 24, 2016 27
c a m eron m ack i n tosh s

spectacul a r new production
of
a ndr e w lloy d w ebber s

PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURPHY
From left are AARON WALPOLE, J. HARRISON GHEE and the cast of the national tour of
Kinky Boots.
Lauper/Fierstein-penned
musical hit comes to D.C.
By PATRICK FOLLIARD
Wishy-washy Charlie Price isnt sure what
he wants to do with his life. Hes neither
terribly interested in carrying on the family
business, a smallish mens shoe factory in
depressed Northern England, nor too keen
on following his striver girlfriend Nicola
to London. But just when hes acquiesced
to her plans, the unthinkable happens
Charlies father dies and hes forced to
make some big decisions.
The musical Kinky Boots is Charlies
story about nding his place in the world.
But it also tracks the journey of another
scion of sorts, namely Lola, a erce drag
queen who deed her queer-hating
prizeghter fathers plan that he be a
boxer and instead followed a dream that
included red sequins and wigs.
Adapted from the small same-titled
2005 British lm, which was drawn from
an unlikely but true story, the Broadway
hit is the collaboration of pop icon Cyndi
Lauper (music and lyrics) and out actor/
writer Harvey Fierstein (book). The
national tour of the production is playing
at the Kennedy Center.
Now back to the plot. When Charlie
(Adam Kaplan) returns to Northampton and
takes the helm of failing Price & Son, hes
unsure if he can keep the business going.
After a chance meeting with Lola (J. Harrison
Ghee) in London, Charlie is convinced that
switching the product from nely made
mens brogans to thigh-high red boots for
drag queens and cross dressers with big
feet is the way to go. Lola, who understands
a strapping mans need for sturdy stilettos,
takes on designing duties.
When Lola, whose real name is Simon,
arrives on the scene accompanied by the
Angels (the drag queens from his London
act), the factorys close-knit group of
longtime employees is initially reluctant
to the change, but a desire to remain
employed along with Lolas courage and
big heart does the trick. Lola/Simon gives
everyone, including Charlie, a lesson in
acceptance and what it means to be a man.
Cyndi Laupers pop rock score is
crammed with infectious melodies and

lackluster lyrics. Highlights include the
big, rousing number Sex is in the Heel,
and Lolas 11th hour power ballad Hold
Me Up In Your Heart.
As Charlie, Kaplan gives a credible
performance
but
is
nonetheless
overpowered by Ghees Lola. Ghees potent
presence and strong vocals is the engine
that moves the show. The supporting cast
includes the terric out actor Jim J. Bullock
(TVs hit sitcom Too Close for Comfort
and the short-lived chat show Jim J and
Tammy Faye) as George the factorys fey
oor manager. With strong acting and a
beautiful voice, Charissa Hogeland makes
the most of her small part as Charlies
girlfriend, Nicola. Tiany Engen is amusing
as feisty Lauren, a savvy factory worker
who carries a torch for Charlie.
David Rockwells set sits impressively
on the Kennedy Center Opera Houses
cavernous stage, a Victorian-looking highceilinged factory that easily morphs into
various locations including a London
gay bar, a Northampton sports pub and
a runway show in Milan. And costume
designer Gregg Barnes array of sexy
boots are a fetishists dream.
The
musical
is
directed
and
choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. His varied
choreography makes use of the factorys
conveyor belt, and includes an imaginative
boxing scene involving Lola and Don
(the excellent Aaron Walpole), a brusque
employee unused to working with blokes in
ladies shoes. But best of all are the athletic
and daring dance numbers performed in
very, very high heels by Lola and the Angels.
If all this sounds familiar, it is. Musicals
based on lms set in working class
England and archetypical wise drag
queens have become theater staples,
and Fiersteinss book feels predictable
and sometimes ploddingly told. Despite
any shortcomings, Kinky Boots is
undeniably a crowd pleaser evidenced
by the Kennedy Center audience that
couldnt seem to get enough.
KINKY BOOTS
Through July 10
The Kennedy Center
Tickets start at $49
202-467-4600
Kennedy-center.org
july 13august 20
OPER A HOUSE
KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG (202) 467-4600
Tickets are also available at the Box Office. Groups call (202) 416-8400.
Theater at the Kennedy Center
is made possible by
Major support for Musical Theater at

the Kennedy Center is provided by
Kennedy Center Theater

Season Sponsor
LIVE
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28 JU N E 24, 2016
O U T & A BO U T
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
ROBERT
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THURSDAY JUNE
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DAVE
BARNES
W/ LUCIE SILVAS
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JUNE 24
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AN EVENING WITH
START MAKING SENSE

TUES, JUNE 28
JOE PURDY W/ GARRISON STARR

WED, JUNE 29
MINGO FISHTRAP
W/ JAMIE McLEAN BAND
THURS, JUNE 30
OWEN DANOFF OF NBCS THE VOICE

W/ MIKE SCHIAVO
PHOTO BY JONATHAN TIMMES
THEHAMILTONDC.COM
DentalBug.com
Cosmetic, Implants, Sleep Apnea, Sedation
Steadwell to perform jazzy pop

Queer pop vocalist Be Steadwell will perform at the AMP by Strathmore (11810
Grand Ave., North Bethesda, Md.) on Wednesday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m.
As Strathmores artist in residence, Steadwell will host her second residency
concert, which draws inspiration from her experiences as a queer, black women.
The concert will feature a loop pedal, vocal layering and beat boxing. Steadwells
music style is pop with jazz, a cappella and folk undertones. Tickets are $17.
For ticketing and more information, visit strathmore.org.
Call Today Weekend Hours MulTilingual
We believe we can make the

dental experience better.
lauren rdH and Patient-of-the-Week Cielo
Maria Hodas
DDS
John Tsaknis
DDS
Indra Mustapha
DDS, MS
1221 Mass. ave, nW 202.628.7979 (Free Parking)

703 d street, nW 202.628.1288
lenfant Plaza,sW Promenade #325 202.628.2177
Frederick Pride is Saturday

Frederick Pride returns for its fth
annual event on Saturday, June 25 from
11 a.m.-7 p.m. at Carroll Creek Linear
Park (between Market and Carroll streets
in Frederick, Md.).
The event, sponsored by the Frederick
Center,
will
feature
kid-friendly
activities, a beer-and-wine tent, music,
entertainment and speakers, information
booths, food vendors and more. About
5,000 are expected with 100 organizations
participating.
This is a free event. For more
information, visit thefrederickcenter.org.
Discussion recalls
D.C. gay history
PHOTO COURTESY OF SIGNATURE THEATRE
Jeanette Suh
DMD
By JESSE ARNHOLZ
La Cage continues through July 10

La Cage Aux Folles, the Tony-winning classic musical, continues its run at
Signature Theatre. It runs through July 10.
The show tells of the 20-year relationships between Georges, a club owner,
and Albin, the lead drag performer, who face a test when their son announces
his engagement to the daughter of conservative parents. They agree to play it
straight for a dinner party with hilarious results.
Tickets start at $40. For details, visit sigtheatre.org.
The Rainbow History Project hosts a

panel discussion called Twelve Years
that Shook and Shaped Washington, at
the Smithsonian Anacostia Community
Museum (1901 Fort Pl., S.E.), on Saturday,
June 25 from 2-4 p.m.
This free discussion will feature
members of the LGBT community, talking
about the emersion, the struggles and the
growth of Washingtons gay movement in
the 1960s. Panelists will include Boden
C. Sandstrom, Paul Kuntzler, Eva Freund
and Otis (Buddy) Sutson, with moderator
Eric Gonzaba.
To RSVP and for more information, visit
rainbowhistory.org.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
FI L M
J U N E 24, 2016 29
Introducing
Weekend
Champagne Celebration Dinners
Enjoy Unlimited Champagne with
A Three Course Chef Designed Menu Selection
of Seasonal Appetizers, Entre Choices and Dessert
PHOTO BY MARC BRENNER
A. SCOTT BERG, third from left, with COLIN FIRTH, JUDE LAW and producer JAMES BIERMAN on
the set of Genius.
$36.95 pp + Tax
Friday & Saturday
5:30 to Closing
Regular menu is also available
Champagne Brunch Weekends

Perkins biopic depicts life
of forgotten literary agent
By BRIAN T. CARNEY
Pulitzer
Prize-winning
biographer
A. Scott Berg has an unusual way of
describing the movie Genius, which is
based on his biography Maxwell Perkins:
Editor of Genius.
If you watch the movie with the
sound o, he says, it could look like a
gay romance. Its the most intense nonsexual romantic story youll ever see. All
that passion.
With the sound on, Genius is the
turbulent story of how editor Maxwell
Perkins discovered author Thomas Wolfe
and edited his rst two novels, Look
Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the
River. Although he is now largely forgotten,
Thomas Wolfe, played by Jude Law, was a
literary superstar of his generation. Its
playing now at Landmark E Street Cinema.
When Wolfe was published in 1929, he
was considered the new Walt Whitman,
Berg says. In the mid-1930s, he was the
most important writer of ction in the
United States.
Berg says Perkins, played by Colin Firth
in the lm, is the most important and least
known person in American literature,
responsible for changing its course.
Perkins was an editor at Charles
Scribners Sons from 1910-1947. His
literary discoveries include F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James
Jones (From Here to Eternity), Alan
Paton (Cry, the Beloved Country),
Erskine Caldwell (Tobacco Road) and
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (The Yearling).
Berg is quick to note that Genius is
not just about editing books. Its about
the intense creative struggle to cut
90,000 words from Wolfes sprawling
manuscript, which has been rejected by
every other publisher in town. Its about

Maxs marriage to Louise Perkins (Laura
Linney), an aspiring author and actress
who is conned to the Connecticut
suburbs raising their ve daughters. Its
about Wolfes fervent aair with Aline
Bernstein (Nicole Kidman), a famous
author and set designer who leaves her
husband and children to live with Wolfe.
In some ways, Berg says, its a love
triangle between Max and Tom and Aline.
Their big love aair breaks up because
Max enters the picture and becomes
Toms muse. Its about these intense
relationships and the price that gets paid
just to produce a single book.
Bergs interest in Maxwell Perkins
hatched when he was an undergraduate
at Princeton University and discovered
the Scribner archives in the Princeton
library. Under the guidance of his
mentor, Hemingway biographer Carlos
Baker, Berg turned his thesis on Perkins
into the book which was published
in 1978. Since then, Berg has written
several biographies, including Goldwyn:
A Biography about Hollywood tycoon
Samuel Goldwyn, the Pulitzer Prizewinning Lindbergh about the famous
aviator, and Wilson, a reexamination
of President Woodrow Wilson. In 2003,
he also wrote the controversial Kate
Remembered, a memoir of his long
friendship with Katharine Hepburn.
In between his rst and second books,
Berg also made queer cinematic history by
writing the story for the groundbreaking
movie Making Love (1982), which he
calls the rst studio movie to feature a
gay man who wasnt a victim or villain.
It had real-life ramications as Berg
and partner Kevin McCormick, a lm
producer, have been together 35 years.
I used the movie as a way to imagine
my own future, Berg says. For young gay
men at the time, there was no future. The
movie opened up that vision for me.
Saturdays - A-La-Carte: $29.95

Sunday Buffet: $38.95
Served 11am to 3pm
202-872-1126
BBGWDC.com
17th & Rhode Island Ave. NW
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
3 0 J UNE 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
A RT S & CU LT U RE
This Week in the Arts provided by CultureCapital.com

culturaldc.org.
The Good Devil (in Spite of Himself).
Thru Jul 17. WSC Avant Bard.
Gunston II. wscavantbard.org.
Playback In The District! Thru Oct
26. HBC Playback Theatre. The Den.
thehbctheater.com.
DANCE
Light Switch Dance Theatre. Jun 2526. Dance Place. danceplace.org.
Riverdance. Thru Jun 26. Wolf Trap.
wolftrap.org.
Ballet & Brass. Thru Jun 26. Chamber
Dance Project. Lansburgh Theatre.
chamberdance.org.
Jane Lynch in See Jane Sing

Jun 24. The Kennedy Center.
kennedy-center.org.
The award-winning actress, singer, and comedian mixes quick wit with beloved
Broadway songs in the national tour of her new musical-comedy variety show.
Be Steadwell
Jun 29. AMP by Strathmore.
ampbystrathmore.com.
DC singer-songwriter Be Steadwell redenes the love song in a modern

context, with jazz, a capella, and folk roots. Blending genres into what she calls
queerpop,Steadwells live performances feature onstage-compositions using
loop pedal vocal layering and beat boxing.
Gay Activism in Washington During the 1960s and 1970s

Jun 25. Smithsonian Anacostia Museum.
anacostia.si.edu.
Join this discussion as members of the LGBT community reminisce on the

struggles and political growing pains of an emerging gay movement in the
nations capitol during the 1960s. Moderated by Eric Gonzaba, founder of
Wearing Gay History, an online digital archive and museum.
Patti LaBelle
Jun 30-Jul 1. Strathmore.
strathmore.org.
Savor the grace, artistry, and remarkable voice that propelled her from The
BlueBelles to LaBelle to international pop stardom and hits like On My Own
and If You Ask Me To. Singer, author, actress, starthere is nothing this living
icon cant do.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KENNEDY CENTER
THEATRE
The Goddamn Comedy Jam. Jun 24.
Jay Pharoah. Jun 24. Jermaine Fowler
& Friends. Jun 24. The Daily Show
Writers Standup Tour. Jun 24. Dick
Gregory. Jun 25. Reggie Watts. Jun 25.
Kinky Boots. Thru Jul 10. The Bridges
of Madison County. Jun 28-Jul 17. The
Second Citys Almost Accurate Guide
to America. Thru Jul 31. The Kennedy
Center. kennedy-center.org.
La Cage aux Folles. Thru Jul 10.
Signature Theatre.
signature-theatre.org.
Gravediggers Tale. Thru Jun 26.
District Merchants. Thru Jul 3. Folger
Theatre. folger.edu.
Evita. Thru Jul 24. Olney Theatre.

olneytheatre.org.
An Octoroon. Thru Jun 26. Woolly
Mammoth. woollymammoth.net.
Another Way Home. Thru Jul 17.
Theater J. EDCJCC. theaterj.org.
El Paso Blue. Thru Jun 26. GALA
Hispanic Theatre. galatheatre.org.
Next to Normal. Thru Jul 10. Keegan
Theatre. keegantheatre.com.
The Taming of the Shrew. Thru
Jun 26. Shakespeare Theatre
Company. Sidney Harman Hall.
shakespearetheatre.org.
Source Festival. Thru Jul 3.
Three Full-length plays, evenings full
of 10-minute plays and Artistic Blind
Dates. CulturalDC. Source Theatre.
MUSIC
Best of Serenade! Jun 26. Strathmore.
strathmore.org.
Jazz in the Garden: Enter the Haggis.
Jun 24. National Gallery of Art. nga.gov.
John Eaton. Jun 25. The Alden.
mcleancenter.org.
Herb Scott Quartet. Jun 30. Dance
Place. Arts Plaza at Monroe Street
Market. danceplace.org.
National Festival Orchestra: Vnsk
conducts Sibelius. Jun 25. The Clarice.
claricesmithcenter.umd.edu.
Back Porch Blues. Jun 30. Glen Echo
Park. glenechopark.org.
Mile Twelve. Jun 30. Hill Center.
hillcenterdc.org.
Summer Beer + Wine Garden.
Jun 24. Sandy Spring Museum.
sandyspringmuseum.org.
Asha Bhosle. Jun 29. NSO:
DreamWorks Animation in Concert.
Jun 30. Wolf Trap. wolftrap.org.
Beethovens Fidelio. Thru Jun 26. In
Series. Atlas. inseries.org.
Avanti Orchestra Concert. Jun 25.
FMMC. Montgomery College.
fmmc.org.
Afro Bop Alliance. Jun 24. A Tribute
to the Music of Stevie Wonder
and Marvin Gaye. Jun 25. Publick
Playhouse. arts.pgparks.com.
MUSEUMS
Folger Shakespeare Library.
Americas Shakespeare. Thru Jul 24.
folger.edu.
National Archives. Amending
America. Thru Sep 4.
archivesfoundation.org.
National Gallery of Art. Hubert
Robert, 17331808. Jun 26-Oct 2.
nga.gov.
National Museum of Women in the
Arts. She Who Tells a Story. Thru
July 28. nmwa.org.
Smithsonian Anacostia. Twelve Years
That Shook And Shaped Washington.
Thru Oct 23. anacostia.si.edu.

National Geographic. THE GREEKS.
Thru Oct 10. nglive.org.
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian. One Life: Babe Ruth. Jun
24-May 21. npg.si.edu.
GALLERIES
The Art League Gallery. Alex Tolstoy.
Thru Jul 3. Tabletop. Thru Jul 3.
theartleague.org.
District Architecture Center. Hybrid
Realities. Thru Jul 30. aiadac.com.
gallery Neptune & Brown. Ladies
First. Thru Jul 16. neptuneneart.com.
Glen Echo Park. Explorations. Thru Jul
17. glenechopark.org.
Torpedo Factory. Art Impact USA.
Thru Jun 30. torpedofactory.org.
VisArts at Rockville. Brad Blair. Thru
Jul 10. visartsatrockville.org.
Washington Project for the Arts
(WPA). EnterState. Thru Jul 9.
wpadc.org.
Zenith Gallery. Peter Kephart. Thru
Jun 25. zenithgallery.com.
DCAC. Panaceas Box. Thru Jul 10.
dcartscenter.org.
Flashpoint Gallery. Anne Bouie. Thru
Jul 9. culturaldc.org.
AND MORE
A Night With Good Ol Freda - Freda
Kelly. Jun 25. AMP.
ampbystrathmore.com.
Kim Hall: Othello Was My
Grandfather. Jun 27. Folger Theatre.
folger.edu.
The Art of French Cooking with Chef
Grard Pangaud. Jun 25. Hill Center.
hillcenterdc.org.
Lamb. Jun 28. Washington Jewish Film
Festival. EDCJCC. wj.org.
Sigal Samuel, The Mystics of Mile
End. Jun 28. EDCJCC.
washingtondcjcc.org.
Open Door Reading: Elizabeth
Poliner and Paula Whyman. Jun
26. 40th Anniversary Event: Chris
Matthews. Jun 30. The Writers Center.
writer.org.
The Armed Pilgrimage:
Understanding the Crusades. Jun
25. Benjamin Franklin: A Man
for All Time. Jun 26. Biocubes:
Life in One Cubic Foot. Jun 28.
Churchills Wartime Struggle. Jun 30.
Smithsonian Associates. Ripley Center.
smithsonianassociates.org.
Padua Finishing School. Jun 24.
Shakespeare Theatre Company. Sidney
Harman Hall. shakespearetheatre.org.
Artist Talk: Carol Barsha - Between
the Real and the Imagined. Jun 25.
Brentwood Arts Exchange.
pgparks.com.
GOLDEN CROWN LITERARY SOCIETY
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
D I N IN G
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, D.C. 2016
J U N E 24, 2016 31
July 6-10, 2016

Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
http://goldencrown.org
PHOTO BY KAMIRA; COURTESY OF BIGSTOCKPHOTO
FLAWLESS
FABULOUSNESS.
EFFERVESCENT,
HEARTSTRING- TRS MAGNIFIQUE.
A VISUAL DELIGHT.
EXPANSIVE
BROADWAY PIZAZZ.
la cage aux folles

Pride Nights catered by Freddies Beach Bar
KRISTEN HARTKE is a D.C.-based food

and beverage writer. Follow her kitchen
adventures on Twiiter, @khartke.
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave.
Arlington, VA 22206
Free Parking
Photo of the Cagelles by Christopher Mueller.
STRUMMING REVIVAL.
Theres a moment when you cross the

border from Georgia into Florida when
the land attens out on either side of the
road and the sky suddenly becomes big
and wide and blue. For me, its a moment
of homecoming. The cypress trees lining
the swampy marshlands, hawks swooping
elegantly overhead and the salty tang
of sea air all seem to signal the ultimate
welcome: Come on in, you belong here.
It is this arms-wide-open philosophy
that epitomizes Florida, a place where
people come to escape, to reinvent
themselves, to live life with abandon. At
the center of it all: hospitality.
Florida was nicknamed the hospitality
state back in the 1980s when I was
working my rst full-time ne dining job
after graduating from Cocoa Beach High
School, just 40 miles from Orlando; for
those of us who worked in the industry, in
restaurants, nightclubs and bars, it was a
chosen way of life not just a stopover
between gigs for an aspiring actor in
Manhattan or the only option for a single
mom living in some trailer in Tornado
Alley. We worked hard, learning about
wine pairings and serving up locally grown
produce long before it was fashionable,
and we played hard, using our industryissued hospitality cards for discounted
food and drinks at bars and restaurants
across the state on our precious nights o.
In cities and states dependent on the
tourist industry, hospitality is a serious
vocation. Its practical, of course better
service means bigger tips but also a
point of pride, and perhaps thats why the
tragic killings at Pulse feel so personal, not
only to me, but to anyone who has ever
quickly wrapped up dinner to go for a
family with a cranky toddler, whipped up
a low-salt, nut-free, vegan entre on the
y, or poured a beer for a lonely stranger
By KRISTEN HARTKE
sitting at the end of the bar. When youre

focused on hospitality, you never think
that one of those patrons might suddenly
turn your world upside down.
KJ. Deonka. Alanis. Luis. Brenda. These
were just a few of the people who could have
been both my co-workers and patrons. Ive
worked in central Florida nightclubs at 2 a.m.,
serving up drinks, laughs and hospitality.
Ive witnessed bar ghts and broken hearts,
helped drag queens zip up sequined gowns
and posed for pictures with homesick Air
Force recruits about to be deployed overseas.
These are the things that hospitality industry
employees do, day after day, night after night,
building places where people feel welcomed,
BRILLIANTGET YOUR
accepted and even loved.
TICKETS IMMEDIATELY!
Bars and restaurants can become sacred
DC METRO THEATER ARTS
spaces whether its a neighborhood diner
or the local gay bar, they both create, and
THEATREBLOOM
celebrate, community. When someone
tries to destroy that safety, it shakes the
foundation of hospitality, but, time and
DC THEATRE SCENE
time again, the community rebuilds and
THE WASHINGTON POST
renews. The culinary community of Orlando
began providing comfort to their own
almost immediately, donating meals to
BROADWAY WORLD
blood donors and grieving family members,
THE WASHINGTON POST
raising money for the funerals of victims and
oering jobs for displaced employees. Just
as love wins, hospitality will triumph.
ADVERTISING
On June 12, I happened to be arriving in
PROOFjust
#1 a few hours
SALES REPRESENTATIVE: SIRIWAT PATHARAPANUPATH ([email protected])
central Florida to visit family,
after the Pulse massacre. A week later, I
was in New Orleans, another community
REVISIONS
steeped in hospitality, to celebrate
the
REDESIGN
TEXTdaughter,
REVISIONS
same-sex wedding of a friends
IMAGE/LOGO REVISIONS
during Pride weekend. Bars
across
the
NO REVISIONS
By signing this proof you are agreeing to your contr
French Quarter had covered their signs
and warranties.
with the Pulse nightclubs logo in solidarity,
and even though backpacks and purses
were sometimes banned and despite
temperatures in the 90s the windows and
doors of every club were thrown wide open
Now through July 10 | Pride Nights: June 17 & July 1
in welcome: Come on in, you belong here.
Florida still beckons

despite tragedy
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
3 2 J UNE 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
CA LE N D A R
E-mail calendar items to calendars@washblade.

com two weeks prior to your event. Space is limited so priority is given to LGBT-specic events
or those with LGBT participants. Recurring
events must be re-submitted each time.
TODAY
Camp Rehoboth Family Pride Camp
(37 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach,
Del.) kicks o today at 1 p.m. and goes
through Sunday. This is the second
annual CAMP Rehobeth event. Childrens
tickets are $15 and adult tickets are $30.
For more information and ticketing, visit
camprehoboth.com.
Actress, singer and comedian Jane
Lynch will perform her national musicalcomedy show See Jane Sing at the
Kennedy Centers Eisenhower Theater
(2700 F St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The
Glee star and Hollywood Game Night
host will add her humor to performances
of Broadway songs with the help of Kate
Flannery (The Oce), Tim Davis (former
musical arranger for Glee) and a live
band. Tickets range from $70-125. For
ticketing and more information, visit
kennedy-center.org.
GAMMA D.C. hosts a support group for
men in mixed-orientation relationships
tonight from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at St. Thomas
Episcopal Church (1772 Church St., N.W.).
This is a support group for men who
are gay, bisexual, questioning or dont
identify themselves as any of the above,
but who are attracted to men. This is a
free event. For more information, visit
GAMMAinDC.org.
Bear Nonsense at Rock and Roll Hotel
(1353 H St., N.E.) returns tonight for bear
happy hour from 5-10 p.m. and will feature
DJs Disco Sunset, ChakaQuan and Tommy
Cornelis. There will be drink specials all
night. There is no cover charge. For more
information, visit bearnonsense.com.
International Club D.C. hosts Sunset
Rooftop Live Art Series tonight at 7
p.m. at Vida Penthouse Pool Club (1612
U St., N.W.). The event will feature music,
performance art, live painting, art exhibits
and a swimwear fashion show by D.C.
Swim Week. General admission tickets are
$25. For ticketing and more information,
visit internationalclubdc.com.
SATURDAY, JUNE 25
Nellies Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.)
hosts a fundraiser to support the Equality
Florida victims fund for survivors of
the Pulse nightclub shooting. Nellies
will donate $1 of every Nellie Beer and
specialty Florida drink purchased to
the fund. For more information, visit
nelliessportsbar.com.
The Capital Fringe Festival begins
today from noon-9 p.m. and goes through
Saturday at a variety of venues around
Washington including Atlas Performing
Arts Center (1333 H St., N.E.), Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (901 G St.,
PHOTO BY MURRAY ARCHIBALD
From left are NICHOLE MILLER, JOSHUA MILLER, JOHANNA MILLER, MACKENSIE MILLER, THEO CONNOR, EVE CONNOR, KAMERON CONNOR
and KNOX CONNOR at last years CAMP Rehoboth Family Pride Camp.
N.W.), Sixth & I Synagogue (600 I St., NW),

National Museum of Women in the Arts
(1250 New York Ave., N.W.) and the District
of Columbia Arts Center (2438 18th St.,
N.W.). The annual performing arts festival,
which will feature more than 129 acts,
includes theater, dance, music, poetry,
puppetry and more. General admission
tickets are $17. For ticketing and more
information, visit capitalfringe.org.
Tropicalia Lounge (2001 14th St., N.W.)
hosts Run the World, Femmes in Full
Rotation, today from 4-8 p.m. The dance
party will feature DJ MIM, Tezrah and live
drumming by Asha BOOMCLAK Santee,
with host Patience Sings. This is a 21-andover event. There is a $10 entrance fee. For
more information, visit tropicaliadc.com.
Rainbow Theatre Project presents
Get Used to It! A Musical Review
at FlashPoint (916 G St., N.W.) tonight
at 8 p.m. The musical review, written
and
composed
by
Tom
Wilson
Weinberg, charts the struggles of the
LGBT community. Tickets are $35. For
ticketing and more information, visit
rainbowtheatreproject.org.
Town Danceboutique (2009 8th St.,
N.W.) hosts its biweekly Town & Country
dancing event tonight. Doors open at
6:30 p.m. and dance lessons begin at
6:45. The lessons will include the twostep, line dancing, waltz and west coast
swing. There will be an open dance from
8-10:30 p.m. There is a $5 cover charge
that includes lessons. For those who are
21 and over, admission allows guests
to stay for the night at Town. For more
information, visit towndc.com.

The Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) hosts
G4y/B45h! Concert tonight from 11:30 p.m.1 a.m. The concert features a number of East
Coast queer artists and will include bands
such as Sheaswig, Aloe Vera, Turnpyke,
Rumor Millz, Desiree Dik, Salvadora Dali and
Summer Camp with hostess Donna Slash
and DJ Dean Sullivan. The doors open at
10 and there is a $7 entrance fee. For more
information, visit blackcatdc.com.
SUNDAY, JUNE 26
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts a
vigil today to remember the victims of
the Pulse nightclub shooting at 3 p.m.
Attendees will light 49 candles in solidarity
with the victims and will play a closing
song to which guests are encouraged to
reect on the loss of life within the LGBT
community. This is a free event. For more
information, visit cobaltdc.com.
MONDAY, JUNE 27
The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W..)
hosts coee drop-in hours this morning
from 10 a.m.-noon for the senior LGBT
community. Older LGBT adults can
come and enjoy complimentary coee
and conversation with other community
members. For more information, visit
thedccenter.org.
Award-winning, singer-songwriter, Paul
Simon is playing tonight and Tuesday at
Wolf Traps Filene Center (1551 Trap Rd.,
Vienna, Va.) at 8 p.m. Simon, one of the
most successful American musicians of

all time, sang classics like Me and Julio
Down by the Schoolyard, You can call
me Al and 50 ways to Leave Your Lover.
Tickets range from $48-130. For ticketing
and more information, visit wolftrap.org.
TUESDAY, JUNE 28
Freddies Beach Bar & Restaurant (555
23rd St., S. Arlington, V.A.) hosts a Pride
Month Stonewall Social tonight from 7-8
p.m. The social, which commemorates
the 47th anniversary of the Stonewall
Riots, is open to everyone free of charge.
For more information or to make a dinner
reservation, visit freddiesbeachbar.com.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29
Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at
7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th
St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. This is a free
event and no reservations are needed.
The club is open to newcomers. For more
information and for partnering if needed,
call 202-841-0279.
THURSDAY, JUNE 30
The Second Citys Almost Accurate
Guide to America, a humorous show
exploring what the history of America
would look like if it were written by
comedians, is tonight in the Theater
Lab at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St.,
N.W.). Tickets range from $49-64 and are
available at kennedy-center.org.
WASHINGTONBLADE.COM
BO OK S
J U N E 24, 2016 33
PHOTO COURTESY OF CROWN BOOKS
Coming-of-age memoir
is upbeat, inspiring
TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER has been reading

since she was 3 years old.She lives in Wisconsin
with two dogs and 12,000 books. Reach her at
[email protected].
Theres nothing special about you.

Youre just an ordinary kid, nothing
unique except, there is. You have your
own thoughts, passions, creativity and
sense of humor. Theres nobody else like
you; youre ordinary and special and so
is Jazz Jennings. In her new book Being
Jazz, she writes about being an everyday
kid, with a dierence.
As a very small child, Jazz Jennings
knew that something was wrong with the
way adults were acting toward her. Her
parents dressed her in boy clothes, gave
her trucks and said things like Good boy!
But Jennings knew even before she could
speak that they were wrong. She was a
girl, though her body said otherwise.
For most of her toddlerhood, Jennings
(known then as Jaron) fought against
anything that was remotely masculine. At
2, she asked her mother when the Good
Fairy was coming to change her into a
girl; Jennings mother then realized that
this probably wasnt a phase.
At home, the Jennings were ne
with Jarons girliness, but preschool
was dierent. Even then, there were
bathroom issues. The principal made
concessions about school uniforms but
Jaron wasnt allowed to use the girls
restroom. Shortly after that, she started
calling herself Jazz, and Jazz often wet
herself at school.
But that was just little-kid behavior.

As Jennings grew up, she became
an inspiration for many with gender
dysphoria. She and her father fought for
her right to play soccer with other girls, a
battle that took years. She was up-front
with friends, Barbara Walters and others
about being a girl in a boys body, and she
had plenty of haters but she learned who
her friends really were. She says she still
struggles with depression sometimes,
as well as typical teen issues but overall,
shes condent. And if she can help other
transgender kids, then thats all good, too.
Whod ever thought that bathrooms
would be such a hot-button issue in
2016?Author Jazz Jennings has, perhaps;
shes been dealing with potty parity nearly
all her life, which is just one of the topics
she tackles in Being Jazz.
Right from the outset, its obvious that this
is one exceptionally upbeat book. Theres
almost no poor-me-ing here; even when
she writes about struggles and occasional
anger, Jennings cheery optimism is front
and center. She gives props to her family
for this, praising their easy acceptance and
unconditional support and acknowledging
that many trans teens dont enjoy the same
familial benets.
That praise can almost be expected,
but I noticed one refreshingly unexpected
thing: because of her honesty and
openness, Jennings has become a role
model, a status of which she seems
nonchalantly abashed but secretly
delighted, with a tone of pride there, too.
Who could fail to be charmed by such
straightforward authenticity?
While this book is supposedly for teens
ages 12-and-up, I think a transitioning
20-something could certainly benet from
whats inside. Its buoyancy and optimism
makes Being Jazz all kinds of special.
BEING JAZZ
By Jazz Jennings
Crown Books for Young Readers
$17.99
272 pages
3 4 J UN E 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
WA SH I N GTO NB LADE.C OM
JUNE 24, 2016 35
REALESTATE
Tiny houses: fad or future?

It takes discipline to live
in 300 square feet or less
By VALERIE M. BLAKE
I recently downsized from a four-story,
2,400-square-foot home to a one-story
home about half the size.
To make the transition, I held estate sales
on two weekends, gave numerous bags of
clothing, household items and small furnishings to charity, and shifted some items
to my beach house. Yet even with all that
paring down I still have so much stuff in my
garage that a car wont fit.
So I got up early one day, feeling
pumped about getting organized. I
went down to the garage, picked up a
box, found I had nowhere else to put it
while emptying the contents, and looked
around to realize that everything that I
wanted on the left side of the garage was
currently on the right, with no path to get
from one side to the other.
The prospect of unloading everything
into the driveway to make some sense
of things before putting it all back in its
proper place was so daunting that I returned to the living room, tuned the cable
channel to HGTV and watched four hours
of Tiny House, Big Living.
In some respects, I envy the people on
that show who have collected so little or
disposed of so much that they can comfortably live in 150-300 square feet. And
I absolutely love the way every item inside these homes is designed to serve a
dual purpose for the most efficient use of
minimal space.
Still, although I no longer have the collection of clothing and shoes I once had, I wondered, exposing my priorities, where my
four dogs would fit and where in the heck I
would put a home office? I also developed
an odd fascination with how a couple might
successfully do the nasty in one of those
sleeping lofts without serious injury.
Nonetheless, I can see the appeal of
plunking one of these babies down on
the beach, or tying it to a barge as a doit-yourself floating home. And tiny houses
can also be a great, low cost (at least by
D.C. standards) way to get junior out of
the basement after college.
Until living smaller became the craze, the
tiny homes I knew were primarily studios,
efficiencies, carriage houses and English
basements, but there are actually more tiny
houses in D.C. than you might think.
The smallest house Im aware of was
once owned by a colleague. Located
on Capitol Hill, its a one-story, semi-detached rowhouse with one bedroom and
one bath, consisting of a whopping 252
square feet, which is actually somewhat
large by tiny house standards.
Moving up to the under 500-squarefeet category you can actually find five
homes in Georgetown and Northwest,
10 in Deanwood and Northeast, six in
the southeast community of Marshall
Heights, and nine more in Capitol Hill,
one of which I bought, renovated and
flipped in 2001.
Mine was a single-story home and perfect for someone with a large dog and
a small budget. After a gut-renovation,
PHOTO BY Earthworm; COURTESY OF FLICKR.COM
it ended up as 371 square feet of cute:

an efficiency house with a full-service
kitchen, a dining area, an office nook, a
full bath, a respectable closet and a living
room that doubled as a bedroom, not to
mention a fenced, rear yard with a brick
patio and parking.
D.C. also established the tiny home
community of Boneyard Studio in 2012,
later renamed Micro Showcase, but
neighborhood disputes and sanitation
concerns thwarted this initiative until
now. Come September, changes in the
new zoning code may make approval for
tiny homes, micro-homes and two-story
carriage houses easier to obtain, although
building permits will still be required.
I recently sold an efficiency condo in
Adams Morgan that was so well designed
that you could live comfortably in about
315 square feet, with high-end appliances and fixtures, exquisite tile work and
a sofa that doubles as a Murphy bed. In
this era where people travel a lot, prefer
restaurants to hosting Thanksgiving dinner and want to save money on housing
so they can pursue other interests, these
alternatives make sense.
So whats next? A dumpster home la
Two Broke Girls? Will livin lean replace
the concept of livin large? Will our choices
of housing include a metal container used
for shipping cargo?
Bring it on! At least Ill have a place to
store all the stuff in my garage.
Valerie M. Blake can be reached at 202-2468602 or at [email protected]. Each
Keller Williams Realty office is independently
owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity.
SIMPLE
AFFORDABLE
PROVEN RESULTS
CALL TODAY TOPLACE YOUR AD
202.747.2077
DAVE LLOYD & ASSOCIATES

Top 1% Nationwide
NVAR Life Member Top Producder
703-593-3204
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ENTHUSIASTICALLY
SERVING DC & VIRGINIA
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3 6 J UN E 2 4 , 2 0 1 6
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eatured in Home and Design Magazine, come see this total renovation of a Country Club Hills contemporary! This light-filled
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eatured in Home and Design Magazine, come see this total renovation of a Country Club Hills contemporary! This light-filled home integrates
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Klintberg_3300 N Vermont St_HalfPage_Ad_Arl_Mag_052516.indd 1
[email protected]
www.SteveKlintberg.com
4720 Lee Highway

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Klintberg_3300 N Vermont St_HalfPage_Ad_Arl_Mag_052516.indd 1
5/24/2016 11:39:37 AM
You deserve MOORE

PROOF #1
A D V E RT I S I N G
P R O O F

A full
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service SALES REPRESENTATIVE: BRIAN PITTS ([email protected])

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VALERIE M. BLAKE, Associate Broker, GRI
Dupont Circle Office 202.243.7700 (o) 202.246.8602 (c)

[email protected] www.DCHomeQuest.com
JUNE 24, 2016 37
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for any legal liability arising out of or relating to the advertisement, and/or any material to which users can link through
the advertisement. Advertiser represents that its advertisement will not violate any criminal laws or any rgihts of third
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claims, or causes of action, including reasonable legal fees and expenses that may be incurred by brown naff pitts
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WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

NEIGHBOURS wItH BENEfItS

explore The benefiTs aT mtl.org/lgBt

W A SH I N GTO NB LAD E.C OM

JUNE 24, 2016 03

Obama, Biden travel to Orlando

Pulse nightclub has always been a safe

public remarks about the massacre.

very dangerous in this world, said Obama

Susan Rice: Orlando massacre a jolt

nightclubs owners and employees who

militant group publicly stoned a 15-year-old

immigration from areas when there is

JUNE 24, 2016 05

Nearly 2,000 attend Orlando vigil in Dupont Circle

Speakers denounced religious bigotry at a Dupont Circle vigil on June 15.

the nightclub and told a dispatcher that he

saying they would do all they could to

The vigil which began at 8 p.m.,

Va. Pride festival honors Orlando massacre victims

diversity of our community and it makes

Ghent neighborhood with his husband,

Districts Republican primary.

D.C. gay clubs say security measures in place

Several D.C. gay clubs, including Town,

In the aftermath of the Orlando tragedy,

Cause I am not bending the rules.

the Orlando shooting and pointing to his

Burned rainbow ag at D.C. restaurant replaced

early morning hours of June 12.

JUNE 24, 2016 07

Republicans acknowledge LGBT victims of Orlando massacre

U.S. House SpeakerPAUL RYAN (D-Wis.)has

of free people to live their lives, love who

rights legislation to move to the House

and are working to become uent in

Covering a massacre in the Happiest Place on Earth

community in their public comments about

Eddie Sotomayor, one of the 49 victims

JUNE 24, 2016 09

Local Latino community hit hard by Orlando shootings

of the victims during a healing service at

On why a fundraiser was important:

us and thats why you saw such diversity

LGBT Muslims feel Orlandos double sting

Arshad said the timing of the Orlando

Muslim community checking on one

long-term isolation of the community from

W A SH I N GTO NB LAD E.C OM

JUNE 24, 2016 11

JUNE 24, 2016 13

Comings & Goings

A fundraiser at Town netted $31,875 for Pulse victims.

the LGBT Latina and Latino communities

There are new faces at Human Rights

Draft D.C. constitution would allow anti-LGBT ballot measures

converts from a city to a state except

proposed constitution includes a ban on

that prohibits voter initiatives that