Letters from CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 35, No. 5

MAKE AN IMPACT TODAY

Your support helps us forge proud and safe communities where gender identity and sexual orientation are respected.

EXPLORE WAYS TO GIVE

For over 30 years, CAMP Rehoboth has promoted cooperation and created a safe, welcoming space for the LGBTQ+ community. Few organizations are as committed and effective. In addition to organizing events and providing critical services, they educate and advocate to bring people together. Especially in times of uncertainty, we know our support — through volunteering as a CAMPcierge and giving a recurring Membership donation — truly makes a difference.

— Will Freshwater & Stephen Cremen

CAMP Rehoboth Membership

Give ongoing support monthly or yearly.

One-Time Gift

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Donor Advised Fund (DAF)

Recommend a grant from your DAF to support our work.

Tribute Giving Honor someone special.

Planned Giving

Include us in your will or trust.

Stock Gifts

Donate appreciated assets.

Corporate Matching

Employer match donations.

Fundraise for Us

Start a peer-to-peer fundraiser.

Transfer from an IRA

If you are 70 1/2 years of age or older.

Cryptocurrency Giving

Donate crypto securely.

Contact our Development Manager, Laurie Thompson, at laurie@camprehoboth.org to learn more about these ways to give. Give.CAMPRehoboth.org

CAMP Matters

Our Calling—and Our Call

AWWII Marine Corps Purple Heart veteran and an Army Cadet Nurse Corps veteran raised me. I learned a healthy dose of discipline, compassion, and toughness. Life with six siblings was never neat and simple. Chaos and discipline were companions; both were present each day. The skills I learned to navigate simultaneous chaos and discipline are present in my work these days.

Life is full of challenges, uncertainties, and hardships. This is true of life for all of us at this point in our country’s history. At times, obstacles seem insurmountable, and the path forward appears unclear. The proverb, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” highlights a powerful truth: strong organizations do not give up when faced with adversity—they rise to meet it with courage, determination, and resilience. It is during these difficult moments that an organization’s true character is revealed. The proverb encourages perseverance and strength of spirit.

Although the going is a bit tougher these days, CAMP Rehoboth will not retreat or surrender. We are strong in will and character, and we will push forward, and fight through the challenges. Toughness is not just physical strength; it also is mental fortitude and emotional stability.

It is my belief that the large and powerful extended community of CAMP Rehoboth has inner strength, often untapped, that surfaces during tough times. We refuse to give up and instead

we adapt, endure, and persist. This is how we overcome.

Greatness begins with the imagination. It starts when someone dares to believe in something better— something beyond the current reality. Sometimes fear stands in the way, whispering doubt and warning of risks. The key is not to eliminate fear but instead to face it, and more importantly, to envision something powerful enough to move through it.

Although the going is a bit tougher these days, CAMP Rehoboth will not retreat or surrender.

A friend recently asked me, “Did you imagine when you took this job that the organization you work with would have a target on its back?” I responded, “CAMP Rehoboth does not have a target on its back. I will not give the organization’s power away like that.”

We must imagine success in the face of fear. Our mindset must be one of belief, resilience, and hope. It is about shifting focus from what could go wrong to what will go right. It is about creating a vision so compelling that it pulls us through fear. This does not mean we will never feel fear; it means we will not be ruled by it.

BY KIM LEISEY, PHD

Fear is a force that tries to shrink us. It aims to reduce our confidence, and make us question our worth or feel like prey in a world full of predators. I reject the idea that there is a target on the back of CAMP Rehoboth. We are not to live in fear, walk small, or apologize for our presence in the world.

Fear may come and CAMP Rehoboth will not surrender to it. Our work is noble. We provide a safe harbor for many who have chosen to call southern Delaware home, many of whom have a comfortable and open life. Our work to promote the health, safety, and belonging of our community is an act of choosing dignity over victimhood, action over silence, and courage over comfort. We are working for you every day.

There are wonderful things ahead for the CAMP Rehoboth community and southern Delaware. We need you to answer the call when we reach out to you and say, “Help us to help you and the generations that come after you.” The call will come, and I know you will answer. ▼

Kim Leisey, PhD, is Executive Director of CAMP Rehoboth..

inside

THIS ISSUE

52 CAMP Stories

Knowing One’s Colors RICH BARNETT

54 View Point Victim of His Own Gaslighting RICHARD ROSENDALL

56 The Writing Life Boundaries Borders Crossings JILL STRACHAN

It’s Sunscreen Season! Let’s Not Feel the Burn TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

National HIV Testing

Progress Doesn’t Pause CHRISTOPHER MOORE & TYLER BERL

90

Letters from CAMP Rehoboth welcomes submissions. Email editor@camprehoboth.org. Photographs must be high resolution (300 dpi). Documents should be sent as attachments in Microsoft Word®. Deadline for submissions is two weeks prior to the issue release date. Letters to the Editor (up to 300 words) are published at the discretion of the Editor on a space-available basis. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

EDITOR: Marj Shannon

EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE: Matty Brown

DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Mary Beth Ramsey

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER: Tricia Massella

DISTRIBUTION: Mark Wolf

CONTRIBUTORS: Ann Aptaker, Chris Azzopardi, Rich Barnett, Tyler Bert, Matty Brown, Ed Castelli, Pattie Cinelli, Michael Cook, Robert DeDominic, Vincent DeLissio, Logan Farro, Clarence Fluker, Michael Thomas Ford, Joe Gfaller, Fay Jacobs, Leslie Ledogar, Kim Leisey, Robb Mapou, Tricia Massella, Christopher Moore, Sharon Morgan, Eric Peterson, Mary Beth Ramsey, Stephen Raskauskas, Richard Rosendall, Nancy Sakaduski, Romeo San Vicente, Terri Schlichenmeyer, James Sears, Marj Shannon, Beth Shockley, Russell Stiles, Jill Strachan, Mary Jo Tarallo, Eric Wahl

Letters from CAMP Rehoboth is published 11 times per year, between February and December, as a program of CAMP Rehoboth Inc., a non-profit community service organization. CAMP Rehoboth seeks to create a more positive environment of cooperation and understanding among all people. Revenue generated by advertisements supports CAMP Rehoboth’s purpose as outlined in our mission statement.

The inclusion or mention of any person, group, or business in Letters from CAMP Rehoboth does not, nor is it intended in any way, to imply sexual orientation or gender identity. The content of the columns are the views and opinions of the writers and may not indicate the position of CAMP Rehoboth, Inc.

© 2025 by CAMP Rehoboth, Inc. All rights reserved by CAMP Rehoboth. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the editor.

Telluride (detail) by Gary Fisher see page 92

CAMP REHOBOTH

MISSION STATEMENT AND PURPOSE

MISSION

CAMP Rehoboth is an LGBTQ+ community center determined to Create A More Positive (CAMP) environment that is inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities in southern Delaware and beyond. We seek to promote cooperation, understanding among all people, and well-being, as we continue our to work to build a safer community with room for all.

VISION

CAMP Rehoboth envisions communities in southern Delaware and beyond where all LGBTQ+ people thrive.

VALUES

Community | Belonging | Positivity Diversity | Visibility | Transparency Safety | Partnership | Compassion

HFrom the  Editor

appy Pride!

PRESIDENT Leslie Ledogar

VICE PRESIDENT Teri Seaton

SECRETARY Pat Catanzariti

TREASURER Polly Donaldson

AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

Amanda Mahony Albanese, Wes Combs, Lewis Dawley, Mike DeFlavia, David Garrett, Jenn Harpel, Kim Leisey (non-voting), Michelle Manfredi, Kevin Ussery, and Hope Vella

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Kim Leisey

CAMP REHOBOTH

37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 tel 302-227-5620 email editor@camprehoboth.org www.camprehoboth.org

CAMP Rehoboth, Inc. is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to CAMP Rehoboth are considered charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes and may be deducted to the fullest extent of the law. A copy of our exemption document is available for public inspection.

BY MARJ SHANNON

This is an especially critical time to embrace and embody Pride, whether we identify as LGBTQ+ or as allies—and many of our writers could not agree more. Fay Jacobs, among others, offers perspectives on marriage equality, and Robert DeDominic has lots to say about the special importance of Pride in the current political climate. Terri Schlichenmeyer points us to a number of Priderelated books, and our Pop Culture piece explores music’s historic impact on advancing LGBTQ+ rights.

Also in this issue, Christopher Moore and Tyler Berl speak to the critical work their respective organizations do toward eliminating HIV and AIDS. The essential services and service providers requisite to the effort are facing significant challenges these days; read about the important work they still are committed to doing.

But (of course) we offer as well many less-weighty reads.

It being summer and this being the beach, you know there is fun to be had. If you’re finding yours outdoors, you may have a good deal more fun (both now and in the future) if you read and heed Let’s Not Feel the Burn—sunscreens are indeed our friends. And don’t miss Sharon Morgan’s paean to the ocean and the benefits of seaside living (or visiting).

Looking for some new things to do? Mary Jo Tarallo introduces us to three local hobbyists with uncommon pastimes—meet people who keep bees, raise butterflies, or craft dioramas. And Robb Mapou chronicles his ukelele journey—it certainly has taken him to some beautiful places.

Maybe you’re looking for indoor fun? See CAMP Arts, where Joe Gfaller points us to loads of local theater options for the whole family. While you’re there, read about Gary Fisher’s exhibit at the CAMP Rehoboth Gallery, and plan your visit. In The Writing Life, Jill Strachan introduces us to her new memoir, Boundaries Borders Crossings

Though summer is just now getting started, it’s not too soon to begin planning for CAMP Rehoboth’s fabulous close-out: SUNFESTIVAL! See page 14 for more about what’s happening Labor Day weekend—and get those reservations in place. You’ll not want to miss out!

Between now and SUNFESTIVAL—have a great summer! We’re so glad you’re here—and reading Letters! ▼

Submissions received in response to our request for Six Words for Pride:

Proud ally supporting my LGBTQ+ friends –N. Sakaduski

“Didn’t choose this … but I would.” –Eric Peterson

Gay Pride history is American history –Terri Schlichenmeyer

Be who you want to be. –Pattie Cinelli

It’s essential that our movement continues. –J. Gfaller

Embracing my nature, I spoke up. –R. Rosendall

Correction: In our May issue, the G Linda Rikard “Closest to the Pin” winner was misidentified; the winner was Carol Pellicano.

On the Cover

Meet

the Letters cover models for the June issue: Tara Ashleigh Austin, Graeme Davis, Carolanne Deal, AJ Eckman, and Will Gestole.

What does Pride mean to you?

Tara Ashleigh Austin: Pride means having the courage to live openly and authentically, inspiring others who’ve faced similar struggles.

Graeme Davis: Pride is being able to be free to live my true authentic life without fear of any kind!

Carolanne Deal: To me, Pride is a celebration of diversity and resilience that honors those who paved the way for us to exist openly as queer people.

AJ Eckman: Pride month isn’t just a celebration—it’s a commitment that honors the struggles and sacrifices of those who came before us—the activists and advocates who paved the way so that we can feel respected, supported, and understood.

Will Gestole: Pride to me is family, community, representation, diversity, love, and respect for yourself. ▼

SATURDAY, JULY 12

Let’s Sing Taylor!

Join both CAMP Families and Prism Young Adults as they travel to the Freeman Arts Pavilion for “Let’s Sing Taylor— A Live Band Experience” on Saturday, July 12. The event is the ultimate tribute to the music of Taylor Swift. The concert will showcase the most faithful and lively covers of Taylor’s expansive catalog. The Freeman Arts Pavilion is bringing the communal experience of celebrating Taylor’s music in a live setting to Swifties near and far.

Calling all Swifties—learn how to register for complimentary CAMP Rehoboth tickets by emailing programs@camprehoboth. org today.▼

Tickets

SUNFESTIVAL is back on Labor Day weekend, ready to close out the summer at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. A benefit for CAMP Rehoboth, the two-day event will host a night of comedy and live auction on Saturday, August 30, and a night of dance on Sunday, August 31.

There are plenty of ticket options to join in on the fun. Get a General Admission ticket for comic Zach Zimmerman’s headlining set and the exhilarating live auction on Saturday ($50) plus a General Admission ticket for DJs Robbie Leslie and Joe Gauthreaux’s electric dance floor showdowns ($70). Look out for bundled options like the SUNFESTIVAL Pass ($110).

Check Your Mailboxes!

Prideis more than just a month. Thanks to community support, CAMP Rehoboth celebrates Pride year-round with its programming and services for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies in southern Delaware and beyond.

That’s why CAMP Rehoboth is asking community members to keep an eye on the mailbox: Stay on the lookout for our Pride appeal letter. As the LGBTQ+ community faces heightened scrutiny and targeted attacks at the national level, support from within our community is essential to help CAMP Rehoboth keep vital services strong and accessible.

The letter shares how your support sustains programs like advocacy efforts, health classes, and support groups. When you receive it, please take a moment to read and reflect on how you can stand with the LGBTQ+ community—now and into the months ahead.

Didn’t receive the letter? Stop by the center or visit camprehoboth.org/pride25 to learn more and make a donation today.

Pride doesn’t stop in July—and neither does the work. Let’s keep showing up for each other. ▼

Pictured, left to right, our cover models in order listed above.

Steve Elkins Fellow Named

InMay, the Blade Foundation announced the recipient of its 2025 Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism as Abigail Hatting, a rising senior at American University.

In a statement, Hatting said, “I’m very excited to have received the Elkins Fellowship. I can’t wait to dive into the LGBTQ scene in Delaware and report on issues that are important to the community. I’m excited to deepen my reporting skills and learn from the Blade’s experienced team to contribute meaningful coverage at the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the country.”

CAMP Rehoboth is grateful to the Washington Blade for its coverage of LGBTQ+ news in Delaware, and for its commitment to memorializing CAMP Rehoboth cofounder and former Letters editor, Steve Elkins, with this fellowship. ▼

Lisa, Holly, and John Present Two Shows

In

just a few weeks, the dynamic trio of Lisa Graff, Holly Lane, and John Francis Flynn are set to bring their first (of two) productions to the CAMP Rehoboth stage. On Saturday, June 28, at 5:00 p.m., CAMP Rehoboth is excited to host “Chicago Is My Kind of Town,” written by Lisa Graff with Holly Lane on vocals and John Francis Flynn on keys. The show is an autobiographical journey into Lisa’s life, and a tribute to a man named Mark who, according to Lisa, “taught me— rather, modeled for me—that gay people can be more fun than straight people!”

Meanwhile, on July 26 at 5:00 p.m., the trio will bring “The Benefits of Aging… Uncensored” to the Elkins-Archibald Atrium. “Too many Hallmark® birthday cards intended for seniors contain jokes about the aging body and the woes of getting older. My latest show does poke fun at our tribulations, but mostly I encourage seniors to celebrate the body parts which do work well!” explains Lisa, about her newest show.

Lisa J. Graff grew up in the Washington, DC area and lived in Maryland all of her life until she moved to Lewes in 2010. She taught high school English, speech, and drama classes and then got certified as an English as a second language (ESL) teacher in grades K-5. In 2012, she became a columnist for the Cape Gazette, writing “Retirement 101,” and later, “Our Senior Yearbook.” Graff is

planning to produce her first play, Happy Anniversary

Holly Lane was born in DC, and discovered a love of travel at age 10, when she went to France for the first time. She was later able to see the world as a dancer and in Paris, she discovered her voice and her love of jazz, singing in jazz clubs, cabarets, theaters, and cruise ships. In addition to the Great American Songbook, she also performs French music and showtunes. She has called Rehoboth Beach home since 1996, and has been playing with John Flynn for about 15 years, at Café Azafrán on Thursdays amid other gigs around town. She has also recorded two CDs with Shore Jazz, which she joined in 2000 and still performs with from time to time.

John Flynn is a Philly born native who has lived in Rehoboth for 18 years. He’s played piano full-time since ‘78 and was also lead vocalist for several bands in the 90s. Early 2000s brought a new project with the lead role of Syd in The Pajama Game in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He’s performed on the east coast from the Delmarva and Philly area to New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Catch John in town year-round at Blue Moon, La Fable, Café Azafrán with Holly, Paul Cullen’s Room at Cedar Grove with Lisa Graff and Holly Lane, and now proudly at CAMP Rehoboth with both ladies!

Tickets for both one-hour shows are now available at give.camprehoboth.org/ events. ▼

President’s View

Marriage Equality

As a Constitutional Right—It’s Personal

June is Pride Month. This June, while it’s important to acknowledge that the rights of LGBTQ+ people are under siege, it’s also important to celebrate that Delaware is doing the opposite by considering enshrining the fundamental right of marriage equality into Delaware’s Constitution.

Legal and Political Context: Currently, marriage equality rests on both state and federal statutes and on federal law. Delaware legalized samesex marriage in 2013 (effective July 1, 2013) by statute, granting “civil marriage equality for all families,” while explicitly affirming religious freedom by allowing clergy to refuse to solemnize marriages that conflict with their individual values.

Additionally, like all states, Delaware must recognize both the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and the federal Respect for Marriage Act (2022) that requires all states to recognize same-sex unions, although it doesn’t require states to issue them.

However, there is growing concern that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) could revisit or overturn Obergefell. If SCOTUS could use the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had settled rights regarding bodily autonomy, what is to stop SCOTUS from overturning Obergefell, thereby potentially allowing states to reinstate bans on same-sex marriage?

To safeguard against this uncertainty, Delaware is joining states like California, Colorado, and Hawaii in proposing a constitutional amendment to explicitly protect marriage equality within their state constitutions. SS1 for SB100, introduced in April 2025 by Senator Russ Huxtable and 21 Senate co-sponsors, would amend Delaware’s Constitution to “establish[ ] the right to marry as a fundamental right” and require the state to recognize and issue marriage licenses to “couples regardless of gender.”

Impact on Delaware’s LGBTQ+

Community: As CAMP Rehoboth stated in our letter to the Senate Executive Committee, we applaud proactively enshrining marriage equality in Delaware’s Constitution because it ensures that even if federal protections are weakened, same-sex couples in Delaware will retain their rights under Delaware law.

It was not long ago that we saw the rainbow flag draped from the White House balcony, but it is doubtful that we will see that again soon.

We also pointed out that a Constitutional amendment serves as a clear and enduring statement of a state’s commitment to equality and human dignity, sending a strong message that Delaware values equality and civil rights, and that discrimination based on sexual orientation has no place in the state’s most foundational legal document. How It’s Personal: In addition to CAMP’s written remarks, Board Vice President Teri Seaton, Board Past President Wes Combs, longtime advocate Fay Jacobs, and I journeyed to Delaware’s Legislative Hall to testify as to how enshrining marriage equality in Delaware’s Constitution is very personal. Here’s an excerpt of my remarks: It’s personal because CAMP was there at the very beginning of this road in Delaware. Back in 1997, one of CAMP’s founders, Steve Elkins, along with many others, began a 12-year journey towards the guarantee of civil rights for all Delawareans. That law was finally signed on July 2, 2009.

BY LESLIE LEDOGAR

But equal civil rights are not the same as marriage equality. So, again we advocated, this time for civil unions and eventually for the 2013 same-sex marriage bill. This was so important that our former Board President Chris Beagle and his longtime partner, Eric Engelhart, became the first gay married couple in Sussex County. Their wedding was held at CAMP Rehoboth. That’s how personal this is.

Sharing my own story, I married my wife in 2019. We had been partners for 18 years and have now been married for six years. In addition to wanting to celebrate our love and our commitment to each other, we married because we wanted to be able to rest assured that the protections afforded to us in the US Supreme Court case Obergfell v. Hodges and Delaware’s same-sex marriage law, would always be there for us. That’s personal.

And, when Congress passed the federal Respect for Marriage Act on December 13, 2022, then-Senator Carper made it a point to come to CAMP to celebrate, because he knew how personal that Act is for us.

Yet, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community continue to be debated rather than guaranteed in many states and at the federal level. It was not long ago that we saw the rainbow flag draped from the White House balcony, but it is doubtful that we will see that again soon.

As a married person, I cannot imagine that everything I have built with my spouse and family could be negated with the stroke of a pen. I hope you can’t either. That’s why this is so personal for us, and I hope for each of you as well.

Equality for one is equality for all. As we celebrate Pride Month, CAMP Rehoboth proudly recommits to its solid tradition of personal advocacy for the rights of us all. ▼

Leslie Ledogar is CAMP Rehoboth Board President.

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CAMP News

Meet Gina Leigh & Sophie Wagner

CAMP

Rehoboth is pleased to welcome two new staff members to the team. On April 28, Gina Leigh (she/they) began duties as an Administrative Assistant. Community members will get to see Gina often in the front office, keeping CAMP Rehoboth operations running smoothly and overseeing the fabulous team of CAMPcierge volunteers.

Meanwhile, on May 5, Sophie Wagner (they/them) joined the CAMP Rehoboth team as the first-ever Event and Volunteer Coordinator. Designed as a role to build staff capacity, Sophie will oversee the planning and execution of CAMP Rehoboth major events and will manage the volunteer program. CAMP Rehoboth is grateful to two anonymous donors for making this position possible.

Get to know both Gina and Sophie better with the Q&As here!

Gina Leigh

What excites you about working at CAMP Rehoboth right now? I’m excited about supporting CAMP Rehoboth’s mission in our current political climate. It’s especially vital to provide these services and be a community hub while LGBTQIA+ civil rights are under attack. Our community knows how to stand strong together.

You will be providing oversight of our CAMPcierges. For those who don’t know, what is a CAMPcierge?

Our CAMPcierges are a wonderful group of committed volunteers. They work our front desk and greet everyone who comes through the door. They also take on many projects around CAMP Rehoboth. We couldn’t do this work without them.

Outside of work, what are your biggest passions?

Puppetry, writing, music (especially the Rolling Stones), vegetarian cooking, and exploring nature.

What was it like working with The Jim Henson Company?

I played Alfreda the Cheetah at the Philly Zoo for The Jim Henson Company. For six months, Alfreda and I had great conversations with people of all ages about endangered animals. It was so much fun, with a deep message—a dream come true.

Sophie Wagner

What excites you about working at CAMP Rehoboth right now?

What really excites me is the energy of this community—it’s welcoming, vibrant, and full of heart. I’m also very excited for the chance to be part of something that truly brings people together. After moving here from a small town in central Washington—where I often felt like the only nonbinary person around—finding a sense of community was something I deeply craved. Now, as the Event and Volunteer Coordinator, I get to help create spaces where people can show up as their genuine selves and feel safe, celebrated, and connected. It’s incredibly meaningful work, and I feel very lucky to be doing it.

You will be providing oversight of our volunteer program. Why should someone volunteer at CAMP Rehoboth? Volunteering at CAMP Rehoboth is so much more than just helping out—it’s about finding your people. I say that from experience. When I first got involved in volunteer work, I was just hoping to meet a few kind folks and maybe learn something new. What I didn’t expect was to find a chosen family—people who support you, cheer you on, and show up when it matters. That’s the kind of community that a place like CAMP Rehoboth builds. Whether you come in with a lot of skills or just a willingness to lend a hand, there’s a place for you here. You’ll make real connections, contribute to something meaningful, and you’ll have a great time along the way!

L-R: Gina Leigh and Sophie Wagner; photo by Tony Burns

Outside of work, what are your biggest passions?

My biggest passion is definitely my family—my wife, Isabelle, and three dogs, Chance, Milo, and Luigi. Life with them is equal parts love, laughter, and tripping over dog toys. We love being outside as a pack—hiking, exploring, or just finding a small piece of nature to relax in.

I also run a videography business, which lets me combine my love of storytelling with my love of people. Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to documentary filmmaking. There’s something powerful about capturing real stories with heart and honesty.

And when fall rolls around? I’m hiking by day, throwing on my cheesehead by night, and proudly over-investing all my emotions in the Green Bay Packers. As a videographer, what’s your process for turning raw footage into a compelling narrative?

For me, the story doesn’t start when editing—it starts before the camera is even on. I spend time thinking about how the subject would want their story to be seen—what matters to them, what moments make them light up, and what feels most true to who they are. I do my

best to create a space where people feel comfortable enough to be themselves— no performance, just presence.

When it comes to editing, that’s where the magic (and the caffeine) really kicks in. It’s definitely my favorite part—where the vision I had in my head starts to take shape on screen.

Sure, there’s the technical side—color correcting, making things look polished, and yes, lots of transcribing that makes me question my typing skills, but it’s also where I get to be the most creative. It’s really cool when a bunch of random clips suddenly turn into something that makes you feel something. ▼

RAPID FIRE GUESTIONS

Who’s your ultimate queer icon?

Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman! So much joy.

What’s your latest binge-watch?

Poker Face with Natasha Lyonne. The Golden Girls to fall asleep at night. What’s your sun sign—and do you believe in astrology?

I’m a Cancer. I don’t know if I believe in astrology, but it’s eerily accurate.

What are your beach day essentials?

I’m the sunscreen queen. Give me SPF 5000 and everything will be fine.

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird! I sleep when the sun sleeps. Day at the beach or on the trails?

On the trails! You can find me with the trees!

What’s your latest binge-watch?

I’m on my millionth watch of The Office Still laughing ‘til I cry, still quoting it, still looking for a new show. Suggestions welcome!

What’s your sun sign—and do you believe in astrology?

I’m an Aries—and yes, I do! Passionate, energetic, maybe just a smidge stubborn. I’d say the stars got it pretty right.

Gina Leigh

Sophie Wagner

CAMP Rehoboth Library

Open Monday - Friday, 2 - 4 PM

Featuring hundreds of LGBTQ+ titles in fiction, LGBTQ+ history, performing arts, and more!

Special thanks to volunteer Glenn Lash for organizing the CAMP Rehoboth Library!

Please note: CAMP Rehoboth is no longer accepting donations to the CAMP Rehoboth Library after reaching capacity. Find out more online at camprehoboth.org/programs.

SUNFESTIVAL 2025

Let’s Celebrate and Support CAMP Rehoboth

Now more than ever, it’s important to come together and celebrate our community. Supporting CAMP Rehoboth through sponsorship and ticket sales allows CAMP to continue empowering health, safeguarding safety, and fostering a sense of belonging for the LGBTQ+ community in southern Delaware and beyond.

CAMP Rehoboth Executive Director Kim Leisey notes, “Harvey Milk famously urged LGBTQ+ people to ‘come out’ because he believed that visibility led to understanding, acceptance, and ultimately, power. In tough political climates, he would emphasize the importance of not retreating into silence or invisibility. Harvey emphasized that ‘Hope will never be silent.’ SUNFESTIVAL is one of the most visible LGBTQ+ events in the Mid-Atlantic. This is a call to our entire community, including our allies! Buy tickets and sponsorships and enjoy a fabulous weekend together!”

STEP UP AND SPONSOR

Please consider stepping up—be a sponsor for the first time or increase your previous sponsorship level. By being a SUNFESTIVAL 2025 sponsor, you become a champion for CAMP Rehoboth's mission to build safe, inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Sponsorships range from $600 to $10,000 and are the best way to show your support. Benefits, depending on level, include extra tickets, preferred seating, access to the VIP lounge, and donor recognition (if desired). Most important, you’ll know you’re making a real impact by supporting our community.

A NIGHT OF COMEDY FEATURING ZACH ZIMMERMAN

“Rising star” (New York Times), “wickedly funny” (The Wee Review), and “worldclass comic” (Chicago Reader) are just some of the accolades pouring in for Zach Zimmerman. Zach is a stand-up comedian, writer, and host who creates queer, anti-capitalist stories that delight

and devastate. Zach has appeared on The Late Late Show, Watch What Happens Live, and After Midnight. Zach’s first comedy album, Clean Comedy, debuted on the Billboard Top 10 and inspired a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and New York Comedy Festival. Zach's first book, Is It Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?) has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television, where Zach also has a development deal. (Stay tuned for a SUNFESTIVAL book signing event.)

Zack will appear Saturday, August 30, at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center.

LIVE AUCTION

A spectacular live auction of bucket-listfilling items will kickstart Saturday’s Night of Comedy. Keep an eye on the CAMP Rehoboth website to see what will be up for bid this year.

A NIGHT OF DANCE FEATURING DJ

PRODUCER ROBBIE LESLIE AND DJ

PRODUCER JOE GAUTHREAUX

Back this year for the SUNFESTIVAL dance are world-class DJ/producers Robbie Leslie and Joe Gauthreaux, providing classic mirror ball memories, dance floor anthems, and the latest club beats. This hugely popular annual event features amazing light effects, and a dance floor second to none.

Robbie Leslie has been a major feature at Sundance/SUNFESTIVAL since the tea

dance debuted in 2018. It’s “the icing on the cake of summer events for me,” he says. “I love playing this wonderful party!” Joe Gauthreaux is known for putting his heart and soul into every performance. "Music is the motivation behind every step of my job,” he says. Joe’s style is primarily vocal house music infused with tribal rhythms and melodic trance beats.

The Night of Dance will take place Sunday, August 31, at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center.

SUNFESTIVAL EVENTS ARE ACCESSIBLE

CAMP Rehoboth is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive environment for all participants. If you plan on joining us for SUNFESTIVAL and have needs related to accessibility, please contact accessibility@camprehoboth.org by August 15 to ensure needs are met. ▼

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

 Tickets go quickly—get them now to avoid disappointment.

 If you or your friends need accommodations, book them now.

 If you want to help support CAMP and enjoy the special experience of SUNFESTIVAL, become a sponsor.

For up-to-date information, tickets, and sponsorships, go to: give.camprehoboth.org/events/sunfestival-2025  ▼

Photos: Zach Zimmerman, credit: Mindy Tucker; SUNFESTIVAL dance floor, credit: G Michael Beigay

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CFPBoardownsthemarksCFP®,CERTIFIEDFINANCIALPLANNER™,andCFP®(withplaquedesign)intheUS. MorganStanleyrecommendsthatinvestorsindependentlyevaluateparticularinvestmentsandstrategies,and encouragesinvestorstoseektheadviceofaFinancialAdvisor.Theappropriatenessofaparticularinvestmentor strategywilldependonaninvestor’sindividualcircumstancesandobjectives. ©2024Morgan StanleySmith BarneyLLC.MemberSIPC. FAS015CRC609065111/23CS330144_232308207/22

become a sunfestival 2025 sponsor

by sponsoring sunfestival 2025, you champion camp rehoboth’s mission to build safe, inclusive spaces for the lgbtq+ community and its allies.

THANK YOU TO OUR SUNFESTIVAL SPONSORS

2025 scan here to sponsor sunfestival today!

diamond - Danny Sebright

VIP Room

- Easy Rider Stable

Sapphire

- Rodney Street Realty, LLC

- Greg Albright & Wes Combs

- Paul Lindsey & Richard Gamble

sponsorship opportunities

diamond ($10,000)

• Prime logo placement & exclusive stage acknowledgment

• Private meet and greet with talent

• 12 tickets + VIP lounge access with open bar

• Purple Level Membership

presenting ($10,000)

• Featured as top sponsor in all ads & on stage

• Private meet and greet with talent

• 8 tickets + VIP lounge access with open bar

• Purple Level Membership

sapphire ($5,000)

• Prominent logo placement + stage mention

• Private meet and greet with talent

• 8 tickets + VIP lounge access

vip room ($5,000)

• Named VIP Room sponsor with signage

• 4 tickets + VIP lounge access

• Premium logo exposure in event materials

ruby ($2,500)

• Name/logo on event materials

• 4 tickets + VIP lounge access

emerald ($1,500)

• 4 tickets + VIP lounge access

• Name/logo in pre- and postevent ads

• Full weekend access to entertainment

camp supporter ($600)

• 3 tickets + VIP lounge access

• 3 exclusive event T-shirts

• Name listed in thank you ads

• Featured in pre- and postevent ads contact

Sophie Wagner, Event and Volunteer Coordinator, at swagner@camprehoboth.org or Laurie Thompson, Development Manager, at laurie@camprehoboth.org to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.

www.camprehoboth.org

37 Baltimore Avenue Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 302-227-5620 camprehoboth.org

CAMP Sights

BY JAMES T. SEARS, PHD

Milton: From Working Town to Welcoming Queer Haven

At the turn of this century, Marie Mayor and Sharon Harris visited Milton. Both were familiar with the Eastern Shore. Marie’s great grandfather harvested trees from the Cypress Swamp and her grandfather was a Dagsboro farmer. Her family had vacationed along the Eastern Shore since the mid-1960s. Sharon, a Speedway Hoosier, had once been a social worker for the Veterans Administration in Baltimore and was co-founder of the Coalition of Gay Sisters. Since 1975, her family had made regular tips to Ocean City and Bethany. Yet this marked their first visit to the namesake town of the famed British poet.

They stayed at the Honeysuckle Inn on Union Street, established in the late 1980s by artist Julie Baxendell and her longtime partner, Mary Ann Benyo. It was the only women-only B&B between Fire Island and Key West. The innkeepers introduced Marie and Sharon to a “constellation of gay and lesbian people.” Like other visitors, the couple was drawn to the modestly priced cypress-shingled and Victorian homes, the old mill ponds, an historic district with its “Governors’ Houses,” and the yearround population, with neighborhood names like “Puddin’ Head.”

A TOWN WITH DEEP ROOTS

Europeans first arrived at the head of the Broadkill River in the early 1600s, on land occupied by the Nanticoke Indians. The town went through several names— Milford, Osborne’s Landing, Conwell’s Landing—before adopting the name Milton in 1807. Throughout the nineteenth century, it thrived on shipbuilding, lumbering, and shipping. Sailing vessels left its wharfs bound for Philadelphia and New York, until they were outpaced by larger ships that couldn’t navigate the river. The last of Milton’s distinctive white oak schooners launched in 1909—the

same year as “The Great Fire” that nearly destroyed the town.

Former Mayor Jack Hudson told the Cape Gazette, “We’re a historic town,” but “nothing in Milton ever really looked like some folks think it probably should, because this was a working town.”

As president of the Milton Historical Society, Marie proudly hosted an exhibit honoring Bryan Stevenson, “recognizing his leadership to increase equal justice.”

ECONOMIC TRANSITION

By the 1970s and ‘80s, the downtown business district had faded. Neighborhoods deteriorated. Homes stood in disrepair. Grace Church had become a factory for walkie-talkie wire looms, then shuttered after the Vietnam War. Milton became a true one-company town. That company was the century-old Draper Cannery. Led by Harry Bonk, a University of Maryland football star who married into the Draper family, the company grew to employ over a thousand workers. After WWII, Bonk had expanded its reach to include King Cole Ranch—the largest cattle operation in Delaware. By the 1960s, Draper-Cole was the largest independent vegetable cannery in the country. It closed in 1999.

Bonk, who lived in Rehoboth and served in several appointed state offices, drew controversy. In 1964, while on the State Highway Commission, he decried the “big problem” of homosexuals on state beaches north and south of Rehoboth. “They congregate like bees in a swarm,” he told the News Journal, foreshadowing the culture battle that would later grip Rehoboth—a tale I chronicled in Queering Rehoboth Beach.

A NEW KIND OF COMMUNITY

During their 1999 visit, Marie and Sharon met Barbara Brewer and Mary Maxey, a DC couple who had moved to Milton earlier in the decade following Mary’s cancer diagnosis. They sought a quieter life together. “I always worried that smalltown living was everybody knowing your business and you knowing theirs,” Barbara told Letters a decade later. “Well, I have found that to be simply delightful.” In contrast to Rehoboth, where the homeowners’ association and public officials battled queer and progressive residents and business-owners, Milton’s Mayor Hudson “welcomed people with open arms.” A 1997 Letters article, “Milton: The Next Lewes?”, described the town as a rising “haven for gay and lesbian couples.” This influx brought gentrification, upscale businesses, and a quiet cultural transformation—a pattern similar to Rehoboth’s. Unlike the biblically-christened beach town, as writer David DeLuca observed, Milton didn’t display “lots of rainbow flags and pink triangles.” While some locals grumbled that that “the gays are taking over,” the town was largely accepting.

FINDING HOME AND PURPOSE

Marie and Sharon searched for a home in this mostly-welcoming community. Their first offer was rejected by a homophobic seller, but they soon purchased a restored Victorian on Union Street. “We loved it. Its color—lavender— foretold our future!”

A few years later, they bought a five-acre farm on Cool Spring Road from Pauline Petitt—known as the “Lavender Lady” for her thousands of perennial blooms. “Lavender Fields at Warrington Manor” opened in 2003. Sharon, a retired attorney for the US Health Care Financing Administration, developed its business plan and managed the daily operations. Marie, who worked in DC writing federal education regulations,

Lavender Fields offered walking tours, classes from soap-making to lavender cooking, and hosted wedding celebrations and fundraisers for nonprofits.

joined on weekends. With support from friend-turned-investor Mary Ann Etu, the farm grew as they renovated the 1890s farmhouse and sold lavender products from a one-room shop.

After Marie retired in 2009, they rescued the former Queen Anne’s Railroad Station from the claws of demolition and relocated it to the farm, converting it into a commercial kitchen. Lavender Fields offered walking tours, classes from soap-making to lavender cooking, and hosted wedding celebrations and fundraisers for nonprofits. They sold handmade soaps at local markets.

Marie helped restart the Delaware Agritourism Association and chaired the Southern Delaware Tourism Council. Sharon, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, constructed an 11-circuit medieval-style stone labyrinth. In 2012 the US Small Business Administration named them Delaware Women’s Business Champions for their support of women entrepreneurs.

As president of the Milton Historical Society, Marie proudly hosted an exhibit honoring Bryan Stevenson, “recognizing his leadership to increase equal justice.” Stevenson, who grew up in Milton during the 1950s, initially attended a “colored”

elementary school. While desegregation soon became the law of the land, discrimination remained in everyday life, from town facilities to medical offices. His mother’s resistance to de facto segregation inspired him to enter Harvard Law School and later to found the Equal Justice Initiative, which assists death row inmates and works to address systemic injustice in the American legal system. The exhibit highlighted both Stevenson’s remarkable journey from small-town Milton to national prominence as a civil rights attorney and author, and Sussex County’s complex history with racial equality.

Sharon passed away in 2020. Mayor sold Lavender Fields in 2023 and moved into a house in Milton, from which she carries forward their shared legacy.

GROWTH AND RECOGNITION

In 2024, ElectricityPrices.com, an energy bill comparison company, asked 3,700 travelers to identify the “most welcoming” destinations in the US for out-of-towners. Milton ranked sixth among 150 US small towns (Lewes was 12th). The Milton Theatre, originally built as a movie theater, draws over 60,000 patrons a year.

Union Street features Irish Eyes Pub and shops offering homemade ice cream,

roasted coffee, comics, antiques, and several B&Bs. Nearby attractions include Brimming Horn Meadery, Broadkill Beach, and, of course, Lavender Fields.

Milton’s mostly white population exceeds 3,000 and is expected to double. A new municipal complex is planned. Cannery Village, developed by Tom Draper on the family’s former industrial site, has more than 500 homes adjacent to the Dogfish Head Brewery, founded by his daughter and son-in-law, Mariah and Sam Calagione. Last summer, Colby Cox, Harry Bonk’s grandson, broke ground on The Granary at Draper Farms, a 1,350-home development along Sand Hill Road. Cox has assured residents the project would “fit within the heart and soul of Milton.”

Not all residents are convinced. A recent Cape Gazette letter writer lamented that Milton “has lost whatever small-town charm it might have had. It is nearly impossible to find a place to park and, in turn, support businesses in town.”

LOOKING FORWARD

As Milton grapples with balancing growth and the preservation of its character, it stands at a crossroads familiar to many small communities. The transformation from a working town centered around industry to a diverse and welcoming haven represents both promise and tension.

For longtime residents like Marie Mayor, Milton is proof that small towns can reinvent themselves without losing their soul. Where cannery smoke once rose, lavender now blooms—symbols of a town that remembers its past while reaching toward a more inclusive future. ▼

James T. Sears, PhD, is an award-winning author. His forthcoming gothic queer novel, The Circle’s Edge, set in nineteenth century Wales, will be published next year.

Photo: Painting, Lavender Fields, by Michael Zajic; photo courtesy of Mari Mayor

Aging Gracelessly

BY FAY JACOBS

Equality, Puppies, and Testimony—Oh My!

As I walked into Dover’s Legislative Hall on Wednesday, May 21, it felt very different than my last visit to testify. That day was in early 2013 as I came to speak in support of marriage equality.

We were not assured of success for the bill to affirm same-sex marriages in Delaware, but we were hopeful.

And with good reason. Delaware, under the stewardship of then-Governor Jack Markell, passed marriage equality in the spring of 2013, followed by the 2015 US Supreme Court decision making marriage equality legal nationwide.

But this time, as I looked around the historic Senate Chamber at this hearing of the Delaware Senate Executive Committee, I felt the weight of being there because of a national threat to take it all away.

It was chilling to be in defensive mode again, but I was eager to support a bill sponsored by Senator Russ Huxtable to write marriage equality into the Delaware Constitution. Passage of the bill would put same-sex marriage into the state code—i.e., to codify it—so we might still be protected somewhat here at home, should the national threats become reality.

It is encouraging that the bill has many other legislators signing on in support, including our Representative Claire Snyder-Hall. CAMP Rehoboth’s Advocacy Committee had already sent in a comprehensive letter of support.

The hearing proposed an amendment to Article I of the Delaware Constitution relative to the right to marry. This is the first step in the process; members had the chance to ask questions and members of the public were invited to testify—both in support and against.

I was in great company at the hearing. CAMP Rehoboth’s Board President Leslie Ledogar was also there to testify. Vice-President Teri Seaton and former Board President Wes Combs were in attendance, providing very visible support from CAMP Rehoboth.

Leslie testified first, with a moving, personal plea for the bill to become law, protecting her own marriage and that of the entire LGBTQ+ community.

When it was time for my two minutes, I repeated my testimony from 2013 with an update for these scary and unpredictable times.

I was eager to support a bill sponsored by Senator Russ Huxtable to write marriage equality into the Delaware Constitution.

This was my testimony from 2013:

“My partner and I have been together 31 years. As young women, we bought a house, paid taxes, welcomed pets, encouraged each other’s careers, socialized with neighbors, managed our parents’ health crises, turned middleaged, buried our first dog and cat, weathered our own health crises, saved for retirement, said farewell to parents who recognized us as married, adopted two new dogs, spent years volunteering in our community, and became Medicare eligible—all of this, together.

But we still don’t have what we need most—a legally recognized marriage equal to our heterosexually married neighbors.

Now, we’re retirees and sadly, just lost our remaining 15-year-old Schnauzer. We urge the state to end our long run as lesser citizens. We need Delaware to pass the marriage equality bill.

At the moment we’re debating whether we’re too old for a puppy. This inequality has gone on long enough. Please grant all Delaware citizens marriage equality. And we’ll let you know what we decide about the puppy.”

Just like in 2013, there was a bit of laughter at that puppy line from the Senate’s Executive Committee.

So I continued, with my now updated testimony.

“That was then. Now, it’s a dozen years later, my spouse and I are legally married, have been together a total of 43 years, and the puppy we went ahead and welcomed to the family is now an old guy at age 11.

And here we are, with Federal marriage equality threatened. If the current administration has its way, marriage equality will be erased throughout the nation.

Which is why I am imploring you to help thousands of constituents by favorably considering Delaware’s SB 100, the right to marry regardless of gender and see it adopted into the Delaware Constitution.

My wife Bonnie and I are really, really too old for a puppy this time. But we want to celebrate our old age in the First State as a protected married couple. Please support SB 100. Thank you for listening.”

Testimony from others followed and it was hopeful that all the testimony given turned out to be positive, supporting the bill.

So now we watch, wait, and lobby. I’m certain there will be more opportunities for testimony and advocacy by supporters, including the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors and CAMP members. And I guess you’ll read about it here if Bonnie and I completely lose what’s left of our minds and get a puppy for Windsor. ▼

Fay Jacobs is a freelance writer, storyteller, and author of six books of (mostly) comic essays. She has written for the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, the Advocate, the Washington Blade, Delaware Beach Life, and—for 30 years—Letters.

Windsor, awaiting the puppy decision. Photo courtesy of the author.

Photo:

It’s

My Life

Water Pressure

This has not been an easy year for a lot of people. Thanks to the shenanigans in Washington, many nonprofits have seen congressionally approved funding frozen or rescinded. As someone on the boards of several such organizations, I’ve spent much of the year figuring how to continue doing the work we’re committed to doing. The fact that so much of what’s going on has no legal basis but also no clear means of correcting the situation makes it particularly frustrating.

Add to this some ongoing health issues and a quickly shifting publishing landscape that make my personal work and life a challenge, and things are not as stress-free as I would like them to be. So, when we woke up to no hot water yesterday and I went into the cellar to discover that water had been streaming from the hot water tank’s pressure relief valve for what was likely the entire night, I might have felt like enough was enough.

I have a mantra of sorts that I use when things like this happen: “At least Russia isn’t invading the village.”

I don’t mean this at all flippantly. I mean it as a reality check. Things like a faulty hot water heater, health issues, and career uncertainty are all undoubtedly stressful. But mostly they’re inconveniences. I can live without showering for a day or two. Plus, I’m friends with the owners of the local company that installed said water heater, and with one text I had someone scheduled to come take a look at it. Similarly, when the faulty wiring in my heart acts up, my doctor (who also happens to be a good friend) is just a text away.

Not that these situations aren’t unpleasant. They are. But I try to keep them in perspective. Nothing is driving me from my home. I’m not being physically attacked. I have food, and resources, and a support system. While these things could change, and recent events have (or should have) shown us

all that we live in a world where those with more power can very easily cause harm to those with less, for now things are manageable for me.

Last night I heated water on the stove to wash the dishes. I thought, “Just pretend you’re Laura Ingalls living on the banks of Plum Creek.” Later, I managed to take a cold shower. As I dried off, I thought about the people who don’t have even these minimal conveniences. I imagined what I would take with me if for some reason we had to flee our home, how I would take care of our dogs, what we would do if someone did invade our little village. I thought about what it would be like to go for weeks without fresh water or live for years under occupation.

Life is not the way I would like it to be, for me and for all of us.

Part of my husband’s job involves helping people without resources navigate everyday situations like water heaters failing and cars breaking down. These are people struggling to not be sucked under and disappear, people for whom a single repair bill means the difference between eating and going hungry, having a home or being on the streets, keeping their children with them or losing them. Whenever we encounter something like is happening right now in our basement, Steve shrugs and says, “We’re going to be fine.”

He’s right. And most of the time, I believe this too, both on a personal level and on a larger scale. But I am also keenly aware of how many people are not fine, how many more are not going to be fine unless we drastically change our priorities. While I respect differences of political opinion, recent events have revealed that a whole lot of people are only interested in protecting themselves. Tonight, we will once again have hot water in our house. And I will be grateful

BY MICHAEL THOMAS FORD

for that. At the same time, next week I will attend a board meeting at which we will need to discuss which programs to cut if funding is not restored, and which staff will have to be furloughed because the grants that fund their positions are mired in government squabbles and power grabs. Every day has become a battle against selfishness and indifference, if not outright cruelty. Every day brings new proof that “the system” has been designed to protect not those who need protecting but those who already control most of the resources.

Russia is not invading the village. Still, there are threats. Life is not the way I would like it to be, for me and for all of us. I see the toll the strain of dealing with this is taking on people around me. An inconvenience like no hot water is magnified because it feels like part of something much bigger, a conglomeration of inconveniences and unnecessary problems that suck up all the energy some of us have. I also see how so many people are still refusing to believe that there are problems that will only be solved by collaboration and cooperation, not by submitting to the whims of a few egomaniacs whose only goal is self-enrichment and hoping we remain unscathed.

Are we going to be fine? I want to believe that we will be, both individually and collectively. I want to think that at some point we will figure out how to work together to make things better, to stand up to and reverse the wanton disregard for compassion and cooperation currently undoing so many of the good things that have been achieved. I want there to be hot water for all of us. ▼

Michael Thomas Ford is a much-published Lambda Literary award-winning author. Visit Michael at michaelthomasford.com.

Out & About

College Daze

My hair is gray, my body makes involuntary noises when I get out of bed, and more than ever I find myself referring to a “youngster” and then learning that I’m speaking about someone who’s in their mid-thirties. In short, I’m not a kid anymore. Mostly, I’m entirely conscious of this fact, but every once in a while it takes me by surprise. I was talking with a friend I met in grad school the other day, and we figured out that we had known each other for 20 years. Grad school was (gulp) 20 years ago.

Mostly, I take it in stride. I do my best not to complain about the way “youngsters” (35 and below, apparently) behave, reminding myself that every generation is a product of the world a prior generation had created for them. Nor do I insist that younger people see the world exactly the way I do. In fact, I try to go a step further when I can and assume that there’s no way I could possibly relate to anyone who can’t remember the 20th century.

In terms of gay life, I often assume that the younger you are, the easier your life has been. So, while I was delighted to learn that a coming-of-age gay comedy was the number one new show on Prime Video, I was a little confused when I actually tuned in. Is it possible, I wondered, that things haven’t changed at all since I was a kid?

Overcompensating was created by and stars Benito Skinner and all six of his abdominal muscles. He plays Benny, the star quarterback/valedictorian/ homecoming king from Idaho who has arrived at the fictional Yates College. He probably knows that he’s gay, but he’s still trying to “score” with girls the way he’s been carefully groomed (yes, I used that word on purpose). When he finds that he cannot, he invents sexual escapades that never happened in an attempt to disguise his true orientation.

I remember my college days fondly. Although, like Benny, I could not quite admit my orientation to myself, much

less anyone else. Like Benny, I also have roots in Idaho (my parents were raised there, and I still have aunts and cousins who live there), and I’m very aware of the social climate there. Unlike Benny, I have never had six visible abdominal muscles, nor was I valedictorian of my class, nor the homecoming king, nor a star quarterback for the football team. I was a theater kid, whose greatest high school achievement was playing Will Parker in Oklahoma!

I understand how internalized oppression works, and I know what shame feels like.

Most notably, the year was 1988, not 2025. Will & Grace, Queer Eye, and Drag Race were nowhere in the cultural landscape. When straight people thought about gay people, they either thought of AIDS or the latest salacious thing they’d seen on the Jerry Springer show, none of it very pleasant.

And yet, if I’m to believe what I’ve seen in this new show, it’s still really, really hard for a closeted college kid to overcome his internalized homophobia and come out.

Or at least, it’s easier to tell one outrageous lie after another, to the point where the audience of the show might very well question if they even like these people, much less feel sympathy for them.

In fairness, the show is called Overcompensating, which indicates the show’s creator is a lot more self-aware than the character he plays on screen. Also, he’s hardly alone in the lies that he tells so easily and repeatedly. At one point, he and his best friend get into a quasi-argument about which of them is the worst friend, and well…they both make some pretty good points.

BY ERIC C. PETERSON

In the final episode, there’s a scene that features George, a minor but recurring character. George is a visibly gay student of color—either he can’t pass or doesn’t try, and it’s probably the latter. Benny is afraid of George at first, but eventually warms to him, seeking a mentor, perhaps—or just someone who can relate to him as a gay man. But when a group of jocks ask Benny if George is a friend, he says “no”—unequivocally, and without hesitation. Later, when Benny wants to apologize, George stops him mid-sentence and tells him what I’d been shouting at my screen for most of the show’s eight episodes: “You’re not a good person,” he says, and walks away. I was once where Benny is. I understand how internalized oppression works, and I know what shame feels like. I know how much deception I practiced as a young man, even if most of it was directed at myself. But I thought it was better now, at least for most kids. And I still believe that even when it’s hard, it’s possible to choose honesty and courage. I will probably watch Season 2 of the show, when it appears. It was funny, if a little over-the-top at times. Benny is growing as a character, even if it’s only by inches. And besides, when you’re my age, it’s good to know what the kids are up to. ▼

Eric Peterson is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) practitioner, pop culture junkie, and sometime novelist. His debut novel (Loyalty, Love & Vermouth) is available at Broweseabout Books and online.

health+wellness

The Mysterious and the Dark

The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea.

– KAREN

BLIXEN

While I love the stark beauty and wide-open spaces of the desert, when I need to nurture my soul, I turn to the ocean. At 14, I was a mother’s helper for a family who had a summer home on the beach. As soon as I could drive, I would escape to the ocean no matter what the season to recalibrate emotionally. When my wife and I exchanged rings, we stood on the beach at sunrise and a school of dolphins paused to watch. The town where I now live literally at its inception, had an Ocean View.

The Earth’s ocean covers about 70 percent of its land mass and represents approximately 97 percent of all water found on the planet. Five ocean masses are recognized: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian, the Artic, and the Southern. However, according to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the ocean designations are more historical boundaries and only one large ocean exists. The Commission highlights the phenomenon known as thermohaline circulation or the Great

Ocean Conveyor Belt, whereby seawater circulates regardless of man-made boundaries, with surface water replacing deep water, depending on the water’s temperature and salinity.

The ocean is critical not just for marine health, but all health globally. The ocean produces about 50 percent of the planet’s oxygen (O2), although much is used by its marine inhabitants. As a carbon sink, the ocean has absorbed about 25 percent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) produced since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, as a carbon sink, the ocean absorbs more CO2 than it emits. The ocean also helps the earth’s temperature, by moving warmer waters toward the poles, where they cool and recirculate. Both carbon capture and circulating currents help reduce climate change impacts.

The growth of humanity is inextricably linked to the ocean. In The Human Shore, history professor emeritus John R. Gillis postulates that human evolution is neither strictly a land nor water development, but a product of living on the edge in between. Tracing humanity’s roots back over 200,000 years, Dr Gillis points to the role fatty acids in shellfish played in modern human brain development. As human civilizations

BY SHARON MORGAN

evolved, maritime transit opened trade and living opportunities not afforded by land transit alone. In addition, multiple historical references demonstrate fisherfarmers were supplementing their diets well before organized farming existed in the interior.

The ocean plays an integral part in circadian rhythm regulation, the 24hour physical and emotional cycles that influence the functions of most living organisms. The earth’s daily rotation generates continual pulsations of light, dark, heat, and cold. This, along with the gravitational pull of the sun and moon, accounts for tidal changes both daily and monthly. These tidal rhythms impact internal maritime species’ growth and development as well as migratory bird patterns. In addition, some maritime species’ daily circadian rhythms are so close to that of humans they are used in health and disease studies.

Maritime biodiversity, where an estimated 80 percent of all chemical variety lies, has always been and continues to be a source of potential life-altering medicines. According to the International Society of Ethnobiology, the first record of aquatic medicine purchases was discovered among Chinese tax records over 5,000 years

When my wife and I exchanged rings, we stood on the beach at sunrise and a school of dolphins paused to watch

ago. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, noted certain sponges had antibiotic properties. As of 2024, the Food and Drug Administration had approved 23 marine-derived pharmaceuticals with another 33 currently in clinical trials. Seaweed is proving a potential green alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Seaweed-based products are biodegradable and can be molded, replacing much of the same throw away fossil-based products currently used in industry and packaging.

The ocean is a primary source of survival and livelihood. Currently, three billion people worldwide rely on seafood as their primary source of protein. Ocean-based industries account for about $2.5 trillion of the annual global economy and over 500 million individuals are employed worldwide in fisheries and aquaculture operations. According to the World Economic Forum, maritime tourism accounts for close to 50 percent of all tourism globally and employs one out of every 11 people. The International Maritime Organization estimates 90 percent of all goods move via maritime transit, which offers cost-effective and efficient modes of transport.

Research supports the ocean as a health tonic, reinforcing my own proclivity to scamper in the waves. Multiple studies document that those who live near the ocean or waterways are more likely to be physically active and have better mental health than their land-locked counterparts. Part of the healthier lifestyle is environmental: coastal living tends to have less air and noise pollution. Studies on the impact of the COVID pandemic suggest those that lived near water fared better overall, and scientists attributed this phenomenon in part to consistent access to nature.

Despite all the benefits the ocean provides, so much is still dark and mysterious. The US Geological Survey of the Department of the Interior estimates less than 10 percent of the ocean’s floor has been mapped. Moreover, the number of species inhabiting the ocean is unknown.

We have only one planet, 70 percent of which is the wonder known as the ocean. If humanity is to survive, so must the ocean.

A major challenge to deep sea exploration is the amount of pressure exerted by water volume. For every 33 feet of depth, the pressure increases by one atmosphere or 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi). At a depth of 3,280 feet, the psi increases to 100 times atmospheric pressure at sea level. Normal submarines cannot handle this ever-increasing pressure, and specifically retrofitted submersibles are needed. Darkness also hinders exploration. Sunlight penetrates only the first 656 feet of ocean; thereafter, varying degrees of artificial light are required. Such light has a limited range and many species which are light sensitive may change behavior when illuminated.

Additionally, temperatures and rough water conditions can adversely impact communication and electronic equipment. Finally, the sheer vastness of the ocean has limited exploration, due to logistical and financial constraints.

Our ocean is in peril and all the benefits (known and as yet undiscovered) are in jeopardy. The ocean has always been in flux, but man-made conditions are proving a catalyst for disaster. The rapid rise of human driven CO2 has resulted in overall warming temperatures, which in turn has thinned polar ice caps, leading to

health+wellness

rising sea levels and changing salinity. The ocean absorption of CO2 is also changing ocean acidity. Both salinity and acidity are impacting the delicate maritime ecosystems, choking coral and crustacean species alike.

Marine mammals eat the same seafood as humans, and dwindling populations are occurring due to climate change and overfishing. Highly populated coastal areas face unique challenges due to rising sea levels, hurricane and tsunami damage, and toxic red algae bloom. Not only are plastics crowding the waterways, microplastics have entered the food supply.

We have only one planet, 70 percent of which is the wonder known as the ocean. If humanity is to survive, so must the ocean. ▼

Sharon A. Morgan is a retired advanced practice nurse with over 30 years of clinical and healthcare policy background.

Coral photo by Qui Nguyen on Unsplash

Youth Crisis Support: Crisis intervention services for children under 18. Parents and caregivers are connected to a crisis clinician. Available 24/7. Call 800-969-4357 or text DE to 741-741.

988: Free, confidential support and resources for anyone in distress. Available 24/7. Call 988.

Delaware Hope Line: Free coaching and support. Links to mental health, addiction, and crisis services. Available 24/7. Call 833-9-HOPEDE (833-946-7333).

LET’S STAY CONNECTED!

All of CAMP Rehoboth’s programs, services, and events are listed here: camprehoboth.org/community-calendar. Please visit the site often to ensure you have up-to-date information on what is being offered—and when. ▼

Working to Preserve HIV Prevention

Recently, as CAMPsafe Program Coordinator, I visited

Delaware’s Legislative Hall to support House Concurrent Resolution 47, a symbolic measure introduced by Rep. Eric Morrison and Sen. Laura Sturgeon. The resolution highlights the ongoing threats to HIV prevention infrastructure in Delaware, particularly in light of significant federal funding cuts. These reductions have led to the elimination of key contracts and the potential loss of essential services, such as HIV testing and condom distribution programs.

CAMP Rehoboth’s CAMPsafe program, one of the largest and oldest programs at the center, has been a leader in providing HIV prevention services, including walk-in testing and outreach initiatives, for the last two decades. CAMP Rehoboth recognizes an urgent need for increased state support to preserve and enhance HIV prevention efforts across Delaware. While the resolution serves as a symbolic gesture, it aims to galvanize action and secure the necessary resources to address the challenges posed by diminishing federal funding. ▼

TESTING & COUNSELING

Free, rapid, walk-in syphilis and HIV testing and counseling is available in the CAMP Rehoboth Health Suite.

CAMP Rehoboth

37 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE

Tel: 302-227-5620

SCAN CODE TO BOOK APPOINTMENT ONLINE

Vincent DeLissio is the CAMPsafe Program Coordinator at CAMP Rehoboth.

Inspiring Change

Amy Marasco: Lewes’s New Mayor

On May 21, Amy Marasco was sworn in as mayor of Lewes. There was considerable excitement, as she was the first female mayor in, um, 394 years, although in fairness, there were no mayors in Lewes until the late 1800s. Still, Mayor Marasco seems poised to make a significant impact, and not just for being female.

NANCY SAKADUSKI: Much of your background is in environmental work. How will that be useful as mayor of Lewes?

AMY MARASCO: It’s environmental planning, so it’s a little bit science, a little bit engineering, a little bit policy, leaning much more on the policy side. Across all of the elements or media of the environment from a policy regulatory standpoint, I’m very familiar with the laws and the regs so that’s already helped me in Lewes.… Lewes’s environmental issues are flooding, wind, and heat.… We’re doing things that are environmentally and economically sound to do…. I’m not the strongest environmental person in the room, but I’m the person who can understand and ask the questions.

NS: After the loss of your husband, it must have been tempting to give up, but you channeled your grief into what became The Nature Generation, a nonprofit that works to develop environmental stewardship. Why that?

AM: Dave died in 2003…my true love.… When he passed, I was trying to think about, how do I honor his commitment to education?

The next generation wasn’t getting as much exposure to inspire them. Plenty of nature magazines…but the missing piece was stewardship. My older sister worked at the University of Salisbury, and she was in the education department as a professor teaching young people how to be teachers. So, she gathered a group of people together and they said ‘you know, the United States doesn’t have a book award program…for authors who write for children and young adults about stewardship.’ So we hung in on that and said, ‘well we’re going to be it.’… What I love about it [the Green Earth Book Award] is that the judges are teachers, librarians, environmentalists, parents, so it has to be the right science, the right message, for the right age, and it has to reflect diversity.

BY NANCY SAKADUSKI

It’s about service…. [W]hen I go to bed at night, my view is, ‘did I serve?’

We try to get books directly into children’s hands. I’ll never forget this one little girl. She received the book, and she said, ‘Oh thank you, Miss Amy. When I’m finished reading, do I give it back to my teacher?’ [Despite being told she could keep it, she had to be reassured it was really hers.] She took that book, clutched it to her heart, and said, ‘No one’s ever given me a book before.’ There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. And that’s when the group said, we’ve got to get more books out to the kids.… That motivates us.

NS: The third pillar of your campaign platform was “Committed to Robust Community Engagement.” What would that look like to you?

AM: Figuring out ways to get more people involved in a time commitment they can handle. So, my idea there is ad hoc working groups that have a project and then they’re done.… The goal is, if you have robust citizen engagement, you have better government because you’re hearing from your taxpayers.

Citizen engagement also means for Lewes to have a voice at and hear from other attendees at state gatherings such as the meetings hosted by the Delaware League of Local Governments and the Sussex County Association of Towns.

Communications is the other area. I really want to look at how the city can communicate effectively with a little bit of fun…everybody hears things differently, everybody learns things differently… we’ve got to be out there and use a variety of tools. So that’s something I think you’ll see change in Lewes.

NS: You have said, “I love public service, and do not look at public service as a politician at all. I look at it as a service.” Would you explain what you mean?

AM: Shirley Chisolm was the first person who ran for president that garnered my attention as a young person, and I saw that in her…. I see that in the leaders I most admire and respect and hope that I can take some of those attributes. It’s about service. We need politicians. That’s fine. But when I go to bed at night, my view is, ‘did I serve?’

Continued on page 34

Celebrity Interview

David Archuleta

Summer has become synonymous with tea dances, the beach, and now, brand-new David Archuleta anthems. This summer, even while Archuleta’s fans are still reveling in his remix of George Michael’s iconic “Freedom,” he is dropping the brand-new Haylee Wood remix of his track “Crème Brulée.” I sat down to chat with David Archuleta about his new music, the parallels between him and George Michael, and the Real Housewife he has sparked up a friendship with.

MICHAEL COOK: “Freedom” is absolutely exquisite! It is such an amazing take on such a classic anthem. DAVID ARCHULETA: Thank you very much.

MC: What made you want to dive into that one—because the George Michael catalogue is vast and the fans are extremely loyal….

DA: With good reason! They’re loyal because he has a lot of charisma, a lot of sex appeal, and just knows how to work a song and a stage; he has so much attitude. He’s oozing with it. That was something I wanted to channel— some of that energy as I move forward into this next chapter of my life, learning to be more freely myself and freely experiment. I felt like there was no better segue than to do a George Michael track and especially “Freedom.”

MC: There are so many parallels to your career also. I just watched the documentary about the making of “Last Christmas” and it is remarkable. Do you see those parallels between both of your careers?

DA: You know, I think there’s even more for me to discover with George’s life and background. I have a hard time watching things and sitting down, so I need someone else to sit down with me to watch something, but that is on my list! It’s really George Michael’s whole career, starting as a teen star and then how he got outed. Instead of like getting insecure about it, he just owned it. He

just really was like “Yeah, and this is me.” He leaned into it and I just find it so inspiring. That’s why I love the lyrics to “Freedom,” too, because it’s about no longer hiding a part of you; no longer hiding who you are and feeling the freedom in making that choice.

MC: Another aspect of George Michael’s music is that so much of it is the videos and you’ve really leaned into the visual element as well. Do you think you would want to get into the same kind of visual elements?

DA: It would be amazing to experiment more with videos! I’m still an independent artist, I still fund everything myself for the most part, so there’s only so much I can do as far as working with other creative people. I am hoping that this year just becomes the beginning of something bigger and greater for me.

MC: When did you first become aware of George Michael’s music catalog?

BY MICHAEL COOK

DA: It was my dad. My dad was like “George Michael, he has the same range as you. Your voice reminds me of his.” He said, “I think you could learn from listening to some of his covers and some of his songs.” So, I did. “Freedom” is a great song. I think it’s even more fun to do live because it has such great energy to it.

MC: Another similarity I see between your music is that George Michael’s music existed and then as culture changed, it took to the dance floors, as yours is starting to do. Do you see that similarity?

DA: I’m not sure. I mean, I did it and it was really fun to do, but if it does hit some dance floors that makes me happy because one of my happy places is the dance floor. The one of “Hell Together” that Ty Sunderland remixed, it was amazing, it was so cool.

Continued on page 34

…it’s about no longer hiding a part of you; no longer hiding who you are and feeling the freedom in making that choice.

Continued from page 30

NS: With uncertain, if not absent, federal support, how will Lewes deal with climate impacts?

AM: Not just the climate, but given the environment we’re in with the federal activity, I think it’s really important that people know their local government is serving them and is compassionate. There’s so much harshness out there right now that what I’m going to look at is what can we do.

I’m still confident that things will calm down and there will still be funding—now it might have some different priorities, and it may be even more administered through the state, so I think that’s a timing issue. We’re very lucky in Delaware. DEMA [Delaware Emergency Management Agency], which is our FEMA, has really good people running it who care about the mission.

NS: The Lewes area has a large LGBTQ+ community, which includes CAMP

If I ever saw anything that was inappropriate, offensive, I would call it out.

Rehoboth’s executive director and her wife. Do you think Lewes is a welcoming place?

AM: My perspective is that it’s welcoming, but that needs to be answered by someone who has felt unwelcomed. If I ever saw anything that was inappropriate, offensive, I would call it out. You know after George Floyd died, this is me personally—different topic— but when I saw that, I thought, enough. If I see anything that is discriminatory, even in jest, I have to call it out as a person.… We have to stand up if we feel like anybody is persecuted.

NS: You’ve been a big supporter of the

Lewes Public Library. What do you like to read?

AM: I like biographies and historical fiction…. I love to read about people…I like to see how people think through problems…. I’m a slow reader, because I think about what I’m reading.

NS: Do you tend to be pessimistic or optimistic?

AM: Oh, I’m optimistic…. I’m not Pollyana about the future, with what’s going on in Washington, but I’m optimistic that, you know, we the people We the people will have a voice, and we are having a voice, so I’m optimistic on the spirit of Americans. Yeah. We’ll come though. And this community—Lewes and Rehoboth—they’re joyful. ▼

Nancy Sakaduski is an award-winning writer and editor who owns Cat & Mouse Press in Lewes, Delaware.

Continued from page 32

MC: Every time we’ve spoken, you have unlocked an amazing new part of our culture and community for yourself. What have you discovered recently?

DA: Heather Gay, from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, sent me her book and she’s been supportive of my career and of me on my journey because she grew up Mormon as well. We’re both former Mormon missionaries and it was fun to read her book. It takes me a while to get through things, but it’s been really fun so far and apparently, I need to catch up on White Lotus too because that’s the show everyone’s been talking about!

MC: A recent memorable moment is at The Queerty’s last year when you got to introduce former American Idol judge Paula Abdul for her Straight Up Ally award and honor her with a performance. Talk about a full circle amazing moment!

DA: It was a very big full circle moment and being able to pay tribute to her.… I never thought I would sing or dance songs to her. It was a fun challenge, to do choreography for it and have dancers and to see Paula’s smiling face, knowing that she was being honored for everything she’s done. It was great.

MC: So, what does the summer look like for you? Are you doing Pride festivals? Vacationing?

DA: I’m doing some Pride shows and I’ll be releasing music, too.

MC: If you could tell George Michael anything right now, what would you tell him?

DA: I would say thank you for daring to be yourself because you created a space for many of us to follow in your footsteps. I know it wasn’t easy for you but you made it easier for people like me. ▼

Follow David Archuleta on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ davidarchie/?hl=en

Michael Cook has been a part-time resident of Rehoboth Beach for over a decade. He is currently a contributor to WERRRK.com, OUTSFL, and the Philadelphia Gay News.

Photos: courtesy David Archuleta, Facebook

David Archuleta

Located at the south end of the boardwalk in beautiful Rehoboth Beach

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Celebrating Juneteenth

It’s More Important Than Ever

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with a declaration that would forever change American history: slavery had ended. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued two and a half years earlier, the news didn’t reach Texas, where an estimated 250,000 people were still enslaved, till then.

More than 150 years later, in 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day was made a federal holiday. The day is a long-overdue celebration of Black freedom that recognizes we’re still working toward racial justice in the United States.

Juneteenth is also a celebration of Black resilience and brilliance in the face of systemic oppression.

The delayed enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation is part of a persistent pattern of delayed justice for Black people. The same delay exists today in access to quality education, healthcare, employment, housing, and basic civil rights.

Celebrating Juneteenth—especially in LGBTQ+ spaces—isn’t about tokenism or checkbox allyship. It’s about recognizing our shared struggle against systems that devalue lives deemed “other.” It’s about showing up, speaking out, and standing shoulder to shoulder in the face of oppression.

Black queer and trans people have always been at the forefront of the fight for freedom, most famously folks like Marsha P. Johnson at the Stonewall Riots. Yet too often, they are erased from both Black and queer histories. Juneteenth is an opportunity to amplify those voices, to honor their legacy, and to commit to building a future where no one is left behind.

Despite hard-fought progress toward equality, racism in the United States is not gone. It’s just evolving. In fact, we’re witnessing a bold resurgence of White supremacist ideology that is increasingly legitimized in politics, business, and public discourse.

One of the most visible battlegrounds is the attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Once considered essential to creating fairer institutions, DEI is now under coordinated assault. In many cases, critiques of DEI function as dog whistles.

Celebrating Juneteenth— especially in LGBTQ+ spaces—is…about recognizing our shared struggle against systems that devalue lives deemed “other.”

These rollbacks are already impacting our education system, shaping what future generations will learn. In states like Florida and Texas, Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation banning DEI initiatives in public universities and agencies, under the false claim that these programs foster division rather than equity.

At the same time, public school districts across the country are banning books and curricula that address Black history, slavery, and systemic racism. Florida’s new academic standards even claim that slavery had so-called “benefits,” stating that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

In the first few months of 2025, we’ve

BY STEPHEN RASKAUSKAS

also seen a number of racist policies and actions from the federal government. In January, President Trump signed Executive Order 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which revoked Executive Order 11246. This 1965 order had mandated that federal contractors refrain from discrimination in employment practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

In March, the Trump administration rescinded a clause in federal contracts that explicitly prohibited segregated facilities, such as separate waiting rooms, restrooms, and drinking fountains. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 still prohibits discrimination, the removal of this explicit language has been viewed by experts as a step backward.

The same month, the federal government began demolition of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC. For nearly five years, the two blocks of 16th Street NW leading directly to the White House lawn proudly read BLACK LIVES MATTER in bold yellow letters.

The federal government has made the message clear: if you’re not White, you’re not welcome. Not in schools, not in federal spaces.

These efforts don’t just erase history and erode civil rights. They endanger lives.

Hate crimes against Black Americans remain the highest among all race-based offenses. According to FBI data, in 2022, Black people were the target in over 51 percent of race-based hate crimes, despite making up only about 13 percent of the US population (justice.gov).

On the surface, many queer communities advocate for love, acceptance, and unity. But the reality is that racism exists within LGBTQ+ spaces too. Sometimes racism is overt, but more often it’s more pernicious.

Anti-Blackness is rampant on dating apps, often disguised as “preferences” but rooted in harmful stereotypes and White supremacist ideals of desirability.

(ADJACENT TO COHO’S MARKET & GRILL AND THE CULTURED PEARL RESTAURANT )

Online, Black queer folks—especially trans women—face higher rates of harassment, hate speech, and exclusion, even within the LGBTQ+ community.

Offline, the story isn’t much different. LGBTQ+ events and organizations frequently center White narratives, leaving Black queer and trans voices as afterthoughts or completely erased. Black trans women are victims of high rates of violence. The Human Rights Campaign documented more than 30 fatal attacks on trans people in 2023; the majority of victims were Black women.

When racism persists in queer spaces, it fractures our collective strength. We can’t expect justice from the outside world if we can’t confront injustice within our own communities.

For queer people, especially those of us who are White, confronting anti-Blackness is not a favor or a gesture of goodwill. It’s a responsibility.

It’s not enough just to “not be racist.” As Ibram X. Kendi puts it: “The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘antiracist.’”

To be antiracist is to actively dismantle systems of oppression, rather than opposing them as passive bystanders. It means challenging racism in our friend groups, our families, and any organizations or groups we’re a part of. It means learning when to speak up and when to step back and listen.

Juneteenth offers an opportunity not just for reflection, but for recommitment to justice and to work together.

Our struggles are shared. And so is our freedom. ▼

Stephen Raskauskas

Delaware Senate Honors Sussex County Lifesaving Association

Recently, the Delaware State Senate formally recognized the Sussex County Lifesaving Association (SCLA) for their groundbreaking achievement in winning the United States Lifesaving Association National Championship last August.

During the session at Legislative Hall in Dover, Senator Russ Huxtable introduced a tribute commending the SCLA’s beach lifeguards, who made history as the first team outside of California or New Jersey to claim the national title. The win marked a major milestone for Delaware, elevating the state’s presence in competitive lifesaving sports.

A group of SCLA lifeguards traveled to Dover to accept the honor in person. As Senator Huxtable read his tribute, the Senate chamber erupted in applause, celebrating the team’s dedication and success. “This is a proud moment for Delaware,” Huxtable said. “The SCLA has not only brought national recognition to our beaches but has also set a new standard of excellence in lifesaving sport.”

Following the tribute, SCLA President Matt Farlow addressed the Senate: “On behalf of all the SCLA lifeguards, we'd like to say we are extremely honored by this recognition. We’re very proud to make the First State first in lifesaving sport, and we will do everything we can to maintain our title in California this August.”

The SCLA’s victory highlights both their athleticism and their commitment to safety along Delaware’s coast—a commitment now etched into the state’s history books. ▼

Dykes on Bikes® Approves Rehoboth Beach Chapter

Dykes on Bikes®, the internationally recognized women’s motorcycle contingent that has led Pride parades and advanced LGBTQ+ visibility since 1976, has approved its newest chapter in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

As the latest addition to this nearly 50-year legacy that spans continents—from Melbourne to Munich, London to Los Angeles— the Delaware Chapter brings the organization’s mission of empowerment, resistance, and queer women’s visibility to one of the East Coast’s most iconic LGBTQ+ destinations.

For more information, visit DOBRB.org. ▼

Historic Nassau School

Ifyou or a family member worked at or attended the Nassau School—in the historic Black community of Belltown, near Lewes—before desegregation efforts in the American education system began, researchers at the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA) would love to talk with you.

“Today, that building is right in the middle of a busy intersection, but at one time that school would have been at the heart of the community,” said the HCA’s Meg Hutchins, who is overseeing a recently launched oral history project aimed at documenting those stories.

“We want to connect with people that went there, who are interested in talking to us and sharing those stories with us and other Delawareans,” Hutchins said. “We want to make sure that history is not lost to time.”

HCA researchers hope to conduct interviews with any remaining alumni and staff, descendants or family members of alumni or staff, or community members who have stories about the school, also known as Belltown School, and are willing to have their accounts recorded and documented. “This project aims to record and preserve the history of the Nassau School as well as that of the historic Black community of Belltown,” said Moore.

The school is one of dozens of schools built across the state in the 1920s-1930s, but today the Nassau School (built in 1922) is the only one owned by HCA. The division’s efforts are only one piece of a larger preservation effort underway by different organizations, led by alumni and their descendants, aiming to preserve the history of these schools and the communities they served.

To learn more about the Nassau School oral history project or to share information, contact HCA staff by emailing Brayden Moore at brayden.moore@delaware.gov or Meg Hutchins at megan.hutchins@delaware.gov, or by calling 302-608-5330. ▼

Photo: SCLA: Senator Huxtable with Lifeguards Pictured L-R: Front row: Senator Russ Huxtable and SCLA President Matt Farlow

Second row: Lifeguard Nicole Gibson and Lifeguard Logan Rhode Third row: Lifeguard Konner Knarr and SCLA Treasurer Quinn Macauley

Unusual Hobbies

Bees, Butterflies, and—Ken?

You know that ditty—”The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees……”

Well, it’s all related. And the folks at the Lewes Beekeepers Club (LBC) know why.

For one thing, 85 percent of the plants on earth require bees and other pollinators to exist. The LBC website states bluntly: “The Lewes Beekeeping Club works to instill an appreciation of honeybees through community outreach programs and by teaching the art and science of beekeeping to its members. Ensuring the health and future of our honeybees is essential to our survival.”

The club launched in 2016 when several members of the University of Delaware’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute gathered to discuss how valuable beekeeping is in the local environment. They researched the topic and soon realized the importance of saving and growing the bee community.

The club’s website offers an abundance of information about the history of bees, their living habits, information about common foods that need honeybees to exist, and how to open and maintain a hive.

The LBC currently includes 47 members. The group always welcomes new members.

“We work the hives together and there’s always something to learn from each other,” said member Mary Harris. They wear protective gear, so they rarely get stung. “In fact, the bees ignore us if we work the hives calmly and slowly,” she said. “Most people love to watch the bees, trying to discern their tasks, trying to identify the queen, checking on the brood (baby bees) and checking the nectar and honey.”

Harris advises that it is best to learn from an experienced beekeeper or mentor. “The mentor can keep you from making errors which could lead to failing to get honey or even to your bees dying, especially in the cold winter,” she said. “Experienced beekeepers can also give tips on reducing your chance of getting stung.”

According to Harris, the benefits to individual beekeepers include…knowing that…they are helping the bees to succeed.

Beekeeping videos on YouTube offer various ways to solve the same problem. Harris says there are classes at local universities and at the Delaware Beekeeping Association. One can even become a master beekeeper through land grant universities. Delaware, like most states, has a State Apiarist (bee expert) who oversees and will help with all Delaware hives.

Without honeybees to pollinate them, there would be a big decline in food production for people and animals. Impacted food crops would include apples, almonds, blueberries, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, and broccoli.

Commercial beekeepers truck honeybees all over the country to pollinate crops since agricultural practices have greatly reduced native bee (and other pollinator) populations. During the almond tree bloom, a third of all the bees in the US are taken to California to help with pollination. According to Harris, the benefits to individual beekeepers include the

BY MARY JO TARALLO

pleasure of watching and husbanding a fascinating natural process and knowing that as beekeepers they are helping the bees to succeed.

BUTTERFLIES

Beekeeping is not the only hobby that engages one with nature and is good for the environment. Another is raising butterflies.

There are more than 17,500 species of butterflies in the world and about 750 in the US. According to the website Good Living, butterflies contribute to the planet in numerous ways. They pollenate plants in gardens; they are an indicator of a healthy environment because a garden that attracts butterflies will also bring native bees and birds; and they can make people happy. Naturalist and veteran broadcaster Sir David Attenborough says spending time in nature—even just watching butterflies in a home garden—is good for our mental health.

Paynter’s Mill resident Mike Fisher’s hobby is raising butterflies. He started with Zebra Swallowtails because they use the pawpaw tree as its host plant. Pawpaw trees are native to most of eastern North America. This species of tree gets to be only 15-20 feet tall. They are “browse resistant,” meaning deer find their leaves unpalatable, which allows saplings to grow. “Knowing that pawpaws are fairly unusual, I wanted to introduce the Zebra Swallowtails to areas where they are native but aren’t common,” he said.

Fisher likes the swallowtails because they have a dramatic look and extended tails. The Zebra Swallowtail is his favorite. “They are challenging to acquire and challenging to handle but,” he says, “few things in life that are worthwhile are easy.” Depending on the time of year, temperature, humidity, and food availability, these species can take about a month to go from egg to butterfly.

When the caterpillars of butterflies reach full size, they form into a “chrysalis” or “pupa.” Inside the chrysalis, they

Continued on page 42

Unusual Hobbies Continued from page 40

[Another]…hobby that engages one with nature and is good for the environment…is raising butterflies.”

undergo a transformation or metamorphosis, becoming what we recognize as a butterfly. The adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis with its soft wings folded about its body.

“When I started researching butterflies a bit more, I learned that only three to five percent of the eggs survive to form a butterfly due to a plethora of predators and other natural barriers,” said Fisher. “Some of the biggest predators of the eggs and caterpillars are spiders and ants, as well as parasitic wasps and birds.”

Monarch butterflies are threatened by pesticides, climate change, ongoing suburban sprawl, and fragmented and poisoned habitats as they navigate their way across the continent. As Fisher notes, they need a helping hand from the government, businesses, and concerned individuals.

When Fisher learned about the plight of the Monarchs, he decided to add the species to his family. He added eight varieties of milkwood around his townhouse to help feed them and he goes out every morning looking for eggs to retrieve before wasps get to them.

He eventually added Eastern Black Swallowtails to the mix partially because they are easy to raise. He bought one dill plant and one parsley plant for the yard plus one of each for the butterfly enclosure. These butterflies are voracious eaters, so he relies on neighbors for clippings of their herbs.

AND KEN

Rehoboth Beach resident Evie Wills has a completely different sort of hobby: She builds dioramas.

“Growing up I had a Ken doll and a couple of GI Joes, plus all the stuff that went with it—space capsule, Jeep, life raft, outfits,” she explained. While she was away at college, her mother tossed it all out, but Wills eventually rebounded.

“In my early 30s, a friend gave me a vintage GI Joe for my birthday, and I started posing him in activities I was doing,” she said. “Soon enough, someone gave me a Ken doll to be Joe’s loyal, loving companion.” She found or made outfits and props to create scenes that included softball games, kayaking, and shoveling snow. People kept giving her more action figures.

“Not sure why I came to do this, but it has been a firing up of my creative side—which I wouldn’t necessarily have thought I possessed,” she confessed.

Wills says she is self-taught. She envisions a scene in her mind and what it would take to set it up. “I shock myself sometimes on the final product, that it scales so well and tells the story I have in my mind,” she noted.

Her inspiration stems primarily from events that happen in friends’ lives. She sometimes memorializes incidents she thinks are humorous or ironic. This might mean a one-scene event or a complex story board, an “unfolding” if you will, of what occurred. She photographs these,

adds funny commentary, and sends them off to her friends. Other inspirations are sports, politics, or life events.

She no longer must buy supplies. She’s proud of her large box of furnishings, sports equipment, clothing, tools, rocks, sticks, and building materials, all to proper scale with the dolls. “I pretty much can create almost any scene at this point. And please, no more dolls! I have been given about 25 now,” she says with a wink.

She takes the dioramas apart after she photographs them. She rarely photographed them when she first was building them, but cell phone cameras make it so easy she now usually does so. “Occasionally my poor wife has to ‘swoon with appreciation’ over my ‘brilliance’ and then I’ll take them apart,” she says.

Some are so easy they take about five minutes; others are complex and involve hours of work.

Recently she did a “super-special one” for her niece’s birthday, depicting a Taylor Swift concert. She had to create the look from scratch, including a Travis Kelce figure. It took weeks, Willis explains, because she had to do hair and makeup.

Wills doesn’t know anyone else who makes dioramas—but doesn’t really want the competition either, she said, tongue in cheek. She has only given away dioramas twice—one was for her brotherin-law’s birthday.

“I don’t have any Barbies in my collection...it is a bit of a boys’ club,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I refer to all these characters—who mostly live in a cardboard box in the attic—as “my boys.” But they are a fun-loving group of guys who appreciate telling a good story!” ▼

Mary Jo Tarallo is a former journalist and public relations professional for various non-profits including a ski industry trade association. She won a Gold Award for a United Way TV program starring Oprah Winfrey.

Photos: page 40: courtesy of Mary Harris; this page, upper left: courtesy of Mike Fisher; left: courtesy of Evie Wills

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BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

3RD PLACE

READER’S PANEL COMMENT

“It’s an ending that you don’t see coming, and it grabs you as you burst into a laugh and then catch yourself as the meaning sinks in. A clever and inventive tale with a great voice.”

Done

After the DJ died, Deputy Constable Russ Wooster couldn’t for a minute figure out who or what would wake him up in the morning.

He’d been listening to that DJ for seven, eight years, every got-damn day nearabouts, hearing the guy say “It’s gonna be a scorcher!” on every morning weather report for the last year, year-and-a-half, every morning until it became a town joke. Towards the end, that DJ was the only one at K-Kountry anymore, but there were no more broadcasts after the guy up and died, his body in his bed, desiccated like he’d been in a house fire but there’d been no fire.

It was the heat.

Eighteen months ago, Block County, Nebraska had been like almost every other county in the state. Flat land, maybe a little roll here or there to make life interesting. A man could drive down a gravel road in summertime and see corn and wheat growing green and ever’ now and then, you’d see a few cows or pigs or a barn full of horses or a mule and then more corn and corn and corn but then the sun came out one day and summer came and it never left and the temperatures went up and never came down, 112 degrees, 100 at night, sometimes hotter.

There was no rain. The creek beds became powder. Corn dried in the fields, looking like arrows shot directly into the soil, got-damn pigs fell over dead and turned to bones right where they lay, sometimes within hours. Combines on the prairie, their tires got all soft and what little was left of the crops couldn’t be brought in and people sometimes couldn’t get water from their wells and satellite towers didn’t work all the time, overhead wires melted and Russ heard someone a county or two over got killed by a wire that snapped.

Probably just a rumor.

He never believed in any got-damn climate crisis or global warming or any of that got-damn bullshit but maybe it was true. Deputy Constable Russ Wooster voted for Trump twice, he’d been a law -

man for most of his got-damn life, he was a good Christian man, and he believed Hell was a real place.

Maybe this was it.

Or maybe it was That Thing.

He thought about it, about That Thing Bob Raser found on his farm more than a year ago, back in a cornfield after the field caught fire a little bit.

Drones sent up over That Thing, before they burnt up in the air, sent back pictures of a huge got-damn shallow dome, about an acre or so big, maybe bigger. Cream colored, a second circular part flush to the surface inside the dome made out of some kinda plastic, but it wasn’t a plastic Russ understood. He’d climbed up on top of the slippery dome one day to stick his fingers into the deep space between the circles, but it was too hot for him to tolerate it long enough to know what was in there. He’d wedged his hand beneath the edge, along the ground one time, too, but it was uncomfortable and he couldn’t tell what was underneath.

…the middle of That Thing rose into the got-damn sky, five, six stories up, a big hard-on, almost proud-like.

He heard one of the Raser kids got his arm burned last week, horsing around out there, just accidentally brushing against That Thing.

Another rumor? He’d have to think about that one, too.

Then this morning, the phones worked for a minute and he’d gotten a call—an actual call that got him out of bed, so he dressed in the same got-damn uniform he’d been wearing for six weeks that stunk but he didn’t want to waste water to wash when it didn’t matter anyhow. There weren’t a lot of people left in Block County to get offended, so Deputy Constable Russ Wooster pulled on his shirt and pants, got in his pick-up, and headed for

…but then the sun came out one day and summer came and it never left and the temperatures went up and never came down…

the Raser place, where Bob Raser’d said That Thing had changed overnight.

As Russ pulled up, he could see that was true: the middle of That Thing rose into the got-damn sky, five, six stories up, a big hardon, almost proud-like. It seemed like everybody was there looking at it, too, everybody who hadn’t moved away from the county, or hadn’t already died, or hadn’t just disappeared, maybe 30 people ringed around That Thing, standing at a respectful distance, staring dumbstruck at the waves of heat that came off it like snakes in the air.

Deputy Constable Russ Wooster got out of his truck, and it occurred to him right then

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I nspired by a deep obsession for The Twilight Zone (the Rod Serling episodes, natch), the characters in “Done” are a lot like people Terri Schlichenmeyer grew up knowing. When she’s not writing, Terri reviews books for 135 print publications in the US and Guam. She lives in Wisconsin with two

Bank With Bank With the Best! the Best!

Years Years

Transferring the Wealth of Words

My grandfather was Clarence E. Fluker Sr., and my uncle was Clarence E. Fluker Jr. When I came along, my mother decided she wanted to keep the name Clarence in our family going so she named me Clarence J. Fluker. I carry their name with great pride and try to honor them by how I live my own life. They had wisdom, style, and quite the sense of humor. They were men that other men turned to for guidance—stable pillars in their communities and admired for who they were, not what they had or what they could do for others.

I will never forget my grandfather’s funeral. It was a powerful and enriching experience. The minister asked if there were anyone present who wanted to offer their own reflections about my grandfather. I wasn’t prepared for the love and lessons that would begin to flow. Person after person walked to the front to share their stories of how my grandfather impacted them in such positive ways. Their reflections helped to create a new and broader context of the man he was.

One woman who was a childhood friend of my mother’s cried as she explained that my grandfather was the first real man she’d ever met in the way he looked after the kids of the neighborhood and offered guidance and protection. A man I’d never seen before spoke about how when he needed someone to talk to, he’d just go sit on my grandfather’s porch; after his visit with him, everything would seem to be all right.

A similar scene played out at my uncle’s memorial service years later. It was beautiful to hear. The inheritance they left me and the rest of us were fond memories and words that still guide and ground us.

A story that my mom and I still laugh about is the evening she went to visit him and found him sitting at his kitchen table watching Will & Grace She joined him at the table. After the

show went off, he turned and said to her that he never thought he’d see the day when something like that would be on television. There was a pause. My mom was waiting for him to finish the thought. And when he did, he expressed that times had certainly changed because there were interracial couples on television.

Our grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and men who show up as father figures offer us many gifts: I love you. I am proud of you. Keep going. You can do it.

One would have assumed that this 80-year-old Black man who grew up in rural Alabama was surprised that there was a television show featuring out gay people. No, that wasn’t it at all. My mother laughed when telling me the story and I chuckled myself. To my grandfather, gay people were just people. He often quoted William Shakespeare, “To thine own self be true.” I believe my grandfather’s acceptance of me, the way he built his life, and his approach to counseling others was deeply rooted in his embrace of that quote.

My uncle also had a trove of quotes and sayings that he’d often pull from in conversation with you. The one that he offered me and that I reflect on most often is: “Keep the main thing, the main thing.” I was dating someone who had recently disclosed that he was in addiction recovery. At that time, I’d barely had any experience dating, so I sought my uncle’s perspective—as he was both seasoned in pursuits of the heart and a substance abuse counselor, I thought it would be helpful. His advice proved beneficial in that situation and over the years, I’ve learned

BY CLARENCE FLUKER

those words are not only applicable to romantic relationships, but also friendships, career, and so many other facets of life.

Our grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and men who show up as father figures offer us many gifts: I love you. I am proud of you. Keep going. You can do it. Their words of encouragement and wisdom in some ways become part of our inheritance. They stay with us long after the men who offered them to us are gone.

When I am faced with the question of which path to take, I remind myself to choose the path in which I’d remain most true to myself. When I find it challenging to focus or need to block out the noise that attempts to overwhelm us each day, I remind myself to keep the main thing, the main thing. I am grateful for the men who shared their love, space, and insights with me. I hold tight to their words as I continue navigating this world.

I am also conscious about how I speak to and over young children, knowing that my words will linger for years to come. It’s another way to transfer generational wealth—the invaluable power of our words. ▼

Clarence J. Fluker is a public affairs and social impact strategist. Since 2008, he's also been a contributing writer for Swerv, a lifestyle periodical celebrating African American LGBTQ+ culture and community. Follow him on Instagram: @Mr_CJFluker.

Knowing One’s Colors

At my age, I’m very aware what colors look good on me. No, I’ve never done one of those color analyses that were so popular in the 80s and now again with the younger generation on TikTok. This old boy has learned through trial and error. When I wear blue, purple, or lavender, I receive compliments. On the other hand, orange, a color which I adore, washes me out. Pink makes my eyes look bloodshot. People say yellow makes me look kind of ill. Then there’s red, another color I steer clear of. Red is well known for its physiological and psychological impacts on people. As the color of love, red increases our heart rate and excites our emotions. It also triggers aggression, competitive attitudes, and urgent desires to win. That’s probably why it’s so common on sport uniforms. Red signals authority. Red catches our attention, thus making it an effective color to use in persuasive messaging. Stop signs. Red lights.

Red has an interesting history when it comes to politics. Kings in the Middle Ages adopted the color from the Catholic Church to show their God-given right to rule. It became the color of regal majesty and power. Charlemagne wore red shoes at his coronation. In Chinese philosophy, red is known as the fire element and is linked to leadership, confidence, and dominance. Chinese emperors often wore red robes to symbolize their royal power.

During the French Revolution, the color was adopted by the radical antimonarchists who waved red flags and wore red caps. At this point, the connotations of red began to change, with it becoming the color of rebellion. The red flag gained wide popularity in Russia during the 1917 Revolution and the Soviet Union adopted the color for its national flag adorned with a gold hammer and sickle topped off by a red star bordered in gold. When China established its communist government in 1949, it too adopted a similar red

flag. Red became—and still is—a color closely associated with Communism and radicalism.

So why did the Republican Party adopt the color for its brand so wholeheartedly? For a long time, blue was associated with the GOP as a nod to the blue uniforms worn by President Lincoln’s Union army during the Civil War. Blue as a color connotes trust, loyalty, and integrity.

According to an NPR story, the Republican association with red really took hold during the 2000 presidential election…

Some say the GOP’s embrace of red began with former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who had a love affair with red, the color she called bold, unapologetic, and powerful. She was a powerhouse too and a very influential force on her husband. Nancy’s particular favorite shade of red was a scarlet color that became known as “Reagan Red.” Women, especially Republican leaning women, followed her lead.

According to an NPR story, the Republican association with red really took hold during the 2000 presidential election when the TV networks agreed

to color states won by George W. Bush as red and states won by Al Gore as blue. In previous elections, the networks used their own color preferences and viewers found the lack of constituency confusing as they flipped back and forth between different channels. Political pundits soon began referring to red states and blue states as a metaphor for partisanship, fanning a divide that keeps getting worse and worse.

The Con-Mander-In-Chief Donald Trump, however, has taken the use of red to a new level. He’s wrapped himself and his MAGA movement in red, tapping into its symbolism of revolution, power, and defiance. The hats and t-shirts. The silly long tie he wears. He’s created a populist brand designed especially to provoke and polarize. People love it or hate it.

Here’s my take. If Trump loves the country as much as he says, why not embrace red, white, and blue? Or at least lean into the “old glory red” on the US flag instead of “communist red.” It’s hard to miss the eeriness of a Republican president embracing the color of dictatorships while doing his damnedest to create an authoritarian executive branch.

Personally, I think gold or green are better colors for him as they reflect his obsession with opulence and his love for money. What are all those gold tchotchkes he keeps adding to the Oval Office where he meets the press? I swear they’re multiplying. Change one letter in “green” and you have “greed.” Fitting. The man certainly is green with envy and loaded with bile.

Color has always been used to emphasize political positions. And that, dear readers, is why you will never ever see me wearing red, not even on the 4th of July. I’ll stick with blue. As I said earlier, I know my colors. Thankfully, I’m not a die-hard Phillies or Nationals fan ▼

Rich Barnett is the author of The Discreet Charms of a Bourgeois Beach Town, and Fun with Dick and James. with Dick and James.

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Victim of His Own Gaslighting

Trump Is Not Someone Else’s Problem

Is it possible for someone to gaslight himself? Beyond Donald Trump’s fanatical base, how many people seriously believe genocide against white South Africans is occurring? How many believe accepting a Boeing aircraft from Qatar does not violate the Constitution’s Emoluments clause? How many believe Harvard is ‘coordinating’ in some nefarious way with China?

Trump apparently thinks he can win as long as he is never embarrassed. After repeatedly insisting tariffs were paid by the other country, he switched to telling Walmart to “eat the tariffs.” This is government according to whim, not policy.

We are not so fragile that we will break by confronting our history with honesty…

To be sure, bullying and lies have taken him far. Four months into his second term, he has done extensive damage to the federal government despite a steady stream of adverse court rulings. Few congressional Republicans have been willing to stand up to him. Yet he is the object of mockery around the world, to the point where South African President Cyril Ramaphosa drolly apologized for not having a plane to give him.

Trump’s mental decline was displayed at West Point in a rambling commencement address that mentioned trophy wives, drag queens, and Al Capone, repeated his claim that America is being ripped off by NATO, and criticized diversity programs in front of the diverse graduating class.

The world’s most powerful man, even after demanding a North Korea-style military parade for his birthday, cannot stop whining about his personal grievances. He routinely insults journalists who dare to treat him non-worshipfully. Throwing a fit whenever someone calls him out on his endless grifting is no display of strength.

On the one hand, he portrays himself as a worldstraddling leader. On the other, he often says he has no idea when asked about actions of his own administration, as if he is a random passerby. Which is he?

His motto appears to be, “The buck stops anywhere and everywhere else.”

What is worse is that so many regard this as normal. “Oh, that’s just Donald.” I’m sorry, I thought you had to be at least 35 to be president. Trump acts more like a four-year-old playing with a loaded gun someone left on the coffee table. Is this the oops administration?

In fact, what is going on is not an accident. It makes no decent sense to rob millions of their

BY RICHARD J. ROSENDALL

medical care and nutritional assistance while denying that you are doing it and treating them as parasites. By the way, if we are concerned about parasites, what about Elon Musk, who hid behind talk of “government efficiency” while protecting his own business interests with the government and harming competitors?

We should all be embarrassed at Trump’s ambush of Ramaphosa in the Oval Office with disinformation about a nonexistent genocide of Afrikaners.

If Trump were seriously concerned about genocide, he should denounce the mass starvation Israel is causing in Gaza. At the very least, it is engaged in ethnic cleansing.

The Associated Press reports that Israeli soldiers have routinely used Palestinians—whom they call mosquitoes—as human shields during the war in Gaza.

The fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization does not make Bibi Netanyahu a good guy. Sometimes one must call a pox on both houses. Our fealty to our values is tested not when things are easy, but when they are hard.

Trump, untutored in verbal discipline, refers to his political opponents as traitors and terrorists to evade responsibility and feed his angry base. If you reflexively accuse me of antisemitism for condemning Israeli war crimes, aren’t you doing the same thing as Trump? Palestinians are a Semitic people too.

Trump’s attempt to cancel visas for Harvard’s international students has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Along with press freedoms, academic freedom is one of the first targets in the fascist playbook. If Trump’s professed concern for Jewish student safety were sincere, he would hardly have dined with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and Hitler admirer Kanye West.

Trump and his allies seek to erase the ugly aspects of America’s history, which include not only slavery and Jim Crow but the Trail of Tears and the internment of Japanese Americans in camps during World War II.

We are not so fragile that we will break by confronting our history with honesty instead of hagiography. We do not vindicate our values by invoking immigration status or offensive op-eds instead of race to justify denying people due process.

Our nation’s values live or die in us. If we leave evil for others to face down, we are lost. ▼

Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist at rrosendall@me.com.

The Writing Life

BY JILL P. STRACHAN

Boundaries Borders Crossings—One Lesbian Life 2.0

My parents, Alan and Evelyn Strachan, left my sister and me an inheritance of their life savings, mid-modern furniture, books, a well-traveled Chevy cavalier, some distinctive art, and several boxes full of papers. We divvied up the money and items, and I claimed the papers. It was 1996.

I briefly inspected the boxes and saw journals and file folders with letters. Things looked musty and unappealing in there, although the boxes were in good shape. Thinking of retirement, I mentally assigned myself the chore of looking through the boxes. That moment came and went without my tackling the task. Then…COVID arrived.

Sequestered with my partner Jane and our dog Freddy, I recalled the boxes nestled in the garage. While Jane worked long hours remotely at our dining room table, I knew I faced the prospect of insufficient activity to occupy my mind. It seemed an obvious choice and doable project to open the boxes and clear the contents. We had a small shredder that could serve as a technical assistant. I imagined I would complete my mission in a half-day.

My mother was an avid correspondent with family and friends. She made copies of her outgoing letters using carbon paper on top of thin onion paper. After stapling the copy to the letter to which she was responding, she filed it. She sent handwritten notes for birthdays, anniversaries, and deaths. No carbon paper in this case. She embraced journals too, beginning her first on January 1, 1933, and continuing until 1988.

My father also kept his letters, although his output was not as voluminous as mother’s. Separated several times during their 63-year marriage, I discovered their correspondence was also in the boxes. Because of the unreliable quality of international mail, they carefully numbered their letters to keep track. Their letters reflected a fondness for the other, as well as mundane information about salaries, budgets, and bills.

I began reading. Although the letters and journals reflected events already known to me—and much more—it occurred to me that their lives deserved a written history with preservation of the amazing events and situations they had encountered. They lived from the early 1900s to 1996 in England (my father was born in London), the US, and then globally as representatives of the US foreign service.

This book surprised me because I believed my project was complete after the first publication, having fulfilled my commitment to my parents.

My task became clear. At first, I thought of my compilation and writing as merely a personal matter. Only as I wrote on did I think I had “something” that possibly could be publishable. I had contacts who had published and a bundle of encouraging friends who did me the best favor of asking what I was writing. For the fledgling writer, there is an unlimited supply of information and assistance on the web. Through Women on Writing, I enrolled in an on-line course for a reasonable cost and shared my pieces with a coach and other students to excellent effect. I submitted nonfiction stories to contests and publications, sometimes achieving an honorable

mention, but better, encouragement. This writing project became a community collaboration with friends and strangers.

In 2021, I self-published Waterfalls, the Moon and Sensible Shoes—One Lesbian Life. I did not have an in-depth appreciation for what I was doing but succeeded. The book jacket says: “She tracks a personal account of the radically, quickly shifting social and historical situation for lesbian and gay individuals from the 1970s to the AIDS crisis and beyond.” That’s a lot, and different from my starting point.

In March 2025, I published, with the help of Combray House, a second book, Boundaries Borders Crossings—One Lesbian Life 2.0. This book surprised me because I believed my project was complete after the first publication, having fulfilled my commitment to my parents.

Now I sit, literally and figuratively, with an idea for a third project. It is powerful as it spins in my head and heart.

My writing process is a bit of a mystery to me. It is enjoyable to write, including this piece, but I never really know when my mind is ready to propel my fingers to the keyboard. Deadlines are not my tool. If you perchance dream of writing, I feel certain a muse will find you as it did me. Greet it joyously and get started.

This time I am practicing better selfpromotion. Thank you for reading. ▼

Bondaries Borders Crossings – One Lesbian Life 2.0 is available locally: Browseabout Books; DC: Politics and Prose, East City Books; Amazon.com. First book is available by asking an independent bookstore to order it.

Jill P. Strachan left grant writing for the pleasures of creating nonfiction, singing a cappella, traveling with her partner, playing tennis, and walking her dog.

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It’s Sunscreen Season!

Let’s Not Feel the Burn

Contents of one average beach bag: A large towel that’s absorbent, colorful, washable, and possibly disposable. Swimsuits and a cover-up for just in case. Snacks, keys, a couple bucks, and a water bottle. A nonsense book, the plot of which is fluffy as a cotton ball. Plastic bags for whatever. And a bottle of what Mom, your partner, and 327,400 American dermatologists want you to wear: sunscreen.

Now, imagine that you just got dropped off in a European field in the Middle Ages. Awkward, I know, but bear with me: look around, and you’d notice that you’re surrounded by a bunch of tan folks hard at work in the sun or in courtyards outside, just doing their Middle Ages jobs. Back then, and until the early twentieth century, tan or baked skin was a sign that you were a member of the lower working class. If your skin was pale, then you were probably someone of leisure, who didn’t have to toil outdoors.

Those Middle Ages folks you’re bothering had good company before you dropped in on them: the desire to stay pale started in Egypt some 5,000 years ago, when folks who wanted to avoid the effects of the sun used rice bran, lupine, and jasmine on their skin. Ancient Greeks used olive oil for sunscreen and skin repair (big surprise: olive oil has an SPF of roughly 8). Even then, people knew that overexposure to the sun wasn’t a good idea; studies of mummies show suspicious tumors on their dermises.

In 1801, it was discovered that UV rays were a thing. Not quite two decades later, studies were done on skin color and the sun’s effects. By the end of that century, it’d been determined that certain substances offered protection from the sun’s rays with a strong suspicion that without protection, a solar burn could occur (at best) and cancer (at worst). The doctor who suggested the tie between sunburn and cancer, by the way, first developed a rudimentary sunscreen but it was thick and icky and nobody liked it enough to use it.

BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

We can all thank fashion icon Coco Chanel for that sun-kissed look that everyone seemed to want for most of the twentieth century. In the 1920s, she went on a Mediterranean cruise and was photographed looking tan and happy and suddenly, everyone wanted to be like Coco. In a colossal flip-flop (no pun intended) of attitude, being tan was the new sign of leisure and “sunbathing” became a fad.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and happiness....

Knowing that tans = good but burns = bad, Eugene Schueler, the founder of what is now L’Oreal, created a product to fix the problem in 1935. Called “Ambre Solaire,” it contained an ingredient we use today and a claim that you could stay in the sun longer without burning. In 1942, the US government learned that red “veterinary petroleum” also made a good sunscreen for airmen caught in inhospitable places; that information and a few other ingredients eventually became Coppertone™ tanning lotion.

In the 1950s, fake tan cream was invented. Ahem.

In 1962, sunscreen started getting sun protection factor (SPF) ratings. By then, it was pretty common knowledge that the sun’s rays could be damaging but to what extent hadn’t yet been determined completely; for decades, the thought that it caused cancer had legs but it wasn’t yet solidified. Still,

We can all thank fashion icon Coco Chanel for that sun-kissed look that everyone seemed to want for most of the twentieth century.

danger or not, no ‘60’s cool cat or hep chick wanted to be pale all summer and nobody wanted a red, peeling nose or chin or arms so white zinc cremes were popular on beaches everywhere. So was tanning oil that was said to enhance the effects of the sun’s rays. Or some used baby oil to get that Adonis-like glow. Go figure.

By 1978, rates of skin cancer started to rise and the FDA began regulating sunscreens, which had become a huge market with SPF ratings of 15 to 30 as the most popular. Was it convenience or coincidence that UV tanning beds started to pop up in salons and spas around the country? Never mind; nearly 30 years later, the link between tanning beds and melanoma was confirmed, too.

Today, you can buy SPF 100 sunscreen that blocks 99 percent of the sun’s rays. You can still buy colored zinc to fashionably keep your nose from burning and your dermis from sloughing away in translucent sheets.

Or you can go without anything and take your chances but really, given that some five million of us will receive skin cancer diagnoses this year, that’s not so a-peeling. ▼

Terri Schlichenmeyer’s third book, The Book of Facts and Trivia: Science, came out in September 2024.

SUPPORTING LOVE, EQUALITY & THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY PRIDE

TAKE IN HOME OWNERSHIP!

National HIV Testing Day

Progress Doesn’t Pause

Every person deserves the chance to live a healthy, full life, regardless of their HIV status. Sadly, for many, that promise remains out of reach. Stigma, misinformation, and lack of access to care continue to stand in the way. As executive directors of two of Delaware’s leading HIV service organizations, AIDS Delaware and the Delaware HIV Consortium, we see these challenges every day. We also see the deep urgency of this work and how personal it remains for everyone involved.

National HIV Testing Day is June 27, making now the perfect time to reiterate that it’s more than just a date on the calendar. It’s a call to action, a reminder that real progress depends on each of us stepping up.

To do that, it’s important to be reminded that HIV is not a thing of the past. It continues to impact more than 3,400 people in Delaware and over a million across the country. The virus itself does not discriminate, but the systems we live in often do.

Underrepresented groups, including Black and Latino communities and LGBTQ+-identified individuals are disproportionately affected. In addition, folks living with substance use disorder, or those impacted by the social drivers of health, also experience increased risk. This is not because of who they are, but because of the inequities they confront daily. When access to healthcare, education, housing, and prevention isn’t equal, the burden of disease weighs most heavily on those already pushed to the margins.

Thanks to medical advances, HIV is no longer a death sentence. When diagnosed early and connected to care, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives. The medications available today are not just effective; they are life-changing. When taken consistently, these treatments reduce the amount of virus in the body to undetectable levels. And when HIV is undetectable, it cannot be transmitted. This concept—U=U, i.e.,

BY CHRISTOPHER MOORE & TYLER BERL

undetectable equals untransmittable— has the potential to eliminate fear, dismantle stigma, and reshape the public conversation.

Yet despite these breakthroughs, there is still a gap between what we know and what we put into practice. According to the CDC, one in eight people living with HIV in the United States doesn’t know their status. That’s tens of thousands of people missing out on treatment, living with uncertainty, and at risk of unknowingly transmitting the virus. This is why testing remains the cornerstone of our work. It is the first step toward care, prevention, and empowerment.

In Delaware, testing is more accessible than ever. Community-based organizations offer rapid HIV tests with results in about 20 minutes. Some even bring testing directly to neighborhoods

and community events through mobile units. These services are free, confidential, and judgment-free. Our goal is to remove every barrier because no one should have to fight through shame, fear, or red tape to take care of their health.

Still, knowing your status is only the beginning. Once someone receives a diagnosis, they should be met with support and care, not judgment or delays. That requires healthcare providers who are trained and culturally responsive, clinics which welcome everyone, and services to address the full spectrum of needs. It means helping people navigate insurance, get to appointments, and stay engaged in care. A diagnosis isn’t the end of the road. It’s the start of a lifelong relationship with support and healing. Prevention is just as critical. Science

Progress is rarely linear. It takes commitment, compassion, and clarity of purpose.

has given us powerful tools, but public awareness hasn’t always kept pace. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a daily pill or long-acting injection that can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV by over 99 percent when used consistently. It’s one of the most effective prevention methods we have. Yet many who could benefit from PrEP either don’t know it exists or face barriers to getting it. Whether it’s cost, stigma, lack of information, or limited access to prescribing providers, too many people are being left behind.

We must also continue to push to normalize conversations about sexual health—no matter the direction of the political or social headwinds. We also need to continue to fight for the integration of HIV prevention into routine medical care. And we need to make PrEP available in every ZIP code to everyone who wants it. Prevention should never be a privilege; it should be a right.

Education is what weaves all these efforts together. When people have accurate, inclusive, and timely information about HIV, they are better equipped to protect themselves and care for others. Unfortunately, our educational systems don’t always deliver. Sex education varies widely from district to district, and in many places, it’s outdated, incomplete, or steeped in shame. That leaves young people vulnerable, not just to HIV, but to silence, fear, and misunderstanding.

We believe every student deserves comprehensive, age-appropriate, and inclusive health education. That means talking about how HIV is transmitted, how it’s prevented, how it’s treated, and how people with HIV live full and vibrant lives. Studies show that comprehensive sexuality education, including a sexpositive perspective, leads to delayed initiation of sexual activity, reduced sexual risk behaviors, and increased contraceptive use. It means addressing stigma head-on and replacing myths with facts. It means treating education not as a warning, but as a source of empowerment.

Stigma remains one of the most stubborn barriers we face. It lingers in everyday conversations, in healthcare settings, in workplace policies, and in the silence that surrounds HIV. Stigma keeps people from getting tested, from seeking treatment, from feeling safe. It leads to isolation, poorer health outcomes, and lost lives.

Changing this requires a cultural shift. It starts with our language by centering people, not diagnoses. It grows through visibility by amplifying the stories and strength of people living with HIV. And it deepens through community by creating spaces where everyone feels safe, seen, and supported.

At AIDS Delaware and the Delaware HIV Consortium, we are committed to building that kind of community. We provide case management, mental health services, housing and transportation assistance, and harm reduction programs. We offer testing and PrEP support, train healthcare providers, advocate for policy change, and partner across sectors to expand our reach.

But we can’t do this alone. Ending the HIV epidemic will take all of us: healthcare professionals, educators, lawmakers, faith leaders, families, and neighbors. It will take sustained investment in testing, prevention, and treatment. It will require policy decisions that protect and uplift people who are too often ignored. And it will take courage—the courage to speak openly, to stand against stigma, and to keep advocating for what is right.

This National HIV Testing Day, we invite every Delawarean to take part. If you have never been tested, now is a good time. If it’s been a while, get retested. If you’re living with HIV, know that support is available and that you are cared for and there’s a network of providers, case managers, educators, and administrators who fight every day, in every way, to ensure you continue to have access to quality, equitable services. If you’re using PrEP, spread the word. If you work in healthcare, education, or social services, consider how you can

make your space more welcoming. And if you have influence, use it to inform, support, and inspire action.

Progress is rarely linear. It takes commitment, compassion, and clarity of purpose. It forces agencies to bob, weave, and redirect to survive. The HIV epidemic has also taught us difficult lessons about inequality and resilience. It has also shown us what’s possible when communities come together. Health is not just a medical issue; it is a matter of dignity, justice, and connection.

We have made real strides since the early days of the epidemic, but the work is far from over: New infections continue, disparities persist, stigma still harms, and lives are still at stake.

HIV is not over, but neither is the movement to end it. With determination and unity, we can create a Delaware and a world where HIV is no longer a source of fear, where everyone knows their status, and where every person has the opportunity to live with health, hope, and pride.  ▼

Christopher Moore is the Interim Executive Director of AIDS Delaware. He loves Wordle, the scent of patchouli, and Carrie Fisher.

Tyler Berl is the Executive Director of the Delaware HIV Consortium. He was born and raised in Lewes and loves to return as often as possible.

Photos: courtesy of AIDS Delaware and the Delaware HIV Consortium

The Sea Salt Table

Breakfast Cauliflower Muffin

Happy almost summer! I’m a huge fan of the four seasons. But at the shore, summer is the best-est. However, it’s not without challenges. Here are a few tips for visiting or living at the Delaware beaches over the next few months.

Smile. Everyone wants to have fun, but vacationing can involve unique stress. Time at the beach isn’t always relaxing, especially for parents. I’ve passed many couples sniping at each other. I call them the Bickersons. Step back, breathe, count to 10. Most stuff is small stuff. Try to smile when you most don’t want to.

Be patient. It’s OK to complain about overdevelopment. But we’re all part of the problem. Remember, everyone dreams of the seaside life. I recall a holiday weekend at Giant when management was on the loudspeaker gently reminding everyone to be patient. They opened with “Isn’t this festive?!” Meanwhile, lines stretched all the way to the back of the store. Come prepared for THAT level of patience.

Be prepared. Know the rules. Many beaches do not allow canopies and tents, nor dogs. Weather can change on a dime, so wear layers. Pack water, sunscreen, hats, and bug spray. If your beach is “carry in, carry out,” bring trash bags. Have a credit card, pass, or app for parking. Bring cash if you’re renting umbrellas and chairs (even if it’s just for tips).

Be kind. Our beaches are melting pots. On any given day, you’ll see bikers in leather chaps mixed with Mennonite farmers. The proximity of our towels requires we all get along. Oh, and most important to me personally, leave your politics at home. Seeing a political flag reminds me of everything I’m wanting to get away from when I stick my feet in the sand. Give us all a few hours rest.

Be kind to those who serve you. The “LSD” bumper stickers are not advertising door-to-door drug mules. They stand for Lower Slower Delaware. It takes some getting used to. But when the plumber says they’ll arrive at 11:00 a.m., that’s just the essence of a timeframe. Really

it means “I’ll be there when I can, after finishing the prior job, ensuring it’s done well, including unexpected issues.” Same with your waiters. They too fought horrible traffic. And possibly dealt with a terrible customer before you. Help them help you have a good time.

Try something new. It might be the slice you dream of all year ‘round, but try a new pizza joint instead. A new ice cream parlor. A different mini golf. Check out local art galleries and antique stores. Try your hand at paddleboarding. Or head to the bay for jet skiing. Make new memories. For that matter, really break the mold and go to a drag show! See this very magazine for ideas.

Think like a host. If you’re staying at someone’s house, be considerate. Of them, their time, their belongings, their rules. If a kitschy sign over the dryer says “no sandy swimsuits,” it’s there for a reason. Offer to bring supplies. Buy them a drink. Help them clean up. Small gestures go a long way. And most importantly, ask them when you should leave. If your bathroom suddenly has scratchy toilet paper, you’ve stayed too long.

So this month, I’m highlighting a recipe to help us all chill-lax (and brace) for a great summer. My Breakfast Cauliflower Muffins! They’re easy to whip up, lowcarb, protein-packed gems to keep you energized for all your beach adventures.

Let’s get started, shall we?

BY ED CASTELLI

STEPS

 Preheat your oven to 375°. Mix the following in a large bowl:

• 3 cups thawed/fresh “riced” cauliflower

• 3 large eggs

• 1 cup of shredded cheddar

• ¼ cup almond flour

• 2 Tbl cooked and crumbled bacon

• ½ tsp Italian spice

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp onion powder

 Evenly divide the mixture into 10 greased (or lined) cups of a muffin pan. Bake for 25 minutes until starting to brown. Cool for 15 minutes and enjoy.

TIPS

• I often mix these the night before. In the morning, plop and bake. Easypa-deasy!

• I’ve been wanting to try these with riced broccoli but haven’t yet. I imagine they’d be just as tasty.

• For extra simplicity, I buy the small bags of soft, precooked bacon pieces you find near salad croutons. But gurl, never the hard, fake “bits.”   ▼

Ed and his husband Jerry split their time between homes near Harrisburg Pennsylvania and Bethany Beach. Ed builds websites to pay the bills but loves to cook, garden, hike, and dote on their dog Atticus.

Reflections

Working Out on Vacation

It’s summer and it’s vacation time. Vacations are supposed to be relaxing, stress-releasing, and fun. But they can also derail a well-established fitness program that has been cemented into your daily routine. Exercising on vacation is a choice that fewer than half of us make.

Whether it’s better to exercise on vacation or take a break from it depends on your goals, mindset, and how you feel. If you are mentally and physically burned out, a vacation can be a great time to let your body fully recover. If you have a consistent routine at home, one week off won’t hurt your progress. If you want to be fully immersed in your vacation plans or if your vacation already includes a lot of activities—such as hiking, walking, or swimming—then let go of a regular routine and enjoy the change.

While it may be tempting to lounge around the pool, indulge in rich meals, or skip workouts, overindulging in sedentary activities will make it harder to get back on track when you return home. Yet, if eliminating a regular exercise regimen from vacation plans for a few days is a conscious decision, it can allow your body to recover from the daily grind of a consistent routine.

Only 38 percent of people maintain their exercise habits while vacationing, according to the New York Post. The piece recommends moving even on

vacation, as consistent movement can help soothe vacationers with a familiar routine, helping to manage the stress that often comes with traveling. It can also boost energy and maintain fitness levels. If you like routine, a light workout can add structure to your day and ease the return to a post-vacation workout schedule. Using hotel gyms, exploring on foot, engaging in outdoor activities, and using your own body weight to strengthen muscles are ways to maintain movement during a vacation.

Then there’s people like me. When I travel, I enjoy trying different ways to move that keep me fit and flexible and are fun. I’m a “go with the flow” kind of person who is not wedded too tightly to any one way to work out. I don’t let fitness dominate my trip and I incorporate fun ways to be active on vacation. I usually skip structured training and just move because I want to and it feels good, not because I must.

For example, when I traveled to Los Angeles, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I never would have walked into a hot yoga class on the east coast, but because it was my friend’s favorite, I sweated through the poses that sent me into a heat-induced stupor.

While LA is known for being on the cutting-edge of fitness trends, I couldn’t shake my skepticism when my friend brought me to a studio that promoted

When I travel, I enjoy trying different ways to move that keep me fit and flexible and are fun.

BY PATTIE CINELLI

the “four-minute workout” that would satisfy most cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility needs.

While I enjoyed the experience of both classes, I’ve never wanted to do either again. Because my friend, who is also a personal trainer, loves moving as much as me, she shared her favorites. In the absence of someone offering such suggestions, I make it a priority to squeeze movement into whatever else is planned on my trip.

If you are staying in a hotel, the gym may be the best way to guarantee adherence to a daily workout. If no gym is accessible, use your own body weight for basic exercises such as squats, push-ups (against a wall or on the floor), balance moves, and stretches. I try to stretch multiple times during the day—I have found it is a good way to lessen any back or neck tightness resulting from sitting too long on a long car ride or flight.

Summer vacations offer us an opportunity to experience life in a different way. We’re in a new environment, meeting new people who don’t know us and are not judging us. It’s a great time to experiment, play, have fun, and relax—a perfect setting in which to stretch our limits without fear of failure or embarrassment. We can be whoever we want to be.

Deciding whether to exercise on vacation comes down to tuning into what you truly need—not what you think you’re supposed to do. Maybe that’s a long beach walk, a quick workout, or simply doing nothing at all. There’s no single right choice, only the one that leaves you feeling your best. When you let go of guilt and listen to yourself, you can give your body and mind what they actually need. And that’s really the whole point of taking a break—to reset, recharge, and enjoy yourself. ▼

Pattie Cinelli is a writer and a holistic health & fitness professional. Email her with questions or column ideas to: fitmiss44@aol.com.

Photo: Beth and Sandy’s journal; courtesy of the author

The First Pride Was a Riot

Greetings, Letters readers. Robby from Brooklyn here—Happy Pride Month, everyone!

This particular Pride month feels both awful and demoralizing, yet also like a call to action. We are once again in the fight for our lives thanks to the twice-impeached, convicted felon in the White House. Things aren’t just bad, they are horrible. Every day we wake to news that gets worse and worse. It's for this very reason that the Resistance movement needs to be louder, stronger, and more visible. Pride still matters—maybe now more than ever.

Times today are not normal. It is not normal for a five-time draft dodger to ban our transgender brothers and sisters from serving their country. It is not normal for a gay makeup artist from Venezuela to be kidnapped off the streets by men wearing masks and sent to a prison in El Salvador without due process. It is not normal for Utah and Idaho to ban the display of Pride flags on government property and in schools. (Ten more states are now in the process of enacting those same laws.)

On any given day my emotions run the gamut from heartbroken to pissed off to devastated to hopeful and then ultimately hopeless. I hate to admit it, but I do feel

hopeless more than I feel hopeful. And on November 6, 2024, I felt quite possibly the most hopeless I have ever felt.

I wanted to be done. I wanted to be done fighting, marching, and protesting. Done making signs. Done fighting for those who continue to vote against their own interests. Done fighting for a country that is never going to give us equal rights. Done fighting for a country that let hundreds of thousands of gay men suffer and die in the 1980s. Done fighting for a country that said, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Done fighting for a country that denied us Marriage Equality for decades. And done fighting for a country where “Don’t Say Gay” was signed into law in 2022. I am almost 50 years old. I have been protesting for over 25 years. How many more years do I have to march?

Thankfully, those feelings of hopelessness subsided as winter turned to spring. With each attack on park rangers, scientists, immigrants, and drag queens, it became clearer that it was time I join the fight again.

On April 5, I was one of the marshals at the Hands Off protest. Marshals hold back the traffic, allowing protestors to continue marching. I was awed, inspired, and empowered by the 100,000 people walking past me. Americans of all ages, genders, and nationalities making their

I am almost 50 years old. I have been protesting for over 25 years. How many more years do I have to march?

Photo: Loredana Sangiuliano / Shutterstock.com Visiting View BY

ROBERT DEDOMINIC

voices heard. The energy in the crowd was electric.

The very first Pride was a riot. This June, people are taking to the streets to ‘riot’ once again.

On June 7, I marched across the Brooklyn Bridge with Moms Demand Action, demanding common-sense gun reform. On June 12, Gays Against Guns held a vigil to honor those murdered at Pulse nightclub in Orlando nine years ago. As a ‘Human Being,’ silent and veiled in white, I held space for Paul Anthony Terrell, a 41-year-old father who loved dancing and playing pool. His daughter Alexia had recently graduated from high school. He was one of 49 killed that night by a madman with an assault weapon. As of April 30, there had been 155 mass shootings in this country. This is not normal.

At press time, another nationwide protest—“NO KINGS”—is planned for June 14. Organizers are expecting more people, more press coverage, more…, more…, more. The new Pope has scheduled an afternoon mass broadcast worldwide. Cities, including Boston, are hosting Pride on the same day. “TACO Trump” is gonna meltdown at all the attention taken away from his ridiculous $50 million birthday military parade.

My friend, the renowned artist Vincent Pomillio, age 70, of Manhattan, relayed to me the feelings of those early Prides: “My 1st Pride March was in 1973. The love in the crowd was so palpable. The March and the Parade were so homespun and heartfelt. There was music and dancing along the route, and the city seemed to be lining up along the sidewalks, cheering us on. Everyone felt that there was change in the air, and we were excited to be a part of it.”

Change is in the air once again! Let’s get loud, let’s get proud. ▼

Robert DeDominic is a queer freelance writer living in Brooklyn, NY. Follow Robert on Bluesky at robertdominic.bsky.social.

OUTlook

Love and Marriage Rights

My wife stumbled upon the most extraordinary treasure while she was looking for a book the other day. Among the many, many books on the shelves in the living room was a slender, hardbound black journal, called Our Married Life It starts a month after our marriage. We got married in Connecticut in November of 2009. Sandy happened to have a business trip there, and we had heard of several gay couples who had gone there to get married. We found a kind of package deal, took the train up there, and eloped.

In 2009, same sex marriage was not the law of the whole land. That didn’t happen until June 26, 2015, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The ruling guaranteed the right to marry for same sex couples under the Fourteenth Amendment. Thanks to that ruling, LGBTQ+ people throughout the country have enjoyed the right to marry for a decade. In Delaware, same sex marriage has been legal since July 1, 2013.

Like so many other rights, however, our right to marry is under threat. Under the current political regime, we see how fragile it is. We are in the sights of Project 2025. So, while it’s more important than ever to celebrate this hard-won right, we must at the same time fight to protect our right to marry, among others. It really is up to us now. We must resist, speak up, march, contact our political representatives, or take other concrete action. I believe that when we fight, we win. If we do nothing, or hide, or wait for it to get better, we will most certainly lose all of our rights, including the right to marry.

But I digress (as happens so often these days under this miserable regime). The journal that Sandy found is just a delightful recounting of our first year together. We both wrote entries, but Sandy is the one who kept the narrative clear and on track. We were celebrating a lot and taking lots of trips. We were

both turning 50 in 2010. We threw a big surprise party for Sandy’s special day (she really was surprised!) and we went to Belize for mine.

A lot happened that first year. We were living in our big house in Dover with Sandy’s mom and with my father, who we cared for after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It brings me to tears when I remember how our sick and elderly parents (and a helpful friend) arranged a tiny wedding cake and flowers and decorations to greet us when we got back from our wedding in Connecticut, on our way to our honeymoon.

We’ve fought this battle forever, I know, but we have won so much; we must keep fighting.

We managed the illnesses and deaths of our parents, our inevitable first disagreements, the onset of two sets of menopause symptoms, lots of snow, and the adoption of our first German shepherd puppy, Abby, who blessed us with a long and happy life, passing away last year at 14.

BY BETH SHOCKLEY

Our Married Life is a snapshot of a blissful first year, and I’m over the moon to have it. Sandy shared her frustrations with the seemingly slow progress of nationwide marriage rights. From October of 2010 she writes, “We were hoping by now that there would be some progress on the national level for legalizing our wedded bliss, but it looks as if we may have to wait until hell freezes over for that.”

Well, hell didn’t freeze over, but it did take five more years. However, thanks to those who worked so hard, marriage did become legal for LGBTQ+ people nationwide. But to keep this right, we’re going to have to defend it. We’ve fought this battle forever, I know, but we have won so much; we must keep it up. I hope somebody’s got a plan. I’d like to think there’s a plan—a Project 2026 or 2028—in which all of our enshrined constitutional rights, including that to same-sex marriage, are secured and truly protected in the future, for all LGBTQ+ people in this country.

In the meantime, I remain, as I wrote on the first anniversary of our marriage 15 years ago, “the luckiest woman alive to love and be loved by Sandy. She is the best thing that’s ever happened to me; getting married the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Let’s make sure everyone has the same chance, the same right, to enjoy love and marriage.  ▼

Beth Shockley is a retired writer and editor; she shares life with her wife and three kitty boys.

Photo: Beth and Sandy’s journal; courtesy of the author

CAMPshots

SCENES FROM REHOBOTH BEACH

Summer Love!

Out for the Summer, Washington Blade Summer Kickoff at Blue Moon, Big Love, Viva La Vida, Broadwalk on the Boardwalk, Delaware Beach Buddies, Kentucky Derby Party, and More!

THIS PAGE (left to right) 1 ) at Aqua Kentucky Derby Party: JD Beam, Tyler Townsend, Brian Gray, Joe Petrone, Cory Peterson, Adam Gold, Jarret Smith, Elisha White, Sam Steward, Tony Burns; 2) at James Sears’s Book Signing: James Sears, Brianna Smith; 3) at Poodle Beach: Moe Elkhatib, Justin Field, Shea Durant, Dan Giacobbe, Richard Barnhart, Chris Wilbert, David Chang, Ethan Goldstein.

OPPOSITE PAGE 4) at Gary Seiden's Viva La Vida Party at Nassau Vineyard: Gary Seiden, Bashir Amanat, Chris Beagle, Peggy Rally, Brian Galm, Eric Engelhart, Joe Filipek, Larry Richardson, Ricky Rutley, Barbara Stern, Bob Goodrich, David Franco, David Cordell, Keith Long; 5) at Freddie's: Jeremy Bernstein, Alberth Silva, Ed Gmoch, Greg Brown, Debbie Lupton, Ramona Dobbs, Angel Davis.

More CAMPshots page 72

SCENES FROM REHOBOTH BEACH

(Continued from page 71)

THIS PAGE (left to right) 1) at Broadwalk on the Boardwalk: Judy Stout, Kim Witmer,, Andrea Miller, Jenny Graham, Leslie Jennings, Karen Laitman, Sue Ryan, Peggy Deber, Jennifer Rubenstein, Barbara Lewis, Jeri Berc, Michelle Buchanan, Leslie Ledogar, Evelyn Maurmeyer; 2) at Diego’s: Tony Sowers, John Hackett, Michael Clay, Mike DeFlavia, Chuck Sweeney, Chad Stover, G Michael Beigay, Mike Kluck, Mitchell Shahade, Marc Chase, Patrick Sommes, Matt Allen.

OPPOSITE PAGE: 3) at Diego’s: Dan Truitt, David Park, David Clarke, Tim Carr; 4) at Big Love Party 2025: Matt Siletta, Set Drey, Sean McAndrew, Eileen O’Neill, Tony Zacchei, Bobby Kilpatrick, Xavier Rivera, Daniel Piotti, Michael Stringer, Michael Peagler, Kiel Elm, David Sacco, Dale Campbell, Logan Naga, Andrew Barber; 5) at Fur Ball Leather Bear Pride at Aqua: Trooper, Rodney, Nick Pirulli, Jeff Donovan, Doug Poplin, Rich Morel, James Evans, Jim Walker, Ethan Taylor, Willy Gestole, Garrett Taggart, Chad Stover, Bryant Baer.

(More CAMPshots page 102)

Pop Culture

Leading the Way in LGBTQ+ Progress

What influence might artists like Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, and Kim Petras have on our world a decade from now? It’s a legitimate question that could offer hope in these fraught, uncertain times. As Roan challenges expectations by venturing into country music as a gay woman—an evolving genre historically associated with conservative values—she joins other boundary-pushing artists in reshaping cultural landscapes.

And then there’s Lady Gaga’s new release, Mayhem, which serves as a powerful reminder of music’s ability to create cultural safe spaces. As The Independent recently wrote, “Gaga’s return to outsider-empowering form could not be more timely. At a moment when America’s leaders seek to shove its marginalized citizens back into the shadows, she invites them back into the centre of the floor, celebrating their defiant differences in the bright strobe lighting.”

In today’s climate, where anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has found renewed prominence in political discourse, Jon Savage—the acclaimed British pop culture historian and journalist—offers some particularly relevant insights. Savage reminds us that fully comprehending our current circumstances requires us to examine the transformative musical movements that have helped shape LGBTQ+ history and progress. In other words, we need to listen closely to the revolutionary rhythms that will continue shaping the world around us.

When it comes to Roan, Eilish, Gaga, and Taylor Swift, Savage suggests a future that would involve more women in leadership roles beyond those in music: “I’m a great admirer. And I would also observe that what’s interesting compared to what it was back in my day is the fact that the cultural leaders are now young women, which I think is very interesting and very positive.”

For now, Savage’s new book, The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture from the Margins to the

Music, he says, often precedes and shapes cultural shifts, particularly for LGBTQ+ visibility and rights.

Mainstream, provides an important historical account of LGBTQ+ treatment and contributions to music. Music, he says, often precedes and shapes cultural shifts, particularly for LGBTQ+ visibility and rights. The book succinctly describes itself as “a searching examination of the fortitude and resilience of the gay community through the lens of popular music and culture.”

“I think music is ahead of politics,” Savage told me recently. “So what does that mean? It means that music and popular culture can be an antiphony, particularly to oppressive power politics, and that’s why a lot of us love it and are involved because it’s things that you can’t say in the dominant culture, in the world of news, in the world of politics, and in the world of, indeed, oppression.”

The term “antiphony” here refers to music and popular culture serving as a responsive counterpart to oppressive systems—creating alternative spaces for expression when mainstream channels are closed off. This concept of call-andresponse between power structures and cultural resistance is central to Savage’s analysis of how LGBTQ+ communities have historically used music as both refuge and platform.

BY CHRIS AZZOPARDI

The book, says Savage, serves a greater purpose as the LGBTQ+ community and our history face erasure due to the Trump administration. “I could not have seen that this would be the climate that the book comes out in,” he said, adding that its release is “an act of faith” on the part of his American publisher, Robert Weil, the executive editor and vice resident of the publishing imprint W. W. Norton/Liveright.

The Secret Public covers a 24-year period, from 1955 to 1979, crucial years in LGBTQ+ history. The book opens in November 1955 with Little Richard and encompasses watershed moments like the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the emergence of openly gay public figures in entertainment and politics. Savage writes that Richard’s “very appearance and sound made sex and gender difference part of the pop package.”

“People are going to take from it what they want. There’s a lot of material in there,” he said. “[I]t gives this picture where, really, a lot of the people in the book were just very brave.” For Savage, this rebellion wasn’t just about youth or rock ‘n’ roll. It was a battle for human dignity, an effort to open up the conversation about LGBTQ+ rights in ways that hadn’t been done before.

Savage says that the inclusion of David Bowie, a key figure in his narrative, exemplified that kind of bravery. “Bowie has been criticized. But honestly, let me tell you, in the UK, that was a huge thing for a lot of young LGBTQ+ people. And the gay press of the time really saw him as somebody who’d really also opened the door and was incredibly helpful.”

“It was a mixture of both sincerity and calculation,” he added, noting that Bowie had never been entirely transparent about his bisexuality, but his willingness to embrace the possibility in the public sphere made a difference. As we consider the influence of artists like Roan and Petras, Savage’s assessment of Bowie’s legacy offers a compelling framework: “You judge actions by results,” he concluded. ▼

For Letters’ Readers

Strangers When We Met

In light of certain events, I feel I should post this very personal story about something that happened to me several years ago—just to remind myself of the need for tolerance and peace in my world.

When: Tuesday, 9:00 a.m., September 2021.

Where: Waiting lounge, Virgin Airlines, Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom

I am sitting with the beautiful Patricia, waiting for a departure gate, when a man my age, escorting his older parents, sits down beside me. He looks like a Middle Eastern person; his mum is wearing a hijab and the father seems fearful and uneasy.

The man beside me turns to me and asks, in broken English, how to find the wi-fi. I lean over and show him. He then tries to make a cell phone call but

doesn’t get through. He remarks that he is trying to call his daughter in Beirut. I offer him my phone to use and he is startled. He hesitates for a moment, and I see a bit of fear in his eyes. I touch his arm as if to reassure him. After the call he introduces himself and his parents. His name is Husain Bayta.

He is taking his parents home to Lebanon from Windsor, Canada. We begin to chat, slowly, like all travelers; we let our stories unfold. He sees that I am injured and inquires….? I tell him: Italy, Positano, a norovirus, the steps in the snow and rain…. He hesitates for a minute; it seems that he is trying to make a decision.

He faces me in the seat and asks if I know the Qur’an. I tell him that I have never read it but that I want learn. He smiles a smile that is full of friendship.

BY RUSSELL

I believe that fate and traveling can teach us to be human, kind, and understanding.

He says that there is a prayer for healing and asks if he can pray “on” me. I hesitate; his parents are now watching with interest. I nod yes.

He takes my right hand and places both of his hands softly on mine. His skin is rough; a laborer’s hands, hands much different from my own. He looks me in the eye and begins to pray softly in Arabic.

After a few minutes I feel an incredible sense of peace. My pain lessens. During the last part of the prayer, he closes his eyes and is almost trance-like.

Husain finishes and opens his eyes. I am smiling with a feeling of calm and peace. His parents smile and then look away. We chat for a few more minutes. I give him my address and ask him how I could thank him. He says that Americans are so fearful of his culture and his faith, perhaps I could tell them how much Muslims respect all people.

I enthusiastically agree and promise to talk about him when I return. He interrupts me and tells me to talk about the message, not the messenger. I smile and nod in understanding.

His flight gate is called. He stands to go; he gives me a hug. I feel protected now; it is an amazing feeling. He leaves, helping his mum move down the departure hall. I watch them go and feel an overwhelming tide of emotions.

I begin to cry, then slowly recover myself. My flight is called and Patricia and l board the plane.

I believe that fate and traveling can teach us to be human, kind, and understanding. I believe that I learned much that day and will continue to be a traveler with open eyes and open heart—a citizen of the world.

Thank you, Husain, for healing me a bit. ▼

Russell Stiles is a retired theater teacher from Holllidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Since moving to Rehoboth Beach he has directed eight LGBTQ+ plays for CAMP Rehoboth. He and his wife, Patricia, continue to volunteer as CAMPcierges.

Your Brain on Music

My Ukulele Journey

Iam a guitar player. Well, I was. In a moment, my story. But, first, a Hawaiian language lesson. It is not called a YOO-KOO-LAY-LEE. There is no “y” sound in Hawaiian. To show you are akamai (smart), say OOO-KOOLAY-LAY, with the AY pronounced closer to a Spanish “e.”

My ukulele journey began with the 2012 UkeFest at the Strathmore Arts Center in Bethesda, Maryland. UkeFest was started by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, two Grammy-award winning multi-instrumentalists, who had been together musically and romantically since 1982. (They married when we could legally do so.)

Initially, UkeFest was a huge outdoor concert at Strathmore (they tried to break the world record for the most people playing ukulele but lost), with some classes in Takoma Park, Maryland. In 2012, Strathmore took it over as the Ukulele and Guitar Summit.

Fortuitously, when my husband and I were at a concert for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, I saw a flyer for the Summit. It featured Hawaiian musicians, including Keola Beamer, a slack key guitar master. Having been a musician in a

hula halau (school) in Virginia, I was very familiar with Hawaiian music. I decided to go and learn a little slack key from Keola. However, I quickly became intrigued by the little four-stringed instrument so many people were carrying around. A guy in my slack key class offered to sell me one. I bought my first ukulele and by the end of the Summit, I played with the student ensemble. A ukulele is kind of a small guitar with two low strings and five frets lopped off, so the fingerings are much the same. I also became enamored with the jazz stylings of the Hula Honeys who taught some jazz standards and hapa haole (half foreign) Hawaiian tunes that year.

That fall, I began taking group classes with Marcy at her home. She taught songs from the Great American Songbook and, at the next Ukefest, I did my first open mic, playing Sinatra.

A Hawaiian guy from the Northern Virginia Ukulele Society liked my music and invited me to their open mic. Classes with Marcy continued for several years. Guitar was dropped from the Summit, and it became the Strathmore Ukefest.

In 2014, I upgraded to two better instruments, which started my UAS

BY ROBB MAPOU AKA ROO ON UKE

(Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome). I also decided, after connecting with a luthier in Hawai’i through Marcy, Keola, and a few others, to treat myself to a custom instrument for my 60th birthday. In addition, I began playing ukulele with a new hula halau in Maryland. I picked up the new ukulele when my husband and I did my birthday trip in May 2015.

The open mics at UkeFest and in Virginia continued. My husband and I moved to Rehoboth in August 2017, ending my time with the hula halau.

Locally, I began doing open mics in various Rehoboth venues, run by a local musician, Bob Crabb, in 2018. There was also an open mic hosted by Tyler Greene at Arena’s. So, some weeks, I went to two!

In February 2020, I attended a Kauai retreat organized by Ukulele Underground (UU)—a great learning resource).

And then—the pandemic ended all live music. But people discovered Zoom, and open mics went online.

I participated with a local group in Virginia, a Hawaiian music group run from California, and one run by UU that drew people from around the world. Also, ukulele musicians, including

I quickly became intrigued by the little four-stringed instrument so many people were carrying around.

Learning and playing music is…great for brain health…

virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, and Hawaiian musicians started livestreams. Zoom made tech upgrades that improved music quality, such as Original Sound for Musicians that eliminated noise cancellation. My other pandemic activity was sending daily birthday videos to my Facebook friends, which I did for more than a year.

As things opened up, live music and open mics returned, and most virtual open mics ended.

My UAS became more of a problem during the pandemic (and continued thereafter), as I started buying custom instruments: a Kanile’a baritone (2020), Moore Bettah tenor (2021), Kanilea’s Platinum tenors (2022 and 2023), and during my March 2025 Hawai’i trip, a Honua 6-string tenor. But since my husband insists that if one comes in, others must go out, I have sold two and donated one for auction in 2023 to support fundraising after the Lahaina fires.

Since 2022, I have attended four ukulele retreats on O’ahu, organized by excellent teachers Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel, whom I first met at Strathmore in

2017. They have generously supported the ukulele and broader community through teaching, benefits, and their foundation, Four Strings at a Time.

The Listening Booth, a local live music venue featuring singer-songwriters, and a pandemic dream of owner Marissa Levy Lerer, whom I met at an open mic, opened in 2022. It’s current home is near Go Brit! on Coastal Highway. They host concerts, a weekly open mic, a weekly community jam, music lessons, and more.

Also in 2022, I started gigging. Initially, these were free for CAMP Rehoboth’s Handmade Markets and for Stonewall PAC. From 2023 to 2024, I was part of 165 players on a recording produced by James Hills called UkeHeads. In 2024, I had paid gigs at various local venues, including the Rehoboth Beach Farmers Market, Chesapeake and Maine, Dogfish Head Brewery, and the CAMP Rehoboth Block Party.

This summer, I will be at the Milton Farmers Market monthly, Nalu-Dewey, and Chesapeake and Maine, and am working on a July luau. From August 9 to 13, I will be attending the 17th UkeFest—I

have attended all but one or two. (See url in sidebar to register.)

So why do I do this when I still have a day job that pays the bills? Lots of reasons:

• I have loved performing since I was young.

• With music, I can bring joy to others.

• Learning and playing music is also great for brain health, something I know from my day job as a neuropsychologist: Playing a stringed instrument requires multiple brain skills—memory for lyrics (language) and music (nonverbal), fine motor skills, and coordination of both. This engages many brain areas.

• Learning a new skill, which includes music, art, crafting, or a foreign language, is better for you than playing computer games.

Want to learn? Take a lesson and come to the monthly strum-alongs with Rock.N.Ukes at the Listening Booth, join the biweekly folk jams run by Domi Sanchez at MCC of Rehoboth, or join one of the many other local jams. ▼

LINKS TO SPECIAL PEOPLE/PLACES

• Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer: cathymarcy.com

• Northern Virginia Ukulele Society: nova-uke.org

• Ukulele Underground (UU): ukuleleunderground.com

• Four Strings at a Time: craigandsarah.com

• The Listening Booth: listeningbooth.com

• UkeHeads: ukeheads.com

• UkeFest: strathmore.org/communityeducation/ukulele-festival/ ukefest-2025

Robb Mapou aka Roo on Uke (his stage name after a sound guy misread “Robb”) is a semi-retired clinical neuropsychologist and ukulele musician. He lives with his husband and their two dogs in Rehoboth Beach. Find Robb’s music videos at Roo on Uke on YouTube (please subscribe!) and his music and gig alerts at Roo on Uke on Facebook. Email him at robbtheukeguy@gmail.com.

Deep Inside Hollywood

Lions and Tigers and Siegfried and Roy and Andrew and Jude

Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Uwe Horn were gay German magicians and animal trainers who honed an act that became a mainstay of the Las Vegas entertainment world for decades until 2003, when one of their signature white tigers attacked Horn, cutting the duo’s career short. Gone but not forgotten, the iconic pair will live again for an Apple TV+ series, Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy. Starring Jude Law as Siegfried and Andrew Garfield as Roy, the eight-episode limited series will be based on a podcast of the same name. It will be written and executive produced by John Hoffman (Only Murders in The Building), who will also take on showrunner duties. The series is set to go into production later this year for a 2026 drop on the streamer. And we’re expecting an affectionate approach to these legends; they were the Liberaces of Lions, after all. What’s not to love? ▼

Margaret Cho and Molly Ringwald Deliver Thoughts and Prayers

Writer-director

Nitzan Bachar “NB” Mager is jumping from the world of short films to her debut feature, Thoughts and Prayers. In the post-production stage at the moment, the dark comedy is based on Mager’s earlier short, Run Amok, about a teenage girl who attempts to stage a musical play about the school shooting that happened at her high school 10 years earlier. The cast is an impressive roster: Conjuring franchise mainstay Patrick Wilson, queer actress/comedian Margaret Cho (Fire Island ), Molly Ringwald (Feud: Capote vs The Swans), Broadway actor Alyssa Marvin ( Appropriate), Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland ), Bill Camp (The Night Of ), and Yul Vazquez (Severance). You knew someone, somewhere would take this disturbing subject matter and take it exactly where this film is going. Thoughtfully and prayerfully seek out its eventual arthouse distribution. ▼

BY ROMEO SAN VICENTE

Looking into the Future with Madonna, Cheryl Dunye, and Lilly Wachowski

Coming soon? Or at least soon-ish? Or not at all? In development news, filmmaker Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman) has a production company, Jingletown Films, and, along with Lilly Wachowski, she’s developing The Gilda Stories, based on Jewel Gomez’s 1991 book, about a Black queer vampire traveling through two centuries of US history. Dunye and Wachowski spent the Cannes Film Festival meeting with potential production backers, so more news on that one should be coming along soon enough. Meanwhile, to highlight the often-tortured process of bringing an idea to any size screen, the Madonna biopic has turned another corner. When will it be back on track? Well, maybe never, because now it might be a limited series. Starting over with director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), Madonna’s life story is in development at Netflix and…is Julia Garner still going to play her? Casting, like life, is a mystery. ▼

Schitt’s Creek Creator Dan Levy Takes Laurie Metcalf to Netflix

It has no title yet, but Dan Levy’s new series for Netflix has everything else it needs: a co-creator in Bottoms star Rachel Sennott, and a cast led by Levy, Laurie Metcalf (The Connors) and Taylor Ortega (Another Simple Favor). Levy describes the eight-episode comedy-drama as the “chaotic” story of “two deeply incapable siblings who are blackmailed into the world of organized crime,” a premise bubbling with queer comedic possibility. Right now it’s unclear if Sennott will also take part in front of the camera, but it’d be great if she did: she’s hilarious. Whatever transpires, on paper this all sounds like a good time, and according to Levy, will provide him with the opportunity to call Laurie Metcalf “Mother,” something lots of us have been doing for a long time already. ▼ Photo: Laurie Metcalf; credit: KathClick.

Romeo San Vicente got multiple, lengthy standing ovations at Cannes.

BE YOU STAY PROUD!

The Real Dirt

A Return to Nature’s Pharmacy

For thousands of years, humans have turned to plants for healing. Today, as modern medicine advances, scientists and medical professionals are increasingly revisiting traditional botanical knowledge, blending it with contemporary science to create innovative treatments. Native plants, those indigenous to specific regions such as the Mid-Atlantic, play a vital role in this growing field of ethnobotany and pharmaceutical development. Among these plants, species within the Salix genus, commonly known as willows, have had an enduring influence on the development of pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications.

Before the advent of synthetic drugs, Indigenous and local communities relied on the flora around them for medicine. Native plants were used to treat wounds, reduce fevers, and manage chronic conditions. Knowledge of these remedies was passed orally through generations. This reservoir of traditional knowledge offers valuable insight into potential treatments for modern diseases.

In North America, Native American tribes used hundreds of native species medicinally, from echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) for immune support to black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) for gynecological conditions. Similarly, the bark of willow trees (Salix spp.) was used by numerous cultures across Europe, Asia, and the Americas for its medicinal properties.

The Salix genus is perhaps one of the most notable examples of a native plant that bridged traditional healing and modern medicine. Willows grow in temperate climates around the world and were historically used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. The active compound responsible for these effects is salicin, a chemical found in the bark and leaves of various Salix species. When ingested, salicin is metabolized into salicylic acid in the human body, a compound that became the precursor to acetylsalicylic acid, better known today as aspirin. In the 19th century, chemists

isolated and modified salicylic acid to create aspirin, a drug now globally used for pain relief, reducing fevers, and preventing cardiovascular events. This synthesis marked one of the first times that a naturally derived substance was transformed into a commercial pharmaceutical, setting a precedent for drug development.

Willows grow in temperate climates around the world and were historically used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation.

The story of willows is not unique. Numerous native plants are currently under study for their potential medical benefits. What makes these plants so valuable is their chemical diversity. Plants have evolved complex chemical compounds to deter herbivores, attract pollinators, or fight infections, and many of these compounds interact with human biology in beneficial ways.

Recent advancements in pharmacognosy—the study of medicinal drugs derived from plants—have enabled researchers to isolate active compounds from native plants with remarkable precision. In many cases, compounds from native plants serve as templates for synthetic drugs or are used directly in herbal formulations approved by regulatory agencies.

BY ERIC W. WAHL

For example, the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), originally used in traditional medicine, gave rise to the chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine. Likewise, the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia), a tree native to the Pacific Northwest, led to the development of paclitaxel, a breakthrough cancer medication.

The increased interest in native plants also brings challenges. Many of these plants are at risk due to overharvesting, habitat loss, and climate change. Ethical sourcing and cultivation practices are essential to prevent the exploitation and extinction of valuable species. Additionally, respecting the intellectual property and contributions of Indigenous communities is critical, particularly when their traditional knowledge guides the discovery process.

Organizations like the World Health Organization and various botanical gardens and universities advocate for sustainable harvesting practices and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge into research and policy.

As modern medicine continues to evolve, native plants like those in the Salix genus remind us that nature remains a powerful source of healing. By blending traditional knowledge with scientific innovation, researchers are unlocking new treatments for some of today’s most pressing health challenges. The key lies in using this knowledge responsibly—preserving biodiversity, honoring cultural heritage, and ensuring access to nature’s pharmacy for generations to come.

It’s our near and distant future… rooted in nature ▼

Eric W. Wahl is Landscape Architect at Pennoni Associates, and President of the Delaware Native Plant Society.

Photo by Yoksel Zok on Unsplash

BY LOGAN FARRO & JOE GFALLER

SPOTLIGHT ON THE arts

CAMP Rehoboth Puts Art at the Heart of Our Community

Moments of Reflection: A Solo Show by Gary Fisher

June 14–July 31, 2025

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 14, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Celebrate the start of summer with art! Join us at the Opening Reception on Saturday, June 14, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. for an opportunity to meet the artist, connect with fellow community members, and enjoy an inspiring evening of creativity and conversation.

CAMP Rehoboth is excited to host Moments of Reflection: A Solo Show by Gary Fisher as one of our featured summer art exhibitions. This retrospective showcases four decades of Fisher’s work, highlighting the evolution of his style and creative voice across a diverse body of work. The exhibition opens on June 14, 2025, and will run through the end of July.

Coastal Delaware is one inspiration for Fisher’s pieces, which often take the form of abstract textural landscapes, brightly colored still lifes, and plein air works. The everchanging sunrises and sunsets, wetlands, and the beautiful gardens surrounding his studio provide ample inspiration for Fisher.

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Fisher is deeply engaged in the creative community, supporting numerous charitable and creative organizations. In addition to his support of CAMP Rehoboth, Fisher is a founding member of the Mid-City Artists Group and has served as the Managing Art Director for the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). He is also an active member of the Rehoboth Art League. Learn more at fishergallery.com. ▼

Images: top left: March 4, 8:01 AM Antarctica; bottom left: Koi #7; both by Gary Fisher

PERFORMING ARTS

Summer Theater Is for the Whole Family

This summer, just as our beaches and downtowns begin to overflow, so too do our region’s stages. It’s no surprise that visitors who come to stay in Rehoboth and Lewes love the arts as much as our year-round community—so it’s no surprise that this time of the year, the arts flourish.

But what often surprises visitors to the region is how much summer programming on stage is geared for the youngest of audiences.

At weekly camps on many of Sussex County’s principal playhouses, young people have the opportunity to nurture their creativity, build their talents, and form community with other like-minded young people. The right camp for your child or grandchildren will have everything to do with location…and which theaters may have had last minute cancellations, as it’s rare for most camps to have openings by this point in the summer.

What are rarely sold out, though, are the final performances at the end of each camp. At both Possum Point and Clear Space, these performances are free each week; at Milton Theatre, a modest $10 ticket price is charged. There is nothing more joyful than experiencing the pride and exuberance of young people bringing abbreviated versions of classic stories to life as the culmination of their camp experiences.

At Possum Point, the performances are in the afternoon (Off to Neverland August 1, and Campfire Stories—August 8). At Clear Space, there are usually two performances in the late morning (The Jungle Book—July 11, The Wizard of Oz—July 18, Storybook Court—July 25, Grease—August 1, and Something Rotten—August 8). At Milton, campers put on their end-of-camp show three times each Friday (Alice in Wonderland— July 11, Newsies—July 18, Willy Wonka July 25, and Madagascar—August 1).

Outside a camp setting, teen performers also produce and perform in shows that are designed for younger

children to enjoy. The Possum Juniors program at Possum Point produces a murder mystery called WCKY (performances July 25-27). At Second Street Players in Milford, young people will perform Villain Show August 29-31. Students at Milton perform High School Musical August 14-17.

At Clear Space, Arts Institute students perform the world premieres of two short plays inspired by classic fairy tales on Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m. The show alternates each week between School for Little Mermaids and Alice Mouses in Wonderland. Additional performances of these summer children’s shows will be at the Lewes Public Library (July 7) and Freeman Stage (July 12). The July 12 Freeman performance is part of the Freeman Arts Pavillion’s new free Family Fun Fest, featuring acts and activities for young people from 11:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. that day.

And, as always, the Rehoboth

Summer Children’s Theatre tours a show for young audiences to libraries and select other venues. This year, two professional actors play all the roles in a 45-minute non-musical version of Aladdin from July 14 through August 7. Details on this year’s touring locations can be found on their website (rehobothchildrenstheatre.org).

If the young people in your life are ready to experience a full-length production, there are several great age-appropriate options this summer as well. The cherished stage musical version of Frances Hodson Burnett’s classic, The Secret Garden, follows the beautiful story of the orphaned Mary Lennox and her cousin Colin at Second Street Players July 11-20. Both Hairspray at Clear Space (June 24-August 30) and West Side Story at Milton Theatre (July 10-August 3) make for ideal first theater experiences for middle school students or older.

No matter where you look this summer, you’re sure to find great opportunities to share your love of theater with the young people in your life! ▼

Logan Farro is CAMP Rehoboth’s Visual Arts Coordinator. They may be reached at logan@ camprehoboth.org.

Joe Gfaller is Managing Director of Clear Space Theatre Company.

above:

arts+entertainment

BOOKED SOLID

NEW BOOKS FOR PRIDE MONTH

You’re going to be on your feet a lot this month. Marching in parades, dancing in the streets, standing up for people in your community. But you’re also likely to have some time to rest and reflect—and with these great new books, to read….

First, dip into a biography with Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline (Tiny Rep Books, $30), a nice look at an icon who, rumor has it, threw the brick that started a revolution. It’s a lively tale about Marsha P. Johnson, her life, her activism before Stonewall, and afterward. Reading this interesting and highlyresearched history is a great way to launch your Pride Month. For the reader who can’t live without music, try The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis (University of Texas Press, $27.95), the story of being trans, searching for your place in the world, and finding it in a certain comfortable genre of music. Also look for The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship by Bronson Lemer (University of Wisconsin Press, $19.95), a collection of essays that make up a memoir of this and that, of being queer, basic training, teaching overseas, influential books, and life.

If you still have room for one more memoir, try Walk Like a Girl by Prabal Gurung (Viking, $32.00). It’s the story

BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

of one queer boy’s childhood in India and Nepal, and the intolerance he experienced as a child, which caused him to dream of New York and the life he imagined there. As you can imagine, dreams and reality collided but nonetheless, Gurung stayed, persevered, and eventually became an award-winning fashion designer, highly sought by fashion icons and lovers of haute couture. This is an inspiring tale that you shouldn’t miss.

No Pride celebration is complete without a history book or two.

In Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett (Candlewick Press, $24.99), you’ll see that being trans is something that’s as old as humanity. One nice part about this book: it’s in graphic novel form, so it’s lighter to read but still informative. Lastly, try So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, $32.00). It’s a collection of thoughts, observations, and truths from over a dozen people who share their stories. As an “oral history,” you’ll be glad to know that each page is full of mini-segments you can dip into anywhere, read from cover to cover, doubleback and read again. It’s that kind of book.

And if these six books aren’t enough, if they don’t quite fit what you crave now, be sure to ask your favorite bookseller or librarian for help. There are literally tens of thousands of books that are perfect for Pride Month and beyond. They’ll be able to help determine what you’re looking for, and they’ll put it directly in your hands. So stand up. March. And then sit and read ▼

Historical Headliners

Her Highness: Princess Seraphina

The late Oscar Sherwin, Professor Emeritus of English at City College of New York, described much of London’s 18th century as a “brutal, bawdy, filthy, stinking age.” While the middle-class lived comfortably and the upper-class lived luxuriously, the poor of London were too often left to rot in overcrowded, airless slums, some streets no better than open sewers.

These impoverished districts were breeding grounds of crime, often fueled by alcohol, just as often fueled by rage at the misery imposed on the slum dwellers by a brutal social and economic system. Desperate denizens of these neighborhoods would take their rage into London’s better districts in order to rob passersby or burgle the fine houses, often violently. If captured and put on trial, the law did not take into account the possible desperation of the perpetrators. A prison sentence or even a death sentence were the usual results.

One would expect that such an uncaring society would uniformly subject suspects to similarly harsh fates, and you’d be correct: except in cases where class and male privilege came into it. Such was the situation in the 1732 robbery case involving Princess Seraphina, who is generally accepted by scholars as one of England’s earliest drag queen performers—perhaps even the first.

Princess Seraphina was born John Cooper. We know nothing about Cooper’s early life. Our entire knowledge of Cooper/Seraphina comes from the robbery trial transcript’s accounts of the masquerades and “Molly houses” popular with London’s gay men and women. The masquerades were often held in theaters, brothels, public meeting rooms, or other venues capable of holding large crowds. Male attendees would be dressed as elegant women, while female attendees were outfitted as gentlemen. Similar events were also held in Molly houses, what we might today call gay bars, establishments where gay men met,

mingled, drank, and hooked up.

When not attending drag events or performing at them, Cooper/Seraphina was primarily a gentleman’s servant, evidently a butler or valet of some sort to upper-class men. She combined these two elements of her life by serving as what was called a “Molly messenger,”

Gordon pulled a knife, held it against Seraphina, and demanded she remove her fine clothes in exchange for Gordon’s shabby ones.

discreetly facilitating encounters between the men of high society and sexual partners from the lower classes.

According to the trial transcript, Cooper was addressed as Princess Seraphina by almost everyone who knew her, gay and straight, in acknowledgement of her elegant female attire.

So, what brought Princess Seraphina to court on July 5 through 8, 1732? Despite the fact that homosexual sex was still illegal in England at the time, Seraphina was not the defendant; she was the plaintiff.

On the early morning of May 30, after a night out, Seraphina, dressed in elegant male attire, returned to her lodgings,

BY ANN APTAKER

only to find the door locked, the landlord apparently either asleep or not at home. Realizing that there’d be no entry until dawn or later, Seraphina went to a local “night cellar,” a seedy all-night pub.

There, she was approached by Thomas Gordon. Though poorly dressed, Gordon was nevertheless personable. He shared a drink with Seraphina, and then, according to the trial transcript, suggested a walk in a nearby park, the morning weather being soft and mild. Seraphina agreed, and the two left, handin-hand.

At the park, Gordon pulled a knife, held it against Seraphina, and demanded she remove her fine clothes in exchange for Gordon’s shabby ones. This Seraphina did, but then she ran after the robber in an attempt to get her own clothes back.

After a wild chase through the streets, and the involvement of the police, Thomas Gordon was apprehended and turned over for trial.

Four days of trial testimony, where Gordon was clearly guilty of robbery, ended in Gordon’s acquittal! Why? Two things worked against Seraphina: firstly, male witnesses testified that Gordon was an “honest working man,” and secondly, Seraphina’s life as a drag queen tainted her testimony in the eyes of the court.

Interestingly, Seraphina herself escaped prosecution for sodomy due to her activities as a Molly messenger, which put her in the discreet services of London’s upper-class, often aristocratic men. The power of these men to protect their own reputations naturally, and by necessity, extended to Seraphina.

Though much of Princess Seraphina’s life remains a mystery, two things are clear: her life was certainly not dull, and just as certainly not cowardly. All hail her highness, Princess Seraphina!  ▼

Ann Aptaker is the author of short stories and the Lambda & three-time Goldie award winning Cantor Gold series. Her latest in the series—Gold for the Dead—will be released in October 2025.

ABBAFAB

#1 Tribute to ABBA

June 15 - 2PM & 7:30PM START Wi Jun

LUMINESCENT The Best PRIDE Anthems Cabaret June 21 - 7:30PM

23 SHOWS: JU

3 23 SHOWS: JULY 10 - AUGUST 3

JUNE 19 (6PM) - JUDY SINGS THE BLUES: Quayside@Nite

JUNE 19 (8PM) - FOREVER EVERLY: The Everly Brothers Rockumentary

JUNE 20 - JUNE JOKES: Laughing Your Way Into Summer

JUNE 22 - HIGH NOON: Tribute To Lynyrd Skynyrd

JUNE 25 - FLOYDIAN TRIP: Premier Pink Floyd Tribute

JUNE 26 - NICK KASHMANIAN TRIO: Quayside@Nite

JUNE 27 - JANGLEBACHS: Woodstock Tribute

JUNE 28 - THE McCARTNEY EXPERIENCE

JUNE 29 - DEANNA FITZPATRICK: Psychic Medium

JULY 3 - LOWER CASE BLUES: Quayside@Nite

JULY 5 - HOT & HILARIOUS: Comedy Night

JULY 10 - GIRLS ROOM: Quayside@Nite

JULY 11 - ALICE IN WODERLAND Jr. - Summer Camp Show

JULY 17 - CONNOR FILICKO FEAT. LINWOOD TAYLOR: Quayside@Nite

JULY 18 - NEWSIES Jr. - Summer Camp Show

JULY 24 - GOLDSTAR: Quayside@Nite

JULY 25 - WILLY WONKA Jr - Summer Camp Show

JULY 31 - CHARLIE & THE COOLTONES: Quayside@Nite

Sapphic Cinema Solution

Sharón Clark & Steve Washington

Paul Carr

I Cried When I Met My In-laws

A Tale of Onions

ROn the positive side, the shallot has been called “the gay little onion.”

aised by folks named Betty Johnson and Robert Day, I was taught that an onion should be waved over a dish rather than cooked into it, or at the very least boiled until it was unrecognizable. But for my future husband’s Polish/Lithuanian parents, onion was the star of the show. So, when their son brought his special gal home for the first time, they made sure I got the full monty: kielbasa with onions, pierogi with onions, and “Pop’s Salad,” which was 25 percent lettuce and 75 percent onions. I nearly didn’t survive. And in years to come, every in-law visit was preceded by this instruction to my husband: “Tell Nancy to buy onions.”

National Onion Day is June 27, and as you may have guessed, I’m not much of a fan.

It is likely that our predecessors discovered and started eating wild onions very early—long before farming or writing were invented, so I think it’s safe to assume there were no food critics back then. And that’s probably how the onion became a staple in the prehistoric diet. According to the National Onion Association (bet there’s not many Johnsons or Days in that lot), most researchers agree the onion has been cultivated for 5,000 years or more. Onions may have been one of the earliest cultivated crops because they were less perishable than other foods, transportable, easy to grow (and throw!), and could be grown in a variety of soils and climates.

The onion promoters also claim that onions were useful for sustaining human life because they prevent thirst and could be dried and preserved for later consumption when food might be scarce, although relying on onions for sustenance might just make me give up the will to live.

They were once used as currency (an onion for your thoughts?), and ancient Egyptians worshipped them, believing their shape symbolized eternity. Or maybe the onions just made it seem like an eternity.

BY NANCY (DAY) SAKADUSKI

Long before it was dubbed the Big Apple, New York was known as the Big Onion, ostensibly because you could peel off layer after layer without ever reaching the core. Then someone realized you could peel an apple easier and without causing a mass exodus from the subway car.

These days, more than 450 semi-truck loads of onions are consumed each day (I suspect at least 200 of those deliveries are to northeast Pennsylvania). And their use isn’t limited to the food column on your happy hour menu. According to the online bartender Webtender, in addition to the more famous Gibson, drinks featuring a cocktail onion include the Gent of the Jury, the Haiku Martini, the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster #2, and the Yellow Rattler, so you can see just how far they have to go to try to make an onion in your drink sound appealing.

On the positive side, the shallot has been called “the gay little onion.” Milder (thank God) and prettier, the onion family’s LGBTQ+ member has my vote (should you agree, polychromegoods.com sells hats that say “I love that gay little onion, the shallot”). According to my sources, the shallot gained this association and connection with Pride Month for its small size and strong flavor. Sorry guys, I must report as I find.

The folks at the National Onion Association apparently are not satisfied with 450 semi-truck loads a day, so they’ve come up with a new way to boost sales. They claim the onion is “Nature’s Ninja” and have begun to promote the many uses that an onion can be put to, such as: “the onion can double as an ingredient in cough syrup and even clean your backyard grill.” Apparently, it also makes an effective windshield ice scraper. Need I say more?

But if you insist on being an onion lover, hoist a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster #2 and make a toast to National Onion Day. Just don’t forget the breath mints. ▼

Nancy (Day) Sakaduski is an award-winning writer and editor who owns Cat & Mouse Press in Lewes, Delaware.

Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash.

SCENES FROM REHOBOTH BEACH

(Continued from page 73)

THIS PAGE (left to right) 1) at Washington Blade Summer Kickoff at Blue Moon: Kevin Naff, DE Gov. Matt Meyer, Brenda Dunn, Karen Anderson, Kay Young, Donna Shifflet, Peter Schott, David Mariner, Jeffrey Davis, Bob Mahoney, Mike McGraw, Tammy Smith, Tracey Hepner, Will Freshwater, Matt Castrina, Josh Appleman, Rick Perry, RB Commissioner Edward Chrzanowski, Chase Angle, Michael Yousko, Robert Mittleman, Alex Petrino.

OPPOSITE PAGE 2) at Ladies’ Night at Freddie’s: Tina Abel, Lisa Kalbach, Patty Armond, Kat Dean, Pamela Montano, Jaime Wood, Ali Doucette, Jaxson Horne, Melissa Kaye, Jeanette Shimkus, Triinu S, Jo, Susan White, Ren Culp, PJ; 3) at Blue Moon: Jed Millard, Alex Reed, Rob Robertson, Carlos Taylor, Matt Rice, Blair Cappuccio, Dylan Scarangella, Ryan Williamson; 4) at Rehoboth Art League: Jill Extract, Gary Extract, Todd Otis, Kim Klabe; 5 ) at ACLU Training at CAMP Rehoboth: Mike Brickner, Helen Salita.

(More CAMPshots page 104)

SCENES FROM REHOBOTH BEACH

(Continued from page 103)

THIS PAGE (left to right) 1) at Out for the Summer at CAMP Rehoboth: Derrick Johnson, Matty Brown, Michael Whitlock, Jeff Donovan, Jason Fluke, Alonza Parker, Carolyn Billinghurst, Carol Bresler, Kim Leisey, Fay Jacobs, Polly Donaldson, Gary Colangelo, Myrna Kelly, Jerry Duvall, Chase Angle, Josh Appleman, RB Commissioner Edward Chrzanowski, Gina Leigh, Sophie Wagner, Joe Gfaller, Mike DeFlavia; 2) at DE Lt. Gov. at CAMP Rehoboth: Jim Mease, Mikki Snyder-Hall, Rick Buske, Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, DE State Rep Claire Snyder-Hall, Laurie Thompson; 3) at Theo’s: Rick Hardy, Dave Lyons, Amy Martin, Arturo Valaquez, Marvin Miller.

OPPOSITE PAGE 4) at The Pines: Mark Gratton, Sal Spirito, Jack Cohen, Bill Riggins, John Swift; 5) at DE Beach Buddies at Rigby’s: Ryan Williamson, Gene Roe, Bob Anastasi, Mike Kluk, Mark Bianco, Bill Garbutt, Chad Stover; 6) at Clear Space Theatre Annual Meeting: Jadine Pilotti, Sandra Skidmore, Al Willis, Joe Sterner: 7) at Aqua: Rick Cronan, Karl Hornberger, Ana Sanchez, Nick Beck, Garrett Taggart, Jake Strawn, Dale Altman, Paul Gibbs; 8) at CROP at Southern DE Therapeutic Riding: Jill Masterman, Dotti Outland, Cathy Brown.▼

In Glam and Gospel

BY CHRIS AZZOPARDI

Jake Wesley Rogers Finds God in the Margins

Faith, Glitter, and the Fight: Why the Glam-pop Artist Is Singing for the Queer Kids Texas Forgot.

Jake Wesley Rogers is a poet in glitter and leather, a kind of spiritual guide for queer kids growing up in a world that still hasn’t fully figured out how to hold them.

With a voice that feels like it was carved out of gospel and glam rock in equal measure, Rogers is part of a new generation of artists which is reshaping what it means to be both queer and seen. Look no further than his anthem “God Bless,” its refrain as much a balm as it is a battle cry as LGBTQ+ communities face increasingly hostile rhetoric and policy: “God bless the straight man in a dress. God bless threesomes when I’m celibate…. God bless the trans kid in Texas. God bless the gods that don’t exist. Sometimes I wish it all would end, but God bless, it’s a beautiful f***ing mess.”

With his debut album, In the Key of Love, finally arriving and ahead of a dream tour with Cyndi Lauper this summer, the spiritual glam-rock artist recently spoke with me from Los Angeles during a video call about how the songs on his long-awaited album are “definitely part of the resistance.”

He says the release is arriving at what feels like precisely the right cultural moment. After health challenges delayed its release (last year, Wesley revealed he has Crohn’s disease), the timing now seems divinely orchestrated— giving his messages of radical love and acceptance an even more urgent platform. His music doesn’t shy away from the intersections of queerness and religion, instead transforming these complex relationships into powerful meditations on unconditional love. During Pride, these messages are especially poignant.

Between discussing his Midwest upbringing (where he found his voice singing in church while dating the preacher’s son), his spiritual journey, and his upcoming tour with one of his idols, Rogers reveals himself to be both

With a voice that feels like it was carved out of gospel and glam rock in equal measure, Rogers is part of a new generation of artists which is reshaping what it means to be both queer and seen.

a student of queer history and someone actively writing its next chapter.

During our conversation ahead of the release of In the Key of Love, Rogers spoke about reconciling faith with identity, and why—even in the face of increasingly hostile legislation—he remains stubbornly, gloriously hopeful. He’s honest, thoughtful, and deeply rooted in something rare: a belief that love—radical, loud, and unconditional—is still the most subversive thing we have.

CHRIS AZZOPARDI: Young queer people who are feeling condemned by this administration for who they are have been at the top of my mind. I am heartened knowing there are musicians like you who are allowing them that space to be themselves.

JAKE WESLEY ROGERS: Thank you for saying that. When I was younger, I craved having an artist that looked like me and sounded like me and I found them, but they’re kind of few and far

between. I remember when I found Oscar Wilde, I was like, “Whoa, this homosexual is doing this way back then.” Then I found Socrates too.

CA: We didn’t formally get to study our queer heroes in school. My high school history class did not cover Oscar Wilde. JWR: I would love to teach that class, though. Right now, it’s this extremely peculiar time. The news is just so absolutely horrific. It feels different than it ever has, and I guess it’s different than it has ever been. Really the only thing in my life that’s ever made sense is art. So that’s where I put my faith and energy. And especially with this album. It’s definitely part of the resistance.

CA: What was on your mind when you first started creating it?

JWR: Well, I formally began it about three years ago when I moved to Los Angeles. I guess I wasn’t really thinking about the world. I was thinking about my life and where I was and feeling this overwhelming call just to go deeper in my art.

I think it’s interesting listening to a lot of these songs now because in the context of today, for me, there’s even a deeper level that I didn’t anticipate. Obviously, there’s a song I put out already called “God Bless” that is incredibly inherently political.

Hot Gospel,” another single, is literally what that song is about: how disparate things can exist together very beautifully.

CA: You could have written that song yesterday.

JWR: It was building toward that. So I was feeling that in the summer of 2022, right when Roe got overturned. I had just performed at the GLAAD Awards and there was this mom talking about her trans kid in Texas, and so many of us were becoming acutely aware of what was to come and feeling sort of premonitions.

So yeah, that’s the funny thing too: The album was supposed to come out last fall and I had a lot of health stuff, so I had to postpone it and, honestly, thank God, because I think art in general is more necessary now than it was even five months ago. So I’m really grateful that the universe did what it had to do.

CA: How are you doing now, health-wise?

JWR: I’m very good, thank you for asking. It threw me through a whole loop and took me out for about five months and [I had] four surgeries. Stuff like that just kind of seasons the soul. I am more healthy than I think I’ve been in years, which is also another gift that I don’t take for granted.

CA: “God Bless” has been on repeat. Why is it important to you to explore the relationship between your queer identity and religion in your music?

JWR: “Hot Gospel,” another single, is literally what that song is about: how disparate things can exist together very beautifully. And in fact, they often do, but in our binary world, it’s either “good or bad” or “man or woman.”

I grew up in Missouri, but we weren’t a fundamental family. I was baptized Methodist, but Methodist is pretty chill. There’s always one lesbian in the church. So what’s interesting, if I’m being really honest, is I don’t have direct religious trauma. I have trauma from being in a religious environment in an area that was the Bible belt. But I wasn’t in a church every week getting it.

When I came out very young, when I was in high school, I was dating the son of a preacher. That’s when I started singing at their church. I love the feeling of being on stage and singing to something beyond me and the audience.

Continued on page 108

That’s carried over for me 100 percent. That was an aha moment. But I’m not here to sing, to be applauded. I’m trying to connect to something bigger than myself. I could talk to you for probably four hours about how interesting I find Christianity and the story of Christianity— what I think it was in the beginning versus what it became. All I’ll say right now is it is our sort of collective story in a way. In our world, we don’t even realize how many times during the day it’s what we reference. So for me, creating this album, it’s like, those are the touchstones. Religion is always for the oppressed. It always belongs to people that don’t have power. What’s really ironic is that power always corrupts it and takes it and uses it to have power over people. But, inherently, it is this really powerful tool to be subversive. But I don’t do it in a subversive way. I’m not trying to offend any believer. I’m trying to expand what it could mean for other people.

CA: So, in your view, you think that the queer community is just expanding the story of Christianity?

JWR: I think they are. I hope so. And also, Chris, I’m still figuring it out. Every day I’m like, am I converting? Like, no, I’m not. Why would I ever convert? What the hell? That’s crazy. So it’s kind of my inner dilemma. But I feel like 50 percent a monk and 50 percent a rockstar, and that’s my cross to bear.

CA: I am also so moved by the song “Mother, Mary, and Me.” What’s the story behind that one?

JWR: So I told you I began writing the album three years ago. It’s kind of a lie. Every single song except for “Mother, Mary, and Me” I wrote in LA in the last few years, but that one I wrote in 2019. I wrote it when I was still living in Nashville. And I’ve never really experienced writing a song like that before, or since. You always hear the stories of, “I just sat down at the piano and it just came out,” and whenever I hear that, I’m like, “OK, whatever.” However, that was that one for me.

And I knew when I wrote it, was to reserve it for the first album because it

Continued on page 110

In Glam and Gospel Continued from page 108

just felt like I needed to catch up to it. But that is kind of the foundation of the whole album. The album is devoted to this idea of unconditional love, the love that is innate to all of us, and it’s kind of our promise by being here and going back to that place of unconditional love toward self and toward others, and how freaky unconditional love is. It just kind of freaks me out. My college boyfriend had moved to Berlin. Long story, but I was really sad. So I started reading Harry Potter again. I was just trying to comfort myself.

The part where Harry Potter’s mom saved him with her love, but she died— she defeated pure evil with love—that’s when I was like, whoa, love is stronger than death, which I do think is 100 percent true. So that’s kind of what that song is about.

CA: You seem like someone who, even right now, is still filled with so much hope.

JWR: It’s my gift and my curse, I think.

CA: As a musician, what do you think is your role as far as visibility and representation for helping to shape the future for LGBTQ+ people?

JWR: That’s a great question. I think about it, but I also try not to think about it and just focus on the work and whatever it does or doesn’t do for people. Especially when I just signed a record deal and I was making my first music video, I was very intentional about being in bed with a guy. That was a choice for sure, because my closest representation growing up was Gaga, and obviously she’s an incredible ally, and also she doesn’t have my experience. So I think it’s really important to show my experience.

CA: What advice do you have for LGBTQ+ young people who are trying to find their way right now, or who might want to be musicians like you?

JWR: I love this question, and it’s a hard one for me. I always want to say something like “follow your heart,” which is so oversimplified, but I guess I can only talk about my experience, and I had this affliction from a very early age that I just wanted to be on stage singing. My earliest memory is at three, and so nothing was really going to ever stop me from doing that. I had a few experiences early on that really shaped me.

Figure out what you want to stand for.

When I was 14, I auditioned for America’s Got Talent, and that was not a negative experience, but not positive either. It’s where I learned that to be an artist, you have to say something. I got home from that audition and everybody in my little town was like, “You made it.” And I felt like absolute garbage because I wanted to actually stand for something. That would be my advice. Figure out what you want to stand for. Maybe you want to stand for queer joy and just show and just write about relationships, and maybe that’s it. Maybe whatever it is, find that little itch that can be scratched. And keep going. There will be a lot of people that come in and try to alter and change that message, guaranteed. Especially when you start to get really good at telling the message. It’s like all the movies—when the hero gets closer, the challenges get bigger.

CA: How are you feeling about getting this album out into the world?

JWR: I finally feel ready. I really didn’t feel ready until recently. Probably midJanuary. I was still having kind of an existential crisis about it all. And then it was actually the day David Lynch died, and I loved David Lynch a lot, and I kept thinking that I didn’t know he was sick, and I just thought there’d be another movie. I was like, I bet Lynch will have another movie. It was something I even was thinking while rewatching Twin

Peaks. And then when he died, I was like, oh, there’s no more. It’s a weird thing to think about when it comes to the artists that we admire. That was my wake-up call. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m alive. I get to do this right now and I need to do this.” And time is of the essence. So I feel very ready in that way. I mean, I still definitely feel scared, but I’m just ready to give this album away.

CA: You’ll be touring as Cyndi Lauper’s opening act this summer. What’s your history with her and her music?

JWR: My real history is that I was obsessed from a pretty young age.

“True Colors” is one of the first songs I learned on guitar. I wish I could say it was because of her, but it was kind of because of Glee first. In high school— and I haven’t told her this but I’m excited to—I went to my local record store. I was collecting a bunch of vinyl, and I just got a record player, and I wanted to get She’s So Unusual, of course. I went to buy it, and the guy was like, “I’ll give you this for free if you sing one of the songs to me.” I was 15 or 16. So I sang “Time After Time” to him and he gave it to me.

CA: On this tour, she’s been inviting the opener to duet with her on “Time After Time.” What if that happens to you?

JWR: I can’t talk about that. That freaks me out. I’m going to start crying already. I better start practicing that harmony. Actually, I think I know it deep down. I don’t think I even have to practice.

CA: Lastly, Jake, what’s something that’s bringing you hope right now?

JWR: Honestly, my small community. Really focusing on that and on the deep relationships in my life and starting there. That’s really giving me hope. And seeing people begin to organize is giving me hope that we are not asleep and we’re doing what is called for. ▼

Chris Azzopardi is the Editorial Director of Pride Source Media Group and Q Syndicate, the national LGBTQ+ wire service. He has interviewed a multitude of superstars, including Cher, Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey, and Beyoncé. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Billboard.

Photos: Warner Records

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Pride Celebrations Continue

CAMP Rehoboth’s Pride month celebrations continue throughout the rest of June. They include celebrations, an art reception, and Pride in the Courtyard.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 5:00-7:00 P.M.

The CAMP Rehoboth Art Gallery will host a reception for its new exhibit, Moments of Reflection: A Solo Show; the exhibit features Gary FIsher. Known for his richly textured oil paintings, Fisher captures a deeply personal and colorful world—from expressive abstract landscapes to luminous still lifes and evocative figurative pieces. Plan to meet Gary and view the exhibit at the reception.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 7:00 A.M.

Join The Nature Conservancy for a Pride Nature and Photography Walk. The walk will be held at the Conservancy’s Bullseye-Ferry Preserve near Millsboro; it’s a guided birding and photography hike at a location that’s rarely open to the public. The two-to-threemile hike will pass through a meadow, mature forest, and along the Indian River and offers numerous habitats which are home to many kinds of birds.

SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 12:00-2:00 P.M.

CAMP Families will host a day of fun at Lavender Fields in Milton. Lavender Fields offers a petting zoo with Nigerian Dwarf Goats, onsite lunch options, and a chance to explore its beautiful gardens. As part of the festivities, MaddBatter Desserts will host a cookie decorating class onsite, offering Pride-themed cookies with instruction by MaddBatter Desserts. Tickets and more information are available at camprehoboth. org.

FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 4:00-6:00 P.M.

Celebrate Pride with CAMP Rehoboth at the Pride in the Courtyard social. Light refreshments will be provided. Donations accepted. Pride in the Courtyard will feature music by Kerry Hallett. Kerry Hallett is a Milton, Delaware-based musician who writes original songs and plays tons of fun covers. Kerry is known for her warm, velvety vocals and unique arrangements of familiar songs. She also plays in local band GoldStar with Storm Reid. ▼

We Remember

Sharyn Therese Santel

Sharyn Therese Santel, 78, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Rehoboth Beach. Born April 8, 1947, in Hoboken, New Jersey, she lived a life filled with creativity, compassion, and a deep appreciation for the arts and human connection.

Sharyn pursued her academic and professional passions at The New School and Monmouth University, where she earned both a Bachelor of Science degree and a master’s degree in art therapy. Her dedication to using art as a means of healing reflected her commitment to helping others and to understanding the human experience. A devoted artist, Sharyn expressed herself through color and movement. Her love of history enriched her conversations and broadened her perspective. Embracing spirituality with

Raymond J. Sonderfan

Raymond J. Sonderfan, born January 31, 1972, in Paterson, New Jersey—a cherished friend, beloved family member, and pillar of his community—passed away peacefully on April 23, 2025, surrounded by loved ones. He was a man of immense warmth, known for his open heart, unforgettable sense of humor, a smile that could light up any room, and an enduring love of adventure.

Raymond shared his life with his devoted partner, Ronald Zseltvay, whose love and companionship were the cornerstones of his joyful and generous spirit. Their union created not just a home, but a space that welcomed and embraced everyone who crossed its threshold. Preceded in death by his parents, John Raymond Sonderfan and Ethel Sonderfan, and his brother, John Sonderfan, Raymond is survived by his sisters—Beverly Sogno (Guenter), Ethel Lillo (Joe), Debbie Hillman (Howard), and Ronda Azmat—who will carry his memory forward with grace. He was a proud and caring father figure to Michele Azmat, Robbie Azmat (Valentina), and Sarah Carter (Joshua), and a loving uncle to Stephanie, Matthew, Jennifer, Christopher, Aaron, Jason, Rachel, and Johnnie (his beloved nephew in heaven).

an open heart and mind, she lived with the free-spirited essence of a true hippy—radiating kindness, acceptance, and love.

She is lovingly remembered by her wife, Mary Ann Slinkman; her daughter, Dawn Tallo, and husband, Steve Tallo; her son, Scott Penzarella and partner Cristin O’Brien; her grandchildren, Evan Potts and Sarah Potts; and many extended family.

Sharyn’s legacy lives on in the art she created, the lives she touched through therapy and friendship, and the love she shared so freely.

Her presence brought warmth to every space she entered. May her memory bring comfort to all who knew and loved her. ▼

Raymond was a lifelong best friend and bonus brother to the Jones family— Richard (Rebecca), Robert (Kendra), Chris (Sharon), Patricia Carter (Waylon), Warren (Jeannine)—and to Lori Ann Brogdon, (mother to Ray’s namesake), Matthew Michael-Ray. He was there for family vacations, events, and bringing life in

quiet moments—always a brother, son, and uncle. With a rare gift for listening without judgment, he made people feel seen, heard, and valued. He had a unique knack for having a good time, making everyone laugh, and being the start of a new adventure.

Growing up in Sussex County, New Jersey, Ray was known for his athleticism in track, swimming, and cross-country. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Princeton University. Ray went on to become a successful business owner and loved bartending—not just as a profession, but as a way to bring people together. His establishments became havens of inclusivity, kindness, and celebration— filled with music, laughter, friendship, and his unmistakable voice belting out karaoke favorites.

His legacy is one of compassion, joy, and the enduring reminder that love—in all its forms—is the greatest gift we can offer one another.

A celebration of Raymond’s life will be held at Rigby’s in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on June 28. It will be filled with the laughter and love he so effortlessly gave to the world.

He will be missed deeply, loved eternally, and remembered always. ▼

Albert Sales Jr.

Albert “Ed” Sales Jr. of Lewes passed away peacefully Thursday, May 8, 2025, with his lifelong partner and best friend, Joe Capaldi, at his side.

Born in Pocomoke City, Maryland, Ed graduated from Pocomoke High School and went on to live a life marked by love, laughter, and deep connection to everyone he met. He was preceded in death by his parents, Albert and Ethel (Ward) Sales, and his siblings, Bonita, Louis, Leona, and Dalton.

Ed built a successful career as a general contractor, specializing in home remodeling. With a keen eye for detail and a deep pride in his work, he helped turn houses into homes for countless families. He approached every project

Arthur John Moskal

Awith dedication and skill, earning a reputation for honesty, craftsmanship, and care.

He is survived by his devoted partner and husband of 17 years, Joe Capaldi. Ed and Joe shared a loving partnership for 24 years and were married in July 2007. He is also survived by his daughter, Brenda Jane Henger Clayton (Ed); his grandchildren, Kaitlyn and D.J.; and countless friends who became like family.

Those who knew Ed will remember his easygoing nature, quick wit, and signature sense of humor. A jokester at heart, he had an incredible ability to brighten any room with his presence. He found deep joy in life’s simple pleasures—cooking and baking from

rthur John Moskal, 78, of Rehoboth Beach, passed away peacefully Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at Beebe Healthcare in Lewes. Born September 6, 1946, in Baltimore, Maryland, he was the son of the late Joseph and Doris (Kafer) Moskal.

Arthur built a long and dedicated career in banking. He began his work at Mercantile Bank in Baltimore, Maryland, continued his professional journey with Mercantile Peninsula, and later PNC Bank in Rehoboth Beach, serving as a teller and trusted presence for customers and colleagues alike. Arthur was known for his attention to detail, his warm demeanor, and his strong work ethic. His years in banking reflected not just a career but a genuine passion for helping others and forming meaningful connections in his community.

Arthur married the love of his life, Walter, on March 31, 2022. Their bond was a source of great joy and strength for them both. Arthur’s kind heart and unwavering loyalty touched the lives of everyone fortunate enough to know him. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and the many people whose lives he gently enriched.

In addition to his beloved husband, Walter, Arthur is survived by his brother, Roland Moskal.

Anyone wishing to make a donation in Arthur’s memory is asked to direct it to the Cape Henlopen Senior Center, 11 Christian Street, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware 19971.

To share condolences or memories, visit Mr. Moskal’ s Life Memorial webpage at parsellfuneralhomes.com. ▼

scratch, long chats on the patio with Joe, and offering a warm welcome to anyone who stepped through his door.

His home was more than a place—it was a haven, filled with good food, open arms, and the sound of laughter. Rooted in his Christian faith, Ed built and nurtured a chosen family grounded in kindness, loyalty, and grace. His generosity left a lasting impression on all who were lucky enough to know him.

A funeral service was held May 14, at Bethel United Methodist Church, Lewes, with entombment following at Bethel Methodist Cemetery. Anyone wishing to make a memorial donation in Ed’s name is asked to direct it to Bethel United Methodist Church, 129 W. 4th Street, Lewes, Delaware 19958. ▼

20326 Coastal Highway • Rehoboth Beach, DE (Next to Arena’s Café) 302-227-9481 windsor's 28-02_windsor's 14-15.qxd 3/30/2018 2:26 PM Page 1

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CAMP Rehoboth Volunteer Opportunities

To all the CAMP Rehoboth Volunteers for the period: May 2-May 30, 2025

Send your check for $50 to CAMP Rehoboth, 37 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971. If you prefer to use your Visa, MasterCard or American Express call 302-227-5620.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES MEETING

Join us in mid-July at CAMP Rehoboth for the quarterly Volunteer Opportunities Meeting. Come check out the latest volunteer needs for SUNFESTIVAL 2025 and learn/ refresh yourself about volunteering for CAMP Rehoboth. Dinner will be provided.

PRIDE MONTH HAPPENINGS

CAMP Rehoboth is celebrating Pride Month throughout the month of June with various events—from tabling to taking tickets at our theater shows—volunteer support is needed to make it happen.

SUNFESTIVAL 2025

Join CAMP Rehoboth to make its signature Labor Day weekend fundraiser a major success! Committee volunteers are needed to support sponsorships, marketing, and event decor. Please email volunteer@camprehoboth.org with your interest.

CROP: CAMP REHOBOTH OUTREACH PROGRAM

The CAMP Rehoboth Outreach Program (CROP) is constantly working to cultivate community and strengthen relationships and the connections among us all. Check the site for monthly volunteer opportunities. CROP’s next project: Rehoboth Art League cottage tours.

Sign up at camprehoboth.org/volunteers.

Your volunteer efforts benefit you and others. Please visit camprehoboth.org/volunteers to register as a volunteer and to sign up for available opportunities.

THANK YOU

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Starting June 15th Starting June 15th

OAKWOOD VILLAGE - Lewes. 2023 4BR/2BA is 1,887sf. Open concept. Bamboo floors. Granite & SS in the kitchen. ¼ acre. Community pool. 8 miles to Lewes public beach. $509,000 (2081788)

VILLAGES OF FIVE POINTS - Lewes. 3BR/2BA 3rd-floor, end-unit condo. Pond views from the balcony. Partially furnished. 3.5 miles to Lewes beach. So many community amenities! $450,000 (2081788)

FAIRWAY VILLAS - Dagsboro. 2003 2BR/2BA condo w/loft. 7 miles to the Bethany Beach boardwalk. Located in Cripple Creek Golf & CC w/pool, golf & social memberships avail. $365,000 (2085536)

SILVER VIEW FARMRehoboth. 2014 3BR/2BA is nearly 2,000sf w/living room + sunroom. Wood burning FP. Shed w/elec. Community pool. 3 miles to beach. $325,000 (2085724) Lot Rent $723/mt.

REHOBOTH BAY - Rehoboth. 1979 3BR/2BA was fully remodeled in 2018. 1,030sf with the 4-season addition Pool. Marina. 6.5 miles to beach. $169,900 (2085884) Lot Rent $734/mt.

SILVER VIEW FARMRehoboth. 2010 3BR/2BA is 1,624sf with large front sunroom. Screened porch. Shed. Community pool. 3 miles to beach. $250,000 (2081354) Lot Rent $723/mt.

SEA AIR - Rehoboth. 2013 RV w/main BR & 2 sleep sofas (sleeps 6). Nice! Big LV. Community pool & 3 miles to beach. $36,000 (2073114) Seasonal 4/15-11/15 Lot Rent $5,870

VINCENT OVERLOOKMilton. 2012 3BR/2BA home is 1,900sf. Great room opens to the kitchen & dining areas. Sunroom. Back deck w/pond view. Community pool. 8 miles to beach. $520,000 (2081844)

FAIRFIELD AT LONG NECKMillsboro. 2004 3BR/2.5BA. Oversized garage. Patio + screened & open balcony. Furnished. Community pool. 15 miles to RB boardwalk. $308,900 (2084876)

ANGOLA BEACH -Lewes. 2019 3BR/2BA w/paver patio, deck & shed. Furn. Community pools, marina. 10 miles to beach. $229,000 (2084080) Lot Rent $825/mt. includes water & sewer.

SEA AIR -Rehoboth. 2BR/1BA 2017 Forest River 28’ RV w/2 slides. Indoor & outdoor kitchens. Community pool & 3 miles to bch. $39,000 (2084676) Seasonal 4/15-11/15 $5,870 Rent for corner lot

BOWDEN ACRES - Millsboro. 1999 3BR/2BA doublewide on 0.28-acre corner lot. No lot rent - No HOA. Near Oak Orchard marina clubs & public boat launch. $240,000 (2083398)

En Suite main bedroom. Shed. Community pool. 4 miles to beach. $129,000 (2080566) Lot Rent $846/mt.

AIR -Rehoboth. 2023 Sierra 43’ RV w/5 power slides. Split level sleeps 6+. Laundry hook-up. Community pool & 3 miles to beach. $58,000 (2078148) Seasonal 4/15-11/15 $5,870 Rent

SEA