Mondaire Jones - Metro Weekly - August 27, 2020

POLITICALLY-MINDED YOUTHS

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Contents

CLEAR ISABEL

An award-winning trans filmmaker fulfills her vision for Lingua Franca from page to screen.

By André Hereford

FIGHTING FOR AMERICA

Mondaire Jones, an openly gay New Yorker likely to win a seat in Congress, is one the Democratic Party’s newest rising stars.

Interview by John Riley

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Volume 27 Issue 15

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PONYING UP

The enigmatic Orville Peck’s plaintive classic country EP is a perfect send-off to a lonely pandemic-stricken summer.

By Sean Maunier

REINVENTING THE MACARENA p.8 BOY’S STATE: POLITICS FROM SCRATCH p.17 DIVINE DESIGNS p.23 INTENTIONAL HARM p.29 FALWELL FALLS p.31 ERASING EQUALITY p.33 CABIN FEVER p.35 BANNER BAN p.38 RANDY’S RESURFACED RACISM p.40 EXCRUCIATING ATTACK p.42 POWERFUL PARK p.44 BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY p.54 FILM: STAGE MOTHER p.56 RETROSCENE: PRIDE OF PETS p.61 RETROSCENE: COBALT p.63 LAST WORD p.65 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 26 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Barbara Jordan Cover Photography Laura Brett During the pandemic please send all mail to: Metro Weekly PO Box 11559 - Washington, D.C. 20008 • 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2020 Jansi LLC.

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Spotlight

Reinventing the Macarena

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Chris Urquiaga reimagines the ’90s Latin-pop hit for his debut release as JChris. By Doug Rule

HE ‘MACARENA’ DID NOT DIE,” SAYS Chris Urquiaga. In fact, the ubiquitous Latin-pop hit that was all the rage during the summer of 1996 is very much alive and kicking in a transformed cover version that also marks Urquiaga’s first official release as JChris, a nickname derived from his two given names of John Christopher and originally coined by a classmate at Beltsville’s High Point High School.

“JChris did not exactly match what I presented in my first two albums, as I was in a more adult contemporary sound,” he says.

Born and raised in Maryland to immigrants

from South America, the 29-year-old has covered a lot of ground in the decade since first coming to attention as a classical composer and artist studying at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. After branching out into pop through participation in Strathmore’s career-boosting Artist-in-Residence program in 2017, JChris sees “Macarena” as his calling card to becoming an urban Latin pop act.

“Johnny de Jesus is a new collaborator of mine who helped transition me into this urban sound,” says the artist, noting that de Jesus developed the hook that makes JChris’ debut AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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release a subtle and sophisticated rework of the Los del Rio original. “We have a totally different melody and a totally different feel for the ‘Macarena,’” he says. “What hasn’t changed are the principal Spanish lyrics and the song’s overall theme. “It’s the original message, give your body joy, reimagined and modernized for 2020.”

To give the song contemporary visual flair, de Jesus recommended Chastity Corset, a local video director whom JChris calls “a master at color.” The colors certainly pop in scenes of Corset’s sharp, stylized video featuring a pristinely restored coupe from the early 1970s.

The teal-colored, slightly souped-up Chevrolet Caprice Classic is festooned with a vibrant arrangement of flowers draped from the roof.

Some fans have commented to JChris that it looks like a funeral car. “It is not,” he says. “It's not a death [car]. It's a celebration. We just wanted to give some variety of color and some very eye-catching moments in the video.”

Local dance teacher Darryl Pilate headed up the video’s choreography. Calling the result

“masterfully done,” JChris says Pilate “exceeded my expectations in creating a new and improved version of ‘Macarena.’” A diverse mix of local teenagers and young adults bring Pilate’s choreography to life in scenes captured on a very hot and long recent summer day.

“It was 95 degrees out. We were recording it all day to really get each scene right,” JChris says.

“But everyone, including the child actors, were so diligent in wanting to give their all, in wanting to do an excellent job for Chastity, Darryl, and me. I'm so proud to have done this video with fellow P.G. County Public Schools alumni.

“One of the big goals of this video was to promote ethnic diversity and to create an environment where people of color/BIPOC were represented — not only in front of the camera, but behind the camera as well,” says JChris.

He further hopes to inspire others through a new dance challenge launching next week on TikTok, the social media site that served as a source of inspiration for the choreography in the first place. “This is a song for all, and all people can feel free to participate and dance with us.”

“Macarena” by JChris is available for streaming on most music platforms and social media sites.

A Dance Challenge will launch on Monday, Aug. 31, on TikTok at @jchrismusic, while a Karaoke Challenge will launch on Friday, Sept. 4, on both TikTok and Instagram at @jchris_music.

Visit www.jchrisofficial.com.

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PAUL KOLNIK

Spotlight

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Alvin Ailey All Access

HROUGH A RECENTLY LAUNCHED online initiative, the celebrated New York-based Alvin Ailey Dance Company presents a diverse range of programming, including a rotating roster of performance broadcasts showcasing works by notable African-American composers, including its namesake, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1989.

New streams are available for one week only every Thursday evening. Next up, on Aug. 27, at 7 p.m., is No Longer Silent, a large ensemble work from the company’s artistic director Robert Battle, featuring dancers, clad in all black, traveling in military rows and evoking a complex and mysterious ritual.

Originally developed more than a decade ago as part of a concert of choreography set to long-forgotten scores by Nazi-banned composers, the 33-minute work, captured on video in 2015, moves to the percussive score “Ogelala”

by Erwin Schulhoff, who perished in a concentration camp in 1942. A New York Times dance critic praised No Longer Silent as “arguably Mr. Battle’s strongest piece,” one in which he “echoes the rhythmic complexity of the music in his ritualistic choreography that is reminiscent of the early works of Martha Graham and, in many moments, the theatricality of Paul Taylor, yet this dance retains its taut point of view to the end.” Visit www.alvinailey.org. —Doug Rule AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Spotlight

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In Series and the Pleiades Project

HORTLY AFTER THE PANDEMIC SETtled in, the In Series decided to go all-in with digital for its upcoming season, not merely offering previously recorded performances of older productions or using already existant, confined digital platforms. Instead, the company set about developing what it bills as a “first-of-its kind, multi-venue digital performing arts center dedicated to disseminating new, transformative works of operatic theater free of charge.”

Dubbed INvision: the Logan Operahouse Without Walls, the platform is being gradually unveiled over the next month with a soft opening, presenting the New York-based, female-focused Pleiades Project and specifically its work of taking the 24 classic Italian Songs and Arias often assigned to beginner voice students and reimagining them as devices for telling contemporary women’s stories through both music and film.

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Featuring 30 female artists, ranging from singers to directors, choreographers to visual artists, the multi-season opera film project Pleiades|24 will culminate in an exclusive premiere of Season 5, focused on inventive crossovers and collaborations, on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 5 p.m., in the LIVE studio of INvision. Between now and then, the In Series will screen all the filmed mini-operas created during the first four seasons of Pleiades|24, releasing each season at midnight on its drop date, with Season 1 already up, Season 2 set for streaming starting Friday, Aug. 28, Season 3 on Sept. 4, and Season 4 on Sept. 11. Free, though season subscribers get exclusive benefits. Visit www.inseries.org for details about the offerings to come in the first fully digital season as well as the benefits for those who take out subscriptions, which start at $9.99 per month or $99 per year per individual. —DR

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARRAY

Spotlight

Ivory Aquino and Sandoval

Clear Isabel

An award-winning trans filmmaker fulfills her vision for Lingua Franca from page to screen. By André Hereford

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SABEL SANDOVAL KNEW WHAT SHE wanted to accomplish with Lingua Franca, her third feature film as writer-director, and the first that the trans Filipina filmmaker has shot in her homebase of New York City. “I wanted to distinguish myself with my own sensibility and aesthetic,” she says, describing her style as austere and sparse, but with “a certain lyricism and sensuality and delicacy.”

A stark sensuality permeates the Brooklynset drama, which stars Sandoval as Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman who works as live-in caregiver to elderly Russian immigrant Olga (Lynn Cohen), and pursues a romance with Olga’s troubled adult grandson, Alex (Eamon Farren). Premiering in the Venice Days competition at the Venice Film Festival — the first feature by a trans woman director to do

so — Lingua Franca has been hailed for its multifaceted portrayal of Olivia’s lived experience, including her sexuality.

“I wanted to show not just the female gaze, but the trans female gaze,” says Sandoval, “to show this trans woman and sexual desire and her not just being the object of it, but the active agent.” In depicting a pivotal love scene between Olivia and Alex, Sandoval “made it a point not just to show images of naked bodies gyrating against each other. And I know that, for instance, there's quite a fascination and fixation over the naked body of a transgender person. I pointedly veered away from that.

I focus the camera mostly on Olivia's face. I think there's something powerful about seeing this woman experiencing sexual pleasure and giving herself permission to experience that, AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Farren and Sandoval

and having the audience see it.”

The film allows the audience insight into Olivia’s fantasies, and her emotionally fraught relationship with Alex — and into the character’s deepest fears and anxieties as well. Those candid onscreen moments are the ones that give Olivia “complexity and depth,” according to Sandoval. “I think there's something radical and subversive about not just seeing a woman, but a trans woman thinking and being sentient. It's such a strong assertion of identity and personhood, and kind of the antidote to objectification in that simple gesture. I've always been fascinated about that, at least. The image of people thinking, especially people who are usually written off as side characters or minorities, being and thinking. It's such a kind of ‘I am me and I exist’ moment, because I’m thinking. I know, it's very Descartes.”

Beyond putting viewers in Olivia’s shoes, Lingua Franca sharply depicts the intersection of issues affecting transgender women of color who are immigrants and undocumented and working class, while also defying expectations of how those stories usually are told on film. “I was conscious about setting up certain expectations and making people feel that this is going in that kind of expected or conventional direc-

tion,” Sandoval says. “But as a trans filmmaker, I used that as an opportunity to subvert those expectations, in that I didn't want to portray episodes of physical violence, which is actually what a prospective investor wanted me to do, and I said no. But I also recognize and realize that we do live in a society that is homophobic, that is transphobic and misogynistic.”

In Lingua Franca, Sandoval emphasizes “a different kind of emotional violence that is more insidious because it's less obvious and therefore more rarely explored on screen.” Still, she was careful not to portray outright villains. “And in that case, I think my film is a compassionate film, because it sees its characters as good people who are flawed and who might mean well, but, because they might not know better or they're not emotionally mature, end up committing actions that are hurtful and have really devastating repercussions on people who are most vulnerable.”

As Olivia and Alex sort through their emotions, the film “has the trappings of a romantic drama,” acknowledges Sandoval. “But I also, at the end of it, wanted it to be a story about Olivia's resilience, and her gaining back her agency and ability to determine her own future and her own life.”

Lingua Franca is available for streaming on Netflix. Visit www.netflix.com.

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COURTESY OF WOLF TRAP FOUNDATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Spotlight

Orpheus Project

Wolf Trap Opera’s Untrapped Online Series

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OLF TRAP OPERA HAS RECONFIGured its summer programming featuring the emerging talents in its 2020 class of Studio Artists as free livestream performances. The streams in the “Untrapped Online” series started earlier this month with newly recorded performances of Love: Surrender, a two-part program with scenes from Puccini’s La bohème and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Orpheus Project, scenes from settings of the myth of Orpheus by Gluck and Monteverdi as directed by David Paul, and the popular annual program “Aria Jukebox” where “the audience gets to choose” the selections. (Also available is this summer’s “Master Class with Denyce Graves,” the 2020 Filene Artist in Residence.)

Next month offers two additional two-part programs, Into the Woods, presented as “Part I” on Sept. 6 and “Part II” on Sept. 13 and consisting of “opera scenes that embrace Wolf Trap National Park” as seen in Falstaff, Norma, Serse,

Die Walküre, Hänsel und Gretel, Rake’s Progress, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tosca, and naturally the titular Sondheim show, represented with the comedic duet, “Agony.” The Studio Spotlight series on Sept. 20 and Sept. 27 features the Studio Artists performing “familiar favorites and contemporary stories,” and includes excerpts from aforementioned classics as well as La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Billy Budd, Iolanta, Champion, Fellow Travelers, Béatrice et Bénédict, Ariodante, Iphigénie en Tauride, Die Zauberflöte “The Flying Dutchman,” and The Crucible. The company has also been dipping into its vault to present fully staged favorite productions from past seasons.

Most of these performances remain available for streaming, including productions of John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Bastianello and Philip Glass & Robert Moran’s The Juniper Tree.

All streams remain available until December 31, 2020. Free. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www. wolftrap.org. —DR AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Spotlight

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The Inn at Little Washington: a Delicious Documentary

N THIS HOUR-LONG DOCUMENTARY, chef Patrick O’Connell is seen in pursuit of a third Michelin star as he celebrates the 40th anniversary of his famed restaurant and ornate retreat located roughly an hour outside of D.C. Originally aired in late March on PBS, directors Mira Chang, Maro Chermayeff, and Jeff Dupre chronicle the journey of O’Connell from his start running a catering company out of an abandoned gas station to today’s “campus of quirky luxury,” set in a transformed country inn.

A pioneer of refined American cooking run-

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ning a world-class dining destination, the selftaught chef confronted a number of challenges before he achieved today’s fairy tale kind of success, including a decades-long feud with a fiercely conservative rural Virginia town.

Presented in association with Virginia’s Home for Public Media (VPM) and producer and chef Spike Mendelsohn, The Inn at Little Washington: A Delicious Documentary is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Free for Prime members, or $2.99 for a 48-hour rental and $9.99 to buy. Visit www.amazon.com. —DR

Spotlight

Jack White

LCD Soundsystem

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Outside Lands Becomes Inside Lands for 2020

OR THE PAST 12 YEARS, SAN Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has served as the dramatic locale and backdrop to one of the biggest music festivals in the nation and the world, and also, as of last year, the first major music festival to offer legal cannabis for sale. Never-before-seen footage from previous editions of the festival will factor into the offerings at this year’s free, virtual version, dubbed Inside Lands.

From the past to the future: This year’s outing also serves to promote next year’s planned return to the regular three-day outing with a showcase

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Gorillaz

AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

of those already set to perform in 2021, including up-and-coming acts Kehlani, Zhu, Beach House, Brittany Howard, Sharon Van Etten, and Sofi Tukker. Inside Lands will also feature performances or interviews by more established artists, including Above & Beyond, Disclosure, Elton John, Gorillaz, Haim, J. Cole, Jack White, LCD Soundsystem, Leon Bridges, Major Lazer, and Puddles Pity Party. Japanese-American rapper and producer Lyrics Born will serve as the virtual festival’s host. Friday, Aug. 28, and Saturday, Aug. 29. Exclusively on Twitch. Free. Visit www. sfoutsidelands.com. —DR

APPLE TV

Spotlight

Politics from Scratch

Otero and Garza

The participants of the thrilling, provocative Boys State reflect on their experiences making the documentary. By Randy Shulman

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HE FIRST CUT OF BOYS STATE WAS A whopping five hours. “It was wild,” says the documentary’s co-director Jesse Moss. “We shared it with our partners here at Concordia Studio, and our Executive Producer, Davis Guggenheim, who’s a great filmmaker, literally leaped out of his chair when [one of the boys] had a triumphant moment. Now, most people are just bored to tears by a five-hour cut, but there was something about this story....”

Luckily, the final cut of the invigorating documentary, which is by turns gripping, provocative, and profound, is a manageable hour and fifty minutes. Boys State lays bare the mechanics that drive contemporary politics, all through the eyes of high school juniors, assembled annually by the American Legion to forge mock governments. The weeklong events, held in every state, culminate in a gubernatorial election between two opposing parties, the Nationalists and the Federalists, each of which constructs a platform from scratch. Think of it as a hands-on civics lesson primed by youthfully stubborn, regional ideologies and hormonal bravado.

The 2017 Texas Boys State garnered national attention when it voted for Texas to secede from the union. The news, says Moss, drew his and

co-director Amanda McBride’s attention. “We read about it in The Washington Post,” he says.

“The following spring we went to Texas and began the process of making the movie. We shot it in June of 2018.”

The film hones in on four of the 1,000 participants: Robert MacDougall and Steven Garza, who make runs for governor, and Ben Feinstein and René Otero, who each chair the opposing parties.

“I went in seeing it as a game,” says MacDougall. “I went in expecting a very hard line, very conservative room, unwilling to compromise, unwilling to hear other opinions. And I went in saying ‘You know what? I'm going to play to that. I'm going to try to win.’ What I realized was young people aren't all hardliners that were taught by their parents to believe these certain things, and that, in reality, we're able to have intelligent civil conversations. For the large part, we all want what's best for our state and our nation. I came out with a new optimism... and a new hope that people of my generation can come into our own in politics and make some real change.”

MacDougall’s faith in politics, however, is tempered by the potential misuse of social media. “It’s clearly a very powerful tool that can AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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APPLE TV

MacDougall and Feinstein

be used for good, for educating and spreading information, or can be used maliciously, spreading hate and lies and misinformation,” he says.

“In our Boys State, sadly, we saw it stray to that darker side with misinformation and racism and harassment.”

Otero, the Nationalists’ party chair, becomes a victim of that harassment. A transplant from Illinois, Otero magnificently and forcefully stands up to a vicious attempt to impeach him early into his tenure. Currently a student at UT Austin, Otero says dealing with the racism inherent in the attacks wasn’t new to him, and he is careful not to attribute it to the southern surroundings.

“Racists live everywhere,” he says. “They're just a different breed from the north and the south. That being said, I kind of already expected it. It was something I'd already dealt with for such a heavy part of my life. The sad part of it all, the thing that did surprise me, was that race was still being utilized as a mudslinging tactic, as a way to get over on other people.... All eyes were on me, whether it be the camera or the party that I was leading. I looked very much so different from the people that I was presiding over that I had a standard and a burden — a burden of proof for what a liberal Black person can do in Texas politics.”

Ben Feinstein, party chair for the Federalists, takes an aggressive, heavy-handed approach in the film, and looks back on several of his deci-

sions with palpable regret. “The documentary was more illuminating than the actual program for me in terms of what I gained as a person,” he says. “I was there to do a mission and was operating in a very mission-oriented way. I wasn't thinking about the big picture. I was just doing my job. But when I watched the documentary and I saw my opponents as people, who at the time I had just viewed as obstacles to whatever I was trying to achieve, it made me realize that there's something a lot bigger than just the mission going on here.

“I'm very inspired by Steven Garza, in particular,” he continues, “because he appealed to people's better angels and that got him really far. It gives me a lot of hope that if we go about our process authentically and genuinely, we can achieve some real change.”

Garza is the movie’s de facto star, an improbable underdog who makes it into the final race and faces a sudden battle when it’s discovered he organized a March for Our Lives rally, a revelation the vast majority of the 1,000 Texan attendees find abhorrent, given that any call for even moderate gun reform is seen as a nuclear assault on the Second Amendment.

“I did not ever plan on one of my positions coming out like that,” says Garza. “I was planning on running the entire campaign on unity and on the central theme of working together.

But, you know, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Boys State is now streaming exclusively on Apple TV+. Visit tv.apple.com.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF PEET’S COFFEE

Spotlight

Peet’s Coffee Offers Free Delivery Via Mobile App

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DUTCH IMMIGRANT TO AMERICA, Alfred Peet opened Peet’s Coffee, Tea & Spices in 1966 in Berkley, California. In the decade that followed, Peet spread his gospel of gourmet coffee to the very Seattle trio who launched Starbucks — and from the get-go they credited Peet as something “like a father mentor.”

One of those mentees would later leave Starbucks and buy Peet’s, setting his sights on greater expansion to fuel Americans’ increasing interest in gourmet coffee, elevated in quality and price.

Today, of course, Peet’s Coffee & Tea is part of the same international corporate family as Keurig, Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread, and Pret A Manger. Yet the trademarked “Original Craft Coffee” still has its share of devotees, fans hooked on its high-quality beans and brews —

hot and especially cold — as well as its range of warm breakfast sandwiches. And to better serve those fans, particularly during the current pandemic, the brand recently launched contactless ordering and on-demand delivery, all through its mobile app.

The service is totally free for the rest of August, as Peet’s is waiving its flat delivery fee of $3.99 and flat service fee of $3.61. Naturally, each transaction earns Peetnik Rewards, including a free beverage of choice after the first purchase, points toward additional free beverages, and access to a “secret Member’s Only Menu.” Now through Aug. 31. Delivery availability varies by location, with stores operating daily between early morning to early to mid-afternoon. Visit www.peets.com. —DR AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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SQUID

Spotlight

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Sofi Tukker

IRTUALLY ALL LIVE PERFORMANCE remains impracticable and unsustainable, and few are more acutely aware of this than music artists, those whose livelihood depends on touring to promote and perform original music. Which is why it’s so refreshing to see Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern acting so resolutely upbeat day in and day out. Known as the playful house-pop duo Sofi Tukker, the inseparable musicians, who championed their platonic relationship in 2017’s “Best Friend,” have been performing a daily livestream at 1 p.m. for 160 days and counting.

“If you’re not up and dancing right now, I simply do not know you,” Halpern regularly says during shows, where they’re always seen side

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by side taking turns spinning songs that make them smile and sway, often in sync, and each with a microphone nearby so they can interject shout-outs and ad-libs, converse, or even break out into song. All that constant contact doesn’t seem to have diminished their bond or rapport one bit. The rapport and good energy is infectious, something that’s on full display in the official music video for their “House Arrest,” made with Gorgon City. The montage of submitted footage show fans quarantined at home dancing or swaying in sync right along with Sofi Tukker — a show of support for the good vibes the duo sends out on the daily. Follow @sofitukker on Instagram or Facebook or @sofitukkerofficial on Twitch to catch the daily livestream. Visit www.sofitukker.com. —DR

Spotlight

Mahsa R. Fard, Stadium II, 2019

MK Bailey, Grandma’s Kitchen, 2019

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Target Gallery’s 2020 Emerging Artists

HE CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION space in Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Art Center is championing up-and-coming regional artists with its third annual exhibition series. MK Bailey of D.C., Mahsa R. Fard of Baltimore, Zia Palmer of Alexandria, and Latrelle Rostant of Bowie are the four stylistically diverse female artists selected this year by a jury panel including D.C.-based artist Alexandra “Rex” Delafkaran of the Hamiltonian Gallery, and curators Jaynelle Hazard of the Greater Reston Arts Center and Amy Lokoff.

“The four selected emerging artists create work that is reflective of the current zeitgeist,” Lokoff says in the exhibition’s official note. “In

our rapidly changing world, there has been a collective questioning of identity and place and how those things inform one another.... These artists use different media and unique perspectives in considering these questions.” The artists, selected from a pool of local applicants who each have less than five years of experience and have never had a solo show of their own, all received an honorarium after being accepted.

The exhibition is viewable online as well as in a limited capacity in person Wednesdays through Sundays between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On view through Sept. 13. Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 North Union St., Alexandria. Free. Call 703838-4565 or visit www.torpedofactory.org. —DR AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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PHOTO COURTESY OF RAJA

Spotlight

Divine Designs

Raja

Drag Race winner Raja stirs up fun, fashion, and philanthropy with the House of Barefoot. By André Hereford

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MONG THE BEVY OF TALENTED RuPaul’s Drag Race queens to stand before us, few have commanded the competition’s runway like season three winner Raja. The statuesque performer seemingly

brings that stylish authority to all things, including the long-running WOWPresents YouTube series Fashion Photo Ruview, where each week she and sister RPDR legend Raven rate the looks and eleganza from the latest episode of Drag AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Race, All Stars, or Canada’s Drag Race, as the case may be.

“I would like it to feel like Raven and I are just watching an episode of Drag Race, just like everybody else, whether it be in a club or at home, with the same stupid critiques that make no sense sometimes, and are clearly made just based off opinion,” says Raja, also known as Sutan Amrull, A-list makeup artist to clients like Tyra Banks and Adam Lambert. “A lot of times the opinions that come from me are due to wine swilling early in the day. So what comes out is what comes out.

You know, we try to keep it real.”

Giving each look a “toot” or a “boot,” the co-hosts regularly incite fans’ — and contestants’ — passions with their roasts and raves.

“It's all meant in good fun,” says Raja. “In the grand scheme and scale of what's happening in life, our opinions actually mean nothing. And it's funny to me when some of the queens get upset at us for booting, or not saying the thing that they'd like to hear. It isn't serious. It isn’t going to make or break anyone's careers whether our opinions of their outfits are good or not.”

On this week’s special episode of Fashion Photo Ruview, Raja and Raven showcased their own toot-or-boot-able new outfits, marking a collaboration with Barefoot Wine to create the “House of Barefoot.” Joined by Drag Race allstars Eureka O’Hara and Manila Luzon, the four divas each designed singular garments to celebrate Barefoot’s recently launched Pride Collection commemorating milestones of the LGBTQ movement. Proceeds from the Barefoot sales benefit Free Mom Hugs, a non-profit of parents and allies working toward full affirmation and equality for all.

Excited to be a part of the campaign, Raja points out that queer visibility, “no matter where it comes from, whether it be corporate or not, is important.” Although admittedly a bit of a goth, more “the girl who loves to wear all black,” Raja says the campaign’s Pride rainbow palette was

uniquely inspiring.

“It's remarkable and interesting that the idea of a rainbow can bring so much negativity to people, or bring on a negative concept to people who are so against LGBTQIA+ people. The rainbow has now become synonymous as being the symbol of gay. And it’s very visible. I like that.

I like that something so beautiful as a rainbow can cause so much anger in people. It just shows people's true colors. To be literal about it, it’s prismatic.”

As it turns out, promoting LGBTQ visibility isn’t the only aspect of the “House of Barefoot” campaign that fits the queen like a rainbow corset. “I love wine. I am a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, white wine person,” Raja says. “I like anything sparkly. I like bubbles. I like my wine to be festive. And anybody who knows me well [knows] Raja loves and lives white wine. So this could not have been more of a perfect match.”

Raja likens the partnership to another perfect opportunity that came her way not too long ago: the chance to appear as herself on a Season 30 episode of The Simpsons. “Again, it's one of those times in my life where it just kind of came full circle,” says the life-long fan of the show, who had to take a break from her usual summertime one-woman show in Provincetown to record the part at a Boston studio.

“I took the ferry. I went in. I read the sides. I did the thing. I said thank you to the technicians that were there, they were very sweet. And as soon as I left the building, I sat on a brick wall that was right outside, and I immediately just [broke into] tears. And as I started crying, rain came down falling on me. It was a Chromatica moment! That's all I'm fucking saying. It was like, Rain. On. Me. It was one of the most beautiful things that I'd ever experienced. You've got to be open to those moments in life, and that was definitely one of those moments. It was remarkably, profoundly amazing for me.”

Fashion Photo Ruview is available for streaming on YouTube and at www.WOWPresentsPlus.com.

For more information about Barefoot’s long-standing allyship to the LGBTQ community, visit www.barefootwine.com/lgbtq.

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ROBERT M. NIELSEN

Spotlight

V

Other Music

AMPIRE WEEKEND, ANIMAL Collective, Interpol, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture, Sharon Van Etten, and TV On The Radio are among the many indie-rock acts that got an important early boost in the early aughts as a result of being championed by one scrappy little independent record store in Manhattan. Filmmakers Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller interview a slew of artists, ranging from Martin Gore of Depeche Mode to JD Samson of Le Tigre to Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, to help tell the story and significance of Josh Madell’s Other Music,

which was forced to close in 2016 due to rent increases and changes in cultural tastes and technology.

Other Music had a limited Virtual Cinema release in April in partnership with over 200 record stores and theaters — including D.C.’s Songbyrd and Miracle Theatre, Virginia’s Mobius Records, and Maryland’s AFI Silver — all of which shared in ticket proceeds to the tune of over $25,000 total. Factory 25 has now given the documentary a wide release on digital platforms including Amazon Prime and iTunes.

Visit www.othermusicdocumentary.com. —DR AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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STACY ZARIN GLODBERG

Spotlight

Nestor Santa-Cruz’s Libary

A

Josh Hildreth Maureen’s Retreat-Bedroom Entry

Aspire House: McLean

NEWLY CONSTRUCTED MANSE IN McLean has been given over to 28 regional designers and architects as a showcase of their work presented by Aspire Design and Home magazine in partnership with Artisan Builders and Harrison Design. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the magazine’s Diversity in Design Scholarship Fund, which supports aspiring designers from underrepresented communities throughout the world, including locally through partner Marymount University.

The Designer Show House features 29 rooms each appointed by a different designer or

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KIP DAWKINS

STACY ZARIN GLODBERG

Christian Daw’s Cafe Lounge

AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

design team, among them Design Chair Mary Douglas Drysdale, Allie Mann/Case Architects & Remodelers, Anna Maria Mannarino, George Hemphill, Jonas Carnermark, Christian Daw, Josh Hildreth, Kiyonda Powell, Nestor SantaCruz, Nile Johnson, Pamela Harvey, Michael Winn/Winn Design + Build, and Thomas Preston. Open for onsite tours with no more than 12 people at one time Wednesdays through Fridays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Through Sept. 13. 952 Mackall Farms Lane in McLean. Tickets are $50. Visit www.aspireshowhouse.com/mclean. —DR

Spotlight

T

Mr. Soul!

HE LATE ELLIS HAIZLIP IS CREDITed as America’s first Black nighttime talk show host and a man who was “Black, political, and openly gay even before Stonewall.” The fact that you’ve probably never heard of him is what makes this new documentary all the more important. The AFI Silver is one of over 50 cinemas nationwide presenting virtual screenings of Mr. Soul!, whose many honors include winning the Best Music Documentary Award from the International Documentary Association, an Audience Award at AFI Docs, and the Finalist Prize at the Inaugural Library of Congress Lavine-Ken Burns Film Award.

Blair Underwood narrates the film, written, directed, and produced by Melissa Haizlip — Ellis’ niece — with original music from composer and musician Robert Glasper and featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway, the daughter of Donny Hathaway. The focus is on Haizlip,

a Washington native and Howard University alum who went on to become an international theater producer and the first Black producer at New York’s WNET, where he developed Soul!

The variety show, which aired on public television stations from 1968 to 1973, helped expand Black representation on national TV as well as capture the era’s Civil Rights Movement through its celebration of Black culture, art, life, and community. Al Green, Muhammad Ali, Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Odetta, Mandrill, Toni Morrison, Betty Shabazz, Stokely Carmichael, and Patti Labelle are just some of the luminaries featured in rare live performances or interviews. Begins streaming on Friday, Aug. 28. Tickets are $12 for a 72-hour stream. A free talkback with Melissa Haizlip, Glasper, Underwood, and select artists featured in the film is Sunday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m.

Visit www.afi.com/Silver. —DR AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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HAV E Y OU SEEN OUR I NSTAGR A M?

Ther e’ s a l ot t o L i k e! @ M et r oWeek l y

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AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

GAGE SKIDMORE

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Intentional Harm

Trump

Congress finds Trump administration gave taxpayer dollars to anti-LGBTQ foster care agencies. By John Riley

T

HE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS Committee has accused the Trump administration of “intentionally” harming LGBTQ Americans by granting a waiver that allows South Carolina adoption and foster care agencies to receive taxpayer dollars while turning away same-sex prospective parents.

A 34-page report, issued by the Democratic-led committee, outlines the situation surrounding the religious exemption waiver and its impact on LGBTQ prospective foster or adoptive parents, and calls on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to rescind the waiver.

“As subsequent Trump administration actions

confirm, HHS is using the South Carolina waiver as a harmful precedent beyond child welfare, essentially using vulnerable foster youth as test cases for its discriminatory policies across all HHS services,” the report reads.

The waiver in question was issued to Miracle Hill Ministries by HHS in January 2019 in response to a request from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), who claimed the waiver was needed to protect the religious liberty of agencies, like Miracle Hill, that have sincerely-held beliefs opposing homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

But the committee report claims that HHS AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed inappropriately issued the waiver and ignored child welfare experts in order to explicitly discriminate against same-sex couples and LGBTQ prospective parents — not to ensure religious freedom as it has since claimed — and that HHS withheld documentation regarding its true motivation for issuing the waiver.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said the report shows that the HHS waiver is part of a “pattern of discrimination” on the part of the Trump administration aimed at limiting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ Americans.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the waiver — due not only to its impact on LGBTQ Americans, but religious minorities — issued a statement denouncing the Trump administration’s efforts to allow discrimination under the guise of religion.

“The 440,000 children in our nation’s child welfare system need every qualified family that is willing to open up their homes to care for them. There’s no reason families who are LGBTQ, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim or otherwise don’t meet an agency’s religious test should be turned away from being foster parents,” Ian Thompson, a senior legislative representative with the ACLU, said in a statement.

“We appreciate the work of the Ways and Means Committee to shine a light on this unconstitutional discrimination enabled by the Trump administration and hope the Supreme Court will agree that there is no license to discriminate in our Constitution.”

The report comes just months before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case in which Catholic Social Services is challenging a city of Philadelphia policy that prohibits foster care and adoption agencies that contract with the city from receiving taxpayer dollars if they discriminate against prospective parents based on characteristics protected under the city’s human rights law. Oral arguments are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4.

If the high court decides in favor of CSS, the decision could have disastrous implications for 30

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the LGBTQ community, effectively enshrining a right to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, or other groups of people, and justifying that discrimination by citing religious beliefs.

In practice, that means LGBTQ people could be denied access to food banks, homeless shelters, disaster relief services, health care, and other services.

A ruling in favor of CSS would also mean that children in the foster care system will likely find it harder to find suitable parents because the pool of applicants will be significantly restricted, not only by excluding same-sex couples, but religious minorities or others who do not conform to an agency’s religious or moral views. These potential ramifications have been outlined in a report by the Movement Advancement Project.

Advocates, civil rights organizations, child experts, and others have collectively submitted 46 amicus briefs from approximately 1,000 signers arguing in favor of allowing the city to keep its policy forcing contractors to abide by its nondiscrimination laws in place.

One of those organizations submitting an amicus brief was Lambda Legal, which called on the Supreme Court not to undermine Philadelphia’s policy.

“Allowing foster care agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples seeking to foster sends a clear message to LGBTQ youth in care that there’s something unacceptable about who they are and that they aren’t equal under the law. It also exposes them to harm due to lack of family home placements likely to meet their needs,” M. Currey Cook, legal counsel and director of the Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project at Lambda Legal, said in a statement.

“Moreover, if the Court grants a broad religious exemption to agencies that contract with the government to perform these public services, LGBTQ youth will be left vulnerable to actual physical harm. Some LGBTQ children could be refused life-saving services, others denied supportive placements, and some even forced to undergo futile, damaging attempts to ‘change’ their identity,” Cook added. “Nationally and at every level, governments have a compel-

theFeed ling interest and legal obligation not to cause further harm to these vulnerable young people by permitting discrimination of any kind in our child welfare systems.”

The child advocacy organization Children’s Rights expressed concern that the court might approve government-sanctioned discrimination by ruling in favor of Catholic Social Services.

“The lower courts correctly held that the City of Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination regulation applies to all taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to ensure that the pool of foster parents and resource caregivers is as diverse and broad as the foster children they serve,” Christina Wilson Remlin, lead counsel at Children’s Rights, said in a statement. “I urge the Supreme Court to put children first and uphold Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policy. The only litmus test for these caregivers should be love and safety.”

“We all cherish our constitutional freedom of religion, and that’s why our country has long balanced it with nondiscrimination protections that ensure all people are treated

equally,” added Kasey Suffredini, the CEO and national campaign director of Freedom for All Americans. “The outcome of this case matters to all Americans, because discriminating in the provision of taxpayer-funded government services — as this foster care agency seeks to do — crosses an unprecedented line that could lead to dangerous consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable among us.”

“Religious belief is protected in our laws and Constitution and it is due respect,” Mary Bonuato, the Civil Rights Project Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, said in a statement.

“However, the breadth of the exemption being sought by CSS in Fulton would take our nation backwards. It would allow individual religious disapproval to work its way back into lawmaking — a situation that is contrary to the promise of equal protection for all embedded in our Constitution, and one that the American people and two decades of Supreme Court precedent have already rejected.”

Falwell Falls

Anti-LGBTQ evangelical Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns from Liberty University amid sex scandal with younger man. By Rhuaridh Marr

J

ERRY FALWELL JR. HAS RESIGNED AS president of Liberty University after an alleged sex scandal with a younger man.

The anti-LGBTQ figure had previously stepped back as president of the private Christian evangelical university, taking an indefinite leave after racy photos emerged of Falwell with his pants unbuttoned at a yacht party.

Falwell, 58, has become known for his steadfast loyalty to President Trump, the strict code of behavior he expects students at Liberty to abide by, and his fierce opposition to the acceptance of LGBTQ rights.

But he has now formally resigned as president of the university established by his father, evan-

gelist Jerry Falwell, Sr., after reports emerged of a sex scandal involving Falwell, his wife Becki, and a younger man.

Reuters reports that the Falwells were engaged in a business and sexual relationship with Giancarlo Granda, who met the couple when he was a 20-year-old pool attendant in Miami Beach.

Among the accusations of the relationship — which Granda said lasted between 2012 and 2018 and included the Falwells buying Granda a youth hostel in Miami Beach in 2013 — are that Falwell would watch Granda have sex with his wife, Becki, “multiple times per year.”

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FACEBOOK

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Giancarlo Granda (Left) and Jerry Falwell Jr.

ship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda told Reuters.

Granda’s claims, which he corroborated through emails, texts, and other evidence shared with Reuters, have led to accusations of hypocrisy against Falwell.

As president of Liberty University, he enforced a strict code of conduct that, among other things, bans premarital sex, as well as the consumption of media with sexual content and nudity.

The university also does not recognize LGBTQ students, banning same-sex relationships and refusing to acknowledge the gender identity of trans students.

A lawyer for Falwell refuted Granda’s claims, saying the anti-LGBTQ evangelical “categorically denies everything you indicated you intend to publish about him.”

Falwell, meanwhile, shifted blame to his wife, telling the Washington Examiner last week that Becki “had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved.”

He also accused Granda of trying to extort him and his wife by revealing details of the affair 32

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to “deliberately embarrass my wife, family, and Liberty University.”

However, on Monday, Falwell tendered his resignation as president of Liberty University, as well as from the university’s board of directors.

He then subsequently retracted that resignation Monday evening, telling the Washington Post “it’s still up in the air.”

But on Tuesday, CNN reported that Falwell had, finally, submitted his resignation and Liberty University had accepted it.

“The university’s heartfelt prayers are with him and his family as he steps away from his life’s work,” Liberty said in a statement.

Falwell said that, though he denied being involved in a relationship with Granda, he was “now dealing with things in a way that I should have done before, including seeking to address the emotional toll this has taken.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Granda said that Falwell’s “effort to lie and discredit me” had exposed “to the world why I felt it was important to step forward and tell the truth about them.”

“The fiction they are peddling in an effort

theFeed ly commented on Granda’s claims, sits on the Women for Trump advisory board.

In 2019, one year after Granda said his relationship with the Falwells ended, Reuters reported that Falwell had entered into another unusual business deal with a younger man.

Falwell aided his 23-year-old personal trainer Benjamin Crosswhite in purchasing an 18-acre racquetball and fitness facility on Liberty University property.

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY D. MYLES CULLEN

to save themselves is on par with the kind of victim-shaming tactics we’ve come to expect from people who have abused their positions of power and authority,” he said.

Falwell’s endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016 is credited with pushing evangelical voters to back the president, and he has remained a staunch supporter of Trump since his election.

Becki Falwell, who was described as the “First Lady of Liberty University” and has not public-

Erasing Equality

Trump and Pence

Trump administration erases LGBTQ people from USAID’s gender policy. By John Riley

T

HE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS released a new draft policy on gender and women’s empowerment for the U.S. Agency for International Development that eliminates any mention of LGBTQ people, particularly transgender women, as well as any mention of contraceptives.

The language of the proposed policy, which is intended to guide USAID’s grant-making and development work as it pertains to women’s issues, signifies a reversal in policy from the policy embraced by the Obama administration in 2012.

The updated policy states its goal as achievAUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed ing “a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.”

In contrast, the 2012 policy is specific, saying the policy applies to people “regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement or HIV/AIDS status.”

But it also removes previous mentions of LGBTQ people, as well as gender identity from the policy.

The Obama-era policy had mentioned gender identity eight times and LGBTQ people twice, according to ProPublica.

“It sends a message when an overarching umbrella policy that is supposed to inform all of USAID’s practices and initiatives is missing those factors,” Gayatri Patel, the director of gender advocacy at CARE, a humanitarian organization, said of the LGBTQ omissions.

According to ProPublica, the omission of LGBTQ mentions sparked an internal email exchange among USAID officials, with some noting their exclusion.

In response, Timothy Meisburger, USAID’s director of the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, wrote that while staff are free to comment on the policy, they should “keep in mind that the policies of the current Administration may differ from those of previous Administrations, and that it is our duty as civil servants to faithfully execute the policy of the current Administration.”

Some critics argue that understandings of gender — and everything it encompasses — has changed, and the new policy fails to take those understandings into account.

“The field has progressed in the eight years since 2012,” Susan Markham, USAID’s former senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment, told ProPublica.

“But this document does not do that. It is not based on technical advances or knowledge. It’s clearly a political document about the word gender.”

The proposed revision was originally slated to be released in late 2019, but was delayed multiple times, including, most recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic.

USAID officials have also been secretive about the revision, with little opportunity for advocates and gender experts to offer input until the final stages. The time period for public comment ends this week.

One official who was reportedly involved in the rewrite of the gender policy was Bethany Kozma, the USAID deputy chief of staff.

Prior to joining the Trump administration, Kozma railed against Obamaera guidance that urged schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity, and even organized a campaign aimed at marshaling parents to oppose the Obama administration’s protections for transgender students.

The revised policy drops only weeks after USAID garnered negative headlines over past social media comments made by Merritt Corrigan, the agency’s former deputy White House liaison, who departed the agency earlier this month.

In her comments, Corrigan attacked homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and expressed opposition to the notion that U.S. policy should attempt to influence the social mores of other nations by tying the financial support they receive to those countries’ laws criminalizing homosexuality or their record on LGBTQ rights.

Critics argue that understandings of gender has changed, and the new policy fails to take those understandings into account.

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theFeed

Cabin Fever

Log Cabin Republicans ignore the facts and beg gays to back Trump. By Rhuaridh Marr

T

HE NATION’S LARGEST CONSERVAtive LGBTQ organization is inexplicably urging gay people to vote for Donald Trump, arguing that his administration, which has attacked equality dozens of times, has been a “boon to the gay community.”

Robert Kabel, chairman of Log Cabin Republicans, made the claims in an op-ed for USA Today, which also touts the Republican Party as the “true party of equality.”

He argues that Democrats have “taken for granted the lesbian and gay community,” whereas the Republican Party — which includes opposition to same-sex marriage and support for conversion therapy in its 2020 party platform

— is “delivering real results and leadership for our community.”

Kabel says that the GOP “generally stood against the inclusion of gay and lesbian conservatives,” but that he has worked “tirelessly alongside many friends and colleagues to pull the party into the future.” (Six months ago, the Log Cabin Republicans were refused a booth at the Texas GOP’s state convention because they promote “immoral and perverted sexual proclivities.”)

As such, Kabel argues, “thanks in large part to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the party has delivered meaningful policy victories for gays and lesbians.” As evidence he points to AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

35

theFeed the few pro-LGBTQ things the Trump administration has thus far achieved.

They include a plan for ending the HIV epidemic in the USA by 2030, with aims for a 75% reduction in new infections by 2025, increasing to 90% reduction by 2030.

Kabel also touted Trump’s heavily advertised — and, subsequently, seemingly forgotten about — campaign to decriminalize homosexuality globally. The plan, which Trump was seemingly unaware of shortly after its launch last year, aims to use America’s global clout to influence nations to remove laws criminalizing same-sex sexual relations.

The campaign was pushed by former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is touted by Kabel as proof of Trump’s support for gay people, given Grenell’s subsequent elevation to acting director of national intelligence, making him the first ever openly person to hold a cabinet-level position.

Kabel also notes that Trump has appointed two openly LGBTQ federal judges — a fact perhaps overshadowed by at least a third of Trump’s federal circuit court nominees having a history of anti-LGBTQ bias.

“These accomplishments should not suggest the president’s work is finished,” Kabel says, though some might argue his work on LGBTQ equality has really yet to begin.

Kabel then notes that the Trump administration fought against a recent Supreme Court decision ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ people against workplace discrimination, a stance Kabel calls “disappointing.” (The Trump administration has also previously argued that it should be legal to fire gay and transgender people.)

“I’d also encourage the president to reconsider his stance on transgender men and women serving in the military,” Kabel says.

Kabel urges Trump, should he win a second term, to “work to resolve the ongoing tension between LGBT Americans’ justified demands for equality and the concerns of religious conservatives.” (Not that Trump needed to wait until a second term — the Democratic-controlled 36

AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

House passed the Equality Act, which enshrines discrimination protections for LGBTQ people into federal law, last year. The Republicancontrolled Senate refuses to consider it.)

He also asks Trump to “work with Congress to correct the gaps in access to (and quality of) care faced by LGBT Americans.” (Ignoring that Trump stripped health care protections from trans Americans during a global health pandemic.)

Kabel also, conveniently, sidesteps the dozens of ways in which the Trump administration has sought to undermine or outright attack LGBTQ rights and equality during his almost four years in office.

GLAAD has tracked 168 attacks on LGBTQ people in Trump’s 1,309 days in office, including pushing ahead with plans to allow shelters to deny access to trans people, defending an Idaho law that bars trans female athletes from competing in women’s sports, arguing that foster care agencies should be allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples, rescinding Obamaera guidance protecting transgender students, attempting to forcibly discharge HIV-positive members of the military, and fighting to revoke the citizenship of one gay couple’s child and refusing to recognize the citizenship of another.

Plus, Trump has hired anti-LGBTQ figures to his cabinet (including his vice president), and surrounded himself with anti-LGBTQ advisers.

His administration’s actions have been so blatantly anti-LGBTQ that in November last year, the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights declared that Trump had “blatantly and deliberately” targeted LGBTQ people during his presidency. One member of the commission stated that Trump was “undoing decades of civil and human rights progress.”

Oh, and Trump’s own niece, out lesbian Mary Trump, said that LGBTQ make the president “uncomfortable.”

But clearly all of the above is lost on Kabel, who writes that “America has come a long way in accepting the gay community...[but] there is still more work to be done.”

“As November approaches, it’s vital to elect

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theFeed “As Democrats spend the week declaring themselves the party of inclusivity, remember that actions speak louder than words,” Kabel concludes, before delivering his boldest line of all: “Today, the GOP has proved itself to be the true party of equality.”

MAMA DRAGONS VIA FACEBOOK

someone who will continue this progress,” he continues, before inexplicably arguing that the person who will do that is Trump, rather than the person with an extensive plan to protect and expand LGBTQ rights (former Vice President Joe Biden).

Banner Ban

Heber City banners

Utah city removes Pride flag banners following outcry. By John Riley

A

CITY IN UTAH HAS PASSED AN ordinance to prohibit Pride flag banners being flown, following outcry from the surrounding community on the grounds that the rainbow flag is too “political.”

Last year, Heber City flew rainbow flag banners from street lights during Pride month. But residents began showing up at City Council meetings, complaining about the flags and calling them “disturbing” and “political.”

One Wasatch County Council member, speak38

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ing as a private citizen, even mused that he didn’t think rainbow flags did any harm, but worried what the Council would do if people wanted to fly Nazi or Confederate flags.

Despite those objections, the Pride flags flew again this summer, but the number of complaints piled up once more, with people putting pressure on the City Council to pass an ordinance restricting the types of banners that can be hung from street posts.

Under the new ordinance, any banners flown

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theFeed must be approved by the city manager, with appeals sent to the City Council for review. Only Heber City, Wasatch County, and the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce will be allowed to sponsor events or messages for the banners, and all events must be nonprofit and nonpolitical, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.

A number of residents and organizations objected to the change, showing up to a meeting last month to ask the City Council to reconsider the ordinance. Among those groups are the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and the Utah Pride Center.

But last Tuesday, the City Council unanimously voted to adopt the change, and only one person — Ben Belnap, the father of a gay son — came to the meeting to express opposition to the revised ordinance.

“I understand many people are uncomfortable seeing [pride] banners,” Belnap said. “That said, I have a gay son and…I’ve seen the discomfort my son experiences every day, the slurs hurled at him every day. He’s called a ‘f*g’ in the halls.”

He asked whether the temporary discomfort of residents who object to seeing Pride flags is worth the well-being of LGBTQ community members who may “feel ashamed and worthless for being who they are.”

“Would you truly want to trade your discomfort for theirs,” Belnap asked.

But while some residents say it’s unfortunate that LGBTQ students may be bullied, they still

consider the Pride banners inappropriate, or an endorsement of a certain political view.

City Attorney Mark Smedley says nothing in the ordinance specifically bans Pride flags, and that if the city wanted to support the LGBTQ community as “government speech,” then “they could come out and do that.”

The ACLU of Utah criticized the ordinance as a further restriction on freedom of expression.

“Whether or not this action complied with the letter of the law, the spirit of our Constitution calls for more speech, not less,” John Mejia, the organization’s legal director, said in a statement.

Heber City Mayor Kelleen Potter, who is also the mother of a gay son, told the Tribune she was disappointed that the ordinance passed, as well as the barrage of negative comments — and even some death threats — that she and the City Council members received.

“I thought it was a beautiful opportunity to express acceptance and a welcoming tone,” Potter said. “We’re a small city. Historically people have contacted me and told me the hard things they’ve gone through and how they felt excluded.”

But, she said, “There were people on the council who I thought would go to bat to keep them and didn’t. It became too much pressure.”

She said she doubted that the city would sponsor Pride events in the future, but pledged to continue trying to support LGBTQ community members in other ways.

Randy’s Resurfaced Racism Randy Rainbow apologizes for transphobic, racist tweets: ‘They make me sick to my stomach.’ By Rhuaridh Marr

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ANDY RAINBOW HAS APOLOGIZED after Twitter users uncovered multiple tweets containing racist and transphobic jokes dating back to 2010. The comedian and two-time Emmy nominee has gained notoriety for his musical parodies taking aim 40

AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

at Donald Trump and members of his family and administration.

However, he came under fire earlier this month for multiple tweets — which Rainbow has since deleted — using the transphobic slur “tranny,” as well as other tweets containing big-

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Randy Rainbow

oted and racist language.

“That awkward moment when you yell ‘What up tranny?!’ to Leah Remini as she passes you on the street and it turns out to be an actual tranny,” he wrote in 2011. A tweet from 2010 reads: “‘Nothin’ sadder than a tranny in sensible shoes.’

-Mark Twain.”

In 2010, he also tweeted, “Why is it OK to call it a ‘white noise’ machine, yet offensive to say that I bought it to drown out all the ‘black noise’ in my building?”

Other tweets portrayed Black people as violent and drug dealers, and joking about names, fried chicken, and even segregation.

Rainbow also targeted Latinx people, including calling Mexicans short, lazy, and criminals, made fun of Asian people, called lesbians masculine and humorless, and tweeted jokes making light of rape.

In an interview with The Advocate, Rainbow said the tweets were “completely offensive and insensitive” and made him feel “sick to my stomach.”

“Twitter has recently reminded me about 10 years ago, in my maiden quest to be funny,

I tweeted some jokes that were completely offensive and insensitive to look back on them now, especially with no context or nuance and through the prism of where we are in 2020 with racial inequality and the fight for social justice, which I’m proudly a part of,” he said.

“In light of issues that are now at the forefront, which I’m passionate about and have spoken up about over the years, these tweets just sound racist and awful. I’m embarrassed by them. They make me sick to my stomach, in fact, and I deeply apologize to anyone I offended.”

Rainbow, 39, attributed the tweets to a “different” comedy landscape, in which he was “an aspiring comedian in my 20s working the stages in gay nightclubs where we said the most outlandish, raunchy things we could think of.”

He said he was trying to emulate the “shock comedy” style of Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman, and Howard Stern, who “had become iconic for being artfully inappropriate.”

“I was regurgitating what was accepted then as edgy, which in the light of today is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Any jokes that I tweeted out around this time were meant to be read AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed in the voice of this character I created, and the intention was always that my forced ignorance would be the butt of the joke.”

Rainbow told The Advocate that he was “incredibly sorry” for the tweets and “would never intentionally do anything to hurt anyone,” noting that he had learned in the past decade “that there are things that you must be sensitive about.”

“There are issues that I was not aware of back then. In 2010, we weren’t anywhere near where we are now,” he said. “Right now, systemic racism is killing people, anti-Semitism is on the rise, Black trans women are being murdered at a horrifying rate. And the insensitive words of those actually in power are actually killing people. I continue to educate myself, I continue to listen and learn.

“I am in no way a racist. I am in no way transphobic,” he continued. “I’m a gay Jew who was brought up in a very open, accepting family.

There is not a racist or intolerant bone in my body. When I say that I have evolved with the times, I mean that my comedy has. I did not need to be taught not to be racist or transphobic because I never was.”

Rainbow suggested that he was being targeted, including being “threatened” and “harassed,”

for political purposes, because he sues his platform “every day to speak truth to power and shine a light on inequities and injustices of the world, and expose truly intolerant and racist people.”

“There are nefarious people out there who want to silence me because they don’t like what I really have to say,” he said.

Rainbow also suggested that those seeking to cancel him take stock of where his tweets were coming from.

“In regards to what I’m going through now, people need to consider the source. You know, I am a comedian. I’m not a politician. I’m not a political pundit. I’m not running for office. I’m not a news anchor. I’m a comedian,” he said.

“This scandal I’m going through might seem a little more scandalous to some because I now have this voice in the political world. I am known as the guy who calls out bigotry and racism, which is what I want to do. That’s how I want to use my platform. That’s what’s really in my heart.

“So these recent tweets resurfacing are not skeletons in my closet; they’re crappy jokes in my shoe box from a decade ago. I think we just need to be careful about considering the source.”

Excruciating Attack

A

Antigay preachers broke a man’s leg after he challenged their bigotry. By Rhuaridh Marr

SPORTS COMMENTATOR IN Canada was left in “excruciating agony” after being attacked while confronting a group of antigay preachers. Justin Morissette, host of Wrestle Central on Sportsnet 650, said he confronted homophobic evangelical preachers in Vancouver’s West End, the location of the city’s gay neighborhood.

Speaking to City News 1130, Morissette said that one of the preachers attacked him, snapping bones in his leg and dislocating his knee, after he challenged them on their views.

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Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, and Morisette said he will require metal plates in his leg for the rest of his life.

Morissette said that he was walking through the West End on Saturday, Aug. 22, and heard two people espousing “bigotry and religious hatred toward the gay community” over an “obscenely loud PA [system].”

He said that religious bigots preaching hate towards LGBTQ people has become a “pretty persistent issue in the West End,” and said that their decision to preach in the midst of

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Morisette and his broken leg

Vancouver’s LGBTQ community felt deliberate.

Morissette said that he approached the preachers and told them, “You are not welcome in this community to be saying these things.

Pack your things and go somewhere else.”

When they refused to leave, he asked if they would reduce the volume on their speakers, as they were audible “for blocks, and blocks, and blocks.”

Morissette said he then grabbed the preacher’s microphone, refusing to hand it back. One of the men then used a “judo-style takedown,” which Morissette said, “wrenched my leg against his until my tibia and fibula snapped, broke and my knee dislocated.”

“He absolutely one-thousand per cent knew that that was going to happen when he did that, this was a malicious intentional break of my leg,” he added.

Morissette tweeted in the aftermath of the attack, saying, “I’m still standing,” and sharing an image of his left leg post-surgery.

In a separate tweet, he wrote, “I stood up to anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End this evening, and they purposefully broke my leg for

the trouble. I don’t know why I did this. It felt like the right thing to do and no one else would.

I’m going to have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life.”

He added: “My leg is super fucked up, and that sucks. But the violent man who did this to me would have done it, or possibly much worse to someone else down the line had he not been arrested tonight. I have prevented harm to someone I will never know, and they won’t know I did it either.

“Do not allow yourself to be a passenger to someone else’s abuse. I am in excruciating pain and my knee is incredibly mangled. But I would feel worse if I knew I saw that and just went home and minded my own business. Don’t let the bastards win.”

Vancouver Police said in a statement that they responded to a call in the West End and found a group of people preaching and shouting anti-gay comments.

“A short time after the preaching started, one individual approached the group and asked them to stop the anti-gay chants and to stop speaking into the microphone,” VPD spokesperAUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed son Sgt. Aaron Roed said. “A disturbance ensued and the individual is suspected to have been thrown to the ground, where they unfortunately broke their leg.”

Two men were arrested at the scene and charged with aggravated assault and mischief, with police also considering whether the attack constitutes a hate crime.

“VPD will not tolerate any type of hate crimes and will investigate all reports of hate crimes or suspected hate crimes that happen in the City of Vancouver,” Roed said.

“Public safety will always remain a priority for the VPD and we want everyone to feel safe and comfortable in their communities and neighbourhoods they visit.”

Local residents said that the preaching is a regular occurrence in the West End, with one person telling City News 1130 that they “just start angrily shouting…it’s hate speech against LGBTQ, against people who are Muslim…I mean, it’s amplified.”

A number of Twitter users responded to Morissette’s tweets thanking him for standing up to the preachers and offering help for any

medical expenses related to the attack.

“Standing up to these thugs is always the right thing to do. As a father of LGBTQ+ daughters I thank you,” one person tweeted. “I’m so sorry about your leg. I have not encountered that kind of pushback violence when I’ve said enough, stop. Get better soon.”

“As a father of a lgbt teen who lives in this neighbourhood I can’t thank you enough for standing up for us all in that moment!” another person wrote. “It’s a safer place [because] of you.

Only wish I had been there to back you up!”

“Standing up to bullies takes huge courage. I salute you,” a third person tweeted. “A lifetime injury is a high price to pay but the cost of doing nothing would clearly have been your own self respect. Sometimes it is worth it.”

Speaking to City News 1130, Morissette said that, despite the “excruciating agony” of the attack, he didn’t regret his actions, saying he found the preaching “extremely disruptive and offensive.”

“I had to listen to these guys tell my neighbors that they’re going to burn in hell forever because of who they love and who they are,” he said.

Powerful Park

New York governor dedicates state park in memory of LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson. By John Riley

O

N MONDAY, TO COMMEMORATE the 75th birthday of transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has renamed the East River State Park after Johnson and dedicated it in her honor to recognize the role she played as a key and influential figure during the early years of the LGBTQ rights movement in the United States.

Over the next year, the state will improve park facilities and install public arts installations celebrating Johnson’s life and her role in advancing LGBTQ rights. On Monday, the park installed art in the shape of flowers near the North 8th Street main gate, and on the corner 44

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of North 7th Street and Kent Avenue, in recognition of Johnson’s tendency to adorn her attire with colorful flowers.

The park also placed interpretive signage outlining Johnson’s life and explaining her influence within the LGBTQ rights movement, as well as her advocacy on behalf of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. The seven-acre park, which is one of eight state parks in New York City, offers a view of the Manhattan skyline, as well as a beach, a meadow, the remnants of a historic rail yard, a playground, a dog run, and picnicking facilities.

Admission is free and the park is open to the

public. Cuomo had previously announced plans to rename the park in February during a speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s Greater New York Gala.

Other installments, scheduled for completion by the summer of 2021, include a new park house, shaped like an enclosed barge container, that will serve as an education center, housing classroom space, public bathrooms, a park ranger contact station, and a small storage area; an art installation celebrating various aspects of Johnson’s life on two parallel foundation walls, creating an outdoor gallery; and decorative exterior wall treatments that match the decorations on the park house and the installation.

“Too often, the marginalized voices that have pushed progress forward in New York and across the country go unrecognized, making up just a fraction of our public memorials and monuments,” Cuomo said in a statement announcing the park dedication.

“Marsha P. Johnson was one of the early leaders of the LGBTQ movement, and is only now getting the acknowledgement she deserves,” Cuomo continued. “Dedicating this state park for her, and installing public art telling her story, will ensure her memory and her work fighting for equality lives on.”

Johnson, a longtime advocate and activist who settled in Greenwich Village, was one of the leaders of the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, and later established a shelter to support LGBTQ youth who had been kicked out of their homes or disinherited by their families.

She was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front, an activist with ACT UP, and a co-founder of the transgender activist group STAR, along with fellow activist Sylvia Rivera.

She died in 1992, at age 46. The investigation

NEW YOURK STATE PARKS FLICKR

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Artist’s rendering of the planned upgrades to Marsha P. Johnson State Park

into the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death remains unsolved.

“New York is the proud birthplace of the LGBTQ rights movement with the Stonewall Uprising more than 50 years ago,” New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “The Marsha P. Johnson State Park honors the transgender woman of color who led the fight for equal rights and justice for all. With the COVID19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement, now more than ever we must continue the fight for LGBTQ equality and racial justice in our society.”

“Our parks in North Brooklyn are visited by thousands of people every year from across Brooklyn and the city. Open spaces are the jewels of any neighborhood and are used for recreation and leisure by people from every walk of life,” New York City Council Member Stephen Levin said in a statement. “To have one of our local parks named after someone as influential and important to the history of our city and the fight for equality everywhere is an honor.

“Marsha P. Johnson spent her life fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and and to bring dignity and respect to so many New Yorkers,” Levin said.

“The new name and planned improvements to the park will show our commitment to providing world class public spaces for everyone.”

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Fighting for

Am

rica

Mondaire Jones, an openly gay New Yorker likely to win a seat in Congress, is one the Democratic Party’s newest rising stars.

M

Y MENTALITY HAS ALWAYS been not to wait for other people to do anything that I can do myself,” says Mondaire Jones, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 17th Congressional District. Covering the suburbs to the north of New York City, the district’s Democratic lean means that Jones will likely succeed in the upcoming election, putting him on the cusp of becoming one of the first two openly gay Black members of Congress, along with New York’s Ritchie Torres, who recently won his own primary in the Bronx-based 15th Congressional District.

Despite the history-making nature of his candidacy, it was not his background or identity that made Jones stand out in a crowded Democratic primary field, but his ideology. Jones had previously announced his intention to challenge long-term Congresswoman and House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, who has served in Congress since 1988, citing his dissatisfaction with her positions on climate change, student debt, and oversight of the Trump administration, among several other issues.

Following Lowey’s retirement, the primary field soon became crowded, attracting a national security expert, a state representative, an abortion-rights advocate, an assistant U.S. attorney 46

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from a prominent, wealthy family, and a conservative state senator who had rankled liberals by siding with Republicans in order to thwart progressive legislation.

Throughout it all, Jones was able to distinguish himself from his opponents by trumpeting support for progressive policy priorities, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, abolishing private prisons, and legalizing marijuana. Those strong stances earned him love from progressive organizations and endorsements from Washington figures who hold significant sway within left-wing circles, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).

On the day of the primary election, Jones took a two-to-one lead over his nearest opponent, which eventually changed into a three-to-one lead as mail-in ballots were tabulated over the course of several weeks.

“I had an economic message and a message of racial justice that resonated with people in the district in a way that the messages of my opponents did not come close to,” Jones says.

“One of my opponents was talking about Russia, another one of my opponents was talking about prosecuting Donald Trump, which strangely

LAURA BRETT

H Interview by John Riley H

presumes that Donald Trump gets reelected in the fall and will be around by the time that he would serve in Congress. And nearly everyone else was just talking about what we couldn’t do, saying that my goals were too ambitious. People don’t want to be told what they can’t do. That is not inspirational leadership, and people want to be inspired, especially by their member of Congress.”

Jones’ victory marks yet another win for an emboldened progressive movement over establishment Democrats who have generally embraced a Bill Clinton-era approach to politics, preaching caution and circumspection over bolder, unapologetic actions and sweeping reforms. As a member of a progressive caucus that is likely to grow, particularly if Democrats pick up seats in competitive districts, Jones could be poised to influence policy by pushing his fellow lawmakers to adopt bolder, more economically-populist stances when it comes to policy, particularly on domestic issues — much like the Tea Party movement pushed Republicans rightward and made them more deferential to populist tendencies during Barack Obama’s presidency.

As a millennial lawmaker with an active Twitter account who enjoys strong support from grassroots activists, Jones will also be afforded a platform that allows him to lay out a comprehensive, and more progressive vision for America’s future, reaching large numbers of people without having to go through traditional media outlets or be worried about having his statements filtered or misrepresented.

Jones’ personal story is very much an American one, rising from relative poverty to a Department of Justice civilian employee to a lawyer over the course of his 33 years, and now just months from being elected to Congress.

The only son of a single mother living in Spring Valley, N.Y., and partially raised by his grandparents, Jones’ rise to power is a testament to his perseverance and his lifelong desire — starting with a stint on the NAACP Youth Council as a teenager — to push for reform and radical changes aimed at bettering the lives of working 48

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families like his own.

Speaking to activist DeRay Mckesson on the podcast Pod Save the People last year, Jones reflected on the historical significance of his candidacy, telling Mckesson, “When I was growing up poor, black and gay, it would have made my life so much easier to be able to look to an openly gay Black member of Congress...because that would have been direct evidence for me that things really do get better.

“So while I’m not running to be the first openly gay Black member of Congress, I am definitely acutely aware of the fact that I’m already making a difference in the lives of young people who are paying attention to this campaign, and folks you might not even imagine, who are older than I am, saying, ‘You know what? I’m really proud of you. You’re giving our community great confidence to be our authentic selves,’ and that representation cannot be underestimated.”

METRO WEEKLY: Let’s talk about your childhood.

Where did you grow up?

MONDAIRE JONES: I grew up in the village of Spring Valley. It is a working-class community of about 30,000 people in Rockland County, which is a suburb of New York City. I grew up in Section 8 housing and on food stamps, and my young, single mother still had to work multiple jobs to put food on the table for us. She got help raising me from my grandparents. My grandfather was a janitor and my grandmother cleaned homes, and when daycare was too expensive she took me to work with her. So now I get to run to represent the same people whose homes I watched my grandmother clean, growing up.

MW: What were you like as a child?

JONES: I was very active in school, and I was a really good student. I was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities. In fact, my foray into politics was as a freshman at Spring Valley High School, when I saw how difficult it was to pass a public school budget in the East Ramapo Central School District. And of course, a passing of the school budget is something that most politicians take for granted, but not so in my district.

And so I reactivated the Spring Valley NAACP

Youth Council, and we registered people to vote, and we got out the vote, and we passed those school budgets. Unfortunately, that same school district does not provide the same quality education that I received when I was growing up.

That experience in my freshman year of high school was instructive, because it was really a stark example of the failure of government, and of government officials, to do right by the people they were supposed to serve. It has been a school board that does not provide sufficient resources to the public school students it represents. And that is true of the school board today.

At the time that I got involved in the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Council, we still had a majority on a school board that cared about pub-

involved in campaigns, like increasing faculty and graduate student diversity on campus, and fighting for a living wage for dining hall and maintenance workers. Gender neutrality was also another issue that I championed.

MW: Let’s talk about some of those campaigns and how they worked.

JONES: The big issues tend to be the ones that are intractable, and so it took many years to get the university to allocate more resources to recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and graduate students. That is still a challenge at Stanford University. The fight for a living wage was unsuccessful, unfortunately, when I was there. But some of the tactics that we used were getting the Undergraduate Senate and Graduate

“I’VE EXPERIENCED MORE RACISM THAN HOMOPHOBIA ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, INCLUDING FROM THE WHITE GAY COMMUNITY. I called...a leader in the gay community who said he wished he could support me, but does not believe I can serve my black religious community and the gay community at the same time.”

lic education. And there were some members of the school board who did not, but there was always a need for government intervention that never happened at the state level.

MW: What happened after you graduated from high school?

JONES: I went to Stanford University, where I studied political science and minored in African and African-American studies, and got increasingly in progressive causes.

When I was 19 years old, I was elected chair of a committee on the National Board of Directors for the NAACP. I got involved in the student government, first as a member of Frosh Council, then as an Undergraduate Senator, where I chaired the Campus Advocacy Committee. And then it was as student body vice president, and throughout my time there, I was getting

Student Council to pass resolutions. It was meeting with administrators, it was rallying students at both the undergraduate and graduate student levels to make these issues salient and to pressure the administrators to make concessions.

MW: You mentioned some of those campaigns weren’t successful. What lessons did you take away from the losses?

JONES: That change is not easy. That the kind of progress that we want to see in the world is often hard-fought and long-suffering work. And we’ll get there, we've gotten there in other areas of life. I didn’t think that, for most of my life, an openly gay, black candidate could be elected to Congress, and I’m changing that right now in real time. And I didn’t think that there would be an openly gay candidate for a Democratic nomination who would be a leading contender for a AUGUST 27, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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period of time. And Mayor Pete did that.

MW: What was your first job after graduating?

JONES: It was at the Department of Justice, in the Office of Legal Policy. Not to be confused with the Office of Legal Counsel. I had a postgraduate fellowship from Stanford University, it was a public service fellowship, that I used to

sabotaged health care reform during the Obama administration.

JONES: Absolutely. And that process was concurrent with my time at the Department of Justice. Barack Obama would hold these roundtables where people like Paul Ryan would just talk so disrespectfully to him, and again, not in

“It is dishonest to make the observation that the average person is susceptible to racial bias, but somehow police officers are inoculated from that same racial bias.

POLICE OFFICERS ARE PEOPLE, SO WE HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THERE IS AN ISSUE OFRACISM IN POLICING.”

spend a year at the Department of Justice. And within the Office of Legal Policy, I vetted candidates for federal justice, and I co-authored a report to Attorney General Holder on criminal justice reform.

MW: What did that work teach you?

JONES: Well, my greatest lesson was that Democrats have got to be fighting harder for the things we say we believe in, because when I was in the Office of Legal Policy, the media were writing articles on the historically slow pace at which we were confirming nominees to the federal judiciary. And that was because we did not make the kind of rules changes in the U.S. Senate, that subsequently were made, which accelerated that process. We were too indulgent in Republican obstruction.

We were too patient with Republicans who were not acting in good faith, and I can bring that sense with me to Congress, because I do not believe that Republicans in Congress operate in good faith. We have seen that under the presidency of Donald Trump, where they enable his worst impulses and never criticize him, nor seek to meaningfully hold him accountable.

MW: Some people would say that it started prior to that, looking at the way that Republicans 50

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good faith. He was negotiating with people who did not want to see any health care reform in this country, besides the fact that leaders of the party, such as Ronald Reagan, had previously come out in support of health care reform in another era. It was an effort to prevent him from getting any wins because he was a Democrat.

And that is somehow a more tame Republican Party than what we find today.

MW: Populism is ascendant, not just in the United States but globally. There are populist messages in the progressive platform that appeal to many people, but Donald Trump also offers a brand of populism, one that invokes strident nationalism, isolationism, and restrictive policies regarding racial justice or immigration. How do you differentiate them for voters?

JONES: Populism does not have to be infused with racism and misogyny and xenophobia, and Islamophobia in the way that Donald Trump’s brand of populism is. And, to be sure, Donald Trump is not, from my perspective, a populist.

He is a plutocrat who masquerades as a populist. But any superficial assessment of his time in office, I think, really reveals him to be someone who is not meaningfully committed to the American people, and to working-class people.

MW: What is the current status of progressives in

this year, as they did in 2016? the Democratic party?

JONES: It remains to be seen what progressives JONES: The progressive movement in American will do in November. I'm working in earnest politics is ascendent. The progressives have to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the next never had more power, and in national and president and vice president of the United States local politics. We see that in New York State, of America. where the Democratic Socialists of America MW: Is there some type of outreach from the just had a clean sweep in their state legislative Biden-Harris campaign, or some policy they could races, including against numerous incumbents push, that would make them more palatable to backed by the political establishment, which some progressives? was unthinkable even a few years ago because JONES: Let me give credit to Joe Biden for the of what was perceived to be the power of the task force that he has assembled, consisting of machines in New York City. people like AOC, and one of the leaders in the MW: When the Tea Party movement was growing Sunrise Movement, and Pramila Jayapal when in 2010, Republicans embraced it and attempted it comes to healthcare. She is the author of the to co-opt the movement, successfully using its Medicare For All Act on the House side. So energy to propel the party to huge political gains. Biden has definitely made overtures, and I think Why isn’t the Democratic Party doing the same thing with the progressive movement?

JONES: Because too many people in leadership within the Democratic party are still traumatized from losses in But any superficial assessment of his time in office the 1980s, and have failed to reveals him to be someone who is not meaningfully fully appreciate and meet the moment. Americans want big committed to the American people.” structural changes for our most intractable problems. And, instead, despite that even some of the policy recommendations the fact that a majority of the American people that have come out of these task forces show support Medicare for All, in the midst of a global that he has moved in a progressive direction pandemic, no less, that policy item was soundly from where he started out as a candidate for defeated by the DNC’s Platform Committee. president this cycle. But much more work needs The legalization of marijuana is largely pop- to be done, including in the area of criminal jusular with the American people. And so many tice reform. states have gone ahead and done what the fed- MW: How do you see the desire for criminal justice eral government should have done a long time reform playing out politically? ago, and legalized cannabis. Yet the Democratic JONES: I see it playing out in the context of the Party’s Platform Committee rejected the legal- most progressive Congress this country has ever ization of marijuana as a policy item, soundly. seen. And one that will have significantly more And did so in the midst of mass incarceration of black leaders who are young and energetic, and Black and Hispanic people, who are the base of not holding back when it comes to the pervasive, the Democratic Party. powerful, systemic racism infecting all corridors MW: On that note, are you concerned about the of our society. And one that will hold Joe Biden Biden-Harris campaign and their relationship to and Kamala Harris accountable for the things progressives? Are progressives going to stay home that they say that they care about. By the way, I

“DONALD TRUMP IS NOT, FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, A POPULIST. HE IS A PLUTOCRAT WHO MASQUERADES AS A POPULIST.

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think that will take the form of a partnership. I think people want to do the right thing and need some encouragement.

And to be fair to Kamala, [she] has shown leadership on criminal justice reform. Joe Biden, not so much, but she has worked with Cory Booker on a significant bill, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

I am less critical of her work as the District Attorney of San Francisco, understanding where our society was at the time, in terms of political thought, and what we imagined to be possible.

But now there's a new consensus. And that consensus has existed for years now, including during her tenure as Attorney General of California. So we have standards that should have always existed but that people, increasingly, are willing to hold people accountable

have adequate numbers of social workers who are helping people deal with any number of root causes of criminality, and that we are creating jobs for people so they don’t have to resort to some of the crimes that we have seen. Data also matters in that we should be making the observation that crime has been going down in our cities, including in New York.

We have seen, for example, that we’ve seen a major reduction in the use of stop-and-frisk. In fact Bill de Blasio ran on that. And crime has not been impacted by that. In fact, the data showed that nearly all of the people stopped and frisked did not have evidence of a crime on them. It was a racist tactic used to terrorize Black and Brown communities.

MW: How do we ensure that police officers are following certain protocols or practices, but that we’re also not relying on cops to be social workers “Medicare for All is the only policy that would instead of law enforceliterally ensure everybody in this country has ment officers?

JONES: I think there's a health care. In the midst of a global pandemic, role for police officers, and law enforcement officers generally, to play in our society. But I think there has been an overreliance on those officers. I think there’s been an abject refusal to. And I am optimistic that Joe Biden and to acknowledge the racism that pervades law Kamala Harris will rise to the occasion with the enforcement agencies in our society. encouragement and legislative support of people It is so intellectually dishonest to make the like myself, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Cory observation that, or acknowledge that, the averBooker on the Senate side. Hakeem Jeffries, on age person is susceptible to racial bias, but the House side, has shown leadership on crimi- somehow police officers are inoculated from nal justice reform. that same racial bias. Police officers are people, MW: Where exactly do you stand on criminal and so we have to acknowledge that there is an justice, in terms of defunding or abolishing the issue — as the vast majority of Americans now police? feel when you look at the polls — of racism in JONES: Some people do advocate abolition, I'm policing, and the way that racism exists elsenot an abolitionist but I do believe that signs where in our society. matter and data matters. And the research Teachers, by the way, should also not be shows that we improve public safety by fully social workers. Social workers should be social funding and providing quality public education workers. We need more of them, we need more to every kid in America. And by ensuring that we school psychologists, we need to fully fund our

IT IS UNTENABLE AND UNCIVILIZED FOR HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY TO BE TIED LARGELY TO EMPLOYMENT.”

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public schools, and that means making available more extracurricular opportunities to get kids off the street. When you fully fund your public schools, you get better teachers who are going to spend more time inspiring kids and providing them the education that they deserve, so that they can compete in the job market and not have to resort to activities that are illegal.

MW: What have been some of the challenges of running as an openly gay candidate? We can look at what's going on in Massachusetts with Alex Morse, and the homophobic undertones of some of the attacks against him, and there is some concern that the controversy could have a chilling effect on LGBTQ people deciding to run for office.

JONES: I’ve experienced more racism than I've experienced homophobia on the campaign trail, including from the white gay community. I definitely remember calling a prospective donor who holds himself out to the world as being a leader in the gay community, and asking him for a contribution, and before I could even introduce myself to him, he’s telling me that he wishes he could support me, but he does not believe that I can serve my black religious community and the gay community at the same time. Which was extraordinary, because I rarely go to church.

And then, I think more infamously, there was a local organization that holds itself out to the world as being for the advancement of the LGBTQ+ community, and that organization endorsed my white, straight, cisgender opponent who did not so much as have an LGBTQ platform on his website, despite the fact that I was outperforming him by any number of conceivable metrics, whether it's fundraising or polling, grassroots support, and certainly endorsements.

MW: When we look at the two biggest issues championed by progressives, it’s often Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Are those essential to someone defining themselves as a progressive, or do they need to go further and also reject corporate PAC money?

JONES: Progressive means different things to different people. Here’s something I would look for. We know that [Congresswoman] Katie

Porter flipped her seat from red to blue running on a platform of Medicare for All. She will tell you that she won because of her advocacy for Medicare for All. I know Republicans who support Medicare for All. Certainly, if you are in a safely Democratic district, there is no reason why you should not be in support of Medicare for All. It is the only policy that would literally ensure everybody in this country has health care. A public option does not do that, and in the midst of a global pandemic where we have seen 40 million people lose their jobs over the span of 10 weeks, it is untenable and uncivilized for health care in this country to be tied largely to employment.

MW: Do you see Medicare for All as a way to lessen the disparities in health care, and particularly amid the COVID pandemic, for LGBTQ folks and people of color?

JONES: Absolutely. We’ve seen Black and Hispanic people unfortunately succumb to COVID-19 because of the disproportionately high rate of underlying illnesses in those communities. Underlying illnesses that largely would not have developed were there greater access to quality health care in those communities.

We know that the LGBTQ community is disproportionately challenged with getting necessary medical care, including access to life-saving medication, and preventative medication as well, like PrEP. So Medicare for all, one feature of that is capping the cost of prescription drugs annually at $200.

MW: Assuming they win in November, what do you think is the biggest mistake that a Democratic administration could make policy-wise, in terms of the boldness and the shape and size of their agenda?

JONES: Not recognizing that the progressive movement is ascendant in American politics, including within the Democratic Party, and to ignore that reality, as we shape policy for the American people.

For more information on Mondaire Jones’ campaign for Congress, visit www.mondaireforcongress.com.

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Gallery

Judy Thomas, Caladium

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Beautiful but Deadly

NTER THE EXHIBIT AT YOUR PERIL,” the Athenaeum cautions about its latest offering, a chance for visitors to journey “down a twisted path into a shadowy world.”

One of the first local galleries to reopen last month, the stately Greek revival structure in Old Town currently showcases the pretty but poisonous world of houseplants, wildflowers, and hothouse blooms, in selections from the Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region, a nonprofit consisting of professional and semi-professional artists and illustrators 54

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who specialize in botanical depictions both scientifically precise and aesthetically appealing.

Lara Call Gastinger and Elena Balmaseda Scherer served as jurors for the exhibition, selecting 32 works from 16 member artists along with a handout detailing the specific properties that make the featured plants dangerous if not poisonous. The display includes watercolors by Marsha Ogden and Ann Lesciotto focused on tulips, the bulbs of which have occasionally been mistaken for onions, while all parts save for the petals contain toxic compounds that can cause

Mary Sawhill, Pokeweed

Carol Beach, Oleander

Paula Tobenfeld, Lily Told Bud

Marsha Ogden, Angel Trumpets

skin irritation, dizziness, sweating, abdominal pain, heart palpitation, sometimes even convulsions and death.

Also featured in the exhibition, which can be viewed in full on the Athenaeum’s website, is Pamela Mason’s colored pencil drawing of the most poisonous common plant, the ornamental Castor Bean (Ricinus communis), whose seeds are deadly to humans; a watercolor

Lee D’Zmura, Amaryllis

from Mary Page Hickey of Holly berries, which can cause diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and drowsiness if ingested by humans; and Esther Carpi’s “Citrus Trilogy,” watercolor/colored pencil depictions of a pink grapefruit, tangerine, and “Filipo Lime,” all of which are nutritious and high in vitamin C for humans but contain oils and compounds toxic to many varieties of human pets including cats and dogs.

On display during regular gallery hours, Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m., through Sept. 6. Located at 201 Prince St., in Alexandria. Call 703-548-0035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

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Movies

Maybe It’s Maybelline Stage Mother works overtime to entertain, but everything doesn’t come up roses. By André Hereford

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HOM FITZGERALD’S STAGE MOTHER (HHHHH) sets out on a rainbow-tinted road to acceptance and reconciliation, skipping, tripping, and montaging its way to an unconvincing finish. Two-time Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) stars as Maybelline Metcalf, a Southern Baptist choir mistress who inherits a San Francisco drag bar from her recently deceased and long-estranged gay son, Ricky. Within moments of receiving that fateful call, and against the wishes of her obstinately unaccepting husband, Jeb (Hugh Thompson), Maybelline is off to the Castro to see that their beloved boy is properly put to rest.

A happily conservative Texan, she nevertheless takes it in stride that she’s the new owner of Ricky’s struggling Pandora’s Box. Despite clashing with the club’s manager, Nathan (Entourage’s Adrian Grenier), who is also her son’s grieving lover, Maybelline is determined to whip the place into shape. Brad Hennig’s script supplies plenty of problems to solve among the cast of queens who perform at Pandora’s Box, including Cherry 56

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Poppins (Mya Taylor), Tequila Mockingbird (Oscar Moreno), Joan of Arkansas (Allister MacDonald), and drag mother Dusty Muffin (an underused Jackie Beat). The drag names are more entertaining than the drag performances, even those intended to excite and inspire.

Maybelline’s main innovation for the club is to direct the girls away from lip-syncing for their lives, encouraging them instead to sing out live. Warbling cover tunes — like a sad, slowed-down version of “Finally” — and a few ear-pleasing originals, including group number “He Ain’t Mr. Right,” the cast don’t put on a substantially better show after Maybelline gets involved.

But that doesn’t alter the movie’s course — apparently, this Southern lady has just the right touch to somehow turn a drag piano bar into the toast of the continues on page 56

CARLOS SANTOLOLLA

Music

Ponying Up The enigmatic Orville Peck’s plaintive classic country EP is a perfect send-off to a lonely pandemic-stricken summer. By Sean Maunier

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NYONE WHO LISTENED TO ORVILLE PECK’S DEBUT album Pony can tell you that his carefully crafted melancholy loner persona goes far deeper than his signature fringe masks. True, country aesthetics are having a bit of an extended moment right now, but if Peck hasn’t already proven himself to be more than a one-off gimmick, his follow-up EP, Show Pony (HHHHH) drives the point home. On its opener, “Summertime,” Peck delivers an emotional gut punch with his Johnny Cash-adjacent vocals coming close to breaking over the refrain, “I miss summertime.” In any other year, it would have been eyebrow-raisingly odd to release a song nostalgic for summer at the beginning of the season and now leading an album released in the waning weeks of summer, but in fact, Peck couldn’t have picked a better time for it.

Peck keeps up a streak of heavy-handed downers with “No Glory in the West” and “Kids,” but just when the lonely cowboy vibes start to weigh a little too heavy, he picks up the mood with “Legends Never Die,” a duet with pop-country legend Shania Twain. A collaboration between a queer country artist and a gay icon of sorts could have easily leaned into full camp, but instead ends up as a timeless radio-friendly number. It’s a little more upbeat than what Peck usually goes for and a little more subdued than Shania’s biggest hits, the two coming together in the middle for a moment of pure pop-country levity. On top of everything, the pair clearly have had a lot of fun working together, and their joy on the track and the recently released video is infec-

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tious.

Peck is definitely at home playing with the styles and themes of classic country, but is also not shy about bringing a level of overt queerness into his work. Recalling the over-the-top glamorous western drag pageantry of “Queen of the Rodeo,” the music video for “Legends Never Die” features a handful of notable cameos, including a voiceover

by John Waters and an appearance from Drag Race winner Jaida Essence Hall.

Beyond the in-your-face queerness of the video is the more subversive queerness of his cover of Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy.” Covering “Fancy” at all is a bold choice for the deepvoiced crooner like Peck, and he leans into it hard, putting an unexpectedly dark spin on it

with a palpable anger in his voice and thudding instrumentals that bring out new levels of intensity and pathos in an already iconic song.

Peck also gives us a touching homoromantic moment on “Drive Me, Crazy,” a song that tells a lonely yet touching story of one trucker pining for another.

Orville Peck gracefully walks this line between the romantic solitary masculinity of the imaginary old west Show Pony EP and a specific sort of queerness that may appear to sit uncomfortably alongside it, but has always been there for those who have cared to look for it. As brief as Show Pony is, it is a clever, haunting collection of songs that shows a somewhat more versatile side of the mysterious gay cowboy that Pony introduced us to.

Show Pony is now available to stream and purchase.

Orville Peck’s Second Annual Rodeo will livestream from the Vogue Theatre on Sunday August 29 at 9 p.m. ET. Featuring remote performances by Evil, Dale Hollow & the Long Con, Louisiana Purchase and Miss Toto. Tickets are $15. Visit https://orvillepeck.veeps.com. continued from page 54

Castro. In fact, she works all kinds of wonders.

Been rejected by your mother, your ex, dealing with substance abuse or abusive boyfriends?

Just hand it over to Maybelline and she’ll fix it.

Weaver is endearing when tossing off Maybelline’s ready comebacks, but her solid performance can’t disguise the eye-rollingly simplistic treatment of this lot’s litany of woes.

Grenier brings depth and persuasive anger to his take on the loyal lover, and Lucy Liu is delightful as Ricky’s best friend, the chain-smoking single mom Sienna, but they’re basically props in Maybelline’s triumph.

She is a force who requires only a conversation or two to right everyone’s wrongs through warmth and understanding — which seriously calls into question the movie’s basic premise: that this woman had abandoned her relationship with her child due to a stubborn refusal to meet him halfway. Maybelline sees the error of her ways so early in the film, we never see her change.

Rather, we see a story of a conservative straight woman dropping in like Mary Poppins to heal all the fucked up queer folks and allies. That’s probably not director Fitzgerald’s intended message, but there it is, dressed up in sequins and heels.

Stage Mother is currently available on VOD. Visit www.facebook.com/stagemother2020.

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RetroScene

Pride of Pets, June 2006 - Photography by Ward Morrison For even more #RetroScene, follow us on Instagram at @MetroWeekly.

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RetroScene

Cobalt, June 2006 - Photography by Henry Linser For even more #RetroScene, follow us on Instagram at @MetroWeekly.

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“This is window dressing held up as a major accomplishment by Ric Grenell, with no actual credible victory.”

—LUCAS ACOSTA, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, speaking to the Daily Beast about the Trump administration’s plan to push for the decriminailzation of homosexuality globally — something Grenell, gay former ambassador to Germany, heavily touted when it was announced last year. Julie Dorf, a senior adviser at the Council for Global Equality, called the campaign a “sham” with no “major breakthroughs.”

“I guess the differentiator is one administration would believe in LGBTQ+ people and the other doesn’t.”

—CHASTEN BUTTIGIEG, speaking to FOX 11 LA about the difference between the Trump administration and a potential Biden administration.

Speaking about Sen. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Buttigieg said, “As a teacher, I’m always thinking about what my kids are seeing. I hope soon they’ll be seeing an empathetic, compassionate, loving Vice President like Kamala Harris speaking on the television and not a bigoted, homophobic president like the one we have in the White House right now.”

“He blames the whole thing on his wife...

STFU and go back to the corner Jerry.”

—Former congresswoman KATIE HILL, one of the first out bisexual people elected to Congress, in a tweet directed at anti-LGBTQ evangelical Jerry Falwell Jr., who resigned as president of Liberty University amid claims of a sex scandal involving Falwell, his wife, and a younger man.

“It’s a pile on. And it’s racist. And for what? Clout? Bet you would have loved a good old fashioned public stoning.”

—Drag Race UK star CRYSTAL, in a tweet after Canada’s Drag Race judge Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman quit Twitter over harassment from fans of the show. Bowyer-Chapman’s judging style has drawn criticism, but Crystal noted, “The main arguments I’ve seen are accusations of ‘inauthenticity’ (as if YOU know what’s authentic for him), and bad critiques (but none of the other judges are getting that half as hard).”

“It has been an injustice that I have lived.

What I have had to go through has been hell.”

—MIGUEL BEDOY, former anchor for Telemundo Denver, speaking to YouTube show Chisme No Like about a lawsuit he has filed accusing his former boss, Griselle Sierra, of labour exploitation, homophobia and racism. Bedoy said that he was subjected to homophobic abuse when Sierra learned he is gay, including being called “sissy,” and that she refused to allow his partner to join him at an Emmys ceremony.

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