Washingtonblade.com, Volume 49, Issue 49, December 7, 2018

DECEMBER 07,

2018

VOLUME 49

ISSUE 49

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50 YEARS AS AMERICA’S LGBTQ NEWS SOURCE

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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

Bush unsupportive on gay rights, AIDS Longtime activist Larry Kramer: ‘He hated us’

By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com Following the death of former President George H.W. Bush at age 94, the nation remembers him for his civil tone in contrast to President Trump and for helping bring the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union to a peaceful conclusion — but his legacy on LGBT rights and failure to confront the raging HIV/AIDS epidemic at the time remain a stain on his overall record.

A memorial service was held at National Cathedral on Wednesday and Bush was to be laid to rest in Texas on Thursday.

Gay former Rep. Barney Frank, whose 32-year tenure in Congress included the George H.W. Bush administration from 1989 to 1992, told the Washington Blade in an interview the late former president “was bad” on LGBT rights and “wouldn’t do anything” to advance them.

“I asked him, for example, to rescind the Eisenhower rule that said we couldn’t get security clearances,” Frank said. “He refused to do it.

Bill Clinton did a few years later.”

Frank also said Bush refused to roll back military’s ban on gay service members, which was administrative and not statutory in the days before the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law of 1993.

“Bush was simply unsupportive on any issue,” Frank added.

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By CHRIS JOHNSON cjohnson@washblade.com President Trump agreed last week to an updated trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that includes aspirational language encouraging member states to adopt policies against LGBT discrimination in the workforce — although it has been watered down from the initial proposal.

Colin Shonk, a spokesperson for the Canadian embassy in the CONTINUES ON PAGE 12

Former President GEORGE H.W. BUSH continued many of the anti-LGBT policies of the Reagan administration.

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Boyfriend gets six years for killing former ANC commissioner Family, friends struggle in courtroom over domestic violence attack

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge on Nov. 28, sentenced the boyfriend of gay former D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Antonio Barnes, 27, to six years in prison for the March 14 stabbing that led to Barnes’ death in what prosecutors have called an act of domestic violence that they don’t believe was intended to kill Barnes.

With grieving family members of both men looking on, Judge Michael Pearson sentenced Canaan Jeremiah Peterson, 24, to the maximum sentence of 25 years for a single charge of first-degree assault, but suspended all but six years of the time to be served in prison.

Pearson also sentenced Peterson to five years of supervised probation upon his release from prison. The judge said he would subtract from the six-year prison term the eight months and two weeks that Peterson has spent in jail since the time of his arrest on April 13.

Under Maryland law, Peterson could be ordered to serve the full 25-year sentence if he violates the terms of his probation upon release by getting arrested again.

The sentencing came after Assistant P.G. County State’s Attorney Jonathan Church, the lead prosecutor in the case, stated that a plea agreement had been reached in October in which Peterson pled guilty to a single count of first-degree assault in exchange for prosecutors dropping four additional charges.

The dropped charges included two counts of Involuntary Manslaughter, one count of Common Law Involuntary Manslaughter/Unlawful Act, and one count of Wear and Carry a Dangerous Weapon with Intent to Injure.

Shortly after Peterson’s arrest in April prosecutors dropped a charge of first-degree murder with which Prince George’s County police initially charged Peterson. A spokesperson for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office said the decision to drop the murder charge was based on evidence that Peterson stabbed Barnes in the upper leg, while the two were fighting, which severed an artery that caused Barnes to bleed to death.

The spokesperson, John Erzen, told the Washington Blade that prosecutors didn’t believe the evidence supported a first-degree murder charge, among other things, because Peterson and Barnes were in a relationship and it would be difficult to prove to a jury that Peterson intended to kill Barnes.

Former ANC member ANTONIO BARNES was stabbed to death in March.

Peterson told police and his family members that the stabbing, which took place outside Barnes’ mother’s home in Hyattsville, Md., where Barnes was living at the time, was an accident that happened while the two men were fighting.

Barnes’ mother, Alethea Barnes, and his sister, Destiny Barnes, appeared to disagree strongly with the plea agreement when they spoke at the sentencing hearing to provide their recommendation to the judge as part of a victim impact statement. Both asked Pearson to sentence Peterson to serve the full 25-year maximum sentence for the first-degree assault charge.

“My son did not deserve this,” Alethea Barnes told Pearson. “It shouldn’t have happened this way,” she said. “I’m requesting the maximum sentence so this can’t happen again to someone else.”

Destiny Barnes told the court her family tried to help Peterson and showed him support and respect, making it especially devastating that his behavior would lead to her brother’s death.

“On March 14, my brother died alone that day,” she said. “Nobody reached out to our family.”

Also speaking at the hearing was Sharron Peterson, Canaan Peterson’s mother. She apologized to Barnes’ family members for what she called an “accident” that led to Barnes’ death.

“Canaan had some issues,” she said.

“I had him go to a psychiatrist. He had depression and he was self-medicating with alcohol,” she told the court. “He and Antonio loved each other. A lot of the things that went on were due to selfmedication with alcohol.”

A man who identified himself as Steven and said he was Peterson’s cousin told

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINKEDIN

the judge he and the Peterson family do not believe Peterson is a murderer.

“This wasn’t a hate crime,” he said. “It was more a mental health problem. The actual reason why this took place has not been dealt with,” he said, adding, “They both drank before this took place.

Intoxication and mental health is the root cause of this problem.”

Steven’s claim that both men had been drinking on the day of the fatal stabbing and the drinking as a factor in what happened prompted Destiny Barnes to shout from her seat in the courtroom, “That is not true. That’s a lie.”

When she continued to shout her disagreement with Steven’s statement as Judge Pearson called on her to remain silent a guard escorted Destiny Barnes out of the courtroom.

After the family members spoke and before handing down his sentence Pearson said there appeared to be confusion among some family members about the plea agreement. He noted that the agreement included the request for a sentence of 25 years with all but six years to be suspended.

“What I can speak to is the parties came to me and presented an agreement for the defendant to be sentenced to serve six years,” he said. “Under this agreement the most I can give is six years.”

Pearson also pointed out that he received letters from people who knew Barnes and who requested that he hand down the maximum sentence of 25 years for Peterson, something he said he could not do.

Among those who wrote a letter to Pearson was gay Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alex Padro, who served with Barnes during the two years that

Barnes himself was an elected member of ANC 6E, which represents parts of the city’s Shaw and Sursum Corda neighborhoods.

“With his honest, friendly and endearing manner, Antonio Barnes was welcome and embraced” by those in the community who knew him, Padro states in his letter. “His work ethic was admired by all who experienced it. His loyalty and love of family were uncompromising,” Padro says in his letter.

“Out of all the challenges that Antonio Barnes faced and overcame in his short life, no one would have thought that his end would come at the hands of someone he loved and who claimed to love him,” the letter continues. “For what he stole from Antonio Barnes, from his family, from his friends and colleagues, myself included, from our community, and from the world, Canaan Jeremiah Peterson deserves to be incarcerated for 25 years, the longest sentence you are able to impose.”

What wasn’t mentioned at the sentencing hearing was Barnes’ decision about six months before his death to decline to cooperate with prosecutors in Baltimore after Peterson was arrested on multiple assault charges for attacking Barnes with a knife at Peterson’s mother’s home in Baltimore, where he was living at the time.

Police and court records in Baltimore show that in August 2017 Baltimore police arrested Peterson on nine assaultrelated charges as well as a destruction of property charge for allegedly attacking Barnes and Peterson’s mother with a knife. A Baltimore police charging document says the attack took place when Peterson appeared to be in a fit of rage in which he ransacked the house “on all three floors.”

A police report says Barnes received a superficial cut from the attack before he was able to subdue Peterson.

In a development that experts on domestic violence say is not uncommon, both Barnes and Peterson’s mother, who was also assaulted by her son during the attack, refused to cooperate with prosecutors, resulting in prosecutors dropping the charges.

Erzen, the spokesperson for the P.G. County prosecutors’ office, said Assistant State’s Attorney Church met with Barnes’ family members, including his mother and sister, in the courthouse after the sentencing hearing to clear up what appeared to be confusion over the plea agreement.

“We met with the family four times prior to the plea and did not offer a plea until they heard it and agreed with it,” Erzen told the Blade.

Alethea Barnes declined to comment when asked at the courthouse following the sentencing about her understanding of the plea agreement.

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D.C. Council approves 3 pro-LGBT measures Gay activist Rosenstein confirmed as mayoral appointee

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com The D.C. Council on Tuesday gave final approval for one LGBT supportive bill and preliminary approval to another in addition to passing a “Sense of the Council” resolution supporting the transgender community in response to the Trump administration’s recent antitrans policies.

The Council also voted unanimously to confirm D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s nomination of gay activist and former association CEO Peter Rosenstein to the five-member board of the D.C. Office of Employee Appeals. The office serves as an independent city agency that adjudicates appeals by D.C. government employees of adverse personnel actions such as firings, demotions or suspensions.

In its action on one of the two LGBT supportive bills, the Council gave final approval in a unanimous “second reading” vote for the Conversion Therapy for Consumers Under a Conservatorship or Guardianship Amendment Act of 2018.

The bill, introduced by Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), calls for banning licensed mental health practitioners from “engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with a consumer for whom a conservator or guardian has been appointed.”

The bill is needed because “an individual whose medical decisions are made by a guardian or conservator is in a dependent status and could be subject to conversion therapy against their will,” according to testimony in support of the bill earlier this year by Dr. Marc E.

Council member MARY CHEH’s bill calls for banning licensed mental health practitioners from ‘engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with a consumer for whom a conservator or guardian has been appointed.’

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

Dalton, Chief Clinical Officer at the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health.

Dalton and other witnesses supporting the bill pointed out that all mainline U.S. professional medical and mental health organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, oppose conversion therapy on grounds that it is ineffective and has been found to greatly increase the risk of depression, guilt, shame, substance abuse and suicide among those who undergo the so-called therapy.

Bowser was expected to sign the measure, which would send it to Capitol Hill for a required 30 legislative day review by Congress that all D.C. legislation must undergo.

Its approval on Tuesday came four years after the Council passed the Conversion Therapy for Minors Prohibition Act of 2014, which bans licensed mental health professionals from performing “therapy” to change the sexual orientation of people under the age of 18 from gay to straight.

That measure became law in March 2015 after clearing its congressional review.

In its Tuesday session the Council also voted unanimously in a “first reading”

vote to give preliminary approval for the LGBTQ Health Data Collection Amendment Act of 2018.

The bill, introduced jointly by all 13 Council members in June, requires the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education to arrange for high school and some middle school students in the city’s public school and public charter school system to take an annual survey developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention known as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

The bill calls for public school system officials to include questions in the confidential survey questionnaire that ask about the students’ sexual orientation and gender identity.

The bill also requires the city’s Department of Health to participate in a separate CDC national survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and to include questions related to the sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression of respondents in the survey’s questionnaire.

In addition, the legislation requires

DOH to collaborate with the city’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs on an annual LGBTQ health report.

DOH and D.C. public schools officials have said the two agencies have already included LGBT-related questions in the two CDC sponsored surveys. But a report on the bill released by the Council’s Committee on Education notes that the school system and DOH have not included LGBT-related questions in the surveys consistently each year or each time they have been administered.

D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At-Large), who serves as chair of the Council’s Education Committee, said the legislation is also needed to ensure that the city retains LGBT-related questions in the surveys in the event that the Trump administration pressures the CDC to omit such questions.

The bill is expected to come up for a second and final vote before the D.C. Council later this month.

The third LGBT measure approved by the Council on Tuesday, the “Sense of the Council in Support of Transgender, Intersex, and Gender Non-Conforming Communities Resolution of 2018,” also passed by unanimous voice vote.

Grosso, who introduced the resolution along with nine of his Council colleagues, said it was aimed at putting the city on record in strong opposition to the recent Trump administration policy declaring that for purposes of federal government actions, a person’s gender would be defined as their gender assigned at birth.

Transgender and LGBT rights organizations immediately denounced the policy as an attempt to “erase” transgender people from existence for purposes of federal civil rights protections.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

Baltimore police seek help in investigation of trans murder Woman found shot to death on street

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com Baltimore police are appealing for help from the public in their investigation into the Nov. 26 shooting death of a transgender woman who was found unconscious on a street after neighbors called police to report a shooting.

Police spokesperson T.J. Smith told the Baltimore Sun in an interview recorded on video that a transgender woman was found unconscious on the side of a street on the 2400 block of Guilford Avenue about 4:15 a.m. on Monday. He said the woman

was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

“At this time we don’t have a lot to go on,” Smith said in the interview. “We know there was some sort of argument that took place and during that argument it looks like a person – one individual – pulled out a gun and shot the female and left her on the side of the road.”

Added Smith, “What we know is a dark colored vehicle left the scene at a high rate of speed.” He said police were withholding the identity of the victim pending notification of next of kin.

In a Facebook posting, the Baltimore Transgender Alliance identified the murdered woman by the first name Tydi.

“We deeply mourn the passing of Tydi and

send our condolences to her family, friends, and the entire transgender and gender nonconforming community throughout Maryland and beyond,” the group said in its posting.

It said a vigil would be held in Tydi’s honor on Friday, Nov. 30 at a location and time to be announced.

Smith said a police official informed members of the department’s LGBT Advisory Committee about the murder in a conference call this week.

“And there is going to be some outreach to the advocacy groups in reference to this,” he said.

“Obviously, when we’re talking about a murder of a transgender person – that’s a Baltimore community that has had some issues in the past,” he said. “And

right now we’re trying to figure out what precipitated this murder.”

Smith urged anyone with information that could help police find the person responsible for the murder to call the police homicide office at 410-396-2199 or send a text tip at 443-902-4824.

News of the transgender woman’s murder follows the Nov. 8 murder of a Baltimore gay man who was found dead in his apartment on Saint Paul Street. A homicide detective told the Washington Blade that police ruled the death of Brendon Michaels, 43, a “homicide from trauma.”

Baltimore police were also seeking information from the public in their investigation into the Michaels’ murder, which remained unsolved as of Thursday.

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World AIDS Day brings local reflections on those lost to epidemic More than 2,000 turn out for Walk/Run to End HIV

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com Those who have died from the AIDS epidemic and the millions believed to be living with HIV worldwide were honored last weekend during events in Washington, D.C. and throughout the nation and world as part of the 30th annual World AIDS Day commemorations on Dec. 1 “On this day, we remember the estimated 35 million people who have died, and the 37 million people living with HIV, including over 1.1 million in the United States,” the AIDS Institute, a national U.S. AIDS advocacy organization, said in a statement.

“Celebrating its 30th year, World AIDS Day is a time to reflect on the past and recommit to ending the HIV epidemic,” the statement says.

Among the World AIDS Day events taking place in D.C. was the 32nd annual Walk & 5k Run to End HIV, which serves as the largest annual fundraiser for Whitman-Walker Health, the nonprofit D.C. community health center that provides services to people with HIV and the LGBT community.

Don Blanchon, Whitman-Walker’s executive director, said between 2,000 and 3,000 people participated in the event on Dec. 1 in which rain was predicted but did not materialize as of the time walkers and runners crossed the finish line on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. between 12th and 13th Streets.

“It was a fabulous day,” said Blanchon shortly after he crossed the finish line. “A hardy, mighty group of people were out here, not only to celebrate our walk but the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day,” he said. “It almost as if Mother Nature wanted us to walk today.”

Among those participating, Blanchon said, were D.C. Council members Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) and David Grosso (I-At-Large).

With Whitman-Walker celebrating its own 40th anniversary this year, Blanchon joined officials of other local and national AIDS organizations in assessing the status of the epidemic and the hopes for ending it nearly 40 years after the first cases of the illness later named AIDS first surfaced in the early 1980s.

Like the heads of other AIDS groups, Blanchon noted that despite the scientific advances in anti-retroviral drugs that now keep people with HIV alive and healthy and an overall reduction in the number of people being infected with HIV in the United States each year, the epidemic remains more prevalent among people of color, gay and bisexual men, transgender people, and people living in the South.

More than 2,000 people turned out last weekend for Whitman-Walker’s annual Walk/Run to End HIV. WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

The AIDS Institute notes in its statement that there has been a 15 percent decrease in new HIV infections in the U.S. since 2008 and viral suppression among those being helped by the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program has reached 85 percent.

Experts in HIV treatment say viral suppression means that treatment with antiretroviral drugs reduces the level of HIV in the body to a point where it is undetectable and the person is unlikely to be able to transmit the virus to someone else. The experts say promising research is ongoing, including attempts to genetically alter the body’s disease fighting T-cells to make them immune to HIV. But currently none of the medications that suppress the virus and enable people to remain healthy can permanently kill a certain amount of HIV that remains dormant in “reservoirs” hidden in the body, experts in HIV treatment point out.

Thus the virus will reemerge in the body and can lead to full blown AIDS if drug treatment is stopped.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that there are still nearly 40,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. each year and only about half of people living with HIV nationwide are virally suppressed.

“In spite of noteworthy improvements in HIV testing and treatment for many communities, Black people still experience the highest infection and mortality rates,” said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a national LGBT organization, in a statement.

“It is not the case that Black people engage in riskier sexual behavior nor can we blame increased rates on myths about brothers on the down low,” Johns said. “Black people are disproportionately impacted because of racism and systems set up to deny us access to health care,

preventive medicine like PrEP, and stigma, which forces many to avoid being tested or engaging in conversations about sexual health,” he said.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the nation’s largest AIDS organization that provides medical care and HIV-related services in the U.S. and abroad, issued a statement criticizing the CDC for not mentioning safer sex practices and condoms in the CDC’s official World AIDS Day message released on Nov. 30.

The CDC statement says the federal agency is stepping up its efforts to promote pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs as a key HIV prevention effort. Among other things, it says the CDC currently awards state and local health departments about $400 million each year “for conducting HIV surveillance activities and providing high-impact prevention programs to the populations and geographic areas of greatest need.”

AHF, however, says in its own statement that the CDC’s omission of any mention of condoms and safer sex practices hurts the efforts it claims it is promoting.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should be ashamed of itself for failing to take the opportunity to promote safer sex and condom use on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the first World AIDS Day,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein in the group’s statement.

“Instead of promoting proven, evidencebased interventions such as safer sex education and condom promotion, the CDC issued this mumbo-jumbo statement, ‘Saving Lives through Leadership and Partnerships,” Weinstein said.

When contacted by the Washington Blade for comment on the AHF criticism, a CDC spokesperson pointed to the CDC’s website on HIV prevention,

which prominently mentions condoms as a proven means of preventing the transmission of HIV when used properly.

But in an email, the spokesperson didn’t say why condoms weren’t mentioned in the CDC’s World AIDS Day message.

In a World AIDS Day event, Vice President Mike Pence praised the work of faith-based groups to fight the disease but failed to mention the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on LGBT people. In 2016, gay and bisexual men accounted for 67 percent of the 40,324 new HIV diagnoses in the United States, according to the CDC. Pence’s omission is similar to the lack of mention of LGBT people in Trump’s World AIDS Day statement last year.

The D.C.-based national group AIDS United issued a World AIDS Day statement calling on the Trump administration to build on the government’s National HIV/ AIDS Strategy first adopted in 2010 under the Obama administration. The group urged federal agencies currently working on AIDS to adopt the recommendations of a recently released report endorsed by a coalition of 250 HIV and community organizations called “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States: A Roadmap for Federal Action.”

“Now is the time to reevaluate our approaches so that we can identify points of strength and gaps that need to be addressed,” said Jesse Milan Jr., president and CEO of AIDS United.

Among the other D.C.-area World AIDS Day events was a forum on the history of the AIDS epidemic and how it has impacted the LGBT community called, “Then, There & Now: A World AIDS Day Celebration.” The event, which was organized by the local group Impulse D.C., included an art exhibit and dance performance. The event was held at D.C.’s Eastern Market on Capitol Hill.

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Sunday, Dec.16th at 2pm Meet at Doggy Style and follow Santa down 17th to Q St. and then back to Dupont Italian Kitchen for

Pictures with Santa

Prizes for Ugliest Doggy Sweater & Most Spirited Human/Dog Combo

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High expectations for Mexico’s new president López Obrador makes historic and inclusive inaugural speech

By YARIEL VALDES GONZALEZ MEXICO CITY — The Mexican LGBTI community has high expectations for the country’s new president, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He won the community’s sympathy as the first president to include a message of equality in his victory speech. López Obrador reaffirmed it in his first message to the Mexican people during his inauguration.

López Obrador, a member of the National Regeneration Movement who is known by the acronym AMLO, was elected this year with more than 50 percent of the vote, becoming one of the most popular presidents in recent Mexican history.

During his campaign, he promoted zerotolerance for corruption, lowering levels of poverty in order to allow the country to begin a “fourth transformation,” a change that AMLO himself has made a top priority for the Aztec nation.

López Obrador in his inaugural speech that he gave in the Mexican congress before senators, representatives and invited guests reiterated “he will represent the rich and poor, believers and free thinkers and all Mexicans, regardless of ideologies, sexual orientation, culture, language, place of origin, education level or socioeconomic position.”

For Leonardo Espinosa, an activist from Guadalajara, this affirmation is a positive gesture and brings visibility to the community, “but it is also a call to follow up on these speeches and turn them into action and public policies.”

Alex Orué, executive director of It Gets Better México, an online video channel that promotes LGBTI rights, described AMLO’s speech as historic and “a signal that the agenda of the LGBTTTI+ Mexican coalition’s agenda has a good chance of advancing.”

Orué, at the same time, hopes this new government will lower rates of violence that disproportionately affect members of the community.

“It is vital that they confront hate speech from the state, that institutions like the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED) and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) are strengthened and emphasize the development of employment opportunities for diverse talent,” he adds.

Espinosa, for his part, hopes “discourse that speaks about our communities and needs...(that will become part of) all public policies” will take place during López Obrador’s six-year term. Espinosa also said he hopes “the citizenry gets involved and we increasingly see the words sexual

Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR took office on Dec. 1.

PHOTO BY PROTOPLASMAKID VÍA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

orientation, lesbians, gays, transsexuals, transgender, intersex people, queer and diversity in the president’s speeches.”

“The reality of the country has never been favorable to our rights, so we are open to the possibility of improvement,” Espinosa told the Washington Blade.

López Obrador during his campaign avoided LGBTI issues because of his ties with the most conservative elements of Mexican politics, such as the former Social Encounter Party (PES), a party founded by Christian evangelicals that opposed previous efforts to legalize same-sex marriage federally.

Given this scenario, a setback in the progress made on LGBTI-specific issues would not have been an unfounded fear.

“We must not forget that the former Social Encounter Party left many candidates in positions of popular election and people who were members of this party were never seen as supporters of human rights and equality,” says Espinosa.

The most concerning thing for Orué, however, is that AMLO has never retracted his statements about putting the human rights for LGBTI people up for a popular vote and “now that these consultations appear to have been legitimized in the political life of this new administration, we must not let our guard down.”

While the movement remains on alert, Orué does not think a reversal of these guarantees that have been won is possible, because “his right-hand person will be lawyer Olga Sánchez Cordero, his Cabinet’s Interior

Secretary. It does mean that we have some assurance that not only will that not happen, but, the agenda will even move forward.

She herself in her recent statements has reiterated that human rights should not be put up for a consultation.”

Sources with whom the Blade spoke said LGBTI issues, such as an increased focus on how to reduce the inequality gap for trans people, became more visible and were part of the public agenda during former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government that just ended. Doubts in the country among activists nevertheless continue to persist.

“The only thing that Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration did that could have been seen as a success is he came out in support of human rights for LGBTIQ people in 2016 in a formal ceremony that marked May 17 (the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia), where he announced he would send a variety of proLGBTIQ initiatives, a marriage equality one among them, to Congress,” maintains Orué.

The activist lamented these promised initiatives died in Congress.

Orué and Espinosa told the Blade that visibility and security for the community, laws that penalize discrimination in all states, violence motivated by homophobia and transphobia, as well as limited employment opportunities, access to health care, justice, gender identity laws and recognition of marriage equality recognition throughout Mexico are among the pressing issues for AMLO’s administration.

“Mexico is a country where LGBTIQ issues were totally erased from the political sphere, where advances in terms of legislation have taken small steps forward,” concluded Espinosa. “It is expected there will be more changes to laws, but they come from social change.

Mexico, as a country, is not homogeneous and while there are places where social change already exists and laws have already been changed, discrimination continues to be something normal in other places.”

Only 15 of Mexico’s 32 states allow marriage equality. Statistics indicate 10,216 of these unions have taken place.

“There is still a long way to go for these unions to be recognized as families with all the rights that this entails,” says the newspaper Publimetro in an article that documents the “slow” implementation of marriage equality since its legalization (in Mexico City) nearly nine years ago.

Same-sex couples can legally adopt children in Mexico City and in Coahuila.

There have been, as of now, 17 adoptions of children by gay and lesbian couples.

Upwards of 3,230 transgender people have had their gender identity recognized.

The number of reported incidents of discrimination motivated by sexual preference or sexual orientation has decreased by 4.6 percent from 20132017, according to the results of a discrimination survey.

Mexico, nevertheless, remains a violent country for sexual minorities. A report that Letra S, an advocacy group, published in May notes 381 murders took place during the last five years under Peña Nieto’s government.

The situation in 2018 is not very encouraging because the same organization said at least 24 LGBTI people were killed during the first three months of the year.

In spite of this wave of homophobia, Letra S General Director Alejandro Brito told the EFE news agency there are significant advances, such as a more pronounced position abroad in defense of rights and the recognition of marriage among same-sex couples in various entities and the Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling that declared state laws banning same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.

Furthermore, many states’ now include hate crimes in their penal codes. The attorney general last February implemented staff protocol in cases that involve sexual orientation or gender identity.

“The challenge is how to apply it,” he noted.

CONAPRED President Alejandra Haas, for her part, told Publímetro her organization has received 1,185 complaints related to gender identity, sexual preferences and workplace discrimination over the last seven years.

These problems, if proven, can affect a person’s mental health.

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Larry Kramer says George H.W. Bush ‘hated’ gays CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

Frank, however, qualified his remarks by saying Bush did a positive thing by appointing former U.S. Associate Justice David Souter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But that appointment, Frank said, was undercut by Bush’s appointment of U.S. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Frank said Thomas — who dissented in every major gay rights decision, including the Obergefell decision in 2015 extending marriage equality nationwide — has been “totally negative.”

One exchange between a reporter and Bush in 1992, the final year of his administration, prominently exemplifies his anti-gay views. According to a clipping from the Los Angeles Times, a reporter from NBC News asked Bush how he would respond to a grandchild who came out as gay. Bush replied he’d “love that child,” he also denigrated being gay.

“I would put my arm around him and I would hope he wouldn’t go out and try to convince people that this was the normal lifestyle, that this was an appropriate lifestyle, that this was the way to be,” Bush reportedly said.

Bush reportedly added, “But I would say, ‘I hope you wouldn’t become an advocate for a lifestyle that in my view is not normal, and propose marriages, same-sex marriages as a normal way of life. I don’t favor that.”

Urvashi Vaid, who served as executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force at the time, said the Bush administration “was not a friendly administration on LGBT issues.”

“I think our standards have really declined,” Vaid said. “Compared to the Trump administration it was better, compared to the Reagan administration, it was neutral, but President Bush continued many of the policies of the Reagan administration around LGBT people.”

Vaid added, “I think that that administration pandered to the rightwing in the Republican Party and did not stand up to it and allowed itself to do a lot of things. The president allowed himself to be led by people who were far-right zealots like Patrick Buchanan.”

In 1992, Buchanan delivered a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention calling for a culture war, mocking Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton for being called pro-gay by “a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement” and urging followers to stand with Bush on the “amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women.”

That year was the first time the National Log Cabin Republicans made an endorsement decision in the presidential race. The group declined to support Bush because he refused to condemn

Longtime AIDS activist LARRY KRAMER denounced former President Bush, saying he ‘hated’ gays.

PHOTO BY STEVE JURVETSON; COURTESY OF FLICKR

Buchanan’s anti-gay rhetoric at the GOP convention.

Despite Bush’s anti-gay views, at least two pro-gay laws were enacted during the Bush administration. Among them was the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which required the U.S. Justice Department to collect data on bias-motivated crimes based on a victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

The Hate Crimes Statistics Act was the first federal law to recognize and name gay, lesbian and bisexual people. Gay activists were invited to the White House during the signing ceremony on April 23, 1990.

During the event, Bush repudiated discrimination, praised civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and enumerated the inclusion of sexual orientation in the law.

“Bigotry and hate regrettably still exist in this country, and hate breeds violence, threatening the security of our entire society,” Bush said. “We must rid our communities of the poison we call prejudice, bias and discrimination and that’s why I’m signing into law today the a measure to require the attorney general to collect as much information as we can on crimes motivated by religion, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”

The other pro-gay law was the Immigration Act of 1990, which included a repeal of the ban on “homosexuals or sex perverts,” or LGBT people, from entering the United States. That immigration exclusion was present in some capacity in immigration law since 1917, but was explicitly codified in 1952.

In 1990, Bush made an oblique reference to the removal of the LGBT travel ban in a signing statement for the overall bill.

“I am also pleased to note that this Act facilitates immigration not just in numerical terms, but also in terms of basic entry rights of those beyond our borders,” Bush said. “S. 358 revises the politically related ‘exclusion grounds’ for the first time since their enactment in 1952.”

Frank, however, said Bush deserves

no credit for either the Hate Crimes Statistics Act or the repeal of LGBT ban in the Immigration Act of 1990.

The inclusion of the repeal language in the Immigration Act, Frank said, was part of a deal he made with former Sen. Alan Simpson, whom Frank called “one of the last pro-gay Republicans.”

“I was on the immigration subcommittee and I had enough support from other Democrats to say that if they did not agree to include the repeal of the anti-gay stuff, I could defeat the bill,” Frank said. “That deal was originally worked out in ’86. It took a couple years to get the bill through, so Bush did sign that bill, but he didn’t have much choice.

Congress had agreed without him that that would happen.”

The Hate Crimes Statistics Act, Frank said, was “actually a compromise” because Democrats in Congress wanted a hate crimes law with teeth, but Bush would only agree to a measure that collected data.

“It didn’t have any teeth,” Frank said.

“Frankly, at the time, it wasn’t a big deal, and it wasn’t.”

It wouldn’t be until the Obama administration in 2009 when a broader Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act giving the attorney general authority to investigate and prosecute hate crimes became law.

But Bush faced stronger criticism for continuing the inaction on HIV/ AIDS as the epidemic raged during his administration. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1989 the first year of the Bush administration, there were 21,628 AIDS-related deaths in the United States. That number rose to 24,524 in 1990, 28,569 in 1991 and 32,407 in 1992.

HIV/AIDS was the No. 1 issue facing the LGBT community at the time. The activist group ACT UP held die-ins to encourage the delivery of experimental drugs to people with HIV and held protests at the Food & Drug Administration, the White House and Bush’s summer home in

Kennebunkport, Maine.

One protest in 1991 recorded and currently available on YouTube shows demonstrators holding signs reading, “It’s time for National Plan, George,” and chanting, “Health Care is a Right! We need more than Right to Life!”

Bush was publicly flustered by ACT UP and its tactics. In 1991, Bush called out the group by name in response to a reporter’s questions about its protests of the Catholic Church for opposing condom use. ACT UP’s efforts, Bush said, were “totally counterproductive” and an “excess of free speech,” according to the book “Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight against AIDS.” “To the degree that the AIDS question should be treated as a health question, they work even against that because of their outrageous actions,” Bush is quoted as saying. “And you’re talking to somebody who has his own meetings broken up by them — or had two or three of them in the last year. And I condemn the kinds of tactics that are offensive to mainstream Catholics, Protestants and Jews, anybody else. It’s an excess of free speech to use — to resort to some of the tactics these people use.”

In the aftermath of an ACT UP protest in Kennebunkport, Bush urged “behavioral change” to combat the HIV/ AIDS epidemic.

“Here’s a disease where you can control its spread by your own personal behavior,” Bush said. “You can’t do that in cancer.”

With regards to spending on HIV/ AIDS, Bush dismissed the notion his administration wasn’t spending enough to fight the disease, asserting the U.S. government was “spending $4 billion a year on AIDS research.”

“When you consider that on a per capita basis or compare it to heart disease or cancer, it’s an awful lot,” Bush said. “It’s far more.”

According to the Los Angeles Times at the time, the amount spent on AIDS research then was actually quite smaller and less than $2 billion a year.

Despite anger over the government’s response to HIV/AIDS, in 1990 he was the first president to sign the Ryan White CARE Act, which has provided health coverage for low-income people with HIV/ AIDS and reauthorized under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The elder Bush also signed into law an Americans with Disabilities Act that barred discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. Vaid, who famously interrupted a speech Bush gave on HIV/AIDS, said those laws were directly the result of activism from groups like ACT UP and wouldn’t have been signed otherwise.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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NATIONAL NEWS

LGBT provisions nullified in Trump’s USMCA deal CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

United States, told the Washington Blade the language is in the United StatesMexico-Canada Agreement moments after Trump signed it at an event in Buenos Aires with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Section 23 of the USMCA contains a provision against sex discrimination in the workplace, encouraging members in the deal to adopt policies against sex-based discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The section also calls for cooperation among the member states “in promotion of equality and elimination of employment discrimination” with regard to numerous characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

But as reported by Canadian Press, the language — which was aspirational to begin with — is even more watered down from the original version and makes clear the United States does not need to make changes to bar anti-LGBT discrimination to adhere to the trade agreement.

Although the initial draft called on member states to support policies against anti-LGBT and sex discrimination in employment, the new wording calls on each country to implement those policies as it “considers appropriate.” A footnote on the agreement also says Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is “sufficient to fulfill the obligations” on labor rights, and “thus requires no additional action” by the United States.

Although Title VII bars workplace

discrimination on the basis of sex and courts are increasingly interpreting them to bar anti-LGBT discrimination, no explicit federal law is in place against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Canadian government at the behest of Trudeau included the LGBT language in the USMCA. The signing of the agreement with the language intact would have been a win for the prime minister, but the weakening of the LGBT language in the USMCA indicates the Canadian government caved on those provisions.

That’s consistent with Trudeau’s hedging on whether he’d insist on including the language in the USMCA when asked by reporters prior to signing the agreement.

“In any trade deal, there are going to be people who would like this or like that or not want this or not want that,” Trudeau said. “We got to a good agreement that I think represents Canadian values, a Canadian approach, but also values that are broadly shared amongst citizens of our three countries.”

A Canadian official said the footnote on Title VII was added by the United States, but the new inclusions don’t do anything to change the enforceability of the LGBT provisions in the USMCA. The Office of U.S. Trade Representative hasn’t responded to repeated requests to comment on the LGBT language in the bill or changes to it.

Geoffrey Gertz, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, questioned on Twitter

why any member states would bother including the LGBT language in the agreement only to undercut it.

“Whatever you think of the LGBTQ provisions in the new NAFTA, this outcome – to include them but nullify them with a footnote – is ridiculous,” Getz wrote. “And it’s the kind of thing that will make progressives even more suspicious of engaging with trade liberalization.”

Trump, Trudeau and Nieto failed to mention the LGBT provisions during their signing event. Instead, Trump focused on the size of the agreement and new opportunities for American businesses.

“All of our countries will benefit greatly,” Trump said. “It is probably the largest trade deal ever made, also. In the United States, the new trade pact will support high-paying manufacturing jobs and promote greater access for American exports across the range of sectors, including our farming, manufacturing, and service industries.”

Trudeau talked about the economic benefits of the agreement for Canada, emphasizing the importance of free trade on the North American continent.

“Canadians got here because Team Canada was driven by the interests of the middle class,” Trudeau said. “Free and fair trade leads to more and betterpaying middle-class jobs for more people. And the benefits of trade must be broadly and fairly shared. That is what modernizing NAFTA achieves, and that is why it was always so important to get this new agreement done right.”

Even though the LGBT provisions

are watered down, they’re still in the agreement despite objections from a group of 38 House Republicans led by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) who urged Trump to seek removal of that language, insisting the USMCA “is no place for the adoption of social policy.”

The USMCA must be ratified by Congress with implementing language for the agreement to take effect. It remains to be seen whether House Republicans will now vote against the agreement with the LGBT language, or if the USMCA has enough support for approval in the next Congress when Democrats will have a majority in the U.S. House.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in the U.S. Senate, said in a statement she opposed NAFTA on the basis that it cost her state manufacturing jobs and would only back the new agreement if it helps Wisconsin workers.

“As Congress works on legislation for this new deal I will be working to ensure that this new deal increases market access for our Wisconsin dairy farmers and cheese makers,” Baldwin said.

“With the signing of the USMCA there is still more work to be done in Congress to ensure any final agreement stops the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, strengthens Buy America, puts in place real enforcement of labor provisions, and allows the United States to take action on currency manipulation. I will only support this new deal if we can make it a better deal for Wisconsin farmers, manufacturers, businesses and workers.”

Trans woman elected Stein Club president Nemeth to succeed Fowlkes at helm of Democratic club

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. lchibbaro@washblade.com Ward 3 community activist Monika Nemeth, who became the first out transgender person to win election to a seat on the city’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission in the city’s Nov. 6 election, won election on Monday night as president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club.

The Stein Club, founded in 1976, is the city’s largest local LGBT political organization and one of the city’s oldest Democratic clubs.

Nemeth will succeed Earl Fowlkes, a member of the Democratic National Committee who is completing his third oneyear term as Stein Club president. At the club’s regularly scheduled meeting Monday night Fowlkes said he decided to step down

as president to devote more time to his role as chair of the DNC’s LGBT Caucus.

But Fowlkes nevertheless agreed to a request by club members that he run for the club’s treasurer position. Similar to Nemeth, he ran unopposed for the position and won election by unanimous voice vote.

The club’s current treasurer, Alex Morash, ran unopposed for the position of Stein Club Vice President for Communications. Morash currently works as communications director for the D.C.based National LGBTQ Task Force.

Sharon Burke, the club’s current vice president for Legislative and Political Affairs, won re-election to that post unopposed. Ward 1 Democratic Party activist Matthew Abbruzzese won election unopposed as Stein Club Secretary.

Abbruzzese, an online sales and marketing director for a national retail company, served as an aide to former D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1).

From left, outgoing Stein Club President EARL FOWLKES, secretary-elect MATTHEW ABBRUZZESE, president-elect MONIKA NEMETH, and vice president-elect ALEX MORASH. WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Nemeth works as a program manager for a company that provides IT services for the U.S. Navy. She said she is looking forward to helping carry out the Stein Club’s plans for supporting Democratic candidates in Virginia and other states in the 2019 election.

Among the candidates the club plans to help, Nemeth said, is Virginia House of

Delegates member Danica Roem, who won election last year in a district in the Manassas area, becoming the nation’s first transgender member of a state legislature.

Roem is up for re-election in 2019 for a state legislative seat with a two-year term.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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H E A L TH NEW S

DE C E M B E R 07, 2018 • 13

Keep your promise to protect each other.

Young black MSM face pernicious HIV rates CHICAGO — Young black men who have sex with men (MSM) are 16 times more likely to contract HIV than their white peers despite more frequent testing for HIV and being less likely to have unsafe sex, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study, MedicalXPress reports.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes. If these rates persist, one out of two black MSM will become infected with HIV at some point in their lives, compared to one in five Hispanic MSM and one in 11 white MSM, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study is the largest and most comprehensive to assess why these disparities exist. It analyzed young black MSM’s social networks, such as past sexual partners, as well as measures of stress, past trauma and stigma, MedicalXPress reports.

The authors used data from RADAR, a project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, that identifies drivers of HIV infections on multiple levels, including sexual partner and relationship characteristics, network dynamics and community-level factors. The study collected data from 1,015 MSM between the ages of 16-29 living in the Chicago area, MedicalXPress reports.

Among the study’s key findings about racial disparities in HIV infection: • Black MSM reported the lowest number of sexual partners overall.

• Black MSM tested for HIV more frequently but were more likely to have a detectable HIV viral load if HIV positive.

• Black MSM were more likely to report not having close relationships with their sexual partners.

• Black MSM were more likely to report hazardous marijuana use, while white MSM were more likely to report high levels of alcohol problems.

• Black MSM experienced greater levels of stigma, victimization, trauma and childhood sexual abuse.

U.K. LGB students more likely to self-harm LONDON — LGB students in the U.K. are at greater risk for self harm even after accounting for depression, anxiety, lack of belonging and self-esteem as mediating factors according to a new study published in the Archives of Suicide Research, Healio reports.

In their study, the investigators assessed the relationship between LGB status and both non-suicidal self injury and suicide attempts in 707 U.K. university students using a cross-sectional survey. They also examined whether psychological variables — depression, anxiety, belongingness and self-esteem — mediated this relationship. Participants completed an online survey that included measures of self-harm, affective symptoms, belongingness and self-esteem. Researchers used latent variable modeling to test their hypotheses, Healio reports.

Overall, 119 participants reported gay or bisexual status. The results showed that LGB status remained associated with nonsuicidal self-injury even after researchers accounted for mediators; however, the strength of this link decreased slightly. In addition, self-esteem was linked to risk for self-harm and also was a significant mediator, Healio reports.

The investigators observed similar results for suicide attempts. Although the effect size was smaller than that for nonsuicidal self-injury, self-esteem and belongingness were also linked to risk for suicide attempt. Adding anxiety and depressive symptoms to the model led to poorer fit when assessing both nonsuicidal self-injury and suicide attempts, according to the results.

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VIEWPOINT

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49

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49

ADDRESS

Undeserved praise for George H.W. Bush Outpouring of support for 41 ignores neglect of AIDS crisis

KEVIN NAFF is editor of the Washington Blade and can be reached at knaff@washblade.com.

There’s nothing more galling than revisionist history and last weekend’s reactions to the death of former President George H.W. Bush brought an onslaught of it to many social media feeds and, more predictably, to mainstream media.

I was stunned to see my own feeds filled with tributes to the 41st president — some written by gay men. And on World AIDS Day, no less.

Even the Advocate — once a leading critic of the Reagan-Bush administrations — joined this chorus of glossing over Bush’s anti-LGBTQ record. In an Advocate story posted on World AIDS Day about Bush’s death, the word “AIDS” appears just once in a reference to Reagan. The headline describes Bush as “no enemy of LGBTQ people.”

In Neal Broverman’s Advocate story, Bush is credited with signing the Hate Crimes Statistics Act. But he fails to mention that the measure was a far cry from passing a real hate crimes bill that Democrats and LGBTQ allies wanted in 1990 but was impossible to achieve given Bush was in the White House. Broverman also cites the 1990 removal of a ban on “sexual deviation” from the Immigration and Nationality Act that Bush presided over. But this glosses over the reality that removal of that language was part of a much larger immigration measure. Bush was no LGBTQ advocate. Quite the opposite.

He referred to gay men as “those people,” assailed ACT UP for its efforts at fighting AIDS, described same-sex parents as “not normal,” and vocally supported the military’s ban on gay service members. He gave voice to the far-right evangelicals who now dominate the GOP and appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. But worse than all of that, Bush was one half of the ReaganBush administration that was criminally

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE

negligent in responding to the emerging AIDS crisis of the early 1980s.

Bush is being lauded for his “civility” this week in breathless tributes from the mainstream media that mercilessly mocked him as president. In death, Bush has morphed into a saint because he was “civil” compared to the current White House occupant. The bar is low.

Bush’s patrician approach to the job was woefully out of step for the dire times in which he served as president. From a crippling recession to the horrors of the AIDS plague, America needed a bold fighter, not a polite placeholder president. He hated ACT UP because its members represented the direct opposite of Bush’s approach – they were loud, rightly angry and demanded accountability from the government that was ignoring them and the plight of tens of thousands of mostly gay men dying. Fuck civility when we’re losing an entire generation of American gay men. Bush and his predecessor Reagan turned a willfully blind eye to the epidemic because they and their evangelical base of supporters didn’t care about the

lives of gay men, people of color and drug users, three groups disproportionately impacted by AIDS. Bush refused to tackle AIDS honestly, repeatedly calling for “behavioral” changes rather than addressing education and prevention efforts directly and urgently to the communities most directly affected.

He was so bad, even the Log Cabin Republicans wouldn’t support him.

Fast forward 28 years and all of that easily Google-able, damning information is somehow forgotten or ignored as the country embarks on a weeklong, saccharine embrace of a failed president who time and again chose callous political expediency over doing the right thing. And 28 years later, even some gay men are joining the Bush whitewashing effort. We can express sympathy for Bush’s grieving family without ignoring the unforgivable damage his “service” did to the LGBTQ community.

Nostalgia for the Bush era is misplaced.

Those who died at the hands of an uncaring government presided over by Bush and Reagan deserved better on World AIDS Day.

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Trump makes H.W. Bush look better But 41st president trafficked in racism, homophobia

PETER ROSENSTEIN is a D.C.-based LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

We are living in a world in which Donald Trump, one of the most despicable men to serve as president, makes all other presidents look better. When it comes to the Bushes, he makes W. look smarter and H.W. look even better. But while we often say we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead we also shouldn’t sugarcoat history.

George H.W. Bush was by all accounts an honorable man. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a heritage of public service. His father Prescott Bush was a senator from Connecticut. Bush

went to elite schools and then before college enlisted in the military. He then finished his degree at Yale and moved to Texas to make his own fortune. In 1996, he ran and won a seat in the House of Representatives. Then won a second term but lost his race for the Senate in 1970. He was considered a relic of a Republican Party that no longer exists. He served as ambassador to the U.N., chair of the RNC, chief of the liaison office in China, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and then Reagan’s vice president before being elected president. He served one term losing to Bill Clinton in 1992. He was, as the saying goes, ‘hoisted on his own petard’ when he went back on his pledge: “Read my lips, no new taxes” and then supported tax increases.

If you only read his Wikipedia page, you’d think he was perfect. But that’s not a view shared by those affected by HIV/ AIDS. Bush was complicit with Ronald Reagan in not being willing to even mention the word AIDS in public for years.

Even when he was president, he dismissed it as a behavioral issue. Steven W. Thrasher who will join the faculty of

Northwestern University in 2019 as the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair of media coverage of sexual and gender minorities wrote, “When I teach AIDS history, I always show a clip of ACT UP’s October 11, 1992, “ashes action” at the White House, in which brave activists took the cremated bodies of loved ones who had died of AIDS and hurled them onto Bush’s lawn. (If you’ve never seen it, I dare you to watch without crying).” Nearly 10 years after the epidemic was diagnosed Bush still wasn’t willing to do anything about it.

We also shouldn’t forget the 1988 Willie Horton ad run by the Bush campaign that helped him defeat Michael Dukakis. The ad had a purpose, which it accomplished, to bring out people’s innate racism. Then as president, Bush’s choice to replace civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court was Clarence Thomas. He also vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1990. “Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill’s main Senate sponsor, called the veto ‘tragic and disgraceful,’” the New York Times reported. “Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which represents 180

civil rights, women’s, labor and religious groups, said only two previous presidents, Mr. Reagan and Andrew Johnson, had vetoed civil rights bills.”

But in 1990 Bush did sign the Americans with Disabilities Act, a huge step forward for the millions living with a disability. One wants to give him credit for being basically a decent and kind human being but he clearly had on blinders when it came to some groups.

So as the nation mourns its 41st president people will look back on him with differing thoughts often dependent on how his actions impacted their own life or that of their friends, family and loved ones.

Interesting what has gone viral in recent days is the letter he left for Bill Clinton to read on his first day in office as president, which concluded: “Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good Luck.”

Can anyone imagine that such a letter could be written by the disgusting excuse for a man now sitting in the Oval Office?

In any event if justice is done Trump’s letter, whatever it says, will be titled “Letter from a federal prison.”

O UR B US I NES S MATTER S

Have both parties learned the wrong mid-term lesson?

Dominant moderate, independent voters may feel ignored in 2020 race

MARK LEE is a long-time entrepreneur and community business advocate. Follow on Twitter: @MarkLeeDC. Reach him at OurBusinessMatters@gmail.com.

Last month’s midterm election produced the sort of split-decision satisfying few.

Democrats, eager for a dramatic shift that didn’t come in early results but improved for national races after mail-in and absentee ballots were counted and close contests were eventually decided, turned off the television on election night and went to sleep without fanfare or celebration.

In the end, though, Democrats had their best national midterm performance for U.S. House seats in more than four decades.

Republicans took solace that, even while losing the House as expected, they expanded their margin in the Senate as

also anticipated. The GOP additionally won marquee races in several high-profile states that were hotly contested, and generally performed according to preelection polling and predictions despite losing support in suburban areas and among women.

Both major political parties, however, are likely to take away the wrong lessons.

A desire for a modest and moderating corrective adjustment guides those favoring back-and-forth shifts and results from low ideological loyalties, weak political affiliations, and centrist beliefs. Neither party seems inclined to accommodate those voters.

Self-identified independents with scant affinity or strong allegiance for either party, now a large and growing plurality of voters who actually decide national elections, tilted Democratic this time and backed a divided government. There’s no guarantee they’ll go all-in with one party again after doing so in 2016.

The mixed midterm outcome was the result of a standard “swing” to the opposition party rather than a massive “wave” Democrats hoped for and Republicans feared. Voter participation soared, a welcome change from the usually low offyear turnout, but was due to both parties exceeding ground-game expectations.

While total votes for Democrats were more than eight points higher than the Republican tally nationwide, the left continues to see its votes hyper-concentrated in specific areas, predominantly urban, where the largess is largely worthless.

Gerrymandered districts, benefiting both sides depending on region, currently produce a notable edge for Republicans in House seats and many state legislatures.

Key to future Democratic gains is the enhanced opportunity to favorably re-jigger district maps in states newly controlled by the party following the decennial census, adding future guaranteed wins.

In addition to reversing their fortunes in the House, Democrats also began to claw back some of the more than 1,100 state legislative seats throughout the country lost to Republicans during the Obama administration, re-capturing about onethird of them. Those wins, along with retaking some governorships, will be important to the party as it works to rebuild a localized political infrastructure and develop a “farm team” of elected officials to advance up the electoral ranks.

Early prognostications regarding the 2020 presidential contest are already proliferating, producing projections for a surprisingly competitive race. The upper industrial Midwest may again decide the outcome.

Nothing is certain, of course, and will ultimately depend on whom the two major parties each nominate and whether there is a strong independent competitor.

The 2020 presidential race will be arduous for candidates and voters alike. As many as 46 potential Democratic nomination contenders have expressed interest in competing, and a large number will ultimately share a super-sized debate stage.

It could prove to be a mind-numbing blur.

No one knows whether President Trump will avoid indictment, impeachment or removal during the remainder of his first term, but chances are good he will – and again be nominated, should he seek to be, by a Republican Party he now controls. Whether sufficient voters in a split-screen nation can continue to countenance his primitive political style, renegade personal manner, and controversial positions remains to be seen.

The danger for the ascendant Democrats is mistakenly fantasizing that lurching further toward the extreme left by espousing economic proposals and other policies unacceptable to centrist voters provides a path to victory.

The political party or insurgent candidate failing to appeal to now-alienated and then-exasperated moderate and independent voters is likely destined to lose.

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GIFT GUIDE

Happy Holi-gays Gifts by and for LGBT friends and family

By MIKEY ROX Keep it in the “family” this year by giving these gifts from LGBT-led businesses designed with our queer brothers and sisters in mind.

Furious Goose Pocket Squares Fancy silken pocket squares — like the luxurious Selim’s Hammer geometric depicting Ottoman flintstock pistols nestled in an arabesque of roses — doubles as an aristocratic neckerchief with anarchist flair to help elevate your Coachella look from basic bitch to baddest. $54, furiousgoose.co.uk

Üllo Wine Purifier Selective Sulfite Capture technology in the Üllo purifier restores your vintage to its just-bottled taste, removing the artificial preservative suspected to cause those nasty wine headaches. Package includes an adjustable aerator, four replacement filters, travel bag and display base to capture stray drips. Custom handblown glassware also is available and designed to work specifically with the device for a chicer presentation. $80, ullowine.com

Smash the Patriarchy Earrings It’s been all-out war on toxic masculinity in 2018 and there’s no reason to relent now. OHME’s brass (and brash) Smash the Patriarchy earrings put all the men at your holiday dinner table on notice without you having to say a word. $73, wildfang.com

CONTINUES ON PAGE 18

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GIFT GUIDE

Sewing scraps make one-of-a-kind joggers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

Bullies and Biceps Calendar

Exotics by Cedrick Heel-Boot Miss Vanjie will be yelling your name on loop after a death drop in the Sarae Boot from Exotics by Cedrick, featuring a leather upper with faux snakeskin print, side zippers and a five-inch spiked table-leg heel that lets all those hoes know you came to snatch the crown. $1,250, exoticsbycedrick.com

Photographer Mike Ruiz panders to your sensitivities by bringing shirtless models and adorable, adoptable dogs together for his 2019 Bullies and Biceps calendar.

The just-safe-enough-for-yourcubicle calendar honors the memory of Ruiz’s beloved pit bull Oliver who died this year, and $1 from each copy sold will benefit New York Bully Crew, a rescue op that specializes in rehabbing and re-homing the world’s most misunderstood breed. $25, nybullycrew.org

Haus of Karyn Rolling Papers As the marijuana-legalization train picks up steam, so are fey ways to get fuzzy, like rolling a fatty in slow burning, 100 percent hemp “Fancy AF” papers from lesbian-owned maker Haus of Kayrn. Stuff a toker’s stocking with the also available “Happy Pride, Bitch” set while you’re at it. $2.99, hausof-karyn.myshopify.com

Marsanne Brands Custom Dog Sweater Get the most bark for your buck with Marsanne Brands’ custom dog sweaters, available in sizes that range from Chihuahua to Chow Chow, adorned with fabric roses and sequins in you-pick colorways and embroidered with your pet’s name.

Canine couture cheaper than from a store. $39, shopmarsanne.com CONTINUES ON PAGE 19

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I Love My Amenity Bag

Weiner

You’re so vain, you probably think this bag is about you. Might be, if you’ve got a special doxie in your life or, ya know, just an affinity for what your daddy gave you. $24.95, nakeddecor.com Mr. Turk x 2(X)IST Smoking Jacket set Add more merry to your Christmas morning routine in the Hef-inspired velvet satin smoking jacket and matching lounge pants, a collab between gay go-tos Mr Turk and 2(X)IST, that save the best package for last. $596, 2xist.com

Nitro Noir Eau de Parfum If the Paramount Network’s ill-fated,thrice-canceled, but-nonetheless-delicious Heathers reboot (resurrected on demand) were liquefied and bottled, it’d smell exactly like Kierin NYC’s intoxicating Nitro Noir, with notes of Italian bergamot, pink berries, orris and the envy of all your hangers-on. Isn’t it just? $78, kierin-nyc.com

Upcycled Mixed Print Jogger Sewing-room floor scraps are redeemed in no-twoare-alike joggers (and other couture clothing and accessories) from Zero Waste Daniel, which makes it its duty to avenge textile pollution and champion fair labor practices one toss-away at a time. $123, zerowastedaniel.com

MIKEY ROX is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than 100 outlets across the world. He spends his time writing from the beach with his dog Jaxon. Connect with Mikey on Instagram @mikeyrox.

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ARTS

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ENTERTAINMENT

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49

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Singer/songwriter/composer RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, seen here in a vintage outtake from the ‘Poses’ sessions, says launching an opera is a Herculean undertaking but one his artistic impulses required.

PHOTO BY GREG GORMAN

Revisiting Rufus Singer/songwriter Wainwright tackles opera, revives first two albums on tour

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com Singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, 45, is on tour celebrating 20 years since his debut. He’s touring a revival of his first two albums and is fresh off the October premiere of his second opera, the gaythemed “Hadrian” about the Roman emperor of the title and his male lover Antinous. It launched with the Canadian

Opera Company in Toronto. Wainwright spoke to the Blade by phone from Minnesota.

WASHINGTON BLADE: How is your tour going so far?

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: It’s going great.

It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’m really

kicking myself in terms of just in wonder on how in God’s name I could have gotten such a great band together as well as writing an opera and being a father and stuff. … I’m really beyond satisfied with the band that we’ve brought out for the “Poses Tour.” It’s really, really fantastic.

BLADE: You do most of your (1998 eponymous) debut album but mix it up but then you do “Poses” (2001) straight through in its entirety. Why? WAINWRIGHT: I think to just perform both albums back to back would have been CONTINUES ON PAGE 34

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QU E E R Y : 2 0 Q U E ST I O N S F O R LA D Y D A N E F I G U E RO A E D I D I

L A DY DA N E F I G U ERO A EDI DI How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?

What is out really? I think a more accurate idea for me is when did I decide loving myself was more important than the internalized transphobia that was forced upon me and I would say for a while now.

WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com For Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, art and poetry spring forth naturally from her passions.

“Stop erasing black trans women, LGBTQ people owe every right they have to the work of trans women of color,” the 35-year-old Baltimore native says.

“Trans women are amazing and trans men are awesome. We must divest of white supremacy and anti-blackness.”

Edidi will explore these topics and more in a performance of her work “For Black Trans Girls Who Gotta Cuss a Motherfucker Out When Snatching an Edge Ain’t Enough: a Choreo Poem.” It’s Monday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Woolly Mammoth Theatre (641 D St., N.W.). It’s free and open to the public.

The reading will be followed by a discussion with Edidi led by Venus Di’Khadijah Selenite. Details at woollymammoth.net.

When Edidi first performed the piece, her friend Bob Schlehuber wanted to help her get it performed elsewhere, which led to the Woolly performance. Edidi works full time as a performance artist, author, playwright, choreographer, writer and advocate.

She came to Washington in 2001 for school. She has a partner, Percy, and enjoys watching Asian historical dramas in her free time.

Who’s your LGBT hero?

I have a lot — Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, Lucy Anderson Hicks, Mary Jones, Mary Waters, Josephine Baker, Sylvester, Jackie Shane, Andrea Jenkins, my Aunt Jimmy and the list goes on.

What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?

Chaos. It’s where I first met one of my mothers, Xavier Onassis Bloomingdale, and many of my family.

Describe your dream wedding.

Super simple. The guests in attendance would be my mom, one of my siblings, his sibling and a mutual friend. Now for a reception, I would love to throw a huge bash to celebrate with friends and family maybe a year after we saved our coins for that.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

There is no such thing. Black trans people exist at so many intersections. By virtue of advocating for the liberation of black trans people, I am advocating for the liberation of everybody.

What historical outcome would you change?

Colonization What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?

Any one where black women are winning.

On what do you insist?

That if you’re white in my life you have to have an analysis, praxis and way of life that is steeped in the dismantling of white supremacy.

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

A woman who said she would attend a lynching literally just won a senate seat in

Mississippi. I said it once and I will say it again: racism is not a matter of opinion, it is violence. Racism was never about ignorance, it was always about power.

If your life were a book, what would the title be?

“Oya’s Music”

If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?

Get ready for dystopia. Wait, look who’s in the White House. Too late.

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

In many things my ancestors did. I never had to wonder if their manifestations of God loved me or not.

What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

Divest of white supremacy.

Respectability will not save you.

What would you walk across hot coals for?

If I knew it would save the world.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

Not understanding the difference between gender and sexuality.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

It hasn’t been made yet.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Civility. You do not have to be nice, gentle or kind to your oppressor/abuser.

Civility, the way it is framed, is just another word for abuser dynamics.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

I don’t think I covet any to be honest.

Now, would it be nice to win one? Oh yes honey, but mostly if that translated into work and access for my community.

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

That I could safely medically transition one day.

Why Washington?

Because I have cultivated family here.

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SP I RI T U A L

GiFtS FrOm ThE

greenhouse WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY JOEY DIGUGLIELMO

A church Advent wreath features five candles — one each on the periphery for the four Sundays before Christmas, then the center candle representing Jesus, is lit on Christmas Eve.

Queerifying Advent Pre-Christmas season appealing for anti-commercialism

By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO joeyd@washblade.com

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It’s easy as an LGBT person to brush off the seasons and holy days of the Christian faith. So much church teaching over the years has been used to condemn gay expression in any form, it’s understandable that many of us choose to eschew religion altogether.

But straight or queer, life will eventually bite you in the ass and it’s helpful to have some stuff in your took kit with which to work. As Janet said on “The Velvet Rope,” “you must learn to water your spiritual garden.”

I love all the seasons of the church year, but have found special meaning in the four Sundays of Advent. The dates vary based on how Christmas falls, but they’re always the four Sundays prior to Dec. 25.

This year, it started Dec. 2. Advent two is this weekend — Dec. 9. Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday is Advent three and is Dec. 16.

Advent four is Dec. 23. The official color is purple for altar coverings and clergy attire but rose (a combination of Advent purple and Christmas white) is permitted/ encouraged on Advent three, a Sunday of brief respite from the more somber and preparatory nature of the season.

Several gay organists I know jokingly call Gaudete Sunday (and its Lenten counterpart Laetare Sunday, also rose) “gay Sunday” since clergy typically don pink that day.

It’s almost as if the legion of closet cases (especially in the Catholic Church) finally let their gay out a bit, just on that one Sunday.

But there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding Advent. Some people think it’s just a big countdown to Christmas that gets a little more “Christmasy” the closer you get to the big day. That’s actually not the case at all and in many formal churches, Christmas carols are not sung at all until Christmas Eve since they don’t complement the Advent liturgies.

It can be a little jarring if you’re not used to it. The rest of the world —

especially retailers — seems to put up Christmas stuff earlier and earlier each year while the church keeps everything Christmas related at bay ’til Christmas Eve. We’ve also kinda lost the concept of the traditional 12 days of Christmas.

Many folks start taking down their lights and trees right after New Year’s, but the Christmas season doesn’t officially end until Jan. 5 (the day before Epiphany), but even that has elements of what we traditionally think of as the Christmas season with the story of the Magi representing the manifestation of Christ.

Ever notice on the “I Love Lucy” Christmas episode, they’re putting up their tree on Christmas Eve after Little Ricky has gone to bed? This was a common practice as well in the ‘50s and prior — Santa supposedly brought the tree and it wasn’t seen until Christmas morn. But with fake trees being more and more common, people tend to put them up earlier and earlier and Christmas and Advent get blurred even more.

The most enduring symbol of Advent is the wreath with five candles — three purple, one rose and a center candle that’s white representing Christ. One is lit each Sunday of the season (the rose candle on Advent three) and the Christ candle is finally lit on Christmas Eve. Advent has also taken on a more warmfuzzy feel in recent decades as well with some church leaders deciding — I’ve never been able to trace how/when this tomfoolery got started — we needed a theme for each of the four Sundays: one (hope), two (peace), three (joy) and four (love) and in some rites, even blue (heresy I say!) altar coverings and chasubles are worn to distinguish from the more somber Lenten (purple) season.

Of the themes, three is the only one that has any semi-historical validity as the traditional entrance antiphon for that Sunday is “Rejoice in the Lord always.” An old Episcopalian book I have from the ‘50s says, “In advent we remember the four last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell.”

I really wish those were the four candles and the priest would be forced to say, “And now, here to light the death candle or the hell candle is the such-and-such family.”

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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T HE ATE R

DE C E M B E R 07, 2018 • 25

Class structures Stagey, dated whodunnit comes back to life with ’92 expansion

—The London Times

By PATRICK FOLLIARD Once a midcentury hit whodunit, J.B. Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls” became increasingly relegated to summer stock reps as years passed and tastes turned to plays set outside of drawing rooms.

But then in 1992, director Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliot,” “The Crown”) resuscitated Priestley’s piece with a brilliantly inventive staging, creating something more alive and relevant. This same National Theatre of Great Britain production is now kicking off its American tour at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

The thriller takes place in fictional Brumley (“an industrial city in the north Midlands”) in the spring of 1912, about the same time as the Titanic’s ill-fated voyage.

Outside it’s dark and rainy. Street urchins are splashing in the puddles found on a stretch of blitzkrieged cobblestone street.

Inside what looks like an Edwardian doll’s house perched atop desolation, the prosperous, smug Birling family are celebrating the engagement of seemingly shallow daughter Sheila (Lianne Harvey) to the imminently eligible Gerald Croft (Andrew Macklin), scion of a wealthy and socially connected family.

The beautifully dressed party includes the imperious, well-coifed yet unrefined Mrs. Birling (Christine Kavanagh) and her wastrel son Eric (Hamish Riddle). At the height of the celebration, Mr. Birling (Jeff Harmer), vulgarian to the bone, who regards the union of families as a business merger, toasts to “lower costs and higher wages.”

Just then, the cozy affair is interrupted by an Inspector Goole (pronounced “ghoul’) measuredly played with equal parts calm and force by Liam Brennan.

He has arrived uninvited to pose queries about the death of Eva White, a pretty young working-class woman who has committed suicide by drinking strong disinfectant, a slow and torturous death.

White once worked at Mr. Burling’s factory, but was fired after asking for a living wage. Apparently she also had contact with other family members and Croft. Goole, a determined Scotsman, unimpressed by Burling and Croft’s wealth and position, sets forth on a determined line of questioning, aggressively so at times. And thus, the mystery unfolds.

Concerned with social and economic inequality in Britain, Priestley wrote the play over a week during the bombing of London. He set the action in 1912, a time when upper-class privilege, long-held social mores and stringent class structures would soon be challenged by the Great

PHOTO BY MARK DOUET; COURTESY STC

LIAM BRENNAN and cast in ‘An Inspector Calls.’

War. “An Inspector Calls” was first performed in the U.K. in 1946, the same year that the Labour Party won a landslide victory. Undoubtedly, an optimist time for an avid socialist like Priestley.

It’s the younger Birlings who change most dramatically. In the end, they empathize with the dead woman’s plight and tragic end. They come to understand just how human beings are connected in society at large, and not just through business, coming-out parties and peerages. The more senior characters and Croft uphold the old ways. They find it impossible to summon up a whit of compassion for Eva White, much less culpability in her demise.

Director Daldry rather ingeniously plays with time. The rich Birlings are mired visually and temperamentally in the Edwardian age, but Goole steps out of the mist dressed in fedora and trench coat — he’s the picture perfect 1940s film noir detective. The poor people in the street are also dressed circa World War II. Daldry’s design team creates a most eerie vibe with McNeil’s phenomenal set, Stephen Warbeck’s ominous music and Rick Fisher’s evocative lighting. The cast’s six actors play their parts large but never over the top.

Predictable and sometimes clunky, “An Inspector Calls” isn’t a masterpiece.

Set traditionally in the confines of a wellappointed, bourgeois drawing room, it would drag endlessly and no doubt feel preachy. But Priestley has managed to make something different altogether, something that’s entertaining with a message, but not horribly didactic.

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FI L M

DE C E M B E R 07, 2018 • 27

‘Favourite’ men

This year’s choral extravaganza has more sparkle than ever.

Actor and screenwriter in period drama discuss project

By BRIAN T. CARNEY

As it continues its wildly successful rollout, “The Favourite” is garnering both popular and critical acclaim. Centered on a lesbian love triangle in the court of England’s Queen Anne (who reigned from 1707-1714), the queer dramedy is breaking box office records for indie films and recently swept the British Independent Film Awards.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Lobster”), “The Favourite” is an irreverent and insightful spectacle about war, power, gender, sexuality and even love. The sumptuous film stars Olivia Colman (who is about to take over the role of Elizabeth in “The Crown”) as Queen Anne and Rachel Weisz (“Disobedience,” “My Cousin Rachel”) and Emma Stone (“La La Land,” “Battle of the Sexes”) as aristocratic cousins battling for the queen’s affections and the opportunity to wield the queen’s power.

Screenwriter Tony McNamara became involved in the project seven years ago when he got a surprising call from his agent. McNamara was working as a playwright in his native Australia when his agent said, “There’s a Greek director in London and he really likes your stuff.”

McNamara watched Lanthimos’ movie “Dogtooth” in Greek (this was before Lanthimos made “The Lobster,” his first English language feature) and liked what he saw. “I thought he’s one of a kind,” McNamara says during a press junket.

“Right up my alley.”

The two men started talking and Lanthimos, who usually writes his own scripts, explained why he needed a writer.

He had read a script by Deborah Davis about Queen Anne. He liked the story, but wanted to do something different with the material. He wanted someone else to work on I with him on it, so he read a lot of scripts.

“Yorgos really wanted to do a period piece because he had never done one before,” McNamara says. “I had written a period piece that he liked. He thought he and I would have the same sensibility and would get on with each other and we instantly did. We really understood what we wanted to do.”

When Lanthimos finally started shooting the movie last year, McNamara was on set for rehearsals and the first few weeks of production.

“Then I went to Italy and told Yorgos, ‘Call me if you need me,’” McNamara says.

“Yorgos never called.”

That’s around the time when actor Joe Alwyn started his work on the film.

“I play a young man of the court called Masham who is not the brightest person in the world,” Alwyn says. “He sees Abigail

P R E S E N T S

PHOTO BY ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA; COURTESY 20TH CENTURY FOX

JOE ALWYN in ‘The Favourite.’

(Emma Stone) as a shiny young thing he wants to chase after. There’s a power play between the two of them in each scene, a cat-and-mouse game where he’s lusting after her and she’s using him to advance herself at court.”

Alwyn says he started to do some research into the real-life Masham, but was stopped by Lanthimos.

“Yorgos made it clear to all of us that he really didn’t want us to get out the history books and start doing our homework,” Alwyn says. “He wasn’t trying to capture a moment in time; he wasn’t making a documentary. He was far more interested in exploring the relationships between the characters. It was a relatively unconventional approach to a period film.”

The London-born actor says Lanthimos’ unusual approach extended to rehearsals.

“Rather than getting out the history books and talking about social etiquette and character and intentions, we did a whole series of strange exercises,” he says. “Reading the script like a play and switching characters and rolling around on the floor and singing and dancing and doing all sorts of things to the point of humiliation which pleased Yorgos a lot. It meant that by the time we started shooting, we all felt very close to each other and were completely willing to jump in without any inhibitions or feeling stupid.”

Alwyn found that the gender reversals in the movie were fun.

“It’s refreshing to see a film that has three strong female leads. The male characters are very much trampled on and walked over and humiliated. What’s funny about it is they seem themselves as the ones with all the answers, but they’re pretty secondary. Yorgos turns all those stereotypes on their head.”

When they’re not making red carpet appearances for “The Favourite,” both men are involved in new projects that also based in history.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

DEC 8, 15, 16 | LINCOLN THEATRE 1215 U Street NW

For tickets, call 1-877-435-9849 or visit gmcw.org For

tickets and groups of 10 or more call 202-293-1548

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28 • D E C E M B E R 07, 2018

O U T & A BO U T

By MARIAH COOPER

PHOTO BY MARC MILLMAN; COURTESY KENNEDY CENTER

Meshell plans Baldwin tribute Meshell Ndegeocello performs her show “No More Water|The Fire Next Time: The Gospel According to James Baldwin” at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) on Sunday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m.

The performance is the openly queer bassist’s homage to Baldwin and is the next chapter of Ndegeocello’s musical tribute to Baldwin, “Can I Get a Witness?

The Gospel of James Baldwin.” The tribute is inspired by by Baldwin’s book “The Fire Next Time.” Tickets range from $49-89.

For more details, visit kennedy-center.org.

PHOTO BY DAVID BETTS

Consort Christmas concert Washington Bach Consort presents “Christmas with the Consort” at the National Presbyterian Church (4101 Nebraska Ave., N.W.) on Sunday, Dec. 16 from 3-6 p.m.

Performances under the direction of gay conductor Dana Marsh (seen here) will include renditions of “Uns ist ein Kind geboren” by Johann Ludwig Bach and “Komm, Jesu, Komm” by J.S. Bach. The chorus will also perform other motets from the Advent season.Tickets range from $10-69.

For more information, visit facebook.com/bachconsort.

PHOTO BY CARL DIAZ; COURTESY JOHNSON

Galactica leaves D.C. with a bang Special Agent Galactica, aka Jeffrey Johnson, bids farewell to the D.C. area with a performance at Dangerous Pies (1339 H St., N.E.) on Sunday, Dec. 9 from 5:30-9 p.m.

The “Farewell Show” will include guest performances from Happy Hour Jazz Band, Peter Fields and the B-52’s frontman Fred Schneider. The show will be split into three sets. The first set is “The Best of the Happy Hour Show” which will include the Happy Hour Jazz Trio with Aaaron Myers on keyboards, Ethan Foote on bass and Winston Johnson on drums.

“A Romp Around Uranus” is the second set which will feature Galactica, Captain Satellite and the Timeship Aurora, voiced

by Schneider. “Would’ve Been, Might’ve Been and Other Stuff” is the final set which features the group jamming out to songs that never made it to Galactica’s shows. Tickets are pay-what-you-can at the door.

For details, visit facebook.com/ specialagentgalactica.

Homosuperior to play Black Cat Homosuperior, a “queercore” punk band, performs at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Donna Slash fronts the band which also features drummer Kit Wagner, bassist K.C. Oden and guitarist Farrah Skeiky. Punk rock bands Jail Solidarity and BustDown open the show. Tickets are $10.

For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

BO OK S

DE C E M B E R 07, 2018 • 29

The ‘Hiding’ place

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Sexually dysfunctional family frames murky memoir

TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER has been reading since she was 3 years old. She lives in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Reach her at bookwormsez@yahoo.com.

“Ready or not, here I come!”

Hear that, and if you hadn’t hidden by then, hadn’t found a secret spot, you had a real chance of losing at Hide & Seek. Get out of sight, though, and you might’ve managed to sneak back home, ready to play another game. As in the memoir “Hiding Out” by Tina Alexis Allen (released in February but just out in paperback), that game could last for decades.

Growing up, Christina Worthington knew her father hated her.

Her 12 siblings knew it, too, and they reminded her of it often: she was the youngest, her mother’s “lucky 13” and the victim of much of her father’s wrath.

Starting at about the age of 9, Tina was also the victim of sexual abuse from two of her then-adult brothers.

But she never told anyone about it.

Instead, she acted out at school until the nuns were at their wits’ end and her “saint” of a mother was exasperated. At age 11, a younger teacher finally took Tina under her wing — and into her bed.

Two years later, by the time her teacher-lover sent her away, Tina knew she was more attracted to girls than boys. By her mid-teens, she had a college-age girlfriend who lived near her parents’ Washington D.C.-area house, from which she managed to mostly stay away; there was more comfort in the girlfriend’s apartment than there was at her childhood home, where hiding her real self was necessary.

But no one can hide forever.

When her father invited her and her girlfriend to lunch one day, Tina was guarded and rightfully so, because he figured out her secret and she couldn’t deny. Then he revealed a shocker of his own: he was gay, too.

Within weeks, Tina went from hated daughter to favorite, from ignored to invitee

Get Covered DC. Stay Covered DC. PHOTO COURTESY DEY ST. BOOKS

to her father’s dinners and clubs. They agreed to keep one another’s secrets from the rest of the family, partying, drinking and doing drugs until the stress of it all bubbled over. Tina couldn’t take the lies anymore and her lips spilled the truth.

Years later, there was one last secret …

Memoirs, by their very nature, are generally focused inwardly, to a greater or lesser degree. Count “Hiding Out” on the latter side.

Starting with a raucous anecdote of sibling rivalry before Christmas Mass, you’re in for more than a look-at-me memoir. This is, in fact, a whole-family tale in which author Tina Alexis Allen puts the focus mainly on her parents, with sibs ringing the action as needed. Using that as a base, tales eke out tantalizingly slowly over the course of this book and some are shocking, told so casually that you’ll get a, “Wait. What?” backlash. Don’t be surprised if you read the occasional sentence twice, in disbelief.

Add a tight window of time and a deep unsubstantiated-rumor-type mystery that feels like a character unto itself, and you’ve got a compulsively readable book. If a memoir like “Hiding Out” is what you want for a long winter’s night, then get ready.

‘HIDING OUT: A MEMOIR OF DRUGS, DECEPTION AND DOUBLE LIVES’

By Tina Alexis Allen Dey St. Books $16.99 288 pages

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WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

3 0 • DE CE MB ER 0 7, 2018

CA LE N D A R

E-mail calendar items to calendars@washblade. com two weeks prior to your event. Space is limited so priority is given to LGBT-specific events or those with LGBT participants. Recurring events must be re-submitted each time.

TODAY Bet Mishpachah and GLOE host a Hanukkah service at Foundry United Methodist Church (1500 16th St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Rabbi Laurie Green and guest Rabbi Ben Shalva will co-lead this musical service. For more information, visit facebook.com/betmish.

JR.’s Bar (1519 17th St., N.W.) hosts a viewing party for “RuPaul’s Drag Race Holi-Slay Spectacular” tonight from 8-11 p.m. Attendees can watch RuPaul crown the first “Drag Race” Christmas Queen while enjoying drink specials. For details, visit facebook.com/jrsbardc.

Miss Pixie’s (1626 14th St., N.W.) hosts its sixth annual holiday market today from 5-8 p.m. About 15 local makers and small businesses will be selling their items. There will be live music by jazz band the Bitter Dose Combo, vegetarian paella for sale from Barcelona Wine Bar and a raffle. All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Casa Ruby. Miss Pixie’s items will be 20 percent off all day. For more information, visit facebook.com/misspixies.

D.C. Queer Theatre Festival kicks off at D.C. Arts Center (2438 18th St., N.W.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Seven queer-themed, 10-minute plays will be performed from playwrights including Audrey Cefaly, Asabi Oke, Brittany Alsye Willis, John Bavaso and more. Tickets are $20. For details, visit thedccenter.org/events/dcqtf.

SATURDAY, DEC. 8 The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performs its holiday show at the Lincoln Theatre (1215 U St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m.

The chorus will sing holiday songs such as “Jingle Bells,” “Puttin’ on the Holiday Drag,” “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” and more.

Tickets range from $25-65. Performances are also scheduled for Dec. 15-16. For more information, visit gmcw.org.

LULAC Lambda hosts its annual holiday party at the Chastleton Ballroom (1701 16th St., N.W.) tonight from 8-11 p.m. There will be tamales and mixed drinks. DJ Milko will play music and Corazon Folklorico and Sylvanna Duvel will perform. The party raises funds for academic scholarship for LGBT Latinx students. The group will also honor its Member of the Year, Board Member of the Year and Ally of the Year. Members for 2019 can also sign up at the party. For more details, visit facebook.com/lulaclambda.

Mary’s House for Older Adults hosts its holiday gala at Human Rights Campaign (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) tonight from 6-11 p.m. There will be door prizes and food. Michael Sainte-Andress will emcee the event. Akousa McCrayPeters will DJ for the night. Single tickets

WASHINGTON BLADE FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performs Saturday night at the Lincoln Theatre. The choir’s annual holiday show also has performances slated for Dec. 15-16.

are $75. Couple tickets are $140. For more information, visit facebook.com/ maryshousedc.

Distrkt C hosts Dirty Santa, a holiday dance party, at the D.C. Eagle (3701 Benning Rd., N.E.) tonight from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. DJ Ed Wood will perform an extended set. Tickets are $30. For more details, visit distrktc.com.

SUNDAY, DEC. 9 BenDeLaCrème and Jinkx Monsoon perform their holiday show “To Jesus, Thanks for Everything” at 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. General admission tickets are $35. VIP tickets are $100 and include a meet and greet and early entry. VIP entry is at 7 p.m. General admission entry is at 7:30 p.m. For more details, visit 930.com.

D.C. Area Transmasculine Society hosts “Navigating the Holidays as a Trans or NB Person,” at Whitman-Walker Health (1525 14th St., N.W.) this evening from 5-7 p.m. The support group will discuss how to navigate the holidays as a transgender or non-binary individual. The group is open to people who were assigned female at birth but do not feel this accurately or completely describes themselves. Binder donations will be accepted. HIPS syringe exchange will also be available. For more information, visit dcats.org.

Stonewall Yoga D.C. has its fall session

at Pitchers (2317 18th St., N.W.) today from 10:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Beginner’s yoga is from 10:45-11:45 a.m. Intermediate yoga is from noon-1:15 p.m. Mike Giordano leads beginner’s yoga and Luke Ventura will lead intermediate practice. Fall classes run through Dec. 23. Access to all classes is $65. Drop-in is $10. For more details, visit facebook.com/stonewallyogadc.

MONDAY, DEC. 10 The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) hosts coffee drop-in hours for the senior LGBT community this morning from 10 a.m.-noon. Older LGBT adults can come and enjoy complimentary coffee and conversation with other community members. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

TUESDAY, DEC. 11 GLOE hosts Torah & Sexuality: Blood, Power and Purity at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. The class focuses on sexual expression and sexual identity in a queer context led by rabbis and Jewish educators. Each class is $18. For more information, visit edcjcc.org.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 12 The D.C. Area Transmasculine Society

hosts a trans-masculine and nonbinary happy hour at the Eleanor (100 Florida Ave., N.E.) tonight from 6-9 p.m.

The society is a group for people assigned female at birth but who feel this is an incomplete or inaccurate description of their identity. Significant others, friends and allies are welcome. Binder donations will be accepted. For more information, visit dcatssociety.

Big Gay Book Group meets at Trio Bistro Restaurant (1537 17th St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss “The Sparsholt Affair” by Alan Hollinghurt.

Newcomers welcome. For more details, visit biggaybookgroup.com or email biggaybookgroup@hotmail.com.

The Lambda Bridge Club meets at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and new comers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703-407-6540.

THURSDAY, DEC. 13 Pretty Boi Drag presents #AmateurKingNight at Beir Baron (1523 22nd St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Amateur kings are encouraged to take the stage.

The event will be ASL interpreted. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Attendees must be 18 and over. For more information, visit facebook.com/ prettyboidrag.

WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

D I N IN G

DE C E M B E R 07, 2018 • 31

Queer beer

琀栀攀

LGBT-owned Denizens Brewery challenging bro culture

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By EVAN CAPLAN Washington residents need not be reminded that long nights, pizza and beer are staples of the political campaign lifestyle.

When Julie Verratti and her wife, Emily Bruno, left their campaign lives in Boston and moved to Washington a decade ago, they just couldn’t quite quit the political lifestyle — or the beer part.

So in 2014, the couple and their brewmaster brother-in-law Jeff Ramirez opened Denizens Brewery, the only woman/minority-owned and -operated brewery in Maryland (115 East West Highway, Silver Spring, Md; denizensbrewingco.com).

No ordinary brewpub, it’s as much a community organizing point as it is a beermaking center. Denizens brews a rotating list of small-batch, craft beers and serves pints, growlers, bar noshes and plenty of pride.

A lifelong beer aficionado and onetime homebrewer, Silver Spring native Verratti’s career took her first to Massachusetts to work on the John Kerry presidential campaign, where she and Bruno met. Fast forward a couple years, and the pair is still together, taking part in the nation’s first statewide marriage equality victory at Mass Equality.

In true D.C. fashion, Verratti decided to pursue a law degree, which brought her and Bruno back to the area. It was here, over holiday dinners, that they broke bread with Ramirez. For his part, besides marrying into the family, Ramirez is also was a veteran of the Colorado and Pennsylvania beer scenes. Verratti pitched him on the idea of opening their own brewpub and Denizens was born.

Explaining the division of labor, Verratti says simply, “Jeff makes the beer. I sell the beer.

And Emily does the business operations.”

Today, as the growth among broader beer industry fizzes, craft brewing is mushrooming in popularity, changing the perception of how beer is consumed and what beer is meant to be. Though it may be changing faster than corporate beer culture, craft brewing is still a white maledominated industry, Verratti says. She’s set out to change that through Denizens.

Denizens’ philosophy is reflected in its name. Verratti explains that their brewery, “should be a gathering place for the community.”

There shouldn’t be a craft beer type of person, she continued, because “craft beer belongs to all of us.”

“We don’t just shove IPAs down people’s throats.”

㘀㨀㌀ 倀䴀

PHOTO COURTESY DENIZENS

From left are EMILY BRUNO, JEFF RAMIREZ and JULIE VERRATTI, co-owners of Denizens Brewery.

The brewery has five flagship beers, drawing from traditional lager, ale and Belgian styles. It also pours seasonal selections that showcase the spot’s creative barrel aging and sour programs.

The barrels bring their own only-in-D.C. story. One beer, named Call Waiting, is aged in bourbon barrels sourced from fellow LGBT liquor purveyors, Republic Restoratives. Verratti is a fan of the Ivy City-based distillery’s “kick-ass cocktails,” and they partner on programs in the LGBT community.

Putting their political organizing hats on, the partners lobbied for statewide policy change that allowed for easier local beer production and distribution and reduced regulations on where beer can be consumed.

Advancing this progressive agenda even further, Verratti has joined the board of the Brewers Association, representing thousands of beermakers across the country. She chairs the diversity committee, endeavoring to ensure that small, independent brewers improve diversity in their workforce, customers base and atmospheres. This year, the leadership panel at the annual conference was made up entirely of women.

At Denizens, “We’re so proud of being out,” Verratti says. “We’re extremely vocal of being an LGBT operation and supporting LGBT causes.”

At the brewery, the three owners have made a concerted effort to create a community space. They work with nearby University of Maryland to experiment with yeast strains and carry Marylandmade products and ingredients for the kitchen that plates everything from wings to winter kale salads. They also host special beer events, craft fairs, trivia, live music, a running club, and yes, even drag shows. They also give back to LGBT organizations, including HRC and SMYAL, and the MoCo Pride Center.

“While we’re not a ‘gay’ brewery like there are ‘gay’ bars, everyone knows who we are,” she says.

■ CONTINUES AT WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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A RT S & E N T E RT A I N ME N T

Wainwright has love/hate relationship with Cohen cover ‘Hallelujah’ CON TINUED FROM PAGE 21

telling you until you’ve lived with it a few decades.” Your thoughts?

WAINWRIGHT: When we premiered “Hadrian,” I had to cut out practically an hour for it to fit into the constraints of union rules with the theater. So in terms of editing and so forth, that definitely had to happen and now in moving forward for other theaters, I do want to do some revisions. I do feel that an opera is a kind of a living organism that needs upkeep. That being said though, yeah, it’s a gamble and yes, the game you’re playing with opera is the long game and all of that can only really be fully understood arguably sometimes a century later. That’s all I can say.

a little too clinical for the audience. It’s a rather long evening and I wanted to mix it up in the sense that I’d be able to present some of my new projects like this Canadian album that I released called “Northern Stars,” so I do like one Joni Mitchell song to promote that then I have a new song “Sword of Damocles” that I wanted to sing so I wanted to have some freedom to be able to swim around a bit. But then in the second half we do “Poses” from top to bottom and that gives a really different character to the second half of the show.

BLADE: Pretty faithful arrangements?

WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, we’re trying to capture the original lines as best we can.

We can’t get all the harmonies and we don’t have an orchestra of course, but otherwise it’s very faithful to the original.

BLADE: Sometimes something works great on a record at home but can feel very different in a live room. Any issues with that translation?

WAINWRIGHT: There doesn’t seem to be. What’s becoming evident to me is that my original strategy of writing songs that are impressive both to sing and to communicate a message, that’s at the heart of each piece All the arrangements and harmonies and different mixes are really there to serve the song. That’s how I always felt in the studio and it’s still about that structure, even subconsciously, when I perform it in public.

BLADE: How was it performing at the Joni Mitchell 75th birthday tribute concerts a few weeks ago?

WAINWRIGHT: It was amazing. I was able to share the stage with some real legends of the industry be it Seal or Diana Krall or Emmylou Harris, all these amazing people.

And then having Joni there the second night kind of beaming in the audience as we sang was a real honor and privilege.

BLADE: How did it work out that you sang “Blue”? Did you pick that or Joni?

WAINWRIGHT: Actually my husband chose that song. Nobody had taken it, I think mainly due to the height of its nature.

I mean it’s an iconic piece and it’s so tied to Joni’s individualistic style that nobody really requested it so (event creator/ Wainwright spouse) Jorn (Weisbrodt) sort of put it forth and said it would be a real challenge for you to do “Blue” and me being a man who loves to complicate his life you know, jumped at the chance.

BLADE: How is Joni? Is she able to walk and talk? (Mitchell had a brain aneurysm in 2015) WAINWRIGHT: She walks with assistance and she talks. It’s not as fierce as it once was. I don’t in any way want to

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, seen here in a vintage photo, has a soft spot for the music of his mother, Kate McGarrigle who performed as Kate & Anna McGarrigle with her sister.

PHOTO BY GREG GORMAN

minimize what occurred to her medically and it’s not something I would wish on anyone but that being said, I do feel that there is essentially — I don’t know, she’s softened in a way, which you know with strokes the opposite can happen. You can become incredibly bitter and angry and just be in a worse place. I don’t feel from my perspective that that has occurred to her. I think she’s in a real place of acceptance, which is good to be in when you’re older.

BLADE: Did you know from the outset that Hadrian (the title character in Wainwright’s new opera) was a bottom?

WAINWRIGHT: (laughs) I’ve been wanting to write this opera for many, many years and ages ago I was speaking with someone and they brought up that concept and it really stuck with me. … So I’ve known for a long time that it would be a necessary kind of element to give the opera more depth. I’ve known for a long time.

BLADE: How was the Toronto production and were you there the whole time?

WAINWRIGHT: I was there most of the time it was really fabulous. I had some of the greatest singers on the planet performing the opera with Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila and the others were incredible too but just in terms of stature, those two are second to none. So there was that and also the audience was incredible, it sold very well.

There was always an enthusiastic reaction and I have no complaints whatsoever about the experience. Now trying to get a four-act grand opera presented in

other opera houses of the world is itself another herculean task, especially in the world we live in now which isn’t really opera-centric, but I’m one who kind of enjoys a fight so here we go.

BLADE: What do you know now that you didn’t know after your first opera?

WAINWRIGHT: I learned a few things.

One is that an artist really has to compose what they are called upon to compose, you know? After the premiere, I kind of looked back and kind of said, “Why in God’s name did I do that?” Only because it took so long and it was such a lot of work, it cost a lot of money and I don’t know what it has to do with today or anything like that. But I realized oh my God, I was really under a kind of spell and that’s really all that I could hold onto really as an artist and all I can kind of go with. And then the piece has to really fend for itself. So I just have to remind myself that I’m doing this because it’s meant to be even though it might seem crazy. And then also I realize that along the way so much of what I’ve learned I can then communicate in other areas of my artistic life. I’m looking forward to doing that. Just the craft that one learns in writing for an orchestra and working with opera singers is astounding and I’m excited to bring that into all my other work.

BLADE: Classical music critic David Patrick Stearns wrote last year about revisions made to a Barber opera after its 1966 premiere and said, “Even though the revisions made theatrical sense by cutting extraneous information, opera is not about information. Half the time you don’t know what an opera is truly

BLADE: “Hallelujah” (the Leonard Cohen song Wainwright covered) has really gotten overdone, almost to the point of “Imagine.” I lost count of how many skaters skated to it at the last Olympics. Are you tired of it?

WAINWRIGHT: I’ve had my ups and downs with that song for a long time.

When I first performed it, it wasn’t something that I gravitated to. It was because it had become very popular from “Shrek” and that’s something I was just asked to do and did and didn’t have any emotional connection to. But then I started singing it and I started to resent it because that’s all I was known for and I actually made a concerted effort to squash that stream. But then I started to realize that I could just throw it into any situation and people were instantly on my side, so and then I became thankful for it. And then when Trump was up for election, I said I wouldn’t sing it if he won the election. It became that thing. So then he won and then I didn’t sing it and then Leonard Cohen died, so it kind of keeps coming back. I respect the song in a lot of ways. It’s not my favorite Leonard Cohen song by any means but one has to give it some credit in terms of its indomitable character that just keeps coming back and that is somewhat impressive. I owe a lot to that song as well in terms of having a real mainstream appeal. So I’m of two minds.

BLADE: Do you ever listen to your mom’s records or have a favorite?

WAINWRIGHT: I love my mom’s records, they’re great. I would probably say my personal favorite is “Dancer with Bruised Knees,” which is their second album. I have a slight bias on that one because there’s a song “First Born” that is sort of about me a little bit.

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REALESTATE

Is the market going up? Or down?

And who stands to benefit from a market ‘shift’?

By JOSEPH HUDSON These are all questions on people’s minds.

The fed is possibly going to raise rates this month. A while back they indicated that they would do so several times in 2019. But we will just have to wait and see how it plays out. Here are a few thoughts to ponder with regard to the current housing market: • Nearly two out of three houses sold in October were either under construction or yet to be built. (CNBC) • Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell to a near two-year low in September and data for the prior three months was revised lower, the latest indications that rising mortgage rates and higher prices were undercutting the housing market. (CNBC) • Higher mortgage rates combined with high prices are hurting the housing market.

• Many people in the real estate industry talk about a “shift” that is happening where it is becoming a buyer’s market.

• Amazon’s HQ2 will be partially located in Northern Virginia, in Crystal City. This will have a ripple effect on the local economy in many factors.

• Prices and rates have gone up, but income and salaries have not kept up.

So, if you are thinking of buying a home

JEFF BEZOS is bringing his Amazon HQ2 partly to our area. It remains to be seen what impact 25,000 new area workers will have on local property values.

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in the D.C. area, there are a lot of indicators that buyers will be the most likely group to profit. But one could argue that sellers will also benefit from a growing and more diverse D.C. economy that is not mostly based on the government.

Either way, in a metro area like D.C., where rents can be very high in some buildings, a buyer can speak with a lender and possibly find out that their mortgage

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would be lower than their rent.

Many buyers find that using a multitude of sources for down payment – borrowing from retirement, gifts from relatives, using a program like DC Opens Doors, HPAP, or getting closing cost assistance from a seller, they too can get into the housing market and reap the benefits of being a homeowner.

D.C. is a unique market in that we have

the benefit of a steady economy and also lots of people moving in and out. There are many international buyers and sellers too. We are expecting further growth in our market, and we will see what 2019 holds for both buyers and sellers.

JOSEPH HUDSON is a Realtor with The Oakley Group at Compass. He can be reached at 703587-0597 or Joseph.hudson@compass.com.

Die Hard: A homeowner wages war on subterranean termites and powderpost beetles.

VALERIE M. BLAKE, Associate Broker, GRI, Director of Education & Mentorship Dupont Circle Office • 202-518-8781 (o) • 202.246.8602 (c) Valerie@DCHomeQuest.com • www.DCHomeQuest.com

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LEGAL NOTICES

MASSAGE

EMPLOYMENT

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES PETITION FOR CUSTODY AND SUPPORT OF MINOR CHILD, CASE #18PDFL01076 MAI THI THU TRAN V. TUNG QUANG NGUYEN PASADENA COURTHOUSE, 300 EAST WALNUT STREET, PASADENA, CA 91101

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WHOLISTIC SERVICES, INC. seeking Full Time Direct Support Professionals to assist intellectually disabled adults with behavioral health complexities in group homes & day services throughout DC. Requirements 1 year exp., valid drivers license, able to lift 50-75 lbs, complete training program, become DDS Med Certified within 4 months of hire, ability to pass security background check. Associates degree preferred. For more information, please contact the Human Resources (HR) Department at 202-832-8787.

Notice of Summons, Petition for Custody and Support of Minor Child, Family Law Case Cover Sheet, UCCJEA, Request for Order Custody, Visitation, and Child Support, and Notice of Hearing filed against Respondent Tung Quang Nguyen.

The Summons, Petition for Custody and Support of Minor Child, Family Law Case Cover Sheet, UCCJEA, Request for Order Custody, Visitation, and Child Support for the parties’ minor child Justin Nguyen (DOB: July 27, 2010) were initially filed on June 7, 2018. Petitioner Mai Thi Thu Tran has attempted to serve Respondent Tung Quang Nguyen at his last known address at 1320 Fairmont St. NW Apt. 201, Washington D.C. 20009 by personal service and mail.

The parties were ordered to attend mediation for the child custody and visitation issues of Petitioner’s Request for Order at above address for the Pasadena Courthouse on July 17, 2018 at 1:30pm in Room 100. The initial hearing date for the Request for Order re: Custody, Visitation, and Child Support of the parties’ minor child Justin Nguyen was on August 7, 2018 at 8:30 am in Department K the above address for the Pasadena Courthouse. In her Request for Order, Petitioner seeks sole legal custody and sole primary physical custody of Justin as well as guideline child support be ordered.

The hearing was continued to October 15, 2018 at 8:30 am in Department K to allow additional time for service. Petitioner hired an investigator to attempt to locate Respondent for service of the case and motion. As mentioned above, Petitioner was unable to serve Respondent. The October 15, 2018 hearing was subsequently continued to allow for Petitioner to file an Application for Order for Publication of the above filed documents and to serve via publication. The hearing was continued to January 14, 2019 at 8:30 am in Department K at the above address for the Pasadena Courthouse.

On October 17, 2018, Petitioner filed an Application for Order for Publication of the Family Law Case Cover Sheet, Petition for Custody and Support (FL-260), UCCJEA, Request for Order Custody, Visitation, and Child Support, and Notice of Continuance. On October 25, 2018, the Order for Publication of the notice in the Washington Blade was granted. The publication is to run in the Washington Blade at least once per week for four successive weeks. On November 8, 2018, the Court issued a minute order continuing the hearing on Petitioner’s Request for Order from January 14, 2019 to February 4,

time.

Petitioner is represented by the H Bui Law Firm, 3452 E. Foothill Blvd., Suite #1160, Pasadena, CA 91107, telephone number (626) 683-7574.

Respondent may contact Petitioner’s attorney for a copy of the filed documents or may seek copies of the filed documents directly from the Pasadena Courthouse.

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2019 at 8:30 am in Department K at the Pasadena Courthouse.

The next hearing date for Petitioner’s Request for Order for Custody, Visitation and Child Support of the parties’ minor child is on February 4, 2019 at 8:30 am in Department K at the Pasadena Courthouse located at 300 East Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101.

If Respondent Tung Quang Nguyen wishes to file a response to Petitioner’s motion, he must do so 9 court days prior to the hearing date on February 4, 2019 and serve a copy of the response to Petitioner’s attorneys 9 court days at the same time.

Petitioner is represented by the H Bui Law Firm, 3452 E. Foothill Blvd., Suite #1160, Pasadena, CA 91107, telephone number (626) 683-7574. Respondent may contact Petitioner’s attorney for a copy of the filed documents or may seek copies of the filed documents directly from the Pasadena Courthouse.

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