QUEERY Patrick DiBattista Washington Blade photo by Michael Key
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell? I think I was born out. … While there was no single person, my most difficult outing was when I was teaching high school in Texas and I was outed on the local news, for my work with people who had HIV. I was removed from my job and had to fight to get it back.
By JOEY DIGUGLIELMO JOEYD@WASHBLADE.COM
Who’s your LGBT hero? As a young man, I worked with a group in Houston called the Kaposi Sarcoma Foundation. At the time we didn’t have a name for AIDS. A number of the people who I worked with at the foundation learned that they carried the virus and died, even as they were working to stop its spread. Those people — that generation that we lost — are my heroes. What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present? I like diversity — a place with women and men, that’s multiracial, has a range of ages and different body types. We had that at Town as part of Town and Country and we have that now at Ziegfeld-Secrets as part of Country at Secrets.
on both floors. The next vent is Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. (lessons) and 8-11 p.m. (dancing). An intermediate/advanced line dance will be taught upstairs (“Hold Your Horse”) and the beginner/intermediate dance (“Walk the Line”) will be downstairs. “Same-sex partner dancing is a longstanding tradition in the area,” DiBattista says. “We plan to keep it alive. I like being able to dance with anothr man and know that it won’t elicit a negative response.” Details at dcrawhides.com. DeBattista came to Washington 20 years ago for his husband Alfredo Gomez’s job. They live in a four-story row house built in 1869 in Logan Circle. He enjoys dancing (of course!) in his free time.
Describe your dream wedding. I think we have to be careful about confusing weddings with marriage. I have been with my partner for over 30 years and even though we are legally married, the wedding had nothing to do with the strength or quality of our marriage. It was a 10-minute civll ceremony and I remember asking the officiant to speed things up because we had more important things to do. What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about? I hope LGBT issues encompass social justice for anyone systematically disenfranchised from society. The “golden rule” can seem simplistic, but
QUEERY: Patrick DiBattista
The D.C. Rawhides organizer answers 20 gay questions
Despite all the nightlife changes in the region, organizers always manage to find a place for same-sex country line dancing. Ten years ago, Remingtons, D.C.’s former gay country bar, was waning and gay line dancers wanted a new place to dance and an organization that could provide structure to make that happen so D.C. Rawhides was born. Patrick DiBattista was one of the organizers and is involved to this day. “I dance every chance I get,” he says. “I would be lost if I couldn’t dance.” The Rawhides do country western two step, waltz, west coast swing and line dances to country music and other contemporary songs. The group meets twice monthly at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.)
its not a bad model for how one might want to move in the world. What historical outcome would you change? I didn’t know we could change history. Maybe we should shoot for the smaller but more reachable goal of not repeating bad history. What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime? The first Apple computer. On what do you insist? Faith, hope and love. What was your last Facebook post or Tweet? I am so grateful that we didn’t have social media when i was young. If we had, I would have so much more to look back on with regret. I only use Facebook to post about the D.C. Rawhides dances. I am not on Twitter. I really don’t want to give Facebook information about myself that it can then sell and Twitter seems like a medium best suited for dogs that want to howl at the moon. If your life were a book, what would the title be? “He Had More Ambition than Talent or Time Allowed” If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do? I love variety and trust that nature does too. I would like to be taller, have broader shoulders and a smaller nose, but I am more than good with the idea that I am physically attracted to other men. What do you believe in beyond the physical world? I like to believe that we are divine and when we leave this physical world, that divinity is reunited with the universe.
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