Washingtonblade.com, Volume 51, Issue 50, December 11, 2020

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

‘I can’t sustain a business this way’ D.C. gay bars struggle to cope with new COVID rules, PAGE 08

DECEMBER 11, 2020 • VOLUME 51 • ISSUE 50 • WASHINGTONBLADE.COM

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Bowser announces plan to end HIV in D.C. by 2030 Outcome of earlier effort to curtail disease by 2020 released

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Dec. 4 announced the release of an updated plan by the city’s Department of Health to end the HIV epidemic in the nation’s capital by 2030.

The plan, among other things, calls for stepping up the city’s HIV prevention and medical intervention efforts to reduce the number of new HIV diagnoses in the District to 130 or fewer by 2030.

“This bold plan is an internal part of our effort to end the HIV epidemic in the District and continue our mission to reduce new HIV diagnoses and improve treatment and prevention programs,” Bowser said in a statement. “We’re proud to be an early adopter of this strategy and, while we’ve made progress, much work lies ahead,” she said.

The new plan calls for updating a plan for ending the HIV epidemic in D.C. launched in 2016 called the 90/90/90/50 Plan: Ending the HIV Epidemic in the District of Columbia by 2020. The original goals of the 2016 plan were to reduce the number of new HIV cases diagnosed in D.C. in 2020 by 50 percent of the number diagnosed in 2016.

The 2020 goal, which would have been 200 or fewer new HIV cases, is not likely to be achieved, according to data released by the DOH, which shows there were 282 new cases in 2019, the most recent year where data is available. DOH has said data for 2020 won’t be available until sometime in 2021.

The 282 new cases in 2019 nevertheless represented a significant reduction from the 400 new cases diagnosed in D.C. in 2015.

The 2019 data also show that the 2016 90/90/90/50 plan achieved or came very close to achieving its goals for three other important parameters for curtailing the

Mayor MURIEL BOWSER called for stepping up the city’s HIV prevention and medical intervention efforts.

(Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

HIV epidemic. They include having 90 percent of D.C. residents with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of those diagnosed with HIV would be on medical treatment, and 90 percent of those on treatment would have achieved viral suppression to a level where the virus is undetectable.

Experts in HIV research have said people with HIV at an undetectable level of viral load means they cannot transmit the virus to someone else through sexual relations.

The 2019 DOH data show that at least 90 percent of HIV-positive people in D.C. knew their HIV status; slightly more than 80 percent of those who were HIV positive were in treatment; and 88 percent of those in treatment had reached viral suppression.

The city’s revised plan as announced by Bowser last

week calls for achieving by 2030 95 percent of people with HIV in the District knowing their HIV status through new and improved testing options; 95 percent of those with HIV being on treatment by starting medication the same day they are diagnosed; and 95 percent of people on treatment achieving viral suppression through an improved promotion of the U=U campaign. That campaign stands for “Undetectable equals Untransmittable.”

The revised 2030 plan also calls for reaching out to more people at risk for contracting HIV to arrange for them to be on pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, an HIV medication that is considered 99 percent effective in preventing people from becoming infected with HIV. “We’ll also be tracking numbers by specific populations: Black men, Black women, Latino gay men, young Black gay men, transgender individuals, and people who use drugs,” according to a statement about the plan posted on the city’s newly launched plan website, www.dcendhiv.org.

“The District values health equity and recognizes structural barriers, such as racism and stigma, to optimal health outcomes and individual success,” said Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health. “These structural and social factors, including housing and education, provide a vital context to the health strategies that will accelerate reducing new HIV diagnoses and ensuring successful health outcomes for people living with HIV,” Nesbitt said.

“Together we can achieve our vision of an ended HIV epidemic supporting the best and most equitable health outcomes for all communities in D.C.,” said Michael Kharfen, senior deputy director of the DOH’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, and STD & TB Administration.

Comings & Goings

Abolafia takes position at American Bar Association

By PETER ROSENSTEIN

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: comingsandgoings@washblade.com.

Congratulations to Paavali A. Hannikainen on the publication of his paper, “Extensive Healthy Donor Age/ Gender Adjustments and Propensity Score Matching Reveal Physiology of Multiple Sclerosis Through Immunophenotyping,” in Frontiers in Neurology, his first as lead author.

Hannikainen is in his first year of medical school at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Before entering medical school he was a post baccalaureate intramural research trainee at the National Institutes of Health, where he conducted research at the Neuroimmunological Diseases Section as part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the lead of Bibiana Bielekova, MD. During his college years he did a number of internships including as a thirdyear research assistant at the University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine, Melbourne, Australia and was a summer research intern at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

During his time at Emory University Hannikainen was

on the crew team and served on the crew team’s board, helping to organize the team’s day-to-day operations.

During his time in D.C., he joined Stonewall Kickball and as fundraising chair of his 35-person kickball team successfully raised more than $1,300 for TransLAW, a nonprofit providing legal services for transgender people.

Hannikainen earned his bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology with a minor in Global Health, Culture, & Society from Emory University in Atlanta. He was an Undergraduate Honors Research Student at Emory University, Department of Neurosurgery, where he successfully completed and defended an honors thesis to establish a virally induced immunocompetent rat model of glioblastoma at the lab of Nicholas Boulis, MD. Congratulations also to Luis Abolafia on his new position as senior program manager with the American Bar Association, Rule of Law Initiative. Upon accepting the position Abolafia said, “After eight wonderful years at the LGBTQ Victory Institute I accepted a position at the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative overseeing programs in the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico. While I am sad to leave such an amazing organization as the Victory Institute that allowed me to combine two of my passions, political participation and LGBTQ equality, I am excited for this new challenge. “

0 6 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • LO CA L NE WS

PAAVALI HANNIKAINEN

LUIS ABOLAFIA

Abolafia served as the director of international programs for the LGBTQ Victory Institute where he developed, implemented, and monitored several projects focused on democracy and governance for LGBTQ people in Latin America, Southern Africa, the Balkans, and South Asia. He has also served as a social investment consultant to Grindr LLC in D.C., helping to develop a social investment assessment in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico for the company to positively impact the LGBTQ population in those countries. Prior to that he was a program manager with Asociación Candelita in Madrid, and a political party organizer for Equo – Spanish Green Party in Madrid. He has worked for Fundación Triángulo as an advocacy and human rights consultant, and authored a joint shadow report for the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in collaboration with 24 other NGOs.

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D E C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • WA S H I N GTO N B L A D E.CO M • 0 7 11/17/20 1:20 PM

D.C. gay bars struggling to stay open in pandemic Mayor’s new rule banning liquor sales after 10 p.m. called ‘devastating’

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

John Guggenmos, co-owner of the D.C. gay bars Number 9 and Trade, says he and his business partners support Mayor Muriel Bowser’s efforts to keep people safe as the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continues to rise in the city.

But Guggenmos and other gay bar owners say the mayor’s most recent order requiring bars and restaurants to stop serving alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. has had a devastating impact on what had already been a major decline in business since the COVID restrictions were put in place earlier this year.

“We see hope on the horizon,” Guggenmos said. “But for many places it’s just going to be too late. It is sad because even if I am in a position that we can weather this storm better, if other places in the neighborhood don’t, then we all suffer.”

David Perruzza, owner of the Adams Morgan gay sports bar Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar A League of Her Own, said gay bar customers traditionally come out to the clubs after 9 p.m. and often remain there several hours later.

Under the mayor’s current Phase II rules for addressing the COVID health emergency all restaurants and bars must close at midnight, two hours earlier than the pre-epidemic closing time of 2 a.m. during the week and three hours sooner than the normal 3 a.m. closing time on weekends. That restriction by itself has resulted in a significant drop in revenue for bars and nightclubs, including LGBTQ clubs, officials with the clubs have said.

The new restriction put in place last month banning liquor sales after 10 p.m. allows bars and restaurants to continue to stay open until midnight. But Guggenmos, Perruzza and other bar owners say few if any customers would likely come in to order non-alcoholic beverages. Thus they and nearly all of the city’s bar and restaurant owners have decided to close at 10 p.m. until the restrictions are lifted, a development that has further curtailed their businesses.

“I’ve had the worst two weekends of my life at the bar,” said Perruzza in referring to the weekends following the ban on liquor sales after 10 p.m. “I can’t sustain a business this way,” he said.

Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, has said city inspectors have found that more violations of the COVID-related health restrictions at restaurants and bars, such as social distancing and mask wearing, were occurring after 10 p.m. as patrons consumed more alcohol.

But nightlife advocates have disputed claims that riskier behavior occurs after 10 p.m. They say there are no studies or data to back up those claims.

Perruzza said he understands that while the mayor’s intention is to curtail the spread of the coronavirus he believes the 10 p.m. cutoff on alcohol service will result in large numbers of bar customers going to private parties in people’s homes where there will be fewer safeguards to curtail the virus.

“By her doing this she is going to push people to have more house parties,” Perruzza said. “At least if they’re in a restaurant or bar they’re in a controlled environment where they take their temperature. They make sure everything is sanitized after people leave,” Perruzza said. “People are not required to wear masks when they go to house parties.”

Prior to the start of the pandemic, D.C. was home to at least 15 gay bars or nightclubs in which the clientele was largely LGBTQ. A number of other D.C. bars and nightclubs are considered LGBTQ friendly, according to gay D.C. nightlife advocate Mark Lee, who said those additional establishments have a significant LGBTQ clientele.

In March, Bowser issued her initial emergency health order requiring all “non-essential” businesses, including bars and restaurants, to temporarily close their indoor operations to

Exterior of Trade, which is working to serve customers amid new 10 p.m. cutoff for alcohol sales. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

capacity. At most, he said, he was able to reach a 33 percent capacity, which now must be reduced to 25 percent.

Meanwhile, the D.C. gay bar Dirty Goose at 913 U St., N.W. is among the establishments hit with a fine for allegedly violating the Phase II food serving requirement. According to a report in the Washington City Paper, an inspector from the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration on Nov. 27 cited Dirty Goose for serving only cookies as a food item, saying it failed to provide at least two other types of food such as popcorn or brownies instead of just cookies.

Co-owner Justin Parker told City Paper he plans to contest the citation on grounds that the establishment serves multiple types of cookies that are prepared on the premises and that the different types should be accepted as different food types.

He said that ABRA inspectors came to Dirty Goose six or seven times in November prior to citing him for the food violation and found his establishment to be in full compliance with all of the COVID related requirements.

On its Facebook page the Dirty Goose announced on Nov. 10 that it had voluntarily closed its doors after one of its employees tested positive for COVID and out of caution it would remain closed until all remaining employees were tested. On Nov. 15 it announced “we have received all our employees test results and we are ready to reopen,” which happened less than a week later.

customers in an effort to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

Carryout food and drink orders were allowed, and some of the gay clubs joined other bars and restaurants in putting in place a take-out order business.

A short time later,the DC Eagle,the city’s longest continuously operating gay bar, announced it was permanently closing.

The Eagle’s majority owner filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy following longstanding financial problems, but many of the Eagle’s customers believe the pandemic played some role in the permanent shutdown.

At the same time, the popular LGBTQ nightclub Ziegfeld’s-Secrets closed its doors indefinitely after the owner of the building where it was located in the city’s Buzzard’s Point area invoked its longstanding plan to demolish the building to make way for a new condominium and retail development. Ziegfeld’s-Secrets manager Steve Delurba said the club would like to reopen in a new location but efforts to reopen would have to wait until all COVID-19 restrictions on such establishments were lifted.

Among the city’s remaining 13 LGBTQ bars and clubs, all but one has reopened after the mayor put in place the city’s Phase II business reopening plan Dirty Goose was recently fined for allegedly violating rules about serving in June, which allowed bars, restaurants, and other three kinds of food to remain open. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key) businesses to resume limited indoor operations.

The Fireplace, a gay bar at 2161 P St., N.W. near Dupont In a Nov. 25 Facebook message, Dirty Goose conveyed Circle, decided to remain closed rather than operate under the COVID restrictions but “definitely” plans to reopen, what appears to be the sentiment shared by the other LGBTQ according Larry Ray, a longtime customer who said he spoke bar owners and operators.

“First, we would like to thank all of our wonderful family with one of the owners.

Among the other Phase II restrictions for bars, restaurants of patrons who have kept us going since May,” the message and nightclubs put in place by Bowser in the spring was the says. “What a crazy 8 months it’s been!” After announcing requirement that such establishments must operate at 50 the Dirty Goose would be closing at 10 p.m. each day due to percent of their normal indoor capacity, all patrons must be the mayor’s order banning alcohol sales after that hour, the seated at tables spaced six feet apart, and at least three food message added, “We look forward to continue serving all of items must be served that are prepared on the premises you and please know we are continuously following the safety regardless of whether the establishment was exempt from requirements set by the DOH and the safety of our staff and serving food prior to the pandemic. The Phase II order also patrons remains our main priority.”

Lee, the longtime D.C. nightlife advocate who served as bans the establishments from offering live entertainment.

Two weeks ago, when the mayor issued her updated director of the D.C. Nightlife Council before being furloughed, order banning the serving of alcoholic beverages after 10 said the 10 p.m. cutoff for the sale of liquor at bars and p.m. at bars and restaurants, she also included in the order restaurants will be especially harmful coming with all the other a reduction in the capacity of customers from 50 percent to restrictions.

“The most maddening aspect of Mayor Bowser suddenly 25 percent based on concern that the number of COVID-19 cases was rising in D.C. after the case number had gone down halting all alcohol consumption after 10 p.m. at local bars, restaurants, and nightclubs operating in full compliance with in the spring and summer.

Perruzza told the Blade that due to the Phase II social public safety protocols and highly restricted service limitations distancing requirements and the spacing of tables and the is that there is no actual data or evidence-based rationale for ban on allowing customers to stand except to walk in and this financially devastating roll-back curfew,” Lee told the Blade. out and go to the bathroom, Pitchers and his adjoining bar A League of Her Own were never able to reach a 50 percent CONTINUES ON PAGE 10

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DE C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • WA S H I N GTO N B L A D E.CO M • 0 9

Rights to DC Eagle name purchased by Duplex Diner co-owner Unclear if Hunker plans to reopen iconic leather bar

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

MARK HUNKER purchased the rights to the DC Eagle name.

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Gay businessman Mark Hunker, the co-owner of D.C.’s Duplex Diner and of two restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Del., has purchased the legal rights to the name, trademark, logo, and other intellectual property belonging to the DC Eagle, the popular gay bar that closed its doors in May. Hunker’s identity as the purchaser of the DC Eagle’s name and other intellectual property became part of the public record this week of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia five months after the DC Eagle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 26.

The sale of the DC Eagle’s intellectual property to Hunker was finalized on Nov. 12 as part of an auction authorized by the bankruptcy court. Rasmus Auctions, the company retained by the bankruptcy court to conduct the online auction, disclosed on its website that the DC Eagle property was sold to the highest bidder at $32,800. But the company did not disclose the identity of the buyer at that time, saying it has a policy of not disclosing the identity of bidders or purchasers through its auctions.

A spokesperson for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Elizabeth I. Gunn, who is presiding over the DC Eagle’s bankruptcy case, told the Washington Blade on Wednesday that the identities of purchasers of property belonging to individuals or companies that file for bankruptcy become part of the court’s public records.

Justin P. Fansano, an attorney representing bankruptcy court trustee Bryan Ross, who is overseeing the DC Eagle bankruptcy case, said a full report of the auction sale of the DC Eagle intellectual property was scheduled to be posted this week on the online public docket for the Eagle’s case. Fansano said the report identifies Mark Hunker as the purchaser.

Neither Hunker nor his business partner for the Duplex Diner and the two Rehoboth restaurants, Jeff McCracken, could immediately be reached for comment. McCracken is not

listed as a buyer of the Eagle rights. Among the questions the Blade had for Hunker was whether he is planning to reopen the DC Eagle.

At the time it closed in May the Eagle had been D.C.’s longest continuously operating gay bar. Its closing came six months before it was scheduled to celebrate its 49th anniversary as the city’s iconic bar and club catering to the leather-Levi crowd. In recent years the DC Eagle expanded its outreach to others in the LGBTQ community by hosting popular drag shows and dance parties.

Hunker and McCracken were the subjects of a feature story in the Blade in January 2015 shortly after they purchased the Duplex Dinner, which has a mostly LGBTQ clientele at its location on 18th Street, N.W. on the edge of Adams Morgan.

In a separate profile of Hunker published in the Blade in July 2018, Hunker said he was the co-owner of JAM Holdings, a company that owned Duplex Diner, Red White & Basil, another D.C. restaurant, along with two popular restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Eden and Jam Bistro.

In October of this year the Blade announced that its readers had selected Duplex Diner as winner of the “best carryout” food establishment in the Blade’s 2020 Best of Gay D.C. awards contest.

‘I can’t sustain a business this way’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 09

“This arbitrary edict jeopardizes the survival of hospitality establishments by causing them to lose the major portion of revenue they had been able to generate,” he said. “We’re getting reports that this decision is costing operators up to 60 percent or more of the little money they were making, leaving most with no choice other than to shut down two hours earlier rather than attempt to now serve only food items and nonalcoholic beverages until midnight,” Lee said.

Lee noted that at a press conference on Dec. 7, Bowser acknowledged that nightlife establishments, including

D.C.’S LGBTQ BARS/RESTAURANTS Larry’s Lounge

the local COVID situation worsens.

Perruzza, Guggenmos and Doug Schantz, owner of the gay sports bar Nellie’s at 900 U St., N.W., each said their establishments and others like them serve as a place where LGBTQ people can go to be themselves, which many are unable to do at work, school, or even at home in some situations.

“At some point safe human interactions are what people are craving,” said Guggenmos. “You see someone on the street and how they desperately just want that interaction again,” he said. “If we could do that safely, why not?”

Green Lantern

900 U Street, N.W. 202-332-6355

1840 18th Street, N.W. 202-483-1483

1335 Green Court, N.W. 202-347-4533

Uproar

Pitchers/League of Her Own

Dacha Beer Garden

639 Florida Ave., N.W. 202-462-4464

The Dirty Goose 913 U Street, N.W.

JR.’s

1519 17th Street, N.W. 202-328-0090

Windows/DIK Bar

1637 17th Street, N.W. 202-328-0100

Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse Restaurant/Bar 1609 17th Street, N.W. 202-232-0395

2317 18th Street, N.W. 202-733-2558

Duplex Diner

2004 18th Street, N.W. 202-265-7828

The Fireplace

1600 7th Street, N.W. 202-350-9888

9:30 Club

815 V Street, N.W. 202-265-0930

DC 9 Nightclub

2161 P Street, N.W. 202-293-1293

1940 9th Street, N.W. 202-483-5000

Number Nine

[Lower floor at Floriana Restaurant]

[Temporarily closed during pandemic]

1435 P Street, N.W. 202-986-0999

Trade

1410 14th Street, N.W. 202-986-1094

1 0 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • LO CA L NE WS

Dito’s Bar

1602 17th Street, N.W. 202-667-5937

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Nellie’s Sports Bar

restaurants and bars, have done an exemplary job of complying with health requirements and providing a safe space for patrons and employees.

At that press conference the mayor also said she looks forward to being able to lift all restrictions on businesses once the COVID vaccine becomes widely available. But she said that with a resurgence of COVID cases in D.C. in recent weeks along with the rise in cases in the surrounding suburbs the city could be forced once again to order the complete shutdown of indoor operations of businesses like restaurants and bars if

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Frustration builds as Biden Cabinet includes no LGBTQ picks Buttigieg turns down two major roles: sources

By CHRIS JOHNSON

With President-elect Joe Biden quickly filling out his Cabinet, fewer opportunities remain for him to make history by nominating the first openly LGBTQ person to a Cabinet-level role for Senate confirmation, which many see as a missed opportunity as Pete Buttigieg has rejected the idea of serving as director of White House Office of Management & Budget and secretary of Veterans Affairs, according to Democratic insiders.

Some LGBTQ leaders are quietly expressing frustration that the movement hasn’t pushed more aggressively for representation in Biden’s Cabinet, especially when Black and Latino advocates have been vocal and have had their efforts pay off with prominent appointments.

As of now, none of Biden’s major appointees — Cabinet or otherwise — have been out members of the LGBTQ community.

Meanwhile, Buttigieg — widely assumed to be a top contender for a Cabinet post in the Biden administration — has reportedly turned down two prominent roles.

In talks with the Biden transition team, one Democratic insider said the idea of Buttigieg becoming White House OMB director came up, but he rejected it on the basis of wanting a “real Cabinet” position, not a “staff-level” job. Buttigieg wasn’t formally offered the role because the idea was more a discussion with senior members of the transition team, the insider said.

Additionally, Buttigieg in separate talks on Monday signaled to Annise Parker, CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, that he won’t pursue the position of secretary of Veterans Affairs, according to two senior Democratic sources, despite media reports he was in consideration for the job.

Buttigieg didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did his political action committee, Win the Era. Biden has never explicitly made a promise to appoint an openly LGBTQ Cabinet member, notably declining to make that commitment when asked during the presidential campaign in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News. In an interview last week with CNN, Biden generally recognized the importance of including marginalized communities in his administration, including LGBTQ people.

“Every advocacy group out there is pushing for more and more and more of what they want. That’s their job,” Biden said. “My job is to keep my commitment, to make the decisions.

And when it’s all over, people will take a look and say, I promise you, you’ll see the most diverse Cabinet, representative of all folks, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, LGBTQ, across the board.”

But if Biden declines to nominate an openly LGBTQ person to his Cabinet for Senate confirmation, he’ll miss an opportunity to make history and grant prominent visibility to a community that has a history of talented leaders being sidelined because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

(It would also give Richard Grenell — who as acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration became the first openly gay Cabinet member, even though he never won Senate confirmation — a reason to celebrate as Trump achieved a first for the LGBTQ community that Biden didn’t even attempt.)

Jamal Brown, a spokesperson for the Biden transition team, pointed out Biden has achieved many firsts for other communities in response to the simmering discontent over no LGBTQ appointees.

“President-elect Biden is working to build an administration that looks like America, starting with the first woman of South Asian descent and first Black woman to be Vice President-elect, as well as a slate of historic nominees and appointees, to date,” Brown said. “Over the coming weeks, our team will continue to build upon President-elect Biden’s legacy of advancing LGBTQ+ equality by shaping a government that reflects the breadth and diversity of our nation.”

Many observers thought Buttigieg, who made history as a gay presidential candidate in the Democratic primary, would be a shoo-in for a Cabinet role. After all, Buttigieg gave Biden a boost in the primary by dropping out before the South Carolina contest and endorsing his fellow moderate, then campaigned hard for Biden in the weeks leading up to the general election.

But finding the right role for Buttigieg — who’s talented, but lacks government experience other than serving as mayor of the small city of South Bend, Ind. — isn’t easy.

The multilingual Buttigieg emerged as a possible pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as many media outlets reported. It’s a not a Cabinet position, but is a prominent role and would have burnished Buttigieg’s foreign policy credentials for a subsequent run for public office.

But with Biden promising to conduct foreign policy with seasoned professionals, in contrast to the Trump administration’s reliance on dilettantes like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the job ended up going to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who as a Foreign Service officer had multiple postings in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and served as assistant secretary of state for African Affairs in the Obama administration.

As noted, both the idea of director of OMB and secretary of VA have come up in talks 1 2 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • NAT I O NA L NE WS

| cjohnson@washblade.com

President-Elect JOE BIDEN hasn’t yet named any out LGBTQ people for his Cabinet.

with Buttigieg, but he rejected them, according to knowledgable sources. The nod for OMB ended up going to Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, although she may face a difficult Senate confirmation fight.

It should be noted the VA has a long history and reputation for institutional problems in delivering care to veterans. Anyone running the VA would face criticism for its inefficiencies and the job is widely considered more appropriate for an elder statesman as opposed to a young politician eager to make another run for office.

Parker, in a statement to the Washington Blade, pointed to Biden’s comments during his CNN interview as evidence LGBTQ people are still in play for major roles.

“There is no reason to believe he will backtrack,” Parker said. “We understand some are getting anxious about presidential appointments, but there is no question the transition team knows our community expects an out LGBTQ Cabinet appointee. We have great relationships with the transition team and are in constant communication. There are still many appointments to be made and a strength of our applicants is that many represent multiple communities.”

Parker also touted the Presidential Appointments Project, which seeks to place qualified LGBTQ people in federal government, in response to an inquiry on efforts undertaken by the LGBTQ Victory Institute to get an out LGBTQ person in the Cabinet.

“Our Presidential Appointments Initiative is unique in that our efforts do not end in the next few weeks after the most high-profile appointments are made,” Parker said. “We are putting in place an infrastructure that will allow us to secure high-level appointments now, but also to work with the administration for the next four years in ensuring LGBTQ people are appointed in every agency and at every level.”

Parker had no comment on the Blade’s inquiry about the exchange she reportedly had on Monday with Buttigieg about the VA role, nor the OMB position.

Another member of the LGBTQ community widely speculated to be a possible addition to the Biden administration is Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, the highestlevel openly transgender public official in the United States. The LGBTQ Victory Institute had speculated she could be a choice for U.S. surgeon general.

But when the Biden team announced its choices for senior health officials on Sunday, the role of surgeon general went to Vivek Murthy, who served as surgeon general during the Obama administration.

No openly transgender person has ever been confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which would have made Levine’s confirmation a tall order in a chamber with a 50-50 split or Republican control depending on the outcome of the upcoming Georgia run-off in January.

Levine has also been a lightning rod in conservative circles over health restrictions in Pennsylvania amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s likely just an expression of animosity toward Levine for being transgender, for which she has also faced bigoted attacks.

Nate Wardle, a Levine spokesperson, told the Blade before the announcement on surgeon general his boss was focused on her current job and didn’t respond to an additional request for comment this week.

“Dr. Levine is dedicated to her work within the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, and is laser-focused on the ongoing challenge of protecting Pennsylvanians from COVID-19,” Wardle said.

Continues at washingtonblade.com.

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Trump Labor Dept. guts LGBTQ workplace protections

As a result of the rule, federal contractors will be With less than two months remaining in the able to claim a religious exemption to discriminate Trump administration, the Department of Labor against LGBTQ people in employment without went through with making a rule final on Monday punitive consequences from OFCCP under Obama’s that would grant religious institutions a broader executive order. exemption under former President Obama’s Religious affiliated colleges and universities executive order barring anti-LGBTQ workplace that contract with the federal government and discrimination among federal contractors. have histories of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, such Although no notice was seen on the Federal as Brigham Young University in Utah, may be the Register website indicating the process is over for intended beneficiaries of the final rule. However, implementing the rule, first proposed in August the definition of a religious institution is so vague 2019, the website for the Labor Department’s Office virtually any federal contractor could assert a of Federal Contract Compliance Programs indicates religious view to get out of the requirements against the regulation has become final. A note in the final anti-LGBTQ discrimination. rule indicates it will become effective on Jan. 8, days Further, the rule makes no distinction between before President-elect Joe Biden is set to be sworn anti-LGBTQ discrimination and other forms of in as the 46th president of the United States.

The Labor Department under President DONALD TRUMP has gutted discrimination. Because Obama’s executive order The final rule has language stating its purpose is LGBTQ workplace protections. was in the form of an amendment to Johnson’s to “clarify” the religious exemption under Executive executive order against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national Order 11246 signed by former President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to ban employment origin, the final rule opens the door to workplace discrimination on the basis of those discrimination among federal contractors, which Obama amended in 2014 to include a categories as well as anti-LGBTQ discrimination among federal contractors. prohibition on anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

Jennifer Pizer, director of law and policy at the LGBTQ group Lambda Legal, said in a Recognizing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination in employment, statement “it is hard to overstate the harm that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance was amended in 1972 to expand its religious exemption, OFFCP regulations under the Programs is visiting on LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities and others with the executive order “should be given a parallel interpretation” with regard to its religious sledgehammer it is taking to federal non-discrimination protections.” exemption.

OFCCP didn’t respond to the Washington Blade’s request for comment Monday on “This rule is intended to correct any misperception that religious organizations are why the Trump administration needed to make the rule final with less than two months disfavored in government contracting by setting forth appropriate protections for their remaining in the Trump administration and why the final rule doesn’t appear in the Federal autonomy to hire employees who will further their religious missions, thereby providing Register. clarity that may expand the eligible pool of federal contractors and subcontractors,” the CHRIS JOHNSON rule says.

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Ore. trans bathroom policy The U.S. Supreme Court, despite having a 6-3 conservative majority, has rebuffed a request to review a legal challenge against an Oregon school district’s policy allowing transgender kids access to the bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.

In its orders list on Monday, the court — without any explanation — indicated it has rejected a petition for certiorari in Parents for Privacy v. Barr, which challenges the policy at Dallas School District No. 2, a public school district located in Pole County in western Oregon. It takes at least four justices to agree to take up case, but the vote on any petition isn’t publicly disclosed.

By rejecting the request for review from Parents Rights in Education, the Supreme Court lets stand a decision from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the policy within the district granting transgender students access to school bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated spaces in accordance with their gender identity.

In its petition filed before the Supreme Court in July, Parents Rights in Education entreated justices to take up the case to “untie a Gordian knot of conflicting constitutional and statutory rights” resulting from the school district’s policy.

“The district’s directive interferes with parents’ rights to direct the upbringing of their children, schoolchildren’s rights to bodily privacy, parents’ and children’s rights to free exercise of religion and children’s rights to be free from hostile educational environments under Title IX [of the Education Amendments of 1972],” the petition says.

Dallas School District No. 2 enacted the plan in 2018 in response to a request from a transgender male student who wanted to use the boys’ locker room. According to the petition filed by Parents Rights in Education, male students at the school “reported embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, intimidation, fear, apprehension, and stress produced by having to use these privacy facilities with a classmate of the opposite sex.”

Parents and students challenged the petition administratively within the school district, but the complaints were rejected and officials indicated challenges would be subject to disciplinary action and viewed as bigotry.

Andy Bellando, superintendent of the Dallas School District, said via email to the Washington Blade the Supreme Court’s decision to the reject the petition is consistent with the school’s policy.

“The mission of Dallas School District is to provide the highest quality education, ensuring every student develops the academic, functional, professional-technical, and social-emotional skills necessary to succeed in life,” Bellando said. “This most recent decision aligns with our mission.”

Parents for Privacy had no comment through its attorney, Mary McAlister of the Child 1 4 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • NAT I O NA L NE WS

& Parental Rights Campaign, in response the Supreme Court rejecting review of the case against the school.

In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Oregon moved to intervene on behalf of Basic Rights Oregon, an LGBTQ group in the state, and filed a petition before the Supreme Court in October urging justices not to take the case.

Among other things, Basic Rights Oregon asserted the Supreme Court should reject the case because it is an abstract dispute, no circuit split exists on the issue among the federal appeals courts and Ninth Circuit was correct in upholding Dallas School District No. 2’s policy.

“The record reflects that only a single transgender student ever used facilities consistent with his gender identity at Dallas High School (identified here only as Student A) — and he graduated in 2018,” the filing says. “Plaintiffs challenge an individualized plan drawn up specifically for Student A, which has no continued application since his graduation. There is therefore no basis for prospective relief.”

The legal filing also rejects findings the school district’s policy violated the privacy of other kids, asserting based on the actual complaint “no student actually had to disrobe in the view of any other student.”

“Students could choose to change for gym or use the restroom in available stalls, or in separate single-occupancy facilities,” the filing says. “No compelled exposure of anyone’s body to anyone — transgender or otherwise — is alleged to have ever occurred.”

It’s not the first time the Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a school district policy assuring transgender kids access to the sex-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity. In May 2019, justices turned down a challenge to a similar policy in Boyertown Area School District in Pennsylvania.

Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & HIV Project, praised the Supreme Court for signaling “transgender youth are not a threat to other students.”

“As we look toward state legislative sessions that will likely continue the attacks on trans youth, the decision not to take this case is an important and powerful message to trans and non-binary youth that they deserve to share space with and enjoy the benefits of school alongside their non-transgender peers,” Strangio added.

Barr is listed as a defendant in the case, along with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, based on Obama-era guidance assuring transgender kids access to school restroom consistent with their gender identity under Title IX. CHRIS JOHNSON

Corporate mentor initiative for LGBTQ refugees debuts

Nearly two dozen companies in North America have agreed to mentor LGBTQ refugees as part of a new initiative announced on Tuesday.

The Baltimore-headquartered Under Armour is among the 23 companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico that have pledged to mentor at least 50 LGBTQ refugees over the next three years under the new initiative the Human Rights Campaign and the Tent Partnership for Refugees unveiled during their virtual North American Business Summit on LGBTQ Refugees.

Accenture, ADP, AT&T Mexico, Bain & Company, CIBC, CompuCom, GSK, Chobani, Finastra, Hilton, Huron, IBM, Ipsos, Kearney, Medtronic, Nomura, SAP, Scotiabank, Softchoice, TD Bank Group, Von Wobeser y Sierra and Warby Parker are the other companies that have joined the initiative in which roughly 1,250 LGBTQ refugees will participate. Former U.S. Ambassador to the

U.N. Samantha Power announced them during the summit in which HRC President Alphonso David and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, who founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees, participated.

The companies will mentor the refugees through their respective LGBTQ employee affinity groups.

The nation’s capital, Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the cities in which the participating companies will offer mentorships.

“This is a wonderful first step,” said Power after she announced the companies that are participating in the program. “Each of you companies that made these commitments, you’re making it easier for other companies to do the same, by being first movers and so I just think have so many people’s personal gratitude, people whose names you’ll never know.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

A flier from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, advises migrants who are fleeing violence, persecution, war or discrimination that have a right to apply for refugee status. (Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

ISIS threatens Turkish LGBTQ organization

A Turkish media report indicates members of the so-called Islamic State were planning to attack an LGBTQ organization in the country.

CNN Türk last week reported authorities arrested four ISIS militants in Ankara, the Turkish capital. The media outlet said the militants were preparing to attack the organization, but CNN Türk did not specifically identify which one.

“Police have also found lots of weapons and knives with them, and messages on their phone on how to plan their attack,” reported CNN Türk.

CNN Türk reported authorities found videos and pictures of the 2015 shooting inside the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and other terrorist attacks for which ISIS has claimed responsibility.

ISIS, which previously controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq, publicly executed men who were accused of committing sodomy.

An LGBTQ activist in Lebanon told the Washington Blade in 2014 that ISIS militants once hanged a transgender woman by her breasts in a suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus. Reports from Syria also indicated they decapitated gay people.

ISIS in April 2017 claimed responsibility for an attack on Paris’ ChampsÉlysées that left Xavier Jugelé, a gay police officer, dead. French authorities

a few months later announced they uncovered an ISIS plot against gay nightclubs in Paris.

The gunman who killed 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016 pledged his allegiance to ISIS, but there is no evidence that suggests the group directed him to carry out the massacre.

Marsel Gündoğdu of the Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, an Istanbul-based LGBTQ organization, on Saturday noted to the Blade that ISIS has been threatening the LGBTIQ community in Turkey since 2016.

ISIS has used posters and brochures to threaten Kaos GL, another LGBTQ organization.

Gündoğdu said a group of Islamic militants in June “targeted LGBTI+ organizations and Istanbul” and “called for violence and physical raids of the offices of LGBTI+ organizations on Twitter.” He said the Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association requested police protection.

“The situation is very concerning for everybody,” he added.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Hungarian lawmaker resigns amid gay sex scandal

A prominent member of Hungary’s ruling party that strongly opposes LGBTQ rights has resigned after he attended a gay sex party.

The Associated Press reported Hungarian MEP Jozsef Szajer, who is a member of the country’s Fidesz party that Prime Minister Viktor Orban leads, acknowledged he attended the party that took place in Brussels on Nov. 27.

Media reports indicate 25 people attended the party, which violated coronavirus lockdown regulations. A Belgian newspaper reported a number of diplomats were among the more than 20 naked men who authorities found at the party described as an “orgy.”

The BBC reports authorities identified Szajer after a passerby told them he saw him sliding down a gutter on the building where the party took place.

The AP cites Belgian media reports that reported authorities found drugs Former Hungarian MEP JOZSEF SZAJER in Szajer’s backpack after they arrested (Photo public domain) him.

Szajer resigned on Sunday.

Tamás Dombos, a board member of the Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ advocacy group, on Wednesday noted to the Washington Blade during an interview from Budapest, the Hungarian capital, that Szajer “has not acknowledged that this was a gay party or that he’s gay himself.”

“He only acknowledged that he was at a house party, but the sexual aspect of the

party and the fact that it was a gay party … he did not mention that,” said Dombos.

Szajer, 59, is among those who founded Fidesz in the late 1980s. He chaired the Fidesz Parliamentary Group in the Hungarian Parliament from 1994-2002.

Dombos noted Szajer chaired the Parliament’s European affairs committee. Szajer had also been a member of the European Parliament since Hungary joined the European Union in 2004.

Szajer was also vice president of the center-right European People’s Party. His wife, Tünde Handó, sits on Hungary’s Constitutional Court.

Dombos told the Blade that Szajer opposed Fidesz’s efforts to remove sexual orientation and gender identity from Hungary’s nondiscrimination law.

The Hungarian government tapped Szajer to help write Hungary’s 2011 Constitution.

Dombos noted Szajer said it was not necessary to include a ban on marriage rights for same-sex couple because the Constitutional Court had already ruled on the issue.

Hungarian lawmakers nevertheless approved the new Constitution with an amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“He never said later on that he doesn’t agree with this,” said Dombos. “He participated in the procedure all through.”

Dombos told the Blade that Szajer was the only Fidesz politician who spoke out against efforts to ban Budapest Pride in 2011.

“He had a very interesting record on LGBTQI issues,” Dombos told the Blade.

Dombos nevertheless said Szajer could have done more to challenge Fidesz’s antiLGBTQ policies and rhetoric.

“The story is more tragic than the regular story of a closeted gay man being homophobic and then losing his credibility when a scandal like this hit,” Dombos told the Blade, referring to the scandal and Szajer’s LGBTQ rights record.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

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JEREMY BERNSTEIN

performs as Magnolia Applebottom at the Blue Moon in Rehoboth Beach and other venues.

Rehoboth drag performer on accepting apology for anti-gay slur An opportunity to bring change to Lewes Fire Department

As an entertainer I always wanted my show to be in the news, just not for this reason.

The timeline of events was short, but the range of emotions seemed endless.

On Nov. 24, CAMP Rehoboth held a meeting with members of the Lewes Fire Department and Bill Buckaloo to address the effects of Buckaloo’s hate language after attending my recent cabaret show at the Blue Moon. I had planned on getting in full costume to attend this meeting, but I decided against it only because my performance attire is simply my body armor. But with support from CAMP, Blue Moon, and my closest family and friends I thought it was important for Buckaloo to see that there is an actual person under the façade of Magnolia.

The word that was used by Buckaloo to describe my recent performance was highly inappropriate and disturbing. Not only using the word, but tagging a local business and safe place along with a picture was uncalled for. I do not take the use of that word lightly. I have worked very hard to earn the platform and stage that I have and when this happened I knew I had to take advantage of it.

There was a time when using that word meant a bundle of sticks, but over the years people started using it to belittle and insult homosexual people. It’s actually very hard to remember a time when those words weren’t used to insult gay people. I first heard that word in fifth grade. I was called that word before I even knew what it meant and before I even knew I was gay. And starting in middle school I probably heard it every day to the point I heard that word while being punched, or shoved at the same time.

I have lost friendships and family relationships over that word. I hope Buckaloo understands when you use these offensive terms toward gay people, trying to be humorous, you might actually be hurting someone. A small comment can stick with a person for a very long time. Personally, this word itself has a violent history for me so it is very important he understand its meaning and its impact on people before posting it to describe anything in the gay community. The lack of awareness was probably the most shocking thing about this entire situation. The people I know in the community never use that word so it was very ignorant and inappropriate to think that he could too.

At the meeting with Buckaloo after his offensive post on social media, I suggested new levels of sensitivity training for older and new members of the fire department. It will be beneficial for them to familiarize themselves with LGBTQ organizations such as the It Gets Better Project – a nonprofit focused on empowerment of LGBTQ+ youth. It Gets Better began as a wildly successful social media campaign to provide hope and encouragement to LGBTQ+ youth who have been bullied or victimized. This organization has evolved into a major, multi-media platform capable of reaching millions of young people every year through inspiring media programming. Also, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth. These organizations were created because our gay youth are hearing and seeing these insulting slurs and are thinking they were less than and sadly it’s still going on everyday.

I recommended volunteering, donating, and simply familiarizing yourself with these organizations not just to help you as a first responder but to know that bullying and hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people are happening every day and there is support for those going through it I do accept Buckaloo’s apology. He should know that the LGBTQ+ community of Rehoboth Beach and Lewes is strong. I cannot thank everyone enough who reached out to me in the past week apologizing for someone else’s behavior. I never had this amount of support when I was being bullied in school so the fact an entire community rallied behind me to make their voices heard and to let the community know that this is not OK warms my heart.

I was so overwhelmed by the love and encouragement this week and it makes me so happy to call Rehoboth Beach my home. I sincerely hope the Lewes Fire Department knows that for the foreseeable future this community is on high alert and wanting to see the difference they are asking for.

1 6 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • V I E WP O I NT

PETER ROSENSTEIN

is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

Corporate experience should be no bar to Biden administration We need competent leaders to repair damage wrought by Trump

There are those who suggest anyone who has worked for a corporate entity should not be in the Biden administration. That kind of thinking is insanity. Having experience and contacts in both government and the private sector can be a plus as long as the right ethics controls are in place. We must not assume anyone having worked in the private sector has no ethics.

Those who believe in some kind of purity test have focused on Anthony Blinken, Biden’s choice to be Secretary of State, who founded a consulting firm, WestExec Advisors, during the Trump presidency, and Neera Tanden, Biden’s choice to lead OMB, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. My take is both these individuals will serve our country well and will use all their wealth of knowledge and experience to do so.

It is also important for each government employee to abide by a strict set of ethics rules that guide their actions and let them sever connections with former clients or funders to ensure they are not making decisions on their own that would benefit those connections. It would be unusual for smart people not to have various experiences and jobs over the span of their career.

To ensure compliance with strict ethics guidelines, according to the Washington Post: “Behind the scenes, Biden’s advisers have tried to confront the apparent conflicts directly, with extensive ethics trainings and detailed rules that bar, in most cases, transition officials from working on issues that could benefit a recent employer or client.” I believe this can be accomplished.

People need to recognize the disaster Trump has left in nearly every federal agency because of the incompetent leadership he appointed and their desire to dismantle nearly every valuable program. In response, Biden is appropriately choosing nominees with extensive experience in the agencies, and working knowledge of the agencies, to which they are being named. People who can quickly size up the situation and know what steps to take to bring those agencies back to a level where they can accomplish what their mission should be.

I understand because of this some young people may be left out at the start. It will mean people from the eight years of the Obama administration might get first shot at some important jobs. Those are the people who have the experience. We must also recognize since Biden served as vice president for those eight years he knows those people well and trusts them.

My hope is as the administration is filled out many of the approximately 4,000 C level jobs existing in the various agencies will go to the next generation allowing them to gain the knowledge and experience needed to eventually get the top jobs. Biden promised to be a bridge to the next generation and that is how he can keep that commitment.

The Post column also quotes Norm Eisen, ethics counsel to Obama at the beginning of his presidency, saying, “he is optimistic that there will be adequate safeguards in the Biden administration that will blunt any problems. Government can’t just be staffed with professors and think tankers. The president-elect has made strong ethics commitments — the strongest in American history — and we should allow the transition and the new administration to apply them to its appointees with business backgrounds.”

Biden is also being besieged by various interest groups demanding he appoint more of their people. Groups representing the Latino community, the Asian-American community, the LGBTQ+ community, and the African-American community among them. This is no different from what happens with any new administration but it is resonating more today because Biden made a strong commitment to have his administration represent the diversity of the country. We know it will be impossible to satisfy each group’s demands and Biden will have to deal with that. We know he made good on one commitment naming the first woman, an African American of Indian descent, as vice president.

There are those judging each appointment by how far left they are. It will be incumbent on them to accept while Biden is a progressive he is not far left and because of that he was able to win. His appointments will reflect his view of the world and they will follow his lead.

KATHI WOLFE

a writer and a poet, is a regular contributor to the Blade.

Hulu’s ‘Happiest Season’ provides queer holiday cheer

Lesbian rom-com part of new trend in TV visibility Between finding perfect gifts and staying sane through the family drama, while fighting pandemic fatigue, who can enjoy this holiday season? Especially, if you’re queer, and not out to your family or your clan hasn’t met your sweetie. I still remember, years ago, furtively kissing my girlfriend in my childhood bedroom at my family’s during the holidays.

Thankfully, “Happiest Season,” the holiday rom-com about a lesbian couple streaming on Hulu, provides some much needed holiday cheer.

Many of us from Thanksgiving to New Year’s turn to movies for comfort. We stream Hollywood classics and rom-coms like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “White Christmas” or “Love Actually.” Or head to the nearest cinema – hoping the latest Christmas movie will give us at least the illusion of a happy, welcoming family enjoying the holidays.

But, until recently, for us queers, home-for-the-holidays movies (or any rom-coms) have lacked an essential ingredient: representation of people like ourselves. Often, the “meet cute” is adorable and the lovers’ repartee is charming. Yet, the romantic coupling (at least in mainstream movies) has been heteronormative. If there’s any queerness quotient it’s usually in the form of (overtly to subtly) homophobic jokes, or if we’re lucky, a queer best friend.

Last summer, GLAAD released its annual Studio Responsibility Index. This index analyzes LGBTQ representation in major studio films. The report found that in 2019, 22 (18.6 percent) of the 118 films released by major studios had some characters who were LGBTQ. This was the highest percentage of LGBTQ characters in movies since the report was first issued eight years ago, “Indiewire.com” reported. Yet, much work remains to be done. The report gives a grade to the major Hollywood studios. None of the studios got a “good” grade.

Fortunately, just in time for latkes, dreidels, Christmas cookies and candy canes, things are starting to change.

This year, the Hallmark Channel is releasing “The Christmas House,” its first Christmas movie. The movie focuses on a married gay couple who want to adopt a child. On Dec. 12, “The Christmas Setup” airs on Lifetime. The movie will feature the romance of a gay male couple.

“Happiest Season” is satisfying my queer rom-com jones. It isn’t “The Seventh Seal” or “Citizen Kane.” Critics won’t put it on their greatest films of all time lists. But, though not (at least yet) a classic holiday movie, “Happiest Season” provides queer romance, a great gay BFF, a few touching moments and some laughs.

In “Happiest Season,” Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) live in Pittsburgh. When they’re a bit drunk one night in December, Harper, a journalist, asks Abby, who’s getting a doctorate in art history, to go home with her to meet her family over Christmas.

Abby dislikes Christmas. Her folks died when she was 19, and the holidays make her miss her parents. But she’s a romantic and gets her gay best friend John (“Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy) to go along. Abby plans to not only propose to Harper, but to ask Harper’s father for his blessing.

“Way to stick it to the patriarchy!” John tells Abby.

This wouldn’t be a rom-com if there wasn’t a glitch to Abby’s plan. On the way to her folks’ home, Harper tells Abby that she’s forgotten to mention something: She isn’t out to her parents, and her folks think Abby is her hetero roommate. Also, her Dad is running for mayor. It wouldn’t be cool if the voters knew his daughter was queer.

At times, I hate-watched this movie because this was so hurtful to Abby. But then I’d remember how hard coming out can be. As John says to Abby, “everybody’s [coming out] story is different. There’s your version, and my version, and everything in between.”

“Happiest Season,” directed and co-written by Clea DuVall, who is queer and featuring a superb cast of queer and hetero actors, is a holiday treat for queers.

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Holiday gifts for the reader on your list From romance to drag history, something for everyone

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

The holidays this year are going to be, well, unique.

Some family members won’t be there. Others are coming, regardless of whatever’s going on in the country. Still others are sending their regards and a box of presents, which is something you might do, too. And here’s the good news: books are easy to wrap, easy to box, and easy to ship. Why not try one of these great books for that person who can’t make it to your table this holiday season?

For the person who craves a thriller, “These Violent Delights” by Micah Nemerever is the gift to give. It’s a novel of two young men who meet at college and soon become obsessed with one another in different ways. But one is cruel, the other is fearful, and you know this ain’t good.

Wrap it up with ““Date Me, Bryson Keller“ by Kevin van Whye for double the love.

Here’s something unique: “They Say Sarah” by Pauline Delabroy-Allard is a bestseller in France, and a skinny book that your giftee won’t be able to stop reading.

It’s the story of a single mother who’s living in Paris with her child. The woman has a boyfriend but one New Year’s Eve, she meets a woman who changes everything.

Pair it with something nonfiction, like “I’ve Been Wrong Before” by Evan James, a book of essays on life, coming out, relationships, and more.

‘Mama’s Boy’ by Dustin Lance Black addresses his childhood.

(Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Fans of biographies will want to unwrap “Mama’s Boy” by Dustin Lance Black.

Black, a screenwriter and activist tells the story of his childhood, having been raised by a single mother who suffered a lifetime of almost insurmountable issues, and how they came to terms with everything they’d endured together. Pair it with “Daddy” by Michael Montlack, a book of essays on this and that and the other.

‘The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy’ (Image courtesy Fayette Hauser)

The person on your gift list who loves drag will love “The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy” from the archives of Fayette Hauser. It’s a lavishly illustrated 50year anniversary look at drag and the counterculture, and it’s absolutely for grownups.

If your giftee is a die-hard, conference-attending, never-miss-an-appearance fan, then wrap up “Conventionally Yours” by Annabeth Albert. It’s the story of a road trip, two fierce hate-fests, one romance, and two fanboys, but who’s the biggest?

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Another great memoir, “Later: My Life at the Edge of the World” by Paul Lisicky, the story of finding a place to settle down, and watching an epidemic as it changes that newly beloved place.

The starwatcher on your list will love “Inside the Hollywood Closet: A Book of Quotes” by Boze Hadleigh. It’s a who’s who and a what-was-what that looks back at who said what about life as a gay star, and it’s fun.

The reader who wants something unique will enjoy “The Last Alias: True Stories and a Tale That Might Be” by Ste7en Foster (and no, that’s no typo). As humans, we are many different things. This book will make you think: who are YOU?

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DE C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • WA S H I N GTO N B L A D E.CO M • 1 9

MARK S. KING

(Photo courtesy of King via Facebook)

Celebrating a long life with HIV

‘AIDS does not have a parallel in the COVID experience’

By ROB WATSON

We just commemorated Worlds AIDS Day, in the middle of a new pandemic. For those who have survived, and will continue to live strong, it is a good moment to look at what we have learned, and what we can offer a confused world around us.

This month, on my podcast RATED LGBT RADIO, I sat down with Mark S. King, the popular and award-winning blogger of “My Fabulous Disease.” A long-term HIV survivor, King has made a career of being a voice for his fellow HIVpositive community members. He shared thoughts on our current health crisis.

“As bad as it is, and certainly, we have not had this level of bat-shit crazy before, that’s true, but it is also true that people like me know this is not our first pandemic. It is also not our first president ignoring it,” King said.

AIDS was first brought up to President Reagan’s press secretary Larry Speakes during a White House press conference in 1982. Speakes made a joke about the disease.

According to Caitlin Gibson of the Washington Post: “At subsequent press conferences in 1983 and 1984, Speakes — and the White House press corps —continue to respond to the increasingly urgent questions about AIDS with a mix of laughter, homophobic jokes and general indifference.”

A journalist who was in the room at the time, shared, “I was young, deeply closeted and horrified. You cannot imagine my reaction to that display of callousness.”

On Sept. 17, 1985, Reagan finally mentioned the disease in the context of answering a question from the press. By comparison, Reagan’s silence makes Trump’s seem like a mere blip.

Another difference with the COVID-19 pandemic is that it brings a widespread shared experience. There are fights, resistance, and subversive behaviors, but through all that, there is a broad commonality. You can say to virtually anyone “it is hard because of COVID” and you will get head nods in sympathy and agreement.

That was not the case with AIDS. For many it was a pandemic in the gay ghettos and social circles, and life “as normal” everywhere else. Sharing that it had even touched your life brought shame.

“COVID is different. HIV is the scuzzy, sexual, drug shooting cousin to it,” King pointed out.

“We had to establish our value in the public square,” King observed of the AIDS crisis response versus COVID-19. “It was not the value of killing your grandmother in her nursing home.

“We had a much harder road to hoe. It is similar in that masks are the new condoms. Some people just will not… when the threat is invisible, it is hard to get them to take it seriously. This is still about privilege. It was then, and is now, that this is about who has access to healthcare and information, and who does not.”

He acknowledges that many young LGBTQ folks do not feel the impact of the AIDS crisis or understand the weight of the experience it afforded. He also recognizes that there has been an in-community stigma that does not have a parallel in the COVID pandemic experience.

“We love to separate ourselves from ‘the other,’ it is human nature.

Then we stigmatize them because it is an easy, lazy way, to feel better about ourselves.

A hierarchy was created when it came to HIV—and top of the heap were those who were 2 0 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • DECEMBER 1 1 , 2 0 2 0 • A &E

HIV negative,” he said.

“The fortunate, the lucky. At the bottom were long-term survivors—the ones with the “scars,” facial wasting, body disfigurement. Many gay men find it hard to face and they wish it would just go die already. For too many gay men… they are young and frivolous, and I get that—and used to be them myself—I am not blaming them. To them, we represent a war they would rather forget,” he added then continued: “I try to be philosophical about these things, and I am more philosophical now than I used to be. I am not one of these people who bag on the young people today — ‘they don’t care! They don’t know history’ I have to be careful of what I call ‘bludgeoning young gay men with my AIDS tragedy’ – we all have our stuff. Every generation, every group. I survived AIDS in the 80s, and I survived years and years before there was a single pill I could take.

“But there are people listening to RATED LGBT Radio that have been just as bad—likely worse. If I don’t take my grief and my trauma – my hope and my skills, my gratitude, and use those, to help someone else, to better someone else, then what the hell did we go through all that for?”

Many activists worked extremely hard to get to this place—a place where young people could live their lives free from the fear and dread of their sexuality and tying it to a terrifying and deadly threat. So, to activists like King, that possibly “laisse faire attitude” is not a waste, it is a success.

That success will parlay into an event on Dec. 16, streaming on Facebook and YouTube, for King, and all others who outran “the Plague.” King is now 60 years old and embracing it with flourish. “With all that is going on in the world celebrating long life with HIV is an act of grace, science, and belief, and hope — so I’m thrilled,” he stated.

The proceeds from the party will benefit The Reunion Project, a network of HIV survivors. Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish as well as Greg Louganis are some of the many celebrities who will appear. (To attend, go to www.Markis60. com) “It will be silly. It will be celebratory. We have left many friends behind, but that does not minimize the frivolous fun we will have. It has been quite a year to be sure. It has been quite a life. Who knew we would make it this far?”

King summed up his outlook. “Ultimately, in both pandemics, I believe in the goodness of people, and at the end of the day, we shall overcome.”

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CALENDAR

By Parker Purifoy

Tuesday, December 15 KhushDC is hosting a virtual Game Night at 7 p.m. KhushDC is a social, educational, and advocacy community organization for South Asian LGBTQ people in the DC metro area. For more information about Game Night, visit thedccenter.org/events.

The Center Bi is hosting a virtual Bi Roundtable Discussion at 7 p.m. today, held by The Center Bi. The discussion is intended for attendees to talk about issues related to bisexuality or talk as bisexual individuals in a private setting. Details can be found at thedccenter.org/events and on The Center Bi’s social media pages.

Wednesday, December 16

Chanukah celebrations kick off this week with various virtual options.

(Blade file photo)

TODAY

Friday Tea Time is a virtual social gathering at 2 p.m. for older LGBTQ adults via Zoom.Participants are encouraged to bring their beverage of choice while socializing with friends. For more information, visit thedccenter.org/events.

Women in their Twenties and Thirties is a social discussion group for queer women in the D.C. area. They are meeting at 8 p.m. via Zoom. For the link to the meeting, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.

The Wharf is continuing its pop-up movie series on Transit Pier with holiday movies this weekend. Attendees will get a private firepit and 20-inch television to watch movies like “Home Alone,” “The Grinch,” “A Christmas Story,” and “Elf.” Show times are at either 2 p.m. or 6 p.m. Each firepit seats four people and parties should reserve their firepit in advance. More information can be found on The Wharf’s Facebook page.

Saturday, December 12

The LGBTQ People of Color Support Group will meet at 1 p.m. to provide an outlet for LGBTQ people of color to talk about anything affecting them. For the Zoom link to the meeting, email supportdesk@thedccenter.org.

Gay District is meeting at 8 p.m. today via Zoom. Gay District is a community-based organization focused on building understanding of gay culture and personal identity for LGBTQ+ men between the ages of 18 and 35. To ask for the Zoom URL, email supportdesk@dccenter.org.

The DC Center is hosting a Universal Pride Meeting at 1 p.m. The group seeks to support, educate, empower, and create change for people with disabilities. The discussion could include the intersections between being disabled and being LGBTQ, dating and relationships challenges, and breaking down barriers for disabled members of the LGBTQ community. The code for the Zoom meeting can be found at thedccenter. org/events.

Sunday, December 13

The DC Transmasculine Society is holding its monthly support groups today at 5 p.m. There is a support group meeting for transmasculine people and non-binary people who were assigned female at birth. There is also a separate meeting for partners and allies of transmasculine people which will focus on their unique experiences. For more details, go to DCATS.org

Monday, December 14

LGBT Older Adults and friends are invited to join the DC Center at 10 a.m. for a Center Aging Coffee Drop-In. For more information visit thedccenter.org and Center Aging on social media.

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BookMen DC is holding a meeting today at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be an informal group of men who are interested in both fiction and nonfiction gay literature. According to their policy, new members do not have to commit to reading every book or coming to every meeting. Visit thedccenter.org/events for more details.

Virtual Job Club meets today at 6 p.m. via Zoom. This weekly support program helps job seekers improve their self-confidence, resilience and motivation needed for effective job searching and networking. Discussions include strategies, techniques and goal plans needed to find meaningful and satisfying employment. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.

Thursday, December 17

The DC Center is holding a Poly Group Discussion at 7 p.m. to discuss all aspects of polyamory and other consensual non-monogamous relationships. More information can be found at thedccenter.org/events

OUT&ABOUT Chanukah celebrations go virtual Bet Mishpachah is kicking off Chanukah this year and broadcasting five different services over the weeklong holiday. Friday’s 8 p.m. Erev Shabbat is a musical service featuring Robyn Helzner and on Saturday will be a 10 a.m. virtual morning Shabbat. On Sunday is Bet Mishpachah’s annual meeting conducted via Zoom. Bet Mishpachah is the city’s only Egalitarian synagogue devoted to embracing the LGBTQ community. For more information about their Chanukah celebrations visit their website.

Sixth&I synagogue is holding its own week of celebrations for Chanukah. On Thursday, the first day of the holiday, they are holding a virtual service with Rabbi Shira and Rabbi Aaron. The first 50 people to register for the event will receive a Chanukah care package with candles, dreidel, gelt, and other goodies available for pickup from Sixth & I or Petworth on Wednesday, Dec. 9. For more information about their week of events, go to their website.

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‘Big Tow’ has action, humor, and a lesbian romance Caper story is laugh-out-loud funny

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

Two wheels hooked.

That was your vehicle: two wheels on the ground, the other two in the air, safely attached to a bar hooked on both ends to a big truck. Oh, how you hate shredded tires, check-engine lights, busted radiators, dead batteries, and the guy with the rig, but in the new book “The Big Tow” by Ann McMan, a wired starter isn’t the only thing that’s hot.

Vera “Nick” Nicholson had put in her time.

After six years at Turner, Witherspoon, Anders and Tyler, Attorneys at Law, Nick thought she might’ve achieved partner, but no. Instead, because she was the firm’s only “brown” employee and because senior partners figured “floor-scraping assignments” would be “second nature” to her, that’s what she got – like, for instance, the latest case, a stolen car. Nick didn’t know jack about stolen cars. She had no contacts there in North Carolina to ask for help. And that’s how she ended up at National Recovery Bureau, a back-lot repo business run by a chain-smoking,

By Ann McMan no-nonsense older woman with c.2020, Bywater Books | $17.95/340 pages zero patience, and a guy named Fast Eddie.

For $500, they helped Nick find the car.

When Fast Eddie enticed her with 10 G’s in cash for “profit sharing,” that was a big surprise. So was the offer of a part-time job from NRB. And so was the co-worker NRB assigned to Nick, a gorgeous blonde named Frankie. She had a killer body and enough imagination to figure out how to complete the toughest cases.

Meanwhile, Nick used her imagination to think about Frankie’s killer body.

Despite the danger and the hassle, working for NRB did have its benefits: the money was great and the company was even better, and Nick cautiously allowed herself to fall in love. She and Frankie were becoming more than just partners at work; they were a couple that happened to work together, and they did a good job.

But there was something off about Fast Eddie. Despite that it leans a bit toward wordiness and could have used maybe one less caper, “The Big Tow” is a true delight – but not for the reasons you might think.

Author Ann McMan’s two main characters are certainly likable: Nick is one of those people you want in your corner, and Frankie seems like someone you’d have drinks with. The real appeal of this book, though, lies in the world surrounding these two. The dispatcher at NRB and Nick’s gay roommate are spit-out-your-coffee funny, and you must read this book to learn who Carol Jenkins is. There are dotty mothers, wise fathers, a goth girl at a funeral home, and a Yoda-type butcher who speaks in hints. Though he’s really basically a caricature, even Fast Eddie is someone you’ll look for as you’re reading this book.

This is the kind of story that, if it happened to you, you’d get plenty of mileage out of it at your next party. It’s got romance, action, humor, and theft – how can you go wrong?

Start “The Big Tow” and you’ll be hooked.

‘The Big Tow: An Unlikely Romance’

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Get to know queer literary icon Adrienne Rich

New bio presents her as vibrant, 3-dimensional human being

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By KATHI WOLFE

“Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” declared the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Many who love poetry believe this to be true.

Yet, few would argue that poets, apart from queer bards Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman, are household names.

Except for Adrienne Rich. Rich, the lesbian poet and essayist who lived from 1929 to 2012, was as famous as a rock star. Her death was front page news. A queer icon, Rich was beloved by poetry aficionados and all who worked for justice. (Rich donated $1,000 to Split This Rock, a poetry organization that works for social change.)

“I contain multitudes,” Whitman said.

Rich gave Whitman a run for his money.

During her life, Rich, born in Baltimore, was many things: a poet, scholar, teacher, married woman, radical feminist and an out lesbian.

Baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church, Rich later in life discovered her Jewish identity.

Adrienne Rich: A Biography’ Rich’s fans ranged from renowned hetero ‘The Power of By Hilary Holladay 2020, Nan A. Talese | $32.50/478 pages poet Robert Lowell to lesbians and gay men who stood in line to hear her read. Looking into her eyes as Rich signed your book at a reading, you felt as if this distinguished, award– winning poet cared about you.

“The Power of Adrienne Rich” by Hilary Holladay is the first biography of this iconic poet. Writing a bio of an icon is a tall order. How do you present your subject with their talents, heroic qualities and failings without falling into hagiography or smackdown?

Holladay, a biographer, novelist, poet and scholar of modern and contemporary American literature, deftly pulls off this daunting hat trick. With the skill of a novelist, she illuminates Rich’s life from her birth in Baltimore in 1929 to her death in Santa Cruz, Calif, in 2012.

From early on, Rich had a life filled with privilege and success. Her father Dr. Arnold Rice Rich was a prominent Johns Hopkins pathologist. From early on, Dr. Rich considered his daughter to be a “baby genius.” By age 4, she was playing Mozart on the piano). She wrote a small volume of poems when she was six.

Rich graduated from Radcliffe in 1951. Queer poet W. H. Auden chose her first poetry collection “A Change of World” (published in 1951) to be published in the Yale Younger Poets Series. Soon after receiving this honor, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and was studying at Oxford.

She taught at universities and colleges — from the City College of New York to Swarthmore and wrote more than 24 poetry collections and six volumes of prose. At the same time, she engaged in political activism. In 1997, Rich refused to accept the National Medal of Arts, the U.S. government’s highest award for artists. In her letter declining the award, she deplored the “increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice.”

Rich’s husband, Alfred Haskell Conrad, killed himself shortly after he and Rich separated. Rich came out as a lesbian in the 1970s. Her poems “Twenty-One Love Poems” were among the first lesbian love poems to be widely read. I’d wager that every lesbian remembers where she was when she read them when they were published in 1978. Later, Rich became a staunch supporter of queer men who had AIDS. Rich and the late writer Michelle Cliff were partners for more than 30 years.

In the midst of her complex and busy life, Rich, who for most of her life had rheumatoid arthritis, endured pain and surgeries.

The many honors Rich received include a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1994, a National Book Award in 1974 and the National Book Foundation medal for distinguished contribution to American letters in 2005.

Like everyone, Rich had her quirks. She could be imperious. Sometimes Rich drank too much or abruptly dropped friends she’d been close to.

Poetry for Rich “was as close to a religion as anything she would ever know,” Holladay writes.

In the “Power of Adrienne Rich,” Holladay helps us to know a queer literary icon – not as a god, but as a vibrant, three-dimensional human being. Amen to that!

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Studio’s new audio play has nothing to do with holidays ‘I Hate it Here’ captures a world wracked by change

By PATRICK FOLLIARD the world, he says.

Ike Holter’s new audio play “I Hate It Here: Holter adds, “Some are different from me and Stories from the End of the Old World” others are people who would chill with me premieres just in time for Christmas. That the often. I wanted a good palette.” new work has zero to do with the holidays, That mélange of humanity is played by an leaves the out playwright pleased. “It’s more of exciting cast of actors who recorded their a wrap-up-the-year kind of play. And I think it’s parts remotely from disparate spots across the awesome that it’s opening now.” country. They include Sydney Charles, Behzad Studio Theatre, which commissioned the awardDabu, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Tony Santiago, winning Chicago-based writer to pen and direct Gabriel Ruiz, and Washington actors Jennifer the piece, describes it thusly: “With sharp humor Mendenhall and Jasen Wright, all of whom and keen observation, Holter uses vignettes, Holter had in mind when writing the play. “You monologues, and song to take listeners from can do that when you’re both playwright and an office to a wedding, high school, outdoor director,” he says slyly. brunch, front porch, and more to capture the IKE HOLTER’s ‘I Hate It Here: Stories from the End of the Old World’ is a new audio play from website now through March 7, studiotheatre.org.

A self-described comic book nerd, big film many ways it feels to live in a world wracked by Studio Theatre. Listen free on Studio Theatre’s (Photo courtesy Studio Theatre) fan, and pop culture junkie, the prolific DePaul changes both personal and systemic.”

University alum began his career in Chicago’s And while “I Hate It Here” never specifically underground scene. His breakout play “Hit the Wall” was inspired by a longtime fascination mentions 2020, coronavirus or COVID-19, audiences will instantly know what it’s about. “The with the Stonewall riots. “It’s a funny, weird play that takes a dramatic turn. More a celebration idea was to do something like HBO’s “Tracey Takes On” — to have many variations touching on than anything,” he says. Also loosely moored to real life happenings, his acclaimed “Exit the theme. It’s not only about now, it’s about three or 30 years from now, when change, disease Strategy” follows the final desperate days of a condemned Chicago public school. and racial injustice breaks out,” he says.

In addition to myriad stage pieces and plays, and a couple audio works, he’s written for TV Mostly experienced in writing for stage, Holter, 35, digs the audio process. “What’s freeing too. He served as a staff writer for “Fosse/Verdon,” the excellent FX series produced by Linabout writing for audio is that it tears across the idea of having one set or functionality – it’s Manuel Miranda about the professional and romantic relationship of legendary director/ more about the idea, and there’s no responsibility for the audience to keep up visually.” choreography Bob Fosse and Broadway star Gwen Verdon.

Without a single driving action, live audience, or intermission, he doesn’t think of “I Hate It When asked about live theater coming back, Holter replies flatly “I’ll trust the science,” Here” as a play. He compares the work to an album with intros, outros and singles performed before averring that he hopes when theater does come back, the many theaters that have by an ensemble of seven actors. made statements about Black Lives Matter and issues surrounding the election will make And the characters he’s written are people you might know – sort of average people, not good on their promises of equity and inclusion. And that regional companies will produce borrowed from the headlines. His idea was to see how many different voices they could get theater that better reflects the demographics of their cities. in terms of region, racial backgrounds, and ages. The characters are of varied gender and “Whether that be 2021, 2022, or whenever.” sexual orientations, and have different views on what should or shouldn’t be happening in

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Winslet, Ronan have seaside rendezvous in ‘Ammonite’ Lesbian love story requires effort to extract its treasures

By JOHN PAUL KING

Before sitting down to watch “Ammonite,” the new film from writer/director Francis Lee, it might be helpful to know a little bit about the history of paleontology – specifically, about a woman named Mary Anning.

Anning grew up in a poor family in Lyme Regis, a town on the English Channel, where she helped with the family business of selling fossils from the region’s geologically rich beaches and cliffsides to the many tourists attracted by its seaside resorts. At the age of 12, she found what would eventually become the first correctly identified full skeleton of a marine dinosaur known as an ichthyosaur; it was a breakthrough discovery that played a major role in reshaping the way scientists (and the rest of the world) understood prehistoric life on earth, and she would not only go on to make several more important finds, but to contribute significantly to the scientific study of the subject.

Unfortunately for Mary, she also lived in the 19th century. That meant that, as a woman, though she was widely known and respected for her discoveries, she was not eligible for membership in the Geographical Society of London or any of the other respected bodies of the scientific community; as a result, credit for her findings was often co-opted by the men who consulted her and bought her specimens, and she continued to toil away in near-anonymity, selling fossils and trinkets out of her seaside shop, for much of her life.

Today, Anning gets something much closer to the recognition she deserved in the scientific record. To the world at large, however, her name remains mostly unknown; but, thanks to Lee (whose 2017 debut feature “God’s Own Country” was acclaimed by critics as one of the best queer films in recent memory), that is about to change – though perhaps not solely for the reason she might have preferred.

In “Ammonite,” we are introduced to Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) years after that sensational childhood find, living out her days in near-debilitating poverty with her elderly mother (Gemma Jones), still harvesting fossils from the beach. Hard and sullen, she barely bothers to conceal her misanthropy from the tourists who come into her shop, and maintains a nearreclusive distance from residents of the town. The drudgery of her existence begins to change, however, when a “gentleman scientist” offers to pay her handsomely to act as a companion for his wife, Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), who suffers from “melancholia,” while he is away on an expedition. Unable to refuse the financial boost, she grudgingly accepts, and though their relationship gets off to a difficult start, it soon becomes clear that these two sidelined women are awakening to something between them that has always been denied in a world where their parameters are defined solely by men.

It should be no spoiler to clarify that this premise is the set-up for a lesbian romance, played out against a picturesque period backdrop and full of the kind of forbidden, subversive eroticism that seems to come so naturally from the intricate process of unfastening oldfashioned garments. Lee’s movie derives much from all these environmental factors and more as it tells a deceptively simple story about two seemingly complex women who really are only looking for perhaps the most basic need of all; but unlike many such historical tales of furtive and forbidden love, it does not rely solely on the trappings and tropes of romantic fiction, and rather uses them only as a canvas for a studied, near-hypnotic exploration of human behavior that, while it may not entirely eschew sentiment, tempers and redefines it in a way that keeps

SAOIRSE RONAN and KATE WINSLET in ‘Ammonite.’ (Photo courtesy of NEON)

it from becoming inauthentic.

To accomplish this, Lee doubles down on the strengths that elevated “God’s Own Country” above the majority of other rural queer love stories on film. Most obvious, perhaps, is the keen sense of environment mentioned above, in which the setting takes on a role in the story itself, and the characters’ interaction with their environment and circumstances defines much of how they relate to each other throughout. The director’s meticulous approach to capturing the world of an early 18th-century oceanside village makes a viewer feel and smell the crisp sea air firsthand.

Lee’s greatest gift, however, is both more subtle and more profound, and it’s one that infuses his work both as writer and director of his work so far. Having carefully set up the circumstances of his narrative within a viscerally realistic place and time, he lets it all unfold with an almost ascetic sparseness of dialogue. What is spoken serves to illuminate little more than the necessary details that move the ostensible plot; but what is unspoken is a rich, layered, and nuanced observation of human experience that is both specific and, to most of us, alien, yet also universal and recognizable to any viewer who reads the volumes contained between the lines.

It’s that last part that might prove challenging to some viewers; “Ammonite” is the kind of movie that can easily feel slow-moving to audiences who are partial to storytelling that involves more direct action and fewer inscrutable gazes. For those who are up for it, however, the subtext that conveys the real narrative of Lee’s film – the one that charts a shared inner journey, not the external factors that surround it – is every bit as thrilling as a non-stop action blockbuster.

While the movie’s filmmaker must get full kudos for his remarkable talent in making that happen, it would be hard for him to pull it off without the help of his leading players. Winslet and Ronan are both among modern cinema’s most accomplished and versatile performers, and it’s clear they each relish the chance to take a deep dive into their skill set for these complex roles. Winslet’s dowdy, frumpish, and middle-aged Mary blossoms before our eyes to reveal the beauty that has been right in front of us all along, while Ronan’s morose, hollow Charlotte transitions into a vibrant, confident woman by her side. These inner evolutions are enacted in tandem, like a dance between two prima ballerinas, complementing and counterpointing each other in a way that seems as effortless as breathing, but is in fact the product of a lifetime of difficult work and study – with a prodigious amount of talent thrown in, of course.

It should be noted that “Ammonite” is not a biopic, nor even a true story in the sense that most of us would think; there really was a Charlotte, who was the real-life Anning’s lifelong friend and correspondent after staying with her in Lyme Regis for a few months, but beyond that, much of what Lee shows us on film is pure speculative fiction. This, of course, makes it somehow feel all the truer.

“Ammonite” is a movie which, like the fossils excavated by its characters, requires fastidious effort in order to extract its treasures. That might make it unappealing for many, but for those who have passion for the work, the payoff is well worth the labor.

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Home buyers often worry about big ticket items like electrical or roof work, but most problems uncovered in a home inspection are minor.

Inspections, electrical panels, and roofs, oh my!

Most issues uncovered are minor and livable

By JOSEPH HUDSON

Most people, when they begin talking about a home inspection, get very nervous and start immediately thinking of the worst possible outcomes. While it is true that on occasion an inspector will find an issue or two that might be of real concern not only for the buyer but for the seller, on most occasions home inspectors find issues that are fixable, livable, or changeable. What are some of the most common items that inspectors find on their inspections? Well, in many cases the hot and cold water output is reversed. In many cases outlets need to be rewired in a simple fix so that the ground side is actually the ground side. In most of my home inspections the inspector has found a few issues in the electrical panel. Many cases involve a short trip to the hardware store and just a few dollars to fix it. Especially in new construction, most respectable developers expect the buyer to hand them a list of items to complete before the settlement date.

What are the more big ticket items that cause buyers and sellers to stress out? Well that’s when we usually start talking about mold, having to install an entirely new electrical panel with more amperage, and roof or structural issues. In many cases a condo home inspection

seems to have less to worry about than an entire single family home, because in the case of a condo, the roof, elevator, common elements, and the exterior in most cases are taken care of out of the reserves built by the condo association. Whereas in a single family home, the entire house upkeep is to be paid for out of the household budget.

What are some common hacks for homeowners?

Well, in many cases a homeowner can purchase a home warranty. They cost between $300-1,000 a year, depending on the options the buyer selects. But in many cases home warranties can help the homeowner save money in the long term. If you have a home warranty and the stove breaks, they might just replace it for you, after you pay the service fee. There have even been cases where the entire HVAC system breaks and the home warranty company foots the bill for a new one, which could be 5, 6, 7 or 8 times the cost of the home warranty itself.

Some home warranty companies seem to have better customer service than others, so do your research. If you have any other questions about home ownership please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. Happy holidays!

JOSEPH HUDSON

is a Realtor with The Oakley Group at Compass.

Reach him at 703-587-0597 or Joseph.hudson@compass.com.

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