CONTENTS

JULY 12, 2018 Volume 25 Issue 11

19 BOGUS SCOTUS
Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court would be a
disaster for LGBTQ and women’s rights.

By John Riley

FIGHTING BACK
When a local restaurant asked trans activist
Charlotte Clymer to leave for using the women’s
restroom, they picked a fight with the wrong person.

Interview by John Riley

Photography by Julian Vankim
24
35
HOLY WOOD
On his band’s sophomore album, Olly Alexander
reckons with the sacredness of his own sexuality.

By Sean Maunier

SPOTLIGHT: OZ p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED: BOGUS SCOTUS p.19
COMMUNITY: PUNIMS ON PARADE p.21 COVER STORY: FIGHTING BACK p.24
GALLERY: JOANNE KAUFMAN p.31 FILM: SKYSCRAPER p.33
MUSIC: YEARS & YEARS p.35 NIGHTLIFE p.37 SCENE: PITCHERS p.37
LISTINGS p.38 SCENE: GREEN LANTERN p.44
LAST WORD p.46
Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994
Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley
Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrator Scott G. Brooks
Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim
Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla
Patron Saint Marsha P. Johnson Cover Photography Julian Vankim

Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830
All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to
editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their
agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.
© 2018 Jansi LLC.

4 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
JOHNNY SHYOCK

Oz
S
YNETIC THEATER PRESENTS
a new adaptation of the American
classic The Wizard of Oz featuring
some of L. Frank Baum’s original text and
dialogue — in contrast to the “wordless
Shakespeare” works the company has
become known for. Offered as the first
production in the Synetic New Voices
Series, through which select company
members are mentored in leadership
roles by co-founder Paata Tsikurishvili,
Oz combines verbal and nonverbal com-
munication for an “environmental and
spectacular adventure” down the Yellow
Brick Road with Dorothy and friends.
Longtime Synetic actor Ryan Sellers
steps up as director, assisted by Tori
Bertocci as choreographer, for a produc-
tion that has had to move to Georgetown
University’s main campus. (Synetic’s
usual venue in Crystal City recently suf-
fered water damage.)

Currently in previews. Opens Saturday, July 14. To Aug. 12. Devine Studio Theatre in the Davis
Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 866-811-4111 or visit synetictheater.org.

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 7

 Spotlight
BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB,
THE B-52’S
It’s hard to imagine a gayer concert than this. Or one better
geared toward those who like their music poppy, dancey/synthy,
and quirky. If all that appeals to you and you grew up in the 1980s,
Wolf Trap is precisely where you’ll want to be Wednesday, July
18, when Boy George brings his original “Karma Chameleon”
crew, but only after Fred Schneider returns once more to the
Filene Center stage with his “Love Shack” pack (including fellow
LGBTQ members Keith Strickland and Kate Pierson). The night
begins with a set by Tom Bailey, the principal writer/vocalist
behind the “Hold Me Now”-pleading ’80s act Thompson Twins.
Wednesday, July 18, at 7 p.m. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are
$42 to $90. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org.

VIVICA A. FOX:
EVERY DAY I’M HUSTLING
In her new book, the actress relates stories from her early life
all the way through to today. Known from supporting roles in
the blockbusters Kill Bill and Independence Day, as well as more
recently on Empire, Fox, host of Lifetime’s Vivica’s Black Magic,
will share some of her secrets to success and sign copies of her
book, presented in collaboration with Solid State Books. Friday,
July 13, at 7 p.m. Lang Theatre in the Atlas Performing Arts
Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $25 to $37. Call 202-399-7993
or visit inseries.org.

PIPPIN
Fresh off its win as Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at
the Helen Hayes Awards, Monumental Theatre tackles the musical
that Stephen Schwartz created two decades before Wicked. Rebecca
Wahls directs a Millennial-run production based on the 2013 Tony-
winning revival, in which the titular prince joins the circus on his
journey to magic-making self-discovery. Tiziano D’Affuso plays
Pippin, Solomon Parker is the narrating Leading Player, and Chani
Wereley is Catherine. Choreography by Ahmad Maaty and music led
by Leigh Delano. Previews start Friday, July 13. To July 30. Ainslie
Arts Center in Episcopal High School, 3900 W. Braddock Rd. Tickets
are $30 to $40. Call 703-933-3000 or visit monumentaltheatre.org.

8 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
HAMILTON
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical
raps and rhymes American history with an uncanny flair
for mining gold from the tremendous life story of one “bas-
tard orphan.” Alexander Hamilton bore a restless, relent-
less energy that Miranda has tapped into willfully and quite
successfully. The compositions reflect a practically unerr-
ing ear for synthesizing pop, hip-hop, R&B, Broadway,
and dexterous narrative into a stirring, cohesive blend.
The music paves the way forward for an entire production
that feels classic and iconoclastic, historical and hip. To
Sept. 16. Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $99 to
$625, or $49 for any same-day, standing-room-only tickets,
released two hours before curtain. Call 202-467-4600 or
visit kennedy-center.org. (Andre Hereford)

WHY IS EARTHA KITT

TRYING TO KILL ME?
Subtitled A Love Story, Urban
Arias’s new one-act opera by com-
poser Jeffrey Dennis Smith and
librettist David Johnston offers a
zany, rhythm-driven romp through
the darker side of love — focused on
a mysterious and unlikely murder
suspect. Remaining performanc-
es, each followed by an audience
talk-back, are Friday, July 13, at 8
p.m., and Saturday, July 14, at 8
p.m. Signature’s Ark Theatre, 4200
Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets
are $47. Call 703-820-9771 or visit
urbanarias.org.

MARILYN MAYE
Michael Feinstein has highlighted “the next gener-
ation of performers” all this season in his Cabaret
Supper Club series at AMP by Strathmore — including
Laura Osnes (Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella)
and Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon). This weekend
Feinstein presents a true veteran, a woman known
from a whopping 76 appearances on The Tonight
Show with Johnny Carson — to say nothing of roles in
productions of everything from Hello, Dolly to Follies.
More recently, Maye has been featured in a one-hour
PBS Television Special — and as the featured guest
of D.C.’s newest hometown orchestra, the American
Pops, in residence at Arena Stage. Her AMP cabaret
is Saturday, July 14, at 8 p.m. 11810 Grand Park Ave.
North Bethesda. Tickets are $30 to $40. Call 301-581-
5100 or visit ampbystrathmore.com.

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 9

 Out On The Town

BASTILLE BRASSERIE: FRENCH RESTAURANT WEEK

Taking a page from popular Summer and Winter Restaurant Week promotions, the Old Town Alexandria restaurant, run
by husband-and-wife chefs Christophe and Michelle Poteaux, has been offering three-course prix-fixe lunches and dinners
of its French-inspired cuisine all week long. The occasion is a toast to the French national holiday that gives the restaurant
its name and is officially celebrated this year on Saturday, July 14. The menu includes a choice of soupe du jour, escargots
provencales, or salmon rillettes as a starter, a choice of entree such as Moules-frites, Roast Chicken with Chermoula, or
Seared Duck Breast, and for dessert, either ice cream, flan, or profiteroles au chocolat. To Sunday, July 15. Bastille Brassierie
in The Asher, 606 N. Fayette St. The price is $25 at lunch, or $35 at dinner. Call 703-519-3776 or visit bastillerestaurant.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule
FILM
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3:
SUMMER VACATION
Even Sony Pictures must be sur-
prised they’ve managed to wring
three films out of this idea. But with
box office receipts of $800 million,
it’s not hard to see why a third film
was greenlit, even if it’ll likely be
more of the same pleasant but far
from genre-defining animated fam-
ily comedy. Opens Friday, July 13.
Area theaters. Visit fandango.com.
(Rhuaridh Marr)
PITCH PERFECT
The Georgetown Sunset Cinema
screening series presents Jason
Moore’s 2012 comedy about a
collegiate clique of competitive a
cappella singers starring Anna
Kendrick, Brittany Snow, and the
especially unforgettable Rebel “Fat
Amy” Wilson. The screening takes
place in a grassy knoll along the
banks of the Potomac River, with
the panoramic Key Bridge as back-
drop. Vendors include Muncheez
and Stella’s PopKern and Maracas
Ice Pops. Everyone is encouraged
to bring a blanket, food and water
or soft drinks — just no chairs or
alcohol. Tuesday, July 17, at the
intersection of Water Street and
Cecil Place NW. The area opens at
6:30 p.m., and the screening starts at
sunset, around 8:30 p.m. Call 202-
298-9222 or visit georgetowndc.
com/sunset-cinema.
THE CAKEMAKER
A shy young German baker falls in
love with a married Israeli busi-
nessman, who is a frequent visitor
to Berlin — until one day he isn’t,
after becoming the victim of a car
crash. Israeli filmmaker Ophir Raul
Graizer focuses on what happens
after the baker travels to Jerusalem
seeking answers into the death of
his late lover. Keeping his secret to
himself, the baker quickly befriends
the man’s widow (Sarah Adler) and
becomes involved in her life in a
way far beyond his original plan.
The Cakemaker is “a blend of old-
school melodrama, contemporary
identity politics, and buttery gastro-
porn,” writes Variety. Partially sub-
titled. Now playing. Landmark’s E
Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call
202-452-7672 or visit landmarkthe-
atres.com.
THE EQUALIZER 2
Denzel Washington as a retired
agent who becomes a hired gun
for vengeance sounds like a rec-
ipe for success, but the first film
in this apparent franchise received
mediocre reviews and only moder-
ate box office success. Apparently
that was enough to greenlight a
sequel. Opens Friday, July 13. Area
theaters. Visit fandango.com. (RM)

10 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Maryland’s Port Tobacco Players
presents a non-professional pro-
duction of this musical based on
the DreamWorks blockbuster star-
ring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom
Hanks. Terrence McNally teamed
up with the musical minds behind
Hairspray — Marc Shaiman and
Scott Wittman — for a tale, set in
the jazzy, swinging ‘’60s, following
the real-life adventures of charm-
ing con artist Frank Abagnale Jr.
and the FBI agent, Carl Hanratty,
who pursues him in a cross-coun-
try chase. Opens Thursday, July 12.
Weekends to Aug. 5. 508 Charles
St., La Plata, Md. Tickets are $15
to $18. Call 301-932-6819 or visit
ptplayers.com.

JUDY AND THE GENERAL

Baltimore’s Spotlighters Theatre
presents the world premiere of a
new musical comedy by Rosemary
Frisino Toohey based on the Book
of Judith. One of only a handful
of strong female characters in the
UNION MARKET: DC SCOOP Bible, Judith is the heroine in a clas-
sic tale of good vs. evil, ingeniously
Sunday, July 15, is National Ice Cream Day, but Union Market is helping to make a using her feminine wiles to outwit
weekend of it by hosting this 8th annual ice cream social on Friday, July 13, starting at 5 the powerful general Holofernes to
p.m. Dolcezza, Trickling Springs Creamery, and Peregrine Espresso will be offering free save her people from destruction.
Now to July 29. A Talk Back with
scoops at an event that previously functioned as a competition — serving as the birthplace the playwright, director Michael W.
of past DC Scoop winners Ice Cream Jubilee and Love ‘n Faith, which will also be offering Tan, and cast follows the perfor-
free frozen treats. Gelato, ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, soda shoppe-style scoops, and mance on Sunday, July 15. 817 St.
Paul St., Baltimore. Tickets are $18
other surprises will also be available for purchase from other vendors including Puddin’, to $22. Call 410-752-1225 or visit
Bun’d Up, Toli Moli, and Suburbia — and Windows Catering will be running a sweets- spotlighters.org.
filled toppings bar at DC Scoops, which also boasts live music by DJ Bast + Native Nebula
from the AOK Family. The event is the market’s way of celebrating the fact that it’s now MUSIC
open until 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday evenings throughout the summer, with live
music and free bingo with DC Fray planned for every Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. Union ARCADE FIRE
Not quite a year since the Infinite
Market, 1309 5th St. NE. Call 800-680-9095 or visit unionmarketdc.com. Content Tour stopped at Capital
One Arena, Arcade Fire returns
with a tour called Everything Now
Continued — a play on the title of its
STAGE nade style, with some seats on stage
with the actors. These silly tales
Lynn Olivera, Bobby Smith, and
Rachel Zampelli, with Robbins-
album from last year. On Everything
Now, the group pulls together bits
of scurvy pirates, modern Major- inspired choreography by Tara of disco, reggae and punk, and they
AIN’T TOO PROUD
Generals, and star-crossed lovers Jeanne Vallee. The company’s do find some success with a handful
The Kennedy Center presents a new
were both directed by Sean Graney, artistic director Jason Loewith of fun moments scattered through-
musical about The Temptations,
who co-adapted The Pirates of helms the show. Extended to July out — “Everything Now,” “Electric
a group that churned out 42 Top
Penzance with Kevin O’Donnell, 29. Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Blue,” “Creature Comfort,” and the
10 hits, including 14 No. 1’s. Des
and H.M.S. Pinafore with Andra Spring Road, Olney, Md. Call 301- unexpected detour into country on
McAnuff (Jersey Boys) directs
Velis Simon and Matt Kahler. In 924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org. the reprise “Infinite_Content.” Raw
and Sergio Trujillo (Memphis the
previews. Opening Saturday, July cynicism can make for good song-
Musical) choreographs a produc-
14. To Aug. 21. Mulitz-Gudelsky THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE writing material, but Arcade Fire
tion featuring classics everyone
Theatre Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy (AND OTHER SONGS) is trying to somehow be sincere
knows — from “My Girl” to “Papa
Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are Virginia’s Hub Theatre presents and wry and jaded all at the same
Was A Rolling Stone” to “Just
$30 to $64 each. Call 301-924-3400 Marc Acito’s play with songs about time and they don’t quite pull it
My Imagination.” To July 22.
or visit olneytheatre.org. the unlikely yet real-life rela- off. Instead, the album looks and
Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are
tionship between singer Marian sounds like what it is — a wild-
$59 to $159. Call 202-467-4600 or
ON THE TOWN Anderson and Albert Einstein. The ly popular indie band, who once
visit kennedy-center.org.
Three sailors romp around New two titanic figures on a quest to won the Grammy for Best Album,
York in 1944. Olney Theatre unlock life’s mysteries. To July 29. attempting to level outsider criti-
H.M.S. PINAFORE
Company revives this early musi- The John Swayze Theatre in the cism of the mass culture industry.
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
cal that features an exuberant New School of Northern Virginia, Hamilton Leithauser opens. Friday,
The Hypocrites and the House
score by Leonard Bernstein. The 9431 Silver King Court, Fairfax. July 20, at 6:30 p.m. Jiffy Lube Live,
Theatre of Chicago, two innovative
original show grew out of a ballet Visit thehubtheatre.org. 7800 Cellar Door Drive, Bristow,
theaters in the Windy City, have
that Jerome Robbins had worked Va. Tickets are $30 to $118. Call
teamed up to stage two of Gilbert
on with Bernstein, further devel- 703-754-6400 or visit livenation.
& Sullivan’s best-loved comic
operettas in rotating repertory at
oped by the writing and lyricist COMMUNITY com. (Sean Maunier)
team of Betty Comden and Adolph
Olney Theatre. Celebrated for being
immersive and family friendly, the
Green. Olney’s starry cast includes
Evan Casey, Rhett Guter, Sam
STAGE BRITNEY SPEARS
Billed as the last time ever to see the
productions are presented prome-
Ludwig, Donna Migliaccio, Tracy

12 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 pop star’s famed record-breaking
Las Vegas show Britney: Piece of
Me — which kicks off a limited tour
with two shows at the Theater at
MGM National Harbor. Thursday,
July 12, and Friday, July 13, at 8 p.m.
7100 Harborview Ave., Oxon Hill,
Md., Oxon Hill, Md. Call 844-346-
4664 or visit mgmnationalharbor.
com.

CARBON LEAF
A five-piece from Richmond,
Carbon Leaf has toured with the
Dave Matthews Band, O.A.R., and
Blues Traveler, while drawing its
own fans to its slightly unusual
blend of bluegrass and rock, offi-
cially pegged as “ether-electrified
porch music.” The band tours in
celebration of its 25th anniversary.
Saturday, July 14. Doors at 6:30 p.m.
The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW.
Tickets are $30 to $35. Call 202-
787-1000 or visit thehamiltondc.
com.

CHRIS URQUIAGA
A native of Silver Spring, this bud-
ding Latin pop singer-songwrit-
er was selected as an Artist-in-
Residence at Strathmore two years
ago. At the top of 2017, Urquiaga
released Complete, an album of orig-
inal pop tunes in English, Spanish,
and Portuguese — many of which
he’s expected to perform in a con-
cert next week titled “Pop & Latin
Songs by Chris Urquiaga.” Friday,
July 20. Doors at 7 p.m. Dupont
Underground, 1500 19th St. NW.
Tickets are $15. Visit dupontunder-
ground.org.

CREATIVE CAULDRON CABARET

The 9th annual summer cabaret
series at ArtSpace Falls Church
continues with two chiefly musical
theater-themed cabarets: Katherine
Riddle offers a tribute to the hard-
working ingenue in “More Than
Just A Pretty Face,” on Friday, July
13, at 8 p.m.; and Creative Cauldron
regular soprano Susan Derry per-
forms a feisty evening of theater
standards, unexpected gems, and
the occasional pop song in “Days
and Dazed,” on Saturday, July 14,
at 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 15, at
7 p.m. The next weekend features
Jade Jones in “Killin’ Em Softly - A
‘70s Soiree” on Friday, July 20, and
Saturday, July 21, at 8 p.m. ArtSpace
Falls Church, 410 South Maple Ave.
in Falls Church. Tickets are $18 to
$22 per show, or $55 for a table for
JAILHOUSE ROCK two with wine and $110 for four
Elvis Presley’s third film, the story of a convict who learns to play guitar while in the with wine. Call 703-436-9948 or
visit creativecauldron.org.
slammer and, upon release, becomes a star, is considered one of his most invigorating
performances. In fact, the “Jailhouse Rock” dance sequence alone is frequently cited as DC101 KERFUFFLE:
“Presley’s greatest moment on screen.” In 2005, the film was selected by the National FALL OUT BOY
What’s not to love about a
Film Registry for preservation. Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber, known for the hits “Hound
multi-artist concert called a ker-
Dog,” “Stand by Me,” and “Yakety-Yak”) provided the boppin’ score. Landmark’s West fuffle? In addition to the suburban
End Cinema brings the 1957 drama to the big screen as part of its Capital Classics series. Chicago-reared emo/punk headlin-
Wednesday, July 18, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m., 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to ers, there’s more hard/heavy rock
from acts including Rise Against,
6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 to $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit landmarktheatres.com. Awolnation, and AJR. There’s also

14 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Residence, the local alto sing-
er has won lots of praise in the
past few years, including from
Duke Ellington’s biographer John
Hasse, who touted her as “a major
league young talent in jazz.” After
headline shows at Blues Alley and
Bethesda Blues & Jazz, as well as
invitations to play jazz festivals
across the country, Seikaly returns
to Strathmore for a special outdoor
concert as part of its free Live from
the Lawn weekly summer series.
Wednesday, July 18, at 7 p.m.
Gudelsky Gazebo, 10701 Rockville
Pike, North Bethesda. Tickets are
free. Call 301-581-5100 or visit
strathmore.org.
THE 19TH STREET BAND AT
DENIZENS’ 4TH ANNIVERSARY
PARTY
Named after the street in Arlington
where Caolaidhe Davis, original-
ly from Northern Ireland, first
CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL lived with his fiddle-playing wife
Meghan, the 19th Street Band also
Southwest D.C. is the hub for this year’s Capital Fringe,
includes bassist Brian White, ban-
with 11 stages set up at venues throughout the neigh- joist Tom Verratti, and drummer
borhood, including Arena Stage, Blind Whino, and area Patty Dougherty of D.C.’s Wicked
churches — all within a five-minute walk of one another. Jezabel. The popular local cover
Most shows at Fringe are selected through an unjuried, band, known for playing “all your
favorite tunes” in the Americana
open-invitation process — first-come, first-staged — with and folk genres, this weekend
works largely created and produced by new or relatively cheers on the lesbian-owned brew-
ery Denizens — officially, to cele-
inexperienced theatermakers. Shows wth LGBTQ themes
brate the company’s fourth year in
in 2018 include: M. Cristina Garcia’s Lesbians and the Men operation in its downtown Silver
Who Love Them, Samir Bitar & Mahayana Landowne’s 50 Spring location. Naturally, the
Ways..., Jamie Brickhouse’s darkly comic Dangerous When party will also serve to build more
buzz about the forthcoming second
Wet: Booze, Sex & My Mother, the horror mystery Ghosts,
Denizens location in Riverdale Park,
Kate Robards’ PolySHAMory, Sri Mirajkar’s Draupadi’s next to College Park. Saturday, July
Arranged Marriage, Glass Attic Collective’s devised work 14, from 8 to 11 p.m. 1115 East-West
Highway, Silver Spring. Call 301-
Up Your Aesthetic, Caitlin M. Caplinger’s Riot Brrrain, and
557-9818 or visit denizensbrewing-
Flying Blind Theatre Ensemble’s The Country Co-ed. To co.com.
July 30. Tickets are $17 per show, with a one-time pur-
chase of a $7 Fringe button. Multi-show passes range from THE CIRCUS LIFE PODCAST: 5TH
ANNIVERSARY CONCERT
$60 to $350. Call 866-811-4111 or visit capitalfringe.org.
Justin Trawick, the area’s hard-
est-working indie-folk/pop artist,
will perform with his Wammie-
winning band The Common Good
indie-pop act AJR, EDM/pop art- 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are as part of a toast to the podcast he
ist Robert DeLong, indie act Mt. $40 to $80. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or co-launched. Hosted by the 9:30
Joy, and German rockers L.I.F.T. visit wolftrap.org. Club, this year’s musically eclec-
Sunday, July 22. Doors at 12:30 p.m. tic concert also features the R&B/
Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: hip-hop/pop covers act JWX:
Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, FUNKY DAWGZ The Jarreau Williams Xperience,
Md. Tickets are $55 to $95. Call The National Gallery of Art offers Alex Barnett, Louisa Hall, Geoff
800-551-SEAT or visit merriweath- free outdoor concerts immediately Browning, the Bumper Jacksons
ermusic.com. after work every Friday through Duo, Eli Lev, Benjamin Carter,
late August. Bands offering a range and Nardo Lilly. Saturday, July
HALSEY of jazz styles, from swing to Latin to 14. Doors at 8 p.m. 815 V St. NW.
It’s surprising when you stop and ska, perform amidst the museum’s Tickets are $15. Call 202-265-0930
think about how quickly Halsey collection of large-scale sculptur- or visit 930.com.
has risen to the upper echelon of al works while patrons enjoy food
the music industry — two years and drink, including beer, wine, and WHITE FORD BRONCO
after breaking onto the scene with sangria, as sold by the Pavilion Cafe “D.C.’s all ’90s party band,” cheek-
the Chainsmokers, she’s already and outdoor grill. The 2018 series ily named after O.J. Simpson’s
headlined a stadium tour, which continues with funk and hip-hop notorious failed getaway car, sings
stopped at Capital One Arena last from the Funky Dawgz Brass Band through that decade’s songbook
fall. The bisexual New Jersey native on July 13, and blues guitarist Dave in all styles of popular music. The
returns to the area for what is sure Chappell on July 20, from 5 to 8:30 five-member ensemble is comprised
to be a starry concert under the p.m. Sculpture Garden, between 7th of singer/guitarist Diego Valencia,
stars in support of her latest album, and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-289- singer Gretchen Gustafson, guitar-
the impressive Hopeless Fountain 3360 or visit nga.gov. ists Ken Sigmund and McNasty and
Kingdom. Special guest Jessie Reyez drummer Max Shapiro. Saturday,
opens. Sunday, July 15, at 8 p.m. LENA SEIKALY
The Filene Center at Wolf Trap, A former Strathmore Artist-in-
16 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
July 14. Doors at 8 p.m. Rock and
Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE. Tickets
are $25. Call 202-388-ROCK or visit
rockandrollhoteldc.com.
COMEDY
CHRISTIAN FINNEGAN
A regular performer at the DC
Improv, the stand-up veteran is also
an accomplished TV writer and per-
former — known from Chappelle’s
Show, The Jim Gaffigan Show, and as
one of cable TV’s first great “talking
head” comedians, not to mention
many appearances on MSNBC’s
Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Finnegan is currently polishing up
a new show entitled My Goodness, a
comedic look at what it means to be
a good person. He’ll take the show
to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
next month. Thursday, July 12,
at 7:30 p.m., Friday, July 13, and
Saturday, July 14, at 7:30 and 9:45
p.m., and Sunday, July 15, at 7 p.m.
DC Improv, 1140 Connecticut Ave.
NW. Tickets are $17 to $22, plus a
two-item minimum. Call 202-296-
7008 or visit dcimprov.com.
THE SECOND CITY:
GENERATION GAP
The full title of the latest show
from Chicago’s famed troupe cre-
ated especially for the Kennedy
Center to coincide with the District
of Comedy Festival is Generation
Gap...Or, How Many Millennials
Does It Take to Teach a Baby Boomer
to Text Generation X? Expect a
satirical crash course spanning mis-
communications, careers, dating,
and more in a two-act, interactive
spin on what the troupe calls “the
age-old battle of the ages.” To Aug.
12. Theater Lab. Tickets are $49
to $59. Call 202-467-4600 or visit
kennedy-center.org.
VICKI LAWRENCE AND MAMA:
A TWO-WOMAN SHOW
While only a senior in high school,
Vicki Lawrence had enough gump-
tion to invite — as well as success-
fully lure — Carol Burnett out to the
“Miss Fireball Contest” her local
fire department was hosting, in
which she performed. From there,
she got a job and spent 11 years on
The Carol Burnett Show, eventu-
ally moving on to her own hit TV
series Mama’s Family in the ’80s.
Lawrence humorously chronicles
her life’s many varied adventures
in this stage show. Sunday, July
21, at 1 p.m. Bethesda Blues & Jazz
Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave.
Tickets are $50 to $65, plus $10
minimum purchase per person. Call
240-330-4500 or visit bethesdab-
luesjazz.com.
WIT: SUMMER ESCAPE
The Washington Improv Theater is
D.C.’s answer to comedy star-mak-
ing groups such as Chicago’s Second
City and L.A.’s Groundlings. Over
the next month, the troupe offers
 art.com. Part II is on display to
July 22. The Athenaeum, 201 Prince
St., Alexandria. Call 703-548-0035
or visit nvfaa.org. For additional
events and details about the two-
part exhibition, visit katiepum-
phrey.com/fivemoreminutes.

FOOD AND DRINK

GERARD PANGAUD: THE ART OF
FRENCH COOKING
The man behind former D.C.
restaurant Gerard’s Place and chef
at Malmaison on the Georgetown
Waterfront was the youngest chef
ever to receive a two-star Michelin
rating (for the namesake French
restaurant he had prior to moving to
the U.S.). At the Hill Center he offers
a regular Art of French Cooking
class, predicated on his approach
in the kitchen emphasizing the cre-
ative and unique over the rote and
standard — in other words, winging
it versus relying on a recipe. For
his next class, at the Intermediate
to Advanced level, Pangaud will
prepare a three-course seasonal
DISTRICT OF COMEDY FESTIVAL dinner celebrating Bastille Day.
The Kennedy Center presents the third annual festival bringing acclaimed stars and You’ll learn how to make — and get
rising acts together for a mix of stand-up and other comedic performances. Everything samples of — Zucchini Salad with
Egg “Mimosa,” Poached Alaskan
kicks off next Thursday, July 19, with a screening of Rob Reiner’s 1984 groundbreaking Salmon Parisienne with Green
mockumentary (that indirectly launched the directing career of Christopher Guest), This Sauce and Vegetables Macédoine,
is Spinal Tap. Harry Shearer will be on hand following the screening to tell behind-the- and Poached Peach, Pistachio Ice
Cream and Champagne Sabayon.
scenes stories and answer audience questions. Other highlights include Neil Hamburger, Saturday, July 14, at 10 a.m. Hill
Patton Oswalt, Amanda Seales, D.C.’s Underground Comedy Stand-Up Showcase, The Center, Old Naval Hospital, 921
Daily Show Correspondents Stand-Up Tour, the competitive stand-up game “On Deck,” Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Tickets are
hosted by Mike Mulloy, and The New Negroes with Baron Vaughn and Open Mike Eagle. $95, including wine pairings. Call
202-549-4172 or visit HillCenterDC.
There are several planned Bentzen Ball Podcast sessions, a “Boast Rattle” (the opposite org.
of a comedic roast where the best complimenting comedian wins), and performances
featuring The Improvised Shakespeare Company. July 19 to 22, at various venues in the LE DIPLOMATE:
BASTILLE WEEKEND FESTIVITIES
Kennedy Center. Ticket prices vary. For a full list of performances or to purchase tickets, With the big French holiday falling
call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org. on a Saturday this year, D.C.’s hip-
pest French restaurant kicks things
off a day early by serving early on
Friday, July 13, when it will serve
a hodgepodge of summer-themed
sketches, with each performance
MUSEUMS features the Apollo Lunar Module
and the studio model of the Starship
pre-Bastille Day brunch from 11 a.m.
to 4 p.m. The next day, Saturday,
& GALLERIES
featuring different WIT ensem- Enterprise from the original Star
July 14, La Grand Fête starts at 11:30
bles, including three music-driv- Trek series, among other additions.
a.m. with live accordion music,
en exercises: iMusical, presenting National Air and Space Museum,
BOEING MILESTONES OF FLIGHT children’s activities, crafts, and face
audiences with the opportuni- Independence Ave at 6th St. SW.
HALL painting, a streetside glacé cart, and
ty to choose-your-own-disaster, Call 202-633-2214 or visit airand-
The National Air and Space an all-day café service. Starting at
resulting in the cast improvising space.si.edu.
Museum’s central exhibition space 9:30 p.m., the Bastille Noir party
an instant world-ending musi-
reopened in 2016 after a multi-year features DJ-led entertainment, drag
cal; Heavy Rotation, featuring a KATIE PUMPHREY: FIVE MORE
renovation sponsored by Boeing queen and mime performances, and
cast performing a School of Rock- MINUTES, PART I AND II
and in honor of the museum’s 40th sketch artist A.E. Kieren creating
inspired “improvised rock come- Through large-scale paintings and
anniversary. John Glenn’s Mercury caricatures of all the goings-on.
dy”; and Karaoke Storytellers with installations, the Baltimore artist
“Friendship 7,” Charles Lindbergh’s Naturellement, Champagne corks
a show that is part-VH1 Storytellers, explores the tension between calm
“Spirit of St. Louis,” the Gemini will fly all evening, when there will
part-Saturday Night Live audition, and chaos — specifically, the anx-
IV capsule, and SpaceShipOne also be specialty libations, including
and part musical, all built around iety, excitement, panic, and even
are among the museum’s most Le Diplomate’s signature Frosé and
improvised characters delivering monotony that comes from just five
iconic artifacts on view in a new, the Gimme, Gimme Mûre, with fro-
monologues and interpreting a song more minutes of doing something.
streamlined way along with dig- zen Ketel One Botanical Cucumber
karaoke-style. To Aug. 5. Source, Pumphrey’s works on the theme
ital enhancements meant to give & Mint, creme de mûre, blackberry,
1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $15 are on display in both Georgetown
a deeper understanding of how and lime. And the party lasts until 2
in advance, or $18 at the door. Call and Alexandria as part of a two-part
spaceflight and aviation have affect- a.m. 1601 14th St. NW. Call 202-332-
202-204-7770 or visit witdc.org. exhibition at two galleries. Part I is
ed all Americans’ lives. The hall also 3333 or visit lediplomatedc.com. l
on display to July 21, ending with a
closing reception. Susan Calloway
Fine Arts, 1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW.
Call 202-965-4601 or visit calloway-

18 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
theFeed
BOGUS SCOTUS
Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court would be a disaster
for LGBTQ and women’s rights. By John Riley
L
GBTQ GROUPS ARE SLAMMING PRESIDENT
Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be the
nation’s next Supreme Court justice, arguing that he
will endanger the progress made over the past few years on
LGBTQ equality and shift the court in a rightward direction
for at least two generations.
“Judge Kavanaugh would guarantee 40 more years of
Trump’s values on the Supreme Court,” Rachel B. Tiven,
the CEO of Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “Like every
other judicial nominee who has a seal of approval from
the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, Judge
Kavanaugh shares Donald Trump’s same distorted view of
the law.
“We have good reason to fear that Judge Kavanaugh
will abuse his power on the Court to protect the wealthy
and the powerful while depriving LGBT Americans of our
dignity, demeaning our community, and diminishing our
status as equal citizens,” Tiven added. “There is too much
at stake to allow Judge Kavanaugh to sit on the Court that,
over its history, has decided who can marry, who can vote,
and who is equal.”
Tiven noted that Kavanaugh has previously stated that
presidents should not be subject to civil or criminal charges
while in office — a startling claim, especially considering
that Trump is under investigation — and that a president
does not need to follow the law if he thinks the law is uncon-
stitutional. Tiven vowed that Lambda Legal would push
Democrats to oppose any hearing or vote on Kavanaugh’s
nomination until after the 2018 midterm elections, and reaf-
firm the need for oversight and scrutiny that Republicans
seem unwilling to provide when it comes to Trump’s judicial
nominees.
The Human Rights Campaign also blasted Kavanaugh’s
nomination, saying that selecting Kavanaugh was proof that
Trump “has followed through on his threat to nominate a
justice who would undermine LGBTQ equality, women’s
reproductive rights and affordable healthcare.”
Now, the Senate has a responsibility to fulfill its consti-
tutional duty, serve as a check on this reckless president
and reject Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination,” HRC President
Chad Griffin said in a statement. “This nominee was hand-
picked by anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice groups in an explicit
effort to undermine equality — and the prospect of a Justice
Kavanaugh threatens to erode our nation’s civil rights laws,
block transgender troops from bravely serving this nation
and allow a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people in
every aspect of American life.”
Griffin also issued a warning to any left-of-center
American citizen, particularly LGBTQ people, that voting
in November would be essential to reigning in the Trump
administration’s attempts to undermine equality in a host
of areas.
“The 2018 midterm elections just became the most con-
sequential elections of our lifetime, and we must seize the
opportunity to pull the emergency brake on this regime,”
Griffin said. “We need to vote this November like our lives
depend on it — because they do.”
Transgender Law Center Deputy Director Isa Noyola
called Kavanaugh a “divisive, radical conservative” whose
appointment would threaten the rights of transgender peo-
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 19
 theFeed
ple, as well as communities of color, immigrants, people with
disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
“The person who fills this seat will likely have a decid-
ing vote on issues like health care, reproductive justice, and
transgender people’s freedom to be our authentic selves and
participate in public life, so our lives hang in the balance,”
Noyola said. “Transgender Law Center demands that the
Senate reject Kavanaugh and we urge our community to call
their Senators to oppose the nomination.”
Shannon Minter, the legal director of the National Center
for Lesbian Rights, argued that any attempt by the conserva-
tive majority on the Supreme Court to reverse LGBTQ rights
would be “unthinkable.” But he also said that the potential
harm that the court could wreak upon LGBTQ people and
their families is a real threat that should not be dismissed out
of hand, and urged those concerned about LGBTQ equality to
vote in November to provide a check on President Trump’s
anti-LGBTQ agenda.
“To date, there is nothing in Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s
record to indicate that he understands the real-world impact
of discrimination on LGBT people or the importance of
construing our nation’s laws to enable them to participate
fully and equally in society,” Minter said in a statement. “The
Supreme Court must be a court for all, not just for the privi-
leged few.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, noted
that the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council previously
supported Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals. She also pointed to the well-doc-
umented role that anti-LGBTQ organizations have played in
advising President Trump when it comes to both Supreme
HEAVENLY BLESSING
Former President Jimmy Carter believes “Jesus would approve of gay marriage.” By John Riley
F
ORMER U.S. PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
believes that Jesus would approve of marriage equali-
ty. A born-again Christian, Carter made the comment
during an an interview on Sunday with HuffPost Live’s Marc
Lamont Hill about how his faith has informed his politics.
“My faith has been kind of the foundation of my encour-
agement when I was in trouble or failed [at] something, and
[has] given me a new opportunity or motivation to reach for
greater things in my own life,” Carter said in the interview. “I
never have run across any serious conflicts between my polit-
ical obligations and my religious faith.”
“How about gay marriage?” Hill asked.
“That’s no problem with me,” the former president said. “I
think everyone should have a right to get married, regardless of
their sex. The only thing I would draw the line on is I wouldn’t
be in favor of the government being able to force a local church
congregation to perform gay marriages if they didn’t want to.
But those two partners should be able to go to the local court-
house, or to a different church, and get married.”
Carter’s comments, made in the wake of Justice Anthony
Kennedy’s retirement, echo similar ones he made three years
20 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Court and lower court nominations.
“If confirmed, Brett Kavanaugh will have the chance to
codify President Trump and Vice President Pence’s dan-
gerous anti-LGBTQ record and the agenda of anti-LGBTQ
groups into law for decades to come,” she said. “Like Neil
Gorsuch before him, Kavanaugh is an ideologically driven
pick designed to create an activist Supreme Court that will
undermine rights and protections for women, LGBTQ peo-
ple, immigrants, and all vulnerable people. Americans do not
want or need 40 more years of Trump’s values.”
The embrace of Kavanaugh’s nomination by right-wing
groups like the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council has
many on the political left concerned.
“Donald Trump was clear about what he was looking for in
a Supreme Court nominee, and Brett Kavanaugh fills the bill,”
Michael Keegan, the president of People For the American
Way, said in a statement, calling the judge an “elitist.”
“Make no mistake: Judge Kavanaugh wasn’t chosen
because of his experience or his life story; he was chosen as
a gift to right-wing activists who have spent decades working
to take over the Supreme Court to push their own extreme
agenda,” Keegan added, noting that Kavanaugh’s has dissent-
ed from adhering to judicial precedent more times than any
other judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Confirming Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court
would roll back the clock on rulings that protect women, peo-
ple of color, workers and the LGBTQ community,” Keegan
said. “No Senator who cares about protecting equality or
justice can support Brett Kavanaugh. In fact, no senator con-
cerned about our Court being radically reshaped can vote to
confirm this nominee.” l
ago when the U.S. Supreme Court was about to rule on wheth-
er to legalize same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges
case. Carter did say he has “had a problem with abortion”
throughout his political career, particularly during his presi-
dency, from 1977 to 1981, when the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade
decision was still fresh.
“I have a hard time believing that Jesus, for instance,
would approve abortions unless it was because of rape or
incest or if the mother’s life was in danger. So I’ve had that
struggle,” Carter said. “But my oath of office was to obey the
Constitution and the laws of this country as interpreted as the
Supreme Court, so I went along with that.”
“Would Jesus approve gay marriage?” Hill asked.
“I believe he would. I believe Jesus would. I don’t have any
verse in Scripture [to support that],” Carter said.
“No, but just intuitively,” Hill interjected.
“I believe Jesus would approve of gay marriage, but that’s
just my own personal belief,” Carter said. “I think Jesus would
encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was
not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage
damages anyone else.” l
 Community
THURSDAY, July 12

Weekly Events

ANDROMEDA
TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH
offers free HIV testing and HIV
services (by appointment). 9
a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center,
1400 Decatur St. NW. To
arrange an appointment, call
202-291-4707, or visit androm-
edatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic
Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van
Buren St. NW. For more infor-
mation, visit swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club
welcomes runners of all ability
levels for exercise in a fun and
supportive environment, with
socializing afterward. Route

PUNIMS ON PARADE
distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at
7 p.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW.
For more information, visit
dcfrontrunners.org.

The Mr. Nice Jewish Boy DC pageant has some big changes in store for DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s
this year’s event. gay and lesbian square-dancing

T
group, features mainstream
through advanced square
his year’s Mr. Nice Jewish Boy DC Pageant can’t promise you’ll find a mensch to take
dancing at the National City
home to mom on the High Holy Days, but it can promise a night of “family-friendly” Christian Church. Please dress
entertainment. casually. 7-9:30 p.m. 5 Thomas
“We definitely wanted to up the ante this year, and beef up the competition,” says Jeremy Circle NW. 202-930-1058,
dclambdasquares.org.
Gilston, last year’s runner-up and a chief organizer of the event. “We’re hoping to take the
whole show to the next level.” DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds
In addition to the talent and interview portions of the contest, contestants will be judged practice. The team is always
looking for new members.
on a choreographed dance number — complete with professional lighting to add an air of
All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry
polish. Nice Jewish Boys DC has also convinced local businesses to donate special prize Thomas Recreation Center,
packages and gift certificates that will be raffled off in between acts. 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more
Competing for top honors are Zach Levine, a healthcare consultant who plays for information, visit scandalsrfc.
org or dcscandals@gmail.com.
Stonewall Dodgeball and sings with the Choral Arts Society of Washington; Michael
Ramsey, a regulatory scientist with a larger-than life drag queen persona; Jeremy Bauer- THE DULLES TRIANGLES
Wolf, an education journalist full of witty one-liners, able to drop double entendres with Northern Virginia social
group meets for happy hour at
ease; and Jeremy Sherman, a Jewish Colombian consultant who lists his talents as playing
Sheraton in Reston. All wel-
“dirty, delicious songs” on the piano, being the go-to expert on every restaurant in the come. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise
Washington area, and “slaying” the runway. Valley Drive, second-floor bar.
Tickets are $15 for regular admission, and $30 for VIP seating, which includes two raffle For more information, visit
dullestriangles.com.
tickets, a drink ticket, and a meet-and-greet with the contestants after the show. Proceeds
from the event benefit Keshet, an LGBTQ Jewish organization that hosts LGBTQ and Ally HIV TESTING at Whitman-
Shabbaton gatherings, including weekend excursion programs and a summer camp for Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30
p.m. and from 2-5 p.m. at 1525
LGBTQ Jewish youth.
14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12
Sixty percent of a contestant’s score will be based on audience votes, and the rest from p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max
a panel of three Jewish judges: D.C. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, local lawyer Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr.
and philanthropist Stuart Kurlander, and Gilston’s mother, Jody, who runs a Jewish day Ave. SE. For an appointment
call 202-745-7000 or visit whit-
care on Long Island. For her part, Nadeau will be looking at how committed contestants are man-walker.org.
to social justice causes — building upon a preliminary questionnaire that asked each contes-
tant about any recent mitzvahs they’ve done. IDENTITY offers free and
confidential HIV testing at
“It’s going to be tough, though, to make a decision,” she says. “[They] are all bringing a
two separate locations. Walk-
lot to the table.” —John Riley ins accepted from 2-6 p.m.,
by appointment for all other
The Mr. Nice Jewish Boy DC Pageant is Sunday, July 15, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. hours. 414 East Diamond Ave.,
Gaithersburg, Md. or 7676
at U Street Music Hall, 1115A U St. NW. For tickets or more information, New Hampshire Ave., Suite
visit ticketfly.com or facebook.com/NJB.DC.

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 21

 411, Takoma Park, Md. To set
up an appointment or for more
information, call Gaithersburg,
301-300-9978, or Takoma Park,
301-422-2398.
METROHEALTH CENTER
offers free, rapid HIV testing.
Appointment needed. 1012 14th
St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an
appointment, call 202-638-0750.
SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5
p.m., by appointment and walk-in,
for youth 21 and younger. Youth
Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-567-
3155 or testing@smyal.org.
STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3
p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and
the Max Robinson Center, 2301
Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE.
Testing is intended for those with-
out symptoms. For an appointment
call 202-745-7000 or visit whit-
man-walker.org.
US HELPING US hosts a Narcotics
Anonymous Meeting. The group
is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30
p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For
more information, call 202-446-
1100.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
INSTITUTE for young LBTQ
women, 13-21, interested in lead-
ership development. 5-6:30 p.m.
SMYAL Youth Center, 410 7th St.
SE. For more information, call 202-
567-3163, or email catherine.chu@
smyal.org.
FRIDAY, July 13
GAMMA is a confidential, volun-
tary, peer-support group for men
who are gay, bisexual, questioning
and who are now or who have been
in a relationship with a woman.
7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place
Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont
Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are
also held in Vienna, Va., and in
Frederick, Md. For more informa-
tion, visit gammaindc.org.
WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES
(AND THIRTIES), a social discus-
sion and activity group for queer
women, meets at The DC Center
on the second and fourth Friday of
each month. Group social activity
to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For
more information, visit thedccen-
ter.org.
SATURDAY, July 14
ADVENTURING outdoors group
celebrates Bastille Day with a mod-
erately difficult 7-mile hike, with
1300 feet of elevation gain, in Sky
Meadows State Park near Paris,
Va., followed by a wine tasting at
a nearby winery. Bring plenty of
beverages, lunch, sturdy boots, bug
22 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
spray, sunscreen, about $10 for
fees, and $17 for the wine tasting.
Carpool at 9 a.m. from the East
Falls Church Metro Station Kiss &
Ride lot. Contact Jeff, 301-775-9660
or visit adventuring.org.
CHRYSALIS arts & culture group
holds potluck social at member’s
home in suburban Maryland to
discuss future museum visits and
out-of-town excursions. Bring
appetizer, salad, entree, vegetable
dish, or dessert. Chrysalis will
provide beverages, paper goods,
and ice. Carpool at 7 p.m. from
the Glenmont Metro Station Kiss
& Ride lot. RSVP for food coordi-
nation by the evening of Friday,
July 13, to Kevin, 571-338-1433 or
kgiles27@gmail.com.
Join the GW Cancer Center,
Whitman-Walker Health, Iona
Senior Services, and The DC
Center for IMPROVING THE
HEALTH OF THE LGBTQI
COMMUNITY: ADVOCATING
FOR OURSELVES TOGETHER.
The community forum will bring
together clinicians, researchers,
and community members to
discuss health issues pertinent
to the LGBTQI community.
Food is included. 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Metropolitan Community Church
of DC, 474 Ridge St. NW. For more
information, email cancercenter@
gwu.edu or call 202-994-0988.
The DC Center hosts a monthly
meeting of UNIVERSAL PRIDE,
a group to support and empower
LGBTQIA people with disabili-
ties, offer perspectives on dating
and relationships, and create
greater access in public spaces for
LGBTQIA PWDs. 1-2:30 p.m. 2000
14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, contact Andy Arias,
andyarias09@gmail.com.
Weekly Events
DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a prac-
tice session at Montgomery College
Aquatics Club. 8:30-10 a.m. 7600
Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For
more information, visit swimdcac.
org.
DC FRONT RUNNERS running/
walking/social club welcomes run-
ners of all ability levels for exercise
in a fun and supportive environ-
ment, with socializing afterward.
Route distance will be 3-6 miles.
Walker meet at 9:30 a.m. and run-
ners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets
NW. For more information, visit
dcfrontrunners.org.
DIGNITYUSA sponsors Mass for
LGBT community, family and
friends. 6:30 p.m., Immanuel
Church-on-the-Hill, 3606 Seminary
Road, Alexandria. All welcome. For
more info, visit dignitynova.org.
IDENTITY offers free and confiden-
tial HIV testing at its Takoma Park
location. Walk-ins accepted from
12-3 p.m., by appointment for all
other hours. 7676 New Hampshire
Ave., Suite 411, Takoma Park, Md.
To set up an appointment or for
more information, call 301-422-
2398.
SUNDAY, July 15
Volunteers are needed to help
with CASA RUBY’S MONTHLY
DINNER. Held on the third Sunday
of each month, in conjunction with
The DC Center, the event provides
a hot meal to those housed at Casa
Ruby. Homemade or store bought
meals welcome. 7-8 p.m. Casa Ruby
Shelter, 1216 Kennedy St. NW. For
more information, contact lamar@
thedccenter.org, jon@thedccenter.
org, or visit casaruby.org.
MONDAY, July 16
The Metro D.C. chapter of PFLAG,
a support group for parents, family
members and allies of the LGBTQ
community, holds its monthly
meeting at The DC Center. 7-9 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For
more information, visit thedccen-
ter.org.
Weekly Events
DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a
practice session at Dunbar Aquatic
Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW.
For more information, visit swim-
dcac.org.
NOVASALUD offers free HIV test-
ing. 5-7 p.m. 2049 N. 15th St., Suite
200, Arlington. Appointments: 703-
789-4467.
SMYAL offers free HIV Testing, 3-5
p.m., by appointment and walk-in,
for youth 21 and younger. Youth
Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-567-
3155 or testing@smyal.org.
STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at both 1525
14th St. NW and the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 Martin Luther King,
Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for
those without symptoms. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000 or
visit whitman-walker.org.
The DC Center hosts COFFEE
DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT
COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000
14th St. NW. For more information,
call 202-682-2245 or visit thedc-
center.org.
US HELPING US hosts a black gay
men’s evening affinity group for
GBT black men. Light refreshments
provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia
Ave. NW. 202-446-1100.
WASHINGTON WETSKINS
WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9
p.m. Newcomers with at least basic
swimming ability always welcome.
Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van
Buren St. NW. For more informa-
tion, contact Tom, 703-299-0504
or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit
wetskins.org.
WHITMAN-WALKER HEALTH
HIV/AIDS SUPPORT GROUP
for newly diagnosed individuals,
meets 7 p.m. Registration required.
202-939-7671, hivsupport@whit-
man-walker.org.
TUESDAY, July 17
CENTER BI, a group of The DC
Center, hosts a monthly roundtable
discussion around issues of bisex-
uality. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW,
Suite 105. Visit thedccenter.org.
THE HIV WORKING GROUP of
The DC Center hosts a “Packing
Party,” where volunteers assemble
safe-sex kits of condoms and lube.
7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite
105. For more information, visit
thedccenter.org.
Weekly Events
DC AQUATICS CLUB practice
session at Takoma Aquatic Center.
7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW.
For more information, visit swim-
dcac.org.
DC FRONT RUNNERS running/
walking/social club welcomes run-
ners of all ability levels for exercise
in a fun and supportive environment,
with socializing afterward. Route
distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at 7 p.m.
at Union Station. For more informa-
tion, visit dcfrontrunners.org.
DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds prac-
tice. The team is always looking
for new members. All welcome.
7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation
Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For
more information, visit scandalsrfc.
org or dcscandals@gmail.com.
THE GAY MEN’S HEALTH
COLLABORATIVE offers free
HIV testing and STI screening
and treatment every Tuesday.
5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday
LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health
Department, 4480 King St. 703-
746-4986 or text 571-214-9617.
james.leslie@inova.org.
HIV TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. at 1525 14th
St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 1-5
p.m. at the Max Robinson Center,
2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000 or
visit whitman-walker.org.
OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS
holds an LGBT-focused meet-
ing every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St.
George’s Episcopal Church, 915
Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps
from Virginia Square Metro. For
more info. call Dick, 703-521-
1999. Handicapped accessible.
Newcomers welcome. liveandletli-
veoa@gmail.com.
STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at both 1525
14th St. NW and the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 Martin Luther King,
Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for
those without symptoms. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000 or
visit whitman-walker.org.
Support group for LGBTQ youth
ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30
p.m. 410 7th St. SE. For more
information, contact Cathy Chu,
202-567-3163, or catherine.chu@
smyal.org.
US HELPING US hosts a support
group for black gay men 40 and
older. 7-9 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave.
NW. 202-446-1100.
Whitman-Walker Health holds its
weekly GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND
WELLNESS/STD CLINIC. Patients
are seen on walk-in basis. No-cost
screening for HIV, syphilis, gon-
orrhea and chlamydia. Hepatitis
and herpes testing available for fee.
Testing starts at 6 p.m, but should
arrive early to ensure a spot. 1525
14th St. NW. For more information,
visit whitman-walker.org.
WEDNESDAY, July 18
BOOKMEN DC, an informal men’s
gay literature group, discusses
From Macho to Mariposa: Gay
Latino Fiction, edited by Charles
Rice-Gonzalez and Charlie
Vasquez, at The DC Center. All
welcome. 7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more info, visit
bookmendc.blogspot.com.
The LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB meets
at the Dignity Center, across from
the Marine Barracks, for Duplicate
Bridge. No reservations needed.
Newcomers welcome. 7:30 p.m. 721
8th St. SE. Call 202-841-0279 if you
need a partner.
Weekly Events
AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-
versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m.,
Steam, 17th and R NW. All wel-
come. For more information, call
Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.
DC AQUATICS CLUB (DCAC)
holds a practice session at Dunbar
Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N
St. NW. For more information, visit
swimdcac.org.
FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a
group for LGBT people looking
to quit cigarettes and tobacco use,
holds a weekly support meeting at
The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th
St. NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, visit thedccenter.org.
HISTORIC CHRIST CHURCH
offers Wednesday worship 7:15 a.m.
and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. 118 N.
Washington St., Alexandria. 703-
549-1450, historicchristchurch.org.
JOB CLUB, a weekly support pro-
gram for job entrants and seekers,
meets at The DC Center. 6-7:30
p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
For more info, centercareers.org.
NOVASALUD offers free HIV
testing. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 2049 N.
15th St., Suite 200, Arlington.
Appointments: 703-789-4467.
STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker
Health. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at both 1525
14th St. NW and the Max Robinson
Center, 2301 Martin Luther King,
Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for
those without symptoms. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000 or
visit whitman-walker.org.
WASHINGTON WETSKINS
WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9
p.m. Newcomers with at least basic
swimming ability always welcome.
Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van
Buren St. NW. For more informa-
tion, contact Tom, 703-299-0504
or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit
wetskins.org. l
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 23
Fighting
Back When a local restaurant asked
trans activist Charlotte Clymer
to leave for using the women’s
restroom, they picked a fight
with the wrong person.
Interview by John Riley • Photography by Julian Vankim
C
HARLOTTE CLYMER IS NEVER THE PERSON
who ends up in the spotlight.
As rapid response press secretary for
the Human Rights Campaign, Clymer stays
behind the scenes, responding to the latest
machinations of the Trump administration
or the latest developments on LGBTQ rights.
So when, on June 22, she went to the D.C. restaurant Cuba Libre
for a girlfriend’s bachelorette party, she didn’t expect to become
the center of attention.
When Clymer attempted to use the restroom, an attendant
stopped her, asking to see her ID. She refused and used the
bathroom. Upon exiting, Clymer was accosted by the attendant
and a manager, who cited a nonexistent law claiming that a per-
son must have “female” on their ID in order to use the women’s
restroom. Clymer told them they were wrong, and even attempt-
ed to show them the actual law, which allows transgender
people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
The manager refused to look at the citation, and openly mocked
Clymer.
Asked to leave the restaurant, Clymer lodged a complaint
with the police. In the weeks since the incident, she has also
24 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights, which
is expected to launch an investigation and will likely send the
complaint to mediation.
“From what I’ve been told by several people, there is no
chance [the manager] didn’t know about this,” says Clymer. She
calls the incident “inexcusable.”
“Being in a city as rich in LGBTQ experiences as D.C. is,
being in a city as progressive as D.C. is, it’s just hard to imagine
that this didn’t cross his mind,” says the 31-year-old. “A queer
cisgender woman messaged me last week and told me she had
the same problem. A few weeks ago she went in there to use the
women’s restroom. She presents as very masculine, and she got
stopped and asked for her ID before going into the restroom. So
this is a pattern. This wasn’t just that night.”
Immediately following the incident, Cuba Libre apologized
and placed the two employees in question on leave. A spokes-
man for the restaurant confirmed that the employees have not
worked since that night, and are no longer employed there.
Barry Gutin, the owner of Cuba Libre, has begun talks with
local transgender advocate Ruby Corado, of Casa Ruby, to hold
two three-hour trainings — one in English and one in Spanish.
Gutin also pledged to donate to Casa Ruby’s Transgender
Economic Justice Project and its LGBTQ Crime Victims Service
Program.
Corado first heard of Clymer’s experience from friends who
messaged her through social media.
“I was concerned because it doesn’t matter who you are, no
one should be embarrassed in that manner,” Corado says. “One
thing that really stuck with me was she said they mocked her.
I’ve had that happen to me. It really just got to me. It brought
me back to the times when transgender women would get kicked
out of the Safeway, out of the Metro, all types of places. It never
should have happened. We all should be able to live our lives, be
free, be ourselves, and go wherever we want.”
Corado appreciates that Clymer acknowledges the racial
privilege she enjoys because she is white, whereas some trans-
gender women of color who face similar discrimination don’t get
the level of press coverage Clymer has received.
“Charlotte said she didn’t want this to happen to anybody
else. And I think that’s where I connected more with her,” says
Corado. “I think that says a lot about her character... She recog-
nized that being outspoken and standing against an illegal act
will not only help her, but anyone else who comes behind her.”
At her core, Clymer is a survivor and a fighter, one who is
interested in social justice and protecting the rights of the most
vulnerable — values that have played an important role in her
life. Raised in a difficult and often abusive home environment
in central Texas, she joined the U.S. Army as a young adult, but
soon found that her personal values clashed with the “toxic mas-
culinity” demonstrated by some of her peers. She frequently took
to social media to opine on political or social issues, earning her
the moniker of the “token liberal” in her unit.
While in the Army and enrolled at West Point, she was some-
times ostracized or singled out because of her left-leaning views.
Even since the military, her blogs for the Huffington Post, on a
range of topics from feminism to race, have attracted high levels
of scrutiny, criticism, and even personal attacks.
Even before officially coming out as transgender last
November, Clymer’s gender fluidity and feminine presentation
unsettled some of the people in her life. Shortly after her grad-
uation from high school, her father asked her to leave home.
More recently, her girlfriend broke up with her after the wom-
an’s conservative family issued an ultimatum to choose between
Clymer or them.
Clymer doesn’t see some of her pro-social justice positions
as ideological causes, but simply a part of acknowledging others’
dignity and humanity.
“It’s how you treat people,” she says. “You treat people with
dignity and respect and you hold them to the same standard
as everyone else. And as long as they meet that, that’s all that
matters.”
METRO WEEKLY: What was your initial reaction after you left Cuba
Libre on June 22?
CHARLOTTE CLYMER: First, I cannot thank the Army enough for
building within me a mindset where I can compartmentalize. I
was able to negotiate this situation and I didn’t get super emo-
tional. But I’ll tell you, I went back to my hotel room that night
with my friends and I cried. I sobbed.
And I cried the next day. And then CNN put up a video of my
interview with a local news station, and suddenly that’s got two
million hits on their page and I’m getting messages from these
truly awful people across the country saying things like “kill
yourself” and “you’re a man” and “I don’t want you in a restroom
with my daughters.” It’s hard to deal with that.
26 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
And then the other part of it is this feeling of responsibility
to different constituencies. First of all it’s the trans community.
Am I doing right by them? I’m a baby trans — I came out in
November — and I don’t want to put a burden on other folks in
the transgender community because I did something wrong, or
because I communicated it in a wrong way. I try to make sure
that folks know I’m speaking just as myself, I don’t speak for any
other trans person. But also at the same time communicating
that these are obstacles that most of us go through and some of
us to a lesser extent. I’m a white, able-bodied person in one of
the most LGBTQ-inclusive cities in the country. Imagine being
a trans woman of color in Mississippi. Or in my home state of
Texas, for that matter. It’s a different ballgame.
It’s been hard to negotiate that. And then also, I feel obligat-
ed to ensure that I’m reinforcing support. Thousands of people
reached out to me after this happened, and I’m trying to answer
all of them and let them know “Thank you for being a good ally,”
and “Keep being a good ally.” And you can’t do that. It would
take up all your time. But you also feel this tremendous sense of
guilt, because here’s this cisgender ally who’s reaching out, and
you don’t want them to feel like they’re snubbed. But at the same
time it’s just exhausting.
And so I’ve been dealing with all of that. Those three piec-
es. The awful piece where you get a lot of just transphobia,
homophobic people messaging you, and then there’s the part
where you’re trying not to fuck up being a transgender person,
and then just making sure that you are correctly framing alliship
and what that means in situations like that. It’s a lot to handle.
MW: How would you like to see the incident resolved?
CLYMER: I don’t know what justice looks like in this situation yet.
I give a lot of grace to people. If this had been a situation where
the manager had come up to me that night and said, “Hey, look,
I got this wrong, now I know the law, I’m sorry,” I would have
still asked to speak to the owner about it to ensure that they have
some kind of training, but I’m willing to forgive.
What really made me angry about that night were the numer-
ous chances this man was given. I mean, five or six times you
can pinpoint where he shouldn’t have done what he did, and
probably the biggest one was making up a law that says that you
need female on your ID to use the women’s restroom. And then
humiliating myself and other trans folks over our identity. That’s
inexcusable, in my opinion. But even if it stopped there and he
apologized immediately, we can work something out. What real-
ly pissed me off was by the sixth time, which was basically the
cops informing him “No, you’re wrong on this, here’s the law and
here’s what you did wrong,” he’s standing 40 feet away from me
outside the restaurant, he could have come over and apologized
right then, and he didn’t. He just smugly stood there. I feel like
he was very intentional in his discrimination and his transpho-
bia. He should not be managing a restaurant.
I think it’s important to mention that I feel really bad for the
staffers at Cuba Libre who have received harassing and threat-
ening phone calls over this. That really pisses me off. These are
mostly 19 and 20-year-old kids who need a job — some of them
are LGBTQ themselves — and they’re answering the phone and
getting rape threats or racist comments. That makes me really
angry. I was able to reach out to them and apologize and they
were of course wonderful about it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get
a group dinner here pretty soon.
MW: Let’s dive into your backstory. What was your childhood like?
CLYMER: I grew up in central Texas. We moved there when I was
about four or five, from Utah. My mother had just gotten out of
a pretty abusive relationship. We went to Waco first, and moved
 “I know what it’s like to live in poverty. I know what it’s like
to be a sexual abuse survivor. I know what it’s like to be a
queer person living in an environment that is anything but
friendly to queer people. And I HAVE A LOT OF ANGER.”
all over. We mostly lived in trailer parks for about four years. I
went to four or five different elementary schools.
When I was in eighth grade, I chose to go live with my father
and stepmother in Round Rock, Texas. I’d been sexually abused
by my mother from about three to 13, and both my stepfathers
were abusive in various ways. I had asked my father when I was
11 or 12 if I could move in with him, and he said he couldn’t do it.
But once my mother announced that she and my second stepfa-
ther were moving to Kentucky, he swung into action and hired
a lawyer who informed us that Texas law is very clear on this:
when a child requests to stay with a parent, they are entitled to
stay with that parent.
So I moved in with my father and my stepmother for four
years or so, through high school. It was a packed house. They
had kids of their own, and near the end of high school, it just
wasn’t a great environment to be in. I knew my father was
very uncomfortable with sexuality. I had no idea about gender
identity, but I knew that something was off. I had known since
I was young that I was different, but I didn’t know how I was
different. I didn’t know how to describe it. I just knew I wanted
to be a woman. But even just saying that out loud to myself was
scary as hell.
I thought maybe I was bisexual, or I was just confused. I
thought, “What is this yearning in me to be someone else?” I
think that made my father very uncomfortable the few times I
brought it up. And along with some other things, they basically
asked me to leave after graduation. I moved in with my grand-
mother in South Austin and spent the summer working in a tele-
marketing firm, doing phonebanking on behalf of progressive
organizations.
MW: You eventually joined the Army. What precipitated that
decision?
CLYMER: I came home one night to news that the death toll in
Iraq had hit about two thousand, and I felt this really deep guilt
for not being in the military. There were kids my age dying
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I felt like maybe I wasn’t doing
enough, even though I disagreed with the war. So I signed up
for three years.
I went and did basic infantry training in Fort Benning,
Georgia, for 15 weeks. Then I got assigned to the Old Guard, the
Third U.S. Infantry Regiment, based out of Arlington National
Cemetery. Every two or three years, the Old Guard would send
a company of soldiers to the Horn of Africa in Djibouti to help
with humanitarian operations, but they didn’t deploy to Iraq or
Afghanistan.
I remember getting here my first week and just being enam-
ored with D.C. And then walking into my unit, reporting there
and feeling this sense of dread because it was clear the unit was
not a good command environment at all. It was very hyper-mas-
culine. There wasn’t a lot of motivation around. You spend so
much of your time carrying around caskets that morale is not
high. And it was my first week and I just remember thinking,
“Jesus Christ, I have three years left of this. And I’m not going
to get to deploy.”
So I just made the best of it. I started cultivating friends in
D.C. I campaigned, or tried to volunteer in campaigns, outside of
duty time. I wanted to better myself as a human being. I started
reading every book I could get my hands on. And I felt this sense
of disconnect. I was in this unit where there were many good
people, but it was an environment of toxic masculinity. There
was drug usage, hard drugs, cocaine, things like that. There were
constantly things like rape jokes, homophobia, racism.
This is the first time I worked around people, or lived around
people who — and this didn’t happen a lot — sometimes said the
“N-word” out loud. And I hadn’t encountered that before, it was
really weird for me. And so, me being the self-righteous little
snot that I am from central Texas and growing up on this steady
diet of reading biographies about Dr. King and Rosa Parks and
all that, I would say, “You probably shouldn’t say that. That’s
wrong.” I was pretty quickly ostracized in my unit.
MW: What happened during your time in the military?
CLYMER: I worked my ass off. I did pretty well. I got promoted
ahead of time because I guess my superiors recognized some-
thing in there. Reenlisted the day of President Obama’s first elec-
tion. I thought, “We’re gonna get a great leader. This is gonna
be wonderful. I’ll reenlist for six years, I’ll deploy.” And a few
months later I got orders for the 82nd Airborne. And the same
month I got accepted to West Point.
I remember going to my commanding officer and telling
him, “I really want to go to the 82nd and I feel like I’m going to
miss out [on being deployed overseas].” And he said, “No, you’re
gonna do West Point first. You’re gonna get your degree. You’ll
have plenty of time after you graduate to deploy.”
And so off to West Point I went. For the first time in my life I
was around no shortage of brilliant, talented, hardworking peo-
ple. Folks who not only had physical strength, but were just very
brilliant intellectuals. There were so many folks in our class who
were clearly going to serve in Congress some day. That’s just the
type of people they are.
MW: How did you go from the Army to getting involved with
LGBTQ issues?
CLYMER: This was prior to the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Near the end of my plebe year, Katie Miller came out on The
Rachel Maddow Show, and resigned her commission. That was
a big deal. At the same time, I got more outspoken because I
saw that a lot of cadets were talking badly about her as a gay
individual, and that pissed me off. It made me angry that this
was someone who was clearly just head and shoulders above
her peers in every area and was a great soldier and had so much
potential, and yet one thing about her sexuality could knock her
down in the esteem of other folks.
I would write these Facebook posts from around that time
and just be very clear that homosexuality is a natural thing. It’s
something that folks have just got to get over. And then I would
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 27
draw the history of this. The fact that we didn’t have racial inte- years. I told my partner in late 2014 that I knew I was transgen-
gration in the military until 1947. The fact that we didn’t permit der and I was trying to figure it out. And she was supportive, but
women to matriculate until 1980. I would try to draw this narra- she was also worried. She didn’t know what it meant for us.
tive and get folks to see that “You’re doing exactly what people We were together for another year and a half before the
back then did. You’re drawing these sharp lines of bigotry based election, and, as things ramped up, it was clear her parents were
on your misperceptions.” not happy with me as a person. They were very sweet to me in
MW: What happened next? person, but behind the scenes they would tell her, “Look, this
CLYMER: Near the end of sophomore year I got really sick. person is very strange. We don’t like that they wear fingernail
Essentially I had a bit of a mental health breakdown. I had this polish, or talk about racism and white supremacy,” and things
resurgence of painful like that.
childhood memories, Three or four days
of the sexual abuse, after the election, my
the physical abuse that partner and I broke up.
I had not negotiated She made it clear that
whatsoever up to that her parents had her
point. I went to see a choose. I understood
physiatrist at the acad- that she was put in a
emy and I tried taking very hard position. But
medication, and at some it’s hard not to look back
point I just thought I on that and feel a little
was gonna commit sui- anger over the situation.
cide. So I was hospital- That was a hard week.
ized upon volunteering So the election happens,
that information to an and then three or four
officer who was very days later, the only real
wonderful in getting me relationship I’ve had in
the accommodations my life goes away.
I needed. And for the MW: When did you take
next few years I just the additional step to
kind of struggled. It’s come out publicly as
like when a dam breaks. transgender?
You’re holding all this CLYMER: My therapist
stuff in. And then once diagnosed me with gen-
you kinda open the der dysphoria in late
floodgates, it’s hell try- 2015. So the pieces were
ing to control it all. potentially there to
I’ve got to say the come out, but I had no
Army was wonderful. idea what to do and I was
They put me up here scared. I just kept put-
at Walter Reed in D.C. ting it off. In the fall of
They determined that 2017, Olivia Dalton, the
the conditions of the Senior Vice President
military exacerbated of Communications
whatever PTSD I had and marketing here
from childhood, but also at HRC, and Chris
the depressive disorder. Sgro, the Director
And they medically of Communications,
retired me, gave me an emailed me and asked
honorable discharge. me to come in and apply
I settled here in D.C. for the job. I didn’t get
at age 24 not knowing home from my first
what the hell to do next. interview before I got a
I spent about a year call telling me to come
getting better medically. Still going to therapist appointments, in for another interview. And before the week was out I’d
going to group therapy, seeing a psychiatrist. My friend let me interviewed with them three more times, and a few days after
live with him while I was figuring things out. I finally got a job Thanksgiving is when I got a job offer. I felt a sense of elation.
at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and I worked there for I was employed by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest
a year as a visitors’ services representative. It was a great expe- LGBTQ organization in the country, and suddenly I felt this
rience, but it was stressful as well, as you might imagine. After sense of safety. I was going to be working for and organization
about a year,I left to go to Georgetown full time and finish up my that would have my back. I wanted to rip the bandaid off and
bachelor’s degree. I graduated in May 2016. just come out.
MW: When did you come out as transgender? I came out online on November 29, 2017. I did a Facebook
CLYMER: I had wanted to come out as transgender for several post explaining my reasoning, trying to answer basic questions I

28 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 “Sarah Sanders and I were both kicked out of
restaurants. She was in Lexington, Virginia. I was
in Washington D.C. Sarah Sanders would have been
protected under D.C. law. I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN
PROTECTED IN LEXINGTON.”
knew people would have. And came out on Twitter, did a thread,
adapted the post. It felt wonderful to get texts from my friends,
saying little things, like they had changed my name already in
their phone contact or taking a screenshot of my contact infor-
mation and sending it to me. I was contacted by a few old Army
people that I had served with, who sent me messages of support.
A woman I had dated six years ago messaged me out of the blue
and said, “Whatever I can do to help — if you want to go makeup
shopping.”
I really did feel accepted. The first month I was out, whenev-
er someone referred to me as “she” or “her,” I don’t know how
to describe that — it’s like a bomb. Knowing that other people
are finally recognizing what you’ve been struggling with all your
life felt good.
MW: Take us through a typical day at work for you. What’s it like
with Trump in the White House?
CLYMER: The Trump-Pence White House is chaotic as hell.
Every day, I come into work, I read the news, I get the run-
down. We’ll look at The New York Times, Politico, and I do a
news aggregator. We usually have a meeting every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday called the “Trump War Room,” where
we discuss what’s on the docket. What does the White House
schedule look like, what are the bills that are present in Congress
that affect us directly or indirectly? What’s our strategy on fight-
ing this and working with coalition partners on these issues?
It’s a lot of moving parts. Sometimes I wish I could just come
to work and work on a single issue and just nail that issue over
and over again, but that’s not the way it is here. I’ll be working on
the HHS regulation stuff that the Trump-Pence administration
is trying to get passed right now, where healthcare workers can
discriminate against LGBTQ people. And then something else
will come up where there’s been a hate crime in Philadelphia, or
perhaps Trump has said something about non-white countries
being “shit-hole” countries. And we have to respond to all of this.
If someone needs help with a release that has to go out soon,
I’ll jump in there and help with that. If there’s an event that has
to be coordinated for Pride Month or for a panel that needs to be
organized, they’ll put me on that too. I’m kind of a Jane-of-all-
trades in that way.
MW: Is it frightening not knowing what the president will do next?
CLYMER: Yes. It is frightening. I don’t know how you could be
an LGBTQ person or a person of color or a person with a repro-
ductive system who can get pregnant, or any person who’s in a
vulnerable community, and not be a little scared right now.
I’m more hopeful than I am scared. We’ve been in much
worse times than this. And we got through it. But there are times
like when Kennedy announced his retirement, and you realize
that there aren’t really any specifically transgender protections
in Supreme Court case law. So it’s scary to think of what might
come next.
MW: How do you deal with the stress of the job?
CLYMER: I go out with my friends at least a couple nights a week
and decompress and not think about politics. We’ll talk about
The Bachelorette or RuPaul’s Drag Race to get our minds clear of
anything having to do with this white supremacist clown who
is [involved] in the greatest act of treason in American history.
MW: Republicans are talking about Maxine Waters encouraging
people to harass administration officials, Sarah Huckabee Sanders
being asked to leave a restaurant, or Kirstjen Nielsen being booed
at a restaurant. Some say it’s hypocritical for the LGBTQ commu-
nity to support that, and also want equal access to public accom-
modations. Do you think this hurts the cause?
CLYMER: Hell, no. On June 22, Sarah Sanders and I were both
kicked out of restaurants. She was in Lexington, Virginia. I
was in Washington D.C. The D.C. Human Rights Act prohibits
patrons from being kicked out for their political affiliation. Sarah
Sanders would have been protected under D.C. law. I would
not have been protected in Lexington, Virginia. Sexuality and
gender identity are not part of their municipal code of nondis-
crimination.
I did not choose to be transgender, I was born this way. Sarah
Sanders chooses to work for a White House that is attempting to
ban transgender service members for no credible reason whatso-
ever, other than their own hatred and fear of transgender people.
This administration has ordered the Department of Education
to turn away transgender students with civil rights violations.
They’re attempting to ensure that healthcare workers can
basically refuse to serve LGBTQ patients, even when it comes
to life-saving treatment. They are attempting to ensure that
LGBTQ people from public accommodations law to employment
discrimination, to adoption, to just healthcare access for LGBTQ
specific needs. That’s just LGBTQ stuff. We haven’t even gotten
to reproductive access, the way undocumented immigrants are
treated, race, and so many different issues.
MW: This summer, there will be a “white civil rights” rally in D.C.
Some say we should ignore them, like the ex-gay march that only
attracted 30 people earlier this year. How do you feel the commu-
nity should respond?
CLYMER: The folks who say that we should ignore them, I under-
stand where they’re coming from. I wish that we could just not
give a shit, and that media outlets wouldn’t cover them. But we
both know that that’s not going to happen. We both know that
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are all going to be on the ground.
Different print outlets will be there, everyone’s going to be cov-
ering this. It’s going to trend on Twitter. And my biggest fear is
seeing an image of this huge rally of white supremacists with no
pushback, or very little pushback. We need to overwhelm them
in numbers. We need to have 10 to 1, 100 to 1, just tens of thou-
sands of people out there, making it clear that, although they
have the right to their First Amendment protections, we have
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 29
the right to be there and let them know just what completely
awful human beings they are.
We need to fight back in some way. I’m not saying physically
fight back. I’m saying, if someone takes a swing at me, I’m going
to take a swing right back. I’m not going to start a fight, but I’m
sure as hell going to finish it. And I think often, there are a lot
of liberals who are afraid to finish fights. But we need to be out
there when they’re out there to show that this is not what we
want America to be. And if they do attack us, we have every right
to engage in self-defense. I know that’s not a neat answer, it’s not
a pretty answer, but that’s how the logic goes.
MW: When Justice Kennedy announced he was retiring from the
Supreme Court, there was just an overall sense of despair from the
Left. Do you have hope going forward?
CLYMER: I do. What I’m about to say is not going to be comfort-
ing, or super comforting. I think this is a tragedy, but I also think
it’s a really great opportunity. It’s a tragedy in the way that it’s
more than likely that the court is going to be dominated by con-
servatives for the next several decades. There’s not much we can
do about that. We’re going to fight like hell. And I hope we win.
But it doesn’t look good.
The opportunity here is to realize that the Democratic party
needs to be as obsessed with local organizing and open about our
values in a way that conservatives have been doing for a long,
long time. We don’t really have that kind of fire.
So here’s our opportunity. I hope that this moment of
Kennedy retiring and his replacement most likely being a con-
servative, who’s going to stand against everything we stand for,
is going to be the moment when progressives, as a whole, wake
up and realize that these folks can’t be changed. They can’t be
reasoned with. This is not an episode of The West Wing where
30 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
the other side just happens to be really cranky and probably has
some hateful policies, but deals in good faith most of the time.
The landscape has shifted to the point where we need to stop
being so apologetic and go after these things in a forceful way.
[Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted prior to the Trump’s
announcement of Brett Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee]
MW: So what’s the call to action that wakes people up?
CLYMER: We need to stop pretending that pandering to mid-
dle-America white voters is going to win elections. It’s not.
The moderates in this country, who do agree with us on most
issues, think we’re weak. We need to stop pandering to white
men. If we’re strong on what we believe in, and if we stop
trying to get this vote that’s not going to come our way, a lot
of moderates are going to see that, and think, “Finally, the
Democratic Party got a little courage in them, and maybe they
will fight for us.” I honestly think that’s it. I think that’s the
silver bullet. But it’s scary, because there’s this feeling that if
we do come out and act like pure progressives, folks will be too
scared to vote for us.
MW: What makes you such a fighter?
CLYMER: I know what it’s like to be beaten down. I know what
it’s like to live in poverty. I know what it’s like to be a sexual
abuse survivor. I know what it’s like to be a queer person living
in an environment that is anything but friendly to queer people.
And I have a lot of anger.
I’m very self-righteous when it comes to things that I know
are right. Now, when I screw up, I’ll admit I’m wrong. And I
think that that’s an important attribute to have as an adult. But,
if I know I’m right, especially on something as so very clear as
human rights, of course I’m going to step up and fight for it. Why
wouldn’t everyone else? l
 Gallery
Joanne Kaufman:
Containments
T
HE WASHINGTON
Studio School presents
a series of 11 large-scale
abstract works that explore
what painting does, and does
not, manage to contain — for-
mally, conceptually, aesthet-
ico-historically — within the
space of a canvas. Kaufman, a
Graves
Washington-area painter and
WSS faculty member, took
inspiration from Agnes Martin,
Paul Klee, and daily news for the
paintings. On display to July 15.
Main Gallery of the Washington
Studio School, 2129 S St. NW.
Call 202-234-3030 or visit wash-
ingtonstudioschool.org.
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 31
 Movies

glass and steel, and practically leaping

Scraping By
over tall buildings in a single bound.
Johnson’s brawny determination consti-
tutes the movie’s most effective visual
effect. Thurber and Oscar-winning cine-
Skyscraper will have you on the edge of wishing for the return matographer Robert Elswit (There Will Be
of John McClane. By André Hereford Blood) also make smart use of any sensible
human’s natural awe and/or fear of look-

T
ing down from such tremendous heights.
HE ACTION EXTRAVAGANZA SKYSCRAPER (HHHHH) BURNS THROUGH Still, many of the shots are too dark
a mountain of other franchises’ best bits and pieces to deliver Dwayne “The and cramped to clearly convey the mas-
Rock” Johnson playing American Ninja Warrior inside a Towering Inferno. The sive fiery tumult inside the building, and
plot and characters are as bland and focus-grouped as the title sounds, and the bad guys frequently in the tighter spaces, as well. A
all are identifiable on sight, so let’s get to The Rock rolling around the burning building, finale, partly set in a chamber of reflective
shall we? Alas, that would be too easy for writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber HD panels, à la The Lady from Shanghai,
(Central Intelligence), who first must fill in the blanks with the movie’s opening videog- bears none of the tension or snap of that
ame-style setup. Orson Welles classic. And, a supposedly
Johnson plays Will Sawyer, a decorated Marine vet and ex-FBI op who lost half a bruising kick-fight in a car between Sarah
leg trying to save a family during an ill-fated hostage situation. Ten years after that raid and the film’s femme fatale, Xia (Hannah
gone wrong, he’s married to another heroic vet, Sarah (Neve Campbell), with ador- Quinlivan), amounts to several quick cuts
able twin tweens Georgia and Henry (McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell). Will has of close-ups that don’t look like much.
brought the family with him to Hong Kong for his interview as the safety and security At least Campbell, who took a brief
analyst of a wondrous, just-completed super-tower known as the Pearl. Thurber whiz- hiatus from the big-screen, appears on her
zes us through the Pearl’s corporate promo video, which describes the state-of-the-art game. Called upon to deliver more than a
“city in the sky” as being three times the height of the Empire State Building. movie’s worth of “you can do it” pep talks,
For all its bells and whistles, however, the Pearl’s insurance company has yet to sign she does so with conviction. And the for-
off on allowing residents to occupy the upper floors until the billionaire owner Zhao mer ballerina throws herself into the role
(Chin Han) can assure that all safety systems pass muster. It’s for that purpose that Will with a physical gusto that matches her
has been recruited, or lured, into the gig. screen husband’s.
Maybe Will’s first order of business as safety analyst at this untested 220-floor Will and Sarah are like the Incredibles
deathtrap should have been to book his family a room at a nearby Holiday Inn, instead come to life, but without the wit or
of on the 96th floor. But without his own family to save, he’d have little reason to battle nuance. And, while Johnson transmits an
his way back inside after a gang of thickly-accented, gun-toting thugs set fire to the earnest love for his family that somewhat
Pearl, and corner Sarah and the kids. grounds the outlandish action, he’s not the
Cue The Rock climbing a crane half a mile up in the sky, rappelling across quip-meister this Die Hard clone could

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 33

really use. Not that anyone’s clamoring for the return of tired
John McClane, but more comedy might help here, in lieu of sus-
pense or an adversary who’s even one scintilla as compelling as
Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber.
But this movie’s coveralls-clad villain, Kores Botha (Rolland
Møller), is a dud. And, although arsenals of weapons are waved
in the Sawyers’ face, what little suspense there is relates mostly
to Will hanging off of things by his apparently iron hands, or his
prosthetic leg. Skyscraper doesn’t so much register the thrill of
dangling along with him and with Sarah, as they survive scrape
after scrape with death, but rather the meager anticipation of
seeing how they’ll conquer their next crossfit obstacle. l

Skyscraper is rated PG-13, and opens in theaters everywhere July 13. Visit fandango.com.

34 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Music

the confines of his assumed identity and

experience a deeper connection. Instead

Holy Wood
of drawing a contrast between the viscer-
al and the sacred, Alexander makes the
assumption that the two emanate from the
same source. “Sanctify my body with pain,”
On his band’s sophomore album, Olly Alexander reckons with the after all, is a plea that rests on the assump-
sacredness of his own sexuality. By Sean Maunier tion that queerness is already something
sacred, no further justification or explana-

B
tion needed.
efore Years & Years appeared on the scene, seemingly from nowhere, with their “Sanctify” is followed by “Hallelujah,”
chart-topping debut Communion, most of us had no idea that their brand of a frantic dance track. Later in the album,
infectious, surprisingly cerebral, and subtly but unmistakably queer synthpop Alexander gets his George Michael
was exactly what we all needed in our lives. Palo Santo (HHHHH) finds the British moment on “Preacher,” which has him
band more heavily preoccupied than ever with matters of spirituality, sexuality, and the offer a gentle rebuke and a chance at
many points of overlap between the two. This time, however, they ditch the subtlety. redemption to a closeted love interest
The direction taken on Palo Santo is inseparable from frontman Olly Alexander’s presumably wracked with internalized
rapid rise as an outspokenly gay pop superstar. Like many of his peers, Alexander has homophobia. Despite the weight of the
a noticeable preoccupation with LGBTQ visibility and representation, and that pre- subject matter they deal with on Palo
occupation comes out strongly in the album. Putting aside questions of radio-friendly Santo, Years & Years are still out to write
heteronormative respectability, he makes it clear from the outset that the image of gay fun, dancey hits, and the album represents
love he puts forth will not be neutered, and it will not be toothless. It will be accepted an evolution of the catchy, thematically
on its own terms, and just to make sure that everyone knows that Years & Years do not strong pop of their debut.
play around, the first single is the BDSM-themed dance track, “Sanctify.” While Palo Santo meanders more than
Appropriately for an album whose title translates as “holy wood,” Palo Santo returns the flawlessly structured Communion, the
frequently to religious themes and iconography. Probably the strongest track on the album’s standout tracks are arguably the
album, and one that sets the tone for the rest of it, “Sanctify” is addressed to an anon- band’s best work yet. Although the most
ymous, presumably straight partner. A straightforward sexual solicitation on one level, catchy, memorable tracks are front-loaded
the barely-concealed subtext of the song is an invitation to participate in a sort of sacra- into the first half of the album, there is
mental act. “You don’t have to be straight with me/I see what’s underneath your mask,” enough substance in the slower tracks of
Alexander reassures his lover with an almost audible grin, inviting him to break out of the album’s second half to see it through

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 35

to its finish. Having since he has embraced
“Preacher” to anchor his queerness more
them doesn’t hurt, stridently, appearing
either. The odd track in a provocative pho-
out is “If You’re Over toshoot for PAPER
Me,” set to an upbeat, magazine, mounting a
almost saccharine tune full-throated defense
that would not have of the trans community
been out of place in a during London Pride,
’90s cartoon. It’s fun, and calling for his audi-
catchy, and a definite ences to “shove a rain-
contender for best bow in fear’s face.”
breakup song of the While it does not
summer. feel quite right to call
From the very Palo Santo a reinven-
beginning of Palo Santo, tion or a moment of
Alexander casts him- self-discovery, it might
self as a sort of queer be the moment that
mentor, guide, or sage, the band has come
a role he returns to into their own. With
repeatedly throughout Palo Santo, Years &
the album. It all mir- Years have set them-
rors his own increasing selves apart in the
comfort with wearing pop landscape with a
the label of queer on truly unique sound and
his sleeve. Granted, he personality, and Olly
was far from closeted Alexander, in particu-
when Years & Years dropped Communion, but in the years lar, has proven himself a gay pop icon in the making. l

Palo Santo is available now to buy from Amazon.com and iTunes, and on streaming services.

36 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by
Ward Morrison

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 37


DrinksDragDJsEtc...
Thursday,
July 12
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
Music videos featuring
DJ Wess
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at 3pm •
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines up
to 50% off • $5 Pitchers
of Miller Lite all night long
• $3 Well Drinks in Nest
until 11pm, $3 in Tavern all
day • Thrifty Minett Drag
Show, hosted by Whimsy
Thrift and Anita Minett,
8-9:30pm, in the Nest • $5
Cover • Underwear Night
in the Code Bar, 9pm-2am
38 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Scene
Pitchers - Friday, July 6
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene
Underwear Drink Free, TRADE BALTIMORE EAGLE NUMBER NINE
12-12:30am • DJs Doors open 5pm • Huge Doors open at 2pm • Open 5pm • Happy Hour:
BacK2bACk Happy Hour: Any drink Bears & Bellies Friday 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm
normally served in a cock- Bear Night • $10 Cover • • No Cover • Friday Night
• For men in underwear in
Code Bar, all well drinks
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR tail glass served in a huge Pay an extra $5, and get 5 Piano with Chris, 7:30pm
$2, 9pm-12am • Best
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
free well drinks • Shigella
Brown’s Bottom-more PITCHERS
Underwear Contest at
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of only $4 Review in the Nest, 10pm 2317 18th St. NW
Midnight • Code enforced
Beer $15 • All Leagues • $10 at door • Elyx Vodka Doors open, 5pm-3am •
in Code Bar after 9pm •
Night ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS and Any Red Bull Flavor for facebook.com/PitchersDC
Release Dance Party in
All male, nude dancers • $7 all day long • thebalti-
the Nest, featuring DJs
NUMBER NINE Open Dancers Audition • moreeagle.com SHAW’S TAVERN
Thommy Davis and Jerry
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any Urban House Music by DJ Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Haley, 10pm-2am • Free
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+ FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
admission to the Tavern •
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $5 House Wines, $5 Rail
Admission to the Nest is
PITCHERS Karaoke, 9pm Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
free until 10:30pm • After
2317 18th St. NW and Select Appetizers
10:30pm, $5 Cover for
21 and up, $10 Cover for
Doors open, 5pm-2am •
facebook.com/PitchersDC
Friday, GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • TRADE
18-20 • thebaltimoreea-
gle.com
July 13 $5 Svedka, all flavors all Doors open 5pm • Huge
SHAW’S TAVERN night long Happy Hour: Any drink
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 9 1/2 normally served in a cock-
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, Open at 5pm • Happy NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR tail glass served in a huge
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
$5 House Wines, $5 Rail Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Open 3pm • Guest DJs • glass for the same price,
Karaoke, 9pm
Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas 5-9pm • Friday Night Beat the Clock Happy Hour 5-10pm • Beer and wine
and Select Appetizers • All Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), only $4
GREEN LANTERN
You Can Eat Ribs, 5-10pm, DJs • Expanded craft beer $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
$24.95 • $4 Corona and selection • No Cover Beer $15 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
• Shirtless Thursday,
Heineken all night Men of Secrets, 9pm •
10-11pm • Men in
Guest dancers • Rotating
DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva
Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors
at 9pm, Shows at 11:30pm
and 1:45am • DJ Don T. in
Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+
Saturday,
July 14
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon,
9pm-close • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at noon
• Happy Hour, 3-9pm
• Leather and Fetish
Saturdays, Code Bar,
8pm-2am • Code enforced
after 9pm in the Code
Bar • Back to the ’80s
Dance Party in the Nest,
10pm-2am • Featuring
DJ Vince Christopher and
Kuhmeleon • $5 Cover •
Drink Specials in the Nest
• Long Island Leather
Saturdays — $5 Long
Islands all day • thebalti-
moreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Saturday Breakfast Buffet,
10am-3pm • $14.99 with
one glass of champagne
or coffee, soda or juice •
Additional champagne $2
per glass • World Tavern
Poker Tournament, 1-3pm
• Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Freddie’s Follies Drag
Show, hosted by Miss
Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm
• Karaoke, 10pm-close
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5
Bacardi, all flavors, all
night long
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Drag Brunch, hosted
by Chanel Devereaux,
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 39
10:30am-12:30pm and
1-3pm • House Rail Drinks,
Zing Zang Bloody Marys,
Nellie Beer and Mimosas,
$4, 11am-close • Buckets
of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs
NUMBER NINE
Doors open 2pm • Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5
Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close
• Pop Tarts, featuring DJs
BacK2bACk, 9:30pm
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Doors open, 12pm-3am •
facebook.com/PitchersDC
SHAW’S TAVERN
$15 Bottomless Mimosas,
10am-3pm • Happy Hour,
5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite,
$4 Blue Moon, $5 House
Wines, $5 Rail Drinks •
Half-Priced Pizzas and
Select Appetizers
40 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
TRADE
Doors open 2pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
2-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am
• Guest dancers • Ladies
of Illusion Drag Show
with host Ella Fitzgerald
• Doors at 9pm, Shows
at 11:30pm and 1:45am
• DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s
• DJ Steve Henderson in
Secrets • Cover 21+
Sunday,
July 15
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon,
9pm-close • Multiple TVs
showing movies, shows,
sports • Expanded craft
beer selection • No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at noon •
Lizzie Beaumont and
Betty Whitecastle present
Queens Who Brunch,
12-2pm • $34 per person
includes All You Can
Eat • Free pitcher of
Mimosas per 4 admissions
• Reservations highly
suggested and can be
made online beforehand
• School’s Out, Pup!:
Furry Happy Hour, 4-9pm
• Sunday Fun-Day, 4-9pm
• From 2-8pm, buy a cup
for $5 and fill it with any
Absolut Flavor and Mixer
for $3 each time (excluding
energy drink mixers) •
thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Champagne Brunch Buffet,
10am-3pm • $24.99 with
four glasses of champagne
or mimosas, 1 Bloody
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Monday,
Mary, or coffee, soda or Doors open, Noon-2am July 16
juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $4 Smirnoff, includes
• Karaoke, 9pm-close flavored, $4 Coors Light or 9 1/2
$4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
GREEN LANTERN drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • SHAW’S TAVERN TVs showing movies,
Karaoke with Kevin down- World Cup Final on 10 shows, sports • Expanded
stairs, 9:30pm-close TVs, 11am • Happy Hour, craft beer selection •
5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, No Cover
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR $4 Blue Moon, $5 House
Drag Brunch, hosted Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • BALTIMORE EAGLE
by Chanel Devereaux, Half-Priced Pizzas and Doors open at 3pm •
10:30am-12:30pm and Select Appetizers • Love Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
1-3pm • House Rail Drinks, to Sing DC Cabaret Show, liquors, beers and wines up
Zing Zang Bloody Marys, 7pm to 50% off • Micro Brew
Nellie Beer and Mimosas, Draft/Bottle Mondays —
$4, 11am-close • Buckets TRADE $4 all day • SIN: Service
of Beer, $15 Doors open 2pm • Huge Industry Night, 11pm-2am
Happy Hour: Any drink • First Well Drink or
NUMBER NINE normally served in a cock- Domestic Beer Free • 10%
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on
any drink, 2-9pm • $5
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
off your Food Order all day
• thebaltimoreeagle.com
Absolut and $5 Bulleit 2-10pm • Beer and wine
Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop only $4 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Goes the World with Wes Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Della Volla at 9:30pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced
No Cover Pasta Dishes • Poker Night
 — 7pm and 9pm games •
Karaoke, 9pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm •
$3 rail cocktails and
domestic beers all night
long • Singing with the
Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke
Night with the Sisters
of Perpetual Indulgence,
9:30pm-close
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Beer $15 • Paint Nite, 7pm
• PokerFace Poker, 8pm •
Dart Boards • Ping Pong
Madness, featuring 2 Ping-
Pong Tables
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
SHAW’S TAVERN
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
$5 House Wines, $5 Rail
Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
and Select Appetizers •
Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with
Jeremy, 7:30pm
42 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Tuesday,
July 17
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at 3pm •
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines
up to 50% off • Fibbage
Tuesdays, 8pm • Free to
play on your smartphone
• $6 Any Flavor Martinis
and $7 Manhattans (call
liquors) • thebaltimoreea-
gle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR $5 House Wines, $5 Rail BALTIMORE EAGLE Show, hosted by Brooklyn
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas Doors open at 3pm • Heights, 9pm • Tickets
Tuesday • Poker Night — and Select Appetizers • Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all available at nelliessports-
7pm and 9pm games • Half-Priced Burgers and liquors, beers and wines bar.com
Karaoke, 9pm Pizzas all night with $5 up to 50% off • Domestic
House Wines and $5 Sam Bottles are $3 all day • NUMBER NINE
GREEN LANTERN Adams Team Trivia, 8-10pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm thebaltimoreeagle.com drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
• $3 rail cocktails and TRADE
domestic beers all night Doors open 5pm • Huge FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR PITCHERS
long Happy Hour: Any drink Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 2317 18th St. NW
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
Burgers • Beach Blanket
Drag Bingo Night, hosted
Doors open, 5pm-2am •
facebook.com/PitchersDC
Beat the Clock Happy Hour glass for the same price, by Ms. Regina Jozet
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), 5-10pm • Beer and wine Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes SHAW’S TAVERN
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of only $4 • Karaoke, 10pm-1am Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Beer $15 • Drag Bingo Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
with Sasha Adams and GREEN LANTERN $5 House Wines, $5 Rail
Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
Karaoke, 9pm-close
Wednesday, Bear Yoga with Greg Leo,
6:30-7:30pm • $10 per
and Select Appetizers •
Piano Bar and Karaoke
NUMBER NINE July 18 class • $3 rail cocktails with Jill, 8pm
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any and domestic beers all
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover 9 1/2 night long TRADE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any Doors open 5pm • Huge
PITCHERS drink, 5-9pm • Multiple NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Happy Hour: Any drink
2317 18th St. NW TVs showing movies, SmartAss Trivia Night, normally served in a cock-
Doors open, 5pm-2am • shows, sports • Expanded 8-10pm • Prizes include tail glass served in a huge
facebook.com/PitchersDC craft beer selection • bar tabs and tickets to glass for the same price,
No Cover shows at the 9:30 Club • 5-10pm • Beer and wine
SHAW’S TAVERN $15 Buckets of Beer for only $4 l
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 SmartAss Teams only •
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, Absolutely Snatched Drag
JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 43
 Scene
Green Lantern - Shirtless Thursday, July 5 and Free Pizza Friday, July 6
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

44 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 45
 LastWord.
People say the queerest things

“This is complete bullshit and

I’m suing Grindr for being a breeding ground
that perpetuates racism against gay men.”
— SINAKHONE KEODARA, founder of the Asian Entertainment Television Network, announcing on Twitter that he is seeking to
launch a class action lawsuit against Grindr for racial discrimination. Keodara is seeking others who have been been “offended,
humiliated, degraded and dehumanized” because Grindr allows “gay white men” to put “No Asians”
or “Not interested in Asians” in their profiles.

“There is this very insidious casual homophobia

that exists in the fabric of everything including the music industry.”
— OLLY ALEXANDER, lead singer of Years & Years, discussing the current situation for gay artists in the music industry in an
interview with Paper magazine. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without all the gay artists that have come before us and
broken down so many barriers,” he said. “But barriers aren’t gone. Particularly for less privileged
members of the queer community.”

“We shouldn’t be ashamed

about it.”
— Tennis player ALISON VAN UYTVANCK, speaking at a Wimbledon press conference following her victory over Anett Kontaveit.
She celebrated her win by running over to kiss her girlfriend, fellow tennis player Greet Minnen. “I just feel that
it’s something we shouldn’t be ashamed about,” she said, “and that does make me feel more free.”

“Pence is no fan of the LGBTQ+ community, and

we’re no fan of his.”
— Kansas City radio station 96.5 The Buzz, in a tweet announcing the Mike Pence Sausage Fest, which will offer free hot dogs as a
tongue-in-cheek way to welcome the anti-LGBTQ Vice President to the city during his visit to campaign for Rep. Kevin Yoder.

“I was honored to get to know him

in the past year and am so grateful to have experienced his sheer joy and love of life. ”
— ZACHARY QUINTO, in an Instagram tribute to actor Tab Hunter, who died from cardiac arrest just three days before his 87th
birthday. Hunter, a Hollywood heartthrob in the ’50s and ’60s, faced rumors about his sexuality throughout his career,
and eventually came out publicly in his 2005 autobiography.

46 JULY 12, 2018 • METROWEEKLY