CONTENTS

AUGUST 2, 2018 Volume 25 Issue 14

14 HOMECOMING
L.A. resident Tom Goss returns to D.C. for a one-night concert
celebrating his life’s journey as a gay man.

By John Riley

22
SUMMER
LITERARY ISSUE:
OUTWRITE 2018
More than 85 writers and 600 fans are expected at this
weekend’s LGBTQ Literary Festival, hosted by the D.C. Center.

33
By Doug Rule

FASHION PLATTER
The documentary McQueen captures the illustrious designer’s
career as a symphony of genius, exultation, and depression.

By André Hereford

SPOTLIGHT: BINDAAS FOGGY BOTTOM p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10

EATS & DEALS: SIGNATURE AND STUDIO’S OPEN HOUSES p.12
HOMECOMING: TOM GOSS p.14 THE FEED p.17 COMMUNITY: BLOCK PARTY p.19
COVER STORY: OUTWRITE 2018 p.22 OUTWRITE SCHEDULE p.32 FILM: MCQUEEN p.33
FILM: THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME p.34 STAGE: DAVE p.35 NIGHTLIFE p.37
SCENE: ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS p.37 SCENE: LIGHTS OUT SWIMSUIT PARTY 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 Saints James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, and Oscar Wilde Cover Photography Florian Klauer

Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830
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© 2018 Jansi LLC.

4 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
GREG POWERS
Bindaas Foggy Bottom
J
AMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING CHEF VIKRAM
Sunderam’s newest dining concept reflecting the mod-
ern-day cuisine of his native India makes for a similarly
satisfying and noteworthy experience as his original Rasika.
A degree above fast-casual, Bindaas focuses on the kind of
food one might find on the streets and in the food markets of
Mumbai, yet offered in a more relaxed and refined environ-
ment. With this second outpost, the intimate Cleveland Park
gem becomes a much bigger and more noticeable jewel in a
younger, hipper, and more diverse part of town. Impressive
dishes include “Roadside Sandwich” burgers made from
either chicken or seasonal vegetables and served on a pao
bun with chutney and a delicious and filling Chicken Curry
with tomatoes, garam masala and saffron rice. Bindaas also
features a full bar with wine, beer and creative cocktails made
with spirits from local distilleries, including Green Hat Gin
and Cotton & Reed Rum. Don’t even think of going without
trying the Tamarind soda, house-made with honey, ginger,
clove, nutmeg and sumac. Located at 2000 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW. Call 202-516-4326 or visit bindaasdc.com.
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 7
 Spotlight
MARY CHAPIN
CARPENTER
Mary Chapin Carpenter makes her annual
pilgrimage to Wolf Trap, “one of my most
treasured and favorite places.” She returns
in a concert with Rhiannon Giddens,
known as original vocalist for Carolina
Chocolate Drops and for her recurring role
on Nashville. Saturday, Aug. 11, at 7:30 p.m.
The Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551 Trap
Road, Vienna. Tickets are $28 to $65. Call
877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org.

JUAN DE MARCOS
& THE AFRO-CUBAN
ALL STARS
A remarkable ensemble of expatri-
ate Cuban musicians led by Juan de
Marcos Gonzalez, the Afro-Cuban All
Stars is devoted to the full range of
Cuban music. It’s one of the best live
bands around, given the passion and
quality to the musicianship, as docu-
mented in the classic Wim Wenders’s
documentary Buena Vista Social Club.
That film helped make stars out of
some of the band’s original players,
including the late Ruben Gonzalez
and Ibrahim Ferrer. They return for
another steamy summer Saturday
night romp at the Hamilton. Saturday,
Aug. 4, at 8 p.m. 600 14th St. NW.
Tickets are $25 to $35. Call 202-787-
1000 or visit thehamiltondc.com.

THE COLOR PURPLE

In addition to Hamilton, the
Kennedy Center is playing host
to the other big winner from the
70th Annual Tony Awards in
2016, the adaptation by Marsha
Norman and composer/lyricists
Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell,
and Allee Willis that won as Best
Musical Revival. Now to Aug.
26. Kennedy Center Eisenhower
Theater. Tickets are $69 to $149.
MATTHEW MURPHY.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit kenne-

dy-center.org.

8 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
SUMMER SPIRIT FESTIVAL
Billed as a “one-stop shop for a soulful good time,”
this two-day festival returns to Merriweather Post
Pavilion with performances by soul and hip-hop roy-
alty. The first day, Saturday, Aug. 4, features Erykah
Badu (pictured), Nas, Method Man & Redman, Lion
Babe, Rapsody, Bilal, Phony PPL, and Bryan J, while
Sunday, Aug. 5, offers The Roots, Anderson .Paak & the
Free Nationals, Daniel Caesar, Backyard Band, Lizzo,
Raheem DeVaughn, Masego, Ms. Kim & Scooby, and DJ
Quicksilva. Performances begin at 2 p.m. both days. 10475
Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets, per day
or for a Weekend Pass, range from $60 to $250. Call 800-
551-SEAT or visit merriweathermusic.com.

HEAVY METAL: WOMEN TO WATCH 2018

The fifth installment in a triennial exhibition series presented
at the National Museum of Women in the Arts showcases 20
contemporary artists working in metal to create a wide variety
of objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and conceptual forms.
Inspired by NMWA’s collection of silverwork crafted by British
and Irish women in the 18th and 19th centuries, Heavy Metal,
displaying more than 50 works of art, seeks to further disrupt
the predominantly masculine narrative that surrounds met-
alworking despite women’s consistent presence the field for
centuries. Now to Sept. 16. 1250 New York Ave NW. Admission
is $10. Call 202-783-5000 or visit nmwa.org.

EMO PHILIPS
The kooky, lovable Philips has been standing up for
decades and has even earned plaudits from the likes of
Jay Leno as “the best joke writer in America.” Even if
you don’t recognize the quirky name, you’ve no doubt
heard Philips’s distinctive voice in a ton of animated
TV shows, including Slacker Cats, Doctor Katz, and
Adventure Time. Friday, Aug. 3, at 8 and 10 p.m., and
Saturday, Aug. 4, at 7 and 9 p.m. Drafthouse Comedy,
1100 13th St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202-750-6411 or
visit drafthousecomedy.com.

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 9

 Out On The Town

CHER
With “Classic Cher” at the Theater at MGM National Harbor, you’ll fall under the diva’s spell instantly, from the moment
the purple velvet curtains pull back on a stage fit for an Arabian fairytale. Soon enough, the 70-year-old pop icon, in Queen
of Sheba garb, descends from the heavens on a gold-framed aerial platform, singing her truth a la “Woman’s World.” That
No. 1 hit on the Billboard dance chart from 2013 is the newest in an 18-song setlist spanning an impressive fifty years. It’s a
showcase of awe-inspiring staging and state-of-the-art light and projection designs in general. It’s also a showcase of Cher
and her decades-long, multi-genre, multi-award-winning career as one of the very best and most personable entertainers
in the business. The indomitable, forever-goodbying sensation returns for a run billed as her “Final Shows” in the venue.
Saturday, Aug. 4, Sunday, Aug. 5, Tuesday, Aug. 7, Thursday, Aug. 9, Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m. 7100
Oxon Hill Rd., Md. Call 301-971-5000 or visit mgmnationalharbor.com. (Doug Rule)

Compiled by Doug Rule
FILM
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
Ewan McGregor plays the titular
character, whose childhood friends
Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Piglet,
and Eeyore help him rediscover his
lost imagination. Disney’s blend of
live action and CGI might make for
an unusual looking Pooh, but with
Jim Cummings returning to voice
the silly old bear, we’re getting all
kinds of nostalgia tingles. Opens
Friday, Aug. 3. Area theaters. Visit
fandango.com. (Rhuaridh Marr)
FAR FROM THE TREE
Emmy-winning filmmaker Rachel
Dretzin’s life-affirming documen-
tary explores the difficulties and
rewards of raising and being a child
whose experience is vastly different
from that of their parents — as a
result of having Down’s Syndrome,
dwarfism, or autism — and based
on Andrew Solomon’s book of the
same title, with music by Yo La
Tengo and Nico Muhly. Opens
Friday, Aug. 3. Area theaters. Visit
fandango.com.
LOONEY TUNES
Over the next several weekends, the
AFI Silver Theatre offers several
programs, each roughly 45 minutes
in length, with selections of Warner
Bros.’ classic cartoons featuring the
whole Looney Tunes gang, from
Bugs Bunny to the Road Runner,
Daffy Duck to Wile E. Coyote,
Porky Pig to Foghorn Leghorn, plus
Sylvester and Tweety. Program
3 screens Saturday, Aug. 4, and
Sunday, Aug. 5, at 11 a.m. Program
4 is Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday,
Aug. 12, at 11 a.m. 8633 Colesville
Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $5.
Call 301-495-6720 or visit afi.com/
Silver.
SEASON OF THE WITCH
Over the next six weeks, the AFI
Silver Theatre toasts the late George
Romero with screenings of sev-
eral notable works from the “the
Father of the Zombie Film.” Next
week offers what Romero initially
described as a “feminist film” mar-
keted and released 45 years ago as
the softcore porn film Hungry Wives,
then re-cut and re-released in 1978
after the success of Dawn of the Dead
as Season of the Witch and regarded
as a skillful exploration of the occult.
Season of the Witch is Saturday,
Aug. 11, at 10:45 p.m. 8633 Colesville
Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $13.
Call 301-495-6720 or visit afi.com/
Silver for the full series.
THE BAND WAGON
Featuring the hallmark song “That’s
Entertainment!,” this 1953 musi-
cal comedy directed by Vincente
Minnelli stars Fred Astaire in one
dazzling dance number after anoth-
er — two of them with the incom-
parable Cyd Charisse. The Band
Wagon returns to the big screen for
one day as part of Landmark’s West
End Cinema Capital Classics series.
Wednesday, Aug. 8, at 1:30, 4:30, and
7:30 p.m., 2301 M St. NW. Happy
hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are
$10 to $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or
visit landmarktheatres.com.
STAGE
BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW
A young woman (Ruthie Rado)
struggles after the death of her hus-
band with a nagging mother-in-law
(Emily Morrison) who is just trying
to help. Be A Good Little Widow
comes from rising dramatist Bekah
Brunstetter, who writes for the
NBC series This is Us. Unexpected’s
co-founder Christopher Goodrich
directs. To Aug. 5. The Fireside
Room in the River Road Unitarian
Universalist Congregation, 6301
River Road in Bethesda. Tickets are
$10 to $29.50. Call 301-337-8290 or
visit unexpectedstage.org.

10 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 H.M.S. PINAFORE
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
The Hypocrites and the House
Theatre of Chicago, two innova-
tive theaters in the Windy City,
have teamed up to stage two of
Gilbert & Sullivan’s best-loved
comic operettas in rotating rep at
Olney Theatre. Celebrated for being
immersive and family friendly, the
productions are presented prome-
nade style, with some seats on stage
with the actors. These silly tales
of scurvy pirates, modern Major-
Generals, and star-crossed lovers
were both directed by Sean Graney,
who co-adapted The Pirates of
CPOURTESY STUDIO THATRE

Penzance with Kevin O’Donnell,

and H.M.S. Pinafore with Andra
Velis Simon and Matt Kahler. To
Aug. 21. Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre
Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring
Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are $30 to
$64 each. Call 301-924-3400 or visit
olneytheatre.org.

THE WIZARD OF OZ

EATS & DEALS

Synetic 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
Two prominent theater companies host weekend open houses, attracting “wordless Shakespeare” works the
thousands to their neighborhoods. company has become known for.
Offered as the first production in the

S
Synetic New Voices Series, through
TUDIO THEATRE IS SERVING UP THE GOODS THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 WITH which select company members
its annual Taste of Studio. “We have confirmed nearly 30 restaurant vendors,says Jeralynn are mentored in leadership roles by
co-founder Paata Tsikurishvili, Oz
Miller, the theater’s Director of Institutional Advancement, “so it will be really a bustling combines verbal and nonverbal com-
day.” Participating restaurants include Matchbox, Dino’s Grotto, Nazca Mochica, Takorean, and munication for an “environmental
Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The nearby ChurchKey, meanwhile, will sponsor a Beer Garden off and spectacular adventure” down
P Street. A $50 all-access pass offers all-you-can-eat-and-drink, capped with dessert by Sweeter the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy
and friends. Longtime Synetic actor
Hue Cupcakes as part of a cake-cutting ceremony in honor of the theater’s upcoming 40th season. Ryan Sellers steps up as director,
Across the river, in Shirlington, Signature Theatre will court its community, with free perfor- assisted by Tori Bertocci as cho-
mances on Sunday, August 5 that feature many of its star entertainers on various stages and nearby reographer, for a production that
has had to move to Georgetown
businesses, including New District Brewing Company and Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub. The University’s main campus. (Synetic’s
day culminates in a Broadway on the Plaza concert outside the venue. usual venue in Crystal City recently
“It’s an opportunity for us to open our doors and invite people in that otherwise might not know suffered water damage.) To Aug. 12.
about us,” says Deputy Director of Creative Content and Publicity James Gardiner. “[It’s] the per- Devine Studio Theatre in the Davis
Performing Arts Center. Tickets are
fect opportunity to bring your family to Signature.” $20 to $45. Call 866-811-4111 or visit
Both events are designed as toasts to the upcoming theater season. Signature will be offering synetictheater.org.
heavily discounted prices on leftover merchandise from past productions as well as tickets to
shows in the 2018-2019 season, the company’s 29th, which launches August 14 with Sondheim’s MUSIC
Passion. Gardiner says these one-day-only specials — offering as much as 50 percent off — are
“some of the steepest discounting that we do all season.” ABBA - THE CONCERT
“The best ABBA tribute band in
At Studio, the day still functions in part as the kind of garage sale that launched the whole the world,” touts the Official ABBA
community event a decade ago. Expect to see deals on “some beautiful furniture, some great light Fan Club. Featuring two origi-
fixtures, and...a few costumes,” says Miller. nal members of the Swedish pop
group’s rhythm section, “ABBA -
Studio’s event dovetails with Mid City Dog Days, which attracts thousands of people to the The Concert” is about as close as we
14th Street area. The neighborhood, which Studio helped revitalize is also the focus of the first may ever get to a performance by
production in the company’s upcoming season. “If I Forget by Steven Levenson actually highlights the actual band, recent buzz about
the story about Studio’s neighborhood,” says Miller. “It comments on local things people will rec- reuniting for one hologram-en-
hanced simulcast notwithstand-
ognize.” —Doug Rule ing. Sunday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m. The
Filene Center at Wolf Trap, 1551
Taste of Studio is Saturday, Aug. 4, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — and to 5:30 p.m. for the Beer Garden — Trap Rd., Vienna. Tickets are $30 to
$60. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit
at 14th and P Streets NW. Tickets are $4 a la carte or $50 for an all-access pass. (The Studio Flea is wolftrap.org.
free.) Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org/taste.
CREATIVE CAULDRON CABARET
Signature’s Open House is Sunday, Aug. 5, from noon to 8:30 p.m., at 4200 Campbell Ave., in The 9th annual summer cabaret
series at ArtSpace Falls Church
Arlington. Free. Call 703-820-9771 or visit sigtheatre.org. continues with: Kathy Halenda in

12 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

“The Brassy Broads of Broadway”
— from Mame Dennis to Mama
Rose to Miss Mona, and from Fanny
Brice to Dolly Levi to Sally Bowles
— on Friday, Aug. 3, and Saturday,
Aug. 4, at 8 p.m.; and talented teens
from Music Therapy Center in
“Coming of Age,” performing songs
about their struggles with anxiety,
bullying, romantic intimacy, sexu-
al awakening, and depression, on
Friday, Aug. 10, and Saturday, Aug.
11, at 8 p.m. 410 South Maple Ave.
Tickets are $18 to $22 per show, or
$55 for a table for two with wine
and $110 for four with wine. Call
703-436-9948 or visit creativecaul-
dron.org.

JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: INCENDIO,

SON DEL CARIBE
The National Gallery of Art offers
free outdoor concerts immediately
after work every Friday through
late August. Bands offering a range
of jazz styles, from swing to Latin to
ska, perform amidst the museum’s
collection of large-scale sculptur-
al works while patrons enjoy food
and drink, including beer, wine, and MID CITY DOG DAYS SIDEWALK FESTIVAL
sangria, from Pavilion Cafe and out-
door grill. The 2018 series continues
What started 19 years ago as a collaboration between Home Rule and a handful of neigh-
with pan-Caribbean salsa group Son boring businesses on 14th Street has blossomed into one of D.C.’s most popular outdoor
Del Caribe on Aug. 3, and jazz flut- events, featuring over 100 merchants in a 25-block radius encompassing the neighbor-
ist Andrea Brachfeld on Aug. 10,
hoods of Logan Circle, 14 Street, the U Street Corridor, and Shaw. Home Rule, Miss Pixie’s
each performing from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Sculpture Garden, between 7th and Furnishings & Whatnot, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Room & Board, Urban Essentials,
9th Streets NW. Call 202-289-3360 and Flowers on 14th are among the many merchants participating the event, which also
or visit nga.gov. offers free admission to the African American Civil War Museum, pet-related promotions
SIGNATURE THEATRE’S SIZZLIN’ and adoption opportunities at City Paws, and dining specials from the many bustling
SUMMER NIGHTS SERIES venues on what some have taken to calling D.C.’s Restaurant Row, including Barcelona
Signature’s annual cabaret series Wine Bar, Cork Wine Bar, Etto, Rice, and Sette Osteria. It all launches with a Kick Off
features mostly musical actors
Party Friday, Aug. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. Miss Pixie’s, 1626 14th St. NW. Dog Days runs all day
known from productions at the
Shirlington complex. The series Saturday, Aug. 5, and Sunday, Aug. 6. Visit dogdaysdc.com.
concludes with Light Years cre-
ator and Eddie From Ohio’s
Robbie Schaefer in “All My Songs Call 703-820-9771 or visit sigthe- large crowds from San Francisco and producer and bandleader for
Are True,” on Friday, Aug. 3, and atre.org. to New York since. The Suspects Joss Stone. The band is joined at the
Saturday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m., Iyona features longtime Neville Brothers Hamilton by Vermont-based sing-
Blake (Jelly’s Last Jam) in “Life THE NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS drummer “Mean” Willie Green, er and trumpet player Hartswick,
Lessons,” on Friday, Aug. 3, at 9 FT. JENNIFER HARTSWICK North Mississippi Allstars bass- a veteran performer with Phish’s
p.m., and Avocados Are For Rich Initially formed as an occasional ist Eric Vogel, Dirty Dozen Brass Trey Anastasio. Friday, Aug. 10, at
People podcaster/blogger Bligh pick-up band with seasoned musi- Band lead guitarist Jake Eckert, 8 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St.
Voth in “No Really I’m Not Crazy,” cians from around the Big Easy, this classically trained pianist and fea- NW. Tickets are $20 to $30. Call
on Saturday, Aug. 4, at 9 p.m. The supergroup became a touring act ture accompanist CR Gruver, and 202-787-1000 or visit thehamil-
Ark at 4200 Campbell Ave., in seven years ago and have churned saxophonist Jeff Watkins, former tondc.com.
Arlington. Tickets are $35 per show. out four solid albums and attracted leader of the James Brown Band

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 13

 COMEDY
JASON WEEMS
& MELISSA DOUTY
A Baltimore-based kindergarten
teacher by day, Weems has gar-
nered national attention for his
standup comedy by night, via
NBC’s Last Comic Standing. At a
Comedy Zone-presented evening at
Strathmore’s intimate Amp venue,
Weems will be joined by Salem,
Virginia-based comedian Douty,
who finished second in the World
Series of Comedy Women’s Satellite
in Las Vegas. Thursday, Aug. 9, at
8 p.m. Amp by Strathmore, 11810
Grand Park Ave. North Bethesda.
Tickets are $14. Call 301-581-5100
or visit ampbystrathmore.com.

THE SECOND CITY:

GENERATION GAP
The full title of the latest show
from Chicago’s famed troupe cre-
DAREN CORNELL

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

HOMECOMING
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.
L.A. resident Tom Goss returns to D.C. for a one-night concert 12. Theater Lab. Tickets are $49
celebrating his life’s journey as a gay man. to $59. Call 202-467-4600 or visit
kennedy-center.org.

I
’M SO EXCITED TO BE BACK IN D.C. AND SEE ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO WIT: SUMMER ESCAPE
The Washington Improv Theater is
have helped me become the man I am,” says Tom Goss. The singer-songwriter spent D.C.’s answer to comedy star-mak-
more than a decade of his life in the District before heading out to L.A. “I wouldn’t ing groups such as Chicago’s Second
be where I am today without the D.C. community that supported me from the outset.” City and L.A.’s Groundlings. Over
Goss returns to the area for one night, with a show at College Park’s MilkBoy the next month, the troupe offers
a hodgepodge of summer-themed
Arthouse, where he will perform hits from his seven albums, as well as songs from his sketches, with each performance
upcoming album, to be released next winter. featuring different WIT ensem-
Goss earned a cult following through viral music videos like “Lover,” “Make Believe,” bles, including three music-driv-
en exercises: iMusical, presenting
and “Bears,” an ode to D.C.’s blossoming bear community. He’s known for mixing music audiences with the opportuni-
with his own life experiences in his live shows, drawing on his journey from from college ty to choose-your-own-disaster,
wrestler to Catholic seminarian to openly gay entertainer. resulting in the cast improvising
“It’s more of a cabaret show,” he says. “There’s a lot of storytelling that’s interwoven an instant world-ending musi-
cal; Heavy Rotation, featuring a
with the songs. I think my personal story is a really important part of this show. It really cast performing a School of Rock-
creates a powerful experience for listeners, in terms of connecting with me as a per- inspired “improvised rock come-
former and understanding where I come from, what I write about, what I’m passionate dy”; and Karaoke Storytellers with
a show that is part-VH1 Storytellers,
about.” part-Saturday Night Live audition,
Goss will be performing a few politically-tinged songs, including “Have We Had and part musical, all built around
Enough?,” written in response to the mass shooting in Las Vegas, “Mama,” a song react- improvised characters delivering
ing to the election of Donald Trump, and “Gay Christmas,” which the Wisconsin native monologues and interpreting a song
karaoke-style. To Aug. 5. Source,
wrote after spending Christmas with his Trump-supporting relatives and reflects on 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $15
the feelings of isolation and estrangement many LGBTQ people experience when they in advance, or $18 at the door. Call
return to their childhood homes. 202-204-7770 or visit witdc.org.
“I don’t consider myself political,” he says. “I consider myself a storyteller who’s tell-
ing stories from a specific perspective. I’m speaking from the heart. But I do think those READINGS
songs definitely touch a political nerve.” —John Riley
JASON KANDER
Touted as the future of the
Democratic Party by no less than
Tom Goss performs Saturday, Aug. 4, at 8 p.m. at MilkBoy ArtHouse, 7416 Baltimore former President Barack Obama,
Ave. in College Park, Md. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Opening sets by D.C.-based singer- this former army captain and
songwriters Emily Henry and Hayley Fahey. Must be 18 to enter. Tickets are $12. Afghanistan war veteran comes
to town to read from Outside The
Visit milkboyarthouse.ticketfly.com.

14 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

Wire: Ten Lessons I’ve Learned in
Everyday Courage. The memoir is
intended as a practical guide for
anyone thinking about political ser-
vice and a call to action for every-
one wishing to make a difference.
Kander, the founder and president
of anti-voter suppression nonprofit
Let America Vote as well as a candi-
date for Mayor of Kansas City, will
be in conversation with Symone
Sanders, CNN political commen-
tator and national press secretary
for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016
presidential campaign. Wednesday,
Aug. 8, at 7 p.m. Sixth & I Historic
Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. Tickets
are $15, or $30 including one book,
$40 for two tickets and a book. Call
202-408-3100 or visit sixthandi.org.
MUSEUMS
& GALLERIES
CULTIVATING AMERICA’S
GARDENS
An examination of gardening in
the U.S., from early horticulture
practices to Victory gardens to the
romance of the American lawn.
Co-presented by the Smithsonian
Libraries, Smithsonian Gardens,
and the Archives of American
Gardens, this traditional museum
exhibition — about gardens but not
any kind of garden tour — looks
at gardening’s history in America
broken down into seven main seg-
ments. It starts with the creation
of botanical gardens in the 18th
Century — as one example of how
the early focus on “Gardening for
Science” was brought to fruition
— and ends with today’s increas-
ing concern over organic and sus-
tainable practices, or “Gardening
for the Environment.” Whether the
genetically modified, chemically
enhanced plant breeding days of
the last century or so are truly on
the way out — and with them, the
focus on “Gardening as Enterprise”
— certainly longgone are the large,
showy private gardens of the Gilded
Age and a “Gardening to Impress”
outlook. On display through August.
Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition
Gallery, National Museum of
American History, 14th Street and
Constitution Avenue NW. Call 202-
633-2240 or visit library.si.edu/
exhibition.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS:
TO UNRAVEL A TORMENT
This French-born American art-
ist is considered an icon of late-
20th century art on account of
her formal innovation as well as
fearless explorations of sexuali-
ty and her own personal history.
In a new exhibition, Maryland’s
Glenstone Museum, which is in the
midst of a major expansion due to
open this fall, features nearly 30
of Bourgeois’s trailblazing works,
spanning five decades. On display
through January 2020. Glenstone
Museum, 12002 Glen Road,
Potomac, Md. Call 301-983-5001 or
visit glenstone.org.
PUBLIC ARTWORKS OF ROCKNE
KREBS AND SAM GILLIAM
Curator Mollie Berger says the
objective of this Washington Studio
School exhibition is “to represent
the planning and design of public
art projects, both built and unbuilt,
by two artists who used vastly dif-
ferent materials but seem to be
concerned with similar elements
of space, color, and presence” —
from “sculpture wunderkind”
Krebs’s penetrating light displays,
which surpass the physical space
and reach for the sun and the stars
that inspired the artist, to Gilliam’s
swooping, brightly colored canvas-
es of interlocking shapes, standing
in counterpoint to the grey steel and
stone surrounding them. Organized
in partnership with community
arts-boosting entity Day Eight, the
exhibit includes proposals never
funded as well as documentation
of works that came to fruition by
these two veteran D.C.-based art- CATVIDEOFEST
ists, among them never-before dis- Filmmaker Will Braden (Le Chat Noir) assembled a
played items provided by architect
and longtime Gilliam collaborator
70-minute program that’s a fancy feast for cat lovers,
chock-full of cat videos both popular and new and undis-
Steven Spurlock. A Curator’s Talk
is Friday, Aug. 3, from 6 to 7:30 covered. CatVideoFest, co-presented with the Bethesda-
p.m. On display to Aug. 10 at 2129 S based, globally focused nonprofit Alley Cat Allies, also
St. NW. Call 202-234-3030 or visit
washingtonstudioschool.org. doubles as a fundraiser and networking event for feline
fans. The AFI Silver Theatre co-presents an encore
TITANIC: THE UNTOLD STORY screening of CatVideoFest 2017 on Friday, Aug. 10, as
The National Geographic Museum
reveals the only recently declassi-
part of the free outdoor film series at the nearby Sonny’s
Green. Denizen’s Brewing Company and Stella’s Popkern
fied story behind the 1985 discovery
of the infamous ship — by ocean- will be on hand with snacks and beverages, and patrons
ographer and National Geographic are welcome to bring their own blankets and low-rise
Explorer-at-Large Robert Ballard,
who stumbled on the infamous chairs. Every Friday evening at sundown, around 8 p.m.,
to Aug. 31. (This Friday’s film is Isle of Dogs.) Off the
shipwreck after he completed a
top-secret mission to investigate the parking lot of the Blairs Shopping Center, 1290 East-West
remains of two nuclear submarines
in the North Atlantic. Titanic: The
Highway. Call 301-495-6720 or visit afi.com/Silver.
Untold Story is presented in part-
nership with the National Archives
and the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Gonzales-Day, meanwhile, explores Cava — the festival presents two
Library. Now to Jan. 1. 1145 17th St.
how ideas of racial difference, limited-edition concoctions: the
NW. Tickets are $15. Call 202-857-
otherness, and national identity Rosé Sangria, back by popular
7588 or visit ngmuseum.org.
have taken shape historically and demand from last year, and José’s
visually through nearly 40 photo- Summertime Sangria, a brand-new
UNSEEN:
graphs, including works from his offering made with fresh peaches.
OUR PAST IN A NEW LIGHT
“Erased Lynchings” series focused All sangrias available by the glass
Works by Ken Gonzales-Day and
on the American West as well as and pitcher. Through Sunday, Aug.
Titus Kaphar are featured in the
his “Profiled” series. The bilingual 5. Jaleo DC, 480 7th St. NW, Jaleo
first contemporary exhibition of
English/Spanish exhibition is on Bethesda, 7271 Woodmont Ave., and
the National Portrait Gallery’s 50th
anniversary season — and a provoc- display through Jan. 6. 8th and F Jaleo Crystal City, 2250-A Crystal
Streets. NW. Call 202-633-8300 or Dr., Arlington. Visit jaleo.com.
ative one at that. Nearly 60 works
visit npg.si.edu.
highlight how people of color —
from Native Americans to African
BRUNCH
Americans, Asian Americans to
Latino Americans — are missing in
FOOD & DRINK
LA BOUM
historical portraiture. Still worse,
JALEO’S SANGRIA FESTIVAL Launched seven years ago at
their contributions to the nation’s
All three of José Andres’ D.C.-area L’Enfant Cafe, the incredibly popu-
past were rendered equally invisi-
Jaleo restaurants offer specials on lar boozy brunch/day party known
ble. Kaphar sets out to right those
fruity iced wine cocktails through as La Boum has only gotten bigger
slights by recreating well-known
the weekend as part of this annu- and boum-ier in recent years — even
paintings and including those tradi-
al event. In addition to the every- earning a nod as one of Bravo TV’s
tionally left out, through his series
day red and white sangrias — the “Top 5 Raging Brunches in the U.S.”
of 17 paintings plus one sculpture.
latter known here as Ponche de The self-billed “revolutionary-style
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 15
 HEY FRASE! PODCAST W/SARAH
FRASER, PAUL WHARTON
Sarah Fraser, the former Hot 99.5
Kane Show co-host and current
Good Day DC contributor, dishes on
politics, pop culture and all things
D.C. in this podcast with The Real
Housewives of DC’s Paul Wharton.
At this special live taping, they wel-
come radio personality Danni Starr
and comedian Rob Maher, who will
guide Fraser and Wharton as they
try their hands at stand-up comedy.
Friday, Aug. 3, at 8 p.m. Amp by
Strathmore, 11810 Grand Park Ave.
North Bethesda. Tickets are $25 to
$30. Call 301-581-5100 or visit amp-
bystrathmore.com.

LA-TI-DO: THE ‘70S

Regie Cabico and Don Mike
Mendoza’s La-Ti-Do variety show
features higher-quality singing
than most karaoke, often from
local musical theater actors per-
forming on their night off, and also
includes spoken-word poetry and
comedy. Held at Bistro Bistro in
Dupont Circle, Mendoza and Anya
Randall Nebel host The ‘70s, an
evening of songs from that decade
as well as the present featuring
Sylvern Groomes, Jr. Guest per-
formers include Vanna de la Cruz,
Erin Granfield, Christina McCann,
SAMUEL DIXON Michelle Moses-Eisenstein, Allison
A Maryland artist primarily known for his work as a watercolorist who has been described Saba, Michael Sandoval, Aerika
Saxe, and Robin Weiner. Paige
as an American Abstract Impressionist, Samuel Dixon was selected for inclusion in this
Rammelkamp is music director.
year’s juried group exhibition at the Hill Center Galleries. Dixon’s entry is “Typing I,” a Monday, Aug. 13, at 8 p.m. Bistro
watercolor fine art print, captured from his typewriter series “Faded Images.” (Fun fact: Bistro, 1727 Connecticut Ave. NW.
the painting served as the inspiration for this week’s OutWrite cover.) Portrait artist Tickets are $15, or $10 if you eat
dinner at the restaurant before-
Annette Polan, professor emerita of the Corcoran College of Art + Design at The George hand. Call 202-328-1640 or visit
Washington University, served as the exhibition juror, culling through 670 artworks from latidodc.wix.com/latido.
more than 140 artists. Now to Sept. 22. Hill Center Galleries in the Old Naval Hospital, 921
MARYLAND PARANORMAL
Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Call 202-549-4172 or visit HillCenterDC.org. A larger assortment
CONFERENCE
of Dixon’s works is currently on display at Gallery 50 Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. For Speakers, vendors, palm and tarot
information, call 302-227-2050. card readers, and a host of peo-
ple whose interests or abilities go
beyond explanations of science
(and reason) will gather in a small,
tucked away town outside of —
brunch” welcomes patrons of all know, at night, over wine. Well, Theatre the night President Lincoln
where else but — Baltimore. And if
genders and sexual orientations these days, you can have just that was shot. Written by Richard
most adults can’t even quite under-
for a multi-course dinner and four with one of D.C.’s leading ladies of Hellesen and directed by Mark
stand it, certainly no kid can, which
hours of drinking, dancing to a DJ, drag. Every Sunday night at Shaw’s Ramont, the 1.6-mile walking tour
is why organizers have posted the
and doing “everything they weren’t Tavern, Kristina Kelly hosts a show revisits and reexamines the sites
sign, “No one under 16 admitted.”
allowed to do under pure paren- over supper with half-priced bot- and clues from the investigation
This second annual conference fea-
tal supervision as young adults.” tles of wine and different dinner into the assassination. Tours are
tures six speakers, including ghost
Yet you have to be very grown-up specials each week. Seating at 7 offered approximately three eve-
photographer Tim Scullion and
and plan ahead in particular for p.m., show at 8 p.m. 520 Florida nings a week at 6:45 p.m. Ford’s
“The Ghostographer” presentation,
Saturday brunch — for example, Ave. NW. Reservations required via Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. Tickets
Sandy and Jim Young with “Beyond
there are few tables left available shawsdinnerdragshow@gmail.com. are $17. Call 202-397-7328 or visit
The Veil”, Rob Gutro’s “Ghosts of
until Saturday, Aug. 18. Abigail, 1730 Call 202-518-4092 or visit shaw- fords.org.
England: A Medium’s Vacation
M St. NW. Tickets are $32.50 to $35 stavern.com.
Encounters,” Uma Beepat in
per person, plus 20-percent gratuity HANK’S OYSTER BAR:
“Spirit Communication 101,” David
and drinks. Call 240-286-4286 or LADIES TEA: SUMMER EDITION
visit laboumbrunch.com. ABOVE This Sunday, Aug. 5, lesbians and
Salisbury with “Don’t Blame The
Witch,” and Hiram Henderson and
everyone “under the rainbow” are
AND BEYOND
“Ghosts, Poltergeists & Hauntings.”
DRAG welcome to enjoy the new bar menu
Additionally, the first 40 people
and drink specials at the original
in the door receive a free copy of
FORD’S THEATRE’S Dupont location of the small chain
SHAW’S TAVERN: Richard Salva’s The Yoga of Ghost
HISTORY ON FOOT of restaurants run by lesbian Jamie
DINNER-N-DRAG, SERVED! Hunting. Saturday, Aug. 4, from 10
A local actor offers the guided tour Leeds. Ladies Tea runs from 3 to
Sometimes you’re dragging and a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Elk’s Lodge, 1506
Investigation: Detective McDevitt, 5:30 p.m. Hank’s Dupont, 1624 Q
you just can’t make it to brunch. Defense Highway, Gambrills, Md.
portraying Detective James St. NW. Call 202-462-4265. Visit
And sometimes you want a regular, Tickets are $39.95. Visit mdpara-
McDevitt, a D.C. police officer hanksoysterbar.com.
more traditional kind of meal — you conf.eventbrite.com. l
patrolling a half-block from Ford’s

16 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 theFeed
EMERGENCY EXIT
Gay couple claims Alaska Airlines told them to leave airplane
to allow straight couple to sit together. By Bailey Vogt
A
GAY COUPLE CLAIMS THAT THEY WERE
forced to leave an Alaska Airlines flight after refusing
to be moved so that a straight couple could be seated
together.David Cooley, who owns popular West Hollywood
gay bar The Abbey, said he and his partner were in their
assigned Premium Class seats and waiting to begin their trip
from New York to LA on Alaska Airlines flight 1407. After
being seated “for a while,” Cooley said that a flight atten-
dant approached the men and asked his partner to move
to an economy seat so that a heterosexual couple could sit
together.
When Cooley said they were a couple and did not want to
sit apart, the attendant told them that they could either make
the move or leave the plane.
“We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an
entire cross-country flight and left the plane,” Cooley said in
a Facebook post on Sunday. “I cannot believe that an airline
in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential
treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to
leave.”
Cooley and his partner eventually booked a flight on
Delta Airlines, and urged others to do the same. “If you are
OUT OF AFRICA
Trump administration will stop pushing African nations
to repeal anti-gay laws. By Bailey Vogt
T
HE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE WILL STOP
pressuring African countries to repeal anti-LGBTQ
laws, abandoning Obama-era policy in the region.
Mick Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman and
current Director of the Office of Management and Budget as
well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, made the
statement while speaking at the State Department’s Ministerial
to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C.
Mulvaney said that the Obama administration had
gone too far in trying to promote equal rights, noting that
President Obama said he would put an emphasis on the
importance of LGBTQ rights in a visit to Kenya in 2015.
Kenya currently punishes homosexuality with up to 14 years
in prison.
“Our US taxpayer dollars [were] used to discourage
Christian values in other democratic countries, he said. “It
was stunning to me that my government under the previous
administration would go to folks in sub-Saharan Africa and
say, ‘We know that you have a law against abortion, but
if you enforce that law, you’re not going to get any of our
an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an
LGBT friendly airline like Delta,” he wrote.
Alaska Airlines blamed a booking issue for the situation.
“This unfortunate incident was caused by a seating error,
compounded by a full flight and a crew seeking an on-time
departure and nothing more than that,” the airline said in
a statement. “It’s our policy to keep all families together
whenever possible; that didn’t happen here and we are deep-
ly sorry for the situation. We’ve reached out to Mr. Cooley
to offer our sincere apologies for what happened and we are
seeking to make it right.”
The airline added that they have “a zero-tolerance policy
for discrimination of any kind.” A spokesperson later told CBS
News that they had accidentally booked two people into one
seat, and asked Cooley’s partner to move to rectify the error.
In a separate Facebook post, Cooley thanked Alaska for its
apology, and said they were “discussing making things right.”
Despite the incident, Alaskan Airlines has an exceptional
track record in LGBTQ inclusivity. The airline maintains
a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Buyers’
Guide, and has a section of its website dedicated to “LGBT
travel planning.” l
money. We know you have a law against gay marriage, but if
you enforce that law, we’re not going to give you any money.’
He added: “That is a different type of religious persecu-
tion that I never expected to see. I never expected to see that
as an American Christian, that we would be doing that to
other folks. I am here to let you know there are many people
in our government who care about [these issues.] There are a
lot of people in this government who want to see things done
differently. They want to do something.”
Mirroring many members of the Trump Administration,
Mulvaney has a history of opposing LGBTQ. He maintained
a zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional
Scorecard, which rates legislators on their support of LGBTQ
issues, and was a co-sponsor on the First Amendment
Defense Act, which would have legalized discrimination
against LGBTQ people nationwide.
He also supported a 2010 amendment that would have
enshrined marriage in the Constitution as between one man
and one woman, and in 2013 said that voicing anti-same-sex
marriage opinions should be protected as free speech. l
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 17
 theFeed
RIGHT AID
Federal judge orders Wisconsin to pay for transgender residents’
surgeries through Medicaid. By Bailey Vogt
A
FEDERAL JUDGE HAS RULED THAT
Wisconsin must pay for two transgender res-
idents’ gender confirmation surgeries. U.S.
District Judge William Conley ruled in favor of Cody
Flack, 30, and Sara Ann Makenzie, 41, who jointly filed
a lawsuit in April arguing that being denied gender con-
firmation surgery through Medicaid violated their equal
protection rights, as well as the Affordable Care Act.
“The likelihood of ongoing, irreparable harm facing
these two individual plaintiffs outweighs any marginal
impacts on the defendants’ stated concerns regarding
public health or limiting costs,” Conley said in his
39-page order.
Conley granted a preliminary injunction that bars a
1996 “transsexual surgery” rule that was used to exclude
Flack and Makenzie coverage, noting that the rule
“feeds into sex stereotypes by requiring all transgender
individuals receiving Wisconsin Medicaid to keep geni-
talia and other prominent sex characteristics consistent
18 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
with their natal sex no matter how painful and disori-
enting it may prove for some.”
Conley’s ruling could also apply to any transgender
Medicaid patient whose doctor recommends surgery.
There are an estimated 5,000 transgender enrollees
in Wisconsin’s Medicaid, according to the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.
Flack’s attorney Rock Pledl said the ruling was “tre-
mendous,” adding that Flack could get his surgery in the
coming weeks. However, with Makenzie accessing her
insurance through a Health Maintenance Organization
(HMO), she may have to wait a few months before she
can have her surgery covered.
“The decision made me feel like a whole person, alive
and accepted, with so much hope,” Makenzie said in a
statement. “I want this decision to give other transgen-
der people what it gave me: hope that they have options
and a path forward to living and being accepted as who
they are.” l
 Community
THURSDAY, August 2
The DC Center holds a meet-
ing of its ASIAN PACIFIC
ISLANDER QUEER SUPPORT
GROUP. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, visit thedccenter.org.

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

EDWARD LE POULIN

session at Takoma Aquatic

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

Attendees at last years event DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club
welcomes runners of all ability

BLOCK PARTY
levels for exercise in a fun and
supportive environment, with
socializing afterward. Route
distance is 3-6 miles. Meet at
Whitman-Walker’s Fall Fest seeks to foster goodwill among the health 7 p.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW.
For more information, visit
center’s client base in Southeast D.C. dcfrontrunners.org.

W
DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s
E’VE SERVED CLIENTS WHO LIVE EAST OF THE RIVER SINCE THE gay and lesbian square-dancing
beginning of Whitman-Walker,” says Josh Riley, director of community commit- group, features mainstream
ment at Whitman-Walker Health. “In the early ’90s, we began providing services through advanced square
dancing at the National City
at sites east of the Anacostia. We know we have more work to do to expand and invest in Christian Church. Please dress
Ward 8. So each year, we hold the East of the River Fall Fest, which is a neighborhood gath- casually. 7-9:30 p.m. 5 Thomas
ering, block party, back-to-school drive, health fair, and more.” Circle NW. 202-930-1058,
Now in its third year, Fall Fest, held outside the Max Robinson Center in Southeast D.C., dclambdasquares.org.

features a youth poetry slam, go-go music by The Dynamic Duo featuring Serious Company, DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds
and food courtesy of Caribbean Citations. The event also serves as a back-to-school drive, practice. The team is always
with organizers distributing 200 backpacks filled with school supplies to neighborhood looking for new members.
All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry
children. Thomas Recreation Center,
This year’s Fall Fest highlights the opening of Whitman-Walker’s newest pharmacy later 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more
this year in the townhouse next to the Max Robinson Center. Both buildings will receive information, visit scandalsrfc.
painted murals from the No Kings Collective, which designed the artwork on the side of the org or dcscandals@gmail.com.

center’s newly renovated Elizabeth Taylor building on 14th Street NW. THE DULLES TRIANGLES
Whitman-Walker health educators will be on site to provide information about their Northern Virginia social
various services, including HIV testing (which will be offered via their mobile testing unit), group meets for happy hour at
Sheraton in Reston. All wel-
PrEP, and the center’s medication-assisted substance abuse treatment for opioid abuse. come. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise
Those wishing to donate school supplies can drop them off at Whitman-Walker’s various Valley Drive, second-floor bar.
sites, or can donate money through the center’s website by visiting whitman-walker.org/ For more information, visit
give and typing “East of the River Fall Fest” in the description. dullestriangles.com.

“Our Fall Fest is really just a community gathering, a way to thank folks, bring them HIV TESTING at Whitman-
together with people from the community,” says Riley. “With all of the work we’ve done on Walker Health. 9 a.m.-12:30
14th Street NW, we know our focus needs to be on communities east of the river. It is clear p.m. and from 2-5 p.m. at 1525
14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12
to us, from the board’s work, that east of the river will be a large part of Whitman-Walker’s p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max
identity.” —John Riley Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr.
Ave. SE. For an appointment
Whitman-Walker Health’s East of the River Fall Fest is Friday, Aug. 10, from 3-7 p.m. in the call 202-745-7000 or visit whit-
man-walker.org.
parking lot of the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. For more
information, or to make a donation, visit whitman-walker.org. IDENTITY offers free and
confidential HIV testing at

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 19

 two separate locations. Walk-ins
accepted from 2-6 p.m., by appoint-
ment for all other hours. 414 East
Diamond Ave., Gaithersburg, Md.
or 7676 New Hampshire Ave.,
Suite 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, August 3
GAY DISTRICT, a group for
GBTQQI men between the ages of
18-35, meets on the first and third
Fridays of each month. 8:30-9:30
p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
For more information, visit gaydis-
trict.org.
The DC Center’s TRANS
SUPPORT GROUP provides a
space to talk for transgender people
and those who identify outside of
the gender binary. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000
14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.
SATURDAY, August 4
CENTER GLOBAL, a group that
fights against anti-LGBTI laws
and cultures in 80 countries, holds
its monthly meeting on the first
Saturday of every month. 12-1:30
p.m. The DC Center, 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more informa-
tion, visit thedccenter.org.
20 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
CHRYSALIS arts & culture group
visits the National Archives to
see its comprehensive exhibition
Remembering Vietnam. Free.
Lunch in neighborhood follows.
Meet at 11 a.m. past security in the
Constitution Avenue NW lobby,
near 9th Street. For more info,
contact Craig, 202-462-0535 or
craighowell1@verizon.net.
SUNDAY, August 5
ADVENTURING outdoors group
walks several miles through city
streets and Rock Creek Park to see
remains of the forts that defended
Washington City during the Civil
War. Hike begins near Fort Reno,
the highest point in D.C., and ends
at Fort Totten. Route include Fort
Stevens, scene of D.C.’s only bat-
tle in July 1864, when President
Lincoln was nearly shot by a
Confederate sharpshooter. Bring
plenty of beverages, lunch, sun-
screen, bug spray and $2 trip fee.
Meet at 10 a.. On the eastern side
of Wisconsin Avenue NW, at the
Tenleytown Metro Station, in front
of Panera. Contact Craig, 202-462-
0535 or visit adventuring.org.
MONDAY, August 6
The YOUTH WORKING GROUP
of The DC Center holds a monthly
meeting to discuss upcoming pro-
gramming options. Light snacks
will be provided. 6-7:30 p.m. 2000
14th St. NW, Suite 105. Visit thed-
ccenter.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.
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, August 7
Join LGBTQ people from the D.C.
Metro area for an LGBTQ HAPPY
HOUR SOCIAL at Hi-Tide Lounge,
along the downtown waterfront
in Old Town Alexandria. Free to
attend. Everyone welcome. 6-9 p.m.
101 N. Union St., Alexandria, Va.
Take the free King Street Trolley
from King Street Metro. Visit
gogaydc.org for more information.
The DC Center holds a monthly
meeting of its COMING OUT
DISCUSSION GROUP for those
navigating issues associated with
coming out and personal identity.
7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite
105. For more information, visit
thedccenter.org.
The DC Center’s TRANS
SUPPORT GROUP provides a
space to talk for transgender people
and those who identify outside of
the gender binary. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000
14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.
Weekly Events
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.
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.
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.
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, August 8
BIG GAY BOOK GROUP
meets at Trio Bistro to discuss
Stephen McCauley’s My Ex-Life.
Newcomers always welcome. 7
p.m. 1537 17th St. NW. Accessible
from the Dupont Circle Metro
Station on the Red Line. For more
information and to RSVP, email
biggaybookgroup@otmail.com.
Queer-identifying women who
have survived violent or traumatic
experiences and are looking for
support are invited to take part
in a bi-weekly QUEER WOMEN
WORKING THROUGH TRAUMA
GROUP at The DC Center.
Participants are encouraged to
do an intake assessment with
moderator and social worker Sam
Goodwin. 6-7 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, email Sam at samantha@
thedccenter.org.
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. l
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 21
 The Literary Issue
OutWrite 2018
More than 85 writers and 600 fans are expected at this weekend’s LGBTQ Literary Festival,
hosted by the D.C. Center. By Doug Rule
W
HETHER YOU’RE AN AVID READER OR A BUD-
ding writer, OutWrite has something for everyone.
“For those who haven’t attended OutWrite before, it’s
a great chance to connect with a vibrant community of LGBTQ
writers, publishers and editors,” says Dave Ring, the LGBTQ
Literary Festival’s chair. He notes that OutWrite is “an oppor-
tunity to hear from folks both local and national who are telling
queer stories,” stressing the importance of doing so “at a time
like now where it feels like [those] stories are being ignored or
even suppressed.”
More than 600 people are expected to attend this year’s
weekend event, attracted by what Ring calls a “really intimate
environment.” He notes that there will be “about 20 readings,
each with about four writers. And then we have 10 panels,
[where] there is a lot of space to rub shoulders and connect and
ask questions with people.” All told, more than 85 writers will
be on hand for two days’ worth of readings, workshops, and
discussions, supplemented by more than 30 exhibitors selling
books, clothing, and other literary-related goods, covering every
genre imaginable.
“We have so many types of writing,” says Ring. “There’s
crime writing, there’s memoirs, there’s poetry, sci-fi, fantasy,
there’s what you’d call literary writing, there’s romance writing.
Some folks don’t even know there’s a thriving LGBTQ writing
community. So this is a chance to be a part of that.”
OutWrite 2018 launches Friday, Aug. 3, with a Laughing Out
Loud comedy event hosted by the popular D.C.-based lesbian
comic Chelsea Shorte and featuring this year’s keynote author
Michelle Tea, the well-known activist and memoirist, who will
22 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
also give a reading and serve on the “Mining Trauma” panel on
Saturday, Aug. 4. The festival ends Sunday, Aug. 5, with five
writing workshops, guided by experts, including a “Storytelling
Workshop” led by former OutWrite Co-Chair Phill Branch of
Story District, and another focused on writing “Dialogue in
Fiction” helmed by John Copenhaver.
Above all else, OutWrite is a safe space for LGBTQ people to
mingle, learn, and feel more confident in their individual narra-
tives — in whatever form they choose.
“I think for LGBTQ folks, there’s power being in a space
where you don’t have to explain that part of yourself,” Ring says.
“It’s just an everyday part of what you’re hearing about, and
instead you can think about all the other parts of your identities
that don’t get explored the same way.”
He adds that OutWrite “can be really empowering for writers
who’ve felt excluded or ostracized in ‘mainstream’ settings. And
for readers, it’s a way to add a few exciting books to that to-be-
read pile on their nightstands!”
On the pages that follow, you’ll find an assortment of writing
by several of this year’s participants. We hope it exhibits the
broad array of literary styles that will be on hand at this week-
end’s event. So sit back, pour a nice cup of hot (or iced) tea, and
enjoy a good LGBTQ read. l
OutWrite is Saturday, Aug. 4, and Sunday, Aug. 5, at 10 a.m., at
the DC Center for the LGBT Community, at 2000 14th St. NW.
FLORIAN-KLAUER
Free and open to the public. Turn to page 32 for a full schedule of
readings, panels, and workshops. Call 202-682-2245 or visit thedc-
center.org/outwrite for more information.

You Are
the Bad Smell
An excerpt from Bull and Other Stories
By Kathy Anderson
T
HIS ISN’T THE ONE,” SHE
said, laying her hand on my arm.
As if she was really sorry.
“Stick a fork in me. I’m done,” I said.
“No. You’re just upset. You thought
this was the one.”
“I can’t do this anymore.”
“It’s only one house. Maybe the next
one.”
“It’s seventy-three houses,” I said.
“But we’ve come so far. You can’t stop
now. Absolutely not.”
I thought if I banged her head against
the concrete steps, her skull would not
break. That’s how hard she was. No one
could win against her. Certainly not me.
Certainly not her partner, who stood qui-
etly in the corner, eyes cast upward.
The houses they did not buy: the con-
temporary with too much sunlight, the
Dutch Colonial with a garage that was too
small, the totally renovated rancher with
an ugly view, the three-story Victorian
with too much carpeting, the lakeside
condo with not enough kitchen, the octa-
gon house with too much personality, and
the corner property with too many trees
were some of the houses they did not buy.
Seventy-three houses they did not buy.
Seventy-three houses I showed them and
I knew this game. But she was winning.
“I quit,” I said.
She laughed. “We’ll take a few days
off.”
I just won’t return her calls, I thought.
“Great idea,” I said.
To her partner, I whispered, “I’m so
sorry for you.”
I could see that made the partner mad.
But she was the long-suffering type, even
with me.
“Not at all,” her partner said. She held
her head up high.
They were so beautiful, these two.
Concrete Skull was a tall and crispy blond,
with a gorgeous, wide smile and sharp,
blue miss-nothing eyes. Long Suffering
was short and olive-skinned, with a full
bottom lip and a way of standing that
showed off her large breasts. Her eyes
were as patient as an animal watching for
its turn at the watering hole.
I liked lesbians, made a specialty of
selling houses to lesbian couples. A lot of
them broke up after four or five years and
then they put their houses back on the
market and bought new ones with other
women. I especially liked couples like this
one, with their matching black Mercedes,
big bank accounts, and high-salaried cor-
porate jobs.
I liked lesbians, but I hated these two.
They were realtor cockteasers. Okay, I
am a woman too and do not have a cock
to tease, but you take my point. They
showed you what they had, stroked you
until you were so ready you could scream,
then pulled back with a perfectly good
reason that was totally bogus because the
real reason they did not buy any of the
seventy-three houses I showed them was
because they were sizing each other up.
It had nothing to do with me. They
were watching each other, waiting for the
house that made one of them pant and
scream. Then one of them would have
the upper hand. The one who wanted it
the most was the one who would have
to grovel, for as long as they lived in that
house.
I know power struggles. I can smell
them in the air after twenty-three years
in the business and four marriages of my
own. The smell is unmistakable, like a rot-
ting carcass by the side of a road.
“The truth is I don’t think there’s any-
thing special enough for you two on the
market these days,” I said. “I know you
are busy women with highly responsible
jobs and I feel just terrible wasting your
time like this. Maybe in a few months, the
market will improve. You deserve some-
thing spectacular.”
Concrete Skull didn’t even show the
flicker of interest that a cat has watching
a chipmunk run by.
“Next week,” she said. “Set it up.”
Long Suffering walked out to the
Mercedes and leaned against it, staring
intently into her mophone. She licked her
lips slowly.
Concrete Skull whispered, “The truth
is, I don’t know if I should be buying a
house with her. Look at her. She looks
incredibly sexy, doesn’t she? But she
isn’t.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I feel so close to you. You feel like a
friend after spending all this time with
me.” She beamed her big smile my way
and it was like the sun coming out on my
face. Okay, I am straight but I was not
immune to her.
“If you’re that unsure, you should wait
before you look at houses.”
“I operate on instinct. My gut tells me
to keep looking. The right house will grab
me. The house will say, come on in, you
two. She’ll relax in this bedroom. She’ll
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
attack me in this living room.” “That’s
crazy,” I said.
“Why?”
“A house doesn’t fix anything.
Definitely not a sex problem.”
“Who says? Maybe a house could fix
something. Maybe no one lets it.” She
reached out and put both her hands over
my hand. “Help me.”
“For a smart woman, you’re stupid,”
I said.
I thought if I insulted her, she’d go
away and leave me alone. But she laughed.
“You’re a cockteaser,” I said.
“So I’ve been told. By better women
than you.” Her smile stayed fixed on her
face, but she let go of me.
Good, I thought. I’m finally getting to
her.
“Why me?” I asked. “Why don’t you
get a nice lesbian realtor? Maybe she’ll do
better for you.”
“You know why I want you? Lesbian
realtors think they don’t have to work
hard for me. Like just because I’m gay, I’ll
roll over and buy whatever they show me.
Like it’s about loyalty to the team. Wrong.
You’re smarter than that. It’s all about
the deal.”
I liked beating out lesbian realtors. I
pictured them trotting out secret weap-
ons with her—little lesbian in-jokes, little
lesbian friends in common. And still I
won. I admit I melted a little, flattered.
So we went on to the seventy-fourth
house. It was a spectacularly ugly
McMansion, huge, poorly designed and
shoddily built, overpriced, on a barren lot
on a busy street of a brand new develop-
ment built over a landfill. But it was new,
full of glitzy features like a master bath-
room big enough to hold a party in and
a temperature-controlled wine cellar in
the basement, features that distract your
eyes from the particle board walls and the
cheap thin paint.
“Honey, this is it. This is the one,” said
Concrete Skull. She smiled her gorgeous
beaming smile, charming as a kitten. It
didn’t sound convincing even to me. This
is a test. This is only a test. In the event of a
real urge to buy a house, the voice is eager,
excited, scared. So disregard this test. It is
only a test.
“No way,” Long Suffering said. “I
loathe the smell of this house. No freak-
ing way.”
“I was kidding. I hate it too,” Concrete
Skull said. “See, honey, we really are get-
ting close. We both hate this one. So that’s
a good sign.”
They both turned to me, waiting for
my applause.
23
 “Seventy-five,” I said. “That’s my limit.
I warn you.”
They both chuckled, like I was making
a small, dumb joke.
I hate you both, I thought. You are the
bad smell.
It was the seventy-ninth house where
something changed. When we walked
into the house, an elegant Colonial in
the best neighborhood, fully updated and
gorgeously decorated, I felt it. Somebody
wanted this one, but I couldn’t tell who. I
felt like a squirrel on the curb, twitching
at oncoming cars and deciding when to
run. I studied one and then the other.
Who was it?
“It’s quite old,” Concrete Skull said
finally. “It’s an old house. They are asking
a lot for such an old house.”
Aha, I thought. She wants it.
“Honey, what do you think?” she
asked. Her voice was a cat slinking along
a high ledge.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Long Suffering
said. She sounded bored but she was
paying close attention, her brown eyes
flickering madly. “Let’s go on to the next.”
I wanted to hit them with an ax and
leave them bleeding to death on the
Persian rug.
“I feel a very sexy vibe here,” I said.
“This is a house where you will have
swank parties. I see gorgeous women in
slinky dresses holding martini glasses.”
“We met at a cocktail party just like
that,” said Concrete Skull.
“You pinned me to the wall,” smirked
her gal pal.
“After you practically pushed them in
my mouth.”
“You wanted me to.”
“You wanted it worse.”
I watched them like they were a nature
channel show where all the animals are
frolicking happily in the wilderness
and you know there’s trouble in the air,
you are just waiting for the predator to
pounce, for blood to be spilled. You know
it will end badly and you can’t tear your-
self away.
You Are the Bad Smell was first published
in The Apple Valley Review: A Journal of
Contemporary Literature and was nomi-
nated for a Pushcart Prize. Bull and Other
Stories, first published in 2016, is available
on Amazon.com. For more information on
Kathy Anderson, visit kathyandersonwrit-
er.com.
24 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Caravan
An excerpt from Read by Strangers
By Philip Dean Walker
T
HEY CLOSED DOWN THE BARS
first. One by one. Captain Jack’s,
Follies, Masters of the Universe,
The Lanai, Butterfield’s. Even Indigo.
That’s where we met, after all. On a
Saturday night, you could find every one
of us there. In the beginning they said it
was because of an expired liquor license
or the violation of some heretofore-un-
known noise ordinance or a zoning law
or a safety code—reasons that could be
explained and supported by law. No one
paid any real mind to it. These things hap-
pened. If you live in a city, you have to get
used to this kind of change, this kind of
churn. If you don’t, you’re fooling yourself
and probably should live in the suburbs.
Neighborhoods erode overnight. Then
new ones pop up in their place. What’s in
is now out. And vice versa. It’s city living.
So we migrated to other bars, ones we
might not have been to quite as often for
one reason or another but ones where
liquor still flowed and beautiful men
danced with their apple-shaped butts
and an electric current running through
their veins, like vodka mixed with 5-Hour
Energy spiked with adrenaline and a just-
short-of-lethal dash of mercury. And it
was fun trying out someplace new.
But soon thereafter, there were only
three places left in the entire city where
we could go. Then two of the last three
closed down—both wiped out in a single
week, as if from a hurricane.
“It’s just temporary,” we heard at
Barstool, the last bar to which we had
retreated.
“We’ll just move somewhere else. We
always do,” another added.
“It’ll get better. Besides, I heard
Butterfield’s is going to reopen at a new
location soon. Lines out the door and
around the block, just as it always was.
Just you wait. Things’ll turn around.”
It was true. Things had turned around
before. There was a time when we hadn’t
all lived near one another or run our own
shops or frequented our own bars. It was
something of a luxury that we’d been able
to operate in the space so freely at all. It
always had gotten better.
So we gathered at Barstool, in droves
most nights. We came early enough so we
didn’t have to wait in line too long. The
doormen—muscular guys wearing arm-
bands around their mammoth biceps—
clicked little silver instruments in their
hands after we showed them our IDs.
A woman affixed metal bracelets to our
wrists. Huge crowds of men packed into
the small, rather cubbyholed, labyrinthine
space of an establishment few of us had
visited in the past (there was word, in fact,
that it had only just been erected, almost
overnight; none of us could corroborate
this though, since we’d never been there
before.) Its decrepit, tattered awning from
its days as a discount furniture empori-
um crackled ominously on windy nights
like whiplashes, dripping on us while we
smoked when it rained. The shellac on
the titular barstools, applied so hurriedly
during their construction, had crystal-
lized into small stalagmites that stuck
us through our jeans as we sat on them.
There were bartenders at Barstool we’d
never seen before, extremely attractive
ones, who, behind their capable pouring
hands and accommodating eyes, seemed
to be judging us. Counting us, one said he
thought he might’ve seen one night.
Inside Barstool, the clash of differ-
ent strata did make for the occasional
scuffle—twinks getting knocked around
by leather daddies, the druggies and the
kinks sneering at the preps and jocks—
but we were generally more amiable and
tolerant toward one another than we
might’ve been under different circum-
stances. After all, who else did we have
but each one another at a time like this?
“At a time like what?” one older man
had said, a fossil from a different gener-
ation than ours, all yellowing white hair
and a tucked-in flannel (in July, no less).
“I’ve never known a time when we had
more freedom and choice in life. You can
get married now in this city if you want.
How dare you be inconvenienced by the
closing of a couple of overpriced, vapid
watering holes.”
His venom took us aback, but we felt
a twinge of sympathy for him. Poor thing
had probably lost his lover twenty-five
years ago and been drinking himself into
numbness ever since. It was obvious from
the wasting away of his cheeks; the hol-
low, haunted look in his eyes as they bore
into us, through us even. It wasn’t our
fault that we happened to have come of
age at a time when guys were more care-
ful about these things, not as risky.
“He’s just jealous,” we said to one
another and ordered another round.
“Cheers!”
At the end of that last night, Barstool
emptied out into the street. Sidewalk Sale.
We’d always joked about the way every-
one lined themselves up for picking up
that one last trick before heading home.
Discounted, sloppy-ass. Everyone was
pretty much wasted. The street was so
quiet. A long line of yellow school buses
was lined up outside the bar. Guys smok-
ing cigarettes laughed at the absurdity
of it.
“Are we going on a field trip?” one of
them asked no one in particular—a man in
a blue-and-gray striped sweater, flounc-
ing from side to side as he tried to stand
up straight.
“They’re drunk buses is what I heard.
So that no one has to drive home drunk.”
“But I walked here,” someone said.
“Oh, c’mon. They’ll keep us safe from
bashers.” Barstool was, after all, in a
sketchy neighborhood. Men had been
beaten in its vicinity recently. You could
never be too careful.
So we boarded the buses one at a time.
It was fun. We felt like we were reliving
middle school but now on our own terms.
We could sit in the back with the cool kids
now. We were the cool kids now.
Once we were packed in, we heard the
door close. It sounded different than we
remembered from years ago, like a walk-
in freezer door shutting, locked from the
outside.
Still buzzed, we sang songs and trad-
ed gossip. Then one guy said, “Hey, you
passed my stop.”
The bus driver looked just like the
doormen at the bar, and he refused to
acknowledge us in the rearview mirror.
He kept driving. The air conditioning had
been shut off (if it ever had been turned
on in the first place, we couldn’t remem-
ber). The windows were the kind where
you have to press down on plastic tabs on
either side in order to pull down. But the
tabs were broken off. We looked behind
us and saw the grim, unchanging face of
another bus driver and the buses behind
that, and the ones behind that — a yellow
caravan snaking its way through the quiet
city where no one else was outside and no
one was watching us. It was almost as if
we’d never even been there.
So we settled back in our seats, sud-
denly rather silent and tired. It was like
the quiet game: the first one to make a
sound loses.
Read by Strangers, first published in April
2018, is available from Amazon.com. For
more information on Philip Dean Walker,
visit philipdeanwalker.com.
A Study of
the World’s Flesh
An excerpt from Embarkations,
a novel-in-progress
By Marcos L. Martinez
J
OSÉ GUADALUPE MAR DE
Calletano never understood the fuss
about his birth, his body, the tall
pale lankiness of his flesh feathered in
dark hair. Mi Lobito, his father often
called him, My Little Wolf. Birthed mid-
way across the Rio Grande River from
the Virgin’s holy waters as his moth-
er, Esperanza, migrated from Mexico to
Texas: aguadelupe, agualupina, Agua del
Lobo, water-wolf. He never knew his
mother, was told simply that Esperanza
had become part of the river. Despite this
drought in him, Eva-la-Curandera—the
medicine woman who lived kitty-corner
from them—simply told him he was bless-
ed, “Tocado con agua bendita.”
Still, he never understood why water
beckoned him, what drew him to work
on the Brownstones –to– Matamoros
ferry as a teenager, what drew him to
Corpus Christi where he landed a job on a
shrimping boat.
Guadalupe—or Wally as the grin-
go shrimpers rechristened him—never
understood what it was about the rollick-
ing waves and briny air that seemed to
quell his penchant for wandering (“Born
with sealegs, that Wally,” the shrimpers
often said after the boat had had another
bout with a tropical storm).
And Wally would never understand
what made him start dreaming of giant
dust clouds encroaching the horizon, like
a hurricane of dry clouding the coast in
blackened ash. He couldn’t put a thumb
on what drove him away again, just felt
it—a reflex as natural as breathing—the
pull to follow the contours of coasts, trav-
el upwater, head north.
1938, just before the Dust Bowl’s third
wave, Wally followed the black blizzard
to the East Coast, figured dirt that had
kicked itself all up into a frenzy couldn’t
hurt him once it settled, drove his Chevy
truck past Washington, DC, trekked over
the Potomac into Maryland until he mean-
dered onto the Chesapeake Bay, skidded
roadside along the Wye River and felt
his stirrings settle. He took a spell scrap-
ing the barnacled skins of flat-bottom
boats and crabber vessels. Soon enough,
he landed jobs working the aquatic fields.
Skiffs, nets, crab-pots, buoys, the sharp
green scent of marshland. Not the rau-
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
cous salty ocean he was used to, but a
happy melding of water and work.
“I need a steady hand.”
Wally heard the low, gruff voice—
more a grumble than speech. He lifted
his head from the engine of the boat he
was working on, the sun blinding his view
of the dock, could only glean a bright red
corona of hair framing high cheekbones,
a square jaw. “I hear you’re reliable. Hear
you got steady sealegs and skin that won’t
quit.” Funny thing about Wally’s skin, the
way it didn’t pink in the sun; didn’t burn,
or blister; just sort of shifted from white
to a caramel glow. Made some watermen
talk—a little too brown for their tastes—
while others gawked in awe: a body built
for the Bay.
“What all you have in mind?” Wally
asked. The promise of a schedule of
steady work coupled with the company: it
all smelled like greener pastures. Though
in truth Wally was sold once the sunglare
got out of his eyes and he focused on
Jonah’s pale blue irises. “I’m all yours.”
All went swimmingly. A few months
out, meeting Jonah’s wife, Norah, for
the first time—a stout firecracker of a
woman heavy with child—and Jonah’s
son Artemio, the bright flare of his freck-
les so much like his father’s. Weeks later,
Norah’s miscarriage, the doctor saying
it’s the end of the line. Norah’s silence,
Jonah’s frustration. Grief looming like a
tropical depression getting ready to swirl
and get all flung out into a hurricane.
“I just want Norah to be happy,” Jonah
telling Wally, “instead it’s like she’s empty
inside.”
“What about you—are you happy?”
Wally clasping Jonah’s shoulder, muscle
firm as an unripe peach.
“I wanna punch a hole in the world.”
Jonah clenching his fists, his body stiffen-
ing as Wally embraces him, the two men
breathing in tandem, their lungs pumping
in a steady rhythm as easily as their hands
working the water in time to the visible
pulse of tide.
Wally driving Jonah back home in
his blue Chevy. Wally flicking the station
away from Billie Holiday singing “Strange
Fruit.”
“Dammit!” Jonah dialing the station
back.
“What the hell?” Wally saying as his
fingers spring back to the radio dial.
Jonah’s grip on his hand now, clasping
tight. “I’m listening.”
“Damn mournful if you ask me.” Wally
holding his gaze steady on the road but
out of the corner of his eye glinting the
redfaced ire on Jonah’s face. “Besides, it’s
25
my truck.”
Jonah slamming his fist into the dash-
board.
Wally swinging the wheel and wrench-
ing the truck off road onto the gravel.
“Let’s have this out!”
The two of them, forms swaying
among the cattails, the roadside ditch
sloping their bodies down. Jonah swings
a punch to Wally’s ribs but Wally yanks
away in time—a dance he learned many a
time proving his manhood on the deck of
a swaying ship. Wally pulls his punches,
teases Jonah down into the marshy wet,
then an embrace, a kiss, lips stunned by
the prickle of sandpaper stubble.
“What the hell was that?” Jonah says,
too winded to yell.
“Anything you want it to be,” Wally
says. For a moment neither flinches, fore-
arm muscles taut beneath the rolled-up
cuffs of their workshirts, the setting sun
glinting copper and black off the thick
hair on their wrists. Wally pulls Jonah
back in close.
Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade”
playing on the drive back to Jonah’s place,
both men quiet, their hands occasional-
ly knotting together on the truck’s stick
shift.
The rest is as easy as the diurnal undu-
lations of tide: a back and forth, the steady
increase of water levels followed by a
letting go. Clench, release.
Months turned to years, Jonah and
Wally composing a steady rhythm of work
and touch, labor and affection. Artemio
sprouting like a pole bean, learning a
waterman’s ways, the deft means of ropes,
knots, and nets. Wally getting ready to
purchase his own boat and expand their
business into a partnership. But what nei-
ther Wally Calletano nor Jonah Bywater,
Jr. cared to notice was Norah hovering
about the edges of their entanglement.
Norah as she scrubbed and beat Wally’s
scent off Jonah’s shirts—cotton smashed
and grated against lava rocks. Norah
neglected.
Wally driving back from Annapolis
after seeing the perfect boat: he’d been
ready to strike a deal but something at the
back of his brain kept bugging him. Better
have Jonah take a look. But what he
met as he pulled into the Bywater drive-
way was Norah sobbing into the deputy’s
arms, Artemio steadying himself against
the police car’s trunk, Jonah’s absence
palpable as a cold front heavying the air.
Artemio’s blue eyes hard as steel catching
Wally’s gaze and saying, “The water’s
took him. Dad’s gone.”
Search parties, trawlers, nets: no body.
26 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Launching the skiff out into the
Chesapeake, circling the waters where
Norah claimed she’d last seen Jonah,
searching for his lover’s body, Wally
came to know the truth of his existence:
that everything he could have every truly
loved was taken up all too soon by water.
He’s Gonna
Fuck Him
By Regie Cabico
I
CAN TASTE IT. WHY DID WE MEET
at a bar? What did I expect to find
Why am I one of two brown men
in competition for a White guy
Oh yeah, they fucked
a year ago. My fingers
unfurl to Wolverine claws.
Another Oriental diva
stabs herself in the breast.
I’m a brown fucking swan
& my understudy
is another colonized
US territory. May there be
fireworks & fury to be
celebrated in their
tongues. An atomic beehive
fills my head. If I grabbed
his crotch this would be
over. Puerto Rican guy
did Not. Just. Grab. His.
Crotch. My body eats
the audacity. I reach for
my Captain Morgan
& Orange Juice & slam it
down on the bar like a shard
of sunrise. Maybe he’s
in love with him. Maybe
he’s not. And when he’s
done studying for his law
exam he will flash
his gumbo smile. He’ll bury
his Cajun eyes in my skin.
All his tricks drift
down a bayou. Orpheus rises
& can’t believe this shit.
He plays Send In The Clowns
on his lyre. He really is gonna
fuck him. Puerto Rican
lives in Logan Circle. I hope
his air conditioning breaks
in the storm. May
the electricity be damned
in Logan Circle. Everybody’s
lived through what I’m going
through. I’m not afraid
of comparisons. I know
who I am. I’m kind,
I’m smart & I’m important.
I did not just quote
Viola Davis from The Help.
Oh that I may be as fierce!
Nina Simone,
belt me a new dawn,
Tina Turner give me the legs
to strut Proud Mary
on the cruisey asphalt,
& this is for asian guyz
who have considered suicide
when the guy you thought
would be your summer
romance leaves you
for another brown guy
like a bag of hot skittles
on the dance floor. We were
gonna have jumbalaya
& chicken adobo, bring back
Little Manila from
the wreckage. This love affair
was gonna be a miraculous
loving that would hold the levees
& take back the oil spills. But no,
he picked the crotch grabbing
slut he fucked last year. Mermaids
sing Hans Christian
Andersen sea chantys
in my tears. & day is rising
like a shroud around
a death-stricken heart.
First published in Monologues For Actors
of Color in 2016.
For more information on Regie Cabico,
visit capfireslam.org.
Chicago
By Phill Branch
I
SAW HIS PERSONAL AD IN THE
back of Frontiers magazine.
Frontiers was my gateway to a
world I didn’t quite have a grip. It was
one of those magazines you see in the
gay ghettos piled up in front of small
boutiques and adult novelty shops; an
unholy invitation. Shirtless white boys
with perfect abs and perfect teeth mocked
you from the cover pages. Still carrying
the burden of being black and being “that
way,” it took me a while to actually pick
one up.
No one knew about me.
I don’t count the men I met at adult
theaters or the football player from
Grambling I met one random night in col-
lege or my adviser who seduced me with
the assistance of an International Male
catalogue. They didn’t count because no
one else knew. I could always walk away.
The night I finally picked up a Frontiers
magazine I was bored, unhappy, and
horny — a cocktail for disaster. He lived
in Norwalk. I didn’t even know where
in the hell that was. I’d only been in Los
Angeles a couple of months. I hadn’t been
any further west than the Beverly Center,
south of Venice, or east of La Brea.
I’d moved out here to be the next Spike
Lee, but somehow I ended up answer-
ing phones at Levine/Schneider Public
Relations instead.
I was alone and didn’t want to be.
I was poor and didn’t want to be that
either. I was gay...and didn’t know how
to be. On top of all of that, I was going to
miss Christmas back home in New Jersey.
I think missing Christmas bothered me
most of all.
I love Christmas. My family wasn’t
especially religious. For us, Christmas
was all about the gifts and spending time
with family. As kids, my brother and I got
everything we wanted. We’d open gifts,
then hop into a cab over to my grand-
mother’s house where we’d open more
gifts. It was always a magical time. Well,
except for the one Christmas my dad left
to get a tree and didn’t come back until
after Christmas.
My first Christmas in L.A. was mag-
ical too...in a black magic sort of way. I
thought I wanted to kill myself, but I took
a passive aggressive approach to ending it
all. I didn’t have insurance, so there were
no prescription pills. I was late with rent
and considered jumping from my tenth
floor Park La Brea apartment window,
but that was too dramatic, even for me. At
some point during my downward spiral I
realized that I didn’t want to kill myself.
I really just wanted to punish myself for
not having the life I was supposed to have.
I’d imagined I’d be engaged to my
high school sweetheart, Dana. We had it
all planned out. We were going to have
three kids, two girls and a boy – Ebony,
Essence, and Elijah. I don’t know why we
went with names that began with “E.” I’m
sure there was some reason that seemed
profound in our teenage minds. Instead of
engagements and kids, however, I found
myself trying to face a life that was com-
pletely unrecognizable.
That first Christmas in L.A. was unlike
anything I’d experienced – no snow, no
yule log, no presents. People were wear-
ing shorts for God’s sake. What kind of
Christmas is that?
Since I decided against suicide, I
went to the movies instead. I remember
wearing a turtleneck and brown cor-
duroy pants. I thought maybe it would
make me feel like I was home if I dressed
in winter clothes, despite the warm tem-
peratures outside.
I ended up seeing Dumb and Dumber.
That choice didn’t make things much bet-
ter. On the way home, feeling completely
lost, I picked up Frontiers.
When I got back to my apartment, I
locked myself in the bedroom. I didn’t
want one of my roommates to see what
I was reading. I sat on the floor of my
bare room and flipped to the back of the
magazine. I’ve always gone to the back of
the magazine first. It’s a habit I developed
reading Jet magazine.
Jet printed a list of the top twen-
ty songs and albums in the back of the
magazine. I’ve always liked lists. I would
read the “Top Twenty” lists first and then
work my way back to the beginning.
Frontiers had ads for everything
under the sun. I’d seen personal ads in
mainstream newspapers before: “man
seeks woman for walks on the beach and
romantic dinners.” Frontiers was no walk
on the beach.
“Hot guy in WeHo, with hot mouth
looking to take big meat all day and night...
anonymous only.”
I was disgusted by the vulgar ads and
seemingly classless nature of the people
who posted them, but I kept reading and
then I found “him.”
He was tall, swimmers build and liked
The Simpsons. He was a “blk,” “btm,” into
“ff,” “ws,” and “k.” I didn’t know what any
of that meant, but I figured it couldn’t be
so bad.
I called him.
“Come over,” he said. He lived in
Norwalk.
“It’s ten o’clock,” I said.
“I’ll pay for a cab and I won’t try
anything; don’t want to be all alone on
Christmas.”
I didn’t either.
I showered, got dressed, and left a
note with his address and phone number
on my bed, under my pillow. Even in my
reckless abandon of meeting my face-
less, nameless Norwalk date, I tried to
be responsible. “If I am missing, I am in
Norwalk at this address.”
I sprayed on some cologne and went
downstairs into the waiting cab.
Fearing getting murdered by an anon-
ymous man in a town I was unfamiliar
with is how I began my dating life.
First published in 2012. For more informa-
tion on Phill Branch, visit phillbranch.com.
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
The Art of Three
By Erin McRae & Racheline Maltese
T
HE NEXT NIGHT JAMIE WENT
out to dinner with Aoife and
Patrick, where he apologized
to both of them for blowing off Aoife’s
phone calls. He might not have been able
to help in any particular way, but he could
at least have been an ally to them both
while Aoife had worked through matters
with their parents.
That evening, up in Jamie’s room at
the family house, the siblings talked for
hours. About Aoife’s plans for the wed-
ding, but mostly for the life she wanted
to build outside of the home she’d lived
in her entire life and that their parents
had probably thought she would never
leave. The transition was going to be
immense for all concerned and was going
to take time. Now that Aoife had decided,
Jamie wasn’t clear on how patient she
was inclined to be. They were alike in
that. They were both a little greedy for all
the world could give them, no matter how
strange, no matter other people’s doubts.
“Can I tell you about something?”
Jamie said after their mum had come in
to say good night and admonish them,
fondly, not to stay up too late.
“Yes?”
Jamie flopped back on his bed and
stared up at the ceiling. “So I told you I’m
seeing someone.”
“Yeah, even though you refuse to give
me any details.”
“The someone I’m seeing is actually
two people.”
“And they don’t know about each
other?” she guessed.
“No. They’re married. To each other,”
Jamie clarified.
“But they don’t know you’re dating
both of them?”
“Still no. I’m dating a married couple.
Like. Jointly.”
“That seems confusing,” Aoife’s face
twisted up as she said it.
“Who are they?”
“Somebody I met at work. And his
wife.”
The confusion in Aoife’s face turned to
judgment. “Who, Jamie?” She was insis-
tent.
“You know how I was in the movie
with Callum Griffiths-Davies?”
Aoife started laughing and then didn’t
stop.
Jamie sat up and waited for his sister’s
giggles to run their course. But they didn’t
seem to be subsiding. Which, if he looked
27
at the situation — both that of his relation-
ships and of this conversation — he could
hardly blame her for.
“You’re dating Callum Griffith-Davies.
And his wife?” she finally managed
through gasps of mirth.
“Yeah.”
“No, you’re not. You’re teasing me.
Which isn’t nice.”
“I’m not,” Jamie said. He wouldn’t.
“I mean, I’m not teasing you. I really am
dating them.”
Aoife pressed her hands over her
mouth; the giggles starting again. Then
she took a deep breath and very cau-
tiously slid her hands to her cheeks so
she could talk. “You’re dating Callum
Griffith-Davies, the movie star, and his
wife,” she repeated.
Jamie laughed. It was pretty funny to
hear it aloud from an uninvolved person.
“Yes.” Maybe if he was lucky his parents
wouldn’t believe him either.
“Jamie. Oh my God.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
“Have you told Mum and Dad?”
“What do you think? Especially after
the fit they threw about you and Patrick?
How am I supposed to?”
“You should,” Aoife said, sobering. “If
you’re serious.”
“Of course I’m serious! And they’re
serious about me. Which is why I have
this problem now.”
“A lot of people would like that prob-
lem. He’s hot. Mum’s going to go spare.”
Aoife pointed out. Then she went star-
ry-eyed.. “Will you bring him to my wed-
ding?”
Jamie dropped his head into his hands
and moaned at what was a fair, generous,
and likely deeply unwise request.
Aoife patted him unsympathetically on
the shoulder.
***
Jamie waited until the next evening
to broach the topic. He was helping his
mum wash the dishes while his dad was
out of earshot in the living room watching
the news. Aoife was at work. As much as
he’d been glad to come to her defense the
other day, he didn’t want her to have to
come to his.
“So, er, I wasn’t sure how to bring
this up,” Jamie said as he scrubbed water
droplets from a plate with a towel his
mother had had since he was a kid. “But I
mentioned I’m seeing someone?”
“You’ve mentioned. In the vaguest
possible terms,” his mother said. She
looked amused. “Am I going to get details
28 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
now?”
“Sort of,” Jamie said.
“What’s that mean?”
“It means they asked me to Spain for
Christmas and for a wedding, and I said
yes because they’re important to me, and
I didn’t tell you before cause I knew you
were going to be mad.”
“This is where you give me a name,
Jamie,” his mother said after the briefest
of hesitations. Jamie noted, with some
alarm, that she’d set down the glass she
was washing out.
“Callum,” Jamie practically squeaked.
His mother’s eyebrows went up. “Is
this Callum, your coworker, Callum?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought he was married. I’ve seen
her in magazines. Pretty Spanish woman.”
Jamie nodded. “He is. She is.”
“They’re separated? Getting a
divorce?”
“Um. No.”
“James.” His mother looked horrified.
Jamie shrank back. Nobody called him
that, ever, except his mum, and only when
he was in very, very deep trouble. “What
are you telling me? Is he cheating on his
wife with you?”
“No.” Jamie kept rubbing the towel
over the plate, even though he’d dried it
ages ago. “I’m dating her, too.”
He had wondered if his mum might
yell. He decided the stunned silence that
stretched on — and on — was far worse.
“I’m sorry, I think I misheard you,”
Maureen finally said.
Jamie shook his head. “You didn’t or
you’d be talking.”
More silence. Then she said, “This
isn’t what we meant by accepting your
equal opportunity bisexuality.”
She wasn’t joking, not really, and
Jamie had to restrain a wild and inappro-
priate urge to laugh.
“It wasn’t like I planned it,” he said,
knowing that wasn’t much of a defense
against anything his mother could possi-
bly be thinking. But he needed to stall for
time as he looked for the right opening to
explain. A petulant we’re in love was defi-
nitely not going to cut it.
“Clearly.”
“Look, I mean, I understand why it
freaks you out ——”
“You do, do you?”
Jamie was dimly aware that she might
be working up to that place where she
enjoyed her outrage, which definitely
wasn’t going to help his case.
“It’s not typical. It’s not what you
expected for me — it’s not what I expect-
ed for me. But why does that matter?”
Maureen set a dish down on the count-
er with more force than was strictly nec-
essary. Jamie flinched. “Which of my
eight thousand objections would you like
first? I’m perfectly happy to argue about
bad translations and believe the Church
is just wrong about homosexuality, but
there aren’t exactly any three-person
relationships lurking in the Bible ——”
“Not exactly true,” Jamie interjected.
“If you say The Holy Trinity, God help
your soul.”
“That’s not what I was going to say!”
“Good. But there is a list available
for this fight, and we should start some-
where.”
“Fine, what’s the list?” Jamie asked,
even if he could tell he was irritating his
mother even more by being reasonable.
“In no particular order: Age differenc-
es will break your heart; Hollywood dec-
adence is a slippery slope toward a hell
likely filled with Scientologists; they’re
married to each other, which gives you no
security; and two against one isn’t a game
anybody wins.”
Jamie picked up another wet dish out
of the strainer and concentrated on it. He
was horribly afraid he was going to laugh
at the accidental sexual innuendo of the
last item on her list and was well aware
that if he did, his mother would lose her
mind.
“I bought a book,” he blurted. “About
polyamory.” It was better than laughing.
Maybe not that much better, he reflect-
ed, as his mother turned disbelieving eyes
on him. He didn’t have the heart to tell
her that Callum’s reaction to said book
had been the same.
An excerpt from The Art of Three, first
published in 2017, is available from
Amazon.com. For more information on
Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese, visit
Avian30.com.
Wonder Women
By Marlena Chertock
T
HE WIGS SCRATCHED THEIR
heads. They got them at the Five
Below across the street from
Nishka’s dad’s, $4.50 each — now they
knew why they were cheap.
Morgan sprinkled baby powder on her
head, underneath the wig. “It’ll help the
itching,” she said, holding the powder out
to Nishka.
“No thanks, I think I’ll just try to
ignore it.”
Morgan pushed the powder back
under the sink, knocking over several
bottles of calamine and body lotion, and
a flat iron Nishka hadn’t used since fresh-
man year of high school. Nishka leaned
into the magnified mirror on the counter,
squeezing a pimple on her right cheek
between her fingertips. “I know this is
gross, it’s just got to go.”
Morgan shrugged, plucking stray hairs
on her chin.
Nishka popped the pimple, then
pressed toilet paper onto the small spurt
of blood. “Wait, you’re not supposed to
pluck your hair,” she said. “My mom
always tells me it’ll grow back thicker.”
“Really? I’ve always done it this way.”
“I shave it,” Nishka said, holding up
a tiny razor like one Morgan saw her
dad using on his nose hairs. She laughed.
“Whatever,” Nishka said, “I’ll still love
you when your whole face is hairy, Frida.”
They chatted about the newest edition
of Ms. Marvel while carefully applying
eyeliner. Nishka thought superheroine
Kamala Khan and her friend Bruno had to
end up together. In the last issue, Bruno
blabbered on and on about Kamala’s great
qualities. She told him he could continue,
but he blushed and stopped.
Morgan argued it was clear that
Kamala and her best friend from school,
Nakia, were in love. Kamala saved her
first from the weird goopy prisons for
captured millennials.
“That’s ridiculous,” Nishka said.
“They’re Muslim and go to mosque. They
can’t see each other!”
Morgan shrugged, pushing the pencil
a few centimeters further for cat eyes.
Nishka watched her, then sat still on the
toilet seat as Morgan held her chin and
traced her eyelids.
They squeezed into red and blue
spandex jumpsuits, Nishka’s with a
glitter-glued lightning bolt down the
front and Morgan’s a star. They’d found
them in Gene’s Costumes a year ago,
back when they didn’t tell anyone what
they were doing, back when dressing
up wasn’t terrifying, months looming
ahead of them.
Nishka’s boobs looked fuller in her
jumpsuit, and her belly was more notice-
able. She didn’t complain to Morgan.
Morgan turned around and slid her hand
down her ass, which Nishka thought
looked great in her spandex suit. “No
wrinkles,” Morgan said.
They pinned capes on each other, safe-
ty pins sticking out of their mouths.
Nishka passed a tube of red lipstick to
Morgan. She slowly spread the lipstick on
her lower lip, then her top. She kept reap-
plying until Nishka thought she’d use it all
up. “I’m going to take this with, you know,
in case we need a touchup,” Morgan said.
She slid the lipstick under the thigh of her
skin-tight skirt.
They didn’t linger in the mirror,
because then they’d never go. They
grabbed the passes hanging on Nishka’s
bedpost and got into Morgan’s car. When
they pulled into the Glenmont parking lot,
Morgan turned to Nishka.
“Ready for this, Nish?”
She nodded, and they pushed through
the doors. Nishka’s red cape brushed her
ankles as they walked to the Metro. She
hoped she wouldn’t trip over it. That
would just be great. Fool in Costume Falls
onto Tracks, she thought, imagining a
newspaper headline. Costumed Crazy
Creates Chaos.
They waited for the Red Line. It
was packed for a baseball game, so they
pushed through the Red Sea of fans and
held onto a pole in the center.
A little girl sitting nearby kept staring
at Morgan. She tugged on her mom’s
sleeve and pointed. “They’re playing
dress-up,” the girl said. Her mom nodded.
Morgan felt her cheeks blush.
The train lurched forward and pushed
Morgan into a nearby passenger’s back.
“Watch it!” he shrieked through his
scruffy brown beard. Morgan apologized
quickly and inched closer to Nishka. She
leaned against the pole, squeezing her
feet around its base for balance. They
transferred at Fort Totten and got on a
Green Line train.
Morgan and Nishka swayed as the
train made its way downtown. Morgan
tried to get the Scooby Doo porn she
watched last night out of her head. The
one where Velma and Daphne undressed
in a scary old house, took turns kissing
each other’s clits. There was a full scene
of the gang running naked from the bad
guy, in and out of doorways, just like the
old cartoons. She tried to ignore how
turned on she got, how much she wanted
to taste Nishka.
“It’s our stop,” Nishka said, tapping
Morgan’s shoulder. She looked out the
window and saw a sign for Mount Vernon
Square on the tunnel wall. She was glad
Nishka paid attention to each station as
they stopped. She rarely rode the Green
Line, but could fall asleep on either end
of the Red Line and know when to jolt
herself awake.
As they rose from the tunnels of D.C.
on the escalator, the city felt slightly dif-
ferent. People still stared at them, still
whistled as the girls walked along — but
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
somehow it mattered less now.
A few blocks out of the Metro, Morgan
sucked in a breath and took Nishka’s
hand. Nishka hid her widening eyes
under her wig. Stop biting your lips. Stop
it, she thought.
Nishka’s hand was clammy, so
Morgan let go. Morgan’s heartbeat was
in her throat. She saw another person in
a masked costume — with webs wrapped
around his palms. She pointed and Nishka
smiled.
“What if we’re the only ones with
handmade costumes?” Nishka asked.
“We won’t be,” Morgan said. “Even if
we are, there’s some pretty shitty store-
bought ones.” She nudged her shoulder.
“Nish, hold up, I have to tie my boots.”
She lifted her cape and put her right
foot on a bench. Leaning over, she laced
her red-heeled boots that she’d found a
few weeks ago on sale in the back of DSW.
Nishka heard a group of guys passing
them. They were telling stories about
a bar crawl they’d gone on last night. A
few of them pointed out the costumed
weirdos up ahead, “Look, there’s more of
them,” she heard one say. Another was
blatantly staring at Morgan’s ass while
she bent to reach her boots. The guy
fished in his pocket and held up his phone
like he was checking a text. He walked
slower.
Nishka narrowed her eyes. “Hey,” she
found herself shouting, “go take a picture
of your own ass!”
Morgan looked up and threw her cape
over herself with such force that Nishka’s
bangs fluttered. The guy raised his eye-
brows but kept his phone up. Cocking her
head, Morgan flipped him off. The guys
scoffed and left.
“Sorry,” Nishka said. “I should’ve
known they would do something stupid.”
“It’s okay, you said something,”
Morgan said. “Was he really trying to take
a picture of my ass?” Nishka nodded and
rolled her eyes. “Typical,” Morgan said,
patting her ass. They laughed and walked
on to the convention center. Morgan
glanced at Nishka’s hand again, but she
didn’t hold it.
“You’re officially my ass-savior.”
“What a title,” Nishka said. “I’m hon-
ored.”
When they reached the festival
entrance, they left themselves outside and
walked in as Wonder Women.
Wonder Women was first published in
Paper Darts on September 29, 2016. For
more information on Marlena Chertock,
visit marlenachertock.com.
29
Lindsay Lohan
By Stephen Zerance
From a collection of poems entitled Safe
Danger
S
EDATE IN YOUR MUG-SHOT,
I’d worry
my eyebrows weren’t impeccably
plucked,
my chin double.
I’d love to be unable to move my face.
Pinch my skin taut behind my ears.
Pump my lips. Pump them
to a permanent Lindsay pout.
I don’t fear needles, incisions, or drills.
File my teeth down to the nub. Give me
veneers. I’ve got a daily ritual:
eye serums, white-strips, line breakers,
ten push-ups each time I walk into
my bedroom, crunches over crunches
over lies.
Suck my stomach to permanent morning.
Snap my nose straight.
Lindsay, I’d steal that necklace.
And I’d wear it out in public for everyone
to notice. Because it was mine. Because
if you believe so deeply that something
is yours, that it belongs to you, then it
does.
Safe Danger releases August 15 and is
available to preorder on Amazon.com.
Silver Moon
By Catherine Lundoff
B
ECCA THORNTON’S FIRST
hot flash came on suddenly
and unexpectedly, superheating
her body from head to toe until she was
drenched with sweat. It propelled her off
the couch and into the bathroom to splash
cold water on her face. As the water dripped
down her cheeks, she glanced at her toma-
to-like complexion and bit off a shriek.
There had been something new in
her reflection, a flickering of golden eyes
and fur, visible for the blink of an eye.
Something feral and wild strained its way
toward the surface behind her otherwise
utterly normal features. What the hell?
She closed her eyes, shutting out the hal-
lucination or whatever it was.
Everything slowed down for a min-
ute, as if this new wildness that lurked
inside her was being locked back in its
cage. When she looked again, there was
nothing new and terrifying to be seen.
Her own face, round and furless, stared
back at her, brown eyes startled but per-
fectly ordinary. It was a face like that of
30 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
any other woman of a certain age in a
one-horse town like Wolf’s Point. For a
moment, she wondered if this gradual
softening and rounding of features, this
planing away of the sharp edges, was
what they all had in common.
But the thought was overwhelmed by
a second, milder flash. Becca lurched out-
side and dropped onto her porch swing,
the fan in her hand trying to supplement
the tiny morning breeze. She rocked slow-
ly back and forth and cursed turning fifty,
but silently so that the neighbors wouldn’t
notice. Here in Wolf’s Point, they noticed
quite a bit from what she’d gathered.
Across the street, her neighbor Erin
walked out on her porch and Becca gave
her a half-hearted wave. Just her luck,
Erin waved back then started over. This
wasn’t going to help cool her down much,
that was for sure.
Erin wasn’t like the rest of the towns-
folk, at least as far as Becca was con-
cerned. She’d only been Becca’s neighbor
for about two years, which made her a
little exotic by itself. Most of the other
neighbors had been there forever. While
Becca hadn’t asked, she assumed that like
her, Erin had married into Wolf’s Point,
then lost her husband somewhere along
the way and bought a house on a quiet
street outside the downtown hub. Wasn’t
that what single women of a certain age
did with themselves once their husbands
were gone, one way or another?
But regardless of how she came to be
there, just talking to Erin made Becca feel
different, kind of shy and squirmy inside.
It was weird; she hadn’t had trouble
talking to anyone or even speaking in front
of an audience for ages now. Everyone said
she was the one of the best speakers at
the Wolf’s Point Women’s Club. After all,
she’d been doing that kind of stuff since Ed
dumped her two years ago.
That, of course, sent her overheated
brain spiraling off into thoughts about
her ex. She and Ed had met at a bank in
the city where she worked as a teller and
he was trying to get a loan. After they got
married, they’d moved around the coun-
try while he worked at too many sales
jobs for her to remember and she worked
at whatever was available. It had been a
mostly good fifteen years, though she had
missed settling down and really building a
home, maybe raising a family.
Then they moved to Wolf’s Point and
everything changed. Ed decided his life
was incomplete unless he got himself a
twenty something blonde and a sports
car and that, as they said, was that. She
wondered if it made him feel any younger.
Good luck to him and his trophy bimbo she
thought contemptuously and smiled at
how little the thought bothered her any-
more. It had been a long time coming, but
it felt good to be leaving him like so much
baggage on the side of the road, just like
he’d done to her.
Erin arrived on the heels of her smile.
“Hey there. Pretty hot out this morning,
huh?” She grinned the slow lazy smile
that always made Becca think about
cowboys. Cowgirls. Whatever. Maybe it
was her neighbor’s long lean body or her
short-cropped graying hair. Or the slow
way she talked, like she’d just ridden in off
the range. It wasn’t too much of a leap to
picture her on horseback.
Becca dragged her mind back to the
present and gave herself a stern mental
admonition to stop daydreaming. “Yep.
And I’m even hotter on top of that.” She
rolled her eyes and fanned faster, like that
was going to help. It wasn’t quite what she
meant to say but she figured it would pass
without comment.
It didn’t. Erin raised an eyebrow and
cocked her head to one side like a big dog.
“No question about that. Or am I missing
something?”
Becca felt a flush paint her cheeks and
nearly hid her face in her fan just like an
old-time court lady. But, of course, Erin
hadn’t meant anything by it. Not like there
was anything to mean for that matter.
Who’d say something like that about her
middle-aged dumpy self anymore?
“I’m...extra warm today. I seem to be
coming up on the ‘Change’,” she mumbled
finally when she realized Erin was still
waiting for an answer. She could almost
hear the word spelled with a nearly invis-
ible capital letter “C.”
Erin’s grin turned a little strange, as
if her face was somehow longer than it
should be. Becca blinked and tried to
convince herself it was just a trick of the
morning light. Her neighbor’s face looked
normal enough when she looked back up:
broad cheeks, silvery gray eyes with a hint
of blue, cheerful grin exposing slightly
crooked teeth.
“Well,” Erin said at last, “this calls for a
celebration. We usually hold a little party
down at the Women’s Club when that
time of life comes around for one of our
members.”
“News to me. No one ever said any-
thing about it before. This one of those
Red Hat things?” Becca scowled. Why
would Erin know something like this
when she didn’t? After all, she’d been a
member for two whole years, for God’s
sake, a whole year longer than Erin, as far
as she knew. She was even in the running
to be Club Secretary in the next election Two-Spirits Your hate
Your anger
if all went well. But she’d be damned if
she was putting on a red hat and a feather Belong Here Your disapproval
Your confusion
boa, no matter how much fun everyone By Xemiyulu Tapepechul Creates a culture of exclusion
else said it was. A culture of erasure

I
Erin grinned a little wider as if she S THERE A PLACE FOR TWO-SPIRITS A culture of genocide
was imagining Becca in the hat and the in the Native community? A culture that says it’s okay to not make
boa. Becca wondered what else she was Does our queerness space
wearing in the other woman’s imagina- Our transness To make fun
tion and flushed even more. Now, where Our non binary physicality To ignore
had that notion come from? This day got Threaten the Red Road? To kill.
any weirder and she was going to need to
go over to the clinic for a checkup. Do Creator’s children who don’t sub- Your ignorance is erasing us.
Erin’s voice cut into her thoughts, scribe Your erasure is killing us
“Nope. Can you really see me in a red hat, To white supremacy You are killing us.
much less a boa?” Becca glanced at her To the gender binary
scruffy plaid shirt and jeans and shook To transmisogyny Im afraid to call myself Two-Spirit
her head. Erin went on talking, “We just Not deserve a space? One day there will be zero Two-Spirits
get together, have some cake and a mar- Not deserve respect? left
garita or two and talk about some of the Not deserve life? You will destroy our communities.
things that made life easier when we first Your exclusion will drive us all into hid-
started going through that time of life. Do our lives ing.
Don’t spread the word too far though; Our existences Into questioning ourselves
we’re trying to keep the youngsters out Threaten yours? Am I Two-Spirit enough?
until they’re old enough to relate.” She
winked, a slow sensuous gesture that Are you afraid of the big brown weirdo? Am I?
made Becca smile despite herself. Erin The angry tranny? Am I?
continued, “Your schedule pretty open The pissed off queer? Am I?
Friday night? We like to run a little late Are you afraid that our brilliance
on these things.” Our majesty Does my queerness
Becca raised an eyebrow but nodded Our Creator granted glory My indigeneity
anyway. She was trying to picture the Will outshine yours? My Trans body
older members of their little club staying Qualify for Two-Spirit?
awake past nine and so far it wasn’t work- Are you uncomfortable with our presence
ing. But maybe she didn’t know them as here Does my detribalization
well as she thought she did. Erin made With our pride? My refuge
another comment or two about stopping With our existences? My separation from my people
by to pick her up on Friday, then took off. Are you uncomfortable that you would Take away from my queerness
Becca made herself not watch her choose My indigeneity
walk away, the fact that she wanted to do To not break bread with us? My transness
just that surprising her more than any- To not help when we have nothing left? My Two-Spiritedness?
thing else that had happened so far this No family.
morning. No resources. I am Two-Spirit enough.
Nothing but ourselves. I am my Ancestor’s descendant
An excerpt from Silver Moon: A Wolves of I come from Trancestors who gave me
Wolf’s Point Novel, first published in June Are you afraid that we will take you out? that right
2017, is available on Amazon.com. For Cause that’s what we’re afraid of. That power
more information on Catherine Lundoff, That privilege
visit catherinelundoff.net. Afraid of saying hello too kindly I am Two-Spirit.
Or goodbye too rudely And I belong here.
That my life to you
Has no worth Two spirits belong here
That my life to you We are still here
Is disposable We’ve always been here
That I won’t survive my next interaction And we will always be here
with you.
First published in 2018. For more informa-
That you’ll shun us from this space. tion on Xemiyulu Tapepechul, visit insta-
That you’ll deny us community. gram.com/XemiNeSiwayul. l
That you’ll kill us into extinction.

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 31


OUTWRITE 2018
READINGS, PANELS, WORKSHOPS
All OutWrite events, except Friday night’s kickoff
party, are free of charge and open to the public.
Friday, Aug. 3
Laughing Out Loud
An kick-off party with Michelle Tea,
as well as comedy sets by Anthony
Oakes, Camille Roberts, and Joanna
Cifredo. Hosted by Chelsea Shorte.
6:30-9:30 p.m.
Ten Tigers Parlour
3813 Georgia Ave. NW
$15 in advance, $20 at door
Saturday, Aug. 4
All events take place in the Reeves
Center, 2000 14th St. NW.
Exhibitor Booths
Booksellers, authors, artisan tea
makers, jewelry designers, custom
T-shirt designers, and other groups
sell their wares.
10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Love Lines and Life Lines
A reading with Kathy Anderson,
Larry Benjamin, Rashid Darden, and
Randi Triant.
10-11 a.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Between Worlds
A speculative fiction reading fea-
turing Genevieve Iseult Eldredge,
Racheline Maltese, Jenn Polish, and
Don Sakers.
10-11 a.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Mining Trauma for Writing
Michelle Tea, Tafisha Edwards,
Kosoko Jackson, Jen Fitzgerald, and
Mary Anne Mohanraj on how writers
can delve into pain and traumas
to find stories. Moderator: Sunny
Moraine.
10-11 a.m.
Panel Lounge
Like Copper on their Tongues
A speculative fiction reading with
Jacob Budenz, Marianne Kirby,
Catherine Lundoff, and Krystal
Smith.
11 a.m.-Noon
Downstairs Reading Room
Lessons in Unlearning
A poetry reading with Marcos
Martinez, Jen Fitzgerald, Alexis
Smithers, and Tyler Vile.
11 a.m.-Noon
Reading Room
Writing Nonbinary Characters
A.M. Dellamonica moderates a craft
panel on writing nuanced, complex
nonbinary characters. Panelists
include Brit Mandelo, Racheline
Maltese, Jenn Polish, Xemiyulu
Manibusan, and Carmen Phelps.
11 a.m.-Noon
Panel Lounge
32 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
On a Pale Horse
A speculative fiction reading with
Alexa Black, Jackie D, Lyle Blake
Smythers, and Victoria Zelvin.
Noon-1 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Oceans of Salt & Longing
A poetry reading with Erica Hughes,
Victoria Newton Ford, and Cantrice
Janelle Penn
Noon-1 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Worldbuilding for Experts and
Beginners
Jenn Polish moderates a panel for
speculative fiction writers on how
to create nuanced, complex worlds
in their works. Panelists include
Melissa Scott, Alexis Smithers,
Kosoko Jackson, and Marco
Gonzalez.
Noon-1 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Limelight & Dial Tones
A poetry and fiction reading with
Temim Fruchter, Gar McVey-Russell,
Philip Dean Walker, and Stephen
Zerance.
1-2 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Keynote: Michelle Tea
In a live recorded event for literary
podcast Lit!Pop!Bang!, Tea will read
from her work, Against Memoir,
where she blurs the line between
telling other people’s stories and her
own, and reflects on the extent to
which art preys on life.
1-2 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Writing Horror
Tips and advice for horror writers
with Craig L. Gidney, Marianne
Kirby, Jackie D, and Sunny Moraine.
Moderator: Catherine Lundoff.
1-2 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Love Redefined
A young adult reading with Tom
Wilinsky and Jen Sternick, Kosoko
Jackson, Marco Gonzalez, and
NoNieqa Ramos-Richards.
2-3 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Hommes Fatale & Hard Dammes
A crime fiction reading with
John Copenhaver, Dale Corvino,
Georgette Gouveia, and Cheryl
Head.
2-3 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Writing Sex
How to write successful sex and
romance scenes, with authors Lara
Elena Donnelly, Michael M Jones,
Mary Anne Mohanraj, Alexa Black,
and Don Sakers. Moderator: Marcos
Martinez.
2-3 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Burn it All Down
A poetry reading with Marlena
Chertock, Elizabeth Hodge, Ben
Robinson, and Lauren Sotolongo.
3-4 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Femmes, Floozies, and Elder
Things
A speculative fiction reading with
Lara Elena Donnelly, Ruthanna
Emrys, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and
Sunny Moraine.
3-4 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Hidden Histories
Jade Salazar moderates a panel
exploring research, writing, history,
and queer lives. Panelists include
Jose Gutierrez, John Copenhaver,
Xemiyulu Manibusan, and Tsaitami
Duchicela.
3-4 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Feral Dreams
A speculative fiction reading with
A.M. Dellamonica, Craig L. Gidney,
Brit Mandelo, and Melissa Scott.
Downstairs Reading Room
Quick & Dirty
Billed as a “literary lightning round,”
Rayceen Pendarvis hosts readings
of short stories by nine different
authors.
4-5 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
We Will Not Be Erased
Marlena Chertock moderates a
panel exploring disability, the body,
and queerness as resistance.
Panelists include Elizabeth Hodge,
Day Al-Mohamed, Carmen Phelps,
Xemiyulu Manibusan, and Temim
Fruchter.
4-5 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Truth, Lies & In Between
A memoir and fiction reading with
Rayne Alexander, LaToya Hankins,
Anthony Moll, and Carmen Phelps.
5-6 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
MelaNation Poets
A poetry reading featuring writers
of color, including Kendra Allen,
Jonathan Butler, Delan Ellington,
Ayaana Marie, Uptown Shane, and
Buddah Desmond.
5-6 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
Fanpersoning
Ben Beaury moderates a panel
exploring inclusion and geek culture,
featuring Robb Pearlman, Maria
Aragon, Tom Lotito, and Rob Gates.
5-6 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Connecting: From the Page to An
Audience
A panel offering ideas on how
writers can connect live in reading
or spoken word performances.
Moderator: Dale Corvino.
6-7 p.m.
Downstairs Reading Room
Cafe y Pan Dulce
A poetry reading with Latinx authors
Milagros Chirinos, Monica Dame,
Tsai Duchicela, Roland Gutierrez,
Salvador Torres-Martinez, Juaniorex
Cemicaonani, Master Taino, and
Jose Gutierrez.
6-7 p.m.
Upstairs Reading Room
The Road Before Us
Gar McVey-Russell and Philip
Robinson moderate a panel focusing
on queer black writing in the current
political climate.
6-7 p.m.
Panel Lounge
Sunday, Aug. 5
Writing as a Team
Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick,
co-authors of the young adult novel,
Snowsisters, discuss how authors
can team up to write together. The
authors incorporate their own experi-
ences drafting, querying, publishing,
and marketing their book and pro-
vide practical tips.
10-11 a.m.
Back Meeting Room
How to Pitch Your Book
Marcos Martinez and Dani Badra
hold an information session for bud-
ding writers on the ins and outs of
writing cover letters, refining book
pitches, and finding publishers and
agents.
Noon-1 p.m.
Front Conference Room
Dialogue in Fiction
John Copenhaver leads a workshop
on mastering dialogue as a form of
effective storytelling.
Noon-1 p.m.
Back Meeting Room
From Prep to the Page
Day Al-Mohamed and Marianne
Kirby on how to move from an idea
to a finished draft.
2-3 p.m.
Front Conference Room
Storytelling Workshop
Phil Branch on how to turn one of
your experiences into an engaging
spoken-word story for an audience.
2-3 p.m.
Back Meeting Room l
ANN RAY
Movies

known, could be a handful. McQueen was

open about being a perfectionist prick

Fashion Platter
when he deemed it necessary, as well as
in discussing his partying, sex life, drug
abuse, and taking a dive into kink and
fetish. A mercurial artist, he readily admit-
The documentary McQueen captures the illustrious designer’s
ted to his many demons, and to exorcising
career as a symphony of genius, exultation, them by creating attire that expressed his
and depression. By André Hereford dark visions and “vulgar” humor.

T
His gothic obsession with blood, bones,
HOSE WHO TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES ARE REMEMBERED FOR THE and viscera played out among the refined
deed, and, despite any other accomplishments, for leaving behind a practically beauty of more than one collection, many
unsolvable mystery. Lee Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide eight of which are featured here in lush cuts
years ago at the age of 40, should and will be remembered for his visionary designs, and of McQueen’s clothes on the catwalk.
fashion that was daring yet elegant, slightly morbid, and utterly compelling. The fashion shows, including his Parisian
His vision inspires the documentary McQueen (HHHHH), a film that conveys all haute couture collections as creative
those aforementioned qualities, while showing how the troubled genius translated director at Givenchy, portray who he was
emotion into garments. If clothes can produce a feeling, then McQueen’s produced and what he was about better than talking-
them in abundance. In his own words, the always cheeky Londoner intended to see head interviews ever could.
people either repulsed or exhilarated by his creations. His work often was met with a For many, the runway shows might
combination of the two. prove to be the film’s main attraction.
A robust character on-screen, McQueen deconstructs his art in his own words The screen lights up with footage of
throughout the film. Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui weave their story McQueen’s thrilling MA degree show at
around a judicious quantity of interviews and archival video of the designer at every the ’92 London Fashion Week, or of super-
point of his illustrious career, from struggle to success. From a youngster talking about model Shalom Harlow rotating on a ped-
buying fabrics with his unemployment money, to a millionaire mogul stressing over estal as her McQueen dress is painted by
producing up to 14 collections in a year, McQueen mostly narrates his rise himself. robots for McQueen #13.
The footage also freely expresses his various moods, revealing a spectrum of bril- The film dices the designer’s too-brief
liant joy and color around devotees like fashionista Isabella Blow, or grim anger and life into five sections, each focused on a
darkness around perceived threats like Isabella Blow. period that’s highlighted by one or two
On-camera interviews with McQueen’s family and former colleagues, ex-boyfriends, pivotal collections. McQueen persuasively
and Blow’s widower, Detmar, a character unto himself, emphasize that Lee, as he was connects those collections of clothes to

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 33

the elements of art, music, literature, and history that informed enough camera time here. More importantly, the filmmakers
the designs. In particular, McQueen derived energy and fluidity back up the spectacle with well-chosen words and images to put
from working along to the sweeping music of award-winning the clothes and the reaction all into context.
composer Michael Nyman (The Piano), and that energy is trans- Whatever past or present obsessions, or underlying pain,
mitted powerfully by the use of Nyman’s music to score the fueled that collection and every other one, the mystery of
documentary. McQueen is somewhat illuminated by a film that allows him to
McQueen talks about how he also derived inspiration from speak so articulately for himself. Yet, he and his clothes retain a
his depression and insecurities, from growing up gay, a sweet valuable air of mystery that only deepened with his death.
boy from the East End, one of six children of a schoolteacher and As shown by the film, his suicide was a loss not just to his
a taxi driver. He and his sister Janet both discuss how, as a boy, family and friends, but to fashion. In the wake of his sudden
Lee was physically abused by Janet’s husband, who also abused death, McQueen’s contributions to the artform were celebrated
her. The designer gave shape to some of that personal trauma, with the landmark 2011 exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage
along with his Scottish heritage and history, in his ’95 fall collec- Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If this documentary
tion, the Highland Rape. suffers any significant lack, it’s in the absence here of any images
A tartan-tinged outrage of bare chests and torn frocks, the from Savage Beauty, which was a stunning display of artistry and
Highland Rape collection showed in London’s Natural History glamour that added to the designer’s legacy, much as this film
Museum to a hail of appalled headlines, and it receives just might do for new audiences. l
McQueen is rated R, and opens on Friday, Aug. 3 at Landmark’s E Street Cinema in D.C. and at the
Angelika Film Center Mosaic in Virginia. Visit landmarktheatres.com or angelikafilmcenter.com.

— but really she’s the Ethel to McKinnon’s

Lucy, though that comparison is a stretch.
In the annals of great comedy duos, the
team of Kunis and McKinnon won’t be
missed.
The duo does, however, conjure a
believable rapport as ride-or-die homies
who’d face down a warehouse full of
gun-wielding terrorists to save each other.
The positivity relayed by their relation-
ship, and by McKinnon’s elastic mugging,
mark the movie’s high points. McKinnon’s
eccentric, and apparently sexually fluid,
Morgan offers more intrigue than the
movie’s spy games.
The action is nondescript, except for
Fogel’s commitment to climaxing fight
scenes with needlessly violent deaths.
Villains meet their bloody ends by means

Spy Dames
of guns, knives, explosions, impalement
on an iron beam, and death by fondue pot.
The results are occasionally gruesome,
but the tone stays light, almost obliviously
so, in the vein of “Omigod, you totally just
The Spy Who Dumped Me drops two wacky BFF’s into the center
killed that guy — awesome!”
of international espionage and one leaden The comical disregard for life fits right
action-comedy. By André Hereford in with the film’s disregard for financial

K
reality. Audrey, a store cashier, is happy
ATE MCKINNON DOES A LOT OF HEAVY LIFTING TRYING TO KEEP to jet with her friend from L.A. to Vienna,
the slapstick caper The Spy Who Dumped Me (HHHHH) from sinking like a then to Prague and Paris on her own
stone in the Seine. The effort shows, but there’s not much the Emmy-winner dime, from what we’re shown. Seemingly
and her costar Mila Kunis, as best friends suddenly thrust into a deadly spy mission, can as a self-parodying nod to the opulent
do to counteract the weak plotting, leaden timing, and uninspired action sequences. location-hopping of blockbuster spy thrill-
Director Susanna Fogel (Life Partners) invests the film’s purpose in depicting the ers, The Spy Who Dumped Me opens in
loyal, resilient friendship of Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon). They’re just Lithuania, and also makes a quick stop in
two regular Jills living in L.A. who find themselves in possession of a mysterious Budapest, for no reason at all, and a trip
“package” that’s fiercely coveted by agents of the CIA, MI6, and some phantom ter- to Amsterdam, just because. The story
rorist organization called the Highland. lands twice in Berlin, but never arrives
On the run from assassins, and chasing after Audrey’s secret agent ex, Drew (Justin at any reasonable, or funny, explanation
Theroux), the ladies prove to each other again and again that they’ll have each other’s for who’s funding Audrey and Morgan’s
back. Kunis gets a dull love interest — an agent played by Outlander’s Sam Heughan excellent adventure. l

The Spy Who Dumped Me is rated R, and opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, August 3. Visit fandango.com.

34 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Stage

c
SCOTT SUCHMAN

First, there’s Dave, who, inspired by his

Pretender-in-Chief
idol Abraham Lincoln, gets comfortable
impersonating a thoughtful, warm, and
caring leader. Meanwhile, the masterminds
behind the charade — the President’s cor-
The songs are a bit lackluster, but the comedy absolutely slays rupt chief of staff, Bob Alexander (Douglas
in Arena’s movie-to-musical adaptation, Dave. By André Hereford Sills), and communications director, Susan
Lee (Bryonha Marie Parham) — work their

I
VAN REITMAN’S DAVE DID RESPECTABLE BUSINESS AT THE BOX OFFICE own agendas.
when the comedy was released in 1993, but it’s far from being considered a quotable Parham and Sills pair wonderfully as
classic of Hollywood cinema. Instead, it’s remembered mostly as a decent Kevin the good-cop, bad-cop team in Dave’s cor-
Kline vehicle from an era rife with middling Kline-starring comedies (French Kiss, any- ner. While she brings a bright wit and
one?), and for Gary Ross’s Oscar-nominated screenplay about a presidential imperson- voice to her turn as a villain who views
ator improbably called to the White House to impersonate the actual president. high crimes as Washington’s business
Whatever its merits, the movie was nowhere near as hilarious as the new musical as usual, Sills, a Tony nominee for The
adaptation, Dave ( ), now up on its feet with a Broadway-bound production Scarlet Pimpernel, gradually twists the cal-
at Arena Stage. Thomas Meehan and Nell Benjamin, writers of the show’s snappy book, lous Alexander into knots that unravel
have constructed a solid, song-enhanced parable that director Tina Landau stages as a delightfully in “Kill That Guy,” one of the
fast-talking screwball comedy. show’s few standout songs.
Introduced as the titular Dave Kovic, a conscientious high school history teach- The other truly distinctive tune belongs
er, leading man Drew Gehling seems at first improbable as a guy playing a guy who to Dave’s leading lady, the President’s wife,
resembles a U.S. president. Then, the show brings Gehling out as Dave’s doppelganger, Ellen Mitchell, who’s sung and embodied
President Bill Mitchell, the type of politician who grouses about snowflakes, and the by Mamie Parris with the heart that the
dual roles click. The actor’s (and Mitchell’s) resemblance to Speaker Paul Ryan sells the story’s romance requires. Ellen’s “The Last
idea that a weenie like Mitchell might make it to the Oval Office. Time I Fake It,” is a fabulous tell-off that
Plying Dave’s aw-shucks earnestness opposite Mitchell’s polished sliminess, shimmies like Latin ballroom, though no
Gehling performs a winning double act as a comic foil to himself. The script also drums one onstage is dancing that hard. Landau
up drollery in the topical details and occasionally the jokes sting, with jabs at all sides of and choreographer Sam Pinkleton find
government, via the plotting of various White House players trying to wield the power crafty uses for the ensemble — as a swarm
of the Mitchell presidency for their own ends. of reporters, or as a chorus line of Secret

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 35


SCOTT SUCHMAN
Service agents — but, in general, this musical’s moves are more
Secret Service stiff than footloose and fancy free.
There might be more jazz in set designer Dane Laffrey’s
circling walls of scenery. They add a Sorkin-esque West Wing
dash to Landau’s movement of the characters through the White
House, or in Gehling’s case, in and out of costume during quick,
unseen changes between Dave and Mitchell.
The mechanics of the quick-changes and set moves most like-
ly would differ for Broadway, as will perhaps the running time.
If any production number should happen to get lost on the way
Dave runs to August 19 at Arena Stage, 1101 6th St. SW. Tickets are $55 to $90. Call 202-488-3300, or visit arenastage.org.
36 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
to New York, it might well be “Presidential Party,”
a goofy dream sequence of dancing dead presidents
that even the best performers can’t kick into life.
The score, featuring lyrics by Benjamin and
music by Tom Kitt, one of Landau’s collaborators
on the Tony-winning hit SpongeBob SquarePants,
isn’t bursting with hummable appeal, and the most
memorable musical moment isn’t generated by one
of their tunes. Dana Costello, onstage in a number of
roles, brings laughs aplenty as a teen pop star who
adds her own notes to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The songs (other than “Presidential Party”)
tell Dave’s story simply, and the score does
supply music for the characters who most
urgently have something to say. That includes
the President’s personal security detail,
Secret Service Agent Duane Bolden (Joshua
Breckenridge), who expresses the griev-
ance of generations of servicemen in “Not My Problem.”
Breckenridge, one of Broadway’s original Scottsboro Boys,
contributes a quiet grace performing a man of very few
words — usually, just the same three words, in fact.
The script is packed with juicy plums to ponder — “No one
wants to admit they fell in love with an asshole” — while being
laugh out loud funny. Peak TV, and the HBO series Veep, in par-
ticular, have set a high bar for depicting the halls of presidential
power as a playground for broad comedy. Dave clears the bar
with its cast, its message, and its humor, if not its songbook. l
NightLife Photography by
Ward Morrison

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 37


DrinksDragDJsEtc...
Thursday,
August 2
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
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Karaoke, 9pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
• Shirtless Thursday,
10-11pm • Men in
Underwear Drink Free,
12-12:30am • DJs
BacK2bACk
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
38 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Scene
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets
of Beer all night • Sports
Leagues Night
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Doors open, 5pm-2am •
Happy Hour: $2 off every-
thing until 9pm • Visit
facebook.com/PitchersDC
or pitchersbardc.com
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
• All-You-Can-Eat Ribs,
$24.95, 5-10pm • $4
Heineken and Corona
all night
Ziegfeld’s / Secrets - Saturday, July 21
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene
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
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers •
Open Dancers Audition •
Urban House Music by DJ
Tim-e • 9pm • Cover 21+
Friday,
August 3
9 1/2
Open at 5pm • Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
5-9pm • Friday Night
Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating
DJs • Expanded craft beer
selection • No Cover
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Karaoke, 9pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3
Rail and Domestic • Free
Pizza, 7-9pm • $5 Svedka,
all flavors, all night long
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Open 3pm • Beat the
Clock Happy Hour — $2
(5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4
(7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer,
$15 • Weekend Kickoff
Dance Party, with Nellie’s
DJs spinning bubbly pop
music all night
NUMBER NINE
Open 5pm • Happy Hour:
2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm
• No Cover • Friday Night
Piano with Chris, 7:30pm
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Doors open, 5pm-3am •
Happy Hour: $2 off every-
thing until 9pm • Visit
facebook.com/PitchersDC
or pitchersbardc.com
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
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 • Otter Happy
Hour, 5-11pm
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm •
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,
August 4
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
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 • REWIND:
Request Line, an ‘80s
and ‘90s Dance Party,
9pm-close • Featuring
DJ Darryl Strickland •
No Cover
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Drag Brunch, hosted
by Chanel Devereaux,
10:30am-12:30pm and
1-3pm • Tickets on sale
at nelliessportsbar.com
• House Rail Drinks, Zing
Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie
Beer and Mimosas, $4,
11am-3am • 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
• Time Machine and
Power Hour, featuring DJ
Jack Rayburn, 9:30pm
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Doors open, 12pm-3am
• Visit facebook.com/
PitchersDC or pitchers-
bardc.com
SHAW’S TAVERN
Brunch with $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 • The
Harvey Sometimes Band,
Second Floor, 9pm
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,
AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 39
2-10pm • Beer and wine FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR NUMBER NINE TRADE GREEN LANTERN Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
only $4 Champagne Brunch Buffet, Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour, 4-9pm • and Select Appetizers •
10am-3pm • $24.99 with any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Happy Hour: Any drink $3 rail cocktails and Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS four glasses of champagne Absolut and $5 Bulleit normally served in a cock- domestic beers all night Jeremy, 7:30pm
Dance Party, 9pm • Guest or mimosas, 1 Bloody Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop tail glass served in a huge long • Singing with the
dancers • Music by DJ Mary, or coffee, soda or Goes the World with Wes glass for the same price, Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke TRADE
Steve Henderson • Ladies juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm Della Volla at 9:30pm • 2-10pm • Beer and wine Night with the Sisters Doors open 5pm • Huge
of Illusion Drag Show, • Zodiac Monthly Drag No Cover only $4 of Perpetual Indulgence, Happy Hour: Any drink
featuring Ella Fitzgerald Contest, hosted by Ophelia 9:30pm-close normally served in a cock-
• Doors at 9pm, Shows Bottoms, 8pm • Karaoke, PITCHERS tail glass served in a huge
at 11:30pm and 1:45am • 10pm-close 2317 18th St. NW NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR glass for the same price,
Cover 21+
GREEN LANTERN
Doors open, 12pm-2am
• $4 Smirnoff, includes
Monday, Beat the Clock Happy Hour
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • flavored, $4 Coors Light or August 6 $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Karaoke with Kevin down- $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm Beer, $15 • Half-Priced
Sunday, stairs, 9:30pm-close 9 1/2 Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm

August 5 NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR

SHAW’S TAVERN
Brunch with Bottomless
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
• PokerFace Poker, 8pm •
Dart Boards • Ping Pong
Tuesday,
Drag Brunch, hosted Mimosas, 10am-3pm • TVs showing movies, Madness, featuring 2 Ping- August 7
9 1/2 by Chanel Devereaux, Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 shows, sports • Expanded Pong Tables
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any 10:30am-12:30pm and Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, craft beer selection • 9 1/2
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut 1-3pm • Tickets on sale $5 House Wines, $5 Rail No Cover NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, at nelliessportsbar.com Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
9pm-close • Multiple TVs • House Rail Drinks, Zing and Select Appetizers FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR drink, 5-9pm • No Cover TVs showing movies,
showing movies, shows, Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie • Dinner-n-Drag, with Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • shows, sports • Expanded
sports • Expanded craft Beer and Mimosas, $4, Miss Kristina Kelly, 7pm Singles Night • Half-Priced SHAW’S TAVERN craft beer selection •
beer selection • No Cover 11am-1am • Buckets of • For reservations, email Pasta Dishes • Poker Night Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 No Cover
Beer, $15 • Guest DJs shawsdinnerdragshow@ — 7pm and 9pm games • Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
gmail.com Karaoke, 9pm $5 House Wines, $5 Rail

40 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 41
 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR NUMBER NINE
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
Tuesday • Poker Night — drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
7pm and 9pm games •
Karaoke, 9pm PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
GREEN LANTERN Doors open, 5pm-12am •
Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm Happy Hour: $2 off every-
• $3 rail cocktails and thing until 9pm • Visit
domestic beers all night facebook.com/PitchersDC
long or pitchersbardc.com
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SHAW’S TAVERN
Beat the Clock Happy Hour Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of $5 House Wines, $5 Rail
Beer $15 • Drag Bingo Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
with Sasha Adams and and Select Appetizers •
Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Half-Priced Burgers and
Karaoke, 9pm-close Pizzas all night with $5
House Wines and $5 Sam
Adams
42 AUGUST 2, 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
Wednesday,
August 8
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
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 SmartAss Trivia Night,
Burgers • Beach Blanket 8-10pm • Prizes include
Drag Bingo Night, hosted bar tabs and tickets to
by Ms. Regina Jozet shows at the 9:30 Club •
Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes $15 Buckets of Beer for
• Karaoke, 10pm-1am SmartAss Teams only •
Absolutely Snatched Drag
GREEN LANTERN Show, hosted by Brooklyn
Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm • Heights, 9pm • Tickets
Bear Yoga with Greg Leo, available at nelliessports-
6:30-7:30pm • $10 per
class • $3 rail cocktails
bar.com
and domestic beers all NUMBER NINE
night long Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
PITCHERS
2317 18th St. NW
Doors open, 5pm-12am •
Happy Hour: $2 off every-
thing until 9pm • Visit
facebook.com/PitchersDC
or pitchersbardc.com
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 •
Piano Bar and Karaoke
with Jill, 8pm
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 l
 Scene
Lights Out Swimsuit Party with Amanda Lepore and DJ Hannah at L8 Lounge
Friday, July 19 • Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

44 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 45
 LastWord.
People say the queerest things

“I made a decision long ago to live an authentic life

”
and if my being named CEO helps others do the same, that’s a wonderful moment.

— BETH FORD, newly appointed CEO of Land O’Lakes, speaking to CNN after making history as the first out lesbian woman to run a
Fortune 500 company. “I am extraordinarily grateful to work at a company that values family, including my own,” Ford told CNN.
“The board chose the person they felt best met the criteria to drive success in the business.
I realize this is an important milestone for many people and I am pleased to share it.”

“Study after study reveals that

homosexuality...can take anywhere from 10, 20 to
30 years off of someone’s lifespan.”
— HARDY BILLINGTON, a Republican candidate for the Missouri State House, claiming in a newspaper ad in his Poplar Bluff home-
town that being gay is more harmful than smoking to a person’s life expectancy. “With all the attention on smoking, which the
National Cancer Institute says takes from seven to 10 years off someone’s life, why not the same human outcry
on homosexuality?“ Billington is widely expected to win his election.

“God’s love is inclusive.”

— An excerpt from a draft document by the ARCHDIOCESE OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN IN AUSTRALIA, which urges the Australian
Catholic Church to accept LGBTQ people. “The church has spent too much time excluding rather than including...women, LGBT
people, the divorced, [and] people of other religions,” the document reads. It also calls for women deacons and chaplains,
and married priests.

“ We must expand data collections efforts

to ensure the LGBTQ community is not only seen,
but fully accounted for
in terms of government resources provided.
”
— SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-Calif.), in a statement announcing the introduction of the Census Equality Act. Co-sponsored by Sen. Tom
Carper (D-Del.), the act would seek to reinstate LGBTQ-specific questions in the U.S. Census, which were removed by the Trump
administration. “Today, despite the fact that roughly 10 million Americans identify as LGBTQ,
the community is left unrepresented on the census,” Carper said.

“Service refusal is real,

unacceptable and we’re going to fight it in every way we can.
”
— New York City Mayor BILL DE BLASIO, announcing the creation of a new office within the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission
that will fight against discrimination by taxi and private hire drivers, including Uber and Lyft. The Office of Inclusion will “focus
on the development and implementation of anti-discrimination training for drivers” and give those who have been discriminated
against a dedicated office to complain to. “These new steps will help ensure that anyone considering this unfair and illegal prac-
tice knows that it’s wrong, it carries severe consequences, and it has no place in this industry,” de Blasio said.

46 AUGUST 2, 2018 • METROWEEKLY