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All hail the queen

Madonna’s back but a lot is at stake — can she still deliver in a post-Gaga world?

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15 years ago

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Madonna (Photo by Tom Munro; courtesy Liz Rosenberg Media)

Madonna sometimes likes to lay low for a few years, give people a chance to miss her, then come roaring back with a flurry of new projects and appearances. And the world is in the throes of the biggest such onslaught in years.

It’s been percolating for weeks — her song “Masterpiece” was a surprise winner at last month’s Golden Globes, her interview with Cynthia McFadden on ABC’s “20/20” found the singer famously weighing in on Lady Gaga and she was on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” this week. Fans are salivating in anticipation over Sunday night’s Super Bowl halftime performance, this week’s release of new single “Give Me All Your Luvin” (with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.), new album “MDNA” (slated for a March 26 release) and, to a markedly lesser degree according to some camps, the new movie “W.E.” which had a limited release in December and went into slightly wider U.S. release this week (no word yet on D.C. screenings).

Madonna fans, of course, are whipped into a frenzy but the rest of the world is curious too and it raises an ocean of questions: Is too much being made of the Madonna/Gaga comparison? How can Madonna call Gaga’s work “reductive” when the former spent years mining old pop culture imagery for inspiration? Is it unfair that we keep wondering if Madonna still “has it” to a degree we don’t require of, say, the Stones or U2 each time they re-emerge? And could Madonna — known, of course, for her controversial TV performances — risk a Janet-caliber disaster if she tries something outrageous at the Super Bowl? We checked in with several gay pop culture observers — some fans, some not — to weigh in.

Snark king Michael Musto, famous for his “La Dolce Musto” column in the Village Voice and author of the new book “Fork On the Left, Knife in the Back,” says, for starters, that the similarities between Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Madonna’s “Express Yourself” justify some questioning.

He calls Madonna “the ultimate pop culture sponge,” but says it’s important to differentiate between homage and an all-out rip-off.

“It wasn’t Madonna at all who was pointing this out at first,” Musto says. “Everybody online was chirping that it was eerily similar with the chord progressions and the rappy part being kind of ‘Vogue’-ish,” he says. “But I’m all for anything that drives Madonna crazy … her haughtiness, her pretentiousness. I mean let’s face it, she’s not the warmest tool in the shed and that has led to some ill will. Lady Gaga is deeply talented and obviously a better singer than Madonna, though I do think Madonna was great for calling out that one song. I am still on the Gaga team, but I did recently write that Madonna has, once again against all odds, made herself hot again just by putting herself out there.”

Musto predicts Madonna will continue to stay front and center in the pop culture limelight as long as she wants.

“She comes at it with steely determination and she wears these blinders 24 hours that bar out negativity,” he says. “To her, her new project is the best thing in the world. Yes, the deck is increasingly stacked against her, but she knows all the tricks to stay on top. She knows to work with the young, hot people and once again, she’s made herself hotter than she’s been in a long time.”

Others say Gaga’s success doesn’t mean Madonna can’t continue in a big way too.

“I don’t think there has to be a Gaga-versus-Madonna thing like you’re either one or the other,” says Michael Crawford, a gay activist with Freedom to Marry who’s been a huge Madonna fan since the 1983 single “Burning Up” was released. “It’s not like you’re either a Republican or a Democrat. Clearly I worship the ground Madonna walks on and I always will, but I think Gaga is very good too. A lot of people just want to be bitchy but Madonna is Madonna, Gaga is Gaga.”

Others say the comparisons are inevitable and warranted.

“I’ve always told the rabid Madonna fans who’ve said Gaga is overly inspired by others that they’re on a weak foundation considering Madonna’s many homages and references in her work,” says Matthew Rettenmund, the gay author of “Encyclopedia Madonnica.” “Sometimes when you listen to Madonna’s most ardent fans, the ones who dislike Gaga anyway, they are using many of the exact same slams against Gaga that were used against Madonna her whole career by her detractors. That lack of perception is discouraging because I think Madonna’s work does attract pretty smart fans. Her references are not low brow and while you don’t have to understand every one of them to enjoy her work, being educated and informed does enhance your appreciation of it. I think Lady Gaga is the only artist in 30 years to even approach Madonna’s blueprint and I hope she is able to change and grow and keep it interesting in the way Madonna has been able to. One doesn’t cancel out the other.”

Madonna, of course, clearly channeled Marilyn Monroe — from the all out recreation of the “Material Girl” video to the more subtle bleached blonde looks she sported in the “Bedtime Stories” and “Who’s That Girl” eras — but is that any different from what Gaga’s doing with her or what Monroe herself may have channeled from her own predecessors such as Jean Harlow?

“It would be interesting if Marilyn had been around in the ‘80s and gone on ‘Nightline’ or something and been asked about Madonna,” says local nightlife impresario Ed Bailey, who DJs the popular Madonnarama events here and around the country. “I think [the ‘Material Girl’ video] was not just using that old concept for her own good, it was more of an homage and a statement about a strong powerful woman, which is something that clearly speaks to Madonna. I think there is a line between copying somebody and taking inspiration from something and there is a line between those two concepts. Sometimes it’s very blurry and sometimes it’s very clear.”

Rettenmund says the comparisons get silly after a while.

“I think it says more about gay men in particular and how they project themselves into their idols and how personally we take this trivial stuff,” he says. “I mean, ‘My diva is better than your diva,’ is the level at which this is and my reaction to it, aside from obviously admiring and liking Madonna for 30 years and being brand loyal, is that I love Gaga too and I’m happy to have all the divas around. It’s gay-on-gay crime to be attacking over this nonsense. It’s a homosexual civil war.”

Others wonder if Madonna will continue to be able to capture the world’s attention indefinitely. She’s been at it for decades now and even with all the changes in the way people hear and buy music, pop radio — especially in the U.S. — is as much a young person’s game as it ever was, especially for women artists. On the last few albums, Madonna almost always manages a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit with the first single, but follow-up singles routinely fail to chart stateside (they do better abroad and on the dance chart) and her last few singles — “Celebration” and “Revolver” — failed to hit big on U.S. radio. Younger divas — from Rihanna to Kelly Clarkson to Gaga — are logging much higher numbers. But while her chart peaks have waned, Madonna’s concert tours have skyrocketed in popularity.

Musto says that’s just how the industry works.

“I mean imagine if Peggy Lee had released something in the ‘80s or something,” he says “Would it have charted? No way, not unless she hooked up with the Bee Gees or something. Diana Ross could come out with the most amazing song ever right now, it wouldn’t get played. Working with these younger artists, like M.I.A., that’s [Madonna’s] way around it.”

Madonna at the New York premiere of 'W.E.,' the new movie she co-wrote and directed. (Photo by Amanda Schwab; courtesy the Karpel Group)

Bailey says this time could be different.

“I’ve been in clubs for 20 years and never in that entire time has there been a time when the dance music in the club and pop on the radio were identical until now,” he says. “It’s just the way the world is right now. People are listening to Lady Gaga and Chris Brown and David Guetta and Flo Rida, you wouldn’t call them pop artists really. They’re dance artists. Now it’s every single thing you hear. People have an appetite now for that dance/pop sound with Rihanna, Katy Perry. I think for Madonna, this is gonna work out really well.”

And as for the Super Bowl? Is Madonna taking pot shots at her old rival Janet Jackson when she promises “no nipples” or is it just more of the gays making too much of off-the-cuff remarks?

Rettenmund says it will be huge. Rumors abound that she’s invited the Gay Men’s Chorus of Indianpolis to join her on stage.

“I’m assuming it’s going to be a visual orgy of cheerleading with water cooler moments,” he says. “Madonna is an artist who is never considered fully proven … every time she returns, there is this expectation of ‘OK, show me’ from some quarters. And the Super Bowl is no exception, except this time Madonna has set it up as a make-or-break moment of her own doing … so it has to be great. She knows that and in the past, she has lived up to expectations.”

Bailey calls it “a tall order.”

“The Black Eyed Peas were really good last year and she’s got to live up to that. It has to be a visual spectacle. She can’t just come out and say, ‘I’m gonna strip it all back and just make it about good, quality music.’ That won’t work.”

And if a stunt should backfire?

“Madonna would just laugh and keep going,” Crawford says. “I think Janet is really great, but Madonna just goes for it and makes no apologies … Janet apologized and Justin sold her out, there was a lack of strength in that whole episode. Madonna has a unique ability to make things work to her advantage.”

 

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Movies

‘Thelma and Louise’ remains landmark of unspoken queer rebellion

Celebrating iconic film 35 years after its release

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8 hours ago

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September 12, 2026

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Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in ‘Thelma & Louise.’ (Photo courtesy of MGM)

Hard as it is to believe for those who were around when it happened, “Thelma and Louise” celebrates the 35th anniversary of its release this year. 

Deeply popular with both critics and audiences at the time, its reputation continues to ride high; it’s a movie that manages to exist within a nexus of intersecting genres – the “buddy picture”, the “crime thriller,” the “action adventure,” the” “western,” the “neo-noir” – by blending them seamlessly into a crowd-pleasing wild ride of a story, all while delivering a powerful feminist message of outrage, defiance, and empowerment.

And no, “Thelma and Louise” is not a “queer movie” – but it feels like one.

That’s partly because It exists within another genre, too: “lesbian noir,” which blossomed in its wake with films like “Bound” (1996) and has re-emerged in recent films like “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024) and “Honey, Don’t” (2025) – but that also stretches back across decades into the days of old Hollywood, when coded queer characters were a regular fixture in the seedy film noir classics of their time, never overtly identified as such but obvious to spot for anyone savvy enough to read the subtext. That’s why “Thelma and Louise” resonated (and continues to resonate) with lesbian and bisexual audiences who see themselves reflected in its two lead characters, even if there is nothing queer about their relationship — on the surface at least.

Of course, that can be a sore subject; subtext might seem like a “cop-out” for those who long for more open representation for LGBTQ people on the screen – but it’s everything when it comes to recognizing the queerness of older movies (and a lot of newer ones, too), and just because something is not explicitly stated, that doesn’t mean it’s being hidden. After all, most good stories rely on the transcendent power of nuance, which always relies on subtext to shine through. And if any movie relies upon subtext, “Thelma and Louise” is certainly one of them. In its masterfully crafted narrative of a weekend “girl’s trip” that goes horribly wrong, a lot of the most important information is left unspoken.

Take Thelma (Geena Davis), to start with: a naive young housewife whose husband Darryl (Christopher McDonald) treats her like a possession, she blithely ignores his mediocrity and disregards – or at least, pretends to – his repressive tactics to control her, choosing instead to live in a tenuous illusion of “traditional” marriage dynamics; yet when her bestie Louise (Susan Sarandon) offers her a chance to escape for a weekend, she jumps at it – even if she has to skip the part where she asks his permission.

Louise (Susan Sarandon), a bit older and a lot more worldly, is a waitress who spends her days fending off the insults and advances of her male customers at the diner where she works; she sees Thelma’s situation clearly, and hopes that a temporary respite from Darryl will help her recognize the dead-end reality of her marriage. We understand this immediately, even though a direct word is never said about it, and she’s right, of course. They’ve barely even gotten on the road before Thelma’s longing for attention from someone other than her inadequate husband – a honky-tonk Lothario (Timothy Carhart) she meets in a roadhouse where they stop for drinks on the way out of town – leads to an attempted rape that is only prevented when Louise shoots the predator dead in the parking lot.

That killing is the catalyst that turns them into fugitives; as Louise rightly understands, there’s no evidence of sexual assault, just a dead body and a pair of runaway women, and the letter of the law is not on their side. But in truth, that fatal shot is fired not to save Thelma, who has already been freed from her would-be rapist’s clutches when it happens, but because Louise has traumatic memories – and a chip on her shoulder – over something that “happened in Texas,” years before. We never find out what it was that happened, and we don’t need to; our imaginations tell us all we need to know, just as we know that the killing, while it may have been cold-blooded murder, is a justifiable homicide all the same.

There’s more of that subtextual nuance throughout, from the perversely inspiring motivations of hitchhiking hustler J.D. (Brad Pitt, in the sex-on-a-stick performance that launched him on his trajectory to stardom), who takes advantage of Thelma’s gullibility to rob the heroines even as he teaches her the tactics that will soon launch them on their fateful ride-or-die fugitive adventure; to the self-serving “chivalry” of Louise’s erstwhile boyfriend (Michael Madsen) as he casts himself as the “martyr” in letting her go. And yes, even to the benignly sublimated patriarchal programming that drives police investigator Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel in an uncharacteristically empathetic role) to act as the would-be savior of these two “fallen” women, though they want no part of his well-meaning attempts to “rescue” them from the consequences of their choices. And when the two fugitives terrorize a piggish trucker (Marco St. John) before blowing up his big-rig tanker, nobody says – or needs to say – why it feels to them like the right thing to do; it simply IS the right thing, and we, as the audience, know it. What we have seen up to that point has placed us firmly on Thelma and Louise’s side already, and we’re as ready to watch the puerile patriarchy burn as they are.

None of this is spoken aloud, nor is it even alluded to, but it comes through, nonetheless. Chalk it up, if you like, to the power of cinema, especially in the hands of a versatile, stylish, and seasoned director like Ridley Scott, to communicate what is inherently beyond the power of words. 

Thelma and Louise may not be “a couple,” but we can’t help but notice as their clothing evolves from frilly-femme to “butch” utilitarianism along the way, or how their connection to the men in their lives easily dissolves without fanfare. And by the time we reach the movie’s thrilling denouement, when all they have left is their commitment to simply stand up against all the things that have kept them feeling incomplete, unfulfilled, and unacceptable, it’s an achingly familiar feeling for any queer viewer who has experienced the same.

We all know what happens, so it’s no spoiler to say that, when they drive off into oblivion in the Grand Canyon, they choose freedom over life itself – and when they head over that cliff, fully embracing their fate as a feminist iteration of the Bonnie and Clyde brand of “noble” outlaws, they seal their fate with a kiss. 

At that point, no explanation is needed. Their love for each other transcends anything they’ve felt with the inadequate men in their lives; and in that final freeze-frame moment, when they drive off the cliff and sail into oblivion, we like to think that their car – like Danny Zuko’s at the end of “Grease” – simply flies away into the bliss of an endless summer, and you can’t get any queerer than that. 

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LGBTQ Military Happy Hour set for Sept. 15

In-person gathering to be held at Tom’s Watch Bar

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1 day ago

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September 11, 2026

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A scene from the 2026 Capital Pride Parade. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Modern Military Association of America will host “Pride in Service: An LGBTQ+ Military Happy Hour” on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. at Tom’s Watch Bar. 

This in-person gathering is the perfect chance to connect, share stories, and celebrate the diversity within the military community. Come relax, meet fellow LGBTQ+ service members and allies, and enjoy a fun, supportive atmosphere. Don’t miss out on an evening full of pride, camaraderie, and good vibes. Visit Eventbrite for more details. 

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Calendar

Calendar: September 11-17

LGBTQ events in the days to come

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1 day ago

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September 11, 2026

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Friday, September 11

Go Gay DC will host “Out in DC LGBTQ+ Community Social” at 7 p.m. at Hotel Zena.This is a chance to relax, make new friends, and enjoy happy hour specials at this classic retro venue. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite. 

Women in their Twenties and Thirties will meet at 8 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social discussion group for queer women in the Washington, D.C. area. For more details, visit Facebook.

Saturday, September 12

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation.  Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host screenings of “Princess Sparkles” and “Kiloran Bay” at 1:30 p.m. “Kiloran Bay” is a 13-minute musical short set amid the wild beauty of the Scottish Hebrides and the fierce joy of a wedding cèilidh. “Princess Sparkles” is about a girl who accidentally signs up to pet-sit a princess only to discover she’s actually a nippy, Fox News-watching pig. More details are available on the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s website. 

Sunday, September 13

“Nellie’s DC Drag Brunch” will be at 12 p.m. at Nellie’s Sports Bar. Come get served like a queen by a queen. Join Sapphire Blue, Deja Diamond and their team of amazing drag performers for the most fun you’ll have all weekend. Tickets are $58.51 and are available on Eventbrite. 

Monday, September 14

“Center Aging: Monday Coffee Klatch” will be at 10:00a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, contact Adam ([email protected]).

Tuesday, September 15

Center Bi Pan+ Roundtable will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is an opportunity for people to gather in order to discuss issues related to bisexuality or as Bi individuals in a private setting. Visit Facebook or Meetup for more information.

Wednesday, September 16

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom upon request. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.

The DC LGBTQ+ Community Center will host “Movement for Healing” at 3 p.m. This trauma- and yoga therapy–informed class is designed to help guests gently reconnect with their body and their breath. Through mindful movement, somatic awareness, and grounding practices, guests will explore how to release tension, increase mobility, and cultivate a deeper sense of safety and ease within. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website. 

Thursday, September 17

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5:00 pm if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245. 

Virtual Yoga Class will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This free weekly class is a combination of yoga, breathwork and meditation that allows LGBTQ+ community members to continue their healing journey with somatic and mindfulness practices. For more details, visit the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center’s website.  

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