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Queery: Chris Copley

The Food & Friends communications director answers 20 gay questions

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Chris Copley (Blade photo by Michael Key)

As the youngest of six boys and the only gay one, Chris Copley knew from an early age he was different from his siblings even if he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

He remembers his next oldest brother — only 11 months older — noticing it when they were about 10 and 11.

“He said, ‘Chris, you’re different. You feel sorry for people more than most.’ He was saying it in the best way an 11-year-old could say that I seemed to have more compassion,” the 26-year-old Plato, Miss., native says. “That and what they always called my swish, my fabulous walk. It’s become a family joke.”

But the compassion isn’t just a gay thing — Copley says a life of volunteerism and service was instilled in him early on. It’s played out in his career choices. He came to Washington in 2010 after earning a master’s in non-profit management in Georgia to work at Volunteer Fairfax. In March he became communications director at Food & Friends, which has its annual Dining Out for Life event on Thursday (find details and participating restaurants at foodandfriends.org).

“I think any fundraiser that is able to bring so many members of a community together for a common cause is a huge benefit for an organization,” he says. “A lot of the people we serve don’t have family or friends to take care of them … it really takes a community to come together. We’re all sharing this world together so we need to take care of each other. Can you imagine facing cancer or HIV by yourself and having no one to rely on?”

Copley moved to D.C. to be with his boyfriend, Justin Jarrell, whom he’d met in graduate school. They live together in Alexandria. Copley was born in Germany where his father was stationed in the Army. From age 6 until college, he was in Missouri. In his free time, Copley enjoys running, working out, family time, cooking, eating, hiking and camping. (Blade photos by Michael Key)

How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?

I came out four years ago to my mom who jokingly said, “Chris, I love you still and nothing changes in my eyes, but good luck telling your brothers.” I have five older brothers, all who have served in the military and who are fairly conservative. It was very difficult coming out to them because I assumed that their reactions would be negative. However, I was very lucky because all of them reacted with only love and support.

Who’s your LGBT hero?

Tina Turner. Her life is a true testament to overcoming the odds and fighting for what you want. At the age of 72, she still looks amazing! If I could only be so lucky!

What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?

Barcode

Describe your dream wedding.

The two of us at a courthouse with our closest friends and family. Then a massive party!

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

Volunteerism and community service

What historical outcome would you change?

9-11. My father was killed in Iraq in 2004 in a war that was initiated, in part, by the 9-11 attacks. My father was an amazing individual and I wouldn’t mind if he was still around.

What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?

YouTube. I can spend hours watching stupid videos!

On what do you insist?

That people get out and volunteer or find a cause and support it. There’s not a better feeling in the world. Regardless of who you are, there is something that you can be passionate about. Find that and get out and make a difference.

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

“Take a stand by sitting down and dining in. Make a reservation at your favorite restaurant for Dining Out For Life on April 26. Nearly 130 restaurants will be donating 25-110% of their proceeds to Food & Friends!”

If your life were a book, what would the title be?This one is hard. I feel like my life isn’t interesting enough for people to read. So maybe something that at least makes them open the cover like “100 Ways to Be a Millionaire.”

If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?

Keep on walking…

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

I’m hoping for a heaven full of fried southern food.

What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

We cannot expect change overnight. Slow is not bad, it’s progress.

What would you walk across hot coals for?

My mom and family.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

That all LGBT people are self centered and selfish.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“Steel Magnolias.” “Drink your juice Shelby”

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Using silverware properly.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

A T-shirt one of my brothers made me when I was 5. It has Bart Simpson on the front saying, “Cool, dude.”

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

The best has yet to happen!

Why Washington?

It’s not the reason I moved to the area but the food in D.C. is amazing. In D.C. people can get just as opinionated about food as they do about politics.

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Television

ICYMI: ‘Overcompensating’ a surprisingly sweet queer treat

A sweet, savvy show about breaking free to embrace your true self

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Holmes, Benito Skinner and Wally Baram in ‘Overcompensating.’ (Photo courtesy of MGM Amazon)

Pride month 2025 is now behind us, and while it’s safe to say that this year’s celebrations had a darker edge than usual, it’s also true that they came with a particularly rich bounty of new queer movies and shows to entertain us – so many, in fact, that even if we are facing a lull until the fall another harvest of fresh content, there are still plenty of titles – which, for whatever reason, were off your radar – for you to catch up on in the meantime.

One of the most notable of these –  the bingeworthy series “Overcompensating” (now streaming on Amazon Prime) – will most definitely have been ON the radar for the plentiful fans of creator and star Benito Skinner, the actor/comedian who rose to viral fame through his content on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. For anyone else, it might have easily slipped through the cracks.

Created and written by Skinner as a loosely autobiographical “college comedy,” it aims for the kind of raucous, explicitly sexed-up tone one expects from the genre as it centers on Benny (Skinner), newly arrived as a freshman at prestigious Yates University. A former football jock and “golden boy” at his midwestern high school, he’s the picture of idealized youthful masculinity; he’s also deep in the closet, struggling to keep his sexuality hidden and maintain his macho front under the intense scrutiny of the college’s social scene – and under the resentful eye of his older sister Grace (Mary Beth Barone), who has already secured her own place at the top of the pecking order.

In the first episode, Benny’s difficulties are eased when he meets Carmen (Wally Baram), another freshman trying to navigate the politics of college life; a gamer from a home marred by tragedy, she’s an outsider who feels like she’s putting on an act, too, and they click – giving him the convenient “cover” of female companionship while providing them both with much-needed support and encouragement. He’s also befriended by a handsome film major from England (Rish Shah), who has already caught his eye, stirring other kinds of feelings and possibly even reciprocating them. Meanwhile, he’s being courted by the school’s “exclusive secret society” – headed by his sister’s aggressively “alpha” boyfriend Pete (Adam DiMarco) – and trying to stay interested in his studies, despite a growing realization that a career in business doesn’t actually appeal to him all that much.

That’s a lot to juggle for anybody, even an overachiever like Benny – whose “lucky” life so far has largely been the result of playing a role he is finding harder and harder to maintain. As the series goes on through its eight-episode arc, it becomes clear that he’s not the only one who is “keeping up appearances,” and he, along with the other confused and damaged young people in his orbit, begins the painful (but often hilarious) process of evolution that is required in order to become truly oneself.

Directed toward appealing to a younger demographic, “Overcompensating” is the kind of show that requires a few episodes worth of invested time to make an impression that feels like substance. Full of the bawdy farcical antics that go hand in hand with stories about hormonally charged college kids, it’s not above leaning into the formulas and tropes that have always driven these kinds of comedies. At first, while its broadly comedic strokes and frequently explicit sexual hijinks might elicit plenty of chuckles, the show might easily feel tiresome for more mature audiences; there’s a nostalgic fun to it, made even more appealing, somehow, by the “political incorrectness” of its frequently sexist and homophobic humor, but for a while things may feel like an unnecessary attempt to reinvent “Animal House” for the Gen Z crowd.

By the time the season reaches its halfway point, however, things have started to get real. The antics of these horny almost-adults take on a more pointed absurdity, informed by the increasingly tangled web of defensive deceit they weave among themselves – and, as things draw toward a cliffhanger climax, the consequences of maintaining it – until it achieves a sense of empathy toward them all. There’s a wisdom that smacks of lived authenticity underlying the whole affair, transforming it from the “sexploitative” teen comedy of its surface into something deeper. To be sure, things stay expectedly wacky, and the soap-operatic melodrama of its twists and reversals continue to maintain the show’s “mature YA” appeal; but beneath those trappings, by the end of the season a truer identity has begun to emerge, just as its characters have begun to find their own levels of self-actualization for themselves.

As creator, primary writer, and star, it’s obviously Skinner who deserves much of the credit. While it might be tempting, early on, to dismiss the show as an “ego project,” the internet-spawned sensation proves his talents quickly enough to get past such judgy suspicions, delivering a pitch-perfect blend of sauciness and sensitivity that extends its appeal toward both ends of the taste spectrum; just as crucially, he brings the same aforementioned “lived authenticity” to his winning performance – after all, he’s essentially playing himself in a fictionalized version of his own life – while also making sure that equal time (and compassion) is afforded all the other characters around him, each of whom are pushing at the boundaries of their own respective “closets,” too. It’s unavoidable to notice that – like most of his co-stars – he’s plainly a decade too old to be playing a college student; but by the time we reach that crucial halfway turning point, we’ve become too engaged by him to care.

The show is full of excellent performances, in fact. Relative newcomers Baram and Barone offer layers of complex nuance, while the more familiar DiMarco (“White Lotus”) is close to heartbreaking as the toxic BMOC clinging to the illusion of power as his life begins unraveling around him. Other standouts include the mononymic actress Holmes as Carmen’s “wild child” roommate, solidly likable turns as Benny’s parents from mature veterans Connie Britten and Kyle MacLachlan (whose presence, along with stylish elements in several key scenes, hints at an homage-ish nod to the late David Lynch), and podcaster Owen Thiele as an openly gay fellow student who has Benny “clocked” from the moment they meet. Finally, Lukas Gage makes a deep impression as a former high school teammate at the heart of Benny’s most haunting memory.

There’s no official word yet on whether “Overcompensating” will be renewed for a second season, despite the multiple loose ends left dangling at the end of its first; it has proven to be popular, and Skinner’s large fanbase makes it likely that the story will continue. Even if it doesn’t, the place of uncertainty in which it has left its characters rings true enough to serve as a satisfying endpoint.

As for us, we hope that won’t happen. For all its sophomoric humor, generic plot twists, and purposefully gratuitous sexual titillation, it’s one of the sweetest, kindest, and most savvy shows we’ve seen about breaking free from conformity to embrace your true self – and that’s a message that applies whether you’re queer, straight, or anywhere in between.

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Photos

PHOTOS: Independence Day Weekend in Rehoboth

Wicked Green Pool Party, fireworks among festivities

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A fireworks show was held in Rehoboth Beach, Del. on Saturday, July 5. (Washington Blade photo by Daniel Truitt)

Vacationers and residents alike enjoyed Independence Day Weekend activities in Rehoboth Beach, Del. The Wicked Green Pool Party drew hundreds to the CAMP Rehoboth fundraiser on Saturday. That evening, revelers went to the rooftops to watch the fireworks display.

(Washington Blade photos by Daniel Truitt)

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Music & Concerts

Red, White, and Beyoncé: Queen Bey takes Cowboy Carter to D.C. for the Fourth of July

The legendary music icon performed on July 4 and 7 to a nearly sold-out Northwest Stadium.

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Beyoncé performs on July 7. (Washington Blade photo by Joe Reberkenny)

Just in time for Independence Day, Beyoncé lit up Landover’s Commanders Field (formerly FedEx Field) with fireworks and fiery patriotism, bringing her deeply moving and genre-defying “Cowboy Carter” tour to the Washington, D.C. area.

The tour, which takes the global icon across nine cities in support of her chart-topping and Grammy-winning country album Cowboy Carter,” landed in Prince George’s County, Maryland, over the Fourth of July weekend. From the moment Beyoncé stepped on stage, it was clear this was more than just a concert — it was a reclamation.

Drawing from classic Americana, sharp political commentary, and a reimagined vision of country music, the show served as a powerful reminder of how Black Americans — especially Black women — have long been overlooked in spaces they helped create. “Cowboy Carter” released in March 2024, is the second act in Beyoncé’s genre-traversing trilogy. With it, she became the first Black woman to win a Grammy for Best Country Album and also took home the coveted Album of the Year.

The record examines the Black American experience through the lens of country music, grappling with the tension between the mythology of the American Dream and the lived realities of those historically excluded from it. That theme comes alive in the show’s opening number, “American Requiem,” where Beyoncé sings:

“Said I wouldn’t saddle up, but
If that ain’t country, tell me, what is?
Plant my bare feet on solid ground for years
They don’t, don’t know how hard I had to fight for this
When I sing my song…”

Throughout the performance, Beyoncé incorporated arresting visuals: Black cowboys on horseback, vintage American iconography, and Fox News clips criticizing her genre shift — all woven together with voiceovers from country legends like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. The result was a multimedia masterclass in storytelling and subversion.

The “Cowboy Carter” tour has been a social media sensation for weeks, with fans scrambling for tickets, curating elaborate “cowboy couture” outfits, and tailgating under the summer sun. At Commanders Field, thousands waited in long lines for exclusive merch and even longer ones to enter the stadium — a pilgrimage that, for many, felt more like attending church than a concert.

One group out in full force for the concert was Black queer men — some rocking “denim on denim on denim on denim,” while others opted for more polished Cowboy Couture looks. The celebration of Black identity within Americana was ever-present, making the concert feel like the world’s biggest gay country-western club.

A standout moment of the night was the appearance of Beyoncé’s 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Commanding the stage with poise and power, she matched the intensity and choreography of her mother and the professional dancers — a remarkable feat for someone her age and a clear sign that the Carter legacy continues to shine.

It’s been nearly two decades since Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child parted ways, and since then, she’s more than lived up to her title as the voice of a generation. With Cowboy Carter,” she’s not just making music — she’s rewriting history and reclaiming the space Black artists have always deserved in the country canon.

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