Arts & Entertainment
Queery: Trevor Ankeny
The Baltimore Pride co-chair answers 20 gay questions
Trevor Ankeny (Photo courtesy Ankeny)
Trevor Ankeny is in the midst of his busiest time of year — for the third consecutive year, he’s co-chairing Baltimore Pride. It’s a volunteer job. He takes several days off from his day job in property management to make sure the bevy of events goes off smoothly.
“I think this has been a very good year so far,” he says during a late night break Tuesday. “We have a lot of fresh, new entertainment ideas, so with adding those new components, I feel we’re in a good place and have covered all our bases. Hopefully we haven’t forgotten anything.”
Baltimore Pride (baltimorepride.org) is ramping up to its main events this weekend (details on page 24). It’s a production of the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore and serves as a fundraiser for that nonprofit. Ankeny co-chairs with Samantha Flottesmesch.
Ankeny grew up in Baltimore in a conservative Jehovah’s Witness family. He tried to go the straight and narrow way (“I did what I thought was right”) for years, getting married to a woman and starting a family, but after five years of that, he knew it wasn’t the right fit.
Now out and single with a 14-year-old daughter, Rhiannon, Ankeny lives in Bel Air, Md., and enjoys volunteering for Pride.
“I’ve always been a big proponent of the LGBT community working together,” he says. “We have so many resources, it’s really the time we all come together and see each other and you realize, wow, there’s this huge and vast sea of resources right here in our own ranks … it’s the one time of year we can really see our numbers and how important we are as citizens.”
Ankeny enjoys theme parks, skiing, swimming and going to the beach in his free time. (Photos courtesy Ankeny)
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
Since 2001. My wife at the time.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
I have to say I am very proud of Ellen DeGeneres. Especially in how she handled the JC Penney issue.
What’s Baltimore’s best nightspot, past or present?
Wednesday night gay bingo at the Hippo. The host, Roger Dimick, is hilarious.
Describe your dream wedding.
I am not marrying again.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
Caring for our environment.
What historical outcome would you change?
9-11
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
Death of each of the deceased “Golden Girls.” Wait? Is that pop culture?
On what do you insist?
Follow through
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
“Pre-pride party at Mixers”
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Slow Down Boy!”
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
Still be gay. It’s more fun than being straight.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
Space
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
In our quest for rights we should not forget those that suffer every day with the least amount of rights. They are so often left to fend for themselves.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
A good man
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
All of them. I really dislike stereotypes.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
“Girls Will Be Girls.” I laugh out loud every time.
What’s the most overrated social custom?
Christmas
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
Mega Millions
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
That I was gay.
Why Baltimore?
As quirky as it is, it’s home.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops hate crime charge in anti-gay assault
N.Y. lawmaker vows ‘Pride flag will fly again’ at Stonewall Monument
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Philippines Supreme Court rules same-sex couples can co-own property
Disney’s Gay Days ‘has not been canceled’ despite political challenges
D.C. bar Rush facing eviction on charge of failing to pay rent
LGBTQ Venezuelans in Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership
Calendar: February 6-12
