Arts & Entertainment
Social Agenda
friday, jan. 15
Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend, one of the largest gay leather gatherings in the world, is this weekend in Washington at the Washington Plaza Hotel. The event is sold out but some spillover hotels have rooms available and some events are open to the public. Visit leatherweekend.com for more information.
Gay District meets tonight. The group was formerly known as the Twenties Group but has expanded its age range for gay, bi, trans and questioning men from 18 to 35. The group meets for weekly discussion from 8:30 to 9:30 every Friday at St. Margaret’s Church located at 1830 Connecticut Ave. Members dine afterwards then go dancing. The group is changing its contact information but for now, those interested can visit the group on Facebook under the name “GD: Gay District.”
The D.C. Cowboys are having a new event starting tonight called Brodeo at Remington’s. It will feature country, western, disco and club music, performances, giveaways, Jell-O shots, an auction and the Cowboys. Proceeds benefit the group, which uses funds to facilitate its ability to provide free entertainment for HIV and AIDS charity groups. For more information, visit dccowboys.org. Remington’s is at 639 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E.
saturday, jan. 16
A new gay-owned gallery called Industry Gallery opens tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. with “Round the Corner,” the debut solo U.S. exhibition of Jerusalem-born artist Shlomo Harush. Visit industrygallerydc.com for more information. The gallery will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Town has two events tonight. DJ Brett Henrichsen spins upstairs (Town’s regular DJ Wess is downstairs). And monthly party “WTF?” is also tonight with a special Mexican installment. Doors open at 10 p.m. Town is located at 2009 Eighth Street, N.W. Visit towndc.com for more information.
Blowoff, a monthly party featuring gay DJs/remixers Bob Mould and Rich Morel, is tonight at the 9:30 club, located at 815 V Street, N.W. starting at 11:30 p.m. Visit blowoff.us for more information.
sunday, jan. 17
Reaction, the closing night party for Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend, is tonight from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. at the 9:30 club, located at 815 V Street, N.W., with music by DJ David LaSalle and entertainment by German retro singer Myke Lowe. Tickets are $35 in advance or $45 at the door. They’re available at the Leather Rack or ticketfly.com.
monday, jan. 18
Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, the District’s largest mostly gay church, has an HIV positive support group for people of faith every Monday at the church. For more information, contact Matt Senger at 202-546-2159 or e-mail him at [email protected]. MCC-DC is located at 474 Ridge Street, N.W. Visit mccdc.com for more information about the church.
Freddie’s Beach Bar, located at 555 S. 23rd Street in Crystal City, Va., has disco trivia every Monday at 8 p.m.
tuesday, jan. 19
A remembrance event for Martin Luther King Jr. is being held tonight by the GLBT Arts Consortium from 7 to 9 p.m. at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at 4th and Independence Ave., S.E. near the Eastern Market and Capitol South Metro stations. The event is free and open to the public.
D.C.’s HIV Working Group assembles safer sex kits with its “packing parties” every Tuesday at EFN Lounge. Those who volunteer their time get drink discounts. The events are held from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at Motley Bar, located above EFN, which is at 1318 9th St., N.W. Visit fighthivindc.com for more information.
Poz, a bar night for HIV-positive men and men open to dating HIV-positive men regardless of their own HIV status, is held every Tuesday night from 7 p.m. to midnight at Motley Bar, located above EFN Lounge at 1318 19th St., N.W. The event is organized by HIV-positive party promoter Jacob Pring. Visit the group’s Facebook page at facebook.com/pozdc for more information.
Hollaback, a social club and support group for trans people, presented by Alpha Drugs, is tonight at 1638 R St., N.W., Suite 260. To RSVP, call Dee Curry at 202-290-0324.
Cobalt has “Flashback,” a retro night, every Tuesday at 10 p.m. Cobalt is at the corner of 17th and R streets, N.W.
wednesday, jan. 20
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has weekly volunteer nights every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at its offices located at 1325 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Suite 600. Volunteers fold and stuff letters for the gay rights organization. Pizza is provided. For more information, contact Ezra Towne at [email protected].
Ladies First night is tonight and every Wednesday at Fab Lounge, located at 1805 Connecticut Ave., N.W. For more information, visit myspace.com/ladiesfirst.
An HIV/AIDS support group, presented by Alpha Drugs, is tonight at 1638 R St., N.W., Suite 260. Dinner will be served but reservations are required. To RSVP, call 301-735-2805 or 301-674-8901.
The D.C. Center has career development for LGBT job seekers today from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Trained counselors will offer support for job searching, interviewing skills, resume writing, etc. The program has been adapted to meet the needs of the local gay community and the D.C. job market. The Center recently moved to its new location at 1804/1810 14th St., N.W., previous home of the Lesbian Services Program and Austin Center of Whitman-Walker Clinic. Visit thedccenter.org for more information.
thursday, jan. 21
D.C. Lambda Squares, a local gay square dancing group, meets every Thursday for square dancing. Those who’ve taken the group’s “Mainstream” and “Plus” classes dance on the first and third Thursdays. “Plus” and “Advanced” classes are on the second and fourth Thursdays. For more information about the group or to find out when beginner classes are available, visit dclambdasquares.org.
friday, jan. 22
A GaySpirits event is being held this weekend in Annandale, Va. It’s a spiritual retreat for gay men who’ve avoided religion because many faiths condemn them. GaySpirits creators say gay men have “unique spiritual giftedness.” The events will take place at Little River U.C.C., located at 8410 Little River Turnpike, tonight from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Cost is $70. For more information, visit gayspirits.com or call 301-580-2953.
saturday, jan. 23
Adventuring Outdoors Group, a gay hiking group, is joining the Chrysalis Arts and Culture Group, another local gay social outfit, for a trip to Gettysburg today. A moderate 6-mile hike is planned with some steep passages. Those interested should bring beverages, lunch, hiking shoes and about $12 for transportation fees. The groups will meet at 9 a.m. at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station. For more information, contact Craig at 202-462-0535 or [email protected].
D.C. Lambda Squares, a local gay square dancing outfit, has a community dance today with guest caller Jeremy Butler from Virginia Beach. The dance will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at Sligo Middle School in Silver Spring, Md. Cost is $10. For more information about this or other club affairs, visit dclambdasquares.org.
Several local gay social groups are joining D.C. Icebreakers, a local gay ice skating group, tonight for a large social event at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Ballston. Skating will run from 8 to 9 p.m. with a social to follow at Bailey’s Pub and Grill. Other groups slated to join the Icebreakers are Zoom Urban Lesbian Excursions, NOVA Gay & Lesbian Professionals, D.C. Lesbian Singles, Burgundy Crescent Volunteers, NOVA Dynamic Lesbian Singles, the Mixed Ladies Arlington Pool League and Social Cheverly. For more information, visit dcicebreakers.org.
Sports
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
British Supreme Court last month ruled legal definition of woman limited to ‘biological women’
The organization that governs English soccer on Thursday announced it will no longer allow transgender women to play on women’s teams.
The British Supreme Court on April 16 ruled the legal definition of a woman is limited to “biological women” and does not include trans women. The Football Association’s announcement, which cites the ruling, notes its new policy will take effect on June 1.
“As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and FIFA,” said the Football Association in a statement that announced the policy change. “Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.”
“This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary,” added the Football Association.
The Football Association also acknowledged the new policy “will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify.”
“We are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” it said.
The Football Association told the BBC there were “fewer than 30 transgender women registered among millions of amateur players” and there are “no registered transgender women in the professional game” in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Football Association, which governs soccer in Scotland, is expected to also ban trans women from women’s teams.
Theater
Theatre Prometheus spreads queer joy with ‘Galatea’
Two girls dressed as boys who find love despite the odds
‘Galatea’
Through May 10
Theatre Prometheus
Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center
7995 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, Md.
$27
Theatreprometheus.org
In a timely move, Theatre Prometheus thought it would be a beneficial thing to spread a little queer joy. And since the company’s mission includes engaging audiences and artists in queer and feminist art, there was nothing to stop them.
Co-artistic directors Tracey Erbacher and Lauren Patton Villegas, both queer, agree they’ve found that joy in John Lyly’s “Galatea,” an Elizabethan-era comedy about Galatea and Phillida, two girls dressed as boys who find love despite some rather slim odds.
Now playing at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center on the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus, the upbeat offering is a mix of contemporary and period, and strives to make audiences happy. Galatea’s cast includes Amber Coleman and Cate Ginsberg as the besotted pair.
Erbacher, also the production’s director, adds “queer joy is something that I prioritized in casting actors and interviewing production people. I asked them what it means to them, and resoundingly the reply — from both them and the play — is that queer joy is the freedom to be yourself without having to think about it.
“Galatea” was first brought to Prometheus’s attention by Caitlin Partridge, the company’s literary director. Erbacher recalls, “she strongly suggested I read this very queer play. I read it and fell absolutely in love. And because it’s a comedy — I really like directing comedy — I knew that I could lean into that while not neglecting its universal themes of young love.”
Villegas, who’s not ordinarily drawn to the classics, was also instantly smitten with Galatea.
“Usually with classics, the language doesn’t jump out at me the way modern works do,” she says. “But not so with ‘Galatea.’ The first time I heard it read aloud, I found it easy to follow and entirely accessible in the best way.”
Whether Lyly deliberately wrote a queer play isn’t known. What’s definitely known is the play was written with an all-boy performing troupe in mind; that’s partly why there are so many young female roles, the parts 10-year-old boys were playing at the time.
There’s not a lot known about Lyly’s personal life, mostly because he wasn’t wildly famous. What’s known about the times is that there wasn’t a concept of “gay,” but there were sodomy laws regarding homosexual activity in England geared toward men having sex with men; it was all very phallocentric, Erbacher says.
She categorically adds, “Women’s sexuality wasn’t considered in the equation. In fact, it was often asked whether women were even capable of having sex with other women. It just was not part of the conversation. If there wasn’t a dick involved it didn’t count.
“Perhaps that’s how the playwright got around it. If there were two male characters in the play he could not have done it.”
Prometheus has done adaptations of ancient myths and some classics, but in this case it’s very faithful to the original text. Other than some cuts winnowing the work down to 90 minutes, “Galatea” is pretty much exactly as Lyly wrote it.
And that includes, “girls dressed as boys who fall in love thinking girls are boys,” says Erbacher. “And then they start to clock things: ‘I think he is as I am.’ And then they don’t care if the object of their affection is a boy or a girl, the quintessential bisexual iconic line.”
And without spoiling a thing, the director teases, “the ending is even queerer than the rest of the play.”
Erbacher and Villegas have worked together since Prometheus’s inception 11 years ago. More recently, they became co-artistic directors, splitting the work in myriad ways. It’s a good fit: They share values but not identical artistic sensibilities allow them to exchange objective feedback.
In past seasons, the collaborative pair have produced an all-women production of “Macbeth” and a queered take on [gay] “Cymbeline,” recreating it as a lesbian love story. And when roles aren’t specifically defined male or female, they take the best actor for the part.
With Galatea, Prometheus lightens the current mood. Erbacher says, “the hard stuff is important but exhausting. We deserve a queer rom-com, a romantic sweeping story that’s not focused on how hard it is to be queer, but rather the joy of it.”
Movies
Jacob Elordi rides high in ‘On Swift Horses’
Sony Pictures’ promotions avoid referencing queer sexuality of main characters
You might not know it from the publicity campaign, but the latest big-screen project for breakout “Euphoria” actor and sex symbol Jacob Elordi is 100% a gay love story.
Alright, perhaps that’s not entirely accurate. “On Swift Horses” – adapted from the novel by Shannon Pufahl and directed by Daniel Minahan from a screenplay by Bryce Kass – actually splits its focus between two characters, the other of which is played by “Normal People” star Daisy Edgar-Jones; but since that story arc is centered around her own journey toward lesbian self-acceptance, it’s unequivocally a “Queer Movie” anyway.
Set in 1950s America, at the end of the Korean War, it’s an unmistakably allegorical saga that stems from the marriage between Muriel (Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter), a newly discharged serviceman with dreams of building a new life in California. His plans for the future include his brother Julius (Elordi), a fellow war vet whose restlessly adventurous spirit sparks a kindred connection and friendship with his sister-in-law despite a nebulously strained dynamic with Lee. Though the newlyweds follow through with the plan, Julius opts out in favor of the thrill of a hustler’s life in Las Vegas, where his skills as a card shark gain him employment in a casino. Nevertheless, he and Muriel maintain their friendship through correspondence, as he meets and falls in love with co-worker Henry (Diego Calva) and struggles to embrace the sexual identity he has long kept secret. Meanwhile, Muriel embarks on a secret life of her own, amassing a secret fortune by gambling on horse races and exploring a parallel path of self-acceptance with her boldly butch new neighbor, Sandra (Sasha Calle), as Lee clings obliviously to his dreams of building a suburban family life in the golden era of all-American post-war prosperity.
Leisurely, pensive, and deeply infused with a sense of impossible yearning, it’s the kind of movie that might easily, on the surface, be viewed as a nostalgia-tinged romantic triangle – albeit one with a distinctively queer twist. While it certainly functions on that level, one can’t help but be aware of a larger scope, a metaphoric conceit in which its three central characters serve as representatives of three conflicting experiences of the mid-century “American Dream” that still looms large in our national identity. With steadfast, good-hearted Lee as an anchor, sold on a vision of creating a better life for himself and his family than the one he grew up with, and the divergent threads of unfulfilled longing that thwart his fantasy with their irresistible pull on the wife and brother with whom he hoped to share it, it becomes a clear commentary on the bitter reality behind a past that doesn’t quite gel with the rose-colored memories still fetishized in the imagination of so many Americans.
Fortunately, it counterbalances that candidly expressed disharmony with an empathetic perspective in which none of its characters is framed as an antagonist; rather, each of them are presented in a way with which we can readily identify, each following a still-unsatisfied longing that draws them all inexorably apart despite the bonds – tenuous but emotionally genuine – they have formed with each other. To put it in a more politically-centered way, the staunch-but-naive conformity of Lee, in all his patriarchal tunnel vision, does not make him a villainous oppressor any more than the repressed queerness of Muriel and Julius make them idealized champions of freedom; all of them are simply following an inner call, and each can be forgiven – if not entirely excused – for the missteps they take in response to it
That’s not to say that Minahan’s movie doesn’t play into a tried-and-true formula; there’s a kind of “stock character” familiarity around those in the orbit of the three main characters, leading to an inevitably trope-ish feel to their involvement – despite the finely layered performances of Calva and Calle, which elevate their roles as lovers to the film’s two queer explorers and allow them both to contribute their own emotional textures – and occasionally pulls the movie into the territory of melodrama.
Yet that larger-than-life treatment, far from cheapening “On Swift Horses,” is a big part of its stylish appeal. Unapologetically lush in its gloriously photographed recreation of saturated 1950s cinema (courtesy of Director of Photography Luc Montpellier), it takes us willingly into its dream landscape of mid-century America – be it through the golden suburbs of still-uncrowded Southern California or the neon-lit flash of high-rolling Las Vegas, or even the macabre (but historically accurate) depiction of nuclear-age thrill-seekers convening for a party in the Nevada desert to watch an atom bomb detonate just a few short miles away. It’s a world remembered by most of us now only through the memories and artifacts of a former generation, rendered with an artful blend of romance and irony, and inhabited by people in whom we can see ourselves reflected while marveling at their beauty and charisma.
As lovely as the movie is to look at, and as effective as it is in evoking the mix of idealism and disillusionment that defines the America of our grandparents for many of us at the start of the second quarter of the 21st century, it’s that last factor that gives Minahan’s film the true “Hollywood” touch. His camera lovingly embraces the beauty of his stars. Edgar-Jones burns with an intelligence and self-determination that underscores the feminist struggle of the era, and the director makes sure to capture the journey she charts with full commitment; Poulter, who could have come off as something of a dumb brute, is allowed to emphasize the character’s nobility over his emotional cluelessness; Calle is a fiery presence, and Minahan lets her burn in a way that feels radical even today; Calva is both alluring and compelling, providing an unexpected depth of emotion that the film embraces as a chord of hope.
But it is Elordi who emerges to truly light up the screen. Handsome, charismatic, and palpably self-confident, he’s an actor who frankly needs to do little more than walk into the scene to grab our attention – but here he is given, perhaps for the first time, the chance to reveal an even greater depth of sensitivity and truth, making his Julius into the film’s beating heart and undisputed star. It’s an authenticity he brings into his much-touted love scenes with Calva, lighting up a chemistry that is ultimately as joyously queer-affirming as they are steamy.
Which is why Sony Pictures’ promotions for the film – which avoid directly referencing the sexuality of its two main characters, instead hinting at “secret desires” and implying a romantic connection between Elordi and Edgar-Jones – feels not just like a miscalculation, but a slap in the face. Though it’s an eloquent, quietly insightful look back at American cultural history, it incorporates those observations into a wistful, bittersweet, but somehow impossibly hopeful story that emphasizes the validity of queer love.
That’s something to be celebrated, not buried – which makes “On Swift Horses” a sure bet for your must-see movie list.
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RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
TRAITOR: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has blood on his hands
Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
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Ruby Corado sentencing postponed for third time
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