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Calendar for May 28

Friday, May 28, to Wednesday, June 2, 2010

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Friday, May 28

Premiere of the newest LGBT Latin dance party: S-Kandalo at Remington’s, 639 Pennsylvania Avenue S.E., from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Music by DJ Fantasy, visit latinsouldc.com for more information.

Girl Party every Friday night at the Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St., N.W., 21+/no cover, starts at 9:30 p.m.

Gay District, from 8:30-10:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, a weekly, non-church affiliated discussion and social group for GBTQ men between 18 and 35. The group meets at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave., N.W. For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Friday Night Erev Shabbat Services 8:30-10 p.m., Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St. Friday Night Services are followed by an Oneg Social. Please use the Q Street entrance.

Sunset Celebration at Mount Vernon, 6-9 p.m. Enjoy evening tours of the mansion, 18th century music, dancing, games and wagon rides. Stroll the lantern-lit grounds and visit with Lady Washington and her granddaughter Nelly. Adults, $18; children 6-11, $12; and children under 5 are admitted free.

Saturday, May 29

SHIFT takes over Cobalt, 1639 R St., N.W., from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. with music by guest DJs Zack Rosen and Wesley D.

DJ Billy Steele at Town Danceboutique, 2009 8th St. N.W. A former Elite fashion model, Steele began his DJ career two months after purchasing his first set of turntables with a Saturday night residency at Manhattan’s Limelight at age 22. $2 drinks from 10-11 p.m. Drag show starts at 10:30 p.m. Music and videos downstairs by Wess. $8 from 10-11 p.m. and $12 after 11 p.m. 21 and over.

Delaplane Strawberry Festival, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Sky Meadows State Park, Delaplane, Va. The annual festival includes live entertainment, children’s games, pony rides, hayrides, a petting zoo, a 5K fun run, a raptor exhibit, antique cars, food, crafts and strawberries.

MANdance at Rehoboth’s Double L Bar, 622 Rehoboth Ave., with DJ Stephen Durkin, drink specials, go-go dancers. And if you’re not danced out, come back for COCKdance on Sunday.

Sunday, May 30

Drag Brunch at Nellie’s Sports Bar, 900 U St., N.W., hosted by Shi-Queeta Lee. Every Sunday from 11-4 p.m. $20 brunch buffet and your first mimosa is free.

X: Blackout at Cobalt, 1639 R St. N.W., with music by DJ Pete Glow. Cobalt will blanket the dance floor with low lighting, black lights — and at times complete darkness. Doors open at 10 p.m., 21+, $5 before 11 p.m., $7 after.

African-American Collective Theater debuts new play “Something Borrowed, Something Blue” at Warehouse Theater, 645 New York Ave., N.W., one block away from the D.C. Convention Center where D.C. Black Pride’s “Legacy Festival and Wellness Expo” is being held earlier that afternoon. A limited number of tickets are available at $15. For additional ticket, performance time and venue information, e-mail [email protected] or call 202-745-3662.

A very special WTF at Town Danceboutique, 2009 8th St. N.W. WTF presents: Prom Night. 18+, $5.

PBS’ National Memorial Day Concert starts at 8 p.m.; gates open at 5 p.m. PBS sponsors a free concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The concert features actors Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise and other guest artists along with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Wolf Trap Farm Park’s Summer Blast Off, “The President’s Own,” at 8 p.m. The park for performing arts kicks off the summer season with a free performance by the U.S. Marine Band followed by fireworks. The Filene Center gates open at 6:30 p.m. Arrive early because the park closes once capacity is reached.

Monday, May 31

National Memorial Day Parade, beginning at 2 p.m. The parade of marching bands and veterans units from all 50 states steps off at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 7th Street, N.W., and proceeds along Constitution Avenue, past the White House, ending at 17th Street.

The National Park Service and the Friends of the National World War II Memorial will sponsor a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of U.S. veterans at the World War II Memorial at 9 a.m. Guest speakers will give remarks. The theme for the commemoration is “Honoring our Fallen Warriors.” Many surviving WWII veterans will be in attendance.

Country Western dance lessons at Remington’s, 639 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. (½ block West of Eastern Market Metro) from 8:30-9:30 p.m., $5 per person, per lesson (dance class participants should wear boots or shoes with leather soles).

Tuesday, June 1

Drag Bingo at Nellie’s Sports Bar, 900 U St., N.W., hosted by Shi-Queeta Lee, every Tuesday starting at 8 p.m. Free to play.

Wednesday, June 2

The Tom Davaron Social Bridge Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Dignity Center, 721 8th St., S.E. (across from Marine Barracks) for Social Bridge. No partner needed. Visit lambdabridge.com.

Each Wednesday at the Green Lantern is POZ Wednesday. Starting at 8 p.m., POZ mixers provide a supportive atmosphere for those who are HIV positive and those who want to help eradicate the stigma surrounding HIV. The Green Lantern is located at 1335 Green Ct., N.W.

General Program Wednesdays, 7-8:30 p.m., $12, at the Vajroyogini Buddhist Center, 1803 Connecticut Ave., N.W., 2nd floor. Learn to enjoy our relationships and benefit others via study of the Lamrim meditations in The New Meditation Handbook. Topics include: The Prison of the Ego; All You Need is Love; Building Empathy; Developing Authentic Compassion. Each class includes a teaching, guided meditations and time for Q&A. For more information visit meditation-dc.org or call 202-986-2257 or [email protected]

Line dance lessons at Remington’s, 639 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E. (½ block West of Eastern Market Metro) from 8:30-9:30 p.m., $5 per person, per lesson.

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Calendar

Calendar: July 11-17

LGBTQ events in the days to come

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Friday, July 11

“Center Aging Friday tea Time” will be at 2 p.m. in person at the DC Center for the LGBT Community’s new location at 1827 Wiltberger St., N.W. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more details, email [email protected]

Women in Their Twenties and Thirties will be at 8 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social discussion group for queer women in the Washington, D.C. area and a great way to make new friends and meet other queer women in a fun and friendly setting. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Happy Hour” at 7 p.m. at Firefly. This event is ideal for making new friends, professional networking, idea-sharing, and community building. This event is free and more details are available on Eventbrite

Saturday, July 12

Go Gay DC will host “Family Fun Story Time” at 12 p.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. Join award-winning drag queen Tara Hoot for songs, stories, bubbles, puppets and dancing. It’s the feel-good event you didn’t know you needed. This event is perfect for kids and kids at heart. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Miss Capital Pride will host “DC Drag brunch on Rooftop – Penthouse” at 12 p.m. at MXDC Cocina Mexicana. Guests will experience a Mexican brunch infused with Baby Shank’s signature dishes, complemented by delicious margaritas and mimosas, all within the beautiful and spacious atmosphere of MXDC. There will also be outstanding performances by glamorous drag queens and celebrated celebrity impersonators, featuring Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Whitney Houston, Cher, and many more. Tickets cost $30.65 and are available on Eventbrite

Sunday, July 13

The National Portrait Gallery will host “Stormé at Stonewall” at 1:30 p.m. This is a gallery talk with LJ Roberts and Charlotte Ickes. This exhibition is a light-box portrait of activist Stormé DeLarverie, who is said to have thrown the first brick at Stonewall—the uprising credited with launching the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in 1969. Roberts created this unconventional portrait in response to DeLarverie’s absence in mainstream narratives about the history of the Stonewall rebellion. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Monday, July 14

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

Genderqueer DC will be at 7 p.m. in person at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This is a support group for people who identify outside of the gender binary, whether you’re bigender, agender, genderfluid, or just know that you’re not 100% cis. For more details, visit genderqueerdc.org or Facebook

Tuesday, July 15

Center Bi+ 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, July 16

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom. 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.

Thursday, July 17

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. 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 with Charles M. will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a free weekly class focusing on yoga, breath work, and meditation. For more details, visit the DC Center for the LGBT Community’s website.

Lit Lovers: Book Club for Seniors will be at 2 p.m. on Zoom. The book selection for July is “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website

Poly Discussion Group will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is an inclusive, welcoming, virtual safer space to talk about all things polyamorous — the rapturous, the confused, the pure YIKES, we want to hear them all. For more details, email [email protected]

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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 for 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 collegiate comedy, it aims for the kind of raucous, explicitly sexed-up tone one expects from that 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 “bro” image 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 disrupted 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 up other kinds of feelings faster than you can say “no homo.” 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 increasingly hard to maintain; but 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 is just one of many confused and damaged young people in his orbit, all facing the painful (but often hilarious) process of evolution that is required in order to become truly oneself.

Tailored for appeal to a youthful 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. 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 skepticism, 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 to unravel around him. Other standouts include the mononymic Holmes as Carmen’s “wild girl” 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 and tender 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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