Arts & Entertainment

Busy week on the gay social scene

Gunn pours, Goss sings, Triangles kick and Pelosi speaks

Published

15 years ago

September 23, 2010

Fall isn’t just for pumpkins and Halloween, it’s also the busiest time of year on the social scene. The coming week brings an array of fundraisers, sporting events, book signings and more — all with a gay twist.

Saturday brings the first day of Out for Work‘s sixth annual National LGBT College Student Career Conference with keynote speakers Jonathan Capeheart, Elizabeth Birch, Amanda Simpson and Tim Gunn.

The conference won’t be Gunn’s only appearance in D.C. The fashion consultant will also be at MOVA, 1435 P St., N.W., from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday for a celebrity bartending, book signing, reception and fundraiser. Gunn will only be bartending from 9 to 10 p.m., but a reception will be held before his stint behind the bar during which he will sign books.

Tickets are $40 for VIP admission, which gets attendees into the club at 7 p.m. for a VIP reception and book signing, a complementary glass of wine, hors d’oeuvres and admission to the general reception. Tickets are $20 for general admission and allows attendees into the club at 8 p.m. Both tickets include admission to the club during Gunn’s bartending. Dress attire is fashionable. More info is here.

Another event happening on Saturday is United Night OUT, the first ever LGBT fan night in the history of Major League Soccer, hosted by the Federal Triangles Soccer Club, as D.C. United takes on the Houston Dynamo. The event starts with a tailgate pot luck in Lot 8 at RFK Stadium, along the fence near FanFest from 4 to 6:30 p.m., just look for the FTSC flag. Parking opens at 3:30.

The stadium gates open at 6 p.m. The first 5,000 fans will receive a mini flag and all Night OUT attendees will be offered pregame hors d’oeuvres in the Champions Club until 7:30. D.C. Different Drummers will be playing outside the main gate from 6:30 to 7:10 p.m. Rainbow Families D.C. will be participating in Team Tunnel at 7 p.m.

The ceremonial coin flip will be at 7:20 p.m. featuring Servicemembers United and then local recording artist Peter Fox will sing the National Anthem. Kick-off is at 7:30. At halftime, there will be a Night OUT relay race. More info is here.

Individual tickets are $20 and can be purchased through the Night OUT coordinator, at Nellie’s Sport’s Bar, 900 U St., N.W., the HRC D.C. Shop, 1633 Connecticut Ave., N.W., and online through DC United using the offer code UNITED. DC United (5-17) and Houston Dynamo (6-13) were last in their respective conferences as of Tuesday. More info is here.

Also on Saturday, the Rooftop, 155 Gibbs St., will be hosting Pride in the Sky. The event goes from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and will feature DJ Rosie spinning top 40 and hip-hop. Specials include $3 beer, wine, sangria and rail drinks, plus free appetizers from 8 to 9 p.m.

There will be a $5 cover from 8 to 10 p.m. and $7 afterward. Doors open at 8. Attendees must be 21 or older and have a valid ID. The Rooftop is a new venue located at the Arts & Innovation Center in the Rockville Town Center and is the only open-air terrace in the county. More info is here.

Saturday night may be filled with events that are hard to choose between, but don’t forget the afternoon. The 17th Street Festival is also on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. with a free movie at 8 in Stead Park. The festival will include a “Kids Zone” on the ground of Ross Elementary School, 1730 R St., N.W. There will be games, arts and crafts, food and other activities, including a tour of the school. Many local artists and galleries will have artwork on display. There will be live music as well, including the band Double Life, which will perform at 3 p.m.

The festival will also include a raffle and live auction at 5:10 p.m. followed by a performance by Tom Goss. The festival is a way to mark the near completion of the 17th Street streetscape project, which was started in December. More info is here.

On Sunday, SMYAL will be holding its 13th annual fall brunch at the Mandarin Oriental, 1330 Maryland Ave., S.W. There will be a reception and silent auction starting at 11 a.m. followed by the brunch program. Eun Yang, anchor and reporter for NBC News4 will be emceeing the event and Capehart will be the keynote speaker. The brunch is a major fundraiser for the organization, which provides programs for LGBT youth in the D.C. metro area. Tickets are $125 each. For more information and to purchase tickets, go here.

Wednesday begins the onslaught of awards dinners here in the District. Up first is the Victory Fund’s 10th annual Gay & Lesbian Leadership Awards. This year, the awards celebration will be held at the W Hotel, to honor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her work on advancing LGBT equality. Actor Leslie Jordan will be master of ceremonies. There will be a VIP reception from 6:30 to 7 p.m. in the POV Lounge Bar. The program will take place in the Grand Ballroom from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Individual tickets are $250 and VIP tickets are $1,200. More info is here.

Puerto Rico

Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga

Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show

Published

1 hour ago

February 9, 2026

Staff reports

Bad Bunny performs at the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 8, 2026. (Screen capture via NFL/YouTube)

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.’”

Drag

PHOTOS: Drag in rural Virginia

Performers face homophobia, find community

Published

24 hours ago

February 8, 2026

Landon Shackelford

Four drag performers dance in front of an anti-LGBTQ protester outside the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. (Blade photo by Landon Shackelford)

Drag artists perform for crowds in towns across Virginia. The photographer follows Gerryatrick, Shenandoah, Climaxx, Emerald Envy among others over eight months as they perform at venues in the Virginia towns of Staunton, Harrisonburg and Fredericksburg.

(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)

Books

New book explores homosexuality in ancient cultures

‘Queer Thing About Sin’ explains impact of religious credo in Greece, Rome

Published

1 day ago

February 8, 2026

Terri Schlichenmeyer

(Book cover image courtesy of Bloomsbury)

‘The Queer Thing About Sin’
By Harry Tanner
c.2025, Bloomsbury
$28/259 pages

Nobody likes you very much.

That’s how it seems sometimes, doesn’t it? Nobody wants to see you around, they don’t want to hear your voice, they can’t stand the thought of your existence and they’d really rather you just go away. It’s infuriating, and in the new book “The Queer Thing About Sin” by Harry Tanner, you’ll see how we got to this point.

When he was a teenager, Harry Tanner says that he thought he “was going to hell.”

For years, he’d been attracted to men and he prayed that it would stop. He asked for help from a lay minister who offered Tanner websites meant to repress his urges, but they weren’t the panacea Tanner hoped for. It wasn’t until he went to college that he found the answers he needed and “stopped fearing God’s retribution.”

Being gay wasn’t a sin. Not ever, but he “still wanted to know why Western culture believed it was for so long.”

Historically, many believe that older men were sexual “mentors” for teenage boys, but Tanner says that in ancient Greece and Rome, same-sex relationships were common between male partners of equal age and between differently-aged pairs, alike. Clarity comes by understanding relationships between husbands and wives then, and careful translation of the word “boy,” to show that age wasn’t a factor, but superiority and inferiority were.

In ancient Athens, queer love was considered to be “noble” but after the Persians sacked Athens, sex between men instead became an acceptable act of aggression aimed at conquered enemies. Raping a male prisoner was encouraged but, “Gay men became symbols of a depraved lack of self-control and abstinence.”

Later Greeks believed that men could turn into women “if they weren’t sufficiently virile.” Biblical interpretations point to more conflict; Leviticus specifically bans queer sex but “the Sumerians actively encouraged it.” The Egyptians hated it, but “there are sporadic clues that same-sex partners lived together in ancient Egypt.”

Says Tanner, “all is not what it seems.”

So you say you’re not really into ancient history. If it’s not your thing, then “The Queer Thing About Sin” won’t be, either.

Just know that if you skip this book, you’re missing out on the kind of excitement you get from reading mythology, but what’s here is true, and a much wider view than mere folklore. Author Harry Tanner invites readers to go deep inside philosophy, religion, and ancient culture, but the information he brings is not dry. No, there are major battles brought to life here, vanquished enemies and death – but also love, acceptance, even encouragement that the citizens of yore in many societies embraced and enjoyed. Tanner explains carefully how religious credo tied in with homosexuality (or didn’t) and he brings readers up to speed through recent times.

While this is not a breezy vacation read or a curl-up-with-a-blanket kind of book, “The Queer Thing About Sin” is absolutely worth spending time with. If you’re a thinking person and can give yourself a chance to ponder, you’ll like it very much.