Arts & Entertainment
Gay couple takes stage at Renaissance Festival
Marylanders relive 1544 England each weekend
The year is 1544. The location is Revel Grove, a small village in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The Royal Court of King Henry VIII is paying a visit to this village as part of its annual summer progress. Attending on His Majesty is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, and his partner, the diplomat Sir Ralph Sadler.
Wait a minute! If you don’t remember reading that in a history book, perhaps some clarification is needed. Revel Grove is a fictitious name given to the site at The Maryland Renaissance Festival. And while no history book mentioned a relationship between the Archbishop and Sir Ralph, the actors who portray those characters have been together for 17 years.
Steven Edward Kirkpatrick (Archbishop Cranmer), and Charles Boyington (Sir Ralph), currently live in Hyattsville but make the drive to 16th century England each weekend as part of the acting company of the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
Not surprisingly, theater is what drew the couple together. They met in Memphis, Tenn., while working at the Playhouse on the Square. Charles was directing the play, “Marvin’s Room,” and Steven was supposed to audition but someone had told him there was no role for him in the play.
“It worked out for the best since I would not have been open to dating him if I was also directing him at the time,” says Charles.
“Looking at pictures of those years, we look like mere kids,” muses Steven. “The amazing thing is that it doesn’t seem like that long.”
Both have been performing for more than 20 years but do not often act together.
“More often than not we do our own thing,” says Charles. “We were in a production of Jekyll and Hyde, which was written for us. I was Jekyll and Steven was Hyde.”
“We haven’t performed together in several years,” notes Steven, “so the festival has been fun. Once we did play the same role in the same show. There was a period back in Memphis when Charles somehow ended up being my unofficial understudy for several roles. He took over for me as Sebastian in The Tempest when I had to step in as Prospero. It’s amusing to see photos of us playing the same role and wearing the same costume, but I will say he always played the character very differently from me.”
While both feel a major benefit for a couple performing in the same show is the ability to carpool, is there ever a strain to being in the same production?
“Theater has always been a primary bond between us, so it is far more positive than a negative. If we don’t get a chance to perform regularly we both suffer, so this way we’re both getting an important need met,” says Steven.
“Most of the time it is great fun,” says Charles. “The only issue is I like to arrive early to rehearsals and performances and then stay later than necessary to hang out. Steven wants to arrive later and leave earlier. This is true in just about everything we do though.”
Actors can be sensitive regarding their work. Shelley Winters claimed her husband, Vittorio Gassman, once gave her a black eye when she confessed she preferred Olivier’s Hamlet to his. As a couple, do they ever critique each other’s work?
“As the years have gone by, we have learned how to critique each other without tripping on toes,” laughs Steven.
Steven first performed at the Festival in 2002, and Charles in 2008. Steven was on a hiatus for a few seasons, so this is the first year they have performed together at the venue. As a gay couple, they have they found the Renaissance Festival a positive performing environment.
“It can appear different on the surface since there is an emphasis on machismo by some of the guys in the cast,” says Charles. “But most of that is just trying to play up the time period. Once you get to know these folks, they are perhaps the most accepting people on the face of the earth. They come from all walks of life and have a ‘live and let live’ philosophy.”
Stephen agrees, “Because so many actors love this venue and are given a chance to return, there is definitely a sense of this being like a second family. I’ve always felt that I can truly be me in all of my many aspects and have complete acceptance in this venue. And I don’t always feel that way in certain sectors of the gay community! The cast and vendors are wonderful, so it’s been great.”
Steven and Charles will be performing at The Maryland Renaissance Festival weekends through Oct. 23.
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.’”
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
Pride flag removed from Stonewall Monument as Trump targets LGBTQ landmarks
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
LGBTQ Venezuelans in Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
D.C. bar Rush facing eviction on charge of failing to pay rent
Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership
Calendar: February 6-12
