Arts & Entertainment
Arts briefs: May 18
Casino night for Team D.C., Lambda Legal milestone and much more for D.C. and Baltimore
Nightly events planned at Grand Central
Grand Central Station (1001/1003 N. Charles St.) has a bunch of events coming up this week.
Saturday brings Rich Morel’s “Hot Sauce.” There’s a $10 cover.
Sunday is “Night of Broadway” starring Sue Nami, Jada B, Lola Mein, Anastasia Amor with special guest Aunye Diamond and hosted by Josie Foster from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets are $10
Monday and Tuesday will be karaoke with Nikki Cox from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Wednesday is “hump,” an electro-pop, alternative, indie dance night starting at 9 p.m. with DJ Arturo with Ryan Bartz and Travis Rice behind the bar.
Thursday is Ladies Night with DJ Lems.
Men’s Chorus performs at the Patterson
The Baltimore Men’s Chorus presents “Time and Elements” on Saturday at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson (3134 Eastern Ave.) at 8 p.m.
Directed by Tony Bianca and founded 20 years ago, the Chorus is sometimes campy, sometimes crazy, heartfelt and poignant. There will be a silent auction in the lobby and a post-show performance with Amy Willis in the Marquee Lounge.
Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for CA members.
For more information, visit baltimoremenschorus.com. To purchase tickets, visit creativealliance.org.
Carmen Carrera, an alum of ‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race,’ will be at the Hippo for an Equality Maryland event Sunday. (Photo courtesy Logo)
Equality Md. holds wedding expo, drag contest
Equality Maryland is sponsoring two events Sunday in the Baltimore area.
First up is a LGBT wedding show at Sheraton Baltimore North (903 Dulaney Valley Rd., Towson) at 1 p.m. This is Sheraton’s first such event and all brides and grooms-to-be are eligible to win giveaways. There is a $5 admission charge and a portion of admissions will benefit the Trevor Project.
RSVP by calling 410-321-7400 or emailing [email protected].
After the wedding show, Equality Maryland hosts “So You Think You Can Drag” at Club Hippo (1 West Eager St.) starting at 6 p.m. with Carmen Carrera from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” singer Lea Gilmore, Deputy Chief Kaliope Parthemos and SEIU 500 Political Director Mark McLaurin as judges.
Tickets are $25 for attendees over 25 and $15 for attendees under 25 or with a valid college ID. The event is free for performers.
For more information on either event, visit equalitymaryland.org.
Coming out, poz group and others to meet at Center
The GLBT Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (241 West Chase St.) has a large variety of groups meeting this week.
On Saturday, Sufficient As I Am, a group for youth 24 and younger dealing with issues of sexuality, coming out, relationships, family and more, meets in room 201 at 12:30 p.m.
POZ Men, an LGBT-affirming peer support group for all HIV-positive men, meets on Wednesday in room 202 at 6 p.m.
Women of Color, a social and discussion group, meets on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in room 202.
For more information on these groups and others, visit glccb.org.
Casino night to benefit Team D.C.
Team D.C. presents Casino Night on Saturday at Buffalo Billiards (1330 19th St., N.W.) from 8 p.m. to midnight.
The night will include poker, blackjack and craps with dealers from local LGBT sports teams.
There is a $10 entry fee, which includes chips to play games and enters attendees to win raffle prizes. Proceeds from the night are split among the participating sports clubs.
For more information, visit teamdc.org.
Gay law organization celebrates milestone
Lambda Legal is celebrating Kevin Cathcart’s 20th anniversary as executive director on Tuesday at Studio Theatre (1501 14th St., N.W.) from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Lambda Legal was founded in 1973 as the nation’s first legal organization dedicated to achieving full equality for lesbian and gay people.
The evening will feature cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as the organization celebrates 20 years of historic legal victories.
Tickets range from $150 for individual tickets to $25,000 for district sponsor.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit lambdalegal.org.
Gaithersburg book fest draws 80 authors
The third annual Gaithersburg Book Festival with more than 80 featured bestselling and award-winning authors, is Saturday at the Gaithersburg City Hall Grounds from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Other festival activities include a spotlight on local authors, interactive writing workshops, a Children’s Village, a coffee house featuring performances from poets and singer/songwriters and more.
Admission, parking and handicap-accessible shuttle bus are free. For more information and a complete list of authors and events, visit gaithersburgbookfestival.org.
Local pros offer tips at Chamber event
The Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce present “Best Impressions,” a panel giving the secrets to impress with style at the offices of Ackerman Brown PLLC (1250 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The panel will feature Brad Brenner of District Psychotherapy Consultants, Christopher Schafer of Christopher Schafer Clothier, David Beck of Salon Rouge and Dr. Howard Brooks of Skin Cosmetic Dermatology of Georgetown.
The panel is $25 for members and $45 for non-members.
For more information and to register, visit caglcc.org/MayBML.
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.’”
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
‘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.
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