Arts & Entertainment

Queery: Bryce Romero

HRC consumer marketing specialist answers our 20 gay questions

Published

14 years ago

June 21, 2012

Bryce Romero, gay news, Washington Blade

Romero is single and lives in Columbia Heights. He enjoys reading, music, travel, food and shopping in his free time. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Bryce Romero has an interesting spin on the merchandise that his employer — the Human Rights Campaign — hawks at its three shops (in Washington, Provincetown and San Francisco, the latter in Harvey Milk’s old Castro-based camera shop). In gay hubs, the T-shirts and stickers are a way to show LGBT support but elsewhere, the yellow-and-navy equal logos are sometimes a way for gays to be out to each other without necessarily being out to anyone else.

“In some cases, it’s like the secret handshake,” the 28-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., native says. “Some people don’t have the liberty of being in a place like D.C. where it’s OK to be openly gay. In a number of places in the Midwest and in the South, wearing your HRC merchandise is a way of identifying yourself without being identifiable.”

Romero is HRC’s consumer marketing assistant and works at the agency’s main office in Washington where he’s lived for just more than a year. He guesses the group takes in about a million dollars each year in merchandise, the profits of which go back to the organization. In addition to the usual sweatshirts and key chains, the company sometimes makes collectible items such as Christopher Radko Christmas tree ornaments and Kenneth Cole-designed shirts.

His work with HRC — a bit different than what he studied getting an undergraduate degree in PR/advertising and a master’s in international communications — is a way to help the organization continue its work.

“I have an underlying passion for global change and effecting change and moving momentum forward,” he says.

How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?

I’ve never been unofficially out of the closet. At the age of 5-6, I was already sporting Billy Idol hair and wearing the child equivalent of sorts. Officially, I’ve been out since about the age of 14. The most difficult person to tell was probably my college roommates in Texas. There’s always a bit of fear telling that to someone with whom you’re going to be sharing close quarters particularly at a Christian university in Texas.

Who’s your LGBT hero?

Do I have to pick just one? Truthfully, I’m inspired each and every day by our interns and those LGBT folk younger than me who wholeheartedly live their lives openly and honestly. Also, Sylvester because he worked those sequined dresses like a true DIVA!

What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?

Cobalt? Anywhere on 17th Street to be honest as I always know I’ll run into a friend.

Describe your dream wedding.

It’d be an elegant sunset wedding surrounded by friends, family and loved ones in one of my absolute favorite places in the world— the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. There’s something uniquely special and incredibly magical about the game reserve — I couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else.

What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?

Well I’m pretty much a professional homosexual so there’s not much time for much else, however I’ve got a huge soft spot for animals.

What historical outcome would you change?

Having just finished a book about James Garfield, I started thinking about this yesterday! Truthfully, history happens and changing it seems inauthentic to our progress as people.

What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?

Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out. It’s terribly cliché but, to me, it put America on its current trajectory toward greater acceptance of LGBT Americans as well as starting a conversation about equality. That’s pretty damn cool.

On what do you insist?

Laughter, smiles and congeniality.

What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?

FB: “Bryce Romero would marry the night but there’s no morning-after pill.”

Twitter: “Link to the BuzzFeed picture of Hillary Clinton … and turn and work and serve hunnny”

If your life were a book, what would the title be?

“What Color Should I Wear To Bed?”

If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?

Heck no, I wouldn’t change. Somebody has to bring the glitter to the party.

What do you believe in beyond the physical world?

Oh I’m totally a firm believer in the paranormal and spirits.

What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?

Don’t compromise but compromise. This isn’t a you-or-me issue but rather a you and me issue.

What would you walk across hot coals for?

A half-full glass of water. Or for the ability to keep my mother alive for as long as I live.

What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?

We’re liberal in all facets of our life.

What’s your favorite LGBT movie?

“Paris Is Burning” with “Prayers for Bobby” coming a very close second.

What’s the most overrated social custom?

Beating around the bush — just get to the point. Patience is not a virtue I’ve been known to possess — ever.

What trophy or prize do you most covet?

If I have to go to a black-tie reception to collect the trophy or prize, I wouldn’t want it. So maybe a “World’s Best Friend” award?

What do you wish you’d known at 18?

How to drive, how to love and how to shake off the past.

Why Washington?

Certainly not the weather, that’s for sure! There’s nowhere else quite like the swamp and I would be hard pressed to trade the passionate people, vibrant nightlife, cultural amenities and cheap booze for anywhere else. All kidding aside, Washington really embodies that notion of a cosmopolitan city — it’s everything!

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Celebrity News

Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam

Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon

Published

5 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

Kylie Minogue with Madonna at the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam on Aug. 2, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Cejlon Studio)

AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.

The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.

“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.

Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.

Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”

(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)

“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”

Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue)

Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.

Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.

“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”

Theater

Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth

First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’

Published

14 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Patrick Folliard

Reggie D. White (Photo by Ambe J. Williams)

Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.

A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.

White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”

Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.

“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”

WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?

REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.

BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?

WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.

I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.

These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.

Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.

BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?

WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.

I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].

BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?

WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.

BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?

WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.

Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.