Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Aug. 17
Parties, exhibits, concerts and more through Aug. 23
‘The Muses’ by J. Larry Golfer, one of 38 artists with work being exhibited now at Touchstone Gallery. (Image courtesy Touchstone)
TODAY (Friday)
Cirque du Soleil continues its tour of the new show “Totem” tonight at 8 p.m. at the Plateau at National Harbor (201 Harbor View Ave.). The D.C. Center is giving out free tickets to members of the Friendly Visitors Program. In order to be eligible for a free ticket, contact Karim at [email protected]. For more information about the show, visit curquedusoleil.org. For details about receiving tickets, visit thedccenter.org.
The NiteCamp Dancers perform at Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) tonight starting at 10. The dance troupe consists of the hottest college aged go go boys from all over the East coast. Cover is $5 before 11 p.m. and $10 after. There are also $3 drinks before 11 p.m. For details, visit towndc.com.
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) is having its happy hour tonight starting at 5 p.m. All drinks are half off until 7:30 p.m. After 9 p.m., admission is $15 and after 11 p.m. admission is $3. The party includes a pool, video gaming system and card tournaments. For details, visit thebachelorsmill.com.
Phase 1 (525 8th St., SE) holds “ReGAYton with DJ Hamaca de Platano” tonight at 10. The guest DJ is featuring the best reggaeton, bachata and Latin pop favorites all night. There are $5 margaritas and shots of Cuervo all night. For more information, visit phase1dc.com.
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) hosts 38 artists for the rest of the month of August. The gallery is holding this exhibition in order to shed light on unknown artists in a top-notch gallery and exposing these new works to collectors. The show is up until Aug. 30. For more information, visit touchstonegallery.com.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. This event is for people 21 and older. There is no cover charge. For details, visit towndc.com.
Saturday, Aug. 18
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation at Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, Va.) from 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
DJ Kidd Madonny comes to Town (2009 8th St., NW) tonight at 10 pm. Cover is $8 before 11 p.m. and $12 after. There are $3 drinks before 11 p.m. For details, visit towndc.com.
Phase 1 (525 8th St., SE) holds its party “Pabst Smear” tonight starting at 9 p.m. The party features $1 PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) Pounders from 9-10 p.m. and from 2-3 a.m. There are $2 PBR Pounders from 10-11 p.m. and from 1-2 a.m. Drinks are $3 all other hours. Cover is $5. For more information, visit phase1dc.com.
Sunday, Aug. 19
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) holds its weekly Martini Sundays and Homowood Karaoke tonight. Karaoke starts at 10 p.m. and there is no charge for admission. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Monday, Aug. 20
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) is hosting its Martini Monday tonight at 10 p.m. There is now cover charge and martinis are $5. For more information, visit cobaltdc.com.
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) is offering half price drinks all night long. A free pool and NFL, NBA and NCAA games will be on the flat screen TVs. Admission is free. For details, visit thebachelorsmill.com.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It’s a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Tuesday, Aug. 21
Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) hosts its Safer Sex Kit-packing program tonight from 7-10:30. The packing program is looking for more volunteers to help produce the kits because they say they are barely keeping up with demand. Admission is free and volunteers can just show up. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Whitman-Walker Health is holding HIV testing at Panam Supermarket (3552 14th St. NW) tonight at 7. This event is free. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Genderqueer D.C., a support group for people who identify outside the gender binary, meets tonight at 7 at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.). This is a new group and the organizers are open for suggestions. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W) hosts its Flashback dance night with DJ Jason Royce starting at 10 p.m. There is no cover charge. For more details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Wednesday, Aug. 22
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington holds auditions for new singers tonight from 5:30-8:30 at Foundry United Methodist Church (1500 16th St., N.W.). Auditions have to be prescheduled. To make an appointment or for more information, visit gmcw.org. Auditions will also be held Thursday and on Aug. 29.
Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. Reservations are not needed and newcomers are welcome. For details, visit lambdabridge.com.
HIV Prevention Working Group Meeting, a volunteer group in HIV/AIDS outreach, education and advocacy, meets tonight at 7 at the DC Center (1318 U St., N.W.). For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its gay men over 50 support group this evening at 6:30 p.m. The group is for gay men entering a new phase of life. Registration is required to attend. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Thursday, Aug. 23
Lambda Sci-Fi Book group meets tonight at 7 at 1425 S St., N.W. They are discussing this month’s book “Hav” by Jan Morris. This event is free, but they do ask you bring a snack or non-alcoholic drink. For more information, visit lambdascifi.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W) is hosting its weekly Best Package Contest tonight at 9 p.m. There is a $3 cover and there are $2 vodka drinks. Participants in the contest can win $200 in cash prizes. The event is hosted by Lena Lett and music by DJ Chord, DJ Madscience, and DJ Sean Morris. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Whitman-Walker Health has HIV Testing at Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) tonight at 10. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
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.’”
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