Local
Blade vs. San Fran newspaper in Super Bowl bet
Loser buys crab lunch and makes $1,000 donation to LGBT charity
(Images public domain)
Editors and publishers of the Washington Blade and the Bay Area Reporter, an LGBT newspaper in San Francisco, announced this week the terms of a bet for their respective teams playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl championship in New Orleans.
READ ABOUT THE BET FROM THE BAY AREA REPORTER’S POINT OF VIEW HERE
If the Ravens win, BAR will send the Blade staff a lunch of dungeness crabs and a $1,000 donation to the local LGBT charity of the Blade’s choosing. If the 49ers win, the Blade will send BAR’s staff a lunch of Chesapeake Bay blue crabs and a $1,000 donation to a San Francisco LGBT charity of BAR’s choosing.
“When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, the Patriots won the Super Bowl. When New York legalized marriage in 2011, the Giants won the Super Bowl. In 2012, Maryland passed marriage equality, so it’s our turn,” said Blade editor Kevin Naff, who lives in Baltimore. “Go Ravens!”
The Bay Area Reporter, founded in 1971, is among the oldest LGBT newspapers in the nation, along with the Washington Blade, which was founded in 1969. Both San Francisco and Washington — which is about 35 miles from Baltimore — have prominent and active LGBT communities. Both were home to two of the best known American LGBT activists in history, the late Harvey Milk in San Francisco, and the late Frank Kameny in Washington.
“We are very enthused about this bet on the Super Bowl between the 49ers and the Ravens,” Bay Area Reporter publisher Thomas Horn told the Blade. “This continues a Bay Area Reporter tradition begun in 2010 when the San Francisco Giants played the Phillies in the National League Championship series. That was between the Bay Area Reporter and Philadelphia Gay News, and we won. Then in the World Series, we bet The Dallas Voice. Again the San Francisco team and paper won. We are hoping to keep this streak alive with the Super Bowl this year.”
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo was an outspoken same-sex marriage advocate during last year’s fight to preserve at the ballot Maryland’s law extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. According to the New York Times, just hours after his team defeated the New England Patriots to clinch the American Football Conference championships on January 21, Ayanbadejo was strategizing with leading New York marriage advocates about how he could use one of the world’s most watched television programs to raise visibility for the fight for LGBT equality.
According to the Times, Ayanbadejo wrote at 3:40:35 a.m.: “Is there anything I can do for marriage equality or anti- bullying [sic] over the next couple of weeks to harness this Super Bowl media?”
For their part, the San Francisco 49ers themselves have broken new ground in the past year in terms of LGBT inclusiveness, becoming the first NFL team to contribute to the “It Gets Better” project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4glWjcbAbY
“The Washington Blade and the Bay Area Reporter have been the longest LGBT-serving newspapers in America,” Horn continued. “We are each an important part of the fabric of our local communities. And that includes sports. Go Niners!”
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony
The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.
A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.
The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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