Arts & Entertainment
Social conservatives defend ‘Duck Dynasty’
A&E suspended Phil Robertson for homophobic, racist comments

A&E continues to face criticism over its decision to indefinitely suspend the patriarch of the reality show “Duck Dynasty” after he made homophobic and racially insensitive comments during a magazine interview.
National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown sent an e-mail to supporters that contained a link to a petition urging A&E to apologize to Phil Robertson and allow him to once again appear on the show hours after the network announced it had placed the reality show star on indefinite “hiatus.”
“The gay lobby bullies are at it again,” wrote Brown. “This time they’ve attacked one of the most popular Christians in America — Phil Robertson, patriarch of Duck Dynasty’s Robertson family.”
Robertson said during an interview that will appear in GQ magazine’s January issue that “to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus.”
“That’s just me,” the patriarch of the A&E reality show that takes place in Northeastern Louisiana told GQ during an interview for the magazine’s January issue. “I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”
Robertson went on to describe homosexuality as a sin. He also discussed his experiences growing up in Louisiana before the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person,” said Robertson, who noted he worked in cotton fields alongside black people. “Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal described Robertson and his family as “great citizens” of his state in a statement that criticized A&E’s decision to suspend the “Duck Dynasty” star.
“I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV,” said Jindal. “I find a good bit of it offensive, but I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh and Phil Robertson gets suspended.”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is among those who also defended Robertson.
“What Phil said was not hate speech. It was the truth,” said Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on his Twitter account after A&E announced it had suspended Robertson. “The truth is only hate speech to those who hate the truth.”
The Robertson family thanked “Duck Dynasty” fans for their “prayers and support” in a Dec. 19 statement posted to their website.
“While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible,” the statement reads. “Phil would never incite or encourage hate. We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.”
TMZ on Dec. 19 posted a video to its website that shows Robertson speaking at a Pennsylvania church in 2010. He described gays and lesbians as “insolent, arrogant, God-haters” during his sermon.
“They are heartless, they are faithless, they are senseless, they are ruthless,” said Robertson. “They invent ways of doing evil.”
Louisiana is among the states in which marriage rights for same-sex couples remain constitutionally banned.
The state’s hate crimes law includes sexual orientation, but not gender identity and expression. Louisiana’s anti-discrimination statute does not include LGBT-specific protections.
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, told the Washington Blade late last week that Robertson’s comments “don’t surprise me because they reflect the reality that discrimination and bigotry persist in the South.” Her group continues to lead efforts in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples and other LGBT-specific issues in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and other Southern states.
“His comments reflect a climate of pervasive discrimination and bigotry for LGBT people in the South from cradle to grave,” said Beach-Ferrara, referring to the lawsuit the Southern Poverty Law Center last week filed against a Mississippi school district on behalf of a lesbian student who said she experienced anti-LGBT bullying and harassment from her classmates and administrators. “People suffer because of this.”
Log Cabin Republicans on Dec. 20 announced it would mediate a “Moonshine Summit” between Robertson and his family and A&E.
“Phil, you have your views and we have ours, but I think you’d be surprised how much we all have in common,” said Gregory T. Angelo, the group’s executive director. “We’re conservative, we’re guided by our faith and we believe in freedom of speech. Most important, we are all children of God; that’s the most important thing we have in common.”
The Robertson family said in its statement it remains “in discussions with A&E” about the show’s future.
Television
How this Texas drag king reclaimed their identity
Chicano performance art serves as inspiration

Three out of ten drag kings who were cast for this first season of King of Drag self-identified as Latinx and after episode two, only one Latinx king remains in the running for the competition.
Buck Wylde, a king from Dallas, Texas delivered a performance that took inspiration from their Catholic upbringing and Catholic school days to put together this persona. During the episode, they shared that they like to “play with religion.”
Murray Hill responded by adding, “sometimes we can’t afford to go to therapy for the Catholic guilt, so we do drag.” Buck Wylde says their therapy and their church is drag.
Buck Wylde, cancer sign, goes by Trigger Mortis when they are outside of drag and present more on the femme side. Along with Big D—another drag king on the series—they are the only two who are more femme outside of their drag persona.
During this episode, Buck Wylde also spoke about the difficulty of performing drag in a red state. They live in conservative Dallas, so they still struggle to find large-scale acceptance and support in the midst of statewide legislation targeting the LGBTQ community in Texas.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel [as] safe as [I] would like it to be. There’s protesters all the time and we don’t have as many spaces to perform as kings there,” they said in the interview.
Buck Wylde says that for them, the most important thing about drag, is that it is and always has been a protest.
Living in a conservative state is a challenge to them as a drag king, but they say that it’s important for them to stand their ground and not only bring that representation to these areas, but also intentionally keep it there.
“So many people leave Texas for their safety and mental health to go to Portland, LA, or Colorado Springs or you know, anywhere but here.”
During the episode, Buck Wylde also opened up about how their religious background and cultural heritage added an extra layer to their identity issues growing up where they did. Their family wanted them to assimilate and even prevented them from speaking Spanish and they say that through Buck, they are able to re-examine what it means to be a part of that culture.
Buck Wylde is a third generation Mexican-American and they say that though their Spanish is not fluent, they say they do prefer their horchata without (ICE).
“I kind of straddled different worlds there, because I was sort of assimilated but I still had my Mexican culture. I always felt like I wasn’t connected enough because of the assimilation and it was through drag that I was able to reclaim my culture.”
In the first round of competitions for the second episode, the kings broke up into three teams of three for an improv skit where they would have to mansplain a topic and whichever team did it the best—won the group Weenie Challenge.
The winning team included Buck Wylde, Alexander the Great and Henlo Bullfrog. Together they improvised a skit where they mansplained the Amelia Earhart story.
For the solo show, they dressed up as ‘The Devil’ for the improv solo challenge, cracking a joke about how they are dressed like the person currently living in The White House.
Dressed as the Devil, sporting a Zoot Suit for the final competition, Buck Wylde improvised a skit with food.
Buck Wylde says they felt the pressure to perform because along with the other nine kings who were cast, they are the first ten kings to make it to the mainstream and represent king culture.
“We call ourselves the first ten because whatever happens, we’re responsible for how the kings are viewed and how we move forward together, being the blueprint for what’s to come,” said Buck Wylde in an exclusive interview with Los Angeles Blade.
Back stage before the solo improv competition, Buck Wylde says they felt their drag persona “crumbling” away.
They felt like Buck had abandoned them prior to their big moments to prove to the judges that they should stay in the running for the competition. They went up against Perka $exxx, who gave a king-based Dave Chappell performance.
In the end, it was Perka $exxx who received a 4-1 vote from the judges.
Buck Wylde left the show with some advice for the kings and the audience: “No matter what life throws at you, always remember who the Buck you are.”
King of Drag is now available to stream on RevryTV, an LGBTQ streaming platform for queer movies, TV shows, music and more — all for free. New King of Drag episodes will premiere weekly on Sundays.

The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs will host “Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee Public Meeting” on Wednesday, July 16 at 6 p.m. at 899 North Capitol St., N.E.
Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee will discuss their upcoming grant project. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and network with committee members. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.
Theater
Exciting lineup on tap for theater festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Queer artists play prominent roles in various productions

Contemporary American Theater Festival
Through Aug. 3
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Catf.org
As a queer Latino freelance costume designer, Christopher Vergara’s work has taken him from Broadway to a multitude of regional outposts and companies worldwide. Over the last decade, he’s lent his prodigious talents to theater, opera, TV, and film, and beyond.
Currently the native New Yorker is costuming playwright Mark St. Germain’s new two-hander “Magdalene,” now making its world premiere at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.).
“Magdalene”is the story of Peter reconnecting with the banished Mary Magdalene and discussing their widely divergent memories of Christ. At 90 minutes without costume changes, it may not sound like a big job, but Vergara applies his usual meticulous consideration.
“It’s not the Bible pageant you might see at church,” he says. As a costume designer, Vergara approaches all new works by delving deep into the script with collaborators.
“I like to do what I call a visual dramaturgy, to read the script and take it in aiming to arrive at a sort of truth, not necessarily historically accurate.
“Without being period, I get to what their world was like in some way. And because the play’s conversation is contemporary, I’m inspired by both old and new lines and fabrics. It’s speaking to us now but set in a different time.”
Born and raised in New York, Vergara learned to sew at the side of his Panamanian grandmother. “Growing up I was enthralled. She had an amazing Singer machine that could sew through steel. But it was always a covert thing. Boys shouldn’t be sewing.”
He put his skills to use at Valparaiso University in Indiana where while majoring in music he found a well-paying and flexible job in the costume shop. After graduation he returned to New York and entered a Juilliard apprentice program concentrating on a costume track and a busy career has ensued. His vast résumé includes Broadway shows like “Here Lies Love” and the revival of “The Color Purple”among numerous others; he was associate designer for a production of “Ben-Hur” in Rome that featured a cast of more than 200 with 1,000 costumes.
Vergara is enjoying his introduction to CATF. “Initially I was feeling a little apprehensive. I’d never been to West Virginia before, but when I saw all the Pride flags lining the main street in Shepherdstown, any misgivings were dispelled,” he says.

CATF also presents “Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular” by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble. Based on true life events, it’s the story of queer Hollywood stuntmen navigating the dangers of exposing their love. Living up to the “spectacular” bit in the title, the guys’ story is told through video, puppetry, illusions, and live stunts.
The playwright says “I’m queer so I’m interested in queerness, and I’ve also been interested in masculinity for some time. I lived in LA for 10 years so the play is a love letter to Hollywood and the weirdness of the industry.”
Also, of interest to Sanaye Dring is the interracial and intergenerational relationship at the play’s center: Clay is a white man in his late 40s and Felix is mid-20s and Asian (played Aubrey Deeker and Glenn Morizio, respectively).
Her transition from actor (including commercials and some TV) to playwright can be traced back to her one-woman show titled “Death Play,” a work spurred by the passing of her parents and grandmother. “It wasn’t easy. I hadn’t anticipated just how emotionally difficult that five-week run would be. It was after that when people started asking me to write plays and direct.”
CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen describes this year’s festival as being “about understanding the things that make us unique, but also the things that make us similar,” adding that it also explores “questioning who are as people and how we fit into our community.”
Here are the other new works in the festival’s exciting lineup.
West Virginia-born playwright Cody LeRoy Wilson’s “Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?”It recounts the unlikely journey of his blended family from Vietnam to Plum Run, W. Va.
In “Kevin Kling: Unraveled” NPR commentator Kevin Kling tells the story of finding his way as a disabled artist. With humor, he reflects the life challenges he has surmounted, including a congenital birth disorder and partial paralysis from a near-fatal motorcycle accident.
And finally, playwright Lisa Loomer’s “Side Effects May Include…,” a work that takes audiences on a frightening and complex trip into the world of psychiatry as a mother tries to help her son on his journey to wellness.
CATF runs through Aug. 3 in three varied venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112.
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