News
Brewer’s ‘turn away the gay’ veto not universally popular at CPAC
Some young conservatives say measure misunderstood
Ed Gillespie said he’s unaware of the bill vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Following a national outcry, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer recently vetoed a bill that would have enabled businesses to refuse services to gay people for religious reasons. But some attendees at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference didn’t share her opposition to the measure.
A handful of the estimated 8,500 attendees over the weekend at the annual gathering for conservatives who spoke the Washington Blade either professed to have no knowledge of the legislation, SB 1062, or thought the religious liberties expansion under the legislation was misunderstood.
Ed Gillespie, a Republican political analyst who’s seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in the upcoming mid-term election, was among those who said he had no knowledge of the bill when asked by the Blade whether Brewer should have vetoed it.
“I haven’t looked at that bill,” Gillespie said. “I’ve been very focused on the Senate race. I’m running for the United States Senate in Virginia, So, very focused on federal issues there, and I just don’t know enough about what was in that bill. I’m sorry.”
Despite opposition to the bill from Arizona businesses, both GOP U.S. senators from the state and even former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, some younger attendees at the conference who were familiar with the legislation said the bill was unfairly criticized and that outrage against the legislation was a product of the LGBT movement.
Matteo Moran, 20, a junior at Hillsdale College in Michigan, said he thinks Brewer “gave into” pressure of groups that said SB 1062 was an anti-gay bill, insisting the measure wasn’t directed at anybody.
“I think the reasoning behind her vetoing it was wrong,” Moran said. “I don’t think her veto was the wrong thing to do; I just think her rationale behind it was because it could be interpreted as being she gave into gay activist groups on that.”
Asked about gay non-discrimination laws, Moran said each business should “have a right to refuse service to anybody they deem is against whatever they believe.”
“Personally, I don’t think there should any discrimination laws, period,” Moran said. “I think people should have an equal choice, equal opportunity. That’s what I believe is everyone should have an equal opportunity to fight for the same jobs. Having legislation against or for one group or another is discriminatory in and of itself.”
Andrew Homer, 21, a graduate student at George Mason University, also said Brewer shouldn’t have vetoed the bill because he said it was only “a statement of religious right.”
“Just as people who are gay who own a business were turning away people who were against being gay, the same exact rights was what that bill was trying to instill,” Homer said. “You can try to turn away whomever you want to turn away, as long as it’s not discrimination on, you know, ‘I just don’t like you, go away.’ It’s their religious right.”
But Homer drew a distinction between discrimination against LGBT people that the legislation would have enabled and discrimination against categories of people protected under existing law.
“That’s not on a religious basis,” Homer said. “Gay people can claim that they have a religious basis, that they do not want to serve people who don’t support what they believe in. That’s fine. The same thing is for people who are not gay, who do not believe in gay rights, they should be allowed to have that exact same power.”
It’s true the legislation never explicitly mentions LGBT people, but most observers agreed its intent was clear — to enable businesses to refuse services to LGBT people, such as baking a cake or photographing a same-sex wedding.
These CPAC attendees are in the extreme minority in their views. According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 81 percent of Americans reject the idea of allowing businesses to discriminate against or to refuse services to LGBT people.
But they’re in line with the views of former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who told The National Review during an interview at CPAC he “absolutely” would have voted for the legislation and opposition to the bill was the result of “hysteria” created by the media.
“You talk about a complete mischaracterization of a bill,” Santorum said. “Actually, you could make the case this bill actually limited religious liberties because it actually added a section to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that actually required you to have legitimate religious objection. Before, you just said, ‘Well, it’s against my religion, or I have a religious objection. Here they actually put a standard here.”
Prior to his interview with the Review, the Blade attempted to ask Santorum in the halls of the Gaylord Convention Hall if Brewer should have vetoed the bill. He declined to answer and left quickly before this reporter could finish asking the question.
Ross Hemminger, co-director of GOProud and among the guests at CPAC, told the Blade he doesn’t think those expressing views supporting the Arizona bill were representative of conference attendees, saying observers shouldn’t assume they’re all bigoted.
“It’s a little bit disingenuous to paint CPAC as bigoted because a handful of attendees you spoke to said they supported the Arizona bill and thought it was mischaracterized,” Hemminger said. “We had multiple conversations with multiple people there who didn’t like the bill and were glad that it was vetoed, people who, quite frankly, didn’t support gay marriage, but don’t believe in being bigoted toward gay people.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), known for his libertarian mindset, won the CPAC presidential straw poll by a whopping 31 percent, beating Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who finished in second place, by double digits.
George Doll, 20, a sophomore at the University of South Dakota, offered a nuanced position on the bill, saying he had misgivings about requiring businesses to do things, but ultimately said Brewer “should have vetoed” the bill.
“I think it’s wrong that they’re doing it,” Doll said. “I don’t think it’s right to refuse service to people based on any sort of creed or religion or sexuality, but I guess if you own the place, you can do what you want.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a comment to Matteo Moran about the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The question asked was specifically about non-discrimination laws aimed at protecting gay people, not the 1964 Act. The Blade regrets the error.
District of Columbia
Drag queens protest Trump at the Kennedy Center
President attended ‘Les Misérables’ opening night on Wednesday
On Wednesday night, four local drag performers attended the first night of the Kennedy Center’s season in full drag — while President Donald Trump, an outspoken critic of drag, sat mere feet away.
Three queens — Tara Hoot, Vagenesis, and Mari Con Carne — joined drag king Ricky Rosé to represent Qommittee, a volunteer network uniting drag artists to support and defend each other amid growing conservative attacks. They all sat down with the Washington Blade to discuss the event.
The drag performers were there to see the opening performance of “Les Misérables” since Trump’s takeover of the historically non-partisan Kennedy Center. The story shows the power of love, compassion, and redemption in the face of social injustice, poverty, and oppression, set in late 19th century France.
Dressed in full drag, the group walked into the theater together, fully aware they could be punished for doing so.
“It was a little scary walking in because we don’t know what we’re going to walk into, but it was really helpful to be able to walk in with friends,” said drag queen Vagenesis. “The strongest response we received was from the staff who worked there. They were so excited and grateful to see us there. Over and over and over again, we heard ‘Thank you so much for being here,’ ‘Thank you for coming,’ from the Kennedy Center staff.”
The staff weren’t the only ones who seemed happy at the act of defiance.
“We walked in together so we would have an opportunity to get a response,” said Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in full drag before. “It was all applause, cheers, and whistles, and remarkably it was half empty. I think that was season ticket holders kind of making their message in a different way.”
Despite the love from the audience and staff, Mari Con Carne said she couldn’t help feeling unsettled when Trump walked in.
“I felt two things — disgust and frustration,” Carne said. “Obviously, I don’t align with anything the man has to say or has to do. And the frustration came because I wanted to do more than just sit there. I wanted to walk up to him and speak my truth — and speak for the voices that were being hurt by his actions right now.”
They weren’t the only ones who felt this way according to Vagenesis:
“Somebody shouted ‘Fuck Trump’ from the rafters. I’d like to think that our being there encouraged people to want to express themselves.”
The group showing up in drag and expressing themselves was, they all agreed, an act of defiance.
“Drag has always been a protest, and it always will be a sort of resistance,” Carne said, after pointing out her intersectional identity as “queer, brown, Mexican immigrant” makes her existence that much more powerful as a statement. “My identity, my art, my existence — to be a protest.”
Hoot, who is known for her drag story times, explained that protesting can look different than the traditional holding up signs and marching for some.
“Sometimes protesting is just us taking up space as drag artists,” Hoot added. “I felt like being true to who you are — it was an opportunity to live the message.”
And that message, Ricky Rosé pointed out, was ingrained with the institution of the Kennedy Center and art itself — it couldn’t be taken away, regardless of executive orders and drag bans
“The Kennedy Center was founded more than 50 years ago as a place meant to celebrate the arts in its truest, extraordinary form,” said Ricky Rosé. “President Kennedy himself even argued that culture has a great practical value in an age of conflict. He was quoted saying, ‘the encouragement of art is political in the most profound sense, not as a weapon in the struggle, but as an instrument of understanding the futility of struggle’ and I believe that is the basis of what the Kennedy Center was founded on, and should continue. And drag fits perfectly within it.”
All four drag performers told the Washington Blade — independently of one another — that they don’t think Trump truly understood the musical he was watching.
“I don’t think the president understands any kind of plot that’s laid out in front of him,” Vagenesis said. “I’m interested to see what he thinks about “Les Mis,” a play about revolution against an oppressive regime. I get the feeling that he identifies with the the rebellion side of it, instead of the oppressor. I just feel like he doesn’t get it. I feel it goes right over his head.”
“Les Misérables” is running at the Kennedy Center until July 13.
Congress
Padilla forcibly removed from federal building for questioning DHS secretary
Prominent Democrats rushed to defend senator
Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from a federal building in Los Angeles after attempting to ask questions of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference on immigration Thursday
The city has been rattled in recent days as protestors objecting to the Trump-Vance administration’s immigration crackdowns clashed with law enforcement and then the president deployed National Guard troops and U.S. Marines, which was seen as a dramatic escalation.
According to a video shared by his office, the senator, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, introduced himself and said, I have questions for the secretary.” After he was pushed out of the room, officers with FBI-identifying vests told Padilla to put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him.
“Senator Padilla is currently in Los Angeles exercising his duty to perform Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations in Los Angeles and across California,” reads a statement from his office.
“He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with General Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference,” the statement continued. “He tried to ask the secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information.”
Democrats were furious, with many releasing strong statements online condemning the actions of law enforcement officers, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), and the state’s other U.S. senator, Adam Schiff (D).
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown also issued a statement: “A sitting U.S. senator should be allowed to ask a Cabinet secretary a question at a press conference — in his own state, on an issue affecting his constituents — without being violently thrown to the floor and handcuffed. Everyone who cares about our country must condemn this undemocratic act. Full stop.”
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Congratulations to Chrys Kefalas and Salah Czapary on their new venture, the Yala Greek Ice Cream Shop, which will open in Georgetown, at 3143 N St. N.W., around July 4.
Kefalas is the CEO and founder, Czapary is the co-founder/director of experience and operations. The third co-founder is Steve Shyn, COO. From what I hear Chrys and Salah will at times both be doing the scooping to the lucky people who stop by their shop. The word “Yala” is a play on the Greek word for “milk,” and fittingly, Yala Greek Ice Cream is made using hand-crafted techniques passed down through three generations of Greek ice cream makers.
Kefalas told the Blade, “This is not frozen yogurt, just inspired by Greek flavors or a trendy twist on gelato. This is true Greek ice cream, finally making its American debut. It is crafted with farm-fresh milk from Maryland, Greek yogurt and honey, fruit preserves from the Mediterranean, and ingredients sourced directly from Greece, Italy, and the Middle East, including premium pistachios and sustainably harvested vanilla.”
The two come from different backgrounds. Kefalas has a family in the restaurant business but is currently the head of the brand division at the National Association of Manufacturers. He is a former Justice Department attorney; worked as Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech writer; Gov. Bob Erlich’s counsel in Maryland; and ran for U.S. Senate in Maryland (endorsed by the Baltimore Sun). Born and raised in Baltimore, he’s a Washingtonian of nine years. He told the Blade, “Yala Ice Cream is a tribute, a legacy, and a love letter across generations.” He spent his early years working in his grandfather’s restaurant in Baltimore, Illona’s. Kefalas hopes, “Just like Greek yogurt changed everything, Greek ice cream is going to set the new standard for ice cream. But, for us, it isn’t just about ice cream; it’s about making my Papou, my grandfather, proud.”
Many people in D.C. know Czapary. He is the son of a Palestinian refugee, and Hungarian immigrant, and a longtime Washington, D.C. resident. Czapary served as a police officer and community engagement leader with the MPD. He then ran for D.C. Council, and although didn’t win, was endorsed by the Washington Post. After that race, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser realized how accomplished he is and asked him to join her administration, where he served as director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife and Culture.
Czapary told the Blade, “We’re bringing the first authentic Greek ice cream shop to the U.S., and we’re doing it with heart. We’re building a space where kindness, community, and a scoop of something extraordinary come together. Our Georgetown scoop shop is designed to be a welcoming haven where every guest feels a sense of belonging.”
Drag queens protest Trump at the Kennedy Center
Padilla forcibly removed from federal building for questioning DHS secretary
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