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Paying it forward
Point Foundation scholarship program finds recipients stay involved, give back
Point Foundation: the National LGBTQ Scholarship Fund
Washington Cornerstone Event
May 8
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Room & Board
1840 14th St., N.W.
General admission: $75
Nicole Sterlingās education at Towson University got off to a rough start.
Last fall as she began her freshman year, the 19-year-old Laurel, Md., resident found herself paired with what she calls a āpassive-aggressiveā roommate who locked her out of their shared room and cyber-bullied her.
The next roommate also proved troublesome.
āMy first year was a lot harder than I thought it would be,ā she said. āIt took a big toll.ā
Despite a campus environment that discourages roommate changes, Sterling had some supporters in her camp. As a Point Scholar, one of 78 undergraduate and graduate students receiving aid from the Point Foundation, an organization that helps LGBT students āachieve their full academic and leadership potential,ā she had a mentor, Harjant Gill, an anthropology professor and former Point Scholar himself, to help.
They text regularly and meet two or three times a month to discuss issues Sterling may be having. Itās not always big existential questions about education and life goals ā sometimes they talk about practical, everyday things.
Sterling, whoās bi, says itās been a huge help.
āHeās really gone out of his way to be a support for me,ā says the communications major, who eventually hopes to start a non-profit organization to help countries such as Uganda and Rwanda that are recovering from genocide. āHe was just there right from the beginning helping me with anything I needed. We were just talking today, working on finding an apartment for me next year. He helped me with the roommate situations and also looking for a summer internship.ā
Gill, who finished his Ph.D. in anthropology and started at Towson in 2011, knows first-hand what itās like to have a mentor. During his Point years, he says his mentor, Jeff Pluth (who, like Gill, is gay), was a great help.
One sometimes thinks of high academic achievers as being almost supernaturally adept at handling everyday tedium, but Gill, also a documentary filmmaker, says that wasnāt the case for him.
āThere were many challenges and moments of uncertainty when I just wanted to give up everything and I thought to myself, āWhy am I even doing this,āā says the 32-year-old Chandigarh, India native who moved to the U.S. with his family when he was 14. āHe was always there to sort of talk me down off the ledge, so to speak. He always supported me and listened and tried to get me to see the bigger picture. That emotional support was really helpful. There were many times when he was my anchor in a time of chaos.ā
Pluth, who lived in Washington at the time he started mentoring Gill but has since moved to Palm Springs, Calif., says heās delighted to see Gill now mentoring another Point Scholar. Pluth had met Jorge Valencia, Pointās executive director, in Chicago at a time when Pluth was interested in supporting a non-profit outside of his professional work managing, at that time, a touring Cirque de Soleil production.
Pluth, who has a bachelorās degree, says he initially felt unqualified to tutor a Point Scholar pursuing a Ph.D. but soon found tutoring Gill a gratifying experience.
āI always told him I expected him later to give something back,ā says Pluth, 49. āHe would always say, āYes, I plan to,ā but until you actually see it in action, you never fully know. ā¦. When I saw that he had become a mentor himself, it was just one of those moments when you just quietly kind of smile to yourself and say, āRight on. Somebody got it.ā The timing of this for me is actually quite poignant because we donāt always know or get to see how our actions or words have had an influence on someone.ā
Valencia, in San Francisco last weekend to help select this yearās batch of 21-23 young people who will be named Point Scholars out of a group of 36 finalists (nearly 5,000 at least started the lengthy application process), says this kind of āpaying it forwardā mentality is āexactly one of the tenets the organization was founded on.ā
He says of the 167 Point alumni whoāve completed their educations since Point started in 2001, close to 70 percent have stayed involved in some capacity, be it mentoring another scholar, giving money, serving on national or regional Point boards and more.
The organization has many giving opportunities for those who wish to support it. On Thursday, the group will host its annual Washington Cornerstone event at Room & Board. In June, this yearās scholars will be announced. The organization, which has a $3.7 million annual operating budget and works with a $5.1 million endowment, has 16 full-time staff members, most of whom are based in Los Angeles. The endowment is mostly untapped to ensure current scholars will have their education covered in a cataclysmic event. Point uses its fundraising efforts to support the bulk of its yearly expenses. The average scholar receives about $9,700 per year in monetary support, but more than double that when programmatic and mentoring support is factored in, Valencia says.
But with academia not typically thought of as a hotbed of homophobia and perhaps especially not for academically successful students who have proven they have ambition and tenacity by merely getting into the program, how essential is Pointās work?
Sterling, who came out as a high school freshman and helped secure a GSA (gay/straight alliance) of the year award from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for the one she was president of in her high school, says the support has been invaluable.
āFreshman year is always hard as you adjust to new surroundings,ā she says. āWith everything thatās been going on, itās been so nice not to have to worry about money on the side or have to get a job my first year. ā¦ Without Point, it wouldnāt have been an option for me to go to college or if I had, it would have been with a huge amount of debt.ā
Gill agrees.
āI certainly wouldnāt have been able to continue with my graduate studies without Point Foundation,ā he says. āThe whole Point family, this whole network of scholars and staff are all rooting for you. Theyāre basically saying, āWe believe in you and we trust you. Weāre counting on you and weāre investing in you and we want you to succeed. We believe in what youāre trying to do.ā That was so important for me, especially when I had rough moments. ā¦ Thereās no way I would have been able to navigate this path on my own.ā
Valencia says the process of vetting these overachievers each year in San Francisco is amazing.
āI really wish I could sneak you in so you could see this,ā he says. āIāve seen all of this yearās finalists and theyāre just amazing. ā¦ It really gives you a sense of the quality of our young people and where they want to take this country and society.ā
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Queer writer reflects on assault, drug use, more in āMean Boysā
An interview with Geoffrey Mak
Queer Chinese American writer Geoffrey Mak takes the personal essay to new, and sometimes unsettling, heights, in his book āMean Boys: A Personal Historyā (Bloomsbury, 2024). Described as a āmemoir-in-essays,ā Mak, the gay son of an evangelical minister, takes readers on his volatile and visceral personal journey, which includes the techno clubs of Berlin, various illicit substances, his sexual assault, and ultimately an examination of mass-murderer Elliot Rodger. Mak generously made time for an interview in advance of his November appearance at the Miami Book Fair.
BLADE: In the authorās note for your book āMean Boys: A Personal History,ā you said, āI wrote most of these essays for the Internet,ā and that awareness of your readership extended to āwhat they wanted to hear, and what they were wearing.ā Is that still your target audience or were you looking to expand it with the book?
GEOFFREY MAK: If I could go back in time and inspire my 26-year-old self to keep writing, I would say, āBabe, in 10 years, youāll get everything youāve ever dreamed of, just online-only.ā I still see the natural habitat of the personal essay; yet the internet has a tendency for fragmentation and bubbles. When I decided to write a book at a mainstream press, I thought a lot about how a bookāunlike a paintingāis a mass-produced object, which makes it a more democratic medium, almost humble. I thought a lot about the opportunity to reach readers in Idaho or Oregon or Arkansas, and, in fact, I now get emails or Instagram DMs from readers in all those states. I wanted to explore universal themes that anyone can relate to, such as the wages of status in a high school cafeteria, or the process of forgiving oneās own father.
BLADE: You also mentioned James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as well as Ed White, Hilton Als, and Alan Hollinghurst, among others. How important are these writers to you in your work?
MAK: I love that you called him Ed, because he is Ed. Each of those writers gave me something that is a part of me. Baldwin: conviction. Didion: cadence. White: self-mythology. Als: voice. Hollinghurst: sex.
BLADE: Another writer, Wesley Yang, is featured prominently in the āIdentity Despite Itselfā essay. Do you know if heās aware of being the essayās subject? If so, has he told you how he feels about it?
MAK: Marco Roth, a friend, was one of the founding editors of n+1, and commissioned and edited Wesley Yangās remarkable essay, āThe Face of Seung-Hui Choā when it came out in 2008. After Marco read my book, he sent it to him. In Marcoās view, I had at last given Yang his due: taking him as seriously as he deserved, which is something any writer should be flattered by. And I did take him seriously, calling him into account for his internalized Asian racism and transphobia. As to what Yang actually thinks, I have no idea. Can you believe it: Not a single person I wrote about in the book has reached out to me about it?
BLADE: In āMy Father, The Minister,ā you address religion, not only as the son of a religious leader but also as a gay man. Religion continues to make headlines, whether itās the role itās playing in the 2024 election, the ongoing sexual abuse scandals in the various churches, or the war in Gaza. What role, if any, does religion play in your life at present?
MAK: I pay close attention to the religious life of this country. Two-thirds consider themselves religious. A lot of what I read disturbs me, nothing is surprising to me. I was heartened when, earlier this year, the United Methodist Church rescinded a ban on gay clergy. It was a rare victory because sexual difference remains the greatest divisive factor in American churches today. The articulation of the queer, Christian subject might be my highest priority as a writer today. (Out of all my essays, I consider āCalifornia Gothicā my greatest work.) I donāt participate in organized religion, but I still study the Bible and read queer theology, particularly the work of Marcella Althaus-Reid and Linn Tonstad, major influences of mine. I count theologians as some of my closest friends. I was actually just emailing with the writer Garth Greenwell about how 4th-century apophatic theology has parallels with queer theory today. Iām currently writing a novel about a trans-femme protagonist who finds her way to God. Iām quite serious. Sometimes, I dream that if this whole writer career doesnāt pan out, I might go to Divinity School.
BLADE: You also write honestly about your drug usage in āMean Boys.ā Thereās a line in the āCalifornia Gothicā essay that reads: āAfter psychosis, and after addiction, I knew that whether I would recover came down to a single test: Could I find grace in the ordinary?ā Where are you now on that journey?
MAK: I happen to be sober now, but I have cycled through periods of limited drug use and sobriety since I finished that essay. I belong to a harm reduction community that keeps me accountable to my self-stated goals. For several years, I have had a buddy system, which differs from a sponsor relationship because itās non-hierarchical, with a friend Iām extremely close withāwe regularly check in with cravings, take stock of our weekly stressors, talk about books. If we ever call the other, we know to drop whatever weāre doing and pick up, because itās an emergency. One night, he called me when he relapsed on meth, and I ran straight to his apartment, we flushed out the syringes, and cried in each otherās arms until the sleeping pills kicked in. Since then, heās been sober for almost two years. Recently, Iāve been talking to him about ājunk time,ā which are the late-night brain rot hours when I canāt read and crave drugs the most. I need to start finding grace in the ordinariness of junk time. Thanks for the reminder.
BLADE: What was involved in your decision to write about the aftermath of your sexual assault in the essay āIn Arcadia Ego?ā
MAK: OK, so the first section of that essay originated as a Facebook post. People reached out with caring words, although the writing partly explored my reaching a limit with caring words. The material was so raw that I put it down for at least a few years. After I had some distance from my own assault, I picked up the essay again and suddenly realized I was bored of my own pain. It wasnāt going to teach me anything, because suffering isnāt a university. I wanted to party, so I wrote about that. Nothing about this was virtuous or wholesome or dignified. I got fucked up and screamed with my gays on the dance floor like sorority girls at a bachelorette party. In a previous era, you had a party to commemorate an occasion. My friends and I partied for no reason; the party justified itself. Life is like this, too. You never need a reason.
BLADE: Was the lengthy, titular essay that closes out the book, the first essay written for the book, and therefore the inspiration?
MAK: It was the last essay I finished. In fact, we delayed the release date of the book because I couldnāt finish it. Itās my most original writing and original thinking. Itās also not for everyone.
BLADE: In the āMean Boysā essay, you write about the ultimate mean boy ā mass-murderer Elliot Rodger. Did that essay begin as being about Rodger or did that come later?
MAK: This was one of the first essays I wrote where I didnāt outline it or know where it was ending up in advance. I started with an imageāthe Lacoste polo with the popped collarāand just kept writing. Itās meandering, because thatās how I wrote it, working through the innate turbulence of each paragraph until a door appeared into the next paragraph. I eventually found my way to Rodger. There was a time I thought I could write the essay without reading the manifesto, until I realized, cāmon, I was being chicken, I had to read the manifesto. Once I finished it, I knew I had to rewrite the entire essay.
BLADE: Have you started writing or thinking about your next book project?
MAK: Iām working on a novel about degenerate ravers in Berlin. While the UK and Germany have novels about raving, America curiously doesnāt have one. So, I decided to write one.
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āFunā farewell: an interview with Cyndi Lauper
Pop icon reflects on career as final tour kicks off
When I did the tally, I realized that, including this one, Iāve had the pleasure of interviewing Cyndi Lauper nine times since 1997. Of course, that doesnāt match the number of times Iāve been fortunate to see her perform live ā that would be 12, beginning in 1984.
And now, as I prepare to see her for a 13th time, itās with a touch of sadness as Lauper is embarking on her farewell tour. One of the best friends the LGBTQ community has ever had, Lauperās multi-artist True Colors Tours, which ran from 2007-2010 and raised funds for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, PFLAG, and HRC, and the subsequent founding of True Colors United in 2008, which continues to help homeless LGBTQ youth, are just a couple of examples of her activism. Additionally, Lauper is a lifetime musical trendsetter. For instance, she recorded a duet with the late Tony Bennett, more than 10 years before Lady Gaga did, as well as released dance-oriented and country music albums, 14 and 8 years, respectively, before BeyoncĆ©. When it comes to her legendary personal style, social media fashion critic Nicky Campbell recently declared Lauper an icon in his review of the 2024 VMA fashions. Now, as we prepare to say farewell to Lauper on the concert tour circuit, she was generous enough to make time for an interview before hitting the road.
Lauper plays D.C.ās Capital One Arena on Sunday, Oct. 27.
BLADE: In preparing for this interview, in which weāre talking about your farewell tour, I pulled out my 12 ticket stubs from your concerts Iāve attended since 1984, beginning with two that year in Boston. Do you remember what that first, headlining tour as a solo artist felt like for you?
CYNDI LAUPER: I just wanted to make sure I had places to go. I wanted the sound to be really great. I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I did have those big speakers that I used to run up on. That’s me! I loved that. Because I saw all those wonderful English groups, the ska bands.
BLADE: You mean Madness and The English Beat and The Specials?
LAUPER: The Specials! I thought they were extraordinary. The singer (Neville Staple), I don’t know where his family was from, I guess he could have been Jamaican English. He was so fierce, singing so great, and he climbed up on top of the speaker and put up his fist and he’s singing his guts out. I’m thinking, āIt’s Mighty Mouse!ā When I was a kid that was kind of my favorite show, I don’t know why [laughs]. But it always influenced me, and I remember in ā84, ā85 I was still free. When ā86 came then I became a prisoner of the system.
BLADE : Being on a major record label, and all that.
LAUPER: I wasnāt allowed to touch anybody. I wasnāt allowed to go out to them (in the audience) or have them come to me. It was totally different, and I totally hated it.
BLADE: Did you ever imagine that 40 years later you would be embarking on a farewell tour?
LAUPER: Well, at some point, sure. I think that for me this is the perfect time. Because it’s a kind of bucket list of what I always wanted to do. In the beginning, it was roughneck style. Whatever I could jimmy-rig, I did. When I got to a certain point like we were doing the (live) āMoney Changes Everythingā video. I had fantasies of a cherry-picker. Because of our budget, everyone said, āWell, you can’t get a cherry-picker but weāll give you a garbage pail and a pulley system. I thought to myself, āOh no, like Oscar the Grouch?ā I had a friend who was a great interviewer, and she used to interview everybody from a garbage pail. So, of course, thatās what my people gave me to go up in the crowd. I thought it was a pulley system. The pulley system was actually 10 men with rope holding it. When I started to shake (while singing), I started to slip out of their hands. They brought me right in. That could have been the reason that the lawyer made me sign my will before I left.
BLADE: Are you planning to sing songs from each of your albums?
LAUPER: I’m really trying. I didn’t get anything from the blues album (2010ās āMemphis Bluesā) in there because there’s too many songs. I usually get to the point where (I say), āHey, guys, if the visuals look good for this, can we switch the songs?ā What I did was I wanted to do visuals (on the tour). I wanted to do performance art. That means you have to be on a click. Like when I went out on the (Rod) Stewart tour and we used the lyric video of āSally’s Pigeons.ā You can’t do that and not be on a click, because the guy running visual has to be on the click. If nobody’s together, it’s like, āHey, what the hell now the words are thereā¦no they’re not.ā
BLADE: It’s like a badly dubbed movie.
LAUPER: Yeah. But this time I got this wonderful visual director, Brian Burke, who worked for years with the creative director of Cirque Du Soleil, and not having people flying through the air. In the beginning of all that, that was my fantasy! I wanted to fly through the air, and all I got was a cherry-picker ā not a cherry-picker, but a garbage pail. It wasn’t going to happen for me. Now, I’m 71! I’m not gonna go flying through the air. It’s a mixture of collabs with artists and art. Art and music. The whole thing is an artist collective, any time you go out on tour. It’s not just you. You’re with other dance artists if you’re a dancer, or you’re with musicians. Or youāre with lighting designers, thatās art, too. We did these collabs and I’m excited to present a show like this because it’s something I always wanted to do. Fingers crossed that it all works out. I’m even going to do costume changes this time, which you know I never do because it’s so bothersome. But I can do it in a way now that I’m comfortable with. I just want to be able to do this as a gift to all the people that followed me through all my crazy twists and turns. I did all those twists and turns because I kept hitting brick walls. You keep hitting the gatekeeper, you gotta find your way around that gatekeeper.
BLADE: Earlier this year, āLet The Canary Sing,ā Alison Ellwoodās documentary about you received a theatrical release. After having your memoir published in 2012, did it feel to you like the documentary was the next logical step, a continuation of sorts?
LAUPER: Well, not for me. I didn’t want to have a documentary. It was the pandemic, and everyone was saying, āEverybody’s doing documentaries now, Cyn! Come on, what are you doing?ā I was like, āIām not dead!ā Then I started watching documentaries on the streaming services and I saw āLaurel Canyon.ā I felt it was an extraordinarily captivating documentary for me because it was the history of music. All of the people and players in that story were very much influential for me as a growing artist, especially in the ā70s. I looked and saw who directed itā¦
BLADE: Alison Ellwood!
LAUPER: When they came at me again, I said, āI want a film, not a TV special. So, how about Alison Ellwood? She makes films.ā She wanted to do it! I think she did a good job. It’s not your typical story. I don’t think anybody’s story is typical. Right? We think we know people but I guess we donāt. You think, āIt’s typical! You start a band.ā Which is always my theory! If something’s wrong, start a band, start playing out, you’ll feel a lot better!ā [Laughs] It doesn’t always go that way.
BLADE: With the end of touring in sight, is there a possibility that you might do more film work for a potential Oscar to complete your EGOT status?
LAUPER: Listen, I happen to love independent films. For that I would write. I wrote āUnhook The Starsā for ā
BLADE: ā the Gena Rowlands movie.
LAUPER: Right! Usually, I like an independent movie because then you get to talk to the director and then you have to understand what their vision is. That’s interesting, because each director is a different personality and a different kind of artist. You have to listen and see what story they’re trying to tell and then have a couple of different suggestions. When we first wrote āWho Let In the Rain,ā I wrote it with Allee Willis.
BLADE: Oh, the late Allee Willis.
LAUPER: Allee Willis was a great songwriter.
BLADE: Did you see that documentary?
LAUPER: No, I wish I did because I miss her so much. I guess I was talking to the director, and we didn’t have a band, so I just sang (sings) āThey fall like rain,ā and, in between, her dog, Orbit would bark. I was like, āOK, the dog is musical,ā and everyone laughed. Then, I described it to the director as āChinese Motown.ā That would scare most people. To me, I hear influences of every culture in American music. That’s how I make my music: with different influences. Like cooking, like spices. I feel grateful that I was brought up in New York City because I was exposed to so many different cultures.
BLADE: On a final serious note, when I saw you perform in Boca Raton in 2016 in support of your āDetourā album, you asked for a moment of silence to honor Christina Grimmie who had been shot and killed in Orlando the night before. The next morning, after your concert, many of us woke up to the news of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. With those tragedies in mind, and this upcoming election, which is so terribly important, especially for women and LGBTQ folks, is there anything youād like to say to your fans?
LAUPER: Absolutely! There is an organization called Vote411.org. Taylor Swift recently, finally put that up. You go online and you find out all the questions and all the people that are running and what they voted for so that you can make an intelligent decision on who is going to represent you, not them. This war against women has been going on since the ā60s, it’s just been going and going, and we need to stop it because we are half the population.
As far as the LGBTQ people, you have to vote. You have to be informed. Every time you have to vote, you vote! Don’t say, āOh, it doesn’t matter for this one.ā It matters! Because they put laws in there. There are community people that represent you and you need to start on a community level, a grassroots level to ensure that there are people that are going to speak for you as a human being. We are all human beings here.
As I said, women are half the population and LGBTQ, I venture to bet are a pretty large part, too. This country was founded on the separation of church and state. Separation! I don’t want anybody to have ownership over my body. They say they want local communities in charge but yet they have SCOTUS making federal laws about what you do in your bedroom and what you do with your body and who you are and nullifying families. Oh, I have a lot to say about that. You need to vote! You vote on every voting occasion. You can’t just lie down and get rolled over. This is our country, too.
And always share your stories. Because people who work with you, that you’re friends with, sometimes they don’t understand. They don’t know. What’s really interesting now, from when we started with True Colors United, I think that people do not understand gender identity, which is a whole different thing. If you want people to listen to you, youāve got to listen to them. Just because they’re different from you, doesn’t mean that you have to be like them. You have to learn on both sides of the fence. Knock the fence down, because we’re all human beings; just everybody’s different, that’s all.
a&e features
Christian Siriano on new book, red carpet fashion ā and dressing Kamala
Celebrated designer showcases iconic designs for worldās biggest stars
After 15 years in the fashion business, Christian Siriano has dressed everyone from Oprah to Gaga and heās celebrating all those memorable years of success in his book, āThe New Red Carpet,ā which features photos of his many iconic designs along with anecdotes about the stars who made them famous.
Thereās Halle Berry, Alicia Silverstone (a Siriano muse), Billy Porter, Laverne Cox, Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, and dozens more. One of his favorites to dress is Janet Jackson. Siriano designed some of the costumes for Jacksonās recent āTogether Againā world tour, noting he ābegged her for colorā and designed a bright orange jumpsuit so the audience sitting in the back could see her on stage.
āSheās the best,ā he says of Jackson. āI love her dearly weāre good friends. My first meeting was surreal and magical but sheās so gracious and lovely and one of the easiest people to work with. We have a blast together.ā
Jacksonās look featured in the book is from her appearance at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for which she and Siriano recreated her iconic style from the 1986 āControlā album featuring a black pantsuit.
āShe likes to be comfortable,ā Siriano said. āI had to make this feel modern but also something that felt of the time, streamlined, and chic.ā
The bookās title refers to Sirianoās efforts to diversify the red carpet and heās known for dressing full-figured stars, non-binary performers, and others who have been shunned by other designers.
āThis is what I think the new world of the red carpet should be ā it feels new and fresh and exciting. Itās not exciting to see the same girl on the red carpet in the same dress. The younger generation gets that as well.ā
Thereās a pop culture debate right now about the role of luck in advancing the careers of huge stars, thanks in part to the new memoir by Ina Garten, āBe Ready When the Luck Happens.ā Garten tells a story of being scolded by Oprah for saying she was lucky in her career; Oprah famously dismisses the idea of luck and says what really happens for big stars is that opportunity meets preparation. When asked what role luck plays in his blockbuster career, Siriano cites his own ābad luck.ā
āI have a lot of bad luck and crazy things have happened to me and my business over the years that are unbelievable,ā he said. āMy team talks about my bad luck. I think that what happens to me is not luck; itās taking opportunities that Iām not afraid of. I go after things that other people donāt see as interesting. ā¦ Billy Porter is a good example ā wearing a gown at the Oscars.ā
After 15 years of A-list success, whatās left for the Annapolis, Md., native to achieve professionally?
āI made a list of people I was obsessed with and wanted to dress and Iāve checked all those off,ā he said. āA new singer or actress is always exciting, though.ā
Today itās more about keeping the business going and taking on projects that are exciting and creative. Siriano has been designing more tour costumes lately, including the looks for Cyndi Lauperās new tour that kicks off this week.
āI would love to do a big ballet,ā he adds, āeven if it was no money at all.ā
Siriano has been open about his sexual orientation since he debuted on āProject Runwayā back in 2008 and stresses the importance of embracing your identity at work.
āYou have to be yourself,ā he said. āI think you cannot do your best work without being yourself. When youāre hiding something about yourself you canāt do your best work.ā
And what we Americans are wearing to work has improved, Siriano says, since our COVID-era sweatpants addiction ended.
āWeāre in a good place ā¦ Iāve noticed people are wanting to go out and get dressed up more now. Clothes are emotional for people; you put on a great jacket and it improves your confidence.ā
Siriano is coming to Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. for a book talk at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). Tickets start at $25 for the in-person event or $12 for virtual access. Go to sixthandi.org for more information.
Heās comfortable in D.C., having dressed politicos in addition to Hollywood stars. Siriano dressed Vice President Kamala Harris for last yearās State of the Union address ā āa beautiful burgundy suitā that sheās worn again. Heās excited about the upcoming election.
āI think itās really exciting for Kamala being a powerful woman, it would change so much. Iāve loved dressing her. Itās a historic moment. I hope we get to make more for her.ā
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