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Happy 25th, CAMP Rehoboth
Community center founded by gay couple that met at White House
CAMP Rehoboth serves the local LGBT community in and around the popular beach resort. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Silver Gala
Friday, Oct. 9, 7-11 p.m.
Nassau Valley Vineyards
Tickets start at $100
Silver Block Party
Sunday, Oct. 11, 12-4 p.m.
Baltimore Avenue, 2nd block
Suggested donation $10
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this weekend, CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBT community center and community services group here, is continuing its role as a well-known and highly regarded operation in Delaware and in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Before Steve Elkins and Murray Archibald, who have been a couple for 37 years, moved to Rehoboth Beach in October 1990 and founded CAMP Rehoboth less than one year later they had been vacationing there since the summer of 1981.
Like the large number of other LGBT people who began to flock to the Delaware beach resort town in the 1970s the two noticed that at least some longtime, year-round residents had become uncomfortable as Rehoboth became increasingly known as a gay destination.
According to Archibald, he and Elkins along with some of their friends sensed the need for an LGBT support and advocacy group in the town around 1989 or 1990. That’s when the Rehoboth Beach Homeowners Association produced and circulated a bumper sticker that said, “Keep Rehoboth A Family Town.”
Everyone knew that message was aimed at the town’s LGBT visitors and growing number of LGBT residents, implying if not saying so openly, that they were not welcome, Archibald and Elkins told the Washington Blade.
“And I always said we wanted it to be a family town as well but families come in all sizes, shapes and orientations,” Elkins said.
Following a series of meetings in late 1990, Elkins and Archibald in 1991 launched CAMP Rehoboth, the town’s first LGBT advocacy and civic organization whose name was an acronym for ‘Create a More Positive’ Rehoboth.
“We thought everybody was focusing on the negative and we said, ‘Let’s create a more positive Rehoboth,’” said Elkins in reflecting on the group’s and the town’s evolution in gay-straight relations since that time.
Archibald said in addition to concerns over the hostile message from the bumper sticker, the atmosphere for gay men in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was still being shaped by the AIDS epidemic, and he and Elkins thought an LGBT organization would provide support services on that front.
“We were just coming out of that period where so many people were dying and were still dying,” said Archibald. “We were fighting some resistance in town against so many gay people coming to town,” he said. “And you knew we needed something.”
In its first two years, the then all-volunteer group operated in a small rented space on Baltimore Avenue in downtown Rehoboth located two blocks from the boardwalk and beach. The fledgling group had a budget of about $40,000 from money that it managed to raise among early supporters.
It currently has a budget of just under $1 million, with anticipated revenue of $1.1 million for 2015. It has a staff of five full-time paid employees, including Elkins, who serves as executive director. The group’s website proudly says there are three full-time, unpaid volunteer staff members, including Archibald, who play a key role in its operations.
Since 1993, Archibald has served as president of the CAMP Rehoboth Board of Directors. He also serves as producer of the group’s annual Sundance fundraising benefit and as creative director for the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center and for Letters from CAMP Rehoboth.
“Letters,” as many call it, serves as the group’s newsletter-magazine that comes out twice monthly during the summer season and once a month during the off season. The publication is filled with ads from dozens of local businesses, turning it into an important source of revenue supporting CAMP Rehoboth’s multitude of programs and activities.
The ad revenue from Letters; a separate stream of revenue from more than 800 paid members/supporters, which generates about $240,000 annually; and money raised by fundraising events such as Sundance helped the group purchase a complex of several small and larger buildings at the site where it first rented space in 1990.
The successful revenue generating efforts also helped to fund construction of the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, which now occupies the largest building on the site and the attractively designed courtyard that lies between two larger buildings. The building across the courtyard from the main CAMP Rehoboth building and community center is occupied by a home furnishing and interior design gallery and shop, which rents the space from CAMP Rehoboth, generating further revenue.
Similarly, a small financial services firm and the lesbian-owned Lori’s Café, which occupy small annex buildings located in the rear of the courtyard, also rent their space from CAMP Rehoboth.
Adding yet another stream of revenue is the community center’s “big” room, which can serve as a catering hall or auditorium with a seating capacity of about 90, and several smaller meeting rooms, all of which are available for rent. Archibald said the “big” room is regularly rented to same-sex couples for their wedding receptions.
Among CAMP Rehoboth’s largest programs is CAMPsafe, which for close to 20 years has provided HIV prevention related services, including HIV testing and counseling. Archibald said that although it has catered mostly to gay and bisexual men in the Rehoboth area and eastern Sussex County everyone is welcome to come in for its services.
In recent years the program has expanded under a $120,000 contract from the state health department to include testing for other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
“We do it for gonorrhea, chlamydia and we have just been selected for doing the first rapid test for syphilis in the state of Delaware,” Elkins said. “That will start in January.”
The CAMPsafe program along with a general mental health counseling program is directed by Salvatore Seeley, a licensed clinical social worker with a Ph.D. in sexual health counseling, Elkins said. Under Seeley’s direction, the counseling program usually involves up to six counseling sessions for any individual client after which Seeley refers them to a clinical therapist if needed.
Seeley’s reputation as a trusted counselor in a wide range of areas, including sexual health and couple counseling, has spread throughout the Sussex County area and even straight couples sometimes drop in, said Elkins.
“Occasionally it’s a straight couple – a husband or wife – where one spouse comes out and he counsels them on that,” Elkins said. “It runs the full gamut.”
Another program is the CAMP Rehoboth Chorus, which has close to 90 members and performs at venues in Rehoboth and surrounding areas, including nursing homes and community events.
Elkins serves as head of a longstanding CAMP Rehoboth program that provides LGBT-related sensitivity training for Rehoboth police officers and state park police officers assigned to the Rehoboth area. Among other things, Elkins said the trainings have resulted in improved relations with police.
Some of the other programs, all of which are listed on the site camprehoboth.com, include a women’s golf league; gallery and performance space for artists; advocacy for and education of local residents, visitors and businesses on LGBT issues; grief counseling; public WiFi access; an annual women’s conference and women’s weekend; and promotion of non-profit local LGBT and general community events.
Archibald noted that as CAMP Rehoboth’s visibility increased over the past 25 years, some in the LGBT community called for it to become more activist and aggressive in its advocacy work similar to the model of the 1980s-era AIDS direct action group ACT UP. He said he and Elkins and the original corps of supporters chose not go in that direction, instead choosing a more conciliatory path.
To this day, the group’s mission statement published in each issue of Letters says, among other things, “We seek to promote cooperation and understanding among all people, as we work to build safe, inclusive communities with room for all.”
Elkins said he believes that approach has succeeded, helping to make Rehoboth Beach a welcoming place for LGBT people that continues to attract LGBT tourists and new residents to the town.
“The thing I’ve always said is once we actually started talking to one another we all realized that we had the same desire – and that’s to have a safe and inclusive community,” Elkins said. “And once we started talking about what we had in common we find we have a lot more in common than we have difference.”
Elkins’ and Archibald’s journey that eventually led them to the founding of CAMP Rehoboth began in Washington, D.C., when the two met on Sept. 18, 1978, and soon fell in love, as Elkins tells it.
Elkins had been working as a White House administrator during the Carter administration and Archibald, an artist and painter, was helping a friend in Washington deliver a painting to Elkins’ office in the Old Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House grounds.
“She called and Steve cleared us all in,” Archibald recalls. “And she said we have to go get another one and he said well Murray’s going to stay here and I’m going to give him a tour of the White House. It was all part of the compound, and he walked me right into the Oval Office that day,” said Archibald.
“And that was it. From that time on it was the two of us,” he said.
When Carter left the White House after losing his re-election bid in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, Elkins, whose job was a political appointment, took a new job as sales manager at a computer company in New York City, where he and Archibald moved. After losing that job in the 1990s when his company went bankrupt, Elkins and Archibald decided to move permanently to Rehoboth Beach, where Elkins became general manager for the Strand nightclub.
In 1993, two years after he and Archibald founded CAMP Rehoboth and served on its board as volunteers, the board asked Elkins to become the group’s first paid executive director, and he accepted. That set in motion a 25-year journey for him and Archibald that has placed them largely at the center of CAMP Rehoboth’s whirlwind of activities today.
Kristen Minor, now 33, was 13 when she first began grappling with the realization that she might be a lesbian and ventured into CAMP Rehoboth 20 years ago and was greeted by Archibald, she writes in a column in the current issue of Letters. She tells of how she first met Archibald and Elkins at the church she and her family attended in Rehoboth and how CAMP Rehoboth became a refuge for her at a time when she “navigated the terrors of middle and high school” and was able to meet a “handful” of other LGBT teenagers.
“The influence of a community organization is sometime hard to measure,” she wrote. “I don’t know how to measure that CAMP saved my life and the lives of many of my friends; it was our real life ‘It Gets Better’ campaign far before such a thing ever existed.”
Steve Elkins, left, and Murray Archibald of Camp Rehoboth are gearing up for a busy October celebrating the community center’s 25 years. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
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Jason DePuy on coping with homophobia in ‘Big Brother’ house
First drag queen contestant on CBS show fought to stay positive
One week after Jason DePuy (known as Salina EsTitties on “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) was bullied and eventually evicted from CBS’s “Big Brother” house, the queer drag performer is still emotionally processing his feelings.
During his 24 days in the reality TV competition, DePuy often had a rough time, with fellow cast member Kamuela “Kamu” Kirk making homophobic comments and feeling isolated.
In a conversation with Head of Household Rick Devens, Kirk left viewers upset when he said, “Bro, miss me with the drag stuff. Miss me. I’m still an MMA guy, and I have an image to uphold.”
Former “Big Brother” contestant Frankie Grande called his words ‘homophobic’ and ‘gross.’ Another comment, where Kirk said he wanted to end DePuy’s career, also received strong backlash online.
Now that he is out of the house, DePuy has been shocked and deeply touched by the love from “Big Brother” fans and former contestants. We chatted with DePuy for this Blade exclusive.
“To know that my community was rallying for me outside the house was the most wonderful thing. Seeing how much people were just wanting to shower me with love was incredible. Even my friends, I went to say hi and give them a hug, and they’re like, ‘Uh, uh, come here.’ They had to hold me and let me know America was feeling for me in a way that I had no idea.”
He added: “To see that reality was just overwhelming, and I couldn’t ask for more.”
Known as a messy player in the house, DePuy often had to fight to stay positive and stand up for himself.
“No one was coming to my rescue. In real life, it’s easy to block people, but in the house, I didn’t have that luxury, so I had to find it within myself to learn how to speak up for myself in a way that wasn’t nasty or biting. I didn’t attack anyone personally, which is what I was the most proud of.”
DePuy acknowledged he has had a history of putting his foot in his mouth when it came to certain “Drag Race”moments, being in the public eye, and making a fool of himself. “I’ve learned my lessons; to see how I handled myself in the ‘Big Brother’ house was amazing.”
While DePuy has been sober for 14 and a half years and has a strong spiritual foundation, in the Big Brother house, he often felt like he couldn’t communicate what he was feeling.
“As a queer person, a person of color, a drag queen, I have to be very careful about how I move. I don’t have the luxury or privilege to just act a certain way or say a certain thing. I have to be very careful; I’m representing me. But who I am is a Latino, a person of recovery, a drag queen, a queer person in the community. I know that there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. I felt it was safer for me to sit there and just breathe than try to do anything crazy.”
He continued: “I couldn’t speak to the personal attack that was happening in the house, because in my mind I was like, ‘no, this is a game, and I have to play it, put that aside.’”
Not only can viewers watch the episodes, but they can also watch the live feeds of what’s happening. Seeing the fans’ social media posts from people who had watched the episodes and the live feeds also contributed to DePuy realizing that his feelings of discomfort were valid.
“To know that I wasn’t delusional in those moments, that others could see what was happening, has been a lot to take in. Fans and friends let me know the comments made went beyond the game…I’m like, ‘Oh, so my instincts were correct.”
One of the most poignant moments on the live feeds occurred when DePuy was crying, alone in his room, and said how he missed his gay community.
“I really missed my friends. I missed my queer community. We’re so colorful. We’re so loud. We’re so vibrant. We speak off the cuff, and we’re very truthful and honest with how we speak, and it’s fun. We have fun lingo.”
DePuy had to censor his expressions in the house. “Because I can say one thing, but it can mean something different to straight people than it does with my queer brothers and sisters. So, there was a sense of code-switching that I had to do. I had to even put aside some of my queerness in a way sometimes to fit in.”
DePuy was thrilled to be the very first drag queen to ever be cast on the show.
“I’m honored to have been chosen. There’s a million drag queens out there, and to know that I was a contender to come in the house and not even be in drag was like a wow for me. I’m over here in Hollywood, running around these streets with a wig and heels just to make a dollar to survive, and I have to rely on drag to do that. And then to be offered this opportunity and be given the privilege to say, ‘hey, you don’t have to put on the wig for you to be valuable here,’ is just insane to me.”
Prior to his shows, DePuy has been hustling for 15 years, flipping burgers and doing drag at night.
“That has been my life these past since I was 17. So it’s been a long journey; the opportunity to do this out of drag is a very big blessing. I’m honored and grateful to be the representation of my community.”
If you missed Jason on “Big Brother: Unlocked,” the episode can be seen on CBS.com. He will be back on the show for the finale.
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Rainbows in Revolt on a mission to make LGBTQ artists’ voices heard
Rainbows in Revolt on a mission to make LGBTQ artists’ voices heard
Last month’s Pride celebration in D.C. was so fun. Walking around my first Capital Pride with a $15 lemonade I was loving the madness and the color. Artists and small businesses battling banks you’ve never heard of collecting your personal information so you can spin a wheel to snag free merch. Great music blaring, people actually smiling and enjoying themselves, the “Great” American State Fair could never!
The Monument Stage was on Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the National Gallery of Art and I can’t think of a better venue to see live music. How does someone get on the lineup for Pride? How do we accelerate the visibility of the most talented voices in our community to perform in places like this?
There is certainly not a talent gap, but there is a visibility gap. Chappell Roan went from playing for two people in a parking lot to owning the main stage at Coachella in one year. Whether it is shadowbanning or bias in AI, algorithms have been shown to suppress queer artists. In a digital age, how can queer people break through and show the world how talented they are?
Allison and Matt of Rainbows in Revolt are on a mission to make openly LGBTQ+ artists’ voices heard. Their goal is to find “musicians whose queerness is central to their identity as an artist,” and accelerate them to a place where they can actually reach fans.
The only time queer events seem to be in the spotlight is June, but this should be year round, according to Allison and Matt. Rainbows in Revolt wants to act as a “nucleus” for different sub-communities, finding common ground in the universal language of music.
Matt and Allison founded Rainbows as a way to make cheaper, higher quality merchandise for queer artists. While Rainbows has already pledged 20% of their profits to the LGBTQ+ community, with 10% to Whitman-Walker Health and 10% to LGBTQ+ organizations in need, this is just the beginning of the work that they do.
Rainbows “does the dirty work” that artists normally struggle to do on their own with limited resources. Interviews, artist profiles, social promotion, playlist discovery, radio outreach, and merch-funded support. This work is normally expensive, time consuming, and requires lots of different skills. Musicians don’t want to be editing clips to post online. Standup comedians don’t want to make graphics for their tour dates. They want to write more. They want to focus on their craft.
In addition to helping artists find their audience, Rainbows has built other digital tools to help queer people connect, including an interactive Safe Space Map for most major cities. It is hard to know which places are truly safe and supportive just from a simple Google search. Attitudes and actions change, and there should be a simple way for queer people to find other places that align with them. The Safe Spaces Maps are all up to date, and are tagged and filterable. Instead of relying on forums and word of mouth, Rainbows has created a centralized way to find authentic community quickly.
I had a chance to talk with Allison and Matt at Pride where Lily Erin, one of their signature artists, was performing on the Monument stage. Lily Erin is a folk singer who is familiar and forging her own path. Her bittersweet sound echoes through Acadia, and her garb mirrors the New England athletes I grew up with. Gorp Core meets streetwear. A graphic tee, hiking shorts, and creamsicle Jordans.
Her debut single, “Bus Stop,” tells a sad story about unconditional love, and the conditions that still seem to come with it. Graduating into lockdown, Erin needed a new way to connect with herself and others. Lily made “Bus Stop” without an intention to share it, but doing so was a liberation. People have been responding to her honesty around queer-ness, family, and the “ghosts which haunt us” even in the daytime.
Rainbows in Revolt has helped Lily Erin go from bars and backyards to The Monument Stage at Pride. This is a meteoric rise, and a testament to both Erin’s talent and the work of Rainbows to promote her. “A little encouragement goes a long way with early artists,” and by “planting a seed” Rainbows is already seeing their artist garden grow. Community is power, and Erin is a perfect example of how effective simple modern techniques of promotion can be.
A next step for Rainbows is putting on shows themselves. On Oct. 3, Rainbows in Revolt will host an Evening with Ray Boltz at the National City Christian Church. Boltz grew up in the Catholic Church and for many years was the soundtrack to many services, youth camps, and church groups. He was celebrated by millions until he came out in 2008. Allison remembers her community “never playing his music again.”
Rainbows in Revolt is helping him to return to the church, and proving that identity does not need to be exclusive. We live in a complicated world with complicated lines being drawn. Boltz proves that these lines don’t exist, and will be breaking down barriers to bring together communities. To Allison, “a trans woman standing next to a straight white man in church is a powerful teacher.”
The Safe Space maps bridge all types of spaces, and one of the unlikely ones is, perhaps, churches. Matt said that “BYU has only nine safe spaces around their campus and seven of them are churches.” Not all churches are anti-gay, and many times they are the only place for people to find community.
Rainbows in Revolt is just getting started bridging gaps and building community.
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Summer in the City: Free exhibits, movies, more fill D.C.’s calendar
America 250 celebrations continue
From late-night museum visits and outdoor jazz concerts to free movie screenings and America250 exhibitions, Washington’s summer calendar is packed with events that don’t charge admission. Here’s a look at some of the free activities happening across the District through September and beyond.
Museum exhibitions
The Renwick Gallery is presenting State Fairs: Growing American Craft, an exhibition that looks at unique and unconventional crafts from the 19th century to the present. It will run until Sept. 7, and admission is free.
The Arts and Industries Building, located next to the Smithsonian Castle, is presenting the exhibition Voices and Votes: Exploring Democracy Across America. The exhibition features the development of American independence and what that has meant over time, beginning with the Revolutionary War. Admission to the museum is free, and the exhibition runs until Sept. 7.
The National Gallery of Art presents Dear America, an exhibit featuring more than 100 pieces of work, including letters, photographs, and drawings that depict American landscapes and depictions of freedom. The exhibition will run until Sept. 20.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is exhibiting Burnished: Pueblo Pottery until Sept. 27. The exhibit features pottery from the Southwest, and while most of the pottery belongs to women artists, a few also reflect those who have advocated for women.
Extending past this summer, the exhibition ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa will be at the National Museum of the American Latino until July 2028. The exhibition shows how Afro-Cuban music has become a staple in the U.S. Admission is free.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library will feature the exhibition District Vibes / American Pride: How DC Changed American Culture, which will highlight all of the ways D.C. has impacted American life. The exhibit will run until Sept. 27.
At the Folger Shakespeare Library, the exhibit Imagining Shakespeare: Mythmaking and Storytelling in the Regency Era will be on view through Aug. 2. All the portraits on display come from the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London.
The United States Botanic Garden will be open until 8 p.m. on Aug. 20 and Sept. 17, as part of America’s State Flowers: An America250 Celebration. The evenings will include live music, mocktails, ice cream, and snacks.
The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden will have extended hours, staying open until 8 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday until Sept. 3.
Live performances
On Aug. 7, the postgame Nationals concert series will continue with Jordan Davis performing. To see the concert, guests just need to buy tickets to the Nationals game.
Jazz in the Garden will run each Friday until Aug. 14. The event has free admission, but those interested have to enter a lottery due to the high demand for the event.
From May to October, Capital Harvest Market occurs every Wednesday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The market features fresh foods, crafts, and recipes for unique dishes. A full list of vendors is available on Capital Harvest’s website.
Live! Concert Series on the Plaza will feature live performances at Woodrow Wilson Plaza until Sept. 25. The performances run Monday to Friday from 12-1 p.m. Admission is free to the performances.
DowntownDC Live! at Anthem Row is running until July 30, with free performances every Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The final performance will feature HUE and a vintage flea market hosted by Get Flee Marketplace.
Located in Adams Morgan, AdMo Vibe will present live performances every Thursday at 6 p.m. in Kalorama Park. Guests are encouraged to check out Adams Morgan before and after shows, and it is an event for all ages.
Other events
Union Market is hosting drive-in movies on Aug. 8, featuring “Monsters, Inc.”, and Sept. 12, featuring “Wicked.” On Aug. 8, the parking lot will open at 7:30 p.m., with the movie starting at 8:25 p.m. On Sept. 12, the parking lot will open at 6:35 p.m., and the movie will start at 7:30 p.m.
Sunset Cinema at the Wharf will also be available one day a month. On Aug. 12, “10 Things I Hate About You” will premiere, and on Aug. 26, “Project Hail Mary.” No tickets are necessary.
The Library of Congress will also show movies. On Aug. 6, guests are invited to watch “Apollo 13.” The movie will be shown at 8 p.m., with additional live performances beginning at 7 p.m.
For fans of Asian media, the Okaton convention will be at Walter E. Washington Convention Center from July 31-Aug. 2. Festivities will include cosplay contests, skits, live music, and panel discussions.
Washington Spirit’s season also begins in August. The Spirit is Washington’s National Women’s League, with matchups occurring between the San Diego Wave, the North Carolina Courage, the Orlando Pride, and the Bay FC.
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