a&e features
The year’s biggest A&E moments
Caitlyn, ‘Carol,’ ‘Stonewall’ and more
(Washington Blade editorial cartoon by Ranslem)
#10 Neil Patrick Harris just so-so at the Oscars
After successful stints hosting the Tonys and Emmys, expectations were high in February when long-time out actor Neil Patrick Harris hosted the 87th Academy Awards, becoming the first openly gay man (Ellen hosted the year before) to take on the tough assignment.
Showing off a remarkably fit physique, he lampooned a scene from “Birdman” by appearing on stage in tighty-whities, a move that drew mixed reviews. The New York Times said overall he was “bland.” Time said he was “glum and low energy.”
Viewership was down 16 percent, the lowest rating in six years according to Variety. Harris told Huffington Post later he doubts he’ll ever do it again.
“I don’t know that my family nor my soul could take it,” he said in that interview.
After a white-hot run of successes in recent years, Harris fumbled in 2015. His fall NBC show “Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris,” a live TV variety series, was cancelled in December after just eight episodes.
#9 Return of Madonna and Janet
In March, Madonna released her 13th studio album “Rebel Heart.” Despite a massive leak, it debuted solidly at No. 2 on Billboard (121,000 units) and received generally better reviews than her previous two releases. Her “Rebel Heart Tour” opened in September with strong reviews and sales.
Janet Jackson returned in October with her 11th album “Unbreakable,” her first new studio project in seven years. With 116,000 units, the album was No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart the week it debuted and garnered strong reviews. The “Unbreakable World Tour” kicked off in August in Vancouver with several fast sell-outs. After taking December off, she goes back out Jan. 9 in Denver and plays Baltimore on Feb. 29 and D.C. on March 1. It’s her first tour since 2011 and marks a return to arenas after playing smaller venues last time.
Despite the buzz and media interest, U.S. radio continued to mostly ignore the singers. On the Hot 100, a chart the two dominated in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Janet’s first single “No Sleeep” made it only to No. 67. She found more success on the Adult R&B chart, where the single spent a record 10 weeks at No. 1. The title cut was the second single and didn’t chart. Neither did Madonna’s first single “Living for Love” or second single “Ghost Town.” Both singers had some success (Madge always manages a No. 1 dance hit for practically everything she releases) on other Billboard charts. Madonna’s third single “Bitch I’m Madonna” peaked at No. 84 on the Hot 100.
#8 ‘Hamilton’ hits big on Broadway
With a score “rooted in hip-hop but also encompassing R&B, jazz, pop, Tin Pan Alley and the choral strains of contemporary Broadway,” as the New York Times put it, “Hamilton,” which opened on Broadway in August, is this year’s monster hit where it’s turned the notion of the “Great White Way” on its head with a cast of mostly black and Latino actors playing the founding fathers.
Based on a 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton, the show has drawn raves for its ability to “redefine what an American musical can look and sound like,” as the Times wrote.
Out actor Jonathan Groff plays King George III, a nice change of pace for him after HBO’s “Looking” ended its second and last season in March.
#7 ‘Transparent’ goes through the roof
“Transparent,” the hit Amazon Studios show that tells of Maura Pfefferman’s (Jeffrey Tambor) transition process and the effect it has on her family, went through the roof this year.
In addition to the Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy (the first time a streamed show has taken this award) Tambor also won a Globe and later an Emmy as well.
The show’s second season premiered in December. It’s been renewed for a third. It has an impressive 98 percent freshness rating on critical roundup site Rotten Tomatoes.
#6 ‘Glee’ signs off
Although it wound down with more of a whimper than a bang, “Glee,” the hit Fox series that debuted in 2009 and told of the ups and downs of the William McKinley High School glee club, the show, created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, deserves praise for its brave handling of LGBT issues.
From out cast members Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer and Alex Newell to its sensitive handling of LGBT storylines, the show was an awards magnet winning four GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series, six Emmys, four Golden Globes and a bounty of other accolades.
Ratings had fallen steadily in recent years after a second season high.
#5 Danny Pintauro comes out as HIV positive
Although he’d been out of the pop culture limelight, former “Who’s the Boss?” and “Cujo” actor Danny Pintauro, who’d been out for years, told Oprah on an episode of her show “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” in September that he’s been HIV positive for 12 years.
Although initially embraced for his candor, Pintauro later drew criticism for saying on “The View” that he believes he contracted the virus through oral sex, a possibility HIV experts said was highly unlikely.
He later told the Blade at the AIDS Walk in October — he was on hand to accept an award — that he didn’t mean he knew that definitively but that it was his “best guess” as to how he contracted HIV.
#4 ‘Stonewall’ tanks
In August when the public got its first look at “Stonewall,” this year’s dramatization of the 1969 New York LGBT riots from director Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day”), the trailer was widely trashed for slickly whitewashing the watershed moment for gay rights.
Upon its September release, critical consensus was extremely negative in both the gay and mainstream press with a wide spate of reviews condemning the filmmaker’s decision to center the events around a fictional hunky white character (played by straight actor Jeremy Irvine) and reducing trans women and people of color to the sidelines.
Although Emmerich said he was intrigued by the issue of LGBT youth homelessness, a Vanity Fair critic said he managed to take “one of the most politically charged periods of the last century” and make it into a “bland, facile coming-of-age story.” Some activists called for an LGBT boycott of the movie.
The film cost about $17 million to make with part of it self-financed by Emmerich. It bombed at the box office. According to IMDB, its U.S. gross as of October was just short of $200,000.
#3 Big year for LGBT film
There’ve always been LGBT movies but even just a few years ago, most of the gay content was in smaller indie fare with a token mainstream release like “Brokeback Mountain” here or there. That is no longer the case.
With “Freeheld,” the Julianne Moore project about a woman’s fight to have her pension benefits transferred to her domestic partner after being diagnosed with terminal cancer; to “The Danish Girl,” the Eddie Redmayne vehicle that finds him starring as trans pioneer Lili Elbe; to “Carol,” the Todd Haynes-helmed film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, LGBT themes in major films were no longer token occurrences.
#2 U.S. women’s soccer team out and proud
When the U.S. beat Japan in July to take the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the international women’s football (i.e. soccer) world championship, it was not just a triumph for the United States women’s national soccer team, the tournament was a watershed moment for out athletes with 18 publicly out players on the field for various countries including the U.S.’s Jillian Ellis (coach), Ali Krueger, Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach.
“While the men’s professional game has been reluctant to be fully inclusive and supportive of anyone within the game who identifies as LGBT, it’s generally regarded that football is much more accepting of women who are lesbian or bisexual,” said Lindsay England, head of Just a Ball Game, an organization that works to end anti-LGBT bias in soccer, in an Out Sports interview.
Wambach, who treated media interest in her 2013 marriage to Sarah Huffman bemusedly, retired in
December with too many accolades and wins to count, including two Olympic gold medals and a ranking in this year’s Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year.
#1 The world meets Caitlyn Jenner
It was in many ways the year of Cait and few would argue she is anything but the most prominent transgender person in the country.
The Olympic champion who found a second wind of fame as patriarch of reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” came out officially as transgender in an April Diane Sawyer interview on ABC’s “20/20” and was first seen as Caitlyn in a lavish cover story and fashion spread in the July issue of Vanity Fair.
Her (what else?) reality show “I Am Cait” debuted over the summer on E! and has been renewed for a second season (no premiere date for season two announced yet). It’s enjoyed decent if hardly rapturous ratings and reviews and has been noted for a more serious tone than that of the “Kardashians.”
Jenner’s long-held Republican views, especially her half-hearted endorsement of same-sex marriage for one, have induced winces on several occasions from LGBT activists. After speaking at a luncheon in Chicago in November, Jenner — camera crew in tow — was confronted by an angry mob of trans protesters who said she was a “disgrace.” Their basic beef was that the 65-year-old Cait has enjoyed such a life of privilege that she could never fully understand their plight. To her credit, Jenner engaged them.
In an early episode of her show, she seemed to grasp the import of her role and said, “I just hope I get it right.”
a&e features
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
Loraine Hutchins remembered as a ‘force of nature’
The Montgomery County Pride Center will host a celebration honoring the life and legacy of Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., on May 2. People are invited to attend the onsite memorial or a livestream event. The on-site event will begin at 10 a.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer before moving into a memorial service around the theme “Loraine a Force of Nature!” at 11 a.m., a panel talk at 12 p.m., break out sessions for artists, academics, and activists to build on her legacy at 1 p.m. and a closing reception at 2 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to register for the on-site memorial gathering or the livestreamed memorial. The goal of this event is also to collect stories and memories of Loraine. Attendees and others can share their stories at padlet.com.
An obituary for Hutchins was published in the Bladelast Nov. 24, where people can learn more about her activism in the bisexual community. A private service for friends and family was held in December but this memorial service is open to all.
Alongside her groundbreaking work organizing for U.S. bisexual rights and liberation including co-editing “Bi Any Other Name: BIsexual People Speak Out” (1991), she also integrated faith into her sexual education and advocacy work. Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, “Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends,” offered a pointed queer and feminist analysis to sex-neutral and sex-positive spiritual traditions in the United States. Her thesis was also groundbreaking in exploring the intersections between sex workers and those in caregiving professionals, including spiritual ones.
In an oral history interview conducted by Michelle Mueller back in August 2023, Hutchins described herself as a “priestess without a congregation.” While she has occasionally had a sense of community and feels part of a group of loving people, she admitted that “I don’t feel like we have the shape or the purpose that we need.”
“I’ve often experienced being the Cassandra in the room, the Cassandra in the community. Somebody who’s kind of way out there ahead, thinking through the strategic action points that my community hasn’t gotten to yet, and getting a lot of resistance and hostile responses from people who are frightened by dissent and conflict and not ready for the changes we have to make to survive,” she said.
“For somebody who’s bisexual in an out political way and who’s been a spokesperson for the polyamory movement in an out political way, it’s very exposing. And it’s very important to me to be able to try to explain and help other people understand the connection between spirituality and sexuality,” she explained citing how even as a graduate student she was “exploring how to feel erotic and spiritual, and not feel them in conflict with each other in my own spiritual contemplative life and my own sensual body awareness of being alive in the world.”
“Every religion has a sense of sacred sexuality. It’s just they put a lot of boundaries and regulations on it, and if we have a spiritual practice that is totally affirming of women’s priesthood and of gay people, queer people’s ability to minister to everyone and to be ministered to be everyone, what does that do to the gender of God, or our understanding of how we practice our spirituality and our sexuality in community and privately?”
“There’s no easy answer,” she concludes, and she continued to grapple with these questions throughout her life, co-editing another seminal text, “Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual, and Polysexual Perspectives,” published in 2012. Her work blending spiritual and queer liberation remains groundbreaking to this day.
Rev. Eric Eldritch, a local community organizer and ordained Pagan minister with Circle Sanctuary who has worked for decades with the DC Center’s Center Faith to organize the Pride Interfaith Service, is eager to highlight this element of her legacy at the memorial service next month.
a&e features
Queery: Meet artist, performer John Levengood
Modern creative talks nightlife, coming out, and his personal queer heroes
John Levengood (he/him) describes himself as a modern creative with a wide‑ranging toolkit. He blends music, technology, civic duty, and a sharp sense of wit into a cohesive artistic identity. Known primarily as a recording artist and performer, he’s also a self‑taught music producer and software engineer who embodies a generation of creators who build their own lanes rather than wait for one to appear.
Levengood, 32, who is single and identifies as gay and queer, is best known as a recording artist who has performed at Pride festivals across the country, including the main stages of World Pride DC, Central Arkansas Pride, and Charlotte Pride.
“Locally in the DMV, I’m known for turning heads at nightlife venues with my eye-catching sense of style. When I go out, I don’t try to blend in. I hope I inspire people to be themselves and have the courage to stand out,” he says.
He’s also known for hosting karaoke at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va., on Thursday nights. “I like to create a space where people feel comfortable expressing themselves, building community, and showcasing their talents.”
He also creates social media content from my performances and do interviews at LGBTQ+ bars and theatres in the DMV. Follow the Arlington resident @johnlevengood.
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I have been fully out of the closet since 2019. My parents were the hardest people to tell because my family has always been my rock and at the time I couldn’t imagine a world without them. Their reactions were extremely positive and supportive so I had nothing to fear all along.
I remember sitting on the couch with my mom, dad, and sister in our hotel room in New Orleans during our winter vacation and being so nervous to tell them. After I finally mustered up the nerve and made the proclamation, I realized my dad had already fallen asleep on the couch. My mom promised to tell him when he woke up.
Who’s your LGBTQ hero?
My LGBTQ heroes are Harvey Milk for paving the way for gays in politics and Elton John for being a pioneer for the fabulous and authentic. My local heroes in the DMV are Howard Hicks, manager of Green Lantern, and Tony Rivenbark, manager of Freddie’s Beach Bar. Both of them are essential to creating spaces where I’ve felt welcome and safe since moving to the DMV.
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
Trade tops the list for me because of the dance floor and outdoor space. It’s so nice to get a break from the music every once and a while to be able to have a conversation.
We live in challenging times. How do you cope?
I’m still figuring this out. What is working right now is writing music and spending time with family and friends. I’ve also been spending less time on social media going to the gym at least three times a week.
What streaming show are you binging?
After “Traitors” Season 4 ended, I was in a bit of a show hole, but “Stumble” has me in a laughing loop right now. The writing is so witty.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
At 18, I wish I would have known how liberating it is to come out of the closet. It would have been nice to know some winning lottery numbers as well.
What are your friends messaging about in your most recent group chat?
We are planning our next trip to New York City. If you can believe it, I visited NYC for the first time in 2025 for Pride and I’ve been back every quarter since. Growing up in the country, I was subconsciously primed to be scared of the city. But my mind has been blown. I can’t wait to go back.
Why Washington?
It’s the closest metropolitan area to my family, but not too close. I love the museums, the diversity, the history, and the proximity to the beach and mountains. It’s also nice to live in a city with public transportation.
Aging RFK Stadium has come down, but the RFK grounds are still getting lit up. Welcome back to the stage Project GLOW, D.C.’s homegrown electronic festival, on May 30-31. Back for its fifth year on these musically inclined acres, Project GLOW returns with an even more diverse lineup, and one that continues to celebrate LGBTQ antecedents, attendees, and acts.
Project GLOW 2026 headliners include house and techno star Mau P, progressive house legend Eric Prydz, hard-techno favorite Sara Landry, and bass acts Excision b2b Sullivan King, among the lineup of trance, bass, house, techno, dubstep, and others for the fifth anniversary year.
President & CEO Pete Kalamoutsos — born and raised in D.C. — founded Club GLOW in 1999. In 2020, GLOW entered into a partnership with global entertainment company Insomniac Events to produce live events like Project GLOW, which kicked off in 2022.
As in past years, Project GLOW not only makes space, but is intentionally inclusive of the LGBTQ community, one of its most dedicated fan bases. The festival’s LGBTQ-focused Secret Garden stage blooms again — a more intimate dance area that stands on the strength of DJs and musicians who draw from the LGBTQ community. D.C.’s LGBTQ nightlife mastermind Ed Bailey is the creative mind behind Secret Garden again. He joined Project GLOW in 2023.
“Kalamoustos says that “he’s proud of his partnership with Ed Bailey, along with Capital Pride and [nightlife producer] Jake Resnikow. It’s amazing to collaborate with Bailey at the Secret Garden stage, especially after the curated lineup we worked on at Pride last year.”
The Secret Garden will be a bit different from other stages: Eternal (“At the Eternal stage, time stands still. Lose yourself in the dance of past, present, and future, surrendering to the eternal rhythm of the universe”) and Pulse (“Feel the rhythm of the beat pulse through your veins as the heartbeat of the crowd synchronizes into one. Here, every moment vibrates with life as it guides you through a new dimension of euphoria”). The Secret Garden stage is in the round, surrounded by 16 shipping containers. The containers play canvas to muralists from around the world, who are coming in to paint them in a vibrant garden-style vibe. “We gave this stage some extra love with this layout,” K says, “ we finally cracked the code.”
K says that this will be the biggest lineup yet for the Secret Garden, featuring Nicole Moudaber b2b Chasewest, Riordan b2b Bullet Tooth, Ranger Trucco, Cassian, Eli & Fur, Cosmic Gate and Hayla. The stage is also the largest yet, featuring an expanded dance floor and 360-degree viewing.
Across all stages, K says that his goal for the fifth anniversary is “More art and fan interactive experience, more like a festival, strive to be like a Tomorrowland, as budget grows to add more experience.” Last year’s Project GLOW alone drew 40,000 attendees over two days.
K, however, was not satisfied with one festival this spring. GLOW recently announced a “pop-up” one-day event. Teaming up with Black Book Records, GLOW is set to throw a first-of-its-kind dance-music takeover of Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., headlined by electronic music star Chris Lake. Set for April 18, this euphoric block party will feature bass and vibes blocks from the White House. Organizers expect as many as 10,000 fans to attend. Beyond music, there will be food, activations, and plenty of other activities taking place around 6th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW – a location familiar to many in the LGBTQ community, as this sits squarely inside the blocks of the Capital Pride party that takes place in DC every June.
Over the past two decades, Club GLOW has produced thousands of events, from club nights to large-scale festivals including Project GLOW, Moonrise Festival, and more. Club GLOW also operates Echostage.
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