Arts & Entertainment
Best of Gay D.C. 2016: PEOPLE
Blade readers voted for their favorite people
Local Hero
Eric Fanning, U.S. Army Secretary
President Obama has appointed a record number of openly LGBT people to his administration, but over the course of the last year none has received as much attention as Army Secretary Eric Fanning.
His approval by the U.S. Senate in May after a nearly yearlong process in which his confirmation was in question made him the first openly gay person confirmed to head a military service branch.
Since that time, Fanning has become a hero in the LGBT community and a favorite interview subject for the media.
In an interview with the Blade in August, Fanning said he’s aware of his fan base, which he said has grown with each advancement of his career at the Pentagon.
“I always think I’m prepared and then the wave comes when you’re nominated, when you’re confirmed, when you’re sworn in,” Fanning said. “There’s always something that’s a hook that gets a little bit of attention.”
Over the course of the Obama administration, Fanning has occupied a position in each of the military services. Before his confirmation as Army secretary, Fanning held the posts of Air Force under secretary and deputy secretary at the Navy. Fanning was also chief of staff to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and served as acting Army secretary, but had to relinquish the job briefly to win confirmation.
No stranger to LGBT advocacy, Fanning was once a board member for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. He began his tenure in the Obama administration at the time Congress repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
In 2013, Fanning became the first senior defense official to endorse a non-discrimination rule for sexual orientation in the military and openly transgender service in the armed forces. The U.S. military has since adopted both ideas.
Fanning said in August the changes have been great for him to witness personally, but “far more important, I think, it’s been great for the U.S. military.”
“Opening up service to people who haven’t had the opportunities, but meet the requirements, means we can recruit from a broader pool of talent and get the best our country has to offer,” Fanning said. (Chris Johnson)
Army Secretary Eric Fanning (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Amateur Athlete/Best Fitness Instructor
Grace Thompson, D.C. Front Runners
Runner-up: Mark Hofberg, D.C. Gay Flag Football
Runner-up (fitness instructor): Kyle Suib
Grace Thompson calls the D.C. Front Runners “welcoming, supportive and friendly.”
The D.C. native joined the group seven years ago and is one of between 15-20 women in the league.
“Our group is dynamic with a full spectrum of runners, from the sub three-hour marathon to walkers and every pace in between.”
Thompson, a lesbian, started running consistently about 10 years ago. Since then, she’s run five full marathons and four half marathons. On Oct. 30, she’ll add another to the list — the Marine Corps Marathon.
“I’m honored, surprised and thankful to win,” Thompson, who works by day as the owner of Embody Pure Fitness, says. “I honestly didn’t campaign at all. It was a surprise to me that I was even nominated.” (Joey DiGuglielmo)
Grace Thompson (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Artist
John Jack Gallagher
Runner-up: Denis Largeron
John Jack Gallagher has been taking photos since his first boyfriend gave him a 35-millimeter camera for his birthday more than 30 years ago. In 2012, he started shooting professionally after members of the Stonewall Kickball team he’d been photographing insisted he shoot their wedding.
“I created a Facebook page and started getting a lot of likes and even some clients,” Gallagher, 57, says. “My friends ended up eloping so I did not get to photograph their wedding, but by then, John Jack Photography was started down the road to being a permanent thing.”
Gallagher shoots fundraisers, weddings and sports and says he’s working more hours than he ever has before. “But I love it,” he says. He aims for “colorful, candid and emotional” photos.
“I like my photos to be vibrant and tell a story, even when they capture a single moment,” he says.
Gallagher is single and has been traveling all over the East Coast to build his business.
He’s also learned to be more careful after getting banned from Facebook five years ago for accidentally posting a photo of a woman whose bathing suit had slipped during a Jello wrestling match. (Joey DiGuglielmo)
John Jack Gallagher (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Businessperson
Jim ‘Chachi’ Boyle
Town, Trade and Number Nine
Runner-up: Dr. Gregory Jones, Capital Center for Psychotherapy & Wellness
Jim “Chachi” Boyle has been involved in various nightlife ventures for 20 years. A decade ago he became business partners with John Guggenmos and Ed Bailey, the visionaries behind Town Danceboutique, Trade and Number Nine.
“It’s an honor to be recognized,” Boyle says. “My partners and I are fortunate to have amazing managers, awesome staffs and great customers.”
Boyle lives in Shaw. Town Danceboutique has won dozens of Washington Blade Best of Gay D.C. awards since it opened in 2007. (Joey DiGuglielmo)
Jim ‘Chachi’ Boyle (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Clergy
Rayceen Pendarvis
Runner-up: Bishop Allyson Abrams
Racine Pendarvis (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Most Committed Activist
Earl Fowlkes
Runner-up: Sarah McBride
Those who know Earl Fowlkes know the path he has taken over the past 30 years from an AIDS and gay rights activist in New York City and D.C. to his current role as leader of three prominent LGBT-related organizations and chair of the D.C. Commission on Human Rights. He epitomizes the term “committed activist.”
Fowlkes served as a volunteer with various AIDS organizations in New York City and New Jersey during the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1996, he moved to D.C. to take a job as executive director of Damien Ministries, a faith-based group that provides services to people with HIV/AIDS.
In 1999, he became one of the founders of the organization that expanded D.C.’s Black Pride celebration into a national federation that quickly evolved into the International Federation of Black Prides, which helped coordinate black LGBT Pride events worldwide.
While serving as its CEO and president, Fowlkes played a key role in 2012 in expanding the organization’s mission to take on black LGBT-related economic, social and health issues along with a change of its name to the Center for Black Equity.
In keeping with his interest in politics as a means of achieving social change, Fowlkes was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee’s LGBT Caucus in August 2013 shortly after being appointed as a member of the DNC. In November 2014, Fowlkes won election as president of D.C.’s Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest local LGBT political organization.
As if this were not enough, the D.C. City Council in July 2015 confirmed Fowlkes’ nomination by Mayor Muriel Bowser to become chair of the D.C. Commission on Human Rights. The independent commission is charged with adjudicating discrimination cases under the city’s Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination, among other categories, based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“One thing led to another,” said Fowlkes in discussing his activist endeavors. “It’s the most humbling thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m so immensely proud to have this honor.” (Lou Chibbaro Jr.)
Earl Fowlkes (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Council Member
David Grosso
Runner-up: Jack Evans
D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At-Large) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Most LGBT activists who know Council member David Grosso (I-At-Large) say he began with a running start in his support for LGBT issues during his first year on the Council in 2013 and hasn’t stopped since then.
“He has an extensive record of supporting LGBT concerns, including introduction and passage of bills to prevent youth suicide and to require LGBT cultural competency for medical professionals,” according to the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, which gave Grosso its highest rating of +10 for D.C. Council candidates running in the Nov. 8 election.
During his first term in office, Grosso has introduced, co-introduced or co-sponsored at least a dozen bills that directly or indirectly benefit LGBT people.
Among them is the Youth Suicide Prevention and School Climate Survey Amendment Act of 2015, a first of its kind measure that specifically lists “LGBTQ youth” as an at-risk subgroup requiring careful attention in school suicide prevention programs.
Other bills that Grosso introduced or co-introduced include the LGBTQ Cultural Competency Continuing Education Amendment Act of 2015, which requires all medical professionals to take LGBTQ cultural competency training to maintain their licenses; a bill banning co-called “conversion therapy” for minors; and a measure requiring the city to provide new birth certificates to transgender people to reflect their correct name and gender.
Grosso has attended meetings of LGBT organizations has appeared at numerous LGBT events, including the Capital Pride Parade, AIDS Walk Washington, D.C. Black Pride and the D.C. LGBT Center annual reception.
“As an at-large Council member I work every day to ensure that our city welcomes, embraces and respects the human rights of every person,” he wrote in his response to GLAA’s candidate questionnaire. “This commitment to inclusion is reflected in my staff that includes several individuals who live openly as members of the LGBTQ community.” (Lou Chibbaro, Jr.)
Best Hill Staffer
John Assini
Runner-up: Evan Dorner
For John Assini, public service has been a calling he has felt since his youth and one he now answers as legislative correspondent to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
“When I was young, it was instilled in me to fight for my beliefs,” Assini said. “Working on the Hill allows me to do that every day. Working for passionate members of Congress over the last five years has allowed me to contribute in a small way to the national conversation, which has been a humbling experience.”
Assini, 27, has already built a substantial resume since he began his career on Capitol Hill in 2011. Before working for Baldwin, he was a legislative aide for the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources and an intern for now-Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). Between 2012 and 2014, Assini was also a board member for GLASS, the affinity group for LGBT Senate staffers.
But Assini feels especially honored to work for Baldwin, whom he calls a “dedicated and thoughtful member who continues to work tirelessly on behalf of her state and its residents, and who shares my values of a fair, more equitable America.” The only out lesbian in Congress is up for re-election in 2018.
“That I also am part of the first openly gay U.S. senator’s team does not escape me,” Assini said. “She will always be a part of our shared LGBT history and I’m very lucky to work for her. Knowing that I play a role executing Sen. Baldwin’s vision of cleaner energy, better water quality and a brighter future for Wisconsin helps me stay focused every day.” (Chris Johnson)
John Assini (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Local Pro Athlete
Katie Ledecky
Five-time Olympic Gold medalist in swimming
Runner-up: Bryce Harper
Katie Ledecky (Photo by Fernando Frazao of Agencia Brasil)
Best Massage
Gary Brennan
Arlington, Va.
301-704-1158
Runner-up: Jacob Gough
Gary Brennan (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best LGBT Bureaucrat
Sheila Alexander-Reid
Director of LGBTQ Affairs for D.C. government
Runner-up: Jack Jacobson
Sheila Alexander-Reid (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Real Estate Agent
Michael Fowler, Compass
Runner-up: Jeff Taylor, Sotheby’s
Michael Fowler (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Real Estate Group
The Evan and Mark Team, Compass
Runner-up: Ray Gernhart and Associates Re/Max
The Evan and Mark Team of Compass (Photo courtesy the Team)
Best Rehoboth Real Estate Agent
Chris Beagle
Berkshire Hathaway Gallo Realty
gotogallo.com
(Also won this category last year)
Runner-up: Jack Lingo
Chris Beagle (Photo courtesy of Beagle)
Best Straight Ally
Hillary Clinton
Runner-up: Leigh Ann Hendricks
Sec. Hillary Clinton (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Trans Advocate
Sarah McBride
Runner-up: Ruby Corado
Sarah McBride in July became the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention, but her advocacy efforts began long before she took to the podium at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
McBride came out as trans in 2012 when she was the student body president of American University.
The Wilmington, Del., native had been involved with Equality Delaware, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, for several years. She joined the organization’s board of directors after she came out.
McBride testified three times in support of the bill that added gender identity to Delaware’s anti-discrimination and hate crimes law. Gov. Jack Markell said after he signed the measure in 2013 that his former intern “courageously stood before the General Assembly.”
McBride made national headlines in April when she posted a picture of herself on Instagram inside a women’s bathroom in North Carolina. The state’s governor, Pat McCrory, had just signed House Bill 2, which prohibits trans people from using public restrooms that are consistent with their gender identity and bans local municipalities from enacting LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination measures.
“Trying to pee in peace,” wrote McBride in her post. “Trying to live our lives as fully and authentically as possible. Barring me from this restroom doesn’t help anyone. And allowing me to continue to use this bathroom — just without fear of discrimination and harassment — doesn’t hurt anyone. Stop this. We are good people.”
McBride, who supports Hillary Clinton, worked at the Center for American Progress until she became a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign in June. She remains humble about her advocacy efforts.
“ I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this community and this movement, especially at such an important time,” McBride says. “There are so many amazing trans advocates doing lifesaving work across the country.”
“This has been a tough year for transgender people, particularly in states like Mississippi, Texas and North Carolina, but I hope they know that there are so many people who see them, who care for them, and who are fighting to make this world a little kinder and safer for all of us.” (Michael K. Lavers)
Sarah McBride speaks at the Democratic National Convention. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Best Stylist
Quency Valencia
Salon Quency
1534 U St., N.W.
202-930-7008
Runner-up: Ryan Payne, Bang Salon
Quincy Figueroa (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
To see winners in other categories in the Washington Blade’s Best of Gay D.C. 2016 Awards, click here.
The Miss Gay Old Bay pageant was held at The Lodge in Boonsboro, Md. on Friday, Aug. 29. Vanya Varushka was crowned the winner. Glitter Douglas was named first runner-up. Both Varushka and Douglas qualify to compete in the Miss Gay Maryland pageant in October.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
Immersive ‘Nation-State’ imagines a society free of authoritarianism
Queer duo brings unique theater experience to Dupont Underground
‘Nation-State: A Live Experiment’
Sept. 2-13
La Pluma Theatre
Dupont Underground
19 Dupont Circle, N.W.
$25-40
Dupontunderground.org
Industry Night: September 7. Free for all theater makers
A relevant piece replete with borders and passports, La Pluma Theatre’s “Nation-State: A Live Experiment”is immersive, site-specific, and testimonial.
With the production, the company’s queer co-founders Victor Salinas and Gabriel de la Cruz pose unique situations and experiences. In lieu of tickets, audience members get passports. What follows are questions and tests, and whether they gain entrance into a nation built to protect its citizens from authoritarianism, resource theft, and colonization remains to be seen.
Originally from Mexico and Peru, respectively, Salinas and de la Cruz met at a birthday party in D.C. and instantly clicked as theater makers, sharing outlook and ambition. Reluctant to go it alone, both had been searching for artistic and producing collaboration. That all changed.
And while their enterprise is primarily Latino and queer, these professional partners refused to be confined to a box, choosing rather to amplify the voices of all of D.C.’s diverse communities. In line with their plans, “Nation-State” is open to serving many points of view.
As director of “Nation-State,” de la Cruz mostly guides the questioning. He’s the right man for the job. Since arriving in the U.S. six years ago, he has been consistently curious about certain things. Who belongs here? How do you make this your home? And who is creating the rules?
“But the writing process is shared,” de la Cruz corrects. “I come up with questions. I provide Victor the topic and he goes from there. We’re both writing what happens next.”
He adds, “the most exciting moment for people is when they share something unique. As a questioner, you need to find the confidence and the right moment to ask the question. If you provide the space for that, the actor or audience member will give you something singular.”
Since before La Pluma opened in November 2025, its creators have agreed that “the most beautiful thing is when you use theater to fashion something innovative. Theater is the place where you can create new frameworks and rehearse new ways to live.”
At just an hour, “Nation-State” is performed in English at Dupont Underground – the company’s historic residence, a once subterranean street car barn located beneath Dupont Circle. For the production, the tunnels serve as boundaries, and its different curved spaces make up a micro nation and welcome different guest actors who will come to share their stories.
At certain times, Salinas plays Officer Salinas, Director of N.I.C.E. (Non-Discriminatory, Inclusive Customs Enforcement), a humorous social critic of the system and border patrol. Other times, it’s Salinas as himself telling his real-life stories. He says, “it’s a level of vulnerability that I’ve never experienced. The script is my personal life with zero censorship. But I think, if not now in a play that we are pouring our souls into, then when?
“As a kid I dreamed of being TV show host and now I am. I will sing and tell my stories. I feel comfortable and ready to do it.”
In Spanish, “pluma” means both pen and feather. For the company, it’s the latter, and comes with lively associations. Salinas explains. In mysticism, feathers serve as a portal between the real and spiritual worlds, like that between fact and fiction. And in Spanish and Latin American slang “showing feathers” (in other words, showing queerness). La Pluma encourages a good display of authenticity.
And specifically for Salinas, there’s a personal story involving his beloved grandmother with whom he was extremely close. After she died, he has regularly found feathers as if she’s making contact. “A bit romantic, I know. But I think if you’re open you can see these things,” he says.
“Nation-State” is challenging but fun. It’s unmistakably La Pluma. In the end, the company wants to build a world where everyone feels safe to tell their own stories, as individuals and performers.
Books
New book examines Trump cuts to LGBTQ healthcare
‘Aftershocks’ details impact of policy shifts on HIV response, broader public health
As LGBTQ and HIV advocates continue to grapple with the Trump administration’s attacks on healthcare, a new book offers a timely look at what happens when public health systems — and the democratic institutions that sustain them — are pushed to their limits.
The book, “Aftershocks: Trump 2.0, Public Health, and Our Better Angels,” was written by Dr. José M. Zuniga, president/CEO of Fast-Track Health. Zuniga is a globally recognized public health leader with more than three decades of experience advancing responses to HIV, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the health impacts of climate change. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Fast-Track Health.
The book covers the first year of the second Trump administration. It chronicles the impact of federal policy shifts and budget cuts on the HIV response and public health more broadly, including for LGBTQ communities. Drawing from policy analysis, frontline insight, and lived experience, the author reveal how decades of hard-won progress became vulnerable through Project 2025 and DOGE, but also a paralysis in the HIV and public health communities following the outcome of the 2024 elections.
“In other words, we were caught flat-footed when our opposition had a detailed plan to create chaos and disruption,” Zuniga says. “Thus, the book also offers Horizons 2028 as an antidote to Project 2025 as a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation about how we will build back better given the baseline pre-Trump 2.0 was already imperfect.”
Below is an excerpt from the book.
What Could Not Be Left Unsaid
Let me begin with a simple truth: I did not set out to write this book. Like many in the public health community, I set out daily to do the work of scaling prevention, expanding access to care, strengthening health systems, and ensuring that dignity, equity, and justice are operational realities. Writing, for me, has always been in service of action: policy briefs to shape decisions, editorials to provoke accountability, reports to document progress or failure, and books to synthesize experience into insight that can guide public health action. But Aftershocks is something different; it is not merely an analysis. Instead, it is a record of rupture, of response, and of what it means to continue when the ground beneath your work begins to shift.
This book was written because something changed, and that change came into sharp relief during the beginning days of the second Trump administration, including the erosion of norms, the weaponization of rhetoric, and the recalibration of governance itself. The change was not limited to policy reversals or budget cuts, though there were many. Moreover, it was not confined to rhetoric, though language played a central role. The change was structural and moral: a redefinition of how power understood its obligations to people, to evidence, and to truth itself. And for those of us working in public health, the effects were immediate and personal. We experienced a purposeful disruption of the public health ecosystem and a direct repudiation of the “health for all” principle that guides our work….
Writing this book was, unexpectedly, an act of catharsis. Not because it resolved anything, but because it created space to process what would otherwise have been overwhelming… Amid what many in the public health community experienced as both individual and collective trauma, documenting itself was stabilizing, allowing reflection without detachment and critique without disengagement. But catharsis alone is insufficient. This book is not an exercise in lament; it is also a response. If the period it chronicles is defined by disruption, then its purpose is to offer direction. Where Project 2025 represented a blueprint for ideological capture of institutions, language, and governance, this book offers a counterpoint: Horizons 2028…
Horizons 2028 is grounded in a simple premise: that the future of public health – and of democratic governance more broadly – depends on rebuilding systems that are resilient to political volatility. That means strengthening not only federal capacity, but subnational leadership. It means embedding community-led accountability into data systems. It means aligning health outcomes with social determinants and recognizing that equity is not an endpoint but a continuous process of adjustment and correction. It means treating global engagement not as optional, but as essential to national well-being. In other words, it is a roadmap not for returning to what was, but for building what is required…
I write as an Independent. Not in the sense of detachment, but in the sense of accountability to evidence, to outcomes, and to the people whose lives depend on both… Independence does not mean neutrality in the face of harm; it means refusing to filter reality through partisan allegiance. Importantly, it also means being guided by a consistent commitment to equity, dignity, and justice. These are not abstract values… They are tested in moments of crisis, when the gap between principle and practice becomes most apparent. They demand accountability not only for what is said, but for what is done – and for what is allowed to persist unchallenged. And they require the courage to name harm clearly, even when doing so is inconvenient or politically unwelcome.
That commitment shapes the analysis that follows, but it is also what makes the writing difficult. Because to document harm is to confront it. To trace its origins is to name decisions and their consequences. And to do so honestly is to risk being read as partisan in a landscape where truth itself has become politicized. But the alternative – silence, or false equivalence – is not acceptable. Not when the stakes are as high as they are. There is, however, a thread that runs through this book that resists cynicism, is not optimism, at least not in the conventional sense, but is something quieter and more durable: a belief that even in moments of rupture, there remains a capacity – within institutions, within communities, within individuals – to reorient toward something better.
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