a&e features
‘Trump Survival Guide’ author on what to do now
From energy, education, LGBT issues and more, new book is road map for progressives
President-elect Donald Trump (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Feeling helpless in the impending Trump administration? Author Gene Stone is here to help with his new book “The Trump Survival Guide.”
The new book, out Jan. 10 from Dey Street Books (a HarperCollins imprint), is a trade paperback priced at $9.99 that’s subtitled “Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen.”
Bereft for about eight days after the Nov. 8 election, Stone, a New York Times bestselling author with 40 eclectic titles of several genres to his credit, says he couldn’t bear to watch or read the news. “Survival Guide” was written over the next 12 days (“I’ve had magazine deadlines that were much longer,” he says) with the help of seven co-writers.
Its chapters are devoted to topics like civil rights, the economy, education, energy, national security, LGBT issues and more. It’s billed as a “serious call to action for all anti-Trump dissenters across the political spectrum” that “succinctly analyzes crucial social and political policies, explains how Donald J. Trump has the power to undermine them and provides concrete practical solutions ordinary people can use to fight back.”
Stone spoke to the Blade by phone from his office in New York City. His comments have been slightly edited for length.
Author Gene Stone has written 12 books that have made the New York Times Bestseller list. Five hit No. 1. (Photo courtesy Dey Street Books)
WASHINGTON BLADE: How did you channel your election funk into this project so quickly?
GENE STONE: After about a week of feeling sorry for everything, I decided, you know — and this is the point of the book — it’s one thing to be depressed and mopey and God knows I have friends who are still crying, but you have to do something. Being depressed doesn’t get you anywhere. Being dejected and crying doesn’t solve anything. … Sitting around doing nothing accomplishes nothing. I thought, “Well, I have to do something.” I’m not the deepest thinker in the world, but I’m certainly one of the fastest and I realized I could do this. I knew that I could turn this book around in a short period of time. I have a pretty solid publishing history so I knew I had the credibility to get a book contract for something like this. They knew I was dependable, that I’d done it before and could do it again. All that meant that I should do the book, I could do the book so therefore I felt I had to do the book.
BLADE: How unusual is this tight of a turnaround time in the book publishing world?
STONE: There was a time years ago when instant books were much more common. Bantam Books was famous for being able to turn around books in a couple of weeks. … It has actually gotten much less common because the way those books were often sold was through the bookstores that would support the book, put it on their counters and make people aware of it that way, but as bookstores have less and less market share, it’s actually harder to get something like this out now. A book like this on a counter priced at $10 is a very appealing prospect that doesn’t quite have the same appeal on Amazon …. so it’s become less and less common.
BLADE: Obviously all the chapters were important to you but did the LGBT chapter have any special significance being gay yourself?
STONE: I can’t really say any were less important than the others but when it came time to do the book — I had some friends help me; I couldn’t do it all myself, so I hired a few friends to help write, research and fact check, etc. — but I needed right away to come up with a template for each chapter and the LGBT chapter was the one I wrote first myself the night I got the book contract staying up till God knows when in the morning in order to get the template done because frankly, it was a chapter I knew really well. … That established the pattern for the rest of the book.
BLADE: When you mention the agencies readers may want to support at the end of that chapter, you mention GLAAD, GLSEN, Lambda Legal and others but only sort of mention the Human Rights Campaign, the largest, under “and don’t forget …” Why?
STONE: (pauses) As you can tell, I have some issues there.
BLADE: You also wrote “The Bush Survival Bible.” Did his presidency end up being better or worse than you expected at the outset?
STONE: Well, they’re in fact much different books. The Bush book was actually kind of a funny book. A mix of satire and jokes and some serious advice, but in the guise of a funny book. When Bush won, I was also depressed, unhappy, I didn’t like it, but at least Bush was in the ballpark. I didn’t agree with it, but there was no sense that the world was going to be turned upside down. The Trump book is not a funny book, it’s a serious book because I do have a strong sense that there’s a possibility that the world could be turned upside down and there’s nothing funny about that.
BLADE: Are there any lessons we can glean from the Bush years as a sign of things to come or is it not analogous enough to justify that sort of thinking?
STONE: Well, again, even with that Republican administration, even though we disagreed with so many of their policies, it felt nonetheless that there was some kind of dialogue available between the right and the left …. but I’m not getting that feeling with the Trump administration. Obviously it hasn’t started yet, but in looking at his cabinet picks and watching his first press conference, I’m not getting the sense that things are going to seem as normal as they seemed during the Bush administration so it’s almost like you look back and think, “Gee, could it ever be worse?” and now you realize, “Oh man, it is worse. It’s much worse.” So I’m not sure the lessons we learned in the Bush years really apply because we’re dealing with an entirely new creature and I don’t think he is going to abide by the rules. Previously there’s been a norm in politics and civil discussion that both sides, with a bit of a stretch, have maintained. We’re not seeing that now and that’s one of the things that worries me most.
BLADE: Does Trump’s impulsiveness and reactionary personality lessen the value we would ordinarily perhaps glean from all the endless prognostication and tealeaf reading we see at the outset of any administration?
STONE: Two months ago, I probably would have said yeah, but now we have been seeing a fairly consistent pattern so I’m beginning to think the mixed signals from Trump are a thing of the past. What we’re seeing now is a pretty consistent formula of appealing to the alt right or right policies. We haven’t seen anything to the left or even the center so it’s been pretty consistent. It feels like the inconsistency of the past is melting into this kind of dreary consistency.
BLADE: Ideology aside, is that a good sign or do you still feel he could go off on some crazy limb at any point?
STONE: Yeah, the latter. Obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen till it happens, but all the signals so far have been pretty negative if not very negative.
BLADE: What do you think was the biggest factor in Hillary’s loss?
STONE: That’s something we always want to do in the media, and I’m as much to blame as anybody else, but we want to talk about the thing, the one thing, that made this happen but I would say it was really a combination of the Comey letter, perhaps faulty campaigning on her part, the country wanting change and any number of other factors. I really think it was the imperfect storm of factors and remember — she did win the popular vote. … It was very close. He’s also coming in with the lowest favorability ratings since polling began.
BLADE: By design, this book will have a short shelf life. Are you OK with that?
STONE: That’s just the nature of a book like this — nobody will be reading this in two years. I write a lot of books. I co-wrote a book on how not to die based on plant-based diets and it’s sort of an antidote to the major causes of death in America and I like to think that book will be around for many, many years to come. … I’d be very happy if all the sales of this book took place in the next six months. For the lessons here to be applied, people need to read the book now.
BLADE: There are a lot of things one could point to — eight years of Obama, the Obergefell ruling, the outcry from the Trayvon Martin case and so on, that made it feel like we’d really turned a corner on the straight, white, old boys’ club in politics then bam, in one fell swoop the old boys’ club came roaring back to win the White House and both chambers of Congress. Is it just that entrenched or something else?
STONE: It does speak to entrenchment yes, but it also points to another factor that’s been prevalent in American politics since the beginning, its back and forth nature. Carter to Reagan, Bush to Clinton, Clinton to Bush, Bush to Obama — it’s been a lot of back and forth. And also the fact that they barely made it in this time makes me hopeful. I mean here we had a centrist, liberal woman running with very, very negative favorability ratings and yet she came really close to winning. I also like to think that unless the damage Trump does to our democracy is really overwhelming, that the pendulum will eventually swing back again.
BLADE: Did progressives get too complacent? If this shakes us from our complacency, is that the silver lining?
STONE: I agree with that. I think liberals have a tendency to think that we’re right. We know what’s right, we’re kind and decent and empowering. That’s the way humans are supposed to be but unfortunately, that’s not the way all humans are. We did get very complacent having a terrific president for eight years and this is going to shock us out of our complacency and hopefully make us work in a way we saw the Tea Party work. As much as I don’t agree with anything they stood for, I admire the way they got their objectives into the policies of America and we need to do the same. If my book is really about anything, it’s about fighting back and finding ways to take on the Trump administration, not by waiting four years to vote against it, but by turning every day of your life into some kind of act of resistance. If there’s anything that’s going to make me happy, and I’ve heard it a few times already, it will be to hear people say, “I read your book and I joined an organization or I donated money or now I’m going to go march in the women’s protest. The point of the book is to try to get people to move.
BLADE: But how much can really be accomplished in this environment. How was the Tea Party able to become such a force while, say, the Occupy movement seemed like it had difficulty sustaining itself or harnessing that energy into something with any measurable impact? Is the right just better at mobilizing than the left? How can you be effective when you’re not the group in power at any given moment?
STONE: Well, I think one of the things that motivated the Tea party is that it didn’t have a titular head. You couldn’t say so-and-so ran everything because it was such a grass roots thing taking place in so many parts of the country. We need to learn from that. You don’t need a powerful leader. You don’t need a spokesperson. Every one of us can be a spokesperson just as everybody in the Tea Party felt they could go to the media and say whatever they wanted, we can do the same. … I also think politics tend to trickle up from the local level and we just don’t seem to get that. We get all excited about presidents and senators but it starts with local representatives and school boards. We just don’t seem to organize on the local level the way the Tea Party can do.
(Image courtesy Dey Street Books)
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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