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QUEERY: Brian Hotchkiss
The D.C. Gay Flag Football commissioner answers 20 gay questions

Brian Hotchkiss says D.C.ās recreational gay sports leagues are a great way to meet people and make new friends.
And he should know ā heās commissioner of the D.C. Gay Flag Football League, heās on the Huck and Run Ultimate Frisbee team, he has a Stonewall Dodgeball team (Duck Dodgers in the 21st and One-Half Century) and this summer he joined Stonewall Bocce.
Hotchkiss, a teacher by day, carefully stacks his schedule so heās never double booked for games. Huck and Run plays Mondays, soccer isĀ Tuesday, dodgeball Wednesdays, rugby is Saturdays and football on Sundays.
āIf thereās ever a conflict, deciding between the two is tricky,ā the 31-year-old Ithaca, N.Y., native says.
He canāt pick a favorite but has been in the football league the longest ā since fall, 2012. As commissioner, he oversees and supports all the leagueās operations, a role he started in spring 2017.
He juggles it all āwith varying degrees of success, less sleep than is healthy and a very colorful, messy Google calendar.ā
Hotchkiss grew up playing baseball, football and soccer through high school and flag football, lacrosse and rugby in college. He likes to watch any sport in season and has been enjoying the World Cup. He roots for the Washington Nationals and the Buffalo Bills.
Hotchkiss works by day as a teacher at the Washington Latin Public Charter School. He came to the city in 2012 for a teaching job at Towson University. Heās single and lives with two roommates in the Bloomingdale/Shaw area.
Hotchkiss enjoys sports (of course), food, running, lifting and keeping up with pop culture in his free time.
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I was out to my friends at 17 and my family at 21. Besides myself, it was most difficult telling my Mom.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
Andrew Goldstein coming out to his Dartmouth lacrosse teammates inspired me to come out. Also, I was lucky to meet John Amaechi in college and was awed by his presence and intellect.
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?Ā
I have very fond memories at my first gay bar and club, Nellieās and Town (RIP). Iām excited by the newly opened Pitchers.
Describe your dream wedding.
Small ceremony. Picturesque view. A few friends and family. Personal vows. Everyoneās invited to the rager afterwards.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
As a teacher, Iād be remiss not to say education. Besides building better schools, criminal justice reform is close to my heart.
What historical outcome would you change?
Kiddingly, Iād push Scott Norwoodās game-losing field goal in Super Bowl XXV to the left. Actually, Iād tell Lincoln the reviews for āOur American Cousinā were terrible.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
Itās not one moment, but, instead, the steady rise of gay representation in media (though thereās still a long way to go). Itās still mind-blowing to me that I got to witness āModern Familyāsā gay couple go from being subversive to mundane.
On what do you insist?
Being kind.
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
Reminding DCGFFLers that Beach Bowl registration is closing soon!
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
Something obscurely referential that, like, two people would get and Iād have to explain to everyone else whoād be like, politely, āOh! OK, I⦠get it.ā
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
Stay gay. Being so has been so positively formative and altering that I couldnāt imagine life any other way.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
Life, being, sentience might exist. But weāve got work to do to make ours more perfect.
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
Listen to and be guided by the marginalized voices of our community: People of color, people who are economically disadvantaged and trans folk.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
A friend.
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
That same-sex relationships ought to follow gendered, heteronormative binaries (e.g.: āWhich oneās the man? Whoās the woman?ā)
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
Last year was great for gay film: āCall Me By Your Nameā and āBeats Per Minuteā were both exceptional.
What’s the most overrated social custom?
Carb-free diets.
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
Secretary of Education nomination. Or a six pack.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
Worry less. Do more. He isnāt the one.
Why Washington?
This townās full of incredibly intelligent, passionately dedicated, just-minded, ambition-seeking citizens who believe, truly, they can make a difference. Their energy, conviction and resolve are infectious.
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Taste of Pride celebrates LGBTQ and allied restaurants
Weeklong event will feature local eateries and bars

Get ready to celebrate LGBTQ-owned, managed, and allied restaurants at Taste of Pride from Oct. 2-8.
The weeklong event is a new initiative by Capital Pride Alliance. In 2021, the organization put on a single-day brunch event in June at LGBTQ and allied restaurants, but this is the first weeklong iteration.
About 15 local restaurants and bars are set to participate, including As You Are, Shawās Tavern, Jane Jane, and Code Red. Thereās also an opening party on Monday, Oct. 2 featuring food and drink vendors without a traditional brick-and-mortar space, like Suga Chef and Vegan Junk Food.
Taste of Pride will raise funds for the Pride365 fund, which supports local LGBTQ organizations. There will be a three-course prix fixe menu at several of the participating locations, with lunch and brunch menus offered at $30, and dinner menus offered at $40 or $55.
Kareem Queeman, known as Mr. Bake, will be headlining the opening event on the evening of Oct. 2 at Lost Generation Brewery. Queeman, the founder and owner of the renowned bakery Mr. Bake Sweets and a James Beard Award semi-finalist, said heās excited to spotlight LGBTQ chefs and mixologists.
Queeman said heās proud to be a part of bringing queer culinary experts together to celebrate the work theyāve all done and discuss what changes need to come to the industry ā there will be a panel discussion on Oct. 2 covering those topics. LGBTQ chefs have long gone unnoticed, he said, despite the innovative work theyāve done.
āQueers have been in the industry doing the work for a very long time and we just haven’t really gotten that acknowledgment,ā Queeman said.
Providing this space for LGBTQ people in the restaurant industry is paramount to giving a sense of power and ownership in the work they do, Queeman said. He wishes there was this kind of space for him when he was coming up as a chef when he was younger.
Taste of Pride is also a great opportunity for LGBTQ people looking to get into the industry to find safe spaces to work that are run by queer people, Queeman said.
Rob Heim, the general manager at Shawās Tavern, said heās looking forward to being a part of the event. And new fall menu items at Shawās Tavern will be available during Taste of Pride, which heās thrilled to showcase.
āI was really excited to help out and participate,ā he said. āItās a great idea.ā
The smaller number of participating restaurants in Taste of Pride is intentional, said Brandon Bayton, a volunteer executive producer organizing Taste of Pride. Itās so each restaurant can be well-represented during the week, and different restaurants will be highlighted on social media on separate days. Capital Pride Alliance is also partnering with influencers to get the word out.Ā

Visibility ā all year long
Itās important to have events like Taste of Pride outside of June, Bayton said.
āWe exist 365 days,ā Bayton said. āSo we need to make sure that we continue the celebration and invite others to celebrate with us and just be authentically ourselves. We enjoy and do a lot of things other people do. There’s no reason why we should just be constrained to one month.ā
Queeman agrees. His identity as a queer Black man doesnāt stop or start at any given month.
āI’m not just a queer or gay man in June or I’m not just a Black man in February,ā he said.
And food is a major intersection that all people of all identities enjoy, Bayton said. Itās a simple way to bring people together.
āWe do the exact same things that everyone else does,ā Bayton said. āWe all eat. We all love to eat.ā
Taste of Pride will run from Oct. 2-8. For more information and to make reservations, visit capitalpride.org/event/taste-of-pride.
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Hip-Hopās complicated history with queer representation
At 50, experts say the genre still doesnāt fully welcome LGBTQ inclusion

I didnāt really start listening to rap until my college years. Like many queer Black children who grow up in the closet, shielded by puritanical Christianity from the beauty of a diverse world, I longed to be myself. But the affirming references I could pull from ā in moments of solitude away from the wrath and disdain of family and friends ā were in theater and pop music.
The soundtrack to my teenage years was an endless playlist of pop divas like Lady Gaga and BeyoncƩ, whose lyrics encouraged me to sashay my hips anytime I strutted through a long stretch of corridor.
I was also obsessed with the consuming presence of powerful singers like Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, and the hypnosis that was Chaka Khan. My childhood, an extrapolation of Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays spent in church groups, choir practices, and worship services, necessitated that I be a fan of throaty, from-the-stomach singing. But something about the way these artists presented themselves warmed my queer little heart. LaBelle wore avant garde geometric hairdos paired with heavily shoulder-padded blazers. Houston loved an elegant slender gown. And Khan? It was the voluminous red mane that gently caressed her lower back for me.
Listening to rap music in college was a political experience. My sociology classes politicized me and so it was only natural that I listened to rap music that expressed trauma, joy, and hope in the Black experience. However, I felt disconnected from the music because of a dearth of queer representation in the genre.
Nevertheless, groups like Outkast felt nostalgic. While delivering hedonistic lyrics at lightning speed, AndrĆ© 3000 ā one half of the rap duo ā mesmerized with his sleek, shoulder-length silk pressed hair and colorful, flowing shirts and trousers ā a style that could be translated as āgender-bending.ā Despite the patriarchal presentation rampant in rap and Hip-Hop, AndrāāĆ© 30000 represented to me, a kind of rebellious self-expression that I so badly wanted to emulate but couldnāt because of the psychological confines of my conservative upbringing.
My discovery of Outkast was also sobering because it was a stark reminder of how queerness is also often used as an aesthetic in Hip-Hop while actual queer people are shunned, rebuked, and mocked. Queer people in Hip-Hop are like backstage wingmen, crucial to the development of the show but never important enough to make a curtain call.
As Hip-Hop celebrates 50 years since its inception in New York City, I am filled with joy because itās been half a century of Black people owning their narratives and driving the culture. But itās fair to ask: At whose expense?
A viral 2020 video shows rapper Boosie BadAzz, famed for hits like āSet It Offā and āWipe Me Down,ā rebuking NBA star Dwayne Wade and award-winning actress Gabrielle Union-Wade for publicly supporting their then-12-year-old daughter after she came out as transgender.
āDonāt cut his dick off, bro,ā said BadAzz with furrowed eyebrows and a gaze that kept turning away from the camera, revealing his tarnished diamond studs. āDonāt dress him as a woman dawg, heās 12 years. Heās not up there yet.ā
The responses from both Wade and Union-Wade were a mixture of swift, sarcastically light-hearted, and hopeful.
āSorry Boosie,ā Union-Wade said to an audience during a live podcast appearance at Live Talks Los Angeles. āHeās so preoccupied, itās almost like, āthou doth protest too much, Little Boos.ā Youāve got a lot of dick on your mind.ā
Wade also appeared on an episode of podcast, āI AM ATHLETE,ā and looked directly into the camera.
āBoosie, all the people who got something to say, J-Boogie who just came out with [something] recently, all the people who got something to say about my kids,ā he said. āI thank you because youāre allowing the conversation to keep going forward because you know what? You might not have the answers today, I might not have the answers, but weāre growing from all these conversations.ā
This exchange between the Wades and BadAzz highlights the complicated relationship between Black LGBTQ individuals and allies and the greater Hip-Hop and rap genres and communities. While Black queer aesthetics have long informed self-expression in Hip-Hop, rappers have disparaged queerness through song lyrics and in interviews, or online rants like BadAzz, outside the recording studio.
And despite LGBTQ rappers like Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Lil Nas X, and Saucy Santana achieving mainstream success, much work lies ahead to heal the trauma that persists from Hip-Hopās history of patriarchy and homophobia.
āāProgressionā will always be relative and subjective based on oneās positionality,ā said Dr. Melvin Williams said in an email. Williams is an associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University. āHip-hop has traditionally been in conversation with queer and non-normative sexualities and included LGBTQ+ people in the shaping of its cultural signifiers behind the scenes as choreographers, songwriters, make-up artists, set designers, and other roles stereotypically attributed to queer culture.ā
āAlthough Hip-Hop incorporates queerness in their ethos, ideas, and trends, it does not privilege the prospect of an out LGBTQ+ rapper. Such reservations position LGBTQ+ people as mere labor in Hip-Hopās behind-the-scenes cultivation, but not as rap performers in its mainstream distribution,ā he added.
This is especially true for Queen Latifah and DaBrat who existed in the genre for decades but didnāt publicly come out until 2021. Still, both faced backlash from the Black community for daring to challenge gender roles and expectations.Ā

Lil Nas X also faced backlash for his music video āMonteroā with satanic references, including one in which he slides down a pole and gives a character representing the devil a lap dance. Conservatives such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem accused him of trying to scandalize children.
āYou see this is very scary for me, people will be angry, they will say Iām pushing an agenda. But the truth is, I am,ā Nas X said in a note that accompanied āMontero.ā The agenda to make people stay the fuck out of other peopleās lives and stop dictating who they should be.ā
Regardless, āMonteroā debuted atop the Billboard 100.
In an article published in āSouls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society,ā scholar C. Riley Snorton posited that celebrating queer visibility in mainstream media could be a problem as this kind of praise relies on artists presenting in acceptable forms of gender and sexuality expression and encourages representation that is āread alongsideā¦perceptions of Hip-Hop as a site of Black misogyny and homophobia.ā
In the case of Frank Ocean, who came out in 2012 prior to the release of his album āChannel Orange,ā his reception was warmer than most queer Hip-Hop artists because his style of music is singing, as opposed to rapping. Because of this, his music was viewed more as RānāB or pop.
āFrank Ocean ain’t no rapper. He’s a singer. It’s acceptable in the singing world, but in the rap world I don’t know if it will ever be acceptable because rap is so masculine,ā rapper Snoop Dogg told the Guardian in 2013. āIt’s like a football team. You can’t be in a locker room full of motherfucking tough-ass dudes, then all of a sudden say, ‘Hey, man, I like you.’ You know, that’s going to be tough.ā
So whatās the solution for queer people in Hip-Hop? Digital media.
Williams, the Pace University professor, says that being divorced from record labels allows queer artists to be independent and distribute their music globally on their own terms.
āWe witnessed this fact with artists such as Azealia Banks, Cakes Da Killa, Fly Young Red, Kevin Abstract, iLoveMakonnen, Lil Nas X, Mykki Blanco, and Saucy Santana, as well as legacy LGBTQ Hip-Hop acts like Big Freeda, DeepDickCollective, and Le1f,ā he said. āThe music industry has experienced an increasingly mobilized market due to the rise of digital media, social networking platforms, and streaming services.ā
āMore importantly, Black queer Hip-Hop artists are historicizing LGBTQ+ contributions and perspectives in documentaries, films, news specials, public forums, and podcasts. Ultimately, queer people engaging in Hip-Hop is a revolutionary act, and it remains vital for LGBTQ+ Hip-Hoppers to highlight their cultural contributions and share their histories,ā he added.
(Hip-Hop pioneers Public Enemy and Ice-T will headline The National Celebration of Hip-Hop, free concerts at the West Potomac Park on the National Mall in D.C. on Oct. 6 and 7.)
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Cuisine and culture come together at The Square
D.C.ās newest food hall highlights Spanish flavors

Downtown got a bit tastier when āthe next generation of food hallsā opened its doors on Tuesday near the Farragut West Metro stop. Dubbed The Square, its half-dozen debut stalls are a Spanish-flecked mix of D.C. favorites, new concepts, and vendor-collaborative spirit.
After two years of planning ā and teasing some big-name chefs ā the market is, according to the owners, āwhere cuisine, culture, and community are woven together.ā
Behind this ambitious project with lofty aims are Richie Brandenburg, who had a hand in creating Union Market and RubĆ©n GarcĆa, a creative director of the JosĆ© AndrĆ©s Group who also was part of the team of Mercado Little Spain, the fairly new Spanish-themed Andres food hall in Hudson Yards.
Food halls have come a long way since the new Union Market awakened the concept a decade ago. Instead of simply rows of vendors in parallel lines, The Square has a new business model and perspective. This food hall shares revenue between the owners and its chef partners. Vendors are encouraged to collaborate, using one software system, and purchasing raw materials and liquor at scale together.
āOur goal was two-fold: to create a best-in-class hospitality offering with delicious foods for our guests; and behind the scenes, create the strong, complex infrastructure needed to nurture both young chefs and seasoned professionals, startups, and innovation within our industry,ā says Brandenburg.
The Square has embraced a more chef-forward methodology, given that the founders/owners themselves are chefs. Theyāre bringing together a diverse mix of new talent and longtime favorites to connect, offer guidance to each other, and make the market into a destination.Ā

The first phase of The Square premiered this week. This phase encapsulates a selection of original concepts from well-known local chefs and business owners, and includes:
⢠Cashionās Rendezvous ā Oysters, crab cakes, and cocktails, from the owners of D.C. institutions and now-closed Cashionās Eat Place and Johnnyās Half-Shell (Ann Cashion and John Fulchino).
⢠Jamón Jamón ā Flamenco-forward food with hand-cut jamón Iberico, queso, and croquetas, sourced by GarcĆa himself.
⢠Brasa ā Grilled sausages and veggies are the stars here. Chef GarcĆa oversees this Spanish street-food stall as well.
⢠Taqueria Xochi ā Birria, guisado, and other street tacos, plus margs. Named after the ruins of Xochitecatl in Central Mexico, and from a Jose Andres alum.
⢠Yaocho ā Fried chicken, juices, sweets, and libations.
⢠Jungeās ā Churros and soft serve ice cream. Brandenburg and GarcĆa both have a hand in this stall.
⢠Atrium Bar ā The central watering hole for drinks. Atrium Bar serves cocktails, wine, and beer curated by The Squareās Beverage Director Owen Thompson.
āHaving been part of Jose Andres’s restaurant group and getting to know Ruben and Richie, it’s amazing to see how their values align with ours at Taqueria Xochi. Seeing all these incredible chefs heading into Square feels like a full-circle moment,ā said Geraldine Mendoza of Taqueria Xochi.
Slated for fall 2023, the next round of openings includes Flora Pizzeria, Cebicheria Chalaca, KIYOMI Sushi by Uchi, Shoals Market (a retail hub), and more. Additionally, chef RubĆ©n GarcĆaās Spanish restaurant, Casa Teresa, will soon open next door to The Square.
The Square is just one of a handful of new food halls blossoming in and around D.C. Up in Brentwood, Md., miXt Food Hall is an art-adjacent space with tacos, a year-round fresh market, coffee, and beer. Across from Union Market is La Cosecha, a Latin marketplace with everything from street food to a Michelin starred restaurant and a festive vibe. Closer to The Square is Western Market by GW University, which opened in late 2021 with a buzzy, relaxed style.
For now, the Square is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Square plans to open on weekends and extend hours to offer dinner service in the coming months. A few alfresco seats will accompany the hall.

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