Sports
D.C. Front Runners honor dead members with tree memorials
Group looks back on 30th anniversary to those lost to AIDS, other causes
D.C. Front Runners honor dead members by planting trees. (Photo by Justin Fritscher)
This month, the D.C. Front Runners commemorated the 30th anniversary of their Memorial Grove by gathering about 40 volunteers to plant new trees.
The planting was a group effort with contributions from the D.C. Front Runners, Casey Trees, Veteran Compost and Open City Diner.
In the 1980s, HIV/AIDS took the lives of many D.C. Front Runners and in 1988, the club laid an AIDS quilt panel on the National Mall in honor of its lost members. That was followed by the planning of a memorial grove of flowering trees in collaboration with the National Park Service.
They chose a location along their weekly Saturday morning running/walking route. Starting from the Taras Shevchenko statue, the D.C. Front Runners Memorial Grove is located just over the second footbridge, on the right, near the Calvert/Connecticut Avenue entrance to Rock Creek Parkway by the Taft Bridge.
The Front Runners started with five trees and by the mid-‘90s, the trees and shrubs were well rooted and healthy. More club members died in the ‘90s, some of causes other than AIDS, and the Front Runners expanded the original concept of the Grove to memorialize all members who had died.
On the Grove’s 20th anniversary in 2008, the D.C. Front Runners planted 10 new trees and took care of them during the following two years until they were strong enough to grow on their own.
This month on the 30th anniversary, they renewed their commitment by planting an additional 10 trees that were selected, just like the trees before them, because they are native species that belong in the local ecology. This year’s planting was three Dogwoods, two Bur Oaks, two Eastern Redbuds, two Fringetrees and one Hackberry.
D.C. Front Runners walking coordinator, Larry Lee, was one of the club members who provided maintenance and watering to the trees in 2008. His service will continue following the most recent planting.
“I didn’t know any of the original members who passed but it is a nice feeling to be a part of something that memorializes them,” Lee dsud. “This year felt like a renewal. No matter where we run or walk through this area, there is a reminder of those who came before us.”
Casey Trees donated the trees and worked with the National Park Service to get the permits, planned the schedule for delivering the trees and created a staging area. They also provided volunteers along with the Front Runners who will provide watering and weed pulling during the first two years to assure that the trees develop a strong root system.
D.C. Front Runner Rob Geremia mentioned one runner who was a recent reminder of the significance of the Grove. Alan T. died suddenly in December, 2016 shortly after marrying his husband.
“We don’t dedicate specific trees to anyone, but we were thinking about Alan this year,” Geremia says. “Many of the participants in this month’s planting were in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Now a whole new generation of Front Runners have ownership and a connection to the Memorial Grove.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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