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Karamo Brown deletes Twitter after calling Sean Spicer a ‘good guy’

The ‘Queer Eye’ star went on a blocking spree against LGBTQ activists

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Karamo Brown, gay news, Washington Blade
Karamo Brown. (Photo by Alex Rhoades)

“Queer Eye” star Karamo Brown has deleted his Twitter account after coming under fire for calling Sean Spicer “a good guy.”

Brown and Spicer will compete on season 28 of “Dancing with the Stars.” In an interview with “Access Hollywood,” Brown refers to the controversial former Trump White House press secretary as “a good guy; a really sweet guy.”

“Actually, no lemme tell you something. Um, Sean Spicer and I have been talking. Yeah, like, literally, I was most excited to meet him because, like the thing is that people would look at us and think that we’re polar opposites but I’m a big believer that if you can talk to someone and meet in the middle that you can learn about each other and help each other both grow. So we have been chatting all day today. Like, he’s a good guy, a really sweet guy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Karamo from ‘Queer Eye’ saying Sean Spicer is a nice guy. I know. I know.”

On Twitter, Brown addressed a fan who said they were “disappointed” Brown was “lending his celebrity” to the show with Spicer’s involvement.

“First, I have no say who is on the cast and didn’t find out till this morning that he is on!” Brown tweeted. “But I’ll tell you this… I’m excited to sit down w/ him and engage in respectful conversations. Only way things get better is if we try to educate those who have different POV than us.”

Some people didn’t agree with Brown’s cordial response to Spicer and questioned Brown on Twitter.

Journalist Evan Ross Katz tweeted the “Access Hollywood” clip and Brown replied accusing Katz of trying to “flame the fire and get a reaction.”

“I honestly can’t stand people like you who post things like this…just to flame the fire and get a reaction,” Brown posted in a since-deleted tweet. “We [the cast of ‘Queer Eye’] fight harder than your ass ever has for people of color and members of the LGBTQIA community.”

Brown continued on a blocking spree of Twitter users who disagreed with his comments on Spicer. Many of the people he blocked included people in the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ activists.

Katz said in a statement to Newsweek, “Interesting is the word I’ll use to see [Brown] throw out support for Spicer while blocking those (many from within his own community) that wish to hold him accountable for normalizing, if not bolstering, this effort to give Spicer a redemptive platform, one which he most certainly does not deserve.”

Brown also blocked LGBTQ activist Eliel Cruz and activist and drag performer Marti Gould Cummings.

“The reason I called out Karamo is because as a member of the LGBTQIA community we have to stand against the workings of [the Trump] administration and the people who are complicit to its actions,” Cummings told Newsweek. “LGBTQIA people are in the crosshairs of this administration and giving a platform to someone who directly worked to spread this agenda is unacceptable. Taking a real stand should outweigh a few episodes on TV and a check.”

Brown’s Twitter account appears to be deleted but it’s unclear if his account has been permanently deleted or just deactivated.

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Television

How this Texas drag king reclaimed their identity

Chicano performance art serves as inspiration

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Three out of ten drag kings who were cast for this first season of King of Drag self-identified as Latinx and after episode two, only one Latinx king remains in the running for the competition. 

Buck Wylde, a king from Dallas, Texas delivered a performance that took inspiration from their Catholic upbringing and Catholic school days to put together this persona. During the episode, they shared that they like to “play with religion.” 

Murray Hill responded by adding, “sometimes we can’t afford to go to therapy for the Catholic guilt, so we do drag.” Buck Wylde says their therapy and their church is drag. 

Buck Wylde, cancer sign, goes by Trigger Mortis when they are outside of drag and present more on the femme side. Along with Big D—another drag king on the series—they are the only two who are more femme outside of their drag persona. 

During this episode, Buck Wylde also spoke about the difficulty of performing drag in a red state. They live in conservative Dallas, so they still struggle to find large-scale acceptance and support in the midst of statewide legislation targeting the LGBTQ community in Texas. 

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel [as] safe as [I] would like it to be. There’s protesters all the time and we don’t have as many spaces to perform as kings there,” they said in the interview. 

Buck Wylde says that for them, the most important thing about drag, is that it is and always has been a protest. 

Living in a conservative state is a challenge to them as a drag king, but they say that it’s important for them to stand their ground and not only bring that representation to these areas, but also intentionally keep it there. 

“So many people leave Texas for their safety and mental health to go to Portland, LA, or Colorado Springs or you know, anywhere but here.” 

During the episode, Buck Wylde also opened up about how their religious background and cultural heritage added an extra layer to their identity issues growing up where they did. Their family wanted them to assimilate and even prevented them from speaking Spanish and they say that through Buck, they are able to re-examine what it means to be a part of that culture. 

Buck Wylde is a third generation Mexican-American and they say that though their Spanish is not fluent, they say they do prefer their horchata without (ICE). 

“I kind of straddled different worlds there, because I was sort of assimilated but I still had my Mexican culture. I always felt like I wasn’t connected enough because of the assimilation and it was through drag that I was able to reclaim my culture.” 

In the first round of competitions for the second episode, the kings broke up into three teams of three for an improv skit where they would have to mansplain a topic and whichever team did it the best—won the group Weenie Challenge.

The winning team included Buck Wylde, Alexander the Great and Henlo Bullfrog. Together they improvised a skit where they mansplained the Amelia Earhart story.  

For the solo show, they dressed up as ‘The Devil’ for the improv solo challenge, cracking a joke about how they are dressed like the person currently living in The White House. 

Dressed as the Devil, sporting a Zoot Suit for the final competition, Buck Wylde improvised a skit with food. 

Buck Wylde says they felt the pressure to perform because along with the other nine kings who were cast, they are the first ten kings to make it to the mainstream and represent king culture. 

“We call ourselves the first ten because whatever happens, we’re responsible for how the kings are viewed and how we move forward together, being the blueprint for what’s to come,” said Buck Wylde in an exclusive interview with Los Angeles Blade. 

Back stage before the solo improv competition, Buck Wylde says they felt their drag persona “crumbling” away. 

They felt like Buck had abandoned them prior to their big moments to prove to the judges that they should stay in the running for the competition. They went up against Perka $exxx, who gave a king-based Dave Chappell performance. 

In the end, it was Perka $exxx who received a 4-1 vote from the judges. 

Buck Wylde left the show with some advice for the kings and the audience: “No matter what life throws at you, always remember who the Buck you are.”

King of Drag is now available to stream on RevryTV, an LGBTQ streaming platform for queer movies, TV shows, music and more — all for free. New King of Drag episodes will premiere weekly on Sundays. 

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Out & About

Help preserve Black LGBTQ history

Preservation Committee to hold public meeting

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A scene from D.C. Black Gay Pride in 1994. (Washington Blade archive photo by Kristi Gasaway)

The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs will host “Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee Public Meeting” on Wednesday, July 16 at 6 p.m. at 899 North Capitol St., N.E.

Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee will discuss their upcoming grant project. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and network with committee members. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite

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Theater

Exciting lineup on tap for theater festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Queer artists play prominent roles in various productions

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Christopher Vergara (Photo by Shai Yammanee)

Contemporary American Theater Festival
Through Aug. 3
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Catf.org

As a queer Latino freelance costume designer, Christopher Vergara’s work has taken him from Broadway to a multitude of regional outposts and companies worldwide. Over the last decade, he’s lent his prodigious talents to theater, opera, TV, and film, and beyond. 

Currently the native New Yorker is costuming playwright Mark St. Germain’s new two-hander “Magdalene,” now making its world premiere at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.). 

“Magdalene”is the story of Peter reconnecting with the banished Mary Magdalene and discussing their widely divergent memories of Christ. At 90 minutes without costume changes, it may not sound like a big job, but Vergara applies his usual meticulous consideration.  

“It’s not the Bible pageant you might see at church,” he says. As a costume designer, Vergara approaches all new works by delving deep into the script with collaborators. 

“I like to do what I call a visual dramaturgy, to read the script and take it in aiming to arrive at a sort of truth, not necessarily historically accurate. 

“Without being period, I get to what their world was like in some way. And because the play’s conversation is contemporary, I’m inspired by both old and new lines and fabrics. It’s speaking to us now but set in a different time.” 

Born and raised in New York, Vergara learned to sew at the side of his Panamanian grandmother. “Growing up I was enthralled. She had an amazing Singer machine that could sew through steel. But it was always a covert thing. Boys shouldn’t be sewing.”

He put his skills to use at Valparaiso University in Indiana where while majoring in music he found a well-paying and flexible job in the costume shop. After graduation he returned to New York and entered a Juilliard apprentice program concentrating on a costume track and a busy career has ensued. His vast résumé includes Broadway shows like “Here Lies Love” and the revival of “The Color Purple”among numerous others; he was associate designer for a production of “Ben-Hur” in Rome that featured a cast of more than 200 with 1,000 costumes.

Vergara is enjoying his introduction to CATF. “Initially I was feeling a little apprehensive. I’d never been to West Virginia before, but when I saw all the Pride flags lining the main street in Shepherdstown, any misgivings were dispelled,” he says. 

Lisa Sanaye Dring (Photo by Stephanie Girard Photography)

CATF also presents “Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular” by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble. Based on true life events, it’s the story of queer Hollywood stuntmen navigating the dangers of exposing their love. Living up to the “spectacular” bit in the title, the guys’ story is told through video, puppetry, illusions, and live stunts.

The playwright says “I’m queer so I’m interested in queerness, and I’ve also been interested in masculinity for some time. I lived in LA for 10 years so the play is a love letter to Hollywood and the weirdness of the industry.”

Also, of interest to Sanaye Dring is the interracial and intergenerational relationship at the play’s center: Clay is a white man in his late 40s and Felix is mid-20s and Asian (played Aubrey Deeker and Glenn Morizio, respectively). 

Her transition from actor (including commercials and some TV) to playwright can be traced back to her one-woman show titled “Death Play,” a work spurred by the passing of her parents and grandmother. “It wasn’t easy. I hadn’t anticipated just how emotionally difficult that five-week run would be. It was after that when people started asking me to write plays and direct.”

CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen describes this year’s festival as being “about understanding the things that make us unique, but also the things that make us similar,” adding that it also explores “questioning who are as people and how we fit into our community.” 

Here are the other new works in the festival’s exciting lineup. 

West Virginia-born playwright Cody LeRoy Wilson’sDid My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?”It recounts the unlikely journey of his blended family from Vietnam to Plum Run, W. Va. 

In “Kevin Kling: Unraveled NPR commentator Kevin Kling tells the story of finding his way as a disabled artist. With humor, he reflects the life challenges he has surmounted, including a congenital birth disorder and partial paralysis from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. 

And finally, playwright Lisa Loomer’sSide Effects May Include…,” a work that takes audiences on a frightening and complex trip into the world of psychiatry as a mother tries to help her son on his journey to wellness. 

CATF runs through Aug. 3 in three varied venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112. 

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