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2022 DC Brau Pride Pils can is ‘Proud to Say GAY!’

DC Brau Reveals Winning Design of its 5th Annual Pride Pils Can and Announces The Upcoming Pride Pils Dance Party & Launch, Co-Hosted by DACHA Beer Garden and Electric Rainbow

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DC Brau, D.C.’s original craft brewery, reveals the winning design of its 5th annual Pride Pils can and announces the celebratory Pride Pils Dance Party & Launch event. In support of The Blade Foundation and SMYAL, DC Brau partnered with local artist Chord Bezerra of District Co-Op to design this year’s can, with locals voting for their favorite art on The Washington Blade.   

DC Brau will showcase the winning Pride Pils design, kicking off DC Pride with a celebration at DACHA Beer Garden in Navy Yard on Thursday, June 2nd, from 6pm – 11pm. In partnership with Dacha and beloved local LGBTQIA+ dance party, Electric Rainbow, guests will enjoy DC Brau beer, featuring the newly minted 2022 Pride Pils can and bites available for purchase from Dacha. Artist and DJ, Chord Bezerra, will close out the evening with a live DJ set and dance party kicking off at 8pm. 

2022 Pride Pils Can Art

The winning art, designed by Chord Bezerra, was created in direct response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which limits what classrooms can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity, which disenfranchises vulnerable youth. This design seeks to counter the bill’s harmful message and celebrate Pride across the LGBTQIA+ community. In addition to the design being featured on DC Brau’s 2022 Pride Pils can, supporters can purchase Proud to Say GAY! merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and more from District Co-Op. Proceeds from each purchase will benefit The Blade Foundation and SMYAL.

Since launching Pride Pils in 2017, DC Brau has donated more than $42,083 to The Blade Foundation and SMYAL, selling more than 81,576 Pride Pils cans. This year, the can labels have been generously donated by Blue Label Packaging Co. along with PakTech’s donation of packaging handles. 

Guests are encouraged to RSVP in advance via Eventbrite. General admission tickets are free, with VIP tickets available for a donation of $20, which includes a complimentary can of Pride Pils and access to the VIP area near the DJ booth. All donations and event proceeds will go directly to The Blade Foundation and SMYAL.  

About DC Brau:

DC Brau Brewing Company is DC’s original craft brewery, brewing award-winning beer utilizing a delicious and uniquely American blend of North American and European techniques and ingredients. Founded in 2011, DC Brau is distributed throughout the greater National Capital Region, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and internationally in the UK. Co-Founders Brandon Skall, Jeff Hancock and Mari Rodela have become pillars in the DC beer community by creating DC’s first craft brewery with creative, expertly brewed beers and hard seltzers. For more information on DC Brau, visit www.dcbrau.com, and follow on social media @dcbrau. 

About The Washington Blade: The Washington Blade was founded in 1969 and is known as the “newspaper of record” for the LGBTQ community both locally and nationally. For more information, visit washingtonblade.com and follow on Facebook (@WashingtonBlade) & Twitter/Instagram (@WashBlade).

About District CoOp: District CoOp is a collection of artists celebrating design, diversity and the culture of D.C. We’re all about supporting and empowering local artists and creating a brand for the people by the people. All designs are available in both men’s and women’s and as a tank or crew. Follow us on Instagram (@District_CoOp) or Facebook (@DistrictCoOp).

About SMYAL:

SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders) supports and empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region. Through youth leadership, SMYAL creates opportunities for LGBTQ youth to build self-confidence, develop critical life skills, and engage their peers and community through service and advocacy. Committed to social change, SMYAL builds, sustains, and advocates for programs, policies, and services that LGBTQ youth need as they grow into adulthood. To learn more, visit SMYAL.org

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PHOTOS: Hagerstown Pride

LGBTQ community celebration held at Doubs Woods Park

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Chasity Vain performs at Hagerstown Pride 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 13th annual Hagerstown Pride Festival was held at Doubs Woods Park in Hagerstown, Md. on Saturday, June 21.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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Theater

‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater

‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’

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George Salazar in ‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical.’

‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org

The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise. 

As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind. 

Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche. 

“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”

He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song. 

“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.

“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”

In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”

In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.

With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special. 

“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.

Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time. 

“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”

Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”  

He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work. 

“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”

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Photos

PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade

Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus

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Goodwin Living Pride March 2025. (Photo courtesy of Goodwin Living)

The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fifth annual Pride Parade around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Thursday, June 12.

(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)

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