Opinions
My Celebrity BEYOND transatlantic cruise continues
Happy hours, stellar performances, politics, and more
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #5
Day 6, our first sea day, dawned windy and cool and the boat was rocking. But that didn’t stop most of us from enjoying the day. There is lots to occupy your time on the Celebrity Beyond every minute of the day. Or if you are like me, it is a day of relaxing, reading, eating, and drinking. A hard life, but someone has to live it.
After spending time in the morning writing, I again headed to the gym. This time it was empty and three of the four lifecycles were available when I got there. The woman on the one next to me kidded we were not only doing leg work, but with the rocking motion of the ship, were doing some core work. Hey, a two for one exercise is always good. After the gym I headed back to the Retreat lounge for my usual cappuccino. The waiters there are nice. The Cappuccino machine was broken but the waiter said if I could wait a little, he was sure it would work. Well since I had nothing but time, that was fine, and about fifteen minutes later, he came over with a smile and my cappuccino. A few of the gang were there and we again headed to Luminae for lunch. Due to the rocking of the ship, it was not quite as full as the first time.
The rest of the day was nice and lazy. I read, walked around the ship getting in some of my steps; hey my Apple watch keeps reminding me to do them. I then found a nice place to sit and read above the Eden lounge. Then before I knew it was time to change, and head to the LGBTQ happy hour. It was better attended than I thought it would be considering some of our group was a little under the weather, suffering mild cases of sea-sickness. The boat was really rocking and it made walking a little difficult. I should mention we had begun turning back our watches every other evening; the goal to be on US time when we arrive back in Ft. Lauderdale, thereby avoiding any jet lag. It is why I like traveling east to west. On the nights when the ship was really rocking, it meant extra time tossing and turning for some.
After a short time at happy hour, I headed to the Retreat lounge to meet with Christophe, the Hotel Director. We chatted about several things including why the luggage was delivered late, to the art installations on the ship. He remembered we had met last year on APEX, and appreciated my comments. He is working closely this year with Dustin and Scott, helping them with their parties. He realizes they have over 100 guests, many in the Retreat. Watching Christophe do his job, it is clear Celebrity is really lucky to have him.
I then joined many in our group and headed to the theater to see Jesse Hamilton, Jr., a very talented singer. My review is he was trying too hard to involve the audience, and spending a lot of time giving us his resume. He didn’t need to do that, as he is very talented. The big decision for most evenings is whether to go to the 7pm show, and do dinner after, or dinner first, and go to the 9pm show. After the 7pm show, Paul, Ken, and I headed to our first dinner at Eden. Paul’s other half, John, was a little under the weather and didn’t join us. Eden is interesting.
There is a tasing menu, eight courses, with wine pairings, which they try to charge an enormous amount for. Then there is the regular menu, which is covered by what you paid when you reserved the specialty restaurants. Basically, the food choices on both sides of the menu are the same, and on the regular menu you can try all the appetizers. Either way, the food is great. The chef was pointed out to us, his name is David. He looked vaguely familiar but I wasn’t sure from where.
All-in-all it was the best meal I had onboard thus far. Then I stayed in the Eden lounge for the 10:45 show. It was called Dreams. The aerialists had their part of the show curtailed as the ship really was rocking too much for them to go flying.
After the show some headed to the Martini Bar, but I headed back to the cabin. My first sea day over. I looked forward to the next five. Sea days are really my favorite time on the ship.
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #6
Day 7, our second sea day, dawned very windy and the boat was still rocking. My room service waiter brought breakfast on time at 7:30; my coffee, bagel, and orange juice. This time I added a banana to make myself feel more virtuous. After writing for a couple of hours I headed back to the gym. Again, it was fairly empty and a lifecycle was immediately available. I do thirty minutes on it each day, trying to keep my knees in shape. After all, I have had two knee replacements. I am always thankful we live in a time when we can get replacement body parts. Once again, my destination after the gym is the retreat lounge for my cappuccino. This time the machine was working and I sat with some of our group and ended up talking politics. Most of our group know I write a regular political column for the Washington Blade, so they often ask for my thoughts. Someone said to me, “Oh, you are a journalist,” to which I replied “No, I am a columnist, and that is very different, I give opinions.” Since we are nearly all members of the LGBTQ+ community in our group of about 100, we tend to share many of the same views. I always enjoy the discussions but must admit with the way the world is today, they can get very depressing.
Today was the day I had arranged to meet Vladyslav, one of the aerialists, to interview him. We had agreed to meet at 4:00pm in the back of the Ocean Café, near the pizza stand. I was looking forward to it. I had invited him to join me after the interview at the Sea Day party Dustin and Scott, of My Lux Cruise, our travel agents extraordinaire, hosted in their Iconic suite. But he, like all the entertainment crew, needed to get special permission to attend a guest’s party.
Even though Captain Leo and Christophe said they could. He said he would try to get permission for our next party, a sail-away party from Bermuda. I told him he could invite the entire cast after getting permission from Scott to do that.
I had a great interview with him. He told me his friends call him Slavik which is what he uses on his Instagram. I learned much about him and his family, some of who are still in Ukraine. His parents are now in Poland but his god-father is in the military and his cousins and their children are still in Ukraine, in the Kherson area.
Slavik spent some time at the beginning of the war there as well. While he was not in the military, he was a volunteer. I learned he began his gymnastics career at the age of 4 and has gone on to compete in a European, and two world championships, the last in China in 2016, in sports acrobatics. He is quite an amazing young man and I intend to write up the interview.
Then it was off to the party in the Iconic suite. It was crowded and as the evening progressed the weather got a little better so people could be on the big deck of the suite. There was a short moment when I got a great picture of the sunset.
Captain Leo and Christophe were there, but we had all hoped Captain Kate would show, but she didn’t. After the party I had dinner in Luminae with Kenny, Tom, and their friends. At one point as dinner began, Tom started feeling a little sick and headed back to his cabin. The ship was definitely rocking, and after dinner I called it an evening and headed back to my cabin and read for a while. Turned on the TV and watched MSNBC which I never do at home. We had been told by the Captain the weather would now start to get better in the next days, and we were all looking forward to that.
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #7
Day 8 of our cruise dawned a little smoother, and it was warmer. I woke up early and started writing my column for the Blade which was going to be submitted late because I was going to wait to hear the results of the Tuesday elections. The top of the column would have to wait for results, but the rest was going to be about the irrelevant poll the New York Times had released showing Biden down in six of the swing states. Politics was going to be the conversation of the next two days, even in the middle of the Atlantic.
But that wouldn’t be the whole of my day. Breakfast was delivered to the room as always and after a couple of hours of writing, which included drafting of the column based on the interview I had done with Slavik, I headed to the gym. It was fairly empty and my lifecycle was available. It was a good hour in the gym, and then it was back to the retreat lounge to treat myself to my morning cappuccino, and conversation with friends. This was going to be the first day we thought we could head to the sun deck. It was going to be a great day to sit outside. The new deck in the retreat was beautiful. Deck 17 had various areas to sit with full lounges and chairs with great comfortable cushions. It was nice to feel the sun on my body. I even treated myself to a strawberry daiquiri, the first such drink I had since my last cruise. I am not a drinker but daiquiris and mudslides go down like milkshakes, and are perfect when sitting in the middle of the Atlantic. I do tend to stay away from them during the rest of the year. But since I have invested in the ‘premium’ drink package it would be wasteful not to partake.
The day went by quickly, and suddenly it was 3pm and I headed to the Comedy show in the theater. The comedian, Jeff Stevenson, is English, and very funny. For some reason I haven’t always put those two things together. It was billed as an 18+ show but the humor was very clean and could have been for all ages. The theater was packed to the rafters for the show. After, I headed back to the cabin to read and relax, after-all it had been a hard day, lol. Then got ready for happy hour and a second dinner at Eden with Ken, Paul and this time John joined us. It has been the best food on the ship by far. This time as we were leaving after finishing another superb dinner, the chef, David, was standing at the entrance podium. I took the occasion to find out why he looked so familiar. Turned out he had been the chef at Eden on the EDGE when I traveled on it before the pandemic. I had met him the first night of that cruise, when he came to our table to chat, along with the food and beverage manager at the time. I told him we thought the food at Eden was again as great as it was that first time.
After dinner we stayed in the Eden lounge to see the Decadence show, with the Aerialists, Slavik and Vlad. The entire cast is great, really good singers and dancers, but some felt the show didn’t quite live up to its name. Guess they were hoping to see more skin or something. I really enjoyed the show. By that time, it was nearly midnight and way past my bedtime. So, when some of the gang headed to the Martini Bar and the casino, I went to my cabin. Tomorrow was going to be election day back home.
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #8
It was Day 9 of our cruise. Time was going too quickly. It was also Election Day back home, and again it was part of the conversation all day. But it didn’t stop anyone from having fun. The day began for me as always with room service breakfast. Some think returning from a trip to Europe involves jet lag, but that is ameliorated when coming back by ship. But the real change for me, is when I wake up that first day at home, no one is knocking at the door at 7:30 with my coffee, juice, and a bagel. I actually have to walk a full block to Java House to get my coffee. To be honest, I never have a bagel at home, that is reserved for my cruises where overeating seems to be ok.
After a little writing, I once again headed to the gym to assuage the guilt of the bagel, and whatever else I would eat during the day. Sitting on the Lifecyle, and peddling, watching the ocean through the windows, I was surprised when it started to rain. Watching the rain slide down the windows as the ship continues to move forward, is kind of cool. But it meant no sundeck today. Didn’t stop me from treating myself to cappuccino after the gym. Today I was going to meet Scott and Dustin for lunch at Raw on Five, the great sushi restaurant on the ship. I was pleasantly surprised when Mark and his mom, and Piotr and his sister, Tatiana, joined us. Mark and Piotr, who insists he is a Peter, are great guys, who I had met on previous cruises and had dinner with when they visited DC. Scott and Dustin, as always, were great hosts and the food in the restaurant is always great and plentiful. The conversation included discussing a potential future cruise to the Norwegian Fjords which I was pushing Scott to investigate. It is another place on my bucket list.
After lunch it was another wonderful, and lazy, afternoon. Some more reading, and a look at MSNBC to see what they were predicting about the elections. TV viewing is limited on the ship. They have MSNBC to balance FOX and BBC. I have come to believe BBC is very right-wing.
Then it was suddenly happy hour time again. After happy hour some of us headed to the theater to see the magician, Matt Johnson. I had seen him on America’s Got Talent do a Houdini type escape from the water. Turns out he is a very likable guy, also English, now living in Vancouver, Canada, with loads of tattoos. He did levitate a woman he selected from the audience, and then escaped from a straight jacket while hanging upside down with an electric saw threatening him, if he couldn’t reach the bottom to stop it within 60 seconds. Thankfully he did, or his next show, which he had already been paid for, couldn’t have happened.
Seriously, it was a good show. After the show Mary, Nancy, and I headed to the Cosmopolitan restaurant, one of the four main dining rooms, and had a relaxed dinner. After dinner I wandered around the ship, headed to the Martini Bar to see who was around, but realized I was very nervous about the elections, and headed back to the cabin and turned-on MSNBC and brought up the New York Times on my computer to wait for results. MSNBC was going to have Steve Kornacki on with his running commentary on the chances each candidate had, as the results started to come in.
As the polls started closing at 7 p.m. East Coast Time, that was about 10 p.m. ship time, it was quickly becoming clear that Democrats were going to have a good night. The first race he called was Andy Beshear (D) winning reelection by a good margin in Kentucky, a very red state. I was still holding my breath for Virginia and hoping voters there would hand a defeat to MAGA Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. When it was clear they did, I went back to the column I was preparing for the Blade and headlined it: “Virginia is for lovers, and Democrats.” By the time I turned off the TV at about 1 a.m. I knew it had been a good night for Democrats.
Opinions
USAID’s demise: America’s global betrayal of trust with LGBTQ people
Trump-Vance administration dismantled agency after taking office
The U.S. Agency for International Development — proudly my institutional home for several years of my international development career and an American institutional global fixture since November 1961 — is no more.
How will USAID’s closure impact LGBTQI+ people around the world, especially in poor, struggling countries (“the Global South”)? Time will tell, but “dire,” “appalling,” and “shameful” are appropriate adjectives, given the massive increase in HIV/AIDS deaths that follow the callous, abrupt, and unspeakably cruel cut-off of funding for USAID’s health and humanitarian programming in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care.
Regarding LGBTQI+ people and issues, USAID worked in a tough neighborhood. In Africa alone, more than 30 countries in which USAID had programming still criminalize same-sex relationships, often to the point of imposing the death penalty. These fiercely anti-LGBTQI+ countries share harsh anti-LGBTQI+ punishments with most countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Other countries where USAID formerly worked retain colonial-era sodomy laws.
Where did USAID fit into all this turbulence? The agency was not allowed to transgress local laws, so how could it support the human rights of local LGBTQI+ people? USAID did so by building close and trusting relationships with local LGBTQI+ civil society, and by “superpower advocacy” for the universal human rights of all people, including those of us in the queer community.
I served at USAID’s Africa Bureau under the Obama administration, becoming the only openly transgender political appointee in USAID’s history. In that role, I was privileged to have a platform that caught the astounded attention of both queer people and of anti-LGBTQI+ governments around the world. If the president of the United States can elevate a transgender woman to such a senior position within the U.S. government, that open declaration of acceptance, inclusion, worth, and recognition set a precedent that many in the LGBTQI+ community worldwide hoped their countries would emulate.
Serving as an openly queer person at USAID also afforded me the opportunity to meet with many fiercely anti-LGBTQI+ senior politicians and government officials from African countries who sought USAID funding. Uganda’s first woman speaker of the parliament, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga and her whole delegation came to see me at USAID in Washington about such funding. I had some very frank (and USAID-approved) “talking points” to share with her and her team about President Obama’s strong and secular commitment to equal human rights for all people. My tense meeting with her was also an opportunity to educate her as to the nature of the transgender, nonbinary, and intersex community — we who are simply classified and discriminated against as “gay” people in Uganda and in most countries in the Global South. I also had the chance to represent USAID in the “inter-agency” LGBTQI+ human rights task team led by openly gay U.S. Ambassador David Pressman, whose effective leadership of that Obama-era initiative was inspirational.
Working closely with professional, capable, and caring USAID career employees such as Ajit Joshi and Anthony Cotton, and with the strong and open support of the USAID Deputy Administrator Don Steinberg, I helped to craft and promote USAID’s very first LGBTQI+ policy. Under President Obama, USAID also created the LGBT Global Development Partnership, a public-private partnership supporting LGBTQI+ civil society groups throughout the Global South. USAID funding also increased for programs promoting LGBTQI+ inclusion, anti-violence, and relevant human rights protections. This programming expanded further (albeit never adequately funded) during the Biden administration under the able leadership of USAID Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam and his team.
So what did it all mean? Has USAID left a footprint for the global LGBTQI+ community? Will its absence matter?
In my view, that answer is an emphatic yes. International development and humanitarian response go to the heart of recognizing, respecting, and caring about universal human dignity. USAID converted those ethical commitments into tangible and meaningful action, again and again, and modelled for the world what it means to truly include all persons.
My time serving at USAID was a high point of my career, being surrounded by the best of American civil servants and foreign service officers. For me, “USAID Forever” remains my battle cry. Let’s start thinking of how we will rebuild it, beginning in three years.
Chloe Schwenke is a professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
Opinions
Community comes together to repair WorldPride history exhibition
Vandals damaged pictures, timeline walls on June 22
Earlier this month, vandals shouting homophobic slurs damaged the 8-foot hero cubes and timeline walls of the Rainbow History Project’s (RHP) WorldPride exhibition “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington.” The week’s incident was the fifth homophobic attack on the exhibition chronicling DC’s LGBTQ+ History, the vandalism damage was only made worse by the storms this past week.
In response, RHP posted a call online for volunteers and donations and over a dozen volunteers showed up on Saturday to repair the exhibition in its final stretch.
It took three hours, but the group assembled during a heat advisory to bend the fences back into place, fix the cubes and zip tie all the materials together to keep them safe. Some of those who came out to volunteer, Slatt said, were known RHP volunteers but most were total strangers who had attended an event here or there or just wanted to get involved for the first time, one was even in D.C. as an out-of-town guest and after seeing the Instagram call, decided to spend their day lifting some heavy fencing back into place.
When asked why they showed up, volunteer Abbey said: “especially during Pride month, it’s so important to come together as a community, not just to celebrate, but to support each other. To know that this historic exhibit is even able to exist right now under this administration is really amazing. The fact that we’re just able to help continue it in its last leg of being out here is really important.”
“Rainbow History Project does a lot of work for the community,” another volunteer Ellie said, “they show up in a lot of ways that I think we really need right now, so in terms of being asked to come out and do a couple hours of lifting, that is something that we can easily support and do.”
“We put out a call asking for support from the community, and so we didn’t know what we’d get,” Slatt continued, “but strangers have shown up. We were upset, we were crying. We were trying to come up with a battle plan and more and more people have shown up with open arms and empty hands to do this. It’s 95 degrees, we are melting in the heat. It’s just amazing the number of people who have come here.”
If anything, the anonymous exhibit designer said, the people who vandalized the exhibit made the community stronger and mobilized members passionate about preserving and sharing our histories. Their efforts backfired in a big way — bringing together people who had only attended one or two RHP events or had read about the organization online to actively contribute to the work.
It’s a meaningful representation of the history of D.C.’s LGBTQ+ community, one that often starts with a small group of people who come together to protest but soon mobilize their communities and enact monumental change in the nation’s capital.
“If Pride in D.C. started with 10 people picketing the White House,” Slatt remarked, “you just got 12 more to join the gay history movement.”
This was especially poignant, another volunteer Mattie said, on the week that the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing Tennessee to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors seeking gender affirming care. It was a devastating moment for the LGBTQ+ community who mobilized once more in front of the Supreme Court this past Friday.
“It’s been actually really important to see this community come together in the face of direct attack on our history in the wake of direct attacks on our rights,” Mattie said, “and we stand up to that. We come together, and we represent. That is so important to maintaining our strength and our community throughout trying times now and ahead.”
When asked about how community members can support RHP’s work and repair the damage long-term to the exhibit, Slatt urged people to donate to RHP, to volunteer as exhibit monitors, and to come visit the exhibit.
“We’ve been doing this for 25 years. This is our 25th anniversary, and if it weren’t for volunteers donating their time and their talents, if it weren’t for small dollar donors, we would never have gotten anything done,” Slatt said. “I’d say to anyone out there that we are on this plaza all through Independence weekend, we are here through the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, people can come on down.”
Slatt and other volunteers will be leading tours each evening at 7 p.m. at Freedom Plaza, and people can pre-order the exhibition catalog right now, which will be delivered in time for LGBTQ+ History Month in October.
Emma Cieslik is a D.C.-based museum worker and public historian.
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America. The delegates of the Second Continental Congress declared the 13 colonies are no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain, King George III and were now united, free, and independent states. The Congress voted to approve independence by passing the Lee resolution on July 2, and adopted the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4.
Today we have a felon in the White House, who wants to be a king, and doesn’t know what the Declaration of Independence means. Each day we see more erosion of what our country has fought to stand for over the years. We began with a country run by white men, where slavery was accepted, and where women weren’t included in our constitution, or allowed to vote. We have come far, and next year will celebrate 250 years. Slowly, but surely, we have moved forward. That is until Nov. 5, 2024, when the nation elected the felon who now sits in the Oval Office.
There are some who say they didn’t know what he would do when they voted for him. They are the ones who were either fooled, believing his lies, or just weren’t smart enough to read the blueprint which laid out what he would do, Project 2025. It is there for everyone to see. There should be no surprise at what he is doing to the country, and the world. Last Friday his Supreme Court, and yes, it is his, the three people he had confirmed in his first term, gave him permission to be the king he wants to be. The kind of king our Declaration of Independence said we were renouncing. A man who with the stroke of a pen can ruin thousands of lives, and change the course of America’s future. A man who has set back our country by decades, in just a few months.
So, I understand why many are suggesting there is nothing to celebrate this Fourth of July. How do we have parties, and fireworks, celebrating the 249th year of our independence when so many are being sidelined and harmed by the felon and his MAGA sycophants in the Congress, and on the Supreme Court. Yes, there are those celebrating all he is doing. Those who want to pretend transgender people don’t exist, and put their lives in danger; those who think it’s alright to take away a women’s right to control her body, and her healthcare; those who think parents should be able to interfere on a daily basis with their children’s schooling and wipe out the existence of gay people for them. Those who pretend there was a mandate in the last election, when it was only won by about 1 percent. Those who think disparaging veterans, firing them, and taking away their healthcare, is ok. Those in the LGBTQ community like Log Cabin Republicans, who think supporting a racist, sexist, homophobe is the right thing to do.
So, what do we, as decent caring people, do this Fourth of July. What do we say to those who are being harmed as we celebrate. What do we say to those trans people, those women, those immigrants who came here to escape their own dictators, and are now finding they have come to a country with its own would-be dictator. I say to them, please don’t give up on America. Don’t give up on the possibility decent loving people in our country will finally wake up and say, “enough.” That the majority of Americans will remember we fought a revolution to escape a king, and we fought a civil war to end slavery. That we moved forward and gave women the right to vote, and gave the LGBTQ community the right to marry. Don’t give up on the people that did all that, and think they won’t rise up again, and tell the felon, racist, homophobe, misogynist, found liable for sexual assault, now in the White House, and his sycophants in congress, and his cult, that we will take back our country in the 2026 midterm elections. That we will vote in large numbers, and demand our freedom from the tyranny that he is foisting on our country.
So yes, I will celebrate this Fourth of July not for what is happening in our country today, but rather for what our country actually stands for. Not for birthday parades, and abandonment of the heroes in Ukraine in support of dictators like Putin. But for the belief the decent people in our country will rise up and vote. That is what I will celebrate and pray for this Fourth of July. That is what I think the fireworks will mean this July Fourth. I refuse to accept defeat the same way our revolutionary soldiers wouldn’t, and the way our troops in the civil war wouldn’t till the confederacy was defeated.
I will celebrate this Fourth of July because I refuse to accept we will not defeat those who would destroy our beautiful country, and what it really stands for.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
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