Arts & Entertainment
Queery: Jerame Davis
The Stonewall Democrats director answers 20 gay questions
(Blade photo by Michael Key)
Jerame Davis, executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, has high hopes for November.
“I think after the Olympics are over and when the conventions kick off and people really start tuning in in earnest, I think the more people get to know Mitt Romney, the more people are going to get turned off,” he says. “He can’t hold a consistent position on any issue.”
Davis — his first name is pronounced “Jeremy,” says, “That’s very troubling, especially for the LGBT community.”
But haven’t Obama’s views — such as his recent change of position on same-sex marriage — changed perhaps even more starkly?
“Any politician will have some inconsistencies,” Davis says. “With Romney, he’s just craven. It’s totally for political gain without any sort of conviction. There’s nothing driving him except his desire for public office.”
Davis and his partner of 14 years, blogger Bil Browning of Bilerico, moved to Washington two years ago for Davis to accept a position — though not the one he’s in now — with the Stonewall Democrats. He’d been active with the group in his native Indiana where he worked for years as a political and IT consultant, and says when the opportunity became available to work in D.C., he couldn’t resist.
“The intersection of politics and LGBT organizing is really kind of perfect for me,” he says. “To merge those both into the activism I do is a super bonus.”
Davis, 37, has an 18-year-old daughter, Paige, born when he was just 18, who lives with her mother in Indiana, though she lived with he and Browning for eight years.
Davis lives in Adams Morgan and enjoys reading, tinkering with technology and playing video games in his free time.
“There’s something about blowing up virtual bad guys that calms my nerves,” he says.
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I came out at 21. The hardest person to tell was my daughter’s mother, but not for the reason you might think. A few years prior, just before my daughter was born, she had been the first person in my life to question my sexuality and I didn’t want to have to admit she had been right. She still claims she has better gaydar than me.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
As a geek, I have to say Alan Turing. Without Turing to break the German codes, the outcome of WWII could have been a lot different. Despite this fact, he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and chemically castrated by the British government he had served faithfully all his life. Only this year has parliament introduced a bill to pardon Turing and finally restore honor to his name.
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
I really don’t go out much, but I prefer JR.’s or the Eagle over Town or Cobalt. You can usually find me at 9:30 club when Blowoff is in town.
Describe your dream wedding.
Simple. Low-key. I think anniversaries are far more important than weddings.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
Equal and free access to the Internet. Some folks call this net neutrality, but it’s more than just that single issue. Corporations are finding ways to circumvent existing law while still pressing hard in Congress for the right to completely lock out competing content providers.
What historical outcome would you change?
The 2000 election. Our economy, our foreign policy and so many other things would be radically different if we could wipe the slate clean from the George W. Bush presidency.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
I’m 37 years old. There have been way too many to name just one. Even in the context of strictly LGBT pop culture moments, how do you pick just one?
On what do you insist?
Honesty. It’s the basis for any relationship with another person.
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
“Stonewall Democrats have moved offices! Our new digs are fabulous — thanks Progressive Congress for the space and all you do to make America a better place.”
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Against All Odds”
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
Let’s hope it never does. What a terrible idea.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
As an atheist firmly grounded in scientific learning and reasoning, I don’t believe there is anything beyond the physical world, but I am willing to be proven wrong.
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
As a current “LGBT movement leader,” I think I’ll skip this question for now.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
A lot of things. Hot coals actually aren’t that big a deal.
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
The meme that all trans people are crazy is probably the most insidious because it’s as pervasive in the LGBT community as it is outside it.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
“Milk.” We don’t know enough of our history and Harvey’s legacy is something every person in America should know.
What’s the most overrated social custom?
The position of the toilet seat. Is it really so much work to move it into the position you need when you use the bathroom?
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
Nothing. Glory and accolades are great, but they aren’t what drive me.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
That being out and proud would change my life in such a positive and profound way.
Why Washington?
Washington was always in my top five cities to live in after escaping the Midwest, but it was taking a job at National Stonewall Democrats that finally brought me to our nation’s capital.
a&e features
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
Loraine Hutchins remembered as a ‘force of nature’
The Montgomery County Pride Center will host a celebration honoring the life and legacy of Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., on May 2. People are invited to attend the onsite memorial or a livestream event. The on-site event will begin at 10 a.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer before moving into a memorial service around the theme “Loraine a Force of Nature!” at 11 a.m., a panel talk at 12 p.m., break out sessions for artists, academics, and activists to build on her legacy at 1 p.m. and a closing reception at 2 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to register for the on-site memorial gathering or the livestreamed memorial. The goal of this event is also to collect stories and memories of Loraine. Attendees and others can share their stories at padlet.com.
An obituary for Hutchins was published in the Bladelast Nov. 24, where people can learn more about her activism in the bisexual community. A private service for friends and family was held in December but this memorial service is open to all.
Alongside her groundbreaking work organizing for U.S. bisexual rights and liberation including co-editing “Bi Any Other Name: BIsexual People Speak Out” (1991), she also integrated faith into her sexual education and advocacy work. Her 2001 doctoral dissertation, “Erotic Rites: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary U.S. Sacred Sexuality Traditions and Trends,” offered a pointed queer and feminist analysis to sex-neutral and sex-positive spiritual traditions in the United States. Her thesis was also groundbreaking in exploring the intersections between sex workers and those in caregiving professionals, including spiritual ones.
In an oral history interview conducted by Michelle Mueller back in August 2023, Hutchins described herself as a “priestess without a congregation.” While she has occasionally had a sense of community and feels part of a group of loving people, she admitted that “I don’t feel like we have the shape or the purpose that we need.”
“I’ve often experienced being the Cassandra in the room, the Cassandra in the community. Somebody who’s kind of way out there ahead, thinking through the strategic action points that my community hasn’t gotten to yet, and getting a lot of resistance and hostile responses from people who are frightened by dissent and conflict and not ready for the changes we have to make to survive,” she said.
“For somebody who’s bisexual in an out political way and who’s been a spokesperson for the polyamory movement in an out political way, it’s very exposing. And it’s very important to me to be able to try to explain and help other people understand the connection between spirituality and sexuality,” she explained citing how even as a graduate student she was “exploring how to feel erotic and spiritual, and not feel them in conflict with each other in my own spiritual contemplative life and my own sensual body awareness of being alive in the world.”
“Every religion has a sense of sacred sexuality. It’s just they put a lot of boundaries and regulations on it, and if we have a spiritual practice that is totally affirming of women’s priesthood and of gay people, queer people’s ability to minister to everyone and to be ministered to be everyone, what does that do to the gender of God, or our understanding of how we practice our spirituality and our sexuality in community and privately?”
“There’s no easy answer,” she concludes, and she continued to grapple with these questions throughout her life, co-editing another seminal text, “Sexuality, Religion and the Sacred: Bisexual, Pansexual, and Polysexual Perspectives,” published in 2012. Her work blending spiritual and queer liberation remains groundbreaking to this day.
Rev. Eric Eldritch, a local community organizer and ordained Pagan minister with Circle Sanctuary who has worked for decades with the DC Center’s Center Faith to organize the Pride Interfaith Service, is eager to highlight this element of her legacy at the memorial service next month.
History
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
Tuesday marked 60 years since four gay activists held protest
While Stonewall is widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S., a lesser-known protest inside a Greenwich Village bar three years earlier helped lay critical groundwork for what would follow.
Tuesday marked 60 years since the Julius’ Bar “sip in.”
On April 21, 1966, four gay rights activists — Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, John Timmons, and later Randy Wicker — walked into Julius’ Bar and staged what would become known as a “sip-in” to challenge state liquor regulations on serving alcoholic beverages to gay men — with a drink.
Modeled after the sit-ins that challenged racial segregation across the American South, the protest was designed to confront discriminatory practices targeting LGBTQ patrons in public spaces.
At the time, the Mattachine Society — one of the country’s earliest gay rights groups — was actively pushing back against policies enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority. One of those policies could have resulted in the loss of liquor licenses for serving known or suspected gay men and lesbians. The participants had visited multiple establishments, openly identified themselves as homosexual, and requested a drink — with the anticipation of being denied.
Their final stop was Julius’, where reporters and a photographer had gathered to document the moment. When Leitsch declared their identity, the bartender covered their glasses and refused service, reportedly saying, “I think it’s against the law.” The next day, the New York Times ran a story with the headline, “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars,” cementing the moment in the public record.
Though initially framed with disrespect — the term “sip-in” itself was coined as a play on civil rights protests — the action marked a turning point. It brought national attention to the systemic discrimination LGBTQ people faced and helped catalyze changes in how liquor laws were enforced. In the years that followed, the protest contributed to the emergence of licensed, more openly gay-friendly bars, which became central social and organizing spaces for LGBTQ communities.
The Washington Blade originally covered when the bar was officially added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Today, historians and advocates increasingly recognize the “sip-in” as a key pre-Stonewall milestone. According to the New York City LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, the protest not only increased visibility of the early LGBTQ rights movement but also exposed widespread surveillance and entrapment tactics used against the community.
Marking the 60th anniversary of the event, commemorations have taken place in New York and across the country. Reflecting on its enduring legacy, Amanda Davis, executive director of the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, spoke about the event.
“Julius’ Bar is a place you can visit and viscerally connect with history,” said Davis. “We’re thrilled to have solidarity locations across the country join us in commemorating the ‘sip-in’’s 60th anniversary and the queer community’s First Amendment right to peaceably assemble.”
For current stewards of the historic bar, the responsibility of preserving that legacy remains front of mind.
“It’s a privilege and a responsibility to be the steward of a place so important to American and LGBTQ history,” said current owner of Julius’ Bar, Helen Buford. “The events of the 1966 Sip-In here at Julius’ resonated across the country and inspired countless others to stand proud for their rights.”
The timing couldn’t have come at a more important moment, Kymn Goldstein, executive director of the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, explained.
“At a time when our community faces renewed challenges, coming together in resilience and solidarity reminds us of the power in our collective resistance,” Goldstein said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, an organization dedicated to defending rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, is currently tracking 519 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S. The majority are targeted at restricting transgender rights — particularly related to gender-affirming care, sports participation, and the use of public bathrooms.
Some additional groups and bars that held their own “sip-in” as solidarity events to uplift this historic milestone are from across the country include:
Alice Austen House at Steiny’s Pub, Staten Island, N.Y.
Bellows Falls Pride Committee at PK’s Irish Pub, Bellows Falls, Vt.
Brick Road Coffee, Mesa, Ariz.
Brick Road Coffee, Tempe, Ariz.
Dick Leitsch’s Family at Old Louisville Brewery, Louisville, Ky.
The Faerie Playhouse & LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana at Le Cabaret, New Orleans
Harlem Pride & John Reddick at L’Artista Italian Kitchen & Bar, New York
JOYR!DE KiKi at Loafers Cocktail Bar, New York
Matthew Lawrence & Jason Tranchida / Headmaster at Deadbeats Bar, Providence, R.I.
Mazer Lesbian Archives at Alana’s Coffee, Los Angeles
New Hope Celebrates at The Club Room, New Hope, Pa.
Queer Memory Project at the University of Evansville Multicultural Student Commons / Ridgway University Center, Evansville, Ind.
Sandy Jack’s Bar, Brooklyn, N.Y.
St. Louis LGBT History Project at Just John Club, St. Louis
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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