District of Columbia
Chefs for Equality returns with 150 pros serving up their best
‘Restaurants are central to their neighborhoods’
One year after its fabulous post-pandemic re-debut, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and hospitality veteran, food writer, and lead organizer David Hagedorn are hosting Chefs for Equality on Oct. 21, featuring 150 chefs, bakers, mixologists, sommeliers, and restaurateurs across 50 savory and 20 dessert stations, under the theme “Fully Committed.”
Proceeds from this night of culinary decadence and altruism support HRC Foundation’s fight for LGBTQ equality across the country.
Chefs for Equality, however, is more than an annual event. This year, for certain, it contains weight and meaning, coming days before a consequential election that may decide how inclusive, welcoming, and equity-focused state, local, and national governments will be.
While many industries and companies have pulled back on DEI efforts this year, the restaurant industry has maintained its strong stance on inclusivity. Research from the National Restaurant Association showed that even during difficult financial landscapes, restaurant operators still give back to their communities. According to the 2023 State of the Restaurant report, “84% of restaurant operators said that since 2020, they’ve made charitable contributions to assist those in need.”
This national report proves that the industry is deeply entrenched in the communities they serve and Hagedorn says the industry continues to serve in an inclusive way.
Echoing the survey findings, he says that in D.C., “The industry continues to step up for the LGBTQ+ community even though they have come through the hardest economic challenge they ever faced with the pandemic.”
Hagedorn, who has been part of the organizing committee since the event’s inception, says that the “chef community in D.C. is the most generous in the country. They have been supportive of Chefs for Equality since our first event in 2012.”
Indeed, even prior to Chefs for Equality, in 1990, Hagedorn started the annual Chef’s Best Dinner & Auction, a benefit for Food & Friends to support delivery of meals and nutrition counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS. Even then, he notes, the industry made an effort to support a highly marginalized community. He continued that the “industry in D.C. continues to support the diversity that is represented across our various communities. Looking at the participating businesses this year, there are more women and people of color represented than ever.”
Plus, he says that many restaurants have LGBTQ owners, staff, and family, and, of course, clientele. “We love to eat out and spend a lot of disposable income doing it.”
RaShawn Hawkins, Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s senior director of the Workplace Equality Program, echoed that, “LGBTQ+ people exist in all spaces. We’re managers, chefs, bartenders, and customers. By being fully committed to LGBTQ+ allyship, food and beverage businesses can not only create environments that people are excited and proud to work in, but they get to reap the financial benefits. LGBTQ+ allyship is not only better for people, it’s simply better for business.”
Those employees and leaders have come out in full force. Community members include Patrick O’Connell (Inn at Little Washington, one of the original participants) Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin (KNEAD Hospitality), Harley Peet (Bas Rouge), Kareem Queeman (Mr. Bake Sweets) and Voula Tripolitsiotis (Blue Lace Cakes), AJ Johnson and JP Sabatier (Jane Jane; and on the planning committee), Joy Crump (FoodE), Ruth Gresser (Pizzeria Paradiso), and Jamie Leeds (Hank’s Oyster Bar), among others. Dozens of allies have participated for multiple years, underlining their personal and professional dedication to the LGBTQ community, including Michelle and Christophe Poteaux, Georgetown Cupcake, Todd Thrasher, Matt Adler, Amy Brandwein, Scott Drewno, Ris Lacoste, Mike Friedman, David Guas, and Jose Andres.
One of the strongest allies, participating chef Masako Morishita (and Beard Foundation Emerging Chef winner) from Perry’s, said that taking part carries special meaning for her. “The restaurant industry has historically been male dominated, even though women are integral to the space. As an immigrant woman myself, I have seen how elements of the industry can be oppressive or exclusive, and I have made it my priority to create an inclusive environment in my kitchen.”
Perry’s, she notes, has long been a champion of LGBTQ rights, and has hosted the longest-running drag brunch in D.C., dating to the 1980s. “As executive chef, I continue to celebrate the community. Working at a restaurant that champions LGBTQ+ culture, particularly drag culture, was important to me. Funnily enough, when I moved to the U.S., I picked up a lot of my English from watching ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ which is still one of my favorite TV shows.”
Participating baker Kareem (“Mr. Bake”) Queeman said, “As a Black gay man who has hidden his sexuality in the food space in the past, this event truly shows the strength and community that we have here in the DMV. Still, he says, there’s more work to do, like “providing training to staff on cultural sensitivity and inclusive practices to create a more understanding and supportive work environment.”
The 2024 version of Chefs for Equality features 13 personal chef tables, providing an opportunity to dine with celebrity chefs for a lavish five-course meal in the middle of the action.
Last year, the event premiered the Speed Diner Drag Brunch, during which five chefs prepare a 20-minute brunch while three of D.C.’s top queens — Shelita Ramen, Tara Hoot and Shi-Queeta Lee — put on a show. Upstairs, VIP ticketholders gain access to an exclusive Upper Tier Apero Champagne and Petrossian and Caviar Lounge; there is also an after-party at the Mayflower Club.
“It’s the largest LGBTQ+-focused event of its kind in D.C., if not the entire country. The chefs always seem to make more of an effort for CFE — the food is truly remarkable,” says Hagedorn. “Restaurants are central to their neighborhoods, and I don’t see their support for our community wavering,” Hagedorn concluded.
Tickets are available at chefsforequality.org.
District of Columbia
Hands Off the Arts to form ‘human chain’ around Kennedy Center
Drag performer Tara Hoot among event organizers
An organization called Hands Off the Arts has announced it is holding a protest on Friday, Sept. 18, in which between 400 and 800 participants are expected to create a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center to voice their strong objection to President Donald Trump’s call for possibly demolishing the Kennedy Center.
“Hands Off the Arts is organizing a rally Sept. 18 against the president’s defacing of JFK’s memorial, his removal and censorship of art, and the threat to demolish the center if he can’t remake the site in his image,” a statement released by the group says.
The statement says the event will start with a rally at 6:30 p.m. on the Kennedy Center steps and culminate with a “human chain” around the building. “There will be musical performances, testimonials from current and former employees, along with other special guest speakers,” it says
A separate announcement by the group says longtime D.C. drag performer Tara Hoot, who has performed at the Kennedy Center in past years, was among the organizers of the Sept. 18 protest.
The planned protest follows Trump’s decision last year to use his authority to replace the existing members of the Kennedy Center’s board of directors with new members loyal to him. Over the objection of longtime Kennedy Center supporters, the Trump-appointed board changed the name of the center, at Trump’s request, from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But following the threat of legal action by opponents who pointed out that the name change could not be legally made unless approved by Congress, the name change was cancelled, with Trump saying he would take steps to restore it later.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports in a Sept. 13 news story that because of negative publicity related to Trump’s actions, the Kennedy Center was facing “fiscal collapse” and possible bankruptcy and could be forced to shut down as early as this week.
According to the Post report, a 57-page document presented to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees says the center was facing a financial and structural building crisis, with the recent collapse of part of the building’s inside ceiling, indicating the building was unsafe for employees and the public. Among other things, the document says the Kennedy Center may not be able to make payroll or pay for routine maintenance “within a matter of weeks,” the Post reports.
Some LGBTQ advocates were among those who joined others in boycotting the Kennedy Center to express their objections to Trump’s actions, including a statement by Trump that he objected to the Kennedy Center’s practice of hosting drag performances.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington has been among the LGBTQ performing arts groups and artists that have performed at the Kennedy Center.
“With the future still very much uncertain, now more than ever, the Center needs you to stand up for freedom of expression and against authoritarian overreach into arts and culture institutions,” the Hands Off the Arts group says in its announcement of the Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest.
“You have the opportunity to make a difference — show up with Hands Off the Arts and show your power as part of Hands Around the Kennedy Center,” it says.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
District of Columbia
Blade welcomes fall intern
Alexis McLean is student at University of North Florida
The Washington Blade this week welcomed Alexis McLean as its fall intern.
Alexis is studying political science at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. She is interning with the Blade as part of a continued partnership with the Washington Center.
“I am looking forward to spending my time in the fall with the Washington Blade, as this is a new experience for me,” said Alexis. “I have not experienced any journalist jobs in the past so this would be my first time, and I am excited to better my writing and communications skills with this internship.”
Alexis’s internship with the Blade ends in early December.
District of Columbia
‘People don’t see me. They see a trend’
New popularity of all things Asian warps view of multiple cultures
As I was growing up, my parents often shared stories about how they were bullied when they were my age, just for being Asian. My mom is Cambodian and my dad is “Wasian,” Chinese and white. Students teased them for their looks, their homemade lunches, and treated their traditional holidays as jokes.
I once asked my mom when I was little if she could pack me dumpling leftovers for lunch. “Yes,” she said with a surprised look, adding, “I would have never wanted to bring dumplings to school when I was your age because I would always get bullied for them. I’m glad times have changed.”
At the time, I was confused. Whenever I brought a homemade Asian dish to school for lunch, I was happy to hear intriguing and curious questions from the other kids. It felt good to have my meal be popular and different from the Lunchables everyone else had.
Though times have changed, racism still continues. It just has a new face. Today, social media pretends to flatter our cultures in an insincere way trying to gain popularity just for clicks. Think anything from K-pop to Japan’s surge in international tourism. Even Starbucks has added drinks with the flavor of ube yam, native to the Philippines, onto its menu.
I feel that now when people see me, they don’t see me, they see a trend.
For years, Asian people have been portrayed as foreign or exotic. The new embrace of foods and fashion at first felt good. Asians have never been represented as much as they’ve deserved.
But this new popularity warps what non-Asians see. Instead of the blunt and direct racism my parents faced, everything now is a gray area, more discreetly hidden behind some TikTok video. It actually normalizes racism and stereotypes.
Whitewashing my culture
As a 15-year-old Asian American who lives in D.C., I’ve always been one of the few Asian kids in school; my high school today counts less than 2 percent of students as being of Asian descent. I remember always being called “that one Asian girl” or some slur a kid learned from their parents. Every time I search for something related to Asian culture, such as a recipe or maybe a holiday, it’s always the same thing: some white person whitewashing my culture.
Social media is the main culprit, of course. I realized this when I entered high school and got a phone and was introduced to the internet. That is when I realized how messed up the new stereotypes around Asians are.
One pattern I started to notice was people wanting to be Asian just because it was popular. It was hurtful, patronizing, and annoying. They made assumptions about our race and then only found us “cool” because we were trending. How can people go from hating us or finding us weird, to then only liking us because we’re popular?
There was a trend going around on TikTok called “race change to another” or RCTA. It is this trend of people manifesting certain physical traits to change their appearance in order to change races. According to journalist Emi Tran, writing then as an intern for NBC Digital, the trend started when a white woman wanted to be Japanese. The woman began posting TikTok videos of herself wishing for different features such as monolids. Tran wrote in that 2023 article that “the overwhelming majority of the RCTA community wants to be East Asian.”
People also look up to K-pop culture, idolizing the pop groups pulled together by big entertainment companies. Most people expect all Koreans to be K-pop fans. Korean friends are asked about K-pop all the time even though they are not into the South Korean music genre.
Although I am not South Korean — I am half Cambodian and Chinese — I still get asked, almost like I’m expected, “You’re really into this group, right?” or “Can you tell me how to pronounce this member’s name?”
I was asked even worse questions during COVID-19. Suddenly, discrimination and violence were increasing specifically toward Asians everywhere. Suddenly, almost everyone was blaming Chinese people for spreading and causing COVID-19.
I remember going to school for one of the last times before quarantine had started and hearing kids whisper, “Oh, she’s going to give us the Coronavirus.” President Donald Trump had publicly posted his opinions about the situation on social media, blaming China for the pandemic, even calling it the “Chinese Virus” or the “Wuhan Virus.” According to NPR, anti-Asian hate crimes in U.S. cities surged 149 percent that year.
The topic of Asians in the media has always been complicated. One moment people can hate us for being weird and different and the next we’re suddenly popular and cool for the same reasons.
I feel conflicted on whether I should feel happy that we’re being represented or angry that it’s all for the wrong reason and has the wrong effects.
Lily Brugman is a sophomore at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, one of Youthcast Media Group’s journalism class partners. She worked with YMG volunteer and Professor Emerita in journalism at American University Amy Eisman on this piece.
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