A long-time activist who was in Israel last month when its war with Iran began has returned to D.C.

Marty Rouse traveled to Israel on June 6 with the Jewish Federations of North America. The 5-day mission ended the night before the annual Tel Aviv Pride parade was scheduled to take place.

Mission participants met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and several LGBTQ activists in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They visited the Western Wall, the Nova Music Festival site, and Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel that is less than a mile from the country’s border with the Gaza Strip. Mission participants also visited Sderot, a city that is roughly a mile from the Hamas-controlled enclave, a veterans rehabilitation facility, a new LGBTQ health center and the Aguda: The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel in Tel Aviv.

Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed upwards of 360 partygoers and kidnapped dozens more at the music festival that was taking place at a campground near Re’im, a kibbutz that is roughly 10 miles southwest of Nir Oz. The militants killed or took hostage nearly a quarter of Nir Oz’s residents. They also took control of Sderot’s police station.

Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Chen Arieli spoke at the mission’s closing party that took place at the Sheraton Grand, a hotel that overlooks Tel Aviv’s beachfront, on June 12.

Rouse and other mission participants planned to stay in Tel Aviv for the Pride parade, which was scheduled to take place the following day. He and Gordie Nathan, another mission participant who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., had checked into a nearby hotel that was less expensive.

“We said our farewells,” recalled Rouse when he spoke with the Washington Blade in D.C. on June 24. “We went to our hotels, and we get the warning, and then all hell broke loose.”

Israel early on June 13 launched airstrikes against Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear and military facilities.

Rouse said mission organizers told him and other participants who remained in Tel Aviv to meet at the Sheraton Grand for breakfast and dinner — Israel’s airspace was closed in anticipation of an Iranian counterattack, and authorities cancelled the Pride parade.

He said he went to bomb shelters at least twice a night for three nights.

Israel’s Home Front Command during the war typically issued warnings about 10 minutes ahead of an anticipated Iranian missile attack. Sirens then sounded 90 seconds before an expected strike.

Rouse and Nathan walked to the Sheraton Grand on June 13 when the Home Front Command issued a 10-minute warning. They reached the hotel in a couple of minutes, and staff directed them to the bomb shelter.

“You know to walk slowly, everything’s fine,” recalled Rouse. “You get 10 minutes, so everything was fine when the alarm goes off.”

Rouse described the Sheraton Grand shelter as “well lit” with WiFi, a television, and air conditioning. He was watching an Israeli television station’s live coverage of the Iranian missile attack when he saw one hit an apartment building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.

A 74-year-old woman died and her boyfriend was seriously injured.

“I go over to look at the TV, just to watch,” recalled Rouse. “All of a sudden, you watch, and you see one bomb go and land and explode in Tel Aviv on TV. It landed and blew up.”

“I was like, okay, this is real, and so that was scary,” he added.

Rouse said the bomb shelter in the hotel where he and Nathan were staying after the mission ended was far less comfortable.

“It was dark. It was humid. It was hot. It was very uncomfortable,” said Rouse. “You really felt alone.”

Rouse and nearly everyone else on the mission who were in Tel Aviv when the war began left Israel on June 15. They boarded buses that took them to the Jordanian capital of Amman, which is a roughly 2 1/2-hour drive from Tel Aviv through the West Bank.

Rouse described the trip as “like a field trip” until they drove across the Jordan River and arrived at the Jordanian border crossing.

“You walk into this room, and instead of being in a well air-conditioned airport, you’re in this hot, humid, small place in the middle of the desert, packed with people, and those big, large, loud fans and pictures of military people on the walls,” he said. “It was almost like a Casablanca kind of feeling.”

Rouse said Jordanian authorities brought mission participants through customs in groups of 10. A Jewish Federations of North America liaison from Amman who previously worked as a tour guide for A Wider Bridge — a group that “advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights antisemitism and other forms of hatred” — went “behind closed doors” to ensure everyone was able to enter the country.

“It took a really long time,” Rouse told the Blade.

Mission participants arrived in Amman a short time later. They checked into their hotel and then had dinner at a restaurant.

“Now we feel like we’re safe and we’re in Amman,” recalled Rouse. “We’re sitting outside having a beautiful dinner.”

Iranian missiles passed over Amman shortly Rouse and the other mission participants had begun to eat their dessert. They went inside the restaurant, and waited a few minutes before they boarded busses that brought them back to their hotel.

“No one was openly freaking out, which I was surprised by,” said Rouse.

The group was scheduled to fly from Amman to Cairo at 11 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) on June 16. They visited Jerash, an ancient city north of Amman, before their flight left Jordan.

“[The Jerash trip] actually took our minds off of everything,” said Rouse.

A Jewish Federations of North America contact met Rouse and the other mission participants at Cairo’s airport once their flight landed. Rouse arrived at JFK Airport in New York on June 17.

Trump-announced ceasefire ended 12-day war

President Donald Trump on June 23 announced a ceasefire that ended the 12-day war.

The U.S. three days earlier launched airstrikes that struck three Iranian nuclear sites. The ceasefire took effect hours after Iran launched missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar.

Iran said the war killed more than 900 people in the country.

The Associated Press notes Iranian missiles killed 28 people in Israel. One of them destroyed Tel Aviv’s last gay bar on June 16.

The war took place less than two years after Oct. 7.

The Israeli government says Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed roughly 1,200 people on that day when it launched its surprise attack on the country. The militants also kidnapped more than 200 people.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed nearly 55,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7. Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who the IDF killed last October, are among those who have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel.

Rouse upon his return to the U.S. said he “was never as aware of the comfort of another human being than I was during that time.” Rouse affectionately called Nathan his “bomb shelter boyfriend” and even questioned the way he reacted to the missile alerts.

“He’s sitting on the edge of the bed and he goes, okay, I’m going to put on my socks and my shoes, and I say, really? You’re going to put on your socks,” Rouse told the Blade. “The fact that I was nervous, that putting on socks might have changed the direction of our lives, to me was like I can’t believe I said that to him.”

Rouse quickly added Nathan helped him remain calm.

“If I was by myself, those nights would have been long enough,” said Rouse. “It’s a totally different feeling to be with another human that you know than to be by yourself.”

Rouse also praised the Jewish Federations of North America.

“JFNA really sprung into action and started to figure out all options to get us all safely home,” said Rouse. “It was all about logistics. Staff worked around the clock identifying and then mobilizing to get us back to the states. It was a great team effort and I know I speak for everyone in expressing our deep appreciation for their dedication to getting us safely home.”

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” heads to President Donald Trump’s desk following the vote by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, which saw two nays from GOP members and unified opposition from the entire Democratic caucus.

To partially offset the cost of tax breaks that disproportionately favor the wealthy, the bill contains massive cuts to Medicaid and social safety net programs like food assistance for the poor while adding a projected $3.3 billion to the deficit.

Policy wise, the signature legislation of Trump’s second term rolls back clean energy tax credits passed under the Biden-Harris administration while beefing up funding for defense and border security.

Roughly 13 percent of LGBTQ adults in the U.S., about 1.8 million people, rely on Medicaid as their primary health insurer, compared to seven percent of non-LGBTQ adults, according to the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute think tank on sexual orientation and gender identities.

In total, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts will cause more than 10 million Americans to lose their coverage under Medicaid and anywhere from three to five million to lose their care under Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.

A number of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the bill reasoning that they might face political consequences for taking away access to healthcare for, particularly, low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid. Poorer voters flocked to Trump in last year’s presidential election, exit polls show.

A provision that would have blocked the use of federal funds to reimburse medical care for transgender youth was blocked by the Senate Parliamentarian and ultimately struck from the legislation — reportedly after the first trans member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and the first lesbian U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), shored up unified opposition to the proposal among Congressional Democrats.

Nina West, a drag queen known for competing on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” is currently on her ‘Sugar in the Tank’ tour around U.S. cities. 

With previous shows in Key West, Fla., New York, and hometown of Columbus, Ohio, the tour is staying put in Provincetown, Mass., from late July to early September. It will make a stop at Clear Space Theater Company in Rehoboth Beach, Del., as part of a summer cabaret series on July 6. 

Andrew Levitt has been performing as Nina West for 25 years, who got her rise from starring in “Drag Race” Season 11, where she placed sixth and won Miss Congeniality, a title awarded to the contestant who is regarded as the kindest and most helpful one of that season. 

West has toured “Hairspray” on Broadway as Edna Turnblad, starred in a couple of feature films and published a children’s book titled ‘The You Kind of Kind.’

Levitt said he wrote this show in response to attacks from the government towards the LGBTQ community. 

“‘Sugar in the Tank’ is a big old gay fabulous summer musical,” Levitt told the Washington Blade. “The show is a response to the darkness that I think has fallen over a lot of people in the country and it’s hopefully trying to bring a little bit of light and a little bit of joy.” 

“Sugar in the Tank” is a Southern euphemism for gay, often holding a negative connotation. Levitt said he wanted to “reclaim and embrace” queerness in times when some people want to take that away. 

Levitt said he knew he would be traveling to predominantly queer destinations like Key West and Provincetown for these shows and that was always at the forefront of his mind when writing “Sugar in the Tank.” 

This will be Levitt’s first time in Rehoboth Beach. Clear Space Theater is considered Delaware’s second-largest professional non-profit theater and the state’s most prolific producer of professional theater. The space seats just 170 patrons and Levitt said he loves the intimacy of a small venue and that it’s his favorite way to do a show. 

“Stages like this size are the perfect size for me because it allows for me to really showcase my talents,” Levitt said. 

Levitt founded the Nina West Foundation in 2015 to uplift and sustain the central Ohio LGBTQ community, which has raised more than $3 million for various organizations. He said he makes activism part of the entertainment in his career. 

“That’s the nuance of what drag is. We can be ridiculous for fun and we can be serious but it’s all wrapped up into one thing,” Levitt said. “I think that can be the power of it.”

Levitt said West is so much more confident now than when he first started performing as her. He didn’t know where his voice belonged in the community in the past, but because of those who came before him in this art form, he has learned to harness the power of the stage and the power of the wig to be able to tell stories. 

“I really love my community. I love queer people. I love who we are and what we represent,” Levitt said. “Knowing our history and knowing that we’ve been through a lot, I’m really thrilled that as a queen, I can use my voice and my platform to help try to better our community, not try to speak for everyone but try to lend voice to people who desperately need it.”

Levitt’s advice to young queer artists is to not give up on yourself, surround yourself with supportive people and allow yourself the opportunity and space to fail, to ask questions, and to not give up. 

“Our young people have got to be told they matter,” Levitt said. “Oftentimes, people are told that they don’t matter, that their voice doesn’t matter, that they cannot make a difference and I want to remind every single person who’s doing this that they do matter, they can make a difference, their voice is intrinsic to who we are as a community.” 

If Sugar in the Tank was a drink, it would be a Bahama Mama or Sex on the Beach, said Levitt, because they are delicious, juicy, and sugary, just like the show. 

“I just want everyone to know that they should come to ‘Sugar in the Tank’ and experience a show that’s built on joy and levity and silliness and fun and come have some fun with me and show me the fabulous love of Rehoboth Beach,” Levitt said. “I can’t wait.”