Revs. Dennis & Christine Wiley, Covenant Baptist Church
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Friday, October 07, 2005
The Blade’s annual roundup of the Best of Gay D.C. includes many perennial favorites, like Annie’s and JR.’s, along with a few fresh faces that help keep this city lively and dynamic.
In a year marked by disappointments on the gay rights front — from anti-gay marriage amendments winning approval in 11 states on Election Day to the untimely death of activist Wanda Alston to a push by the Catholic Church to bar gay seminarians — it is refreshing to read the story of Revs. Dennis and Christine Wiley, two pro-gay ministers who preside at Covenant Baptist Church. The Wileys are our pick for best straight ally.
Blade readers voted for the best of gay D.C. in our online poll, while the editors debated choices that frequently diverged from the readers’ picks. Chris Crain, Kevin Naff, Rhonda Smith, Ken Sain, Brian Moylan, Lou Chibbaro Jr., Eartha Melzer, Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Katherine Volin, Jorge Valencia and Patrick Folliard contributed to this year’s guide.
It’s one thing to turn out a dance floor with the latest house music, but it’s a whole different challenge running the city’s most successful retro night. Cobalt’s Jason Royce, who also serves as the bar’s promotions manager and books its DJs, plays every other Saturday night to a packed crowd and every Tuesday night for those who come out to hear all the classics from the ’70s and ’80s at the venue’s retro night. Though he only started behind the turntables in 2001, Royce quickly learned what the crowd reacts to and delivers tunes that are as danceable as they are distinctive. His vision has certainly made Cobalt one of the city’s premier venues for gay dance music.
Jason Royce
www.djjasonroyce.com
This is Harris’ third appearance in this survey, and it’s not by mistake. No one mixes it up like this former military boy, who spins regularly in town at both Cobalt and Apex and the annual Cherry circuit party, but also in places like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Rehoboth Beach, Del. and Provincetown, Mass. D.C.-based party promoter Don Turner selected him to co-headline his annual “Soaking Wet” summer party in New York City because of Harris’ fun sound and choice of music that will always keep the crowd moving. With a track record like his, don’t be surprised to find Harris on more “best of” lists.
Rob Harris
www.djrobharris.com
Gay organizations and activist leaders have praised Robert York, the longtime director of Capital Pride who resigned from the post in July, for his skills in coordinating D.C.’s Gay Pride event since 1999.
Last October, the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce presented York with its Excellence in Community Service Award, saying his leadership on behalf of Capital Pride has had a positive impact on the community.
York resigned this summer as director of Capital Pride as well as from his role as director of the Clinic’s AIDS Walk, which took place on Oct. 1. He did not publicly disclose a reason.
It followed the resignation of the Clinic’s development director and chief fund-raiser, Tim Turnham, and a series of resignations of upper- and middle-level managers at Whitman-Walker earlier in 2005.
Longtime gay civil rights advocate Phil Pannell’s highly vocal and visible efforts this year to get organizers of the Millions More Movement to include black gay men and women in organizing the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March seems to be paying off in various ways.
During a planning meeting earlier this year at D.C.’s Union Temple Baptist Church, Pannell asked Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan whether black gay people would be welcome to take part in all aspects of the Millions More Movement. Farrakhan said yes, according to Pannell.
Subsequently, black gay supporters of the upcoming event were not invited to attend a May 2 news conference announcing the massive rally geared toward empowering African Americans.
Pannell and longtime gay civil rights advocate Carlene Cheatam, among others, began holding monthly community meetings to rally support for their cause and respond to being snubbed. Their efforts seem to be energizing what largely has been a dormant black gay political base in Washington, D.C., in recent years.
Pannell also recently led efforts to get Rev. Willie Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church and executive director of the Millions More Movement march, to apologize for anti-gay comments he made in a July sermon. Wilson subsequently apologized but later reiterated his claims that “lesbianism” remains a serious threat to African-American teenage girls.
In August, Farrakhan invited the nation’s largest African-American gay civil rights organization, the National Black Justice Coalition, to become one of about 100 co-conveners of the Millions More Movement rally, which is expected draw thousands of black men, women and children to Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15.
Pannell described Farrakhan’s action as a “minor victory,” and said that while he granted the NBJC co-convener status, he did not appoint the group to be a member of the more influential Millions More Movement steering committee, which makes policy decisions for the upcoming events.
“It’s easy for them to say this is important,” Pannell said, “but it doesn’t get us into the inner sanctum.”
Kathleen DeBold, executive director of the Mautner Project since 1999, has spent the past six years strengthening the lesbian health organization’s efforts to help women in metropolitan D.C., and beyond. Observers say a combination of political savvy and human compassion fuel her work — and her success.
“The Mautner Project keeps the tradition of lesbians taking care of each other — and lesbians being there for each other,” DeBold recently said.
Before joining Mautner, an organization founded in 1989, DeBold carved a niche at the D.C.-based Victory Fund by pushing to help gay and lesbian politicians get elected. Now her push involves fighting in political arenas and on health care fronts nationwide to help lesbians gain access to the best care and the most accurate information.
Among the programs DeBold has either created or helped strengthen during her tenure at the Mautner Project are: Removing the Barriers to Accessing Health Care for Lesbians, which is designed to train doctors and health care providers about lesbian health matters; Spirit Health Education Circle, which focuses on offering a culturally sensitive, holistic program for black women who partner with women; and Heart Truth for Lesbians, the first national coronary health education program for lesbians.
DeBold spearheaded an effort that involves working with the American Cancer Society to make more information available about lesbian health. She also is encouraging work with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country to train staff members on some of the risk factors lesbians can face when it comes to their sexual health.
In addition, the Mautner Project facilitates the National Lesbian & Feminist Health Coalition, which is comprised of more than 40 organizations that in part support strengthening grassroots women’s cancer groups and connecting local organizations interested in feminist and lesbian health concerns.
Earlier this year, DeBold faced criticism from gay party promoter and nightlife advocate Mark Lee for the Mautner Project’s ongoing effort to promote non-smoking awareness in D.C., with its “Delicious Lesbian Kisses” initiative, which continues.
Mautner Project
The National Lesbian Health Organization
1707 L St., NW, Suite 230
Washington, DC 20036
202-332-5536
www.mautnerproject.org
Up until her murder in March at age 45, Wanda Alston, director of the D.C. mayoral Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs, pushed for equal rights for everyone, people who knew her said.
The outspoken gay civil rights advocate was fatally stabbed in her home March 16 by a neighbor seeking money for drugs. Until then, she shaped her political career by being a voice for the voiceless — whether they were poor people, those addicted to drugs, communities of color, or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered residents of Washington, D.C.
Of particular significance to D.C.’s gay residents was Alston’s successful push, along with D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and others, to create a mayoral Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs.
Those familiar with her work and life said she understood deeply the challenges posed by being an African American, a woman, a former cocaine addict, and a lesbian. After becoming clean and sober, she remained active in the recovery movement and reached out to help others, friends said.
At Alston’s funeral, on March 21, D.C. congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said: “We all loved Wanda because she got it done for the cause of civil rights.”
Norton noted that when it came to equal rights, for Alston it was all or nothing for everyone, not for any one particular group.
Alston’s political ascension began in 1992, when she started working at the National Organization for Women as executive assistant to its then-president Patricia Ireland.
Alston left NOW in 1996 and eventually began working for the D.C. government.
In 2001, when she recorded her oral history for the Rainbow History Project, Alston said: “I can’t stop fighting racism because no matter how old I get, I’m still going to be black. I can’t stop fighting [sexism] because no matter how old I get, I’m still going to be a woman.
“I can’t stop fighting some of the other ‘isms’ I see because I can’t change those things,” she said. “I’m going to change the culture, and begin to work with people who want to change the culture.”
Those who knew the feisty, opinionated political organizer said she did just that.
D.C. Councilmember Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) emerged in February as the potential mayoral contender who has most aggressively courted the gay vote. He has met with many of the city’s gay leaders during the past year, and throughout 2005 has been showing up, often with his wife, at various events of interest to this voting bloc.
In mid September, the couple attended the Mautner Project’s annual fund-raising gala.
D.C. voters won’t go to the polls to nominate a mayoral candidate until September 2006. But observers say the race most likely will be between Fenty and D.C. Council Chair Linda Cropp, a Democrat who declared her candidacy in early September.
Other mayoral candidates are: D.C. Councilmember Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), Marie C. Johns, a former telecommunications executive, and Michael A. Brown, a former lobbyist and the son of late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
In February, gay Democratic advocate Peter Rosenstein said, Mayor Tony Williams, who announced in late September that he would not seek a third term, “was the right person for the right time,” when he ran for mayor in 1998 and 2002.
“Now, Adrian Fenty is the right person at the right time for this city,” he said.
Like Williams, Fenty supports legalizing same-sex marriage but favors holding off on a D.C. gay marriage bill until the atmosphere in Congress becomes more supportive of gay rights.
In a guest column in the Feb. 11 issue of the Washington Blade, Fenty pledged to take a lead role in fighting a voter referendum to ban same-sex marriage in the District if a group of citizens decides to place such a measure on the ballot.
Among mainline Baptist churches in Washington, D.C., one of the most inclusive places for gay people of faith is Covenant Baptist Church.
Rev. Dr. Dennis Wiley and his wife, Rev. Dr. Christine Wiley, preside at this 600-member house of worship in Southwest D.C.
“We, as the members of a black race that have endured so much oppression, should be the last ones to visit that same kind of attitude and behavior toward others,” Dennis Wiley said in July.
His wife said, “The Baptist tradition is pretty sexist and homophobic and all of that, but we’re trying to empower all of our people. [Our] No. 1 strategy is that we will invite everyone to church, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.”
In addition to offering gay congregants a supportive place to worship, the church also operates an HIV/AIDS ministry and various other programs designed to help individuals and families throughout metropolitan Washington.
Covenant Baptist Church
Revs. Dennis &Christine Wiley
3845 S. Capitol St., SW
202-562-5576
Mike Harrington has worked the bar at Apex for more than three years. His warm smile and welcoming personality always make patrons feel right at home. He is known for remembering the names of his customers, as well as their drink preferences. Creating specialty shooters designed only for his clientele is yet another way Harrington has earned the respect of many D.C. partygoers. Outside of bartending, Harrington also has made quite a name for himself in the dance music industry as a producer and re-mixer.
Kingsbury Chocolates, a chocolate and confections shop in Old Town Alexandria, has been a hit with Alexandria residents and visitors almost from the time owner Rob Kingsbury first opened the shop in December 2002. According to a glowing review in the Washington Post, if Kingsbury’s striking display cases filled with such delights as citrus twist and hazelnut truffles, chocolate tarts of various types, and a wide variety of other chocolate specialties don’t tempt a shopper into making a purchase, the scent of chocolate, honey, caramel and other ingredients coming from Kingsbury’s on-premises kitchen will make the store’s products irresistible.
All of Kingsbury’s chocolate products are made in the store. Coming from a family of confectioners in Vermont, Kingsbury says he developed his skills as a chocolate-maker from his grandmother and parents, who, among other things, taught him the art of sugar maple processing and candy-making. Kingsbury Chocolates, located in a second-floor space at 1017 King Street, has developed a loyal clientele in both the gay and non-gay communities, Kingsbury says. He recently hosted a private chocolate tasting gathering for the Alexandria Lesbian and Gay Alliance.
Kingsbury Chocolates
1017 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
877-704-4179
www.kingsburychocolates.com
Oh to be 20-something, adorable, talented, artistic, stylish and already making a name for yourself in the competitive business worlds of art and food. That would be Mike Weber, co-owner of Simply Home Cuisine, the stylish Thai takeout spot on U Street, and the artist and broker behind the eponymous gallery that offers timeless abstract designs for the urban dweller.
Simply Home Cuisine
1412 U Street, NW
202-232-THAI
www.simplyhomedc.com
This year marks Ella’s third consecutive appearance in the Blade’s “Best of list.” Miss Ella has been a fixture in the D.C. scene for 30 years and can still perform with the best of them. The venerable “Ladies of Illusion” drag show at Zeigfeld’s, where Ella has performed for years, will be forced to either shut down or relocate in the coming months because of the impending eviction of gay clubs from Southeast D.C. to make room for the new baseball stadium. The target date for closure of the businesses is Jan. 1, 2006, but there’s no word yet as to whether the city will grant an extension. Wherever Miss Ella lands, she’s sure to retain her loyal following of D.C. drag fans.
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