Arts & Entertainment
‘This is a very big deal’
Obama, NAACP announcements infuse Black Pride festivities with celebratory flair
Revelers at last year's Black Pride. (Blade file photo by Pete Exis)
Change is in the air and prominent local black LGBT activists say its effects will be palpable at this weekend’s Black Pride festivities.
It’s debatable what led to the timing of President Obama’s announced change of heart on same-sex marriage — he told ABC’s Robin Roberts in a May 9 interview that he “think(s) same-sex couples should be able to get married,” an unprecedented statement for a sitting U.S. president — but whether it was the timing of the North Carolina amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Vice President Joe Biden’s shockingly unbridled comments the weekend before on “Meet the Press” or just the final stop on his self-proclaimed “evolution” on the issue, the announcement came as a shock to many, especially since it’s an election year. But the comments and the subsequent announcement by the NAACP of its endorsement of same-sex marriage make for a radically altered climate for D.C. Black Pride and several other piggy-backing black LGBT events happening this weekend.
Local black activists and promoters say almost universally it’s an exciting turn of events.
“It made me very happy,” says Kenya Hutton, a Black Pride board member. “Being the first American president to do so is very important.”
“I was absolutely elated,” says Linda McAllister, owner of D.C. lesbian bar Lace. “It’s a very historic moment … It’s unbelievable. I could not have been more pleased.”
“My first reaction was, ‘Yes, thank God he did it,’” says lesbian event promoter Ebone Bell. “It was like, ‘Thank you,’ for the first time in history we have a president who stood up for the right thing.”
Others say the announcement itself was not such a shock, so much as the timing of it.
“My initial thoughts were ones of astonishment that a sitting president up for reelection would come out so strongly in support, that’s the first thing,” says lesbian Khadijah Tribble. “Then I thought, yes, this is the man we all got behind as a staunch supporter of LGBT rights, so I was not surprised on one level but I just didn’t expect this timing at all.”
Sharon Lettman-Hicks, who prefers the term “sister of the movement” to straight ally (she’s married to a man but is also executive director of the LGBT rights group National Black Justice Coalition), agrees.
“I was extremely proud,” she says. “I was in shock and awe, but also just extremely proud that he would do this in such a polarizing political climate, but he was willing to step outside of the world of politics and really put human dignity first.”
And although the announcement has no legislative impact — marriage in the U.S. continues to be largely a state issue — many locals the Blade spoke to for this piece say it’s still a watershed moment because it’s giving straight black Americans a forum in which to discuss the LGBT people in the community.
The announcement has many angles — the fact that Obama, as the first U.S. president of color, is the first sitting president to make such an unequivocal statement is one thing. But it’s perhaps doubly significant that Obama is black since many African-American Baptist ministers preach anti-gay theology. White U.S. clergy do as well, of course. Just this week, the YouTube-posted video of North Carolina minister Charles Worley advocating putting gays and lesbians in an electrified pen like cattle until they starve to death went viral. But there’s perhaps a vociferousness to the rhetoric in black America that is often a bit different.
“It’s going to take a while to digest the issue but the big thing is that people are talking about it now,” says Earl Fowlkes, president of the Federation of Black Prides and also a long-time board member for D.C. Black Pride. “To have a black president talking about gay issues and same-sex marriage, these things are largely unspoken of in the black community, which is pretty much where the straight white community was 10 years ago. But when the president speaks and you have an organization as well respected as the NAACP, where half the chapter presidents are church people and they’re saying, ‘What’s the big deal?,’ it allows activists like myself to step forward and gives us ammunition.”
Several interesting points come up in these conversations — Tribble says that growing up in the South, black LGBT people were largely accepted as long as they abided by an unwritten “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”-type social policy.
“There were a lot of LGBT people growing up that although technically they were closeted, we all knew it,” she says. “They were still accepted within the church, they were still at the family cookouts, this is Aunt so-and-so and the aunt’s best friend who’s always with her. They came to everything and really weren’t treated any differently, but we just didn’t name it or talk about it even though they still had a place in the African-American community.”
Sheila Alexander-Reid says Obama’s announcement gives straight black Americans a catalyst to finally talk about LGBT issues.
“This way they can say, ‘What do you think about what Obama said,’ not, ‘What do you think about Johnny or Suzie?,” she says. “These are conversations that are long overdue. A lot of these people are very entrenched in their homophobia.”
Lettman-Hicks says black straight Americans aren’t so much squeamish about LGBT issues as they are uncomfortable with any talk of sexuality.
“It’s not an LGBT issue, it’s a sexuality issue in which LGBT issues fall under that,” she says. “If you want to have an intelligent debate about black people, you have to understand black people and black sexuality … so many discount the challenges that our community has faced. We were beaten, raped, brought here and sold as slaves, there’s a level of indignity that we faced as an oppressed people so in many ways we’re having the wrong conversation. Black America needs to have a robust conversation about human sexuality in general.”
She says, though, that Obama and the NAACP’s positions are excellent jumping-off points for those discussions.
But what about Obama’s reelection odds — will the LGBT support he picks up offset straight black Americans who may jump ship?
“I think it will help him overall,” says SaVanna Wanzer, a transgender activist and Whitman-Walker Health board member. “Number one, because it was the right thing to do. I think he will lose some support, yes, but the people who want human interests and civil rights first will still be on his side.”
“There will be some who back off, but no one in my family in Alabama is not going to vote for him because of this issue, I’m sure,” Tribble says. “Even the ones who tell me I’m going to hell, they still think I’m going to hell, but they won’t back away from Obama just because of this.”
Others say that while Obama’s statements are to be celebrated, the black LGBT community in D.C. spends too much time worrying about marriage rights when it has more pressing issues — transgender health, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse and more — that should be on the front burner.
“I usually refrain from commenting,” says Earline Budd, a long-time advocate for disadvantaged transgender D.C. residents. “Day in and day out, like right here just now in my office, I have a 21-year-old HIV-positive person with a major infection. I just don’t have time to think about marriage. I do believe those who are out there on the front lines in the marriage battles, that we need that, but it’s just not on my agenda at this time … This whole thing with HIV, which is affecting more and more young people all the time, is much more pressing.”
Wanzer agrees.
“I’m thankful for his support, but there are much more pressing needs, especially with the transgender community,” she says.
Even so, many expect the Black Pride festivities to have an increased excitement and energy this year because of recent events.
“I know Eleanor [Holmes Norton] will be commenting on it, the mayor will be commenting on it, there’s definitely going to be a huge acknowledgement about this at Black Pride,” Fowlkes says. “Every time I’m at the mic, I’ll say something about it. What you’re really doing is giving people permission to celebrate it … we’re going to be making that acknowledgement at all our events so people can clap and feel happy because this is a very big deal.”
Black Pride, related events abound this weekend
Today (Friday)
An opening reception is held for Leandrea Gilliam this evening at 6:30 at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). Gilliam is the care advocacy program manager of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League and a Wellmore Cook Community Service Awardee. Admission to this event is free. For details, go to dcblackpride.org.
Author of “King Peggy,” Peggielene Bartels, signs copies of her book tonight at 7:30 at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). The book is about Bartels’ journey to becoming king of the African village Otuam in Ghana. The book costs $25. Proceeds will go to the nonprofit organization, Otuam Community Development Corp. Find more information at dcblackpride.org.
RainbowConnects is hosting speed dating in the Yellowstone/Everglades Room at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.) tonight at 7. Admission is free. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
“She’Baltimore,” a play written and directed by Ira Kip, opens at Warehouse Theater (1071 7th St., N.W.) tonight at 8. Admission is $25. For more information, email [email protected] or go to dcblackpride.org.
The 5000 Men Pride Mega Party featuring Ashanti is tonight at FUR Night Club (33 Patterson St., N.E.). Doors open at 10. Cover charge ranges $20-$50. For more information, visit omegapartydc.net.
Saturday, May 26
Representatives from Capital One Bank will be on-site at the Capital One Job Fair held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Olympic Room at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). The event is free. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
Angela Harvey presents “The Key to the Perfect Orgasm” today at 12:30 at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.) in Congressional Room A. Admission is free. For more information, visit dcblackpride.org.
New York Life Job Fair is held in the Sequoia Room at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.) today from 12:30-3 p.m. The event is free. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
A film festival is being held at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.) from 2-5 p.m. The films that are playing include “Change,” “Finding Me: Truth” and “Taboo Yardies.” Admission is $15. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
Terry W. Sidney is reading “The Four of Us” at the Mead Lab Theater (916 G St., N.W.) today at 2 p.m. Admission is $20. For more information visit beyonddarkcorners.com or dcblackpride.org.
Chocolate City Pride hosts the Tropical Heat Rooftop Party today from 3-8 p.m. on top of the Ibiza Roof (1222 1st St., N.E.). The event will include free food. Admission is $10. For more information, visit omegapartydc.net.
Buttafly Soul is hosting a Poetry Slam today from 5-8 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). Admission is $15. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
Black Men’s Xchange D.C. presents Revelation tonight at 7 at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). The panel discussion will be moderated by the reality T.V. star Karamo Brown. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
Layla Lounge (501 Morse St., N.E.) hosts the annual Manhunt Party tonight from 9 p.m.-3 a.m. Passes are on sale at omegapartydc.net.
A soul train dance party is being held at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.) tonight from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. The event features DJ Mandrill. Admission is $15. For details visit dcblackpride.org.
Lace Nightclub (2214 Rhode Island Ave., N.E.) hosts Insomniac, the after-party tonight from 3:30-8 a.m. Complimentary breakfast will be provided. For details, visit omegapartydc.net.
Sunday, May 27
A faith service is today from 9-11 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency (400 New Jersey Ave., N.W.). The event is free. For more information, visit dcblackpride.org.
“It’s a Family Affair” is held at Francis-Stevens Educational Campus (23 & O St., N.W.) today from noon-6. Admission is free. For details, visit dcblackpride.org.
Island Inferno annual pool party takes place at Great Waves Water Park (4001 Eisenhower Ave., Alexandria, Va.) today at 3. There will be free food, cash bar and a body contest. For more information visit omegapartydc.net.
Klimex Mega Party is tonight at the Love Nightclub (1350 Okie St., N.E.) from 9 p.m.-4 a.m. Table reservations begin at $500. For details, visit omegapartydc.net.
Monday, May 28
Chocolate City Pride hosts a cookout at Fort Dupont Park (3600 F St., S.E.) today from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit omegapartydc.net.
Layla Lounge (501 Morse St., N.E.) hosts the Apocalypse party tonight from 9 p.m.- 2 a.m. Admission is $10. For details, visit omegapartydc.net.
— ERIN DURKIN
Photos
PHOTOS: Winchester Pride
Annual LGBTQ celebration held at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
The 2026 Winchester Pride Festival was held at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Va. on Saturday, Oct. 3.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
‘Merrily’ is for Sondheim super fans, the uninitiated, and anyone in between
Experience it in an intimate setting with beautiful design, incredible cast
‘Merrily We Roll Along’
Through Nov. 1
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
Tickets start at $47
Sigtheatre.org
Unfaithful. Compromised. A sellout. Just a few descriptors that might fit Frank Shepard, the talented composer in the Stephen Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along.”
“Personally, I think he gets a bad rap,” says Jason Gotay, the gay actor who’s currently playing womanizing Frank at Signature Theatre in Arlington. “At his core he wants to be loved. He’s concerned with making those around him happy and he’s a people pleaser. That’s my window into Frank.”
Whatever your thoughts, by show’s end, we know Frank started out as a nice guy. “Merrily” famously moves in a reverse chronological order. We meet Frank and friends, lyricist Charley Kringas (Jake Loewenthal) and writer Mary Flynn (Melanie Field), disillusioned in a New York penthouse in 1976. Ensuing scenes filled with disappointments and broken relationships move toward more hopeful times, eventually leaving the trio on a rooftop in 1957, young and full of promise searching the night sky for a happy future.
“Moving backward makes it difficult to build on the prior scene,” explains Gotay. 37. “You live heightened moments followed by 30-second costume changes, and you’re meant to forget everything you just did. To be honest, it’s a bit of a mind fuck.”
A marvelous but humble tenor, he begrudgingly acknowledges his artistic versatility. At New York City Center he sang Che in “Evita” (contemporary almost operatic), and he was solemn Henrik in Lincoln Center’s “A Little Night Music,” (classical Sondheim). On Broadway, he played Homer, the loyal brother in “Floyd Collins” (folksy bluegrass), and he’s sung the sweeping songs of a few Disney princes.
“I’m asked to do a lot of things because vocally I sing in many styles; it’s something I can do and I love doing it.”
Growing up in residential Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, Gotay was immersed in school plays and community theater. For high school, he attended the Professional Performing Arts School in midtown Manhattan with a focus on musical theater.
He continued on the same track for a year at Emerson College in Boston followed by Marymount Manhattan before graduating in 201l. A year later, he made his Broadway debut as Randall in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop inspired “Bring It On: The Musical.”
Along the way, Gotay became a huge Sondheim fan. As a musical theater kid, he was introduced to the composer’s enduring classics all written before Gotay was born: “Into the Woods,” “Sweeney Todd,” and the actor’s forever favorite “Sunday in the Park with George.”
To many theatergoers’ surprise, “Merrily” flopped badly when it premiered on Broadway in 1981. But over many years of tweaks, reimaginings and revivals, the show became a major Broadway hit in 2023, with Jonathan Groff winning a Tony Award for playing Frank.
While he was aware of “Merrily,” Gotay didn’t make a deep dive into its wild provenance until he was asked to audition for the Broadway revival. (Briefly it looked like Groff, long attached to the show, might come up against some film conflicts.) It was during this short time that Gotay fell in love with Frank.
The experience left him further determined to sink his teeth into the complex character along with Sondheim’s lush melodic score with songs like “Not a Day Goes By,” “Old Friends,” and “Our Time.” So, when Gotay learned that Signature was slated to do “Merrily” this season, he reached out to Matthew Gardiner, the company’s artistic director as well as the production’s director/choreographer, asking how the role of Frank might be his. Long story short, he sought it, got it, and is ecstatically happy that it has worked out.
Several years ago, when Audible (Audible.com) came calling with an invitation to record a cabaret entirely of his own creation, he was thrilled.
“It’s probably the most personal thing I’ve ever done. My own story is a love letter to the women – my mother, friends, mentors, Broadway icons – who helped to shape my life; it’s about self-acceptance and what it is to grow up queer.”
He titled the solo show “Where You’ll Find Me,” a nod to his first love Dorothy Gale from “The Wizard of Oz.”
Often described as “a television heartthrob” (something the once chubby 12-year-old sometimes finds hard to process), Gotay is not unfamiliar with screens large and small. He’s remembered for various screen roles including his turn as Rafa Caparros, a prep school classics teacher who becomes entangled with a male student in HBO Max’s reboot of “Gossip Girl.”
Gotay recommends Signature’s “Merrily” for Sondheim superfans, the uninitiated, and anyone in between. He says, “It’s a great opportunity to learn about this once niche now increasingly mainstream musical. And if you have seen it before, this is a chance to experience it in an intimate setting with beautiful design and an incredible cast that truly brings the show to life.”
Television
Engrossing ‘Tip Toe’ delivers tension and an ominous warning
A chilling reminder that violent homophobia is on the rise
Whenever a new project comes from queer Welsh screenwriter and producer Russell T Davies – who created the original “Queer As Folk” in 1999 before spearheading the revival of the classic BBC sci-fi series “Dr. Who” as head writer and showrunner in the mid-2000s – it generally leaps to the top of every queer “must watch” list, and with good reason.
A genuinely versatile creative force who can move easily between genres without losing the core of humanity that keeps us engaged, he’s particularly known for his unequivocal, unsentimental, and always fearlessly candid narratives about queer life, set within a social context that’s barely tolerant, at best. He has a knack for capturing both the transient beauty and persistent hardships that seem to define our beleaguered community. His most recent such endeavor, 2021’s “It’s a Sin,” took us back to the harrowing years of the AIDS epidemic, following a group of gay young Londoners as the disease – and the societal homophobia that surrounded it – wreaked its merciless havoc, even as they began to break free from their closets and embrace their queer identities; and while it may have broken our hearts, it was also somehow empowering, a tale that reminded us not just of what we lost, but of what we have survived.
His latest miniseries, however, takes place in the here and now, and it offers a markedly bleaker assessment of the state of things.
“Tip Toe,” which appeared on the UK’s Channel 4 last summer, debuts on U.S. screens via the Starz streaming service on Oct. 2, and it lets us know from its first few minutes that things are not going to end well; that’s not a spoiler – it’s a warning, because if you’re looking for a happy ending, you’re not going to find it here.
A tale of resurgent and emboldened homophobia in a modern-day Britain where open hate for the queer community has surged at an alarming rate, it’s the story of two men whose intertwining destinies feel almost like a tragic accident of fate. Leo (Alan Cumming) is a Gen-X AIDS survivor who has become a beloved figure in Manchester’s queer community, the owner of a popular gay bar that has always been a safe space for the queer, trans, and questioning souls who are struggling toward self-acceptance; his next-door neighbor, Clive (David Morrissey), is a working-class electrician with a floundering marriage and two sons who live secret lives he knows nothing about. He’s an old-school “macho man” whose ingrained misogyny and homophobia have grown increasingly unfiltered with the rise of online “culture war” rhetoric; and while there’s a kind of forced “neighborly” friendship between himself and Leo, there’s also a clear-cut line of judgement – on both sides – that gives their interactions a sense of barely concealed hostility.
When Leo is locked out of his apartment after a messy hook-up gone wrong, Clive comes to his rescue, but uses the opportunity to impose himself on Leo’s privacy. He levies the situation into an opportunity for work – an electrical revamp of Leo’s bar, where he makes no secret of his disdain for the queer “lifestyle” – and the tension between them continues to build despite Leo’s best efforts at being polite. The escalation reaches a boiling point when the secrets and lies in his own household lead Clive to suspect Leo of being a sexual predator, turning their precarious relationship into a minefield of hostility and inevitably pushing both men into a confrontation that will end in a shocking act of violence.
It might go without saying that “Tip Toe” is not the kind of show most of us would watch “for fun.” Russell’s script starts the relationship between its two antagonists at the threshold between a simmer and a boil, and shows us the outcome before either of them has even said a word, so it’s mostly impossible to avoid the sense of dread that hangs over everything that comes after. This is not a weakness; instead, aided by Peter Hoar’s masterful direction, it gives the show’s five episodes a slow build of tension that keeps us watching with morbid fascination, like the scene of a horrible road accident we’re forced to drive past in slow motion. We’re allowed to feel some hope along the way – after all, we’ve only had a glimpse of what is to happen, and there are other characters with storylines in which we can become invested along the way – but it’s a kind of grim hope, and it perfectly captures the fearful cultural zeitgeist-of-the-moment that the series is ultimately about.
The characters, too, are richly drawn and layered enough to avoid a simplistic “good guy/bad guy” dynamic. Clive is a brute – arrogant, uncivil, and forcefully antagonistic with a hair trigger that responds to anything or anyone that doesn’t meet his approval – but there’s enough broken humanity underneath all that to allow us to see a glimmer of potential for redemption. Likewise, Leo is mostly good-natured and likable, but he has an arrogance of his own, as well as some bitter resentments (most of them related to his ex-husband Curtis played by Charlie Condou), who left him for a woman), which – more than occasionally – surface to provide him with some ugly moments.
There are others, too; Melba (Paul Rhys), Leo’s gender-bending longtime bestie, who sees the growing danger in the world around them and voices it with the resigned stoicism of a reluctant Cassandra; Steph (Elizabeth Barrington), Leo’s straight friend who is not afraid to let him know when he’s too full of himself; Saul (Joseph Evans), Clive’s 20-something son who has evolved a more tolerant and easy-going outlook than his father, and teenaged George (Jackson Connor), Clive’s other son, whose struggles with his own identity take him on a roller-coaster ride of conflicted emotions; Marie (Pookie Quesnel), the wife who despises Clive but is unable to escape her unhappy existence with him; and Zee (Iz Hekseth), Leo’s employee who is trying to choose a name for herself after coming out as trans – along with a variety of other young, queer supporting players who have found refuge at the bar. All of them are written with depth and nuance, even those who remain more or less in the background, and brought to life through excellent, measured performances.
It is, however, Cumming and Morrissey who give the show its irresistible pull, their complex, bristling characters endowed with a palpable authenticity that makes us forget they are merely actors playing roles. They fully inhabit these two thorny men, creating a dynamic between them that feels like a force of nature, and it’s they who provide the terrible power that keeps us from looking away, no matter how much we might occasionally want to.
That’s a good thing, because “Tip Toe” is less a television event than it is a grim reminder that being “out” may no longer be as safe as we were finally beginning to think it was – and just because the alarm bell is coming from the UK, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t heed its warning on our side of the Atlantic, too.
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