Opinions
My Celebrity BEYOND transatlantic cruise arrives in Ft. Lauderdale
A memorable voyage comes to an end
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #9
Day 10 dawned rainy and windy, with the boat rocking again. Though not quite as bad as some of the previous days. But for me that simply means another wonderful lazy day on the ship. My dermatologist would be thrilled with a few days of no sun for me, LOL. Again, it didn’t stop me from having fun.
This morning the first thing I did after having my coffee delivered to the cabin, was to finish my column and press the send button to the Blade. Kevin Naff, editor of the Blade, had been nice and allowed me to send it late because of the election. I usually submit my columns each week on Sunday. It was a great feeling to be able to write about Democrats being winners across the nation. I then headed to the gym for my morning thirty minutes on the Lifecycle, and another thirty with some weight machines. Hey, if you look at me, you know the weights I lift are light, but then something is better than nothing. Then it was off to the retreat lounge to make up the few calories I lost at the gym with my daily cappuccino.
This morning the chatter in the lounge was all about the elections. I don’t know about other groups on the ship, but our group, nearly all members of the LGBTQ+ community, and Democrats, were all very happy with the results. It was kind of like what I kid about in my coffee group back home at Java House in DC. We have a huge diversity of opinions, they go from A to C. The discussions this morning went on longer than usual, as we couldn’t head out to the sun deck, and for me it was fun. I also took the time to work with the concierge to straighten out the screwed-up reservations I had for dinner that evening at Le Voyage, the fancy Daniel Boulud restaurant on the ship. Finally got it straightened out and had reservations with Ken, Paul, and John, at 7:45. I was looking forward to it. But of course, I would eat before that and as lunch time approached a few of us, including Jason, Scott, Mike, and John, agreed to meet at 1pm at Luminae. It was more crowded than the last time I was there but the burger was just as good. Then it was suddenly nearly 3pm, and time for a break and some reading. I really enjoy having my kindle with me. I won’t let people look at my library on it as there are mostly junk, mindless, novels.
Then suddenly it was happy hour again. The LGBTQ happy hours each evening at 6:00pm in the Eden lounge are well attended. Unfortunately, John, Paul’s other half, there are a few Johns in our group, couldn’t join us, as he had work, and it also caused him to miss dinner at Le Voyage. He had to organize a zoom call for hundreds of medical professionals. The fate of the young who are still working. But Paul, Ken, and I, had a great dinner. I had Caviar on salmon for an appetizer, and we each got to taste two of the other appetizers which they put in the center of the table. I loved the roasted beets. Then lobster risotto for the main course, we all chose the same thing, and then dessert. We had all been welcomed with a glass of great champagne, and while Ken and Paul ordered some other wine with dinner, I stuck with champagne. By the end of dinner, which was more than two hours later, we were all stuffed and wondered if some people, the rich and famous, eat like this all the time. While dinner was great, doing it every night wouldn’t be all that appealing to any of us.
It was now about 10pm. Paul and Ken headed back to their cabins, Ken saying he may come back out to the casino, while I walked around a little to try and digest dinner. By eleven I headed back to my cabin for the night. On my bed was a little card telling me Dustin and Scott had made a deposit in my online account as a gift. They did this for everyone in their group and it was incredibly generous. A reminder why we all book with them. Also, Scott had shared with me some possible 2025 fjords cruises, one out of Southampton, on the APEX on June 5, 2025, and he was going to price them and share the information with everyone. Tomorrow would be our last sea day before reaching Bermuda.
Celebrity BEYOND Transatlantic Cruise: Blog #10
I woke up really early on day 11 of our cruise. It was partly sunny and warm, and the water was fairly smooth. I turned on the BBC and saw a program called HardTalk. The host sounded like he was on FOX news attacking the United States and Biden. But he did have a great guest, Fiona Hill, who pushed back on all he was saying. Fiona, who I had been lucky to meet at my friend Nick Irons’ gym, is a former US national security advisor and a specialist in Russia and Putin. She made so much sense in all she was saying and defending Biden’s view of the world and what the United States is and should be doing about the Israel/Hamas and Russian/Ukraine wars. Then there was a knock on the door and my coffee was delivered.
It was going to be a nice day, and after some writing, and coffee, I headed to the gym. If I don’t go in the morning I tend not to go and I made that commitment to myself to go on every sea day. After the gym instead of the retreat lounge, I headed to deck 17 and the retreat sun deck. It is a beautiful space. I took a lounge next to Mike, Scott, and Justin in the shade and ordered my morning cappuccino when a waiter came by. The crew is so great. It was quite windy and a member of the crew brought me a blanket to cover my legs. It kind of felt like we were on one of those old ships like the QE2 on a transatlantic voyage in the old days. I had been on the QE2 from Southampton to NY for my first transatlantic cruise nearly twenty years ago. All that was missing here were the little cucumber sandwiches.
After coffee, when the wind died down a little, I moved into the sun and sat with Diane, Will, Kenny, and others for a while. Then Dax and I agreed to meet at the Garden Café, the ship’s huge buffet, for lunch at 1 p.m. He and I had been on cruises together before but it was really the first time we had a more in-depth conversation. He is a great guy. He lives in Montreal and has a family condo in Miami Beach. He also, like me, has a lesbian sister. We sat and chatted for over two hours. Then it was time for me to head back to my cabin for a little down time. Once again, soon it was time to get ready for happy hour. The days on the ship just go very quickly.
There was a large group in the Eden lounge, and I met a couple of guys I hadn’t met before. Also joining us were Mark and Juan. I had a really nice conversation with Juan, who in addition to being a good-looking hunk, is a really smart, nice, and charming guy. I had met them first years ago on a Panama Canal cruise. They were heading to Eden for dinner. I was going to go with a group to Cyprus, one of the four main dining rooms. I found dinner a little lacking as the lentil soup was cold, and the pasta was just goopy. Much too much cream sauce on it with not all that much taste. The waiter was nice and brought me something else which was much better. And the warm apple pie a-la-mode for dessert, was delicious. After dinner most of us were just tired and after walking around the ship for a while headed to our cabins for an early night. Tomorrow was Bermuda and I had an excursion around the Island planned. It was going to be the first time for me in Bermuda.
Celebrity BEYOND transatlantic Cruise: Blog #11
Day 12 dawned warm and sunny as we docked in Bermuda. I headed to the theater, the meeting point for our excursion, and met Paul and Ken there. Turned out the excursion was going to be in a small taxi, and we hooked up with two guys from Canada, and got placed in a nice cab with a great driver/guide. He was incredibly knowledgeable, being a native Bermudian. He gave us a running commentary about the Island as we headed to our first top, a small interdenominational chapel he said was now used for weddings. It was in a beautiful small clearing with views of the sea. Then we continued on our way and headed into Hamilton, the largest city, and capital, of Bermuda. It is beautiful, with pastel-colored buildings, and spotlessly clean; set against a beautiful blue sea. After having 40 minutes to wander around, we again met our driver to continue the tour around the Island. He pointed out fishermen on the side of the road selling their fresh catch, and we passed a beautiful golf course where an international tournament was in progress. Then we headed to the beach, one of those famous pink sand beaches, and it was breathtaking. We stopped to walk on the sand, and head up the rocks for some beautiful views of the beach, and the ocean. The water was various colors of blue, and with the sun sparkling off it, made for incredible pictures. Then it was off to the lighthouse for a quick stop and some pictures, and then we continued the circle around the Island, back to the port and our ship. It had been a really great three hours in Bermuda, and I would go back.
I headed back on board the ship while John and Ken stayed in the port and partook of some local fish chowder and sandwiches. I headed to the Café buffet for lunch and bumped into John, who hadn’t come with us, and we had a nice lunch together. After lunch I gave John a tour of the retreat lounge and sundeck as he was considering booking the retreat for a future birthday cruise. I stayed on deck 17 until it was time for Dustin and Scott’s sail-away party in the iconic suite. It was a crowded affair and they had drafted flyers to hand out telling people about the planned 2025 cruises. One, I had asked them to plan, was a 12-day round-trip from Southampton, England to the Arctic and the Norwegian Fjords, on June 5, 2025. The other was our annual transatlantic cruise which would be on the ASCENT out of Rome in October, 2025. Planning ahead can get you some of the best prices.
Then for me it was the 7 p.m. show in the theater, the much-postponed Elements, which was great. Then dinner at the Rooftop restaurant. It was windy, but a warm wind, and the food was good. Only one slight issue, the table next to us was so loud, it did get annoying. But then they were having fun. After dinner I headed to the next show I wanted to see, in The Club. It was the Eden cast and Slavik and Vlad were doing some of their aerial work. The Club has changed their seating from what it was on the APEX, more balcony space but less on deck 4. I was lucky and friends, Piotr and Mark, and Kenny and Tom, had a seat for me. It is not an easy space for the cast to work and they are running around a small path in the audience. Despite that, they did a great job. They are all so incredibly talented. Great singers, dancers, including tap dancing, and acrobatics and aerial work. Congratulations to Celebrity for finding such talent.
Then for me it was off to bed and preparing for another sea day, and heading to the last stop on our cruise, Nassau. Since I won’t get off the ship in Nassau, have been there several times before, and that was enough, it was going to be two days of relaxing on the ship.
Celebrity BEYOND transatlantic Cruise: Blog #12
Day 13 dawned warm and sunny and it was going to be a nice relaxing final sea day as we headed to Nassau. As usual had my coffee, bagel and Juice delivered to the room, and began work on my regular political column for the Blade to be submitted Sunday. I then made good on my commitment of going to the gym every sea day and went for an hour of Lifecyle and light weights. Then headed to the sundeck on 17 and grabbed a lounge chair. I saw Terry and Andy, and others already there. I found a chair in the shade and one of the ever-present waiters took my order. Instead of a cup and saucer, cappuccino was brought in a paper cup, but it tasted just as good. Around 1:30 I walked over to the bar and restaurant area, and saw Dustin and Rick at a table and asked if I could join them. They graciously said yes. I ordered a mudslide and a grilled chicken sandwich. It was getting late to make use of my premium drink package. Celebrity made out well on mine as I am not a big drinker. I had never chatted with Rick before and he is a great guy. Found out he is a financial planner in Houston, and a friend of Dustin’s for years. The next thing we realized it was after 4:00pm. Rick and his roommate will be going on the Galapagos cruise I will be going on in February, so look forward to continuing the conversation. I always enjoy chatting with Dustin and we will be talking about the 2025 trips just announced.
Then it was time to head back to the cabin and get washed up and changed for Happy Hour. I had big plans for the evening; another show and my third dinner at Eden. This was going to be with Paul, John, Ken, Mary, and Nancy. Ken backed out claiming a headache, so I bumped into Dax and invited him. He went to the show with me first. It was ok, but the pianist who was good, seemed more like great background music, and we and many around us, while enjoying him, were on our iPhone catching up on email or posting pictures to FB. After the show we headed to dinner and it was again great. The chef came by and Dax impressed all of us by having a long conversation with him in French. Didn’t know what he said, but it sounded impressive, but then remember Dax is French Canadian, and David, the chef, is from Paris.
After dinner I stayed in the Eden Lounge for another great show with the Eden cast including Slavik and Vlad. They again were great to watch. Then it was time for bed for this old guy.
Day 14 dawned warm and beautiful and as intended, stayed on the ship in Nassau. It was going to be a totally do-nothing day. Coffee, some writing, then took my kindle to lounge in the sun on Deck 17. I actually had my first meal alone, when I headed to the buffet at around 1pm. Easy to find a table as so many were off the ship. A number of our group had gone to swim with the pigs, yes, you heard me right, but it wasn’t swimming with those who had overeaten on the cruise, rather some real pigs and piglets. Ok, to each their own, LOL. That evening was our final Happy Hour, and it was crowded with everyone kissing, and saying goodbye. Next morning would be an early departure. I finally had the chance to chat with Jill, our official photographer, and relation of Scott. She has photographed movie stars and politicians. If you ever need a great photographer, just call her. I then hooked up with Michael and Edward, and a few others, and headed to the Martini Bar for one last drink, for me it was a club soda. Then over to Cyprus, where Dax joined us, for a final cruise dinner. After dinner I headed to one of the shops to use the money Scott and Dustin has given us as online credit, and purchased a shirt with the Celebrity Beyond logo. Then it was off to the cabin to finish last-minute packing, and set an alarm for 5:30 a.m. when I would take my luggage and meet Dalton, one of the great crew in the Retreat, at Fine Cut restaurant. He would lead us to the gangplank as we walked off the ship early Monday morning, day 15. This cruise was officially over.
I will be posting one more blog with my musings about the Celebrity Beyond, and Celebrity Cruises, which I wrote while sitting at the airport waiting for my flight back to D.C. Then there will be a column with the interview I had with Slavik, the Ukrainian acrobat and aerialist.
I hope those of you who read these blogs, enjoyed them, and maybe they even got you interested in coming on a future cruise with the great LGBTQ friends, and their friends, I cruise with. I know my good friends, Scott, and Dustin, of My Lux Cruise, would be happy to talk to you about cruises, either joining us, or going anywhere your heart desires. They really are experts, and can get great rates wherever you may want to wander on the waterways of the world.
Opinions
ROSENSTEIN: Chavous for Democratic D.C. Council-at-Large
Committed to fighting for statehood for our 700,000 residents
Kevin Chavous said, “I’m running for D.C. Council At-Large because Washingtonians deserve leadership focused on improving their everyday quality of life. Throughout my career, I’ve worked on the practical business of city government, and public policy, focused on solving real problems, and making government work better for the people it serves.”
Kevin’s experience spans safer streets, affordable housing, early education and school readiness, workforce and economic opportunity, support for seniors, and the day-to-day operations of city government. The knowledge he brings to the office is grounded in experience, clear-eyed oversight, and a commitment to delivering results. His platform outlines his priorities and approach, but as he has said, “it’s not the end of the conversation. I believe the best solutions come from listening and working together.”
Kevin believes safe streets are the foundation of strong neighborhoods. He is committed to having Washingtonians feel secure in their neighborhoods, and working to ensure all public safety efforts are smart, fair, and effective. To Kevin that means an approach focusing on enforcement that works, prevention that matters, and a range of services to stop crime before it happens. Kevin supports smart, effective policing, with a focus on violent crime, and getting repeat offenders off the streets. To do this he will work to strengthen community policing with the aim of rebuilding trust in every community, which will improve neighborhood-level safety. He will introduce legislation to expand targeted mental health and crisis-response services. The goal again, to prevent violence before it occurs. He will work to see government coordinates youth diversion, workforce, and support programs, which can intervene early, and reduce recidivism.
Kevin understands housing stability is essential for families, seniors, and workers, to stay and thrive in D.C. His housing priorities focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing, helping people build long-term stability in the neighborhoods they call home. He will work to increase the affordable housing supply through zoning updates, ADUs, and adaptive reuse of vacant properties. He will submit legislation to strengthen programs that help first-time, and longtime homeowners, buy and then stay in their homes. He will work to expand permanent supportive housing and targeted rental assistance for vulnerable residents, and protect tenants ensuring housing laws are enforced clearly, and consistently.
Kevin believes “every child should enter school ready to learn, with the support needed to succeed from day one. Early investment pays lifelong dividends – for families and for the District.” He will work on the Council to expand early childhood education, and school-readiness programs, citywide. He supports quality and affordable childcare for all children, birth to three, including seeing students begin the school year healthy, by supporting access to medical and dental screenings for all children.
Kevin knows economic opportunity allows families and communities to thrive. He will fight to see D.C.’s growth creates real pathways to good jobs, strong local businesses, and long-term stability for residents in every ward. His approach connects workforce training, worker protections, and neighborhood investment, so that growth benefits the people who live here. He will work to expand job training, apprenticeships, and career pipelines tied to high-demand fields, including construction, healthcare, and infrastructure. He will fight to strengthen First Source and local hiring requirements, so D.C. residents benefit directly from major development projects such as the new RFK site. He will demand the government protect workers by enforcing wage, safety, and labor standards, and holding bad actors accountable. He will introduce legislation to invest more in neighborhood-based economic development, including small businesses, BIDs, and commercial-to-residential revitalization.
Kevin has spoken out for the seniors in our city saying, “seniors built this city – and D.C. must ensure they can age with dignity, security, and independence.” Kevin will work to expand property tax relief and housing supports, so seniors can age in place. He will work with the AG to strengthen protections against fraud, exploitation, and predatory practices targeting seniors. He will support and work to expand nutrition, transportation, and community-based programs, that reduce the isolation many seniors face.
Kevin’s experience working for the Council, in the oversight role he had, gives him a practical understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and how to fix it – without delay. He will use that experience as he works to strengthen agency oversight to ensure laws are implemented as intended, and to improve service delivery by fixing bottlenecks, and outdated processes. Ensuring clear standards and accountability in inspections, enforcement, and permitting. Kevin will demand government use technology responsibly to improve efficiency, while protecting residents from fraud and abuse.
For all these reasons and more, I support Kevin Chavous. The more includes the fact Kevin has spoken out clearly, about the need to fight the antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, sexism and homophobia, all once again rearing their ugly heads in our society. He will fight to keep ICE out of our city, and to keep immigrants safe. He is committed to fighting for statehood for the 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia, while fighting for budget and legislative autonomy as we work toward statehood.
Again, I urge the voters of D.C. to cast their ballot for Kevin Chavous for DC Council-at-Large.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
The state of Tennessee has a long history of political discrimination against its 225,000 LGBTQ citizens. In 2019, a district attorney remarked that gay people should not receive domestic violence protections, and in 2023, for five months in Murfreesboro, homosexual acts in public were illegal, prompting a federal judge to have the ordinance removed.
In 2022, I briefly lived in Tennessee and played rugby with the LGBTQ-inclusive Nashville Grizzlies, who welcomed me with open arms as an ally, teaching me that rugby isn’t always about winning or losing – it’s about creating a safe, inclusive, and joyful space for people looking to feel welcome.
In Tennessee, where 87% of the LGBTQ community has experienced workplace discrimination, and where, each year, countless bills that target their identities are introduced, it can be difficult to feel welcome. The Nashville Grizzlies played rugby with the exuberance of newly liberated people who were finally able to be their authentic selves. I was inspired by their brotherhood.
When I read about the Charlie Kirk Act being passed last week, I felt a visceral need to write about it.
While the bill is presented as legislation that strengthens free speech and encourages greater public discourse on campuses, it would effectively allow a school to expel a student who felt compelled to walk out on a speaker with hateful views, forcing marginalized groups to sit through existentially harmful rhetoric.
And ironically, it doesn’t seem like free speech goes both ways — a Tennessee University administrator lost their job last year for sharing negative views on Charlie Kirk, and countless LGBTQ books have been banned not only in schools, but even in adult libraries.
We like to think that as time moves forward, progress is inevitable, but this isn’t always the case. In a 2023 study, 27% of LGBTQ Tennesseans and 43% of transgender people in the state have considered relocating, forcing them to reckon with leaving home in pursuit of a better life. Nashville Grizzlies Captain Ethan Thatcher told me, “I’ve thought about leaving Tennessee. Hard not to when the government does not want you here. What has kept me here is the Grizzlies community, and the thought that existence is resistance.”
Everybody in our country deserves to feel safe. I thought that was a core value of the American ethos, but apparently, in some states, certain groups are welcome while others are ostracized.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee should reject the Charlie Kirk Act.
Tyler Kania is a 2025 IAN Book of the Year nominated author and civil rights activist from Columbia, Conn.
Opinions
The latest Supreme Court case erasing LGBTQ identity
Chiles v. Salazar a major setback for movement
In its recent decision in Chiles v. Salazar, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Colorado’s law prohibiting licensed counselors from engaging in efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors. The decision, which puts into question similar laws in 22 other states, relied on the First Amendment to hold that the law violates counselors’ free speech rights. But the decision also strikes a blow against LGBTQ dignity, a point the court’s opinion does not even address.
The eight-member majority, which included Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who usually side with LGBTQ groups, justified its reasoning by suggesting that the law was one-sided: it permitted treatment that affirms LGBTQ identity but forbade treatment that seeks to change it. But the law is one-sided, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lone dissent pointed out, because the medical evidence only supports one side: reams of research show that “survivors of conversion therapy continue to suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.” And major medical associations all agree, no evidence demonstrates the efficacy of conversion efforts. This isn’t surprising. Medicine often take sides — some treatments work, and some don’t.
But particularly concerning is the vision of LGBTQ identity that undergirds the majority opinion when compared to the dissent. Justice Jackson’s dissent explains that LGBTQ identity is simply “a part of the normal spectrum of human diversity” — not something to be “cured.” By contrast, for the majority, how best to help LGBTQ minors is “a subject of fierce public debate.” That can hardly be the case if LGBTQ identity stands on equal ground with straight, cisgender identity, or if LGBTQ people are as deserving of safety, rights, and dignity.
Indeed, the LGBTQ rights movement only began in earnest when advocates in the 1960s decided to end the “debate” over gay identity. Until then, community leaders would routinely cooperate with psychiatrists who were interested in researching homosexuality as a medical condition. A new generation of activists, led by Frank Kameny, a key movement founder, began arguing that this got the issue upside down: Rather than wondering if they could be “cured,” LGBTQ people had to assert a right to their identity. As Kameny put it—“we have been defined into sickness.” Only once the case was made that it was society that had to change, and not LGBTQ people, could LGBTQ consciousness, LGBTQ pride and LGBTQ rights develop. Their activism led to the first Pride parade in New York, and the official declassification of homosexuality as a disease in 1973.
The Supreme Court’s conservatives don’t just want to reignite this half-century old medical “debate”; they also treat medical claims that undermine LGBTQ identity very differently from those who support it. Last year, in an opinion backingTennessee’s law that banned gender affirming care for minors, the court sympathetically marched through the reasons Tennessee offered for “why States may rightly be skeptical” of such care, and cited three times, in some detail, to “health authorities in a number of European countries” (that is, some Nordic countries and the UK) that had curbed pediatric care. It failed to mention that most of Western Europe and every major American medical association provides access to this care.
In Chiles, by contrast, the court cites none of the evidence that Colorado amassed that conversion therapy harms LGBTQ children. None of the countries that the court had invoked to justify anti-trans policies allow conversion therapy in their health care systems (indeed, one of them criminalizes such practices). So rather than cite medical evidence, the court simply asked — why trust medical evidence at all? “What if,” asks the court, “reflexive deference to currently prevailing professional views [does] not always end well?” and cites an infamous 1927 Supreme Court case, Buck v. Bell.
In Buck, the Supreme Court embraced eugenic reasoning, backing a eugenic state law that allowed the sterilization of individuals with mental disabilities, on the grounds that such disabilities were hereditary. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes opined, “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Look at what happens when we listen to medical expertise, today’s court seems to say, as an excuse to disregard the LGBTQ-affirming medical evidence they don’t like.
But the court has missed the key lesson of Buck. The law at issue in Buckdiscriminated against a certain group, seeking, through sterilization measures, to erase it from existence. Indeed, LGBTQ people (whom doctors of the day would have referred to as sexual “inverts”) were exactly the kind of people that the eugenic program of Bucksought to eliminate. Conversion therapy seeks similar erasure.
The lesson of the 1960s LGBTQ rights movement remains as relevant today as it was then. Without an unapologetic LGBTQ identity, LGBTQ Pride, LGBTQ rights and the LGBTQ movement itself can all founder. By supporting only the anti-LGBTQ side in this medical saga — and by suggesting that LGBTQ existence is subject to medical debate at all — the court is reaffirming, rather than repudiating, minority erasure.
Craig Konnoth is a professor of law at University of Virginia School of Law.
Memorial for groundbreaking bisexual activist set for May 2
ROSENSTEIN: Chavous for Democratic D.C. Council-at-Large
I don’t see the point in a relationship
Julius’ Bar ‘sip-in’ laid groundwork for Stonewall
