Last night, The New Gay editor Zack Rosen set out to determine once and for all whether all those heteros who flock to the Dupont High Heel Race every year are there to support the gay community, or just mock all the queens in dresses. This year, the pre-Halloween drag queen race was pushed into the political arena by a little administrative switch: Instead of a parade permit, the race secured a First Amendment permit, shifting the balance a bit from party to protest. So, are people who love watching gay guys stumble around in stripper heels as enthusiastic about supporting marriage equality? According to Rosen’s findings: Kinda.

Tomorrow, as per tradition, hundreds of drag queens will race down 17th Street between R and Church Streets NW. According to Metro Weekly, the 24th annual Dupont High Heel Race will see a couple of changes this year: One, you won’t be able to drink beer outside anymore. And two, it’s political this time.

Read More “Dupont High Heel Race Gets Political” »

I happened to pass the “Men’s Parties” house at 1618 14th Street NW this morning, so I took a shot of the sign that’s now posted prominently outside the sex club:

The signage helps “Men’s Parties” come into compliance with yesterday’s court order, which requires the club—and the nonprofit organization behind it, the “D.C. Wrestling Club”—to temporarily cease holding events, stop advertising, and post this sign five feet from the ground on the club’s main entrance, with lettering no less than 1 inch tall.

According to a recent Pew Research study, the District of Columbia has the lowest marriage rate in the country. Only 23 percent of women and 28 percent of men and in D.C. are married, compared to 48 and 52 percent nationwide. The rates in D.C. are so low that they lie entirely off the Pew map’s color key. The closest states to D.C.’s numbers are Rhode Island, where 43 percent of women are married, and Alaska, where 47 percent of men are married.

Why aren’t D.C. residents getting hitched?

Read More “D.C. Has Lowest Marriage Rate In Nation, Largest Percentage of Same-Sex Couples” »

Listening to Hot 99.5 yesterday, I was interested to hear the radio station bleep out the latest trend in hip-hop homophobia: “no homo.” “No homo,” for the uninitiated, is a little piece of wordplay which works to neutralize any potentially “gay” interpretations of a rapper’s lyrics. For a full review of the term, check out Bryan Safi’s informative piece, above.

Recently, Hot 99.5 washed the term out of Kanye West’s contribution to Jay-Z’s “Run This Town.” In the track, Kanye employs the phrase in order to insist that he does not regularly engage in gay orgies. “It’s crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow,” Kanye says. “To everybody on your dick—no homo.”

Generally, radio censorship only inspires listeners to imagine the offensive term in their head. In the case of “no homo,” however, bleeping may also serve a valuable and unintentionally hilarious function!

Read More “How Censoring “No Homo” Will Help Hip-Hop” »

On Wednesday, the District of Columbia filed suit to shut down “Men’s Parties,” the underground male sex club operating at 1618 14th Street NW. The lawsuit’s three defendants—David J. Butler, 1618 14th Street LLC, and the D.C. Wrestling Club—face charges of “opperation of a business without a basic business license” and “use of premises for business without appropriate certificate of occupancy.”

The initial documents in the case offer a glimpse into the club’s secretive activities, as well as additional information concerning the fatal accident that occurred inside the club on the morning of October 4th.

Read More “D.C. Police Describe “Men’s Parties” Location: Used Condoms, Glory Holes, and a Crucifix” »

Throwing in the Towels: Men’s club death leaves city grasping for answers.

Early in the morning of Oct. 4, a member of a private Logan Circle “men’s social club” fell to his death. According to a D.C. police report, the 47-year-old man was discovered in the stairwell leading to the basement of 1618 14th St. NW, the victim of “blunt impact injury of head.” Police believe the man may have tumbled down the stairs; the organizer of the club told the Washington Blade that the man likely fell on a “cement floor,” where he “possibly hit his head on a metal pipe or a brick wall.”

The man’s injury was sustained during the regular activities of the club, which include nightly gay sex events called “Men’s Parties,” as well as meetings of the “Jack Off Enthusiasts of Washington and Baltimore.” The accident has drawn public scrutiny over the private meetings, as well as a defense: Following the death, the club’s organizer told police that his establishment provides “a safe place for gay men to have consensual sex.”

How does a club meant to provide a “safe place” end up hosting a member’s death? By working off a creative definition of “safe.”

Read More “Steep Price: Gay Sex Club Closes After Fatal Injury” »

The Westboro Baptist Church, proud owner of godhatesfags.com, is hitting up the Equality March in Washington D.C. this weekend, Joe My God reports. If the church’s nonsensical picket schedule can be believed, Fred Phelps and friends will be hitting up three D.C. locations in one big anti-gay tour: The D.C. Jewish Community Center, the Annual HRC National Dinner, and the National Equality March. See what Phelps and the gang have planned for their protests, after the jump. Spoiler alert: Antichrist Obama is gonna be there!

Read More “Follow the Westboro Baptist Church’s Tour of Anti-Gay Nonsense” »

Yesterday, local Catholic university Georgetown took on LGBT acceptance at the really Catholic local U., the Catholic University of America.

Gergetown student newspaper the Hoya detailed the efforts of a CUA student group that’s attempting to gain official recognition from the school’s administration. The group, “CUAllies,” is an unofficial support group for LGBT students on CUA’s campus. CUAllies first lobbied to be recognized as an official student org back in August, but was denied. In the rejection, Catholic University “claimed that an adequate support structure for LGBTQ students already existed on campus.”

CUA currently recognizes campus groups devoted to anime, role playing, and virtue, but none which serve the particular needs of the LGBT community. A quick search for LGBT on the University’s Web site yields no hits that lead to support services directed at students.

Read More “Catholic University Denies LGBT Support Group on Campus” »

Monday, Sept. 28, was a good day for the sexual assault euphemism.

Discussing the Roman Polanski case with the ladies of The View, Whoopi Goldberg mitigated accusations that Polanski drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl by insisting that the crime wasn’t “rape-rape.” In a statement to the United Nations that same day, Vatican rep Archbishop Silvano Tomasi spun the public outcry over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church by clarifying that the priests “involved in the abuses” are not pedophiles but “ebophiles,” a “sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17.”

Read More “Verbal Assault: The Abuse and Debasement of “Rape”” »