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” »

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” »

Over the weekend, Lady Gaga promised to head down to D.C. for this Sunday’s Equality March. At New York City’s Bootleg party, Gaga announced:

Listen, next week is the gay pride march. And I know that I’m going to be there marching with all of you. And the most exciting thing tonight is that we’re all here together. And you can sign up at a table here to get a ticket on a free bus to D.C. So, you have no excuse. And if the buses are all filled up, there’s tons of other ways to get there . . . And there’s really no excuse for you not to go.

Read More “Lady Gaga Brings Pantless Pride to D.C. Equality March” »

Beers for queers: Not just in gay bars anymore

This week, Metro Weekly reported on three local gay social activists who have been organizing a monthly “Guerilla Queer Bar” in D.C. for the past five years. The concept is simple: Get a bunch of gay people together, descend upon a traditionally straight bar, and declare “We’re here, we’re queer, we want a beer.” Then, like, drink the beer.

Read More “Gay Guerillas Descend on Straight Bar, Possibly for Last Time” »

* Metro Weekly opines on 25 years of Mid-Atlantic Leather weekend.

* Tyra Banks finds the one woman who has never heard of Sarah Palin.

* Tiger Beatdown tells you who’s faring better this week—chicks or dudes—based on evidence culled from extensive personal experience crack reporting a Google alert she’s set up for “women than men”. But take heed: ” When it comes to the Dreaded Crotch Rot, no one wins.”

* Gender Goggles gives a refresher course on feminist theory.

* Melinda Hennebeger at Slate’s XX Factor calls bullshit on this whole virgin auction thing:

So does that gal attempting to auction off her virginity to the highest bidder remind anyone else of the young woman at Yale who was supposedly documenting her multiple self-induced miscarriages as a senior art project a while back? Not that I have any trouble believing that lots of people would cash that check. Yet something about the whole enterprise seems fishy to me. And I dunno about those “housewives” either; are they for real, or just hideously conforming to expectations?

Photo by trialsanderrors.

* Metro Weekly profiles two laid-off longtime Whitman Walker Clinic employees, Barbara Chinn and Pat Hawkins.

* The Post details Malia and Sasha’s first day of school at Sidwell Friends:

Usually the recommencement of classes at a private school don’t warrant breaking updates: The girls’ motorcade left the Hay-Adams Hotel for Sidwell Friends School. They arrived early! Several hours went by. Then they left!

* Slate’s Dear Prudence answers “Is it wrong to keep Viagra use a secret?” (No), and offers up some unsolicited advice as well:

I’m wondering why you feel the need for this boost. If you always require it, that’s one thing. But if it’s just insurance that you will be able to perform even though you’re feeling insecure, that’s possibly a signal that you should do less performing and more talking. If you don’t need the pill, then leave it in the bottle and see how things go naturally.

* Tiger Beatdown, in a post on Gaza, recalls “September, and the planes, and where you were, and how scared you felt, and how you kept calling people to see who was and was not okay”:

I remember being on the phone with an out-of-town friend and saying, “I’m so scared we’re going to go to war. I’m so scared that we’re going to retaliate, and that people will just keep dying.”

“Obviously, we’re going to go to war,” he said, because in a crisis what you really want to do is prove once and for all that you are smarter than the person you are talking to, “and I can’t say I disagree with that. We have to defend ourselves. When I look at the footage… anyone who could do this just isn’t human.” . . . “Everybody’s human,” was the only thing I could say at the time.

Photo via trialsanderrors.

Last night, a commenter on this blog made the connection between a Washington Blade story identifying the victim of yesterday’s police shooting as David Kerstetter, and a 2003 Metro Weekly feature which highlighted the home Kerstetter shared with his now-deceased partner, Paul Brazitis. Kerstetter was shot and killed by police yesterday inside the condo—part of Logan Circle’s Iowa building at 1325 13th St. NW—after he allegedly threatened officers with a knife. A neighbor, who identified Kerstetter to the Blade, said that Kerstetter was suicidal and mourning Brazitis, who died in October of last year. Five years ago, 1325 13th St. was a very different place.
Read More “Inside the Condo of the Police Shooting Victim” »

Metro Weekly has an update on Washington, D.C.’s bid for the 2014 Gay Games. According to the paper, “D.C.’s bid, which included a requisite $1,000 fee, came from the Metropolitan Washington Gaymes Inc., a nonprofit 501c3 set up specifically for the Gay Games bid.” Brent Minor, president of GLBT sporting organization Team DC, attended the Federation of Gay Games meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, last month, where he was elected co-president of the organization’s Board of Directors. ”Washington, D.C., has a strong, committed, diverse organizing committee that is experienced in running international gay, sport tournaments,” he said of D.C.’s chances. “Our clubs have hosted every major gay, sport tournament that there is. I think that bodes well for our city.”

Metro Weekly fronts its election round-up this week, reporting on gay issues in the District, Maryland, and Virginia races. In “Outing the Vote,” Will O’Bryan sums up election day for GLBT wonks: “For politically minded locals,” he writes, “Tuesday, Nov. 4, is the Super Bowl, World Series and American Idol finale, all rolled into one—on steroids, with a cherry on top.” Metro Weekly also has a nice feature on queer-identifying Indian dancer Aniruddhan Vasudevan, who performs with the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company this weekend.

The Washington Blade continues to exhaustively report crimes within and against D.C.’s GLBT community. Yesterday, Lou Chibbaro Jr. reported on a robbery at Dupont Circle gay bar The Fireplace. The robbery—and the assault of an employee that occurred during the theft—are not classified as hate crimes, Chibbaro notes. Chibbaro also has a profile of Trevor Potter, the openly gay top attorney for the McCain campaign. Meanwhile, Chris Johnson has an update on the fight for Prop 8.

Tony Randolph Hunter, the victim of an assault outside Mt. Vernon Square nightclub BeBar, has died, Metro Weekly reports. Hunter, a gay man, was struck in the back of the head while walking near the club on the evening September 7th. He died yesterday afternoon.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime by MPD. Hunter’s assault is one of several recent incidents that have heightened attention on hate crime investigation in the District. I’ll update with more as the investigation continues.

Update: Feministing has a piece on the perceived spike of LGBT-related hate crimes in the District. Miriam notes that “Nationally, around 16% of hate crimes are LGBT related. In DC, it’s 60%.” Miriam also points readers to the resurgence of D.C.’s GLBT Anti-Violence Group, or “GLOV.” GLOV was active in the 1990’s, but stopped meeting in recent years. On Monday, Sept. 22, the group will begin meeting again. Interested parties can join GLOV at the law offices of Dewey and LeBoeuf, 1101 New York Avenue NW, at 7:30 p.m.