Sam Jay: Taking Aim - Metro Weekly, August 6, 2020
Whether it’s her new Netflix special or writing for SNL, Sam Jay is building a comedy career that is as bold as it is masterful. Interview by André Hereford. (Page 26)
Also: Beyoncé’s visual album Black is King is a majestic love letter to Black communities past and present. (Page 37) And local theatre sensation Jade Jones is preparing to unleash her pandemic-born nonbinary persona, Litty Official. (Page 9)
Out on the Town p.5 Spotlight: Speed Racer p.11 The Feed: Equality Pledge p.13 Salty Senior p.14 Criminal Behavior p.15 Federal Fumble p.16 Selling Hate p.18 Executive Action p.20 Bezos Backpedals p.22 Dangerous Deportation p.24 Gallery: Art & Activism p.32 Television: Streaming Through Time p.35 RetroScene p.38 Last Word p.41
Patron Saint: Danitra Vance
Whether it’s her new Netflix special or writing for SNL, Sam Jay is building a comedy career that is as bold as it is masterful. Interview by André Hereford. (Page 26)
Also: Beyoncé’s visual album Black is King is a majestic love letter to Black communities past and present. (Page 37) And local theatre sensation Jade Jones is preparing to unleash her pandemic-born nonbinary persona, Litty Official. (Page 9)
Out on the Town p.5 Spotlight: Speed Racer p.11 The Feed: Equality Pledge p.13 Salty Senior p.14 Criminal Behavior p.15 Federal Fumble p.16 Selling Hate p.18 Executive Action p.20 Bezos Backpedals p.22 Dangerous Deportation p.24 Gallery: Art & Activism p.32 Television: Streaming Through Time p.35 RetroScene p.38 Last Word p.41
Patron Saint: Danitra Vance
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- Page 9 and 10: Spotlight Ladykiller Local theatre
- Page 11 and 12: Spotlight Speedo Racer Coree Wolter
- Page 13 and 14: Among the specific promises made in
- Page 15 and 16: theFeed “I’m not usually one to
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Contents<br />
<strong>August</strong> 6, <strong>2020</strong> Volume 27 Issue 13<br />
9<br />
LADYKILLER<br />
Local theatre sensation Jade Jones is preparing to unleash<br />
her pandemic-born nonbinary persona, Litty Official.<br />
By Doug Rule<br />
TAKING AIM<br />
Whether it’s her new Netflix special or writing for SNL,<br />
<strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Jay</strong> is building a comedy career that is as bold as it is masterful.<br />
Interview by André Hereford<br />
26<br />
37<br />
ROYAL TREATMENT<br />
Beyoncé’s visual album Black is King is a majestic love letter<br />
to Black communities past and present.<br />
By Sean Maunier<br />
OUT ON THE TOWN p.5 SPOTLIGHT: SPEED RACER p.11<br />
THE FEED: EQUALITY PLEDGE p.13 SALTY SENIOR p.14<br />
CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR p.15 FEDERAL FUMBLE p.16 SELLING HATE p.18<br />
EXECUTIVE ACTION p.20 BEZOS BACKPEDALS p.22 DANGEROUS DEPORTATION p.24<br />
GALLERY: ART & ACTIVISM p.32 TELEVISION: STREAMING THROUGH TIME p.35<br />
RETROSCENE p.38 LAST WORD p.41<br />
Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 26 Years<br />
Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley<br />
Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks<br />
Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim<br />
Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla<br />
Patron Saint Danitra Vance Cover Photography Courtesy of Netflix<br />
During the pandemic please send all mail to: <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Weekly</strong> PO Box 11559 - Washington, D.C. 20008 • 202-638-6830<br />
All material appearing in <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Weekly</strong> is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Weekly</strong> assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to<br />
editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Weekly</strong> is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their<br />
agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in <strong>Metro</strong> <strong>Weekly</strong> is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.<br />
© <strong>2020</strong> Jansi LLC.<br />
2 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
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4 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Out On The Town<br />
Compiled by Doug Rule<br />
PLATONIC<br />
Gay Olive and her straight best friend Billy are busy New Yorkers<br />
in hot pursuit of love — who share what they see and do along<br />
the way in recorded voicemail messages to each other. Created<br />
by budding writer-director Erin C. Buckley, PLATONIC is a<br />
new 10-episode web series set in what is described as “a memory<br />
of New York City just before the pandemic.” A YouTube<br />
exclusive starring Summer Spiro as Olive and Ryan King as<br />
Billy, the series is notable for the way “[it] juxtaposes the radical<br />
intimacy and hazy boundaries of non-romantic relationships<br />
with the sexual fluidity and emotional ambiguity of modern<br />
dating.” PLATONIC launches with “Episode 1: Phone Tag” on<br />
Wednesday, Aug. 12. Visit www.platonicseries.com.<br />
#STILLWELAUGH<br />
In partnership with the DC Center, the Capital Pride Alliance<br />
has been overseeing a multi-episode web series created as<br />
an alternative to the organization’s usual June festivities. It’s<br />
showcasing some of the key people and places that make the<br />
local LGBTQ community so rich and rewarding. Available for<br />
streaming from @CapitalPrideDC on Facebook and YouTube,<br />
Pride In The City launched in late June with #StillWeEntertain,<br />
featuring performances by Shi-Queeta Lee, Willie J Garner,<br />
Manuex Pop, MzzAmirraO, the Canales Brothers, Destiny B.<br />
Childs, Billy Winn, and KC B. Yoncé. The series continues with<br />
#StillWeLaugh, a showcase of area comedians and their standup<br />
routines. Violet Gray, Jake Leizear, Dana Lollar aka D-Lo,<br />
Franqi French, Valerie Paschall, Kevin McLain, and Jake Jacob<br />
are featured in the episode, which debuts Friday, Aug. 7, at 7<br />
p.m. Visit www.capitalpride.org.<br />
Platonic<br />
KLECKSOGRAPHY <strong>2020</strong><br />
A total of 17 theater companies and more than 50 artists will<br />
team up in creative collaborations led by Rorschach Theatre<br />
Company, joined this year by representatives from 1st Stage,<br />
Arena Stage, Mosaic Theater, Pointless Theatre, Round House<br />
Theatre, Spooky Action Theatre, and The Welders. Named after<br />
a childhood game that later inspired Hermann Rorschach’s<br />
famous Inkblot Test, Klecksography embraces the metaphor<br />
of that test by instructing all participating artists to create new<br />
works inspired by the same artistic source: the 51st State Murals<br />
project, those D.C.-centric murals that went up in various parts<br />
of town in late June in honor of the vote for D.C. statehood by<br />
the U.S. House of Representatives. #Klex<strong>2020</strong> will result in 10<br />
new short plays and six short films showcasing the talents of<br />
some of D.C.’s best emerging artists, working together in assorted<br />
teams. Premieres Sunday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m. The video will<br />
remain available on YouTube through Aug. 16. Pay-What-You-<br />
Can donations are encouraged. Visit www.rorschachtheatre.<br />
com or www.bit.ly/klex<strong>2020</strong>.<br />
PANTHEON<br />
Last spring, Happenstance Theater premiered Pantheon, a new<br />
work of devised theater from the Helen Hayes Award-winning<br />
ensemble that incorporates themes and characters from ancient<br />
Greek mythology. Sharon Crissinger captured a performance of<br />
the stage production that the company is now offering as a video<br />
rental. Set in the 1940s, Pantheon revolves around a chorus<br />
of factory workers brought to life by Happenstance’s married<br />
co-founders Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell along with Gwen<br />
Grastorf, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, and Alex Vernon. “With an<br />
ample smattering of amusement,” reads the official description,<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
5
Pantheon<br />
“the performers invoke the Muses, offer Sacrifice, suffer Hubris,<br />
consult Oracles, and meet Fate as they portray an array of mortals<br />
and Gods whose flaws reflect their own.” Through Aug. 30.<br />
Rentals are $10 for a 30-day streaming period. Visit www.vimeo.<br />
com/ondemand/pantheon.<br />
THE SIGNATURE SHOW<br />
Last week ushered in the launch of a biweekly digital series<br />
focused on artists touted as “the past, present, and future of<br />
Signature Theatre.” The region’s preeminent musical theater<br />
purveyor kicked off its newest production with a half-hour episode<br />
starring several of its most popular showstoppers, including<br />
Nova Y. Payton (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hairspray), Natascia<br />
Diaz (Passion), and Heidi Blickenstaff (Disney’s Freaky Friday),<br />
while also featuring one of Broadway’s leading contemporary<br />
composers, Tony winner Tom Kitt (Next to Normal). Offering<br />
a mix of performances and interviews, the inaugural edition<br />
of The Signature Show had talent to spare, a packed lineup also<br />
including Emily Skinner, Inés Nassara, Christiane Noll, DeWitt<br />
Fleming Jr., Jacquelyn Piro Donovan, and Jennie Harney-<br />
Fleming, plus a tribute to music director and composer Darius<br />
Smith. Episode 1, released July 30, is currently available at<br />
www.bit.ly/sigshow1.<br />
FACTION OF FOOLS: FOOLISH FRIDAYS<br />
Faction of Fools, D.C.’s Helen Hayes Award-winning commedia<br />
dell’arte theater troupe, has shifted its energies during the pandemic<br />
to work on screen, developing a series of 12 short video<br />
comedies, each touted as “a little amuse-bouche of commedia<br />
dell’arte.” A three-month exercise in frivolity designed with the<br />
usual spirit of summer in mind, Foolish Fridays is lighthearted<br />
fun to help send off summer and ease into fall. The series officially<br />
launches on Friday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. on Facebook with the<br />
cocktail party “Toast to Foolish Fridays.” Greg Benson of the<br />
Bar None podcast will lead this toast to “sweet comedy” with a<br />
“bitter cocktail” — specifically focused on a Negroni, the classic<br />
composed of equal parts gin, vermouth, and Campari that is as<br />
quintessentially Italian as commedia dell’arte. The videos will<br />
be available on both Facebook and YouTube. Visit www.facebook.com/factionoffools.<br />
Commissary<br />
VOTE READY<br />
A slew of indie-rock musicians have signed up with the nonprofit<br />
organization HeadCount to motivate their fans to update their<br />
voter registration. Confirming registration before the cutoff for<br />
fall elections is an important way to ensure one’s vote will be<br />
counted on election day, especially if there have been recent<br />
changes in local voter rolls. All those who check their status<br />
over the next week through HeadCount’s website will receive<br />
a free ticket to a special livestream of original self-recorded<br />
performances. Part of the “Live From Out There” series, the<br />
concert, set for Friday, Aug. 14, at 7 p.m., includes performances<br />
by The War on Drugs, Kyp Malone and Jaleel Bunton of TV On<br />
The Radio, Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear of Grizzly Bear,<br />
Robin Pecknold, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Tarriona Tank<br />
Ball, Hand Habits, Ciggy, Kam Franklin of The Suffers, Allison<br />
Russell and Leyla McCalla of Our Native Daughters, and The<br />
Building. Visit www.headcount.org/voteready.<br />
COMMISSARY’S BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH<br />
Over the years Commissary, the casual neighborhood restaurant<br />
in Logan Circle, has become known for its brunches, including<br />
those themed to coincide with special events, from the Oscars to<br />
Beyonce and <strong>Jay</strong>-Z at FedEx Field. Fortunately, you don’t have<br />
to wait for a special occasion or even the weekend anymore, as<br />
Commissary has now started offering brunch every day — and<br />
yes, you can even go bottomless with your mimosas or Bloody<br />
Mary’s if you dare. The menu ranges from Ricotta Blintzes with<br />
strawberry and fresh mint ($11), to a Southern fried chicken<br />
sandwich with a sunny side up egg ($12.50), to an Avocado Bowl<br />
with poached eggs ($11). Brunch and breakfast is available every<br />
day from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Commissary is located at 1443 P St.<br />
NW. Call 202-299-0018 or visit www.CommissaryDC.com.<br />
To mix it up a bit, on weekends you could drop in to the original<br />
EatWellDC eatery on the block, Logan Tavern. The 17-year-old<br />
restaurant has added new items to its weekend brunch menu,<br />
including a Tomato Caprese Omelet featuring fresh mozzarella<br />
and heirloom tomatoes from EatWellDC’s farm in Maryland<br />
($14.50) and the Brunch Platter of French toast and eggs accom-<br />
6<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Rasika<br />
Luca Buvoli<br />
panied by bacon, turkey sausage, and home fries ($16). Brunch is<br />
served Saturdays and Sundays between 10:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.<br />
Logan Tavern is located at 1423 P St. NW. Call 202-332-3710 or<br />
visit www.LoganTavern.com.<br />
RASIKA SIMMER SAUCES<br />
Noted local restaurateur Ashok Bajaj has bottled up three premade<br />
simmer sauces based on the recipes from Sunderam, the<br />
James Beard Award-winning chef. There’s Makhani, the mild,<br />
creamy tomato sauce that is ideal for chicken tikka, paneer, or<br />
Indian cheese, or over vegetables; Korma, the mild nutty aromatic<br />
sauce that pairs well with lamb and other braised meat<br />
dishes as well as paneer; and Vindaloo Curry, a spicy tangy chili<br />
sauce for chicken, lamb, pork, and shrimp. “The from-scratch<br />
sauces are labor intensive to create,” Sunderam says, “so we are<br />
making it easy for our clientele to design their own fabulous<br />
dishes in a fraction of the time by utilizing these time-tested<br />
recipes.” The sauces are available for purchase at Rasika Penn<br />
Quarter and Rasika West End as well as at their casual sister<br />
venue Bindaas Cleveland Park, plus carryout via Caviar and<br />
Doordash. Each 16-ounce container is priced at $10, or $25 for<br />
three. Call 202-466-2500 or visit www.rasikarestaurant.com.<br />
LEBANON THEN AND NOW: PHOTOGRAPHY FROM 2006 TO <strong>2020</strong><br />
Originally planned as a physical show to be displayed at the<br />
Middle East Institute’s art gallery in Dupont Circle, Lebanon<br />
Then and Now captures the dizzying social, political, and economic<br />
developments that have marked Lebanon over the past 15<br />
years through the work of 17 photographers and one filmmaker.<br />
Organizers of the MEI Art Gallery, which launched last year<br />
with the aim of presenting socially engaged art from the Middle<br />
East and helping foster cross-cultural dialogue, thoroughly<br />
reimagined this temporary exhibition to become an immersive,<br />
360-degree virtual experience. As selected by Beirut-based<br />
curator Chantale Fahmi, the featured artists in Lebanon Then<br />
and Now include, among others, Lamia Maria Abillama, Pierre<br />
Aboujaoude, Hussein Beydoun, Blanche Eid, Jana Khoury, Elias<br />
Moubarak, Badr Safadi, and Jack Seikaly. Now to Sept. 25. Visit<br />
www.mei.edu/exhibition/lebanon-then-and-now.<br />
STEVEN WALKER: THIS ROUND’S ON ME<br />
The vulnerability Steven Walker faced in dealing with depression<br />
and anxiety is reflected in the fragile glass works the artist<br />
has created in This Round’s On Me. Known for illuminating<br />
landscapes and nocturnal paintings, Walker switches things<br />
up with this personal series of still lifes. Bold brushstrokes<br />
and emotive color palettes express the artist’s deepest feelings,<br />
while objects placed within the glass evoke positive memories<br />
from his life, offering viewers a sense of hope amidst darkness,<br />
as well as the play between light and dark that Walker experiences.<br />
Presented by Georgetown’s Calloway Fine Arts, the show<br />
is intended to signal to those suffering from depression that<br />
they are not alone. On virtual display to Aug. 22, with in-person<br />
visits by appointment only. Calloway Fine Art & Consulting,<br />
1643 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Call 202-965-4601 or visit www.<br />
callowayart.com.<br />
LUCA BUVOLI: PICTURE: PRESENT<br />
Through his ongoing Astrodoubt and The Quarantine Chronicles<br />
series, multimedia artist Luca Buvoli has been reflecting on our<br />
present-day realities through the guise of a fictitious astronaut.<br />
Named Astrodoubt, the character doesn’t let an earth-shattering<br />
deadly pandemic get in the way of his escapist fantasies<br />
about life in outer space or a post-pandemic future on this<br />
planet. Buvoli, an Italian-born, New York-based artist also on<br />
the faculty at the prestigious Maryland Institute College of<br />
Art in Baltimore, was invited by the Phillips Collection to produce<br />
new work that engages in some way with the museum’s<br />
permanent collection as part of its Intersections series — and<br />
becoming the first-ever digital Intersections edition in the process.<br />
The result is an extension of Buvoli’s Astrodoubt series<br />
— with the astronaut exploring 12 paintings from the collection,<br />
inserting text to reflect on each scene depicted from an often<br />
tragicomic perspective of COVID-19. Featured on the Phillips’<br />
website as well as on its Instagram, Picture: Present is a 12-day<br />
exercise, with a new scene released each day through Friday,<br />
Aug. 7. A Zoom Artist Talk with Buvoli is set for Thursday, Aug.<br />
13, at 5:30 p.m. Visit www.phillipscollection.org or www.instagram.com/phillipscollection.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
7
Spotlight<br />
Ladykiller<br />
Local theatre sensation Jade Jones is preparing to unleash her<br />
pandemic-born nonbinary persona, Litty Official<br />
JADE JONES WAS BARELY A TEENAGER WHEN SHE<br />
first heard the axiom “there’s no business like show business.”<br />
Then a seventh-grader, Jones was attending a performance<br />
of Annie Get Your Gun, the musical the familiar phrase<br />
is drawn from. “That production really stuck with me,” she says.<br />
“It definitely was a catalyst for me wanting to do theater.”<br />
It was a delayed catalyst. Jones didn’t pursue work on the<br />
stage until after college. “I had a serious self-confidence issue<br />
growing up,” says the 30-year-old. “And as much as I wanted to<br />
perform, I didn't think that people believed in me. I was told I<br />
was too black, too fat, too queer. There was definitely something<br />
different about me that I was told the market was not interested<br />
in. So I redirected my focus from performing to teaching.”<br />
While working as a drama instructor in D.C., Jones decided<br />
to try her hand at acting, and auditioned for Hair at The Keegan<br />
Theatre. Just like that, she was all in. “It was the first professional<br />
production I ever did,” she says, adding,<br />
“I got naked on stage.” In the six years since<br />
Jones has proceeded to steal scenes and<br />
hearts everywhere from Creative Cauldron<br />
to Mosaic Theater. Recently, she picked up<br />
two Helen Hayes nominations, including one for her memorable<br />
turn as Little Red Ridinghood in Into The Woods at Ford’s.<br />
“My <strong>2020</strong> was looking amazing,” says Jones. “I was booked<br />
up all year. I was doing The Amen Corner [at the Shakespeare<br />
Watch Litty Offical<br />
perform “Say Nuthin”<br />
Theatre] and then I was going to have a week off [before] Much<br />
Ado About Nothing. Then COVID hit, and I lost all my jobs. I was<br />
like, ‘What am I going to do?’ I felt that maybe this was the time<br />
to explore other aspects of myself and my creativity.”<br />
Enter Litty Official, the Dr. Jekyll to Jones’ Mr. Hyde.<br />
“There's a side of myself, of Jade, that's sweet and compassionate<br />
and joyful and generous. And I've definitely portrayed and<br />
expressed that part of me on stage,” she says. “Litty Official is<br />
the flip side of that.”<br />
Named after a penchant for getting lit using the nomenclature<br />
of social media, Litty Official is a rappin’, rhymin’ nonbinary<br />
ladykiller. “Litty Official is an unapologetically Black, queer alien<br />
who hails from Planet #TooMuch. They are thick and proud,<br />
with a heart as cold as a frozen daiquiri,” Jones says. Litty’s fivesong<br />
debut mixtape, He Could Never, drops this weekend.<br />
Ultimately, Litty Official grew out of Jones’ childhood experiences<br />
— right down to her fascination with<br />
Annie Get Your Gun: The persona’s motto<br />
stems from that show’s signature song,<br />
“Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”<br />
“As a queer youth, there was always a part<br />
of me that felt in competition with the boys — whether it was<br />
sports, whether it was sexual orientation,” she says. “In my older<br />
and wiser age, I've discovered that there is no competition. Litty<br />
is the creative expression of that revelation.” —Doug Rule<br />
Litty Official performs Saturday, Aug. 8, at 8 p.m., at Songbyrd Music House, 2477 18th St. NW. The concert will be livestreamed<br />
as well as projected into the venue’s outdoor dining area. Tickets are $20 for a livestream link.<br />
Call 202-450-2917 or visit www.songbyrddc.com.<br />
He Could Never, Litty Official’s debut mixtape, will be available on Spotify and Apple Music on Saturday, Aug. 8.<br />
For details follow @littyofficial on Instagram.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
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Spotlight<br />
Speedo Racer<br />
Coree Woltering and Team Onyx blaze trails and scale mountains<br />
on World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji.<br />
BILLED AS THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST RACE, THE<br />
11-day, multi-terrain Eco-Challenge Fiji, by all<br />
accounts, lives up to its daunting title. Viewers can<br />
judge for themselves with the <strong>August</strong> 14 release of Amazon<br />
Prime’s World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, a ten-episode<br />
event hosted by Bear Grylls. Sixty-six teams from thirty<br />
different countries run, climb, bike, sail, paddle, spelunk, and<br />
swim through jungles and rivers, over mountains and the<br />
Pacific, racing to claim victory.<br />
"They definitely designed the course to make it just unforgiving,”<br />
says elite ultra-runner Coree Woltering, who competed<br />
in the Eco-Challenge as a member of Team Onyx — the first<br />
all-Black, predominantly LGBTQ team in expedition racing.<br />
“It takes an all-around athlete to be able to do something like<br />
that, and just an extremely mentally strong person.”<br />
Woltering would know. As a pro runner specializing in<br />
competing at distances longer than a marathon, he just set a<br />
formidable new record in June, running the<br />
1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in under 22 days. The<br />
Illinois native had been thinking of taking on<br />
the Trail for a while, but, surprisingly, it was<br />
life under the pandemic shutdown that made the enormous<br />
undertaking possible. “Normally an effort that big would just<br />
take too much out of me,” he says. “So I wouldn't be able to do<br />
that in the middle of a racing season. But with COVID and no<br />
races coming up, this was just kind of the perfect time to do it.”<br />
Click Here to<br />
Watch the Trailer<br />
While the Ice Age Trail was the longest expedition<br />
Woltering has completed — “three weeks of running and just<br />
being out there every day” — he still calls Eco-Challenge Fiji<br />
“the toughest race I've done.” And he hopes that his and Team<br />
Onyx’s performance inspires others on their own boundary-pushing<br />
adventures. “You don't see a lot of people of color<br />
in the adventure racing world,” he says. “You don't even necessarily<br />
see a ton in the outdoor [sporting] world, and especially<br />
not at a high level. So I just think it's really important to be a<br />
role model and show that people of color do love the outdoors.<br />
We love adventure. We can do these things.”<br />
Woltering recognizes a similar importance in representing<br />
the LGBTQ community on the course. Yet, racing with<br />
a purpose, he still makes a point of keeping the competition<br />
fun. Known for racing in a pair of Speedos, the runner, who<br />
found a fellow adventurer in his professional skydiver husband,<br />
assures, “You'll definitely see a few Speedos in Eco-<br />
Challenge.” The Lycra briefs might even be<br />
Woltering’s secret weapon.<br />
“It's really funny. I was racing a 50K in<br />
Florida in 2015, and I was going to the beach, so,<br />
of course, I packed a couple Speedos. But I also packed my running<br />
shorts, or at least I thought I did. On race morning, I found<br />
out that I forgot to pack my racing shorts. And so people are like,<br />
‘It's Florida. No one cares. Just wear a Speedo.’ And I was like,<br />
‘Okay.' So I wore a Speedo and I won the race.” —André Hereford<br />
World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji is available for streaming starting <strong>August</strong> 14 on Prime Video. Visit www.amazon.com.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
11
12 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Among the specific promises made in the platform are<br />
that the party will enact protections for LGBTQ+ youth who<br />
find themselves homeless, reverse the Trump administration’s<br />
transgender military ban and its attempts to discharge service<br />
members living with HIV, and provide coverage for HIV/AIDS<br />
treatment and HIV-prevention medications, including pre- and<br />
post-exposure prophylaxis.<br />
With respect to health care, Democrats have vowed to<br />
reverse a Trump administration rule that allows medical providers<br />
to refuse to provide certain types of care or treatment<br />
to LGBTQ people or others based on the provider’s personal<br />
religious beliefs.<br />
The party has promised to reinstate a provision of the<br />
Affordable Care Act prohibiting discrimination based on sex<br />
— including gender identity — by insurance companies and<br />
medical providers, and ensure that transgender people receive<br />
any care, including hormone therapy or gender confirmation<br />
surgery, that their doctors have classified as medically necessary<br />
to treat gender dysphoria.<br />
In keeping with positions embraced by its presumptive nomtheFeed<br />
IDA MAE ASTUTE FOR ABS<br />
Democratic National Convention 2016<br />
Equality Pledge<br />
Democrats’ <strong>2020</strong> platform pledges to advance LGBTQ equality,<br />
undo Trump’s attacks. By John Riley<br />
A<br />
DRAFT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S <strong>2020</strong> PLATform<br />
solidifies the party’s stalwart commitment to<br />
advancing equality, and offers one of the most pro-<br />
LGBTQ party platforms ever. Shared by the Democratic<br />
National Convention, which is set to take place virtually from<br />
<strong>August</strong> 17-20, the platform draft checks off several key policies<br />
that LGBTQ people have either been trying to push through<br />
Congress for years, or that reverse harmful policies enacted by<br />
the Trump administration.<br />
In the platform’s preamble, the party vows that it will “give<br />
hate no safe harbor,” whether in the form of “bigotry, racism,<br />
misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or white supremacy.”<br />
“Democrats will protect and promote the equal rights of all<br />
our citizens — women, LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities,<br />
people with disabilities, Native Americans, and all who have<br />
been discriminated against in too many ways and for too many<br />
generations,” the preamble reads.<br />
“We commit ourselves to the vision articulated by Frederick<br />
Douglass of ‘a Government founded upon justice, and recognizing<br />
the equal rights of all.'”<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
13
theFeed<br />
inee, former Vice President Joe Biden, the platform also praises<br />
a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision finding that employment<br />
discrimination against LGBTQ people is unlawful, and promises<br />
to pass the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination<br />
in several other areas of life in addition to employment, such<br />
as housing, credit, jury service, public accommodations, and in<br />
accessing federal programs.<br />
Other planks of the platform include making sufficient mental<br />
health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention services<br />
available to LGBTQ individuals, ensuring all transgender and<br />
nonbinary people can obtain official documents reflecting their<br />
gender identity, combating the epidemic of anti-trans violence,<br />
investigating alleged hate crimes, and reinstating Obama-era<br />
guidance protecting transgender students from discrimination<br />
under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act.<br />
The party also promises to advocate for LGBTQ human rights<br />
abroad and call out instances of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination<br />
in other countries.<br />
“Democrats will advance the ability of all persons to live<br />
with dignity, security, and respect, regardless of who they are<br />
or who they love. We will restore the United States’ position of<br />
leadership on LGBTQ+ issues by passing the GLOBE Act and<br />
appointing senior leaders directly responsible for driving and<br />
coordinating LGBTQ+ issues at the State Department, USAID,<br />
and the National Security Council,” the draft platform reads<br />
“We will ensure that our immigration policies account for<br />
the needs of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers, and that we<br />
use the full slate of human rights promotion and accountability<br />
tools to defend the universal rights of LGBTQ+ people. We will<br />
amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ persons around the world and<br />
counter violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons<br />
wherever it appears.”<br />
The party’s platform stands in contrast to that of the<br />
Republican Party, which repurposed its full 2016 platform<br />
for this year’s upcoming November election, meaning it still<br />
contains opposition to to same-sex marriage, support for religious-based<br />
refusals of service, opposition to same-sex adoption,<br />
and endorses the right of parents to determine whether to pursue<br />
conversion therapy for their LGBTQ-identifying children.<br />
Shortly after adopting its 2016 platform for the <strong>2020</strong> election,<br />
the Republican National Committee released a memo<br />
seeking to shore up their support among right-leaning LGBTQ<br />
people and social libertarians by claiming that President Donald<br />
Trump has taken “unprecedented steps to protect the LGBTQ<br />
community,” citing his policies around increased funding for<br />
HIV/AIDS and his administration’s efforts, led most recently<br />
by former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell,<br />
to encourage countries with laws criminalizing homosexuality<br />
to repeal them.<br />
While Trump made history as the first Republican candidate<br />
to support same-sex marriage, his administration has repeatedly<br />
pursued policies — ranging from restrictions preventing<br />
transgender individuals from serving in the military, to religious-based<br />
exemptions for health care workers, to its efforts<br />
to define “sex” as based only in biology — that critics say harm<br />
LGBTQ people.<br />
FACEBOOK<br />
Highland High School’s <strong>2020</strong> drive-through graduation ceremony<br />
Salty Senior<br />
Salt Lake City high school publishes anti-transgender quote in yearbook. By John Riley<br />
THE SALT LAKE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT IS APOLOGIZing<br />
and condemning an anti-transgender quote from a graduating<br />
student that has sparked controversy after it was published<br />
in this year’s edition of the Highland High School yearbook.<br />
The quote, from senior Daniel Totzke, claims: “There are<br />
only two genders and a lot of mental illness.”<br />
It was published underneath his photo in the space generally<br />
reserved for inspirational or heartfelt messages from graduating<br />
seniors. The person who first called attention to the quote was<br />
another student, who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community.<br />
14 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
theFeed<br />
“I’m not usually one to post,” the student wrote in a Facebook<br />
post that has been shared more than 7,500 times. “But I can’t<br />
help but post about this. I am a student at Highland High School<br />
going into my senior year. Due to the coronavirus our school<br />
did not receive its yearbook until today. Shockingly, one of the<br />
senior quotes was not as funny as the rest…. ‘There are only two<br />
genders and a lot of mental illness.’ This is a clear attack towards<br />
the trans community at Highland.<br />
“As a member of the the LQBTQ+, this was extremely offensive<br />
to me and many of the students at my school,” the post continues.<br />
“I demand action to be taken against the student and the<br />
administrator that made it so hate speech could go into our <strong>2020</strong><br />
yearbook. The quotes were submitted before COVID started and<br />
the yearbook came out late. There is no excuse for this. Please<br />
help me make this public so [the student] can face the consequences<br />
of his actions.”<br />
It is unclear exactly how the controversial quote managed to<br />
make its way into the final yearbook without vetting from student<br />
editors, faculty yearbook advisors, or other administrators.<br />
The district confirmed that the quote was genuine and had been<br />
published in the yearbook in a statement to the Deseret News.<br />
“Unfortunately, one of the senior quotes in the yearbook<br />
included hate speech. Even more unfortunately, this quote was<br />
published in spite of the editing protocol in place for the yearbook,”<br />
the statement reads.<br />
“This yearbook quote is absolutely unacceptable and in no<br />
way reflective of the Salt Lake City School District, the value<br />
we place on every student, and the standards we strive to<br />
uphold,” Interim Superintendent Larry Madden said in his own<br />
statement. “Let me make it clear that the Salt Lake City School<br />
District condemns hate speech in any form.<br />
“To have something like this included in one of our high<br />
school yearbooks is abhorrent. We are committed to providing<br />
a safe and equitable learning environment for all students,<br />
including our LGBTQIA+ community. To our LGBTQIA+ and<br />
other marginalized students I say, please know how deeply your<br />
teachers, school administrators and district leaders care about<br />
you and your well-being,” Madden added.<br />
An investigation is ongoing into how the quote managed to<br />
evade scrutiny. The district will also be working with Highland’s<br />
new principal to review the editing process to ensure a similar<br />
incident doesn’t happen in the future.<br />
“The inclusion of this quote in the yearbook is more than<br />
just an administrative oversight; it is an affront, an attack on our<br />
Highland community and our LGBTQIA+ community in particular,”<br />
Jeremy Chatterton, who started as the new principal in<br />
July, said in a statement.<br />
“As principal, I will not allow hate speech like this in my<br />
school community. While the student in question has graduated,<br />
I want to reassure community members that I will take the steps<br />
necessary to make sure something like this is never allowed to<br />
happen again.”<br />
UNICEF ETHIOPIA-2013-SEWUNET<br />
Criminal Behavior<br />
Laws criminalizing homosexuality increase risk of gay men getting HIV. By Rhuaridh Marr<br />
GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN IN COUNTRIES WITH<br />
harsh laws criminalizing their sexual activity are almost<br />
five times more likely to have HIV than in countries<br />
where homosexuality is legal. That’s according to a new study by<br />
Johns Hopkins University, which examined men who have sex<br />
with men (MSM) in ten sub-Saharan countries, aidsmap reports.<br />
In countries with laws harshly penalizing homosexuality, MSM<br />
are 4.6 times more likely to be living with HIV than those in<br />
countries where same-sex sexual activity is legal, researchers<br />
found. For countries where criminalization exists, but punish-<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
15
homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise<br />
not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda.”<br />
She later canceled a planned meeting with a Politico reporter<br />
and refused to respond to press inquiries about her comments.<br />
Shortly after her appointment to USAID a few months ago, her<br />
previous tweets — which had since been made private — were<br />
once again trumpeted in the media, prompting a coalition of<br />
congressional members to write a letter to John Barsa, the acting<br />
administrator of USAID, to demand Corrigan’s resignation.<br />
In the letter, the members said that Corrigan’s comments on<br />
LGBTQ people and those who support them, as well as additional<br />
comments she made on women in leadership, gender roles,<br />
and immigration were “in direct opposition to the work USAID<br />
supports.” They also said Corrigan “has no place in a federal<br />
agency” and expressed concerns about USAID’s commitment<br />
to fostering a work environment free from discrimination or<br />
harassment.<br />
“The statements made by Ms. Corrigan create a hostile work<br />
environment and are antithetical to the principles the agency,<br />
and indeed America, espouses. To date, there has been no public<br />
retraction of these comments from Ms. Corrigan, or demand by<br />
USAID, or the White House that she retract them, but rather a<br />
statement defending Ms. Corrigan as ‘committed to enacting the<br />
policies of President Donald J. Trump,'” the letter read. “For the<br />
sake of USAID’s employees, the beneficiaries it supports around<br />
the world, and the core values of the agency, we urge you to<br />
immediately condemn this speech, and demand Ms. Corrigan’s<br />
resignation.”<br />
But on Monday, Corrigan appeared unapologetic, promising<br />
to hold a press conference on Thursday to “discuss the rampant<br />
anti-Christian sentiment at USAID” with Jacob Wohl and Jack<br />
Burkman, political operatives who have, in the past, made scandalous,<br />
but unproven, claims about opponents of the Trump<br />
administration, accusing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller<br />
of sexual misconduct, claiming that Kamala Harris is not a<br />
natural-born U.S. citizen, and that Pete Buttigieg had sexually<br />
assaulted a Michigan college student, among others.<br />
In a Twitter thread, Corrigan claimed she “watched with hortheFeed<br />
ments are less severe, MSM are more than twice as likely to be<br />
living with HIV.<br />
Researchers analyzed 8,113 MSM in 10 sub-Saharan countries<br />
with varying degrees of criminalization: Burkina Faso, Côte<br />
d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, and Rwanda, where homosexuality is<br />
legal; Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, and eSwatini, where homosexuality<br />
is punished with less than eight years in prison; and Gambia<br />
and Nigeria, where MSM face more than ten years in prison for<br />
having sex.<br />
In the four countries without criminalization, 8% of the men<br />
were living with HIV. In countries with some criminalization,<br />
that figure rose to 20%. In the two countries with the harshest<br />
punishments for same-sex sexual activity, more than half of the<br />
men sampled (52%), were living with HIV.<br />
Researchers also examined HIV rates relative to whether<br />
countries ban pro-LGBTQ organizations. In countries that<br />
restrict organizations serving MSM, men were more than twice<br />
as likely to be living with HIV.<br />
“Decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual practices<br />
is necessary to optimize HIV prevention efforts and ultimately<br />
address the HIV epidemic,” Carrie Lyons, senior researcher,<br />
concluded.<br />
Matthew Hodson, executive director of NAM aidsmap, told<br />
PinkNews that countries sometimes argue that “[preventing]<br />
the transmission of HIV and other STIs is sometimes used to as<br />
cover to introduce or retain homophobic laws.”<br />
“This report quantifies the increased risk of HIV acquisition<br />
in countries that criminalize homosexuality and demonstrates<br />
the relationship between severe penalties for same-sex sexual<br />
behavior and higher prevalence of HIV,” Hodson said.<br />
He added: “We will not end HIV without ensuring the rights<br />
and dignity of LGBT people are respected.”<br />
Federal Fumble<br />
Trump appointee who called US a ‘homo-empire’ departs USAID. By John Riley<br />
A<br />
TRUMP APPOINTEE WITH A HISTORY OF ANTI-<br />
LGBTQ comments has left her position with the U.S.<br />
Agency for International Development, after members of<br />
Congress demanded her resignation due to her public remarks.<br />
According to NBC News, Merritt Corrigan, the deputy White<br />
House liaison at USAID, was fired on Monday following months<br />
of attacks from LGBTQ advocates and congressional Democrats<br />
who found some of her past tweets and public statements offensive<br />
and contrary to USAID’s mission.<br />
Shortly after, Corrigan unlocked her previously private<br />
Twitter account and issued six tweets, blasting USAID, congressional<br />
Democrats, and the media, and issuing a series of<br />
anti-LGBTQ attacks.<br />
“Let me clear: Gay marriage isn’t marriage. Men aren’t<br />
women. US-funded Tunisian LGBT soap operas aren’t America<br />
First,” Corrigan tweeted.<br />
She also claimed that she is a victim of anti-Christian discrimination<br />
who has been unfairly targeted for holding conservative<br />
beliefs.<br />
It remains unclear whether Corrigan’s termination was<br />
specifically because of her tweets, or whether the tweets were<br />
issued in response to the loss of her position, which could have<br />
been due to other factors.<br />
In 2019, Corrigan, a former employee of the Republican National<br />
Committee, took a new job as a political liaison at the Hungarian<br />
embassy in Washington, D.C. After news of her employment<br />
broke, Politico staffers Daniel Lippman and Lili Bayer reported<br />
on Corrigan’s past tweets, noting that she had routinely praised<br />
Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a vocal<br />
opponent of LGBTQ equality, for his conservative views, calling<br />
him the “shining champion of Western civilization.”<br />
On her Twitter profile, which was made private shortly<br />
after Corrigan’s comments came to light, Corrigan had said that<br />
“Liberal democracy is little more than a front for the war being<br />
waged against us by those who fundamentally despise not only<br />
our way of life, but life itself.”<br />
In another tweet, she criticized the LGBTQ rights movement<br />
for allegedly bullying opponents into submission, writing: “our<br />
16 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
theFeed<br />
TWITTER<br />
ror this week as USAID distributed taxpayer funded documents<br />
claiming ‘we cannot tell someone’s sex or gender by looking at<br />
them’ and that not calling oneself ‘cis-gendered’ (sic) is a microagression.”<br />
She added: “I’m not cis-anything. I’m a woman.”<br />
She accused several Democratic politicians, including House<br />
Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, New Jersey Senators<br />
Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine<br />
of pushing for her ouster and slandering her. She also challenged<br />
Engel to a debate and called Daniel Lippman, the Politico<br />
reporter who first reported on her more controversial tweets, a<br />
“stalker.”<br />
“For too long, I’ve remained silent as the media has attacked<br />
me for my Christian beliefs, which are shared by the majority<br />
of Americans,” she tweeted. “Let me clear: Gay marriage isn’t<br />
marriage. Men aren’t women. US-funded Tunisian LGBT soap<br />
operas aren’t America First.”<br />
“The United States is losing ground in the battle to garner<br />
influence through humanitarian aid because we now refuse to<br />
help countries who don’t celebrate sexual deviancy,” Corrigan<br />
added, referring to LGBTQ rights and efforts to encourage<br />
other countries to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality.<br />
“Meanwhile, Russia and China are happy to step in and eat our<br />
lunch.”<br />
Corrigan<br />
USAID released a statement to NBC News confirming that<br />
Corrigan is no longer employed at the agency.<br />
“USAID takes any claim of discrimination seriously, and<br />
we will investigate any complaints of anti-Christian bias Ms.<br />
Corrigan has raised during her tenure at the Agency,” Pooja<br />
Jhunjhunwala, acting USAID spokesperson, said in a statement.<br />
“USAID does not comment on the specific basis on which<br />
employees leave the Agency. All political appointees serve at the<br />
pleasure of the Administrator.”<br />
The Human Rights Campaign celebrated Corrigan’s departure,<br />
but noted that the Trump administration has many appointees<br />
who have expressed identical sentiments in positions<br />
throughout government.<br />
“Sadly, Merritt Corrigan is not unique in the Trump<br />
Administration. She is the exact type of anti-LGBTQ zealot<br />
that Trump recruits and places in positions of power,” HRC<br />
Government Affairs Director David Stacy said in a statement.<br />
“Corrigan’s biased and harmful beliefs are not shared by the<br />
vast majority of Americans. Corrigan is a symptom of a larger<br />
problem. It’s time to hold the Trump-Pence administration<br />
accountable at the ballot box and elect a leader this November<br />
who supports the fundamental humanity of LGBTQ people and<br />
appoints people who share that basic decency.”<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
17
theFeed<br />
FOX56<br />
A<br />
GROCERY STORE IN PENNSYLVANIA WAS SUBjected<br />
to protests after displaying a sign accusing LGBTQ<br />
people of spreading “deadly diseases and sickness.”<br />
Wenger’s Grocery Outlet, in Mifflinburg, Penn., caused outrage<br />
last month after creating a sign asking customers to be respectful<br />
of those choosing not to wear face masks to help prevent the<br />
spread of COVID-19.<br />
It featured misinformation about the coronavirus, in addition<br />
to anti-LGBTQ language accusing LGBTQ people of living a<br />
sinful lifestyle.<br />
The sign questioned the severity of the coronavirus pandemic,<br />
which has led to more than 114,000 people becoming infected<br />
and more than 7,200 deaths in the state, and suggested that the<br />
virus was a “political agenda.”<br />
It also featured a fake quote from U.S. Rep. Alexandria<br />
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claiming that the New York congresswoman<br />
had urged for businesses to remain closed until after<br />
November to harm Donald Trump’s re-election chances.<br />
But it was a section at the bottom about LGBTQ people that<br />
drew particular ire from locals, the Daily Item reports. It accused<br />
LGBTQ people of living a “lifestyle” of “sin,” and accused them<br />
of spreading “deadly diseases and sickness.”<br />
“There are people who got covid19 and not all the others<br />
living in the same house got it,” the sign said. “This proves that<br />
covid19 IS NOT AS CONTAGIOUS AS THE NEWS MEDIA<br />
AND MANY OTHERS HAVE BLOWN IT UP TO BE. A lot of<br />
these same people support LGBTQ. This lifestyle is sin in God’s<br />
eyes and spreads deadly diseases and sicknesses.”<br />
Selling Hate<br />
Pennsylvania store protested for sign saying LGBTQ people<br />
‘spread deadly diseases.’ By Rhuaridh Marr<br />
After heavy criticism, the sign was removed and employees<br />
in the store began to wear face masks, according to Daily Item.<br />
“I hope they did it for the right reasons,” one resident said.<br />
“I’m glad they took down the horrible sign and I’m hoping they<br />
apologize for the comment about the LGBTQ community.”<br />
Patricia Arduini, president of the Susquehanna Valley Ethical<br />
Society (SVES), told Daily Item that she hoped Mark Wenger,<br />
owner of the grocery store, had removed the sign and implemented<br />
masks after further researching the seriousness of the<br />
COVID-19 pandemic.<br />
“I’m also still not hearing a meaningful acknowledgement or<br />
apology to the LGBTQ community,” Arduini said. “It was a very<br />
divisive statement and not appropriate in uniting a community.”<br />
After the removal of the sign, a Pride rally was held in the<br />
street outside the store. Dozens of activists and allies lined the<br />
town’s main street, wearing coordinated t-shirts in small groups<br />
to form the colors of the Pride flag.<br />
Speaking to FOX56, I Am Alliance founder Victoria Mathews<br />
— who helped organize the rally — said those who attended were<br />
“here to love…not for hate,” and hoped the show of support for<br />
LGBTQ people would “bring unity and a greater understanding.”<br />
“I am a gay man in central PA who grew up here, around<br />
here,” Trevor Leon, who attended the rally, told FOX56. “It’s<br />
hard.”<br />
Leon added: “Some little gay kid growing up here in Central<br />
PA is going to see this and see all the support and hopefully it<br />
helps.”<br />
Counter-protesters in cars featuring Confederate and U.S.<br />
18 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
theFeed<br />
flags circled the location of the rally, revving their engines and<br />
blasting horns.<br />
One van featured a sign saying, “Obey sodom = takeover +<br />
annihilation,” while many of those attending the counter-protest<br />
expressed their support for Donald Trump.<br />
“Doesn’t mean we don’t love them,” Carl Schreck, a counter-protester,<br />
said. “It just means it’s sin. My sin’s no different<br />
than her sin, but God says you should not be a homosexual.”<br />
Wenger has yet to publicly comment on the sign, or the subsequent<br />
criticism of his store.<br />
TONI REED<br />
Executive Action<br />
Canadian mayor offers to help anti-gay resident leave town. By Rhuaridh Marr<br />
A<br />
CANADIAN MAYOR HAS OFFERED TO HELP A<br />
local homophobe find a realtor and move out of town<br />
after backlash over an anti-gay letter. Tyler Gandam,<br />
mayor of Wetaskiwin, Canada, said that he was “happy to help”<br />
the anonymous author of the letter leave the city after they complained<br />
about a pro-LGBTQ yard display last month.<br />
It came after Wetaskiwin resident Jessica Hanks won the<br />
Grand Prize in the city’s Canada Day yard decorating contest,<br />
after winning the most votes from the public.<br />
Hanks, whose 15-year-old daughter is gay, had included a<br />
Pride flag in her display in a show of inclusivity.<br />
She received an anonymous letter after winning the competition,<br />
but rather than a note of congratulations, its author told<br />
Hanks that she was supporting a “‘sick’ portion of society.”<br />
“You apparently have no pride in being a true Canadian in<br />
that I do believe that was a multi-coloured ‘flag’ hanging on your<br />
fence indicating the ‘sick’ portion of society,” the anonymous letter<br />
said. “Junk like the ‘Pride’ followers have no place in society<br />
and certainly not in Wetaskiwin.”<br />
The author also criticized the painting of rainbow crosswalks<br />
in the city in June to celebrate Pride month, writing, “I sincerely<br />
hope and pray you were not one of those who painted the avenue-way<br />
by Norquest college. If you were, SHAME ON YOU!”<br />
Hanks said the attack felt particularly personal as the mother<br />
of an LGBTQ child.<br />
“I started crying,” Hanks told the Pipestone Flyer. “My daughter<br />
was standing beside me as I read it and my daughter is gay.”<br />
Hanks shared the letter on Facebook, saying she was “proud<br />
as hell to support the LGBTQ community. As the mother of a<br />
gay child.”<br />
“She is not sick. She is not disgusting. She is perfect in EVERY<br />
SINGLE WAY,” Hanks wrote, adding that the letter “shook me<br />
20 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
21
theFeed<br />
to my core.”<br />
The post was quickly filled with supportive comments, condemning<br />
the letter and its author and offering encouragement to<br />
Hanks and her daughter.<br />
“It was nice to see Wetaskiwin have my back,” she told the<br />
Pipestone Flyer, adding that she would be retaliating to the letter<br />
with “even more love.”<br />
“When you drive by my house next time the rainbow will be<br />
even bigger,” she said.<br />
The letter also drew the attention of Mayor Gandam, who<br />
took to Facebook to support the city’s LGBTQ community and<br />
offer to help the letter’s author find a realtor and move out of<br />
town.<br />
“If the person who wrote this, sees this post, please know that<br />
I was one of the people who proudly helped paint the Pride crosswalks<br />
on Main Street this year and last year,” Gandam wrote.<br />
“I’m proud of the City I live in and get to be the Mayor for.<br />
I hope that we continue to build inclusivity in our community,”<br />
he continued. “If you’re unhappy with how things are and need<br />
help finding a realtor, please let me know, I’ll be happy to help!”<br />
SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL<br />
Bezos<br />
Bezos Backpedals<br />
Jeff Bezos opens door to allowing donations to<br />
anti-LGBTQ groups through AmazonSmile. By John Riley<br />
AMAZON CEO JEFF BEZOS POTENTIALLY OPENED<br />
the door to allowing customers to donate to anti-LGBTQ<br />
groups during an antitrust hearing on Capitol Hill earlier<br />
this week. Bezos caved under fierce questioning from U.S.<br />
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) about Amazon’s Smile program, which<br />
donates 0.5% of eligible purchases to the charitable organization<br />
of a customer’s choice.<br />
Under the current guidelines, however, some groups are<br />
ineligible to receive donations because they allegedly “engage<br />
in, support, encourage, or promote intolerance, hate, terrorism,<br />
violence, money laundering, or other illegal activities.”<br />
Gaetz asked why certain organizations, such as Catholic<br />
Family News, the Federation for Federal Immigration<br />
Reform, the American Family Association, the Family<br />
Research Council, and Jewish Defense League are not eligible<br />
to receive donations.<br />
Bezos responded that Amazon currently uses information<br />
from the U.S. Foreign Asset Office and the Southern Poverty<br />
Law Center’s list of known “hate groups” to determine whether<br />
an organization is ineligible, according to Business Insider.<br />
“I’m just wondering why you would place your confidence in<br />
a group that seems to be so out of step and seems to take mainstream<br />
Christian doctrine and label it as hate?” Gaetz said of the<br />
SPLC. “…Since they’re calling Catholics and these Jewish groups<br />
hateful groups, why would you trust them?”<br />
Bezos acknowledged that Amazon was using an “imperfect<br />
system,” and was open to suggestions on how to determine eligibility,<br />
to which Gaetz suggested “a divorce from the SPLC.”<br />
Later in the hearing, Bezos was again asked about the SPLC<br />
and implied that Amazon would explore other options when<br />
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AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
23
theFeed<br />
determining appropriate organizations to which customers may<br />
choose to donate.<br />
“While I accept what you’re saying that the SPLC and US<br />
Foreign Asset Office are not perfect, and I would like a better<br />
source if I can get it, that is what we use today,” Bezos said.<br />
If Amazon were to follow Gaetz’s lead and allow the groups<br />
he mentioned to receive donations through the Amazon Smile<br />
program, the company would effectively be funneling money<br />
towards a number of groups that vehemently oppose LGBTQ<br />
rights, including the American Family Association and the<br />
Family Research Council, which was removed from Amazon<br />
Smile’s list of eligible organizations last month.<br />
According to the SPLC, the American Family Association regularly<br />
engages in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric towards any expansion of<br />
LGBTQ rights, based on the belief that homosexuality, same-sex<br />
marriage, and transgenderism are sinful and harmful to society.<br />
AFA’s “One Million Moms” offshoot has become infamous<br />
for calling for boycotts of companies who express support for<br />
LGBTQ rights or representation, with the Hallmark Channel<br />
serving as its most recent target due to the channel’s statements<br />
that it may be considering introducing LGBTQ characters or an<br />
LGBTQ storyline for one of its famed Christmas movies.<br />
The Family Research Council, meanwhile, regularly lobbies<br />
lawmakers to oppose legislation that promotes LGBTQ rights or<br />
same-sex marriage, including nondiscrimination bills, anti-bullying<br />
laws, hate crime laws, and allowing LGBTQ individuals to<br />
serve openly in the U.S. military.<br />
FRC even opposed a Trump administration initiative calling<br />
on countries to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality, even in<br />
places where homosexuality or same-sex activity is punishable<br />
by prison or death.<br />
The group’s president, Tony Pekins, said that pushing countries<br />
to repeal their anti-LGBTQ laws would be a form of “cultural<br />
imperialism.”<br />
FACEBOOK<br />
Dangerous Deportation<br />
al-Bokari<br />
Saudi Arabian court sentences Yemeni blogger to prison and deportation<br />
for supporting LGBTQ rights. By John Riley<br />
A<br />
COURT IN SAUDI ARABIA HAS SENTENCED A<br />
Yemeni national prison and deportation for an online<br />
video expressing support for LGBTQ rights. The New<br />
York-based Human Rights Watch reported that on July 20,<br />
Yemeni blogger Mahomaed al-Bokari was sentenced to 10<br />
months in prison and eventual deportation back to Yemen for<br />
“violating public morality by promoting homosexuality online.”<br />
He has also been charged with “imitating women,” with<br />
prosecutors claiming he had undergone gender confirmation<br />
surgery to become a woman — which al-Bokari has denied. He<br />
will be fined 10,000 Saudi riyals, or the equivalent of $2,700, for<br />
his alleged crimes.<br />
24 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
“These charges show that the court decision is based on<br />
discriminatory accusations against al-Bokari based on his perceived<br />
sexual orientation and gender expression,” Human<br />
Rights Watch said in a news release. Al-Bokari, 29, has 30 days<br />
to appeal the verdict.<br />
Saudi Arabia often brings charges against people who advocate<br />
for LGBTQ rights by using cybercrime laws to prosecute<br />
content that authorities find objectionable. <strong>Sam</strong>e-sex relations<br />
are illegal and punishable by death in the country.<br />
Last year, CNN reported that five men were executed in<br />
Saudi Arabia for allegedly admitting to having se with other men,<br />
but human rights watchers believe they were beaten into giving<br />
false confessions.<br />
Al-Bokari was arrested in April after posting videos to<br />
Snapchat in which he urged others to respect the personal freedom<br />
of gay people, according to Middle East Eye.<br />
“Everyone has their own rights,” he said. “Homosexuals have<br />
their rights. I hope you will leave homosexual people alone and<br />
not intervene in their personal affairs. Everyone is free.”<br />
He previously fled Yemen in June 2019 after being threatened<br />
by local militia groups, and has since been living in Saudi<br />
Arabia as an undocumented migrant. His eventual deportation<br />
back to Yemen is all but certain to endanger his life.<br />
“Saudi Arabia’s public relations campaigns tout the kingdom’s<br />
‘progress,’ but the court’s jail sentence for peaceful<br />
speech and then deportation to Yemen where the defendant’s<br />
life is at risk shows how hollow these claims are,” Rasha<br />
Younes, an LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch,<br />
said in a statement.<br />
“Saudi Arabia should match rhetoric with reality and drop<br />
the case and the deportation against al-Bokari immediately.”<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
25
<strong>Taking</strong> <strong>Aim</strong><br />
Whether it’s her new Netflix special<br />
or writing for SNL, <strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Jay</strong> is building<br />
a comedy career that is as bold<br />
as it is masterful.<br />
Interview by André Hereford<br />
IN HER FIRST NETFLIX ORIGINAL COMEDY SPECIAL,<br />
3 in the Morning, <strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Jay</strong> comes out swinging. <strong>Aim</strong>ing<br />
punchlines at ripe targets from Elon Musk and Donald<br />
Trump to the last man she slept with before coming out as a lesbian<br />
(“I just hope I’m not the reason you’re like this”), she slays<br />
without breaking a sweat. Filmed in Atlanta, where the comic<br />
was born, the hour-long special captures the Boston-raised<br />
<strong>Jay</strong>’s distinct humor and worldview in a tight burst of raw<br />
energy and rapid-fire edits that match her swaggering delivery.<br />
Before filming the special, <strong>Jay</strong>, also an Emmy-nominated<br />
writer on Saturday Night Live, and 3 in the Morning director<br />
Kristian Mercado Figueroa brainstormed its flow over blunts.<br />
“We talked for an hour and a half just about ideas,” she says.<br />
“This is what I wanted and how I wanted it to feel, and what<br />
he was thinking.” She played Mercado her 2018 live stand-up<br />
album, Donna’s Daughter, and showed him some of her appearances<br />
on shows like Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup, and her<br />
half-hour Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special. “We just<br />
vibed,” she recalls.<br />
“I also really liked the way he lit people of color, and I just<br />
thought he knew what to do with melanin,” she says of the<br />
filmmaker, who also directed Hannibal Buress’ latest special,<br />
Miami Nights. “That was exciting to me because I was like, ‘I<br />
want to look good up there. I don't want to be washed out and<br />
shit.’ You know what I'm saying? So then we just kept building<br />
the vision and it came out. I couldn't be happier. I'm so glad that<br />
I went with him.”<br />
The product of a happy collaboration, 3 in the Morning<br />
reflects a solo performer ready to flex her confidence on the<br />
global stage. <strong>Jay</strong> surely earned some of that nerve by struggling<br />
through her 20s, moving between Boston and Atlanta, ultimately<br />
surviving a period during which she felt truly lost. “All<br />
the endeavors that I had been pursuing were falling apart, and<br />
I just really didn't know what I wanted to do,” she says. “I felt<br />
completely unfulfilled and was just moving through life, but not<br />
feeling like I was impacting life or even controlling my own.”<br />
By then, <strong>Jay</strong> had tried her hand at comedy, without finding<br />
her direction. Yet, at her lowest, “the stand-up bug just started<br />
to come again,” she says. “I was being funny in group settings<br />
and I was happiest when I was doing that. And I was just like,<br />
‘Man, you kind of ran away from this thing in a way and it may<br />
be the thing, because you're scared of it, that you need to be<br />
walking head-on towards.’”<br />
So she hit her stand-up head-on, honed her unfiltered comic<br />
voice, and toured and hustled her way onto some major lineups.<br />
“I did Just For Laughs, which is a big comedy festival that happens<br />
in Montreal every year. I was there for New Faces, which<br />
is one of the highest honors of the festival. I had a really good<br />
set and there were some SNL producers in the audience, and<br />
they just reached out to my management, ‘Will she audition in<br />
L.A.?’ Because that's where I lived at the time.”<br />
<strong>Jay</strong>’s L.A. audition went well enough for Saturday Night<br />
Live to fly her to New York to audition in front of the show’s<br />
legendary executive producer Lorne Michaels. “That went<br />
well, and then they just offered me a writing job.” Nearly four<br />
seasons and two Emmy nominations later, <strong>Jay</strong>, the show’s sole<br />
Black lesbian staff writer, has found her direction, writing<br />
installments of recurring parody Black Jeopardy and other viral<br />
sketches, like Cha-Cha Slide, which featured John Mulaney as a<br />
White guy at a Black wedding who’s casually hip to the culture.<br />
“That's one of my favorite sketches,” she says. “It was, for<br />
me, one of the first sketches where I got all my Black love<br />
into it. And I was like, ‘Yay, look at it, look at it happening.<br />
This is cool!’”<br />
26<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
NETFLIX
METRO WEEKLY: You said you talked with 3<br />
in the Morning director Kristian Mercado<br />
about how you wanted the special to feel.<br />
What was that?<br />
SAM JAY: I wanted it to feel intimate and<br />
I wanted it to feel important, without<br />
saying it was important. I wanted you to<br />
know it was a moment, because it was<br />
a moment for me, but I didn't want it to<br />
be like, "Ladies and gentlemen! Coming<br />
to the stage...!” You know what I mean?<br />
Because that's not how my actual life is in<br />
stand-up right now. I'm still meeting audiences,<br />
I'm still building a fan base, I don't<br />
go to any show and they just lose their<br />
fucking minds for me. So I didn't want to<br />
portray that in the special, when it's not<br />
real. But I also was like, this is special. So<br />
how do we do both of those things? And I<br />
feel like we executed it, or at least we did<br />
to a degree that makes me happy.<br />
MW: I didn't really think about that whole<br />
“crowd goes wild,” Robin Williams entering<br />
the Met kind of thing. Do you foresee that<br />
for yourself?<br />
JAY: I don't know if I'll ever be that style<br />
of a person. I don't know. I don't think so.<br />
MW: Now let's take it back. How did you get<br />
started in comedy?<br />
JAY: I tried comedy when I was 20, 21, and<br />
my cousin, she was married to this dude<br />
named Chris, he was a local comedian<br />
and I had always wanted to try comedy. I<br />
remember when I was like 12, he had put<br />
on this show for kids — funny kids — and<br />
he asked my two cousins to do it and he<br />
didn't ask me. I was so hurt. I never said<br />
anything but inside I was like, "I want to<br />
see if I can maybe do that."<br />
MW: Because you thought you were funny?<br />
JAY: I thought I could maybe do it. I've<br />
always been interested, I've always been<br />
a super comedy fan, watched since I<br />
was very young, probably too young to<br />
be watching some of the things I was<br />
watching, but I was just always super into<br />
comedy. Loved the Wayans family, would<br />
watch anything they made, love Eddie<br />
Murphy, would watch anything he made,<br />
then eventually that grew into watching<br />
Comic View, sneaking to watch Def Jam,<br />
trying to retell Def Jam jokes at school,<br />
falling in love with Niecy Nash and just<br />
always following funny people. That went<br />
all the way through high school, and when<br />
I started watching The State and Strangers<br />
with Candy, and all these different sketch shows. I just always<br />
had an affinity for that kind of stuff. Finally, around 20, I was<br />
like, "I want to try this thing." And I tried it. It wasn't good.<br />
MW: Stand-up or sketch?<br />
JAY: Stand-up. I never tried sketch. I was always in a stand-up<br />
space mentally. But I just didn't connect to it. It just didn't feel<br />
like how I thought it was supposed to feel. And then I got sick, I<br />
“My girl is a<br />
little vain. I<br />
wasn't talking<br />
about her at<br />
first and she<br />
was like, ‘You<br />
don't ever talk<br />
about me.’<br />
I just didn’t<br />
have anything<br />
to say. And<br />
then WHEN<br />
I STARTED<br />
HAVING<br />
STUFF TO<br />
SAY, SHE WAS<br />
LIKE, ‘DON'T<br />
BE TALKING<br />
ABOUT ME!’”<br />
was in and out of the hospital for a while,<br />
and then when I finally was healthy, I<br />
moved to Atlanta to go to school around<br />
22, 23. I went down to Atlanta, but did<br />
not really go to school — I just used that<br />
as an excuse to get the hell out of Boston.<br />
Partied a bunch, drank a bunch, and then<br />
started messing around with music and<br />
stuff, and just forgot about it. [I] just<br />
was just doing other things and moving<br />
through life and these other directions.<br />
And then when I hit about 27, 28, I was<br />
just really lost a bit.<br />
I got sick again in Atlanta, it had<br />
come full-circle in a trash-ass way. It was<br />
terrible. I had ended up sleeping on my<br />
friend's floor, and this dude comes in and<br />
he's her roommate and he's like, “<strong>Sam</strong>?”<br />
He knew me because he used to sleep on<br />
my floor. So it was just like, “I got to go.<br />
This is all the way bad.” And I've tapped<br />
this out, my Atlanta run is over.<br />
So I took my ass back home, and when<br />
I got home, everyone's still doing the<br />
same shit. Boston's a small town. My family,<br />
still everybody's working at a hospital<br />
or working on a public bus and all that<br />
kind of shit. And I'm just watching everyone<br />
be in a rut and I'm like, "This can't be<br />
life." And the stand-up thing is still nagging<br />
at me. And I'm like, "You just need to<br />
go ahead and put your head down and try<br />
this shit." So I called up Chris, my cousin's<br />
husband. And I was like, "Hey, man I<br />
want to get back on the [open] mike.” And<br />
he was like, “Oh, you’re serious?" I'm like,<br />
"I'm serious." And he was like, "All right,<br />
well, there's a mike on Sunday." And I<br />
went, I got booed, but there was this kid<br />
there and he told me about all the other<br />
mikes in the city and I just kept going.<br />
MW: That night were they booing your<br />
jokes?<br />
JAY: They just didn't want comedy. It was<br />
at this VFW type situation that they had a<br />
party, and then they were doing comedy<br />
after the party, but the people who were<br />
at the party hadn't cleared out and they<br />
wanted to watch basketball and [organizers]<br />
were like, "No, we’re going to start<br />
this comedy show." And seriously, as<br />
soon as I said a word, this dude from the<br />
back was like, “Boo, shut the fuck up!”<br />
So I didn't even get to do it for real. But<br />
it was also like, I felt like that was God<br />
being like, "Bitch, this is what it’s going<br />
to be. Either you going to keep pushing with this shit or you're<br />
going to let this stuff knock you off your square. We going to<br />
check you right here, right now." And so, I felt like it was a test.<br />
I just kept getting up and, really, three minutes turned into five<br />
minutes, turned into 10, turned into 15.<br />
MW: I mean, would you have wanted to start out with killing from<br />
the very first set?<br />
28<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
JAY: I don't think so. You want to get in the trenches with it and<br />
build it, for sure.<br />
MW: Now, shooting this special in Atlanta, why there?<br />
JAY: I just have a connection to the city. I lived there for eight<br />
years. I was born there, but I moved when I was a baby, very<br />
young, so I don't remember it. So I'm Boston raised, basically,<br />
but I was born there and I have family there. And that's where<br />
I found myself, that's where I came out,<br />
that's where I met my girlfriend, it's where<br />
I met my first group of queer gay friends.<br />
You know what I mean? Really just when<br />
I feel like I came to be who I am.<br />
MW: How are gay and lesbian comics<br />
received there, and in terms of booking,<br />
throughout the south?<br />
JAY: I don't feel like I've had issues. I've<br />
done shows in Asheville, North Carolina<br />
and at the Dead Crow, which is near<br />
Wilmington. I've done Florida.... So I don’t<br />
think I’ve had issues. But sometimes you<br />
get to those rooms and yeah, you'll get a<br />
bunch of white people, for lack of a better<br />
word, that just ain't gonna go with the shit.<br />
And they might walk out in the middle of<br />
a Trump joke, because they don't want to<br />
hear what you got to say. I think they sit<br />
down ready to not want to hear what you<br />
got to say because of what you look like.<br />
They’re already like, "We're not going<br />
to like this." You know what I'm saying?<br />
Sometimes you get that, and it just is what<br />
it is.<br />
MW: Since you brought up Trump. In 3 in<br />
The Morning you make a case that Trump<br />
is “the first nigga in the White House.” I<br />
think I caught your meaning. Although I<br />
can see how it could be misconstrued. Do<br />
you ever worry, with that joke or any joke,<br />
about the humor being taken the wrong<br />
way?<br />
JAY: Well, I'm curious what part of it do<br />
you think could be misconstrued?<br />
MW: You seem to make a dichotomy<br />
between what a president would do and<br />
what a “nigga” would do. That’s what you<br />
set up, and I guess some people could construe<br />
what a “nigga” would do as not necessarily<br />
somebody who is...<br />
JAY: Black?<br />
MW: Black. I guess the thing is you're not<br />
using that word just to mean Black, and<br />
a lot of people could think you are, and it<br />
could go down a whole other rabbit hole.<br />
JAY: I just feel like if you listen, then you<br />
know that's not the case. And if you want<br />
to be triggered, then you're going to be<br />
triggered. But then you want to be triggered,<br />
and I can't do nothing about the<br />
people that want to be triggered.<br />
MW: But it feels like a lot of people want to<br />
be triggered these days.<br />
JAY: Yeah, they do. But that has nothing to<br />
do with me. I think if you listen for what<br />
“You'll get a<br />
bunch of white<br />
people...and<br />
they might<br />
walk out in<br />
the middle of<br />
a Trump joke,<br />
because they<br />
don't want to<br />
hear what you<br />
got to say. And<br />
I think THEY<br />
SIT DOWN<br />
READY TO<br />
NOT WANT TO<br />
HEAR WHAT<br />
YOU GOT TO<br />
SAY BECAUSE<br />
OF WHAT YOU<br />
LOOK LIKE.”<br />
it is, you get the joke in it. I tell it that way specifically, because<br />
the white people will hear it, and I definitely want the ones that<br />
support Trump to face a reality of what they're supporting and<br />
stop pretending that it's something else that it isn't. And so it's<br />
also that level of, let's take the veil off of this and stop playing<br />
these games. You all being nigga’d. That's what's going on. He's<br />
nigging in there and just doing whatever the hell he wants to do<br />
and let's not pretend it's something else.<br />
MW: It's a strong opinion.<br />
JAY: You’re making me nervous. I felt<br />
good about the joke, now you making me<br />
nervous.<br />
MW: Oh, no. No. I want strong opinions in<br />
my comedy. Another strong opinion, and<br />
something that I support in general, you<br />
make a statement that trans women are<br />
real women. And I'm wondering if you've<br />
had any trans women or men in your audience<br />
who have reacted or responded to any<br />
of your trans humor.<br />
JAY: I've definitely had trans women and<br />
men in the audience. And they've never<br />
specifically come up to me and been like<br />
this or that about the joke as much they'd<br />
just be like, "That's funny. And I appreciate<br />
the angle you're coming at." But it also<br />
lives in that same space as the Trump<br />
joke, right? Where you can listen for one<br />
thing and then you can run with that, and<br />
you can take it and go left, and say that<br />
I'm being anti-trans if you want to, if you<br />
want to be triggered. Or you can listen to<br />
the joke, and hear all the different levels<br />
and things that I'm playing on and trying<br />
to speak about, and see that I'm genuinely<br />
trying to push the dialogue and open<br />
the conversation up.<br />
But I can't write thinking about the<br />
triggered people, because then I'll be<br />
writing in a box, you know what I'm saying?<br />
Because I am queer, I'm gay. I definitely<br />
don't want to be saying anything<br />
that's anti-my community. So I do think<br />
about things like that. Even when I wanted<br />
to do the trans joke it was like, I had to<br />
think about, “What are you saying? What<br />
are you trying to say? Why do you want<br />
to say this? Why do you think it needs to<br />
be said?” And I do those types of checks<br />
in my head before I move forward with<br />
any joke: Me Too, trans, Trump. It's like,<br />
"Why are you saying this? Why do you<br />
want to say it? Why do you feel like you<br />
need to say it? Okay. All your chakras are<br />
aligned and in a good place, go forward."<br />
MW: Sticking with people not necessarily<br />
being triggered, how has your wife<br />
responded to seeing herself and your life<br />
presented in your stand-up? Or is that<br />
something that you prepare somebody for<br />
when you start dating?<br />
JAY: I mean, so this is a real funny question<br />
because my girl is a little vain. So I<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
29
NETFLIX<br />
“I do checks in my head before I move forward<br />
with any joke: Me Too, trans, Trump. It's like,<br />
‘Why are you saying this? Why do you want to<br />
say it? Why do you feel like you need to say it?<br />
Okay. ALL YOUR CHAKRAS ARE ALIGNED AND<br />
IN A GOOD PLACE, GO FORWARD.’”<br />
wasn't talking about her at first and she<br />
was like, "You don't ever talk about me."<br />
And I was like, I don't know, I just didn’t<br />
have anything to say. And then when I<br />
started having stuff to say, it was like,<br />
"Don't be talking about me!" But in the<br />
realness of it, I run everything by her.<br />
She's such a big supporter. I don't know<br />
if I would even be here without my girl in<br />
my corner. She literally goes on the road<br />
with me and I hate going on the road,<br />
especially I hate going alone, and going<br />
with her always just enriches the experience.<br />
Even all those jokes I got out of<br />
Europe, I have to attribute that to my girl.<br />
If I would've went on that European tour<br />
alone, I wouldn't have much of nothing<br />
to say about the trip.<br />
So in that regard, I run everything<br />
by her. Like, "Babe, I'm thinking about<br />
doing this or talking about this thing,<br />
and are you cool with that?" Or, "Are you<br />
uncomfortable?" if I do just get on stage<br />
and happen to riff something, and it just<br />
comes out — when I get off, I'm like,<br />
"Was that too much? Do you not want me<br />
to say this part?" Or, "Are you cool with<br />
all of it?" Because I do respect her, and<br />
I don't want to be out there disrespecting<br />
her. Even though people are going<br />
to watch it and be like, "Oh shit, she be<br />
talking crazy about her girl." I want home<br />
to be good. I want us to be like, we good<br />
and we know what we on.<br />
MW: I've never dated a comic, so it’s never<br />
come up, but I feel like if it takes a lot of<br />
nerve to be a comic, it must take a lot of<br />
nerve to be with on. Is that the case?<br />
JAY: Yeah, my girl, she's no pushover. If<br />
she don't want something, it's not going<br />
to happen. I always tell people, "I'm really<br />
the bullied one." If only people knew.<br />
A lot of this stuff I have to run by her<br />
because I'm just afraid of her. And I'm<br />
like, I don't want to deal with no static<br />
later on.<br />
MW: So I want to talk about SNL, because<br />
I am a lifelong fan of that show. Was it<br />
a show that meant something to you as<br />
a kid?<br />
JAY: Well, yeah. I definitely watched it. I<br />
was younger and I feel like the show is one<br />
of those shows where it comes in phases.<br />
So I remember being like nine, 10, and my<br />
parents would watch it. And so by default,<br />
I knew about it and knew the players and<br />
stuff. And then I used to watch Eddie<br />
Murphy's Best of SNL tape that my mom<br />
had all the time. So I was aware of the<br />
world and what the world was.<br />
Then, when I was in my early teens,<br />
it was all Molly Shannon, and I loved all<br />
that. And I would go to every SNL movie.<br />
30<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Night at the Roxbury. Superstar. I would go see all that stuff and<br />
I knew all the characters. And then you had the Maya Rudolph<br />
years, with Gemini's Twin. So it's just like different points in the<br />
show, that I just had these different things that I fell in love with.<br />
So I was aware of it, but I never thought of myself in that space.<br />
As I was doing stand-up and, as you see how my special is, I'm<br />
like, "I don't live in NBC world." I'm over here doing some whole<br />
other shit. So I never even saw myself in that space.<br />
MW: Well, do you have a favorite Black Jeopardy sketch?<br />
JAY: I like the Tom Hanks one.<br />
MW: Honestly, I think they're all good. I liked the Chadwick<br />
Boseman one.<br />
JAY: I wrote on the Chadwick one. So it's by default that's my<br />
favorite, but that's not fair, I feel. If I take myself out of it, the<br />
Tom Hanks one.<br />
MW: What is the process of getting something from the kernel of an<br />
idea or a joke to script, then to something that's getting rehearsed<br />
and on air?<br />
JAY: I mean, the process is brutal and really not up to me. All I<br />
do is, I write it, then it goes to the table. And maybe it'll go, and<br />
maybe it won’t. And even through that process, even if you can<br />
get past that and you're like, "All right, we're going to make the<br />
sketch,” you still have to make it from dress [rehearsal] to air, so<br />
you can get chopped somewhere between there. And then sometimes,<br />
if the air's running over or it's crazy, and there's no time,<br />
because it's live, you might be bottom of the show, you might get<br />
chopped. So you never really feel safe, or feel things are going to<br />
go till it goes and you see it, and you're like, "It happened, cool."<br />
MW: Are writers at the table for those first reads?<br />
JAY: Yeah, everybody is.<br />
MW: I just have to ask, did you have anything to do with Cha Cha<br />
Slide? Because that's like —<br />
JAY: I sure did, boo.<br />
MW: I wouldn’t say somebody could be triggered by that because<br />
it's so good-natured, but I could see how, again, people could miss<br />
the meaning despite the fact that there's so much love in that<br />
sketch.<br />
JAY: That's just my comedic voice, I guess. It's just like, you<br />
could catch it or you could take it another route if you want to<br />
take it another route.<br />
MW: I wonder this every summer, when the show is on hiatus, is there<br />
stuff happening right now in the world that you might be dying to<br />
write about? Jokes that you would want to make because there's all<br />
kinds of shit going on. How are you getting your comedy out?<br />
JAY: Well, I've just been doing a lot of writing. I have some projects<br />
that I've been working on, so I've just been trying to throw<br />
Click Here to<br />
Watch the Trailer<br />
for <strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Jay</strong>’s<br />
Special<br />
my energy into the things I can do. You know<br />
what I mean? I can write these shorts and I<br />
can play around in this world through writing<br />
and having Zoom sessions with my homies<br />
and jamming on stuff in that kind of way. And<br />
then there's been a few little popup shows that<br />
are outside of New York that I've been able to<br />
bop to, here and there, just to take the edge off. And at least, if I<br />
really got fucking pressed and I'm like, "I need to talk about this,”<br />
there’s somewhere to kind of do it now, but it is tough, because<br />
it's not every night, it's not how it used to be.<br />
That's what makes New York magical for comics. It's like,<br />
you can get up every night, do three, four shows every night and<br />
really build something. Honestly, if the world wasn't shut down,<br />
I'd probably be 20 minutes into another hour by this point.<br />
MW: How did you build the hour for 3 In The Morning? Was that<br />
over the course of a bunch of road dates, or did you just hole yourself<br />
up writing?<br />
JAY: It was a little bit of both. When I first got the news that I<br />
was going to do it, it was just getting up a lot in New York. It was<br />
just really pounding the material out in New York and getting it<br />
to a place where I was feeling good about it, because I feel like<br />
New York's the best place to do stand-up. I think the audiences<br />
are just savvy, they know comedy, they love comedy. New York<br />
you can really fuck with them, that's how a lot of these bits got<br />
made, because I was doing this shit in New York and they're<br />
a place that'll let you fuck around and say some crazy shit and<br />
push them and really figure out the nuance of it.<br />
Then I was like, "Okay, once I get it there, now let me take it<br />
on the road and figure out how to make this palatable to more<br />
than grimy New Yorkers." And just grow it out like that. That's<br />
why it was so important for me to go to Europe, because I just<br />
wanted to also have gotten that more global and international<br />
test to know, “All right, I'm not just talking out my ass.” And that<br />
gave me the confidence to say the stuff I said, because I took it<br />
all around.<br />
MW: What is next now that 3 In The Morning is out of the bag?<br />
JAY: I mean, I got some projects in development, some things<br />
that I'm working on that I'm excited about that I can't talk about,<br />
but hopefully they all work out. I'm going to keep writing, doing<br />
stand-up and just let that take me wherever it takes me. And I'm<br />
also just chilling and going to let it just wash over me and think<br />
about what I want to do next, to be honest, and just assess where<br />
I am after all of this and then see where my voice is bringing me.<br />
MW: Are you going to do SNL this season?<br />
JAY: I am, because there is no touring and I need a job.<br />
MW: When reading up on you, other names come up like SNL cast<br />
members Danitra Vance and Ellen Cleghorne, Maya Rudolph,<br />
Leslie Jones. What is it like to be part of that legacy of Black<br />
women at SNL when, frankly, not that many Black women have<br />
walked through that door and created a sustained impact?<br />
JAY: I mean, it's huge. And I think also it's a big deal because,<br />
like you said, it's not a lot of Black women that walk through that<br />
door. And I think the more that do, the more that will, and the<br />
more that will even attempt to. I feel like they can. I definitely<br />
know I was one, I didn't even think that was a door that could<br />
open for me until it opened. And so I definitely feel like just<br />
being in those spaces and also creating in your true voice and<br />
your authenticity, and not letting that be decided by the space,<br />
but you bringing something to the space, only helps up the visibility<br />
for people that look like us.<br />
MW: Speaking of, how are you keeping your fade together?<br />
JAY: You know what? I was really messed up for a while, because<br />
I was taking [lockdown] seriously, so I was<br />
not getting a haircut. I was like, nope, nope,<br />
nope. So I was really Sherman Klump-ing out<br />
here. Shit was looking super crazy. But then I<br />
had to do something for TV, and I was like, "I<br />
cannot." So my barber's been coming over, and<br />
he'll be like full hazmat. But I'm doing the DJ<br />
Khaled thing.<br />
MW: I was going to say, because your special starts out with you<br />
getting your hair cut, that a barber’s a good person to have out on<br />
the road with you when the time comes.<br />
JAY: Yeah. I feel like that's when I’ll know I’ve made it, when<br />
I'm like Diddy and the barber’s just with me everywhere. That’s<br />
when I’ve arrived.<br />
<strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Jay</strong>: 3 in the Morning is currently available for streaming on<br />
Netflix. Visit www.netflix.com.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
31
Gallery<br />
Outrage I - Will we have to march again? by Andrea Rowe Kraus<br />
Art & Activism<br />
IN <strong>2020</strong>, WE CAN NO LONGER STAY SILENT ON THE<br />
issues that matter.” And with that as an opening statement,<br />
Dupont Circle’s Studio Gallery is off and running with<br />
the artist cooperative’s latest all-members exhibition. Art &<br />
Activism showcases artworks that have been inspired by one<br />
or more of the social movements of our time: from Black Lives<br />
Matter to immigration reform, women’s rights to LGBTQ<br />
equality, climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.<br />
Available for viewing either as a traditional exhibition<br />
in the reopened gallery space or as a virtual display, Art &<br />
Activism features works by member artists, among them<br />
Gordon Binder, Gary Anthes, Kimberley Bursic, William<br />
Bowser, Deborah Addison Coburn, Suzanne Goldberg, Lois<br />
Kampinsky, Thierry Guillemin, Yuno Baswir, and Lisa Allen.<br />
Some participants have also elected to donate a percentage of<br />
their sales to a charity of their choosing.<br />
On display to Aug. 22. Studio Gallery is open by appointment<br />
on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and to the general<br />
public on Fridays and Saturdays from 1 to 6 p.m., with a maximum<br />
of five guests in the space at any one time. Face masks<br />
required. The gallery is at 2108 R St. NW. Call 202-232-8734<br />
or visit studiogallerydc.com.<br />
32 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Day 2 by Sally Kauffman<br />
Honor Guard (First Time Ever, Pride Parade)<br />
by Gordon Binder<br />
Scale Model for Border Protection Facility, Trump Era, 2019 by William Bowser<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
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34 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
Television<br />
NETFLIX<br />
Streaming<br />
Through Time<br />
Umbrella Academy and Dark use time as a narrative device,<br />
while Mrs. America returns us to a critical time<br />
in our history. By Randy Shulman<br />
WITH THEATRICAL RELEASES HAVING COME TO A SUDDEN,<br />
screeching halt, our collective eyes have turned to our TVs and devices,<br />
where streaming services now reign supreme. There is so much exceptional<br />
content out there — both new and classic — that it’s helping make quarantine a bit<br />
more bearable. With that in mind, here are three binge-worthy shows that you should<br />
immediately put at the top of your must-watch list.<br />
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY. The Netflix series bears only a modest resemblance to the<br />
comic book series written by Gerard Way and lavishly illustrated by Gabriel Bá. The<br />
toning-down of the book’s extravagant violence is for the better, though the storyline<br />
remains as offbeat and wild. The adventures of a profoundly dysfunctional family<br />
of adopted siblings, each with his or her own special superpower,<br />
retains all of its bizarreness, and season two, which dropped<br />
last weekend, is as good as, if not better than, the first. Both deal<br />
with the siblings attempting to halt a predetermined apocalyptic<br />
event, and both delve into some fairly resonant emotional terrain.<br />
Season two, which takes place in Dallas leading up to Kennedy’s<br />
assassination, elevates the show’s LGBTQ quotient in a beautifully organic way. The<br />
cast is fantastic, with standouts including a quietly simmering Ellen Page, Kate Walsh<br />
(doing her very best Wendie Malick), David Castañeda as the brash, impetuous Diego,<br />
a scene-stealing Robert Sheehan as the flamboyant clairvoyant of the clan, and the<br />
remarkable Aidan Gallagher, whose portrayal of the time-traveling Five, a fifty-something<br />
assassin trapped in the body of a 14-year-old, brings essential gravity and urgency<br />
to both seasons. Bonus: Mary J. Blige shines in season one as a brutal assassin from the<br />
future. I heard a rumor you’ll drop everything and watch it now on Netflix. (HHHHH)<br />
MRS. AMERICA. This FX on Hulu miniseries does a little time-hopping itself, back<br />
to the ’70s and the incipient struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment, notably the<br />
war of words (and baked goods) between conservative nightmare Phyllis Schlafly<br />
and her minions and the queens of women’s rights Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug,<br />
and Shirley Chisholm, who slowly, tortuously attempt to get the ERA ratified. It’s<br />
Click Here to<br />
Watch the Trailer for<br />
“Umbrella Academy”<br />
Umbrella Academy<br />
a stunningly well-written and produced<br />
series, and features perhaps the most clever<br />
opening credits sequences you’ll ever<br />
see. Cate Blanchett makes a steely yet surprisingly<br />
vulnerable Schlafly without ever<br />
attempting to make her sympathetic. She’s<br />
essentially a demon in apron strings. The<br />
ensemble is sensational — there’s not a bad<br />
performance, from Rose Byrne as Steinem<br />
and Margo Martindale as Abzug to Uzo<br />
Aduba as Chisholm and Sarah Paulson,<br />
as an amalgam of several conservative<br />
women who, as the series progresses,<br />
evolves ideologically. It’s Tracey Ullman,<br />
however, who walks away with the series<br />
as a brash, perpetually inflamed Betty<br />
Frieden. It’s a masterful performance in a<br />
series filled with them. Exclusively on FX<br />
on Hulu. (HHHHH)<br />
DARK. If you’re looking for the granddaddy<br />
of mind-bending time-travel shows, this<br />
German Netflix-produced series, which<br />
recently concluded a satisfying three-season<br />
run, can’t be beat. It’s a mind-scrambler<br />
of a show that gets<br />
more and more addictive<br />
as it moves forward<br />
(and backward and<br />
sideways). A mix of science<br />
fiction and dense,<br />
brooding drama, Dark keeps pushing its<br />
own envelope on what a series is capable<br />
of. For example, by the time you get to the<br />
middle of season three, you are witness to<br />
a murder that is at its very core impossible.<br />
And yet, there it is. It leaves you gobsmacked.<br />
Dark is one of those meticulously<br />
considered shows that you can either<br />
obsess over or go with the flow and enjoy<br />
the ride. Either way, by the time you get to<br />
the series finale, the landing is so perfect,<br />
so beautiful, so emotionally resonant, that<br />
you’re instantly ready to return to season<br />
one, and give it another go. (HHHHH)<br />
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Music<br />
PARKWOOD ENTERTAINMENT<br />
Royal Treatment<br />
Beyoncé’s visual album, Black is King, is a majestic love letter<br />
to Black communities past and present. By Sean Maunier<br />
A<br />
FEW YEARS AGO IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN FAIR TO CALL BEYONCÉ THE<br />
queen of pop, but with her unmatched ability to push boundaries and set the<br />
tone of conversations, she likely deserves a bigger crown than that. Even so, her<br />
latest project is an ambitious one, even for her. She noted on her Instagram that the<br />
making of Black is King (HHHHH) was a “labor of love,” an undertaking that aimed to<br />
do no less than tell the story of millennia of Black history and to discover “what it truly<br />
means to find your self-identity and build a legacy.” More than a year in the making and<br />
filmed on three continents, it is a massive, sprawling effort, one that Beyoncé and her<br />
long list of collaborators have clearly poured their hearts and souls into.<br />
Beyoncé is of course all but synonymous with the visual album, having established<br />
herself as a master of the genre with Lemonade. Each scene is markedly distinct from<br />
the one preceding it, both visually and in tone, but together they<br />
tell a cohesive story of a young African king cast out from his family<br />
who must find his way back, guided by his childhood love and his<br />
ancestors. Conceived as a companion piece to The Lion King: The<br />
Gift, it reimagines and reinterprets the story for a <strong>2020</strong> audience. The<br />
project incorporates audio from the live-action remake of The Lion King, as in the first<br />
interlude, when a voiceover of James Earl Jones as Mufasa plays over images of African<br />
families as well as celestial bodies.<br />
Black is King is awash with immediately recognizable symbolism. Beyoncé and her<br />
co-director Kwasi Fordjour incorporate pan-African as well as biblical and Christian<br />
imagery, with Beyoncé herself cast as guide, narrator, and both literal and figurative<br />
Click Here to<br />
Watch the Trailer<br />
Black is King is available to stream exclusively on Disney+.<br />
mother. She may be at the center of the<br />
story, larger than life as she so often is, but<br />
this time she is more its storyteller than its<br />
subject. As she puts it in the opening track,<br />
“I’ll be the roots, you be the tree.” The<br />
project acts as a corrective to the sweeping<br />
narratives of human history and culture<br />
that have been handed down to us and<br />
have all too often actively marginalized,<br />
forgotten and scrubbed out the stories<br />
and contributions of Black individuals and<br />
communities. Images from classical western<br />
art are reimagined accordingly, with<br />
Beyoncé appearing in the likeness of the<br />
Madonna and child.<br />
As much as she deserves praise as the<br />
driving force behind it, Black is King is<br />
bigger than Beyoncé, a fact which is not<br />
lost on her. Driving the point home, the<br />
film ends with a dedication to her son<br />
Sir, right before the credits<br />
play over an extended<br />
version of “Black Parade,”<br />
the song she released a few<br />
weeks ago to coincide with<br />
Juneteenth. Setting the already powerfully<br />
resonant songs over the gorgeous, inspired<br />
visuals elevates them and their storytelling<br />
power, elements that weave together<br />
beautifully to tell a complex, timely and<br />
necessary story.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
37
RetroScene<br />
Remingtons, Feb. 15, 1997 - Photography by Randy Shulman<br />
To see more photos from this event online, click on the photos below.<br />
38 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
RetroScene<br />
Liquid Ladies at Phase One, Oct. 15, 2002 - Photography by Michael Wichita<br />
To see more photos from this event online, click on the photos below.<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
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40 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM
LastWord.<br />
People say the queerest things<br />
Do you know what WE are sick and tired of?<br />
“<br />
our racist, homophobic, tyrannical, golfing<br />
idiot of a president.”<br />
—CLAUDIA CONWAY, daughter of presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway, in a tweet responding to President Donald Trump<br />
complaining about people being “sick and tired” of apparent congressional inaction with regards to “Big Tech.”<br />
We are thrilled to continue our legacy of<br />
“<br />
creating a holiday destination that is welcoming to all<br />
at Lifetime. ”<br />
—Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network programming Executive Vice President AMY WINTER, in a statement announcing that the channel<br />
is producing its first-ever holiday movie featuring LGBTQ leads, The Christmas Set-Up.<br />
Our treaties ensure that<br />
“<br />
every person in Europe is free to be who they are,<br />
live where they like, love who they want<br />
and aim as high as they want. I will continue to push for a #UnionOfEquality. ”<br />
—E.U. Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN, in a tweet supporting the Commission’s decision to cut funding and other opportunities<br />
to six cities in Poland that have declared themselves to be “LGBT-free” zones, as part of increasing intolerance towards<br />
LGBTQ people in the Eastern European nation.<br />
I might be the first person they’ve ever seen who stands up and just says, like<br />
“<br />
it’s a normal thing that you should not be ashamed of,<br />
that I’m transgender. ”<br />
—OWEN BONDONO, Michigan’s recently crowned Teacher of the Year, speaking to NPR-affiliate Michigan Radio about the importance<br />
of being an out, visible trans person in school. Bondono, a ninth-grade English teacher,<br />
is the first known trans winner of the award.<br />
Took me a while, but<br />
“<br />
I am proud to be gay.”<br />
—Swedish singer-songwriter DARIN, in an Instagram post coming out as gay. One of the Scandinavian country’s best-selling artists<br />
with seven number one albums, the 33-year-old wrote, “Everyone in the world should be able to be proud and accepted for who they are.<br />
I know how difficult it can be.”<br />
AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM<br />
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42 AUGUST 6, <strong>2020</strong> • METROWEEKLY.COM