Opinionat Metro Weekly magazine - News articles from Washington DC newspaper

Launching Pride

The kick-off to the pride season, DC Black Pride weekend is a community celebration we all should join

Published on May 24, 2012, 3:35am

Back in the younger years of DC's Black Pride celebration, I was coordinating HIV-prevention outreach efforts with one of my black co-workers at Whitman-Walker Clinic. ''Okay, so you're handling Black Pride and I'll focus on regular Pride,'' I said. A long beat. ''Um, that didn't sound right, did it?'' Obviously, I was a big fan of ''Capital Pride'' when it debuted as the official name of the traditional June pride event. Over the years, DC Black Pride for me has ...[more]

NAACP Gets to Yes

An ally's announcement is ample reason for celebration

Published on May 24, 2012, 3:32am

A group calling itself the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hardly sounds cutting edge. Yet 62 of 64 board members for the nation's oldest civil rights organization voted on May 19 to support civil marriage equality. NAACP's historic announcement emphasized the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. By coincidence, several black high school students in D.C. last week cited the same constitutional provision in support of marriage equality during their senior thesis presentations, on which I ...[more]

The Rot on the Right

Virginia's morally repugnant repudiation of a gay judicial nominee is the latest evidence that no Republican deserves gay support

Published on May 16, 2012, 1:54pm

When Tracy Thorne, a Navy fighter pilot, came out of the closet on live television to Nightline's Ted Koppel in 1992, it was a defining moment in the fight for open military service and one of the transformative moments in my then-young activism. In the still-heady days after Bill Clinton's defeat of George Bush, it was a moment that felt like a tipping point, proof that the change we saw coming was around the corner. How could it not be, ...[more]

Scenes from North Carolina

Despite the outburst of bigotry, it's difficult to reflexively hate the Southern state that just took a big step backward

Published on May 10, 2012, 5:54am

''Watch out for copperheads.'' That seems to be my earliest memory of North Carolina, a casual warning that I don't recall the context for but that filled my 8-year-old mind with the fear of rampant poisonous snakes ready to slither up my little legs. It was a family trip to visit my great aunt and uncle, Jean and Joe. My memories, some three decades later, are admittedly a little hazy, but some things still stick out. In particular, Uncle Joe ...[more]

Servants of Misrule

Taking issue with Richard Grenell's mea culpa and grand old gaiety

Published on May 10, 2012, 5:54am

People in scorned social positions can sometimes transcend their subservient roles by their wit. This is no substitute for a liberation movement, but it can offer a ray of hope during dark times. ''Golden Age'' film actors Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton played comic supporting roles drenched in gay stereotypes, six decades before Sean Hayes on Will & Grace. Their confident performances, however, served as tacit rebukes not only to the equally foolish leading characters, but to film censors. ...[more]

Generation Now

Celebrating an anniversary for Metro Weekly is made sweeter by also celebrating the accomplishments of our next generation of leaders

Published on May 3, 2012, 1:25am

Eighteen years old may seem young for a human being, but it seems pretty old for a magazine. This issue of Metro Weekly is the one where we flip the calendar and celebrate our 18th anniversary of publishing every Thursday in D.C. Were the magazine a flesh-and-blood being, it would be registering to vote and getting into R-rated movies without our parental guidance. Although, given my role in the magazine's DNA, you can be sure it would have been watching ...[more]

Backward Glances

Seeing gay politics through the prism of the 1990s continues to promote an overly cautious approach to LGBT issues

Published on April 26, 2012, 7:40am

Some large portion of the collective Democratic mind will always see the world as if it's still 1993. That's when the backlash against President Bill Clinton's promise to end military discrimination against gay and lesbian soldiers opened up a media circus and political feeding frenzy, with such memorable moments as U.S. senators touring a submarine to show how tight the bunks and shower facilities could be. That experience of the creation of ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' has colored every political ...[more]

Sister Courage

Regardless of faith, advocates of social justice have reason to applaud LCWR

Published on April 26, 2012, 7:38am

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) used to be called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. That came to mind last week when the CDF cracked down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) for tolerating ''radical feminist themes'' and focusing too much on social justice instead of opposing abortion and gay marriage. I called my favorite nun, Sister Katherine M. Donnelly, to express my solidarity. She is one of my ...[more]

Stick in the Eye

LGBT people understand political pragmatism, but not why Obama has dumped us on employment discrimination

Published on April 19, 2012, 8:47am

Whether or not we are hard-core political junkies, most of us in the LGBT community share some common understandings about politics as it relates to our lives. We know that the stances and actions of the politicians who support us are still influenced by overall political strategies that are designed to win votes and elections within the broader, so-called ''mainstream'' community. This is why, while we mock President Obama's stance that his position on marriage is ''evolving,'' we do it ...[more]

Marriage Matters

Celebrating gay weddings can teach us important things about our own lives

Published on April 19, 2012, 8:42am

Internalized homophobia is commonplace. You could say it's the result of powerful marketing – repeated catch phrases, sermons and punditry reinforcing a notion that gay people are somehow lesser than straight people. A lie gets repeated enough, it becomes an accepted truth. And even those hurt by a particular lie may believe a little bit of it, as it weasels its way into their psyches. Voilà, internalized homophobia. It might lower a person's self-esteem or leave her otherwise doubting her ...[more]

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