Kev Maxen, Jaguars strength ach, out as gay a first for U.S.-based pro leagu - Washgton Tim

Contents:

• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS
• THE GAYT PLACE AMERI?
• WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
• WASHGTON DC GAY SNAS
• GAY SCENE DOWNTOWN DC - WASHGTON DC FOM
• 12 ACTORS WHO HAVE A TOUGH TIME PLAYG GAY ROL (AND 3 OKAY WH IT)
• TAA, WASHGTON GAY CY GUI

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS

Tom HollandFans of Brish actor Tom Holland have e to his fense after some social media ers were seemgly upset that the latt episo of his Apple TV+ seri The Crowd Room featured gay the scene, Holland’s character go to a club wh heavy black eyeler and all black. ”A lot of other ers, however, seemed very nfed over the backlash, pecially sce Spir-Man actors Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield have also played gay person wrote, “Watchg agile cishet men have breakdowns over the reason Tom Holland is trendg is sweet we to me.

THE GAYT PLACE AMERI?

”“The fact that a sgle scene on an Apple Pl show featurg Tom Holland has brought out so much homophobia om the stupist people is... The natn's pal is home to a lively LGBTQ+ nightlife scene wh plenty of gay and lbian bars jt wag for you to jo on the fun. Larry’s Lounge is a gay neighborhood pub, wh always-affordable drks, solid happy hour specials, mouth-waterg pub fare (see: sweet potato tots) and one of the cy’s iendlit pats (you n brg your dog, too!).

Number Ne to the btlg Logan Circle urty of -founr Ed Bailey, who helped DC’s gay nightlife scene to grow durg his days as a DJ. Suated right the heart of Adams Man’s btlg 18th Street is Pchers, a gay sports bar, and A League of Her Own, the adjacent bar for lbian and queer women. “Why don’t they have more gay villas, ” Whe said, “I liked wrg Ernte.

WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

Whe, who liv New York, was a -founr of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and of the 1980s queer wrers group The Vlet Quill. “Whether ’s evotive pictn of gay life durg the tumultuo 1980s, pastakgly rearched bgraphy or elegant memoir, Whe’s work stands out across s as s ronance … for a multu of voted rears. ) Whe has been lled the “godfather of gay Amerin lerature, ” Prceton Alumni Weekly has reported.

“I’m workg now on a sex memoir about the lov of my life, ” Whe, who 1977 -wrote wh Charl Silverste, “The Joy of Gay Sex, ” said. In that era, “the three most heo thgs Ameri were hero, munism and homosexualy, ” Whe wrote an say. “Or they would try to get passn for gays and prent as sick sad stori, ” Whe said.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTVioTen percent of adults the District of Columbia intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, nearly three tim the natnal average. 15, 2013WASHINGTON — My earlit sense of what meant to be gay the natn’s pal me more than a ago when I was a summer tern.

But the msage was as clear as was unsettlg for a 20-year-old stgglg wh his own sexual inty: There were plenty of gay people Washgton, even at the hight levels of ernment. Consir what surveys by Gallup and the Cens Bure have found about the gay populatn here.

JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU

When the District of Columbia is pared wh the 50 stat, has the hight percentage of adults who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, acrdg to Gallup. The natnal average is jt unr 1 of my first observatns about my new cy was the throngs of gay men I would see over the urse of a typil day all over town — walkg their dogs my neighborhood before work, ridg the Metro, workg the halls of Congrs. “There’s an openly gay prence that mak you thk you’re the Castro or Wt Hollywood, and wasn’t always the se, ” Robert Raben, an assistant attorney general durg the Clton admistratn who was one of several openly gay people appoted by Print Clton, told me.

“The feral ernment was a nightmare for homosexuals for s, and then wasn’t. Vansa Vick for The New York TimSuch ubiquy isn’t jt an abundance of gay bars, though there are at least six wh walkg distance of my hoe the Logan Circle neighborhood of Northwt Washgton.

WASHGTON DC GAY SNAS

On the days I make the 20-mute walk om home to my office near the Whe Hoe, I will pass one example after another of this cy’s thrivg gay enomy: a Mchell Gold & Bob Williams furnure store; a clothg retailer whose wdow displays regularly feature bare-torso, well-endowed mannequs nothg but ty briefs; three CrossF gyms; the offic of two gay newspapers, The Washgton Bla and Metro Weekly (most ci nnot even sta one); a bathhoe; and the natnal headquarters for the Human Rights walkg through the Dupont Circle neighborhood the other night would have found themselv fightg for siwalk space wh the hundreds of spectators — many of them straight — who had gathered to watch the 17th Street High Heel Race, an annual sprt for drag queens who tear down the block heels. And when I tried to make plans a few weekends ago, I found most of my iends were booked solid bee they were attendg one of two huge gay-themed events: the Human Rights Campaign annual black-tie dner, featurg Jennifer Lopez as the ma event; or the Miss Adams Man drag pageant, which is such a large productn tak over the Washgton our feral district is measured agast other ci wh large gay populatns, a parison that experts say is better than parg to stat, still ranks at the top of the list.

GAY SCENE DOWNTOWN DC - WASHGTON DC FOM

The numbers pture only those who acknowledge beg a same-sex gay man or lbian I spoke to for this article had a horror story about what was like workg the closet, fearg they would be found out. It was only durg the Clton years that the Whe Hoe fally end the s-long practice of nyg secury clearance to people known to be gay or lbian.

That meant orr to be nsired for many high-level jobs volvg accs to classified rmatn, gays and lbians had to nct a web of li about their personal Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who worked on Capol Hill for years, scribed how he and his gay iends had to make sure they all gave the same referenc to ernment agents vtigatg their backgrounds, an surance policy so that if the qutn of their sexual orientatn me up, they uld be certa no one unpredictable would spill the Rosen, a longtime Democratic lobbyist, told me that the 1980s she once unsuccsfully tried to persua Senator Orr G. Hatch recently voted for legislatn to clu gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people feral nondiscrimatn law. He was closeted at the time but knew that at least two of the general unsels he worked for and one senr admistrator were secretly gay.

“It was poisono to be gay, ” he told me, “even when applyg for a ernment job.

12 ACTORS WHO HAVE A TOUGH TIME PLAYG GAY ROL (AND 3 OKAY WH IT)

Richard Soris, a lawyer who was one of Print Clton’s openly gay appote, said that the early 1990s when he was applyg for a job on Capol Hill the office of Senator Tom Hark, Democrat of Iowa, one of the senator’s associat said that Mr. Sean Bugg, executive director of the Next Generatn Learship Foundatn and edor emer of Metro Weekly, relled beg a reporter verg tax issu on Capol Hill 1990 when he bumped to another reporter he regnized at the Dakota Cowgirl, a popular gay bar at the time. Bugg said, addg that there was still a sense you were never tly safe beg even half-open about beg gay back then.

“This was the time when the ary was still dog surveillance gay bars.

Bar scene today, wh old stalwarts like JR’s, wh s one-for-every-taste clientele, and newer addns like Number 9, which n feel like perpetual happy hour for the cy’s gay polil-media plex. Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commtee, told me an pecially amb young man once hunted him down on the dance floor of a lol gay bar and hand him his résumé.

TAA, WASHGTON GAY CY GUI

Cecil said he did not give him the urse, ’s not all utopian for the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny here.

Gradually, they have fanned out om Dupont Circle, which is now full of heterosexual fai, all across the of the anecdot and statistics raise a puzzlg qutn about the District’s gay and lbian populatn: Why are they all here? Gays and lbians do seem to be drawn to polics disproportnately high numbers. Elmendorf told me he thks that gay people, bee they were mostly whout children, were able to rist the draw of higher pay the private sector.

“All the straight people would leave, worryg about how they were gog to send their kids to Sidwell Friends, ” he said, referrg to the ele private school that graduated Chelsea Clton and currently t the Obama repeal of the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy 2010 also helped draw more gay people out of the closet. Washgton has always had a large ary populatn, many of whom were sred of beg too open about who they were until the law gays and lbians moved om the recs of society to the mastream, few major ci have seen such an obv impact as Washgton.