Feature Story section: Metro Weekly magazine, Washington, DC newspaper

The Final Push

Barack Obama made DADT repeal a 2010 priority. Is this the endgame for gay and lesbian soldiers or just more of the same?

Published on February 3, 2010, 11:03am

The decision of whether gays and lesbians should serve openly in the military strikes at the core of the integrity of the military itself. The top military advisor to President Barack Obama told senators on Tuesday, Feb. 2, that the integrity of the institution is harmed when soldiers are forced ''to lie about who they are'' -- a dramatic change from the comments of military leaders when the matter was last considered by Congress in 1993. It was a striking ...[more]

Dollars & Sense

CAGLCC's first executive director, Mark Guenther, talks about economic opportunity and the fiscal benefits of community

Published on January 27, 2010, 10:59pm

Mark Guenther knows exactly what he would like to convey to strangers: ''First off, I'm a nice guy.'' Considering his disarming smile and ready handshake, it's hard to argue otherwise. As the first person to take the reins as executive director of the Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce -- nee PEN aka Potomac Executive Network, now CAGLCC aka the chamber -- this friendly guy is happy to orient newcomers to the group's evolution and re-branding. ''Whether someone ...[more]

Meet Mr. Black

Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black refuses to settle for anything less than full LGBT equality.

Published on January 21, 2010, 5:32am

Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black refuses to settle for anything less than full LGBT equality. ''Milk. It does a body good.'' So goes the famous marketing catchphrase from years ago. In the case of Dustin Lance Black, however, Milk did more than just good -- it changed the trajectory of an already-successful career when the 34-year-old filmmaker won the 2008 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his work on a critically lauded hit that depicted the political rise -- and ...[more]

Life in Leather

Finding Purpose in the Bonds of Community

Published on January 14, 2010, 6:09am

It's the roar of motorcycles on 14th Street. The crisp smack of leather on flesh. All those leatherfolk standing in front of the Washington Plaza Hotel on Thomas Circle. You know what time it is. Welcome to Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend 2010. There are a number of ways to quantify MAL weekend. There's the notorious 1976 leather cocktail party at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel that was the forebear to the massive event seen today. The Centaur Motorcycle Club (MC), turning ...[more]

Brotherhood of Love

MAL organizer celebrates 40th anniversary in 2010

Published on January 14, 2010, 6:08am

Centaur Motorcycle Club has been producing Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend's official events long before its current president, Steve Kenney, discovered the organization 20 years ago. ''MAL is our event,'' Kenney says. ''And this is a big year for us because we have our 40th anniversary in May.'' To commemorate 40 years of leather kinship, Centaur MC will present a video montage of its history before this year's Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather contest on Sunday. Kenney says the group now includes about 35 ...[more]

Coming Out ''Mike-sexual''

Real World's Mike Manning talks about God, government and going both ways

Published on January 7, 2010, 7:06pm

The evolution of the District is fast-paced these days. The population is growing, streetcars are on their way, and there's once again a first lady in the White House who makes fashion-news headlines. And for the first time since its 1992 debut, MTV's Real World landed in Washington. From summer through fall last year, eight housemates lived at 2000 S St. NW. Habitués of D.C.'s gay nightlife would surely have seen the crew pile into any number of nightspots during ...[more]

2009: The Year in Scene

Nearly 13,000 photos from 169 lesbian, gay, bi & trans community events around Washington, DC

Published on December 24, 2009, 5:27pm

JANUARY 8 · Bare Cobalt · Be: Bad Be Bar · Team DC Holiday Party and Brandy Dover Christmas for ...[more]

2009: The Year in Review

Ups and downs aplenty in the last year of the millennium's first decade

Published on December 24, 2009, 2:33am

If ever there were a roller-coaster year, 2009 was it. Oh, there were highs, much like the one that helped close out the year with the signing ceremony of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009. But there were also lows, particularly in the area of crime and punishment -- and others lost by illness or accident. On either end of the spectrum, 2009 certainly included more than can be contained in these pages. But to ...[more]

Courting Justice

The legal cases that shaped the past decade and will shape the next

Published on December 24, 2009, 2:32am

From excluding an ''avowed homosexual'' from the Boy Scouts of America to striking down ''a law that effectively excludes gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage,'' courts across the nation have handed down decisions in the past decade that shaped political races since 2000 but are likely to have even greater impact over the next decade. In April of 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, a case challenging ...[more]

Grant Cleveland

Winner! 2009 Coverboy of the Year

Published on December 17, 2009, 1:04am

First things first. If you read Grant Cleveland's October ''Coverboy Confidential'' interview, you might still have a couple of questions. For starters, Metro Weekly asked Grant what was on his nightstand. A light and a phone? Okay, no surprises there. A 900-year-old Abyssinian coin from Iraq? Well, that was a Coverboy first. ''My best friend, Kari -- I've known her for 20 years -- she went over to Iraq as a civilian,'' Cleveland says of his District digs roommate, a ...[more]

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