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Tag: pride heroes

  • Celebrating local Pride Heroes: Peter Rosenstein was inspired by MLK to become an impactful activist – WTOP News

    Celebrating local Pride Heroes: Peter Rosenstein was inspired by MLK to become an impactful activist – WTOP News

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    Peter Rosenstein was inspired to lead a life of activism, and ultimately come out as gay, after Martin Luther King Jr. told him he could “make a difference in the world.”

    Every week, WTOP is celebrating a Pride Hero who has made a difference in the LGBTQ+ community in the D.C. area as part of our Pride Month coverage. Check back all throughout June as we share these stories on air and online.

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    Celebrating local Pride Heroes: Peter Rosenstein

    On the cover of Peter Rosenstein’s memoir, “Born This Gay: My Life of Activism, Politics, Travel, and Coming Out,” is a picture of the moment that influenced the rest of his life.

    The picture shows a 16-year-old Rosenstein presenting an award to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Rosenstein was the awards commissioner for his school’s student government and was responsible for selecting the recipient of George Washington High School’s 1963 Citizenship Award.

    No one was as surprised as Rosenstein that MLK agreed to travel to New York and accept the school’s award in person.

    On Feb. 26, 1963, six months before he delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, King was on stage being presented the award by Rosenstein.

    “He was so generous with his time,” Rosenstein recalled. “We talked for close to an hour.”

    During their time together, the civil rights leader looked Rosenstein in the eyes and said something that would become his guiding light.

    “He said to me, ‘Peter, every person can make a difference in the world, if you care about things. Fight for them, work for them,’” Rosenstein said. “That is how I’ve led my life from that time on.”

    Rosenstein took those words to heart, including during his time as a schoolteacher and his tenure working for the mayor of New York City.

    When he was a staff member of the late U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug, he worked for women’s rights.

    While serving in the White House during the Carter Administration, Rosenstein fought for the rights of the disabled community as deputy commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

    While he fought to improve the lives of people in different communities, he dealt with an inner struggle. Rosenstein was gay and living in the closet.

    “I didn’t come out at a young age because I wanted to go into politics,” he said. “Back in those years, you couldn’t go into politics if you were an out gay man.”

    Even though he didn’t come out until he was 35, moving to D.C. in 1978 was a big part of Rosenstein’s journey to living out of the closet.

    “It was a time when you could go to gay bars and you could get there and bump into a congressperson, a member of the media, all of them closeted like I was,” Rosenstein said. “There was no fear that they would out me or I would out them. This was before social media and iPhones.”

    In 1981, only six years after D.C.’s first annual Pride Day, Rosenstein decided to attend that year’s Pride Festival in Dupont Circle.

    “I hid behind a tree so no one would take my picture,” Rosenstein said. “Back then, you had to worry about your job. There were no laws to protect you, for apartments or anything else.”

    Rosenstein admits that it did take a long time to come out and to accept himself, but once he did, he became a champion for LGBTQ+ rights.

    The HIV-AIDS crisis led Rosenstein to be more public about his sexuality.

    He got involved with the Whitman-Walker Health nonprofit and helped fight the disease by taking the advice from Dr. King, and the knowledge he gained from working for the New York mayor, Congresswomen Abzug and the White House. He raised money and planned events to help spread awareness and find a cure for AIDS.

    Marriage equality was also a passion project for Rosenstein. He was involved with getting a same-sex marriage law passed in the District five years before it was passed by the Supreme Count in 2015.

    Rosenstein also played a role in the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs taking over the 17th Street High Heel Races, which is D.C.’s second biggest LGBTQ+ event behind Capital Pride weekend.

    While Rosenstein is well past retirement age, his appearance and drive leads you to believe he is much younger. The longtime columnist for The Washington Blade has been a trusted advisor to every D.C. mayor in this century.

    “I wish I would have kept a journal,” Rosenstein said of the things he wishes he could go back and tell his younger self. “It would have helped with the writing of my book.”

    Rosenstein said he hopes young people read his book.

    “Part of my book is to say to young people, ‘you can come out, you can be yourself,’” Rosenstein said. “It really does make a difference once you do. You live more freely. You live openly and you live your truth.”

    Who would know better than the man who, 25 years after hiding behind a tree at the Pride Festival, rode in the front of the Capital Pride Parade in 2016 with a sign declaring him a Pride hero.

    In Peter Rosenstein’s memoir, Born The Gay: My Life of Activism, Politics, Travel, and Coming Out, he shares the advice Dr. King gave him that changed the direction of his life.
    (Courtesy Peter Rosenstein)

    Courtesy Peter Rosenstein

    In 2016 Peter Rosenstein rode in the front of The Capital Pride Parade as an honored Pride Hero.
    (Courtesy Peter Rosenstein)

    Courtesy Peter Rosenstein

    Peter Rosenstein and his former boss, the late Rep. Bella Abzug.
    (Courtesy Peter Rosenstein)

    Courtesy Peter Rosenstein

    Peter Rosenstein visiting The MLK Memorial. Rosenstein was 16 years old when he met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
    (Courtesy Peter Rosenstein)

    Courtesy Peter Rosenstein

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Ciara Wells

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  • Celebrating local Pride Heroes: Dr. Torcher revives fire-eating tradition – WTOP News

    Celebrating local Pride Heroes: Dr. Torcher revives fire-eating tradition – WTOP News

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    Dr. Torcher, a Maryland drag king and sideshow art performer, is famous for being a fire-eater. Now, they are bringing back a tradition of fire-eating at the D.C. Dyke March.

    Every week, WTOP is celebrating a Pride Hero who has made a difference in the LGBTQ+ community in the D.C. area as part of our Pride Month coverage. Check back all throughout June as we share these stories on air and online.

    Dr. Torcher, a Maryland drag king and sideshow art performer who uses they/them pronouns, is famous for being a fire-eater. Now, they are bringing back a tradition of fire-eating at the D.C. Dyke March.

    “Learning to eat fire was a reclamation of my own power,” they told WTOP. Learning the empowering act a decade ago helped Dr. Torcher to deal with PTSD and panic attacks they had after a violent attack years before.

    “Doing this kind of thing onstage really helped me to take control of my fear response,” they said.

    The drag king taught two fire-eating workshops for queer people around the D.C. area last year,
    honoring a history of fire-eating at marches, including a demonstration in front of the White House at the first D.C. Dyke March in 1993.

    Reclaiming fire’s power

    “People took to it so quickly,” they said. “When they make the decision, ‘I can do this,’ it’s like their whole body changes, and I could see it happen. It was really, really rewarding and validating for me to go through that process with every single one of those people.”

    Dr. Torcher and a group of their pupils did a fire-eating demonstration at the 2023 D.C. Dyke March, marking 30 years since the original protest.

    Jennifer Miller, a famous circus performer and professor, first introduced fire-eating as an act of LGBTQ+ rebellion and strength at the New York City Dyke March in 1992. Miller wanted to honor two queer people, Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock, who were killed by a racist, homophobic group that set fire to their Oregon home on Sept. 26, 1992.

    “And so Jennifer had this idea,” Dr. Torcher said. “Well, what if we reclaim this act of eating fire in a way that shows that as a way to push back against violence, as a way to say, ‘you can set us on fire, and we will survive.’ And what a powerful image.”

    March organizers were extremely excited when they pitched the idea of bringing their 10 years of experience with fire-eating to the Dyke March.

    “It just felt like this was meant to be. I’m supposed to be here right now and I’m ready to do this,” they said. “So it felt like a real culmination of the journey that I’ve been on with fire.”

    Dr. Torcher taught two fire-eating classes, before this demonstration in Dupont Circle at the 2023 D.C. Dyke March.
    (Courtesy D.C. Dyke March)

    Courtesy D.C. Dyke March

    Dr. Torcher leading a fire-eating demonstration at the D.C. Dyke March in June 2023.
    (Courtesy D.C. Dyke March)

    Courtesy D.C. Dyke March

    The Highball Productions team: Dr. Torcher, Vagenesis, Dabatha Christie, and Citrine .
    (left to right)

    left to right

    Dr. Torcher in Billy Flynn costume for Highball Productions’ “SHECAGO” show.
    (Courtesy Highball Productions)

    Courtesy Highball Productions

    The Highball Productions team, Citrine, Dabatha Christie, Dr. Torcher and Vagenesis .
    (left to right)

    left to right

    How drag triggered ‘a total revelation’

    Even before they were Dr. Torcher, they always had a love for performance. After working as a stripper to pay for graduate school, they got into improv and stand-up classes.

    Onstage, they became increasingly aware of how their more feminine appearance, sporting “long blonde hair” and acrylic nails at the time, made people assume that they would act stereotypically feminine and demure. Instead, they were loud and told “crass, gross” jokes.

    They loved upending those expectations, so it seemed like a natural next step to eat fire and swallow swords. After a weekend of sideshow training from a retired “carny” in Pennsylvania, Dr. Torcher was born.

    They chose the intimidating stage name because they’re ironically “really stupid and funny on stage.” Plus, they moved to the D.C. area over 20 years ago to get a doctoral degree in anthropology at American University.

    For seven years, Dr. Torcher produced and performed in the D.C. Weirdo Show, an inclusive monthly circus show that became increasingly “queer” under their direction.

    Eventually, drag “became a natural outgrowth” of their performances. Drawing on a mustache, chiseling their face with makeup, and wearing masculine clothes for performances sent Dr. Torcher on a gender identity journey.

    “To look in the mirror and see myself this way was a total revelation,” they said. “It just becomes a way to try this out and play with gender onstage in a really powerful way. And really reflect back to the audience that this is OK, to play with your gender and try different things.”

    They started identifying as nonbinary and realized that they had been slowly discovering this part of their identity throughout their performance career.

    “I really firmly hold that everything we do onstage is autobiographical,” they said. “Everything I look back on that I’ve ever done on stage, I can see how that’s connected to my inner child … to some form of expression that I wasn’t allowed to do as a person who was socialized to be a girl, I wasn’t allowed to take up space or be loud or be gross.”

    Now, Dr. Torcher combines fire-eating and drag performances to spread awareness of different gender identities. They’ve watched acceptance of LGBTQ+ people expand over the past few years, from performing at small-town pride events, like Culpeper Pride, to conversations with their own father, who is “a conservative ex-military guy.”

    “He has made the effort to come down and see me perform. And every time he does, he gets more and more comfortable,” they said.

    They tearfully recounted how, after their last performance, “he was talking so compassionately about, ‘if I was gay, I would want a space like this.’ It made sense to him. … It was amazing to hear him talk like that.”

    Two years ago, they started performing, and more recently producing, for Highball Productions, which “takes musicals and re-envisions them as queered drag extravaganzas, and it is fully rehearsed, fully choreographed, very high quality,” despite having an extremely low cover charge.

    “It’s been so wonderful to work with Vagenesis, Citrine and Dabatha Christie. It’s a wonderful team,” they said. “It’s unusual for drag queens to see the value of drag kings and invite us in. And I was really thrilled that they just get it — I don’t have to explain to them why drag kings matter.”

    Dr. Torcher and the production company were recently nominated for a number of D.C. Drag Awards after their May production of “SHECAGO” at JR’s, a bar in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.

    “We’re looking at expanding out,” they said. “So, for instance, we do have a June show called ‘Twerk-ules,’ which is a musical version of ‘Hercules,’ as you can imagine, and that will be at Shaw’s Tavern.”

    From bringing fire-eating demonstrations back to the D.C. Dyke March to spreading the joy of drag musicals with Highball Productions, Dr. Torcher continues to preserve LGBTQ+ history and inspire people to embrace their authentic self.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Emily Venezky

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  • Celebrating local pride heroes: Deacon Maccubbin — The Patriarch of DC Pride – WTOP News

    Celebrating local pride heroes: Deacon Maccubbin — The Patriarch of DC Pride – WTOP News

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    Deacon Maccubbin organized the first DC Gay Pride Party all the way back in 1975. Now, he’s thinking back on the role he played in the creating an event that would one day bring hundreds of thousands of people to D.C. to celebrate who they are. 

    Every week, WTOP is celebrating a Pride Hero who has made a difference in the LGBTQ+ community in the D.C. area as part of our Pride Month coverage. Check back all throughout June as we share these stories on air and online.

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    Celebrating local pride heroes: Deacon Maccubbin

    A year after L. Page “Deacon” Maccubbin opened the gay bookstore, Lambda Rising, in 1974, he was talking to friends about going to a Pride celebration in New York City.

    “Somebody said, ‘Why don’t we do something in Washington,’” said Maccubbin. “I thought ‘that’s a wonderful idea, let’s do it.’”

    Maccubbin went to work instantly. He decided to hold a Gay Pride block party right in front of Lambda Rising on 1724 20th Street NW in D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood.

    One of the first things Maccubbin was required to do by the city was to check with his neighbors.

    “We had the support of more than 51% of the people in the neighborhood to sign a petition allowing us to close the block off,” Maccubbin told WTOP.

    Knowing he needed help to organize such a big event, Maccubbin hired his friend Bob Carpenter. They got the word out by putting flyers in all of the gay bars in D.C.

    Deacon with Pride Proclamation: Deacon Maccubbin holds a Pride Proclamation from the D.C. Council. With him (left to right) are Frank Kameny, gay rights activist, and John A. Wilson, a D.C. Council member — and later Chair — who coordinated the resolution.
    (Courtesy Rainbow History Project, Inc. )

    Courtesy Rainbow History Project, Inc.

    Revelers at Pride ’78: Revelers at the Gay Pride Day Block Party on 20th St. NW in 1978.
    (Courtesy Rainbow History Project, Inc. )

    Courtesy Rainbow History Project, Inc.

    Deacon Maccubbin (right) and his husband, Jim Bennett, on the steps of where his bookstore was once located, overlooking the location of D.C.’s first annual pride event.
    (WTOP/Jimmy Alexander)

    WTOP/Jimmy Alexander

    Deacon Maccubbin (left) and his husband, Jim Bennett, on the steps of where his bookstore was once located, overlooking the location of D.C.’s first annual pride event.
    (WTOP/Jimmy Alexander)

    WTOP/Jimmy Alexander

    For further information about RHP and its archives, visit www.rainbowhistory.org
    For further information about RHP and its archives, visit www.rainbowhistory.org.

    So, at 1 p.m., on June 22, 1975, the D.C. Gay Pride Party was set to begin. But, there was a problem.

    “At 10 minutes to one, there was no one on the street,” Maccubbin said.

    Carpenter was nervous and, according to Maccubbin, was ringing his hands, and said, “No one is going to show up.”

    “I said ‘don’t worry Bob, they’ll be here. They are just on ‘gay time.” … Not long after, we had 2,000 people,” Maccubbin said.

    Maccubbin shared these memories with WTOP from the steps of where his bookstore was once located, overlooking the location of D.C.’s first annual Pride event.

    More Pride Month stories

    “We had bands playing. Politicians stopping by to say hello. All the neighbors came out,” Maccubbin said. “It was an incredible experience.”

    Also showing up that day was a local TV news crew.

    Maccubbin made a deal with the reporters: They were only allowed to film on one side of the street. Everyone at the block party was told if they didn’t want to be on television, that they should stand on the other side of the street.

    “There were some people that were concerned about their jobs or their family seeing them,” said Maccubbin.

    Not everyone was pleased with the work Maccubbin was doing for the gay community. Not only did Maccubbin have to deal with a lot of harassment over the phone, the windows of his bookstore were broken and they received bomb threats.

    Every time there was an incident, Maccubbin and his staff would head to the bookstore and keep going.

    “We had to stand up and be counted. We weren’t going anywhere,” said Maccubbin’s husband, Jim Bennett. “More and more people stood up and said we’re not taking this crap anymore.”

    The bad memories have now faded, and Maccubbin thinks more about the role he played in the creating an event that would one day bring hundreds of thousands of people to D.C. to celebrate who they are.

    “There is rarely a week that goes by that I don’t hear from somebody that talks about coming out at Pride or coming out in our bookstore, Lambda Rising,” Maccubbin said. “Because it was the first place they felt welcome.”

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Jimmy Alexander

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