“Continue to be brave, continue to be smart and continue to be safe,” is the advice shared with LGBTQ people by one D.C. official.
This is part of WTOP’s continuing coverage of people making a difference in our community, reported by Stephanie Gaines-Bryant. Read more of that coverage.
“Continue to be brave, continue to be smart and continue to be safe,” is the advice shared with LGBTQ people trying to navigate through life’s challenges by Monroe Poston, a D.C. native and transgender woman.
Poston is the workforce development and outreach specialist for the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. She’s also been the victim of a hate crime.
“It’s something that you don’t foresee coming, something you don’t expect,” Poston said. “It’s something that you don’t easily recover from.”
Poston said programs like the District’s Violence Prevention and Response Team (VPART) make the path easier for people in their community who have been through the trauma of a hate crime.
While growing up in the D.C. area, Poston recalled a lot of crimes taking place against the LGBTQ community. But she added that times are changing with the help of programs like VPART, which provides resources, including trauma-informed therapy, legal assistance, mental health services, shelter assistance and other essential support services.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE: Monroe Poston (left) is the workforce development and outreach specialist for the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Japer Bowles (right) is office’s director. (Courtesy Monroe Poston, Japer Bowles)
Programs like VPART did not exist for Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, when he was growing up in southwest Missouri. Bowles said there were not a lot of openly gay people in his area, nor access to resources for LGBTQ people.
Bowles said his interest in advocacy and community work brought him to D.C. after he completed his education and had a few campaigns under his belt.
Bowles told WTOP that the program brings together community organizations and government agencies, such as D.C. police’s LGBTQ Liaison Unit and the Office of Human Rights to address, reduce and prevent crime — particularly hate-bias incidents within the LGBTQ+ community.
They meet regularly to review hate bias report data and also to make sure that their community members are directly connected to the services they need, Bowles said.
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.
“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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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)
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.
“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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