the capital fellows

7/28/2019 The Capital Fellows

1/6

x

x

x

p h o t o g r a p h y b y t K2 O U T M a y 2 1 02 O U T M a y 2 1 0

in 2004,Wonkette,the D.C. gossip blog, reported that MTVhad bought a house for a supposed Wash-ington season of The Real World. The no-tion was thoroughly mocked, then aban-doned. Since then, MTV returned to L.A.(for a second time) and New York (for athird)even anointing Key West and LasVegas worthier locales than the nationscapital. Smart people have always cometo D.C. But the smart cool ones? No. Thesaying was D.C. is Hollywood for uglypeople, the bland leading the bland. Now,changeandThe Real Worldhas come toWashington (and the real world).

Busboys & Poets throbs as the citys

Berkeley-in-a-box caf; the phrase LetAmerica be America again / Let it be thedream it used to be is etched on a mural

Wendidiseinemssin

suliveinD.C.?auecilsms

infuenilssinelin

ecisiseness.by R i c h a R d M o R g a n

p h o t o g r a p h y b y o f e R

W o l b e R g e R

TheCApiTalFElloWs


2/6

x

x

x

p h o t o g r a p h y b y t K O U T M a y 2 1 0 3

TheProtectorate

Houston Ruck,creative director, Growth Energy;

Tico Almeida,labor policy adviser, Committee

on Education and Labor, U.S.

House o Representatives;

Andrew VanderLinden,undraiser, American Red Cross


3/6

x

x

x

4 O U T M a y 2 1 0

The CreatorsDaniel Phoenix Singh, president/

artistic director, Dakshina Dance

Company; Sabri Ben-Achour,sculptor; Michael Dumlao,ounder, Fashion Fights Poverty;

Drew Portereld, curator/director,Long View Gallery; Hugh McElroy,

ounder, Rufan Records

there. Its the opposite of Smith Point, theguest-list-only Georgetown bote popularduring the Bush era with the polos-and-pearls country club crowd (the Bush twinswere regulars). The Obama model of art-of-the-possible civic energy is ampliedby a White House stacked with the mostfuckable intellectuals since The West Wing.But D.C. also has its youngest-ever mayor,Adrian Fenty, a suave fedora-sporting tri-athlete who was elected at 35. This is a re-silient city, Fenty, a native son, said dur inga recent 5:30a.m. run, steam rising from hispecs. Our energy has returned.

Gestalt coolness pervades. Thereswidespread r unning and bicycling culturenormally seen in Portland, Ore., or Boul-der, Colo. When Fenty sig ned the bill lega l-izing gay marriage in D.C., he referencedthe struggle his parents faced in their in-terracial marriage. Embassies, almost uni-versal Obamaniacs, are festive again. Me-gablog The New Gay jolts the citys socialscene. Georgetown has a gay student cen-ter (the countrys rst at a Jesuit campus).

After its rst-ever gay exhibit last year, theSmithsonian is following up quickly witha National Portrait Gallery show on gay

Americans. And theres a constructionboom (remember: D.C. is Americas onlyrecession-proof city), plus a bounty of his-toric townhouses with cute front gardensand backyards. D.C. is the charm of Brook-lyn with the purpose of Manhattan.

Its not embarrassing anymore tosay you live in D.C., says Richard Florida,the author who rethought city coolnesswith h is book The Rise of the Creative Class.When we measure the gay index, D.C.is o the charts. Of course, you still havepreppy dinosaurs living in the formalde-hyde netherworld of Georgetown. Butthats ending. The 70s had San Francisco,the 80s had New York, the 90s had L.A .and the 00s had London. Now D.C. is thecity of the moment, the living zeitgeist.

Fenty, who runs the city while alsorunning 3:36 marathons and raising twin10-year-old boys and a toddler, is the citysoverachiever-in-chief. Thats what this is,really, explains Florida. Its coolness byway of earnest achievement. D.C. is f ull ofyoung, post-careerist people who are more

into their work than their rsum. Cool isnot enough. You have to also achieve; oth-erwise youre just some schmo.n

Party PoliticsWhats life like in D.C.s gay boom? Our 26participants weigh in.AMBInDER: The bias of D.C. is a bias to-ward historic events. So Obama was pow-erful as a new era of possibility, a clearingof the decks. How many big cities get tostart over?

DIMPFL: D.C. is still growing and chang-ing. Its that rare place that has the abilityto become something dierent.DUMLAO: Its like that moment when yourealize your parents are people.VAn HORn: Think about San Franciscobefore it was a dot-com town. Does anyoneremember that? Cities can change. But itsso rare. So its really exciting to be in thecity at the moment.

SCOTT: The happiness of the turnaround isin more respect for D.C. in its better days Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, ZoraNeale Hurston, Marvin Gayenot theSmithsonian stu, but the real living his-tory, the soul. You can feel the swell.

TERRY-SMITH: D.C. is in that Goldilocks

sweet spot right now.RIOS: With so many big cities, people gowondering what itll do to them. In D.C.,


4/6

x

x

x

p h o t o g r a p h y b y t K O U T M a y 2 1 0 5

TheDo-Gooders

Matt LeBlanc, gay student centerprogram coordinator, GeorgetownUniversity; Ty Cobb, legislative

counsel, Human Rights Campaign;

Jason Walmsley Rios, teacher;

Matthew Jarvis, copresidentAURAorm Architects


5/6

x

x

x

6 O U T M a y 2 1 0

The RevelryShea Van Horn, co-creator,Crack variety show; Sheldon

Scott, general manager, Marvin

bistro; Ed Bailey, co-owner, TownDanceboutique;Justin B. Terry-Smith, blogger, JustinsHIVJournal.

blogspot.com; Aaron Riggins,creator, Homo Hotel Happy Hour

The EgalitariansMichael Eichler, coounder, TheNewGay.net; Andrew Dimpf, marketing director,

TheNewGay.net; Zack Rosen, editor inchie, TheNewGay.net

The ConversationalistsBen LaBolt, spokesman, White House;

Jon Lovett, speechwriter, President Obama


6/6

x

x

x

O U T M a y 2 1 0 7

you have the chance to see what you cando to the city. Theres the energy of peoplecoming to x things.

LeBLAnC People here are invested in gaypolicy. Its not the Movement. Its deniteand personal and normalnot all Prop8 and marriage. People think about gayhealthcare, gay churches, gays in the Cen-

sus. Its more about the cake than the ic-ing.VAnDERLInDEn: Theres a culture ofcontribution, the betterment of soci-ety. Theres an aura of civic duty, pride.LOVETT: Its a very comfortable place tolive. For a lot of people, this is a place whereyou can come for a few years to do some-thing amazing, something important andexpressive and personal. And everyoneelse is doing that same thing. Its almostlike college in that way.COBB: But its not just a party for a partys

sake. Your social life and the things youbelieve in cross more. People here partiedwhen the hate-crimes bill passed. Life hereis about the great debates of our time. Itsnot just about ghting boredom.VAnDERLInDEn: Because nobodys fromD.C., youre not competing with that ideathat youll never be a true local. So theresa bond.SHAPIRO: Its one of the friendliest citiesin America because nobodys from hereso everyone remembers what it was liketo arrive without knowing people. Peopleare very empathetic, welcoming; theres anopenness.

RUCK: D.C. leans toward talking withstrangers.LABOLT: Theres a great sense of commu-nity. So many people live in group houses.COBB: Generationally, we mix better,maybe because being informed makes youage-blind. I mean, my boyfriend is 10 yearsolder than me and our friends range from20s to 60s.RUCK: Here, there are so many governmentjobs, so ma ny high-tech jobs, that you ndthose rare people: hot and smart. Other cit-ies are mostly just, um, pretty. A great D.C.night is one of great conversation, not justgreat drinks or great bodies.ROSEn: Gay culture here is more thought-ful and intelligent. But lets not get carriedaway. Its only the dierence between Ilike fucking blondes and Heres why Ilike fuckin g blondes.

AMBInDER: This is a city where youll nda gay couple who are tough-as-nails S.O.B.conservative F.B.I. agents who will defend

Cheney to the death at your dinner partyand then go home to, well, Ill stop there.GOTTLIEB: Revitalization or reurbaniza-

tion: First it was 17th Street, then 14thStreet, now its 9th Street. Its steady. Itson a roll.CAPEHART: Washington takes on the per-sonality of the chief executive. Bush wentto bed at 8:30, rarely went out. The side-walks rolled up. Now you have a young, hipcouple from Chicago. The president popsin at his daughters soccer game. He hors-es around at the commentary booth at aGeorgetown basketball game. Hes engag-ing. When you have someone like that run-ning things, there are fewer roly-poly menchomping on cigars.

McELROY Its not an industry town forthe arts, but thats what makes it better.Theres less pressure, less expectation,more of a sandbox/playground way of life.

BEn-ACHOUR: You feel better, more spe-cial. I know what Im doing is dierent thanwhat other people came to this city for.PORTERFIELD: Gallery districts are nice,but theyre also a way that the rest of that

city can ignore the art scene. Here, galler-ies are everywhere, next to whatever.RIOS: Were not a state, taxation without

representation, so many transients. So ifwere not going to do it ourselves, its notgoing to get done for us. Its a scrappy lifehere. Were gritty. Were ghters.

EICHLER: Why isnt cookie-cutter exis-tence more antithetical to gay life, which isall about open-mindedness?TERRY-SMITH: Bohemian D.C. used tomean wearing a green tie. Now its real. Itshere. Its OK. Now we can be open. Now wecan be counted.JARVIS: You cant wait around for the cityyou want. You have to will it into exis-tence.

VAn HORn: People are more than happy.Theyre excited. People are playi ng. Theresa place in D.C. now for the crazy 8-year-oldin me.

SCOTT: With art in our bellies, our appe-tites only grow. And were getting to thepoint that we can feed ourselves artisti-cally. Look, the Capital Fringe theater fes-tival is in its sixth year. I opened Marvin in

2006. We are not part of Obamas renais-sance; he is part of ours.n

The DistilleryMike Gottlieb, lawyer; Marc Ambinder,

political editor, The Atlantic; Ari Shapiro,Department o Justice correspondent, National

Public Radio; Jonathan Capehart, editorialwriter, The Washington Post

the capital fellows

Documents