From the top: Cheryl Spector, Will Gartshore and Queen Bambi (Blade photos by Henry Linser)
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Friday, October 05, 2007
Dining | People | Community | Nightlife
Queen Bambi, née Philip Gerlach, is a former Miss Adams Morgan winner who has perfected his own brand of what he calls “character drag.” Instead of one monolithic Queen Bambi persona, he tailors the lovely lady to suit whichever event she is attending. At Chef’s Best and Dining Out For Life, two Food and Friends fundraisers, the Queen has created wigs containing food items. She has also put in appearances at the 17th Street high heel race and the Results Gym float at Capital Pride.
“I was thrilled [to be named Best D.C. drag queen],” says Bambi, who attributes her success to being “totally comical and over the top.”
“With the amount of drag talent there is in this city, and the abundance of it, it’s an honor.”
Harold Sanco is a local trainer with great abs and a heart of gold. The abs come from years of training: Sanco was the 1998 United States National Masters aerobic champion and two-time bronze medalist at the National Step Challenge Competition. The heart of gold comes from helping others achieve the type of body they desire.
Sanco is the owner of Elite Training, Inc., a company that provides fitness training and aerobics coaching. He is also the director of group fitness for Results the Gym.
Though Sanco is based in D.C., his efforts (and his muscles) have been given both local and national media attention. Already voted “Best Instructor” by Washingtonian Magazine and the Washington Post, his fitness classes have also been spotlighted in People, Allure and W magazines.
Sanco also has his own exercise video, “Prime Time Abs,” which is the closest most of us will come to welcoming him into our homes.
Beloved activist Cheryl Spector, who lost a brave battle with cancer this summer, will live on through her work.
Spector was celebrating her 20th year of activism in 2007 with a renewed spirit and a fresh body, having recently lost weight through gastric bypass surgery, when she was diagnosed with leukemia in July (on the heels of a fire at her condo that destroyed some of her gay archive materials).
Only 10 weeks after learning she had cancer, she died, but Spector, who was 49, has left an indelible mark on D.C. Her activism started in 1987 after her brother, Stan, committed suicide. In addition to early AIDS work, including Oppression Under Target and ACT-UP, Spector, an out lesbian since 1982, was also at the forefront of lesbian activism as a member of the Lesbian Avengers and played a crucial role in bringing drag kings to D.C.
Activists and heroes are perhaps best remembered for their spirit, and Spector’s eternal optimism and willingness to make a difference will not be easily forgotten.
Will Gartshore is in his prime and Blade readers know it. A winner of two consecutive Helen Hayes Awards (2006 and 2007) for his irresistible musical performances in Signature Theatre’s “Urinetown” and “Assassins,” the Canadian-born actor didn’t secure his local star status overnight. He’s been a familiar (and handsome) face on the D.C. theater scene for about seven years, first coming to notice in “Floyd Collins” and “A New Brain,” and later shoring up his bio with leading roles in musicals like “Allegro” and “Pacific Overtures.”
If his current star turn as a jaded, middle-aged composer in Signature’s “Merrily We Roll Along” (through Oct. 14) is any indication, Gartshore will be giving more award-winning performances for some time. D.C.’s leading man of musical theater is no academic slouch either — in 2006, after years away from the classroom, Gartshore graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s in history from the University of Maryland College Park.
JASON ROYCE |
Despite the evolution of the local nightlife scene, Jason Royce has a “Best Of” streak that won’t quit. Royce, who works as a DJ and promotions manager at Cobalt, has been a mainstay in the D.C. gay club scene since he started spinning in 2001. This is his third win in a row for Best DJ. Royce sticks to familiar music most of the time and his danceable beats on Tuesday’s retro night and on Saturdays keep gay music fans moving.
1639 R St.,NW
202-462-6569
www.cobaltdc.com
www.djjasonroyce.com
ADRIAN FENTLY |
The office of the mayor is a good place for a gay ally. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty courted the gay vote during his run for mayor by being among the first of the mayoral candidates to endorse same-sex marriage and later by attending numerous gay events while campaigning.
The collaboration seems to have worked out for both parties: Fenty gets the office and D.C.’s gay population gains a supportive mayor. Recently, Fenty named Christopher Dyer head of his gay liaison office, a cabinet-level position that ensures gay residents have their mayor’s ear.
www.dc.gov/mayor
DAVID CATANIA |
Gay Councilmember David Catania has served on D.C.’s governing body since 1997, but not always in the same party. Originally a Republican, Catania switched and became an independent in 2004, after President George W. Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
That year, the Blade’s readers voted Catania “local hero” for his courageous stand. For 2007, Catania started the year out right with the official enactment of the smoking ban bill he brought to the Council floor. New Year’s Day marked the beginning of the end for smoking in D.C. bars and clubs.
Catania also heads up D.C.’s Committee on Health, which oversees the city’s long-troubled HIV/AIDS Administration.
E-CLEF |
Drag King E-Clef has been performing in D.C. since she joined the D.C. Drag Kings five and a half years ago.
Her day name is Ebone Bell and in addition to working as an advertising manager at the Chronicle for Higher Education, she also helps run lesbian production company B.O.I. Productions.
Bell says her first drag performance was at the age of 13 during an all-girls dance camp. The choreographer needed one of the girls to dress as a male, and though several tried out, Bell won.
“Of course, in true form, I got it,” Bell says. “I was decked out in a zoot suit and looked just like a dude.”
Bell says that she’s grown so comfortable with herself and her drag performances that she doesn’t even bother to apply what’s called “face,” the moustaches and beards most drag kings apply prior to performance.
“If I really want to do what I do, I don’t need to hide behind a moustache anymore,” Bell says.
BRIAN SPARROW |
Brian Sparrow is a 17th Street veteran, having worked the bars there for more than six years. Though he got his start at JR.’s four years ago, after the manager offered him a job that would pay better than the construction work he was originally doing, Sparrow has made Cobalt his home for the last two years.
Working the 5-9 p.m. happy hour shift, Sparrow finds that the best part of his job is, you guessed it, the customers.
“They’re the nicest people I’ve met,” he says. “They take care of me, I take care of them. We all sit here and laugh and joke, we all get along.”
Though Sparrow is honored to win Best Bartender, he says there are many others that have gone above and beyond the call of duty tending D.C.’s bars.
“I don’t know how I got voted because there’s so many other people that deserve this too,” he says. “I’m excited and shocked at the same time, but happy.”
1639 R St., NW
202-232-4416
www.Cobaltdc.com
MIKE FINE |
Mike Fine, the gay director of local tax service Tax Masters, has dedicated himself to the fight for gay equality in his own field of business. Fine represents gay couples and singles whose sexual orientation has given them financial trouble from an unsympathetic IRS.
His dedication to the cause began several years ago when he represented two men who were being denied mortgage interest deductions by the IRS because they could not be recognized as a married couple.
“I would spend days and weeks and months fighting the IRS about this,” says Fine. “Not only is the gay community cast aside in a lot of circles and treated unfairly, but they’re treated unfairly in tax circles. I’m fighting for my own future rights by helping others.”
This is Fine’s second year winning Best Businessperson. He says that the distinction helped him reach a number of new clients, thus helping a number of new people, and he looks forward to the opportunity to do it again.
www.tax-masters.com/Mike-Fine
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