CrossFit

No gay encyclopedia can be complete without some shout-out to the latest gym fad (read: cult). What once was dominated by roving bands of spinning/cycling classes has mushroomed into bare-bones gyms that are all about pushing everyone to their limits. CrossFit has made its mark on the city and upped the ante on body insecurities. With the intention of getting men and women together for the betterment of their health and fitness, these gyms focus on the physical, mental, and emotional. To outsiders, we will never understand the drive that makes CrossFitters do what they do. But I’ll happily eat my fattening carb-filled breakfast dessert in blissful ignorance while you guys grunt and sweat for all the wrong reasons.

Levin, Saul

Dr. Saul Levin was recently known as the only gay member of mayor Vincent Gray’s cabinet as the head of the District of Columbia Department of Health, and the first known openly gay person to lead a city department of that size. While at the Department of Health, Levin continued to lead efforts in lowering the rate of HIV/AIDS among LGBT individuals in the District of Columbia, and testified on behalf of Gray on the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, which allowed transgender individuals to correct their birth certificates to match their identifying gender. As of Oct. 2013, Levin took over the role of chief executive officer and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, becoming the organization’s first openly gay CEO, and one of the few leading LGBT individuals in the house of medicine. In his first three months of office, he released a video celebrating the 40th anniversary of homosexuality being removed from the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual, the bible for mental health published by the APA. In a published interview with the journal LGBT Health shortly after the anniversary, Levin went further to say, “On this anniversary, there is still more work that we need to do, particularly around gender identity and the DSM. We are following the medical science and listening to the people who identify as transgender, and the diverse clinicians who care for them as to what further steps we should take, to ensure that variation in gender identity is not pathologized and that transgender people get the best care.”

Secret

Yeah, not to be confused with the go-go boy haven Secrets, this app came out of nowhere. Last week, no one was on it. This week, it went viral spamming everyone’s email account and blowing up text messaging with notifications that you (and me) had been invited. Sort of becoming the gay scene’s new Grindr, Scruff, whatever the guys are using these gays, Secret lets users anonymously post scandalous news, judgments, and all around bitch-and-moan about D.C.’s homos, the NoVa queers, the olds, the youngs, twinks, VIDA (a lot of hate toward this gym) and whatever else is on users’ minds. Secret is not necessarily LGBT-specific, but like most other things in this town, the gays have taken it over. With confessions about who’s the hottest and who isn’t, who just got dumped and who’s prowling behind his boyfriend’s back, this app is sure to cause some friction at JRs, Town, and other gay watering holes. But hey, bitches are always talking. So now they got something to talk about.

Vitruvian Gallery

This male-centric gallery in Capitol Hill takes the world of art to the next level. Vitruvian Gallery (734 7th St SE) is located above an innocuous shop near Barracks Row, but behind the door and up the stairs is a world where the male gaze is embraced and adored. Every few months Vitruvian’s exhibit changes, but one things remains constant: the appreciation for the male form in a hyper-sexual context. Right now the gallery is showcasing the not-so-demure “Come Play With Me” exhibit by artist Anthony Dortch Jr. Featuring nude and nearly nude men in canine masks and strapping young studs in leather apparel, the show isn’t for those who seek art with a side of subtlety. Subtle is not what Vitruvian Gallery does. It’s a gallery for those who want explicit, homoerotic, and intense expressions of male sexuality and a space for its devotees to appreciate these kinds of works. And for male art aficionados who really want to push the envelope or have it pushed for them, Vitruvian After Hours is something worth exploring.

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