Lori Lightfoot Elected First Black Lesbian Mayor of Chicago

Lori Lightfoot is a 56-year-old former federal prosecutor and private attorney who just became the first Black lesbian to be elected mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot will become the highest ranking openly LGBT mayor in the country when she takes office and mayor of the largest city to be run by a Black woman, although not the only one. San Francisco (London Breed), Atlanta (Keisha Lance Bottoms), and Washington, D.C. (Muriel Bowser) are just a few.

Congratulations, Mayor Lightfoot!

REPORT: 4.1% of U.S. American Adults Are LGBT, Totals 10M

The Williams Institute at UCLA has released another report on the demographics of adult LGBT population in the United States. They also have an interactive website where you can explore this data for yourself.

One key result is that there are well over 10 million LGBT adults in the United States, which is roughly 4.1% of the adult population. However, there is wide variation in the states in which the LGBT population resides. The District of Columbia has the highest percentage of its population self-reporting as LGBT:

Check it out for yourself!

2 Days Until #ElectionDay: Clinton 0.649, Trump 0.35

Today's snapshot of the 538.com probability of who will win the election on Tuesday November 8th is being posted late because I travelled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The current numbers are Clinton-Kaine 64.9% and Trump-Pence 35%, which are essentially unchanged from yesterday but very different from what they were 2 weeks ago.

MadProfessah And Albert Einstein (in DC!)

I was at the National Academy of Science this week and took the opportunity to have my picture taken with this famous statue of Albert Einstein.

MAP: New Data Show Same-Sex Marriage Geographic Distribution In The USA

The New York Times Upshot blog has a post today on a Working Paper (pdf) by researchers at  the U.S. Treasury department about same-sex joint married tax filers in 2013 and 2014, after the United States v. Windsor decision ended discrimination by the federal government against legally married same-sex couples (like yours truly).

By linking the tax returns of same-sex couples who filed jointly in 2014 with their Social Security records, researchers are able to give us the most accurate picture of same-sex marriages to date. And their estimate is this: In 2014 there were 183,280. same-sex marriages in America, roughly a third of 1 percent of all marriages.

Of course, implicit in this estimate is the assumption that all married couples file their returns jointly. But as a proxy for that, it’s pretty good. The Treasury Department estimates that 97.5 percent of married couples file joint returns.

One highlight of the study: Pretax household income of same-sex married couples is higher than that of heterosexual married couples. Most of that is driven by the average earnings of male same-sex couples: $176,000. On average, they make $52,000 more than married lesbian couples and $63,000 more than married straight couples.

A key factor in the reason why same-sex male couples make more than their married counterparts is where they tend to live, which is urban centers. Here's the list of locations for the top 10 places same-sex couples reside:

No surprise that San Francisco is #1 on the list (for gay couples and #3 for lesbians), but it is also interesting to note that Washington is #2 and #6 respectively. Los Angeles and Long Beach are represented well.

2016 CITI OPEN: I saw Monfils Beat Zverev

I'm in Washington, D.C. For the summer and so I decided to check out the CitiOpen.

I have attended the final before but it was supposed to be 100 degrees (and 60% humidity) so instead I went no the semifinals and saw Gael Monfils put on a clinic against Next Gen phenomenon Sascha Zverev (the youngest player ranked in the Top 30).

Gael won 6-4 6-0. He broke on the very first game of the match and only faced 2 break points (in the same game), which he saved with good serving and excellent movement.

After losing the first set Sasha was very disconsolate and just started going for too much and lost easily.

QUEER QUOTE: VP Biden Calls Out Homophobic GOP Presidential Candidates

Vice President Joe Biden appeared as the keynote speaker at the Human Right Campaign's National Gala last night and in his speech reiterated and explained his support for full LGBT equality. This excerpt is today's Queer Quote:

“I strongly support the equality act and it will pass. The American people think the law already prevents an employer from  firing someone because they are LGBT The American people already think it’s illegal to deny you housing. the American people already think what the act calls for. The problem is, they don’t know that it’s still legal in so many places, so the one way, if you could change this overnight, would be to infuse in every mind in America that there are still 31 states that can deny you employment, and housing, etcetera….Let them know! The American people are already with you.”

“There are still homophobes left. Most of them are running for president I think.”

Interestingly, a few hours before Biden's speech, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made some news of her own in an address to staffers and volunteers at HRC by obliquely calling out homophobes Kim Davis and Mike Huckabee.

“We assure [gay youth] it gets better, but it can still be really hard to believe that especially when you turn on the TV and you see a Republican candidate for president literally standing in the courthouse door in Kentucky calling for people to join him in resisting a Supreme Court ruling, celebrating a Kentucky clerk who’s breaking the law by denying other Americans their constitutional rights.”

Hat/tip to TowleRoad

EY CANDY: Joshua Trusty (3rd time!)

Joshua Trusty is one of the few openly gay male models. He has been featured as Eye Candy here twice before (December 23, 2013 and August 11, 2014). He is 5-foot-10, 160-pounds and was born in December 1986.

As you can see, he has  avery interesting tattoo on his chest. These last two shots were taken by talented photographer Don Harris. Check him out for more hot pictures of Joshua and others!

TUESDAY TENNIS: Stephens Wins 1st Title; Venus Bageled In TO; Kei Gets Revenge; Kerber Streak Continues

Sloane Breaks Through With Maiden Title At D.C. Hard Court Tournament
American Sloane Stephens was the only player in the WTA Top 40 (currently ranked #29) not to have reached a tour final. That is no longer true because not only did Stephens reach her first WTA final at the Citi Open in Washington, DC by defeating Samantha Stosur in the semifinal, she was cool and calm in a straightforward 6-1 6-2 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final the next day.

Kerber Continues Streak With 4th Title Of The Year By Winning in Stanford
Angelique Kerber began 2015 with more losses than wins until March but since winning in Charleston on (green) clay she has won 30 of her 35 matches, and notched up three more titles, on three different surfaces (Stuttgart on red clay, Birmingham on grass and Stanford on outdoor hard courts). Kerber played one of the best matches of the year in the Bank of the West quarterfinals by outlasting Aggie Radwanska 6-4 4-6 6-4 and K3rb3r won the title match over Karolina Pliskova in another 3-set match. The German has now won all 4 finals she has reached in 2015 after going 0-4 in finals last year.

Venus Plays First Set Since Wimbledon, Gets Bageled And Loses
Since losing to her sister Serena Williams in the 3rd round of Wimbledon, Venus Williams has not played a WTA tour-level match. She returned to the court after 10pm in Toronto on Monday to face Sabine Lisicki following a near 9-hour rain delay and promptly lost the first 6 games in 24 minutes. Things got a little better after that but Venus still lost 6-0 6-3 to the hard-hitting German. Since she had reached the final at the Canadian tournament last year (beating Serena in the semifinals) her ranking will plummet to the mid-20s and if she doesn't do well in Cincinnati she might not be seeded for the 2015 U.S. Open.

Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic Face Each Other On U.S. Hard Court With Different Result
Last year Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic played the first grand slam final in over a decade that did not include a former Grand Slam champion at the 2014 U.S. Open. Cilic won that match but in Washington, D.C. the two met in the semifinals of the Citi Open but this time Nishikori was the victor 3-6 6-1 6-4. The Japanese player went on to defeat John Isner 4-6 6-4 6-4 to win the title.

EYE CANDY: Joe Neil

Joe Neil is a bodybuilder and a model. According to an old profile on BodyBuilding.com Mr. Neil was 5'10" and 205 pounds with 6% body fat. He currently works as a trainer in the DC Metro area and has the website joedoittraining.com. Most of the pictures above were taken from a set taken by photographer Don Harris.

I hope Mr. Neil takes more photos soon. I'm sure it will help promote his physical training business if more clients could see the results of his work firsthand!

EYE CANDY: Joshua Trusty (reprise)

Joshua Trusty has been featured as Eye Candy before (December 23, 2013). He's 26-years old and 5-foot-10, 160 pounds. In case you thought Joshua would only look hot scantily clad, in my mind he even looks hotter all suited up:

Don't you agree?!

EYE CANDY: Joshua Trusty

Joshua Trusty is a 26-year-old model (who also goes by the name Josh Trusty). Trusty is 5'11" and 160 pounds, according to Model Mayhem. According to his Facebook page, he is interested in men, making him one of the rare Eye Candy models to be openly gay.

He lives and works in Washington, D.C. He appeared as a swim suit model for one of the District's LGBT magazines, Metro Weekly back in 2012.

Hat/tip to David Dust

GRAPHIC: The Flag of Equal Marriage

This is what the flag of the United States would look like if you only included the states where marriage equality is currently law. This ongoing online protest is a project of MakeItEqual.org.

Hat/tip to LGBT Think Progress.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Actor Who Plays Huck on Scandal Is Gay!

The actor who plays the key character of Huck, the troubled ex-CIA assassin on ABC's hit television show Scandal is Guillermo Diaz and apparently he is an out gay man!

Hat/tip to Wonder Man

U.S. LGBT Black Population Estimated At Approximately 1 Million

Previously I had blogged about the Williams Institute report about the U.S. Latino LGBT population and today I want to discuss a similar report about the U.S. African-American LGBT Population. One of the main results is that 3.7% of African American adults identify as LGBT. This is slightly higher than the latest estimate that 3.4% of the overall American adult population is LGBT.

A summary of the other results of the report is:

The report finds overall higher unemployment rates (15 percent v. 12 percent) and lower proportions with a college degree (23 percent v. 26 percent) among LGBT African-Americans, when compared to their non-LGBT counterparts. However, these disadvantages are not present among African-Americans in same-sex couples. Twenty-five percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples have completed a college degree, compared to 22 percent of African-Americans in different-sex couples. In addition, 71 percent of African-Americans in same-sex couples are employed compared to 68 percent of their counterparts in different-sex couples. LGBT African-Americans are also less likely than their non-LGBT counterparts to have health insurance.

African-American same-sex couples raising children, report household median incomes $15,000 lower than comparable African-American different-sex couples ($47,300 vs. $63,020). Female African-American same-sex couples, which comprise 58 percent of all African-American same-sex couples, earn over $20,000 less than male African-American same-sex couples. LGBT African-American females and African-American females in same-sex couples are three times more likely to report military service than their non-LGBT counterparts.

Additionally, the Williams Institute analyzed Census Data and estimates that in Washington, D.C. nearly 10 percent of the Black population identifies as LGBT. No wonder they call the District "Chocolate City" eh?

33% Of U.S. Population (100+ Million People) Living With Marriage Equality

One decade ago there were exactly zero states that had marriage equality, even though the Defense of Marriage Act had been federal law for seven years. In November 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state constitution required equal marriage rights for same-sex couples under the law and issued an order to go in effect on May 17, 2004. Note that the second state, Connecticut did not have marriage equality until November 2008 (and for a brief 173 days starting in June 2008 Californians had access to same-sex marriage prior to the passage of Proposition 8). So, really in a little over 5 years marriage equality has increased from roughly 10 million to another order of magnitude.

With New Jersey becoming the 14th state to enact marriage equality this week there are now well over 100 million people who live in states with marriage equality, about 33% of the entire U.S. population.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) summaries the astonishingly rapid progress:

State	Date Effective	Population	Percent
Massachusetts	May 2004	6,547,629	2.12%
Connecticut	Nov. 2008	3,574,097	1.16%
Iowa	Apr. 2009	3,046,355	0.99%
Vermont	Jun. 2009	625,741	0.20%
New Hampshire	Jan. 2010	1,316,470	0.43%
Washington, D.C.	Mar. 2010	601,723	0.19%
New York	Jun. 2011	19,378,361	6.28%
Washington	Dec. 2012	6,724,540	2.18%
Maine	Dec. 2012	1,328,361	0.43%
Maryland	Jan. 2013	5,773,552	1.87%
Delaware	Jun. 2013	897,934	0.29%
California	Jun. 2013	37,253,956	12.07%
Minnesota	Aug. 2013	5,303,925	1.72%
Rhode Island	Aug. 2013	1,052,567	0.34%
New Jersey	Oct. 2013	8,791,894	2.84%
	Total	102,216,846	33.11%

Any predictions for when the United States will hit 50%? Remember Illinois, Hawaii, New Mexico and Oregon are widely expected to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples sooner rather than later.

MadProfessah Going To Citi Open in Washington, DC!

The final of the Citi Open tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. will feature 6-foot-10 John Isner versus -foot-7 Juan Martin del Potro. Amazingly, the combined height of these combatants is not the tallest final of the year, that honor was achieved in last week's final between Isner and 6-foot-8 Kevin Anderson won by the American in a 3rd set tiebreaker.

One extra cool thing about this final is that yours truly will be attending it in person!

BURGER REVIEW: BGR (Arlington, VA)

I have been hearing about the burger chain BGR for a long time and took advantage of my proximity to a BGR outlet in Clarendon to finally check it out on a holiday. I ordered The Burger ($6.99) medium-rare on a fresh, buttery-toasted brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mojo sauce, American cheese (+$0.99), and applewood bacon (+$1.29) with regular fries ($2.29).

The burger was excellent, but I have discovered in my Quest for the Ultimate Burger that even though a "buttery-toasted brioche bun" sounds great, it is often too much bread and can overwhelm the patty. This was the case with BGR's bun and so I took off the top half and ate it as an open-faced burger. The combination of the crunchy bacon with the decadent melted American cheese and the perfectly cooked beef patty is the very definition of a transcendent burger experience.

The burger was well-matched with the fries. BGR has an interesting selection of items to pair with their burgers, including regular fries ("the gold standard"), sweet-potato fries ("the orange standard") and grilled asparagus spears sprinkled with parmesan cheese ("the green standard") and onion rings. The fries were definitely above average in quality (but not quantity), thicker than typical but piping hot and lightly salted. Again, near perfect.

Overall, the burger experience at BGR was surprisingly good. The quality of the food surpasses the product at places with much higher price points. I will definitely try to return there in the future, perhaps to try their ahi tuna burger with the asparagus spears.

Name: BGR The Burger Joint.

Location: 3024 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201.

Contact: 703-566-1446.

Visit: July 4, 2013.

AMBIANCE: B+

SERVICE: A-.

VALUE: A.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A/A- (3.83/4.0)

Seeing The Book of Mormon Tonight at The Kennedy Center!

Very excited I will be seeing the award-winning musical The Book of Mormon at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC tonight!

FOOD REVIEW: Vidalia (Washington, DC)

shrimp and grits
(anson mill’s grits, vidalia onion, spinach, tasso ham, tomato, shellfish emulsion)

jumbo lump crab cake
(english peas, apricots, pancetta, scallions, sweet pepper butter)

seared hudson valley foie gras 
(lemon marmalade, candied pecans, parsnip butter, brioche, apricot ice cream)

shenandoah lamb loin
(surry lamb sausage, ramp spaetzle, king trumpet mushroom, strawberry jam, vadouvan jus)

georgia pecan pie 
(bourbon ice cream, praline lace crumble, caramel)

interior of Vidalia

My plan to sample the food at the best restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area continues with a stop at Vidalia. (I have previously been to Fiola, Blue Duck Tavern, Corduroy, Zaitinya, Proof and Rasika, among others.) At Vidalia, we had the five course tasting menu. In order, I had the foie gras, crab cake, shrimp and grits, lamb loin and the pecan pie for dessert. The chef and owner at Vidalia is Jeffrey Beuben, a James Beard award-winning chef (1999), who describes his restaurant as "regional American infused with a heaping serving of Southern influence."

The food was uniformly excellent with one standout for me: the shrimp and grits. I am most decidedly not a fan of grits (they seem too plain to me usually and the texture usually brings flashbacks of negative experiences with cream-of-wheat breakfasts!). However, I was convinced by the excellent waitron to try the shrimp and grits since it is one of their most popular dishes. From Yelp I had read good comments about the lump crab cakes so I ordered that as well. The shrimp and grits at Vidalia were an absolute revelation to me, one of the best things I have eaten while living and working in DC for nearly two years. The grits absolutely melted in your mouth and combined with the substantial heartiness of the shrimp and the delicious sauce (called "shellfish emulsion" on the menu) it was one of those rare dishes that make you laugh out loud it is so good. If you eat at Vidalia you must order them!

You'll notice I didn't place the crab cake on the standout list despite the Yelp plaudits (so much for crowdsourcing). The crab cake itself was fine, although with almost too much texture (i.e. a bit rough in the mouth) but this was almost certainly because it was chock-full of crab. If you're a fan of too much crab in a crab cake, this is the one for you. No, the biggest problem I had with the crab cake were the peas. They were simply not done well enough, and to me the hard peas combined with the rough crab put me off slightly, (I understand this was probably a deliberate choice by the chef--some people like very firm vegetables, so do I, but these were a little too close to the nearly raw side for me). I must say that the sauce combined with the apricots were amazing, and really the best part of the dish.

The second favorite thing I had was the lamb loin, which was a splurge for me because I only eat red meat rarely these days. However, it was cooked exactly right (medium rare) and had immense flavor. The mushrooms were really well balanced with the meat and the little green ramp spaetzle were simply delightful. Absolutely an excellent dish, but not a rare transcendent experience like the shrimp 'n' grits were for me.

The foie gras and pecan pie were simply mistakes (on my part). The best dessert on the menu is the lemon chess pie, and I knew my error as soon as saw my neighbor's dessert. I picked the pecan pie because I generally like it and wanted to see what the chef would do with it. Sadly, it was just average, which after a meal that was decidedly not seemed like a bad way to end things. The foie gras was me being adventurous and that dish has a LOT going on. The apricot ice cream was yummy and an interesting counterpoint to the warm, very viscous foie gras but it reminded me a bit too much of eating marrow. Some people like marrow, and if you do, you should definitely try the dish but I should have probably ordered one of the salads to start with instead.

One unexpected pleasure of the dining experience was that they had a lovely cherry soda, called Cheerwine, also suggested by the lovely waitron when I asked about a no-alcoholic beverage. It was delicious and a great choice for teetotalers like myself who don't want to just drink water or ice tea with dinner.

Overall, Vidalia was an excellent dining experience, in the top echelon of the meals I have had. It was not better than my first meal at Fiola (but since my second meal at Fiola was a disaster, it's seems unfair to assign the top spot to until I have visited Vidalia a second time as well, something I hope to do soon) but on average I would say it was better than Corduroy, but at a higher price point than that restaurant. Really, at this level of dining it is almost attempting to split hairs to distinguish between them.

You will have a memorable meal no matter which of these restaurants you choose, I certainly still dream about those shrimp and grits at Vidalia!

Name: Vidalia.

Location: 1900 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.

Contact: 202-659-1990.

Visit: May 1, 2013.

AMBIANCE: A.

SERVICE: A+.

VALUE: A-.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A+/A (4.083/4.0)