LGBTQ students who come out to their public school teachers or administrators will soon be able to do so without fear of their sexual orientation or gender identity being disclosed to their parents or guardians, except in very limited circumstances. California is now the first state to ban the outing of students without their permission.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation July 15 adopting the prohibition. It brings to an end, for now, efforts led by conservative groups to see local school boards enact such outing policies after attempts to do so in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature were blocked.
Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1955 into law without comment.
In the spring gay state Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) had revived the legislative proposal after shelving it last fall amid the state’s legal challenge of one Southern California school district’s forced outing policy and calls from educators to tweak its language. Ward used the gut-and-amend approach to rewrite his AB 1955 to insert the ban on the forced outing of LGBTQ pupils unless state public school officials felt doing so was needed to protect the youth from self-harm.
At a news conference for the bill’s rollout, one transgender youth spoke about how several of his queer friends were harassed at home and at their Northern California school, leading them to attempt suicide, after being outed by their principal.
“The sad truth is, not every kid has a safe home or a safe person to confide in as they figure out who they are,” said Kai, 20, adding that the sixth-grade teacher he came out to when he attended the Rocklin Unified School District “showed the discretion” he needed with being able to also come out to his parents. “Without my teacher, I would not be here today. Please don’t let another kid endure the heartbreaking consequences of that support system being taken away.”
See page 9 >>
Debate over pinkwashing claims spur strong feelings in Israel, US
by John Ferrannini
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli-Hamas war has brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the center of the world’s attention.
In the LGBTQ community, it’s focused renewed attention on the accusation that Israel engages in pinkwashing. Pride parades in New York, Boston, and Toronto last month were disrupted by protesters alleging Israel uses LGBTQ rights to deflect from its policies toward Palestinians.
Pinkwashing is the promotion of the pro-LGBTQ aspects of a corporation, political group, or government in order to downplay other things that might be considered negative. Corporations that participate in Pride but donate to anti-LGBTQ politicians are often accused of it, as is Israel.
In San Francisco, pro-Palestinian groups boycotted the June 30 Pride parade, drawing between 1,000 to 1,500 people to a countermarch through the city’s Mission and Castro neighborhoods.
Rauda Morcos, a lesbian Palestinian citizen of Israel who’s a human rights lawyer, told the Bay Area Reporter in a Signal interview that she thinks Israel uses the issue so Westerners will look the other way from the occupation of Palestinian land. She was one of the founders of Aswat, a group for Palestinian lesbians.
“Israel has no right to use their notion of being LG-
BT-friendly, or their idea of being LGBT-friendly, that would allow them to be supremacists in the region. It would never give them an extra benefit to make them a democratic country,” she said. “You can’t call apartheid and occupation democratic, or LGBT-friendly.”
In turn, Israeli LGBTQs with whom the B.A.R. spoke on a recent press trip to the region were surprised at the level of anti-Israel sentiment in the global queer community since October 7 – and asked American activists to compare Israel’s record against that of their opponents.
“If you’re talking about Hamas, you’re talking about a jihadi organization,” longtime Israeli gay activist Rommey Hassman said in an interview. “Jihadi organizations are against homosexuality. They define us as something not even illegal but demonic. They think all gay men should be executed. That is not something new. They are not progressive and [are] antianything LGBTQ. It’s like saying ‘Black people for the KKK.’”
See page 5 >>
New press group invited B.A.R. to Israel
by John Ferrannini
The American Middle East Press Association, a nonpartisan nonprofit that launched last summer, invited the Bay Area Reporter on a trip to Israel in June.
Kim Kamen, AMEPA’s chief operating officer, told the B.A.R. that the group started in 2023 and obtained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in February. The taxexempt organization is based in Monsey, New York.
AMEPA’s budget is $1.16 million, Kamen noted. It does not receive funding from the Israeli government, officials said.
“We launched in earnest in 2024 as soon as we hired our media advisers,” Kamen stated to the B.A.R. July 12. “We rely on private donations and are not affiliated with any governmental entity.”
AMEPA states on its website that it seeks to serve as “a trusted resource for journalists looking for experts and spokespeople on the current conflict and beyond.” Kamen said that it was based on the Europe Israel Press Association, an organization AMEPA is affiliated with that is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded 12 years ago by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the chairman of the European Jewish Association. Since then, EIPA has connected European journalists to Israelis and Israeli officials through press trips. It has offices in Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid.
Tal Rabina, a media consultant with EIPA,
(415) 829-8937 or email
told reporters on the June 23-27 trip that “we are not the [Israeli] government. We are not the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. We are an NGO [nongovernmental organization]. … We are trying to be very informative.”
AMEPA brought two American reporters on the press trip, “Wartime in Israel,” with its counterpart, EIPA, which itself brought 22
journalists from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. EIPA is also not funded by the Israeli government. There was not any pre-approval of interview questions, article topics, or requests to view articles before publication.
See page 7 >>
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that would prohibit public school officials from outing trans students without their permission.
Jane Philomen Cleland
Hilla Peer, left, is the chairwoman of The Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib grew up in Gaza City and now lives in the Bay Area.
Courtesy The Aguda, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
Jaffa, an ancient port city that once had an Arab majority, is part of modern day Tel Aviv.
John Ferrannini
Volume 54, Number 29
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Political discourse will stay heated
Y es, Americans should lower the temperature when it comes to political discourse, although that’s unlikely to happen. President Joe Biden said just that during an Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, only a day after a young man shot at former President Donald Trump while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Of course, shortly after the shooting, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) took to social media to blame the assassination attempt on Biden. He wrote in a social media post on Saturday that the shooting was “not some isolated incident” and suggested Biden’s campaign was, at least in part, to blame, as the Hill reported.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
That sure dials things down – not. Authorities don’t yet have a motive as to why Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, shot at Trump from the roof of a building near the rally site. Crooks was subsequently killed by Secret Service snipers. He was a registered Republican, and, according to reports, also made a small donation to a progressive political action committee three years ago. There is a lot we do not yet know about the circumstances of the shooting, in which a Trump supporter was killed and two others were injured.
Greene (R-Georgia) took to the stage Monday and proclaimed that there are only “two genders,” a nasty dig at trans people.
NBC News reported on other speakers who denigrated the community. Congressmember John James (R-Michigan) criticized transgender women playing in women’s sports, a popular conservative talking point.
“Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males,” James said.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) referred to another prominent conservative target, included in Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay bill: the teaching of gender ideology or sexual orientation in schools, NBC reported.
“This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children,” he said as the audience booed.
Republican speakers warned of lawlessness and socialism if Democrats win in November without mentioning that their own presidential nominee is now a convicted felon. (Trump got a convention-day gift from Aileen Cannon, a federal judge he appointed in Florida, who dismissed all of the charges in his classified documents case. That’s a real example of lawlessness run amok.)
But being a sycophant paid off big time for Vance, whom Trump named as his vice presidential running mate this week. The two men appeared at the Republican convention Monday and Tuesday night and listened to speakers. Trump was wearing a bandage on his right ear, which he previously said was grazed by a bullet during the shooting.
It didn’t take long for Republicans to quickly bounce back to their hate-filled rhetoric at the convention. Congressmember Marjorie Taylor
Vance’s own record is bleak – from “Never Trumper” to complete acquiescence in a few years. GLAAD has pointed out that Vance endorses the false “groomer” trope often lobbed by conservatives at LGBTQ people. And he opposes the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and prevent such discrimination. It has been stalled in Congress for years, and has little chance of passing unless Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives and hang on to the Senate, not to mention keep a Democratic president in the White House.
Most significantly, Vance is among those who
doubled down on 2020 election denialism.
While many Republicans continue to take the low road, Biden is working to help unify the country, although given the prevalent polarization, we don’t think much will change. Still, it’s important for the country’s leader to speak up.
Remember that after Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer in his San Francisco home in 2022, conservatives were vicious in mocking the incident. He was seriously injured all because the attacker was searching for his wife, thenHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).
“My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies,” Biden told the nation Sunday. “We’re neighbors. We’re friends, co-workers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.
“Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here,” Biden said.
If there’s good news for the LGBTQ community in Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate, it’s that he doesn’t really broaden his appeal beyond the core MAGA base. But Democrats have their own problems, now that more officials have called on Biden to withdraw from the race after his dismal debate performance, presumably elevating Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket. Since the assassination attempt on Trump, however, those entreaties seemed to have decreased. It’s a fluid situation, however, and will probably remain so until the Democratic convention next month. What the community absolutely cannot do is give up. We must vote in November in order to prevent the authoritarian Trump from returning to power. We must vote for Democratic candidates in congressional races. In short, it may seem depressing now, but it will be a lot worse if we wake up on November 6 to a MAGA takeover. t
My vision for LGBTQ+ inclusion in SF
by Daniel Lurie
This year’s Pride celebrations illuminated the best of our San Francisco’s spirit: love, pride, and acceptance. While a vibrant testament to our city’s commitment to LGBTQ+ rights, these events should not be confined to just one month each year.
As the city that pioneered same-sex marriage and elected Harvey Milk, our celebration of Pride must be a continuous affirmation of our values – a daily commitment to inclusivity and equality. Despite our progressive heritage, the ongoing struggles within the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for trans women of color, remind us that our work is far from complete.
As a native San Franciscan, I grew up surrounded by and appreciating the LGBTQ+ community. Since launching my mayoral campaign, my understanding has deepened. Engaging with the LGBTQ+ community in new ways, like conducting site visits at key nonprofits, hosting roundtables with service providers, and speaking with members of the Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic clubs, has deepened my appreciation. It’s also revealed some urgent needs within our LGBTQ+ community.
To support and uplift the LGBTQ+ community I will prioritize the following key initiatives:
Public Safety: Every San Franciscan deserves to feel safe. As mayor, I will strengthen policies against violence and discrimination, enhance protections for the transgender community, and advocate for comprehensive prosecution of hate crimes. We must ensure that every resident feels supported and secure enough to report incidents of violence and discrimination.
Protecting and Empowering Our Transgender Community: A resident recently asked, “What will you do to protect my community?” This pivotal question underpins my campaign. The tragic murder of Michelle Henry, a Black trans woman, underscores our ongoing fight against hate. San Francisco must steadfastly protect its LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people of color, ensuring hate finds no haven here. We’ll uphold the privacy of genderaffirming care, expand mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth, and prioritize safe spaces for trans students. I support making San Francisco a transgender sanctuary city – which the Board of Supervisors recently approved – affirming our commitment to empowering transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.
Revitalizing the Castro and LGBTQ+ Nightlife: Our city’s cultural districts, like the
Castro, Leather & LGBTQ, and Transgender districts, are central to our identity. I will address public safety and cleanliness to revitalize these areas. We will support small businesses and encourage vibrant, LGBTQ+-friendly nightlife.
Arts and Culture: The arts are vital expressions of a community’s spirit and history. It’s crucial that our cultural institutions serving the LGBTQ+ community receive adequate and equitable funding. I am committed to supporting and celebrating the myriad LGBTQ+ arts groups throughout our city. By bolstering these organizations, we not only enrich our cultural landscape but also strengthen our community’s resilience and visibility.
Addressing Homelessness Among LGBTQ+ Youth: Today, 38% of our homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+. As CEO of Tipping Point Community, I collaborated with Larkin Street Youth Services to fund and develop programs specifically tailored to the unique challenges LGBTQ+ homeless youth face everyday. My administration will continue to prioritize and expand housing solutions, health care, education, and employment opportunities for these vulnerable young people. As mayor, my goal will be to bring the number of homeless LGBTQ+ youth to zero. Comprehensive Health Care and HIV/ AIDS Support: San Francisco has long stood as a
beacon of hope, especially during the AIDS crisis – a legacy we proudly continue. My administration will commit significant resources to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and support, with a particular focus on the long-term survivors living among us. We will also support the city’s Getting to Zero campaign, ensuring we address the unacceptable number of new infections in our communities of color. (The city’s Getting to Zero program aims to reduce new HIV transmissions and HIV deaths by 90% by 2025, in addition to reducing stigma.)
Effective Mental Health Support: Mental health support for the LGBTQ+ community will be a critical priority in my administration. I will uplift the most effective mental health services tailored specifically to the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face. This includes supporting community-based programs that offer counseling and support and training healthcare providers on the specific mental health needs of the LGBTQ+ population to ensure compassionate and competent care.
LGBTQ+ Senior Housing: My visit to Openhouse in June opened my eyes to the importance of housing for LGBTQ+ seniors. As mayor, I will secure funding for more affordable housing projects for older LGBTQ+ individuals, ensuring they do not age alone or in insecurity. My City Hall accountability plan will streamline the permitting process to expedite these critical housing developments.
Finally Do Away with Prop 8: As we advance toward equality, it’s crucial to eliminate remnants of discrimination from our laws. Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, remains an outdated mark on our state constitution. Prop 3 on the upcoming November ballot provides a pivotal opportunity to remove this language and affirm our unwavering commitment to marriage equality for all Californians. Looking ahead, my mission is clear –we must build on our city’s legacy of acceptance and inclusivity. San Francisco must remain a beacon of hope and a leader for LGBTQ+ rights. As your next mayor, I am dedicated to ensuring that our city not only maintains, but enhances its status as a safe, inclusive, and proud place for all who live here. Learn more about my priorities at daniellurie.com/priorities/lgbtq/ t
a
and
Daniel Lurie,
former nonprofit executive
heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, is a candidate for San Francisco mayor.
San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie and a contingent of supporters participated in last month’s Pride parade.
Courtesy the campaign
t Politics >>
Staff support naming SF park after leatherwoman
by Matthew S. Bajko
Staff for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department are recommending that a new park in the city’s South of Market neighborhood be the first named after a leader in the local leather community. The agency’s oversight body is set to vote on the naming proposal when it meets Thursday.
Numerous leather community members, SOMA residents, and local leaders have called for the new greenspace at Natoma and 11th streets to be named Rachele Sullivan Park. Sullivan, who died in 2022 at the age of 54, was a cis straight ally and leatherwoman who pushed for the creation of the city’s cultural district that celebrates the local leather community.
She also served on the board of Folsom Street, the nonprofit entity that produces the city’s two leather and kink street fairs. Sullivan helped launch Venus’ Playground, the women’s space at the Folsom Street Fair held annually in late September, as the Bay Area Reporter had noted in her obituary.
“We will be deeply honored to have the park named after her. We think it is a fitting tribute and a definite honor,” said Bob Goldfarb, a gay man who is executive director of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District. “She was quite an icon in the community and extremely influential, both publicly and behind the scenes.”
The district was incorporated in June 2019 a year after being approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to promote and preserve the leather and LGBTQ communities that have long called western SOMA home. While the new park is not within its boundaries, it is just a short walk away from Eagle Plaza, the public parklet on a stretch of 12th Street that celebrates the local leather scene and is named after the adjacent gay-owned bar that caters to a leather and LGBTQ clientele. Sullivan was also an advocate for its creation.
Goldfarb told the B.A.R. that the leather district isn’t aware of another city that has named a park after a person with ties to the leather community. He is hopeful of seeing the recreation and park commissioners approve the naming of Rachele Sullivan Park at their July 18 meeting.
“I am very confident that they will follow the recommendation of the staff. Of course, they don’t have to, so there is some uncertainty,” said Goldfarb. “But the public response has been so overwhelming in favor of Rachelle Sullivan, we would find it quite surprising if they did not move forward with that.”
As the commission’s staff report notes, a naming committee for the new park was created last fall and conducted a public process for suggestions on what to call it. It decided that public survey results should factor into the naming decision.
A survey conducted in the winter saw Sullivan take first place in the cumulative ranked choice votes with a total of 1,062. A second vote on the top six suggestions was then held, and Rachele Sullivan Park took first place by a wide margin with 577 total votes.
Pinkwashing From page 1
The June 23-27 trip in which the B.A.R. participated was paid for by the American Middle East Press Association, a nonprofit that states it seeks to serve as “a trusted resource for journalists looking for experts and spokespeople on the current conflict and beyond.” AMEPA brought two American reporters on the press trip, “Wartime in Israel,” with its counterpart, the Europe Israel Press Association, which itself brought 22 journalists from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and
“Rachele Sullivan worked at the intersection of the Disability, Leather, and Filipino communities in the SOMA district and beyond, so it is fitting that her communities have nominated her to be the namesake for the park,” noted Barbara Swan Chami, manager of policy and public affairs for rec and park, in her report to the commissioners.
As Sullivan’s son, Sebastian Sullivan, noted in a comment shared with the B.A.R. earlier this year, she was a San Francisco native “born and raised in Ramaytush Ohlone land” who became “a beloved and respected traditional Filipino healer and community advocate.” She traced her lineage to traditional healers from the province of Aklan, Philippines, he noted.
“Rachele thrived at the crossroads of so many communities and stood as a beacon of humanity, compassion, and generosity for members of the disability, leather, and Filipino communities in the SOMA district and beyond,” stated Sebastian Sullivan.
In their letter to the rec and park commissioners supporting the park naming, Transgender District Executive Directors Breonna McCree and Carlo Gomez Arteaga also noted Sullivan’s roles in SOMA’s intersecting communities.
“Naming this new park after Rachele Sullivan would be a fitting tribute to her legacy. It would honor her dedication and celebrate the rich diversity and history of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District. This park would serve as a lasting reminder of her work and the positive changes she championed,” they wrote.
on various issues and concerns that impacted the disability community,” wrote Mayor’s Disability Council member Denise Senhaux on behalf of the advisory group’s support for seeing the park be named after Fraguli.
Because that name wasn’t widely supported on the naming surveys, Chami noted in her report it is not recommended by the rec and park department. No letters in support of seeing the park named after Figueras were included in the meeting materials.
As specified in the city department’s naming policy, the rec and park commission can name a subsection of a park facility, whether it be an area of a building, garden bed, or athletic field, after someone who “contributed significantly” to Recreation and Park Department programs. Goldfarb noted that such naming opportunities have been suggested for the other individuals included in the surveys for what to call the new SOMA park.
“The other people mentioned are also important and significant,” he said. “I would personally like to see elements of the park with their names on them.”
Construction of the new park is scheduled to begin next summer. Among its features will be a garden area, active use area, play area, and small nature exploration area. Along its main entrance on 11th Street will be a multi-use court, adult fitness area, drinking fountain, dog relief station, and seating for park users.
Also listed on the agenda item for the park naming are two other suggestions that placed in the top three in the second round of voting by the community. Tim Figueras Park had received 167 votes, while Joanna Fraguli Park garnered 134.
Figueras was the recreation director of the Gene Friend SoMa Recreation Center. Fraguli was a disabled mom of disabled children who served as deputy director of the Mayor’s Office on Disability.
“Throughout her 13 years of employment working for the city, her dedication and commitment showed through her work on social justice issues such as equality and equal access to programs and services for persons with disabilities. She was an educator and trainer
Hungary. Neither organization is funded by the Israeli government, nor was there any pre-approval of interview questions, article topics, or requests to view articles before publication. (See related story.)
Background on conflict
Since the Six Day War in 1967, the former British Mandate for Palestine has been divided between Israel proper and the Occupied Territories, which include the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, the U.S. State Department reports. Predominantly Arab East Jerusalem – home of the Old City and its important religious sites such as the Western Wall, the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the Church of the
The rec and park commission has final say over the naming of the department’s park sites and facilities. Its meeting begins at 10 a.m. Thursday in Room 416 at City Hall. It will also be broadcast live via SFGovTV on its website at www.sfgovtv.org.t
Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on the state of the 2024 presidential campaign. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.
Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com
Holy Sepulcher – was annexed by Israel in 1980, in a move not recognized by the U.S. or the rest of the international community. Civil administration in the West Bank is run by the Palestinian National Authority, which is recognized by the United Nations and 145 countries as the government of an independent state of Palestine within the Occupied Territories. In Gaza, the civil government has been de facto run by Hamas, which the State Department considers a terrorist organization, and which pushed out the Palestinian National Authority two years after Israeli ground troops unilaterally left Gaza in 2005.
See page 6 >>
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Rachele Sullivan, center, cut the ribbon outside the old Stud bar on June 12, 2018 to celebrate the designation of San Francisco’s Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.
Liz Highleyman
Israel, with support from Egypt, blockaded Gaza since the Hamas takeover, which human rights groups stated was an illegal collective punishment, but which the Israeli government claimed was necessary for its security. The blockade led to the building of tunnels smuggling fuel, food, weapons, and more under the Egyptian border.
(The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory held in 2022 that Gaza was still occupied, despite the lack of ground troops due to “control exercised over, inter alia, [Gaza’s] airspace and territorial waters, land crossings at the borders, supply of civilian infrastructure, including water and electricity, and key governmental functions such as the management of the Palestinian population registry” by Israel.)
In the West Bank, Israelis have been building settlements that the U.S. and the international community consider illegal. Israel also built walls throughout the West Bank in response to terror attacks in its territory. While suicide bombings have decreased, Palestinian and international organizations, as well as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, have likened the wall, the settlements, and the military presence in the West Bank to apartheid.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas brigades broke out of Gaza and killed 1,139 people in Israel in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Since then, Hamas
has been holding Israelis who were abducted as hostages in Gaza. (The number of hostages still being held is 116 as of press time. Others have been released.)
Israel responded to the Hamas attack with an extensive bombing campaign in Gaza, and a ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas. That has led to the deaths of over 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The U.S. provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually. The Biden administration has faced pressure from some Democrats and protesters to cut off that aid, or make it conditional on a ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the Gaza conflict as winding down in a recent interview on Israeli TV, saying, “We will have the possibility of transferring some of our forces north” to fight Hezbollah, whose rocket attacks have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Israeli civilians in the country’s north since October 8.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry determined both the Israeli government and Hamas have committed war crimes, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the leaders of both Israel and Hamas. President Joe Biden denounced the ICC warrant for Netanyahu as “outrageous.” (This is separate from South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.) Months of ceasefire talks and
negotiations have so far gone nowhere.
LGBTQ rights in Palestine and Israel
The divide between the West Bank and Gaza means different laws and social mores around homosexuality. The Palestinian National Authority has not legislated on the subject. Homosexuality has been legal in the West Bank since the adoption of the Jordanian Penal Code of 1951 (the West Bank was part of Jordan from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War until the 1967 Six Day War).
The history of Ottoman, British, Egyptian, Israeli, Palestinian, and Hamas rule in Gaza makes a legal consensus difficult. However, according to Amnesty International, the 1936 British penal code that criminalizes homosexuality is still in effect there.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a 2019 article based on interviews with four gay men and one woman, recounted fear of arrest, torture, and forced marriage.
Social media allows the LGBTQ community in Gaza to connect, though they fear Hamas catfishers, according to the article, which also reported others have connected online and formed friendships.
“There is a guy I met online who became a very close friend. With him I can be myself, I feel good,” an interviewee who went by Ahmed said in the Haaretz piece. “We go to the beach together to look at guys. If I hadn’t spoken with him online before meeting in real life, we would never have been brave enough to admit
<< International News
to each other that we were gay.”
In 2016, the New York Times reported a leading Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, was tortured and executed on charges of homosexuality and theft.
Same-sex sexual activity became legal in Israel by a vote of the country’s parliament, the Knesset, in 1988, and discrimination against gays and lesbians became illegal four years later. However, laws against homosexuality hadn’t been enforced since a 1953 directive from the Israeli attorney general.
Though Israel became the first country in Asia to recognize same-sex marriages in 2006, same-sex marriages cannot be
performed in Israel proper. This is because Israeli marriage law only recognizes the marriages of Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and 10 Christian faith communities, in a system dating back to Ottoman rule. None of the recognized religious courts recognize same-sex marriages, and even heterosexual Israelis who want a civil, nonreligious marriage can’t get one.
“We’re trying to get rid of the rabbinical system,” Hassman said.
People who don’t want to participate get married in other countries then return to have their marriages recognized at home.
“There are reform rabbis, conservative rabbis from the U.S. who will marry us, but it’s not part of the rabbinical system,” Hassman said. “I think when young people get married without the religious system, they’re saying, ‘Fuck the government. We don’t care what you decide.’” Hassman has been on the front lines of LGBTQ rights in Israel since the AIDS epidemic. He said, as chair of the Israel AIDS Taskforce in the 1990s, he helped advocate for the government to approve, and thus pay for, antiretroviral drugs.
“In the beginning, AIDS was a nonissue,” he said. “No one talked about it, no one cared about it.” Now, he said, with government benefits, “it’s an even better situation than in the U.S., where people had to pay for the medicine.”
Hassman was also involved in promoting Tel Aviv, Israel’s most populous city, as an LGBTQ-friendly destination, according to a 2019 research paper, “The progressive Orient: Gay tourism to Tel Aviv and Israeli ethnicities.”
The first Tel Aviv Pride parade was in 1993, and it now claims to be the largest Pride parade in Asia.
“Of course, it was a struggle,” Hassman said. “The first festivities were private. Little by little, the city municipality got involved. It took time and today, gay Pride is a city event – funded by the city.”
There are usually Pride parades in other Israeli cities too, now, including in the northern port city of Haifa, and in Jerusalem, where it has faced pushback from conservative religious groups. But it’s Tel Aviv, as Hassman joked, that “is a straight-friendly city, but totally gay.”
“Being gay and living in Tel Aviv is wonderful,” he said.
Chen Arieli, a lesbian, has been
Tel Aviv’s deputy mayor since 2019 in charge of welfare and public health administration.
“Growing up as a teenage girl in Haifa during the 1980s, I found myself seeking refuge in Tel Aviv-Yafo due to the lack of opportunities,” she stated in a WhatsApp message, referring to the city’s formal name. “Back then, there was no internet to access information, leaving me feeling isolated and distressed in a remote city.”
Arieli stated that Tel Aviv “played a significant and groundbreaking role in positioning the LGBTQ community within Israeli society,” starting in 1975 when The Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel was founded there.
But the community feels threatened by a coalition of far-right parties that are allied with Netanyahu in the Knesset, she stated. Before the war, Israelis took to the streets protesting proposed changes to the judicial system that would limit the power of the Israeli Supreme Court to exercise judicial review.
Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni unfurled a Pride flag in Gaza last year.
From State of Israel’s Instagram
International News>>
over 6 million Jews, along with millions of others, during the Holocaust.
Trips organized by AMEPA since the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war have been centered on the conflict, but not all press trips focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Rabina said. After X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk agreed with a post on X that the Jewish people have a “dialectical hatred” of whites, EIPA participated in his visit to the site of Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland where the German military killed over a million people during the Holocaust. In total, the Nazi government killed
“Our struggle and lives here are in danger because democracy is the only way for us to live here,” she stated.
Pinkwashing allegations
During some free time on the recent trip, the B.A.R. went to East Jerusalem to find the office of alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, a Palestinian LGBTQ organization.
The exact address isn’t provided on its website (though it’s listed as being on AlZahra Street), but the website does state an address will be provided upon phone request. Multiple phone calls to make contact went unreturned, but the Palestinian LGBTQ center responded to an email stating that though “unfortunately right now we don’t have the capacity for interviews or meetings … if you’re willing to get an idea about our point of view you can check our articles and materials on social media and website.”
AlQaws’ website contains a number of pieces, including one from 2020 on pinkwashing.
“Pinkwashing pushes the racist idea that sexual and gender diversity are unnatural and foreign to Palestinian society,” alQaws states. “When this idea is internalized within Palestinian communities, it alienates queer and gender-
Musk later said he was “frankly naive” about antisemitism. EIPA has also brought European Union leaders to Auschwitz, Rabina said.
Kamen said that Margolin “and supporters of EIPA came together and said there’s nothing like this in the U.S. They saw this as a tremendous opportunity and saw how successful EIPA has been and wanted to leverage the experience with EIPA to create something similar in the U.S. The idea was the same – to be a trusted resource on Israeli matters … within the broader context of the Middle East.”
Margolin told the B.A.R. he was supportive of AMEPA’s formation.
“I believe the people of the world are entitled and should be able to have real information and full information about important subjects before they have an opinion on this,” Margolin said. “I also believe the U.S.-Israel relationship is very important and for this reason I believe the American people should have the full information about Israel and about its relationship with the U.S.”
Kamen said AMEPA will be seeking more funding from donors soon. There is “one American who has been a donor to us,” Kamen said.
But Kamen did not name the person, saying they would prefer to remain anonymous. After the B.A.R. pressed to talk to the person, Kamen reached out to
nonconforming Palestinians and isolates them as a social group.”
Many queer Palestinians consider the characterization of Tel Aviv an oasis of queer acceptance on the sunny Mediterranean abhorrent.
“Israeli travel guides and promotional videos advertise Tel Aviv beaches as a gayfriendly getaway destination – and hide the reality that tourist partygoers are dancing atop the ruins of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages” alQaws states.
Indeed, much of the predominantly Arab population of the old port city of Jaffa – which later became part of Tel Aviv to form a single municipality – fled amid the
the American donor. She told the B.A.R. July 16 that the person decided to continue staying anonymous and wouldn’t speak on the record.
The B.A.R. asked Kamen if any donors to the European organization could be named. Kamen said that “European donors, unlike American donors, tend to stay behind the scenes. It’s cultural.”
Margolin said July 8 that no EIPA donors were willing to talk to the media.
“I spoke with several of our donors. I asked them if they’re willing to speak with journalists; unfortunately they all said they appreciate what we do, they’re happy to support it, but they’d prefer to be anonymous,” he said. “They don’t want any publicity about
country in this Western world language.”
One issue Morcos expressed with Western LGBTQ movements is the goal of conformity.
“Queer people are not the same as straight people and actually it’s a weak point in the LGBT community because the whole idea was to actually struggle for differences and liberation,” she said. “We want to widen the society to include all kinds of difference.”
One way in which LGBTQs did conform, she said, was by attending WorldPride in Israel in 2006 – even though there were restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians from the West Bank.
1948 fighting, according to a first-hand account in the New York Times.
Morcos said that “Israel was founded over the bodies of Palestinians, over our villages,” and reiterated her point that comparing different countries is a way to disempower countries that aren’t Western.
“The LGBTQ, whatever letter you can add to it, as a way to criticize other countries – it doesn’t matter which – is Western and colonialist and I’m sick of this, honestly,” she said. “I’m tired of this thinking that being a country that is socalled LGBT-friendly is better than a country that is not. Who said so? And honestly, Israel is not an LGBT-friendly
what they do; they don’t want to speak to media. They do what they do because they believe in the concept, they believe in education, they believe in sharing information, but they do not wish to speak to the media, so unfortunately I cannot help more.”
As AMEPA is new, the only publiclyavailable information on the IRS website is an April 22, 2024 letter confirming the organization’s nonprofit status, and stating its accounting period ends December 31. The letter also states the organization will be required to file Form 990 financial disclosures in due time. Form 990s, which U.S. nonprofits complete, are generally filed about a year and a half to two years later. t
Aviv as a queer sanctuary is a mirage.
“A lot of drag performers have gone to Tel Aviv Pride and see it’s not straightforward,” Ronaldo said in a phone interview, referring to conversations with drag artists at LGBTQ production company World of Wonder Productions.
Ronaldo added that it may be an accepting environment “as a white person or as an Ashkenazi Jewish person.”
“But anyone else of color, LGBTQ, nonbinary, non-white male and it falls apart,” Ronaldo said. “The illusion is gone.”
AlQaws argues that Israel promotes LGBTQ rights and acceptance to help bolster its reputation as a liberal, democratic state in the U.S. and Western Europe.
“They [Israel] were trying to hold an international event while they were in two wars and a blockade over the West Bank,” she said. “Not all people could move around and come to work because of the LGBT people coming from all over the world to celebrate their gay life. I don’t find in that any kind of pride.”
Morcos asked people to be more thoughtful, saying some Western LGBTQs “don’t find any similarity toward other marginalized groups around the world.”
Aram Ronaldo of the Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network is a queer Palestinian American born in the U.S. and splits time between the Bay Area and New York City. He charges that Tel
“By promoting cities like Tel Aviv as gay tourism destinations, Israel’s foreign ministry seeks to win the support of queer communities across the world and prevent international connections with the Palestinian struggle,” alQaws states.
In 2016, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism was criticized for spending 10 times more on an advertising campaign for LGBTQ journalists and bloggers to come to the country than on local LGBTQ organizations. After pressure, the ministry suspended its tourism budget and increased funding to organizations such as The Aguda.
See page 8 >>
Al-Zahra Street in East Jerusalem is the location of alQaws’ Jerusalem office.
John Ferrannini
AlQaws argues that pinkwashing is “ultimately an expression of Israel’s deeper gender and sexual politics and the ideological foundations of Zionism” and threatens the rights of LGBTQ Palestinians because it frames the issue as a binary choice. It’s a “disempowering framework,” alQaws states.
“Israeli settler-colonialism works by breaking apart and eliminating Palestinian communities, whether through the military violence of occupation and siege, the legal regimes of apartheid, or the denial of refugees’ right of return,” the group continues. “If gender and sexual oppression are an essential part of what it means to be Palestinian, then there is no way to challenge or change it. At no point can queer Palestinians be regarded as radical agents of transformation within our own society.”
AlQaws argues Israel’s defenders are not interested in alleviating LGBTQ Palestinians’ suffering.
“When queer Palestinians are spoken about by Israel’s defenders, it is only to paint a portrait of individual victimization that reinforces a binary between Palestinian backwardness and Israeli progressiveness,” alQaws states. “These portrayals suggest that Palestinian society suffers from pathological homophobia, and that no dissenting voices could ever survive for long within it.”
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian American straight ally who grew up in Gaza City and lives in the Bay Area, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview that Israel boasting of LGBTQ rights is “an unfair weaponization.”
“You can’t go to an occupied people,
Obituaries >>
Walter de Jesus Fitzwater
August 7, 1947 – May 17, 2024
Walter de Jesus Fitzwater, 76, of Sugar Land, Texas, passed away peacefully in his home, surrounded by family, on Friday, May 17, 2024.
Walter was born on August 7, 1947, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, to Stanford Brason Fitzwater and Olga Freddie Perou. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Cuba, where he spent his formative years before relocating to Florida in 1961.
Walter graduated from Melbourne High School in 1965 and then attended the University of Florida.
A 1972 cross-country excursion brought Walter to San Francisco, and almost immediately, he joined The Angels of Light theater group. He remained part of that family of people
who have been so completely diminished of some of their most basic rights, and expect them to be enlightened when it comes to this particular issue,” he said.
Alkhatib said he prefers to stay away from the terminology and “talk about the details.”
“I agree there are aspects of LGBT rights Israel has that are not found in Palestinian society, but the use of this particular angle has come across as an unfair weaponization and advantage, to say Israel is this exceptionally capable place,” he said. “It is a fact that Israeli intelligence has blackmailed LGBT people in the West Bank into collaborating with the Israeli army to provide intelligence, or act as informants, or potentially out them in their own communities, knowing that is an incredibly dangerous, awful thing.”
Haaretz and VICE News have reported on the practice. In response to similar media reports, alQaws states that “singling out sexuality ignores the stranglehold that Israel’s militarized colonial regime has on the lives and privacy of Palestinians more generally throughout Palestine.”
“Blackmailing and extorting an individual on the basis of their sexuality is, of course, a naked act of oppression,” alQaws continues. “But it is no more or less oppressive that blackmailing and extorting an individual on the basis of their lack of access to healthcare, disrupted freedom of movement, exposure of marital infidelities, finances, drug use, or anything else.”
Response
Hilla Peer is a lesbian who is the chairwoman of The Aguda. She said in a WhatsApp audio interview the pink-
throughout his life. In the mid-1990s, Walter returned to Jacksonville, Florida, to be with his mother. While in Jacksonville, he became a beloved active member of that LGBTQAI community. Walter got sober, wrote a memoir about his return to Cuba, and was heavily involved in playwriting and production throughout Florida.
One of Walter’s proudest moments was in 2016 when he received a letter of thanks from then-President Obama about his book, “Cuba, The Island I Treasure.” The letter from Obama about improving relations between the U.S. and Cuba was robust and heartfelt.
The book was published by Xlibris Publishing and it is still available on Amazon and its Kindle platform, AbeBooks, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble.
Walter’s career moved fluidly between his training in architecture and his passion for performing arts. He also wrote “The AIDS Trilogy” plays (still available on Kindle) in concert with the Positive Attitudes Resource Center in Jackson-
washing matter isn’t so simple. It’s “a very big, general term,” she said, and “we have to be able to look at things in perspective in every single case.”
“When it comes to pinkwashing, I can’t find a single government that hasn’t sinned,” she said. “Some things are complicated and not black-and-white issues. Israel is a complex country and situation. It won’t be solved because of the gay community in Israel or pinkwashed due to the gay community In Israel.”
Peer brought up Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni raising a rainbow flag in Gaza after the invasion late last year – posted to Israel’s Instagram page with the caption, “The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza.”
“Do you remember that picture of the soldier who went to Gaza and opened a Pride flag?” she asked. “I know that guy personally, and it’s a matter of perspective. When the State of Israel shares that as the State of Israel, that’s pinkwashing to the world, but when my friend lost five friends on October 7, and he opens the gay flag there, for me, that is not pinkwashing. That is victory over the homophobic terrorists who killed his friends. … As much as we all crave a single reality of black-and-white, that’s not what’s actually happening.”
The Aguda works as an umbrella group coordinating 19 LGBTQ organizations in Israel. Peer has been chairwoman “for the better part of the last five years,” she said, and it runs houses throughout Israel for LGBTQ youth, including youth from ultra-Orthodox, Arab, and Palestinian backgrounds.
“We started by operating a hotline and in a few months we started growing a department,” she said. “In three years we are talking about a physical house, as a community. More than 200 people.
ville. The plays were presented throughout Florida as a tool for AIDS education to youth groups. Walter always led a Q&A after the plays were presented.
After some health struggles in 2016, Walter relocated to Sugar Land. There, he lived with his beloved cousin Janet Smith, his goddaughter Amanda Sandoval, and their family, which included several grandchildren, who were all by his side when he passed on. Walter is also survived by his siblings, Isabel and Michele, and many other cousins and friends. Walter eventually died from heart failure. He was cremated and waked in Sugar Land on July 14. His life was also celebrated at the AIDS Memorial House in Jacksonville on June 22.
Just before he died, Walter completed the final draft of a new memoir, about his years in San Francisco and his Angels of Light family. Walter’s family and many friends (with his blessing) are devoted to publishing that memoir. The book is going to be beautiful.
Feel free to email Daniel Nicoletta at owlmandanny@gmail.com if you want
That might sound like a low number, but it’s astronomical. Most of them are here [in Israeli territory proper] but some are not, and we, to be honest, don’t care. We provide aid to everyone.”
Arieli stated to the B.A.R., considering the rise of Israel’s far-right, that “Netanyahu exemplifies pinkwashing, boasting of LGBTQ successes mainly on international stages and in English, while in Israel, he does not promote our rights, especially our personal security.”
But the label shouldn’t apply to LGBTQs in Israel, Arieli held.
“Accusing activists who defend their rights in their own country of pinkwashing is misguided,” she stated. “This claim should be directed against the government.”
The traditional Tel Aviv Pride didn’t take place this year – it was replaced by an event calling for the return of the hostages being held in Gaza.
Among the speakers was Maayan Gross, a transgender woman who has fought as a reservist in the strip with the Israel Defense Forces. Gross was in the IDF in Gaza before the 2005 withdrawal but had not come out as trans yet.
“It felt like I was going back in time,” Gross told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. “I felt I’d imagined the last 18 years.”
Gross said she felt LGBTQ acceptance in Israel and the IDF have come a long way during that time.
“Most people in Israel accept and recognize the LGBT community,” she said, and framed the conflict as one of national survival.
“In their [Hamas] charter, their set of beliefs is to destroy Israel,” Gross said.
“Hamas kidnapped Israelis, but also citizens of Gaza.” Gross agreed with Hassman in criticizing Western protests in
to stay informed of its progress or if you have any related photographic material you would like to be considered.
If you would like to contribute funding to this effort, donations can be sent by Venmo to @Amanda-Sandoval.
Please indicate “donation to Walter” with your contribution.
Brian Skaggs
April 15, 2024
For more than 40 years Brian Skaggs brightened the Castro neighborhood with his cheery smile and hearty laugh. He died in his sleep on April 15, 2024, and will be missed by his friends and neighbors in San Francisco.
For a long time, Brian worked for the Italian Government Tourist Bureau, when it had an office in San Francisco. This led to his lifelong
OKELL’S FIREPLACE
support of Palestinians and Gaza that have been widespread in the U.S. and elsewhere, saying Hamas would “destroy every one of us. I hope it doesn’t do so.”
Like Arieli, Peer expressed fears for the future of LGBTQ acceptance in Israel.
“I would say I am probably one of the first people to criticize my own government and my own country,” Peer said. “We spent much of the last year combatting a judicial overhaul and are dealing with an LGBTQ-phobic government. We are fighting for our democracy – the only reason to be able to live here.”
Phillip Ayoub, a professor of international relations at University College London; Amy Lind, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Cincinnati; and gay, nonbinary Lebanese American singer Hamed Sinno, all of whom have spoken or written publicly about the pinkwashing allegations, declined to comment for this report.
Sinno stated in response to the B.A.R.’s request to talk about the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, “Thanks for reaching out, but unfortunately your framing of the Zionist entity’s occupation of Palestine and the genocide of the Palestinian people as the ‘Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ leaves little to be interested in.”
The Institute for Palestine Studies also declined to comment. A representative stated he didn’t “feel qualified to speak to these points.”
The Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance agreed to an interview but did not respond to a request for scheduling it by press time. t
[Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles stemming from reporter John Ferrannini’s recent trip to Israel.]
love of all things Italian, as seen in his cutlery, glassware, and posters. He was then everyone’s favorite stage manager at Josie’s Cabaret and took his job working the lightboard very seriously.
Brian was deeply committed to social justice and equity, and was generous to the best of his ability. When he was flush he donated to causes, especially Frameline, the annual LGBTQ film festival. When times were leaner, he still insisted on tipping at least 20% in restaurants. He believed in supporting local businesses and was discerning and knowledgeable about which companies and products he chose.
There will be a memorial celebration for Brian Thursday, August 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th Street in his beloved Castro. To honor Brian, watch a Fellini movie and laugh at the subtle humor, tip your server 22%, and make sure to vote and be involved with community issues.
‘The Best of The Second City’ at Berkeley Rep
by Jim Gladstone ex-husband was a such a pig, and what it was like being in a relationship with him, having sex with him. And then I’d bring a boar’s head on stage.”
Early influences Elrod names John Early and Julio Torres as gay comedians he particularly enjoys today. But
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
During high school, Elrod took extracurricular theater classes at the Arkansas Art Center, eventually joining Armadillo Rodeo, a profes
George Elrod (center) with cast members of The Second City
George Elrod brings cheerful queerness to sketches and improv
‘Taboo: Amos Guttman’
‘Sabbath Queen’ Faves amidst the Gaza War
‘Light Light Light’ Inari Niemi’s Finnish queer film
by Joshua Polanski
In the spring of 1986, Eastern Europe changed forever with the explosion of Chernobyl. And in the Finnish film “Light Light Light” (“Valoa Valoa Valoa”), so does the life of fifteen-yearold girl Mariia (Rebekka Baer) when a new girl, Mimi (Anni Iikkanen), arrives in her small town. The two events, Chernobyl and a youthful summer passion with Mimi, are tied together in the ineffable memories 20 years later of an adult Mariia (Laura Birn) who returns home to care for her ailing mother (Pirjo Lonka).
“Light Light Light” (Intramovies) is a special queer film, in part because of how it rhetorically aims itself at teenagers and in part because of its artistic achievements.
The historical setting of Chernobyl radiation and paranoia provide the summer romance with the gravity that partners with young love that one can only know as a teen. The world can be made or broken on the lips of one person.
For Mariia, because of the nature in which their relationship ends, the effects of the ending will last as long as she does. She now finds consolation in the arms of her aging mother, the same mother who years earlier eventually forbade her from seeing Mimi (though she was powerless to stop their meetings) due to drug rumors that, ironically, Mariia started before falling for the new girl.
From page 11
filmmaker Guttman (1954-1993) who directed “Drifting (1983),” the first Israeli LGBTQ-related film. The film is bracketed by the last interview Guttman gave as he lay dying of AIDS in his mother’s apartment at age 38. “I’m sitting alone in my ghetto.” Born in Romania and emigrating to Israel at age seven with his family, he studied for a year at New York University and his hero was Pasolini.
He made only four films, all of them unconventional and controversial often based on real people and events. His philosophy of film was expressed in his quote, “Life isn’t one genre, it’s a salad.” The documentary uses unreleased footage from his film sets, rare archival materials, and excerpts from his personal diary, where we hear Guttman’s digitally generated voice reading them. “Taboo” is a fascinatingly disturbing portrait of a prickly, contradictory artist finally given his due.
The film is expertly crafted. Director Inari Niemi joins hand-held camera work with tranquil summer-time cinematography and rich colors to bring a blissful queer cinematic experience to their largely teenage audience. (The film received a warm applause at its International Premiere in Tallinn, Estonia for the 23rd Youth and Children’s Film Festival.) Hanna Kuirinlahti’s editing particularly transcended my expectations of coming-of-age film. She edits across the present and the past, as well as across the spaces of the characters, not unlike a beautiful spider web of related emotions and memories.
Cinematic chemistry
In one complicated (and generalized) example of cross-cutting and sound editing, the film could transition back and forth within the scene between a youthful Mariia on her own, a distrustful and contemplative Mimi, an abstract faded purple Chernobyl sky, and Mariia in the present, all of which may be guided through the voice of a poetic Mariaa.
The voice-overs serve as sound continuity for these discordant images, images that only mean something profound and even soulful when read together. It’s editing worth celebrat-
ing, especially in a summer film, a sub-genre that more often than not aggregates toward simplistic and uninspired filmmaking.
Both of the young leads captivate and their chemistry sells the grand emotions at stake. Their romance feels bigger than life, as do most childhood heartbreaks, and the Chernobyl analogy only reinforces their naturally emotive and energetically dramatic acting. The adult Mariia works too, but the heavy lifting is done by her younger counterpart. She mostly has a reactive role and one with a lot of crying, which is vulnerable, of course, but more single-noted.
Since it is the closing night feature, we can say SFJFF4 is going out with a bang in the documentary “Sabbath Queen.” It’s the compelling story of Amichai Lau-Lavie, an openly gay man, a Conservative Jewish rabbi,
For a youthful same-sex love story, let alone one set in the 1980s, the film is also somewhat unique for not framing queer love through a lens of homophobia. Mimi is a non-stranger to being bullied and people look down on her for coming from rather abject poverty, but she’s picked on for reasons beyond the scope of her sexuality, and even this is mild. Mariia looks right through the poverty and the other pitiable aspects of Mimi’s life and sees only passion and the person she loves. What others say shows no bearing on Mariia. In “Light Light Light,” love is loving.
The screenplay, written by the director’s sister and Finnish poet Juuli Niemi, avoids most of the dangerous tropes common to queer representation by just neglecting to converse with them from a storytelling point of view. She writes about queerness like it’s just a fact of life, which it is, and that has a graceful novelty to it since so often heterosexual norms define the landscape of media depictions of queerness. Queer people have interesting stories, not just for their queerness but for their peopleness too.
And as a film aimed at a younger audience, in a country currently experiencing a rise of right-wing authoritarianism, a lesson like this could make a tangible, political difference. Unfortunately, the same could be said of our country and that makes Niemi’s film relevant here (or anywhere for that matter) too.t www.intramovies.com
a Radical Faerie, and a drag queen, filmed over twenty years. The filmmaker is Sandy DuBowski, who in 2001 created the queer Jewish cult classic, “Trembling Before G-d,” on how gay Orthodox Jews reconcile their sexuality with their faith.
Amichai is a descendant of 38 consecutive generations of Orthodox Jewish rabbis, which is both a gift and a burden. His grandfather died in the Holocaust saying Kiddush in the gas chamber with his congregation. His father was an Israeli diplomat. His uncle was the former Chief Rabbi of Israel. His disapproving but loving brother is an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, whose commentary about Amichai we hear throughout the film.
“Sabbath Queen” follows his journey from being outed by the Israeli press, then emigrating to New York where he gets involved with the Radical Faeries, meets his non-Jewish lover, who later dies of HIV complications. He develops a hilarious stage drag persona, Rebbetzin (meaning rabbi’s wife) Hadassah Gross spouting Jewish wisdom.
Believing he can dismantle the repressive prejudicial traditionalism of Conservative Judaism from the inside, Amichai decides to become a rabbi. He enters the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, to the consternation of his progressive congregation and his orthodox family, who feel he treats Judaism like a game.
Always opposed to the Israeli occupation of Gaza, right after the Oc-
tober 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Amichai immediately called for a ceasefire at a protest where other Jews barraged him with hateful names. Amichai is a shapeshifter and you aren’t sure exactly where he lands in the end, but he wants you to be uncomfortable. His philosophy is best summed up in his quote, “Not everything that we’ve inherited is worthy of being passed on; we need to look the 21st century in the eye.” One of the best queer documentaries of this year.
The unkindest cut of all or perhaps not? Circumcision is the topic du jour in writer/director Jonah Weinstein’s ten minute short, “The Eighth Day.” Noah and Jonah are gay Jewish husbands and through surrogacy are new parents to a baby boy, Reuben. When Noah and Jonah’s parents arrive at
their home expecting a traditional bris for their grandson, Noah and Jonah are forced to tell them they’ve decided not to circumcise Reuben. The parents are now in an uproar. Will Noah and Jonah surrender?
The humor here is Borscht Belt/ Neil Simon one-liners, which may or may not appeal to viewers. This controversy once discussed in secret is now a mainstream Jewish issue, especially for queer and non-traditional Jewish parents. An amusing conversation discussion starter.
Few issues are as radioactive today as cancel culture featured in the 38-minute semi-short “XCLD: The Story of Cancel Culture,” produced by MSNBC. Cancel culture originated
See page 13 >>
<< Jewish Film Fest
Left: ‘The Eighth Day’ Right: Judy Gold in ‘XCLD: The Story of Cancel Culture’
‘Janis Ian: Breaking Silence’
Rebekka Baer and Anni Iikkanen in ‘Light Light Light’
Intramovies
Oh, Danny boy Web
by David-Elijah Nahmod
I
n the second episode of “Danny Will Die Alone,” a hilarious new web series now streaming on Dekkoo, Danny (Jack Tracy) a 39-year-old single gay man, is about to sing at a gay bar in New York City. But first, he stands outside in front of the bar topless in order to convince people to enter the empty bar to see him. While outside he strikes up a conversation with a good-looking thirty-yearold. The two flirt and the man kisses Danny. A few minutes later as Danny stands before the mike to introduce his song, he spots the thirty-year-old making out with someone else.
“I think I hate gay people,” Danny says to the drag queen who works at the bar.
“Girl…” says the drag queen, as she rolls her eyes.
The episode, which lasts all of eight and a half minutes, is funny because it rings so true. According to Tracy, who created, wrote, edited and directed the series in addition to starring, “Danny Will Die Alone” came about as a result of his horrific dating life.
“I noticed a real change after the pandemic in the quality of the apps and how many successful dates I could get,” Tracy said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I don’t know if it’s the apps, the culture, my age, but everything seems to be a bit more unhinged. Plus, the fact that they are now dominated by poly and open couples, so finding a single person actually looking for a relationship is so much harder. When you do find one, let’s just say I’ve encountered a lot of strange behavior. I thought they would make good stories.”
From page 12
as a progressive tactic to hold people accountable for bad behavior, particularly racism, misogyny, and homophobia. However, more recently, conservatives have coopted the phrase to lament the overreach of “woke” goals, seeing themselves as victims. “They attempt to use it as a political powerplay of their own, while seeking to de-platform opponents with similar strategies.”
Brilliantly, the film uses comedians, including the lesbian comic Judy Gold (who wrote a book, “Yes I Can Say That,” on the subject), often victims of cancel culture. They argue that people need to be less sensitive about comedy which is supposed to make us wince and think. “XCLD” also profiles how there’s a long tradition of cancel culture in our country going back to the Puritans, who used public shaming to hold people responsible for their actions (i.e. the Scarlet A). The film centers around the conundrum of using free speech to prevent someone else from speaking.
Another major LGBTQ film that was not screened for the press is the documentary, “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” about the singer/songwriter’s life and career. According to the film’s website, it “will chronicle the singer’s epic life journey beginning with her Jewish childhood on a chicken farm in New Jersey; her youthful struggle with notoriety following her hit “Society’s Child” (about an interracial love) in 1966 and her ascent to fame with the single “At Seventeen” (about body shaming) in 1975,” for which she won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
During the 1960s Ian jammed with Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village bars and partied with Janis Joplin. She was outed in 1976 by the “Village Voice” magazine, but was quiet about it until her 1993 album “Breaking Silence,” (her first in 12 years) in which she formally came out publicly about her loving relation-ship with wife Pat Snyder. The film utilizes Ian’s vast archive, as well as interviews with family, friends, famed collaborators, and music journalists to tell her courageous story, which is ongoing, as she is still performing today in concerts at age 73.t
www.jfi.org
Tracy admits that it’s exhausting to wear so many hats, but that he’s good at multitasking and has a great team for support.
“At this stage of my career, it’s the only way it gets done,” he said. “Dekkoo has been a godsend with financially backing the series. Before this, it was just me and my paycheck. So, the more I do, the more I can spend on actors, crew, and locations.”
He added that he’s getting a lot of mentions on social media, as well as some really sweet DMs and emails. Tracy has been getting a lot of requests for more of Danny. Most have been saying that they find the series funny, particularly his facial reactions. Quite a few of his Instagram reels have gotten huge engagements.
“I’m very proud of this series,” he said. “I hope people will see this and think, ‘Wow, it’s not just me.’ Danny is certainly judgmental and no peach himself, but I think a lot of people will see these scenarios and recognize them from their own dating lives. I always found the humor is in the specific. But above all, I just want the laughs.” t
According to Tracy, all the stories are based in truth, though some are embellished more than others. The subject of the show now comes up when he’s on real-life dates, with peo-
ple asking him if they’re going to be in an episode.
“Most don’t,” he said. “Usually, the ones worried about it have nothing to fear.”
‘Danny Will Die Alone’ is currently streaming on Dekkoo. www.dekkoo.com
<< Jewish Film Fest
Jack Tracy in ‘Danny Will Die Alone’
The Olympics: the operas
by Tim Pfaff
Olympic Games come with sideshows. Most of them, soon eclipsed by the athletic events, fall into the category of flash and dash. But we’ll always have Paris.
While details about the opening and closing ceremonies of the forthcoming, centennial Paris Olympics (last held in the French capital in 1924) remain closely guarded secrets for now, the “Hippies” –practitioners of HIP, historically informed performance– spotted an unmissable opportunity and, to use Olympic language, ran for it.
On May 16, Christophe Rousset led his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques in a concert performance of Domenico Cimarosa’s opera, “L’Olimpiade” (1784), at the Royal Opera-Versailles and on tour, having recorded the piece in Paris from December 18 to 22 for the Chateau Versailles house label. In the spirit of Baroque competition, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, not to be outdone, mounted a sexy, stylish, and wellreceived fully staged production of
Antonio Vivaldi’s opera, “L’Olimpiade” (1734), from June 20 to 29.
It can only be hoped that the Games themselves, which begin in Paris with opening ceremonies on July 26, come off as well.
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The Vivaldi opera first hit the boards in Vienna a full 40 years before the Cimarosa, but while that’s an impressive run for an opera story, “L’Olimpiade” operas span a significantly longer time. Vivaldi’s was second, after a setting by Antonio Caldara opera the previous year, but over the years some 60 Baroque and early-classical composers set the libretto by Pietro Metastastio, who was to the opera-seria libretto what Greg Louganis has been to diving, a gamechanger and model. Metastasio’s claim that his drama was performed all over
Metastasio’s libretto for “L’Olimpiade” was written for a 1733 opera to celebrate the birthday of an empress. Vivaldi’s setting was for performance at a Venetian theater, and Cimarosa’s to celebrate the opening of a new theater in Vicenza. Notably, neither of these operas has been forgotten, and these new productions are likely to seal the Metastasio libretto’s bid for the future.
Metastasio’s characters attend the classical Olympics as participants as well as observers. As you would expect from a Baroque opera, the stakes are both political and, for the characters, deeply personal, with love intrigues central.
Licia, the possible son of the king of Sicione, goes to the Olympics after hearing that the king has offered his daughter Aristea in marriage to the victor. Magacle prevails, but confesses
<< Second City From page 11
Chicago and the road
Elrod enrolled at Chicago’s DePaul University and began taking classes and workshops at the leading improv institutions while an undergraduate (He was also on college improv team The Cosby Sweaters).
After graduating, Elrod started performing regularly on city stages. In 2018 got a gig as a writer and cast member of “Not Safe for Werk,” Second City’s first-ever all-LGBTQIA revue.
Over time, he’s developed an array of cheerfully queer-coded characters, including a hip-wiggling Bible school teacher, a flamboyant florist, and a brilliant Bowen Yangesque anthromorph, “The Personification of Ribbon.”
For the past two years, Elrod has been touring with one of Second City’s three traveling casts, playing both extended residencies like the Berkeley Rep run and one-night engagements.
the ruse to Aristea and drowns himself in sorrow. Licida goes mad.
There’s more, of course, but you know it’s an opera seria libretto from the intrigues.
Rousset on record
In the Cimarosa setting, Aristea was sung by a soprano and Megacle by a castrato soprano (yes, that). In Christophe Rousset’s version –the keeper for now at least– the roles of both Licia and Megacle are taken by women singers.
Right off the starting blocks, the out director draws a vivid, propulsive performance from his forces, instrumental and vocal alike. His tireless discovery of lesser-known operas that he then reveals as masterful is at the fore here, as is his command of form.
The recording’s authoritative booklet –one reason among several to get
the CDs– addresses the matter of vocal virtuosity in Baroque opera as a distinctive means of expressing contrasting emotions. The Baroque A-BA aria form, in which the first part is repeated with embellishments in the “rondo,” does exactly that.
The singing Rousset elicits overall is jaw-dropping in its speed, accuracy, and invention, the vocal virtuosity underwriting it simply dizzying.
Unexpectedly for this director, the recitatives are tentative, clumsy, and under-realized, but in aria after aria (often deliciously accompanied) the vocalism is record-setting.
Among Rousset’s goals is to indicate why Cimarosa was one of the most influential –and performed–composers of his day and, implicitly, his direct links to Mozart. As sung by Maite Beaumont, Megacle’s first aria, “Superbo di me spesso,” sets off the vocal fireworks. By the time the first act ends, with a melting duet for Licia (Mathilde Ortscheidt) and Aristea (the brilliant soprano Rocio Perez, the “star” of this ensemble effort), prime Handel is in the rearview mirror with mature Mozart in the sights. Thereafter there’s stand-out singing with drop-the-needle regularity, but it warrants saying that not all of it is extroverted. Rousset is a master of tracing the arc of a drama, and a considerable amount of the music is intimate and interior. The friendship of Licia and Megacle is sensitively traced. The singers are terrific, but Cimarosa, none too soon, comes out the champion.t
Domenico Cimarosa, L’Olimpiade, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset conductor, Chateau de Versailles, CD ($29.90) and streaming www.opera-royalversailles.com
other as performers, and we also travel well together. Everyone is such a sweetheart.”
Elrod’s fellow cast member, Annie Sullivan, also identifies as queer, as does music director, Michael Oldham, who travels with the show. His boyfriend of four and a half years, a fellow Chicagoan who works in advertising, will fly out for several days of the run.
“We’re going to be running wild all over town in Berkeley and San Francisco,” said Elrod.
Elrod is excited about some of the new material he and his castmates have developed for Berkeley.
“We always try to do some research and come up with some ideas that are specific to the place we’re performing, especially when we’re doing a longer run, like this one. We’ve got a character who’s a Berkeley student with two uncles in San Francisco. There’s plenty of tech stuff. And there will definitely be a self-driving car in the show!”t
Having collaborated with many performers over the years, Elrod describes the cast he’s playing with in Berkeley as “my apex ensemble.”
“We’re so comfortable with each
“In a slower month,” Elrod says, “We might do as few as four shows. But when it’s busy, especially during the holiday season, it gets up to 25 or 30 shows monthly.”
‘The Best of The Second City,’ through July 28. $20-$74. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org
George Elrod
The Second City cast in performance
Conductor Christophe Rousset
Eric Larrayadieu
‘Queering Rehoboth Beach’
by Gregg Shapiro
When it comes to LGBTQ summer destinations in the Eastern time zone, almost everyone knows about Provincetown, Massachusetts, Fire Island, New York, and Key West, Florida. There are also slightly lesser known, but no less wonderful places, such as Ogunquit, Maine, Saugatuck, Michigan, and New Hope, Pennsylvania. Sandwiched in between is Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a location that is popular with queer folks from DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
The dramatic and inspiring story of how Rehoboth Beach came to be what it is today can be found in gay historian James T. Sears’s revealing “Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk.” As educational as it is dishy, the book provides readers with everything they need to know (and possibly didn’t realize they needed to know) about this fabulous locality.
Central America where I chronicled everyday queer life and learned Spanish. We returned several years ago and then washed up on Rehoboth Beach.
Gregg Shapiro: James, it’s been a few years since I’ve interviewed you. The last time was in 1997 about your book “From Lonely Hunters to Lonely Hearts: An Oral History of Lesbian and Gay Southern Life.” At the time, you were living in Columbia, SC. Where are you currently based, and how long have you been there?
James T. Sears: It has been great reconnecting with you, Gregg. After that book, we moved to Charleston, SC. There I wrote several more books. One was about the Mattachine group, focusing on one largely misunderstood leader, Hal Call.
Another book shared reminisces of a 90-year-old gentleman, the late John Zeigler, interweaving his diaries, letters, and poetry to chronicle growing up gay in the South at the turn of the last century. From there I moved to
In the introduction to your new book, you write about how a “restaurant incident” in Rehoboth, which you describe in detail in the prologue, became a kind of inspiration for the book project. As a historian, can the personal also be political and motivational?
I want to capture reader’s interest by personalizing this book more than I have others. The restaurant anecdote is the book’s backstory. It explains, in part, my motivation for writing it, and more crucially, introduces one meaning of “queering Rehoboth.” That is, in order to judge this “incident” –and the book itself– we need to engage in multiple readings of history, or at least be comfortable with this approach. I underscore that what is accepted as “history”–about an individual, a community, or a society– is simply a reflection of that era’s accepted view. Queering history challenges that consensus.
Your book features numerous interviews. What was involved in
the selection process of interview subjects?
I interviewed dozens of people. They are listed in the book as the “Cast of Narrators.” Before these interviews, I engaged in a systematic review of local and state newspapers, going back to Rehoboth’s founding as a Methodist Church Camp in 1873. I also read anecdotal stories penned by lesbians and gay men. These appeared in local or regional queer publications, such as “Letters from Camp Rehoboth” and the “Washington Blade.” Within a year, I had compiled a list of key individuals to interview.
However, I also interviewed lesbians, gay men, transgendered individuals, and heterosexuals who lived or worked in Rehoboth sometime during the book’s main timeframe (1970s-2000s). I sought diversity in background and perspective. To facilitate their memories, I provided a set of questions before we met. I often had photos, letters, or other memorabilia to prime their memories during our conversation.
The act of making homosexuality an issue in politics continues to this day. What do you think it will take for that to change?
You pose a key question. Those who effectuated change in Rehoboth – queers and progressive straights –sought common ground. Their goal was to integrate into the town. As such, rather than primarily focus on sexual and gender differences, they stressed values held in common. Rather than proselytize or agitate, they opened up businesses, restored houses, joined houses of worship, and engaged in the town’s civic life.
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of books about LGBTQ bars, a subject that is prominent in “Queering Rehoboth Beach.” Was this something of which you were aware while writing the book?
Queering heterosexual space has been a survival strategy for generations of queer folks. These spaces –under-used softball fields, desolate beaches, darkened parks, and out-ofthe-way bars– are detailed in many LGBTQ+ books, from the classic, “Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold,” to the recently published “A Place of Our Own” and “The Bars Are Ours.” Of
“When
course, these spaces did not encompass the kaleidoscope of queer life, but they provide us a historical gateway into various segments of a queer community and culture.
This was certainly true for my book.
Unsurprisingly, until The Strand controversy, which began in 1988, all of Rehoboth’s queer bars were beyond the town limits. There were, however, homosexual watering holes in the liminal sexual space. For instance, you had the Pink Pony on the Boardwalk during the 1950s and the Back Porch Café during the 1970s. So, in this
sense, I think “Queering Rehoboth Beach” fits well in this ever-enlarging canon of queer history.
How do you think Rehoboth residents will respond to your depiction of their town?
Well, if recent events are predictive of future ones, then I think it will be generally positive. My first book signing at the locally-owned bookstore resulted in it selling out. The manager did tell me that a gentleman stepped to the counter asking, “Why is this queer book here?”—pointing to the front table of “Beach Reads.” That singular objection notwithstanding, his plan is to keep multiple boxes in stock throughout the summer.
Over the years, many nonfiction and fiction books have been written about places such as Provincetown, Fire Island, and Key West. Is it your hope that more books will be written about Rehoboth Beach?
My hope is that writers and researchers continue to queer our stories. Focusing on persons, events, and communities, particularly micro-histories, provides a richer narrative of queer lives. It also allows us to queer the first generation of macro-histories which too often glossed over everyday activists. So, as the saying goes, let a thousand flowers bloom. t
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
‘Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk,’ by James T. Sears, Temple University Press. $30, 356 pages www.tupress.temple.edu
James T. Sears on the beach town’s evolution
Author James T. Sears
A gay gathering on the beach.
Gay Rehoboth Tourism
Above: Rehoboth Beach boardwalk Below: Rehoboth Beach in 2023
Above: Wikipedia Below: Instagram
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