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In My Own Words

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The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives for all Americans. We’re dedicated to ensuring equitable health and reducing LGBTQ health disparities. We fund innovative research, advocate for public health and share lifesaving resources important to LGBTQ communities. For the American Heart Association, Pride isn’t just a celebration. It’s a commitment to improving the health of LGBTQ communities everywhere. Because heart disease and stroke st do not discriminate. Learn more at heart.org

IT ’ S N OT J UST WH E RE YOU L IV E IT ’ S HOW V I RT U A L T O U R S AVA I L A B L E D E S T I N AT I O N L I V I N G C O N D O M I N I U M S P R I C E D F R O M $ 8 0 0 s T O O V E R $ 5 M / I M M E D I AT E O C C U P A N C Y

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A PRIDE MONTH LIKE NO OTHER. The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation stands with Greater Boston’s nonprofit community in solidarity and support during these unparalleled times. Created in 2012, the Equality Fund was the first permanently endowed fund to support Greater Boston’s nonprofit organizations that serve and strengthen the LGBTQ community. Fueled by generous, forward-thinking donors who have incorporated the fund into their estate plans, we make high-impact grants to nonprofits serving the constantly changing, diverse needs of the local LGBTQ community. We traditionally award grants to our nonprofit partners in June, in honor of Pride month. But this year, we accelerated our timeline and announced more than 30 grants in April, the largest slate in our history. Our goal was to provide urgently needed resources to LGBTQ-led—and LGBTQ-serving—nonprofits to help them respond and endure at a time when they are being stretched to their limits. The Fund’s grantmaking priorities, always informed by research, are guided by an Advisory Committee of community members and allies who possess a depth and breadth of understanding about the most pressing issues affecting LGBTQ people today. Grants made from the Equality Fund will always go to benefit Greater Boston’s LGBTQ community. We invite you to join us. Any individual, family or organization can contribute to the Equality Fund through planned and legacy giving options and outright contributions. Learn more at www.tbf.org/equality.

publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com

From The Publisher I am a white, heterosexual male. I have never feared for my life while jogging. I have never been followed or questioned for being in the “wrong neighborhood.” I have never been harassed for holding my partner’s hand in public. I have been able to date, marry and go to prom without any issues or repercussions. I have privilege. I have tried to do my best throughout my life to stand up for those who do not have the same privilege. Whether that was taking part in rallies against apartheid in college, spending time in my twenties as a social worker working with families in need, working for various nonprofits or donating money to a wide variety of causes (both personally and through Boston Spirit magazine). And while this is all well and good, it is not enough. Too many citizens in this country and around the world are stuck. They might understand that there are problems, but they cannot truly understand the gravity of the issue because they have never been personally affected. Take Drew Brees for example. By all accounts a very good man. Charitable, a good family man, someone who has done an incredible amount of work for the city of New Orleans, where he is the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints football team. Recently Brees stated that he would never kneel during the playing of the national anthem and he considered it disrespectful since both his grandfathers served in the military and fought in WWII. What Brees completely missed was the fact that tens of thousands of Black men also fought in WWII and came home to a very different welcome than his grandfathers. These brave Black soldiers came back to a country that still had lynchings. A country that didn’t allow them to eat in many restaurants, stay in many hotels, enter the bathrooms in many public places, etc. These brave men risked their lives just like Brees’ grandfathers. Yet they, and their children and grandchildren, have experienced very different lives than the Brees family. It was an incredibly close-minded statement by Brees, but, to his credit, he listened to those who felt differently and had different experiences and he realized he was wrong. His subsequent apology was heartfelt, sincere and compassionate. He really did seem to see things through a new lens. One down, a few million to go. I am hoping for many positive outcomes from the recent round of protests. I am hoping for sincere police reforms. I am hoping our elected officials wake up and take action versus pay more lip service. And most of all, I am hoping that we can ALL start to view the world around us through a new, wide-angle lens. Happy Pride, everyone. We miss you and can’t wait to see you all again soon.

David Zimmerman Publisher

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As We Go To Press Looking across Franklin Park Playstead on the beautiful afternoon of June 13—where thousands had gathered for the Transgender Resistance Vigil and March—I felt a new sense of pride in the LGBTQA community. The 50th Boston Pride Parade, originally slated for that afternoon, had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But here in Franklin Park a crowd, separated in socially distanced groups and clad in protective masks, demanded a better future … now. What made this gathering so different from Pride festivities? It wasn’t the mellow music playing through loudspeakers or Unity flags snapping in the breeze, with their chevrons of Black, Brown and Transgender stripes overlaying the traditional rainbow colors. (See photos on page 92.) There was a different energy here, a vibe reminiscent of Boston’s earlier Prides, Dyke marches, gay and lesbian civil rights demonstrations and ACT UP actions. Unlike more recent Pride parades, with their focus on celebrating corporate inclusion, marriage equality and adoption rights, these were essentially protests for social justice. Here, on this afternoon of June 15 in Franklin Park, was a renewed sense of urgency to act now. The Transgender Resistance Vigil and March, which winded its way from the Park to the police station in Nubian Square, was organized in the spirit of the Black Lives Matter protests going on all over the country and around the world. These demonstrations against excessive

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use of force by police and systemic racism in the US exploded in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others. But this demonstration also emphasized the names of transgender and gendernonconforming people tragically killed. Their names included Mesha Caldwell, Sean Hake, Vontashia Bell, Ashanti Carmon, Zoe Spears, Muhlaysia Booker, Dustin Parker, Tony McDade ... and so many more. One important message of this vigil and march was “Black lives matter and Black trans lives matter. You cannot say Black lives matter and not include trans people,” said organizer Athena Vaughn. This vigil and march was also a wake-up cry to the rest of the LGBTQ community that our Black, Brown, transgender and gender-nonconforming brothers and sisters do not have equal access to the rights we all have worked so hard to get and they continue to struggle in a system that denies them these rights. “We fought for gay marriage, we fought for equal rights for LGBTQ people—and it just seems like when it’s time to fight for trans people, everyone always runs with their tails between their legs and gets quiet. No one’s gonna stand up for us like we can stand up for ourselves, no one’s gonna speak up for us like we can speak up for ourselves, and no one can fight for us like we can fight for ourselves,” Vaughn explains in this issue’s profiles of local leaders.

In the words of Vaughn’s Transgender Emergency Fund co-organizers: “We hope our allies will rise alongside us to fight for our rights. We hope our family members stand with us. We hope the Black community will support and love Black Transgender individuals. We hope that our voices will change laws across the United States giving us equal rights and protections. We hope that police brutality in America will be ended. These are the hopes that we, the Transgender community, will all get to live long, beautiful sustainable lives.” We at Boston Spirit magazine share these hopes. Judging from the thousands of LGBTQA people who showed up at the vigil and march, we are not alone. The mission of Boston Spirit magazine is to offer a platform to amplify the collective voices of our community, and that means focusing on the voices of the marginalized within our community. We have always strived to do this, but we must do a better job of listening to these voices, reflecting on what they are telling us, and reaching out to do more. As we go to press, Boston Spirit magazine reaffirms our commitment to #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackTransLivesMatter. Our greatest hope is to help bring about that better future … now.

Rob Phelps Editor in Chief

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Hit List

Making History

On the Frontline

Contents SEPT| OCT 2020 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 4

Spotlight

Feature

On the Frontline

LGBTQ health care workers meet the challenge in Boston

8 10 14 16 20 21 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38

Taking Pride

In My Own Words

Boston Pride’s 50th anniversary year returns to activist roots What the marriage equality struggle taught us about making change

Looking Back, Looking Forward Lost to social-distancing, New England’s queer proms set sites on future dates

Seasonal

Let Us Introduce You

The Show Must Go On

Finding It at the Movies

It All Comes Back

Then and Now

Culture

Arts and culture in the summer of COVID-19 Rachael Brister brings energy and experience to new role as director of Provincetown Film Society Helen Fremont’s acclaimed new memoir, “The Escape Artist,” digs deeper into family secrets Paul Lisicky’s new memoir unflinchingly recalls gay life in Provincetown during the age of AIDS

Let Us Introduce You

The Show Must Go On

Voice of Our People

Lyrics of His Life

Gay playwright Terrence McNally had deep area connections, onstage and off Kindness and compassion. Branden James’s kind of salvation

Calendar

New England Events

Prison Book Program Transgender Resistance Vigil and March Rhode Island Pride Food/ Supplies Drive

91 92

Man Behind the Mask

Scene

Coda

Fashion designer David Josef faces pandemic with panache

Man Behind the Mask

GOOD

MARCHES ON

Eastern Bank has always been proud to support Pride. Even though we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be together this year, please know that we still stand with every member of the LGBTQIA+ community. And we look forward to standing beside you in 2021, marching toward a much brighter future for everyone.

Join us to make a difference at

easternbank.com

#JoinUsForGood

SPOTLIGHT Trending STORY Scott Kearnan

Hit List NEWS, NOTES AND TO-DOS FOR EVERY GAY AGENDA Drag Divas” shows, may “look a little different,” but will be readjusted for the “new norm.” More: mainstreetogunquit.com

GET INTO Brown ‘n Out, a

Jujubee

KEEP AN EYE on the fifth season of

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, now airing on VH1, because a Boston-based queen is in the running for the crown. Jujubee, whose off-stage name is Airline Inthyrath, is no stranger to performing—or reality shows: The glamorous, quick-witted entertainer also currently stars as the resident fashion expert on the TLC makeover show “Dragnificent.” She previously placed third on the second season of Drag Race, and made it to the finals on the first season of Drag Race All Stars. Here’s hoping this third try on the franchise will be the charm. More: jujubeeonline.com

DANCE ON OVER to Mainestreet in the Pine Tree State’s gayfriendly, summer resort town of Ogunquit. Billed as northern New England’s largest gay nightclub, and now celebrating its 20th anniversary year, Mainestreet will reopen from its COVID-related hiatus on July 1. That’s good news for those comfortable hitting the scene, because Massachusetts nightclubs are currently slated to reopen no earlier than July 20. In a Facebook post announcing its return, Mainestreet acknowledged that tea dances and other events, such as “Dueling

podcast about LGBTQ people of color in Vermont. When it comes to racial diversity, the Green Mountain State is often tied with Maine as the whitest state in America. So it’s refreshing to hear podcast creator Reggie Condra host important, informative and entertaining conversations with local activists, artists and other community figures on a range of issues, from politics to pop culture—and maybe, just maybe, hobbies like fantasy books and Dungeons & Dragons. More: brownnout. podbean.com

SPEND SOME TIME looking over the artfully designed timepieces from Projects Watches. The company, based in Boston’s queer-friendly

Jamaica Plain neighborhood, partners with independent artists, architects and engineers to create cool accessories that look like a million bucks—but won’t break the bank. Projects Watches just unveiled the latest addition to its collection, a Pride Watch that features a deconstructed rainbow: The colored bands move like hands on a clock. Five percent of sales from each $150 Pride Watch benefits True Colors United, an organization supporting homeless LGBTQ youth. More: projectswatches. com

SQUEAL WHEN YOU WATCH

“Scream, Queen!: My Nightmare on Elm Street,” a fascinating documentary that just landed on Shudder, a Netflix-style service exclusively for horror films. (It’s rentable on Amazon Prime, too.) The film explores the 1985 movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” now a cult classic for its shockingly obvious queer subtext and homoeroticism, as well as the film’s scary impact on lead actor Mark Patton, whose involvement in the flick compromised his closeted status, derailed his career and put him through personal hell. The doc includes commentary from queer horror pundits, including Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s own

PUBLISHER David Zimmerman EDITOR IN CHIEF Rob Phelps ART DIRECTOR Dean Burchell CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR Scott Kearnan [lifestyle@bostonspiritmagazine.com] CONTRIBUTING ARTS EDITOR Loren King CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ryan M. Leach, Bob Linscott, Rev. Irene Monroe, Natalie Nonken, Renaldo Payne, Alex Remier, Kim Harris Stowell CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joel Benjamin COVER PHOTO Courtesy Derrick Young Jr. and Jonathan Allen ON THE WEB [bostonspiritmagazine.com] TALK TO US [feedback@bostonspiritmagazine.com] EDITORIAL CONTACT [editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com] PUBLISHING AND SALES CONTACT [publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com or 781-223-8538] THE FINE PRINT Boston Spirit magazine. A Division of Jake Publishing, LLC Published by Jake

SEPT| OCT 2020 | VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 4

Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2020 by Jake Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without the written permission of Boston Spirit magazine. Neither the publishers nor the advertisers will be held responsible for any errors found in the magazine. The publishers accept no liability for the accuracy of statements made by advertisers. Publication of the name or photograph of any person, organization or business in this magazine does not reflect upon one’s sexual orientation in any way. Boston Spirit Magazine, 398 Columbus Ave. #395, Boston, MA 021 16

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Knate Higgins, also known as drag performer Bunny Wonderland. More: screamqueendocumentary.com

SING THE PRAISES of Sam Zilli, a Berklee College of Music student who is one of only 62 young leaders across the country to be named a 2020 Truman Scholar by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Zilli is a Navy veteran, award-winning spoken word poet and transgender activist who worked with Berklee to improve support for trans students as well as awareness of how transitioning hormones impact

Sam Zilli

professionally trained voices. Their scholarship will support graduate school for civil rights law and future career plans to support sexual and domestic violence survivors. More: truman.gov

HELP MAKE HISTORY

by supporting the campaign of Gia Drew, who could become Maine’s first transgender state representative. Drew, currently program director at the LGBTQ organization Gia Drew EqualityMaine, is running in the Democratic primary (July 14) in the state’s ninth district. The Kennebunkport resident told the Portland Press Herald that she wants to fix Maine’s “broken healthcare system,” address mental health-related discrimination, improve achievement in schools, build better living conditions for the state’s aging population and build an economy that encourages career-oriented younger workers to remain in-state. More: giadrewformaine.com [x]

JUL| AUG 2020 | 9

SPOTLIGHT Honors STORY Alex Reimer “This Place/Displaced” Simone Wolff, the play features the musical stylings of trans song-maker Anjimile Yvonne, who’s been featured on WBUR’s “Tiny Desk,” and an entire production team comprised of TGNC people. With the help of the Boston Pride grant, the Artists’ Theater hopes to continue to work on the production online and hold some virtual workshops. Ironically, Reich met the play’s director, Orion S. Johnstone, through Zoom. “We wanted to be able to make space for what is really a complicated and layered conversation that doesn’t necessarily go portrayed in as many layers as we think it deserves,” Reich says. “With this grant, we want to just be able to bring nuanced conversations to the world.” In particular, “(T)ESTOSTERONE” looks at some of the specific challenges TGNC people face when it comes to testosterone. The conversation is complex, which is why Reich relies on first-person expertise from people who have lived through the struggle.

Amplifying Voices ARTISTS’ THEATER OF BOSTON, A 2020 BOSTON PRIDE GRANT HONOREE Theater possesses the power to respond to societal injustices in vivid and memorable ways. With the coronavirus pandemic further exacerbating our inequality, and a nation outraged over police brutality against Black people, it is more important than ever to amplify marginalized voices.

same time,” she says. “Theater can really shed light on and give clarity to systemic injustices by holding this lens and offering a critique. On the flip side, theater has the power to perpetuate injustices, if they are not staged and thought about very carefully and critically.”

That is the mission statement of the Artists’ Theater of Boston. Launched in 2013, the organization highlights the systemic injustices in our communities through theater, partnering with local artists and actors to tell stories of oppression in their own words. As one of 80 grassroots organizations to receive a grant from Boston Pride this year, the Artists’ Theater will continue to provide platforms for those who need them most, including disenfranchised members of the LGBTQ+ community.

To hit the right notes, the Artists’ Theater keeps community leaders involved in all aspects of the process. During its 2018 production of “This Place/Displaced,” which highlights the ruinous ramifications of gentrification on our most vulnerable communities, eight playwrights learned the stories of eight people who have been displaced in Boston before writing the script. They were consulted every step of the way, right up until showtime.

For Artistic Director and Cofounder Anneke Reich, it is an awesome responsibility. “Theater has the capacity for something really powerful, and also the capacity for something really dangerous at the

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Before the coronavirus halted in-person community activities, the Artists’ Theater was planning to debut a new project this spring focusing on the experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming members of our community, titled “(T) ESTOSTERONE.” Written by Kit Yan and

As Boston continues to grapple with the coronavirus, the Artists’ Theater wants to help those in the artistic community who are disproportionately experiencing financial hardship. They’re staying active despite the pause of in-person workshops, releasing a special online video series in June, called the “Uncomfortable Conversation x ATB Video Series.” The videos are meant to normalize conversations about sexual violence and unhealthy relationships. They represent many different kinds of conversations and relationships, including stories that discuss LGBTQ+ identities and narratives. They are also written by TGNC artists. “Historically, marginalized voices have not always been treated equitably in the world of theater,” Reich says. “And Artists’ Theater, though we are not perfect at this, strive towards treating those who have been marginalized in our community with more justice and respect.” Those goals fall in line with Boston Pride, which has awarded approximately $180,000 to a total of 99 community organizations since 2016. Reich says the Artists’ Theater was thrilled to receive their support. “We are so thrilled we received the grant,” Reich says. “We support their mission, we see a lot of mission alignments, and hope to only work with them further—especially through this difficult time.” [x]

artiststheater.org

Love. Acceptance. Diversity. Pride. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wealth.

JUL| AUG 2020 | 11

OUR COMM IS OUR ST Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re better together and stronger than ever.

ENT-0675 Rev. 03/20 12 | BOSTON SPIRIT

MUNITY TRENGTH.

JUL| AUG 2020 | 13

SPOTLIGHT History STORY Scott Kearnan Joan Ilacqua

Making History THE HISTORY PROJECT APPOINTS ITS FIRST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Joan Ilacqua deals in alternative facts. And we love it. Just to be clear, Ilacqua is nothing like the falsehood-shilling spokesperson who coined the famous phrase “alternative facts.” Quite the opposite. She’s an archives professional, and documentation of fact is a cornerstone of her work. What makes her truly great at that work, though, is her commitment to collecting and preserving artifacts and documents that represent every side of history—not just the dominant discourse. “When historians look at the past, there’s not one objective truth, necessarily,” says Ilacqua. “There are lots of lenses and interpretations of how things happened in the past. I think the way you can be most truthful is to take into account the different experiences of different people, acknowledging that not everyone experiences the same event the same way.” That kind of authentically inclusive thinking is exactly why Ilacqua is making history as the first executive director—and first full-time employee—in the 40-year history of The History Project, the Boston-based nonprofit that is, essentially, New England’s LGBTQ museum. Since 1980, The History Project has collected materials that chronicle the

14 | BOSTON SPIRIT

region’s queer heritage: pre-Stonewall era photographs, personal diaries, political paraphernalia, t-shirts, community newspapers, gay-bar relics—you name it. And this year the organization received a very nice present for its milestone birthday— an inaugural grant from the Mellon Foundation’s new Mellon Archives program, which aims to diversify vital historic archives across America. The History Project’s grant was used to make an executive director of Ilacqua, who formerly cochaired the board. It’s an impressive ascension for the 31-year-old, who started off as a volunteer when she was in grad school. Then in her comingout process, she found her first real sense of queer community in the organization she now helms. In her new role, she’s dedicated to making sure that future generations can similarly discover New England’s deep, rich LGBTQ culture. And she also wants to make sure that historians and researchers will have access to collections that reflect all of our communities—not just the stories of the wealthy and white, whose privilege more often allows them to leave behind the sort of records that are used to write history.

As part of its mission to build even more comprehensive collections, The History Project recently completed a round of outreach to communities of color, which helped the organization identify how its archives can best serve and represent those whose histories may not typically be made as visible as, say, white cisgender gay men in Boston, says Ilacqua. In addition, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, The History Project has added to its ever-growing digital holdings through #QueerArchivesAtHome, a crowdsourcing initiative that encourages everyone to contribute a piece of their own personal LGBTQ history. These are the kinds of materials used to inform The History Project’s various educational event series, as well as its queer-history walking tours of historic homes and neighborhoods. The organization is also tapped by teachers who want to integrate LGBTQ history into their curriculums, and is used as a resource by the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. Looking to the future, Ilacqua wants The History Project to eventually have its own permanent exhibition space; she also wants to build on collaborations with partners like Historic New England, as well as other outfits interested in better representing LGBTQ narratives in their own collections. In order to chart other new routes for The History Project, llacqua is doing what an archivist does best: She’s looking to yesterday to better plan for tomorrow. “The importance of our mission, and what draws people to it, hasn’t changed in 40 years,” says Ilacqua, who has been collecting stories from History Project founders and longtime volunteers to share online and stress the value of this work. “It still rings true. It’s not like you get a guide when you come out. It’s not like anyone says, ‘This is your heritage.’ But I think people are drawn to that. They seek it out themselves. And we’re a place where people can do that.” [x]

historyproject.org

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SPOTLIGHT Dating STORY Scott Kearnan

What’s S’More AN INNOVATIVE DATING APP DESIGNED WITH RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED MILLENNIALS IN MIND If the social-distancing era has taught us anything, it’s that you can learn a lot about yourself when you spend a lot of time alone. Maybe you’ve discovered you’re an amateur chef, for instance, or that outdoor runs are a favorite new habit that helps clear your head. On the other hand, maybe you’ve discovered that too much alone time can get pretty tiring, that being single in the city—or the ’burbs—is a lot less exciting than it used to be. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. In the early days of the stateside COVID-19 pandemic, user activity surged 25 percent on the dating app S’more, says Adam Cohen-Aslatei, the company’s savvy CEO and founder. The gay entrepreneur debuted his innovative app in the Boston market earlier in the year, and it has already grown to thousands of users, about 16 percent of whom identify as LGBTQ—three times the number you’ll find on most standard dating apps.

Why? Because S’more stands out by offering, well, something more, says Cohen-Aslatei. It’s uniquely designed for millennials who are relationship-oriented, not casual fling-focused. And thanks to its out founder, it has baked inclusivity into its platform, unlike major relationship apps that were designed primarily with straight couples in mind. With S’more, for instance, users can search for opposite- and same-sex relationships, or simply select “Something More” if their identity—or preference in a partner—falls outside the traditional gender binary. That elevated-sounding designation is intended to feel “empowering,” says Cohen-Aslatei, who wishes he’d felt less othered when he was growing up and coming to terms with being gay. The app also offers highly personalized profiles: Users can display trans and nonbinary Pride flags, among others. And there are lots of little touches, like S’more’s

“ If you’re looking for something casual, great. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want something more substantial, shouldn’t you be in environments where everyone is looking for the same thing that you’re looking for? ” Adam Cohen-Aslatei Founder and CEO, S’More

cookie-sandwich logo, which also happens to resemble an equal sign. At the same time, the S’more interface is designed to encourage deeper connections, compared to what is found on gay-focused apps like Grindr, or even mixed ones like

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are initially blurred but become progressively clearer the longer conversations roll on. To eliminate catfishing, facial recognition technology is employed to verify that users are uploading photos that actually, you know, look like themselves. And in addition, the app prompts users to privately rate the respectfulness of conversations; these results are used to calculate a rating score that is displayed on a user’s profile, encouraging and rewarding kindness in the oft-merciless dating pool. If it sounds like he’s got every angle covered, that’s probably because Cohen-Aslatei has been at this for a long time. Back in 2007, during his grad school years at Harvard, Cohen-Aslatei conceptualized a campus dating website, and complementary live speed-dating series, that was a huge success—and even wound up adopted by several other Ivy League universities. Tinder. After all, the cyber-culture of headless torsos and endless swipe-lefts just isn’t made for finding lasting relationships, says Cohen-Aslatei, who was previously managing director of the gay dating app Chappy. Instead of emphasizing appearances (and endless sexting), S’more doesn’t allow users to send photos of themselves. Rather, all photos are pinned to a user’s profile; they

The irony is, Cohen-Aslatei isn’t even single. In fact, he wound up marrying the man he started dating not long after coming out at age 27. What’s more, they didn’t meet online, but at a party via mutual friends. Sparks flew immediately, kindled by common ground and great conversations about favorite movies and “crazy Jewish mothers,” says Cohen-Aslatei with a laugh.

His husband is a senior executive with LVMH, the luxury goods corporation whose companies include Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy. But it’s not the superficial stuff that Cohen-Aslatei fell in love with. In fact, “he comes from a very materialistic industry, but he’s not that way at all,” says Cohen-Aslatei. “I think you want to find someone who connects with you, and has the same values that you have.” Similarly, Facetuned photos and midnight booty calls may have their time and place, but if you’re on the hunt for something longer-term, set your sights on S’more. “I would suggest that the majority of people on Grinder are looking for something that’s more than a hookup,” says Cohen-Aslatei. “Maybe in their view, it starts there and ends somewhere else. But I don’t think that actually happens. Because you need to be in an environment that is conducive for relationships, and I don’t think that one is, because you can’t be the Wal-Mart of the dating space.” “If you’re looking for something casual, great. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want something more substantial, shouldn’t you be in environments where everyone is looking for the same thing that you’re looking for?” [x]

Excellence With Compassion We invite you to share in our commitment to a culture of excellence with compassion – supportive Mount Auburn Hospital team.

mountauburnhospital.org/careers We value equality and are committed to maintaining an environment in which employees, patients, and visitors are treated without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, handicap, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or disability.

JUL| AUG 2020 | 17

with DESCOVY for PrEP® DESCOVY for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a once-daily prescription medicine for adults and adolescents at risk of HIV. It helps lower the chances of getting HIV through sex. DESCOVY for PrEP is not for everyone: • It is not for use in people assigned female at birth who are at risk of getting HIV from vaginal sex, because its effectiveness has not been studied. • You must be HIV-negative before and while taking DESCOVY for PrEP. DESCOVY® is the smallest pill approved for PrEP. Actual size: 13mm x 6mm

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT DESCOVY (des-KOH-vee) This is only a brief summary of important information about taking DESCOVY for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). This does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your medicine. MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY FOR PrEP Before starting and while taking DESCOVY for PrEP: • You must be HIV-negative. You must get tested for HIV immediately before and at least every 3 months while taking DESCOVY. If you think you were exposed to HIV, tell your healthcare provider right away. They may want to do more tests to confirm that you are still HIV-negative • Many HIV tests can miss HIV infection in a person who has recently become infected. Symptoms of new HIV infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. Tell your healthcare provider if you have had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting or while taking DESCOVY. • DESCOVY does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to reduce the risk of getting STIs. • DESCOVY by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. Do not take DESCOVY for PrEP unless you are confirmed to be HIV negative. DESCOVY may cause serious side effects, including: • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have HBV and stop taking DESCOVY, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check or give you HBV medicine.

Ask a healthcare provider if DESCOVY for PrEP is right for you. To learn more, visit AboutDescovy.com.

ABOUT DESCOVY FOR PrEP DESCOVY for PrEP is a once-daily prescription medicine for adults and adolescents at risk of HIV who weigh at least 77 pounds. It helps lower the chances of getting HIV through sex. DESCOVY for PrEP is not for everyone: • It is not for use in people assigned female at birth who are at risk of getting HIV from vaginal sex, because its effectiveness has not been studied. • You must be HIV-negative before and while taking DESCOVY for PrEP. To help determine your risk of getting HIV-1, talk openly with your healthcare provider about your sexual health. Do NOT take DESCOVY for PrEP if you: • Already have HIV infection or if you do not know your HIV status. If you have HIV-1, you need more medicine than DESCOVY alone to treat HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only DESCOVY, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat now and in the future.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY FOR PrEP DESCOVY can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “Most Important Information About DESCOVY for PrEP” section. • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with DESCOVY. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking DESCOVY. • Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. • Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

Eligible patients may pay as little as a $0 co-pay.*

Actor portrayals

HOW TO TAKE DESCOVY FOR PrEP POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF DESCOVY FOR PrEP (cont’d) Common side effects in people taking DESCOVY for PrEP include diarrhea, nausea, headache, fatigue, and stomach pain. These are not all the possible side effects of DESCOVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking DESCOVY for PrEP.

• Take 1 tablet once a day, every day, not just when you think you have been exposed to HIV-1. • Do not miss any doses. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection. • Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months. You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking DESCOVY for PrEP.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

HOW TO FURTHER REDUCE YOUR RISK

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with DESCOVY for PrEP.

• Know your HIV status and the HIV status of your partners. If your partner is living with HIV, your risk of getting HIV is lower if your partner consistently takes HIV treatment every day. • Get tested for other STIs. Some STIs make it easier for HIV to infect you. • Practice safer sex by using latex or polyurethane condoms. • Talk to your healthcare provider about all the ways to help reduce HIV risk.

BEFORE TAKING DESCOVY FOR PrEP Tell your healthcare provider if you: • Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. • Have any other medical conditions. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. • Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with DESCOVY for PrEP.

GET MORE INFORMATION • This is only a brief summary of important information about DESCOVY for PrEP. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more. • Go to DESCOVY.com/prep or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit DESCOVY.com/prep for program information.

*Advancing Access® co-pay support is available for commercially insured eligible patients only. Subject to change; for full terms and conditions, visit GileadAdvancingAccess.com.

DESCOVY FOR PrEP, the DESCOVY FOR PrEP Logo, the DESCOVY Blue Pill Design, DESCOVY, the DESCOVY Logo, STEP UP. PrEP UP., ADVANCING ACCESS, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. ©2020 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. DVYC0171 02/20

SPOTLIGHT Health & Fitness STORY Tom Joyce

[ABOVE LEFT]

Personal Best BROOKLINE’S TITANIUM HEALTH AND FITNESS OWNER JOHN CARTER OVERCAME EXTRAORDINARY ODDS Twenty-eight years ago, if you told Brookline private gym owner and personal trainer John Carter where he’d be in 2020, he probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Carter said he greatly appreciated it, and that the workouts helped pass the time in prison.

In 1992, Carter was a member of the mob— like his late father. One day, he tried to collect a bet but got shot in the back of the head instead and was left to die. He survived but lay in a coma for 99 days.

The time in prison taught Carter another thing: It wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat.

A 23-year-old at the time, he wasn’t able to put his life back together right away. Carter stayed in the hospital another six months, and his weight ballooned up over 300 pounds (he now weighs about 200 pounds). Confined to a wheelchair, Carter could not walk. His sight, hearing and vision were impaired. He was depressed and turned to substance abuse. He also sold drugs, and eventually got busted for it. “I was giving up on myself,” he said. “I barely ever thought I had a chance in life. The only thing that made me happy was cocaine.” Carter then went into a detox, a halfway house for eight months, and eventually, state prison. At the halfway house, he started to work out, and continued to do so in prison. He received help from a few convicts in prison who knew his father. They took him over to the prison gym, leaving his wheelchair behind, and helped him work out.

20 | BOSTON SPIRIT

John Carter and Jagger Titanium Health and Fitness

[ABOVE RIGHT]

“It was the only thing,” he said with a laugh.

“When I was in prison I saw a lot of people coming out and coming back in,” he said. “I couldn’t believe there were people who were coming out of the walls, doing drugs and coming back in. I said, ‘This will not happen to me.’ It was my first time; I knew I couldn’t go back.” When Carter got out of prison, he went back to living at a halfway house. With his passion for working out, he decided he wanted to be a personal trainer. Boston Sports Club gave him the opportunity. He attended the club for a workout. He met the general manager. Carter told the man about his background—surviving the shooting and working his way back into shape—and the two spoke for an hour and a half. The general manager then offered Carter a position as a personal trainer at the gym. Later that day in 2001, Carter got a call asking him to fill-in for another personal trainer the next morning. He did, and he made a $5,000 sale on his first day. He has stuck with it ever since.

Carter was with the Boston Sports Club until 2008. He continued working as a personal trainer, and eventually opened his own gym in Brookline in 2012—Titanium Health and Fitness. The gym is a 1,400-square-foot facility where Carter hosts private workouts. He said the setup has come in handy amid the coronavirus pandemic because he doesn’t have to be anywhere near a client when they are working out and is still able to help them. “It’s really unbelievable,” he said of being able to help people now. “To see someone in pain, whether it’s a nick in the shoulder or severe pain, it’s really special to be able to help them get out of it. I really love what I do. I’ve been there.” Although Carter’s job is to help people, he employs someone else to help him stay balanced and get around: a 180-pound Dalmatian named Jagger. “It’s unbelievable what he does for me,” Carter said of Jagger. “He allows me to see this world without the fear of falling down. Before I got him, I had to look at the ground when I walked to make sure I didn’t fall down. “If I was going on the T in my muscle clothes, no one moves out of the way,” he added. “If I don’t have a grip on something, I’ll fall and bounce onto people. Now that I have Jagger, they let me have my space and now they know. He’s really something special.” Carter, who is gay, said that 90 percent of his clientele is part of the LGBTQIA community. [x]

SPOTLIGHT Volunteering STORY Rob Phelps

Stepping Up

RI Pride volunteers (before city and state mask requirements). PHOTO RI Pride

RI PRIDE EMERGENCY SUPPLY DRIVE DELIVERED They got to work fast. Back in March, when it became clear the coronavirus pandemic meant stay-athome for so many, Rhode Island Pride board members quickly switched gears, postponing their upcoming PrideFest and Illuminated Night Parade and initiating a collection drive to help those in need. The board and a team of volunteers swung into high gear, gathering donations of food, toiletries and cleaning supplies for community members to deliver. From the outset, they promised to “take every precaution to prevent human-tohuman contact, wearing gloves when handling donations and encouraging practices recommended by the CDC and the Rhode Island Department of Health.” (Masks were not recommended at that time.) Back in March, RI Pride member Bret Jacob (aka Mr. Gay Rhode Island), told a Boston Spirit reporter that one of the primary reasons for the quick response was the sudden loss of income brought on by business closings and the quarantine. “So many of our community members are in service industry jobs. They need help, just to lessen the anxiety they are feeling.”

They reached out to the community— both for donations and for those in need of supplies and food—directly through the Rhode Island Pride website. It was as simple as click, click or click: “If you wish to make a donation and not request anything, you can click next without completing the ‘donation request information’ section,” read the web page. “If you are requesting a donation and don’t plan to make a donation at this time you can skip past the ‘making a donation’ section and click submit.” The responses came fast. In just a few days they’d helped almost 300 people, raising some $2,500—plus donations of food from local businesses. Before that first week ended, said Jacob, they were exhausted, and there was no end in sight. “But the way this community comes together to fill a need is inspiring.” Over the next nine weeks, more than 168 volunteers provided food for over 13,300 individuals and more than 3,500 families. They raised more than $91,600 from over 1,000 individual donors plus financial institutions such as Eastern Bank and BankNewport; from local charitable

organizations including United Way of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Foundation, Providence Human Relations Commission, New England Grassroots Environment Fund, Youth Pride Inc. and Providence Gay Flag Football League; and from national nonprofits like No Kid Hungry. “Because we are a grassroots group, we were able to move faster than other more official groups,” said Alijah Dickenson, the volunteer who managed the food drive program. “Now, Family Service of Rhode Island is offering Be Safe kits, the state has established RIDelivers.com, and cities and towns have mobilized to get food to their residents. The rest of Rhode Island is catching up to demand.” The drive ended on May 28. “We have made a phenomenal effort for food insecure Rhode Islanders,” RI Pride President Ray Sirico said in a late May press release. “But now it’s time to get back to what we do best—engaging and celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s so important not to lose the momentum of our movement, despite the postponement of PrideFest and Illuminated Night Parade. RI Pride will do everything it can to ensure that this Pride Month feels as joyous and inclusive as possible.” [x]

Ripride.org

JUL| AUG 2020 | 21

SPOTLIGHT Business STORY Rob Phelps

Dream Team ELLEN + JANIS REAL ESTATE TEAM HELPS CLIENTS FIND THEIR PLACE IN THE WORLD Ellen Grubert and Janis Lippman know the value of a solid foundation. “There’s a lot of couples in the real estate business,” says Grubert, “and we joke we should start a couples’ group for real estate agents.” But what sets these two apart are the 37 years they’ve spent building their lives and business together from the ground up. After their first 20 years as a couple, they started the Ellen + Janis Real Estate Team and since added six licensed agents and two administrators to serve buyers, sellers and renters across the Greater Boston area. Grubert began selling real estate in 1988 in the South End of Boston and quickly became one of the top-selling agents in the country, serving on the Greater Boston Association of Realtors Education Committee. Before teaming up in business with Grubert, Lippman worked for 20 years in management in the theatrical industry. She has also served on the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, on its technology committee, and until very recently on the board of The National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals. Their home base is in Jamaica Plain, where they’ve lived since moving from the South End in 1998, except for six years in Roslindale. There, they bought a 100-plus-year-old house and renovated it completely, before making their way back to JP. Community is important for the two, having for decades supported and raised funds for nonprofits like Keshet, the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition (where Lippman was president from 2004 to 2010), The Home for Little Wanderers, and Community Servings, where they’ve consistently been either the number one or number two sellers of pies they make for the annual Pie in the Sky fundraiser. From the beginning of the business part of their relationship, they found their skills and talents complemented each other and clients responded to them well. “Our clients trusted us. We had fun together,” says Lippman. And most importantly, their team approach has from the start helped their clients find and build upon solid foundations of their own, which is at the core of

22 | BOSTON SPIRIT

PHOTO Compass their mission, they say, “to help everyone find their place in the world.” The secret to their successful working relationship, both agree, comes down to that foundation concept: “Twenty years together prior to working together,” Grubert explains. “Twenty years of being in love and having each other’s full respect and support. Having a foundation like that to begin with. It probably wouldn’t have worked in the early stages of our relationship.” During those early years of couplehood, “we learned what we did well together through a

lot of communication and sometimes a little bit of yelling,” Lippman adds with a laugh. “It’s incredible to be in business together,” says Grubert. “Who do you trust more than the person you’re spending your life with?” Both take great joy in hearing from former clients, some who’ve become good friends over the years. They regularly hear from many whose children are grown and ready for some help finding places of their own. Grubert and Lippman also help others entering new phases of their lives, downsizing, for example, when one partner passes away, or after those kids have moved into that place of their own. “We’re sometimes

invited to their life events, which is quite something,” says Lippman. “It’s been so rewarding.” One of the key concerns for LGBTQ clients looking for a new home is a community that is inclusive and welcoming. “We’re very fortunate that Boston and its neighborhoods are very open and supportive,” says Lippman, who, on the board of The National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals, has heard stories how difficult it can be in other parts of the country. This is especially so, she says, for transgender people, “who have to hide their identities along with who they are and who they love” to find housing. Another challenge has been COVID-19. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the region, neither were surprised to be recognized as essential workers. Fortunately, over the years they’d built up skills and knowledge on running virtual home tours. Both say they miss the party-like spirit of the open houses, with potential buyers browsing through homes. But now they find their buyers better prepared when they come to individual appointments, many online. Their clients have done their homework. And that means Grubert and Lippman and the others in their team can do more for them.

Janis Lippman [LEFT] and Ellen Grubert. PHOTO John Ellsworth Recently, the team has been hard at work as the exclusive marketing agent for 45 On Burnett, the 44-unit condo development near Jamaica Pond’s Forest Hills station with a blend of affordable units along with market rate. But whether it’s larger developments or individual homes, Grubert and Lippman always come back to that mission of client comes first. “We always tell our prospective clients that we have no timeframe, no agenda, that their

needs, wants and desires are ours and that we care very strongly about them,” Grubert says. “It comes down to making their dreams come true,” says Lippman. “I know that sounds Pollyanna, but it’s true. This is a kind of dream business. It’s often the largest purchase or sale you’ll ever make in your life. We don’t take that lightly.” [x]

compass.com/agents/ ellen-and-janis

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SPOTLIGHT Community STORY Bob Linscott

Phil Tackle [CENTER ROW, SECOND FROM LEFT]

Senior Spirit LGBTQ OLDER ADULTS CONFRONT ISOLATION AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC “This is not how I planned to spend my retirement!” Phil Tackle’s words echo the frustration so many LGBTQ older adults felt as soon as they saw their worlds closing in during the forced isolation in the wake of COVID-19. Tackle, 73, from Brighton, retired in 2010 from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services armed with good advice from other friends who retired before him: “You have got to have something you are passionate about.” So he began to use his newfound free time to pursue a lifelong dream of ballroom dancing. “I would be out dancing almost every night of the week doing ballroom, or country western with Gays for Patsy or at a weekly lindy hop at MIT. And, as a very social person, he would fill in the spaces when he wasn’t dancing by going out to eat with friends or going to the gym. When the pandemic came, everything stopped overnight. Tackle was alone in his condo feeling isolated and depressed.

24 | BOSTON SPIRIT

This was the case for the majority of LGBTQ older adults everywhere. Over the last 15 years in Massachusetts, a vast network of resources, community programs and social groups emerged specifically for this population who had been beset by social isolation for decades. As soon as the pandemic hit in early March, all those programs closed down. With this deadly virus, it wasn’t safe for older adults to be out in public. The LGBT Aging Project at Fenway jumped into gear very quickly and developed two programs aimed at building a whole new infrastructure to reconnect all these seniors who were now cut off from each other. One of the programs utilized a group of volunteers to make wellness calls to every single LGBTQ older adult we had contact information for. Part of these calls was to gather important information such as the senior’s immediate needs (like groceries or medications) and their overall mental and

physical health. Other questions included asking about their ability to connect to the Internet and if they wanted to have a regular volunteer caller to chat with. The volunteers would enter that information into a Google form and The LGBT Aging Project would then connect the senior with the elder service provider or council on aging in their area for the appropriate resources. Jane Beckwith, 67, from Medford, is one of the folks who benefitted from these calls. “In March I came down with COVID-19 and felt very helpless because I live alone and had no way to get groceries. The isolation was just hell,” she said. Beckwith, a former massage therapist, describes herself as a very social person, so the sudden isolation was debilitating. Because of problems with her vision, it was not possible for her to connect with other people online or even through email. Her phone was her primary link with the outside world. So when she received a call from a volunteer named Carla Rosinski she was surprised and grateful. “It was so nice to have someone to talk

to. Carla immediately went out and bought groceries for me—I was still so sick then.” For Beckwith, every day in isolation is a struggle. “When I wake up, the first thing I do is say, ‘I’m going to make it through another day,’” but she finds it so difficult. The seclusion intensified the feelings of loss for her longtime partner, who died 15 years ago. “We were such a great team; we could have gotten through this together.” Now the loneliness is just so intense. Having regular calls from Carla has really helped the isolation. “We even met one afternoon and took a walk together and even though we were six feet apart and wore masks, it was so nice to be with another person again. It was the first time in months.” These calls were equally meaningful for Rosinski who is a therapist in North Andover. “I was fortunate to be okay during the corona crisis and I wanted to help others. These calls made me feel like I was making a difference and I have really enjoyed getting to know Jane. There is such potential with intergenerational connections.” The LGBT Aging Project’s second program had a mission to reconnect LGBTQ older adults, peer to peer, during this pandemic. Like so many businesses and organizations, we looked to Zoom as a tool to foster a sense of face-to-face connections that people

“ It has been the saving grace during this horrible time. I couldn’t take one more day of this isolation.” Phil Tackle were starved for. Getting an older population, who is often not very tech savvy, on board with Zoom was a large task in itself. To break down the digital barrier, the Aging Project enlisted another team of volunteers, who were older LGBTQ adults themselves and taught them how to be comfortable with Zoom. Then that group began offering Zoom classes to other LGBTQ older adults as well as for leaders of social groups. In a very short time many LGBTQ community meals migrated to Zoom as did other groups like RALLY, Stonewall @ OLLI Life Long Learning, and The Boston Prime Timers. “I don’t know what I would do without Zoom,” Tackle adds. “It has been the saving grace during this horrible time. I couldn’t take one more day of this isolation.” As

soon as the pandemic hit, all of the dance programs immediately shut down. Tackle joined one of the early zoom classes and now looks forward to the LGBT Aging Project’s weekly Zoom drop-in group. “It is on my calendar and something I look forward to. It breaks up the quiet and provides a wonderful space to just talk about what is happening with other LGBT people who are going through the same thing. Now we can meet up and share little tips about how we are each surviving this.” Tackle learned to adapt some things like taking a daily walk for five miles to get exercise in place of going to the gym, which was closed. “But there was no substitute for social connections. Then, when I learned Zoom, a whole new world opened up. I don’t know how they survived this in 1918 without Zoom.” Beckwith plans to join her first Zoom dropin group with The LGBT Aging Project soon. Meanwhile her weekly calls with Carla and her walks outside with her dog, Jake, are keeping her going. “Some days when I get really bored, I think about the future. I wish for a garden party where I could sit outside with other people and laugh and drink iced tea. That would be so lovely.” [x]

Bob Linscott is assistant director of the LGBT Aging Project at The Fenway Institute

SPOTLIGHT Statistics STORY Compiled by Rob Phelps

Go Figure

2020 LGBTQ PRIMARY VOTERS

POWER AT THE POLLS Want change? It all starts by voting. At every primary and local election, up and down the ticket, and on Tuesday, November 3.

13%

of all voters in MA; more than double the LGBTQ population (5.4%) in Bay State***

Numb er of L GBT r egister ed vote rs in U S*

9 MILLION

50+221513Q 50%

LGBT US registe voters r Democ ed as rat*

23,850 4,0 00 2,300 in MA in ME 3,500 2,7 in VT 05 6,450 in NH in RI

15%

LGBT US registe voters r Repub ed as lican*

26 | BOSTON SPIRIT

of all voters in NH; exceeding the LGBTQ population (4.7%) in Granite State***

965,350

22%

LGBT registe US voters red a Won’t s Other/ Say*

of all voters in ME; more than double the LGBTQ population (4.9%) in Maine***

TRAN VOTE SGENDE R RS I N US ELIGIBL E **

LGBT US registe voters Indepe red as ndent*

13%

in CT

Source: Williams Institute, “The 2020 LGBT Vote”

** Source: Williams Institute, “The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters” *** Source: Human Rights Campaign, “March State Voter Snapshot”; no new results by press time for Rhode Island or Connecticut

We work closely with you, even when we can’t work closely with you.

Times have changed. But we’re still dedicated to delivering exceptional service, in person or via technology. Maybe that’s why we’re ranked #1 again. 617-245-4044 • gailroberts.com

GAIL ROBERTS ED FEIJO & TEAM JUL| AUG 2020 | 27

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

From the Blog NEWS HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM UNITY FLAG RAISED OVER CITY HALL

director of the Massachusetts Trans Political Coalition. Along with Vaughn, the vigil and march were organized by the Transgender Emergency Fund, the Massachusetts organization dedicated to supporting low income and homeless Transgender individuals in the Bay State.

Go to page 92 for more photos. Boston City Hall. Photo boston.gov At the City of Boston’s Pride month flagraising ceremony in early June, the Unity flag—which includes two additional black and brown stripes as well as the colors of the transgender flag—was raised over City Hall, where it flew throughout Pride month. “I’m proud to stand firm with Boston’s Black and Brown LGBTQ+ community, celebrate the entire LGBTQ+ community’s incredible legacy, and recommit ourselves to racial justice and progress during this crucial moment in our city’s history,” said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who presided over the flag-raising ceremony, along with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, state Rep. Elizabeth Malia, Boston Pride board member Malcolm Carey and transgender activist Athena Vaughn.

THOUSANDS SUPPORT TRANS VIGIL, MARCH

NAVY WAIVES BAN FOR TRANS SAILOR In late May, a transgender military service person stationed in Massachusetts and serving in the US Navy became the first in the nation to receive a waiver to continue serving since the military enacted the transgender military ban. Back in March, GLAD filed the first challenge to the federal ban against transgender people serving in the US military since the ban went into effect in April 2019. GLAD filed the case, Doe v. Esper, jointly with the National Center for Lesbian Rights in the federal district court of Massachusetts. The waiver came just as the government was due to file its response to the suit that same week. “The ban has been in place for over a year and this is the first waiver to be granted,” GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project Director Jennifer Levi said in a joint GLAD and NCLR press release issued on May 15. “While we are relieved that our client, a highly qualified Naval officer, will be able to continue her service, there are other equally qualified transgender service members who have sought waivers and are still in limbo, despite being perfectly fit to serve. Dedicated military service members shouldn’t have to bring a lawsuit to be able to continue doing their job,” Levi said.

photo Rob Phelps Thousands came out to support the Transgender Resistance Vigil and March held on Saturday, June 13, in Franklin Park to the police station in Nubian Square, calling for social justice for transgender and gender nonconforming people of color, and justice for hate crimes committed against them. “It’s time for Black Trans excellence to lead for ourselves,” said organizer Athena Vaughn, president of the New England Ball Collective, and most recently operations

28 | BOSTON SPIRIT

BONAUTO HAILS SCOTUS RULING Mary Bonauto, civil rights project director at the Boston-based GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), hailed as definitive and historic the US Supreme Court 6-3 decision affirming protections for all LGBTQ people in the workplace, which came in early June. “Today’s historic ruling affirms critical legal protections for LGBTQ people across the country. The Supreme Court has settled the

Mary Bonauto. PHOTO glad.org question of whether federal employment nondiscrimination law protects transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The answer is a definitive ‘yes,’” Bonauto said in a statement issued immediately following the ruling. “Our civil rights laws are intended to help our country live up to its promises of equality, and today’s decision from the Supreme Court brings us another step closer to that promise,” she said.

GLAD STANDS FOR ACA Despite a ruling finalized in June by the US Department of Health and Human Service to revoke sexual orientation and gender ID protections from the Affordable Care Act, two lawsuits defending these basic rights to health care for all were heading to the courts—one about to be filed upon the ruling, the other already underway. The Human Rights Campaign announced its new litigation practice was filing its first lawsuit against the Trump administration for eliminating the anti-discrimination health care protections. And the Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) already had a lawsuit in action. “Pangborn v. Ascend, a federal lawsuit brought by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) on behalf of a transgender man denied coverage for gender affirming care, will test the legitimacy of the Trump administration’s reversal of an HHS rule that had previously made clear that transgender people are covered under the ACA’s non-discrimination provision known as Section 1557,” according to GLAD’s website.

GIFFORD JOINS BIDEN CAMPAIGN

forward to enjoying different adventures in my life,” Price told WCVB. As WCVB reported, “In addition to helping millions of viewers start their days as a co-anchor of NewsCenter 5’s EyeOpener, Price is also well known to New England’s civic and philanthropic communities. He’s helped raise awareness and millions of dollars for causes important to him and his viewers—autism, veterans’ causes, Scouting (he’s an Eagle Scout), alcohol and substance abuse, animal welfare and LGBT issues.”

Rufus Gifford. PHOTO Facebook Bay State native Rufus Gifford of Concord, Massachusetts, was hired in late April by former Vice President Joe Biden to be deputy campaign manager for the former US Vice President’s 2020 presidential campaign.

We’ll miss you on the EyeOpener, Randy, but can’t wait to see what you do next!

GOING OFF-ROAD

Back in 2017, he told Boston Spirit, no matter what happened in that race and what he’d do next, he just wanted to be “part of the political debate going forward.”

GOING OFF AIR

Randy Price. PHOTO WCVB TV-5 Longtime TV journalist, philanthropist and LGBTQ community leader Randy Price— the first openly gay television news anchor in the country—officially signed off from WCVB TV-5 on May 20. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of my more than 10 years anchoring the EyeOpener newscasts here at WCVB; and now I’ve decided it’s time for me to step back from my career in news and start a new chapter. I look

the CDC’s and Mass Health’s guidelines for public events.” Check AIDS Action’s Walk & Run update page for the new date when it will be announced and more info. And to learn more about the event—and to register as a walker or runner—go to https://walk.aac. org/walkrun2020. The event, which brings together thousands of walkers and runners, is one of the largest fundraisers for AIDS Action’s essential programs and services. AIDS Action is New England’s largest provider of services to people living with HIV/AIDS and populations at risk of infection.

The openly gay former top advisor to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, Gifford also served as US ambassador to Denmark from 2013 to 2017. Born in Boston, Gifford grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, graduated from St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and earned his undergraduate degree from Brown University in Rhode Island. More recently, he was one of the favorites in the highly contested Democratic primary for Niki Tsongas’s US Congressional seat (which ultimately went to LGBTQ ally Lori Trahan).

PHOTO Caitlin Cunningham Photography

PHOTO Hurley Event Photography

BIRTHDAY ON THE BEACH

Harbor to the Bay is taking its annual Boston-to-Provincetown bike-a-thon for four local HIV/AIDS care, prevention and research organizations off road this year and going virtual. The ride was scheduled for September 26, but, not knowing exactly what the pandemic might be up to by then, organizers decided to give cyclists, many in training, an early heads up…plus let everyone know they can participate in ways this year like never before.

PHOTO David A. Cox

Rather than riding 125 or 68 miles together, participants are encouraged to engage in whatever activity is safely accessible to them. This might mean several short bike rides, doing 125 jumping jacks or dancing for 68 minutes. This year’s event will see everyone as a “participant” rather than a “rider” or “crew member,” so everyone is encouraged to get involved in a way that challenges themselves and promotes health. Plus, there’s no fundraising minimum this year and the registration fee is lowered to $18. For more details and sign-up info, go to harbortothebay.org.

AIDS WALK MOVES TO FALL The 35th annual AIDS Walk & Run in Boston, which had been scheduled for June 7, has been postponed until the fall due to concerns over social distancing and COVID-19. To determine the actual date, organizers are “monitoring the situation and will follow

Beloved Provincetown resident Ilona Royce Smithkin turned 100 on March 27, and no pandemic could deter her neighbors from celebrating her in style—serenading her, socially distanced between each other and beneath her balcony, from the harbor beach. A true Provincetown spirit, Ilona—an artist, fashion icon, cabaret singer, author and art teacher—famously split her time between the Cape tip town and New York City, where she kept a studio above the Russian Tea Room, according to her webpage, Ilona and Friends. Capturing the festivities was P’town photographer David A. Cox, among whose specialties are his stunning drone videos. Cox documented the occasion in a video featured and hosted by the fabulous Zoë Lewis, another P’town treasure, who also performs “Eyelashes,” a tune she created especially for Ilona. You can watch it on Cox’s “Droning Provincetown” Facebook page. [x]

JUL| AUG 2020 | 29

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Kim Harris Stowell

SCANDALOUS CONDUCT

Newsmakers | Rhode Island

Open Door Health

This Just in from the Ocean State OPEN DOOR HEALTH OPENS Back in early March, the official ribbon was cut at a grand opening ceremony for Rhode Island’s first LGBTQ health clinic—Open Door Health, located at 7 Central Street in Providence. Prior to the reception and open house house, speakers included the center’s Executive Director Dr. Amy Nunn, Governor Gina Raimondo, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman David Cicilline, Mayor Jorge Elorza and other city dignitaries, the center’s Medical Director Dr. Philip Chan and Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO Neil Steinberg. Open Door Health aims “to improve the health and quality of life for LGBTQ Rhode Islanders, many of whom face disparities in access to health care and health outcomes, by providing highquality, culturally congruent health care to RI’s LGBTQ population.” [RP]

RI PRIDE DELIVERS Also in March, and in response to COVID19, Rhode Island Pride initiated a collection drive to help community members in need. The group’s board members and volunteers gathered donations of food, toiletries and cleaning supplies, which community members delivered to many others in need.

As editor of the Providence Journal a century ago, John Rathom exposed a 1919 homophobic Navy entrapment scheme that came to be known as the Newport Sex Scandal. Now, the team of Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida have created a series of public programs related to this “largely forgotten but hugely important moment in the history of LGBTQ+ rights.” A Zoom event was organized in late May to begin the inquiry into this century-old occurrence. More: scandalousconduct.com

VIRTUAL DRAG BRUNCH

The community stepped up and donated funds for volunteers to shop for requested supplies. For more, see page 95. [RP]

QUEER VESPERS The Rhode Island queer community has gathered mostly in the virtual world for the past few months. Social media has been a critical way to connect. An online ecumenical service, for example, has been held every Thursday evening, led by Rev. Dr. Gwendolyn Howard. A Providence resident and local activist in the LGBTQ community, Howard has led the group in prayer/meditation, reading, singing and short homilies. Speaking not only from her own tradition, Gwendolyn’s liberal religious community has a long history of openness to other faith traditions. More: email queer.vespers@ gmail.com.

Haley Star

ORAL HISTORY LISTENING PARTY The Providence Public Library is working on a new LGBTQ+ history collection, and the Queering Oral History class at Brown University has begun to collect oral histories for the archive. To kick off Pride month and this new project, attendees listened to audio clips and shared resources and tips for doing their own oral history interviews. More: Provlib.libcal.com. Jenny Talia

30 | BOSTON SPIRIT

On Sundays at 2 p.m., tune in to this campy event, featuring hot topics, cooking segments, cocktails and lots of laughs. Available on Facebook Live, it can be viewed by anyone who “likes” the performers’ pages. Performers Haley Star, Jacqueline DiMera, LaDiva Jones and Jennie Talia appreciate tips, which can be done virtually via Venmo. Disclaimer: All performers are practicing safe social distancing guidelines at all times. Per Governor Gina Raimondo’s guidelines, all are part of each other’s “list of 5” and have taken necessary precautions to care for themselves and those around them.

VIRTUAL DRAG NIGHTS AIDS Care Ocean State has taken all of the glamour of gay bingo and brought it right to everyone’s laptop with Virtual Drag Nights. Hosts Haley Starr and LaDiva Jones spent last month’s event honoring all the brides that can’t have their dream-weddings this summer. More on future events: Aidscareos.org

VIRTUAL PICTIONARY Hosted by Jennie Talia, viewers can enjoy a spirited, irreverent version of the popular

Dark Lady parlor game every week, when Jennie is often joined by other drag queens to add enjoyment to your Thursday evening. Pictionary runs 8:30–10 p.m. followed by Never Have I Ever, 10–10:30 p.m.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE BARS? Rhode Island’s gay bars, of course, had to close in March. In an effort to stay connected to their patrons, several establishments have hosted Facebook Live DJ performance events like happy hours or house parties. A GoFundMe account was

established for The Stable to support the staff, and their Facebook page has continued to be active. Live videos appear on a regular basis, asking customers and fans to post photos taken at the bar. Some venues have outdoor seating, like the Dark Lady and the Alley Cat, which have opened for outdoor enjoyment only on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. Masks are required, and seating is limited. In June, the proprietors assured the community that they were in full compliance with the provisions of the Providence curfew. [x]

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Newsmakers | New Hampshire Headlines from the Granite State

US Congressman Chris Pappas [AT LEFT] and US Senator Jean Shaheen [AT RIGHT]. Photo Chris Pappas for Congress

HRC ENDORSES SHAHEEN, PAPPAS US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congressman Chris Pappas, both representing the Granite State in DC, are among the candidates who received early endorsements in May by the Human Rights Campaign. Their endorsements came relatively early in the campaign, HRC National Press Secretary Lucas Acosta told Manchester, New Hampshire–based WMUR-TV 9, because “New Hampshire is a key state for Democrats to retain control of the House and possibly win the majority in the Senate.” “Chris Pappas is one of our community’s fiercest allies in Congress,” Acosta said in the WMUR report, which notes that “Pappas is among seven LGBT House members and part of a pro-LGBT House majority” and that “his presence in the House means the LGBT community ‘has a seat at every table because every issue impacts our community.’” “And since her days as governor, Senator Shaheen has truly been an ally of, and advocate for, our community,” Acosta said. “She pushed for marriage equality in the Senate before it became the law of the land. She has been a true leader on our issues at every level.”

“Every American should be free to be who they are, earn a living and love who they love without facing discrimination or pain, but there is so much more work to do to provide true equality,” Shaheen told WMUR.

in Chicago, Illinois; she moved to New Hampshire in 2008 while serving with AmeriCorps. Kelly currently works as a Human Resources Information Specialist. In 2018 Kelly was elected to the Goffstown Select Board. As a Selectwoman, Kelly has been noted as the first woman elected to the board in over 10 years, the youngest elected Selectwoman in the history of the town, and the first openly LGBTQ+ elected official for Goffstown.”

Boyer “is a passionate public servant who has volunteered and worked in the nonprofit sector for most of her life,” notes Victory Fund. “Born and raised

32 | BOSTON SPIRIT

WHITE MOUNTAINS PRIDE

PHOTO whitemountainspride.org

Jim Morgan. PHOTO derynh.jpg

The LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national nonprofit dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, has endorsed Goffstown Selectwoman Kelly Boyer for a seat, representing District 4, on the New Hampshire Executive Council. If elected, Boyer would be her state’s first openly LGBTQ woman to service on her state’s council, representing the city of Dover as well as the towns of Barrington, Rollinsford and Somersworth.

Derry Town Councilor and Granite State Log Cabin Republicans leader Jim Morgan had led the effort to change the language earlier this year. A previous effort to make the change two years ago, led by then state GOP Chair Jennifer Horn, was unsuccessful.

STATE GOP TABLES VOTE TO UPDATE PLATFORM

VICTORY FUND ENDORSES BOYER

Kelly Boyer. PHOTO boyerfornh.com

suggestions into the next cycle for review.”

Despite the latest in repeated efforts to remove anti-marriage equality language from the New Hampshire Republican party platform, the state’s GOP party platform committee voted unanimously to ask delegates at their May 9 convention to make no changes to the platform at all. They said making any changes to the platform would be too difficult to do via Zoom since COVID-19 precautions moved their convention online, according to a WMUR-9 TV report. “This is driven largely by the logistical difficulty in conducting a full and transparent debate [during the COVID-19 pandemic], Platform Committee Chair Chris Ager wrote in an April 20 statement. “We received over 40 suggestions from 30 Republicans. Our intention is to carry-over these

White Mountains Pride Week and The White Mountains Pride Festival were just picking up momentum last year after their volunteer-based committee got going in 2018. Then the pandemic came along. But the North Conway–based group didn’t let COVID-19 slow it down in 2020—like Prides throughout New England and around the world this year, they took their regional celebrations of diversity and inclusion online. “We have brought together a diverse group of entertainers from last year to perform again for our community to celebrate, educate and help foster acceptance of all people,” Greg Vander Veer, chair of the entertainment committee said. What’s more, they posted videos and photos provided by the community throughout the month of June, which you can check out on White Mountains Pride’s Facebook page. [x]

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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Natalie Nonkin

Newsmakers | Connecticut Articles from the Constitution State TRIANGLE COMMUNITY CENTER SUPPORTS #BLACKLIVESMATTER The Triangle Community Center’s board of directors recently issued a powerful statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. They said, in part, “The LGBTQ community sees you, we hear you, and we support you. The LGBTQ community is with you as we, too, have been treated less than, have been murdered without justice, and are outcasts of society. We too have taken to the streets in protest and we, too, were incarcerated and ignored by the government during the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We, too, cry, mourn, and question authority when our Trans community of color is gunned down.” The statement is not only a message of support, but beyond that, a call to action. They go on to say, “It is time for the LGBTQ community to join the fight. Because we are you. When one group is abused and oppressed, we are all in danger. To our LGBTQ family, I am calling on you to stand with our Black family. If we rally the same marching, organizing, time, and money that we typically spend on Pride on ending systemic racism—imagine the difference we could make. Addressing the unfortunate history of racism in our beloved LGBTQ community is an ongoing process, and now is the time for those of us with privilege to self-reflect, educate ourselves, listen actively, and act to challenge racism in our community.” Their message urges all of us to use our voices, both literally and figuratively. They ask us to talk to those around us, even when it is not easy. They ask us to vote. They ask us to help each other in any way we can. They say, “It is time to have those uncomfortable conversations with the ones you love, your friends, and acquaintances. It is time to call out racism in all of its hatefilled forms. It is time to vote! It is time for action! No one is free until we are all free. This Pride month let us liberate each other.” The statement goes on to emphasize, “Black Lives Matter! Black Trans Lives Matter!” The full statement can be found at ctpridecenter.org.

34 | BOSTON SPIRIT

PRIDE IN THE PARK

and gender identities,” is their mission, as stated on their website, describing their yearly festival as an event that “offers a space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning & allies to find social and peer support.” New London Pride Week is slated for August 19–25. Festivities include a karaoke night, a bowling night, a basketball game, an evening with some stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race and more. More: newlondonpride.com.

TRANS HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES Pride in the Park, 2019 As of this issue’s publication, Triangle Community Center’s Pride in the Park is returning to Norwalk’s Mathews Park on August 22, after being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is a free pride festival featuring vendors, entertainment, food, local performers and more. Families are welcome to the annual event, which began in 2014. The TCC describes it as “CT’s largest Pride event.” The TCC also hosts many different support groups and events, free of charge, throughout the year. More: ctpridecenter.org.

NEW LONDON PRIDE

New London Pride Also as of this issue’s pub date, OutCT plans to host their annual New London Pride Festival on August 15 at Ocean Beach Park. Partnering with local businesses, the festival includes musical performances, a dance party, resource booths and even free HIV testing. “Building a community through educational, cultural, and social programming that promotes acceptance, tolerance and understanding of all sexual orientations

The Associated Press reported in late May that a 45-page letter from US Department of Education’s civil rights office said the department “may seek to withhold federal funding over the [state’s policy against discrimination of transgender students], which allows athletes to participate under the gender with which they identify.” The letter comes in response to a federal lawsuit filed back in February by families of three Connecticut high school track team runners. The families want to exclude transgender female athletes from participating in girls sports despite the state’s law allowing transgender athletes to compete in them. In March, the US Justice Department also weighed in with a letter arguing against the state’s policy. [RP] [x]

HMH stands with the LGBTQ+ community and all those who fight for gender and racial justice. The Learning Company™, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt®, and HMH® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. 06/20 WF1216013

JUL| AUG 2020 | 35

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

Newsmakers | Vermont

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Green Mountain State Update

BENNINGTON PRIDE CATCHES A RIDE

JASON COLLINS TO ADDRESS MIDDLEBURY GRADS Though the exact date of the class of 2020’s full, live graduation ceremony hasn’t been set yet, Middlebury College in Vermont announced Jason Collins will be its commencement speaker, according to The Middlebury Campus. He will also receive a distinguished honorary degree.

Jason Collins. #RealPlayersDontBully

Collins is the NBA’s first openly gay player who went on to serve on former President Obama’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and as an NBA Cares Ambassador. NBA Cares is the league’s international social responsibility program,

Last year, Bennington, Vermont, celebrated its first Pride parade, organized by the local group Queer Connect. This year, there could be no parade, but, unwilling to let COVID-19 take away their momentum, the group arranged for a number of virtual events, including a socially distanced, police-escorted car caravan that rolled through town in early June. Sponsors included Rights and Democracy–Bennington, United Counseling Service, the town of Bennington, Bold Strokes Books and others. As the event date grew closer, the Bennington caravan became so popular than another was formed in Rutland and the two met up, as the caravan rolled through North Bennington,

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Shaftsbury, Arlington and Manchester. “More than 70 cars, many decorated in rainbow colors, filled the streets of downtown Bennington on Saturday afternoon in a celebration aimed at increasing the visibility of the LGBTQ community,” the Bennington Banner reported. Some of the cars displayed “Black Lives Matter” messages. “We have opened up our caravan of pride to our Black sisters and brothers,” Queer Connect Director Lisa Carton told the paper. “It’s a rainbow caravan. Queer pride, trans pride, Black pride, brown pride, bi pride, lesbian pride. We’re all coming together.”

VICTORY FUND ENDORSES INGRAM AND JAMES The LGBTQ Victory Fund, the national nonprofit dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office, has endorsed

Debbie Ingram. Photo ingramvt.com

also an active member of the Vermont Legislature’s Climate Solutions Caucus, serving as a co-vice-chair for this nonpartisan House-Senate team. She also belongs to the newly formed Social Equity Caucus. Plus, James is an avid crosscountry skier and the executive director of the nonprofit International Skiing History Association, where she’s also editor of its bimonthly “Skiing History” magazine.

MOVING ON

Kathleen James. FACEBOOK photo state Rep. Debbie Ingram in her race to become Lieutenant Governor of Vermont, and Kathleen James for a second term in the state’s house of representatives. If elected, Ingram would be the first openly LGBTQ statewide official in Vermont. Ingram, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, is one of nine openly LGBTQ members of the state legislature. Serving her second term as a State Senator from Chittenden County. she sits on the health and welfare committee and the education committee and is chair of the Vermont Child Poverty Council. A Democrat who lives with her wife in Manchester, Vermont, James serves on the education committee and represents Vermont as a delegate to the New England Board of Higher Education and the NEBHE legislative advisory council. She’s

With his commitment to helping the most vulnerable populations in Vermont, Johnny Chagnon is stepping down from his role as health and wellness coordinator at Pride Center of Vermont.

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As of July 6, Chagnon will transition into roles focused on housing assistance as well as substance dependency treatment and services for the Burlington area community, while continuing to serve as a board member for the Vermont Positive Living Coalition and producing LGBTQ+ events locally, according to a Pride Center press release. “I respect and admire Johnny’s commitment and passion in serving LGBTQ+ communities,” said Pride Center Executive Director Mike Bensel. “Johnny has put his unique talents to good use in creating sex-positive, safer sex programming for gay, bisexual, and transgender men and those living with HIV. I’m wishing a fond farewell and best of luck to Johnny in pursuing his next endeavor.” [Renaldo Payne] [x]

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Bennington Pride, 2019 JUL| AUG 2020 | 37

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

Newsmakers | Maine

News from the Pine Tree State FIRST TRANS VALEDICTORIAN IN STATE A winning combination of intelligence, hard work and inspiring character are surely among the top qualities that brought Belfast, Maine senior Syd Sanders to this moment. Not only has Sanders earned the top spot in his 2020 graduating class, he is likely the first transgender valedictorian in Maine—and quite possibly the first in the country, noted Sanders in the Bangor Daily News.

Syd Sanders. PHOTO Facebook

“I have a naturally loud, combative personality, so it’s hard to stay hidden for long,” Sanders told the Banger newspaper. “There are lots of conservative

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people at Belfast. But the thing is, I’ve just gained their respect somehow. I feel that even people who disagree with who I am, they still respect me. I don’t know entirely why. But that’s what happened.” “Syd Sanders is an extraordinary person, with a depth of understanding, passion and commitment unusual for someone so young,” Superintendent Mary Alice McLean told the paper. “He’s probably the most undaunted and fearless student I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’m incredibly proud of him scholastically and also personally. He has a rare kind of determination and integrity.”

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LAJEUNESS MOVES ON

said in his statement,” adding that he also has “tremendous respect” for his other former fellow Democrats running in the primary, Betsy Sweet and Bre Kidman, “who care about Maine and our country, and are running for the right reasons.” “I also know that Sara is the only Democrat who can beat Susan Collins,” he wrote. “So I will do whatever I can to ensure that she wins in November.”

OUT MAINE GOES ONLINE Ross LaJeunesse Ross LaJeunesse, the openly gay Biddeford, Maine, native and former Google executive vying for US Senator Susan Collins’ seat this November, ended his campaign in late March, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I cannot ask my supporters to continue working hard, to continue making financial contributions, to continue volunteering, to continue advocating for my campaign when the country is focused on an unprecedented health and economic crisis, and when the type of campaign I planned, meeting voters where they live and work and speaking person to person, is impossible,” he wrote in a statement announcing his withdrawal from the race.” LaJeunesse—who’d also served as advisor to US Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and Senator Edward Kennedy and held leadership roles in the California state government—had been endorsed by Victory Fund, the national organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ leaders to public office. “But now the question is how best to achieve my original goal for this campaign: ensuring that Susan Collins is defeated. For me, the answer is to withdraw from the primary and endorse Sara Gideon,” he

Back in March, OUT Maine was one of the first to get in front of the coronavirus pandemic by moving much of its youth programming online. “We are all reeling with the changes to our daily lives and our work during this pandemic crisis,” they said in a press release back in March. “Changes like these can be a huge blow to the LGBTQ+ youth who look forward to these events [like the canceled Rainbow Ball Weekend, the largest LGBTQ+ youth event in Maine that was set to take place in May] as a time to connect with supportive peers and adults. Already suffering from isolation before the pandemic, they are particularly stressed with schools closed and enforced stays at home.” So its staff got busy continuing with its weekly youth group via Zoom and Google classroom, and its Youth Policy Board swiftly switched its focus towards a project combating social isolation. It welcomed the young adults selected to be Junior Counselors at its cancelled Rainbow Ball to come together online to find community with each other and to dream up ways to create community despite the challenging times. All along, staff connected directly with at-risk youth through phone calls and social media platforms. More: outmaine.org [x]

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FEATURE Health Care STORY Ryan M. Leach

On the Frontline LGBTQ health care workers meet the challenge in Boston The COVID-19 pandemic has been a long emotional slog for people all over the world. Bay Staters have been especially impacted by the virus, emerging as an early hot spot for infection. Healthcare workers and staff have literally come faceto-face with the infection on a daily basis. Among them are many LGBTQ professionals that are helping the community stay healthy. “I feel so humble whenever anyone says thank you. As a physician I recognize my privilege within the healthcare system. I think about the unsung heroes of this pandemic that get overlooked. I don’t think nurses get the recognition they deserve. [The real heroes are] the janitorial staff that cleans and disinfects the rooms so that doctors and nurses can stay safe. It is the person delivering the mail. The clerks at the grocery store. Their roles have all required some form of retooling and are the ones that keep us moving forward.” says Dr. Christopher Vélez, 36. Vélez is an attending physician at Mass General Hospital and faculty at Harvard

40 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Medical School. He is one of the many LGBTQ identifying health care workers who have been fighting COVID-19 since it first appeared in the hospitals in March. “I think what was surprising is how quickly the recommendations to adjust social interactions were made and implemented in a two- to four-day time span. The virus is still newly infecting humans. We are still learning a lot about symptoms. We certainly know now a lot more than we did but are still learning new things as well.” says Vélez. Frontline Nurses Since the beginning of this crisis the death toll has taken over 100,000 lives in the United States in only a few weeks. This is a far cry from the erroneous claim that COVID-19 is no worse than the seasonal flu. Try telling that to the nurses that cared for COVID-19 patients like Matthew Walsh, 27, a registered nurse also at Mass General. “When we first started, we weren’t sure how bad it would get. We kept trying to figure out when the surge would be and

Matthew Walsh, RN Dr. David Alejandro Sanchez Christoper Vélez, MD

what worked for patients and what didn’t. The learning curve was huge. I got my first COVID-19 ICU patient on March 20. Patients started to slowly come in and then as we progressed into April my schedule picked up. I was working fifty to sixty hours a week on average. Normally I work about thirty-six. If you had been a nurse but retired, they were taking you out of retirement. We were deploying nurses from all over the country to meet the needs.” says Walsh According to Walsh, Mass General added an additional sixty-four ICU beds above their standard levels at its peak. Since the peak in late April the numbers of COVID19 ICU patients have steadily dropped and Walsh looks forward to returning to his regular unit as cases subside. The American Epicenter New York City emerged early as a hotspot. Within days, COVID-19 turned the Big Apple into a ghost town. The city experienced the highest number of cases and deaths than anywhere else. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefings began to rival that of President Trump’s Task Force which, to many, became less about keeping Americans safe and more about the President’s re-election. The

President has had reason to worry, amid a devastated economy and a suffering constituency. The Commonwealth only started to slowly reopen in late May and is not scheduled to enter “The New Normal” or Phase 4 until late July. New York is behind that schedule. Dr. Samuel Muench, 29, is a New York City doctor at Montefiore Medical Center. He experienced first-hand the way the virus devastated the city and almost overwhelmed the hospitals. “I was working through a gastroenterology fellowship but from pretty much the beginning of the pandemic I have been pulled back into internal medicine roles out of necessity to address COVID-19 patient demands.” says Muench. “There were just not enough hands,” explains Muench. “The rise in cases was so dramatic and overwhelming. At one point we had to pull [ear, nose and throat] doctors, opthalmologists... literally anyone who could help.” Back in Boston, Dr. David Alejandro Sanchez, 32, was in his second year of an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s when COVID-19 hit. He was

“ Mass General intentionally focused on providing culturally competent care. We have leveraged our bilingual and native language speaking staff to reach out to patients and providers in their own language without having to go through lengthy delays that come with interpreters. ” Dr. Christopher Vélez, MGH recruited onto the special pathogens team early on to specifically care for COVID-19 patients.

“Being on the front line we have become quasi-experts taking care of patients with a disease that we are characterizing every day.” says Sanchez. “The amount of literature [about the virus] has exploded within the timespan of only a few weeks. Things that we were noticing clinically that were not understood or widely distributed at first are now definitely things we look out for now as we learn more.” Disproportionate Impact A regular talking point from health professionals was that the virus “does not discriminate.” Although that may be scientifically true, communities of color all over the country experienced outbreaks at disproportionate levels compared to their white counterparts. Chelsea was one example of a community that experienced a significant outbreak in April. Hundreds of other cases poured out of communities like East Boston, Mattapan and Dorchester. This presented another significant challenge to health care workers—communicating with patients. Vélez praised his hospital for their efforts in trying to provide what

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he referred to as “culturally competent care.” “This pandemic is highlighting the systemic inequities that impact communities of color as well as the LGBTQ community. I’ve been particularly saddened by how communities of color have been impacted by this. [Mass General] intentionally focused on providing culturally competent care. We have leveraged our bilingual and native language speaking staff to reach out to patients and providers in their own language without having to go through lengthy delays that come with interpreters. It has been nice to see my hospital throw itself into these efforts under the leadership of the vice president of diversity and equity. Mass General is one of the major research hospitals leading the effort in terms of trying to treat this virus with a focus on alternative angles of care that are often ignored,” says Vélez. Walsh shared this sentiment. “I think it is important to mention what the families [of COVID-19 ICU patients] are experiencing in this. A lot of patients came from Chelsea and East Boston. Many were non-English speakers. That plays a

Massachusetts General Hospital role into how we care for them because communication was a huge challenge. [ICU] patients were kept alone in order to prevent the spread of the virus. We didn’t want to keep patients from their families, we had to. When a patient is sedated in order to recover and then woken back up, they are already disoriented. Add to that not knowing the people around you and not knowing how to communicate with them. We have interpreters and many times we would use FaceTime to connect with them, but it makes it extremely difficult for the families to make decisions about care.”

What’s Next? The LGBTQ community, and the community at-large, are still asked to follow the important health and safety protocols that have been encouraged: wash your hands frequently, wear masks that cover your nose and mouth, social distance at least six feet. As New England starts to lift its restrictions slowly, these protocols could help save the lives of the people around you and the healthcare professionals we need to help us recover, not only individually but as a community and a commonwealth. [x]

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FEATURE History STORY Ryan M. Leach

Taking Pride Boston Pride’s 50th anniversary year returns to activist roots Boston Pride Parade’s 50th anniversary has not turned out the way anyone expected. Since 1970, the parade, a symbol of strife and celebration among the LGBTQ community, has evolved from a protest into a rainbow-clad celebration culminating in the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 2019. 2020 changed things though. This year refocused the mission for queer civil rights more squarely on Black and brown queer people. Although there may not be a parade in the streets, there certainly are marches and protests

reminiscent of that first riot in 1969 and that first Boston Pride March in 1970. Many of those first marchers in 1970 have passed on in the last 50 years. Some were taken by the AIDS crisis that ravaged the community in the 1980s and ’90s. Some have simply left us more naturally. The memories of those first marchers live on with people like Stephen Pepper, 70, whose husband Sam Goldfarb was there when it all started. “We had two weddings—one legal one not. We got together in 1997 and very quickly knew we were meant for each

Boston Pride, 1978

“In 1970, between that and laws on the books being enforced against same-sex dancing, cross-dressing and various other aspects of queer culture, teachers and educators for sure could lose their job if someone knew. During that first Pride [my late husband, a high school psychologist,] had to wear a paper bag over his head with the holes cut out in the eyes.” Stephen Pepper

Boston Pride, 1978. Photos The History Project

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other. By 2000, we had lived together a couple of years and arranged a religious ceremony from two different churches. There were 150 guests. Of course we had no idea that a few years later it would be legal in Massachusetts. Then when the Supreme Court decision [in 2015] came down, we were thrilled. I wanted to have a small party for friends, but [Sam] said, ‘No way. We are going to do it big all over again!’ And we did!” Pepper recalled. Goldfarb, who passed away at age 86, worked primarily in education during his life. In 1970 he was 40 years old and a school psychologist in Quincy—an irony not lost on him, according to Pepper. “It wasn’t until later in the 1970s that the American Psychological Association officially deleted the definition of ‘homosexuality’ as a mental illness,” he explained. “So in 1970, between that and laws on the books being enforced against same-sex dancing, cross-dressing and various other aspects of queer culture, teachers and educators for sure could lose their job if someone knew. During that first Pride he had to wear a paper bag over his head with the holes cut out for the eyes,” he said.

Boston Pride, 1983 Progress has marched on since that first year. Goldfarb would no doubt be delighted to know that the Supreme Court of the United States recently held that LGBTQ people were protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it comes to employment. Although some states and localities like Massachusetts and Boston have had these protections for years, over 20 other states like Texas and Georgia have failed to offer such protections to the LGBTQ community, until now.

Pride isn’t only a parade, it is a state of mind, and even within our own communities we are struggling with inclusivity of all the representative colors of the Pride flag. This year, protest groups took issue with Boston Pride’s approach to including the struggle of the Black, brown and transgender communities. This was reflected even in the flag that was raised at City Hall in early June. Initially, the original rainbow flag was raised, despite requests for the Unity Flag, which included colors representing those communities at the center

Boston Pride, 1981

Boston Pride, 1977

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of the protests taking place all over the world. Eventually, Pride Boston conceded, and for the first time ever the Unity Flag flew at City Hall—a fitting compromise considering the state of the world. Visibility was also a major concern for those first marchers in 1970, but in a different way. In a Boston Spirit article from 2017, Tracy Powers, a teacher from Jamaica Plain, shared that she was also afraid of the risk of being seen. She would stand near the subway entrance on Charles Street and disappear quickly if she spotted a student. One year, she couldn’t bear to do that any longer, and stepped out from the crowd and joined the marchers. She said it was one of her greatest acts of courage because she knew she was risking her career. But in the end, she said being honest and authentic was more important. In that same article, Ruby Katz reminisced about the sheet cake served at the end of the first march in the gazebo on the Commons. She recalled, “All the 30 to 40 marchers had a piece. Although the march was more like a protest, the cake was a celebration. The next year the crowd grew

Boston Pride, 1983 in size and they kept cutting smaller and smaller pieces of cake to feed the nearly 200 people who gathered after the march. In the third year they gave up on the sheet cake.” Indeed 50 years later, our community is still fighting for our “piece of the sheet cake” whether it be in our own communities or in the world in general. Many of the regular Pride events have shifted online in response to the COVID-19 crisis. However, many protesters are still organizing in-person events. The guidance to wear masks and social distance still

applies. There was a trans resistance vigil and March on June 20 in Franklin Park Playstead. The event harkened back to the original Stonewall where Black trans women were among the leaders in the standoff against the police. “Sam would have been very aware of the Stonewall riots, so however he heard of the first Pride he said he would be there.” said Pepper. It sounds like the spirit of Pride is still alive more than ever before. If Sam Goldfarb were still here, he would be proud. [x]

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FEATURE Politics STORY Stan Rosenberg

In My Own Words What the marriage equality struggle taught us about making change On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage Constitutional, effectively striking down all state bans on marriage equality. About a decade before that, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling. How did the Bay State defend and strengthen marriage equality in those 10 years before SCOTUS’ final ruling? Former Bay State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, there in the rooms where it happened, explains, in his own words: On November 8, 2003, I was in my State House office when I heard the news that nearly knocked me out of my chair. The State Supreme Judicial Court had ruled that same-sex couples had the right to marry. A battle waged for many years had finally been won. For a moment, it was pure joy. Then reality hit us like a bucket of ice over the head. Within hours, our opponents were threatening both legal and legislative action. For the next four-plus years, we fought to protect that court decision from assaults

too many to count. As a community and as legislators, we had to buckle down, fight harder and play smarter than ever before. In so doing, we successfully engaged the democratic process on its terms, to protect the profound change we had achieved through the courts. The story of how we did it reveals many essential lessons to be learned if one seeks to affect change now and in the future. Here are those lessons.

Engaging all three branches of government The Goodrich v. Department of Public Health ruling underscored a valuable lesson: Courts often lead in civil rights matters. It’s essential to engage them when appropriate. But, of course, the executive and legislative branches play a role, too.

In our case, Governor Mitt Romney immediately tried to delay the ruling’s implementation. House Speaker Tom Finneran and Senate President Robert Travaglini, along with others, advanced constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. Those amendments led to highly contested constitutional conventions in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. When battling for change, be ready to wage war or seek redress on all fronts— executive, legislative and judicial.

Winning our first crucial vote To add an amendment to the state constitution, proponents need to win approval in two constitutional conventions—joint sessions of the House and Senate—in two successive legislative terms. If they succeed, then the question goes to the ballot for the voters to decide. It’s not a process for the faint of heart, but our opponents were undeterred. Just three months after the court ruling, a

JUL| AUG 2020 | 47

“ Social change takes time. Great crusades like the women’s suffrage movement or the civil rights battle of the 1960s required relentless effort, working over many years. Starting in 1973, it took our community 16 years to pass a necessary LGBTQ civil rights bill in Massachusetts. And 18 years later, we put the final nail in the coffin of same-sex marriage opposition. And eight years after that, the US Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage the law of the land.” Stan Rosenberg constitutional convention convened to consider their amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Early on the convention’s first day, five other legislators and I met in Room 348 of the State House to plan and prepare for the challenging day ahead. Two hundred senators and representatives would fill the convention; we numbered just six. The governor, senate president and house speaker all opposed us. Our supporters were rank and file progressives, mostly without leadership positions. Minutes after the convention began, House leaders moved for a quick vote on an amendment to overturn the Court’s same-sex marriage ruling. It was an audacious move—trying to jam home a constitutional amendment just minutes after the session convened. While debate began, our band of six fanned out in a mad scramble for votes. We quickly rounded up our hard-core supporters, then cajoled the undecideds and propped up the wavering. When we sure we had corralled the necessary votes, we promptly called for the vote, fearing that our opponents would strong-arm supporters away from us if they had more time. When the roll call ended, a small miracle had indeed occurred: We had stopped the amendment. Suddenly, we had believers. When we returned to Room 348, we found scores of legislators ready to celebrate the victory. As the chief legislative strategist, I encouraged them to savor the win but to be prepared to work even harder in the days ahead. Our opponents knew we had jerry-rigged a majority in part by

48 | BOSTON SPIRIT

capturing conservative senators who were offended by the aggressive maneuvering of House leaders. The opposition surely knew how to pry apart such a delicate coalition. Throughout the four-year battle, we had many “near-death” experiences, but we survived each one. We knew the rules, had smart strategies and, after that initial victory, had supporters who believed in us

Bold strategies required After our first win, our task became even thornier. Alliances changed. Compromises were floated. One day, amid these shifts, we convened a coalition meeting at the Unitarian Church offices near the State House. Leading the session, I told our members we needed to vote yes on a compromise amendment that softened the original language, in part by allowing for civil unions. We had no interest in supporting any constitutional amendment— with or without civil unions. Still, we feared our opponents had the votes for the more draconian amendment. We had to block that measure at all costs, including voting for the softer-language amendment we didn’t support. Some legislators were perplexed. They argued that we were paving the way for an amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman and to make civil unions constitutional as well. Somewhat exasperated, I went to the chalkboard and drew a Pac-Man figure. To survive, I told them, the Pac-Man gobbles many dots before getting a chance to scarf up the larger, flashing blue dots that score

big points. In the same way, we had to swallow a “bad” amendment so that we could eventually gobble up our flashing blue prize—defeating the discriminatory amendment once and for all. The “yes, yes, no” strategy, as it came to be known, meant we had to vote yes on a bad amendment, yes to send it to the next convention, and then no on the final showdown vote— whether to send it to the ballot. Our strategy was clear, but we still faced formidable obstacles, given that our opponents controlled the process. They often sprung surprise votes, hoping to catch us flat-footed. We had little ability to communicate with legislative supporters quickly—smartphones, of course, didn’t exist, and cell phone calls were prohibited on the floor. Then, we had a realization: Pagers were allowed. We could arm our 50 core supporters with beepers, and when the roll was called, we’d send a simple instruction—“1” meant vote yes, “2” vote no. One crucial problem solved.

Sticking to the strategy In January of 2007, a new constitutional convention convened, this time to consider the civil union amendment we had supported. If it secured the votes required, the question would go to the voters—our worst nightmare. Across the country, same-sex marriage always lost when the question was put to the voters. Even in Massachusetts, testing electoral waters seemed risky. Our “yes, yes, no” strategy was about to be put to the test.

With so much on the line, tension-filled the State House corridors on convention day. Adding to our nervousness: for procedural reasons, we needed a supermajority of 151 votes, many more than we had ever secured. We had two factors in our favor: Public sentiment had shifted in our favor now that hundreds of same-sex couples had married. And with Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi now in place, we had allies in the big-three positions. The debate was relatively brief—everyone knew the arguments for and against. The roll was called. The amendment lost, 151-45. We had won. We had made sure outright discriminatory language never stained our state’s constitution, the oldest in the nation. The opponents of same-sex marriage never tried again.

Grassroots mobilization Legislative know-how is crucial, but grassroots pressure is indispensable. Our broad coalition of LBGTQ, civil rights and religious activists mobilized volunteers to pressure every undecided or wavering legislator we could find. And when the constitutional conventions convened, supporters filled the gallery, crowded the hallways and buttonholed representatives and senators. Legislators got the message: these votes were not without political consequences. That pressure never let up.

Persistence matters Social change takes time. Great crusades like the women’s suffrage movement or the civil rights battle of the 1960s required relentless effort, working over many years. Starting in 1973, it took our community 16 years to pass a necessary LGBTQ civil rights bill in Massachusetts. And 18 years later, we put the final nail in the coffin of same-sex marriage opposition. And eight years after that, the US Supreme Court

ruled same-sex marriage the law of the land. Perseverance and persistence matter, above all else. Our journey started with the courage of eight couples, and the sober and deep reflection of the Court, then shifted to a robust public debate and ended with the Great and General Court—the legislature—rejecting discriminatory amendments and embracing equity and justice. The institutions of self-governing do indeed work. The tools of democracy, in the hands of courageous and committed people, can change our world. Never forget the lessons we learned during this epic fight: Be prepared to fight on all fronts, work harder and smarter than your opposition and never stop battling. Change never comes quickly, until suddenly it does, and, in this case, a more just and equitable Commonwealth is realized. The system really does work. [x]

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FEATURE Youth STORY Kim Harris Stowell

Born This Way prom, 2019

Looking Back, Looking Forward Lost to social-distancing, New England’s queer proms set sites on future dates For many LGBTQ adults, the very idea of being able to participate in the rite of passage of a prom is hard to even imagine. Unfortunately, all of southern New England’s local alternative proms—special events created just for youth to celebrate, dance and make memories of their own— suffered the same fate as everything else around the world this spring; they were all cancelled. This sad fact was especially hard on some of the youth, for whom the prom is one of their only chances to be with other LGBTQ youth. In that spirit, let’s celebrate the queer proms of New England, knowing that they will return.

50 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Born This Way In Rhode Island, the Born This Way Prom was about to start its second decade throwing a grand evening. Taking place for most of that time at the spectacular Rotunda Ballroom at Easton’s Beach in Newport, some 250 LGBTQ teens and young adults from 35 high schools in Massachusetts and Rhode Island attend each year. The event is sponsored by the Unitarian-Universalist Channing Memorial Church in Newport, and numerous community members outside the congregation volunteer as well. Some of them help with food and drink or just act as chaperones, dancing with the young attendees, giving them a chance to feel a level of acceptance that is often rare. The prom’s origins lie with Lee Whitaker, a trans man and the founder of Interweave, a group connected with Channing for LGBTQ people and allies, focused on education, support and advocacy. “I was talking with some Interweave folks along

with our pastor at the time, and we started talking about proms,” said Whitaker. “I never went to my prom, and I know a lot of queer people who never went to theirs because they did not feel comfortable or safe. It didn’t take too much convincing to get the other Interweave members on board to put on a prom. I like to believe that each person who attends the prom is celebrated and shown unconditional love for who they are.” “The young people have so much fun,” added Rex LeBeau, a nonbinary person and a leader at Interweave. “Older queer adults who attend often burst into tears at how much joy fills the room, thinking how different their lives would have been if they had an event like this when they were young.” A highlight of the Born This Way Prom is the historic carousel, housed within the building, where attendees can hop on a sparkly pony for rides and photos with friends. And there’s the annual crowning of the prom king and queen. Perhaps the

Born This Way prom, 2019

ultimate highlight of the event is the presence of the many drag queens who turn out in their heels and gowns to perform and dance with the crowd. As for safety concerns, Sean O’Connor of Newport Out said, “There have never been any issues. We hire two Newport special detail officers—it’s required by the venue. One of them would bring her girlfriend when they were at Salve Regina University—they are now married. Many parents have told us that our prom is nothing like the local high school proms of today. Our kids are so happy to be there and always are a joy to behold.”

New Kids on the Block In Woburn, the GSA Prom—called the Community Gala—was held for the first time in 2019. Under the guidance of Rosemary Donovan, a coordinator for the district’s school guidance departments and then-GSA advisor, Woburn Memorial High School started the process of reaching out to other GSAs during the spring of 2018. During the fall of 2019, teacher and current GSA advisor Gretchen Pollard-Ramos became involved with the planning. The dance was held in March, so it did not conflict with any other prom. Although the dance was considered

formal/semi-formal, students were encouraged to dress as they felt most comfortable. Important special touches included a queer DJ and a full dinner. This year, a drag performance had been planned, featuring Sister Sandra Music of the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The 2019 school-sponsored event was attended by the superintendent of Woburn Schools as well as school committee members, the Woburn Memorial principal and all of the assistant principals, along with many staff people from 11 schools. The school resource officer attended in his dress blues. “It was a night to remember and an honor to be in the presence of 130 LBGTQ youth and their straight allies,” said Pollard-Ramos. “We witnessed new friendships, tears of joy, carefree dancing, freedom of expression and a community supporting its youth. Events like this can be life-changing, but more importantly, life-saving.” “The Community Gala was an amazing event that promoted inclusivity and acceptance,” added Jessica Callanan, the principal at Woburn Memorial High School. “I witnessed over 10 communities coming together to support students in their journey to be their real selves. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of the first

gala and what I know will be a long-lasting tradition for WMHS.” Peabody Veterans Memorial High School GSA member Yefry Ortiz agrees. “The GSA dance was an amazing experience. The thought of being able to be yourself in a public space without being judged for it is everything people like me want.” Fellow Peabody GSA member Levi Duval, weighed in enthusiastically, “The dance was surreal, so many people who thought they were an outcast, or different, came together. I left with new friends and amazing memories. It’s a night worth remembering. I felt safe and welcomed, and like I didn’t have to worry about what others thought. We were all alike and happy.” For the 2020 dance, 17 high schools— representing Burlington, Lowell, Stoneham, Peabody and others—were slated to attend, and planners expected more than 200 students. The community stepped up with grants from The Boston Pride Organization, Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indul-gence, the NEA LGBTQ Caucus and individual donors. In the end, the group was faced, as were they all, with the specter of the COVID-19 virus and cancelled. However, they are excited and ready to hold the dance when it is deemed safe to do so, perhaps as a fall harvest dance.

JUL| AUG 2020 | 51

Community Gala, Woburn Memorial High School GSA’s prom, 2019

First Prom Then there is the BAGLY (Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth) Prom, the firstever LGBTQ youth prom in the world. It was begun in 1980 by a high school senior named Michael who was lamenting not being able to go to the prom with his samesex date. This was right before the AIDS epidemic, a very different time, as BAGLY Executive Director Grace Sterling Stowell explains. “Everything about the LGBTQ community was underground then,” she said, “focused on the bars and clubs.” Being a youth-led organization, BAGLY enthusiastically backed Michael’s dream of a prom for queer youth, helping him in launching it in June 1981. Held in the basement of Boston’s Arlington Street Church, it had humble beginnings—there was no model for such an undertaking. “I don’t even know how many youth showed up that night, said Stowell, “maybe 75. We had no money. There was pot luck food, and the youth dressed up as best they could. Music came from someone’s boom box—it was very grassroots.” BAGLY’s prom has been held every year since, with the exception of this year, which would have been their 40th anniversary. It grew exponentially in the late1980s, when fundraising efforts were becoming more successful, and there

52 | BOSTON SPIRIT

was more general concern about LGBTQ youth within the larger community. In 1995, the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on LGBTQ Youth created Youth Pride, a march and rally modeled on the Boston Pride Festival, which BAGLY had participated in over the years. The next year, BAGLY moved their prom to the night of Youth Pride. This meant that the youth coming from all over the state to join in the celebration and march in the parade could then attend the prom. The expansion in sheer numbers of attendees necessitated a move out of the church basement and into Boston City Hall. “That was especially significant,” said Stowell, “that the youth recognized they had the support of the mayor.” That year saw 200 attendees, with the numbers growing steadily every year after that. To accommodate the larger number of attendees, they needed more adult volunteers—folks from the other LGBTQ organizations, adult advisors from BAGLY, teachers and other friends of the organization. By 1999 there were 1000 or more youth coming to the prom, and the numbers jumped even higher than that. As the years went on, City Hall became less and less viable—it was becoming very expensive, and they were spending more and more on security—owing to the heightened concerns post-9/11—so

the event was moved out of City Hall and under an outdoor tent. Fast-forward to 2020. The plan was to create an extraordinary event to celebrate 40 years of proms. “We had a special venue lined up,” said Stowell, “and we were going to hold it on a different day, to give the youth a chance to dress up more than they had been able to in the past, when they would have been marching all day. We envisioned a very special occasion, complete with catering and more.” The decision to cancel the event has been a collective loss, said Stowell. “We held a virtual version of Youth Pride for a week this year, with great programming every day, but I am saddened for this group of young people, many of whom are graduating and have missed their last chance to attend a prom. And now, with the epidemic of racial violence, it is especially difficult not to have a way to gather beyond the virtual methods.” Stowell has been to every prom herself, and has had countless wonderful experiences. “From a young person coming for the first time, having their first chance to express themselves as they choose, bringing a date—it’s a real thrill to see young people having the opportunity to attend a prom, have a prom picture taken, and so many of the other things you would expect to see at any prom, but in a safe, affirming environment.” [x]

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SEASONAL People STORY Scott Kearnan

Let Us Introduce You Looking for signs of a hopeful future in turbulent times? Start right here with these LGBTQ New Englanders whose efforts exemplify the positive, progressive values our community was built on. From volunteering to politics, health care to social justice advocacy, fitness to fashion, each individual, in their own way, is making a difference for better days ahead—and for right now.

54 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Sherenté Mishitashin Harris Indigenous Two Spirit youth leader The LGBTQ+ community knows: Representation is everything. We must be seen as we truly are in order to be fully supported—and celebrated. S/He is only 20 years old, but Sherenté Mishitashin Harris is already forging a path for the greater visibility of Two Spirit people, shining a beautiful light on the nonbinary, gender-variant identities that exist in Indigenous communities. Through art, including traditional dance, as well as social justice activism and vital cultural preservation efforts, Harris works to convey—and exalt—the sacred contradiction that exists between humankind’s collective oneness and its many individual presentations. Growing up adjacent to Narragansett tribal lands in Charlestown, Rhode Island, Harris was raised with deep respect for heritage and great appreciation for the power of change. There have been challenges, though. Harris’s father is a championship men’s eastern war dancer, and Harris’s mother dances the women’s fancy shawl dance. Harris was able to proudly pursue the first path for years but met strong resistance from powwow committee leaders when following the second. It took great determination—plus an overwhelming, emotional show of support from the greater tribal community—but Harris now competes and wins at the top level. Beyond breaking barriers in Indigenous communities, though, Harris is also tapped for TEDx talks and other speaking engagements, participated in the first White House Tribal Youth Gathering and was named a US Presidential Scholar, was chosen as a 2019 LGBT History Month Icon by the nonprofit Equality Forum and is now a dual degree student at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in ethnic studies and painting.

How is the climate, from politics to pop culture to the pandemic, informing the work you do now? Before people started saying “Black Lives Matter” again recently, I had thought to myself, “Has America just moved past Black Lives Matter without systemic change? Did they think this was small scale?” My family has held this time to be a sacred time. A painful time. A cleansing time. An intimate time. And, I think in a way, quarantine has pulled people deep into themselves and a sector of time has come to a halt. In times like these, powerful things happen. People are able to wake up from their slumber where before [CONTINUES 58] JUL| AUG 2020 | 55

Jonathan L. Allen &Derrick Young Jr. Founders, The Leadership Brainery They’ve experienced first-hand the lack of diversity in top-tier academic and professional programs. That’s why this Bostonbased couple puts all of their heart into helping extraordinary students get ahead.

by people of color in accessing competitive graduate schools—not to mention the powerful networks and important opportunities those spaces afford. How do you climb a ladder when the rungs are kept out of reach?

Jonathan Allen and Derrick Young Jr. met, and fell in love, in the student government scene at Grambling State University, a historically black college in Louisiana. But Allen recalls that when he later enrolled at Boston University School of Law, he was one of only three black men in a first-year class of nearly 250 students; a year later, when Young entered BU Law, he was one of two black men. These experiences underscored the systemic inequities faced

They wanted to lift up others. Enter The Leadership Brainery, their certified nonprofit working full-throttle to foster the potential of standout students from diverse backgrounds. The organization’s National Ambassador Fellowship is a three-year pipeline program to superlative schools, one that provides each cohort with professional development, academic prep and other vital tools. And last year, the outfit also hosted its National Impact Summit at Harvard Law

School, uniting 100 college student leaders who were recruited by over 20 programs and corporate partners. And when COVID struck, The Leadership Brainery provided $100 “mini-grants” to over 100 disadvantaged students who were suddenly without on-campus housing or employment. File under: Genius ideas.

How is COVID-19 impacting your work? Communities of color have always lacked access to high-quality teaching, books, technology, safe school buildings, testing preparation and other essential tools. Due to those systemic barriers, access to college and, specifically, graduate school is limited. The pandemic perpetuates educational inequities. As our most vulnerable populations are hit hardest, we see how difficult it is for them to access the resources needed to thrive in this unexpected yet inescapable technology boom. Many of our students cannot afford to keep up with the technology demand now needed for college, nor do many of them have access to safe housing and food to [CONTINUES 58]

56 | BOSTON SPIRIT

D r Amy Nunn .

Executive director, Rhode Island Public Health Institute and Open Door Health Massachusetts has Fenway Health—but until this past March, neighboring Rhode Island was without its own LGBTQ community-focused health clinic. That changed with the arrival of Open Door Health, which is operated by the Rhode Island Public Health Institute. What a difference it makes by offering gender-affirming primary care, as well as HIV and STD testing—all now accessible through telemedicine, in light of COVID-19. Dr. Amy Nunn is the right kind of community ally to lead this charge. Nunn, a global public health expert, has lived and worked around the world, and is a local advocate for women’s reproductive health rights. She joined the Rhode Island Public Health Clinic in 2014, and she takes a special pride in the organization’s Faith in Action initiative, which works with African-African churches in the Deep South in the fight against AIDS. It’s been a great success, helping to mobilize hundreds of pastors around the country to speak up against stigma and about the importance of prevention and care. It’s all part of a larger mission to address major healthcare disparities. Open Door Health was a huge undertaking for RIPHI, but a necessary one. “I’m very thoughtful and discerning about the issues RIPHI takes on,” says Nunn. “We usually focus on filling unmet need and picking issues for which we can really make a demonstrable difference.” Mission accomplished.

How would you describe the approach to leadership you bring? I try to be a decisive leader. I try to humbly lead by example. I try to hire the very best people. Having the best teams has always been the key to my success. I personally hired every single employee at RIPHI and Open Door Health. This is one of the virtues of running a small organization; you can select your whole staff! Each person on our team has unique talents and amazing energy.

What are some LGBTQ healthcare issues that you think are particularly pressing right now? We have a shortage of primary care providers in Rhode Island. At Open Door Health, we’re trying to fill an unmet need for primary care services. [CONTINUES 58] JUL| AUG 2020 | 57

MISHITASHIN HARRIS [FROM 55]

ALLEN/YOUNG [FROM 56]

they were too blindly racing around in their dream to be cognizant of how to grasp the moment before them.

How do you hope your work in cultural language and preservation efforts impacts how queer communities engage with Indigenous communities? In order for the LGBTQ+ community to support Two Spirit people they must understand Indigenous people. That means an active resistance against colonization. LGBT people already understand the importance of dismantling the categorization, institutions, [and] mentality of colonization. LGBT people know how it feels to not fit into the box or the binary and be strange and different. By recognizing the sacredness and how integral that is, we are all decolonizing our minds. Recognizing those ideas and origins in Indigenous communities is important, and the unique ways Two Spirit people identify themselves, where the lines of gender and sexuality are blurred, need to be understood and respected.

Who is an LGBTQ icon who made an impact on you? When I think of my journey as a Two Spirit person, I feel as though I know the history of those before me, but I very much forged my own path. I think the biggest inspiration to me has been elder family and tribal members that have proudly been themselves before me. As a collective, drag queens and Two Spirit people have made an impact on my life as a teenager who was starting to put on makeup and reintegrate parts of myself that I had for a long time been ashamed to express.

What’s a piece of trivia about yourself? I was born in the midst of a thunderstorm; the lights went out in the hospital three times. My middle name is Mishitashin, which means the storm.

58 | BOSTON SPIRIT

sustain themselves. These challenges will cause gaps in achievement, and our most vulnerable populations will lack more career and leadership opportunities than before COVID-19.

How does being part of LGBTQ+ communities inform what you do? The LGBTQ+ communities are relentless, and we feed from that energy. Our lived experiences as black gay men allow us to empathize with other communities who are marginalized and oppressed. We hope others who can relate to having their backs against the wall can draw inspiration from our journey, believing in the unlimited possibilities available to us to make change for ourselves and the greater good.

Who is an LGBTQ leader that made an impact on your life? Derrick: James Baldwin and I share the same birthday, August 2. I relate to his passion and creativity as a writer and activist. He inspires me. During a time when it was even harder to be yourself, Baldwin was bold and unapologetic. He spoke about issues from a selfless perspective, knowing fully that his life was predestined by the systemic challenges that halt black and gay people—but he was not silent about it. Jonathan: Pauli Murray made a fundamental impact on not only my life, but all of American life. I connect with Pauli’s intersectional identity as a civil and women’s rights activist, lawyer, author and Episcopal priest. [Note: Jonathan Allen is an ordained minister.] I see a lot of me in her—always authentically pushing the status quo and searching for the raw essence of life.

NUNN [FROM 57]

However, we think that more needs to be done, both for the LGBT community and the Rhode Island community at large. There is also a shortage of Latinx across all medical specialties. Providence is 42 percent Hispanic/Latinx. I believe we need to take greater efforts to train more providers of color and to raise primary care salaries in Rhode Island. We lose a lot of providers to Massachusetts and Connecticut because reimbursement rates are higher in those states, and therefore salaries are higher.

What’s an important experience that informed your commitment to allyship? When I lived in New York City, I volunteered every week at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. I became an HIV test counselor. It was among the most important professional development experiences of my entire career. In that role, I delivered many HIV diagnoses to young gay men. Many of those men had their whole lives ahead of them and were shocked by their diagnoses. However, I was always inspired by their resilience and committed my career to advancing the health and well-being of people who are less fortunate than myself.

Who is an LGBTQ icon that made an impact on your life? I am a fan of Larry Kramer. He used all of his talents to influence social change. He believed in dissent and volunteerism, and saved the lives of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of gay men through service, activism and volunteerism. I believe in all of those principles. … Dissent is paramount. We must have dissenters! I’m a child of civil rights activists, and I am a vocal dissenter. Sometimes that gets me in trouble, but it usually helps advance dialogue about important social issues.

Rob Kearney Record-setting professional strongman All LGBTQ folks possess extraordinary strength—we have to, in order to push forward through a society that tries to diminish us. But when it comes to pure physical power, only one person can claim to be the strongest gay man in the world: Rob Kearney, and he has the trophies to prove it. Kearney, who lives in the unassuming suburb of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, cuts an imposing figure. At 5-foot-9, he’s about 300 pounds of pure muscle. And the 28-year-old has used his mass to create a seismic shift in sports, becoming known across the globe as the only openly gay professional strongman. That said, Kearney is a legend on the strength of his accomplishments alone: He holds the US record for the log press (471 very heavy pounds), is ranked as one of the top four strongman athletes in America and stands among the top 10 worldwide. When he’s not crushing competitions or grinding away at the gym, Kearney keeps a pretty relaxed home life. You’d probably find him watching HGTV on the couch with his husband Joey (a competitor on the amateur strongman circuit) and their English bulldog, Glitter. But he’s certainly a forceful presence within his macho-man field, breaking apart stereotypes with every shattered record.

What was coming out like for you? I came out when I was 22 years old after living my life in a very heteronormative manner. I began exploring my sexuality after ending a year-and-a-half relationship with a girl because of the feelings I was having. I met my husband a few months after ending that relationship and came out publicly in 2014. I felt it wasn’t fair to him, someone who has been out since high school, to be in a relationship with a closeted man. Coming out propelled my strongman career in ways I never expected. Not because I am the first openly gay professional strongman, but because I no longer had to carry the burden of pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I no longer had to put up a facade every day and finally was able to live as my true self.

[CONTINUES 62] JUL| AUG 2020 | 59

Alaina Lavoie

who has access to publishing opportunities, and she was asked to be a judge for the New England Book Show this year, the first time that the event introduced topics of diversity in young adult and children’s works. Building better representation in books is vitally important work—period, end of story.

Communications manager, We Need Diverse Books and Everywhere Book Fest

I don’t write about marginalized communities from the outside. I write about issues in the disability community and LGBTQ+ community. I’ve written about poverty. My approach is always to combine a personal connection with facts, research, and reporting. When it comes to marginalized communities, I only write about communities I have a personal connection to, like the LGBTQ+ community. I always ask myself, am I the right person to write this? Who might be able to tell this story better than I could? If I do decide to write it, what sources and

Every book is a window into another world. That’s exactly why we need authentic storytellers to reflect our many lived realities—storytellers like Alaina Lavoie. The Massachusetts-based journalist and awardwinning editor is committed to representing the kind of experiences she would have loved to read about, back when she was growing up as a queer disabled person in a low-income neighborhood. And so, today, this nonbinary femme makes a point to write from her “insider perspective.” “I believe that we need journalists from marginalized communities to cover their

How would you describe your approach to your work?

own community, even in reported work,” says Lavoie, who is also the former senior editor of the LGBTQ+ wedding magazine Equally Wed. Importantly, Lavoie is still impacting the literary world even when it’s not her byline on a story. She teaches writing and publishing courses in the graduate department of Emerson College, and is responsible for getting out the word about We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that advocates for diverse characters and experiences in children’s publishing. She works with WNDB’s internship grant committee, helping to change

[CONTINUES 62] 60 | BOSTON SPIRIT

by True Colors Troupe, TTO’s signature youth theater program. Two years ago, as a resident artist with the organization, Blake finished their first mixtape—titled “Never Lost Sight”— that showcased a distinct point of view informed by intersectional identities and experiences. (They are currently working on a follow-up mixtape about mental health.) Today, Blake plans curriculums and coordinates logistics for True Colors, and they also lead the organization’s Creative Action Crew Workshop Squad, in which youth develop LGBTQ workshops and trainings to share with area schools and community organizations. From art to activism, it’s ovation-worthy work.

How would you describe your creative work, and what experiences inform it? If I were to describe my work in one word, it would be “intersectional.” I create music so that I can give voice to all the many parts and experiences of me: Black, trans/ nonbinary, disabled, a person of size, a survivor, an artist, an activist, a lover, etcetera. And those things all inform the work I do because there are challenges and successes in each of these things. I really strive to create music that is not black and white, this or that—but is all things.

Eziah Blake

How does being part of LGBTQ+ communities most impact your work?

Artist, activist and education coordinator, The Theater Offensive Once upon a time, back when Eziah Blake was a regular at open mic nights hosted by the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth (BAGLY), they were too nervous a singer to even make eye contact with the audience. Now, this 30-year-old, nonbinary trans songmaker and spoken word artist, who also goes by the moniker “Black Bear

Extraordinaire,” is beloved not only for their own music, but for fostering the creativity of young artists through The Theater Offensive (TTO), a nationally renowned arts organization that celebrates and elevates works by and for queer people of color. Blake has personally experienced the transformative opportunities afforded

I was given so much in this community as a young person— amazing experiences that I don’t believe I would have otherwise been able to have. I love that I can be a part of programs that do the same thing for young people now. There is also still a need for social change in the world as it relates to how LGBTQ+ folks are seen and treated, and that is still the main

[CONTINUES 62] JUL| AUG 2020 | 61

KEARNEY [FROM 59]

LAVOIE [FROM 60]

How has being a member of the LGBTQ community informed or impacted your career in Strongman? My career in Strongman has been greatly impacted by being a member of the LGBTQ+ community. My husband and I have made it our mission to open the doors of strength athletics to more members of our community to show that even in this hyper-masculine world of lifting weights, most people in the strength world are loving, supportive and amazing people who support the LGBTQ+ community. My goal has always been to be unapologetically open about my sexuality and marriage and the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility in professional sports.

In February, the Boston Celtics honored you at their second annual Pride Night. How did that feel, and what other personal and professional moments most fill you with pride? Being honored by the Celtics was an amazing and unexpected honor to say the least. Being honored as a “Hero Among Us” during Pride Night helped confirm that what myself and my husband are doing in the world really means something. As far as proudest accomplishments, personally it would be marrying my husband who has stood by me through my entire professional career and has never doubted me one bit. Professionally, my biggest accomplishment would be breaking the American log press record last April, a record I still hold to this day.

Thinking even bigger: What does it take to be the World’s Strongest Man? It takes unbelievable amounts of discipline, dedication and support. It takes years of training, sacrifice and pain. The title of World’s Strongest Man is the highest honor in the sport. It is arguably the most hyper-masculine competition to win in the world, and winning that competition would be the biggest accomplishment of my athletic career. 62 | BOSTON SPIRIT

BLAKE [FROM 61]

research do I need to look at that might tell a more complete picture about how this impacts people other than me?

What’s one important future goal you have for your work? I’d like to do more community programming on working in publishing with a disability. One of my biggest industry goals is to advocate for the publishing industry to increase remote work opportunities to make the industry more accessible and inclusive, so that’s something I talk and write about every chance I get. I will keep advocating for it until it’s a reality. I have to work from home because of my disability, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, so it’s an issue I’m passionate about.

How does being part of LGBTQ communities impact what you do? It impacts everything I do. Throughout my life, I’ve gone from being ashamed and afraid to being openly queer to completely celebrating my queer identity. I’ve written extensively about LGBTQ+ communities and identity, and I put a lot of effort into making sure the work we do at WNDB is LGBTQ-inclusive, from suggesting we change the language “preferred pronouns” to “pronouns” to making LGBTQ+ book recommendation lists for our followers. Being LGBTQ+ affects everything I do, in work and life, even when I’m not conscious of it.

Who is an LGBTQ icon who inspires you? Samantha Irby because I absolutely love her work. It’s hilarious, authentic, raw. Irby inspires me to be unapologetically myself. I also had an LGBTQ+ college professor who asked all of us to share our pronouns on the first day of class and who handed out information sheets about pronouns and identity. It was the first time I’d encountered that in an academic setting. I felt like I was truly safe to be myself in her class.

reason I do this type of work. We take our expertise into other communities and work to change perceptions.

How is the cultural climate, from politics to COVID-19, affecting your work? It’s been an interesting transition, to try to figure out how to engage our youth in this moment. They are affected by COVID-19 in various ways and right now they’ve identified that connecting virtually and healing without pressure to create is what they need. At the same time, they are all artists and so I think that art will still come out of it. The young people I work with are tremendously talented and respond in real time to things happening around them all the time. Artistically, I’ve been super productive. I’ve just finished writing four songs, and when I can get to the studio again I will go in and record them. Being stuck inside has given me more time to focus, so I’ve been able to capitalize on that,

What is a moment in LGBTQ history that made a major impact on you? When I found out about Bayard Rustin, that was a big moment for me. The March on Washington is a major event in the Civil Rights Movement, but no one mentions Bayard because of the longstanding tension in the Black community of LGBTQ folks taking away from the Black struggle. But this moment was important to me because he was both. He was Black and gay and he contributed to this huge historical moment—and at the same time, he didn’t get any credit for it.

inside to shape tomorrow’s inclusive policymaking minds.

Stephen Frost

Tell us about your work in diversity and inclusion.

Founder and CEO, Frost Included, and visiting fellow, Harvard Kennedy School Business works better when the best ideas win. And when it comes to making meritocracies—well, Stephen Frost is the man for the job. Frost is a leading international expert in helping corporate and government entities build diversity and inclusion into their mission and systems. Former head of diversity for worldwide accounting behemoth KPMG, Frost launched a global consultancy firm that has boasted major clients like McDonald’s, British Airways and Novartis. Working with the LGBTQ organization Stonewall in his native UK, Frost also developed the now-standard Workplace Equality

Index—and by designing and executing inclusion programs for the 2012 London Olympics, he ensured that everyone had a place to work and play within the world’s largest games. After all, Frost learned early on how it feels to not fit in. Growing up in England’s highly rural North Yorkshire county, Frost loved to dance ballet—a no-no for boys in his conservative community—and aligned in friendship with the only two ethnic minorities among his otherwise all white schoolmates. “In many ways, we identified as outsiders,” he recalls. Now, through his teaching at Harvard, he’s working from the

The work I lead is in five areas: strategy, data, governance, leadership and systems. Strategy is about bolstering the core purpose of an organization; we know, for example, that health outcomes are better, cars are safer and algorithms more accurate when diversity is considered in the design process. Data is about making informed decisions based not only on the diversity of teams, but in how included the people in those teams feel; people perform better when they can be themselves. Governance is about good decision-making; we know that the best, most qualified people are not always involved as they should be. Leadership is where I spend most of my time, helping executives embed inclusion in their own leadership style to benefit them and their teams. And we de-bias systems like recruitment and procurement to reduce costs, improve accuracy and build diversity. [CONTINUES 66] JUL| AUG 2020 | 63

throughout the social distancing-based shutdown.

Kandi Dishe

The power of drag to raise low spirits is very familiar to Kandi, who discovered drag during a health crisis of his own; maybe that’s why his work, and energy, feels so very healing right now.

How did you discover drag?

Drag performer and producer Whether at the height of the AIDS crisis or in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, dark, isolating days are when the LGBTQ community most needs the illuminating brilliance of drag performers. And yet, here we are—with the future of gay bars and cabarets precarious and uncertain. That’s not stopping Kandi Dishe. The Worcester-based performer has designed some of Massachusetts’ most exciting recent drag shows, from on-stage parodies of cult films (coming soon: a queer take on “The Breakfast Club”) to live competitions with the region’s most royally talented

stars—Kandi’s bi-weekly “Boston Drag Gauntlet” series, a sell-out hit most recently held at Club Café, has already crowned four winners. A Boston “All Stars” cycle, as well as the first “Providence Drag Gauntlet” competition, were just getting underway when the coronavirus hit. Undaunted, Kandi got creative and launched a “Drag Gauntlet: Home Edition,” bringing virtual drag shows into our bedrooms before even “RuPaul’s Drag Race” had a chance. He’s continued to produce fierce online events, such as a bumping Britney Spears revue,

In 2013, I ended up in the ER with PCP pneumonia due to AIDS-related complications. After a week in the hospital, I had to start the process of moving on from my diagnosis and come to terms with living with HIV, and at that point, AIDS. As you can imagine, I fell into a pretty intense depressive slump. About two months later, a friend asked me if I could fill in for a drag show they were producing. I’d never done drag before, but I decided, “Why not?” That’s the night Kandi was born. My friends gave me their clothes and did my makeup, and I performed a few pop songs to fill the spot. I was terrified, but also exhilarated. I’d done theater as a kid, but it was never this [CONTINUES 66]

64 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Chris

Donovan

Shoe designer and founder, Chris Donovan Footwear For Chris Donovan, coming out as a gay man—and a shoe designer—was the key to putting his best foot forward. Though raised in an extremely religious IrishCatholic household, he embraced his identity in the late ’70s: “It gave me courage and the confidence to decide what was best for me, not what the world tells me I should be,” says Donovan, who now lives in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, with his husband. Even still, it wasn’t until decades later that Donovan, a former telephone repairman, finally disclosed his real passion: shoe design. Inspired by the “confidence and attitude” he first saw embodied by his high school friend’s platform heels, he had been secretly keeping a sketchbook of stylish women’s shoes for years—though he never thought it could lead to a career. Then, a life-changing bout with prostate cancer put his real goals into perspective, and he started attending evening classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. He wound up as the oldest student at the world-renowned Polimoda International Institute of Fashion in Florence, Italy, and graduated at the top of his class. Last year, Donovan finally launched his own Milan-made line, and his avant-garde work—praised by Project Runway’s Tim Gunn and Finnish footwear luminary Aki Choklat—has been compared to industry greats like Christian Louboutin or Manolo Blahnik. His next step? Men’s shoes: They’re on the way.

How would you describe your aesthetic? My inspiration comes from anything that I find fascinating or unusual—and then I try and show its beauty. I get my inspiration from salvage yards, demolition, broken objects, fiber optic conduits, paper airplanes and even medical equipment. Anything can be beautiful if you see it in the right way. If you look at the lead shoe in my first collection, the Alpha, the heel was designed after watching a woodturner make bowls and pepper mills. The second collection, out in May, is based on the sleek aerodynamic folds of a paper airplane. [CONTINUES 67] JUL| AUG 2020 | 65

FROST [FROM 63]

DISHE [FROM 64]

How has COVID-19 changed your work? In challenge lies opportunity. In fact, many clients double-down their work with us when they themselves are facing those same political and cultural challenges. For example, pharmaceutical companies rely on innovation, need to be led by science and continue to invest in diversity and inclusion. It’s a really interesting moment of determining who values diversity and inclusion, and how embedded it really is in the core purpose—survival—of an organization.

What have you learned about the work around diversity and inclusion that still needs to be done? I worry that in the current climate, and in the US in particular, diversity is being reduced to a series of competing interests. Therein lies danger. We need to emphasize inclusion, not

just individual rights. For example, whilst we should never tolerate homophobia or transphobia, we need to cut people some slack in terms of well-intentioned but clumsy behavior. If we alienate well-intentioned people who get their language wrong, we simply fuel the polarization that is already well underway. We all need to be a bit kinder. We all need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and reach out to those least like us.

How does your US work compare to work overseas? The US is in some ways ahead of the game, in some ways behind. Ahead in the sense that we have some US clients who really want to go there, in terms of investing in their business. Behind in the sense that often it’s compliance driven or a segregated workstream. We have to work very hard to go beyond the “diversity directorate” to get the CEO and mainstream business leaders to embed [diversity and inclusion] in their decision-making.

exciting. For a few hours, I was able to be someone else, someone who wasn’t sick, and someone who was powerful. Kandi helped me get out of my slump. Drag became my therapy. It was an escape but also a way to process all the intense fears I had about my future.

How does your place in LGBTQ+ communities most influence your work? I am very proud to practice genderblind casting. I don’t care if you are a queen, king, in between, AMAB, AFAB, trans, etcetera. If you have talent, I want you in my shows and I want you to feel appreciated. This is an ongoing fight in almost all drag scenes: Many producers still will not cast outside the “traditional” queen. As a person in power, I feel like it is our duty to support all queer artists and think outside the

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DONOVAN [FROM 65]

“traditional” binary. Audiences love all drag, and I want more people to start accepting and acknowledging that.

How would you describe your style of drag? I try to find the humor in things when I can—turn something on its head and make it silly and campy. It’s how I process things. One of my favorite numbers is a mix I made of the song “Roar” by Katy Perry: I replaced every time she sings “roar” with a different barnyard animal noise. My performances are usually very storydriven. I was lucky to come up with other like-minded artists who taught me many lessons about how to make drag accessible but also thoughtprovoking. My late friend, Yoyo, used to always say, “I’m here to tell my truth, and hopefully people pay me for it.”

What’s a surprising fact about you? I can drive a manual transmission and change my own oil. With heels or without.

How do politics or pop culture impact your designs, and how is COVID affecting your business? When I design it comes from my imagination. I like to blend art and wearable fashion. My voice is strong in my designs and generally isn’t affected by politics and pop-culture trends. Though I think my next collection will be based on the love, beauty, strength and resilience of people as we conquer this pandemic. The business side of all this is definitely affected by all those things. Business has moved online and retail stores aren’t the only avenue. People are buying differently, and how you get noticed is completely different now. As a new business, the COVID pandemic is affecting me tremendously. Manufacturing in Italy has ceased for the moment but I’m happy to say that my agents at Arise.S [a luxury footwear development consultancy] and the

factory I work with are all okay. Future plans for trunk shows, stores and most everything are on hold or canceled. It’s going to be difficult, but I have some great advisors who are working with me to help get through this.

How does being part of LGBTQ+ communities most impact your work? Being gay has taught me that society’s rules, which are placed on us all, need to be questioned. I design avant-garde women’s footwear. That’s not exactly seen as the most masculine job. I don’t care. Being LGBTQ+ has taught me you have to live by your own rules and follow the path that is meant for you. You have one shot at this life. Why would you live it for someone else, or by their rules?

What’s a surprising fact about you? As part of a project for school, I created a shoe with a hip-replacement for a heel. Ironically, about six years later, I actually needed a hip replacement myself. I thought it was kind of funny— but the doctor didn’t seem amused.

Athena Vaughn Activist Vaughn wears a lot of hats—and they all look pretty damn fierce. As president of the New England Ball Collective, this longtime fixture of the scene is better known as “The Legendary Athena West.” But Vaughn, who most recently was operations director for the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, is equally famous and beloved for being a highly engaged activist. She radiates compassion for her community, but at the same time, she’s also not afraid of speaking truth to power. Consider the Trans Resistance Vigil and March that Vaughn orchestrated in June, a bold response to the timidity that Boston Pride showed by barely acknowledging the many Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout the Hub and across America. Boston Pride’s bungled response included a lukewarm public statement; otherwise, the organization generally stayed on the sidelines during Pride Week—shocking, considering that Pride is rooted in the Stonewall riots against police brutality. It was the latest in a history of disappointments that have left many local leaders, like Vaughn, feeling like Boston Pride’s board is uninterested in earnestly fighting for the LGBTQ community’s most marginalized members. Vaughn’s vigil and march, which also supported the Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts, drew thousands on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Boston Pride’s annual parade. And honestly, this march was maybe the most authentic Pride experience the city had seen in years. Why? Because it didn’t just celebrate the past—rather, it fought for a better future.

How did the Trans Resistance Vigil and March come about? People had been reaching out about taking some next steps, because they were really outraged about how Boston Pride had handled the situation. The first thing I said was, no disrespect toward anyone, but I’m tired of cisgender gay white men speaking for Black trans women. It’s different to hear from us wholeheartedly ourselves. You can speak for us, but it’s a totally different level when we actually come before the people ourselves and say, “This is who we are, this is what’s going on and this needs to stop.”

What was the main message you wanted to convey? That Black lives matter and Black trans lives matter. You cannot say Black lives matter and not include trans people. We’re always marginalized, we’re [CONTINUES 71] 68 | BOSTON SPIRIT

K. David Weidner Executive director, Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, and cochair, Provincetown 400 The towering profile of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum—the tallest all-granite structure in America—is maybe the single-most indelible symbols of our beloved, vibrant seaport at land’s end. But David Weidner is working hard to make sure that the memorial he stewards takes on an even bigger, timely meaning. Since arriving in 2017, he’s put forth a mission to remind visitors that the PMPM, which commemorates the 1620 arrival of the Pilgrims and signing of the Mayflower Compact, is more than an events ground for gay galas and more than a touristy observation deck (although, thanks to an in-construction inclined elevator to the museum from Bradford Street, it’ll soon be more accessible for that, too). Weidner says the monument stands for the beautiful inclusivity of Provincetown, which has always had a place for all pilgrims—queer artists, Portuguese fishers, Eastern European and Caribbean immigrants, and the list goes on. But in this 400th anniversary year of outside arrival, Weidner wants to start by making sure the Outer Cape’s natives receive overdue honor. That’s why, as soon as doors reopen, the PMPM will debut its first new permanent exhibition in 20 years, about the Wampanoag people. After all, we can’t build a better future without reckoning with our past.

How is the current climate affecting what you do? Everything we try to do here is based on a mission of tolerance, acceptance, and being welcoming to everyone. It goes back to what happened here in 1620, when the Wampanoag people took great care of the Mayflower Pilgrims—who stole their corn, brought disease and strife. And yet, the Wampanoag exhibited real, true social justice. I think constantly about the institution’s mission, and of what our story really is. It’s a story of struggle and a story of conflict. And now, with what we’re facing in our world today, from a pandemic to George Floyd, the Pilgrim Monument to me is a monument of peace and tolerance respective of pilgrims everywhere.

What are some steps you’ve taken? For the first time in the institution’s history, we’ve called out the Wampanoag people in the mission statement. We’ve called out the LGBTQ community, which resonates so strongly in Provincetown yet previously had zero airtime at the institution. We’ve [CONTINUES 71] JUL| AUG 2020 | 69

James Cerne DJ, nightlife producer and cofounder, Nightrider Someone’s got to put the art in partying— and James Cerne does it damn well. Gay bars and clubs are dying out across the country. But as a DJ and events activator who has worked in cities from NYC to Los Angeles, Cerne is plugged into a community of queer creatives—performers, designers and installation artists—who know how to transform even simple spaces into fully realized, immersive nightlife experiences. Take his latest project, Nightrider, which launched earlier this year in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With each installment, Cerne outfits the Lower Level, a discreet venue that is actually an Elks Lodge basement, as a different universe—say, a pagan temple from another dimension, or a bathhouse on Uranus. The party takes many

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vibe and aesthetic cues from the cruisy gay culture of the pre-AIDS 1970s, whipping the dancefloor into a pheromone-filled frenzy that feels erotic, edgy and from a musical standpoint, totally eclectic. “We hire DJs with international reputations for playing the most mind-bending techno, space disco and psychedelic house, then bring all the boys in to get shirtless and sweaty as we all transcend reality for a few hours,” says Cerne. Mister DJ, take us away.

How would you describe your approach to nightlife events? I went to college in NYC in the ’90s. That’s where I really learned about club culture. I developed the awareness

that, like any creative effort, a party needs a point of view. You are creating an environment; it’s like putting on a play with no script. In this situation the audience are your actors: They contain the emotional potential, and your job as head bitch in charge is to provide them with the right cues. The energy of the party comes largely from the cues and structure of the environment you have established for your guests. It’s like a sociological experiment. Different goals, different methodologies.

How has LGBTQ nightlife changed in recent year? The bars are dropping like flies. Unfortunately, the dwindling market leads venues to be more risk averse—less inclined to make bold programming

VAUGHN [FROM 68]

moves or try out new ideas. That just leads to more air escaping the tire, I’m afraid. Things feel a little stale. On the other hand, non-queer venues have really opened their doors to queer events and programming, and they’ve been quite successful with it. Although it would be great to have a dedicated queer home, being a nomadic party does have its benefits. The costs are less, and since the venue takes care of the boring stuff, we are able to just focus on the creative. I’m not interested in mediating bartender spats or ordering limes. Not right now.

Pre-COVID, anyway, it seemed like LGBTQ nightlife is moving back toward the more sex-positive traditions of our ancestors. Why do you think that’s so? Before all this happened, it felt like the gay community had begun to resolve a lot of the neuroses that were created by the AIDS crisis and homophobic attitudes, both of which are more manageable today than ever before. People feel more relaxed about sex. This lack of hang-ups allows them to be kinder with themselves and kinder to others, and I think that’s great to see. I would not characterize [Nightrider] as a sex party any more than I would a wedding. I mean, when you get right down to it, weddings are all about sex, aren’t they? But a wedding uses sexual connection as a springboard for a vital celebration of community, family, mutual support, beauty and life. Our events respect and honor sex as one of many core threads to the gay experience. Nothing more, nothing less.

Who’s an LGBTQ person who made a major impact on you? There are so, so many. The first that comes to mind is my friend Jesse Reed, who I went to high school with. He was the first capital-G Gay I ever knew. He was absolutely, fiercely, defiantly, 1,000-percent himself from day one, and now he’s producing a documentary about the International Male catalogue, and I’m very proud of him.

always left behind. We fought for gay marriage, we fought for equal rights for LGBTQ people—and it just seems like when it’s time to fight for trans people, everyone always runs with their tails between their legs and gets quiet. No one’s gonna stand up for us like we can stand up for ourselves, no one’s gonna speak up for us like we can speak up for ourselves, and no one can fight for us like we can fight for ourselves.

How would you like to see Boston Pride change to be more inclusive of Black trans communities? First, the board needs to be dismembered; they need to bring diversity to the board, or hire a diversity director that trains them on competency when it comes to being trans or a person of color. They need a whole revamp. You know, Jim Crow is alive and well. You all may have abolished the Jim Crow laws, but the actions of people, the way people respond to being trans, Black, and queer makes us feel like we’re still inadequate. That’s not okay. That’s uncomfortable, it’s sickening and it’s frightening. If you don’t speak up and rebel, let people know it’s not okay, they’re going to keep doing it. We’re not giving in anymore.

How does it strike you, when LGBTQ folks celebrate the riots of Stonewall through the Pride movement but don’t stand beside Black Lives Matter today? I see hypocrisy. There are people in this world who want to belong to something meaningful so bad, there comes a point where they don’t want to see the injustices and wrongs. I hope this march lets people see what we can create ourselves—that we don’t have to mooch off someone else to feel wanted, desired or respected. We can create our own platforms.

WEDINER [FROM 69]

created the first permanent new exhibit in 20-plus years, “Our Story,” which looks at the history of the Wampanoag people and the Mayflower Pilgrims. The previous exhibition was very Eurocentric, very white, and not respectful for Native people. … There’s more diversity in our board and team. I can’t say the work is done at all. I can tell you the work is started.

With large-scale gatherings canceled, what does that mean for the Provincetown 400 celebration? It’s been absolutely devastating. It was going to create a brand new stream of programming, and of course that is now not happening. On the personal level it’s disappointing; on the organizational level, it’s even more important now to talk about our mission. We still have on the books a fireworks display on November 11 that I’m hoping we can still have.

How does being a gay man inform what you do here? As the executive director of an over 100-year-old, WASP-y natured institution, I poke at questions constantly and push the boundaries. I make sure we have education programs, an exhibit representing LGBT people and an exhibit that educates about the Mayflower Pilgrims’ altercations with the Wampanoag nation—what happened, and why today we need to continually reeducate. In the reeducation business, we must maintain constant visibility of disenfranchised groups. We need visibility among transgender people. We need visibility among our Latino populations. We must be concerned about language differences; not everyone habla ingles. I really believe that we must do all this to the exclusion. We have to overcompensate because we have undercompensated for such a long time.

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and social service providers, and more vital resources. The success stories are rolling in. Last fall, under Gormley’s leadership, MTN finally won the long-fought battle to have transition care included in the state’s public insurance program, hired its third fulltime staff member to address sexual and domestic violence affecting trans people, and completed a capital campaign to open a thrift store that provides gender-affirming clothing to queer and trans folks while also raising funds for MTN. In addition, the board has been replaced by an elected, 22-member steering committee, giving community members a new kind of voice and stake in the organization. All this, and Gormley also found time to work on a recent statewide campaign to raise the minimum wage in Maine. One thing is for sure: Her hard work pays off.

How did your early environment shape the work you do? The complex reality of living in rural communities is the multilayered relationships. The guy who outed me my first week of high school was also my first roommate after college. The guys who jumped me in the locker room became dedicated members of the GSA. Even now, there are still old friends of mine who really “don’t like gay people” when they hear about it in the news but will go to the mat to defend their friend Johnny and his boyfriend. Learning to navigate that cognitive dissonance has helped me to understand that much of the queerphobia in the rural communities I work in now stems from a distrust of outsiders making decisions for their communities and is easily countered with honest relationships.

Quinn Gormley

How would you describe your leadership style?

Executive director, Maine Transgender Network Quinn Gormley grew up in the small oystering town of Damariscotta, Maine—but her impact is felt across the entire Pine Tree State. When she was 17, Gormley discovered the Maine Transgender Network (MTN) through one of the organization’s support groups, joined its board, and eventually

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established herself as its inaugural executive director. Now she leads the largest statewide organization of its kind in the United States and is responsible for 30 Maine-wide support groups, dozens of annual educational opportunities for health

I studied classical music in college. I tend to think of my role as a leader as being a bit like a conductor. I coach, rehearse and support my team, and they use me to help coordinate the different parts of our work. I’m

[CONTINUES 75]

Art Nava Board chair, Gay For Good No matter what you may have heard growing up, being LGBTQ is not a phase—and neither is our community’s commitment to making the world a better place. Just ask Art Nava. The Lowell, Massachusetts, resident chairs the national board of Gay For Good, an organization that brings together LGBTQ volunteers for service projects with various environmental and social welfare organizations, doing great things for others while simultaneously showing Americans everywhere the best side of our community-minded spirit. Nava started as a volunteer in the Boston chapter, which was the third in the country, and stepped into his current role in 2018. In the last three years, Gay For Good went from 10 to 16 chapters, connecting local leaders with nonprofits in Pittsburgh, Palm Springs, San Francisco, the Twin Cities and beyond.

It’s a natural fit for Nava, who was the inaugural chair of an LGBTQ employee resource group at his very first job at AT&T. Now he’s mobilizing a world of good.

How is the climate, from COVID to politics, impacting the work you do? Gay For Good suspended in-person volunteering in recent months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We shifted to virtual service projects including letter-writing for health care heroes and LGBTQ seniors, making and donating masks, having meals delivered to hospital workers, recording stories for hospitalized children, and collecting food using a safe drive-through model. In the

coming weeks, some of our chapters will return to small group volunteer projects. Safety remains our priority and we will partner with nonprofits that are following CDC guidelines. Last week, Gay For Good joined hundreds of LGBTQ organizations united in condemning racial violence and affirming our commitment to action. We believe that #BlackLivesMatter. As we navigate the coming days, weeks and months, we are listening and we are learning. We have a presence in 16 cities with literally thousands of volunteers who want to help in their communities. But we know the work ahead is best done in relationship, and we are looking for ways to build those relationships in a meaningful way.

Who is an LGBTQ person who had a major impact on you? John Klenert, the second cochair of the LGBTQ employee resource group at AT&T, where I had my first job back in the early ’90s. Even though I was pretty much fresh out of college, he always worked with me as an equal while gently providing guidance to [CONTINUES 75] JUL| AUG 2020 | 73

Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman Executive director, Greater Boston PFLAG In her new role as executive director of Greater Boston PFLAG, Sunnie KaufmannPaulman leads an organization with a storied history and vital role in strengthening supportive circles of LGBTQ+ allies. But the first person she needed to be an ally to was herself. “I remember clearly the morning that Proposition 8 passed,” says Kaufmann-Paulman, who was living in San Francisco in 2008, when California voters revoked equal marriage rights from same-sex couples. She had never been politically engaged before, but the experience shook Kaufmann-Paulman into action: She’s currently secretary of the executive board of the Family Equality Council, a national nonprofit advancing LGBTQ+ rights, where she also chairs the

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program committee and helped cofound the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. Joining GBPFLAG just before the COVID19 pandemic arrived, Kaufmann-Paulman has several tasks at hand. For one thing, she’s charged with shoring up the organization’s fiscal health by innovating fundraising—especially important, since the pandemic forced the cancellation of May’s annual gala, a major financial pillar. But she’s also working to expand Greater Boston PFLAG programs, such as support groups for friends and family members of LGBTQ+ folks, as well as educational trainings for workplaces, places of worship and other spaces. Plus, since allyship is at the very core of all this work, Kaufmann-Paulman is making sure that diversity and inclusion are

embraced in every aspect of Greater Boston PFLAG infrastructure and programs. She’ll ensure the organization keeps walking the walk—and leading the way.

Why is ally work so important? A lot of LGBTQ organizations serve individuals directly, which is critical. If we are not educating our community of allies and potential allies, those LGBTQ+ individuals are still going to be met with continued resistance in the world. If we can change hearts and minds, and educate allies, businesses, churches and schools to be more acceptive and inclusive, those individuals are going to have a more successful life and feel they can bring their full self to those places.

How can you be an effective ally? In the desire to be an ally, oftentimes you take on the need or mission of the group you’re trying to be an ally

GORMLEY [FROM 72]

to. As an ally organization, we’re thinking about, “How do we amplify the Black Lives Matter movement?” Because we’re not the Black Lives Matter movement and we believe it is incredibly important. So, as an ally org, we’re working to amplify Black Trans Lives Matter and other missions aligned with who we are serving: LGBTQ+ individuals, many of whom are Black and happen to be vastly underserved. We want to be action oriented and not performative. You want to be an ally who looks for ways to life up the work that is being done.

In a more accepting world, why does this work still matter? The thing that has not changed is that families exist in the construct that they were created in. You learn from your parents or other family members, environment geographically that you live, religion may or may not play a part in it, schooling, politics and so on. … Speaking to my own experience, although it was many years ago, I didn’t realize until I came out that my parents had a vision for who I was going to become, what my life was going to be like and what it meant for them as parents. Anytime that journey looks different, it can be a challenge to families, who go through an internal journey with their child or family member, but also go through a journey with extended family, community and work.

How has COVID-19 impacted your work? We had to adapt and evolve. We quickly transitioned to providing our support groups and programs virtually—the demand increased and our ability to serve companies, in particular, expanded. In person, we can go to an office locally. But if a business has employees all over the country or world, they all can come to a virtual presentation. So that’s exciting… We’re in the process of hiring a second program manager to support the demand we have, look at what we’re offering and ask, “How do we innovate beyond Zoom?”

still learning that in my role, I’m not the one who plays the music anymore. I just help it sound better.

How is the current political climate impacting your work? A lot of allies seem to think that if we simply defeat Trump this fall, the lives of trans people will suddenly be valued and safe. But transphobia, like racism and sexism, predate Trump, and they won’t simply go away when he does. … Electing Democrats might mitigate some of this, but they are still new to being our allies, and no major party has demonstrated a willingness to address the systemic underpinnings that cause suffering in our world. Having elected officials who march in Pride parades and hang our flags outside their offices is nice. But let’s not pretend that it’s going to stop our people from being poor, that it stops trans kids from living on the streets, or that it will stop Black trans women from being murdered.

Where do you find inspiration for your work? I’m especially inspired by the work of ACT UP. The politics of fighting for life as people we love die—is there anything more queer? In a moment of burnout a few years ago, I described my work as “bailing out the Titanic with a mop bucket.” But if we bail, really, really hard, and work together, we might buy ourselves enough time for the string quartet to finish their song. And isn’t that the point? Making life livable enough in an impossibly hostile world that our people can lead lives filled with joy and music?

NAVA [FROM 73]

help my own leadership style grow and develop. Our paths have crossed more recently as he has continued to be very active on the boards of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and other organizations. John embodies the spirit of volunteerism and community involvement even well into his retirement. He actually just joined DC Vote.

What’s a moment in LGBTQ history had a major impact on you? I think it’s the moment we’re living through now. We all know that Stonewall started as riots against the police abusing their power at a small bar in the Village. The bravery of those first few who fought back has never felt more real. In recent years, the “rainbow capitalism” that had almost taken over Pride celebrations was disturbing to me. I was left wondering if as a community we had simply been transformed into a consumer segment to market products and services. We have gotten a huge wake-up call this year. And I hope we rise to the challenge.

What’s a surprising piece of trivia about you? At the end of a performance of “The Women” on Broadway in 2003, I won Jennifer Coolidge’s bra in a spur of the moment auction to benefit Broadway Cares. Of course, that meant me and my friends got to meet Jennifer backstage, along with her dressing room roommate, Jennifer Tilly. More recently, one of those friends was working at Market in Boston’s W Hotel before it closed, and he saw Jennifer Coolidge at the bar and texted me to stop by. We had a mini-reunion—without her bra.

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CULTURE Arts STORY Loren King

ley rkers,” 2020, by Jay Critch “Solar Light—Essential Wo

” Scene from “Paese Che Vai

The Show Must Go On Arts and culture in the summer of COVID-19 Performing arts and cultural events are now in a summer like no other. Organizers were forced to decide back in early spring as theaters and concert venues quickly shuttered whether to go ahead with their summer seasons. Although there was initially some hope for July and August, many arts organizations soon came to the difficult decision that live events were just not feasible and set their sights to 2021. When the pandemic hit, theaters, cinemas and concert halls were the first to close and are likely to be the last to return. Unlike museums and galleries, which can be experienced in solitude so may be able to come back with effective crowd control, concerts, theater and movies—streaming notwithstanding—are meant to be shared

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with an audience; the collective response is intrinsic to the experience. But the show must go on, even when it can’t. For the first time in its 38-year history, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus was forced by the pandemic to cancel all concerts as well as its annual gala. But the BGMC is offering a host of performances via YouTube on its website, www.bgmc.org, including its latest, the moving “From Our Homes to Yours—Everything is Possible,” with dozens of individual members of the BGMC harmonizing together from their homes all across New England. When COVID-19 forced the Boston Symphony Orchestra to cut short its season, the BSO collaborated with Boston Ballet to present a unique “quarantine-friendly”

online performance. Boston Ballet principal dancer Paulo Arrais choreographed a duet, inspired by the famous Act II pas de deux from “Swan Lake,” that he performed with his life partner, Derek Dunn, also a Boston Ballet principal dancer. Styling the ballet specifically for two men, and accompanied by the BSO’s Elita Kang on violin and Jessica Zhou on harp, Arrais and Dunn performed the duet in the home of Boston Ballet soloist Isaac Akiba who filmed it. The performance can be viewed on the BSO (bostonpops.org/athome) and Boston Ballet (bostonballet.org/love) websites.

Scene from “Beauty Boys”

na Sandra Piques Eddy and Ele

bo ra’s “Norma.”. PHOTO Ben Ge Stikhina in Boston Lyric Ope

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus A summer tradition of heading out to Tanglewood has been replaced by virtual performances. The series “ Great Performers in Recital at Tanglewood,” which streams on Saturday evenings, spotlights some of the artists who were to appear in the Shed in 2020 and additional guests such as Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk, Augustin Hadelich and Orion Weiss, Gil Shaham, Daniil Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma, Conrad Tao and Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth. “Recitals from the World Stage,” a Wednesday evening series of video streams recorded at concert venues

around the world and featuring artists who were to appear in Ozawa Hall this summer includes the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Danish String Quartet, Silkroad Ensemble, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Paul Lewis and Garrick Ohlsson. Friday evenings will showcase “BSO Musicians in Recital.” Video and audio streams begin July 1 on tanglewood.org. Since shuttering its spring season in March due to the pandemic, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) has created new podcasts, video and audio recordings, all available on blo.org. The BLO’s recording of Bellini’s “Norma,” starring the rising Russian

soprano Elena Stikhina in her title-role debut, was an international streaming hit that drew thousands of visitors to the BLO website. The audio, conducted by Music Director David Angus, in collaboration with 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston and its Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Antonio Oliart Ros, continues to be broadcast on WCRB and classicalWCRB.org. The 21st annual Providence LGBTQ Film Festival, part of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, is scheduled to take place in and around Providence August 4–9. Organizers say there will be

[CONTINUES 79] JUL| AUG 2020 | 77

PHOTO Provincetown Film Society

CULTURE Cinema STORY Loren King

Finding It at the Movies Rachael Brister brings energy and experience to new role as director of Provincetown Film Society Rachael Brister is a self-described “film nerd” and “film geek.” It’s fitting, then, that Brister has taken the reins as CEO of the Provincetown Film Society, the organization that oversees the Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF), the Waters Edge Cinema and the Gabrielle A. Hanna Provincetown Film Institute. And what a time to take those reins. In late March, the Film Society decided against producing this year’s PIFF, originally scheduled for June 17–21. “While this decision was a very difficult one for the Provincetown Film Society’s staff and Board of Directors, we know it was the right one,” Brister said. “The health and safety of our local town and the supportive community of filmmakers, film industry professionals and audiences that travel to Provincetown each year for the film festival is our chief priority."

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Still, “We hope to present programming in 2020 that not only moves our mission forward but will also galvanize our community at a time when the need to come together (virtually or otherwise) is vital,” she said. Brister, a Philadelphia native, moved to Provincetown in January, bringing plenty of film geek cred to her new position. In Rochester, NY, she managed the 535-seat archival movie theater at the esteemed George Eastman Museum, the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the oldest film archives. Later, she served as executive director of the Three Dollar Bill Cinema, which produces the longrunning Seattle Queer Film Festival and, since 2008, the Seattle Transgender Film Festival. It was while attending the University of Rochester that Brister came out. In search

of community, she started volunteering during her sophomore year for the Rochester Gay and Lesbian and Film Festival. It was a match made for the movies. “I love operations systems, so I was put in charge of ticket sales. I streamlined a few things,” she says. Volunteering for the festival “opened a world to seeing indie films, short films, super indie queer films. The festival gave me visibility. I could see [myself ] onscreen. People really cared about it and subsequently I did, too; that’s why I abandoned my track of getting my PhD in comparative literature. “I got more involved [by running the festival] and it changed my career path completely,” says Brister. “I knew I wanted to work in film and nonprofit art space.” Since the festival was a volunteer post, Brister worked other film jobs to support herself including managing the Eastman

SHOW MUST GO ON [FROM 77]A

“ I know people are now streaming, watching films on their phones, but I don’t think it means the death of cinema. There is so much that just going out to the movies can bring to people. I still believe in that and I want others to believe in that, too. ” Rachael Brister. PHOTO Sandy Turner House theater. “I loved working there for so many reasons. I can still feel the cold when I walked through the nitrate film vault. The Eastman House is among a handful of theaters that can, physically and legally, [exhibit nitrate film stock, which is highly flammable]. I saw ‘The Red Shoes’ on nitrate. It blew my mind.” In 2004 she moved across the country to Seattle when she was hired as executive director of the Three Dollar Bill Cinema and headed the Seattle Queer Film Festival, one of the oldest and most popular LGBT film events in the country. Brister describes Seattle as a passionate film town, and it gave her the opportunity to see firsthand the role that a beloved festival plays in providing both visibility and connection for all audiences but especially marginalized ones. “We have to coalesce around our community and give voice to those parts of our community who need to talk about their experiences. Seattle has a significant trans community so in 2008 we started the Seattle Trans Film Festival,” one of just a handful of such events in the world, she says. “It was an important place to gather and we heard that people were grateful for a place where they could be together outside of a bar, without alcohol. Arts organizations and events can offer that.” Brister had never attended PIFF but she already knew the importance of Provincetown to residents and visitors since for the past few years she’s operated her own public relations company, specializing in LGBT outreach. One of her clients has been the Provincetown Business Guild, which promotes LGBT tourism in town. Brister and her wife, Sandy Turner, a senior project manager for a marketing

—Rachel Brister agency, visited Provincetown last year during Pride weekend. The position with PFS was enough of a lure to make Brister want to move across the country once again. Now living in Provincetown and leading the film society, Brister had seen her first order of business as simply experiencing the 22nd edition of PIFF. “I want to see how everything works. The board has things it’s looking to do for long-term fiscal responsibility, adding some benefits for staff, the goals that a lot of nonprofits strive for.” She’d planned to reserve any action until after her first festival. “Especially with a festival like this with such longevity, a great reputation, so many people involved and such great support, I just want[ed] to hear what people think. I’ve already met with staff and asked for their input,” she says. But, as for so many this year, those plans had to be altered. Brister takes over from Christine Walker, who after six years as CEO will assume other roles within the PFS including working with the Women’s Media Summit, which she launched, and the society’s mentoring and residency programs. Brister’s passion for not just the art of film but for the cinema experience should make her quite at home in Provincetown. “I care about the film-going experience, not just what’s on the screen but the experience of watching what’s on screen. It helps filmgoers remain filmgoers. I know people are now streaming, watching films on their phones, but I don’t think it means the death of cinema,” she says. “There is so much that just going out to the movies can bring to people. I still believe in that and I want others to believe in that, too.” [x]

modifications to this year’s event, but at the time this issue went to press the program of films are slated to screen as planned. One of the hardest hit arts and culture scenes is, of course, Provincetown. The LGBTQ destination will no doubt see a big drop of in tourism this summer. The popular Art House Provincetown in early June postponed to 2021 a stellar season that was to have featured such Broadway luminaries as Melissa Errico, Kristin Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara. It’s not meant to replace live performances, but Art House Producing Artistic Director Mark Cortale in June launched a weekly virtual series starring longtime Art House performer and host Seth Rudetsky. “The Seth Concert Series” continues with top stage and screen performers on Sunday nights at www.thesethconcertseries.com One of the most iconic cultural events in Provincetown is the annual Swim for Life, which celebrates its 33rd year bringing the community together to raise funds for AIDS and women’s health organizations. The summer-long “Swimming in Place Challenge, Our Place, Your Place” is running now until September 12, the designated Swim date (go to swim4life.org). Founder Jay Critchley, an artist and the director of the Provincetown Community Compact, said that although he expects the swim to take place, there isn’t likely to be the traditional gathering of friends and supporters. He encourages swimmers to join in the Swimming in Place Challenge and swim where they live. The public is invited to join swimmers, volunteers, kayakers, walkers and boaters to create a challenge in their home place or in Provincetown and to take part in a virtual online celebration from Provincetown on September 12. “The Swim for Life’s essence embodies Provincetown as a place of healing and compassion,” says Critchley whose latest public art project is “36 Solar Lights,” for which he’s placed lights at community buildings and other sites and spaces to highlight Provincetown’s committed response to COVID-19. “This global pandemic has no borders. Please show your longtime love of Provincetown in our time of urgency,” he added. [x]

provincetownfilm.org/festival

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CULTURE Books STORY Loren King

Helen Fremont. PHOTO Mikki Ansin

“It’s really scary to set your words out when your loved ones are absolutely adamant that you have no right to, that somehow you owe it to them not to expose them. That’s precisely what was so crazy-making—the obligation to not speak your truth is what is so damaging.”

It All Comes Back Helen Fremont’s acclaimed new memoir, “The Escape Artist,” digs deeper into family secrets Boston author Helen Fremont explored family secrets in her 1999 debut memoir, “After Long Silence,” which was about discovering that her Eastern European émigré parents who raised her as Roman Catholic were actually Jewish and Holocaust survivors living invented lives. After six years researching and writing

“After Long Silence,” Fremont thought she’d fully mined her history and was eager to return to writing fiction. Then her family disowned her and declared her legally dead. “That shock of getting disowned was when I realized I’d barely scratched the surface and there was still so much I

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Helen Fremont

didn’t understand about my family,” says Fremont, a lawyer who worked since 1985 as a public defender in Boston. She’s lived in the Fenway since 1994 with wife Donna Thagard. (“I moved in with her. It took me forever—two months—slow for lesbians,” says Fremont, laughing.) It took nearly two decades after she was disowned in 2001 for revealing her family’s secrets in her first book (even though she altered names) for Fremont to process the trauma that eventually resulted in “The Escape Artist,” recently published by Simon & Schuster.

“I spent 20 years trying really hard not to write it,” she says. “I just wanted to make sense of what had happened, for my own sanity. You get disowned, then spend every waking moment writing about your family. So how far away did you get?” Dark humor is laced through the wrenching drama in “The Escape Artist” as Fremont recalls her middle-class upbringing outside Schenectady, New York, which was defined by her older sister and only sibling Lara’s lifelong mental illness. Lara’s frequent bouts of violence, depression, eating disorders and suicide attempts held the family

hostage as her parents tried to insulate themselves from the outside world. Despite the threats and trauma, there was also love and a strong sisterly bond. Fremont writes with brutal honesty of her own role in the secrecy and shame and the toll that it took on all aspects of her being as she left home, first to attend Wellesley College, then Boston University Law School. Fremont wrote “a thousand pages, easily” as she processed the complexities of her family’s history and relationships. “I abandoned it so many times. I was only writing for myself, so I’d overwrite. A 30-minute moment of my life could be 100 pages. [Later] I had to look at it as an editor: What is important? What surprises me? How did I find out I was Jewish? I was gay? How to present it in ways that are interesting. If I’m surprised about something about myself, it usually means I’m getting somewhere,” she says. As a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Fremont had a network of writers for support. Once she started showing her material to colleagues, she began to understand that her specific story had universal themes. “I realized, oh, there’s a lot of commonalities in terms of the corrosive effect secrets have on a family. It doesn’t matter what it is, so many identified with it,” she says. “Writing has the opportunity to heal us. I thought I was writing just for me, but I realized that other people are getting something out of it. We are connected in so many ways,” she says. “That’s why [writing memoir] is more than exposing. You have to question your motives. Otherwise, it will come across as bad writing. I know because I wrote badly about this for 10 years. If you’re writing out of

revenge or pain, it might help lead you, but it won’t be useful for someone else.” Fremont found the many layers of irony in revealing, with clear-eyed detail and a hard-won understanding, a family whose world was built on secrets and denial. “It’s really scary to set your words out when your loved ones are absolutely adamant that you have no right to, that somehow you owe it to them not to expose them. That’s precisely what was so crazy-making— the obligation to not speak your truth is what is so damaging,” she says. Fremont credits Thagard, a retired medical technician, not just for support through the long process of writing the book but also for being her “first and best reader.” Thagard, says Fremont, has read “every page I’ve written including the thousands I threw away. She saved me from myself, if I was being flip or going on and on… Donna is a voracious reader and a good editor. I’m so grateful she’s been wholeheartedly behind my doing this. She’s the one reader whom I can trust with any material. I’ve resisted, but she’s always right.” Fremont, who’s taught at Harvard University, Emerson College and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, read “hundreds of memoirs” as she worked on both “After Long Silence” and “The Escape Artist.” She cites memoirs by Mary Karr (“The Liar’s Club”), Tobias Wolff (“This Boy’s Life”), Dorothy Allison (“Bastard Out of Carolina”) and Geoffrey Wolff (“The Duke of Deception”) as particularly inspiring. “When you doubt yourself, write the doubt. Use the voices that would shut you down, Memoir has the power to heal,” she says, “but not until you’ve suffered a whole lot.” [x]

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CULTURE Books STORY Loren King

Then and Now With heart, humor and honesty, Paul Lisicky’s new memoir recalls gay life in Provincetown during the age of AIDS It isn’t easy to look back while moving forward, and it’s even harder on the page. But Paul Lisicky’s sixth book “Later: My Life at the End of the World” vividly captures what the author calls the “devastation and tenderness” in early 1990s Provincetown when HIV/AIDS cast a pall over the community. Released in March from Graywolf Press, “Later” begins in 1991 with Lisicky leaving his mother’s house in Florida for Provincetown where he’s received a writing fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center. His development as a writer coincides with the freedom he feels in Provincetown to express his gay identity and sexuality. Writing in fragments like sudden bursts of memory, Lisicky’s depiction of this specific time and place is immediate, visceral and intimate, even though he’s recounting events from 30 years ago. The book spans just three years, from ’91 to ’94, as Lisicky recreates small moments: bonding with other FAWC writers, dancing at the

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A-House, cruising a boatyard at night, sitting silently with a friend who’s dying, attending funerals, volunteering at the annual auction for the Provincetown AIDS Support Group. “In my mind, that particular envelope of years still really pulsates; it is still very present in my imagination,” says Lisicky from his home in Brooklyn. “I talk and think about those years in a way that I can’t about, say, 1996 once protease inhibitors changed gay culture and the culture of Provincetown. What I did was to take some powerful, intensified memories and I tried to unpack them.” Lisicky began composing “Later” in the past tense but soon realized that his linear story “sounded too connected and resolved and safe. It didn’t feel faithful to my experience of that era, which was onthe-spot, kind of fragmentary, very DIY. It felt like we needed to make those days up because there was always the possibility of interruption — someone might get sick

at a public event. Survival was an intense experience for anyone who lived there during that time and I wanted to find a form that intensified that. My first version was arching toward a resolution that didn’t feel true for me. For those who lived through those years, the trauma of that crisis is still ongoing on a psychological level and I wanted to imply that.” Besides writing frankly about sexual encounters and love affairs, “Later” is about the author’s romance with a nearmythic place. He’s even given it a name: it’s simply “Town.” Provincetown “stirs up the deepest romanticism even in the most cynical people,” he says. He quotes lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s song, “The Last Time I Saw Richard”: “All romantics meet the same fate someday/Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark café …” Lisicky says people quickly fall in love with Provincetown, seduced by, among other things, the “welcoming community;

“ I was thinking about multiple audiences but especially younger readers, students of mine, who wanted to experience the texture of a time that has only seemed abstract and distant. I also wanted it to be meaningful to older readers who lived through those years, not just queer but straight as well.”

extraordinary natural beauty; its isolation. Now we think of isolation as anything but desirable, but there’s something about the place being hard to get to that is wrapped into the story of it.” Lisicky, who teaches in the MFA program at Rutgers University-Camden, wanted to honor his experience so that younger readers who didn’t live through the era that Lisicky, in the book’s afterword calls “a brute age,” could understand it. “I was thinking about multiple audiences but especially younger readers, students

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Paul Lisicky of mine, who wanted to experience the texture of a time that has only seemed abstract and distant. I wanted the book to have a youthful, feral energy to it,” he says. “I also wanted it to be meaningful to older readers who lived through those years, not just queer but straight as well. I wanted it to be welcoming [but] do it in a way that didn’t feel too neat. I wanted it to have some edges and spikes.” Lisicky began the book a during a monthlong residency at Yaddo shortly after his father died.

“I think that because of that experience, I was really porous. I could not write directly about my father but something about those last months when he was in and out of hospitals and dealing with pneumonia seemed emotionally close to my memories of people who’d died of AIDS,” he says. “My father was the jet fuel to bringing memories back. [The book] took a long time to write but the first draft arrived pretty quickly. I was just trying to keep myself from going under, honestly. I didn’t care if anyone was going read it; I didn’t care if it was lousy.” He left Yaddo with about 120 pages but by then, he says, the memoir had taken “its own identity.” “I had to be loyal to it. There was still a lot of work to do but I felt that I owed the book my honesty. There was so much about those years that had not been represented on the page and it was getting further and further from the collective imagination. I thought, wait, there’s still a lot to say about these years,” he says. “I didn’t want the book to feel sealed off and nostalgic. I wanted it active and alive.” [x]

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CULTURE Stage STORY Loren King

Voice of Our People Gay playwright Terrence McNally had deep area connections, onstage and off For decades, Terrence McNally’s groundbreaking plays and musicals brought the lives of gay characters onto the American stage and into the public consciousness. One didn’t have to go to Broadway to see them. New England’s many theaters, large and small, regularly produced McNally’s many works, sometimes with the easygoing and accessible McNally himself in attendance. As recently as 2018, McNally, who died in March at age 81 of complications from the coronavirus, visited Provincetown to accept the Provincetown American Playwright Award and attend a Provincetown

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Theater production of his landmark 1995 Tony Award-winning play “Love! Valor! Compassion!” about a group of gay male friends facing loss in the age of AIDS. The four-time Tony Award-winning playwright of other iconic plays and musicals such as “Master Class,” “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” “Some Men,” “The Ritz,” “The Lisbon Traviata,” “Ragtime” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” had deep connections to the region—most notably Vermont where he and Tom Kirdahy, a lawyer and Broadway producer, had a civil union ceremony in

McNally and Kirdahy 2001. They later married in 2010 in Washington, D.C. It was in Vermont that filmmakers Jeffrey Kaufman and Marcia Ross met McNally and Kirdahy. Kaufman and Ross were making their documentary “State of Marriage” about the origins of the marriage equality movement in Vermont. The couples became fast friends and McNally became the subject for their next documentary. “I was prepared for someone intimidating and full of himself. Instead, Terrence was disarmingly welcoming and open,” Kaufman wrote immediately following news of McNally’s death. “As we filmed our interview, I was moved by how vulnerable Terrence let himself be when he talked about how much he loved Tom. He said, ‘Marriage is choosing to spend your life with someone and thinking of the two of you as ‘us.’ Us becomes more important than me, and that includes everything. It is a very profound pledge, and it makes me feel safer, more protected,

Terrence McNally and husband Tom Kirdahy in Vermont

happier, calmer. … I’m not alone in the world.’” Ross and Kaufman’s film “Every Act of Life” (2018) screened in Boston’s Wicked Queer film festival and in the Globe Docs series, where I interviewed the filmmakers on stage at the Brattle Theatre. Their documentary traces McNally’s life and career and features interviews with many of the actors whose careers he helped launched: Nathan Lane, F. Murray Abraham, Christine Baranski, Chita Rivera. Audra McDonald, Doris Roberts, Patrick Wilson, Joe Mantello and more. McNally talks candidly about his Texas childhood; his early relationship with writer Edward Albee, which ended partly because Albee was far more closeted than McNally was; the violent protests over his play “Corpus Christi,” in which a gay Christ-like figure named Joshua marries two apostles; and overcoming lung cancer. The prolific McNally’s plays and musicals have been staples of the American theater for many years, whether regional or national touring companies. Notable recent productions include directorchoreographer Rachel Bertone’s production of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” for the Lyric Stage Company in 2018. Winner of Tony Awards in 1993 for best musical,

score and book by McNally, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” centers on the relationship between two men, the flamboyantly gay Molina and the macho political prisoner Valentin, who share a cell in an Argentina prison. Besides many visits to Provincetown over the years, McNally was the guest of honor at SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 20th Anniversary Gala in 2011. At that time, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino declared April 4, 2011 as “Terrence McNally Day” in the city in recognition of “the tremendous contribution that Mr. McNally has made in the theatre community throughout his illustrious career.” Other recent New England theater productions of McNally’s works include “Ragtime” at Seacoast Rep of Portsmouth, New Hampshire this past January. “Ragtime” was also staged last year at Wheelock Family Theater and at Company Theater in Norwell and in 2017 at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. McNally visited Boston when the Strand Theatre in Dorchester hosted Fiddlehead Theatre Company’s production of “Ragtime” in 2012. Vermont Stage opened its production in January 2016 of McNally’s play “Mothers and Sons,” an expansion of his 1988 drama

“Andre’s Mother,” which was set at a memorial service for a man who died from AIDS, at FlynnSpace in Burlington. Also in 2016, the musical “Anastasia,” with a book by McNally from the screenplay of the animated film, had its world premiere at Hartford Stage prior to its move to Broadway. When news hit that McNally had died on March 23, there was an outpouring of tributes from the theater world. Pulitzer Prize winning (“How I Learned to Drive”) and Tony nominated (“Indecent”) playwright Paula Vogel of Wellfleet wrote, “Terrence was a role model: interested in younger artists, curious about innovations in theater, voracious in his encouragement to us. In the years that followed, as I went through a metal detector to support his play “Corpus Christi” in the face of death threats, and sat in packed theatres watching “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Ragtime” and “Master Class,” I couldn’t believe my good luck to know him. Terrence McNally was the first in our field to hold the door to the boys’ club of theatre and open it wide for the girls. We’ve lost a giant with the kindest eyes.” [x]

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CULTURE Song / Books STORY Scott Kearnan

Lyrics of His Life Kindness and compassion. Branden James’s kind of salvation Back when he was a contestant on the NBC reality show “America’s Got Talent,” Branden James showed the world he could sing. It was through writing his new memoir, though, that he truly found his voice. In “Lyrics of My Life: My Journey with Family, HIV, and Reality TV,” out in early September, James speaks his truth on a host of issues—growing up gay in a conservative Christian household, coming out to America while he was a finalist on AGT, his difficulty coming to terms with his positive status, and his experience with sexual assault in the music industry. Along the way, music is also a kind of salvation: One thing that the tenor singer can count on to bring joy and healing even when he’s at his most wounded.

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Today, James and his husband and frequent collaborator, cellist James Clark, tour widely to share the beautiful music they make together. Until the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, they were slated to bring Provincetown’s Pilgrim House their latest show, “The Lady Gaga Songbook,” which features inventive interpretations of the pop star’s catalogue. That’s off for now, but you can keep an eye on his website (brandenjames.com) for updates on virtual performance—and of course, cuddle up with a copy of “Lyrics.” In his new book, James writes about how his relationship with his faith helped him during dark times. The music he grew up with in church is still something he plays. “It’s a huge source of comfort,” he says. “I realized in writing the book that God was

Branden James and James Clark

always there, that he never left, that God doesn’t discriminate, and he should be for everybody. He shouldn’t just be for one political party.” Faith is still important to him, he says. “I have a lot of issues with the church itself, because I think that organized religion is a double-edged sword. The world has been fighting for thousands of years because of religion, and I don’t know if it’s done more harm than good. I think probably it has. So I’m not a churchgoer, but I’m a believer in God. I think faith is important, and I think it should be available to anyone who wants to have it.” He also writes about having been sexually assaulted in high school by a music producer interested in his singing. “He told me to come to a hotel because he wanted to talk to me about a potential record deal,” he tells Boston Spirit. “He had all these liquor and wine bottles laid out, offered me several drinks, and

essentially stuck his tongue down my throat. I wasn’t sexually assaulted to the point of being raped, but there was a lot of underage pornography involved and things like that. I talk about that in the book because it’s part of my story: It’s part of what gave me a little extra layer of shame. I did report it. But I was in a position where I had just moved to San Francisco to start college, and I didn’t want what happened before that lingering while I was trying study music. I decided to not press charges." He says his biggest regret is, “every day,” wondering, did he do it to others? “I don’t know where he is. I don’t even know if he is who he says he was. I had to let all that go. When you’re a young person and you’re going through stuff like that, you just turn to survival mode and you don’t always make the best choices.” Turning back to the present, we asked him about challenges and opportunities that come with working with his spouse.

“What makes it work for us so well is that he’s really, truly my best friend. We call each other mate because he’s Australian,” he says with a laugh. “I know that doesn’t sound very romantic, but a lot of our relationship is really brotherly. We

have a very strong affection for each other, and we respect each other on a musical and personal basis. We’ve had a couple of moments where our musical opinions become impassioned, of course, but nothing that’s caused a Sonny and Cher split!” What Branden James says he hopes reader get most from his book is all about love. “I talk a lot about love at all costs, about being kind to everybody and how we’re all part of the same race—the human race,” he says. “I hope and pray that what’s happening now is like a reset. I think we haven’t been treating each other or our planet very nicely for a long time now. We’re very entitled. Recent events have shown us that we’re all in the same boat and things like this virus don’t discriminate against anyone. I hope that we’ll come together as humanity and treat people nicer, with more kindness and compassion.” [x]

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REPRESENTING THE FINEST HOMES

FROM DOWNTOWN TO PROVINCETOWN

Calendar

Camp Lightbulb

Social distancing may have put the kibosh on enrollments at many summer camps, but LGBTQ youth can still find support through Camp Lightbulb, a 2011-founded nonprofit that first launched in Provincetown, and has since expanded to New York City and Los Angeles. Although traditional operations have been suspended for the season, it has started introducing online camps that incorporate interactive programs like a talent show, discussion groups and even cupcake-eating contests. In between these multi-day experiences, Camp Lightbulb is also hosting regular weekend events: Saturdays are dedicated to variety shows and dance parties, while Sundays are filled with yoga sessions and talk shows, starring personalities like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Kasha Davis. Finally, the org is even streaming youth-friendly offerings on its Instagram Live account, such as Tuesday dance lessons. For updates on all events, visit Camp Lightbulb’s Facebook page or website. WHEN

HOW

All summer long

camplightbulb.org

Queerantine Gayme Night Here’s a question for you: What’s one way to have fun, stay connected with other New England queers and get your fix of gay-bar trivia nights? Answer: This series produced by GLAM Vermont, an HIV program for gay, bi and trans men in the greater Burlington area. The now-virtual trivia nights are conducted using Zoom and Jackbox.tv, which allows contestants to submit their answers remotely. So brush up on your knowledge of LGBTQ news, history, culture and entertainment, and log on to pop off your best guesses. You’ll win important bragging rights and maybe make a few new game-night friends to hang with once “queerantine” is over. WHEN

HOW

Every third Wednesday. 88 | BOSTON SPIRIT

glamvt.org

Gays for Patsy Virtual Dancing Nightclub floors may be empty, but that’s no excuse to put away your dancing shoes—or, if you’re a line-dancing fan, your shit-kickin’ boots. Instead, zip ‘em up and log on to Zoom lessons hosted by Bob Sweeney of Gays for Patsy, which has been “queering country dancing” since 1991. The group normally provides lessons in two-step, waltz, swing and line dance at Bella Luna, a lounge and restaurant in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Until that’s possible again, Sweeney has taken to Zoom, giving all the same instruction and leaving the second hour free for open dancing. WHEN

HOW

Tuesdays and Saturdays, 7–9 p.m.

gaysforpatsy.org/virtual-dances

Live from Provincetown We can’t wait until we can spend another normal summer in Provincetown—strolling down Commercial Street, hitting dance parties at the A-House and checking out uproarious cabaret shows. This year looks a little different, of course. Although B&Bs and other accommodations are back open, capacities at various venues are bound to be much more limited. Great news, though: You can still score a front-row seat to see fabulous entertainers via Live from Provincetown. The virtual events producer has been broadcasting variety shows from the Crown & Anchor featuring favorite stars like Dina Martina, dance parties DJ’d by Tom Yaz, piano bar sing-alongs with various themes and more. The best part? Your wi-fi connection moves a lot faster than the ferry. WHEN

HOW

Every Thursday

Live from Provincetown on Facebook

Feel It, Speak It ‘Inside Out’ Mic For more than 10 years, If You Can Feel It, You Can Speak It has been one of the most important and influential open mic series in Boston. Founded by Jha D Williams, the event offers opportunities for LGBTQ people of color to share their stories, poetry and other forms of performance to audiences who celebrate their intersecting identities. And just because we’re separated doesn’t mean we can’t continue to speak our truths and feel each other’s words and passions. So whether you’re an open mic veteran or an amateur, sign up to be heard, bring your best and put what’s inside out into the world. WHEN

HOW

Every Thursday

“If You Can Feel It, You Can Speak It” Open Mic Movement on Facebook

Bunny and the Fox While most events have moved online for the time being, we’re still optimistic that at least a few live shows will be possible as the summer rolls on. And at press time, Bunny and the Fox’s “Happily Never After Dizney Show,” a sure-to-be fierce experience, was still slated to bring audiences an uproarious evening of Disney-inspired drag. Hosts Bunny Wonderland and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Joslyn Fox have already established a reputation as an uproarious duo, always creating fully immersive evenings and culling toptier talent from around New England. Who will fill the stage tonight? Snow White? Cinderella? The Mulan? Mary Poppins? Whoever shows up, the show itself is bound to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Saturday, August 22

3SArtspace, Portsmouth, NH

3sarts.org

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Joy and Resilience Right now, we can all use a little added inspiration. For that, turn to a weekly conversation series produced by Keshet, a Bostonbased, national organization advocating for full LGBTQ equality in Jewish life. Authors, spiritual leaders, educators and other motivating personalities have all been part of the line-up to date, dispensing wit and wisdom that will keep you motivated even during these difficult times.

Out Maine Youth Programs As hard as the social distancing era has been for all of us, it’s likely been even more difficult for LGBTQ young people, for whom support with peers is so important. Make sure that the queer youth you know are finding the friendships they need, and log on to weekly programs hosted by Out Maine. There are young adult groups (ages 18–22) every Monday, queer Dungeons n Dragons meetups every Thursday and youth groups (ages 11–18) every Tuesdays and Wednesday, which feature fun summer activities like songwriting, photography, poetry writing and other opportunities to get creative—and connected.

WHEN

HOW

WHEN

HOW

Weekly

keshetonline.org

Weekly

outmaine.org

Summer-Long ‘Swim for Life’ For 32 years, thousands have plunged into Provincetown Harbor and stroked or paddled their way to raise life-saving funds for AIDS and women’s health organizations. This year, faced with pandemic restrictions of public gatherings, Swim founder Jay Critchley has moved the challenge from early September to virtually all summer long (through Sept. 12), and from not just P’town Harbor to wherever—absolutely anywhere—anyone can swim, kayak or simply walk! For this, the Swim’s 33rd year, it’s called “Swimming in Place Challenge, Our Place, Your Place.” WHEN

HOW

through September 12.

swim4life.org

SCENE Volunteering PHOTOS Gay for Good Boston

Prison Book Program United First Parish Church | Quincy, MA | February 24, 2020

Gay for Good Boston volunteers returned to the Prison Book Program in Quincy, where they helped over 100 prisoners receive free books they’d requested by writing to the program. The volunteers read a prisoner’s hand-written request, browsed the program’s bookstore for appropriate titles and content, and packed them off to their readers. Each month, Gay For Good Boston volunteers donate their time to different community service projects. For more, go to gayforgood.org/boston

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SCENE Demonstration PHOTOS Transgender Emergency Fund, TCNE, Jim Dalglish, Rob Phelps

Transgender Resistance Vigil and March Franklin Park Playstead | Boston | June 13, 2020

Thousands of people gathered, marched and called for social justice for Black and Brown transgender and gender-nonconforming people, and especially for justice for hate crimes committed against them. Organized by Athena Vaughn and the Transgender Emergency Fund, the peaceful, empowering protest took place on the day Boston Pride would have marked its 50th anniversary (postposed due to COVID-19 until 2021). The vigil and march aimed to “open the eyes of community-based organizations who claim they serve us to see & hear us,” said its organizers, and to encourage “our allies and family members to stand with us in our fight for social justice and an end to our oppression.”

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SCENE Volunteering PHOTOS RI Pride

Rhode Island Pride Food/Supplies Drive Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts | March–May 2020

Starting in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic quarantine back in March, RI Pride got to work, shifting their priorities from the annual PrideFest and Illuminated Night Parade, which they postponed, to gathering food and supplies and distributing them to their neighbors in need. All told, the drive fed over 13,300 individuals and over 3,500 families, with more than $91,600 donated from individuals, financial institutions and local and national charitable organizations. For more, see the story on page 21. (Photos taken prior to city and state requirements to wear masks.)

LET’S DANCE!

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CODA Fashion Nina Livingstone David Josef in his workshop

made over 3,000 masks, just Danny and me, at my studio in Waltham. And we haven’t taken a single day off! We also helped my friend Ann Russo put together the finances and one day we raised $21,000 so she could have over 50,000 masks mass-produced in Fall River and distributed to hospitals, nursing homes, police, supermarkets across the Boston area.

Man Behind the Mask Fashion designer David Josef faces pandemic with panache When the coronavirus pandemic crisis slammed Massachusetts back in March, David Josef didn’t wait long before his ideas and his hands landed at the sewing machine. The Waltham-based designer’s styles have dressed up stars like Cher, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper and the list goes on... And his designs continue to thread their way from Boston to New York City and beyond. Only this time, they’re serving both a fashionable purpose and a flight of hope. [SPIRIT] So how did the David Josef mask come about? [JOSEF] Here we are today, in the middle of a pandemic. At the moment of this interview, 98,545 Americans have died from this horrible virus. I had been moved to tears, afraid, feeling vulnerable over what’s happening. But after three days of staying at

home in lockdown I was bored and feeling helpless. It was when I turned on MSNBC’s Morning Joe at 6 a.m. on March 20 and heard the call for designers, home-stitchers or anyone who sews to get up and help with PPE, that there weren’t enough facemasks, gowns and protective gear for our first responders to fight this fight without getting infected. So, Danny [Forrester, his husband] and I decided to go to the office, come up with a pattern, and make a couple of hundred masks for anyone who needed them thinking that might be enough. I had posted on Facebook the first mask I made with the caption that I’ve made a pattern and people were reaching out to me to get a David Josef mask. [SPIRIT] What happened next? [JOSEF] Instead of making 200 masks and distributing them to those in need, we have

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[SPIRIT] Tell us more about your masks. [JOSEF] I love my masks. I make each and every one of them myself. Danny and I will pick each fabric individually for the people who are requesting them. They are made with love and care, and they are made like iron. Each mask comes with a filter that is removable, a wire above the nose to pinch under your eyes so the virus doesn’t get in or your moisture from your mouth doesn’t get out. And I’m pretty honored to say that everyone who has received my masks has sent me notes about the quality and how much they love them. [SPIRIT] Who are some of your most memorable clients? [JOSEF] Of course my biggest stars are my beautiful mothers of the bride and grooms, occasionally moms who need to look a certain way for their event. I adore reawakening something inside of these women who forget how beautiful they truly are because of the day-to-day living of work, raising children and keeping a family together. However, I have enjoyed every moment of working with actresses like Tony and Emmy awardwinning Judith Light. Tony Award-winning actress Beth Leavel. I recently realized one of my childhood dreams and got to meet music legend Melissa Manchester and not

only design her outfits for her 2019 Christmas Tour, but we also became lovely friends. I also have become dear friends with legendary actress, singer, Tony winner, Grammy nominated Miss Melba Moore. I recently dressed her for The Women of Color Awards on Broadway where she received a Lifetime Achievement award. That outfit was one of the most spectacular pieces of my whole career! Since then, beautiful Melba Moore refers to me as her Bob Mackie. Which is incredibly flattering. [SPIRIT] You and Daniel Forrester have been together for almost four decades. What is your secret? [JOSEF] Danny and I spend an inordinate amount of time together—we work together and live together. I guess the secret to our successful almost 40 years together is that we genuinely like each other. When we fight, 10 minutes later we are laughing! We really are a great couple together and that’s the thing I’m most proud of … It has nothing to do with my career but that I have a really great marriage. [SPIRIT] What do you do to relax? [JOSEF] I have two speeds: 100 miles an hour or “Off.” I do not take work home with me, ever! Work is work and home is home. Danny and I get home from work, cook dinner, and relax by watching something on Netflix, watching the news to see what disaster is happening in America with this administration. And we both go to bed very early because we’re up at 4:30 in the morning. [x]

davidjoseffashions@gmail.com; 857-399-6430; David Josef Fashions on Facebook