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‘I Tried To Pray The Gay Away’ By Michael Crawford
‘Lazarus Effect’ For HIV Patients By Jennifer Middleton
Gay Dads Make Great Parents By Michelle Brayson
1971 Now First Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S. By Nancy Jenkins
Texas ‘Dragtavist’ Drag Queens Border Wall Protest
Publisher/Executive Editor David Vandygriff Dvandygriff @cityxtramagazine.com Editor In Chief Harvey Carr hcarr@cityxtramagazine.com Director of Sales Carlos Martinez Sales@cityxtramagazine.com Creative Designer Debbie Johnson Djohnson @cityxtramagazine.com
By Trent Baker
British Airlines Adds Non-Binary Gender By Drew Smith
No Problem If I’m A Gay Icon By Brenda Jacobs
3 LGBT-Friendly Escapes in Hawaii By David Vandygriff
Pence’s Chief of Staff Homophobic AIDS Column By Ellen David
Be You Gender Fluid By David Vandygriff
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conservative, Republican household in America, it was not very ‘I Tried To Pray The Gay Away’ easy at all. By Michael Crawford “When you grow up in the Gay Christian YouTuber church, especially a very kind Bradley Birkholz grew up being of spiritual and mystic church told “demonic forces” were like the one I grew up in, you’re possessing him. Raised in an taught that homosexual “Evangelical, conservative, feelings are actually Republican household” in rural temptations from the devil. California, coming out as gay “I prayed so hard to try and was “very anxiety-inducing” for pray the gay away. “Not matter Birkholz. how much I prayed, not matter He told cityXtra what it was like how much I went to church, no growing up believing he was matter how much I tried to find having “temptations from the myself attracted to women, it devil.” didn’t work.” “A lot of people these days think coming out is a pretty easy process and not really that much of a big deal anymore,” Birkholz, 22, told cityXtra. “But for me, somebody who grew up in an Evangelical,
After a painful period of coming out, Birkholz then decided to move from rural California to the UK at age 17 where he found a welcoming LGBT group of friends in Cardiff, Wales. Despite finding his own
community—including finding and feeling welcomed in pro-gay Christian spaces— Birkholz says he the “very stressful” period of coming out within his church has led him to question his faith. He now shares his experiences to help fellow LGBT+ Christians navigate faith and sexuality in a YouTube series. “I am no longer religious because I did feel rejected by the church,” he explained. “But I also know now it is absolutely acceptable to be religious and LGBT+. “You are valid exactly the way you are—despite what a religious leader might be telling you.”
STD & Oral HIV Testing Every Second Tuesday of Each Month By The AIDS Healthcare Foundation
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‘Lazarus Effect’ For HIV Patients By Jennifer Middleton Treatment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has seen remarkable advancements with the advent of the latest anti-retroviral drug therapy and powerful tools to test for drug resistance, making the infection almost "undetectable" in patients who strictly comply with their medication therapy, a just-published perspective article by a clinical team at the University of Arizona College of Medicine—Tucson points out.
affect some patients) is "a grim historical footnote to the HIV epidemic" in the United States," the authors add.
Lead author Stephen A. Klotz, MD, professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the UA Department of Medicine, adds that in the past, HIV/ AIDS patients often suffered from extreme frailty, in effect, often "aging 10 to 15 years" in appearance and function. But the article, HIV Infection-Associated Frailty: The Solution for Now is Antiretroviral Drugs, published Feb. 25, 2019 in the Journal of the International Association of AIDS Care Providers, notes frailty related to HIV infection is "rapidly becoming a specter of the past." Further, thanks to the new treatments, disfiguring lipodystrophy (changes in body fat that
The team also has employed another major advancement in the treatment of HIV/AIDS: A "Frailty Meter," developed by Bijan Najafi, Ph.D., MSc, then a professor in the UA Department of Surgery and director of the Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance. The device now allows clinicians to measure HIV/ AIDS patients' frailty in a matter of seconds—whereas in the past frailty measurements often required several clinic visits. The Frailty Meter detects frailty through a small, Bluetooth-supported motion sensor that attaches to the subject's wrist. In about 20
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"We have shown that years of anti-retroviral therapy can return patients to a non-frail state. In addition, prolonged anti-retroviral therapy restores cellular function and numbers of cells adversely affected by HIV," Dr. Klotz says. "Recently we demonstrated a marked improvement in aging markers in HIV patients on long-term anti-retroviral drug therapy."
seconds, it measures subjects' elbow flexes (similar to arm curls) to accurately determine their frailty. (Dr. Najafi now is a professor of surgery and director of clinical research, Division of Vascular Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine.) Another major clinical advancement is the ability today to cure the hepatitis C virus infection, which in the past commonly was associated with HIV/AIDS infection, Dr. Klotz points out. "So this other viral scourge is decreasing in prevalence, not only in the general public, but in our HIV patients as well." Remarkably, today, patients with HIV take a single anti-retroviral pill (which contains three medications) once a day, "with virtually no side effects," Dr. Klotz says, noting in the early 1980s, patients might have taken nearly 20 pills a day, with many suffering severe side effects. In related research led by co-authors Nicole Bradley, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in the UA Department of Immunobiology and Nafees Ahmad, Ph.D., professor in the UA Department of Immunobiology and a member of the UA Cancer Center, the team also is studying specific immune aging markers in HIV patients "and once again is finding improvement in infected patients on continuous long-term anti-retroviral therapy," according to the
article. Co-author Shannon Smith, MBA, manages the Petersen Clinics, part of the UA Department of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases. In collaboration with Banner— University Medicine, Petersen Clinics provides clinical care for people living with, or at risk for, HIV. The program provides outpatient care at affordable prices for HIV-infected adults, plus testing, education and counseling services to patients and their families. The program provides biomedical interventions for people at risk for HIV, including Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Non-Occupational Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (nPEP), Smith says. The Petersen Clinics uses a multi-disciplinary team approach to provide patients comprehensive HIV specialty care and is comprised of infectious disease specialists, pharmacists, clinical coordinators, medical case managers and early interventionists. "We're very proud of the scope of services we provide," Smith says. "We're very creative in ensuring our patients and families obtain the care they need."
many different roles within the home as they were less constrained by conventional notions of Gay Dads Make Great Parents masculinity. He said that By Michelle Brayson gay dads could A new study by a researcher in be playmates, caregivers, the University of Montreal has protectors, role models and found that gay dads make morality guides. great parents. “They were able to redefine Éric Feugé observed 46 and propose new models of families, including 92 gay cultural notions of paternity and fathers and 46 children aged masculinity,” he said. between one and nine, over the “It shows it’s not a question of course of seven years for his sex, even less so of sexual doctoral thesis. orientation,” Feugé said. “It’s a Feugé told the Montreal question of the roles occupied Gazette that he wanted to when caring for a child, and the study the engagement of gay time spent with the child. That’s fathers and see how they what predicts the attachment of distribute parental work in their a child.” households. A number of studies have been He found that gay parents are conducted around same-sex very involved in their children’s parenting in recent years. lives and that gay dads tend to Recent research from the share the workload of parenting Netherlands found that children in an equitable way. raised by same-sex couples “There was a high degree of achieved better test results at engagement in all types of school. parental roles,” Feugé told the For the study, researchers Motreal Gazette. compared academic His study found that gay dads achievements of 1,200 children tended to assume different raised by same sex couples to roles in child-rearing, although results of a million children the differences were “minor.” raised by opposite sex couples. “There was always one dad who did a bit more. That brought us to categorize fathers as principal and secondary caregivers,” he said. Feugé’s study also found that gay fathers were able to have 12 www.cityxtramagazine.com
“Our findings indicate that children particularly benefit from same-sex couples compared to opposite-sex couples if the couple is cohabiting rather than married,” researchers wrote in the paper, titled “School Outcomes of
Children Raised by Same-Sex Couples: Evidence from Administrative Panel Data.” They added: “Further, we also find that children from same-sex couples continue to outperform children from opposite-sex couples in secondary education. Our results suggest that children from same-sex couples are 6.7 percent more likely to graduate than children from opposite-sex couples.” However, just last month, a survey found that two thirds of gay dads had faced stigma in raising their children. The survey, which was conducted by researchers at the American Academy of Pediatrics – found that 63.5 percent of gay dads had experienced stigma.
Half of those who responded to the survey had avoided certain situations “for fear of stigma” in the past year. About a quarter of the gay dads surveyed said they had faced discrimination from family members, neighbors, waiters, and even from gay friends. “Respondents reported barriers to becoming a father and stigma associated with fatherhood in multiple social contexts, most often in religious institutions,” the abstract for the survey reads. “Fewer barriers and less stigma were experienced by fathers living in states with more legal protections.”
was simply not was a long time coming, but I valid. knew the courts would eventually rule in our favor,” Meanwhile, said Baker. “Over the years, Baker and many legal scholars have McConnell have insisted reviewed our case and 1971 Now First Same-Sex ever since that concluded that the law was on Marriage in the U.S. their marriage our side.” By Nancy Jenkins was a legal It was now time for the federal Massachusetts was the first one, thanks to a legitimate government to respond. state to recognize marriage marriage certificate, signed by February 16, 2019, just two equality in 2003 and was the appropriate witnesses days after Valentine’s Day, the secured throughout the United including the minister who Social Security Administration States in 2015. officiated their nuptials. sent a letter to the couple, But now the Social Security “I was only a first-year law confirming once and for all that Administration has recognized student when I read the state’s their 1971 marriage was legal, a marriage between two men marriage statues and realized stating that they were indeed that happened decades before there was nothing that entitled to monthly husband’s Obergefell v. Hodges. prevented two men from benefits. In 1970, a young man named marrying,” said Bake via a “This is really a Valentine,” said Richard John “Jack” Baker press release. McConnell about the Social applied for a marriage license The couple is still together Security Administration’s letter. with Michael McConnell in today, and as both men are Hennepin County, Minnesota. into their 70s, they went to the “It proves what I’ve always said. Jack and I are in our 70s, They were turned down, and state to confirm their Social and we’ve been married almost their claim was eventually Security benefits as a couple. 50 years.” dismissed by the Minnesota In the process, they asked for it Supreme Court. to be determined once and for “Our marriage is all about the power of love,” McConnell Yet prior to the Minnesota all if their marriage is a legal added. “Sometimes it takes a ruling, the couple reapplied in one. while, but in the end, love Blue Earth County, Minnesota, On September 18, 2018, a always wins.” and successfully received a district license. They were married by court in a Methodist minister in a quiet Minnesoceremony in a friend’s home on ta September 3, 1971. issued a The clerk in Blue Earth County ruling that had, apparently, not realized said, that the marriage certificate “The was for two men. marriage is Once the certificate arrived back to the state, the county’s declared attorney simply told the clerk to to be in not record it, but no one asked all rethat the marriage be dissolved: spects valid.” the state simply acted as if it “The ruling 14 www.cityxtramagazine.com
Grande Valley. Last November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in partnership with the Army Corps Texas ‘Dragtavist’ Drag Queens of Engineers, Border Wall Protest awarded two By Trent Baker contracts for the Drag queens from throughout construction of a border wall in Texas' Rio Grande Valley south Texas. Construction is gathered last weekend in expected to begin this month. Brownsville to protest further Lestrange organized the drag construction of the border wall queen protest show and is a and bring attention to LGBTQ self-proclaimed "dragtavist" — migrants who have been a drag queen committed to detained or are seeking social activism. asylum. "The vision was to perform in In a public park, a performer front of this wall and project our who goes by Beatrix Lestrange beauty and our glamour and did not have to struggle to our empowerment against this catch the attention of protesters symbol that stands for hate, gathered for the No Border racism and xenophobia," Wall Protest Drag Show. Lestrange said. Lestrange, whose real name is As Lestrange set up the music, Jose Colon-Uvalles, wore a the participants lined up and multicolored dress, a red wig, black pumps and a choker with prepared their own performances. studs. "Who's ready to have a political Michelangelo De Vinci, whose given name is Sabino Ponce time?" Lestrange yelled out. Jr., said this moment had The audience, standing in a personal semicircle and dressed in resonance for similarly vivid outfits, cheered him. His dad and applauded. was once "We'll try to bring joy, positivity, undocumentbeauty, drag, culture to ed. whatever this is," Lestrange said, pointing to the section of "I know his the border fence directly behind struggle coming over and her. how he built Earlier this month, Congress himself from passed a spending bill that will the ground up allocate $1.375 billion for the with his construction of border third-grade infrastructure in Texas' Rio education," he 16 www.cityxtramagazine.com
said. "There are other people who are trying to come over here and do something better for themselves and their families — my dad being one of them — and these other people as well, so they should get a chance to live here also." The queens also sang as part of the event, including Green Day's "American Idiot" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." Lestrange wanted the protest to show solidarity with LGBTQ asylum seekers. She hoped their performance brought some awareness to the issues trans and queer migrants face. "I get teary eyed and emotional every time," she said, "because they're already fleeing really horrible conditions. They're fleeing homophobia, transphobia, violence, trauma, only to come to the doorsteps of our country and encounter more of that." In less than two hours, the drag queens raised about $650. All the proceeds will go to local organizations that work with LGBTQ asylum seekers.
a spokesman for British Airways said. ‘We are working to change our booking platform to British Airlines Adds reflect this,’ Non-Binary Gender By Drew Smith he also added. British Airways has joined Six airlines confirmed on 15 other major airlines and will February they are in the prointroduce a non-binary gender cess of adding ‘undisclosed’ option for passengers. When or ‘unspecified’ to their genbooking a flight, those not der options. There may also identifying as either male or be the optional title ‘Mx’. female will find a new gender The proposal received an option to select. enthusiastic welcome. ‘It’s a The largest airline in the UK big move,’ Julia Ehrt, of the has followed in the footsteps of US companies Delta, JetBlue, United, and American Airlines. Air New Zealand has also announced they are going to provide gender-neutral options. ‘We know how important it is for all of our customers to feel comfortable and welcome no matter how they self-identify,’
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. ‘Persons presenting as gender non-conforming or trans persons who might not have been able to change their name or gender markers in passports regularly have serious challenges in traveling,’ she also said. ‘That can range from being challenged about your gender marker or first name upon check-in or at security, through to outright denial of being able to board a plane.’
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actor also noted he ‘loves’ how the LGBTI is becoming increasingly represented in the film industry.
romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the magic-themed drama The Prestige (2006), the epic fantasy drama The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama No Problem If I’m A Gay Icon Australia (2008), the film By Brenda Jacobs version of Les Misérables He added: Hugh Jackman has said he (2012), the thriller Prisoners ‘I’m all for it in every single doesn’t care if people think he’s aspect and I’m proud to be a (2013), and the musical The gay as he’s proud to be a ‘gay part of any solution to [end Greatest Showman (2017) icon’ at a New Zealand discrimination of LGBTI people] which he received a Grammy university this month. Award for Best Soundtrack through storytelling.’ Album. His work in Les The X-Men star visited a south In the past, Jackman said he Misérables earned him his first Auckland university where he doesn’t care if people think he’s Academy Award nomination for sang with a choir and angay. Though, he does believe Best Actor and his second nounced his upcoming tour. his role in The Boy From Oz Golden Globe Award for Best During a press conference, an adds fuel to the fire. ‘I was Actor – Motion Picture Musical attendee quizzed the Greatest literally just locking lips,’ he or Comedy in 2013. Showman star on his status as said on the role, ‘I started to a gay icon. In Broadway theatre, Jackman laugh so hard. ‘So I stay won a Tony Award for his role Hugh starred in the 2003 kissing him [Jarrod Emick], in The Boy from Oz. A musical based on the life of because I thought, “I’m just four-time host of the Tony Aussie openly gay going to laugh. I’m going to Awards themselves, he won an singer-songwriter Peter Allen, stay here until it subsides.” ‘It A Boy From Oz. ‘He isn’t!’ On never subsided and the whole Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also the role, he said: ‘It was my audience could see my body hosted the 81st Academy absolute privilege playing Peter shaking, so they started.’ Awards on 22 February 2009. Allen. Hugh Michael Jackman ‘I don’t know if he was out, but is an Australian actor, everyone knew he was gay.’ ‘I’ll singer, and producer. tell you a funny story. Deb, my Jackman has won wife, came to see [A Boy from international recognition Oz] about 40 times. for his roles in a variety of film genres. He is ‘She was in the bathroom at known for his one point, in a stall, and she could hear two women outside long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men going “Is he or isn’t he?” ‘She was just listening for about two film series which he holds the Guinness minutes, then she just yelled World Record of longest out, “He isn’t!”‘ career as a live-action Jackman is a long-time vocal Marvel superhero for. supporter of the LGBTI He is also recognized community. Significantly, the for his lead roles in films such as the 20 www.cityxtramagazine.com
3 LGBT-Friendly Escapes in Hawaii By David Vandygriff
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of his friends die from complications from AIDS and his own pending death. Short said Pence’s Chief of Staff that he had Homophobic AIDS Column “sympathy” By Ellen Davis for Wright, but “that Mike Pence’s incoming chief of does not mean that we glorify staff Marc Short has come homosexuals’ repugnant under fire for a homophobic practices of frequent anal column he wrote about a man intercourse nor should we living with HIV. consider them brave for coming Writing in his college out of the closet.” newspaper at Washington & “Homosexuals who pursue Lee University in Virginia, Short unhealthy lifestyles and engage denounced, “the propaganda in high risk sexual behavior, campaign ignited by gay specifically anal intercourse, activists and carelessly may very well end up like Mr. perpetuated by journalists Wright.” whose intent is to scare all “Rhetoric like that killed us,” heterosexuals into believing they are prime targets for” HIV said Peter Staley, an ACT-UP activist who appeared in the and AIDS. documentary How to Survive a “The campaign’s purpose is Plague. both to lobby Congress for “Guys like him wanted us to more federal funding of AIDS die. And they had an effect.” research and to destigmatize the perverted lifestyles Pence has yet to comment on homosexuals pursue.” Short’s column. Pence himself has a long history of opposing The column, entitled “AIDS & LGBTQ rights both in the U.S. The Heterosexual,” appeared House and as governor of in The Spectator, a student Indiana, even supporting newspaper that Short federal funding for conversion co-founded and edited. He worked on the paper from 1989 therapy in 2000 as a means to fight HIV. to 1992. Short was previously Donald His column was ostensibly a Trump’s chief congressional response to an interview that liaison and the president of appeared in the main student newspaper with Edwin Wright, Freedom Partners, an a Washington & Lee alum who organization funded by the talked about watching several Koch brothers. In a statement yesterday, he 24 www.cityxtramagazine.com
said, “I regret using language as an undergraduate college student that was not reflective of the respect I try to show others today.” “We have all learned a lot about AIDS over the past 30 years and my heart goes out to all the victims of this terrible disease.” “It’s deeply disturbing but unsurprising that Mike Pence’s incoming chief-of-staff once denigrated people living with HIV and AIDS and called same -sex relationships ‘repugnant,'” HRC said in a statement. “His boss is responsible for enabling the single worst outbreak of HIV and AIDS in the history of Indiana due to his irresponsible and universally-criticized effort to end funding for needle exchange programs and HIV and AIDS testing centers. Mike Pence has spent his career attacking LGBTQ people and building a record of undermining HIV awareness and prevention initiatives.” “After all this and being in the inner circle of Mike Pence for the past decade, the hiring of Marc Short is not surprising.”
Gender fluidity is “under the same umbrella” as being transgender, but is still Be You Gender Fluid distinctly By David Vandygriff different, says Dr. “It’s important to remember that Matthew Oransky, director of there is no one definition.” the Psychology Training A recent cover shoot and story Program at Mount Sinai in Vogue featuring supermodel Adolescent Health Center. “Being gender fluid means that Gigi Hadid and pop star Zayn Malik brought the term “gender you don’t feel as though your gender is fixed,” he says, fluidity” into the global adding that it can be conversation. The couple told distressing for gender fluid Vogue that they often shop people when others try to force each other’s closets, and say them to pick a gender. They that their style is “not about gender.” But the term “gender often feel gender dysphoria, Oransky says—which is fluid” actually implies much distress a person experiences more than that. as a result of the gender they According to the Human Rights were assigned at birth. Campaign, “gender fluid” is used to describe a person “who Three percent of millennials identify as gender fluid does not identify with a single fixed gender; of or relating to a according to a 2017 report from person having or expressing a GLAAD, including college student and GLAAD Campus fluid or unfixed gender identity.” (The term was added to the Ambassador L. Juliett. and L. Juliett stresses that gender Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.) People who are gender fluidity isn’t a fad. “To me, gender fluidity is an important fluid “may define their gender term used to describe my as falling somewhere in between, both combined, or a ability to identify outside of the gender binary. My gender mixture of these two binary genders that may flux from day fluidity is not a millennial culture craze, nor an art pop to day,” says GLAAD fashion statement,” they say. “It spokesperson MJ Okma. is my journey in finding myself People who are gender fluid may prefer the pronouns “they” in a world that demanded I fit in a box that didn’t fit me.” and “them” instead of “he” or “she,” but that varies by Oransky feels that mislabeling individual preference. celebrities as gender fluid due to their style or beauty choices makes it seem “faddish” rather 26 www.cityxtramagazine.com
than a real identity. “This could have the danger of spreading misinformation and trivializing people’s real experiences,” he says. Oransky has worked with hundreds of transgender and gender non-conforming teens, and says that the ones who identify as gender fluid can have an even more difficult time than transgender teens in getting understanding from their parents and loved ones. And that, he says, can be damaging. That’s why Oransky says it’s so important for people to understand that gender fluidity is real and not a made-up thing as, unfortunately, some people believe. As the term implies, the experience of gender fluidity really varies. “It’s important to remember that there is no one definition of gender fluidity that encompasses everyone’s experience of gender that personally identifies as gender fluid,” Okama says. For more information on gender fluidity, check out GLAAD’s ally guide.