Daily Forty-Niner; January 25, 2021

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Vol. LXXII, Issue 17

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Monday, January 25, 2021

GATEWAY TO BETTER DAYS

Inside the

Niner

page 2

NEWS

SPORTS

An inauguration unlike any other

Looking ahead to spring sports

pages 4-5

page 14

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PABLO UNZUETA | Daily Forty-Niner

Steve Lyles, 55, Javier Lugo, 55, Rubia Garcia, 34, and Nick Larsen, 30, livestream the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in front of the barricaded Capitol Hill building in Washington, D.C.

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‘Democracy has prevailed’: Biden, Harris sworn in

Photo Editor Andrea Ramos Video Editor Abel Reyes Social Media Editor Celeste Huecias Podcast Editor Cameron Johnston Podcast Assistant Luke Pajari Design Assistant Anna Karkalik News Assistant Iman Palm News Assistant Fernando Haro Opinions Assistant Jireh Deng Special Projects Assistant Giselle Alexandra Ormeno Photo Assistant Richard Grant

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is sworn in as 46th President of the United States, and Vice President Kamala Harris breaks down gender and racial barriers as the first woman and person of color to hold the position.

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By Julia Terbeche News Editor

J

oseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States Wednesday morning, calling for unity, dignity and justice in a socially distant and mask-ridden inauguration ceremony.

“This is America’s day, this is democracy’s day, the day of history of hope,” Biden said. “At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”

Shattering the glass ceiling in a historic moment, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman and person of color to hold the position of vice president.

The former California senator’s husband, Doug Emhoff, makes history as the nation’s first second gentleman and first Jewish spouse of a vice president.

Biden, former vice president to President Barack Obama and senator of Delaware, also made history Wednesday as he is the oldest person to take office at 78.

Quoting former President Abraham Lincoln, Biden said that his “whole soul is in this,” in his effort to tackle a divisive country following former President Donald J. Trump’s anti-democratic term.

Biden condemned the violence that occurred on Capitol Hill earlier this month, promising that democracy will “not ever” be silenced. He vowed to be a president for all, including those “who did not support me and those who did.”

“Disagreement must not lead to disunion,” Biden said. “I pledge this to you, I will be a president for all Americans.”

Several of Biden’s predecessors were in attendance, including Obama, former President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton.

In a rare break from tradition, Trump left Washington D.C. earlier Wednesday morning and thus did not participate in the honorary departure ceremony or the escorting of Biden into the Capitol.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was present at the event, however, seated near Harris. Pence made his departure from office with his wife, former Second Lady Karen Pence, after being formally escorted out

by Harris and Emhoff.

During his inauguration speech, Biden took a moment of silence to remember the over 400,000 lives lost to the coronavirus pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of flags filling the National Mall in representation of these Americans.

“We will get through this together,” Biden said.

The ceremony featured musical guests Garth Brooks, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez as well as the youngest-ever inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, who is 22. Tens of thousands of National Guard troops were present for the event, standing by as a precaution in response to the riot on Jan. 6.

Biden, along with his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, departed the Capitol after participating in some of his first official duties as president, including signing the Inauguration Day proclamation and Cabinet nominations.

“I give you my word, I will always level with you, I will defend the Constitution, I will defend our democracy, I will defend America,” he said.

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NEWS 3

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

PABLO UNZUETA | Daily Forty-Niner

Supporters of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris relish a moment of joy on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Off to an ‘optimistic’ start

By Julia Terbeche News Editor

O

n his first day in office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed 17 executive orders to reverse Trumpera policies on issues including immigration, climate change and the coronavirus in his focus of restoring the nation.

In his first executive order, Biden signed a bill requiring face coverings and social distancing on all federal property. As president, Biden is encouraging mask-wearing across the nation and will work with local health agencies in “maximizing public compliance.”

Matt Lesenyie, a political science professor at Long Beach State, said he felt Biden’s inaugural address was “exceptionally well done” as it appealed to the country as a whole.

“I thought Biden did a fine job articulating Americans’ desire to treat COVID seriously and with utmost urgency. It was plainspoken, honest and with optimism,” Lesenyie said. “Simultaneously, he spoke to congressional leaders and Trump supporters about how he will govern for all Americans.

Biden hit all those notes with humility.”

Within his first day, Biden also directed the Department of Education to extend student loan repayment for another nine months.

“Too many Americans are struggling to pay for basic necessities and to provide for their fam-

ilies. They should not be forced to choose between paying their student loans and putting food on the table,” Biden said in a presidential statement.

That same day, Biden signed a bill rejoining the United States in the Paris Climate Agreement, a treaty that Trump announced the nation’s withdrawal from in 2017. This, along with Biden’s revocation of the Keystone XL Pipeline permit and his vow to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, falls under the order on “protecting public health and restoring science to tackle the climate crisis.”

Biden also called on the Department of Homeland Security to “preserve and fortify DACA,” or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, implemented during the Obama administration. He officially revoked Trump’s discriminatory travel and immigration bans as well as resumed visa processing.

Lesenyie said he was feeling “patriotic and proud of the peaceful transition of power” following the inauguration and was moved by the historic event of swearing in the nation’s first female vice president.

He said that since Vice President Kamala Harris has broken down this barrier, the next generation will be “politically socialized having seen her in the White House.”

“They will see that as common and not a big deal. Clearly, Vice President Harris will make an impression on Americans by holding this office,” Lesenyie said. “Harris winning office will send a powerful signal about what is possible and who belongs in power.”

Three history-making senators were also sworn in Wednesday,

with Sen. Jon Ossoff, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Alex Padilla all taking office.

Ossoff, the first Jewish senator from Georgia, was sworn in holding a Hebrew bible that had belonged to Atlanta Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, a civil rights activist and ally of Martin Luther King, Jr., according to Ossoff’s press secretary.

Along with Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator, the two are the first Democrats to represent the state in the Senate since 2000.

California’s first Latinx senator, Padilla has taken Harris’ seat after serving as secretary of state since 2015. To replace him, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Shirley Weber, an assembly member from San Diego, who will be the first Black woman to hold the position.

“Harris winning office will send a powerful signal about what is possible and who belongs in power.”

- Matt Lesenyie Politcal science professor

Despite these strides, Lesenyie feels that it is not likely the Democratic majority in Congress will be able to enact many progressive policies.

“Democrats should think about policies that can pass after heavy politicization and filibuster by the Republican minority.

I could see infrastructure spending passing, perhaps immigration reform, but there are simply not enough votes to make aggressive change in the US Senate,” he said.

Biden also implemented reform tackling racial and gender-based discrimination, stating in his bill that “every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love.”

In line with this sentiment, Biden nominated Rachel Levine as his assistant secretary of health for the Department of Health and Human Services. She will be the nation’s first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate.

“Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes,” the statement read.

“People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.

All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”

One of his immediate actions as president, Biden signed a directive pursuing “a comprehensive approach to advancing equity

for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”

In the order, Biden stated that “our country faces converging economic, health and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.” With this bill, he is striving to implement “an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the opportunities and challenges that we face.”

“A day ago we had a president who rarely if ever sought unity or compromise. This inauguration occurred at a time when most Americans have a crystal clear sense of the problems at hand,” Lesenyie said.

Lesenyie felt that Trump’s lack of participation in a proper transition of power was “far worse” than his refusal to participate in the inauguration ceremony.

Trump “effectively stalled the implementation of Biden’s policies and appointments” by being uncooperative, Lesenyie said.

“His behavior suggests a disdain for the will of the people and the important work of our government,” he said.

Lesenyie feels it is likely that former Vice President Mike Pence will run for office, which is why he attended the inauguration, despite Trump’s absence, to “maintain his reputation by certifying the electoral college decision.”

“To be entirely fair, our tax dollars are paying him to come to work and this was what his job required today,” Lesenyie said.

4 NEWS

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.C

Sparse crowds Blocked off by military personnel, Capitol Hill drew an empty and peaceful scene downtown for Biden’s inauguration in comparison to past ceremonies.

W

By Pablo Unzueta Staff Writer

ASHINGTON — When Audrey Jones first moved to Washington, D.C. on Nov. 22, 1963, she would have never predicted the assasination of President John F. Kennedy that same day.

Jones, who lives three blocks down from the barricaded Capitol Hill, said she has never seen anything like the scenes she witnessed earlier this month when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. According to Jones, when Kennedy was assassinated, the area didn’t have the gridlocked security like it did this week for Inauguration Day. “My children grew up on Capitol Hill, this is where my first son took his first steps,” Jones said. “I’m distressed that it is no longer available for us.”

National Guard troops held their assault rifles behind 7-foot black fences that stretched all the way around the Capitol building amid security concerns leading up to Jan. 20.

According to local and security officials, an estimate of 20,000 troops were deployed for inauguration week, and most bridges and streets leading into the DC were closed down.

“We have daily briefings with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, and at this time we don’t have any specific or credible threats to buildings or facilities outside of the federal enclave,” Chris Rodriguez, director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said during a public briefing on Jan. 19.

The closures surrounding the U.S. Capitol building will be in effect until Jan. 21, including the closure of main bridges such as the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, which continue to create traffic jams this week.

“It wasn’t a disorganized mob [that did this],” said Bruce Butterworth, who used to work as a staff member for the House Government Operations Committee on Capitol Hill. “This was a coup, it wasn’t good, not at all.”

On the morning of Inauguration Day, the District only saw sparse crowds, mostly empty streets and shut down businesses. A small celebration, separate from the inauguration, was held near the barricades with the Capitol building visible from a distance.

A sparse number of pro-Biden supporters waved their flags and cheered as some live-streamed the inauguration on their phones.

Despite much anticipated violence, the event remained calm throughout the day, and the minimal crowds began to head home by the evening.

“For me, today symbolizes basically a new beginning in America,” said Cheri Nguyen, who visited from Orange County, California. “Today signifies hope and unity.”

COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

NEWS 5

s, empty streets

Clockwise from left: Yellow tape stretches throughout the District. Despite being mainly peaceful in Washington D.C., a religious and anti-abortion group marches through a crowd of pro-Biden supporters. Merchandise is being sold along the walkways. National Guard troops walk along Massachusetts Avenue NW, in Washington, D.C. Cheri Nguyen, who traveled from Orange County, California, watches President Joe Biden get sworn into office in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Capitol building is barricaded under a gridlocked military presence after angry rioters stormed the building on Jan. 6.

6 NEWS

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.C

When and where to get vaccinated Long Beach has begun vaccinating healthcare workers and at-risk individuals in the community, in line with county and CDC guidelines.

By Julia Terbeche News Editor

T

he city has begun vaccinating healthcare workers and is moving onto the next group of at-risk individuals in the community, in line with county and CDC guidelines.

After receiving shipments of COVID-19 vaccines in late December, the city of Long Beach has begun vaccinating its first group of individuals, those at the highest risk of contracting the virus.

Residents will be able to receive the vaccine in a distribution process, prioritizing front-line workers and those who are high-risk. It is likely that the general public will be able to receive the vaccine by spring or summer this year.

When will vaccinations become available?

Long Beach State will be receiving shipments of the Moderna vaccine by the end of January, according to President Jane Close Conoley.

Members of the Beach community have already begun receiving emails asking if they would like to pre-register for vaccination.

“This is an important development for our campus. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to pre-register now in order to receive information later on about when and how to receive the vaccine,” said Kimberly Fodran, medical director at Student Health Services.

The university’s vaccination plan accommodates those only affiliated with the university, starting with essential personnel working on campus.

This group is followed by faculty and staff who are 65 and older or high-risk, then any faculty and staff who have not already been vaccinated. Next, any high-risk students will become eligible, followed by on-campus students including residents, athletes and those in face-to-face courses, then students entering clinical rotations.

Lastly, all students who have not already been vaccinated will become eligible, which Conoley predicts will be in April.

For the city of Long Beach, vaccinations are well underway.

“We have already almost vaccinated all of our healthcare workers, clinic workers. Pharmacists, dentists, paramedics, firefighters have almost all been completed, including the nursing homes, 25 nursing and skilled care facilities we have in the city, so they’re, for the most part, done,” Mayor Robert Garcia said on Fox News Friday evening.

“We’re able to move on to the next group.”

Garcia said that police officers and those 65 and older began receiving the vaccine on Friday. The next groups in line are food service workers and the education sector, with clinics ipen Jan. 19 and 25 respectively. Workers will be notified to make an appointment through their employers.

The city’s vaccination distribution plan, in line with Los Angeles County Public Health and Cen-

ters for Disease Control guidelines, just finished administering doses to individuals part of Phase 1A, moving the city onto Phase 1B, consisting of those 65 and older and grocery workers.

“We have scheduled now clinics to vaccinate the entire Long Beach Unified School District, Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach City College, and those start about a week from now,” Garcia said Friday.

Starting in March, Long Beach residents including 16 to 64-year-olds with underlying medical conditions will be able to become vaccinated. Also in this tier are transportation, logistics, critical manufacturing, industrial, residential and commercial employees.

“I promise you that we will vaccinate every single person in our city who wants a vaccine,” Garcia said. “Health care is a human right.”

Members of the community in congregate settings with risk of coronavirus outbreaks, including incarcerated individuals and those experiencing homelessness, are also part of Phase 1B. Also eligible in March are members of Phase 1C, including those employed in sectors of water and wastewater, defense, energy, chemical and hazardous materials, communications and IT and financial services. Government operations and community-based essential functions are also able to receive the vaccine in this group.

Anyone in the community not yet vaccinated will be eligible in April as part of Phase 2 of distribution.

Where will the vaccine be available?

Several local landmarks have been converted to mass vaccination sites, including the Long Beach Convention Center, Garcia announced Jan. 12 in his State of the City address.

“I am proud to announce tonight that we are converting the Long Beach Convention Center into a distribution site,” Garcia said. “The first workers who will be vaccinated at this site just next week will be our grocery and food distribution workers.”

Alongside Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that Dodger Stadium will be among the several vaccination sites opening its facilities to accommodate the public.

In one of the country’s largest sites, the stadium will be vaccinating about 12,000 people per day starting Friday, Jan. 15 at 8 a.m.

After operating as one of the largest testing sites in the U.S., the stadium has been converted to a vaccine-only facility.

Los Angeles County locations including the Pomona Fairplex, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, the Forum in Inglewood, the LA County Office of Education in Downey and California State University, Northridge, will be equipped to offer injections to about 4,000 people daily.

“The reality is we need to get these vaccines out of the freezer, and we need to get them into people’s arms,” Newsom said.

The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim reopened Thursday, Jan. 14 as a vaccination site, the first in Orange County. Health officials deemed Disneyland a “super point-of-dispensing” site where thousands of OC residents will receive the vaccine daily by appointment only.

COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

NEWS 7

Clockwise from above: Vials of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna along with patient information cards lay on a table at the Long Beach Convention Center vaccination super site.

Maggie Bennett, a secondyear nursing student, waves in vehicles at the vaccination super site at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Cars drive up to one of the lanes with nurses that are administering the COVID-19 vaccine. Sarah Mohtadi poses with some vials before waving in the next vehicle at the Long Beach Convention Center vaccination super site.

RICHARD GRANT | Daily Forty-Niner

8 ARTS & LIFE

Using the Buddy system Beach Buddy is a peer mentorship program at CSULB designed to connect students to other students in need of emotional support, mental health resources or a safe space.

By Paris Barraza Arts & Life Editor

W

hen the program Beach Buddy debuted in fall 2020 as the peer mentorship service at Long Beach State, it could not have come at a better time.

Students were grappling with the transition to the first full-length virtual semester, experiencing job loss or housing insecurity or seeing a family member contract COVID-19 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and meanwhile, a contentious election cycle played out across social media and television.

The program came out of a need to introduce more outreach and student support, according to Bongjoo Hwang, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, and consists of CSULB student mentors who are trained to connect with students in need of emotional support or guidance on mental health.

According to Gloria Flores, a peer mentor coordinator at CAPS, peer guidance is what makes programs like Beach Buddy effective.

“Peer-to-peers tend to value the input of someone from their community, and they tend to see them as someone they can trust, someone that can understand what they’re going through and someone that they can turn to more comfortably, as opposed to [a] professional that may not be the same generation or might not have the same background,” Flores said.

Beach Buddy, in partnership with CAPS and the College of Health and Human Services, has nine student mentors working in the program, both graduate and undergraduate students who proved that they would be dedicated to their positions and put in the time necessary.

Graduate student Jessica Gonzalez, a counseling psychology major, saw the program as an opportunity to get involved with the community.

“I just thought that the program has a really good mission of students helping students, and I think that that’s not something that you see all the time,” Gonzalez said. “I think just being able to create that safe space within students is something that’s very important.”

Flores said that mentors in the program received 30 hours of training and took part in a peer educator certification training through Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, an international program that drives innovation in higher education.

Beyond that, it’s the Beach Buddy mentors who chose the workshop topics for CSULB students to attend, like Gonzalez’s decision to create a workshop on intimate partner violence, which discussed signs of an unhealthy relationship.

Another program that was created by the Beach Buddy mentors was a workshop

on dealing with Imposter Syndrome, an experience where someone believes their achievements were not gained through their skill or work and subsequently feeling like a fraud because of it.

According to Flores, that was one of their highest attended workshops.

Mara Lewis, a speech-language pathology major and Beach Buddy mentor, said that a workshop she enjoyed was a mentoring session for graduate students.

Lewis completed her undergraduate studies at California State University Fresno, and like Gonzalez, said that this program was an opportunity to get involved with the CSULB community.

While working as a peer mentor, Lewis saw the variety of issues students came to her with, including time management and organizational issues.

“I think that when people think of Beach Buddies or receiving help, they might think it needs to be a little bit more of the heavier stuff, which is not really true,” Lewis said. “We’re students helping students.”

The Beach Buddy program saw about 300 students visit presentations, participate in workshops and seek one-on-one counseling, according to Flores.

All of that work was insightful to the mentors as well, who are still learning themselves.

Courtney Joseph, a second-year transfer student who is majoring in sports psychology, said that being a mentor is viewed differently than being a therapist, something she ultimately wants to become. Therefore, it was necessary for her to act as a mentor, which she described as being a friend that someone didn’t know they had.

“Us as humans, it is so natural for us to be like, ‘Oh yeah, sure this was what works for me, do this, this and this,’ when we have been trained to not just give advice, again, meet them where they’re at and create a plan together and work together with them,” Joseph said.

Gonzalez said that being a mentor has helped her separate what she has learned in her counseling classes because mentorship is so different. She said that mentors must recognize that they may not have the answers to everything.

“It’s just learning to find that balance of just knowing to listen and try to gauge what that person needs at that time,” Gonzalez said.

The Beach Buddy program will continue into its second semester, and the program is ready to continue working with students and determining how to better connect with the campus community.

“We really just want to be here to normalize a lot of things that we are experiencing as individuals and let everyone know like, ‘Hey, a lot of us are experiencing these same things too,’ when it’s normal and it’s okay to go through these things because we’re not alone,” Lewis said.

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | ARTS@DAILY49ER.COM

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ARTS & LIFE 9

Photos courtesy of Stephanie Mercado

Stephanie Mercado, above, is a multidisciplinary artist who graduated from Long Beach State in 2007. Her work has been featured in exhibitions across the United States and Spain. Created by Mercado, “For the Love of Essential Workers” is a print collage that showcases the city of Los Angeles and the residents who have continued to work throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Essential workers, this one is for you “For the Love of Essential Workers” is a piece created by artist Stephanie Mercado, featured in the art series “Silver Linings” by the Los Angeles Country Metro system.

By Paris Barraza Arts & Life Editor

A

maintenance worker, a nurse, a waitress, a mailman, a food delivery worker and a construction site worker. Before the coronavirus pandemic, what these workers have in common would not be obvious.

But now, their roles in our society have become clear.

They are essential workers.

And like the historical figures who live on through art, Long Beach State alumna and artist Stephanie Mercado has memorialized these figures in her print collage, “For the Love of Essential Workers.”

The piece, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Metro, is part of a new art series, “Silver Linings,” which had local artists create artwork that highlight acts of care and inspire human connection amid the challenges the coronavirus pandemic brought.

The pieces will be reproduced and displayed as posters on Metro buses until July.

Each print featured on Mercado’s collage, from the workers to images of Los Angeles neigh-

borhoods and structures, were carefully considered by Mercado.

The piece tells a story that draws inspiration from Mercado’s experience as a Los Angeles native.

She included a structure from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, where she grew up, on the bottom left of the collage, as well as an image of a Mariachi player blowing on a trumpet, a reference to musicians who have lost out on performance opportunities since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the piece are other notable Los Angeles structures,

including the Watts Towers and Griffith Park, and between that are the colorful prints of essential workers.

According to Mercado, the children with their backpacks and the image of an older woman carrying bags at the bottom of the piece are especially important to her.

“In my family, my mom and my grandmother used to constantly walk to the grocery store and carry groceries back home with a heavy load in their arms and that’s just the way it is in my neighborhood, and so there’s the

risk factor in that too, you know, not being accustomed to just having groceries delivered,” Mercado said.

Creating artwork for the LA Metro is competitive, Mercado said, as the transportation system receives interest from many artists when an opportunity like “Silver Linings” is announced.

In 2013, Mercado applied for project with the LA Metro. It wasn’t until “Silver Linings” that Mercado would be selected to do a piece for the company.

“It took seven years for me to get my foot in and to get my work

shown,” Mercado said. “I think that just being diligent and being persistent is key to being an artist, or to any field, really.”

Mercado, who graduated from CSULB in 2007, was given 12 days to complete the piece, working on it at night after her day job as a development associate at Self Help Graphics & Art, a community arts center in Los Angeles focusing on Latinx artists.

But it wasn’t just about completing the piece, it was about getting the message right, a decision that applies to all of her work.

“For the Love of Essential Workers,” a piece that took about 100 hours to make, is an ode to the workers who have kept Los Angeles, and cities across the nation, functioning, Mercado said.

It represents that everyone in these positions were at risk of being exposed to the virus, and therefore, their work needs to be valued.

“I think that for an essential worker to see themselves represented in a piece…in an artwork as they’re riding to work can inspire some hope, maybe for a day, maybe it would have a longer lasting impression on them,” Mercado said. “That’s really what my goal was when I was including them in this landscape and making it so vibrant, is to try and create some kind of hope because this time will pass.”

10 OPINIONS

MONDAY JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINION@DAILY49ER.COM

Ode to my queerness: I’ll never stop ‘coming out’ I’m living in a non-linear timeline defined by my queerness.

By Jireh Deng Assistant Opinions Editor

I

n my freshman year of high school, two senior boys were dating each other. Being oblivious, I barely understood what that meant but I knew of the whispers and the disapproval that circulated the rumor mill around my high school.

Then in 2015, the Supreme Court made marriage equality rule of the law. That Sunday, my Chinese Christian elders expressed what a sad day it was that the rainbow, which was supposed to represent God’s promise to never flood the earth after Noah’s Ark, was being used as a symbol of a sinful movement. Looking back, it was a bittersweet moment where I had finally learned the language I could use to describe myself—but I was filled with self-loathing.

That summer former president Donald Trump announced his candidacy for office and I was riding with my friend to watch a movie. I looked up to her because she was like an older sister to me, and we had grown up in the same church community for our entire lives.

“I hope that Donald Trump gets rid of the gay community,” she confided in me.

After “coming out” to my mother in my sophomore year of high school she denied my ability to define my sexuality.

“How can you even know?” she asked me. “You’ve never even dated someone before.”

She was convinced that this attraction I felt for other girls was something that could be healed, like the miracles of making lame men walk if I prayed hard enough.

Growing up I went to Bible camp, Vacation Bible School, every Sunday as a kid I attended Awana where I also recited in bible verse competitions. My parents are active in our church and I was a poster child. The aunties and uncles loved my bubbly personality but a part of myself was dying. I hated lying and I was concealing something that I knew would uproot myself from my religious and cultural community.

The internalized hate ran deep, I tried to pray. I tried to ignore this part of my identity. Even after going to college, most of my friends didn’t know. Not that they wouldn’t accept me, but because I was still afraid and saying it out loud would make it true and permanent.

JIREH DENG | Daily Forty-Niner

A collage pasted on cardboard cut out from New Yorker magazines.

During my first week of college, a peer spread rumors in the dorms that I was homophobic because I had shared how my faith was helping me overcome sin. I was paralyzed with fear as people refused to make eye contact in the hallways because correcting them would mean revealing myself. Thankfully as the year went on and people met me, they realized that these comments were not true.

One of my friends didn’t understand why I was so afraid.

“Nobody is judging you,” she said.

She identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community, but she still failed to understand what it was to become a pariah in my Chinese Christian community. Our bubble was created for safety and survival as new immigrants, but it was also extremely isolating. I felt such a strong responsibility to uphold my parents’ reputations and to maintain peace.

I didn’t know anyone close to me at that time who would support me unconditionally. Even now, members of my religious community mask their homophobia with “well-intentioned” prayers for me. It’s honestly quite belittling they assume they know me better than I know myself just because they saw me grow up.

Fall of 2019 I took a series of poetry classes where I read several love poems out loud. It was the first time I had ever “come out” to strangers. It was the first space I felt seen and accepted with other queer and BIPOC writers.

That October I did an interview with the Forty-Niner for their Outober series interviewing members of the LGBTQ+ community. I look back on my past self with much more compassion now. I was so nervous I couldn’t speak in full sentences and I was breaking down every other word.

I knew friends and family would watch this; I knew nothing would be the same.

When I finally “came out” on social media in the beginning of 2020, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest.

At the time, I self-identified as bisexual but I knew internally I was holding some hope for my parents that I could fall in love with a nice Chinese Christian boy and put this all behind us.

Now if this were your typical Hollywood movie the climax would have arrived in one large moment when I tell everyone “I’m gay.” However, it’s never that simple. Western imagination fetishizes and distills LGBTQ+ narratives into the concept of the singular “coming out” event usu-

ally to be with a significant other.

I recently rewatched Eugene Lee Yang’s coming out video that he released during Pride of 2019.

Prior, the YouTuber hadn’t associated himself with any labels, many fans speculated he was bisexual or pansexual. No lines are spoken, but as Yang dances amongst the other actors, his demeanor expresses how he interacts with the world around him.

The percussive claustrophobic breathing, the pressure of culture and religion, the duets between romantic partners, the physical violence all cease on a final scene where Yang stands before a crowd of shouting strangers staring right into the camera. With the lack of a defined storyline, the ending is unresolved, which feels just right.

“Coming out” is a life-long process. Meeting new people and correcting them whenever they automatically assume I’m looking for a boyfriend. After a while, the process becomes trivial and little hints help too: a septum piercing, clothing style, tattoos, social media presence.

And part of the fear never leaves when introducing yourself to someone new, wondering if you are exposing yourself to someone who is hateful. The national discussion surrounding

the LGBTQ+ community can oftentimes feel overwhelming as the individuals who are caught in the debate are forgotten. The dehumanizing rhetoric translates to actual violence, like the 2016 Pulse gay nightclub shooting, which at the time was the deadliest attack by a single gunman in U.S. history.

Also finding the labels that work isn’t easy. I’ve come to realize my sexuality is more fluid, but it’s undeniable that I love women.

I love the emotional connection that arrives before physical touch. I love the tenderness, the softness, the gentleness, the kindness. Calling myself queer feels best.

I’m coming back into my masculinity. I was a tomboy throughout elementary and middle school. In high school, I was constantly wearing heavy basketball shorts in the blasting summer heat. I love my femininity but I fall somewhere on the non-binary spectrum. When people ask, I tell them I use the pronouns she and they interchangeably.

It’s taken years for me to labor through all of this; I’ve barely dipped into the experiences of dating and talking to people. I half-joke that straight people have dated since middle school and here I am 20, working towards a first relationship.

LGBTQ+ bodies occupy a non-linear landscape of the time.

Our stories don’t fit the framework of defining “out” to be freedom or to be “better.” There’s no formula and there shouldn’t be.

For many people “coming out” is not even an option. Friends of mine are “in the closet” to their family and for religious and cultural reasons don’t have the option of acceptance. Despite this, I see several of them in happy relationships and living full lives.

I recently put out a call to folks to share their queer Asian diaspora stories as research for a screenplay I’m writing. In the span of one week, I’ve collected over seven hours of transcripts.

While our stories are connected by feelings of isolation and shame, they are also unified by joy and our defiance in a world where it is still illegal to be LGBTQ+ in many Asian countries.

At one point I wished away my queerness, I felt so alien. So foreign I didn’t want to exist on this planet. I’ve come to see how my queerness is my cornerstone. In learning to love myself better, I’m becoming a better friend, a better community member, better at holding space for anyone who has ever felt shunned or shut out for being different.

I’m here, I’m queer. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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OPINION 13

Inclusivity is imperative

By Kelsey Brown Opinions Editor

G

rowing up, I learned what beautiful is through observation.

I studied the standard from magazine covers and television screens, and everywhere in between. I subconsciously studied how the girls who got the guy were portrayed in movies, compared to those who were just side characters. I learned from the language used to describe women who were beautiful and those, who they said, were not.

I absorbed the world around me with a now lost sense of purity.

As a kid, there was no standard to discriminate this.

Being biracial, I was praised for parts of me I shouldn’t have been, and was told parts of me were beautiful because they were white, and in turn was condemned for my Blackness. I remember being young and getting my hair done by a young woman who told me I was lucky I had pretty curls and not Black ones.

Though it wasn’t directly said, it was implied through media and society that Blackness was not to strive for and that my whiteness was where my beauty and value came from. People would rave about how I looked ethnic, or “racially ambiguous.” But I never saw myself as some racial question mark, or some entity of the in-between. I was Black and white, a statement that had never came with confusion for me.

But as I grew, most of my identity was formed around others’ perceptions of me. And throughout this I continued to absorb the world around me. The main character in movies, the models walking down runways, the women I had grown up looking up to, they were all white.

At a young age I internalized anti-Blackness. I didn’t understand this consciously, I wasn’t racist or spewing hate, but I saw how the world hated Black people and it consumed me. I recently found a journal entry from seventh grade, one of the hardest times of my life, where I scribbled about how much I hated myself.

Specifically though, how I hated my nose, my lips, my hair, the features of my face where my Blackness is prominent. It wasn’t because I hated being Black or saw err in it, but because I saw the world hate it and celebrate whiteness. I wanted to be like the popular girls in my school, who wore Abercrombie and Fitch and Aeropostale, with stick-straight hair and button noses, who the boys liked.

And for a long time I tried. I fried my hair to frizzy wisps until inches of my hair broke off from heat damage. I wore designer jeans and Abercrombie dresses my mom got for me on sale at the outlets. I tried to be the pretty, popular girl, the girl who would get the guy, have the friends, live the happy life. It didn’t work, I was miserable trying to fit into

shoes that would never fit. But at that time, I felt there was no other way to be liked by my peers.

I never felt that I could be loved and accepted just by being myself. This isn’t an experience that is solely personal, but one that many marginalized folks can relate to.

I often wonder how my perspective in my adolescence would’ve altered if there had been true inclusivity in my life. If magazine covers had featured different races of women, highlighting their individual beauty, rather than pushing the same Eurocentric values of beauty that people of color would never fit into.

I wonder how my perspective would’ve changed if the starring role was occupied by Black people as often as white. If the popular girls who get the boys on television were depicted as confident Black women, rather than catty white ones. I wonder how I would’ve learned to love myself growing up, if I had been brought up around a society that showed love and acceptance towards people of color, instead of overwhelming our senses with white-washed narratives.

There were moments growing up where I glowed from representation. As a kid I still remember the day I saw “Princess and Frog” in theaters. The only other Black princess I had ever seen was Brandy in her rendition of “Cinderella,” a childhood favorite of mine, but there was something so magical about Princess Tiana.

It may have been because I’d grown up watching Disney films and on occasions been privileged to go to Disneyland and get the autograph of their princesses. I remember feeling so entranced, so in love, so grateful for Disney’s first Black princess, even if she was a frog for nearly the entire movie. The ability for my childhood self to see some reflection of myself in a Disney princess was invaluable.

This feeling of pride and representation can parallel the fairly recent release of “Black Panther.” The film broke box office records, but every adult and kid wanted to go see a superhero film revolving around Black people because it had never been done before. Seeing “Black Panther” for many was the first time they’d seen themselves represented in a superhero movie, and not as just a side character.

Black people have been included in film for a long time, but in limited ways. A Diversity Report done by UCLA shows that as of 2017, 77% of roles were claimed by white people. Prior to this, there was always the token Black character, who was usually fashioned around stereotypes, as a side character. They were there for comedic relief, or were portrayed as the bad kids.

Even in shows featuring Black people, a consistent issue in the industry is colorism. There may be multiple Black actors on a show, but often those roles are casted to light-skin people over those who are darker-skin. This is an issue permeating not only the Black community, but all communities of color. Inclusivity

is not only having people of all races, but of all shades included.

In television shows dominated by white people, Black people were cast for limited appearances, often as thugs and prostitutes. The role of Black people in television until recently was to reinforce racist stereotypes about them. One of the most notorious films perpetuating Black criminality is “The Birth of a Nation,” a racist film that was played at the White House. This stereotyping was especially prominent when I was growing up during the early 2000s. The only show I watched starring Black people in a positive light, was “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” There was definitely more, like “Moesha,” “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Girlfriends,” but it was limited. And when you’re six and flipping through channel after channel, and 90% of the faces flashing in front of you are white—it is damaging.

I am grateful for the way media has diversified since I was growing up, but it isn’t enough.

Though we’ve made great strides in regards to the amount of Black people in the film industry, music industry and other highly populated markets, it is no where close to being truly inclusive, to being truly diverse.

I want to turn on my television and see faces that accurately reflect our population: trans people of color, queer people, fat

femmes, butches—every type of person imaginable included in our media, not just the polished, socially acceptable ones.

This past year has been one of demands of equality and inclusivity, and many businesses have responded in performative ways.

Inboxes have been flooded with generic messages assuring that these million-dollar companies ‘stand with Black lives,’ though do nothing to promote or protect Black people. Having one Black person on a staff or a television show is not diverse. Nor is having two. Diversity means including many people of many different backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, et cetera.

If any field is dominated by white people, with a few token people of color, it’s important to understand this isn’t diversity.

It’s important to understand that because of the lack of inclusivity, people of color will feel uncomfortable to speak up, and if they do, they often times won’t truly be heard.

The issue with our society’s current approach to diversity is that in a lot of cases it’s forced. It is not only an issue penetrating media, but everyday interactions as well. Businesses or industries will use numbers to realize how white-washed their businesses are, which should be evident by just scanning the building, and in response will hire a few token people of color to spice up

their office. Diversity is seen as a forced response to an issue that they don’t entirely understand.

Instead of forcing inclusivity because it’s right, which it is, there should be more awareness of the benefits that inclusivity brings. Being in a diverse environment allows for more people to feel comfortable, safe and seen.

In an environment where people feel protected and valid, better work will be produced. Having people of different backgrounds allows for different perspectives, different approaches to questions that a room full of people with the same experience and background may not be able to answer.

But most importantly, diversity allows for everyone to have the possibility to do anything.

Seeing women in fields dominated by men or Black people in fields dominated by white people reminds those of us who have gotten our societal roles and expectations crammed down their throats, that they can do more. That they can be anything that they’ve ever thought of. It’s hard to imagine something you’ve never seen.

But by seeing all people in all sorts of fields, the opportunities for all people will feel wide open.

Little kids will believe they can be anything, and won’t have to question their place in the world.

That’s the type of inclusive world I want to be a part of.

14 SPORTS

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2021 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | SPORTS@DAILY49ER.COM

The Beach has not yet resumed activity for any spring sports due to pending clearance from public health officials.

By Madalyn Amato Editor in chief

Sports springing back Approval from the city of Long Beach and mandatory vaccinations are the only things that stand in the way for the spring season.

A

fter nearly a year, 10 spring-season sports are anticipated to make a return to Long Beach State Athletics after the Big West Conference Board of Directors announced earlier this month that conference members were cleared to resume athletic activity.

An actual return to play, however, rests on several factors, according to athletic director Andy Fee. “I think we can continue forward, my worry is if somehow suddenly we just have a lot of people getting sick and then we certainly have to look at pausing and making sure that we are doing the right thing,” Fee said. “It’s [going to be a lot of] trying to keep people as safe as we can, understanding that nobody has a magic wand to necessarily keep everybody healthy, but it’s something I think about every day.”

The first hurdle the athletic department needed to overcome was receiving approval from the Big West, which came on Jan. 15.

The next step, Fee said, might not be quite as easy. As the department awaits city approval, Fee remains uncertain of an official date for when spring sports can return.

“We still need the city of Long Beach and public health to finalize our plans and approve them, [but] until they say yes, we will not start practicing the spring sports,” Fee said. “So I don’t know what date spring sports will begin. Hopefully it’s soon, but we’ll just have to wait until the public health officials sign off on it.”

In the meantime, Fee said, both basketball programs will continue as previously scheduled.

For months, men’s and women’s basketball have been the only two sports that have been allowed to resume activity. Despite their best efforts, the programs have experienced

their fair share of setbacks and challenges.

On Jan. 15, both programs were put on hold due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, including false positives within the department.

“In the world of COVID, things change so dramatically,” Fee said.

Players were able to resume activities on Jan. 19, and Roger Kirk, director of athletic communications, said the lessons learned from these setbacks and challenges have helped the athletic department bolster its playbook on how to adapt to the ever-changing surroundings.the lessons learned from these instances have helped the athletic department bolster their playbook on how to adapt to the ever-changing surroundings.

“Everything has been very fluid, and both teams have worked really hard to be flexible,” Kirk said.

Prior to the start of the fall 2020 season, the Beach anticipated that the basketball program would spend upwards of $1 million on coronavirus testing alone. Since then, the teams have completed 1,200 tests with very few positives.

Fee is still planning to test athletes three times per week to ensure the safety of all members of the program.

The only thing that will change come spring, he said, is the cost of testing itself.

“We have found even very recently, costs are coming down quite a bit.

There’s more technology coming out, more competition, I guess,” Fee said.

“Certainly, with more testing, it’s kind of like the Costco effect, we’re hoping that we can package more testing into a cheaper per test cost for antigen testing, which is cheaper than PCR testing, but even that was still relatively expensive.”

According to Fee, funding will be coming from donors as well as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, along with donors.

“Testing is going to be with us, at least my guess, conservatively, for the rest of this semester and then next academic year,” Fee said. “So we’re go-

JULIA TERBECHE | Daily Forty-Niner

ing to continue to look for ways that we can save money yet, obviously, have tests that are valid and help us keep people safe. But even with cheaper testing, we’re still looking at a very high cost, which is ‘unbudgeted.’”

Along with continued testing, players will be required to be vaccinated before they are allowed to participate in any department-related activities.

“We’re not going to kick people off a team, but essentially, you wouldn’t be allowed to come to practice or any of the team functions if you don’t take the vaccine,” Fee said. “We just need to keep that bubble, so to speak, as I call it as safe as possible.”

Any coaches, staff members or players who do not want to get vaccinated will not receive any penalty for their decision to refrain from doing so. Players’ on-campus housing, their financial support or their place on respective teams will not be affected by this decision either.

“We don’t look at this as some sort of punitive measure, it’s just from a safety standpoint of trying to limit [and] mitigate transmission of COVID,” Fee said.

Women’s basketball coach Jeff Cammon said that he supports the decisions of those on his team.

“We all have our opinions. Coaches, administrators, families, we all have our own opinions and feelings on different things and this isn’t any different,” Cammon said. “As far as the vaccination, that’s something that our young ladies have to decide if they want to do it or not.”

With the Moderna vaccine expected to arrive by the end of the month, student Health Services is in the beginning stages of screening and scheduling students, faculty and staff for their vaccinations. Out of the seven stage distribution plan, student athletes are fifth on the list.

“The first time we hear that we can go get vaccinated, we’ll be in line,” Fee said. “It sounds like just talking to our coaches and student athletes, it seems anecdotally like everybody wants the vaccine, unfortunately, [it’s just] a little bit of a waiting game, as it is for