11/08/19, Vol. 10 Issue 18

DISCOVER THE SPIVEY DIFFERENCE 2019-2020 Concert Series Clayton State University For tickets or more information call (678) 466-4200 or visit

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JAMIE BARTON, mezzo-soprano

“Opera’s Nose-Studded Rock Star” (New York Times)

KATHLEEN KELLY, piano Sunday, December 8, 2019

WINTER TALES: THE SWINGLES “Superhero singing to truly raise goosebumps” (The Guardian)

Saturday, December 7, 2019 SUPERB ACOUSTICS • OUTSTANDING INTERNATIONAL MUSICIANS • INTIMATE CONCERT EXPERIENCES

voice

georgia VOL.10 • ISSUE 18

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

PO Box 77401 • Atlanta, GA 30357 P: 404-815-6941; F: 404-963-6365

EDITORIAL

Editor: Patrick Colson-Price pcolson-price@thegavoice.com Editorial Contributors: Conswella Bennett, Cliff Bostock, Camryn Burke, Melissa Carter, Mariah Cooper, Dallas Duncan, Aidan Ivory Edwards, Jim Farmer, Luke Gardner, O’Brian Gunn Elizabeth Hazzard, Ryan Lee, Rose Pelham, Dionne Walker

PRODUCTION

Art Director: Rob Boeger rboeger@thegavoice.com

ONLINE

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BUSINESS

Principal/Publisher: Tim Boyd tboyd@thegavoice.com

SALES

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FINE PRINT

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4 Editorial November 8, 2019

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

EDITORIAL

My Social Media Cleanse Patrick Colson-Price I did it! I finally did it! Well, I think I’ve done it! I’ve moved one step closer to a life of happiness. I’ve sworn up and down that social media does play mental and emotional games with my well being at times. So two weeks ago after what seemed like one of the most intense Pride weekends I’ve ever had, I decided to deactivate Facebook and stay off of social media for good. I think I’ve managed to do this practice several times in my life and these cleanses last for a few weeks, and then I’m back scrolling my feed exposing myself to a lot of falsities that social media seems to play host to. It’s this slow-acting poison that doesn’t present itself right away, but eventually, our minds are eaten from the inside out to expose a life full of self-loathing.

These days, my feed is filled with politics, gym selfies, and viral videos. All three drag me in deep, and then I realize after this neverending scroll, I’ve wasted 45 minutes of my life on posts that hold no weight on what’s going on in my reality. I thoroughly enjoy seeing success amongst my Facebook friends and how they’re accomplishing their dreams, but there’s a fine line where that enjoyment becomes unhealthy behavior. I’ve longed to have what others are experiencing on Facebook or wanting to be at parties that others are posting about and that behavior can create false realities in my head of what’s attainable and what’s really within reach.

I’ve understood for a long time that it’s all a facade, a mirage to hide some of the most difficult times in one’s life. I used to do that, hoping my happy post about how great life was would hide the fact that I was struggling so much on the inside. I think for most of us, we look for approval or reassurance from the ones who matter the least … aka our thousands of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter followers. I know I used to do that, posting a shirtless photo hoping for this many likes and that many comments. I felt a rush of adrenaline and

Pete Buttigieg Soars to Second Place in Iowa Polls Shelby Lynn Yeatts: “This is wonderful. If he wins the democratic nomination then he’s definitely got my vote. Vote Blue no matter who!”

Michael Parker: “Now if he’d only stop taking money from millionaires we’d have something to discuss.”

University System of Ga. Updates Healthcare Policies to Include Transgender Employees David J. Messier: “It’s so sad that the state had to be sued to be made compliant with modern society.”

then I’d scurry off to the gym to have what felt like a more intense workout because I felt validated by those online.

This is what I’ve noticed in the past two weeks of being off social media: I’ve had to motivate myself, validate myself, and look in the mirror at myself and say I’m good enough, sometimes just to pull myself out of bed and get my day started. When we don’t have anything to compare our lives to, good or bad, we seem to require more motivation from ourselves and others physically present in our lives. It’s so easy for a quick comment on social media to bring a smile to my face, but seemingly more difficult when the task to smile is put solely on myself.

I admit it’s been hard to smile these past few weeks. From my depression and anxiety to figuring out where I want to go in life, getting motivated is quite difficult these days. When social media was part of my life, it was significantly easier, but now I’m realizing that I’m in charge of making myself happy and pulling myself together to tackle the world around me, even on the days when all I feel like doing is lying in a dark room.

If all of us could, for one day, take a break from our social influences and take time to find the beauty and happiness for ourselves, I do believe this world would be a happier place. I know I’ve been forced to find beauty and happiness within myself in the absence of social influences, and that makes me happy.

Drag Queen Mayhem Miller Criticized for Calling Gender Neutral Pads “Ridiculous” Laura Gentle: “Inclusive is a great thing.

There is zero reason for anyone to take issue with this.”

LGBTQ Homeless in Atlanta at Higher Risk of Trafficking Brian McGowan: “And cotton is soft. Is that really a surprise? My first boyfriend was kicked out if his house at 15 because he was gay and lived on the streets for a few years and picked himself up. I learned this when we started dating when started dating he was 6 years older than I was but what he had to go through was so sad. That was in ’90s. Sad it hasn’t gotten better.”

Tennessee County Commissioner Calls Pete Buttigieg “A Queer” in Released Video Calvin Hall: “As bad as I loathe him, he has the right to say what he pleases. The constitution works for us all. The thing to do is pressure them with boycotts and drain the resources.

J Brian Crawford: “The concern is his views are not unique to him. I love Mayor Pete, and Trump would use every “religious” whack job to defeat him.”

Chris Tilley-Clark: “I’d rather have a gay president that loves his country versus one that loves himself more than his country. We have tons of racists in government, but that is ok and being gay isn’t? Stupidity at its finest.”

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

NEWS

Condoms Hit the Runway Fashion Event to Benefit Planned Parenthood

designers, and models, the event will provide oodles of LGBTQ representation.

“The majority of us are LGBTQ – and it was something I didn’t even realize [while planning],” Julien said of the lineup. “We have [designer] MoDest Volgare, who is a local transgender drag queen – she’s currently hosting Miss Edgewood, a drag competition at Noni’s. We have Diego as a designer; he works a lot with Wussy Mag and just performed at Playhouse. We have Trevor, another designer, whose husband will be modeling his outfit for him. We have RuPaul Season 2’s Nicole Paige Brooks performing. Our emcee will even be making their drag debut as Comet.”

Katie Burkholder Inclusivity, sex positivity, and condoms, condoms, condoms! That’s what Condom Couture is all about. This prophylactic Project Runway combines high fashion and safe sex to create a fashion show showcasing extravagant designs, handmade by local artists, designers, and creatives and made of over a thousand colorful condoms. Not only is the show going to be quirky and sexy and fun, but it’s also for a good cause, too: 100 percent of ticket sales and proceeds from a live auction (where attendees can bid on the pieces modeled) benefit Planned Parenthood Southeast. The event’s organizer and creator Felicia Julien talked to Georgia Voice about what attendees can expect from the event, the impact Planned Parenthood has on the community, and the messages she hopes to send with Condom Couture.

Julien got the idea to bring the event – which has multiple, separately-run shows across the country – to Atlanta after being a designer for one in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she lived before moving here. Julien is a painter and a fulltime retail employee, so organizing an event this size wasn’t exactly in her wheelhouse.

All she knew was that she wanted to help Planned Parenthood any way she could.

“Bringing on this event on was just to raise money for Planned Parenthood,” she told Georgia Voice. “I wanted to support this badass group that’s standing up and standing so strong against administrations that are trying to shut them down. They’ve lost so much funding, but they’re for everybody in the community.”

And Julien really emphasized that the reproductive health care and sexual education organization is for every body – two words. “Planned Parenthood doesn’t just provide STD screenings and ultrasounds.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

While Julien’s main goal with the event was to raise money for Planned Parenthood, she hopes the event will bring people together and convince the community to rise up and make a difference.

Condom Couture features fashion designers such as (top row, from left): Kirsten Hawkins, VxxDxx, and Lacey Tank. The event also features performances by (bottom row, from left): Annie Lockwood, Royal Tee, and Nicole Paige Brooks. (Courtesy photos)

They also provide checkups, prophylactics, and hormone therapy treatments,” she said.

“They really focus on the right of everyone to receive affordable, judgment-free health care. It’s not just for heterosexual pregnant women with breasts and a vagina; it’s for every single person. If you don’t want a child, they will help you. If you’re planning to have a child within a same-sex marriage or partnership, they will also help you.”

The Planned Parenthood fundraiser brings condom-centric designs from a total of fifteen designers (thirteen designing garments, two designing accessories like necklaces and earrings), ranging from professional fashion designers to artists who stand with the cause, to the runway. Why condoms? Julien says because they represent “the end of sexual stigma.”

“Wearing [condoms] fashionably is kind

of announcing this power one has over his, her, or their own reproductive health,” she continued. “I wanted to promote the normalization of sex education and conversation. We’re just stressing that we own our own bodies and we’re going to fight for our rights. It’s going to be really sexy, really quirky, all-inclusive, and empowering – it’s going to kick some ass.”

The event doesn’t end with the fashion show: attendees can expect performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 2’s Nicole Paige Brooks, standup comedienne Annie Lockwood, Creative Loafing’s 2018 Best Burlesque winner Royal Tee, and C.C. Stevens, a vaudevillian who will perform a circus act for the crowd. Rebel Groove, a dance team focused on sexy fitness hiphop that Julien herself is actually a part of, will also perform. Among the performers,

“I really want Condom Couture to just call people to action,” she said. “I love seeing all the marches that go on and participating in women’s marches or reproductive rights marches. However, I believe that a real call to justice isn’t always just moving and screaming in the streets – which totally helps, I’m 100 percent a supporter. But I really want to start to build a community and fight differently. And for me, coming together and forming an event that’s playful and fun and exciting to raise money is a way to do it.”

“I want Condom Couture to bring together communities: all races, genders, sexualities, all humans fighting for our voices, our rights, our lives, and each other,” Julien continued.

“My goal is to just bring in people who stand for the same thing and help others come into the community and feel comfortable with themselves and raise awareness.”

Condom Couture makes its Atlanta debut on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Westside Cultural Arts Center from 8-10pm.

Tickets are on sale starting at $50 at condomcoutureatl.com.

November 8, 2019 News 5

NEWS

Lost-n-Found Non-Profit Grows in 2019 Katie Burkholder

“This partnership is a major step forward for our organization, and we’re grateful to Park Avenue’s leadership for believing in our mission,” added Bynes-Muhammad.

“We’re also thrilled to be in a community that is welcoming and supportive of the advancement of our work. We can go much further together than we can doing this work alone. There are many brilliant, passionate, hardworking people living under bridges and in tents in Atlanta, and we can’t tap into the full resources of our community until everyone has their basic needs met.”

Lost-n-Found Youth (LNFY), an Atlantabased non-profit existing to end homelessness among LGBTQ youth, is celebrating their eighth anniversary with a new look, new leadership, and a new home.

Over the last year, LNFY’s staff and board has been working to ensure the non-profit continues to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of its clients and the community it serves. Not only will LNFY introduce a new logo and mission, but it will be moving into a new youth drop-in center and expanding to add additional beds and housing for the youth transitioning out of crisis under the helm of the newly-announced co-directors Nasheedah Bynes-Muhammad and Ernest Walker.

The new youth center comes from a partnership between LNFY and Park Ave Baptist Church in Grant Psrk, whose second floor LNFY will occupy. This location offers more space for programs and

LOST-N-FOUND YOUTH PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

services, convenient access to public transit, and greenspace, and just one floor above, through a partnership with fellow non-profit Lydia’s House, LNFY will house 12 more beds for emergency and transitional housing – moving their grand total from 6 to 18.

“Our partnership with Park Ave Baptist Church could not have come at a more

critical time,” Walker said in a press release.

“Our youth are thriving in our programs – finding jobs, accessing healthcare, and regaining their self-esteem – but having access to additional housing will dramatically increase our ability to effect change in their lives. Being able to offer our clients a hot meal, a shower, and now a warm bed, all under one roof, will be a game changer.”

LNFY will also celebrate their anniversary with a full month of events and festivities, including a Sunday Funday Pop-Up Brunch at Henry’s Midtown on Nov. 10 –where LNFY will unveil its new mission, vision, and brand identity – a community open house at its new youth drop-in center from Nov. 17 to 24, and a community Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 28. For more information and a full list of anniversary events, visit lnfy.org.

UGA Law School Introduces Scholarship for LGBTQ Students Katie Burkholder The University of Georgia’s (UGA) School of Law has successfully endowed the Stonewall Equality Scholarship Fund for law students who demonstrate leadership in the LGBTQ community – the first LGBTQ scholarship at UGA and the first LGBTQ law scholarship among Georgia law schools.

The fund will benefit students who demonstrate leadership in LGBTQ issues or lend to the advancement of LGBTQ equality in the legal profession, Charles Hicks, a third-year law student at UGA’s School of Law and the former president of OUTLaw, the school’s LGBTQ organization, told Georgia Voice. Hicks was a part of the group of students who worked to campaign for the fund last year after it was launched by Professor Joseph Miller in 2015.

The fund has been opened and the first recipient will receive the scholarship next year 8 News November 8, 2019

based on existing contributions. “However, by keeping the scholarship fund open, UGA Law is inviting donors to contribute to the fund’s principal and hopefully continue to increase the number of recipients,” Hicks said. Hicks continued, saying that the money awarded to each recipient “will change lives.”

“There are LGBTQ students at the University of Georgia who have made the heavy decision to stay closeted because they believe their domestic support system will cut them off financially if they live openly,” he told Georgia Voice. “Scholarships like the Stonewall Equality Scholarship Fund make it more likely that students will choose to live in freedom decades before they otherwise might.”

Not only will the scholarship provide financial security to UGA’s LGBTQ and allied law students, but it will also ensure that UGA Law will continue to produce LGBTQ alumni – like Judge Mike Jacobs,

the nation’s first openly bisexual judge, and Thomas Mew, one of the advocates who appeared before SCOTUS last month on behalf of Gerald Bostock – who will act as LGBTQ legal advocates in the state and nationwide.

The scholarship is funded by contributors who want to invest in students who are fighting for a more inclusive Georgia.

“Every single person who has contributed to the scholarship fund so far has donated on purpose,” Hicks said. “Their stories have been moving, meaningful, and full of hope.

One of our contributors donated in the name of his gay relative who died as a result of a hate crime. One of our contributors donated in honor of ensuring there are LGBTQ judges in Georgia in the future. People are donating as a way of saying, ‘I want a better Georgia for my son, my daughter, and my community.’” Contributors who donate more than $10,000 before next summer will

be listed as a founding member of the fund.

The scholarship has already made a difference nationwide: the University of Wyoming’s Law School’s LGBTQ organization had reached out to OUTLaw to receive help replicating UGA Law’s success and endowing an LGBTQ scholarship of their own. Hicks hopes that the success of the scholarship will lead to the introduction of similar LGBTQ scholarships at all levels of UGA. “My hope is that the University of Georgia builds upon UGA Law’s success in endowing the Stonewall Equality Scholarship Fund and creates more LGBTQ-oriented scholarships for undergraduates and at the university’s other professional schools,” he said. “Oftentimes, we underestimate the power of a group of people coming together around a common purpose to accomplish an improbable goal. The Stonewall Equality Scholarship Fund is proof that we’re stronger together than we are divided.”

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

CELEBRITY CLOSE-UP!

She said WHAT?!?

Take a break from the hustle and bustle of your day to day life to read up on what queer and trans celebs and notable figures are saying about their identities.

“The truth is that, as blessed as some of us are and have been, a lot of us are still struggling.

I heard a story about a trans woman who was on a show and some of the crew members were mis-gendering her and kind of giggling, and she heard it while she’s working. That is not something any actress should hear when they’re working. Acting is hard enough.”

— transgender actress Laverne Cox on the reality of being trans in Hollywood (Yahoo)

“The money I had saved for my [gender-affirming] surgery was actually used to go to [RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars].

My surgery was postponed because I also knew that if I had gotten surgery I wouldn’t have been able to go on the show. I had to save up again after All Stars and then get my surgery last December … Drag is expensive and anything you’re gonna show on TV, you gotta pay for it.”

— transgender Drag Race alum Gia Gunn on paying for drag and her gender-affirming surgery (Lemon podcast)

“[Playing Angel in Pose] has really destigmatized sex work, not only for people watching the show but for me, too — I had internalized so much shame. I felt really ashamed of having been a sex worker and, coming into this industry, it was something that I feared I would be outed for and that it would harm me. To be able to talk openly about [it] and not fear losing my job because of it is really beautiful and liberating — I just never thought that I would have that.”

— non-binary actor Indya Moore on how their job affected their past as a sex worker (Evening Standard)

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

“I quickly learned that everyone has an idea about what it means to be a woman — whom you should love, how you should dress, the words you should use to describe yourself. Being married to a woman didn’t negate my prior or future relationships with men, so when I refused to use the word “lesbian,” I received pushback from women who experienced such a dearth of lesbian representation that any nuance in sexuality or gender was disregarded.”

— bisexual actress Amber Heard on being bisexual in the film industry (Teen Vogue)

“I want kids to see me and know that you can be a Christian and you can be gay. You can be gay, you can teach at a Christian school. To think that something like this could happen to them makes me feel really upset and angry, because they deserve better.”

— Floridian Christian school teacher Monica Toro Lisciandro on being fired for being a lesbian (Florida Today)

November 8, 2019 Celebrity Close-up! 9

ASK THE DOCTOR

Common Cold?

Home Remedies That Help!

Patrick Colson-Price The common cold is the most common infectious disease in the world, and its side effects come with dozens, if not hundreds, of home remedies to keep you out of the doctor’s office. But many people ask, do they work?

“The list of things that people do are vast,” said Doctor Joel Rosenstock, Medical Director at Absolute Care. “Almost none of them work, but people swear by them.”

He says on average, adults get three common colds per year, which means it’s unlikely a doctor’s visit is part of the cure. Many adults use over-the-counter medication like cold and flu relief and a growing number find remedies passed down through word of mouth as a way of curing the infection.

“Symptomatic relief which includes rest, stay warm, take Tylenol or Advil if you have a low-grade temperature, you can gargle with salt water to relieve pain in the throat,” said Rosenstock. “A lot of people take cough medicines but they really don’t do anything.”

The natural history of the common cold lasts around seven to ten days and can be caused by nearly 200 different viruses. Doctors say it’s hard for patients to identify which virus specifically causes their infection, so treating the cold can be more difficult but not impossible.

“You can take over the counter antihistamines,” he says. “It shrinks the membranes that make 10 Health November 8, 2019

you breathe easier but decreases blood supply which is going to get you better.”

Other common remedies include taking more Vitamin C to reduce the duration of the cold, using steam to relieve sinus pressure, and taking in chicken noodle soup or any warm liquid to help with a sore throat, but it’s temporary. “Most people think these remedies work, but most of the time we think those are a placebo effect,” said Rosenstock.

But how do we know when it’s time to go see a doctor? Doctor Rosenstock says there’s a fine line. “Symptoms of a common cold, which are a scratchy throat, nasal congestion, runny nose, and a low-grade temperature, sound like the beginning signs of influenza,” said Rosenstock. “Influenza is a much more serious disease and it’s a hard line to differentiate between that and a cold.

On day three, he says a fever usually goes away with a cold and with influenza, patients usually don’t have a runny nose. “If in the first 48 hours and we’re in the middle of flu season, and you’re feeling muscle aches and joint aches, and you think it’s just the worst cold you’ve had in a while, I’d seek medical help,” he said.

Dr. Rosenstock says what you shouldn’t do is try to power through if symptoms get worse.

He says go see your doctor as soon as possible.

For more information on Absolute Care and the services they provide, visit their website at AbsoluteCare.com.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

FEATURE

My Body, My Privacy Is TSA Check Violating to Trans Travelers?

“It is a consequence of my passing for cisgender, more or less, that the person groping me has always been a woman, and while this has made the person less intimidating, it is only superficially better than being groped by a man.To be groped is to be groped, no matter who gropes you, after all.”

Rose Pelham ​or several years after coming out as F transgender, I had prosthetic breasts. They were in many ways the entry point to my being perceived as a woman, and quickly became part of my extended sense of self.

But while I treated these prosthetics as if they were an extension of my body, for airport security they represented an unaccounted for, and therefore dangerous, anomaly. ​ his was my experience with the TSA, or T to be exact, it is an amalgamation of several different incidents that were all more or less the same. I know that many transgender people reading this will have had similar experiences or worse. ​ t the checkpoint, after placing my belongings A in trays to be x-ray searched, I would be asked to enter the body scanner. The scanner, though its action is not as tangible as being “patted down,” is no less invasive. Given that its purpose is to see through my clothes ‒ to render me nude to discover any secrets my body may possess, I would argue that the scanner is more completely destructive of my privacy than the “pat-down.” The fact that the more than naked image it produces of me has been substituted by an abstract outline does not fundamentally change this fact, it only mitigates the extent to which it has to be acknowledged and reckoned with. But while I have qualms about the utter destruction of my privacy, my consent is guaranteed because I need to get to my flight on time. So, I entered the scanner.

I​t may be that the presumption of gender as binary and biological is nowhere more consequential than in airport security.

There, as I was being scanned, my image was interpreted almost instantaneously by software that assumes I am either anatomically a man or a woman. This assumption will TheGeorgiaVoice.com

subsequently determine what appears to be normal or abnormal on my body. When stripped of clothes, my body’s ambiguous combination of gendered traits, like those of so many transgender bodies, turns the assumption that gender is a binary anatomical characteristic into an insolvable paradox. To the scanner, am I a woman or a man? Either way, some part of me will be identified as anomalous. When I had silicon prostheses, it was inevitably the breasts. ​ pon exiting the scanner, I may have been U asked if I consented to the subsequent “pat down” of my breasts, but since, as before, my consent was already guaranteed, the question would have been irrelevant.

If, for a moment, we disregard the formalism with which the law considers this matter, to have one’s breasts groped when consent is meaningless is sexual assault. It is sexual assault because it is a violation of my bodily autonomy specifically at a site where anatomy and sexuality interact. It is an act of violence, if not by causing physical injury, then by eliminating my agency as a person over whether or not I allow others

to touch me sexually. That is, it negates a fundamental aspect of my personhood.

This is true experientially, even as the courts consider this kind of search as being legally justified, and therefore not to be sexual assault. Sadly, having experienced both a sexual assault in high school and multiple searches of my breasts by TSA agents, I can testify that the distinction between being subjected to one or the other is primarily a matter of location. Both are about equally unpleasant, regardless of their differing motivations and legality.

The only real agency I was given each time my breasts were “patted down” was whether or not it was done in public. I have always chosen the public option, for two reasons.

The first is that I assume the existence of potential spectators – no matter how much their eyes may be diverted – might function as a check on abuse. The second is that, since I am spiteful, I want the person feeling up my chest to feel self-conscious, even ashamed.

It is a consequence of my passing for cisgender, more or less, that the person groping me has always been a woman, and while this has

made the person less intimidating, it is only superficially better than being groped by a man. To be groped is to be groped, no matter who gropes you, after all.

My partner’s experience with the TSA has been similarly bad. One day, when returning home from college, my partner––who is nonbinary and uses any pronouns––had his crotch identified as an area of suspicion by a scanner.

If I had been there with him, I do not know how I would have reacted, but I do know that I was outraged when I heard about it. ​ he sheer extent of the violence transgender T people experience from the TSA underscores the necessity for thinking about how we have, as a society, elevated the interests of national security over human safety. This is an issue that should not concern transgender people alone.

The effective suspension of not only privacy but also bodily autonomy, at airport security checkpoints, necessarily endangers everyone.

Its violence only becomes uniquely evident when the ambiguity of the transgender body is identified as a threat that requires action.

“What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing.”

––Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition November 8, 2019 Feature 11

FEATURE

Game Developers Expand Character Creation To Include Transgender and Non-binary Options O’Brian Gunn The look and sound of video game characters have come a long way from the stumpy eight-bit design of Mario revealed in 1985 with Super Mario Bros. Now, you can customize your character’s eye and hair color, height, gender, body size, and more, making it easier to feel fully immersed in the gaming experience without the need for a VR setup.

If the game developers of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 have their way, gamers will soon be able to design a transgender or nonbinary character, an option that has never been available before.

Changes on the Horizon Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person role-playing game set in the sci-fi dystopian realm of Night City. Players assume the role of a mercenary named V, who uses melee combat and ranged weapons to advance through three distinct game classes: NetRunner (hacking), Techie (machinery), and Solo (combat).

Besides customizing V’s physical appearance, the player also decides on the character’s style of dress, which impacts non-playable character interactions and sexual and romantic relationships. With the fervent desire for more inclusion in various forms of entertainment, it’s good to see a game developer make an honest and in-depth attempt to give players more agency regarding how their character looks, going well-beyond the binary choice of male or female.

That said, as of this writing, CD Projekt Red only wants to include transgender and nonbinary options in the character creation menu, it’s not outright confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt. If the developers have their way, you’ll be able to choose a male voice for a female-presenting character and vice versa. While this is undoubtedly a fantastic move for the Poland-based game developer, they haven’t always had the best relationship with the transgender community.

12 Feature November 8, 2019

A Public Relations History Mired in Controversy In 2018, CD Projekt Red showed its whole social media ass when it tweeted, “Did you just assume their gender?” in response to a fan who wanted to see more Cyberpunk 2077 content from the “guys.” The tweet was deleted, and the company apologized for its insensitivity. But the social media blunders don’t stop there.

That same year, Good Old Games, CD Projekt Red’s digital games storefront, incited social media ire when it appropriated the pro-transgender Twitter hashtag #WontBeErased for product marketing.

The tweet was later deleted and chalked up as a bad pun. Even when the game designer tries to do right by including the transgender community in its properties, it still never hits the mark the way it intends, as was demonstrated in a Cyberpunk 2077 in-game ad.

What Was Shown vs.

What Was Seen During this year’s E3, a massive video game trade event, CD Projekt Red offered a new trailer for Cyberpunk 2077. In it, an in-game ad displayed a female-presenting model who, unmistakably, has a penis and the slogan, “Mix it up.” While the ad didn’t spark the same fiasco as past social media missteps, it did put the company on the receiving end of a healthy dose of internet side-eye.

many examples of hypersexualized women, hypersexualized men, and hypersexualized people in between.

During an interview with Polygon, the game’s art director, Kasia Redesiuk, had this to say in regards to clarifying the ad’s intentions: “Cyberpunk 2077 is a dystopian future where megacorporations dictate everything. They try to, and successfully, influence people’s lives.

They shove products down their throats. They create those very aggressive advertisements that use, and abuse, a lot of people’s needs and instincts. So, hypersexualization is apparent everywhere and in our ads, there are

While CD Projekt Red has stuck its foot in its mouth more than it’s stuck the landing when it comes to transgender and nonbinary inclusion, the designer deserves, at the least, lukewarm applause. When a company makes a genuine effort to step in the right direction, a few stumbles are to be expected.

Here’s hoping the company (satisfactorily) includes nonbinary and transgender character customization in Cyberpunk 2077 when it releases in 2020.

“This is all to show that [much like in our modern world], hypersexualization in advertisements is just terrible. It was a conscious choice on our end to show that in this world – a world where you are a cyberpunk, a person fighting against corporations. That [advertisement] is what you’re fighting against.”

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FEATURE

Helping to Raise the Roof ZAMI NOBLA, Atlanta Fire Rescue Partner to Provide Home for Black Lesbian Elders Dallas Anne Duncan The women of ZAMI NOBLA, the National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging, are known for bringing critical issues to light. This year was no exception.

With the help of community crowdfunding, volunteers and the brave souls of Atlanta Fire Rescue wielding jackhammers, ZAMI NOBLA tackled the issue of affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors. By doing so, they put the pieces in place to provide homes to even more LGBTQ ATL-iens in 2020.

“In terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, if you have a safe, affordable, decent house, then a lot of your other needs can certainly be attended to,” said Mary Anne Adams, founding executive director of ZAMI NOBLA. “We want to provide as much space as we can for as many women as we can.”

The first home, the Biggers House, was a donation of ZAMI NOBLA board member Dr. Edith Biggers, a public health physician in Fulton County’s HIV clinic. Her parents purchased one of the first dwellings able to be owned by black Atlantans, and they retained ownership of the residence. It’s located on Tiger Flowers Drive, a road named for the first African-American World Middleweight Boxing Champion.

The neighborhood is welcoming – it has two known LGBTQ sets of neighbors – and it’s convenient to public transit.

Biggers originally offered her childhood home to the organization as office space, but when Adams toured its halls, she had a better idea.

The two-bedroom house, with a little TLC, is set to become home to two senior women on fixed incomes. ZAMI NOBLA will start accepting applications for its residents soon, 14 Feature November 8, 2019

ZAMI NOBLA tackled the issue of affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors. By doing so, they put the pieces in place to provide homes to even more LGBTQ ATL-iens in 2020. (Courtesy photos)

and it’s looking specifically for a lesbian couple or female LGBTQ roommates who are community-minded to fill those rooms.

The People’s House Though its official name is the Biggers House, the home on Tiger Flowers Drive is affectionately referred to by a different moniker.

“It’s the people’s house. It’s truly the people’s house,” Adams said. “There is no way that we would be able to renovate this house without the community at large believing in us.”

Most of the money raised to renovate the Biggers House was done through social media and generous outside donations.

Adams mentioned an area lesbian couple who donated several thousand dollars, calling the entire project “a precious gift.”

“This is a white lesbian couple who believes in what we’re doing. Different ages, races, genders, identities have donated to this house not only in money, but in sweat equity,” she said.

Firefighter Andre Holmes, LGBTQ liaison for Atlanta Fire Rescue, was familiar with ZAMI NOBLA’s work. When he found

out about the Biggers House, he knew immediately it was something he wanted to get involved in. Holmes approached the Atlanta Fire Rescue Foundation and asked about working with one of its sponsors, Home Depot, on a specific project at the house. He secured a $3,000 grant to build an accessibility ramp at the house.

“We’re here to help create safe and sustainable communities,” Holmes said. “When we get sworn and we raise our hand and we say we’re going to become firefighters, one of our roles is to do exactly that. This fits into those values.”

She said several black lesbian elders were welleducated, but because they were open about their sexuality and didn’t want to be in the closet at work, chose to take under-the-table jobs outside of what they were educated in.

“They didn’t get Social Security paid in. They didn’t have retirement. They’ve been estranged from their families. They find themselves at this age without any financial safety net to fall back on. In Georgia, there’s no Medicaid expansion and you’re not sick enough to qualify for disability,” Adams said. “There’s a gap these women are falling into. And they’re poor. They are really at risk of dire poverty.”

There are historic values at play too.

“The first black firefighters that integrated Atlanta Fire Rescue did so at Station 16, which is on land that Tiger Flowers donated to the fire department,” Holmes said. “It’s just such a full-circle moment to do something as historic as LGBTQ senior housing there.”

Mind the Gap In 2014, Adams led a study on aging in the black lesbian community, speaking with 100 women, aged 41 to 91. Housing came up repeatedly as an issue that needed to be addressed.

Other LGBTQ Atlantans face similar risks and struggles when it comes to finding housing, and Adams became aware of fellow nonprofits working on similar strategies as the Biggers House.

“I said, ‘Listen. We need to come together,’” Adams said. “We are going to come together and form a consortium. It’s top of mind for us. We can only do so much in silos — we have to come together as an LGBTQ organization focused on housing, and there’s so much that we can do to help each other.”

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

FEATURE

Congratulations, You’re Hired!

Top Companies for Women and Trans Employees O’Brian Gunn While downloading your consciousness into a featureless droid and going to work with other featureless droids could be a good way to deter racism, sexism, ableism, and the like in the workplace, the option removes a certain dynamic component of self-expression, passion, and creativity that’s necessary for optimum work performance and engagement. Because gender can sometimes trigger a cascade of unnecessary (and downright foolish) hurdles in the professional realm, it’s a relief to know that some companies make it a point to create stress-free work environments for women and trans employees. Here’s a quick rundown of five companies for each category.

For Trans Employees Thanks to the company’s queer employee resources group, AT&T Inc. rolled out transgender work guidelines in 2010. Besides health benefits for transgender employees, the company also offers support for those who wish to transition while working at AT&T. McKesson Corporation, a healthcare and pharmaceutical company, has a queer and straight ally employee group that works with management to create a work environment in which all employees have a voice and are respected. Even the HRC Foundation has recognized the organization’s efforts.

Workers who are part of Employee Resource Groups, focused on diversity and inclusivity in the professional realm, have received support from Ford Motor Co. The automaker provides transgender-inclusive employee benefits.

In 2014, CVS Health Corporation began offering medically necessary health benefits for transgender employees, which includes treatment for transitioning.

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One thing that stands out about Chevron Corporation on this list is that the company was way ahead of the game when it comes to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace for transgender employees. In 2005, the energy corporation released a workplace guide that educated employees on what it means to be transgender, proper terms for a transgender person, and how to offer support for trans coworkers. The report even touched on allowing transitioning employees to use the bathroom that matched their gender identity.

care programs, women’s leadership networks, and onsite childcare. The company looks over pay practices every year, allowing employees to share their thoughts on the matter through an anonymous hotline.

For Women Employees Iowa-based Principal Financial Group is touted for having a workforce that’s almost 60 percent women. The insurance and investment management firm offers prenatal

Approximately 80 percent of Hallmark’s workforce is women. Besides 40 percent of the greeting card company’s senior management being made up of women, the organization also has a women’s network.

Academic medical center Penn Medicine provides professional development for women to help them advance to leadership roles.

The center’s workforce is made up of roughly 80 percent of women, who also make up 55 percent of Penn Medicine’s executive positions.

Expectant mothers have their own parking spaces and access to nursing rooms.

As of 2018, IBM offers a minimum of 20 weeks for maternity leave, and the company also gained recognition as being one of the leading workplaces for women of color. The information technology company focuses on cultivating women tech leaders and executive development courses for women.

Almost 80 percent of women at Johnson and Johnson say that the company offers excellent work-life hours and policies. If necessary, employees can telecommute and take advantage of other flexible scheduling opportunities.

November 8, 2019 Feature 15

FEATURE

Women in the Workplace Sadly, It’s Still a Man’s World Aidan Ivory Edwards In the year 2019, women are still drastically marginalized in society – this especially includes the workplace. There is a lack of transparency, accountability, and addressing the larger problem at hand. There are barriers in company policies that make it more difficult for women to prove that they’re victims of discrimination. And even if there are no policies against such things, honest curiosity is often frowned upon. The pursuit of equality can lead to being fired in a state that abides by “employment at will,” Georgia being amongst one of them. Ultimately, this leaves a former employee the only option of suing for wrongful termination – a case that is arduous to prove unless there is empirical evidence of discrimination. Retaliation is illegal. But there are tireless obstacles to go through to receive any compensation.

However, the compensation doesn’t make up for the lack of fundamental human rights.

According to leanin.org, there has been an increase in leadership roles for women in the confines of the workplace, but there is still a large gap between men and women’s representation. Andie Kramer, a contributing writer of Forbes, recently summed up the problem by titling a piece of hers, “It’s Not The Women, It’s The Workplace.” The research rings true. According to NPR, men with the same degrees as women pull in over $26,000 more. To further this, women are about to become the majority of those who obtain a degree from higher education. There are the nonsensical explanations thrown out to justify the reasons why things are this way. That women choose low-income fields, that there is some disparity over their leadership skills, even something as baffling and offensive as how women are naturally inclined to behave due to their gender.

There is often a notion that women’s 16 Feature November 8, 2019

discrimination is a singular problem, but it isn’t. Each woman’s experience is unique.

Women’s lives are further complicated by their race, their sexual orientation, disabilities that they have, and even their religion. The underrepresentation has nothing to do with education; in fact, women hold more bachelor’s degrees than men – yet men still have more lucrative careers, even when holding the same position. If you aren’t a white woman, things in the workplace look even more fraught. Black women and women with disabilities face more barriers in advancement, get less support from managers, and receive less sponsorship than other groups, according to leanin.org.

seek a company that embraces a thorough education on gender discrimination.

Diversity is not to be overlooked.

So the question is, what can women do in preparation for the workplace?

Negotiating salaries for women requires research on the gender pay gap and overall preparation that is more rigorous than the male workplace. Know your value, know that you can ask, and have a statement prepared. This goes for promotions, as well.

According to Linda Babcock’s Women Don’t Ask, a study conducted that only 7 percent

Courses are beginning to be taught to help guide women in the workplace, expanding issues with contributions from women who have exceeded in a system that has worked against them. It is encouraged to

This also means to ensure that there is an equal opportunity policy. A company that doesn’t have these implementations in order is a huge red flag and puts not only their history into question – but their entire message. If there is a possibility, find a mentor who is a woman. These mentors are more likely to have experienced the hardships, bias and will help guide you through the processes (such as negotiations, filing a complaint, and promotions). They may even end up being your future hiring manager at some point.

of women attempt to negotiate following an offer versus a male 57 percent. Chad doesn’t deserve to earn more than you because his uncle used to drink scotch with your boss every Sunday. You deserve it because you were magna cum laude at one of the top tier universities in your field.

Be sure to take immediate action towards any complaints, especially sexual harassment.

This is certainly easier said than done (as a male, I couldn’t even imagine). The prolonging of allegations is a household defense for those who are opposed to the #MeToo movement, a highly dubious bunch who fit the archetype of speaking out of turn: straight white males. Immediately filing a complaint is the epitome of bravery, be sure to document everything, and take note of anything that comes off as a form of retaliation. The idea of building unity between women within the workplace is a step towards progression, but first, there have to be measures taken towards paving the way for women in leadership roles.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

ATL LGBTQ HISTORY

Once Upon a Time in Mecca - The ’90s Dave Hayward Here’s the second installment of “Greatest Hits” from the Gay ’90s of landmarks in our LGBTQ long march to freedom here.

The greatest advance in the ’90s is the arrival of protease inhibitors in 1996, making AIDS a chronic condition and not a death sentence.

For me, AIDS hit in 1991, when I knew about 25 men who died that year. After working out at the Colony Square gym, I sat in the atrium often crying uncontrollably, fearing I would lose my mind, although I am HIV negative.

Finally one day I heard a voice, “Dave, you’ve lost your mind, don’t worry about it anymore. There’s no way you can stay sane through this. Just do what you have to do for those you care for.” Thus I took the focus off myself and onto those who needed help.

Drag queens were on our front lines, headlining the bread and butter fundraisers we needed amidst stingy government assistance. Count Diamond Lil, Bubba D Licious, Charlie Brown, and Greg Troia’s Armorettes as our heroic troupers.

Ironically the greater visibility AIDS gave us created a renaissance in the arts. Actors Express exploded here founded by two gay men Chris Coleman and Harold Leaver and set a new bar both for theatre excellence and no holds barred depictions of gays and lesbians (earning the nickname “Actors Undressed” for serious eye candy).

The pinnacle of the Express saw the debut of the musical “The Harvey Milk Show” in 1991 by Atlantans Dan Pruitt and Patrick Hutchison, which later became the showpiece of the Cultural Olympiad during the 1996 Olympic Games here.

The Olympics coincided with a vast and welcoming LGBTQ center at Center Stage Theatre on West Peachtree, overseen by Julie Rhoad, who now runs the Names Project

From left: A reunion of Greg James, Elizabeth Monahan, and Dave Hayward at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. James and Monahan and her wife, Eva Salzer helped create the First National March on Washington for LGBTQ Rights in 1979, as well as myriad other accomplishments. James now lives in San Francisco, and Monahan and her wife now live in Connecticut.

“Creating Olympics Out of Cobb and mobilizing hordes of volunteers, their David defeats the Olympic Goliath, and Cobb is bereft of Olympic glory in 1996.”

AIDS Memorial Quilt headquartered here.

At Seven Stages Theatre, playwright Jim Grimsley stoked the burgeoning scene, world premiering his surreal meditations on gay life “Mr. Universe” and “Math and After Math”, along with an adaptation of his novel “Dream Boy.” Part-time Atlantan Elton John and the

18 ATL LGBTQ History November 8, 2019

homegrown the Indigo Girls perform what seems an impromptu jam in Piedmont Park for our first AIDS walk in 1991.

In 1993 the beleaguered Theatre in the Square in Marietta becomes the flashpoint for rightwing nuts when TITS stages gay playwright Terrence McNally’s “Lips Together Teeth Apart”, which only mentions gays in passing.

Still, the Cobb County Commission passes

a resolution informing gays and lesbians they’re “incompatible with the values of Cobb County” (counties have values?!) and cuts off funding for the arts to boot.

Well, Native Atlantan Pat Hussain and her partner in crime Jon Ivan Weaver seriously object and assert that if that’s how they feel, CONTINUES ON PAGE 19 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

ATL LGBTQ HISTORY

“Lynn Cothren and others organize boycotts of Cracker Barrel restaurants, as they fire all their LGBTQ employees, including cook Cheryl Summerville (above). Summerville ends up on Oprah and featured in the documentary “Out At Work.” Moreover, activist Carl Owens organizes our folks to buy small stock in Cracker Barrel and eventually forces them to stop firing us, and get back to work.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 no Olympic events should occur in Cobb County. Creating Olympics Out of Cobb and mobilizing hordes of volunteers, their David defeats the Olympic Goliath, and Cobb is bereft of Olympic glory in 1996.

Tragically following the Olympic Park bombing, fanatic Eric Rudolph targets the lesbian-owned The Otherside on Feb. 21, 1997, and although no one dies, the attack gradually puts the Otherside out of business.

A happier ending awaits Queer Nation, when Lynn Cothren and others organize boycotts of Cracker Barrel restaurants, as they fire all their LGBTQ employees, including cook Cheryl Summerville who has no customer contact. Cheryl ends up on Oprah and featured in the documentary “Out At Work.” Moreover, activist Carl Owens organizes our folks to buy small stock in Cracker Barrel and eventually forces them to stop firing us, and get back to work.

After what feels like forever, Cathy Woolard TheGeorgiaVoice.com

is the first out person elected in Georgia, to the Atlanta City Council in 1997. In 1999 Kecia Cunningham becomes the first openly lesbian black woman elected to the Decatur City Commission.

In 1995 Presbyterian minister Erin Swenson makes world history when she is the first mainstream minister to transition and keep her ministry, “for the first time in Christendom” as our enemies would have it. Coinciding is trans woman Shelley Emerson leading the women’s group Fourth Tuesday, and also being the cover girl for Atlanta Magazine in a feature-length profile. You go girls.

Completing a tumultuous decade is Georgia’s own Supreme Court, which on Nov. 23, 1998, at last, overturns the 156-year-old ban on sodomy, in a heterosexual divorce case no less.

Whew. We’ll go even further in the 2000s.

Dave Hayward is the coordinator of Touching Up Our Roots, Inc.: Georgia’s LGBTQ Story Project. Find them at www.touchingupourroots.org.

November 8, 2019 ATL LGBTQ History 19

A&E

KIM PETRAS

PHOTO BY BYRON SPENCER

AHHH …

A MOMENT OF CLARITY!

One-on-One with Singer

Kim Petras Patrick Colson-Price At the age of 27, German singer-songwriter Kim Petras has racked in more than 85 million online music streams with hits like “Turn Off The Light,” and “Heart To Break.” Now, the openly transgender musician is taking on the world with “The Clarity Tour,” making a pit-stop right here in Atlanta, Georgia on Nov. 12, 8pm at Tabernacle. We caught up with the EDM, electropop princess before she hits the stage to talk about her success in music, and being a voice for the trans community!

Firstly, we’re excited to have you visit our wonderful city! Many of our readers are excited about your stop at Tabernacle!

What’s it like being on this whirlwind 20 A&E November 8, 2019

tour and visiting so many different cities?

You’ve probably gotten used to the non-stop life of a singer, right?

“Yeah! It’s amazing. I love it! I’ve always wanted to have this life and I think I’ve worked really hard to get to the point where I can work every single day. It’s also been a learning process. I’ve had to learn how to stay healthy and how to be 100 percent when it comes to my vocals every single night, but it’s been amazing. I’m just so lucky that I get to do these shows and sell out these venues.

I’m really excited.”

This issue you’ll be featured in focuses on women and the trans community, and making their voices heard. We’ve read that you don’t want to be known as a “transgender artist,” but that you want

your music to be relatable to everyone.

Why do you feel like people have focused so much on your identity and not your music?

“I don’t mind if I’m labelled as a transgender artist, but I don’t want to be known for just being transgender. There’s more to me than that. I want to be known for being a good artist. When it comes to my music, I think I’m the guinea pig. I’m one of the first transgender women to do what I’m doing in the mainstream, so I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to be figuring out how to do as I go. A lot of people only really want to talk to me about being transgender and they don’t see me as anything more, so I’ve accepted that it’s going to be difficult.

It’s been really hard to balance. If I don’t talk about my identity, I’m not advocating for my community. If I do talk about it, I’m using

it to get ahead. It’s been hard. I feel like no matter what I say people are going to be mad at me, so I’ve kind of just accepted that.”

Has your journey through the music industry been a struggle because you’re transgender or have people been just as welcoming to work with you and get your music out to the public?

“Creative people have been really welcoming!

Producers, songwriters, and directors have been like, “oh, that’s rad! We don’t care!” A lot of people didn’t even know ahead of time that I was transgender. I didn’t bring it up or introduce myself that way, so usually everything was totally normal. It became a big topic when I spoke with major labels. People would discuss CONTINUES ON PAGE 21 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

A&E

KIM PETRAS

PHOTO BY CLARE GILLEN AND ALEXANDRE MOORS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 it a lot. They were like “how do we market this?” or “how do we not market this?” Some people were like “can a transgender person only be a niche artist?” or “can somebody be mainstream and transgender?” I used to get that a lot. So, on the creative side, it has been amazing but on the corporate side it has been really disheartening.”

Going back to your childhood, was it difficult coming out as transgender in your home country of Germany? Can you tell us how being raised in Germany as a transgender person shaped you into who you are today?

“For my own personal experience, I was just always kind of like, “hey, I’m a girl” and made my parents kind of help me get where I needed to go. At an early age, I think at the age of five, I told them that I didn’t want to live as a boy. They told me about transitioning being a possibility and so I did. It was really difficult. At the time – and this was over ten years ago – people were really close minded and I was called crazy by a lot of doctors and psychologists. It was really hard to make it happen, but I’ve talked about this a lot and don’t want to repeat myself too much. There are lots of videos out there of me talking about my journey that you can look up!”

What made you want to move to the United States and pursue a career in music?

“I don’t think I had a choice. Those I tried to work with in Germany didn’t really understand my music and didn’t really get pop. It’s not as big there and there aren’t as many people making pop in Germany as there are over here.

I’ve been a songwriter since I was 14. I used to write songs in my bedroom and worked really, really hard every single day to improve.

I just knew that I had to save up money from waitressing, go to LA, and really go for it or it was never going to happen because that’s where all the songwriting is. I really feel like I went through pop school. I’ve been in every single studio and collaborated with everyone I could.

I learned a lot and became a great writer because of my move to LA, I think. I just always knew that was the path I had to go.”

What was the reception like when you moved to the US and started creating music?

“It was the first time people understood what I was doing. It was really cool that those people got that I just wanted to make pop TheGeorgiaVoice.com

Have PRIDE

in your voice. music. A lot more doors opened for me once I moved to the U.S. and once I met with writers and creative people there, because they just understood what I was trying to do.”

What do you say to young girls or boys out there looking to be singers or actors, but struggling with their identities? How do you think your story can help them?

“I would say that, most of the time, good things happen when you really embrace that you’re unique. Just trust in yourself and work on yourself and know that you’re a good person. I think we’re living in a time where people who are different are finally getting seen. I think it’s important to find yourself and not rush into anything, but also know that nobody is fully confident in themselves all the time. I think that’s a feeling I’ve grown up with. Like, “does everyone feel this insecure?” Just know that you’re okay the way you are and the more you embrace yourself and the more you focus on your uniqueness, rather than changing yourself to try to fit in, the better artist you can become.”

What kind of voice to you feel like you’ve been to the transgender community? With actors like Angelica Ross from POSE who’ve created a dialogue regarding workplace protections for trans people, how have you used your platform to make sure trans people get the same rights and treatment as everyone else?

“I think that’s for other people to decide. I don’t want to define that for myself or say, “I pioneered this” or “I’ve done this.” It’s for other people to decide what kind of impact I have on them.

Really, my main goal is to just make people forget about their problems for a couple of

minutes. I think that’s what music is here for and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. I want to make people forget that, sometimes, life can be shitty because that’s what I needed when I was a kid. I would listen to pop music to forget that I hated school and didn’t want to go. Pop music just made it a lot better, so that’s what I want to do for someone else! I just want to make people forget about their problems for a couple of minutes and take them into my little world.

It’s the whole reason why I’m writing music, performing, and working really hard.”

Who are your biggest idols in the music industry or just in general?

“I really looked up to Karl Lagerfeld. I really love directors. I get really inspired watching interviews with Tarantino, or Steven Spielberg, or Robert Rodriguez, or Eli Ross. I feel like I get really inspired by different kinds of creatives inside and outside of music, but my all-time favorites are Freddie Mercury, Marilyn Manson ... I love Daft Punk. I’m obsessed with Post Malone. Lana Del Rey is probably my favorite songwriter of all time. I love Marina and the Diamonds. I love Madonna. So, across the board, I just love great art.”

You’re making a stop in Atlanta as part of your Clarity Tour. What can we expect from your show? Anything special planned?

“I’m really excited to come back to Atlanta!

It’s been a little bit. I mean, this show feels like a real pop show now. It’s very different from my last tour. It’s a very different vision, there are different outfits, there’s more staging, the songs are different … I’ve released a lot of new music since my last tour that I haven’t really gotten the chance to perform. It’s just a completely different show, honestly. I love it! It’s my favorite one I’ve done.”

Offering state-of-theart evaluation and treatment of voice problems affecting the speaking and singing voice.

For appointments:

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We provide individualized gender-affirming voice care. We also offer occasional group workshops.

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to join the workshop information list November 8, 2019 A&E 21

ACTING OUT

Gay-themed Films Look to Oscars 2020 Jim Farmer Two gay-themed films with Oscar nominations on their minds have just opened in the ATL – “Pain and Glory” and “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”

A smash at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, “Pain and Glory” is the latest feature by Oscar-winning Pedro Almodovar. Clearly one of his most personal films, it follows Salvador Mallo (longtime Almodovar collaborator Antonio Banderas) a director who has lost the ability to make films anymore. As “Pain and Glory” opens, Salvador has been approached to attend a screening of an earlier film of his, which would require mending fences with a colleague. He agrees – and then starts to look back at his life in the ’60s, when his family came to a small village to Valencia.

Unlike many of the director’s most noted films, “Pain and Glory” is camp free. It’s a drama about a man reconciling his past.

Penelope Cruz – another of the director’s muses – has a few great scenes, via flashback, as Salvador’s mother. Growing up, Salvador realizes he is attracted to men. The best moment in the film comes when Salvador is visited by a former lover and there is palpable tension and suspense between the two.

“Pain and Glory” may not have the staying power of some of the director’s classics such as “Talk to Her,” “All About My Mother” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” but it’s a soulful, melancholy film. A nomination for Best International Film seems highly likely, with a Best Actor nomination for a never-better Banderas a possibility as well.

“Where’s My Roy Cohn” is an often fascinating documentary, directed by Matt Tyrnauer, who had dual hit films two years ago with “Studio 54” and “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.” The film explores the life of the titular, noted lawyer.

Detailing his growing up years, Tyrnauer 22 Columnist November 8, 2019

Top and Above: Longtime Almodovar collaborator Antonio Banderas stars with Nora Navas in “Pain and Glory.” Penélope Cruz stars as Jacinta Left: “Where’s My Roy Cohn” documentary is a fascinating documentary on his life. (Official photos)

shows how Cohn’s family life had an impact on him. Throughout his career, Cohn was a controversial figure, to say the least. In his twenties, he helped send Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair for treason and assisted J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade to get homosexuals out of government. The irony is, Cohn himself was closeted. When he died of AIDS, he still told others he did not have the disease.

There’s no debating that Tyrnauer has done an incredible amount of research and the documentary has some unseen material. It can be a tough watch, though. As noted by at least one of the subjects, Cohn was an amoral man and would do anything to win. How he behaved and the manners and ethics he passed on to apprentice Donald Trump have undoubtedly shaped contemporary American politics.

The film wants to accomplish a lot, showing how Cohn became one of the most notorious figures of his time and how he has passed the mantle to another generation. In that aspect, Tyrnauer is quite successful. Yet the film could have benefited from more about the man and less about his legacy. A better film could be made – heck, a miniseries could be made out of Cohn’s life – but it’s nonetheless pretty absorbing viewing. It’s a dark horse pick for a Best Documentary nomination.

MORE INFO “Pain and Glory” is now playing at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and The Springs Cinema and Taphouse.

“Where’s My Roy Cohn” is now playing at the Regal Tara

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EATING MY WORDS

Chicken Without the Hate Cliff Bostock

Why the hell are y’all still eating at Chickfil-A? Thanks to you, the good Christians there have built the company into the nation’s third-largest restaurant chain, meaning it has even more dollars to contribute to antiLGBTQ causes. Hell, even Kanye West’s new album, “Jesus is King,” includes a cut entitled, “Closed on Sunday.” Its lyrics pay lucrative homage to the chain, which boasts about its being closed every Sunday. “Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A…Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray,” Kanye says.

Happily, Popeyes has brought its chicken sandwich back with a video ad that hilariously parodies Chick-fil-A’s sanctimonious Sundays. The sandwich returned a day before I wrote this, so I haven’t tried it yet, but I’d like to suggest two tasty alternatives.

Zunzi’s: This Savannah-based restaurant caused South Buckhead ladies to clutch their pearls and gasp when it opened here last year. The problem was the restaurant’s motto, “Shit Yea!” It’s meant to suggest something like “Shit yeah, this sandwich rocks. I’m never going to Chick-fil-A again.

Shit yeah!” The restaurant owner pulled back from the loud promotion of the motto, but it remains, tucked far enough away that it won’t traumatize precious children. People Magazine named the Savannah location’s Conquistador sandwich the best in Georgia.

A SALAD AT PONKO’S

A HALF-SIZED CONQUISTADOR AT ZUNZI’S

THE FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH AT PONKO’S W/ SWEET POTATO FRIES PHOTOS BY CLIFF BOSTOCK

So, that’s what I tried during a recent visit.

The sandwich seems prosaic at first. It’s baked chicken, Romaine lettuce, and tomatoes tucked into a French baguette. What gives the sandwich its fame is its mysteriously delicious sauce, naturally named Shit Yeah Sauce. I have to admit that a sandwich whose sauce suggests fecal content is not very appealing on the surface, but it was quite good. We also tried the Godfather, a much more complex sandwich with the same sauce, sausages, chicken, cheese, lettuce, and more.

It also weirdly includes a marinara sauce, which is a clue to the over-arching theme

THE GODFATHER AT ZUNZI’S

here. Zunzi’s is inspired by the cuisine of South Africa, which borrowed flavors from its many Italian immigrants. Finally, I want to note Zunzi’s promotion of South Africa’s Ubuntu philosophy, which gives primacy to humanity’s bonding, not god. That’s so unChick-Fil-a. (1971 Howell Mill Rd., 470698-2351, www.zunzis.com) PONKO: This fun, weird little place has four locations, including one in Midtown.

I recently visited the new one on Roswell Road. Like the others, it specializes in fried chicken, but it substitutes panko – bread

crumbs – for the flour we use here in the Southland. Panko is popular in Japan and the owners are two Asian-American women.

You can get your chicken mainly in the form of tenders stuffed into sandwiches and tacos or strewn across a salad bowl. There is one chicken breast sandwich and that’s what I ordered. You get a choice of sweet, spicy, or barbecue sauces. I went for the spicy and while the sandwich was crunchy-delicious, it was barely spicy to me. It had more sweetness about it, bolstered by my side of sweet potato fries. My friend swallowed a salad and sang its praises while he chewed the last bite of a tender. I love the way dining is rapidly becoming fully cross-cultural in America. Ponko adds a sweet bit of Satanic fire that offsets the almighty who allegedly resides at Chick-fil-A. Cliff Bostock is a longtime Atlanta restaurant critic and former psychotherapist turned life coach; cliffbostock@gmail.com.

MORE INFO Zunzi’s 1971 Howell Mill Rd. 470-698-2351 Zunzis.com PONKO 4279 Roswell Rd. 404-996-6095 PonkoChicken.com locations also in Midtown and Chamblee

24 Columnist November 8, 2019 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

ATL PRIDE HONORS THE TRANS AND NONBINARY COMMUNITIES. 11.20.19

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November 8, 2019 Ads 25

BEST BETS Our Guide to the Best LGBTQ Events in Atlanta for November 8-21 Friday, Nov. 8

by Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a film director in his physical decline. From Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar, the film is an autobiographical telling of two love stories determined by time and fate.

Various showtimes Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and The Springs Cinema and Taphouse

Topher Payne’s “Swell Party” opens at Onstage Atlanta tonight. It’s 1932, and 20-year-old orphaned tobacco heir Smith Reynolds has returned from New York to his family’s Winston-Salem estate with a surprise souvenir: a wife. The new Mrs. Reynolds is notorious Broadway star Libby Holman – a dozen years older than Smith. She arrives with a trunkload of gin and an acting coach who is quite possibly insane. Smith’s guardian, Kate Reynolds, attempts to manage the scandal – giving Libby a crash course in Southern decorum. A party is thrown to introduce the newlyweds to society, but it’s flat-out ruined when the groom turns up dead. The guests are gathered to reconstruct the evening’s events for a beleaguered County Solicitor, but they fail spectacularly, which shouldn’t be a surprise.

8pm, through Nov. 24 Joe Whitaker and the DILF Party Presents DILF “Deep” where men can go as deep as they want! Your go-to jock, underwear, and gear party for Atlanta men! DJ Jack Chang from Germany spins the beats all night long! Buy tickets at theDILFparty.com.

10pm – 3am Heretic Atlanta

Saturday, Nov. 9

Charis Books and More turns 45 years old today. Come celebrate with an all-day party and sale. Everything in the store is 10% off and if you spend more than $45 in the book store or become a monthly cornerstone donor to Charis Circle, our non-profit, you get a free Charis Books and More tote bag.

10am – 7pm Out Front Theatre Company presents the musical “La Cage aux Folles” tonight. Georges is the owner of the La Cage Aux Folles nightclub, which features a drag show starring his partner and the love of his life, Albin. After 20 years of unwedded bliss, Georges and his partner Albin face the hardest challenge of their relationship yet: meeting their son JeanMichel’s fiancé’s parents. Albin has always raised Jean-Michel, Georges’ biological son, as his own. But when Jean-Michel falls in love and becomes engaged to the daughter of an ultra-conservative, anti-gay

Tuesday, Nov. 12

To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Anne Frank and the 75th anniversary of her last entry in her diary, the Clark Atlanta University Philharmonic Society will present a performance of “Annelies” tonight. This stunning choral work, by James Whitbourn, brings to life the diary written by Annelies (Anne) Frank between 1942 and 1944 when she and her family hid in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse.

7:06pm The Temple

EVENT SPOTLIGHT Friday, Nov. 8

The Atlanta Opera offers a fanciful re-telling of “La Cenerentola,” Rossini’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale. Expect wicked stepsisters, mistaken identities, magical mice, a charming prince and the maid who captures his heart, all wrapped delivered with Rossini’s frothy score. Performances continue tonight and Nov. 10., 8pm Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (Courtesy photo by the Atlanta Opera) politician, Georges feels compelled to try to present a more “traditional” family. When Albin tries and fails to take on a masculine persona in the role of Uncle Al, he gets more creative to find a way to be part of the “meet the parents” experience.

8pm It’s a Jungle reunion fit for everyone! Come dance the night away at Heretic to the amazing sounds of DJ Manny Lehman and get ready for a special performance from Jungle’s one and only Resident diva, Phoenix!

10pm – 3am Heretic Atlanta DJ Daniel Weaver presents The Dirty Golden Disco Show, a blend of dirty disco and club re-turned hits to make your mind go crazy over some golden oldies

remade for today’s moves!

10pm – 3am Atlanta Eagle

Sunday, Nov. 10

DJ Serving Ovahness is back on the deck at Xion after hours for music all morning long!

3am – 7am BJ Roosters Theatrical Outfit’s “Safety Net,” about the first-ever female fire captain in Alabama, her mother and a family friend, closes today.

2:30pm Balzer Theatre

Monday, Nov. 11

The gay-themed “Pain and Glory” tells of a series of reencounters experienced

Bang! Pow! Blam! Will you be a hero and save the day? Or will you be a dastardly villain? Hostess Bubba D. Licious, the PALS queens (Erica Lee, Patsy Jon Benet, and Desiree Storm), and special guest performers will be channeling their best Wonder Woman and Catwoman at Super Heroes vs. Super Villains PALS Drag Queen Bingo.

7:30pm Lips Atlanta

Wednesday, Nov. 13

No wire hangers – ever!! Wussy Wednesday returns with one of the best camp classics ever – “Mommie Dearest,” hosted by Brigitte Bidet and Molly Rimswell. Arrive and grab a cocktail and snack and take some photos before the look contest.

7:30pm Plaza Theatre

Thursday, Nov. 14

The Tami Institute for Jewish Studies presents their 11th annual Rothschild Lecture – “Harvey Milk Through a Jewish Lens” by an internationally known scholar of LGBTQ history and literature Lillian Faderman, followed by a reception.

7:30pm

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26 Best Bets November 8, 2019 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

BEST BETS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26 Oxford Presentation Room Point Foundation invites you to join A Night On Point. The evening will feature remarks from Point scholars and staff to help increase awareness of Point’s mission and work, as well as an introduction to how individuals and companies can help support Point’s programs and initiatives.

7:30 – 9:30pm STP Tile Showroom Out musician, Sonia Leigh performs at Eddie’s Attic.

9pm NerdLanta and Hot Mic Comedy bring you Holy Sh!t Comedy Night on the second Thursday of every month. Brothers and sisters, cometh to our service hosted

by Pastor Ian Aber. Together we shall praise, repent and rejoice in the holy spirit of comedy.

10pm Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium “Volta,” the latest from Cirque du Soleil, opens up the big top for their equality night!

8pm Atlantic Station

Friday, Nov. 15

The new film “The Good Liar,” starring Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, and Russell Tovey and directed by Bill Condon. Opens in metro area theaters today.

“Wicked,” the Broadway sensation, looks at what happened in the Land of Oz … but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald-green skin – smart, fiery, misunderstood, and possessing an extraordinary talent. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships … until the world decides to call one “good,” and the other one “wicked.”

7:30pm, through Nov. 17 Fox Theatre Don’t miss the Fabnormal Queer Art Showcase tonight, Visual artists featured

EVENT SPOTLIGHT Sunday, Nov. 17

Broadway actor and (out) entertainer Todrick Hall begins his “Haus Party” tour to the Atlanta Symphony tonight. The tour will feature brand new sets and costumes, as well as some viral online creations, live onstage. 7:30pm (Publicity photo) include Cameron Lee Art, Adelaide Tai, Lisette, and Diego and entertainers include Yani Mo, Brigitte Bidet, House of Rimswell. TJ MAXXX, Titus and the Sookie Sookie Tenchi.

8 – 11pm Moxy Midtown Atlanta Put on your dancing shoes for the G8yties ’80s Dance Party Soundtracks edition. This blockbuster of The G8YTIES ’80s Dance Party will have you “Dirty Dancing” all night long. Expect hot tracks from all your favorite ’80s movies including “The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Pretty In Pink,” “Flashdance,” “Footloose,” “Heathers,” “Valley Girl,” “Purple Rain,” “Weird Science,”” The Lost Boys,” “Back To The Future” and more. DJ Mike Pope’s sick beats will have you gagging (with a spoon) on the dance floor.

10pm – 3am Heretic Atlanta

Saturday, Nov. 16

A holiday favorite is back. The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Garden Lights, Holiday Nights returns this year with new features and crowd favorites – including

new music and motion. Experience the Skylights Lounge in the Skyline Garden, several larger-than-life plant giants from Imaginary Worlds: Alice’s Wonderland display, and displays like the Ice Goddess and Tunnel of Light.

Running through Jan. 11 Billy Banderas and Alan Collins proudly present: “PLAY!” After an incredible year of GLAMOROUS, we’ve decided to bring you a new concept to keep the party going, bringing you not only one BUT two incredible DJs, Shane Marcus and Bruno Knauer, to debut for this one-of-akind party! Are you ready to PLAY with us?

10pm – 3am Heretic Atlanta

Sunday, Nov. 17

DJ Jerac returns to Xion after hours!

3am – 7am BJ Roosters The PFLAG support group for parents and families of LGBTQ children meets today.

2:30 – 4pm Spiritual Living Center

Monday, Nov. 18

Trans and Friends is a youth-focused group for trans people, people questioning their gender and aspiring allies, providing a facilitated space to discuss gender, relevant resources and activism around social issues.

6:30 – 8pm Charis Books and More QUEERS on FILM -- a monthly series of LGBTQ+ centric arthouse films -- returns to Plaza Theatre tonight. WUSSY Mag, Out on Film, and Plaza Theatre are proud to present a one-night screening of the classic 1995 Todd Solondz dark comedy ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse.” Middle-school student Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) faces degradation at school -- where she is teased constantly -- and at home in this instant classic.

7:30pm

Tuesday, Nov. 19

From the Women’s Marches to the #MeToo movement, it is clear that feminist activism is alive and well in the twenty-first century.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 29

28 Best Bets November 8, 2019 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

BEST BETS 11th ANNUAL ROTHSCHILD LECTURE Photo by Daniel Nicoletta

EVENING LECTURE

HARVEY MILK through a JEWISH LENS

DR. LILLIAN FADERMAN

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18 7:30 PM Oxford Presentation Room 1390 Oxford Road Emory University

EVENT SPOTLIGHT Saturday, Nov. 23

Jujubee from RuPaul’s Drag Race is the guest headliner for LMAO, a hilarious night of comedy queens featuring comedic drag performances from some of your favorite local performers such as Brigitte Bidet, Phoenix, Iv Fischer, Miss He, Mo’Dest Volgare and Molly Rimswell. 10pm – 3am. My Sister’s Room. (Courtesy photo)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 But how does a new generation of activists understand the work of the movement today? In “Speaking of Feminism,” Rachel F. Seidman presents insights from 25 feminist activists from around the United States, ranging in age from 20 to 50.

Seidman is interviewed tonight by Park Cannon and Kwajelyn Jackson.

7:30 – 9pm Charis Books and More

Wednesday, Nov. 20

TEN Atlanta hosts acclaimed musician Robert Ray in Before the Parade, an evening of Broadway and pop standards.

7 and 9pm Thad Stevens hosts Karaoke Night every Wednesday.

9pm My Sister’s Room

Thursday, Nov. 21

Friends on Ponce hosts free Atlanta Poker Club league events every Monday and Thursday. Come out and compete for league points and awesome prizes tonight.

8pm

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

UPCOMING

LILLIAN FADERMAN is an internationally known scholar of lesbian and LGBT history and literature, as well as ethnic history and literature.

Copies of Dr. Faderman’s award-winning book, Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death, will be available for purchase.

This event is free and open to the public.

Please join us for a reception following the lecture.

Friday, Nov. 22

Every Friday at midnight, it’s time to slip on those fishnets and make-up for the greatest live troupe in the city, Lips Down on Dixie, Inc., for a righteous party in front of the big screen for “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Midnight Plaza Theater Welcome to the Grande Gothic Masquerade Ball hosted by RITUAL. Step into a world of mystery and darkness as we don our masks and return to the Heretic. DJ Alayt and DJ Celebrytie will be making their debut at RITUAL! 10pm – 3am Heretic Atlanta

Saturday, Nov. 23

Start your holiday with some good food and drinks, and some yule-tide gay attire!

ABETTERBUZZ is headed back to Woofs for our Holiday Pop Up and Beer Bust!

This year, we’re raising money for Action Cycling Atlanta.

4 – 9pm Woofs Atlanta

November 8, 2019 Best Bets 29

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID

Student Sellers and Their Parent Pushers Melissa Carter I am a competitive person but believe there are limits to how you win a competition.

Something parents do during their children’s competitions really bothers me and I refuse to participate.

When you think of obnoxious parents who are too involved in their children’s competition, athletics first come to mind, but that is not what I’m talking about. I’m more concerned about the parents who sell items for their children during school or organization fundraisers.

The biggest offense usually takes place during Girl Scout cookie sales. A parent will bring the form into the office, place it in the break room, and pick up the fully filled-out form before they leave for the day. What’s the problem with that, you ask? I think that Girl Scout should show up to the office and talk to their parent’s colleagues about what they are doing.

The purpose of such an effort is not just about money for these beneficiaries. It’s also about getting the child involved in sales, going outside their comfort zone, seeing the real reward for the effort that is put in. When a parent takes over then it defeats all of this and does nothing but coddle the kid. Don’t we already criticize coddling by parents in other areas from younger generations anyway? Those who criticize are likely the biggest offenders.

I recently received an email from a colleague that encouraged people to click a link where his son was selling popcorn for a club. Not only was this not a physical form, it was a means by which it would have been easier for his son to participate in selling his own product. Why didn’t he make the effort for his son to open the email and explain why he was selling the product and who would benefit? Here was an opportunity for the child to learn how to write a pitch and express 30 Columnists November 8, 2019

concisely what the purpose was. However, the parent simply decided to send a quick email that oozed of the assumption that I would buy the product. I deleted it immediately.

I’m not completely out of touch because, yes, it sucks to really have to sell these things as a kid. I participated in such events and loathed every experience.

I hocked fruit for my junior high school band and can still remember delivering these Springtime treats in the snow. There were those off-brand candy bars for my school that no one wanted and I ended up eating myself, committing quite a blow to my parent’s pocketbook. In the 6th grade I hand-made paper flowers and would have won that (again I stress again door-todoor) competition except for Tracy Tyler’s better efforts. Then there was my high school sorority’s donut sale, yes we had high school sororities.

Those donuts served as the air freshener for my car because they didn’t up in anyone else’s house and I let them sit for days out of guilt before tossing them in the garbage.

What I can tell you about my experience is that my parents never sold these items for me and my ass was on the neighborhood streets going to my neighbor’s houses to try and get rid of the god-forsaken stuff. Inconvenience and discomfort are not an excuse to let your kids be free of the assignment. If you want your kid to win, then teach them to win or leave me alone.

One of the first out radio personalities in Atlanta, Melissa’s worked for B98.5 and Q100.

Catch her daily on theProgressive Voices podcast “She Persisted.” Tweet her! @MelissaCarter TheGeorgiaVoice.com

SOMETIMES ‘Y’

The ‘One Drop’ Ban on Male Intimacy Ryan Lee One of my biggest fears as an 18-year-old on the verge of coming out of the closet was being wrong about being gay. Perhaps my experimentation with other boys was a phase – an extended, immersive one – and how mortifying would it be to have already confessed my homosexuality only to meet my wife a few months later.

In reality, acknowledging same-sex desire (whether acted upon or not) is a point of no return for any man. Even if I had retracted my coming-out or explained how I had outgrown my pubescent curiosity, anyone to whom I confided would likely assume I’d always have an appetite for dick.

The aftertaste that blowjobs leave has been wafting in the air for the past couple of weeks, ever since R&B singer Tank suggested that giving one or two guys head does not mean a man is gay.

“It means he sucked dick twice,” Tank said on the “Lip Service” podcast. “He sucked a dick once and then he’s like, ‘I’m not sure if I liked it or not. Let me try again.’ And then he says, ‘You know what, it’s not for me.’”

Tank’s comments led to what’s becoming a ritual reminder that society has a “one drop” rule when it comes to intimacy between two men.

As was the case when male experimentation was broached on HBO’s “Insecure,” the masses took to social media and radio call-in lines to warn about the potency of male homosexuality.

“There’s a limit [to the number of times a man can have sexual contact with another man and still be considered straight],” comedian D.L. Hughley said on his radio show. “And the limit is zero.”

Actually, the limit is less than zero. Many TheGeorgiaVoice.com

of Hughley’s callers noted that before a man could put a penis in his mouth he would first have to think about doing so, and merely having such thoughts was a sign of irrepressible tendencies.

Is there any woman who would be less disturbed if her boyfriend or husband admitted he had once masturbated to the thought of another man but never engaged in physical contact? By simply discussing a scenario in the third-person, Tank has sacrificed being perceived as a heterosexual and risked alienating his overwhelmingly female fan base.

America’s traditional “one drop” rule was the almost universally accepted, racist belief that a single drop of black blood – e.g., from one’s grandmother’s great-grandmother – was tainted enough to make a person and all of his or her descendants black. The same notions about impurity inform the “one drop” rule of male homosexuality, a sin so insidious that it forever leaves a stench.

The gay-at-first-touch threshold, which is guarded as strictly by LGBTQ folks as heterosexuals, of course keeps folks’ fathers, husbands, brothers, and friends quiet about any situational homosexuality they may have experienced: whether adolescent experimentation, during time in prison or the military, or when they were on vacation and saw an unarguably fuckable guy and realized no one in their life was watching. It also encourages young gay boys to leave their experiences or desires unspoken, lest they be exiled while they are still trying to figure out themselves.

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The less-than-zero limit on same-sex contact reaches much deeper into most folks’ personal circle than they realize, and precludes discussions – and disclosures – that would allow for a broader, more authentic understanding of modern male sexuality.

November 8, 2019 Columnists 31