New youth counter-culture movement
LAPD commander knee with anti-racism protesters, QAnon’s growing threattakes to aPAGE 04 LGBTQ rights, Page 06
VICTORY!
Gorsuch pens landmark ruling for LGBTQ workplace rights Page 12
Larry Kramer, 1935-2020 (Photo by Rachel Malehorn; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)
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Supreme Fight Dems vow to derail nominee, calling her threat to RBG’s legacy PAGE 12
Good riddance 2020! Quarantined A look back at aThank year you! to forget States of America
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Leaving Los Angeles
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With city closed, some talk of moving out PAGE 12
Celebrating our healthcare heroes, PAGES 6 & 10
AS CALIFORNIA BEGINS TO VOTE, CAN BUTTIGIEG SURVIVE A LOSS IN IOWA? PAGE 11 M AY
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Democrats underperform in another close election, P AGE 10
VOTE FOR THIS GUY (DUH)
Our endorsement for president, Page 14 Photo by Daniel Sliwa
JANUARY 01, 2021 • VOLUME 05 • ISSUE 01 • AMERICA’S LGBTQ NEWS SOURCE • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM
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LOCAL
California’s out-of-control year COVID, wildfires, elections the top stories FROM STAFF REPORTS
As California is once again under a stay-at-home order restricting residents and shuttering businesses because of yet another surge of the coronavirus, which has overwhelmed the healthcare system in the Golden State, it’s difficult to imagine that one year ago the events of this past year were literally the essence of science fiction novels come to life. From the battle waged against COVID-19 to the summer of battling wildfires that raged across the entire state to an election cycle with a badly damaged economy as a result of COVID shutdowns across not only the state but the nation, for some time a nearly dystopian reality seemed to have everything in its grasp. Here, the Blade looks back at the top local and state news stories of 2020:
APRIL Lesbian icon Phyllis Lyon dies; Newsom calls her a personal ‘hero.’ Lyon was 95. LGBTQs at high risk for COVID-19 – but where’s the data? One month ago, the whole world changed as the novel coronavirus quickly became a global pandemic.
MAY LA Pride responds to COVID-19, goes digital for 50th anniversary celebration: The non-profit that produces the annual LA Pride Parade and Festival, Christopher Street West, announced via a media statement that the organization has decided the responsible decision is to not host any in-person celebrations for the remainder of the year. Instead, the 50th Anniversary Celebrations will Kick-Off via digital platforms and will span through 2021. Wiener introduces historic bill requiring California to collect LGBTQ COVID-19 data: California State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced SB 932, legislation to require the state to collect LGBTQ data during the COVID-19 crisis, including infection, hospitalization, ICU, recovery, and mortality rates.
JANUARY Two California lawmakers petitioned Gov. Gavin Newsom to pardon pioneering Black civil rights leader and senior aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Bayard Rustin, for a conviction of a sex crime committed in Pasadena, 67 years ago on Jan. 21, 1953. NBA superstar Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash near Calabasas in northern suburban Los Angeles County. Eight other people, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, died in the crash.
JUNE
FEBRUARY Los Angeles District Attorney race: Whose rule of law? Hope for the rule of law now rests locally with eyes on the critical race for LA District Attorney. All three candidates call themselves “progressive” and each is familiar with the LGBTQ community. LA celebrates Kobe and Gianna Bryant and women’s basketball: This has only happened a few times in the past four decades: the 1984 Olympics, 9/11, and Monday, Feb. 24 – when the memorial service for Kobe and Gianna Bryant brought the city of Los Angeles to a virtual standstill in a transformative moment of friendly unity.
It was a chaotic year for California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM, who came under fire from business advocates after a series of lockdowns. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
MARCH California declares coronavirus emergency: Officials in California stepped up their response to the coronavirus threat after a 71-year-old patient died less than two weeks after disembarking at the Port of San Francisco from a cruise ship where he was likely exposed, the first death in the state from the virus. Sanders, Biden and other Super Tuesday wins in California There was something very California about it. Former Vice President Joe Biden was in Baldwin Hills delivering his victory speech live on TV after having won 10 out of 14 Super Tuesday states when a protester dashed onstage with a “Let Dairy Die” sign. Dr. Jill Biden protected her husband and a security guard quickly wrangled her away.
Pride becomes celebration of Black LGBTQ lives in LA: But on this day — Sunday, June 14 — the day that 50 years ago featured the first nervous but raucous Gay Liberation-led Christopher Street West Pride parade — this day was electric with the spirit of unified protest against the ongoing horror and injustice of racism and wanton police brutality. Newsom ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public, including when shopping, taking public transit or seeking medical care, amid growing concerns that coronavirus cases have increased because residents have failed to take that precaution voluntarily.
JULY
Newsom reverses more of the reopening of California’s economy. The governor told reporters during a press conference that the state is suspending indoor dining at restaurants statewide due to the surge in coronavirus cases. Homicide investigators are asking for the public’s assistance in the death of Marilyn Cazares, a 22-year-old Trans-Latinx woman found murdered in an abandoned building in this small Imperial Valley city just 45 minutes north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 04
LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021 • 03
LOCAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 03
The year’s top local stories AUGUST California salons, barbers set to defy state COVID shutdown: One of the many business areas hit hardest by California’s ‘Stay-At-Home’ COVID-19 orders and rollback of re-opening of the state’s economy by Newsom has been the beauty, barber salon, and cosmetology sector. Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Justin Eisenberg said Thursday that detectives from the Hollywood Division have arrested 29-year-old Carlton Callway, charging him in the robbery and what is classified as a hate crime against three trans women.
SEPTEMBER
TODD GLORIA takes the office of office on Dec. 10. (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Mayor of the City of San Diego)
California Assembly approves LGBTQ legislation: After a legislative session dominated by budget conflicts, COVID-19 interruptions, and the further stresses created by statewide wildfires, the California Assembly and Senate finished up their work sending several major pieces of legislation to Newsom for his signature. QAnon & ‘Family Values Right Wing Christian’ Groups Attack Sen. Scott Wiener: The ink had barely dried on Newsom’s signature making Senate Bill 145 law when those opposed launched renewed attacks including death threats from the web by QAnon supporters on its legislative sponsor, San Francisco Democratic State Sen. Scott Wiener.
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OCTOBER
Newsom announces that he has nominated Martin Jenkins, 66, an out Black former prosecutor and judge to the open seat on the state’s highest court. The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations releases its annual report of hate crimes reported throughout Los Angeles County, showing they remain virtually unchanged from the previous year, increasing 523 in 2018 to 524 in 2019, this high represents a 36% increase since hitting a 30-year low in 2013.
NOVEMBER California U.S. House seats realign as they flip & ballot props take center stage in California, as was the case in nearly every jurisdiction across the nation, with record setting mail-in balloting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In the 2020 election cycle more than 11.2 million Californians voted early with nearly half of that total number voting by mail. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 29 new deaths and 5,031 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day. This is the highest number of daily new cases L.A. County has experienced throughout the entire pandemic.
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LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021 • 05
NATIONAL
Top 10 national news stories of 2020
A pandemic, depression, racial reckoning — and a presidential election, too By CHRIS JOHNSON | cjohnson@washblade.com
Newsrooms around the world were stretched to the limit in 2020, as journalists, including those at the Blade, struggled to cover multiple once-in-a-lifetime crises at once: a pandemic, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a reckoning over racial justice and police brutality, and the 2020 presidential election. Here are the Blade staff picks for the top 10 national news stories of 2020.
#10: METHODIST CHURCH FACES SPLIT Amid division in the denomination over LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage, the Methodist Church proposed a formal plan this year to separate on the lack of agreement on religious views toward LGBTQ people. The Methodist Church agreed to adopt a more LGBTQ-inclusive doctrine while allowing a coalition of conservative congregations in the United States and Africa who objected to change to separate. The “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation” would allow the departing congregations to keep their property and give them $25 million to form a new denomination. The plan would have needed approval in May 2020 in General Conference for ratification. The vote, however, never took place and was postponed until 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.
#9: TRUMP CAMPAIGN STAGES PRIDE EVENTS Upon stepping down from the Trump administration, Richard Grenell took on a new role as senior adviser for the Trump campaign on LGBTQ outreach and was made co-chair of the Trump Pride coalition, marking the first time a Republican presidential nominee had an LGBTQ political coalition. Trump Pride held events in states deemed competitive in the election, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Tiffany Trump, who had heretofore kept a low profile during her dad’s administration, participated in Trump Pride events in full support of her TIFFANY TRUMP promoted her dad as a supporter of LGBTQ father, although she was mocked rights, prompting guffaws and ridicule on social media. on Twitter during her public appearances. Arguably, the Trump Pride coalition found success in convincing some LGBTQ voters to come to other side. Exit polls revealed 61 percent of LGBTQ voters backed Biden, the lowest percentage of support ever for a Democratic nominee, while 28 percent backed Trump, doubling his LGBTQ support from 2016.
political tool to declassify documents, seeking to impugn Biden for unmasking individuals caught up in surveillance during the Michael Flynn investigation. But Grenell also used the position to highlight the global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality he spearheaded, threatening to cut off U.S. partners overseas from shared intelligence if they didn’t respect LGBTQ human rights. Upon his departure, Grenell posted a photo to Instagram asserting President Trump gave him his Cabinet chair because being the first openly gay person to serve at that level was a “big deal.”
#7: LGBTQ CANDIDATES WIN BIG ON ELECTION NIGHT LGBTQ candidates in the 2020 election achieved historic firsts, breaking barriers and demonstrating political aspirants in marginalized communities have no limit in winning public office. The LGBTQ Equality Caucus in the U.S. House will be expanded and diversified with the addition of Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones of New York, who will be the first Black, openly gay men elected to Congress. Torres is also the first openly gay Afro-Latino elected to Congress. Sarah McBride, a transgender advocate famous for her speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, was elected to a seat in the Delaware State Senate, setting her up to become the highest-ranking openly transgender legislator in the United States. Other transgender candidates, Taylor Small in Vermont and Stephanie Byer in Kansas, won seats in state legislatures, nearly doubling the number of transgender legislators in the United States.
#6 FDA EASES GAY BLOOD BAN In a move uncharacteristically positive for the LGBTQ community from the Trump administration, the Food & Drug Administration this year eased the ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. The previous policy, set up by the Obama administration, required men to abstain from having sex with men for 12 months before making a donation. The FDA, amid a blood shortage during the coronavirus pandemic, shortened the deferral period to three months. The 12-month wait instituted during the Obama administration was a drastic change from the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men instituted in 1983. President Trump said he had no hand in the FDA decision. When asked by the Blade about the change during a White House news conference, Trump replied, “No. I didn’t know anything about that. That was done by the FDA, very capable people at the FDA.”
#5: RBG DIES WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION
#8: RIC GRENELL NAMED ACTING DNI, 1ST OUT GAY CABINET OFFICIAL A Republican administration made the historic first of appointing the first openly gay person to a Cabinet post when President Trump named Richard Grenell, who had been serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany, as acting director of national intelligence. Critics pointed out Trump never sought or won Senate confirmation for the role. Grenell also used the position as a
Supreme Court Justice RUTH BADER GINSBURG died at age 87.
06 • JANUARY 01, 2021 • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM
(Photo courtesy Library of Congress)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, known as a champion of LGBTQ rights as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, died after 27 years on the bench. Hundreds gathered at the Supreme Court on the night of her death to adorn the ground with memorabilia in mourning over her passing. Ginsburg had joined each of the milestone rulings in favor of LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage, including Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, Windsor v. United States and Obergefell v. Hodges. Most recently, Ginsburg joined the Bostock decision finding anti-LGBTQ discrimination is illegal under federal civil rights law. President Trump, however, chose to fill Ginsburg’s seat with Amy Coney Barrett, a jurist who’s a favorite among the Christian right. Shortly after confirmation, Barrett participated in arguments for the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which will determine whether a Catholic foster care agency has a First Amendment right to reject LGBTQ families over religious objections.
NATIONAL #4: LANDMARK SCOTUS RULING ON LGBTQ WORKPLACE RIGHTS
#1: CORONAVIRUS RAVAGES U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH, ECONOMY
In a historic ruling ending a long fight to prohibit employment discrimination against LGBTQ people in federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the consolidated case of Bostock v. Clayton County that anti-LGBTQ discrimination constitutes a form of sex discrimination. Although the ruling pertained to employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the decision has broad applications to all laws banning sex discrimination, including civil rights law in housing, health care, education, and credit. The litigation came about after Gerald Bostock was fired from his job as a municipal worker after expressing interest in a gay softball league and Aimee Stephens, a funeral home director in Michigan, who was fired for being transgender. Stephens died shortly before the decision was handed down. The Trump administration, however, never fully implemented the decision, and outright flouted it with regard to access to sex-segregated spaces for transgender people. Biden is expected to recognize Bostock fully upon taking office.
The coronavirus pandemic left hundreds of thousands dead, disrupted lives and threw the economy into a tailspin, stoking fears in a way no other public health crisis has done since the HIV/AIDS epidemic as the virus continued to spread. The outbreak is the Washington Blade’s top national news event of 2020. COVID-19, which originated in China, had killed by mid-December an estimated 300,000 people in the United States and infected 16 million. Although states kept tabs on racial, ethnic, and gender demographics on the disease, few recorded data on LGBTQ casualties. An estimated 100,000 businesses across the nation closed their doors as governors ordered residents to remain at home, much to the consternation of conservative activists who said the directives were unconstitutional. The annual Pride month celebrations and parades were among the events cancelled. The downturn in the economy forced many small business to close and put many workers on unemployment. Hospitality workers, many of whom are LGBTQ people, were hit especially hard. The Paycheck Protection Program saved many jobs, but as of late December, Congress had not come to an agreement on additional stimulus. President Trump, who continued to insist the coronavirus would simply “go away,” faced heavy criticism for failing to contain the epidemic, leading to major change in the 2020 election.
#3: CALLS FOR RACIAL JUSTICE AFTER GEORGE FLOYD KILLED The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police (Blade photo by Chris Johnson) ignited a firestorm of protests and energized the Black Lives Matter movement, bringing calls for police reform, if not to outright defund the police, and end systemic racism. LGBTQ Pride events, which had been cancelled amid the coronavirus epidemic, were in some cases back on with a renewed focus on anti-racism. (Drama followed, however, when LA Pride planned a solidarity march and sought cooperation with police. Organizers ended up handing over the reins to All Black Lives Matter, an advisory board of Black LGBTQ activists.) Much of the outrage was directed at President Trump, who reportedly hid in a bunker amid protests that became violent outside the White House. Afterwards, Trump went to St. John’s Church near Lafayette Square with Cabinet officials to hold up a Bible in a controversial photo-op. Protesters defied curfew orders to demonstrate at the White House after the police killing of George Floyd.
HONORABLE MENTION:
BLADE REPORTER REFUSES TO MOVE SEAT IN WH BRIEFING ROOM When Blade reporter Chris Johnson was fulfilling his role in the pool rotation for the White House press corps, the White House press office sought to humiliate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins by ordering Johnson to switch seats with her. Collins had an assigned seat in the front row of the briefing room, while the seating arrangements had the Blade toward the back. Johnson refused to move, pointing out the White House Correspondents Association controls the seating assignments, not the White House. Johnson held firm even though he was told the Secret Service was involved in wanting the switch. Secret Service later denied any involvement. Johnson won widespread praise from mainstream media colleagues for his cool-headed, brave handling of the situation. By Kevin Naff
# 2: BIDEN WINS; KAMALA HARRIS MAKES HISTORY Joe Biden won the presidential election this year, ensuring Donald Trump would be a one-term president and bringing an end to an administration with a record of anti-LGBTQ policies. Biden, whose comments in favor of same-sex marriage on “Meet the Press” in 2012 are still remembered for their impact, has long-standing connections to the LGBTQ community and issued a detailed policy plan for LGBTQ initiatives he’d pursue in his administration. Biden has pledged to end the transgender military ban and sign the Equality Act into law within 100 days. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who made history as the first woman of color elected as part of a presidential ticket, also has deep ties to the LGBTQ community. As California attorney general, Harris declined to defend California’s ban on same-sex marriage on Proposition 8 in court and raised LGBTQ issues as U.S. senator. In another historic move, Biden tapped Pete Buttigieg for Transportation Secretary. He would become the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet official if approved in 2021.
President-elect JOE BIDEN and Vice President-elect KAMALA HARRIS made history in 2020. (Blade file photos by Michael Key and Tom Hausman)
LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021 • 07
In memoriam
A look back at the LGBTQ voices we lost in 2020 By KATHI WOLFE
James Weaver, a Smithsonian curator, died on April 16 Ed Flipowski, a public relations executive whose work with Gucci and other companies influenced the fashion industry, from the coronavirus in Rochester, N.Y. at age 82. He helped to died on Jan. 10 at 58 from complications from surgery at his bring American musical theater, jazz, hip-hop, folk music and early electric guitars to the Museum of American History, the Manhattan home. Michel Georges Alfred Catty, known as Michou, who ran a Washington Post reported. Iris Love, an archaeologist, art historian, champion dog celebrated drag cabaret for decades died at 88 from a pulmonary embolism on Jan. 26 in a hospital in Saint-Mandé, a suburb of breeder and gossip columnist Liz Smith’s partner, died at age 86 on April 17 from the coronavirus at New York/Presbyterian/Weill Paris. Deborah A. Batts, the first openly LGBTQ federal court Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Kenneth Lewes, the psychologist whose groundbreaking judge, died on Feb. 3 at her New York City home at 72 from knee book “Psychoanalysis and Male Homosexuality” challenged the replacement surgery complications. Terry DeCarlo, an LGBTQ activist who was director of the view that being gay was a mental illness, died on April 17 at age Center, an LGBTQ advocacy group, died at age 57 from face and 76 at a Manhattan hospital from the coronavirus. David Carter, Stonewall historian and author, died on May 1 neck cancer in a Hollywood, Fla. hospital. He became nationally known as a Florida LGBTQ community spokesperson after the at age 67 from a heart attack at his New York City apartment. Thomas Sokolowski, an early organizer of the art world’s 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Johni Cerny, the chief genealogist for the PBS series “Finding response to the AIDS crisis died on May 6 at age 70 from cardiac Your Roots,” died on Feb. 19 in Lehi, Utah at age 76 from coronary arrest following emergency surgery for a subdural hematoma in New Brunswick, N.J. heart disease and congestive heart failure. Roy Horn of the legendary illusionist team Siegfried & Roy Gerald S. Krone, a founder of the Negro Ensemble Company, died on Feb. 20 at age 86 at his Philadelphia home from died on May 8 at age 75 from complications from COVID-19 in Las Vegas. The famed act entertained millions from Japan to New Parkinson’s disease. Mart Crowley, whose groundbreaking 1968 play “The Boys in York City. Little Richard, the flamboyantly queer, groundbreaking, early the Band” told the story of gay characters who talked honestly about their lives, died on Feb. 7 at age 84 in Manhattan from rock ‘n roll star, known for such hits as “Slippin’ and Slidin’” and “Lucille,” died on May 9 at age 87 in Tullahoma, Tenn. from bone heart surgery complications. Charles Wuorinen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who cancer. Aimee Stephens, the plaintiff in the landmark R.G &G.R. wrote the groundbreaking opera “Brokeback Mountain,” died on March 11 at age 81 from complications from a fall in Manhattan. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. V. Equal Employment Opportunity Terrence McNally, the four-time Tony Award-winning Commission Supreme Court case, died on May 12 at age 59 at playwright died on March 24 at 81 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital her Redford, Mich. home from kidney failure. The Court ruled that in Sarasota, Fla. From complications of the coronavirus. His LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination half century of work includes “Master Class” and “Love! Valour! based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Stacey Milbern, a queer disability rights activist, died on May Compassion!.” Tomie dePaola, children’s book author and illustrator died on 19 at age 33 from complications from surgery at a Stanford, Calif. March 30 at 85 in Lebanon, N.H. from complications from surgery hospital. “Oftentimes, disabled people have the solutions that society needs,” she told public radio station KQED. that he had after a fall. “Strega Nona” is his best-known work. The iconic Larry Kramer, playwright, author, film producer, Tarlach MacNiallais, a New York City LGBTQ and disability rights advocate, died on April 1 at 57 from coronavirus and a founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP died of pneumonia at age 84 on May 27. complications. Ron Simmons, executive director of Us Helping Us People Thomas L. Miller, producer of “Happy Days,” “Full House” and other popular TV shows died on April 5 in Salisbury, Conn. at 79 Into Living, a Washington, D.C. AIDS service group died on May 28 at George Washington University Hospital from prostate from heart disease. Phyllis Lyon, pioneering lesbian activist and marriage equality cancer at age 79. Before serving with the AIDS organization, advocate, died at age 95 on April 9 at her San Francisco home. he was an assistant professor at Howard University’s School of Communications. Lyon and her partner of many decades Roberto Faraone Mennella, Del Martin, along with three other lesbian renowned jewelry designer and inventor couples founded the Daughters of Bilitis, of the “Stella,” the iconic earring, died on one of the first United States lesbian June 4 in Torre del Greco near Naples, political groups. In 2008, Lyon and Matin Italy from cancer at age 48. were the first California couple to legally Paul Fortune, the interior designer marry. known as “the designer to the stars,” died Robert (Robby) Browne, real estate on June 15 from cardiac arrest in Ojai, mogul and philanthropist died at age Calif. at age 69. Sofia Coppola and Marc 72 on April 11 at his New York City Jacobs were among his clients. apartment from multiple myeloma and Angela Madsen, a gold-medalthe coronavirus. He socialized with Hillary Lesbian feminist icon PHYLLIS LYON (right) died of natural causes on April 9. winning Paralympian Rower died on July Clinton, Martina Navratilova, and other (Photo via Newsom for Governor) 21 at age 40 while trying to row on the celebs. 08 • JANUARY 01, 2021 • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM
SIEGFRIED & ROY at their home, The Jungle Palace. Horn died on May 8. (Photo illustration from 1998 program book; courtesy Mirage)
Pacific Ocean by herself from California to Hawaii. She wanted to be the first openly queer athlete with paraplegia to make this journey, The New York Times reported. Kansai Yamanoto, the flamboyant designer who designed the look of David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust, as well as looks for Elton John and Stevie Wonder, died on July 21 in a Tokyo hospital at age 76 from leukemia. Lady Red Couture, a comedian singer and co-host of the LGBTQ talk show “Hey, Qween!,” died on July 25 at age 43 from complications of cyclic vomiting syndrome in Los Angeles. Eric Bentley, the renowned theater critic, scholar, author and playwright died at age 103 on at his Manhattan home on Aug. 5. Chi Chi DeVayne, the beloved “RuPaul’s Drag Race’ contestant died on Aug. 20 at a Shreveport, La. hospital from scleroderma. Randall Kenan, an award-winning gay Southern, Black writer of fiction infused with magical realism, died on Aug. 28 at age 57 at his Hillsborough, N.C. home. Tony Tanner, who directed “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” on Broadway died on Sept. 8 at age 88 at his Los Angeles home. Henry van Ameringen, a philanthropist and early, openly gay, donor to LGBTQ and AIDS organizations, died on Sept. 9 at age 88 at his Manhattan home. Soraya Santiago Solla, trailblazing trans activist, died on Sept. 22 at her home in Carolina, Puerto Rico at age 72 from cancer and respiratory failure. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, lesbian theologian died on Sept. 25 at her Pompton Plains, N.J. home at 88 from respiratory failure and pneumonia. Monica Roberts, trans advocate, journalist who wrote the blog TransGrief, died on Oct. 5 at age 58 at her Houston home. Frederick Weston, an “outsider” artist acclaimed for his collages of male bodies and Black queerness, died on Oct. 21 at 73 in his Manhattan apartment. David Easton, architect and interior designer for aristocrats died on Oct. 29 at 83 at his Tulsa, Okla. home from complications of dementia. Leonard Kamsler, an award-winning golf photographer died on Nov. 18 from organ failure at 85 in Bethel, N.Y. Jan Morris, the acclaimed British travel writer and historian who wrote about her life as a transwoman, died on Nov. 20 died at 94 in a hospital near where she lived in Wales. Deb Price, the first nationally syndicated columnist on gay life, died at 62 of an autoimmune lung disease on Nov. 20 at a hospital in Hong Kong. Pat Patterson, an out gay wrestling star, at 79 on Dec. 2 from liver failure at a Miami Beach hospital. Anthony Veasna So, an acclaimed writer died from unknown causes at 28 on Dec. 8 at his San Francisco home. “Afterparties,” his debut book will be published by Ecco in August.
INTERNATIONAL
Top 10 international news stories of 2020 Pope backs civil unions and the world celebrates Biden’s win By MICHAEL K. LAVERS | mlavers@washblade.com
The coronavirus pandemic was the dominant international story in 2020, but other news impacted the LGBTQ community around the world over the past year. Here are our picks for top 10 international stories of 2020.
same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Lawmakers in Bhutan on Dec. 10 voted to amend portions of their country’s Penal Code that have been used to criminalize homosexuality. The amendment will become law once King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck signs it.
#8: COSTA RICA BECOMES FIRST CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRY WITH MARRIAGE EQUALITY Costa Rica on May 26 became the first country in Central America to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. Two women became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Costa Rica when they exchanged vows in the municipality of Heredia shortly after midnight. President Carlos Alvarado Quesada is among those who celebrated the historic milestone. “Today we celebrate liberty, equality and democratic institutions,” tweeted Alvarado. “May empathy and love be the moral compass that allows us to move forward and build a country where everyone belongs.”
#7: ANTI-LGBTQ CRACKDOWN IN POLAND DRAWS INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION The Polish government’s continued anti-LGBTQ crackdown sparked global outrage in 2020. Police over the summer arrested Margot Szutowicz, a non-binary person, three times. One of the arrests stems from charges she allegedly damaged a truck promoting antiLGBTQ messages and assaulted a pro-life demonstrator on June 2. President Andrzej Duda in the lead up to the Polish presidential election said LGBTQ “ideology” is more harmful than communism. Duda on June 24 met with President Trump at the White House. Duda on July 12 won re-election.
Recent unrest in Hong Kong has led to speculation the Gay Games would be moved, but organizers in 2020 assured athletes the events would happen in 2022.
#10: ANTI-DEMOCRACY CRACKDOWN LOOMS OVER HONG KONG GAY GAMES
#6: ICE RELEASES BLADE CONTRIBUTOR
Organizers of the 2022 Gay Games that are slated to take place in Hong Kong insist the event will take place as scheduled, despite ongoing human rights abuses in the former British colony. Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government continues to target pro-democracy protesters. The U.S. and other countries have criticized the crackdown. Shiv Paul, a spokesperson for the Federation of Gay Games, which will oversee the games, in November told the Blade the Gay Games Hong Kong 2022 committee has a contingency plan that will address “potential scenarios/risks such as an ongoing pandemic, social unrest or unseasonal weather events.” The games’ opening ceremony is scheduled to take place on Nov. 12, 2022.
#9: SUDAN REPEALS DEATH PENALTY FOR HOMOSEXUALITY Sudan in July repealed a provision of its Penal Code that imposed the death penalty upon anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations. Article 148 of the Sudanese Penal Code from 1991 said anyone who is convicted of sodomy three times “shall be punished with death, or with life imprisonment.” Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chair of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, which was created in 2019 to govern the country on an interim basis after thenPresident Omar al-Bashir’s ouster, approved the removal of the death penalty provision from Article 148. Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the handful of countries in which consensual
A Blade contributor who was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for nearly a year was released on March 4. An immigration judge in September 2019 granted Yariel Valdés González asylum based on the persecution he suffered in Cuba because he was an independent journalist. The Board of Immigration Appeals on Feb. 28 dismissed an appeal of the judge’s ruling. “I really feel that I am alive now,” Valdés told the Blade after he reunited with his aunt and uncle in Miami. “It is a wonderful feeling to feel free and to be able to take control of your life and above all knowing that you will not be persecuted again because of your ideas or your work.” Valdés now lives with his boyfriend in Wilton Manors, Fla., and continues to contribute to the Blade.
YARIEL VALDÉS GONZÁLEZ on South Beach on March 6, 2020. (Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
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INTERNATIONAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 09 #5: U.N. CALLS FOR GLOBAL CONVERSION THERAPY BAN
The U.N. in July formally called for a ban on so-called conversion therapy. Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ issues, submitted a report with 130 submissions on practices and testimonies of victims who have experienced conversion therapy from civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, medical practitioners and individuals. Germany, Brazil, Ecuador, Malta and Taiwan have all banned the widely discredited practice. Maryland, D.C. and Virginia are among the U.S. jurisdictions that ban conversion therapy for minors. A federal appeals court in November ruled bans on conversion therapy for minors in the Florida cities of Boca Raton and Palm Beach are unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
#4: TRUMP POLICIES FURTHER ENDANGER LGBTQ MIGRANTS, ASYLUM SEEKERS The Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy continued to put LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers at even more risk in 2020. Three police officers in El Salvador who were convicted of murdering Camila Díaz Córdova, a transgender woman who the U.S. deported in 2017 after she fled anti-LGBTQ violence, were sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 28. Activists say LGBTQ asylum seekers who are forced to await the outcome of their cases in Mexico under the Trump administration’s “return to Mexico” (MPP) policy puts them at increased risk of violence and human trafficking. A Human Rights Watch report notes the closure of the U.S.-Mexico border in March left asylum seekers “to suffer persecution in their home countries or in Mexico. People with HIV, among other vulnerable groups, who were in ICE custody in 2020 were also at increased risk for the coronavirus as the pandemic spread throughout the U.S.
#3: POPE FRANCIS PUBLICLY SUPPORTS CIVIL UNIONS
LAVERNE COX was a featured speaker for Global Pride 2020. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
#2: BIDEN ELECTION CELEBRATED AROUND THE WORLD President-elect Biden’s election in November renewed hopes the U.S. will once again champion LGBTQ rights abroad in an impactful way. The incoming administration has said Biden will “immediately appoint” a special LGBTQ rights envoy at the State Department and a special coordinator at the U.S. Agency for International Development to handle the aforementioned issues. Biden has, among other things, also pledged to use the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Act to sanction those responsible for anti-LGBTQ rights abuses. Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell led the Trump administration’s initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize homosexuality, but many LGBTQ activists around the world remained highly skeptical of it. “The planet is crying out for more compassionate, mature, visionary, unifying and empathetic leaders, and we now look to President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris to be an example,” ILGA World Executive Director André du Plessis told the Blade after the election.
POPE FRANCIS endorsed civil unions for same-sex couples in 2020. (Photo by Zebra48bo via Wikimedia Commons)
#1: CORONAVIRUS SWEEPS THE WORLD
LGBTQ Catholics and activists around the world in October welcomed Pope Francis’ public support of civil unions for same-sex couples. Francis made the comments in “Francesco,” a documentary about his life that debuted at the Rome Film Festival on Oct. 21. Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the Maryland-based New Ways Ministry, described Francis’ comments as a “historic moment” that “signals that the church is continuing to develop more positively its approach to LGBTQ issues.” Esteban Paulón, an activist in Argentina, noted Francis “in private expressed his support” for civil unions for same-sex couples during the marriage equality debate in his homeland before he became pope. The Vatican’s tone toward LGBTQ Catholics has become more moderate under Francis’ papacy. Church teachings on homosexuality and gender identity remain unchanged.
The coronavirus pandemic had a devastating impact on LGBTQ people around the world in 2020. The vast majority of Pride celebrations took place virtually, with Global Pride drawing an audience of more than 57 million people on June 27. Ecuador is among the countries in which advocacy groups launched relief efforts to help LGBTQ people pay their rent and buy food and other basic supplies during coronavirus lockdowns. The pandemic further exacerbated existing economic, social and racial inequalities. Efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus — such as “pico y género” rules in Panamá, Colombia and Perú that allowed people to leave their homes on certain days based on their gender — sparked criticism among transgender activists who felt they caused further discrimination based on gender identity.
10 • JANUARY 01, 2021 • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM
TROY MASTERS
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We won’t be ignored
Make some noise — a New Year is here By TROY MASTERS We end 2020 in an unimaginable place, with more than 80 million cases of the novel coronavirus and more than 1.7 million deaths reported globally. As a result, we are also experiencing a cascading social and economic fallout that heralds perhaps the greatest social and political challenges in modern history. It was exactly one year ago this week, Dec. 31, 2019, that the first mentions in the mainstream U.S. media began to circulate of a mystery illness that had sickened dozens of people in Chinese mega-city Wuhan. Alarming outbreaks quickly occurred around the world and by the end of January more than 2,000 cases and 43 deaths had been reported. By March 11, the day the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, more than 4,600 people had died worldwide and new cases were soaring, as the number of cases outside China increased 13-fold and the number of countries with cases increased threefold. Our response has required us to reinvent life as we once knew it and remove ourselves (even our faces) from one another. It has felt almost as if gravity simply disappeared, like civilization itself disappeared. Everything that had been meaningful and familiar, things we had taken so profoundly for granted — freedom of movement, the simple pleasure of planning a vacation, attending an event large or small, dinner out, a movie, holidays, family gatherings — turn out to be not only key to our economy but also a key component in our psychological well-being. We depend on the friendly gesture of touch and interaction and that has (for the moment) largely slipped away. We are fighting for our own survival, all of us. It is truly an existential era. The need for social distancing, mask wearing, the isolation of all the prevention measures, the loud and angry political debate and resulting chaotic messaging, the economic fallout, massive loss of life, wellness, mobility and small freedoms, large insecurities have all taken a toll on each of us. Add to that the shocking spectacle of a president who escalated daily his weaponization of the crisis as an appeal to a base that desperately wanted to deny every bit of the pandemic, an encouragement that made the situation more and more dire. Trump’s wager was total, all in. He bet the nation that with more chaos and greater crisis, his power would increase and he would be reelected. His followers truly believed that “only he could fix it.” But the rest of the world side-stepped Trump and the best scientific minds came together to save us, producing vaccines that have the potential to restore everyday life to something resembling the months before COVID-19 entered our consciousness. If we are able to vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s population, COVID-19 loses its grip on the world. Life will slowly reassemble. Meanwhile, it’s up to us to comply with COVID protocols. The LGBTQ community is something of a model for that reassembly. We know about the power of science and the
enormous role messaging plays in motivating a community toward making the changes needed to save lives. We are an example to the world of how to change an entire culture toward lowering rates of transmission and preventing community spread. We know how to work with the scientific community to advance treatments and get our larger community to adopt the result. We know something about surviving a plague. So, why then are we being ignored? Since the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, Karen Ocamb and Brody Levesque have reported for the Blade on the invisibility of the LGBTQ community, which has been profound. The consequences of that erasure may be lasting. Data collection by authorities in California and elsewhere has excluded any references to the LGBTQ community, despite our suffering and death. While data exists to show the pandemic consequences for the Black, Latino and Asian communities’ rates of transmission, deaths and socio-economic impact — none of that information has been collected for LGBTQ people. West Hollywood, as a microcosm of the entire LGBTQ community, offers tremendous empirical insight for those willing to take a look. It is a community that has an aging population, 50 percent of whom are seniors who have experienced long term isolation, even before COVID. It is a community with a workforce largely comprised of freelance and gig-workers, tip-based employees and other underpaid people who are all experiencing profound economic tumult. Yet information specific to them is not collected and applied to LGBTQ people as a whole. And now, a vaccine is at hand that requires a 70 percent participation — yet there has been no database-harvested understanding of what messages would motivate our own community to get inoculated. There’s still no way to measure any aspect of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the LGBTQ community. Our community’s nonprofit sector must once again take the lead. With dozens of LGBTQ clinics in LA offered through the Los Angeles LGBT Center, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, APLA, St. John’s Wellness and others, we have the infrastructure to make a difference in yet another fight for our lives. It will take substantial community outreach and solidarity. Yet 2021 holds a great deal of promise. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to right the wrongs inflicted on the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups by the Trump administration and bring inclusivity. He has already given us a place at the table by acknowledging the LGBTQ community in his acceptance speech, selecting an openly out married Black lesbian as Deputy White House Press Secretary and the nomination of the first openly gay man to a presidential Cabinet post. It’s certainly not too late to inject our needs, right the Trumpcreated mess and make our demands heard. We learned the hard lesson that Silence Equals Death. We can’t be quiet in 2021.
LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021 • 11
Pop culture countdown: Iconic and ignominious
A ‘Schock’-ing year for queer pop culture, from holiday rom-coms to COVID disruptions By JOEY DiGUGLIELMO | joeyd@washblade.com
Hollywood was not immune to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused studios to postpone major releases and to rethink how it does business. Here are the Blade’s top 10 stories in arts and entertainment for 2020.
#7: HO-HUM OSCARS
#10: FATHER KNOWS BEST
Out CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced on the air April 30 that his son Wyatt Morgan was born on April 27. “I am beyond happy,” he told People Magazine. Cooper, 53, host of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” named the baby, born via a surrogate, after his father, Wyatt, who died when Cooper was 10 days old. Cooper’s mother was the late Gloria Vanderbilt, who died last year at 95. Cooper, who finally came out in 2012 after years of speculation, plans to co-raise the baby with his ex, Benjamin Maisani, according to various sources. They broke up in 2018.
#9: PRIDE GOES GLOBAL
ANDERSON COOPER and son WYATT. (Photo via Instagram)
Stymied by COVID-19 restrictions on their usual events, Pride organizers around the world united for Global Pride, an online event on June 27 organized by InterPride and the European Pride Organizers Association. Performers included Olivia Newton-John, Deborah Cox, Kristine W, Thelma Houston, Steve Grand, the Chicks and more. Manvendra Singh Gohil, a gay Indian prince, was among the speakers. The theme was “exist, persist, resist” and about 57 million watched the 24-hour virtual event. Todrick Hall hosted. Adam Lambert performed “Mad World.”
#8: HARDLY SCHOCK-ING
The 92nd Academy Awards were one of the last major events to unfold as usual before COVID restrictions kicked into high gear. Held Feb. 9 in Hollywood, it wasn’t a particularly strong year for LGBT themes. “Parasite” took the top prize and “Joker,” Joaquin Phoenix’s tour de force, had the most nominations. “1917,” “Ford v. Ferrari” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” also won multiple awards. Of the 20 acting nominees, none were LGBT although two played LGBT characters. “Pain and Glory,” from out director Pedro Almodovar, snagged two nominations. “If 2019’s record year of inclusion for LGBTQ and LGBTQ-themed nominees was a small step forward … then nominations for Oscar 2020 are a giant lap back,” wrote Blade critic John Paul King. It was slightly gayer at the ceremony itself. Janelle Monae and Billy Porter performed in the opening. Elton John won Best Original Song with longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin for “(I‘m Gonna) Love Me Again,” from his biopic “Rocketman.”
After years of speculation, former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), came out as gay and was not exactly welcomed into the LGBTQ world. Schock, 39, was elected to Congress at age 27 in 2008 and was once seen as a rising star in the GOP. He resigned in 2015 amid criticism for lavish spending including a redecorating effort of his Capitol Hill office. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2016 on 24 counts including wire fraud and theft of government funds but federal prosecutors reached an agreement in 2019 and charges were dropped. Schock vowed to pay back taxes and reimburse his campaign. Schock, a gym rat almost as famous for his thirsty shirtless pics as his political career, came out in a March 5 blog on his website aschock.net that began simply “I am gay.” He maintains his innocence, said he regrets not coming out sooner but said he assumed his constituents knowing would “not go over well.” “I also, in retrospect, realize that I was just looking for more excuses to buy time and avoid being the person I’ve always been,” he wrote. He did not apologize for his anti-gay voting record which included votes against same-sex marriage and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He had a zero rating from HRC. He did say he’d support LGBT rights “in every way I could” if he were still in Congress. Reaction was largely negative. Gays as varied as “Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness to Michelangelo Signorile called him out for hypocrisy.
We may have been largely a bust at the Oscars, but in other branches of filmdom, there were major surprises. The New York Times rounded up six holiday-themed gay rom-coms with out with LGBT characters. Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis starred in the Clea DuVallhelmed (DuVall is gay) lesbian comingout comedy “Happiest Season,” which premiered on Hulu on Thanksgiving Day. Brandon and Jake race to adopt a KRISTEN STEWART (left) and MACKENZIE DAVIS baby by Christmas in “The Christmas in ‘Happiest Season.’ (Photo courtesy Hulu) House” on the Hallmark channel. Real-life husbands Ben Lewis and Blake Lee star in “The Christmas Setup” on Lifetime, “Dashing in December” is a drama from Paramount about two men who fall in love on a ranch while Netflix has “A New York Christmas Wedding” with a bi woman in the lead and “I Hate New Year’s,” an on-demand lesbian romance set in Nashville. Complete with same-sex kisses (!), the Times calls the deluge “a sea change for Christmas cinema, a conventionally heterosexual universe with more stories about puppies than gay people.”
Former Congressman AARON SCHOCK at State of the Unioin (Blade photo by Michael Key) 12 • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021
#6: ROM-COM REPRESENTATION
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‘Tiger King,’ Ellen drama among year’s standouts CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
reports. Following the internal investigation, in August DeGeneres apologized to her employees via video conference and confirmed that three top producers were leaving the show. The crew applauded. DeGeneres said in December she would be back after the holidays after testing positive for COVID-19.
#5: ELLIOT’S NEW DAY
Elliot Page, a Canadian actor and producer known for roles in TV shows “Pit Pony,” “Trailer Park Boys,” “ReGenesis” as well as the 2005 film “Hard Candy,” came out as transgender last month. He’d come out as a gay woman in February 2014. Page was nominated for an Oscar in 2008 for his role in “Juno” and is also the star of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy.” “Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey,” he wrote.
#1: COVID DISRUPTS
ELLIOT PAGE
#4: QUEER STREAMING GALORE
Movie theaters were closed but that only pushed the streaming rage further into the forefront of the entertainment ecosystem. And if there was any gay angle to it, there’s a good chance Ryan Murphy was involved. The full cast of the 2018 Broadway debut of Mart Crowley (who died in March at age 84) classic “The Boys in the Band” reunited for a film version that debuted on Netflix in late September. The Blade called it a strong adaptation that “preserved in full” the “strength and dignity” of the source material. Murphy produced. The seven-episode miniseries “Hollywood” debuted in March on Netflix with Patti LuPone helming this saga about a group of aspiring actors in filmmakers in post-WWII Tinseltown. Several gay characters and themes abounded including nods to Scotty Bowers and Rock Hudson among others. It drew mixed reviews but 12 Emmy nominations. Janet Mock directed two episodes. Murphy directed just one but was creator, executive producer, and writer. And in December came “The Prom,” a Murphy-directed musical comedy based on the 2018 Broadway musical with Meryl Streep, James Corden and Nicole Kidman about Broadway actors who head to Indiana to fight a ruling that a high school prom is being cancelled because one female student wanted to take a girl as her date. Chaos ensues. The Blade called it a “frothy mix that exists on the thin line between camp and hokum.” And one you may have missed (again, with Murphy involvement) is “A Secret Love,” a documentary about Terry Donahue and her partner Pat Henschel who finally go public and get married after keeping their relationship a secret from their families for six decades.
There wasn’t a single facet of the entertainment industry spared the disruptions related to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions from drag queens to touring musicians to theater producers and performers to (Photo via Facebook) the entire movie and TV industry, which soon ran out of “in the can” content to air or stream. Although the competition part of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 12 was already taped and airing, the reunion and finale were taped — and cleverly edited — via Zoom. Queer artists as diverse as Billy Gilman, Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls offered living room concerts. Some were free, others moved to a subscription model. With movie theaters closed for much of the year, release dates were bumped. Box office revenue reached lows not seen in 20 years and Cineworld, the world’s second-largest chain, closed in October. Many films that had planned theatrical releases were streamed instead and the bodies that govern the Golden Globes and the Oscars have made eligibility allowances. Perhaps the most prominent film to be postponed was “Wonder Woman 1984,” which will stream Dec. 25 on HBO Max, the same day it hits theaters in a move that has outraged some in the industry. Some production units formed set bubbles in which cast and crew, subject to daily temperature checks and frequent COVID tests, quarantine from the outside world during shooting. Resuming was a necessity and not just so people have stuff to watch coming through the pipeline. Colleen Bell, executive director of the California Film Commission, told NBC News the industry supports 700,000 jobs in California alone that accounts for $16 billion in wages.
#3: EPIC CATFIGHT
And then, of course, we had “Tiger King,” one of the increasingly rare shows that became a true cultural phenom. The outrageous, seven-episode Netflix docuseries tells of zookeeper Joe Exotic (who sports a peroxide mullet) and his feud with Carole Baskin who accuses him of abusing and exploiting wild animals. Watched by 34.3 million people over its first 10 days of release, it’s been called “one of” Netflix’s most successful releases ever. Adding to the color is Exotic’s unofficial same-sex throuplehood wth Travis Maldonado and John Finlay and his relationship with future husband Dillon Passage. He’s currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for, among other things, planning to have Baskin killed.
#2: CANCEL ELLEN!
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” was the subject of an internal third-party investigation by WarnerMedia after reports that the long-running hit daytime talk show was a toxic workplace behind the scenes. In the spring, Variety reported on alleged mistreatment of long-time crew members and in July BuzzFeed published a report alleging racism and intimidation. After delaying her 18th-season opener, DeGeneres, 62, addressed the situation in her opening monologue on Sept. 21. “I learned that things happened here that never should have happened,” she said. “I take that very seriously and I want to say I am sorry to the people who were affected.” She acknowledged being in a “position of privilege and power.” People magazine, citing an unnamed source, said her perfectionist tendencies “ can be difficult. … She is looking at herself to make changes.” She vowed to “start a new chapter” with the show’s 270 employees, People LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021 • 13
The year in photos (Blade photos by Michael Key and Michael K. Lavers)
Signs mourning the loss of trans women of color were among those on the White House fence on election day, Nov. 3.
Two men hold their fists in their air during an anti-police brutality protest in downtown Miami on June 1.
A peaceful Black Lives Matter protest was held at Black Lives Matter Plaza on June 6. 14 • LOSANGELESBLADE.COM • JANUARY 01, 2021
Mayor PETE BUTTIGIEG makes a presidential campaign stop in Northern Virginia on Feb. 23.
Gay Trump supporter BRANDON STRAKA speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28. It would later be discovered that the coronavirus was spread at the event.
A ‘Make America Great Again’ pro-Trump mega rally was held on the streets of D.C. Protesters included both Proud Boys and Gays for Trump.
As COVID-19 became a new reality, someone erected a “HOPE” sign in Winchester, Va.
Riots broke out in the streets of D.C. on May 31 following the murder of George Floyd.
Shelves for items like toilet paper were empty in stores nationwide.
A makeshift memorial was created in front of the United States Supreme Court following the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Rep. MARK TAKANO (D-Calif.) speaks at a congressional hearing on LGBT rights on Feb. 27.
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