Los Angeles Blade, Volume 06, Issue 41, October 14, 2022

City Hall scandal reveals racism within Democratic leadership,

Newsom inducts inaugural #CaliforniansForAll College Corps

Governor Gavin Newsom, alongside California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday and higher education leaders, swore in the first class of #CaliforniansForAll College Corps Fellows on Friday, with more than 3,200 students pledging to serve communities across the state while earning money to pay for college.

ney.”

This first-of-its-kind initiative provides undergraduate students at 46 colleges and universities across California the opportunity to earn $10,000 for committing to one year of service focused on three key issue areas for the state: K-12 education, climate action and food insecurity.

“In California, if you are willing to serve your community and give back in a meaningful way, we are going to help you pay for college. This is a win-win-win: Helping to pay for college, gaining valuable work experience, and having a meaningful impact on your community,” said California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday.

In this first cohort, more than two-thirds of Fellows are Pell-eligible, and 64% are first-generation college students. AB 540 CA Dream Act students are also eligible to earn support for college through this program. Approximately 13,000 students over the next four years will take part in a year of service, providing nearly 6 million hours of service to our California communities.

College Corps Fellows will be placed with more than 600 community partner organizations across the state. Fellows in K-12 education will serve as tutors or mentors to public school students. Many Fellows will be placed directly in classrooms in school districts across the state, while others will support after-school programs run by non-profit organizations. Fellows tackling food insecurity will be placed with numerous food banks in addition to staffing food pantries on their own college or university campus. Fellows focused on climate action will plant trees, assist in wildfire mitigation work and support a variety of environmental education and community outreach efforts.

“The #CaliforniansForAll College Corps proves the point that you don’t have to be something to do something,” said Governor Newsom. “Leadership can be found anywhere, and this program creates a new path for students from all backgrounds to make a real impact in our communities while earning money for college. I’m humbled and proud to join these young leaders today and look forward to what they’ll accomplish on this remarkable jour-

In 2020, Newsom launched California Climate Action Corps, the country’s first statewide climate corps, with the mission of empowering Californians to protect their communities from the impacts of climate change. Both the Climate Action Corps and College Corps provide opportunities for volunteers to give back to underserved communities throughout California.

The #CaliforniansForAll College Corps is primarily funded through the California Comeback Plan and will support 3,250 students in the first year of this program.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Gas prices rise to new records

Southern California gas prices broke new records this week, but appear to be reversing course after a California Air Resources board decision to allow gas stations to sell “winter blend” one month early, according to the Auto Club’s Weekend Gas Watch.

The average price for self-serve regular gasoline in California is $6.42, which is 24 cents higher than last week. The average national price is $3.87, which is nine cents higher than a week ago.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $6.49 per gallon, which is 23 cents higher than last week, $1.20 higher than last month, $2.06 higher than last year, and three cents higher than the previous record price set in June 2022. In San Diego, the average price is $6.43, which is 23 cents higher than last week, $1.17 higher than last month, $2.05 higher than last year, and six cents higher than the previous June 2022 record.

On the Central Coast, the average price is $6.36, which is 16 cents higher than last week, 98 cents higher than last month, $1.98 higher than last year and the same as the previous June 2022 record. In Riverside, the aver-

age per-gallon price is $6.37, which is 26 cents higher than last week, $1.20 higher than last month, $2.03 higher than a year ago and four cents higher than the June 2022 record. In Bakersfi eld, the $6.34 average price is 37 cents higher than last Thursday, $1.01 higher than last month, $1.96 higher than a year ago today and still four cents below the June 2022 record.

“Air quality regulations normally require ‘summer blend’ gasoline to be sold to drivers through the end of October, but the state’s decision to allow ‘winter blend’ sales early, in addition to imports arriving soon and local refi neries coming back online following maintenance, should help alleviate the state’s gas supply crisis,” said Auto Club spokesperson Doug Shupe. “While all Southern California average prices are well above $6 a gallon today, we expect them to move lower in the coming days and weeks. It’s important for drivers to know that there already are dozens of stations selling gas for less than $6 and they can fi nd them using the free AAA Mobile app.”

GOV. NEWSOM joins CSO Josh Fryday and higher education leaders at College Corps. (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

Race to the midterms: Zbur, Salcedo on loss of LGBTQ rights

By KAREN OCAMB

Where is the LGBTQ outcry? Where is the LGBTQ mobilization? Where is LGBTQ leadership as a possible political Armageddon on Nov. 8 threatens to wipe away, roll back, erase the steady progress towards full LGBTQ equality and a more perfect union?

Luckily, some LGBTQ folks on the ground are doing what they can do to make sure Trump’s MAGA Republicans don’t totally ruin democracy and the American experiment.

“Today, we have to realize that we are in a different world we are fighting for our democracy. And this isn’t something that’s theoretical. It’s very, very real,” including the MAGA politicization of the United States Supreme Court,” says Rick Chavez Zbur, an attorney, former executive director of Equality California and candidate for California’s Assembly District 51.

“The Court,” he continues, “is actually not following typical Court rules and precedent and is actually a very radical Court. It is not following the doctrine and stare decisis.” And those doctrines “are important because we in the LGBTQ movement and our friends at Lambda Legal and at National Center for Lesbian Rights and Transgender Law Center and the ACLU — we have worked for years to build up the precedent and the legal doctrines we need to advance LGBTQ equality in the courts. These conservative justices are basically ignoring all of that. So at this point, if we can’t rely on the institution because it’s been radicalized, we really need to correct that and the only way to do that is by expanding the court. And I think the term-limit idea is a good one.”

Bamby Salcedo, president/CEO of the nationally recognized TransLatin@ Coalition, notes that a lot of people don’t really understand how government works but something needs to be done to preserve democracy. From Salcedo’s perspective, our Constitutional rights are “being overturned by individuals who are racist, by individuals who want to essentially keep the white race in this country.”

“We need to figure it out how change is going to happen,” Salcedo says, “like whether there is this Constitutional change that needs to happen — whether we need to put more people on the Supreme Court, because right now, there five people that are just destroying people’s rights.”

Rick Zbur and Bamby Salcedo are featured in our latest Race to the Midterms episode to illustrate the importance of down-ballot races, as Victory Fund’s Annise Parker pointed out – and that even the seemingly most marginalized of marginalized people can get engaged, feel empowered and make a difference by doing whatever they can do, as Salcedo explains.

Rick Zbur grew up in a rural farming community in the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico where he learned the values of hard work, commitment to family and service to community. He attended Yale University and after graduating from Harvard Law School, in 1985 he moved to Los Angeles and joined the prestigious law firm Latham Wat-

kins where he practiced law for over 25 years, becoming partner in 1994.

In 1996, Zbur ran for Congress in California’s 38th District to Republican Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” movement. He made American history as the first openly LGBTQ non-incumbent to win a Democratic primary, endorsed by President Bill Clinton. If elected, the nationally recognized environmentalist could have worked with Vice President Al Gore to help prevent the most dire effects of climate change.

As a gay man, Zbur was devastated by the loss of friends to AIDS and lent his legal talents to the national board of Lambda Legal Defense and ducation Fund founded the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation; served on the Board of the California League of Conservation Voters (now California Environmental Voters); and serves on the board of Planned Parenthood/Los Angeles. In 2014, bur left Latham Watkins in 2014 to become Executive Director of Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, where he made EQCA the model for LGBTQ equality organizations nationwide. He is also the proud co-parent of a 17-year-old daughter and 13 year-old twins.

In this episode, he talks about how the midterms are a risk to LGBTQ rights, about the need to vote for people who will vote to reform the courts – and about how climate change is also on the ballot.

“One of the reasons I’m running is that we actually have to show how California has a special role to play in climate change . We’re not the biggest part of the global emissions pie, but we can show how we can make bold change to get off of dirty energy and move to a clean energy economy,” says Zbur. “And part of it, too, is keeping the jobs here in California…. And, you know, President Biden — we had a big chunk of money in the In ation Reduction Act. It was about keeping these clean jobs here in America. We need to have a special focus here in California about how we keep these clean jobs here, because as we are providing the leadership for the rest of the country, and in doing this, doing these things first, we need to actually make sure for our people that we get the benefits of that.”

Almost directly after our interview, Salcedo ew to Puerto Rico for a national HIV/AIDS conference, sponsored by the White House. She stands as a beacon of hope for trans, nonbinary and other marginalized people who have suffered the pain and indignities of systemic oppression. And part of that commitment to hope is a commitment to hold elected leaders accountable.

“What we need to do is to not give up on ourselves and to not give up on our people,” Salcedo says,“and encourage the Democratic Party to not be complacent and to also don’t say that you’re progressive if you’re not doing progressive things for our people.”

Salcedo has a unique take on her hard life. “It certainly has been a long struggle,” she says. “Like I am one who has had the privilege and the opportunity, right, to survive many horrific experience and overcome many different challenges. And, you know, I am a trans Latina woman, immigrant who has survived sexual violence both in jail and then on the streets, physical violence also both on the streets and jail.

“I am a person who has also – I’m in recovery, right,” she says. “I was a drug addict for — well, I’m still a drug addict, but I’m in recovery now. And so I’ve been homeless. I’ve engaged in sex work as a means to survive. I have, you know, had guns pointed to my head. Honestly, I think any horrible experiences that maybe one can think of — I’ve survived them….I always say that I am one of the chosen few, right, because I have the privilege and that opportunity. I also believe that with that comes responsibility.

“And my responsibility is with my people,” Salcedo continues. “So my people are people who are sex workers, who are people who are incarcerated or who are in immigration that they chose or who are immigrants, who are people who are living with HIV, who are women, immigrants all of those sections really cross my life M y work is not just siloed into one thing where — like, I’m a person of multi-dimensional experiences….But my experiences are also the experience of so many people and I’m just grateful and privileged and I get to be a beacon of hope also for other people.”

Salcedo talks directly to her people — and the rest of us, too: “Beautiful and amazing people. I hope that you understand the power that we have as individuals and as communities, particularly in this midterm election. As we know, there’s a lot at stake. And we need to mobilize, we need to activate, and we need to in uence those who are able to vote. Have conversations and encourage people to vote for candidates who will do the work of the people.”

Watch the full interviews at losangelesblade.com.

Where is queer leadership as possible political Armageddon threatens our equality?

(Screenshot via YouTube)

Leaked audio reveals racist comments by City Council members Calls mount for Martinez, de León, and Cedillo to resign

By BRODY LEVESQUE

Audio recordings from the fall of last year reveal Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de León in conversations with LA Labor Federation President Ron Herrera, where racist and disparaging comments are made.

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times and LA independent media outlet Knock LA on Sunday, the recordings seem to contain the voices of Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers de León and Cedillo, with Herrera discussing a wide range of topics including redistricting and being incredibly racist while doing so.

The Los Angeles Times notes: Council President Nury Martinez is heard saying a white councilman handled his young Black son as though he were an “accessory,” according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Times. Martinez referred to the councilman’s child as “ese changuito,” or that little monkey, soon after.

During the conversation with Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, Martinez also described Councilmember Mike Bonin at one point as a “little bitch.”

De León appeared to compare Bonin’s handling of his child to Martinez holding a Louis Vuitton handbag. He also referred to Bonin as the council’s “fourth Black member.”

“Mike Bonin won’t fucking ever say peep about Latinos. He’ll never say a fucking word about us,” he said.

Knock LA reports that Martinez says of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, “Fuck that guy, he’s with the Blacks.”

The audio recordings were post to Reddit by an anonymous user who has since deleted the post and according to the Times has been suspended by the social media platform.

On Sunday, after the LA Times article was published online, Martinez issued a statement apologizing for her comments, saying, “In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments.”

“The context of this conversation was concern over the redistricting process and concern about the potential negative impact it might have on communities of color,” she added. “My work speaks for itself. I’ve worked hard to lead this city through its most difficult time.”

De León released a statement of his own, in which he voices his regret for participating and at times condoning the remarks.

“There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate; and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. I’ve reached out to that colleague personally,” the statement reads. “On that day, I fell short of the expectations we set for our leaders — and I will hold myself to a higher standard.”

Bonin released a statement Sunday afternoon in which he says he and his husband were “appalled, angry and absolutely disgusted” by the comments made toward their son.

“We love our son, a beautiful, joyful child, and our family is hurting today. No child should ever be subjected to such racist, mean and dehumanizing comments, especially from a public official,” Bonin’s statement reads in part. “It hurts that one of our son’s earliest encounters with overt racism comes from some of the most powerful public officials in Los Angeles.”

group of people, especially when it involves a child. These words have no place anywhere. Words that dehumanize are soul-destroying even when they are uttered from the mouths of friends, loved ones, or colleagues.

“So on this Indigenous Peoples Day, may we all rise to our better angels and re ect on how we treat others and how we refer to others when they are not present. This is another time of reckoning, and there is only one conclusion: that the people involved in these transgressions atone for what was said and take the action that this moment requires of them. That includes stepping down from any privileged position, including that of City Council President, and to take the time required to regain the trust needed in order to carry on and find a way to recapture the remarkable credibility they’ve all maintained over the years that has resulted in so much good. That is the only path forward.”

Sunday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement, saying he was “saddened” by the comments.

“There is no place in our city family for attacks on colleagues and their loved ones, and there is no place for racism anywhere in LA,” Garcetti said.

Both of the candidates in the mayoral race to replace the outgoing Mayor Garcetti weighed in late Sunday. Rep. Karen Bass tweeted her statement, calling the remarks “appalling, anti-Black racism.”

The other mayoral candidate, Billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, released the following statement:

Bonin has since called on Martinez, de León and Cedillo to resign from the City Council, as did Councilmember Nithya Raman.

Incoming Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who will replace Cedillo after defeating him in an election earlier this year, called on Martinez to resign and for de León and Cedillo to be removed from committees.

Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who serves as president pro tempore, which is second only to the council president, called for Martinez to step down from her council leadership post.

O’Farrell in an emailed statement late Sunday evening said: “Tomorrow we commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day in Los Angeles. This day is all about reconciliation, healing, and bringing greater understanding of the hundreds of years of atrocities committed against the indigenous people of this land after first contact.

“The tragic and unconscionable remarks that came to light today are a reminder of how harmful words can be when they are directed toward any one individual or

“First and foremost, my heart goes out to Mike Bonin and his family. I can only imagine the pain this has caused Mike and his family. I’ve disagreed with Mike on much regarding public policy, but as a father I stand with him and his family and vehemently denounce this hate speech against his son. I hope others will join me in supporting Mike in this difficult time.

“This entire situation shows that city hall is fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. In a closed door meeting, leaders at the highest levels of city government used racial slurs and hate speech while discussing how to carve up the city to retain their own power. This is a clear example of hypocrisy, racism, and crude power politics.

“Everyone involved in this should be held accountable. I have now and will always have zero tolerance for hate speech and this situation is beyond the pale. I denounce everything in these recordings and call on all to be held accountable.

“Los Angeles can’t have leaders who call children racial epithets and names. I know this is one thing we can all agree on. Most of the people involved in this ugly episode have endorsed Karen Bass, I hope she’ll do the right thing and demand for their accountability and renounce the endorsement of those who used hate speech. As your Mayor, I will work to unite us, not divide us the way this ugly episode has.”

LA Mayor ERIC GARCETTI (right) with Council President NURY MARTINEZ (Photo courtesy Office of the yor ty of os n e es)

Herrera resigns as L.A. Labor Federation head over leaked audio

Facing outrage over a controversial leaked audio recording with top L.A. city officials, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera offered his resignation at a meeting tonight with the federation’s executive board, which accepted, according to two sources close to the situation the Los Angeles Times reported Monday evening.

The sources requested anonymity to describe sensitive internal matters. One source said that the organization would make a formal statement Tuesday the Times noted.

Herrera along with Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de Le n and Gil Cedillo participated in a October 2021 closed-door conversation where Martinez said a white openly gay councilmember handled his young Black son as though he were an “accessory” and described Councilmember Mike Bonin’s son as “Parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.”

FROM STAFF REPORTS

LA’s crisis of governance: Protests disrupt council meeting

Tuesday’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council was met with angry protests from Angelenos inside the chambers, expressing outrage over the homophobic and racist filled audio recording between councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gill Cedillo and the now former head of the LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first since the scandal broke over the weekend. It was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. but was delayed by protesters both inside and outside chambers. KTLA reported that video showed a crowd blocking the street outside City Hall as the meeting was supposed to be getting underway.

The Los Angeles Times published an article detailing the vulgar and crass commentary about openly gay councilman Mike Bonin, whose adopted Black son was one of the targets of the racist comments, along with disparaging slurs by Martinez can also be heard in the audio making racist comments about L.A. District Attorney George Gascón.

Bonin, who was visibly upset, spoke during the meeting talking about the racism his son faces every day and about those who made the comments asking for forgiveness.

“First you must resign, and then ask for forgiveness,” Bonin said.

Martinez, during the Oct. 2021 meeting about redistricting with Cedillo, de León, and union leader Herrera, said “And then there’s this white guy, with his little Black kid, who’s misbehaved.” Martinez then stated the child Bonin’s son looks “like a little monkey” in Spanish. “They’re raising him like a little white kid, which, I was like, this kid needs a beatdown.”

She can also be heard making racist comments about L.A. DA Gasc n “because he is with the Blacks,” and about Oaxacans in Koreatown, which Martinez referred to as “short, dark people.”

Martinez stepped down as president of the city council and prior to Tuesday’s council session announced she was taking a leave of absence. There are calls for her to resign

her seat on the council along with Cedillo and de León to resign their seats.

During a press conference outside city hall, Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, who is Black and represents Inglewood in Sacramento, said: “Resign from the council, all of it. We should not have anyone serving that is not about the whole community.”

The only other openly gay member of the council, Mitch O’Farrell speaking at another press conference told reporters:

“It is unconscionable and it is not something I think we can get through unless the individuals involved resign from office,” he said.

L.A. Mayor ric Garcetti, .S. Senator Alex Padilla and councilmember Curren Price Jr., have joined with Bonin and O’Farrell in the call for resignations. LA County Federation of Labor’s Herrera resigned his presidency Monday night during a meeting with union leadership.

BRODY LEVESQUE

Martinez resigns seat on council

LOS ANG L S mbattled city councilwoman Nury Martinez has resigned her seat on the Los Angeles City Council Wednesday afternoon. Martinez along with fellow council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have faced demands they step down after the leak of an audio recording Sunday on which they were heard making racist and homophobic comments.

“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” Martinez said in a written statement.

Although Martinez makes no direct reference to the recording that caused her to resign her seat, she noted “To my staff I’m sorry that we’re ending it this way. This is no re ection on you. I know you all will continue to do great work and fi ght for our district. I’ll be cheering you on.”

Acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell issued a statement noting: “For Los Angeles to heal, and for

its City Council to govern, there must be accountability. The resignation of Councilmember Nury Martinez is the fi rst, necessary step in that process. To that end, I repeat my call on Councilmembers de Leon and Cedillo to also resign. There is no other way forward.”

Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement in response to Nury Martinez’s resignation from the Los Angeles City Council:

“This is the right move. Again, these comments have no place in our state, or in our politics, and we must all model better behavior to live the values that so many of us fi ght every day to protect.”

Cedillo and de León have not yet announced any plans to resign at this time. Cedillo lost his re-election bid earlier this year and will be replaced on the council in the coming months by unisses Hernandez.

BRODY LEVESQUE

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera (Photo courtesy Labor 411 Foundation)

Former

councilwoman NURY MARTINEZ

J.D. Vance, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio who won the Republican presidential nomination thanks in part to backing from gay conservative entrepreneur Peter Thiel, signaled on Tuesday he’d vote against legislation pending before Congress seeking to codify same-sex marriage into law.

Vance made the comments during a debate with Democratic nominee Tim Ryan, with whom he’s locked in a closely watched race that may decide control of the Senate, after being asked about the Respect for Marriage Act.

“I’ve come out against this bill and I don’t think it’s actually about gay marriage or same-sex marriage or same-sex equality,” Vance said. “Look, gay marriage is the law of the land of this country and I’m not trying to do anything to change that.”

Ryan, who as a member of the U.S. House was among those who voted in favor of the legislation, said he continues to support the bill and pointed to a concurring opinion from U.S. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, which sought review of rulings like the Obergefell decision, as evidence of the need to act.

“I voted for that in the House of Representatives and I will support codifying that in the Senate,” Ryan said. “Only J.D. ance can say that the bill that codifies same-sex marriage is not about same-sex marriage. The problem we have here, we have 15,000 marriages here in Ohio and when you read Justice Thomas’ opinion on abortion, which J.D. Vance wants to celebrate, it also included in there nullifying these marriages, and it also included in there getting rid of

protections around birth control.”

Vance’s position is consistent with other Republicans, but stands out because of the backing the candidate received from Thiel, who pumped $3.5 million into the race just before the state primary in addition to $10 million to help Vance last year.

Thiel, an entrepreneur and former board member of Facebook, declared he was gay in speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention, but hasn’t otherwise advanced LGBTQ rights in his prominent position as an entrepreneur. Thiel married his same-sex partner in a ceremony in Vienna in 2017.

Vance’s position on the legislation also stands in contrast to the position of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), whose seat Vance is seeking to claim upon the incumbent’s retirement. Portman is a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act and one of four Republicans to have signaled support for the legislation, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Johnson, however, has said his support is contingent on an amendment making accommodations for religious-based objections to same-sex marriage.

Although initial plans were for the Senate to vote on the legislation ahead of the mid-term elections, supporters made a decision to hold off on the vote until the lame duck session of Congress to make it easier for Republicans to vote “yes.” The House has already approved the legislation in July with unanimous Democratic support and support from one-fourth of the Republican caucus.

J.D. Vance signals opposition to same-sex marriage bill Supreme Court OKs opening video records of Prop 8 trial to public

Another Thiel-backed candidate, Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Arizona, has declined to say which way he’d vote on the legislation, although earlier this year he told Republican donors the U.S. Supreme Court “should not be deciding” the issue samesex marriage and ended up “just squinting and making up so-called rights in the Constitution,” according to a report in The Daily Beast. Masters was in attendance for Thiel’s wedding to his same-sex partner.

CHRIS JOHNSON

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Tuesday it has declined to take up a case on video recordings from the 2010 trial against California’s marriage ban known as Proposition 8, effectively green-lighting the process for making those confidential records open to the public.

Justices signaled on Tuesday they wouldn’t intervene in an orders list that included the litigation, Hollingsworth v. Perry, under a section of cases where certiorari was denied. Although the vote of individual justices isn’t listed, the denial of certiorari means there weren’t at least three justices who would agree to take up the case when the issue came up in conference.

The battle over the video documentation of the trial has been going from more than a decade. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the case and later ruled against the same-sex marriage ban, is now retired and has since come out as gay himself. With the tapes sealed, gay writer Dustin Lance Black in 2012 wrote and produced a play based on the transcript of the trial, which featured high-profile Hollywood actors such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Kevin Bacon.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in No-

vember 2021 in favor of opening up the video record of the trial, despite efforts from proponents of the marriage ban to keep the material under wraps. The appellate court issued its decision on the basis of standing, finding proponents in the case failed to show they’d suffer injury if the records were made public or that opening up the tapes would harm the judicial process.

Christopher Dusseault, partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and attorney for plaintiffs in the case, hailed the Supreme Court’s decision in a statement to the Blade.

“We are thrilled that the Supreme Court has denied the petition by supporters of Proposition 8 to seal the trial video of the successful constitutional challenge to California’s prohibition of same-sex marriage, clearing the way for public release of this important historical record.” Dusseault said. “While the trial took place more than 12 years ago, the lessons that it teaches about equality and justice could not be more vital today. At long last, the public will be able to see for themselves how and why an unconstitutional, unjust, and unfair ban on marriage equality fell in California.”

CHRIS JOHNSON

J.D. VANCE said he opposes the Respect for Marriage Act because the legislation is not ‘actually about gay marriage.’

Activists stand in front of the United States Supreme Court on March 26, 2013 for a rally in support of marriage equality.

Nat’l Coming Out Day presents unique challenges for communities of color

By BRANDIE BLAND

On the 34th anniversary of National Coming Out Day, LGBTQ people across the country honor the community and its fight for equality. But not everyone sees coming out as a celebration.

“Coming out is not always the best option for persons of color who already — because of our pigment on top of our identity — face discrimination, hatred and violence,” said Kimberley Bush, executive director and director of Arts and Cultural Programs at the DC Center for the LGBT Community.

The first National Coming Out Day was in 1988. Psychologist Robert Eichberg and gay rights activist Jean O’Leary, both of whom were openly queer and white, created the holiday.

In the .S., being queer  and what that might look like often centers whiteness. For many, the term “coming out” continues to center whiteness as the norm for LGBTQ identities.

David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition said, “usually the narrative and the images revolve around white folks that sit down with their families and have maybe an uncomfortable conversation, but at some point they celebrate them. Those folks move to gayborhoods like Hollywood, Calif., or Chelsea, N. ., or Boystown, Chicago. And then they get to join associations around their LGBTQ+ identities that also give them access to forms of capital and privilege that most Black folks don’t get to benefit from.”

The cultural and historical myopia inherent in the term “coming out” can minimize the complicated relationship between pride, visibility, and safety for LGBTQ people within communities of color.

“It is often challenging to be heard, seen, and just simply listened to as a LGBTQ+ person, but when you add on being a person of color, that challenge becomes much more unique and saturated. We are inherently judged, not given credibility to our own life stories and further pushed into the margins and often cannot take or retain the power in the who, when, and how we disclose our identity,” Bush said.

When talking about coming out, Johns, who identifies as same gender loving SGL , prefers the term “inviting in.”

“The process of inviting in is a term that we use to sort of shift power and highlight the problematic nature of coming out, while also acknowledging and sometimes celebrating,” Johns said.

“Inviting in” signifies that, “no one is entitled to information about the lived experiences of other people that are not voluntarily offered up.”

And “inviting in” reallocates the individual responsibility of “coming out” and challenges the heteronormative expectation that LGBT or SGL people should be required to “out” themselves.

The idea of “inviting in” instead of “coming out” for com-

munities of color also intersects with very real safety concerns for many in the community, given the current political climate, the widespread escalation of anti-LGBTQ threats online and attacks on members of the community and providers of trans-affirming healthcare across the country.

“The fact that our lives are dynamic and we face moments, sometimes daily, where we’re forced to think about inviting people in and often have to consider safety, especially now in this current political environment, is often missed,” Johns said.

For people of color living at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, “coming out” can be even more dangerous because of heightened safety issues specific to communities of color.

“Black and brown humans have always had to fight for our freedoms,” Bush said. “Coming out can be a pressured, intense, repressive and oppressive journey that may not allow a person to feel the freedom to choose inviting in versus coming out. In addition, persons of color also exponentially experience various levels of trauma. Coming out can be an extra layer of repetitive trauma and abuse.”

In LGBTQ communities of color, interpersonal and religious violence and parental or familial responses are some of the traumas community members can face.

A Williams Institute study about parental acceptance of LGBT identities across different age groups found that parents gave invalidating responses to their child’s sexual identity across all age groups, and parents of children in younger age groups referred to coming out as “just a phase” or something the child was “too young to know about.”

Religion is often used to invalidate marginalized sexual and gender identities in communities of color.

Dr. Sydney Lewis, a lecturer in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the niversity of Maryland, College Park, attributes this negative religious response to Christianity.

“Many Christian churches have a history of being homophobic and transphobic,” Lewis said. “And I think that our reliance on Black Christianity for our community, our safety and our growth and development, has been detrimental to LGBT folks of color, specifically Black folks.”

Religious homophobia and transphobia complicate the coming out narrative for many queer people. lle Moxley, a Black trans woman and founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, has experienced the harms of religious homophobia and transphobia firsthand.

“I didn’t necessarily, as a Black person, feel comfortable coming out or aligning with any rhetoric around that because a lot of times people are forced out,” Moxley said. “In my experience, growing up as a child in the COGIC (Church of God in Christ religion, there wasn’t an invitation to come out. I was forced out at 12 years old.”

While queer people have always existed, there is an intentional erasure of gay, trans, and non-binary people with-

in Christianity that stems from colonialism.

The visibility of queer sexuality in Black culture can be traced back to the Harlem Renaissance, where literature and music were full of stories about lived queer experiences. And non-binary identities have always been visible and integrated in some communities of color like in North American Indigenous cultures and Pacific Island cultures. Terms like “fa’afafine” in Samoa and “m h ” in Hawai’i are used to signify that someone identifies as non-binary or “third gender” .

In LGBTQ communities today, the idea that “coming out” means being more free to openly be yourself in public often elides the very real danger of visibility in trans lives of color.

“There’s this idea that visibility somehow equals greater freedom, but for some people, visibility equals greater danger,” Lewis said.

The Human Rights Campaign reports that 31 trans people have been killed so far this year, while a Williams Institute study found that transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime.

On a day like National Coming Out Day, which is thought to not only symbolize pride but also inclusion, people like lle Moxley are asking not for inclusion, but equity.

“I always say that inclusion is something that happened after the fact. I don’t subscribe to that,” Moxley said. “But what I do subscribe to is that reparations are an essential part to how equity in society happens.”

People like David Johns are also calling attention to how complicated a celebration like National Coming Out Day can be for LGBT communities of color.

“For the Black trans woman with a disability in Jackson, Miss., or my parents’ state of Texas, given the position that those governors have them in, it probably is not safe for them to come out even on a day we’re raising awareness as a part of a goal,” Johns said.

(Editor’s note: This story is part of a new Blade Foundation initiative focusing on the intersection between race and LGBTQ identities. It is funded by a grant from the Leonard-Litz Foundation.)

‘For some people, visibility equals greater danger’

NBJC’s DAVID J. JOHNs advocates ‘inviting in’ rather than ‘coming out.’ (Photo courtesy NBJC)

Trans Brazilian congresswoman-elect: Election is ‘important step for democracy’

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Brazil through Oct. 11.)

(

SÃO PAULO — One of the two transgender women who won a seat in the Brazilian Congress in the country’s Oct. 2 elections described her election as an “important step for democracy.”

“I am very happy,” Congresswoman-elect Erika Hilton told the Washington Blade after she spoke at a rally in support of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in São Paulo’s Praça Roosevelt. “We have a history of (lacking) resources and a great need to occupy spaces. This election shows that we plan to make a different history through what we have lived up until this point.”

“I am confident,” added Hilton. “I am worried.”

Hilton, 29, is a Black travesti and former sex worker who won a seat on the São Paulo Municipal Council in 2016. The member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty Party is among the 10 congressional candidates in São Paulo state who received the most votes on Oct. 2.

Belo Horizonte Municipal Councilwoman Duda Salabert, who is a member of the leftist Democratic Labor Party, also won her congressional race in Minas Gerais state. Salabert in a video she posted to her Twitter account noted she received the highest number of votes of any congressional candidate in her state’s history.

Salabert and Hilton are two of the 18 openly LGBT candidates who won their respective races.

President Jair Bolsonaro, a former Brazilian Army captain who is a member of the rightwing Liberal Party, will face off against Da Silva, a member of the leftist Workers’ Party who was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010, in an Oct. 30 runoff.

Bolsonaro has faced sharp criticism because of his rhetoric against LGBT and intersex Brazilians, women, people of African and indigenous descent and other groups.

The incumbent president, among other things, has expressed his opposition to “gender ideology” and condemned a 2019 Brazilian Supreme Court ruling that criminalized homophobia and transphobia.

Discrimination and violence based on gender identity remains commonplace in Brazil, and a Brazilian advocacy group noted 175 trans people were killed in the country in 2020. Keila Simpson, president of Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals , a Brazilian trans rights group known by the acronym ANTRA, earlier this year told the Blade that efforts to combat violence against LGBT and intersex Brazilians have become more difficult because Bolsonaro is “propagating violence against LGBTQ people every day.”

Hilton acknowledged she worries about her safety. A security guard stood a few feet away from her while she spoke with the Blade.

“I am afraid, but I think that this fear is not going to be able to stop me,” said Hilton. “It is the fuel that motivates me.”

She also said she considers herself a role model for trans and trasvesti Brazilians.

“It is a big responsibility … but I feel very honored,” said Hilton. “I very much like to be able to be a representative for my people, and the more than 250,000 people who voted for me have confidence in me. This demonstrates that our work has the potential to have a gigantic reach where we can advance efforts to end death, poverty, misery, genocide that we have.”

Bolsonaro ahead of the Oct. 2 elections sought to discredit Brazil’s electoral system.

The Associated Press notes Bolsonaro’s party gained seats in the Congress’ lower house, and Vice President Hamilton Mourão is among the Liberal Party members who won their Senate races. Concerns that violence could erupt in the country if Bolsonaro loses to Da Silva on Oct. 30 and refuses to accept the results remain.

Hilton told the Blade that Da Silva represents “democracy” and Bolsonaro is “the advance of fascism, the negation of rights.”

“We have endured horrors over the last four years because the current Brazilian (head of state) has been a very, very dangerous thing, which has been misery, which has been the dismantling of policies,” said Hilton, referring to Bolsonaro. “It is therefore necessary that Lula wins.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Montenegro Pride held despite protests

Despite strong opposition from the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro joined by pro-Serbian, selfstyled traditional values and family officials, Montenegro Pride was held with more than 500 people in attendance marching Saturday.

Montenegro’s 10th annual Pride event in this extremely conservative Balkan country was dubbed “No more buts,” re ecting demands from LGBT activists that more be done to stem hate speech and harassment of the nation’s LGBTQ community despite huge steps that have been made in the past years  oice of America reported.

Support for the Montenegrin LGBTQ community was also expressed by the .S. mbassy in Podgorica, the country’s capital, which tweeted “In honor of #Montene-

groPride and the #LGBT I community in Montenegro the U.S. Embassy is illuminated with the rainbow colors! Happy Pride  #nemaviseali

“We gathered here for the 10th time to show we are human, that we are live beings made of esh and blood, wishes and dreams, but rejected and ignored, discriminated and trampled upon because of love,” LGBTQ+/human rights activist Stasa Bastrica told oice of America.

The country’s government and elected officials have backed Pride events in recent years and approved samesex partnerships in 2020 as the country seeks membership in the European Union.

Bastrica pointed out while speaking with a reporter from VOA, the church and other conservative forces in Monte-

negro have fueled hatred against LGBTQ community by “making us the main enemy of the majority and insanely blaming us for the disappearance of marriage, family (values) and sometimes natural disasters, and all in the name of God.”

Another activist, Danijel Kalezic, said Oct. 7 Serbian Orthodox church-led gathering opposing the Pride march and LGBTQ rights in general illustrated the divisions in Montenegro. He insisted that the LGBTQ community will not give up their demands.

“We don’t want them officials to come here and take photos with us,” Kalezic said. “We want results. No more buts!”

BRODY LEVESQUE

r n on ress o n e ect ERIKA HILTON speaks at a pro-Lula rally in São Paulo on Oct. 3, 2022. (Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Martinez, de León, Cedillo must resign

Although Nury Martinez has resigned as the president of the Los Angeles City Council and councilmembers de León and Cedillo have expressed regret and apologized for the vulgar, crass, and frankly racist-tinged homophobic comments made last year, in the audio reported on Sunday by the Los Angeles Times, the reality is that all three of them need to resign and leave city government completely.

In this era of hyper-charged often hate filled political rhetoric, notably by many associated with former President Donald Trump and his followers, the last thing that a progressive city like Los Angeles needs is that type of backbiting-stabbing snark from alleged progressive leadership.

This is about more than just shared values- no, it is also about trust and commitment to constituents that crosses party and ideological lines. Attacking a child is simply unacceptable and inexcusable period but, when you couple that with implied homophobic slurring of that Black child’s parents, questioning their ability to be parents because their child is simply being a child?

Beyond the racist defining of that child, which in and of itself is inexcusable, how can these so called elected officials expect to engender the trust of their constituents going forward There will always remain the looming “elephantin-the-room” as to whether there are elements of insincerity that will always be present in everyone’s mind when dealing with these officials or taking any of their statements on face value in the future.

This has damaged the very dignity of serving the public by cheapening it to a hypocritical and frankly jaded political ploy in their naked self-interests and maintaining their political power and base.

On this day, Indigenous Peoples Day in California, it is especially shocking to be forced to call for this action. However, it is the opinion of this newspaper that to best serve the interests of the diversity of the communities of Angelenos who call this city home, especially the Black community and the LGBT community who are also parents, that these three politicos depart immediately.

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Scandal has damaged the very dignity of serving the public

TROY MASTERS is publisher and BRODY LEVESQUE is editor of the Los Angeles Blade.

NURY MARTINEZ at a joint LA City/County press conference September (Photo courtesy City of Los Angeles)

A political strategist and contributor to the Los Angeles Blade, JASMYNE CANNICK is a former Special Assistant to previous Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, a delegate in the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, and a proud member of The Blacks.

Los Angeles has seen its fair share of political scandals over the decades, but the leaked audio of Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera making disparaging and racist remarks about Black people, their colleagues, and conspiring to commit voter suppression takes the cake.

In one single instance, the worst fears of Blacks in Los Angeles were confirmed in graphic detail — the top Democratic political and labor leaders of the city are anti-Black and are actively conspiring to dismantle what is left of the Black community in Los Angeles.

Famed author and poet Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.”

From referring to a white councilmember’s Black son as an “accessory” and describing him as a monkey in Spanish to wanting to physically beat that same little boy, colluding to replace one Black councilmember with another who can be depended on to vote in favor of Latinos, conspiring to commit Black voter suppression, even seemingly writing off Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gasc n because “He’s with the Blacks” no one should ever be confused about where Black people stand with Martinez, Cedillo, de Leon, and Herrera.

Now that their plotting and planning and blatant racism have been exposed, usher in the carefully crafted public apologies. Miss me.

At the risk of never working at city hall or in politics again, I am going to speak the truth about this situation.

There are some instances where apologies just won’t cut it, and this is one of them.

The only acceptable resolution to this scandal is for the immediate resignation from public office of all four people involved. Period.

This is not a situation where thoughts-and-prayer-like statements mean a damn thing. The only statement that needs to be crafted is a resignation statement, and as a seasoned political strategist, I’ll write it for them for free.

Let’s be clear, had the leaked audio been of a group of Black leaders or Republicans saying racist and derogatory comments toward any other race or group of people and it would have been a “Do not pass go and do not collect $200” type of situation that would have resulted in the immediate calls for resignations of all involved.

This situation deserves the same treatment, and anything less says that it’s open season on Blacks and that there are no real long lasting consequences.

The deafening silence from alleged allies of the Black community on this situation, including the Democratic Party, is just as bad as the strongly worded statements that say everything except for the Martinez and Co. to resign.

This is a s t or get off the pot moment. There is no sitting on the fence or tap dancing around the elephant in the room.

Either you support racists or you don’t, and from where I am sitting, the Los Angeles County and California Democratic Parties, along with dozens and dozens of political leaders, seem to be siding with the racists, which makes them all hypocrites.

This is not a situation where folks get off the hook by apologizing, followed by meeting with leaders in the Black community, and we’re back to holding hands and singing

kumbayah.

Any so-called Black leader that isn’t calling for the resignation of these four people is aiding and abetting in the oppression and suppression of their own people, most likely for personal gain.

Fact. All four of the people involved in the leaked audio get paid from money that comes from all Angelenos not just Latinos. Nury Martinez offering to resign as council president leaves her paycheck and position as a councilmember in place. And in the case of top labor leader Ron Herrera, he actually conspired to use the dues from the paychecks of hardworking Black folks against them to dilute their power in the 10th council district.

It is because of years of behind-the-scenes anti-Black politicking by people who share the same views as Martinez, Cedillo, de Leon, and Herrera that Black people have been pushed out of the city to the point that there is no real Black political power in the city of Los Angeles. Because of the high cost of living and years of the very same tactics discussed in that audio, Black people make up less than 9 percent of the city’s population. Any power that we think we have in Los Angeles almost always requires the buy-in and support of allies. We have a 15-member city council with three Black members, of which one’s credibility has been called into question given the comments heard in the audio about why she was appointed to the position.

For those of us who love this city and fight every day just to be able to afford to live here, this hurts deep down. The release of the audio is an in-your-face reminder that many of the powers that be don’t care about us or want us here and are actively working against us — sadly, in some ways, with the help of other Blacks.

The audio also validates why the only zip code in the city that has seen an increase in its Black population is the one that encompasses Skid Row — an area of Los Angeles that Kevin de Leon represents. We know how he feels about Black people. It explains why Black people make up most of the homeless and cannot access city services in the ways others can. It explains why so many of the councilmembers don’t have any Black people on their staffs. Why Black consultants aren’t hired by labor unions in the way that other races are? Why there is a lack of Black leadership at the executive level in many of the labor unions in Los Angeles. The audio explains a lot.

When the top leadership of the city council calls a Black boy a monkey, says she wants to beat him, and accuses a colleague of being with “the Blacks,” what more do you need to know? Remember what Maya Angelou said.

Given the revelations exposed, every vote that was ever cast by Martinez, Cedillo, and de Leon that had anything to do with Black people needs to be re-examined. Department heads, starting with the chief of police, need to be interviewed on the record to see if members of the city council gave them directives to target, ignore, not hire, arrest, deny, not rent to, not contract with, not buy from Black people.

Pandora’s Box has been opened.

Add to all of that, the federal government needs to step in and investigate the city’s redistricting process, now.

If known racists are allowed to stay on the city council after being exposed, then we, Black people, deserve everything we get in this city moving forward.

Democrats love to talk about meeting the moment. What are they waiting for?

On City Hall scandal, Democrats it’s time to meet the moment When leadership calls Black boy a monkey what more do you need to know?

Fighting for LGBTQ kids with no place to call home

For one Amazon executive, mission to save LGBT youth is personal

By ROB WATSON

Amazon, whether you love it or hate it, it has revolutionized the way shoppers shop. nprofitable in its early years, it held tight to the vision to take the shopping experience out of the brick-and-mortar store, and transport it to a more intimate locale, the shopper’s own home.

Home. When shopping, it just means a place where you can comfortably make purchases while sitting in your underwear in front of your computer screen. For one Amazon executive, “home” means so much more.

Meet David Ambroz. He is the Head of Community ngagement West for Amazon. He has been recognized by President Barack Obama as an American Champion of Change. He led Corporate Social Responsibility for Walt Disney Television and was president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission. He graduated from assar and from the CLA School of Law. He has been publicly praised by Hillary Clinton and Geena Davis.

With all that as a resume, there are only two facts that he is really interested in you knowing about him. One, that until the age of 12, he grew up homeless with his two younger siblings in the care of their mentally ill mother and two, he was a victim of severe abuse in the foster care system as an adolescent gay teen boy.

These two realities form the narrative of his new memoir, A Place Called Home. We sat down to discuss his book and his life on the podcast Rated LGBT Radio this week. ven though he now lives comfortably and is the father of a now-adult son, adopted through foster care, David sees the concept of home as something else.

“Home is what I was seeking within myself, a sense of purpose and of mission. It is the feeling of love both for myself and for these people that I am of, and from, and still part of. It is a place I always had even though I felt like I didn’t, because I defined home as this idea of walls, and it never was that. I have a beautiful home at this point in my life, but that sense of mission is what gives me the true feeling that I’m in touch with the universe and doing something that matters,” he tells me.

The people from whom David was “from” for the most part, were not kind or gentle. A Place Called Home is a tale of survival from a mother who could lash out in violence instantly on a hairpin trigger. She stayed homeless long into David’s adulthood, long after he became established and could go find her. She is now safe in a living unit, and David is her caregiver.

Home is also the tale of a dysfunctional foster care system, homophobic to the core, and the worst place in which for a boy to deal with his awakening homosexuality. David was seen as gay by his handlers long before he himself had come to terms with it and was persecuted dramatically for it all in the name of “helping him.”

Hope for him came in the persona of a woman named Holly. As a volunteer in a MCA services program, Holly encountered young David, and knew instinctively that “he was hers.” She became a foster parent, and then was able to integrate David into her family. “I don’t know that I’d be here honestly, without them, and despite all the efforts within the system,” David acknowledges.

His entrance into young adulthood was not particularly easy, either. He had been conditioned to accept violence and abuse. As he stepped into the world seeking intimate companionship, he found himself raped instead. He did not fight it. He did not report it. He just accepted it, and moved on, just as his life up to that point had trained him to do.

He is no longer just moving on. He is fighting back to save kids, particularly LGBT kids who are subject to homelessness and foster care.

“There are 424,000 approximate foster children today in the system and we don’t talk about them,” he says. “I get asked about many controversial topics, but not that.”

He points out that the overturning of Roe versus Wade, the separation of children at the border, the opioid crisis, all have and will drive thousands of kids into the system. Adults discuss those causative issues, but never the foster care system itself, which is the current recipient to receive all the children harmed and affected.

“Foster care is not a system that is going to be overwhelmed in the future,” David points out. “It is overwhelmed NOW. It can’t handle the volume of children that are entering the system and they are falling out all the time. More of those kids leave the system and become homeless, than the ones that ever go to college. More of those kids go to jail than they do go to college. More girls coming out of foster care have a baby before they are 20 than go to college.”

David is fighting to overhaul the system to encourage more loving families to make themselves available to the kids who need them. He would like to see more LGBT parent households, more households that are not seeing foster care as an income source, and more households of color, participate.

David knows the many levels of being a foster parent himself.  Not only did he gain the son that he describes as “the love of my life and a remarkable human being,” but he allowed his son to teach him lessons he himself needed to learn.

“From the earliest moments of my life, vulnerability was just a constant. The hunger games of survival. I was vulnerable to all these things just coming at me, starvation, near-death experiences and a perpetual state of fear. I had a fundamental misunderstanding that I was unfortunately passing on to him,” David recalls. “My misunderstanding was my philosophy that the world does not give a damn, that you better prepare for whatever happens and to move on. But my lack of vulnerability did not give my son the space to acknowledge his own traumatic childhood before I got him.”

David realized however, that he had a calling with his son, to help him move through his trauma, to help him heal. He discovered something about “the world does not give a damn” idea. “That it was not true. I cared. I loved him. He gave me vulnerability and emotion. I now think of vulnerability as a superpower.”

Moving forward from that lesson, David re-examined his priorities.  He was inspired by ideas on how to help his son, but now, he was thinking bigger: how could he also help all the other kids like his son in the world, to help them reach their full potentials A mission, thus, was born.

David had come home at last.

DAVID AMBROZ (Photos courtesy Ambroz)

By JOHN PAUL KING

We all know the LGBTQ community loves horror – that’s why we sometimes call Hal loween “Gay Christmas.”

The appeal of stories about monsters and other creatures of the night should be ob vious for a community of people whose very existence has been considered a threat for as long as they can remember. Yet, until recently, the genre has been notably short on outwardly LGBTQ subject matter, leaving us to assume that our love for horror has been a one-sided affair all along.

Or has it? According to the minds behind “Queer for Fear,” a new docuseries streaming on Shudder just in time for Halloween, the genre has been actively shaped by queer sen sibilities from the very start – and they’re prepared to show the receipts.

The series, which drops new episodes each Friday through October, employs an array of experts – from creators to scholars to celebrities who just happen to be fans – to peel back the surface of the genre and reveal the queer heart beating within. It maintains a fun tone, making for an enjoyable-yet-in formative seasonal distraction; neverthe less, it takes the subject matter seriously, making clear from the very first episode that its goal is to make a thoroughly re searched case for the notion that queer subtext is deliberately built into the genre from the foundation up.

Though the show’s focus is ultimately on movies, it must first pave the way by delving into the origins of horror fiction. In Episode 1, “Queer for Fear” does some sleuthing into the private lives of the 19th century authors whose contributions loom the largest: Mary Shelley, who argu ably spawned both the horror and science fiction genres with her hastily written “Frankenstein,” and Bram Stoker, who re invented the image of the vampire in his only successful book, “Dracula.”

Typically interpreted as a cautionary fable about the reckless pursuit of science and technology without concern for consequences, Shelley’s audaciously transgressive 1818 novel also serves as a philosophical rumination on society’s conception of what is “unnat ural.” nlike the hulking monster in most versions of the story disseminated through film and other media later, in the original book Dr. Frankenstein’s creation is intelligent and eloquent, even refined, and seeks only to exist without persecution. Needless to say, the “good doctor” not only refuses to help, but devotes himself to the creature’s destruction, leading readers inevitably to question which of them is actually the monster.

It’s that question that lies at the heart of every good horror story since; by evoking our “sympathy for the devil,” so to speak, classic monsters from King Kong to Hannibal Lecter become the heroes while their oppressors – no matter how well-intentioned – mostly elic it our disdain. It’s not hard to recognize how that dynamic resonates with queer identity.

Striking perhaps even closer to home was Stoker’s 1897 “Dracula,” which took the al ready sexually charged archetype of the vampire out of the distant hinterlands of Central urope and transported him to London. Now the symbolic associations with queer expe rience became even more apparent deviant eroticism, a certain uidity of gender in the vampire’s choice of victims, a need to secret himself away from the world during daylight – all these things and more make the vampire into a quintessentially queer monster, and Stoker’s novel burned them into the cultural imagination.

Mainstream literary scholars and historians (and by mainstream, we mean “straight”) have always been quick to caution against reading too much into such parallels, assuring us that they rise from themes with a generalized application to anyone deemed by soci

ety to be “other” and should not be interpreted as an expression of any actual queerness on the author’s part; indeed, these authorities remind us, they would presumably have been as blind to such subtext as most of their readers, especially in the 19th century. In short, queer observers who pointed to such a perspective in these works – or any other art or fiction produced before Stonewall, essentially, and most of those produced since have usually been told we were imagining things.

“Queer for Fear” challenges that dismissive assumption. Turning to the personal papers of Shelley and Stoker and the obvious inferences that can be drawn from the biographi cal details of their lives, the series asserts that these authors – whose works have cast a more wide-reaching in uence over the evolution of horror than perhaps any other writer – were not only aware of the queer subtext dripping from every page of their books but were actually queer themselves. To those unused to thinking beyond the heteronorma tive edges of our cultural narrative, that might seem a bold statement – especially regard ing Stoker, who in later life was known for his strident opposition to “indecency” (sexual and otherwise) in society.

The show’s second episode, which moves into the 20th century and exam ines the beginnings of horror on film, covers more generally accepted territory as it explores the career of gay director James Whale, whose classic queer-cod ed fright films of the 1930s forged a per manent connection between horror and camp, and goes on to examine the life of famously closeted actor Anthony Per kins before and after his iconic role as a cross-dressing murderer in “Psycho.” It treads on shakier ground, however, when it implies the possibility of queer tenden cies in the latter film’s director, Alfred Hitchcock – something that might seem a bit of a reach in light of his well-docu mented obsessions with his leading ladies, even considering that his work frequently displayed such blatant examples of queer subtext that even straight film scholars have long acknowledged them.

Unsurprisingly, one can scroll through the viewer comments about the series on Shud der’s website and see the vehemence with which obvious homophobes have objected to the show’s conclusions many of these cite a lack of definitive proof which is, admittedly, a fair point. It’s hard to produce a “smoking gun” establishing the queerness of someone who lived in a time when keeping it hidden could easily be a matter of life or death.

When the facts are laid out plainly, however, as “Queer for Fear” endeavors to do, they speak volumes in support of a secret LGBTQ thread running through the history of hor ror since its earliest inception – a concept that has, in fact, become widely accepted in academic circles since the advent of Queer Theory in the ‘90s – which was intentionally put there by artists who created a coded storytelling language that would allow them to express their queerness in a way that would be obvious to those “in the know” but invis ible to everybody else. Later, of course, some of those coded elements would be twist ed into problematic tropes by filmmakers who had caught on and endeavored to turn them against us (something the series will doubtless explore in upcoming episodes) – but hurtful or not, they were put there on purpose, and despite the grousing of uneducated internet trolls, horror has always been queer.

Still, people can’t be blamed for being oblivious to what they were never intended to notice in the first place. Now, thanks to Shudder, straight horror fans can finally school themselves about something that’s been right under their noses all along.

‘Queer for Fear’ examines the queer history of horror.

‘Queer for Fear’ reveals that horror has always been queer Shudder docuseries shows how genre has been shaped by LGBTQ sensibilities

th e t on of y Post s t uette o ers u te v ce on ronouns n uch ore

By KATHI WOLFE

Some families manage bakeries, nurseries, or vineyards.

For Daniel Post Senning, great-great grandson of Emily Post and an Emily Post Institute co-president, and Lizzie Post, great-great granddaughter of Emily Post and an Emily Post Institute co-president, etiquette is the family business.

The Emily Post Institute, based in Waterbury, Vt., conducts seminars and trainings. It partners with businesses and nonprofit groups to “bring etiquette and manners to a wide audience,” according to its website.

When you think of etiquette, you’re likely to be transported to Downton Abbey. Butlers, finger bowls, the dancing school lessons you hated as a kid stuffy, rich usually white, hetero) people at formal dinners managing a zillion salad forks – come to mind.

But, for Post and Senning, who co-host the popular, entertaining podcast “Awesome tiquette,” etiquette is as far from being an ossified, exclusionary code of manners as we are from being the Dowager having tea at Downton.

Emily Post, the acclaimed etiquette maven, published her first book on etiquette, “ tiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home,” in 1922.

Post’s seminal book, considered by many to be the “holy writ” of etiquette and stolen from libraries almost as frequently as the Bible), has been revised by Post herself and her descendants during the past century to evolve with changing times.

“ mily Post’s tiquette, The Centennial dition” by Lizzie Post and Daniel Post Senning, the 20th edition of Emily Post’s “ tiquette,” is just out. For info on “ mily Post’s tiquette, the Centennial dition,” the Awesome tiquette podcast and the Emily Post Institute, visit emilypost.com.)

The “Centennial dition” has lively, up-to-date advice and discussion on everything in life in the early 2020s from the use of “mx” as a title to grief to respecting people’s pronouns to how to get company to stop making bigoted “jokes” to how to handle an inebriated guest.

From the get-go, Emily Post, who was born in Baltimore in 1872 during the Gilded Age and died in 1960, didn’t view etiquette as restrictive or exclusionary. “As mily explained,’” Post and Senning write, “etiquette is not some rigid code of manners; it’s simply how persons’ lives touch one another.”

If you browse some editions of mily Post’s books as this reporter has , you won’t find schoolmarmish directives or ethereal descriptions of the etiquette gods’ mannered lives on Mount Olympus.

ou’ll find daily life “with all its successes and mishaps,” Post and Senning write, “With tales like ‘How a Dinner Can Be Bungled’ and characters such as Mrs. Worldly, Constance Style, Mrs. Kindhart and the Onceweres.”

Emily Post painted relatable pictures of what to do and not to do, Post and Senning write.

Though Emily Post wouldn’t have known what a smartphone or social media were, her etiquette “still aims to equip you,” write Post and Senning, “with a sense of confidence and preparedness for some of the situations you’ll encounter at home, at work, in your social life, and when you’re out and about.”

Despite claims that etiquette is dead, it is very much alive,

say Post and Senning.

Steven Petrow, an award-winning journalist and expert on civility and manners, agrees. “I’m always surprised by how timely Emily Post’s advice continues to be,” Petrow, who is gay, said in an email to the Blade. “Recently, I wrote about ‘monkeypox manners,’ and cited Mrs. Post’s timeless advice about respect, consideration and honesty in our social interactions, which includes those in the bedroom.”

Post and Senning graciously took time out from their busy schedules the launch of the “Centennial dition,” hosting their podcast – along with their other work with the Emily Post Institute) to talk with the Blade over the phone in separate interviews.

“ mily Post’s tiquette, The Centennial dition” was a Herculean labor of writing and editing for Post and Senning. It took a year to write the book, Post said. And, then there was all of the time spent to ensure that the book was carefully edited.

“I would write,” said Post, 40, who manages the Institute’s publishing efforts, “Dan would come in and help me edit the book.”

It was intense, “day-to-day” labor for her and Senning along with their other work , Post said. “I’m grateful to all the people who were willing to have their lives disrupted while we worked on it,” she added.

Etiquette has been used for less than gracious purposes, Post said. “It can easily be exclusive.”

The Post family believes that etiquette is based on the principles of consideration, respect and honesty. This may sound abstract. But these principles aren’t empty words. They have a profound impact in the real world.

Before joining the mily Post Institute in 2008 when he was 30, Senning worked in the performing arts, touring with the Laurie Cameron Company in Los Angeles.

Today, Senning, who lives in Duxbury, t., with his wife, Puja and their three children Anisha, Arya, and William, manages the Institute’s training programs. He has co-authored several books on etiquette covering topics from business to digital manners and regularly speaks with media outlets about business, technology, and dining etiquette.

In 2009, same-sex marriage became legal in ermont. “Then, before the Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling,” he said, “we were in the vanguard. We got questions about how to respond to same-sex weddings,” Senning added.

The Institute’s response was to note how normal civil unions were, Senning said, and that same-sex weddings weren’t different from hetero weddings.

“If you’re invited to a civil union, reply,” Senning recalled the Institute advising, “let people know if you can or can’t attend.”

Senning loved the “normalization” of the response. “It was really affirming to me,” he said.

Etiquette isn’t only for happy times. It’s called on when things get rough.

“ tiquette has a role in hard times,” Post, who’s been an American xpress spokesperson and written columns for publications ranging from “Broccoli Magazine” to “Women’s Running,” said.

Many go through hard times from losing a job to being ill to

grieving, she added. Emily Post on etiquette a century ago, but her thoughts on on an iPad screen as they did then

grieving, she added. Emily Post may have written on etiquette a century ago, but her thoughts on grief ring as true on an iPad screen as they did then in a hardback book.

“At no time does solemnity so possess our souls as when we stand deserted at the brink of dark-

“At no time does solemnity so possess our souls as when we stand deserted at the brink of darkness into which our loved one has gone,” Emily Post wrote in 1922, “And the last place in the world where we would look for comfort at such a time is in the seeming artificiality of etiquette; yet it is in the moment of deepest sorrow that etiquette performs its most vital and real service.”

“All set rules for social observance have for their object the smoothing of personal contracts,” mily Post added, “and in nothing is smoothness so necessary as in observing the solemn rites accorded our dead.”

Etiquette can help people grieve together in community through writing a condolence note, attending a funeral or another act of common grief, Lizzie Post said.

If you’ve suffered a loss, it can be incredible to realize the impact a loved one has had when you receive condolence notes or see so many people at a memorial service.

There’s a new trend where you can take part in the grief without going to a funeral, Post, who lives in her native state of ermont, said. “When someone dies, for example, you raise a glass at five o’clock to honor them.”

Sometimes you have to use etiquette to stand against prejudice. If someone’s telling a racist or anti-queer joke at your dinner table, you’ll need to say, “‘I’m sorry. This is not a joke for this table,’” Post said.

While etiquette counsels against rudeness, safety trumps etiquette, Post and Senning have said on the Awesome Etiquette podcast and in the “Centennial dition.”

Tolerance doesn’t mean tolerating an unwanted hug, an inappropriate touch or being “othered,” said Post, who has co-authored and authored etiquette books on topics ranging from weddings to legalized cannabis use.

Take hugging. “We talk about how to ask for a hug and how to block a hug,” Post said.

tiquette experts, like the rest of us, take time off. On vacation, Post, co-author and narrator with Kelly Williams Brown of the Audible Original “Mistakes were Made” think etiquette meets “Broad City” , doesn’t want to be rude to people. “But, sometimes, I don’t want to analyze behavior,” she said, “I just want to act.”

For info on the fascinating life of mily Post, go to “ mily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners” by Laura Claridge.

A guide for daily life ‘with all its successes and mishaps’

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