Los Angeles Blade, Volume 06, Issue 51, December 23, 2022

The stories that marked 2022 for California and Los Angeles

COVID, uptick in hate crimes, elections dominated headlines

By BRODY LEVESQUE

LOS ANGELES – A war in Ukraine, the midterm elections, a near pandemic of a highly infectious disease impacting men who have sex with men, the 2022 Beijing Games, a WNBA star imprisoned by the Russian government and then a carefully negotiated release, the election of the first Black woman as mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States and third-largest city in North America all marked 2022 as a unique year.

For Angelenos, the slow recovery from effects of the coronavirus impact coupled with an uptick in hate crimes, seemingly out of control gas prices, high inflation and election races dominated headlines.

In the late fall, allegations of corruption in the LA Sheriff’s Department, a significant increase in hate-related incidents coupled with higher crime rates and a crisis in LA City government, after a scandal involving three city council members heard in a leaked audio recording making racist and homophobic remarks, along with a tight mayoral race between a billionaire real estate tycoon and a popular Black woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives were the critical stories the Southland’s attention was focused on.

Monkeypox became the primary focus of the LGBTQ+ community as it spread with lightning speed as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, elected officials, and LGBTQ healthcare providers struggled first to diagnose and treat burdened by a federal and state bureaucracy unprepared to address vaccine supply shortages and implement vaccinations quickly.

Incidents of hate dramatically increased in California in 2022 as acts of anti-Semitism, threats of violence including death threats against LGBTQ-affirming businesses and public libraries for holding charitable drag events, and attacks on elected out LGBTQ lawmakers drew headlines.

Monkeypox

Monkeypox vax outages and bureaucracy impedes healthcare providers the  Blade published 4 months ago on August 12, 2022. Frustrations mounted as the campaign to vaccinate people against infection of the monkeypox virus is derailed by a critical supply shortage of vaccine doses with added bureaucratic obstacles in getting financial reimbursement to the healthcare providers and clinics dispensing the vaccine.

From the initial reports of the outbreak in May of 2022, the global spread of the disease was astonishingly rapid. By the middle of the summer monkeypox became a worldwide public health crisis, with more than 23,200

confirmed or presumptive positive cases reported across more than 70 countries where it is not considered endemic. Declared a public health crisis by the World Health Organization and then by the Biden administration, in Los Angeles, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to declare an emergency the day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a State of Emergency to combat the outbreak.

Political scandal grips LA City Hall

As the 2022 mid-term election races entered the final stretch in the fall, published accounts of an audio recording with three city council members, one of whom was council president, and a prominent labor leader rocked the political world in Southern California. The Los Angeles Times and Knock LA published articles and audio of racist comments regarding gay LA City Council member Mike Bonin’s Black son and other city and county officials.

In the aftermath, Nury Martinez announced she was resigning as president of the LA city council and then later from her seat. The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Michel Moore in a tweet referred to the scandal as “a dark day for our City of Angels.”

The scandal continued as one of the other two elected officials, Council member Kevin de León refused to resign his seat after public outcry and protests against his remaining on the council  disrupted regular sessions of that elected body.

Bass sworn in as LA mayor

Thousands gathered in downtown L.A. on December 11, 2022 at the Microsoft Theatre to witness the historic inauguration of Mayor-elect Karen Bass. Many danced in the aisles to the upbeat music pouring into the theater through the loudspeakers.

Bass was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and first woman American ever elected to hold that office.

Bass, 69, no stranger to pioneering women’s and African-American rights, is now Los Angeles’ 43rd mayor and the first woman and second African American to be elected to this position after the legendary Mayor Tom Bradley, in the city’s 241-year history. She won the election against billionaire businessman and developer Rick Caruso in a neck-and-neck race.

“Making history with each of you today is a monumental moment in my life and for Los Angeles,” said the new mayor in her inauguration speech.

The State of Hate

Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County grew 23% from 641 to 786 in 2021. This is

the  largest number recorded since 2002. The crimes overwhelmingly included acts of violence, and more than half were spurred by racism. Blacks, Latinos, Jews and LGBTQ individuals were the most-targeted groups. While Black residents only make up 9% of the county’s population, the report showed that they comprise 46% of hate crime victims.

Amid an increase in hate-fueled violence across the country,  Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to equalize and strengthen penalties for using hate symbols and bolster security for targeted religious and community-based nonprofits.

Newsom also announced his appointments to the Commission on the State of Hate including longtime Trans Latina advocate and Los Angeles community leader Bamby Salcedo who heads the TransLatin@ Coalition.

Anti-LGBTQ Hate

For the LGBTQ community in Southern California, in fact across the state, 2022 saw an escalation of anti-LGBTQ+ threats of violence, attacks on the drag community, and against individuals. One openly gay senior at El Toro High School in Orange County  has had it with homophobia, especially when it appears at his front door, literally. 18-year-old Landon Jones posted video captured from his family’s ring. com surveillance camera that displayed the homophobic abuse that occurred, which has now gone viral.

Politicians’ were also targets of anti-LGBTQ animus. The most recent example occurring on December 6th, when  San Francisco police responded to a bomb threat at Calif. State Senator Scott Wiener’s home. Wiener is an openly gay champion for queer rights, who represents San Francisco’s Senatorial District 11 in Sacramento.

This also marks the second time this year that a bomb threat targeting him resulted with police searching his residence and professional workspaces.  Both times the threats were laced with profanities that denigrated his sexuality

Transitions

Out actor Leslie Jordan died in a Hollywood car crash after suffering an unspecified medical emergency the LAPD said. The 67-year-old beloved actor and comedian saw a resurgence of fame with his viral and hilarious videos on  social media during the lengthy coronavirus pandemic. Jordon was best known for his roles as Lonnie Garr in Hearts Afire (1993–1995), Beverly Leslie in Will & Grace (2001–2006, 2017–2020), and several characters in the American Horror Story franchise (2011–

present).

Jordan was also devoted as an advocate for LGBTQ+ equality rights.

Thomas Senzee, a California native whose award-winning career spanned nearly thirty years in media, writing for outlets including The Huffington Post, The Advocate/OUT, The Fight Magazine, The Washington Blade, The Los Angeles Business Journal and other publications,  was found deceased on Thursday, March 24, 2022, in Palm Springs. The former Editor-In-Chief of the San Diego LGBT Weekly webzine and frequent contributor to The San Diego Reader, an alternative press newspaper, died at age 54.

She was a staple at hundreds of LGBTQ+ events, often performing around her beloved Chicago, over the years and a staunch defender of LGBTQ+ equality. Often referred to as  “The Love Goddess” and “Aphrodite of the Accordion,” comedian Judy Tenuta died at her LA home, also in October, at age 72 from ovarian cancer.

California leads the way in LGBTQ+ legislative efforts nationwide

Providing safeguards to  block out-of-state attempts to penalize families that come to Calif. seeking medical treatment for trans children, a first-in-the-nation law will help create a more inclusive and  culturally competent healthcare system for TGI (transgender, gender diverse, and intersex) people in California, and laws to allowing cities to adopt the new regulations for multi-stall gender-neutral bathrooms plus legislation to Protect Sexual Assault Victims’ DNA were  signed into law this past year by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

2022 Midterm Elections

For LGBTQ+ Californians, this election cycle brought a number of significant advances as more openly LGBTQ+ officials were elected or reelected to local, state, and federal offices. In the election cycle, California became the first state in the nation to achieve 10% LGBTQ+ representation in its state legislature.

Rick Chavez Zbur (AD-51) — the former executive director of Equality California was sworn in to represent West Los Angeles County to include the LGBTQ+ enclave of West Hollywood.

Representative Mark Takano who was the only LGBTQ+ Member of Congress, found himself joined by former Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia in turn himself becoming the first openly gay immigrant elected to the U.S. House.

Texas man arrested for anti-Semitic hate crime in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills Police responded to a call Sunday evening of a reported suspect defacing a Menorah on private property in the area of Sunset Boulevard and Foothill Road.

Eric Brian King from Dallas, Texas, was taken into custody after surveillance video depicted him throwing objects at a Menorah. The initial investigation revealed that King carved Nazi symbols into the base of the Menorah. He was charged with felony vandalism and a hate crime.  BHPD Detectives are conducting a follow-up investigation, which may lead to additional charges.

“A despicable act such as this will nev-

er be

Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County grew 23% from 641 to 786 in 2021. The number of reported hate crimes across the county has reached the highest total seen in 19 years, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

To view the complete report, including hate crime maps, graphs, and tables, as well as specific race/ethnicity data and examples, please visit https // hrc.lacounty.gov.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Newsom visits California-Mexico border

California Governor Gavin Newsom visited the California-Mexico border on Monday, just a week ahead of the anticipated lifting of Title 42.

Governor Newsom toured a testing, vaccination, and resource center in California and was joined by the Governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Avila-Olmeda, to visit a migrant shelter in Mexicali.

Monday was the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico.

“On Day One of his administration, President Biden put forward a comprehensive plan focused on securing our border, ensuring Dreamers have a permanent home in our country, and helping businesses address their needs for more workers,” said Newsom. “Instead of working on real reform, the response from Republicans has been to exploit the situation at our border for political gain. California has invested roughly 1 billion over the past three years to support the health and safety of migrants as well as the surrounding border communities, but we cannot continue to do this work alone. It is long past time for Republicans in Congress to engage on real solutions to meet the public

safety, public health and humanitarian issues at our border and in our immigration system.”

Governor Newsom and Governor Avila-Olmeda toured the Peregrino Migrant Shelter in Mexicali alongside members of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration. The shelter provides aid and shelter to migrants and asylum seekers who seek to enter the United States.

Newsom also visited a testing, vaccinations and resource center, which is led by the State of California. The center provides arriving migrants with screening, testing, and vaccination services to minimize the spread of COVID-19. In addition to COVID-19 services, the TVRCs offer short-term shelter, medical screenings and onward travel coordination so migrants may safely pursue their immigration proceedings.

“Through these efforts, California has advanced a staterun national model that protects the health and well-being of arriving migrants and our border communities, in partnership with local governments and nonprofit community organizations,” a spokesperson for Newsom wrote in a press release.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Newsom inducts 15th California Hall of Fame class

Governor Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom yesterday  oined the California Museum to induct the 15th class of the California Hall of Fame.

Among the honorees this year was Out lesbian Megan Rapinoe, an American professional soccer player, FIFA World Cup winner and member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Gold Medal winning U.S. Soccer Team.

The inductees of the California Hall of Fame 15th class are

Actor and singer-songwriter Lynda Carter

Chef Roy Choi

Physicist Steven Chu

Ice skater Peggy Fleming

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild

Choreographer Alonzo King

Teacher and former astronaut Barbara Morgan

Soccer player Megan Rapinoe

Singer Linda Ronstadt

tolerated in our City,” said Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark G. Stainbrook.

Artist Ed Ruscha Band Los Tigres del Norte FROM STAFF REPORTS

(Photo via Screenshot/YouTube)

California Hall of Famer MEGAN RAPINOE and First Partner SIEBEL NEWSOM with youth soccer players

(Photo Credit: California Museum)

California Hall of Famers Los Tigres Del Norte (Photo Credit: California Museum)

Governor of Baja California AVILA-OLMEDA with Governor NEWSOM toured the Peregrino Migrant Shelter in Mexicali oto co rtes ce of o ernor ila lmeda

Meet Gisele Fetterman, bisexual wife of Pennsylvania’s incoming freshman senator

An exclusive interview with the Blade after her husband’s hard-won Senate bid

By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com

When the Blade caught up with Gisele Barreto Fetterman this month, she was looking forward to some upcoming travel plans.

First up is a trip to Washington in January to witness the swearing-in ceremony for her husband, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who was just elected to represent the Keystone State in the U.S. Senate after one of the year’s most hardfought midterm races.

Then, in March, she plans to visit family in Brazil for the first time since travel to her native country was restricted in the early days of the pandemic, and just in time to celebrate another electoral victory as Brazilian voters have ousted their far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Travel of the more rote and routine variety also lies ahead for Fetterman and the senator-elect, who will be dividing their time between Washington and the couple’s home with their three children in Braddock, Pa.

Gisele Fetterman is eager for the opportunity to better acquaint herself with the nation’s capital. Having already met some very nice people in the city, she told the Blade, “I’m so excited to make some more fun memories and get to know D.C. better.”

It is difficult to imagine she will have trouble making friends. Even over the phone, she is disarmingly funny, sensitive, and kind unflinchingly sincere in her dedication to service on behalf of those in need.

At the same time, because the breathless and exhaustive press coverage of her husband’s race against Republican opponent Dr. Oz sometimes included unwarranted scrutiny and criticism of the Democratic candidate’s wife, some folks who were not previously familiar with her might have been left with an incomplete or distorted picture.

Gisele Fetterman was under the microscope as much for her sartorial choices (almost all thrifted), as for her stalwart presence as one of the Fetterman campaign’s most effective surrogates.

Regarding the right-wing attacks that were focused on her identity as a bisexual woman and immigrant from Latin America, she jokes, “they made me sound like a superhero.”

Still, this type of partisan rancor, mean spiritedness, cynicism, and guilefulness are so anathema to Gisele Fetterman’s character and core values that you are left with the impression that she would probably prefer to keep politics at an arm’s length but for her marriage to an incoming U.S. senator.

Leading by example with love and unconditional acceptance

Children are a comforting reminder that human beings are not predestined to fear or harbor prejudice against each other, she said, recalling a memorable exchange that happened as her family was hosting a wedding for a gay couple.

She had rushed to Costco to pick up a big rainbow cake and was fastidiously preparing their home for the ceremony when one of her boys asked what the fuss was about. “Daddy marries people all the time,” he said. “What’s the big deal?”

“This time it’s two boys who are getting married,” Gisele Fetterman said. For her son, it was still just another wedding. “Oh my God, it was just such a sweet and normal and beautiful reaction,” she said, “but that’s all he knows.”

John Fetterman has married same-sex couples for years, including when such unions were illegal under Pennsylvania law during his tenure as mayor of Braddock. Raising children to be “loving and accepting and non-judgmental is really easy if we live that example for them,” Gisele Fetterman said.

She would know, having grown up around LGBTQ people who were embraced unconditionally. After moving with her family to New York at the age of eight, a gay couple who lived nearby stepped in to help care for Gisele and her brother when their mom had to work long hours, she said. The neighbors “became like uncles.”

“My best friend in middle school was gay, my best friend in high school was gay, and I consider myself a member of the community, too, so it’s always just felt very natural” to enjoy the company of other LGBTQ people, she said. “I always choose them.”

More broadly, she said she has always felt closest to “those who have been underrepresented, or historically ignored,” a personal ethos that has informed her work as an activist, philanthropist, and founder-director of mission-driven nonprofit organizations.

A nutritionist by trade, 10 years ago she launched a program to cut down on food waste while helping people who are experiencing hunger. More than 24 million pounds of good, safeto-eat food from retailers, wholesalers, and grocers has since been rescued from landfills and rerouted to help feed people who are food-insecure.

Gisele Fetterman also leads initiatives to provide those in need with other essential items, support services, and emergency funds, including through the organizations that she founded or co-founded, Free Store 15104, For Good PGH, and 412 Food Rescue.

Along with her nonprofit work, she said the way in which she has approached her role as a politician’s wife has also been influenced by her memories of and experiences with financial hardship in both Brazil and the United States.

For instance, in 2019 when her husband was elected to become Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor after 13 years as Mayor Fetterman, the new house that came with his new job, complete with a swimming pool, made her uncomfortable. “I would never want to live in a mansion that taxpayers are paying for,” she said. “It just felt wrong.”

Ultimately, the family opted not to live in the lieutenant governor’s mansion. The pool, however, was a different story.

She knew that generations of Black people in America have been denied access to swimming pools through segregation, redlining, and other racist policies, suffering consequences like higher rates of accidental drowning as a result. So she decided to open the pool for public use.

“I really believe you have to see yourself in places to know that you belong in them,” she said. Welcoming historically excluded people to learn about water safety and enjoy themselves in a space that otherwise would be reserved for the couple and their three children made for some “amazing summers,” she said.

In October, a Fox News columnist characterized as “bizarre” Gisele Fetterman’s rationale for opening the swimming pool

for public use, writing that Pennsylvania’s second lady had called the act of swimming itself “racist.”

Was it possible that the author had not understood her words rather than deliberately mischaracterizing them and the context in which they were delivered to make a bad-faith attack with Election Day less than two weeks ahead?

Gisele Fetterman appears to think so, as she did not entertain the notion that perhaps the columnist should be tossed into an outdoor pool in December. Instead, she suggested a history book, adding that America’s record of racism and segregation is “really painful, and it can be ugly, but it’s really important to know.”

Asked how she might advise her husband on the challenge of dealing with difficult colleagues in Congress, particularly the senator from Texas whom former GOP House Speaker John Boehner memorably called “lucifer in the flesh,” she again urged patience and understanding.

“The way I work with difficult or unkind people,” she said, is to make up a narrative, a story about something or someone that may have caused the poor behavior because imagining there is an underlying reason can help lower the temperature.

At the same time, she said, while it’s true that hurt people hurt people, everyone is capable of reflecting, consulting a therapist, and otherwise doing whatever it takes to forge a different path.

There may be a dearth of kindness and empathy in Washington’s political circles, but there is certainly no shortage of self-aggrandizement or inflated egos.

Here, too, she may be able to offer some guidance, given her habit of never taking herself too seriously or missing the opportunity for a self-deprecating joke (often directed at her husband).

For instance, after becoming the second lady of Pennsylvania, she shortened her title to its acronym, preferring instead to call herself and be known by others as “the SLOP.”

She also shares photos on social media with her 6-foot-8 husband’s head partially cropped out so that her shoes are visible in the frame, and insists that their marriage operates with the unspoken understanding that Gisele is always right when there are differences of opinion.

On that latter point, should anyone long for the same dynamic with their spouse or significant other, Gisele Fetterman offers the following advice “ ou ust have to be really confident in your truth,” she said, adding, “then you just, like, ignore him when he’s speaking.”

GISELE BARETTO FETTERMAN with her husband Senator-Elect JOHN FETTERMAN and their children.

(Photo courtesy of Gisele Fetterman)

Critics call on incoming gay GOP Rep. Santos to resign

Media reports this week have ignited demands for the resignation of incoming freshman gay Republican Rep. George Santos (N.Y.) and calls for investigations by congressional ethics and election officials and law enforcement agencies.

On Monday, the New York Times published an investigative story that drew renewed attention to issues concerning Santos’s alleged financial malfeasance along with misrepresentations, lies, and omissions concerning a variety of subjects.

Many, perhaps most, of the details in this report were covered prior to the election by other press outlets, mostly serving smaller local media markets, as well as by Santos’s gay Democratic opponent Robert Zimmerman.

Nevertheless, until this week little attention was paid to the revelations about and questions concerning Santos –from his alleged falsification of key details about his biography to his failure to list the clients of his asset management firm in congressional financial disclosures.

Santos has not responded publicly except through a statement provided by his attorney Joe Murray, who wrote: “After four years in the public eye, and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican led 118th Congress, the New York Times launches this shotgun blast of attacks,” Murray said in a statement.

Murray also accused the paper of launching attacks against Santos to smear “his good name with these defamatory allegations.”

Santos’s victory for New ork’s 3rd congressional district was a mild upset in a midterm election cycle that cost Democrats their control of the House only narrowly. So, when renewed attention was drawn to the race this week, questions mounted about whether Democrats had failed to ad-

equately warn voters about Santos’s conduct and record.

At the same time, Republican officials in New ork and Washington were blamed for either ignoring the issues with their candidate or failing to adequately vet him.

Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran declined to comment because Santos has not yet personally addressed the allegations against him.

The questions about financial impropriety and possible violations of elections laws may raise the specter of serious consequences for Santos. Responding to this week’s reporting, Zimmerman joined a chorus of voices on Twitter who called for investigations by the House Ethics Committee, Federal Elections Commission, and U.S. Attorney’s office. Legal issues aside, the breadth of matters about which it appears Santos has lied, misrepresented, or omitted key facts is remarkable.

The Times reported, for instance, that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said they had no record of Santos ever working there, despite his repeated claims to the contrary. The paper also noted that public records contradict Santos’s assertion that four of his employees were killed in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.

The Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump addresses Log Cabin Republicans at Mar-a-Lago

Former President Donald Trump addressed an audience gathered at his Mar-a-Lago club and estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday night for the Log Cabin Republicans’ Spirit of Lincoln gala, the conservative LGBTQ group’s flagship event.

“We are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard,” Trump said.

“Last night, we had over 450 LGBT conservatives and our straight allies join us for another amazing Spirit of Lincoln gala,” Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran told the Blade.

“While the speakers and award honorees spanned the conservative spectrum, all of them, including President Trump, articulated a deep appreciation for our community and committed to our broader inclusion and support for gay rights,” Moran said, adding, “This is the bar we’ll be holding all GOP candidates to in 2023 and 2024.”

Last year, the Log Cabin Republicans honored Melania Trump with its Spirit of Lincoln award, citing her work combatting bullying in her role as first lady.

However, the group’s support of the former president, his family and his administration has not come without controversy — even among members of its own leadership, prompting Jerri Ann Henry to resign from her position as executive director in 2019.

Log Cabin Republicans’ embrace of Trump also comes amid fractures that have perhaps reemerged or deepened between LGBTQ conservatives and other factions within the GOP.

This summer, the group’s Texas-based chapters were rebuffed by the state’s Republican Party, which denied their requests for space for a booth during the party’s annual convention and called homosexuality “an abnormal life-

style choice” in its official platform.

The move recalled incidents in the late 1990s when the Log Cabin Republicans were labeled pedophiles and compared to the Ku Klux Klan by Texas GOP leaders who denied the group’s requests to host booths at their conventions.

The dangerous smear linking LGBTQ people to child sexual abuse and exploitation is once again ascendant on the right, propagated by many of Trump’s political allies.

Members of Log Cabin Republicans’ San Antonio chapter joined a protest of a family-friendly drag performance Tuesday night in which patrons and organizers of the event were accused of “grooming” children for abuse.

“I don’t know anything about the drag protest or any involvement our chapter had in it,” Moran told the Blade.

Moran sought to draw a contrast between the Trump administration’s positions on LGBTQ issues and the treatment of his group this summer by GOP officials in Texas, writing in a USA Today op-ed that the former president is “a leader of LGBT inclusion.”

“It’s difficult to understand ust how game-changing Trump’s presidential campaigns and presidency were for LGBT conservatives, who were suddenly included as welcome members of the party after decades of being sidelined,” wrote Moran.

The positions held by Moran and the Log Cabin Republicans differ sharply from those held by LGBTQ organizations and LGBTQ Americans more broadly — at least, as evidenced by the percentage of LGBTQ voters who supported Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

One of the first actions President Joe Biden took after taking office last year was to repeal the Trump administration’s ban that prohibited thousands of transgender Americans from enlisting and serving in the armed forces.

Following Trump’s announcement of his plans to run again in 2024, GLAAD released a statement arguing that the former president’s record was “defined by anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric and policy that empowered white supremacists and fueled racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and misogyny.”

The group pointed to its “Trump Accountability Project,” which, it wrote, “tracked the Trump administration’s attacks against the LGBTQ community, documenting more than 200 negative policies and dangerous rhetoric against LGBTQ Americans during his presidency.”

The Human Rights Campaign, meanwhile, has listed the Trump administration’s harmful policies and positions concerning LGBTQ people in categories ranging from healthcare and education to representation and foreign affairs.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

CHRISTOPHER KANE

From left, candidates ROBERT ZIMMERMAN and  GEORGE SANTOS (Screen captures via YouTube)

DONALD TRUMP (Screen capture via CNBC)

Polish president vetoes anti-LGBTQ bill that targeted schools

A controversial bill that would further limit access to comprehensive sexual education and anti-LGBTQ discrimination preventative classes in schools in Poland was vetoed last week by President Andrzej Duda.

The measure, similar in nature to an earlier measure also vetoed by Duda, would have implemented restrictions on curriculum and school activities, giving the country’s central government more control over the regional school systems and administrative staff.

The legislation was put forward by the majority ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland’s Parliament, known as the Se m and Senate. Przemys aw Czarnek, the ultra-conservative education minister who backed both bills, has publicly claimed that reforms are needed to “protect children from moral corruption.”

Both measures would give school administrators and superintendents the power to remove books, lessons, and ban student participation in events or clubs that are LGBTQ affirming.

The first passed the lower house of Poland’s Parliament, known as the Se m, this past Jan. 13, in a 227-214 vote. Duda vetoed that initial version in March 2022. Undeterred law makers then drafted a later version, which moved control over directly to the education ministry.

Czarnek,  who has been vehemently opposed to the LGBTQ rights and the country’s equality movement, working with lawmakers was able to get the second version through the Parliament this past October.

The law, if signed, would have allowed education minister-appointed provincial education superintendents to suspend headteachers [principals/headmasters] if they conclude there is an “urgent threat to the safety of students during activities organized by a school.”

Czarnek, has been a leading figure in a campaign against what he has labeled “LGBT ideology,” which the minster alleges “comes from the same roots as Nazism.”

The legislation specified that schools would have had to submit details of extracurricular activities for the superintendent’s approval at least two months before they take place. The legislation also introduces additional hurdles for seeking the consent of parents for such activities.

Opponents of the measures say they were intended to prevent certain outside groups — such as sex educators or those speaking about LGBTQ issues — from entering schools.

Czarnek has staked out several public vitriolic anti-LGBTQ positions that has included an attack on the LGBTQ community in the U.S., specifically West Hollywood, Calif.

Speaking with a reporter on Serwis Info Poranek with the national state-run TVP Info (TVP3 Polska) last June, the education minister said (translated from Polish):

“Let’s end the discussion about these LGBT abominations, homosexuality, bisexuality, parades of equality. Let us defend the family, because failure to defend the family leads to what you see.

As he spoke these words, he was holding a phone in his hand, on the display of which he showed a picture of several people.

“These are the Los Angeles guys in downtown last June. I was on a delegation there, I was passing through, there was a so-called gay pride parade there,” he added. “We are at an earlier stage, there are no such things with us yet, but such chaps shamelessly (shamelessly – ed.) Walk the streets of the western city of Los Angeles,” he added.

Passage of the second measure led to widespread protest by students and advocates across Poland.

Human Rights Watch noted that students and activists regularly gathered in front of Warsaw’s Presidential Palace and across the country to demand respect for their rights.

They called on Duda to veto a controversial bill that would further limit access to comprehensive sexuality education and anti-discrimination classes in schools.

Last Thursday Duda told reporters:

“I refuse to sign this bill,” said Duda. “I understand that some people will be disappointed, but a large part of our society will be calmed by this [decision].”

BRODY LEVESQUE

Ukraine passes LGBTQ-inclusive media regulation bill

Lawmakers in Ukraine last week unanimously approved a media regulation bill that will ban hate speech and incitement based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“It’s a big step for Ukraine, to start adoption of our legislation to European values,” Olena Shevchenko, chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ and intersex rights group, told

the Washington Blade. “We hope our government will recognize LGBTQI people as equal as soon as possible.”

Ukraine since 2015 has banned employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2021 pledged Ukraine would continue to fight discrimination based on sexual ori-

entation and gender identity after he met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Russia on Feb. 24, 2022, launched its war against Ukraine. Zelenskyy less than six months later said he supports a civil partnerships law for same-sex couples.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

New Peruvian president’s views on LGBTQ issues unclear

It has been a volatile month in Peru.

The country has a new president, Dina Boluarte, after former President Pedro Castillo’s attempted self-coup. But since Boluarte was sworn in, unrest and violent protests have erupted and continued unabated around the country. Many are therefore wondering if Peru’s first female president will remain in office for much longer.

Castillo on Dec. 7 announced he was dissolving Congress.

Castillo made this announcement on the same day that Congress was scheduled to hold a vote on his impeachment. While it wasn’t clear if there were enough votes to impeach the embattled former president Castillo was swiftly voted out of office after his announcement with 101 votes in favor, six against and 10 abstentions.

Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, was immediately sworn in. She is Peru’s sixth president in five years, and her ascendance has come to signify the ongoing political instability that has become characteristic of the Andean nation.

Castillo supporters, mostly poor and indigenous Peruvi-

ans, have since taken to streets in every big city in Peru to demand Castillo’s reinstatement, Congress’ dissolution and new elections. These protests have led to violent clashes with police that have left at least seven dead and dozens more in ured.

Lima’s Pride March Collective, composed of many of the city’s LGBTQ and intersex organizations, has released a statement condemning “excessive force” by Peruvian police against protesters. The statement also calls for dialogue between the Executive Branch and civil and political leaders of the protests.

Despite Boluarte being a former member of Castillo’s government, she is viewed as a traitor among Castillo supporters. Hashtags such as #DinaRenunciaYa and #DinaAsesina have been trending on Twitter, the latter hashtag accusing the president of being responsible for the death of the protesters.

Castillo, meanwhile, who is currently being held by police, is calling his detention a “kidnapping” and is accusing Boluarte of being a “usurper.” He is not alone in not recog-

nizing the new president. The governments of Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia have all come out in support of Castillo and have refused to recognize Boluarte as Peru’s new president.

In response to the ongoing protests, Boluarte proposed moving up the next general election to April 2024. It was previously scheduled for 2026. But protesters are not satisfied and demonstrations across the country have not ceased as of Wednesday. Boluarte’s government as a result has declared a 30-day state of emergency for the entire country.

Promsex, one of Peru’s most prominent LGBTQ and intersex rights groups, addressed Peru’s new president in a statement posted to Twitter.

“We demand that the Executive Branch guarantee the safety of all people, including that of law enforcement personnel, and that there be no more deaths in the democratic and legitimate exercise of the right to protest,” said Promsex.

JACOB KESSLER

olis resident ANDRZEJ DUDA (YouTube screenshot via PBS)

Phone thieves nabbed at Rocco’s by LA County deputies

WEST HOLL WOOD – The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station has confirmed that two individuals–both female–were arrested for phone thefts at Rocco’s WeHo located at 8900 Santa Monica Blvd., across the street from the LASD WeHo Station.

The incident occurred at roughly 1 30am on Sunday morning. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department declined to comment further or provide more information stating that it is an ongoing investigation.

Rocco’s WeHo describes the phone thefts via their official Instagram @roccosweho

“Last night one of our dancers observed 2 people who appeared to be pickpocketing cell phones. He umped off the gogo box, followed them and motioned for our security to detain them. The 2 suspects were arrested and multiple phones were recovered and returned to our valued guests. We are all in this together.

Thanks to our security team for detaining the suspects and for @lasdwesthollywoodstation for responding immediately.

@wehocity is a place for fun not for crime.”

In another incident, two individuals, one male, and one

female, were arrested at The Abbey Food and Bar on Saturday, December 3, 2022, during the evening nightlife hours.

A video posted on social media earlier this month al-

leges a theft crew is targeting people in West Hollywood and stealing phones and wallets. The video, which originated from the Instagram account @francofriday, states the same people, five males and two females of Hispanic descent stand on the corner of Santa Monica and San Vicente and pickpocket unsuspecting people, taking cell phones and wallets.

“On that corner they pickpocket you. They steal your cellphones, while you’re listening to the guy playing music or waiting to cross the street right in that area,” he said in the video which received local broadcast news stations’ attention. “They grab your cellphones and they put them in a bag. They grab your IDs and your wallet, and they put it in the trash can. Once they put the phones in the trash, one of the girls takes the bag, walks past Revolver and walks to a car and puts in the back seat of a car ”

He said the females grab a key under the hood of the car and put the bags in the back seat. He says he could see the bag full of phones and tried to take a photo.

It is not yet known if the two female suspects arrested at Rocco’s are part of this alleged theft ring.

PAULO MURILLO

Rep. Garcia’s last day in Long Beach City Hall

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia tweeted a photo of himself last weekend surrounded by moving boxes and the last curios and ob ects left to pack as he departs City Hall to head to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. as a newly sworn in member of Congress.

Garcia noted in his tweet “packed up city hall and moving some boxes home. almost there”

Today marks Mayor Garcia’s final day in office before handing it over to Long Beach City Councilman Rex Richardson, who will be sworn in Tuesday as the city’s next mayor.

As he began his final day he tweeted “ ’all It’s my last day as mayor and I’m so happy and excited. I’m ust beaming with a sense of pride for our city and hopeful for the future. Thank you all and it’s going to be a great last day ”

In a later tweet the outgoing mayor noted “Spent my morning hosting a thank you reception for @LongBeachCity employees. So grateful to our team of 6,000 dedicated workers. I will miss working with them but look forward to our partnerships in Congress.”

Garcia will represent California’s new 42nd Congressional District, which includes Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood, Bellflower, Downey, Bell Gardens, Bell, Maywood and Huntington Park. He’s also been elected to serve as House Freshman Class President.

Representative Mark Takano who was the only LGBTQ+ Member of Congress, found himself oined by Garcia who in turn himself is the first openly gay immigrant elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

BRODY LEVESQUE

(Screenshot/YouTube)

(Screenshot via Twitter)

KEVIN NAFF

is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at knaf@washblade.com

Marriage bill ceremony a full-circle moment after 20 years at the Blade

En oy this moment then prepare for the fights that lie ahead

Last week’s White House ceremony in which President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act in front of hundreds of LGBTQ activists from around the country was a historic, surreal, full-circle moment for me after 20 years at the Washington Blade.

It was a moving walk down memory lane making my way across the White House lawn, greeting longtime activists and politicos, many of whom have retired or moved on from LGBTQ activism. It reminded me of my first White House event — President Obama’s 2009 Pride reception and all the unfinished business at that time. What a thrill to be around to witness history as President Biden, who famously leapfrogged his old boss Obama in endorsing marriage equality, sign the bill codifying federal recognition of interracial and same-sex marriages.

When I oined the Blade in December of 2002, marriage equality didn’t exist and almost no one was talking about the possibility. George W. Bush was president and busy trying to ban recognition of our relationships in the Constitution. Fast-forward 20 years and the progress is truly breathtaking — inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the federal hate crimes law, repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Bostock ruling boosting employment protections, marriage equality in all 50 states, electing the first Black president and first woman vice president, and so much more.

Amid the celebrations last week were reminders of the work ahead.

“When a person can be married in the morning and thrown out of a restaurant in the afternoon, this is still wrong,” said Biden. “We must stop the hate and violence.”

To address the ongoing issue of workplace and other discrimination, we still need Congress to pass the Equality Act, which ended up stranded in the Senate. The measure is surely DOA with Republicans taking control of the House next month.

There are other problems that surfaced last week, ironically on the White House South Lawn just feet away from where Biden was making history. Several mainstream media photographers were overheard using anti-gay slurs at the ceremony. Two Washington Blade contributors who were on — and ad acent to — the risers

where video and still photographers were stationed on the White House lawn overheard a stream of slurs and invective directed at guests and performers.

The brazen nerve of these photographers to traffic in anti-gay slurs while covering President Biden’s historic signing of the marriage bill is shocking and repulsive. Their behavior disrespects not ust the LGBTQ community and the president, but the hard work by countless advocates over 20 years to arrive at this moment. It should have been a moment of celebration and oy but it was marred by the blatant, overt homophobia of a few bad apples.

Editors at mainstream outlets like the Washington Post and Associated Press should investigate and compel their staffs to take sensitivity training or be fired. That incident notwithstanding, the ceremony marked an important milestone that so many of us fought for over 20 years, enduring disappointing court rulings and election results and other setbacks to arrive at this moment and witness the president validate our unions oined by Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Harris delivered a powerful speech emphasizing the interconnectivity of the moment. She said the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is a reminder that “fundamental rights are interconnected, including the right to marry who you love, the right to access contraception, and the right to make decisions about your own body.”

Biden noted Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act “because of an extreme Supreme Court has stripped away the right important to millions of Americans that existed for half a century.”

Indeed the Dobbs decision brought a renewed sense of urgency to passing the Respect for Marriage Act after Justice Clarence Thomas expressed a desire to revisit the Obergefell ruling in his concurring opinion in Dobbs.

It was a beautiful, sunny day featuring uplifting performances, insightful speeches, and emotional tributes. We should enjoy this moment as we prepare to gather for the holidays. Then we should return in 2023 ready for the battles ahead to protect and expand on our many victories.

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SHANNON MINTER

is legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the nation’s leading advocacy organizations for LGBTQ people.

Paxton’s trans ‘list’ a chilling abuse of government power

An abhorrent invasion

of privacy and attack on

Even in a year of unprecedented attacks on transgender kids and their families, the news that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pressured state agencies to create a list of transgender people marks a dangerous new low.

According to the Washington Post, earlier this year Paxton ordered the Texas Department of Department of Public Safety to provide him with a list of everyone who had corrected the gender identifier on their Texas driver’s license within the past two years.

Just days later, the state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered Texas’ child protection agency to investigate parents of transgender children for alleged child abuse simply for providing their children with medical care.

Throughout our nation’s history, corrupt officials have abused their power to create or expose “lists” of disfavored groups. Recent examples include President Trump’s order directing immigration authorities to arrest undocumented women seeking protection from domestic violence in family courts, as well as allegations that the IRS may have targeted Trump’s political enemies for invasive audits that turned their lives upside down.

Historically, Alabama courts sought to destroy the NAACP by forcing the group to disclose its membership records—a practice the Supreme Court ultimately held to be unconstitutional.

When elected officials exploit access to private records for political ends, they betray the public’s trust and corrode our system of law. In this case, the negative fallout from Paxton’s misconduct is profound.

It punishes transgender individuals for exercising their legal right to obtain accurate government ID, ust as other Texans are permitted to do. Texas law permits transgender people to correct their ID to match their gender, and doing so is essential to attend school, obtain a job, and engage in many other activities of daily life.

Paxton’s order directed state officials to treat transgender residents like lawbreakers stripping them of their rights to privacy, dignity, and equal treatment under the law. That is the behavior of a despot, not a democratically elected

official.

our dignity

In addition to harming transgender people, the exposure of Paxton’s order sends a message to all Texans. No one is safe. Any group can be targeted at the whim of an elected official. Any group can find its rights violated with no process or notice.

These messages silence dissent and make a mockery of our democracy. In such an environment, members of a targeted group understandably tend to suffer in silence rather than risk further reprisals. And those who support them are often afraid to speak up for fear they may be next.

Equally destructive, this type of abuse corrodes the public’s trust not only in state government, but in one another. It puts civil servants into a dreadful double bind. On the one hand, state workers often know what they’re being asked to do is wrong and even unlawful. On the other, they are being ordered to do it by the chief law enforcement officer of the entire state, and failure to comply is likely to lead to adverse consequences, possibly even including the loss of one’s ob.

This is how democracies become authoritarian states in which ordinary citizens find themselves colluding in the persecution of their fellow citizens—of friends, neighbors, and even family members. Thankfully, thus far in Texas, most state employees have behaved with remarkable courage, either quietly refusing to comply with unlawful orders or, in some instances, leaving their obs rather than harming innocent families.

As a Native Texan and a transgender man who loves my home state, I am sickened by Paxton’s betrayal of the spirit and values of Texas

Nothing is more fundamental to being a Texan than having the freedom to be yourself and to be left alone by overreaching government. The corrupt officials who are behind this abuse are small-minded, misguided, and cruel. They are abusing the levers of power to make people afraid.

Paxton’s list is an abhorrent invasion of privacy and an attack on the dignity of an entire group of Texans. It is also a wake-up call for anyone who cares about the future of democracy in this country.

‘Pelosi in the House’ a fascinating, must-see documentary

Speaker is a force, whether doing laundry or surviving Jan. 6

By KATHI WOLFE

It’s often said that Washington, D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people. This may be true for uncharismatic politicos. But “Pelosi in the House,” a documentary just out on HBO, directed by documentarian Alexandra Pelosi, shows that this trope doesn’t describe Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

From the get-go, in this 145-minute film, Nancy Pelosi, 82, who announced that she’s stepping down as Speaker of the House, holds your attention.

Whether she’s at her home doing her laundry during a (remote) meeting with former Vice President Mike Pence, dancing with one of her grandchildren or going through the halls of the Capitol (stilettos clacking), Pelosi is captivating.

She’s an extraordinary vote counter, fundraiser, campaigner, and party leader, while fighting sexism and the glass ceiling. And she looks great wearing a red coat and sunglasses, or pajamas.

If politics is your jam, you’ll enjoy this documentary. If you’re expecting an intimate look into Pelosi’s psyche, you’ll likely be disappointed.

It’s hard to think of a more steadfast LGBTQ ally than Pelosi (D-Calif.). From her first floor speech about AIDS in 1987 to her pivotal role in securing passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, Pelosi has championed the queer community.

During her decades of service, Pelosi shepherded the passage of much legislation, perhaps most notably the Affordable Care Act. “ ou’re a tough nut to crack,” Alexandra Pelosi, one of Nancy Pelosi’s five children, says to her mother in “Pelosi in the House.”

Alexandra Pelosi tries to keep up as her mother power-walks through the Capitol, reminds Democrats who resist voting for Obamacare that there are no “free passes” and advises Barack Obama (then president) not “to go too far left.”

But Alexandra Pelosi’s talent as a filmmaker doesn’t help her to decode her mother. We watch as Nancy Pelosi dances with a grandchild and looks for a birthday card for a grandkid. Though totally consumed by her work, the Speaker is devoted to her family. You sense that she has feelings about life — her family, etc. — but Pelosi isn’t going to reveal them. Not even to her daughter.

“If that’s what you want to do,” the Speaker says to her filmmaker daughter trying to break her facade, “Crack your mom.”

ou can tell that Alexandra Pelosi loves her mother. But, she’s not a partisan filmmaker. “Pelosi in the House” is the 14th documentary she’s made for HBO.

Her documentary “Journeys with George” is about the 18 months she covered George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign as a NBC News producer. The film received six Emmy nominations.

Her other documentaries include “Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandria Pelosi,” a film on evangelical Christians and “Outside the Bubble,” a film about Trump supporters. Contrary to what you might expect, these documentaries aren’t hatchet jobs.

Alexandra Pelosi isn’t a right-winger. But her documentaries on evangelicals and Trump voters are illuminating, not demeaning.

“Pelosi in the House” doesn’t reveal Nancy Pelosi’s inner world. But it’s revealing to anyone who cares about not only politics, but democracy.

The film, shot in cinema verite style, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at vote counting and negotiating. There are poignant moments. Scenes of Pelosi and George W. Bush – of Pelosi on the phone with John McCain – remind us of when politicians saw each other as human beings, not just as demonized opponents.

“Pelosi in the House” is terrifying in its last half hour when it shows Nancy Pelosi in the midst of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

This footage has been shown at the Jan. 6 committee hearings. But watching it on screen, you get in your solar plexus, how our democracy nearly imploded.

Hitchcock couldn’t have dreamed up anything more frightening than the riot in the Capitol. Or more sinister than the recent brutal attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

Pelosi has received death threats and been the object of vicious right-wing ads. Being Speaker makes you a target “sometimes of mockery,” Nancy Pelosi says in the documentary, “sometimes of violence.”

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” she says.

“Pelosi in the House” is a fascinating must-see.

‘Pelosi in the House’ a fascinating look at an LGBTQ ally. (Image courtesy of HBO)

Brendan Fraser reclaims his star in ‘The

Film overcomes criticism of straight casting, use of fat suit

By JOHN PAUL KING

We’re not going to lie to you: “The Whale” is a hard movie to watch. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with the work of Darren Aronofsky, who has been disturbing audiences ever since “Requiem for a Dream” – his second feature, released in 2000 – subjected them to a grueling portrait of multiple characters driven to debasement and self-destruction by addiction. It was the kind of can’t-look-away cinematic experience that turned many viewers into instant fans even if they never wanted to see it again. His latest film is comparatively less shocking, but it somehow manages to be almost as disturbing. Adapted for the screen by Samuel D. Hunter from his original play of the same name, “The Whale’’ documents a crucial week in the life of Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a 600-lb shut-in who teaches a writing course for an online college. Consumed by grief over the death of his partner and haunted by guilt over abandoning his wife and child to be with another man, he has survived in his reclusive lifestyle thanks to regular visits from his only friend (Hong Chau), a professional nurse; now, with his health declining, and painful memories being stirred by a persistent young Christian missionary (Ty Simpkins) determined to “save” him, he decides to reach out to his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink) in the hope of being reconciled with her before it’s too late. It’s a movie that comes with considerable fanfare, thanks in no small part to its star, who disappeared from the limelight nearly two decades ago after a series of personal setbacks – including an alleged sexual assault, revealed by the actor in 2018, in which he claims to have been groped by former Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Philip Berk during a 2003 function in Beverly Hills – led him to abandon his career as one of Hollywood’s most likable leading men. News that Fraser had been cast in Aronofsky’s film prompted a wave of social media attention from a legion of Millennial fans eager to see a much-deserved comeback, and when the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, glowing praise for his performance – as well as a six-minute standing ovation for the movie itself – only served to heighten the buzz. Yet alongside the feel-good narrative of a beloved actor’s triumphant return, there has also been a swirl of controversy – some over the casting of the heterosexual Fraser as a gay man, but

Whale’

mostly over criticism over the choice to put him in a prosthetic “fat suit” and what some cultural observers perceived as a stigmatizing portrayal of obesity.

For his part, Fraser rises above the fray to deliver a truly hype-worthy performance which validates the promise he showed but could never fully realize in his early career. Guided by consultations with the Obesity Action Coalition – which acknowledged the controversy around the use of prosthetics but endorsed the film for its “realistic” portrayal of “one person’s story with obesity” – and bolstered by extensive dance training to help him capture the physicality of moving with excessive weight, he seems to fully inhabit Charlie; there is no performative self-awareness to make us doubt his sincerity or distract from the emotional nuance he brings to the role, and he deploys the characteristic earnestness that made him an audience favorite in the ‘90s to undercut any suggestion of the morose. No matter where you stand on the cultural conflict over on-screen representation, it’s hard not to be impressed by a performance so refreshingly devoid of ego.

The same cannot be said for the film in which that performance exists. The ever-polarizing Aronofsky has been explicit in his insistence that “The Whale” is meant to be empathetic, yet for many viewers its messaging contradicts that assertion. Shooting the movie in an old-fashioned 1:33 aspect ratio, the director crowds his protagonist into the frame, further amplifying our impression of his size; his editing and camera angles emphasize – even exaggerate – the grotesque, treating close-ups of Charlie’s body like “ ump scares” in a horror film and infusing his episodes of physical distress with a fascination that borders on fetish. He does everything he can to confront us with Charlie’s weight in ways that seem designed to repulse us.

These flourishes of excess are visually hard to take – after all, this is Darren Aronofsky – but what makes them even more unsettling is the challenge they present to our self-perception. Our visceral response to them forces us to measure our own level of empathy, to question the udgments we carry, and to think about the deeply ingrained cultural stigma that influences our attitudes about body acceptance.

The same confrontational approach pervades Hunter’s script. Embracing its theatricality, his adaptation never expands the action beyond Charlie’s cramped apartment and indulges in lengthy didactic exchanges that serve as a litmus test for our prejudices around religion, homophobia, marital infidelity, and more. Further, prompted by Melville’s “Moby-Dick” as a central element in Charlie’s obsessions (SPOILER ALERT: that’s why it’s called “The Whale”), we are strongly encouraged to interpret things with a strong dose of literary irony.

All of this might make a case for Aronofsky and company’s good intentions in making a film that promotes empathy, but it’s not likely to satisfy viewers who believe those intentions fail to justify a portrayal they see as demeaning. Though a majority of reviews so far have been positive, many critics have taken a harsher perspective, rebuking “The Whale” and its director over what they deem an insensitive depiction, and it’s not our place to say they’re wrong.

Even so, it has much to recommend it for cinephiles who take a wider view; though its approach may raise some hackles, it pushes us to look past self-satisfied pretensions of supportive solidarity and consider the reality of existence for those who struggle with extreme weight. Charlie’s self-esteem can’t be fixed by adopting a body–positive outlook, nor can the life-threatening impact of his size on his health be erased by acceptance; in the face of his profoundly traumatic lived experience, such solutions feel like shallow platitudes – and that’s a big part of what makes “The Whale” such a bitter pill to swallow.

That doesn’t mean it’s a masterpiece; constrained by its structure, it requires us to accept too many pat-and-perfect coincidences among its five characters to buy into its narrative, and some of its most cathartic moments feel unearned, even hollow, as a result. Then again, considering Aronofsky’s penchant for making films that feel more like parables than cinema, an expectation of realism might ust be one more pretension the director is aiming to deflate.

In any case, Fraser is reason enough to give “The Whale” a chance. The movie belongs to him (though the whole cast is excellent, with standout turns from Chau and Sink), and his performance transcends its divisive provocations; and though Aronofsky may fall somewhat short of his ambitions, sometimes even undermine them, he nevertheless succeeds in shaking us out of black-and-white oversimplification and pointing us toward a deeper understanding of the world. In our book, that’s never a bad thing.

BRENDAN FRASER delivers a powerful performance in ‘The Whale.’

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

The leash is hooked tight.

One end on your dog’s collar or harness, the other end firmly wrapped around your wrist, and he’s not going anywhere without you. Rescuing this pupper was the best thing ever and now, as in the new book by Ron Danta, Danny Robertshaw, and Larry Lindner, he’s “Forever Home.”

It all started on horseback.

Danny Robertshaw, who’d loved horses since he was small, was well known as a rider and trainer up and down the East Coast. Ron Danta had moved his horses to South Carolina to a farm he’d purchased with the hope of launching a business. The two men had met but it wasn’t until their lives began to circle closer to one another that they became good friends not long after they’d decided to become business partners, Danta divorced his wife and had an epiphany. The two men became partners in life.

It helped that both had deep and endless loves of horses and dogs. When both men were boys, growing up in separate states, their mothers impressed upon them the habit of adopting stray dogs and unwanted, unloved pups. All their lives, both men had picked up side-of-the-road, mistreated, or elderly dogs, rehabilitated them, and re-homed them.

It wasn’t cheap. The dogs they sheltered had varying medical problems, and many had issues stemming from fear, abandonment, and abuse. Danta and Robertshaw paid for the dogs’ vet bills out of pocket, then housed and trained each pup until the dogs

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could be properly adopted out as “Danny & Ron dogs.” That was a pure labor of love, but their house was soon wrecked and their furniture, shredded. At one time, having hundreds of dogs in their care, they turned their home into a “doghouse” – this, despite terrifying personal health crises  in the middle of hurricanes, filming a documentary, and their marriage  overseas, and in con unction with causes and people close to their hearts.

“It’s good to know that rescue – being loved, living with dignity, belonging – is happening on more than one front.”

Few can resist an adorable puppy. But what about the dogs who’ve seen better days Can you resist scooping them up If the answer is “no,” then you’ll want “Forever Home.”

In a consistently upbeat manner, authors Robertshaw, Danta, and Lindner share the story of a movement that has saved the lives of countless dogs and other animals through the years, and the two men behind it. While these stories are sure heart-capturers, they’re also very repetitious, as if the animal’s name and breed are all that changes from tale to tale. Readers will notice, too, that there are lots of happy stories here but they’re quite often preceded by wincing accounts of abuse and neglect. Still, that’s not news to pet lovers. Heavy sigh.

Despite further confusion as to who’s telling the story, “Forever Home” will appeal to anyone who’s shared a bed with a dog, a sofa with a cat, or a ride with a horse. Open the cover, read a page, and you’ll be hooked tight.

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c.2022, HarperOne | $27.99 | 262 pages

“Forever Home: How We Turned Our House into a Haven for Abandoned, Abused, and Misunderstood Dogs – and Each Other” By Ron Danta & Danny Robertshaw & Larry Lindner