By SIMHA HADDAD
Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego will be presented with the Antonio Villaraigosa Leadership Award at the 37th Tribute to Mayors Signature Event on Jan. 18.
The Tribute to Mayors is an annual event put on by the Latino Leaders Network, which was founded by former Clinton administration Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House, Mickey Ibarra, as a unique platform for prominent Latino leaders to share their personal stories of overcoming obstacles to achieve success.
The Antonio Villaraigosa Leadership Award is presented to a mayor from a city with a significant Latino population who has exhibited an outstanding commitment to bringing diverse communities together.
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. Before becoming mayor, he was a member of the California State Assembly (1994–2000), where he served as the Democratic Majority Leader (1996–98), and the Speaker of the California State Assembly (1998–2000).
Gloria began his career at San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency. He then went on to serve as District Director for United States Congresswoman Susan A. Davis. In 2008, Gloria was elected to the San Diego City Council. In 2016, he ran and was elected to the California State Assembly to represent the 78th Assembly District.
While serving in the Assembly Gloria went on to become the Assistant Majority Whip and eventually Majority Whip. Then in 2020 he was elected Mayor of San Diego, making history across a spectrum of significant firsts as in addition to being the first openly gay person to lead the city, Gloria, “the son of a hotel maid and a gardener” became the first person of color to occupy the Mayor’s chair. He is a third-generation San Diegan of Filipino, Native American, Puerto Rican, and Dutch descent.
In a coronavirus pandemic affected zoom-style virtual inauguration ceremony, presided over by the President pro Tempore of the California State Senate Toni Gayle Atkins, Gloria was sworn in as the 37th mayor of the City of San Diego on Thursday, December 10, 2020 before the San Diego City Council.
“Getting an award in Mayor Villaraigosa’s name is really meaningful to me,” Gloria told the Blade. “I was the nerdy kid who would watch C-SPAN and read the newspaper when I was young. I was very aware of Mayor Villaraigo-
sa and his service leading his city that is just a few hundred miles north from where I grew up here in San Diego. There is a saying that if you haven’t seen it you can’t be it. The fact that I had this charismatic and energetic leader of a city not too far away meant that I could identify with him. He and others like him created that opportunity for me to see what I was interested in trying to become in terms of a public servant, and so it feels in someway poetic to receive this award.”
to stay strong. you have to remember you are not there on your own behalf. You are there on behalf of a whole community. Some may look up to me the way I looked up to Mayor Villaraigosa if I am able to show people what a person of color can do leading the 8th largest city in the country. It is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity. My friend and mentor, Vice President Harris, always says that you may be the first to do some thing, but you should not be the last. That is my goal.”
“I love San Diego,” said Gloria. “I was born and raised here. I am a third generation San Diegan. I love this town, and I was taught that it was my responsibility to leave it better than I found it, and so I’ve chosen to spend my entire career serving this community in the county of San Diego, as congressional aide as a council member, as a state legislator, and, now, as a mayor.”
The lesson of leaving something behind better than you found it comes from the teachings of Gloria’s parents he tells the Blade.
“My parents were blue-collar folks,” recalled the Mayor. “When I was growing up, my mom was a hotel maid and my dad was a landscaper. These two hard-working, modest people didn’t have generational wealth or the financial ease to help us. They just had good humble values that they tried to instill in me and my brother.”
Gloria recounted a story from his childhood where his parents’ moral compass inadvertently lead him to his political career.
Receiving an award that celebrates diversity and inclusion is particularly poignant for the Mayor, as he feels that while San Diego has an incredibly diverse population, inclusion in its political sphere is only just starting to turn a corner for the better.
“I hold a sanction to being the first person of color elected mayor of my city,” said Gloria. “I was elected in 2020 I think that’s somewhat remarkable when you consider that San Diego is a very diverse city we are a border city we literally lie on the US Mexican border. We are on the pacific rim, and yet no one has broken this barrier until I was given the opportunity to do so just two years ago.”
Much as he was inspired by LA’s Mayor Villaraigosa in his youth, Gloria hopes that that he can serve as an inspiration to the next generation of diverse leaders.
“People like myself who are given this opportunity have
“Growing up, we often didn’t have a car. We had to borrow other people’s cars. Obviously, we didn’t have enough money, and I can remember vividly having to wash those cars and fill them with gas and having to get the buckets and sponges and soap and water. That all has expense attached to it, and so I said, ‘If we are borrowing cars because we don’t have money, then why are we spending money on washing them and filling the tanks up with gas?’ The answer that my parents gave us was, ‘This is what we have to do. We are borrowing these cars and we can’t return them dirty or with an empty tank.’ This left an impression on me. I don’t think my parents intended it this way, but it really was this admonition to get into public service.’
“Some people have to wake up every day and punch a time clock. I just have to wake up and make the city a better place. I think that’s a wonderful mission and I feel grateful for this opportunity. That is why I do this work.”
On the two-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Gov. Gavin Newsom was inaugurated to a second term as California’s Chief Executive.
The governor delivered his inaugural address with the historic State Capitol at his back, lifting up California’s work to protect and advance the fundamental rights and freedoms under attack across the country amid rising extremism and oppression, and underscoring the state’s commitment to continue leading the way forward to prosperity and progress for all.
Newsom celebrated the start of his second term choosing the moment to contrast California’s progressive and inclusive values with the “ugliness that overflowed on January 6.”
Tapping into the symbolism of the day when insurrectionists stormed the Capitol building in Washington, Newsom drew on his own Golden State upbringing to define diametrically opposite visions of America in his inaugural address, delivered under cloudy skies near the steps of the California statehouse.
Full text of Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2nd inaugural address:
Time has done its usual trick on me.
It says it has been four years since I stood in the shadow of this Capitol and delivered my first inaugural address.
Four years, disaster and plague, they bend the clock in strange ways. It feels like both a flash, and an eternity. In the longest hours of my first term, trying to plot a course through pandemic, wildfire, mass shootings, and social unrest … I found myself looking backward, as much as I was looking forward.
I recalled the late-1970s, when I was 10 or 11 years old, a child of divorce and dyslexia, trying to find my bearings.
I was a kid, traveling back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge, between the two very different lives of my mother and father.
I couldn’t read, and was looking for any way to ditch classes. I’d fake stomach aches and dizziness. I’d bite down on the thermometer in the nurse’s office trying to make the temperature rise past 100.
My mom, busy juggling three jobs, had no patience for a truant. My father, the judge, guilty because he had left us, was an easier touch. I remember one time during the middle of school, when he picked me up in his Volkswagen bug, and took me to San Francisco’s Chinatown. On its face, this was a mission for food.
But I didn’t understand back then, it was also HIS mission, to give me a slice of San Francisco, our place, and the story of California. We crossed one of the many demarcations in the city, and suddenly we had entered another realm. Through the gate at the intersection of Bush and Grant, my eyes and nose took it all in. Pagoda-style storefronts. Red lanterns hanging from above. Giant statues of Buddha in the windows. Roasted duck. Fresh baked cookies.
My father wasn’t content with just showing me the unfamiliar. He wanted me to see past the façade, to the people themselves. The humble entrepreneurs and immigrant parents, building better lives for their kids. To the journey that had brought them to enrich our city – and our state. This was the same California that drew my great, great grandparents from County Cork in Ireland to start a new life during the first years of California’s statehood.
William Newsom the first, became a beat cop in San Francisco. And the Newsoms began to plant roots as working-class
Irish, in a land where anything was possible. The journey from policeman to politician took 150 years. My wife Jennifer, the First Partner, is the second in her family to be born in the Golden State. My children – Montana, Hunter, Brooklyn, and Dutch – now 5th generation Californians. And all of you here today. No two California origin stories are the same, but we share aspirations, and ambitions.
These ties bind us, sometimes unknowingly, to our state’s past – and to each other. I remember hot summer days with my dad, riding a raft down wild stretches of the American River. Those cold waters were the same ones where James Marshall found gold nuggets that would sell the California Dream to the world, and alter the course of American history. But I’m mindful that there’s another side to that story, not the fairytale.
California’s statehood, after all, was also sealed with a brutal genocide against native people. Reconciling that complexity has always guided my own understanding of myself, and of the state that I love so deeply.
The shameful chapters of our history do not lessen my love for my home state. They make it more complicated, yes, deeper, richer, and serve as a reminder that we can always become better.
The California that beckoned my forebears 170 years ago had a population of 93,000. Today, we’re nearly 40 million strong, each with our own California story.
I hear the echoes of my own family’s story in those who are still coming to California to pursue their dreams, drawn by the myth and magic of this place. I hear the echoes in the stories of migrants that cross our southern border seeking something better.
In people who come from every continent on earth to flee political persecution, or from other states to educate themselves in our world-class universities, to start businesses that support their families, or change the world.
Whether your family came here for work, or for safety, California offered freedom to access it, not contingent on you looking a certain way, talking a certain way, thinking a certain way.
And that’s what makes California special – it’s in our genes. We’re a state of dreamers and doers. Bound by our live-andlet-live embrace of personal freedom. But like I’ve said, we’ve made mistakes … Lord knows we’ve made our share. Let’s not forget, the Chinatown I visited as a boy is a remnant of the bigotry of agitator Denis Kearney, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1880s. Tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were interned right here during World War II.
In the post-war era, as California’s suburbs grew, the racist practice of exclusionary zoning took hold, denying Black, Asian, Armenian and Latino residents the right to live on the good side of town and build wealth. This planted the seeds of the housing and homeless crisis we face today.
Even California indulged homophobic hate at the ballot box, with the Briggs Initiative – the 1970s version of “Don’t Say Gay.”
And of course, the 1990s brought a wave of anti-immigrant xenophobia, manifesting in Proposition 187. These are dark moments in California’s journey. But in the end, we confronted our errors with humility and conviction, paving the way for rights and freedom to prevail.
Every day, California commits itself to the process of getting it right for the next generation.
In nearly 30 years in politics, I have had the opportunity
to see this process firsthand, learning as we go, and etching these learnings on the consciousness of a country that perhaps hasn’t yet caught up.
When we started issuing same-sex marriage licenses in San Francisco in 2004, it felt as if history moved at light-speed, in the right direction, decades of advocacy culminating in that beautiful Winter of Love.
But that victory, to expand rights and freedom to marry, was snatched away by a backlash that resulted in Proposition 8.
Eventually, after many setbacks, and many steps forward, just a few weeks ago, President Biden signed legislation enshrining the freedom to marry. That has been the story of progress throughout our history. It is not always easy, and not always linear. But in the end, the verdict is clear – expanding rights is always the right thing to do.
And yet, there are still forces in America that want to take the nation backward. We saw that two years ago, on this day, when the unthinkable happened at a place most Americans assumed was invincible. An insurrectionist mob ransacking a sacred pillar of our democracy, violently clashing with sworn officers upholding the rule of law. Just like the brave men and women whose heroism we inscribe, here on our own Peace Officers’ Memorial.
Since that terrible day, we’ve wrestled with what those events say about us as a country. The ugliness that overflowed on January 6th, 2021, was in fact decades in the making. Fomented by people who have a very different vision of America’s future. Red state politicians, and the media empire behind them, selling regression as progress, oppression as freedom.
And as we know too well, there is nothing original about their demagoguery. All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses.
Calling into question what America is to become, freer and fairer … or reverting to a darker past. Instead of finding solutions, these politicians void of any new ideas, pursuing power at any cost, prey upon our fears and paranoias.
“The struggle to be who we ought to be,” as a nation is difficult and demanding. And that’s why we should be clear-eyed about their aims.
They’re promoting grievance and victimhood, in an attempt to erase so much of the progress you and I have witnessed in our lifetimes. They make it harder to vote and easier to buy illegal guns. They silence speech, fire teachers, kidnap migrants, subjugate women, attack the Special Olympics, and even demonize Mickey Mouse. All camouflaged under a hijacking of the word “freedom.”
But what they really want is more control – intrusive government, command over your most intimate decisions – when to have a family, how you raise your kids, how you love.
While they cry freedom, they dictate the choices people are allowed to make. Fanning the flames of these exhausting culture wars. Banning abortion, banning books, banning free speech in the classroom, and in the boardroom. They sell fear and panic when it comes to crime and immigration. But they sell calm and indifference when the threat is greenhouse gases destroying our planet, or big oil raking in windfall profits at your expense. But California offers reason for hope.
“There is no soil better adapted” to liberty and opportunity –the sense of possibility, than here in our home state.
Continues at losangelesblade.com
‘Expanding rights is always the right thing to do’
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board released its 2023 Annual Report Tuesday, covering a wide range of issues related to racial and identity profiling in policing and recommendations on how to eliminate this unlawful practice.
Over the past four years, the data collected under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (“RIPA”) has provided empirical evidence showing disparities in policing throughout California the report found.
The data reviewed by the board for the calendar year 2021 revealed that statewide, 58 California law enforcement agencies searched teenagers whom officers perceived to be Black at nearly six times the rate of teens believed to be white during vehicle and pedestrian stops.
The 58 agencies — which include the 23 largest departments in the state — collectively made more than 3.1 million vehicle and pedestrian stops in 2021. By April, all of California’s more than 500 law enforcement agencies must submit their data.
The data includes how officers perceive an individual’s race or gender, even if it’s different than how the person identifies, because the officer’s perception is what drives bias. The board’s work informs agencies, the state’s police office training board and state lawmakers as they change policies and seek to decrease racial disparities and bias in policing.
The Report also explores the negative mental health impacts of adverse law enforcement interactions on individuals and communities and contains a new focus on youth interactions with law enforcement both inside and outside of school. Additionally, the report continues to examine the data and research on pretextual stops and consent searches.
• Agencies reported over 3.1 million stops during the data collection period, with the California Highway Patrol conducting the most stops of any single agency (54.9%). Individuals perceived to be Hispanic/Latino(x) (42.4%), White (30.7%), or Black (15.0%) comprised the majority of stopped individuals.
• The majority of stopped individuals were perceived as either (cisgender) male (72.1%) or (cisgender) female (27.5%), together accounting for 99.7 percent of individuals stopped.
• Officers perceived 1.2 percent of the individuals they stopped to have one or more disabilities. Of those perceived to have a disability, the most common disability reported by officers was a mental health condition (75.1%).
• The most commonly reported reason for a stop across all racial/ethnic groups was a traffic violation (86.8%), followed by reasonable suspicion that the individual was engaged in criminal activity (10.5%). Relative to other racial/ethnic groups, Black individuals had the highest proportion of their stops reported as reasonable suspicion (16.2%) and the lowest proportion of their stops reported as traffic violations (80.5%).
• To provide context for the racial distribution of stops by the reporting agencies, the Board compared the stop data to residential population data from the American Community Survey that was weighted to correspond with the jurisdictions of the reporting agencies. Black and Hispanic/Latine(x) individuals represented a higher proportion of stopped individuals than their relative proportion of the weighted California residential population.
The Associated Press noted:
In more than 42% of the 3.1 million stops by those agencies in 2021, the individual was perceived to be Hispanic or Latino, according to the report. More than 30% were perceived to be white and 15% were believed to be Black.
Statewide, however, 2021 Census estimates say Black or African American people made up only 6.5% of California’s population, while white people were about 35%. Hispanic or Latino people made up roughly 40% of the state’s population that year.
“The data show that racial and identity disparities persist year after year,” the report said. “The Board remains committed to analyzing and highlighting these disparities to compel evidence-driven strategies for reforming policing and eliminating racial and identity profiling in California.”
For example: Police handcuffed, searched or detained — either curbside or in a patrol car — individuals whom they believed to be Black youths between 15 and 17 years old during a higher percentage of traffic stops than any other combination of perceived race or ethnicity and age groups.
Law enforcement also searched people who were perceived to be Black at 2.2 times the rate of people thought to be white, the report said. And police were more than twice as likely to use force against people they thought were Black, as compared to people whom officers believed to be white.
“Based on the research, the Board believes that public health officials and policymakers should treat racial and identity profiling and adverse policing as significant public health issues,” according to the report. “It is imperative to recognize that police interactions can negatively affect the mental and physical health of individuals who are Black, Hispanic/Latine(x), Indigenous, and people of color.”
The Board examined recent research showing that police interactions can negatively impact the mental and physical health of individuals who are Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latine(x) and other people of color. Research shows that the types of contact and frequency of involuntary contacts with law enforcement may have a harmful impact on the individual stopped, triggering stress responses, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and other related negative mental health impacts.
This research suggests that racial and identity profiling goes beyond the criminal legal system and policing; it is also a critical public health issue. Urban policing practices over recent decades has experienced a movement toward a proactive or aggressive policing approach, wherein officers employ active engagement tactics with individuals in “high crime areas” to discover “imminent” criminal activity.
The predominant police contact in large cities is with young Black and Hispanic/Latine(x) males, who experience stark differences from their White peers in how they are treated during law enforcement encounters. The threat or act of calling the police on Black and Hispanic/ Latine(x) individuals can expose them to risk of a range of serious, negative psychological effects.
Research shows that bias-based calls to law enforcement – also known as bias by proxy –can be weaponized against innocent people of color as a form of racial intimidation that can cause terror in the victim, given the history of police brutality and use of force against Black, Hispanic/Latine(x), Indigenous, and other people of color.
In the final vote tally shortly after midnight on Saturday January 7, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California was elected Speaker with 216 votes followed by Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) with 211 and 6 lawmakers voting present, in the 15th and final ballot.
He was sworn in at 1:40 AM Eastern and in turn Speaker McCarthy then swore in the assembled members of the 118th Congress en masse. Afterwards the Democratic and Republican conferences appointed their leadership roles and House officers including the Clerk of the House and the House Sergeant-at-Arms who were also sworn in.
McCarthy’s victory required him and his allies to make extraordinary concessions to the bloc of far-right holdouts. These included changes to House rules that empowered the House Freedom Caucus, and a new rules package. CNN reported that package included:
• Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair – this is significant because it would make it much easier than it is currently to trigger what is effectively a no confidence vote in the speaker. Conservatives pushed hard for this, while moderates are worried it will weaken McCarthy’s hand.
• A McCarthy-aligned super PAC agreed to not play in open Republican primaries in safe seats.
• The House will hold votes on key conservative bills, including a balanced budget amendment, congressional term limits and border security.
• Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts. This could become a major issue in the future when it is time to raise the debt limit to avoid a catastrophic default because Democrats in the Senate and the White House would likely oppose demands for spending cuts.
• Move 12 appropriations bills individually. Instead of passing separate bills to fund government operations, Congress frequently passes a massive year-end spending package known as an “omnibus” that rolls everything into one bill. Conservatives rail against this, arguing that it evades oversight and allows lawmakers to stick in extraneous pet projects.
• More Freedom Caucus representation on committees, including the powerful House Rules Committee.
• Cap discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to lower levels for defense and domestic programs.
• 72 hours to review bills before they come to floor
• Give members the ability to offer more amendments on the House floor
• Create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government
• Restore the Holman rule, which can be used to reduce the salary of government officials.
The White House released a statement from President Joe Biden: “Jill and I congratulate Kevin McCarthy on his election as speaker of the House. … As I said after the midterms, I am prepared to work with Republicans when I can and voters made clear that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.”
It was the first time in a century that the gavel was not passed with the first ballot, paralyzing the House as new lawmakers could not be seated and activity like committee assignments and legislation was ground to a halt.
McCarthy had faced an obstinate group of about 20 hardline GOP members, despite having won the endorsement of influential conservative media figures, former president Donald Trump, and ultraconservative members of the conference like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).
Partly as a consequence of the conditions to which he agreed to earn their support, McCarthy’s autonomy over the gavel is expected to be compromised by the ultraconservative faction of the House GOP caucus whose power was just demonstrated during the speakership election.
McCarthy has long been an opponent of LGBTQ rights. The Republican Leader cosigned the House GOP’s legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act during the Obama administration in 2011, later co-authoring an amicus brief supporting the legislation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
More recently, in 2022 McCarthy voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies key protections for LGBTQ people as a safeguard if the Supreme Court overturns or weakens the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
The Human Rights Campaign awards McCarthy a score of “0” for his record in the legislature.
CHRISTOPHER KANE
The Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus announced Monday that gay Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) will serve as the new chair for the 118th Congress, replacing outgoing chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who will continue to serve as a co-chair.
The chair position “rotates every Congress between the Caucus’ openly LGBTQI+ members based on seniority,” according to a press release from the Caucus announcing Pocan’s appointment.
“We are witnessing a dangerous increase in anti-LGBTQI+ hate, legislation, and violence that we must forcibly push back against and defeat,” said Pocan in a statement.
The Equality Caucus will do everything in our power to defeat anti-LGBTQI+ bills and amendments proposed by extremist anti-LGBTQI+ politicians this Congress, especially those targeting our transgender and nonbinary community members.”
The Equality Caucus was founded in 2008
by then-Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), now the state’s junior senator, and former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). As of the 117th Congress, there were 175 members – a 92 percent increase in membership from 2009.
The group is historically co-chaired by openly LGBTQ members of the House, with membership open to LGBTQ and nonLGBTQ members from either party.
In the last Congress, the Caucus’s Transgender Equality Task Force was chaired by Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Marie Newman (Ill.), and Jennifer Wexton (Va.).
CHRISTOPHER KANEThe Biden administration’s expansion of the the use of “expedited removal” of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans who enter the U.S. from Mexico without legal authorization has sparked widespread criticism from advocacy groups that specifically work with LGBTQ and intersex asylum seekers and migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security will create a humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans that combines “safe, orderly and lawful pathways to the United States, including authorization to work, with significant consequences for those who fail to use those pathways.”
Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app “can seek advance authorization to travel to the United States and be considered, on a caseby-case basis, for a temporary grant of parole for up to two years, including employment authorization, provided that they: Pass biometric and biographic national security and public safety screening and vetting; have a supporter in the United States who commits to providing financial and other support and complete vaccinations and other public health requirements.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday said from the White
House as Vice President Kamala Harris stood beside him that Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans “account for most of the people traveling into Mexico to start a new life by getting … to the American border and trying to cross.”
DHS said U.S. Border Patrol “saw” a 90 percent decrease in the number of Venezuelans “encountered at the border” after a similar humanitarian parole program began for them last October. Uniting for Ukraine, a humanitarian parole program for Ukrainians who fled after Russia launched its war against their country, started in April 2022.
MICHAEL K. LAVERS
An attorney with the group that filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday against U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) said the agency is unlikely to pursue an investigation or bring any enforcement action against the congressman or his campaign.
“There are at least three commissioners who are ideologically opposed to enforcing campaign finance law,” Campaign Legal Center Senior Vice President and Legal Director Adav Noti told the Washington Blade by phone on Tuesday.
Litigation Division, where he argued cases before federal district and appellate courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, including the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. FEC. case
Notwithstanding what may happen at the FEC, Noti told the Blade the Santos case is unlike anything he had ever seen, in multiple respects.
Per the Campaign Legal Center’s complaint, Santos and his 2022 campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress, stand accused of engaging “in a straw donor scheme to knowingly and willfully conceal the true sources of $705,000 that Santos purported to loan to his campaign; deliberately reporting false disbursement figures on FEC disclosure reports, among many other reporting violations and illegally using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including rent on a house that Santos lived in during the campaign.”
Some of these allegations, which sometimes result in prosecutions, happen, unfortunately, “with some regularity,” Noti said. “But I cannot think of another situation where a successful candidate turns out to have fabricated his entire campaign apparatus.”
event that the FEC does conduct an investigation or [pursue an enforcement action,] it would take years,” Noti said, adding that slow-rolling the process is another means by which the commissioners can prevent the agency from enforcing the law.
Nevertheless, Santos is in potential legal jeopardy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office have opened investigations into the congressman.
On Tuesday, Congressmen Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman — both Democrats — filed a complaint against Santos to the House Ethics Committee.
Noti said the Justice Department’s case would be a criminal probe into Santos’ possible violations of campaign finance laws, but otherwise the FEC has sole jurisdiction over these matters, so other legal actors are likely looking into other types of financial malfeasance by the congressman.
With a four-vote majority of the FEC’s six sitting commissioners required to open an investigation, “the working assumption has to be — for every FEC complaint, no matter how egregious — that at least three commissioners will block an investigation,” Noti said.
Noti previously served in the FEC’s Office of General Counsel as associate general counsel for policy and in the
Noti said candidates will sometimes falsify the source of the money they received to fund their campaigns, and other times they will conceal how they spent those funds, but “I can’t think of another instance where every dollar that went into a campaign and a significant portion of the dollars that were spent by that campaign appear to be fictitious, or just made up.”
Looking at the money that was funneled through the campaign, even if assuming that the dollar amounts that were reported were accurate, “we don’t know where it came from, and we know where almost none of it went,” Noti said.
Unfortunately, however, “Even in the highly unlikely
The FEC will typically wait for the resolution of a criminal probe initiated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office before proceeding with a complaint, Noti said. “If the DOJ starts investigating, they’ll tell the FEC, and then the FEC will wait for the criminal investigation to conclude.”
Either way, “I would be shocked if [Santos] were not seeking legal counsel,” Noti said, adding that he might have a difficult time finding an attorney to represent him.
Santos has been under fire for weeks after media reports revealed the congressman had lied about virtually every aspect of his life, career and identity.
With respect to his treatment of campaign finance laws, “What he did was intentionally deprive the public of the information that voters are entitled to before they decide who to vote for,” Noti said.
CHRISTOPHER KANEU.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin for the Southern District of West Virginia ruled last Friday that the ban on transgender athletes competing in female school sports that Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed into law in 2021 is constitutional.
“I recognize that being transgender is natural and is not a choice,” Goodwin wrote in his decision. “But one’s sex is also natural, and it dictates physical characteristics that are relevant to athletics.”
The ruling came in the lawsuit challenging the ban filed by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of West Virginia and Cooley LLP on behalf of then 11-yearold Becky Pepper-Jackson, the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
When the suit was filed, Josh Block, senior staff attorney
with the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project said: “Becky — like all students — should have the opportunity to try out for a sports team and play with her peers. We hope this also sends a message to other states to stop demonizing trans kids to score political points and to let these kids live their lives in peace.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey applauded the decision.
“This is not only about simple biology, but fairness for women’s sports, plain and simple,” the attorney general said. “Opportunities for girls and women on the field are precious and we must safeguard that future.”
NPR and the Associated Press reported the plaintiff’s lawsuit did not challenge whether schools should be allowed
to have separate sports teams for males and females, and Goodwin was tasked with determining whether the Legislature’s definition of the terms “girl” and “woman” is constitutionally permissible. The Save Women’s Sports Bill signed by Justice says they mean anyone assigned the female gender at birth.
“The Legislature’s definition of ‘girl’ as being based on ‘biological sex’ is substantially related to the important government interest of providing equal athletic opportunities for females,” Goodwin determined.
The judge also rejected the plaintiff’s claim that the state law violated Title IX, the landmark gender equity legislation enacted in 1972.
BRODY LEVESQUELeading the conversation. Shaping the media narrative. Changing the culture. That’s GLAAD at work.
GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force,
GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.
LEARN MORE AT: GLAAD.org
Kenyan police have arrested a freelance photojournalist believed to have been involved in the brutal murder of Edwin Chiloba, a prominent LGBTQ and intersex activist and fashion designer.
Zacchaeus Ngeno, a regional deputy police commander in Uasin Gishu County in western Kenya where Chiloba’s murder took place, confirmed to the press that investigators are pursuing two other suspects who are on the run.
The unnamed freelance photojournalist who has not been publicly named because the investigation continues was last seen with Chiloba on New Year’s Eve at a popular nightclub in the region where the victim lived.
The suspect in custody is expected to be arraigned early next week.
Chiloba arrived at Tamasha Place nightclub at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 31 and left after 1 a.m. after watching the New Year’s fireworks with friends, according to Melvin Faith, the deceased’s sister who works there and happily ushered in 2023 together.
Faith noted her family was later worried about Chiloba’s indefinite unavailability on his cell phone and in his rental house where he lived alone until the shocking discovery of his body on Wednesday inside a metal box that had been dumped on a rural street. A commuter on a motorbike first discovered it.
Chibola, in addition to being an LGBTQ and intersex activist and a model, and was finishing his undergraduate studies at
a local university. Chibola was widely covered in local newspaper for his outstanding fashion designs as one of the country’s young emerging entrepreneurs.
The arrest and heightened pursuit of the two suspects comes amid pressure from the LGBTQ and intersex community, and local and international rights groups on Kenyan authorities to swiftly investigate and prosecute those who killed Chiloba.
Kenya Human Rights Commission Executive Director Davis Malombe in a press statement described the murder a “disgusting act of homophobic violence.” He added it violates the Constitution; which grants the right to life, dignity, and freedom of expression for all regardless of gender, sex and any other status.
“The killing is reprehensible and unjust. We demand the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to take swift and due action in investigating this murder, booking and prosecuting the perpetrators,” Malombe said.
He raised concerns over the recent increase in cases of threats, assault and murders of LGBTQ and intersex people in Kenya with little effort from the police to address them.
“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. LGBTQ rights are human rights. We demand justice for Edwin,” he said. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard via Twitter condemned Chibola’s murder as “heart-breaking” while demanding a “full and independent” probe by the au-
Ned Price, the openly gay spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, echoed Callamard.
“Our sincere condolences to the family and friends of prominent Kenyan LGBTQI+ community member Edwin Chiloba,” tweeted Price. “We call for full accountability for his death.”
MICHAEL K. LAVERSThousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday stormed the country’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court.
Videos from Brasília, the Brazilian capital, show Bolsonaro supporters, many of whom were wearing yellow and green Brazilian soccer jerseys, entered the three buildings and ransacked them after overwhelming police officers.
Media reports indicate it took several hours for authorities to regain control of Three Powers Square in which Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court are located. CNN Brasil notes at least 400 people have been arrested, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has removed Federal District Gov. Ibaneis Rocha from his post. Additional reports also indicate several journalists were injured during what has been described as a “coup” and “terrorist acts” that took place two days after the U.S. commemorated the second anniversary of Jan. 6.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in Brasília on Jan. 1.
Da Silva, a member of the leftist Worker’s Party, was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010. He defeated Bolsonaro, a member of the right-wing Liberal Party who represented Rio de Janeiro in the Congress for nearly three decades before he became president in 2018, in the second round of the country’s presidential election that took place on Oct. 30, 2022.
Bolsonaro ahead of the election sought to discredit Brazil’s electoral system.
“The Brazilian presidential election has fueled a misinformation emergency that has tipped the LGBT+ community into a boiling pot of fake news,” wrote Egerton Neto, a Brazilian LGBTQ and intersex activist who is also an Aspen New Voices Fellow and manager of Oxford University’s XX, in an op-ed the Washington Blade published on Oct. 28, 2022, two days before Da Silva defeated Bolsonaro. “This is part of a broader global problem and we need a global plan to stop it.”
Bolsonaro, who has yet to publicly acknowledge he lost the election, flew to Florida on Dec. 30, two days before Da Silva’s inauguration.
Da Silva, who was visiting the flood-ravaged city of Araraquara in São Paulo state on Sunday, described those who stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court as “fascist fanatics” and ordered the federal government to take control of security in the Federal District in which Brasília is located. Da Silva in his nationally televised comments also accused Bolsonaro of inciting his supporters after the election.
Brazilian federal prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to issue an arrest warrant for now former Federal District Security Secretary Anderson Torres, who was Brazil’s Justice and Public Security Minister from March 2021 until Bol-
sonaro’s term ended, and “other public agents responsible for acts and omissions.”
Bolsonaro in a series of tweets condemned Sunday’s events.
“Peaceful demonstrations, in a legal way, are part of democracy,” he tweeted. “However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today, as well as those carried out by the left in 2013 and 2017, go against the rule.”
“Throughout my mandate; I have always been within the four lines of the Constitution: Respecting and defending the laws, democracy, transparency and our sacred freedom,” added Bolsonaro. “I also repudiate the accusations, without evidence, attributed to me by the current head of the Executive (Branch) of Brazil.”
President Joe Biden, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Organization of American States Secretary-General Luis Almagro, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Chilean President Gabriel Boric are among the world leaders who condemned Sunday’s assault. LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in Brazil echoed these condemnations.
“We express our most vehement disgust at this attempt and call on the competent authorities to enforce the law for all those criminals who attacked democracy on Jan. 8, 2023,” said Associaçao Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals), a Brazilian transgender rights group known by the acronym ANTRA, in a statement. “We cannot tolerate any type of attack and especially in this dimension. May the arm of the law also reach (the funders), creators and those who put it into practice. We remain on the right side of history, the side of democracy.”
MICHAEL K. LAVERS
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is responding to the New York Times’ recent announcement of their hiring of anti-LGBTQ attorney and writer David French as a columnist.
“It is appalling that the New York Times hired and is now boasting about bringing on David French, a writer and attorney with a deep history of anti-LGBTQ activism. After more than a year of inaccurate, misleading LGBTQ coverage in the Times opinion and news pages, the Times started 2023 by announcing a second anti-transgender opinion columnist, without a single known trans voice represented on staff,” responded GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis.
“A cursory search for French turns up numerous anti-LGBTQ articles and his record as an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group that actively spreads misinformation about LGBTQ people and pushes baseless legislation and lawsuits to legalize discrimination, including just last month at the Supreme Court. The Times left out these facts in its glowing announcement of French’s hiring, and also forgot to mention his work as a co-signer on the 2017 Nashville Statement, which erased LGBTQ voices of faith and falsely stated ‘that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.’ The Times had the gall to claim French as a ‘faith’ expert despite this known history.
The Times’ opinion section continues to platform non-LGBTQ voices speaking up inaccurately and harmfully about LGBTQ people and issues. This is damaging to the paper’s credibility. The Times opinion section editors’ love letter to French yesterday shows a willful disregard of LGBTQ community voices and the concerns so many have shared about their inaccurate, exclusionary, often ridiculous pieces. Last year, the Times ended popular trans writer Jenny Boylan’s column, leaving the opinion section with no trans columnists and a known lack of transgender representation on its overall staff. Who was brought on after Boylan? Pamela Paul, who has devoted columns to anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ disinformation, and David French. This reflects a growing trend on the news and opinion pages of misguided, inaccurate, and disingenuous ‘both sides’ fearmongering and bad faith ‘just asking questions’ coverage. The Times started 2023 by bragging about hiring another anti-trans writer, so LGBTQ leaders, organizations, and allies should make a 2023 resolution not to stay silent as the Times platforms lies, bias, fringe theories and dangerous inaccuracies.”
Examples of French’s anti-LGBTQ activism:
French served as attorney for SPLC-designated hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), best known for attacking the rights of transgender students, fighting in court to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and working internationally to criminalize being LGBTQ.
French has a history of expressing his outward disdain for transgender people. In the past, he lamented “transgender entitlement” and once described a young transgender woman as a “man” who is “on
the verge of mutilating himself.” (from Media Matters.)
French was a co-signer on the “Nashville Statement.” Column written by French attempting to refute existence of transgender people.
French was called out for saying that lifting the ban on trans military service will result in “thought control.”
French recently made news for his late-in-life change of heart to support marriage equality, explaining it about a month ago. He has not disavowed his legal activism for ADF, and in fact has defended the group, which continues to attack and spread disinformation about LGBTQ people around the globe.
Examples of NYT columnist Pamela Paul’s anti-LGBTQ work: Pamela Paul, who is not LGBTQ, has devoted her first columns to inaccurately opining about LGBTQ issues, including falsely and incredulously claiming erasure of the word and identity, “gay” in the LGBTQ movement.
Paul was New York Times Books Editor when writer Jesse Singal, who is not transgender or LGBTQ but who has built a career inaccurately writing about trans issues and targeting trans people, reviewed and supported his friend’s inaccurate anti-transgender book.
Paul repeated Singal’s false and harmful exclusionary innuendo about transgender women and safety in one of her first opinion columns.
While leading the Books section, Paul has been accused of silencing voices supportive of transgender youth.
Recent examples of inaccurate news coverage of LGBTQ people and youth, and their consequences:
In court documents, the state of Texas quoted Emily Bazelon’s June 15 report in the New York Times Magazine to further target families of trans youth over their private, evidence-based healthcare decisions. Every major medical association supports gender affirming care as best practices care that is safe and lifesaving and has widespread consensus of the medical and scientific communities.
The World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH), the world’s leading medical and research authority on transgender healthcare, criticized the Times’ November 2022 article “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost?” as “furthering the atmosphere of misinformation” about healthcare for trans youth, noting its inaccurate narratives, interpretations and non-expert voices. WPATH noted the Times elevated false and inflammatory notions about medications that have been used safely in non-LGBTQ populations for decades without an explicit statement about how the benefits of the treatment far outweigh potential risks.
Writer Michael Powell elevated anti-transgender voices to falsely assert, in a piece about one successful transgender athlete, that transgender athletes are a threat to women’s sports. Powell’s other pieces have been used to support Pamela Paul’s inaccurate opinion essays falsely claiming “women” are being erased by the inclusion of trans people in discussions about abortion access.
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When the Golden Globes returned to television this week, nobody was sure how things would play out.
The Globes were known as the “best party” of Hollywood’s awards season until they were plunged into scandal by a 2021 LA Times report that exposed a profound lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the organization behind the Globes – and alleged a pattern of ethical violations around the expensive “perks” accepted by its voting members from PR reps campaigning for nominations. They were denounced and boycotted by most of the film and TV industry’s biggest power players, and NBC, the network that had televised the ceremony since the ‘90s, declined to broadcast the show again until the HFPA had cleaned up its act. In 2022, the Globes went on, but they happened behind closed doors, with no audience in attendance and the winners announced via YouTube, and Hollywood paid – or at least pretended to pay – little attention.
Now, a year later, the ceremony was back on the air, but despite the penitent HFPA’s massive retooling from within, widespread disapproval of the organization was still percolating in Hollywood, there was no guarantee anyone would show up to accept an award or even to sit in the audience.
In hindsight, of course, there shouldn’t have been any doubt. After two years of pandemic-mandated abstinence from its accustomed social whirl, Hollywood was ready for a party, and the stars – except for a few notable holdouts – just couldn’t say no.
No doubt in hope of getting home viewers to come to the party, too, the Globes kept with its tradition of enlisting edgy, irreverent comics to host the show – and shrewdly underscored its newly forged commitment to diversity – by handing those duties to openly gay Black comedian Jerrod Carmichael; eloquent, handsome, and dapper in pink, he wasted no time in stirring controversy, delivering an opening monologue that humorously acknowledged the Awards’ history of racism and stoked skepticism about their good intentions. While many in the crowd seemed to find him hilarious, some were visibly uncomfortable; the latter sentiment became increasingly palpable as he continued to troll the HFPA – and a few other plumb targets – throughout the show. Comments from viewers on social media, predictably, mirrored that divided response.
As for the awards themselves, the Globes seemed to make good on its promise of diversity. Several major prizes went to Black actors, including Angela Bassett (Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, “Wakanda Forever”), Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams (Best Actress and Supporting Actor in a Musical or
By JOHN PAUL KINGComedy TV Show, “Abbott Elementary”), and Eddie Murphy, who was given the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Asian-American stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan (Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Film and Best Supporting Actor in a Film, respectively) took home awards for their work in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and Indian composer MM Keeravani took the Best Song prize for “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” –beating out the likes of Taylor Swift and Rihanna to become the first Indian to win a Golden Globe.
Though none of the few openly LGBTQ nominees won in their respective acting categories, the show still maintained a strong queer presence – partly thanks to Carmichael, who at one point even introduced presenter Niecy Nash by quipping, “We both gay now, so that’s good.” There was also Billy Porter’s show-stopping appearance in a fuchsia Siriano tuxedo gown to present gay entertainment mogul Ryan Murphy with the Carol Burnett Award, followed by an inspiring acceptance speech from Murphy in which he stressed the importance of telling queer stories and sang the praises of some of his frequent queer collaborators – even using some of his time to lead a belated ovation for MJ Rodriguez, whose historic win last year as Best Supporting Actress in a TV Drama was the first for a trans actress at the Golden Globes, and to hold up Black queer actor Jeremy Pope (who lost his Best Actor in a Film Drama nomination to Austin Butler’s acclaimed performance in queer filmmaker Baz Luhrman’s “Elvis”) as “the future” for queer representation onscreen.
So, too, was queer-inclusive content celebrated – most prominently “Everything Everywhere,” which, though it ultimately lost its Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nod to Martin McDonagh’s much-lauded “The Banshees of Inisherin,” gave the evening two of its most crowd-pleasing moments through its wins for Yeoh and Quan. In particular, Quan –who made his screen debut at 12 as Harrison Ford’s sidekick in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” – drew exuberant cheers from the audience with an emotional acceptance speech in which he expressed his gratitude to director Steven Spielberg for giving him his start four decades ago. Later, Spielberg’s win as Best Director for his semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” created a neat symmetry that surely resonated among viewers – especially Gen X-ers – and left them feeling warmly satisfied.
Standouts among the other queer-inclusive winners were “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” for which Evan Peters took Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film for his unnerving performance as the title character; queer creator
Mike White’s “The White Lotus,” which won as Best Miniseries and created another highlight of the evening by allowing Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries winner Jennifer Coolidge to deliver a sublimely self-lampooning acceptance speech while basking in the delight of an audience clearly as in love with her as the rest of us, not to mention generating one of the show’s biggest laughs when Carmichael apologized to Coolidge on behalf of “all the gays” for what they “tried to do to her on that boat.”
Still, despite a painfully clear priority to make room at the Globes party for everyone, the ceremony’s winners largely still reflected a tendency toward the mainstream. HBO’s “House of Dragons” beat critically acclaimed shows like “Better Call Saul” and “Severance” for the Best TV Drama prize, and “Banshees” dominated the Movie Musical or Comedy categories with additional wins for awards darling McDonagh’s screenplay and its star, Colin Farrell. Finally, sentimental favorite “The Fabelmans” capped the evening by bookending Spielberg’s directing win with a victory in the Best Movie Drama competition. In other words, there were few surprises, and while there were encouraging signs of change on prominent display, the HFPA’s choices managed to remain predictably “safe.”
It’s too early to say if Tuesday’s ceremony will put the Globes back in Hollywood’s good graces. As awards shows go, there have been worse, and the general tone of the evening remained mostly positive – though there was a noticeable sense of rebellion in the room which manifested in an increasingly ugly war of wills between speech-giving winners and the musical playoffs employed to keep them within their time limit. So, too, the ceremony’s compliant display of diversity was not enough to allay suspicions that such concessions were, at their core, all for just show.
For us, the assessment remains the same as usual when it comes to Hollywood awards shows and their efforts toward inclusion: yes, things are better, but there’s still a long way to go.
The complete list of winners is below:
BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA: “The Fabelmans”
BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY:
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
BEST ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE DRAMA: Austin Butler, “Elvis”
BEST ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE DRAMA: Cate Blanchett, “Tár”
BEST ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE MUSICAL OR COMEDY:
Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
BEST ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE MUSICAL
OR COMEDY: Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, MOTION PICTURE: Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MOTION PICTURE: Angela Bassett, “Wakanda Forever”
BEST DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE: Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”
BEST SCREENPLAY, MOTION PICTURE: Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
BEST MOTION PICTURE SCORE: Justin Hurwitz, “Babylon”
BEST SONG: “Naatu Naatu” (from “RRR”)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio”
BEST TV SERIES, DRAMA: “House of the Dragon”
BEST TV SERIES, MUSICAL OR COMEDY: “Abbott Elementary”
BEST ACTOR, TV SERIES DRAMA: Kevin Costner, “Yellowstone”
BEST ACTRESS, TV SERIES DRAMA: Zendaya, “Euphoria”
BEST ACTOR, TV SERIES MUSICAL OR COMEDY: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”
BEST ACTRESS, TV SERIES MUSICAL OR COMEDY: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, TV SERIES: Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, TV SERIES: Julia Garner, “Ozark”
BEST LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: “The White Lotus”
BEST ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Evan Peters, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
BEST ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Amanda Seyfried, “The Dropout”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”
CECIL B. DEMILLE AWARD: Eddie Murphy
CAROL BURNETT AWARD: Ryan Murphy
Just as a meal is more than a sum of its ingredients, restaurants are more than just furniture, fire, and food.
For Catie Randazzo, working in restaurants was “the first place that I felt I could be my true authentic queer self. Randazzo, who uses they/them pronouns, went from staffing the local Dairy Queen in Columbus, Ohio at 16 to starring in HBO’s recent “The Big Brunch,” hosted by Dan Levy (it aired in November). Randazzo, who now calls Los Angeles home, has taken the spotlight in stride: a chef, leader, and role model in equal parts.
Randazzo, who began in the service industry in several chain restaurants, says that “growing up in a Pentecostal household, it’s where I finally felt free. The chains provided consistency, efficiency, and the meaning of a restaurant family.” After graduating from culinary school, they worked in Portland and New York City before returning home to Columbus to open their own food truck.
“I moved home in 2013 to open my first solo venture, a food truck called Challah! that did riffs on classic Jewish street food. I fell in love with Jewish food and culture while living in New York,” they say. “I wanted to celebrate it. It is still an influence in my cooking today, and it always will be. It’s kind of funny though, former Pentecostal, a queer kid, does Jewish food, but it works.”
Randazzo then opened and gained acclaim for their first brick and mortar restaurant, Ambrose and Eve, a modern American restaurant. It closed in 2020 due to complications from the pandemic. Yet it was there at Ambrose and Eve that Randazzo earned the titles Best Chef 2019 and 2020 from The Columbus Underground, Best New Restaurant 2019 from Columbus Monthly, and recognition from the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. Randazzo was being seen for cooking prowess, and leadership outside the kitchen.
“Ambrose was magical. I was able to create a safe space for my staff, where they could be themselves, and insert their ideas to grow as bartenders, cooks, and servers,” Randazzo notes.
As the pandemic shuttered restaurants everywhere in 2020, Catie became a trusted fixture in Columbus, lending support to local nonprofits including Star House, a drop-in center for displaced youth; and helped establish Service!, alongside other local chefs focused on feeding and supporting service industry staff. Randazzo also volunteered mentoring queer children who wanted to become chefs, and at youth drop-in shelters.
When a friend sent Randazzo a note about applying for “The Big Brunch,” “I was still mentally recovering from
the loss of my restaurant. But the more I read about the premise of the show, the more I thought I should apply. I also had only been out as non-binary for a few months and was nervous to put myself out there like that. Also, it’s Dan Fucking Levy. Like, come on.”
On “The Big Brunch,” 10 chefs from diverse backgrounds fought to win $300,000 from the judges: Levy, chef Sohla El-Waylly and restaurateur Will Guidara. Through the show, Randazzo dug deep, and made major life changes – moving to Los Angeles and taking up the mantle as executive chef of Huckleberry Bakery & Café in Santa Monica.
“That show, my castmates, the whole experience changed my life. I feel confident again. I got sober. I found a new version of myself that I am in love with. I met a girl. I moved to LA. I got a fucking kick-ass job doing what I love. I
had been lost for so long, and it feels like I am home. I hope that through the show, people can hear my story, and it may help and guide them to stand up, speak out, and be themselves.”
Today in LA, diners at Huckleberry can get a taste of how Randazzo sparkled in The Big Brunch – their signature approach to unique, seasonally inspired food, and their penchant for telling stories through nostalgia. A couple dish highlights: a veggie quiche from the farmer’s market, and cereal milk pancakes inspired by weekend breakfasts made by their father.
Randazzo promises to continue their trajectory. “I think my work supports the need for queer safe spaces just by being visible. Sometimes, just having someone see you can make all the difference.”
After months of speculation and Instagram snaps, it’s official: Carl Nassib and Søren Dahl are a couple. Last weekend, the NFL player posted an Instagram story featuring a photograph of himself with his arm around the Danish swimmer.
Dahl, who competed in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, is seen wearing a Buccaneers jersey with Nassib’s number 94, and the linebacker has his arm around Dahl’s waist.
Although there have been a series of snapshots since last summer featuring Nassib and Dahl together on the beach, in a club, and at the gym, this is the first one in which Nassib wrote something to clarify they are dating: “Kicking off 2023 with my man and a trip to the playoffs,” he captioned the photo. Until now, Nassib has been extremely private about his personal life.
Dahl also posted a few pictures on Instagram on Jan. 2, including that same photo, with the caption, “Always Big Boy Season.” From the background and location, it appears this was taken outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Bucs.
This will be the second playoff season for Nassib, the first active NFL player to come out as gay. He made the playoffs with the Las Vegas Raiders last year, and this year he’s with Tom Brady and the Bucs. Their postseason game date and opponent will be announced in just days, but first they’ll take on the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday, already having clinched the No. 4 seed and the NFC South title.
Dahl swam for Denmark in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay in 2016’s Olympic Games. Prior to that, he competed for North Carolina State and was a two-time NCAA champion swimmer, winning titles in the 4×100 free and 4×200 free relays. Sometime around 2018, he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to pursue his master’s degree in Strategic Communication at Texas Christian University. After graduating in 2020, Dahl moved to New York City.
In 2021, he shared the story with followers of his TikTok account of how a former swimming coach called him the “F-word” and told him he’d “never become a good swimmer” if he were to come out as gay. The video then shows Dahl sporting a big smile and photos from his time swimming at the Olympics.
Although they dedicated themselves to different sports and were born in different countries, Nassib and Dahl are the same age, 29, celebrating birthdays just months apart. Ever since coming out, Nassib has stepped up to help LGBTQ+ youth by raising money
for The Trevor Project, for two years now: He’s matched all donations to the organization up to $100,000. The group operates a crisis lifeline and provides resources to young people struggling with coming out, and also supports important research into the lack of affirming situations across race, identity and age groups.
The 18-year-old actor Noah Schnapp, who plays the character of the closeted gay teenager Will Byers on Netflix’s smash science fiction series “Stranger Things,” has himself come out as gay.
In a video posted to his TikTok account on Thursday, Schnapp wrote, “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know’”
In the caption to his TikTok video, Schnapp wrote, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
BRODY LEVESQUE DAWN ENNIS SØREN DAHL and CARL NASSIB (Photo courtesy Nassib/Instagram)
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