Los Angeles Blade, Volume 07, Issue 07, February 17, 2023

Howard Bragman, veteran publicist and LGBTQ activist, dies at 66 Instrumental in guiding those living in glass closets to come out

By KAREN OCAMB

Howard Bragman died Saturday, 13 days before his 67th birthday. With the media focused on the Super Bowl, the horrific earthquake in Turkey, and UFOs in American airspace, Howard’s death has been mostly noted in the entertainment trades with little attention paid to the significant decades-long behind-the-scenes impact he had on his beloved LGBTQ movement.

Thank heavens for TMZ, with whom Howard sometimes worked closely to produce a respectful story about his PR clients, for explaining what happened.

“Howard was set to attend a wedding in Mexico with his partner, Mike Maimone, this month — but wanted to get checked out by his doctor before his travels for what he thought was a gum infection and mild fever,” TMZ reported. “Unfortunately, after testing, Bragman was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of leukemia a person can have — and it progressed ‘explosively.’ Howard was hospitalized on Feb. 2 and died less than two weeks after.”

I can’t imagine the panic at having something you need to get checked and fixed before going on a glorious trip suddenly turn into an inexplicable death sentence. My heart breaks for Howard, his partner and their families, friends and dogs. It also triggers my old PTSD about how we LGBTQ people had to face similar panic during the waves of AIDS crisis when death sentence test results happened almost every day until the miracle drug cocktail became available in 1996.

That’s what made Howard so special, so different from cut-throat manipulative Hollywood “flacks.” This highly regarded, in-demand public relations professional, crisis management expert and the go-to guy for celebrities who wanted to come out of the closet never forgot where he came from.

“As a fat, Jewish, gay kid in Flint, Michigan, I always felt like a Martian,” he said in announcing a $1 million endowment in 2021 to establish the Howard Bragman Coming Out Fund at the University of Michigan, operated by the LGBTQ Spectrum Center. “This campus allows you to be yourself. It allows you to spread your wings in the way you want to spread your wings. I tell people, ‘Stay strong, even when it hurts.’ And, I promise, it hurts sometimes. But, there are places that will help you ease the pain sometimes. That’s what the Spectrum Center did. That’s what Michigan did.”

Bragman added: “I don’t care how liberal the school is. I don’t care how accepting and loving your parents are. I don’t care how ‘woke’ the times are. Coming out is this most personal of journeys, and it’s a challenging journey. It’s so important for students to know they are not alone.”

I met Howard in 1989 when I was just starting in “gay” journalism and he had just co-founded Bragman Nyman Cafarelli. He dressed well but he was funny, down-toearth and unpretentious. He sincerely cared about the people he was advising — from the rich celebrities to AIDS

organizations he served pro bono. He was also very good about reaching out to the gay press, which is how I got my first introduction into the issue of the federal government’s ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military.

professional gay, but someone also committed to diminishing the prejudice gays faces in their daily lives. By late 1989, largely due to Bragman’s efforts, Joe Steffen would become the most visible gay person in America.”

That AIDS hung like a scrim over much of heterosexual thinking during the AIDS years became accidentally evident in 1991 during the long course of Steffen’s case.

“A Federal District judge ruled today that the military’s ban on homosexuals in the armed forces was justified to prevent the spread of AIDS,” Eric Schmitt wrote in the New York Times on Dec. 10, 1991. “Other Federal courts have upheld the Pentagon’s ban, but the 35-page ruling issued today by Judge Oliver Gasch of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia is unusual for its reasoning. Neither the Defense Department nor the plaintiff, a gay midshipman who sued the United States Naval Academy over discrimination against homosexuals, raised the issue of AIDS. But Judge Gasch said the Government’s policy of excluding homosexuals ‘is rational in that it is directed, in part, at preventing those who are at the greatest risk of dying of AIDS from serving.’”

In his tribute to Howard, Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports.com, notes that grappling with the stigma of AIDS over all those years, helped build his career.

One of Howard’s first pro bono clients was Naval Academy midshipman Joe Steffan who was forced to resign six weeks before graduation because he revealed that he was gay.

Howard, gay San Francisco Chronicle journalist and fellow 12 Stepper Randy Shilts and I talked about this, among other issues, walking our dogs in a large dog park off Mulholland Boulevard. Randy later wrote about Howard in his opus “Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military Vietnam to the Persian Gulf,” published in 1993. (Randy died of AIDS the following year. He was 42.)

After filing his lawsuit in District Court on Dec. 29, 1988, challenging the constitutionality of the gay ban, Steffan and his Lambda Legal attorneys met with reporters, who Steffan was surprised to find were supportive. Howard signed on late in 1989.

“Bragman had thoroughly impeccable professional credentials,” Randy wrote. “He had been vice president of Burson-Marsteller before launching his own public relations business in Beverly Hills. His client roster included L.A. Gear, the trendy shoe manufacturer, and numerous entertainment celebrities. At 33, he was also young enough to be comfortable being openly gay and felt obliged to devote a portion of his time and talent to support the gay movement. In Steffen, Bragman saw a man much like himself, a gay professional rather than a

“Howard Bragman wasn’t just a publicist to the stars. He was an important trailblazer for the LGBT community who fought tirelessly for thoughtful, fair coverage of gay and lesbian people in sports and entertainment. And he was a dear friend,” Zeigler wrote, noting how Howard helped gay former NFL player Esera Tuaolo come out publicly in 2002 and, with Zeigler in 2006, former NBA player John Amaechi and subsequently athletes such as WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes, golfer Rosie Jones and most famously, University of Missouri defensive player Michael Sam as he prepared for the NFL Draft.

“The truth is always what you got from Howard,” Zeigler wrote. “While his job was often crisis management when stars made mistakes, his general approach was to tackle the issue head-on. Howard wasn’t a bullshitter, he’d tell you what he thinks and he had the confidence and fortitude to stick to his guns. As a gay man in Hollywood in the 80s and 90s during the AIDS epidemic, it was that strength that helped him build a career even as stigma built.”

Howard, who subsequently launched Fifteen Minutes and later La Brea Media, represented a slew of famous folks and often appeared as an on-air expert for TV programs. In 1991, he helped bring out actor Dick Sargent, the second Darrin and loving husband to Elizabeth Montgomery in “Bewitched” and “Family Ties” mom Meredith Baxter before she was outed in the tabloids. Howard also helped Chaz Bono navigate his very public transgender transition.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 04

PR guru and LGBTQ rights advocate HOWARD BRAGMAN died at age 66. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Councilwoman Park leads vote for new green space to Westside

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Los Angeles Councilwoman Traci Park (D- CD11), led a unanimous vote on Wednesday by the city council to approve a historic $65 million agreement between Los Angeles World Airports and Lulu’s Place that will bring stateof-the-art recreational and enrichment opportunities to approximately 20 acres of LAX’s Northside Area.

The transformative project will include new tennis courts, soccer fields, a dog park and community playground.

“Activating LAX’s Northside area with green spaces and recreational opportunities has been a long-time community vision,” said Councilwoman Park. “I’m thankful for this groundbreaking partnership with Los Angeles World Airports and Lulu’s Place, which will serve and enrich countless generations of Westchester residents and Angelenos, while honoring the life and legacy of an extraordinary woman  – Lulu Kimmelman.”

The restoration of LAX’s Northside Area for community-based uses goes back decades when LAWA first acquired 340 acres of land abutting LAX’s northern boundary in the 1970s. After robust community engagement, the City Council approved an Environmental Impact Report for the site in 2016 which envisioned the development of new green spaces, airport use, and commercial use, in addition to design guidelines for the site.

“Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is excited to work with CD11, the community, and the Kimmelman Foundation and its partners to bring a state-of-the-art recreational facility to a portion of the vacant LAX Northside campus,” said Justin Erbacci, Chief Executive Officer, LAWA. “The Lulu’s Place team is developing this multimillion-dollar facility that will bring tennis courts, pickleball courts, soccer and multi-purpose fields, a dog park and a children’s playground to the community at no cost to the City or to the

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 02

airport.”

Lulu’s Place is inspired by the passion and generosity of its namesake – Carol “Lulu” Kimmelman – a California native who passed away in 2017. A lifelong tennis player and former public school elementary teacher, Lulu believed fervently in the power of tennis and other sports to transform the lives of young people from all backgrounds.

“Lulu believed all children have the potential to achieve greatness. By harnessing the power of athletics and education, Lulu’s Place will serve generations of young Angelenos as a living legacy to an extraordinary woman,” said Doug Kimmelman, president of the Kimmelman Family Founda-

tion and husband of Lulu Kimmelman. “We’re grateful to LAWA, Councilmember Park, and Mayor Bass for enabling yesterday’s momentous approval, and look forward to being great partners with the City as this world-class community center takes shape.”

The project has been celebrated by the local community, over 100 of whom gave public comments and submitted letters of support during this week’s Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee, which heard the item before City Council’s consideration.

“As a mother and president of the NCWP, this is an exciting investment in our community that will bring new recreational opportunities for our children to add to the resources available to our local schools,” said Paula Gerez. “ I am proud of the significant role our Neighborhood Council played in working with the Kimmelman Foundation to make sure Lulu’s Place is successful, and we look forward to the on-going partnership that will help shape this project as it moves forward.”

“The Lulu’s Place project is an exciting one for the St. Bernard High School community, and I am thrilled about our families having access to the amazing parks, athletic facilities and especially the learning opportunities, said Rosalie Roberts, principal of St. Bernard High School. “As an educator for more than 20 years, I know these learning resources can change the lives and the future academic trajectories of a young person by exposing them to hands-on relevant learning opportunities. We are grateful that the Lulu’s Place project is moving forward.”

In approving the lease, Councilwoman Park also instructed Los Angeles World Airports to continue their engagement with the surrounding community to address concerns related to the construction and operation of the project.

Publicist, LGBTQ advocate Bragman dies at 66

For me, one of my most poignant coming out interviews was with Chely Wright. “Country star Chely Wright is celebrating her birthday of choice: she officially came out as gay in People magazine and NBC’s Today Show. Her coming out coincides with the release of her new extraordinary memoir Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer and her latest release, Lifted off the Ground, (iTunes) her first album in five years,” I wrote in the Huffington Post July 6, 2010. “The public’s attention will no doubt focus on Wright’s revelation about being gay, something she denied when confronted about rumors by country singer John Rich. But in her book and album — and in her interview with me — Wright talks about a more universal truth: how the self-loathing that comes from keeping a shameful secret can lead to despair and thoughts of suicide — and how telling that secret can lead to a kind of glorious liberation.”

Howard and I didn’t always agree. He considered himself a bridge-builder and seemed convinced that both Isaiah Washington — who described fellow actor T.R. Knight as a “faggot” on the set of Grey’s Anatomy — and San Diego real estate developer and Manchester Grand Hyatt and the Grand del Mar Resort hotelier Doug Manchester — who gave $125,000 to the floundering Yes on 8 campaign, spurring it on to electoral victory in 2008 — were not homophobic but rather men who had made mistakes and wanted to make amends. He thought the gay community should get to a place of forgiveness and not be mean and vindictive. I had real trouble with that.

But Howard also offered that kernel of painful truth that must be heard — whether we like it or not. “Despite Mr. Manchester’s donations, what our own community needs to understand is that we lost Prop. 8 because of the deci-

sions we made — because of the ways we campaigned and didn’t campaign. The only way we’re ever going to win is by reaching into the middle to change hearts and minds,” he told Advocate.com. Howard was not alone in that assessment.

On a personal note, Howard and I became friends over the years, recognizing in each other the deep and soulful commitment to our people. He was one of the first people to reach out to me after Frontiers decided I was too old to be the news editor for LA’s then-most important LGBTQ publication. It was a kindness I will never forget.

Howard Bragman was a mainstream star. But it is critical that we not forget or that we find out here and by researching our own history how instrumental he was in guiding those living in glass closets to come out and energize their own authentic selves in the LGBTQ movement.

Will transform LAX’s northside area with tennis courts, soccer fields, more

Los Angeles Councilwoman TRACI PARK (D- CD11) (Photo courtesy City of Los Angeles)

Bill to improve access to PrEP through pharmacies introduced

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 339, legislation to improve access to PrEP, the preventative HIV medication. SB 339 will rectify issues with previous legislation to allow pharmacies to furnish PrEP without a prescription.

The new legislation will extend the length of time for which pharmacies may furnish PrEP without a prescription and require health plans to cover the costs of pharmacists’ time in preparing PrEP.

“PrEP freed millions of people from the fear of contracting HIV, a miracle of science that once seemed impossible,” said Wiener. “However, each year around 4,000 Californians – disproportionately LGBTQ people and people of color – contract HIV because of barriers to access. SB 339 will address the issues with implementing our groundbreaking legislation SB 159, allowing people to access PrEP without seeing a doctor.”

Despite significant progress, HIV remains a major public health challenge in California, with nearly 4,000 new HIV diagnoses each year. Black and Latino gay and bisexual men, Black cisgender women, transgender women, and youth continue to be the populations most impacted by HIV.

PrEP reduces the risk of contracting HIV through sexual contact by more than 99%, making it more effective than any other measure to prevent HIV, including condoms. PrEP reduces the risk of contracting HIV via drug use by 74%.

In 2019, Governor Newsom signed the first-in-the-nation Senate Bill 159 (Wiener, Chapter 532, Statutes of 2019) into law. The legislation authorized pharmacies to furnish up to a 60-day supply of PrEP without a prescription. It also banned health plans from imposing step therapy and prior authorization on PrEP.

However, few pharmacies have successfully used the law to furnish PrEP. In surveys, because health plans do not cover the cost of pharmacists’ labor in preparing PrEP as a major obstacle and because the 60-day window is too short to ensure referral to a primary-care physician.

Other states have successfully implemented pharmacy-provided PrEP programs.  Colorado, Nevada, and Utah

opted not to limit the amount of HIV-preventative medication a pharmacist can provide.

In Colorado, plans must reimburse a pharmacist employed by an in-network pharmacy for prescribing and dispensing PrEP and PEP to a covered person, and to provide an adequate consultative fee to those pharmacists.

In Nevada, both public and private plans must include coverage for PrEP and PEP and reimburse for laboratory testing, prescribing, dispensing, and administering these medications by a pharmacist at a rate equal to that of a physician.

SB 339 addresses the unforeseen obstacles of California’s first-in-the-nation effort of SB 159, opening pathways to the increased uptake envisioned when the bill was originally passed. SB 339 requires health plans to cover up to a 90-day supply of PrEP prescribed by a pharmacist, and an ongoing supply if the patient is ensured follow-up care and testing consistent with CDC guidelines.

It also requires health plans to cover costs associated with pharmacist services when furnishing PrEP including but not limited to testing. These measures will remove the most significant reported barriers to making PrEP available without a prescription.

SB 339 is sponsored by the California Pharmacists Association, Equality California, and the SF AIDS Foundation.

“When we passed the legislation granting pharmacists the authority to initiate and provide life-saving medication to prevent HIV, our shared goal is to get to zero transmissions,” said Richard Dang, PharmD, President, California Pharmacists Association. “However, until health plans treat pharmacists as other healthcare providers and reimburse us for care and remove unnecessary barriers, we will not meet that goal. Pharmacists and physicians work together to ensure our patients maintain their health, we must require health plans to recognize pharmacists as key members of the healthcare team.”

“Equality California was proud to co-sponsor SB 159 in 2019, which made California the first state in the nation to allow pharmacists to provide PrEP and PEP without a physician’s prescription,” said Equality California Executive

Director Tony Hoang. “Unfortunately, few pharmacists currently provide these medications and LGBTQ+ Californians continue to experience numerous barriers to accessing them. By co-sponsoring SB 339, we remain committed to eliminating these barriers, which will help reduce HIV transmission rates and create a stronger path toward ending the HIV epidemic entirely.”

“San Francisco AIDS Foundation is proud to co-sponsor SB 339 which builds on the groundbreaking provisions of SB159 by allowing pharmacists to provide ongoing PrEP and associated testing and follow-up care,” said Tyler TerMeer, PhD, CEO of SF AIDS Foundation. “It is critical that we increase access to this effective HIV prevention tool, in order to reduce disparities in new infections. Currently, less than 25% of those who could benefit from PrEP are receiving it, and uptake is particularly low among Black and Latinx-identified men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, and people living in rural areas with limited access to culturally competent healthcare providers. Diversifying the providers and places where people can access ongoing PrEP would be a step toward more equitable access for all Californians.”

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Math teacher takes son to WeHo nail salon, defies negativity

Christian Shearhod, who teaches math in Los Angeles County, took his three-year-old son to a West Hollywood nail salon after the toddler’s daycare teacher said “painting your nails is only for girls.”

“My son came home from school upset because his teacher told him that painting his nails is only for girls, so today I’m

taking him to the nail shop!” Christian Shearhod said in a TikTok video posted last week.

Shearhod noted that the boy’s daycare teacher had scolded him for wanting to paint his nails, calling it a ‘girls only’ activity.

In an interview with NBC News Shearhod said his son first expressed interest in nail polish around the age of 2.

“Since then, we started painting our nails together,” he said.  Shearhod, in a relationship with his transgender girlfriend Eden, is a straight LGBTQ+ ally and uses his TikTok platform to bolster LGBTQ+ equality and visibility.

After the negativity from his son’s daycare teacher which upset his son, Shearhod told NBC News that he and his gir-

lfriend hoped to cheer the boy up by taking him to the nail salon.

“I really just wanted to make sure that he didn’t have guilt or shame, because it is something that he enjoyed, and we had done together multiple times,” Shearhod said, adding that he wants his son to enjoy life to the fullest at his age, without “strict gender norms.”

The following school day, Shearhod said he spoke with Ashton’s day care teachers.

“I just told them, ‘Hey, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say that kind of thing to Ashton, kind of let him do his own thing,’” Shearhod told NBC he said to the daycare staff.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

(Screenshot/YouTube The Queer Network)

CHRISTIAN SHEARHOD and his 3-year-old son ASHTON (Photo via Shearhod/Instagram)

Huntington Beach City Council votes to ban Pride flag

After a tense and often heated public comment and debate segment the City Council Tuesday night approved an ordinance/policy to restrict display of flags on cityowned property to only flying the city, state and national flags, along with occasionally flying the county flag and flags supporting prisoners of war and each branch of the military.

The council voted 4-3 approving the ordinance/policy along party lines with Democratic council members Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voting against it.

for the ordinance. “The City of Huntington Beach should avoid actions that could easily or mistakenly be perceived as divisive. [We] are one community with many different cultures and people. All are equally valued members of our community, and none are to be treated differently or discriminated against.”

“People have asked if we can fly other flags, whatever they may be, and I don’t believe that we should fly any other flags but equal flags that represent us all,” Burns added.

During the public comments session several individuals who spoke in favor of banning the flag echoed Burns telling city council members along with LGBTQ people and supporters in the audience that display of the Pride flag should not be given preferential treatment.

Former Huntington Beach Mayor and City Councilmember Connie Boardman argued that the proposed ordinance/policy item would prevent the city from flying the Olympic flag, which she pointed out as the City is hoping to host the Olympic surfing competition for the Los Angeles games in 2028 would look bad.

“The Olympics stress diversity and inclusion,” Boardman said. “This item is the opposite of that.”

Councilmember Moser told the council and the audience removal of the Pride flag sends out a negative message and would reinforce the city’s reputation as the “Florida of California.”

“It makes us look like the city everybody expects us to be. I don’t believe we are that city, I believe we’re better than that,” Moser said.

Republican Councilman Pat Burns, a former Long Beach Police Department Lieutenant, and a publicly proclaimed proponent of “family values” said “Special flags or recognition flags of some sort that aren’t governmental or representative of the community, as one, I don’t believe has a space on our government flag poles.”

Burns stated in a staff report explaining his reasoning

Last year far-right media outlet OAN contributor Alison Steinberg had ranted on social media attacking the display of the Pride Flag after returning home to Huntington Beach to find the city flying it.

In their report to the council the city staff noted that over 275 plus people had sent letters to on the issue of the flag, with 228 in support of the Pride flag remaining up while 46 endorsed the shift in the flag ordinance/policy.

Voice of OC reporter Noah Biesiada noted Councilmember Kalmick pointed out how the city already had a flag policy, and that if the concern was over the Pride flag then the council members should just vote against flying that flag but leave the overall policy unchanged.

“Creating this as an ordinance removes our ability as council members to make decisions,” Kalmick said. “We already have the ability to fly these flags. If you don’t want to fly the Pride flag, just make a motion…to eliminate the previous resolution to fly the Pride flag.”

“The Greater Los Angeles area is for everyone and yet Huntington Beach officials landed on a cliche and reductive approach to making headlines: marginalizing queer Californians (and potentially, millions of tourists) in one fell swoop. It’s alarming and embarrassing that in 2023, on the heels of 150+ anti-LGBTQ legislations ravaging the country, this is what municipal employees are focusing on– not the unhoused, gun safety or the care of our seniors,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “For a city that prides itself on exercising its rights, it’s abhorrently inexcusable to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of the LGBTQ tax-payers; they’re sending us a clear message of hate and shamelessly putting young, queer lives at stake. Huntington Beach’s officials are taking a cue from the political playbooks of extremist politicians across the country—using their hatred of queer and trans people as launching pads for their careers. We will not be relegated to a closeted existence as those days are long behind us, and our people will always find a way to fly our flag loud and proud. I hope the elected officials who voted in favor of the flag ban remember that representation matters, and that the LGBTQ+ community will work tirelessly to elect representatives who champion our rights.

The new rules for display of flags on city property are set to come back at the council’s February 21 meeting for official adoption. BRODY LEVESQUE

Work where you play — apply for the Youth @ Work program

LA County Parks is HIRING! This Spring, we are looking to employ our local LA County Youth with an excellent entry level job that pays more than minimum wage ($16.04) and allows them to work at their local LA County Park.

Our Youth @ Work employees assist in leading recreational activities for persons of all ages, helping support event setup and takedown, and interacting with the public. Key programs that Youth Workers will be eligible to work this season include Spring Parks After Dark (PAD) and the Every Body Plays after school program. Spring PAD is set

to be held this Spring Break season (March 23 – April 8) and will be featured at 34 LA County Parks from 6 – 10pm on Thursdays and Saturdays. Youth @ Work employees are also able to work during the Every Body Plays program, which runs from 2:30 – 5:30pm Monday through Friday at 58 LA County Parks until May 26. Prospective applicants can apply today at https://bit. ly/40DwWBP.

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

• Be ages 14 -24

• Posses a current work PERMIT (for those 17 years old and younger)

• Have the right to work documents

• Be a  current resident of LA County

All those interested are encouraged to apply today! Youth workers will learn how to lead programs and build customer service skills while making a difference in their local communities! For more information, join us at one of our upcoming outreach events this month!

FROM STAFF REPORTS

SJ, a non-binary resident of Orange County, speaks in opposition to the ban at the Huntington Beach City Council Meeting Feb. 6. (Screenshot/YouTube)

EXCLUSIVE: Schiff on Senate run, bill protecting trans youth

By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) spoke with the Blade last week about his run for the Senate, the Republican Party’s crusade against trans Americans, and a new bill he introduced that would protect vulnerable youth in schools.

Necessitated by Republican legislators’ invasion of students’ privacy to enforce anti-trans and anti-choice laws, Schiff and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-M.N.) introduced the Privacy in Education Regarding Individuals’ Own Data (PERIOD) Act.

Allies close to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have proposed tracking student athletes’ menstrual cycles, which Schiff characterized as “a not-at-all disguised effort to discriminate against trans students” that would be “incredibly invasive of students’ private medical data.”

effort to target trans students.”

The bill aligns with other measures Schiff has introduced recently.

For instance, last year’s Equal Access to Reproductive Care Act would update the federal tax code such that all Americans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity would be able to claim deductions for assisted reproductive treatments and surrogacy arrangements. And the PrEP Assistance Program Act, also introduced last year, would make preexposure prophylactic regimens for the prevention of HIV infection more affordable and accessible for high-risk and underserved patients.

“It really requires a whole of government approach,” Schiff said.

“Congress needs to get rid of any statutory impediments to equal access to care, like the ones that exist in the tax code for LGBTQ families that want to have children. But also the Department of Justice has to enforce existing law and made sure people aren’t discriminated against. The Department of Health and Human Services needs to make sure that in the provision of care, people aren’t subject to discrimination. And [the agency needs] to work with hospitals and health clinics to make sure that they’re gathering the kind of data that’s needed to evaluate whether care is being provided on an equitable basis,” he said.

GOP’s ‘descent into division and hate’

Asked to gauge the prospects of passing the PERIOD Act in the Republican controlled House, Schiff conceded “it’s going to be difficult” in this Congress, but getting members to go on the record with their positions on the bill will be important.

Also important, he said, is highlighting the need for the measure so that “when Democrats regain control of the House in two years, we can get [this] legislation passed.”

“We just saw Donald Trump issuing a video from Mara-Lago essentially pandering to people’s bigotry, and the fact that this is a presidential campaign platform attacking among the most vulnerable of all Americans, a community that already experiences hate and violence and high rates of suicide is absolutely shameful.”

servative ideology, or frankly, any ideology” beyond “just being a party of hate.”

“Donald Trump is still the dominant voice in the Republican Party,” Schiff said. And “Trump isn’t wrong when he said that he was responsible for [DeSantis’s] career” but “he was also responsible for DeSantis imitating the worst aspects of the Trump presidency, [including] in their common demonization of members of the LGBTQ community.”

“We see just how pernicious Trump’s influence has been,” Schiff said. “So I think the danger to our rights or freedoms or democracy continues. And we’re going to be seeing more and more of it as the Republican primary gets underway.”

Running for Senate

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a groundbreaking and venerated figure in Democratic politics, particularly in California, endorsed Schiff’s candidacy for the Senate on the condition that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) decides not to seek reelection next year.

Schiff told The Blade he was “thrilled” to receive the endorsement. “I don’t think there’s any person more well respected among the public, among Democrats in California, and among San Franciscans than Pelosi,” he said. “She’s an iconic figure.”

Schiff added that he is “greatly honored” that in addition to Pelosi, his Senate bid was endorsed by more than 20 current and former House colleagues from the state of California.

“It’s reflective of their belief that I’m capable of getting things done on behalf of the people of California, and better than than anyone else,” he said.

Schiff will have at least one California Democratic opponent in his Senate campaign. Rep. Katie Porter announced her candidacy last month, while Rep. Barbara Lee is also rumored to be considering running.

“We’re all rivals under the same flag,” Schiff told The Blade. “And so I think Californians will have a wealth of riches” among whom to choose.

“There may have been some of this data that was gathered in the past, but the particular focus on it right now, when the Republican party seems to be doing everything possible to make life difficult and dangerous for people in the trans community, is all too telling,” Schiff told The Blade.

The PERIOD Act, he said, is going to be vital for protecting young people’s medical information and “prohibiting this

Targeting one of the country’s most vulnerable communities is evidence of the Republican party’s “descent into division, bigotry, and hate,” Schiff said.

“It shows how low the GOP has descended that they believe their only path to power is by victimizing young people. And so it shouldn’t be, I guess, surprising. But it feels a shock. It’s still a shock,” Schiff said, adding that he is eager for a return to the days in which the GOP had “some con-

“I’m campaigning to protect our democracy, to build an economy that works for everyone, and to save our planet,” Schiff said. “These, to me, are the three existential issues facing our state and our country. And in these consequential fights over the last decade, I’ve been very proud to [have been] at the center.”

Schiff noted his years of service as one of the vice chairs of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, adding, “we’d be very proud to have the support of the community in this campaign.”

‘GOP’s only path to power is by victimizing young people’

Rep. ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) is running for Senate. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Trump judge could ban abortion pills nationwide

Anti-LGBTQ Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is expected to soon rule on a consequential case that could outlaw the use of medication for abortions.

A decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected by the end of this month.

More than half of all abortions in the U.S. are performed

with medications, usually mifepristone in combination with misoprostol, up until the 10th week of pregnancy.

The plaintiffs — represented by the anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — contend that the FDA overextended its authority by approving mifepristone more than 20 years ago.

The lawsuit is “unprecedented,” the Biden administration has said. The American Civil Liberties Union agreed, writing that “in any rational universe” it would be “laughed out of court on multiple grounds.”

According to the ACLU, “Mifepristone was approved more than two decades ago and has been used by millions of people for early abortion care and to treat miscarriages. Study after study has confirmed its safety and efficacy, and its critical role in abortion and miscarriage care. The claims in this case have no basis in law and distort decades of sci-

entific evidence.”

At the same time, a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would align with a series of controversial decisions by Kacsmaryk since his appointment to the bench by former President Donald Trump in 2019.

Previously, Kacsmaryk worked as an attorney for the Christian conservative legal group First Liberty Institute, including on cases whose purpose was to “defend unborn human life.”

Kacsmaryk has faced criticism for past statements in which he said homosexuality is “disordered” and that transgender people are suffering a “delusion” or “mental disorder.”

The constitutional right to birth control was established 65 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

LGBTQ groups praise Biden’s State of the Union speech

Jonathan Lovitz, former special adviser to and senior vice president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, has begun his new role as senior adviser and director of public affairs at the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration.

In the new role, Lovitz will further economic development endeavors in regions across the U.S.

“I am now so deeply honored to be asked by President Joe Biden’s team to support the incredible leadership of [Commerce Department] Secretary Gina Raimondo and Assistant Secretary Alejandra Y. Castillo in making the American economy work for everyone by empowering entrepreneurs, innovators, and job creators from coast to coast,” Lovitz told the Washington Blade.

“I can’t wait to work with the EDA team and partners across the federal government, local communities, and the private sector to create good economic policy, provide transformational grants and training programs, and tell the stories of American ingenuity,” Lovitz said.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

LGBTQ rights groups have largely praised President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech that he delivered last week.

“It’s our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms,” said Biden. “Make no mistake: If Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it. Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.”

The Equality Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights law. The bill has passed the U.S. House of Representatives in two previous Congresses, but did not come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

“In re-upping his call for Congress to pass the Equality Act and protect transgender youth, the president is leading by example to expand freedom so no one is left behind,” GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis commented on Twitter.

Ben LaBolt will become the first openly gay White House communications director, succeeding Kate Bedingfield, who is expected to leave at the end of February, advisers to President Joe Biden announced last week.

Bedingfield is expected to work on Biden’s reelection campaign. LaBolt has worked for the president since the Obama administration, most recently leading communications around matters like the nomination and confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

The move comes shortly after Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain and top economic adviser Brian Deese announced their departures from the White House.

LaBolt was previously senior national spokesperson for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and White House national press secretary in 2012.

Karine Jean-Pierre made history in May 2022 with her appointment as the first Black and the first openly LGBTQ White House press secretary.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

Likewise, Equality PAC, the political arm of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus, was committed to the president’s vision of a safer U.S. for LGBTQ+ people.

“At a time where LGBTQ Americans, especially those who are trans, are increasingly under attack by right wing extremists, these [legal] protections have never been more dire,” remarked U.S. Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who cochair Equality PAC. “We remain committed to working with President Biden and members of Congress to pass the Equality Act and enshrine additional LGBTQ rights into law.”

The National LGBTQ Task Force in its response to the State of the Union noted how all of the issues on which Biden touched — Social Security, fair wages, Medicaid expansion, access to education, reproductive rights and police reform — have the LGBTQ community “at the center of all the issues.”

“LGBTQ people are often disproportionately impacted because of the discrimination our community faces every single day. LGBTQ people are not fully able to participate or benefit from all that our country has to offer. For too many queer people, the American dream is out of reach,” said National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Kierra Johnson.

Research from the Trevor Project notes 36 percent of LGBTQ youth have reported they have been physically threatened or harmed due to either their sexual orientation or gender identity. Sixty percent of LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it, and 89 percent of them said seeing LGBTQ representation in the media made them feel good about being LGBTQ.

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, who attended the State of the Union alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), said “we appreciate that President Biden is making a point to focus national attention on this urgent topic and stand up for transgender kids, because we need our nation’s leaders to show up and prove that, collectively, we are greater than hate.”

ANDRÉS I. JOVÉ RODRÍGUEZ

Former NGLCC staffer joins Commerce Department

LaBolt to become first gay White House comms director

The U.S. Senate confirmed anti-LGBTQ judicial nominee MATTHEW KACSMARYK as a federal judge in Texas. (Screen capture via YouTube)

JONATHAN LOVITZ

(Photo courtesy of Lovitz)

USAID administrator meets with Hungarian LGBTQ activists

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power on Feb. 10 met with three LGBTQ and intersex activists in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Budapest Pride President Viktoria Radvanyi and Hungarian Helsinki Committee Head of Advocacy András Léderer are two of the activists who met with Power.

USAID spokesperson Jessica Jennings in a press release said the activists “discussed the experiences of LGBTQI+ people in Hungary and their efforts to increase understanding, support marginalized groups and improve the lives of LGBTQI+ people in Hungary” with Power.

“The administrator (Power) emphasized that the United States will continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalized groups in their struggle for equality,” noted Jennings.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on LGBTQ and intersex rights in Hungary.

Radvanyi on Monday noted to the Blade it is “impossible to change your gender legally in Hungary” because of a 2020 law that “banned legal gender recognition of transgender and intersex people.”

An anti-LGBTQ propaganda law that Radvanyi said was

“copy and pasted” from Russia took effect in 2021. Hungarian MPs in 2020 effectively banned same-sex couples from adopting children and defined marriage in the country’s constitution as between a man and a woman.

The European Commission last July sued Hungary, which is a member of the European Union, over the country’s propaganda law.

President Joe Biden in 2021 signed a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of his administration’s overall foreign policy. David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, is openly gay.

Jennings in the USAID press release did not say whether Pressman attended the meeting with the activists, but it did note he met with Power before she left Budapest. Radvanyi said the activists who attended “were all very honored that Administrator Power had a dedicated meeting just about the Hungarian LGBTQ community and LGBTQ issues.”

“We know that she has a very, very busy schedule,” Radvanyi told the Blade. “We really appreciated that she treated the case of our community as such a high priority.”

Léderer described the meeting as a “very honest, sincere conversation on the situation of the Hungarian LGBT+ community.”

“In addition to how the community as a whole carries on amidst growing homo- and transphobic government policies and statements, she also wanted to know how individual members of the community, including those fighting for equal treatment and human rights, are coping with the hostile environment,” Léderer told the Blade, referring to Power. “We were happy to share great examples of resilience, including the successful campaign led by civil society organisations last year to invalidate the homo- and transphobic referendum initiated by the government by casting purposefully spoiled ballots.”

Biden, Lula reiterate support of LGBTQ rights

President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday in a joint statement issued after they met at the White House reiterated their support of LGBTQ and intersex rights.

“Both leaders noted they continue to reject extremism and violence in politics, condemned hate speech, and reaffirmed their intention to build societal resilience to disinformation and agreed to work together on these issues,” reads the statement. “They discussed common objectives of advancing the human rights agenda through cooperation and coordination on such issues as

social inclusion and labor rights, gender equality, racial equity and justice and the protection of the rights of LGBTQI+ persons.”

Biden and Da Silva, among other things, committed to “reinvigorating the U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality to mutually benefit marginalized racial, ethnic and indigenous communities, including people of African descent, in both countries.”

The Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry posted the statement on its website.

The meeting took place roughly a month after thousands of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed their country’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace. The insurrection took place a week after Da Silva’s inauguration.

Da Silva, a member of the leftist Workers’ Party, was Brazil’s president from 2003-2010. He defeated Bolsonaro, a member of the right-wing Liberal Party, in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election that took place last October.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Bolsonaro — who has not publicly acknowledged he lost the election and flew to Florida two days before Da Silva’s inauguration — while in office faced sharp criticism over his rhetoric against LGBTQ and intersex Brazilians and other marginalized groups. Bolsonaro, among other things, also said people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are at increased risk for AIDS.

Julian Rodrigues, who coordinated the Workers’ Party’s National Working Group from 2006-2012, during a previous interview with the Washington Blade noted Da Silva in 2014 launched the Health Ministry’s “Brazil without Homophobia” campaign. Da Silva also created the Culture Ministry’s Diversity Secretariat that, among other things, worked to make Brazilian law enforcement more LGBTQ-friendly.

Congresswoman Erika Hilton, a Black travesti and former sex worker who is one of two openly transgender women in the Brazilian Congress, last October after her election told the Blade during an interview in São Paulo that Da Silva’s victory over Bolsonaro is “an important step for democracy.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

UK to block efforts to reform Wales gender recognition law

The Tory government of U.K. Prime Minster Rishi Sunak will block any eff ort by the government of Wales to push forward plans to reform gender-recognition laws that would allow transgender Welsh to obtain a Gender Recognition Certifi cate without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a government spokesperson told Britain’s leading LGBTQ news outlet.

In a statement to PinkNewsUK, a spokesperson from the Equalities Offi ce told the LGBTQ+ news outlet the

Tory-led government wants to ensure that “LGBT people are treated equally” but would not budge on permitting devolved reform of the GRA (Gender Recognition Act) in Wales.

On Tuesday, the Welsh government (Llywodraeth Cymru) in Cardiff announced that it had launched its LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales. Deputy Social Partnership Minister Hannah Blythyn said that Wales’ plan aims to improve the rights of LGBTQ people such as banning

all aspects of so-called conversion therapy practice. She did acknowledge that but currently the Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru) cannot make its own gender recognition laws.

The plans for improvement of the Gender Recognition Act to aff ect trans Welsh that has the backing of the Senedd Cymru is based on similar legislation put forward and by the Scottish Parliament.

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator SAMANTHA POWER speaks in Budapest, Hungary, last week. (Photo courtesy of USAID)

Brazilian President LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA, and U.S. President JOE BIDEN at the White House on Feb. 10. (Photo courtesy of the White House)

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GREGORY J. ALEXANDER

is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Washington, D.C., with his husband, Paul, and two cats.

When tragedy strikes, you never know what will happen next. What’s the next punch in the gut that will knock you unconscious? That is what happened to me on March 20, 2021, when my beautiful, healthy, loving brother Tom died suddenly of a heart attack. A man who was 53 years old, ran five miles a day, and ate salads, tuna, and grilled chicken. And here I was, his younger brother, who sometimes eats poorly and rarely exercises, left to pick up the pieces once again.

The news came as a shock. My husband and I were relaxing, reading the paper and having a mimosa. Then, my brother’s mother-in-law called. As she relayed to me what had happened, I blacked out, unable to comprehend what she was saying. In fact, I did not even know who she was. I handed the phone to my husband, confused and convinced that what was happening was notactuallyhappening. But it was happening. My brother was dead, and my precious 15-year-old niece was alone with him when it occurred.

I collapsed on the floor and was inconsolable, and I remained in that state for hours. Even our two cats were concerned, circling me nonstop, as I loudly wailed and screamed, noises they had never heard in the 11 years since we adopted them from the shelter. Finally, my husband Paul told me that I had to call my parents to tell them what had happened. Somehow, I mustered the strength to do so, recalling the similar moment in 1997 when my parents called me to inform me that my oldest brother David had died by suicide. I called them, but I don’t remember much of what I said. All I remember was my mom saying, “Not Tom!” Next, I called my mom’s sister and informed her of the news. More shock, grief, anguish, and confusion. Worried about my parents being alone, I left messages with their friends, Jack and Nina, and asked if they could go over and be with them until I could get there.

My husband, Paul, and I struggled that day to simply figure out how and when to fly to South Carolina to be with my family. I was completely useless, unable to do anything to help with arrangements. Paul put aside his grief for the loss of his brother-in-law and friend to take care of me, like he’s always done. And ever since, he has continued to do so—through all of my anxiety attacks, grief, anger, and inability to attend social functions. He has been my rock, and my love for him has never been greater.

What happened in the days after I got to South Carolina remains a blur — flowers, gifts, kind calls, me having to write my brother’s obituary and help with arrangements, including picking up the death certificate — on my birthday no less. What also happened was silence. Silence from friends and family members who I assumed would be there in my greatest moment of need but were surprisingly absent. Finally, my good friend Kevin said it best: “Don’t focus on those who have disappointed you; focus on those who have surprised you by being there.”

Great advice? Yes. Easy to follow? Not exactly.

However, I followed Kevin’s advice. I was confident that I could rely on my closest group of friends — the “Balt 8” (named for eight of us who became great friends while living in Baltimore). Later that year, while attending my first party since Tom’s death, I had a horrific anxiety attack, and Kevin asked no questions and instead took me for a

long walk in the cold and misty rain. My best friend, Joy, who I have known since college and is like a sister to me, was there day and night. My close friend Maureen sent me TV recommendations to help make me laugh.

While I knew that the Balt 8 would lift me up, what I remember the most during this time were the people who unexpectedly came to my rescue. After Tom died, one of the first people who reached out to me was Renee, a friend from high school who I had not seen in person since our graduation in 1988. Suddenly this long-lost high school classmate became a rock who I would rely on for months to come and who sent care baskets filled with goodies from her home state of Louisiana. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me — on Jan. 6, 2021, when I, along, with most Americans watched in horror as a mob besieged the U.S. Capitol, I was living not too far away. Too shaken by what I had witnessed, I called my supervisor at The Trevor Project to let them know that I would not be able to perform my volunteer shift that night. Anxiously, I waited for my husband to get home safely from work when I saw an incoming call via Facebook Messenger. It was Renee. She just wanted to make sure that my husband and I were safe. Other friends came through via simple acts — my friends Tim and Regan in Seattle held a candlelit vigil for my brother whom they had never met, while my friend Steve sends me texts often just to see how I was doing.

While we live in Washington, D.C., we still keep our sailboat in Baltimore where we were lucky enough to land on the marina’s J-Dock and quickly made friends. Self-dubbed “The Island of Misfit Toys,” after the classic Christmas special, somehow, we were all brought together and became friends. During my grief period, everyone on the J-Dock brought something different to the table. Some brought tenderness and love; others brought levity with crude jokes that I was embarrassed to laugh at. Our boat neighbor Carrie asked me each morning how I was doing, and when I was having a tough day, she’d recommend we go to the pool, where we would relax, have a cocktail and laugh nonstop, usually at ourselves. When the bouquet of flowers for Tom’s funeral arrived from the J-Dock, it was obvious that Carrie, a fellow college football fan, had chosen it — the beautiful orange and purple flowers were a testament to my brother’s beloved favorite team, the Clemson Tigers. It was very typical of Carrie — she shows her love in a quiet, reserved way, but it’s still felt strongly.

While I appreciated everyone’s support at the marina, there are two friends that I relied on more than any — Jon and Jill.

After Tom’s death, I learned that my family has a history of heart disease. I went to my doctor and had every conceivable heart-related test, and thankfully, there was no evidence of heart disease. However, that didn’t completely eliminate my fears. The thoughts kept racing in my head: “Tom was the healthy one, so how can I be OK?” One day, I called Jon to ask him if he could stay on the phone with me, as I was having an anxiety attack. With his trademark humor, he quickly said, “You are not having a heart attack, drama queen.” But then he added, “I’ll be right there.” And he was, time and time again.

Later that summer, I had a similar anxiety attack, and I texted Jill.

I survived overwhelming grief thanks to unexpected support systems

A lifeline I didn’t know I had — or needed

The author (right) with his brother TOM ALEXANDER (left) and husband PAUL (center).

Young lovers meet and meet again in thoughtful ‘Of An Age’

Not a ‘gay romance,’ but simply a romance featuring gay characters

By JOHN PAUL KING

Early in “Of An Age,” one of its characters declares, “I like seeing movies from countries I haven’t visited.”

It’s a line of dialogue that catches our ear in part because, in context, it comes dripping with layers of hidden meaning, but it also serves as a fitting cornerstone in a film that –though it’s set in a mundane Melbourne suburb and almost entirely focused on two characters – feels infused with a multitude of global perspectives.

Perspective, in fact, seems key to the heart of gay writer/director Goran Stolevski’s thoughtful and refreshingly tender-hearted coming-of-age tale about an unexpected romance that lasts only 24 hours yet casts its spell across more than a decade. Inspired by his own youth in Australia, Stolevski begins his film in 1999 and focuses on Nikola (Elias Anton), a closeted Serbian-born 18-year-old amateur ballroom dancer who lives with his very traditional Balkan immigrant family. On the morning of an important competition, his dance partner and best friend Ebony (Hattie Hook) calls in a panic, stranded on a beach miles away. He reluctantly enlists the help of her older brother Adam (Thom Green), visiting home on the eve of his departure for graduate school in Argentina, to drive him to her rescue. Though initially mistrustful, thanks to Adam’s word-of-mouth reputation, Nikola is soon won over, and by the time they pick up the wayward Ebony, an unspoken connection has formed between them, leading to an intense day and night in which the young men forge a deep bond with each other – both keenly aware of Adam’s inevitable departure the next morning.

From there, the story jumps ahead 11 years, when Nikola and Adam, now both living in other countries, reunite in Melbourne for Ebony’s wedding. It shouldn’t be surprising that a lot of long-carried emotional baggage begins to unpack, but the details of that are better left unspoiled, so we’ll just say that what happens measures the difference in perspective that transforms our lives throughout the years while reminding us that some things feel the same no matter how much else may have changed.

There’s a lot of delicate work involved in conveying a story with such universal scope within a movie as intimate as “Of An Age,” but Stolevski – a Macedonian Australian filmmaker whose first movie, the period horror film “You Won’t Be Alone,” premiered at Sundance 2022 – proves himself a delicate cinematic craftsman in telling it. Deploying his skills like a composer orchestrating a piece of music, he propels the narrative more through mood than plot; though his tersely composed dialogue leaves much unsaid, his visual style communicates the unaired feelings behind it with more eloquence than words alone might ever capture. From the close-up intimacy with which he portrays his protagonists’ time together to the grim banality with which he drapes scenes of their respective family lives, he enables us to feel his movie through the atmosphere he builds; the love story at its center may not match our own nostalgic memories – or romantic fantasies, for viewers from younger generations –but the heady rollercoaster of desire, emotion, and bittersweet thrill that he evokes through the elegant-but-raw simplicity of his screen craft is profoundly recognizable nevertheless. Heart-tugging as it may sometimes be, “Of An Age” doesn’t allow itself to become too precious or capitulate to sentiment, nor is it the kind of melancholy, hopeless tragedy so often told in movies about queer romance; on the contrary, one of its most surprising pleasures is its sly sense of humor, which is artfully displayed in a lengthy opening sequence depicting

Ebony’s awakening on the beach. Seeing her terrified and hysterical after a night she doesn’t remember, we assume the worst, but Stolevski disarms our expectations of drama by systematically revealing the absurd and comparatively harmless details behind it. He laces the same sense of ironic humor throughout, allowing himself the opportunity for numerous bemusing observations of “basic” existence pursued by the not-very-self-aware collection of friends and family in Nikola and Adam’s orbit; and while few of the dry comedic touches could be described as “laugh-out-loud” funny, they create and maintain a tone that not only keeps things from getting weighed down by the starry-eyed, yearning drama of his love story, but emphasizes the essential desire to rise above their surroundings that draws his lovers together as much as their palpable attraction for each other.

As to that, the sweetly authentic, superbly measured performances of its two leading men are a crucial element in keeping the movie on that narrow path between cynical and cloying. Individually, Anton and Green each create compelling and likable characters that feel far more fleshed-out than the often thinly-wrought figures at the center of many such romantic dramas, and they convincingly embody both the differences and the same-ness of their characters at ages a decade apart; together, they have a sweet but smoldering chemistry that ignites the fieriest memories – both real and imagined – of our own treasured “flings” of the past, and that, of course, is a big part of the film’s appeal.

The relationship here, of course, is more than just a fling, as Stolevski asserts by juxtaposing the leisurely, affectionately detailed roman à clef of his lovers’ youthful one-night affair with the more urgently succinct bookend of their reunion as fully formed adults. Though events of past and present are almost pointedly mirrored, they starkly illustrate the changes wrought by an evolution toward maturity, the differences in outlook that come from lived experience; the audacious dreams give way to managed expectations, the giddy recklessness leads to foolish choices, the happy-ever-after fantasies become tinged with the tempering sadness that comes with disappointment and loss. Yet through all those transformations, there is something between these two men that remains untouched by time and circumstance, a longing that most of us – if we are lucky – will recognize in our own hearts; it might not be enough to give us the kind of “happy ending” we once believed we wanted, but it’s a reminder that our most deeply felt connections endure even as everything else about us fades into something else, and that counts, perhaps, for much more than many of us recognize.

All of this helps make “Of An Age” a much better “gay romance” than its vaguely erotic, nostalgia-tinged marketing suggests it might be; but while American films continue to struggle with that genre, this Australian love story between a Serbian and an Irishman gets it right by transcending it; though there’s some garden-variety xeno- and homophobia from some of the movie’s peripheral characters, and though Nikola’s struggle with coming out is part of his journey, the obstacle in this couple’s union has nothing to do with oppression, or even with sexual orientation, but rather with timing and situation; they are just two people, at a crossroads in their lives, who are drawn together by an essential quality at the center of their being they cannot find in anyone else around them.

It doesn’t feel like a “gay romance,” but simply a romance featuring gay people, and that makes all the difference.

ELIAS ANTON and THOM GREEN star in ‘Of An Age.’

Novel revisits real-life murder of gay couple in 1980 ‘Up With the Sun’ a story of ambition, lusts, obsessions

By KATHI WOLFE

If you’re in your right mind, you’d stop reading a novel whose protagonist is as appealing as a snake oil salesman without the charm. Even if he’s gay, murdered, and the star of several 1950s stage and movie musicals. Unless the book is “Up With the Sun,” the newest novel from acclaimed author Thomas Mallon.

Mallon, 71, is renowned for writing enthralling historical fiction. Too often, such novels are like high school history classes (taught by snooze-inducing teachers). They’re worthy. But you just want to eat your kale and get to dessert.

Thankfully, this isn’t so with “Up With the Sun.” The novel’s story is based on the real-life gay actor Dick Kallman, born in 1933 and murdered, along with his partner Steven, in 1980.

Kallman appeared on Broadway in 1951 in the musical “Seventeen.” In 1965-1966, he starred in the TV sitcom “Hank.” But though he replaced the lead in the Broadway show “Half a Sixpence,” and was a guest star on “Batman,” “Medical Center,” and a few other TV shows, Kallman never became a big showbiz success. By the 1970s, he’d left show business to work in fashion and as an art and antique dealer.

Much of “Up With the Sun” is about Kallman’s career in the second or even third tier of showbiz. It is a story of Kallman’s ambitions, yearnings, and lusts and obsessions: for success in show business, fame, money and Kenneth Nelson, who stars in “Seventeen.” Nelson, who is put off by Kallman’s personality, rejects his overtures.

Kallman is one of the creepiest characters ever brought

to the page. He is so phony, such a social climber, that he’s described as being “aggressively ingratiating.”

When he appears in a show with Dyan Cannon, Kallman is ticked off with her. He feels she’s upstaging him. That happens sometimes, you think. Until Kallman, in his pique, smashes Cannon’s finger. You can’t agree more when Cannon tells Kallman, “you’re a sick bastard!”

The other protagonist in “Up With the Sun” is Matt Liannetto, a pianist who worked with Kallman in “Seventeen.”

In alternating chapters, Matt narrates the novel. Matt is as sweet and endearing as Kallman is off-putting and slimy. He isn’t Kallman’s BFF (who would be?). But his path has crossed with Kallman’s over the years. He’s over at Kallman’s apartment the night that Kallman and Steven are killed.

The police turn to him for help in identifying the suspects. During the investigation, Matt and Devin Arroyo, a charming police assistant years younger than him, fall in love.

Mallon, who is gay and lives in Washington, D.C., is the author of 11 novels, including “Henry and Clara,” “Dewey Defeats Truman,” “Fellow Travelers,” “Watergate,” and “Landfall.”

In his fiction, Mallon makes history as entertaining as a bodice-ripper, intriguing as a mystery and by turns, as comic and/or poignant as the best literary fiction set in the present.

In “Up With the Sun,” Mallon immerses you into the smells, tastes, sights, sounds, language, and characters (real-life and fictional) of the 1950s through 1981. Through his authorial

sleight of hand, you come to care about not only kindhearted Matt and Devin, but self-serving Kallman.

Much has been written in non-fiction and fiction about the time periods and real-life celebs featured in “Up With the Sun.” Yet, Mallon makes this familiar material – from Judy Garland’s concert at Carnegie Hall to the beginning of the AIDS crisis – seem new.

‘Up With the Sun’

By Thomas

“All my life I’ve loved the past as a place that can keep you safe from the present,” Matt says, “… a place that your imagination can make as pretty as the two-dimensional flats of the Seventeen sets.”

Mallon’s writing is as beautiful as the most gorgeous stage sets, yet there’s nothing safe or emptily nostalgic about his rendering of the past.

The police procedural aspects of the novel — identifying the suspects, the trial, etc. — are not as interesting as Mallon’s depiction of the protagonists, their quirks, supporting characters and period details. But this is a minor quibble.

Reading “Up With the Sun” is like eating potato chips. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.

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Mallon c.2023, Knopf | $28 | 352 pages

Spirited SUVs

Dodge Durango, Land Rover Defender 130 hit the mark

By JOE PHILLIPS

While many EVs are fun, eco-friendly and increasingly affordable, it’s sometimes hard to resist the siren call of a captivating ride with an old-school combustion engine. For me, this includes the Dodge Durango R/T and Land Rover Defender 130—two midsize SUVs that really get my motor running.

DODGE DURANGO

$41,000

MPG: 19 city/26 highway

0 to 60 mph: 7.4 seconds

on the thundering 19-speaker Harman Kardon system. A vehicle for soccer moms and dads? Pfft, not anymore.

LAND ROVER DEFENDER 130

$68,000

MPG: 17 city/21 highway

0 to 60 mph: 7.4 seconds

First produced 25 years ago, the Dodge Durango was a stand-in for anyone who eschewed minivans but still needed a workaday vehicle for hauling kiddos and soccer gear. In other words, you wouldn’t see Billy Porter as Fab G in “Cinderella” ditching his glittery-orange Maybach for a Durango.

Or would you? Thanks to various updates, today’s Durango is fancier, fitter and faster than ever—especially in the higher trim levels. I test drove the RT version, which is a few steps above the mid-range GT and comes with a magical V8. Zipping from 0 to 60 mph in just 6.2 seconds was a thrill, though the less-thirsty V6 is fine for everyday commutes. And until it is discontinued at year-end, the super-fast SRT Hellcat model—costing an eye-popping $104,000—allows speed jockeys to hit 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds.

What I like most about all Durangos is how nimbly these brawny-looking haulers handle weaving in and out of traffic. Not as slick as a true sport sedan perhaps, but still. And even though there are plenty of all-new and radically redesigned SUVs, the basic functionality in the Durango is impressive: User-friendly infotainment system, acres of second-row legroom, and more stowage and towing capacity than most competitors. One downside: The amount of safety gear, while decent, is less than expected. Only a backup camera and blind-spot monitor are standard, though adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking and other driver-assistance features are available options.

Luckily, the Durango doesn’t skimp on other features. Even the base-model comes loaded: LED headlights, keyless entry/ignition, roof rails, three-zone automatic climate control, smartphone integration and more. By the time you get to the R/T, there are beefier tires and automatic high beams, as well as a sunroof, nav system, Wi-Fi hotspot and larger touchscreen. Instead of the standard six-speaker stereo, the R/T comes with a nine-speaker Alpine stereo with subwoofer. But if you really want to get the party started, then splurge

The first Land Rovers were boxy military-inspired vehicles introduced in 1948. Four decades later, the Defender arrived on U.S. shores. By then, it looked like a wayward Jeep for second-rate safari expeditions, which wasn’t exactly a draw. The Defender soon exited American showrooms but was sold elsewhere until 2016, when it was retired from service.

Or so it seemed. In 2020, the Defender was back, rereleased with an utterly modern makeover. This latest Defender is a complement to the Land Rover Discovery, a tamer SUV with softer styling and a family-oriented vibe. While both vehicles have a renowned history of off-road prowess, only one can be alpha. That would be the Defender, with its tall ground clearance of 11.5 inches and an absurd wading depth of 35.4 inches.

Along with the standard two- and four-door models, a new long-wheelbase Defender— the 130—joins the lineup this year. That’s the vehicle I test drove for a week. Like all Defenders, it has a Jekyll and Hyde character: off-road ruggedness, but refined and limo-like when wheels hit the pavement. At 13.3 inches longer than the standard four-door model, this extended Defender has three rows of seating to accommodate eight passengers comfortably. Alas, with the third row up, there’s not much cargo room. But anyone stuck in the back will find the journey pleasant: There are USB ports, optional seat heaters, a tall roofline for decent headroom, and a separate sunroof with a manual shade.

While no V8 option is available, you can choose from two six-cylinder engines that are both mild-hybrids. Considering the Defender 130 weighs 5,500 lbs., handling is surprisingly spot on. So are all the cabin niceties, like sleek chrome trim, real wood veneer, large touchscreen, air-purification system, four-zone climate control, heated second- and third-row seats, privacy glass and premium Meridian sound system. As I found when driving other Land Rovers, it took me time to relearn how to operate the less-than-intuitive infotainment system and climate control dials, which also adjust the heated/ventilated seats.

But that’s a small complaint, considering how much this large Defender has to offer.

Dodge Durango

Land Rover Defender 130

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