Los Angeles Blade, Volume 07, Issue 20, May 19, 2023

The future of queer content at stake in Writers’ Guild strike

Changing working conditions threatens ability to sustain diverse content

By ROB SALERNO

The future of queer representation in film and television could be at stake in the ongoing negotiations between the Writers Guild of American and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, many people are saying at the WGA strike enters its third week.

The WGA is broadly demanding better pay and better working conditions for film and television writers, alleging that studios are increasingly demanding unpaid labor from writers and reducing writing jobs in television. They’re also demanding limitations on the use of artificial intelligence in drafting scripts. The WGA says these developments are making writing in Hollywood unsustainable for the vast majority of writers.

Rob Forman, co-chair of the WGA West LGBTQ+ Committee, says the WGA’s demands will help support the development and advancement of queer talent in Hollywood.

“I don’t necessarily think this WGA action targets queer content so much as it targets the career growth of queer creators. Because with small rooms and short orders and inability to train on set and get experience, we’re not training up as many queer showrunners and creators as we could,” he says. “Queer writers having that track record and credit sheet is as important to getting that content as the idea itself.”

have an important impact on diverse content.

“[With guaranteed staff sizes] there would be a constellation of writers of varying levels and perspectives. When it’s a mini-room, the showrunner is like, ‘great, I’ll hire two of my buddies,’ and they’ll likely be similar to the showrunner, and statistically, that’s a straight cis white man. Hopefully, this will increase opportunities and foster a wider diversity of voices in those rooms, because there would be spots in those rooms,” he says.

Often a writer from a diverse background will get hired as a staff writer in a mini-room, and be the only diverse voice in the staff.

“They get a staff writer who has to be the voice of that point of view to a showrunner, and they’re the ones with the lowest currency in the room. They can’t even be the squeaky wheel,” Greer says.

It hasn’t been lost on writers that studios’ moves to make writing an unsustainable career path is happening right as the push for more diversity in writing rooms and on screen is bringing more queer people and people of color into the industry.

“Whether its coincidence or causal, the fact of the matter is there’s a push for diversity and a simultaneous downward pressure on writer salary and opportunity. I would like to think better of our creative partners in studios,” Forman says. “We didn’t ask for the business model to be broken. We’re not asking for the business to go back to the way it was. We deserve a piece of what we create.”

Forman says that a lot of people outside of the writing side of the industry don’t understand the demands that are placed on writers to do unpaid work.

“In development, there are months and months of work that isn’t compensated,” he says. “If you were in a writer’s room 40 weeks a year for a 22-episode show, no one would be complaining about what we’re complaining about now, but again, that model was broken.”

These pressures impact feature film writers as well. Often feature writers are pressured to spend months developing or rewriting a script without receiving pay, an practice the WGA is seeking to rein in.

Up-and-coming bisexual screenwriter Lynn Yu says she’s experienced this firsthand.

“In what’s known as screenwriting bake-offs, a studio will put out an assignment for writers to have a take on this idea, or a job that’s up for a rewrite, and in order to get those jobs, sometimes you’re turning in ten-page outlines, whipping up pitch documents, all of which is uncompensated. You’re taking meetings and feedback and this can go on for weeks at a time, and if you don’t get the contract, you spend all of that time for nothing,” she says. “It’s very possible for a writer to spend a whole year pitching on four or five projects and nothing comes to fruition.”

The expectation of free labor limits who can afford to pursue screenwriting as a profession, Yu says.

“It’s definitely going to favor people who are privileged enough to be able to sustain living in a city like this with little to no income, whether that’s people who come from money, nepo babies,” she says.

While the WGA’s demands to limit the use of AI for writing has generated headlines about the fear of AI simply limiting job opportunities for writers, Forman says the use of AI may have a more insidious effect on diverse content, particularly queer content.

Gay literary manager Garrett Greer says the career track for writers has broken, and that’s already causing hiring issues in Hollywood.

“Basically, because the pipeline has been broken so long, there aren’t a more diverse array of writers in these upper-level jobs because they haven’t gotten the opportunity to grow to that,” he says. “So many times I’ll get the call looking for an upper-level ‘insert demography here,’ and I’ll say, ‘cool, all those people are working,’ because there’s so few because they haven’t had the opportunity to grow into those jobs.”

Increasingly, studios have been trending toward smaller “mini-rooms” – writing rooms with fewer staffed writers, hired for shorter periods, often without assistants and without including employment on set or during post-production.

Greer says the WGA’s demand for minimum writing staff sizes on television shows could

He says that because AI text generators work by scouring existing content to use as ‘inspiration’ for its texts, scripts generated by AI will likely be informed by works that have historically underrepresented or poorly represented queer and trans people and other diverse voices.

“Because of how homophobic and transphobic society has been and continues to be in many ways, the texts that this AI is learning from and pulling from when it’s trying to create, are never going to be as inclusive of our community as we want it to be,” he says. “I don’t look forward to AI remixing hoary old tropes that exist out there instead of people growing up and telling the story they never got see.”

“For a community that’s had to look into the subtext of movies to find itself represented because for so long you couldn’t have a gay character, it’s up to us to tell our own stories.”

(Photo courtesy Writers Guild of America West)

LGBTQ ally Gloria Molina loses battle with cancer, dies at 74

Trailblazing former Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina died Sunday at 74. Molina, the daughter of working-class parents was an unapologetic proud Chicana activist and a politician who transformed the political landscape of Los Angeles County and Southern California.

Molina had announced this past March that for the past several years she had been receiving care for a terminal type of cancer but that the cancer was extremely aggressive.

Molina also served in the California Assembly and on the Los Angeles City Council, before she spent more than two decades on the County Board of Supervisors.

Born on May 31, 1948, the oldest of ten children, she was raised in eastern Los Angeles County in Montebello. Molina attended local Montebello public schools followed by first East Los Angeles City College, and then Cal State Los Angeles.

While still a college student Molina became a community activist later on becoming active in the Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional de Los Angeles. She was a proactive Chicana feminist early on in her career who helped establish the Chicana Service Action Center, Los Angeles, in 1973.

In the mid 1970s she became administrative assistant for California State Legislature Democratic Assemblyman Art Torres.

In 1977, Molina joined the Carter administration as a staffing specialist in the Office of Presidential Personnel in Washington D.C. then in 1979 she left D.C. to take up the post of director of Intergovernmental and Congressional Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services, Region IX office, in San Francisco.

Her advocacy work in politics continued when she joined the staff of then California State Speaker of the Assembly Willie L. Brown, Jr. in 1981, as the Speaker’s chief southern California deputy, where she functioned in the role of Brown’s liaison with the southern California Latino community.

A lifelong Democrat, Molina was elected to the California

State Assembly from the Fifty-sixth Assembly District in 1982, serving until her 1987 election to the Los Angeles City Council. Molina, upon her election became the first Latina member of the state assembly, and served on the Committees on Revenue and Taxation, Labor and Employment, Utilities and Commerce, chaired the Subcommittee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, and was vice chairwoman of the Committee on Public Employment and Retirement.

Molina’s legislative efforts were focused on the special needs of her constituents, included bills on school dropouts, sexual harassment, state parks, insurance consumer protection, and child safety.

In 1987, Molina was the first Latina ever elected to and only the third person of Mexican ancestry to serve on the Los Angeles City Council. While a city councilwoman, Molina was known as an uncompromising and vocal advocate of citywide issues, as well as issues particular to her own district.

Molina campaigned to win a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in a special election held after a court-ordered reapportionment and in January 1991, she defeated her former Assembly boss Art Torres in the supervisorial election to represent a large portion of the San Gabriel Valley including her hometown.

In addition to her advocacy for Latino rights she also advocated for LGBTQ Angelenos writing in a May 2014 post on Facebook: “Equality is a right, not an option. We must all continue to fight until everyone has the same freedoms that many have died protecting. I’m proud that so many people participated in today’s May Day march in support of worker, immigrant and LGBT rights!”

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) released the following statement after the passing of the former Los Angeles County Supervisor:

“For countless women, Latinos, and young people, there’s been no better champion or role model in California politics than Gloria Molina. She dedicated her life to public service,

entering political office during a time when few women or Latinos held top roles in public office. Gloria broke barriers as the first Latina elected to the California State Assembly, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and she was never, ever one to shy away from a tough fight.

“The daughter of working-class parents, Gloria fought tooth and nail for working class communities across Los Angeles. She was an unrelenting champion for disadvantaged communities in the halls of power at the local, state, and federal levels. From helping to build more affordable housing to fighting to expand public transportation, Gloria was a tireless advocate for Los Angeles’ Eastside. Each time we speak out today against the status quo and demand better from our government and our political leaders, we take a page from Gloria’s playbook—and California takes a step forward.

“I’ll be forever grateful for her steadfast leadership and commitment to improving the lives of all Angelenos. Angela and I send our condolences to Gloria’s family during this difficult time.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the following statement regarding the death of former California State Assemblymember, Los Angeles City Councilmember and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina:

“Jennifer and I are deeply saddened by the passing of Gloria Molina, a trailblazing changemaker who improved the lives of countless Angelenos and Californians and opened doors for generations of women in politics and public service.

“Throughout over three decades in office, Molina broke ground as the first Latina California State Assemblymember and as the first Latina to serve on the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

“Never losing sight of her roots in community organizing and advocacy, Molina was not afraid to clash with prominent politicos in her fight for working-class neighborhoods. Her leadership delivered lasting results advancing social justice for Eastside communities, creating parks and community centers and expanding public transit, among other accomplishments.

“Molina’s enduring legacy of service and dedication to empowering others is an inspiration to all Californians. Our thoughts are with her family, community and friends during this time of loss.”

BRODY LEVESQUE

Health officials strongly urge mpox vaccination before Pride

To reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting mpox at upcoming festivals and Pride events, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) strongly recommends people at higher risk for mpox get fully vaccinated with two doses of the mpox vaccine for maximum protection against severe illness.

While there have been only three confirmed new mpox cases reported since March 1 in Los Angeles County, the recently reported cluster of at least 14 mpox cases in the Chicago area highlights the high potential for mpox resurgence locally.

Mpox is mainly spread through direct skin-to-skin contact with an infected person during intimate physical contact or sex. However, it is important to note that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined

that some infected people who have no symptoms can still spread the infection up to four days before they develop symptoms.

The following groups are considered at higher risk for mpox:

• Any man or transgender person who has sex with men or transgender persons

• Persons of any gender or sexual orientation who engage in commercial and/or transactional sex or have sex in association with a large public event

• Persons living with HIV, especially persons with uncontrolled or advanced HIV disease

• Sexual partners of people in any of the above groups

People in these higher-risk groups should get two doses of mpox vaccine for the best protection. The vaccine works very

well to prevent mpox (70-85% protection) and prevent serious cases. Second doses can be given no matter how long it’s been since the first dose. Residents can choose to receive the mpox subcutaneously (in the upper arm) or intradermally (under the skin on their arm or back). Vaccine boosters are not recommended at this time.

Mpox vaccines are free and available to anyone who requests it regardless of their insurance or immigration status and without having to disclose information on personal risk.

To find a vaccination site, visit Myturn.ca.gov. For general mpox information, including vaccines, testing and treatment, call the Public Health Call Center at 833-540-0473 seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. or visit the Public Health website at ph.lacounty.gov/mpox.

Former Los Angeles County Supervisor GLORIA MOLINA

(Photo courtesy Gloria Molina/Facebook)

Fentanyl-related deaths among LA’s homeless increased

By BRODY LEVESQUE

Last week the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released its fourth annual report on mortality among people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County.

The numbers of deaths attributable to drug overdoses were, as in 2019, the leading cause of death for people experiencing homelessness, accounting for 37% of all deaths among unhoused individuals in 2020 and 2021 combined —about two deaths per day on average. Drug overdose was also the largest driver of the overall increase in mortality for people experiencing homelessness, with the overdose mortality rate doubling from 2019 to 2021.

In its report, Public Health noted that Fentanyl has been the drug type driving overdose deaths since the start of the pandemic, with the percentage of overdose deaths involving fentanyl almost tripling from 20% in 2019 to 58% in 2021.

Fentanyl deaths almost always involved combinations of drugs. In 2021, 71% of all fentanyl deaths among people experiencing homelessness also involved methamphetamine.

The second leading cause of death continues to be coronary heart disease, although the coronary heart disease mortality rate decreased in 2021 after increasing from 2017 to 2020. Coronary heart disease deaths accounted for 14% of all deaths among persons experiencing homelessness in 2020 and 2021 combined– about 5 deaths per week on average.

The third leading cause of death was traffic injuries, which increased by 47% from 2019 to 2021, accounting for 8% of all deaths of people experiencing homelessness in 2020 and 2021 combined —about 3 deaths per week on average.

The homicide rate, which has risen among people experiencing homelessness since 2017, increased by 49% in 2021 compared to the previous year. Homicides were the fourth leading cause of death in 2020 and 2021—about 2 deaths per week on average.

COVID-19, the second leading cause of death for all residents in LA County in 2020 and the leading cause of death in 2021, was the fifth leading cause of death among people experiencing homelessness for both of those years.

The report also noted that overdose mortality rates are higher among white people experiencing homelessness than Black and Latinx people experiencing homelessness, and higher among male versus female people experiencing homelessness.

From 2019 to 2020 overdose rates increased substantially across all three racial/ethnic groups and among both men and women, but 2021 saw a continued sharp rise only among white people experiencing homelessness and male people experiencing homelessness. In contrast, the overdose mortality rate among Black people experiencing homelessness slowed in 2021 and leveled off among Latinx and female people experiencing homelessness.

For the combined years of 2020 and 2021, the mortality rate among people experiencing homelessness was 3.8 times greater than that of LA County residents. This represents a widening of the mortality gap since the three-year period prior to the pandemic when the mortality rate for people experiencing homelessness was 2.9 times greater.

In 2020-21, overdose mortality was 39 times greater among people experiencing homelessness when compared to LA County residents. Traffic injury and homicide mortality were, respectively, 20 and 15 times greater among people experiencing homelessness during the first two years of the pandemic, than among all other county residents. When comparing mortality rates for all the leading causes of death, the smallest gap was observed for COVID-19, with people experiencing homelessness dying at 1.8 times the rate of the general population.

“Being homeless has always been associated with a greater risk of death; in this report, we see how big the mortality gap is between those housed and unhoused. For every leading cause of death in LA County, unhoused individuals are between 2 and 40 times more likely to die than those not experiencing homelessness. And with more than one out of every three deaths among people experiencing homelessness attributed to drug overdose, urgent action is needed to ensure that unhoused individuals with substance use disorder have access to treatment and harm reduction services that meet people where they are,” said Barbara Ferrer, Ph.D., Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “Moving forward, we need to recognize that people who are unhoused need both housing and services to reduce their risk of death, and for us to close the distressing mortality gaps, policy and system changes are in order.”

This new report uses data from the 2022 homeless count (suspended in 2021 due to the pandemic) to resume the estimation of trends in mortality rates. It also uses a variety of data from 2021. Data from 2022 will be presented in January 2024.

The County’s plan for preventing future homeless deaths includes:

• Expanding and improving field-based, harm reduction-oriented substance use disorder treatment services.

• Increasing distribution of naloxone to people experiencing homelessness in street and shelter/interim housing settings, as well as those people experiencing homelessness exiting jails and prisons.

• Expanding and enhancing County-contracted substance-use disorder provider utilization of the homeless management information system to improve coordination of care and housing-focused case management for people experiencing homelessness with substance-use disorders.

• Increasing investments in recovery bridge housing to ensure people experiencing homelessness, including those exiting jails and prisons, receive outpatient substance use disorder treatment services and permanent housing placements.

• Increasing the provision of preventive healthcare and chronic disease management for people experiencing homelessness who are at risk for conditions that, when left unmanaged, increase their mortality rates.

• Collaborating with local jurisdictions to identify concentrations of fatal injury collisions involving people who are unhoused to inform local infrastructure, program,

and policy interventions to prevent traffic deaths of people experiencing homelessness.

In statements released by the County, four of the five person Los Angles County Board of Supervisors reflected on the report:

“This is a tragedy upon a tragedy,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. “People are dying on our streets and this report only underscores how important it is that we continue to treat the homelessness crisis with a sense of urgency and move as many people as possible inside so we can begin to save their lives.”

“We have declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County because there are far too many people on our streets,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis, co-author of the 2019 motion addressing rising homeless mortality. “The findings in this report reflect the urgency with which we must work to protect the most vulnerable among us. Each of the 2,201 unhoused people who died in 2021 was someone’s friend, family, and loved one and we must redouble our efforts to address this crisis. As part of our response, it is critical that we address the drug epidemic, particularly the rise of fentanyl on our streets. We must continue to ensure that harm reduction tools and services, such as naloxone, are widely available and accessible to our unhoused residents.”

“This report underscores the enormous destruction fentanyl is causing our communities. To know that people experiencing homelessness are 39 times more likely to die of a drug overdose compared to the overall population of LA County is yet another painful reminder of the harm our unhoused neighbors experience, and why we must continue to move with urgency to address the crisis on our streets,” said Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath. “We need to get people inside, in treatment, and supported with wraparound services. We also need to expand the availability of Narcan for all who serve the public to use as a vital, life-saving tool.”

“The data from this report quantifies what we already intuitively know to be true: more people experiencing homelessness on our streets are suffering and dying,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “Substance abuse is many times an attempt to mask and escape trauma. Our homeless are fighting a losing battle and need help. They aren’t going to heal themselves without proactive support. I am focused on increasing the County’s capacity to deploy outreach teams equipped with the expertise to lift people out of their addictions. I also believe federal and state law changes are needed, so we can provide more mental health treatment beds and increase our ability to operate them. The County’s role is to provide services and we need to answer that call, without barriers or hesitation.”

by 58%

‘People are dying on our streets’

Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homeless Outreach Team (Photo courtesy County of Los Angeles)

RuPaul’s DragCon 2023 slays at LA Convention Center

Drag performers and the LGBTQ+ community are facing threats across the country, but that didn’t hold back RuPaul’s DragCon 2023 from making a point that drag is here to slay.

The two-day event drew thousands of drag babies, drag legends and drag fans from all walks of life to the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday and Saturday (with some special events on Thursday evening).

Presented by RuPaul and World of Wonder Productions, RuPaul’s DragCon returned in-person with a fan-clapping convention that brought charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to celebrate drag culture from all over the world. The drag queen convention dates back to 2015 to give the art of drag, queer culture, and self-expression a platform and bring people together.

The Los Angeles Times reported that there were over 70 confirmed international queens coming from as far as the Philippines, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, and France. Ts Madison hosted “Bring Back My Girls,” one of WoW‘s hit shows, live from the convention floor.

This year’s main convention hall featured live events with Bianca Del Rio, two DJ sets by RuPaul himself perched high above the main stage, and of course, countless performances by drag icons like Jaida Essence Hall, the Teletubbies, Baga Chipz, Shea Couleé, Pangina Heals, Alaska, Kylie Sonique Love, Sasha Colby and so more.

One of the biggest gags of the entire weekend was the opening of the pink carpet on Saturday morning. It’s a chance for the queens to make an entrance and work a runway for waiting fans who had to get up pretty early to

secure a good space to see it all. The pink carpet runway is also a chance to see all the queens before the bigger names hide inside a booth and are only allowed to be seen for a charge upwards of $30 in merchandise in exchange for a meet and greet and a photo op.

Let’s also not forget to mention the local West Hollywood queens that graced Dragcon 2023. We’re talking about Selinas Estities, Morgan McMichaels, Willam, Sasha Colby, Mayhem Miller, Ongina, Kalista Stage, Vivienne Vida, Jordan Jayro, Manila Luzon and Sabbyiana to name a few… in no particular order.

WeHo Times ran into Love Connie who was a guest on the most recent RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15. She was working the pink carpet in her usual Love Connie fashion to promote Cash App, which is one of the sponsors. “I love this event,” she told WEHO TIMES. “I believe I’m allergic to the pink carpet fibers. I have to keep using my prison warden hankie to wipe my sweat off. But I’ll survive.”

Connie said she was not a fan of the children at the convention and she hoped they were acting up and throwing a tantrum wrecking havoc. She also said she was impressed by the Andrew Christian boys where were throwing a beach ball around and twerking the entire day.

Then there were the booths selling shoes, wigs, clap fans, makeup, jewelry, candles apparel and pretty much anything gay or draggy.

Micky’s WeHo was a main sponsor. They had a double booth near the main entrance offering makeup makeovers, photo ops, music by DJ Paulo, and of course, Go-Go Dancers. Micky’s also hosted drag queens on their booth for meet and greets throughout the event.

“There was one little girl that I really loved,” she added “This little girl looked at me and said, ‘you’re a boy. I can tell you’re a boy, but you’re dressing like a girl. And I know why. I’ve seen Rupaul’s Drag Race. She’s a producer’s daughter and she was so cute the way she was figuring it all out. I just smiled.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race, MTV, and World of Wonder partnered with the ACLU this year and were proud to donate to “The Drag Defense Fund” in support of the ACLU’s LGBTQ+ rights work. The Dragcon website had a page allowing fans to make a tax-deductible gift to this crucial fund.

PAUL MURILLO/WEHO TIMES

Feinstein returns to Senate after extended absence

California’s senior U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to Washington, D.C. last week. The octogenarian’s extended absence due to a shingles viral condition had complicated advancement of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

With Feinstein gone and the committee split now with a 10 to 10 margin without her, Republicans were unwilling to accept a request from the oldest serving member of the Senate to have the Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to appoint a temporary replacement for her on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pushed back at Schumer’s effort to temporarily swap in another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Schumer, asked to move a resolution replacing her, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., objected and blocked the resolution.

Graham told media outlets that he hoped Feinstein would be back soon, but he added having another Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) on the panel to temporarily replace her, would allow support for “a handful of judges that I think should never be on the bench.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Feinstein, who revealed on March 2 that she was hospitalized for shingles treatment after being diagnosed with an infection in February. She was released from a San Francisco

hospital on March 7, and convalescing in the Bay Area since mid-February, boarded a charter private plane and could return to the Senate as early as this evening. Adam Russell, a spokesman for the Democratic senator, confirmed she is in transit to Washington but declined to comment further.

At the beginning of last month Feinstein said in a statement:

“When I was first diagnosed with shingles, I expected to return by the end of the March work period. Unfortunately, my return to Washington has been delayed due to continued complications related to my diagnosis.

“I intend to return as soon as possible once my medical team advises that it’s safe for me to travel. In the meantime, I remain committed to the job and will continue to work from home in San Francisco,” Feinstein continued.

“I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee, so I’ve asked [Majority Leader Chuck Schumer] to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work,” she added.

“I’m glad that my friend Dianne is back in the Senate and ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Tuesday.

There has been increasing calls by prominent Demo-

crats for Feinstein to resign, including Jonathan Lovett, a co-founder of Crooked Media, and a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) who tweeted their demand she step aside.

“It’s time for [Feinstein] to resign,” fellow California Democrat Khanna wrote in a tweet, becoming the first member of Congress to publicly demand that the senior senator step down.

“We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people,” he added.

Feinstein had announced on Valentine’s Day that she would not seek reelection:

“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends. Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives.

Each of us was sent here to solve problems. That’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that’s what I plan to do for the next two years. My thanks to the people of California for allowing me to serve them.”

BRODY LEVESQUE

DragCon 2023 (Photo montage courtesy WEHO TIMES)

Homeland Security reports anti-LGBTQ threats intensifying

Violent threats against the LGBTQ community are rising and intensifying according to data from a document by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that was shared with law enforcement and government agencies on May 11.

“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” the agency said.

DHS also warned of the potential that these threats may lead to a rise in attacks against LGBTQ public spaces and healthcare sites, just as Pride celebrations across the country are slated to begin in June.

According to the agency, data from the FBI’s hate crime statistics indicates that 20 percent of those committed in 2021 were motivated by bias linked to sexual orientation

and gender.

The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law reported in 2022 that “LGBT people [are] nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent hate crimes.”

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a group that describes itself as “a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project,” found that anti-LGBTQ incidents including “demonstrations, acts of political violence, and the distribution of offline propaganda — have more than tripled from 64 events in 2021 to 193 events in 2022 as of mid-November.”

Feds move to dismiss charges against NBJC CEO

Federal prosecutors in Tallahassee, Fla., filed a motion in court on May 15 asking a judge to dismiss all remaining political corruption related charges against Sharon Lettman-Hicks, the CEO and board chair of the D.C.-based LGBTQ group National Black Justice Coalition, and Andrew Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor and unsuccessful Florida gubernatorial candidate.

A final decision on whether to dismiss the charges was expected to be made on Wednesday, May 17, by U.S. district Court Judge Allen Winsor. Legal observers expect him to approve the motion for dismissal.

The decision by prosecutors to call for dismissing the case was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat on May 15. One day earlier, the newspaper broke the story that a jury that became deadlocked on reaching a verdict earlier this month in the joint trial for Lettman-Hicks and Gillum on 19 counts of wire fraud and one count of attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud voted 10 to 2 for acquittal on most of the charges.

That revelation came after the jury on May 4 found Gillum not guilty on a single charge of lying to the FBI during a longstanding FBI investigation into the corruption charges against Gillum and Lettman-Hicks that emerged in a grand jury indictment against the two on June 7, 2022.

On the same day it acquitted Gillum on the one count,

the jury announced it was deadlocked on all remaining charges against Gillum and all charges against Lettman-Hicks, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors at that time announced plans to bring Gillum and Lettman-Hicks up for retrial on the remaining charges.

The Tallassee Democrat reports that several jurors, including two who spoke to the newspaper, wrote in a public statement that the jury voted 10-2 for a not guilty verdict

for Gillum on all remaining counts after voting unanimously to find him not guilty on the one count of lying to the FBI.

According to the newspaper, the statement released by the jurors said the jury voted 10-2 to find Lettman-Hicks not guilty on 10 counts against her and voted 9-3 to find her not guilty on the remaining counts.

Prosecutors with the office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida did not give a reason for asking the judge to dismiss the remaining charges against Gillum and Lettman-Hicks.

But the Tallassee Democrat reports that legal experts believe, given the jury’s leaning against a conviction prosecutors would likely face strong barriers in obtaining a conviction in another trial.

The newspaper reports that the juror’s views were made even more clear when several of them “anonymously announced that the 12-person panel voted heavily in favor of acquittal but that two ‘biased’ jurors prevented a unanimous decision.”

Lettman-Hicks has called the charges against her “baseless” and politically motivated. At the time she was indicted, Lettman-Hicks was running as a Democratic candidate for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. She withdrew her candidacy shortly after the indictment.

LOU CHIBBARO JR.

Biden nominates Maloney to ambassadorship

The White House announced last Friday that President Joe Biden has nominated former Democratic New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney to be the next Representative of the U.S. to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with the rank of ambassador.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

He is the first openly LGBTQ person ever elected to Congress from New York and the highest ranking openly

LGBTQ person ever to serve in the House. He and his husband, Randy Florke, recently celebrated their 30th anniversary together as couple and have raised three children together.

Maloney was elected five times to represent New York’s 18th congressional district in the House and served from 2013 to 2023. While in Congress, Maloney chaired both the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Com-

mittee

He served additionally as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was elected by his colleagues to House leadership in 2020. He is the author of more than 40 pieces of legislation that became law.

Prior to serving in the House, Maloney served as President Bill Clinton’s White House Staff Secretary, and leaving government service helped found a financial services software company, and worked as a partner at two global law firms.

BRODY LEVESQUE

CHRISTOPHER KANE

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS (Screen capture)

SHARON LETTMAN-HICKS (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

GOP senators ask White House to withdraw rule change for trans athletes

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Monday led a group of 21 other Republican senators in calling for Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to withdraw the administration’s proposed rule change that would prohibit blanket bans of transgender student athletes.

“Our comment sent to Secretary Cardona echoes what most Americans already know to be true: Forcing schools to allow biological males to compete against young women is unfair, unsafe and wrong,” Tuberville said in a statement.

If adopted as written, the draft policy unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education last month would affirm “that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students” from participating on teams that align with their gender identity.

At the same time, the guidelines allow for exceptions that would bar trans student athletes in certain circumstances and provided various conditions are met.

Separately, Tuberville drew ire over his comments during an interview last week in which he said the Pentagon was wrong to root out white nationalists serving in the U.S. military.

“They call them that,” Tuberville replied, referring to the Biden administration’s criticism of white nationalists. “I call them Americans.”

CHRISTOPHER KANE

ABC News names Benitez ‘GMA’ weekend co-anchor

ABC News President Kim Godwin announced Thursday that the Disney-owned network had named openly gay Gio Benitez, 37, as the permanent weekend co-anchor for the Good Morning America’s Saturday and Sunday Broadcasts.

Benitez joins current co-anchors Whit Johnson and Janai Norman. He has been ABC News’ transportation correspondent since 2020, covering aviation during the industry’s near-total collapse in the pandemic and space at the onset of America’s private space race, plus the auto industry and railroads.

Since joining ABC News in 2013, Gio has notably covered the Pulse nightclub shooting, El Chapo’s underground escape from a Mexican prison and the Boston Marathon bombing. He has a long history of breaking exclusive investigative stories, and some of these investigations have led to important safety recalls.

Before joining ABC News in 2013, he was a reporter for WFOR-TV in Miami. FROM STAFF REPORTS

Moms For Liberty targets teacher who showed class Disney film

A fifth grade elementary teacher is under fire in Hernando County, Florida after showing her students the 2022 Disney’s film “Strange World.” It’s the first Disney film with an out, gay character.

driguez, who was elected to the school board last fall, and was endorsed by conservative anti-LGBTQ+ parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty, reported fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee to the state Department of Education who has opened an investigation.

Rodriguez has a daughter in Barbee’s class.

Common Sense Media in its Parents’ Guide to Strange World gave it a four out of five star rating. Common Sense Media states in its FAQ: “Common Sense is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century.”

Barbee, who teaches at Winding Waters K-8, a public school located in Weeki Wachee, during a public comment session during last week’s Board Meeting told the members and the audience:

“The word indoctrination is thrown around a lot right now, but it seems that those who are using it are using it as a defense tactic for their own fear-based beliefs without understanding the true meaning of the word.”

fusion over the vague wording of the law for fear of losing their teaching licenses or criminal penalties if found in non-compliance.

Opponents of the law say the vague wording unfairly targets books and classroom materials with gay and transgender characters and themes.

Rodriguez, in her short tenure on the school board, has argued there is “smut” and “porn” on schools’ library shelves and has asked for books to be removed, according to Suncoast News.

Barbee said that every student in her class had a signed parent permission slip that said PG movies were allowed. At the end of the school board meeting, Rodriguez said Barbee broke school policy because she did not get the specific movie approved by school administration and said the teacher is “playing the victim,” the Tallahassee Democrat noted.

In a statement to local media outlets, Moms for Liberty says school boards should ensure parents’ rights are honored in the classroom.

Strange World features the openly gay character named Ethan Clade, who has a crush on another male character and is voiced by gay comic Jaboukie Young-White.

Hernando County School Board member Shannon Ro-

The Tallahassee Democrat reported Florida educators are prohibited from teaching about gender and sexual identity due to the Parental Rights in Education Act, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. Also known as “Don’t Say Gay” by critics, teachers have expressed anxiety and con-

“It is great that local school board members can question content that is not approved by parents. Parents have a right to be a part of their child’s education and school boards should also ensure parental rights are honored in the classroom.”

GIO BENITEZ is the permanent weekend co-anchor for Good Morning America’s Saturday and Sunday broadcasts. (Photo courtesy ABC News)

U.S. Sen. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-Ala.) led a group of 21 other Republican senators in calling for Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to withdraw the administration’s proposed rule change that would prohibit blanket bans of transgender student athletes. (Screen capture/YouTube)

A Florida teacher is under investigation for showing 5th graders a Disney movie with a gay character.

(Screenshot/YouTube 10 Tampa Bay)

PLAY

Namibia court rules gov’t must recognize same-sex marriages from abroad

A landmark ruling the Supreme Court of Namibia issued on Tuesday ruled that same-sex marriages conducted outside the southern African country should be recognized by the Namibian government.

Two same-sex couples have emerged victorious in their fight for the recognition of their marriages conducted outside Namibia in a ruling that paves the way for equal rights and spousal immigration benefits for same-sex couples in the country.

The joint cases, initially brought before the court in March, involved South African national Daniel Digashu who is married to Namibian citizen Johann Potgieter, and German national Anita Seiler-Lilles, who is married to Namibian citizen Anette Seiler.

The couples aimed to access essential spousal immigration rights, including permanent residence and employment authorization.

Both couples expressed relief following the ruling.

“I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. I feel that I can continue with life now, in a sense,” Digashu said. “I cannot explain just how relieved I am that we won’t have to make plans to leave. Now we can stop for a moment and breathe, and take things easy and just know that we are home and there is no potential of being forced to leave.”

For her part, Seiler said after a sleepless night in anticipation of the ruling, she and her wife look forward to celebrating a dream come true.

“We are married and we promised each other that we will stay together no matter what and that promise we’ve upheld through this fight for this recognition of our marriage,” Seiler said. “We would’ve stayed together no matter what but we can stay together here in this beautiful country and we can make it our home country. That was Anita’s biggest wish and that’s my wish as well, and now this wish comes true. It’s so incredible.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling challenged a previous precedent

set by the Immigration Selection Board. While acknowledging the binding nature of the precedent, the court asserted that it can depart from its own decisions if they are proven to be clearly wrong.

The court ruled that the Home Affairs and Immigration Ministry’s refusal to recognize samesex marriages validly concluded outside Namibia violates the constitutional rights of the affected parties.

Furthermore, the court emphasized that the rights to dignity and equality are interconnected, and the denial of recognition for same-sex marriages undermines these fundamental principles. It reaffirmed the principle that if a marriage is lawfully concluded in accordance with the requirements of a foreign jurisdiction, it should be recognized in Namibia.

This ruling represents a significant milestone in the fight for LGBTQ and intersex rights in Namibia. By expanding the interpretation of the term “spouse” in the Immigration Control Act to include same-sex spouses legally married in other countries, the court has taken a crucial step toward achieving equality and inclusivity.

One of the five judges who heard the two appeals dissented from the majority ruling.

He argued that Namibia is under no obligation to recognize marriages that are inconsistent with its policies and laws, emphasizing the traditional understanding of marriage and the protection of heteronormative family life.

The dissenting opinion highlights the ongoing divisions and complexities surrounding the issue of marriage equality in the country. While it underscores the need for continued dialogue and debate, the majority decision in favor of recognizing samesex marriages highlights the importance of constitutional rights and the principle of equality.

Southern African Litigation Center Executive Director Anneke Meerkotter commended the court’s decision.

“The Namibian Supreme Court has set an important example, interpreting legislation in accordance with the core principles of constitutional interpretation and independent adjudication, thus avoiding irrelevant considerations relating to public opinion and unfounded allegations raised by the government about public policy,” Meerkotter said. “Instead, the court steered the argument back to the history of discrimination in Africa and the necessary constitutional reforms that emphasized transition to dignity and equality without discrimination.”

Speaking on what the ruling means for the LGBTQ and intersex community in Namibia, Seiler said it provides hope and inspiration not only to the couples involved but also to the broader community in Namibia and on the continent.

“We know that we fought this battle not only for us. In the beginning we were fighting it for us, but then we realized it’s not only for us, it’s for other people as well. I’m glad that we did it, that we fought this fight,” she said.

Both Seiler and Digashu said the support of the LGBTQ and intersex community and its allies has been a pillar of strength over the 6-year battle with the courts.

“It has always been about the community because we deserve to have it all without being put down or being told this is not allowed. So, I think this is a big win for the community as a whole. It’s not about us, or just our families. It’s for absolutely everyone!” Digashu said.

Omar van Reenen, co-founder of Equal Namibia, a youth-led social movement for equality, said the ruling has strengthened the promise of equality and freedom from discrimination in the country.

“The Supreme Court really made a resounding decision. It just feels like our existence matters — that we belong and that our human dignity matters,” he said. “The Supreme Court … has upheld the most important thing today and that is the constitution’s promise that everyone is equal before the law and that the rights enshrined in our preamble reign supreme, and equality prevails.”

As the Supreme Court is the highest court in Namibia, decisions made in this court are binding on all other courts in the country unless it is reversed by the Supreme Court itself or is contradicted if Parliament passes a law that is enacted.

ARLANA SHIKONGO

Tanzanian man sentenced to 30 years in prison for sodomy

A Tanzanian man was last month sentenced to 30 years in prison after a court convicted him of violating the country’s sodomy law.

According to LGBT VOICE Tanzania, an LGBTQ and intersex rights organization, the Kilwa District Court sentenced Muharami Hassan Nayonga to 30 years in prison after it convicted him of violating Sections 154 and 157 of the country’s Penal Code that criminalize so-called unnatural offenses and “indecent practices between males.”

LGBT VOICE Tanzania said Nayonga was a security guard who lived in Masoko Ward. He was arrested on April 13 “after he used his phone to persuade a young man known as Zalafi Selemani to be intimate with him.”

“After the arrest, Muharami was examined by health professionals who found that he had engaged and engag-

es in unnatural sex,” said LGBT VOICE Tanzania. “He was then brought to court and confessed his crimes where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Resident Magistrate of the Court, Carolina Mtui, under case number 27 of 2023.”

LGBT VOICE Tanzania accused the country’s government of violating Nayonga’s human rights.

“Using Sections 154 and 157 of the Penal Code to persecute LGBTQIA people is a violation of human rights and a violation of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania,” said LGBT VOICE Tanzania.

There have been consistent reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTQ and intersex Tanzanians in recent years. These include murder, assault, harassment and denial of basic rights and services.

The Health Ministry in 2016 prohibited community-based organizations from conducting outreach on HIV prevention to men who have sex with men and other key populations, based on the pretext that such organizations are engaged in the promotion of homosexuality. The ministry also closed drop-in centers that provided HIV testing and other services to key populations. International organizations ran many of these centers, and the government accused them of promoting homosexuality.

The ministry also banned the distribution of lubricant. A crackdown against LGBTQ and intersex Tanzanians has been underway since 2018; with reports of raids, mass arrests, arbitrary detention and forced anal examinations.

DANIEL ITAI

From left: DANIEL DIGASHU, his husband, JOHANN POTGIETER and their son, pictured alongside ANITA SEILERLILLES and ANETTE SEILER (Photo courtesy of Equal Namibia)

CHRIS WOOD is executive director of LGBT Tech.

Improving connectivity for BIPOC LGBTQ youth

Addressing lack of access to hardware, reliable internet access

In today’s digital age, connectivity has become essential to our daily lives. From engaging on social media, connecting with the community, finding a job, seeing a doctor, finding food, or finding a home within your budget, the internet is a lifeline for people to connect, communicate, find opportunities, and express themselves.

However, not all individuals or communities have equitable access to these digital spaces and all the opportunities that access entails. This includes members of marginalized communities who are already members of other marginalized communities like LGBTQ+ BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) youth. We must look at this issue holistically across an individual’s lifetime, beginning with the earliest opportunities within the community, access to digital tools and resources in public education institutions, evolving all the way to safe and accepting spaces for LGBTQ+ youth who are exploring their gender identity and sexual orientation. For LGBTQ+ BIPOC youth, a digital community might be one of the only spaces supporting their LGBTQ+ identity, especially for our BIPOC transgender community, who face the highest rates of bullying, harassment, and murder. To assist these individuals in achieving digital success, there are concrete and important issues we must begin to address:

1. Addressing the Digital Divide: One of the fundamental challenges that BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth face is the lack of access to hardware and reliable internet access due to cost or a combination of geographic location and price. Addressing issues around the digital divide can be achieved through initiatives such as extended hours and access to hardware and broadband in public schools, secure and safe community-based Wi-Fi networks, and affordable internet plans. The latter are now affordable for many who were unable to afford digital resources before through the U.S. National Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) which is an excellent way for households to receive up to $30 monthly for internet service. (FCC.gov/ACP).

It is essential to recognize this approach is only scratching the surface on the most basic access issues and does not address the economic inequalities that lead to lack of access or exposure to more advanced technical devices hampering educational and employment prospects. There is no question that the digital divide leads to a direct lack of hiring and representation of LGBTQ+ BIPOC in more STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and Mathematics) and must be corrected to increase representation in those fields.

2. Creating Safe and Inclusive Digital Spaces: BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth often face discrimination, harassment, and prejudice in

both physical and digital spaces. It is essential to create safe and inclusive digital spaces that prioritize the well-being and safety of these young individuals. Online platforms, including social media networks and online support groups, should have clear guidelines against hate speech, discrimination, and bullying and take swift action to address violations. In addition, online spaces should be designed with inclusivity in mind, considering the diverse needs and experiences of BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth. This includes features such as customizable privacy settings, content moderation tools, options for reporting abuse or harassment, and straightforward, easy-to-access information on using these tools and features.

3. Representation and Inclusivity in Media and Content: Representation matters, and it is critical to ensure that BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth see themselves reflected in media and content online. This includes a diverse representation of BIPOC LGBTQ+ individuals in mainstream media, social media influencers, and content creators.

4. Culturally Competent Support and Resources: BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth often face unique challenges that require culturally competent support and resources. Many of these young individuals come from diverse cultural backgrounds, many of which may not accept their gender identity, sexual orientation, or any representation other than binary. LGBTQ+ BIPOC individuals face discrimination in their communities and often from biological family members, which can leave individuals homeless or, even worse, physically or mentally abused. It is crucial to provide direct, tailored support and resources that understand and respect the intersectionality of their identities. This can include online counseling services (if they have access), peer support groups and educational resources specifically designed for BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth.

5. Empowerment through Digital Activism: The internet has become a powerful tool for activism, and BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth can use digital platforms to raise their voices, advocate for their rights, and drive social change. Companies and legislators working in technology must ensure they are taking the time to listen, understand and build products and regulations that are equitable for everyone, especially for underserved communities such as BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth. Creating spaces, rules, and regulations that empower communities produces a more equitable world to share stories, connect with like-minded people and communities, and engage in the civil exchange of ideas.

These are just a few of the ways we can begin improving access for BIPOC LGBTQ+ youth to ensure equitable digital success but it is important we are listening to those living in these communities and addressing their most pressing digital needs first.

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The ‘Find Out’ generation: A new generation for a new America

In an op-ed I wrote in April entitled “On Gun Violence, the New Generation Will Not Be Silenced,” I wrote about Tennessee State Representative Justin Thomas and Justin Pearson being expelled from the Tennessee legislature.

Since then, both have been reinstated by local county governing boards that sent them back to the legislature unanimously. Let’s recall they and the remaining legislator Gloria Johnson’s “crime,” was deciding enough was enough by protesting against gun violence on the legislative floor. The national support they have received since then has been enormous.

Similarly, in Montana, Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender legislator there, was silenced by the Republican majority legislature there, being censured (prevented from public speaking) for saying there would be “blood on the hands” of members that voted on an anti-trans piece of legislation.

Zephyr and the “Tennessee Three,” as they’ve come to be called, are part of a new generation of leaders in America, or the “find out” generation that won’t settle for business as usual and are willing to face down the forces of status quo that want to maintain a system built on White supremacy and assimilation.

They follow a lineage of resistance of those willing to cause “good trouble,” as the late Congressman John Lewis once said. As the former head of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee in the 60s, Lewis was arrested multiple times and was part of the Tennessee sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville. (He would later, in 2016, bring Congressional House proceedings to a halt in a protest against gun violence.)

Justin Jones himself has been arrested 13 times for non-violent protest and jokes that one of the reasons he ran for the state legislature is that “members of the Tennessee Legislature can’t be arrested,” which is true, at least while in session. But Justin’s arrests are part of the tradition of the civil rights movement in the South. Tennessee was indeed the home resistance.

In May of 1960, over 150 students were arrested

by the police for attempting to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville. During the trial, the students, including Diane Nash, were defended by a group of 13 lawyers, headed by Z. Alexander Looby, a Black lawyer from the British West Indies, whose house was later bombed by segregationists. Looby and his wife were thankfully unharmed.

Later that day, 3,000 protesters marched to Nashville City Hall to confront Mayor Ben West to demand something be done about the violence. He agreed the lunch counters should be desegregated but that it should be up to the store managers.

The city later reached an agreement to desegregate numerous stores before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited desegregation altogether. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. later came to Nashville, saying he “did not come to bring inspiration, but to find it.”

Meanwhile, in Montana, Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender state legislator in Montana, follows in the footsteps of early LGBT activists/officeholders like the late Harvey Milk of San Francisco. Zephyr’s courageous stance against a majority of the legislature who voted for an anti-trans bill prohibiting gender-affirming healthcare for minors resulted in Zephyr being censured and prohibited from giving speeches on the House floor. Since then, there has been a tremendous national backlash against such fascist tactics both there and in Tennessee.

As we look ahead to Junteenth and Pride next month, Jones, Pearson, and Zephyr are visible symbols of the rise of a new generation coming up, the “find out” generation that refuses to accept the status quo and who is willing to put everything on the line to face injustice in the name of service to their communities.

Whether it is gun violence, housing, or hate, leadership like this will create the multigenerational, intersectional leadership we need at the local, state, and federal levels in the Halls of Congress to bring about solutions to the issues we have been facing. To create a new America that works for everyone. And I’m here for it.

A millennial, based in Los Angeles, STEVE DUNWOODY is a veteran, college educator, and community advocate.

We are willing to face down the forces of status quo

Carl Hopgood turns pain into positive and uses art as therapy

On a path toward a ‘bold, exciting life’ among other creative people

Like many people born with an inclination toward creative expression, Carl Hopgood has known from a very young age that he wanted to be an artist.

Growing up on a small farm in rural Wales, the Cardiff-born Hopgood spent his childhood surrounded by animals and nature, letting his imagination run wild and creating worlds he envisioned with baskets, fruit boxes, flowers, stones, tabloid clippings, and other items that struck his fancy. Then, at 7, he was invited to spend an afternoon with his best friend, whose cousin was visiting; that cousin happened to be Richard Burton, and he happened to be accompanied by his even more famous wife, Elizabeth Taylor.

Hopgood was not just star-struck, he was inspired.

“My world was never the same after that day,” he tells the Blade. “They told stories about Hollywood, London, glamorous parties, movies, photography… and Andy Warhol! Andy Warhol was my first artist crush. He was also born on a farm, so I felt an immediate connection.”

After that experience, he knew he wanted to embark on a path toward a “bold, exciting life” among other “creative people” while “doing amazing things and living.”

Four decades and one continental transplant later, it can safely be said that Hopgood has accomplished his goal.

By JOHN PAUL KING

Gallery in West Hollywood, and ‘Chair Therapy’ at United Talent Agency’s UTA Artspace LA – have garnered a flurry of enthusiasm and increasing national attention.

The latter installation created a particular stir with its inclusion of a controversial neon sculpture called “Just Say Gay”, Hopgood’s response to the draconian anti-LGBTQ legislation championed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; that work was acquired by prominent collector Beth Rudin DeWoody and will be on display from December 2023 at her Bunker Art Space in West Palm Beach, Florida.

When talking with the Blade, Hopgood is keen to focus the discussion on a new goal – the completion of a documentary about the creation of “Chair Therapy” – but he’s certainly willing to start the conversation by talking about the sense of queer defiance behind “Just Say Gay” and many of his other works, because the two subjects go hand in hand.

“Being a gay man of Welsh and Greek heritage,” he proudly proclaims, “the fight against bullying, repression, injustice and discrimination became central themes of my artistic expression.”

As he explains, that fight is rooted in a traumatic childhood experience. “I was bullied by classmates,” he remembers. “They would chase after me, push me to the ground and kick me in the groin. I managed to escape and found sanctuary under a stack of chairs in the school assembly hall. The school therapist helped me cope by using a technique called Empty Chair Therapy, where you would talk to an empty chair about your feelings.

“I decided turn this pain into something positive and use art as my therapy.”

Much later, the young Hopgood would be inspired by the confrontational aesthetic of Damien Hirst – after reading a scathing criticism of one of his works in the paper – and follow in the controversial artist’s footsteps to Goldsmiths College in London, eventually becoming part of a movement with fellow graduates like Steve McQueen, Jason Martin, Ceal Floyer, Angela De La Cruz and Alessandro Raho.

“It was an incredible moment to be a young artist in 1990s London.”

Nevertheless, after 20 years in the London art scene, he decided it was time for a change.

fect time to go,” he says, “and I was ready to work in new mediums and expand my repertoire.” Then, like the rest of us, he had to put all his plans indefinitely up in the air.

“In early 2020, when the pandemic hit,” he tells us, “I would see all the bars and restaurants shuttered in West Hollywood. It was like a ghost town. Looking through the store front windows, all I could see were chairs stacked on top of each other – and that image took me straight back to my unhappy childhood.”

He decided to use it for inspiration and began work on the first sculpture in the “Chair Therapy” series (“My Heart is Open”) – which as he describes, addresses “toxic masculinity, oppression and queer identity, themes I’ve always championed.”

Those themes are doubtless also at least partly behind his desire to see the planned documentary – titled “Fragile World” – reach fruition. Filmed during the pandemic, it profiles Hopgood by charting his personal artistic journey, but centers on the development of “Chair Therapy”, in which he combined found and vintage wooden chairs with neon lights shaped into positive words to provide hope, love and support for a community who were hardest hit by COVID and the shutdowns it necessitated.

“Seeing those stacked chairs and tables, in those empty establishments, I knew some would be forced to close for good. I felt so helpless, but I knew there was something I could do.”

Now, with his own hard-hit community – alongside many others – facing aggressive legislative oppression from the extremist right, he’s determined to see the film finished, so that the same empowering message of optimism embodied in his work can be spread to a larger audience as a reminder not to let the bullies break their spirit. To that end, the documentary’s director and producer, LA-based British filmmaker Kate Rees Davies, has set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funding necessary to finish the project.

A successfully established LA-based artist, he’s created a unique body of work that includes pieces in Neon, Sculpture, Film / Video Installation, and canvas painting; his collectors include Morgan Freeman, Eugiono Lopez, The Vinik Family Foundation, The Groucho Club and Rupert Everett; and recent exhibitions of his work – like his neon art installations ‘Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places’, ‘My Heart Is Open’, and ‘You Changed My Life’ at the Maddox

“I had just watched a documentary featuring David Hockney,” he explains. “The freedom and possibility of David’s work was clearly inspired by Southern California with its beautiful palette and open, sunny skies. It was a stark contrast to the gloomy weather of the UK, and the anxiety and depression that accumulated over the years. I had heard about the growing LA art scene –LACMA, MOCA and The Broad were beginning to attract an international audience – and I decided that moving to Los Angeles would be good for both my mental health and creativity.”

The choice was a fortuitous one for him – “It was the per-

Another motivation, perhaps even more personal, might be found in Hopgood’s revelation of a hidden influence in another work from the “Empty Chairs” series: “Twelve Steps”, which explores the massive financial success of a California citrus industry made possible by the hard work of a segregated Mexican immigrant labor force. “I was also inspired in that piece by a line from Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos,” he says, “who was sidelined by the Greek literary community in the 1970s because he was gay. It’s a small but powerful couplet which was included in the collection ‘The Body and the Wormwood’ that reads, ‘What didn’t you do to bury me, but you forgot that I was a seed.’”

For Hopgood, perhaps, the documentary also represents a seed, one that he himself has planted in hope of spreading its positive power into the world – and he’s counting on the support of his patrons through Indiegogo for the water, light and nourishment it requires to grow.

CARL HOPGOOD (Photo by Magnus Hastings)

Out director brings queer perspective to mainstream with help from DeNiro

By JOHN PAUL KING

In all the discussion about the need for more and better queer inclusion in mainstream Hollywood movies, we sometimes overlook the trailblazers who are already working in the system, bringing their queerness – and the perspective that comes with it – into the mix even when the story isn’t queer at all.

Take, for example, Laura Terruso, an out queer director who, only eight years out from film school, already has three feature film releases under her belt, and whose fourth – “About My Father,” starring popular comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and screen icon Robert DeNiro – opens on May 26. In it, Maniscalco plays as the son of a Sicilian immigrant hairdresser (DeNiro, of course), who reluctantly agrees when his fiancée (Leslie Bibb) convinces him to bring his very working-class father to a weekend getaway with her very wealthy eccentric family at their lavish summer estate. Needless to say, it’s a culture clash waiting to happen; but when it does, the complications that ensue are mostly comedic. You can’t get much more mainstream than that.

That’s not a bad thing. “About My Father” is a refreshing, feel-good comedy that gets a lot of mileage out of the contrast between his obstinately independent working class dad and the amusingly tone deaf attitudes of his goofily eccentric in-laws-to-be – but remains good-natured enough to show us the flawed, funny, perfectly relatable human beings behind the stereotypes (even Kim Catrall’s staunchly conservative matriarch) even as we laugh at them.

Indeed, it feels more than a little nostalgic, and — as the Blade found out when we sat down to talk to Terruso about being a queer female director at the helm of a mainstream Hollywood feature — that’s not an accident. Our conversation is below.

BLADE: Your movie feels like a screwball comedy from the Golden Age. Was that deliberate?

LAURA TERRUSO: I’m so glad you picked up on that. That was a huge part of my vision for the film. The work of Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder — those are some of my favorite movies, and I really tried to incorporate the themes, even some of the visuals. I particularly love Depression-era comedies, and I really look to them a lot for inspiration, because I feel like the time we live in right now is not dissimilar from that time, in terms of what’s going on.

BLADE: Part of the similarity also has to do with the way you poke fun at the characters –especially the one-percenters – without being mean-spirited or angry.

TERRUSO: That’s something that’s very important to me. I want to make kind comedies. I feel like nothing dates a comedy more than unkindness. The humor should come from the characters, and the situations, not from insults or ridicule – that stuff is just so tired, you know? – and I wanted this to be a film that everyone could love, that everyone could see themselves in and enjoy.

BLADE: Do you think that’s because you’re coming at it from a queer perspective? Even though the movie isn’t a “queer” movie, it’s certainly relatable for queer audiences with its story about trying to fit in a world where you don’t belong. And there are a few nods to the queer audience, too, like a certain celebrity cameo we won’t give away, and that flash-mob wedding proposal near the top of the film.

TERRUSO: Yes! And it was important to me to find real queer actors and dancers for that

scene – which we did. [Laughing] In Mobile, Alabama, of all places. But definitely, as a queer filmmaker, I feel like I’m bringing my perspective to the work. Even if it’s not themed in that way, I approach everything I do with that worldview in mind.

BLADE: That begs the question: as someone who is on the “inside” of the system, how do you think mainstream Hollywood is doing when it comes to queer inclusion?

TERRUSO: There’s a lot of work to be done, but I think it all presents opportunity for us to tell our stories – because they haven’t been told yet. For instance, for my last film, a big studio movie called “Work It,” there was a little bit of a battle with the original studio attached to the project, because they didn’t want Keiynan Lonsdale to play an antagonist – they were like, ‘Oh, he should be the best friend!’ Fortunately, Netflix came in and took over that production, and let us cast Keiynan the way we wanted. It worked beautifully, and people loved it – and, of course Keiynan l both loved it.

BLADE: It’s ironic that there’s an over-cautiousness now after all those years of villainizing us on the screen.

TERRUSO: There’s this beautiful book called “In the Dream House” by Carmen Maria Machado, a queer author, and there’s a section where she talks about the trope of “queer villainy,” and how incredibly important it is because it’s a part of our humanity – if we’re only ever playing ‘the best friend’ or one of those other “safe” tropes, it’s not really a full portrait of who we are.

That’s why I think it’s important for queer people to work in the mainstream, because those kinds of conversations, left in the hands of people not in the community, would always be going the way of the “best friend”. We want more nuance in our movies, and we can only do it by infiltrating the system in this way.

BLADE: What do you think is the most important thing that Hollywood needs to work on when it comes to telling our stories on the screen?

TERRUSO: I think the question that studio heads need to ask themselves when making a decision like that is, “Who’s telling the story?” If you have a queer director and a queer actor and they are saying ‘this is what we want,’ trust them. If not, then maybe you can question it, but looking at who is telling the story and the point of view of the artists is so important to the nuance of this conversation.

BLADE: One last question: Was it great working with DeNiro?

TERRUSO: He’s an absolute legend for a reason, incredible to work with. And he saw that I had a real personal relationship to the material – which Sebastian co-wrote with his writing partner, Austin Earle – because my mother and Sebastian’s father are both Sicilian immigrants, who came to this country around the same time. When I read the script, I was like, “I have to direct this film!”

I find that sometimes the beauty of comedy is that you can heal wounds – you can make right things that maybe in life were left unresolved. My mom and I have had our challenges – when I came out, it was tough, I mean, she’s a Sicilian mom – but she’s so supportive now, and I feel so fortunate I was able to write a love letter to her with this film.

Besides, now I’ve introduced her to Robert DeNiro, which is basically like introducing a gay person to Beyonce, so I win. I’m a Black Sheep no more!

‘About My Father’ feels like a screwball comedy from the Golden Age

SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO and screen icon ROBERT DENIRO star in ‘About My Father.’

Chasten Buttigieg’s new book a

comforting read for teens

Coming out tale told with an upbeat, fatherly calm tone

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

Experience, they say, is the best teacher.

Once you’ve done something, you can say you like it and you’ll do it again or not. The subject comes with a different viewpoint, once you’ve gotten a little experience with it. You’re wiser, more confident. As in the new book “I Have Something to Tell You” by Chasten Buttigieg, you’ll have the chops to offer valid advice.

If you’d have asked 8-year-old Chasten Buttigieg what life was like, he probably would’ve told you about his big brothers and how wild and daring they were. He would’ve said he didn’t have many friends and that he loved his parents. He wouldn’t have told you about being gay, though, because he had no frame of reference, no experience, or role models. He just knew then that he was “different.”

A year later, he watched “Will & Grace” on TV for the first time, and it was hilarious but he had to be careful. Already, he understood that being “someone ‘like that” had to be hidden. He watched Ellen and he was sure that “gay people weren’t found in places” like his Northern Michigan home town.

By Chasten Buttigieg

c.2023, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing $18.99 | 209 pages

For much of his childhood, Buttigieg says he was bullied, but being lonely was worse. He was awkward, but he found his happy place in theater. “In school,” he says, “I felt a constant tug-of-war between where I was and where I wanted to be,” between authenticity and pretending. A year as a high school senior exchange student in gay-friendly Germany, then a “safe space” in college in Wisconsin clarified many things and helped him gain confidence and “broaden [his] perspective.”

By the time he met the man he calls Peter, “I felt at ease to present myself in ways I hadn’t felt comfortable doing.”

Still, he says, things may be better or they may be worse, “We’ve got a long way to go, but you, the reader, get to be a part of that promising future.”

Filled with an abundance of dad jokes and a casual, chatty tone that never once feels pushy or overbearing, “I Have Something to Tell You” may seem like deja vu for good reason. This gently altered version of a 2020 memoir, meant for kids ages 12 and up, says all the right things in a surprisingly paternal way.

And yet, none of it’s preachy, or even stern.

Though there are brief peeks at his adult life on the campaign trail with his husband, now-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the heart of author Chasten Buttigieg’s book is all memoir, set in a loving household in a small town. It’s lightly humorous but not trite; to this, Buttigieg adds a layer of subtle advice, and genuineness to a tale that’s familiar to adults and will appeal to young, still-figuring-it-out teens.

You can expect a “you are not alone” message in a book like this, but it comes with an upbeat, fatherly calm. For a teen who needs that, reading “I Have Something to Tell You” will be a good experience.

‘I Have Something to Tell You’

When artists we love behave badly

New book ‘Monsters’ explores this common fan dilemma

By KATHI WOLFE

Recently, I listened to an audio version of “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series. I cheered when Rowling said Dumbledore is gay.

Yet, I wondered, should I read the Potter books (no matter how much I love them) when Rowling has made hurtful remarks about trans people?

That is the question many fans ask today: What do we do when artists make art we love, but behave badly?

“Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma,” by memoirist and critic Claire Dederer delves into this vexing question.

This perplexing query has no “right” answer that works for everyone. Yet, if you enjoy art, you’re likely to keep wrestling with it.

A book delving into this conundrum could be as outdated as the last news cycle. The cancel culture debate has engulfed social media for eons.

Yet, Dederer’s meditation on the relationship between art and its fans is provocative and entertaining. Reading “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma” is like downing two, three, maybe four espressos after a couple of cups of strong coffee.

One minute, you may feel that Dederer has it exactly right. The next moment, you might wonder what planet she’s on.

I applauded Dederer when she wrote, “There is not some correct answer...The way you consume art doesn’t make you a bad person, or a good one.”

But I wanted to throw the book across the room as I read that Dederer preferred Monty Python over queer comedian, writer, and actor Hannah Gadsby. “Listen, I’d rather watch the Pythons than Gadsby any day of the week,” Dederer writes.

To be fair, Dederer opines about Monty Python to make a point about the “monster” of exclusion. “None of these guys has the bandwidth,” she writes about Monty Python, “to even entertain the idea that a woman’s or person of color’s point of view might be just as ‘normal’ as theirs, just as central.”

Dederer, the author of two critically acclaimed memoirs “Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning” and “Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses,” struggles, as a fan and critic,

with many types of monsters.

Dederer, who started out as a movie critic, began grappling with monsters in 2014. Then, “I found myself locked in a lonely–okay, imaginary–battle with an appalling genius,” she writes.

The “appalling genius” was filmmaker Roman Polanski, who, Dederer reports, raped a 13-year-old. Despite her knowledge of Polanski’s crime, “I was still able to consume his work,” Dederer writes, “[though] he was the object of boycotts and lawsuits and outrage.”

Her gallery of monsters contains the usual hetero male suspects from Bill Cosby to Woody Allen. Dederer deplores Allen’s behavior, but considers “Annie Hall” to be the greatest 20th century film comedy. She finds “Manhattan” unwatchable because Allen’s character dates a high school girl, but considers “Annie Hall” to be better than “Bringing Up Baby.” (Mea culpa: I love “Annie Hall.” But, better than “Baby?)

For Dederer, monsters aren’t only male or hetero. She wonders, for instance, if the brilliant poet Sylvia Plath, was a monster because she abandoned her children for her art.

Dederer muses about the actor Kevin Spacey (who will be on trial in June for alleged sexual assault in the United Kingdom), Michael Jackson, and J. K. Rowling.

“One of the great problems faced by audiences is named the Past,” Dederer writes, “The past is a vast terrible place where they didn’t know better.”

‘But, Dederer reminds us: sometimes they did.

Queer writer Virginia Woolf (author of the luminous “Mrs. Dalloway” and the gender-bending “Orlando”) is a god to many queers. Yet, Dederer reports, Woolf, though married to Leonard Woolf, who was Jewish, made flippant anti-Semitic remarks in her diaries. You could say Woolf was just “joking” as people in her time did. Yet, Dederer reminds us, gay author E.M. Forster wrote in a 1939 essay, “...antisemitism is now the most shocking of all things.”

I wish Dederer, who writes of racism and sexism in art, had written about the homophobia in art (in the past and present). I’d have loved it if she’d mused on the brilliant queer, anti-Semitic, racist writer Patricia Highsmith who gave us the “Talented Mr. Ripley.”

‘Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma’

By Claire Dederer c.2023, Alfred A. Knopf $28 | 288 pages

I’d liked to have seen some mention of Islamophobia, ableism and racism against Asian-Americans and indigenous people in art in “Monsters.”

Despite these quibbles, “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma” is a fascinating book. There’s no calculator (as Dederer wishes there was) to tell us whether we should go with the art we love or renounce the work of the artist whose behavior we deplore. But, Dederer turns this dilemma into an exhilarating adventure.

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