Los Angeles Blade, Volume 07, Issue 28, July 14, 2023

(Photo by Simha Haddad)

Tom Daley is a crafty influencer, page 02

FEATURE

Made with Love: Tom Daley’s a crafty influencer and a dad again

Why it’s important to find that one thing that you look forward to every single day

By SIMHA HADDAD

WEST HOLLYWOOD - British Olympic gold medalist diver, LGBTQ-human rights activist, husband and father of two boys, Tom Daley, whose enthusiastic passion for his knitting is well known, has recently partnered with Lion Brand Yarn for a new venture.

The crafty Olympian’s self-titled “Made with Love by Tom Daley,” is slated to arrive in  Michael craft stores and online starting in September 2023. Made with Love will feature Daley’s custom patterns for beginners and yarn colors inspired by his life and career, such as “Gold Medal” and “Primrose Hill.”

Daley took a break from a Made with Love/Lion Brand Yarn photoshoot up in Laurel Canyon in the hills above West Hollywood recently to chat with The Blade about knitting, family life, and striking a work-life balance.

Early on

Daley grew up in Plymouth, a port city in South West England about four hours outside of London. His long competitive diving career started in 2003 when he won a medal at National Novice Championships in the 8/9-year-old category.

At age fourteen, Daley was the youngest qualifying British Olympian athlete since rowing coxswain Ken Lester. In 2007, he became the youngest-ever winner of a British senior title when he took the individual platform event and the following years retained his title and added the synchronized event with partner Blake Aldridge.

In March 2008 he scored a surprise victory at the European Championships in Eindhoven to become the young-

est-ever European champion in either swimming or diving. After Beijing he claimed two silver medals at the 2008 World Junior Championships, before winning the senior World Championship in 2009 at the age of 15.

Daley won two gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, in the 10-metre individual and synchronized event with Max Brick. He competed in his second Olympics in London’s 2012 games and won an individual bronze medal. After the London Games, he gained celebrity status and hosted his own TV show titled Splash.

During the entire course of the Olympic games in Tokyo 2020, held from 23 July to 8 August 2021, audiences following the diving competitions were certain to see the British Olympian quietly and intently focused in-between matches- on his knitting.

The Gold medalist only picked up his first set of knitting needles in March of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic first spread across the globe, strangling normal daily routines in its deadly grip.

After being seen knitting at the Olympic Games, Daley has become a craft influencer whose dedicated Instagram page attracts 1.4 million plus followers.

Daley founded his Made With Love fashion label in November 2021, stemming from his genuine love for knitting and crochet and his desire to share it with the world and encourage others to take up the hobby.

“It’s been a journey for me that started when I first picked up my knitting needles in March 2020. Fast forward 18 months and I’m so proud to introduce these kits to you all so that you can experience the joy I found learning to knit,” Daley said on his website at the time of the launch.

“I designed these knit kits to help encourage you to pick up those needles, learn the basics, and fall in love with knitting at the same time – all whilst creating something to show off or pass on. Ready? Pick up your needles, learn the basics and let’s have some fun!”

Daley recently moved to Los Angeles from London with his husband, D. Lance Black, and their two sons, Robertknown as Robbie (age 5) and newly arrived Phoenix (age 3 months).

A Passion for Knitting

Lion Brand Yarn, which has a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community with initiatives like Knit the Rainbow, “crafting handmade clothing for LGBTQ youth,” caught wind of Daley’s passion and approached him about collaborating on this project. In turn, Daley loved the idea.

“I love the crafting community,” Daley told the Blade. “Diving is extremely niche. People might like and enjoy diving, but everyone who loves diving doesn’t necessarily do it. Whereas with knitting, the people who love it are really doing it. It’s nice to have a community where everybody actually does the thing they are passionate about rather than one person watching and one person doing.”

Daley’s line will focus mainly on beginners and firsttime knitters, with a few projects for intermediate knitters thrown in as well. Although well-known for his knitting, Daley was a novice himself not so long ago.

“I started knitting in 2020,” said Daley. “My coach told me, ‘You’re always on the run. You’re always on the go. You need to find a way to slow down.’”

Daley was perplexed by the concept of slowing down. He shared that he is easily bored and is not prone to sitting and watching TV. Daley’s husband, an Academy Award winning filmmaker, who often saw actors knitting on set between takes, suggested that he take up the craft. The rest is history.

“I became completely obsessed with it,” said Daley.  Daley knits for an hour every day after his children have gone to bed. He usually gifts his finished creations to his loved ones or donates them to raise money for those in need.

“Every stitch is made with love; every stitch is handmade; every stitch is imperfect in its own way. To be able to gift that to someone else is really nice.”

Daley stressed that he believes passion should be an integral part of everyone’s life.

“I think it’s really important to find that one thing that you look forward to doing every single day,” Daley told The Blade. “You have to find that something you can’t wait to get home to do. For me, that’s knitting. It’s my mindfulness. It’s like a meditation.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 04

TOM DALEY displaying his new line of yarn chats with the Los Angeles Blade at a recent photo shoot in Laurel Canyon.

(Photo by Simha Haddad)

DALEY quietly and intently focused in-between his diving matches on his knitting during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (Photo courtesy of Made with Love by Tom Daley/Instagram)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 02

Tom Daley on marriage, children, and work-life balance

Marriage

Daley and Black met in March 2013 at a restaurant in Los Angeles. After some casual chitchat about how the happenings inside the Olympic Village would make a great TV show, the pair decided to meet for drinks. The two have been together ever since.

During their first date, the pair instantly bonded over two shared life experiences. The first was that they had both recently lost a loved one.

“He lost his brother the year before,” Daley told The Blade, “and I had lost my father the year before.”

The second point of bonding came over what Daley describes as “the slump” that comes after reaching the height of career success.

“We were both in similar places in that we had both achieved our career goals. I had won a gold medal, and he had won an Oscar for his film ‘Milk.’ So we both understood what it meant to get to that, but we also understood what is really hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been there. We both understood the slump or the crash where you ask yourself, ‘What next?’”

Daley reminisced about how good it felt to have someone understand what he was going through: “I really had this feeling like I had found a partner in this life.”

Children

Daley instantly lit up when describing his home life, sharing that the couple loves their role as parents.

“Fatherhood is the best and hardest thing anyone ever did,” said the proud Dad of two boys. “Having children puts a different perspective on everything. You start to see the world through their eyes and how you take so much for granted. Fatherhood brings your inner kid out.”

Dad life for Daley also means maintaining as much of a routine as possible. That means Daley wakes up before anyone else in the house for an hour of “me time” to knit and watch the news. He then gives Robbie his breakfast, gets him ready for the day, and takes him to daycare on the way to work.

At the end of the day, Daley picks up his eldest and brings him home, and makes dinner for the family. Daley said that his husband is an amazing father who takes over nighttime feedings of their infant so that Daley can get his much-needed sleep.

Of course, maintaining a routine isn’t always easy, especially with Daley’s chaotic travel schedule, which he told The Blade is about to pick up soon. When Daley is away, his husband often has to take time off from work to care for their children full-time. Black’s solo parenting job will become even more demanding now that there are two children in the house.

When asked whether the couple will look in to hiring

a nanny, Daley admitted that he feels pressure and guilt around the subject.

“I feel like gay dads are judged so much more harshly,” said Daley. “There is this attitude that as two dads, we should be doing it all ourselves. I mean, it takes a village, but there is shame there for me. I never want people to say, ‘Oh, see, they couldn’t do it.’ I know I have to build up the courage if we are going to take that step.”

When asked about the difference between raising children as a gay couple in London versus Los Angeles, Daley said that he noticed a huge difference in body positivity in the United States.

“LA is very gay,” said Daley. “But there is this pressure to have one standard look. I know I’m an athlete, so I’m guilty of looking a certain way as well, but I think it’s really important to value all body types and shapes and sizes.”

Daley and Black keep the conversation open at home about everything from body positivity to the fact that families also come in all shapes and sizes.

“I think keeping the conversation open is the most important thing,” said Daley. “When you avoid a topic, you create shame around it. We always say that every body is beautiful and that everybody is unique in their own way.”

When asked whether the couple is considering a third child, Daley said they might be open to the idea in a few years time.

Work-Life Balance

Daley also commented on how important he now finds the lesson that knitting taught him. He explained that while slowing down can be difficult, it is also necessary for a healthy, well-balanced life.

“I know there are a lot of people who want to work all the time. That can work in some cases, but really, I think you have to ask yourself, ‘Why am I working so hard if I’m not enjoying life?’”

Daley stressed that while his schedule may become more hectic soon, he will always make time with his family and friends a priority.

Annual South LA Pride

A free, family-friendly LGBTQ+ pride festival in South Los Angeles hosted by Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson,

Attendees are encouraged to pack their picnic baskets, blankets, and lawn chairs.

Additional details about South LA Pride will be made available on social media. Follow the hashtag #SouthLAPride on Facebook, Twitter, and on Instagram, or visit southlapride.com for the latest updates.

WHEN: Saturday, July 15, 2023 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

WHERE: Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex 5001 Obama Blvd., Los Angeles 90016

COST: Free

Heather Hutt, and Curren Price.

BLACK with the couple’s eldest son ROBBIE near their London home in August of 2022. (Photo by Tom Daley)

(Los Angeles Blade/South LA Pride graphic)

A California mayor calls LGBTQ+ identities a 'choice of lifestyle'

Chen raised eyebrows after declaring April National Pickleball Month

By NICO LANG

TORRANCE, Calif. - This year was the first since 2014 that Torrance, a California city nestled in the southward sprawl of greater Los Angeles, did not issue a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month.

The tradition began with Torrance’s former mayor, Patrick Furey, in 2014, but following his retirement last year, the newly elected George Chen broke with the custom by declining to put forth an official statement honoring Pride. Chen, whose views lean conservative, referred to LGBTQ+ identities as a “certain choice of lifestyle for some people” in comments shared with the local news publication Daily Breeze

“ I respect each person ’ s personal choice,” he said in a June interview. “ It does not rise to a proclamation.” His declaration that the LGBTQ+ community was not worthy of mayoral consideration particularly raised eyebrows after Chen issued a proclamation earlier this year declaring April as National Pickleball Month in Torrance.

Chen ’ s remarks have kicked off a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ controversies in the South Bay city whose comely beachfront and smooth weather have long been a boon to T.V. producers: The exteriors of Torrance High School famously stood in for Beverly Hills and Sunnydale in the ‘ 90s teen dramas 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer , making the campus a popular pilgrimage for these shows’ passionate fanbases.

But for many in the surrounding LGBTQ+ community, the fallout has left them feeling as if they no longer have a place in the picturesque hamlet they call home. “ We don t have anyone to support us,” said Tiffany Garcia, who owns Torrance ’ s Black Raven Tattoo. “ We feel like the town from Footloose here. No one s allowed to dance. We ’ re just at a loss right now. We ’ re feeling really, utterly defeated.”

When it came to celebrating Pride in 2023, Torrance ’s LGBTQ+ citizens and their allies admittedly expected very little. Unlike neighboring areas like Hermosa Beach and Long Beach, the city has never raised the rainbow flag at city hall for Pride month.

Redondo Beach, which borders Torrance to the north, hoisted the Progress Pride Flag in a June 7 ceremony, marking a first for the tourist destination immortalized by punk progenitor Patti Smith in a 1975 track of the same name. “ Hate has no home here,” said Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, who spoke at the event despite battling lung cancer and a brain tumor. “ We ’ re making history by raising this flag to start a new future in Redondo.”

But business owners in Torrance knew that they had to do something more this year after a string of vandalism incidents targeted Pride decorations in June 2022. Assailants repeatedly tore down rainbow streamers

that had been wrapped around trees in the city ’ s prime commercial hub, and members of the Downtown Torrance Association (DTA) came up with a solution to prevent that from happening again.

Rather than placing the decorations where members of the public could easily reach them, the group designed 12 rainbow banners that read “ Downtown Torrance Pride” and hoped to hang them from light poles throughout the business district. “ We weren t even doing a whole Pride parade and going all out,” said Adam Schwartz, a member of the DTA and owner of the management firm Levy Living Legacy. “ We truly barely did anything. Banners felt like the least we could do.”

The DTA coordinated with members of Torrance ’s Community Development Department (CDD), which manages all municipal permits, on the displays for nearly a year, and Schwartz said that members of the CDD were optimistic and encouraging throughout those discussions. He said that local business leaders were told, over and over again, regarding the Pride banners: “ That ’ s a great idea! You just have to get permission.”

But on May 10, just three weeks before Pride was set to kickoff, city representatives informed businesses that the process of getting those permissions approved actually would be “ really complicated,” Schwartz said.

Although the displays were never officially Okayed, the DTA decided to hang them anyway. No one within the group thought there would be pushback: Signs advertising the annual Antique Street Fair had been hung on city light poles without a permit for 24 years, through five different mayoral administrations. The lack of proper paperwork never posed a problem before.

And yet sources said all that changed when the DTA decided to issue its own proclamation recognizing Pride month after the mayor refused to do so. Members of the DTA took turns reading aloud the statement, which was ratified unanimously by the 50 businesses that comprise the organization, during the public comment portion of the June 6 city council meeting. “ [T]he Downtown Torrance Association is proud to recognize the contributions of our community members and leaders who are LGBTQIA+ to the local arts, businesses, schools, government, and community organizations,” the proclamation stated. By the next morning, the Pride displays were gone.

Security cameras that Garcia mounted outside Black Raven Tattoo show city officials removing the Pride displays at 5:50am, around seven hours after the council meeting came to a close. The handful of banners were eventually returned to their owners, but when the DTA put them back up, they were met with a stern warning. In a meeting with the DTA, city representatives claimed

that business owners could face misdemeanor charges if the displays weren ’ t removed by the end of the day.

Garcia, who opened her tattoo parlor in Torrance six years ago, said the threat felt personal to her as a queer woman who has faced discrimination throughout her life. “ I don ’ t honestly feel safe holding my wife ’ s hand, ” she said. “ When we got married, it wasn ’ t even legal in California. We had to fly to another state in order to get married. We couldn t have the majority of our friends or family there because they couldn ’ t afford to fly out. Straight people don ’ t understand the difficulties of what everyday life is like for the LGBTQ+ community.”

The banners, as ordered, were taken down within the day, to some outcry among Torrance residents. Part of the problem, as critics argued, is that the municipal leaders had not laid out clear guidelines for which kinds of banners would be eligible to display from city light poles or how residents would go about requesting to hoist them. Torrance itself owns 78 light poles in the downtown area, while the rest are the property of Southern California Edison (SCE), which limits banner displays to city and state flags or municipally sponsored events.

On June 20, the Torrance City Council met to debate the introduction of a clear policy on banner eligibility, and what was likely intended to be a tedious discussion regarding appropriate procedure quickly devolved into a circus of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.

Some speakers opposed to the DTA banners appeared to confuse the issue with Torrance itself flying a Pride flag at city hall, which was not being discussed. A woman with a black baseball cap pulled down over her eyes asked why the city wasn ’ t recognizing the contributions of its straight citizens or people of faith. “ Why is the heterosexual Pride flag not represented?” she asked. “ Why are we not flying the Christian flag? The Catholic flag?”

Another speaker claimed the Pride flag celebrates “ perverted men being perverted in lingerie” and claimed the debate is a slippery slope to “ people dressing up as horses” on Torrance ’ s streets. “ Pride isn ’ t good,” he said. “ You are going to invite that into our cities if we don ’ t keep our city safe now.”

Although Torrance council members clarified that only the banner policy was scheduled for consideration that evening, at least one member of the seven-person body felt that the issue of Pride flags should be raised: Councilman Aurelio Mattucci. In a rambling, six-minute speech, Mattucci said that recognizing the LGBTQ+ community could allow outside groups to take advantage, such as hate groups or maybe even clowns. “No matter what policies we put together under the um-

brella of freedom of speech, anybody can really put up anything,” said Mattucci, widely viewed as the council ’s most conservative voice. “ I can put up flags with clown faces. Where do we draw the line?”

In a unanimous decision, the Torrance City Council voted that evening to limit city light poles to local, state, or federal banners, under the assertion that such a policy would be in line with SCE s own guidelines. This assertion neglects to consider that SCE is an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ equality.

In years past, its parent company, Edison International, has participated in both the Long Beach and Palm Springs Pride parades, and the national electric utility outfit signed onto a letter in 2019 urging passage of federal LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections. Currently, Edison International enjoys a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign ’ s Corporate Equality Index , a significantly higher rating than Torrance itself.

Torrance is among the lowest scorers of any California city surveyed in HRC ’ s Municipal Equality Index: 58, ahead of only Fontana (52), Ontario (52), Brisbane (53), and Fresno (55). Nearly its entire score is a product of the fact that Torrance resides in one of the country s most progressive states, a longtime trailblazer in LGBTQ+ civil rights.

While a permanent decision has yet to be made on the future of Pride banners in Torrance, LGBTQ+ citizens said the debacle has been terrible for the local community s morale. Vandals began targeting bridges

in the city with anti-LGBTQ+ graffiti after the mayor refused to issue a Pride proclamation, leaving messages that read “ Fuck Groomers,” “Fuck LGBTQ,” and “ Fuck Pride Month.” (Neither Chen nor the city council have issued a statement formally condemning the hateful epithets.)

Silas Quinn, a 32-year-old non-binary person, said that they moved away from Torrance as an adult in fear that it wasn ’ t safe for someone like them, but they came back last year for an apprenticeship at Black Raven Tattoo. They hoped things had changed. “ It ’ s frustrating for me to see that I ’ m still not really welcome,” they said. “I’ m still not really what Torrance wants to be a part of their community. I feel that a lot of people have stopped having a sense of politeness, and their true colors are really starting to show.”

But what frustrates many local business owners is that they feel the events of the past year aren ’ t reflective of the vibrant, inclusive community they know Torrance to be. Torrance has one of the most diverse populations of any California city, boasting the second-highest concentration of both Korean and Japanese Americans in the state (following Fullerton and Gardenia, respectively). Even after the myriad fiascos that have unfolded over the past year, many local businesses have continued to hang rainbow flags outside their shops or behind their storefront windows. “ This will not stop the Downtown Torrance Association from finding other ways to celebrate Pride,” said Isabel (Douvan) Schwartz, who was part of the team that co-authored the DTA ’ s Pride proclamation. “ Next year we will find another way to celebrate.”

City officials in Torrance did not respond to requests for comment on this story, although sources said that some council members have been working behind the scenes to move toward a compromise. During the June 20 meeting, Councilman Assam Sheikh urged his colleagues to table a resolution recognizing Pride month, adding that he hoped the gesture would send a “ message to the community that we all love you.”  “Whatever you believe, you should be able to express that anywhere in this country,” he said at the time. “ That ’s the beauty of our country.”

But that recommendation was not heeded by June ’s end, which came and went without a statement from the mayor. At a prescheduled June 28 community meeting with Chen, critics expressed their displeasure with the city ’ s elected leadership. Whereas the prior week ’s council meeting was overwhelmed with conservatives citing Bible passages that allegedly proclaim LGBTQ+ people to be an abomination, this time nearly every person in attendance voiced support for the community. Eden Andrews, a 2o-year-old trans speaker, chided

Chen for what he said was the mayor s “ lack of compassion.” “That ’ s all we re asking for, Mr. George Chen, is respect,” said Andrews, who added that he and his girlfriend have been harassed walking down the street in Torrance and that he has had the word “ faggot ” written on his door. “ You can ’ t look at me and say that you respect us while saying that it is a lifestyle. It ’ s not just about putting up ribbons. It ’ s just because we are like you, and I ’ d say we all love the same, but it ’ s clearly not the case.”

The Torrance residents interviewed for this story remain optimistic that next year can be different, even as many other L.A.-adjacent cities likewise bear the brunt of discriminatory backlash. On June 6, three people were arrested following violent protests outside a board meeting of the Glendale Unified School District in the suburb of the same name, which voted in favor of a Pride month proclamation that very evening. Many of the communities that have experienced such incidents, like Torrance and Glendale, generally vote Democratically in statewide elections: Also last month, the Chino Valley UnifiedSchool District in Chino voted 4-1 to ban Pride flags from classrooms. The district ’ s schools are also mulling a policy that would force teachers and faculty to out trans students to their parents if they become aware that a young person does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Many critics of Chen ’ s decisions believe that Torrance can break the trends they ’ re seeing in cities across southern California by showing up to vote in the next election. Torrance suffers from low voter turnout in mayoral race: When Chen was elected in June 2022, he won by fewer than 3,000 votes. Less than 20,000 ballots were cast in total, in a city that ’ s home to over 143,000 people. That lack of engagement results in a sharply partisan split between local and federal elections: Torrance is represented by Maxine Waters and Ted Lieu, both liberal stalwarts, in the House of Representatives. Lieu, a straight ally, recently reintroduced a bill seeking a national ban on the discredited, harmful practice of conversion therapy on LGBTQ+ youth.

Ultimately, LGBTQ+ locals and members of Torrance ’s business community vowed to keep making their city a better place, with or without the help of their elected leaders. “I’ m seeing people in my community losing hope,” Adam Schwartz said. “ It’s destroyed people ’s trust in the city. A lot of people can hear this and go, ‘ Oh, Torrance is such a backward, bigoted place, ’ and that hurts everyone in Torrance. What I ve been hoping to do is show that even though city leadership does not accurately represent the actual community, our downtown community is willing to fight in terms of inclusivity and making everyone feel welcome.”

Torrance City mayor GEORGE CHEN

(Photo Credit: City of Torrance)

FDA approves Alzheimer’s Disease drug Leqembi

SILVER SPRING, MD. - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gave full approval Japanese drugmaker Eisai pharmaceutical company’s drug Leqembi (lecanemab-irmb), which is used to treat adult patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder affecting more than 6.5 million Americans. The disease slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and eventually, the ability to carry out simple tasks.

While the specific causes of Alzheimer s are not fully known, it is characterized by changes in the brain—including the formation of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles—that result in loss of neurons and their connections.

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s is growing — and growing fast. More than 6 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s

An estimated 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s in 2023. Seventy-three percent are age 75 or older.

• About 1 in 9 people age 65 and older (10.7%) has Alzheimer’s.

• Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women.

• Older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites.

• Older Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites.

As the size of the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to grow, so too will the number and proportion of Americans with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s may grow to a projected 12.7 million, barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease.

With full FDA approval in hand, Leqembi has become the first treatment shown to reduce the rate of disease progression and slow cognitive and functional decline in adults with Alzheimer’s under the traditional approval pathway, Eisai Executive Vice President Alex Scott said in an interview.

“Today’s action is the first verification that a drug targeting the underlying disease process of Alzheimer’s disease has shown clinical benefit in this devastating disease,” said Teresa Buracchio, acting director of the Office of Neuroscience in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This confirmatory study verified that it is a safe and effective treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”

The approval comes after an FDA committee of outside experts voted unanimously that Leqembi’s pivotal trial results verify the med’s clinical benefit, with members describing the trial data as “robust,” “meaningful,” “consistent” and “significant.”

The process of converting the drug to full FDA approval also means that the vast majority of Americans with Alzheimer’s who get their health coverage through Medicare will be able to get the IV dispensed Leqembi through the federal program.

The Associated Press noted that there were concerns

that the cost of new plaque-targeting Alzheimer’s drugs like Leqembi could overwhelm the program’s finances, which provide care for 60 million seniors. Leqembi is priced at about $26,500 for a year’s supply of IVs every two weeks.

Medicare administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, has made clear the program will immediately begin paying for the drug now that it has full FDA approval. But the government is also setting extra requirements the Associated Press reported.

Medicare recipients getting Leqembi must be enrolled in a federal registry to track the drug’s real-world safety and effectiveness. The information will help advance “knowledge of how these drugs can potentially help people,” Medicare officials said.

BRODY LEVESQUE

65% of registered voters oppose refusing service to LGBTQ+

WASHINGTON - Results of a new poll conducted by the Washington D.C. based Data for Progress released last week showed that 65 percent of voters believe businesses should not be allowed to turn away customers who are of a particular race, religion, disability, or sexual orientation because of the business owner’s personal beliefs.

The polling came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority ruled in favor of Lori Smith, the Colorado-based graphic artist who did not want to make wedding websites for same-sex couples despite Colorado’s nondiscrimination law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority 6-3 decision along ideological lines in 303 Creative v. Elenis.

The liberal justices, however, called the majority’s finding of a free speech exemption to nondiscrimination rules “unprecedented,” warning it would blow a hole through these laws and pave the way for anti-LGBTQ discrimination by businesses.

The Data for Progress poll included a majority of voters across age, race/ethnicity, and gender, and a plurality of

Republicans (48 percent).

“303 Creative was a purely hypothetical case. When voters are given similar hypotheticals, they consistently land on the side of nondiscrimination, rejecting the idea that business owners should be able to refuse services to a member of a protected class based on personal beliefs,” said Rob Todaro, Communications Director at Data for Progress. “While the precedent set by this decision is alarmingly gray, the harms of discrimination are abundantly clear. LGBTQ+ people deserve full and equal access to public accommodations without fear of being treated differently for who they are or who they love.”

Similarly, 64 percent of voters say the right of individuals to be served by businesses, regardless of their race, religion, disability, or sexual orientation, is more important than the right of business owners to refuse service based on their conscience or religious beliefs (30 percent).

The poll also asked voters about various hypothetical scenarios, and whether or not they think business owners should be able to refuse services for certain events based on their personal beliefs:

• Same-sex marriages: 42% agree, 52% disagree

• Interfaith marriages: 29% agree, 62% disagree

• Interracial marriages: 26% agree, 67% disagree

• A baby shower for an unwed mother: 24% agree, 68% disagree

The belief that business owners should be able to refuse services in these scenarios is driven by Republican voters, with more than 1 in 3 agreeing in each case.

Per the poll’s crosstabs, 64% of Republicans “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that businesses should be able to refuse services for same-sex marriages.

For Democrats, the number is 19%.

Around 40% of Republicans also say that businesses should be able to refuse services for interracial marriages and interfaith marriages.

For Democrats, that number is 15%.

Asked about baby showers for unwed mothers, 35% of Republicans says businesses should be able to refuse to provide services.

For Democrats, that number is 14%.

Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,290 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents from June 30 to July 2, 2023. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

LA BLADE STAFF

Leqembi

(Photo courtesy of Eisai and Biogen pharmaceutical)

Experts weigh in on what’s next after 303 Creative ruling Sources find reasons to be apprehensive but also hopeful

By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, three experts connected with the Washington Blade to share their analysis of the case and expectations for what may come after the fallout.

James Dale was the named plaintiff in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, a case challenging the organization’s policy of excluding homosexuals from its membership that was decided by the Supreme Court in 2000. The majority opinion in 303 Creative, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the Court’s five other conservative justices, cited Dale’s case dozens of times.

Beth Littrell is the Southern Poverty Law Center’s senior attorney, having previously worked on litigation teams at Lambda Legal and the ACLU, including on a case that Justice Sonia Sotomayor highlighted in her widely read dissenting opinion in the 303 Creative case.

Christopher Cooper is a civil rights attorney who serves as director of legal affairs and legislative initiatives at the Rainbow Youth Project, having previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

All objected to Friday’s ruling that plaintiff Lori Smith may on First Amendment grounds refuse to provide services requested in connection with same-sex weddings, notwithstanding Colorado’s law prohibiting businesses from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The sources fear future cases will seek to widen the aperture for the types of businesses that may claim similar exemptions on the basis of their proprietors’ faith beliefs.

While unsurprising given the Court’s conservative supermajority, Littrell said the decision was nevertheless “a kick in the teeth.”

“Public accommodation laws play such a critical role in ensuring that vulnerable populations have access to the marketplace,” she said, adding that they are “only a small part way of getting the country to some modicum of equal justice, equality, for vulnerable populations.”

The majority opinion in 303 Creative takes pains to distinguish some services provided by Smith’s business as constituting original works of artistic expression, but when it comes to the applicability of its ruling, Littrell said the Court did not make “that distinction very clear.”

“And more than that,” she said, “I don’t know that there is a distinction here.”

“The way public accommodation laws generally work is there is no distinction — that you open your doors, and where there are anti-discrimination laws, you have to abide by them,” Littrell said.

With this majority opinion, the conservatives have “basically said that you have a constitutional right to discriminate if you’re doing anything” that constitutes “artistic or other expression,” Cooper said.

The ruling will be followed by “a lot of litigation,” he added.

Littrell said she has “some realistic fears that it’s opening the door — that [businesses] that offer pure speech will be the first shoe to fall and that there will be cases to follow” as well as instances in which firms discriminate against or otherwise turn away customers “under the justification that there’s either some expressive elements to the services that are being requested or other individual liberties that are protected by the Constitution.”

“I have no doubt that conservatives and people who want to be able to discriminate against those they disagree with, or people they don’t want to associate with, will attempt to push the boundaries” of the ruling, Littrell said.

“If we crack the door on allowing discrimination of any type against any protected class of people,” Cooper warned, “someone will open the door wide open.”

“Many religious groups do not believe in inter-racial, inter-faith, or even divorcee marriages,” he said, “And keep in mind that any moral or ethical belief about what is ‘right and wrong’ that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views may meet the definition of a sincerely held religious belief.

The three sources also noted unresolved questions around whether the plaintiff suffered legally cognizable injury or received even one request to render services that would constitute speech about same-sex marriage with which she disagrees.

Smith was represented by the right-wing impact litigation group Alliance Defending Freedom, which is deemed an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“I always thought the Supreme Court took cases based on real facts and real people, not ones that a right wing group like the Alliance Defending Freedom creates out of thin air to justify future discrimination,” said Dale.

Anti-LGBTQ forces on the right, whether they endeavor to pass hateful bills in the legislatures or create them with the courts, have been known to rely on “myths and misconceptions” and have demonstrated they will “stoop to ginning up a case,” Littrell said.

“You know,” Cooper said, Gorsuch tells Justice Sotomayor “‘You’re imagining things and creating scenarios that this does not cover,’” but at the same time, his majority opinion is “basically base[d]” on “a scenario that may or may not have happened.”

Reporting in the New Republic has cast doubt on the veracity of a document filed by Smith and her counsel, ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner, that purports to show a request filed by a prospective client for services from 303 Creative in connection with a same-sex wedding.

“I’m hopeful that we’re marching in the right direction, that there’s some swings in the pendulum — and we’re certainly experiencing some backsliding — but that in the end this decision will be cabined in some way,” Littrell said. Sotomayor’s powerful dissent notes that with 303 Creative, “a business open to the public” has been granted “a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a pro-

tected class” for the first time in the Court’s history. She detailed some of the ways in which LGBTQ people have been harmed by the sting of discrimination over the years, including with an anecdote from a real case filed in 2017.

“Imagine a funeral home in rural Mississippi agrees to transport and cremate the body of an elderly man who has passed away, and to host a memorial lunch,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, but “Upon learning that the man’s surviving spouse is also a man, however, the funeral home refuses to deal with the family.”

“Grief stricken, and now isolated and humiliated, the family desperately searches for another funeral home that will take the body,” she wrote. “They eventually find one more than 70 miles away. This ostracism, this otherness, is among the most distressing feelings that can be felt by our social species.”

Littrell, who brought that case against the funeral home when practicing at Lambda Legal, said it was remarkable to see the Supreme Court, with a “strong and powerful, big picture” dissenting opinion, “identify a case that was a fight worth fighting.”

Sotomayor had signaled “That was a story worth telling,” Littrell said, “Even though in the end, you know, we didn’t get a precedent out of the case,” which was settled.

Referring to 303 Creative, she said, “As we lose cases that feel so devastating,” it is important to remember “sometimes you lose forward” because they can usher in a change in the tide of public opinion.

Dale said his case followed a similar trajectory. As a young Scoutmaster, he had spoken at a conference about the importance of educators mentoring LGBTQ teens, which, when it appeared in the newspaper, prompted leadership to instruct Dale to cut all ties with the Scouts.

“By five-four decision, the conservative majority on the court gave the Boy Scouts a First Amendment shield, protecting them from New Jersey’s gay rights law, which is kind of what we see going on here,” Dale told the Blade.

While the Scouts won, Dale said it was a “Pyrrhic victory.”

“Ultimately, over the course of, you know, 10, 15 years, the Boy Scouts lost a colossal amount of membership,” he said. “They lost money, they lost funders, they lost the public support and goodwill that essentially made them the Boy Scouts of America.”

“As a result of their victory in the Supreme Court, they had that devastating backlash,” Dale said.

“The takeaway I have now, as we had this kind of narrow defeat in the Supreme Court with this [303] Creative decision: the Supreme Court isn’t the final say,” Dale said.

“That’s not where it ends. It ends with the people and ends with the American public and convincing our families our neighbors our bosses, the people that surround us about why this is wrong.”

“The loss that I experienced was a catalyst for something wonderful,” Dale said. “It was a catalyst for making people speak out and stand up for what they believe in” — putting everyone on the record about where they stand when it comes to anti-LGBTQ discrimination.”

United States Supreme Court (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Trans woman remains in prison two years after protesting in Cuba

A transgender woman with HIV who participated in an anti-government protest in Cuba on July 11, 2021, remains in prison two years later.

Authorities arrested Brenda Díaz in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province.

The Güira de Melena protest was one of dozens against the Cuban government that took place across the country July 11, 2021. Díaz is among the hundreds of people who were arrested during the demonstrations.

A Havana court last year sentenced García to 14 years in prison. She appealed her sentence, but Cuba’s People’s Supreme Court upheld it.

Yoan de la Cruz, who is gay, used Facebook Live to livestream the first July 11 protest that took place in San Antonio de los Baños in Artemisa province. The same Havana court that sentenced Díaz condemned De La Cruz to six years in prison, but he was released in May 2022 and placed under house arrest

for five years.

Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who directs the country’s National Center for Sexual Education, earlier this year during an interview with Agencia EFE dismissed reports that Díaz continues to suffer mistreatment in prison. The U.S. State Department has repeatedly urged Cuban authorities to release Díaz and others who participated in the July 11 protests.

“Today, we mark two years since tens of thousands of Cubans across the entire island raised their voices for their fundamental freedoms,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday in a statement. “The United States stands in solidarity with those in Cuba who continue to desire a free democracy where their voices are heard, their businesses prosper and their children can achieve a brighter future.”

“The world will not forget those who bravely made their

voices heard in the face of extreme repression, including the more than 700 individuals who remain in Cuban jails, condemned to prison sentences ranging up to 25 years for exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” added Blinken.

Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is among the American lawmakers who also acknowledged the second anniversary of the July 11 protests.

“Two years ago today Cubans marched to demand their freedom,” said the Florida Democrat in a tweet. “Those calls cannot go unanswered. We must stand strong against the regime until they free political prisoners and respect human rights.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican presidential candidate who is of Cuban descent, in a tweet noted the “largest protest for freedom in Cuba began two years ago today.” Suarez also said the Biden administration “ignored their pleas for help.”

“As president, I would have a message to the oppressors of Cuba — freedom is coming,” tweeted Suarez.

MICHAEL K. LAVERS

Indian wedding industry preps for marriage ruling

Colorful lights, dance, music, food and lots of guests: Welcome to the Indian wedding.

India, a country of 1.4 billion people, has one of the world’s most ancient cultures and traditions. The country celebrates its festivals and culture in different styles and weddings are no different. In India, a wedding is not only the union of two people, but two families coming together to form a new bond. The country’s wedding industry is worth $210 billion a year.

The Indian wedding industry is continuously expanding and sees a promising opportunity if the country’s Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples.

According to the 2012 Census, 2.5 million LGBTQ people live in the country, and awareness of it in society is also increasing. The Indian wedding fashion industry is also booming — it is worth $50 billion — and the market would skyrocket in no time if marriage equality comes to the country.

“Like any other industry, the Indian wedding planning industry quickly catches on to trends and opportunities,” said Vishaal S. Shah, a founding partner of Purple Chariot, an event management and wedding planning company in India. “Very soon, we will see two types of planners in the industry — those who have no emotional investment in this topic and are just here to cash in on the opportunity and, on the other end of the spectrum would be planners who see this as a beautiful space to create magic between a couple who have struggled to get legitimacy to their relationship by the state. In the long run, when the dust settles, planners who are either LGBTQ-owned or understand the sensibilities of the LGBTQ community will emerge as authentic service providers beyond the contract, targets and numbers.”

While talking with the Washington Blade, Shah also said that no LGBTQ couple has approached him for their

wedding planning yet. His company, Purple Chariot, has a strong desire to help LGBTQ couples plan their wedding and create memories and emotions, which he does for straight wedding couples.

just look at them as a business.

Dutee Chand, an Indian professional sprinter and athlete, in December 2022 posted a heartwarming picture on Twitter and announced her marriage with her girlfriend Monalisa. Although guest details are not available, the picture showed an average Indian wedding celebration.

She is the first openly gay athlete in India.

While talking with the Blade, Ankit Rao, founder of ANR Weddings and Events, an Indian wedding planning company, said LGBTQ weddings are happening, and it’s a welcome move.

“We are happy to help them out with wedding planning,” said Rao. “Not just because of commercial angle, we see it like every wedding. People would get married whether with opposite or same sex.”

Ankit also said that his company and team would help LGBTQ couples in every way possible. But Rao also mentioned that he is yet to be approached for LGBTQ weddings. ANR Weddings and Events is one of India’s top event and wedding planning companies, and the company has been gearing up for LGBTQ wedding planning as well.

“We have a vibrant circle of friends who are from the LGBTQ community,” said Shah. “While there might be surface-level differences between a straight couple’s wedding and an LGBTQ wedding, the underlying need to feel special and make everyone involved in the love that the couple experience is something common across all kinds of relationships. And this is precisely what we strive to achieve in any wedding we execute at Purple Chariot.”

Although Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality is pending, Shah said a positive decision would open an opportunity for the Indian wedding industry. He cautioned there would be a few big LGBTQ weddings and more intimate weddings with between 50 and 150 guests. Properties, service providers, and the entire ecosystem will have to sensitize themselves to these new opportunities and not

The Supreme Court in 2018 decriminalized homosexuality, but same-sex marriage remains illegal.

The Supreme Court on April 18 began hearing arguments on petitions for marriage equality. The Blade extensively covered the deliberations. The marriage equality ruling is still pending, and the LGBTQ community is quite hopeful for a favorable verdict.

“Depending on which way the judgement goes, because we cannot be part of something that is not legal, if the Supreme Court rules for it and says it will make the law, then we will be very happy to do these weddings,” said Vithika Agarwal, founder of Divya Vithika Wedding Planners. “We have not given it a thought yet until it actually happens, so I have no idea about the potential market for it.”

ANKUSH KUMAR

BRENDA DÍAZ (Photo courtesy of Ana María García Calderín/Tremenda Nota)

VISHAAL S. SHAH (Photo courtesy of Shah)

JAMES PATTERSON

is

Remembering founder of Federal GLOBE, Dr. Len Hirsch

sionals. He nodded in agreement. He said many federal agencies were “sick.”

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It was my interest in Len’s Federal Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual (GLB) Employees, a government-wide organization representing GLB federal employees with chapters at many agencies, that brought me to meet Len at the Smithsonian in 1992. (Transgender employees were not initially included.) I was an economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA is located across Independence Avenue from the Smithsonian. I told Len I wanted to join the Federal GLOBE.

I related to Len that I had seen federal managers insult and ridicule GLB colleagues in government meetings and in the hallways of government buildings. Colleagues with AIDS were shunned as well as ridiculed. I shared my concerns with Len about how this GLB abuse and harassment created an unhealthy workplace for all personnel. He shared studies and statistics to support my concerns.

Len grew up in the New York borough of Queens. I was raised in Alabama. My dad, a Korean vet, served with Alabama’s Army National Guard from 1962 to 1967. President John F. Kennedy federalized my dad’s Guard Unit for the integration of the University of Alabama in 1963. Then-Gov. George C. Wallace defied Kennedy by physically barring the doors to the university’s registration office to prevent African-American students from entering. He moved aside by order from the National Guard.

In March 1965, President Lyndon Johnson federalized Alabama’s National Guard for “as long as necessary” for Nobel Peace Prize-recipient Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and hundreds of marchers to complete the third Selma to Montgomery march. These two historic social justice events had a major influence on my life.

During my youth, I saw Black Americans insulted and ridiculed when they were in white-owned stores and on city streets. I never saw “Whites Only” signs at stores. It seemed that white business owners wanted Black customers so they could insult and ridicule them while profiting from them. It was a demented form of entertainment.

In Washington, I saw federal managers insult and ridicule their GLB colleagues. I also witnessed management laugh whenever a gay colleague’s name was mentioned. It seemed to me another demented form of entertainment, but this time in my federal workplace.

I told Len, whom I always called Dr. Hirsch, that my USDA workplace was sick with discrimination and harassment of GLB profes-

Dr. Hirsh told me that Federal GLOBE worked to change the federal workplace and prevent employment discrimination against GLB workers. I joined GLOBE to help in this much-needed work of ridding the federal workplace of discrimination based on sexual orientation. I eventually held a leadership role with GLOBE.

Meeting and working with Dr. Hirsch was one of the great experiences of my federal career. He understood that discrimination against GLB workers created hostile and unproductive workplaces. He had strategies for improving all federal agencies by organizing GLB federal employees to change discriminatory personnel policies. Dr. Hirsch was a brilliant man.

I spent many hours at Len’s office and at his residence working on GLOBE. He had a big office in his Dupont Circle residence that he shared with his partner, Kristian.

Dr. Hirsch’s federal accomplishments were many. He also made huge strides in working to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive federal workplace for GLB employees.

Federal GLOBE had a tense situation in July 1994 when thenSen. Jesse Helms attacked me in a Senate speech. I had given a speech at a Crystal City conference that enraged Helms. Helms’s hate speech where he called me and my GLB federal colleagues “perverts” is captured on C-SPAN and in the pages of The Congressional Record for the Senate, July 19, 1994.

After 1995, my career and relationships took me on different paths. I left the Washington area. I corresponded with Dr. Hirsch on LGBT issues.

The last time I saw Dr. Hirsch was at the May 2014 White House ceremony for the unveiling of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service. I noticed him as I walked past him seated in the audience.  His appearance had changed over 20 years.

When I greeted him, Dr. Hirsch grimaced as he rose from his seat. He explained he had a back injury. We talked about old times and old battles working to end discrimination against GLB federal workers.

At the time of our meeting, I was working in San Francisco. I told Dr. Hirsch I was scheduled to return to Washington. We looked forward to renewing our friendship.

I returned to Washington, D.C. in late 2015. Dr. Hirsch died during Pride month of that year. While we never got to renew our friendship, I have great memories of our work together. I would have never met Dr. Hirsch had it not been for our common interest in fighting discrimination against federal workers. I am forever grateful to have worked with Dr. Len Hirsch. Rest in Pride, Dr. Hirsch!

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PETER ROSENSTEIN

is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

Is being LGBTQ enough to earn your vote?

We need to know in detail what a candidate will do if elected

My answer to the question: “Is being LGBTQ enough to earn your vote?” is no. It’s the same answer I would give on whether just being Generation X, a millennial, a woman, or other minority, is enough to get my vote. We need to know in detail what a candidate stands for, what they have done prior to running for the office they are seeking, and what they will do better than their opponents. I often ask a candidate looking for my support, “What are the first three bills you will introduce if you win?” Then I ask what they think they can accomplish better than their opponents. Voters should look at the entire field to decide who gets their vote.

I am talking about a Democratic primary. In the general election, any Democrat is better than today’s Republicans. Ranked choice voting, which I oppose, can also complicate your choices.

Once I know a candidate’s record of accomplishments, and thoughts on issues of importance to me, I then compare that to their opponent’s record and thoughts. Too often today candidates run without telling us what they will do once elected. As a policy wonk I want to know this prior to endorsing someone. I do recognize for many voters, it doesn’t matter.

I remember when Barney Frank once used this quote speaking to the LGBTQ community, “If we aren’t at the table we will be on the menu.” In some ways, and in some situations, that is still true. In others, we have moved beyond that. In the United States Congress today, there are 13 members of the LGBTQ community, 11 in the House and two in the Senate. There are approximately 200 members of the Equality Caucus representing members who support the LGBTQ community. On June 21, 2023, they reintroduced the Equality Act, first introduced by Congresswoman Bella S. Abzug (D-N.Y.), who I worked for, in 1974. She was one of the leading allies fighting for then LGBT rights. I am not convinced one more member of the LGBTQ community in Congress would make a difference.

In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries we had a very smart openly gay

candidate, Pete Buttigieg. While I didn’t think he was ready to be president, I cochaired fundraisers for him fervently believing he represented the community well, and needed to be heard. I differentiated wanting him to be heard, and voting for him. Thankfully, we have some great organizations, like Victory Fund, whose mission is to both endorse, and raise funds, for LGBTQ candidates. While I strongly support their work, I don’t necessarily support each candidate they endorse. In today’s complex world I need to know more before I endorse a candidate.

Because we have in many ways moved the needle forward, despite some recent court decisions, there can be Democratic primaries today where an LGBTQ candidate is running against another LGBTQ candidate, or an African American, a Latino, an Asian, a person with a disability, or a woman. We know each community may have a stake in electing their person. So as informed voters, we need to move beyond ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or sexual identity, to determine whom we will support.

We need to look at records and platforms. For me, a gay man, if all candidates support the Equality Act, full inclusion, and the full panoply of the LGBTQ community’s rights, along with having a record of speaking out on these issues, I will look at all of them equally. I want to know where they are on climate change, education, public safety, immigration, and a host of other issues that will make a difference in our world. If they are running for national office today, what do they think about support for Ukraine, and their views on our military readiness? At all levels of government what are their positions on voting rights, and a woman’s right to choose? Do they believe in, and will they stand up for, the separation of church and state? Others may make their decisions on a different set of issues. So, deciding whom to vote for today is complicated. I will endorse and vote for the person I think can make the most progress on the issues I care about.

Doc captures taste of ‘Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of American Popular Music’

A stirring look at a signature work by a brilliant queer artist

If the name Taylor Mac is unknown to you, it might conjure images of some hard-edged pop diva, known for a tell-it-like-it-is fi erceness and a willingness to dive into their personal life for material – and in truth, you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

Mac, who conceived, wrote and performed the epic performance event at the center of HBO’s eponymous documentary “Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of American Popular Music,” is admittedly hard to classify precisely, though one could use any number of labels – actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, singer-songwriter – to describe what Mac does. Just as easily, one could invoke his numerous honors and accolades – winner of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, Pulitzer Prize fi nalist, Tony nominee – to get across how well he does what he does. In actuality, none of those clunky, generalized designations convey who Mac is, and his milieu could more aptly be understood as a blend that comes together, as needed, to create something greater – or at least, more provocative – than the sum of its parts.

By JOHN PAUL KING

as in the “24-Decade History” project.

Created in collaboration with musical director Matt Ray over roughly a decade, it was a magnum opus that was performed as intended – as a 24-hour immersive theatrical experience in front of a live audience – only once, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn in 2016. Part performance art, part theatrical extravaganza, part concert, it off ered an alternative take on U.S. history, narrated through music that was popular in American culture since its founding in 1776 to 2016. Built on stunning, powerful musical performances and peppered with surprising and revelatory historical interpretation – as well as comedic banter and form-transcendent audience interaction – it wove a narrative compiled from “between the lines” of commonly-held history, exposing things like the casual bigotry at the heart of many of America’s earliest popular songs and the misogyny and homophobia that has continued to permeate its music until the present day; an hour was dedicated to each decade, with Mac decked out in an elaborate new decade-specifi c costume – designed by longtime collaborator Machine Dazzle and incorporating humorous references to American life in each of the 24 decades covered in the show – for each one; each hour, one of 24 onstage musicians would depart the stage, until Mac, alone and unaccompanied except for a ukulele, was left alone to perform original songs for the fi nal hour. It was an electrifying, “you had to be there” event, a true landmark in American theatre which garnered Mac both the afore-mentioned Tony and Pulitzer nods – but unless you were part of the crowd at St. Ann’s Warehouse for that 24 hour marathon performance, you could never “be there” yourself.

tion the show’s 24-piece orchestra and a host of shockingly cooperative audience members.

Of course, it cannot be considered a substitute for seeing the entire 24-hour production, which was recreated in six-hour segments (footage from some of these were used in the fi lm alongside the material shot during the original production) for a subsequent national tour after the St. Ann’s performance. Even so, it succeeds better than most performance documentaries in capturing the electric energy of a live performance by someone touched with genius, as Mac surely is, which ultimately serves the fi lm’s true purpose by documenting a queer’seye view of history that the heteronormative “mainstream” would prefer to keep buried.

Those who might object to the nuggets of well-researched insight and contemporary interpretation that Mac weaves into the fabric of his performance would likely be among those who fi nd themselves confused by the star’s preferred pronoun – which is “judy” - and not altogether open to the kind of presentation judy uses to get judy’s point across. Nevertheless, the boldness with which Mac infuses judy’s stage persona quickly washes away notions of “inappropriate” or “lewd” to make it clear judy’s intention is simply to howl the truth of judy’s world as loudly as judy ever has, and if some of it makes a few midwestern conservatives clutch their pearls a little tighter, well, that feels like so much the better given Mac’s clearly stated agenda.

Challenging, razor sharp in its observations and commentary about American culture, and deliberately confrontational, Mac’s plays and performances are also rife with absurdity, centering themselves in a comedic, deceptively campy vein as they deconstruct the social attitudes that fuel so much of our contemporary “culture wars.” In no case (to date, at least) have Mac’s gifts been distilled so liberally into the fabric of a live performance

Now, thanks to HBO (and Max, where the documentary is currently streaming for subscribers), you can at least come close. As directed by Rob Epstein and Jeff rey Friedman, who also produced, “Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of American Popular Music,” off ers an opportunity to experience the show in all its subversive, strangely moving glory – or at least, a “Cliff ’s Notes” overview of its highlights – with the kind of up-close-and-personal intimacy that even those who were watching it live did not experience. Intercut with interview footage of Mac, as well as collaborators Ray, Dazzle, stage co-director Niegel Smith, and others, it provides insight into the behind-the-scenes technical choices that were geared to enhance and amplify the show’s themes, but still fi nds plenty of time to document the magnifi cent musical performances by Mac and fellow musicians, such as singers Erin Hill, Steff anie Christi’an, Heather Christian, Thornetta Davis and Anais Mitchell, among others – not to men-

That agenda, as laid down by the gifted Mac early on, is to remind us that our history as Americans is in the history of our songs, and that it’s a history shaped by the underdogs and outsiders who saw a vision for a better world beyond the toxic mindsets and social hierarchies that keep many, if not most, human beings from achieving anything close to the true freedom touted by our nation’s forefathers in its gestational years. “I love the idea that a queer body could become the metaphor for America,” Mac tells the camera (and the live audience), and proceeds to remind us that it’s the sense of community, of shared need, that communicates to us through the musical landscape forged by our national chronology.

Of course, the documentary, which delivers a powerful taste of Mac and company’s charismatic and talented performative skills with songs from “Yankee Doodle” and “My Old Kentucky Home” to “Gimme Shelter” and “Born to Run” – and that’s not a bad thing, either. In any case, it’s a stirring and memorable document of a signature work by one of America’s most brilliant queer artists, which makes it essential viewing as far as we’re concerned.

TAYLOR MAC

(Photo courtesy HBO Max)

‘Leg’ recounts gay man’s experience with cerebral palsy

Author writes candidly about sex life and overcoming obstacles

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

Hop, hop.

You’ve known how to do that for so long, you probably don’t even remember when you learned it. Or was it instinctive? If you were like most kids, your childhood was filled with jumps and hops, bouncing and skipping and climbing, but as in the new book “Leg” by Greg Marshall many kids have hurdles to leap.

From the moment he was born, Greg Marshall was endowed with two things: a right leg with “tight tendons,” that twisted his foot on that side; and certain oversized intimate body parts that his mother was just too eager to mention.

The latter was an eye-rolling embarrassment.

The former was never really a big deal to Marshall. Other than wearing out a lot of sneakers, he walked with a limp, so what?

‘Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It’

By Greg Marshall c.2023, Abrams Press | $26 | 304 pages

He was never bullied much about it, though his siblings teased him in a way that siblings will. He never let it stop him from playing tennis or exploring his Salt Lake City neighborhood. He traveled, appeared in local theater, ran for president of his class, and had an otherwise normal childhood. Still, his leg was something people noticed. He hoped that no one would notice he was gay, but they must’ve: nobody seemed surprised when he came out as a teen.

By then, Marshall’s mother had been fighting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for years with surgeries and various chemotherapies that left her wrung-out and scarred. She was in the midst of another battle when Marshall’s father was diagnosed with ALS, a disease that affected his muscles and that progressed quickly. As the elder Marshall slipped away – the timing of which he decided himself – the family rallied around him, teasing, deflecting, and grieving.

Marshall was in his 20s when that happened, and it highlighted his shaky, barely controlled penchant for hypochondria that he’d had for some time. He worried about his “tight tendons” and cerebral palsy, a diagnosis he’d recently discovered. He fretted about getting AIDS. Most of all, he wondered if he’d ever find someone to love him.

Hoo boy, “Leg” is the kind of book that makes you hyperventilate. On many, very many pages, there’s boisterous, Saturday-morning-cartoon-like, going-in-five-different-directions chaos that might be sibling-based, it might be parental, deeply personal, humorous, relational, or sexual – and on that note, hoo boy, there are some wildly messy and explicit pages to find here. Author Greg Marshall writes candidly about his sex life, doors wide open, sometimes literally.

Ah, but he also writes about the kind of love that’s wrapped in a scrap of fleece and handled carefully, the kind that feels like it might blow away if you’re not careful. That’s a delicate thing in the midst of a madcap tale of a limb and the gay man attached to it, and it’s sneaky, too: you’ll be looking every-which-way at Marshall’s life and boom! Tears.

Give yourself some time with this book, and breathe deep. Most readers will find it chaotic but thoroughly enjoyable for beach read, airport, or a staycation. Don’t skip “Leg” or you’ll kick yourself.

USWNT superstar Rapinoe announces retirement from soccer

SEATTLE — Out lesbian activist, anti-racist, transgender ally and two-time World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe announced on Instagram Saturday that this championship season will be her last.

“It is with a deep sense of peace and gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game,” Rapinoe wrote, in a post that featured a photo of the 38-year-old when the Redding, Calif. native was a little girl. “I never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape and change my life forever, but by the look on this little girl’s face, I think she knew all along.”

“Congrats, baby!!” wrote Rapinoe’s fiancée, former WNBA star and Olympic Gold Medalist Sue Bird, on her Instagram post. “That little girl is going to continue to do so much good in this world (but she sure did kill it on the field). I love you!”

Bird told an interviewer last year if it were up to her, she would have married Rapinoe in 2021, but that most likely they won’t tie the knot until after this season.

Rapinoe met Bird at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and reportedly started dating that fall, but Bird didn’t come out as gay until July 2017, as the Blade reported. The following summer, Bird and Rapinoe became the first same-sex couple in ESPN’s The Body Issue. In 2019, Rapinoe posed for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, becoming that iconic magazine’s first out gay woman to do so. Last year, President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom

“I want to thank my family for being by my side all these years. Thanks to all my teammates and coaches all the way back to my first days in Redding, on to college at the University of Portland and of course thanks to U.S. Soccer, the Seattle Reign and especially Sue, for everything,” said

Rapinoe in a statement posted online by U.S. Soccer. The organization hailed Rapinoe for “her amazing talents on the field, her creative goal scoring, her clutch performances in some of the biggest matches of her career,” and for her social justice work off the pitch, from LGBTQ+ rights to racial inequality, voter rights and gender and pay equity. “She leaves the game as one of the most impactful figures in the history of soccer in the United States and in the global women’s game.”

Rapinoe, one of Time Magazine’s 2023 Women of the Year honorees, was the first white athlete and the first woman to kneel during the National Anthem to show her solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick.

“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people,” Rapinoe said in the statement from U.S. Soccer. “I feel incredibly grateful to

have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it. To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”

She is scheduled to play in her final World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand. After that, Rapinoe is set to complete her historic soccer career in the National Women’s Soccer League and end the 2023 season with her long-time club, OL Reign. Although their last game will be in Chicago against the Red Stars on Oct. 15, the OL Reign announced the team will hold a “Forever Reign” celebration of Rapinoe s career at their last home match at Lumen Field on Oct. 6 against the Washington Spirit.

“I will forever cherish the friendships and support over the years in this game,” she said, “and I am beyond excited for one last ride with the National Team and the Reign.”

Rapinoe has been a longtime advocate for transgender athletes, and just this week defended trans inclusion in sports in an interview with LinkedIn News: “I think a lot of athletes feel the same, they would give up any sort of championship so that a kid doesn’t feel like they don’t belong in the world.”

“You’ve given so much not only to soccer but to sports and the world beyond,” wrote trans trailblazer and author Schuyler Bailar in a comment on Rapinoe’s Instagram post.  “Thank you for all that you are and all that you’ve done.”

“So proud of you!” wrote USWNT teammate Ali Krieger of the NJ/NY Gotham FC, who announced in March that she, too, is retiring at the end of the season. “Most important, you’re an incredible human and friend.”

DAWN ENNIS

Former NBA star: LGBTQ+ the most unfair group walking the planet

CHATSWORTH, CALIF. — Retired pro basketball star Gilbert Arenas told an interviewer he believes the LGBTQ+ community is “the most unfair group walking the planet right now,” and when it comes to pronouns, “You’re making it up as we go.”

The three-time NBA All-Star talked with VladTV about transgender inclusion in sports, public  accommodations as well as what he sees as the weaponization of words, cancel culture and racism.

“I think it’s the most unfair group walking the planet right now. They have a playbook that only they’re playing by. No one else gets to see this playbook, but we’re being judged by everything that’s in this playbook,” said Arenas. “But we don’t know it. So, there’s no open dialogue about what is appropriate and what’s not. We only find out after we fuck up. That’s unfair. That’s fucking unfair. You can’t do that. How do I know something’s wrong until you give it to me?”

When asked about pronouns, the former Washington Wizards point guard sounded exasperated.

“Just words, phrases. Like ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘it,’ ‘they’… How do we know? You’re making it up as we go,” he said. “There’s not

like there’s this fucking dictionary of updates, and we can sit there, click it and say, ‘All right I can’t say… they took this out. They added this in.’ We’re just learning, right? That’s really unfair that you can cancel somebody on a playbook that only you have.”

Arenas conceded transgender people are “humans and deserve to be treated well,” and expressed sympathy for trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney regarding the Bud Light controversy.

But when it comes to trans women using the bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity and competing in women’s sports, Arenas said, “you’re creating a situation that’s disproportionate to the size of the group. He complained about “the extra work in order to make that half percent (of the world’s population) feel comfortable.”

Arenas said he believes trans women are “invading space” reserved for women who are not transgender, mistakenly referring to them as “straight women,” who he says ought to have the “say so” in terms of accommodations and inclusion.

“If Kevin Durant wore a wig and started calling himself

female,” Arenas said, confirming he does not understand gender identity, “he couldn’t play for the NBA anymore. He’d have to go play in the WNBA, you would think, and it would be a massacre.”

OL Reign forward MEGAN RAPINOE (Photographic montage and graphics courtesy of the OL Reign)

GILBERT ARENAS (Screenshot/YouTube VLAD TV)

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