Laverne Cox: Full Disclosure

Contents

July 2, 2020

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Volume 27 Issue 8

FOREVER JOEL

The works of the late Joel Schumacher were filled with broad gestures and outré touches. We look at 7 of his essential films.

By André Hereford

FULL DISCLOSURE

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Laverne Cox on the magnificent Netflix documentary Disclosure, the trials of dating, and why she’s (begrudgingly) voting for Joe Biden.

Interview by Randy Shulman Photography by Michael Williams

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CAGED HEAT

El Principe stirs brutal violence and surprising tenderness into an arresting gay prison drama.

By André Hereford

OUT ON THE TOWN p.5 SPOTLIGHT: LIFTING FOR LIFE p.11 DRIVE-THRU DRAMA p.12 THE FEED: CANCEL ORDER p.15 CLAPPED BACK p.16 POLL POSITION p.17 ANGRY ANSWER p.18 LEADING HATE p.19 PREPARING TO LAUNCH p.10 GALLERY: GORDANA GERSKOVIC: TEXTURESCAPES p.30 FILM: THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND p.33 VINTAGE SCENE p.35 LAST WORD p.37 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 26 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Sophia Burset Cover Photography Michael Williams During the pandemic please send all mail to: Metro Weekly PO Box 11559 - Washington, D.C. 20008 • 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2020 Jansi LLC.

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Out On The Town

July 4th Concert Livestream from National Harbor featuring violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Larisa Martinez, and bass Soloman Howard

Everything is Double

Arena Stage’s Artists Marketplace

Compiled by Doug Rule A VIRTUAL CAPITOL FOURTH

Independence Day 2020 will feature the usual bombs bursting in air — aka the national fireworks display — but without the audience oohs and aahs and live symphonic serenade from the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Instead, this year’s star-studded show will go online, while also airing on PBS. John Stamos will share hosting duties with Vanessa Williams for this year’s A Capitol Fourth concert, a 40th anniversary celebration featuring Patti LaBelle, John Fogerty, Renée Fleming, Trace Adkins, Andy Grammar, Yolanda Adams, Brantley Gilbert, Lauren Alaina, The Temptations, Chrissy Metz, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kelli O’Hara, and Mandy Gonzalez, plus Jack Everly leading the National Symphony Orchestra. Saturday, July 4, at 8 p.m. on PBS and also Facebook, YouTube, and the PBS website. Visit www.pbs.org/acapitol-fourth.

Voice Our Future

Potomac Paddle Club

JULY 4TH CONCERT LIVESTREAM FROM NATIONAL HARBOR

The United States Air Force Band will offer another virtual salute to the nation along with a group of star classical soloists presented by Washington Performing Arts. On Saturday, July 4, at 4 p.m., violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Larisa Martinez, and bass Soloman Howard will lead the virtual “A Tribute to the American Spirit,” a special holiday concert centered on “fun, patriotic favorites” and livestreamed from Maryland’s National Harbor. Aaron Gilchrist of NBC4 will host. Visit www.nationalharbor.com/july4.

SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL: BEYOND THE MALL EVENTS

While you won’t find this annual celebration of world culture on the National Mall this year, organizers have programmed a few events online as a kind of COVID-19 consolation prize. The schedule this weekend includes a “Barbecue Across Cultures” conversation between a pitmaster from the United Arab Emirates, and JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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another from Baltimore, as well as the DJ showcase and dance party “HouseWork: Latina DJs Holdin’ It Down.” The weekend draws to a close with “Sisterfire SongTalk,” a concert highlighting the power of music and musicians in the fight for racial and social justice worldwide as organized by Roadwork, a D.C.-based multiracial, queer-inclusive coalition of feminist musicians.

Barbara Dane, Martha Gonzalez, Leyla McCalla, and Amythyst Kiah will join Roadwork emcee Nicole Barden on Sunday, July 5, at 2 p.m. Visit www.festival.si.edu.

EVERYTHING IS DOUBLE

Alexandria’s Athenaeum is one of the first local galleries to reopen with Everything is Double, a display of mixed-media works by Elzbieta Sikorska. Through contrasting and juxtaposing different images, the artist’s works aim chiefly to scrutinize the cultural construct of duality — such as the notion that the “feminine” is the opposite of, and should be separated from, the “masculine.” However, as Sikorska writes in her artist statement, “[such] established divisions are getting murky the more we investigate them.” Furthermore, according to a note from the gallery, “the nuances of her work are best appreciated in person.”

Thus, the stately Greek revival structure in Old Town welcomes contemporary art lovers with the understanding that the venue will be “practicing all safety measures” recommended by local officials, notably by limiting the number of guests allowed inside at all times, along with a request to don face masks. The gallery has taken the additional measure of posting images of Sikorska’s mixed-media works to its website as a virtual alternative. On display during regular gallery hours — Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. — through July 26. 201 Prince St., Alexandria. Call 703-548-0035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

VOICE OUR FUTURE

In partnership with the United Nations Foundation as a way to celebrate the global intergovernmental organization’s 75th anniversary, the innovative technology-driven art entity and gallery ArTecHouse has unveiled a mobile experiential app in which users are encouraged to add their voice and message. With support from Verizon, the Voice Our Future app features three “extended-reality” experiences with augmented and virtual reality components, and is meant to somewhat augment UN75 initiatives seeking to crowdsource activities and priorities to help shape the future. Visit www.artechouse.com to download the free app.

POTOMAC PADDLE CLUB’S BOATING ADVENTURES FOR PRIVATE GROUPS

In need of an afternoon or evening getaway with a group of friends? Why not combine a little exercise — and booze — along with some classic Washington sightseeing? Touted as “the Nation’s Capital’s only passenger pedal boat,” the boats in the Potomac Paddle Club fleet offer a sail down the Potomac unlike any other. While a captain and a deckhand guide and oversee each outing, the company’s small vessels are propelled by a 6-foot paddle wheel powered by passengers who pedal in tandem. They’re currently taking private bookings by reservation only, in groups of up to 12 close friends, relatives, or colleagues that the company calls “Paddle Pods.” Each 90-minute trek starts and ends at the Georgetown Waterfront, with the Columbia Island Marina next to the Pentagon a midway stop. Groups are encouraged to bring their own coolers stocked with beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks. Price ranges from $350 for a Paddle Pod of 8 during the week to $550 for a Paddle Pod of 12 on weekends.

Call 202-656-3336 or visit www.potomacpaddleclub.com.

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TERRENCE MCNALLY: EVERY ACT OF LIFE

Tony-winning divas Chita Rivera and Tyne Daly will honor the life and legacy of Terrence McNally, along with the late playwright’s widower, producer Tom Kirdahy, during a discussion moderated by film critic David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, July 8, at 8 p.m. In addition to the virtual discussion and talkback, both PBS and Amazon Prime are hosting streams of the insightful American Masters documentary Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life. Visit www.everyactoflife. com for more details on how to RSVP for the talkbacks.

ARENA STAGE’S ARTISTS MARKETPLACE

Arena Stage is shining a spotlight on a wide-ranging group of artists who have helped make the company such a powerhouse of regional theater by encouraging theatergoers to support them in an equally wide range of ways. Through the Artists Marketplace, patrons are being given opportunities to commission works as well as songs, performances, sit in on a class or a coaching session, or purchase original artworks. The marketplace will launch with actors Kate Baldwin, Lise Bruneau, Marsha Mason, Nicholas Rodriguez, Dawn Ursula, and Kirsten Wyatt, musician Victor Simonson, designers Paige Hathaway, Ken MacDonald, Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, writer Mary Hall Surface, fight masters and intimacy choreographers David S. Leong and Jenny Male, voice and dialect coaches Lisa Nathans and Zach Campion, and pre-existing work of art from participating artisans and technicians Deborah Lynn Nash and Timothy M. Thompson. Visit www.arenastage.org/artistsmarketplace.

NOAH’S ARC VIRTUAL REUNION SPECIAL

On Sunday, July 5, at 8 p.m., writer/director Patrik-Ian Polk will premiere a new episode of his groundbreaking gay Black TV series Noah’s Arc with this 15th Anniversary Virtual Reunion Special. Noah and his pals find themselves in the midst of COVID-19 and the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Noah’s Arc: The ’Rona Chronicles, which comes 12 years after 2008’s Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom. Streaming from Patrik-Ian Polk Entertainment’s YouTube and Facebook pages, the episode reunites original cast members Darryl Stephens, Jensen Atwood, Rodney Chester, Doug Spearman, Christian Vincent, and Gregory Kieth, who will also take part in a post-show Live Q&A moderated by Karamo Brown of Netflix’s Queer Eye. Casa Ruby, Birmingham AIDS Outreach, G.L.I.T.S., In The Meantime Men’s Group, LGBT Detroit, Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative, and the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center will all benefit from the fundraiser, sponsored by GLAAD and Impulse DC, whose goal is to raise $100,000. Visit www.noahsarcreunion. eventbrite.com for the special.

DISARM HATE: THE FILM

Four years ago, a diverse group of everyday LGBTQ Angelenos were motivated to take on the NRA and to challenge America’s obsession with gun violence in response to the tragedy at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. Filmmaker Julianna Brudek captures their initial foray into activism, which culminated in a cross-country trek to take part in the Disarm Hate Rally organized by Jason P. Hayes on the steps of the Washington Monument two months after Pulse. The documentary, narrative

by Harvey Fierstein, is billed as “a call to action for anyone new to activism, tired of divisive media politics, and ready to get out and make the world a better place.” Available on most streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, FandangoNOW, and Comcast’s InDemand.

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Spotlight

Forever Joel

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Tigerland, Batman Forever and Flawless

The works of the late Joel Schumacher were filled with broad gestures and outré touches.

We look at 7 of his essential films. By André Hereford

ECADES BEFORE HE ADDED NIPPLES TO THE Batsuit, Joel Schumacher was dressing windows at New York’s famed Henri Bendel department store and partying the Pines with Halston. Sex, drugs, and fashion ruled the native New Yorker’s world through the ’60s and into the ’70s, as he careered from window dresser to working as costume designer on several notable films of the era, including Sleeper and Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue. The city was his playground, but Schumacher soon decamped for Hollywood, where he’d amass a list of blockbuster credits as screenwriter, producer, and one of the few out gay directors working at the top of the movie business in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s.

The legendary filmmaker — who succumbed on June 22 to cancer at the age of 80 — leaves a legacy of memorable hits and notorious misses that can be appreciated for more than the visual flair he brought to movies like Flatliners and The Phantom of the Opera. He also cultivated stories about compassionate underdogs and nonconformists across a variety of genres. He nurtured young talent, taking a chance casting future stars Matthew McConaughey and Colin Farrell in their first lead Hollywood roles, A Time to Kill and Tigerland, respectively. And, yes, he’ll be remembered as the director who thought Batman and Robin’s outfits might be improved by molded nipples, buttcheeks, and codpieces.

Schumacher’s cinema was a world of broad gestures and outré touches. Yet, within that world, all were welcome, especially

those who came to play. Minnie Driver, who costarred as Carlotta in Schumacher’s adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom, tweeted upon his death that he “was the funniest, chicest, most hilarious director I ever worked with,” recalling that during production on the musical, he spoke up in her defense when an actress on set complained that Driver’s performance was dreadfully over-the-top. True to his spirit as an impresario of spectacle, “Joel barely looked up from his New York Times and said, ‘Oh, honey, no one ever paid to see under-the-top.’”

What follows is a list of essential Joel Schumacher films, in order of preference, which are available for purchase on various streaming sites, including YouTube, Amazon, VUDU and iTunes.

SPARKLE (1976)

Schumacher hit the ground running in Hollywood as screenwriter of Sparkle, a musical gem about three Black sisters from Harlem chasing singing stardom. According to the film’s producer Howard Rosenman, he and Schumacher met at Fire Island Pines in the summer of ’71, and their shared love of R&B and soul music led them to conceive Sparkle’s dramatic story of a girl-group torn asunder by drugs and ego. After a script

by Lonne Elder, the Oscar-nominated Black screenwriter of Sounder, was rejected, Schumacher tackled the writing himself, with the hope that he would direct. The studio stuck with Schumacher’s version, but insisted that Sam O’Steen direct and that R&B superstar Curtis Mayfield write the music (Rosenman JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Spotlight

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN (1981)

Passed over to direct Sparkle, Schumacher made his feature directing debut replacing another filmmaker, John Landis, at the helm of this quirky, effects-driven comedy starring Lily Tomlin. Hot off the massive success of 9 to 5, Tomlin was cast as suburban housewife Pat Kramer, whose exposure to a variety of household chemicals and products results in her gradually shrinking out of sight. Besides its forward-thinking storyline, the film marked a rare big-screen collaboration between Tomlin and her longtime partner (now wife) Jane Wagner, author of Tomlin’s one-person hit, The Search for Intelligent Signs of Life in the Universe. Marshaling Wagner’s knowing script and a cast that also included Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, and Tomlin’s Laugh-In co-star Henry Gibson, Schumacher turned in a gloriously gaudy satire of American consumerism. The effects don’t entirely hold up — see the lab-kept gorilla Sydney who looks exactly like a guy in a gorilla suit — but the film’s environmentally-conscious message still resonates.

THE LOST BOYS (1987)

In the ’80s, making box office hits often meant matching the onscreen action to a set of marketable songs. The director learned that lesson well with his first zeitgeist-riding hit, St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), which helped cement the popularity of the Brat Pack, and also produced a Billboard #1 song, “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).” A couple of years later, the soundtrack for his teen vampire thriller The Lost Boys did an even better job of providing a sonic backdrop that expressed the characters, atmosphere, and attitude of the movie at hand. The horror and pathos evoked by a California town crawling with murderous bloodsuckers become inextricable from composer Thomas Newman’s eerie carnival score and the movie’s haunting theme song, “Cry Little Sister,” by Gerard McMann. Schumacher matched the music to some of the most suspenseful action he ever put on film. And, who but he would have built a pivotal concert sequence around a beefy, oiled, shirtless singing saxophonist in a leather codpiece and tights?

FLAWLESS (1999)

A fascinating mess, Schumacher’s Flawless arrived on the crest of a wave of mainstream, drag-themed movies, music, and TV. That pop culture moment, boosted by RuPaul’s Supermodel of the World and 1994 Aussie indie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, came loudly crashing to shore with the critical and commercial failure of Flawless. But Schumacher — who wrote, directed, and produced the tale of a drag queen and a cop who form an unlikely bond — never dealt more explicitly with LGBTQ lives than he does with this drama. He almost certainly never conceived a more layered character than the film’s heroine, Rusty, who happens to be trans, played by late Oscarwinner Philip Seymour Hoffman. Surrounded by a bevy of real 10

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NYC drag stars of the day — including Jackie Beat, Joey Arias, Raven-O, and, poignantly, Mona Foot a.k.a. Nashom Wooden, who recently passed away due to coronavirus — Hoffman delivers a raw performance that nearly overcomes the movie’s pronounced flaws (one of which is pronounced “Robert DeNiro”).

Available on HBO Max and Hulu.

3. BATMAN FOREVER (1995) Schumacher didn’t tell an explicitly gay story with his take on the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder, but he definitely brought a queer eye to the Batman franchise. The eye-popping results were not to every fan’s satisfaction, but at least with Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne and Chris O’Donnell as his acrobatic sidekick Dick Grayson, the filmmaker and studio reaped the benefits of a hit, again backed by a smash pop music soundtrack. Schumacher has said that the studio and commercial sponsors, eager to lighten up the Bat-films after the implied kink and black latex of the Tim Burton era, pushed him to make the movies more kid- and toy-friendly. While his first foray into superhero cinema calibrated its mix of playful action and adventure relatively well, Schumacher’s second sequel took a wide wrong turn out of the Bat-cave. Batman & Robin (1997), which swapped out Kilmer for George Clooney, and added Arnold Schwarzenegger as pun-happy villain Mr. Freeze, is deliriously bad on a level that Schumacher even took time once to apologize for publicly. Although, he need not have apologized for adding winking subtext, and those infamous nipples, to his portrayal of the swinging billionaire and his ward.

2. COUSINS (1989) The year 1989 was an especially good one for movies, with releases from Glory, Heathers, and Do the Right Thing to The War of the Roses and Sex, Lies, & Videotape — not to mention all-time blockbusters like Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — hogging headlines and awards. Consequently, Schumacher’s splendid romantic comedy Cousins, a remake of French classic Cousin Cousine, was easily overlooked at the time by both audiences and critics, save for Siskel & Ebert who gave the film two thumbs up. Starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini as two strangers, related by marriage, who believe their spouses are having an affair, the movie is worth a fresh look. Beautifully scripted and shot, and featuring a heart-tugging love theme by composer Angelo Badalamenti, Cousins might be Schumacher’s most uncharacteristically reserved film, a sweet, delightfully ’80s paean to forbidden romance.

1. TIGERLAND (2000) There’s plenty of shooting, shouting, smoking, and fighting in Tigerland, Schumacher’s superb portrait of soldiers of war before they get sent to combat. However, the film, about U.S. Army recruits in 1971 training for battle in Vietnam, is most gripping in its quiet moments that question the purpose and morality of carving killers out of malleable young men. In his first starring role, Colin Farrell leads a terrific cast playing renegade Private Roland Bozz, who’s trying with all his might to get tossed out of the military before he gets shipped to ’Nam. Responding to a racist instructor (Michael Shannon, in an early role), who’s just shown the recruits where best to attach live electrodes for interrogating an enemy combatant, Bozz asks, “Why would I wanna do that to another human being?” Against a backdrop of chaos and violence, Schumacher draws a hero of uncommon warmth and sensitivity, who may not follow the rules, but is unyielding in standing up for his comrades and his convictions.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ALDEN

wanted Ashford & Simpson). The songs still bop, so they were right about the music. The performances by newcomers Irene Cara and Philip Michael Thomas, and particularly Lonette McKee as strung-out diva Sister, still sparkle. And Schumacher’s screenplay, written at a time in his life marked by his own substance abuse and recovery, captures in Sister’s downfall the dark stubbornness of addiction. Over the next few years, he’d write two other films also regarded as cult classics of Black cinema — Car Wash (1976) and the screen adaptation of stage hit The Wiz (1978) — and bookend the era writing and directing the Cara and Mr. T vehicle, D.C. Cab (1983).

JOHN FALOCCO

Spotlight

Lifting for Life

Fitness model and former Playgirl centerfold Anthony Catanzaro on his sizzling book Heat and life-changing health battle.

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HEN ANTHONY CATANZARO WAS EIGHTEEN, So I spend most of my day waiting for my meds to kick in, and I a photographer spotted him working at a paneling take medication every two hours, around the clock, seven days a and flooring store and invited him to test for a shoot. week, 365 days a year. You battle it nonstop.”

Yet, the 49-year-old Catanzaro, with wife Tina by his side, “I always wanted to be on the cover of a magazine,” Catanzaro recalls. “So I went for a couple of test shots and I got the job. has remained fit for battle. Remarkably, he’s kept up his diet and Then I quit my job in the paneling store and I just started fitness regimen, working out in his home gym studio in Queens.

In 2020, Catanzaro released his first solo beefcake calendar, modeling.”

Catanzaro proceeded to build a successful career as a model, featuring shots representing some of the best of his years-long trainer, and exotic dancer from hard work, discipline, and his collaboration with photographer John Falocco. Now, Catanzaro exceptional physique. Creating a body of work that highlighted and Falocco have extended their creative collaboration with the his statuesque proportions, Catanzaro, hailed as “The Superman publication of Heat, a coffee table book comprising 165 pages of of Fitness,” pumped and posed his way to a slew of magazine Falocco’s finest shots of Catanzaro’s chiseled body. The photos covers, bodybuilding titles, and TV appearances on shows from are accompanied by inspirational text and poetry written by the model. “I don't know what life's going to bring to me from one Sex and the City to The Wendy Williams Show.

He was on-set for a live daytime TV appearance, waiting to day to the next,” he says. “And I wanted people to know what burst out of a birthday cake for Betty White, when he first felt was in my mind and what's in my heart before it's too late.”

Catanzaro notes with excitement that he and Falocco also his famously fit frame seized by a force beyond his control. Two years later, he was diagnosed with early-onset are publishing a 2021 calendar, Victory. And, despite facing tremendous challenges, he’s still Parkinson’s disease. And since, he says, “My Click Here to pushing himself in the gym every day. “I never entire life has changed.”

Purchase “Heat” had a day when I woke up and said, ‘I really As with many Parkinson’s patients, for Catanzaro leading any semblance of an active life depends on don't want to go to the gym. I don't really feel like working out constant doses of the medication L-DOPA. “After an hour or so today,’ because I enjoy it so much that I can't envision saying I the meds actually wear off,” he says. “So when they wear off, I don't want to do it. It's kind of like sex, you know? Why would can't even comb my own hair. I can't shower, can't do anything. you say ‘I just don't want to have sex’?” —André Hereford Heat is available at www.tonycatanzaro.com, and comes with a personally autographed 12x18 poster.

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Spotlight

Drive-Thru Drama

Northern Virginia’s Alden Theatre test drives a new way to present a play.

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ANIELLE VAN HOOK HAS BEEN LESS THAN SATIS- parking lot, in and out of people's lives. And you're getting 10 fied with Zoom. “I just kept having this feeling like there different perspectives on what that dollar bill does to them.”

Zimmer and Van Hook have been intent in following proper had to be something else,” says the program director at Virginia’s Alden Theatre. “There had to be some other way that distancing and safety guidelines from the get-go, with the result we can make theater during the time of a pandemic that didn't an all-virtual approach to casting, developing, and general planning — using Instagram for auditions and Zoom for callbacks, involve Zoom or videoconferencing, or a screen in general.”

Van Hook found a kindred spirit in playwright Andrew Scott individual rehearsals, and initial staging and design. Only over Zimmer. “It’s such a defining aspect of theater: the immediacy the past week or so have things progressed to the parking lot of of it,” Zimmer says. “It's just the energy of people existing...near the McLean Community Center, where theatergoers will drive you, telling a story. That was what I was missing, from all of from actor to actor on a set route, at set intervals.

Intended for a general, all-ages audience — and not develthese other [Zoom] plays. And that's what I'm really excited to oped as a youth-oriented production — Small Change should give to people who feel like they're missing that as well.”

Zimmer’s play, Small Change, debuts this weekend as part register as more intimate and personal than the typical staged of the Alden’s new “Drive-Thru Drama” program. Van Hook work. On any given night, upwards of 100 theatergoers could see was inspired by the old European tradition of actors on pageant the work — yet at all times, three’s a crowd, so to speak. “You wagons traveling from town to town, audience to audience. rarely, if ever, go and see a show where you're one of three peoWhat if, she thought, they flipped the concept so that “the audi- ple in the audience, where it's like they are doing it just for you,” Van Hook says. ence drives from actor to actor, and the actors Click Here stay put and are able to stay socially distant?”

Both Zimmer and Van Hook hope to get the Zimmer then constructed a play on that premchance to expand on the drive-thru concept for More Info they’ve created with Small Change — which ise. “If we can't do the traditional actors talking to each other in close quarters,” he thought, “what if we put 10 Zimmer acknowledges is a short one-act. “We're seeing whether different people around the parking lot in different spots, all people can experience theater in this way,” he says, “just in their telling the same story? I just needed something to link those 10 car, where their window becomes essentially the proscenium. stories to give it a through-line.”

“I thought this would be simple enough to write and stage, Ultimately, he settled on the journey of a dollar bill. “So [so] that we could really see if this idea has legs — or wheels, if you're following the life of a dollar bill essentially around the you will.” —Doug Rule Small Change opens Friday, July 3, and runs this weekend and next, closing on Sunday, July 11. It’s staged in the parking lot of 1234 Ingleside Ave. in McLean. Tickets are $10 per vehicle and available in 15-minute intervals from 6 to 8 p.m. each night.

Call 571-296-8385 or visit www.aldentheatre.org.

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SOUNDER BRUCE

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Cancel Order

Amazon Spheres

Conservatives fume after Amazon removes anti-gay Family Research Council from its charitable giving program. By John Riley

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NTERNATIONAL ONLINE SHIPPING GIANT AMAZON. com has banned the Family Research Council from its AmazonSmile program based on its classification as an antiLGBTQ “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The move has enraged social conservatives who hold anti-LGBTQ views regarding sexuality, marriage, and gender, who argue that the SPLC’s label is erroneous and defamatory, and that the expulsion of FRC from the charitable giving program demonstrates a deep-seated bias against religious conservatives due to their particular beliefs.

According to SPLC, Family Research Council has a long history of fighting LGBTQ equality, including opposing marriage equality, LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime laws, anti-bullying programs, and the military’s repeal of its anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Its president, Tony Perkins, has close ties to President Donald Trump and a long history of anti-LGBTQ statements and sentiments, including last year arguing that decriminalizing homosexuality was a “mistake.” He has also called for the impeachment of former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for authoring the Obergefell decision legalizing same-

sex marriage, advocated for conversion therapy, and compared LGBTQ advocates to terrorists.

Perkins has also derided transgender-inclusive restroom policies adopted by businesses like Target, has compared the fate of Christians living in a society where LGBTQ rights are respected to the plight of Jews during the Holocaust, and insists that pedophilia is “a homosexual problem.”

In addition, he has used his position at FRC to promote laws restricting LGBTQ adoption, oppose the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and advocate for Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” law that doles out punishments for homosexuality.

Under the AmazonSmile program, started in 2013, customers can select a nonprofit charitable organization to receive a small percentage of their Amazon purchases.

In 2017, Amazon banned D. James Kennedy Ministries from participating in the AmazonSmile program, prompting the organization to file a defamation lawsuit against Amazon and the SPLC. That lawsuit was later dismissed.

In 2018, the program removed Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing legal organization that has challenged several JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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LGBTQ-friendly laws and policies in various states, based on the SPLC’s classification of ADF as a “hate group.”

“The SPLC has labeled some of the mainstream conservative organizations it disagrees with as ‘hate groups’ and publishes their names in a directory alongside real hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis,” Kay James, the president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Times. “The people at the SPLC certainly have a right to disagree with these groups’ policy positions; but it’s unconscionable that they would label decent people as hateful and consider them on equal footing with neo-Nazis and the Klan.

“It’s also unconscionable that Amazon would legitimize the SPLC’s list. In doing so, Amazon is telling millions of its customers who share the same traditional Christian or conservative beliefs that they are hateful, too,” James added.

Critics of the SPLC have noted that the Family Research Council was targeted in 2012 by Virginia resident Floyd Lee Corkins II, who attempted to carry out a mass shooting at FRC’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, based on the group’s appearance on the SPLC’s list of anti-gay organizations. Corkins said he intended to kill as many people as possible and smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches on their faces afterwards. They claim that SPLC’s designations of various organizations as hate groups puts those groups at risk of similar attacks.

Conservatives have also accused Amazon of hypocrisy and favoritism, noting that left-leaning organizations like

Planned Parenthood for America, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Center for American Progress are allowed to receive tens of millions of dollars each year.

In an op-ed for the Christian Post, Robert Netzly, the CEO of Inspire Investing, claimed that Amazon is engaging in viewpoint discrimination.

“Amazon has taken great pains to portray themselves as champions of diversity, and have made public statements about their supposed commitment to respecting diverse viewpoints,” Netzly wrote. “For example, their website proclaims that ‘diversity and inclusion are good for business — and more fundamentally — simply right.’ This begs the question, if Amazon is such a believer in diversity, why would its board recommend that shareholders vote against a resolution that would provide ‘a full evaluation of viewpoint bias and associated risks to ensure that Amazon is making balanced decisions and that it is acting consistent with its commitment to diversity?’

“To be clear, I believe Amazon.com has every right to use their corporate influence to promote whatever agendas they see fit, including progressive liberalism,” he added. “But don’t try to hide it. If Amazon’s leadership is committed to a progressive-liberal agenda, then shareholders have a right to know about it, as well as the potential risks that position could cause by alienating customers who hold a different view. This is basic corporate responsibility. Denying shareholders material information that can affect their investment is not just bad-form, it is unethical.”

Clapped Back

Marine Corps defends LGBTQ Marines after backlash over Pride Month post. By Rhuaridh Marr

A

MEMBER OF THE U.S. MARINE CORPS HAS drawn attention for a series of social media posts forcefully defending LGBTQ Marines and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Yarbrough, a communications officer at a Marines recruit depot in South Carolina, responded to a number of Facebook commenters who took issue with a post celebrating Pride Month and the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

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It came after the Marine Corps issued a force-wide statement earlier this month in support of LGBTQ servicemembers and the ten-year anniversary of the repeal of DADT — a policy that prohibited gay and bisexual people from serving openly — stating that USMC is “committed to living the values we defend and treating everyone equally, and with dignity and respect.”

“This June, Commanders and leaders are encouraged to take time to recognize the 2020 LGBT Pride Month, and promote

theFeed said it shouldn’t be “celebrated,” Yarbrough clapped back: “We also celebrate Black History Month, Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Month of the Military Child, etc. Should we stop celebrating those too?”

To a commenter who said the Pride Month post was “totally against my morals and beliefs” and accused the Corps of succumbing to “influences that do not belong,” Yarbrough responded: “No one is asking you do anything but accept them as themselves.”

In one of Yarbrough’s briefest and most effective burns, he replied to a commenter who called the Pride post the the “DUMBEST thing I’ve heard all month!”

“Leave my f****ing Marine Corps alone!” the person wrote.

“It was NEVER intended to be a freaking social experiment!”

“This happened 10 years ago,” Yarbrough replied. “Obviously it didn’t break our Marine Corps.”

In an email to Marine Corps Times, a Headquarters Marine Corps spokesman said Yarbrough’s comments were in line with Corps’ values.

“Although social media management policies vary between commands, much of the dialogue on this post shows the command responding directly to statements that are not in line with Marine Corps values or current policy,” Capt. Joseph Butterfield said.

Butterfield noted muting or deleting the anti-LGBTQ comments would allow “certain thought processes to go unchallenged,” and said that social media “allows us to engage multiple audiences directly, and sometimes that means disagreeing with members of an audience.”

PHIL ROEDER

participation in observance events throughout their local communities,” the statement said.

In response, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina posted a graphic from Staff Sgt. Rebecca L. Floto celebrating Pride and LGBTQ servicemembers to its official Facebook page.

“This year we celebrate the ten year anniversary of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,'” the post read. “The Marine Corps takes pride in building strength in our diversity.”

But the post quickly racked up a number of negative and antiLGBTQ comments from people expressing their dismay at the depot celebrating LGBTQ Marines, or lamenting the end of the anti-gay DADT policy, Marine Corps Times reports.

That in turn led Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Yarbrough to issue a series of rebuttals to the views being expressed.

Yarbrough defended LGBTQ servicemembers, called DADT “terrible,” and noted the hypocrisy of those decrying Marine Corps recognition of Pride Month.

“What in the heck is this about?” one commenter wrote. “Is this what the Corps is coming to? A social experiment?”

Yarbrough responded: “Nope. We still fight wars. Some of our warfighters are LGBT. We like them to know we support them.”

“The don’t ask don’t tell worked just fine,” another person wrote, to which Yarbrough replied, “I would imagine all the LGBT that was kicked out of the service would disagree.”

“No heterosexuals were kicked out due to sexuality,” he continued. “The policy was terrible and needed to go away.”

After one commenter called the Pride month post “BS” and

Poll Position

A

Biden

Biden leads Trump among LGBTQ voters, but Trump enjoys support from 1 in 5 LGBTQ people. By John Riley

NEW MORNING CONSULT POLL FINDS THAT FORmer Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee in this November’s election, is leading President Donald Trump by an overwhelming margin of 45 points among LGBTQ voters.

According to the poll, conducted from June 15-21, 64% of

LGBTQ voters say they’re likely to support Biden in this year’s election, compared to 19% who say they’re likely to re-elect President Trump. Among all voters, Biden leads Trump, 47% to 39%, with a 1% margin of error.

Morning Consult has been tracking Biden’s support among various constituencies since his Super Tuesday victories on Mar. JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed Even as he touts a global initiative, spearheaded by former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, to encourage other countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to repeal laws outlawing homosexuality, the president’s administration has sided against LGBTQ people in recent Supreme Court cases involving workplace discrimination, has pushed for rules to turn away transgender homeless individuals from single-sex shelters based on their biological sex at birth, and has attempted to repeal LGBTQ protections in health care from the Affordable Care Act (in addition to trying to repeal the Act altogether).

According to the Morning Consult poll, over half of all LGBTQ voters, or 53%, have favorable opinions of Biden, compared to 20% who have favorable opinions of Trump. Among LGBTQ Republicans, 23% have favorable views of Biden, and 65% have negative views, compared to a 12%-83% spread among heterosexual Republicans.

The poll finds LGBTQ Republicans are less ideologically homogeneous than their Democratic peers. Twenty-five percent of LGBTQ Republicans identify as “liberal,” five times the share of LGBTQ Democrats who identify as “conservative.”

Twenty percent of LGBTQ Republicans describe themselves as “moderate,” compared to 13% of LGBTQ Democrats.

However, on other diversity metrics, LGBTQ Republicans are whiter, more affluent, and more likely to be men, than their Democratic peers.

Most LGBTQ voters are not motivated to vote by LGBTQ issues, although it may play a role in their vote. Compared to their straight counterparts, LGBTQ voters are less likely than their straight peers to list the economy (25%), national security (8%), or Medicare and Social Security (9%) as their primary concern.

But LGBTQ voters are more likely to prioritize health care, with 22% listing it as a top concern, compared to 18% of straight respondents, and issues affecting reproductive rights and equal pay, with 11% listing it as their chief priority, compared to 4% of straight voters.

CHANGE.ORG

3, finding that Biden has led Trump by an average spread of 43 percentage points, with Biden generally earning the support of about 63% of LGBTQ voters, compared to Trump’s 20%.

In those various polls, Biden has led Trump by an average of 86 points among LGBTQ Democrats (89% to 3%), 28 points among LGBTQ independents (47% to 19%), and earns an average of 12% among LGBTQ Republicans, compared to 7% among straight Republicans.

An estimated 12% of Democrats and 10% of independents identify as LGBTQ, exercising a significant amount of sway over the survey’s results. By comparison, only 4% of Republicans identify as LGBTQ, demonstrating their limited influence over the party.

But there is some good news for Trump in the poll: the president is performing almost identically to the level of support he enjoyed in polls taken in advance of the 2016 election, earning the support of about 1 in 5 LGBTQ voters. It’s also higher than the 14% of LGBTQ voters he ultimately ended up winning on Election Day, according to national exit polls.

Meanwhile, Biden’s lead — and even his over-performance with LGBTQ Republicans — still puts him at least nine points behind the level of support enjoyed by Hillary Clinton in pre-election polling, and 13 points behind Clinton’s Election Day share of the LGBTQ vote.

Some of that could be due to the fact that he was not the preferred choice of LGBTQ Democrats in the early days of the Democratic primary, lagging behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 16 points, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) by a point, according to Morning Consult trackers.

While Trump campaigned as a “real friend” to the LGBTQ community in advance of the 2016 election, pledging to protect LGBTQ citizens from the threat of radical Islam following the Pulse nightclub massacre, and criticized Clinton for her foreign policy stances and the Clinton Foundation for accepting money from countries where homosexuality is criminalized, he has also been at odds with LGBTQ rights on the domestic front.

Angry Answer Currie

A

Canadian mayor defends saying gays will lead to end of humanity. By Rhuaridh Marr

CANADIAN MAYOR HAS DEFENDED SAYING that gay people will lead to the end of humanity in response to a question about flying a Pride flag. Bob Currie, mayor of Amaranth, Ontario, made the comments earlier this month during a township council meeting, after a resident asked why Amaranth wasn’t joining other municipalities in visibly supporting LGBTQ Pride Month by flying 18

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a Pride flag, CTV news reports.

“It is the duty of council to support ALL members of the Amaranth community, and the lack of support does not go unnoticed by your LGBT+ neighbors, friends, and community workers,” Stacey Whittington wrote in a letter to the council.

“Refusing to fly the flag sends a very strong, outdated, and harmful message to our LGBT+ community, adults, teens, and

theFeed comments were “disgraceful” and that his “fossil mentality in regards to this type of new world needs to be removed.”

A petition to the township’s Integrity Commissioner calling for Currie to be removed from office has been signed by more than 10,500 people as of press time.

Despite the backlash, Currie refused to apologize for his comments in an interview with CTV News, instead saying that it was “a true statement.”

“If I hurt somebody, that’s their problem, not mine,” he said.

“But anyways, I did not say, I don’t say what I do say, okay, to offend people.”

He said that he wouldn’t be stepping down as mayor, despite the petition and public calls for his resignation.

Currie’s daughter, Susan Walkinshaw, told CTV News that her father isn’t homophobic, and said he “would never do something to offend someone or hurt someone.”

Instead, she argued that the mayor, who has served almost two decades in his office, is “not a politician. He speaks the truth.

He speaks his mind.”

PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

children that the township and council does not stand up for them, support them, or support human rights and equity,” she continued.

Currie, a devout Christian, responded by suggesting that gay and lesbian people would lead to the end of the human race.

“If everybody was either lesbian or homosexual, this would be the last generation on Earth,” Currie said in response to the letter. “Because two homosexuals cannot produce offspring… two lesbians cannot produce offspring.”

He continued: “So, why would I want to support something when this would be the last generation on Earth? I’m not going to go there.”

The 80-year-old also noted that Amaranth hadn’t flown a Pride flag during any of his 18 years as the township’s mayor.

After hearing Currie’s response, Whittington told CTV that she was “[just] horrified that in 2020, in this township with a large LGBTQ community, that our mayor is saying these things and having them inform his choices as our mayor.”

Jim Waddington, organizer of Orangeville Pride, said Currie’s

Leading Hate

T

Erdogan

Turkish president accuses “sneaky” gays of poisoning youth, urges people to “take” a stand’ against them. By Rhuaridh Marr

URKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN HAS urged action against LGBTQ people in the country, accusing them of “sneaking up” on Turkey’s values and trying to “poison” the country’s youth. Erdogan made the comments during a speech on Monday, June 29, following a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

After touting the Eurasian country’s coronavirus response, including claiming that Turkey would be one of the strongest country’s to emerge from the pandemic, Erdogan then pivoted to attacking LGBTQ people.

“We will not stop fighting until we reach the goal of a large

and strong Turkey,” Erdogan said. “Someone is sneaking up on our national and spiritual values again.”

He said that “throughout human history” LGBTQ people have been “trying to poison” young people in Turkey by “normalizing” heresy.

Erdogan accused those who support “such marginal movements contrary to our faith and culture are partners in the same heresy in our eyes.”

The Turkish president said that anything recognized as wrong and “cursed by the people” would not “take root in this country.” Erdogan then urged his fellow Turks to “take a stand” JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed against LGBTQ people.

“I invite all members of my nation to be careful and take a stand against those who exhibit all kinds of heresy that our Lord has forbidden, and those who support them,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey “has the power to fight attacks targeting its national and spiritual structure.”

Erdogan’s comments are the latest example of a perceived crackdown on LGBTQ people in the majority Muslim nation, where homosexuality is legal and transgender people can change their legal identity.

However, the country has become more conservative in recent years due to Erdogan’s Islamist-influenced government, which has made moves away from the Muslim-majority nation’s previously secular nature.

The day of Erdogan’s speech, his government defended a tweet by the head of the humanitarian organization Turkish Red Crescent, which called gay people “abnormal” and pedophiles.

Kerem Kinik said that he wouldn’t allow LGBTQ people to “step on human dignity” in a tweet posted on Pride Day, Sunday, June 28, Reuters reports.

“We will protect nature and the mental health of our children,” he wrote. “We’ll fight against those who violate healthy creation, who make abnormal look normal by using their power of communication and impose their pedophiliac dreams cloaked as modernity on young minds.”

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) slammed his tweet, saying it didn’t represent the views of the IFRC and calling his words “wrong and offensive.”

It noted that Kinik is bound by the IFRC’s code of conduct, which “forbids any form of homophobia, hate speech or prejudice.”

The Turkish government responded by claiming that Kinik was a victim of “LGBT propaganda,” with Erdogan’s communications director tweeting that it “poses a grave threat to freedom of speech.”

Erdogan’s government has previously supported other antiLGBTQ comments, including earlier this year when he defended a religious leader who said homosexuality “brings illnesses” and “corrupts generations.”

In May, the Turkish government discouraged children from drawing rainbows during the COVID-19 pandemic amid fears that they would “turn children gay.”

Erdogan’s comments also represent a dramatic departure from his previous stance on LGBTQ rights. In 2002, prior to the country’s general elections, he said that it was “imperative” that the rights of gay people should be constitutionally guaranteed.

Last year, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) said that Turkey was one of a number of European countries “moving backwards” in their treatment of LGBTQ people.

Preparing to Launch

Nicholas F. Benton is starting a nonprofit that will serve as a community resource for LGBTQ Northern Virginians. By John Riley

I

'VE BEEN AN ACTIVIST SINCE THE LATE '60S, AND I've been running the Falls Church News-Press here for almost 30 years now in Falls Church, and have taken very strong positions on all the issues pertaining to the LGBT community," says Nicholas F. Benton. "Yet all the time I've been here, and [with] all the gay people that live in Falls Church, nobody's ever taken the initiative to do something like this."

Benton, the owner and editor of the News-Press, is talking about his soon-to-be-launched 501(c)3 organization, LGBT Falls Church. He was inspired to launch the new endeavor by the recent Supreme Court ruling on workplace discrimination — which found that LGBTQ people are protected by a portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Benton realized that the decision would likely give a measure of comfort to LGBTQ people in the Northern Virginia area and make them more likely to come out and openly share their views on various issues.

In addition, "a whole spate of new laws," particularly a number that expand LGBTQ rights, are set to go into effect on Wednesday, July 1, which will further embolden LGBTQ people.

In the case of many of these laws, localities are permitted to enact their own laws or adopt nondiscrimination policies that would better protect LGBTQ individuals.

"Locally, it will fall on the local jurisdictions around the state how exactly to implement these new laws and so forth.

So that will put the burden on the city of Falls Church, as an independent jurisdiction, to have to have its own set of laws," says Benton.

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As such, he hopes LGBT Falls Church will be able to help "elected officials in Falls Church and so forth to make sure that all of their interpretation of the laws and their wrinkle on these laws is appropriate and good. They need to have somebody in Falls Church helping them with that process."

Benton also hopes that LGBT Falls Church can educate the wider Falls Church community on the importance of issues affecting the LGBTQ community. To that end, the nonprofit will soon launch a Facebook page, a podcast, and other interactive tools to encourage discussions among its followers and serve as a community resource for LGBTQ people.

"The main thing is to get the community together, as best we can, in Falls Church and its environs," Benton says, noting that the population of the Greater Falls Church area is about 75,000 to 80,000. "We want to have something that represents everybody in this extraordinary climate of social affirmation that we're in the midst of right now."

He adds that Falls Church has been at the center of the demographic, cultural, and societal changes that have characterized Virginia's political revolution from a "red state" to a Democratic stronghold, as well as its shift towards an embrace of socially liberal attitudes.

"Falls Church has always been very progressive, and in the course of the time that I've been here and running a paper...has moved increasingly towards being more open and progressive," says Benton. "It has led the state of Virginia, almost every election, in terms of voter turnout, high voter turnout, and is in the middle of the area of the state — flanked by Fairfax and Arlington

TODD FRANSON

theFeed

Benton

and Alexandria — that has made a difference in many statewide elections going back to 2001."

Benton says that LGBT Falls Church seeks to engage area residents on local political or community issues.

"We plan to be a very feisty and community based, community-oriented part of the political process in Falls Church and in this whole area," he says. "As a nonprofit, we won't be endorsing

particular candidates, but we certainly will be taking very strong positions on the issues."

He also hopes that "LGBT Falls Church will encourage more people to step forward and offer their opinions and viewpoints.

And I will encourage them to submit those to the News-Press and get them published. It's going to help that this organization has the backing of the local newspaper."

JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Full Disclosure Laverne Cox on the magnificent Netflix documentary Disclosure, the trials of dating, and why she’s (begrudgingly) voting for Joe Biden.

Interview by Randy Shulman Photography by Michael Williams

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Laverne Cox is elated.

“Today is a glorious day!” exclaims the international superstar.

“Our film was released worldwide on Netflix. Nothing can bring me down today!”

Not that anyone is trying to. The 48-year-old actor, warm and open in an interview setting, has been through a full day of questioning from reporters, evoking her serious side and igniting her trans-activism mode. She’s blunt about how she views progress in society, and has few qualms about freely expressing her viewpoints. She is, in a word, fearless.

Cox’s Hollywood career began as many do, inauspiciously and tenuously. She had small roles in several obscure films (The Kings of Brooklyn, Bronx Paradise) and snagged appearances on TV procedurals like Law & Order. It wasn’t until 2013, and her heartfelt, devastating portrayal of transgender inmate Sophia Burset on Netflix’s groundbreaking Orange is the New Black, that Cox blasted into cultural orbit. Though never winning, she was nominated for an Emmy three times for her compelling portrayal of a flawed character who, as the seasons progressed, was literally put through hell. Sophia was by no means a perfect person, but Cox’s portrayal of Sophia was about as perfect as it gets.

Cox was not the first transgender actor to achieve fame or acclaim, evidenced in the stunning Netflix documentary Disclosure, on which she served as an Executive Producer. But her stratospheric fame and popularity has afforded her a vital cultural relevance. It’s through Cox — and similar pioneers like Candis Cayne — that the collective voice of the transgender community started to be heard in Hollywood, sparking a seismic, industry-wide change in casting and employment practices and storyline adjustments that, while still not without issues, is at least moving in the right direction.

Masterfully directed by Sam Feder, Disclosure is a gripping testament to how transgender representation has evolved in over 100 years of film and television. Feder has unearthed a treasure trove of clips — some familiar, some obscure — that are revealing, potent, unsettling. The historical narrative put forth frequently shows transgender characters as the butt of a joke or, worse, the recipient of horrific violence. The way a moment pervades the culture — a straight man vomiting at the thought of having kissed a transgender person, for instance — is provided context and illumination. Isolated moments are clustered together to form a sharp, often painful point. Disclosure rivets your attention, and, without shaming your intellect, appeals to it, brilliantly and powerfully.

In just under two hours, the film hits virtually every major touchstone — from popular, iconic LGBTQ treasures like Boys Don’t Cry and Paris is Burning to TV procedurals and the impact of storylines that almost always found the transgender character — often portrayed as a sex worker — murdered.

Disclosure is perhaps most disturbing as it revisits the sensationalist afternoon talk shows of the ’80s and ’90s, with their crude “gotcha” motifs, in which everything was designed to shock and startle the studio audience — the louder the gasp, the better — and participants were reduced to gimmicks. And yet the film also pays tribute to those who made the effort to exhibit personal growth. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric, for example, are shown to have learned from past, shudder-worthy interviews with transgender celebrities. Pathways to enlightenment, the film appears to be saying, are paved with 24

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mistakes. And if growth is exhibited, then the mistakes are often forgiven, though not forgotten.

Feder smartly intercuts the clips — and there are an exhaustive number, some dating as far back as 1904 — with commentary from transgender actors, writers, and directors from the film and television industry, including Cox, director Yance Ford, writer Jen Richards, Chaz Bono, and the notoriously interview-shy Lilly Wachowski, co-director of the Matrix Trilogy. Few documentaries of this kind achieve the depth of purpose that Feder manages, and fewer still make their points in ways that pierce the viewer’s heart in a lasting, emotional way. The movie is critical of early attempts to portray transgender characters, and yet it’s meant to open up lines of communication so that, moving forward, change can occur both in society and the filmmaking industry. As Yance Ford so eloquently puts it, “I cannot be in the world until I see that I am in the world.”

“Trying to get a film like Disclosure made that looks at the lives of trans people was really hard,” says Cox. “No one's ever done anything like Disclosure.”

“It was so hard,” echoes Feder. “We had the most diverse fundraising strategy possible, everything from house parties to foundation grants, to investors, and it was brutal. Even selling the film up until just a couple months ago, we were being told from distributors that they already had a trans movie and they didn't need another. And that they had something that was similar to this. But there's nothing similar to this. The depth of transphobia was overt every step of the way. It was not lost on any of us. But here we are.”

The film premiered at Sundance on January 27, 2020, to critical acclaim and was on a trajectory that would likely find modest theatrical success, including a potential pathway to the Oscars.

And then, of course, COVID-19 put a stop to everything.

“We were devastated to walk away from all the film festivals that we had lined up after Sundance because of the pandemic,” says Feder. “It was really rough. Personally, Tribeca was going to be my homecoming. But here we are with this global platform at Netflix and it's thrilling. So at least we got here.”

These days, Cox feels omnipresent, from appearances at numerous online Pride events this past June, to appearing in a recent TV spot for Smirnoff that coyly promotes the country’s current stay-at-home vibe. Like the rest of us, she is waiting for the pandemic to pass and for life to resume.

“My life is completely different than it was,” she says when asked how things changed after her star rose during Orange is the New Black’s run. “I'm even more spiritual because I have had to be. I've had to lean into spirituality and self-care in a new way because my life has gotten so big. But representing a marginalized community has been an awesome responsibility.

“What I feel good about is having a twin brother — that helps me remind myself of who I am. And my brother says that I'm still me. I haven't really changed. He says that when I transitioned I was still the same person. It's lovely to be able to have someone who's been there literally your whole life say, ‘Oh you're the same person.’ But I think I'm more myself now.”

METRO WEEKLY: How did you get involved with Disclosure as one

of its primary executive producers?

LAVERNE COX: Sam Feder, the director, had been doing research

NETFLIX

for two years before I met him. He was giving a presentation on his research at Outfest about three years ago, and I happened to be in the audience that day. A few weeks earlier, I had been talking to my manager about what I wanted to do next in terms of my advocacy. I had always wanted to do a film that looked at the history of how trans folks are represented on screen. When I met Sam, it was just kind of like, "Oh, my god!" I asked if I could get involved, and he said yes.

MW: I was really impressed by the construct of the film in that it intersperses very powerful clips from shows and movies, sometimes in a revealing cluster, with reactions and recollections from prominent transgender members in the film and television industry. It’s very powerful.

COX: Sam’s idea was to have the film be constructed through the memories of trans people, through our memories in relationship to media. Media is the first time where many of us saw ourselves.

So it's really about trans memory. Obviously, once we discovered all this beautiful footage from the early days of cinema, we knew that had to be incorporated as well.

MW: The footage from the early 1900s is truly incredible. I had no idea any of that existed. Sam’s approach also changes the way we view contemporary LGBTQ classics, movies like The Crying Game and Paris is Burning, for example. It takes these movies that we cherish as iconic and kind of flips the message to make a point. It’s a very empathetic approach for someone who is not transgender.

But the question then becomes, how are we supposed to view films like The Crying Game after we’ve seen it through this different, potentially upsetting prism?

COX: What Sam and I want to be really clear about is that we are not into discarding films. We are not into canceling films or not showing them. We are into the conversation. We are into loving the films critically, but not into canceling them.

MW: You do specifically say in Disclosure at one point, “I can be critical of Paris is Burning but be happy that Paris is Burning exists.”

COX: I mean, Paris is Burning is such a necessary film. But when

“I wouldn't want to tell an artist they can't play something, because I've been told I can't play something my whole life.

But if we have cis people playing trans roles, how does that affect the lives of real-life trans people at this historic moment?”

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Yance Ford

NETFLIX

Lilly Wachowski

Jen Richards

you hear from the participants how they felt about it, I think that's an important component of the story as well.

MW: The series you were on, Orange is the New Black, is referenced as a watershed moment, a big turning point for transgender representation in media.

COX: There were so many brilliant things about Orange — and I'm biased, of course.

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[Laughs.] We deeply humanized everyone in the show, people who had been discarded by society, people who are incarcerated. My character, Sophia, was deeply humanized. I think the closest thing before Orange is the New Black for me was Carmelita on Dirty Sexy Money.

She was Billy Baldwin's mistress, and Candis Cayne [who played her] was so radiant. And [Carmelita] was murdered.

She was killed off.

But I think part of the difference is what it means to have trans people play trans characters. I think that begins to shift how we see representation because of who is playing the role.

Trans people playing trans characters is really important in the trajectory of us trans folks being seen in television and film.

MW: If Sophia had been played by a cis actor, I don't think she would have had the same impact. Which calls up the big question: should cis gender actors still be playing transgender characters at all?

Several prominent actors have argued that the rule should be the best actor for the part, the compromise being that transgender actors should also be considered, as well as be offered more cis roles.

How do you respond to that?

COX: I have always felt that I wouldn't want to tell an artist that they can't play something, because I've been told I can't play something my whole life. But what we know now at this historical moment in 2020, according to GLAAD, is that 80 percent of Americans report not personally knowing someone trans.

Most of what they learn about trans people comes from the media. If we have non-trans people or cis people playing trans roles, how does that affect the lives of real-life trans people at this historic moment?

What I implore the artist to do is to consider that. I wouldn't tell them to not play something, but I would invite them to consider [writer] Jen Richards’s argument that when cis men specifically play trans women, that sends a message that trans women are really men, and that then leads to violence against trans people. So there is something very compelling about her argument that I would invite a [cis] artist to consider when thinking about playing a trans person. I mean, actors losing jobs? I get it. But I would invite an artist to just have the information. And I think what Disclosure provides is the information.

Artists need to be free to express themselves, but I would like them to just

“The way in which race is playing itself out in sexual practice in the LGBTQI community needs to be talked about.

We desire what we desire, but what's going on when we need to say the ‘N-word’ to people during sex unconsensually?

That's a problem.” have all the information when they make their choices.

MW: One thing the film does masterfully is point out that we didn't have the language for the transgender community, even as early as twenty years ago. The movie coaxes out the fact that society has finally started to provide words that define and better elucidate what it means to be transgender, what it means to be trans masculine.

COX: “Language is also a place of struggle,” as bell hooks writes in Yearning. You have to be able to name something. And the language is always a place where there's limitation as well. Being concise with language is really important and crucial. Naming something can reduce it from its complexity.

What I know for sure in my own life is that when I finally claimed being trans, it was a relief. Because my whole life I had been struggling with being trans and being feminine and not wanting to have a label. And then, when I just claimed being trans, I found it very freeing. Now, this is just my story. Not everyone feels the same way about language and claiming a word, but language gives me such a sense of clarity. And being precise with language gives me a sense of groundedness.

I was literally thinking about what Marquise Vilson said about being erased from the ballroom community — it was one of the things he addresses in our film. He said, "We were there, but there just was no language for it." Needing to have words wrapped around you so that people know that you existed — it's really that piece that we need: To be able to name it so we don't erase people, so we don't discount people.

This is the year of the 2020 Census — I'm very tangential in my thinking — and we don't count LGBTQI people in our census in the United States! There was a push for it, and then [the Trump administration] came into power and all the momentum for the LGBTQ Data Inclusion Act just went away. When you aren't counted, you can very well be discounted. So language is a way to make sure everyone is counted and to hopefully not misrecognize people or misidentify them.

MW: We first interviewed you in 2013, when Orange is the New Black premiered. Metro Weekly was, in fact, your very first cover.

Do you remember?

COX: [Laughs.] Oh, I remember! I think everyone remembers their first magazine cover.

MW: So much has happened with your career and your life since.

How has your life changed since becoming an internationally recognized celebrity?

COX: I am living my dream. This is exactly what I've always

dreamed of. Has it unfolded the way I thought it would? Not quite. I don't know if anyone knows how much work it is. I don't know if people know how much pressure it is, dealing with being misquoted by journalists, having your words taken out of context, attempts to cancel you, being dragged on Twitter, and the transphobia that exists when you are one of the most famous trans people in the world. It's a lot. It's been a lot. But there is so much love — I mean I could cry thinking about how much love I have from fans and followers, how much love there is out there.

It is so beautifully healing.

Even through this coronavirus moment, I've had moments when I've gone live — I live alone, I'm single — and just going on [social media] and getting love from fans — well, your fans can really lift you up. They can give you strength on a bad day, through a breakup, and through all the things that life throws at you. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining for a second. I am so grateful that I have been chosen in this way.

I think the interesting thing about my life too is that I am aware that things happen in God's time, not my time, but all this happened after I turned 40. I am now 48 years old. I turned 40 and my whole life changed into this, and I understand now that I've been chosen for something that was bigger than me. I'm trying to lean into the joy of that, lean into the "Thank you so much for choosing me," and my prayers to my higher power has been like, "The weight of it is too much. Please God, Lord Father, I want to be able to do this with a sense of lightness and without stress." That has been my prayer, and that's how I've been going about things this year. It's been pretty glorious.

MW: You mentioned transphobia. What kind of transphobia do you continue to encounter?

COX: It's different. It's complicated. When you are famous, I've learned, it erases a lot of things. Fame becomes a sort of great equalizer in this culture that worships celebrity. A lot of things that other black trans women are going through on a daily basis, I don't go through because I'm famous, and I'm privileged enough to be able to shield myself from certain everyday realities. That's real.

I remember one time Essence posted a photo of me in jeans and they were like, "No one's ever looked better in a pair of jeans." Essence has been so incredibly supportive of me and my work — I love Essence magazine so much. But the comments section was so deeply transphobic. There were so many people JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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NETFLIX

misgendering me. It was vicious. But there was also a lot of love, to hear personal stories of all the folks we interviewed and not and I focus on the love. be touched and moved by them. I don't care who you are. But I Still, I'm aware that there is vicious transphobia towards me think time will tell. We can't predict the future, but I believe it's from certain people online on other sites. I'm concerned about possible, absolutely. how that might affect people who are more marginalized than I MW: What is your wish for the LGBT community overall? am and are more at risk. That is a reality.

COX: Collectively, I think there's a lot of work still to be done. But MW: What is your dating life like? the evolution has been really beautiful. The evolution has been a COX: In dating, I don't know if I was really surprised. I think I lot of activism. I feel a lot of transphobia within the LGBTQI comhad a fantasy of, “Okay, I'm going to be successful and the right munity has gotten so much better. I think we’ve all seen a shift, man will come along.” I've had two boyfriends back-to-back in over the past several years, but there's still a lot of transphobia the past several years. Now, I've been single for a year, and the and there's a lot of racism. There's a lot of racism in classes within men in my industry don't approach me. When I go to events, the LGBTQI community in the ways in which we reside in the men don't approach me. When I go to work events, I'm in work realm of sexual desire. I think some of the racism, the way it plays mode, so I'm not really even thinking about that, I just notice itself out there, is abhorrent. It's absolutely abhorrent. that men in my industry that are in my day-to-day life don't When I hear from my black gay male brothers about how approach me. I'm on dating apps, and there's so many men in the they're being treated by some white gay men — and this is my industry who I know secretly date trans empirical data, but I just spoke to a black women. We know who a lot of them are, gay man recently about this. He was tellClick Here to Watch we know who a lot of them are. the Trailer for “Disclosure” ing me how he had had a really negative And that's fine. That's their business. experience with a white man that was It's nobody else's business. But it's interesting that it needs to really racist. It wasn't that the white man didn't want to date remain a secret. And all the men who are secretly dating and him. It's that he did want to date him, but in a very fetishistic, sleeping with trans women in our business, they will never racially-charged way. I said to him, "You know, I have been hearapproach me, because they don't want anyone to know. So it's ing from a lot of my gay black male friends that this is something hard. It's still hard dating. It's hard as it was when I wasn't that is rampant," and he had never talked to anybody about it. I famous. think he had shame about it, and he didn't even realize that other MW: Disclosure certainly speaks to and helps to validate view- people are going through this. points and feelings within the transgender community. But do The way in which race is playing itself out in sexual practice you think it has the power to change hearts and minds beyond the in the LGBTQI community needs to be talked about in a way transgender community? that's not salacious, but in a way that's responsible. I mean, we COX: I absolutely hope so. That is always my goal as an artist. desire what we desire, but what's going on when we need to Brené Brown says stories are data with a soul, and it's really hard say the “N-word” to people during sex unconsensually? That's 28

JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

“When you are famous, I've learned, it erases a lot of things.

Fame becomes a sort of great equalizer in this culture.

A lot of things that other black trans women are going through on a daily basis, I don't go through because I'm famous. That's real.” a problem. Apparently, according to what I'm hearing, this is happening all over the country, and that's disturbing.

Also, the LGBTQI community really has to have working and poor people in mind if we want to evolve as a movement that is really in a coalition with other movements. I think we need to really be in collaboration with working class folks. How does the movement change, right? Because so much of the focus feels like when you think about mainstream LGBTQI+ communities, it's so white and monied.

Obviously, everybody doesn't have money, but there's just this perception. So what does it mean for the powerful people within our community to begin to think about poor working people and have the movement be in coalition with making sure the material conditions of working class people have changed in this country. I think that, especially as we gain rights as a community — which is happening — we have to have relevance beyond just ourselves once we get ours, you know? So there's that.

MW: Narrowing it down, what is your wish for the transgender community apart from the rest of the LGBTQ community?

COX: For trans people, I think it's really about us being more integrated into every aspect of society and to be able to be openly ourselves. There should be more representations and more stories about us, particularly in films. We’ve made a lot of progress in television, but not as much in film, people playing trans characters and non-trans characters.

Then, again, the material conditions of those folks in our community who are most at risk being changed, and that's about our society-at-large. It's about our politics. It's about how we finance our elections. It's about who the people in Washington and all of our state capitals are working for — and it's usually not for working class people. I think the revolution for me around most all of these sorts of identity questions needs to be in coalition with working people, because we have to change the material conditions of people. There are too many people who are struggling. We're all in this together and we all have a stake in everyone being lifted up.

MW: I think we should all work on getting rid of the president.

That's just my opinion.

COX: He's just a symptom, though. This was going on before-

hand. But I think he's exposed a lot of the problems. I'm going to say it publicly: I'm going to vote for Joe Biden — begrudgingly, though. I'm begrudgingly voting for him. I'm not excited. I think that the corporate nature of the Democratic Party is deeply problematic. I was a registered independent until this year. I don't usually talk in these terms, because it alienates a lot of people, but I am so emboldened by the protestors in the streets right now that I feel like I need to just tell the truth.

Democrats and Republicans have been bought off by special interests and corporations, and they're not working for everyday people. Joe Biden epitomizes that, and then there are other issues, too.... I think the truth is, yes, the president of the United States has got to go — there's just so many problems there that everybody knows. Everybody awake knows those problems. I think the bigger issue is that what has been presented to us as an alternative — what's consistently presented to us as an alternative — is not great, in my opinion.

But I'm voting for Joe Biden. Trust, I'm voting for him — and I think his history on policing and the crime bill is deeply problematic. Just the corporate nature of how he's done politics for 50 years is a problem. Anyway....

MW: We're seeing more and more transgender people win political office throughout the country. Do you ever envision a day where we’ll have a transgender person as our president?

COX: No one's ever asked me that — good for you. I hope so.

I mean, I think it'll depend on the candidate. I think Barack Obama is so exceptional on so many different levels, that it wasn't even about black or white with him, he was just so.... the political savvy and charisma and intelligence and just everything. So I would say it would depend on the candidate and what they bring to the table. But quite possibly, yes. I'd like to think anything is possible in the United States of America.

Disclosure is streaming exclusively on Netflix.

Visit www.netflix.com.

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Gallery

A

Gordana Gerskovic: Texturescapes

MIXED-MEDIA ARTIST BORN IN CROATIA BUT based in Gaithersburg, Gordana Gerskovic presents a striking abstract series of close-up images for her first solo exhibition at Germantown’s BlackRock Center for the Arts. Whether capturing cracks in a sidewalk, peeling paint on a wall, deteriorating tree bark, or an eroding rock for-

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mation, Gerskovic keeps the focus on the colors and shapes highlighted in the works and other unexpected details and accidental patterns. Furthermore, she prints her intimate photographs at a small scale: each measuring 5x7 inches but framed within an 11x14-inch metal frame. Online through July 31. Visit www.blackrockcenter.org/galleries.

Movies

El abandonado (an especially compelling Sebastián Ayala).

Inspired by Jean Genet’s sensual gay arthouse classic Un Chant D’Amour, Muñoz’s Spanish-language prison saga finds beauty among the shifting alliances and dilapidated concrete walls. Nearly El Principe stirs brutal violence and surprising tenderness every frame of Enrique Stindt’s cinemainto an arresting gay prison drama. By André Hereford tography, both inside the jail and in flashbacks of Jaime’s rambunctious life before UAN CARLOS MALDONADO COMMANDS THE SCREEN WITH BROODING he was incarcerated, rewards the eye with intensity as the dangerously impulsive title character in Sebastián Muñoz’s gritty, artful composition and details of the peri’70s-set debut feature El Principe (HHHHH). Recently sentenced to a pitiless od production and costume design. The Chilean prison, Jaime (Maldonado) arrives hardened and haunted by the violent events camera doesn’t turn away from the uglithat brought him there. His arrival in his cell, already occupied by four men and a cat, ness of violence, nor from the homoerotic immediately upsets his cellmates’ fragile sense of order. Or, maybe Jaime’s presence pull of copious male nudity. reinforces a certain order, resetting a cycle of lust and possession that merely repeats The script, based on the eponymous in this hellhole that most men won’t leave alive. novel by Mario Cruz, evokes Jaime’s misMaking the leap from telenovelas to his first major film role, Maldonado keeps spent youth, as he recounts bits of his tale Jaime focused and contained, still waters that no one wants to disturb too forceful- in voiceover. “I looked like a desperate, ly. Yet, there’s fear in Jaime’s eyes that attracts the lustful, predatory attention of wild boy,” he says, remembering happier his cell’s alpha convict, Potro (Alfredo Castro), known as the Stud. days. Although the diaOlder, cunning but resigned, and far from physically imposing, the Click Here to Watch logue is fine, the film’s Stud wields the wisdom and authority of a lifer. And he rules his imagery generally packs the Trailer roost with a fearsome temper and swift hand. But, as vividly yet a more powerful punch, subtly portrayed by Castro, he too bares a hint of fear, or perhaps loneliness, that and Muñoz stages the action adeptly endears him to Jaime. enough that much of the plot can play out Despite their differences, and the Stud’s constant threats of cruelty and violence in glances and gestures. Solid performanctowards anyone who crosses him, including Jaime, the pair forge a powerful bond. es take care of the rest, drawing a someIn turn, their relationship triggers a chain-reaction of jealousy and obsession among times razor-thin line between the hungry other inmates, including sweet-faced Danny (Lucas Balmaceda) and scorned lover look of a rival and the lost look of a lover.

Caged Heat

J

El Principe is available on DVD and Blu-ray as well as VOD/Streaming on July 7. Visit www.artsploitationfilms.com/film/the-prince.

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Movies

an ally. Tina’s grandma also is on her side, but still can’t bring herself to refer to Tina by her name, and uses only male pronouns.

The movie charts her growth as well, a plotline that Cruz plays beautifully, particularly in a nice later scene with Amanda The Garden Left Behind captures the complexity of an undocumented in which grandma tries asking some tough questions about trans lives. trans Latina’s life in Queens. By André Hereford The movie also asks tough questions, and implicitly acknowledges that protest ROM THE TOP OF FLAVIO ALVES’ SENSITIVE DRAMA THE GARDEN LEFT and awareness are invaluable tools that Behind (HHHHH), the mood and music portend danger ahead for Tina (Carlie can’t alone solve the plague of violence Guevara), a young Mexican trans woman working as a cabbie in Queens. What against transgender women and men. The she sees, though, are possibilities, as she moves forward in her process of transition. danger creeping around the edges — and She’s saving her money, taking good care of her elderly but active live-in grandma, sometimes through the heart — of the Eliana (Miriam Cruz), and has just started visits with a psychiatrist, Dr. Cleary (Ed story seems to be staring the audience in Asner), who must decide whether to advance her transition medically. the face, in the form of a group of rowdy The film moves at a thoughtful, even pace that centers on Tina, and Guevara’s neighborhood boys who continually cross engaging performance, while getting to know her and her friends — like her trans paths with Tina and her friends. The peractivist sisters Carol (Tamara Williams) and Amanda (Ivana Black), formances and writing and local bar owner Kevin (Michael Madsen), who looks out for her in Click Here to Watch for this macho crew don’t a time of need. Alves and co-screenwriter John Rotondo dish out juicy really support the interthe Trailer slices of drama with Tina’s insecure boyfriend/fuck-buddy, Jason est that the movie has in (Alex Kruz), and amusing bits of the routine day-to-day for Tina and grandma, creating pursuing their motivations. We can see a tempo that mimics the drumbeat of steady progress. before they can where the story might be In her first feature film role, Guevara offers a nuanced take on this powerful ordi- headed — and we can only hope that better nary woman. A few of the line readings miss the mark, but she creates a natural rapport possibilities await all the trans lives that with Cruz and with Asner, adding Lou Grant gravitas as a doctor who views himself as this film honors.

Fertile Ground

F

The Garden Left Behind is available on VUDU, Fandango, and Amazon Prime. Visit www.thegardenleftbehind.com.

JULY 2, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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Vintage Scene

The 1995 Miss Ziegfeld’s Pageant - Photography by Randy Shulman To see more photos from this event online, click on the photos below.

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LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“If I have the honor of being elected, I will be the most pro-equality president in our nation’s history.”

—Former Vice President JOE BIDEN, in a tweet on the final day of Pride Month. “LGBTQ+ rights are human rights,” he continued, “and we can’t rest until everyone is treated with dignity and respect under the law.”

“[That] erasure was so upsetting to me, the erasure of transgender and non-binary people.”

—TAYLOR SWIFT, in a tweet calling out the 2020 Census for only containing binary gender options. “[When] you don’t collect information on a group of people that means you have every excuse in the world not to support them,” she wrote.

“I can’t really describe how damaging and humiliating it was to try and build a life together and raise our children with such limited fundamental rights.”

—Singer-songwriter BRANDI CARLILE, in an Instagram post celebrating Pride, detailing her experiences as a woman raising children in a same-sex marriage. Carlile revealed that she is listed as the father on one of her daughters’ birth certificates, “because there simply wasn’t a space for me to be a mother within my marriage and family.” She continued: “These are just a few of the challenges we faced but believe me, there were more. And we are the lucky ones!”

“Black trans women have always been here and will continue to be.”

—ELLE HEARNS, founder and Executive Director of The Marsha P. Johnson Institute, in a statement after Google unveiled a Google Doodle of Stonewall riots icon Johnson to celebrate the end of Pride Month. It was part of a collaboration with the MPJI, which included a $500,000 donation. A Google spokesperson told The Advocate that Johnson “challenged the world to acknowledge the intersections of Black+ and queer identity.”

“I felt like if I started to show this part of myself — that becomes really scary because you just don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

—Professional snowboarder and skateboarder JAKE KUZYK, in an Instagram post coming out as gay. Kuzyk said he hid his sexuality because he was “afraid to risk damaging” his career, but says that was “foolish.” He continued: “I know now that obviously isn’t the case, and there is no sacrifice. It’s just better. Everything is just so much better.”

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