O&AN | July 2020

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CONTRIBUTORS Writers: Joan Brasher, Cody Stallings, Brian Sullivan

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We regret that the February LGBTQ Business Directory and Travelers’ Guide listed an incorrect phone number for Karuna Therapeutic Solutions. Their correct phone number is 615-669-6621. We apologize for the confusion.

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For Chef Arnold Myint, Quarantine Brings New Perspective on Food and Life Joan Brasher

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Pandemic Sparks Engagement for Nashville Couple Brian Sullivan

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For LGBTQ People Struggling With COVID, HIV/AIDS Epidemic Casts Its Shadow Brian Sullivan

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Jonathon Curto Recovers from Deadly Coronavirus Brian Sullivan

“Nashville Queers in Quarantine” Capturing LGBTQ+ Faces of COVID Cody Stallings Long Time Equality Activist Stays Vigilant in COVID-19 Era Joey Leslie

Josh Chadd on the Importance of Self Care During Shutdown Brian Sullivan

Quarantining With His New Boyfriend, Luke Arnold Finds Comfort in the Little Things

Joan Brasher

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LETTER

Shake it up.

Stir it up.

SINCE 1888 o u t a n d a b o u t n a s hv i l l e . c o m

FourRosesBourbon.com

July 2020

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Be mellow. Be responsible.

Joan Brasher

Before COVID-19 hit, celebrity chef Arnold Myint was in a constant state of motion.

Besides having ownership in three Nashville restaurants—Suzy Wong’s House of Yum, PM and BLVD— he was juggling multiple projects, including producing a documentary and a cookbook in honor of his late mother, the beloved restaurateur Patti Myint. He also was performing drag (as Suzy Wong, naturally), and ping-ponging between Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles.

When the pandemic stopped him in his tracks, Myint quietly closed his restaurants and retreated to a small desert town in Southern California to wait it out with a friend. With weeks on end to lose himself in cooking, he discovered an unexpected and welcome reprieve from the life he’d always known.

“I grew up in a restaurant, so it’s always been about the hustle,” Myint said. “Suddenly I had all this time, and I was cooking for two, not 400. I was making everything from scratch. It felt very new. Not rushed. I’ve never had the chance to approach cooking in such a pared down, personal way.”

Myint’s culinary point of view reflects his mother’s roots in Thailand. She passed away in October 2018, and her restaurant International Market, a Nashville landmark for 45 years, closed the following July. But her influence lives on as Myint finds comfort in recreating the recipes he learned at his mother’s knee.

“I’m cooking by myself in silence with her spirit on my shoulder guiding me,” he said. “Not thinking about feeding thousands of people, but thinking only about what’s in my mind and in my hands and on my plate.”

LETTING LOOSE Myint is no stranger to the limelight. He’s already appeared in two cooking reality shows, which helped catapult him to national renown, but neither produced an offer for a cooking show of his own. Despite his hustle, that goal seemed to evade him before the pandemic.

“Every time I’d go in to meet with a network I felt like they wanted me to fill a role—the drag chef or the flamboyant gay chef or the Queer Eye guy,” Myint said. “I felt like I was only showing them one small piece of what I have to offer.”

Then, Myint received some encouragement from a longtime friend, film producer and videographer Stan Okumura.

“Stan said, ‘Why don’t you forget the pressure, let loose and just be the Arnold we know? Put out some videos on Instagram and see what happens.’ And literally when he said that, the lightbulb went on and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can actually be me. I can just be Arnold,’” he said. “I started making these videos and having fun and it was very liberating.”

Arnold’s videos on IGTV chronicle his quarantine life, ranging from an instructional cooking video on how to make Pad See Ew (traditional Thai rice noodles) to a day of rock climbing in the California desert looking for a lost water bottle, to a slick music video in full drag.

“At some point I literally said to myself, f--k all this. I’m going to do me,” Myint said. “I’m just going to put myself out there. If I want to hike in a wig, hike in a wig. If I want to wear lashes and a gown to chop wood, why not?”

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A funny thing happened after he put himself out there as “just Arnold.” Job opportunities came knocking, including a feature on the popular cooking platform BuzzFeed Tasty, as well as ads for Ralph’s (Kroger) supermarket chain and Chobani yogurt, to name a few.

“It’s pretty funny that because of my silly cooking videos on Instagram, I actually have been working quite a bit during quarantine,” Myint said. “It’s been a surprise, and I’m thankful for the income.”

Okumura isn’t surprised that audiences are embracing Myint’s videos.

“In addition to Arnold being an incredible chef, he’s a very playful, creative and inspiring person,” Okumura said. “I believed that if his audience got to know the side of him that I know then his videos would be a hit—and they have been. It’s important to note in this present moment his cooking is not an escape from reality.

He sets out every day to bring positivity and happiness to others.

Dozens of times, I’ve seen him lift spirits and bring light to challenging situations.”

LOOKING AHEAD As Myint entered his third month of self-isolating in Southern California in June, his thoughts were with his staff and restaurants back in Nashville, where the city was in the midst of a partial re-opening even as the daily tally of COVID-19 cases continues to rise.

“As a chef, I’m heartbroken for my staff. I’m heartbroken for the restaurant industry,” Myint said. “PM is still closed and that’s out of the request and direction of the employees. Financially it’s stressful but the staff are doing OK. They know if they need money for rent or mortgage to just let me know.”

Suzy Wong’s House of Yum reopened in March with reduced occupancy and social distancing rules in place for drag shows. But BLVD remains closed (it was shuttered last year) while Myint and his sister Anna Myint work out a remodel that will position the restaurant to replace International Market and carry on its legacy.

“We’re curating the menu and working with the architect on the space,” Myint said. “When we reopen it’s going to be beautiful.

But it’s not going to open anytime soon.”

The documentary and cookbook inspired by Patti Myint are steadily moving forward.

“When the timing is right, it’ll happen,” Myint said. “My sister and I have gone through so much with both parents passing away over the past two years, so this has been a good time for us to breathe and get caught up. But there’s no pressure.”

Myint’s main takeaway from his time in isolation? There is only so much you can control in life.

“It’s a very Buddhist approach,” he said. “I can’t control my environment, but I can control what I do and how I react to it.

I really think it’s OK to be selfish right now and take the time you need. Self care is so important right now, because when you do that, it is going to ripple out and you are more able to help others.”

This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

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o u t a n d a b o u t n a s hv i l l e . c o m

July 2020

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Pandemic Sparks

Engagement for Nashville

Couple Brian Sullivan

“After almost seven years together, we’ve decided to get married in the fall, so it looks like COVID-19 hasn’t hurt our relationship,” said filmmaker Jennifer Sheridan. “We apparently really like each other.”

Sex, a love life, and a social life have been more difficult to access, facilitate or, in some cases, even think about since COVID-19 sent us all to our rooms, and everyone in the LGBTQ+ community is dealing with it all in their own way.

Maintaining that love life has proven quite the dilemma recently for Sheridan and her now-fiancé, entrepreneur Sabrina Torres.

The couple has four children, in addition to a roommate. Both Sheridan and Torres said there are people in their house all the time, and they don’t have the opportunities for privacy they did before COVID-19.

“Sometimes it feels like we have to make complex charts and graphs to figure out how to find a way to be alone,” Sheridan said.

The couple is in agreement that they don’t have sex nearly as often as they’d like, but that they’re always thinking of ways to make the most of the time they have.

“It’s definitely okay to be a little creative, we just have to make sure we’re quick, too,” Torres said with a laugh.

As for their social life, both Sheridan and Torres say they miss their friends, but they have made a conscious effort to have virtual cocktails once or twice a week with different people.

That part hasn’t been so bad.

“We’re stuck at home with the people we love most in the world,” Sheridan said. “It could be worse.”

The couple said the hardest part for them is trying not to make every minute of the day about work or the kids. Torres is particularly busy with her social media marketing and sales business. The couple has an agreement with each other to stop talking about work at 9 p.m. every night and to go sit on the porch for a while or watch some television. They said it’s really given them a chance to reconnect with each other.

“At first, it was hard to be on the same page about the significance of the situation,” Sheridan said. “One of us [referring to herself] was very serious about planning for isolation from the beginning, and it definitely impacted our relationship.”

The two say there were some heated arguments about what they call “stupid things,” like whether they needed to buy a big freezer or how to best to make sure they had the exact foods the kids would eat.

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“Thankfully, nobody ended up sleeping on the couch,” Torres said. “We always talked it out and this whole situation has reinforced for us that we can always compromise.”

The unknowns presented by pandemic life can be stressful, but the couple said they’re thriving in spite of it. As for their wedding…

“The ceremony might be just us and a Justice of the Peace via Zoom, but we can’t wait,” Sheridan said. “Sabrina will probably figure out a way to broadcast it all online, and that’s fine, whatever makes her happy.”

This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

Coming January 2021:

The Second Annual Out & About Nashville LGBTQ Business Directory and Travelers Guide!

Find your copy of the 2020 Guide wherever Out & About Nashville is distributed.

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July 2020

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FOR LGBTQ PEOPLE STRUGGLING

WITH COVID, HIV/AIDS

EPIDEMIC CASTS ITS SHADOW Brian Sullivan

“This wine tastes funny,” he said.

Joel Mosby, 42, of Memphis, was home with his husband Luke, 32, trying to enjoy a glass of white wine on St. Patrick’s Day when he noticed something was off.

“I mentioned it to Luke, and we just thought it was weird,” Mosby said. “We finished our wine and went to bed.”

The next day, on March 18, Mosby would wake up with what felt like a frontal lobe sinus headache. His head and teeth ached.

“It felt like a hangover, like a dehydration headache, then diarrhea,” Mosby said. “The next few days, I developed body aches, chills and constant fatigue. I kept all of those symptoms for almost a month.”

A couple weeks after testing positive for coronavirus, Mosby said he received a call from the Shelby County Health Department telling him his contagion period had ended, giving him the clear to end his self-quarantine. Mosby said different Baptist Hospital representatives called him throughout the process to make sure he knew his test had come back positive.

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Mosby said someone called to ask him about donating plasma because he possibly had antibodies that could help combat the virus, but Mosby informed them that, while he was more than willing to donate, he was gay. He said he never heard back from them after that.

For decades, the FDA has restricted men who have had sex with men in the past year from donating blood, but the agency loosened its rules on April 2 to help address the coronavirus outbreak. The rules now allow men to donate who have not had sex with men in the past three months.

“Going through this is an uncomfortable, uncommon experience, but it woke me up,” Mosby said. “I’m HIV-, but I’ve never been as close to that feeling someone must have had back then. I’ve watched plenty of movies and I’ve considered myself very aware of gay history and experiences, but it was devastating to go through something similar to what they must have went through.

Feeling sick and not knowing anything about the illness you have, while being stigmatized. It’s very sad and eye opening.”

Mosby began slowly journeying out, and traveled to his neighborhood grocery store on April 11, mask and gloves in

“I’ve Never Felt So Connected to What Queer People Must Have Felt in the AIDS Epidemic of the 1980s, Not Knowing Anything About the Illness They Had” check. Self employed, he returned to the office in early May, but would go only on the nights or weekends so as not to encounter his employees. He said he is paid on commission, but surprisingly did not take a huge loss during the nationwide economic downturn.

“I have worked harder from home during this time than I ever have,” Mosby said. “More people have been purchasing life insurance than ever before. I’ve thankfully been successful through this difficult time, but my employees haven’t been able to work, and I’ve still been paying them.”

Mosby said that 99 percent of the time, people have been supportive, but he’s had a couple of uncomfortable interactions. He blames stigma and misinformation. One of his friends made an insensitive comment that he never would have suspected. Mosby compares it to his experience coming out of the closet.

“There are people you expect to be very comforting and they surprise you, while there are some people you expect to be very judgemental, and they surprise you as well,” Mosby said.

“All people are different, and there’s a lot of misinformation out there.”

Joel is not the only person expressing the need for more information concerning COVID-19 and the LGBTQ+ community. More than 100 Congressmen sent a letter on May 20 calling on the Trump administration to collect information on the sexual orientations and gender identities of COVID-19 patients in order to better understand how the coronavirus is affecting the community.

Mosby said he also wonders if there might be lingering, long-term effects on his body after surviving the coronavirus.

“I don’t know if I could get a bruise and develop a blood clot, I don’t know if I’m immune or more susceptible to catching it again because I’ve had it,” Mosby said. “There’s so much we don’t know.

“It really grounded me and showed me what’s important. I’ve slowed down to focus on the people I love. There are positive lessons I’ve learned from this. You just have to learn everything you can from it, and try to leave a better impact on the world because of it. I hope I never forget what I went through.”

This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

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July 2020

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JONATHON CURTO RECOVERS FROM DEADLY CORONAVIRUS, URGES PUBLIC TO PRACTICE SAFETY MEASURES Brian Sullivan

Jonathon Curto, 50, wants the LGBTQ+ community to know that COVID-19 is not something to take lightly.

Early on the morning of April 16, Curto said, he woke up at his home in Nashville with chills, problems breathing and a temperature of 104.8 degrees. As someone who suffers from asthma, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, he felt he needed to go to the hospital.

“I had been having issues the past few days and I honestly thought it was the asthma at first,” Curto said.

He had similar health issues one month earlier and tested positive for the flu. Curto said his medical team at Skyline feared it could be something worse. The next day, he tested positive for COVID-19.

“They started me on IV antibiotics, but my breathing difficulties got worse and worse,” Curto said. “That night was eight straight hours of violent, non-stop coughing.”

Not long after that, he was moved from a regular bed to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Curto said he was placed on a high pressure vent at 90 percent oxygen to help him breath—if that didn’t work, he’d need to be intubated. The medical team also started him on Hydroxychloroquine in pill form.

“Prior to each time the Hydroxychloroquine is administered, the medical team is required to do an EKG to make sure your heart is in good condition to receive the drug,” Curto said. “They did that every time.”

Still, he got worse.

Then, came a ray of hope.

Curto’s doctor explained to him that he might be a good candidate for a convalescent plasma transfusion—a process by which plasma from a donor who recovered from COVID-19 would be injected into his bloodstream, and with it antibodies and proteins developed in the donor’s body during the time they had the virus in their system.

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Curto said he received the plasma through IV one night around 11:30 p.m. Within a day or two, doctors lowered his oxygen levels and he started to feel better. Medical staff monitored him for two more days and then released him from the hospital on May 4.

Since then, he said he has received daily calls from contact tracers with the Tennessee Department of Health checking on him. He had originally planned to quarantine for fourteen days, but because he experienced two different types of pneumonia during his recovery after the hospital, he decided to take extra precaution and quarantine longer.

The CDC recommends isolation for a minimum of fourteen days after exposure to COVID-19. Curto, because of his other illnesses, is taking double that time. He says he is still seeing a pulmonologist, and recently returned for a CT scan of his lungs. He has not yet received the results of that test.

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“When I was diagnosed, part of me almost couldn’t believe it, but I also felt devastated,” Curto said. “The worst part, though, was that night of the non-stop violent coughing for eight hours.”

After being in the hospital eighteen days, fourteen of which were spent in ICU, Curto said he was relieved to go home to his dog Max, his cat Simon, and his fish.

“I tried to focus on God and recovery, and trusting that He was going to get me better,” Curto said. “I tried not to think about the potential things that could happen with this, like dying. The loneliness is horrible. The only people you can see are the staff caring for you.”

Now a COVID-19 survivor, Curto wants the public to know the coronavirus is not something to be taken lightly.

“I sometimes get infuriated when I see people being so cavalier, not wearing masks, not social distancing,” Curto said. “I think a lot of people have gotten complacent. They think ‘We’ve been dealing with this for a couple of months and I haven’t gotten it, so I feel safe’. It doesn’t matter if you’re old or young. Thank God I lived, but there are people as young as twenty-one and in perfect health, and they are dying.”

Curto says he understands people wanting a return to normal life, but adds that “returning to normal” will never happen if we don’t deal with the crisis properly, now.

This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

Make Every Connection Count ADVO C ATE . EDU C ATE . CO NNEC T.

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To learn about our membership benefits (business or individual), visit nashvillelgbtchamber.org today.

Take the first step and start making connections at our Annual Meeting and Holiday Party on Thursday, December 12that the Nashville Children’s Theatre.

Details and RSVP at nashvillelgbtchamber.org.

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Capturing LGBTQ+ Experiences Cody Stallings

“Nashville Queers in Quarantine,” Emily April Allen explained, “is a physically-distanced photo project that aims to promote visibility and provide connection during a time of isolation. It documents this unique moment in time while also showcasing members of the Nashville queer community.”

Her photo series captures a broad range of LGBTQ+ community members as they quarantined and sheltered in place, focusing on what has for many been a unique and profoundly disruptive event.

KATE NELSON, REALTOR® 615 / 268-0319 615 / 383-6964 kjcnelson@gmail.com DIRECT

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realestatewithkate.com

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Tell our readers a little bit about who you are Emily: I grew up as the middle child of three queer kids in a politically liberal and observantly Jewish family in Fort Worth, Texas. We were (and are!) a unique bunch! My parents are from Chicago and New York City, though, so I feel that’s really where my roots lie. Needless to say, we were different from those around us in our area, and the uniqueness of my family bonded us together in a way that keeps us close. Because of my family, queer community has felt like home to me my whole life.

My journey into LGBTQ advocacy began in college at the University of Southern California, where I served a year as director of the university’s Queer and Ally Student Assembly, and then worked as the interim Program Associate for the SoCal office of the GSA Network. I moved to Nashville 8 years ago after graduating college, and became invol ved with th e Middle Tennessee chapter of GLSEN (I also served as co-chair for a couple of years). I was passionate about being involved in LGBTQ advocacy, but realized I am more suited to work on creative projects rather than ones that require more concrete organization and logistics!

I stumbled upon photography five years ago and realized that this medium was the perfect way to continue to stay involved while exploring this creative outlet. I am constantly intrigued by the question, “What is queerness?” Sure, it has to do with who you love and how you identify with yourself, but to me, it also encompasses who you are. Being seen is so central to both photography and queerness. Queerness needs to be seen, and photography is a tool for visibility. It’s a perfect pair.

Aside from photography, I enjoy spending my days in East Nashville with my three cats and my partner. I love the spirit and energy of East Nashville and I appreciate being part of the community. I especially love the vegan scene!

(Confession: I am not 100% vegan, I just prefer/enjoy it.)

I also have a passion for vintage clothing and used to be an avid thrifter. I recently bought a bike and am enjoying exploring the greenways.

“Patience and clarity seem like the overarching themes right now.

I’m learning to ease into personal revelations and spiritual growth.”

– ArJae (Cover Model)

July 2020

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How have you gone about selecting your subjects?

Participation has all been due to social media, primarily Instagram.

On April 1, I introduced the project on my Instagram page, @emdashphotos, to see if anyone was interested in being involved. Participating is free and remains free, so that there isn’t a barrier to participating during this financially stressful time.

I received a lot of great responses, and I also reached out to a few friends here and there who I’ve photographed before and thought would enjoy participating. As the project has grown, each time someone posts their photos from the series, more people see it, and more people inquire about participating. It’s been beautifully self-sustaining!

What inspired you to create “Nashville Queers in Quarantine”?

Pre-Covid, you could find me documenting queer events like Pronoun Party and Bitch Fit, or taking portraits of members of the queer community. When everything shut down, I brainstormed how to keep taking photos while also keeping myself and others safe and following the recommended guidelines.

After seeing the family porch portrait trend pop up, I realized I could do the same and give it a queer lens! In addition to their photos, each participant gets to answer a series of questions giving us a bit of insight into who they are, and reading those answers is one of my favorite parts of the project. That, and actually meeting and spending a bit of time with everyone!

Even though we’ve all been physically distanced, I feel more connected to the queer community now more than ever. Hopefully those participating and keeping up with the project feel connected, too!

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I really can’t say enough about how the project has kept itself up because of the people who participate. Everyone who inquires gets a shoot, as long as they are within about a half hour from Nashville and there are enough people in their area who are

“Quarantine has been teaching me about the necessity of practicality. The necessity of family/community. The necessity of solitude, rest, and introspection. Also, envisioning a world for oneself on the other side of this crazy time in life. And how to synthesize those ideas and findings.”

Munk Foo (Cover Model)

interested. I hope to get to every single person who has reached out!

Do you hope to continue this or a similar series once quarantine is over?

Yes! The series is evolving to a project I’m calling (for now) the Nashville Queer and Trans Community Photo Project. I loved the project so much that I realized I didn’t want it to end just because quarantine is fading, so it will continue as an ongoing series.

The focus of the series is to expand and maintain the visibility of the queer and trans community in Nashville and foster connections through accessible, casual, fun, and empowering photo shoots.

I’ll continue to travel to participants’ homes to keep it accessible, shoots will continue to be free, and will remain brief so those who are less excited about photo shoots can still participate!

The LGBTQ community in Nashville is widespread, so hopefully this ongoing series will provide an opportunity for continued visibility, connection, and empowerment. Those who are interested in participating can message me on Instagram at @emdashphotos! o u t a n d a b o u t n a s hv i l l e . c o m

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LONG TIME EQUALITY ACTIVIST STAYS VIGILANT IN COVID-19 ERA Joey Leslie

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When thousands of people filled Nashville’s streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in late March, Marisa Richmond watched from home with guarded optimism.

She is black. She is a transgender woman. She is a senior citizen.

Therefore, she is in several “high-risk categories” for contracting COVID-19. Weighing the health risks, she felt the socially responsible thing to do during the pandemic was to stay “safer at home.”

The irony and unfairness of the situation deserves to be spelled out. Because for many black and transgender people in the US, “safer at home” isn’t just a catchphrase born of a pandemic—it’s a long-understood reality that, once you’re out your front door, you are not safe.

“It’s unfortunate that the necessity of expressing our ongoing outrage over police brutality and systemic racism runs counter to the need to remain apart because racial disparities in health care have been highlighted by the pandemic,” Richmond said in a Facebook post.

“If you are participating, please be careful. I hope to rejoin you on the front lines soon.”

Then, as millions of people around the globe took to the streets in protest of hundreds of years racism and police violence against black people, a black transgender man, Tony McDade, was murdered by police in Florida. Then, a black transgender woman, Iyanna Dior, was attacked by 30 black men in Minneapolis.

Where was the outrage for them? The silence, Richmond said, was disturbing.

“Obviously the issue of police brutality against black people goes back many, many years. It was certainly something I was aware of growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, so it’s not new to me.”

Richmond said. “I think there’s finally an awareness that something bigger is happening and that we as a nation have to address that.

But if we say black lives matter, we have to mean black lives matter. We can’t turn around and beat up our own people.”

From murder, to unfair access to housing, to lack of healthcare and discrimination in the workplace—black transgender people are in every high-risk category imaginable. That’s why Richmond has been fighting for equality for the LGBTQ community for years.

A college professor, Richmond teaches U.S. Political History and Women’s and Gender Studies. She was the first openly transgender political appointee in Tennessee. Currently, she is the only transgender person serving on the Democratic National Committee and is helping organize a transgender caucus for this summer’s convention in Milwaukee.

She also tackles discrimination head on as Vice Chair of the Nashville Metro Human Relations Commission including involvement in training for new cadets coming out of the Police Academy. She said the Commission has been discussing expanding that training to the whole police department.

“Our primary responsibility is racial discrimination but I’m trying to make sure it does include any issues related to the LGBT community,” Richmond said. “Lately we’ve been looking at the issue of COVID-19 response, particularly at a homeless shelter set up by the city where we heard transgender people taking shelter there were being misgendered… they can’t get away with mistreating people thinking nobody is paying attention. Somebody is paying attention and now they know it.”

Even as global protests continued midway into June, President Trump continued to fan the flames of prejudice.

On June 12, the Trump administration delivered a hateful (and spiteful) blow when it announced it was eliminating an Obama-era regulation prohibiting discrimination in health care against patients who are transgender. The announcement came on the anniversary of the tragic Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando and during June’s LGBT Pride celebrations.

Then, just three days later, to the surprise of LGBT rights advocates, the Supreme Court delivered a sweeping 6-3 decision to protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from being disciplined, fired or turned down for a job based on their sexual orientation.

The polarity of those outcomes highlights changing attitudes in the US as more Americans than ever recognize and speak out against discrimination.

“The sustaining energy of this movement is surprising,” she said.

“I’m old enough to remember the Martin Luther King riots. But they kind of fizzled out after about five days, and here we are going on for weeks and I don’t see any fizzling out yet - so yeah, this feels very different.”

Richmond shows that even through restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, she’s made and kept herself a powerful voice around women’s issues, transgender issues, and issues of racial injustice.

In fact, at the time of this interview Richmond was planning to speak at a Black Trans Lives Matter rally in Nashville on Saturday, June 20, in spite of COVID-19.

“I feel it is necessary to be visible at this critical time,” Richmond said. “My siblings are being murdered and demonized, but at the same time, we are making progress as the SCOTUS ruling symbolizes.

I want to be there in person. It feels both exciting and sad.”

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JOSH CHADD ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF CARE DURING SHUTDOWN Brian Sullivan

Sometimes Josh Chadd wakes up feeling like a badass. Sometimes, he can’t find a good reason to get out of bed, so he doesn’t.

“I have battled depression and anxiety since long before COVID-19, and I knew this would not be pretty for me,” Chadd said.

The this he’s referring to is the pandemic-induced isolation he and millions of people around the globe have experienced since COVID-19 sent the world into lockdown early this year.

Prior to the pandemic, Chadd, 31, worked at a busy hospital some sixty hours a week, mostly on his feet and surrounded by people.

Then, amid ‘safer at home’ orders, he switched jobs and started working from home as an admissions coordinator.

His new job requires very few phone calls or video meetings, other than a weekly chat with his boss. Most days he works in silence with his dog nearby, or listens to music—usually a few songs on repeat.

The sudden changes have been challenging.

“I tried to prepare for the storm mentally - reminding myself over and over that this is just temporary,” he said.

Still, it’s been hard.

Chadd misses his friends, his favorite bar, Canvas, and his gay family—or “gamily,” as he lovingly refers to them.

He reaches out from isolation occasionally to check in with friends via text or through social media. Sometimes they get back to him, he said. Sometimes they don’t.

Photo by “Captured by Klea”

To fill idle time, he’s been cleaning and decluttering around his house and looking for excuses to step outside for fresh air from time to time. Some days he sits and cries for no apparent reason.

“There is no shame in needing antidepressants,” Chadd said.

When craving connection, Chadd sometimes turns to Tinder for conversation with other local shut-ins. But, even though he’s had some “really good conversations,” he said texting can only scratch part of the itch.

“Having to communicate via social networks, text, and email becomes exhausting,” Chadd said. “Even more so when, at the end of the day, all I want is to cuddle.”

Exhausting as it may be, Chadd said he has hooked up with a few guys over the last couple of months—but only after he was confident that they, like him, had no symptoms of COVID-19 and had been practicing social distancing and other recommended safety measures meant to flatten the curve.

“Thinking back, I realize that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do,” Chadd said. “This has been hard though, and I must admit while these hookups were not necessarily intimate, they have kept me from falling off the deep end.”

Though the silence and sameness of life in lockdown can be maddening, Chadd said it has given him a chance to step back and evaluate parts of his life including his friendships.

“While I feel like I have lost touch with a lot of people these past few months, I am hopeful we can maybe pick up somewhere around where we left off,” he said. “I don’t blame my friends for not being as present as I had hoped. It’s a two-way street and some days I have not felt like I could even be around another person, let alone carry on a conversation with them.”

Ultimately, isolation has created space for self-reflection and some significant realizations, Chadd said.

“It’s okay to be angry at things you don’t have control over, so long as you don’t allow those things to control you,” Chadd said. “Any growth is good, even if it’s painful or not what you had hoped for.”

This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

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QUARANTINING WITH HIS NEW BOYFRIEND, LUKE ARNOLD FINDS COMFORT IN THE LITTLE THINGS Joan Brasher

Luke Arnold should have been knocking on doors last month, drumming up support for democratic House candidate Mariah Phillips, before heading to barbecues with friends at Middle Tennessee State University. Instead, the political science major is quarantining in the tiny village of Florida, New York, in his new boyfriend’s family home.

“You learn about someone a lot faster when you live together. It’s definitely sped up the relationship,” Arnold said. “Back at MTSU we had less time together because we were both really busy.

I was out campaigning, and he’s in the aerospace program, so he was always flying.”

Arnold traveled in early March over spring break to see his boyfriend Michael Wajda, an MTSU aerospace major. They’d met at Boro Pride in September, and their relationship was still new.

The visit was meant to be brief, but soon after arriving at Wajda’s parent’s home, COVID-19 cases began spiking in New York City, just 68 miles away.

“We realized it wasn’t the best idea for me to get on a plane and go back to Tennessee,” Arnold said. “It was a little weird because we’d only been dating six months when this happened, and we’ve only known each other for a short time.”

Arnold has been in lockdown with Wajda, his parents, and his 14-year-old brother, for more than three months now. He said that while his life has slowed down, the relationship has accelerated.

Arnold continues to campaign for Phillips by phone, but the majority of his days are woven together by simple rituals with Wajda, like walking the dog, cooking together, working out and meditating.

“I’ve found we both need a lot of time to process our feelings during this crisis,” Arnold said. “The silence and being with yourself has been good. In a weird way COVID has helped me become a more-well rounded person because I’m taking more time for myself.”

Arnold describes his quarantine family as “super affirming,” but he’s still missing his dad back in Morristown, Tennessee.

“My dad is the best ally and best dad ever, so being away from him is rough,” Arnold said. “We talk a lot more than when I was on campus. We call each other every other day. It’s rough because he could lose his job—he’s already had to take a 25 percent pay cut.”

Arnold said it’s also difficult being so far from friends and having to miss out on all that comes with being a college student. He transferred to MTSU from a community college, so he’s only had one full semester of traditional college, with the spring semester cut short. He worries he won’t get to have the college experience he had hoped for.

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“There’s so much grief because no one was expecting this, and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Arnold said. “I miss hanging out with friends and doing college things. But I also realize how privileged I am. I am extraordinarily lucky to be where I am and to spend this time with my significant other.”

Being located so close to New York City, one America’s hardest hit regions, Arnold has a unique perspective on the pandemic. It’s been frustrating for him to talk to friends back in Tennessee who aren’t taking it as seriously.

“Some people back home, it’s almost like there’s this pressure to not wear masks,” he said. “They see the numbers, but it seems so distant. There’s this general idea that it only matters if you experience it yourself.”

The pandemic quarantine has cemented Arnold’s resolve to pursue politics as a career, either working on campaigns, lobbying or maybe even running for office.

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“Now is the time when we need strong leadership. We have to help good people get elected to make real change,” he said. “It’s important for people to hear we are going through this together and we will get through it together. We have to be understanding of each other during these insane times. We will find our next new normal.”

ESS15_EN_HalfPageH_August.indd 1 This article has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project for COVID-19 coverage.

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