February 21, 2018 :: Prison Issue

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FEB RUA RY 21, 2018 | CO LO R A D O'S LG B TQ M AGA ZINE | F R E E

US Detention Infrastructure Lea DeLaria Black & Pink Oscars Soooooo Queer

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CONTENTS FEBRUARY 21, 2018 VOL41 NO29

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WHY WE USE QUEER ALONGSIDE LGBTQ IN OUT FRONT 9 FRONT LINES: THE QUEER, CANNABIS-FUELED LEGACY OF DENNIS PERON AND LYNETTE SHAW 16 THE INTERSECTION OF QUEERNESS AND DISABILITY 18 THE PRISON CAPITAL OF COLORADO–FREMONT COUNTY’S RELATIONSHIP TO ITS PRISONS 23 A BREAKDOWN ON THE US DETENTION INFRASTRUCTURE 28 ALL HAIL THE BUTCH SUPERHERO

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A FORMER INMATE TALKS LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS IN PRISON 36 A CHAT WITH OITNB’S TAYLOR SCHILLING 38 OSCARS SOOOOO QUEER

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SERVING THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS SINCE 1976 PHONE 303-477-4000 FAX 303-325-2642 WEB OutFrontMagazine.com FACEBOOK /OutFrontColorado TWITTER @OutFrontCO INSTAGRAM /OutFrontColorado FOUNDER PHIL PRICE 1954-1993 ADMINISTRATION info@outfrontmagazine.com JERRY CUNNINGHAM Publisher J.C. MCDONALD Vice President MAGGIE PHILLIPS Operations Manager JEFF JACKSON SWAIM Chief Strategist EDITORIAL editorial@outfrontmagazine.com RYAN HOWE Editor ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER Digital Content Manager BRENT HEINZE Senior Columnist SARAH FARBMAN Copy Editor ARIANNA BALDERAMMA Intern WRITERS: Ezra Kronfield, Hannah Gartner, Caitlin Galiz-Rowe, Mike Yost, Rick Kitzman, Kate Dooley ART art@outfrontmagazine.com DESIGN2PRO Graphic Designer COVER DESIGNED BY REED LECROY WITH MODEL JOSUE LEDEZMA CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Charles Broshous MARKETING + SALES marketing@outfrontmagazine.com HARRISON SCHAFFER Director of Sales & Marketing ZACKERY GLASS Marketing Executive BRENNAN GALLAGHER Marketing Executive National Advertising Rivendell Media 212-242-6863 | sales@rivendellmedia.com

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Reproduction of editorial, photographic or advertising content without written consent of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Advertisers are responsible for securing rights to any copyrighted material within their advertisements. Publisher assumes no responsibility for the claims of advertisers and reserves the right to reject any advertising. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising is not to be considered an indication of the sexual orientation or HIV status of such person or organization. Publisher assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of materials submitted. OPINIONS EXPRESSED are not necessarily those of OUT FRONT, its staff, or advertisers.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BY RYAN HOWE

WHY WE USE QUEER ALONGSIDE LGBTQ IN OUT FRONT It’s hard to define the word ‘queer.’ For different people, it means different things.

QUEER /kwir/ adjective • strange; odd.

• an alternative that some people use to blur the idea of the labels and categories such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, etc.

• an in-group term or a word that can be considered offensive to some people, depending on their generation, geographic location • a reclaimed umbrella term used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual and generally non-heterosexual or non-binary communities. Queer is the opposite of Straight.

There isn’t a clear definition of the word. There isn’t a clear consensus on how the LGBTQ community feels about the word. Some have reclaimed it and use it as an easy umbrella term. Others hear or read the word and are immediately turned off. It’s still a word covered in filth and hurt. Some use it as a way to express exclusivity into a radical faerie’s way of life and thinking.

OUT FRONT’s staff spent many meetings and arguments on whether to use the word in our magazine. We discussed when it should be used. We talked about the backlash we might receive. We talked about what the word meant to us. Ultimately, we settled on using queer when both the writer and the subject of the story agree with it. In all other instances we’ll use LGBTQ to represent our community.

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For us, queer is used as an umbrella term for anyone who identifies as LGBTQ or something other than the worldview that promotes heterosexuality as the norm.

Sexuality and gender are fluid. Nothing is black and white, and all of us live somewhere in the grey area that falls between the opposing sides. Someone may not identify as gay, lesbian, or transgender, but they still live within our community. We must make an effort to include these people.

Being queer is first and foremost a state of mind. It is a worldview characterized by acceptance, through which one embraces and validates all the unique, unconventional ways in which individuals express themselves, particularly with respect to gender and sexual orientation. It is about acknowledging the infinite number of complex, fluid identities that exist outside the few limited, dualistic categories considered legitimate by society.

Being queer means that people are accepted for being themselves. They are celebrated for living authentically to how they want to live and not letting social norms dictate how they navigate our world.

Being queer means challenging everything that’s considered normal.

Being queer means recognizing that people don’t have to live with specific labels that potentially ignore their intersectionality.

Being queer means spreading love and happiness and standing up for what is right.

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FRONT LINES

THE QUEER, CANNABIS-FUELED LEGACY OF DENNIS PERON AND LYNETTE SHAW

By Addison Herron-Wheeler

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n 1995, something surprising happened. A local chief of police in Marin County, California, asked Lynette Shaw to coffee. As an advocate for cannabis and the known purveyor of an illegal, underground cannabis club, she didn’t exactly make regular coffee dates with the law.

The chief wanted to talk to her about AIDS. He had an officer down from working in the field, and apparently this officer wasn’t the only member of the police force silently suffering from what was still termed “the gay disease.” Even more surprisingly, he asked Shaw about cannabis brownies and how this man could medicate. The sick man was losing 25 pounds a month, and the Chief was looking for guidance.

“I said, ‘If I were you, I would hand your patient some literature and turn a blind eye,’” she admitted. “I gave him my pager number, and he got back to me and said ‘The officer gained 30 pounds; he is much better,

and I really believe this is something important.’”

Little did Shaw know, that coffee date would change the history of legal cannabis in America.

Both cannabis users and AIDS patients were treated like criminals in the early 90s, but the kinship didn’t end there. Those suffering pain and sickness from AIDS discovered that cannabis healed them, and cannabis activists realized that they had a case for the medical properties of the plant they stood by.

A brave group of activists fought for cannabis access among AIDS patients, putting their freedom on the line as they supplied patients with cannabis while also lobbying for legalization. Many of these activists were queer men themselves, impacted by the AIDS crisis, and some were strong allies. Two of these activists, Lynette Shaw and Dennis Peron, dedicated their entire lives to bringing about change, and are largely responsible for the cannabis legislation we see today.

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Peace, Love, and Cannabis Shaw’s relationship with cannabis began long before she became an activist.

“The hippie revolution hit when I was 12 years old, and I grew up in California, very close to Haight Ashbury,” she explained. “Marijuana was just everywhere—everywhere. In 1969 I was 14 years old, and, coming from a very low-income family, I started selling pot. In that era a girl couldn’t mow lawns or have a paper route; I couldn’t even wear pants to school. I didn’t have any legitimate way of earning an income.”

She soon began smoking cannabis, partially to cope with undiagnosed depression. Her father, who worked for the IRS, gave her an ultimatum and threw her out of the house when she refused to quit medicating.

Out on her own at a young age, Shaw relied on the only talent she could to make ends meet: her musicianship.

“I sold pot on the side and was a professional singer in the hotel circuits,” she said.

Shaw eventually ended up playing music in 1 0 \\ F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 8

Hollywood, where she befriended John Belushi and became a backup singer for the Blues Brothers. She was selling cannabis to Belushi during the late 70s, at the height of the drug war. In fact, she was trying to help him get off of hard drugs.

She then entered the darkest period of her life, running with and selling cannabis to the Hell’s Angels, and when they grew tired of her company, falling into a state of amnesia and getting hospitalized. Shaw could not read or write, she didn’t remember who she was, why she was depressed, what had led to this point in her life.

The only thing she could do was play the classical piano.

“So I started playing again, and then I found some pot on the junior college campus and started smoking pot again,” she said. “I couldn’t remember why, but even though I was very ill, as soon as I found pot I started getting better.”

Slowly, she began to heal. Shaw once more picked up music, this time reggae and jazz instead of blues. She also started dating again, and her new boyfriend was an activist and Vietnam vet.

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His connections to the underground cannabis scene ended up changing her life when he introduced her to the legendary activist Jack Herer.

Herer taught her about hemp and the concept of medical cannabis. Shaw realized that she had been medicating with cannabis for most of her life.

This epiphany flipped a switch, and she decided to dedicate her life to trying to legalize cannabis and helping folks heal with the plant.

Enter Dennis From there she was introduced to Dennis Peron, a gay activist who was heavily involved in both the San Francisco queer rights movement and the cannabis rights movement. She wanted to make a difference, but no one could be prepared for the magnitude of the problem at hand. Peron gave her a job doing intake into his cannabis club, the San Fran Cannabis Buyer’s Club in the Castro, one of the very first illegal, underground medical cannabis clubs.

Shaw did more than 6,000 intakes in her first five years. Although she was traumatized and still very much in her shell, she learned a little more every day about cancer, AIDS, Lupus, and other illnesses while she was training. She kept a medical book by her side at all times so that she could look up anything she didn’t know, literally learning during face-to-face sessions with patients. Rather than focusing on the fact that she was working at one of the first cannabis clubs in the country and actively making history, she was focused on day-to-day healing.

Meanwhile, as she worked to heal the community, Peron also needed help changing the public perception of cannabis. At the time, the media and the law were too close-minded to accept a bunch of queer folks, many of whom were HIV-positive, speaking up for cannabis rights. But Shaw would make the perfect woman in the limelight of legalization.

“Dennis said ‘You may be straight, but you’re alright with me; here’s some money; go get some heels, a power suit, a jacket, short skirt, and push up bra—we are going to take you to Sacramento.”

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reform. Peron would bring a group of men in to see politicians so that they could cover more ground. The goal was to hold nothing back: make the senators cry to get their vote.

“This is how we ran our senate bill, door to door, tear by tear,” Shaw explained. “We would all smoke a bunch of pot before we went into the state capitol, then we’d go into the capitol to make the senators cry. Dennis called this ‘the unfortunate dog and pony show.’”

During this time, despite the grueling and unusual work and immense pressure, Shaw also worked on herself. Her PTSD was diagnosed; she started seeing a psychiatrist and a medical doctor; she got off of the pill she was taking for mental health issues, kept using cannabis medically, and was able to work seven days a week for the cause.

In addition to fighting for patient access and providing cannabis, she and Dennis did condom giveaways and a needle exchange. Eventually, she branched off and started her own underground cannabis club in Marin County, leaving Peron’s home base in the Castro.

Hope in Sight As all of this was happening, cannabis was still illegal but was beginning to be more socially

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accepted. Shaw was profiled in the paper for running an underground cannabis club. The piece actually gained her more customers instead of getting busted. One AIDS patient was busted and had plants confiscated, and the media highly publicized the event.

This is when she was invited to coffee with the chief of police.

Eventually, the chief vowed to sign a petition and promised he would encourage others to vote ‘yes’ on the legendary Proposition 215, the 1996 legal ruling that granted medical cannabis in California.

Furthermore, the police chief encouraged Shaw to try and operate her underground cannabis club under legal guidance.

“Someone in his extended family was sick, and he said he had more officers down,” she explained. He wanted there to be a legal place for officers to get more medical marijuana. He asked if I knew what a permit was, explained that I was going to need a business license and it was going to take a permit.”

The chief of police had a list of rules in mind for the fledgling dispensary system, but many of them violated HIPPA and ADA regulations. Shaw realized that if medical cannabis was going to become a reality, there still had to be a system in place that respected patient confidentiality and medical records. She came back to the chief with a revised set of rules, and together, they worked out a system that honored both the law and patient privacy.

Shaw became the first legally-licensed cannabis seller in America. Because her victory came so early, she was sued by the Clinton administration and had her license suspended, and a federal tail placed on her for years, since she was unwilling to give up information about growers or those in the underground. However, she avoided getting raided because of the double jeopardy clause of being sued and because she always followed the letter of the law when it came to the regulations that she helped draft. Eventually she got her dispensary back, and now she is able to continue to do what she loves: sell cannabis to those who need it.

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partner to AIDS in 1990 and seeing many friends pass away, he remained positive and determined to fight and help those in need.

A Happy Ending On January 27, 2017, Peron passed away after a long battle with lung cancer. The cancer didn’t come from cannabis, but from a lifetime of loving cigarettes and being too stubborn to quit. Shaw will continue to spread the word about his good work, helping his family with media and the memorial, and helping cannabis patients every day. Many remember Peron fondly for the courageous, and often thankless, work he did during the AIDS crisis.

“One of the things we all shared is compassion, and that was what guided us,” explained cannabis patient and fellow activist Wayne Justmann, a good friend of Peron’s. “We cared about the wellbeing of other people. Dennis of course was affected by the AIDS crisis, and I myself being 30 years HIV-positive, I care about people who not only suffer from this illness, but from other illnesses that cannabis can help. We found out that the plant cannabis was necessary to take the chances that we used to educate society; it should be made available for those that want to use it, and that’s exactly what we have done and continue to do, Lynette with her wonderful work in Marin and her advocacy. Now that Dennis is gone we need to continue to get his message out, and that’s what we are going to do. It’s an easy message because it’s a message of caring for one another.”

Despite all the work they did, the AIDS crisis is far from over. Hiv.gov estimates that over 1.1 million people in the U.S. live with HIV today, and despite programs like PreP and Truvada, around 37,600 Americans became affected in 2016. Young people, people of color, and folks from underprivileged areas are still at major risk.

However, it is an option for many of those people to medicate with cannabis, in addition to taking drugs that help keep their symptoms at bay. Cannabis helps with weight loss, nausea, and vomiting, and studies show that it doesn’t have an adverse effect on the immune system and is safe to use for those with compromised immunities.

It is because of the dedicated work of Shaw, Peron, and their associates in the Castro and in Marin county, on the streets during the early days of the drug war and the AIDS crisis, that medical cannabis patients have many of the options they do today.

Peron’s contributions will not be forgotten, and Shaw and other activists will continue to carry out his good works.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Beaver Run Invites You to Breck Pride Nestled at the base of Peak 9 of the Breckenridge Ski Resort in the High Rockies of Colorado, is one of the state's most luxurious, most exciting, most accommodating ski resorts—Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center.

Boasting beautiful rooms and suites, those looking to relax, escape, and enjoy this incredible ski town will find a vacation home at Beaver Run. It’s also the perfect place to kick back and relax (or not) during the second annual Breck Pride from March 7-11.

For those that refuse to spend vacation in a hotel room— no matter how gorgeous the room is—Beaver Run has a number of amenities to keep restless vacationers busy. From its top-of-the-line exercise room, to the tennis court, to the arcade, there is plenty to do within the hotel walls. Out on the patio, you can dip your toes in one of the many hot tubs or the heated pool, which offers swimmers the option of swimming inside or out.

The resort also invites guests into its spa, where a certified and expert staff deliver a personalized experience with completely natural products. During Pride, all guests can buy one couples massage, and get the second for half the price.

Beaver Run also has some amazing dining on location.

Located at the base of the Beaver Run Superchair, Coppertop Bar & Cafe is a ski-in, ski-out restaurant that features breathtaking views, live music, and delicious food. During Pride, Coppertop will be kicking off the weekend with a free day-party on Friday, March 9 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“It’s going to be a perfect way to start off an amazing weekend,” Beaver Run’s marketing manager Rachel Follender said. “But, we aren’t stopping there. We’re moving the party from Coppertop to the Base Nine Bar for a night of karaoke, dancing, DJs and fun directly after.”

It’s not a far move, luckily, as Base Nine Bar is also housed at Beaver Run. The night of karaoke begins at 7 p.m. and rages on until 10 p.m.

If staying in is not your style, don’t worry. At all. Beaver Run is conveniently located a measly three blocks from Breckenridge’s historic Main Street—and has a shuttle that also gives guests free rides. During the day, visitors can spend hours at the shops, pubs, and restaurants. At night, the bars are filled with gorgeous people dancing off what energy they have left.

“We have so much to offer under one roof,” Follender said. “We have a very fun and laid back atmosphere.

Come and celebrate Pride with us this year!”

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The Intersection of Queerness and Disability

By Ezra Kronfeld

D

isability rights activism has been changing and challenging the nation as we know it for decades; groups like ADAPT from right here in Denver fought tooth-and-nail to make the American workplace, social services, and other parts of our daily lives more accessible for the physically and mentally handicapped.

As is often the case for race, class, and various other intersectional combinations, being both differentlyabled and queer can bring about its own struggles, and those in our community living with physical, mental, or cognitive illness often have very particular needs and lack visibility.

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“I’m older and lived through the early 80s AIDS crisis,” said Rex Fuller of the GLBT Community Center. “Many able-bodied gay men became disabled. Several of my friends from that time found themselves in wheelchairs or using crutches or dealing with blindness, and other things like that.”

Though hesitant to speak on behalf of the disabled, Fuller also remarked that both communities “have dogs in the fight” in regard to receiving adequate healthcare.

While the statewide uninsured rate has gone down significantly these past few years, Coloradans, particularly differently-abled and LGBTQ residents, can still lack access to proper care, fall victim to high prices, and even experience identity/abilitybased discrimination. Given this, it makes sense that these communities often work together in their causes.

However, disabled members of the queer community face stigma from fellow LGBTQ folks on various fronts.

The term ‘cripgay’ is used to describe queer people, usually men, with physical disabilities. In the Lambda Award-winning anthology Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories (2004), numerous writers contribute personal musings on the exclusion which they face from the gay community. Bob Guter, one of the book’s editors, said to The Washington Blade, “Gay men with disabilities don’t fit the queer image of beauty.”

Facing community prejudice, either because of vanity or preconceived notions towards queer people, are some of the main issues that get discussed when ‘cripgay’ issues come to light.

In terms of trans/gender-nonconforming communities, being differently-abled can pose immense challenges, and not just socially. For example, disability can create major obstacles in acquiring gender-affirmation care.

For any citizen on Medicaid, millions of whom are disabled, healthcare access can be an uphill trudge. Many doctors do not take Medicaid, which can make it almost impossible to get healthcare for disabled people in lower income brackets.

For differently-abled Medicaid recipients who are physically transitioning, two battles must be fought. On one front, they must try to get the care they need in regard to disability through their Medicaid plan; on the other, they must try to do the same in receiving needed surgery and hormone treatment.

These two are often in direct opposition with one another, especially if you are one of many on Medicaid whose plan excludes coverage for transition-related care.

Fortunately, Colorado is one of a chunk of states that outright prohibits the exclusion of trans recipients, for both Medicaid and private insurance. However, most of the country’s disabled, trans citizens currently on Medicaid face either unclear state legislation in regard to their protections or explicit policies, which make them unable to receive proper treatment.

Handicapped trans people are definitely not immune to prejudice and discrimination from their own communities.

Given the frequent dehumanization of the visibly physicallydisabled, it is not a huge surprise that the erasure of sexuality and gender identities are so common, even in supposedly liberal, social-justice-oriented circles; users of wheelchairs or crutches are seen only as their handicap, not as real people with their own personalities, gender expressions, and orientations.

It seems to be a continuation of the peculiar and vastly-ranging threshold of acceptance held by various queer activists and groups. Many “max out” at promoting the rights of cis, white, able-bodied, middle-class gays, and if a group’s needs are even a little more specialized or nuanced, they are thrown under the bus. This can create community-wide disregard for both intersectionality and gender-nonconformity.

Stigma and discrimination from both inside and outside of the queer community have substantial and wildly complex effects on the lives of the disabled; it is clear that the intersectionality of queer identity and disability can create challenges in receiving shelter, healthcare, and community support and respect.

We all must come together in the ongoing pursuit of social equity, inclusivity, and accessibility for everyone.

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THE

Prison Capital OF

Colorado FREMONT COUNTY’S RELATIONSHIP TO ITS PRISONS

By H a n n a h Ga r t n e r

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have driven through Cañon City more times than I can count on my way to climb at Shelf Road. Coming from Summit County, I always enter this metropolis of 16,679 residents heading east on Route 50. The road descends quickly, passing between South Twin Mountain and the Royal Gorge. The vistas are sweeping and offer hints as to why so many people come to this area to bike, raft, and rock climb.

The gradient of the road evens out; there is a sharp left turn, and suddenly the streets of Cañon City occupy the space between sheer cliffs and pavement. Coming from this direction, the first building on the left is the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility. The menacing, tall walls and barbed wire fences that surround the prison have always made me look twice, and I’ve never been able to drive by without thinking about what life behind those barriers must be like.

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Opened in 1871, just over ten years after Cañon City was established, the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility has grown up with the town. It has also made the area a logical destination for other prisons. The second prison complex in the area, the Skyline Correctional Center, was opened in 1957, after which nine more penal institutions found their home in the area.

All eleven of the prisons in Fremont County are publically funded, and most are state-run. However, the four found in Florence, a small town of just of 5,000 people, a twenty-minute drive from Cañon City, are federal. The prison complex in Florence can be reached by taking Route 67 South, and is home to one of the most infamous prisons in the country—The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility, more commonly known as ADX Florence. This prison, which is the only U.S. federal supermax, has also been called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”

There are three standard ways to classify prisons in the United States: minimum security, medium security, and maximum security. Logically, prisoners in minimum security prisons enjoy a greater amount of freedom and fewer guards. Medium security prisons are the most common, housing the majority of drug offenders and perpetrators of violent crimes, while maximum security facilities are reserved for those deemed to be the most dangerous.

The supermax prison is a subcategory of maximum security where all inmates are kept in solitary confinement almost all the time. The small amount of interaction they are allowed occurs through bars and walls. Prisoners in adjoining cells have even learned to communicate through the drain pipes.

Many prisoners at ADX Florence develop psychosis due to a lack of even the most basic forms of interaction. The supermax prison is an extreme place, and its location in Fremont County intensifies the stigma that this area experiences. Prison Valley and Prison City are both nicknames that this area has been saddled with. Between the eleven prisons found here, there are almost 9,000 available inmate beds. The population of prisoners is typically under capacity, but if filled, their numbers would be equivalent to about 40 percent of the population of Florence and Cañon City put together.

The people who live here walk a fine line between not wishing to be defined by the prisons, while also acknowledging the impossibility of separating their economy and culture from these institutions.

A visit to the Museum of Colorado Prisons, which is located next to the Colorado Territorial Prison in what used to be the Colorado Women’s Correctional Institution, concretely demonstrates these links. From the inmate band that used to play in the annual Music and Blossom Festival Parade to Woodpecker Hill, an area in the local cemetery where unclaimed inmate bodies are buried, life in Cañon City has always been tied to the prisons located there.

Taylor Ford, a local student at Pueblo Community College, has lived in Cañon City for most of her life. Although Ford doesn’t work for the any of the prisons herself, her father has worked for the Department of Corrections in the juvenile detention facility. This one degree of separation is common in the area, where so many jobs are provided by the penal institutions. However, in no way does Ford feel defined by these institutions.

“For me [they’re] just there,” she said. “While most other schools in Colorado practice fire drills, tornado drills, and stuff like that, we practice lockdown drills. It’s just become a part of life.”

Like any other part of life, the prisons are something that people learn to live with. Almost more difficult for residents is the stigma that is placed on the area due to their presence.

“Kids who go to the schools here are usually called 'prison kids' because a lot of people think that [they are] the children of inmates,” Ford said. Although the individuals who think this are not completely wrong, they are forgetting that the prisons exist within a larger community, a community that also employs doctors, teachers, and small business owners.

The people who live in Cañon City view their home as so much more than Prison Valley.

Carol Neel, a Professor of History at Colorado College in nearby Colorado Springs, has spent the last few years working with students on cataloging the history of prisons in Fremont County. She attests to the area’s desire to change how it is perceived.

“The county is very forcefully trying to rebrand itself, not as prison city but as rafting central,” Neel said.

Neel also points out that this is part of a larger trend that began in the 1960s. Before that time, prisoners walked more freely through town, performing frequent concerts for the community and working as cooks and nannies for the prison wardens. Even when they were behind bars, the large, impenetrable walls we see surrounding many prisons today were basically absent during the first half of the 20th century. In both a practical and symbolic way, the addition of these walls has separated the prisons from the community, stopping anyone from seeing in or out and creating distance within the psyche.

“The notion of a door clanging shut between the prison and the outside world is a primary theme of [the] 20th century history of incarceration,” Neel said.

However the citizens of Fremont County view the prisons with which they share their community, it is clear that these institutions cannot be disregarded. The history of the prisons is firmly intertwined with that of the area, and the jobs they provide are part of the lifeblood of the economy.

Still, it is important to remember that this place is more than the prisons. Although the local culture is informed by their presence, the general feeling among locals is that Cañon City is a safe place to raise a family with a strong community feel.

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A BREAKDOWN OF THE

US

DETENTION

INFRASTRUCTURE

By Caitlin Galiz-Rowe

T

he United States boasts the largest immigration detention infrastructure in the world, and yet many of its citizens don’t know much about it. With immigration as such a hot-button topic over the past decade in this country, we should understand the intricacies of it beyond policy. So what do detention centers look like?

The Basics Immigration detention centers are facilities that house people who have been detained for being in this country without documentation.

These facilities are a hodgepodge of federal and private facilities, in addition to local jails and youth detention centers. They are generally located away from populated areas.

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History of Detention Centers Immigrant detention started with the migrants coming to Ellis Island in the 1890s. Prior to the 1980s, only about 30 people were detained per day. More forceful detention and removal of undocumented immigrants began during the Reagan era, when there was an influx of asylum-seeking Haitians coming to the United States.

The UN created temporary safe havens for the Haitian people in surrounding countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, and Honduras, but the coast guard was still overwhelmed, so in 1991, 538 Haitians were forcibly returned to Haiti. In 1996, Bill Clinton officially authorized mandatory detention by enacting the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility acts.

Section 133 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility act had an addition called “Section 287(g),” which allowed for the Department of Homeland Security to deputize select local and state law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration law. Because of these acts, the number of people in detention went from 8,500 to 16,000 between 1996 and 1998.

In 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or I.C.E, was created in order to investigate and facilitate deportation of undocumented individuals. I.C.E created the Secure Communities program in 2007 to identify and prioritize undocumented people who had committed crimes. With this new program, anyone arrested had their fingerprints run through both criminal and immigration databases to determine their citizenship status. If an arrested person is undocumented, I.C.E gets to determine if immigration enforcement action is necessary based on factors like the severity of their crime, their immigration status, and their criminal history.

Despite complaints from some police departments and government officials about Secure Communities doing more harm than good to the communities they claim to protect,

President Obama remained in support of the program, and it exists to this day.

In 2006, the “task-force model” of 287(g) implementation was introduced, where local police forces were allowed to screen the public for immigration law violations. “Screening” allowed officers to detain or arrest people they encountered during their usual rounds that they either suspected or “could identify” as undocumented immigrants. This model allowed for abuse and racial profiling by some law enforcement officials, such as Joe Arpaio, an Arizona sheriff recently and controversially pardoned by Donald Trump. In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security decided to discontinue most of its partnerships with these local departments, in favor of more focus on the Secure Communities program. Between 2011 and 2017, participants in the task-forces dropped from 72 to 37. However, in an executive order from January 2017, Trump has asked the Department of Homeland Security to create more 287(g) partnerships.

How does detention work?

When someone is detained, they are usually taken to the facility closest to them. Based on an immigrant’s situation, different rules will be applied to different people. Some of the deciding factors in which rules are applied are if that individual is being deported for certain actions or crimes, whether they have already received an order for final removal, and whether the government can actually send someone to another country.

These rules may also vary depending on interpretations of laws in different states.

Generally, people are eligible for release from detention centers if they’re determined to not be flight risks and that they aren’t “a danger to the community.” If someone is eligible for release, there are multiple conditions they might be released under, including bonds and various forms of monitoring through I.C.E, such as scheduled check-ins or ankle monitors.

However, if someone is subject to mandatory detention, they will not be released and will instead stay housed in a detention center during the extent of their removal process or court proceedings. Cases are usually filed after two weeks, but can take up to 90 days, meaning that people in detention often wait in a limbo for their case to even be filed. There are currently 2.3 million people in the system, 1.4 million of whom don’t know if they’re going to be deported or not.

Conditions There has been an ugly history of abuse within immigration detention centers. Human rights violations, including physical and sexual abuse, have been reported multiple times. The people housed in these centers are vulnerable because they face different conditions than those in regular American prisons. Detainees can be transferred to different facilities without notice, and unlike prisoners of the criminal justice system, they aren’t entitled to a lawyer free of charge. If a detainee wants counsel, they have to pay for it out of pocket, which is challenging for many people. Immigration courts are required to provide lists of free lawyers to detainees, but 2 4 \\ F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 8

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these may not be a solution, as they often specialize in certain kinds of detainees, like asylum-seekers.

While there were two previous versions of the PerformanceBased National Detention Standards, standards that were meant to monitor and prevent abuse, in 2000 and 2008, the exposure of and outcry against the awful and immoral treatment of detainees caused the Department of Homeland Security to implement an updated version in February 2012.

These updated standards are meant to help with quality of life and civil liberties for detainees, but are still not a complete solution, as detention centers are not required to follow them across the board. Only 60 percent of the immigrant population being held in 2016 was housed in facilities that conformed to these standards.

People in these facilities also often face a lack of comprehensive medical care, especially in regards to mental health and transgender healthcare. I.C.E detains an average of 65 transgender women a day. These women are often denied access to hormone therapy while in detention and are more likely to face sub-par medical care overall. At some facilities, transgender people are housed in an entirely separate unit, which may cause more harm, as they are singled out as “others” among the detainee population. Much like our prison system, many transgender women are given the choice to either live with a male population that could pose a significant risk to their safety, or live in solitary confinement for several months, which has been proven to be mentally and emotionally damaging.

Additional FACTS • THERE ARE THREE DETENTION centers

currently operating in Colorado. One in the Denver area, one in Aurora, and one in El Paso County.

• THERE ARE CURRENTLY OVER 200

detention centers in the United States.

• IT COSTS ABOUT $23,000 to

deport someone after the costs of apprehension, detention, legal processing, and transportation. We spent nearly two billion dollars on deportation in 2015.

• TEXAS CURRENTLY DETAINS THE highest number of immigrants.

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Being anywhere along the queer spectrum can be dangerous in detention centers. LGBTQ-identified detainees are 15 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in detention than their cisgendered, heterosexual counterparts, and they are often abused by both the guards and other detainees.

Privatization Much like the American prison system, detention centers rely on private contractors to run many of their facilities. This, in part, enables the aforementioned abuse, as there is less direct government oversight in private facilities.

The 1980s saw the rise of two major prison corporations, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation on America, both of which lobbied for laws to expand detention and other forms of incarceration. These private facilities are focused on turning detainees into profit. They set quotas of detainees in holding to maximize profitability, as they are paid per detainee per day. It’s not just the companies who benefit, however. Cities and counties that host detention centers also take in revenue from I.C.E’s multi-million dollar spending. On average, it costs taxpayers about $90.43 to detain someone in a private facility, and over 60 percent of detainees are held in private facilities.

Trump’s 2017 executive order has called for an increase in the construction of detention centers. Private prison companies will continue to benefit from this, as more of their contract facilities will be built and filled to comply with I.C.E’s new goal of 85,000 immigrants detained per day. Two private companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic, were backers of the Trump campaign.

To learn more about immigration and detention centers, check out EndIsolation.org, GlobalDetentionProject.org, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the PBS documentary Lost in Detention.

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All Hail The

Butch Superhero

By Sa r a H e r n a n d e z

Lea DeLaria, commonly known as Big Boo from Orange Is The New Black, flew to Denver during Pride to party it up at the City Hall Amphitheater. She graciously gave OUT FRONT a few minutes of mictime. The interview is as follows.

Come along as Lea D. gets candid outside the clink.

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You've been labeled a "butch superhero" in the past.

A butch superhero? I haven’t heard that one but I love it! I get a picture of me standing on a hill with my arms akimbo, the breeze blowing through my cape. It’s like that shot from the original Superman series with George Reeves, where it always showed him with America behind him. The second thing I think of when I hear that is how much the community has changed in terms of its acceptance of butch dykes and nelly fags. I hope I had something to do with that.

Do you feel like you’re a good role model for the community?

No. I think if I’m a role model, then the community is in a lot of f*cking trouble. That’s what I think. People keep calling me a role model and I don’t know what to do with it. I mean my entire life, my career has been based on social commentary. And in order to be a good social commentator, you have to be a bit on the outside, if you know what I mean. So for people to suddenly start calling me a role model is sort of frightening. It’s like, “Oh my God, I’ve lost my edge!” I prefer dyk-on to role model.

I read you were excited about being the “fat, butch dyke with the c*ck strapped on” in Season 3. Why was that so exciting for you?

Are you kidding?! The reason I was excited was 1) they never show fat people having any sexuality whatsoever, so here’s a fat dyke having sex with a truly hot babe. In fact, Madison was so hot that I now know how men feel when they’re afraid they’re going to get a woody during a sex scene. Thankfully, my scene called for me to have a woody so it was all good. But you never see fat people having any sexuality, and you never see butches having any sexuality. You only see them drunk; you only see them beating their girlfriends; you only see them stupid. And in all of American television, The L Word included, this is a first—TV Guide pointed that out, which is awesome. This is the first time there’s ever been a lesbian sex scene with a c*ck strapped on the way it’s supposed to be. There have been dildos before, but never dyke sex with c*cks strapped on. So to be the first to do that was very, totally cool.

You’re a pioneer in the TV strap-on field.

Absolutely hilarious. I was the first openly gay comic to perform on television in America and that was 1993.

So now, 22 years later, I’m the first actress to have dildo dyke sex [on television].

When you read the script, were you like, “Holy sh*t! This is gonna happen!"?

I asked Kate Mulgrew [who plays Red] about it because

I’d never done a sex scene before. I asked if she had any tips, forgetting that Kate and I had been emailing each other over my phone. And you know how your phone will say “Sent from my iPad or sent from my iPhone” and people get creative with that? Mine says “Sent from my vagina.” She sends back, “Isn’t everything you send from your vagina?”

I mean, I was a tad nervous about it because I wanted it to be real. We had a conversation on set where they wanted me to strap the dildo on over my boxers. They wanted people to see what [the strap-on] was. I said, “Look. As a butch dyke, I can’t allow that. Nobody does that. Absolutely nobody does that. Nobody straps a c*ck on over their panties! It’s stupid.” But I understood what they wanted, so I said, “Let’s go naked,” which is what we did. They just thought I’d never go naked, which is why they suggested it in the first place. I’ll tell you right now: If there’s anybody comfortable in their skin, it’s me. I don’t give a f *ck.

Once we got that cleared up it was good.

You were in Denver for Pride.

Yes! I had so much fun. Ridiculously great fun—[Girl Pride] was quite a party. And you know, I’m often not celebrating. I’m often doing very political things when I go to Prides. In fact, for a time I was kind of over Pride because all they seemed to be was a celebration when there was so much f*cking work that needed to be done. I felt like “Gay Pride Day? Sorry I don’t have enough pride to last the f *cking day.” I was so over all of it. It was only until recently, where the queer community has gotten their sh*t back. Those things, those desires. To borrow the hashtag, I’ve been using “refuse to be invisible.”

Now I’m really excited when I go to Pride. I spent a lot of time saying no. People would say, “Oh, come. It’s a great party.” Stop right there; I’d lose my f*cking mind.

I was sick of every f*cking Pride having some assh*le talking about how we’re like everyone else and we’re exactly like straight people. That f*cking goes up my ass so far. We’re not like straight people. We have our own community and our own culture.

We can coexist peacefully within who we are without having to emulate anybody. The other thing is how religion seemed to take over every Pride I went to. I was like, “If I go to another Gay Pride and see another religious float, I’m going to personally go up to Heaven and bitch-slap Jesus.” With organized religion, there’s a history of the persecution of everybody—not just queer people—everybody throughout history. And some people need to own that sh*t. Don’t get me going here; I’ve got nothing against religious people if they respect my choice to be me, to be an atheist, and the fact that I was born a dyke. As long as they respect me, I’ll respect them. But the minute they show any derision for who I am, I’m in their face.

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But you enjoyed Denver while you were here?

I was in Denver for less than 12 hours. I came to party and put my face out to say, “Happy Pride! What a f*cking amazing time to be queer!” I was there to do some dancing and have a few drinks; it was great.

Fangirl question for you: Is Lori Petty as rad in real life as most fangirls think she’d be?

Lori Petty is the raddest motherf*cker on the planet! It’s interesting that you should ask because you’ve probably seen on social media about a thousand pictures of me and Lori and often Taryn Manning [who plays Pensatucky].

The three of us hang a lot; we’re sort of the punk-ass bitches on the show.

Lori is the f*cking sh*t, man. She’s so cute. The first season we became friends pretty quickly. And she was like, “Yo, DeLaria! My sister’s coming to town with a girlfriend.

You would make me a hero in their eyes if you would have dinner with us. They’re huge fans of yours and have been for a long time.” I f*cking love that about Lori; she was totally fangirling. It’s been a joy. Having Lori is one of the best gifts Orange has given me. She’s a rad-ass motherf*cker—love her. And she’s a great actor. She’s so good on the show, a great f*cking addition to the cast.

Who have you fangirled over in the past?

I don’t generally fangirl over celebrities. My demeanor is usually pretty cool. Having said that, I will say this: I met Lily Tomlin back in 1993 backstage at the GLAAD awards. I had just become the first openly gay comic on television that March, and this was the June GLAAD awards. So I was rubbing elbows with famous people and I’d never done that before. I saw Lily Tomlin backstage in the corner going over her script. She had her glasses on reading her script and I thought to myself, “I may never have the opportunity again to shake hands with Lily Tomlin. So I’m going to go over to say hi, and she looked up. I just wanted to say, “Excuse me, Ms. Tomlin, I would love just to be able to shake your hand. You’ve been a huge influence on me and my comedy.”

worked for the public theater in NYC. I was playing Audrey in As You Like It, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow at the time. Gwyneth had just won her Academy Award, so every day was insanity. Every day, the stage manager would come back and tell you who was in the audience. And it became a joke; I mean it became ridiculous, names like Steven Spielberg. I remember one day the stage manager came back and was like, “We’ve got Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep.” So of course we all went crazy. And she came backstage to meet me and I kind of shook her hand and was really calm. And then I got down on my knees and did the “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!” thing to her.

She was beautiful! She went, “You know that’s why I love your acting, Lea. You always make the small choices.”

The next time I saw her, we did a 50th anniversary show for public theater and it had God and everybody in it. And she sang “Sodomy” from Hair and I was going on after her. She had been nervous about it in rehearsals and when she came out, I told her, “See? I knew you would f*cking kill!” And she kissed me on the cheek; then she kissed me on the hand and let me tell you: I didn’t wash my face and my hand for a f*cking year!

What do you enjoy most when you’re on the road?

I generally tour with a trio if not a quartet and always intersperse music within my stand-up comedy. Because my comedy is so loud, so fast, and so vulgar, people get tired. You can only take it for so long. So, you know, after like five minutes they’re like, “Mom, make it stop!”

In 1982, when I started doing dyke comedy, I did music as well because it worked. I would just sing some song [the crowd] knew, lull them into a false sense of security, then start screaming “f*ck!” and “dyke!” and “c*nt!” at them. And that’s been my format since 1982 and hasn’t changed. So, what do I like the most when I’m on the road? Finding strange p*ssy.

You’re hilarious. So let’s wrap this up by playing Marry, Murder, Screw. Your choices are Piper, Alex, and Pensatucky.

Piper, Alex, and Pensatucky? Oh, Lord. Are we talking Lea DeLaria or Big Boo?

Before I could even say that, she looked up and smiled really big and said, “Oh, Lea DeLaria! What a pleasure to meet you! I am a huge fan.” And I just burst into tears!

Like a f*cking little bitch. I was horrified! And I was like, “Oh, Lily, I’m so sorry. I don’t usually respond like this. It just means so much to me.” Interestingly enough, since then, almost every day now, someone bursts into tears when they meet me. So I have total empathy for them because the f*cking thing happened to me.

We’re talking Lea DeLaria.

The other was when I first met Meryl Streep. This would’ve been somewhere around 1999. Mrs. Streep and I both

This article was originally published in OUT FRONT’s “Let’s Talk Ladies” issue in September 2015.

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I would murder Pensatucky, screw Piper, and marry Alex.

But Boo would murder Piper, screw Pensatucky, and marry Alex. Let me just say Boo is more understanding than Lea DeLaria. I would bitch-slap Pensatucky into next Tuesday; I’d never have the patience to deal with that bullsh*t. Boo is a much more patient and loving person than Lea DeLaria.

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A FORMER INMATE TALKS

LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS IN PRISON

By Lacy Bursick

S

tripped naked. Spread apart. Finger and hand prints. Photos of your tattoos and birthmarks.

You’re given two sets of orange scrubs, two bras, five pairs of underwear, and two pairs of socks. Nothing you have is yours. You are no longer an individual; you are a number.

With popular TV shows like Orange Is The New Black and Wentworth, the women’s prison system has become a spectacle for elaborate storylines based off somewhat true events.

“It took a while to adjust, but I remember getting my first hygiene order from commissary and it was like, ‘well at least this is mine.’ You don’t really realize materialism until it’s gone,” said Angela, a former inmate whose name we changed for protection.

Angela said she believes prisons try to break prisoners as part of intake, and make inmates know their place.

“I was shocked. It was a weed.”

Prior to being locked up, Angela was in a four-year relationship with a man, and had always been interested in relationships with men. After being sentenced, her boyfriend promised to be there for her and wait for her to get out. Once her twoyear prison sentence was over, they planned to get married and continue their lives together.

Then a few months into her sentence, he ghosted her. He stopped answering her calls. He stopped writing. Confused and alone, she helplessly went to sleep each night wondering what happened.

After a month of darkness, her friends and mother informed her of photos on Facebook of him and another woman who he was calling ‘his lady.’

“They want to push you down so you don’t feel like you have a voice,” she said.

Devastated about the news, she suffered from this heartbreak every day, and still to this day isn’t over it. She had no closure, and nothing to distract her.

She was forced to face her emotions in the darkest, rawest form.

Her first week, she was walking around the yard and noticed a tiny white flower and picked it. Next thing she knew she had a corrections officer in her face, threatening to write her up for destruction of state property.

“All you have to do in there is think. You think about your entire life, I mean everything, leading up to where you are now. So the thought of another woman, the thought of my future husband with her, doing the things we were supposed to be doing, it

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was so hard. Bad days were really bad,” she said.

Feeling alone, she started to make friends with other women in her unit. There was a 20 year old girl, Cam, who flirted with Angela, and a friendship began to form.

“After I found out the truth about my boyfriend, it kind of turned into ‘f*ck it, I deserve some companionship too.’”

Cam and Angela began an intimate relationship, and sought comfort in each other. Cam showed her compassion and love. They opened up to one another and fell in love.

“By nature we are social creatures,” she said. “We want connection. Especially in there. Women want to feel needed and loved. It’s instinctual.”

Angela described Cam as a stud. She wasn’t feminine, and she had beautiful blue eyes and a smile just as bright. Angela was six years older than her.

“We really helped each other pick up the pieces of our lives. If you can identify with at least one person while you’re locked up it means everything. She definitely helped empower me and bring a little of that self-worth back.”

They were an item for several months. Sneaking around in the showers or each other’s rooms was common, but if caught, faced solitary confinement.

Despite relationships being the norm between women, many of these don't extend beyond prison.

“There are a lot of women that are just ‘gay for the stay’ and leave and go back to their straight lives,” Angela explained.

Research suggests 30 to 60 percent of women engage in lesbian sexual behavior while in prison. Despite labeling themselves as straight on the outside, on the inside they lean more towards bisexuality. Once released, it’s estimated that only 25 percent continue to be with women. The rest usually go back to men.

According to published research in the International Journal of Sociology, women gave several reasons for their interest in other women while locked up. Some said to pass time; some said love, sex, companionship; and some had other reasons, such as money.

“Currently my sexuality doesn’t even exists. To be honest, after my failed relationship, prison, and a number of other things, I have some pretty deep trust issues that are preventing me from letting anyone that close. But at this point, I could go either

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way. It really just depends on whom I connect with,” Angela said.

According to her, inmates hooking up with other inmates was common, and guards with inmates was actually pretty common, too. Despite there being a lot of cameras, it wasn’t hard to sneak around.

Cam was eventually sent to lock. While in lock, she would write Angela letters that would get passed through offenders and make their way to her.

Expecting a letter from Cam, a fellow inmate passed her a letter that had her usual romantic tone, but also said ‘happy one-year anniversary.’ At that point, they had not been together for a year, and Angela hadn’t even been in jail for a year.

The letter was meant to go to Cam’s supposed exgirlfriend, who was a fellow inmate. At one point, this ex-girlfriend had threatened Angela, but she had people protecting her.

Angela’s heart was broken once again.

“It was very similar to the deception I had already dealt with from the breakup with my boyfriend. I felt pretty used all over again.”

She was able to cope with this breakup more easily than the first one because she had some closure, and also because their relationship was never real in the aspect of dates and sleepovers, but instead they were seeking love and comfort.

“‘Girlfriends’ was a spectators sport. It was pretty entertaining to see who was with whom one day to the next,” Angela said.

A startling 50 percent of inmates suffer from mental illness, and upon entering prison, many also suffer from social isolation. Angela said she is thankful for her family and friends’ support. Lack of support on the outside is the main reason for inmates to engage in relationships on the inside.

“Having someone to talk to and confide in makes your time in isolation a little easier,” she said.

Today, Angela still communicates with a few girls she met on the inside who are still there. She is currently on part two of her sentence, serving time on house arrest. She is grateful to be out; however she said house arrest is equally as lonely. On the positive side, she can communicate freely with friends and family and continue her journey post-incarceration. **For the safety and privacy of the former inmate, names have been changed**

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Breaking the Barrier:

BLACK AND PINK KEEP QUEER PRISONERS CONNECTED

By Kate Dooley

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A

t the age of 27, Dominique Morgan, a queer, black man from Nebraska, had just finished his eight-year sentence in prison—eighteen months of which he spent in solitary confinement. Today, as the national director of Black and Pink, Morgan has the opportunity to provide resources for a community of more than 16,000 LGBTQ incarcerated prisoners.

As a prison abolitionist organization, Black and Pink offer support to LGBTQ and HIV-positive prisoners through newsletters and various programs aimed at building relationships both within and outside of penitentiary walls.

Over a decade ago, the foundation of Black and Pink planted their roots with a pen-pal program when founder Jason Lydon, a formerly incarcerated person, continued to write to his former cellmate consistently.

Lydon understood communication and relationships tend to conclude once peers finish their sentence. While the connections created through these intimate letters are appreciated, once people integrate themselves back into society it becomes difficult to take the time to write to their former cellmates.

However, Lydon persevered. It didn’t take long for people to join him, and eventually, with the help of volunteers, Black and Pink grew into the organization it is today.

“One of the best things you can do for somebody is to show them the power in their story,” Morgan said.

Through creating a safe space for queer people who have experience with the prison industrial complex, Black and Pink’s focus on intersectionality brings people together in the fight towards abolishing an abusive system.

“There are so many assumptions that queer spaces are so inclusive and people wonder why we still have to fight,” he continued. “When we say queer we mean white, cis, male, between 18-30, we mean a certain body shape, and we mean a certain access to funds. If you’re outside of that, your bad, try to fit in where you can.”

Black and Pink was formed from a necessity to create a place not contingent on a monolithic experience.

While there has been major progress over the past decade, people are still unable to recognize the injustices taking place if they do not directly affect themselves or their community. With discrimination happening daily both within and outside of institutional spaces, Morgan works to make the LGBTQ incarcerated community feel safe, supported, and loved.

Alongside the pen-pal program, the organization focuses on other forms of community-centered organizing, such as a newsletter, bond bail out assistance, and court

support. Black and Pink aims to connect incarcerated prisoners with their surrounding community.

But like many other LGBTQ and HIV awarness organizations, Black and Pink encounters microaggressions within some prisons, as the administrations unofficially refuse to distribute their material because of “improper” content. This information, supplied mainly by community-member donations, typically of $5-$10 dollars, costs them nearly $80,000 a year to create.

“It surprises me the lengths that these systems will go to separate individuals who are incarcerated from individuals in the community who care about them and want them to be successful,” Morgan said. “If the true goal is to rehabilitate folks and give them an opportunity, then you cannot do some of these things, or ask them to do this and not have a strong village around them. Village does not mean perfect; it just means people who want the best for them and are going to stand by them. Sometimes that may be the person that was their cell-mate five years ago who’s doing really great now, and they can look at them and see the path of greatness. Why remove anything that is going to help these folks be successful and therefore contribute to their community? This is what the system is supposed to be about.”

Regardless of these hindrances and the current political climate’s effects on the LGBTQ community, Morgan is focused on widening Black and Pink’s reach into 2018 to include programs dedicated to LGBTQ incarcerated youth and creating more chapters across the U.S. During a time where there has been a heightened sense of fear among disenfranchised identities, Morgan concentrates on the positive changes he’s seen since Trump took office last fall.

“Honestly, I think the effects of the Trump Administration are the most beneficial things that have happened to marginalized communities in a long time,” he said.

“We’re in this space now where nobody is safe. Nobody is safe. When you look at something and know it’s wrong, you cannot unsee it. A lot of the time folks act like it’s not there and the Trump Administration is making folks say, ‘It’s here, it’s in front of us,’ and I’m hoping it’s a call to action on a daily basis. We’re a year in and I think we have seen great change in spaces, and I’m excited to see what happens a year from now and how we start saving ourselves.”

With ten chapters spanning nationwide and growth already underway for the new year, Morgan reiterated that Black and Pink’s major goal is “Letting people know we care and they’re not forgotten.”

“It’s really important to continue to keep that spark of humanity lit in institutional spaces.”

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SEASONS 4 AND 5

of Wentworth are Delightfully Queer

By Addison Herron-Wheeler Spoiler Alert: This review gives away some of the plot devices from Seasons 4 and 5!

Wentworth, the gut-wrenching Australian TV drama about life in a women’s prison, has always embraced queer themes. Just like its American sister show, Orange is the New Black, it kind of comes with the territory.

Frankie, one of the show’s stars, is an out lesbian, and a lot of the plot revolves around her love life, trials,

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and tribulations. But Seasons 4 and 5 blow everything out of the water, with queer themes that transcend the normal, lesbian prison plotline.

Many people think that Wentworth is an OITNB knockoff, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s actually based on a classic Australian soap opera known in the U.S. as Prisoner Cell Block H. The show aired during the late 70s and early 80s, and was praised

(and criticized) for being ahead of its time as far as portraying queer characters and relationships.

Season 4 opens up with Bea Smith, the show’s main character and top dog of the prison, trying to keep control over the other women. She meets Allie, a troubled woman with a history of drug abuse who comes from the militant women’s organization the Red Right Hand, a group that originally celebrated Bea as a killer of abusive men, and then turned against her.

Bea can’t believe that Allie isn’t just trying to use her for something, and struggles with an attraction to a woman after a lifetime of considering herself straight.

She visits the prison therapist, Bridget, a lesbian in a relationship with ex-inmate Frankie, and learns that sexuality is a spectrum and being queer isn’t black and white. She ends up finding more happiness in this relationship than she ever thought possible, despite all the incredibly dark things happening around the couple. This only happens when she stops overthinking her sexuality and realizes that love is love, and that for most of her life she wasn’t really exploring her feelings.

Meanwhile, Frankie is trying to build a life with her love interest outside of prison. As the two seasons progress, her life becomes more complicated, and we again see Frankie trying to navigate life, love, and a system that seems determined to keep her down. Much of the drama in Season 5 revolves around Frankie landing back in prison and trying to maintain a relationship

with Bridget. The two are only able to see each other when Bridget is at work, and the strain takes a major toll on their love.

Maxine, the trans woman in Wentworth, loves the fact that she is finally able to present as a biological woman.

However, when she learns she has breast cancer, she has to decide between surviving after the loss of what she considers her identity, and living with cancer but keeping her breasts. The relationship between Maxine and troubled inmate Boomer still stays platonic, but is sweeter than ever, as the two work together to try and have a child using Maxine’s frozen sperm.

In true Wentworth fashion, nothing is too taboo for the screen, but the point is not to make a spectacle out of the queer identity or gawk at queerness. Instead, the overwhelming message behind the show remains that bad things will happen over and over to good people, especially the marginalized, women, people of color, queer and disabled folks. The challenge is to find love and strength in spite of the pain and suffering, and stand up in unity and solidarity. It’s definitely a message that can be applied here in the U.S. in 2018, and really any time adversity rears its ugly head.

There is way too much to unpack in the past two seasons of Wentworth, even just when it comes to queer themes.

But rest assured, this show is queer, hard-hitting, and incredibly feminist. Ten out of 10 would recommend!

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MARDI GRAS AT CHARLIE'S Despite the snow and freezing temperatures, a large crowd came out to celebrate Mardi Gras at Charlie’s on February 10. Revelers donned their masks and colorful beads in order to celebrate one last Saturday before Lent.

Photos by Charles Broshous Check out outfrontmagazine.com/events to see more awesome community events around town!

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Oscars

sooooo

Queer

By Rick Kitzman

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M

y name is Rick Kitzman, and I’m an Oscar-holic.

The 1962 Academy Awards ceremony is the first I remember. I was upset because my favorite film, The Absent-Minded Professor, a black and white Disney comedy—and the greatest movie ever!—lost its three nominations. I beat my tiny little fists on my tiny little chest, and in my little boy squeak beseeched the heavens, “Why, oh why!

Robbed! Rigged!” I was nine years old, and hooked on the Oscars.

Fifty-six years later, on the morning of January 23 at 5:30 a.m. I was whacking my alarm clock to rise and watch the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announce this year’s nominations. Its 90th anniversary! Live! I was jacked! My partner grumbled and rolled over.

Call Me By Your Name is up for Best Picture, yes!

Timothy Chalemet is also nominated for Best Actor for his spectacular performance in the same movie, yes! What? But, his co-star Armie Hammer, who is both gorgeous and an equally great actor, isn’t nominated ? “Why, oh why! Robbed! Rigged!”

Call Me By Your Name—a sweet, gay love story set in 80s Italy—could walk away from the 90th Academy Awards with four wins. Because it’s my favorite, it’ll receive the kiss of death. It’ll win zip.

The film's original song, “Mystery of Love,” will be snubbed, and James Ivory will remain in his seat when they announce the winner for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay. But, who cares?

The perennial debate over the Oscar’s relevancy will never dissuade me from my love for the extravaganza. Critics argue this decadent rite of self-congratulatory narcissism is useless. And they’re right. But so is the Super Bowl. GASP! No, I’m not a Russian commie. (If I was, I’d be invited to watch the Oscars at the White House.) I’m just a gay man who, as a little boy finding his place in the world, found something he loved.

Oscar’s glamour, stars, and the thrill of film informed the mind of this “different” kid. Stuck in Podunk, Colorado, the philistines didn’t understand him. Lonely with amorphous feelings, I began inventing my burgeoning aesthetic: concepts of style, the ambiguity of beauty, the power of story. Of course, I didn’t know this at nine years old; I wasn’t that precocious. But Oscar—and gay life—beckoned.

The Academy, and the entire movie industry, have been historically homophobic—ironically giving a statue of a naked man as an award. Times have changed. To LGBTQs who feel the Oscars are irrelevant, consider our family members nominated this year.

2017 LGBTQ NOMINATIONS BEST PICTURE Phantom Thread and Lady Bird both have one queer producer nominated, while Call Me By Your Name has two.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Darla K. Anderson is the first LGBTQ female to be nominated in this category for her work on Coco.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY James Ivory (loving partner of Ishamil Merchant for 44 years) is nominated for Call Me By Your Name. He is nominated next to powerhouse Dee Rees, Mudbound.

Rees is the first black woman, and first LGBTQ woman, nominated for either Adapted or Original screenplay.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Rachel Morrison, who worked alongside Rees on Mudbound, is the first woman ever nominated in this category, also making her the first LGBTQ woman.

BEST SONG Benj Pasek is nominated for the song he and Justin Paul worked on for the The Greatest Showman, “This Is Me.” He also snagged the title last year for his song in La La Land.

BEST FILM EDITING Tatiana S. Riegel, I, Tonya, is the first LGBTQ woman nominated in this category.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Yance Ford is the first openly transgender man nominated for an Oscar. His work is nominated alongside Joslyn Barnes on Strong Island, a documentary about the murder of Ford’s brother in 1992.

Out of 24 categories, 11 individuals compete for seven Oscars, with a queer-themed film up for Best Picture. I’d say that’s relevant news for our community and cause for celebrating their artistic achievements .

What to expect at this year’s ceremony besides blather and boring speeches? I wish Melissa McCarthy and Ricky Gervais were hosting, but Oscar still may have surprises up his sleeve.

(Never mind, he’s naked.)

With the #MeToo movement and Hollywood’s Time’s Up nascent organization, sexual abuse is bound to be Dumbo’s mother in the auditorium, the affect already felt. Last year’s Best Actor, Casey Affleck, under siege for his own alleged sexual abuse, will not present the Best Actress award, an Oscar tradition.

My annual meeting of Oscar-holics Anonymous is Sunday, March 4. At some point, I’ll probably cry, “Robbed! Rigged!” But my Golden P*ssy, our award, will be shined and displayed, ballots printed, popcorn popped. Hopefully, Wikipedia will have to update their page with queer wins. Regardless, this Oscar-holic’s gotta get his fix.

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CUPID'S ARROW AT TRACKS Stripper Circus, the dirtiest show on earth, hosted Cupid’s Arrow at Tracks on February 10. Hundreds of people came out for the pre-Valentine’s Day celebration to drink, socialize, play dirty games, enjoy the sexy dancers, and listen to the musical stylings of DJs Brynn Taylor and Tatiana.

Photos by Charles Broshous Check out outfrontmagazine.com/ events to see more awesome community events around town!

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Often, a spiritual experience can be an awakening of a certain type of energy, and often in terms of sexuality, it’s the kundalini, or life force energy.

One who experiences this type of awakening may no longer have the same heteronormative views they had before the experience and may find themselves sexually and romantically attracted to all genders.

It’s important to remember that gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation are all independent of one another.

These affect each other but they do not determine each other. This way, you can be whoever and whatever you want at any given time.

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Dueling Depression: with

Nuance, a Dialogue Photo and Column By Mike yost I often hear from those who spend their nights battling mental monsters that— What the hell does that word mean, anyway? Nuance.

Well, it means subtle differences in— And what the hell does nuance have to do with depression?

Well, these subtle differences can relate to differences in coping skills, such as— I don’t have time for lengthy explanations! I’m depressed!

I constantly imagine my own suicide. You ever think about stepping out in front of a moving bus?

Well, I have, but— You’re an idiot, then. You’re likely to just break a bunch of bones and squish some organs, dying slowly in A LOT of pain, pinned under a bus while everyone stands over you and points at you and calls you a dumbass for stepping out in front of a moving bus. ...okay. If I could get a word in to explicate— Fine. Go ahead. “Explicate” away. I need to meditate anyway and think about not thinking.

As I was saying. I often hear others who battle mental monsters make polarizing statements about coping methodologies: “Mindful meditation relieves depression,” or “mindful meditation won’t relieve shit.” “Gratitude can help soften the blow of depression,” or “gratitude is candycoated malarkey.”

Then I’m inevitably asked if I agree or disagree with these declarative statements, like I’m being forced to join a camp on the eve of some epic clash of ideologies—as if the battle will determine a singular method to navigate violent mental maelstroms.

There’s something to be said about using gratitude to focus on those small moments of happiness that manage to shoulder their way through depressive episodes. There’s also something to be said about not sugar-coating the bleak reality depression so often pulls to the surface and—

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You’re half-way through this article and still haven’t defined the word nuance. It’s in the damn title.

I thought you were meditating?

I thought you were explicating?

Fair enough. For me, nuance is stepping back from these sweeping generalizations, sifting through all that gray fog on how to cope. It’s about finding some utility in all these possible coping skills without attaching labels of right or wrong.

I’ve used methods in the past that didn’t help, like mindfulness, but that doesn’t make mindfulness unworkable. That same tool is now indispensable to me. My own road to recovery incorporates a cornucopia of treatments— Any more ten-cent words you’d like to use?

A CORNUCOPIA of treatments and coping skills, cleaving the fat off of some methods, weaving together others, threading my own patchwork blanket I throw over my shoulders when I walk along empty sidewalks on those icy, bitter nights that make the ears and the mind and the heart brittle to the touch.

Nuance is the middle ground, rooted firmly between two opposing and evolving ideological armies waging battle in a never-ending fight of “I’m correct. You’re mistaken.”

So, you use nuance like a sharp knife to carve out tailored coping strategies from both camps instead of demolishing an entire opposing idea with a blunt sledgehammer.

Exactly.

Why didn’t you just open with that? You buried the lead.

Who are you?

Just a voice in your head. One of thousands. Tens of thousands, probably.

How am I having a dialogue with a voice in my head, as if you’re a separate person? Which voice is the genuine self? Is there a “real” me asking these questions?

How the hell should I know? I’m you. I only know what you know!

Fair enough.

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