Qnote Issue October 28, 2022

twitter.com/qnotescarolinas

Mission:

The focus of QNotes is to serve the LGBTQ and straight ally communities of the Charlotte region, North Carolina and beyond, by featuring arts, enter tainment, news and views content in print and online that directly enlight ens, informs and engages the readers about LGBTQ life and social justice issues.

Pride Publishing & Typesetting, Inc., dba Qnotes

P.O. Box 221841, Charlotte, NC 28222 ph 704.531.9988 fx 704.531.1361

Publisher: Jim Yarbrough Sales: x201 adsales@qnotescarolinas.com

Nat’l Sales: Rivendell Media, ph 212.242.6863

Managing Editor: Jim Yarbrough, x201, editor@qnotescarolinas.com

Digital & Audience Engagement Editor: Chris Rudisill chrisrudisill@qnotecarolinas.com Sr. Content Editor: David Aaron Moore, specialassignments@qnotescarolinas

Copy Editor: Bailey Sides Production: Will Kimbrough, x205, production@qnotescarolinas.com

Printed on recycled paper.

Material in Qnotes is copyrighted by Pride Pub lishing & Typesetting © 2020 and may not be re produced in any manner without written consent of the editor or publisher. Advertisers assume full responsibility — and therefore, all liability — for securing reprint permission for copyrighted text, photographs and illustrations or trademarks published in their ads. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, writers, cartoon ists we publish is neither inferred nor implied. The appearance of names or photographs does not indicate the subject’s sexual orientation. Qnotes nor its publisher assumes liability for typographical error or omission, beyond offering to run a correction. Official editorial positions are expressed in staff editorials and editorial notations and are determined by editorial staff. The opinions of contributing writers and guest columnists do not necessarily represent the opinions of Qnotes or its staff. Qnotes accepts unsolicited editorial, but cannot take responsibility for its return. Editor reserves the right to accept and reject material as well as edit for clarity, brevity.

inside this issue

ENC Endorsments

Voting to save democracy: Equality NC PAC shares their endorsements with Qnotes for the 2022 midterm elections. Here’s your guide when heading for the voting booth.

Jaelene Daniels cut from North Carolina Courage

So long sister: anti-LGBTQ player Jaelene Daniels gets the axe from women’s soccer team NC Courage. Queer fans who sat out the season say they’ll return now that she’s gone.

Writers: Eric Burkett, Reverend Dawn Flynn, L’Monique King, Daily KOS, Da vid Aaron Moore, Greg Owen, Gregg Shapiro, HRC Staff, Terry Schlichen meyer, Jenny Shields

Graphic Design by: Will Kimbrough Photography/Illustration: Karl Giant

LGBTQ+ voters becoming one of the fastest growing voting blocs in North Carolina and United States at large

Projected to represent nearly one-fifth of voters by 2040 and fundamentally reshape American electoral landscape

Compiled by HRC Staff | Contributing Writer

LGBTQ+ Americans are pro jected to become one of the fastest growing voting blocs in the country, growing at a scale, scope and speed that will funda mentally reshape the American electoral landscape, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign and Bowling Green State University.

The report — Equality Electorate: The Projected Growth of the LGBTQ+ Voting Bloc in Coming Years — offers new analysis of publicly available data and projects that by 2030 approximately onein-seven voters will be LGBTQ+, representing a sharp increase over the current one-in-ten. The LGBTQ+ bloc is projected to continue surg ing in the decade following, nearing one-in-five voters by 2040, emerg ing as among one of the most influ ential voting constituencies in the country whose impact will perma nently transform and reshape the American electoral landscape.

“The LGBTQ+ voting bloc has been steadily growing and is on track to exponentially expand in the coming years, becoming one of the fastest growing voting con stituencies in the country, wielding increasing influence in local, state and federal elections,” said Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign. “LGBTQ+ voters are already playing a pivotal role in elections, and in the coming years will fundamentally reshape the American electoral landscape — especially in battle ground states and swing districts that are consequential to determining control of the Presidency and Congress.”

The analysis — which was developed using publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey and demographic projections from the University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service — offers a glimpse not only into the growing influ ence LGBTQ+ voters will exert on electoral outcomes in coming years, but a contrast in terms of the role LGBTQ+ people are projected to play in future elections. Within the next generation, LGBTQ+ voters will grow to represent nearly one-in-five voters, meaning pro-equality candidates at every level will have an edge.

Key Findings of the Report

By 2030, one-in-seven (14.3 percent) voters will be LGBTQ+ identifying — representing a sharp increase from the present day — and is projected to continue surging in the decade follow ing, nearing one-in-five (17.8 percent) voters by 2040.

1. 2022 Elections — In the 2022 Midterm elections, LGBTQ+ identified people account for one-in ten (11.3 per

cent) people in the voting eligible popula tion (VEP; defined as adults age 18+) in the United States.

2. 2020 Elections — For context, 2022 projections show a slight increase in the projected proportion of the VEP that iden tified as LGBTQ+ during the 2020 General Election (10.8 percent).

3. During the 2020 election, the vast majority of LGBTQ+ adults were registered to vote — and most of them showed up to the polls and voted. The 2020 General Election saw the highest proportion of vot ers identifying as LGBTQ+ recorded since tracking began in 1992.

4. The LGBTQ+ electorate was pivotal in ensuring Joe Biden’s victory in several key states — and, subsequently, in win ning the Presidency. Had LGBTQ+ voters stayed home, it is likely Donald Trump would have won re-election.

The surge in LGBTQ+ voters is ex pected to transform the American electoral landscape, most critically tipping the scales in “red” states that are on the cusp of no longer being categorized as reliably “red,” helping to push those states into firmly “purple” territory. In several consequential states, the pro portion of LGBTQ+ voters will almost double between 2020 and 2040.

1. Georgia — In Georgia, the propor tion of the VEP identifying as LGBTQ+ is projected to grow from over one-in-ten (11 percent) in 2020, to almost one-in-five

(19.2 percent) in 2040.

2. Texas & Arizona — Similar changes are projected for Texas (increasing from 11.6 percent to 19.9 percent) and Arizona (increasing from 12 percent to 19.4 percent).

3. Ohio — Ohio is projected to see the largest percent change in the VEP iden tifying as LGBTQ+, increasing by over 86 percent (from 9.5 percent in 2020 to 17.7 percent in 2040).

4. North Carolina — As of 2020 more than 10 percent of registered voters identify as LGBTQ. By 2040, that number is expected to jump to practically 15 percent.

The impact of LGBTQ+ voters is projected to be most significant in areas where independent and swing voters have most sway – in terms of not only re orienting the battleground map by push ing those areas into more firmly “blue” territory, but in terms of also increas ingly favoring pro-equality candidates in states and districts that are consequential in determining who wins control of the White House and Congress.

1. Nevada & Colorado — In both Nevada (21.3 percent) and Colorado (21.4 percent) the proportion of the VEP identifying as LGTBQ+ will exceed onein-five by 2040.

Impetus Behind Growth of LGBTQ+ Identifying Voters

Year over year, the proportion of U.S. adults openly identifying as LGBTQ+ has

steadily increased: In 2021, more than 7.1 percent of all U.S. adults (age 18+) on the Gallup Poll Social Surveys identified as LGBTQ+, double that of less than a decade before (3.5 percent in 2012), and a more than 25 per cent increase from 2020, when 5.6 percent of adults identified as LGBT.

This has largely been driven by increases in LGBTQ+ identification among younger generations, who are coming out and openly identifying as LGBTQ+ at younger ages than ever before, as well as identify ing with more expansive sexual and gender identities than the “typical” lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. In the 2021 Gallup data, more than one-infive (20.8 percent) Generation

Z adult respondents (age 18+) identified as a sexual and/or gender minority, as did more than one-in-ten (10.5 percent)

Millennials, compared with less than one-in-twenty (4.2 percent) Generation X adults, and only 2.6 percent of Baby Boomers.

One of the reasons driving higher rates of LGBTQ+ identifica tion among younger generations is that, against a backdrop of rising national support for proequality policies overall, on aver age younger age groups hold more proequality, LGBTQ+ affirming attitudes and beliefs than older generations. At the same time, higher rates of LGBTQ+ identification among young people leads cisgender and heterosexual youth to be more familiar and comfortable with LGBTQ+ people, which has further implications for pro-equality views; previous research has consistently found that knowing LGBTQ+ people, par ticularly close friends and family, is associ ated with increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, and support for pro-equality poli cies such as same-sex marriage.

Increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and pro-equality policies among Millennials and Generation Z have im portant implications for future elections.

As the U.S. population continues to age, both generations will increasingly account for larger shares of the population — and, subsequently, a larger share of the voting eligible population. Given that LGBTQ+ people are growing as a share of the U.S. population, largely driven by higher LGBTQ+ identification among younger generations, it is safe to assume that LGBTQ+ Americans and their proequality allies are, and will increasingly continue to be, an important voting bloc in American elections.

The full report can be found on HRC’s website here:. https://bit.ly/3shhCLp ::

Today’s youth paint a portrait of a progressive political future. CREDIT: Courtesy HRC

Equality NC PAC endorsements for the 2022 Midterm Elections

With the midterm elections now less than a month away, Qnotes is sharing Equality NC PAC’s latest round of endorsements for the 2022 elections. This batch of endorsements in cludes leaders running for Congress, the Senate and multiple local offices.

Keep in mind that The NC General Assembly con sists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 50 State Senate districts represented by 50 Senators and 120 State House districts represent ed by 120 Representatives District numbers are listed to the right of each candidate’s name, where applicable. To definitively determine who represents you, go here: www.ncleg. gov/FindYourLegislators

NC House

Ray Jeffers (2)

Brian Farkas (9) Allison Dahle (11) Eric Terashima (17)

Deb Butler (18)

Amy Block DeLoach (20)

Linda Cooper-Suggs (24)

Wendy Ella May (28)

Vernetta Alston (29)

Marcia Morey (30)

Rosa Gill (33) Julie von Haefen (36)

Christine Kelly (37)

Joe John (40)

Maria Cervania (41)

Charles Smith (44) Cynthia Ball (49)

Renée Price (50) Robert T. Reives II (54)

Allen Buansi (56)

Ashton Clemmons (57) Pricey Harrison (61)

Brandon Gray (62) Ricky Hurtado (63) Sarah Crawford (66) Amber Baker (72)

Diamond Staton-Williams (73)

Carla Catalán Day (74) Dennis Miller (80)

Mary Belk (88)

Terry Brown (92) Christy Clark (98) Nasif Majeed (99) John Autry (100) Carolyn Logan (101)

Becky Carney (102) Brandon Lofton (104) Wesley Harris (105) Tricia Cotham (112) Eric Ager (114) Lindsey Prather (115) Caleb Rudow (116) Joshua Remillard (118)

NC Senate

Kandie Smith (5) Lisa Grafstein (13) Dan Blue (14)

Jay Chaudhuri (15) Gale Adcock (16) Sydney Batch (17)

Mary Wills Bode (18)

Natalie Murdock (20) Graig Meyer (23) Sean Ewing (25)

Mujtaba Mohammed (38) DeAndrea Salvador (39) Natasha Marcus (41) Rachel Hunt (42)

Julie Mayfield (49)

Judicial Races

Lucy Inman (3)

Samuel Ervin IV (5)

Satana Deberry (Durham DA)

Dave Hall (Durham District Court)

Kevin Jones (Durham District Court)

Amanda Maris (Durham District Court)

Kimberly Best (Mecklenburg Superior Court)

Jennifer Fleet (Mecklenburg District Court)

Matt Newton (Mecklenburg District Court)

U.S. Congress Deborah Ross (2)

(Buncombe County Commission, District 3)

Tonya McDaniel (Forsyth County Commissioner)

Pat Cotham (Mecklenburg County Commission, Atlarge)

Arthur Griffin (Mecklenburg County Commission, At-large)

Leigh Altman (Mecklenburg County Commission, At-large)

Mark Jerrell (Mecklenburg County Commission, District 4)

Laura Meier (Mecklenburg County Commission, District 5)

Susan Rodriguez-McDowell (Mecklenburg County

Municipal Elections

Kim Roney (Asheville Mayor)

Allison Scott (Asheville City Council)

Antanette Mosley (Asheville City Council)

Nina Tovish (Asheville City Council)

Carissa Kohn-Johnson (Cary Town Council, Atlarge) Won in July Elections

Braxton Winston (Charlotte City Council, Atlarge) Won in July Elections

Dimple Ajmera (Charlotte City Council, At-large) Won in July Elections

LaWana Mayfield (Charlotte City Council, Atlarge) Won in July Elections

Danté Anderson (Charlotte City Council, District 1)

Won in July Elections

Malcolm Graham (Charlotte City Council, District 2) Won in July

Elections

Victoria Watlington (Charlotte City Council, District 3) Won in July

Elections

Valerie Foushee (4)

Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (11)

Alma Adams (12) Wiley Nickel (13) Jeff Jackson (14) Cheri Beasley (U.S. Senate)

County Commission

Anthony Pierce (Alamance County Commission)

Martin Moore (Buncombe County Commission, District 2)

Amanda Edwards

Commission, District 6)

Donald Mial (Wake County Commission, District 1)

Matt Calabria (Wake County Commission, District 2)

Cheryl F. Stallings (Wake County Commission, District 3)

Vickie Adamson (Wake County Commission, District 7)

Kevin Daniels (Union County Commission)

Renee’ Johnson (Charlotte City Council, District 4)

Won in July Elections

Tammi Thurm (Greensboro City Council, District 5) Won in July

Elections

Stormie Forte (Raleigh City Council, at-large)

Jonathan Melton (Raleigh City Council, at-large)

Corey Branch (Raleigh City Council, District C)

Todd Kennedy (Raleigh City Council, District D)

School Board

Melissa Easley (CharlotteMecklenburg School Board, D1)

Carol Sawyer (CharlotteMecklenburg School Board, D4)

Stephanie Sneed

(Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board, D4)

Trent Merchant (CharlotteMecklenburg School Board, D5)

Summer Nunn (CharlotteMecklenburg School Board, D6)

Millicent Rogers (Durham County School Board) Won in May Elections

Natalie Beyer (Durham County School Board) Won in May Elections

Amanda Cook (Guilford County School Board, District 2)

Dorian Cromartie (New Hanover School Board)

Judy Justice (New Hanover County School Board)

Sarah Smylie (Orange County School Board) Won in May Elections

Monika Johnson-Hostler (Wake Board of Education District 2)

Lynn Edmonds (Wake County Board of Education District 5)

Chris Heagarty (Wake Board of Education District 7)

Lindsay Mahaffey (Wake County Board of Education District 8)

Tyler Swanson (Wake Board of Education District 9)

Jaelene Daniels cut from North Carolina Courage

Women’s soccer player boasted lengthy anti-LGBTQ history

By David Aaron Moore Qnotes Staff Writer

Women’s

soccer team The North Carolina Courage announced Oct. 17 they had decided against renewing the option for Jaelene Daniels to play in the 2023 season.

The team posted on Twitter that day the following: “The courage have declined a team option on defender Jaelene Daniels for the 2023 season, making her an unrestricted free agent. The club wishes Jaelene the best in her future endeavors.”

There’s no question that Daniels was a skilled and seasoned player, however, her long history of anti-LGBTQ sentiments and habits for displaying her philosophical beliefs on her sleeve likely set the path for the decision to kick her to the curb for a potential second season.

Indeed, her feelings about the LGBTQ community became abundantly clear when she posted a political opinion on Twitter, apparently justified by her religious beliefs.

On June 26, 2015, after Marriage Equality was established in all 50 states, Daniels took to Twitter and posted the

following: “This world is falling farther and farther away from God... All that can be done by believers is to continue to pray.”

In May 2018, shortly after she an nounced her decision to not wear the U.S. team jersey honoring LGBTQ Pride, Daniels was booed several times by Portland Thorns fans during a National Women’s Soccer League match with the Courage.

In a career that had already lasted nearly a decade, Daniels announced her retirement from the North Carolina Courage Nov. 4, 2020.

Just over a year later on Dec. 19, 2021, she was rehired by the North Carolina

Courage with a year-long contract and an option to renew for the following year. The decision was met with an abundance of criticism from fans, with many saying they would not be renewing their season tickets.

Team management was quick to release an announcement defending their actions.

“In response to the recent news of re-signing Jaelene Daniels, we as a club acknowledge the impact this announce ment has on our community. We’ve spent the past few days reading your messages and reflecting on our actions. We are very sorry to all those we have hurt, especially those within the LGBTQIA+ community.

“The decision to re-sign Jaelene was not made lightly and included significant conversations between organization lead ership and Jaelene. The priority expressed in those conversations is the safety of our players and maintaining an inclusive, re spectful space for the entire community.”

Barely seven months after her rehire, on July 29, 2022, she declined to play in the Courage’s “Pride Night” match against the Washington Spirit, refusing to wear a Pride flag-themed jersey. Once again, a statement was released: “While we’re dis appointed with her choice, we respect her right to make that decision for herself.”

More negative response from fans was quick to follow, and some even said they would not attend any future games as long as she was a member of the team. Her actions then and response from fans are likely what led to the decision not to renew her option for another season.

With Daniels’ possibility of a second season now off the table, it’s unclear what future path her career in Women’s Soccer might be. Some sports writers have sug gested that it may lay in the European market, however explaining her antiLGBTQ sentiments to fellow players and audiences there could prove to be even more difficult.

::

Jaelene Daniels refused to wear Pride jerseys during two separate LGBTQ-themed games. CREDIT: Facebook

North Carolina-based Credit Union allows Trans & Non-Binary members to use chosen name on bank cards

With branches in Charlotte, and other cities across North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina, Self-Help Credit Union (self-help.org) is making it easier for transgender and non-binary members to be their authentic selves – by having their chosen name reflected on their credit or debit card. The account program, known as the My Name Card, allows members to display who they really are on their debit and/or credit cards.

Here’s why that’s important: Many peo ple face complications or adversity when making purchases because the name on their bank card doesn’t match who they truly are. To make things worse, it’s often difficult to get those cards updated.

Studies show people who have shown an ID with a name that did not match

their gender identity have been denied service or had other negative experiences. Transgender and non-binary Americans in particular face substantial challenges and even discrimination and harassment when names on their bank cards don’t match who they truly are. People who regularly go by a nickname or middle name can also have issues when trying to make financial transactions. Legal name changes can be a long and costly process, so getting those cards updated can be difficult.

Self-Help Credit Union has 37 branch es, $1.6 billion in assets, serves over 91,000 members and works nationwide to provide fair and affordable financial products that help low- to moderatewealth families and communities of color build savings, repair credit and achieve

Good Riddance to South Carolina legislator Garry Smith

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, the Daily KOS news and opinion website’s “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Garry Smith, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives who worked on the presidential campaign of Scott Walker (as short as that lasted) who actually tried filing a bill to create a “2nd Amendment Education Day” to be celebrated annually on Dec. 15, which would be the day after the anniversary of the Newtown Massacre, by coincidence (sure it is).

Where Smith really got attention, though, was to strip money away from South Carolina universities for having reading programs that included LGBTQ literature. In totals that just so happened to be their entire reading budgets. He went on CNN to defend this decision in

March 2014, and gave the response you’d expect from another poor “victim” of the gay agenda, ”Their stance is, ‘Even if you don’t want to read it, we’ll shove it down your throat.’ It’s not academic freedom, it’s academic totalitarianism.”

As a legislator, Smith has submit ted legislation to attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act or federal firearms laws, tried to criminalize abortion outright (forgetting that Roe v. Wade is a thing) and submitted amendments to the state constitution to try and define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Garry Smith advanced out of the GOP Primary in 2018 with 75 percent of the vote against two challengers and did not face a challenger in November from Democrats. He continued to be an extreme homophobe, suggesting that the

Social Security just made it easier for Trans Folks to update their gender

Kilolo Kijakazi, the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced October 19, that the agency now offers people the choice to self-select their sex on their Social Security number (SSN) record. The agency has implemented this policy change and the new option is now available.

“The Social Security Administration’s Equity Action Plan includes a commitment to decrease administrative burdens and ensure people who identify as gender diverse or transgender have options in the Social Security Number card application process,” said Kijakazi. “This new policy allows people to self-select their sex in our records without needing to provide docu mentation of their sex designation.”

People who update their sex marker in the SSA’s records will need to apply for a replacement Social Security card. They will still need to show a current document to prove their identity, but they will no longer need to provide medical or legal documentation of their sex designation now that the policy change is in place.

The agency will accept the appli cant’s self-identified sex designation of either male or female, even if it is different from the sex designation shown on identity documents, such as a passport or North Carolina-issued driver’s license (or any state where the individual shows residence) or identity card. Social Security cards do not include sex mark ers. Currently, the SSA’s record systems

their financial goals. Headquartered in Durham, Self-Help is one of the largest and fastest growing com munity development financial institutions in the nation. It is part of a family of non-profit organizations whose collective mission is to create and pro tect ownership and economic opportu nity for all. For over 40 years, Self-Help and its affiliates have pro vided more than $10.5 billion in financing to help over 198,000 borrowers buy homes, start and grow businesses and help strengthen community resources.

Committed to delivering safe and affordable savings, transparently-priced accounts and loans – Self Help provides small dollar, unsecured consumer, auto

and mortgage – often to borrowers who could not access such services elsewhere.

For more information, please visit www. self-help.org or on sciamedia at @SelfHelpCU and @CenterForCommunitySelfHelp. :: https://cnb.cx/3eUJdPp

— Jenny Shields

Smith was called out for his dumb idea, the amendment was tabled 17-5.

He has returned to his partisan roots in the current session, having voted for a fetal heartbeat antiabortion bill, a bill to legalize the return of firing squads as a method of execution and, of course, a bill to declare that churches are “essential services” so that they cannot be asked to avoid gathering crowds of people, let’s just say… during a pan demic. If this man were any more regressive, he’d be a jump to the left or two on the evolution of man.

That’s why we are relieved to report Garry Smith did not file to run for reelection, and will thus no longer be involved in South Carolina politics, or anywhere else. We would like to wish him our deepest “GOOD RIDDANCE” salute at this time.

are unable to include a non-binary or unspecified sex designation on any Social Security-related documents.

The agency is exploring possible future policy and systems updates to support a gender neutral designation, in the form of

an “X” designation for the Social Security card application process.

To get more Social Security news, fol low the Press Office on Twitter @SSAPress.

https://cbsn.ws/3gvQFkl

—David Aaron Moore

South Carolina state legislature should vote on amendments to strip funding from any library in the state that would dare to host a Drag Queen Story Hour event. After

Self Help’s My Name program aims to make bank card interactions easier for trans and non-binary folks.

CREDIT: Adobe Stock

SC legislator Garry Smith, who did not file to run for reelection. CREDIT: Facebook

SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi: ‘This new policy allows people to self-select their sex in our records…CREDIT: Facebook

The Epworth Apartment Advantage

For a limited time, move into Epworth and enjoy two months off of the monthly service fee. The metropolitanstyle Epworth independent living apartments offer the best views at the best value at Aldersgate. Choose from a range of sizes and floorplans from a cozy 585 sq. ft. one-bed, onebath apartment up to a spacious 1,170 sq. ft. two-bed, two-bath apartment. Plus, enjoy peace of mind knowing that Aldersgate offers a top-rated, full continuum of care right on campus.

To learn about events or schedule a tour, call (704) 318-2018 or visit AldersgateEpworth.org.

3800 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215

6010

704-208-4134

28201

704-208-4134

NC 28270

824

28034

704-874-0200

704-874-0201

Monkeypox declines by

Since a peak in August, the number of reported daily cases of the monkey pox virus has declined 85 percent. That’s the latest seven-day average data from the Centers for Disease Control, indicating a drop from 443 reported cases at the height of the outbreak on Aug. 6, to 60 cases reported on Oct. 12.

As of Oct. 11, 27,022 cases of the monkeypox virus had been reported in the United States.

Experts attribute the drop to a variety of factors. The monkeypox vaccine, with an 85 percent efficacy rate, helped slow the virus down. Men who have sex with men reduced their partners following the rise of cases in the wake of large gather ings around Pride month in June.

And the virus, spread by close skin-toskin contact, was self-limiting, unlike the airborne coronavirus, finding fewer places to spread as potential hosts reduced their exposure and the vaccine proved effective.

Information from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) show that efforts to stave off the virus here have also been largely successful. As of Oct. 6, NCDHHS statistics confirm there are only 592 cases in the state since the first case was identi fied June 23, and 20,841 vaccinations have

been administered.

percent since August

By Greg Owen|Contributing Writer

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), another important factor was a change in communications strategy.

As cases began to rise sharply, it became clear that the virus was disproportionally affecting men who have sex with men, but officials at all levels of government were reluctant to highlight the fact, fearing the stigmatizing effect of a virus mislabeled as a “gay disease.”

In the middle of July, the New York City Health Department debated a strategy calling for gay men to reduce partners, is suing a statement that counseled caution:

“For decades, the LGBTQ+ community has had their sex lives dissected, prescribed, and proscribed ... mostly by heterosexual and cis people,” the statement read.

New York would offer direction cogni zant of “how poorly abstinence-only guid ance has historically performed with this disgraceful legacy in mind.”

“Telling people not to have sex or not to have multiple sex partners or not to have anonymous sex is just a no-go, and it’s not going to work,” longtime AIDS activist and Housing Works chief executive Charles King told The New York Times at the time. “People are still going to have

sex, and they’re going to have it even if it comes with great risk.”

In San Francisco, local officials decided the data should do the talking, expanding eligibility for the vaccine to all men who have sex with men who’d had multiple sexual partners in the previous 14 days. On July 28, the city announced a public health state of emergency, in an effort to prompt a more urgent response from the federal government and to put the city’s most at-risk population on high alert.

New York City followed suit with their own monkeypox state of emergency, at about the same time the World Health Organization’s director general recom mended that men who have sex with men should consider limiting their partners. The CDC highlighted that guidance not long after.

At the federal level, in the beginning of August, the White House enlisted Dr. Demetre Daskalakis to help lead the administration’s response to the growing crisis and rectify a stumbling rollout of the vaccine. Daskalakis, who is gay, responded with a strategy directly targeting the MSM

the issue, with explicit guidance for men who have sex with men to reduce their number of sex partners.

The new messaging seems to have worked. According to the CDC, by the mid dle of August, men who have sex with men reported changing their behavior because of the monkeypox outbreak: 48 percent reported reducing their number of sex partners, 50 percent reported reducing one-time sexual encounters and 50 per cent reported reducing sex with partners met on dating apps or at sex venues.

“The strategy worked,” Daskalakis said in an interview with LGBTQ Nation describing what he calls, “a three-part trick that always works in addressing outbreaks and epidemics: community engagement, science and political will.”

“I think that the really frank, direct information that we generated through governmental public health, and then saw the community alter, magnify, and contex tualize, got out,” said Daskalakis. “Seeing people who reduced their behaviors that could potentially expose them to monkey pox was definitely a part of this.”

Daskalakis added: “What’s important is that you don’t associate a virus with an identity, but rather talk about the behaviors that are associated with transmission of vi rus, and make sure the right people know.”

“I think the Biden administration kind of got its act together, but it was slower than it should have been,” said San Francisco City Supervisor Raphael Mandelman, who pushed hard for the city’s monkeypox emergency declaration.

“It was not a pleasant exercise, seeing this health crisis that the federal govern ment was not adequately addressing, and seeing how slow the country was to get this vaccine, that had already been discov ered, distributed into people’s arms.”

But, says Mandelman, “It seems like the gay [community has] done a good job of getting their monkeypox vaccines, and it seems like we’ve kind of turned a corner. I can say this cautiously.”

By

Stephen Lachs remembers the 1970s as being a particularly wonderful era in the history of the LGBTQ liberation movement.

Lachs, now 83, was the first out gay man appointed to a judgeship in the United States. Tapped by then-Governor Jerry Brown, the Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner was ap pointed in 1979 to sit as a judge on the county’s Superior Court.

Commissioners, Lachs explained, did essentially the same work as judges, but unlike judges who were appointed or elect ed to the bench, commissioners had to be agreed upon by both parties in the case.

“Governor Brown had received a lot of support from the gay and lesbian commu nity,” said Lachs in a recent phone inter view with the Bay Area Reporter. “During those first two terms he served, he sought the nomination for president, and the gay and lesbian community was very support ive and helped him.” (Brown had run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980.)

But there had also been grumbling by members of the community that, despite having served a full term already, Brown hadn’t appointed anyone from the gay and lesbian community to anything.

“A lot of people in the community were upset with that,” said Lachs. So, after looking for the right person, Brown decided upon the Superior Court com missioner from Los Angeles. With four and half years of experience at the court already, and well established within the community not only socially but politi cally, Lachs got the nod.

For LGBTQ history month

By Eric Burkett |Contributing Writer

the United States at the time who were fighting for change. The 1970s saw an explosion of political organization by nascent gay and lesbian groups, and the legal profession was very much at the center of that.

That period, to many of those who braved a society hostile to their kind, was “really a remarkable time,” as Lachs described it. “You were doing exciting things, meaningful things and, I don’t know, it just seemed like a wonderful, wonderful period.”

That era has been memorialized in “Memory Book,” a documentation of the people – men and women, gay, lesbian, bi sexual and trans – who fought for change in the 1970s. The book is part of a larger project titled Birds of a Feather, com memorating the 50th anniversary of the first forum on gay rights of the American Bar Association in 1972.

“The seventies saw the formation of the first gay law students associations,” writes “Memory Book” editor Thomas F. Coleman in the introduction. “The first few were formed in 1972 with others following as the decade progressed. The first forum on gay rights occurred in 1972 at an annual meeting of the American Bar Association, with positive position statements and committees on gay rights happening within the ABA in the next few years. Being an openly gay or lesbian law student or lawyer was not yet common at the ABA, but it was no longer a rarity.”

Nor was it easy. Coleman’s book, which he said he spent almost a year researching and compiling, details the achievements and struggles of hundreds of individu als from all over the country, although, notably many of those celebrated are from Northern California where, he pointed out, there exists much more documentation of their work thanks to the archives of the Bay Area Reporter, which was founded in 1971.

Coleman, a gay man, undertook the project, he said, when he realized the 50th anniversaries of a number of events – the formation of the first gay law association and the ABA’s forum on gay rights – was coming up.

“I think it’s important our history is documented,” Coleman said. “Especially to a large extent, including people who were still alive, who were participants, but also to tell the story of people who weren’t grab bing the headlines, but whose actions really contributed to advancing the moment dur ing what I call ‘the breakthrough decade.’”

Robert answered affirma tively,” the biography states.

Such a procedure was unusual, Coleman noted in Eimers’ bio, but Eimers ex plained that “someone had written to the Florida Bar as an act of revenge because Robert would not perjure himself in a lawsuit.”

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in, ruling that “an applicant’s admission of having a homosexual orien tation, in and of itself, would not preclude admission to the bar. However, the court said that it was not ruling on what would happen if the applicant admitted to engaging in criminal sexual acts. Homosexual conduct between consenting adults in private was criminal in Florida. During the two years he was waiting for a decision in Florida, Robert was practicing law in Philadelphia,” according to the biography.

The ruling proved a re lief to LGBTQ law students in other parts of the country where the matter was still unsettled. Eimers died in 1999 in Florida.

Katharine English, a bisexual woman who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 18, attended Lewis & Clark College’s Northwestern School of Law in Portland. She graduated in 1978.

English “started her own law firm with her lover, Janet Metcalf, a well-respected lawyer who had clerked for the Oregon Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals,” states her biography. “English and Metcalf are both distinguished lawyers who might have had their pick of work at downtown Portland’s large cor porate law firms. Instead they opened their own office in a modest five-story, brick building in an older district near the Willamette River. Because of their legal skill and dedication to equal rights for lesbians and gay men seeking child custody, English & Metcalf was a success from the beginning.”

Photo: Courtesy Thomas E. Horn

It was a huge deal, and was reported around the world, said Lachs, who still keeps a clipping from a Greek newspaper of the time covering the event. Wikipedia suggests he might have been the very first openly gay judge serving anywhere in the world.

But, despite the historic appointment, Lachs was really only one of hundreds of attorneys and, later, judges around

Steven Block, who was a founder of the groundbreaking Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom in San Francisco in 1980, eventually moved to Minnesota, where he died from AIDS-related com plications in 1984 just shy of his 34th birthday. However, during his short ca reer, he represented clients for Gay Rights Advocates and did pro bono work for the American Civil Liberties Union.

In Florida, in 1974, attorney Robert Eimers was summoned shortly after pass ing the state bar “for a special hearing by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners where he was asked if he was a homosexual.

As Coleman was working on “Memory Book,” he said he realized that the book needed one more element; everyone he was writing about from that era was white. As he researched, he said he was unable to find people of color who were doing similar work at the time. He asked a pres ent day law student, Maria Reyes Olmedo, to write a chapter. (Olmedo was unavail able for comment for this story.) The result is in the postscript: “The Emergence of Nonbinary, Transgender, and Students of Color as LGBT Activists.”

Thomas Horn, the publisher of the B.A.R. from 2004 to 2013, also has a chapter. A lawyer himself, Horn spent much of his practice in the 1970s repre

senting gay clients.

“He defended men who were being separated from the military due to their sexual orientation,” Coleman wrote. “He also engaged in criminal defense, repre senting men who had been arrested for lewd conduct by undercover vice officers.”

“I represented a lot of gay service people, back in the day when they were still busting men for having indiscretions in the park, or entrapping people in public restrooms,” Horn told the B.A.R.

Horn did much more than that, however, both in his native New Mexico, where – still closeted – he advocated for gay rights and sexual civil liberties as legal director of that state’s ACLU.

Horn, who moved to San Francisco in 1976, would eventually go on to become active in local politics, working with the likes of slain gay supervisor Harvey Milk, and was eventually one of the founders of BALIF. He also served as the attorney for the B.A.R. for many years.

Horn looks back on that era, though, with a great deal of pride. “We were at the forefront of the gay movement,” he said. “The legal community came to the forefront of the gay liberation movement very early on.”

Numerous videos of interviews with some of the living trailblazers are to be released on YouTube and through social media during LGBTQ History Month. For more about those videos, go to https:// lgbtlegalhistory.com/videos.html.

Eric Burkett is an assistant editor at the Bay Area Reporter. ::

‘Memory Book’ details history of 1970s-era LGBTQ attorneys in United States

Attorney and former Bay Area Reporter publisher Thomas Horn represented many LGBTQ clients in the 1970s.

A page from the “Memory Book” shows some of the firsts in LGBTQ legal history. Image: Courtesy “Memory Book.”

views

Invoking your right to vote: What’s at stake on the ballot

Legal eagles

By Crystal M. Richardson|Contributing Writer

Forover a decade, we’ve seen attempts to make it harder, not easier, for people to vote in North Carolina. Using methods like diluting Black voting strength through gerrymandering congressional maps in 2011, and enacting one of the na tion’s toughest voter identification rules in 2013, to limit access to voting. The impact on the LGBTQ+ community has been severe, particularly for those who identify as Black and people of color. As a result, you see the power of the LGBTQ+ voting bloc growing.

Earlier this month, Politico reported that LGBTQ voters were “poised to become one of the fastest-growing blocs in the country.” This news was based on research conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Bowling Green State University and based on U.S. Census Bureau data. The research is entitled “Equality Electorate: The Projected Growth of the LGBTQ+ Voting Bloc In Coming Years.” This research suggests that by 2030 approximately 1:7 voters will be LGBTQ, and by 2040 that ratio will be 1:5.

It is estimated that 9.8% of the more than 7.35 million registered voters in this state identify as LGBTQ+. Now we see that the power of the LGBTQ+ is getting even stronger because of the issues at stake during elections. The right to vote has always been important because it controls the power of those elected. Their decisions determine policy changes to systems that impact our daily lives – how our children are educated, whether we can be fired from our job for wearing our hair in locs or bantu knots, whether our doctors can perform certain reproductive services, etc. Whether you realize it or not, your vote matters.

And, if you identify as LGBTQ+, your vote is especially important because of the antiLGBTQ legislation that is consistently harm ing our community. This year alone, we’ve

seen several legislative bills introduced that are harmful to our community:

• SB514 Youth Health Protection Act – this bill seeks to limit medic treatments for transgender people under 21.

• SB515 Health Care Heroes Conscience Protection Act- this bill allows medical practitioners, health care institutions, and health care providers to discrimi nate based on their religious, moral, or ethical beliefs or principals.

• HB358 Save Women’s Sports Actseeks to prevent transgender youth playing in sports.

• HB755 Parents’ Bill of Rights – this bill prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity as part of the curriculum in K-3 class rooms and it also contains a provision that educators must give prior notice to the parent of any student seeking to change the name or pronouns that they use at school.

Many LGBTQ people already face discrimination, prejudice, harassment, family rejection and bias. Imagine the trauma to the youth associated with these bills if enacted into law, and how it could impact their mental wellness growing into adulthood. For those intersecting with racial and socioeconomic identities, facing violence and stigma derived from antiLGBTQ legislation, this exacerbates the discrimination they are forced to endure. The LGTBQ voting bloc is not a monolith. The issues that impact our communities are diverse and complex, to say the least.

In May of this year, Politco leaked a draft of the highly anticipated Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This opinion reviewed landmark decision, Roe

v. Wade, which most legal profes sionals thought was pretty wellsettled into the law for the past 50 years. Nearly two months later, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling, overturning Roe v. Wade and removing a fundamen tal reproductive right for millions of people. The leaked draft was shocking, but might have helped “lessen the blow” since we were “warned” the previous month of its demise. But what really stung was Justice Clarence Thomas’ concur ring opinion – putting us on notice that LGBTQ rights are going to be targeted next and making those in the LGBTQ+ Community feel even more at-risk.

Justice Thomas wrote “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process prec edents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” This has cautioned many individuals to call into question whether the right of same-sex marriages under Obergefell will be overturned next. If the court no longer were to consider marriage as a constitutional right under the 14th Amendment’s substantive due process clause, then it will be left to the states to provide protections for its LGBTQ citizens.

This is why your vote is critical to the Midterm 2022 Election. Voting for candi dates that best align with your values is key to gaining more inclusive laws and protec tions within our state. In fact, the future of North Carolina state law depends on it.

The 2022 midterms are shaping up to be a critical turning point in the contin ued fight for full equality nationwide. The United States Senate race, for example, is one of the most highly watched races in the country because of where the candi dates stand on the issues described in this

article. In less than two weeks, the fate of our lived equality will be decided through North Carolina General Election.

Bottom line, vote. The battle for basic civil human rights are at stake.

Crystal M. Richardson (she/her) is a North Carolina estate planning and administra tion attorney at The Law Office of Crystal M. Richardson PLLC. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Political Science. She is also a graduate of the Charlotte School of Law, where she graduated with pro bono honors. Attorney Richardson was licensed in 2013, and is currently a member in good standing with the North Carolina State Bar. Attorney Richardson is also an active mem ber on the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Committee and the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity (SOGI) Committee with the North Carolina Bar Association. She’s the C4 Board Chair for Equality North Carolina, the Education Chair with the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association, and a prominent advocate for passage of the CROWN Act. For more information, please visit her website at www.CrystalRichardsonLaw.com ::

Mistakes Were Made Out in print

by Terry Schlichenmeyer Contributing Writer

Itwas so not cool.

And yet, you owned it because it was your error, there was no denying it, and you can’t go back in time and undo it. It wasn’t cool, but it happened. Then again, was it really such a misstep, or was there something good inside the something bad you did? As in the new novel, “Mistakes Were Made” by Meryl Wilsner, will it all turn out right in the end?

The bar wasn’t one she usually fre quented, but it was as far from the dorm as Cassie Klein could possibly get. It was Family Weekend at college, she’d gradu ate soon, and the whole “family” thing was ridiculous. No, the bar was a better place to be, and she was preparing to get drunk, until she started watching the older woman who was watching her.

She bought the woman a drink and one thing led to another, which led to the

back seat of the woman’s car, the ex change of first names, and a semi-public one-night stand that Cassie was sure she’d never forget.

Erin Bennett had hoped being at Family Weekend might heal the broken bond she had with her daughter, Parker. She knew Parker was still angry that Erin had filed for divorce from Parker’s father, and Erin wished she could explain things, but she wasn’t exactly sure herself why the divorce

was important. She was mulling this over when Parker arrived at breakfast with one of her closest friends in tow – a friend that Erin had never officially met, but that she knew very well.

Intimately, in fact.

It was the woman she’d had sex with the night before.

Clearly, this was awkward and Parker could never find out what had happened. While the obvious thing to do was to put the brakes on, that was impossible – es pecially after Parker wouldn’t take “no” for an answer when she invited Cassie to her mother’s house for Christmas break. Being in the same home together was hard enough, but being in the same room, and in pajamas? How could anyone resist that?

There are really two basic ways to per ceive “Mistakes Were Made.” It’s either an overly-long, mostly-bare-bones story that contains some explicit bedroom scenes... or it’s soft erotica with a tissue-thin story between steamy trysts.

Could it be better? Well, that, too, will depend on what you want in a novel.

Author Meryl Wilsner’s bedroom (and kitchen, back seat and living room) scenes are hotter than a baked potato straight from the oven. They’re steam-your-glasses hot, and there are enough of them to seize your interest and handcuff it to a bedpost

– if that is, indeed, your interest. Come to this novel for a romance-y tale, though, and you could be bored because, while girl-meets-girl is all over this book, it’s frustratingly slow getting to it.

And so, know what you want before you pick up “Mistakes Were Made.” If erotica is your thing, stay for the heat. If you want a good story, though, it’ll leave you cold. ::

“Mistakes Were Made” by Meryl Wilsner

Make ‘Pride’ a verb this holiday season

by Matt Comer (he/him), Director of Operations and Communications

What is Pride? That’s a question every Pride organizer and, certainly, many LGBTQ community members ask them selves at least once in their life.

Is Pride merely a once-annual event? A flash-in-the-pan moment of celebration and revelry?

Is Pride a protest? A continuation of the historic liberationist movement spawned in the early-to-mid 20 th century and catapulted to national and interna tional prominence following the Stonewall Riots in 1969?

Is Pride an organization? An event com mittee? A feeling or state of being?

For nearly 15 years, I’ve been intimately involved in Pride Movement organizing, first in our local area with Charlotte Pride and, in recent years, increasingly so in the regional, national and international movements. In all my time and all my discussions, I’ve never met a Pride organizer or community member who can settle on just one definition of Pride. Ultimately, that’s because there is none.

Pride is many things wrapped into one big symbolic and ideological cultural understand ing that has practical, real-world implications for people.

Allow me to proffer another understanding of Pride, perhaps one many have already under stood and others may only be beginning to see: “Pride” as a verb.

Think back to your elementary school grammar lessons and what you learned of verbs: They are words that express a state of action or of movement. When we serve others, advocate for others, collaborate with others and build a community with others — all of these words we use are verbs. And each of these actions, I’d argue, are as every bit essential to a definition or understanding of Pride as any other.

Pride season across the Carolinas has come and gone this year. The parties, pa rades and marches, festivals and picnics — all these temporal affairs and events come and go but just once each year. What remains for the rest of the year, through the fall or winter, and onward into spring?

When we begin to think of Pride as a verb, as many of us already do, we can see how we can keep the joy, inspiration, camaraderie and empowerment we all feel at Pride events alive throughout the year. We can understand Pride as service, solidarity and support.

It’s one thing to take Pride in yourself, as you rightly should, but it’s quite another rewarding experience to take Pride — as a verb — in your community.

This kind of understanding of Pride is

especially relevant as we enter the final weeks of the year and a time of thanksgiv ing, family, friends and celebration.

As November draws ever closer, polls will open and you’ll have an opportunity to cast your ballot. Will you participate and vote for candidates who have our com munity’s best interest in mind? (You can vote early now through Nov. 5 in North Carolina and on Election Day itself on Nov. 8. Learn more at ncvoter.org.)

As the days grow colder and darker, people in our community will have real needs: clothes, jackets, coats, meals for families, gifts for kids and assistance paying rent and energy bills. How will

you support them?

As the year eventually comes to a close, the nonprofit organizations which serve our community will ask for your gifts of money or time. They’ve spent the past 300 days supporting the people, those without whom community could not exist. What will you do to give back? Will you pledge to volunteer, committing your time as a servant leader in solidar ity with the community? Will you pledge or contribute gifts of monetary support, enabling our local organizations to thrive well into the next year?

What will you do? How will you Pride? Whatever you decide, there’s no better time than now to make it happen — and to keep making it happen every day, ev ery week, every month and all throughout the year.

Do Pride with Pride: Come do Pride with us! Learn more about open volunteer leadership roles and opportunities with Charlotte Pride at our 2023 Volunteer Leadership Kickoff event, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 6-8 p.m., at Pinhouse, 2306 Central Ave.

Learn more and peruse open leader ship positions at cltpri.de/kickoff. ::

Members of the Charlotte Pride volunteer leadership team.

The very definition of ultra: an interview with Ultra Naté

Celebrating 31 years of creating dance music

By Greg Shapiro Qnotes Staff Writer

Everytime house and dance music legend Ultra Naté releases a new album it’s a cause for celebration. Her latest, simply titled “Ultra” (Peace Biscuit), is no exception. Maintaining the house and club vibe we’ve come to associate with her, Ultra Naté unfurls a set of irresistible bangers that are sure to have even the most determined wallflowers heading for the dance floor. More than 30 years into her career, Ultra Naté continues to find ways to speak to us, moving us both physi cally and emotionally. And her apprecia tion for her LGBTQ+ fans goes without saying, but it’s nice to hear what she has to say about us nevertheless.

Gregg Shapiro: From the early days of your recording career, you have been a presence in the dance music scene. Who do you consider to be some of your strongest influences from that world?

Ultra Naté: Oh, wow, there are so many. From my earliest days in the dance music scene, I would say the influences were people like Jody Watley and Madonna. I think there were some underground art ists that were very influential that I may not even have known because I kind of accidentally fell into the music business. I was listening to really danceable R&B, as well as the early sounds of house music. Voices like Jomanda and Ten City; those kinds of groups were very influential and what I was dancing to in the clubs. What I was hearing on the radio was Jody Watley and Madonna, dance artists like that. I was also very influenced by Chaka [Khan] and Tina [Turner] and Cher. All the women with one-word names [big laugh].

GS: Did you ever get a chance to meet Byron Stingily from Ten City?

UN: Oh my God, yes! We’ve been long time friends. We’re like family, basically. We’ve known each other since the beginning of my career. Initially, I was signed to Warner Brothers and was writing my first album. After I wrote “It’s Over Now” and “Scandal,” and was writing for the full album, Byron submitted a couple of songs, and one or two of them ended up on that album. We’ve probably been friends since 1991.

GS: Because you are closely associated with the house music scene, did you ever have the chance to work with the legendary Frankie Knuckles?

UN: Absolutely! That was my big brother, my mentor. Every year, we mark his birthday and as well as his official day, August 25th every year, that was sanc tioned by, at the time, Senator Barack Obama. I feel very privileged to be part of a community that was very close to him on an intimate level and to have shared some really beautiful, longtime memories with him, and to have had conversations and have experienced that wonderful bear hug and his loving being. To be a part of

his art! He’s remixed songs for me. Some of the work that I was doing with Quentin Harris, back in the mid2000s when he had come back on the scene, doing produc tion and remix ing again, as well as a couple of projects that I was putting out. He was very in fluential as one of my mentors in my DJ career.

GS: 2021 was the 30th an niversary of the release of your debut album “Blue Notes in the Basement.” Were you able to do anything special to mark the occasion?

UN: Not really. We were unable to pull that all together. We are working on some things behind the scenes, I can’t really say what that is at the moment.

We are working on things to actually give “Blue Notes in the Basement” and “One Woman’s Insanity” another day in the sun. It won’t come out this year, but for 2023, hopefully, all that will come together. We’re finally in conversations with Warner Brothers and it looks like that may all come together.

GS: The song “Supernatural” from your new album “Ultra,” is a marvelous house music track.

“Supernatural” actually happened kind of independent of the “Ultra” album in its origin. It kind of came out of the blue. My friend Kwame Kwaten from D-Influence, with whom I’ve had a longtime collabora tive relationship on both my “Situation Critical” and “Stranger than Fiction” al bums, is an amazing songwriter in his own right, and through the years has evolved into artist management and has been quite successful in finding new talent out there in the British community. He hit me up in early 2021 and said he was working with these kids out of a music school in the UK called Point Blank Music School. He really loved this new duo he was working with called Funk Cartel. They were a pair of brothers doing organic, early house kinds of sounds, very similar to what I was doing originally with Basement Boys when I first came out in the early ‘90s, but with fresh er, modern sounds. That kind of strippeddown soul, right-in-your-face production. He thought I would be a good fit to come up with a song with the boys. He sent me that track, and I immediately loved it, for all the reasons that he mentioned. It did feel very reminiscent of those early days of “It’s Over Now,” when it was this musician ship in your face. That backbeat of house underground production providing the

rhythm pocket, the groove that you heard in the clubs.

On top of that, it was laced with really cool minimalist musi cianship. It grabbed me out of the gate. Those kinds of songs are really easy for me to write to because there’s not a lot of noise getting in the way. It doesn’t mean to be overdone. It just needs to be a vibe and a cool energy. I opened up my mic and started singing, vibing with the melody, and let the song write itself. I had no idea if the guys would even like it. There’s always that. But they loved it and wanted to put it out. It ended up coming out on Skint [Records], which was backed by BMG, in 2021, indepen dent of the album, which wasn’t finished at that time. I had collaborative rights, as cowriter and coproducer on it, to put it out and make it part of my “Ultra” album. In the end, it all made sense together as part of this 2020 pandemic isolation story because it was written during that period.

GS: It’s a good fit for the record. “Miracle,” on Ultra, made me think of your popular hit “Free.” It’s a song with an uplifting message. How important is it for you to include a song such as this in your repertoire?

UN: It’s extremely important. It’s the center of who I am and how I think. How I live my life. I’m very clear about the things that are not working, that are torturous, that are hurtful, that are detracting from my humanity or humanity at large. My own personal mantra is to find the good in all things. To look for, where is the growth in this? What am I pushing past at this moment? What is the next level of vibra tion that I’m working to get to? Because if things are this difficult in this moment, then I must be about the ascend to something amazing. If I’m having a really bad day, I’m like, “Wow, something really amazing must be right around the corner [laughs].” People need that, especially right now with so much negative energy coming from left, right and center, in every direction. I feel like if I am struggling at this moment with feeling confident or secure, unsure of what tomorrow holds, then I need to somehow harness that fear and insecurity, all this angst that we’re all feeling, and somehow still be a beacon of light. That’s cathartic and therapeutic for me, and it’s also therapeutic for the rest of the world, having an anchor to hold onto.

GS: Speaking of “Free,” Ultra closes with a new version of the song. Why did you want to revisit that track?

UN: I thought it was important because it’s the 25th anniversary of the release of

“Free.” The song is still so resonant and extremely universal. I feel like the trajec tory it’s on is still growing and evolving, still affecting generations. There are so many crazy things going on around us that make it really important, still to this day. For the 25th anniversary, we wanted to do quite a few different things to celebrate and com memorate that this song is still here, still resonating with DJs, DJ culture and dance music culture, and beyond. Kids are still growing up with it. It’s created a life of its own. I felt that the best way to honor that was to make it a part of this 10th album. This album is self-titled and encompasses for me, who I am as an artist, but also my story as someone from a marginalized community. Ticking all the boxes of being Black, being a woman, being older, being a veteran in this. I’m not a kid anymore. It ticks all the boxes of how it could all go wrong and be derailed and be over and been over for a long time. But I’m still here and I’m still doing it on my own terms. All of that is incorporated in this story of what this “Ultra” album is about, and “Free” is a very important piece in that story.

GS: Since the beginning of disco to the present day, the LGBTQ+ community has been one of the biggest supporters of the genre, and in many ways kept it alive over the years. What does your gay fanbase mean to you?

UN: Oh, the difference between still being in this industry and potentially not. Through hit records, it’s easy to sustain a ca reer. But it’s the times when you’re in the lull or in between those periods, those that are loyal to this sound and this genre, this scene, this movement, that’s what has sustained my career. My career started in the LGBTQ community, in the underground house com munity, which is a mixed community. Even on a professional level, with people around me that work behind the scenes, in so many facets of my career, have been a part of my story and have brought their art and their vision to my story for so many years in so many different ways. There are too many to enumerate. From different producers or writers or co-writers that I’ve worked with. Fellow DJs, fellow record label people, radio people, designers and make-up artists, and videographers. In every aspect of my career, that community has been there. They have been strong supporters many times when I’ve been riding high and when I’ve been riding low; they’re always riding with me. When I perform, knowing the his tory, knowing the different areas of music that I’ve done, and this part or that part, or whether I did something dance or more hip-hop or drum’n’bass. Whatever things I’ve done, they’re locked in and they’re recep tive and they’ve embraced my art from the beginning. They gave me the footing and the grace to evolve as an artist. I feel like that’s something a lot of artists don’t have the luxury of. Having a community that has grown up with them that was also learning and growing and developing. So, we gave each other that license. I feel honored to be a part of this community in that way, to have my art supported in that way. ::

Ultra Nate: ‘My career started in the LGBTQ community.’CREDIT: Karl Giant

Our people: RJ Harvey

Banking on building community

By L’Monique King Qnotes Staff Writer

Back in the day, and while working two jobs, Diane Harvey lovingly indoctri nated her offspring with a sense of responsibility and community, a strong work ethic and the capacity to love greatly. She truly had a penchant for instilling the best in her children, and it’s something her eldest son RJ Harvey will always remain indebted to her for.

Harvey, a passionate and well-spoken professional reflects upon his contri butions to community and recalls his childhood as a young Black gay boy from Jackson, Miss., with a pronounced speech impediment. “I needed to be able to take care of things while she was away [at work]. I didn’t have time to think about my stuttering then because you gotta get your shit together and get things done. I had to be able to communicate whatever had to be done to my siblings.” Today, Harvey is a staunch and eloquent communicator driven to empowering others by always “getting it done.”

L’Monique King: What was it like being a little Black gay boy in Jackson, Miss.?

RJ Harvey: I came out in Jackson, Miss., as a 14-year-old gay male. It’s a much more conservative community. It was hard! It was hard because of the things that I wore, the things that people saw: my skin color, then me being gay, then being poor, then being fat and then my speech impediment. I stut tered. I had a large circle of friends, how ever, and by the time I left home in 1994 there were only five of us left. There was no [HIV/AIDS] outreach and only one gay club. People were just dying and there was no conversation about it. If you didn’t do your own research, you just listened to what was said on the news and all you knew was that you were highly susceptible.

LMK: Those were difficult times. But wait, did you say “stuttered”?

RJH: Yes. They wanted to hold me back in the first grade because I did not speak. Most kids that age are little chatterboxes. But for me, I was either afraid to speak or didn’t because I was concerned that I was not going to be able to finish my thought – stuck because I was stuttering. It caused such humiliation, more than my race or sexuality. In the ninth grade my teacher asked me to read a portion of our lesson for that day. She saw that I was strug gling, because I stuttered, but she never stopped to say, I see you’re struggling –let’s stop or move on to another person. I put my head on my desk and just cried. She may have seen it as an opportunity to empower me, an honor student,but I didn’t see it that way.

LMK: How is it that you’re not stutter ing through this interview?

RJH: My darling, darling mother, the most gentle woman you’ll ever meet. But like most mothers when you mess with

their kids, was an advocate before the word was being used and encouraged my second-grade teacher to get me a speech therapist. That started it, though I was still stuttering by ninth grade. But when I moved to New York years later, I was working for a bank and saw a free news paper [The Learning Annex]. There was a three day class for people with speech impediments. One of the techniques that they used was a metronome [a musical device that sets pace]. In that class, they showed us, if you keep the pace of your conversation, you’re less likely to focus on what you can’t say.

LMK: How did you end up in Charlotte?

RJH: When I moved from Jackson at 18, I went into the military for basic training in Great Lakes, Ill. After complet ing basic I was stationed in Norfolk, Va. Two years later I was stationed in Earle, N.J. and left the military August 11, 1997, and moved to New York. I lived there un til 2008 when I moved to Charlotte. I had started a consulting business and many of my clients were in Charlotte. Plus, I had worked in the banking industry and thought, if my business fails, I can always go back into banking because outside of New York City, Charlotte is the second largest city in the country with the larg est population of banks, financial institu tions and private equity firms.

LMK: What was it like being gay and in the Navy?

RJH: Most of us were 17, 18, 19-yearold boys who had never been far from home. So, my sexuality at that point was the low man on the totem pole because basically we were all just scared, having never been this far away from home. I remember a time when I was in my post training, E Lynn Harris’ “Invisible Life” had just come out and I was in my barracks reading, and I didn’t hide it. We were in groups of 80, so I read that book in front of 79 other perfect strangers, and it was very affirming. Later I was stationed in Norfolk, Va. and reading James Earl Hardy. Someone asked me what I was reading. I explained it to him and we ended up in a relationship for four years [hearty laugh ter]. He’d never been with a man before and didn’t know it could be like this. He had his own picture of what gay was like [stereotypes of very feminine, delicate or weak], very opposite of the characters in Hardy’s “B-Boy Blues.”

LMK: So, no homophobic military hor ror stories?

RJH: No. I kinda fall into that other category. I would go down to the weight room and could lift, squat and curl as much as anyone else, so they didn’t really mess with me. They pretty much assumed I was straight and not until we were in an environment or in a place where a hetero

sexual man is supposed to respond in a certain way, like being at a party or a club with girls you’re expected to approach, did they question my orientation. When they did question, I was honest. I’d say, “I appreciate it, but I like boys.”

LMK: What do you do for work?

RJH: I am a partner in a residential and commercial construction firm, Hendricks Builders. That’s my main job, and I also have a side hustle, but it’s really not a side hustle – it’s the most gratifying part of my day. I’m the director of real estate develop ment and construction for West Side Community Land Trust. It’s a community led and formed organization that focuses on permanent affordable housing. It’s not work, I just have stuff to do. It’s gratifying because growing up as a child who lived in public housing and dealt with housing insecurity to now have a job that centers finding housing for people – wow!

LMK: Tell us about your involvement with the City Planning Commission.

RJH: Being a part of it is amazing! I was appointed by council member Victoria Watlington as a City Planning Commission member. There are 11 members. We were introduced by my work in the com munity, specifically my work with Clanton Park Neighborhood Association and the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition. Most members are in real estate, con struction or both. What I find so amazing is being able to bring my experience from both those industries, but I get to equally bring my commitment to community. The planning commission basically oversees all the zoning or rezoning for the city. It’s exciting, the decisions that are made –impact my community.

LMK: What future successes do you look forward to?

RJH: I’m definitely married. I want to have the opportunity to continue to be a willing servant in my community. I see my self continuously being surrounded by a growing family and establishing traditions that impact our future generations.

LMK: Are you currently partnered?

RJH: No.

LMK: Would you like to be?

RJH: Yes, very much so.

LMK: Describe your Mr. Right.

RJH: My ideal partner is a beautiful man, both inside and out. He loves his family and his creator. He’s affectionate, responsive, knows how to love me and most importantly, knows how to love himself. He’s smart enough and confident enough to have his individual goals but has the willingness to create joint goals.

LMK: Any learned life lessons you’d like to leave readers with?

RJH: The only limitations are the ones that you place on yourself. If there’s some thing that you want to do, there’s a path, direct or indirect, you can get there. ::