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Qsaltlake.com | Issue 326 | August, 2021
Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, and Jonathan Van Ness were all nominated as the hosts of “Queer Eye.”
BY CRAIG OGAN
Emmy’s eye queer performances As in all other entertainment award competitions, the Emmy Awards is putting forward a slew of LGBT people who appear in front of and behind the camera for honors. Notable nominations are Mi Rodriguez and Billy Porter for their roles in “Pose.” The series also made the list for Outstanding Drama Series. Bowen Yang, Dan Levy, and Kate McKinnon for appearances on “Saturday Night Live.” Out actors Hannah Einbinder and Carl Clemons-Hopkins have been nominated for their roles in “Hacks. “The Crown” actresses, Emma Corrin (Lady Diana) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher) were nominated for queer-washing those two roles. Same for Samira Wiley from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Jonathan Groff’s gay-wash of King George in “Hamilton” was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Singer, Cynthia Erivo was nominated for Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her Aretha Franklin lesbian-wash in “Genius: Aretha.” RuPaul, not gay-washing, received his sixth Emmy nomination in a row for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Competition Program for “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Being gay and playing gay, Bobby
Pride in space That irrepressible billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson shot off into space recently. He rode a rocket to the edge of space in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, and he did it while proudly wearing a rainbow flag pin in memory of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub victims. “Somebody who lost a loved one at the Orlando massacre asked if I would do that,” Branson said, “We also have many, many friends who are gay and I know people who lost friends there.” The ribbon was created by Orlando Ribbon Project founder Ben Johansen following the Pulse nightclub shooting when 49 people lost their lives.
Seattle Pride A Pride event, “TAKING B[L] ACK PRIDE,” in Seattle may win the prize for the “wokest” Pride event this year. The event, in Jimi Hendrix Park, is being hosted for black and brown members of the LBGTQ community and the organizers announced, “(caps are theirs, ed) All are free to attend HOWEVER this is a BLACK AND BROWN QUEER TRANS CENTERED, PRIOR-
ITIZED, VALUED, EVENT.”
Organizers wrote on the page of the event, “White allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY.” Another Pride organization, Capitol Hill Pride, protested to Seattle s Human Rights Commission, writing, “We consider this reverse discrimination in its worse [sic] form.” The city’s HRC sided with “TAKING B[L] ACK PRIDE” organizers.
California travel ban The state of California has extended the travel ban for all but critical travel to states with “anti-LGBT” policies. The ban started with North Carolina after the bathroom legislation in 2017 and had banned travel to Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, for some or other outrage to the LGBT community. Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia to the list. The five states’ insults are legislation or policy that prevent transgender girls from participating in school sports, block access to transition health care for transgender minors and allow LGBT discrimination for religious reasons.
Pride and prejudice Thanks to SNL’s Bowen Yang and writer/producer/content creator/actor, Joel Kim Booster, the 18th-century English writer Jane Austen’s most beloved characters will receive a thorough gay-washing in a queer update of “Pride and Prejudice” called “Fire Island”. Yang and Booster will lead
the cast of “Fire Island,” it will be a gay-themed romantic comedy loosely based on “Pride and Prejudice” The movie will follow two friends as they embark on a weeklong vacation to New York State’s Fire Island. The movie will stream on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ Star, globally. A release date was not publicly announced
Banning hate chicken Activists, objecting to Chickfil-A’s founder’s donations to groups opposing marriage equality and supporting religious exemptions from LGBT discrimination, tried banning Chick-fil-A from being offered in the new San Antonio, Texas airport. Their efforts were thwarted by the Texas Legislature (Chick-fil-A decided not to locate there, after all). Now in New York State, haters of hate-chicken are trying to ban the restaurant from opening in New York Thruway rest areas. The New York State Thruway Authority will spend $450 million to update the toll road’s facilities. The group of avowedly LGBT legislators sent a letter formally asking that the fastfood chain be kept out of the food courts. The Authority responded that all approved vendors must observe the New York State non-discrimination laws and policies. Also, students at Notre Dame University have petitioned the University to ban Chick-fil-A from the South Bend, Indiana campus. No decision yet from the private, Roman Catholic-sponsored university.
House Dems repeat Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are re-upping the request that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency release all transgender detainees and
