GAYRVA & VA PRIDE SUMMER 2018

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Capital One is proud to support Virginia Pride. capitalone.com/inclusion

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Together is beautiful.

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Celebrating 30 years of standing together with the LGBT community. wellsfargo.com/standingtogether

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VA PRIDE BOARD LETTER Dear Friends — Virginia Pride is once again proud to partner with GayRVA to publish this Summer Pride Guide. It contains excellent features and information as well as messages of support for our community from dozens of local businesses, companies and organizations.

As we near the end of National LGBTQ Pride Month, it is important that we pause to reflect on just how far we have come in our march towards full equality under the law. This June marks the 49th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that thrust the fight for LGBTQ rights into the mainstream.

June marks the anniversaries of landmark Supreme Court decisions that have chipped away at the discrimination we have faced because of who and how we love.

But we must not become complacent. Our rights are, unfortunately, still very much up for debate. Cases challenging our rights to marry, form families and be served in public places are winding their way through the courts. In Virginia, there are no laws to protect us from being fired from our jobs or denied housing simply because of who we are or how we identify. We must remain vigilant. We must continue to fight.

But, June is also a month of celebration as communities around the country hold pride parades and festivals. Millions of LGBTQ people, our friends, supporters and allies take to the streets to stake our claim to unapologetically be who we are, love who we love and live how we live.

Our theme for Pridefest 2018 is “This is Me,” which we shamelessly coopted from “The Greatest Showman.” The lyrics are powerful. “Look out cause here I come/And I’m marching to the beat I drum/I’m not scared to be seen/I make no apologies/This is me!” It is an anthem for all of us who have ever felt different because of who we are. Our hope is that all of us, no matter how we identify, will feel empowered to stand up and demand to be treated equally and fairly. Our hope is that each of us will be emboldened to stand up and proclaim that we are worthy of love, dignity and respect.

On behalf of the board of directors of Virginia Pride, I wish you a safe and happy summer. We are hard at work to make this Pridefest 2018, presented

by Capital One, the biggest and best yet and look forward to seeing you on Saturday, September 22 on Brown’s Island.

In community,

James R. Millner II President, VA Pride

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VIRGINIA PRIDEFEST 2016 2018

VIRGINIA PRIDE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JAMES MILLNER PRESIDENT

2019 PRESIDENT-ELECT

STEPHANIE BROWN

ALEXSIS RODGERS

NIDA SHAH

MAUREEN SCOTT

BRANDON HORTON

LORI NEWS

JON MELVIN

RICH FORRESTER

SECRETARY

TREASURER

ROBERT DVORAK BE SAFE, HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVE FREE.BELIVE PROUD.

VICE PRESIDENT

JAMIE THOMSON

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P R I D E VIRGINIA PRIDEFEST 2018 WWW.VAPRIDE.ORG/PRIDEFEST

JOHN REINHOLD PRESIDENT DREW NECCI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF R. ANTHONY HARRIS CREATIVE DIRECTOR JOHN REINHOLD JOE VANDERHOFF ADVERTISING

CONTENTS

CHAVA EVANS ASH GRIFFITH SARAH HONOSKY DREW NECCI CONTRIBUTORS

26 THE TRUE MEANING OF PRINCESS: AUTHOR MARK LOEWEN’S NEW BOOK DELIVERS EMPOWERING MESSAGES TO YOUNG GIRLS

ERIC HAUSE PHOTOGRAPHY FACEBOOK.COM/VIRGINIAPRIDE TWITTER.COM/@VA_PRIDE INSTAGRAM/VAPRIDE #VAPRIDE #VIRGINIAPRIDE2016 SOCIAL THANK YOU TO OUR DISTRIBUTION PARTNER BIORIDE / BIORIDERVA.COM DISTRIBUTION

20 ANSWERING THE WAKE-UP CALL: DAVID NYGAARD’S UNLIKELY POLITICAL PATH

32 MAKING RESTROOMS SAFE AGAIN: ESTABLISHING GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOMS AT JAMES RIVER HIGH SCHOOL 38 VCU’S LGBTQ COMICS COLLECTION: HELPS PRESERVE OUR COMMUNITY’S ARTISTIC HISTORY 46 STILL FIGHTING: MARK LEVINE BRINGS A QUARTER-CENTURY OF LGBTQ ACTIVISM TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

VA PRIDE GUIDE SUMMER 2017 PRINTED LOCALLY

BY CONQUEST GRAPHICS VA PRIDE COVER PHOTO

PUBLISHED 2018 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INKWELL VENTURES PUBLISHER OF RVA MAGAZINE & GAYRVA

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VIRGINIA PRIDEFEST 2016 2018

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

The summer is here, and it’s great to be back with you and VA Pride to celebrate Pride Month 2018. This season marks the end of my first year as editor-in-chief of GayRVA -a whirlwind year in which we’ve stepped our game to hopefully make Virginia’s foremost LGBTQ-centered publication better than ever.

It’s been a whirlwind year for me personally as well; only a month after taking over GayRVA, I left for my honeymoon. I met my wonderful wife, Sara, in 2016, and after an amazing year together, we decided to do something totally over-the-top to celebrate our relationship and commit to living our lives together. We flew to the Pacific Northwest, bought a Jeep, and road-tripped it all the way back across the country. We off-roaded into the Grand Canyon, we ascended to the summit of Pike’s Peak, and most importantly, we got married in the front seat of that Jeep at a drive-thru chapel in Las Vegas -- with an Elvis impersonator as our minister.

Since then, we’ve set about the business of building a life together, and it’s been wonderful -- I never would have guessed at the romantic potential of building a bookshelf or shopping for a lawnmower together. Things like this have been the biggest trials we’ve faced in married life so far. Sara and I have been lucky; we’ve never had to deal with institutional discrimination impacting our relationship. But we’re all too aware that that may change.

Donald Trump has been in office for 18 months now. This June marks the second Pride Month to occur under his administration, and for the second year in a row, he has refused to officially recognize it. The policies of his administraBE SAFE, LIVE FREE.BELIVE HAPPY, PROUD. BE PROUD!

tion have been uniformly opposed to LGBTQ rights, and it’s taken federal court intervention to prevent draconian restrictions like the trans military ban from going into effect.

Remember National Organization For Marriage? The people who led the fight to repeal gay marriage in California back in the late 00s?

They’re still around -- and lately they’ve been gathering their forces. They’re convinced that Trump will have a chance to nominate another conservative justice to the Supreme Court before his term is out, and they’re fundraising on the premise that this will enable a repeal of Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that made marriage equality the law of the land.

At that point, laws around gay marriage would revert to the state level, and despite the efforts of excellent state legislators like Sen. Adam Ebbin and Del. Mark Sickles to pass an official repeal, the 2006 Marshall-Newman Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman remains on the books in Virginia. If things go NOM’s way, we could see every gay marriage in Virginia, including my own, erased from existence by a Supreme Court decision.

In a climate like this, it’s more important than ever to proclaim and celebrate our pride, whether the president wants to recognize us or not. This Pride Month issue of our VA Pride Guide does just that; we’ll get to know a Virginia legislator whose history of fighting against multiple forms of oppression stretches back decades, hear the story of a young man who worked to bring gender neutral bathrooms to his high school, and celebrate a children’s book that both empowers young girls and depicts LGBTQ parents as a totally normal part of life.

This is how we will continue to survive and thrive -- by living out loud, showing that our diverse community is made up of productive citizens living full, happy lives as part of a bigger, wider world. Through our celebration of Pride, we fight for our civil rights and make clear that we’re not going away and we won’t be held down.

Happy Pride Month!

Marilyn Drew Necci, GayRVA Editor-in-Chief 17

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ANSWERING THE WAKE-UP CALL DAVID NYGAARD’S UNLIKELY POLITICAL PATH

BY SARAH HONOSKY PHOTO ERIC HAUSE

A devout Christian, a staunch Republican, and married for 20 years with six kids: David Nygaard was a family man. The day before we talked, Nygaard was in the hospital. It ended up being a standard check-up, common protocol for a heart attack survivor, and his stress test came back with normal results.

But it’s a reminder of two years before, of his original heart attack in December of 2016, and everything that preceded it. That’s when Nygaard — right-wing, religious, and recently divorced — came out as gay.

Earlier in the year, Nygaard failed to qualify for the ballot in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District primary after Sandra Brandt, the Chair of the 2nd District Democratic Committee, disqualified over 500 of his petition signatures with little to no explanation.

“They pride themselves on being open and inclusive, but as a party they tend to get entrenched with certain power bases, and people are very territorial,” said Nygaard of the 2nd District Democratic Party.

The Virginian-Pilot criticized national party leaders as well, for allegedly choosing the candidates for their ballot before the signatures came in. After the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (D Triple-C) named Norfolk businesswoman Elaine Luria as their favored candidate, she made it onto the primary ballot with no “It was a wake-up call that I didn’t want to issue, even as others were disqualified. ignore,” said Nygaard. “It gave me a chance, a new lease on life, to do things differently. “The structure of a primary race is really built So I did. I allowed myself to be open to who around the party itself, party leadership,” I really am.” said Nygaard. “So we may be collecting signatures, and we may be engaging with It’s a common story emerging in our voters, and we may be getting them to sign national narrative. Though societal petitions, and talking about issues, and conventions and expectation can keep doing all the things you are supposed to someone locked in the closet for the better be doing as a candidate, but at the end of part of five decades, more and more people the day, in a primary race, you don’t turn in are coming out late in life. But Nygaard’s those petitions to the local registrar’s office. story is a little different. The reformed You turn them into the party chair. They formerly-conservative Christian family man can decide who gets on the ballot and who is running for office. doesn’t.”

Now identifying as a Democrat, Nygaard is vying for a seat on Virginia Beach City Council, where he would be the first openly gay member on a council with no current minority representatives.

In contrast, City Council is more localized.

Rather than representing the district at a statewide level, it allows the opportunity to work more directly with the constituents of Virginia Beach on a nonpartisan basis. Soon after his failure to get on the Democratic primary ticket, Nygaard announced his run for City Council. “The city of Virginia Beach needs an openly gay City Council member,” he said.

Once a member of the C12 group, a Christian business networking organization that is a hard opponent of same-sex marriage, Nygaard is running for City Council on a platform defined by more liberal ideologies.

He said he wants to make a difference at a “The Democratic Party has taken for local level, concerning himself with social granted the LGBT vote...They are expecting and economic issues that directly affect their support without earning it, and that’s Virginia Beach residents.

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something I’ve heard across the board,” said Nygaard. “When the D Triple-C comes down and selects their candidate, who is white and conservative and doesn’t really engage with minority voters, I think that’s a bad precedent.”

Though Nygaard’s platform is full of good intentions, you can’t help but wonder about the fact that he is a former member of the party that was complicit in our current national narrative of polarized conservatism and prejudice.

“I’ll own the fact that I was part of a party that fought...to take a hard stand against gay rights. I’ll own the fact that for years I was a part of that party. And while I personally did not subscribe to that harshness, many of my friends did,” said Nygaard. “What do I owe the community? In some ways, I do recognize that I’m late to the table, and I own that, too.”

Nygaard believes in the intersection of faith, community service, and social justice. The way that plays out in his current political profile is through moderation. “I would always have characterized myself as a more moderate Republican, because social justice was always a part of my concern… I tend to be more a moderate in the Democratic party as well,” said Nygaard. “I still consider myself a Christian. I’m still a follower of Christ. That’s a part of my narrative that I don’t believe is going to change.”

candidate, my experiences inform different areas, and [reflect] the fact that I’ve learned to listen.”

More specifically, when it comes to the city’s needs, Nygaard has a plan to fix the flooding issues that plague the area -- including an audit of the money that is annually being taken from Virginia Beach citizens, and a reallocation of federal and state money to fix the problems within three years, versus the current plan that looks to solve it in 15.

These are the issues that are most important to him. “My sexuality becomes a secondary, or even tertiary, issue, because the key issues that really matter are the issues of policy.

I think that I’m actually uniquely electable because of my history, which my sexuality was really irrelevant to,” said Nygaard.

He has a universal appeal, one defined by his intersections of faith, sexuality, and business ownership. He sees this as an essential element in his campaign. “If you make being the gay candidate your platform, you lose,” he said. “Particularly in Virginia Beach. If you are a candidate with a business background, with a principled stance on issues, who happens to be gay, I think you win.”

Before he came out, before his heart attack, Nygaard was bearing a weight he didn’t even realize he was holding. He is happier now, living his truth, putting a face and relationship at the forefront of his politics.

He no longer has the pressure of being closeted, and is free to take direct action in a community that he spent 50 years distancing himself from. “When you’re taking a stand against the gay community, you’re taking a stand against me,” said Nygaard.

Running for office opened his eyes to needs he wasn’t aware of before, specifically of the African American population in Virginia Beach, which makes up almost 20 percent of the area’s population, according to data from the US Census Bureau. He also understands broader concerns that affect the city’s A new Democrat, a local business leader, working residents. openly gay, and a father of six in a “As a city councilman, my life experiences multigenerational household: David Nygaard bridge and touch on a lot of these areas, is still a family man. whether it’s my own experience with health care, my own experiences with the African American community, or the LGBT community,” said Nygaard. “I think that as a 22

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In a world where sexism is still very much a present-tense concern, author Mark Loewen has taken a big step forward for parents concerned about the messages society sends to young girls. In his new children’s book, What Does a Princess Really Look Like?, Loewen tells a story of empowerment for little girls -- and strikes a positive note for LGBTQ families with some smaller details you might not initially notice.

Inspired by Loewen’s own daughter as well as his experience working with children as a therapist, What Does a Princess Really Look Like? tells the story of a young girl named Chloe and her journey to learn how to stand up for herself as she receives support from both of her fathers. She learns that being a princess is about more than just glittery crowns -- it’s about using your power to do what’s right.

By day, Loewen is a therapist with a private practice in Richmond, and one of his focuses is on children. Working closely with children through play, Loewen has gained a great deal of insight into the day-to-day experience of 26

being very young and learning to understand the world around you. The fact that he and his husband have a daughter of their own only adds to the depth of his understanding.

“Being a play therapist really helps you to engage children,” Loewen said. “You can engage them in so many ways, and empower them.” Indeed, it was a decision Loewen made while playing with his daughter that originally inspired What Does A Princess Really Look Like?

“She asked if we could play princess and knight, and I asked ‘What would I do as a knight?’,” Loewen said. “’You fight,’ she said.

So what are you going to do as a princess?

And she said, ‘You look pretty.’” The response stunned Loewen, who admitted that he and his husband have realized a lot about the struggles and pitfalls that girls and women endure on a daily basis since having a daughter of their own.

“I was so taken aback,” Loewen said. Not wanting to encourage his daughter to continue following the social norms that had 2016 VIRGINIA PRIDEFEST 2018

THE TRUE MEANING OF

PRINCESS AUTHOR MARK LOEWEN’S NEW BOOK DELIVERS EMPOWERING MESSAGES TO YOUNG GIRLS

BY ASH GRIFFITH & MARILYN DREW NECCI

“The American concept of a princess is a diva who doesn’t really do anything, but the real concept of a princess is a governor that has responsibilities.”

Loewen has found raising a daughter to be an eye-opening experience -- and not in a good way. He sees unhealthy ideas at work in the ways that boys and girls are socialized differently, even at very young ages. “We tell girls to ignore, and boys to fight back,” he said. “Then when we don’t teach our daughters to set their boundaries, they don’t!

Eventually when it doesn’t work, you lash out, and you’re told not to be too aggressive.”

With What Does A Princess Really Look Like?, he hopes to create a new, healthier narrative for his daughter, and for all the girls who read it. As part of this creation, he made a conscious choice to keep the character of Chloe wanting to be a princess. Instead, it was the role of From this inspirational experience, Loewen princess he chose to recontextualize, using began putting together a story that could it in a surprisingly empowering twist to teach help his daughter understand for herself the girls responsibility. ways that a princess could have so much more power and responsibility than just looking Loewen saw a significant contrast between the pretty. It was this story that eventually way the concept of a “princess” is marketed became What Does A Princess Really Look to modern American girls by Disney and Like?

Barbie, and the reality of the office as it would led her to such a thought process in the first place, he decided to put a different twist on the game. “I said ‘Why don’t you be a princess who fights, and I’ll be a prince,’” he explained.

Since adopting his daughter, Loewen has observed firsthand a lot of negative aspects about the way little girls are socialized into our society, from the firm steering toward traditionally feminine childhood interests like princesses and dolls to physical appearance being emphasized above all else. “She wore a superhero outfit and somebody came up to her and said, ‘I can’t see your beautiful eyes through that mask!’” he said.

BE SAFE, HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVE FREE.BELIVE PROUD.

exist in a monarchy. “The American concept of a princess is a diva who doesn’t really do anything, but the real concept of a princess is a governor that has responsibilities,” Loewen said. He felt it was important to acknowledge and pass on the fact that the roles of women are important, and can be leadership roles.

As Loewen put together his Chloe character, he struggled through the complexities of what it really means to be a little girl in American society. One point Loewen wanted to emphasize, one generally downplayed by American culture, is that there is no right or 27

wrong way to be female. “I didn’t want her to be a tomboy. Because feminine isn’t bad!

As a gay guy, I grew up wanting the feminine things that I wasn’t allowed to [have],” he said. After his daughter was born, “I saw that it isn’t the feminine things that are bad -- it’s the cultural message about girls.”

you, or something like that. Girls get that all the time.”

Loewen’s goal to help counteract the negative social messages young girls receive is on clear display in What Does A Princess Really Look Like?, but his efforts have not ended with the book. He has also founded Brave Like A Girl, Progress has been made with these messages an online space “for parents and caregivers in recent years, through campaign’s like who want to counter the negative messages Time’s Up and Me Too, and events like the our girls receive every day.”

2017 Women’s March. However, there is still much to be done in order to be better allies to “I believe girls are naturally brave. We, our daughters. Loewen cautions parents to be however, can use some help so that we aware of the biases they carry with them into don’t stifle our daughters,” he writes on the project’s website, BraveLikeAGirl.com. “Even their experiences of parenting. with the best intentions, our own biases “When you raise your daughter, there is a about gender have a huge effect on how our bias that you will have,” Loewen said. “A lot girls see themselves.” of research says that moms aren’t as worried when their boys are climbing trees as they are While Loewen concentrated on female when their girls are climbing trees. Girls hear empowerment within the book, he managed ‘Be careful!’ And ‘be careful’ is not helpful at to throw in some positive representation all. It doesn’t give any specific information as for the LGBTQ community as well. Like to what you should do, it just says you’re not his own daughter, the character of Chloe paying attention, or that is too difficult for has two fathers. But unlike many other 28

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children’s books that deal with parents in gay relationships, no special pains are taken to discuss or analyze Chloe’s family unit.

The fact that she has two dads is treated as nothing more than an unremarkable fact.

where stories for children are concerned. “I think we need to have more [stories about being LGBTQ],” he said. “But what I feel like is missing in children’s literature is characters that just happen to be LGBTQ.”

“My idea is to write stories in which characters are part of the story, [but] not because they are LGBTQ,” Loewen said. As LGBTQ acceptance grows in society, we’ve begun to move beyond the age in which every LGBTQ story was a coming-out story, and Loewen thinks this is a good thing, especially

With What Does A Princess Really Look Like?, Loewen has managed to both create this exact sort of story and deliver a muchneeded positive social message for young girls growing up in America today. It’s a good start for what looks to be a promising writing career.

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MAKING RESTROOMS SAFE AGAIN ESTABLISHING GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOMS AT JAMES RIVER HIGH SCHOOL

BY CHAVA EVANS

There was clearly a need for gender-neutral bathrooms at Chesterfield County’s James River High School. The number of non-binary and transgender students had been growing steadily, but as the 2017-18 school year began, there was no official policy on whether students can use the restroom that matches their gender identity. Instead, the school chose to handle it on a “case-by-case” basis.

As the school year began, there hadn’t been recorded incidents of anything beyond harassment of trans and non-binary students in bathrooms at JRS, but many of the transgender students didn’t want to risk the possibility. However, concerns over safety due a lack of protection policies, and of options for those who don’t fall within the gender binary or feel comfortable in gendered spaces led James River’s Gay-Straight Alliance to do something about the situation, and start the initiative for gender-neutral bathrooms.

As JRHS’s GSA president, and a trans man myself, I understand the importance of having a space where students who do not fit the gender-binary, are closeted, or face risks of harassment or assault in multi-stall restrooms could feel safe. Knowing that the idea of gender-neutral bathrooms could face pushback from the politically mixed school and surrounding community, I began by requesting letters of support and validation from organizations across Richmond, including Side by Side and Equality Virginia.

not everyone was as open to the idea. The initial proposal from JRHS Principal Dr. Jennifer Coleman was that the clinic could be a gender neutral space. However, knowing that it would be an isolating rather than an inclusive space, I never even considered it a choice.

Instead, I came up with the idea to take two of the rarely-used male single-stall staff bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs, in central locations. By doing this, I hoped to erase the argument that there would be a large cost associated -- all we would need is a sign swap, it wouldn’t redirect the flow of traffic, and it was a space anyone could utilize, staff or student. Still, there was some pushback from several older male teachers who did not want their staff bathroom repurposed, despite the fact that it was not being utilized nearly as much now as it would be under the new proposal.

There might have been more pushback than this, but during our time researching and working with the school, the GSA chose not to let the student body know what was going on.

We were concerned that someone’s parents would hear and try to stop the initiative from happening, and we wanted to ensure that we had everything in place before that possibility arose. Since I was mainly working on my own with administration at this point, though, it wasn’t hard to keep under wraps.

Being able to bring in someone from the The next step was to approach school officials county was crucial at this point since I directly. Although there was a lot of support knew that Dr.Coleman would never give me from both the school body and administration, 32

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CHAVA EVANS AT EQUALITY VIRGINIA DINNER 2018

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high school still had these facilities in place; according to Dr.Tylus, the fact that they were not was quite surprising to the county administrators. He assured us the genderneutral bathrooms would definitely be reinstated.

After a walk-through of the building to confirm that the bathrooms had been changed back to gendered spaces, Dr. Tylus quickly received approval to reinstate them as gender-neutral.

After our meeting was over, I inquired as to why these bathrooms were ever removed in the first place. Dr.Tylus told me he was going to look into it, but he never got back to me.

When I pressed school administration, they all stated that they never knew we even had them. Dr. Coleman hypothesized that perhaps when she took over as principal after the previous transgender student had graduated, the facilities had been removed.

NOT LABELED, BUT STILL THERE: Someone else decided the school no longer THE GENDER-NEUTRAL RESTROOMS had a need, and since she hadn’t known they approval if she thought they would have were there, she didn’t notice they were gone. pushback after the fact. However, there was I never did get a clear answer, and likely won’t still no way to predict whether the rather ever get one. conservative Chesterfield County School Board would give approval.

The effort to establish gender-neutral bathrooms at JRHS was a lengthy one. It Actually, we weren’t even sure they needed took me over four months to get meetings to approve of the proposal. To my knowledge, set up and followed through, find research to nothing like this had been done before; the support the need for my initiative, get letters assumption between school administrators of support within the community, and get the and I was that we may need to take it to the final approval from Dr.Tylus. Only after the School Board... but hopefully we wouldn’t. final approval came through was I finally able to request a formal meeting between the GSA I started the conversation with them by and the principal about when the sign change emailing my representative within the school and formal announcement of the bathrooms board, Dr. Javaid Siddiqi, about what I was would take place. trying to get accomplished. From there, I was able to schedule a meeting with Dr. Joseph With concern about pushback from parents Tylus, the executive director of constituent and the community remaining a top priority services for CCPS. At that meeting, it came for Dr. Coleman, though, the restrooms were to my attention that my school had gendernot exactly what we’d expected. The signage neutral bathrooms several years prior, when did not mention their gender-neutral status; a transgender female student was attending instead signs merely read “restroom.” This JRHS. The county had assumed that the 34

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JRHS GSA VICE-PRESIDENT MICHELE KNAPP

was really frustrating for me because it felt like it was minimizing the most important aspect of these restrooms’ purpose. But what mattered most was ensuring that a space existed for students who needed it. And now it does.

we were able to officially offer trans and non-binary students a safe place to use the restroom, with a guarantee from both county officials and the school’s administration that they will be there long after we graduate, to be used by the transgender and non-binary students that will come after us.

We’ve had one small victory since the restrooms were put in place: around the campus, they are referred to as the “genderinclusive restrooms.” Once they went into use, there was no pushback, and both students and teachers on campus support the existence. As one non-binary sophomore said, “They make people feel more safe and comfortable.”

For myself, being able to institute a permanent inclusive space within a public high school was really important, even if it is just a couple of restrooms. I was one of two open trans people at JRHS that year, but I knew many more who were closeted. I knew that I was one of the few people who could successfully fill a crucial need for a vulnerable population.

Through this process, I have learned that At the beginning of the 2017-18 school passion and perseverance in the things I year, JRHS’s GSA saw a problem. By three- believe in can allow me to turn something I quarters of the way through the year, we once felt would be impossible into a reality. had successfully established two genderneutral bathrooms. Rather than having to continue going to a school with completely unpredictable bathroom accommodations, BE HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVESAFE, FREE.BELIVE PROUD.

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VCU’S LGBTQ COMICS COLLECTION HELPS PRESERVE OUR COMMUNITY’S ARTISTIC HISTORY

BY ASH GRIFFITH

Comic books have always been political, a form of protest and resistance. From Superman and his roots in Jewish-American working class life to the X-Men’s clear Civil Rights subtext to the modern governmental-oversight issues made metaphor in Marvel’s Civil War storyline, comics have always been about talking back to the current climate.

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VCU has recognized and tracked this tradition.

Not only is the university’s archive home to one of the largest comic book collections in the country, containing over 150,000 items overall, it is also home to one of the largest LGBTQ-themed comics collections in the country. Featuring comics dating back to the 1970s, this collection is a revolutionary resource for the local LGBTQ community.

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In charge of directly overseeing both the LGBTQ collection and the comic arts collection as a whole at VCU is Library Specialist for the Comic Arts Cindy Jackson. Herself a big fan of comics, she is vastly knowledgeable about the history of the medium, making her the go-to guru for comic-related nerdery on campus.

The collection itself was founded by former VCU English department chair Dr. M. Thomas Inge after a large donation was received in the 1970s. It grew very slowly over time, but eventually snowballed into the form it takes today, with even a webpage launched back in 1999. In 2005 they became a depository for the Will Eisner Awards which is ultimately what helped in explode into what it is today.

The majority of the items are donated, but a good chunk are also purchased as well, especially when pieces that Jackson considers essential to the quality of their collection are not available for donation.

“When we accept manuscript collections and things to go with this collection, we look at the research value,” Jackson said. “We have a very deep, rich collection and

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a lot of unique items that are either not found at “While comics now are accepted as literature, any other library, or not many other libraries, so there is still that stigma of the stuffy book,” Jackson explained. “You have more freedom in it is a really great research collection.” a comic. You’re not as tied to the words, trying Although the main collection is large, where the to explain yourself. You can visually show what library takes pride is in its smaller collections, you’re trying to say, that you might not have the such as the LGBTQ collection. “We really right words for. Or it might be an experience specialize in collecting the papers of under- that’s so personal you can’t find the words for documented communities,” Jackson said. it, but you can draw an image to convey those “Our focus is on women activists, LGBTQ, and feelings.” minority collections. All these things really go By helping remove the stigma of comics being hand in hand.” throw away trash, graphic novels have not only While they do not have an exact number for led comics to be taken more seriously, but also how many pieces are in the LGBTQ collection attracted creators to the medium who might specifically, Jackson estimates there are around never have considered making comics before. seventy graphic novels, and around one hundred This has opened the way for various marginalized comics. Much of these are of course specifically communities, including the LGBTQ community LGBTQ-centered, while some just include LGBTQ to tell their stories through comic arts. storylines. Among these are mainstream comics such as Astonishing X-Men #50, which featured At the same time that representation of the first LGBTQ wedding in comics history, as the LGBTQ community has increased in the well as a variety of LGBTQ-related underground mainstream superhero comics world of Marvel and DC, marginalized creators working outside comics from the last half-century. the mainstream have paved the way for diverse Because of items like these, there has been a stories to be told through comics. Underground lot of interest in recent years from students and feminist comics, such as the anthology title Tits teachers wanting to use the comics for research & Clits Comix, helped pave the way. in their classes. This is a big change from the way things were when Jackson first came on The anthology’s creators “were all women in 1996. Back then, no one ever asked about who were drawing and publishing in the male the comics archive; now she has students and anthologies,” Jackson said. “Trina Robbins got classes regularly coming to use it. “There has all the women who were working and publishing been an uptick in usage, which makes me happy,” in various underground comics [together], and Jackson said. “There are students coming in and starting publishing these comics for women, by doing research on these comics now, because women.” they are here and they’re interested in them.”

At a time when the repressive Comics Code Comics were a bit of a specialized media form in Authority (which forbade “sex perversion,” past decades. However, recent years have seen “depravity,” and “lust”) still dominated the them regain some of their mainstream appeal; content mainstream comics publishers could this development has primarily come about publish, it was up to underground comics to lead as the result of the graphic novel. By collecting the way in representing the LGBTQ community longer stories within each single volume and and other marginalized populations. Feminist binding them in a more permanent, less easily creators in the underground comics world helped damaged form, graphic novels have brought the give voice not only to their own stories, but also comic arts to a new audience. To creators looking to those of other similarly under-represented for the perfect way to express themselves, communities. comics offer opportunities that aren’t available “The underground movement really made it in prose writing. easier for marginalized communities to create comics,” Jackson said. “They were really friendly 40

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toward gays and lesbians, so they didn’t have an issue with putting these stories in their comics.”

Eventually, underground comics with a specific LGBTQ focus began to appear, including Kitchen Sink Press’s Gay Comix, which told humorous and heartfelt stories of gay and lesbian life from the perspectives of LGBTQ creators.

comics. VCU’s collection holds multiple copies of Astonishing X-Men #51, including variant covers.

Today, LGBTQ characters in comics are easily located, and are often depicted as positive characters. For a great example, look no further than Wallace Wells, Scott Pilgrim’s roommate in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series.

While Scott’s life is a total mess throughout the series, Wallace always has his act together and helps keep Scott from going too far off the rails; his frequent, snarky words of advice for Scott are one of the series’ highlights.

However, this left the mainstream, which lagged behind in LGBTQ representation. The Comics Code Authority specifically forbade any mention of homosexuality until 1989, and even after that specific prohibition was removed, early attempts by superhero comics to depict LGBTQ characters There’s also Kevin Keller, who became the first were hit-and-miss at best. gay character in the long-running line of kids’ Things didn’t change until the arrival of more titles from Archie Comics. Arriving in Riverdale in complicated characters in titles published by the pages of Veronica #202 (2010), the smooth DC’s “mature readers” imprint, Vertigo, in the integration of a gay character into a comic series early 90s. Specifically, there was the character specifically aimed at children shows how far of “occult detective” and chaos magician we’ve come.

John Constantine of Hellblazer, who had gay associates and was, it was eventually revealed, Despite an increasing profile and a wealth of bisexual himself. But the real game-changer for resources available to VCU students and the LGBTQ characters in mainstream comics was general public, VCU’s Comics Arts Collection continues to remain somewhat of a hidden gem Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. within the library.

“It really transcended comics. People who weren’t reading comics were reading it,” Jackson Jackson hopes to increase knowledge of the said. And when they read it, they discovered collection in coming years; she’s sure the a variety of fleshed-out, multi-dimensional community would appreciate it if they knew it LGBTQ characters, including the first significant was there. “When people know about it, they transgender comic character, Wanda, from come and use it,” Jackson said. And you don’t have to be working on a big research project, Sandman’s fifth volume, A Game Of You. either. “We have students [and public patrons] “There is also the lesbian story in [Vol. 2], The who come in just to read.”

Doll’s House, and of course [recurring character] Desire is genderfluid,” Jackson continued. As comics continue to be one of our strongest “[Gaiman]’s already putting these things into sources of representation and liberation, they comics in the 1990s and no one is batting an eye. are also an immense source of support as we I think that really paved the way for what we’re keep making progress and fighting back. If the seeing now in comics. Neil Gaiman was just Avengers can have Stark Tower, then we have Cabell Library. ahead of his time.”

Perhaps the most important moment in LGBTQ comics history came with the wedding of X-Men hero Northstar and his non-powered longtime partner, Kyle. Northstar had been the first openly gay superhero in comics when he came out in 1992. Twenty years later he was an agent of change once again, as his wedding was the first gay wedding to be depicted in superhero BE HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVESAFE, FREE.BE LIVE PROUD.

The VCU LGBTQ Comic Arts Collection is located on the fourth floor of Cabell Library, and can be explored in person between and 9 AM and 5 PM weekdays. The collection is also available online in the form of a database, featuring scans of all the comics in the archive, at GO.VCU.EDU/ COMICS. 43

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STILL FIGHTING MARK LEVINE BRINGS A QUARTER-CENTURY OF LGBTQ ACTIVISM TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

BY MARILYN DREW NECCI

Marriage equality advocate, muckraking journalist, Nazi hunter -- Mark Levine has been all of these things and more in his lengthy career. These days, he’s putting his extensive experience fighting for social justice to use as the Delegate for the 45th District in Virginia’s House Of Delegates.

And he’s working harder than ever.

“I’ve been a fighter for more than 20 years,” Levine told me when I reach him one Thursday morning. He was preparing to record one of two broadcasts he produces each week for his radio show, Mark Levine’s Inside Scoop From Washington. “It used to be 5 days a week,” he said. “Being a delegate, I had to cut back.” But the show, which Levine has been producing for 15 years, is still going strong, 46

heard in 42 markets through the Progressive Voices Network.

Levine’s progressive roots run deep. Born in Nashville to a liberal Jewish family, he learned what it was like to be different from a very young age. “There’s not that many Jews in the South, but there was definitely prejudice against me growing up,” he said. Having a supportive family made a big difference in his life, giving him the foundation he needed to spend his life fighting for what was right.

“My parents taught me that you can be right and the whole world can be wrong,” he said.

“It was a point of pride for me to be a Jewish kid, frankly. I really think it helped me in the coming out process.”

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Not that the coming out process was quick for Levine. Growing up in the 80s, with the AIDS epidemic at its height, he struggled to understand and accept himself. “My family was never prejudiced,” he said. “My religion didn’t speak against it. But I didn’t want to be gay -- not because I thought there was something wrong with it, I just knew that society hated gay people. And there’s nothing more closet-inducing than a deadly disease.”

Instead of exploring his sexuality, Levine focused on his studies. While pursuing his undergraduate degree at Harvard, he used the vast archives of the university’s world-renowned Widener Library to try to understand himself. “I found every book I could on homosexuality,” he said. “It was a real education. I didn’t really know what being gay was.” By the time he’d completed his undergraduate studies, Levine felt comfortable enough to admit to himself that he was gay. But he wasn’t yet ready to tell the world. Instead, he headed for Switzerland on a Fulbright Scholarship. “It wasn’t far enough away,” he said, laughing. “I decided I can’t go to a gay bar in Switzerland because I know people in the country of Switzerland. That’s how paranoid I am.”

Seeking a nearby metropolis in which to explore his sexuality, he was fortunate to stumble upon Amsterdam. “It was just the next-nearest country, and I actually happily fall into the most progressive gay-friendly place on earth,” he said. “Amsterdam made it all cool. I still have a group of gay guys in Holland that I’m really close with, that really helped me come out.”

Soon, Levine was back in America, earning his law degree at Yale and spending a summer working for the US Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations, helping to deport Nazi war criminals who’d come to the US illegally. Once he finished law school, he decided to find an American version of Amsterdam. “I decided to take a job in Los Angeles,” he said. “I hear they’re pretty gayfriendly out there. I want to be in a place where I can explore being gay with no consequences, and I felt like San Francisco was a little too BE HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVESAFE, FREE.BELIVE PROUD.

obvious.” Arriving in California, Levine didn’t just immerse himself into the gay scene; he also dove into gay advocacy.

“My first protest was in 1993, to have gay representation on television. That was preWill And Grace,” Levine said. Planning to march on Hollywood studios, Levine soon found himself with a seat at the table. “They were very smart -- they didn’t just have us march outside. They invited us in. I remember sitting across from a bald-headed guy, talking to him about having gay folks on TV. He said, ‘I just don’t think America’s ready for it.’ I said, ‘I think this is a really good demographic for you.’ He wasn’t struggling against me, he was thinking. I said, ‘Why don’t you try it, see if it makes you some money?’ A couple years later, we had Will And Grace.”

At the same time as he was having his first successes in LGBTQ activism, Levine was also finding love for the first time. “I meet a guy named David. I could go on and on about David and what a really special person he was. But his parents were not too keen on him being gay,” Levine said. “He takes me home on Christmas, and his parents aren’t even used to him being gay, so I get the full brunt of the dislike. It was unpleasant.”

Then disaster struck. “In May of 1995, David’s not feeling well, and some clinician says he’s got signs of being positive,” Levine said. “He took the test, and I did too. I was negative. I was out waiting in the hall, and he’s in there for an hour. And I’m like, ‘Oh god.’” When David finally emerged, Levine’s fears were confirmed. “He really descended fast. We found out he was HIV positive one day. Two days later he had to go to the hospital. Two days after that, he was on a respirator. By that Saturday night, I have to call his parents -- who, remember, don’t like me very much -and tell them they have to hop on a plane to California the next day, or their son may not live to see them again.”

Four months after receiving his initial diagnosis, David died. Less than a year later, Levine’s sister was murdered, which began a ten-year fight to bring her killer to justice. It 47

He gained little support from the official No On 22 campaign committee, of which he was initially a member. “They looked at me like I had two heads. ‘America’s not ready for that.’ [So] I resign from the committee, and I and three others found Marriage Equality At the time, California was considering California.”

Proposition 22. After a high-profile case in which Hawaii’s laws against gay marriage This was 1999, when “marriage equality” was were challenged, “states were worrying that not a phrase anyone was uttering in public. people would get married in Hawaii, come Levine and his cohorts were out to change that, back to their home states, and be married,” and they started with an action designed to Levine explained. “[Prop. 22] says, ‘Only make a big splash in the media. “We’re going marriage between a man and a woman is to try to get married. We know it’s illegal, but legal,’ which was already part of California what the hey!” On the big day, they gathered law, but it also said that ‘Only marriage at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. “We put real between a man and a woman are legal or couples to the front, and they were denied. recognized in California,’ and ‘recognized’ [MEC co-founder] LJ [Carusone] and I tried to get married; we were denied. And then was a secret clause that no one noticed.” in about 30 minutes, we were done. But we Levine knew the proposition would pass. wanted to go all day, we had cameras there!”

But he at least wanted to go down fighting.

“We need to say, not, ‘We already can’t get So they got creative. “We just started mixing married, don’t worry about it,’ but ‘We should and matching. I tried to marry like five get married!’ Because even though we’re people,” Levine recalled, laughing. “It actually gonna lose this battle, we can win the war.” started a tradition where, every Valentine’s was a tough period for Levine. “I wasn’t that much of an activist when David was dying, or when Janet was killed,” he said. But by the late 90s, he’d gotten back into the fight for LGBTQ rights.

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Day, gay couples would try to get married. It further resistance. “I get a call from [Koretz],” Levine said. “He said, ‘I’m gonna have to was a great one for the press.” withdraw your bill. All the gay groups are Having attempted an unsuccessful campaign against it.’” against a bad law, Levine started thinking about ways to create better laws. As a lawyer At the time, Levine was shocked. Today, himself, he was perfectly suited to the task. he understands exactly what happened. “I “Vermont had just passed civil unions,” he talked later with my co-writer of this bill, said. “I knew that because of Prop. 22, it’s and he taught me something then which I illegal for gay couples to marry. But it wasn’t unfortunately have found true ever since,” defined what marriage is. So with another Levine said. “He said, you have a ‘Not California lawyer, I went through the whole Invented Here’ problem. These gay groups statute book and we worked together to draft make a lot of money by telling people what a bill that would basically give gay couples all they’re doing. They have to keep people the rights of marriage, but they’d call it a civil thinking they’re essential. If two lawyers in LA can come up with a great bill, and the gay union.” groups have nothing to do with it, how are Once he had a good bill, he looked for a they gonna raise funds?”

California legislator to introduce it. “We presented it to an openly gay legislator, It was a frustrating end to a promising piece of expecting to be welcomed with open arms. legislation, but it taught Levine some valuable She laughed at us! She said, ‘This will lessons in the way politics works. He learned never pass. Marriage will never happen in still more a few years later when he went to our lifetimes.’” Later convincing freshman work as chief legal counsel for Congressman California assemblyman Paul Koretz to Barney Frank, one of the most prominent gay introduce the bill, Levine soon encountered politicians in the US. “We did major work BE HAPPY, BE PROUD! LIVESAFE, FREE.BELIVE PROUD.

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behind the scenes, where we got [survivor’s benefits for] gay and lesbian survivors of couples in 9/11,” Levine said. “I learned a lot by watching Barney go through this.”

Frank taught Levine that sometimes you get more from playing your cards close to the vest. “The Bush administration didn’t want to give benefits to gay couples. Barney let them know that he would go public.” In light of the widespread sympathy for 9/11 survivors, this wasn’t a chance the Bush administration wanted to take. “We came up with a compromise, that the Bush administration would work behind the scenes to make sure that all the gay couples got full compensation, and in return we could keep the whole thing hush-hush. That was a thing I learned from Barney -- you work behind the scenes quietly.

If all’s going well, you never say a word. If it’s not going well, you blast them.”

Levine’s time with Frank brought him to the DC area, and he settled in Alexandria, which is where he began his radio show. “I kept learning stuff behind the scenes that I felt the American people should know about,” he said.

On the show, he dug into a variety of issues relating to the workings of government, using his time in politics to bring insights about the political world to his listeners. But his broadcasting career didn’t keep him entirely out of the political arena. In 2009, Levine worked with DC councilman Phil Mendelson to write the District of Columbia’s marriage equality law.

Levine’s history of fighting for LGBTQ rights was a big part of his campaign for General Assembly in 2015. “When I ran for Delegate in 2015, I had literature where I proudly discussed my role in marriage equality and LGBT rights, and my community loved it!” he said. “I thought it was a plus, and I guess it was, because I won.”

Since joining the General Assembly, Levine’s proven himself to be as committed to LGBTQ rights as he was before taking office. Every year, he’s presented a comprehensive bill to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in all facets of public life. “Every single place I 50

could find in the Code [of Virginia] where there’s any anti-discrimination law, sexual orientation and gender identity is added to it,” he said. “I think that bill will become law the moment Democrats gain control of the House of Delegates and the Senate.”

Even after seeing a huge wave of Democratic victories in the 2017 election, Democrats still don’t control the General Assembly. But regardless of the institutional roadblocks that stand in his way, Levine’s not giving up.

And he sees hope for the future in the youth on the frontlines of LGBTQ rights today. “I often feel like the establishment does not get it. Even the gay establishment,” he said.

His own experience fighting for marriage equality has proven this to him. “It took young people. Young people are leading the way. A lot of these movements are going to require shaking up old ideas, and it’s going to take new blood to do that.”

Levine’s not as young as he once was, but he still has big ideas. The biggest involves the very name we use for our community. “I don’t say LGBTQ, I say rainbow,” he said. He hopes that moving away from an acronym will keep people from feeling left out. “I feel like all these letters divide us. I want to say we’re all stripes of the same rainbow. All across the nation, I want us to talk about the rainbow community.” He laughs. “I’m a dreamer -- I try to make nationwide things happen from just my own brain.”

Mark Levine has been trying to make things happen for the LGBTQ community for a very long time. When he started talking about marriage equality, even the established LGBTQ activist community thought he was out on a limb. Today, marriage equality is the law of the land, and Levine is more inspired than ever. “I think it’s important to look back, and recognize how far we’ve come, because it seems hopeless under Trump,” he said.

“But if you recognize how far we’ve come, and how impossible it seemed back then, it really gives you hope for the future. People have accused me of incorrigible optimism, but that’s just who I am.”

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