1. THE PRIDE LA, OCTOBER 9, 2015

SILVERLAKE IS 10.09.2015

LA GETS A NEW LGBT NEWSPAPER AND YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT. YOU’LL FIND IT EVERYWHERE IN LA EVERY TWO WEEKS

HISTORIC MOMENT thepride LOS ANGELES TWO OLYMPIC SUPERSTARS ⚫ 11

thepride WHERE LGBT LOS ANGELES BEGAN ⚫ 19

WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

CALIFORNIA ⚫ 3

THEPRIDELA

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@THEPRIDELA | ISSUE NUMBER 1, VOLUME 1 | OCT. 9 - 22, 2015

YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

Coming soon to an election near you; LGBT statewide candidates LOS ANGELES ⚫ 5

Mi Centro, a new LGBT Center for Latinos opens in Boyle Heights BOOKS ⚫ 12

Roberta Kaplan’s new book about the DOMA battle is a must read OPINION ⚫ 17

Bob Smith lives with ALS but his QUEER CONVO: BRAD LAMM, JEFFREY ERDMAN, JOHN DURAN AND PAUL L. DISworld view doesn’t BIG CUSS THE CRYSTAL EPIDEMIC AND RECOVERY. CRYSTAL CRISIS ⚫ 6 & 8

Methamphetamine Crisis Takes Center Stage

⚫Charles Kaiser asks “How is it possible that meth is the one thing in the world that straight people are so much smarter about than gay men?”

⚫Henry Scott says the focus on the rise in STDs

among gay men and the popularity of sex hookup apps is only part of the story.

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thepride LOS ANGELES

CALIFORNIA

LGBT Candidates LOS ANGELES PLUS

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Three LGBT lawmakers will depart Sacremento, including Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins who will seek the seat of a colleague

⚫ BY MATTHEW S. BAJKO

Out politicians are running for seats throughout CA A growing number of districts throughout California are now competitive for LGBT candidates.

the LGBT Legislative Caucus in order to replenish its ranks.

Three of its current seven members will be termed out of office next December, with the remaining four all seeking re-election to their respective seats next year.

Senate District 25

W

ith the June 7 primary now l es s t ha n eight months away, a number of LGBT non-incumbent candidates have already launched campaigns for California legis-

Current: Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) The 25th Senate district covers the Los Angeles County foothills from Sunland-Tujunga in the city of Los Angeles on the west to the city of Upland in San Bernardino County on

Perez Advisors LLC, which has offices in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Perez-Estolano is facing a number of Democratic opponents, including Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale); former Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge); and retired Pasadena police lieutenant Phlunte Riddle, the first black woman to reach that rank in the department. Republican Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is also mounting a bid for the seat.

The current officehold-

Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) from his 42nd Assembly District seat, which covers most of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Earlier this year Rodriguez, who is HIV-positive, resigned as district director for Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Desert) two months before entering the Assembly race.

He reported raising $49,420 so far for his campaign, which will likely be a long shot bid as the district leans Republican.

Nonetheless, in a statement in July announcing his fundraising at that point, Rodriguez boasted about receiving donations “from 190 unique individuals demonstrating strong grassroots support.”

He added that he is “humbled by the showing of such generous support this early in the campaign. My message to supporters about how I can be a better representative for all of the people in this district and my work in activism, edu-

Valinda and West La Puente.

Running for the 48th Assembly District seat, cur rently held by Assemblyman R o g e r H e r n á n d e z ( D - We s t Covina), is Bryan Urias, a gay man and lifelong resident of the San Gabriel Valley who serves on the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District Board. He reported surpassing his goal of raising $150,000 in the first half of 2015 for his bid to succeed Hernández, who is termed out next year.

“Our campaign will be reporting close to $165K raised for the first quarter, and as of today we have over $170K raised! This shows how strong our campaign is and that we are in it to win it!” wrote Urias on his Facebook page July 13.

Also in the race is Blanca E. Rubio, who is seeking re-election this November to her seat on the Baldwin Park Unified School District board.

Senator Ricardo Lara of Los Angeles is seeking re-election

Katherine Aguilar Perez-Estolano is a candidate for the 25th Senate District seat

Bryan Urias is running for the 48th Assembly District

Blanca E. Rubio of Baldwin Park’s Unified School District is running for the 48th Assembly District seat

Greg Rodriguez seeks the 42nd Assembly District seat

lative seats.

There are at least six gay or lesbian Democratic candidates seeking state Senate or Assembly seats next year, with all but one running for office in southern California districts. So far no known out Republicans have announced campaigns, according to the head of a statewide group for LGBT GOPers.

The list is likely to grow in the coming months, as electing LGBT candidates to the Legislature is a top priority for

the east. Along with Pasadena, the district includes the cities of Burbank and Glendale as well as most of the Angeles National Forest.

Seeking the 25th Senate District seat is Katherine Aguilar Perez-Estolano, an expert in urban planning and transportation who serves on the Califor nia High Speed Rail Authority. She lives with her wife, Cecilia Estolano, in Pasadena, and the couple co-owns with a third partner the consulting firm Estolano Lesar

er, Senator Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge), will be termed out next year and has endorsed Riddle.

cation, government and my role as a father are not only being heard, but embraced.”

A s o f S e p t e m b e r, s h e h a d raised $181,612 this year for her Assembly bid, which was endorsed in June by the California Latino Legislative Caucus.

Assembly District 42 Current: Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) Another non-i ncum b ent candidate is Greg Rodriguez, who lives in Palm Springs with his husband, Alejandro, and his two adopted sons, Joshua and Zachary. He is seeking to oust from office next year freshman Assemblyman Chad

Assembly District 48 Current: Roger Hernández (D-West Covina) The 48th Assembly District covers the cities of Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bradbury, City of Industry, Covina, El Monte, Glendora, Irwindale, Monrovia, West Covina and the unincorporated communities of: Bassett, Charter Oak, East Arcadia, Ramona, Royal Oaks,

Senate District 39 Current: Marty Block (D-San Diego) Of the three departing out lawmakers, just one is seeking another term in the Legislature. Outgoing lesbian Assem2016 continued on p. 18

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Politics

LOS ANGELES

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CALIFORNIA

⚫ BY MATTHEW S. BAJKO

State Senate candidate Riddle questioned on LGBT stance Phlunte Riddle broke the glass ceiling when she became Pasadena’s first black female police sergeant in 1992 and female lieutenant in 1996. Her candidacy for State Senate is being scrutinized A candidate running for a Los Angeles-area state Senate seat is facing questions from progressive groups about her stance on women’s and LGBT issues.

Within the last four weeks, both the California National Organization for Women and the East Area Progressive Democrats have raised concerns about retired Pasadena police lieutenant Phlunte Riddle, who is running for the state’s 25th Senate District seat. The 25th District is comprised of Pasadena, Burbank, and Glendale, and a part of San Bernardino County.

Riddle’s campaign has hit back hard against the accusations, noting in recent press releases her support from female political leaders and her support for equal rights and reproductive rights.

She has also hired a gay man, Jimmy Whittrock, to be her campaign manager.

Questions about Riddle first surfaced in June, after Ron Buckmire, a gay black man who is a professor at Occidental College, highlighted Riddle’s ties to several anti-gay Christian universities, such as Harvest School of Minis-

try in Altadena, in a post he wrote for the website http://www.laprogressive.com.

In response to Buckmire’s post, Riddle issued a statement in late June professing her support for a woman’s right to choose and LGBT issues.

Yet Riddle has continued to be scrutinized for her stances and ties to the Christian schools.

Late last month, the state NOW chapter claimed Riddle is “not reliable on abortion rights” and questioned her position on LGBT issues.

The group’s August 26 statement, issued by its president, Jerilyn Stapleton, said it had “deep concern” about Riddle’s “record of complicity in anti-abortion and anti-LGBT policies.”

It pointed to her being an instructor in sociology at the “anti-abortion, anti-LGBT Biola University,” and claimed that Riddle “signed onto a code of conduct that bars abortion and ‘human intervention in any form after conception’ and allows punishment of faculty and staff for non-compliance with this strict ban.”

In an interview Monday with the Bay Area

Reporter, Riddle said she has been surprised to come under attack so quickly in the race and refuted the accusations her critics have lodged against her.

“I don’t even know where some of these things came from,” said Riddle, 56, who has three grown sons with her husband. “But I understand this is how politics is done sometimes to undermine a candidate.”

During her time teaching several criminal justice classes at Biola, Riddle said she did sign the employment agreement the school required of teachers. But she pointed out that her syllabus included a non-discrimination clause that included sexual orientation and that she never witnessed any student being mistreated based on their sexual orientation or beliefs about abortion.

“The syllabus I used states everyone shall be treated with respect and dignity, and there will be no mistreatment of people for different sexual orientation, faith, or race,” said Riddle. “It said there will be zero tolerance for discrimination. That is what I taught.”

In terms of her stance on marriage equality, Riddle said she voted against Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure defining marriage in the state as between a man and a woman. She recounted how seeing the suffering an early partner of hers on the police force and his part-

Phlunte Riddle’s ties to conservatives groups is being scrutinized.

ner went through in the 1990s as he battled HIV informed her feelings on the issue.

“Equality for all is what’s right, and I stand behind it,” said Riddle, adding that in the case of public employees such as Davis, “She is a public servant, and as a public servant, she doesn’t have the right to bring her own beliefs into that job.”

As for the questions regarding her stance on abortion, Riddle said she has long backed a woman’s right to choose.

She noted that when she served as interim executive director of the Pasadena chapter of the YWCA, she worked with

Planned Parenthood to support its services and continues to do so.

Despite the questions about her policy stances, Riddle has lined up support from several women’s groups and female politicians, including state Senators Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge), who will be termed out of the 25th District seat next fall.

The California Democratic Legislative Women’s Caucus, which Jackson chairs, has endorsed Riddle. In an August 31 announcement of its decision, the caucus noted it had asked

Riddle “specifically and in detail” where she stood on reproductive rights and choice.

Also running for the 25th Senate District seat are Katherine Aguilar Perez-Estolano, a lesbian who serves on the California High Speed Rail Authority; Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale); and former Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge).

Republican Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is also seeking the seat.

The top two vote getters in next June’s primary will face off against each other in the November 2016 election.

10.09.2015 Community LOS ANGELES

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thepride LOS ANGELES

Latino Community

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⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Mi Centro, at home in the center of Latino LA

LGBTQ people living in Boyle Heights have a new resource as the Los Angeles LGBT Center an Latino Equality Alliance join forces

B

oyle Heights, home to one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city of Los Angeles, is more than 90 percent Latino. It is also home to the nation’s largest Latino LGBT community, a community that has until now been served by the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood.

Enter Mi Centro, a new LGBT Center focused soley on the needs of the city’s spanish speaking and Latino LGBT community, a collaborative effort of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and a Latino Equality Alliance (LEA).

Mi Centro will provide bilingual services for gay Latinos at its Clarence Street facility, also offering immigration and housing support, legal services, transgender support services, youth and senior programming, family counseling and empowerment programs.

Mi Centro’s home, shared with LEA, is a renovated warehouse at

553 S. Clarence St. (it’s a 15-minute walk from the Mariachi Plaza) and housed within City Labs Boyle Heights. City Labs is a collaborative space for creative groups and nonprofits like Leadership for Urban Renewal (LURN), a group that focuses on low-income communities.

Though the Hollywood LGBT Center continues to provide Latino-specific services, residents on the Eastside will benefit from a more locally focused and tailored experience.

Mercedes Marquez, a lesbian who serves as a board member of the Los Angeles LGBT center and Latino Equality Alliance, said of the new space. “... this (Boyle Heights) is our cultural home. This is our community of joy and celebration and sorrow.”

Out gay State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), said at the recent dedication of the new center “Finally, we get a little piece of heaven on the Eastside for us to be able to be who we are.”

Angel Ortiz, 19, a gay teen who lives “on the streets” of Boyle Heights, says he is excited he no longer has to travel so far. “I can’t afford to go (to Hollywood) because I don’t have a car and sometimes I am homeless.” Ortiz says he left Guatemala when he was 14 and immigrated with his parents. “My whole family knows I am gay but it’s not easy for me. They are very religious and my mother cries all the time.

She leaves prayer cards everywhere, like in my pockets. One time she packed a bag and set my things on the streets, more than one time; she gave me no money or food, just a bible and my boy clothes. I just went to sleep at my Tia Felicia’s house but she said I had to leave because her husband did not understand. I just feel bullied all the time.”

Lorri L. Jean, the chief executive of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, told the Los Angeles times that she hoped that having a center in Boyle Heights would embolden people to be open about their sexuality and gender identity in their own neighborhood.

“Some are going to love it, others aren’t. But we’ve always been really good neighbors.”

the pride seeks news contributors. If you are an avid follower of local LGBT news and events, contact us at troy@smmirror.com

ARTS & IDEAS

IT GETS BETTER PRESENTED BY THE GAY MEN’S CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES

Sat, Oct 10, 2015 Through laughter and tears, eight actors bring to life real stories from lesbian, gay, transgender, genderqueer and straight allies, from all across America.

310.746.4000 | TheWallis.org/IGB 9390 N SANTA MONICA BLVD BEVERLY HILLS CA 90210

⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES 6

OPINION

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10.09.2015

FOCUS: METH

BY CHARLES KAISER

“How did a scourge that’s already flattened whole towns in working class America, become so desirable for such supposedly sophisticated gay men in smart urban neighborhoods across the country?”

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chicago meth task force

“prTyfun4now: online means I’m looking.”

t’s a typical screen name attached to a typical invitation, a cliche found on every gay pick-up site in America, as any gay man even slightly acquaintanced with the rituals of online mating can confirm. What an exciting world we live in, where a single uppercase letter can summon you into a whole universe of affiniTy, and catasTrophe. I don’t know how the UpperCase code began, but on sites like Grindr, Scruff, Manhunt or A4A the capital T has come to signal a desire to fuck for hours and hours (and often days and days) propelled by the fateful fuel of methamphetamine–a cloud of smoke that for many is the most exciting, and for everyone, the most destructive recreational drug of our time.

We live in an extraordinary era, the product of fifty years of astonishing progress.

None of us who were sentient in 1970 ever imagined that we could get this far so fast.

Now we are Congressmen and Senators, doctors and lawyers, movie directors and psychiatrists, pediatricians, a Secretary of the Army (designate) and a thousand other things that no openly gay person could realistically aspire to back then. As recently as 2001, homosexual acts were still criminal in most American states. In 1989, at the height of the AIDS crisis, Time Magazine ran a story wondering if there would be any gay community left in the United States by the time the epidemic was over.

Today in America and dozens of other Western nations, most gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered and questioning people under thirty take our new status utterly for granted. Younger men and women almost never

pause to notice that we enjoy the greatest acceptance and prosperity our tribe has ever known, in the entire history of Western Civilization.

And consider this: since last summer, we have had a president and a vice president and five members of the Supreme Court who agree (enthusiastically!) that we have a Constitutional right to marry. We have seen rimming on network television in Britain and premium cable in America (thank you, Queer as Folk.) We have almost the entire Hollywood establishment on our side, even though Big Straight allies like Matt Damon still slip up occasionally and tell gay actors they should remain in the closet.

And yet, despite all this progress, a remarkable self destructiveness still afflicts hundreds of thousands of the best and the brightest among us. Once upon a time, we could plausibly blame this kind of behavior on the oppression of the rest of society. Now, not so much. How is it possible that meth is the one thing in the world that straight people are so much smarter about than gay men? How did it become a symbol of glamor and youth for some of us, and a badge of stupidity and poverty for all of them, which is exactly what it should be. How did a scourge that’s already flattened whole stretches of rural Appalachia and countless small towns in working class America, become so desirable for such supposedly sophisticated gay men in smart urban neighborhoods across the country?

It’s mostly about sex of course. I asked one of the smartest people I know, who is also a

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Will the GreaTesT MomenT in LGBT HisTory Go Down in a Blaze of Meth? former meth user, and one of my closest friends, to describe his experience of sex on meth. This is what he wrote: “This is a very tricky subject for me.

I avoid even thinking about it for fear of getting sucked back into the horrible trap of feeling like it would be fun to do it again. It was fun, for a couple of hours, but the price I always paid was very high--I usually got quite sick afterwards, and even in the best case, I lost a solid 24 - 48 hours after it was over. It’s like super-powered cocaine, in a way, and lasts much. much longer.

It obliterates all resistance and inhibition, and seems to increase sensitivity around the sex organs, both ass and cock. The brain is being chemically ordered to feel pleasure, and the pleasure is extreme. You feel very powerful, energetic, sexy, horny, and always on the wild edge of bliss. It’s very easy to enter into and stay within a mindset that is completely sexualized and focused--that’s why porn is so much a part of the experience, that IS the world you’re living in. Having sex on crystal can feel like it’s the best sex you’ve ever had, even though for me there’s always a foretaste of the crash that waits like death at the end of what you know can only be a few hours--or a few days at most--of ecstasy.

I hate talking about this, because talking about it reminds me of the crash without the pleasure. It’s horrifying and deadly, and even the sex seems

terrible somehow--painfully too good to be true, dangerously, wickedly exciting. When crystal comes to mind now, I think about Hannah Arendt’s advice to a young student: Read good books and avoid excitement.”

And the great part about it is– you won’t lose your teeth, your job, or, sometimes, your life until many months or even a few years later!

But you know you’re in trouble when a whole episode of Law and Order (SVU) focusses on the murder of an AIDS-promoting gay meth dealer.

Gay men live in a culture that reveres sex and abhors most taboos.

That’s partly because gay culture’s first and most important accomplishment was to overturn one of the greatest taboos of the Judaeo-Christian era.

But once that was lifted, millions of us became taboo-phobic, a syndrome that was most disastrously apparent at the onset of the AIDS epidemic. At a time when we were literally “fucking ourselves to death,” in Larry Kramer’s memorable phrase, the most sensible people were the ones subjected to the worst vitriol. In 1982, a prominent New York doctor named Dan William was denounced as a “monogamist... stirring panic” just because he suggested posting signs in bath houses warning of the dangers of promiscuous sex. The following year Kramer wrote, “our continued existence as gay men upon the face of the earth is at stake.

Unless we fight for our lives, we shall die.” And yet most people still refused to listen.

Eventually, because of people like Kramer, and institutions like Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and ACT UP, the epidemic produced a transformational event in gay culture: the moment when millions of gay men, united with millions of lesbians, finally shifted their focus from self-gratification to a battle for survival.

This in turn built all the gay institutions that eventually produced the magnificent victories that we are enjoying today.

To confront the scourge of meth, we need another transfor mational moment. We must recognize that websites that not only glamorize meth use but actually allow dealers to advertise their wares (see Henry Scott’s excellent piece elsewhere in these pages) may not be violating any statute but are certainly committing a crime against our community. Anyone who does anything to make meth look like a normal feature of our lives is committing a crime against our humanity. Of course the determined users will always find a way to get their fix. But why should young men in particular be inundated by an online world where Meth is not only accepted but even celebrated?

The combination of Prep and Meth offers a dangerous illusion of invulnerability.

Prep seems to be extremely effective

at preventing HIV infection if taken religiously, every day. But how many people will remember to take that pill in the middle of a speed-fuelled, weeklong binge?

“I don’t care what pills you’re taking-I’m wearing a condom:” Those are the online profiles I admire.

As I wrote many years ago in an essay on unsafe sex that was published in QW and later reprinted in The New York Times, “The first duty of every revolutionary is to stay alive.”

Today I am still longing for a culture of life, in which every one of us is fighting for each other’s survival--instead of acquiescing in a culture of hedonism untouched by the slightest hint of social responsibility. I bow to no one is my enthusiasm for a culture of sex drugs and rock and roll. But I also believe with all my heart that crazy, amazing sex is not only possible but better with condoms and without meth.

In just half a century we have made incredible progress in transforming the way we are treated by the rest of society. But all of that progress will be hollow, until we also manage to transform the way we treat ourselves.

Charles Kaiser is the author of The Gay Metropolis, the landmark history of gay life in America, 1968 in America, and, most recently, The Cost of Courage

⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES 8

OPINION

IS THERE A CRISIS?

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TALKING POINT

10.09.2015 Meth’s impact is indisputable yet it is a topic that is largely overlooked in both the LGBT and mainstream press

⚫ BY HENRY E. SCOTT

Got Meth?

There’s an app for that The focus on the rise in STDs among gay men and the popularity of sex hookup apps is only part of the story.

A

IDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), no stranger to controversy, recently sparked a heated debate with a billboard campaign linking hookup apps to sexually transmitted diseases. The billboards have images labeled “Grindr” facing one labeled “Gonorrhea” and one labeled “Tinder” facing one labeled “Chlamydia.” Critics blasted AHF for “shaming” gay male sexual culture. Tinder demanded AHF take the billboards down. Others, already alarmed by surges in STD rates among gay men praised the campaign. But sex on demand or an STD is not the most life threatening thing you can get from a stranger, at least on Grindr or Scruff.

Looking for Meth? No need to turn to a drug dealer on a dark corner or cruise the restroom of your favorite gay nightspot. Just hit up “I GoT FaVs” on Grindr. The price he quoted in a recent text exchange with me was “$75 for teener which I put 2 grams.” To make the purchase even easier, he texted: “I also take PayPal credit or debit and checks.”

Delivered! Spend a little time on the app and you’ll find plenty of guys looking to “parTy” or “pnp.”

Scruff? Just do a search for “Cloud,” “T,” “Tina,” “Tweaker,” “Party,” “Slammer,” “Smoke” or “Crystal” and you’ll turn up “parTy” boys and dealers with screen names like “TweakerVers69,” ParTyTop,” “ParTyfun,” “Smoker T” and “crystalpartycub.” They are looking to have “sex with Tina,” for “horny tweaky sex,” and in some cases a dealer. BBRTS, a website whose initials stand for “bare-

back real time sex,” actually includes the question “Drug Use” in its users’ profiles, with possible answers being “Ask Me,” “Yes,” “No,” “Hell No.” Spend a little more time on Grindr, Scruff or other gay hookup apps and its clear that a “Party N Play” (PNP) culture exists. And it’s a big problem in Los Angeles. That’s not just my perception: it’s such a commonly held perception that people often quip “every gay man in L.A. is either a Meth addict or in recovery.”

Some call Meth “the most dangerous drug on earth” because for many it is instantly addictive and has the ability to quickly and permanently alter the brain. Hardcore users rarely recover (the relapse rate is 88 percent for those who have had treatment) and have a 5- to 10-year lifespan.

In “The Handbook of Drugs and Society” (John Wiley & Sons, 2015), Ralph Weisheit notes that death from a Meth overdose is relatively rare. “But heavy users face other risks,” he writes, listing heart attacks, heat strokes and suicide as three. Then there is the impact of days-long binges during which Meth users rarely sleep or eat and have lots of random sex. Job loss, the destruction of relationships and profound feelings of depression contribute further to a growing sense of worthlessness that can be alleviated only by another Meth binge.

While I have never used the drug, I have experienced its negative impact on several loved ones. An addicted friend once called me, desperate for help, and asked me to take him to the hospital after a week “partying,” eating little food and getting no sleep. He was deranged and placed in a padded psychiatric holding room. Another friend, prominent in the HIV/AIDS activist community, died of AIDS after his Meth use led to him failing to take the daily HIV medication that had kept him alive and active. My most

painful experience with Meth occurred several years ago when I watched the man I loved (and still do), destroy his career and our relationship with Meth use. The life of this incredibly handsome, talented and well-educated young man spiraled out of control, leading him to lose his job, attempt suicide and be arrested for assaulting a police officer. At this moment I’m watching another brilliant friend head in the same direction.

Despite having a law degree from Yale, he is unemployed with no sense of the direc-

A screenshot of the conversation Henry Scott had with a Meth dealer on Grindr. tion. In addition to the emotional trauma his addiction has caused, there are the physical effects. Sleeping with him is impossible because of the compulsive twitching of his legs and loud grinding of his teeth, an impact of Meth addiction that leaves some users actually without teeth.

Some have criticized AHF’s STD campaign for its focus on hookup apps. Their argument is that gay men ought to be able to make their own decisions about whether to have sex without condoms and expose themselves to STDS and HIV. So searching for a sexual partner who wants to “bareback” shouldn’t be condemned. Whatever one thinks of that argument (with which I tend to agree), drug dealers should not be allowed to

push Meth on gay hookup apps nore should “partiers’ be allowed to solicit people to join them. Grindr and Scruff and similar apps are owned by gay men (Grindr and its founder, Joel Simkhai, are based in Los Angeles) whose stated goal is to bring us together, not kill us or destroy our lives.

While the connection between gay hookup apps and Meth use hasn’t drawn much attention in the United States, it has in Australia. Jay Morris, a recovering Meth addict and a gay health advocate in Australia, has called on the Australian government to shut down sites like Grindr that allow users to promote the use of Meth and to offer to sell and buy it. Australia has a telecommunications law that prohibits phones and the Internet from being used to distribute illegal drugs. The US also has a variety of similar telecommunications laws prohibiting illegal drug activity and provide for severe penalties.

But when Queerty.com, a U.S. based gay news site, posted a story about Morris’s campaign, its author described Morris’s request as a “whack a mole” approach, implying that Meth users would simply go elsewhere to find party drugs. Many of those who commented on the Queerty story agreed.

Yes, Meth users just might drift away from sites like Grindr and Scruff and to other sites to find their “parTy” favors.

But citing that as an argument against forcing gay apps to more carefully monitor their drug-related content is like arguing that gun control laws can’t be effective because people will always find someplace to find a gun.

If Grindr’s staff can monitor and approve the photos its users post (a practice necessary to avoid violating the terms of use that Apple has in place for any app that wants to be offered on its iTunes platform) then it and Scruff and other gay hookup apps are also able to scan profiles and posts for Meth-related terms like “crystal,” “tina,” and “T.” And if they won’t, those of us who care about the wellbeing of our brothers should migrate to the first hookup app whose owner decides to do the right thing and stop promoting the use of a drug that is destroying us.

Henry E. Scott, a long time journalist, is the former president of Out Inc., publisher of Out magazine, and currently heads West Hollywood Media Company, publisher of WEHOville.com and West Hollywood Magazine.

10.09.2015 CRYSTAL METH ANONYMOUS (855) 638-4373 www.crystalmeth.org

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

(323) 936-4343 or (800) 923-8722 www.lacoaa.org

AL ANON

MCINTYRE HOUSE

AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES

(213) 201-1600 www.apla.org Addictive Behavior Specialist.

Individual therapy, groups and community events for individuals with HIV

BEING ALIVE

(323) 874-4322 www.beingalivela.org Provides substance abuse counseling for HIV positive community members

BLVD. TREATMENT CENTER

(855) 821-3917 www.blvdcenters.com/ Day and evening intensive outpatient program and sober lving

BREATHE LIFE HEALING CENTER

(310) 659-9088 www.breathelifehealingcenters. com 60-90 day substance abuse rehab in Laurel Canyon

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

(323) 660-2450 www.chla.org Substance abuse programs for youth 12-24 years old

CITYx1

www.cityx1.com Youth group made up of youth leaders from the community. All activities alcohol/drug- and tobacco-free for youth ages 14-24

FRIENDS COMMUNITY CENTER

(323) 463-1601 www.friendsresearch.org Provides HIV prevention and substance use treatment to MSM and trans women including oneon-on counseling, groups, street outreach and technology-based interventions (mHealth and eHealth)

KLEAN TREATMENT CENTER (888) 601-6040 www.kleantreatmentcenter.com A for-profit residential rehabilitation center that aims to address the underlying factors behind addiction

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LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER

(323) 993-7448 www.lalgbtcenter.org/methrecovery Provides Crystal Meth and addiction recovery services and programs

(for relatives and friends of Alcoholics) (818) 760-7122 www.alanonla.org

⚫

(323) 662-0855 www.mcintyrehouse.org A residential substance abuse recovery and sober living facility for men. No one turned away for lack of funds

SAFE REFUGE

(562) 987-5722 www.asaferefuge.org Residential substance abuse/ co-occurring mental health treatment, HIV/AIDS services, and recovery support services

Wilshire Lane Reductions, Wilshire/La Brea Friday, October 23 through Monday, October 26th

TARZANA TREATMENT CENTER

(888)777-8565 www.tarzanatc.org Comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment center for adults and teens

TWEAKERS PROJECT

www.tweakersproject.org Resources and referrals for addiction and recovery. The Tweakers Project also distributes condoms and safer sex kits to individuals and groups in need, at no cost

TWIN TOWN TREATMENT CENTERS

(310) 623-1477 www.twintowntreatmentcenters. com Outpatient alcohol and drug treatment. Government-funded services are available to young adults under the federal “Access to Recovery” program.

Private pay options accept most insurance plans and/or flexible payment schedules

VAN NESS RECOVERY HOUSE

(323) 463-4266 www.vannessrecovery.org Day Treatment, Residential, Sober Living and Aftercare drug and alcohol recovery services targeting LGBT men and women.

12-step meetings throughout the week (AA, OA, NA HIV+, SCA)

WEST HOLLYWOOD RECOVERY CENTER (310) 360-4833 www.thewhrc.org 12-step group meetings

WESTWIND RECOVERY RESIDENCES (800) 223-5759 westwindrecovery.com Sober living residences

In preparation for pile installation work in November, the Design-Build contractor will be installing k-rail and fencing around the north three lanes of Wilshire between Mansfield and Detroit St beginning 9pm Friday, October 23rd until 6am Monday, October 26th.

This operation will reduce Wilshire Blvd to two lanes in each direction from Highland to Cloverdale. Reduced lanes will be in place for the duration of pile installation activities, which is anticipated to last 6-8 months.

Construction may result in changes to bus routes and stop locations. Metro will post signs at affected stops to advise riders of alternative boarding locations. Real-time information will be available at metro.net/advisories or 323.GO.METRO.

213.922.6934 purplelineext@metro.net metro.net/purplelineext twitter.com@purplelineext facebook.com/purplelineext

16-0643ps ©2015 lacmta

RECOVERY RESOURCES

thepride LOS ANGELES

⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES 10

LOS ANGELES

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WELCOME TO THE PRIDE

10.09.2015

From the Publisher

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

And so The Pride begins

Arturo Jimenez, my partner of 14 years, my dog Max and me.

I

t was a decision I didn’t take lightly at all. Launching a brand new LGBT newspaper in Los Angeles would mean I would have to experience a complete revolution in my life.

In New York, my paper Gay City News was flying higher than it had ever flown before, now part of a group of 14 newspapers with over 150 employees and tens of millions in revenues. The paper is esteemed by the LGBT community and has won hundreds of editorial awards. Some writers have worked on my projects for over 30 years. How could I give up that kind of stability and prestige at 54 years old? I had started Gay City News in the foyer of my postage stamp East Village apartment. Had I eaten rice and beans for years, suffered eviction and struggled to meet seemingly never-ending deadlines, only to leave the paper’s stewardship at it’s zenith?

Ultimately, my decision was yes. So be it.

I have since 1989 been part of a revolution, and have been witness to and a chronicler of LGBT and AIDS history. Our community has been through

hell and back. Like many of you during the bleakest days of the AIDS crisis, I simply could not stand on the sidelines and do nothing as my gay brothers died. Our community was pilloried at every turn and at times it seemed it couldn’t possibly ever get better. A newspaper, keeping the gay press alive in New York, became my life’s mission.

Over the past two decades we have experienced breathtaking progress on an array of fronts, a remarkable trajectory by any measure for any marginalized people. Thanks to the work of some very smart activists, medical science was forced to change and eventually death from AIDS became the exception rather than the rule. Today, that same activism may have found a way for us to experience some measure of sexual normalcy. Yes, I am all for PrEP. On the civil rights front the thread is much the same. Sudden and dramatic progress by leaps and bounds.

We went from the shadows to the stage and up the aisle in two generations. As protracted as these battle seemed the verdict was quick. Note I did not say painless.

The Windsor decision that led a paradigm shift on gay rights also kicked off a new and more serious introspection among faith leaders. The Pope’s ridiculousness with Kim Davis and the Vatican’s painful PR scramble aside, the conversation continues to change at a remarkable pace.

We still have lots of work to do across the country to ensure our rights are honored and that discrimination is never tolerated. We can still be fired or made homeless in some states for marrying our loved one or merely saying we are gay.

Even here in California, arguably the most liberal state in America, conservative forces seek to restrict our right to public spaces.

One thing leads to another, it seems, and these things too will get fixed. But it’s not over.

We are all making strides personally.

So, in a sense it was the narrative of steep upward progress that emboldened me to move 2500 miles across the country, to a city I have loved from afar, and start up a newspaper.

I am now thrilled to call Los Angeles home and to bring you The Pride Los Angeles, a newspaper that begins with some exceedingly powerful allies in the newspaper publishing industry, both locally and nationally. We are part of a five-newspaper group that also publishes the Santa Monica Mirror. The Pride is represented by Rivendell Media, the nation’s most important player for national advertising sales in the gay press. We are also THE Los Angeles newspaper member of the National Gay Media Association and the only LGBT newspaper serving Los Angeles.

In this issue, you will read a brief selection of news, a passionate and challenging call to arms on the meth crisis, an opinion piece that takes a unique look at the recent Grindr/Tinder controversy, a review of Roberta Kaplan’s new book about the overturning of DOMA, a film review of Freeheld. We even witness Olympic history as Caitlyn and Greg have their first meeting.

It’s a start and I’m damned proud of it.

A very smart man once told me that the most valuable thing you have is your voice and your point of view. I believe that is true for every one of us.

THE PRIDE LA | www.thepridela.com | (310) 310-2637

thepride PUBLISHER & EDITOR TROY MASTERS

troy@smmirror.com CONTRIBUTORS MATTHEW S. BAJKO, CYNTHIA LAIRD, HENRY SCOTT, CHARLES KAISER, MAER ROSHAN,KIT WINTER, BRAD LAMM, DAVID EHRENSTEIN, STEVE WEINSTEIN, CHRIS AZZOPARD, DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL, ALLEN ROSKOFF, JOHN PAUL KING

ART DIRECTOR GAIL HODGE

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS ARTURO JIMENEZ

artkex@yahoo.com VP OF ADVERTISING JUDY SWARZ

judy@smmirror.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES LEXI PERRY

lexi@smmirror.com Please call (310) 310-2637 for advertising rates and availability.

BUSINESS MANAGER MAX MONTEMER

max@smmirror.com

NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863

THE PRIDE L.A., The Newspaper Serving Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender L.A., is published by MIRROR MEDIA GROUP. Send all inquiries to: THE PRIDE L.A., 3435 Ocean Park Blvd. #210. Phone: 310.310.2637 Written permission of the publisher must be obtained before any of the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be reproduced or redistributed. All contents (c) 2015 The Pride L.A..

THE PRIDE L.A. is a registered trademark of MIRROR MEDIA GROUP. T.J. MONTEMER, CEO 310.310.2637 x104; E-mail: troy@smmirror.com

© 2015 The Pride L.A. All rights reserved.

10.09.2015

A golden Olympic moment

O

lympic Legends Caitlyn Jenner and Greg Louganis greet one another for the first time at The Point Foundation’s Voices On Point 2015 Los Angeles Gala fundraiser on October 5, 2015.

Throughout the night, Point scholars and alumni shared their own moving, personal stories, reflecting on Point’s ability to empower promising LGBTQ students through financial assistance,

mentoring and leadership development programs and opportunities. Since 2001, Point has invested more than $18 million in the education and support of Point Scholars.

Caitlyn presented the Point Horizon Award to Point Alumni, Rhys Ernst, Co-Producer for Amazon’s “Transparent,” and Zach Zyskowski, Producer on ABC Family “Becoming Us.” (Photo

by The Pride Los Angeles)

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⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES 12

Entertainment LOS ANGELES

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ARTS

10.09.2015 Read a great book and learn about your hero, brush up on your Madonna, see a great flick and fill your calendar. And while you are at it check out thepridela.com

⚫ BY DAVID EHRENSTEIN

Roberta Kaplan’s Mother and Triumph of Marriage Equality The story behind the story of one of America’s most imapcting legal decisions.

“

‘Yes,’ I told her, ‘I’m gay.’

My mother did not say a word. She simply walked to the edge of the room and started banging her head against the wall. Bang. Bang. Bang.”

So goes a startling passage early on in Roberta Kaplan’s book Then Comes Marriage, detailing how her legal team successfully overturned the so-called “Defense of Marriage “ in 2013, paving the way for “Obergefell v. Hodges” in 2015 which established the right of same sex couples to marry.

What does Roberta Kaplan’s mother have to do with this?

Plenty. For when Kaplan first

Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickey W.W. Norton: 320 pp., $27.95

began to represent cases in which marital rights were tangentially involved, “Obergefell” was not merely a dream, it barely figured on the horizon of gay and lesbian political consciousness. Winning basic civil rights was the goal,

therefore “Marriage Equality” was putting the cart before the horse. But as Kaplan’s book demonstrates, it was that cart that drove the horse; pushing the “head bangers” aside.

While “Marriage Equality” was achieved in what seems

now like “all deliberate speed” it certainly didn’t seem so to her. Back in 1996 it “wasn’t anywhere a reality in the United States.” Kaplan was representing “Family law” cases involving gay and/lesbian couples and their children,

often losing them to judges visibly sneering and audibly chuckling as she advanced the then-radical notion at gays and lesbians were not only capable of forming serious long-term relationships with one another but that such relationships were worthy of respect. Forget “Marriage Equality.” In an atmosphere like this, getting what she calls a “better dissent” from a jurist was often her goal.

Needless to say Kaplan wasn’t just a lawyer but an obvious beneficiary of the cases she was handling. She relates her evolution as an “out and proud” lesbian, winning back her mother’s regard, and falling in love with fellow lawyer Rachel Lavine. Like all samesex couples back then they were less than “second-class citizens” in the eyes of the law. They applied for DomesKAPLAN continued on p. 14

Still “Like a Virgin”

She’s back...the Material Girl is at her best singing La Vie en Rose and she is more beautiful now than ever.

T

he queens at the Madonna Bar are already screeching: The Mistress of reinvention lands in LA for her October

27 concert at the legendary Forum, so we thought it might be a good community service to list 11 tunes we expect the Material Girl to treat us

to, anthems of a generation of gay men....make that generations.

Oh, be still my gay heart.

Madonna’s latest spectacle, _Rebel Heart Tour_, spotlights her 13th studio album of the same name, she reaches into her back pocket..and it really is all sweet… not sticky. And nostalgic.

Gays, we have so much to be thankful for.

‘TRUE BLUE’

“Baby, I love you,” Madonna gushed, dipping into her back catalog for this adorable

1985 relic. Stripped of its pop sheen, “True Blue” became a finger-snappin’, hand-clappin’ campfire sing-along, with Madonna plucking away at a ukulele. Yes, baby, we love you too.

‘DEEPER AND DEEPER’

In 2004, for the _ReInvention World Tour_, she took her great disco rave from 1992’s _Erotica_ to the cabaret, quieting it down for a lounge-style slowie. Not this time. For _Rebel Heart_, “Deeper and Deeper” retained

its original pulse, dizzying the crowd of queers with its dance spins as Madge and her crew worked the heart-capped catwalk with a voguish hustle.

‘BURNING UP’

Flame bursts boomed from behind Madonna on a towering backdrop, but the diva herself was the one bringing the heat. As she punched her electric guitar, transforming this 1983 fan favorite into a rockin’ rush, someone probably should’ve called 911.

REBEL HEART continued on p. 18

10.09.2015

thepride LOS ANGELES

⚫ BY STEVE WEINSTEIN

Freeheld: A Romantic, gauzy history Unlike “Stonewall,” Freeheld adheres closely to the actual events: while Stonewall is told through the eyes of a white gay male, Freeheld’s narrative of a couple’s struggle for equality is too-often driven by a straight male bystander.

B

y all rights, “Freeheld” should have been the gay movie during the last quarter of the year, when the studios traditionally release the films that are considered the potential award winners.

The film stars Ellen Page, currently the hottest out-LGBT actor in Hollywood, as the domestic partner of Julianne Moore, probably the straight actress with the best LGBT cred, having starred in films like “Far From Heaven,” “The Kids Are Alright” and “A Single Man.” Add to that a screenplay by Ron Nyswaner, nominated for an Oscar for “Philadelphia,” and you have a movie that nearly screams “Hollywood gay royalty.”

Especially having been released hot on the heels of the much-reviled historical film “Stonewall,” “Freeheld” had a lot of good will going for it. Unlike “Stonewall,” it adheres close to the actual events it dramatizes.

Page plays Stacie, a Tom boy grease monkey who falls hard for Laurel, a local cop played by Moore. That Stacie would be willing to put a fight to

land the far older Laurel is hardly surprising with Moore in the part. The couple’s transition from loving partners to fierce fighters for equal rights is also understandable; Laurel wants to see Stacie get the same treatment as any other spouse.

Even if you didn’t see the Oscar-winning documentary short based on their story, you may well remember the dying New Jersey cop who tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain the same benefits for her partner that pertained to straight married couples.

I certainly do, and I especially remember how the story became a touchstone for those – especially Steve Goodstein, until recently the activist head of New Jersey’s LGBTrights group Garden State Equality, played here by Steve Carell – who argued that domestic partnerships were no substitute for full-fledged marriage.

That’s why I found “Freeheld” especially disappointing. What should have been an important and potent tribute to those who fought so hard for what we enjoy today becomes, in direc-

tor Peter Sollett’s hands, a soggy Lifetime Movie of the Week. Sollett, who hadn’t directed a film in several years, reportedly only became attached to the project after Catherine Hardwicke (“Lords of Dogtown,” “Twilight”) dropped out, for reasons that aren’t clear.

What is clear is that Sollett is hardly helped

by Nyswander’s overly soppy screenplay. As in “Philadelphia,” Nyswander frames much of the action through a toughas-nails straight male bystander who becomes emotionally involved in spite of himself in an LGBT couple’s travails.

Here, it’s Laurel’s partner on the police force, played with grace and nuance

by Michael Shannon. Although it’s Moore who’s getting the advanced Oscar buzz, Shannon’s portrayal of someone limited by upbringing who comes to greater, and sadder, knowledge of the world through circumstance is the film’s reach touchstone.

Unfortunately, as he did in “Philadephia,” Nyswander has chosen to bathe the action in a romantic, gauzy haze that frequently threatens to overwhelm the very hardnosed action depicted here. When the freeholders (New Jersey’s county commissioners, a term left over from colonial times) of Ocean County, a blue-collar area along the Jersey Shore, deny Laurel’s request, Goldstein springs into action. Along FREEHELD continued on p. 14

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⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES

10.09.2015

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FREEHELD

Director: Peter Sollett Runtime: 140 minutes Rating: PG-13 Cast: Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Michael Shannon, Steve Carell

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, decorated New Jersey detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) wishes to leave her pension benefits to domestic partner Stacie Andree (Ellen Page).

FREEHELD continued from p. 13

the way, he transforms the two women from couple to cause.

The scenes that show protesters joined eventually by members of the police force can’t help but be stirring (almost in spite of themselves).

But they are overshadowed by the film’s first half, which

KAPLAN continued from p. 12

tic Partnership in New York knowing “we’re not getting married.” And so they did marry in Canada and went on to have a child through in vitro fertilization. Being recognized as this child’s ‘co-parent” was in no way a simple matter. Kaplan’s recounting of the visit of a state official to their home to examine how their family functioned is especially interesting. The official wanted to know how the boy would deal in the years ahead with “not having a father” as opposed to his schoolmates. Kaplan wittily retorts that said classmates might be in the same situation thanks to divorce, remarriage and outright abandonment, so common among heterosexuals, yet taken for granted.

What was hovering over

nearly succeeds in showing how two lesbians in a semi-rural county find each other and navigate their coming out to friends, family, co-workers – and, not least – each other.

If the latter half of the film falls flat, blame that blasted Lifetime tendency to milk Laurel’s cancer for every ounce of bathos. But then there’s the

touchier issue of Carell’s Goldstein. Regardless of whether it was his or Sollett’s choice to have Goldstein played as a stereotypical loud-mouthed New York-type Jew, the result is more caricature than personality. From my few interactions with Goldstein, I always came with the impression that he was a solid, straight-shooter

activist, intelligent, articulate and anything but an in-yourface type.

Even with all of these caveats, I can recommend “Freeheld” to readers without feeling guilty about it. The star quality of the leads aside, this is definitely a Grade A production. Even if they are bathed in bathos, the contrast between

the early scenes of Stacie and Laurel and the later ones of Stacie and Laurel in the hospital can’t help but elicit tears.

You may hate yourself for succumbing to Sollett’s manipulative direction. But you’ll be crying just the same – just as you’ll be clenching your fists in rage at the profound injustice of their situation.

the heads of so many samesex couples, like Kaplan and Levine was the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act”? It was a noxious piece of homophobic legislation established in 1996 in order to undermine those states that had voted in favor of same-sex marriage by declaring “marriage” and “spouse” to apply only to heterosexual unions, and that states need not recognize the “Marriage Equality” provisions made by other states. It was signed, Kaplan notes by President Bill Clinton “in the dead of night;” underscoring that in politics a great many of our socalled “friends” might be only of the “fair weather” variety.

In the “Windsor” ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy declared “The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to

injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.” And Edie Windsor was the literal embodiment of “personhood and dignity.” A former technology manager at IBM, Edie Windsor today is quick to admit that she was very much ‘in the closet” when she “came out” as a lesbian. . . to herself alone. She knew little of “the gay world,” asking an acquaintance “Where do the lesbians go? “ She found out and in 1965 met and fell in love with Thea Spyer, director of the Psychiatric Clinic at the International Center for the Disabled and was Clinical Consultant in Rehabilitation at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Westchester before eventually concentrating exclusively on her private practice. In 1968 the two women moved in together.

But such was Edie’s reticence

at acknowledging this to her co-workers, that she invented a relationship with Spyer’s fictional brother “Willy” in order to take calls from her at the IBM office.

But times – and Edie – changed. In 1993 she and Thea registered as domestic partners and in 1993 married in Toronto Canada. Thea suffered from progressive multiple sclerosis. In 2002 she was told had less than a year to live but such was not the case and she and Edie were married in Toronto in 2007. In 2009, at 77 years of age, Thea died leaving Edie the executor and sole beneficiary of her estate via a revocable trust. Because their marriage was not recognized by the government of the United States Windsor, was required to pay $363,053 in federal estate taxes. Had federal law recognized the validity of

their marriage, Windsor would have qualified for an unlimited spousal deduction and paid no federal estate taxes On meeting Edie Windsor, Kaplan immediately recognized that the challenge she and other lawyer/activistswere trying to mount against DOMA had found its perfect plaintiff. Her story, coupled with her style and infectious vivaciousness made Edie ideal plaintiff not only to the court but the LGBT community as whole.

“In the end,” Kaplan declares ,“ ‘it’s all about Edie’ is really only another way of saying it’s all about dignity.” But as this exhaustively detailed but thoroughly engaging book proves it’s also it’s all about stopping the likes of Roberta Kaplan’s mother from going “Bang Bang Bang .”

10.09.2015 FILM REVIEW

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thepride LOS ANGELES

GOODNIGHT MOMMY

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Real life horror just in time for Halloween The directors make sure that it is: their script is complex and tantalizing, doling out clues and hinting at secrets even as it provokes us with new mysteries and confronts us with surprises. ⚫ BY JOHN PAUL KING With Halloween right around the corner, most of the cool kids will want to include an outing to a nice, creepy horror flick amongst all the other seasonal festivities. If that includes you, but you are bored to death by variations on the “Found Footage” formula (and their perfunctory cheap scares), you might want to seek out a showing of Goodnight Mommy. Written and directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, it was Austria’s 2014 submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards. It didn’t get the nomination- but don’t let that dissuade you from seeing it.

Set at an isolated house in a deceptively tranquil woodland, Goodnight Mommy evokes a modern-day Grimm’s Fairy Tale as it introduces us to Lukas and Elias, a deeply-bonded pair of twin pre-teen brothers whose mother has just returned home from having extensive facial surgery. Almost immediately it becomes apparent to them that more has changed about her than just the features still concealed beneath those intimidating bandages. Her personality is different: she is colder, harsher, and, worst of all, inexplica-

bly intent on driving a wedge between her two sons. Gradually they become convinced that she is an imposter, and they begin an effort to expose herbut soon it becomes clear that the biggest question may be how far they are willing to go to discover the truth.

There are a lot of things that grab you right away about this movie. The opening sequence, in which we first see the twins roaming together through a cornfield, immediately sets the tone. They (and we) are inside a vast bubble of isolation, one which seems serene and peaceful but is in fact alive with unseen and vaguely unsettling activity- revealed by the carefully orchestrated soundscape of buzzing insects and rustling winds, just the beginning of a soundtrack which favors natural ambience over the use of music. There is a score, but it only emerges for brief and infrequent intervals, and is all the more effective for it. Then there is the cinematography, the opposite of what you see in the Paranormal Activity movies and their ilk. Instead of a herky-jerky handheld camera, we get the stately elegance of widescreen, 35mm photography with the kind of artful framing and

Goodnight Mommy is playing at Sundance Cinemas West Hollywood, 8000 Sunset, 8000 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046

clean lines that make the film as good-looking and stylish as the country house of its setting.

All this technical excellence makes it clear that Goodnight Mommy is not a film made by hacks, but it would count for far less if the content were not on the same par. The directors make sure that it is: their script is complex and tantalizing, doling out clues and hinting at secrets even as it provokes us with new mysteries and confronts us with surprises. We know from early on that we are being manipulated; Franz and Fiala show us the world only through the eyes of the two young protagonists, carefully filtering our perceptions through them and making us both dread and anticipate the shift in perspective which we sense must be coming. This sense of impending menace is compounded by the performers: real-life twins Lukas and Elias Schwarz are perfectly cast,

exuding both sweet sadness and a kind of otherworldly distance which makes them the perfect blank slate upon which to hang the audience’s expectations; and Susanne Wuest, as Mother, walks the thin line between being menacing and sympathetic with dexterity, keeping us unsure, almost until the very end, whether we should fear her or feel for her.

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a horror film if there were not also some outright creepy, maybe even gruesome imagery along with all the psychological unease, and although I don’t want to give anything away, I can promise that it delivers (and that if you are squeamish about bugs, you might want to be prepared to look away a few times).

Goodnight Mommy does have its flaws. The cost of keeping its characters ambiguous enough to preserve our uncertainty is that sometimes it’s hard to con-

GOODNIGHT MOMMY Director: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala Runtime: 99 minutes Rating: R Cast: Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz, Susanne Wuest (in German w/ subtitles)

nect with- and therefore care about- any of them; and like many horror films, the story hinges on a gimmick, one which will probably be fairly obvious to most savvy moviegoers pretty early on. Nevertheless, the film works superbly because it doesn’t rely on standard elements of genre formula to have its unsettling effect. Again, I don’t want to give anything away, but Goodnight Mommy disturbs because it reveals reallife horror, the kind that makes us lie awake at night and worry about those we love. In the end, it seems more tragedy than thriller.

That said, it’s still pretty thrilling.

⚫ thepride LOS ANGELES

10.09.2015

16

HEALTH

DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL

Trans Women are 49 Times More Likely to Have HIV and Here’s Why You Should Care

We need to push researchers to understand that gay and bi transgender men may be at equally high risk; since there have been no studies, nobody knows.

L

et me tell you about a woman I met. Let’s call her Trina. On the surface, we have some similarities.

A woman of color and a bottle blonde, Trina grew up feeling like she never fit in. Shuffled between family members, she left home early in an effort to be herself, and ended up homeless at one point.

Like my husband, Trina is transgender.

Unlike my husband, who grew up in a white middle-class family and has a master’s degree, doesn’t have insurance (yes, even in this age of Obamacare), worries about affording her hormones, and has had to do a lot of things to be the person she is. That includes turning the odd trick or two.

She has HIV. When she tested positive last year, it wasn’t a surprise to her or to the other women in her trans support group, which meets at her local LGBT center

each Wednesday night.

It’s one of the few places Trina feels at home, accepted, able to be honest.

And many of the women are also HIV-positive.

Transgender women are 49 times more likely to have HIV than the general population. We first heard this number when The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) released a report in 2014, “Trans Populations and HIV: Time to End the Neglect,” and this summer, the World Health Organization did a new meta-analysis of data from 15 different countries, which again showed that transgender women were nearly 49 times more likely to have HIV than the general population.

Both studies argue that trans women are the most at-risk population around the globe. The numbers are even worse for those who are women of color; 56 percent of black trans women have

HIV. _That’s over half._ According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, transgender women involved in sex work have HIV rates that are almost twice that of trans women not engaged in commercial sex work. They’re also six times more likely to be living with HIV than other female sex workers.

Perhaps you’re ready to turn the proverbial page because you think women who do sex work deserve it. They don’t.

My friend Trina gave blow jobs to help afford the hormones she needs every two weeks to continue living as a woman. Going off hormones would give her serious medical issues.

The waiting list to get into her local clinic was two months. She’s had bad experiences with doctors who refused to treat her because she’s transgender. She’s not alone: The Task Force’s 2011 study, “Injustice at Every Turn,” reports that approximately one in five trans people in the United States has been denied medical care as a result of their gender identity.

She’s also shared injection needles not for

drugs, but at a pumping party, where trans women get low-cost fillers to create a more feminine look in their faces, breasts and hips.

As a once-homeless trans teen – over 40 percent of homeless teens are LGBT, according to a 2011 Williams Institute study – Trina has had to do plenty of things that put her at risk for HIV. But that’s not how she got HIV. Like the majority of HIV-positive people today, Trina became HIV-positive during a relationship that she believed was monogamous.

The man she loved was not monogamous – and he was not aware that he had HIV. Today Trina is on antiretrovirals and sees a doctor at a clinic who knows how to treat trans people living with HIV. Those are few and far between.

It’s time for all of us to wake up to this issue. As we revive the conversation around gay and bi men and HIV, it’s time to end this epidemic for trans people too. (Note: Many of my suggestions originally appeared in “Injustice at Every Turn.”)

This is what it takes: LGBT activists needs

to care about the alarmingly high rate of HIV among trans women – and to push our organizations, political leaders and the pharmaceutical industry to do so as well.

Silence can still equal death for trans people who can’t access medical care. It’s time to remind everyone of this.

The research/medical community and pharmaceutical industry needs to stop misgendering trans women in research studies. Lumping trans women in studies about “men who have sex with men” does not give you true statistics on trans women’s needs and risks, making it difficult for concerned clinicians to properly treat trans women with HIV. We need them to ensure that trans people are properly categorized in future research.

We need to push researchers to understand that gay and bi transgender men may be at equally high risk; since there have been no studies, nobody knows.

Medical schools and medical organizations need to start training their people to treat transgender patients properly and mandating that people do so.

Refusing care to people because of their gender identity is a travesty.

We need to elevate trans people into leadership areas in HIV organizations, including their voices when we talk about HIV. We need LGBT orga-

nizations to take up the mantle in talking about trans people and HIV, and we need trans organizations to tackle HIV. One such organization is doing just that: The Transgender Law Center has created Positively Trans, a project led by a group of poz trans people who have launched the first-of-its-kind study seeking to determine the obstacles to care faced by trans people living with HIV. In order for all of us – poz or not, trans or not, queer or not – to do right by trans women, we have to do more than tune into “I Am Cait” once a week.

We have to tear down and rebuild the systems that are here to care for trans and gender non-conforming people in a way that really works. We have to remove the stigma of being trans, of being positive, of seeking to take an HIV prevention treatment. That’s only one step, and there are many needed, but just that, understanding and truly caring about trans people, can take us quite a way.

Diane Anderson-Minshall is editor in chief of _Plus_ magazine and editor at large for _The Advocate_ magazine.

You can find her online at HIVPlusMag.com and Advocate.com. This column is a project of Plus, Positively Aware, POZ, TheBody.com and Q Syndicate, the LGBT wire service.

10.09.2015

thepride LOS ANGELES

> Happiness is in the little VOICES

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BOB SMITH

things and in your challenges Bob Smith, HBO comedian and author of Remembrance of Things I Forgot, Openly Bob, Way to Go, Smith, is thriving with ALS. There’s so much detail in the little things.

I have two children with a lesbian couple in Toronto. My daughter Maddie and my son Xander. Their two moms are Chloe and Elvira. My partner Michael lives with me in New York city. We all love Mother Nature. Like most mothers, we have issues with her.

She calls everyday with weather. She’s not always right, but will never admit it. Like when she gave me ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease. (I never call it, “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” I don’t need a celebrity endorsement for my illness.) But I still love her for the happiness she’s brought me and my family.

One time I took my mom on a gay cruise to Alaska. We went on a Sitka harbor wildlife tour. It was a warm clear day and we saw bald eagles, sea otters, a humpback whale and a mama orca and her baby that breached in unison right next to our boat. For the rest of the trip, if I suggested any outdoor activity, my mom’s response was, “Why? We’ve seen everything.”

Or the time, I was standing in the surf in Key West and an osprey landed three feet away from me. It was sweltering and it was cooling off his talons.

I’ve never been that close to a bird of prey.

One of my favorite national parks is the Channel Islands. I lived in Los Angeles for nine years and most Southern Californians haven’t visited it.

It’s the California coast when Francis Drake visited in 1579. It also has a lot of endemic species. Like island foxes, Ironwood trees and scrub jays. It’s the United States’s Galapagos. A 13000 year old human bone was found on the Channel Islands, which understandably questions if the first Americans

settled the continent by boat.

On my second visit to Santa Cruz Island, my friend Jaffe and his friend Michael, stopped at a “natural shrine” a notch in a hillside. Michael said, “Lets chant.”

“You’re right,” said Jaffe.

They stood next to each other, facing the divot in the hillside. Then they started chanting in an asian language I didn’t recognize.

Michael shouted at Jaffe,”You’re chanting off-key.”

Their dispute made me achieve comic nirvana.

My kids love wild animals as much as I do. Xander has a thick illustrated book of mammals, and though he’s four, when I point to any picture, he can name the animal -- from a gnu to a platypus. After a visit to Buffalo’s zoo, Xander imitated gorillas for the next month. And when her teacher went around Maddie’s class asking each student what animal they’d like to be, there were crates of dogs, cats, and bunnies. Only Maddie said, ‘A pygmy marmoset!’ My favorite picture of Maddie is of her holding a tiny earthworm in her palm. Her delighted smile seems to say, ‘Look at this slimy, precious jewel!”

I was the same kid. The first adult book I owned was a Reptiles and Amphibians guide book. A recent photo of Maddie shows her smiling and holding a garter snake. I also loved snakes when I was a boy. Once, I held a garter snake in my hand and it opened its mouth and left a perfect oval of bloody pinpricks. I wasn’t stunned by the piddly pain -- I was thrilled by observing a snake’s flat bite for the first time.

When I was five, my family vacationed in the Adirondacks. I was running in the woods at night and tripped over a log. When I stood up, I felt something squirming in the pocket of my shorts. I checked ii out and it was a tiny brown toad. It electrified me and I felt like I had won the amphibian lottery. There’s more of my Nature Boy adventures in my next book, Treehab.

I’m not going to let my children inherit a world where droughts don’t allow North Americans to grow enough

Bob Smith’s daughter Maddie

food to feed themselves and polar bears are a memory.

The Republican presidential candidates all disgust me. They all deny climate change. Their debates are proof we don’t have to be afraid of artificial intelligent robots taking control our planet, we have to be afraid of real stupidity destroying the Earth. The natural world has been such a source of joy in my life, and I want to preserve it for Maddie and Xander. If you’re a parent voting for anti-environmen-

tal, climate-change-denying conservatives who don’t conserve anything, then child protective services should put your kids in foster care, since it’s clear you don’t care about their welfare. I’m eager to fight for Maddie and Xander’s planet, and even PETA might have a problem with my hard-hearted treatment of the uncaring. If I have to choose between the extinction of Republicans or polar bears, I’m going to pick the less-attractive species.

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10.09.2015

18

It’s always like the very first time REBEL HEART continued from p. 12

‘LIKE A VIRGIN’

Bitch, she’s Madonna.

Owning the stage like a boss during a solo hip-hop take on “Like a Virgin,” Madonna bounced her booty during a ravishing display of agelessness – proof that Pilates and full-powered Beyoncé-type fans are a girl’s best friends.

‘LA ISLA BONITA’

Toro, toro! No, there wasn’t a bull, and this wasn’t “Take a Bow” (sigh). Hand to pelvis, Madonna moved to the Spanish vibes of “La Isla Bonita,” showing off her slow mo gyrations amidst her festively-attired stage gang who came together for a performance that was muy

bien.

‘DRESS YOU UP’

If Madonna wants to spoil us, who are we to argue? Not only did “Dress You Up” (in full!) make the cut, but the diva went deep into the ’80s for “Into the Groove” and “Lucky Star,” essentially giving life to all basking in her presence. #Humanitarian

‘WHO’S THAT GIRL’

Dusting off the title song from her 1987 film, _Who’s that Girl_, Madonna gave this ditty a guitar-guided makeover – nearly 30 years after last performing it on tour! Despite the fact that Madonna was actually there, donning gypsy attire and taking our collective breath away, it was hard to tell if this was real life.

‘FROZEN’

This used to be her playground, which Madonna enthused during her hometown stop, proclaiming that, “Detroit made me who I am today.” And she didn’t stop there. She swapped setlist staple “Ghost Town” for “Frozen,” her stunning _Ray of Light_-era trip to the dark side, stripped to merely the rawness of acoustic guitar and a vocal that left everyone, well, you guessed it: frozen.

‘MATERIAL GIRL’

Raise your hand if you wet yourself during this one.

Beyond the obvious fact that “Material Girl” sits atop Madonna’s smoldering hit heap, the way she folded it into _Rebel Heart_ – simple, chic, _Great Gatsby_-inspired – was pure blast-from-thepast pleasure.

‘LOVE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE’

After shoving a faux lover down a spiral staircase at the end of “Heartbreak City,” Madonna caused a ruckus when she launched into her showstopping ballad “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” from 1984’s _Like a Virgin_.

It was just a snippet, a tease – because, you know, she’s

Relive her entire career at The Forum, October 29, 2015.

Madonna.

‘HOLIDAY’

It didn’t take this, the encore, to know that Madonna had let her hair down again, ditching brooding theatrics for the essence of early

Madonna: frilly fun. Rebel Heart Tour was a two-hour plus celebration of Madonna’s career, and it all came to a boisterous, confetti-filled head with “Holiday.”

-- Chris Azzopardi

Out candidates statewide 2016 continued from p. 3

bly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), who is termed out of her seat next fall, shocked the Statehouse in September when she announced she would run against state Senator Marty Block (D-San Diego) next year for his Senate District 39 seat.

Atkins told reporters that Block had agreed to give up his seat after one term so she could run. Block has countered that, although they discussed such an arrangement, he never agreed to do step down.

Assembly District 78 Current: Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) Atkins’ 78th Assembly District hugs the coast from Solana Beach to the U.S.-Mexico border. It also includes a

number of San Diego’s inland neighborhoods, such as University City, Bay Park, Clairemont, North Park, and City Heights.

Running to succeed Atkins in the Assembly is gay San Diego City Councilman T odd Gloria. He has been endorsed by Atkins, the California Latino Legislative Caucus, and the statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California.

“Todd has said his mission is to leave things better than he found them,” stated EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur. “He has certainly achieved that during his time on the city council, where he helped ease homelessness, create affordable housing, and made San Diego a better place to live for LGBT people and all its residents.”

Also expected to seek the seat come

June, when the top-two vote getters will advance to the November election, is Republican Kevin Melton, who ran for the seat last year but failed to advance past the primary. The two Democrats who had been running, lifeguard Ed Harris and Sarah Booth, whom Atkins had initially endorsed, dropped out of the race and endorsed Gloria when he announced.

Gloria, who in 2013 served as his city’s interim mayor for six months due to the resignation of former mayor Bob Filner, is expected to easily win the seat next November.

“I am humbled and grateful to all of those who supported us right off the bat. It means a great deal to me and I cannot thank you enough for making this a great experience thus far,” wrote Gloria in an email July 20 to his sup-

porters.

As for the out incumbents, gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) and lesbian Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) are both seeking re-election to their seats in the Legislature’s lower chamber.

In the state Senate, lesbian Senator Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) and gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Los Angeles) are both seeking re-election to their seats next year.

The other gay lawmaker termed out next year is Assemblyman Rich Gor don (D-Menlo Park), who is eying a run for state Senate in 2020. It is unlikely an LGBT candidate will seek Gordon’s 24th Assembly District seat; Gordon has already endorsed Palo Alto City Councilman Marc Ber man, who is straight, in the race.

10.09.2015 The Historian

>

OUR LIBERTY, OUR LIVES

⚫ BY WES JOE

thepride LOS ANGELES

MATTACHINE

⚫ 19

LGBT folks have not always been a welcome part of LA life; there are people, place and events that paved the way. We remember them.

Where Harry met Rudi, Chuck and Bob and Dale...

The Mattachine Steps in Silver Lake celebrates Harry Hay’s enormous footprint in LA’s LGBT community His activism is considered by some to be as important as Stonewall.

N

ot code for an organized crime initiation or the name of a Eurasian land feature – the Steps is a public staircase running up the steep hillside just east of the Silver Lake Reservoir. In 2012 L.A. honored the founding here, in 1950, of the Mattachine Society.

In 1950 L.A. was undergoing its biggest growth spurt ever.

Gay men at the State Department were being interrogated and discharged as part of the Lavender Scare. Sex outside

of a straight couple in the missionary position was a felony.

The Kinsey Report, published in 1948, was still fresh, as were Gore Vidal’s “The City and The Pillar” and Truman Capote’s “Other Voices, Other Rooms.”

William Parker was Chief of the L.A.P.D. The Department’s leading criminal psychiatrist was Paul de River, who regarded homosexuals, both men and women, as dangers to society.

In his book “The Sexual Criminal” (1949) he recommended

“I wasn’t impressed by Stonewall, because of all the open gay projects we had done throughout the sixties in Los Angeles: Stonewall meant that the East Coast was catching up.” HARRY HAY

preventatives: Spartan living, hard work, and – most important of all electric shock therapy, “a minimum of two shocks a week.”

By 1950 Harry Hay had been trying for two years – at parties, discussion groups, canvassing at Will Rogers-- to find someone brave enough to form and join a group that recognized the existence, humanity and contributions of LGBT people. No one was willing to take the first step until November 11, 1950.

That afternoon Harry, his then boyfriend Rudi Ger nreich, Chuck Rowland, Bob Hull and Dale Jennings sat and talked The Cove Avenue stairway, east of the Silver Lake reservoirs, was recognized for hours on the hillside over- in 2012 as a historic site by the City of Los Angeles and dedicated to the looking the Reservoir next to Mattachine Society.

Harry’s Cove Avenue residence.

Hay wrote of how “we sat there Magazine in the early 1950s, fluttering rainbow umbrella and with fire in our eyes and faraway still with us as ONE Archives at gestured to it with a little embarrassment. Mitch smiled and USC. dreams, being gays.”

Writing about the group, Hay noted, “It’s Harry’s spirit.”

This was the first meeting of The Mattachine Step’s sign what would become the Matta- describes the “glorious shock” chine Society, the first enduring to be together with other LGBT was unveiled on the 100th anniorganization in the nation devot- people “and suddenly find one versary of Harry Hay’s birth, ed to the rights and interests of another good, and find our - April 7, 2012 as part of celebraLGBT people. (The first having selves so at home and ‘in family’ tion that included other events been Henry Gerber’s Society perhaps for the first time in our in the city, in San Francisco and in New York. Among those for Human Rights, formed in lives.”

When the naming the stair- at the unveiling were Malcolm Chicago in 1925. That group sadly lasted only a few months case was first proposed, I met Boyd, Mark Thompson, Jolino before its members were arrest- with Mitch O’Farrell, then Beserra, David Byrd and many ed.) Patterned out of necessity aide to then-Councilmember members of the Radical Faeries, along the lines of a secret soci- Eric Garcetti at the top of the another group co-founded by ety, Mattachine eventually grew steps. It was one of those rare Harry in his later years. Jolino to include dozens of chapters wet autumn days with a breeze remembered the first time he and thousands of participants. blowing unsteadily up off the met Harry – “He had diamonds Among its successors was ONE Lake. I was holding a flimsy, in his beard.”

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