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12.04.2015 SYRIAN GAYS GRANTED
L.A. GETS A NEW LGBT NEWSPAPER SPOTLIGHT LOS ANGELES 1 THOUSANDS OF DOOR TO DOOR DELIVER- BIG BUDGET JOURNALISM MOVIE SOARS ⚫ 16 IES IN LOS ANGELES!
REFUGE IN CANADA GAY ONLY? ⚫ 9
LOS ANGELES’ LGBT NEWSPAPER
WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM
AGING ⚫ 6
THEPRIDELA
@THEPRIDELA | ISSUE NUMBER 5, VOLUME 1 | DEC.4, — DEC. 18, 2015
YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Los Angeles is home to more than 65,000 senior LGBT members LAW ⚫ 7
Los Angeles is the toughest California enforcer of HIV related criminal law TRANS ⚫ 10
Royal Caribbean Cruises at it again: sued by Trans Vacationers ADDICTION ⚫ 14
Recovery from Meth, a handbook UNFAIR: EARLY FEARS SHAPED MANY OF THE LAWS THAT CONTINUE TO BE ENFORCED for gay men AGAINST HIV-POSITIVE PEOPLE. UCLA’S WILLIAMS INSTITUTE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY.
Our progress is profound but with it comes new challenges
⚫ 2016: As Ted Cruz rises in Iowa and Donald
Trump continues his lead, LGBT bashing remain pivotal to Republican get out the vote efforts.
⚫ THE PRIDE LA: In our next issue The Pride
LA explores the diversity of LGBT expressions of faith. Join us online at thepridela.com .
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12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
®
New Genvoya is now available
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LOS ANGELES
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Actual Size
One pill contains elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). Ask your healthcare provider if GENVOYA is right for you. To learn more visit GENVOYA.com
Please see Brief Summary of Patient Information with important warnings on the following pages.
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LOS ANGELES
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Brief Summary of Patient Information about GENVOYA GENVOYA (jen-VOY-uh) (elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide) tablets Important: Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with GENVOYA. There may be new information about GENVOYA. This information is only a summary and does not take the place of talking with your healthcare provider about your medical condition or treatment.
What is the most important information I should know about GENVOYA? GENVOYA can cause serious side effects, including: • Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis may happen in some people who take GENVOYA. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Lactic acidosis can be hard to identify early, because the symptoms could seem like symptoms of other health problems. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms, which could be signs of lactic acidosis: • • • • • • •
feel very weak or tired have unusual (not normal) muscle pain have trouble breathing have stomach pain with nausea or vomiting feel cold, especially in your arms and legs feel dizzy or lightheaded have a fast or irregular heartbeat
• Severe liver problems. Severe liver problems may happen in people who take GENVOYA. In some cases, these liver problems can lead to death. Your liver may become large and you may develop fat in your liver. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms of liver problems: • your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice) • dark “tea-colored” urine • light-colored bowel movements (stools) • loss of appetite for several days or longer • nausea • stomach pain • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking GENVOYA for a long time. • Worsening of Hepatitis B infection. GENVOYA is not for use to treat chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV). If you have HBV infection and take GENVOYA, your HBV may get worse (flareup) if you stop taking GENVOYA. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before. • Do not run out of GENVOYA. Refill your prescription or talk to your healthcare provider before your GENVOYA is all gone. • Do not stop taking GENVOYA without first talking to your healthcare provider. • If you stop taking GENVOYA, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your HBV infection. Tell your healthcare provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may have after you stop taking GENVOYA.
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What is GENVOYA? GENVOYA is a prescription medicine that is used without other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age and older: • who have not received HIV-1 medicines in the past or • to replace their current HIV-1 medicines in people who have been on the same HIV-1 medicines for at least 6 months, have an amount of HIV-1 in their blood (“viral load”) that is less than 50 copies/mL, and have never failed past HIV-1 treatment HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. GENVOYA contains the prescription medicines elvitegravir (VITEKTA®), cobicistat (TYBOST®), emtricitabine (EMTRIVA®) and tenofovir alafenamide. It is not known if GENVOYA is safe and effective in children under 12 years of age. When used to treat HIV-1 infection, GENVOYA may: • Reduce the amount of HIV-1 in your blood. This is called “viral load”. • Increase the number of CD4+ (T) cells in your blood that help fight off other infections. Reducing the amount of HIV-1 and increasing the CD4+ (T) cells in your blood may help improve your immune system. This may reduce your risk of death or getting infections that can happen when your immune system is weak (opportunistic infections). GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. You must stay on continuous HIV-1 therapy to control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses. Avoid doing things that can spread HIV-1 infection to others: • Do not share or re-use needles or other injection equipment. • Do not share personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them, like toothbrushes and razor blades. • Do not have any kind of sex without protection. Always practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood. Ask your healthcare provider if you have any questions about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to other people.
Who should not take GENVOYA? Do not take GENVOYA if you also take a medicine that contains: • alfuzosin hydrochloride (Uroxatral®) • carbamazepine (Carbatrol®, Epitol®, Equetro®, Tegretol®, Tegretol-XR®, Teril®) • cisapride (Propulsid®, Propulsid Quicksolv®) • ergot-containing medicines, including: dihydroergotamine mesylate (D.H.E. 45®, Migranal®), ergotamine tartrate (Cafergot®, Migergot®, Ergostat®, Medihaler Ergotamine®, Wigraine®, Wigrettes®), and methylergonovine maleate (Ergotrate®, Methergine®) • lovastatin (Advicor®, Altoprev®, Mevacor®) • midazolam, when taken by mouth • phenobarbital (Luminal®) • phenytoin (Dilantin®, Phenytek®) • pimozide (Orap®) • rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifamate®, Rifater®, Rimactane®) • sildenafil (Revatio®), when used for treating lung problems • simvastatin (Simcor®, Vytorin®, Zocor®) • triazolam (Halcion®) • the herb St. John’s wort or a product that contains St. John’s wort
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What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking GENVOYA? Before taking GENVOYA, tell your healthcare provider if you: • have liver problems including hepatitis B infection • have kidney or bone problems • have any other medical conditions • are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if GENVOYA can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking GENVOYA. Pregnancy registry: there is a pregnancy registry for women who take HIV-1 medicines during pregnancy. The purpose of this registry is to collect information about the health of you and your baby. Talk with your healthcare provider about how you can take part in this registry. • are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take GENVOYA. – You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby. – At least one of the medicines in GENVOYA can pass to your baby in your breast milk. It is not known if the other medicines in GENVOYA can pass into your breast milk. – Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how GENVOYA works. Some medicines may interact with GENVOYA. Keep a list of your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. • You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for a list of medicines that interact with GENVOYA. • Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider can tell you if it is safe to take GENVOYA with other medicines.
How should I take GENVOYA?
• Take GENVOYA exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to take it. GENVOYA is taken by itself (not with other HIV-1 medicines) to treat HIV-1 infection.
• GENVOYA is usually taken 1 time each day. • Take GENVOYA with food. • If you need to take a medicine for indigestion (antacid) that contains aluminum and • • • •
magnesium hydroxide or calcium carbonate during treatment with GENVOYA, take it at least 2 hours before or after you take GENVOYA. Do not change your dose or stop taking GENVOYA without first talking with your healthcare provider. Stay under a healthcare provider’s care when taking GENVOYA. Do not miss a dose of GENVOYA. If you take too much GENVOYA, call your healthcare provider or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away. When your GENVOYA supply starts to run low, get more from your healthcare provider or pharmacy. This is very important because the amount of virus in your blood may increase if the medicine is stopped for even a short time. The virus may develop resistance to GENVOYA and become harder to treat.
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What are the possible side effects of GENVOYA? GENVOYA may cause serious side effects, including: • See “What is the most important information I should know about GENVOYA?” • Changes in body fat can happen in people who take HIV-1 medicine. These changes may include increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the middle of your body (trunk). Loss of fat from the legs, arms and face may also happen. The exact cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known. • Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having any new symptoms after starting your HIV-1 medicine. • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys before you start and while you are taking GENVOYA. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking GENVOYA if you develop new or worse kidney problems. • Bone problems can happen in some people who take GENVOYA. Bone problems may include bone pain, softening or thinning (which may lead to fractures). Your healthcare provider may need to do tests to check your bones. The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. • These are not all the possible side effects of GENVOYA. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist. • Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088. General information about the safe and effective use of GENVOYA. Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than those listed in a Patient Information leaflet. Do not use GENVOYA for a condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give GENVOYA to other people, even if they have the same symptoms you have. It may harm them. This Brief Summary summarizes the most important information about GENVOYA. If you would like more information, talk with your healthcare provider. You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about GENVOYA that is written for health professionals. For more information, call 1-800-445-3235 or go to www.GENVOYA.com. Keep GENVOYA and all medicines out of reach of children. Issued: November 2015
EMTRIVA, GENVOYA, the GENVOYA Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, GSI, TYBOST, and VITEKTA are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. © 2015 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. GENC0002 11/15
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LGBT Seniors OUR LIVES
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LOS ANGELES
COMMUNITY
As the LGBT community gains more recognition so too is the focus on our evolving sociological needs.
⚫ BY MATTHEW S. BAJKO
Aging lavender population grabs research spotlight Los Angeles has 65,000 LGBT residents 60 years of age or older and projected to double by 2030.
A
s more and more LGBT seniors are living out of the closet, the issues they are confronting during their golden years are receiving increased attention from researchers who study aging. Thus, at this year’s annual conference held by the Gerontological Society of America, a record number of presentations and posters were presented that dealt with LGBT aging. Topics ranged from social isolation and mental distress faced by LGBT seniors to weight issues among lesbian and bisexual senior women and how gay men and their families access end-of-life services. While not always specific to LGBT seniors living with HIV, many panels also discussed various aspects of aging with HIV or AIDS. “It is really important to be raising LGBT issues in the professional community. It gives voice to those issues in the larger scheme of aging issues,” said conference attendee Mark Brennan-Ing,Ph.D., director for research and evaluation at Acria, which is based in New York. “It gives you a seat at
the table to affect issues in aging.” Just as the number of older adults in America continues to climb, so too does the population of LGBT seniors. Yet because many health surveys do not include questions about sexual orientation or gen der identity, the true size of America’s LGBT senior population remains unknown. The U.S. Administration on Aging has estimated the number of LGBT seniors age 60 and older to be anywhere between 1.75 million to 4 million. California is estimated to have 215,000 LGB people age 55 and older. (There is no statewide data for the transgender senior population.) Ther e ar e nearly 65,000 LGBT residents 60 years of age or older living in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Nationwide, the population of LGBT seniors is projected to double by 2030. It is believed that the first LGBT -specific symposium at a GSA convention was held in 2002, a year prior to the for mation of the LGBT -focused Rainbow Research Group. At this year’s confab there were three LGBT -specific symposiums and five others that included LGBT -centered research presentations. In addition, there were 19 LGBT -specific posters on research studies presented during the confer ence. The increasing inclu-
sion of LGBT aging research points to the “immeasurable c h a n g e ” B r i a n d e Vr i e s , a gay man who is a professor of gerontology at San Francisco State University, has witnessed over the decades as a member of GSA. He recalled how during a meeting 10 years ago, when the GSA conference was held in San Francisco, someone asked him what LGBT meant. “I think there has been a radical shift. It’s in the lexicon now,” said de Vries, who helped co-found the Rainbow Research Group. “We have gender -neutral bathrooms now. When I saw that I was really proud.” This year’s meeting, held in late November at the Wa l t D i s n e y Wo r l d S w a n and Dolphin Resort, marked the first time the GSA confab designated bathr ooms as being non-gender specific. Members of the Rainbow Research Group had petitioned GSA leaders to do so at the behest of Brennan-Ing, one of the group’s members. Another first at this year’s gathering was an LGBT poster session highlighted as such in the GSA confer ence schedule that grouped together nine research papers focused on aging issues within the LGBT community. It caught members of the Rainbow Research Group off guard, as they were unaware of it prior to the start of the confab. “We flipped out. We were
SF State gerontology professor Brian de Vries focuses on end-of-life and bereavement issues. Photo: Courtesy Brian de Vries
so excited,” said Sara Keary, who earned her Ph.D. in social work at Boston College and is a research consultant at the Fenway Institute looking at the housing needs of LGBT older adults. “Before, such posters would be listed under health or social support, or if the poster was about depression it would be grouped with other posters on depression.” Keary, one of three c o - c o n v e n e r s o f t h e R a i nbow Resear ch Gr oup, told the THE PRIDE LA that the group now has 70 members, which includes both LGBT people and straight people interested in LGBT aging research. A straight ally herself, Keary said she feels that LGBT -focused research has been gaining greater acknowledgement at the GSA conferences. “ Ye a h , I t h i n k t h e r e i s more,” said Keary, in terms of posters and sessions
about LGBT aging issues. For Molly Ranahan, 28, a lesbian who is studying at the University of Buffalo, it was her second time attending a GSA conference. She is exploring how city planning policies can be used to positively impact the lives of aging LGBT adults. “Going to the Rainbow Research Group was why I came back. Meeting people from these other disciplines pushed me to expand the research I look at as I prepar e for my dissertation,” said Ranahan. “It has been a fantastic experience and opened a lot of doors for me.” Wide array of research topics At the LGBT -specific symposium de Vries coordinated, the focus was on research he has helped conduct of gay AGING continued on p. 8
12.04.2015 LEGAL HIV/AIDS
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LOS ANGELES
HIV CRIMINALIZATION
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⚫ BY AMIRA HASENBUSH & AYAKO MIYASHITA
How Criminal Laws Target People Living With HIV Los Angeles is the largest enforcer of HIV-related criminal laws; statewide, 389 of 390 charged with HIV-specific criminal acts were convicted.
I
n the current political climate, it’s almost impossible not to think about the criminal justice system – whether it protects and serves, how it helps or harms our communities, and whether justice is being delivered equitably and fairly. These conversations lead to examination of every step of the system – stop and frisk, arrests to convictions, sentencing and re-entry. But what do you do when laws have the specific and stated purpose to target a specific population? In California, there are four such laws that apply to people living with HIV (PLWH). These laws criminalize otherwise legal conduct or increase penalties for criminal offenses based on a person’s HIV-positive status. There has been a growing consensus that laws that single out HIV and treat HIV differently from other communicable diseases add to the already heavy burden of stigma that HIV carries. HIV criminalization rates both in California and nationally may be much higher than currently estimated, according to data that the Williams Institute obtained from the California Department of Justice. California is generally known as a state that rarely utilizes its HIV criminal laws, and previous estimates identified only a handful of individuals coming into contact with the criminal justice system on the basis of their HIV-positive status. It came as a big surprise when we found that 800 people had been involved in 1,263 HIV-related criminal incidents from the time these laws were passed in 1988 through June 2014.
Across the state, Los Angeles was the largest enforcer of HIV-related criminal laws: 48 percent of HIV-specific criminal incidents occurred in Los Angeles County, while only 37 percent of PLWH in California have lived in the county. Throughout California, 95 percent of those HIV-related criminal incidents were under a state law that makes it a felony to solicit for sex work while HIV-positive – a statute that does not require intent to transmit HIV, actual transmission or even exposure to HIV in order to prosecute. Nearly every incident that led to HIV-specific criminal charges – 389 out of 390 incidents – ended in conviction, and 91 percent of those convicted were sent to prison or jail for an average of over two years. The biggest revelation was the prosecution rates under these laws. Across all HIV-related crimes, white men were significantly more likely to be released and not charged whereas black men, black women and white women were significantly less likely to be released and not charged. These disparities were even starker among individuals assumed to be engaged in sex work under the solicitation while HIV-positive statute. White men were not charged in 70 percent of cases, while all others were not charged in 42 percent of cases. When we talk about these figures, we are talking about people. Criminalization in any form can change the course of a person’s life. But the application of HIV criminal laws is yet another additional burden placed upon individuals living with HIV. To the degree that these data suggest an unequal application of justice, we must ask ourselves – are these laws fair or are they merely steeped in fear? Do they protect and serve, help or harm our communities? Is justice being delivered here? Our research does not provide us with all the answers to these questions. But we can say that just like the rest of the criminal justice system, under HIV criminalization laws, certain communities bear more weight of the penal code than others.
CRIMINAL OFFENSES BASED ON A PERSON’S HIV-POSITIVE STATUS. CODE SECTION
CRIMINALIZED CONDUCT
TRANSMISSION REQUIRED?
Cal Penal Code §647f
Solicitation while HIV-positive NO
Felony – 16 months +
Cal Health & Safety Code §120291
Exposure to HIV with intent to transmit
NO
Felony – 3, 5 or 8 years
Cal Penal Code §12022.85
Nonconsensual sex while HIV-positive
NO
3 year sentence enhancement
Cal Health & Safety Code §1621.5
Blood/organ donation while HIV-positive
NO
Felony – 2, 4 or 6 years
Cal Health & Safety Code §120290
Willful exposure to communi- NO cable disease
SENTENCE
Misdemeanor
HIV criminalization rates both in California and nationally may be much higher than currently estimated, according to data that UCLA’s Williams Institute obtained from the California Department of Justice.
PERCENT NOT CHARGED FOR ANY CRIME IN HIV-SPECIFIC CRIMINAL INCIDENTS, BY RACE AND SEX* 43%
36%
BLACK WOMEN
BLACK MEN
39%
WHITE WOMEN
60%
WHITE MEN
*Charging differences found for Latino men and Latina women were not statistically significant.
— Amira Hasenbush is the Jim Kepner Law and Policy Fellow and Ayako Miyashita is the Brian Belt HIV Law & Policy Fellow at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
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AGING continued from p. 6
older men in Canada and a smaller survey of Palm Springs residents. The cohort of men in the study is very similar to gay older men in San Francisco, he said, and in both countries end-of-life care is becoming of increased concern. In focus groups, when asked if they were prepared for the end of their life, most of the men said they had made out wills. But few had thought about who would take care of them just prior to death as their health failed, said de Vries. “People had a hard time getting into that question,” he said. For heterosexual seniors, the answer most likely would be their children or other r e l a t i v e s . Ye t f o r g a y men, who didn’t have kids and may have cut ties to their biological family, they far too often do not talk about end-of-life care with their friends. His research, said de Vries, aims to help gay men develop opportunities where they can talk to one another about their declining health. In most families, he noted, children will sit their parents down and have that discussion. “Gay men don’t have that. This is the limits of the chosen family,” said de Vries. Lesbian researcher Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Hartford Center of Excellence at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington, led another of the LGBT -specific symposiums titled “The Cascading Effects of Marginalization and Resilience Over T ime: Pathways to Health
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LOS ANGELES and Well-Being Among LGBT Older Adults.” Fredriksen-Goldsen is the principal investigator of the National Health, Aging and Sexuality Study: Caring and Aging with Pride over Time, the first national LGBT senior study that the National Institutes of Health first funded in 2009. “ We d i d f i n d t h a t most LGBT people are doing very well. They are aging well and have good health,” Fredriksen-Goldsen told the nearly 40 people who attended the symposium. “We don’t want to stereotype LGBT people by just focusing on problems.” Nonetheless, Fredriksen-Goldsen said they are finding higher rates of disabilities and more mental distress among LGBT seniors, with lesbian and bisexual women more at risk for obesity and cardiovascular disease. The Caring and Aging with Pride project has received funding to conduct a longitudinal study of LGBT seniors and is working with 16 community-based organizations across the country, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, to recruit participants. The study will not only allow the researchers to better track LGBT seniors’ health, well-being and identity issues as they age, noted Fredriksen-Goldsen, but also allow them a chance to design and test inter ventions. “It will include a large cohort of people from the Baby Boom Generation and the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation,” said Fredriksen-Goldsen, who two years ago was hired to conduct a special study of LGBT seniors in San Fran-
cisco by a city panel tasked with reporting on how to better address their needs. “ We w i l l a l s o s t r a t i f y the sample by race and ethnicity.” Charles Hoy-Ellis, an assistant professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, presented research findings that counter -intuitively show the message of “come out of the closet” may not be the best approach for LGBT seniors to take in cer tain settings. “Concealing may sometimes be a socially protective strategy,” he said. “We have talked about being out as being helpful but that may not always be true.” In a brief inter view with the THE PRIDE LA, Hoy-Ellis explained that being out in certain environments might lead LGBT seniors to feel more isolated. “If you live in an environment that is supportive, then being out in those circumstances may be protective. But in an environment that encourages confor mity, being out may have detrimental effects,” he explained. “You might be shunned socially.” University of Washington School of Social Wo r k r e s e a r c h s c i e ntist Hyun-Jun Kim, director of the Caring and Aging with Pride project, discussed one study looking at how LGBT seniors’ social networks impact their health outcomes. “The more diverse network ties the better the health outcomes,” said Kim, noting that most LGBT seniors do not have family or children they can tur n to for assistance as they age. “This may change as more gays and les-
bians have children, but older LGBT adults are more likely to not have any children. They heavily rely on friends for support as they age.” Dearth of LGBT senior data Boston College stud e n t J i e Ya n g p r e sented a poster on her research into social isolation among older LGBT adults. Based on her findings culled from needs assessments done with 256 residents of North Car olina age 45 and older, Yang reported that the more open seniors are about being LGBT the less social isolation they face, in contrast to Hoy-Ellis’s findings. Ya n g s a i d t h e f a c tors that did contribute to the respondents in her study feeling isolated included unemployment, poor mental health, and living alone. And though her findings may have been impacted by the study’s small sample s i z e , Ya n g c o n c l u d e d that the eight transgender older adults in her study “had higher rates of perceived isolation” compared to their LGB counterparts, with bisexuals appearing “to be the least isolated group.” Yang’s study was one of the ni ne p r esenta tions grouped together under the LGBT -specific poster session. “It really is not enough. Hopefully, there will be more going forward,” she said. One of the reasons for the dearth of posters about LGBT aging, Yang suggested, is the lack of data on LGBT seniors. Researchers looking at heterosexual seniors have a wealth of information they can draw on for their
Researcher Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, Ph.D., is overseeing a national LGBT seniors study. Photo: Jayn Goldsen
p a p e r s , n o t e d Ya n g , while those focused on LGBT seniors have to collect their own data since most surveys do not ask about a per son’s sexual orientation or gender identity. “In the national data sets, they don’t identify LGBT people,” said Ya n g , a s t r a i g h t a l l y who is in her third year of seeking a Ph.D. in social work. “If they did, we could do a lot of analyzing of the data on LGBT seniors.” There have been advances made toward including LGBT seniors in research efforts. This fall, Califor nia Gover nor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation that requires several state agencies to begin collecting LGBT data by July 1, 2018. In New York a number of state agencies have already begun to collect such information. And in the federally focused Healthy People 2020 study, “all LGBT people will be included,” noted Fredriksen-Goldsen. She told the THE PRIDE LA that she believes the scarcity of
data on LGBT seniors will s o o n be r e v e rs e d as more federal surveys and state-based agencies move toward asking people about their sexual orientation and gender identity. “All states - and at the federal level - are looking at the impor tance of having LGBT demographic questions,” said Fredriksen-Goldsen, who advocated on behalf of the recently signed Califor nia LGBT data inclusion bill, which was authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). “Ther e is a lot of movement to have sexual orientation and gender identity included in state level and federal level data sets.”
-- This article was written with support from the Jour nalists in Aging Fellowships, a program of New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America, sponsored by The Scan Foundation.
12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
Canada gives Gay Syrian’s refugee status It can cause aching, shooting, stabbing or even burning pain and can lead to weakness, muscle wasting, numbness, and tingling even down to your toes!
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Sciatica Sucking the Joy of Life Out of You?
Luckily, there is a safe, natural, gentle solution for this problem can work quickly to resolve the pain, discomfort and even worry caused by this condition. Dr. Ben Shamoiel D.C. is located in the Century City Medical Plaza and can usually see you the same day and have answers for you within two days. AAMER, WHOSE FACE IS OBSCURED BECAUSE HE’S NOT OUT TO HIS FAMILY, AND HIS PARTNER DANNY RAMADAN ARRIVE AT VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, THANKS TO SPONSORS DAVID SALTER AND RON ROSELL, AT RIGHT. (MARGARET GALLAGHER)
T
he Canadian Government clarified its plans on Monday to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by December 31 and offered some details about their plans to try and make that happen. Among the details: gay men will be included while single straight men probably won’t. The Ottawa Citizen reports: Security concerns over extremists potentially slipping in to Canada mean the Liberal government will likely exclude unaccompanied males from its planned resettlement of thousands of refugees. But gay men will be among the Syrian refugees the government is willing to bring in under a plan that will otherwise welcome primarily women, children and families. The government is aware that gays
could be persecuted, and therefore plans to include them in the selection process aimed at rescuing some of the region’s most vulnerable refugees. Some lawmakers are concerned about the sweeping nature of the policy, however: But in a statement Monday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair worried about a sweeping ban on lone-male refugee claimants. “While security concerns remain of vital importance, will a young man, who lost both parents, be excluded from the refugee program?” Mulcair asked. “Will a widower who is fleeing Daesh (another name for the extremist Islamic State) after having seen his family killed be excluded? This is not the Canadian way.”
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AIDS/HIV
THE PRIDE L.A.
12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
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HEALTH CARE
⚫ BY BARBARA FEDER OSTROV
Life insurance offering for HIV+ people signals change A growing recognition that HIV/AIDS has evolved from a death sentence into a chronic but manageable disease.
P
rudential Financial Inc., one of the nation’s largest life insurers, plans to announce this week that it will offer traditional individual policies to eligible people living with HIV, a condition that for decades has excluded most of them from any but the skimpiest of coverage, company officials said. It is the first such offering to be publicly announced by a major American insurer, and it signals a growing recognition that HIV/AIDS has evolved from a death sentence into a chronic but manageable disease, HIV advocates and insurance agents said. The coverage, in the form of convertible 10- or 15-year term life insurance policies, will be available to people who are HIV-positive but otherwise healthy, according to the insurer. “Convertible” term policies can be converted to permanent policies covering an entire life. The insurer provided no further details Monday on eligibility criteria or the pricing of policies, although some insurance agents said coverage would likely be higher than for completely healthy people. “With advances in the successful treatment of people with HIV, we are now able to offer this population the opportunity to apply for life insurance – a milestone we see as a significant step in the right direction,” said Mike McFarland, vice president, underwriting for Prudential Individual Life Insurance, in a prepared statement. As World AIDS Day is observed Tuesday, more than 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. An estimated 50,000 are newly diagnosed with the virus each year. Life expectancies for HIV-positive people now are rising to the point that some American and Canadian patients
diagnosed at a young age can live into their 70s. But no cure exists for the disease, which requires access and adherence to medication. And the longer that HIV/AIDS patients live, the more they are at risk for developing other conditions, including cancer, osteoporosis, and heart, liver and kidney disease. The life insurance industry routinely covers people with other chronic diseases, including cancer and Hepatitis C, although at a higher price than for healthy applicants. But HIV-positive people typically cannot buy individual life insurance policies, beyond minimal coverage, at any price, insurance agents said. People with HIV/AIDS can’t legally be excluded from the “guaranteed issue” group life insurance policies offered by some employers, but those policies typically don’t pay out more than $50,000. A positive HIV test remains cause for automatic denial of higher-value individual term life insurance policies that require a medical review, agents said. That’s true even if the applicant has an undetectable viral load. “We have not yet seen the terms of the life insurance product being offered … but it seems like a fantastic development for people living with HIV in need of term life insurance,” said Scott Schoettes, HIV Project National Director of Lambda Legal, an organization that works to protect the rights of the LGBT and HIV/AIDS community. “Finally, an insurance company has realized that this is the right thing to do and that it is profitable from a business perspective to offer this product to people living with HIV. Now that there is one company out there doing this, it will encourage others to do the same when they see that there is money to be made in this market,” Schoettes said. In offering the new coverage, Prudential has partnered with ÆQUALIS, a financial services startup serving HIV-positive people, which has researched medical underwriting, life expectancy and other data on HIV/AIDS and has been key to developing the product. The startup will provide information to consumers and insurance
agents as well as manage the application process for Prudential. In its research, ÆQUALIS co-founder Bill Grant said, the company used data from “viaticals” – insurance policies sold for their cash value by people after their HIV diagnosis – to plot new mortality curves. Many of those sold policies haven’t generated income for the buyers because the patients survived much longer than expected. That analysis was convincing to Prudential and to a German re-insurer that will accept some of the financial risk of insuring HIV-positive patients, Grant said. “There’s been just enough history to project long enough into the future to get started on this path,” Grant said. Grant said he started the company with business partner Andrew Terrell to address inequities in coverage and to help change the national conversation about HIV/AIDS. He and insurance agents noted that life insurance often is necessary not just to protect loved ones but also for certain business transactions or to adopt children. Grant said he only learned that his brother was HIV-positive when he was denied life insurance coverage that the two brothers needed to complete a business deal. The tabloid media coverage surrounding actor Charlie Sheen’s recent disclosure that he is HIV-positive – emphasizing his long-kept “secret” — “is an incredible reminder that this stigma still exists,” he said. Before now, some insurance companies have quietly experimented with underwriting policies for HIV-positive clients, but the criteria have been tough to meet. Potential buyers had to be on aggressive antiretroviral treatment since diagnosis, confirm that their viral loads were undetectable and meet certain CD4 lymphocyte (T cell) counts, in addition to meeting age and other health requirements, according to insurance agents who had sought the coverage. Aaron Baldwin, a San Francisco insurance agent who is open about being HV-positive and specializes in financial INSURANCE continued on p. 15
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12.04.2015
> Peter Sprigg, ‘PHOBE WATCH THE PRIDE L.A.
CREEP WEEK
anti-LGBT
PETER S. SPRIGG IS SENIOR FELLOW FOR POLICY STUDIES AT THE FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL IN WASHINGTON, D.C. HIS MEMBERS FIND IT INCREASINGLY HARD TO SHOP AT ANTIGAY PLACES.
H
o ho ho or whatever greeting you choose this season, but the holidays are upon us. For the majority of Americans that means spending a shit load of money on stuff nobody needs or wants. Still, shopping is a patriotic duty in this country so let the games begin! Of course, for LGBT shoppers and the people who love them, it’d be nice to have a list of corporations who are naughty and nice when it comes to equality. Thankfully, that exists. The Human Rights Campaign recently released their Corporate Equality Index (www. hrc.org/cei) and hundreds of companies you know and love earned a 100 percent equality rating. So if you drive your Ford over to Barnes and Noble for a book, hit Macy’s for a holiday sweater, stock up on staplers at Office Depot, get condoms at Walgreens and grab some Starbucks on the way home, you’d be having a pretty gay-friendly shopping day! Or you could go to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a salad spinner, stock up on balls at Dick’s Sporting Goods, get lumber at Lowe’s, hit Big Lots for some slippers, get cheap holiday decorations at Dollar Tree and smoke a Marlboro on your way home, and your spending spree is not very LGBT merry. (Also, you should quit smoking.) Now, a low score on HRC’s CEI doesn’t necessarily mean a company is anti-LGBT. But the higher a company’s score, the better that company is to its
LGBT employees. And considering that in many states across the country you can get fired just for being LGBT, working for a company that values equality goes a long way. Of course, some folks think the CEI is a bunch of baloney. Like Peter Sprigg of the virulently anti-LGBT Family Research Council. “I’m not sure that all of these policies have been adopted because these companies think that it helps to operate their businesses better,” he told the American Family News Network. “I think it’s more of a matter of bowing to political correctness and, in some cases, actually wanting to avoid the threat of being accused of bigotry. So, I question the sincerity of some of these policies.” In other words, companies are just pretending to be LGBT friendly because they don’t want to look like meanies. It has nothing to do with the bottom line. “If they want to hire homosexuals and transgender employees, that is certainly their business,” Sprigg adds. Aww, how generous. He’s implying that he wouldn’t hire such people, but acknowledging that he’s not the boss of the world, which is probably very difficult for him. “But when you get to the point of trying to impose that sort of policy on others, on the country through our legal system, or even on suppliers and contractors and so forth, then I think it’s gone too far,” continues Sprigg. “I think we should stick with the free market and let the free market operate.” Yes, heaven forbid that the disease of equality spread throughout the land. Keep it in the board room, boys! Seriously, though. I am not a business major, but I have sold a couple of things on eBay (which has a CEI score of 100, by the way), but know that corporations don’t do things that don’t make them money. It’s all about the bottom line. If shareholders ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. So if more and more companies are scoring 100 on HRC’s equality index, it’s because equality is good for business. Not because HRC is strong arming Fortune 500 companies to make nice with the gays. So Sprigg can hope this is some kind of fad, but the smart money is on equality.
LOS ANGELES
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DISCRIMINATION TRANSGENDER
12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
LEGAL
⚫ BY HEATHER CASSELL
Trans vacationer files complaint against Royal Caribbean Cruises LGBT people have had rough waters lately on Royal Caribbean Cruises
I
t was supposed to be fun on the high seas on the second annual Transgender Vacations’ Caribbean cruise aboard a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship. That was until one guest alleged she was the recipient of a bartender’s homophobic epithets. Stephanie Land, founder of Transgender Vacations, based in Miami, Florida, on Monday filed a complaint with Royal Caribbean that included the guest’s accusations about the November 8 incident. The vacationer, Sherry Donegan, had also contacted the Transgender Law Center on November 21, they told the Bay Area Reporter. It was the most recent homophobic incident aboard Royal Caribbean. It follows on the heels of a gay man going overboard during one of the company’s cruises allegedly after his husband and he were the recipients of anti-gay epithets from crewmembers two days before Transgender Vacations set sail. Donegan, 44, a bisexual transgender woman from Fresno, was excited about her first-ever
cruise and one where she was with other transgender and ally travelers. The group of 18 cruisers with Transgender Vacations set sail November 7 for a six-day cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas ship. However, it wasn’t the cruise of their dreams, especially for Donegan, who on the second night aboard the ship was told by a bartender, “We don’t serve fags here,” she recalled in an interview with the B.A.R. “I said, ‘Oh, you don’t serve fags huh?’” she responded. “I was very surprised, especially coming from a large company as Royal Caribbean.” She immediately left the bar and reported the incident to guest services aboard the ship and to Land. They were told that a guest services representative would look into the incident. Two days later a member of guest services appeared at Donegan’s cabin door and informed her that the employee had been escorted off the ship in Cozumel, Mexico, where the ship called port, the two women said.
Land told the B.A.R. that a member of guest services had informed her that the employee had been fired. Donegan, however, wasn’t satisfied. She didn’t believe Royal Caribbean, which last month received a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2016 Corporate Equality Index for the second year in a row. “I don’t think that they did anything,” said Donegan, who believes that Royal Caribbean is attempting to cover up crewmembers’ alleged homophobia, alluding to the November 6 incident involving the gay man who went overboard after being the recipient of alleged anti-gay slurs from cruise staff. “I don’t believe a word that Royal Caribbean is saying.” Royal Caribbean didn’t respond to requests by email and phone for a statement by press time. Two days before Transgender Vacations set sail aboard Royal Caribbean, Bernardo Albaz, also appearing in the media as Bernardo Elbaz, went overboard on a different ship operated by the company. The 35-year old gay man was on vacation aboard the Oasis of the Seas ship with his husband, Eric Albaz, when they were the recipients of anti-gay epithets, according to media
reports. The couple allegedly had a loud, drunken argument in their cabin following an alleged incident where crewmembers called them “lipstick” at a bar. Crewmembers were called to the couple’s cabin and then they chased an allegedly intoxicated Bernardo out onto the deck where he got onto the other side of the banister. Crewmembers reportedly attempted to rescue Bernardo after he fell over the seventh balcony before falling into the water about 92 miles from the Bahamas. Nearly a month later Bernardo’s body still hasn’t been found. The Broward Sheriff’s Office determined the case was a suicide following a domestic disturbance, but Bernardo’s husband and family, along with their attorney Michael Winkleman, are vehemently denying that assessment. In Donegan’s case, it wasn’t just the incident at the bar that bothered her. She also noticed things like their group being seated at a table in the back of the dining room. “They put us at a table way, way in back of the room like we are little kids not being seen,” said Donegan. Land wasn’t pleased
either and spoke with the maitre d’ who, she said, “apologized for the situation” and the situation was corrected. Now home, Donegan would like to see the company partially refund the cost of her cruise due to being discriminated against and humiliated. She contacted the Transgender Law Center about her experience on the cruise in addition to submitting her letter of complaint about Royal Caribbean to Transgender Vacations. “I just wish that people would stop discriminating against the LGBT community, especially trans,” said Donegan. “They need to be more educated and open about it.” In response to an email from the B.A.R. , the Transgender Law Center declined to comment citing its confidentiality policy. In the complaint Land filed November 30, obtained by the B.A.R. , the travel agent tells Royal Caribbean about the damage the incident did to her young company, because she assures guests that travel partners are vetted for an experience that is “safe and welcoming on-board,” she wrote. “This promise was not kept and TGV Holidays has been damaged, irreparably, by this inci-
dent,” Land concluded in the complaint. She requested a representative of the cruise line contact her to resolve the issue. “I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else ever again,” said Land, who simply wants Royal Caribbean to make proactive changes regarding LGBT travelers, such as LGBT cultural sensitivity training for its staff. For the time being, Land said she won’t be using Royal Caribbean to host future Transgender Vacations trips. She’s working with Anteros Cruise, a new luxury LGBT cruise line, to charter small ships so guests won’t experience what Donegan and her other 17 guests saw during their trip. Her goal, she said, is to “make sure that everyone will feel comfortable traveling and enjoy life.” Fortunately for Donegan, the incident didn’t completely ruin her vacation. “It was just fun. It was my very first cruise and I loved going in the pool,” she said. “I loved going to the disco bar at night. I loved the shows going on at night. They had a lot of interesting demonstrations on the cruise so it was real fun,’ said Donegan, adding that she would travel with Transgender Vacations again.
12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
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10/28/15 11:40 AM
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12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
RECOVERY
⚫ BY DR. DAVID FAWCETT
>
Lust, Men and Meth
Marking a Pathway Towards Meth Recovery Dr. David Fawcett defines the pitfalls of meth use – and how to overcome them.
I
n this pair of excerpts from the new book Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery, veteran psychotherapist Dr. David Fawcett defines the pitfalls of meth use – and how to overcome them. In Chapter 8, titled The Recovery Process, Dr. Fawcett explains how meth raises the bar for sexual pleasure to impossible heights. In Chapter 9, titled Healing Old Wounds, the author outlines the steps required to achieve abstinence and attain recovery. CHAPTER 8: THE RECOVERY PROCESS
M
eth and sex quickly fuse when used in combination, resulting in an inability to experience sexual pleasure once the drug is withdrawn. The same ability to trigger excessive amounts of dopamine occurs with fantasy. The limbic system cannot differentiate between an actual person who heightens sexual desire and causes a physiological reaction, including a flood of dopamine, and the two-dimensional image on a computer screen or in a sexual fantasy fueled by copious amounts of methamphetamine. The limbic system only knows that it is getting
LUST, MEN AND METH BY DR. DAVID FAWCETT, PhD PUBLISHER: Healing Path Press $19.95 210 pages
signals that something very desirable is “out there,” and it reacts accordingly by releasing pleasure-inducing dopamine. The limbic system registers such fantasies as real, and with continued use of meth or pornography (or any addictive behavior), such excessive input becomes the minimal level of stimulation required. Amphetamines, and methamphetamine in particular, are equally potent in their ability to induce dopamine release. Because of the brain’s marvelous ability to adapt, it quickly determines that high levels of stimulation from meth or porn are now “normal,” and these levels become required to trigger the release
of dopamine. In real world experience, this means that vanilla sex, human partners (as opposed to pornography), or sex acts without drugs are no longer satisfying because the brain has learned to rely on super-stimulation to function normally. Part of this adaptation is the physical reduction of the number of dopamine receptors on nerve cells known as sensitization. Sensitization also results in the brain needing less and less of the stimulating drug or behavior to result in intense cravings. The reduction in the number of receptors results in yet another phenomenon of addiction known as tolerance. In drug terms, this means that more of the drug is required to achieve the same effect. Because of the decreased number of dopamine receptors, more stimulation is necessary to result in an “adequate” release of dopamine flowing through these limited receptors. Another feature of dopamine is its responsiveness to novelty. Because of the brain’s plasticity, it quickly adapts to stimulus. This means that a fantasy that was exciting today won’t suffice tomorrow, or that pornography that was titillating on one day won’t produce the same level of excitement the next. Meth users frequently describe a phenomenon of increasingly dark sexual fantasies and risky behavior. As the brain continually adapts, this escalation is necessary to achieve the same amount of excitement and stimulation. To keep the flow of dopamine, many addicts describe behavior in which they cannot stop
cruising online sex sites, or viewing pornography, or leave the bathhouse, because they are constantly seeking more stimulus and something even more exciting. As this process continues, the brain’s ability to create, combine, and shed neural pathways continues. A common slogan heard in Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings comes straight from neuroscience: “What fires together, wires together.” This process is a key factor in the experience of many meth users who require darker and more extreme sexual acts or fantasies. This accurately describes the process that occurs when neural transmission of dopamine becomes dependent on a meth-induced high (or other drugs as well) combined with sexual thoughts or fantasies. Remember, dopamine is the neurotransmitter that binds behaviors and rewards together. Pavlov’s principle of a dog associating a ringing bell with food (and inducing production of saliva) is totally based on dopamine’s ability to wire all those things together. For the meth user (and the porn addict), being in an addicted state, combined with sexual fantasies and behavior, will fuse these two together. In other words, the brain begins to combine sex and meth in such a way that one becomes dependent on the other. Simply stated, when someone stops using the drug (or porn), sexual desire often disappears right along with it. This loss of sexual desire is a huge concern for recovering meth addicts, and results from the process described above.
CHAPTER 9: OLD WOUNDS
HEALING
U
nlearning dangerous old behaviors and establishing new ones takes time and considerable effort, but it can be done. Recovery cannot be achieved without the help of others. Meth, like other drugs, is particularly isolating. Of course, this doesn’t mean that meth users don’t have abundant social contacts. Some clients of mine may have had hundreds (or more) sexual liaisons, but remained profoundly lonely and isolated. Recovery requires reconnecting with others in a meaningful way. This can be accomplished by attending self-help groups (such as Narcotics Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous, or Alcoholics Anonymous). Other groups such as SMART Recovery provide an alternative (as well as a complement) to twelve-step groups. A degree of resistance is very normal at first, but I encourage people to force themselves to go and stay in meetings for a period of time. It is important to make a commitment for at least ninety days before declaring that “twelve steps just won’t work for me.” In addition to support groups, I believe professionally facilitated groups are important as well. Giving up meth requires considerable behavioral changes that involve not only the drug(s) themselves, but reinventing other activities like sex, selfcare, and socializing. This process is characterized by addressing lifelong dysfuncMETH continued on p. 15
12.04.2015
METH continued from p. 14
tional patterns that may include unresolved grief, shame, feeling unworthy, and a host of other issues which, unless corrected, will provide ample material for relapse. Trained facilitators guide this process, resulting in meaningful change of destructive thoughts and feelings as well as the teaching and reinforcement of new skills and behaviors. Experience shows that all links to these drug-related people, places, and things must be severed. This may mean friends, sex partners, even lovers and husbands. It means giving up the computer (where this is not possible due to occupational necessity, clients have installed censoring software to prevent being drawn into cruise sites or pornography). It may mean changing e-mail and phone number contacts, becoming celibate for a period of time, changing patterns and routines, and sometimes even relocating to a new city where memories and
INSURANCE continued from p. 10
planning for people with HIV, said that he provided health and financial information on 20 HIV-positive prospects in good health to one such company, Lincoln Financial Group. All were rejected, he said. Ed Hinerman, an independent insurance agent in Nathrop, Colorado, said he also sent Lincoln a HIV-positive client whom he believed met the company’s stringent criteria. “The denial came within hours,” Hinerman said. Asked to comment, a Lincoln Financial Group spokesman said he could not speak to the agents’ experiences and added that the company did not currently have a specific underwriting program for HIV-positive people. Baldwin acknowledged, however, that medical underwriting is complex, and data are lacking on the long-term effects of HIV/AIDS drugs. Underwriters may not understand the subtleties of HIV/AIDS treatment research, he said.
LOS ANGELES
potential cravings are not linked to every corner. It should be cautioned, however, that such a move can easily be driven by a “geographical cure,” in which the recovering person mistakenly employs “magical thinking” and believes that simply relocating to another place will solve all their problems. As many people in recovery are well aware, problems accompany us wherever we go. Copyright 2015, Dr. David Fawcett. David Fawcett, PhD, is a psychotherapist and writer with a practice in Fort Lauderdale. Florida. His work in gay men’s health, addictions and recovery spans three decades. Fawcett’s writing about substance abuse, mental health and HV appears regularly inTheBody. com and other journals. To order Lust, Men and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery, visit www.david-fawcett.com.
For example, a patient may temporarily stop HIV/AIDS medications to participate in a study on “structured treatment breaks” to reduce side effects, Baldwin said. An underwriter might see that as noncompliance. Or an underwriter might note an applicant taking an HIV medication and not understand that it’s for prevention, not treatment, Baldwin said. “For an underwriter, it’s probably a hot mess,” Baldwin said. Baldwin said the Prudential/ÆQUALIS initiative “represents new hope” for his clients – and himself. He is particularly looking forward to obtaining a life insurance policy for one of his clients, a young HIV-positive man whose parents had co-signed on a new round of loans for his medical school education, unaware of his diagnosis. The young man wanted to buy a life insurance policy to protect his parents from that debt if he died. “The new offerings will continue to open doors and allow HIV-positive people to protect their loved ones, their
THEPRIDELA.COM/RECOVERY
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12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
FILM
>
SPOTLIGHT
⚫ BY JOHN PAUL KING
“Spotlight” illuminates truth in the shadows …in today’s world, where internet-empowered scrutiny brings daily revelations about the secretive abuse of power, a movie about betrayal of trust on a massive scale seems very current indeed.”
I
n the modern movie marketplace, with its emphasis on make-it-orbreak-it opening weekends, most film reviewers try to remain timely by writing about each week’s newest big screen offerings. This week, however, confronted with the first wave of Holiday “tentpoles” and poised ahead of the impending parade of award-hungry “prestige” pictures, I thought I’d turn my attention to a movie that’s been in front of audiences for about a month, and has already garnered several early awards after becoming one of the best-reviewed films of the year so far. I’m referring, of course, to Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight.” The title is taken from the name of a quartet of Boston Globe journalists, the “Spotlight” team. In 2001, at the suggestion of their new editor, they began looking into the case of a Catholic priest who had been accused of multiple child molestations over the course of 30 years. Their subsequent investigation would eventually reveal not only a pattern of widespread sexual abuse of children by multiple priests, but a systemic conspiracy within the church itself to cover it up. All this, of course, is quite literally old news. Why, then, is “Spotlight” making such a big impression on audiences and critics so many years after the events it revisits took place? The answer, quite simply, is that it’s damn good filmmaking, which makes its subject matter relevant by giving the viewer a visceral experience. Director McCarthy makes each long-public revelation feel fresh by giving us a reporter’s eye view of the entire fact-finding process. We identify with the journalists, recognizing each of them- with all their flawed, conflicting traits- in
ourselves, and feel the impact of each discovery as if we were making it; and because we empathize with them, we experience a sense of urgency that makes what is essentially a procedural docudrama play more like a thriller. Much of this is due to the movie’s unapologetically “retro” sensibility, which evokes the gritty, documentarian style of seventies cinema- particularly the work of directors like Sidney Lumet and films like “All The President’s Men” (which, for obvious reasons, exerted a substantial influence on “Spotlight”). Another key to the movie’s arresting nature is its remarkable cast, an ensemble of crack Hollywood “A-listers” bringing their “A-game” to a project they clearly relish. Michael Keaton, as the Spotlight team’s leader, Walter “Robby” Robinson, cagily growls his way through a performance which is arguably better than his career-reclaiming tour-de-force in last year’s “Birdman,” proving his growth as an actor with naturalistic nuances that seem a far cry from the mannered eccentricities of his younger years; Mark Ruffalo is a powerhouse as gung-ho reporter Mike Rezendes, letting subsumed personal turbulence erupt through professional determination with breathtaking honesty; and Liev Schrieber skillfully underplays as editor Marty Baron, giving us a soft-spoken man who seems both painfully self-conscious and supremely confident, and allowing the conflict between these traits turn him into the most powerful man in the room. I could easily single out every actor in the film, had I the space to do so here; each and every one of them is spot-on, playing for realism and dedicated to telling the film’s story through the truth of their performances.
THE CAST ON THE SET OF “SPOTLIGHT.”
Even with all this excellence on display, the biggest factor in the success of “Spotlight” is its screenplay, penned by McCarthy and Josh Singer. It meticulously leads us along a trail to a truth we already know without ever showing its hand or tipping the scales. It avoids the temptation to moralize or pontificate, it never presents its characters as heroes or villains, and it neither elides details nor spoon-feeds them to us with a heavy hand. It strives for nothing except rigorous authenticity, which rises from the page through the work of the cast, crew, and director and becomes tangible on the screen for every one of the movie’s 128 minutes. So why does this movie matter now? One of the characters in the film, the now-adult survivor of repeated molestation, tells us that he willingly went along with it “because priests are supposed to be the good guys.” “Spotlight” strikes a chord because its theme of corruption and duplicity can easily be extended beyond the church to any other supposedly beneficent institution; and in today’s world, where internet-empowered scrutiny brings daily revelations about the secretive abuse of
power, a movie about betrayal of trust on a massive scale seems very current indeed. More than that, though, “Spotlight” matters because it, like its protagonists, confronts the lies told by established authority. This is referred to as “speaking truth to power,” and it’s hardly ever done by mainstream American cinema. That in itself should be enough to inspire a trip to the movies before this rare gem departs to make way for the next round of blockbusters.
SPOTLIGHT Director: Tom McCarthy Writers: Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams PLAYING: Pacific Theatres at the Grove ArcLight Hollywood and AMC Century City 15 R | 128 min
thepridela.com
12.04.2015
LOS ANGELES
⚫ 17
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12.04.2015 THE FRIVOLIST
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OUR LIBERTY, OUR LIVES
⚫ BY MICKEY ROX
LOS ANGELES
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9 Ways NOT to Come Out at Holiday Time L
ast year, I wrote a rather pointed column for the Frivolist called “9 Reasons Why Coming Out on a Holiday Isn’t a Good Idea,” which detailed the consequences of revealing your sexuality at an already stressful time of year, and it drew a fair amount of criticism. I still stand by that piece, despite that I was branded a homophobe for it – though, I did provide my rebuttal to that misnomer – but this year I decided to take a lighter approach. So, sure, go ahead and come out around the holidays if that’s what you want to do. Just please, _pleeeease_ don’t do it these ways. CUEING UP THE ADULT VIDEO YOU STAR IN Sexting is fairly commonplace now – just ask everybody on Tinder and Snapchat – as is making private videos on your phone or computer. There’s nothing wrong with it either, so long as it’s consensual. I can guarantee, however, that the guests at your family’s holiday table don’t want to watch you get stuffed harder than that Thanksgiving turkey as they sit down to eat a delicious meal. Thus, refrain from cueing up your sex videos to break the coming-out ice, and steer clear of any professional videos you’ve made, too; despite the higher production value, it won’t make those giblets any more appealing. ASKING YOUR GAY UNCLE TO DO YOUR BIDDING OK, so your mom and your gay uncle are super close. They trust each other, love each other, and there’s nothing that could drive a wedge between them. Until you came along, that is. Avoid this situation by resisting the urge to ask your gay family members to come out for you. Certainly you can ask them for support, but your coming out is just that – yours – and it’s not fair to put someone else in an awkward position if you don’t have the courage to do it
yourself. If that’s the case, wait to come out when you’re confident and ready. You’ll have a better experience that way, and you won’t feel guilty by causing a potential rift in a perfectly good relationship. PERFORMING A SHORT HOLI-GAY SKIT If your family wants to see a show, they’ll go to the community theater; no need to perform a three-act play on all the ways you’re gay right before lighting the menorah. If you crave attention that badly, and a thunderous applause for coming out, do it among friends at another non-specific time of year so you’ll have their undivided attention and they’ll have something to reminisce about for years to come. BRINGING YOUR BOYFRIEND OR GIRLFRIEND WITHOUT NOTICE Bringing a same-sex guest whom you’ve courted to a holiday meal without notice is not only a blind side, it’s rude as hell. In fact, this tip applies to all people – LGBT or not. Unless you’ve RSVPed for the additional person, you should arrive alone. If an exception needs to be made last minute – and, OK, it happens – call the host in advance to ask permission. If it’s your boyfriend or girlfriend you’d like to bring, at least that gives everyone a chance to process the impending situation a couple hours before it’s in their face. SNEAKING IN A GRINDR TRICK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT Nobody wants to get caught with their pants around their ankles while grandma sneaks down to the kitchen for a midnight slice of pie. Keep your tricks in the bag while you’re at home for the holidays, or at least be courteous enough to bang it out in a nearby parking lot and send him home with a parting gift.
GETTING HELD UP AT THE AIRPORT BECAUSE OF YOUR DILDO If you thought telling your family that you’re gay will be difficult, just wait until you have to explain your penchant for big black rubber cock. PREPARING A MONOLOGUE ON A L L T H E W AY S E V E R Y B O D Y A L R E A DY S H O U L D ’ V E K N OW N YOU’RE LGBT Quell your inner Robert Shaw and resist the urge to dramatically lambaste your family members for not recognizing the innumerable ways you’re gay. In fact, your sexuality may be a non-issue for your family – maybe they couldn’t care less about who you’re sleeping with as long as you’re healthy and happy – so just get to the point so they can all move on… to dessert. INVITING YOUR FAMILY TO YOUR LOCAL DRAG SHOW Nobody’s ready for that tragedy.
LEAVING SUBTLE HINTS, LIKE FILLING THE DVR WITH ROB WILLIAMS MOVIES As much as I love Rob Williams movies (_Make the Yuletide Gay_ is a totally cute Christmas flick, and you should watch it), filling your DVR with his repertoire of sexy but seriously gay work is a cop out to coming out. Set aside some time with your family to speak for yourself and come out in a manner where all members can process the information, ask the questions they need to ask, and move on. Besides, there are so many other awesome gay things on this time of year – like the drunk AF “Judy Garland Christmas Special” – and you’ll need all the free space you can get. Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than 100 outlets across the world. He splits his time between homes in New York City and the Jersey Shore with his dog Jaxon. Connect with Mikey on Twitter @ mikeyrox.
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