The Rainbow Times’ management condemns the LGBTQI+ shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We further thank those who brave patrons who subdued the gunman, preventing him from taking the lives of more people.
If it weren’t for the courageous actions of those same club goers, more people from our community would have perished. Thankfully, the shooter was quickly restrained and a few minutes later, apprehended by the police. And, it doesn’t go unnoticed that this mass shooting happened on Transgender Day of Remembrance, TDOR, when we already continue to mourn the transgender lives lost to senseless acts of violence every year. And, it made us remember Pulse Orlando (https://is.gd/trtpulseorlando). How can we forget?
Club Q, via a FB statement, said it was “devastated by the senseless attack on our community. … We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”
Words are a conduit. Words can be used as tools to shape ideas, educate, or to nurture the mind and soul (among other things). Their significance or lack-there-of leaves a mark in someone’s life. Often, words, in the form of emotional abuse, are considered more harmful than the physical abuse itself.
Representative Alexandria OcasioCortez swiftly used words, too, to tell GOP members to “connect the dots” because their words, indeed, had had consequences on the communities they demonized (https://is.gd/iMFqE8).
Words Matter. The context matters too, especially when dehumanizing specific groups of people. Words have a direct impact on people’s lives, especially when used against groups that are already discriminated against the most.
When you tell someone you dislike x group of people or that you don’t think “being gay” is ok, you are using hate words that, heard by the wrong person, could turn into a crime like this and many other mass shootings prior to this one. This happens across the board with minority groups and to gender, racial, ethnic, and other minorities. When you tell someone you “tolerate” LGBTQI+ people, you’re really saying you exist with them (us) because you have to. Apply that to the group/s you identify with and see how it sounds to you. For instance, “I tolerate white people” or “I tolerate white men.” Is that insulting to you? Does it sound wrong and biased?
Likewise, AOC replied to a tweet from Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert
about the shooting. And, we could not agree more with her.
Words Kill. As weapons do in the wrong hands, words send direct and hate-filled messages to those listening. LGBTQ+ youth have one of the highest rates of suicide and it isn’t because they can’t live with themselves. They want to thrive and be true to themselves and who they are. When J.K. Rowling spews her hatred online, she does so knowingly. She dehumanizes transgender women. Transgender women of color are killed at disproportionately higher rates than any other group in the United States. She knows that. Yet, she still deprives them of humanity. Donald Trump did the same and, like them, so have others.
When you use a podium, a bully pulpit to deprive transgender people — or people from other groups — of humanity, for example, you are murdering them too. When someone picks up a weapon and, due to those same words used by public figures, murders transgender women of color — adding
another layer of prejudice — they are guilty of it too. Although they are not the perpetrator, they are the instigators, feeding their followers lies. As we know through the 2016 election and the cults that have formed around us, people don’t often do their due diligence to educate themselves about issues affecting others. They take people’s words alone as factual information. And, they act on it. They murder.
As journalists we deeply believe in the freedom of speech and, of course, the freedom of the press. However, given that such speech often kills, perhaps we need to redefine what exactly free speech is and what it is not. Equally important is education. People also murder because they fear — and they fear the unknown. But, not knowing isn’t an excuse for taking a life. Period.
We mourn the five lives lost and
BOSTON—Governor-elect Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governorelect Kim Driscoll today announced the details of their inaugural celebration. Following the swearing-in ceremony on January 5, 2023, they will hold an evening celebration at TD Garden inspired by the theme, “Moving the Ball Forward,” a nod to their time as college and professional basketball players and the history made with this election. This event will mark the nation’s first all-women executive team to serve a state.
“This inauguration will be a celebration of teamwork, positivity and breaking barriers – and there’s no better place to hold the event than at
TD Garden,” said Governor-elect Healey. “It’s about looking forward to the future and engaging directly with people about how we can deliver for them across this Commonwealth.”
“We hope that anyone who attends this celebration will feel proud of Massachusetts’ history and excited
about the bright future ahead,” added Lieutenant Governor-elect Driscoll. “We’re looking forward to honoring the fearless and groundbreaking women who made this moment possible, and laying the foundation for
New England’s Largest LGBTQ+ Newspaper — Boston Based TheRainbowTimesMass.com
editor@therainbowtimesmass.com sales@therainbowtimesmass.com
Phone: 617.444.9618
Publisher
Graysen M. Ocasio
Editor-In-Chief
Nicole Lashomb
Assistant Editor Mike Givens
National/Local Sales
Rivendell Media
Liz Johnson
Lead Photographers
Steve Jewett
Christine M. Hurley
Photographer Jenna Joyce
Reporters
Chris Gilmore Audrey Cole
Ad & Layout Design Prizm PR
Webmaster
Jarred Johnson
Columnistst
Lorelei Erisis
Deja N. Greenlaw
Paul P. Jesep
The Rainbow Times is published monthly by The Rainbow Times, LLC. TRT is an award-winning publication that started printing in late 2006. The 1st print issue was published in Feb. 2007. The articles written by the writers, columnists, and correspondents solely express their opinion, and do not represent the endorsement or opinion of The Rainbow Times, LLC or its owners.
Send letters to the editor with your name, address and phone number to The Rainbow Times (address shown above), or e-mail any comment/s to the editor-in-chief at: editor@therainbowtimesmass.com. All submissions will be edited according to space constraints.
The Rainbow Times, LLC reserves the right not to print any or all content or advertisements for any reason at all. TRT is not responsible for advertising content. To receive The Rainbow Times at your home via regular mail, or through electronic delivery, please visit its website. The whole content and graphics (photos, etc.) are the sole property of The Rainbow Times, LLC and they cannot be reproduced at all without TRT’s written consent.
The appearance of names or photographic representations in TRT does not necessarily indicate the sexual orientation or gender identity of the named or depicted individuals.
Healey & Driscoll to hold inauguration celebration at TD Garden
the Ball Forward” will serve as the theme of the celebration on
5
JANUARY 5TH INAUGURATION WILL MARK THE 1ST TIME AN ALL-WOMEN TICKET IS SWORN IN TO LEAD A STATE IN AMERICAN HISTORY & MAKE HEALEY THE 1ST LESBIAN GOVERNOR IN THE COUNTRY.
ALTHOUGH THEY ARE NOT THE PERPETRATOR, THEY ARE THE INSTIGATORS, FEEDING THEIR FOLLOWERS LIES. ... THEY TAKE THEIR WORDS ALONE AS FACTUAL INFORMATION. AND, THEY ACT ON IT. THEY MURDER.
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Recently, anti-LGBTQ extremist groups gathered in the heart of Fort Lauderdale to spread misinformation and hate speech about Florida’s LGBTQ students and families. For months extremist groups like Moms for Liberty have barraged elected leaders in Florida with wildly inaccurate, hateful, and dangerous rhetoric about LGBTQ Floridians. Promotional materials for the event called it a rally against “child grooming” and “radicalized sexual curriculum” and featured parents protecting a child from a bleeding rainbow.
In response, high school students have organized to push back on the DeSantis-led attacks targeting students, parents, and teachers. High School student Jack Petocz who led the statewide “Don’t Say Gay” student walkout and South Florida-based LGBTQ youth organization PRISM called for a peaceful counter protest of today’s hate rally by Moms For Liberty.
From its founding Moms For Liberty has been a close partner to Governor Ron DeSantis, earlier this year awarding him a “Sword of Liberty” award (https://is.gd/KEfIPp) and partnering with his political machine to attack
school board candidates in the most recent election. It was no surprise to see activists screaming anti-LGBTQ slurs at youth counter-protestors while also waving pro-Desantis flags and branding.
“Governor Ron Desantis’ dangerous anti-LGBTQ politics and rhetoric have created an anti-LGBTQ hysteria we haven’t seen since the days of Anita Bryant and her ‘Save Our Children’ campaign,” said Equality Florida Senior Political Director Joe Saunders. “Governor DeSantis’ refusal to denounce Neo-Nazi, Proud Boys, and other extremists has emboldened them. During today’s protest, an organizer of the hate rally aggressively taunted LGBTQ high school students calling out, ‘Where’s Jack!?’ in an effort to intimidate high school student Jack Petocz, an organizer of the youth-led counter protest. We are seeing a dangerous escalation in how these extremist groups have menaced their opponents including following families of trans kids home from school board meetings. Governor DeSantis and his political advisors have spent the last year demonizing Florida’s LGBTQ community, attacking parents, and denying them the right to get care
By: Terri Schlichenmeyer* Special to TRTDon’t tell the children. For most families in America in the last century, that was the maxim to live by: the kids are on a needto-know basis and since they’re kids, they don’t need to know. And so what did you miss? Did you know about familial philanthropy, rebellion, embarrassment, poverty? As in the new memoir, “The Family Outing” by Jessi Hempel, did secrets between parent and child run both ways?
“What happened to me?”
That’s the big question Jessi Hampel had after many therapy sessions to rid herself of a recurring nightmare. She had plenty of good memories. Her recollection of growing up in a secure family with two siblings was sharp, wasn’t it?
She thought so – until she started what she called “The Project.”
With permission from her parents and siblings, Hempel set up Skype and Zoom sessions and did one-on-one interviews with her family, to try to understand why her parents divorced, why her brother kept mostly to himself, how the family dynamics went awry, why her sister kept her distance, and how secrets messed everything up.
Hempel’s father had an inkling as a young man that he was gay, but his own father counseled him to hide it. When he met the woman who would eventually be his wife, he was delighted to become a husband and father, as long as he could sustain it.
Years before, Hempel’s mother was your typical 1960s teenager with a job at a local store, a crush on a slightly-
older co-worker and, coincidentally, a serial killer loose near her Michigan neighborhood. Just after the killer was caught, she realized that the co-worker she’d innocently flirted with might’ve been the killer’s accomplice.
For nearly the rest of her life, she watched her back.
One secret, one we-don’t-discuss-it, and a young-adult Hempel was holding something close herself. What else didn’t she know? Why did she and her siblings feel the need for distance? She was trying to figure things out when the family imploded...
Ever had a dream that won’t stop visiting every night? That’s where author Jessi Hempel starts this memoir, and it’s the perfect launching point for “The Family Outing.”
Just prepare yourself. The next step has Hempel telling her mother’s tale for which, at the risk of being a spoiler, you’ll want to leave the lights on. This account will leave readers good and well hooked, and ready for the rest of what turns out to be quite a detective story. And yet, it’s a ways away from the Sherlockian. Readers know what’s ahead, we know the score before we get there, but the entwining of five separate lives in a fact-finding mission makes this book feel as though it has a surprise at every turn.
Sometimes, it’s a good surprise. Sometimes, it’s a bad one.
A happily minimized amount of profanity and a total lack of overtness make “The Family Outing” a book you can share with almost anyone, adult, or ally. Read it, and you’ll be wanting to tell everyone.
*The Bookworm is Terri Schlichen-
Brief Filed in Support of Teacher at a NC Catholic High School Terminated After Announcing Plans to Marry his Same-Sex Partner
BOSTON—Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of`18 attorneys general in filing a brief in support of a substitute teacher at a North Carolina Catholic high school who was terminated after announcing plans to marry his same-sex partner, arguing that the First Amendment does not give an employer the right to illegally discriminate against an employee because of their sex.
“No one should be fired because of who they love,” said AG Healey. “We are filing this brief to ensure that our LGBTQ+ workers have equal protections and opportunities in the workplace.”
The brief (https://is.gd/zZU7VM), filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School et al., specifically argues that the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of expressive association does not apply to the employer-employee relationship at issue in the case, and therefore does not afford the school the right to fire the teacher in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The brief supports a ruling by the North Carolina federal district court in favor of the teacher’s arguments that the school violated Title VII by discriminating on the basis of sex.
According to the brief, accepting the expansive theory of expressive association put forward by the school would severely undermine the ability of states
to ensure job employment opportunities remain open to everyone. The brief argues that “if any employer could invoke an ‘expressive purpose’ not to employ certain types of people, and thereby claim exemption from employment discrimination laws under the ‘freedom not to associate,’ the results could be catastrophic and widespread.” Under the defendants’ theory of expressive association, the brief argues, “there is nothing to stop a business owner who sincerely believes in white supremacy from invoking his ‘freedom to not associate’ in refusing to hire Black employees, or a business owner who sincerely believes that Jews are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus from refusing to hire them.”
The brief points out that the defendants’ expansive view of expressive association with regard to employment is not supported in Supreme Court or Fourth Circuit case law. Past cases concerning expressive association claims involved membership and volunteer leadership roles in private organizations rather than employment.
Workplace discrimination remains a pervasive problem across the country, according to the brief, with more than 60 percent of American workers reporting they have experienced or witnessed discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender or LGBTQ+ status. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ workers in a recent survey reported having “suffered adverse treatment at work because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and nearly a third reported such treatment within the last Read the rest of this story at The Rainbow Times’ website
people and movements that helped pave the way to make this historic moment possible.
The event will be accessible and inclusive for all interested in attending with tickets becoming available in the coming weeks. More details on the timing, location, ticketing, program, and additional events will be available in the coming weeks.
those who will follow us.”
The January 5th inauguration will mark the first time an all-women ticket is sworn in to lead a state in American history, and make Healey the first lesbian Governor in the country. Through their inaugural events, Healey and Driscoll plan to honor the
Iconic singers Martha Wash, Norma Jean Wright (Formerly of Chic), and Linda Clifford are keeping the enduring sounds of the '70s, '80s, and '90s alive in their nationwide tour, The First Ladies of Disco (Retro Music Box). In this breathtaking, non-stop thrill ride show, the legends belt out all their biggest signature hits including "It's Raining Men," "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now," as well as other retro songs fans love. The First Ladies of Disco (Retro Music Box) returns to Wall Street Theatre in Norwalk, CT, for a special Valentine’s Day experience on Saturday, February 11. Presented by Do-KWA Productions and Purple Rose Records, tickets are available now at WallStreetTheatre.com.
The First Ladies of Disco are wellknown to fans who came up during the soul, disco and dance music eras. Twotime Grammy nominee Martha Wash recorded and performed the classic dance hits "It's Raining Men," "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," "Everybody, Everybody," and
"Strike It Up" for the groups The Weather Girls, C&C Music Factory and Black Box respectively. In the 1990s, after her vocals were misrepresented to the public, Wash famously worked for legislation that made vocal credits on CDs and other recordings mandatory. Today, Ms. Wash is an activist for her fellow musicians, while recording and touring as a solo artist extensively.
Norma Jean Wright was a vocalist with the legendary group Chic ("Everybody Dance") before embarking on a solo career that featured her hit song "Saturday," produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. She has worked as a vocalist for luminaries such as Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, and others.
Linda Clifford's hits include "Red Light," from the Oscar-winning movie Fame, the chart-topping "Runaway Love" and countless club hits. Her songs have spent a total of sixty weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Music Charts, and Clifford has been nominated for several awards.
The First Ladies of Disco open each live with an explosive performance of
their recent top 10 Billboard hit "Don't Stop Me Now." Then, it is ninety-minutes of a rocking, toe-tapping, on your feet, tribute to the best in ’70s ‘80s ’90s, Soul, Rock, Pop, R&B, and Dance music. Martha, Linda and Norma sing their hits, as well as chart
toppers from some of their favorite artists and songs. It is an electrifying, high-energy concert voted “Best Retro Music Experience” by fans, and heralded by critics as a stunning lesson in
