10 minute read
natIon & WorlD neWs
BIDen recognIzes lgBtQ prIDe month
Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade, Courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association
WaShington | President Joe Biden issued the first formal proclamation of his administration recognizing Pride Month June 1, telling LGBTQ people both at home and abroad they should “accept nothing less than full equality.”
Biden’s proclamation kicks off Pride Month by remembering the 1969 riots at Stonewall Inn that started the modern LGBTQ movement, which he said was a “call to action that continues to inspire us to live up to our nation’s promise of equality, liberty and justice for all.”
Biden issued a Pride Month proclamation after the practice was abandoned under President Donald Trump, who largely ignored the occasion except for a solitary tweet in 2019. In contrast, former President Barack Obama issued a Pride proclamation each of his eight years in office.
Obama also had a practice of holding an annual reception at the White House with LGBTQ leaders to commemorate Pride Month. The Biden White House, at a time when the nation is reemerging after the coronavirus pandemic, hasn’t said one way or the other whether it will hold a reception.
Estimating nearly 14% of the 1,500 agency appointees in the Biden administration identity as LGBTQ, Biden writes the LGBTQ community is now represented “in nearly every level of public office — in city halls and state capitals, governors’ mansions and the halls of the Congress, and throughout my administration.” Among his LGBTQ appointees are Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rachel Levine, assistant secretary of health.
Concluding his proclamation, Biden says Pride Month is a time to recognize “the resilience and determination of the many individuals who are fighting to live freely and authentically.”
Staff Reports of The Los Angeles Blade, Courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association
LoS angeLeS | Gay circuit party impresario Jeffrey Sanker, owner of the Los Angeles-based White Party Entertainment company, died May 28 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital with family members in attendance after a long battle with liver cancer.
The 65-year-old West Hollywood resident had built his company and reputation on hosting large scale parties in exotic places, including Puerto Vallarta, Las Vegas and Miami although his trademark extravaganza, White Party Palm Springs, had evolved into the nation’s largest gay dance music festival, attracting more than 30,000 attendees from every corner of the globe.
Sanker moved to Los Angeles in 1987. His innovative technique of using landmark venues for trend-setting themed events was credited for breathing new life into the Los Angeles gay entertainment night scene.
In addition to hosting superstar entertainment events, which included Lady Gaga, and other celebrities over the years, Sanker is credited with launching the careers of many new up-and-coming performers.
According to his biography, Sanker’s events featured high-caliber DJs/producers, including Dave Aude, the late Peter Rauhofer, Junior Vasquez, Victor Calderone, Freemasons, Manny Lehman, Rosabel and Tony Moran.
Sanker also staged and produced fundraising events on behalf of numerous charities and community organizations, including Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing (GLEH), The Trevor Project, and Desert AIDS Project.
JeWIsh museum, gaY Bar taggeD WIth sWastIkas
Wire Report
anchorage, aLaSka | A tall, thin man wearing a hood and a mask was caught on a security camera plastering Nazi stickers on a Jewish museum in Alaska’s largest city early May 25.
He drove a scooter to the Alaska Jewish Museum, placed one sticker on the door and jumped to place three more symbols of hate on windows before driving off, Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, the president of the museum’s board of directors, said of what their video cameras showed happening.
About 45 minutes later, another sticker was placed on the main entrance door to Mad Myrna’s, a gay bar in downtown Anchorage.
Each white sticker was emblazoned with a black swastika, the symbol of the Nazi party, and targeted two groups associated with Holocaust victims. Written above and below the swastika are the words, “WE ARE EVERYWHERE.”
“What that sticker symbolizes is hate,” Anchorage police spokesperson MJ Thim told The Associated Press. “And we’re not going to stand for it.”
Spokesperson Chloe Martin said the Anchorage FBI office is in regular contact with Anchorage police.
“If, in the course of the local investigation, information comes to light of a potential federal civil rights violation, the FBI is prepared to investigate,” she said.
Thim said to his knowledge, these were the first reports of such stickers showing up in Anchorage.
In other neWs
googLe donateS $2 miLLion to LgBtQ org
Google donated $2 million to a fund that OutRight Action International created to support LGBTQ rights organizations around the world during the pandemic. A press release issued June 1 notes the LGBTQ organization “will be able to support at least an additional 100 LGBTIQ organizations in over 60 countries, reaching tens of thousands of people” because of Google.org’s, which manages Google’s charitable work, donation to its Covid-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund. OutRight Action International also notes Google.org will give it $1 million through Google Ad Grants to support its work. OutRight Action International launched the fund in April 2020.
texaS man PLeadS gUiLty to crimeS againSt gay men
A Dallas man pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges stemming from a string of kidnappings and robberies that targeted gay men using a dating app, prosecutors announced June 3. Daniel Jenkins, 22, was the last of four men to plead guilty to charges arising from the 2017 scheme that used Grindr to lure men to an apartment where they were then robbed and assaulted. He pleaded guilty to five counts including hate crime and hate crime conspiracy. In 2019, Michael Atkinson, Daryl Henry and Pablo Ceniceros-Deleon pleaded guilty to a variety of charges in the case. They are set to be sentenced this month while Jenkins’ sentencing is scheduled for October.
The International AIDS Society announced the 2022 International AIDS Conference will take place in-person in Montreal. The conference, which will also feature virtual events, is scheduled to take place from July 29-Aug. 2, 2022. “AIDS 2022, the world’s largest conference on HIV and AIDS, will convene leading scientists, policy makers and grassroots activists,” reads the International AIDS Society’s announcement. The 2020 International AIDS Conference was to have taken place in San Francisco and Oakland, California, but it took place virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Uganda PoLice arreSt 44 PeoPLe at LgBtQ SheLter
Police in Uganda arrested 44 people May 31 at an LGBTQ shelter outside the country’s capital of Kampala. Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a Ugandan LGBTQ advocacy group, told the Washington Blade in an email the arrests took place in Nansana, a municipality in the Wakiso District. Mugisha in a tweet said prosecutors have charged 42 of the 44 people who were arrested with “negligent act likely to spread infection of disease.” Mugisha added authorities subjected them to so-called anal tests to determine whether they are gay. Mugisha said a bail hearing for 39 of the 44 people who were arrested took place June 2. Mugisha said three of those who were arrested have been released on bail.
A Quiet Community Issue
intimate Partner
violence, or domestic violence, is traditionally thought of as a women’s issue – a crime perpetrated against women by men. When looking at binary gender statistics, this sentiment is true.
Women are more likely to be abused, are three times more likely to get hurt during abuse and are more likely to experience long-lasting effects from the violence perpetrated against them. However, since the beginning of the battered women’s movement in the 1970s, we now have a better picture of how power and control affect queer relationships.
With increased advocacy and research, we now know that intimate partner violence affects the LGBTQ+ community at the same if not higher rates than in heterosexual, cisgender relationships. According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 43.8% of lesbian women and 61.1% of bisexual women report having experienced rape, physical violence and/ or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, compared to 35% of heterosexual women. Additionally, 26% of gay men and 37.3% of bisexual men have reported experiencing the same, compared to 29% of heterosexual men.
These numbers get worse for the transgender community. A staggering 88.9% of trans youth have experienced physical abuse at the hands of a dating partner.
At its core, intimate partner violence is a partner’s sense of entitlement to power and control in the relationship. Perpetrators will use emotional, verbal, financial and physical abuse tactics to gain and maintain power and control.
Abusers will use intimidation to devalue their partner’s sense of self-worth and gaslight until the victim believes that they are at fault for the abuse. While all survivors of intimate partner violence may experience these control tactics, perpetrators in LGBTQ+ relationships will utilize additional power and control tactics not seen in heterosexual and/or cisgender partnerships.
These abusers will use homophobic, transphobic and heteronormative tendencies to reinforce the manipulation and to belittle their partners. They may threaten to out their partner or question whether their partner is a “real man” or “real lesbian.”
If survivors try to speak out, abusers will reinforce the belief that it’s not “domestic violence” because they are in an LGBTQ+ relationship. They may deny their partner access to gender-affirming medications or tools, or prevent them from accessing queer-friendly resources in the community for support.
The social service programs and agencies available to survivors of intimate partner violence, put in place to provide safety and security, are unfortunately not without their own heteronormative barriers. Survivors are forced to relive their story multiple times as they explain their circumstances to various institutions. LGBTQ+ survivors are not only faced with this potentially traumatic experience, but also with having to come out again and again with each interaction. Support groups for survivors are gendered, screening protocols and intimate partner violence response systems are often presumptuous and if staff members aren’t effectively trained, biased.
In addition to systemic barriers, more hurdles come from an unexpected place – the queer community itself. For the past several decades, the LGBTQ+ community has dedicated a significant amount of time, energy, resources, blood, sweat and tears, to the ever-present campaign for acceptance and equitable access to resources.
While tremendous gains have been made, advocates and allies alike know that there are still injustices and basic human rights denied to the community. Because of homophobia, there can be an undercurrent of pressure for queer individuals to “not give the community a bad name,” especially in their relationships.
Queer intimate partner
violence survivors also fear ostracization, real or perceived, from the LGBTQ+ community for “airing their dirty laundry.” There is a fear that by disclosing the abuse that they have experienced at the hands of their partner, they will be giving bigoted individuals more fuel for the fire.
So how do we make a change? At an individual level, we need to call out toxic and abusive behaviors when we see them. We need to hold friends, family and colleagues accountable for relationship abuse.
As a community, bars, restaurants, local businesses and support agencies need to be conscious of intimate partner violence and its complexities, as well as how to support survivors.
Systemically, we need to recognize and acknowledge intimate partner violence in all of its forms and be more cognizant about how it affects survivors.
The Spring of Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ Roundtable is one group actively working towards societal change. This formal volunteer organization has a mission of educating the community about intimate partner violence in LGBTQ+ relationships, advocating for victims and connecting survivors to an inclusive network of resources.
This is not work that we can do alone. To create effective change, we need a community-wide response. It is important that we call out abusive behaviors when we see them, hold batterers
accountable and validate the experiences of intimate partner violence survivors.
Christine Meister and Kayden Rodriguez serve on the prevention team at The Spring of Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County’s certified domestic violence center. Its mission is to prevent domestic violence, protect victims and promote change. If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner abuse, confidentially contact their free, 24/7 Domestic Violence Crisis Hotline at 813.247.SAFE (7233) or the National Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233). To join its LGBTQ+ Roundtable or host a community training, contact Prevention@TheSpring.org.
