The Good Fight: ACLU attorney Chase Strangio - July 23, 2020

Contents

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Volume 27 Issue 11

IDENTIFYING HATE

Trump administration tells homeless shelters how to identify and deny access to trans women.

By Rhuaridh Marr

THE GOOD FIGHT

The ACLU’s Chase Strangio on the new documentary The Fight, being a public face of the trans community, and why America can’t survive four more years of Donald Trump.

Interview by John Riley

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SCARE BNB

Dave Franco’s lean, mean thriller The Rental taps into fresh veins of fear and paranoia.

By André Hereford

OUT ON THE TOWN p.5 SPOTLIGHT: UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION p.9 WOMEN FIRST p.10 THE FEED: INDEFENSIBLE DECISIONS p.15 SAFE STATE p.16 WRONGFUL RIGHTS p.18 DON’T SWEAT IT p.19 REPUBLICAN RANTS p.21 BIG SCREEN BLUNDER p.22 HOLIDAY MIRACLE p.24 GALLERY: ERIK THOR SANDBERG p.34 MUSIC: NEON TREES p.37 RETROSCENE p.39 LAST WORD p.41 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 26 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint Aimee Stephens Cover Photography Molly Kaplan-ACLU During the pandemic please send all mail to: Metro Weekly PO Box 11559 - Washington, D.C. 20008 • 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2020 Jansi LLC.

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COURTESY OF THE PIG

Out On The Town

Life is Easy (LIE)

Compiled by Doug Rule LIFE IS EASY (LIE)

Revry, the LGBTQ-focused streaming network, pays homage to the Disney movie Freaky Friday with the world premiere of a new comedy series that updates the “body swap” concept for a timely look at race, gender, sex. The show focuses on two 25-year-old BFFs with pronounced differences: Jamie-Li is a straight woman of Chinese descent while Curtis is a gay white man. Both always thought of themselves as “woke” individuals until the moment the two Geminis awoke in each other’s bodies.

Created in New Zealand by writers and actors Chye-Ling Huang and Cole Jenkins, Life Is Easy (LIE) is an eight-episode satire tackling a host of contemporary issues surrounding identity, community, and culture. Now streaming at www.revry.tv.

THE PIG GOES BBQ

EatWellDC, the local LGBTQ-owned restaurant group that operates Logan Tavern and Commissary, has reopened another one of its Logan Circle mainstays: The Pig, which has been refashioned as a moderately priced BBQ establishment. Executive Chef Shabier Bahramy spent the past few months rethinking the restaurant’s recipes and menus, with additions including Texas-style Smoked Beef Brisket coated in habanero sauce and served with celeriac slaw, cheddar cornbread, and pickles ($18), Cherrywood Smoked Ribs slathered in a thick Kansas City-style Habanero peach sauce and served with rosemary fries, celeriac slaw, and pickles ($23 for half, or $39 whole), a 12-hour smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich topped with North Carolina-style vinegar sauce on a toasted potato roll and served with celeriac slaw, pickles, and french fries ($13), and smoked, hickory-rubbed Half Chicken served with braised farm greens and cheddar cornbread ($19). Longtime Pig favorites that carry over to the revised menu include a range of House Sausages ($8 each), Fried Pork Belly Buns ($11), Truffle Mac & Cheese ($7), and a Double Stack Pig Burger with 80/20 beef/pork patties layered with American cheese, pickles, and griddled onions plus rosemary fries ($15).

The Pig has also introduced a BBQ-to-Go program with all meats available by the pound and sides by the quart. Wash it all down with a selection of American whiskeys, craft cocktails, beers, and natural wines, available for takeout as well as dine-in. Open daily for lunch and dinner, with brunch served both days of the week-

The Pig

end from noon to 3 p.m. 1320 14th St. NW. Call 202-290-2821 or visit www.ThePigDC.com.

CREATIVE CAULDRON: SUMMER CABARET SERIES

The annual series from the Falls Church-based theater company shifts to an all-outdoor format, with 22 scheduled performances taking place at either the new Mission Loft Apartments complex near Baileys Crossroads or the Falls Church Community Center Tennis Courts, all mandating face masks and adhering to social distancing protocols. The series kicks off this weekend with two concerts including “Latin Pop Summer,” a cabaret from the multi-talented gay composer Chris Urquiaga, on Friday, July 24, and a performance by Veronneau, the Wammie Award-winning Latin Jazz husband-and-wife duo of Ken Avis and Lynn Veronneau, on Saturday, July 25. Additional shows that have been announced so far include Christian Douglas in “Songwriters, Show Tunes, Show Stoppers” on Friday, July 31; Nataly Merezhuk, the Russian-born orchestra musician and educator and Strathmore Artist-in-Residence, on Saturday, Aug. 8; Alison Crockett, an R&B singer-songwriter also known as Diva Blue, on Saturday, Aug. 15; Yasmin Williams, the modern acoustic fingerstyle guitarist with an unorthodox, modern style of playing, on Saturday, Aug. 29; and Jade Jones, the musical theater powerhouse known for her work in Into the Woods at Ford’s on Friday, Sept. 11. All performances are at 8 p.m., with most venues TBA. This weekend’s shows are in the parking garage vicinity of Mission Loft Apartments, 5600 Columbia Pike, Falls Church, Va. Tickets are $30 each, or $250 for a 10-show Season Pass. Call 703-436-9948 or visit www.creativecauldron.org.

BRIAN GANZ

Classical pianist Brian Ganz will perform nine of Frédéric Chopin’s études — including the popular “Revolutionary Étude” — as part of a virtual concert presented by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Known as an expert on Chopin and for a multi-year commitment with the National Philharmonic to perform all of the Polish composer’s works, Ganz will also discuss how Chopin advanced piano music and piano technique in the early 19th century. The “Sheer Virtuosity” concert, with streams beginning on Friday, July 24, at 7 p.m., also features mezzo-soprano Olivia Vote and the Chesapeake Orchestra Strings and comes as part of this year’s all-virtual slate of the River Concert Series from JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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JULIAN VANKIM

Washington Revels

Creative Cauldron: Chris Urquiaga

the “National Public Honors College” located in the heart of the bucolic Chesapeake Bay region. The series concludes with “a veritable who’s who” of the college’s musical alumni, among them guitarist Paul Reed Smith, saxophonist Don Stapleson, vocalist Sara Jones, trumpet player Chuck Orifici, oboist Mark Runkles, and pianist Rie Moore, with “It’s a St. Mary’s Thing — Our Brand I,” starting Friday, July 31, at 7 p.m. Free. Visit www. smcm.edu/river-concert.

WASHINGTON REVELS: JUBILEE VOICES

Best known for its flagship production the Christmas Revels, the Washington Revels stages shows and engages its diverse community of participants in other activities throughout the year, including Jubilee Voices, the African-American a capella group directed by Andrea Jones Blackford. The 10th Anniversary series includes special Jubilee Voices featured posts on the organization’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and a Jubilee Voices-led sing-along every Wednesday as part of the Revels’ Daily Antidotes of Song program on Zoom. (It kicked off on Facebook with a stirring reading of the famous 1852 Independence Day address by Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” as recited by Harold Blackford and featuring soloist Gregory McGruder.) The celebration culminates on Friday, July 31, with an anniversary concert on Facebook Live combining live and pre-recorded musical performances, dramatic readings, and the sharing of African-American traditions by group members and invited guests, plus opportunities for audience sing-along. Free with donations accepted.

Visit www.revelsdc.org for more information and to watch past performances and livestreams.

CHAMBER DANCE PROJECT’S NEW WORKS 2020

With stages and dance studios everywhere remaining closed, the Chamber Dance Project has taken to filming new works in nontraditional spaces, including outdoor settings, to be screened in two upcoming showcases. Founded by choreographer Diane Coburn Burning, the innovative Washington contemporary ballet company will showcase new ballets featuring company dancers in a variety of virtual indoor and outdoor spaces. An upcoming screening, Friday, July 31, at 7 p.m., features Cooper Verona’s In the Silence performed by Grace-Anne Powers and Austin Powers in Columbus along with two works by Bruning, Berceuse performed by Luz San Miguel and David Hovhannisyan at an art museum in Milwaukee, and Sarabande performed by Christian Denice from a public site in Los Angeles. Preceded by a live preshow with the dancers and filmmakers. Free. Call 202-499-2297 or visit www.chamberdance.org.

SHIFT

A new online exhibition, Shift offers a platform for artists to show works related to the immediate and timely concept of 6

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Shift

Books in Bloom: Megan Giddings

its title. It also offers a window into the process of creating an exhibition, showing how jurors and curators respond to works of art, and how, through their choices, the show’s vision comes to life — all by virtue of Shift’s main conceit, and the fact that it’s effectively two exhibits in one, with each presented separately.

There are artworks on display grouped loosely though an interpretation of what shift means in the realm of science fiction, all selected by collector and art patron Henry L. Thaggert, and another set from curator and arts writer Sarah Tanguy, whose selections were guided by a sense of surprise and discovery as well as impact and resonance as presented in a virtual platform.

Both jurors drew from the same pool of works created in a range of media by over 250 artists, most of whom submitted two works to double their odds. Among the 48 artists who made the cut are Isaiah Aladejobi, Travis Childers, Tim Davis, Freya Grand, and Nahid Navab — all as selections by Tanguy — as well as Shanthi Chandrasekar, Anna U. Davis, LaToya Hobbs, Timothy Makepeace, and Ira Tattelman as picks by Traggert. Online only through Aug. 27 at the McLean Project for the Arts. Visit www. mpaart.org.

BOOKS IN BLOOM FESTIVAL

Presented by the Downtown Columbia Partnership, the annual festival moves to a virtual format for its fourth edition, which also brings a focus on discussions of hot-button issues of race and diversity, politics, gender, immigration, and culture. The free month-long festival includes the conversation “Coming Out as a ‘Pariah Prodigy’” with writer and comedian Greg Mania, whose debut memoir Born to be Public chronicles his inadvertent coming out to his Polish immigrant parents as well as his experiences with identity, mental health, sex, and relationships, on Thursday, July 30. Other highlights include a discussion with Megan Giddings, whose chilling debut novel Lakewood has been hailed as part-The Handmaid’s Tale and part-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, on Wednesday, July 29; a discussion with Elizabeth Acevedo, acclaimed author of books focused on Latinx culture and experience whose latest, Clap When You Land, is a novel-in-verse about loss, forgiveness, and the bonds that shape us, on Monday, Aug. 3; and a conversation with urban geographer Leslie Kern, author of Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Manmade World, on Friday, Aug. 7. All events start at 7 p.m. and are free with advanced registration. See the full schedule at www.booksinbloommd.com.

ROUND HOUSE THEATRE’S FOURTH WALL TO-GO

Last fall, Bethesda’s Round House Theatre reopened with dramatically improved audience seating — plus the thoughtful addition of a new lobby bar and café to replace a makeshift concession window. With the theater remaining closed until 2021, the company is using its newest facility in a way that also serves as a benefit to the larger community. The Fourth Wall

RACHEL MALEHORN

KENT KONDO

Round House Theatre’s Fourth Wall To-Go

To-Go online menu features a range of sweet and savory snacks and pies, as well as spirits and booze, most of which comes from vendors based in the region, available for online ordering and contactless pick-up. The menu includes smoked salmon and smoked salmon pastrami from D.C.’s Ivy City Smokehouse, various salami, sausage, and half-smoke offerings from Landover’s MeatCrafters, meat pies from Kiwi Kuisine in Alexandria, varieties of dark chocolate from Silver Spring’s Zivaara, beer selections from Rockvile’s 7 Locks Brewing, wine from Maryland vintners Linganore Winecellars, Boordy, and Sugarloaf, and spirits ranging from the Free State’s first absinthe, produced by the woman-owned Tenth Ward Distilling in Frederick, and Maryland Rye whiskey from Baltimore’s Sagamore Spirit Distillery. Round House is also the exclusive pick-up site for Pop-Up Patisserie, a French-Canadian mobile pastry shop that makes Montreal-style bagels and Tourtiere meat pies, and Gray Wolf Craft Distilling and its line of clear spirits, including a tequila that is the first agave spirit distilled in Maryland.

Orders can be placed up to four days in advance, with pick-ups from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Visit www. fourthwalltogo.com.

TRANSFORMER’S SIREN ARTS: FLUXUS SEA

Through its annual Siren Arts series, Transformer, the avant-garde boutique art gallery in Logan Circle, has traditionally offered select visual artists a summer getaway with “micro-residencies” and public performances taking place on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey. But for its fourth year, the getaway is virtual, a Zoom and Instagram affair with live performances and pre-recorded artist discussions to be streamed over the next month. Once a week, an invited artist will present and perform an original work, approximately 30 minutes in length, that explores general concepts of “flux” and the sea while specifically aligned or in response to Fluxus, the experimental, 1960s-birthed artistic movement whose most famous proponent is Yoko Ono. Sometimes referred to as intermedia, Fluxus pioneered the development of works that incorporate audio and video components and often contain an element of shock. The series, every Thursday at 7 p.m. on Zoom, includes Armando Lopez-Bircann (July 30), Hannah Spector (Aug. 6), Muse Dodd (Aug. 13), and Yacine Fall (Aug. 20). Meanwhile, Lopez-Bircann and Spector will engage in the next artist conversation on Tuesday, Aug. 4, followed by Dodd and Fall on Tuesday, Aug. 18, both livestreamed at 7 p.m. from Transformer’s Instagram at 7 p.m. Free, but advanced registration required. Visit www.transformerdc.org.

Chamber Dance

HANAMI: BEYOND THE BLOOMS

“Immerse yourself in the spring season we all missed,” goes a tagline of the latest exhibition at ArTecHouse. Originally set to open in mid-March, the gallery’s annual show celebrating the season’s cherry blossoms and also women in the arts and technology continues with abstract hand-made ink illustrations by Yuko Shimizu that are transformed digitally to follow vibrant blossom flowers on an exciting and interactive journey through land, sea, and air. To see Hanami, guests must book online in advance to enable “contactless check-ins” for sessions that are scheduled in 30-minute increments and limited to 25 people.

The gallery also asks guests to arrive early or on time for their scheduled session and requires everyone to wear masks as well as to move around at a safe distance of 6 feet apart while inside the space at all times. Exhibit on display until Sept. 7.

ArTecHouse is at 1238 Maryland Ave. SW. Tickets are $12 to $19.

Visit www.artechouse.com.

HEURICH’S LIBERTY APPLE CIDER AT ANXO CIDERY

The newest brew from D.C.’s ANXO Cidery comes in partnership with Dupont Circle’s Heurich House Museum for an updated twist on a beverage with a fascinating Prohibition-era history. Sold exactly 100 years ago, the original “Liberty Apple Champagne” was a short-lived product accidentally developed by legendary D.C. brewer and businessman Christian Heurich.

The brewmaster’s attempt to pivot his business at the dawn of Prohibition by creating a non-alcoholic beverage was foiled by nature and the fact that apples naturally ferment in their own juices and don’t require the addition of yeast as beer does. After 18 months of marinating many bushels of Stayman Winesap apples, Heurich ended up with an intoxicating brew that was more potent than the typical can of beer. Taking pity on his predicament, the Treasury Department granted Heurich a three-week reprieve from the nationwide ban on alcohol to sell, in 5-gallon vats priced at $1 per gallon, what was marketed as “The New All-Year Table Beverage de Luxe.” The beverage has been reborn as Heurich’s Liberty Apple Cider, also made using Stayman Winesap apples (sourced from a Maryland orchard) but fermented dry in large wooden casks without the addition of hops or preservatives of any kind, staying true to ANXO’s “no additives” philosophy. The tart, dry update stands at 6.9% alcohol. Prices start at $15 for a 4-pack of 12-ounce cans. Available for local pickup and delivery from both ANXO locations — 300 Florida Ave. NW and 711 Kennedy St. NW — or for pickup at the Heurich museum, 1307 New Hampshire Ave. NW. Visit www. anxocider.com or www.heurichhouse.com to order.

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MTV FILMS

GAGE SKIDMORE

Spotlight

Cruz and Rapp

Theron in Aeon Flux

Unconventional Convention The granddaddy of pop culture conferences brings it home with a jam-packed schedule for Comic-Con@Home.

A

SUPERHERO TO MANY, THE BRAWNY BIRDER explore their new interactive comic book created for LGBTQ known as the Central Park Bird Watcher actually leads youth. life as mild-mannered comic book writer and creator Interactivity is a major priority for SDCC, despite the chalChristian Cooper. Pioneering co-creator and writer of Marvel’s lenges of presenting the first all-virtual program in the event’s Darkhold and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy comics, Cooper will 50-year history. Although attendees won’t be able to flood the be among dozens of panelists, artists, creators, and celebrities San Diego Convention Center as usual due to the pandemic, scheduled to appear this week at Comic-Con@Home, a virtual Comic-Con@Home will open up an interactive version of the presentation of San Diego Comic Convention’s annual pop cul- exhibit hall, to instill some sense of browsing the convention ture explosion of comics, gaming, film, TV, and tech. floor to find favorite artists and exhibitors. The exhibit hall will Cooper is set for the Out in Comics panel of LGBTQ art- be available for the entirety of the Con, until the hall closes on ists, alongside Noelle Stevenson, award-winning creator and Sunday, July 26. showrunner of Netflix’s super queer-friendly She-Ra and the That should be plenty of time for conventioneers, cosplayPrincesses of Power, cartoonist and author Hazel Newlevant, ers, gamers, and fans to partake in any of the 30+ Comic-Con@ WB and Netflix animation writer Tim Sheridan, and best-selling Home panels streaming on partner network IGN, or to access author Andy Mangels. In its 33rd year, the Out in Comics forum film screenings via the Scener Watch Party Platform, a Chrome is billed as the comic world’s longest-running panel, but it’s browser plugin that will allow attendees to watch and discuss certainly not the only Comic-Con@Home offering to focus on movies live with other commenters. Anime streamer Funimation artists and issues relevant to the LGBTQ+ community. will host anime watch parties on the same platform, while IGN Attendees can also tune in for a lively discussion of LGBTQ will be the go-to site for the Con’s multitude of kickass Q&As horror film history with Shudder streaming network’s Horror with the star casts and crews fans know and love, including Is Queer panel, or catch Star Trek: Discovery actors Anthony multiple series from the Walking Dead and Star Trek franchises.

Rapp and Wilson Cruz on the virtual dais for the LGBTQ From a dedicated discussion with Oscar-winner Charlize Characters on Television discussion of queer representation on Theron on her career in action films, to filmmakers Guillermo TV. Acclaimed comics artist Jennifer Camper Del Toro and Scott Cooper spilling details on will feature among panelists celebrating the their upcoming monster flick Antlers, ComicClick Here to legacy of recently departed “Godfather of Queer Con@Home is poised to bring a galaxy of Download a Free Comics” Howard Cruse. And fans looking for a star-power into attendees’ living rooms. This Comic-Con Badge bit of drag in their pop culture mix can chantay year’s SDCC won’t be the same as filling a conover to the Lights, Camera, LGBTQI-Identity! vention hall with thousands of like-minded pop Never Alone panel, where former Drag Race contestants Pandora culture lovers, but let it be proof that not even a worldwide crisis Boxx, Jackie Cox, and Silky Nutmeg Ganache invite viewers to can dim the brilliant power of imagination. —André Hereford Comic-Con@Home runs online through July 26. Admission is free and free downloadable badges are available.

Visit www.comic-con.org.

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COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Spotlight

The first suffrage march to the White House on January 10, 1917

Women First

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Lafayette Park became a “park of activism” after suffragists protested for women’s voting rights.

F ALL GOES AS PLANNED, A MONTH FROM NOW THERE joined the White House Historical Association, helping lead will be nationwide celebrations honoring a milestone in the independent, nonprofit organization’s work in the areas of American history — one you likely didn’t learn in high school. research and education. One way she has done that is by pro“We're going to light up a lot of buildings all across the country viding historical context to today’s Black Lives Matter-related on August 26 in suffragist colors,” says Colleen Shogan, vice chair protests in Lafayette Park — chiefly by calling attention to the of the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission. “It will be very first group to picket at the site. visible, including some prominent buildings here in Washington.”

“What [the suffragists] are most known for is the protests Now known as Women’s Equality Day, the date, 100 years ago, is that they started in January of 1917,” Shogan says. “They were when the 19th Amendment was officially added the first organized protest in front of the White to the U.S. Constitution, cementing a woman’s Click Here to Listen House in American history. So they're really the right to vote. It was a victory for women, justice, origins of what we see today. Lafayette Park to the Podcast and equality, 72 years in the making. [is]...a park of activism, the place where people “The suffragist movement is the longest, continuous-span- go who are interested in protesting in front of the White House.” ning social movement you have in American history,” Shogan To Alice Paul, who led the suffragists in Lafayette Park, the says. “And the largest enfranchisement of American citizens at locale was ideal because of its proximity to the president, who one time is, of course, the 19th Amendment. So, in some ways, “works and lives just a few hundred yards away from the border the greatest expansion of democracy happens on August 26, of the park.”

1920. And yet most people can't tell you anything about it. It's But is that still the case today? The current occupant of 1600 not taught regularly in high school — not in American history Pennsylvania Avenue has been trying with all his might not to lisclasses, not in civics classes. I certainly didn't learn about it until ten to, engage with, or in any way show support to the protesters.

I went to college and took a women in politics class. “[The park remains] probably the most prominent, famous “It should be part of our curriculum because it's such a place where protesters can make their voices heard,” Shogan terrific, inspirational story. The women who started the move- says. “There is historical anecdotal evidence that even if a presment [including] Susan B. Anthony never lived to see the 19th ident does not engage with the people in the park — and that's Amendment passed. There were really three generations of suf- not something that would really probably happen today, for all fragists that carried through on that organization.” kinds of reasons — the president...is affected by what goes on In addition to her work on the commission, Shogan recently there.” —Doug Rule Colleen Shogan features in the “Women’s Suffrage and the White House” episode of The 1600 Sessions podcast, available now.

Visit www.whitehousehistory.org.

For more on next month’s Suffrage Centennial plans, visit www.womensvote100.org.

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GAGE SKIDMORE

theFeed

Identifying Hate

Carson

Trump administration tells homeless shelters how to identify and deny access to trans women. By Rhuaridh Marr

T

HE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS PLANNING TO tell homeless shelters how to identify and subsequently deny access to transgender women, including warning shelter workers to look for “facial hair” and “the presence of an Adam’s apple.”

Vox obtained a copy of the draft rule from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which intends to allow single-sex shelters to turn away trans individuals based on their biological sex at birth.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson announced earlier this month that the rule would revise the 2016 Equal Access rule, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the provision of HUD-funded housing services.

Carson’s rule wouldn’t allow shelters to prevent trans people from accessing a shelter due to their gender identity, but would

grant them the power to put a transgender woman in a men’s shelter, rather than a shelter consistent with her gender identity.

Furthermore, a version of the rule obtained by Vox, which it claims has already passed congressional review, contains a list of characteristics for shelter workers to use as a means for identifying and discriminating against transgender women.

Shelter staff “may determine an individual’s sex based on a good faith belief that an individual seeking access to the temporary, emergency shelters is not of the sex, as defined in the single-sex facility’s policy, which the facility accommodates,” the rule states.

That “good faith belief” can be based on a list of criteria provided by HUD, including “factors such as height, the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and other physical characteristics which, when considJULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed ered together, are indicative of a person’s biological sex.”

Secretary Ben Carson is showing a “willful disregard for the surIf shelter staff believe that a person is transgender, they can vival of transgender people.” request proof of sex, including government identification — “He’s on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the though the rule does at least ban shelters from requesting that law,” Waguespack said. “It’s critical that trans people across the a trans person expose themselves, noting, “Evidence requested US hear the message loud and clear that they are legally entitled must not be unduly intrusive of privacy, such as private physical to gender-appropriate homelessness services under the law.” anatomical evidence.”

Carson is no stranger to anti-transgender sentiments during The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ his time in federal government. Last year he was heavily rights organization, called the procriticized after allegedly referring to posed rule “unconscionable” and “yet transgender women as “big, hairy another instance of the administramen” during a HUD meeting. tion’s blatant discrimination against During a discussion on homeless transgender people, while needlessly shelters, Carson reportedly said he putting lives at risk.” was concerned about “big, hairy men” “In the midst of a global pandemtrying to enter women’s shelters, ic and an epidemic of ongoing vioand “lamented that society no lonlence against transgender and gender ger seemed to know the difference non-conforming people, the Trumpbetween men and women.”

Pence administration is encouragWhile a HUD official denied that ing and facilitating discrimination Carson had used “derogatory language,” against transgender people,” HRC a government official in Washington Government Affairs Director David also accused Carson of repeatedly Stacy said in a statement. “Enough mocking transgender people. is enough. It’s time to hold them He subsequently refused to apoloaccountable at the ballot box.” gize for the comments, instead claimTransgender advocates have previing he was the victim and was being ously noted that forcing transgender “persecuted” for sticking to “Biblical women into male shelters puts them principles.” at risk of discrimination and violence, Carson also told Fox News’ Tucker and that the timing of the rule amidst a Carlson that women’s shelters should global health pandemic is particularly be able to discriminate against trans ill-advised. women, saying, “If you have a wom“The Trump administration is en’s shelter and you’ve been operating targeting transgender people for well, you get to decide how you’re discrimination,” Sharita Gruberg, going to run that. The federal govern—David Stacy the senior director for the LGBTQ ment doesn’t need to be telling people Research and Communications who’s a man or who’s a woman. That’s Project at the Center for American Progress, said in a state- a decision they can make by themselves.” ment earlier this month. “Giving shelters a license to discrimUnder Carson, HUD has sought to rollback protections for inate against transgender people would be wrong at any time, transgender people, particularly homeless transgender women. but to do so in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis In May last year, the department announced plans to allow constitutes an act of wanton cruelty.” federally funded homeless shelters to discriminate against transA coalition of organizations, including HRC, National LGBTQ gender women.

Task Force, and National Center for Transgender Equality, In 2018, Carson invoked the “trans shower panic” tactic to issued a join statement decrying the proposed rule when it was justify denying access to shelters to transgender people, inferfirst announced at the start of July. ring that transgender people in showers are a threat to safety “HUD’s proposal to allow agencies to deny shelter or services and privacy. to an individual because they are transgender is promoting dis“There are some women who said they were not comfortable crimination, pure and simple,” they wrote. “Fortunately, most with the idea of being in a shelter, of being in a shower, and service providers agree — in fact, over 300 anti-sexual violence somebody who had a very different anatomy,” Carson told a and anti-domestic violence organizations, many of whom oper- congressional committee at the time. ate shelters, signed a joint statement in 2016 supporting nonHe was also heavily criticized after HUD removed landiscrimination protections like the current Equal Access Rule guage from its mission statement which committed to ensuring and opposing proposals that would allow discrimination against LGBTQ people would be “free from discrimination.” transgender people in need.

During his confirmation hearing prior to becoming HUD “Although most service providers remain committed to secretary, Carson also called LGBTQ rights “extra rights,” part serving everyone without discrimination, the unfortunate con- of an anti-LGBTQ record that includes comparing being transsequence of this regulation is likely to be that thousands of vul- gender to changing ethnicity, saying trans rights are “not a civil nerable people will be turned away from help when they needed rights issue,” and saying transgender people should be forced to it most, simply because of who they are.” use separate bathrooms. He has also insisted that biological sex Dylan Waguespack, a spokesperson for True Colors United, is immutable, and called the concept of being transgender “the which advocates for homeless LGBTQ youth, told Vox that HUD height of absurdity.”

“This proposed rule is unconscionable and yet another instance of the administration’s blatant discrimination against transgender people, while needlessly putting lives at risk.”

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JASMINE SESSLER

theFeed

Indefensible Decision Pentagon bans Pride flag from military bases in ‘wrongheaded’ and ‘outrageous’ new memo. By Rhuaridh Marr

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HE PENTAGON IS BEING URGED TO RECONSIDER A ban on flying the LGBTQ Pride flag at military bases. U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issued a memo last week aimed at addressing demands for the Confederate flag to be banned from military bases. In the memo, Esper said that only the American flag, U.S. state and territory flags, and military flags would be allowed to be flown, However, in doing so, Esper’s rule also banned the display of Pride flags, a move slammed as “wrongheaded” and “outrageous” by LGBTQ military organizations and politicians.

“The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols,” Esper wrote.

The new rule applies to “work places, common access areas, and public areas,” according to the memo, although individual rooms are not mentioned.

The Modern Military Association of America, the nation’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to advancing fairness and equality for the LGBTQ military and veteran community, urged the Pentagon to “immediately reconsider” the blanket ban on flags.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would ban the Pride flag — the very symbol of inclusion and diversity,” MMAA Interim Executive Director Jennifer Dane said in a statement.

“In what universe is it OK to turn an opportunity to ban a racist symbol like the Confederate flag into an opportunity to ban the symbol of diversity? This decision sends an alarming message to LGBTQ service members, their families, and future recruits.”

Dane continued: “The Pentagon must immediately reconsider and take swift and appropriate action to ensure the Pride flag and LGBTQ Pride Month observances are not threatened.

If Secretary Esper refuses to reconsider, we call on Members of Congress to take action.”

VoteVets, a progressive political action committee dedicated to electing veterans to public office, said equating the Pride flag with the Confederate flag was “disgusting.”

“It is patently offensive that Esper has, along with the Confederate flag, declared the Pride flag to be ‘divisive,'” the organization tweeted. “The Pride flag celebrates the hard-fought rights of LGBTQ Americans, including many troops.

“To equate the Pride flag with a symbol that represented a denial of human rights is disgusting and a slap in the face of those members of the community who serve, or seek to serve, in uniform.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden called on the Pentagon to reconsider the blanket ban, saying that if the Defense Department didn’t authorize the flying of Pride flags, he would make it happen should he be elected president in November.

“Banning the Confederate flag from military installations was long overdue,” Biden wrote. “Banning the LGBTQ Pride flag — the very symbol of diversity and inclusion — is undeniably wrong. The Pentagon should ensure it is authorized, or as President, I will.”

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan as a US Navy Reserve, said the decision was “wrongheaded.”

“When I was preparing to come out, I saw a Pride display on a military base where I was serving — a reminder that my service would now be treated equally,” Buttigieg tweeted. “Words JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed ment in the Senate that would require the Pentagon to remove Confederate names and symbols from all military assets within three years.

“American military bases that carry the names of Confederate generals are not named for heroes,” Warren said during a speech in the Senate last month.

“They are not named for men who risked their lives defending the United States and its soldiers. They are named for men who took up arms against the United States of America and killed American soldiers in the defense of slavery.”

Warren added: “Those who complain that removing the names of traitors from these bases ignores history ought to learn some history themselves.”

Trump has threatened to veto any such legislation that crosses his desk.

JESSE PAUL

cannot describe how wrongheaded it is to compare this to a Confederate flag.”

The Pentagon’s blanket ban of all flags other than those mentioned in the memo has been interpreted as a way of circumventing President Donald Trump’s refusal to remove Confederate symbols and statues in the wake of nationwide protests over racial inequality and systemic racism.

Legislation to remove names of Confederate leaders from military bases has bipartisan support in Congress, with U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, telling the New York Times that the White House was “wrong” on the matter.

“We’re the party of Lincoln, the party of emancipation; we’re not the party of Jim Crow,” he said. “We should be on the right side of this issue.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has introduced an amend-

Safe State

Polis

Colorado governor signs four pro-LGBTQ bills into law. By John Riley

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AST WEEK, GOV. JARED POLIS (D) SIGNED FOUR bills into law that expand the rights available to LGBTQ people in the Centennial State. The bills limit the use of the gay and transgender “panic” defense as a legal strategy, allow minors to obtain new birth certificates that accurately reflect their gender identity, make it easier for state residents to obtain pharmaceutical drugs, like Truvada for PrEP, that help prevent HIV transmission, and take pharmaceutical rebates and use the 16

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money to fund a drug assistance program for low-income individuals who are infected with HIV. Daniel Ramos, of One Colorado, the state’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organization, praised the signing of the bills, noting that they had to overcome several hurdles, particularly Senate Bill 221, which outlawed the gay and trans panic defense.

“Although the legislative session took many twists and turns this year, we are proud to see these bills make it through,” Ramos

theFeed said in a statement to ColoradoPolitics.com. “We are grateful to as a whole.” our legislators and to all Coloradans who advocated to see these Titone notes that the gay or trans “panic” defense has prebills pass with bipartisan support.” viously been utilized, unsuccessfully, in Colorado in the trial The bill banning the gay and trans panic defense was pre- of Allen Andrade, who was convicted for the 2008 murder of viously killed in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the transgender woman Angie Zapata, a Latina Greeley resident, legislature resumed following a seven-week recess due to the allegedly because he was so disturbed that she was transgender.

COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, claimed at trial that there was no Ostensibly, the bill was killed in order to focus on other, more such deception and that Andrade had known about Zapata’s pressing concerns, with Senate leaders saying they weren’t aware gender identity before getting involved. of any attempts to use the defense in “Had there not been the evidence Colorado. But Colorado Democrats, that proved that this guy did, in fact, particularly LGBTQ members of the know she was trans, he may have General Assembly, were outraged and gotten away with it. But there was quickly introduced another bill to ban enough evidence,” Titone says. the panic defense in June.

“But a lot of cases don’t have that “When we came back into session, kind of definitive evidence that can a lot of bills that weren’t COVIDhelp with a case. And if they’re using related, per se, ended up on the ‘kill this defense, if it’s your word against list’ to just get rid of off the calendar the person who’s been murdered, they so we could focus on the bills that we can’t speak for themselves anymore in need to do for COVID relief and the this defense can be used in that case. financial issues that we were trying And that’s wrong.” to fix,” explains Rep. Brianna Titone The other pro-LGBTQ bills passed (D-Arvada), the first openly transgenwith bipartisan support and much der member of the Colorado General less turmoil, although some lawmakAssembly. ers expressed concerns about the bill Titone said she wrote to Senate allowing access to HIV prevention leaders and the Senate sponsors of the medications. bill to see if they could revive it.

“What it really comes down to is “At the same time, I started a petithat the preventative medications for tion online, just to get people to know HIV end up saving money when you that this bill died and that we do have can prevent people from getting and a chance to bring it back and to get contracting HIV,” explains Titone. some support from the public, to show “Everybody benefits, whether it’s [Senate leaders] that this is something services for Medicaid or a private that we should do,” she told Metro insurance plan. If they have to treat Weekly in an interview.

HIV, that costs those organizations “It was an effort to really make it a lot of money. So using these drug —Rep. Brianna Titone public that the public really wants therapies to prevent HIV is really an this bill to pass. It turns out that the important thing. And I think that was time limit [for reviving the bill] had passed, so it would have to really what was a big point, that they tried to frame this to win actually be re-introduced again. So I went to the House leader- bipartisan support, because it’s hard to sell spending money on ship and filled out the paperwork to get the bill put back on the something for prevention when it comes to the LGBTQ commucalendar again.” nity, trying to win over Republicans.”

In the course of conversations with Senate and House Meanwhile, Rep. Leslie Herod (D-Denver), an out lesbian, Democratic leaders, Titone says they realized that it would be said that the bill to create a low-income drug assistance program better for the Senate to bring up the measure once again. It unan- was essential to ensuring that members of historically underimously passed committee, and then the full Senate, then passed served populations living with HIV are able to access antiretrocommittee unanimously in the House. On the third reading, only virals that could prolong their lives. one House lawmaker voted against it.

“HIV impacts the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our “It is difficult to explain the politics and how everything state, often people of color who already face systemic health works,” says Titone, who understands that legislative leaders disparities and barriers to getting the care they need,” she said. were simply trying to be efficient in order to pass bills quick- “This law will reduce the stigma of HIV and save lives.” ly without risking getting lawmakers and staffers sick from Rep. Daneya Esgar (D-Pueblo), another member of the COVID-19.

LGBTQ caucus, praised the passage of the birth certificate bill, “But, what I heard from outside the building — and I’m which no longer requires surgery for minors in order to have talking about the protests outside the Capitol — was that the their vital documents match their true identity.

Black Lives Matter movement was calling for justice for Black “Being true to one’s gender identity should never be limited lives. And to me, what this bill really does is stand up for Black by legal or health accessibility barriers,” Esgar said. “This law trans women, who are the most vulnerable subgroup of the will ensure that when it comes to official government docuLGBTQ community. And this is something that really says that ments, Colorado recognizes and respects the gender identity of we care about black trans women and the LGBTQ community everyone in our state.”

“What this bill really does is stand up for Black trans women, who are the most vulnerable subgroup of the LGBTQ community.”

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Wrongful Rights

Pompeo

Trump’s ‘Unalienable Rights’ commission brands LGBTQ equality a ‘divisive social and political controversy.’ By Rhuaridh Marr

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DRAFT REPORT BY THE TRUMP ADMINISTRAtion’s Commission on Unalienable Rights elevates religious freedom over LGBTQ rights and calls same-sex marriage a “divisive” controversy.The commission was formed last year by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the intention of examining the role of human rights in America’s foreign policy.

“What does it mean to say or claim that something is, in fact, a human right,” Pompeo said at the time. “How do we know or how do we determine whether that claim that this or that is a human right, is it true, and therefore, ought it to be honored?”

He added: “Words like ‘rights’ can be used for good or evil.”

But critics feared that the commission, which included antiLGBTQ figures, would instead be used to try and roll back protections for LGBTQ people.

The Human Rights Campaign noted the “unusual language” surrounding the commission at the time of its creation, calling it “an attempt to pull back a U.S. human rights vision that we’ve had for decades and create this new vision that uses these new terms like ‘unalienable rights’ or ‘natural rights’ or ‘natural law.'”

HRC added: “These are all things that have been used by extremist people on the far right, to create a gap between what they consider unalienable rights and alienable rights.”

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week, those fears weren’t unfounded.

Documenting a human rights “crisis,” the commission argues that various rights extended in recent years conflict with other rights found in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As such, certain rights should be elevated above others — including religious freedom, a term often used by social conservatives to justify discriminating against LGBTQ people — while “new claims of rights” between “competing groups” should be “left up to resolution through ordinary democratic processes.”

“The tendency to fight political battles with the vocabulary of human rights risks stifling the kind of robust discussion on which a vibrant democracy depends,” the commission argues.

Other than ambiguous terms regarding rights, the report refrains from referencing LGBTQ people, sexuality or gender identity at all, except for branding same-sex marriage — along with abortion and affirmative action — a “divisive” controversy.

“In divisive social and political controversies in the United States — abortion, affirmative action, same-sex marriage — it is common for both sides to couch their claims in terms of basic rights,” the commission writes.

It then ominously argues that claims of human rights have “given rise to excesses of its own,” and that “not every right that

theFeed democratic majorities choose to enact is therefore unalienable.”

The commission also slams the judiciary for making decisions on human rights — as the Supreme Court has with legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide and determining that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination.

Calling “a contestable political preference” a right and seeking a “final and binding judgment from a court” tends to “choke off democratic debate, which is itself critical to self-government and therefore to the protection of unalienable rights,” the commission writes.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ organization, called the report “flawed” and said it “shows no serious efforts to advance human rights.”

“From day one, the Trump-Pence administration has been retreating from and undermining the global framework for human rights established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948,” HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy said in a statement.

“As was clear from the start, Secretary Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights was designed to challenge the international consensus with a narrow view of human rights, that among other things would leave LGBTQ people even more vulnerable to violence and discrimination.”

Stacy continued: “Representation on the commission was designed to produce this flawed report, excluding human rights experts from inside and outside the government. And even in the release today of the draft report during a pandemic, the public event allowed limited access and no remote viewing options. No one should take this report as a serious effort to advance human rights.”

Tarah Demant, director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Program at Amnesty International USA, said that the U.S. government “cannot unilaterally redefine which human rights will be respected and which will be ignored.”

“The U.S. State Department’s effort to cherry-pick rights in order to deny some their human rights is a dangerous political stunt that could spark a race to the bottom by human rights-abusing governments around the world,” Demant said in a statement.

“The administration is seeking to create a hierarchy of rights, where it gets to decide which rights are ‘unalienable’ and which

rights are what it calls in the report ‘divisive social and political controversies,’ a category which predictably includes sexual and reproductive rights and LGBTI rights.

“Human rights are not a choose-your-own-adventure in which the U.S. government gets to pick a different ending because it doesn’t like a particular set of rights. This report, made through an illegitimate process, only further shows the contempt this administration has for human rights and its desire to excise certain rights.”

Speaking to Mother Jones, Jayne Huckerby, director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Duke Law School, said that the draft report “elevates religious freedom as an unalienable right, while dismissing abortion and same-sex marriages as not rights but instead ‘divisive social and political controversies.'”

Huckerby said the report simultaneously “recognizes that legally there should be no hierarchy between different types of rights” while still calling for “US foreign policy to de-emphasize economic and social rights compared with civil and political ones.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and non-theists and the separation of church and state, branded the report “Christian Nationalism” in a statement.

“The report is Christian Nationalism in print and stamped with government authority, granting the State Department permission to conduct a Christian Nationalist foreign policy,” the Foundation said. “That means not supporting the rights of the LGBTQ community, giving Christian Nationalists a blank check to proselytize, restricting access to HIV/AIDS medications and abortion, and permitting the direct funding of houses of worship abroad.”

It added: “This report is both political and highly religious.

The report’s dangerous conclusion is based on the flawed premise that all human rights ‘came from our Lord,’ as Pompeo told a group of conservative women last fall.

“This common Christian Nationalist talking point is based on a misreading of the Declaration of Independence, which states that ‘all men’ are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’ Pompeo’s name for this commission tipped his hand from the outset, showing his intent to misuse this phrase to justify trampling others’ rights in the name of his religion.”

Don’t Sweat It

San Francisco supervisors to ease restrictions that would allow bathhouses to return to the city. By John Riley

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AN FRANCISCO CITY SUPERVISORS ARE POISED TO vote on a proposed ordinance next week that would allow bathhouses to return to the city more than three decades after restrictions were imposed to try and stem the spread of AIDS more than three decades ago.

For the better part of those years since the restrictions went into effect, the city’s health department has sough to enforce them, meaning that all commercial sex clubs are prohibited from having closed or locked doors, cubicles or rooms, and staff are required to monitor activity on a regular basis — an attempt to try and ensure that patrons were using condoms.

Various adult sex venues have continued to operate in the city since that time, but have been required to operate under those restrictions.

As a result, bathhouses with private rooms have sprouted up in nearby Bay Area cities like Berkeley and San Jose, where the restrictions are fewer, notes Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the sponsor of the ordinance to relax the restrictions.

“When the bathhouses were shut down in the ’80s, and ever since, there has been a set of folks who felt like it was a mistake then, and/or like the changes that have occurred since then make those restrictions no longer make sense,” Mandelman told JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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“Since I started serving in office two years ago, I’ve been approached by people who are interested in seeing bathhouses be allowed in San Francisco. And it seemed like, with San Francisco having made such success in our ‘Getting to Zero’ campaign, and having under 200 new HIV diagnoses in 2018, that it made sense.”

Mandelman noted that, after having to postpone a hearing on his proposal by a few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he used his position as chair of the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to time a hearing on the legislation so that it would coincide with the Bay Area hosting the International AIDS Conference, which was held virtually from July 6-10.

The legislation was ultimately approved by the committee on a 3-0 vote. The proposed ordinance now heads before the full Board of Supervisors for a vote on Tuesday, July 21, and a second vote on. Once enacted, the city’s Department of Public Health will have until January 1, 2021, to adopt new regulations complying with the ordinance.

From Mandelman’s perspective, the restrictions need to be changed to keep pace with the evolution of our collective understanding about HIV. “The biggest thing that has changed since the ’80s is that there is now a pill that everyone can take, and everyone who is sexually active should be taking, that is as effective as condoms in preventing the spread of HIV,” he says, referring to pre-exposure prophylaxis.

“Another thing that has happened is that a ton of sexual activity has now moved online to the apps. There are private parties.

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There’s no monitoring or regulation of that. And there’s also no opportunity for safe sex, safer sex messaging in those venues, or no real opportunity.

“So one of the benefits, one of the great things that earlier generations, or people who’ve lived in communities that never closed the baths, say is that they were at a community gathering place. And they can be a place where health messaging is shared.”

Asked about concerns, voiced by some critics, that relaxing the restrictions to allow bathhouses to return to the city will result in an increase in HIV or STD rates, Mandelman says he doesn’t believe that will happen.

“I don’t think that the closure of the bathhouses is the thing that has gotten this low,” he says, referring to the low numbers of new HIV cases. What’s gotten it this low is broad accessibility of testing, broad accessibility for treatment. We have achieved success in getting as many people tested as regularly as possible,” Mandelman says.

“San Francisco puts a lot of resources into testing and getting people into treatment as quickly as possible so that, you know, people get to undetectable [status] and end transmission of the virus…. But having bathhouses or no bathhouses are not the thing that is going to that is going to help us make more progress in getting to zero.”

While he acknowledges that there remain disparities among various communities in terms of the lowering of HIV rates, Mandelman says he believes that bathhouses can serve as a resource to educate people at risk of acquiring the virus on how best to protect themselves.

He also suggests, that, in addition to pamphlets, posters, and

theFeed have been lifted.

“Bathhouses are not going to open during the height of the pandemic and nobody’s going to expect them to. The legislation gives the Department of Public Health until January to come up with regulations to allow this,” he says.

“And I can’t imagine a universe in which we’re ready to open bathhouses by January. I cannot imagine that a bathhouse is going to be able to open until we are at the end of this pandemic.”

Mandelman adds: “But, I do think that as we approach the end of this thing that, you know, there will be economic devastation all around. We will be building a new world and there are opportunities to do things that haven’t been done, and things that haven’t been done in a long time.

“I do think that in that world, whenever it comes, when we’re able to recover and reopen, that bathhouses should be part of that. And that’s what this legislation will allow.”

TWITTER

other educational materials that encourage people to get tested, sex venues could offer on-site testing and counseling.

“The only backlash that we’ve received [from this proposal] is, I think the crankiness of social media, wondering whether this is the most important thing to be doing in the light of a pandemic. I’ve also heard it from queer people who say, ‘HIV may be dropping in San Francisco, but STDs aren’t. Isn’t this just going to become a place where STDs spread?’ And my response to that is, well, people are having sex right now,” he says.

“They’re having sex in private parties. They’re having sex with multiple partners on a given night, based on the apps, and they’re not getting any kind of health messaging that could be provided in a bathhouse.”

Mandelman stresses that the ordinance does not require or allow the reopening of adult sex venues until restrictions requiring social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Republican Rants T

Trump and Stanton-King

Republican challenger for John Lewis' seat previously criticized for anti-LGBTQ tweets. By John Riley

HE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE WHO WAS SLATED TO take on U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) is once again in the spotlight following his death, calling attention to a controversy back from March in which she was criticized for a series of anti-LGBTQ tweets.

Angela Stanton-King, who announced her candidacy to chal-

lenge Lewis for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District seat in March, will face off against State Sen. Nikema Williams, who was selected by Georgia Democratic Party officials to replace Lewis on the ballot.

Lewis, one of the most well-known figures of the Civil Rights Movement and former chairman of the Student Nonviolent JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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During his three decades in Congress, Lewis established himself as a strong ally to the LGBTQ community. He died on July 17, at age 80, due to complications from late-stage pancreatic cancer.

But with Lewis’ death, and the late addition of Williams to the race, Stanton-King has gotten additional attention now that she’s running for an open seat.

This past weekend, Stanton-King praised Lewis for his legacy on Twitter, writing: “Thank you for your blood, sweat and tears.

The fight continues! Rest in Power Honorable John Lewis.”

“My prayers and sincerest condolences go out to the John Lewis family, as they grieve the loss of a cherished father, husband and leader,” she said in a statement.

“John Lewis’ vital role in the civil rights movement will never be forgotten, and his legacy will forever be acknowledged by our state and our country. We as Georgians are grateful for his leadership over the last several decades, and we honor his life’s work of advocating for justice and equality.

“His courage and public service undoubtedly shaped our generation, and will continue to shape generations to come.”

Stanton-King was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump after being convicted in 2004 on federal conspiracy charges for her role in a car theft ring. She has also written several autobiographical books, and appeared on the BET series From the Bottom Up, which bills itself as focusing on women who have rebuilt their lives after making ill-advised life choices, according to Atlanta-based NBC affiliate 11Alive.

Stanton-King is the goddaughter of Alveda King, a niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a socially conservative activist who is an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ rights.

In March, her own socially conservative views were attacked by critics, particularly several tweets referencing the LGBTQ community.

“PEDOPHILIA. Gay means Men having sex with men. If you wouldn’t want your 12 yr old daughter advertising that she enjoys sex with men/boys why your 12 yr old son?,” she said in a now-deleted tweet referring to Zaya Wade, the transgender daughter of retired NBA player Dwayne Wade and actress Gabrielle Union, according to NBC News. “This is confusion, pedophilia and sexual exploitation wrapped up in acceptance.”

She also lamented acceptance that Americans appear more supportive of transgender people than ex-convicts, tweeting: “America can accept a transsexual that changed their whole identity/sex but can’t accept a Felon who changed their whole lifestyle.”

In another, more recent tweet, she wrote: “If you’re a grown man encouraging a little boy to be a woman something is wrong…”

In an interview with NBC News back in March, StantonKing conflated the idea of supporting children who come out as LGBTQ with sexualizing them.

“I’m very concerned about the whole LGBTQ movement and the way it sexualizes children,” she said. “The LGBTQ community refers to people’s sexual preferences — lesbians like women, gay people like men — and children shouldn’t be walking advertisements for sexuality when they are not old enough to make their own decisions.”

She added that she’s “not against LGBTQ rights like same-sex marriage,” because she has a 19-year-old son who identifies as gay and a gay aunt who raised her. She believes, however, that there is a need for legislation that ensures “children are not tied to the LGBTQ community.”

Big Screen Blunder GLAAD: LGBTQ characters in film reach record high, but racial diversity plummets. By Rhuaridh Marr

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GBTQ REPRESENTATION IN FILMS FROM MAJOR studios is at an all-time high, but racial diversity has dropped and transgender representation continues to be nonexistent. That’s according to the eighth annual Studio Responsibility Index (SRI) from LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, which analyzed 118 films from the eight highest-grossing film studios of 2019 and four of their subsidiaries.

The studios analyzed were Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, STX Films, United Artists Releasing, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros.

GLAAD found that, of the 118 films released in 2019, 22 (18.6%) films included LGBTQ characters, an increase from the 18.2% (22 out of 110 films) in 2018. It was also the highest percentage in the eight-year history of the SRI. Lionsgate recorded the highest total, with 25% of its 20 films featuring LGBTQ characters, while STX registered the lowest, with zero of its nine films featuring LGBTQ characters.

However, GLAAD noted that LGBTQ characters are “too often featured in major blockbuster films in moments so small many audiences could have easily missed them.”

GLAAD also identified a number of negative trends relative to 22

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previous years, particularly with regards racial diversity. While 22 films featured LGBTQ characters, only 34% of those characters were LGBTQ people of color — down from 42% in 2018 and 57% in 2017.

“Of the 17 LGBTQ characters of color counted this year, only four characters counted more than three minutes of screentime, with just one character appearing for more than ten minutes (Pepe, Lionsgate’s Perfect Strangers),” GLAAD said.

The organization is calling for studios to reverse the trend, and have at least half of LGBTQ characters in films be people of color.

Lesbian and bisexual representation has also decreased, with representation of gay men increasing. Gay male characters featured in 68% of the films, up from last year’s 55%, while lesbian characters only featured in 36% of films and bisexual characters in 14% — or a mere three of the 22 films — despite bisexual people making up the majority of the LGBTQ community.

“One positive finding is that this year’s bisexual+ characters avoided the transactional trope we’ve seen too much of before — that is, women characters only engaging in a romance with another woman to gain something they need (often information

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Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman

or access) rather than out of any genuine interest,” GLAAD noted. “Unfortunately, there is zero representation of bisexual+ men this year.”

For the third year in a row, GLAAD also recorded zero transgender characters in the 188 major studio releases of 2019.

GLAAD noted that in television trans representation continues to increase, from FX’s Pose, to CW’s Supergirl, to FOX’s 9-1-1: Lone Star.

“Yet, major studio films continue to leave trans characters out of the story,” GLAAD said. “While the year did include four transgender and/or non-binary actors in major releases, none of those films established those characters as transgender or non-binary within the film’s world.”

GLAAD also called out the fact that only two family films — Paramount’s Wonder Park and Disney’s Toy Story 4 — featured LGBTQ inclusion, and both in “incredibly minor” moments.

“Film has the power to educate, enlighten, and entertain audiences around the world and, in today’s divisive political and cultural climate, we must prioritize telling LGBTQ stories and the stories of all marginalized people,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.

“Despite seeing a record high percentage of LGBTQ-inclusive films this year, the industry still has a long way to go in terms of fairly and accurately representing the LGBTQ community.

“If film studios want to stay relevant to today’s audiences and compete in an industry that is emphasizing diversity and inclusion, then they must urgently reverse course on the diminishing representation of LGBTQ women and people of color, as well as the complete absence of trans characters.”

Megan Townsend, GLAAD’s Director of Entertainment Research & Analysis, said that telling “meaningful LGBTQ sto-

ries is not just the right thing to do, it’s also just smart business.”

“LGBTQ people are a significant audience who are supporting LGBTQ-inclusive films with our dollars and digital attention,” Townsend said. “Nielsen found LGBTQ audiences are more likely to see a new theatrical release more than once compared to straight audiences, and continue to stay engaged consumers, with higher levels of purchasing a digital copy, subscription service, and spreading the word online.

“Studios should recognize the power of LGBTQ audiences and the desire for stories that reflect our lives, by delivering and unambiguously marketing films and franchises that include nuanced and authentic LGBTQ characters.”

In addition to tracking LGBTQ characters, GLAAD also applies the “Vito Russo Test” to films, a set of criteria analyzing how LGBTQ characters are situated in a narrative.

Named after GLAAD co-founder and celebrated film historian Vito Russo, it’s inspired by the Bechdel Test, which measures the representation of women in media.

It uses three criteria to create a standard for Hollywood to reach and surpass in how LGBTQ characters are realized: The film contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ); That character must not be “solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity”; And the LGBTQ character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect.

GLAAD found that 16 of the 22 LGBTQ-inclusive films (73%) passed the Vito Russo Test, but noted that merely passing the test doesn’t mean a film is “free of problems, offensive in its portrayals or tropes in films where an LGBTQ character may be tied to the film’s plot, but whose stories were objectionable.”

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Christmas in Dollywood

Holiday Miracle

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Hallmark Channel in ‘active negotiations’ for LGBTQ-inclusive holiday films. By Rhuaridh Marr

ALLMARK CHANNEL HAS SAID IT IS IN “ACTIVE negotiations” to feature more LGBTQ-inclusive content during its 2020-21 holiday lineup. It comes after the cable channel was accused of having no LGBTQ lead characters in any of the 40 movies announced for the “Countdown to Christmas” and “Miracles of Christmas” films scheduled for this coming holiday season.

In an emailed statement to NBC News, George Zaralidis, vice president of network program publicity at Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks, said Hallmark Channel was “committed to creating a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome.”

Zaralidis said the company was in “active negotiations” and would announce further details when they’re available, but said Hallmark Channel’s holiday lineup “will include LGBTQ storylines, characters and actors.”

“Diversity and inclusion is a top priority for us and we look forward to making some exciting programming announcements in the coming months, including announcements about projects featuring LGBTQ storylines, characters, and actors,” Zaralidis said.

Hallmark announced the titles for 18 of its 40 holiday films earlier this month, and received pushback online over fears that they would lack LGBTQ inclusion.

It’s not the first time Hallmark Channel has had to weigh in on LGBTQ inclusion.

Last year, Bill Abbott, the CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, told The Hollywood Reporter that he was open to expanding the network’s audience, leaving the door open to the possibility of airing a film featuring a same-sex relationship.

Abbott made the comments after Hallmark Channel was 24

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criticized for its lack of inclusion in casting, with only four of the channel’s 24 original Christmas movies featuring black leads.

The channel was also questioned about its lack of representation when it comes to religious minorities and non-traditional families.

“In terms of broadening out the demographic, it’s something we’re always thinking about,” Abbott said at the time. “Always considering and we’ll continue to make the movies where the best scripts are delivered to us and what we think have the most potential.”

After his comments were published, conservatives circulated two petitions demanding that Hallmark refrain from including LGBTQ characters, particularly as leads, in its holiday films and also stop running adverts supporting same-sex weddings.

They argued that LGBTQ-inclusive content runs counter to the channel’s self-branding as a network featuring “family-friendly” programming.

Hallmark responded to the petitions by pulling ads from wedding registry website Zola featuring same-sex weddings, with a spokeswoman classifying the same-sex ads as “controversial” and the debate over them a “distraction” from the channel’s purpose of entertaining.

However, subsequent backlash led to Hallmark reinstating the ads, with Hallmark CEO Mike Perry calling it the “wrong decision.”

After its ads were pulled, Zola’s chief marketing officer Mike Chi issued a statement saying the company would no longer advertise with Hallmark, adding, “All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”

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The Goo

od Fight

The ACLU’s Chase Strangio on the new documentary The Fight, being a public face of the trans community, and why America can’t survive four more years of Donald Trump.

Interview by John Riley Cover Portrait by Molly Kaplan/ACLU Molly Kaplan-ACLU

Additional Photos by Allison Shelley/ACLU

For Chase Strangio, the road to self-acceptance and coming to terms with his gender identity was all part of a long-term, tumultuous, internal struggle.

“I had a very deep fear of rejection and internalized shaming,” says the deputy director for Transgender Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project. “Which is funny, given how publicly I live my life now.”

For a while, even as an adult, Strangio attempted to keep two separate lives: one in which he was recognized according to his assigned sex at birth, and one in which he fully embraced his gender identity. Slowly, those two lives combined and he became more comfortable living as an out trans man. But he remained hesitant about putting his life up for public consumption.

That changed after Strangio became involved in the fight over legislation in South Dakota, passed in 2016, that would have banned transgender students from restrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces consistent with their gender identity. Strangio says something “snapped” inside him at the time. He decided he would no longer shy away from being public about his trans identity.

“From 2016 to now, I just went all in,” he says. “Part of that for me has been to show my full, messy humanity. I don’t want to be a sanitized version of a trans person. I want to be a full person who has a small messy apartment that I try to manage raising a kid in.... I’m trying to take care of things, and I don’t always do the perfect job, and I make mistakes. [But] I’m learning, and I want people to come along on that journey with me.”

Nowhere is this authentically human side captured more accurately than in The Fight, a cinema-verité documentary that profiles Strangio and several other lawyers working for the ACLU on some of the most high-profile court cases challenging the Trump administration’s more galling policies and directives.

Specifically, the film chronicles cases involving Trump’s proposed Muslim ban, the separation of immigrant children from their parents, abortion access for undocumented minors who 28

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have been raped, a proposed Census question on citizenship, and the Pentagon’s ban on transgender military members seeking to serve in the Armed Forces according to their gender identity.

We see the ACLU lawyers not only at work and in transit, but in hotel rooms practicing for oral arguments, toasting victories with cheap wine as they travel on Amtrak, and at home interacting with their families, including a memorable and heartfelt scene where Strangio’s child plays on the floor while he is trying to work from a laptop on a small table in the living room.

The segments revolving around the fight against the transgender military ban focus heavily on the working relationship between Strangio and Josh Block, a gay man and senior staff attorney at the ACLU with whom Strangio has worked on a number of cases, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which saw marriage equality legalized in the United States; a lawsuit involving Gavin Grimm, a transgender youth who sued his Virginia school system after it barred him from using the boys’ restroom; and a currently active case in which a group of cisgender female student-athletes from Connecticut are suing to overturn a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity.

“When I argue on behalf of people fighting discrimination based on sexual orientation, I can speak as a member of that community,” notes Block. “But when you're fighting on behalf of someone who’s discriminated against because they’re trans, it’s always problematic when your decisions, in both legal strategy and around framing and storytelling, are made by cis people.

“I really relied on Chase for his friendship and support during that process. In no way is Chase a stand-in for everyone in the trans community. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s crucial to have a friend and colleague who can

support you and be a teammate.” after high school. I think that was really just sort of a lingering Elyse Steinberg, one of the three director-producers behind challenge for me.

The Fight, says the chemistry between Block and Strangio jumped MW: What was your family like? In The Fight, we see your brother off the screen when she, Eli Despre, and Josh Kriegman began is a veteran, and the two of you make a joke about your dad being following the various ACLU lawyers around with cameras. conservative and sending your brief to Breitbart.

“Josh and Chase are exactly as you see them in the film,” she STRANGIO: My parents split up when I was in high school. My says. “They have an amazing friendship and a lot of witty banter father is incredibly conservative. He was a George W. Bush between the two of them. But underneath is this deep desire to supporter and is a very aggressive, as far as I know, Trump supfight injustice that they share. They are really funny and they’re porter — certainly he was at the time of the 2016 election. During deep and soulful people. And every day that I got to spend with large periods of my life, I didn’t speak with him, and when I was them, I said to myself, ‘I can’t believe this is my job. I get to hang coming out as queer in early college, around the 2000 and 2004 out with these incredible people doing extraordinary things.’” elections, when LGBTQ issues were very much front-and-cen“I think one thing that we look for in subjects is people who ter in the public conversations around the election, I reached can't help but be themselves wherever they are. There’s no artifice out to my father and urged him, “Please don't vote for George to them,” Despre adds. “You’re always looking for that visceral W. Bush. If you have to not vote at all, then don’t vote, you’re spark of character when you see someone on the screen and they're in Massachusetts. It’s really important to me to feel like you're just profoundly honest and open with themselves and they can't seeing that this is important to me.” He just had a very different help it.... I think it makes some good attorneys, too. I like that when they advocate, you can tell that they believe in the arguments that they’re making.”

Strangio acknowledges that the LGBTQ movement has largely been forced into a defensive crouch, in part due to the sophisticated degree of organizing and coordination by LGBTQ opponents and their political allies. But he says LGBTQ advocates need to focus on a much longer-term fight for transformative justice on behalf of marginalized communities.

“We need to cultivate survival, share resources, change policies, and imagine a more transformative and just system than the one that’s ever been in place,” he says.

“I think there’s ways that we can do better. I think we’re starting to see that, and this moment is a chance for us to look at our collective responsibility to care for each other.

Sara Ramirez, Laverne Cox and Strangio outside the Supreme Court “To me, it’s a matter of how willing are we to completely throw down and say, ‘I am going to way of understanding politics as disconnected from personal risk myself and my power in order to protect others. And that's experience. He wasn't, as far as I know, very conservative when going to look a lot of different ways, but it’s going to be relentless, I was much younger, and my mom is incredibly progressive. So I and that's my approach to the work.” think I had a fragmented sense of self that was the result of deep repression and the messages that one receives from society, but METRO WEEKLY: What was your childhood like? also the way that I felt disconnected from my parents, particuCHASE STRANGIO: I grew up outside of Boston in a suburb, and larly my father. overall I had just a lot of access to a great public education. In My brother and I, though we weren’t close when we were many ways I don't actually remember a lot of things about my younger, are incredibly close now. As far as Newton goes, we’re childhood. I had all the things that one would expect would a somewhat odd family, where he was in the military, I was this make a young person feel safe, supported, and happy, but I think big queer trans person. Our parents split up, and there was just anyone who knew me would have said that I had an internally ways in which we didn’t fit exactly the mold of our community, dark struggle going on that I couldn’t quite identify. My outlet even though we had a lot of ways that we were completely norfor everything was to find ways to excel academically and focus mative and had access to power as white people, as people who on certain types of achievement as a metric of worth, because I had access to formal education and the public school system in don't think I really understood myself as a full human being. I Newton, which is incredible. was definitely repressed. I didn't come out as queer or trans until After high school, I ended up not going to college right away, JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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even though I had planned to, and I was struggling with a lot of different things, including not knowing how to find myself, struggling with addiction, struggling with being lost. I took a year off and ultimately ended up going to Grinnell College a year after I graduated from high school.

I think, even though at that point I sort of understood myself as queer, I still was trying to understand what it meant to incorporate a sense of gender that was different from even what I was seeing in the queer community. This was 2004. There was still almost no example of trans people in my immediate life, in representations on television or anywhere, even though I was desperately searching for things. All I had as a reference point was Brandon Teena, who was murdered. That didn't feel like a safe place to find a sense of home in an identity, when the thing that you know of the person is that they experienced so much violence. So that was all part of the process of coming out of childhood and adolescence and figuring out how I could be an adult in the world. It took me a while to get grounded and figure it out.

MW: When did you come out to your parents?

STRANGIO: I don’t know that I've ever really come out to my family. It was very obvious that I was queer at a certain point. I don’t know that we had sit down conversations about it, although it sort of came up directly. I had a very deep fear of rejection and internalized shaming, which is funny given how publicly I live my life now, though I still carry that. I was out in some way, but I can't pinpoint a linear trajectory in which I came out to myself, and came out to my family and sat them down, and was like, “This is who I’m going to be and this is what my gender is going to be.”

It wasn’t until law school that I came out to myself as trans, and even that wasn’t a linear process. It was more just the dynamic experience of understanding yourself in the world. I changed my name and started to affirm my sense of a gender that was different than my assigned sex at birth. But even then, for years, I kept my public Chase identity separate from other aspects of life where people knew me as my former name. There was even a period of time where I had two separate Facebook accounts. It was completely untenable.

I knew I couldn’t live as a cis person and have a career at all because it was impossible for me to function in a gendered space like the law, particularly when you start to think about how you have to present in a theatrical context of a courtroom or some other type of hearing, or even in an exchange with clients. You’re constantly being seen. So if you are not able to claim your truth and then have that reflected back to you, it’s just a perpetual way in which you're letting yourself down, and that was my experience.

When I graduated from law school in 2010 and began to practice at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which is an organization that works with trans people, and most of my colleagues were trans, I think I really started to settle in to the fact that I am confident in myself as a trans person.

I’ve ended up living a very public trans life that I didn't fully anticipate. That has been, in and of itself, an interesting experience that I didn’t map for myself with any sort of foresight, but continue to think about as I understand what is my role as a trans person in public face and public advocacy.

MW: In terms of your work at the ACLU, which is highlighted in The Fight, we catch some candid moments with you working from home, and you and Josh Block talking in a car. The two of you have an interesting conversation about what representation looks like.

STRANGIO: I think one of the complex things about me in The Fight, which I don’t know if it is true of any of the other lawyers, is that — and this is true of my work in general — there is both the substance of the work that I do and then there’s the fact that it is me doing it. Certainly there are so many trans lawyers who came before me, there’s trans lawyers working alongside me and there will be many trans lawyers, thankfully and hopefully, that come after me. I still think there is this sense in which the transness is situated as either such deviance or such victimhood that we don't get to see a trans person being trans in the world in a multitude of ways, which is the way in which our humanity will become more realized. So my decision to be a part of the film —

“You can even see in the film the way in which the hate that's directed at me is still deeply personal. ‘Oh, you’re an ugly faggot who is disgusting.’

Remarks on my physical appearance, TELLING ME THAT I’M NOT REAL, TELLING ME THAT I'M DISGUSTING.”

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and I was somewhat hesitant about it — was in part to continue the work that I do of being honest about what it means to show up as trans in certain spaces when you’re defending trans existence and defending trans people’s rights to have basic access to public space, or healthcare, or survival, or employment.

You can even see in the film the way in which the hate that's directed at me is still deeply personal. It’s not “Oh, the ACLU is this awful institution,” it’s “Oh, you’re an ugly faggot who is disgusting.” Remarks on my physical appearance, telling me that I’m not real, telling me that I'm disgusting. You learn to compartmentalize, you learn to just stop and stay grounded, and you know who you are and feel good about who you are, and that's its own separate process.

What’s interesting for me, in rewatching the film, a lot of that footage is from three years ago. Josh was the lead on that case, and I was very much there to be a co-counsel and part of the

“If Trump gets reelected, I think there’s just so many catastrophic things that will happen. We eked out of this last term with some critical but narrow and limited wins that WILL NOT SURVIVE ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF TRUMP.” team, but that was not one of my big cases. Yet still I think we have to sort of contend with, “What does it mean to show up in a space if you're this secondary trans lawyer? Can you ever just be a lawyer who happens to be trans? Is your transness always integral to your profession or some other way in which you're existing in the world?”

Obviously, there’s that scene in the film where I’m like, “Why don’t I just get to develop my skills? Why can’t I just be on a path towards professional development that this person could have?” And it's just not realistic, because so much of the work is about building infrastructure to be capable of doing accountable, effective trans work, and when you're the first out trans lawyer at an organization, then you inevitably are going to be holding a particular and very unique type of labor, and that was my experience.

MW: One of the cases you’re working on, the Connecticut case about transgender student-athletes, has made a lot of headlines, and we’re now seeing a slew of bills on that topic being introduced in various state legislatures.

STRANGIO: I think what we have to understand is that in 2016 after marriage equality, our opponents, strategic as they are, well-funded as they are, quickly pivoted and started attacking trans people in a multitude of ways. That’s when we saw the proliferation of anti-trans bills. In state legislatures we saw efforts to put anti-trans policies and proposed laws and even constitutional amendments on the ballot in many states. At that point, it was very much focused on restrooms and this idea that people would not be safe in restrooms if trans people could have access to them, which we knew to be preposterous. Trans people have been going to the bathroom. We trans people are the ones who are unsafe in restrooms, but this was the discourse that took hold in 2016.

By 2018, our opponents had largely lost. They kept losing in court. The bills weren't passing. After HB 2 [in North Carolina] they did not gain traction with that. They lost at the ballot over and over and over again, culminating in the resounding defeat in Massachusetts in 2018 in the November election. They then quickly pivoted to two things.

First, they pivoted to athletics. They started to change the narrative to “If we recognize trans people fully as who they are, then cis women will be harmed in this other way,” and that way is in the context of sports. They picked up on the story of our clients in Connecticut who are two trans girls. They’re young black women who are already targeted for so much discrimination and abuse, particularly in the context of Connecticut, where you have many places that are deeply segregated. So you have these two successful black runners who are trans, and the firestorm over the fact that they are having some successes, and you end up having a whole entire campaign around the fact that they’re “really” males and starting to scrutinize their bodies — remember that these are children. And that becomes the pivot, beginning in 2019.

You can see it play out in the Equality Act hearings that happened in 2019, where the bill is still pending in Congress.

It’s a bill that would expand civil rights protections for the LGBT community but also all civil rights protections. Then at the hearings in the House, the entire focus of the opponents of the Equality Act in the first hearing was sports. They brought in three witnesses essentially to talk about how if we protect trans people, then women’s sports will go by the wayside, even though you have the National Women’s Law Center, Women’s Sports Foundation, all of these historically-leading groups that do women’s rights work, including in the context of Title IX and athletics saying, “No, no. That's not true.” This discourse really takes hold in 2019.

By the beginning of 2020, it is everywhere, and you have at least 17 bills in state legislatures that would attempt to restrict access to sports for trans people, and not just try to impose onerous medical restrictions, but wholesale bans on participation for trans athletes in the K-12 context, and in some context, at the collegiate level.

MW: You mentioned a second prong of attack against transgender rights. What is that?

STRANGIO: The other thing that states were doing in the 2020 legislative session was introducing these bills criminalizing the provision of healthcare for trans minors. So these bills were a wholly new tack, where states were proposing felony bans on the provision of healthcare. Mostly regulating providers, so it would make it a crime for a provider to continue to provide treatment or initiate treatment for a trans person under 18, or in some cases, 19. None of those passed but they did get a lot of traction, and again, some of them were essentially killed just by virtue of COVID. MW: You’re also lodging a complaint targeting a bill in Idaho that bars transgender female athletes from competing according to their gender identity.

STRANGIO: Idaho passed HB 500, which was signed by the governor on March 30, and we sued. The Idaho bill is similar to the relief that the plaintiffs are seeking in Connecticut. It would essentially bar trans athletes and sort of entrench in law a definition of “biological sex” that is limited to characteristics that people who are non-intersex are born with at birth, mainly chromosomes, reproductive anatomy, which is not defined in endogenous testosterone.

In that case, [Alliance Defending Freedom] has sought to intervene, and in their intervention papers are making the affirmative claim — which they also made at the Supreme Court [in the Bostock/Stephens case] — that it’s actually in trans people’s best interest to be forced to lived consistent with their assigned sex at birth, and that being trans is, in and of itself, harmful.

They go so far as to say that our client Lindsay has no injury and no harm, because allowing her to be trans is the harm. So these are some really extreme arguments that are being presented in these cases.

MW: How do these cases square with the recent Supreme Court decision that trans people are protected by federal civil rights law?

STRANGIO: I think there’s two arguments that we’re going to see.

One is that ‘Yes, trans people may be covered by the law,’ but JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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they’re arguing that there is a countervailing concern in a certain to have a true separation of powers that we need to ensure context. I also think that neither the United States nor ADF are and protect people's rights from encroachment by the other accepting Bostock for what it says. I think they're continuing to branches of government. suggest that Bostock has no bearing on these contexts, which I We have to be tuned in to the fact that, in many ways, this think is a complete misreading of the law and that decision, but election is life or death, and part of that is the federal judiciary. it is nonetheless where they're going with it.

Part of that is the actions taken by this administration. Part The other thing that I think we have to be incredibly vigilant of that is COVID. We’re living in a time of great uncertainty about is the fact that Bostock and the other holdings around and multiple types of peril, and many people are living in this statutory protections are just that. They’re holdings on the moment, having experienced trauma, violence, and peril for scope of the statutory protections that Congress have enacted. generations. How much more can people be expected to withNow, we’ve seen this in the religious liberty context, where stand? Why has the Right been more effective around organizing our opponents are arguing that there are around the court? I think it’s similar to what Click to Watch the countervailing constitutional rights that limit I said about the state legislative and school the application of those protections. So that Trailer for “The Fight” board work. The right have gotten more out would be sort of the Masterpiece Cakeshopof the courts than the left. I think you can look style argument, that, “Yes, this generally applicable law does to the need for civil rights protections. We need the courts, we include LGBTQ people, but I have a federal constitutional right need the courts as a counterbalance. We look to the courts so not to follow that law.” much in the Trump administration, and yet there’s such a limit So I think what we’re also going to see in the context of trans to what the courts can do. people, separate and apart from arguments about religion, is “I I think if you’re looking at a set of movements that are trying have a countervailing constitutional privacy right or other right to effectuate change, it’s hard to invest in a system that you know not to share space with trans people.” We’ve already seen this is ultimately actually harmful as well, and I think we’re holding in a multitude of cases involving restrooms and locker rooms a different type of nuanced discourse right now because of how where cisgender plaintiffs say that their constitutional privacy much harm is on the horizon. So you're seeing the progressive rights are violated by a policy that protects trans people. That I left also talking about the courts in a different way. think is a completely frivolous and not an actionable claim, and MW: What will be the next LGBTQ issue to come before the courts? no court has recognized this as such. However, a court could STRANGIO: The justices have already taken up the Fulton case, recognize it as such, and if they did, if a court were to find that the Catholic Social Services versus City of Philadelphia case, cisgender people have some constitutional protection not to which is about government contracting with entities that disshare a space with trans people, that would cut into any statuto- criminate. So there's going to be tons of questions coming up ry protection at the state, federal, or local level. So I think that’s about the scope of constitutional rights to engage in discrimiwhere we’re going to see some of the arguments progress. natory practices. We’re going to have to pay attention to that. I Certainly Bostock changes the calculus in many ways. For think the sports cases are absolutely critical. The impact extends example, in the Connecticut case, the United States has filed a far beyond sport itself, into all of the ways in which our bodies statement of interest saying trans people are not covered under are regulated under the law and therefore in life.

Title IX. To me, that is something that there's just no way they We’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to the expansion can credibly file post-Bostock. We will see. I mean, I wouldn’t of surveillance, in the post-COVID world, sort of “How are we put it past them, but the pre-Bostock position of the federal going to have access to healthcare, what do we have to give up government, which is that sex discrimination protections under in order to protect our bodies and our intimate contact?” It’s a federal law do not cover trans people, cannot be reconciled with really different context from the context of HIV, but there’s a the recent Supreme Court decision. lot to be learned from the ways in which privacy was curtailed MW: If Trump gets reelected and another Supreme Court seat and people were criminalized, and I think we have to be really opens up, how critical is that going to be for the LGBTQ movement, vigilant. That’s particularly true for LGBTQ people, and people and even the larger progressive movement in general? who are experiencing homelessness or are engaged in criminalSTRANGIO: If Trump gets reelected, I think there’s just so many ized economies. catastrophic things that will happen. We eked out of this last There’s just so much work ahead and we don’t exactly know term with some critical but narrow and limited wins that will not what it's going to look like. We don't even know what the world survive another four years of Trump. is going to look like in the next few weeks and months, but I So for example, with respect to abortion, as much as Roberts think the beauty of it all is that we have so many incredible peovoted with the liberals, I’m sorry to say that there’s a map for ple who have done so much incredible thinking to draw from how states can continue to chip away at abortion. When it comes and connect with. to ending DACA, it was all about that the reasons given weren’t I hope I can continue to be a part of the collective organizadequate, but the Trump administration could go back and give ing for more expansive ways that we can live and thrive in this new reasons and do it a different way, and there is a blueprint for world as trans people, as human beings, as people who have that. We know that the Trump administration is invested in very been targeted by the systems of white supremacy and patriarchy particular types of harms, and we held back some of those harms and ableism and xenophobia. There is so much work to do, and through the courts over the last four years. there are so many incredible people who have been and are still I do not think that there’s any chance of stalling those doing that work. harms for another four years, and the makeup of the federal judiciary is part of that, because it’s not just about the Supreme The Fight is scheduled to be released on July 31 in select theatres, Court. That’s huge, but it’s the entire federal judiciary. In four on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, and other digital stores, more years, a majority of all circuit court judges are going to and on cable on demand. For more information, visit www.fightbe Trump appointees, and that means that we are not going thefilm.com.

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Gallery

House, 2004 pigment print, 20 x 20 inches

Erik Thor Sandberg: Seasons E RIK THOR SANDBERG CREATES OIL PAINTings that curator Vesela Sretenovic of the Phillips Collection has characterized as “psychologically insightful...nightmarish tales of our age: angst, worry, and pressure pushed to the absurd.”

That’s certainly true with Sandberg’s new works presented by ConnerSmith, the Logan Circle contemporary art gallery, a series depicting death as humanity’s

constant companion, shaping our thoughts and behaviors in ways we may not even realize. Each oil painting, presented on hexagonal panels of 13 x 11 inches, depicts a naked woman in different scenes from her life — all with a skeleton lurking or posing near or next to her, meant to represent not just one’s physical death but also the end of a relationship, the passing of a period of time, or some other marker in a person’s life. —Doug Rule

On virtual display through July 31. Call 202-588-8750 or visit www.connersmith.us.com.

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Clockwise from top left: Respite, Season, Pause 2020, oil on panel, 13 x 11 inches each Copyright Erik Thor Sandberg, courtesy ConnerSmith

IFC FILMS

Movies

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A

The Rental is available in select theaters and VOD on Friday, July 24. For a complete list, visit www.therental.movie.

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JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

JEN ROSENSTEIN

Music

yearning for people and relationships that aren’t coming back. Still, it’s hard not to read many of the lyrics in light of Glenn’s coming out and loss of faith. Nowhere is this more on the nose than on the The latest from Neon Trees reflects on all the joys and angst of leaving song “Holy Ghost.” Directing his anger at a former lover, Glenn belts out on the bad relationships behind. By Sean Maunier chorus, “I’m calling you my Holy Ghost/ Disappearing when I need you most,” an MONG THE MANY NOTABLE QUALITIES OF NEON TREES, THERE accusation that is striking for how well it has always been something particularly refreshing about the Provo pop- works in the reverse as well. Despite being rock outfit’s unabashed sincerity. Their albums are joyful, often intensely through the rockiest parts of his journey, personal, and most strikingly, all but devoid of cynicism. Their frontman Tyler Glenn would probably be the first to tell Glenn’s coming out and his very public exit from the Mormon Church loomed you that the scars of losing one part of large over his 2016 solo record Excommunication and Neon Trees’ Pop Psychology oneself and having to learn to embrace before it. While those albums found him in the throes of shedding his old identity, another don’t go away overnight.

Glenn has remarked that I Can Feel You Forgetting Me (HHHHH) is the first album I Can Feel You Forgetting Me might not that finds him at the tail end of the process, finally unencumbered and free to chart be a breakup album, but it certainly has his own course. the energy of one. Its tracks are brutally Having reunited for their first album in six years, Neon Trees are in the mood to honest about the pain of leaving someone celebrate. Glenn’s sense of freedom and lightness suffuses the album, and is almost behind, but they never lose sight of why jarring after the tormented, cathartic poignancy of Excommunication. The produc- that separation was necessary in the first tion is often upbeat and dancey and at times absolutely soars, and place. It finds itself sometheir incredibly catchy brand of synthy pop rock sounds as tight and where between mourning Click Here to polished as ever.

Listen to “Nights” those connections that For all the album’s glittering new wave energy, though, its tracks no longer exist and celeare full of brooding over the past, often in the form of nostalgia for connections that brating the potential for reinvention and are seemingly broken for good. The opening track, “Nights,” freshly released as a single rediscovery that comes with the breakage, ahead of the album, sets the tone with its warm, summery synths and its dramatic chorus never really losing sight of either one. featuring Glenn bluntly recounting how he fills his days with distractions only to face In that sense, it deserves recognition as sleepless nights, confessing, “I sit alone and wonder why they say, that boys don’t cry.” Neon Trees’ most complex and emotionalThat palpable angst can certainly be read as that familiar straightforward, universal ly mature work yet.

Broken Bonds

A

I Can Feel You Forgetting is available to stream and purchase starting Friday, July 24.

JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

RetroScene

Scarlet’s Bake Sale, DC Eagle, February 1997 - Photography by Randy Shulman To see more photos from this event online, click on the photos below.

JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“Today’s action serves to notify Mr. Kadyrov that his involvement in gross violations of human rights has consequences.”

—U.S. Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO, in a statement imposing a travel ban on Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, as well as his wife and daughters. It stems from “gross violations of human rights dating back more than a decade, including torture and extrajudicial killings,” including the widely reported abduction, torture, and murder of LGBTQ people in Chechnya.

portrayal of Santana Lopez on Glee inspired millions of young people “Her heroic and groundbreaking around the world, especially in the LGBTQIA community, and it will be treasured for generations to come.”

—CHRIS COLFER, in an essay for Variety paying tribute to Naya Rivera, his Glee co-star who drowned while swimming in a California lake earlier this month. Rivera received critical acclaim for the role of Santana Lopez, both for her acting and for portraying one of television’s few out Latinx characters. “How could a human being be that talented, that hilarious and that beautiful at once? How could one person be responsible for so much joy and be the subject of so many wonderful memories?” Colfer wrote.

“My stuff had to be public and cause great embarrassment and lots of rumors — some false, some true.”

—Former Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate ANDREW GILLUM, in a video posted to Instagram detailing his experience with rehab and therapy after he was found vomiting in a Miami Beach hotel room in March with a gay escort who was suspected to have overdosed on crystal meth. Gillum thanked his wife in the video, saying she “knows everything that I am and everything that I am not.

And she chooses to love me.”

“I was really well-received by the gay community after Clueless came out.

They’ve always been my people.”

—ALICIA SILVERSTONE, star of 1995 comedy Clueless, speaking with Vogue to commemorate the film’s 25th anniversary. “I don’t know if it’s just this film or my vibe that’s endeared me to them, but that has always been my favorite aspect of the film,” Silverstone said.

“Particularly what it means to gay boys.”

“The current study found very strong and consistent evidence that bisexual men do in fact tend to have bisexual arousal patterns.”

—Psychologist J. MICHAEL BAILEY, writing in research published in scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Northwestern University analyzed eight studies to confirm that “there is no longer reasonable doubt” that “bisexual arousal patterns” are experienced by some men. Bailey noted: “There has long been a controversy whether men who identify as bisexual are actually bisexual.”

JULY 23, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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