Contents
June 19, 2020
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Volume 27 Issue 6
MOMENTOUS DECISION
Supreme Court rules Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ people from discrimination. By John Riley
VOICE OF JUSTICE
As the Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, David J. Johns tirelessly promotes social change. Interview by Randy Shulman
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SIMON SAYS SPINOFF
Love, Victor winds a well-acted trip through bittersweet teenage drama and romance. By André Hereford
SPOTLIGHT: JOJO’S CALLING p.5 SAY IT LOUD p.8 THEATRICAL RAINBOW p.10 DOCS IN THE HOUSE p.12 FRESH STEPS p.13 KINKY TRAVELER p.14 FILLED WITH PRIDE p.17 THE FEED: DUBIOUS DISSENTS p.23 SHUNNING SHELTER p.25 PANDEMIC PAINS p.26 OPPOSING HATE p.27 INDUSTRY ISSUES p.28 BANNER BAN p.29 QUESTIONABLE QUARANTINE p.30 HELPING HAND p.32 FILM: IRVING PARK p.47 MUSIC: NEIL YOUNG p.49 SELFIE SCENE p.50 LAST WORD p.51 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, Troy Petenbrink, 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 McKinsley Lincoln and Tony McDade Cover Photography Courtesy of NBJC 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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BET NETWORKS
Spotlight
Jojo’s Calling
Leading the lesbian-themed comedy series Twenties, Jojo T. Gibbs takes a walk in Lena Waithe’s hightops.
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T'S A REVOLUTION.” JONICA “JOJO” T. GIBBS, STAR OF BET’s smooth, single-cam comedy Twenties, could be referring to the new wave of queer black talent gaining power in Hollywood, including herself and the show’s Emmy-winning creator Lena Waithe (Master of None and The Chi). But, on this day, she’s talking about how eight minutes and forty-six seconds of brutality in Minneapolis, captured on video, sparked a movement that’s filled the streets and inspired change. “It's happening all over the world. And that's the beautiful thing about humans. At the end of the day, most of us can fathom up some sort of empathy, unless you’re just heartless.” In Twenties, Gibbs has put her heart into portraying Hattie, a lesbian aspiring screenwriter living in L.A., based loosely on Waithe. Hattie is a witty truth-teller, a “masculine-presenting stud” who keeps her sneakers looking fresh, but often lets her relationships and finances get messy. She is not unlike many eager twentysomethings. “I would say it's pretty head-on on a couple things,” says Gibbs, relating Hattie’s struggles to her own not so long ago as a comedy hopeful, and former substitute
teacher, from the Carolinas. “For instance, being broke. I was definitely broke. “Unlike Hattie,” she continues, “I had a great relationship with my landlord. I was behind three months on rent at one point, and he was very understanding. He was very much my angel on earth. We created a payment plan and he let me have time to pay it back. Hattie's landlord wasn't playing. She was like, ‘Nah, I'm putting your stuff onto the sidewalk.’ Drinking her little coffee, like, ‘Yes, and I'm going to watch you suffer from up here.’” Hattie crashes on the couch of her good friend Marie (Christina Elmore), a studio executive, and Marie’s possibly bisexual boyfriend, Chuck (Jevon McFerrin). “I did stay on my best friend's couch while she and her boyfriend lived in Koreatown,” recalls Gibbs, noting another chapter in Hattie’s story that seems written for her to play. “I didn't get settled in like Hattie did, though. I only was there for a month, and then I was like, ‘All right, you're a couple, I'm going to give you guys your space.’ But yeah, I was all over the place. Unlike Hattie I JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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Spotlight was not as confident in myself, in my sexuality, who I wanted to The adventures of Hattie, Marie, and Nia have hit home with present to the world when I was at that age. I was blossoming. the show’s audience, who have responded enthusiastically. “I But I didn't have that same confidence that she had at that time.” have got nothing but great feedback,” says Gibbs. “It's crazy While Gibbs credits her mom with helping her nail down because the range of people that watch the show is so broad. her own place, Hattie relies on friends Marie and Nia (Gabrielle I have older women hitting me up, teenagers, it's been really Graham), a former child actress turned yoga instructor, to dope. I think that the storyline is interesting and the fact that have her back in a number of jams. The trio carries the show’s it's called Twenties — that's a decade that either you've been multi-faceted take on through or you're really, sisterhood, singlehood, really looking forward to and getting ahead in going through it, or you're Hollywood. And the matin it currently. So, it's ter-of-fact depiction of relatable, and people have Hattie’s strong friendbeen receiving the show ship with her two straight very well.” besties adds yet another From its sexy opening element distinguishing scene, set to the orchesTwenties’ worldview. tral fanfare of All About “I love that Lena did Eve, the series combines that because that's my relatability with a romanreality as well,” says Gibbs. tic portrayal of living the “I heard Lena talk about Hollywood dream — or at it and I know that that's least hustling to achieve her reality. Generally on it. The eclectic soundtrack television, gay characters adds a dash of Insecureare presented as the sidestyle black boho chic kick. Or if it is a show with (along with the presence gay characters, then all the of Elmore, who’s featured characters are gay. [But] prominently on season it’s not always that we just four of that HBO hit), but link up together like that. this show’s comedic voice I think that it's dope that seems all its own. It should Lena showed the perspeccome as no surprise that tive of a gay character who Gibbs, who’s been doing hasn't necessarily found standup for five years, her space in that regard or takes the laughter seriouswants to. It's not necessarly, especially right now. ily discussed on the show, “I think that combut I mean, I think that edy is a healing form of she gets what she needs expression,” she says. “Not from her friends. They just only for comics, but for so happen to be straight the people receiving the and that's not even a factor laughs and the enjoyment that clearly is significant of whatever story that's enough for any of them to being told. As a comedian, consider in terms of what I understand that generthey want in a friendship. ally most of the content I think that's the most that I do onstage probably important thing. comes from a place of, at “Personally, I don't care who anybody is having sex with. I that time it was probably some type of negative emotion going look at a person’s qualities, their intelligence, what do they add on, either frustration, anger, or feeling unsafe, or whatever the to my life? That type of thing. Because, at the end of the day, case may be. But I think that people of color — and black people, it's nobody's business who's in somebody's bed. I think that especially — have a way of turning shit into sugar. And being you should just choose people to be in your life based off of the able to make the most out of a bad situation and a lot of times we quality of their character. I think that the show shows this, and it can do that through laughter. I know that that's definitely one of my healing mechanisms. One of the ways shows a different dynamic of friendship that that I've dealt with trauma throughout my spans beyond the obvious, which would be Watch the sexuality or gender or race or anything like Trailer for “Twenties” entire life is...recognizing that throughout life we have experiences, and you can take from that. I mean, they are three black women, however, their relationship isn't contingent upon who they're it what you will, and you can use it to your best regard to heal people, and to heal yourself as well.” dating. It's just contingent upon how they treat each other.”
“I think that people of color — and black people, especially — have A WAY OF TURNING SHIT INTO SUGAR.”
Twenties airs on BET (check local listings), and is available for streaming or rental on Prime Video, Vudu, Youtube, and Google Play. 6
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Spotlight
Say It Loud
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Bob the Drag Queen and Peppermint
Bob the Drag Queen and Peppermint host a star-studded, three-day Black Queer Town Hall.
HERE IS A BIG...PART OF THE BLACK LIVES MATTER times would be Peppermint and Bob’s Black Queer Town Hall. movement that doesn't acknowledge that Black trans lives "I think we're on the precipice of great, irreversible change,” said matter, or that Black queer lives matter,” says Bob the Peppermint in a statement. “And I'm so happy to be involved in Drag Queen. “And that is upsetting. I'm really excited to uplift an event that could be a catalyst for facilitating powerful, meanthose voices and shed some light on how important Black queer ingful, and inclusive conversations across the board." Scheduled Drag Fest host Cummings, also currently a candidate for a seat people are to the very fabric of America.” It’s for that reason that NYC Pride and GLAAD chose to on New York’s City Council, says they were fully on board with hand the reins of their headlining Pride 2020 event to drag the switch: “Peppermint and Bob are incredible leaders and are superstars Bob, the season 8 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and going to make an incredible event. I can't wait to tune in with Peppermint. The high-profile pair will co-host and produce everyone else and donate.” Set to stream on GLAAD’s and NYC Pride’s Facebook and Black Queer Town Hall, three days of performances, panels, and discussions, with scheduled appearances by Laverne Cox, Mj Youtube pages, Friday, June 19 through Sunday, June 21, the Rodriguez, Angelica Ross, Todrick Hall, Monét X Change, Isis Black Queer Town Hall will raise funds for the Okra Project, a nonprofit that extends “free, delicious, and nutritious meals to King, Shea Diamond, Alex Newell, and many more. Bob, who is currently co-starring with Eureka O’Hara and Black trans people experiencing food insecurity.” Bob, however, Shangela on HBO’s We’re Here, says the event was conceived as is quick to point out that the event “is not a fundraiser. This is paying Black queer artists, thinkers, movers, and shakers in “an opportunity to uplift Black queer voices.” Previously, NYC Pride had announced an entirely different the Black queer community what they are owed and what they celebration of queer voices, a Pride 2020 Drag Fest hosted by deserve. And I'm very happy to be saying that upfront. New York City queen Marti Gould Cummings. With tragedy and “There will be moments where we entertain. There's also anger and protest and change came the decision to moments where we reflect. Moments where we mourn. Moments where we rejoice. Moments shift focus. “George Floyd was just the straw that Click Here broke the camel's back in the middle of a pandemic, for More Info where we get to think. We're trying to inspire thinking. A town hall. I don't want [people] to think where people have been out of work, trying to live off of $1,200 for three months,” says Bob. “It was just a perfect this is just a concert, because that's not what it is. It's not just storm that people were like, enough is enough. It's kind of like a bunch of singers and drag queens getting up and doing their the famous quote, ‘I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.’” thing. It's about the Black queer community coming together to Event organizers agreed that the right response to turbulent offer reflection on our experience.” —André Hereford The Black Queer Town Hall runs online June 19 to 21, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET nightly, and will stream on Pride NYC’s and GLAAD’s Facebook and Youtube pages. Visit www.blackqueertownhall.org. 8
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MARC J. FRANKLIN
Spotlight
Theatrical Rainbow
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Mayo, Urie and Nevin
Pride Plays celebrates the diversity and power inherent in LGBTQ theater — this year fully online.
“The logistics were challenging, but queer people have always AST SUMMER, FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF Stonewall in New York, three friends — actors Michael been resilient,” says Mayo. “We are resilient by our nature. Our Urie and Nick Mayo, and producer Doug Nevin — present- culture is a resilient culture. Have you ever seen someone in a ed a month-long celebration of LGBTQ theater in New York. gay bar try to get a gin and tonic at the bar during Pride? We're Dubbed “Pride Plays,” the festival, held at the Village’s Rattlestick resilient. We know how to make it work.” This year’s festival boasts four live showcases in June, streamed Theatre, spanned five days and featured 19 staged play readings, on Playbill.com and its YouTube site. The streams are free but involving over 250 artists from the theater community. In curating the event, says Urie, “we wanted to tell the story donations, which will go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, are encouraged. The series kicked off last week with of all of our histories — the collective histories of all Donja R. Love’s one in two. Next up is Brave Smiles: of the colors in the rainbow, all of the letters in the Click Here Another Lesbian Tragedy by The Five Lesbian Brothers alphabet, and all the socio-economic backgrounds.” for Info on June 22, The Men from the Boys, the late Mort Adds Mayo, “It was our way of saying the stories of the LGBTQ+ community are alive and vibrant in the theater and Crowley’s sequel to Boys in the Band, directed by Zachary Quinto it's our responsibility to come together and share them.” on June 26. The final play is Masculinity Max on June 27. On Sunday, June 28, Urie will host an online Pride Spectacular Spurred by overwhelming response, the trio decided to give “Pride Plays” a second go, this time putting out a call for submis- Concert featuring Cheyenne Jackson, John Cameron Mitchell, sions. “We invited anyone who had a play that fit our criteria — Shakina Nayfack, and other luminaries from the theater world. which really is just queer — to submit their plays,” says Urie. “We The festival also features private, invite-only workshops of 11 got over two hundred.” The works were finalized, plans were set, plays to help foster creative momentum. and then, the pandemic struck. “There's so much talent and so many voices and stories just With support from Playbill.com, “Pride Plays” was reconsti- waiting to break through,” says Nevin. “That's why we're here, tuted as an online-only festival, opening it up beyond the con- right? We're the midwife of that next generation of LGBTQIA+ fines of New York’s Greenwich Village. “How do we still mark storytellers.” As for a return to live stage productions, Nevin is optimisPride?” says Nevin of the transition to digital. “Pride doesn't go away simply because we can't gather in the way we like to gather. tic. “The theater will be back, we can bet on that. Theater has We also were very aware, as theater professionals, of how hard survived for thousands of years. Theater is not going anywhere. This is just a brief intermission.” —Randy Shulman hit the theater industry is right now.” Pride Plays continues through June. Visit www.Playbill.com. 10
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Spotlight
DOCS in the House
Freedia Got a Gun
In its 18th year, the AFI DOCS Film Festival goes virtual with a potent lineup of timely true stories.
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REPARING TO ARGUE A LANDMARK VOTING her place, he’s in the film. You see him become the new chief, rights case before the Supreme Court, an ACLU lawyer and now I'm seeing him on TV. Because he's the current chief.” Women in Blue, says Lumpkin, is programmed among “a in the dynamic documentary The Fight explains that, as a civil rights attorney, if he’s not going to commit to the struggle great group of films that look at different cities,” reflecting an now, then when? Now is the time to answer the call to action. increased focus on local governments and governors and mayThat crusading spirit courses through the films selected for the ors. “We have a series called City So Real, which is about gun 2020 AFI DOCS Film Festival, which, for the first time and for violence in Chicago. It's also about their last mayoral election. And then one of my favorites is Freedia Got a Gun, which is obvious reasons, will be held completely online. From June 17-21, starting with Opening Night selection Big Freedia, in her hometown, looking at gun violence in New Boys State, audiences can virtually screen the festival’s 59 films, Orleans. So, it's a great set of films that are looking at what's including 11 world premieres. The Fight, produced by the team going on in different parts of the country.” Another queer-themed entry, this one set in Kansas City, is behind 2016 award-winning documentary Weiner, joins a collection of downright prescient films that further demonstrate director Sharon Liese’s Transhood, described as an “in-depth the nonfiction filmmaker’s vital skill of forecasting which stories five-year journey following the lives of four kids (ages beginning at 4, 9, 12, and 15) discovering their specific trans experiences will matter. “I think that what we're seeing happening in this country alongside their families.” And several films point their lens at now is certainly something that has been building over several stories that matter outside the U.S., including the intriguing A years,” says Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI Festivals. “A lot Thousand Cuts — which follows Philippines president Rodrigo of filmmakers, they kind of see what's going on and they start Duterte’s war against the press. making their films. And over months or a year, they're kind of The diverse lineup of films and forums at AFI DOCS repobserving stories unfolding and capturing that which will ulti- resents the best use of cinema to act locally, and think globally, mately be their film. particularly at a moment of international crisis. Although the “For instance, we have a film called Women in Blue, which ongoing pandemic threatened to shutter the fest, and added is about the Minneapolis Police Department, numerous challenges to getting the show up and and, essentially, it focuses on women in the Watch the Trailer running, ultimately, “through it all, we knew that department, and on a now-former chief of police, we weren't going to cancel,” says Lumpkin. “We for “Freedia” knew that the festival was too important to our a woman who ran the police department,” Lumpkin continues. “But there was a police shooting while she audiences and to the films and the filmmakers. So, we just kept was chief, which led to her losing her job. The officer that took pushing and pushing.” —André Hereford The AFI DOCS Film Festival runs online June 17-21. Tickets for individual virtual screenings are $8, or a Screening Pass to see all festival films is $50. Visit www.docs.afi.com. 12
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KEGAN MARLING
Spotlight
Fresh Steps
San Francisco’s Fresh Meat Festival takes a leap forward with an expanded virtual celebration of trans and queer artists.
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HIS IS THE VERY FIRST TIME OUR FRESH MEAT standard fee “to screen their previous performances.” This way, Festival has ever been offered online,” says Sean Dorsey, says Dorsey, they don’t have “to do any work on top of what an acclaimed choreographer who is also the founder and they're doing right now to survive and resist in the streets and artistic director of Fresh Meat Productions, the largest transgen- in their own homes.” Even better, the festival is entirely free. “We’ve been working der arts organization in the U.S. “And this is the first time that very hard on emergency fundraising and emergency relief grants we've cracked open the festival archives to the public.” Over the past 18 years, Dorsey has assembled a festival that [to cover costs],” says Dorsey. Donations will be accepted to celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ community by centering benefit the TGI Justice Project, a Bay Area nonprofit that assists queer artists of color as well as trans and gender-nonconforming “transgender, gender-variant and intersex people inside and performers. Timed to coincide with San Francisco Pride, the outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers.” “We offer this festival as a place for people to find joy, and Fresh Meat Festival has become “a very wildly popular community event [that] is really a highlight of many folks' Pride season.” beauty, and connect,” Dorsey says, “and also to connect to the With the 19th Annual Fresh Meat Festival becoming an righteous rage and fire of queer and trans, black, indigenous, people of color, and disabled community-based all-virtual presentation, it’s expanding its reach artists. This is a balm that we need right now.” far beyond the Bay Area. The result is an expandClick Here to Dorsey is optimistic about the organization’s ed festival spread over 10 days and presentRegister for Free ing works, grouped into five diverse “reFRESH future. “We really don't know what the next two Programs,” all of which have been performed before. The variety years hold,” he says. “But we're strong, we're committed, we're of dance and movement represented ranges from voguing and scrappy and we're resourceful. And as a trans-led organization runway, hula and clogging, hip-hop and “queer bomba,” with that was founded 19 years ago when nobody was funding trans each program also featuring works of theater, live music, and arts, we know how to band together in community, and work, spoken word/poetry. The festival will pay all 31 selected artists a fundraise, and be flexible and resourceful.” —Doug Rule The Fresh Meat Festival streams through Vimeo, running on select days through Saturday, June 27. It’s free, but registration required. Visit www.freshmeatproductions.org. JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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Spotlight
Kinky Traveler
Revry launches Madison Young’s new “kinky queer travel show” and docu-series with a focus on New Orleans.
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TELL MY ACCOUNTANT WHEN WE'RE DOING MY 20, with “a delicious look at New Orleans' queer, kinky, witchy taxes that it’s important I work in every medium possible in scene that is hauntingly sexy and full of vibrant, beautiful people order to smash the patriarchy, and that my job description is sharing their sexuality.” Centered in and around the “incredible, sex-positive mansion” the Hacienda Maison, the episode, filmed sexual revolutionary,” says Madison Young. The Southern Ohio native followed her revolutionary pur- in April 2019, introduces viewers to “several sex witches” and suits to San Francisco, where, not long after high school, she offers a few “sexy seances, a little sex magic, and herbal aphrostarted running a nonprofit feminist art gallery in the Castro. disiacs.” Young, now based in Portland, Oregon, is eager to get on with “For the last 20 years, I’ve been working to de-stigmatize sex and sexuality,” Young says. She’s gone on to make several pioneer- “Queerantine,” the show’s second episode, which she hopes to ing feminist porn films, teach at an “erotic film school,” write begin filming early next month. That’s expected to air early next three books, including The DIY Porn Handbook: Documenting year on Revry along with other upcoming sojourns to sex-posiOur Sexual Revolution, produce a podcast, and develop the aptly tive hotspots such as San Francisco, Boulder, and Austin. Also in the offing are “fire play and kink amongst the cactus” in Joshua named one-woman show Reveal All, Fear Nothing. Most recently, however, Young has focused her attention on Tree, California, home to “a very hot, desert kind of energy.” Young plans to produce future Submission Possible the medium of television. “I'm currently working on the script for ‘Visiting Queerantine Island,’” she says. episodes just as quickly as the next phase of our Watch the “It’s all about how the queer and kink community is Trailer Here COVID-19 pandemic predicament will allow. “I'm so excited to have found this network. It just feels adapting to quarantine, [with] different things like a drive-through strip club, a virtual pro-dom session, and online like the best possible home for this show,” Young says of Revry, which signed on to Submission Possible just as the pandemic first sex parties.” That’s intended to become the second episode of a new hit in March. The show certainly carries on what Young sees as docu-series Young’s developing for the LGBTQ streaming plat- her life’s purpose: “To go out in the world and hold space for form Revry. Young describes Submission Possible as “a kinky people to tell their stories, and for me to tell mine, and that that queer travel show...exploring different kink and queer commu- truth and that honesty will empower others to feel safe to also nities in different cities.” The show launches Saturday, June reveal who they are.” —Doug Rule Submission Possible airs on Revry Premium this Saturday, June 20, at 9 p.m., with a rebroadcast at 11 p.m. Visit www.Revry.tv. 14
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Spotlight
Halfsmoke, Queen of the Capital, Anxo, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington
Filled with Pride
A random assortment of Pride-related events and special offers happening throughout the month of June. Compiled by Doug Rule ANXO CIDERY’S LIMITED EDITION CAN
D.C.’S ANXO Cidery toasts Pride this year by putting its flagship product in special cans that will help raise awareness and funds for Casa Ruby. Temporarily rebranded Cidre Blanc Pride, the libation will be packaged in a newly designed rainbow can and sold in a pack of four, with $1 from every purchase going to help the many transgender, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, and queer individuals served by the organization. Inside is the bright and refreshing dry cider made from GoldRush Apples sourced from farmers in Virginia and Pennsylvania, all less than 150 miles away. ANXO aims to raise over $1,000 for Casa Ruby through sales, offered in addition to a donation of $800 the company made to start off Pride month. Available throughout the month of June locally at many liquor stores as well as by sameday delivery, or national delivery to over 40 states by visiting www.anxodc.com. DC LATINX PRIDE’S VIRTUAL SERIES: LA COCINA, LA FIESTA, LA FE
The Latinx History Project is hosting a series of mostly free, donations-welcome virtual events on Facebook Live for this year’s Latinx Pride, which is also serving to raise money for several Community Partner organizations helping queer and undocumented Latinx individuals and families affected by COVID-19 across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, with a target goal of $120,000. The series continues with La Cocina, on Saturday, June 20, at 3 p.m., a two-hour cooking class with Chef Kraig focused on making pollo guisado and mofongo from ingredients purchased by participants in advance and La Fiesta, on Friday, June 26, at 8 p.m., a three-hour Latinx Digital Drag Fest featuring performances by Lady J Monroe, DIV0ID, Nicole Edge, FREDO, Darcey de la Cuadra, Ricky Rose, Drag Chylo, Natalie L Carter, Daddy Yank-Me, Asia Monroe, Tara Newhole, Leo Amante, and Mami Cohones, for just $5 per ticket plus Eventbrite fees. Visit www.facebook.com/LatinxHistoryProject. HALFSMOKE’S WEAR YOUR PRIDE MILKSHAKE
The fast-casual restaurant in Shaw has concocted a blend of vanilla ice cream, food coloring, pixie sticks and sprinkles plus a whipped cream topping. The Wear Your Pride Milkshake costs $5 — or $8 for a boozy boost (unless you visit on Sweet Tooth
Sunday and your total sale comes to greater than $15, which will shake loose a 15% discount). Meanwhile, 5% of all milkshake sales will be donated to the Capital Pride Alliance. HalfSmoke is at 651 Florida Ave. NW. Call 202-986-2079 or visit www. halfsmoke.com. IT GETS BETTER: DIGITAL PRIDE EXPERIENCE
Peppermint, the runner-up on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race who followed that up with her 2018 Broadway debut in Head Over Heels is particularly busy this Pride month. In addition to New York’s Black Queer Town Hall livestream this weekend alongside Bob the Drag Queen, Peppermint will take on hosting duties for “It Gets Better: A Digital Pride Experience.” Marking the 10th Anniversary of an organization launched by Dan Savage to help inspire young LGBTQpeople struggling with coming out, the three-day event will consist of exclusive live and pre-recorded content from Crystal Methyd, Jujubee, and Rebecca Black, an exercise led by Caleb Marshall (“The Fitness Marshall”), tutorials by social media influencers Louie Castro of YouTube and Benji Krol of TikTok, plus special appearances by Alyson Stoner, The Aces, Nick Lehmann, The Angelinos, and Rob Anderson. Viewers can #ClickIntoPride with streams from It Gets Better’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch pages between 5 and 10 p.m. during the evenings of Wednesday, June 24, through Friday, June 26. Visit www.itgetsbetter.org. JACK DANIEL’S DRAG MUKBANGS WITH LAGANJA ESTRANJA, GIA GUNN
Millions of South Koreans tune in regularly to watch some of their favorite foodies and social media stars chew the fat about current events all the while chewing their way through large portions of food. In recent years, American YouTube stars have been feasting on the trend of so-called mukbangs. And now comes a series featuring drag personalities, about COVID-19’s impact on the LGBTQ community, and part of a promotion for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire, a cinnamon-flavored whiskey. The series kicks off on Saturday, June 20, with the stuffing of Patrick Starr, a beauty consultant billed as one of the first “men in makeup” on YouTube. The boozy feeding frenzy continues on subsequent Saturdays with Gia Gunn, a transgender contestant from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6 (June 27), Cheyenne JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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Spotlight Pepper (July 4), and Laganja Estranja (July 11). Visit www. JackFirePride.com. JOE’S PUB LIVE!
A program of New York’s Public Theater, Joe’s Pub will toast “the indomitable spirit of New York City Pride” all month long with a free, donations-encouraged series featuring archived footage from past performances at the Manhattan venue. Highlights include “Purple Heart: The Music of Michael Callen,” a tribute featuring Taylor Mac, Bridget Everett, Toshi Reagon, NathAnn Carrera, Richard Barone, Xavier Smith, and Kat Edmonson, on Friday, June 19; Spirit Night, a musical comedy and magic show hosted by Henry Koperski and Larry Owens with guests including Ana Fabrega, Henry Russell Bergstein, Nora Palka, Arti Gollapudi, Ryan Haddad, and David Goldberg, on Saturday, June 20; “Kim David Smith Sings Kylie Minogue,” “an intimately fabulous cabaret-fantasia” celebrating the dance diva and starring the “male Marlene Dietrich” (per the New York Times), on Wednesday, June 24; and “Existential Life Crisis Lullaby,” Max Vernon’s musical revue that debuted at the Kennedy Center in 2018 and featuring guests including Michael Longoria, Jo Lampert, Fancy Feast, Helen Park, and Leah Lane, on Friday, June 26. All shows posted to the Public Theater’s YouTube the day-of. Visit www.publictheater.org/Calendar. LET FREEDOM SING
In March 2019, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington offered a concert in celebration of African-American influence on music and culture, shared through stories and songs reflecting diverse experiences and shared history. The organization recorded the program, so in lieu of a live Pride-themed concert this year and as a way to show support for the Black community and the #BlackLivesMatter movement through its programming, the chorus is offering free online streams of the full two-plus-hour concert recording throughout the month. A mix of tunes from jazz, gospel, R&B, pop, and Broadway, the program features covers of well-known hits by everyone from Duke Ellington to Prince, Aretha Franklin to Whitney Houston — as well as a stirring performance of the song “Glory" from the movie Selma, featuring soloists Tyrel Brown and Joshwyn Willett. Visit www. youtube.com/GayMensChorusDC. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY: HIDE/SEEK CURATORS VIRTUAL DISCUSSION
This year marks a decade since the National Portrait Gallery presented Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, touted as the first major museum exhibition to explore issues of sexuality and gender in American art and history. With Hide/ Seek, co-curators Jonathan D. Katz and David C. Ward set out to display a range of artworks and artists linked, to varying degrees and in various ways, by same-sex desire and LGBTQ identity. Katz and Ward get a chance to revisit the exhibition, its legacy, and the anti-gay outrage and ensuing censorship controversy it sparked and its legacy as the featured guests of a livestream discussion led by NPG’s Senior Historian Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, part of the “Smithsonian’s Celebrate Pride” virtual event series. Tuesday, June 23, at 5 p.m. Free but registration required to get Zoom credentials. Visit www.si.edu/events/pride. P.G. COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY: VIRTUAL PRIDE READINGS, OTHER EVENTS
The Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, with 19 branch libraries throughout the suburban Maryland county, 18
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has been presenting its virtual month-long “Pride at PGCMLS” series. The organization has also unveiled “LGBTQ+ Pride,” a new LGBTQ history and culture webpage with a well-curated collection of informative content, helpful resources, and recommended reads and streaming content — all compiled over the past year by the Library’s LGBTQ+ Working Group of staff and community members. The page will also feature short, personal videos created by LGBTQ-identifying members of the @PGCMLS staff for the global #ItGetsBetter Project. And then there are the details about the crowdsourced Virtual Community Pride Quilt project. Any member of the public can submit “a photo or video clip that describes or documents what pride means to them” for quilt consideration, with submissions accepted until this Friday, June 19 at pr@pgcmls.info. The quilt will go on display on the Library’s website and social media at the end of the month. Visit https://pgcmls.info/pride. QUEEN OF THE CAPITAL
Featuring the tagline “politics can be a drag,” Josh Davidsburg’s documentary gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Muffy Blake Stephyns’ 2014 campaign to become the Empress of the Imperial Court of Washington, D.C., the drag group whose mission is to raise money for local organizations and nonprofits. The 80-minute film, getting a limited, Pride-related national release as part of the Alamo Drafthouse’s On Demand streaming service, offers a primer into the world of drag pageantry and D.C.’s rich drag history. Streaming begins Saturday, June 20, with a virtual Q&A featuring Muffy and the filmmaker Davidsburg planned for Sunday, June 21. A 48-hour rental is $9.99. Visit www.ondemand.drafthouse.com. RED BEAR BREWING’S VIRTUAL PRIDE WEEK TRIVIA
Monday Night Trivia has returned to Red Bear Brewing Co. — virtually speaking, that is. William Burlew, better known by his drag name Logan Stone, will host five rounds of trivia, with the top three contestants/teams winning prizes IRL — in other words, physically picked up from the NoMa venue. Next week’s edition, Monday, June 22, starting at 6:45 p.m., is a special twohour Pride Week to-do. Tickets are $10 and grant the event’s Zoom credentials and Google doc for use during play. Visit www.redbear.beer/store. VICTORY FUND: TAMMY BALDWIN, PETE BUTTIGIEG
Houston’s former Mayor Annise Parker, now president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, will lead a star-studded, virtual National Pride Inside 2020 discussion focused on the important LGBTQ political races and issues ahead. Parker will be joined by U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and former Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Saturday, June 20, at 6 p.m. A Virtual Ticket costs $25. Visit www.victoryfund.org/prideinside. VIRTUAL PRIDE SHABBAT, PRIDE HAPPY HOUR & HAVDALAH
This Friday, June 19, starting at 8 p.m., GLOE of the Edlavitch DCJCC presents a virtual Pride Shabbat with Bet Mishpachah, and Nice Jewish Boys and Nice Jewish Girls, and led by Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin with musician/singer Robyn Helzner. That’s followed the next evening, Saturday, June 20, with a GLOE Virtual Pride Happy Hour & Havdalah starting at 9 p.m. led by Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser of Temple Sinai. Participants are encouraged to show their pride by wearing a solid-colored shirt in their favorite color of the rainbow. Both events are free via Zoom with registered links. Visit www.edcjcc.org/community/gloe.
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GLAAD
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Momentous Decision Supreme Court rules Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ people from discrimination. By John Riley
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N MONDAY, IN A LANDMARK DECISION BOUND to have wide-ranging ramifications, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal law prohibits employment discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Weighing in on two cases, the high court found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in employment, also applies to LGBTQ individuals who have been fired, or denied employment opportunities, or denied promotions because of their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their real or perceived deviance from traditional gender roles, or their failure to adhere to traditional sex-based stereotypes. In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld two lower court rulings. The first, from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had found that a skydiving company had illegally discriminated against Donald Zarda, an openly gay skydiving instructor, when it fired him who was allegedly fired after a client found out he was gay and complained to his supervisors. The second, from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, found that the Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman, was wrongly terminated after she decided to transition while working for a Harris Funeral Homes, a Michigan funeral home chain. Both Zarda and Stephens have since passed away. By upholding the ruling in the Zarda case, the court also overruled a 2018 decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to hear a lawsuit brought by Gerald Bostock, a former child welfare services coordinator for Clayton County, Ga., who alleged that his supervisors fired him for “conduct unbecoming” a county employee after learning that he was playing in a gay recreational softball league outside of work.
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In 2017, the 11th Circuit refused to hear a similar lawsuit brought by Jameka Evans, a lesbian security guard who alleged she was forced to leave her job because of continued harassment at the hands of superiors and co-workers due to her sexual orientation and her failure to adhere to traditional notions of femininity. However, the Supreme Court ultimately decided not to hear that case. Currently, 21 states have their own laws prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But Monday’s ruling means that similar protections exist in federal law, meaning that LGBTQ individuals who believe they have been discriminated against will be able to seek redress for wrongful firings or mistreatment on the job. Both LGBTQ advocates and opponents acknowledged that, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, its authors had understood “sex” as meaning the biological difference between males and females, based on their assigned sex at birth. However, lawyers representing Bostock, Zarda, and Stephens argued that the law should also apply to instances where a person is discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. In the cases involving sexual orientation, they argued that Bostock and Zarda would not have been fired had they been women attracted to men, thus making their sex the crucial factor that influenced their firing. In Stephens’ case, her lawyers argued that her firing — after she informed her employer, Thomas Rost, that she intended to dress in women’s clothing, consistent with her gender identity — was motivated by the fact that her assigned sex at birth differed from her gender presentation, and ran contrary to Rost’s beliefs on traditional gender norms.
theFeed Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch concurred with those arguments advanced by the plaintiffs, finding that discrimination based on a person’s homosexuality or transgender status necessarily requires an employer to consider the person’s sex and make a conscious decision to treat them differently as a result, thereby violating Title VII. “From the ordinary public meaning of the statute’s language at the time of the law’s adoption, a straightforward rule emerges: An employer violates Title VII when it intentionally fires an individual employee based in part on sex. It doesn’t matter if other factors besides the plaintiff’s sex contributed to the decision. And it doesn’t matter if the employer treated women as a group the same when compared to men as a group,” he wrote. “If the employer intentionally relies in part on an individual employee’s sex when deciding to discharge the employee — put differently, if changing the employee’s sex would have yielded a different choice by the employer — a statutory violation has occurred.” Gorsuch added: “The statute’s message for our cases is equally simply and momentous: An individual’s homosexuality or transgender status is not relevant to employment decisions. That’s because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” Gorsuch gave an example of an employer with two employees, both of whom are attracted to men. “The two individuals are, to the employer’s mind, materially identical in all respects, except that one is a man and the other a woman,” he wrote. “If the employer fires the male employee for no reason other than the fact he is attracted to men, the employer discriminates against him for traits or actions it tolerates in his female colleague. Put differently, the employer intentionally singles out an employee to fire based in part on the employees sex, and the affected employee’s sex is a butfor cause of the discharge.” He continued: “[Take] an employer who fires a transgender person who was identified as male at birth but who now identifies as female. If the employer retains an otherwise identical employee who identified as female at birth, the employer intentionally penalizes a person identified as male at birth for traits or actions that it tolerates in an employee identified as female at birth. Again, the individual employee’s sex plays an unmistakable and impermissible role in the discharge decision.” Gorsuch was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor. “There are truly no words to describe just how elated I am,” Bostock said in a statement. “When I was fired seven years ago, I was devastated. But this fight became about so much more than me. I am sincerely grateful to the Supreme Court, my attorneys, advocacy organizations like GLAAD, and every person who supported me on this journey. Today, we can go to work without the fear of being fired for who we are and who we love. Yet, there is more work to be done. Discrimination has no place in this world, and I will not rest until we have equal rights for all.” LGBTQ advocacy groups were similarly elated by the ruling. In a statement, Kevin Jennings, the CEO of Lambda Legal, said, “Finally. Today, the law, justice and fairness are on our side. Our nation’s highest court confirmed what Lambda Legal has argued for years, that discrimination against LGBTQ workers is illegal.” Lambda Legal has argued for years that discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity constitutes sex discrimination, having successfully argued the Zarda case
before the 2nd Circuit. They also obtained a successful ruling in 2017 from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Kim Hively, an adjunct professor at Ivy Tech Community College, in South Bend, Ind., who claimed she was denied a full-time teaching position, and ultimately fired, after her superiors discovered she was a lesbian. The college later decided to settle the case, which is why that decision was never appealed to the Supreme Court. “It is incredibly gratifying to have the Supreme Court confirm what Lambda Legal and others have been arguing for years — federal sex discrimination laws protect against discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” Gregory Nevins, senior counsel and the director of Lambda Legal’s Employment Fairness Project, said in a statement. “Every LGBTQ worker deserves the protections that our country’s federal law provides by its plain terms, and we are thrilled that today the Court agreed.” The National LGBTQ Task Force hailed the high court’s decision as a “watershed moment” for LGBTQ rights in the United States. “At this most challenging time for our community, the country and the world, it is heartening to see the Court decision bolstering fairness and equality in this country by affirming that LGBTQ+ people are protected from employment discrimination under federal law,” Rea Carey, the executive director of the Task Force, said in a statement. “Every person celebrating this ruling has decades of work by Black and Brown trans members of our community, in particular, to thank for the ability to work free from discrimination. “And while this is a watershed moment for fairness and equality our struggle for LGBTQ liberation, we still have work to do,” Carey added. “We must close critical gaps in nondiscrimination protections. For example, it is still legal to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in federally funded programs, including hospitals, colleges, and adoption agencies as well as discriminate against LGBTQ+, women, and others in public accommodations, including hotels and restaurants. It is critical that Congress join with the Supreme Court and the overwhelming majority of Americans to pass full federal non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people.” The LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD also praised the court’s decision. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision affirms what shouldn’t have even been a debate: LGBTQ Americans should be able to work without fear of losing jobs because of who they are,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. “The decision gives us hope that as a country we can unite for the common good and continue the fight for LGBTQ acceptance. Especially at a time when the Trump Administration is rolling back the rights of transgender people and anti-transgender violence continues to plague our nation, this decision is a step towards affirming the dignity of transgender people, and all LGBTQ people.” The Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, the executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, noted that the ruling is particularly significant for the estimated 5 million LGBTQ Americans who live in Southern states. Currently, Virginia is the only Southern state with LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination protections. “The ruling ensures a blanket of employment protections for LGBTQ people rather than the inadequate patchwork that has all but stopped at the borders of Southern states,” Beach-Ferrara JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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theFeed said in a statement. “For LGBTQ Southerners, the decision shows yet again that no one should face discrimination because of who they are or who they love. “While we’re grateful for this step forward, we all must remain committed to this month’s deepened and long overdue conversation around racial injustice. We lift up the reality that Southerners with multiple marginalized identities face multiple layers of oppression,” Beach-Ferrara added. “Black LGBTQ Southerners, for example, not only confront employment discrimination but also police brutality, anti-Black racism, and disproportionate rates of living with HIV. As we celebrate today’s ruling, we must continue to push for dignity, respect, and justice for all LGBTQ people in every sphere of life.” Justin Nelson and Chance Mitchell, the co-founders of LGBTQ pro-business chamber NGLCC, and Out Leadership CEO and founder Todd Sears issued a joint statement saying the organizations were “elated the Supreme Court has ensured a state-sanctioned license to discriminate will not be issued in this country’s workplaces” and vowing that the business community “will continue to be the catalyst for positive change for America’s diverse and marginalized communities.” “The LGBT community is a vital part of the American economy and deserves equal treatment under the law. The NGLCC and Out Leadership will continue to advocate for our community’s right to live their lives free from discrimination in their places of business and in their local communities, which this decision now affirms,” the statement reads. “This decision is a step forward for LGBT rights in the United States, and reminds all of us that the protections for other minority groups, including people of color, the differently-abled, and women, must also be upheld and strengthened.” Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, called the late Stephens a “hero” for her willingness to stand up for herself and pursue legal action against her employer. “The Supreme Court’s decision provides the nation with great news during a time when it is sorely needed. To hear the highest court in the land say LGBTQ people are, and should be, protected from discrimination under federal law is a historic moment,” Keisling said in a statement. “Aimee Stephens, Don Zarda and Gerald Bostock will have a place in the history books as people who stood up against discrimination and paved the way for groups historically excluded from legal protection.” Several LGBTQ and allied groups noted that the next logical step for LGBTQ rights would be to pass legislation like the Equality Act, which would permanently enshrine LGBTQ protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations — as well as other areas — in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. “This is a landmark victory for LGBTQ equality,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “No one should be denied a job or fired simply because of who they are or whom they love. For the past two decades, federal courts have determined that discrimination on the basis of LGBTQ status is unlawful discrimination under federal law. “Today’s historic ruling by the Supreme Court affirms that view, but there is still work left to be done,” he added. “In many aspects of the public square, LGBTQ people still lack non-discrimination protections, which is why it is crucial that Congress pass the Equality Act to address the significant gaps in federal civil rights laws and improve protections for everyone.” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the high court’s decision as “momentous,” but also trained her fire on President 22
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Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for their opposition to the Equality Act, which the Democratic-controlled House overwhelmingly approved last year. “Today, the Supreme Court has unequivocally affirmed that all Americans, regardless of who you are or whom you love, are protected from discrimination in the workplace under federal law. This momentous decision is a victory for the LGBTQ community, for our democracy and for our fundamental values of equality and justice for all,” Pelosi said. “Yet, the Trump Administration continues to advance an outrageous, hateful anti-LGBTQ agenda that risks the health and well-being of countless LGBTQ Americans and their families. And in too many places, LGBTQ individuals face continued persecution, harassment and violence, particularly trans women of color who face a disproportionately high rate of homelessness, HIV, sexual assault and murder. “To finally and fully end LGBTQ discrimination, not just in the workplace, but in every place, last year, House Democrats passed the landmark Equality Act,” she continued. “Now, Leader McConnell must end his partisan obstruction and allow the Senate to vote on this critical legislation.” Despite widespread praise for the ruling, several conservative groups decried the Supreme Court’s decision as judicial activism on the part of the majority. “The Supreme Court undermined the rule of law today. In expanding the ban of sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the court engaged in an abuse of power by legislating from the bench,” Tom Fitton, the president of the right-wing group Judicial Watch said in a statement. “There has been a years-long battle by Left to change federal law to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But Supreme Court today short-circuited the democratic process and rewrote the law without a vote of Congress but by a vote of six unelected judges.” Fitton urged Congress to take future action to “combat this judicial power grab” by explicitly passing legislation to define “sex” as pertaining only to a person’s fixed, immutable, biological sex at birth. “Today’s radical Supreme Court decision shows that the threat to the rule of law doesn’t only come from leftist rioters in the streets, but also from judicial activists on the bench,” he said, citing Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in the case. “As Justice Alito warns, today’s decision, unless fixed by Congress, could destroy women’s sports, weaken religious freedom and free speech, weaken personal privacy, and cause chaos in schools.” The anti-LGBTQ legal firm Liberty Counsel also decried the ruling, saying the ruling would have far-reaching implications, particularly with regard to transgender inclusion in sports and public accommodations — two arguments that social conservatives have deployed to cast transgender and nonbinary individuals as threats to cisgender individuals. “A plain reading of federal employment law is clear that it refers to biological male and female. The original intent and meaning of the law is clear, and the common sense reading of ‘sex’ as male and female is made even more obvious by Congress repeatedly refusing to amend the law,” Liberty Counsel Chairman and founder Mat Staver said in a statement. “When Congress refuses to amend its own law, courts have no authority to rewrite the law. Yet, that is what the majority of the Supreme Court did today.” Staver also noted that, in his opinion, Gorsuch opened the
theFeed door to a potential defense for churches and religious organizations under the First Amendment and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “The reverberations [of this decision] will involve questions such as whether churches and religious organizations will be exempted from applying this decision in their employment decisions,” Staver said. “While churches and religious organizations are not exempt from employment discrimination under Title VII based on sex discrimination, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ‘ministerial exemption’ for a church when it terminated a person who otherwise was covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act." “The majority opinion specifically states that religious employers may raise two claims not raised in this case — the First Amendment ‘ministerial exemption’ and the broader defense under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In this respect, it is worth repeating what the Court said: ‘RFRA operates as a kind of super statute, displacing the normal operation of other federal laws, it might supersede Title VII’s commands in appropriate case.’ Since there was no dissent from this section, the discussion regarding RFRA may have unanimous
support from all nine Justices. Even though Harris Funeral Homes raised RFRA below, it failed to present that question before the Supreme Court.” But Katy Joseph, the director of policy and advocacy at the Interfaith Alliance, disagreed with Staver’s contention that RFRA can be used as a defense, noting Rost had initially tried to justify his firing of Stephens by citing his religious beliefs opposing homosexuality and transgenderism. “Today, the court affirmed an inherent truth, holding that LGBTQ+ people are, and should be, protected from discrimination under federal law. In this challenging moment for our nation, the Supreme Court has delivered a watershed moment for equality. Every person, of all sexual orientations and gender identities, has inherent dignity and worth,” Joseph said in a statement. “Too often employers overstep the boundaries of personal religious freedom — the right to believe as we choose — to impose their beliefs on others through staffing decisions and workplace culture. Turning away LGBTQ+ job applicants and employees, or terminating their employment due to their identity, isn’t religious freedom — it’s discrimination.”
Alito and Kavanaugh
Dubious Dissents
Five Bizarre Excerpts From the Supreme Court’s Conservative Dissents By John Riley
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N MONDAY, THE U.S. SUPREME COURT RULED that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. While the decision was hailed by LGBTQ advocates as a “watershed moment,” a groundbreaking development, and a positive sign for the future of LGBTQ rights, it was also lamented by social conservatives, who argued that the six justices in the majority had usurped the power of Congress by extending Title VII’s nondiscrimination protections to groups that the original lawmakers who approved the law would never have intended to be covered. What has been missed during the celebrations and condemnations, however, are a few key points from the court’s two dissenting opinions — one written by Justice Samuel Alito, and
joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, and another written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The Republican-appointed justices put forth many arguments as to why the majority’s decision was wrong, including comparing the decision to a pirate ship, invoking anti-transgender “bathroom panic,” and comparing same-sex attraction to the “urge to rape.” Some of these arguments may have been overshadowed by coverage of the court’s overall decision, so here are five things you may have missed from the high court’s dissent: 1. COMPARING SAME-SEX ATTRACTION TO THE “URGE TO RAPE”
In his dissent, Alito took aim at how the majority reached its conclusion that “sex” can refer to not only a person’s biological JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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theFeed sex, but sexual orientation and gender identity. The majority found that discrimination based on a person’s homosexuality or transgender status necessarily requires an employer to take into account an employee’s sex as the key factor in their treatment, thus violating Title VII. However, Alito argued against the claim that sexual orientation or gender identity are “inextricably” linked to a person’s sex. And yes, that led him to compare same-sex attraction to the “urge to rape.” “Many things are related to sex,” he wrote. “Think of all the nouns other than ‘orientation’ that are commonly modified by the adjective ‘sexual.’ Some examples yielded by a quick computer search are ‘sexual harassment,’ ‘sexual assault,’ ‘sexual violence,’ ‘sexual intercourse,’ and ‘sexual content.’ Does the Court really think that Title VII prohibits discrimination on all these grounds? Is it unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire an employee with a record of sexual harassment in prior jobs? Or a record of sexual assault or violence? After noting that the majority opinion “does not claim that Title VII prohibits discrimination because of everything that is related to sex,” Alito added, “[I]s it plausible that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on any sexual urge or instinct and its manifestations? The urge to rape?” 2. COMPARING THE MAJORITY’S DECISION TO A “PIRATE SHIP”
Don’t adjust your reading glasses, Alito really did say that the majority opinion was “like a pirate ship.” To provide some context, Alito took issue with the majority’s deviance from a textualist approach, in which laws are meant to be interpreted based on their precise words, and the commonly accepted definition of those words. He argued that the word “sex” should refer to the ordinary meaning of that word — the biological differences between males and females that determine a person’s gender. Alito said that “sex” — whether as understood by lawmakers in 1964, or even in a modern context — is distinctly different from sexual orientation or gender identity. To support this claim, he even noted how modern pieces of legislation, such as the Equality Act, go far beyond the language of the Civil Rights Act by explicitly defining “sex” as referring to instances of discrimination based on a person’s LGBTQ status. More importantly, he said, a bill containing that interpretation has never been lawfully passed by Congress or signed into law by the president. Instead, he suggested the majority was “usurping the constitutional authority of the other branches,” and had “essentially taken [the Equality Act’s] provision on employment discrimination and issued it under the guise of statutory interpretation. A more brazen abuse of our authority to interpret statutes is hard to recall.” And then things started to get nautical: “The Court attempts to pass off its decision as the inevitable product of the textualist school of statutory interpretation championed by our late colleague Justice Scalia, but no one should be fooled. The Court’s opinion is like a pirate ship. It sails under a textualist flag, but what it actually represents is a theory of statutory interpretation that Justice Scalia excoriated — the theory that courts should ‘update’ old statutes so that they better reflect the current values of society.” 3. INVOKING “BATHROOM PANIC”
In addition to raising every possible “problem” that could stem from Monday’s decision — including housing, the consequences of allowing transgender athletes to compete based on their 24
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gender identity, and the violation of the sincerely held religious beliefs of religious employers and health care workers — Alito also fell back on so-called “bathroom panic,” invoking appeals to fear related to the presence of transgender people in restrooms or other intimate spaces. Regarding bathrooms or locker rooms, Alito said that while the court “may wish to avoid this subject,” some people have genuine concerns about sharing facilities with individuals whom they regard as members of the opposite sex. “For some, this may simply be a question of modesty, but for others, there is more at stake. For women who have been victimized by sexual assault or abuse, the experience of seeing an unclothed person with the anatomy of a male in a confined and sensitive location such as a bathroom or locker room can cause serious psychological harm,” Alito wrote. “Under the Court’s decision, however, transgender persons will be able to argue that they are entitled to use a bathroom or locker room that is reserved for persons of the sex with which they identify, and while the Court does not define what it means by a transgender person, the term may apply to individuals who are ‘gender fluid,’ that is, individuals whose gender identity is mixed or changes over time. Thus, a person who has not undertaken any physical transitioning may claim the right to use the bathroom or locker room assigned to the sex with which the individual identifies at that particular time.” 4. ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM — “IF MANY BELIEVE SO, IT IS SO” In his dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that the court should have interpreted Title VII based on its “ordinary meaning,” thus embracing the view that sex only refers to biological differences between men and women. But in the course of that justifying his argument, he pointed to past decisions by the court, noting that a large number of past justices, liberal and conservative alike, failed to embrace the idea that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination. “Since 1971, the Court has employed rigorous or heightened constitutional scrutiny of laws that classify on the basis of sex. Over the last several decades, the Court has also decided many cases involving sexual orientation. But in those cases, the Court never suggested that sexual orientation discrimination is just a form of sex discrimination. All of the Court’s cases from Bowers to Romer to Lawrence to Windsor to Obergefell would have been far easier to analyze and decide if sexual orientation discrimination were just a form of sex discrimination and therefore received the same heightened scrutiny as sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Did the Court in all of those sexual orientation cases just miss that obvious answer — and overlook the fact that sexual orientation discrimination is actually a form of sex discrimination? That seems implausible. Nineteen Justices have participated in those cases. Not a single Justice stated or even hinted that sexual orientation discrimination was just a form of sex discrimination and therefore entitled to the same heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,” he added. “The opinions in those five cases contain no trace of such reasoning. That is presumably because everyone on this Court, too, has long understood that sexual orientation discrimination is distinct from, and not a form of, sex discrimination.” 5. KAVANAUGH’S VIRTUE SIGNALING
In what some might consider a positive development, Kavanaugh, even while ruling against LGBTQ plaintiffs Gerald Bostock,
theFeed branches. “[I]t is appropriate to acknowledge the important victory achieved today by gay and lesbian Americans,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Millions of gay and lesbian Americans have worked hard for many decades to achieve equal treatment in fact and in law. They have exhibited extraordinary vision, tenacity, and grit — battling often steep odds in the legislative and judicial arenas, not to mention in their daily lives. They have advanced powerful policy arguments and can take pride in today’s result. Under the Constitution’s separation of powers, however, I believe that it was Congress’s role, not this Court’s, to amend Title VII.”
GAGE SKIDMORE
Donald Zarda, and Aimee Stephens, took the occasion to recognize the significance of the court’s decision on the LGBTQ community. The acknowledgment is a bit jarring in an opinion primarily filled with statements by Kavanaugh criticizing what he sees as the court’s failure to adhere to a textualist approach. But Kavanaugh nonetheless casts the decision as one of historical importance — even as he employs arguments, since echoed by socially conservative and right-wing groups, that the justices in the majority legislated from the bench by reading additional meaning into the text of Title VII, thus violating the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative
Carson
Shunning Shelter
HUD to allow homeless shelters to turn away transgender people. By John Riley
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HE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN Development is crafting a new rule that would allow single-sex homeless shelters to refuse access to transgender people. Under the proposed rule, single-sex shelters would be allowed to accommodate only those individuals whose biological sex at birth matches their gender identity, and could turn away transgender individuals if they have a “good faith belief” that the person “is not of the sex, as defined in the single sex facility’s policy, which the facility accommodates.” According to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the finalized rule — expected to be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks — the rule would reverse the Obama administration’s 2016 guidance requiring homeless shelters to house transgender people based on the gender with which they identify. The rule would keep in place a 2012 rule barring federal housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but, in practice, the rule change may result in transgender people facing additional hurdles when searching for a shelter that will accommodate them. Under the rule, which HUD officials have been working on since the spring of 2019, a person who is denied entrance to a shelter because of their gender identity must receive a trans-
fer recommendation to another facility. Shelter operators may choose to classify a person’s sex based on their self-identified gender. But the rule also requires shelter operators to be consistent in whether they use sex or gender identity to determine placements for transgender individuals. The proposed rule says that HUD isn’t aware of data suggesting that transgender individuals pose a threat to cisgender women, but it says there is “anecdotal evidence that some women may fear that non-transgender, biological men may exploit the process of self-identification under the current rule in order to gain access to women’s shelters.” The rule cites a lawsuit filed by the Hope Center, a faithbased women’s shelter in Anchorage, Alaska, which challenged a city ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s gender identity. HUD also notes that a nine homeless women from Naomi’s House, a shelter in Fresno, Calif., signed on to a lawsuit against the shelter’s parent company after the shelter allowed an individual identifying as female to shower with them and allegedly sexually harass them. (Other transgender individuals who have lived at the shelter have questioned whether the individual in question is actually transgender.) “HUD does not believe it is beneficial to institute a national policy that may force homeless women to sleep alongside and JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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theFeed individuals as “big, hairy men” and argued against them being allowed to access female-designated facilities. Those comments led to condemnation from Democratic members of Congress, with U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) calling for his resignation, and two other House Democrats introducing a resolution to censure him. However, in light of Monday’s Supreme Court decision finding that anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment constitutes sex discrimination, it is likely that proposals like the one touted by Carson may come under additional scrutiny. Although a lawsuit cannot be filed until the finalized rule is published in the Federal Register, LGBTQ advocates are already planning to sue should HUD move forward with its efforts to rescind the Obama-era guidance.
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interact with men in intimate settings — even though those women may have just been beaten, raped, and sexually assaulted by a man the day before,” the rule reads. But LGBTQ advocates, who have long opposed efforts by HUD — and, in particular, HUD Secretary Ben Carson — to give single-sex shelters leeway to refuse to house transgender individuals, have argued that those who are turned away may become discouraged and stop seeking out shelter due to fear of humiliation or harassment at the hands of their fellow shelter residents. Carson has previously stated his opposition to allowing transgender females — whom he referred to as “men” — sharing spaces with their cisgender counterparts. In a department meeting last September, he reportedly referred to transgender
Pandemic Pains
HRC: Economic fallout from COVID-19 has ‘hit trans community especially hard.’ By Rhuaridh Marr
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HE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANdemic has disproportionately impacted transgender people, and particularly transgender people of color, according to new research from the Human Rights Campaign. The nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization has been monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ community in partnership with PSB Research, and had previously revealed that LGBTQ people of color are experiencing greater economic impact from COVID-19 than white LGBTQ people and the wider population. Now, HRC research also shows disparities between transgender people and the wider LGBTQ community, with transgender people of color facing an even greater disparity in terms of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, more than half of transgender people overall (54%) have reported having their work hours reduced due to COVID-19, compared to less than a third (30%) of LGBTQ people overall, and less than a quarter (23%) of the general population. For trans people of color, that figure rises to 58%. 26
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Trans people are also more likely to have had their wages reduced during the pandemic — 27% of trans people overall, and 37% of trans people of color — compared to 10% of LGBTQ people overall and only 7% of the general population. “This new data makes clear that the economic fallout from COVID-19 has hit the transgender community especially hard,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “For transgender people of color, the systemic barriers in employment, housing and health care compound the hardship faced by so many during this pandemic.” He continued: “The impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ people, particularly transgender people and people of color, reinforces that we cannot protect public health without equality for all.” Among the other data in HRC’s report, they found that transgender people are also more like to have been forced to switch to part-time work or to have been made unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with those numbers again higher for transgender people of color. Trans people of color are particularly concerned about their
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finances during the pandemic, with two-thirds (67%) saying they are very concerned they cannot pay their bills on debt, compared to 59% of trans people overall, 20% of LGBTQ people overall, and only 15% of the general population. More than half of trans people of color (51%) have also had to change their household budget due to the pandemic, a disproportionately high rate. For the wider trans community and LGBTQ people overall, the rate is around one-third (32% and 30% respectively), while only 26% of the general population have modified their budget due to COVID-19. HRC also pointed to additional disparities facing the transgender community during the pandemic, including preexisting barriers and discrimination. A recent analysis of CDC data by the HRC Foundation found that 22% of trans people and 32% of trans people of color lack health insurance coverage, for instance. And for those able to access health care, discrimination remains a problem, particularly after the Trump administration last week removed discrimination protections for transgender people from the Affordable Care Act. HRC also noted in a press release that “the term ‘people of color’ does not begin to articulate the differences in experiences among individuals of various races and/or ethnicities.” “We cannot forget that data have shown that Black people have been far more negatively impacted by COVID-19 on a health and economic level than others,” HRC said.
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Last month, the organization released a report the economic impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ people of color, noting a disproportionate economic impact compared with white LGBTQ people and the general population. HRC pointed to a number of factors that are contributing to LGBTQ people of color being particularly impacted by COVID19, including Black people accounting for 22% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. despite only comprising 12% of the population. Black people and LGBTQ people are also more likely to be employed in industries that have been heavily impacted by the pandemic, including food service or restaurants, or to be working as janitors, cashiers, and stockers. In its May report, HRC noted that “poor data collection, however, has limited our understanding of the impact of this epidemic on Black LGBTQ Americans.” Alphonso David, HRC’s president, had previously warned of COVID-19’s impact on both LGBTQ and Black communities, and urged state and federal governments to collect more data on the effects of the virus on those communities. “We cannot ignore the role that bias plays in health disparities, and for that reason HRC has long called for inclusive data collection to ensure that all people are counted,” he said in a statement at the time. “Today, we call on every state to collect more data so that we can truly measure the impact on those most at risk and respond with prevention and treatment strategies that work.”
Opposing Hate
Biden
Joe Biden, Ariana Grande, Anne Hathaway and others condemn Trump’s rollback of LGBTQ health care protections. By John Riley
NUMBER OF PUBLIC FIGURES AND CELEBRITIES have slammed President Donald Trump for a new rule removing LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in health care and insurance. The rule, announced last week, redefines the Affordable Care Act’s prohibitions on discrimination “on the basis of sex” by explicitly declaring that sex is meant to be interpreted according to its “plain meaning” — or in other word’s a person’s biological sex at birth.
On Sunday, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, took to Twitter to criticize the Trump administration for its efforts. “We need a president who will fight to further LGBTQ+ equality — not roll back the hard-won progress we’ve already made,” Biden tweeted. Singer Ariana Grande shared a screenshot of an NPR headline reading: “Breaking: The Trump administration just finalJUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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theFeed NPR story shared by Grande. Actress Laverne Cox took to Twitter, writing: “It’s #pride month and this is what the federal government delivers to the #lgbtqia+ community.” Wilson Cruz, Gabrielle Union, and George Takei were some of the other celebrities condemning the move. The revised Trump administration rule also conflicts with the rationale used in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday, in which the court found that discrimination against a person solely on the basis of their sex, compared to a similarly-situated person of a different sex, constitutes sex discrimination. While Monday’s ruling only dealt with workplace discrimination, the same concept applies to a health care setting: if a person is discriminated against because their gender identity doesn’t align with their biological sex at birth, and that was the factor that determined whether they were denied care or coverage, it constitutes sex discrimination — the exact interpretation embraced by the Obama administration.
ized a rule that would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in health care and health insurance” on her Instagram, and wrote “Disgusting” in response, before sharing it, Metro reports. Actress Anne Hathaway took to Instagram to condemn the administration’s move, writing: “In the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, on the week Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells — two Black Trans Women — were murdered, Donald Trump erased Transgender civil rights protections in healthcare. “I am as angry as I have ever been,” Hathaway added. “Vote him — and all the heartless cowards that support him — out. To my Trans brothers and sisters: I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry. I love you, I stand with you, I will fight this alongside you. #VOTE.” Other celebrities also weighed in, with singer Tinashe writing “This is unacceptable” on Twitter and linking to the same
Cooper
Industry Issues A
Gay adult film star urges studios to fire racist performers, address systemic racism. By Rhuaridh Marr
BLACK GAY FORMER PORN STAR HAS URGED STUdios to cut ties with racist performers and criticized systemic racism in the adult entertainment industry. Race Cooper spoke to PinkNews about his experience working in porn, and said that racism was “a daily constant” during his time in the industry. He claimed that he was paid less than white costars, believed he was initially hired to help a major studio “appear less racist,” and called out the fetishization of Black people, as well as casting choices that force Black actors to portray “thug” types and other 28
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offensive stereotypes. Cooper, now a fitness model and host of podcast Daddy Issues, began his career at Raging Stallion in 2009 and said that he became “the only full time Black person who worked as an employee, and was the only Black exclusive contract on their roster.” “There was systemic racism at the company,” he told PinkNews. “The question of, ‘Is there anyone that you wouldn’t like to work with?’ was asked of all models and tracked with the encouragement from producers and directors to be ‘honest’ and ‘specific.’”
theFeed Cooper, who had worked in TV and film prior to porn, said actors were told to write down racial categories they wouldn’t feel comfortable working with, something which “would immediately be banned and recognized as racist” in entertainment industry, but “not in porn, where it was commonplace.” He said he was also made to feel that “Black people are worth less” after Cooper learned he was being paid $200 less per shoot than a new, white actor who was both younger and had no industry experience. “I was made to feel like I was not worthy of praise, validation, and definitely less valuable than all of the white actors,” he said. Cooper was ultimately dropped by Raging Stallion after it merged with Falcon Studios, noting that he “was the only person laid off at that time. I was also the only Black person on staff.” He also criticized the fetishization and reduction of Black men in porn to categories such as “BBC” (big black cock), saying that fetishizing skin color was “dehumanizing that person into a thing.” “Fetishization diminishes the person of color, uses them for only personal sexual gratification, and discards them when done,” Cooper said. “That impact stays with Black people who feel their worth is only in the sexual gratification they can provide to white people.” He added: “A human with a soul is reduced to a Black dildo like those you buy and own, hiding it away under your bed until you’re horny and lonely.” Cooper also urged major studios to sever ties with “known racists,” and to publicly acknowledge that white men — including straight white men in “gay for pay” roles — have been hired over gay Black men. Earlier this month, gay porn star Billy Santoro was dropped by online platform JustForFans after he tweeted that Black Lives Matter protesters should be shot. The fallout also led to a viral Twitter thread from user @
trblingtimes, which called out gay porn stars who are alleged to have made racist or bigoted comments — including one who had used the N-word and another who had compared a Black person to a chimpanzee. One gay-for-pay porn actor, Cameron Diggs, even has white supremacy symbols tattooed on his body. But Cooper said that studios should do more than just focus on those actors who have “espoused racism on social media.” “It’s not enough to only care about Black people in public, but still reduce them to objects we hide under our bed at home,” Cooper told PinkNews. “We can’t claim empathy when Black people are killed in the streets, considering we currently treat them differently in the sheets. Racism takes many forms, and our thoughts on racism and sex need to change.” In a statement, Falcon/Naked Sword president and CEO Tim Valenti said he wants to “listen and work to do better.” Acknowledging the studio’s history of predominantly white performers, he said he doesn’t want it “to be the legacy of the Falcon brand” and said the company wants to improve “racial inequality in our industry.” “I have taken steps to diversify the model pool at Falcon,” Valenti said. “While we have made strides in the right direction, we obviously have a lot more work to do. I am committed to continually evolving the Falcon brand to include more men of color, specifically black men, in all of our productions.” Cooper had previously accused Valenti of “gaslighting” for after Falcon/Naked Sword posted in support of Black Lives Matter. In a Twitter thread, he said that he had seen “allies and black actors…blackballed for speaking out against racism in the industry, or pressured to remain silent.” “I want all porn studios to examine their own racism, not defend it, not distort [it], but reflect on it,” Cooper wrote. “After that, they can take action to change. Only then, can they justly say they are working in solidarity with black communities.”
Banner Ban
U.S. embassy removes Pride flag, Black Lives Matter banner after complaint from State Department. By Rhuaridh Marr
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HE US EMBASSY IN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA removed a large rainbow flag and a Black Lives Matter banner from the outside of its building after a complaint from the State Department. Both were removed from the building on Monday, June 16, following a request from the offices of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CNN reports. The Pride flag had been on display since June 1, to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month, with the embassy writing on Facebook that it was “displaying a rainbow banner on our Chancery in support of fundamental freedoms and human rights for all.” On June 13, the embassy added a Black Lives Matter banner underneath the Pride flag, saying it “stands in solidarity with fellow Americans grieving and peacefully protesting to demand positive change.” “Our #BlackLivesMatter banner shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive & just society,” the embassy posted on Facebook. The banner was displayed with the consent of U.S. Ambassador
to South Korea Harry Harris, who tweeted, “I believe in what President JFK said on June 10, 1963, at American University: ‘If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.’ USA is a free & diverse nation…from that diversity we gain our strength.” But a few days later, both the rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter banner were removed, with CNN reporting that the request came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s office. Ambassador Harris was told to remove the Black Lives Matter banner because it is a nonprofit, which contradicts the federal government’s stance that it not encourage donations to specific organizations, according to the request from Pompeo’s office. However, Pompeo did not formally request the removal of the rainbow flag, according to CNN, and while the embassy confirmed that it was taken down along with the Black Lives Matter banner, it did not state why. In a statement, an embassy spokesperson said Ambassador Harris wanted to “highlight the enduring American values of JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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racial equality, freedom of speech, and the right to peacefully protest.” “However, the Ambassador’s intent was not to support or encourage donations to any specific organization. To avoid the misperception that American taxpayer dollars were spent to benefit such organizations, he directed that the banner be removed,” the statement said. “This in no way lessens the principles and ideals expressed by raising the banner, and the Embassy will look for other ways to convey fundamental American values in these times of difficulty at home.” The rainbow Pride flag was removed from the outside of the building just hours before a landmark LGBTQ rights ruling in the U.S., when the Supreme Court confirmed on Monday that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ workers against employment discrimination. Last year, Pompeo and the wider Trump administration drew
criticism from LGBTQ organizations after banning embassies from flying rainbow Pride flags on embassy flag poles. Embassies are still allowed to display rainbow flags or banners elsewhere on embassy properties, but the decision stood in contrast to the Obama administration where embassies had blanket permission to fly the Pride flag during June. Vice President Mike Pence later called the move to ban the flying of Pride flags the “right decision.” NBC News asked Pence what he would say to LGBTQ people, given a few days before the flag ban Donald Trump had tweeted in support of LGBTQ Pride Month. “As the president said on the night we were elected, we’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence responded, adding, “We both feel that way very passionately, but when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
Questionable Quarantine Quarter of gay and bi men had casual sex during lockdown, study finds. By Rhuaridh Marr
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SURVEY OF GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN IN THE United Kingdom has found that one in four has had casual sex during the country’s coronavirus lockdown. The research, conducted by the University of Westminster, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and others, 30
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surveyed almost 1,400 men who have sex with men, AIDS Map reports. The survey was conducted between April 17 and May 8 and focused on users of hookup apps such as Grindr. While most said they had stopped having casual sex during the COVID-19 pandemic, 24% of respondents reported engaging
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in casual sex despite the UK’s lockdown. Of the men who had engaged in casual sex, half reported only one sexual partner during lockdown. However, five percent of respondents said they had been with more than five casual partners since lockdown began. Among the reasons for breaking lockdown rules, the men said that loneliness and a need for intimate physical contact were the most important factors. One-third of respondents said they were quarantining alone, compared with one-fifth in lockdown with a romantic partner. One-fifth said they were living with parents or other family, while almost a quarter were living with housemates. Two-thirds of respondents were single, 16% were in open relationships, 8% were in monogamous relationships, and a further 8% called their relationship status “complicated.” Of those with a main sexual partner, 60% said they hadn’t been with that partner since social distancing began. The United Kingdom enacted social distancing measures in March, with the country entering a full lockdown at the end of that month. The country remains in lockdown, though it is starting to reopen and relax restrictions. “As social restrictions ease, it is highly likely that increasing numbers of men who have sex with men will re-initiate sexual activity with casual partners,” Dr. Charlie Witzel, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AIDS Map. “Our research shows we’re nearing the time-point when many felt their ability to abstain would decrease. Criminalization of sex, while being unenforceable practically, may also prevent people from accessing sexual health care during the pandemic.” In addition to casual sex, respondents were asked about pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. Two-thirds of those taking the preventative HIV drug reported that they had stopped taking it during lockdown — with lockdown-enforced celibacy cited by most as the reason. A majority of men (57%) also said they could abstain from casual sex for six months, with almost a third (30%) saying they could abstain for just three month. Harvard University recently issued guidelines regarding sex during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that abstinence is “not feasible for many,” and can also have potentially negative psychological effects. “Sexual expression is a central aspect of human health but is often neglected by [health care providers],” they write. “Messaging around sex being dangerous may have insidious psychological effects at a time when people are especially susceptible to mental health difficulties.” Researchers also offered suggestions for reducing risk of transmission for sex during the pandemic, including avoiding kissing, wearing a face mask during sex, and reducing numbers of sexual partners — though they noted that any in-person contact “results in substantial risk for disease transmission.” JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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Breaking Ground, one of BHT’s past grant recipients
Helping Hand
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BHT Foundation awards emergency grants to racial justice and civil rights organizations. By John Riley
HE BHT FOUNDATION, FORMERLY KNOWN AS Brother Help Thyself, Inc., has vowed to center the importance of providing financial support in the form of grants to organizations focusing on social justice, racial justice, and civil rights. Amid ongoing protests and demonstrations throughout the world to protest systemic racism, racial inequity, and police brutality, several LGBTQ organizations — mindful of the activist and revolutionary roots of the LGBTQ rights movement — have said they intend to stand in solidarity with black and brown communities and center their concerns. “Now, more than ever, it is vital for each and every one of us to stand against racism,” BHT said in an open letter to the community posted on its website. “‘Not acting racist’…is not enough. We must be anti-racist.” For the BHT Foundation, which provides grant money to local D.C. and Baltimore area LGBTQ nonprofits, that means standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter and other racial justice movements, and steering grants towards qualified LGBTQ organizations that specialize in fighting for social justice or standing up for historically marginalized and under-served populations. On June 4, during a special meeting of BHT Foundation’s board of directors, the board approved four emergency grants to specific civil rights organizations, with $3,000 each going to the Baltimore Action Legal Team, which defends Baltimore residents who attempt to exercise their civil liberties such as freedom of speech or freedom of assembly; the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter; and Life After Release, an organization that works with people who were formerly incarcerated. The organization also approved $1,000 to BYP100, a black 32
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youth organization focused on fighting for social justice, community organizing, and structural reform of societal institutions. In order to expedite additional funds to deserving nonprofits, BHT is suspending its regular grant cycle for 2020. An abbreviated, emergency grant cycle will launch on July 15, with an application deadline of Aug. 31 for any potential grant recipients. Grants will be awarded in mid-October. Nina Love, the president of BHT Foundation, told Metro Weekly that the organization had previously intended to hold an emergency grant cycle to help nonprofits struggling as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the importance of centering on racial justice became clear after the officer-involved death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd sparked wide-scale demonstrations. “We started looking last year at how the grant applications reflect our values as an organization,” Love said. “We are currently looking at our requirements for grant applications The threshold we have is currently $2 million in revenue for a nonprofit [wishing to receive a grant], and that is much too high, when we talk about wanting to help the underdog. “We’re trying to look at how we measure whether an organization is eligible: if they are filling a gap in resources or services, if they are demonstrating a positive impact on the community, or if they serve a population that is typically overlooked,” Love added. “We’re going to be looking at giving priority to those that receive less government and corporate support, those that have a smaller gross revenue, and those that serve under-funded and under-represented populations.” Nonprofit organizations seeking to apply for an emergency grant can apply by visiting www.bhtfoundation.org
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Voice of Justice As the Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, David J. Johns tirelessly promotes social change. Interview by Randy Shulman
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“I wish my soul had that ability to un-remember hearing George Floyd call for his mother,” says David
J. Johns. “And while that is heartbreaking, I cannot wrap my head or my heart around the reality that there are fewer people right now who are concerned about justice for Breonna Taylor. Because there wasn't a video. There are people who, in this moment, are saying to themselves, ‘Well, she must have done something to deserve it,’ or otherwise blaming her in the way that the media is inclined to blame Black and Black queer victims for their own death, because there is no public record. “There is a clip of George Floyd’s daughter,” continues the Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, “who was in the middle of, I believe, Times Square, saying, ‘Daddy changed the world.’ My thought is that while that moment might've felt good, I loathe to think about the moments where what she really wants is to talk to, hold, or otherwise hear from her father.” Johns is one voice — a very prominent voice — among millions calling for justice, calling for change, calling for an end to violence against Black and LGBTQIA+ Black people in a country that seems intent on maintaining the status quo of oppressive, systemic racism. America may finally be at a turning point, however, as the largely peaceful, profoundly defiant civil rights protests over the past few weeks have begun to show evidence of change — whether it be corporate, such as Quaker Oats retiring its rooted-in-racism Aunt Jemima brand, or political: Both the House and Senate have put forth law enforcement reform legislation, and while there are similarities, the House Democrats’ version is far more comprehensive and unyielding in its social reach, whereas the Senate Republicans seem content with just the bare minimum, the equivalent of electoral lip service. Johns is not always provided the same media buzz as his counterparts in HRC or GLAAD, but he is just as — if not more — deserving. His commentary carries weight and purpose, and his heart clearly belongs to the thousands of LGBTQ Black lives for whom he speaks. “I set my sight on him early,” says former NBJC Executive Director Sharon Lettman-Hicks, when seeking her replacement. “I realized he was the magic that we needed for representative leadership of the organization. He had the kind of voice that already had deep-seated credibility within the African American community and the civil rights community. And he could bring a perspective that the greater LGBTQ equality movement really needed.” Lettman-Hicks, who currently serves as the organization’s Board Chair and CEO, adds that, in the three years since taking the organization’s helm, Johns has “succeeded and exceeded” in building “bridges in communities.” An educator by nature and trade, the 38-year-old native of Inglewood, California, has spent the last several decades working in government and public policy. He took a pay cut from a job as an elementary school teacher to work in Washington as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Fellow in the office of former U.S. Representative Charles Rangle. His friends and family thought he “was crazy” for taking the post. But he forged ahead, subsequently working for the late Senator Ted Kennedy and former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. In 2013, Johns became the first executive director of President Obama’s White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. The lessons imparted upon him from all three men were invaluable. “Ted Kennedy taught me to take the long view. Tom Harkin 36
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taught me that it's really important to get to know people.” And Obama? “He taught him to lean into my expertise.” “The work that NBJC does is invaluable,” says author and CNN commentator Keith Boykin, who co-founded the organization in 2003. “They have a unique niche and serve a role that isn't otherwise being served, especially for people who are both Black and LGBTQ. It helps them talk about racism within the larger queer community, of homophobia in the African American community, and how we bridge the chasm between the groups. “Under David's leadership, it has become very culturally relevant,” Boykin asserts. “There are a lot of cultural issues that don't necessarily resonate in the public policy sphere, but they're really important for how Black queer people move throughout the world. And David, I think, has done a great job of finding those issues and articulating intelligent responses to them. Whether it's celebrities, or TV shows and media, or anything that's going on in the culture that affects our community, he's been there to speak about those issues. And I think that's valuable, especially in reaching younger people, because not everybody just wants to hear about legislation and policy all the time. Sometimes they're just upset about the daily experiences that they encounter in their lives.” Including experiences with the police. “The fact that Black people have been lynched, killed, murdered publicly by people that wear uniforms, whether they are white sheets or blue police uniforms is not new,” says Johns. “It has existed for as long as police systems and the prison industrial complex were created.” Johns tends to talk in long, uninterrupted passages — he has the eloquence of a skilled orator and, like a true educator, is able to distill an idea to its essence with pinpoint, often emotionally arresting clarity. His words aim for the heart as much as they do for the mind. Johns may never change the viewpoint of a man like Donald Trump, but his voice serves to amplify those who would otherwise go unheard, shedding a blaze of light on a cause, on a moment, on justice. He wants to ensure all are remembered, all are brought forward, all are treated equally. “There are some people, although fewer, who are saying the name of Breonna Taylor, and they should,” he says during a two-hour phone conversation Sunday, June 7, during the first — and arguably largest — weekend of nationwide protests over George Floyd’s murder. “There are some who are saying the name of Ahmaud Aubrey, and they should. But few are talking about Tony McDade, the Black trans man who was murdered by the police in Tallahassee, Florida, and less than 24 hours before that was a victim of a hate crime — he was beaten on camera by a group of grown men. Fewer people are talking about what happened recently to Iyanna Dior, a Black trans woman who was beaten on camera by a group of grown boys, who says that she wanted to get to a place where there was a camera, because if she was going to die, she wanted to die on camera. Or the name of McKinsley Lincoln, a Black gay man who was shot in the head in Arlington, Louisiana, a part of the country where, his family is clear, it is not okay to be Black or gay, let alone both. “And so, I'm in this space of trying to make sense of what it means for there to be this overwhelming body of evidence that makes it painfully clear for anybody who is willing to just look at it, that every day Black people, in our beautiful diversity, face challenges that are designed to break us. Literally designed to break us.” He continues: “I just thought about this. I had a [transgender] friend who celebrated her 37th birthday yesterday. The average life expectancy of a Black trans woman is around 35 or 38
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36. Walking outside of her household before COVID was an act of self defiance, an invitation to violence. We should not need for people to continue to die for us to be not only aware of, but to respond to, things that are otherwise just inhuman and don't make sense.” Johns is not without hope, however. And that hope starts with education. “I watched Sesame Street the other day as Muppets attempted to explain racism,” he says. “There's this interesting way that we have of communicating with kids in plain speak and making it simple. I live for the day when we all appreciate that the differences between us are things that we should celebrate and not fear, and not respond to with hate. It will allow us to have simpler lives, to be able to benefit from the richness of the diversity of experience. And to invest the kind of energy that we're expending trying to make sense of something that actually doesn't make sense. “It doesn't make sense that you treat somebody different simply based on a social construct like race. It doesn't make sense that someone would be denied access to public housing because of what someone thinks of who loves them. None of that stuff makes sense. And I wish that we would sit more in the discomfort of acknowledging that contradiction, rather than trying to push past it.” METRO WEEKLY: Let’s start with what’s been happening in this
country. We’ve seen days of massive protests calling for police reform, calling for an end to the systemic racism that has long plagued our country. Where other protests have died down, these have only grown in volume and intensity. What is your take? DAVID J. JOHNS: There are a number of unique factors about this moment — this literal moment in time — that have contributed to the conversation we're having. The connection to protest that exists not only in the founding origins of the enterprise of white colonization are also very much embedded in the efforts of people who have been marked by race, and affected by racism and homophobia, and all of the other things associated with power and privilege in this country. That struggle has endured for quite a long time. For hundreds of years, at this point. I think what is different about why there are people willing to risk their lives to protest and signal they are no longer willing to be patient is in part because we are all responding to a global pandemic. There are many more people who are feeling the economic weight of capitalism in ways that aren't so when people are going to work and receiving checks. People who have the luxury of having shelter and food security are otherwise forced to see very public and private reminders that Black and poor and queer people experience every day. They are now reminders of those experiences for other people to grapple with on TV screens and across digital streaming platforms and in conversations that people are having on Zoom and in real life. That's incredibly important, because so much of what people who are active are doing and asking is, "What do we do with all of this that we're seeing, that we're feeling, that we're grappling with that we otherwise can't ignore? This has been way too much for too long, and we refuse to sit on this. So let's all figure out what more we can do so that we can all live better together." It is not lost on me that all this is happening during Pride Month, and that there would not be a pride anything — let alone the very public parades with rainbows and glitter bombs and drag queens — if it were not for the sacrifice made by Marsha P. Johnson. [In 1969] Marsha P. Johnson decided to resist police violence
PHOTO COURTESY OF NBJC
“IT HAS NEVER BEEN NOR WILL IT EVER BE ENOUGH TO SIMPLY NOT BE RACIST. That's passive. It's often silent. It often doesn't require one to do anything but tell themselves, ‘I'm not a part of the problem.’ That is not enough.”
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“I LIVE FOR THE DAY WHEN WE ALL APPRECIATE THAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN US ARE THINGS THAT WE SHOULD CELEBRATE AND NOT FEAR, and not respond to with hate. It will allow us to benefit from the richness of the diversity of experience.” 40
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at the [Stonewall] bar in New York City. There was a law in the city of New York that said that homosexual people, to use their term, a term that I loathe, but homosexual people cannot handle their liquor in the way that their heterosexual, heteronormative siblings can. And so we were forced into particular places that would provide us with liquor, because we are human and should be able to access the things that other people can enjoy freely. But in that space, where queer people were harassed by the cops, and shaken down by the cops, and beaten by the cops, it was a Black woman that started what became a five-week protracted resistance to that kind of state-sanctioned oppression. MW: Do you think these current protests can, in fact, lead to genuine, lasting change? JOHNS: Yes, without equivocation. The reality is that in the last two weeks there have been significant — not necessarily watershed, yet — but significant shifts in our lived reality. Right now, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about a radical piece of legislation that has been introduced that would provide some clear and consistent protection that would honor the reality that Black lives do matter, and should matter, and have to matter, in both principle and in practice. The introduction of that piece of legislation is important. The passing and codification of it is even more important. For decades, there have been efforts to do what has been done in days. And everyone should be clear about the fact that that is a reflection of the movement. I'm an educator. I think that educators do God's work, and I accept the calling that has been placed in my life to be an educator. I've taught elementary school, I've taught college. I think so much of my work in my role at NBJC is about educating, empowering, increasing competence. I watch so many things happening with our children that are a reflection of change. Before COVID, there was a survey that more than 50 percent of high school students identified as anything other than strictly heterosexual. I often have to say in public spaces that that's not a reflection of the fact that there's a gay agenda — I still have not seen the gay agenda. I really want to see the gay agenda. If somebody would send me the CliffsNotes, that would be nice — but really, it’s a reflection of the fact that young people are aware of these socially constructed boxes around identity constructs like gender and race and sexual identity and ability, boxes that have been created around us serve to strangle all of us. They erase the beauty that is found in the diversity that exists among all of us. And so, there are many white children who are publicly processing, acknowledging, and challenging their white parents, who have access to and lean into their privilege. Kids who are crying, who are arguing with, who are protesting alongside other people who they value as humans. It is important for us to appreciate that if we don't hold people accountable, if we allow white guilt and oppression to take up space, we cannot benefit from the fullness of where we are. We should all be clear without equivocation that there has been and will continue to be change. And there will continue to be change, if only for the fact that these kids who are watching all of this are protesting. You can't un-awaken a young person who now understands what James Baldwin meant when he talked about being Black and relatively conscious in America, to almost always be in a conscious state of rage. People should account for the reality that there have been — and will continue to be — organizations like NBJC, who will remain committed to this work, because we care about Black people, and the liberation of all Black people. It's what we will continue to do. MW: Your box analogy is a very powerful one. It’s easy for society
to keep everybody assigned to their own boxes. But those boxes are breaking open. JOHNS: Maybe. But also consider that there's been a shift. Not in the boxes being real, but in the way that we can understand and highlight the fallacies around them. One of the ways that white supremacy works is to flatten race, to suggest that there is just black and there is white. We know that the physical existence of Afro-LatinX, or Afro-Caribbean people, or mixed people makes that not true. But we still write and publish books, and consume media, and entertain thought pieces that almost always obscure the beauty of diversity and simply talk about things as Black versus white. In operation, what that does is suggest that when we're thinking about Black people, we're all a monolith. That's why most people think that we all live in major metropolitan cities, we're all concentrated in ghettos, we all speak with slang. It is intentional. The stereotypes have existed to benefit white people who have access to privilege, and heterosexual and normative people who have access to privilege. There's a reason why it works. But what it does is erase so many lived realities. I spent ten years on Capitol Hill crafting policies for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Whenever groups came to lobby on behalf of issues concerning Black children, there was never a possibility that those kids could be queer — it was just assumed that they were all heterosexual or heteronormative. The words weren't even introduced in that space. Conversely, whenever the groups that are associated with the progressive white LGBTQ movement — and it's important for me to say white, because often no one says white and it's assumed that gay means white — but whenever HRC or GLSEN or The Trevor Project would lobby for gay kids and issues, there was an assumption that all of those kids were white. And that is problematic. It obscures the lived reality that there are people like me that show up in the world, who are Black and same-gender-loving. I use same-gender-loving because white is a gay male political identifier. Most Black queer people live with other Black people. We live disproportionally in the South, we live in small rural and isolated communities which get erased and obscured. We live, quite frankly, in the states where it is legal in this moment to discriminate against people tacitly based on race, as informed by racism, and legally based on actual or perceived sexual identity, gender orientation, or expression. I say that because, one, there is often a way in which the public celebration of white gayness — a la rainbows and public Pride parades in major metropolitan cities — misses the sad reality that there are a lot of Black queer people that do not have the luxury
of being out in physical spaces in the way that other people have the privilege of doing and enjoying. It also obscures the reality that there are some of us who face the twin evils of racism and homophobia — and homophobia's cousin, transphobia, and trans misogynoir, which is a thing that affects Black trans women in a unique way. Oftentimes, those twin battles by design are erased. Because too often, we are talking about what Black folks need as a monolith, or what gay folks need as a monolith, while those of us who have these intersectional identities get erased and ignored. It's why our organization exists. MW: Let’s talk for a moment about that organization, the National Black Justice Coalition. What is its central mission? JOHNS: We are the nation's only civil rights organization that is both intentional and unapologetic in acknowledging that as long as there have been Black people, there have been — even before the terms existed or changed into what they are now — LGBTQIA+ Black people. We stand firmly in the intersections of racial equity and LGBTQ equality. I say equity because it is not a belief that you give everybody the same thing. It is about acknowledging power and readdressing grievances. And so, a lot of our work has been focused in federal policy development, codification, and implementation. For example, as the members of the Congressional Black Caucus do the work of advocating for the diverse needs of Black communities, [we want] that they also account for the lived experiences and needs of Black LGBTQ people as diverse as we are. Recently, a lot of our work has included mental health. Black people, because of racism, are most inclined to need mental health support, and we're least likely to have access to it. Many of us enjoy connections to diverse communities of faith. In this moment, we have been disrupted in our ability to gather as a community and connect to and draw upon faith in ways that we are accustomed to. We also have to do a better job of being able to connect to competent and qualified mental health practitioners. A lot of our work at NBJC now is responding to increases in calls with Black LGBTQ people dealing with the effects of increased isolation, feeling depressed, experiencing death related to COVID, and not being able to mourn, grieve, or send loved ones home in the way that we have otherwise become accustomed to. So responding to that as well as the increase in suicide amongst Black youth. NBJC for more than a decade has enjoyed having relationships with historically Black colleges and universities, Black faith communities, legacy civil rights organizations like the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Action Network, and so many others who show up in spaces with Black people to
“My degrees, my associations, all of the things that I am told that would make me feel protected and safe, don't. MY BIO IS NOT GOING TO BE READ IN THE MOMENT IN WHICH A POLICE OFFICER SEES MY 6'5" BLACK BODY.” JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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increase competence. We focus a lot on the importance of engaging in dialogue, both oral or written. Much of my work over the course of my lifetime, especially at NBJC, is about reframing narratives, identifying and shattering myths, highlighting where there are resources that can help us rethink or reframe things and shift power. So much of what we do is try and provide people with the language that is sometimes needed to have stigma-free, asset-based conversations. We work to help people argue better. Appreciating that this stuff is difficult and, again, we provide resources and training and tools to hopefully contribute to ensure that these moments — what otherwise could be isolated moments — contribute to a movement. MW: I want to address the topic of defunding the police. The term has been deployed by some conservatives — Fox News’ Tucker Carlson comes to mind — as one of upheaval and alarmism, as though it’s calling for eradication of all police forces and a means of giving rise to lawlessness and anarchy. But that's not at all what it means. JOHNS: Well, I'll say two things. There are some people who are hearing exactly what they want to hear. They're listening to people like Tucker Carlson saying that what it will lead to is an upending of the oppression that is enabled by white supremacy and anti-Blackness. The sad thing is that people have used language like anarchy and the rule of law — things that are signals — and Tucker Carlson is speaking to folks who have access to privilege, who are protected in ways that other people — Black people, Black queer people, people with disabilities, people who are non-native — are not. The part that is not being discussed in the media, because it's more nuanced and because it's not as sexy or salacious, is that defunding is about divesting from police departments that have often received resources — federal resources, municipal resources, city funding, funding from taxpayers — that is designed for critical social services, things like social workers and competent mental health providers, quality public schools that exist alongside of public education systems that provide kids with access to opportunities that a whole lot of kids are born without access to. Those resources for decades in many cities — both major metropolitan, or small and rural and isolated — have been given to police departments who have not done the work of meeting these needs of the communities that they serve to the detriment of the other social service providers not being able to do that work. And so, the most important thing for people to understand about the conversation now is that it's not simply taking away funds from a city resource and giving them to someone else so that they can do something completely unrelated. It is about investing those resources with the experts, with people who are better equipped to meet those needs. There are many people who might say right now that they don't support divesting in police, but will say that you should allow experts to do what they are experts at. Think about the sad reality that in many communities, police officers and departments are the only resource for people who have needs around mental health, needs around social services, housing insecurity, food insecurity, domestic violence. It is those people who often encounter the police. And when they happen to also be Black and queer, chances increase that they will be the recipient of violence. This is a really long way of hopefully making clear that it’s about shifting resources that have already been designed for specific needs to experts who can meet those needs. MW: It certainly doesn't help that we have a president who — 42
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JOHNS: Not my president. MW: — seems intent on fanning the flames of hate and division. I
sometimes reflect on the question of whether there is racism inherent in all human beings, no matter what our outward intent. JOHNS: The short answer is yes, by virtue of the fact that we live in a society that has been structured by race. The answer is yes. My reality is that I've had to work twice as hard to get half as far as a lot of mediocre white people around me. I was told that if I took an hour-long bus ride to school each direction every single day I would get a better education that would allow me to have a better life, which meant in practice leaving my home, leaving my community. I was told that if I went to an Ivy League university, and that if I had particular kinds of jobs that I would be able to enjoy the American Dream. My reality is that I know that if I'm stopped by an agent of the state, whether that be a police officer with a badge, or in the case of my brother Trayvon Martin, a self-appointed neighborhood watch official, I’m not going to. What I know is that my degrees, my associations, all of the things that I am told that would make me feel protected and safe, don't. My bio is not going to be read in the moment in which a police officer sees my 6'5" black body, or when someone sees me holding the hand of the partner that I know that the universe has prepared for me right now, and doesn't want me to love or be loved because of how we think about sexual identity and gender orientation. All that I've done in the world won't matter in those instances where people only see me through the stereotypes that often inform why we don't have these kinds of dialogues. My hope is we can shift that. Let's entertain for a second having a conversation about the current occupant of the Oval Office without using the lens of race. He most recently had an opportunity to simply lead. And not lead in a way that required him to respond to or atone for all the problematic ass things that he said about Black people, or LatinX people, or the countries of origin that make our country beautifully diverse, or Mexicans, or people with disabilities. I could go on and name all of the people who otherwise are not white and privileged in the way that Donald Trump is, acknowledging immigrant status in the way that that is often erased when white people operate in privilege. But he could have simply led, and been thoughtful and strategic in tapping experts, and leveraging resources, including the bully pulpit that he has provided far too often to do so much damage, so that there was a coordinated effort to respond to COVID. He could have done that. He could have even decided, "You know what? I'm not equipped to do that. Let me allow folks who are appointed on a commission that I disbanded to do that work.” Or, “Let me allow people in Congress who are better positioned to do it, and I will support what it is that they do." He didn't do that. Not a conversation, not an engagement, not a meeting, not a summit, not a nothing. He could have worked with the Republican governors across the country, and the National Association of Governors, and all of the other policy entrepreneurial organizations that exist in D.C. and throughout the country, to come up with a response plan that was informed by a political party. Because we're in an election year — and again, a lot of people care about politics over people — it could've been a strategy. Like, "Here's what we're going to do, and we suggest that you all who warrant a part of it consider it." He didn't do that. What he did was lead into dividing and destroying this country. That abolishment of our country, the intentional unraveling and unweaving of the fabrics that literally make our country what it is, is an active enterprise that people are engaging in. But it's not
PHOTO COURTESY OF NBJC
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“In many communities, police officers are the only resource for people who have needs around mental health, housing insecurity, food insecurity. AND WHEN THEY HAPPEN TO ALSO BE BLACK AND QUEER, CHANCES INCREASE THEY WILL BE THE RECIPIENT OF VIOLENCE.” the protesters in the streets. It's not Black trans or queer people who've been engaging in the enterprise of trying to fix things forever. It's not Black women, both cis and trans who continue to give so many gifts to the world in spite of all of the challenges that they face. It is white supremacists who are intentional in holding on to this myth that the best parts of this country — what it means to live in a democracy that people contribute to, a country that Black people have built for free, that Black trans folks continue to sacrifice for so people can enjoy political privileges and other social liberties — that those benefits should only be held by a small few. It shows up in us remembering that there are many people who have lost their jobs, who have lost their lives, who have lost 44
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their homes, who have lost anything that otherwise helps them feel normal, while Jeff Bezos has become even richer. Those things are by design. We all have to engage with the system, public education, health system, police, jails. We all have the opportunity to acknowledge it, and leverage the tools that exist to check it and correct it. There have been lots of people that have been contributing to this effort to get people to shift from acknowledging that it is not enough — that it has never been nor will it ever be enough — to simply not be racist. That's passive. It's often silent. It often doesn't require one to do anything but tell themselves, "I'm not a part of the problem." That is not enough. As a participant in this society, as somebody who benefits from the oppression and the pain of Black people, even being able to say to somebody else “Take race out of it” is a privilege. To be able to not want to talk about race, or to name it, to say, "Can we talk about inclusion rather than talking about racism?" — all of those things are manifestations of how racism lives within us. We can all shift to be anti-racist, and anti-homophobic, and anti-transphobic, and anti-discrimination against people with a disability. We can all do that work. The question is, will we? MW: Do you think Biden can beat Trump? JOHNS: Do I think that Biden can beat him? I hope that anyone who cares about humanity and is guided by a sense of morality, or is concerned about the future of our country, appreciates that there's no other choice beyond ensuring that a person who has said on television that people should drink bleach does not have the opportunity to hold the title of President of the United States. MW: Do you have a favorite for Vice Presidential pick? JOHNS: I have confidence that any Vice Presidential pick will be more competent, more compassionate, and a better leader than any of the leadership connected to the current occupant of the Oval Office. I am careful in this moment because I struggle with having conversations around politics that feel like traditional or normal political cycles. I struggle because normal doesn't exist now. And I don't want to return to normal. To be clear, normal didn't really benefit many Black queer people. While I understand that there's an important work to be done around sharpening Joe Biden and what will be his running mate and their administration, I wholeheartedly believe that all energy should be focused on making the point that I previously made, which is that regardless of your political affiliation, your economic privilege, your whatever, unless you are a white supremacist who benefits from this country being torn apart, I don't understand why any of this is even a question. Words matter. I have to be clear about this. I need to be careful about my energy and having to channel my passion because sometimes that can be read as aggression, right? So all of that is at play when I go back to just simply saying that we don't have the luxury of another day with Donald Trump in office or another year attempting to respond to the messages of race and racism in America. We have to do better. We have to figure this out. We can. And we should. MW: Would you ever consider a run for political office? JOHNS: As a student of political science, I understand the benefits of and needs for a political leader. In this moment, I am in the arena as an advocate, as a researcher, and as a teacher. If God and the universe and our ancestors at some point have other plans, I'm confident that they will let me know. For more information on the National Black Justice Coalition, visit www.nbjc.org.
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Movies
through the day.” It so happens that getting through the day in this household might involve kneeling and kissing master’s Nikes before stripping down and getting dinner started. The tone is as laidback and casual as the nudity, with the camera Irving Park offers the safest introduction to living capturing a straightforward, nonjudgmental portrait of the dynamics, and mechana radically alternative sexual lifestyle — watching ics, shared by these four very grown men. somebody else’s. By André Hereford The onscreen action is sensual, but not photographed to appear particularly titilHE FOUR GAY MEN SHARING A HOME AND THEIR LIVES TOGETHER IN lating. Irving Park reveals enough to foster the boldly intimate documentary Irving Park never mention any form of the an informed notion of what it means to be word “polyamory.” In today’s parlance, that word might best describe the a master or a slave in this context, while arrangement between Patrick, Guy, Lynn, and Jack, but it might also be that the four- playing out the specific drama of whether some, ages ranging from 58 to 68, would disagree. They each seem to have their own or not this four-sided master-slave setup individual parameters for defining their unconventional relationship — although they will hold. No one delves too deeply into do agree on who are the masters and who are the slaves. why any of the four prefer kink to a more Author Jack Rinella (The Master’s Manual), a preeminent chronicler of BDSM and vanilla sex life, but, in a solo confessionleather culture, rules this roost benevolently, alongside fellow dom al, one member of the Lynn, a former orchestra conductor. In separate interviews, the two household questions Click Here to quasi-partners recount meeting decades earlier through an internet whether he’s “cut out” Watch the Trailer bulletin board. Busy Lynn was searching for a slave, and Jack, a masfor this arrangement. As ter. But after several years, Jack took on his own sub, Patrick, and then another, Guy. a primer to the master-slave experience, Director Panagiotis Evangelidis, aided by Araceli Lemos’ nimble editing, structures Irving Park should be quite effective at a loose but complete story from fly-on-the-wall footage of the men at home, at work, persuading viewers who might also wonout shopping, or engaged in BDSM sessions. As Guy puts it, “Ninety percent of a kinky der whether they’d be cut out for a life of sexual relationship has nothing to do with kinky sex. It just has to do with getting sexual submission or domination.
Four on the Floor
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Irving Park is not rated, and screens virtually through the Reel Affirmations online portal starting Friday, June 19. Virtual tickets are $12, and are good for 72 hours. Visit www.reelaffirmationsfilmfestival.vhx.tv. JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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Television
Victor’s circuitous journey towards the happy and normal he seeks takes several wrong turns. He and his family and friends, including best bud and downstairs neighbor Felix (Anthony Turpel), own up to major mistakes along the way — secrets, Love, Victor winds a well-acted trip through bittersweet teenage betrayals, a DUI, an unexpected pregnandrama and romance. By André Hereford cy. Hulu’s definitely grazing teen-soapy, CW territory here. But writing and perNLIKE SIMON SPIER — THE YOUNG, GAY CLOSETED HERO OF formances invested with emotional intelaward-winning novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and its appealing ligence (and just plain intelligence) ensure film adaptation Love, Simon — high schooler Victor Salazar isn’t sure he’s gay. that even the most predictable of these While Simon had to contend with coming out before a blackmailer outed him to their plotlines still offers insight or truth, and a entire school, Victor is still figuring out whether he likes boys or girls — or both. All relatable sense of dread or joy. In fact, it’s those moments in between, he knows is that he’d like to be “happy and normal,” and, if he can, remain his family’s when a scene might take the characters golden child. Hulu’s spinoff series Love, Victor (HHHHH) takes advantage of its ten half-hour from laughter to anger, discomfort, and episodes to play out Victor’s coming-of-age as an affecting exploration and discovery. tears, that Love, Victor handles especially Created by Love, Simon screenwriters Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, the show well. The show also finds a cute device for locates its heart and rhythm by episode two, overcoming some forced early exposition connecting Victor to Simon, who has an and a generally uninspired visual style. Love, Victor looks bare-bones compared to the idea what it’s like to walk in the confused blockbuster production values of streaming dramedies like Netflix’s Space Force or teen’s shoes and who provides moral support from his happy gay Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But the value is in the storytelling and direction, which develop an emotionally rich world of characters Click to Watch life via emails and texts (read in voiceover by Love, around the show’s winning lead, newcomer Michael Cimino. the Trailer Simon star Nick Robinson, As Victor, Cimino projects stability and decency stepping in as peacemaker between his often bickering parents Isabel (Ugly Betty’s amazing Ana Ortiz) and a producer on the show). As one character Armando (James Martinez), or taking care of pouty teenage sister Pilar (an excellent jokes, Victor’s coming-of-age or coming Isabella Ferreira) and younger brother Adrian (Mateo Fernandez). And he has great out might be a tale as old as time, but Love, chemistry with both Rachel Hilson, playing Victor’s girl-crush Mia, and with George Victor keeps it fresh with its heartfelt commitment to getting his story just right. Sear, Victor’s boy-crush Benji, who’s already been down the coming-out road.
Simon Says Spinoff
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HENRY DILTZ
Music
Mastered from the original recordings, Homegrown retains their intimate analog warmth. His stripped-back minimal acoustic sound is inviting and warm as it is on his legendary Harvest. Even the slight reverb on the spoken-word track Neil Young’s unreleased 1975 album Homegrown is a warm, intimate “Florida” adds a certain ambience as snapshot of his early career. By Sean Maunier Young recounts a dark, rambling story. Emmylou Harris’ backing vocals on “Try” EIL YOUNG’S LEGENDARY LOST ALBUM HOMEGROWN WAS NEVER go a long way towards making the track really “lost.” After being written, recorded, and lined up for release, it was a standout, which had it been released pulled and shelved without much explanation. At the time, it probably tracked earlier, would probably qualify as one of with the other turbulence his career experienced in the mid-1970s. It was far from the most celebrated tracks of that time in Young’s only piece of work to end up in limbo in those years, which also saw the shelv- Young’s career. ing and delayed release of Tonight’s the Night and its follow-up On the Beach, which Young has since admitted in interviews together are easily his bleakest albums to date. that he felt the album was too intensely Despite the mythos built up around this allegedly lost album, roughly half its tracks personal to see the light of day, having eventually were released later on. Homegrown (HHHHH) features early recordings of been written amid the prolonged break“Love is a Rose,” “White Line,” “Little Wing,” and “Star of Bethlehem,” not to mention down of his relationship with actress the title track that would itself later feature on American Stars and Bars. These tracks Carrie Snodgress. Other times, howevwill sound familiar, and in some cases nearly identical to their later releases, but having er, he claimed he decided to abandon them in their original context recasts them as part of the patchwork of complicated Homegrown because he felt Tonight’s the feelings Young was experiencing amid the ruptures in his personal life. Night was the stronger of the two. It is While the album as a whole is not as strikingly despairing as Tonight’s the Night, hard to disagree with Young’s assessment. the previously unreleased tracks also happen to be the most raw and Had it been released as affecting. The inner turmoil Young later alluded to is on full display planned, it would have Click Here to in the opening track, “Separate Ways,” a song that can only have been easily been eclipsed by Buy or Stream sung by someone who has all but given up. Interrupted by the cautious, both Harvest and Tonight’s pleading optimism of “Try,” his dark mood resurfaces on the brief, plaintive tracks the Night, although it has enough strong “Mexico,” and “Kansas.” Even the upbeat, toe-tapping “Vacancy” is full of a spite that points to stand up as a reasonably memois anything but subtle. rable album in its own right.
Lost and Found
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Homegrown will be available to stream and purchase on June 19. JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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SelfieScene
Be Scene! Take a selfie, and make it fun if you like, and TEXT to 202-527-9624. Be sure to include your name and city. YOU could appear in next week’s Selfie Scene!
Black Lives Matter dance party (Dallas, TX)
David and Christopher (Washington, DC)
Luke (Washington, DC)
Robert, Charles, Ryan and Isaiah (Washington, DC)
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Denise and Anne (Maplewood, NJ)
LastWord. People say the queerest things
“The struggle for equality did not end with marriage, nor did it end today. ” —Former Democratic presidential candidate PETE BUTTIGIEG, in a tweet after the Supreme Court affirmed that LGBTQ workers are protected against workplace discrimination, urging his followers to keep fighting for equality. “Conversion therapy persists,” he wrote. “Black trans women are at grave risk daily. The administration is rolling back protections at every turn. But our country has shown that it’s capable of moving in the right direction, and quickly. Sometimes. Let that be a source of hope, and urgency, in these times of anguish and expectation.”
“I’ve read the decision. And some people were surprised. But they’ve ruled and we live with their decision.” —U.S. President DONALD TRUMP, responding to news of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Civil Rights Act prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexuality and gender identity. “We live with the decision of the Supreme Court,” he continued. “Very powerful. A very powerful decision, actually.”
“These are hundreds and hundreds of small changes that we’ll make. There’s no magic bullet that will make Grindr a perfect experience.” —JEFF BONFORTE, the new CEO of Grindr, discussing with The Advocate changes planned for the gay dating app now that it is under new ownership. New COO Rick Marini said he wants the app “to be a positive place for everyone, not just the good-looking people that already have an easy enough time in society.”
“I hope you all have the opportunity to feel the unquenchable love that I am feeling right now.” —The Walking Dead star KHARY PAYTON, introducing his transgender son Karter to his Instagram followers. “This my kid. One of the most happy, well-adjusted individuals I’ve ever known,” Payton wrote. “My son, Karter. Karter with a K because it reminded him of my name. He chose it. You see, he was born female but has always identified as a boy.... [There] is nothing more beautiful than watching your child feel the joy of exploring what it means to be true to themselves. This is his journey, and I am here for it.”
“Do you think the campaign should spend some [money on] getting her laid. It will probably take three guys.” —CHRIS JANICEK, a gay Democratic candidate for Senate in Nebraska, in a group text asking his staffers if the campaign should pay for a female staffer to have sex. Janicek has since apologized, telling CNN the joke was “unacceptable,” “inappropriate,” and “wrong,” but the Nebraska Democratic Party is urging him to drop out of the race against Republican incumbent Sen. Ben Sasse, saying the party has “no tolerance for sexual harassment.”
JUNE 19, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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