Commentary
Resist March: Fighting for Our Lives
More than a social movement
When men started getting sick and dying 35 years ago we took to the streets. We demanded that the government respond to an epidemic that was obliterating our community. We fought for increased access to quality healthcare, and we stood up against homophobia. Activists changed how our government functioned, how research was conducted, and forced America to take notice of our community and the devastation we were enduring.
Activism changed our country.
There have been groundbreaking advancements in HIV research, treatment and prevention. Healthcare has been extended to millions of Americans, and the fight against HIV was instrumental in laying the groundwork for marriage equality. We’ve lived through the hard fought wins of this struggle. We’ve marched forward to advance human rights and equality.
We will not go back.
The ResistMarch on June 11 in Los Angeles is the ideal opportunity to continue the march forward in the fight against HIV.
Healthcare is a basic human right. In the U.S. that right is under sustained attack. Immigrants, who have been excluded from the ACA, struggle for access to healthcare in a country that denies their humanity. The attacks on Planned Parenthood continue and women, in particular women of color, see their options for healthcare decrease or disappear. The trans community fights just to be able to use the bathroom of their choice, as well as for access to quality and culturally competent care. This is why we march on.
We all want to be able to determine what we do with our own body, without interference from the government. Women must be able to able choose the course of their reproductive health, and abortion must be safe, legal and accessible. How one chooses to express their gender is innately personal, yet opposition to such expressions had led to harassment and violence. What consenting adults choose to do with their bodies in pursuit of sexual pleasure has been pathologized, stigmatized and criminalized. This is why we march on.
The lifetime risk of HIV for all gay men in this country is 1 in 6. For black gay men it is 1 in 2, and for Latino gay men it’s 1 in 4. However, structural homophobia and racism keep much needed prevention and treatment resources from the communities that are most severely impacted by this epidemic. Our president wants to cut $350 million from HIV funding at a time when scientific advancements have radically transformed the epidemic. PrEP is an HIV prevention pill that is 99% effective at preventing HIV when taken daily. Substantial economic and cultural barriers prevent full access to PrEP, and those that could benefit most from the prevention do not have access to it. This is why we march on.
I am HIV-positive and have been living with HIV for over 21 years. I have an undetectable viral load, which means I can enjoy a normal life span and it’s also virtually impossible to transmit the virus. Scientific advancements, activism, and a will to invest in gay men’s lives have helped us stay healthy but it also means that HIV-positive people can be active participants in our communities. We can start a business, we can build a family, we can create art and culture, and we can continue to fight for access and equality. The epidemic continues. More information, access and action is needed to bring it to an end. This is why we march on.
The world we live in has dramatically changed. Our rights are under attack, and our government is openly hostile to our communities. The progress we’ve made against this epidemic is being threatened. The health of individuals and the health of our communities are at stake. Once again, we must take to the streets to demand access and equality. We will march. We will resist. We will succeed. Our lives depend on it.
— Alex Garner is an executive for Hornet, a gay men’s social network.
Hornet is working to foster a community that is affirming and sex positive. We create opportunities to discuss HIV status and receive testing reminders because we are committed to the health and wellness of our community. We understand that it requires determination and a fighting spirit, which sometimes means taking it to the streets.
Commentary
Ukraine’s new conscription laws threaten humanitarian efforts
Ukrainian men are being pulled away from vital humanitarian work and drafted into the military under new conscription laws, according to local activists.
One huge challenge facing Ukraine’s war effort is a shortage of conscripts. Kyiv hopes new laws passed in April 2024 aimed at recruiting many more soldiers will help it get on the front foot militarily, particularly after a fresh wave of attacks from Russia in May 2024 in the northeast.
Vasyl Malikov is the Kharkiv coordinator of Alliance.Global northeastern Ukraine. The NGO provides a wide range of services to the LGBTQ community in the Kharkiv region, including HIV prevention and testing, psychosocial help, medical, and humanitarian aid.
He told me that most of the men who work with the organization to provide these services as well as their volunteers are liable to be called up for military service under the new conscription drive.
Russian invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 have resulted in a protracted war being fought along a front line stretching over several hundred miles. In August 2024 Ukraine opened a new line of attack when it pushed into Russia’s Kursk region, with reports estimating Ukraine could commit as many as 10,000 troops to the attack. Despite the widespread use of new technology on the battlefield, much of the war is being fought by more traditional means, with large numbers of soldiers armed with rifles defending the country from trenches.
The new laws aim to reinforce Ukraine’s tiring military and lower the age of conscription from 27 to 25, although volunteers over 18 are still accepted.
Ukraine has for a decade been successfully pressing the United States government and leaders in Europe for weapons to defend itself against Russian aggression, but having enough soldiers to use them is a significant challenge.
An initial target of conscripting 450,000 to 500,000 new recruits has been lowered, but it is not clear what the new number is. I’ve been regularly reporting from the front line in and around Kharkiv, the country’s second biggest city, over the last two years, and it’s obvious that Ukraine’s military is running short of personnel.
Malikov says some of the men who work with Alliance.Global have already been called into the army, and are hard to replace. “Good international practice is that many of the services we provide to LGBTQ people are best done by social workers and volunteers who come from the communities they serve (peer-to-peer),” he said.
“We do an enormous amount of work providing vital social and other support to gay men and bisexual men in and around Kharkiv. Trust is important in the outreach to these communities, and if men from our team are taken for the army you can’t just get anyone to replace them. These are experienced professionals, committed to this work.”
A few of the Alliance.Global team are exempt from the military draft on medical grounds, or for some other reason. Malikov is himself currently exempt because he is also a university professor, but this academic certificate has to be renewed every three months – a long bureaucratic process, he says, which can involve him queueing for five hours at a time.
This new challenge comes as the country’s LGBTQ community confronts a halt to progress on legislation to introduce same-sex civil partnerships, despite more than 70 percent of Ukrainians polled saying that LGBTQ people should have the same rights as other citizens. This is a huge improvement from 2010 attitudes, when only 28 percent of Ukrainians thought that “gay men and lesbians should be free to live their lives as they wish.”
Yet, as Bogdan Globa, president and co-founder of QUA – LGBTQ Ukrainians in America, notes, “thousands of LGBTQI+ are serving in the army with a civilian partner back at home. For straight couples, if something happens with a military partner (wounded or killed), a civilian partner will obtain a variety of government benefits, from cash support to housing. In the case of same-sex couples, they are invisible to the government and have no help or recognition. A civilian person has no right to even bury their partner’s body.”
Malikov says, “any Ukrainian man could find himself in the military in a matter of weeks from now, because it’s a civic duty of Ukrainian men during wartime, including any number of the 80 or more men who are part of the Alliance.Global network.”
The new recruitment drive presents new tests for his work in Kharkiv. “It makes things very difficult to plan. We don’t know who will be called up, or when, and it’s another layer of unpredictability to an already uncertain future,” he says.
For more, see Human Rights First’s new report, “New Recruits: Ukraine’s Military Conscription Laws Threaten Humanitarian Efforts,” written by Maya Fernandez-Powell and myself.
Brian Dooley is senior adviser for Human Rights First.
Commentary
There is no historical comparison to this election
Our futures are at stake so urge your family, friends to vote Harris
It is time those who keep trying to compare this election to previous elections to recognize there is no comparison. There has never been a sitting vice president running against a disgraced former president, who lost the last time he ran. There has never been an African American/Asian American woman, running for president as a major party nominee. There has never been a candidate who replaced the original candidate of a major party on the ticket, with only three months until the election.
There also has never in recent years been such a unified Democratic Party, running against not a political party, but a cult. There has never been a major party candidate running for president held liable for sexual assault and convicted of 34 felonies. There has never been a time when a woman’s right to control her own healthcare has been taken away after being considered a constitutional right for nearly 50 years. There has never been a time when a woman’s right to an abortion has been on so many state ballots. And there has never been a candidate who rants regularly on his social media platform, mostly inane nonsense, at the same time his running mate tells a sitting vice president to ‘go to hell,’ in response to something she never even said. We have never had a candidate for vice president who has in essence told women without children they are useless. The total lack of class of the MAGA Republican ticket is also something we have never seen before. So to all those like the MAGA Republican Marc Theissen, who writes in the Washington Post, saying he can compare this election to previous ones, they might want to take the time to read some history.
What’s clear is we don’t know who will win this election. We don’t know how many Americans there are who would choose to vote for a once defeated former president, convicted felon, who tried to stage a coup to remain in office. Yes, he could win even if that were to seem like an alternate reality. Unfortunately, with today’s divided electorate, we can surmise what the result in 43 states will be. It is only in seven states that there is some doubt about the result. I wish I had a crystal ball, but I don’t, and neither does anyone else. From what we have seen in recent years, polling is not an accurate predictor.
There are the types of issues in this campaign we have seen in previous elections, when wars and the economy have played a big role. Today we have divisions over the Israel/Hamas war, with debates on how the United States should deal with Israel, and the future of the Palestinian people. There is the war in Ukraine and questions some have about our continued support for Ukraine, and how we are working with our allies. Then there are what are usually called kitchen table issues: inflation, and the cost of food, gas, rent, and education. Then add the issue of crime. We know climate change is taking a much larger role in elections, especially for young people who will live longer with the results if we do nothing about it. These are the issues, even if not exactly the same, that have been around in previous elections. Yet this election is still so different.
It is what is new and scary I believe this election will be decided on. It will be decided by a very small number of voters, in a small number of states. It will be won by Harris if enough voters fully understand our democracy is actually at risk if Trump wins. They must understand the impact of the Supreme Court ruling granting a president nearly absolute immunity. Understand what happens if Trump’s acolytes, who will be in his government, remake our government based on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. It will be decided by those who understand what additional rights will be taken away if Trump is able to appoint more judges with lifetime terms to the Supreme Court, and other federal courts.
With all this at stake we still don’t know how people will vote. But I have confidence in the American people, and believe Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will win. But I also know for that to happen, they will need everyone who supports them to be out and working hard, whether raising money, knocking on doors, or talking to family and friends to get them to vote. That last one can really have the greatest impact over the next two months.
Everyone who supports the Harris/Walz ticket needs to sit down and make a list of every one of their friends and family members. Then start calling. First you need to ask each person for a commitment to vote. Then you must help them understand why their vote is so important. Explain to them they are not only voting for themselves in this election, they are voting for you.
You need to share with them what this election could mean to your life. If you are a young person concerned with climate change, explain to them they are voting to make the world safer and healthier for you, who will be living in it the longest. If you are a woman who wants to ensure you have control of your own healthcare, and the right to an abortion, explain to them why this election is so crucial to you. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community and want to ensure your rights aren’t taken away, and instead of going backwards, you have a chance to get full equality, explain to them why their vote in this election will have a direct impact on your life. If you are African American and want to ensure you have your civil rights, economic equality, the right to vote, and that the nation doesn’t go back to giving police ultimate power, and the right to ‘stop and frisk’ as Trump has stated he supports, then explain to them why this could literally be a vote for your life. If you are Latino and a Dreamer, and want the right to live safely in this country without looking over your shoulder every day, worrying about the possibility of a member of your family being deported, explain to them why this is a vote for your safety and your future. If you are Asian American and want to ensure you can live without discrimination, explain why this is a vote for you.
This election must be made to feel personal for each voter. People need to understand what electing Trump will mean to each one of us, and how it will directly impact every person’s life. You can do that by calling all your friends and family, and then asking them to call their friends, like a giant telephone tree. It will make the difference to winning or losing.
Again, in the end, this election is about all of us. It is about our individual rights as guaranteed in our Constitution. It is about what our country will look like going into the future. It is about how we interact with the rest of the world knowing we have a global economy, and the result and impact of doing nothing about climate change doesn’t stop at our border. It is about the opportunity to continue to move forward toward that ‘more perfect union,’ promised in our Constitution. So, when you speak with your friends and family do so honestly, and do it with passion. Because for all of us to live a good, safe, and healthy life, in a peaceful, safer, and healthier world, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz must win.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Commentary
Who’s afraid of Robby Starbuck?
Right-wing blogger striking fear into hearts of corporate America
The backlash against DEI and other inclusive programs at America’s largest companies continues, with news last week that Ford Motor Company will scale back its internal DEI initiatives.
The announcement follows a move by retailer Target to reduce its Pride merchandise in June and, of course, the uproar last year over Bud Light’s trans-inclusive marketing efforts.
The Ford news was first reported last week when a memo from CEO Jim Farley was leaked to Reuters by right-wing activist Robby Starbuck, “who has campaigned against DEI programs as well as corporate participation in LGBTQ events and the issuance of public statements concerning — or the deployment of business strategies to address — matters from climate change to systemic racism,” as the Blade reported.
Starbuck, a music video director-turned-anti-woke crusader claimed credit for Ford’s decision, writing that the company “fears” him. “We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies,” he said in a post on X.
No one had ever heard of this guy or his homophobic and racist campaign until recently, which begs the question: Why are some of America’s largest companies reflexively caving to these destructive demands?
In addition to Ford, Starbuck has claimed credit for sparking similar changes at Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, and most recently Lowe’s, after threatening to expose “woke policies” at the companies.
Lowe’s last week revealed in a memo that it would stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and would no longer sponsor parades and festivals like Pride celebrations.
Of course, some of these changes are normal business decisions driven by the bottom line. Does expending internal resources to comply with HRC’s criteria for a good score do anything to boost business? Are these companies hedging now in anticipation of retaliation by a Trump administration if he wins in November?
But the timing of these recently announced changes raises eyebrows given all the pronouncements by Starbuck and they are disconcerting because our corporate allies have sometimes made the difference between anti-LGBTQ laws taking effect or not.
It’s maddening that one pony-tailed blogger could scare huge corporations into abandoning affirming programs for its employees and customers. Starbuck has called DEI programs “evil” and CNN reported that his wife Landon is a leading opponent in Tennessee of affirming medical care for trans teens and drag queen story hour events.
Predictably, Starbuck is a Trump supporter whose scientifically challenged opinions have been amplified by Elon Musk. He is a climate change denier and anti-vaxxer who told CNN that LGBTQ Pride events promote sex to children, the oldest and most disgusting slur used against our community.
The corporate CEOs and boards caving to this homophobe should grow a spine.
Thankfully, the news from corporate America isn’t all bad. In April, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in a shareholder letter touted a range of programs — “from resource groups for employees who are Black, LGBTQ+, or have disabilities to a fund aimed at helping entrepreneurs of color, investments in rural communities, and recruiting efforts at historically Black colleges and universities,” according to a report in Axios. “He also said that the $30 billion racial equity commitment the bank made in 2020 was ‘nearly completed’ and would become a permanent part of the business.”
“We’re thoughtfully continuing our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” he wrote.
And earlier this week, Aetna announced that it would become the first major health insurer to offer intrauterine insemination (IUI) as a medical benefit to all members nationwide, regardless of a patient’s sexual orientation or partner status. Aetna is the nation’s third largest health insurer, so the policy change “has wide-reaching implications for LGBTQ Americans,” the company touted in a release.
For those corporate leaders searching for a response to Starbuck and his ilk, I suggest they listen to former Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette whom I interviewed for the Blade in January upon his retirement. Gennette, who’s gay, pioneered Macy’s own extensive DEI programs and disagreed with how Target and others caved to right-wing demands.
“It’s when you flip and succumb to pressure that you get yourself sideways,” he said, noting that, “It always comes back to your core values. We had Pride merchandise at the front of our stores and we were participants in Pride parades around the country. George Floyd put us on notice about being vocal about our internal programs and how you use your CEO voice to be true to what you’re doing internally.”
There remain plenty of CEOs out there who are doing the right thing. Ford, Lowe’s, and the others placating MAGA blowhards are alienating potential customers and undermining their LGBTQ employees and should reverse these misguided and cowardly decisions.
Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at [email protected].
Commentary
Log off, touch grass, and self care
Social media companies are in business to keep us logged on
Among the “Terminally Online,” someone who is so involved with internet culture that they have something of an obsession with it, is a phrase known as “touching grass.” To touch grass means to log off, engage with the real world, and prioritize one’s offline relationships. While this conjures up all kinds of images of young adults playing video games in a room full of dirty laundry, piled up pizza boxes, and crusty socks hanging everywhere—the truth of the matter is that all of us could do well to “touch grass.”
Since COVID-19 use of the internet and social media has skyrocketed. In fact, what COVID did was merely accelerate our ongoing migration into the digital world. The LGBTQ community has always been at the forefront of this migration due to the marginalized status we occupy in society. Despite what some may argue, only recently have public displays of affection become acceptable, and even today some of those exchanges are met with hostility and discrimination.
With the rise of social media has come increased use of social media apps, and one of the number one social networking sites—outside of big three (Facebook, X formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram)—are dating apps. Grindr specifically has ranked as one of the most downloaded apps in iTunes (#25 at time of writing) and in the Google play store. It is particularly interesting to consider how much of our lives we have entrusted to apps of all varieties—ranging from our favorite moments with our families, to our most intimate details. Sharing these kinds of moments might have seemed unfathomable to us in earlier decades, but today this has become second nature to most.
What many fail to realize, or chose not to acknowledge, is that social media companies are well aware of the destructive tendencies that their products tap into. Nearly every aspect of these platforms has been intentionally designed to increase user engagement, and tap into our unconscious fears and desires. We fear missing an important event, we desire romance and intimacy, and worry about missing an important email that could change the trajectory of our careers.
For decades, companies from Grindr to Facebook have employed social science researchers to harness the addictive qualities of apps. Think about it, that all too familiar “Brrrrup” notification from Grindr. It’s almost Pavlovian in the way it causes us to immediately reach for our phones wondering who has contacted us, or what pic we’ve just been sent. This sound has intentionally been designed to be distinct from other apps, and thus to attach itself to a specific part of our brain. Researchers have shown we get a dopamine hit from getting a like, retweet, share, or other response—imagine what happens to our brains when we think a romantic encounter looms around the corner.
This strategy is highly effective. Grindr has one of the largest daily returning user bases of any social media company, and its users rank among the highest for time spent on the app. That downward motion to refresh the grid of profiles in proximity to you, that’s also been engineered to increase engagement. It’s like the pull of a Las Vegas slot machine with each swipe down offering the possibility that the next grid will be the one with your soul mate. While I’ve met several gay friends who met their partners on apps, and I’ve used the app to connect with a member of parliament who gave me a private tour while in London, I’ve also met many other men with an unhealthy, if not anti-social, relationship to the app.
My own reliance on these apps was reflected back to me recently, after becoming the victim of an internet scam artist. He had used several fake social media profiles to find out my interests, learn about me, and find out how I could be best manipulated. Gay romance scams are an understudied topic, one in which only a few researchers like Carlo Charles has studied. In speaking with him I have come to understand my story is not unique, and follows an all-too-familiar pattern. I was left wondering after engaging with his work how this happened, and why it happened to me.
While in Montreal this past summer for a conference I was given an answer, and had a mirror put up in front of my face. A very attractive young man messaged me, and he was also a fellow academic. He thought he recognized me from elsewhere, but looks can be deceiving—especially amid a grid of pixelated images. I had already decided after nearly becoming the victim of a scam I wasn’t interested in hooking up, dating, or anything other than being friends—plus I was there to work and had early morning appointments. Despite my encouragement to get out there and that he’d have no problems finding someone to make out with he decided to stay on the apps, “Everyone will just pass me by, so I’ll stay here on the apps, and maybe I’ll go to the gay sauna later.”
While I’m no prude, or a stranger to the apps or the saunas, it made me realize the addictive hold apps have had on our community. Apps like Grindr have created the illusion of an endless supply of men, and that the perfect lover lies just around the corner with the next swipe. These apps also leverage social-psychological aspects of human behavior against us to increase engagement. Like Facebook, apps like Grindr have made us dopamine addicts seeking instant gratification. When you pair that with other substances these encounters can quickly become dark experiences.
The next day was the Pride parade, and it must have lasted more than an hour. I saw him on the app and encouraged him to come down. He refused thinking he would be rejected. I told him he ought to, and that I’m sorry I couldn’t meet up with him as I had to get to the airport.
My career has been spent living in rural areas—areas known to be hostile toward LGBTQ people, but also areas in which even the community can be difficult to become involved in—and apps became a way to find some semblance of community. However, like many aspects of online life, these spaces are poor alternatives to real human interaction. Despite advertising otherwise, social media companies are businesses, and their business is keeping us logged on and engaged. Perhaps the solution is for us all to touch grass, and find the beauty that exists in all things—even if it’s not the ideal.
Christopher T. Conner is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri. His latest book, ‘Conspiracy Theories and Extremist Movements in New Times’ is available from Bloomsbury Press/Lexington.
Commentary
Elect Kamala Harris — for all the people
Eloquent DNC speech highlights stark contrast to Trump
On day four of the Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris told the nation why they should elect her president. In a strong and eloquent speech, she shared her background, and her vision for the future. She talked about her family, her immigrant parents, how she grew up, her career as a prosecutor, attorney general, senator, and now vice president. She told us how she will govern, and her goals for the nation. She talked of her plans to move forward on issues including: affordable healthcare for all, affordable housing for all, affordable food, and quality, affordable education. She spoke of national security, and ensuring a strong military, of her support for our allies, and working for a safer, healthier, world.
In a perfect world every voter would read both Trump and Harris’s convention speeches before they vote. If they did, I believe Harris would win in a landslide. But this will be a close election. There are still third-party candidates like Cornell West and Jill Stein, who have no chance of winning, but their being on the ballot will only help Trump. Then there is the crazy RFK, Jr. who has now endorsed Trump. We pretty much know who will win 43 states. Only in seven: North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, is there a question. Whoever wins those, or at least enough of them to reach 270 electoral votes, will be our next president.
One feels a sense of joy when listening to Harris. She speaks clearly and positively, when sharing her approach to the world. She proudly said about her career, “every day, in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people. And to be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.” She reminded us of what we all know, Trump also only ever had one client, but in his case, it was himself.
She told us how she will govern, and what we can judge her success on saying, “we are charting a new way forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success, and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” She went on to say to women, and the LGBTQ community, “America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives, especially on matters of heart, and home.” She reminded all “too many women are not able to make those decisions. Donald Trump handpicked members of the U.S. Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom. And now, he brags “I did it, and I’m proud to have done it.”
She reminded us “As vice president, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” She went on to say “I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence. That America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership. I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”
She spoke of the Israel/Hamas war and her commitment to Israel saying, “I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas, caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.” But she also gave her commitment to the Palestinian people saying she will work to ensure that, “the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.”
She closed saying, “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children, and our grandchildren, and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.”
I ask everyone to join Kamala Harris in fighting for the ideals she is fighting for. By defeating Trump, and electing Kamala Harris the nation’s 47th president, we will make both the United States, and the world, better and safer places for us all.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Commentary
Project 2025: A time machine to send us back to invisibility
LGBTQ Americans a prime target of Trump’s blueprint
A think tank in Washington has built a time machine, an invention right out of H.G. Wells’s science fiction. They call their Time Machine a “transition plan for the next conservative President.” In fact, this plan is an invention designed to transport LGBTQ Americans back six decades to an unrecognizable landscape of isolation and invisibility.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is a policy and personnel database for MAGA warriors ready to take over all federal departments and agencies. LGBTQ Americans are nailed in “Promise #1.” Out of 992 pages, “sexual orientation” is introduced on page four — ahead of global threats, national sovereignty, the U.S. border and immigration issues, the economy, and “God-given individual rights”.
“The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors,” the Time Machine plan begins. “This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender awareness, gender-sensitive….out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contracts, grant regulation and piece of legislation that exists.”
Big government’s “purpose is to replace peoples’ natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones,” according to the Time Machine that will enforce what is “natural law” in politics and religious morality. It is ready to transport us back in time to Federal policy and personnel issues before sexual orientation, before gender awareness and our identity itself.
The fight for gay and lesbian civil equality began on the battlefield of the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Decades of investigations and ruined lives were rooted in the language of federal personnel policy. Words like “revulsion,” “notorious,” and “nasty” morphed into the numbing regulatory-speak of “proper metonyms,” “suitability” and “overt conduct.” Prior to Stonewall, the struggle for equality began in Washington with hard-fought litigation and individual plaintiff’s challenges to federal personnel policy preserved today in the briefs, opinions, activists’ letters and declassified memos in the National Archives. For gay men and lesbians in the day, it was a brutal fight to build a new world of equality and shared legal status.
The Civil Service Commission Chairman John W. Macy (1917-1986), Lyndon Johnson’s “personnel man,” in 1966 cut to the core of the federal ban on gay and lesbian employment in a three-page letter written to the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. Macy’s letter can be summarized as follows: you don’t exist.
“We do not subscribe to the view, which indeed is the rock upon which the Mattachine is founded, that “homosexual” is a proper metonym for an individual. Rather we consider the term “homosexual” to be properly used as an adjective to describe the nature of overt sexual relations or conduct… We see no third sex, no oppressed minority or secret society, but only individuals, and we judge their suitability for Federal employment in the light of their overt conduct.”
The world of John Macy is where the Heritage Time Machine will land. Homosexual is not the right “metonym” (oh, please), his figure of speech for human beings. You are not a noun. You are an adjective! You are a conduct, not an “oppressed minority.” There is no such thing as “sexual orientation.” The significance of the formal apology of the United States government delivered in 2009 by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director to Mattachine Society President Frank Kameny, would be deleted. “I am writing today that this policy (of discrimination) which was at odds with the bedrock principles underlying the merit-based civil service, has been repudiated by the U.S. Government, due in large part to your determination, life’s work, and to the thousands of Americans whose advocacy your words have inspired.” John Berry, OPM Director, continued, “I am happy to inform you that the memorandum signed by President Obama directs the OPM to issue guidance to all executive departments and agencies regarding their obligations to comply with these rules and regulations.”
For LGBTQ Americans, our greatest achievement was the establishment of identity. We are a community, a people with a shared legal status facing discrimination and hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills from state legislatures nationwide. There is a moment when the Time Traveler in Wells’s story “The Time Machine” is terrified to find himself stranded in another era. “At once like a lash across the face, came the possibility of losing my own age, of being left helpless in this strange new world.” With the Project 2025 Time Machine, we face that real possibility.
“History is written by the winners,” said Donald Trump’s Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. It was actually George Orwell who wrote, “history is written by the winners.” Barr knows his Orwell. “So it largely depends upon whom is writing the history,” concluded Barr. Will that be Heritage, or us?
Charles Francis is president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and author of ‘Archive Activism: Memoir of a ‘Uniquely Nasty’ Journey.’
Commentary
We now know ‘size matters’ to Donald Trump
Harris continues to electrify Democrats and pile up endorsements
Funny to read the debate about who has the bigger one. Trump keeps saying he does. Clearly it matters to him. Then you hear Democrats saying no, Harris does. One has to remember they are both referring to political rallies. Democrats are right, Harris has the bigger ones.
Again, we can laugh at this, but the reality for Democrats is this is screwing with Trump’s mind, and the size of the Harris/Walz rallies is a clear sign of the renewed energy that has consumed the party since Harris became the candidate and named Walz her running mate. This kind of joyful energy has clearly been missing.
Democrats now have their work cut out for them to ensure it continues for the next two and a half months. The result will be large numbers coming out to vote on Nov. 5. And all this was happening even before the Democratic convention began. It started with Harris’s first rally in Atlanta after Biden dropped out, and endorsed her. Then it continued in Philadelphia after she named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her choice for vice president, and did a joint rally with him. Since then, the large crowds have kept coming. Democrats saw them as they moved on to Michigan and then Wisconsin. What is really promising are the endorsements Harris is getting as she travels to her rallies. The first one came before her rally in Arizona. For the first time in its history, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest organization representing Latinos, founded in 1929, has endorsed a presidential candidate, Harris. LULAC’s mission “is to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.” They clearly see Harris as the person to help them achieve their mission.
Then just before Harris and Walz appeared at another huge rally in Nevada, Harris won the endorsement of the Culinary Union, in existence for nearly 90 years. It’s the largest organization of working women in Nevada, and as the endorsement noted, “the chance to elect the first Black and South Asian woman president of the USA is both energizing and historic, and we are ready to make history together.” The union represents 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno. The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak more than 40 different languages.
All this energy is clearly making a difference. The respected Cook Political Report moved Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, from leaning Republican, to toss-up. Then the NY Times/Sienna poll showed Harris up by 4% in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. All of this is a huge change in just a few weeks. Harris then campaigned in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday, Aug. 16 where she outlined some basic economic proposals. Greeting her there was a new Cook Political Report poll, which showed she had a one-point lead in North Carolina, putting the state squarely back in the swing state category.
Then on Monday, the Democratic National Convention, being held in Chicago, began. Its first day honored President Joe Biden. He was honored for more than 50 years of public service, which began when he was first elected to the New Castle County Council, Delaware, in 1970. He will leave a positive legacy not matched by many in our country’s history. In his gracious speech, he turned the party, and the mantel of leadership, over to Kamala Harris. In doing so he continues to serve the country. We heard from the incredible Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received a well-deserved lengthy standing ovation, as she talked about finally seeing Kamala Harris break that glass ceiling. Over the next few days, two more presidents will endorse Harris. Trump couldn’t even get his own vice president to endorse him. The Democrats’ only problem is how to schedule so many great speakers for prime-time TV coverage. There is a wealth of talent wanting to speak for Harris and Walz. Democrats will be speaking directly to young people, to women, to the LGBTQ community, to African Americans, Latinos, and Asians and to every American.
I have been to five conventions. The first as a 17-year-old in Atlantic City in 1964 that nominated Lyndon Johnson. The last, the history making one in Philadelphia in 2016, where the first woman to lead a major party ticket, Hillary Clinton, was nominated. This one I will watch on TV, but it is no less exciting. While Trump continues to worry about size, Kamala Harris will win this election. Then on Jan. 20, 2025 she will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Commentary
Outfest implodes amid LGBTQ assimilation and elite capture in Los Angeles
Film festival was major LGBTQ cultural institution for more than half a century
For more than half a century, Outfest: The LGBTQ Film Festival has been a major cultural institution in the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles. However, Outfest has disappeared without even a farewell or a “thank you.” The community learned of the organization’s implosion via a recent article in the “Los Angeles Times,” which announced UCLA’s “Queer Rhapsody,” a de facto L.A. LGBTQ film festival that seemingly came out of nowhere, had no LGBTQ community input, and was programmed to occur at five non-LGBTQ spaces across the city.
Three weeks ago, I conducted a quick survey of 14 gay/queer people in L.A. who are culturally and politically attuned to what is happening in the LGBTQ community. The disappearance of Outfest was shocking news to all of them, who heard it from me for the first time.
How could this happen?
I have written about the problems numerous times in various outlets. Be patient with me as I repeat the reasons again for the sake of newcomers and puja, a Sanskrit-derived word meaning “remember.”
The dominant political ideology in the LGBTQ community in L.A. and throughout the U.S. is assimilation, sometimes called “hetero imitation,” practiced particularly by the neo-homophile (1985-2010) and parts of the queer generations (2010-present). If assimilation is taken to its logical conclusion, that ideology will gradually and imperceptibly result in the disappearance of the LGBTQ community and the dilution of identity. It is happening all around us, with Outfest as the most recent example.
The paradox is that while other groups are desperately trying to create real community, where people assume responsibility for each other, LGBTQ people are blindly and unconsciously letting their community slip through their fingers.
Since about 1985, beginning with the AIDS pandemic, the evolution of the LGBTQ community has been hijacked by an elite group. This elite capture has led to a radical change in the community’s power structure, shifting from a grassroots, community-based effort where LGBTQ people were creative participants to a situation where they have become apathetic and disengaged spectators. Elite capture represents a hierarchy and values based on wealth, elite education, race, and certain sex and gender determinants — with lots of empty words and tokenism.
Recently, outstanding investigative reporting by the “New York Times” revealed how elite capture looks day-to-day at GLAAD, an important national LGBTQ media advocacy organization. This elite capture, to a greater or lesser degree, is happening throughout LGBTQ communities.
As a result of elite capture, gay-centered journalism has largely disappeared. LGBTQ news sites on social media “curate” news, often at a shallow and sensational level. Local news, like Outfest’s disappearance, has vanished, intellectually and spiritually impoverishing all of us. Incredibly, no investigative reporting occurs anywhere by the LGBTQ media, depriving LGBTQ people of critically vital information about what’s really happening in their communities. This is a historically singular type of new technology censorship.
Gay men and lesbians over 55 have disappeared at a time when they should be assuming the role of tribal elders, providing community stability, tending to our spiritual well-being, and transmitting lived learning and tribal history to our youth.
Feedback from LGBTQ people about Outfest’s implosion
A shorter, different version of this article, titled “Outfest: Call Home,” about Outfest’s mysterious disappearance, ran a week ago on Danny Battista’s and my MailChimp site called “Gay Tribal Elder,” which has been published almost weekly since 2015. Astonishingly, of the 200 articles ever published there, this one garnered the most responses from readers. Intelligent, insightful community feedback was received, which appears below without attribution since there was not enough time in the day to track down all the senders for permission.
One individual keenly observed that it was interesting Ms. Ha Duong of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and a central organizer of “Queer Rhapsody,” talked about the importance of the LGBTQ community and then listed five non-LGBTQ spaces where the films would be shown. Does this sound like hypocrisy to you? For more than half a century in LGBTQ cultural life in Los Angeles, Outfest played a unifying community role of great historical and political importance. Does screening “Queer Rhapsody” in five non-LGBTQ film sites sound like more disunity and fragmentation to you?
Another reader linked me to two important articles that suggest labor union organizing by Outfest workers was involved somehow in its demise. One article in the Hollywood Reporter (Sept. 26, 2023) by Mia Galuppo reported that 11 Outfest staff members announced plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America Local 9003 as Queer Filmworkers United. QFU requested that the Outfest board voluntarily agree to the unionization so that a vote supervised by the National Labor Relations Board would not be necessary.
A second article, titled “Outfest Board to Voluntarily Recognize New Union After Laying Off 5 Employees,” by Brian Welk appeared on *IndieWire* (Sept. 29, 2023.) The five laid off were union organizers, a common anti-union tool used by union busters. The laid-off workers were Martine McDonald, director of creative development, the only Black Outfest staff member; Gabi Grossman, senior programming coordinator, the only trans worker; Alex Gooter, development coordinator; Hanson Bursic, marketing manager; and Daniel Crooke, senior programmer.
CWA and QFU stated that the union agreement was not valid until the board signed the QFU mission statement, which, at that time, had not been done. CWA filed a labor grievance with the NLRB in this matter.
The Outfest board said the layoffs were planned before the union organizing began. The board had been planning to downsize the organization for financial reasons. In all fairness to the board, the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to the income of nonprofit cultural organizations. The important questions are: Why was the LGBTQ community not informed about this crisis? Does the leadership of LGBTQ organizations, characterized as quasi-corporate and under the control of elite capture, lack the skills, experience, and community consciousness needed to sustain those groups, such as Outfest, that started out as grassroots, community-based endeavors?
Additional reader feedback stated that Outfest folded due to a power struggle between the board and its executive director, David Navarro. The quick progression of events in September 2023 does make a person wonder and question. On Sept. 26, 2023, the 11 workers petitioned the board to unionize; on Sept. 28, 2023, the board seemingly agreed to the union provisionally but not legally; then, on Sept. 28, 2023, Executive Director Navarro announced “an unanticipated leave of absence for at least 45 days”; then board member Zachery Alexander Stephens, declaring how much the board loves unions, resigned from the board and was appointed acting executive director; and then silence. Anyone who knows about nonprofit governance knows the board legally has the apex power, and the executive director serves at the discretion of the board. Was it a power struggle that wiped out one of the major LGBTQ cultural institutions in Los Angeles without a bang or a whimper?
One of the items that caught my eye was the admission by the Outfest board president, Dr. Nii-Quaterlai Quartey, that the board was having difficulty reaching a “quorum,” the minimum number of board members needed to legally transact its affairs. This is sometimes a dodge, or it more likely meant the organization was divided and in big trouble. Why was there no local community news about this precarious situation in the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles?
UCLA, which helped to feed my intellectual growth in a doctoral program in 1968 and 1969, has grown into an elitist institution and is extremely wealthy. Does the fact that the UCLA Film and Television Archive is now programming “Queer Rhapsody,” the de facto LGBTQ film festival in Los Angeles at five non-LGBTQ locations without any community involvement, mean that assimilationist ideology and elite capture have taken over another community institution, tearing it from its community roots? Anything torn from its roots will wither and die.
Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., 86, is a pioneer gay liberationist, a founder of the LA LGBT Center, the Van Ness Recovery House, and the international Radical Faeries movement. He now spends his time working, writing, eldering, and dancing to dirty music.
Commentary
Don’t sit out the election or vote third party
Get energized, support Democrats, and defeat Trum
We are facing difficult choices in the next 14 weeks. Democrats will decide formally who will replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. We already know Republicans have chosen Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. I agree with President Biden and support Kamala Harris, with either Sen. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.), or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, as her running mate.
But, whoever it is, to those of you thinking of not voting, or voting third party, my questions to you are simple: Can you live in a world in which Donald Trump is president, and his MAGA cult runs the country? Can you live in a world where the president of the United States is a climate denier? Can you live in a world where the president of the United States continues to give tax deductions to the rich, while the poor and middle class, are suffering? Can you live in a world where the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is eliminated, and if a bank goes under your account is no longer insured? Can you live in a world where women no longer control their own health care, and abortion is illegal? Where doctors who dare to perform an abortion to save the life of a woman, can be jailed? Where Vance said, when asked whether anti-abortion laws should have exceptions for rape and incest exceptions, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Can you live in a world where transgender persons can no longer get healthcare? Can you live in a world where the president thinks it’s OK for 37 states to allow members of the LGBTQ community to be thrown out of their job, and home, just for being who they were born to be? Can you live in a world where the president can call out the army to quell a demonstration, like he did for the one supporting Black Lives Matter? Can you live in a world where the president openly says he will protect anyone who is a white Christian, and end all diversity programs in schools and colleges? Can you live in a world where it will be OK to have Bible classes, and prayers, in every public school across the nation? Can you live in a world where America spends billions to build up our military, attempts to build an iron dome over our country, but refuses to help the rest of the world? Can you live in a world where we say it’s OK for Putin to take Ukraine? Can you live in a world where there is no chance for the Palestinian people to ever be free, or have their own state?
I ask these questions because that is what you will get if Trump and Vance are in the White House. How do I know? Because they have said so. Both in the Republican platform, which has now been approved, and in Project 2025, which Trump’s closest advisers in the Heritage Foundation have set as the blueprint for his administration. I haven’t made these things up. They are real, and to me, very frightening. I am older, and won’t live that long with the ravages of climate change, but young people will suffer their whole lives. I am not a woman, but women will continue to see options to control their own healthcare eroded. I am not Black, so I will not see my voting rights eroded. I am not an immigrant, so will not be looking over my shoulder every minute wondering if I am next to be deported. But I am gay, and will also suffer under Trump and Vance. The bottom line is, we will all suffer.
The only way to fight this fascist pig, who has been held liable for sexual assault, convicted of 34 felonies, is a proud misogynist, sexist, racist, and homophobe, is at the ballot box. We must never condone violence of any kind. We must all call that unacceptable, and call out anyone who would consider it. So, it is at the ballot box we can win, and defeat Trump and Vance. We can only do that by voting for whoever the Democratic candidate will be. Voting for a third party is throwing away your vote, in essence aiding Trump. No third party candidate has won since 1865, and in the last 36 years, none has ended up with more than 5% of the vote. None will in 2024.
So, I plead with you: Think about the world you want to live in. If you do, I am confident on Nov. 5, 2024, you will vote for the Democrat, whoever that is.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
Commentary
Joe Biden, our fiercest ally
Outgoing president leaves powerful legacy for LGBTQ equality
President Biden bowed out of the presidential race on Sunday after weeks of pressure following his debate performance in June. He leaves a long record of support for the LGBTQ community as a key part of his powerful legacy and he has raised the bar for future presidents when it comes to fighting for our community.
We’ve never had a fiercer ally in the White House — a president who pledged to make LGBTQ rights his top legislative priority and described anti-transgender discrimination as the “civil rights issue of our time.” He has celebrated Pride month with us each year as well as the Trans Day of Visibility and taken criticism from the right for it. He includes us in the State of the Union Address and other high-profile speeches.
Young voters mustn’t get complacent; such sentiments from a sitting president are not the norm. Biden’s leadership on LGBTQ equality means the next Democratic president has big shoes to fill. Vice President Kamala Harris would certainly continue Biden’s work toward equality, specifically by pushing for passage of the Equality Act, which Biden backed and which passed the House but died in a Senate filibuster in 2021.
Biden has changed the game in myriad ways, especially when it comes to LGBTQ inclusion in federal appointments. The country has never had a Senate-confirmed openly LGBTQ Cabinet member before (no, Ric Grenell doesn’t count as he was not confirmed). Pete Buttigieg’s tenure as Transportation Secretary has seen its challenges, but he has proven himself a capable, polished executive unafraid of taking on Fox News antagonists. As the Victory Fund noted this week, “LGBTQ+ people have received a record number of federal appointments, including Cabinet members, judges, and around 14% of the administration.” In addition to Buttigieg, he appointed Dr. Rachel Levine as the first out transgender person to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. And Biden made more history, naming Karine Jean-Pierre, a Black lesbian, as his press secretary.
It’s outrageous that it took until 2021 for an out Cabinet secretary and thanks to Biden, we can look forward to many more.
Biden also led in advocating for marriage equality, endorsing the idea days before his boss President Obama in 2012 and just six months before the election. It was a bold and brave move that even LGBTQ advocates discouraged. As president, Biden fought successfully to preserve marriage equality in the increasingly likely event that the historic Obergefell ruling is overturned by our discredited MAGA Supreme Court. The Respect for Marriage Act ensures that the federal government and all U.S. states and territories must recognize same-sex and interracial marriages. Biden signed it and held a massive event on the White House lawn bringing together hundreds of LGBTQ advocates from around the country for a truly joyful celebration of the landmark legislation.
In a historic move just last month for Pride, Biden pardoned veterans who were discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“This is about dignity, decency, and ensuring the culture of our Armed Forces reflect the values that make us an exceptional nation,” he said.
Biden began his term on Jan. 20, 2021, and on that very day, issued an expansive executive order detailing workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans and prohibiting discrimination in education, credit, health care, and housing. And every month since, his administration has ushered in one pro-LGBTQ initiative after another, a list too long to fully recap here. Biden isn’t finished advocating for us. On Aug. 1, new Title IX rules go into effect protecting LGBTQ students from discrimination by expanding existing civil rights law.
It’s a staggering record of support and the LGBTQ community owes Biden and his team a tremendous debt of gratitude. Biden will be remembered fondly and revered by history for taking down Donald Trump, rebuilding our economy, leading us out of a pandemic, and for showing future presidents how to fully embrace and empower the LGBTQ community. He has more than earned our thanks — and a long, healthy retirement in Rehoboth Beach.
Kevin Naff is editor of the Washington Blade. Reach him at [email protected].
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