Finally some LGBTQ arts & crafts!
What took so long?
Well, I decided on a whim to start an LGBTQ newsletter, so I thought I’d better put together a first issue. Let’s try it out and catch up on some of the news from the past few days.
How safe am I in my own city?
This year, Pride has been marked by what seems a noticeable uptick in anti-LGBTQ violence, including right here in Washington, DC where I live. That includes the murder of Zoe Spears, the second trans woman of color to be murdered in the region this year, as well as the gang beating of a young gay couple who had just moved to town.
My colleague Casey Quinlan attended a vigil Friday night calling for the end to violence against trans women of color. You should read their report, which features the voices of many local trans people discussing their fears and the way they’re fighting for a safer community.
Majid and Ahlam’s underground railroad
I really hope everyone will check out this great story from BuzzFeed’s J. Lester Feder about two activists who have helped rescue LGBTQ people from ISIS in Iraq. Not only are Majid and Ahlam saving lives, they’re helping change the legal discourse around wartime oppression of LGBTQ people:
Davis said she believes the evidence Majid and Ahlam helped assemble against ISIS could transform law on the persecution of LGBT people in a similar way to how a prosecution of the Rwandan genocide helped spur the world to view rape in wartime should be treated as seriously as genocide. They have compiled an indictment of ISIS’s crimes that will be impossible for the international community to overlook.
The story is a reminder not only of how far behind LGBTQ rights are in certain parts of the world, but also the reality that there are many Muslim people who identify as LGBTQ or otherwise support LGBTQ rights. That was also exemplified today by Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) tweet thread about marching in Twin Cities Pride this weekend:
What makes a school Catholic?
One of the stories playing out this week is about a Jesuit high school in Indianapolis that refused to fire a teacher for marrying their same-sex partner. The local archdiocese formally decreed Friday that the entire school was no longer “Catholic” as a result. (Only an institution as old as the Catholic Church still “decrees” anything.)
For years, we’ve heard countless stories about Catholic parishes and schools firing employees simply for acknowledging their sexuality or marrying their partners. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a previous case in which a school refused to comply with the homophobic orders from Catholic leadership, so Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School definitely deserves credit for taking a stand.
But the Church’s reaction is also new (even if the attitude isn’t), and I think it speaks to how entrenched anti-LGBTQ views really are in formal Catholicism. (It made quite clear just how transphobic it is this month as well.) According to this decree, firing a queer teacher is a litmus test for being Catholic; if you refuse to discriminate, you no longer count. It’s such a harsh contradiction with the reality that Catholics have long polled as the most LGBTQ-friendly religious group in the country. As far as the Church is concerned, it seems, none of those allies are actually Catholic.
“Michaels” was plural all along
Michaels is the biggest arts & crafts chain in the country, and this week, it joined the “Open to All” campaign, a public commitment to creating an LGBTQ inclusive environment for both employees and customers. It’s about time! I’m sure drag queens alone make up a measurable portion of their revenue!
But what I find really odd is that it took Michaels this long to realize how much it has to gain from reaching out to its LGBTQ customers. Hobby Lobby, one of its main competitors, spent years in the spotlight highlighting its anti-women and anti-LGBTQ views as it fought to dismantle Obamacare. It just seems like a missed opportunity for Michaels to have made clear back then that they had a different approach.
Still, I’m glad Michael and Michael no longer have to pretend to be roommates and I can only imagine their wedding will be glamorous.
PrEP for all and all for PrEP
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) proposed legislation this week that would make PrEP free for most patients. Experts have agreed for years that making PrEP widely available and affordable is a crucial pillar of ending the HIV epidemic, and it’s been great to see lawmakers bring the heat on Gilead for caring more about Truvada profits than saving lives.
President Trump declared earlier this year a somewhat-underwhelming plan to “defeat AIDS” (or “cure” it as he said in his campaign re-re-re-kickoff this week), which does include increasing access to PrEP. Given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been steadfast in opposing almost anything Democrats propose, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s willing to make an exception for something his dear president claims to want.
Condo won’t condone Pride flag
One of the things I’d like to do in this newsletter is highlight some stories that are more local or maybe slightly lower stakes, because I think it’s important to see some of the day-to-day intolerance that plays out in the world. This story from St. Petersburg is a great example. All this woman wanted to do was fly a Pride flag on her balcony to show support for her queer friends and neighbors, but someone complained, so now she has to remove it or her condo board will fine her.
If St. Petersburg truly wants to become Florida’s gay tourism capital, it’s going to have to get used to seeing some rainbows during Pride Month.
There’s rewriting history and then there’s fiction
I also want to use this newsletter to highlight some of the extreme voices spreading anti-LGBTQ messages in this world. While I appreciate not wanting to elevate their views, I think it’s important to keep track of the ideas they’re spreading so we’re ready to debunk them when we hear them.
This week I want to highlight a nasty extremist from my home state of Pennsylvania. Diane Gramley, head of the American Family Association of PA, is a wicked woman doing some nasty work in the rural parts of The Keystone State you don’t hear much about. (Check out the 2009 documentary Out in the Silence for plenty of evidence to substantiate my descriptors.) As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Gramley has an interesting interpretation of what happened back in 1969.
On a podcast about the “menace” of Gay Pride Month, Gramley claimed that the police raiding the Stonewall Inn “were actually trying to rescue a young boy who identified as transgender” who “was being used sexually.” This claim is completely bogus and has absolutely no basis in reality. I’m not even sure I quite understand how it squares with her claim that the “real goal” of Pride “is to indoctrinate and they are seeking to promote their deviant sexual behavior.”
It’s hard to tell whether Gramley actually believes this hogwash or if she just invented it as a justification her condemnation of LGBTQ people. The NYPD, by the way, issued a long overdue apology for the raids this month. They didn’t mention Gramley’s imaginary trans youth sex abuse victim.
A credit to their name
Mastercard has rolled out a “True Name” program to ensure that trans and gender nonconforming customers have cards that match their identity, even without legally changing their name. This will protect the safety of so many people! I’ll let them explain in the campaign’s video:
That’s enough for now
I started this newsletter on a whim and figured I better put an issue out to give a sense of what I’m envisioning. This was probably a bit too long, but I hope you enjoyed it!
Feel free to let me know your feedback as I figure out what this is going to look like moving forward. And thanks to the couple dozen people who already subscribed! Please share on social media and let your friends know so they can subscribe too!
(Photo Credit: Mike Mozart via Flickr.)