At the start of the new school year in New York, a trans, Jewish teacher at Brooklyn’s Magen David Yeshivah was outed by parents and forced by the school from her job.
Talia Avrahami, who holds a master’s degree in Jewish education from Yeshiva University, was hired shortly before the school year began.
Following parents’ night at the yeshiva, which serves a mostly Syrian Orthodox community, video of Avrahami introducing herself went viral on YouTube and WhatsApp, with accusations that Avrahami was masquerading as a woman. People dug up pictures from before she transitioned and shared them on social media platforms.
Two Orthodox outlets, in posts since removed, disparaged Avrahami’s hire as shocking and “insane.” She was doxed, with her home address published online. The family was forced from their Washington Heights apartment for fear of reprisal. Video of Avrahami leaving her building with her husband and child with bags packed on Friday was posted to an Orthodox YouTube channel.
That video was shot the same day Avrahami was forced to resign her position as a social studies teacher.
According to a spokesperson for Avrahami, the yeshiva told her she wasn’t a good fit for the school. Avrahami agreed to take her salary through January in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement, barring her from disparaging the school publicly.
Over the weekend, the yeshiva sent an email to parents addressing the vacancy: “Please be advised that beginning Monday, September 19th, your child will have a replacement teacher for Social Studies.”
“It’s sad to see that some people want to derail our lives,” Avrahami told The Times of Israel. “We’re questioning whether or not our entire lives are ruined or not. It’s tough.”
“They’re posting pictures of our family, they’re posting where we live, we’re getting death threats. They’ve somehow taken videos outside our home,” she said.
Despite the fact Avrahami signed a non-disclosure agreement with the school, she retains the right to make claims under civil rights employment law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the protections of Title VII against discrimination applies to people who are LGBTQ.
Last week, Avrahami posted to Facebook seeking a “lawyer with expertise in defamation, contract law and human rights issues.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that would have helped low-income LGBTQ people gain easier access to treatment and prevention services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Newsom said he supported the STI Prevention & Treatment Fairness Act, but that there simply wasn’t enough funding to accomplish what it sought to do.
The bill, which was sponsored by Equality California, would have expanded access to STI health services to low-income people with confidentiality concerns (including LGBTQ people) through California’s Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (PACT) program.
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But Newsom explained that the bill would expand the definition of “family planning” beyond the federal definition, “thereby creating a state-only program that creates significant ongoing General Fund cost pressure not accounted for in the budget.”
“With our state facing lower-than-expected revenues over the first few months of this fiscal year, it is important to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing,” Newsom also noted in his veto message, adding that “Bills with significant fiscal impact, such as this measure, should be considered and accounted for as part of the annual budget process.”
Craig E. Thompson, CEO of the LGBTQ Health nonprofit APLA Health expressed disappointment in Newsom’s veto.
“As the latest data from the CDC makes clear, the STD epidemic is only growing worse in California and across the U.S. — with syphilis rates up nearly 28% in the last year alone,” Thompson told the Bay Area Reporter. “APLA Health will continue advocating for forward-thinking policy and funding initiatives to address this crisis, including ensuring that all LGBTQ+ Californians have access to convenient, low-cost sexual health services regardless of ability to pay.”
BLUE CAFTAN (France/Morocco/Belgium/Denmark, narrative feature, dir. Maryam Touzani) Set at a bespoke dress shop in Morocco, this unusual love-triangle tale avoids heated melodrama, instead exploring the lives of its three main characters with intimacy and great tenderness. Expert performances and a stirring resolution reveal the complexities and profundities of enduring love. In Arabic with English subtitles – California Premiere
BODY PARTS (US, documentary feature, dir. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan) Hollywood stars and relative unknowns alike share their experiences shooting sex scenes for TV and movies in this wide-ranging primer on the perils of being female in Hollywood. Deftly intercut among the interviews, including with Alexandra Billings, are copious movie clips illustrating how women’s bodies have been used throughout movie history. – California Premiere Expected in person: director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Producer Helen Scheer, Intimacy Coordinator Sarah Scott
CHARCOAL (Argentina/Brazil, narrative feature, dir. Carolina Markowicz) Writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s satire centers on an upheaval in the quiet life of a rural Brazilian family as they accept an ominous proposal. With utterly fearless performances, this drily funny, evocative debut confirms Markowicz as a talent to watch. In Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish with English subtitles – US Premiere Expected in person: director Carolina Markowic, actor Maeve Jinkings
CLOSE (Belgium/Netherlands/France, narrative feature, dir. Lukas Dhont) This assured character drama and queer coming-of-age film, the Grand Prix winner at Cannes, examines the bond between two 13-year-olds (Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele) who seem inseparable—until tragedy strikes. Belgian director Lukas Dhont (Girl) collaborates with his sensitive young actors to create a snapshot of boyhood so intimate and entrancing that it resembles a dream. In Dutch, Flemish, and French with English subtitles – Bay Area Premiere Expected in person: director Lukas Dhont
ERIN’S GUIDE TO KISSING GIRLS (Canada, narrative feature, dir. Julianna Notten) Following the trials and tribulations of gay middle-schooler Erin (Elliot Stocking) on a quest to experience her first kiss, this tender and witty ode to today’s youth advocates for being your authentic self, while highlighting the messiness inherent in growing up. Ages 11+ – West Coast Premiere Expected in Person: director Julianna Notten, actor Elliot Stocking
• Screener available
MY POLICEMAN (UK/US, narrative feature dir. Michael Grandage) A story of forbidden love and changing social conventions, My Policeman follows three young people – policeman Tom (Harry Styles), teacher Marion (Emma Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (David Dawson)– as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Linus Roache), Marion (Gina McKee), and Patrick (Rupert Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Based on the book by Bethan Roberts, director Michael Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.
TAR (US, narrative feature, dir. Todd Field) A transcendent Cate Blanchett brilliantly portrays Lydia Tár, one of the greatest composer-conductors who never lived: a genius, an EGOT, and the first ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra. Todd Field’s inventive and fascinating character study explores the dynamics of international classical music with a wily sensibility. – West Coast Premiere
THE WHALE (US, narrative feature, dir. Darren Aronofsky) From Darren Aronofsky (Variety Contenders, MVFF37) comes The Whale, the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. Starring Brendan Fraser and based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter. – West Coast Premiere Expected in person: actor Brendan Fraser will accept the MVFF Award for Acting
SHORTS
CARDIFF (Carlos Ormeño Palm, UK 2022, 25 min) Hailing from one of the most vibrant LGBTQ communities in the UK, this joyously campy tale tells of a single gay man who falls in love with his married friend’s lover. – World Premiere
• Screener available
JUST JOHNNY (Terry Loane, Ireland 2021, 19 min) Maria, Dermot, and their son Johnny live in West Belfast. Their conventional, straightforward family life is jolted when Johnny tells his Mum that he wants to wear a dress for his upcoming First Holy Communion. – California Premiere
• Screener available
LAST CALL (Drew de Pinto, US 2021, 4 min) Under looming threat of closure, and with phantoms of the past and future bleeding into the present, the caretakers of San Francisco’s historic queer bars carry on among phantoms of the past and future. – World Premiere
• Screener available
MAMA HAS A MUSTACHE (Sally Rubin, US 2021, 10 min) Based on interviews of elementary school-aged children, the film uses sound clips from the kid and animation to explore how children are able to experience a world outside of the traditional gender binary.
• Screener available
MERRY GO ROUND (Ella Fields, US 2022, 14 min) With the knowledge that the clock is ticking away, Pepper and June explore how love can exist within distance, memory, and a non-linear perception of time.
ONE LIKE HIM (Caitlin McLeod, Jordan/UK 2022, 16 min) A man seeks to confront a childhood friend,who was his first love, while being forced to relive painful memories of his past.
• Screener available
THE QUEEN’S CLOSET (Cameron Grace Ford, Ava Wolf & Joe Tourk, US 2021, 8 min) A non-fiction look at three drag icons in San Francisco. Uti, the owner and founder of the Piedmont Boutique for 50+ years, Andy who just arrived from Jackson Hole Wyoming and Miss Mary Lou Pearl, a queen using drag to raise money for AIDS research.
• Screener available
RIP TIDE (Luisa Dantas, US 2022, 13 min) A trip to the beach carries some emotional weight for a queer couple.
• Screener available
SMALL GAY TRAGEDY #1 (Rose Schlossberg, US 2022, 4 min) When Rose finds new queers in her small town, she can’t believe her eyes.
About Mill Valley Film Festival Presented by the California Film Institute, the 45th Mill Valley Film Festival runs October 6-16, 2022. MVFF is an acclaimed eleven-day cinema event celebrating the best in American independent and world cinema. Located just north of San Francisco, the Festival is known as a filmmakers’ festival and the West Coast launch pad for many Academy Award®-winning films. MVFF has earned a reputation for launching new films and creating awards season buzz. The festival welcomes more than 200 filmmakers representing more than 50 countries annually.
About California Film Institute The California Film Institute (CAFILM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting film and media arts through the presentation of the internationally acclaimed Mill Valley Film Festival, now in its 45th year, DocLands Documentary Film Festival, and the ongoing cultivation of the next generation of filmmakers and film lovers through CAFILM Education. CAFILM Education features a broad range of activities, including screenings, Q&A sessions, seminars with top international & local filmmakers and industry professionals, and a rich program of classes and hands-on workshops. Additionally, CAFILM acts as a year-round film-centric town hall with a diverse calendar of programming at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, one of the leading non-profit independent theatres in the country. The art of storytelling through film enables CAFILM to touch 275,000 guests throughout the year with films and events that entertain and address a breadth of social, environmental, and cultural issues. CAFILM is also the majority owner of the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley, California. CAFILM relies on the generosity of its community to sustain these core programs; the invaluable support of our sponsors, foundations, individual donors, and members ensures our continued success. For more information, visit cafilm.org.
The California Film Institute and the Mill Valley Film Festival are located in Marin County, California, on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary homelands of the Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples. This includes the Southern Pomo and Graton Rancheria Tribes. These tribes were removed or displaced from their lands. We recognize this history and the harm to present-day Coast Miwok, Pomo, and Wappo peoples and to their ancestors. The California Film Institute commits to moving forward from a place of authenticity and working with present-day tribes to elevate their stories, history, and present-day legacy through film.
Supporters CAFILM is once again proud to acknowledge the leadership support of Christopher B. and Jeannie Meg Smith, Project No. 9, Jennifer Coslett MacCready, Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation, and Vickie Soulier, and the continued major support of Marin Community Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Gruber Family Foundation, and Resonance Philanthropies. We are also fortunate to have the contributions of the following Signature and Major Sponsors of the Mill Valley Film Festival: Jackson Square Partners, Lucasfilm, Ltd., Wareham Development, and Bellam Self Storage and Boxes.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS 45th Mill Valley Film Festival Celebrating the best of independent and world cinema alongside high-profile and prestigious award contenders. Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 16, 2022
Ticket On-Sale Dates Advance Ticket Packages and Passes on sale August 1, 2022 General Public Single Tickets on sale Monday, September 13, 2022 CFI members can purchase single tickets in advance of the public beginning Friday, September 9, 2022
MVFF45 Bay Area Screening Venues: San Rafael: Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center – October 6 – 16, 2022 Mill Valley: CinéArts Sequoia – October 6 – 16, 2022 Larkspur: Lark Theater – October 8 & 9 + October 15 & 16, 2022 Berkeley: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive – October 8 – 16, 2022 San Francisco: The Roxie Theater – October 15 & 16, 2022
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Monday reiterated his government does not support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
In a video posted to his Facebook page on Monday, Hichilema said Zambia is a country deeply rooted in Christianity and therefore does not support same sex relations. The president’s remarks came after Dr. Brian Sampa on Sept. 15 held an anti-LGBTQ rights protest.
The police stopped Sampa’s protest, which was to have taken place at the State House in Lusaka, the country’s capital. Officers said he did not have the necessary permits and told him and the handful of other protesters to instead approach the country’s Gender Ministry.
“Zambia is a Christian nation it’s clear! We all agree, but sometimes we want to extract sections of our communities and say these are not Christians. Religion in diversity. Churches in diversity but one body of Christ and I want to say it is not right,” said Hichilema in his video. “I have been following what is happening in the country and to say that the new dawn government is promoting lesbian rights or gay rights that is not right. We have said it before in opposition and now in government that we do not support gay, lesbian rights as a government.”
“The records are there,” he added. “The media houses carry those records from years back but now in the last recent days people are propagating in churches preaching about lesbian rights that is divisive you know, the new dawn government this and that it’s not right let’s focus on unity, let’s focus on materiality, things that matter for this country, our children keeping them in school matters more than the peripheral petty side of a divisive behavior.”
Sampa, meanwhile, has said he will be leading another anti-LGBTQ protest under the banner #BanNdevupaNdevu (#BanBeardonBeard) on Sept. 28. He said he plans to deliver a letter to the State House pertaining to what he labelled “the rise in unnatural acts like homosexuality.”
“Our fight is non-political. It’s for Zambians regardless of your color, creed, religion or political affiliation,” said Sampa on Facebook. “The president needs to be making it clear to those ambassadors from some countries our stance about homosexuality. Here we chase ambassadors who support homosexuals because it’s criminal under our constitution. The government has got power to end all this, but we are lacking political will against homosexuality. Use the law to the latter.”
“Parents make time to talk to your children and visit them in boarding schools,” he added. “Male boarding schools are no longer safe. The homosexuals are sodomizing children as they initiate them into this bad vice.”
Sampa also posted to Facebook a picture of a bed with what appears to be human feces on sheets. Sampa said it was a result of too much anal sex and cautioned that heterosexuals should be concerned if their partner wants to engage in it.
“Before you join them no matter the amount they will offer you, remember this picture. This is a picture of a bed used by a person with fecal incontinence due to anal sex what you are seeing are feces leaking from the anus because the sphincter muscle is destroyed due to anal sex,” he said. “This is an example of a male-to-male relationship. Don’t be deceived; the anus is not a sexual organ. Would a normal person be happy to dip their penis in feces? Nobody enjoys the smell of feces unless there is some psychological problem.”
“For ladies, how to know that you are dating a homosexual,” added Sampa. “If the guy keeps demanding for anal sex make sure you report him to the police.”
Zambia criminalizes same-sex sexual activity between men and between women. Sentences include a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.
A court in 2019 convicted two gay men of engaging in same-sex sexual activity and sentenced them to 15 years in prison. They received a presidential pardon in 2020 amid international pressure, but reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTQ and intersex Zambians remain commonplace.
Daniel Itai is the Washington Blade’s Africa Correspondent.
Bisexual workers report lower rates of workplace discrimination than cisgender lesbians and gay men, a new study has found, but that may be because fewer cis bisexuals are out at work compared to cis lesbians and gay men.
The Williams Institute — a UCLA’s School of Law group that researches sexual orientation and gender identity issues — analyzed survey data collected in May 2021 from 935 LGBTQ adults in the workforce.
Its analysis found that 33.8 percent of gay and lesbian employees experienced at least one form of employment discrimination, namely, being fired or not hired due to their sexual orientation. Comparatively, 24.4 percent of bi employees reported experiencing the same.
The lower overall rates of discrimination may be due to the fact that fewer bisexuals are out at work. Only 19 percent of bi workers are out to all their co-workers, compared to 50 percent of gay and lesbian workers who are out to co-workers.
Only 19 percent of bi workers are out to their coworkers, compared to 50 percent of gay and lesbian workers. Similarly, only 36 percent of bi employees are out to their supervisors, compared to 74.6 percent of gay and lesbian employees.
Bi men and women were also more likely than gay and lesbian employees to report changing their workplace appearance to hide their sexual orientation. Approximately 26.4 percent of bi workers said they had done so, compared to 17.9 percent of gay and lesbian workers.
Interestingly, roughly 60 percent of gay, lesbian, and bi employees said they avoided social events and personal discussions to reduce the likelihood of discrimination and harassment. But when bi employees were out to their coworkers, they reported facing similar or higher rates of discrimination and harassment as out gay and lesbian workers.
The survey also found that gay and bi men typically faced higher rates of employment discrimination, verbal, and sexual harassment than lesbians and bisexual women.
For example, 57.7 percent of bi men experienced verbal harassment, compared to 26.8 percent of bisexual women. While 41.6 percent of gay men experienced verbal harassment, only 29.5 percent of lesbians experienced the same thing. Nearly 50 to 65 percent of all discrimination was religiously motivated, the respondents said.
Workplace sexual harassment was experienced by 34.8 percent of bi men, 33.6 percent of gay men, 29.2 percent of bi women, and 17.4 percent of lesbian women. While 58 percent of out bi men said they had left previous jobs due to workplace discrimination, only 27 percent of out bi women had left previous jobs for the same reason.
These findings came out just before Celebrate Bisexuality Day, an annual day for uplifting the bisexual community, individuals, and their shared history. Today is Celebrate Bisexuality Day.
A 2021 Gallup found that 57 percent of LGBTQ Americans identify as bisexual.
A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that monkeypox disproportionately affects people with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
The study looked at HIV and STI rates among 1,969 people with monkeypox in eight U.S. jurisdictions.
Of that sample, 38 percent of people with monkeypox had also contracted HIV in the last year. About 41 percent of people with monkeypox also had an STI in the preceding year. About 61 percent of the sample had contracted either an STI or HIV in the previous year.
Researchers said this correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that having HIV or an STI means you’re more likely to contract monkeypox.
In fact, the higher number may be due to a “self-referral bias,” meaning that people who visited a medical professional due to monkeypox symptoms may also already have established healthcare for HIV and STIs. Either that, or sexual health providers may be more likely to recognize and test for the monkeypox virus among men who’ve had HIV and STIs over the past year.
“Persons with monkeypox signs and symptoms who are not engaged in routine HIV or sexual health care, or who experience milder signs and symptoms, might be less likely to have their Monkeypox virus infection diagnosed,” researchers wrote.
HIV-positive people in the study sample were also twice as likely to be hospitalized due to monkeypox compared to HIV-negative people with monkeypox, WTTW reported.
This could mean that people with compromised immune systems — the kinds associated with advanced and under-treated forms of HIV — are more likely to exhibit severe monkeypox symptoms. Despite this, people with HIV aren’t more likely to exhibit worse monkeypox symptoms than HIV-negative people in the general population, according to Dr. Aniruddha Hazra, assistant professor of infectious disease and global health at UChicago Medicine.
The study also found HIV was more prevalent among Black and Latino people with monkeypox, with rates of 63 percent and 41 percent, respectively. These rates were higher than the 28 percent of white people and 22 percent of Asian people who have both HIV and monkeypox.
These racial disparities are particularly concerning considering that numerous studies have shown that Black and Latino men are less likely than white men to be vaccinated against monkeypox and to have access to HIV-related medical care.
In response to the study’s findings, the CDC recommended that medical professionals prioritize people with STIs and HIV for monkeypox vaccination. Additionally, the CDC recommended offering STI and HIV screenings for people who are evaluated for monkeypox.
This last week, White House health officials voiced their belief that “we’re going to get very close” to eradicating monkeypox. As of September 23, there were 24,846 total confirmed monkeypox cases in the United States, the CDC reported.
Saturday October 1 @ 7 pm. ZipLine Improv at Occidental Center for the Arts Amphitheater. Occidental native Laura Wachtel returns to OCA with ZipLine Improv, bringing you new hijinks, stories and songs all made up in the moment — led by your suggestions! ZipLine brings together some of the finest improvisers from around the Bay Area for your merriment. Tickets for this OUTDOOR event are $25 GA, $20 for OCA members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org . Bring your own seat cushion, wear layered clothing and enjoy our outdoor theater! Fine refreshments for sale, art gallery open during intermission. Accessible to patrons in wheelchairs. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465. 707-874-9392. Become an OCA Member for free and reduced ticket prices!
A historic number of LGBTQ candidates will appear on ballots across the country in November. At least 1,095 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people have run or are still running for office at all levels this year, up from 1,006 in 2020, according to data from the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
In New York, two gay candidates — Democrat Robert Zimmerman and Republican George Santos — are running to fill the seat vacated by Democrat Tom Suozzi in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. This will be the first time in U.S. history that two out LGBTQ congressional candidates are going head to head in a general election.
Though this race guaranteed to result in a win for a gay candidate, the outcome of the election will help determine whether Democrats hang on to their slim majority in the House.
‘It was going to happen sooner of later’
The odds of a faceoff between two gay candidates have gone up in recent years, because there’s been an increase in LGBTQ candidates at all levels of government.
“It was going to happen sooner or later,” said Donald Haider-Markel, a political science professor at the University of Kansas and the author of “Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections and Policy Representation.” “The question was always finding an LGBTQ Republican who can get support in a primary.”
Historically, there have been relatively few Republican LGBTQ candidates, though he said that Republican organizations like the Log Cabin Republicans have existed for a long time.
There are currently 11 openly LGBTQ people in Congress — two in the Senate and nine in the House — and they are all Democrats.
Santos, who is hoping to flip the district red for his party, secured his party’s nomination in August for the second time. He ran against Suozzi in 2020 but lost in a general election.
Santos is the only openly LGBTQ Republican running for Congress this fall, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund. If elected, he would be the first openly LGBTQ nonincumbent Republican elected to Congress. Two former GOP members of the House — Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin and Jim Kolbe of Arizona — won re-election as incumbents after coming out (or, in Gunderson’s case, being outed).
Santos said the historic nature of the race is “pretty incredible.”
“I think it shows that our country continues to be the bastion of progress and building equity for everybody,” he told NBC News.
Zimmerman said it would be “profoundly meaningful” to be the first LGBTQ member of Congress from Long Island and Queens.
“When I was a kid, you’d have never imagined a member of the LGBTQ community as a member of Congress,” he said. “I never dreamed that would be possible.”
‘We are very different’
While Santos and Zimmerman agree that their election is historic, that’s about all the two men agree on.
“Although we might share a sexual orientation … we are very different,” Santos said. “Robert Zimmerman aligns himself with the party that brought about the crisis of inflation.”
Santos emphasized the climbing costs of energy for some of his constituents. He also said he is also running to fight against “one party control in New York” that does not allow for “diverging opinions” on how to address the rising cost of living in his district, though he said he is prepared to work with his Democratic colleagues to find solutions.
“We need to work with the people who disagree with us,” Santos said. “I will represent the people who didn’t vote for me as much as the people who did.”
Zimmerman slammed Santos for his support of former President Donald Trump, who he said advocated a “homophobic, bigoted,” agenda.
“I’m not running against any Republican. I’m running against a Republican that is part of the radical fringe. He is a MAGA candidate,” Zimmerman said, using the acronym for Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Zimmerman said Santos’ support for Trump extends to participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.
“He defended the insurrectionists,” Zimmerman said.
In a February 2021 interview with Lara Trump, Santos said, “I was at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. That was the most amazing crowd, and the president was at his full awesomeness that day. It was a front-row spectacle for me.” The Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House, was the location of the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol building.
Santos denied participating in any insurrectionist activities.
“I was never on Capitol grounds on Jan 6. That is a lie,” he said. “Icame out very early to say it was a dark, dark day in our country and we needed a lot of healing after that.”
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When asked if he continues to support the former president, Santos said, “Donald Trump is not on the ballot.” He then criticized Zimmerman for focusing on the former president.
“I’m making this race about New York District 3 and the residents of New York, while Zimmerman is making this about Trump,” Santos said.
Bringing up Trump and Jan. 6 may be a good move for Zimmerman, as it may help increase turnout among Democratic voters: According to a recent NBC News poll, “threats to democracy” now beats cost of living as the top issue facing the country among voters.
“I think voters get it. I think people underestimate just how concerned voters are about having a democracy going forward,” Zimmerman said.
He also harshly criticized the Republican-sponsored anti-LGBTQ bills in the statehouses.
“I’ve been approached by so many parents of gay kids,” Zimmerman said. “The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills have a chilling effect well beyond the borders of Florida,” he added, referring to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which limits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. That measure is one of more than 340 anti-LGBTQ bills Republican legislators have introduced this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.
Many of these bills specifically target transgender people, limiting trans people’s ability to play sports, use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity and receive gender-affirming health care.
“The Republican Party has made attacking LGBTQ people, especially trans kids, a part of their platform this year,” said Albert Fujii, press secretary for the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “It is central to their philosophy on governing. That’s too bad.”
The LGBTQ Victory Fund, which is dedicated to supporting and electing LGBTQ people to public office, has endorsed Zimmerman in the race.
Santos said he sees no contradiction between his identity and his party’s politics.
“As a lifelong Republican, I have never experienced discrimination in the Republican Party,” he said. “I am an openly gay candidate. I am not shy.”
Abortion is another issue Zimmerman is pushing ahead of November. Zimmerman, who supports abortion rights, said the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a major issue for voters in his district.
“I saw in my primary — and it really was triggered by the reversal of Roe — an energy and activism and engagement that wasn’t there before,” he said. “It was a call to action for Democrats.”
According to last month’s NBC News poll, 58% of voters disapproved of the Supreme Court’s decision, versus 38% who approved.
This week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled federal legislation that, if passed, would ban abortion after 15 weeks. It’s unclearwhether Graham will find much party support because the issue is likely to hurt them in competitive districts like New York’s 3rd.
In a September 2020 interview with The Island Now, a New York news website, Santos said, “I will vote to support the ban of abortion in the United States.” However, he told NBC News that he would “never advocate for a full ban.”
“There is not a scenario on earth where I would advocate for a full ban. The women in New York District 3 should not worry,” he said.
The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, also contained a memo by Justice Clarence Thomas arguing the Supreme Court should reconsider its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
“The Dobbs decision was a direct message to the LGBTQ community that ‘you are next up,’ and they are coming for us,” Zimmerman said.
As a result, House Democrats introduced the Respect for Marriage Act that seeks to codify same-sex marriage in federal legislation. The bill passed the Democrat-controlled House, but it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where it needs at least 10 Republican votes to pass.
This week, Senate leaders decided to delay a vote on the bill until after the midterm elections.
Santos, who is married, said he supports codifying same-sex marriage in law but would not support a bill that forced religious institutions to contravene their beliefs.
“I am not for the state overstepping the church,” he said.
Forty-seven Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act in the House, and Santos said “that shows that the Republican party is far from homophobic.”
With so many contentious issues at play, neither candidate expects sexual identity to be a deciding factor in November.
“The issue is not that both of us are gay,” Zimmerman said. “It’s what’s at stake nationally.”
In just a few short years in politics, Evelyn Rios Stafford has managed to make an impression at the highest levels of government, and at the most local, too.
The first transgender person to hold elected office in Arkansas, Rios Stafford serves as Justice of the Peace for her small district in Fayetteville. In her role, she’s officiated dozens of weddings for constituents. “That’s one of the highlights of this gig as Justice of the Peace. It always gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling to do that for people,” she told LGBTQ Nation.
Now, Rios Stafford is running for reelection to the post without serious opposition, a vote of confidence even before the election that constituents view her time in office as effective.
Rios Stafford’s first political involvement was getting a local civil rights ordinance passed in the late 2010’s. In 2020, she ran for an open seat on the local Quorum Court, the equivalent of a board of supervisors, and won. She represents about 16,000 people in her district.
At 49, with a broad smile and the easy, thoughtful cadence of a Texas native, Rios Stafford says being trans wasn’t a focus of her first campaign. “You know, I made one post…about it on National Coming Out Day during the campaign. But that was about it.” It wasn’t until after she was elected that “some folks got wind of the fact that I was a first of something.”
But her victory would become pivotal in the fight over trans rights in the state.
In 2021, the Arkansas legislature passed HB1570, also known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation or SAFE Act. Like similar legislation introduced in other red states, the bill would ban all gender-affirming care for minors, prohibit insurance from covering gender transition procedures, and criminalize those assisting minors in the process.
The bill was awaiting Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson’s signature when Rios Stafford was enlisted by an Arkansas legislator to help halt the bill’s march into law. From the “phone call to me to meeting the governor was probably, I’d say 24 hours.”
While Rios Stafford was trans, she hadn’t transitioned as a youth. “I knew that I needed to also make space for folks who had this experience and were directly impacted, because their voices are really the ones that have been left out of this whole thing,” she said. Rios Stafford brought 18 year-old Willow Breshears, who began transitioning at 16 with her family’s active support, to the ornate conference room table for her meeting with the governor.
“This was probably the first time that he had ever had a sit down, face-to-face discussion with a trans person before, or in this case two trans people. And, you know, he was kind of starting at zero in terms of knowledge.” A 15-minute appointment turned into half an hour and then 45 minutes. “He was just wanting to know more, basically.”
“I was on pins and needles walking out of that room, like, you know, almost on the verge of having a panic attack. I was replaying all of my answers in my head, like, did I say the right thing, did I screw this up completely?”
Not only did Hutchinson veto the bill, he wrote a Washington Post op-ed explaining why and also went on Tucker Carlson’s show to defend his decision. No matter, the Arkansas legislature overrode his veto, though the law remains tied up in court challenges.
Still, Rios Stafford was satisfied to hear “echoes of some of the things we talked about” in Hutchinson’s defense of the veto.
“‘Traditionally, Republicans have held themselves up as champions of limited government,’” Rios Stafford told the governor. “‘In what way, shape or form is this limited government? Because this is big government. This is government getting in between the families and their doctors.’”
Rios Stafford’s own gender awakening was pivotal to her work in her adopted home state. She majored in English at Rice University in Houston and was pursuing a career in journalism when she got a call from the ABC-TV affiliate in San Francisco asking her to come in for an interview. She got the job. She was young and bright and on the loose in Baghdad by the Bay.
“It was a great time to come there,” she recalled. “During the dot-com boom, the city was kind of going crazy, and it was a really fun time to be there in my 20s. And obviously San Francisco is a place where you can really explore your identity, as well.”
Born and raised in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, she grew up attending Catholic school, where she encountered the first signs of her conflicted gender identity.
“In Catholic school, I had a boyfriend when I was 15. A couple of our friends knew about it, but it definitely wasn’t something that we were out about. I knew that I wasn’t straight, exactly,” she remembers thinking, “but I didn’t really have the language or knowledge to have an understanding of exactly in what way.”
In college, she figured it out. It was “literally, when I was, like, doing research in the college library, that I came across the idea of transgender. And it was this lightbulb moment of like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s what’s been going on with me.’”
In San Francisco, she embraced her new reality. “Gradually, I became more and more out,” Rios Stafford recalled. “It was not a surprise for some people. It was a surprise for others.” While she was “bracing for the worst,” she was “really pleasantly surprised and so grateful for having such a positive experience.”
“Back then, this was sort of like, this was new territory,” she said. “I think I was the first employee at an ABC owned-and-operated station to transition on the job.” The following year, Rios Stafford picked up two Emmys for her producing. “I feel like it was all tied together.”
The total package arrived shortly after she transitioned, when Rios Stafford met her future husband, Bob Stafford, an artist and graphic designer, online. She was “smitten from the beginning.” The two shared mutual friends in the arts scene South of Market in San Francisco, and Southern roots, as well. Soon after, the couple moved east to Stafford’s hometown of Fayetteville. They were married in 2016.
According to Rios Stafford, performing weddings in her job as Justice of the Peace is optional. “Not all the JPs do it. I have a feeling that one or two of them might not be on there because if they were on the list, they might have to do a same-sex wedding, and it’s against their personal beliefs or something? But I was like, ‘Sign me up! I’ll do anybody.’”
Friday September 30 @7 pm. Four Shillings Short at Occidental Center for the Arts. Rooted in Celtic and American folk, inspired by Indian raga and ethnic idioms, Four Shillings Short brings their diverse and inventive traditional music experience back to our OCA stage! The husband/wife duo of Aodh Og O’Tuama from Cork, Ireland, and Christy Martin from California have been performing together since 1995.They tour the U.S. and Ireland and are independent folk artists with 12 recordings who perform 150 concerts a year, traveling as troubadours of old from town to town performing at music festivals, theaters & performing arts centers, folk & historic societies, libraries, museums and schools.Tickets to this event are $25 GA/ $20 for OCA members. No charge for patrons age 14 and under. Fine refreshments for sale. Art Gallery open during intermission. Accessible to patrons with disabilities. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465. 707-874-9392. Become an OCA Member and get free/reduced admission on all events.