Patrick O’Connell, a venerable AIDS activist who sought to smash stigma with awareness campaigns such as the iconic red ribbon, has died.
O’Connell passed away aged 67 of AIDS-related causes, his brother Barry confirmed to The New York Times.
Living with HIV for 40 years, he spent much of his life fronting campaigns to better educate the public about what it means to live with HIV/AIDS.
The son of a wire lather and secretary, O’Connell was born 12 April, 1953, in post-war New York City.
For much of the 1980s, O’Conell’s life was filled with rented black funeral suits and friends fearful of what was then a dooming diagnosis. By the end of the decade, AIDS had become the leading cause of death for men aged between 25 and 44.
In 1991, O’Connell formed Visual AIDS, a collective of artists and advocates who used a borrowed art gallery space to design exhibitions that forced the public to reckon that the disease.
We had no choice,” he said in a 2003 interview with the BBC. “We had to do something with our professional lives.
“The East Village art scene felt like it was disappearing overnight because of AIDS. All our colleagues around the country were dying.”
No wonder. The White House was, at the time, almost indifferent to the virus’ rampage across the US and treated it more as a punchline than a public health emergency.
That’s when O’Connell had an idea: a small way to encourage the world to reckon with the disease that was destroying so much of the LGBT+ community – a red ribbon.
That same year he launched the Ribbon Project and with it, an unwavering and defiant symbol of AIDS activism.
To O’Connell, the colour red was as rousing as it was morose. It symbolised, he told the BBC, blood. It is “the colour of passion” and is “vibrant and attention-getting”.
The yellow ribbons from the Gulf War were still all around,” he told The New York Timesin 1992. “We noticed that they could mean anything from ‘I care about young people who have gone overseas’ to ‘I support Bush.’
“We wanted that kind of leeway, too, something that could mean ‘I hate this government’ or just ‘I care about people with AIDS’.”
In the two weeks before the 1991 Tony Awards, the 15 artists involved in Visual AIDS oversaw the making of thousands of grosgrain ribbons which were delivered to the Minskoff Theatre.
As the awards were beamed into homes across America, host Jeremy Irons walked on – and he was wearing a red ribbon.
Soon enough, whether it be pinned on a dress worn by Elizabeth Taylor or printed on United States Postal Service-issued stamps, the red ribbon was everywhere.
O’Connell’s death comes after that of Larry Kramer, the ACT UP agitator who fought against policy-makers to take the disease seriously, and Nita Pippins, who was something of a mother figure to countless AIDS patients.
“It is hard to be prideful of something that was generated by such frustration and sorrow,” O’Connell reflected of his decades-long work in AIDS activism to the BBC.
“I would give anything, I would give back all this attention if I hadn’t lived through these decades of AIDS.
“All the people who died so young, these talented people. Now I know only one person alive from my 20s.”
Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic champion and reality TV personality now running for governor in California, said she opposes transgender girls competing in girls’ sports at school.
Jenner, a 1976 decathlon gold medalist who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, told a TMZ reporter on Saturday that it’s “a question of fairness.”
“That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools,” Jenner said Saturday during a brief interview in a Malibu parking lot.
It was Jenner’s first comment on the issue since announcing her candidacy to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in a recall election. Five states have passed laws or implemented executive orders this year limiting the ability of transgender youths to play sports or receive certain medical treatment. There’s been a vehement outcry from supporters of transgender rights.
Jenner, a Republican, supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election but later criticized his administration for some discriminatory actions against transgender people.
Many transgender rights advocates have criticized Jenner, saying she has failed to convince them that she is a major asset to their cause.
Kai Shappley, a trans 10-year-old who lives in Texas, asked Jenner to “stop hurting” trans kids.
Some trans people said Jenner doesn’t represent the community.
Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, wrote: “Here are the facts: Caitlyn Jenner is willing to sacrifice the health & well-being of trans kids to win votes. Gavin Newsom is not. It’s that simple.”
Others pointed out that, as recently as last year, Jenner supported trans athletes competing on the sports teams that align with their gender identity.
“I think every trans person, if they’re into athletics, should have an opportunity to compete and to improve themselves,” Jenner said in April 2020 on theOutsports podcast,The Trans Sporter Room, according to Forbes. “I think sports is such a great way to learn a lot about yourself. … Hopefully they’ll have the opportunity in the future to do whatever they can do. I’m all for it. I’m all for it.”
She echoed a similarly supportive sentiment in 2015, when she received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY Awards, and spoke about issues affecting trans people.
“I also want to acknowledge all the young trans athletes who are out there — given the chance to play sports as who they really are,” she said in her acceptance speech. “And now, as of this week, it appears that trans people will soon be serving in the military. That’s a great idea. We have come a long way. But we have a lot of work to do.”
Advocates say Jenner’s flip-flop is evidence that she’s changed her public view just to attract the attention of California’s Republican voters.
But trans people say that her comment won’t be without consequence, and that it could help people behind anti-trans legislation justify their views.
“Jenner is gonna be America’s ‘some of my friends are trans’ trans woman that allows countless conservatives a little cover to decimate our rights,” trans filmmaker and author Leigh Finke said. “Not that they’ll succeed, but it’s the elbow room they need to better make their case, and hurt our kids.”
In a first-of-its-kind effort, the Biden administration is asking people from both the public and the private sectors for their ideas about how to make sure the federal government equitably serves historically underserved communities.
Responses to a “request for information” from the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, would help identify gaps in budgeting and policy that aggravate inequality, particularly among communities of color, women, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, disabled people and rural communities, the agency said in announcing the initiative Tuesday.
The office, which works to assist the president in meeting policy, budget and regulatory goals, will coordinate with other federal agencies, such as the Treasury, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development departments.
The effort is part of the Biden administration’s plan to address racial inequality throughout “the whole of government” and keep President Joe Biden’s promise to use the executive branch to redress racial disparities, an OMB official said.
In an Inauguration Day executive order “advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities,” Biden challenged the OMB to more equitably allocate federal resources. The order asks it to work with other agencies to identify how programs, services and processes can better benefit “all eligible individuals and communities, particularly those that are currently and historically underserved.”
It also requires the agencies to consult those communities before making their recommendations to “evaluate opportunities” and “to increase coordination, communication, and engagement with community-based and civil rights organizations.”
The request for information, signed by acting OMB Director Shalanda Young, is a step in following the order, the agency said.
The initiative creates a website for public comment, hoping organizations and communities served by different parts of the federal government will tell the administration how to better ensure fair access to its resources and remove barriers to access. The public comment period will open Wednesday.
Examples cited in the request of information include “unnecessary” requirements to produce documentation, overwrought eligibility formulas, poorly designed forms or websites and overly complicated instructions in its programs.
The administration wants ideas about how to better reach people who aren’t able to engage directly with the federal government, an OMB official said.
The federal government buys more than $650 billion a year of goods and services and has the potential to bring more resources to marginalized communities, the agency said, and the administration wants to hear where people think the money should go. It is also asking people about the fairness of federal grant assistance programs.
“Equity requires a systematic approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes,” the Biden executive order said.
The request for information is also an acknowledgment of the ways racism and discrimination have been systemically imbued into policy.
It is an “incredibly ambitious effort” and a “tremendous step in the right direction,” said Vincent Southerland, executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at the New York University School of Law.
“Policy is often made completely detached from the communities it is going to affect. It can miss things happening on the ground and exacerbate inequality,” he said. “If this effort is successful, making these departments operate better for those who have been most harmed, marginalized and victimized by these inequalities is going to help everyone in society.”
Southerland said policy often works like a “blunt instrument,” even when it is well-intended. To ask people on the ground what they want changed is an important acknowledgment that community voices matter, he said, and a “dramatic shift from what we have seen in the last few years, where government was seen as a problem instead of a potential solution.”
UPCOMING EVENTS(more info below) May 6 – Beyond the Binary: Gender & Pronouns with Suzanne FordMay 20 – Understanding DementiasMay 26 – Over the Moon celebration*Every Mon. & Thu. – Spahr Senior GroupsEvery Tue. – Trans/Non-Binary Support Group * Social Committee Event
Covid-19 News for Seniors(see below) For the first time in a long time, I feel comfortable dropping the Covid News section down lower in these emails. We are not out of the pandemic yet, much is still uncertain, and yet all the seniors I’m in touch with are now vaccinated and seem to be educated about continued precautions. For more on continued precautions, click here. May we all be safe & well! Bill Blackburn
To join the Spahr Senior GroupMondays, 7 to 8 pm, &Thursdays, 12:30 t0 2 pm,click the purple button below the Butterfly Heart or here:
Topical Thursdays12:30 to 2 pm April 29 What Is Missing in Modern Life? We rely on zoom to meet during the pandemic. (What would we do without zoom?) Modern medicine makes our lives better. We are surrounded by conveniences we couldn’t have imagined in our youth. Yet some things have been lost in the translation to now. What would benefit us and our world that those modern conveniences have displaced? And is there a way we can find them again if we try? May 6 Beyond the Binary:Gender and PronounsMost of us grew up in a culture that claimed there were only two genders – female and male – and each came with expected behavior patterns, even though most of us didn’t fit into those narrow confines. Join us on May 6th when we’llbe joined by Suzanne Ford, the President of The Spahr Center Board of Directors, to talk about the ways people are breaking free of that gender binary and the freedom of expression that comes along with it. There may even be some liberation that comes to the rest of us though their pushing the boundaries. And yes! We’ll learn about those seemingly-tricky pronouns that will help us better interrelate with youth and others who express themselves beyond the binary! Coming soon: May 13: Nancy FacilitatesMay 20: Understanding Alzheimer’s & Other Dementias
Conversational Mondays7 to 8 pm We catch up with each other on how we’re doing and have unstructured conversations focused on listening from our hearts and deepening community.
The Social Committee has been consistently offering fun events to offset the boredom of the pandemic. They want to celebrate your birthday if you’ll let them know when it is. They offer a women’s coffee plus a number of times to gather on zoom over games and conversation. On May 26, they bring us an Over the Moon Celebration, a cocktail/mocktail and appetizer zoom group honoring the Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse. More information soon.
To sign up for their emails, click here. To see the Social Committee’s April Calendar, click: here.Watch for their calendar for May soon!
Men and Boys Mental HealthA Focus Group InvitationMen, you can help Marin County gain deeper understanding of how to structure mental health resources for us by participating in a 1-hour focus group:Ages 65+, Tuesday May 25 @ 4 pm << Note new date!Ages 45 to 64, Monday April 26 @ 6 pm Community participants will get a $25 gift card. By adding our voices, we will ensure that Gay, Bi and Transmen’s needs & perspectives be part of the response.Contact: [email protected] << Corrected address
Covid-19 News for Seniors BEWARE POST-VACCINATION SCAMS!Scams offering monetary and gift rewards for those taking post-vaccination surveys are efforts to fraudulently gather personal information such as credit card numbers. Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J are NOT sending out these offers. Avoid them!
FEMA Assistance Programs Related To Covid-19:FEMA will provide financial assistance for COVID-19-related funeral expenses incurred after January 20, 2020. (No income- or citizenship-related requirements.) Call 844/684-6333. More info here. Free legal assistance to low-income people affected by the pandemic includes help with hospital bills, estate administration, problems with landlords, and much more. Call 888/382-3406. More info here.
Do you know people who may need help making an appointment for vaccines, especially if they are not online or need multi-lingual or transportation help? Please let them know of this resource:Marin Access Services Call Center1 (833) 641-1988CA Relay use 711
Caregivers and family caregivers of seniors are now eligible to be vaccinated. Let me know of these situations – bblackburn@thespahrcenter – and I can send a letter to qualify them for inoculations now, even if they don’t currently meet other qualifications for the shots.
Building Community in the Midst of Sheltering-in-PlaceSee old friends and make new ones! Join us!The Spahr Center’s LGBT Senior Discussion Groupscontinue everyMonday, 7 to 8 pm& Thursday, 12:30 to 2 pm on zoom
To Join Group by Video using Computer, Smart Phone or TabletJust click this button at the start time, 6:55 pm Mondays / 12:25 pm Thursdays:Join GroupAlways the same link! Try it, it’s easy!
To Join Group by Phone CallIf you don’t have internet connections or prefer joining by phone,call the following number at the start time,6:55 pm Mondays / 12:25 pm Thursdays:1-669-900-6833The Meeting id is 820 7368 6606#(no participant id required)The password, if requested, is 135296# If you want to be called into the group by phone, notify Bill Blackburn at 415/450-5339
California Department of Aging ResourcesThe CDA has a website that is packed with information and resources relevant to the lives of seniors in our state. From Covid-19 updates to more general care for age-related health issues, access to legal assistance to getting home-delivered meals to help with housing, you may well find answers to your questions by clicking: here.
Spahr’s skilled therapists are available to work with seniors on a sliding-scale basis. Write to[email protected]. A Bisexual Support Group is forming with The Spahr Center, facilitated by a therapist. Let Bill Blackburn know if you are interested. Whistlestop, renamed Vivalon, provides access to resources including rides for older adults. Please note: there is a 3-week registration process for the ride program so register now if you think you may need rides in the future. They also offer free classes on zoom including zumba, yoga, chair exercises, & ukulele! Click here. Adult and Aging Service’s Information and Assistance Line, providing information and referrals to the full range of services available to older adults, adults with disabilities and their family caregivers, has a new phone number and email address: 415/473-INFO (4636) 8:30 am to 4:30 pm weekdays[email protected]
The Spahr Center has opened its Food Pantryto seniors who need support in meeting their nutrition needs. We want to help! Items such as fresh meats, eggs and dairy, prepared meals, pasta, sauces, and canned goods are delivered weekly to people who sign up. Contact The Spahr Center for more information: [email protected] or 415/457.2487
Questions? Assistance? We have resources and volunteers for:grocery deliveryfood assistancehelp with technology issues such as using zoomproviding weekly comfort calls to check in on youtherapy with Spahr therapists on a sliding scale basisplus more!
Bill BlackburnSenior Program Coordinator[email protected]415/450-5339
Transgender people who have access to gender-affirming surgery report better mental health outcomes, according to a new study.
The report, published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, compared the psychological distress levels, suicide risk and substance use in trans and gender-diverse people who had undergone gender-affirming surgery with those who wanted such procedures but had not yet had them.
The researchers found that subjects who had not received the surgical interventions they desired were nearly twice as likely to report severe psychological distress and suicidal thoughts, and reported higher incidences of binge drinking and tobacco use, as well.
“This study adds to a growing body of evidence showing affirmation in all forms can be life-saving for trans and gender-diverse people,” said lead author Anthony Almazan, a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School. “Policies that limit access to care can put lives at risk. Our evidence shows we should be expanding gender-affirming care, not limiting it.”
Depending on an individual’s sex assigned at birth, a variety of surgical options are available, including facial contouring, tracheal shaving, chest construction, hysterectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty.
Of the participants who indicated interest in one or more procedures, 13 percent had undergone surgery at least two years prior to being surveyed, while 59 percent wanted to but hadn’t.
Overall, gender-affirming surgery was associated with a 42 percent reduction in psychological distress, a 44 percent reduction in suicidal thoughts and a 35 percent reduction in tobacco smoking.
The authors say their findings shouldn’t be interpreted as suggesting all transgender people want or need surgery.
“There are many different gender-affirming surgeries, and not everyone pursues every option, or any,” said senior author Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, who directs the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute in Boston. “We can’t make any assumptions.”
Almazan, who plans to specialize in psychiatry, agreed, saying whether to undergo any form of transition is “a personal decision.”
“The role of physicians and surgeons is to help individuals determine what is appropriate for them,” he added. “There are multiple studies showing other forms of transition have had similar results.”
Keuroghlian cited a 2020 study that found changing one’s legal name and gender marker on government documents was also associated with improved mental health.
The new report, however, represents the first large-scale controlled study of the relationship between gender-affirming surgery and psychological well being. It uses data from nearly 20,000 participants in the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality.
About 39 percent of the participants identified as transgender women, 33 percent as transgender men and 27 percent as nonbinary. Other forms of affirmative care were adjusted for — including puberty blockers and hormone therapy — as were sociodemographic factors, like age, race and economic status.
The analysis didn’t parse results by specific procedure or gender identity, but Almazan indicated that could be addressed in future studies.
While the number of transgender individuals seeking to surgically transition has steadily increased over the past decade, research on its impact has been limited.
A 2019 report from the American Journal of Psychiatry ultimately found “no advantage” in surgery in relation to psychological distress and suicide attempts. But, according to Almazan, it relied on a much smaller sample size and lacked a proper control group.
“When they did update their analysis to include a control group, they didn’t differentiate between people who wanted gender-affirming surgery and hadn’t had it and those who didn’t want it,” he said.
Keuroghlian said the issue of gender-affirming health care is often clouded by “an anti-trans political agenda” that argues trans people “will eventually regret accessing care.”
A Fenway Institute report from last month found that most people who detransition, or revert to their sex assigned at birth, aren’t driven by internal factors. They’re “fueled by social pressure, stigma, economic status, incarceration and other external factors,” Keuroghlian said.
Dr. Sherman Leis, a Pennsylvania physician who has been performing gender-confirming surgeries for more than 20 years, said Almazan and Keuroghlian’s findings are further proof that “all barriers to transgender care and denial of insurance coverage for transgender surgeries clearly should be removed.”
“This is evidence to show those health plan insurers who have not wanted to cover transgender surgery because they wanted ‘more evidence showing the efficacy of surgery,’ that gender-affirming surgery should be made available to transgender and diverse gender people,” Leis said.
Finn Cooper, who lives in Cincinnati, volunteered for the Michigan Democratic Party to call voters in the swing state on behalf of the Biden-Harris presidential campaign in the months leading up to the election.
Cooper, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said they supported Joe Biden’s message on LGBTQ rights.
“I thought he seemed like a good candidate — much better than Trump, of course, and I do think he has done infinitely better than Donald Trump on these issues,” Cooper, 20, said. “At the administration level, I think he’s done well. The problem I think more comes down to the legislative things and working with Congress. I don’t think enough of that has happened.”
LGBTQ rights activists generally agree that Biden has accomplished many of the things he said he’d do for the community in the first 100 days of his presidency, most of them through executive orders. A new GLAAD poll of 800 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults found that 78 percent said Biden is doing an excellent or good job as president. But some, like Cooper, expected more from him.
Despite Biden’s executive actions to protect LGBTQ people, Cooper noted that states are still considering a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills, particularly bills that target transgender youth. Cooper said they’d like to see the president work harder to get the Equality Act through the Senate so LGBTQ people actually have far-reaching legislative protections from discrimination.
“All across the country there are so many state legislatures that are passing these awful, awful anti-LGBTQ laws, particularly anti-trans laws, and he’s not really doing a lot,” Cooper said. “Literally they haven’t passed any national laws, but also just like as president, he’s not speaking out.”
The Biden administration has been better on LGBTQ rights than the Trump administration, Cooper said, but that’s not enough.
“Just because it’s better doesn’t make it good,” they said.
From day one, a ‘commitment to equality’
There are many ways the Trump administration’s “nefarious, anti-LGBTQ policy” has been woven into the government, according to Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer and legal director of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy organization.
“We know that it is going to take some time to root all of that out,” she said.
McGowan said the Biden administration has shown a “commitment to LGBTQ equality” from day one by quickly moving to reverse the previous administration’s policies targeting LGBTQ Americans. For example, she said, he issued an executive order on the first day of his presidency recognizing the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which established that LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That executive order has since had ripple effects, because it directed federal agencies with protections from sex discrimination to also protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in February that LGBTQ people will now be protected from discrimination under the Fair Housing Act as a result of Biden’s order. The announcement meant that, for the first time in history, LGBTQ people were clearly protected from housing discrimination by federal law.
The executive order also expanded the sex discrimination protection of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
Also in the first days of his presidency, Biden reversed Trump’s banon transgender people enlisting in the military and rescinded Trump’s executive order barring residents and refugees from several majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States — a move advocates say is important to those fleeing persecution in countries where homosexuality is still illegal.
‘His administration looks like America’
Biden released an executive order on his first day in office to advance racial equity, and his administration has hired people who understand the “nuances and intersections” of communities of color and LGBTQ people, said Victoria Kirby York, deputy executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition.
“The fact that the equity-based orders that he put out included multiple marginalized identities that intersect in a person was huge, because often people have to pick and choose what part of themselves they think is being discriminated against, and sometimes it’s the coming together of all of it,” she said. “It’s not just because I’m a woman or just because I’m Black, but because I’m a Black woman that I’m experiencing a particular form of discrimination, and that kind of nuance in policymaking only happens when you have diverse representation at the decision-making tables.”
In fact, Biden has appointed a record number of LGBTQ officials to serve in his administration, including White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy communications director Pili Tobar, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the first openly trans federal official to be confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary of health.
He has also nominated Shawn Skelly to serve as the assistant secretary of defense for readiness. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the highest-ranking openly trans Pentagon official, The Washington Post reported.
“The president’s very serious about making his administration look like America,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said. “He’s way out ahead of where the Obama administration was, and probably most importantly, he’s shown us that he’s serious. He’s shown us that he cares. We now have a president who’s not going to use us for target practice.”
Waiting for follow-through
On some issues, advocates are still waiting for Biden to fulfill his promises. One of the most notable was his promise to sign the Equality Act — which would grant LGBTQ people broad protections from discrimination in housing, employment, education, public accommodations, credit and jury service — into law in the first 100 days of his presidency.
Though the House passed the bill in February, it has since stalled in the Senate in part due to the filibuster, which requires 60 members, a supermajority, of the chamber to end debate on a measure to move it to a vote.
During a White House press briefing earlier this month, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “continues to work toward” passing the Equality Act, but “in order to sign legislation, it needs to come to his desk.”
McGowan said Biden should continue to draw attention to the fact that the Equality Act is popular: Three-quarters of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, according to recent data from the Public Religion Research Institute.
“It’s going to continue to be important for President Biden to use his bully pulpit and to use his position of leadership to speak out about LGBT equality as not some issue that only some small group of people care about — but something that is so central to the moral fabric of our country,” McGowan said. “That’s the kind of thing that then creates the pressure that leads to us being able to get to the 60 votes that should very easily be there for something like the Equality Act.”
In addition to the Equality Act, advocates would like Biden to deliver on his campaign promise to support state and federal efforts to give nonbinary people access to an X gender marker on IDs, including passports.
McGowan said Lambda Legal has led a yearslong lawsuit to help nonbinary people have access to an X gender marker on their passports. In May 2020, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision in favor of Lambda Legal’s client and ordered the State Department to consider their passport application again.
Now that Biden is in office and Lambda Legal’s case is back at the State Department, McGowan said the group is hoping “we will get the answer that we should have gotten the first time.”
Kirby York said she would also like to see the administration take more action to study and prevent anti-trans violence, adding that reports of violence have reached a new record high. The American Medical Association released a statement in 2019 declaring fatal attacks against trans people an epidemic. Last year surpassed 2019’s number, with 44 trans people reported killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign. So far in 2021, at least 17 transgender people have been killed, with more than half of them Black trans women.
“There’s been a naming of the issue by different elected officials, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, but there’s been, to my knowledge, no specific initiative or task force even designed to address these numbers,” Kirby York said.
Addressing anti-transgender violence was a key campaign issue for Biden. In October, he criticized the Trump administration for its “dehumanizing government actions and rhetoric” that he said fueled “the flames of transphobia” that lead to violence.
Kirby York hopes that once Biden has filled all the open positions in his administration, he’ll start to directly address the issue.
‘What does having my back mean?’
Some advocates say the rise in anti-trans violence is in part due to state legislative “attacks” on trans people. So far in 2021, at least 144 bills targeting transgender people have been introduced in state legislatures across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
As of Friday, nine anti-LGBTQ bills have been signed into law in 2021, putting the year on track to “become the worst year for state legislative attacks against LGBTQ people in history,” Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said during a news conference last week.
Seven states — Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, South Dakota and Idaho — have banned transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity.
Arkansas is also the first state in the country to ban gender-affirming medical care for trans minors, though the bill was opposed by major medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Biden affirmed his commitment to protecting LGBTQ youth in schools through his executive order on Title IX, and he spoke to trans people directly during his Wednesday address to Congress: “To all transgender Americans watching at home — especially the young people who are so brave — I want you to know your president has your back,” Biden said.
But some trans advocates say it’s not enough.
“I’m very thankful for this. But what does having my back mean? Like, if the bills pass in Texas will you keep them from putting my mom in jail?” tweeted Kai Shappley, a 10-year-old transgender girl who testified before the Texas Legislature against a bill that would make it a felony for doctors and parents to provide gender-affirming care such as hormones or puberty blockers to trans minors.
McGowan said she thinks Biden is giving the Department of Justice and Department of Education “breathing room” to figure out how they want to address the state bills, but, she added, “I certainly would never say that the president could not do more.”
She’s hopeful the administration will “kick it into high gear” in the coming months. She said Biden’s choice of civil rights attorney Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general makes her optimistic.
“There’s a lot of work to do and a lot of damage to be undone, and so it has been very gratifying to see people tapped for these positions who have deep knowledge around working in the federal structures to promote civil rights and promote LGBTQ equality,” she said.
Sonoma County Pride (SCP) is pleased to welcome back Graton Resort & Casino as Annual Title Sponsor of this year’s Pride celebrations and host of this year’s unique re-imagined “Beyond the Rainbow Drive-Through Parade” on Saturday, June 5. A keystone of this year’s month-long celebration, the design of this parade event acknowledges and respects the need for COVID-19 safety and social distancing by re-imagining the event as a drive-through experience. Organizations and individual contingents will occupy defined spaces for their stationary displays (floats) and celebrants, allowing attendees to drive along the parade route and experience the excitement and community of Pride in a unique and unprecedented manner. A streaming soundtrack will be available to guide and entertain parade-goers as they make their way through the space.
According to SCP, “our goal is to have no more than 20 to 30 contingents made up of local LGBTQI organizations, allies, and Sonoma County Pride sponsors. Each group will occupy a designated area in the large outdoor lot at the south end of the property to stage their stationary ‘float’, with mindful limits on the number of people allowed on-premise. As in our traditional parade, Sonoma County Pride 2021 judges will judge and choose the winning parade displays for 2021, to be announced during one of our live streams.”
Greg Sarris, Chairman of Graton Resort & Casino, is happy to offer the Resort’s support for Pride and the Sonoma LGBTQ community again this year. “Graton Resort and Casino is honored to be the Annual Title Sponsor of 2021 Sonoma County Pride. Our core values are fostering compassion, inclusiveness and understanding of all citizens in our community. I am always adamant in making sure that the LGBTQ community is not only represented but protected. As I have said before, the only thing we don’t tolerate here at the casino resort is intolerance.”
Grace Villafuerte, Vice President of SCP, echoes Sarris’ sentiment in looking forward to another year of their support and cooperation. “We are so grateful for Graton Resort‘s continued commitment to the LGBT community of Sonoma County, and their ongoing support for Sonoma County Pride, which allows us to offer a month-long series of events, that we hope will provide comfort during a time of uncertainty, a renewed sense of community, and enjoyment and peace throughout June.”
Christopher Kren-Mora, President of SCP, is confident that this adaptation to the usual Pride festivities will be a fun and memorable experience for all. “Sonoma County Pride is proud and grateful to announce that Graton Resort & Casino has determined once again to partner with our organization in presenting events for 2021 so that SCP is able to continue to be a beacon of education, solidarity, equality and unity to the community. Graton Resort & Casino has been a supporter and major contributor to Sonoma County Pride and the LGBT community for since it opened in 2013.”
Local cinephiles/filmmakers Gary Carnivele and Jane Winslow present and discuss OUTwatch’s newly minted “30 Best American LGBTQIA Documentaries.” In a conversation shaped by the selections, the duo examine films about LGBTQIA history and issues, activism, gender studies, as well as profiles of noteworthy individual. They will also explore queer documentary style and take a closer look at the work of 3 pivotal auteurs: experimental filmmaker extraordinaire Barbara Hammer, and filmmaking partners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, whose films are not only iconic in queer cinema, but have had widespread mainstream appeal. The conversation concludes with a discussion of films being co-presented by OUTwatch at SDFF 2021. OUTwatch producer Gary Carnivele is a film critic, screenwriter and director. In addition to co-directing and managing SDFF, Jane Winslow is a filmmaker, film professor and frequent festival judge. OUTwatch’s list of the 30 Best American LGBTQI Documentaries is available on OUTwatch and gaysonoma.com.
Ballot Measure 9 was an anti-gay amendment proposed to Oregon voters in 1992 by a conservative group. This documentary goes behind the scenes of the fight to stop Measure 9. It contains portions of anti-gay videos as well as news clips and interviews with the people who successfully fought passage of Measure 9. 1995 Director: Heather MacDonald. 72 min.
Before Stonewall
New York City’s Stonewall Inn Riot is regarded by many as the site of gay and lesbian liberation stared on June 27-28, 1969. This documentary uses extensive archival film, movie clips and personal recollections to construct an audiovisual history of the gay community before the Stonewall riots. 1984 Directors: Greta Schiller, Robert Rosenberg 87 min.
The Celluloid Closet
A documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film. Based on the book of the same name by gay film historian and critic Vito Russo. 1996 Directors: Rob Epstein; Jeffrey Friedman 107 min.
The Cockettes
On New Year’s Eve, 1969, a flamboyant ragtag troupe of genderbending hippies took the stage of San Francisco’s Palace Theater and The Cockettes were born. For the next 2 1/2 years, these talented performers created 20 shows and many underground films.
2002. Directors: Bill weber; David Weissman. 100 min.
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
This film recounts the lives and deaths of various victims of AIDS who are commemorated in the AIDS quilt. It is a massive cloth collecting each piece as a memorial for each victim of the disease to both show the death toll and to show the humanity of the victims to those who would rather demonize them. 1989. Directors: Rob Epstien; Jeffrey Friedman. 102 min.
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
An exploration of the tenacity of love and the meaning of memory, Hoffmann chronicles her growing understanding of her elderly mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease with witty confessional-style narration. The film examines a timely subject: as Americans live longer, more and more people are faced with the life-altering challenge of caring for an elderly parent. 1995. Director: Deborah Hoffman. 44 min.
The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson
Victoria Cruz investigates the mysterious 1992 death of black gay rights activist and Stonewall veteran, Marsha P. Johnson. Using archival interviews with Johnson, and new interviews with Johnson’s family, friends and fellow activists. 2017 Director: David France.
107 min.
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives
Ten women talk about being lesbian in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s: discovering the pulp fiction of the day about women in love, their own first affairs, the pain of breaking up, frequenting gay bars, facing police raids, men’s responses, and the etiquette of butch and femme roles. 1992. Directors: Lynne Ferbie; Aerlyn Weissman. 85 min.
A Great Ride
A documentary about lesbians aging with dynamism and zest for life. Sally Gearhart, 80-plus retired women’s studies professor and activist, lives in a rustic cabin nestled in the Northern California woods. Although surrounded by the beauty of nature, she also faces several challenges to her independence. 2018. Directors: Deborah Craig; Veronica Duport Deliz. 33 min.
Holly Near: Singing for Our Lives
A documentary revisiting the career of a feisty activist musician, who never quite achieved the same recognition as her similar contemporaries Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. 2018. Director: Jim Brown. 63 min.
How to Survive a Plague
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the disease was considered a death sentence affecting communities, like the LGBT ones, whom many in power felt deserved it. This film tells the story of how militant activists like ACT-UP and TAG pushed for a meaningful response to this serious public health problem. 2012 Director: David France. 100 min.
I Am Divine
The story of Divine, aka Harris Glenn Milstead, from his humble beginnings as an overweight, teased Baltimore youth to an internationally recognized drag superstar through his collaboration with filmmaker John Waters. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty. 2014. Director: Jeffrey Schwartz. 90 min.
Intersexion
This groundbreaking film sets out to “de-mystify” intersex, looking “beyond the shame and secrecy that defines many intersex births”. Interviewing intersex people around the world, the film explores how they “navigate their way through childhood, adolescence, relationships and adulthood, when they don’t fit the binary model of a solely male and female world.” 2012 Director: Grant Lahood. 68 min.
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School
The groundbreaking film that addresses anti-gay prejudice by providing adults with practical lessons on how to talk with children about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. Part of The Respect for All Project. 1996. Directors: Debra Chasnoff; Helen Cohen. 80 min.
Killing Patient Zero
Gaetan Dugas was openly gay. In early 1980s he contracted what was termed “gay cancer”. He provided blood samples and 72 names of his former sex partners. Dugas was demonized for his promiscuity and wrongfully identified as patient zero by the media, including San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts. 2019. Director: Laurie Lynd. 100 min.
Lover Other: The Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore
French Surrealist lesbian sisters, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore collaborate creating gender-bending photographs, collages, and writing. During the WWII Nazi occupation they perform heroic and imaginative acts of Resistance are captured, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. 2018. Director: Barbara Hammer. 55 min.
Man Made
This documentary explores the world of transgender bodybuilding, tracking the path of four hopefuls as they prepare for the Trans FitCon competition in Atlanta, Georgia. 2018. Dorector: T. Cooper. 93 min.
Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mother’s Custody Movement
While the fight for LGBTQ Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum, the 1970s witnessed horrific custody battles for lesbian mothers. Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mothers’ Custody Movement revisits the early tumultuous years of the lesbian custody movement through the stories of five lesbian mothers and their four children.
2006. Directors: Jody Laine; Shan Ottey; Shad Reinstein. 61 min.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of
Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon
No Secret Anymore shows Del and Phyllis creating coalitions that took on the prevailing belief that lesbians were illegal, immoral and sick. Phyllis and Del did the groundbreaking work on lesbian mothers, sex education, family violence, and more. Always working both from within and outside the institutions they sought to change, Del and Phyllis were able to advance the rights of LGBT folks. 2003. Director: Joan E. Biren. 57 min.
Paris Is Burning
A chronicle of New York’s drag scene in the 1980s, focusing on balls, voguing and the ambitions and dreams of those who gave the era its warmth and vitality. 1991
Director: Jeannie Livingston. 71 min.
Portrait of Jason
The highlights of a 12-hour interview with Aaron Payne, alias Jason Holliday, a former houseboy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler who, while drinking and smoking cigarettes and pot, tells stories and observations of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s America. 1967. Diector: Shirley Clarke. 105 min.
The Rest I Make Up
Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornes created astonishing worlds onstage. When she stops writing due to dementia, a friendship with a young writer reignites her visionary creative spirit, triggering a film collaboration that picks up where the pen left off. 2018. Director: Michelle Memran. 79 min.
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria
Documentary about transgender women and drag queens who fought police harassment at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin in 1966, three years before the famous riot at Stonewall Inn bar in NYC. 2005. Directors: Victor Silverman; Susan Stryker. 57 min.
Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort documents the final year in the life of Robert Eads, a transgender man. Eads, diagnosed with ovarian cancer, was turned down for treatment by two dozen doctors out of fear of treating him. By the time Eads received treatment, the cancer was too advanced to save his life. 2002. Director: Kate Davis. 90 min.
The Times of Harvey Milk
San Francisco Board of Supervisors Harvey Milk and SF Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by recently resigned Supervisor Dan White on November 27th, 1978. Milk’s life, his successful efforts to politically represent SF’s LGBT community, and the city’s reaction to the assassinations are documented with news film and personal recollections.
1984. Director: Robert Epstien. 90 min.
Tiny and Ruby: Hell Drivin’ Women
This profile of legendary jazz trumpeter Tiny Davis and her partner of over 40 years, drummer-pianist Ruby Lucas weaves together rare jazz recordings, live performances, vintage photographs, and narrative poetry by Cheryl Clarke. Tiny’s contribution to jazz history is documented and the 78-year-old demonstrates that her chops and humor are both intact. 1996. Director: Greta Schiller. 28 min.
Tongues Untied
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs. 1988. Director Marlon Riggs. 55 min.
Trembling Before G-D
Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma – how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbids homosexuality. 2001 Director: Sandi Simcha Dubowski. 94 min.
We Were Here
A deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco, and how the City’s inhabitants dealt with that unprecedented calamity. It explores what was not so easy to discern in the midst of it all – the parallel histories of suffering and loss; community coalescence and empowerment. 2011. Directors: David Weissman; Bill Weber. 90 min.
Word is Out
26 men and women of various backgrounds, ages, and races talk about being gay. Their stories are arranged in loose chronology: early years, fitting in (which for some meant marriage), disclosing their sexuality, establishing adult identities, and reflecting on how things have changed and how things should be. All see social progress as they reflect.
1979. Directors: Nancy Adair; Peter Adair; Andrew Brown; Rob Epstein; Lucy Massie Phenix; Veronica Selver. 164 min.
Most titles are available for purchase. Many titles are available on DVD through Sonoma County Public Libraries. Some are available from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.
Ohio will soon join nearly every other state in the country in allowing transgender people born in the state to change the gender markers on their birth certificates. Tennessee will soon be the lone holdout.
The Ohio Department of Health will not appeal a federal court rulingissued in December that found the state’s ban on birth certificate gender changes is unconstitutional. The department is instead working on a process for people to request the change and expects to have it in place by June 1, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday, citing a court filing made Thursday.
The December ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio came in response to a lawsuit brought by four transgender people born in Ohio. The plaintiffs, according to court documents, were subjected to professional humiliation, verbal harassment and threats to their safety as a result of not having a birth certificate that aligned with their gender identity.
The ruling cited a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality that found 36 percent of respondents in Ohio who showed an ID with a name or gender that did not match their gender presentation were “verbally harassed, denied benefits or service, asked to leave, or assaulted.”
Judge Michael Watson called the state’s argument that permitting changes to birth certificate gender markers would “undermine the accuracy of vital statistics or fraud prevention” a “red herring.”
“The Court finds that Defendants’ proffered justifications are nothing more than thinly veiled post-hoc rationales to deflect from the discriminatory impact of the Policy,” Watson wrote.
While nearly every state now permits transgender people to change the gender marker on their birth certificate, the process for doing so varies from state to state. Fourteen states, for example, require proof of gender-affirming surgery in order to make such a change, according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.