One of three World Premieres at this year’s QUEER SCREEN’S MARDI GRAS FILM FESTIVAL in Sydney Australia is a truly delightful feel-good road movie, The debut feature from queer Greek filmmaker STELIOS KAMMITSIS is one of those romances you are never sure will work, but the journey is so worth it anyway.
It all starts in a seaside town in Greece where Victor VASILIS MAGOULIOTIS an ex-Olympic diving champion is now looking after his very sick grandmother. He’s quite a loner content to get part time work in a local upholstery factory, but when his granny dies, he decides its time to leave town.
Many years ago his mother had done just exactly that taking of with a hot German who became her husband and together they started their own family in Bavaria. We gather from odd phone calls that this is still a sore point for Victor who has unresolved issues.
She just didn’t leave Victor at the time, but she also left her old Audi which up to now had been collecting moths in the garage. It does at least still work so Victor sets forth to drive on to the Ferry that will take him to Italy.
Whilst onboard he attracts the attention Matthias ANTON WEIL of an overly confident German ‘student’ who is returning home after another summer running wild on Greek island beaches. Victor may be totally unaware, but we can see Matthias is flirting with him but we are not sure if it is to get a lift in the car, or if he has an alternative motive.
They make strange traveling companions . The uptight Victor doesn’t want to talk about why he is making the journey, and insists that they take the fastest route using the big motorways. Chatty Matthias on other hand, outs his foot down and makes Victor drive on secondary roads that take them through some stunning Italian scenery.
At one point Matthias makes him pull over on the pretext he wants to go toilet at the roadside whereas in fact he wants to swim in the lake. It takes so persuading to get Victor to join him, and when he does we can finally see him starting to relax.
The trip is not without incident as they get pulled over for speeding and Victor is also ticketed for not having a driving license. We have no real idea of Victor’s sexuality at this point as it is quite irrelevant, yet what we see is the two of them bickering at times like an old married couple.
At a side stop to attend a wedding of friends of Matthias, a very relaxed and drunk Victor is starting to realise that his feelings for his new friend is something that he wasn’t prepared for.
When they finally reach Victor’s mother home there is a birthday party in full swing for his very young step -brother, and we know that this reunion is not going to turn out like anything he had planned in his mind. But then again, neither will this road trip.
Beautifully written, and kudos to Kammitsis for making two extremely authentic and well-rounded characters so well played by his two talented leads. Its a refreshing wee tale that is totally unpredictable https://www.youtube.com/embed/rSQAqHwgsVs
Gender policing? Ever hear of it? Let’s talk about it.
I recently got into a social media scuff with an acquaintance over a comedic video she starred in. The video short stars a woman on a date with a man, and the “funny” part of the video is that she is trying to determine if he is gay or straight based on his clothing and job. Her reactions in the video are those of shock and disgust, often scrunching her face into a grimace that would be appalling in real life as a reaction to a stranger’s clothing. Especially on a date.ADVERTISING
You see, beyond the overall judgmental tone of the video being so 2000 and late, the man in the video is in fact gay, so the “funny” parts according to the actor and producer are that they are leaning into the stereotype intentionally of what a gay man is thought to look like. Completely unaware that they are deciding what is correct clothing for a person based on their sexual orientation.
That is a big problem, and sadly when I confronted my acquaintance about it she told me she would not listen to my messages imploring her to take down the video, and she was shocked I cared so much. When I further pushed her to explain what was funny about the video, she referenced the dated character of “Pat” on Saturday Night Live and likened the character to that. Let’s be clear, in 2020 a gender-ambiguous character like “Pat” would no longer be allowed on SNL because of the inappropriate tone, but I digress, let’s dive into this one a bit more.
The first shock-and-awe moment intended to make us laugh is that the man on the date removes his coat to be wearing the same top as the woman. Shock. Horror. A man in a woman’s blouse instantly means he’s gay? Why is that funny? She couldn’t really answer.
The second big shock is that he works at Claire’s accessories. She instantly mocks him and scrunches her face as if she got a bad whiff of something. Because a man working at a jewelry store is so gay, haha.
The video continues, but you get the point.
You see, as a feminine gay man, I have been gender-policed almost since birth. We all are. Blue is for boys, pink is for girls. It is literally ingrained for most from the time we enter the world. But that doesn’t make it OK, and it certainly shouldn’t make it the subject of comedic relief.
I was so petite in my youth, teachers would often mistake me for a girl on the first day of school. Most gay men sympathize with being called “ma’am” on the phone at some point. I remember when it happened I would then lean into it, pretending to be a woman, so that I wasn’t embarrassed when I had to admit, “I’m a boy, I just sound like this.”
Even to this day as a trainer who works in media, I am told often that I am too gay or too feminine for certain roles, auditions, or opportunities simply because of my appearance. Those ideas of what a man should look like have been accepted for centuries as the norm. Luckily, I’m as thick-skinned as they come. I had to be, because I didn’t look like the other boys and I enjoyed feminine things. I became a professional ballet dancer and years later, I started wearing heels as part of my profession, walking on runways for NYFW in sky-high stilettos. I am in fact a raging homosexual, but every other male dancer in my company was straight as can be. They often lamented how hard it was to be in a profession they love and constantly judged and mocked because of it.https://www.instagram.com/p/CIzALIqhvbG/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=6&wp=910&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advocate.com&rp=%2Fcommentary%2F2021%2F1%2F15%2Fgender-policing-jokes-are-costing-lgbtq-lives#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1815%7D
We find out in the video that the man is in fact gay, so his silky matching top and choice to work at Claire’s are “explained,” and yet there’s still no comedy to this. It’s as if the video sets out to determine what is acceptable for a man to wear, and if it’s not, then he must be gay.
Harry Styles recently caused a huge conversation by wearing a petticoat in Vogue. A whole online movement of “Make men look like men again” was born and letters of disgust poured in. The important thing to remember here is that the clothes we wear are just that. Pieces of fabric that make us happy, or comfortable, and they do not need a justification to anyone, and they certainly should not be used to judge a person’s sexual orientation. There is no rule on how a gay man should dress, nor should there be on what a straight man can wear, or any human for that matter.
Gender policing does real harm. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among LGB people ages 10 to 24. LGB youth are fives times as likely to have attempted suicide as opposed to heterosexual counterparts, according to the Trevor Project. Over 6,000 homeless teens roam the streets of Los Angeles nightly, often vilified and kicked out of their own homes for being gay. Those kids are nearly 10 times more likely to commit suicide than straight teens their same age. Additionally. hate crimes are on the rise across the globe.
I should make a point to say that there were dozens of positive comments on this video. None of the commenters were wearing a silky blouse so I’m not sure if they’re gay or not, but I was the only one who spoke out against the content. Of course, when I shared it on social media those in my network instantly realized what was wrong with it.
Who does this antiquated way of sussing up one’s sexual preference hurt the most? The one’s who can’t hide it, like me. I was never passable as a straight person, not once in my life. When I walk into a room I am instantly judged or made assumptions about based on my appearance. I’m gay and you can tell, but what about the ones not out yet, or still struggling with their own self-realization? I was strong enough to get through it and in fact, it is what made me who I am, but not everyone is and that’s why this sort of “comedic” stance on gender policing needs to stop.
Any person gay or straight can wear a shirt designed for a woman.
Any person gay or straight can work at Claire’s if they wish.
Any person should be able to dress how they please, without fear of being judged or persecuted for their sexual preference.
I consider 2020 to be the year of revelations, where old antiquated ways of thinking are finally falling behind. As recently as June this year, for the first time ever, LGBTQ+ people have workplace protection in all 50 states thanks to a Supreme Court decision. Before then, over 15 states could fire you for being gay. Obviously, lots of work is still to be done.
So while videos like this one on Instagram may seem funny to you, I implore you to stop and think about why you think it’s funny. To the woman who prompted this article, I hope you read this. You told me you wouldn’t and that you don’t care about my opinion, but I hope you change your mind. I believe what we focus on expands, so let’s throw away these lame-ass stereotypes and focus on acceptance. Whether you’re a man who loves to wear ball gowns or a woman who lives in men’s clothing, it doesn’t make you anything but a human wearing a piece of fabric.
Jason Wimberly is a Los Angeles–based celebrity personal trainer. His signature method “Wimberlean” has attracted followers like Jane Lynch and Selma Blair. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
One of the many powers wielded by Congress is the ability to delegate to the president the authority to negotiate most kinds of free trade agreements (“FTAs”) through trade promotion authority (“TPA”). TPA legislation allows Congress to articulate its objectives for FTAs negotiated by the executive branch and facilitates the smooth passage of FTAs in Congress through expedited approval procedures, including “up or down” simple majority votes on completed FTAs without the opportunity for amendment. The current TPA legislation, signed into law in 2015, will lapse this summer, prompting questions on whether and when the Biden administration will seek, and Congress will grant renewed TPA. Whenever TPA is ultimately renewed, Congress should ensure that the legislation includes a provision aimed at securing the rights of LGBT individuals in the countries with which the United States executes FTAs.
The process of renewing TPA provides Congress with an opportunity to revisit its priorities for U.S. trade policy. These priorities are laid out in negotiating objectives enumerated in the TPA legislation and must be pursued by the executive branch in its FTA negotiations to ensure passage of any negotiated agreement by Congress. Examples of negotiating objectives contained in the current TPA legislation include protecting and preserving the environment, promoting respect for worker rights, and securing greater market access and enhancing the competitiveness of the United States. ADVERTISING
While Congress has yet to consider the next set of negotiating objectives to be included in renewed TPA legislation, many members have already vocalized their support for a more progressive trade agenda. Consistent with this vision for U.S. trade policy, a negotiating objective focused on securing a minimum standard for LGBT rights in U.S. FTA partners would reflect a logical outgrowth of current negotiating objectives, prevailing public sentiment, and good economic policy.
An LGBT rights negotiating objective would represent a meaningful and logical improvement upon current negotiating objectives. For example, a principal negotiating objective in the current TPA legislation is to “ensure that a party to a trade agreement with the United States does not waive or otherwise derogate from…its statutes or regulations implementing internationally recognized core labor standards…” Such core labor standards include “the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.” Consistent with this objective, the United States has already endorsed protections against workplace discrimination of LGBT people in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (albeit at the discretion of each party). Building on this progress, Congress could adopt a negotiating objective aimed at securing a broader set of LGBT rights, demanding the decriminalization of same-sex sexual orientation and protections against discrimination and violence against LGBT people. Such negotiating objective would, in effect, set a floor above which U.S. trading partners must rise to secure commercially-advantageous deals with the United States.
An LGBT rights negotiating objective is also consistent with prevailing public sentiment. Considering the rise of LGBT Americans to new heights in the Biden administration, and the upswell in support for LGBT rights in the United States, it is unimaginable that the United States would negotiate FTAs with countries that arrest and jail LGBT individuals on account of their sexual orientation. Yet, the Obama Administration did just that during its Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) negotiations with Brunei, a country with an abysmal LGBT rights record. Under the Trump administration, the United States also commenced FTA negotiations with Kenya, a country that criminalizes homosexuality and where, according to the U.S. Department of State, “{v}iolence and discrimination against LGBT{} individuals {i}s widespread.” The American people expect that the United States does not reward countries that fail to respect the dignity of human life with lucrative FTAs. This expectation should be enshrined as law, and not subject to mere executive branch discretion.
Finally, and in addition to the positive human rights outcomes that would result from an LGBT rights negotiating objective, such a provision would economically benefit the United States. Just as ensuring U.S. FTA partners’ compliance with fundamental labor rights such as the freedom of association makes American labor more cost competitive, so too does ensuring the full integration and just compensation of LGBT workers overseas. The scale of underemployment and wage discrimination against sexual orientation and gender minorities in major economies is well documented. In South Africa, for example, the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles determined the cost of such underemployment and wage discrimination to be $316.8 million per year. Renewed TPA legislation should require that U.S. FTA partners eliminate such barriers to LGBT equality as a matter of economic policy.
Although an LGBT rights negotiating objective will almost certainly face criticism from trade “purists” – those who believe social prerogatives have no place in trade policy – and social conservatives, fighting to include such a provision in renewed TPA legislation is a battle worth waging. There has never been a better political climate to integrate and pursue jointly important U.S. economic and human rights objectives, and the Democratic-controlled Congress should seize the opportunity.
Zachary Simmons is an international trade attorney at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington, D.C., and previously served in the Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance at the US Department of Commerce and the Office of General Counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. He chairs GATT DC, the association of LGBT professionals in international trade and development.
A man from Malaysia has won a landmark ruling against an Islamic gay sex ban, raising hopes for greater LGBT+ rights in the country.
The Muslim man – whose name has been withheld by his lawyer to protect his identity – filed the lawsuit after he was arrested in the central Selangor state of Malaysia in 2018 for attempting gay sex. He denied the allegation.
Same-sex acts are illegal in Malaysia, although convictions are rare. All 13 states and the federal territory in Malaysia criminalise same-sex relations and gender nonconformity. The federal penal code also punishes any form of anal or oral sex with up to 20 years in prison and mandatory caning.
In an unanimous decision, Malaysia’s top court ruled that the Islamic provision used in Selangor was unconstitutional, and authorities had no power to enact the law which bans sex “against the order of nature”.
The nine-judge panel ruled Selangor’s enactment of the anti-gay law was ultra vires, or beyond the state’s power, because under Malaysia’s constitution only the federal government may legislate some aspects of criminal law.
‘One small, but significant step forward’
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement the federal court’s ruling is “one small but significant step forward” for LGBT+ rights in Malaysia. The HRW said: “In the face of pervasive anti-LGBT+ discourse, law and policy, Malaysian activists are taking steps to whittle away at institutionalised discrimination.”
The man involved in the legal challenge was among 11 men arrested on charges of “attempting” gay sex from a 2018 raid on a private residence in Selangor. In November 2019, a court convicted five of the men and sentenced them to fines, imprisonment and six strokes of the cane each.
Malaysia’s state laws are notorious for their persecution of LGBT+ people, especially trans women
Last year, the religious affairs minister gave “full license” for Malaysian police to arrest and detain trans people. Minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri announced on social media that he had given the religious police “full licence to carry out its enforcement actions” against transgender people in Malaysia.
He elaborated that his order goes beyond arrests, but also allows police to subject trans people to “religious education” so that they will “return to the right path”.
More recently, Malaysia’s deputy religious affairs minister proposed to increase criminal penalties against LGBT+ people. Deputy minister for religious affairs Ahmad Marzuk Shaary has proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) which would allow state courts to enact harsher sentences for same-sex conduct than the current maximum sentence permitted under federal law.
You may have heard of Abby and Brittany Hensel before, either on Oprah, in Time…
Act 355 limits the sentences that can be imposed by Sharia courts. The current sentence under the act includes three-year imprisonment, a fine of RM5,000 (£905) and six strokes with a cane.
However, Marzuk said this punishment was “not giving much effect on the group of people”. He said: “All state religious agencies and enforcers have been instructed to take action against those [LGBT+ people] who do not behave accordingly.”
Two gay men are being held on terror charges in Chechnya, having escaped torture in the homophobic republic before being returned by Russian police.
Salek Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, who is just 17 years old, fled to Russia in June 2020 with the help of the Russian LGBT Network.
They were relocated by the group to Nizhny Novogorod, a city around 400 kilometres east of Moscow, having been tortured by the Chechen special police for running an opposition Telegram channel.SPONSORED CONTENTPandemic or Not, Don’t Skip These 3 Health ChecksBy Sutter Health
The men were left “in mortal danger”, after their lawyer followed them to Chechnya and found they were being “pressured” to refuse legal representation.
Now, the Russian LGBT Network has been informed that the men are being held on the terrorism charge of aiding an illegal armed group.
The network said in a statement: “The investigation, however, did not provide objective evidence of the guilt of Ismail Isaev and Salekh Magamadov.”
On 8 February, the European Court of Human Rights “ordered Russia to explain the reasons for the detention of Magamadov and Isaev, to admit independent lawyers, medical workers, and their next of kin to them”.
But despite the order, legal representatives were not able to see their clients.
Sayputy Isaev, the 17-year-old’s father, said he was beaten and “blackmailed with the life of his son” if he did not sign a statement on the minor’s behalf to refuse a lawyer.
Magamadov and Isayev’s case is currently being considered, and they could face up to 15 years in prison in Chechnya. The men themselves said that “they had to sign statements and testimonies under threats and pressure”.
They are currently being held in SIZO no. 2, a pre-trial detention centre in Grozny, Chechnya.
You may have heard of Abby and Brittany Hensel before, either on Oprah, in Time…
In 2017, reports began to emerge of a “gay purge” in Chechnya, involving mass detention, abductions, torture and abuse of human rights against the LGBT+ community. Reports of such atrocities have continued in the years since.
The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadryov, has denied the reports as well the existence of any LGBT+ people in the region. He was hit with sanctions by the US government in July 2020 over the atrocities.
The UK government also ordered strict sanctions to be placed upon three top Chechen officials charged with torturing LGBT+ people in the region’s “gay purge” in December 2020.
Since the events of January 6th, I have been struggling with how to respond. What should engaged citizens and residents do when democracy is under attack, particularly amid a global pandemic? Perhaps I have been struggling since quarantine began in March and April of 2020. Maybe I have been struggling since the election in November of 2016. Perhaps even longer. It is hard to pinpoint when the struggle began. Maybe you, too, have been feeling similarly? Through these struggles, I have been reading, particularly poetry. Recent books remind of one powerful aspect of poetry by queer and lesbian women: the call to community. These are some reflections.
I.
Ellen Bass’s newest poetry collection, Indigo, arrived nearly a year ago. I have been savoring it. Bass’s work continues to deepen in its power. She expresses complex experiences in the world with beauty and joy. In Indigo, ample poems are quintessentially Bass; her poems demonstrate the power of lesbian sexuality and exuberantly celebrate life in the body, richly observed, deeply felt, joyful even—or especially—as the body ages.
Bass’s poems accumulate power because she is as willing to explore emotions with more negative valences with the same wonder and appreciation as positive. Poems in Indigo explore failure, loss, and despair with vivid clarity. For example, Bass describes her “first / entrance into the land of failure” as a “country / I would visit so often / it would begin to feel like home.” In a litany of regrets in the poem, “Pearls,” Bass beings “I’m sorry I didn’t buy my father the cashmere sweater with suede trim the summer / I went to Europe. And I’m sorry I didn’t stay longer with my mother when he died.” Each regret invites readers to understand how the speaker has disappointed people, causes, the beloved one; each regret a reminder of the vital web of shared life, finally concluding, “Forgive me, the sun will burn out. / I can’t hear your heart beating in the silence between us.” One remedy: listen more closely, more intensely, to the sound of a beating heart. Bass calls readers to the intimate and vital pulse of life. I understand it as a call to community.
The gesture is not only in Indigo; it marks Bass’s entire career. It can be easy to forget the scope of Ellen Bass’s work and linger only on the four collections of published poetry: Mules of Love, The Human Line, Like a Beggar, and now Indigo. There is so much pleasure to experience in these books, but they are only a part of her public poetic work. In 1973, with Florence Howe, the founder and publisher of The Feminist Press, Bass edited No More Masks an anthology of poetry by women; it galvanized poetry as an art form of the women’s liberation movement. In the 1980s, with Laura Davis, Bass published The Courage to Heal, another transformative book about recovery from sexual abuse. It is not too bold to assert that the #MeToo movement could not exist without Ellen Bass and Laura Davis’s work—along with the work of many thousands of feminists naming sexual violence. In The Courage to Heal, Bass and Davis named the problem and, just as importantly, provided a path for recovery. I posit that The Courage to Heal—the book itself and public engagements with it—is a poem. It is a language that transforms readers’ understanding and lives in the world. Considering these two books, The Courage to Heal and No More Masks, in combination with her own poems, Bass is one of the most influential public poets today. The break-through of inaugural poet Amanda Gorman reminds us of the power of poetry in public life. Public poets occupy spaces such as inaugural poets or city and state poet laureateships; some public poets like Mary Oliver and Rupi Kaur are best-seller authors. All of these public roles are vital. Ellen Bass is another type of public poet: a poet who is a transformative thinker and writer in the world, a poet who brings new formations into being, a poet who convenes and conjures vibrant communities.
II.
Bass’s work extends five decades, fifty years of community-making. Kelly Rose Pflug-Back’s work is just beginning. Her impressive debut collection, The Hammer of Witches, uses magic and mythology as central metaphors to conjure the communal. Pflug-Back draws on an eclectic array of mythology—in one poem alone alluding to the Vedas and the Edda—as well as the practice of witchcraft to highlight the magical and mysterious of contemporary life.
“We were witches once, you and I,” Pflug-Back asserts in the opening poem, “Malleus Maleficarum.” This artful poem blends the history of woman/witch hating with contemporary lesbian life, confiding “your love is a heathen ritual” then concluding, “the two of us lost together / still / / in this forest / of tall buildings.” Rich history combined with current imaginative practices is a defining characteristic of this collection.
In “After the Fall,” Pflug-Back writes,
every vast and ancient magic that this world of men has killed and pined for
alive somewhere just out of site
The conclusion is an ars poetica:
Outside the realm of clumsy words there are no such things as endings only new things made from the old.
Like many religions, witchcraft is communal, practiced in covens. Part of its spiritual and material work is providing human explanations for the inexplicable, magical as well as painful. Pflug-Back’s poems evoke magic as in “Grimoire” or the delightful “Hepatomancy,” a practice of divination from entrails. They also recognize communal gatherings as a vital part of magic. In “Hepatomancy,” Pflug-Back writes,
I am sewn together from the flesh of many and we ache.
Human life is both constituted by others and sharing in the pain of others. Elsewhere, Pflug-Back mines magic in human relationships. “For Dave” begins:
The day after you died my son asked me to draw a picture of you holding a blue balloon.
This lamentation concludes,
And now here I am wishing I could have found and afternoon somehow
to take that trip across town
and show up at your door
with a big blue balloon while you were still alive.
Perhaps unknown to the Pflug-Back, “For Dave” echoes Maureen Seaton’s stunning poem “White Balloon” demonstrating a generational shift but the endurance of lesbian lyrical poetry. United by the image of a balloon, white for Seaton, blue for Pflug-Back, these poems also document the material changes of queer lives. Seaton’s poem emerges from a communal memorial for people who died from AIDS; Pflug-Back’s is a domestic scene with a child. Both poems call readers into a community for mourning. Seaton laments “the ease with which we love”; Pflug-Back wishes for more time with beloved friends. Both poems call us to community.
III.
torrin a. greathouse’s new collection Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil for the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, is in a dynamic conversation with Pflug-Back’s collection. greathouse’s opening poem, “Medusa with the Head of Perseus” introduces many of the themes of this collection: disability, body dysmorphia, rape. It also artfully demonstrates greathouse’s proficiency with language and her energetic ability to transform images in service to her story.
Many will read Wound from the Mouth of a Wound with admiration for the way that it brings language and visibility to trans experiences and the realities of living with disabilities. greathouse and this collection join vibrant conversations in contemporary poetry communities on trans identities and living with disabilities. I appreciate both of these elements and particularly the way greathouse calls readers into a community that values trans people and people with disabilities.
“Weeds” demonstrates greathouse’s extraordinary poetic power. With short lines and stanzas between four and six lines, greathouse establishes the “shower stall” as the “body’s confessional” where she admits, “I love / most what can be / removed from me.” She builds an extended metaphor between unwanted parts of the body and weeds with a moving meditation on weed removal as “women’s work.” She writes, “Nothing’s more / femme than empty / / field, a place to bury / seed.” The poem concludes with the voice of the weeds:
We were your first teachers. Even in the harshest season, we survive. We bloom forever where we are told we don’t belong.
This poem reworks communal formations in meaningful ways, echoing feminist insights from the 1970s with contemporary trans sensibilities, making vibrant connections between human bodies and nature, and calling readers into the collective first-person plural with weeds. We were your first teachers. We survive. We bloom. This vision of community is one that leaves me awed.
IV.
Theorem, Elizabeth Bradfield’s newest collaboration, is a departure from her earlier work. Created with artist Antonia Contro, Theoremcounterpoints the words of Bradfield with the art of Contro. While Bradfield’s previous books establish her as a naturalist concerned with human-created conditions on the natural world, Theorem looks to mathematics, particularly geometry, as a tool to refract her childhood experiences. Bradfield writes:
There were five of us. And a dog. Only one dog at a time.
No one else.
The results are fractal The trajectories radiate.
The combination of Bradfield’s words with Contro’s art demonstrates the energy of collaborative enterprises; each element opens meanings for the other. In the afterword, they describe their collaboration as “words and image influencing, pushing, urging, questioning each other. Artist and writer finding new ways to articulate what is embedded in what they create.” In addition to inspiring more collaborations between artists, Theorem is a physical manifestation of community, a community of a singular poet and artist, but, by extension, in an invitation into communities of poets and artists.
V.
Amid this reading of new work by lesbian and queer women poets, I returned to the work of Chrystos and spent weeks marveling at the corpus of her work. If I had more time and could really stretch out to tell you everything, I would write a detailed, sustained meditation on the poetry of Chrystos. Maybe it will come. Right now, I want to note that echoes of Chrystos’s work are in all of these collections. Chrystos’s work is filled with gorgeous, vexing, challenging, inspiring images of bodies and nature. She breaks conventions of contemporary poetry just because she can, because she has so much control over language, images, and the line, that she wants to flaunt her power. It is heady. It is exciting. It is worth your consideration as a reader, as a human, longing, hungering for some meaning, for connections in our troubled world. Chrystos knows about community and connection, and she wants them. She wants us to have them.
VI.
Funeral Diva, the new collection by Pamela Sneed, joins this gathering of new poetry that powerfully calls readers into community. While Sneed fashions herself as a diva in the title, in fact, these poems demonstrate rich community engagements that belie the temperament diva implies. The work in this collection—a hybrid of poetry and prose—calls a range of people, living and dead, into a community invoking a history of queer Black writers and insisting on a powerful present and future for Black queer writing.
Like the hybrid work that characterized lesbian-feminist writing in the 1980s and 1990s, Funeral Diva is a mix of poetry and essay braided together to illuminate how the two genres intersect, co-exist, merge, hybridize. Reading Funeral Diva amid COVID-19 as it harkens back to another, different epidemic, AIDS, is a powerful reminder of the responses of queer communities during the 1980s and 1990s. Sneed writes,
when I saw the poster silence equals death in the windows of the Leslie Lohman Museum That pink triangle on black paper from blocks away It called to me like a beacon Amidst societal madness/personal struggles and the Trump presidency to never give up It reminded me too of a generation of gay and lesbian warriors who are no longer here with us felled to AIDS and cancer But on their deathbeds used the mantra to inspire Silence=Death I think about when Black gay and Latinx poets Essex Hemphill Donald Woods Don Reid Roy Gonsalves Rory Buchanan David Frechette Craig Harris Alan Williams and Assotto Saint and so many more were still here How their black hair began to sprout twists and knots go wild and kinky to signify early Black gay consciousness I think about when I first met Donald Woods outside of a bookstore in the West Village called A Different Light and we fell in love We were all so young Black awkward and gangly but fierce and determined.
Funeral Diva fueled my desire to return not only to the poems of Chrystos, but also the poems of Dorothy Allison, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and many other writers that I read thirty, thirty-five years ago when I was coming out. Sneed is an inheritor to the vibrant poetic traditions of lesbian-feminism and the Black gay and lesbian renaissance of the 1980s. Funeral Diva is her love letter to the people and work who created her. Sneed, like the other poets here, calls us into community with all of its challenges, its foibles its uncertainties. As she tells us in her conclusion to Funeral Diva,
And then I understand what it all means If we can survive have equipment means money support conditions There are also other possibilities We can heal.
Indigo
by Ellen Bass
Copper Canyon Press
Paperback, 9781556595752, 64 pp.
April 2020
The Hammer of Witches
by Kelly Rose Pflug-Back
Caitlin Press
Paperback, 9781773860299, 72 pp.
March 2021
Wound From the Mouth of a Wound
by torrin a. greathouse
Milkweed Editions
Paperback, 9781571315274, 88 pp.
December 2020
Theorem
by Elizabeth Bradfield
Potry Northwest Editions
Paperback, 9781949166026, 96 pp.
November 2020
Fire Power
by Chrystos
Press Gang Publishers
Paperback, 9780889740471, 131 pp.
October 1995
Funeral Diva
by Pamela Sneed
City Lights Books
Paperback, 9780872868113, 160 pp.
October 2020
It did not take long after Joseph Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election for him to tweet that America is back. Yet soon after this proclamation, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in efforts to prevent him from assuming office. This natural culmination of Donald Trump and his administration’s rhetoric and politicking has left Americans stunned and U.S. allies abroad perplexed. Questions regarding whether the United States would, could, or should regain credibility and moral leadership on the global stage are left unanswered.
As Americans watch the Biden administration attempt to foster unity at home and define a new vision for America’s role abroad, foreign leaders are looking for real evidence of and commitment to what shared values endure. The United States coming out again with strong renewed leadership on LGBTIQ rights globally would send a powerful moral message to the world, bringing old allies closer together and helping restore American credibility abroad.
Prior to Trump’s election in 2016, the United States was a celebrated vanguard for promoting the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals around the world. Early in his administration, President Barack Obama directed all U.S. diplomacy efforts and foreign assistance to promote and protect the human rights of LGBTIQ persons. This — echoed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her Human Rights Day 2011 speech that “gay rights are human rights” — was a watershed moment for U.S. foreign policy.
But past this political pageantry, the United States also took specific action. The Obama administration created the position of the Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons, who used behind-the-scenes diplomacy to engage world leaders and recruited like-minded partner governments to establish the Global Equality Fund, which provides financial support to LGBTI grassroots initiatives around the world.
While Obama’s record on human rights was not perfect, his administration’s work on global LGBTIQ issues acted as a model for moral leadership and a case study for how to partner with allies to defend and promote human rights abroad. Given his engagement in multilateral venues and his delicate messaging on these issues with foreign leaders, it is unsurprising that polls show that Europeans had high confidence that Obama would do the right thing in world affairs.
Then came Donald Trump. In his inaugural address as president, Trump promised that the United States would lead by example rather than “imposing our way of life” on others. Yet few knew what an America First foreign policy meant. With time, that became clear: a radical departure from global norms and multilateralism, leaving human rights, both at home and abroad, behind; eschewing U.S. traditional allies, to boot, while doing so. Trump’s affinity for autocrats and his disrespect for democracy itself were indications that he would actually take America to the brink.
The Biden administration inherited a fractured global order plagued by a myriad of the world’s most urgent challenges, not least among them the COVID-19 pandemic recovery and combating climate change. This is to say nothing of America’s need to first turn inward and address its domestic social and political struggles before it can stand tall on human rights abroad. But these deep existential crises do not obviate the need to protect human rights abroad, nor is the solution as easy as picking up where the Obama administration left off.
With less influence and credibility, traditional American foreign policy priorities, like training foreign security forces or promoting democracy, will ring hollow in the ears of U.S. allies. To do this work effectively abroad, the United States will need to rely on old friends, and those friends will need a reliable partner that they can trust. Reestablishing those ties should begin with an unequivocal reinstatement of U.S. values, including once again recognizing the dignity of LGBTIQ people.
Biden recently campaigned for the U.S. presidency on the promise that he would prioritize his administration’s support for LGBTIQ human rights, and Biden has started to deliver. With less than 12 hours in office, he signed an executive order to prevent and combat discrimination against LGBTIQ Americans, and his nominee for secretary of State unequivocally stated support for protecting LGBTIQ people worldwide in front of Congress.
While these are important first steps in restoring U.S. credibility abroad, the Biden administration should build back bolder in promoting LGBTIQ human rights.
In its international efforts, beyond immediately filling the vacancy of the LGBTIQ special envoy position, a top priority of the Biden administration should be to reopen U.S. doors to vulnerable LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers. Given Biden’s efforts to build an administration that looks like America, those selected to serve as U.S. ambassadors should truly reflect the diversity of America — the first out lesbian and trans ambassadors should be appointed. Further, another profound action would be to swiftly adjust U.S. passports to allow for a nonbinary identification.
The administration should also develop a genuinely inclusive humanitarian relief and development strategy. U.S. foreign assistance should be paired with American values of equality with clear requirements of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and the paltry amount of such foreign assistance should immediately be tripled in the President’s first budget. Given his administration’s focus on pandemic recovery, Biden’s COVID-19 efforts abroad should pay particular attention to the social and economic vulnerabilities that the novel coronavirus poses to LGBTIQ communities around the world.
Lastly, the United States should take leadership once again in multilateral spaces — such as the United Nations Core Group and the Equal Rights Coalition — along with other government champions of LGBTIQ rights to seriously move forward global norms of equality.
A Biden administration will find like-minded governments and civil society activists eager to work with them in these areas. Since Obama and Biden left the White House in 2017, social acceptance of homosexuality has significantly increased in the U.S.-ally geographic strongholds of Western Europe, Latin America, and the Indo-Pacific. And each year, due to the tenacious work of activists, several nations take progressive action by decriminalizing homosexuality or enacting marriage equality.
In the weeks following the 2020 election, global LGBTIQ activists began celebrating the Biden-Harris win. These elated congratulatory messages came in via emails, calls, and texts from all parts of the world. Ranging from “We’re dancing in the streets of Nigeria like we’re Americans” to “A Biden win is a win for all of us,” the messages were deeply moving. In a collective sigh of relief, one activist texted, “We are all sleeping easier tonight.” Whether from Russia, Uganda, Jamaica, or Lebanon, the expectation that the U.S. government will once again be visibly and solidly on the side of LGBTIQ equality was immediately palpable.
The shock of the Trump-incited insurrection contrasted starkly with the beautiful inauguration of Biden as the 46th president of the United States last week. These images leave Americans and the world deeply aware of the fragility and imperfection of the U.S. democracy and with many questions about moving forward to make a more perfect union.
But the arc of the moral universe is clearly bending — albeit slowly — toward greater acceptance and fairness for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender and intersex people around the world. And the world has been waiting and is ready for renewed U.S. leadership on global LGBTIQ rights.
Julie Dorf is a senior advisor with the Council for Global Equality. Dominic Bocci is a deputy director at the Council on Foreign Relations.
A Tunisian court sentenced a prominent LGBT rights activist on March 4, 2021, to six months in prison and a fine for shouting outside a police station after officers refused to register her harassment complaint, Human Rights Watch said today. The activist, Rania Amdouni, 26, is in a women’s prison in Manouba, west of Tunis, where her lawyer said she has faced harassment by prison guards due to her gender expression.
Police arrested Amdouni on February 27 at 8 p.m. after she left the 7 eme police station in downtown Tunis in a distraught state, said her lawyer Hamadi Hanchiri. At the station, Hanchiri said, police officers had refused to register Amdouni’s complaint relating to repeated harassment she said police officers subjected her to on the street and online. Police officers in the station then proceeded to harass her based on her presumed sexual orientation and gender expression. Amdouni began shouting on the street outside the station and cursing the Tunisian police system, Hanchiri reported.
“The police response to Amdouni’s complaint keeps her from getting protection and undermines public confidence in law enforcement and the Tunisian justice system,” said Rasha Younes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By arresting and sentencing Amdouni, Tunisian authorities are sending an appalling message to victims of discrimination that they have nowhere to turn and that any objection could land them in prison themselves.”
Based on her behavior outside the station, Hanchiri said, on March 1 the prosecutor of the Tunis First Instance Tribunal charged Amdouni with “insulting a public officer during the performance of his duty,” punishable by up to one year in prison under article 125 of the penal code, “causing embarrassment and disruption,” and “apparent drunkenness.” On March 4, the Cantonal Court in Montfleury, southwest of Tunis, found Amdouni guilty on all charges and sentenced her to six months in prison and a fine of 18 Tunisian dinars ($6.50). The lawyer submitted an appeal on March 5.
Hanchiri, who took on Amdouni’s defense on behalf of Damj Association, a Tunis-based LGBT rights group, said that her case file presented in court included no evidence of her targeting a police officer at the station or on the street, or any indication that she had been drunk. The case file says that Amdouni was in a “disorderly state” and had “offended police honor” by shouting and cursing outside the station, as a basis for her conviction, Hanchiri said.
Amdouni was leaving a restaurant in downtown Tunis on February 27 when a police officer in the street began verbally harassing her and ridiculing her based on her gender expression, which prompted her to go to the nearest police station and file a complaint. “Amdouni has been facing consistent harassment by police in the street and online for months, which caused her to suffer severe mental health consequences and break down,” Hanchiri said.
Mohammed Amin Hdeiji, a lawyer who accompanied Amdouni to the 7 eme police station on February 27, told Human Rights Watch that police officers in the station ridiculed Amdouni’s appearance and harassed her based on her presumed sexual orientation. “Eight police officers surrounded her and repeatedly insulted her, and one told her, ‘You are a homosexual, you will not win against us, and we will not allow you to defame police officers,’” Hdeiji said.
Hanchiri spoke to Amdouni, who told him that at the Manouba women’s prison where she is detained, women prison guards have repeatedly entered her cell at night while she was sleeping, insulted her using derogatory language relating to her sexual orientation and gender expression, and threatened her for attempting to complain about the police, he said.
Human Rights Watch has documented violations by Tunisian security forces against activists at protests, including targeting LGBT activists with arbitrary arrests, physical assault, threats to rape and kill them, and refusing them access to legal counsel. Amdouni’s case was among those Human Rights Watch documented, which included police singling her out at protests due to her gender expression and LGBT rights activism.
In an interview in February before her arrest, Amdouni told Human Rights Watch that since January she has been subjected to online harassment, bullying, and threats of violence, including death and rape. Human Rights Watch reviewed many of the Facebook posts, including by individuals who identified themselves as police officers, harassing Amdouni based on her gender expression and presumed sexual orientation. A member of parliament, Seif Eddine Makhlouf, ridiculed her on his personal Facebook page based on her gender expression. Amdouni has since deleted her social media accounts.
On January 11, the police searched for Amdouni near her residence, and asked neighbors if she was there, which prompted her to leave her neighborhood and hide out, she said: “I don’t feel safe, even in my apartment. Police came looking for me in my neighborhood. My life is threatened, and my mental health is deteriorating. People are staring at me in the street and harassing me online.”
The right to privacy and nondiscrimination are reflected in Tunisia’s 2014 constitution under article 24 and article 21, respectively. However, the absence of accountability and reliable complaint systems, as well as the lack of nondiscrimination legislation based sexual orientation and gender identity under domestic law, limit LGBT people’s access to redress, creating an environment in which police may abuse them with impunity, Human Rights Watch said.
The UN Human Rights Committee, in its general comment on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Tunisia has ratified, stated that, “The mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties […]. Moreover, all public figures […] are legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition.”
Tunisia’s parliament should reform article 125 of the penal code because of the various ways that it can be interpreted by authorities to limit free expression, Human Rights Watch said.
The Yogyakarta Principles, on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, instruct states to “[…] prevent and provide protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, perpetrated for reasons relating to the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim, as well as the incitement of such acts.”
Tunisian authorities should ensure that complaints, including Amdouni’s, are handled confidentially and swiftly, following a clear procedure, and that people can submit complaints without fear of reprisals, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should also ensure that no victim of discrimination is denied assistance, arrested, or harassed based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The Tunisian government claims it is committed to protecting individual freedoms, but prosecuting individuals who report violations of their rights shows that this rhetoric does not match reality,” Younes said. “Tunisian authorities should investigate allegations of police harassment against Amdouni and stop using the judicial system to persecute her.”
Lately, there has been a wave of online commentators who mock nonbinary people. Bloggers, TikTokers, and other posters make fun of an entire population of well-meaning people who lie somewhere “in the middle” of the gender spectrum.
On TikTok, @feelinmiz2.0 does a mocking dance in a fake doctor’s suit, stating “Notice how the Pr0n0uns in your bio do not alter your genitals.” In July 2020, Elon Musk tweeted “pronouns suck.” In September 2020, Canadian commentator Debra Soh wrote an article titled “How the Nonbinary Trend Hurts Those with Real Gender Dysphoria.”
Defamation of nonbinary people is everywhere in the media.
Nonbinary people, born either biologically male or female, don’t feel like they are female, but they also don’t feel male. Some nonbinary people feel more “masculine” than others, while other nonbinary people feel more “feminine.” Other nonbinary people feel like there is no spectrum at all, and that there are infinite genders, just as there are infinite ways to be a person.
Nonbinary people generally face many more obstacles than individuals who choose to fall on the binary, as either male or female. For instance, they can be in a constant battle against society to “pass” — or appear as either gender. Choosing clothes and a style of presentation that is androgynous or mixed, they can be misgendered all the time. Nonbinary people can also struggle with what gender marker to use on passports or driver’s licenses.
Additionally, individuals who do not pass as either male or female have a harder time finding employment. Research from the U.S. Census Bureau found that the unemployment rate among transgender workers is two to three times higher than the U.S workforce.
Now that “nonbinary” has come into the public consciousness, and entered the public discourse, many cisgender people feel threatened, or scared, of nonbinary. Even in my personal life, I run into close friends who laugh at the first mention of nonbinary. It seems to be a typical reaction: chuckle at how silly the idea feels. Sometimes, these people are progressives, and they have liberal views. But they still don’t understand nonbinary.
The general public seems to understand binary transgender people a lot better — people who fall as either male (transman) or female (transwoman). This is because our way of presenting falls in line with theirs.
The moment our way of presenting falls out of line, and the moment we question the cisgender world view, the public starts to laugh.
There is some pretty simple logic behind accepting nonbinary people as valid:
• If you were color blind, and could only see black and white, you would not state that people who saw colors did not exist.
• If you were a straight man, and only liked women, you would not question that gay men existed.
• If you were dyslexic, and had a difficult time reading words, you would not question that other people had an easier time reading words.
• If you grew up cisgender, and there were people — thousands of them — who said they did not feel like either gender, why would you decide to suddenly mock them? What bearing does it have on your life?
• If you have laughed at nonbinary people, do us a favor and be quiet. I have three words for you: Leave. Them. Alone.
Laugh at other things, like how there was a fly on Mike Pence’s head during a national debate, or how chihuahuas are hilarious creatures when they’re angry. Just don’t laugh at us.
CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this piece included a reference to an article titled “Why I Will Not Be Using Your Preferred Pronouns” in The North Coast Journal. That piece was satirical. The Blade regrets the confusion.
Isaac Amend (he/him/his) is a transgender man and young professional in the D.C. area. He was featured on National Geographic’s ‘Gender Revolution’ documentary in 2017 as a student at Yale University. Isaac is also on the board of the LGBT Democrats of Virginia, @isaacamend.
For 30 days, beginning January 17, European Union commissioners received daily Twitter notifications linking to personal stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Poles who have been harmed by the so-called “LGBT Ideology Free Zones” or anti-LGBT “Family Charters” in nearly 100 Polish regions, towns, and cities.
The tweets were part of a campaign led by two Polish LGBT groups, Campaign Against Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, KPH) and The Equality Foundation (Fundacja Równości, FR), calling on EU Commissioners to initiate an infringement procedure – a legal action that can lead to referral to the European Court of Justice – against Poland. The “LGBT-free zones” and other discriminatory measures, activists asserted in a legal complaint submitted to the European Commission in September, breach Poland’s legal obligations under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and a European Council directive for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
The “Infringement Now” campaign is the latest salvo in an ongoing political tug-o-war between a far-right nationalist government, which welcomes the economic benefits of EU membership but shows utter contempt to the obligations associated with it, and advocates for EU institutions to play their role as guardian of the rights protected by EU treaties. Together with the fate of the country’s judiciary and the ongoing pressure on its media and civil society, the rights of LGBT people and of women and girlsare among the battlegrounds for Poland’s future.
Last August the EU Commission cancelled grants for six Polish towns that had declared themselves “LGBT-ideology free zones.” While that measure was more symbolic than material, it was a boiling point in a dispute that had been simmering for years.
LGBT rights have symbolic currency on both sides. For the Warsaw mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski of the centrist Civic Platform Party, being an outspoken LGBT ally speaks to his vision of an inclusive society and pro-EU Poland. In 2019 Trzaskowski signed an LGBT+ declaration for Warsaw, a 10-point plan for overcoming discrimination and promoting equality.
In the wake of the controversy sparked by his pro-LGBT stance, the ruling Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) intensified its anti-LGBT rhetoric, ensuring that LGBT rights became a key battleground in the 2019 parliamentary elections. And in the run up to the 2020 presidential election, the PiS candidate and president Andrezj Duda signed the so-called “Family Charter.” which opposes same-sex marriage and adoption rights as well as comprehensive sexuality education in schools.
Why do questions around gender and sexuality stoke such intense passions? This scenario is neither new nor unique. Minorities have invariably been scapegoated in situations of conflict. Rights around individual autonomy, in this case, the rights of LGBT people, together with reproductive rights, protections against domestic violence, and sex education have become emblematic of broader social values, Poland’s relationship with the EU and the strength of human rights writ large.
This has been accompanied by other attacks on rights. In July 2020, Poland’s justice minister announced that he would pursue withdrawing the country from the Istanbul Convention that seeks to combat violence against women, including domestic violence. In January, amid widespread protest, a Constitutional Tribunal ruling that virtually bans legal abortion went into effect after the government bypassed Parliament to put the issue before the politically influenced court. A bill that would potentially criminalize anyone providing sex education, is pending.
With PiS returned to power and proceeding apace with its anti-LGBT agenda, LGBT advocates and their supporters are doing their best to use the limited options for redress in Poland. The Polish Ombudsman has challenged the adoption of anti-LGBT declarations before local administrative courts, and succeeded in four cases, although public prosecutors have appealed these decisions. LGBT advocates have appealed to human rights norms that transcend national boundaries, such as the appeal to the European Commission to censure Poland for breaching its human rights obligations. As Bartosz Staszewski, of the Lublin Pride Association said: “We cannot count on our government, we cannot count on our president, the only thing we can count on is the European Union.”
Membership of the EU comes with obligations, such as adherence to the EU’s founding values including respect for human rights and the core principles of non-discrimination and tolerance. In December 2017, in response to problematic judicial reforms, the European Commission triggered Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, which can lead to suspension of a member state’s rights if it is found to persistently breach those values.
Given Poland’s sustained attack on the human rights of LGBT people, as well as women and others, the European Commission can and should do more. Initiating an infringement procedure would send a strong message that these kinds of policies have no place in the EU, could press the Polish government to change route, and would offer a chance to the EU Court of Justice to reaffirm states’ obligations to protect, not neglect, their LGBT citizens.
In Poland human rights and tenets of democracy are under threat, including the independence of the judiciary and free press. In this assault, LGBT rights are seen as a soft target. In standing up for the rights of LGBT people in Poland, the EU would be moving not only to protect the rights of a vulnerable minority, but human rights writ large.