Gay, lesbian and transgender candidates are competing for votes in Mexico’s midterm election, aiming to upset politics as usual in the largely Roman Catholic, socially conservative Latin American country.
A total of 117 candidates, or nearly 2 percent of more than 6,000 hopefuls running for office on Sunday who responded to a survey by national electoral institute INE, identified as part of the LGBTQ community.
About 21,000 local and national races are being contested in the vote, including 15 governorships and all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, in a pivotal election for the agenda of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during the second half of his six-year term.
Mexico’s political parties were already required to nominate equal numbers of men and women, and new INE rules adopted last January added the obligation to also nominate candidates from vulnerable groups, including the LGBTQ community.
Candidate for deputy for the Citizens’ Movement party, Aurelien Guilabert, speaks during an interview with Reuters, ahead of the mid-term elections on June 6, in Mexico City on May 30, 2021.Carlos Jasso / Reuters
Like others aiming for jobs in politics, LGBTQ candidates are emphasizing public safety and the economy, but also specific obstacles for those who are often marginalized.
“That’s exactly why I want to serve in Congress, to fight discrimination everywhere and shake things up with a representative voice,” said Maria Garcia, a transgender candidate for Congress in Mexico City.
Garcia is running under the banner of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) of Lopez Obrador, who has seldom championed LGBTQ causes and has sided with conservatives on same-sex marriage.
Gay activist-turned-candidate Aurelien Guilabert said the need to tackle a growing number of hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people helped motivate him to run for the capital’s local congress.
“We’re suffering through one of the worst crises,” he said.
Guilabert is with the Citizen Movement (MC) party. According to the INE survey, nearly 32 percent of the LGBTQ candidates running on Sunday are from the party, the highest percentage of any party.
The San Francisco Giants will support Pride Month on the field and on their uniforms and caps.
On Saturday against the Cubs, the Giants will feature Pride colors in the SF logo on their game caps along with a Pride patch on the right sleeves of their home uniforms — making them the first major league team to do so.
“Very proud that the San Francisco Giants are taking this step. Very proud to be part of it,” manager Gabe Kapler said Tuesday before San Francisco hosted the Los Angeles Angels. “Looking forward to the impact and the support that we can provide for the LGBTQ+ community.”
The 11 colors represented in the new Pride logo are: red (life); orange (healing); yellow (sunlight); green (nature); blue (serenity); purple (spirit); and black and brown for LGBTQ+ people of color. Light blue, pink and white represent those who are transgender.
“We are extremely proud to stand with the LGBTQ+ community as we kick off one of the best annual celebrations in San Francisco by paying honor to the countless achievements and contributions of all those who identify as LGBTQ+ and are allies of the LGBTQ+ community,” Giants President and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement.
Additionally, the Giants will host Pride Movie Night at Oracle Park on June 11-12.
A court in India ordered state and federal officials on Monday to draw up plans for sweeping reforms to respect LGBTQ rights, in a ruling that went far beyond the narrow terms of a case brought by a lesbian couple who said they had been harassed by police.
Judge Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court ruled in favor of the couple, who had complained that police had subjected them to harassing questioning after their parents filed a missing persons report.
But the judge also used the opportunity to issue a broad ruling that called for the elimination of what he described as illegal discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community. He ordered state and federal government departments to report back with steps they intend to take to comply.
Among his recommendations: police and government officials should be given awareness training to ensure they respect LGBTQ rights. Medical practitioners who claim to be able to “cure” homosexuality should have their licenses revoked.
Schools and colleges should make gender neutral restrooms available, and gender-nonconforming or trans prisoners should be housed separately if needed to protect them from sexual assault.
“Ignorance is no justification for normalizing any form of discrimination,” Venkatesh wrote in his order. Educators should reach out to parents, to help “sensitize parents on issues of LGBTQIA+ community and gender nonconforming students, to ensure supportive families,” his order read.
Activists hailed the order as a major step toward equality for marginalized groups. Although the court could not by itself impose such widespread change with a single ruling, government departments could not ignore the order to report back on the steps they plan to take to comply, and the arguments raised by the judge could serve as precedent for future cases.
“This is the first major order that addresses most challenges concerning the whole LGBTQIA+ community and issues specific directions,” said L Ramakrishnan, vice-president at SAATHII, a Chennai-based public health advocacy group.
“I am hopeful of change given the judge has indicated he would follow up on the directions on a regular basis,” he said.
In reaching his ruling, the judge said he had sought information on same-sex relationships from a psychologist. The judge described himself as not “fully woke” and said he belonged to the majority in India, who are “yet to comprehend homosexuality completely”.
Holly Duchmann, who lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, plans to attend a Pride celebration for the first time this year.
“In the years before the pandemic, while I was out to my friends, I was still really scared to go to Pride,” Duchmann, 27, said. “Because I’m bisexual, I kind of pass as straight a lot, and so that kind of created anxiety with me for years, making me feel like I didn’t really belong in the LGBT community.”
She felt more accepted after finding queer community through her roller derby team, and in 2020, she was looking forward to going to her first Pride event. She even picked up pieces of “extravagant” clothing here and there to wear. But then everything was canceled because of the pandemic, and, during quarantine, she turned to TikTok to feel connected to other LGBTQ people.
“The pandemic helped me realize I need to celebrate life when I can,” she said. “It’s like being cooped up made me want to burst out. So I’m fully vaccinated and making plans with friends to go all out this year.”
Duchmann plans to go to New Orleans to celebrate, though New Orleans Pride, which has organized the city’s main Pride events in the past, disbanded in 2020. There’s no central Pride event planned this year, but Duchmann isn’t worried.
“I really see Pride as being larger than just an event held by one organization,” she said. “NOLA is great about gathering and celebrating. It’s kind of like Mardi Gras. It’s a whole season.”
In the last few decades, Pride has been celebrated in cities around the globe with bigger and bigger events such as parades, marches and protests. In June 2019, an estimated 5 million people attended NYC’s annual Pride march, which coincided with WorldPride, which moves to a different major city each year. The celebrations were expected to be just as big in June 2020, the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march — then called Christopher Street Liberation Day — which began a year after the Stonewall Riots of June 1969, a dayslong protest that began after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in downtown Manhattan.
But in April 2020, the pandemic brought plans for the 50th anniversary of Pride to a halt, forcing event organizers across the U.S. to pivot to all-virtual programming. Now, Pride — in New York and beyond — will return with a mix of in-person and virtual events. Organizers are balancing concerns about safety with increasing vaccination rates and the LGBTQ community’s excitement to return to Pride after a year of social distancing.
‘More strategic’ virtual programming
Last spring, the group behind NYC Pride, the country’s biggest annual Pride celebration, canceled its in-person march for the first time in a half-century because of the Covid-19 crisis, and then had two months to create a virtual event in June.
“That was a shock that we had to think about very quickly on our feet to adapt to,” Dan Dimant, media director for Heritage of Pride, the group behind NYC Pride, said. “We did our best, but what we had this time around was the luxury of time and foresight.”
This year, Heritage of Pride will host some face-to-face events — like its annual street fair — but its well-known march, which has attracted millions in previous years, won’t be coming back in the same way just yet.
NYC Pride organizers will hold virtual events like a family movie night, a human rights conference and a rally, among others. It will also hold its usual Pride march on June 27, though it will be mostly virtual with “in-person elements that are to be determined,” Dimant said, adding that any in-person element would take place in a supervised area with perimeters to limit attendance.
“We put together a much more strategic virtual program for most of our events, and we’ve also kind of left the door open for most of this year to kind of wait and see what we could do in person,” Dimant said. “We believe that we certainly can’t have millions of spectators in one massive crowd just yet. It’s just too soon for that. But there are some events that we can do safely in person.”
‘Playing the safe card’
Other groups in large cities are organizing their events similarly.
Los Angeles Pride will host a free streaming concert June 10 on TikTok featuring Charlie XCX, a virtual “Thrive With Pride Celebration” on ABC7. LA Pride will also debut its “LA Pride Makes a Difference” volunteer calendar, which will enable people to volunteer — both in-person and virtually — for local nonprofits that support LGBTQ people.
People march in the 50th annual Pride parade on June 9, 2019 in West Hollywood, Calif.Chelsea Guglielmino / Getty Images file
Noah Gonzalez, the vice president of the board of directors for the Christopher Street West Association, the nonprofit behind LA Pride, said its signature parade and festival, which in 2018 drew more than 100,000 attendees and participants, can take six months to a year to plan, so the board had to make a decision about how to host the events in December.
“We had no idea where we were going to be, so we had to plan for what we knew at the time, and keeping the responsibility and safety in mind, we knew we could do something virtual,” he said. He said the group’s in-person events — the volunteer opportunities — allow people to decide what level of exposure they’re comfortable with, and don’t involve large crowds.
“From a celebratory perspective, we’re sort of pulling back a little bit and playing the safe card, but when it came to giving back to the community or being involved in community, our perspective was … we will create these opportunities and bring them to the community, and you can decide what you would like to do,” he said.
A crowd cheers on those participating in the 50th annual Pride parade in Washington on June 8, 2019.Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images file
Some Pride organizers in big cities have committed to larger in-person celebrations, but they are limiting capacity, adhering to strict health requirements or not holding their events until the fall.
LA Pride will host a Pride night at Dodgers Stadium on June 11, with a special package available to fully vaccinated attendees, and an in-person outdoor LGBTQ movie night on June 26. Similarly, San Francisco Pride is having two Pride movie nights on June 11 and 12 at Oracle Park and a Black Liberation Event at the African American Art & Culture Complex on June 18.
Chicago Pride plans to bring back its Pride in the Park concert in person, with Chaka Khan and Tiesto as headliners, but the event is ticketed, and attendees have to verify that they’ve been vaccinatedor provide other health information through an app no more than 12 hours before arriving to the two-day event, which takes place June 26 and 27.
“We worked with [the app] Health Pass by CLEAR so that we could create a very safe environment where people [who] are either tested or have been vaccinated are the only people that can come into the event right now,” Dustin Carpenter, president and lead organizer for Pride in the Park, said.
People march in the 50th annual Pride parade in Chicago on June 30, 2019.Kamil Krzaczynski / Reuters file
Atlanta Pride also plans to host a festival, though the group traditionally doesn’t celebrate until mid-October. The events will take place in Piedmont Park, which is outdoors, unfenced and allows for social distancing, Jamie Fergerson, executive director of Atlanta Pride, said.
“There’s a lot of concern about health and safety, obviously,” Fergerson said. “People have a lot of questions, and we — as a nonprofit organization that works for a community that’s been historically marginalized in a number of ways, including access to health care and access to good health care — we take health and safety very seriously.”
Some events are still on standby. In Philadelphia, Philly Pride Presents planned to host a festival on Sept. 4, but shared on its Facebook page Friday that the event is “a work in progress” and “not yet ‘fully open’” after the city issued guidance on reopening. Pride Houston has a few smaller events listed on its website, including Rock the Runway, a Pride fashion show, and said a “big announcement” is coming this month.
Other groups, like Boston Pride, have postponed their usual June festivities until the fall.
Some LGBTQ people said, regardless of the number of precautions taken, they don’t feel safe attending in-person Pride events just yet.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable attending a Pride event as a fully vaccinated person, because I don’t know who is vaccinated and who is not,” Justice Dominguez, who is 24 and lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, said in an email. “Even with social distancing and mask requirements, it still feels like a risk. We know that less than half of all U.S. adults are fully vaccinated (per CDC). I thought these numbers would discourage Pride organizers but I was wrong.”
Other LGBTQ people said they won’t be attending large Pride celebrations and will instead attend community-run events, such as New York’s Queer Liberation March, which is organized by the activist group Reclaim Pride, started by community activists in 2019 as an alternative to NYC Pride.
“Being a transgender woman of color, Pride celebrations at large have not included the trans community,” Houston resident Eden Torres, 36, said. “I am moving back to NYC this summer after 13 years in Texas. I will attend any grassroots, no corporation, trans-centered Pride celebrations, but will not participate in corporate Prides any longer.”
But Duchmann isn’t alone in her excitement for Pride festivities — some people are also looking forward to finally being face-to-face.
Patrick Murphy, 71, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said he and his partner of 49 years will be attending an in-person event.
“We believe that we must continue to show the world that we are still here and will always be strong,” Murphy said. “We survived AIDS and Covid! Just by being there shows the younger generation of LGBT people that they do have a future.”
Namibia is on pace to decriminalise homosexuality by the end of the year as ministers pave a long-sought path to scrapping its decades-old anal sex ban.
The government’s Law Reform and Development Commission, a law reform agency, recommended in reports published Monday (17 May) that the country’s sodomy laws be overturned.
Justice minister Yvonne Dausa confirmed to the Windhoek Observer, a local newspaper, that she will be submitting draft proposals to the cabinet to do just that in two weeks time – with a potential for the ban to be binned by the end of the year.
As the committee reports were handed to her department, Dausa said that state-sanctioned homophobia must come to an end, the Windhoek Express reported.
“No Namibian should be comfortable with any part of our society feeling either they are second class citizens, that they are being excluded, or stigmatised and discriminated against either on the basis of their sexual orientation, or the basis of their disability, or status in a particular society,” she said.
In one report, committee members wrote that the ban’s “very existence violates the fundamental rights of the individuals who could be affected, as well as creating and reinforcing a culture of homophobia and intolerance against LGBT+ people”.
Committee members stressed in their report that between 2012 and 2019, 23 men were arrested on sodomy charges.
The provisions might only infrequently enforced, but they still reduce queer people to “criminals” and “enough to create a realistic fear of possible arrest”.
Dausa stressed in a statement to the Observer that the reports are not law, “but rather informed conclusions based on legal research” by the commission.
“After which it will go through the normal law-making process,” Dausa explained of the next steps.
“Principal approval from Cabinet, scrutiny from the Cabinet Committee on Legislation, possible further discussions with the Law Reform and Development Commission, certification from the Attorney General, drafters and then National Assembly.
“I think give or take we may see this go to the NA before the year ends.”
Namibia’s laws around being queer have long been one of mixed messages. Indeed, being gay per se is perfectly legal in the republic – anal sex, however, is illegal and has been since the late 1800s.
When Namibia gained independence 1990, it inherited the colonial-era Roman-Dutch sodomy provisions, locking the ban into place for decades to come.
Ever since the laws have rarely been enforced and attitudes towards LGBT+ people have overall eased. Namibia’s lawmakers and officials have, often in fits-and-bursts, sought to scrap the ban, but progress remains spotty and sluggish.
“Freedom will ring,” wrote advocacy group Equal Namibia on Facebook.
“The future is equal because every one of you stood up and demanded justice for all vulnerable Namibians.
This summer, New York City will launch the nation’s largest and most comprehensive workforce development program for at-risk LGBTQ youth.
NYC Unity Works, a $2.6 million initiative that will reach 90 participants over the next four years, is targeted at young adults ages 16 to 24 who are homeless or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Along with job training, it will provide educational opportunities, mental health services, paid internships and job placement, all with the goal of establishing long-term employment and a secure financial future.
The program is an offshoot of the NYC Unity Project, a citywide effort to help at-risk LGBTQ youth launched in 2017 by New York City’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In a statement, McCray said Unity Works “marks the first time that any city has taken this particular set of comprehensive steps to provide training, mental health services and social supports that are critical to long-term success and stability for LGBTQI youth.”
Ashe McGovern, Unity Project’s executive director and a senior LGBTQ policy adviser in de Blasio’s office, praised McCray for prioritizing queer youth.
“I can say unequivocally if the first lady was not at City Hall championing this project, it wouldn’t exist,” McGovern, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said. “She’s personally committed to it. She’s pushed for it.”
The pilot program will be run through the Department of Youth and Community Development in partnership with the NYC Center for Youth Employment and the Ali Forney Center, the nation’s largest LGBTQ homeless youth service provider.
But a Supreme Court ruling isn’t a magic bullet, McGovern cautioned.
“Nondiscrimination policies aren’t self-actualizing,” they said. “They don’t automatically create a pathway for success for people who have been marginalized their whole lives. Who have been rejected by their families … We need to give young people the skills to be competitive for jobs — even entry-level jobs. It’s an important paradigm shift.”
A recent survey by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth, found 35 percent of LGBTQ young people experience employment discrimination. For young transgender people, that percentage jumps to 61 percent.
Up to 40 percent of homeless young people identify as LGBTQ, according to numerous studies. Many are forced out of their homes due to a lack of support and seek acceptance in large (and typically expensive) progressive cities like New York. Without a permanent address, suitable work clothes or even reliable internet, they can be locked out of the job market.
“Many of them are literally in survival mode,” McGovern said of Unity Works’ target applicants. “There’s not space, time or support to think long term or feel energized and joyful about the future. We’re trying to give them that.”
To ensure their success, the staff will help participants with challenges such as changing identity documents and accessing public benefits. And participating agencies and employers are expected to demonstrate cultural responsiveness and competency.
In addition to two years of direct services, Unity Works participants will receive an additional year of followup from LGBTQ-affirming case workers and therapists.
“We know that young LGBTQ people are largely homeless because their family rejected them,” McGovern said. “They may face peer rejection, school rejection, community rejection, so we knew this had to be trauma-informed. It’s not enough to just give people resumé building tips and say ‘good luck.’ This program is a larger support system to help them feel empowered.”
Mario Smith, a 20-year-old who identifies as transgender and nonbinary and uses gender-neutral pronouns, said Unity Works has the potential to be life-changing.
“Giving trans people the tools to work and get educated — it’s not a handout,” they said. “It’s going to create such a productive group of people who can turn around and help their community.”
Smith immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica as a teen and worked with the Ali Forney Center to get a green card and housing. Now they’re enrolling in Unity Works to study psychology and eventually become a youth health advocate.
“Everyone’s at a different place in their life,” they said. “Some people need job placement, some need help furthering their education. You can’t just have a cookie-cutter answer. This program is tailor-made to the individual.”
As much as Unity Works will benefit Smith and the other New York-based participants, McGovern is thinking even bigger.
“Ultimately we want to build a model we can prove and push it across other jurisdictions,” they said. “I want this to be such a success that it’s replicated all across the country.”
In the summer of 1953, Audrey Hartmann was 23 years old and on vacation with friends. She was staying in Ocean Bay Park, a small beach town on Fire Island, 60 miles from New York City.
She’d heard whispers about a place down the beach called Cherry Grove. A few miles away, it was said to be a welcoming community of gay people. She’d heard there were lesbians there.
Hartmann walked down, and what she saw is on display at a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society, as well as chronicled in the 1993 book “Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town” by Esther Newton. Hartmann encountered “charming little houses” lit by gas lamps, and wherever she walked were canopies of trees. She caught a glimpse into some of the homes and said, “I remember seeing women by candlelight sitting there,” and wished she was one of them.
Maggie McCorkle and Audrey Hartmann in Cherry Grove, ca. 1963.Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Her wish came true. She would go on to live in Cherry Grove and became a beloved member of the community. She and her longtime partner were some of the first women to buy a home on the island. Hartmann, now 90, was interviewed for the exhibit, “Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove,” which opens Friday at the New-York Historical Society, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In a recording, Hartmann says of Cherry Grove, “It was an escape for everyone to be able to come out here on the weekend and be yourself. It was a safe haven. I could say to someone, ‘I’m Audrey Hartmann … and I’m gay.’”
That, at the time, was unheard of.
The exhibit includes 70 photographs and additional ephemera contributed by the Cherry Grove Archives Collection. Included in the exhibit are recorded accounts from notable residents, including Hartmann.
Hot House, 1958.Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Cherry Grove was one of the first gay beach towns in the United States, joining a handful of LGBTQ vacation spots and resorts that became popular in the pre-Stonewall era, along with places like Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan.
The striking images in the collection are special because of their rarity, as well as the joy and intimacy displayed in them. There is a relaxed nature to the photos, of couples with their arms around each other, friends out at parties or spending time together on the beach.
“Most people didn’t share themselves in that way because they couldn’t be documented. It could be held against them legally,” said Parker Sargent, 46, one of the curators of the exhibit and a representative of the Cherry Grove Archives Collection. In Cherry Grove, gay residents were able to form a community, have a voice in how things were run and be out. “And that’s revolutionary in a really quiet way,” Sergeant said.
“Patricia Fitzgerald & Kay Guinness, Cherry Grove Beach,” September 1952.Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Part of what makes Cherry Grove special is its remote location on a barrier island between Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the island is only accessible by boat and inaccessible to cars. Cherry Grove provided a sanctuary while also offering queer people the distance and safety required to be themselves, away from the New York laws prohibiting their queer identities and the constant police enforcement of anti-LGBTQ policies.
“Because it’s isolated, people are not judging you, like you’d be afraid of in the real world,” said Susan Kravitz, 77, who curated the exhibit with Sargent and is a committee member of the Cherry Grove archive. “The women in the ‘50s had to wear skirts and dresses … but when they came to Cherry Grove, they could wear trousers — and that was a big deal. Not just pants, but trousers … It’s always about freeing oneself to be who you want to be, and where else can you do that?”
Cherry Grove did have its share of raids and arrests, but the last boat left the island at midnight, meaning there was no police presence once the boat left the dock. That contributed to a vibrant nightlife, one so integral to the community a section of the exhibit is devoted to theater, performance and the social scene. Theater is a lasting legacy of Cherry Grove, as it was theater people who began to vacation there as early as the 1930s, laying a foundation of creativity and openness that has had a lasting draw for the LGBTQ community.
Pat Fitzgerald, Kay Guinness, Mary Ronin and Bea Greer, c. 1950. Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Cherry Grove was different from the city, where the gay bars were run by the mob, according to Sargent, who described these urban watering holes as “dark and seedy clubs” where “you always had to be careful that the lights would come on,” signaling a police raid.
“In Cherry Grove, you were suddenly out in nature and sitting on people’s front porches and going to house parties,” Sargent said. “There was a levity and a freedom of not being caught.”
Cherry Grove continued to evolve after the 1950s, moving from a sanctuary for mostly white and affluent gay men and women to a more inclusive place with the advent of the 1960s, as the civil rights movement gained traction and more commercial real estate in the area led to affordable housing options for greater swaths of the community. As the decades move forward, photographs begin to show queer people of color and working-class LGBTQ people.
“You will see such joy in these photographs, you will see happiness, you will see laughter, and you would never think that would be the case given the times in which these people lived,” Kravitz said.
“Parasol Party.”Cherry Grove Archives Collection
Part of the mission behind “Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove” is to create an archive where there has been none.
“It’s more than just the photos or the old videos,” Sargent said. “It’s getting that material out there for people to see and to rewrite our history in a way that has been very blank because we tend to think that gay life started at Stonewall. … People have a look at gay history before Stonewall. We’ve always been here.”
Today, Cherry Grove remains a beloved summer destination for LGBTQ beachgoers, particularly lesbians, as has the adjoining community of the Fire Island Pines, which has traditionally catered to gay men. Though the world has become more accepting over the decades, these two Fire Island enclaves remain important to the community, and just as vibrant as ever, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors to its boardwalks every season.
A proposed law that would criminalize violence and hate speech against LGBT people in Italy has thrown together an unlikely alliance of opponents.
Some feminists and lesbian associations have joined the Catholic church and the political right in opposing a bill that would add gay, transgender people and the disabled to the categories protected by a law punishing religion and race-based hate crimes.
Conflict over the proposed legislation has become an ideological battle at the heart of the culture wars in Italy, pitting freedom of expression against protection of those at risk of discrimination and victimization.
Catholic leaders say the so-called Zan bill, named for a Democratic Party lawmaker and gay rights activist Alessandro Zan, amounted to “a liberticide,” with conservatives warning the bill risks criminalizing those who publicly oppose gay marriage or adoptions by gay people. Opposition from some lesbian and feminist groups centers on concerns that recognizing gender identity could put at risk rights won by women.
But even among LGBT and feminist groups, there is great divide over the bill, with some groups splitting from a top national lesbian association after it came out against the legislation.
Although Italy approved same-sex civil unions in 2016, the country lags behind its EU counterparts and is on similar footing with the likes of Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Lithuania in terms of anti-homophobia measures, according to ILGA Europe, a federation of groups pushing for civil rights. Italy placed 35th out of 49 European and Central Asian countries on a list ranking the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people compiled by ILGA.
A homophobia and transphobia helpline run by the Gay Center association in Italy receives about 20,000 requests for help a year from those who experience violence or threats.
The Zan bill was approved in the lower house of parliament last year. But its passage through the upper house, or Senate, for it to become law has been delayed by a change of government and obstruction by the right-wing League, for whom it has become a rallying cry at a time when, constrained by being in a so-called government of national unity, the party is struggling to differentiate itself.
The case of Malika Chalhy, a 22-year-old from Tuscany, who was thrown out of her home and sent death threats by her family when she came out as gay earlier this year has led to renewed calls for urgent approval of the bill.
Using gender identity instead of biological sex means that “everything that is dedicated to women can be occupied by men who identify as women or say they perceive themselves as women,” the groups said in a statement.
When ArciLesbica, one of the country’s top national lesbian associations, signed onto the joint letter, several of its local affiliates distanced themselves from its stance.
Zan also rejected the letter. “To say that trans women are not real women is not acceptable,” he said. “We are talking about people who are particularly discriminated against.” There are more murders of transgender people in Italy than in any other European country, he said, “showing an extremely high level of cultural discrimination.”
His bill does not repress freedom of expression, he said, but only the inciting of violence and hatred. “If I say my son is gay and he should be burned to death, it is clear this is not an opinion but an instigation to violence.”
Zan said it was regrettable that the left was not united: “Unfortunately, some statements by historic and radical feminists have the same content as the extreme right and religious fundamentalists.”
Despite the setbacks for the bill, there are signs that the proposed Zan law has increased popular support.
Italy’s most influential Instagrammers, power couple Chiara Ferragni, a fashion mogul, and rapper Fedez, have taken the cause to heart. There were protests in favor of the bill in 54 towns and cities around Italy last weekend, suggesting the younger generation of Italians may be ready to address the lack of LGBT protection.
Even the feminists are changing, according to Zan. “The new generation of feminists are inclusive not exclusionary — for them, giving rights to someone doesn’t take away from the rights of someone else.”
LA Pride has announced its 2021 pride theme this year called “Thrive With Pride”.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the infamous Los Angeles Pride parade in West Hollywood was cancelled, which would have been its 50th anniversary, and in its place a protest march was held on June 14th for All Black Lives Matter.
Christopher Street West (CSW), producer of the annual LA Pride, announced the All Black Lives Matter protest march on its website.
“Out of recognition and respect to the years of work and action of Black LGBTQ+ leadership and community organizers, Christopher Street West and LA Pride will no longer co-organize the All Black Lives Matter march,” the announcement says. “However, they are in full support and stand unapologetically in solidarity with efforts to dismantle racial (in)justice, systemic oppression, institutional barriers, police brutality and discrimination of all kinds.”
However this year the focus of Pride has shifted to a celebration of resilience and overcoming odds in the midst of a pandemic with a theme that reflects that focus called “Thrive With Pride”.
On May 6th LA Pride announced a list of events for the upcoming Pride season on its website. The events will include a free streaming concert presented by TikTok, the Thrive with Pride Celebration one-hour special on ABC7, and LA Pride Makes a Difference, a new, month-long calendar of events focused on volunteering and community service around Los Angeles.
According to LA Pride’s website this years theme was chosen, “not just to highlight health and wellness as we slowly emerge from the pandemic, but more notably, to underscore the belief that thriving is an act of social justice within the LGBTQ+ community, especially for our underserved or overlooked members. When we live with a sense of belonging, confidence, security, and self-worth, we’re not just surviving, we’re thriving!”.
“To thrive means to flourish and progress despite the circumstances. Pride this year is a moment for you to stop and breathe,” said Sharon-Franklin Brown, CSW Board of Directors President. “It’s a moment to remember you’re not just surviving one of the hardest years in recent memory, but growing into your truth. If we as a community can come together, even for a moment, to realize we’ve broken down some barriers put on us, it’ll strengthen our resolve to continue tearing more down for those to come after us.”
All LA Pride 2021 events will use the hashtag #ThrivewithPride.
On Thursday night June 10th English singer song-writer Charlie XCX will kick off LA Pride 2021 with a free Thrive with Pride Concert, live streamed exclusively on TikTok from a fabulous LA location.
Charli spent last year working on new tracks by sharing and collaborating with her fans on Zoom. The resulting new album, How I’m Feeling Now received critical acclaim, and singles in her signature “hyper-pop” style are getting well over one million views online.
Rounding out the show, up and coming LGBTQ+ artists from across genres will be making their LA Pride concert debuts.
On Saturday June 12th at 9pm LA Pride’s broadcast partner, ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles will air a one-hour primetime special.
Hosts Ellen Leyva and Brandi Hitt will be joined by Karl Schmid and Eric Resendiz as they present the best of LA Pride’s LGBTQ+ Los Angeles community. Trans profiles, celebrity shout-outs, spotlights on LA Pride’s 2021 Honorees, a special Pride performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles from the Getty Center, and more.
For the entire month of June, CSW will be partnering with Big Sunday, an organization that produces hundreds of events every year for people of all backgrounds and demographics to get together and work on all kinds of service projects, to create “Pride Makes A Difference”.
“Pride Makes A Difference” is a 30-day calendar of events focused on volunteering, community service, and opportunities to donate time, goods and money to worthy causes that benefit the LGBTQ+ community, and Los Angeles nonprofits.
Pride Makes a Difference will have its own website with calls-to-action in the areas of food insecurity, housing insecurity, mental health and wellness, and abuse. A list of selected local organizations will be available to choose from, as well as event details, fun group opportunities, and sign-up forms. CSW intends to make Pride Makes a Difference a permanent part of its Pride programming going forward.
For more information visit LA Pride at https://lapride.org/la-pride-2021-events-announced/
A high school in Indiana has ordered teachers to remove Pride flags from their classrooms to “maintain viewpoint neutrality”, and students have slammed the decision.
The principal of Pendleton Heights High School, Connie Rickert, ordered three teachers to remove Pride flags from their classrooms, local newspaper The Herald Bulletin reported.
“Teachers are legally obligated to maintain viewpoint neutrality during their official duties to ensure all students can focus on learning and we can maintain educational activities and school operations,” she stated. “Our counselors are trained to respond to any student who desires support.”
Despite outrage from students, other senior staff also issued statements about the ban, with one comparing the Pride flag to a white supremacy flag. One student slammed the comparison, telling The Indianapolis Star: “One is about inclusiveness and the other is about hate.”
The president of the board of trustees for the local district wrote in an email to parents: “The issue with displaying the flag in a school is a double-edged sword.
“If an LGBTQ+ flag is allowed to be displayed, then any other group would have the same ability. That could include such flags as supporting white supremacy, which is in direct conflict with LGBTQ+. I hope we can model equality and support through our actions.”
Student Bryce Axel-Adams started an online petition, calling for the school board to officially allow Pride flags in classrooms. At the time of writing, it has more than 3,500 signatures.
Bryce wrote: “Having a pride flag is one of the clearest ways to say, ‘I support you, and I’m here for you. You are loved.’
“That is so important for LGBTQ+ youth, we have always been told that teachers will always be there for us, and being able to easily identify teachers we can safely go to is extremely important to our mental health.”
Bryce later added that they had received an update from the school administrators saying they had changed their stance, and weren’t banning the flags because they are “political speech”, but to “avoid a discrimination lawsuit”.
The petition received a number of heart-warming responses from teachers in other districts, Pendleton alumni and other students.
