A federal appeals court just ruled that Iowa can its enact bill banning LGBTQ+ books from classrooms.
The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, decided that the preliminary injunction issued by a lower court was based on a “flawed analysis” of the law.
The bill, SF 496, requires parental consent before giving their child any book containing content relating to LGBTQ+ topics. This effectively censors LGBTQ+ books from youth living in antagonistic homes. It was signed into law last year by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R).
The bill was challenged in the court case Iowa Safe Schools, et al v. Reynolds.
The three-judge panel specifically ruled that the law can still be challenged in further court proceedings, and they invited more insight into the topic. The judges also rebuffed points made by Iowa’s state government that were considered dangerous by the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and legal firm Jenner & Block.
In a joint statement, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Jenner & Block criticized the ruling, saying, “Iowa families, and especially LGBTQ+ students who will again face bullying, intimidation, and censorship as they return for a new school year, are deeply frustrated and disappointed by this delay. Denying LGBTQ+ youth the chance to see themselves represented in classrooms and books sends a harmful message of shame and stigma that should not exist in schools.”
“We are, however, encouraged by the Eighth Circuit’s complete rejection of the State’s most dangerous arguments,” their statement continued. “The appeals court acknowledged that our student clients have been harmed by the law and have the right to bring suit. The court also rejected the State’s claim that banning books in libraries is a form of protected government speech. We will ask the district court to block the law again at the earliest opportunity.”
However, Gov. Reynolds celebrated the ruling in a statement, “Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit confirmed what we already knew—it should be parents who decide when and if sexually-explicit books are appropriate for their children. Here in Iowa, we will continue to focus on excellence in education and partnerships with parents and educators.”
While Reynolds and other Republican politicians have claimed that book bans seek to keep children from accessing “sexually-explicit” content, authors whose books are targeted by these bans are most frequently female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals, according to the free-speech organization PEN America. Approximately 30% of the banned titles from the 2022-2023 school year included either characters of color or discussions of race and racism, and an additional 30% included LGBTQ+ characters or themes, the organization added.
Nevertheless, the Iowa attorney general, Brenna Bird, also celebrated the ruling, writing, “We went to court to defend Iowa’s schoolchildren and parental rights, and we won. This victory ensures age-appropriate books and curriculum in school classrooms and libraries. With this win, parents will no longer have to fear what their kids have access to in schools when they are not around.”
Joshua Brown, president of the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), condemned the ruling. The ISEA was part of a separate lawsuit concerning this bill.
“Banning essential books in our schools is a burden for our educators, who will face punishment for not guessing which book fits into a supposed offensive category, and for our students, who are deprived of reading from great authors with valuable stories,” the ISEA wrote. “If Iowa’s elected leaders truly valued education professionals, they would leave important classroom decisions to the local school districts and the experts who work in them—not make what we teach our students a game of political football.”
J.D. Vance evidently did some cross-dressing back in law school. On Sunday, a photo of the Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential nominee allegedly wearing a blonde wig and dressed as a woman was posted on X.
When The Daily Beast reached out to Vance to see if the photo was real, the campaign did not deny its authenticity and also refused to comment further.
While a funny photo of a politician in a Halloween costume from college normally wouldn’t be a big deal, Vance has a history of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, using the “groomer” slur against critics of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.
Read the full article. And now there’s another photo.
In 2021, Terrance Alan celebrated the long-anticipated opening of Flore, a well-appointed cannabis dispensary just across the street from the legendary and now-closed Castro hangout Cafe Flore, a victim of the COVID pandemic.
Thirty years earlier, at the height of another devastating health crisis, Alan was a regular at Cafe Flore with his husband, who was HIV positive and slowly succumbing to the effects of the disease.
“Cafe Flore was a stop on the underground railway line for experimental HIV drugs, and my husband and I would go and hang out,” Alan explained in an interview with Greenstate. “And certain people would come around, and we would learn about this, that, and the other thing. Of course, nothing worked, but at least we generated a little bit of hope every time we tried something.”
At the same time, cannabis was providing relief that conventional therapies couldn’t, and illicit grows were popping up all over San Francisco.
So Alan joined a wave of indoor growers dialing in lighting, temperature, humidity and everything else to make cannabis happy absent the sun. Over time, he helped cultivators across the city with set-ups for HIV-positive patients like his husband.
It wasn’t without risk.
One night, the couple woke up to a SWAT team at the door of their warehouse home in search of his grow room — he was arrested in possession of 120 plants.
According to Alan, he was accused of being a part of “Dennis Peron’s gay weed mafia.”
Peron was a legendary figure in both the LGBTQ+ and cannabis communities as an early proponent of medical cannabis in service of AIDS patients. He had arrived in San Francisco after serving in Vietnam and, as a “Yippie,” famously organized cannabis “smoke-ins” around the city. He was an early supporter of slain Supervisor Harvey Milk, and when the AIDS crisis struck he was selling illicit weed out of Castro Street storefronts.
The day after Alan’s arrest, Peron showed up at his door. A trip to City Hall to meet the power brokers who could help make legal weed in San Francisco and California a reality followed.
A few years later, Peron would author Proposition 215, which legalized medical cannabis in the state.
“Being around Dennis, you learned that you were either part of the solution or part of the problem,” Alan said.
Alan’s own evolution to activist occurred following another bust by SFPD. This time the cops showed up to a New Year’s Party Alan threw in 1995 in honor of his late husband.
“They were not happy,” Alan said of the cops called to one last bust just after four in the morning. “And they showed their unhappiness by taking my drag queen, transgender, and differently attired guests who were at my event and showing them off by making fun of them in front of the other police officers.”
Twenty-eight people were arrested and thrown in the drunk tank.
That confrontation with police, “over a memorial for my husband who just died,” was the moment that cemented Alan as an activist, he said.
One result was the San Francisco Late Night Coalition, which advocated for city entertainment and permit reform and led to the formation the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, now a crucial city regulatory body.
Another was Alan’s cannabis advocacy: he pushed for legalization in different forums and was serving as chair of the San Francisco State Cannabis Legalization Task Force when Prop 64, the initiative that legalized recreational cannabis in California, was passed in 2016.
His Castro cannabis outpost, Flore, soon followed, and the activist still has the small cultivators at the top of his mind.
“The deck is stacked against the small operator, the small farmer, and the legacy farmer,” Alan explained. “The consumers’ most important tool is their dollars. If they do not spend their dollars at stores on products that are well grown, well packaged, and well presented, then that part of the industry will not survive.”
From his perch in the purple-hued Flore storefront, Alan is now focused on passing his legacy — and Peron’s — onto the next generation of politically minded advocates.
“I’m at the stage where I would like to empower young activists,” Alan shared. “I’m not the activist anymore. I am the Dennis Peron knocking on your door, teaching you to be an activist.”
A big reason Biden lagged in poll after poll earlier this year was weakness in the youth vote, with some surveys shockingly finding Biden trailing Trump. Now, with Harris atop the ticket, those dynamics have radically changed, according to a brand new poll from young-voter whisperer John Della Volpe for Won’t PAC Down.
The poll of 18-to-29-year-olds found Harris’ own approval rating jumping 16 points since the beginning of last month, to 49 percent from 33 percent.
And in a five-way race, Harris beats Trump in the youth demo by 9 points — that’s up 10 points since last month, when Biden was atop the ticket and behind Trump. In a two-way race, there’s been a 13-point shift toward Harris.
In this rapidly changing landscape, MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Maps provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of LGBTQ laws and policies in the United States. See below for state level and local level policy updates as of August 7, 2024.
▸▸ State Policy Updates
Gender markers on driver’s licensesSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June: In March 2024, Arkansas issued a proposed “emergency” rule that banned the use of gender-neutral “X” options on driver’s licenses, and further added extremely burdensome requirements to be able to change the gender marker at all. In early June, a state court blocked that rule, but in late June, the Arkansas Supreme Court reinstated it, meaning the burdensome requirements are still in effect.August 2: The Missouri Department of Revenue changed its rules without public comment or notice, adding similarly burdensome requirements of either medical documentation from a surgeon showing “proof of full transition” or a court order, which often also requires medical documentation. This overnight change replaces Missouri’s former policy that had been in place since at least 2016, requiring only a form with a provider’s signature attesting to the individual’s gender identity.
Name change publication requirementsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 17: Rhode Island enacted a new law improving the name change process by explicitly removing the former requirement that people must publish a public notice of their name change, such as in a local newspaper. This also moves Rhode Island to “High” on MAP’s Gender Identity Policy Tally. “Don’t Say LGBTQ” curriculum censorship lawsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 19: Louisiana became the 8th state with a “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law, all of which have been enacted since Florida’s 2021 law that rose to national prominence. Now, one in six (17%) LGBTQ youth live in states with such a law. Louisiana’s law also builds on its 1987 law, which is still on the books, that bans discussion of homosexuality in health classes.
“Shield” or “refuge” laws protecting transgender health careSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.June 25: Rhode Island became the 16th state plus D.C. with a law or executive order protecting access to transgender-related health care.
Regulating gender to allow discrimination against transgender and nonbinary peopleSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here. Government gender regulation laws have already been used in other states to stop gender marker changes on identity documents and to promote other attacks on transgender people’s lives.June 28: In Montana, a judge ruled that the state’s bill regulating gender by defining “sex” throughout state law was unconstitutional. The state may appeal the decision, but in the meantime, the law may no longer be enforced.
Bans on transgender people’s use of bathrooms and facilitiesSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.July 3: South Carolina’s new state budget included an amendment that bans transgender people from using bathrooms and facilities according to their gender identity in K-12 settings. South Carolina is the 13th state with a bathroom ban in K-12 settings, including six states whose bans extend beyond K-12 schools as well.
Gender marker changes on birth certificatesSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.July 15: As covered by The 19th News, Florida is reportedly no longer processing gender marker changes on birth certificates, despite at least a decade of doing so. In the absence of an official statement or policy clarification from the state, MAP currently lists Florida as one of four states with an unclear, unknown or unwritten policy regarding gender marker changes. Our map will be updated as this policy develops.
Bans on medical care for transgender youthSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology and details on effective dates, exceptions, lawsuits, and more.
There are now 26 states with a ban or restriction on medically necessary, prescribed health care for transgender youth.
Currently, 2 in 5 (40%) transgender youth live in states with these bans. However, lawsuits have been filed against the bans in 17 of these states.
June 11: In Florida, the state’s ban on transgender health care was blocked by court ruling, including multiple provisions affecting adult access to care. An appeal is expected, but for now the ruling restores youth’s access to prescribed medication.July 19: New Hampshire became the 26th state to ban at least some forms of best practice medical care for transgender youth, though the ban does not go into effect until January 1, 2025. The law bans surgical care, but not medication or other forms of care. New Hampshire is also the first state in New England to enact such a law.
Bans on transgender kids playing school sportsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here, including a chronology of laws and vetoes, a breakdown of grade applicability, and further analyses.There are now 26 states that ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. Nearly 2 in 5 (38%) transgender youth live in states with these bans.July 19: New Hampshire became the 26th state to ban transgender youth from playing sports according to their gender identity. The law applies to grades 5–12 and specifically targets transgender girls’ participation. New Hampshire is also the first state in New England to enact such a law.
Parental opt-out of LGBTQ-related curriculumSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.July 19: New Hampshire became the 7th state to require schools to notify parents in advance of LGBTQ-related content and to allow them to remove their children from those classes, and the 16th state overall with any kind of anti-LGBTQ curricular law currently on the books. New Hampshire is also the first state in New England to enact any kind of LGBTQ-focused curriculum censorship law. Banning the use of “gay panic”/ “trans panic” defenses in courtroomsSee our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.July 23: Michigan became the 20th state plus D.C. to ban the use of LGBTQ panic defenses in courtrooms, and the second state to do so this year after Minnesota.
▸▸ Local Level Policy UpdatesMay 24: The village of Chauncey, Ohio — population 959 — passed an LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance covering all three areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. It is the first municipality in the state to enact such an ordinance this year.June 4: Gwinnett County, Georgia, enacted an LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance covering employment and public accommodations, though not housing. The ordinance applies only to unincorporated parts of the county, which covers nearly three-quarters of a million Georgia residents.June 19: Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, enacted an LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance that also bans conversion “therapy”. ▸▸ MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Bill TrackerTo continue highlighting trends across the country, included below are our current bill tracking counts for anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures.Note: these counts may differ from other organizations or public counts for a variety of reasons, and this work is greatly facilitated by the work of other organizations including the ACLU and the Equality Federation and their member state groups.As of August 1, 2024, the count of anti-LGBTQ bills so far in 2024 is:At least 510 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across at least 40 states.At least 40 bills redefining “sex” to enable discrimination against transgender people have been introduced across at least 20 states.June 19: Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, enacted an LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance that also bans conversion “therapy.”
To schedule an interview with a MAP researcher or for questions, please contact media@mapresearch.org. # # # About MAP: MAP’s mission is to provide independent and rigorous research, insight and communications that help speed equality and opportunity for all. MAP works to ensure that all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life. www.mapresearch.org
The Supreme Court of Nepal has ruled that Rukshana Kapali, a transgender woman, should be legally recognized on all documents as a woman without having to submit to medical verification. The judgment is the latest in the court’s history of progressive rulings on sexual orientation and gender identity, which has earned Nepal a positive global reputation on LGBT rights.
Following a 2007 supreme court order, authorities have been issuing some documents listing gender as “other” or “third gender” for more than a decade on the basis of the person’s self-identification. Despite the court order, the lack of a clear central policy has created problems. Trans people in Nepal today who want to change their gender markers to “female” or “male” are typically forced to undergo surgery, which requires traveling outside the country, and then in-country medical assessments, including invasive examinations of post-operative genitals. Even people who are attempting to obtain documents marked “other” are subjected to this humiliating and unnecessary medical scrutiny.
The Yogyakarta Principles – drafted and signed in 2006 by a group of experts, including a former Nepal parliament member and LGBT rights advocate Sunil Babu Pant – state that each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is “integral to their personality” and is a basic aspect of identity, personal autonomy, dignity, and freedom. The principles are clear that gender recognition may involve, “if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means.” These principles were the basis of the Supreme Court of Nepal’s 2007 order and are cited in Kapali’s new court victory as well.
Kapali, a trans woman law student, has sued the government of Nepal over 50 times since 2021 – pushing for rights-based legal recognition of gender identity. And while this recent judgment sets a precedent for trans rights, the order only applies to Kapali, meaning others will have to petition courts to be legally recognized according to their gender identity.
A better solution is a central policy. The government can and should make the system work for everyone by issuing a directive that allows people to self-identify their gender on official documents, without medical or other verification.
The parents of a transgender teenager who took his own life have called for more support for youngsters waiting for care.
15-year-old Jason Pulman was found dead in Hampden Park, Eastbourne, East Sussex, in April 2022. He had been on an NHS gender identity service waiting list for more than two years.
Jason, who was trans masc, had been referred in 2020, but was told several months later that there was a 26-month wait just for a first appointment.
In April, an inquest jury found systemic failures by a range of services supporting Jason could have contributed to his death. Mark Pulman had noted that his stepson became increasingly frustrated over the lack of support and appeared to have “given up,” adding: “I know it broke Jason.”
The teenager’s mother, Emily, urged national services to do more to support trans under-18s on the waiting list. “They need so much more resources and not to have one appointment that’s years away,” she said.
“There needs to be regular input with these kids, so it’s not just about their gender, it’s about their mental health overall.”
Information collected by PA Media and reported by The Guardian suggests that more than 5,700 under-18s are waiting an average of 100 weeks for a first appointment.
Waiting times have only been exacerbated by the closure of what was England’s only youth gender clinic, at The Tavistock Centre in North London.
Jason’s stepfather believes that the numbers are “hugely underestimated” and added that he hopes families are given faster responses and emotional support.
“We want to change the system and we want to change it for the families because it’s a very lonely, isolating place to be when you think you’re the only person whose child is going through this,” he told the BBC.
“I don’t want people to think [being] transgender and suicide are the same thing, because they are not. I don’t want people to automatically be fearful. If your child feels [they are transgender], you’ve got to believe them and support them.”
Families of trans children need to take charge of the system and not to let it “take charge of you,” he added.
“Be on the phone, email them, push for more information,” he urged. “Never take it on face value that this [appointment] is going to be the answer to your problems because there’s going to be more support needed, like counselling for the whole family.”
In Colombia, armed groups are targeting transgender women along with other so-called undesirables in a violent campaign of “social cleansing” across the country.
Paramilitaries in Colombia—still operating despite a peace agreement with the country’s largest rebel group, the Farc, in 2016—killed more than 40 transgender women last year, according to reporting in The Guardian.
Eight more died between February and April this year, activists say, in an effort by armed groups to create a “parallel state” where trans women and others seen as damaging to society are punished or killed.
In Caquetá, a sparsely populated department in southern Colombia and a rebel stronghold, flyers began appearing on the streets and circulating through WhatsApp warning of “social cleansing” of “fa***ts, lesbians and men and women who destroy homes,” all of whom would be considered legitimate military targets.
One was Tatiana Cespedes, 51, a trans hairdresser who was working in her home salon when three armed men burst in and warned her she had a week to leave town or she would be killed. After hiding for several days, she packed a small bag and fled with her dog in the night.
Cespedes said she’s lived through similar periods of rebel conflict and endured the sexual violence that accompanies it.
“All I did was bear their desires because every time they got drunk I had to pay the price,” she said. “At times three, four, and up to five men would knock on my door and I was forced to open it. If I refused, they would assault me.”
Another trans woman from Caquetá, Yesenia Rodríguez, said she and other trans women in Colombia are limited in their ability to make a living because of discrimination and forced into sex work because of a lack of opportunities.
“When I started my transition, I used to work at night. At that time we would receive flyers announcing social cleansing of drug addicts, prostitutes, and fa***ts. Luckily, nothing happened to me, but a friend of mine was killed,” she said.
“As a young woman, I didn’t have any other option but to sell my body to survive. But now that time has passed it is difficult for me to work even in this.”
The 2016 peace agreement between the Farc and the Colombian government was supposed to end decades of conflict and included a formal recognition that LGBTQ+ people were victims of the conflict, along with a guarantee of political participation. That promise has fallen away with the armed groups’ resurgence and renewed threats to the LGBTQ+ community.
National LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are celebrating Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election. They emphasize Walz’s extensive record of supporting LGBTQ+ rights, bodily autonomy, and equality.
The Human Rights Campaign, Equality PAC, and GLAAD have all issued statements lauding Harris’s choice, highlighting Walz’s longstanding dedication to the LGBTQ+ community.
“There’s no doubt — Kamala Harris has electrified the nation and breathed new hope into the race. Her pick of Governor Walz sends a message that a Harris-Walz Administration will be committed to advancing equality and justice for all,” said HRC president Kelley Robinson. Her statement highlighted Walz’s history of advocacy, noting his efforts as a high school teacher to support the creation of a gay-straight alliance and his legislative work in Congress to repeal discriminatory laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
As governor, Walz signed an executive order banning the practice of so-called “conversion therapy” for minors, making Minnesota one of the first states to take such action against the harmful practice through executive order. He also supported legislation to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care and has been a vocal advocate for comprehensive non-discrimination protections. In 2023, he signed an executive order protecting access to healthcare for transgenderpeople, ensuring that Minnesota remains a refuge for those seeking gender-affirming care. He has also legalized recreational cannabis use and protected abortion rights.
Equality PAC Co-Chairs, California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano and New York U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who are both gay, praised Walz’s commitment to standing up for what is right, even when it is unpopular.
“At a time when LGBTQ Americans have come under attack from MAGA extremists, we need strong allies now more than ever before,” they said in a statement. They recounted Walz’s early support for LGBTQ+ students and his legislative efforts to protect LGBTQ+ service members and expand hate crime prevention.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis also welcomed Harris’s decision. “Vice President Harris’s choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz underscores a longstanding commitment to the equality, prosperity, and safety of all Americans, including and especially for LGBTQ people. Gov. Walz has a proven record of including and protecting LGBTQ people and the fundamental freedoms all Americans treasure,” Ellis said.
She highlighted several key accomplishments from Walz’s tenure as governor, including signing a statewide ban on conversion therapy, passing a “trans refuge” bill to protect transgender people and their families from legal repercussions for seeking care in Minnesota, and consistently speaking out against discriminatory legislation in other states.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund also issued a statement touting Harris’s choice.
“Governor Tim Walz is a strong ally for our community and a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ equality,” said LGBTQ+ Victory Fund president and CEO Annise Parker. “As governor, Walz worked with LGBTQ+ legislators to transform Minnesota into a refuge for LGBTQ+ families, a state where equality is the law of the land. A Harris-Walz ticket will certainly push the movement for equality forward, and we expect a Harris-Walz administration will continue the historic levels of LGBTQ+ representation among presidential appointments.”
Harris has also been a stalwart ally of the LGBTQ+ community throughout her career. As San Francisco district attorney in 2004, she performed some of the country’s first same-sex marriages. Harris’s White House staff and campaign staff include numerous LGBTQ+ individuals, including her press secretary, Ernesto Apreza, a gay man. She has made history as the first sitting vice president to march in a Pride parade, the first to host a drag queen at her home, and the first to host annual Pride Month celebrations at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. The Biden-Harris administration has been described as the most pro-equality in American history.
Harris and Walz will appear at their first joint campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. The Harris-Walz ticket will now embark on a multi-city tour of battleground states crucial to the election outcome.
As a young ballet dancer, Adriana Pierce lived with two separate selves: the dancer at rehearsal and then, outside the studio, the queer woman exploring her identity. She did not think it possible for both selves to meet.
“I regret how I felt in ballet spaces during that time, because I had to leave so much of the best parts of me outside. I don’t think ballet got the best parts of me, and that’s a shame,” said Pierce, the founder and artistic director of Queer the Ballet, an organization promoting LGBTQ representation and visibility in professional ballet.
As Pierce spoke, a troupe of queer dancers rehearsed in the next studio, preparing for a performance of “Dream of a Common Language,” a new ballet directed by Pierce and inspired by the 1970s poetry of lesbian writer Adrienne Rich. Both the ballet, which opens Friday, and Rich’s collection grapple with a search for community.
The performance is part of Pierce’s ongoing mission to create opportunities for queer women, transgender people and nonbinary professional dancers to meet and perform together, something made more difficult, she said, by the traditional nature of the ballet world, with its strict gender roles and narrow definition of femininity.
Adriana Pierce founded Queer the Ballet in 2020 to help promote LGBTQ representation and visibility in professional ballet. Domenick Fini / NBC News
“Ballet likes to put people in boxes, and gender is a very specific box that ballet likes to define. And it’s women and it’s men, and the women look a certain way, dance a certain way, behave a certain way,” Pierce said.
There is little data on LGBTQ dancers in ballet. The Dance Data Project, an organization promoting gender equity in the dance industry, found that less than 1% of artistic directors globally are gender-expansive. It’s much the same for choreographers, and there are no current reliable numbers on dancers.
“In ballet, I wish there was more space for gender expansiveness, because I feel like I have to separate the two parts of myself,” said Ayla O’Day, a nonbinary lesbian soloist from Carolina Ballet and a dancer in Queer the Ballet’s coming show. “I have to be a dancer, which is a very specific version of myself, and I have to be a queer person, which is a very specific version of myself.”
Ayla O’Day, a nonbinary lesbian soloist from Carolina Ballet who will perform in “Dream of a Common Language,” said they wish there was “more space for gender expansiveness” in ballet. Domenick Fini / NBC News
At Queer the Ballet, O’Day said, “they see you as a queer person first and then a dancer second.”
Pierce offers LGBTQ artists of all identities opportunities to choreograph. At the coming New York performance, a section will be choreographed by Lenai Alexis Wilkerson, a choreographer who was most recently a corps de ballet dancer with Cincinnati Ballet.
“Being someone that has not always been embraced in balletic environments, this has been an amazing opportunity to really showcase who I am — who I am as a dancer, who I am as a Black woman, who I am as a queer person,” she said.
Lenai Alexis Wilkerson will choreograph a section of “Dream of a Common Language” that she describes as a “very Hollywood” exploration of first love and newly discovered queer identity. Domenick Fini / NBC News
While both Wilkerson and Pierce use classical dance positions in their work, they challenge and play with gender norms, particularly when it comes to partnering, in which traditionally there is a male and a female dancer, with the male dancer in a flat shoe while the female dancer is in a pointe shoe as she is manipulated and lifted.
Wilkerson’s section is an exploration of first love that she describes as a “very Hollywood” combination of “Singin’ in the Rain” and “West Side Story” centered on “someone who’s just discovering that they’re queer.”
Wilkerson is directing two dancers in her section: Mia Domini, a soloist from Carolina Ballet, and Annia Hidalgo, a principal dancer at Milwaukee Ballet.
Annia Hidalgo, a principal dancer at Milwaukee Ballet, and Mia Domini, a soloist from Carolina Ballet, will be directed by choreographer Lenai Alexis Wilkerson in “Dream of a Common Language.”Domenick Fini / NBC News
Domini heard about Queer the Ballet late last year. “At the time, I wasn’t out to many people, only a few, and I really wanted to be a part of it because it was going to be a steppingstone in my coming out process, and it created a safe pathway for me to really, like, accept my queerness and be open about it,” she said.
Hidalgo said she feels free in this show and will be removing her pointe shoes and doing some of the steps typically reserved for male dancers. “This is who I am. I can be everything,” she said. “But I have never been able to show this other side.”
Pointe work as a skill — as opposed to a gender marker — opens up more possibilities in the choreography, along with giving dancers more of an opportunity to grow, Pierce said.
A dancer puts on pointe shoes during practice for Queer the Ballet’s “Dream of a Common Language” at Baruch College in New York on June 12.Domenick Fini / NBC News
“Most people who wear pointe shoes in a ballet studio are not socialized to be strong. They’re taught to be light and to be held and to allow themselves to be taken into the movement,” she said. “It takes a bit of unlearning to be like, ‘No, you can also be strong, and that’s OK.’”
Challenging expectations in ballet has been hard-won for queer dancers, who have reported feeling isolated and unsure before they came out, fearing their identities would put roles or promotions at risk. In response, LGBTQ dancers have been building their own communities outside traditional ballet over the last several years, mostly online and through their own organizations. In addition to Queer the Ballet, which was founded in 2020, there is Ballez, an organization for “all the queers that ballet has left out,” which genderqueer lesbian choreographer Katy Pyle founded in 2011.
Queer the Ballet had its own origin in a Zoom call over the pandemic. On the call were a number of performers, including Lauren Flower, a dancer with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the founder of the Instagram account @queerwomendancers, which began as a blog in 2020. Flower is also part of the Adrienne Rich-inspired New York performance.
Lauren Flower is a dancer with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the founder of the Instagram account @queerwomendancers, which began as a blog in 2020.Domenick Fini / NBC News
Flower said she began blogging out of a feeling of loneliness. “I noticed that a lot of the queer men had such a community,” she said. “I just felt like, ‘Oh gosh, I wish I could also have that. I wish I could just go to my group of queer women.’” Once Flower began posting, private messages from dancers around the world came flooding in, many of them with similar stories of isolation and some sharing that they had never met another lesbian in the ballet world.
Back at the studio in New York, Pierce is directing the dancers through the opening scene “Dream of a Common Language,” an interpretation of Rich’s poem “Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev,” a wrenching work describing the courage, love and friendship of an all-women’s climbing team who perished together in a storm in 1974. There is a line in the poem that stuck out to Pierce when she read it: “the women I love lightly flung against the mountain.”
Mia Domini, right, seen dancing here with Annia Hidalgo, said Queer the Ballet helped create a safe pathway for her to accept her queerness.Domenick Fini / NBC News
“That, to me, is this piece. The idea of these women doing a sport, with the highest stakes,” she said. “But then in the end, the thing that you love the most and the thing that makes you feel most like yourself is that thing that hurts you the most. … In ballet, as a queer person, sometimes it feels that way.”
In the opening scene, the dancers begin as one solid group and then lift one another. Pierce said it felt like the perfect way to begin: with the dancers holding one another up, physically relying on one another “and emotionally embarking on this journey where they are — climbing higher and further than they ever have before.”
From left, Mia Domini, Lenai Alexis Wilkerson, Annia Hidalgo, Minnie Lane and Lauren Flower during dance practice for Queer the Ballet’s “Dream of a Common Language” at Baruch College in New York on June 12.Domenick Fini / NBC News
