Czech president Miloš Zeman has said he plans to veto proposed legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to get married in the country.
The measure, which was drafted by lawmakers across the Czech political spectrum, was submitted to the parliament’s lower house on Tuesday (7 June), the Associated Pressreported.
Lawmakers have yet to set a date to debate the proposed same-sex marriage legislation. Yet the country’s president has said he is strongly opposed to the measure and will strike it down should it even land on his desk.
“I’d like to announce that if I really receive such a law to sign I will veto it,” Zeman said.
Miloš Zeman has served as the president of the Czech Republic since 2013. The president is considered a largely ceremonial role as the elected leader has limited executive powers, but he does have a considerable role in political affairs.
Zeman said that the Czech Republic passed a law in 2006 allowing same-sex couples to enter into registered partnerships, but he believed “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”.
Czech president Miloš Zeman said he believes “family is a union between a man and a woman”, “full stop”. (Getty/Mikhail Svetlov)
The registered partnership gives queer couples in the Czech Republic some rights similar to those of heterosexual married couples, but it stops short of placing same-sex couples on fully equal footing with their heterosexual counterparts.
Same-sex marriage remains illegal in the country because marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman under the Czech Republic’s civil code.
Parliament started debating similar same-sex marriage legislation back in 2018, but the legislation stalled as lawmakers didn’t take a vote before last year’s general election. The measure had to then be re-submitted for debate.
Lawmakers in the Czech parliament’s lower house can override Zeman’s veto if they can reach a majority vote.
Miloš Zeman has often espoused anti-LGBTQ+ views in the past. Last June, Zeman said he finds trans people “disgusting” while discussing Hungary’s so-called LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ law, which bans any depiction or discussion of queer people in schools, the media and advertising.
Zema said he thought people who undergo gender-affirming treatments are “basically committing a crime of self-harm”.
“Every surgery is a risk, and these transgender people to me are disgusting,” he added.
The number of queer bars is declining nationwide according to a new study examining the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on U.S. LGBTQ spaces. The study’s author, Greggor Mattson, a professor of Sociology at Oberlin College who also curates the Who Needs Gay Bars project on Twitter, found that between 2019 and Spring 2021, the number of gay bars in the U.S. dropped by about 15%.
Compared with the similar decline between 2017 and 2019, Mattson writes, this indicates a steady rate of decline in recent years.
Mattson and his researchers compared historical from the Damron Travel Guide and compared it to an online census of gay bars taken from February to May of 2021.
“36.6% of gay bar listings disappeared between 2007 and 2019,” Mattson tells Chicago’s ABC7 News. “So more than a third of gay bars closed in a 12-year period.”
According to the study, bars serving LGBTQ people of color fared particularly poorly, dropping by nearly 24% between 2019 and Spring 2021. Meanwhile, Mattson and his associates found that no lesbian closed during the pandemic, possibly due to “intensive media and philanthropic attention,” including from the Lesbian Bar Project.
The potential causes for the decline in gay bars around the U.S. cited by Mattson are, on their face, positive. Social equality and greater acceptance of LGBTQ people have led to more welcoming attitudes in bars that don’t cater specifically to the community, as well as a greater willingness of queer people to socialize in non-gay venues. There’s also the rise of social media and the prevalence of location-based apps like Grinder and Scruff that allow LGBTQ people to meet virtually.
The study cautions, however that “Rates of change in listings may not reflect actual changes in the number of establishments.” It also suggests that the decline in gay bar listings was not dramatically increased by the pandemic.
Still, Mattson finds the numbers troubling. “In most parts of the country, gay bars are the only public LGBTQ+ place,” he says. “In other words, they’re the only place where queer people can reliably encounter other queer people in public.”
That could certainly have larger implications for LGBTQ culture. “If the only bar with a purpose-built drag stage closes, then it leaves drag queens and drag kings without a place to practice their art,” Mattson added. “If they’re doing diverse things, then I get really sad when such a bar goes away because they’re special.”
More than 50 years after the famous Stonewall riots, the only Pride Month tradition more predictable than big city parades in June are the perennial complaints about the “commodification” of the gay rights movement.
These days, the month often features corporations and consumer brands participating in the celebrations, with bright rainbow packaging and gay-themed items for sale. Instead of this salutary sign of inclusion and tolerance being welcomed, however, it routinely gets attacked.
Claiming that a gay person needs to vote for a certain party or situate themselves on a certain point of the ideological spectrum is — to use some of today’s pop psychology terms — gatekeeping and gaslighting.
Critics often insist that corporations’ commitment to gay pride is shallow and self-serving, or that rainbow-themed merchandise and advertising during June end up tokenizing rather than celebrating the community. In the run-up to Pride Month, a typical tweet sarcastically enthused “2 days until companies pretend to care about us!,” while journalist Sherina Poyyail wrote an article titled “Why Rainbow Capitalism Is Making Me Start To Dread Pride Month As A Queer Person.”
While these critics claim that corporations are missing the true meaning of the season, they’re the ones missing the point of Pride Month. Buying a T-shirt with the phrase “Love Is Not a Crime” from Target won’t, on its own, change the world or end anti-gay discrimination. A person who wears it may hope to have some marginal positive effect on the people around, but it’s primarily an individual choice about self-expression.
Though there are historical connections between the gay rights movement and opposing capitalism, it’s a mistake for the LGBTQ community today to embrace an anti-corporate attitude. The desire to associate gay identity with a particular part of the political spectrum doesn’t reflect the community’s diversity and can actively alienate people who are not part of that political group — at the expense of the interests of the community as a whole.
What was originally known as the “gay liberation” movement was born out of a wide-ranging cultural ferment on the left in the 1960s and early 1970s that also gave rise to the women’s liberation, anti-war and Black power movements, a cross-pollination among activists groups described in Cornell University’s archive on the history of gay activism.
Given this background, and aided by the fact that their conservative antagonists were generally in favor of free-market economic policies, gay rights activists during the 1970s were associated with a hostility toward capitalism, markets and corporations.
This was not entirely by default — some gay activists were committed socialists who thought the two struggles were closely linked. The socialist theorizers in favor of liberation via class struggle and the abolition of private property, however, were a small minority of the movement. Gay historian Martin Duberman, an activist himself, readily admits that “The gay left — like every other kind of left in this country — has rarely represented more than a small minority.”
But that link between gay rights and hostility toward free markets continues to exist for some people today. Union organizer Meghan Brophy, for instance, epitomized this viewpoint when she wrote for the socialist magazine Jacobin in 2019 that “the greatest gains for the LGBTQ movement came through fighting corporations.”
The actual history of gay pride and corporate America, however, is much more positive and collaborative. Rutgers law professor Carlos A. Ball deftly tells this history in his book, “The Queering of Corporate America” (also out in 2019). Ball, a progressive who has plenty of criticism for corporations, documents how U.S. companies— often persuaded by internal affinity groups formed by their own gay employees — implemented nondiscriminatory hiring rules and extended benefits to same-sex domestic partners when virtually no national politicians were willing to support such policies publicly. For most of the late 20th century, the private sector well outpaced the political establishment on gay rights.
So while many early gay radicals were understandably suspicious of corporate America, we can now safely say that those worries were overstated — and, at times, based on pre-existing ideological commitments that had little to do with sexual freedom or civil rights. Someone who happens to be an advocate for both gay rights and socialist politics is free to try to link those two goals, but I as a gay man living in the 21st century don’t have to accept that they are connected. And it’s weirdly old-fashioned to be repeating hippie-era denunciations of big business when one of the world’s most valuable corporations is led by an openly gay CEO.
Even if it was the case that most gay people were clustered at one end of the political spectrum in previous generations (impossible to say because of the lack of polling), that’s not true today. While non-straight Americans are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans, a 2020 study by UCLA’s William Institute found that “LGBT people, like other minority groups, hold diverse beliefs and political affiliations.”
Claiming that a gay person needs to vote for a certain party or situate themselves on a certain point of the ideological spectrum is — to use some of today’s pop psychology terms — gatekeeping and gaslighting. Fox News contributor Guy Benson, for example, has described how after he came out, critics of his politics insisted he must be a “self-hating gay person.” To suggest that you can’t be out and proud without being a progressive who thinks corporations are evil is an offensive attempt to program someone else’s identity.
Moreover, it’s exactly the kind of high-handed effort that activists have rightly denounced in other contexts. Progressives would never accept conservatives insisting that they can’t be both gay and Christian. Why would I accept that I can’t (or shouldn’t) be gay and libertarian? And does it really make sense to turn down offers of support for gay causes and events from big business just to strike a stylishly militant pose?
That is not to say that the two major parties in America are equally aligned on policy issues affecting gay people. It has been a long time since the 1980s, during which, as historian Clayton Howard told FiveThirtyEight in 2021, “a lot of Democrats were indistinguishable from Republicans on gay issues.”
GOP majorities in many states have recently backed laws that critics characterize as anti-gay and that most Democrats strongly oppose. But if gay rights supporters want broader, rather than narrower national support, tying their agenda to unrelated economic stances will only further diminish the pool of potential allies.
It’s weirdly old-fashioned to be repeating hippie-era denunciations of big business when one of the world’s most valuable corporations is led by an openly gay CEO.
While it is perhaps inevitable that institutions that are inherently political (because they are controlled by the government) will be flashpoints in the culture wars, the private part of society based on markets, competition and voluntary association has a much greater opportunity to defuse conflict — if we allow it to stay private and voluntary.
This is not because the institutions of civil society necessarily bring us all together, but because they allow us to live and work in our own chosen worlds and build our own chosen families. No corporation can dictate your living conditions the way the government can — but they can supply you with many of the desirable accouterments of out and proud living.
The United States is a country with a long history of market-driven innovation, growth and success, and gay people have been a big part of that. While some skeptics will always be cynical about the motives of pride-themed products and marketing campaigns, the rainbow packaging on store shelves is a stunning advance from a time when many companies were worried that having a single openly gay employee would lose them customers and cost them money. Even a socialist revolutionary should be able to celebrate that.
Thailand is set to go down in history as the first Southeast Asian country to legalise same-sex unions after approving a historic bill.
The country’s Cabinet has approved draft legislation which will allow same-sex couples to register their partnership in Thailand, Bloombergreported. The bill avoids the term ‘marriage’, but it will allow same-sex couples rights to jointly own property, adopt children and have inheritance rights between partners.
The bill now goes to the country’s Parliament for approval before it can become law. If passed into law, Thailand would be the first Southeast Asian country to approve such legislation.
Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said Tuesday (7 June) that the Cabinet endorsed an earlier version of the bill, which was sponsored by the justice ministry in July 2020. But she said the government needed to study the bill and get public feedback before it was approved.
“The Civil Partnership Bill is a milestone for Thai society in promoting equality among people of all genders,” Dhnadirek said back in July. “This strengthens the families of people with sexual diversity and is appropriate for the present social circumstances.”
Under the proposed legislation, civil partnerships are defined as couples of the same sex, and people in the relationship must be at least 17-years-old to register, Bangkok Postreported. At least one person in the relationship must be a Thai national.
Members of the LGBTQ+ have criticised Thailand’s Civil Partnership Bill for not going far enough to promote queer rights in the country. (Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto via Getty)
Advocates have argued that the bill is a big step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in Thailand, but they have argued that it doesn’t go far enough.
Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree, LGBTQ+ activist and secretary-general of progressive youth organisation Free Youth, said the bill “isn’t a milestone for gender equality in Thailand”, CNNreported. Instead, Tattep argued it’s an “obstacle to reach marriage for all”.
Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, filmmaker and first trans member of parliament under the Move Forward Party, questioned why the legislation won’t “just call everyone, both traditional and non-traditional couples, as married partners”.
“This is another form of discrimination in disguise,” Tanwarin said. “We don’t want anything special we just want to be treated like others.”
For its historic and social significance to San Fernando Valley and the LGBTQ+ community, Oil Can Harry’s was recognized by The Los Angeles City Council as a Historic-Cultural Monument in May.
Oil Can Harry’s opened in 1968 and was the longest-running LGBTQ+ bar in the city until December of 2021, according to a report from USA Today. The new owners have decided to pursue a jazz venue, according to an update from Oil Can Harry’s website.
In a 14-0 vote, Oil Can Harry’s building at 11502 Ventura Blvd. became the third LGBTQ+ structure that has received the designation since the first, Black Cat in Silver Lake, in 2008, and among 1,200 other historic landmarks in Los Angeles.
“When Oil Can Harry’s opened in Studio City in 1968, it was illegal in Los Angeles for two men or two women to dance together,” 2nd District Councilman Paul Krekorian, who initiated the effort to secure monument status for the site that’s located in his district, said in a statement.
A Wednesday morning fire in Baltimore that put three people in the hospital is being investigated as a possible hate crime, authorities told WJZ.
Based on a preliminary investigation, authorities believe someone set fire to at least one Pride flag outside a row home in the 300 block of E. 31st Street and the flames spread to the home and neighboring homes, a Baltimore Police spokesperson said.
Three victims were taken to Shock Trauma for treatment, he said. A 30-year-old woman and 57-year-old man were hospitalized in critical condition, and a 74-year-old man is in serious condition, the Baltimore City Fire Department told WJZ.
When his golden-haired, blue-eyed brother Jimmy mysteriously died in Vietnam in 1975, gay filmmaker Peter McDowell was just a kid, growing up within his family’s “veil of silence.” As an adult, armed with a video camera, Peter embarks on a quest to uncover the possibly queer brother he never knew. Plotted like a terrific detective story, Jimmy in Saigon follows Peter’s search for the truth about the strikingly enigmatic Jimmy—a rebellious kid drafted into the war, who stunned his family by returning to Saigon after his tour of duty to enjoy “hedonistic pleasures.”
The film will screen at Frameline 46 San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival at the Castro Theatre June 19 at 1:15 p.m. It will be available for streaming online June 24 – 30. For tickets and more information go to www.frameline.org
Gaysonoma’s Gary Carnivele recently interviewed director Peter McDowell.
Gary Carnivele: Congratulations on the success of “Jimmy and Saigon” Peter.
Peter McDowell: Thank you.
GC: Tell us a bit about your education on professional background
PM: I’ve been interested in film my whole life. I made some short films as a kid and an ended up interested in opera. Then I got my degree in arts administration and arts management and I ended up working for a short time for the San Francisco Opera in the early 90s. Then I went into a big career in arts management in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. I made a few short films in San Francisco in the 90s that were in Frameline in ’94 and ’95. Then, I kind of let the filmmaking go for a while and it wasn’t until 2010 that I decided to take it up again with the with this project.
GC: Talk about your brother Jimmy and the impact his life and experiences had on you and your family.
PM: I’m originally from Champagne Urbana Illinois, the college town in the middle of Illinois about 2 1/2 hours south of Chicago. I’m the youngest of six children. Good Catholic family. Most of my siblings and I were born in the 50s and 60s. My brother Jimmy was the oldest in the family born in 1948. He was almost 20 years older than I and he died in 1972 when I was five years old. He was 24 when he died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in Saigon, Vietnam and of course I was just a little kid I remember when he died. I remember the terror and agony in my house when everybody found out. I’m not sure I was aware of who he was at that young age. I have some lovely pictures of the two of us together that prove that we definitely spent time together. I’m so sorry that I don’t really remember those times. I’ve always been very drawn in by history and wanted to know a lot more about Jimmy.
GC: In 2010, you decided to make the film. At the time did you see the structure of the film or did you just think I want to start investigating what happened and I’ll see if there’s a film there?
PM: The latter. I decided to just go for it. The task that I gave myself was to try to interview everybody that ever knew him, almost 40 years after he died. Other people I contacted were floored to hear from me because they hadn’t been in touch with anyone in our family at all since he died. So I set off just trying to talk to all these people as well as members of my family and I really thought at that point that I would be going to Vietnam right away. My goal was to go to Vietnam and try to see if I could walk in his footsteps and retrace his steps and also try to find some people that he knew/. It took me a good six years. I started in 2010 and it took me about six years to get to Vietnam.
GR: What surprised you most about Jimmy’s service in Vietnam, his decision to return soon after the end of the war, and his life after he return to Vietnam?
PM: I’m lucky that my brother left behind about 200 letters and he wrote tons of letters to my mom. My mom is the most fabulous pack rat who saves everything. Thank goodness she had his letters. One of my brother’s friends is a former librarian and stored in archived all of his letters from Jimmy. I have this sort of treasure trove of letters and I tried to piece together his life. A couple of things surprised me and it was very surprising to everybody that he went back as a civilian. He was in the army, did his duty and recieved an honorable discharge. Then within six months he decided to return to Vietnam, which was unheard of – nobody really did that at the time and then I noticed some inconsistencies of things that he was saying to some friends but not to others. Some things that he said my mother were actually not true and so I realized he was probably hiding something if he was making up some things
GC: Were you prepared for what you would find out in Vietnam or were you truly surprised?
PM: I really had no idea. I was looking for people that knew him and I didn’t know whether they would be alive or dead. I didn’t know if they would still be living there or know the answers to my questions. I cannot say publicly because you have to go see the film to find out whether they’re alive or dead or whether I found them or where they were. I didn’t necessarily know that much. I had some hunches and some suspicions. I came upon a major discovery in 2018 that changed everything and allowed me to finish the film.
GC: Talk about some of the people you did meet in Vietnam who you would like to talk about that won’t reveal too much about the film. There are some fascinating twists and turns.
PM: One of the things I found out about my brother is that he loved living there. Maybe I would love it too and it was very kind of heartwarming to me that that when I went for the first time. I went twice but when I went first time in 2016 I truly am almost immediately felt that love for the country and I found it very curious and hopeful and energetic and fun and really engaging. There’s a segment of the film where we see me going down this rabbit hole – little streets – to try to find anything. I met so many people who said come with me in an effort to help me on my quest. There were a lot of false starts. I eventually met a couple of Vietnamese women who are a combination of super strong women, who’ve been through a lot, very empathetic, very earthy and very intelligent. Many of the people I was coming across were people who lived in great poverty and without formal educations so I was really impressed by the level in which we communicated about deeply emotional things, about the level of emotional intelligence. Some of these people have been through unspeakable trauma of losing family members, losing children, losing their property, losing everything. Essentially the same between the late 60s until the early 90s was really just hell in Vietnam and I think people lived through so much and the people that survived and are still around today to talk about it have this real resilience that I admire. It’s remarkable that the Vietnamese are so resilient and so willing to forgive. You know most Americans who lived through the Vietnam war zone are traumatized by what happened so it’s just hard to fathom how these folks felt.
GC: Did you come to an understanding as to why Jimmy felt so safe going back to Vietnam?
PM: I think safety means different things to different people. I think he knew he was in danger physically because of the war but I think emotionally he felt kind of at home and comforted and protected by being in Vietnam. There’s a line in the film – it’s in one of his letters – where he writes: “I can’t stand the United States.” Jimmy was 24-years-old when he wrote this. Jimmy is going through a lot of angst. A lot of people were feeling at the time of the Vietnam war in the counterculture movement real frustration. I’m really fascinated by the fact that this is the 50- year anniversary my brother’s death. He died on June 6, 1972 exactly 50 years ago so it really gives us a moment to take a pause and look back and see what was happening 50 years ago and if I, a gay man, look back and see like what happened in the world over the last 50 years. Well, a lot of things didn’t happen until after Stonewall. The first pride marches kind of started around country in the 70s but it was the landmark American Psychiatric Association ruling that being LGBT was not a disease also in the 70s, so it was a really fertile time for a change. It was a time that I am I am deeply fascinated by.
GC: You’ve really been raking in the laurels at film festivals all around the world. What are some of the experiences where you were present and able to gauge the reaction of the audiences?
PM: Thank you. It’s been an incredible experience. Our world premiere was at the British Film Institute Flare Film Festival which started off as the London LGBTQ Film Festival. It was an absolutely rapturous experience, partially because I think that it was one of the first things to really come roaring out of the pandemic – not to say that we’re totally post-pandemic but in London in March we felt comfortable going out in public and feel comfortable going into theaters and so we had a screenings at the BFI Southbank space in London. I haven’t been to London in 14 years and I was blown away by the kindness and the warmth of the British audiences. People came up to me afterwards to talk about the film people lit up my Twitter account account and was added as part of their best so London was just an exceptional experience. From there we went to Miami and had a great time in Miami at the Outshine Film Festival estival there to the lovers phone customer which is apparently the oldest festival festival Europe and I was in Torino Italy for the week and we ended up winning the top award
GC: That’s really impressive! You have attended Frameline with two short film, but this is your first full-length film at the world’s biggest LGBT+ film festival. How excited were you to learn that “Jimmy in Saigon” would be screened there this year.
PM: I was over the moon! San Francisco is my home away from home. I currently live in LA but I lived in San Francisco twice. I lived there in the mid 90s. I worked at San Francisco Opera and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. I’m really fond of the city. I also came back briefly in the 2000s and lived in Berkeley which I also love so it’s really important for me to be able to showcase the film in the city where I have so many friends and I have so much love. The Castro Theatre just takes the cake for me. The film has been screened in a lot of 100-seat theaters around the world, which is great and I love them for that nice intimacy but this will be the first time in a huge theater. The Castro has 1400 seats, so it will be great to see how it looks in and sounds in the historic theatre.
GC: What’s the date and time of the of the screening?
PM: It’s on Sunday, June 19 at 1:15 p.m., which is Father’s Day and Juneteenth which is you know not really related to my film but it’s a day of celebration and healing and I hope people can come out to see a film that is also both a celebration and ultimately healing.
GC: Tell us about your family members’ reaction when you informed them of your decision to make the film and then what their reaction was when they first saw the film?
PM: The genre of documentaries that I made it’s called personal documentary it’s considered an unique art form because the filmmaker will put themselves in the phone because they know the audience wants to know the experience of what’s happening. 12 years ago, I went to my mom and I said I want to do this project, I want to use the letters you wrote and received. It’s an oral history of my family. I said I wanted to interview everybody whoever knew my brother and my mom was on board with that. She gave me a lot of names of people. I bought a camera and sound equipment, using my last couple bucks. I started interviewing everybody that I could, including everybody in my family. My mom has been incredibly participatory in the film. I interviewed her many times. She doesn’t want to see the film. She made a security line in the sand. Jimmy was her first child and she is still really broken up about the fact that he died at age 24, so she can’t bring herself to see it. She sort of apologized to me profusely for that. I don’t want it to reflect on her love for me or my film and I totally get it. I totally appreciate it. One of my brothers is hesitant to see it, but he might come around. My other brother, John, is actively involved in the film as the film’s composer. He wrote the soundtrack to the film. We worked on it every day for a year, so he’s seen it many times. My sister and I attended the Sonoma International Film Festival where “Jimmy in Saigon” was screened. My other sister who’s seen an early version of it but hasn’t seen the finished film yet. My family is super supportive and happy about it. There’s a little bit of the film about some of their initial resistance and when I revealed that it wasn’t just a history project but rather a work of art that I would like to share with the public. That took a little bit of adjusting to realize that your family stories would be out there and Jimmy’s story would be really, really out there.
GC: What are you hoping audiences take away from “Jimmy in Saigon?”
PM: I would say that I created this first and foremost as a cinematic therapeutic device for my family. People asked me did I get the closure or the healing that I hoped for and I say I don’t really believe in closure. I mean, no death is something that’s come to some sort of acceptance but it’s really hard to come to closure. I will say that I do think that our family has whether it’s related to the summer not I think our film families come closer together. A lot of audience members are really touched because they had a type of trauma in their family. I recently met some people that were in tears when I just told him about the story of the film and they said my uncle or my nephew sexuality or drug abuse or you know you’re right all these things that are really sad and deep and close to our hearts and most families haven’t I think people are really reacting to that. I even know a couple of men who had lovers in other countries where they had done it had difficulty with him being able to legally continue the relationship and they had tears in their eyes as well so I think it affects a lot of different people and I’m really pleased with
GC: In your documentary you touch on a good number of universal themes that many people can relate to. Most everyone’s lost a family member, many people have family members or close friends who had to fight wars. Obviously, this is a well thought out documentary, but were all these themes you set out in the beginning to explore or did you find yourself going down roads while making the film that you didn’t see that you would be going down?
PM: Yes, I did. I think mostly the roads that I didn’t see it going down were there the roads of contextualization meaning like I thought I was just going to tell Jimmy’s story from beginning to end or my story and making the phone but we realize we were putting it together that we needed to contextualize the story because I’m 54 and a lot of people in their 20s 30s maybe 40s and some teenagers they don’t really I know what the Vietnam War was like what the political climate was like in the 60s and 70s they may not have known how it was for gay people and even in the 80s which I talk about my coming out so you know a lot of them are sort of contextualization and laying out of history not only you know you are some world history but also my family and my purse Understand it and that was that was not something I anticipated but I think it’s something that works well.
GC: What future film festivals will include “Jimmy in Saigon?”
PM: We just announced three more film festivals in kind of smaller but important cites were going to be in Bentonville Arkansas which is a film festival that’s run by Gina Davis and Sandra Bullock so that’s exciting in the sort of new arts hub in Arkansas. We’re going to be in Des Moines Iowa on June 24 and then will be in Nyack New York, which is just outside of New York City, on August 15. There’s a bunch more screenings in the US and abroad on our website: saigon.com. There’s a place for people to sign up for emails so that they can learn about upcoming screenings and any word on a distribution. We’d love to get it out as a theatrical release so that it could be in some art houses around the country. We’d love to get it on PBS in this country as well as educational TV in other countries and I know eventually it will be available for streaming. That doesn’t usually come at the beginning of a film’s lifecycle. Frameline is offering a limited number of tickets for a limited number of days to see it on their streaming format.
GC: I know you’re in the midst of promoting “Jimmy in Saigon,” but have you started to think about what your next project will be?
PM: I’m not ready to rush back into another film project. I’m kind of like a parent that is just getting settled into parenthood. I do love documentaries and I love music and I’d love to make a music documentary, maybe multiple music documentaries. It was brought to my attention that “Jimmy in Saigon” is 70% music and I thought that was very touching as my brother Jimmy loved music. There’s a band that I love that I would love to make a documentary called The Roches. Love to throw my hat in the ring to make that documentary.
GC: I love the Roaches! Such a great band. I’ll be looking for that, fo sure. Thank you so much for joining us tonight Peter and best of luck with “Jimmy and Saigon” and all your future projects. Please come back when the next film is released.
PM: Thank you, Gary, I really enjoyed talking to you.
Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives unanimously voted to strike the word “homosexuality” from the state’s criminal code where it had been listed in the definition of prohibited sex acts.
Supporters say said the word doesn’t belong since being gay isn’t a crime, according to The Associated Press.
“This bill provides a long-overdue update to our crimes code to ensure nobody is prosecuted because of who they love,” state Rep. Todd Stephens, a Republican who also introduced the bill, said. “Eliminating this archaic language will also help promote a culture of acceptance and inclusion for our LGBTQ community across Pennsylvania.”
Stephens had first introduced the bill last year, according to Patch.
Pennsylvania’s law against sex work defines sexual activity so that it references “homosexual and other deviate sexual relations.”
The new definition that has been sent to the state’s Senate now reads “includes sexual intercourse and deviate sexual intercourse … and any touching on the sexual or other intimate parts of an individual for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either person,” according to the AP.
“Homosexuality” was also struck from the definition of sexual conduct, the news wire reports, in a section covering “obscene and other sexual materials and performances.”
“In this General Assembly, sadly, it’s a huge lift to merely agree that being gay shouldn’t be illegal,” Democratic Rep. Dan Frankel said.
Frankel urged lawmakers to go further and pass antidiscrimination legislation protecting LGBTQ+ people.
Another Democratic representative, Malcolm Kenyatta, agreed.
“I hope that we have these same votes for enshrining nondiscrimination protections, which we sorely need to do,” he said.
In June of 2016, 49 lives were tragically taken during a mass shooting on Latin Night at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. One of the survivors of that night is Jeannette Filiciano, a lesbian single mother struggling to come to terms with a tragedy for which no one will ultimately be held accountable.
Between raising her teenage son, fighting with her mom around whether homosexuality is a sin, rigorous training as she tries to go pro as a competitive bodybuilder and, a little over a year later, dealing with Hurricane Maria’s effects on her family in Puerto Rico, Jeanette’s consistent, encouraging smile and motivational attitude can only hold out for so long.
Director Maris Curran’s realistic portrait of survival—full of unglamorous perseverance and routine setbacks, losses, and triumphs—illustrates that life keeps moving, never allowing for the time to truly process trauma. But in Jeannette, we are shown how building up one’s body can also assist with healing the mind and uplifting the spirit.
“Jeannette” will be screened June 17 at 1:30 PM at the Castro Theatre and will stream online June 4 — June 30. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.frameline.org.
Gary Carnivele: I want to congratulate both of you on the success of “Jeanette.” It’s a beautiful film. Thank you for bringing this really important story to audiences everywhere. Jeanette, you’re an amazing woman and thank you so much for opening up your life
Please, tell us a bit about your background.
Jeanette Feliciano: I am community organizer. I am mother. I am the world champion Beachbody right now. I am a professional personal trainer. I motivate people through our personal training
Maris Curran: I am a filmmaker and I live in Los Angeles, where I work in both documentary and fiction films and I’m also a mother.
GC: Why did you make this film about Jeanette’s life?
MC: I met Jeanette while working on an anti-discrimination campaign in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. “Jeanette” is a film that I didn’t plan to make but became inspired to make. I think that upon meeting we discovered parts of ourselves reflected onto the each other which allowed this really beautiful opening up of places where we’re similar. It gave us a chance to create a really trusting relationship that allow the space to really go into what happens when the cameras go away – a place that I think we actually exist. We were really concentrate on the need to really open up conversations about how this impacted the entire community. I think that Jeanette also knows she’s a modern day superhero. I think that seeing examples of not only her resilience and her determination but her vulnerability. Watching somebody like Jeanette and her mom expressing their unconditional love. Not all mothers are alike. Here we are watching this unbelievable woman push a huge heavy truck tire and then come home and be everything to her teenage son.
GC: What was it like opening up your life and in such an intimate and detailed manner?
JF: It was something that we discussed initially. We live in a society that we look at women of color in a ceratin way. Here we have an American white woman right who wants to know about my life. I’m wondering why cry because we put all these barriers We took the colors out we took that out because we realize that we are human we all bleed the same color that helping set the timer on for me being able to be vulnerable. People don’t necessarily see my vulnerability. They don’t understand what my healing process is because I had to go right back into this world. I’ve come to realize the importance and the beauty in vulnerability and being able to connect again as human beings.
MC: This film is really not just about you but I truly feel that this documentary is made for the purpose of you seeing yourself in the spirit and understanding the importance of healing – the importance of being able to be human and vulnerable with others who are actually around you. There is beauty in that and there’s a lot of healing in that mirror.
GC: Marris, you tackle so many issues in this film – both intense and joyous – as Jeanette just mentioned. What struck you most on an emotional level about Jeanette and her experience?
MC: I think the biggest surprise that I found in making the film is that family ended up being at the forefront. I knew that Jeanette was a mother and I knew that she had been struggling with her relationship with her own mother but I didn’t realize that that would form the emotional core of the film. What life brings right in the rhythms of them is of one of the essential questions that I asked going into the film. After such trauma, how does one ever feel safe again. How does Jeanette make Anthony understand what happened to her? It was just a beautiful surprise to discover the answer to her life was through her dedication to her family, through letting go and letting herself be mothered by her mother. I think that that was really very touching to have such a lovely support group. Many of those folks are in the film.
GC: What was the reaction of your family and friends when you told them about your decision to put your life out there on film?
JF: I don’t think that it really clicked but most everyone wanted to offer their support. The community obviously rallied behind what I was doing as a trainer and somebody who continues to live life and help others. Everything just turned out beautifully. You see the support system that I do have here in Orlando and it’s something that I’ve always had even prior to Pulse. Even during my bodybuilding training, the importance of healing that I’ve unfortunately been through a lot. You are able to see that I am still connected to and still very close to all of those individuals. We are even tighter than before and they have expanded in their helping and healing others. I just think that it is phenomenal that we’ve come this far and the growth of so many people who actually a part of the filming and the sense of how our minds have changed as well with making sure that we actually care and connect with people again especially in this world that is just run by nothing but social media people have disconnected besides being on their phone people forgot to communicate but you know with with me and my friends and my family we know how to put that aside and actually enjoy the company for around us and we really talk about how is it that we can all heal individually and together
GC: Maris, you capture such intimate moments of Jeanette’s life and her interaction with her friends and family. Talk about it how much footage you shot, how long the shoot was and how difficult editing it down was?
MC: When Jeanette introduced me to the people in her life, I was accepted and welcomed and could feel this love that they have for Jeanette my extension which and you know it didn’t you know and when I would Allowed for that on the phone took five years to me right before and the editing process and it took a while because we’re not telling the story and it’s not really about and I think that it was really important to me that I felt the truth to her like that emotional in a way where the audience could have enter into Stop and keep working and then you get more money and I had it really interesting experience of where I work with is incredible and I can’t even believe that never met in person where we cut it in like the last leg amazing art of getting the film is a beautiful soul and I would get up at five in the morning it was beautiful and I think you’re really in a very strange way the circumstances of the world hired to help us finish the film because you know how they been Pre-pandemic times I would’ve said well you know he’s a zero and I’m in Los Angeles and we can’t afford to find them here and I can’t just go there and yes you know
GC: Jeanette, in the documentary you travel to Puerto Rico to help your family after the devastating hurricane. Can you give me an update about your family in Puerto Rico?
JF: I was just there to help in any way I could. I bought and hooked up a generator and had to find food. There are a lot of things that happened in Puerto Rico even before the hurricane. I wanted to be there for my sister, but also to help the community of Puerto Rico. I was knocking on doors to check on people – to make sure they had they’re basic needs met. I went back to my island to do my part I spoke to my sister last night we were on the phone for two hours and they’re doing great. I love the bond that my mom and my sister have created within the past year. My sister is able to talk to my mom and ask for advice and ask for counsel. Finally get it I think it’s just so important you know my mom is doing great she’s always come here and she’s always hanging out with my partner. Now everything, thank God, is absolutely amazing. When it comes to my family and my family bonding, I just wanted to continue to support everyone and for everyone to express the love I know is there. That’s why I am the way that I am with Anthony. He is my world and I make sure that he knows how much I love him because I did’t always have that. I have it now but it’s so important for our children to have that. For us to break the cycle. Everything that we do in life should be led by love first and foremost because that is something that every human being
GC: Maris, what was it like when “Jeanette” was accepted into Frameline
MC: Wonderful! can’t wait to share the phone with dad he will text them and I hope that the film opens up some of those doors so that people are able to talk about things that sometimes they would rather not talk about but that can be really nice now that you’re not we will you be here in San Francisco unfortunately I will not be there I think we’re going to probably be doing a Q&A through Zoom after the “Jeanette” is shown at Frameline.
GC: What are you both up to now?
MC: I’m working on a new film here in Los Angeles that’s about a justice program and how it works. I have a little baby who I just brought into the world. I’m traveling around with “Jeanette,” and couldn’t ask for anything more than that.
JF: My son Anthony is getting ready to go to college. My partner has moved in with her son so I have an eight-year -old right so I need to make sure that I’m reading that he’s showing love to each and every person the same way that I believe Anthony is. I’m currently the world champion in my catgegory so I will be competing this coming November, which keeps me very busy. I just want people to have a sense of being seen and being able to see themselves.
GC: Thank you both for making this beautiful film. Best of luck with reaching as wide an audience as possible. Please come back whenever you’ve got something else in the works. Happy Pride!
President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at combating a historic number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures across the country.
The order will direct federal health and education agencies to expand access to gender affirming care and advance LGBTQ-inclusive learning environments at American schools.
The president’s order comes during LBGTQ Pride month and as advocates fight against a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in states across the country this year — more than 320, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.
“President Biden always stands up to bullies and that’s what these extreme MAGA laws and policies do — they bully kids,” a senior administration official told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday. “Hateful, discriminatory laws that target children are out of line with where the American people are, and President Biden is going to use his executive authority to protect kids and families.”
A bulk of the bills signed into law in recent months — 24 in 13 states, according to the HRC — aim to limit access to gender affirming care for transgender youth, prohibit trans girls and women from competing on girls’ sports teams in school, and bar the instruction of LGBTQ issues in school.
Under the executive order, a coordinating committee will also be established to lead efforts across federal agencies to strengthen the collection of data on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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It will also direct the Department of Health and Human Services to expand resources to address LGBTQ youth suicide and homelessness and study barriers same-sex married couples face in accessing government benefits.
The new measures coincide with a recent surge in charged rhetoric surrounding how and whether children should learn about LGBTQ issues.
In recent months, conservative lawmakers, television pundits and other public figures have accused opponents of a newly enacted Florida education law, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, of trying to “groom” or “indoctrinate” children. The word “grooming” has long been used to mischaracterize LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers.
Advocates have been urging public officials against using the charged rhetoric, warning that it could cause violence directed at LGBTQ Americans.
At least three LGBTQ events were targeted by white nationalist groups last weekend, with police arresting 31 people at an annual Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on charges of suspicion of conspiracy to riot. Those arrested came to the event with gas masks and shields.
The president has been urging Congress to pass comprehensive LGBTQ rights legislation in the form of the Equality Act. But after passing in the House last year, the bill stalled in the Senate. Biden again called on Congress to take action in a White House fact sheet.
