Sunday June 19 @ 4 pm. The Quitters at Occidental Center for the Arts.The Quitters return to OCA for a special afternoon performance in our amphitheater! Stevie Coyle and Glenn Houston make up the dynamic guitar duo known as The Quitters. Having each quit some of the best bands in the business, both are founding members of The Waybacks and each have performed at Strawberry in other configurations.They have joined forces, to the delight of California audiences, to become a right-handed, right-side up fingerpicking and left-handed upside down flatpicking twosome.Tickets are $30 General/$25 for OCA members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. This event will be held in our outdoor amphitheater – please bring your own seat cushion or low back chair. To reserve ground-level seating for handicapped patrons, please email info@occidentalcenterforthearts.org. Fine refreshments for sale, art gallery open during intermission. OCA is a non profit performing and fine arts center accessible to persons with disabilities. Become an OCA Member and get discounts/free admission. Occidental Center for the Arts, 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental,CA. 95465. 707-874-9392.
Sunday June 26 at 4 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts presents: ’Dublinesque’ The Show!, a celebration of Dublin, Ireland in song and story. Led by Eamonn Flynn on vocals and piano, Dublinesque features Darcy Noonan on fiddle, Hector Bragado on banjo and Felim Egan on accordion and bodhran. Produced by singer-songwriter and pianist Eamonn Flynn (The Commitments, Maria Muldaur, Elvin Bishop, The Black Brothers), the show offers a fascinating mix of music, songs and stories, with a big dash of Irish humor and souls it takes a memorable glimpse into the past and present of Ireland’s capital. Through it all the indomitable spirit, pride, and wit of Dublin not only perseveres but triumphs. Tickets are $25 GA, $20 for OCA members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. This event will take place in our amphitheater – please bring your own seat cushion or low back chair. Disabled patrons may reserve seating at ground level – please email info@occidentalcenterforthearts.org . Fine refreshments for sale, art gallery open during intermission.OCA is a non profit performing and fine arts center accessible to persons with disabilities. Become an OCA Member and get discounts/free admission. Occidental Center for the Arts, 3850 Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental,CA. 95465. 707-874-9392
At least three LGBTQ events were targeted by white nationalist groups last weekend, but organizers of Pride parades and festivals say they won’t give in to fear.
On Saturday, police arrested 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front on suspicion of conspiracy to riot after they showed up near an annual “Pride in the Park” event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with gas masks and shields, police said.
Then, on Sunday — the six-year anniversary of the shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida — five men whom witnesses described as members of the Proud Boys disrupted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the San Lorenzo Library in California. On the same day, in Texas, about 30 protesters gathered outside a venue that hosted an adults-only drag brunch show to benefit two charities, the Star-Telegram reported.
Last week, police also arrested a Canadian who allegedly threatened to shoot people at a West Palm Beach “Pride on the Block” event.
Organizers of Pride events across the country have said that, though the increase in harassment and threats have shaken them some, they will continue with their festivals and parades as planned. They anticipate leaning into safety and security protocols, which many say they’ve already beefed up as a result of the national climate surrounding the LGBTQ community.
North America’s biggest pride parade, the NYC Pride March, will return on June 26 — the first time it will be held in person since 2019, when it attracted an estimated 5 million attendees.
Dan Dimant, media director for Heritage of Pride, the group behind NYC Pride, said that based on the group’s safety guidelines it does not plan to make changes to the march.
“We are always in close coordination with local and federal authorities,” he said in a statement to NBC News. “This year our private security has a larger footprint than in previous years so that all of our attendees can enjoy a safe, fun, and memorable return to in-person Pride.”
Dimant also noted that the group’s staff and executive board undergo active shooter training annually.
Meanwhile, Chicago will hold a number of Pride events from June 18 to June 26. Following the incident in Coeur d’Alene, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown “put those who might be planning something on notice” during a news conference Monday, according to NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV.
Police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho detain people pulled on June 11, 2022, from a U-Haul truck near the city’s Pride celebration. Georji Brown
Brown said officers on a Joint Terrorism Task Force were working with the FBI and other federal agencies to gather intelligence ahead of the June 26 Pride parade.
“We are going to be vigilant to ensure that this event, as well as others, go off safely,” he said, according to WMAQ-TV. “And we’ll hold you accountable if you’re planning [and] if you’re doing anything to jeopardize the safety of others.”
Organizers of events in smaller, more conservative areas have also made preparations ahead of their events, though many of them said it’s common for them to have protesters.
Myndie VanHorn, the founder of LGBTQ group Chroma, in Lewiston, Idaho, about two hours south of Coeur d’Alene, said the group will hold its Celebrate Love event for the first time since 2019 on July 9.
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“I’m a little apprehensive if I’m being honest,” she said.
VanHorn said the first Celebrate Love event, in 2016, was created as a response to the shooting at Pulse nightclub. She and other community members put it together in just eight days, so it wasn’t very big.
“I still received some death threats at that time,” VanHorn said. “I haven’t in the years following received anything like that, but this year feels a little different, especially with Coeur d’Alene and the 31 people arrested up there, so I’m a little apprehensive about it.”
She said she plans to sit down with a police chief at the Lewiston Police Department this week to talk about security, and that the department, as well as some state patrol officers, have attended all of the past events.
VanHorn said she was hesitant to speak about the event, which has drawn up to 800 people in the past, because she didn’t want to accidentally “invite hate,” but at the same time, “I don’t want to hide,” she said.
Michael Barnard, president and festival coordinator of Augusta Pride, in Augusta, Georgia, said he didn’t feel comfortable disclosing the details of the event’s security plan. He said that the group has prepared for every worst case scenario ahead of the Pride parade and festival on June 25, which in past years has attracted nearly 14,000 people.
“We have had protesters in the past — that’s common at any LGBT festival, especially in the South,” he said. “But for the most part, we’ve never had any incidents at our festival, and that’s 12 years running now.”
Participants look at a Born This Way sign as they browse a booth selling Pride items during the Pride Festival at the Augusta Commons on June 28, 2014, in Augusta, Ga.Sara Caldwell / The Augusta Chronicle via AP file
Eric Ward, extremism expert and executive director of the Western States Center, a nonprofit that advocates for inclusive democracy, said there are a few things that event organizers can do to help prevent harassment and violence, particularly from white nationalist groups that have recently targeted LGBTQ events. For example, they can pay attention to rhetoric online and be in touch with local human rights organizations who may monitor far-right groups in the area more closely.
But he said that preventing similar incidents to the one in Coeur d’Alene would require the federal government, including the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to invest more resources into monitoring online criminal activity.
“I think the lessons of Charlottesville still apply,” Ward said. “When we see heavy internet and social media rhetoric leading up to an event being organized by white nationalists, it should send signals to community leaders and national leaders that there is the potential for violence. When these individuals are organizing across state lines to assemble, that should be another one.”
But, beyond a warning, Ward had a message for the LGBTQ community: He said white nationalists don’t target the LGBTQ community because they see it as “weak or powerless.”
“It is targeted because that community has brought inclusion into America,” Ward said. “It has opened the space around equity and what it means to be an America that moves forward together across lines of difference. That is what frightens the Patriot Front, Proud Boys and other alt-right organizations.”
In line with that message, Barnard said that Augusta Pride will continue as planned because he’s seen the importance of having a place where people can go and feel accepted. At past festivals, he said the group hung a banner that attendees could sign, and one year he saw that someone wrote, “I came out today because of pride.”
“Remember, this is the one time that that one person that may not be out of the closet yet, that doesn’t know their place right now, can find the resources that they need,” he said. “So I hope that people are not scared and trust that we have our plans in place.”
Anto, Marti, and Lai are a throuple blissfully living together in a remote house, with nothing but their beloved bundle of dogs keeping them company. When Lai leaves for a work trip, the balance is thrown off and Marti and Anto must adapt to being just the two of them. Suddenly, the dreaminess of their secluded home becomes isolating, and all they have to rely on is each other. In the spirit of honest and vulnerable openness, this semi-autobiographical blend of documentary and fiction from writer-director Ruth Caudeli (Second Star on the Right, Frameline43), who also plays Lai, is an invitation to experience the intimate details, both unique and universal, of the ups and downs and shifting dynamics in a polyamorous relationship.
Presenting a fresh and exhilarating perspective, full of tenderness and free of judgment, bolstered by beautifully grounded performances by all three actors (including Caudeli’s frequent collaborators, Silvia Varón and Ana María Otálora), this charming indie gem is brimming with a radical sincerity that is impossible not to get swept up in.
This film will screen at New Parway JUNE 25, 2022 8:30 PM — 10:03 PM
And stream online JUNE 24, 2022 12:01 AM — JUNE 30, 2022 11:59 PM
A 14-year-old transgender girl was kicked out of a faith-based summer camp that she volunteered at because of her “life choice.” But the camp is now saying that they’re not transphobic, they were just worried about the girl’s safety.
Elizabeth Clark went to the first two days of a week-long session of Connect Camps in Cordele, Georgia, when her family got texts telling her not to come back.
“Our team was advised that Elizabeth had made a life choice that unfortunately is causing some distraction at camp,” the text message said. “We have agreed it would be best that Elizabeth not return, allowing us the opportunity to meet our promise of a remarkable for the campers.”
“I was surprised that people who were just preaching about love and accepting everybody to come out and tell me it was best that I not return,” Clark said.
She said she was particularly hurt that the text used the word “choice,” since she doesn’t experience her gender as a choice but instead as a fact.
“If it was a choice, I wouldn’t choose to be a part of the LGBTQ community or be trans because I wouldn’t want to put myself through the struggles that other people don’t have to go through,” she said.
The counselor who sent the message – Connie Bivens – talked to WALB and said that the real issue was safety. She had heard some of the girls at the camp talking badly about Clark, so she talked about it with other counselors and they agreed that they couldn’t assure Clark’s safety so they told her to stay home for the rest of the week.
“Our choice, our decision was based on ‘can we keep her safe and can she have a wonderful time at camp,’” Bivens said. “We felt we couldn’t do that, and it had nothing to do with Lizzie being transgender,” she said.
Bivens said that the girls who were speaking badly about Clark were sent home as well, so it’s unclear why she was still worried about the teen’s safety. She said that Clark could come back to camp, but not as a volunteer in a leadership position, just as a camper.
Clark decided not to go back for the rest of the week.
“I know that we’re seen as outcasts and different,” she said. “I hope that people will open their eyes and realize we’re just the same as everybody else. We bleed red and we’re all human We deserve the same treatment as anybody else.”
HIV-positive 21-year-old Thokozani Shiri died in prison after officials neglected him and failed to provide life-saving medication, an inquest has found.
The inquest into Shiri’s death, which took place at Essex Coroners Court, concluded on Wednesday (8 June).
During both periods of time, the prison’s healthcare provider, Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT), was aware that he was HIV-positive.
However during his first stretch at the prison, Shiri was not seen at an HIV clinic until six days before his release, and was not provided with any antiretroviral medication, a life-saving treatment which suppresses the virus and makes it untransmittable.
During his second stay at HMP Chelmsford, the prison again failed to provide him with the vital medication for months, he was only given it 19 days before he died.
Shiri tragically passed away from an HIV-related infection at Broomfield Hospital on 14 April 2019.
The inquest heard that before his death, Shiri told a prison officer that he “couldn’t breathe” and needed to go to a hospital, but an ambulance was not called until five days later. The prison officer he spoke to has still not been identified.
Shiri’s consultant, who had been treating him outside of prison, told the inquest: “HIV is very treatable. It shouldn’t have happened.”
The jury found that “five separate failings” had caused Shiri’s death, including the failure to provide his medication during both periods of imprisonment, and the failure to refer him to an HIV clinic.
When Shiri was finally taken to hospital, he was put into an induced coma before his mother was able to see him, and remained that way until his death. Despite being in the induced coma, he was kept in handcuffs and chained to his hospital bed.
In a damning report, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman Sue McAllister described Shiri’s care as “unacceptably poor”, and added: “This is a case in which a young man died a preventable death as a result of what I can only describe as neglect by healthcare staff, and whose mother was then treated with gross insensitivity by prison staff.”
The prison is in the process of completing a list of recommendations laid out in the ombudsman’s report.
Shiri’s family said in a statement provided by law firm Leigh Day: “Thoko was just like any young man – he loved life, his friends and family.
“He was exploring what the world had to offer him, but he ended up on the wrong side of the law, culminating in a short-term custodial sentence. As a family we had great hopes that this would allow him to reflect and look to a brighter future.
“This was not to be, as a short-term prison sentence turned into a death sentence. Thoko was denied very basic care that would have enabled him to live his life despite his long-term condition.
“We are saddened as we know that people with his condition do not have a reduced life expectancy and that, with basic management, his condition was not fatal.”
Deborah Gold, chief executive of National AIDS Trust, added: “Thoko’s death was heartbreaking and completely avoidable. This jury conclusion underlines how many crucial opportunities were missed leading to his entirely preventable death.
“It is shocking that a young man died whilst in the care of the state from a condition that is entirely treatable. Most people with HIV in the UK live long healthy lives.
“It is absolutely essential that all state places of detention including prisons and immigration detention centres, have robust systems in place to identify, treat and support detained people living with HIV.
“It is now incumbent upon all bodies responsible for the care and treatment of prisoners and detainees to ensure this happens. As Thoko’s death shows, failure to do so has devastating consequences.”
Anti-LGBTQ extremist Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R) of Arizona has found a fellow traveler across state lines in Oklahoma: GOP state senate candidate Jarrin Jackson, who just released a video where he called gay men “the most disgusting, despicable, stupid thing ever.”
It’s a match made in ultra-MAGA heaven.
“I endorse @JarrinJackson for State Senate in Oklahoma,” Rogers tweeted Monday. “Jarrin Jackson is a strong proponent of forensic audits… will secure our borders, protect our guns and defend children from the evil groomers.”
I endorse @JarrinJackson for State Senate in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a deep red state and needs a fighter like Jarrin in office. Jarrin is a West Point graduate and an Afghanistan combat veteran. As a former infantry officer, he has the mentality for what is needed in (1/3) pic.twitter.com/W9Suq9Oaqp
Jackson, who describes himself as an “American Patriot, saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,” recently ranted about Pride Month in a video post: “Straight dudes find it disgusting whenever they see other dudes kissing. It is gross. Being gay is gay. It’s the most disgusting, despicable, stupid thing ever.”
In Arizona, Rogers’ agenda has focused on promoting election conspiracy theories and anti-trans legislation.
The first-term state senator proposed a bill to prohibit medical procedures that affirm gender identity for trans children. Health professionals would face a Class 4 felony mandating prison time. Another bill would require school employees to out transgender youth to their parents and ban health professionals from prescribing puberty blockers for them. A third bill introduced by Rogers would ban transgender girls from participating in school sports.
Rogers has also suggested we start calling Superman “Thooperman” – a gay lisp joke – when Clark Kent’s son was depicted as bisexual in a comic book.
Jackson was quick to celebrate the endorsement.
“Thank you, Senator Rogers. It is a true honor to have your endorsement. Nobody fights harder for #ElectionIntegrity. You inspire me. Amen.”
Jackson grabbed headlines in March when he shot up a printer disguised as a Dominion voting machine for a campaign ad. The machines have been central to election conspiracy theories.
This is Jackson’s third run for office. In 2016 and 2018, he ran in Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost both Republican primaries.
The Army vet and sometime pastor regularly rails against “Godless commies” and says he wants to “shoot them in the face.” Military tribunals should send communists to “burn forever in a lake of fire.”
Oklahoma has produced some of the most vociferously anti-LGBTQ Republican politicians in the nation. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a law last month that bans transgender girls from participating in school sports while surrounded by cisgender girls as a trans woman stood outside his office protesting.
Stuart Delery, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, will be the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as White House counsel when he assumes the position next month, President Biden announced on Wednesday. Delery current serves as White House deputy counsel.
Delery was appointed acting associate attorney general, the Justice Department’s No. 3 position, in 2012, becoming the highest-ranking LGBTQ official in the department’s history, according to a White House official.
In his seven years at the department, Delery argued against the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred legal recognition of same-sex marriages, and went on to oversee the implementation of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning the law.
Part of an administrative shake-up ahead of the midterms, the appointment is also one of a number of elevations of LGBTQ people to high-profile roles in the Biden administration. In early May, Bidennamed Karine Jean-Pierre as White House press secretary, making her the first openly gay person appointed to the position.
The administration also tapped Admiral Rachel Levine for assistant health secretary. After her confirmation in March 2021, Levine became the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate to a federal post.
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The White House counsel, among other responsibilities, plays a major part in presidential appointments to the judiciary.
Dana Remus, who previously held the post, was key to confirming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, as well as appointing scores of lower court judges from all sorts of backgrounds.
Don McGahn, who served in the role in the Trump White House, made history at the time by filling appellate court seats at record pace. His efforts were crucial to the confirmations of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Delery graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Byron White, according to a White House official. He lives in Washington with his husband and two children.
The UCLA–Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science Center for AIDS Research has received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. A priority of the award is to fund research addressing health inequities that have fueled the spread of HIV in marginalized communities.
The Center for AIDS Research will strengthen and amplify the impact of ongoing research at both UCLA and Charles R. Drew University, as well as forming new partnerships with community groups across Los Angeles and in nations that are severely affected by HIV. Its aim is to prevent new HIV infections, reduce deaths among people who are living with HIV and develop strategies for eradicating HIV.
The partnership will be directed by Dr. Judith Currier, chief of the UCLA Division of Infectious Diseases; Dr. LaShonda Spencer, professor of clinical pediatrics and internal medicine at Charles R. Drew; and Jerome Zack, chair of the UCLA Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics. The Center will support investigators at UCLA’s Westwood campus and affiliated sites including the Lundquist Institute at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center and the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, as well as Drew CARES, the MLK Oasis Clinic and the PUSH Coalition, a group of organizations involved in HIV services that are located on or near the Charles R. Drew campus.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to leverage the resources provided by the Center for AIDS Research to expand the support for HIV/AIDS research across Los Angeles and build new partnerships among investigators at all of the partner sites and communities most impacted by HIV,” Spencer said.
The partnership will support equity in health care in part because Charles R. Drew engages a primarily minority population — 80% of its students and 71% of faculty members are from communities of color — and its scholars are committed to health equity in underserved populations through education, research and clinical service. The partnership also will promote opportunities for early-stage investigators to learn from more experienced HIV researchers, and for senior faculty to learn from younger scholars about community-engaged research, as well as increasing diversity among HIV researchers.
The center’s four primary aims will be:
Provide scientific leadership and institutional infrastructure.
Mobilize and coordinate multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art research.
Develop the next generation of basic, behavioral and clinical scientists in the field of HIV/AIDS, with a focus on promoting diversity in HIV research.
Expand community-based research with populations that are disproportionately affected by HIV in Los Angeles and beyond.
The crisp, picturesque Canadian seaside is the perfect backdrop for this poignant but tender drama—which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival—in which religious repression is no match for the purity and passion of young love. After her father passes away, teenage Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll) is sent to live with her aunt and uncle, devout Jehovah’s Witnesses in Saguenay, Quebec.
While welcomed lovingly, she is required to abide by the restrictions of their religious community, regardless of her status as a nonbeliever. A typical teen with streaks of angst and rebellion and an easy confidence in her sexuality, she manages to strike a balance between cutting class and smoking weed with her classmate Nate (Hasani Freeman) and attending church meetings and service missions with Marike (June Laporte), a teen Witness who fully embraces “The Truth”—a faith in which those who choose to leave are treated as if they have died. But what starts as a tender friendship between the two girls quickly evolves into an intimate—and forbidden—affair that is destined to upturn both of their lives.
This film screens at New Parkway JUNE 22, 2022 6:00 PM — 7:41 PM
And streams online JUNE 24, 2022 12:01 AM — JUNE 30, 2022 11:59 PM
