The Sonoma County Library has tracked a steady shift from physical to digital use over the past few years. “Every year, we see more and more patrons checking out electronic books, streaming movies, tracing their family tree or conducting research,” said Ann Hammond, Sonoma County Library Director. “Some of our most loyal and active patrons rarely come into a branch.”
In fact, up until recently, the digital library was almost as busy as the physical library. For example, while Sonoma County Library patrons checked out 2.9 million physical items in the fiscal year ending in June 2019 (the most recent state figures), the library recorded 2.4 million website visits and 829,121 instances of electronic usage of materials.
That all changed on March 14, when all Sonoma County Library branches closed, in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the county’s shelter-in-place order. Since then, as physical circulation has come to a halt, digital circulation is skyrocketing.
OverDrive, a popular way to check out electronic books and audiobooks through the library, had a 356 percent increase in website page views in the 23 days from March 17 to April 8. In the same time period, the library’s Hoopla platform, which offers books, films, TV, music, comics and more, had a 786 percent increase in page views.
Kanopy, a resource for classic films and documentaries, had a 298 percent increase, and RBDigital, an easy way to read thousands of current issues and back issues of magazines, topped all Sonoma County Library digital resources with a 2,434 percent increase in page views.
Library patrons are discovering other digital resources as well, learning languages with Mango, brushing up on software skills with Lynda, deciding what home appliance to purchase with Consumer Reports, researching car repairs with Chilton, looking up ancestors on Ancestry.com, or reading the New York Times – all free with a library card.
“We don’t see this shift as temporary,” Hammond said, reflecting on what to expect when library branches reopen. “There is no substitute for a one-on-one conversation with a friendly librarian, or attending a library event, or bringing your child to a story time, but a lot of our patrons are discovering how easy it is to try the digital option, and we’ll be prepared to keep supporting them. We’ve already added or expanded digital resources, and we will keep looking for ways to serve our community, in person or online.”
But, not everyone has reliable internet access. That worries Hammond, a lot. “We do so much to help bridge the digital divide,” she said. “We have free high speed WiFi in our branches, and it’s still on during the closures so people can access it from outside when the building structure permits. We also have more than 500 WiFi hotspots and more than 100 Chromebooks in circulation, but it’s not nearly enough.”
Hammond and her staff are busy adapting to the temporary closures, and she knows they’ll be busy again when branches reopen, but she vows not to forget about the people who are left out because they can’t afford broadband. “This is a wake-up call for every library in America,” said Hammond. We can’t close the digital divide by ourselves, but we intend to be loud and persistent voices in finding a solution.”
After seeing people were not adhering to her recommendation two weeks ago, Sonoma County’s top public health official on Monday made clear everyone must wear a face covering starting Friday when they go inside any building other than home, or when outside if unable to remain at least six feet away from others.
Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, said residents can use a scarf or bandanna to cover their faces. She urged people not to buy N95 respirator or surgical masks, because health care workers are “in dire need for” them.
“These facial coverings are meant to protect the public from you,” Mase said during a live Facebook video briefing. “You’re not protecting yourself from coronavirus. What you’re doing is ensuring that if you had coronavirus but you are asymptomatic, you’re not giving it to other people.”
A gay man has detailed his horrific experience of being beaten by police in his home country of Turkmenistan for the simple crime of having HIV.
The 23-year-old spoke anonymously about his ordeal to RadioFreeEurope. He has successfully claimed asylum in a European country, but he is still haunted by the anti-gay brutality he faced at home.
Maksat hid his sexuality when he was growing up in the central Asian country, and he fled to Russia to study business management when he was 18-years-old.
In 2019, Maksat was diagnosed with HIV. He was later deported under a Russian law that sends HIV-positive foreign nationals back to their home countries.
Back in Turkmenistan, Maksat retreated into the closet and kept his HIV-status hidden, knowing he would face discrimination and possible criminal charges if anyone found out.
Gay man taken in for questioning by police when he tried to access HIV treatment in Turkmenistan.
But he still needed to access treatment. Last December, Maksat went to a local HIV/AIDS centre in an attempt to access antiretroviral therapy. He took a blood test and was asked to return two days later.
When he went back to the HIV/AIDS centre, two police officers were waiting for him.
First they questioned me. Then began to beat me badly.
“The officers asked me how I got infected [and] I told them I didn’t know,” Maksat said. He knew not to disclose details of his sexuality because gay sex is illegal in Turkmenistan.
More than 24 hours later, three police officers turned up at Maksat’s apartment and hauled him in for questioning.
“First they questioned me. Then began to beat me badly. They told me: ‘We know where you got HIV. You’re gay.’ I told them that it’s not true. But they kept beating me.”
Police then forced Maksat to sign papers admitting that he was gay. When he initially refused, they said they would out him to his entire family if he did not comply.
Maksat was also terrified that he would be convicted of “knowingly” infecting others with HIV, an offence that carries a maximum of five years in prison in Turkmenistan.
He is now claiming asylum in an LGBT-friendly country.
He was told to report to his local police station in January as law enforcement authorities in the country close for several days at the end of December. Instead, Maksat took the opportunity to flee his home country.
Maksat first returned to Russia where a friend helped him contact an LGBT+ rights organisation, and he was subsequently able to claim asylum in an unnamed European country.
He now lives in an LGBT-friendly country, but he is still afraid to be completely open about his sexuality. He fears that he will never be able to return home and see his parents as he would likely face criminal charges if he did.
Maksat is terrified that his parents will find out he is gay, saying it would “bring shame” on them. He also worries that police could question his family in an effort to uncover his whereabouts.
Life in Turkmenistan can be extremely difficult for members of the LGBT+ community. Gay and bisexual men can face up to two years in prison for daring to love, and society is largely unaccepting of queer identities.
Immigration Equality says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released four of its gay clients with HIV.
Two of the men had been in ICE custody at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La. The other two men were detained at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., and La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz.
LaSalle Corrections operates the Richwood and Winn Correctional Centers. CoreCivic, a company previously known as Corrections Corporation of America, runs La Palma Correctional Center.
“All four of these clients are gay men living with HIV who had been persecuted in their countries of origin simply for being who they are,” said Immigration Equality Legal Director Bridget Crawford on April 10 in a YouTube video. “Unfortunately, when they sought safety in the United States they were put in detention centers where they received horrendous HIV care, and lived in deplorable conditions and with the outbreak of COVID our clients’ lives were placed in great danger.”
Immigration Equality on March 23 demanded ICE release detainees with HIV who are at increased risk for the coronavirus. The four men who ICE released are among the six men who Immigration Equality named as complainants in the complaint it filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Crawford in her video said some of Immigration Equality’s clients in ICE custody “hadn’t even been told about COVID or the ways to protect themselves.”
“Even in the best of times these facilities are highly unsanitary with little access to adequate handwashing stations, soap,” said Crawford. “Social distancing is virtually impossible, so when you add COVID to the mix it is a tinder box for spread of the virus.”
“Needless to say, we needed to jump into action to secure the safety of our clients,” added Crawford.
ICE on its website says there are 61 detainees with coronavirus.
Two of these detainees are at La Palma Correctional Center. One detainee at Winn Correctional Center has coronavirus, and another at Richwood Correctional Center has tested positive.
These statistics were last updated at 5:35 p.m. on April 10.
“The health, welfare and safety of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees is one of the agency’s highest priorities,” says ICE in a statement it posted to its website on March 15. “Since the onset of reports of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ICE epidemiologists have been tracking the outbreak, regularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees.”
“ICE continues to incorporate CDC’s COVID-19 guidance, which is built upon the already established infectious disease monitoring and management protocols currently in use by the agency,” adds the statement. “In addition, ICE is actively working with state and local health partners to determine if any detainee requires additional testing or monitoring to combat the spread of the virus.”
ICE has also suspended “social visitations” at all of its detention centers.
Trans people in Pakistan are being deprived of support during the pandemic lockdown, according to alarming reports from the country.
Regions across Pakistan have imposed a lockdown, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country standing at 5,300.
Pakistani outlet The News reported concerns about the lack of support for trans people – many of whom were living in extreme poverty even before the lockdown, and have been left to fend for themselves as NGOs who previously helped them have stopped working.
Trans people ‘ignored as if we are not humans’.
Shakila, a trans woman from Peshawar, told the newspaper: “We are the most unfortunate human beings on Earth because neither the federal nor the provincial government has bothered to consider our plight.
“The government and the philanthropists are giving relief package to others, but have ignored us as if we are not humans.”
She added: “It hurt us when the federal and provincial governments announced relief packages for industrialists and government servants, but ignored the most neglected section of the society.”
Another trans woman, Nazo, also from Peshawar, told the newspaper that with work dried up and no relief available, trans people are struggling to make ends meet.
She said: “[Before], we were worried about our security, but now we are worried about food, shelter and medicines.”
Iftikhar Shalwani, a commissioner in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, previously said that help would be provided for trans people to ensure they would not be left hungry or out on the streets.
He told the Express Tribune: “We are committed to providing them with all possible help.”
Pakistan extended free healthcare to trans people.
Prime minister Imran Khan said that his government was “taking responsibility” for trans people, who are routinely denied treatment and can face harassment or ridicule from hospital staff and patients.
The 2017 national census recorded 10,418 trans people in Pakistan, out of a population 207 million, though charities estimate there are at least 500,000 trans people.
Seven per cent of trans people in Pakistan are HIV-positive, meaning that treatment is vital to their health.
All of us here at Face to Face hope that this message finds you safe and healthy while Sheltered In Place. This is a challenging time for all of us with things changing on the daily. Although it may seem like there is not much good going on at this time, we must all remember that the fires and floods of the past three years have shown us how to deal with catastrophe and we are Sonoma County Strong!
Here at Face to Face we remain resilient, hopeful and committed to our work. That has not stopped from day one of this pandemic and we will continue to do our work in the best and most safe way possible that we can at this time.
Along the way there are always silver linings. At times like these we need to dig a little deeper to find them. But trust us, they are all around and we wanted to take some time to share some of those silver linings with you.
Our Work Continues to Enhance the Lives of Others
Over 10,000 Needles per week along with Naloxone have been provided by Face to Face during this pandemic.
Harm reductionists are among the invisible healthcare workers continuing to provide essential services to our community. Lorie Violette, our Prevention Director is working on the frontlines here in Sonoma County to continue to provide Syringe Exchange services as well as Overdose prevention with supplying people with Naloxone. She has given out over 10,000 needles per week since the arrival of COVOID-19 by providing mobile services out of the trunk of her car.
Lorie has also filled 17-eight gallon containers that hold approx. four thousand used needles in them since she has gone mobile. This in part helps keep needles off of the streets in our community. People with underlying chronic health conditions face increase severity and risk of death from Coronavirus. The more that we can provide this service in our community the more lives we will be saving.
We have placed 5 clients into new homes in the past month!
Our Case Workers Consuelo Ardon and Tania Silvia along with our Housing Administrator Miasha Terry have placed 5 clients into their new homes, including two homeless clients into hotels in the county. We are thrilled to report that as of today 3 more homeless clients are going to be placed in hotels during this most fragile time. Homelessness is a health risk especially during a pandemic. The more we can assist in getting people off the streets the better chances we have at keeping people healthy.
Our Executive Director, Sara Brewer is navigating through this crisis on a daily basis.
In times of crisis one must be ready to take charge and lead their team through the rough challenges that they all face. We are so fortunate to have an Executive Director that puts the care of her team at the forefront while having to balance that with keeping the organization up and running. Sara has been able to do both while actively looking at all the options that are out there to keep Face to Face fully functional and operating. Wading through all the government options along with applying for Grants are taking up most of the days while keeping in touch with the team via Zoom meetings. Please send all your positive vibes out there to Sara!
Homemade Masks for our Prevention DirectorLorie Violette, our Prevention Director here at Face to Face has been on the front lines since Day 1. She has become a one-person Syringe Exchange team providing exchange and overdose prevention to those in need.Just this week she received an email from the Harm Reduction Coalition based in Oakland informing her that one of their mom’s was making home made masks since she is a tailor/clothing maker. She has been making these masks which include a filter and nose piece and has offered some to Lorie to get her through her days meeting up with clients.
We are so grateful to have people who are reaching out to others to protect them while they are doing their work that puts them in harms way.
Ways to help others in Sonoma County during the Coronavirus Pandemic
It is so beautiful and inspiring to see a community coming together in times of need. The Press Democrat did a great piece on a number of ways to help out while SIP. While we would love you to donate to Face to Face, and we hope that you will. We realize that we are all in this together and that there are so many organizations that provide amazing services in our county. Some of them include Meals On Wheels, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Food For Thought, La Luz Crisis Fund, Undocufund, Ceres Community Project and PEP Housing.
New Initiatives Pay Struggling Restaurants Thousands to Feed the Needy
As our restaurant industry is hurting at this time we love the way that people are finding ways to be creative in coming up with new initiatives that are helping restaurants feed so many in our communities. You can read the full article in SfEater here that feature some of our local establishments.
DO YOU HAVE SOME “SILVER LINING” STORIES TO SHARE?It is at times like these that we need to find inspiration. There are so many out there doing good at this time and we would love to hear from you so that we can share these stories with our community. Email your stories to [email protected]
In the year since the Trump administration banned transgender individuals from serving in the military, a number of advocacy groups have challenged the policy and many active service members say they’ve been forced to choose between continued service and their dignity and basic health care needs.
When the administration implemented the ban on April 12, 2019, it ended an Obama-era policy that allowed trans men and women to serve openly and to receive transition-related medical care while enlisted.
“The Trump-Pence administration has shamefully told thousands of qualified transgender military members that we aren’t good enough and our service doesn’t matter.”
ARMY STAFF SGT. PATRICIA KING
The current policy allows service members who received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria prior to April 2019 to continue to serve in their preferred gender. Any currently serving troops diagnosed after that date must serve according to their sex as assigned at birth and are prohibited from seeking transition-related care. Prospective recruits who have received a gender dysphoria diagnosis are barred from enlisting or enrolling in military academies.
The Defense Department stands by the year-old policy, and while it is widely viewed and referred to as a “ban,” the Pentagon insists it is “not a ban on transgender persons.”
“If you are a transgender individual, you are welcome to serve,” Jessica R. Maxwell, a Defense Department spokesperson, said in an email, adding that the policy “actually prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity for accession, retention or separation.”
What the policy does, Maxwell added, is end “presumptive accommodations” for people with gender dysphoria, which she referred to as a “serious health condition.”
Ending these “presumptive accommodations,” means transgender individuals would have to forgo gender-affirming health care and serve in the military according to their sex assigned at birth, not their preferred gender, a situation that is untenable for many, if not most, trans people.
A number of LGBTQ advocacy groups are challenging the Pentagon’s policy and its justification for restricting the military service of transgender individuals, and five of these challenges are currently in court.
But as these cases slowly advance in the courts, prospective and active trans service members say they are forced to live with the consequences of the policy.
“The Trump-Pence administration has shamefully told thousands of qualified transgender military members that we aren’t good enough and our service doesn’t matter,” Patricia King, the U.S. Army’s first out transgender infantryman, said in a statement shared with NBC News. “Our nation’s brave service members and their families deserve better.”
History of the ban
On July 26, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. military would no longer “accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity.”
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he wrote.
At the time, studies estimated that 2,450 to 15,000 transgender people were serving in the U.S. military, and a 2015 survey of over 27,000 transgender individuals from the National Center for Transgender Equality found trans respondents reported twice the rate of military service as the general population.
In a presidential memo in August 2017, Trump directed the Defense Department to “return to the longstanding policy and practice on military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016 until such time as a sufficient basis exists upon which to conclude that terminating that policy and practice would not have the negative effects discussed above.”
The memo allowed currently serving trans members to remain, but ordered the cessation of Defense Department or Homeland Security resources to “fund sex reassignment surgical procedures for military personnel, except to the extent necessary to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex.”
Trump’s proposal went against the military’s own recommendations regarding transgender service members, which were arrived at as part of a policy review that began in 2015 by the secretary of defense at the time, Ashton Carter. Under Carter, a Pentagon-commissioned study concluded that there were no reasons to exclude trans individuals from military service. The Obama administration thenlifted the ban on transgender people serving in the military in June 2016, permitting those already in the armed forces to be open about their gender identities and setting a date to allow the recruitment of openly transgender individuals.
Democrats came out against the ban, as did some prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam war and former POW who said in 2017 that any service member who meets appropriate military standards should be permitted to serve.
“When less than 1 percent of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country,” McCain said.
In addition to the five lawsuits that are still working their way through the courts, lawmakers have introduced legislation and attempted to amend the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act to rescind the ban over the past year.
Legal challenges
Several LGBTQ advocacy organizations have filed lawsuits challenging the ban, and four federal courts issued orders forbidding the government to enforce it.
“Taking up resources to discharge someone who has incredible things to contribute makes no sense.”
JENNIFER LEVI, GLBTQ LEGAL ADVOCATES AND DEFENDERS
Kara Ingelhart, an attorney at Lambda Legal working on one of the cases, Karnoski v. Trump, called the Supreme Court decision “disappointing” but said the high court has not yet heard the merits of the case. She pointed to U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman’s December 2019 ruling requiring the government to turn over some 35,000 documents cited in its decision to ban trans service members. The judge said the plaintiffs were entitled to all the documents and information used to justify the administration’s restrictions on trans service members.
“We are currently in the thick of discovery and moving forward as if we were going to trial,” Ingelhart said.
Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, saidshe’s confident the ban will be found unjustifable.
“We anticipate trials where the court will evaluate and see quite clearly the absence of any rational justification or any legitimate justification of the ban,” she told NBC News. “There is no justification for banning a group of people from serving in the military who can meet all the generally applicable standards … It undermines the concerns for the stability and strength of the military.”
Last month, GLAD and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed anew suit on behalf of a Navy officer who has served two extended tours of duty over nine years and is now facing involuntary discharge because she is transgender. She came out as trans after the ban went into effect in April 2019, and is therefore not protected by the “grandfather clause” that permits those already enlisted to continue to serve. The current policy mandates the discharge of any service member who comes out as transgender and seeks to undergo a gender transition.
“It is just an example of just how irrational the ban is,” Levi said. “Taking up resources to discharge someone who has incredible things to contribute makes no sense.”
Serving under a ‘cloud of otherness’
The transgender military ban affects both active personnel and prospective recruits.
“It’s disheartening that the president of the United States has taken an opinion on my fitness to serve in the military without knowledge about what makes me, and so many other transgender people, just as good candidates to serve in the military,” said Ryan Karnoski, one of the plaintiffs on the suit brought by Lambda Legal.
At 25, Karnoski has an M.A. in social work and is pursuing a Ph.D. in social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. He hopes to be given the opportunity to apply his skills to a health services career in the military.
“The ban has been frustrating, but I’m refusing to look at it like a setback,” he said.
According to Ingelhart, the ban continues to be a source of concern and frustration for clients like Karnoski.
One of the other plaintiffs in the case with Karnoski is a woman known as Jane Doe, who chose anonymity because she remains in active service. She did not come out as transgender prior to the implementation of the ban last April.
“Because she didn’t do that within the artificially imposed window, she is now prohibited from doing so without the loss of her career,” Ingelhart said. “She is not being able to make that choice for herself without risking her career and the livelihood of her family.”
While there are openly transgender people currently serving in the military, Peter Perkowski, legal director of the Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit organization advocating for LGBTQ service members and veterans, said, “They are doing it under a cloud of otherness.”
“That’s not healthy for them,” Perkowski said. “Even though they were spared, at least for now, discharge or separation, that doesn’t mean they are not feeling the effects of this ban.”
Perkowsi said these service members are subject to mental health issues as a result, in addition to outright discrimination and even being pressured to leave the military.
Blake Dremann, an active duty lieutenant commander in the Navy and the treasurer of SPART*A, an LGBTQ military group, said those who are grandfathered in are having to deal with a cloud of suspicion as to whether they are fit to serve.
According to the latest Pentagon memo, transgender individuals may seek waivers to be able to enlist or serve in accordance with their gender identity. The waiver process has turned out to be complicated, Dremann said, as one must obtain separate waivers for gender dysphoria, another to serve as one’s preferred gender, and another to receive maintenance hormone therapy. “They take a long time,” Dremann said.
Further, many active service members he has spoken to worry about the consequences of a denial of the waiver.
“What is the course of action then? Does it go back to the member and they could ‘change their mind’ or does that immediately start discharge?” Dremann asked.
The current public health crisis highlights the costs of denying qualified people the ability to serve.
“How many trans people have left the military or chose not to join the military that would have gone into critical health care professions?” said Jennifer Peace, a transgender Army captain who has been serving for over 15 years. “With ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ we spent over $300 million from the early ‘90s to its repeal. What money are we spending now? It’s so unfortunate we are making the same mistakes.”
Thousands of military personnel are being called upon to help in the fight against the coronavirus.
“I think about the trans military service members, especially in the medical service corps, that are fighting on the front lines against the coronavirus not just here but overseas as well,” Karnoski said.
“It’s really frustrating that this issue is something they have to be focusing any amount of attention on,” he said of the trans military ban.
Next steps
The policy could be changed through the courts, but the slow nature of litigation and the current composition of the Supreme Court leads some advocates to believe redress is more likely through Congress or the ballot box.
“Our message right now is that the only way this changes is with a change in administration, but that doesn’t stop us from working with our members of Congress,” Dremann said.
Levi said, “The challenge to this military ban has just highlighted how wrong it is to exclude people because of who they are.”
When his officers raised concerns about catching the coronavirus, a South Florida police chief tried minimizing their worries by claiming a Broward County deputy’s COVID-19 death was caused by his “homosexual” lifestyle, the officers alleged.
Chief Dale Engle, the head of the Town of Davie’s police department, made the remarks during an angry tirade against the officers after a patrol briefing on April 7, according to a complaint filed to town administration by a state police union that represents the officers.
Engle was placed on administrative leave Saturday evening “pending further review of allegations,” the town administration said in a statement. The remarks allegedly came four days after BSO Deputy Shannon Bennet, a 12-year veteran at the sheriff’s office, died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
When we were four, many of us daydreamed about being a ballerina, astronaut or magician. But, mostly, we were clueless about what we’d be when we grew up.
That wasn’t the case with Thomas (a.k.a. Tomie) dePaola, the acclaimed, gay children’s author and illustrator, who died at age 85 in Lebanon, N.H., from complications from surgery after a fall. DePaola, whose award-winning work was beloved by children and adults, wrote and illustrated more than 270 books. If you’ve been spellbound by magical grandmas; bullied; eagerly awaited the arrival of a new baby brother or sister; or frightened by news that adults wouldn’t explain to you – you’ve found or will find a beautiful, comforting home in dePaola’s books.
DePaola knew what his life’s work would be before he started kindergarten. In an interview with readingrockets.org, he said, “I said, ‘Yes, I’m going to be an artist, and I’m going to write stories and draw pictures for books…I never, ever thought of considering any other profession.’”
From then on, dePaola never looked back. In second grade, dePaola told his art teacher “real artists don’t copy,” dePaola wrote in his series of memoirs about growing up in Meriden, Conn.
The teacher was so pleased with the picture the seven-year-old dePaola drew of her that she asked if she could keep it. “‘I told her, ‘Oh, no, no, no. I have to keep it. I might be able to sell it someday,’” he told readingrockets.org.
DePaola’s stories were often inspired by his memories of his family and childhood. “I’ve discovered that children most respond to books based on my own life,” he told The New York Times.
DePaola grew up in an Italian and Irish, Roman Catholic family. His early childhood was filled with Sunday dinners with his grandparents, dancing school recitals (he loved to dance like Fred Astaire!), Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the first years of World War II.
“Strega Nona,” one of his most beloved works is set in Calabria in Italy where his grandparents were from. It features a “grandma witch” who works magic with a pasta pot. DePaola received the distinguished Caldecott Medal for the book, which was banned by some libraries for daring to expose the young to magic.
Today, though much improvement is still needed in LGBTQ representation, a variety of children’s books — from “Heather Has Two Mommies” to “I Am Jazz” to “Harriet Gets Carried Away” — feature queer characters. This wasn’t so for kids’ book authors and illustrators of dePaola’s generation. Most children’s book writers couldn’t be openly queer then. “If it became known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your chest,” dePaola told T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2019, “and schools wouldn’t buy your books anymore.”
DePaola’s work isn’t explicitly gay. Yet his picture books and chapter books have a particular resonance for queer readers. Though he didn’t come out until late in his life, his experience of being gay is reflected in some of his most seminal books.
“I was called a sissy in my young life,” dePaola said in a 1999 interview with the Times, “but instead of internalizing these painful experiences, I externalize them in my work.”
As a queer reader, I feel seen and heard as I read dePaola’s books. DePaola’s “Oliver Button Is a Sissy,” released in 1979, is the story of a young boy who’s bullied because he doesn’t like sports and wants to dance and dress in costume. It never says the word “gay,” but it’s queer quotient can’t be missed.
In his memoirs, dePaola writes of being a scared seven-year-old when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered World War II. He only knew that, as his mom said, “things will never be the same.”
Things won’t be the same after COVID-19. Thank you, Tomie dePaola for comforting us during our Pearl Harbor. R.I.P.
Women who lived radical, unflinchingly queer lifestyles played an essential role in Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916, but most later had their commitment to independence erased. A new book tries to change that.
These women’s identities are explored in a new book by Niall O’Dowd. A New Ireland looks at how Ireland went from being one of the most conservative countries in Europe to one of the most socially liberal, examining social change over the last century and delving into the formative 1916 Rising.ADVERTISING
That year, Irish revolutionaries took to the streets of Dublin and seized important buildings in an armed uprising in protest against British rule. Pádraig Pearse, one of the leaders of the Rising, stood on the steps of the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street and read the Irish proclamation, which declared Ireland to be an independent state.
The Rising was ultimately quelled by British forces and many of its leaders were subsequently executed. Despite this, it was a formative moment that helped set in motion a campaign for freedom that culminated in the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Many of the male revolutionaries who fought for Irish independence are well-remembered, but the role of women was largely forgotten. Among these women were lesbians who lived radical, unflinchingly queer lifestyles, as detailed in O’Dowd’s new book.
A lesbian couple volunteered in the Easter Rising, where they offered care to the wounded.
In an excerpt published by IrishCentral, O’Dowd details the lives of the queer women who later had their roles in the Easter Rising all but erased
He quotes historian Mary McAuliffe, who named Elizabeth O’Farrell as one of these revolutionary women in an interview with the Dublin Inquirer. O’Farrell and her partner Julia Grennan were both nurses and they volunteered in the GPO on O’Connell Street in Dublin during the Rising.
“They cared for the wounded, including James Connolly (the founder of the Irish Citizen Army),” McAuliffe said.
O’Farrell was ultimately tasked with carrying the surrender flag when the Irish revolutionaries realised that they were going to be defeated.
Elizabeth O’Farrell was literally erased.
“After days of fighting, the rebels moved to Moore Street, where Pearse decided to surrender,” McAuliffe said.
“When Elizabeth was going to bring out the surrender flag, Julia Grennan talks about the fact that she was terrified and anxious watching her step out onto Moore Street, where there were bullets whizzing around.
O’Farrell survived that moment, but her legacy was subsequently erased. She was famously airbrushed out of a photograph of 1916 commander Pádraig Pearse surrendering to the British Army — but whoever did so didn’t do a great job.
Her boots remained in the photograph, and the incident has become symbolic for the wider erasure of women and queer people from major historic events.
O’Farrell might have been erased from history, but that did not stop her from living a queer lifestyle. After the Rising she spent the rest of her life with Grennan, and when they died they were buried together in Glasnevin Cemetery. Their gravestone reads: “Elizabeth O’Farrell… And her faithful comrade and lifelong friend Sheila [Julia] Grennan.”
O’Garrell and Grennan were not the only queer women to play their part in the Easter Rising. 74 women in total fought for Irish independence in 1916, and there were at least two other queer women among their ranks.
Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine Ffrench-Mullan exchanged love letters following the 1916 Rising.
Dr Kathleen Lynn, a member of the Irish Citizen Army, served as Chief Medical Officer in the GPO and was also a notable suffragette. When she was arrested she described herself as “a Red Cross doctor and a belligerent,” according to O’Dowd.
She was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol alongside other women such as Constance Markievicz, the best-known woman of the Rising, and Madeleine Ffrench-Mullan.
McAuliffe said Dr Lynn and Ffrench-Mullan passed love letters to each other, and when they were released from prison they lived together for the rest of their lives.
Ireland was not a welcoming place for women and LGBT+ people both before and after independence, so it is perhaps no surprise that so many had their roles in the fight for independence erased. But without them, Ireland may never have won its freedom.
Five years after the Easter Rising, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed giving independence to 26 counties in Ireland. Those counties became known as the Irish Free State, and would later become the Republic of Ireland. The revolutionary period that led to that independence is among the most important in Irish history — but it is only in recent years that the role played by women has been remembered.