A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to save the historic Stonewall Inn, where the modern LGBT+ rights movement began, as it struggles during the coronavirus pandemic.
But, after being shut down for three months, the historic New York venue is struggling
The venue said that because of its “uncertain future” it was desperately in need of “community support” to “help to save one of the LGBTQ+ communities most iconic institutions and to keep that history alive”.
In a statement, owners said: “We are reaching out because like many families and small businesses around the world, The Stonewall Inn is struggling… Even in the best of times it can be difficult to survive as a small business and we now face an uncertain future.
“Even once we reopen, it will likely be under greatly restricted conditions limiting our business activities.”
They added: “We resurrected the Stonewall Inn once after it had been shuttered – and we stand ready to do it again – with your help.
“We worked diligently to resurrect it as a safe space for the community and to keep the Stonewall Inn at the epicentre of the fight for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
June is recognised around the world as LGBT+ Pride month, dating back to the Stonewall uprising of June 28, 1969.
That night, approximately 200 queer folk, among them trans women, lesbians, gay men, drag queens and queer youths, largely of colour, had gathered in the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City.
At the time, police in New York were cracking down on the city’s queer venues, but that night the LGBT+ community fought back, fuelling the queer rights movement we know today.
The Inn’s owners added: “It has been a community tavern, but also a vehicle to continue the fight that started there in 1969.
“Stonewall is the place the community gathers for celebrations, comes to grieve in times of tragedy, and rally to continue the fight for full global equality.”
The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality on Sunday said it would allow cohabiting couples to register their relationship and enjoy marital rights, in a protest of the government’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples or those not wed under the state’s religious authorities. Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai said the move, coinciding with the country’s Pride Week, makes those who register eligible for housing tax discounts, as well as easing enrollment of their children in public daycares and schools.
Though same-sex marriage is not technically illegal in Israel, there is no institution authorized to carry it out. In a system inherited from Ottoman times, people can only marry in Israel through their religious institutions. Though designed primarily for LGBT couples, the change of policy would also allow interfaith couples in Tel Aviv and those opposed to Rabbinate weddings to sidestep the authorities.
Michael Pack, the head of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) who was chosen by Donald Trump, has appointed a new federal agency director with ties to an anti-LGBT+ organisation.
The USAGM is an independent agency which oversees state-run media outlets, for example Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and it says its mission is “to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy” in accordance with “broad foreign policy objectives of the United States”.
According to CNBC, Pack terminated longtime board members within weeks of being appointed and replaced them with Trump loyalists.
Now, he is reportedly moving to appoint two new members to the federal media agency board of directors who are vehemently anti-LGBT+.
Sources “familiar with the matter” told the publication about the new appointments, but chose to remain anonymous as they have not yet been formally announced.
According to the sources, Jonathan Alexandre is set to become a corporate board member for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
However, Alexandre is currently the senior counsel for governmental affairs at Liberty Counsel, which is listed as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC).
The SPLC describes it as “a legal organisation advocating for anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty”.
A second board member reportedly set to be appointed by Pack has a history of anti-trans activism.
Bethany Kozma is reportedly also going to join the board of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In 2016, she started a campaign to overturn President Barack Obama’s guidance allowing trans students to use the bathroom of their choice.
In an op-ed for conservative news site The Daily Signal, started by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, Kozma engaged in the kind of scaremongering used by anti-trans activists all over the US.
Kozma wrote: “Our message was that this radical agenda of subjective ‘gender fluidity’ and unrestricted shower and bathroom access actually endangers all.”
She added: “Predators could abuse these new policies to hurt children.”
The Trump administration rescinded Obama’s guidance in 2017.
An estimated 30,000 people converged in West Hollywood on Sunday to protest systemic racism and police brutality and to shine light on the specific needs of Black LGBTQ people. The event — which took place just ahead of the 50th anniversary of L.A.’s first pride event, originally called the Christopher Street West Parade — started out as a Black Lives Matter solidarity march, but it ultimately showed the divisions between two overlapping civil rights movements.
The event’s initial organizers found themselves the recipients of backlash when they announced their plans in early June: Christopher Street West, or CSW, the historic, mostly white-led organization that typically produces the annual LA Pride Festival and Parade, never reached out to coordinate with Black Lives Matter activists about the march. In addition, it hired an event organizer who applied for a police permit for the parade — a move seen as offensive by many Black activists in the midst of anti-brutality protests.
For many people at the march Sunday, the backlash highlighted how the growing Black Lives Matter movement had the power to force ostensibly progressive LGBTQ organizations to grapple with blind spots and long-unaddressed histories of exclusion.
CSW canceled its solidarity march shortly after the backlash, and Gerald Garth, one of the few Black board members at CSW, formed a new council with a group of Black LGBTQ leaders. Together, they announced a new march, dubbed the “All Black Lives Matter” protest, without CSW’s involvement. The result was Sunday’s all-day event, featuring a march starting on Hollywood Boulevard and ending in West Hollywood, as well as lively performances, art and nonstop dancing.
“Putting Protest Back in Pride” originally aired on the Weekend Report on Quibi. Watch the full video here.
Gerald Garth, right, one of the few Black board members at Christopher Street West, formed a new council with a group of Black LGBTQ leaders.Quibi
“A big part of the conversations that I had to have often was that even though things were well-intended, that didn’t make it any less wrong or impactful,” Garth told NBC News. “And plus, too, through the lens of CSW being this legendary white agency proposing this Black effort, [the] community really received it as CSW, you know, aiming to co-opt or, you know, capitalize.”
Luckie Fuller, an artist and trans activist, said a formal police presence “would’ve kept people from coming out here.”
“It would’ve hindered a lot of our voices, and it would’ve dampened our voices,” Fuller said.
Obtaining a police permit for its annual event, however, is part of the 50-year history of L.A.’s annual pride celebration. While New York held the very first pride march on June 28, 1970, later that same day, L.A. held the “world’s first permitted parade advocating for gay rights,” a fact Christopher Street West still highlights on its website to this day.
Miss Shalae, a Beyoncé impersonator who performed at the march, said that when she first moved to Los Angeles, she couldn’t persuade white-owned LGBTQ bars and clubs to book her for performances. She didn’t have faith that CSW would learn from mistakes without a change in leadership.
“They’re not giving us a seat at the table, which I feel like is super important. How can you know what we want without asking us what we want?” Miss Shalae said. “And it is definitely a time for that to change, absolutely.”
Christopher Street West Executive Director Madonna Cacciatore, left, said the group is committed to making sure an oversight like this year’s doesn’t happen again.Quibi
CSW’s executive director, Madonna Cacciatore, said it is committed to making sure that doesn’t happen again. “And we’re having the hard conversations now, to be honest with you,” she said. “Because there’s been a history, not only with our organization, but, you know, everybody’s being asked to re-examine themselves and to look at ourselves through a different lens. We have been, you know, we always try to do the right thing. We sometimes don’t do it well.”
For some, the new march and the organization’s apology were too little too late.
Ashlee Marie Preston, a Black trans writer and former CSW board member, decided she wouldn’t attend. “What made me so frustrated about all of this is that I have direct relationships with people on the board,” Preston said. “It’s this idea that saviorism is solidarity. … When we say Black Lives Matter, we need to also emphasize that Black leadership matters and that we have to trust that leadership.”
Still, many in the crowd hoped that CSW and other similar organizations would learn from this year’s mistakes. Brandon Anthony, an event producer, called CSW the “guinea pig” for the transformations Black LGBTQ activists want to see more broadly.
“Our target is not just CSW and LA Pride,” he said. “We’re going to challenge all nonprofits and corporations. … Change your infrastructure and re-examine how Black lives are being treated.”
Four authors have quit the writing agency that represents JK Rowling after claiming it failed to stand up for the trans community in the wake of the Harry Potter author’s transphobic essay.
The writers were signed to The Blair Partnership and include Drew Davies, Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir, Fox Fisher, and one writer who has remained anonymous.
In a statement about their decision to resign from The Blair Partnership, the four said they were “saddened and disappointed” to have to resign.
“After JK Rowling’s – who is also signed to the agency – public comments on transgender issues, we reached out to the agency with an invitation to reaffirm their stance to transgender rights and equality,” the statement says.
“After our talks with them, we felt that they were unable to commit to any action that we thought was appropriate and meaningful.
“As LGBT+ writers ourselves we feel strongly about having an agency that supports our rights at all avenues, and does not endorse views that go against our values and principles.”
The London-based Blair Partnership represents all aspects of JK Rowling’s work.
Responding to the resignation of four of its authors, the agency toldThe Guardian that it was proud of the diversity of views among its authors but that it would not compromise on the “fundamental freedom” of allowing its authors to express their beliefs.
A spokesperson said it would always champion diverse voices and believe in freedom of speech for all but it was not willing to have staff “re-educated” to meet the demands of a small group of clients.
Ugla told PinkNews that the group had suggested The Blair Partnership commit to trans awareness training in-house, as well as asking for a public statement in support of trans rights.
“Any workplace that champions and values diversity and inclusion would welcome the opportunity to have a training, regardless of stance, because any workplace benefits from having minority rights raised in the workplace,” they said.
“To us it seems like they are unwilling and unable to have an open and honest discussion about the workplace. This is one of the reasons that we don’t feel like we belong there anymore.”
The statement from the authors continued: “We stand in solidarity with LGBT+ – and allied – staff in all areas of publishing who are working incredibly hard to champion diverse voices and experiences to challenge the homogeneity of the industry.
“But the issues of inequality and oppression are far reaching, from racism to ableism and sexism.
“Agencies and publishers need to create platforms for underrepresented groups from the ground up and make meaningful change within their culture.
“Representation must extend into real and authentic representation of diverse voices.”
Ugla and their partner, Fox Fisher, had been signed to The Blair Partnership since September 2019.
They claim that following the JK Rowling tweets and essays about her thoughts regarding trans people, other authors at the agency received phone calls from the CEO – but, despite reaching out several times, the trans authors at the agency heard nothing.
“We can’t talk about freedom of speech if minorities voices aren’t being heard,” Ugla added.
The Blair Partnership was founded in 2011, with JK Rowling as one of its key clients.
Hope for Wholeness, a prominent ex-gay ministry that boasts one of the most expansive networks of conversion therapy offerings in the United States, is disbanding.
The Spartanburg, South Carolina-based organization, founded in 1999 as Truth Ministries, told members in an email Monday and obtained by NBC News that Hope for Wholeness would be closing its operations, citing the group’s difficulties in retaining a director to lead their efforts.
“It has been a tumultuous several years for us. We lost the founding director, searched for two years for his replacement, hired a new director and then lost that director as well,” the memo, which was signed by the group’s board, states. “After much prayer and discussion, we have made the difficult decision to dissolve the organization. This was not an easy decision. But we do believe it is the right decision.”
Hope for Wholeness’ credo, prominently displayed across the top of its website, is “freedom from homosexuality through Jesus Christ.”
Conversion therapy — made up of various universally discredited and harmful methods of counseling and ministry meant to eradicate or suppress LGBTQ identities — has been banned for minors in 20 states and Washington, D.C. California was the first state to prohibit the practice in 2012, but over half of the bans have only been in effect since 2018. In June 2019, data from UCLA’s Williams Institute estimated that at least 698,000 adults in the U.S. have been subjected to some form of conversion therapy.
The Hope for Wholeness memo did not lay out a timeline for the dissolution process, though it implied the action was effective immediately. A representative for Hope for Wholeness declined to comment on Thursday.
The organization pledged in its letter to redirect any remaining funds, though that amount is unknown, to another conversion therapy group called Abba’s Delight in Louisville, Kentucky — which brands itself as a ministry “dealing with unwanted same gender attractions” — in hopes of laying the groundwork for similar programs in the future.
While the collapse of Hope for Wholeness is a major victory for advocacy groups pushing for legislative efforts to ban conversion therapy on minors, their sights are set on what other ex-gay groups stand to gain from Hope for Wholeness’ absence.
“This is enormous for a lot of reasons,” said Mathew Shurka, co-founder of the Born Perfect project, which aims to end conversion therapy in every state. “Hope for Wholeness is a well-known conversion therapy organization that has cheated lots of people.”
Hope for Wholeness was originally an offshoot of Exodus International, which, for decades, was the center of the ex-gay movement and had more than 120 ministries in the United States and Canada. Exodus was dissolved in 2013 after the organization’s leader announced at a conference he would resign and apologized to those who spent “years working through the shame and guilt when your attractions didn’t change.”
Hope for Wholeness would eventually grow to become one of the nation’s most expansive ex-gay groups — Exodus’ heir apparent — with members and affiliates in at least 15 states. Like Exodus, Hope for Wholeness’ main event every year was a national conference that drew hundreds.
How much money the nonprofit has raised and how many people ascribed to its teachings in recent years isn’t entirely clear. Legally, the group isn’t required to disclose how many individuals it “treats” annually — but a tax filing from 2007 shows that the ministry provided more than 500 sessions and 60 group meetings for “religious counseling and training.”
Shurka pointed to what he called the “domino effect” triggered by the closure of Exodus International in 2013. Hope for Wholeness was born only after select members of Exodus wanted to continue the group’s mission after it closed.
“Conversion therapy is an industry, and whether those individuals are licensed professionals or they’re nonprofits, there’s still money to be made,” said Shurka, 32, a survivor of conversion therapy. “All on the false promise that they can make gay people straight, [which] is fraudulent … So the fact that Hope for Wholeness has reserve funds that’s going to go somewhere else speaks to that fraud.”
“It’s a vicious cycle,” he added.
Hope for Wholeness’ founder and former director, McKrae Game, 51, echoed Shurka. Game made waves late last year when he denounced the group he founded and came out as gay himself. He had resigned his post in 2017.
“Everything takes money,” Game said. “And so, you know, not too many people want to throw money at the Titanic as it’s taking water — and that’s essentially what ex-gay ministry is.”
A coalition of advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its rollback of LGBTQ patient protections, arguing that last week’s Supreme Court decision extending workplace legal protections to gay and transgender employees invalidates the new rules.
Big picture: The suit marks the first challenge stemming from the 6-3 high court decision that anti-discrimination protections based on sex also apply to a person’s gender identity and sexual orientation.
The decision authored by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch is expected to have ramifications for LGBTQ legal challenges ranging from health care to education.
Show Your Pride By Supporting FFT’s Programs for Give Out Day!
Give OUT Day is the only national day of giving for the LGBTQ community, raising $6+ million for 700+ organizations since 2013. Hosted by Horizons Foundation, the world’s first LGBTQ community foundation, Give OUT Day supports diverse LGBTQ organizations – from community centers to advocacy groups, arts groups to sports leagues – in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. FFT’s goal is to raise $3,000 by June 30 to support our clients living with HIV and other serious illnesses by providing them with food and love! Please proudly help us get there by making an early donation today. Click here!
FFT Launches COVID-19 Healthy Nutrition Program
In addition to providing food and compassion to clients living with HIV, congestive heart failure, diabetes and those recently discharged from the hospital, Food For Thought is now offering our COVID-19 Healthy Nutrition Program to people with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, who are having difficulty accessing food while in isolation.
“As the virus began spreading in the community, we saw the need to offer a specific program for people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19. These individuals and those living with them really need access to nutritious food to support their immune systems.” said Nina Redman FFT’s client services director.
For more information about the program, please click here.
I am very excited to announce these two online groups starting this week! Please read the descriptions below. Come and feel the connection, and take this time to nurture yourself. I will be a participating helper for John with the Men’s group. These are for seniors 55 and older. No charge, but donations to support our senior center are welcome.
Email me Scotty King at scotty@sebastopolseniorcenter.org for more information, or to sign up. Starts this week. Class accepts 12 people max, sign up now to save your space.
707-827-8429
Gay Men/Bi/Trans Senior Support Group
Weekly group, Thursdays, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Facilitator: John Olesen
No charge; donations encouraged.
Description:
Brothers! This time of international pandemic and isolation provides us with new opportunities to enjoy each other online.
You are welcome in this safe and supportive Zoom Group to explore sheltering at home, the “new” intimacy, sexuality, and men’s issues among others. Join John and Scotty to connect. Questions
about the group or Zoom?
John Olesen, MA, TEP, has been running experimental groups focused on helping people find connections for health and personal growth for over 30 years. He is the former Clinical Supervisor at the
Shanti Project in San Francisco serving people with a life-threatening illness and a co-founder of the Bay Area Morena Institute. Questions about the group or Zoom? Call John Olesen at 415-350-9007
Women Who Love Women: LBTQI Senior Support Group
Weekly on Tuesdays, 3:00-4:15 p.m.; Facilitator: Sharon Hawthorne
During this time of major social upheaval and change is the perfect time to pause and reflect on our own lives and to shape our intentions in order to move forward with mindfulness. Online via Zoom, this weekly discussion group will be a time of coming together to speak from the heart and to listen with compassion.
Still thinking about what you want to do/be when you grow up? Wondering if you’ll ever have a sexual relationship again? How can you contribute knowledge gained in your many years on this planet for the betterment of your own life and others? Whatever is on your mind- let’s encourage each other to speak bravely.
Sharon Hawthorne, facilitator, first worked with women seeking personal empowerment while student teaching The Personal Is Political at Sonoma State University in 1974. More recently, after completing
Senior Peer Counseling training, she led group sessions for both straight and gay women at the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. She is delighted to serve as facilitator for this special LBTI group.
With LGBT+ people prevented from marching through the streets, on Sunday activists from Kyiv Pride decided to do the next best thing – and take to the skies of the city instead.
LGBT+ activists used a drone to give an old Kyiv statute new meaning.
The enterprising activists used a drone to carry a giant rainbow flag to the top of the controversial Motherland Monument – a large steel statue of a symbolic mother holding a sword and shield, erected in 1981 as part of a Soviet Union propaganda blitz.
The drone was manoeuvred in front of sword, giving the impression that the mother is in fact waving a rainbow flag above the city.
Kyiv Pride shared the video on Facebook with the hashtag #momwillunderstandandsupport, adding: “Mother for equality for everyone!”
One supporter wrote: “The message is beautiful – the mother will always protect.”
Of course, plenty of homophobes flooded the group’s social media in response to the stunt, branding LGBT+ people “degenerates” and calling for the activists to be arrested for “degrading” the monument.
LGBT+ activists from Kyiv Pride devised the stunt after cancelling their 2020 parade
However, others rose to defend it, arguing: “How is a symbol under which millions of people were repressed and murdered less disgusting than a flag under which people are fighting for their rights?”
As well as flying atop the statue, the drone also flew the rainbow flag high above Kyiv, with the group teasing: “Throughout the day, don’t forget to look up! We will delight you with messages in the most unpredictable places.”
