Carnegie Hall announced on Saturday that Gazeta Polska Community of America, a U.S.-based group connected to the far-right Gazeta Polska newspaper in Poland, canceled its scheduled Oct. 24 concert.
“Carnegie Hall has been speaking with this rental group this week since we learned of the sticker campaign,” said Synneve Carlino, a Carnegie Hall spokesperson. “While they have told us that they don’t support the campaign, they informed us today that they will not present the performance.”
Gazeta Polska, a weekly Polish newsmagazine, has been criticized for its virulently anti-LGBTQ and anti-migrant content. Earlier this summer, it sparked global condemnation and an advertiser boycott in Europe after distributing “LGBT-Free Zone” stickers.
In addition, a summer 2019 issue featured an image of rainbow paint-stained hands desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus under the headlines “They want to destroy civilization” and “They want to stamp on everything that we have been.”
While Gazeta Polska Community of America claimed it is “independent and separate from the Gazeta Polska print media and it’s editorial board,” Rafal Pankowski, a sociology professor in Warsaw and member of the Polish anti-racism watchdog group Never Again, said the U.S.-based foundation “shares the political perspectives of the newspaper,” he added, Gazeta Polska’s controversial editor, Tomasz Sakiewicz, ” is very active in organizing it and leading it.”
The now-canceled Carnegie Hall concert had faced pushback from multiple performers, including pianists Jack Gibbons and Paul Bisaccia, both of whom turned down the event after learning more about the event host’s ties to the infamous Polish publication.
An African American transgender woman in the Chicago area is suing national convenience store chain Circle K, alleging she was fired from one of its stores and retaliated against after reporting co-workers’ use of racial and transphobic slurs against her.
Judi Brown claims in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that a manager and other Circle K employees at the store in Bolingbrook, Illinois, harassed her based on her race and being transgender.
Brown, 26, said she was fired after she complained about the alleged discrimination.
“The discrimination and harassment were traumatizing and needed to be called out,” Brown said in a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing her. “It was not fair.”
The lawsuit comes a week after the Trump administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that transgender workers are not protected by civil rights laws.
In Illinois, the state’s Human Rights Act includes specific protections for employees on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, the ACLU said in its release.
When Brown worked as a Circle K cashier from May 2016 to June 2017, a store manager asked her “offensive and sexually explicit questions” about her romantic partners, sexual and reproductive anatomy and her plans for sexual reassignment surgery, the lawsuit claims.
She also alleges that a manager refused to refer to her by her chosen name in company documents and that another co-worker sometimes used male pronouns to refer to her and called her a “man in a dress.”
Brown also claims she “was forced to endure a racially hostile work environment” and that a manager used the N-word to refer to African American customers. The lawsuit says that a manager requested that employees closely watch African American customers and that another employee called Brown a n—–.
She says in addition that a manager made an “offensive comment” about the way “you people do your hair.”
Circle K said Wednesday in a statement that it “is an equal-opportunity employer with a diverse workforce, including transgender employees and fully cooperated with agency authorities during the previous investigation into this claim.”
When Brown reported the alleged harassment and discrimination, she said Circle K failed to act and instead retaliated against her by denying her a promised promotion, overscrutinizing her work and ultimately firing her, the lawsuit says.
Brown was scheduled to work on a Sunday during Chicago’s Pride celebration, even though she typically worked a Monday-to-Friday schedule, according to the lawsuit. She said her bosses knew that she intended to perform at the parade, and when she learned she was scheduled to work, she informed a manager that she could not. She said she was never notified that she was fired and found out when she couldn’t clock in for work during her next shift.
“I was in absolute shock after being fired,” Brown said. “I followed all the rules for taking off on that day so I could celebrate with my community — and they picked that day to terminate me. I felt so humiliated.”
Carolyn Wald, an attorney with the ACLU in Illinois, said Circle K’s actions were unacceptable and illegal.
“Employers should never advance the bigotry of some employees over the safety, well-being and success of others,” Wald said.
Brown is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, including for lost wages and benefits, attorneys’ fees and damages for emotional distress.
More than a year after boys were removed from a nonprofit in Burnet County, the couple who ran it are facing trafficking charges. A grand jury indicted Gary Wiggins, 49, and his wife Meghann Wiggins, 34, on Trafficking of Persons charges.
They are both accused of “knowingly” trafficking four underage boys and “through force, fraud or coercion” making them “engage in forced labor or services.” The two ran Joshua Home, which officials described as a place that “purports to be a residential home for troubled boys.”
According to the indictment, the trafficking allegedly occurred between May 17, 2018 and July 25, 2018. Eight boys between the ages of 10 and 17 were removed after a multi-agency investigation into allegations of abuse, neglect, labor violations, fraud, licensing violations and human trafficking.
Abderrahim El Habachi fled Morocco two years ago out of fear he could be imprisoned for his sexuality.
He said that he is now part of a “huge community” who have come to the UK “to live their lives in an authentic way”, but have faced poor treatment under the British asylum system.
“The Home Office is putting people through hell,” he told ITV News.
“They don’t believe our sexual orientations or the struggles we are facing in our countries.”
El Habachi said that in Morocco, LGBT+ people are considered criminals and live under the constant threat of violence.
The Home Office is putting people through hell.
“If people sense that you are gay, they can beat you and you have no right to complain.”
“You are the victim at that moment but in the eyes of the law, you are the criminal because you are gay.”
He said that he and many like him arrived in the UK with dreams of “following that rainbow, but somehow the rainbow is stripped from us”.
“We need allies to help us accomplish that dream,” he added.
Successful LGBT+ asylum seeker claims fall.
The Home Office has long been accused of undermining LBGT+ asylum seekers’ sexualities.
In July, the now-Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna said that LGBT+ asylum seekers in his constituency had been “treated in the most grossly humiliating, disrespectful manner by the Home Office and our Border Force authorities”.
A 2018 report by the UK Gay and Lesbian Immigration Group (UKLGIG) showed that between 2015 and 2017, the rate of LGBT-related asylum claims being accepted fell from 39 per cent to 22 percent.
Leila Zadeh, executive director of UKLGIG, called the decline “extremely worrying”.
“Our research has shown that the Home Office routinely disbelieves LGBTQI+ asylum claimants and disregard statements from friends, partners and LGBTQI+ organisations testifying to a claimant’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” Zadeh said.
“The Home Office is setting the bar too high for LGBTQI+ people. They are not applying the correct legal standard of proof that it is ‘reasonably likely’ that someone will be persecuted.”
In a statement to ITV, the Home Office said “the UK has a proud record of providing protection for asylum seekers fleeing persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity”.
It added: “Each case is considered on its individual merits and all decisions on claims based on sexual orientation are reviewed by experienced caseworkers.”
This was commissioned “in order to alleviate any concerns about the way in which vulnerable claims are dealt with,” the then-immigration minister Caroline Nokes said.
“The aim will be to ensure that empathy is considered by decision makers when assessing these highly complex claims.”
PinkNews has contacted the Home Office for comment.
Limiting marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman will remain China’s legal position, a parliament spokesman said on Wednesday, ruling out following neighboring Taiwan in allowing same-sex marriage, despite pressure from activists.
Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill in May that endorsed same-sex marriage, after years of heated debate over marriage equality that has divided the self-ruled and democratic island.
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has a thriving gay scene in major cities, but there has been little sign the ruling Communist Party will legalize same-sex marriage.
Asked at a news briefing whether China would legalize same-sex marriage, Zang Tiewei, spokesman for parliament’s legal affairs commission, said Chinese law only allowed for marriage between one man and one woman.
“This rule suits our country’s national condition and historical and cultural traditions,” he said. “As far as I know, the vast majority of countries in the world do not recognize the legalization of same-sex marriage.”
Individual Chinese legislators have occasionally in the past few years proposed measures during the annual meeting of the largely rubber-stamp parliament every March to legalize same-sex marriage, without success.
There are no laws against same-sex relations in China and despite growing awareness of LGBTQ issues, the community has been the target of censors in recent months, fueling fears of a growing intolerance.
Activists have asked people in China to propose amendments to a draft civil code en masse, though they have admitted they see little chance of success. The parts of the code relating to marriage are expected to pass into law next year.
The code makes changes on issues such as sexual harassment, divorce and family planning, but does not further the rights of the LGBTQ community, drafts published by parliament show.
Zang said the marriage section of the draft civil code maintains the bond as being between a man and a woman.
Prominent gay rights activist Sun Wenlin told Reuters he was disappointed in the comments, but not surprised.
“I feel that my partner and I are sacrificing our happiness for the country’s legal system,” said Sun, who three years ago had his application to legally marry his partner rejected by a Chinese court.
“They are undermining our life plan of choosing to marry the person we love.”
He added, “I feel I am being excluded, and am absolutely not a consideration for policymakers.”
Another activist, who asked not to be named, told Reuters there were cases in China of same-sex partners who had lost their homes after one of them died, as they lacked the legal protection of marriage.
“We hope these tragedies don’t keen happening,” the activist said.
There is something reminiscent of black gay author James Baldwin in Alphonso David’s intense bearing, though the new president of the Human Rights Campaign is considerably more down-to-earth and welcoming than the defiant intellect who scorched racist America in “The Fire Next Time.”
For David, it is the fire this time that is fueling his drive for full equality and his fight against the dark amoral forces demolishing democracy through the rapacious black hole that is President Donald Trump.
David may be uniquely qualified to meet the LGBTQ leadership challenge of this historic moment.
Born in Silver Spring, Md., in 1970, he was one year old when his family moved to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia founded in 1822 by freed Black American slaves. David’s great uncle was the country’s president and his father was elected the city’s mayor in 1977 while his mother worked in the Liberian Department of Finance.
In 1980, David’s world was violently overturned as a military coup assassinated his uncle, imprisoned his father and kept the family under house arrest for 18 months. When his father was released a few years later, he applied for political asylum in the U.S., which was granted because Alphonso had been born in Maryland.
“My interest in the law is fairly self-evident,” David told The New Amsterdam News in 2014, “in part because of the war and understanding democracy and understanding how things work.”
After graduating from Temple University Law School, David clerked for Clifford Scott Green, the African-American District Court judge who found that there was, indeed, racial discrimination in the Philadelphia Police Department. David then joined a Philadelphia law firm before moving to Los Angeles for work as a litigation associate at Blank Rome LLP to help pay off “substantial” student debt. He also got heavily involved in pro bono work, such as helping victims of domestic violence.
David was in LA when the Supreme Court issued its watershed ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, decriminalizing homosexuality. That was an inflection point, motivating him to give up private practice to join Lambda Legal in 2004.
In 2007, David took a job as Special Counselor at the New York State Division of Human Rights, which led to Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and eventually, in 2015, his historic appointment as the first black man and first openly gay man to serve as Chief Counsel to Gov. Cuomo. He was dubbed the third most powerful person in New York state government.
So why HRC?
“We are living in very complex, perilous times,” David tells the Los Angeles Blade in a brief interview at a Hollywood coffee shop. “I have worked in government for 12 years, but I thought, at this moment in time, it was more important for me to serve in this capacity as the head of the Human Rights Campaign to push for change on the national level, to educate people about the challenges that marginalized communities face, and affect change.”
David started Aug. 9 and is now on a 10-city/state swing to introduce himself to HRC activists and equality allies. But he quickly acts when action is required. Moments after the interview concluded, David was on Twitter producing a thread that excoriated Trump for his inane statement that he has the support of the LGBTQ community, citing the recent reelection endorsement by Log Cabin Republicans.
“Every credible LGBTQ organization is mobilizing to defeat Trump, Pence & their anti-LGBTQ extremist allies in 2020,” David tweeted. “Those who claim this administration is pro-LGBTQ are out of touch with facts and reality.”
David promises new plan rollouts soon but spoke to a few top priorities.
“First, we have to elect pro-equality candidates on every single level. We’re not only focused on the presidency, we’re focused on Congress. We’re focused on state elections, both Senate and House,” he says, and local elections if HRC should weigh in.
“We want to make sure that we are creating environments for people to be realized in the way that they should be realized, that their identities are being respected by government and by the law,” David says. “The electoral work is very, very important.”
Second, HRC is focused on making sure that “legislative priorities are being advanced at every single level,” with special attention on the Equality Act “that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, ranging from employment to credit.” Third is programmatic work that deserves more awareness and possible expansion such as the All Children, All Families program helping LGBTQ kids in the foster care system.
Another program deserving elevation focuses on historically Black colleges. “When we say ‘LGBTQ,’ I want to make sure that people are not looking at a white male face—that they see the spectrum of our community reflected and they understand that the Human Rights Campaign is representing all interests, not just some,” David says.
David is keenly aware that LA is mindful about intersectionality but understands that there are different LGBTQ communities living in silos. “Gay,” for instance, equates with rich, white, straight men in West Hollywood. A similar impression of HRC has followed suit.
“That’s part of the challenge,” says David, to change the old perception of HRC as catering only to one segment of the community. “I think we can make that change. With my appointment as the [first Black] president of Human Rights Campaign, I hope that people will see that the organization is really focused on all members of the community.”
Alphonso David pauses before having a James Baldwin moment. “I’m not going to put my reputation at risk to run an organization that will not put its money where its mouth is,” he says, believably. “So I’m going to make sure that people understand that when we are pushing the electoral work or the legislative work or litigation—you pick the category—we are representing the interests of the community, and our interests are very different, as a matter of fact. The lesbian community may have very different concerns than the transgender community and we need to make sure that all of those concerns are being represented equally.”
David is a data man, very familiar with Brad Sears and the Williams Institute. He intends to use some of their work to inform his own. He is also plugged into the “progressive web of organizations” his predecessor Chad Griffin cultivated, whose leaders he knows well.
“How we talk about issues is so important,” David says. “When we say there’s a problem in our community and we use a statistic to highlight that problem and we fail to identify certain communities or classify our language in a way that elevates that issue for a specific community, we’re not presenting a comprehensive picture.”
He wants to make sure that “we’re able to elevate the plight of the LGBTQ community in the various sectors, utilizing our various relationships, making sure that we are communicating in a very smart, strategic way because it’s not enough to say LGBT kids are homeless. We need to really talk about what actually is informing the homelessness. Why are they homeless? What are the resources that are being provided?”
Trump talking about ending AIDS is only a talking point, he notes as an example. The money he’s identified is insufficient and hasn’t been secured. Meanwhile, Trump wants to end the Affordable Care Act that protects pre-existing conditions like HIV/AIDS, among other disastrous rollbacks. “To now suggest that he’s interested in ending AIDS is laughable, and the Log Cabin Republicans are really divorced from reality, so I don’t want to even give them any additional time or attention.”
David intends to navigate the waters of political purity “with due diligence,” he says. “We should be focused on winning in 2020, making sure we have a sound, viable candidate who can beat Donald Trump,” as well as winning candidates down ballot. HRC will not automatically endorse an incumbent.
David also intends on strategizing HRC’s relationship with big corporations. Griffin effectively marshaled Hollywood corporations to threaten boycotts in Georgia and North Carolina when governors threatened to sign anti-trans bathroom bills. But an anti-big corporation sentiment resulted in a second Stonewall 50th anniversary march and presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are successfully bashing corporations as corrupt.
David thinks differently. “HRC’s Corporate Equality Index is a really important tool to change work environments,” policies and practices, he says. “They’re a lot more inclusive than they were before. So we’re going to be trying to get more corporations, more companies enlisted in the CEI because that benefits the bottom line for people that are working in companies across this country. I want to use it as a tool to make sure we improve workspaces.”
Additionally, “I want to enlist corporations directly in our fight for equality. I was privileged enough to write the marriage equality law in New York and I can tell you that we were able to successfully enlist corporate leaders [in their coalition] to change the perspectives of Republican senators in New York,” David says. “We need to do the same thing here. Private companies actually could have a very meaningful and positive role in helping us advance equality.”
But the new HRC leader needs a larger army to demonstrate LGBTQ power. “The Human Rights Campaign exists as an infrastructure to actually affect change and I want people to join us because we need every single person,” David says. “We need boots on the ground to make sure that we can affect change on the local level, at the state level and at the federal level. I need everyone to get involved.”
Perhaps Alphonso David might cite James Baldwin as he recruits new volunteers to the LGBTQ cause. “The point,” Baldwin once said, “is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world.”
Palestinian Authority (PA) police also issued an official statement on August 18 encouraging members of the public to report on the activities of LGBT+ groups.
Palestinian LGBT+ group Al-Qaws says that the PA police statement “promotes incitement against Al-Qaws” and followed an “unprecedented” attack on the group via its social-media channels.
Al-Qaws had been planning a “queer camp” for the end of August in Nablus, northern West Bank.
“The statement promotes incitement against Al-Qaws – and LGBTQ Palestinians – by encouraging members of society to report on Al-Qaws activities. Al-Qaws has since denounced such fear-mongering by Palestinian authorities,” the group said in an online statement.
“Al-Qaws has refused the ban on its activities and noted it will continue its work to fight patriarchy, colonialism and homophobia across historical Palestine,” the statement said.
While LGBT+ activities are officially banned in the West Bank, Al-Qaws has suggested five ways to support Palestinian queers.
Centre Palestinian LGBT+ voices.
“We are constantly talked about but our voices are rarely heard,” said Al-Qaws.
“When reporting on issues that pertain to LGBTQ Palestinians, just ask yourself: whose voice does this story centre?”
“Come talk to us and hear our perspective. Do not simply copy and paste translated Hebrew/Israeli media to tell our story. Al-Qaws activists and staff always provide our names when interviewed, so if you read an article/post with a claimed quote from us with no name attributed, you should know it is not from us.”
Colonialism, patriarchy and homophobia are all connected.
“Singling out incidents of homophobia in Palestinian society ignores the complexities of Israel’s colonisation and military occupation being a contributing factor to Palestinian LGBTQ oppression,” Al-Qaws said.
“We ask that you situate Palestinian LGBTQ oppression within the larger context of Israeli occupation, colonialism, patriarchy and homophobia.”
Steer clear of pink-washing.
“Perpetuating tiresome tropes of presenting Palesitnians as inherently oppressive and Israel as a liberal state that protects LGBTQ rights is counter-productive and factually baseless,” Al-Qaws said.
“Our struggle as queer Palestinians is against Israeli colonialism as much as it is against homophobia and patriarchy in Palestine.”
“Israel uses pink-washing tactics to lie about ‘saving’ LGBTQ Palestinians from their society. We ask that you steer away from these lies that are intentionally used to justify their colonisation of Palestine.”
Understand that Al-Qaws’ priority is community organising.
“We are a small team of dedicated activists who believe change comes from working within our local context,” said Al-Qaws.
“We put enormous daily and strategic efforts in our local grassroots advocacy organising in Palestine. Therefore, and especially in such a crisis, we prioritise providing education and safety to our communities first.”
Support Al-Qaws’ work.
Practically, this includes following them on social media and sharing their resources.
“We believe in the power of people to make social change possible,” Al-Qaws said.
“Talk to your friends and family about the importance of standing up against bigotry towards LGBTQ people, and make sure that your vision of liberation and freedom in Palestine includes us all.”
A number of leaders and members of the Log Cabin Republicans have left the national gay conservative group following its endorsement of President Donald Trump’s re-election bid in a Washington Post op-ed published last week — and other defectors could follow.
Jennifer Horn announced her resignation from the organization’s board Monday, stating that she made a promise to herself when she entered politics that she would “never say or do anything that I could not explain to my own children.” Endorsing another four years of the current administration fell under this category, she said.
“It’s not just the LGBTQ community this president targets. When we look at immigrants, people — anyone that he thinks he can somehow use to anger his base — he doesn’t care if he has to divide on racial lines, on ethnic lines, on educational lines,” Horn told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday. “He will divide and damage and destroy this country in any manner he thinks he needs to advance his own political power.”
Horn joined Robert Turner, the former president of the Log Cabin Republicans’ Washington, D.C., chapter, and Jordan Evans, the first openly transgender Republican elected official, in denouncing and exiting the group.
“It saddens me greatly to say that today, I am ending my association with Log Cabin Republicans, an organization I’ve been heavily involved with for the last decade — including serving as president of the D.C. chapter for three years,” Turner said in a Facebook post.
Turner went on to add that there were still a number of “great” people involved in the organization, and he named Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, whose name did not appear on the group’s op-ed endorsement, as an example.
“But for me, there’s no more fight left,” Turner added. “The national board’s endorsement of Trump, and their subsequent and hollow WaPo op-ed, is a step too far. And this leaves me sad.”
Evans expressed concern over the Log Cabin Republicans’ diminished relevancy in the wake of its endorsement.
“We have alienated our peers,” Evans wrote in a recent op-ed for the LGBTQ newsmagazine The Advocate. “As is already being seen, we have become increasingly ostracized since making the announcement … we have irreparably weakened our ability to contribute a conservative voice to the broader queer discourse of tomorrow.”
Casey Pick, who served as the programs director for the Log Cabin Republicans from 2010-2013, started distancing herself from the group after the 2012 presidential election, but was ready to give the organization another chance after Henry was hired last year.
“I was hopeful that despite watching the organization’s slide toward Trump apologism under Gregory T. Angelo (the group’s former president), their hiring a skilled and principled operative like Henry meant the organization would finally be able to again be a conscience this party needs,” Pick wrote in a post. “I publicly celebrated her hiring, and encouraged my peers in the LGBT advocacy community to give LCR another shot, knowing that a vibrant and effective Log Cabin could be a godsend during a Trump/Pence administration.”
Yet, Pick said, Henry’s “hands have been tied” and instead of espousing a progressive mission, the group “increasingly fulfills the stereotypes that used to be hurled at Log Cabin Republicans: overwhelmingly gay men who are indifferent to the experiences of women, transgender Americans, or LGBT people who lack the financial or social resources to protect them from the discrimination that they so often deny even exists.”
As a result, she said, she no longer wants to be aligned with the organization.
The Log Cabin Republicans endorsement of Trump marks a reversal from its 2016 stance, when the former board voted against endorsing him.
Charles Moran, the national spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, appeared on MSNBC on Wednesday to discuss reactions to the endorsement and Horn’s resignation from the board.
The Log Cabin Republicans “almost unanimously voted to endorse him,” Moran said. “We’re most likely not going to reconsider the endorsement.”
He echoed the message shared in the op-ed: While the Log Cabin Republicans don’t agree with every action Trump has taken, the group’s leadership believes that overall his presidency has benefited the LGBTQ community.
“The president’s tax cuts have benefited LGBTQ families and helped put food on their tables. His opportunity zones have helped create new LGBTQ-founded small businesses,” board members wrote in their endorsement. “The administration’s aggressive negotiations on trade deals have preserved LGBTQ jobs. His hard line on foreign policy has protected LGBTQ lives.”
The group also cited Trump’s commitment to end HIV/AIDS in 10 years, which was met both with cautious optimism and flat-out skepticism, and his work with Richard Grenell, the openly gay U.S. ambassador to Germany, to encourage other nations to end the criminalization of homosexuality, as examples of his dedication to the LGBTQ community.
Just one day after the Log Cabin Republicans endorsement, the Trump administration last Friday filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that transgender workers are not protected by federal civil rights law and can be fired because of their gender identity. The administration also unveiled earlier in the week a proposed rule that seeks to make it easier for companies to discriminate against LGBTQ employees.
When asked about the proposed rule yesterday, Trump dodged the question.
“I think I’ve done really very well with that community,” Trump said, before touting his recent endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans. “They like the job I’m doing.”
In E.R. Ramzipoor’s novel The Ventriloquists, a cadre of Belgian resistance journalists risk their lives to lampoon Nazi propaganda. Almost unbelievably, the story is based on a real part of history: a group of the Belgian resistance really did get together to write and distribute a false version of the Nazi-led newspaper Le Soir. Most of them lost their lives for the project. All of the text from the satirical paper reproduced in the book is authentic. Some characters are composites of or riffs on real people; some are made up from whole cloth, like the narrator, a young girl disguised as a newsboy who acts as the story’s anchor. We enter the story when we meet the newsboy, now an old woman reminiscing about her history. If all of this sounds complex, it is, but Ramzipoor juggles it deftly, helped by glittering prose, snappy pacing, and a keen sense of humor.
World War II has been so studied, so overexposed, that it’s become a very broad canvas for different artists to assay—still life, with Nazis. It’s a genre in itself, which isn’t bad: we’re left with little need to fill in the context behind what we read. Ramzipoor acknowledges the nature of her endeavor through one of her characters, the titular ventriloquist, who at one point in the delightfully twisting plot has to mimic the voices of Winston Churchill and FDR in order to goad an RAF commander into bombing their city. “His job was usually to reconstruct a voice from a whisper; now, he felt as though he was reconstructing shouts from an echo.” Ramzipoor, too, writes about one small corner of what is one of the most echoed and magnified periods in history. She benefits from the wealth of media surrounding the period she addresses. The characters’ wry, sharp dialogue and its sometimes slapstick sensibility owe much to the legacy of Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. I noticed the book’s sense of humor because it’s at odds with today’s memetic one. It’s very much of the 1940s, and it’s very funny.
The Ventriloquists also gives us something that would have been only subtext in times past: a queer relationship at the heart of the story. Better yet, it’s a relationship in which queerness doesn’t make up the central drama. Instead, the conflict in the relationship is over a question of morality in war, not the forbidden nature of gay love. Likewise, the young narrator’s crossdressing isn’t treated as an essential conflict; it only becomes one at a single point in the plot. Instead, it’s an interesting facet of a character, a sign of gender fluidity that’s realistically accepted by most others in the story. These themes do not feel forced, but instead feel like a true part of history, a part that is too often elided in fiction.
As for the plot, it’s a rollicking, twisting, turning adventure that’s almost unbelievably complicated, and hangs together on a delicate frame of multiple-point-of-view narration. There’s a gay Jewish man imprisoned and forced into collaboration with the Nazis, a marginally sympathetic Nazi partisan, and a dashingly quixotic satire-writer. There’s a smuggler/prostitute, not part of the historical record, but rather a composite of characters too often stricken from that record. There are real names from history, like the linotypists who gave their lives to print the satirical paper. And, of course, there’s the protagonist, the young girl-as-newsboy. If I had any quibble with the book, it’s that the multiple points of view take some time to coalesce. The characters don’t feel distinct until about 150 pages into the 544-page book. But that’s a minor issue, and it’s well worth your time to get past the bumpy beginning.
More than anything, I love how apt it is to write a book about the power of writing. A group of writers really did give up their lives in the service of satire, and it’s always made clear that the project is not just for the aggrandizement of the resistance. Instead, it’s meant for the Belgian people. Ramzipoor takes a moment out of the text to celebrate the heroism of ordinary people of the sort who do not often find fame, like a postal worker who smuggles yellow stars out of the post office rather than distribute them to the Jews of her town. Rampizoor’s attention to the small details missed by larger tellings of history animate the book, and it’s the light of her perspective that makes it something worth reading, which will stay with you long after you’ve put it down.
The Ventriloquists By E.R. Ramzipoor Park Row Books Hardcover, 9780778308157, 544 pp. August 2019
Schools and communities should be places where students and families feel welcomed safe and supported by all adults responsible for their success and well-being. Many communities and schools across the country are reporting an increase in hate speech and bias, xenophobia, racism, sexism, anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant, and anti-semitism. In the last few weeks alone there have been several reported incidents of hate speech and bias in the media.
This is why the new bill that requires New Jersey middle and high school students to be taught the political, economic and social contributions of notable disabled persons and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people throughout history that Gov. Murphy signed is so important. That is why diversifying curriculum and visibility are so important. This new bill joins earlier bills that created the Amistad Commission, which requires New Jersey schools to incorporate African-American history into social studies curriculum and the Holocaust Commission, which requires New Jersey schools to teach responsibly about the Holocaust. The State of New Jersey is showing students of multiple, diverse and complex identities that they matter and that adults care about their well-being.
Students need to see themselves in what they read, across the curricula, in hallways, classrooms, the cafeteria and playground, and in caring adults, teachers, leaders and policymakers who mirror and reflect our diverse student populations and communities. Studies have shown that creating welcoming inclusive environments, curriculum and policies benefits all student learners and helps them understand the world around them, strengthen critical thinking and respectful behavior. A new report from the Trevor Project showed that one caring adult can save a LGBTQ young persons life and decrease the chance of a suicide attempt by 40%. Visibility matters. Words matter. Actions matter. That is why it is important that schools, communities and elected officials can and should work together to create welcoming inclusive safer schools for all students and families.
Every student benefits when fellow students feel safe and valued and when students learn about themselves and each other. No one should have to work or go to school where they are subject to prejudice, bullying, bias or harassment. No one should feel unwelcome or unsafe because of who they are, who they love or what they believe. It is up to us – all of us– to ensure that we are creating inclusive welcoming safer schools and communities for all students to thrive inside and outside of the classroom. We need teachers, leaders and policy makers that recognize all students diverse needs and challenges and who embrace their role as a leading voice that lifts up and empowers student voices of all backgrounds, faith, origins, abilities, income or identity – especially our most vulnerable and marginalized student voices.
That is why it will take a whole-community approach across a continuum to assist school leaders, educators, stakeholders, parents and students and having courageous conversations around cultural responsiveness, bias and equity. We all have a shared responsibility and an important role to play in maintaining and building a safe, welcoming and affirming learning environment for all our students. Hate speech, bias and discrimination impact all students; that’s why we must call out hate speech and bias whenever we see it or hear it. We must condemn all forms of hate speech and violence and denounce expressions of hate and bias in our classrooms and communities.
Perhaps even more importantly, as adults we must look at how are we modeling behavior, actions and expectations – how are we are modeling and building a positive respectful welcoming environment in which students of all identities are lifted up, and every aspect of a whole-child is valued. Together we can create inclusive safe schools for all students and families.
To the youth of every religion or faith, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ability or disability, economic status, race or ethnicity, culture, place of origin, home language, immigration status: You matter. You are loved. You are not alone. You are welcome here.
Shannon Cuttle is a nationally recognized safe schools leader, policymaker, and educator. They also are the first openly non-binary person elected in New Jersey and serve on the South Orange – Maplewood Board of Education. The views here expressed are solely their own and do not represent the SOMSD Board of Education or any institution.
