After a long period of restoration, one of Italy’s most famous archaeological treasures — the House of the Vettii — is reopening to the public.
The house’s extensive collection of fresco wall paintings includes lots of erotic art. But while some commenters have claimed that the house’s original owners were preoccupied with sex or even running a brothel, a gay Roman historian has said that those claims show a misunderstanding about the role queer sex played in ancient Rome.
The house was originally constructed for two freed male slaves who were likely owned by the same master. These men became wealthy from selling wine, and their now-famous house included numerous scenes of sex and mythology, painted on wet plaster and preserved in wax.
Mount Vesuvius buried the house in volcanic ash in 79 AD, but it has since been restored, giving art history fans a time capsule of wealthy Roman social life.
The house’s entrance includes an image of Priapus, the god of fertility and abundance, showing off an uncut penis that’s as long and thick as his arm. It rests upon a scale, balanced by a bag filled with money. Other scenes show different couples having sex.
João Florêncio, a gay researcher who examines visual depictions of sexual cultures throughout history, says that it’s a mistake to assume that Roman men resembled modern-day gay men just because they owned art of a well-hung god and often had sex with other men.
“Roman sexuality was not framed in terms of the gender of partners but in terms of power,” he added. “An adult free man could have sex as the penetrating partner with anyone of a lower social status—including women or slaves and sex workers of both genders.”
The researcher said that evidence of same-sex intercourse has been preserved in Pompeii’s sexually explicit artifacts and graffiti, but a lot of it has been disavowed or at least purified by mainstream modern culture. A lot of these artifacts were designated as “pornography” and moved to “secret museums” in the early 1800s.
While a modern man wouldn’t likely display the image of a well-endowed man in his home unless he was gay, Florêncio points out that phallic imagery in Roman culture was associated with machismo. Some men might have desired Priapus’s large dong, but far more men would’ve likely envied it for their own, as a sign of their own potency and power.
Florêncio also noted that, while some historians believe the house doubled as a brothel, he said the sexual images may have just functioned as domestic symbols of power, wealth, and culture, especially since sex wasn’t taboo in Roman culture. Indeed, images of sex were “everywhere in Rome, including in literary and visual arts,” he writes.
When Gad Yola hit the red carpet on December 20th, 2022, the 34-year-old Peruvian drag queen wanted to make a statement. Nearly 6,000 miles away from her home, Yola was far from the political crisis unfolding across Peru. So on her white dress, she bedazzled the words “25 Peruvians killed by the state”—a reference to the number of people who had died since protests erupted across the Andean nation.
Her dress quickly went viral on Twitter, and she received both messages of support and hate from Peruvians around the globe. Her artistic gesture is just one example of how LGBTQ+ Peruvians are making their voices heard in a political crisis that has persisted for nearly two months.
On December 7, 2022, former President Pedro Castillo rocked Peru’s democracy. Facing a vote for his impeachment, Castillo attempted a “self-coup”—a complete power grab by someone already in power. With trembling hands, the embattled president announced to the nation that he was unilaterally dissolving Congress and would rule the country by decree.
For Peruvians, this announcement was shocking, but it was not unprecedented. More than 20 years ago, former President Alberto Fujimori successfully pulled off this political machination and remained in power for another eight years. Fujimori, though, had the backing of the National Police of Peru and the Peruvian Armed Forces before he made this risky move; neither institution backed Castillo.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nXyFgvCfyHI?feature=oembedPedro Castillo reads a statement announcing his decision to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
Shortly after the announcement, ministers in his cabinet resigned, members of his political party, Peru Libre, denounced him, and his Vice President, Dina Boluarte, condemned the move. A couple of hours later, Congress successfully voted to impeach Castillo. Castillo was arrested and brought to a detention facility when he tried to seek asylum in the Mexican embassy; he currently remains in pre-trial detention.
Later that day, Boluarte was sworn in as President, and many members of Congress celebrated the ouster of an opponent they sparred with for the entire duration of his presidency.
Their celebration was short-lived.
On December 8th, just one day after Castillo’s arrest, protests began to sprout around the country.
Castillo was Peru’s 5th president in five years. He was also the first president to be of a peasant and indigenous background. His ouster, and Boluarte’s subsequent rightward shift, was taken as a sign by the historically marginalized groups of Peru that the country’s democracy is not an institution that works for them. Many believe Castillo was a victim of a conservative Congress hellbent on preventing an indigenous person from ruling effectively.
So they took to the streets.
In cities and towns all over Peru, aggrieved protesters began marching to demand political change. Their demands included the following: President Boluarte’s resignation, a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, earlier elections, and for some, the liberation of Castillo.
From Cusco to Lima, protesters have been demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the state of their country. They have set up roadblocks and taken over airports. And in one case, a politician’s home was set on fire. Meanwhile, police have killed 46 people, some of whom were medics and bystanders, and injured dozens of others. One police officer was also killed due to the unrest, and at least ten people died in ambulances after being unable to reach hospitals due to blockades.
In addition to the anti-establishment protests, there have also been marches billed as “Marcha Por La Paz” or “March for the Peace.” These peace marches are right-wing and pro-police. And due to the march’s collaboration with the police, they have often inflamed tensions between the two sides.
Despite the assumption that LGBTQ+ rights are a left-wing cause, supporters and queer Peruvians are spread across the political spectrum. The political crisis has divided members of the queer community about how to resolve an increasingly intractable conflict.
Shortly after Boluarte was sworn-in, several LGBTQ+ activists and organizations condemned the violence at protests calling for her resignation.
Promsex, one of Peru’s most prominent LGBTQ+ and intersex rights groups, addressed the new president in a statement on Twitter.
“We demand that the Executive Branch guarantee the safety of all people, including that of law enforcement personnel, and that there be no more deaths in the democratic and legitimate exercise of the right to protest,” the organization tweeted.
However, since that statement was released, the violence has escalated, and so has the intensity of statements from left-wing LGBTQ+ groups. On January 21st, the Lima Pride March Collective released a statement calling for one of the primary demands of the anti-Boluarte protestors—new elections.
“As LGBTI people, we demand a prompt democratic exit [from this crisis] through the advancement of elections in the shortest term possible,” the statement said.
The Collective changed their name on Twitter to #NuevasEleccionesYa (new elections now), accompanied by the Peruvian and pride flags.
Jorge Apolaya, a spokesperson for the group, spoke to LGBTQ Nation about why he supports the marches.
“[LGBTQ+] organizers have the responsibility to speak out and denounce what is contrary to democracy and therefore to the rights of LGBT people,” he told LGBTQ Nation. “The government of the current president Dina Boluarte has become repressive and violent in the face of legitimate protests in the country. We cannot allow more deaths, and that is why there is a social consensus in the request for the resignation of the current president.”
Jorge (right) at the protests at Plaza San Martin in Lima.
The consensus does not extend to all LGBTQ+ Peruvians. La Liga Libertad, a classically liberal group founded by LGBTQ+ people, has called the protesters’ demands, including the demand for Boluarte to resign, “anti-democratic.” They have described protesters’ attempts to take over national airports as “terrorism,” echoing Boluarte’s characterization of the ongoing unrest.
La Liga Libertad did not respond to LGBTQ Nation’s request for comment.
It is not only left-wing LGBTQ+ groups who favor Boluarte’s resignation. Popular Action (Acción Popular) is a centrist political party. One of its members, queer activist Manuel Siccha, spoke with LGBTQ Nation.
“Currently, the position [of the Party] is to request the resignation of President Dina Boluarte based on her lack of legitimacy to govern,” Siccha said. “You cannot govern without social legitimacy and she alone has been losing legitimacy little by little with the decisions she has made from actions which are dehumanizing and authoritarian.”
Siccha also told LGBTQ Nation that he believes the Boluarte administration does not have the capacity to respond to the urgent political needs and the agendas of vulnerable populations, including LGBTQ+ populations.
The division among the queer community is also visible among Peru’s two out members of Congress. Although both voted for Castillo’s impeachment in December, they diverge significantly in how they approach the conflict.
Susel Paredes is the first out lesbian to win a congressional election in Peru. A progressive member of Congress, she voted against giving Boluarte’s cabinet a vote of confidence two weeks ago due to the more than 50 deaths which have occurred since protests first broke out.
Alejandro Cavero, a conservative congressman from the Avanza Pais political party, has said he is “LGBT and proudly of the right.” While Cavero said he understands the “frustration and indignation of the South,” he also praised police reactions to the violent protests.
A Twitter interaction between Members of Peruvian Congress Paredes and Cavero shows the two arguing about an incident that occurred at San Marcos University on January 21, 2023.
Other LGBTQ+ Peruvians who spoke with LGBTQ Nation expressed a similar sentiment to Cavero.
“It’s definitely a midway support,” said Vero Mourou when asked if she supports the protests. Mourou is a drag artist from Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon. Like Cavero, she is sympathetic to the plight of the poor and indigenous Peruvians protesting. However, she blames the “communist left” for taking advantage of the situation.
“[The left] has caused innocent people to die like a cannonball for their own political interests, such as the constituent assembly. They use their pain and suffering for political purposes. I am against any act of violence disguised as protest…we cannot allow anarchy in Peru.”
As Peruvians inside the country express varying opinions on this conflict, many Peruvians abroad are also speaking out, including Yola. Based in Madrid, Yola spoke with LGBTQ Nation about why she supports the protests.
“Dina Boluarte has committed crimes against humanity, has murdered in the name of a false democracy that does not represent the inhabitants of the country, both in the provinces and in the capital,” she said.
Yola acknowledges that some on the left are homophobic and transphobic, including the former president. However, she believes that certain struggles must come before LGBTQ+ rights.
“Many gay people…do not see beyond the privileged reality of Lima, because they do not see that before being gay or lesbian, they are brown, descendants of indigenous people, of black people, that the agenda against the fight against poverty in the regions is, honestly, more relevant than same-sex marriage.”
Gad Yola wears a dress that says: “25 Peruvians killed by the state.”
One of the most conservative countries in South America, Peru does not have a stellar record on LGBTQ+ rights. Regardless of the outcome of this political crisis, the situation for queer and trans Peruvians is unlikely to change dramatically. However, as the nation struggles through nearly two months of unrest, LGBTQ+ Peruvians continue to make their voices heard and fight for their future.
A mid-level professional ice hockey team in Illinois has released a player who posted a string of disgusting, anti-LGBTQ+ tweets.
And the player Louie Rowe has retweeted numerous more messages since he was let go by ECHL outfit the Peoria Rivermen, accusing LGBTQ+ people of grooming and raping children, as well as using them as prostitutes.
Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers told the Lincoln Journal Star: “We are shocked, and we have immediately released Louie Rowe.”
Rowe’s retweets targeted LGBTQ+ people, calling them peadophiles, and trans people, who were labelled mentally ill.
In addition to anti-LGBTQ+ tweets, Rowe’s Twitter includes messages demonising other minority groups.
Rowe retweeted messages supporting the likes of anti-trans, right-wing media pundit Jordan Peterson, as well as anti-vax conspiracy theories and statements from infamous social media account LibsOfTikTok, which rabidly attacks LGBTQ+ educators and drag venues.
On 12 January, another mid-level pro hockey team, the Kalamazoo Wings, sent a response to a Twitter user who said they were no longer going to attend games after the team released a rainbow logo on social media as part of a Pride Night event for LGBTQ+fans.
In response to the Wings’ message, Rowe wrote on Twitter: “I knew the Kwings were soft but I didn’t know they were gay, trans and soft.”
He went on to respond with an image that called Pride flags a “mental illness flag.” He also tweeted: “Imagine marketing towards the bottom of the barrel of society LMAO… what’s next? Felony offender night?”
Others took to Twitter to voice their disgust at Rowe’s comments, with one person writing: “Embarrassed that this guy ever put on a @FWKomets Sweater.”
Another person wrote: “What a turd. Enjoy the beer league hockey career – take the L – loser !!”
The Riverman’s co-owner, Bart Rogers, added: “Our organisation does not condone that language, nor do we support that point of view or behaviour. Those things do not represent the beliefs of our team, our partners nor our fans, nor the great sport we play. It does not represent the values of our organisation’.”
President Joe Biden will address the nation soon when he gives the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The ceremonial speech will outline the president’s priorities and the country’s challenges. But what about the LGBTQ+ nation?
LGBTQ Nation spoke with six of the nation’s best and brightest to find out what they saw as the difficulties — and solutions — for the queer community and our struggle for equal rights. In a time of unprecedented challenges, these individuals can shine light in the darkness and show us a way out.
Mondaire Jones knows the best defense queer people have is the ballot
Mondiare Jones. Photos by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, Olivier Doulierty/AFP via Getty Images. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) was first elected in 2020 and is one of the two first-out LGBTQ+ Black members of Congress; he lost his seat in 2022. He co-introduced the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress to ensure same-sex couples continue to have the rights associated with marriage should the Supreme Court overturn the marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges.
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Jones helped get former President Donald Trump impeached for a second time after his supporters rioted in the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He pushed for even tougher democratic reforms, including automatic voter registration, public financing of elections, and an end to partisan gerrymandering.
“The crisis of our democracy is the biggest existential threat,” Jones told LGBTQ Nation. “If we do not have a truly representative government, if we do not have a pro-equality majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House, then we are going to continue to see this Supreme Court whittle away at our rights.”
So it’s no surprise that Congressman Jones’s message now is that getting better people elected is the key to moving Congress toward equality.
“We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community,” Jones said. “My project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.”
How V Spehar is keeping tabs on America from under a desk
V Spehar. Photo provided by V Spehar. Additional photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
Self-described citizen journalist V Spehar says being in the room where it happens reveals the true colors of elected officials and how their personal and political agendas may impact our country’s future.
Spehar, 40, spent the early part of their career in the hospitality industry in New York City, Tampa, and eventually as an event planner with one of Washington D.C.’s most prominent caterers. “People speak so honestly in front of you when they don’t think you’re ‘that’ kind of smart — when they think you’re just a waiter, a bartender, or whatever,” Spehar told LGBTQ Nation. “And so I got to see these people, not just for the policies that they wrote, but for the people that they are, and understanding that who they ate dinner with changed how the world was going to be.”
“You’re not going to get somebody to stop believing their sole mission is to be a protector,” Spehar said, “but you can get them to understand who actually needs protection.”
What does ‘activist-elected official’ Park Cannon foresee in the future for queer rights?
Park Cannon. Photos by Derek White/Getty Images, Paras Griffin/Getty Images. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
In 2016, Park Cannon was Georgia’s youngest elected official in the state legislature at 24 years old. Seven years later, she continues to exhibit an insatiable energy for fighting for equity and standing up for marginalized groups.
In 2021, Cannon became a national name after she was arrested for standing up to S.B. 202, a law that significantly rolled back voting rights for Georgians. Cannon, who is Black, was arrested by a white state trooper for knocking on Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) office door as he signed the bill in a closed-door ceremony. Charges against Cannon were ultimately dropped.
“We will not live in fear and we will not be controlled,” she wrote on Twitter after her arrest. “We have a right to our future and right to our freedom. We will come together and continue fighting white supremacy in all its forms.”
“I know the feeling of coming out in the South and expecting that there would be hate. And there was, but there was also a lot of fun and exploration and resistance that teaches people more than they could ever imagine,” Cannon told LGBTQ Nation. “I’m hopeful that we’ll continue to look at LGBTQ culture as groundbreaking and inclusive and not look at it as anything but that.”
Activist Matt Foreman questions whether we have the leadership and resources needed for full equality
Matt Foreman image provided. Additional photo by Roey Thorpe. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
Matt Foreman has seen it all from the forefront of the struggle for equality. The veteran politico led multiple queer organizations, including the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force). As someone who has had to do the hard and inglorious work of both soliciting donations and funding campaigns, it’s no surprise he has a decidedly pragmatic view of how the movement can move forward during a challenging time.
“What is urgently and desperately needed is a coordinated, multifaceted campaign to push back against all this horrific legislation that has come down the road and will be coming down the road this year at the state level,” Foreman told LGBTQ Nation.“It’s the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills, the anti-trans bills, the curriculum attacks, book bans, it’s all of that, and right now, our movement at the state level is strapped for resources.”
“I think the number one priority is fighting back in the states and grinding the other side down over time by showing their true nature, which is not about protecting kids, just about hate and demonizing good people. And so because that kind of rhetoric is out there, it becomes accepted wisdom,” Foreman said. “It has an impact on the way people treat queer people. And we’re seeing this rise in the rhetoric now, which isn’t just rhetoric once it influences people to attack us physically, financially, or emotionally. The only way we’re gonna get around that is to take it on, fight back, and expose them for what they are.”
Kelley Robinson is head of the largest LGBTQ+ organization — and she knows our Achilles’ heel
Kelley Robinson. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images, Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Supermajority. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
In November 2022, Kelley Robinson was elected the ninth president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), becoming the first Black queer woman to hold the position in the civil rights group’s 40-year existence. Now she aspires to be the first Black queer woman to spearhead the HRC infundamentally changing the country and its systems of power.
“I come to this work as a Black woman, as a queer person, as a wife, and as a mom,” Robinson told LGBTQ Nation. “And there are so many issues that matter to people in the community because we hold all of these identities, right? You can’t get to liberation without racial justice; you can’t get there without disability rights, immigration justice, climate change, and climate reform.”
When asked about how to prioritize the country’s most urgent issues, Robinson said, “The biggest thing to understand is that we cannot be single-issue. You have to talk about the violence happening in Black trans communities, particularly against Black trans women. At the same time, be able to talk about how it is a disgrace that we are still living with the HIV epidemic in this country. At the same time, also be able to talk about the issues facing folks related to discrimination across this country because of the loopholes created under the guise of ‘religious freedoms.’”
But shifts in voter demographics offer signs of hope. HRC polling estimates that queer voters will make up increasingly large parts of the electorate as Gen Z ages into adulthood. “To take advantage of the demographic shifts, we’ve got to make sure that we’re giving people a meaningful way to engage and fixing the system,” Robinson said, “so that they know that when they vote, it will actually make a difference.”
Taylor Brorby knows anti-queer red America. Here’s his prescription for changing it.
Taylor Brorby. Author photo provided by Taylor Brorby. Additional photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images. Illustration by Kyle Neal for LGBTQ Nation
“It’s a time to be nervous. Being nervous is different than being afraid,” Brorby told LGBTQ Nation. “We live in a country that allows the targeting of vulnerable people whose rights aren’t fully enshrined in our governmental documents.”
Brorby suggests that dismantling the rural-urban divide may be one solution to uniting the country despite its geographic differences. “We have to start the conversation by reminding ourselves we’re actually dependent on each other,” Brorby said. “City people value rural people, too. Growing up in North Dakota, we knew rural America enriched everyone’s life, and the goal now shouldn’t be to get everyone to an urban center. It should be possible to have a good life wherever you live. We do not hear each other’s stories. We need ambassadors.”
Teachers at a school district in Florida have been instructed to “cover or store” books in their classroom libraries pending reviews.
In an internal training video, Duval County Public Schools superintendent Diana Greene announced the launch of a formal review of classroom libraries, which generally consist of books either donated or purchased by teachers themselves, to ensure that they are in compliance with Florida legislation passed last summer.
Florida’s House Bill 1467 passed last July and requires books made available through school libraries and classroom libraries to be selected by a certified media specialist.
Under the new law, books must not contain instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in books available to grades K–3; “pornography,” which the district defines using the Merriam Webster dictionary as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement; or discrimination in such a way that implies “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
The law also requires all schools to publish a searchable list of all books in school and classroom libraries, making it easier for parents to challenge books.
“Books not on the district-approved list or not approved by certificated media specialists need to be covered or stored and paused for student use,” Duval’s Chief Academic Officer Paula Renfro says in the video.
According to a Duval County Public Schools release, “The Florida Department of Education has trained all Florida school districts to ‘err on the side of caution’ in determining if a book is developmentally appropriate for student use.”
As WJCT News notes, Duval Schools has already rejected 47 book titles that were ordered in 2021, with an additional 26 titles from the same collection still under review. Jax Todayreports that the books, which included multiple titles with LGBTQ+ characters and families as well as books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, are described by the distributor as featuring “diverse, inclusive” stories.
Across the country, recently instituted school and public library book bans have disproportionately targeted books by non-white authors and those featuring LGBTQ+ characters and stories.
Duval County Schools has previously made headlines for the district’s efforts to comply with Florida’s recently enacted anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including the Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as “Don’t Say Gay.”
First Baptist Church — a megachurch in Jacksonville, Florida — is forcing its members to sign a “Biblical Sexuality Agreement,” an anti-LGBTQ+ statement that denies the existence of trans people, opposes same-sex marriage, and calls same-sex intercourse ungodly.
The statement reads: “As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice. I believe marriage is instituted by God, not government, is between one man and one woman, and is the only context for sexual desire and expression.”
Members will need to sign the statement by March 19 or else be removed from the church, First Coast News reported.
In a September 2021 video, the church’s senior pastor Heath Lambert said that the entire congregation needed to sign the statement to “shine a bright light of clarity in these dark and confusing times.” He also it was necessary to “protect against those who would take us to court to require us to change our policies for people who disagree with our biblical convictions.”
There are no instances of queer people or their allies taking churches to courts to force them into changing their anti-LGBTQ+ policies. Any lawsuits against religious organizations have had to do with their continuing discriminatory social policies while accepting taxpayer funds.
In the video, Lambert said that LGBTQ+ acceptance stems from a “deeply confused culture” and that LGBTQ+ activists and allies “are seeking to eradicate any opposition to their extremist agenda.”
“They will not rest until their confusion has permeated every area of society and silenced every voice of opposition,” Lambert said in the video. “They have sought to shame, silence, convert and punish — even through the force of law — anyone who does not agree with their new and extreme agenda.”
He then spread numerous falsehoods repeated by anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.
He said that “fathers are going to jail for failing to support the sex change operation of their teenage daughters.” He’s likely referring to an unnamed father in Canada who was jailed for violating a court order not to speak to the media about his legal battle to stop his 15-year-old from taking hormone blockers. The court said his media interviews endangered the child’s and their guardians’ safety. No “sex change” operation was involved in the case though.
Lambert falsely claimed that hormone-suppressing drugs are “stopping [grade schoolers’] entrance into puberty and permanently ending their ability to have children even before they leave childhood themselves.”
Hormone blockers are sometimes prescribed to minors with the approval of psychological and medical experts and the full informed consent of the child and their guardians. These medications temporarily prevent irreversible physical changes of puberty which can heighten gender dysphoria and mental distress in trans youth. These medications do not sterilize children, are entirely reversible, and have been safely administered to children with certain cancers for decades.
“We live in a day where schools allow men to undercut women by competing against them in sports,” Lambert added. But the very small number of trans female athletes aren’t “undercutting” women in sports, they’re merely asking for the right to participate like all other students, and, in most cases, they’re not dominating the competitions.
Lambert also accused city councils of “victimizing women by allowing men into their restrooms.” But there is no evidence that trans-inclusive restroom policies have ever increased sexual assaults against cisgender women. Anti-trans activists merely accuse trans people of being sexual predators as a way to deny them civil rights and encourage violence against them.
Lambert said that he and his church don’t hate “members of the sexual revolution.”
“They may think of us as their enemies, but that is not how we think of them,” he said. “To anyone watching this who disagrees with the biblical message on sexuality. I want you to know that we love you, and God does too. It’s that love which drives us to share truths that may be hard for you to hear.”
He also said the entire congregation needed to sign the statement to show “precious people in our church who have struggled with these issues of gender and sexuality” what to expect from the church’s ministry.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
In the last three decades, some of the most egregious attacks on equality — the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, not to mention the infamous 1950 “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” report — came from Congress. Some of the most significant advances – passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010 – also came from Congress.
And while the Supreme Court found in 2015 that some federal jobs protections against discrimination based on sex also protect LGBTQ+ people, the community is still fighting for the Equality Act, which would enshrine legal protections in civil rights law.
But Congress is unlikely to provide much help in 2023 now that Republicans have taken a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Not only has the GOP historically opposed equality legislation, but many of the Republicans who won their midterm elections did so by weaponizing antipathy towards LGBTQ+ people, advocating for laws banning transgender people access to gender-affirming care, demagoguing equal treatment of transgender students in schools, slurring LGBTQ+ teachers and doctors as “groomers.”
And elections have consequences.
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) sat down with LGBTQ Nation to discuss the possibilities for change in Congress in the coming two years. Jones was first elected in 2020 and is one of the two first-out LGBTQ+ Black members of Congress; he lost his seat in 2022. He co-introduced the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress to ensure same-sex couples continue to have the rights associated with marriage should the Supreme Court overturn the marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges.
Jones helped get former President Donald Trump impeached for a second time after his supporters rioted in the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his time in Congress, he supported the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He pushed for even tougher democratic reforms, including automatic voter registration, public financing of elections, and an end to partisan gerrymandering.
So it’s no surprise that Congressman Jones’s message now is that getting better people elected is the key to moving Congress toward equality.
LGBTQ NATION: As the president prepares to address the nation, what are the most vexing problems facing the LGBTQ+ community?
Mondaire Jones: The Supreme Court of the United States — specifically, the far right, six-three supermajority on the Court — continues to pose the greatest obstacle to the lives and livelihoods of community members.
Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022. (Seated from left) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (Standing behind from left) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images.
This majority is on a rampage against our rights. We see that in a case that will undermine the ability of same-sex couples not to be discriminated against in the marketplace [he was referring to 303 Creative v. Elanis], where the First Amendment is being weaponized to allow people to be bigoted.
We know that the Court is going to come for marriage equality. As proud as I am of having introduced legislation with Jerry Nadler that passed last year called the Respect for Marriage Act, it’s not lost on me that the Respect for Marriage Act still would not ensure marriage equality in every state in the union for same-sex couples.
More than protecting members of the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination, we’ve got to have our eyes set on creating equity, whether that is in the healthcare context, the housing context, or the student debt context, where members of the community disproportionately experience hardship. That was my project when I wrote a letter to CMS and the CDC asking them to require both public and private insurers to cover an injectable form of PrEP called Apretude at no cost-sharing to the patient.
LGBTQ NATION: What do you see as fighting for queer rights and 2023? What does that mean, and what does that entail?
MJ: Because of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and too few Democrats in the United States Senate willing to get rid of the filibuster, we have to turn to state-level progress in beating back renewed assault on the LGBTQ+ community, such as these so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bills in Florida and elsewhere.
We also have to call on the Biden administration to use its executive authority to make discrimination less prevalent and to create equity.
LGBTQ NATION: So you brought up state-level legislation where things aren’t looking that good for us over the past few years. At least a hundred bills have been introduced to curtail rights. What can we do to stop that?
MJ: The good news is that we have won public opinion over the past decade when it comes to the community’s entitlement to the same rights and liberties that our cisgender, heterosexual counterparts enjoy.
However, because of an electoral system plagued by voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, and unlimited spending by corporate special interests, the people we see in power often do not reflect the country’s mood.
We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.
While also making sure we take back the House and keep the Senate and the White House in the 2024 elections because only the Democratic majority in this country can be trusted to protect the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.“Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: So you’re saying it comes down to who’s elected, but what does the community do once we have a group of people in Congress? You were in Congress. What did you see LGBTQ+ activists doing that maybe could have been more effective?
MJ: Well, I appreciate this question.
Several high-profile LGBTQ+-focused organizations spend more time patting themselves on the back for the work that they do and dining with their major donors than they are focused on electing champions to office and pressuring elected officials to enact the bold reforms that we urgently need.
Consider how long it took for certain organizations to come out for the filibuster reform, as we initially needed to pass the Equality Act and the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Consider how few organizations have supported my legislation with [Rep.] Jerry Nadler and [Rep.] Hank Johnson to expand the Supreme Court.
On a member level, I experienced very little outreach from some of the biggest LGBTQ+ rights organizations. And I was one of only nine openly gay members of the House. So we’ve got work to do.
LGBTQ NATION: You brought up democracy issues. You worked on the second impeachment of Donald Trump, which followed the January 6 Insurrection. How do you see the vitality of our democracy affecting LGBTQ+ issues in the coming years?
MJ: The crisis of our democracy is the biggest existential threat. If we do not have a truly representative government, if we do not have a pro-equality majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House, then we are going to continue to see this Supreme Court whittle away at our rights, including rights that were just gained over the past decade. And we’ll have no recourse because we won’t be able to pass legislation.
So we have to end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts so that extremists like [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and [Rep.] Jim Jordan (R-OH) cannot coast to victory simply because they prevailed in the Republican primaries, despite their abuse being outside the mainstream. We have to get big money out of politics by enacting a system of public financing of congressional elections, which is what H.R. 1, which became known as the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, would do.
We must enact automatic and same-day voter registration and do away with the voter suppression we’ve seen in places like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Arizona. All these things will help us build a truly multiracial democracy in which we will have pro-equality majorities in state houses and Congress.
Volunteers hand out information about candidates while people stand in line to vote in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 5, 2022.
LGBTQ Nation: Yes, it seems like something like the Equality Act is off the table for at least the next two years because of Republican control of the House, even though- I mean, I wish I had looked this up before now, the Equality Act polls pretty well. [A 2021 HRC poll found that 70% of American voters support the Equality Act.]
MJ: Of course it does! Look, just consider what happened last night. A Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted to gut the IRS by 87,000 agents. That is not economic populism, which is what that party says it ran on in 2022. That is a thinly veiled attempt to help billionaire tax cheats evade accountability.
That is something that, in a normal political environment, would be toxic and devastating for a party at the voting booth. However, because our democracy is so rigged in favor of corporate special interests and the super-wealthy, it is something that Republicans can get away with.
We have people in government who are not actually responsive to what their constituents want. Still, because of redistricting and specifically partisan gerrymandering, because of just the outsized role that wealthy people have in our system of campaign finance, aided in part by Citizen United, we see this.
“My project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.”Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: A lot of the blame, then, for the lack of progress to be expected goes to Republicans, but is there something the Democratic Party should have been doing to get a majority that it hasn’t been doing?
MJ: Absolutely. We had majorities in both chambers of Congress, and [Sen.] Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and [Sen.] Joe Manchin (D-WV) thought it was robbery to make an exception to the filibuster to pass democracy reforms, voting rights legislation, and the Equality Act. That was an abdication of their responsibility as legislators.
That is not to excuse the unanimous opposition by Republicans. It is to say that we’ve got some Democrats who are not where they need to be when it comes to the bold changes necessary to actually improve the lives of the American people.
The president only came out for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation in December 2021.
LGBTQ NATION: You know what it’s like for LGBTQ+ people in Congress. Over the past few years, we’ve seen that most of the attacks have fallen on transgender people’s shoulders, specifically transgender minors. How good are your former colleagues at being familiar with essential issues for transgender people? Is there a good sense of understanding in Congress about their lives?
MJ: No, not particularly. My experience is that even the LGBTQ+ members in Congress, including myself, are continuing to learn about these issues. It would be awesome to have some trans people in Congress to bring that perspective.
And, of course, we’ve seen tremendous progress on these issues within the Democratic Party over the past several years. We see that in the inclusion of language specific to the trans community in the Equality Act and other legislation that we have passed. I’m very proud of having helped lead that.
But I know that the trans experience is not fully understood in Congress.
A transgender rights rally in Philadelphia.
LGBTQ NATION: What can LGBTQ+ people realistically expect on progress on our equality from Congress in the next two years?
MJ: I’m sad to say that because of the loss of the House to Republicans in November 2022, we cannot expect that Congress will pass the Equality Act to prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in all facets of our society.
We will see the trans community vilified by House Republicans and Senate Republicans, even in the minority. We will continue to see LGBTQ+ individuals referred to, horrifically, as groomers and a Congress that will not respond meaningfully to the inevitable future violence against the community, especially gun violence.
That is the consequence of not having enough good people in the United States Congress.
So my project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.
In her first State of the State address, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made history with a commitment to direct state resources to help fund housing for older New Yorkers.
Hochul directed New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal agency (HCR) to provide funding specifically for affordable housing projects that are affirming for New Yorkers among the state’s 800,000+ older LGBTQ+ population.
Only two housing developments in New York serve the community: Stonewall House in Brooklyn and Crotona Pride House in the Bronx. Those projects were developed and funded by SAGE, the LGBTQ+ elders advocacy group, along with BFC Partners and HELP USA.
The two developments are models for reducing housing insecurity and providing community support, dramatically improving the lives of low-to-moderate income and formerly unhoused older New Yorkers.
The commitment by Hochul follows policy recommendations presented by SAGE and AARP in their 2021 report “Disrupting Disparities: Solutions for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers 50+.” The report illustrated that many older New Yorkers face structural disparities, including social isolation, higher rates of poverty, and challenges finding and affording housing.
While the demand for affirming housing is high — 90% of older LGBTQ+ Americans are extremely, very, or somewhat interested in obtaining it — supply is low: only 13 states and Washington, DC, have housing developments targeting older LGBTQ+ Americans.
By 2030, over 70 million people will be age 65+, with about 7 million of those part of the community. That subset already faces a higher poverty and homelessness rate even before housing insecurity is factored in.
Officials at SAGE see this as a good start.
“I am thrilled that Governor Hochul and her administration are committed to expanding equitable access to housing for New York’s LGBTQ+ elders,” said SAGE CEO Michael Adams. “LGBTQ+ elders of color, transgender and non-binary elders face the highest levels of financial insecurity, and we know first-hand that LGBTQ+ friendly elder housing is vital in improving their lives.”
“The communities created at Stonewall House and Crotona Pride House,” added Adams, “are proof that this kind of housing improves the quality of life of residents. With the critical support of the Governor, New York will be providing crucial resources to elders so they can age with the dignity and support they deserve.”
Among the affirming housing options across the U.S. are The John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, Town Square Apartments in Chicago, and Triangle Square in Los Angeles.
In Washington, a new communal residence called Mary’s House for Older Adults is scheduled to break ground in March, while a new project in Detroit, Raymond E. Shepherd House, just received some creative financing in the form of a brownfield grant from the Michigan Department of Environment.
And in California, a new complex in Sacramento is the latest addition to the state’s affirming housing projects. Lavender House, with 53 units in the midtown neighborhood of the state capital, was developed and is operated by the nonprofit Mutual Housing California. There were over 600 requests for applications, with tenants chosen by lottery.
A new ad for Rihanna’s Fenty beauty brand features Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentin, newlyweds who fell in love while competing as Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico.
The ad is for Fenty eau de parfum and depicts the couple telling their love story while embracing, holding hands, and enjoying the scent.
They tell the story of how they met at a pageant in Thailand and immediately became inseparable.
“The details, like how we like our coffee, everything kept flowing,” they say.
They call theirs a story of “beautiful friendship” and add that it has been “magical” to find one another.
“What a special it was to work for the fenty eau de perfum fragance [sic],” Varela wrote on Instagram, adding “It’s beautiful when two bodies come together with love.”
The happy couple announced their marriage in October 2022 in a joint Instagram post featuring photos and video clips of their relationship.
“After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened the doors to it on a special day. 28/10/22,” the post’s caption reads.
One clip shows the moment the couple got engaged, with “Marry Me?” spelled out in gold and silver balloons as Valentin slips a ring on Varela’s finger. Another shows the pair wearing white on the steps in front of the Marriage Bureau in San Juan where they were reportedly married.
Varela and Valentin met while competing in the 2020 Miss Grand International pageant, where they were both among the top 10 finalists. They’ve posted frequently about their close friendship, but as they noted in their post had chosen to keep their romantic relationship private until now.
When Constance Zhou got to college, they noticed that their queer friends were struggling with mental health. But they were also struggling to find providers well-versed in sexual and gender minorities or the complicated intersection of identities that often brought both discrimination and unique therapy needs.
At the same time, Zhou was working at a national suicide hotline, where many of the callers identified as LGBTQ+.
“I was getting people in Texas, in the Midwest, and in the South who really didn’t have access to resources,” Zhou said. “I began to appreciate how important it is to have access to mental health care and that it isn’t one size fits all.”
LGBTQ+ people face unique medical challenges related to sexuality and gender diversity. From experiencing higher rates of mental health stress and substance abuse to requiring gender-affirming care and treatment and prevention of HIV, needs stem from an array of factors related to how the healthcare industry and mainstream culture define identity. The criminalization of gender-affirming care in some states, as well as sports, bathroom, and book bans, contribute to the anguish faced by many in the queer community.
Medical understanding of the needs of queer people has come a long way since 1973 when activists successfully lobbied for the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. Indeed, advancements in health care have been hard fought by the community, often in the face of neglect and hostility by the medical establishment.
The federal government’s failure to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and ’90s further galvanized the queer community to take health care into its own hands. Gay Men’s Health Crisis (founded in 1982), the American Foundation for AIDS Research (1985), and ACT UP (1987) were among the early organizations to demand research, innovation, and medical access — efforts that drastically reduced HIV infections and eventually led to effective treatments and medications to prevent the spread of the virus.
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) marchers during the annual New York City Pride March on June 30, 1985. Photo by Suzanne Poli/Getty Images
That practice of forcing the medical establishment to address the health needs of the increasingly diverse community is underscored today by efforts to improve gender-affirming care for trans and non-binary people, a movement under attack with 11 states introducing bills to restrict gender-affirming health care access.
“There’s been an enormous amount of harm done to queer people in health care environments,” said David Baker-Hargrove, co-founder and former CEO of 26Health, an LGBTQ+ health care center in Orlando, Florida. “Sometimes, it’s out of willful discrimination, but it’s also from ignorance about how our needs differ and how to interact with and provide services to members of our community.”
Many such issues are systemic, as is the lack of culturally competent care to address the needs of LGBTQ+ people. Demographic differences among queer people also play a determining role in health risks and outcomes, reflecting entrenched social inequalities.
“There are disparities in our community — notably race, ethnicity, and class — that may not be sexuality specific and that drive unequal access to care and prevention services,” Gregg Gonsalves, an early member of ACT UP and today associate professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, told LGBTQ Nation.
Sexuality and gender identity are among the many considerations included in what the World Health Organization calls social determinants of health — non-medical factors, including economic means and access to education, that impact health risks and outcomes. Such factors account for up to 50 percent of variations in health outcomes in the U.S.
“Addressing social determinants of health is as important as medical interventions,” said Gonsalves, which means addressing factors like access to care is as necessary as developing effective treatment.
That’s where advocates like Zhou come in, with hopes of changing the system for the better. They are determined to help push for care that meets the community’s complex needs by working inside and outside the system for change.
“We’re survivors,” Baker-Hargrove said. “We know how to get along outside of existing systems, and it’s made us strong.”
LGBTQ Nation spoke to a range of queer people who were inspired by their personal experiences to become healthcare advocates and providers.
Constance Zhou co-founded the Weill Cornell Medicine Wellness Qlinic. José Romero advocates for people like themselves who are living with HIV to be part of the solution to ending the epidemic. Dr. Marci Bowers is a pioneering transgender surgeon whose personal experience transitioning informs both her push for innovation and sensitivity toward patients. And Anthony Sorensen was inspired by his own sobriety journey to found Transitional Recovery in Minnesota, which provides LGBTQ+ people in recovery with a supportive living environment.
Constance Zhou: creating new spaces for mental health
Constance Zhou in New York City on December 21, 2022. Photo by Amy Mayes Photography for LGBTQ Nation
Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Constance Zhou, 26, thought mental health was a storm that people weathered on their own.
That changed when Zhou got to college, where they grew comfortable identifying as queer and recognized that many queer people struggle with mental health and seek care, not only for anxiety or depression but for help developing a sense of self and to combat feelings of loneliness.
As a student, Zhou recognized the need for queer-affirming mental health care among their friends, as well as the LGBTQ+ people from around the country who called the suicide hotline where they worked. That led to Zhou’s decision to attend medical school to pursue psychiatry.
After working at a national suicide hotline, Constance Zhou realized the importance of mental health services geared toward the queer community. Photo by Amy Mayes Photography for LGBTQ Nation
Zhou witnessed firsthand the disproportionate mental health stress that young queer people face and the need for more culturally sensitive and affirming providers to meet the demand.
“The issue became very personal to me, being part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Zhou told LGBTQ Nation. “I’m Asian American, queer, and trans. I also identify as nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. And within both the Asian American community and the LGBTQ+ community, there’s a lot of stigma surrounding mental health.”
Parental pressures to succeed in academics, pressure to live up to the “model minority” stereotype, and racial and cultural discrimination are some of the stressors cited in a University of Maryland School of Public Health study. Still, the stigma Zhou mentioned is often a deterrent to seeking help.
Motivated to improve the situation, Zhou decided to specialize in mental health at medical school but said that as a student, they “see that a lot of curricula in medical school really don’t focus on LGBTQ issues.”
Zhou, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, co-founded with a classmate the Weill Cornell Medicine Wellness Qlinic, a student-run resource that provides mental health care to queer people while serving as a training ground for the next generation of practitioners.
“I see a lot of patients who are going through feelings and experiences that I have had before,” Zhou said. “Knowing that I can use my own background in understanding and helping them has been very rewarding.”
Co-founding the Wellness Qlinic within the first week of school was transformative. “I never really thought that the work that I did would be meaningful to my queer or trans identity,” Zhou said.
The Wellness Qlinic received immediate support from faculty and administration. “A lot of people went out of their way to make sure that we felt empowered to do what we needed to do,” Zhou said. The clinic, which opened in 2019 and has expanded to include 20 students on the board, functions as a resource for the patients it serves and those who run it.
Student volunteers of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Wellness Qlinic. Photo provided by Weill Cornell Medicine
“Part of the mission of the Wellness Qlinic is to provide free and culturally competent mental health care to queer and trans folks,” Zhou said.
Those services include patient evaluations, individual and group psychotherapy, and medication management. But the clinic also serves as an essential training ground for medical students, residents, and volunteers “to give them the skills they can use later on in their own practice.”
The Wellness Qlinic follows a pattern of similar organizations around the country offering mental health care specifically to queer people. Indeed, the number of clinics offering services specially tailored to LGBTQ+ people decreased by an average of 10 percent each year from 2014 to 2018. As of 2018, about one in five mental health clinics offer services specifically geared toward queer patients.
Nonprofit organizations like Queer LifeSpace, founded in 2011 to offer mental health services to people in the Bay Area regardless of ability to pay, have sprouted up to meet the need. Queer LifeSpace also offers a 12-month clinical training program to help foster the next generation of queer therapists. There are dozens of such clinics around the country. More are necessary to increase access to services for minority populations.
Educating providers is key to improving and expanding health care because, Baker-Hargrove noted, “most health care training programs, no matter the discipline, don’t have a lot of specific training geared towards LGBTQ+ competencies.”
Building community around HIV
José Romero in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 12, 2022. Photo by Jessica Woodall Photography for LGBTQ Nation
José Romero has also experienced the power of community. As a public health advocate, Romero believes in building networks of mutual support in which people look out for one another. It’s a perspective rooted in personal history and informed by their experience living with HIV and pushing for greater accessibility and education around treatment and prevention.
“I’ve always been around people who have had to find ways to care for each other,” Romero, 30, said. Romero’s family emigrated from an impoverished part of Mexico to rural Washington State, where they worked as farm laborers. The nearest hospital to their small town was such a long drive that Romero’s mother nearly gave birth to them in the car. “I feel like I’ve been mobilizing for health care ever since,” Romero told LGBTQ Nation.
Romero’s first awareness he had been exposed to HIV was a phone call from a doctor.
“I had gone in feeling sick, and he asked me, ‘Do you have sex with men?’ When I said yes, he just immediately shut off to me,” recalled Romero, who identifies as non-binary. “He told me I had been diagnosed with HIV, and I should probably get a follow-up.” Romero made an appointment with another doctor, who was much more supportive.
José Romero in Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo by Jessica Woodall Photography for LGBTQ Nation
Romero didn’t share their diagnosis for another five years when they started working as an organizer. “It’s taken other advocates and people who have lived experience supporting me to get to this point in my life where I’m using my diagnosis for good,” Romero said.
Today, they serve as director of community advocacy, research, and education at Pride Foundation, which gives scholarships to students and funds community organizations serving queer people throughout the Northwest. Pride Foundation was founded in 1985 out of a desire from people dying from HIV/AIDS to leave their money and legacies to benefit the community. Pride Foundation has distributed more than $74 million in grants to queer people and organizations advocating for equity and justice in the decades since.
Since the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, annual infections in the United States have dropped by more than two-thirds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New HIV infections in the U.S. fell 8 percent from 2015 to 2019. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, and a number of city-based initiatives with similar aims are underway, including in former epicenters San Francisco and New York.
But men who have sex with men account for about 66 percent of new infections each year, despite being only 2 percent of the population, with Black and Latino MSM being affected disproportionately. Each group accounted for around a quarter of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in 2020.
Contributing factors to the high prevalence are intersectional and include racial discrimination, lack of access to resources, language barriers, and stigma. “It’s been really important for me to focus on this big issue by working in coalition and step-by-step,” Romero said. Since they grew up speaking Spanish, Romero recognized language as one of the biggest barriers to healthcare access. They have worked as a translator, interpreter, and advocate for hospitals to provide multilingual materials.
Though medical interventions for the treatment and prevention of HIV, such as antiretrovirals and PrEP, have extended lives and lowered infection rates, advocates are working to improve access for those who need it most, including racial minorities and trans people, who have been underserved by prevention efforts. “It wasn’t until recently that we’ve seen people who are not white or cisgender represented in media around HIV prevention and care,” Romero said.
The medications themselves aren’t enough, Romero said.“We need a social and cultural approach, and that means meaningful involvement of people living with HIV.”
Many factors put people at greater risk of negative health outcomes from HIV, including substance use, mental health, and access to stable housing. Social and political solutions that address these conditions are as important as medical innovations in the fight to end the epidemic.
“Structural interventions in the context of HIV prevention and care are going to need policy-level, community-wide solutions,” Gonsalves said. “This takes us back to the old days of LGBTQ+ advocacy — working to change the sort of environment in which we live to make it easier for us to keep ourselves healthy and safe.”
Half of all new HIV infections are located in the South, where Morris A. Singletary has been working as a peer educator to connect young men of color with care. Based in Atlanta, Singletary, 45, runs the HIV prevention and education initiative PoZitive2PoSitive, offering support and mentorship informed by his lived experience with HIV.
Singletary knows the stakes firsthand. He was near death when he received his HIV diagnosis in 2006, having not understood that he was at risk. And he struggled with the emotional fallout and with adhering to treatment for the next ten years. He also knows the shame, stigma, and lack of awareness that keep men from pursuing care.
“We have to be more intentional,” Singletary said. “We tell people to go to the doctor and get tested, but we don’t say what happens next. We need to show the cycle of care,” he added, including the patient’s role in communicating openly with providers who are trained to show support. Singletary noted that everyone involved in the healthcare process, from researchers and providers to peer educators like himself, has an integral role to play.
Morris Singletary in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by Seven
“Storytelling is an amazing tool,” Singletary said of the connections he’s forged through sharing his lived experience and encouraging others to seek HIV treatment and prevention.
Romero agrees that people living with HIV should be integral to the path forward, and encourages outreach organizations to hire them to reach others at risk or in need of care. “We need to invest in people to be the solution to the problems that we’re facing,” Romero said. “When we are provided with the resources and opportunity to help each other, we do.”
Dr. Marci Bowers: pioneering gender-affirming healthcare
Dr. Marci Bowers has more than 32 years of experience in pelvic and gynecological surgery. Photo by Drew Bird Photography
Dr. Marci Bowers has devoted much of her history-making career as a surgeon treating transgender people, whose access to essential medical care has come under attack in recent years. Bowers, 64, has performed more than 2,000 vaginoplasties, or bottom surgeries, for trans women and is one of few surgical providers to have undergone the process herself.
“Everyone deserves access to gender-affirming care,” said Bowers, whose medical practice is based in Burlingame, California.
Growing up, Bowers knew she wasn’t comfortable with the gender identity she was assigned at birth, though it was a feeling she couldn’t describe. “I didn’t really have words for what it was to be trans,” Bowers said of the era when there were fewer role models and information. She wound up pursuing medicine, getting married, and having children, playing the role she felt was expected.
“I felt like I could displace my feminine feelings by being a woman’s health care provider,” Bowers said of her decision to become an OB-GYN. It was after Bowers transitioned, at age 37, that she considered pursuing a career in gender-affirmation surgery. “I was responding to an obvious need within the community for more providers,” Bowers said.
Insights gleaned by going through surgery herself have informed her sensitivity toward patients, “not just in the technical aspects of giving them what they want, but recognizing the struggle that they’d already been through being trans.”
Dr. Marci Bowers has performed more than 3,900 gender-affirming surgeries. Studies have shown that gender-affirming surgery is associated with decreased psychological distress, smoking, and suicidal ideation. Photo provided by Dr. Marci Bowers
Trans people experience disproportionately high rates of anxiety and depression and are about six times as likely as the general population to be hospitalized for a suicide attempt. Recentstudies have shown that gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers for trans adolescents, hormone therapy, and potential surgical interventions where necessary, significantly improve mental health and save lives. The latest guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health advised that hormone treatments can start from age 14.
“It’s an overwhelming, established fact that gender-affirming treatment is effective and greatly enhances psychosocial functioning and reduces suicidality,” Bowers said. “It’s about people improving their lives by assuming the identity that they feel most comfortable with.”
Even as the evidence of efficacy becomes ever more clear, gender-affirming care is being targeted across the country. As of March 2022, 15 states have restricted access to gender-affirming care or are considering laws that would do so. The consequences for people who need care are dire, cutting off access to treatment proven to improve well-being and reduce suicidality.
At the same time, the demand for gender-affirming care is growing, as is the corresponding need for more providers. “It’s growing because people are more comfortable being themselves,” said Bowers, who also helped establish the Transgender Surgical Fellowship Program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City to help train more doctors to care for trans people. Under the Affordable Care Act, it’s illegal for insurance providers to deny medically necessary transition-related care, and Bowers also accepts Medicaid from her patients.
“People at every socioeconomic level should have access to this care; we’ve always felt strongly about that,” Bowers said. But even for patients who have coverage, there’s a need for more doctors to provide treatment. “We need more clinicians and mental health professionals to help with the care of this population,” she said.
“Gender identity is a very deeply held value,” Bowers said, an indelible one that requires affirmative care. “It weathers any storm.”
Providing homes for recovery
Richard Fleischman Photography Anthony Sorensen at Gilbert House in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 11, 2023. Photo by Rich Fleischman Photography for LGBTQ Nation
When Anthony Sorensen, 52, was growing up on Long Island, New York, his father — who struggled with alcoholism — would disappear for days at a time. When Sorensen was 16, his father left for good, and Sorensen blamed himself, thinking it was because he is gay. Sorensen had started drinking the year before, blacking out the first time he tried alcohol.
“I wanted to be the bad kid who got in trouble in order to feel cool and accepted by my peers,” Sorensen recalled. “But at the same time, to save myself from the humiliation of being called out as gay, I just wanted to disappear.
“The first time I drank, all those fears and inhibitions of being humiliated went away,” Sorensen said.
Feelings of alienation like those Sorensen described are among the reasons that LGBTQ+ people are more than twice as likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than the general population, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a trend that’s been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. A variety of factors contribute to the increased likelihood, including concurrent mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and suicidality, themselves often a result of marginalization, discrimination, and trauma.
Drugs and alcohol have also occupied a historically central role in how queer people relate to each other and form social bonds. “Our community was formed in bars,” Baker-Hargrove said. “It can be hard to think about a life within the community that’s not anchored to alcohol or partying.” That’s one reason substance abuse is sometimes normalized within the community, and it may be easier to overlook when someone is struggling.
Sorensen’s heavy drinking and drug use accelerated when he moved to New York City shortly after coming out at age 19. He was 23 when he attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but it wasn’t until he discovered AA meetings that were mainly attended by queer people that he was able to work the program and stay sober for two years.
Sorensen’s first experience with Pride Institute, a treatment and recovery center especially focused on the needs of LGBTQ+ people, was in 1999, at a facility in Belle Mead, New Jersey, that has since closed. He stayed sober for 11 years before he began drinking again, when his career as a hairstylist took precedence over his recovery, Sorensen said.
Sorensen later completed two 30-day courses of inpatient treatment at Pride Institute’s main campus in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Richard Fleischman Photography Anthony Sorensen at Gilbert House in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo by Rich Fleischman Photography for LGBTQ Nation
“Pride 100 percent saved my life,” Sorensen said. “Pride for me was the place where I knew I could authentically be myself without many of the fears that I had carried since I was a kid,” he recalled, noting that he was fortunate to have private insurance and a choice of where to seek treatment. Pride is in-network for most major insurers and works with uninsured patients on lending options to reduce financial barriers to care.
Pride Institute has pioneered a model of treatment specifically tailored to LGBTQ+ people. Since many patients like Sorensen can trace their struggles with addiction back to aspects of their queer identity, centering and affirming those aspects of their lives is essential to effective treatment. “If you can’t totally be yourself, you’re not going to move forward in your recovery,” Sorensen said.
Pride Institute’s affirming environment includes gender-neutral bathrooms and room assignments not based on gender identity assigned at birth, as well as peers and staff with lived experience who embrace and celebrate everyone for who they are. “The counselors are educated in LGBTQ+ issues and addiction and mental illness,” Sorensen said. “They made me sit with my feelings and work through them, rather than escape them” — a process Sorensen called life-changing.
Sorensen also credits the success of his recovery to transitional housing specifically designed for LGBTQ+ people, where those who have completed inpatient programs can live with others in a shared house and offer mutual support. “I saw the success that I had with transitional housing, and I want to be able to reach as many people as possible and give them that same opportunity,” said Sorensen, who ultimately decided to relocate to Minneapolis and dedicate himself to offering queer people in recovery a place to support each other.
A few years into his own recovery, in 2015, Sorensen founded Transitional Recovery in Minnesota (TRIM), which now runs two houses catering to queer people working through addiction. Sorensen works with local outpatient programs, including Pride Institute, which helps subsidize housing costs for patients so that 90 percent of TRIM’s residents have financial support to make the rent accessible.
Richard Fleischman Photography Anthony Sorensen at Gilbert House in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo by Rich Fleischman Photography for LGBTQ Nation
“When someone comes into the house, they are 100 percent made to feel like they’re at home,” Sorensen said of TRIM, a model of affirmative support that Sorensen experienced at Pride Institute. “Whether a gay man or a transgender woman who walks through those doors, we all have a very unique set of experiences, but we go through similar things being a minority within our society.”
Though LGBTQ+ people face a variety of challenges based on other aspects of identity and social determinants of health, a sense of solidarity continues to be important in pushing for better health outcomes across the board. “We want everybody to survive, thrive, and prosper,” Gonsalves said, “and LGBTQ+ people need to think of activism as a component of fighting for their health and safety.”
Early activism during the AIDS epidemic continues to be the prime example. Gonsalves pointed to the recent Mpox outbreak and the queer community’s response as proof of how effective collective action continues to be, often in the face of a flawed institutional response.
“LGBTQ+ communities were essential over the past year in slowing down and putting the brakes on the epidemic,” Gonsalves said, noting the pressure placed on government leaders for accelerated vaccine access and the spontaneous reduction of sexual activity that slowed the spread. Unequal risk and access, based on factors like race and class, persisted, and policy-level change is necessary to protect the well-being of the queer community.
In the meantime, LGBTQ+ people continue to lead the charge, taking on disparities the community faces in the medical system and revolutionizing how we care for ourselves and each other.
