The Advocate

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LGBTQ+ History in the Making With Record Number of Out Candidates

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There are at least 1,008 out candidates running this year, surpassing the record of 1,006 set in 2020, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which supports out candidates who are also qualified and viable. “We’re excited to continue making historic firsts,” Sean Meloy, Victory Fund’s vice president of political programs, tells The Advocate. The field this year is significantly more diverse than previous ones as well. “We have a lot of folks who’ve stepped forward to represent the most underrepresented parts of our community,” Meloy says. There are over 100 more LGBTQ+ people of color running in 2022 than in 2020, a 58 […]

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Black Gay Candidates Make History With Primary Wins in Texas

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Thanks to victories in primary runoffs Tuesday, Texas is poised to have its first Black gay male state legislators — and one Black lesbian, who won a special election just weeks ago to fill a vacancy, is likely to be elected to a full term. Before Jolanda Jones’s victory in the special election, Texas had never had a Black member of the LGBTQ+ community in the state legislature. She won the special election May 7 in the Houston-area Texas House District 147 to succeed Rep. Garnet Coleman, who retired in February; that gave her the seat through December. In the Democratic primary […]

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TikTok Suspends Human Rights Campaign For 2 Days Over ‘Gay’ Comment

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The Human Rights Campaign’s TikTok account was suspended for two days after it posted in support of another TikTok user’s pro-LGBTQ+ video. On Monday, the LGBTQ+ rights group wrote on Twitter explaining it had been suspended for a couple of days last week after it commented on a video protesting Florida’s “don’t say gay” law. The video in question showed a teenager driving past a sign welcoming people to the state while they yelled “gay!” On Monday, the LGBTQ+ rights group wrote on Twitter explaining it had been suspended for a couple of days last week after it commented on a video protesting Florida’s “don’t say […]

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Kristin Crowley Is Los Angeles’s First Out, First Woman Fire Chief

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The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday unanimously confirmed Kristin Crowley as fire chief, making her the first woman and first out LGBTQ+ person to hold that post. Mayor Eric Garcetti had nominated Crowley in January. As chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, she will oversee 3,246 uniformed personnel and 353 professional support workers, the Los Angeles Blade reports. She will begin her duties as chief March 26, when predecessor Ralph Terrazas retires. Before the vote, Crowley told the council she was “truly honored” as well as “humbled and proud” to be appointed fire chief, according to L.A. TV station KABC. Her confirmation came […]

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Two Additional Trans Americans Determined to have Been Killed in 2021

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Two more violent deaths of transgender Americans have just been reported, both from December, bringing 2021’s total to 53. It was already by far the nation’s deadliest year on record for trans people. Za’niyah Williams, a 21-year-old Black trans woman, died after a hit-and-run car crash in Houston December 20, TransGriot reports. She remained unidentified for some time and was misgendered by police and media outlets. But her loved ones have come forward to identify her. “You were loved and will always be a part of me!” a cousin wrote on social media. “Fly high you beautiful butterfly.” A friend posted that Williams was “a […]

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Queer Black Feminist Writer bell hooks Dies at 69

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Esteemed queer Black feminist author bell hooks has died at age 69. She died Wednesday at her home in Berea, Ky., the Lexington Herald Leader reports. She had been ill, and friends and family were with her. Her dozens of books included essays, poetry, and works for children, and she dealt with issues of intersectionality long before many others. These issues were at the core of her 1981 book Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which examined the impact of sexism on Black women throughout history as well as racism within the feminist movement. All About Love: New Visions, first published in 2000, […]

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A Gay Doctor on Convincing Doubters to Get Vaccinated

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I’ve been teaching at a New York City college for almost five years, and I’m still in touch with a number of my former students. Many reach out for career advice, or help on getting a job, or wanting a letter of recommendation, and I’m always happy to oblige. However, I was caught off guard recently when a former student told me that he decided not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This person reads my column and knows that I’ve written a lot about the pandemic during the last year, including speaking to a number of medical experts including Dr. Fauci, […]

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For First Time Ever, Three National LGBTQ Orgs Have Black Leaders

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The election of Kamala Harris as the first female, Black, South Asian vice president was a joyous and noteworthy event. Indeed, the Biden administration has already shown itself to be the antithesis of the blatant racism of the previous four years. New leadership demands new ways of operating, new ways of governing, and new ways to confront systematic racism. We can say in our own community that we’ve only recently begun to address bigotry within our ranks, and that includes Black executive leadership in the LGBTQ+ movement. For the first time in history, three of the national legacy LGBTQ equality organizations (National LGBTQ Task […]

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