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ACT UP and GLAAD Protest Simon & Schuster’s ‘Denialist’ HIV Book

The Advocate, Trudy Ring April 1, 2023

Protesters organized by GLAAD and ACT UP New York demonstrated Monday at Simon & Schuster’s headquarters in Manhattan to demand that the publisher cease distributing a book that questions if HIV causes AIDS.

The Real AIDS Epidemic: How the Tragic HIV Mistake Threatens Us All by Rebecca Culshaw is coming out Tuesday from Skyhorse Publishing, a distribution client of Simon & Schuster. That means Simon & Schuster is responsible for shipping the book and other functions.

An open letter led by ACT UP NY and signed by more than 500 organizations and individuals was delivered to Simon & Schuster last week. It’s addressed to the company’s president and CEO, Jonathan Karp.

“In the midst of coexisting pandemics and public health outbreaks, we know the dire and deadly consequences of spreading misinformation and denialism,” it reads in part. “It is disappointing that a book like Culshaw’s is on a roster of your releases in 2023, but you still have a chance to reverse this decision. We are asking you to reconsider this book deal and stop its distribution.

“The thesis of Culshaw’s book is that HIV does not conclusively cause AIDS, but that this was a ‘mistake’ made in the 1980s and never amended or corrected. To the contrary, that HIV causes AIDS was demonstrated first in the 1980s, when the virus was discovered, and subsequently research has only strengthened that causal link in the subsequent decades, including via in vitro systems, in animal models, including non-human primates, via molecular phylogenetics, and in human samples. Research has shown conclusively that misinformation and denialism do material harm to HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment.”

For instance, the letter notes, there is great reluctance among Black Americans to use HIV prevention medication in a strategy known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. “While 67 percent of white people recommended for PrEP have access to the drug, astonishingly, only 8 percent of Black people eligible – who also disproportionately make up a majority of new HIV transmissions – are currently using the medication,” it says.

Culshaw has authored other works that ACT UP calls denialist, including the 2007 book Science Sold Out: Does HIV Really Cause AIDS? and the 2006 paper “Mathematical Modeling of AIDS Progression: Limitations, Expectations, and Future Directions.”

The letter demands that Simon & Schuster end plans to distribute the book, assess the public health impact of other planned releases, and “create a public health working group to assure community members that this will not happen again.”

“It is unimaginable that Simon & Schuster, one of the largest and most respected publishing companies in America, would distribute a book by an author with a history of spreading false and scientifically disproven beliefs regarding HIV,” said a statement from Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD. “In an era where misinformation spreads faster than truth, Rebecca V. Culshaw’s rhetoric has the potential to result in devastating consequences for people living with HIV. While HIV is now manageable, it is still an epidemic, particularly in the South, where racism, homophobia, HIV stigma, and the lack of access to high-quality healthcare continue to fuel an HIV crisis in communities of color. With the release of Culshaw’s book, Simon & Schuster is choosing profit over public health in an alarming partnership that should concern us all.”

“Research has shown conclusively that misinformation and denialism do material harm to HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment,” said a statement from ACT UP NY. “As a major publishing house, Simon & Schuster has a duty to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS misinformation and denialism. Every occurrence adds needless life to an epidemic that has persisted for far too long.”

As part of the protest, messages from ACT UP NY are being displayed all day on a billboard truck outside Simon & Schuster headquarters.

A Simon & Schuster representative toldSalonthat the company has no say in Skyhorse’s editorial decisions and cannot choose to distribute certain titles and not others.

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Disney To Defy DeSantis With Major LGBTQ Conference

Gary Carnivele March 23, 2023

The Miami Herald reports:

The Walt Disney Company will host a major conference promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the workplace in Central Florida this September, gathering executives and professionals from the world’s largest companies in a defiant display of the limits of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign against diversity training. Michael Chamberlain, chief marketing officer for Out & Equal, confirmed the conference would be held at The Walt Disney World Resort, Sept. 11-14.

Dozens of iconic American companies — including Apple, McDonald’s, Uber, Walmart, Hilton, Amazon, Boeing, Cracker Barrel and John Deere — are sponsoring the Out & Equal Workplace summit, which over 5,000 people are expected to attend. Several agencies, including the State Department and the CIA, are listed as government partners and will have booths at the conference.

Read the full article. Disney has also committed to hosting the same convention next year.

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Grindr joins major public health push to distribute free at-home HIV tests

Jay Valle March 22, 2023

The world’s most popular gay dating app, Grindr, is participating in a nationwide effort to distribute free at-home HIV testing kits to populations most affected by the virus.

“If you’ve got a way that you are testing, and it’s really working for you, then that’s great, and you should stick with that,” Jack Harrison-Quintana, director of the app’s social justice division, Grindr for Equality, told NBC News. “If you don’t, this is an additional way for you to get tested in a way that’s just about as easy as doing an at-home Covid test.”

Grindr, which reports 12 million monthly active users worldwide, is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory University and several other public health organizations and corporations on the Together TakeMeHome campaign, which launched Tuesday. Supported by a $41 million grant from the CDC, the program will provide up to 1 million HIV self-tests over five years, at no cost for individuals

The program, according to a statement released by Emory, was initiated in response to a decline in the number of HIV testsadministered nationwide during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grindr’s primary role in the effort is to allow users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico to easily order an at-home HIV test directly from the app. Starting Tuesday afternoon, Grindr users will see a “Free HIV Home Test” button in the app’s main menu. Those who click will be redirected out of the app to the Together TakeMeHome site, where an at-home HIV test can be ordered.

The test kit consists of an FDA-approved OraQuick device that uses mouth swabs and takes 20 minutes to provide a result. The app will also allow users to set “Testing Reminders” where they can set up a three- or six-month reminder for HIV testing.

Dr. Robyn Neblett, the acting director of the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, said these at-home tests give people “the power to test on their own terms.”

“Removing barriers to testing like stigma, discrimination, and access to physical services improves health, advances health equity, and moves our nation closer to ending the HIV epidemic,” Neblett said in a statement.

The CDC recommends those ages 13 to 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. Those with certain risk factors — including men who have sex with men — should get tested at least once a year.

The Together TakeMeHome program is available to anyone in the U.S. and Puerto Rico over the age of 17, and each individual can order up to two kits every 90 days. The focus of the program, however, will be on U.S. populations disproportionately affected by HIV, including cisgender men who have sex with men, transgender people and Black cisgender women.

Men who have sex with men account for 70% of new cases of HIV in the U.S., according to the CDC. Whites in this demographiccomprised 15% of the 34,800 HIV transmissions in 2019, while the much smaller populations of their Black and Latino peers comprised a respective 26% and 23% of new cases.

According to an investigation published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine in 2019, the distribution of HIV self-tests provides “a worthwhile mechanism to increase awareness of HIV infection” and prevents transmission among men who have sex with men.

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5 companies showing true trans allyship by offering gender-affirming healthcare to employees

Erik Niewiarowski March 6, 2023

Netflix, Amazon and Starbucks are just a few of the most inclusive companies that offer gender-affirming care for trans employees.

Even though it is early in 2023, there have already been over 100 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in the US. In the UK, trans issues remain in the headlines since the UK Government blocked Scotland’s progressive Gender Reform Act.

According to GLAAD, when trans people get the care they need, they are more likely to be working and almost 80 per cent see mental health improve. Transition is costly: in the US, top or bottom surgeries can cost up to $25,000. Other treatments and cosmetic surgeries often not covered by private insurance policies can be even more expensive. In the UK, it can take years to get a referral to seen at a gender identity clinic. It makes sense then that many employers are offering gender-affirming care as part of their benefits package.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation have been tracking employers rated in their Corporate Equality Index (CEI) that have at least one transgender-inclusive benefit since 2002. Twenty years ago there were no companies that met any of their guidelines – fast forward to today and there are over 650 companies that have adopted gender transition guidelines and over 90 per cent of CEI businesses have at least one trans-inclusive policy on offer.

PinkNews has gone through the list for you to shine a spotlight on some companies offer gender-affirming care. No company is completely perfect when it comes to total inclusion. So when looking for a new role, make sure to research in more detail their policies and purpose.

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A trans woman is standing behind a female colleague. — In the US, gender-affirming top or bottom surgeries can cost up to $25,000. (PinkNews)

HSBC

Starting in 2023, the financial giant announced that it will pay for its trans employees’ gender-affirming care. The “gender dysphoria benefit” encourages trans and non-binary staff to “be their true authentic self.” The program will allow employees and dependants to apply to have their gender-affirming surgeries and other treatments paid for.

A spokesperson for the bank told PinkNews: “Our diversity is a defining feature of who we are and how we operate, and we are a proud and active supporter of customers and colleagues across the broad spectrum of diversity of sexuality and gender identity. By providing access to gender affirmation treatment, we hope that our trans and non-binary colleagues and their dependents are able to be their true authentic self.”

Amazon

The world’s largest retailer has been offering gender-affirming care for quite some time – since the 2010s. Benefits at Amazon begin on the first day of employment, including equal health coverage for transgender individuals.

In an effort to boost diversity, inclusion and support within the company, all employees have access to trans-inclusive resources. The ‘Transgender and Guidelines Toolkit’ offers information like terminology breakdowns to help cis colleagues understand phrases that could be brought up in conversation, name and pronoun use and a communication template for employees wanting to talk about their transgender identity. The guide was created by the company’s ‘Glamazon’ group, one of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ employee resource groups.

Amazon will also cover up to $4,000 in medical care travel costs for all US-based employees. This added coverage is for non-life-threatening treatments, including transgender care, abortions and substance abuse issues. This particular initiative came out of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the rise anti-trans laws in many states.

A person is looking at the camera and smiling with a female colleague also smiling during a work meeting in a conference room. — Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks and HSBC are just some of the companies offering trans healthcare support. (PinkNews)

Netflix

While Netflix has a history of platforming anti-trans content (looking your way, Dave Chapelle), the streaming company has offered gender-affirming care for its employees since 2015. Coverage includes surgeries and HRT. Like Amazon, Netflix will reimburse colleagues in the United States up to $10,000 in travel expenses to receive care out of state.

The streaming giant that brought queer favourites like Heartstopper also has a dedicated employee resource group dedicated to trans colleagues. The Trans* Employee Resource Group (ERG) started in 2015 as a group on Slack and has evolved into a funded ERG that supports visibility for trans employees.

Starbucks

Since 2018, the world’s largest coffee shop that made the “frappuccino” a household name has covered gender-affirming care for trans employees. The Seattle-based company initially covered bottom surgery in 2012 and now includes all other steps in a person’s medical transition. These include “cosmetic” procedures that go uncovered by most insurance companies – including top surgery, hair transplants and removals, and facial feminisation surgeries. Not only that, the company will assist their trans employees in finding the appropriate doctors and healthcare providers.

It is worth noting that the company is allegedly threatening to cancel its gender-affirming benefits as over 150 stores in the United States have voted to join the newly formed Starbucks United Workers union.

After a string of gay bar thefts, what can clubgoers and bar patrons do to protect themselves?

Matt Lavietes March 5, 2023

Following a string of incidents at New York City gay bars where incapacitated men had money stolen from their bank accounts with the help of facial recognition technology, safety experts are recommending a multi-pronged approach for those seeking a fun and safe night out.

Calls for vigilance were reignited last week when the New York City Police Department confirmed that three men who had visited The Eagle NYC, a gay leather bar, in the fall were incapacitated and then had thousands of dollars stolen from their online financial accounts by criminals who accessed the victims’ smartphones using facial recognition technology. These incidents were similar to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two men in the spring, Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, who were last seen at gay bars in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on the evenings they died.

In the wake of these incidents, public safety experts have advised patrons of the city’s LGBTQ nightlife spaces to avoid using facial recognition technology on their smartphones and to take several other steps to ensure a fun night out doesn’t result in a dangerous situation, especially incapacitation.

Brian Downey, an NYPD detective and the president of the Gay Officers Action League, or GOAL, said the ideal solution “is not getting in that position to begin with.”

Gay bars and nightclubs have long served as de facto community centers for queer people, especially in New York, which has the nation’s largest population of LGBTQ people. This rich history, and the long-held idea of gay bars as safe spaces, has led many patrons of these venues to believe in the inherent good nature of those around them, Downey said. However, he cautioned that queer New Yorkers must avoid letting their guards down and maintain situational awareness, even within these historically safe spaces.

“Our community should be aware at all times that no matter what community you’re going to be a part of, no matter what age cohort you’re in, there are always going to be people who absolutely do not have good intentions,” Downey said. “There are people who perceive our community as weak, our community as folks who can be preyed upon, and they will use that to their advantage.”

In addition to these incidents, the NYPD has confirmed that it is investigating similar crimes that have victimized bar patrons who do not identify as LGBTQ or were visiting venues that are not queer-affiliated. Authorities have also not publicly commented on whether the victims were drugged on the evenings they were victimized. However, three victims of such crimes, including one of The Eagle NYC victims, and family members of three other victims, including Ramirez and Umberger, previously told NBC News they strongly suspect druggings occurred before the thefts.

To avoid being drugged or consuming unsafe substances that can lead to illness or incapacitation, experts shared some prevention methods that officials have been advising for decades: Watch your drink being prepared, do not leave your drink unattended and do not accept drinks or drugs from strangers.

Joseph Palamar, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, has spent decades studying drug use in New York City’s nightlife scene. He warned that drinks left unattended can easily be spiked with powdered opioids or gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), which can be difficult to detect or taste.

Even if equipped with fentanyl test strips, which are small strips of paper that can detect the presence of the deadly opioid in other substances, Palamar acknowledged that most people are probably not testing their drinks or drugs while they’re out partying. He said it would be more advisable to simply refrain from accepting drinks and drugs from strangers.

“It would be a little awkward testing the person’s drugs in front of them, and I think it would ruin the intimacy of the moment,” Palamar said. “I mean picture it: You’re trying to kiss somebody in a stall and, ‘Oh, hold on! Let me test this bump before you give it to me.’ It’ll be insulting, and there goes the hookup.”

Clubgoers and bar patrons who engage in one-on-one activities with strangers are most vulnerable, he added.

“When you’re off dancing with somebody or kissing somebody or you go to the bathroom with someone to do a bump or to have sex or to do whatever, that is when the risk is much higher to be drugged,” Palamar said. “You can do your thing and run around and hook up, but you need a friend around to notice if you begin acting out of the ordinary.”

Palamar also acknowledged that some clubgoers might go out by themselves, sometimes with the intention of meeting strangers to hook up with. In those scenarios, he and other experts advised making friends or family members aware of your whereabouts before going out.

For those going out solo, Darlene Torres, the director of client services at LGBTQ advocacy group NYC Anti-Violence Project, recommended sharing their phone’s location data — a feature available on most smartphones — with friends or family members. She also recommended they set up check-ins throughout the evening with their loved ones and create a plan should their loved ones not hear from them on evenings they’re going out alone.

“We can’t control people,” Torres said. “We can only really try to give as many tools and safety plans — plan A, plan B, plan C — and to make sure folks have those plans laid out for them before they go out for the night.”

The NYPD has not made any arrests in connection with the incidents at The Eagle NYC or in the cases of Ramirez and Umberger, though the department confirmed all of these incidents are still being investigated. But Downey cautioned that even when those responsible for these victimizations are brought to justice, LGBTQ New Yorkers must continue to be vigilant and practice common nightlife safety measures.

“I would never say, ‘Don’t go out,’ because if we don’t go out, we’re sending a message to people that we’re afraid of them and that we’re not strong enough to come together against these bad actors,” Downey said. “Instead of hiding, what needs to just be increased is our level of situational awareness — and it’s not a time to be complacent.”

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Dot com bust 2.0 is decimating queer tech industry workers

Michael Ciriaco March 2, 2023

Last week, Microsoft announced that the company plans to axe 10,000 workers, amounting to approximately 5% of its staff. This mass layoff follows a current pattern of instability within the tech sector that includes the collapse of the cryptocurrency company FTX and Elon Musk’s cataclysmic overhaul of Twitter following his acquisition of the social media monolith in October.

This “dot com bust 2.0,” as some financial analysts refer to it, reflects a downward spiral in the US tech industry, which hemorrhaged $7.4 trillion in 2021. While this negative trend affects workers on multiple levels, from corporate recruiters to software engineers, it disproportionately affects the LGBTQ+ community, women, and people of color.

Massive layoffs result in a freeze on new hires, which impacts not only workers but also corporate recruiters. According to data analysis performed by the career site Zippia, nine percent of people working in corporate recruitment identify as LGBTQ+ (compared to a 2021 Gallup Poll assessment that 7.1% of Americans, in general, identify as LGBTQ+.) To Colin Smith, a former corporate recruiter based in Washington, DC, this profession attracts members of the queer community because of their distinct culture.

“I think that with the adversity that LGBT people face, it sort of allows them to be better communicators,” explained Smith during a recent phone interview. I think, generally speaking, communication is something that LGBT people just excel on. I really enjoyed being able to help people make their lives better with a better job situation.”

Even more than the LGBTQ+ community, this hiring freeze disproportionately affects women of all gender identities and sexual orientations in corporate recruitment. According to the Zippia analysis, 62.5% of all corporate recruiters identify as female. With the flurry of firings at not only Microsoft, but also those recently announced by tech giants Amazon, Lyft, and Google’s parent company Alphabet, the resulting hiring freezes would likely affect over 100,000 women working in this field.

And recruitment isn’t the only area in the tech industry where female employees face challenges. For Justin Fanok, a former software engineer who most recently worked for Plex Systems, one of the biggest problems he’s witnessed women face is the stifling of their professional input.

“I’ve only ever had a few females that I’ve worked with in the tech field, and that’s few and far between,” said Fanok. “It’s almost like their perspectives kind of gets shut out. A lot of times, it’s the person with a loud voice who ends up being heard. The type of voices that get heard and listened to are typically male.”

The tech industry’s discrimination toward women has also been observed by Dr. Ali Mushtaq, a sociologist and adjunct professor at Chapman University. Being ignored is just one of the many challenges faced by women in this field, specifically those that identify as trans.

“I think tech, in general, is a culture that’s more accepting of LGBTQ people than a lot of other industries. But then at the same time, you’re still dealing with questions about trans inclusion issues,” said Mushtaq, “you’re dealing with various aspects of micro-aggressions, you’re dealing with the employee lifecycle, retention, advancement, being able to go into higher leadership positions, questions like, ‘are we able to open up gender-neutral bathrooms?’ And then questions about whether or not sexuality affects they’re able to get promoted within these workspaces.”

In the tech sector’s current climate of mass layoffs, the higher one’s level within a company usually equates to a lower chance of termination. Since minorities such as women and workers who immigrated to the United States for employment face a more difficult struggle for career advancement, they are far more likely to be laid off. For those who moved from culturally misogynistic and homophobic countries, losing their work visas means returning to potentially dire consequences.

“I had a friend who worked at Warner Brothers,” continued Mushtaq. “He just got laid off and now he’s gonna have to go back to India in a month. That’s an example we don’t necessarily think about because a lot of us are citizens. You’re looking at the way in which minorities and women are put in positions where they’re sort of dispensable, or they’re more on the lower rung.

“So what ends up happening is, those positions are the first thing cut by management. And so those people are going to be the ones first to get fired. So it does affect people of color and gender minorities more disproportionately, and absolutely will probably hurt them, especially within this industry. Ultimately, I think that there needs to be more support and more mentorship for people in tech, especially if you’re a woman or a person of color, to access a lot of positions.”

One such program is LaunchCode, a St. Louis-based nonprofit offering free tech education and job placement for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. Maggie Techner, a teacher in this organization who identifies as a gay woman, shared an experience similar to the one expressed by Mushtaq.

“We did have a student that was from Ukraine in my last class. And she was here on a visa from Ukraine before the war started, and then lost touch with her family and was trying to take this class as well as deal with all of that back home. And that’s just things that you don’t even think about being an extra stressor on some of these kids.”

If Techner’s Ukrainian student were to lose her visa, she would return to a war-scarred country where over 7,000 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded nearly a year ago. And the situation is even direr for queer Ukrainians, evidenced by the tragic story of Alexander.

Alexander was fleeing the decimated city of Kherson when Russian soldiers detained him, according to the UK-based independent media outlet openDemocracy. While going through messages on his phone, the soldiers discovered he was gay and sent him to the notorious Olenivka prison in the Donetsk region. Prison administrators disclosed Alexander’s sexual orientation to the other inmates, which put a target on the young man’s back.

“The prisoners began to harass me,” Alexander said. “For a while, I resisted, but after a few days, I was forced to do what they said. Almost every evening, 10 to 15 men raped me, until I was released by the representatives of the administration.”

For the many white cis-het tech bros who risk losing their jobs in the “dot com bust 2.0,” the consequence is unemployment. But for some, specifically queer immigrants, this downward trend in the US tech sector is a matter of life or death.

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Rihanna’s new Fenty ad stars out newlyweds Miss Puerto Rico & Miss Argentina

LGBTQ Nation, Molly Sprayregen February 26, 2023

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.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UQALAl4G6-o%3Ffeature%3Doembed

“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.

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Most LGBTQ+ founders and investors hide their gender or sexuality, report finds

Pink News, Sophie Perry February 20, 2023

In the UK tech industry, 75 per cent of LGBTQ+ founders and 80 per cent of investors do not feel safe sharing their gender and sexual identity with their peers, new research has found.

The LGBTQ+ Founder Report was carried out by Proud Ventures (PV), a UK collective of LGBTQ+ investors, founders and venture capitalists, and surveyed 61 investors and 130 founders.

The first-of-its kind research sought to address the fact that “any attempt to engage with or support the LGBTQ+ community in tech or VC has been held back by the repeated question of whether there is actually any problem to solve”.

Data in the report revealed that many people in the LGBTQ+ community, be it founders or investors, “do not feel comfortable to share their identities with investors and other stakeholders”.

The result of this concealment can potentially have an impact on LGBTQ+ people’s health and wellbeing, as they feel forced to separate part of their identity.

Only 25 per cent of founders explained they were comfortable to share their identity with every investor they met, a significant majority (75 per cent) of LGBTQ+ founders were not.

Of these founders, 34 per cent stated they didn’t feel comfortable sharing their LGBTQ+ identity with any investor at all, 25 per cent said they only felt comfortable to share with a few investors, 11 per cent noted they only feel comfortable sharing with an investor after a few calls and five per cent said they would only feel comfortable with those investors already on their cap table.

Of the 80 per cent of investors who hide their LGBTQ+ identity, half said they would only share their identity with another investor after meeting a few times, 17 per cent stated they never would share their identity with another investor and 11 per cent revealed they would only share the information with investors they are closest to or who are on their team.

Of those surveyed, 45 per cent said they thought their identity was not relevant to the situation, 27 per cent) revealed they did not feel comfortable enough to share it, 18 per cent noted they felt sharing could harm their efforts at fundraising and 10 per cent said they didn’t think it could help them.

The report outlined the negative impacts such concealment can have on LGBTQ+ people’s health and wellbeing, including memory and cognition.

“Clear data has drawn a causational link between LGBTQ+ people practising increasing concealment and worse health outcomes,” the document reads.

Funds raised are not equal in the LGBTQ+ community

The survey found gay founders raised 2.25 times more than bisexual founders and 22 times more than lesbian founders. Cis men founders raised 2.5 times more than cis women founders and 10 times more than trans founders.

Interestingly, the research revealed a correlation between LGB people who were more open about their identity and greater capital raised.

However, this was not the same for people who are open about their gender identity, with research suggesting that founders who were more open about their gender identity raised less and generated less revenue.

Several recommendations were put forth by the report, including investors publicly showing support for LGBTQ+ founders, having teams share their pronouns publicly and hiring more diverse investment teams.

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Trans employee wins $20K settlement against Shake Shack

Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation February 19, 2023

A transgender man won a $20,000 settlement in a lawsuit against the fast food chain Shake Shack after he faced a month of transphobic harassment on the job with no support from his employer.

The man, who has not been identified in the media, worked at Shake Shack in 2020 in Oakland, California. He said that he was harassed daily and referred to as female.

He told his supervisors about the harassment and instead of helping him they told him to “explain his gender to co-workers rather than rely on management to correct discriminatory behavior,” according to the California Civil Rights Department, which helped him with his lawsuit. The supervisors said it was his responsibility to convince his coworkers to stop harassing him.

His lawsuit says that after a month he grew “frustrated by management’s failure to address his concerns” and quit.

“California law prohibits intentional misgendering in the workplace,” California Civil Rights Department director Kevin Kish said. “Intentional misgendering and other forms of discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression can be stressful and traumatic.”

After mediated talks, the agency said that Shake Shack agreed to improve their discrimination training for managers and employees and adopt more strict policies about discrimination and harassment. Shake Shack also agreed to report anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and harassment complaints directly to the state for the next year and pay the former employee $20,000.

“Creating a welcoming and fulfilling environment for all our employees and guests is critical,” reads a statement from Shake Shack. “We are constantly taking steps to ensure our policies and culture reflect our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

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Employers openly biased against nonbinary job applicant in resume study

John Russell, LGBTQ Nation February 19, 2023

Nonbinary people face “clear bias” in the job market according to a new study from Business.com, with employers expressing blatant discrimination when presented with a resume that used they/them pronouns.

“As layoffs sweep through the U.S., our data shows nonbinary individuals may have a difficult time finding new jobs,” the site tweeted.

According to the study, many nonbinary workers feel they must conceal their gender identity. “People have complained about ‘the gay agenda’ to me,” one person in Oregon said. “This is why I am hesitant to openly identify as nonbinary. It jeopardizes my personal safety to be out. I wish it didn’t.”

“I am in the nonbinary closet due to professional reasons,” one 34-year-old said. “I live in Florida, and coming out as nonbinary could cost me future job opportunities.”

Nonbinary people in the South were more likely to fear prejudice in the workplace even after being hired. “I have not experienced difficulty working as a nonbinary person in New York City, but I previously lived in South Carolina where it was more difficult… in South Carolina, I was told I had to stay closeted to succeed,” a 25-year-old professional said.

Researchers also sent two identical resumes out to 180 employers. Both resumes featured a gender-neutral name, but only one indicated they/them pronouns.

“Our experiment revealed that the resume with nonbinary pronouns received less interest from employers and fewer requests for interviews or phone screens,” researchers said.

In the study’s third phase, researchers reached out directly to hiring managers to find out why the resume that included they/them pronouns received less interest. “When we asked what, if anything, the applicants could improve about their resumes, several hiring managers revealed blatant biases and even bigotry against nonbinary job seekers,” researchers wrote.

“This person seems like a decent fit on paper, though I am not interested in the drama that a person who thinks they are a ‘they/them’ brings with them,” a 57-year-old in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry told researchers.

“I immediately balk at the supposed ‘gender neutral’ pronoun of ‘they/them,’” a 32-year-old man in the arts, design, and entertainment industry said. “It doesn’t make sense when used like this and is, at its root, an attack on women.”

“Though it’s not surprising that some people still hold onto biases against nonbinary people, it was surprising that these biases existed in some unexpected places,” the study’s author Ryan McGonnagill told The Advocate. “People of all genders, ages, and regions expressed bias and even flat-out bigotry against our nonbinary job applicant. So did hiring managers in many different industries — even those that are often considered more progressive, such as higher education and entertainment.”

McGonnagill and his fellow researchers asked several experts how employers can make their hiring processes more inclusive for people who identify as nonbinary. Suggestions included diversifying search teams, using inclusive language in job postings, and giving job applicants the opportunity to self-identify during the interview process. Researchers also suggested that employers hire outside consultants or in-house diversity, equity, and inclusion experts to aid in the hiring process.

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