Positive Images is beyond thrilled to introduce our Executive Director Kimi Barbosa (she/they). Kimi’s focus on equity for communities of color, immigrants and LGBTQIA+ people is evident throughout her life and work and will guide our 33-year-old organization into its next chapter.
Kimi brings deep enthusiasm and a wealth of professional and lived experience to the role. A first generation college graduate, Kimi earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Mills College and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology at Sonoma State University. They are also a recent graduate of Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute. Kimi is a skilled capacity-builder in non-profit organizations.
Kimi’s parents immigrated to California from Minas Gerais, Brasil and she spent her childhood in the central valley where her family were agricultural workers. She brings a multilingual and multicultural lens to her work. Kimi’s background informs their dedication to challenging oppressive systems, uplifting intersectional identities, and rooting their work in diversity, equity, and belonging (DEB) principles. They have spent the last decade organizing in Sonoma County and surrounding Bay Area communities. Kimi has held many roles-from developing, implementing, and evaluating programs that reach vulnerable communities, to consulting with local agencies to help them build equity and access into their programs and strategic planning.
If you don’t already know Kimi, we can’t wait for you to meet them at PI! We have not had an Executive Director on staff since our founder Jim retired in 2015. This is a tremendous step forward for us! P.S. The rest of our team hasn’t gone anywhere!
Frankie Miranda was in kindergarten the first time he was called a fa—t. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he was bullied by other students and sexually assaulted by a teacher. Once, he confided in a middle school teacher that he had feelings for other boys. The teacher told him to go home and pray to Jesus.
Today, Miranda is the first openly gay president of the Hispanic Federation — one of the nation’s largest Latino advocacy organizations — and is drawing upon his experiences to help push back against recent laws and policies that target LGBTQ people.
Miranda is part of a broader movement among Latino advocates and leaders that is raising awareness of the shared struggles of Latino and LGBTQ communities, as conservative governors and state legislatures continue to promote anti-LGBTQ measures.
Miranda, 51, believes that measures like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and the state’s restriction on gender-affirming care for minors will actually hurt children. For example, he said, children will not report bullying or hazing. “The laws are creating fear and misinformation for parents and are designed to demonize some of the most vulnerable people in our community,” he added.
Under Miranda’s leadership, the Hispanic Federation has created the $1 million Advance Change Together Initiative, which is funding groups working to protect Latino LGBTQ rights. “The purpose of the Initiative is to empower under- resourced local organizations, so they can continue their work,” Miranda said. “We need to show that our community supports LGBTQ rights.”
‘We know what discrimination is’
A 2022 Axios/Ipsos Poll found that 62% of Latinos say they are comfortable around people who identify as LGBTQ. A Gallup survey released that same year found that about 11% of Latino adults identify as LGBT, compared with 6% of Americans overall.
For Pride Month 2023, the League of United Latin American Citizens — the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization — issued a call for state legislative bodies to protect and defend the rights of LGBTQ citizens. Jesse Garcia, who served as LULAC’s past LGBTQIA+ chairperson, said, “State legislatures have the power … to stop recent legislation attacking youth in schools, drag performers, and families making their own health decisions.”
“We know history. We know how to organize. We know what discrimination is,” LULAC”s Jesse Garcia says about the group’s call to defend LGBTQ rights. Courtesy Jesse Garcia
Since Garcia started the group’s first “Rainbow Council” in Dallas in 2006, LULAC has passed national resolutions on everything from repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to opposing conversion therapy to supporting marriage equality.
Now a LULAC member in Washington D.C., Garcia is proud of his role in the group’s advocacy efforts.
“LULAC has always had openly gay members, and they were loved and beloved. We just had to have conversations at the local and national level,” he said. “But LULAC members are civil rights people. We know history, we know how to organize. We know what discrimination is.”
Latinos have a long tradition of LGBT activism. In 1961, Jose Sarria became the first openly gay candidate to run for public office, when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 1969, Sylvia Rivera helped lead the Stonewall riots in New York City, considered the birth of the LGBT rights movement. In 1987, Cesar Chavez — one of the first national civil rights leaders to support gay rights — served as a grand marshal of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
More recently, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., the first openly gay Afro Latino to be elected to Congress in 2020, drew on his firsthand experiences to put LGBTQ issues in the legislative forefront. “As a child of the Bronx who grew up in public housing, I was often too scared to come out of the closet in my youth,” he states in his website. “I feel the weight of history on my shoulders. I know firsthand the discrimination members of the LGBTQ+ community face, and am determined to make positive change for my community.”
Torres’ first bill to pass the House ensures that LGBTQ-owned businesses have equal access to capital and credit, and he voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage rights.
‘We don’t want any of that with our kids’
But the increasing visibility of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people has generated some backlash among Latinos in the faith community. A majority of Latino Catholics (66%) as well as Latino Protestants (81%) believe there are only two genders, according to a June Public Religion Research Institute survey.
Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Latinos are “vehemently opposed to any teaching of gender and sexuality in elementary and primary schools.” Courtesy Samuel Rodriguez
Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization representing Latino evangelicals.
“Latinos are vehemently opposed to any teaching of gender and sexuality in elementary and primary schools,” Rodriguez said, adding that there are many Latinos involved in the campaigns opposing LGBT and gender instruction in public schools. “We don’t want any of that with our kids.”
To Rodriguez, Latinos are often left out of the debate over LGBT and family issues. “We always hear the extreme voices on the right and on the left, because they’re the loudest voices.” “We are people of faith and familia, and we love and respect all people,” Rodriguez said.
He thinks there should be more room for diverse opinions in the public discourse. “If we are going to have Pride Month at Target, that’s great — but why can’t we have Traditional Family Month? That is simply equity.”
‘We are never safe’
Gia Pacheco, program director for Organizacion Latina Trans in Texas said it is “a sad reality” that “there are no safe spaces for trans people in Texas, including in queer spaces.” Pacheco pointed out that the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Florida took place in a gay club.
The current political climate, according to Pacheco, has made OLTT’s work especially challenging.
“As a trans person, no matter how comfortable we might get, we are never safe,” said Pacheco, whose organization provides emergency shelter and temporary housing for LGBTQ people in vulnerable situations. OLTT is also the only shelter in Texas, according to Pacheco, that is “openly, happily” taking in transgender people. It also offers assistance to transgender migrants and Latinx people seeking gender-affirming care.
“Trans people are the first to fight for everyone’s rights, but always the last to receive them,” said Pacheco, adding that despite the challenges, the group remains committed to its work.
“No matter how many laws they pass, no matter how many bones they break, transgender individuals will always be here — and our community will still grow,” Pacheco said.
Conservative political strategies “are using trans issues as a wedge issue with Latinos, as a divide-and-conquer tactic,” said author and scholar Juana Maria Rodriguez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who teaches ethnic, gender and women’s studies.
“The right wing has latched onto transgender issues because they recognize that gay and lesbian rights have garnered traction. They (conservatives) have lost that war,” Rodriguez said. “So they’re trying to divide both the Latino and the gay community by throwing trans people under the bus.”
The boycotts of Bud Light and Target over their support for the LGBT community, reflect “one of the most extreme backlashes we’ve seen since the AIDS era,” Rodriguez said.
The UC Berkeley professor is not surprised that Latino advocacy groups are embracing LGBTQ rights. “It really comes down to family. Latinos love their families, and most of us have had una prima que nunca se casó (a cousin who never married) or a tía (aunt) who everyone knew was queer.”
Still, Rodriguez is concerned that the controversies over LGBTQ issues will harm Latino kids. “The right wing is targeting our love for our children — and trying to make us afraid of the LGBT community.”
Looking ahead, Frankie Miranda from the Hispanic Federation is optimistic about more “intersectionality” between Latino and LGBT groups.
“Our communities are not separate,” he said. “And the policies that are happening now, in some states, are trying to push us back into an era that I know well, an environment that can be toxic and damaging for many children.”
“But data shows that Latinos overwhelmingly support marriage equality and LGBTQ rights,” Miranda added. “We just need to be sure that we are communicating and continuing the conversations, so that everyone is treated with respect and dignity.”
A Key West drag performer is running to unseat a Republican in the Florida state legislature, where GOP lawmakers have spent the last couple of years pushing their blatantly anti-LGBTQ+ agenda under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
As Florida Politics reports, Michael Elgin Travis has filed to challenge incumbent state Rep. Jim Mooney, a two-term Republican who represents Florida House District 120.
A ghost tour guide and bartender at Key West’s 801 Bourbon Bar, Travis also performs two nights each week in drag as Erika Rose at the Duval Street LGBTQ+ bar. If elected, Travis would be the first professional drag queen in the state’s legislature.
Travis said that he decided to run for office after traveling to Tallahassee along with hundreds of other drag performers and supporters in April to participate in a march and rally against Florida’s S.B. 1438. The law, which DeSantis signed in May, allows the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation to revoke the business licenses of any venues that allow minors to see “lewd” performances, even if their parents’ consent, as well as issue $5,000 and $10,000 fines against the business. Anyone who violates the law can be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. While the law does not specifically mention drag, it has been interpreted as targeting drag shows and performers, which anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans have characterized as “sexually explicit adult entertainment.”
A federal judge blocked the law from going into effect late last month, but S.B. 1438 is just one of the many laws aimed at limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ Floridians passed by the state legislature and signed by DeSantis in recent years. Travis also blasted the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law, which was recently expanded to ban discussion of LGBTQ+ topics at all grade levels in Florida schools. Travis called the law “nonsense.”
“That one drives me nuts,” he said.
The Key West Democrat faces an uphill battle in the race against Mooney. As Florida Politicsnotes, the incumbent won 60 percent of the vote against out Democrat Adam Gentle in the 2022 general election.
“Either way, I win,” Travis said of his prospects. “I’ll either win the election or inspire others and let them know they are valued.”
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the torture and murder of a popular Chechen singer because the Putin ally was personally insulted to have unknowingly shaken hands with the gay man, according to a new report.
Zelimkhan Bakaev went missing within hours after returning to Chechnya for his sister’s wedding in 2017. The popular singer had fled to Moscow due to the gay purge taking place in his home region. The new report from SK SOS said Kadyrov was aghast a photo existed of the two men shaking hands. SK SOS reports he ordered security forces to “deal with” Bakaev, who was tortured during much of the 13 hours he was in custody before he was executed.
The report also said Bakaev’s body was returned to his family with the order to “bury him like a dog.”
Months after Bakaev went missing, Kadyrov gave a speech to service members accusing Bakaev’s family of killing him because they learned he was gay.
“They told him, ‘Come over,’ and when he arrived, apparently his cousins or second cousins confronted him and said, ‘You’re gay,’” Kadyrov claimed in the 2018 speech.
Despite the denial of involvement, the speech was the first official admission that Bakaev was dead.
During this same period, Kadyrov denied gay people existed in the country. During an interview with HBO’s Real Sports in 2017, he took offense at questions from reporter David Scott on his nation’s imprisonment and killing of gay and bisexual men.
“We don’t have those kinds of people here,” Kadyrov responded after scolding Scott for asking the question. “If there are there take them to Canada… Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home… To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.”
An armed Neo-Nazi group protested a Pride in the Park event in Watertown, Wisconsin, on Saturday afternoon that featured a drag story time and drag shows.
Video journalist Oliya Scootercaster took to Twitter on Saturday to document the protest and wrote, “BLOOD TRIBE group marching in Watertown Wisconsin protesting Pride in the park.” In her videos, one Neo-Nazi group member can be seen carrying a weapon.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Blood Tribe is described as “a neo-Nazi group with semi-autonomous chapters in the United States and Canada. Blood Tribe promotes hardline white supremacist views and openly directs its vitriol at Jews, ‘non-whites’ and the LGBTQ+ community.”
The transgender community’s history on the Indian subcontinent spans thousands of years.
The community has historically thrived, but discriminatory colonial laws left it isolated and trans people faced violence in the subcontinent. Pakistan is no exception.
A group of 26 tribal clerics in Pakistan’s Khyber province on July 7 banned trans people from dancing and playing music during weddings. They ruled clergy would not perform wedding rituals at any marriages that included dance and music.
The clerics in their decree said they will not perform the last rites of an entire family if any one of them disobeys the decision.
The Washington Blade reached out to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for comment, but his office did not respond.
“They have been doing it for a very long time. In 2015, there were so many cases when trans persons have been killed because of being artists because they were performing, and gender as well. The violence in Khyber province is apparently higher as compared to other provinces. But now other provinces are also replicating,” said Jannat Ali, a Pakistani trans activist and executive director of Track T, a trans rights organization. “Transphobia is increasing in other parts of Pakistan. The government is playing very smartly and being neutral as the current government is a right-wing conservative, and elections are about to come.”
The National Assembly in 2018 passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which allows for a trans person to be legally recognized. The law also prohibits any discrimination and harassment based on gender identity.
While talking with the Blade, Ali said Pakistan’s trans community faces a dilemma because it feels as though the British colonial era has returned. She said things were moving in a good direction after 2018, but an anti-trans campaign has begun.
“After Khyber, I think, Punjab (a province in Pakistan) will be the next target,” said Ali.
Violence and attacks on the trans community have increased in Pakistan in recent years.
Marvia Malik, the country’s first trans television anchor, in February was attacked outside her home in Lahore.
She gave a statement to the police and later received threatening calls and messages from unknown numbers. A group of people shot at Malik while she was returning home from a pharmacy at night. She survived.
The Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body that advises the Pakistani government and Parliament on Islamic issues, last year said the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 is not in accordance with the Shariah law. The council further stated many of its provisions are not consistent with Islamic ideology, and warned against it.
“I believe that everyone deserves to be respected and treated equally, regardless of their gender identity. Unfortunately, some people feel the need to discriminate against others based on who they are. It’s important for society to stand up against discrimination and promote acceptance and understanding of diverse identities. Everyone has the right to live their life without fear of persecution or discrimination,” said Anusha Tahir Butt, chair of Transgender Empowerment Organization in Pakistan. “It’s possible that this ban could lead to increased violence or discrimination against transgender individuals not only in Khyber province but also in other parts of Pakistan. People need to speak out against this kind of discrimination and work together to create a more accepting and inclusive society. Governments and institutions need to take a stand against discrimination and protect the rights of all individuals, regardless of their gender identity. Education and awareness-raising can also play a role in promoting acceptance and understanding of diverse identities.”
Butt also said it’s unfortunate that discrimination against trans people continues to take place in Pakistan, despite the country’s nondiscrimination laws. While talking with the Blade, she suggested leaders and politicians need to speak out against such discrimination and work to create a more inclusive society. Butt also said silence on this issue can be seen as condoning discrimination and that is not acceptable.
“This is such an alarming situation for the transgender community because the transgender community is already facing threats in society. In recent times, there was objection over the Trans bill (the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018) — a bill, which was giving fundamental rights to the community. Now, such a threat to the transgender community will only get worse, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the province where we receive news regarding violence in the community,” said Veengas Yasmeen, founder editor and a journalist of Rise News, a digital news organization in Pakistan.
“In the province, clerics are in the habit of issuing fatwas in 2021 and 2022 where they barred women from going to the market, women should be accompanied by a male companion,” added Yasmeen. “I believe that this is not limited to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the trans community, but it may lead to other provinces. If conservatives bar transgender persons from joining events, then how can they survive because the government does not offer them sufficient jobs? Unfortunately, the Pakistan state is as silent as a grave over the issue, which is also strengthening mullahs. If someone is thinking that such a ban is only on the transgender community, they should not forget that conservatives, one day, will move toward you and issue the fatwa against you. I wonder, in the 21st century, some people are afraid of music and dance, both are a form of peace and love. If you are removing peace and love from your society, you are creating a society without souls.”
Pakistan’s religious court in May struck down key parts of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018. The court had said many of its provisions are against Islamic ideology.
“This is indeed sad and distressing on so many levels. The reversal of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018 has exposed Pakistan’s transgender population, especially transgender women, to increased violence and discrimination,” said Rikki Nathanson, senior advisor for OutRight International’s Global Trans Program. “We recognize that cultures and societies have varying beliefs and practices. In this case, the ban imposed by the clerics reflects their interpretation of religious or cultural norms. It is distressing to learn about the growing violence experienced by transgender individuals in Pakistan, particularly after the recent repeal of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018.”
“Our partners in Pakistan have informed us about the heightened vulnerability this community faces in other areas, as these attacks have transitioned from virtual to physical acts of violence, some even resulting in fatalities,” she added. “The severity of these threats has escalated to such an extent that several notable transgender activists have been forced to leave Pakistan and seek asylum elsewhere.”
Nathanson added this trend “is concerning and deserves attention.”
“These issues must be addressed to stop the cycle of marginalization that is affecting not only the mental health but overall well-being and safety of the transgender community of Pakistan,” she said.
Ankush Kumar is a freelance reporter who has covered many stories for Washington and Los Angeles Blades from Iran, India and Singapore. He recently reported for the Daily Beast. He can be reached at mohitk@opiniondaily.news. He is on Twitter at @mohitkopinion.
A professional dancer voguing at a Brooklyn gas station after a trip to the Jersey Shore with his friends was stabbed to death during a confrontation Saturday night with a group of Muslim men who said the victim’s impromptu performance offended their faith, witnesses and friends told the Daily News.
O’Shae Sibley, 28, a professional dancer who has performed at Lincoln Center as part of an all-queer dance group, was blasting music and dancing with his pals at the Midwood Mobil station on Coney Island Ave and Avenue P just after 11 p.m. when their antics drew homophobic protests from a group of men nearby, authorities and witnesses said.
The NYPD is investigating the caught-on-video killing as a possible hate crime. Medics rushed Sibley, stabbed in the torso, to Maimonides Medical Center but he couldn’t be saved. The killer ran off on Coney Island Ave. and has not been caught.
Sibley was a favorite of director and choregrapher Kemar Jewel, who has worked with the Philidelphia-born dancer for more than a decade and described him as a virtuoso skilled in various forms of modern dance.
“He was really good at adding ballet stuff to a tap number or voguing to a hip hop number,” said Jewel. “You probably can find dancers that are versatile, but you won’t always find dancers that are good at mixing styles seamlessly.”
Jewel notably featured Sibley in his 2021 video “Soft: A Love Letter to Black Queer Men,” a nearly seven-minute performance that the Brooklyn dancer co-choreographed, which uses the art of contemporary dance to portray black feminine energy.
Surveillance video footage obtained by The Post captured the heated exchange between two groups that turned deadly around 11 p.m. Saturday at a Mobil station on Coney Island Avenue, according to cops.
The video shows four shirtless black and Hispanic men gasing up their car — two of them seen dancing in their swim trunks — when another group standing outside the convenience store starts jawing at them.
The encounter grows increasingly tense as the two groups come face to face and exchange words for several minutes. The two sides briefly disperse, but are then seen confronting each other again — with a physical fight breaking out in the background, the footage shows.
Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang after the vote by the Chino Valley USD Board of Education to adopt a policy that will forcibly out transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming students — who may use different names and pronouns at school than those they were assigned at birth — to their parents without the student’s consent:
“Equality California is appalled and alarmed by the level of blatant homophobia and transphobia leveled against LGBTQ+ youth by the Chino Valley Unified School Board yesterday evening. With LGBTQ+ youth around the country under attack, the school board put their most vulnerable students in harm’s way with their dangerous vote to forcibly out trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming youth without their consent. The policy they passed last night is dangerous and in direct opposition to recommendations made by the California Department of Education.
In an ideal world, all LGBTQ+ students would have supportive homes with parents and guardians that are positive and active partners in conversations around gender identity and sexual orientation. Unfortunately, we know that’s not the case. According to the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 51% of transgender and nonbinary youth identified school as a gender-affirming space, while only 32% said the same of their homes. LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to be housing-insecure, and engage in self-harming behavior — particularly if they don’t feel they have a supportive family environment.
At yesterday’s meeting, the rhetoric and behavior of many of the board members, especially Board President Sonja Shaw, was dangerous and unfit for an elected official. Shaw and fellow members referred to LGBTQ+ students as being mentally ill, a harmful and wildly false statement to make in front of students attending the meeting. They also forcibly removed meeting attendees who did not agree with their extremist agenda, including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Chino Valley USD students, and Equality California staff members. Shame on them.
One of the major proponents of this misguided policy change is California Assemblymember Bill Essayli, who earlier this year attempted to pass AB 1314, which would have implemented forced outing policies statewide, also attended this meeting amid his push to make the existence of LGBTQ+ youth a partisan issue. Equality California was proud to work with our partners in the legislature to defeat this cruel legislation before it even left committee.
Equality California is committed to advocating for the well-being of all LGBTQ+ students in California and will continue to closely monitor the actions of school districts around the state. We will hold elected officials who use their positions to bully and harm our youth accountable for their actions.”
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
