Cape Town – Louw Breytenbach, 31, from Boksburg in Gauteng, was crowned Mr Gay World South Africa at the Galleria conference and event venue in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The event on Friday evening, saw 11 contestants from around the country vie for the title of Mr Gay World South Africa. It was the pinnacle after a long week of activities the contestants participated in.
The theme of this year’s event was “United with Purpose”.
In January, the Mr World South Africa and Mr Gay World South Africa organisations postponed the pageants to May 21 and 22 because of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Taking to Instagram after the win, he said that winning is one of the most special moments of his life.
“The announcement of becoming Mr Gay World SA 2021is not only an honour but a commitment and promise to the entire LGBTIQ+ Community that we will not have another cover boy who doesn’t address the issues in the community.
“We are here to drive change and open dialogue on Mental Health, Equality and injustices facing our community. Love louder and let’s make sure this pageant is about more than just a hashtag,” he said.
“Thank you to all those who believe in me, support me, voted for me, prayed for me, and to all the amazing gents who shared that stage with me. It is all such a blessing!”
Speaking to South African news and lifestyle website MambaOnline, Breytenbach said that he was very nervous and that he knows he should have probably been nervous before, but now it’s real.
“It’s an excited and stressed feeling altogether, but I’m very excited to represent the community,” Breytenbach said.
Breytenbach has a degree in Christian-based Education, a Degree in Theatre based education, and a Diploma in Theology.
He is the Director of the National Arts Association of South Africa, and owner of LALT House of Growth – an educational Theatre centre for community development through art.
A few days before the crowning, Breytenbach posted to his Facebook page: “Let’s drive change, let’s touch lives and let’s make a difference in the LGBTIQ+ and mental health community”.
Breytenbach said being selected as a Top 12 candidate brought him a massive smile to his face and said it was one step closer to his dream of making a bigger impact in the mental health community and creating a voice for the young LGBTIQA+ Community.
Breytenbach, who is an actor, television presenter and entrepreneur runs a theatre school in Gauteng and is passionate about mental health issues affecting LGBTIQ+ persons and uses his various platforms to advocate for the cause.
In the question and answer segment of the pageant, Breytenbach said that LGBTIQA+ youth face a higher risk of suicide and of developing body dysmorphia.
According to MambaOnline, he also addressed the recent spike in LGBTIQA+ hate murders that have rocked South Africa.
He believes that the youth are key to tackling the scourge of hate crimes.
Breytenbach will represent South Africa at the Mr Gay World contest which is scheduled in September.
Rick Santorum has lost his position as
a senior political commentator at CNN.
While he is best known for his
anti-LGBT language, Santorum was fired over racist remarks.
“We birthed a nation from nothing. I
mean, there was nothing here,” Santorum told the crowd at a Young
America’s Foundation event. “I mean, yes, we have Native Americans,
but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American
culture.”
During an appearance on CNN’s Cuomo
Prime Time, Santorum explained that his remarks were taken “out
of context” and refused to back down or apologize.
According to HuffPost, the
appearance convinced executives to terminate Santorum.
“I think after that appearance, it
was pretty clear we couldn’t use him again,” HuffPost quoted
a CNN executive which it did not name.
Santorum twice ran as a Republican for
the White House. His 2012 campaign became notorious for its
opposition to LGBT rights, especially marriage equality.
During that campaign, Santorum
routinely criticized LGBT rights, including calling the repeal of
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” a “tragic social experiment,” blaming
a cratered economy on marriage equality, and calling for celibacy
from gays and lesbians.
Santorum is most likely best known for
his 2003 remarks comparing gay unions to “man on dog.”
It’s finally here. The end of total
lockdown. Am I ready? Absolutely not. I like my burrow. I don’t
wanna play with others.
We’ve fashioned a comfortable little
routine. Week days, work. Evenings, spend time alone together.
Weekends, yard and house work and, sometimes, an adventure.
The adventures are mostly food and view
related. They require us to travel along Highway 101 thirty to
forty-five minutes south. Which is a mini-vacation in itself. People
come here from all over the developed world to drive this highway. My
sweetheart and I, we just buckle up and go, the little dog in her
back seat safety perch and the cat at home, guarding the house from
whatever intrusions he fears. Probably a bug. Talk about privileged
lives. We ain’t got much but we’ve got it all.
Former neighbors gave us the idea. They
liked to go to a certain restaurant, get takeout, drive two minutes
to the ocean, and watch the waves while they ate. As it happens, that
modest restaurant makes the best fish and chips on the coast. No
soggy beer batter. No fancy coleslaw. No stingy portions.
We worried that this institution might
be lost to the pandemic.
When the first Covid cash arrived, my
sweetheart suggested we use some of it to help keep our small local
businesses afloat. Wow. What a very pleasant patriotic practice. And
it hasn’t all been food. Over the months we’ve helped keep
America strong by shopping at Grandma’s Greenhouse, the feed
stores, the locksmith down the street, a roofer, the hardware
store—though that’s a franchise operated by a local. Of course,
these happen to be the places we’ve always shopped, but now we
could pat ourselves on the backs, all noble in our consumerism.
Ice cream had been a forbidden fruit
for health reasons, but we couldn’t let the nearby ice cream palace
or the iconic creamery in the next county suffer economic ruin, could
we? Pounds for a purpose and a treat for the dog, who we are trying
to convert to a pet who loves the car and travel and her safety seat.
So far, ice cream isn’t enough of a bribe.
We weren’t hiding under a rock. We
knew the pandemic was taking a terrible toll; the sheer numbers of
deaths assured that. Multiply each death by a family, friends, work
colleagues, perhaps students, clients, patients, the losses became
staggering, and the former administration’s deceptive,
money-grubbing, incompetent response was revealed as criminal.
Covid has forever changed our lives. We
follow the guidelines and make our drop-in-the-bucket contributions
and stay sane with our little routines.
Then we found Chubby’s. Is there a
more effective method of funneling Covid cash into a rural county’s
economy than by patronizing our food trucks? Chubby’s is a basic
burger chuckwagon. The friendly pest control guy told us they made
the best burgers he’d ever tasted.
Out came our second Economic Impact
Payment. Chubby’s only accepts orders online. This was new to us,
but through trial and error, we’ve indulged ourselves twice. Maybe
the third time we’ll get the fried onions, onion rings,
mustard-mayo-ketchup, cheese, and timing right. They only stock so
many patties per day and when they’re out, they close, a horrid
surprise after a fogbound drive when the ocean is mostly invisible.
The newest problem for these businesses
is lack of employees. What’s with that? The pizza and grinders
place we favor is pleading with customers to be kind to staff because
they’re all working ten-hour days, fourteen days in a row. They’ve
had to cut back on deliveries and close two days a week. The same
with our fish and chips place. Is it continued fear of covid? The
unvaccinated? The unvaccinated and unmasked? It’s hard to admit to
myself that I can’t go and apply. Even if they were desperate
enough to hire someone with white hair, my body wouldn’t last an
hour at restaurant pace.
But that’s not what I set out to say.
It crept up on me—the beginning of the reopening of our county.
First there was my friend the Librarian
who came to drop off a brilliant red daylily and I was so excited to
see her, I insisted she come inside. The first other than service
people to do so since lockdown. Then there was my sweetheart’s
friend of many years who appeared like an emissary from the Golden
Crown Literary Society. We three actually rode in a car together and
ate inside a restaurant. Two other firsts.
The Handydyke emailed to invite us to
watch the annual Blessing of the Fleet—we’re a commercial fishing
town—with her, the Pianist, and maybe some other friends, from
their deck. Five of us showed up, unmasked, vaccinated. It was just
like old times. The CDC said we’d be safe. And it felt wonderful,
especially the hugs. I should have checked; is it safe to hug again?
How am I going to preserve our
hermitage, when seeing friends is such a pleasure? I loved eating by
the ocean with my sweetheart and our little dog Betty who dislikes
oceans as much as cars. We may have to leave her home and bring
(gasp) two-legged friends.
[Editor’s Note: Lee Lynch is the author
of over 13 books. Her latest, Accidental Desperados, is
available at Bold Strokes
Books. You can reach Lynch at LeeLynch@ontopmag.com]
Roughly two years after coming out gay,
singer-songwriter Lil Nas X says critics are right that he’s pushing
an agenda.
Lil Nas X has released two singles from
his upcoming first studio album, titled Montero. In the video
for the album’s title track, Lil Nas X gives Satan a lap dance. In
“Sun Goes Down,” Lil Nas X talks about how he struggled with his
sexuality in high school. He performed both songs during his May 22 Saturday Night Live debut, which Vice’s i-D blog
described as “gay af.”
Lil Nas X was one of six black gay men
to be recognized at the Native Son Awards.
In his virtual acceptance speech, Lil
Nas X said that he was pushing an agenda.
“Thank you Native Son for this
amazing honor,” Lil Nas X said. “I wrote a message for you
guys and here it is. Your commitment to amplifying and celebrating
black queer men is vital to our community and I’m humbled to be among
this year’s honorees. When I came out two years ago, it was one of
the scariest moments of my life. I was afraid because I knew the
world was watching and all I ever saw for boys like me was judgment
and ridicule. But, it was because the world was watching that I knew
I had to stand in my truth.”
“Far too many of our youth are
struggling to find acceptance, ” he continued. “We are
taught to hate ourselves for who we are, and we are punished for
living openly and proudly. I made the decision to be myself and open
doors for the rest of my life. Some people say I’m pushing an agenda
and I am – It’s called liberation. There’s no roadmap when you’re
the first to break a barrier, and I hope that one day it’s no longer
groundbreaking for queer artists to find mainstream success or win
major awards. Until that day comes, there is work to do and I will
continue to do my part.”
In addition to thanking his friends,
family, and fans, Lil Nas X thanked his “haters.”
Native Son also honored Steven Canals,
co-creator of Pose; Alphonso David, president of the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC); Darren Walker, president of the Ford
Foundation; Jonathan Capehart, host of The Sunday Show with
Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC; and Bill Carson, chairman of Otsuka
Pharmaceuticals.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will leave for the Middle East on Monday to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials, among other regional leaders, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to hold for the fourth straight day.
Blinken will travel to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo and Amman through Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah, the State Department said.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in announcing the visit, said he had asked the top U.S. diplomat to make the trip following diplomatic efforts that sought to pause the worst outbreak in fighting between Israel and Hamas in year.
“Blinken will meet with Israeli leaders about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He will continue our administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders after years of neglect,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
Blinken will also discuss “international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza in a way that benefits the people there and not Hamas, and on reducing the risk of further conflict in the coming months,” Biden added.
Gaza is ruled by Hamas. Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2007, saying this prevents Hamas bringing in arms.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey, editing by Ed Osmond and Nick Macfie)
At 6:40 a.m. May 3, a pair of military chaplains arrived at Carey Harris’ home.
“I opened to the door, and I looked right at those two chaplains and I said, ‘My daughter committed suicide,'” Harris said. “She’s dead.”
The chaplains confirmed what she’d dreaded. Her daughter had become withdrawn. Over a few short months, their close relationship had turned distant. Harris knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know what.
She would learn in a blur of briefings that her daughter had filed a sexual assault complaint against a fellow service member, that it occurred 10 days after her daughter had disclosed her sexual orientation on Facebook; that she’d expressed thoughts of suicide and been under counseling and a do-not-arm order. And that a misstep by the military led to her daughter coming into contact with her alleged assailant, despite a protective order designed to keep them apart.
Carey Harris holds an Army photograph of her daughter, Kaylie Harris, on Thursday, May 13, 2021. The daughter was an Army MP stationed in Anchorage…. Carey Harris holds an Army photograph of her daughter, Kaylie Harris, on Thursday, May 13, 2021. The daughter was an Army MP stationed in Anchorage. She alleged that she was raped by a colleague, an Airman, in January shortly after coming out on social media. Harris’s family believes the rape was also a hate crime directed at her because she was lesbian.Doral Chenoweth/Dispatch
Just days after that contact, with her do-not-arm order lapsed, she bought a handgun at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska and took her own life.
Private First Class Kaylie Harris was 21.
Harris’ death represents a confluence of currents that have ripped the military for decades: sexual assault, suicide and integrating LGBTQ troops. Her family believes she would have survived if the military had taken her report of sexual assault more seriously and heeded red flags that signaled her deepening mental health crisis. They view the alleged assault that upended her life as a hate crime and want military law changed to protect LGBTQ troops.
Soldier’s mother calls for hate-crime penalties for military
Carey Harris, mother of deceased soldier Kaylie Harris, believes her daughter’s alleged attacker should face hate-crime charges for Kaylie’s rape.
Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch
“The military talks a lot about suicide prevention and supporting survivors and LGBT troops, but their action rarely equals the words they use,” said Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for victims of sexual assault in the military. “There still is a culture of disbelief when survivors come forward and an attitude that even if the survivor’s allegation is true, ‘they should just walk it off.’ Too many of these cases end in tragedy like this one, in part because of the military’s failure to keep offenders away from their victims.”
Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the alleged assault is under investigation by the service’s Office of Special Investigations.
Stefanek noted that commanders immediately placed the man accused of assaulting Harris in another duty location pending completion of the investigation and issued a military protective order to ensure “there was no contact between PFC Harris and the Airman,” though both remained on the base near downtown Anchorage. The airman declined to comment, Stefanek said, and decisions remain pending regarding any possible charge
“Sexual assault and harassment of any kind are inconsistent with the Department of the Air Force’s core values,” Stefanek said in a statement.
The Army, in a statement, said Harris’ death shows the need to prevent and respond to sexual assault.
“No member of the Army team should be subjected to sexual harassment, sexual assault, or associated retaliation,” the statement said.
The investigation of the rape and Harris’ death is based on interviews with Harris’ family, a note from Kaylie Harris, statements from military authorities and recordings of briefings given to the family by military officials.
Kaylie Harris grew up in Springfield, Ohio, a city of about 60,000 people near Columbus and Dayton. She was part of a large, blended family that included three siblings and five step-siblings.
During her senior year in high school, Kaylie Harris came out as a lesbian, said Carey Harris, 44. The decision to come out was hard for Kaylie, her mother said, but she eventually became “loud and proud” about her orientation.
Kaylie Harris as a child was on the baseball and basketball teams in Springfield, Ohio, as seen in this familly photograph.Doral Chenoweth/Dispatch
Kaylie expressed interest in joining the Army but worried that her sexuality would be an impediment to acceptance, Carey Harris said. Prior to the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy in 2011, LGBTQ troops had to conceal their orientation or face discharge.
Kaylie discussed those concerns, as well as concerns about sexual assault, with her recruiter, according to her mother.
She was assured that gay and lesbian troops no longer faced discrimination and that the Army’s Sexual Assault/Harassment Response and Prevention program aimed to protect women.
“My daughter was going to be a soldier,” Carey Harris said. “That was her thing.”
Serving in the military tracked with Kaylie’s goals, said her sister, Lillian Harris, 20.
“She just always liked the idea of the best way she could help people. She’s always wanted to be a police officer,” Lillian said.
Kaylie trained at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and arrived in Alaska, for her first duty assignment. Her military specialty, 35B: a military police officer. She looked forward to a career in law enforcement.
In this family photograph taken by her mother, Kaylie Harris is pictured at one of her favorite parks in Alaska, where she was an Army MP.Doral Chenoweth, Doral Chenoweth/Dispatch
Life in the Army seemed to suit Kaylie, said her stepsister, Valerie Matson, 32, who served on active duty in the Air Force as a master sergeant. She found a sense of belonging in the military community, a feeling the sisters shared, Matson said.
“Kaylie enjoyed the military,” Matson said. “She was doing well, she was happy. She looked good, healthy. She had a glow to her.”
Carey Harris visited her daughter last fall and all seemed well. Kaylie had adapted.
She told her mother that Alaska was her “paradise.”
But it didn’t last.
On January 21, Kaylie Harris posted on Facebook about her sexual orientation.
“How did no one figure out I was gay!? I’m looking at my childhood pictures and I scream baby gay. How guys?!” She posted with laughing emojis.
Her cover photo featured a group of troops posing with their COVID-19 masks on. She belonged to the 673rd Security Forces Squadron, made up of about about 30 Army and 420 Air Force personnel.
The night of Jan. 30 into the morning of Jan. 31, Kaylie was allegedly attacked by an Air Force airman she had considered a friend, according to a timeline provided by the family’s lawyer Ben Beliles. They had been assigned to the same unit charged with base security.
Several days later, she reported the assault and an investigation began. A no-contact order was put in place to keep the man away from her, but he was not held in confinement while awaiting potential charges.
Their usual three or four FaceTime calls per week between mother and daughter ended in February. Her sister didn’t hear much from her, either. “We shared a room growing up, we were always with each other side-by-side for everything,” Lillian said. Calls were short and Kaylie sometimes “snapped,” her mother recalled.
Getting into arguments, lacking trust or not feeling as close with family and friends is common after sexual assault, according to the RAINN (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network).
Kaylie continued to avoid her mother’s calls in March and by the last week of the month had expressed thoughts about suicide to others. The Army ordered her not to possess a weapon, according to a recording of the briefing investigators gave Carey Harris after her daughter’s death. Stefanek confirmed that investigators determined that Harris made statements concerning self-harm at the end of March. Commanders were made aware of those statements and immediately limited her duty and linked her with mental health services.
Carey Harris said she called a suicide hotline twice on her daughter’s behalf.
“They talked to me, they’re really good,” Carey Harris said. “But they never followed up with me.”
At the end of April, events leading up to Kaylie death piled up rapidly. On April 22, Kaylie Harris returned to duty, the order preventing her from carrying a weapon lifted. The decision was made after close consultation between Harris, her mental health services provider and her commanders, Stefanek said. It was also Harris’ wish to return to duty.
She was scheduled for training to prepare for resuming patrol duties. Her alleged attacker was in the same building for training despite the protective order. They encountered each other, and the meeting left Kaylie reeling, according to her mother.
The circumstances of Kaylie Harris’ meeting her alleged attacker are under investigation, according to Stefanek, the Air Force spokeswoman.
On May 2, she went to the base exchange with another service member and bought a handgun. Her companion reminded her that the weapon had to be registered immediately. Kaylie Harris offered assurances that she would do so but instead went home with it, saying she wanted to take a nap first.
Instead she typed a suicide note.
She named her alleged attacker, saying he “showed me how dark people are, how people could hurt others for pleasure.” She absolved her military leaders and doctor and praised some of her fellow troops. She also wrote of despair she couldn’t bear and concluded: “My deepest apologies, Kaylie M Harris.”
She’d been a soldier for less than a year.
Suicide among troops, though comparable in rate to the general population, has proved to be a long-term problem for the Pentagon with no sign of improvement. In 2019, the last year for which full data are available, 498 troops died by suicide. A Pentagon report noted that rate among active duty troops in 2019 was comparable to 2017 “but not going in the right direction.”
Harris’ suicide appears to have been preventable, said Jennifer Dane, executive director of the Modern Military Association, an advocacy group for LGBTQ troops and veterans. She noted that Harris’ superiors had multiple chances to intervene and her purchase of the weapon she used to take her life could have been prevented.
“There are so many points of failure,” said Dane, an Air Force veteran. “This is another example of leadership failure. It’s awful.”
The link between sexual assault and increased risk of suicide has been documented for decades. A 2020 analysis of multiple studies reflecting more than 88,000 participants found nearly 30% of sexual assault victims had suicidal thoughts, according to the journal Psychological Trauma.
Carey Harris met her daughter’s flag-draped casket at home in Ohio, a military honor guard on hand to transfer the body to a hearse.
“She took an oath to die for our country,” Carey Harris said. “Not to be taken out by a fellow soldier.”
Beliles, the family’s lawyer and a former military prosecutor, said Harris’ family wants answers about why Kaylie Harris was returned to duty, allowed to carry a weapon and buy another given her mental health issues. Another concern: why Kaylie Harris and her accused attacker were assigned to train in the same building resulting in their encounter days before her death.
“We want to get to the bottom of how the military allowed that to happen,” Beliles said.
Beliles said Harris’ family also wants military law changed to include hate crimes to protect LGBTQ troops.
“I asked them, ‘did this man know that she was a lesbian?’ and they said, ‘Oh, absolutely … everybody knew,'” Carey Harris said.
Sexual assault can be “used as a weapon against people who identify as LGBTQ,” according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, motivated by bias to punish or “fix” their orientation.
However, the airman’s motive remains under investigation. The Air Force and Army will explore any motivations for the alleged assault, Stefanek said, and investigators will remain engaged with the family.
The FBI defines a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity,” and roughly 1 in 5 hate crimes are motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias.
Approximately 1 in 8 lesbian women (13%), nearly half of bisexual women (46%), and 1 in 6 heterosexual women (17%) have been raped in their lifetime, according to CDC data from 2010. However, 2019 research published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that 63% of bisexual, 49% of lesbian, and 35% of heterosexual women reported experiencing rape in their lifetime, and that sexual orientation played a role in sexual victimization risk independent of other measured sociodemographic indicators, such as race, education or income.
But no specific section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice refers to hate crimes, and it’s difficult to know how prevalent attacks on LGBTQ troops are because the Pentagon doesn’t track them, Dane said.
Carey Harris, mother of Pfc. Kaylie Harris
She took an oath to die for our country. Not to be taken out by a fellow soldier.
Obtaining a conviction in the case would be difficult, said Eugene R. Fidell, an expert on military law and professor at New York University Law School. Kaylie likely would have been the main witness.
Punishments existing in military law are severe enough for sexual assault that Congress seems unlikely to intervene, and adding a provision for hate crimes probably requires more than a single example, Fidell said.
“You [the military] opened it up for the gay and transgender population to come in but you don’t have a way to protect them,” Carey Harris said. “That’s not right.”
Service members and veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, and those who know a service member or veteran in crisis, can call the Military Crisis Line/Veterans Crisis Line for confidential support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 or text 838255 or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/online and receive confidential support.
The Trevor Project helps LGBTQ+ people struggling with thoughts of suicide at 866-488-7386 or texting 678-678.
In 2014, when Sandy Varndell’s son came out as transgender, Varndell looked for support but didn’t know where to find it.
“I knew nothing. I knew nobody. At least I didn’t think I knew anyone who had a transgender anyone in their lives,” she said.
So Varndell, a social worker, figuring that others were in the same boat, decided to bring others to her.
“I thought, if I’m looking for support, I might as well do it myself,” she said.
That quest led to the formation of OutSupport, a Medina-based organization founded by mothers looking to support their children in the LGBTQ community.
The group offers support services for families in Northeast Ohio. Some of its work includes support groups for transgender children and their families, purchasing LGBT-themed resources for public libraries, providing transgender youth with needed undergarments and spreading awareness and rainbow flags at community events.
The group has temporarily halted meeting in person for now because of the COVID-19 pandemic but still offers resources and counseling.
Part of being a good ally — a straight, cisgender person who isn’t part of the LGBTQ community but supports them — is just understanding things, she said.
As outsiders, allies can use their voice to help draw awareness to issues facing the LGBT community, says Straight for Equality, part of PFLAG National.
The organization offers a free online guide to being an ally on its website StraightForEquality.org.
Some tips on being a good ally:
• Be open to learning.
• Once you’ve educated yourself, educate others, Varndell said. Try to have resources on hand so you easily can combat misinformation or misconceptions when you encounter them.
• Show your support for friends and loved ones. “I’ll go with you,” is a phrase used to indicate support for the transgender community, Varndell said. Offer to go to the bathroom or clothes shopping with a transgender friend nervous to go alone, or offer to accompany them to medical appointments, court dates or to get a new driver’s license, she suggested. That support is important, “especially in those first steps out living your authentic self.”
• If you’re able, offer your financial support to a friend transitioning. Transitioning is an expensive process, and gender-affirming health care isn’t always covered by insurance, she said.
• Ask for someone’s pronouns and use them, Varndell said. When a loved one tells you their pronouns have changed, it can be easy to slip up, “but it’s important to know that you’re trying. That’s part of being a good ally.”
• Display your pronouns in your email signature, on your business card and on social media. When you meet someone new, offer your pronouns without being asked first.
• Display pride flags, such as the rainbow pride flag or the transgender pride flag, at your home, business, classroom or organization. You also could display rainbow stickers in a window or wear pins or a wristband. It’s an easy way to show the LGBTQ community that you’re an ally and that your home or business is a safe place, Varndell suggested.
• Advocate. Write letters to local, state and federal elected officials about working toward equality for everyone, or write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. It’s vital to voice opposition to legislation that harms the LGBTQ community, Varndell said.
For more on OutSupport, including how to access resources, see OutSupport.org.
Other resources:
• Contact a local 24-hour local crisis hotline at 330-452-6000. You also can contact the LGBT National Help Center at 1-888-843-4564 and the LGBT National Youth Talkline at 1-800-246-7743 and TransLifeline at 1-877-565-8860.
• For information and advocacy, see the Humans Rights Campaign at hrc.org; GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) at GLSEN.org; Ohio-based Kaleidoscope Youth Center at KYCOhio.org.
• For information on ally training, including online courses on being an ally and advocate, see the Safe Zone Project at TheSafeZoneProject.com.
Lip syncing, dancing and fashion statements brought Gainesville community members together for food and entertainment during Drag Brunch Saturday.
The event took place at Curia on the Drag located at 2029 NW 6th St., and it consisted of an afternoon filled with vegan breakfast, coffee, mimosas and drag performances.
New to Gainesville, Saturday’s event was its third appearance to the community.
The show started in March when Curia on the Drag general manager April Williams was approached to hold an outdoor event in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drag Brunch was the first event they tried, and after receiving positive feedback, they continued the event.
Williams said even though the show is so new, every show this far has been sold out.
Due to COVID-19 precautions, the event was capped at 45 people, but masks were not required because it was an outdoor event.
Five performers entertained the audience that afternoon with dance moves, music and eccentric fashion.
One performer, Tiana Avionce Black, has been doing drag for nine years. Before her performance, Black expressed her excitement towards the show.
“This has been one of the best drag experiences I’ve had in a long time,” Black said. “The atmosphere is amazing. It’s fun; it just makes you feel good.”
Portions of the show included audience members’ involvement, and several people were pulled on stage throughout the drag queens’ lip-sync performances.
Louise Bielecki, a second-year UF student on the physical therapy track, was one of the audience members brought on stage to dance with the performer and host of the event Cindi Television.
“It was a lot of fun,” Bielecki said. “I was pointing to myself. I wanted to get pulled on stage. I liked it.”
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Black said she hopes the show will continue to be something “prosperous” and that those who “feel unwanted or uncared for” can attend.
“All events I do or I’m a part of are a free space,” Black said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re queer, bi, gay, upside down, you’re welcome. It’s a safe space. You can come, let your mind run wild and be free from the stresses of the week.”
Shows will continue this summer and take place on a Saturday once a month during two different time slots–11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Information on ticketing and updates can be found on its Facebook page.
You can contact and follow Alexis @Alexis_Carson99 on Twitter.
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“You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you,” Donald Trump said. It was 2017, and he was in Atlanta, speaking at a meeting of the National Rifle Association—the first time in more than thirty years that a sitting President had addressed the group. Unlike his recent predecessors, Trump did not claim to enjoy shooting skeet (Barack Obama), or doves (George W. Bush), or ducks (Bill Clinton), or quail (George H. W. Bush). His connection to the group was purely political. “We want to assure you of the sacred right of self-defense for all of our citizens,” he told the members. “As your President, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms—never, ever.”
The N.R.A. had spent decades teaching politicians to talk like this. The organization was founded, in 1871, as a kind of non-governmental training agency, but it transformed first into a hobbyist club and then into a political-advocacy group until, by the early twenty-first century, it was more or less indistinguishable from the conservative movement and the Republican Party. In a partisan country, “the sacred right of self-defense” became yet another partisan issue, and political scientists have spent years trying to figure out whether the power of the N.R.A. has been more a cause or an effect of this evolution. Four years after Trump’s address, both the organization and the former President are much diminished, at least for the moment. While Trump regroups in Florida, the New York attorney general is suing to dissolve the N.R.A. for a series of financial scandals that seem to involve kickbacks, phantom jobs, and the misuse of private airplanes, and that together create the impression of an organization scrambling to deal with a problem that its founders surely did not foresee: having more money than it could responsibly spend.
The N.R.A. thrived, until recently, by harnessing the power of political abstraction. For decades, the group found ways to portray its project as a defense of liberty, shifting its focus from guns to gun rights, and from gun rights to rights more generally. Gallup polls suggest that the number of Americans living in gun-owning households has trended down slightly, from fifty per cent in 1968 to forty-two per cent last year. But, for an organization that seeks mainly to energize one of the two major political parties, minority status is not necessarily a problem. In a new book, “Firepower” (Princeton), the political scientist Matthew Lacombe shows how the N.R.A. succeeded by embracing its subcultural identity, teaching its people to think of themselves as a “persecuted minority under attack.” In 1989, the group sent members a dire warning, saying that anyone who owned a semi-automatic firearm—“30 million law-abiding Americans,” the N.R.A. estimated—had reason to fear proposed legislation. “You must act now,” the organization declared, “before you become a criminal.”
Lacombe’s book is primarily descriptive, not prescriptive, although he does not conceal his disapproval of the N.R.A. agenda. He notes that the organization has blocked countless gun regulations that score well in opinion polls, and he worries that this kind of activity “subverts the will of the majority.” Most people agree, however, that the “will of the majority” sometimes deserves to be subverted, even if we disagree about when. In 1994, the law professor Lani Guinier published “The Tyranny of the Majority,” a sharp collection of essays arguing that certain minorities, especially racial minorities, had the right not just to vote but to meaningfully share in political power, rather than submit to “majority rule.” (The book was published after Guinier lost a high-profile political battle: President Clinton nominated her as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and then withdrew the nomination in the face of controversy; critics said that Guinier espoused reforms that amounted to a “racial spoils system” for Black politicians.) Guinier and the leaders of the N.R.A. had little in common, but they shared a belief in the importance of minority rights. Especially since the sixties, advocates of all sorts have learned to present their causes as demands for the recognition of their civil rights. “As long as your rights to freedom are denied, ours are not secure,” Rupert Richardson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., said in 1993, when she addressed a landmark rally for gay rights. Using similar language, a Christian activist group told the Times that the rally was a threat to “the silent majority of Americans whose individual rights are at stake.”
Jamal Greene, a legal scholar at Columbia, thinks that all this talk about rights has gone too far. In a provocative new book, “How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), he pushes back against what he calls “rightsism,” which in his view makes judges too powerful, and makes it harder for the rest of us to find reasonable solutions to our political problems. When he mocks our tendency to “kiss the hems of the robes of judges,” Greene echoes the view of conservatives like the late Justice Antonin Scalia. “It’s not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special protections,” Scalia said, in a 2013 speech. The remarks were widely interpreted as a message to his colleagues, who were growing more receptive to the idea that gay people had a constitutional right to marry their partners. But Greene is no conservative; his book is driven by liberal-minded concern about racism and inequality, and is aimed at readers who share this perspective. (Greene happens to be the brother of a prominent social commentator: the rapper Talib Kweli, who once rhymed, “The cops flashing the lights, or passing on bikes / Ask for your rights and they beat you like ‘The Passion of Christ.’ ”) To Greene, the story of the N.R.A. is just one more example of how seductive—and how destructive—the language of rights can be.
Like many of our sacred texts, the Bill of Rights, ten amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, is a familiar document that comes to us from a deeply unfamiliar world. Greene writes that the First Amendment—which forbids Congress to prohibit the “free exercise” of religion, or to curtail “the freedom of speech,” and which today constrains the regulation of everything from political campaigning to pharmaceutical advertising—was originally meant to shield not individuals but “local political institutions” like churches from federal interference. Arguments about the Second Amendment, which guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” often center on the significance of its opening phrases, which stipulate the importance of maintaining a “well regulated militia.” One purpose of such a militia, in post-Revolutionary America, was to put down rebellions of enslaved people, who in some states constituted a large portion of the population; in 1998, the legal historian Carl Bogus published an influential essay suggesting that this was the hidden purpose of the Second Amendment. “If there should happen an insurrection of slaves,” Patrick Henry declared, during a debate over ratification, in 1788, the states “ought to have power to call forth the efforts of the militia, when necessary.”
“All those people . . . they’re going to fill up on bread . . . and I’m powerless to warn them.”Cartoon by Ellis Rosen
The N.R.A. does not quite date back to the militia era. It was founded just after the Civil War, in New York, and its mission evolved in synch with its complicated relationship to the government. Especially in its early years, the N.R.A. provided marksmanship training, partly to make sure that citizens would be able to help the military defend America. Lacombe refers to the organization’s approach during those decades as “quasi-governmental,” although the government did not always see it that way. Starting in the nineteen-thirties, the N.R.A. turned its attention to fighting proposed laws that would limit the sale or use of guns. Lacombe analyzes the language used in the group’s magazine, American Rifleman, which cast gun owners as patriots crucial to the project of defending America. The N.R.A opposed mandatory gun registration, insisting that it could be a first step toward confiscation; in an editorial from 1940, the group suggested that British gun regulations had left that country “disarmed and gun-ignorant,” and therefore vulnerable to both criminals and foreign invaders.
One of Lacombe’s most surprising findings is that N.R.A. messages did not always foreground the constitutional right to bear arms. Using a technique called automated topic modelling to track the group’s evolving messages, he found that the Second Amendment became a major focus of the N.R.A. only in the nineteen-seventies. In the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, debates over gun laws were growing more heated, and the group’s reputation more polarizing. As a consequence, the N.R.A. began to deëmphasize the theme of “military preparedness.” The group spent less time asking what citizens could do for their government and more time asking what their government might try to do to them. N.R.A. editorials that cited the Second Amendment, Lacombe found, tended to portray guns as a means with which to resist “tyranny from one’s own government.” The group’s opposition to gun restrictions grew closer to total; the right to bear arms was “America’s first freedom,” the one right that prevents the government from taking away all the others.
Rights exist to protect minorities, and so rights groups typically conceive of themselves as minority-rights groups, defending a besieged few from a threatening many. This explains why, paradoxically, the N.R.A.’s embrace of Second Amendment arguments led the group to become less focussed on guns and more focussed on partisan and cultural concerns. In 2016, the group started a video network, NRATV, which sometimes made headlines with provocations wholly unrelated to firearms; one notorious segment mocked a diversity initiative on “Thomas & Friends,” the children’s show about talking locomotives, by depicting the trains wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods. (NRATV was shut down in 2019, amid a growing dispute between the N.R.A. and the advertising agency that helped run the network.)
In Trump, the N.R.A. found first a candidate and then a President who shared its cultural preoccupations, even if he didn’t always share its staunch opposition to new gun restrictions. After seventeen people were killed at a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, Trump announced that he would support a law allowing police officers to disarm anyone deemed dangerous, without an initial court order. “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” he said, during a televised meeting. His Administration never pursued that proposal, but later that year it unilaterally banned bump stocks—mechanical accessories that enable semi-automatic guns to fire continuously, like machine guns, which are much more heavily regulated. The N.R.A.’s response to the ban was notably mild: a spokesperson told the Associated Press that the group was “disappointed.” A much stronger response arrived earlier this year from an appeals-court judge, who ruled, in an ongoing lawsuit over the ban, that the Trump Administration had overstepped its authority, possibly in a way that could threaten “the people’s right to liberty.”
The N.R.A.’s legal strategy was evidently well chosen. Today, Americans have freer access to firearms than the citizens of any other country in the world, and the Supreme Court recently accepted a case that may clarify precisely where, and how, we are entitled to “bear arms.” The historian Carol Anderson thinks that America’s singular relationship with guns reflects its singular history of racism. In “The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America” (Bloomsbury), she writes that the Second Amendment was “designed and has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable.” Anderson’s book is a bracing reminder that the defense of rights is not necessarily a liberatory project. She notes that a 1792 law, meant to encourage the kind of “militia” formation called for by the Second Amendment, required every “free able-bodied white male citizen” to arm himself. In the nineteen-sixties, armed demonstrations by the Black Panthers in California inspired Ronald Reagan, then the governor, to sign the Mulford Act, which made it illegal to carry loaded firearms in public. The N.R.A. supported the law, and, according to a contemporaneous newspaper account quoted by Anderson, an N.R.A. representative was satisfied that the law would “not affect the law-abiding citizen, sportsman, hunter, or target shooters.” (The unmistakable implication was that no member of the Black Panthers could be described as a “law-abiding citizen.”) And Anderson begins her book with the story of Philando Castile, the Black man who was shot to death by police in 2016, during a traffic stop, after telling them that he was carrying a gun, for which he had a permit. The killing set off a wave of protests, but the N.R.A. conspicuously declined to join in. For Anderson, this is a sign that the organization did not truly support gun rights for everyone—that its agenda was merely an extension of the eighteenth-century white-militia movement.
Minor League Baseball team the Jersey Shore BlueClaws will host the return of Pride Night on June 4 with a free cap giveaway for the first 1,500 fans at FirstEnergy Park, 2 Stadium Way in Lakewood, presented by Coca-Cola. Visit milb.com/jersey-shore for tickets and more information.
Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing will host a weekend of Pride festivities June 4 to 6 at the brewery, 1940 Olney Ave. in Cherry Hill.
The brewery will release a Pride-themed four-pack of Frequency Modulation, a dry-hopped hefeweizen. Each can in the set features an illustration of a different couple: two men, two women, a man and a woman, and two cats.
The four-pack of cans ($15) and a limited set of four glasses featuring the same artwork ($40) will be available at the brewery and at the Asbury Fresh Market in Asbury Park’s Kennedy Park on Cookman Avenue during the weekend of the brewery’s Pride celebration. A portion of those proceeds will benefit Garden State Equality, an Asbury Park-based education and advocacy organization.
Visit forgottenboardwalk.com for more information and to reserve your spot at the brewery.
Lauren Bodhi Events’ Pride Month Cruise departs at noon on Sunday, June 6, from Atlantic Highlands and offers vendors and dancing. For tickets and more information, visit laurenbodhievents.com.
Kicking off 6 p.m. Thursday, June 17, the event starts and ends at Monclair Brewery, 101 Walnut St., and your $15 registration also covers your first post-race drink. To register and learn more, visit runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Montclair/PrideRun2021.
The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice in Princeton will host the second annual Virtual Pride installment of its Social Justice Power Hour series on Facebook Live at 7 p.m. June 12; visit facebook.com/RustinCenter.
In the streets
Garden State Equality’s 12th annual Equality Walk has options for folks who want to walk in North or South Jersey: the walk starts and ends noon Saturday, June 12, at the Ocean Casino Resort, 500 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, and also will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 13, starting and ending at First Congregational Church of Montclair, 40 S. Fullerton Avenue. To register for the walk and for more information, visit gardenstateequality.org.
Exit 82 Theatre Company and the Toms River Pride Committee will present Toms River Pride,Ocean County’s third annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/ally, two spirit and plus festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 13 on Washington Street in downtown Toms River.
COVID-compliant activities at the festival will include live entertainment, food vendors and community resources; visit exit82theatre.com.
Pride in Union begins with a Pride flag raising in front of town hall at 1976 Morris Ave. at 4:30 p.m., followed by a Pride Party starting a 6 p.m. at Russo Park on Morris Avenue hosted by Harmonica Sunbeam with entertainment by Janetza Miranda, Lady Celestina and DJ J Estelle. For more information, visit uniontownship.com/1007/Pride-Month.
The third annual Ramsey LGBTQ Pride Ceremony, kicks off at 6 p.m. Monday, June 7, in the outdoor space at Pietro’s Italian Restaurant, 46 W. Main St., and continues at 7:30 p.m. across the street under the tent at Brady’s at the Station, 5 W. Main Street.
Singer/songwriter Anne Steele, cover band Dad to the Bone, Ramsey High School a cappella group the Ram Jams and singer Jeffrey Castellano of Ramsey will be at Pietro’s, and Mary’s Basement keeps the party going at Brady’s. There also will be speakers, and food, drink and Pride merchandise will be available for purchase. Follow facebook.com/RamseyLGBTQPride for more information.
Harmonica Sunbeam is also among the performers set for the Big Queer Block Party, 6 p.m. Friday, June 18, in Maplewood Village at Maplewood Avenue and Highland Place in Maplewood. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted for SOMA Justice, the Newark LGBTQ Community Center, North Jersey Pride and SOMA Action. For more information, visit somajustice.org/Pride2021.
Morris County Pride brings live performances and vendors to the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morristown, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 26. Stay tuned to morriscountypride.org for tickets and more information.
Pride Days
The Long Branch Pride Flag Raising is 6 p.m. Friday, June 4 at West End Park, Brighton Avenue.
The first Garfield Pride Celebration happens 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 5, at 20th Century Field, 75 Elizabeth St. The event will feature food and other vendors, as well as music from DJ PMC. For more information, visit garfieldnj.org.
Ariel Versace, a New Jersey star from the 11th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” will be part of the Pride Parade at Haddon Township Pride, 6 p.m. Thursday, June 10, on Haddon Avenue from Strawbridge Avenue to Crystal Lake Avenue. Haddon Township’s first Pride celebration, the long weekend also will include SoHa Pride Fest at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 12, at the SoHa Arts Building, 1001 White Horse Pike. For more information, visit htpride.com.
Pride in the Park is 1 p.m. Saturday, June 12, at Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park, West Front Street. Visit redbanknj.org for more information.
North Jersey Pride’s Pride Picnic is 3 p.m. Sunday, June 13 at Memorial Park, 580 Valley St., Maplewood. Stay tuned to northjerseypride.org/the-picnic for all the latest information.
Southern New Jersey LGBTQA Pride hosts its Pride Day, with the theme of #YouAreIncluded, from noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at Cooper River Park in Cherry Hill; visit jerseygaypride.com.
Georgie’s Bar, Fifth Avenue and Memorial Drive, has a whole weekend of festivities planned to help kick off Pride month. George’s Pride Weekend starts with the Hotties and Oddities Drag Revue with Tastie, Morrigan and DJ Uncle’s Nephew at 9 p.m. Thursday, June 3. DJ Mikey Mo and DJ Tallspeedy will be there at 9 p.m. Friday, June 4, followed by karaoke with DJ Ted on 9 p.m. Saturday, June 5, and drag brunch with Divinity Banks and DJ Mick Hale at noon on Sunday, June 5.
Presented by #QueensForACause, the #REALBoozyBrunch happening at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at Cross and Orange, 508 Cookman Ave., includes live drag performances by Miss Savannah Georgia, Divinity Banks, Demi Gawdess, Ivanna Peessa, Kimmi Hall-Dat and Kotton! It is hosted by Victoria Courtez and Anita Sigg.
The brunch has bottomless mimosas and a prix fixe menu, with 20% of the proceeds supporting the Asbury Park-based Project REAL and its work helping LGBTQ youth. For tickets ($75) and more information, email event co-presenter the Asbury Park Kiwanis Club at info@asburyparkkiwanis.org.
The fifthannual Pulse Memorial and Project REAL Benefit, marking the anniversary of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shootings and supporting Project REAL’s work, happens at noon Sunday, June 13, in the park across the street from Georgie’s at Fifth and Main Street. Cover is a $10 minimum donation, and the day will feature live music by Chill Smith, Heather Hills, Des and the Swagmatics, David Ross Lawn and Blaise, the Black Flamingos, and the Shady Street Show Band.
The benefit will include drag performances by Pissi Myles, Rhedd Rhumm, Lady Celestina, Kinsey Spectrum, Janelle Galliano and more, with DJ Jay Insult keeping the music going between sets.
Looking ahead, the New Jersey LGBTQ Pride Parade, Rally and Festival, an Asbury Park fixture since 1992 historically held on the first Sunday in June, is scheduled to take place Oct. 10; visit jerseypride.org.
‘Accepted and welcomed’
Joe Cole, general manager of Asbury Park hotspot Georgie’s, understands the importance of LGBTQ-friendly bars and other destinations to the community.
“I know a lot of people deal with health issues and mental issues, anxiety, depression,” Cole told the Asbury Park Press in 2020. “But especially for the LGBT community, a lot of people were disowned by their family. They don’t have a good home life, sometimes work doesn’t accept them.”
Cole said Georgie’s is “a place where a gay person or trans (people), anyone, can go without being judged, and they always feel welcome and they always feel like they can be safe here.”
Like Georgie’s, which opened in 1999, many of these safe spaces have been around for decades. In 1998, music producer Shep Pettibone bought the then-vacant Empress Hotel in Asbury Park; he opened the nightclub Paradise on the premises in 1999, and reopened the hotel in 2005.
“We were here and were always a place of home for those people to go when they felt they had nowhere else to go and couldn’t be comfortable in their own skin — and here they could just be who they are, not be judged and be accepted and welcomed,” Kelly J. Martin, event coordinator for Paradise, told The Press last year.
If you go
New Jersey’s LGBTQ-friendly destinations include:
Headroom Lounge: 150 Bay St., Jersey City; 201-614-4046, headroomlounge.com.
Club Feathers: 77 Kinderkamack Road, River Edge; 201-342-6410, clubfeathers.com.
Georgie’s Bar: 812 Fifth Ave., Asbury Park; 732-988-1220, georgiesbarap.com.
Lady Gaga was awarded West Hollywood’s Key to the City on Born This Way Day (23.05.21).
A decade after the release of her acclaimed 2011 studio album, ‘Born This Way’, the 35-year-old pop megastar’s chart-topping LP has been honoured for its cultural impact.
West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath presented the Grammy-winner with the key to the city and declared May 23 to be Born This Way Day.
Horvath told Gaga: “Thank you for encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud!”
A painting of the album’s title in pride flag form was unveiled on Robertson Boulevard in honour of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the ‘Stupid Love’ hitmaker vowed to “always be here for this day”.
Gaga said: “Thank you for this key. You’ve been – I’m sure this will sound cheesy to some people, not to me – you’ve been the motherf***** key to my heart for a long time.
“I’ll honour this and I’ll treasure this, and I promise I’ll always be here for this day.
“I will be here on this day to celebrate with you, to feel joy with you, to cry with you, to laugh with you, because you know what we are? We’re poets, and we’re just talking to each other. I love you, let’s have a good time!”
The ‘Always Remember Us This Way’ singer also took to social media to share a series of pictures from the day and shared how the album was inspired by black gay activist, Carl Bean, the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal protestant denomination that is welcoming of lesbian, gay and bisexual African Americans.
Gaga captioned the post: “Born This Way, my song and album, were inspired by Carl Bean, a gay black religious activist who preached, sung and wrote about being “Born This Way.” Notably his early work was in 1975, 11 years before I was born. Thank you for decades of relentless love, bravery, and a reason to sing. So we can all feel joy, because we deserve joy. Because we deserve the right to inspire tolerance, acceptance, and freedom for all. (sic)”
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has delighted royal fans after releasing new family portraits to mark the Christian holiday Pentecost Sunday, also known as Whitsun.
The heir apparent, 43, was pictured sitting alongside her husband Prince Daniel, 47, and a grinning Prince Oscar, five, and Princess Estelle, nine, in one snap, taken on the picturesque grounds of their home Haga Palace in Solna.
Dressed in casual ensembles, the beaming family-of-four were snapped with their dog, Rio, while posing on a bed of white flowers.
Pentecost is a joyous occasion in Christianity that’s celebrated 50 days after Easter is held to mark the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, as Christians believe it appeared to the followers of Jesus Christ and his apostles exactly 50 days after Easter.
In a second image released to mark the occasion, Prince Oscar and Princess Estelle lie next to one another in the garden.
The siblings donned matching denim outfits for the snaps, while their stylish mother sported a cream, high-neck jumper and grey jeans.
Gallery: 25 times William, Harry and their wives paid tribute to Princess Diana (Daily Mail)
The images were shared on the Royal Family’s social media accounts with the message: ‘A long-awaited spring has blossomed in full glory and Pentecost, the time of rapture, is here.
‘With these pictures from a green Haga, the Crown Princess couple wants to wish everyone a happy Pentecost.’
The images were taken at Haga Palace, the family’s official residence on the outskirts of Stockholm, by photographer Linda Broström.
Last month, Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel enjoyed a video call with the future monarchs of Denmark and Norway and their respective spouses.
All three royal couples, who are known to be very close, appeared on the chat from their homes, with Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel dialling in from Haga Castle.
Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark were based in Amalienborg in Copenhagen, while Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway called in from Skaugum.
During the virtual gathering, the couples updated each other on their families as well as their patronages and royal work.
Each of the royal duos shared photos from the video call on their social media accounts – showcasing their comfy abodes and relatable computer setups.
She’s one of the British trio of siblings making headlines in freestyle skiing ahead of Beijing 2022 – and she’s also helping to provide representation in sports for people who are pan. We caught up with Makayla for an exclusive Q&A about the bump and roll of moguls and being a role model…
Makayla Gerken-Schofield is competing for Great Britain among the world’s elite mogul skiers – and is proud to be pan
Speeding down the slopes in style, backflipping through the air, and always with a smile – mogul skier Makayla Gerken-Schofield is a rising British sports star who carries with her a refreshing message of fun and freedom.
She competed in her first Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in 2017 when she was still just 17. This year’s moguls events, held in Kazakhstan in March, saw her make the last 16 in dual moguls and she also qualified for the singles final round as one of the best 18 competitors in the world.
Watch Makayla’s win that took her into the World Championships dual moguls last 16 in Almaty in March
The 21-year-old explained that she was proud to be LGBTQ+ herself and had come out relatively recently, adding: “Many people call me bisexual but I consider myself as pansexual… I would be delighted to meet more people in the LGBTQ+ community in snowsports and to bring my support for someone who would need it.”
With Monday, May 24, being Pansexual Visibility Day, we reached out to Makayla and she generously found time for a chat with us! As racing driver Charlie Martin told us in our Q&A for PVD in 2020, “having more pan role models will mean more awareness” – and we’re very grateful to Makayla for helping out with that in sports.
Read on to discover Makayla’s happiest career moment so far, why visibility is important to her, navigating Instagram, what she watches on Netflix, and much more…
JH: Hi Makayla! Tell us about being a moguls skier – how did you get into the sport?
MG-S: I followed in my brother and sister’s footsteps. Our family used to go on holiday every year to Val Thorens in south-east France, and eventually our parents bought a house north of the resort in Châtel and we moved there when I was six.
All three of us kids got into skiing seriously – our dad’s very sporty. We had a teacher who said we were more freestyle than alpine, and that it’d be great if we became part of the local freestyle club. Tom and Leonie joined before me because I was a bit scared, but I did start with the club when I was 10. I haven’t looked back since! Now I’m competing for Great Britain. I never thought I’d get to this stage – it’s been a hell of a journey so far!
Not many people know about the sport – every time you say to someone ‘I’m a skier’, they assume it’s alpine. When you say moguls, they tend to get excited but also confused because they don’t know what it is exactly.
Makayla, Leonie and Tom have firmly established themselves with GB Snowsport
So it’s a steep downhill course, very technical, and with those aerial manoeuvres to perform as well. You mentioned that when you were younger, it looked too scary…
Yeah, the aerials are still a bit terrifying at some points! For training, we do trampolining to learn tricks; then you move on to going down a ramp and landing in the water; then you put it onto the snow, starting off on softer or ‘powder’ days.
I remember times when I was a kid and I’d just cry because I was so scared of doing it, such as trying my first backflip. But now, I love landing the tricks and the feeling it gives me, because I’ve conquered that fear.
Did it help having Tom and Leonie doing it too, spurring you on?
It’s a very competitive sport and we’re very competitive siblings! For men, the difficulty is higher, but the women are getting there and it’s amazing to see more and more girls landing higher difficulty tricks. I really want to get there too.
It does push me, having my brother and sister doing the sport too – we give each other tips, and generally support each other.
What’s been your biggest achievement to date?
Results wise, I came sixth this season in a World Cup event in Deer Valley, Utah. That was duals, where you compete head to head against an opponent.
It was so emotional, and my sister and I were in tears. I’d not had a good day myself, but Leonie had done brilliantly – and then Tom got silver! It just made me feel so much better. When they do well, it makes me really happy.
Watch Tom ski his way into the history books and the medal ceremony in Krasnoyarsk in March 2020
And what’s the next big target for you?
At the moment, I’m in Manchester learning new, more difficult tricks. I’m really excited to try to put them on snow this season.
But really, I’m just having a good time skiing and having fun – being able to travel the world doing what I love is absolutely incredible and even more so with my siblings by my side.
How are those Olympic ambitions looking, with nine months to go until Beijing 2022?
We’re more into focusing on qualifying first of all, even if it’s just one or two of us – it would be a dream if it does come to all three of us qualifying for the Olympics. I’d have to pinch myself to know if it’s real or not. We’ll see what goes from there.
How has the pandemic affected you all?
It was a very weird season. We had only five or six competitions instead of 15 and you never really knew if you were going or not. You just had to be on your toes – you’d be at home thinking, ‘what do we do?’
We worked out as much as we could and took it day by day, but it was hard not being able to plan things out. Yeah, it’s been a messy year.
I never really looked into it before, as I never really spoke up about being pan within GB Snowsport. I think through me posting pictures with my girlfriend Oriane on social media, they came to me about doing an article for LGBT+ History Month which then came to having more open conversations with my family about being pan, as I never really came out to them, and getting positive feedback from people on social media which made me quite teary.
Coming back to LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport in the UK, I think it’s getting there, if that makes sense. People are becoming more aware of why we need to be visible and that people within the LGBTQ+ community need to feel safe in their sport and accepted. Gus coming on board has also made people more aware of how big of an impact it can be for an athlete to come out to the world.
Here we are now at Pansexual Visibility Day, which always seems to me to be a particularly useful awareness day. Do you feel the same way?
I feel that any LGBTQ+ visibility day is useful awareness! To be able to stand up, be accepted, and be understood that being pansexual is just one part of who someone is. On Pan Visibility Day, it’s important to remember that we’re celebrating pansexual people from all backgrounds and all walks of life.
Tom, Leonie and friends saw that I kissed a girl at a party, so they sort of guessed I was ‘bisexual’ so I just went with it and assumed I was bi. But then it bothered me because it didn’t feel like that was me… pansexuality is different from bisexuality but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Being bi means being attracted to more than one gender, while being pan means being attracted to people regardless of gender.
And it’s nothing to do with saucepans or frying pans! I have nothing against old jokes but the one about being sexually attracted to pans isn’t just old, it’s also just not funny…
Watching LGBTQ+ documentaries, movies, or even just looking up the different kinds of sexualities there are in the world helped me. Then I came across pansexual, and it just felt right. I swear I was smiling at my laptop because I finally knew what I was!
Since I’ve found my place in the community, my confidence has improved a lot. I never really knew who I was before – I felt a bit lost – but now, I’m just me.
Makayla met her girlfriend Oriane a year ago, after they got chatting online in lockdown
We connected on Instagram which is a place where you seem able to really embrace that part of who you are….
Yeah, I think it’s important to share certain things on social media, so that people are more aware. Even if they don’t understand, they can always send me a message and say, ‘I’m quite confused about this, what does this mean?’ Then I can explain – I love it when people are willing to have an open conversation about the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s funny looking back because I was so nervous to post a picture of me with my girlfriend for the first time. It was a big deal for me because I’d never really opened myself up like that before on social. You always act in a way that you’re ‘this’ person but it wasn’t really me. Now I feel like I’m letting people know who I actually am.
Was that partly due to being an athlete or being in a sport that doesn’t have a lot of LGBTQ+ representation?
As my mum would say, when we’re upset or we’re not being ourselves, we have a cloud over our head. I felt like it was constantly that or that I was being careful of what I would say. Now, I feel I can put myself out there to be that kind of role model, for any others who are actually struggling with their sexuality or finding out who they are.
It’s either helping them or it helps myself, in a way. I hope it can for someone else in moguls, freestyle, or other sports who follows me, that they can feel comfortable to come and speak to me – whether that’s face to face, or via a friendly message.
You’ll turn 22 in early June, which is going to be your first Pride Month being out. How do you feel about that?
Like I can be proud of who I am – like I belong and can express myself a lot more. I’d love to be able to march at a Pride parade one day!
What some people still don’t realise is that if a child comes from a family that doesn’t accept LGBTQ+ people, it can be really hard for them. It can get very abusive, mentally and physically – some children, teens, or even adults get kicked out of their own homes, or even take their own lives. It gives me such a heavy heart and makes me so angry knowing that people around the world are going through this in such a hard way.
I’m fortunate that my family has always accepted me and I’ve never really had any issues. But it’s heartbreaking knowing what happens in certain countries, where there’s a fear of saying who you are and that you could be hurt because of that.
What have you learned in the last year or so?
I’ve learned a lot about what’s not right in the world. I never really knew the problems within the global LGBTQ+ community. It’s really upsetting. Even now in some areas where I’m with Oriane, you feel like you have to be cautious and can’t act a certain way. You always get looks wherever you are, but in the back of my mind, I’ll think, ‘is this person going to be aggressive?’ or even, ‘could we get hit?’ That can be quite stressful.
I try to teach myself by searching ‘LGBTQ+’ on Netflix sometimes – some movies and shows are rather stereotypical and I’m not a fan of those, but many of them do help, particularly documentaries like A Secret Life and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.
I enjoy watching RuPaul’s Drag Race – I made my dad watch it and it was so funny, because he just didn’t get it! But I love it. I find the whole drag world incredibly talented, from the outfits to the make-up – it’s stunning and so extra.
Oriane is a tattoo artist – and she’s helping Makayla to learn the skill too
I feel like I’m growing into that and it does help to give me confidence. I didn’t really have a role model or anything like that growing up. If I put myself out there, will it help someone else? If they come across my profile or in public and they see me with my girlfriend, it will probably click in someone’s head and they’ll say, ‘you know what, why can’t I take that step?’ It’s just about helping them to get to that step of finding out who they are.
Gus Kenworthy
On the men’s side of the sport, Gus has been able to do that through sharing his story. Is he someone who inspires you?
He does, because what he did took guts and I’m really happy that he can feel that freedom of being himself.
In his recent interview with BBC Sport, he said he was once getting death threats… reading that, I got emotional because I know what it’s like to want to take your own life. You actually never really know what’s happening in other people’s lives until they decide to speak up about it.
It makes me so angry because I can’t understand what’s going through someone’s mind who doesn’t accept someone else being LGBTQ+. It’s not the end of the world, it’s just who they are. If you don’t accept it, take it step by step, learn more about it, and allow yourself to be open to having a conversation about these things.
He’s an Olympic medal-winning slopestyle skier who has switched from 🇺🇸 to 🇬🇧 for Beijing 2022, but there’s so much more to @guskenworthy’s story!
Here the freestyler talks through his fears about coming out & the pride he now feels when representing the #LGBTQ+ community. pic.twitter.com/aBUU4zQ3Dy
— Nick Hope – the dyslexic journalist🎙️👨💻🏊🏻♂️ (@NickHopeTV) February 28, 2021
You travel around the world a lot for your sport, including sometimes to countries where LGBTQ+ people feel unsafe because they have very few rights or even none at all. How do you approach that?
Coming out, I was afraid that in the sport I’m in, people wouldn’t accept me. I was afraid of getting harassed. It’s stressful for me at times in certain places that have few rights or none at all. I catch myself thinking, ‘I probably shouldn’t wear this’ if something has a rainbow on it, or there’s just the typical stereotype – which I hate – that gays look a certain way and they will know that I’m ‘within the LGBTQ+ community’ and then a whole scenario kicks in. I end up having panic attacks thinking I’ll end up getting beaten up or in prison.
It makes me stressed because I don’t know how people are going to react. But I always try to think of the positive things. What if I can do or say something that helps someone else? Anything really that’ll just be visible to others that aren’t out or who are hiding in some way, pretending to be someone that they’re not. I just want to be there for others who need it.
Finally, what’s your message for Pan Visibility Day?
I do think that the visibility days are useful for anyone who doesn’t know what it’s about – in this instance, what it means to be pan. For me, it’s about embracing myself and also getting to know other pansexual people who put themselves out there, and celebrating with them.
I don’t personally know anyone else yet who is pansexual and out so I’ll be looking at the hashtags and going through the posts! I bet there are loads of us in the world. So if you’re reading this, I’d encourage you to embrace and love yourself for who you really are.
Sports Media LGBT+ is a network, advocacy, and consultancy group that is helping to build a community of LGBT+ people and allies in sport. We’re also a digital publisher. Learn more about us here.
LGBT+ in sports? Your visibility will inspire other people – sharing your story can be hugely rewarding and you don’t have to be famous to make a positive and lasting impact. We encourage you to start a conversation with us, in confidence, and we’ll provide the best advice on navigating the media as part of your journey so that you retain control of your own narrative.
European Union leaders were due to meet Monday to discuss possible sanctions against Belarus after a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania carrying an opposition activist was diverted to Minsk over a supposed bomb threat.Why it matters: Raman Pratasevich, a journalist and opposition leader wanted by the Belarusian government, was detained at the Minsk airport once the plane landed. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, “Those responsible for the Ryanair hijacking must be sanctioned.” Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeThe UN’s civil aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said in a statement the landing “could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention,” a treaty protecting airspace sovereignty.Lithuanian Police said in a statement they had launched a pre-trial criminal investigation into the matter and would cooperate with prosecutors in other EU countries.The state of play: The plane was flying over Belarus and was six miles from the Lithuanian border when Belarusian air traffic control told the pilots to divert to Minsk due to “a potential security risk on board,” per the Washington Post.The presidential press service said that President Alexander Lukashenko “personally ordered” a fighter jet to escort the flight down to the Minsk airport, according to AP.Officials later confirmed no explosives were found on the airplane, per AP.The flight continued on its way after the diversion to Minsk and landed in Lithuania later Sunday, Bloomberg reports.Of note: Pratasevich co-founded the Telegram channel Nexta, which helped organize massive anti-government demonstrations last year, AP notes. He has been living in exile in Lithuania for several years out of fear of being arrested in Belarus, where he faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on charges of “inciting hatred and mass disorder,” the New York Times reports.What they’re saying: Leaders in the U.S. and Europe have condemned the action. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Pratasevich’s “immediate release.”Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted that the U.S. “needs to consider restricting commercial air traffic into and over Belarus until this matter is resolved. No travelers can feel safe if state sponsored hijacking becomes acceptable.”Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in a joint statement with European counterparts urged the ICAO to investigate the “reckless act,” saying: “Using fighter aircraft to intercept a civilian Ryanair flight is an act of piracy on a route between two NATO and EU countries.””We call on NATO and European Union States to put sanctions on the Lukashenka regime and suspend their ability to use Interpol and other international organizations to further attack democracy in Europe,” the group added in its call for Pratasevich’s release.In Europe, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a statement urged the ICAO to investigate the incident, per WashPost.The United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted that the U.K. was “alarmed” by Protasevich’s arrest and warned “this outlandish action by Lukashenko will have serious implications.”Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
