LGBTQ Breaking News Service

Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and Blaine Anderson ((Darren Criss) were the epitome of high school sweethearts on Fox’s “Glee” — and the fan-favorite couple among most Gleeks. Klaine is kind of like a holy word in the “Glee” Bible. Not only were they each other’s first boyfriends, but they lost their virginity to each other during the controversial Season 3 episode, “First Time.” Blaine has also helped Kurt through some tough times, including standing up to Kurt’s bully, Dave Karofsky, and taking a laced slushy to the eye to protect him. Though Kurt’s move to New York led to some major problems for the couple, we still have faith that they’ll end up together.

Fox

During the 1950s, Cherry Grove provided gay individuals a much-needed escape from the homophobia and the legal and social persecution that many experienced in the era of McCarthyism following World War II. Homosexuals faced physical assault, verbal attacks, family rejection, loss of employment, imprisonment, and even involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. In the Grove, they could openly socialize and experience a joyful and rare freedom of sexual expression.

‘Weekend Guest at Hot House’, 1958
Cherry Grove Archives Collection, Gift of Harold Seeley

During the 1950s, Cherry Grove provided gay individuals a much-needed escape from the homophobia and the legal and social persecution that many experienced in the era of McCa rthyism following World War II. Homosexuals faced physical assault, verbal attacks, family rejection, loss of employment, imprisonment, and even involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. In the Grove, they could openly socialize and experience a joyful and rare freedom of sexual expression.

Click number 2 below for next image

New York Historical Society Museum and Library

Safe/Haven: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove

May 14 – October 11, 2021

Safe/Haven is a free, outdoor exhibition that takes place in our rear courtyard. (The entrance is on 76th St.) To maintain social distancing, book your timed-entry tickets on our special Safe/Haven ticketing site. 

San Francisco and Cork, Ireland officials will raise twinned versions of the Progress pride flag at their city halls this Sunday, May 16, in observance of an international day that raises awareness about LGBTQ issues. For the sister cities since 1984, it is the first time that version of the Pride flag will fly at their city halls.

And it is also the first time either municipality has worked in tandem with another city to simultaneously raise the LGBTQ symbol at its city hall. The flag-raisings will take place prior to the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, which is observed May 17 in scores of countries around the globe.

With San Francisco City Hall still closed due to the COVID pandemic, a few staff from the Mayor’s Office of Protocol will gather Sunday at 10 a.m. to raise the specially designed Progress flag that Cork officials had made and priority mailed to their American counterparts earlier this week. Cork officials will raise their version of the flag at the same time — 6 p.m. in Ireland — as the city hosts a weeklong series of events timed to the annual global LGBTQ observance.

Running from Sunday through Saturday, May 22, which is observed as Harvey Milk Day in California in honor of the late gay San Francisco supervisor, Cork’s LGBTQI+ Awareness Week this year will feature a weeklong special rainbow-themed billboard campaign dubbed “We Are Cork,” a book club, online photo exhibit, and participation in the UNESCO Virtual Global Conference Promoting the Rights and Inclusion of LGBTI Youth. (To learn more about the confab being hosted by France, click here.

“I’m delighted to raise this progressive intersectional flag over Cork, signifying our desire to be inclusive of the many diversities within the LGBTQI+ community,” stated Councillor Joe Kavanagh, whose one-year term as the Lord Mayor of Cork City Council will come to an end in June.

Kavanagh added in an emailed statement to the Bay Area Reporter that he is “especially pleased that our friends in our sister city San Francisco” will also be raising the flag so that together the two cities will be “ushering in IDAHOBIT Day and committing ourselves to challenge prejudice and discrimination around sexual orientation, gender identity and all forms of intolerance and hatred.”

San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives Executive Director Clair Farley, a trans woman who is also a mayoral adviser, told the B.A.R. that the city is “delighted to receive such a wonderful gift from Cork City.” Its Progress flag will fly for 24 hours on the flagpole off the mayor’s balcony on City Hall that faces the Civic Center. The building will also be lighted in the colors of the rainbow flag that evening.

“It symbolizes our desire to continue to work together on issues of LGBTQ inclusion and equality, both as sister cities and hopefully in the future as members of the Rainbow Cities Network,” said Farley.

Daniel Quasar designed the Progress pride flag in 2018 by combining versions of the Philadelphia and the transgender pride flags. The Philly version includes black and brown stripes at the top of the flag in addition to the standard six colors of the rainbow.

Those two additional colors and the blue, pink, and white stripes of the trans flag form a chevron that points right on the Progress flag to symbolize marching toward a better future. For the twin cities’ flags, Cork officials added a white stripe to the bottom of the flag that includes the city seals for both municipalities and the logo of the Rainbow Cities Network.

SF, Cork joined global network
As the B.A.R. reported at the time, in April 2018 San Francisco and Cork became the first cities in their countries to join the global network of municipalities committed to protecting the rights of their LGBTQ citizens. During a visit by an Irish sister city delegation led by Tony Fitzgerald, then serving as Cork’s lord mayor, he and former San Francisco mayor Mark Farrell signed a memorandum of understanding for the two cities to become official members of the Rainbow Cities Network.

This year, under its Share the Rainbow initiative, the Rainbow Cities Network asked its members to send a rainbow flag to one of their sister cities and raise it for the IDAHOBIT celebrations. According to the organization, at least 11 of its members have done so for 2021.

As Cork’s Lord Mayor Kavanagh noted, “Our joint raising of the intersectional progressive flag is a chance to re-connect as we begin to re-emerge from COVID-19.”

With their sending San Francisco the specially made Progress flag this week, Cork officials are returning the favor they received in 2013 when the late San Francisco mayor Ed Lee gifted the Irish city a rainbow flag. They raised it at Cork’s city hall in 2014, becoming the first city in Ireland to formally fly the rainbow flag from a civic or public building.

“I’m thrilled that both Cork and San Francisco will raise this progressive rainbow flag jointly; when we agreed to become part of the Rainbow Cities Network Share the Rainbow initiative there isn’t any other city that Cork would rather share a rainbow with, and I suppose there’s a lovely symbolism in that the gift of a Rainbow Flag from Mayor Lee in 2013, raised in 2014 helped us create a little bit of history here in Ireland so we are returning that lovely gesture,” wrote Siobhán O’Dowd, a lesbian who chairs Cork’s LGBT Inter-Agency Group and was part of the 2018 sister city delegation, in an emailed response to the B.A.R.

The version of the Progress flag that Cork designed will be flying at various locations throughout the Irish city this week. The idea for it came out of the city’s participating in the Rainbow Cities Network Intersectionality in the LGBTQ Community exhibition, explained O’Dowd. The city’s LGBT group adopted intersectionality as this year’s theme for its LGBTQI+ week, leading it to commission the Progress flags with the logos of the sister cities and the Rainbow Cities Network on them to demonstrate their strong connections, she added.

“We knew as an inter-agency group that we needed to so much more on intersectionality and already this has provided much needed discussion and questions such as why is this flag different?” wrote O’Dowd. “The progressive flag will fly across the city in public offices, community spaces at our hospitals and naval base, so we hope it provokes questions and discussion and greater understanding wherever it is raised.”

In addition to raising the special Progress flag Sunday, Cork will also be raising a European rainbow flag it received from Cologne, Germany, another of its sister cities. It is part of the Pulse of Europe campaign, explained O’Dowd, noting that version of the rainbow flag supports the rights all minorities in Europe, especially LGBTQ minorities.

Traditional rainbow flag in SF in June
Because of the protocols San Francisco officials put in place due to the health crisis, they are not holding a public ceremony Sunday when they raise the special Progress flag. It will come down Monday at 10 a.m., said Farley, as the city is planning to raise the traditional version of the rainbow flag at a community event Monday, June 7, when City Hall reopens to the public for the first time in more than a year.

That version of the Pride flag, with its six colored stripes that the late Gilbert Baker turned into an international LGBTQ symbol, will remain up throughout June in recognition of Pride Month. A livecast of that flag-raising ceremony is being planned for those unable to make it in person, Farley told the B.A.R.

As the Political Notes column reported May 10, more Bay Area cities than ever are expected to raise the Pride flag this June. And a number are eschewing the traditional version for the Progress flag.

At the request of San Mateo County LGBTQ leaders, cities on the Peninsula are being asked to fly that version throughout Pride Month this year. The county government will raise the Progress flag for the first time Tuesday, June 1, in front of its offices in Redwood City and fly it throughout the month. Belmont and South San Francisco city officials also plan to fly that version of the Pride flag next month.

To learn more about the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, click here.

Cork’s LGBTQI+ Awareness Week events can be followed on Facebook via @CorkCityLGBTInter-AgencyGroup and on Twitter via @CorkLGBTWeek.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com

Help keep the Bay Area Reporter going in these tough times. To support local, independent, LGBTQ journalism, consider becoming a BAR member.

Photo: Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020 via Getty Images

Hot off the fluffy taffeta tails of her SNL performances, Miley Cyrus is going to extend her time at NBC a little bit longer. The network announced today that the woman formerly known as Hannah Montana has signed a development and talent deal to create a bunch of fun television projects for NBC’s various channels, the first of which will be Stand By You, a Pride concert special for Peacock. “The one-hour special filmed in Nashville,” the special teases, “will feature Cyrus singing an array of her hits and putting her creative spin on beloved classics, all in the spirit of Pride.” This is the first of three specials Cyrus is planning, although the details for the others are unknown. “I have had an incredible long-lasting relationship with NBC for years,” Cyrus said in a statement. “This feels like a natural progression and I am looking forward to creating content that we love and hope everyone who watches does too.” Allow us to also suggest a show entirely consisting of her cover songs.

“LGBTI people are often exposed to additional stigma, discrimination and violence, including when seeking medical services – and perhaps saddest of all, within their own families during lock-downs”, the High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, said in her message for the day, on Monday.  

“They are also in some places being treated as scapegoats for the spread of the virus”, she added, urging everyone to “stand up against hate, and to break the silence” surrounding the suffering imposed on LGBTI people. 

COVID intensifies the misery 

Secretary-General António Guterres noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating inequalities. 

Since the start of the pandemic, he pointed out in his message that the UN has documented a rise in discrimination, hate speech, social and economic exclusion, stigma and obstacles facing LGBTIQ+ people when it comes to accessing healthcare, education, employment and essential services.  

“We have also seen disturbing efforts to roll back legal and social protections for their fundamental human rights”, said the UN chief.  

As we work to recover better from the pandemic, he upheld the need to ensure equal rights by repealing discriminatory laws and addressing violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics – all pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

“Let us work together for an inclusive world where everyone can live free and equal in dignity and rights, no matter who they are, where they live or whom they love”, concluded the Secretary-General.  

Deep-rooted inequalities  

Meanwhile, as the virus continues to isolate people, separate families and devastate communities, it has also laid bare deep-rooted inequalities across societies and amplified injustices, especially against those already marginalized. 

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse people, who are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the poor, the homeless, and those without healthcare, will be deeply impacted by the pandemic and, unless we take urgent action, this impact will be felt over generations”, the independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Víctor Madrigal-Borloz, said in a joint statement on Friday. 

Moreover, the “historical statement”, signed by 96 UN and international human rights experts, “forcefully recognizes” that the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic is not being waged on a level playing field.  

Criminalization laws in 70 countries have increased the risk of police abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention during curfews, and hindered meaningful data collection. 

And several countries are using the pandemic as an excuse for persecution.  

“Some States have enacted measures which intentionally target LGBT persons and communities under the guise of public health, including proposing legislation to deny trans and gender-diverse persons of their legal recognition”, said the UN expert. 

He underlined that States should ensure that non-discriminatory pandemic-related measures are designed with the participation of LGBT communities. 

Systemic discrimination 

UN Women pointed to “shocking accounts” of systemic racial discrimination and police brutality across the world. 

Moreover, black, brown and indigenous communities with different sexual orientations and gender identities have long faced overlapping threats of exploitation, forced displacement and increased harm, the UN gender agency said.  

“For centuries, white supremacy, the legacies of colonialism and imperialism, heteronormativity and binary gender norms have been used to justify violence and criminalization”.  

“After experiencing, witnessing and struggling so much, only united can we heal from the harm caused and recover from the profound grief and intergenerational trauma caused at the hands of fellow citizens, States and institutions all over the world”, said UN Women.

Maryland Humanities has announced the selection of The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay for the 2021 One Maryland One Book program. The Book of Delights is a collection of lyrical essays. Gay wrote one essay per day over a year and took the time to find “delights” in his everyday life. The essays range in topic from the beauties in nature to what it is to be a black man in America. Readers can look to Gay’s collection as a guide to finding their own daily “delights.” The book was chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, authors, and bibliophiles in February from more than 160 titles suggested last fall by readers across the state for the theme, “Hope.”

“Strife on a global scale makes me people hunger for hope, which is what makes The Book of Delights a perfect selection for One Maryland One Book this year,” says Lindsey Baker, Executive Director at Maryland Humanities. “Ross Gay also doesn’t shy away from life’s hardships. It’s is the first book of essays ever chosen for the program, giving Marylanders a wide range of topics to discuss. We look forward to hearing about these conversations.”

Gay says: “I’m so grateful that The Book of Delights was chosen for One Maryland One Book. It feels lucky to get to share this collection of questions and wonderings with you all for so many reasons (one of them that my big brother was an English teacher in Frederick a couple of decades ago!). And I’m really looking forward to the conversations we’ll have about the book this fall.”

In The Book of Delights, one of today’s most literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend’s unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. More than any other subject, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis.

The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out space in our lives for delight.

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Is Girls5Eva gay? Yup! Mild spoilers in the review below!

What’s the most Tina Fey possible joke about why Girls5Eva, the all-girl group at the center of Peacock’s new musical comedy, fell out of public favor? Because the single for their new album, “Quit Flying Planes in My Heart,” was released on September 10, 2001, obviously. Girls 5Eva was an early aughts Spice Girls who had one hit, “Famous 5Eva” — gonna be famous 5eva / cause 4ever’s too short — before their unceremonious fall from grace. In 2021, however, a hip-hop artist samples their song on a new track and suddenly they’re back in the spotlight, with dreams of becoming hit-makers again. Though, as guest star Stephen Colbert notes, “It has been an entire Zendaya since you recorded music!”

Yes, there were originally five of them. Ashley Park, of Broadway’s Mean Girls, was number five, but she died in a tragic infinity pool accident.

Before we get to their journey, we’ve got to find out where they’ve been. There’s Dawn, played by Sara Bareilles, who currently works at her brother’s restaurant (get it? Waitress); Wickie, played with astonishing hilarity by Hamilton‘s Renée Elise Goldsberry, the seemingly most successful member of the group who is actually broke (despite starring in The Mask-ical: The Musical on Broadway, “a pastiche of the Jim Carrey oeuvre!”); Busy Philipps’ Summer, who has tried and failed to be a Real Housewife eight times; and former SNL writer Paula Pell as Gloria, the group’s resident lesbian who is now a dentist. Yes, a real live lesbian played by a real life lesbian on a Tina Fey series. Finally!

And actually Girls5Eva’s lesbianism is a real surprise. Fey’s series and sketch writing have been all over the place with gay women over the years, even acknowledging repeatedly how much of a misanthropic lesbian Liz Lemon was without ever paying that off, but Gloria is a fully realized lesbian character who gets a love story with Pell’s IRL wife, Janine Brito, after famously becoming the first gay couple in the state of New York to get divorced; plenty of great jokes; a chance to play at the Y2Gay Pride event; and a storyline wondering why Wickie is the gay icon instead of her, even though she can be open about being gay now. It’s a lot easier to feel like you’re in on the joke when you’re actually represented on-screen.

If this whole gag sounds like it would be right at home on 30 Rock or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, that’s because, in addition to Fey, series creator Meredith Scardino is a Kimmy alum, and Fey’s longtime collaborators Robert Carlock and Jeff Richmond are also along for the ride. But it’s not just the irreverence that reveals the series’ DNA: there’s endless smash cuts, mile-a-minute jokes, scathing cultural critiques (especially about Hollywood), and endless jackassery (and I mean that in a good way).

I’ve gotta circle back to Goldsberry here because she does play the most 30 Rock of all these characters, the Jenna Maroney of them all, which should make it the hardest sell of the show, but Goldsberry leans in so hard, and in such diametric opposition to the gravity of the roles we’ve seen her in before, that she is completely astounding. It has been well over a year since I’ve laughed as hard at anything as I did at her hijinks. And, of course, she gets to sing! Because this is a musical comedy! And while the music isn’t as memorable as Tituss Burgess’ “Peeno Noir” or the 30 Rock finale’s “Rural Juror,” there’s still some good tunes. “The Strand is his Disneyland” from “New York Lonely Boy” is a particular favorite, largely because I don’t think anyone knows it’s a Gossip Girl joke.

The best part of Girls5Eva is I know when I watch it again, there will be jokes I missed. It’s that fast and clever. And I will watch it again. It’s only eight episodes, and they are jam-packed with joy and absurdity.

Antonio Brown, the city of Atlanta’s first Black out LGBTQ city council member, is throwing his hat into the race to be the next Atlanta mayor.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brown, 30, filed paperwork with the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission last Friday that would allow him to begin fundraising for a mayoral run. The city official is yet to formally announce his candidacy, but an announcement through his Committee to Reimagine Atlanta Together is expected to occur in the next few days.

Brown made history in 2019 by winning a special election to represent Atlanta’s third district on the Atlanta City Council, becoming the youngest and first Black out LGBTQ person to ever serve in that capacity. He quickly became an aggressive progressive voice within the city government, often clashing with current mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms while pushing for reforms in multiple sectors.

In less than two years, Brown has proposed numerous policing reforms, including leading calls for the Atlanta Police Department to strengthen its policy requiring officers intervene when observing fellow officers breaking the law or department rules. He has also advocated for the establishment of a new Public Safety Commissioner position and a non-emergency response unit to better address mental health incidents and non-violent crimes.

He also sponsored legislation aimed at outlawing police use of less-lethal “riot agents,” like tear gas and rubber bullets and banning the rejection of federal housing vouchers as rent payments by local landlords.

Brown joins a crowded field, including two fellow City Council members and potentially former Mayor Kasim Reed, vying to replace Bottoms after she declared she wouldn’t seek a second term as Atlanta’s mayor.

While his activity during his short time in city government is impressive, legal troubles dating back to 2012 could impact his mayoral campaign before it even gets started. Brown was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2020 on multiple counts of fraud connected to allegations that he falsified his income on multiple loans applications and credit cards that were then used for personal purchases. Brown is also alleged to have lied about having his identity stolen as part of the defrauding effort.

The allegations date back to 2012, seven years before Brown’s election to the Atlanta City Council, but being indicted while holding public office puts him in rare company. Brown is the first city official to be indicted while holding office since the 1993 indictment against D.L. Fowlkes. When asked for comment last month by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brown said he was “thankful for the three amazing female attorneys who are fighting to prove my innocence. In the meantime I will continue to fight for the people of Atlanta.”

Colton Underwood shook the internet and pop culture as a whole when he came out as gay during an exclusive and extensive sit-down interview with Robin Roberts for Good Morning America.

Exactly one month later, Friday (May 14), Underwood is addressing the controversial fallout that has since been associated with his coming out with Variety. The former Bachelor lead admitted, among many things, to what actually led to coming out on national television.

“I’ll just say it,” Underwood told Elizabeth Wagmeister. “I, at one point, during my rock bottom and spiral, was getting blackmailed. Nobody knows I was blackmailed.”

Wagmeister then provided the backstory, which led to Underwood telling his publicist about his sexuality last year before publicly announcing it:

“According to him, last year, while living in Los Angeles, he secretly visited a spa known for catering to gay clientele. Shortly thereafter, he received an anonymous email, which has been reviewed by Variety, from someone claiming to have taken his photos at the venue. Underwood never saw the alleged photos and explains he was at the spa ‘just to look,’ saying he ‘should have never been there.’ The unidentified sender threatened to ‘out’ him in the press, and in a panic of paranoia, Underwood forwarded the email to his publicist, Alex Spieller, which forced him to finally have an honest conversation about his sexual orientation.”

The primary controversy surrounding Underwood’s renewed position in the spotlight has been because of the September 2020 restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend Cassie Rudolph, whom he met on The Bachelor, that alleged stalking and “planting a tracking device” on her car (h/t TMZ). Rudolph dropped the suit in November 2020.

“I would say that I’ve ran from myself for 29 years,” Underwood said when Wagmeister confronted him about his harassment of Rudolph. “There is no excuse for any behavior of mine that was holding onto this straight identity or that was operating out of fear of being gay and being outed.”

A Change.org petition aiming to cancel Underwood’s forthcoming unscripted Netflix reality series because of his past behavior toward Rudolph began circulating and has accumulated over 35,000 signatures.

Wagmeister explained that, too:

“After they split, Underwood and Randolph were filming a new reality show together in the summer of 2020 with Jeff Jenkins Productions, Variety has learned. The show, which was developed, but never formally pitched, would have followed the exes’ life as friends in L.A., but the project collapsed with the restraining order and police investigation, which Randolph requested was dropped in November 2020. Later, as Underwood’s very small inner circle came to learn about his sexuality, the production company pitched him on the idea of a show about his journey coming out, and after five months of therapy and meeting with a psychiatrist, Underwood decided his story could help others. The show ultimately sold to Netflix, and is slated to premiere later this year.”

Watch portions of Underwood’s Variety and GMA interviews below.