LGBTQ Breaking News Service

Raymond O. Caldwell is the producing artistic director of Theater Alliance.

‘City in Transition: The Quadrant Series’

Streaming from April 24-May 24

Theater Alliance

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Recently, a Facebook post asked “Are there any activist theaters in D.C.?” A local actor quickly replied. “There’s only one,” she wrote. “It’s Theater Alliance.”

During a phone interview from his home in Anacostia last week, Theater Alliance’s producing artistic director Raymond O. Caldwell, addressed the social media query: “We keep our heads down and do the work. Well before the pandemic, we were trying to have conversations about race in America. Then it seemed niche work. Now that work is in vogue. There might come a time when it’s no longer stylish. But that’s OK, we’re ultimately doing it to transform people’s lives and start conversations.

“Our plays won’t change the world. Straight up. But we can start conversations that are uncomfortable and don’t have easy answers. And by partnering our productions with various nonprofits, we’re able to involve people in the movement whether it’s on the front line or stuffing envelopes.”

In residence at Anacostia Playhouse, Theater Alliance’s mission is to illuminate the experiences, philosophies, and interests of D.C.’s diverse population. When Caldwell, who is gay, took helm of the company in January 2019, the organization was already steeped in diversity. He’s worked to continue and expand on that, creating a cultural institution that’s invited in the surrounding, mostly Black community.

The company kicked off its virtual season in December with eight pieces about protest centered around the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement. Having started off nationally, they’re now moving locally with “City in Transition: The Quadrant Series,” a 90-minute intersection of theater and film directed by Caldwell.

Part of the multi-Helen Hayes Award-winning company’s Hothouse new play development series, “City in Transition” consists of four filmed plays about Washington’s quadrants, SE, SW, NE, and NW written by local black playwrights Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Avery Collins, Shalom Omo-Osagie, and Leslie Scott-Jones.

The not long pieces are set in the present, past, and future. Topics include Black nonprofits battling to get funding via a game show; the meeting of hip-hop artists and violence set against the gentrified waterfront; a wealthy Black family debating whether to transform its landmark Black property into a trendy lounge for whites; and a white census taker discussing the changing city and current protests with a Black Washington native.

“Almost 13 years ago, I came to D.C. to be in Chocolate City but to my surprise, it wasn’t here,” says Caldwell, 37.

“When I think about a city changing and moving through gentrification, what concerns me is the loss of history, the stories of the folks who once lived here disappear.

“And interestingly, as D.C. gentrifies, we start noticing an uptick of murals and Black aesthetic of the city. It allows liberal yuppies to feel they’re in an urban environment but forgetting the rich history particularly for Black people in DC.”
He initially came to Washington for a six-month fellowship but stayed on. After six years at

Arena Stage, desirous to work outside of a white space, he began teaching at Howard University.

At Howard, his work centered on the universality of storytelling. “I pitched what folks would consider white work like Lillian Hellman’s provocatively lesbian-themed play, ‘The Children’s Hour.’”

“I’d ask my predominantly Black audience to imagine ourselves there as well, and they would.

The audience left thinking the play was written by a Black woman. It was additionally powerful because we in the Black community have trouble talking about homosexuality.”

As gay, Black, and Asian, Caldwell sometimes refers to himself as third culture: “Being who I am allows more space for me to see biases. I go into work asking myself what are the opportunities for transformation within me and the ensemble of artists I’ll be working with?”

Born in Germany to a German-Filipino mother and African-American father, he mostly grew up in Germany but spent summers with his father in the U.S. At 13, he went to live with his father.

“He thought I’d had enough of the European experience and wanted to teach me what it was to be a Black man in the world. And interestingly, that became the center of my activism.”

Caldwell’s American grandmother described him like this: “That boy can’t help but livin’.”

It’s true, he keeps busy, says Caldwell. He doesn’t turn down too many projects. “I’m honored to be creating art. There are so many ideas I want to push and propagate and now having a space and platform makes it especially hard to say no. It’s a good place to be.”

Foreign Policy Playlist recommends: Power of the Street.

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On May 11, a Cameroonian court sentenced two transgender women to five years in prison and fines of 200,000 CFA (USD $370) under a law that forbids same-sex relations. The women, Njeuken Loic (known as “Shakiro”) and Mouthe Roland (known as “Patricia”), should never have been arrested and have already experienced abuse in pre-trial detention. For trans women, five years in a Cameroonian men’s prison can amount to a death sentence. The authorities should release them and vacate the charges immediately.

Gendarmes arrested Shakiro and Patricia off the streets in the city of Douala on February 8, for wearing typically female clothing. They interrogated the women without a lawyer present, beat and threatened to kill them, taunted them with anti-LGBT epithets, and forced them to sign statements, according to activists and lawyers who visited them in detention. Shakiro and Patricia were later taken to the overcrowded Douala central prison where they reported being beaten and insulted by guards and other inmates. Prosecutors charged them with attempted homosexual conduct, public indecency, and non-possession of their national identity cards. Alice Nkom, a lawyer representing Shakiro and Patricia, said, “It’s a political sentence sending a clear, chilling message: ‘We don’t want LGBT people here in Cameroon.’ We ought to fight this and we will.”

In the last year, Cameroonian security forces have increasingly targeted people for arbitrary arrest based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Between February and April 2021 security forces arrested at least 27 people, including a 17-year-old boy, for alleged consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity, beating and subjecting some to forced anal examinations.

Human Rights Watch has documented extensive human rights violations in arrests and prosecutions during previous anti-LGBT crackdowns in Cameroon, including the use of forced anal examinations and other forms of torture and ill-treatment, forced confessions, denial of access to counsel, and blatant anti-LGBT bias on the part of judges. We also documented rape and beatings of LGBT people by detainees in Cameroon’s prisons, undeterred by guards.

Shakiro and Patricia are the latest victims of a system plagued by absolute disregard for the due process rights of people targeted based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Cameroon should repeal its anti-homosexuality laws and stop interfering in Cameroonians’ private lives.

British Columbians who identify as non-binary, as well as men who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit or queer, can now receive up to three HIV self-test kits in the mail from a Canadian health advocacy organization.

The non-profit Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), which is based in Vancouver, is providing the tests free of charge to eligible participants aged 18 and older who complete its online Sex Now 2021 survey.

The survey includes questions about sexual and mental health and is designed to gauge how the pandemic has affected participants and to help organizations across Canada advocate for better programs and public policies. 

Dr. Nathan Lachowsky, research director with the centre, said the fast, anonymous test kits are a way for people to test themselves at home without having to visit a clinic while COVID-19 continues to circulate.

“Research we did last year showed that over half of gay, bi, trans, two-spirit and queer men had delays in sexual health testing from the start of COVID,” said Lachowsky on Tuesday during an interview on CBC’s The Early Edition.

“Research also shows that over three-quarters of the community are likely to try at-home testing,” he added.

Health Canada approved

The finger-prick blood test, which gives results in a minute, is manufactured by Richmond, B.C.-based bioLytical Laboratories and was approved by Health Canada in November. It is the first of its kind in the country.

When the test was approved, it was praised by Canadian experts who were concerned about a decline in the number of people being tested for HIV during the pandemic and worried about a spike in HIV rates when it subsides.

“What we’re really interested in doing is getting it out there into the community,” said Lachowsky. He said the tests are not usually free, so to be able to receive three is an added benefit of providing helpful health information.

Tests normally cost $34.95 if purchased through the manufacturer online.

Test buddies offer support

Participants can also choose to take part in the organization’s buddy program, which connects people taking the test with a peer for support.

“We call them test now buddies,” said Lachowsky, adding these buddies can help support people and connect them with whatever resources they might want after their test results.

To receive a kit from CBRC, fill out the survey at the centre’s website and opt in to receive one. You will be asked a series of questions that normally take about 30 minutes to answer. Your responses are completely anonymous. 

The survey includes a number of questions about sexual activity, as well as on the impact of substance use and harm reduction when it comes to social, mental and sexual wellbeing.

Andrew Dymock arrives at court where he is appearing on terrorism related charges, at the Old Bailey in London, Friday Jan. 3, 2020. Dymock is alleged to have promoted a right-wing extremist group through his Twitter account and website. (Aaron Chown/AP)

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a former Missoula man convicted of having gay sex would not have to register as a sex offender.

Randall Menges, 45, was convicted of having gay sex in Idaho in 1994 after he had consensual sex with two 16-year-old boys. He was convicted under Idaho’s Crimes Against Nature law, which bans anal and oral sex between consenting adults, according to the lawsuit initially filed by Menges in December 2020.

Former Missoula man sues over ‘outdated’ sodomy convictions, sex offender requirement

In its Tuesday ruling, the federal court stated Menges’ requirement to register is unconstitutional and that someone who is having consensual sexual contact with someone of the same sex does not pose a threat to public safety.

After serving seven years in prison and being released on probation for the remainder of his sentence, Menges, who now lives in Butte, was required to register as a sex offender in Idaho. When he moved to Montana in the mid-2000s, the requirement to register followed him across state lines, according to court documents.

Menges said it should have not required a lawsuit to find the registry requirement unconstitutional, but that he’s happy it’s over.

“I’m grateful to the court for putting an end to my nightmare,” Menges said.

The attorney general’s office is appealing the ruling, Emilee Cantrell, press secretary of the Attorney General’s office said.

“We filed a notice of appeal because this order weakens our state’s sex offender registry law and opens it up to more attacks from out-of-state lawyers who are more interested in politics than the safety of Montana children,” Cantrell said.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen presided at the Tuesday ruling.

“Montana has no rational basis for forcing Menges to register as a sexual offender on the basis of a 1994 Idaho conviction for engaging in oral or anal sex with a 16-year old male when he was 18, but not forcing those to register as a sexual offender who were convicted in Idaho in 1994 at the age of 18 for engaging in vaginal sex with a 16-year old female,” the ruling said.

Christensen added in his ruling that while Montana’s sexual offender registration laws usually serve compelling government interests, this does not apply to Menges’ case.

In December 2020, Menges filed a lawsuit against the Montana Attorney General’s Office over whether the requirement to register violated his constitutional rights. The following March, the Montana Attorney General’s Office opposed removing Menges from the state’s sex offender registry.

“This case involves the lingering effects of centuries of homophobic ‘sodomy’ prohibitions,” Matthew Strugar, an attorney representing Menges, wrote in the original complaint.

Montana formally repealed its sodomy law in 2013 after a Supreme Court ruling in 2003 said sodomy laws were unconstitutional. However, Montana still required people with sodomy convictions to register as sex offenders if they were convicted in a state that still required registration, according to the press release. Idaho, South Carolina and Mississippi still require sex offender registration for people convicted under their sodomy laws.

“It is unconscionable that in 2021, Montana would still put people convicted of having gay sex on the sex offender registry,” Strugar said. “This kind of overt, state-sanctioned homophobia would have been surprising 30 years ago. Today it is shocking. And it is unconstitutional.”

Ex-World boxing champ Tony Bellew has called social media firms a “disgrace” after trolls got away with targeting his gay brother.

The cowardly trolls targeted Bellew, 38, after he shared pictures of his brother Liam’s gay marriage last September.

The former British, Commonwealth, European and World boxing champion had tweeted: “Congratulations to me little brother Liam on the marriage to his partner Steve! Wishing you both all the luck & happiness in the world.”

Bellew said on Wednesday: “I put on a picture of my brother when he got married to his husband and the hate and things I received. Wishing death upon him because of his colour, because of his sexuality, it was just insane.”

But he said the trolls never took up his challenge to meet him face to face.

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He told BBC One’s Breakfast presenter Dan Walker: “I always put the same thing, ‘if you want to say something nasty to me, or you want to challenge and come at me just tell me when you see me’. I’m still yet to meet someone.”

The boxer added: “These social media companies are a disgrace for what they are doing.”

And he called for new rules forcing people to reveal their identities before being allowed to open social media accounts.

“The simple way forward and the only way out of this is a driver’s licence or a passport is put to an account,” he said.

“No-one is going to put a racist comment to someone knowing it can come right back to you and know who you are, where you are from.”

He added: “All you care about is the money that is coming in from sponsors and what you are making from the platform. You are not caring about the hate that is going out.

“Thousands of people are dying every year through social media hate, thousands of people are killing themselves because some muppet in his mum’s basement or his mum’s loft, has wrote ‘you are an absolute waste of space’.

“And that is the saddest part about it.”

But he said individuals need to take responsibility for the comments they post.

Bellew, from Liverpool, added: “As well as the social media companies, people need to take accountability for their actions.”

The Mirror has launched our Stop Online Hate campaign to demand tech firms tackle the cowardly thugs who are turning social media into a cesspit of hatred.

Bellew, who starred as boxer Ricky Conlan in the 2015 Hollywood movie “Creed” alongside Sylvester Stallone, retired from the ring in 2018.

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During his glittering career he won 30 of his 34 fights, including 20 knockouts.

His book, “Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face: 12 Things Boxing Teaches You About Life,” is published on Thursday.

The Mirror’s Stop Online Hate campaign also demands tech firms act to tackle abuse.

• The Armed Forces’ mental health champion has quit Twitter, blaming six years of trolling and abuse. Warrant Officer Glenn Haughton said: “I was not prepared to take the hounding any longer.”

Daylight, a digital banking platform for the LGBT community, is calling on traditional financial institutions to let customers use their chosen names rather than their legal names.

The New York company — which has made the use of true names part of its business plan — announced its #CallMeByMyName campaign Tuesday in partnership with All Out, an organization that advocates for LGBT rights, and the National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy group for transgender people.

The campaign urges the American Bankers Association to issue guidance to its members to devote more resources to fostering inclusivity.

“We acknowledge the improvements already made by the U.S. banking industry to improve inclusive customer service for transgender and nonbinary customers,” a letter on All Out’s website says. “We now call on you to take the next steps by encouraging ABA members to redirect a portion of Pride advertising spend towards developing publicly available action plans.”

To develop these action plans, the #CallMeByMyName campaign — a riff on the movie “Call Me By Your Name” about a same-sex romance — asks financial institutions to let trans and nonbinary customers update their names and gender identities for free, without requiring permission from a doctor, judge or notary, and extend this recognition across customer service, statements and cards.

All Out has posted a petition on its website next to the open letter that Daylight will use to lobby financial institutions to be sensitive to the needs of trans and nonbinary customers. The challenger bank will also use the hashtag on social media to call attention to this cause.

“Being able to access debit and credit cards in your chosen name, which is not necessarily your legal name, is vital for ensuring the physical safety and security of trans and nonbinary people,” Billie Simmons, a co-founder of Daylight, said in a press release.

The Daylight debit card bears the customer’s chosen name. Although it is necessary to resurface a customer’s legal name during the know-your-customer process, the app and customer service staff will use preferred names thereafter and ensure name changes are updated across all systems automatically.

BMO Harris Bank, Citigroup and Superbia Credit Union use Mastercard’s True Name feature, which lets customers use their preferred name on credit, debit and prepaid cards.

“We applaud recent initiatives to improve support for trans and nonbinary people, but these don’t go far enough,” said Simmons. She points out that in her experience using True Name with a major retail bank, she still receives bank statements, texts and letters with her deadname.

“ABA is committed to helping banks of all sizes build diverse, equitable and inclusive environments that welcome LGBTQ+ customers and employees,” an ABA spokesman said by email. “We support bank initiatives to allow trans and nonbinary people to have the financial products that meet their needs, while also meeting all bank regulatory requirements.”

Beyond issuing debit cards, Daylight is an online community where users can get advice from their peers, schedule sessions with LGBT financial coaches and read content that covers money management issues specific to LGBT needs, from the unique costs of transitioning to the finances of starting a family.