Correction, May 4, 2021: This story previously stated that state Rep. Gary VanDeaver voted against advancing Senate Bill 29 out of a House committee. VanDeaver voted for advancing the bill.
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A bill that would prevent transgender Texas children from joining school sports teams that match their gender identity failed to advance out of a House committee Tuesday, signaling potential trouble for one of several anti-LGBTQ bills in the Legislature.
The Senate has advanced a handful of bills that LGBTQ advocates say threaten the rights and mental health of transgender children in Texas, including restricting their access to school sports and medical care. Senate Bill 29, the sports bill, is the first anti-trans Senate bill to get a committee vote in the lower chamber.
House legislation banning gender confirmation health care for children, signed by 45 Republicans, was passed out of the lower chamber’s Public Health committee last week but has yet to reach the full House floor. Senate-approved legislation labeling the treatment as child abuse is set to go before the same committee, which is made up of six Republicans and five Democrats.
When members of the House Public Education committee — made up of six Democrats and seven Republicans — took up sports bill SB 29 on Tuesday, it failed to garner enough votes to advance to the full chamber.
Opponents of the legislation were relieved by vote.
“We thank the members of the House Public Education committee for their votes today against SB 29,” said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers. “We did the right thing today for all the children of Texas by standing up for trans kids.”
Jamey Harrison, deputy director of the University Interscholastic League, told the House Public Education committee that the bill codifies current UIL rules, though there is one key distinction. The UIL mandates students in K-12 schools to compete on the team that aligns with the sex listed on their birth certificate. SB 29 adds that it must be the sex listed at or around birth. The change targets transgender Texans, who may change the sex listed on their birth certificate.
Supporters of the bill said that it was necessary to protect women’s sports, arguing that higher levels of testosterone may give transgender women an advantage over cisgender women athletes and could cause safety concerns.
But Harrison testified it was already “not an issue in our state” under the current UIL rules.
Marjan Linnell, a general pediatrician testifying on behalf of the Texas Pediatrics Society, told the committee that transgender women often don’t have high levels of testosterone because of puberty suppression and hormone treatments — medications that could be banned under other anti-LGBTQ legislation winding through the Capitol. Linnell also highlighted that there are large gaps in physical capability within cisgender women and men.
Amalia Allen, a Texan student athlete, testified that it felt “disparaging” to be told by legislators that she was inherently less capable than male athletes because of her gender.
“People are very concerned about me these days,” she said. “I’d like to ease that concern and respectfully decline that protection.”
LGBTQ advocates also said the bill could actually threaten cisgender female athletes, concerned that female athletes who may be masculine could be forced to go through intrusive investigations to prove that they were born female in order to be eligible to compete.
Last month, Heather Gothard won the women’s division of a competitive race in Cleburne. The day after the race, she was targeted by social media posts and emails insisting she was a transgender woman and should be banned from further races. At an Equality Texas rally last week opposing the bill, Gothard, a cisgender woman, spoke out against the incident, and advocates worried it would be the first of many.
Disclosure: Equality Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
The violent murder of much loved and fierce LGBTQI Tongan activist, Polikalepo Kefu, on Saturday May 1, has shocked the local and international community. Local police have confirmed that a 27-year-old man has been charged in relation to the activist’s death.
Kefu was the president of transgender advocacy group, the Tongan Leitis Association, and was also widely known for his work with the Tongan Red Cross Society as the organisation’s communications officer. Kefu was also the current chairman on the Pacific Protection Gender Inclusion Network.
Kefu’s body was found on the beach near his home in Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island on Saturday morning.
It is with heavy hearts that I acknowledge the sudden and tragic loss of our brother Polikalepo Kefu over the weekend. Poli’s bravery and humanitarian work touched many lives in Tonga and throughout the Pacific diaspora. #thread PC: Nuku’alofa Times pic.twitter.com/187lx7UzZN
— Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo (@KaraninaSumeo) May 4, 2021
Man Arrested For Murder
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Confirming the tragic news, Tonga police deputy commissioner Tevita Vailea said in a statement: “Police have charged a 27-year-old man from Fungamisi Vavaú, residing at Halaleva, with murder in relation to the death of 41-year-old Polikalepo Kefu of Lapaha on Saturday 1st of May 2021.”
“The 27-year-old accused surrendered himself to police last Saturday night and is remanded in custody to appear at the magistrate’s court today … This is a tragic event, and our thoughts are with Mr Kefu’s family, friends and wider community.”
A homicide investigation is now underway; however, police have remained tight lipped as to if it is being investigated as a hate crime.
Homosexuality Illegal In Tonga
I’m so heartbroken to hear that Poli Kefu, a Tongan humanitarian and queer activist was murdered.
— vika mana says abolish AAPI (@endlessyarning) May 2, 2021
Kefu’s murder has evidently sent shockwaves through Tonga’s tight-knit LGBTQI community. “The hardest thing is to think that Tonga has gone into that kind of situation. We never thought that this kind of brutal murder would happen in Tonga,” said Joey Joleen Mataele, Executive Director of the Tonga Leitis Association.
“Not only was [Kefu] an activist, he was one person who would never be satisfied until the matter was solved. He was absolutely one in a million.” Mataele added.
Though Tongan culture traditionally supports transgender individuals in the form of fakafefine, homosexuality is still considered illegal. Though rarely enforced, it still carries a maximum prison term of 10 years. Tonga also does not recognize same-sex unions in any form.
A Tireless Advocate For Human Rights
2/3 Poli’s passing leaves a hole in our #RedCross#RedCrescent family. His bravery and compassion were inspiring. While we know he leaves a significant legacy within the global humanitarian movement, Poli will be deeply missed. pic.twitter.com/x3YwMHZ6Ib
— IFRC Asia Pacific (@IFRCAsiaPacific) May 3, 2021
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“Poli, as known to many in the Pacific, was a selfless humanitarian and a tireless advocate for the rights of those with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions and we send our regards and condolences to Poli’s family, friends and wider community,” PacifiqueX, a Pacific Island LGBTIQA+ Community Not-For-Profit Group based in Melbourne, told Star Observer in a statement.
“As Pacific Islanders in the LGBTIQA+ advocacy and community services sector, the work by Poli with the Tonga Leiti’s Association has been a source of inspiration for us (Pacific Islander Diaspora Community), more importantly, the impact of Poli to the members of our community who are Leiti and of other Pacific Indigenous gender and sexuality expressions.”
We are 16 Days away from the International Day against Homophobia Transphobia Biphobia @may17org & today we’ve witnessed the horrendous murder of a Human Rights Queer Activist in the Kingdom of Tonga, Poli Kefu. Ofa Lahi Atu Poli. #Justice4Poli 🏳️🌈✊🇹🇴 https://t.co/UAUKMRX8K6pic.twitter.com/gjeUoji7GA
“This tragic incident, understandably, has brought many mixed emotions to those across the community and we encourage any of our Pacific Islander LGBTIQA+ community who are finding this a difficult time, to please reach out to each other, speak to your support system and family and if needed, contact us through our Social Media and we can refer you to the best support service.”
“We respectfully refrain from commenting on any details of this tragedy, but we do support that justice is to be served,” the statement concluded.
A candlelight vigil for Kefu will be held on Thursday at the Basilica’s conference room from 6pm-8pm Tonga time. The public can follow along on the Broadcomfm Broadcasting Facebook page.
If you feel distressed reading the story, you can reach out to support services.
For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Facing one of the league’s best mid-range shooting teams, the Utah Jazz successfully denied the San Antonio Spurs chances to create shots anywhere except the mid-range for the better part of four quarters.
Utah beat San Antonio 110-99 on Monday night, in large part, by denying the Spurs scoring opportunities at the rim and on the perimeter. San Antonio did not make its first layup until the final minute of the second quarter and the Spurs missed all seven 3-pointers they attempted before halftime.
”We tried to make them earn everything they got,” center Rudy Gobert said.
Gobert tallied 24 points and 15 rebounds while keying the defensive effort that helped Utah lead wire-to-wire. The Jazz earned their second straight victory with efficient offense and tough defense. Utah scored 22 points off 13 San Antonio turnovers and shot 50% from the field.
”It’s really important to us to get off to a good start,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. ”If it means making plays off our defense and getting easy opportunities, that’s even better.”
Bojan Bogdanovic led the offense with 25 points. Jordan Clarkson added 16 points for the Jazz. Joe Ingles chipped in 13 points and eight assists.
DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points and Rudy Gay added 17 points to lead the Spurs, who lost their fourth straight game.
”We got to figure out a way to come Wednesday ready to compete, because that second half we competed really well with them,” said guard Dejounte Murray, who finished with 15 points. ”I think we competed way more than we did in the first half – starting with myself.”
The Jazz scored on five straight possessions to carve out a 26-16 lead late in the first quarter. Clarkson and Bogdanovic each made back-to-back baskets to help Utah build a double-digit cushion.
San Antonio cut the deficit to 40-35 on a jumper from Gay in the second quarter. That’s as close as the Spurs got before Utah heated up again. The Jazz scored on six consecutive possessions to ignite a 17-4 run. Bogdanovic scored back-to-back baskets to start the run and punctuated it with a 3-pointer that gave Utah a 57-39 lead.
”When we play that way it’s really hard for the other team to play us because we have so many weapons,” Gobert said.
The Spurs struggled to keep pace with the Jazz after repeatedly settling for mid-range shots. 19 of San Antonio’s 20 first-half baskets were mid-range shots.
”Poor first half, really good second half,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”We’ve kind of had that personality for a lot of the year.”
The Jazz led by as many as 25 points in the second half, going up 74-49 in the third quarter after Joe Ingles capped a 13-2 run with a 3-pointer.
Utah and San Antonio will face off again on Wednesday.
TIP INS
Spurs: Devin Vassell scored San Antonio’s first 3-pointer of the game with 7:07 left in the third quarter. . The Spurs attempted only 10 free throws but finished 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Jazz: Bogdanovic led Utah in scoring for the fourth straight game. . Trent Forrest finished with career-highs in points (9) and rebounds (4). . The Jazz outscored San Antonio 66-46 in the paint and 14-4 in fast-break points.
OPENING THE DOORS
More fans are watching Jazz games in person in May.
The team expanded attendance to allow 6,700 fans for all home games starting with Saturday’s 106-102 win over Toronto. That is 1/3 of regular arena capacity and is the highest number of fans any NBA team has allowed in their home arena this season.
This attendance expansion includes courtside seating for the first time. Fans who want to purchase courtside seats must show proof of being fully vaccinated, along with a negative COVID-19 test result.
Utah capped attendance at 5,000 fans before making the change at the end of April.
QUOTABLE
”If we’re undefeated, let’s save those jerseys for the playoffs.” – Bogdanovic after learning the Jazz are now 9-0 this season in the yellow jerseys they wore against the Spurs on Monday night.
—
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
Copyright 2021 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Facing one of the league’s best mid-range shooting teams, the Utah Jazz successfully denied the San Antonio Spurs chances to create shots anywhere except the mid-range for the better part of four quarters.
Utah beat San Antonio 110-99 on Monday night, in large part, by denying the Spurs scoring opportunities at the rim and on the perimeter. San Antonio did not make its first layup until the final minute of the second quarter and the Spurs missed all seven 3-pointers they attempted before halftime.
”We tried to make them earn everything they got,” center Rudy Gobert said.
Gobert tallied 24 points and 15 rebounds while keying the defensive effort that helped Utah lead wire-to-wire. The Jazz earned their second straight victory with efficient offense and tough defense. Utah scored 22 points off 13 San Antonio turnovers and shot 50% from the field.
”It’s really important to us to get off to a good start,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. ”If it means making plays off our defense and getting easy opportunities, that’s even better.”
Bojan Bogdanovic led the offense with 25 points. Jordan Clarkson added 16 points for the Jazz. Joe Ingles chipped in 13 points and eight assists.
DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points and Rudy Gay added 17 points to lead the Spurs, who lost their fourth straight game.
”We got to figure out a way to come Wednesday ready to compete, because that second half we competed really well with them,” said guard Dejounte Murray, who finished with 15 points. ”I think we competed way more than we did in the first half – starting with myself.”
The Jazz scored on five straight possessions to carve out a 26-16 lead late in the first quarter. Clarkson and Bogdanovic each made back-to-back baskets to help Utah build a double-digit cushion.
San Antonio cut the deficit to 40-35 on a jumper from Gay in the second quarter. That’s as close as the Spurs got before Utah heated up again. The Jazz scored on six consecutive possessions to ignite a 17-4 run. Bogdanovic scored back-to-back baskets to start the run and punctuated it with a 3-pointer that gave Utah a 57-39 lead.
”When we play that way it’s really hard for the other team to play us because we have so many weapons,” Gobert said.
The Spurs struggled to keep pace with the Jazz after repeatedly settling for mid-range shots. 19 of San Antonio’s 20 first-half baskets were mid-range shots.
”Poor first half, really good second half,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. ”We’ve kind of had that personality for a lot of the year.”
The Jazz led by as many as 25 points in the second half, going up 74-49 in the third quarter after Joe Ingles capped a 13-2 run with a 3-pointer.
Utah and San Antonio will face off again on Wednesday.
TIP INS
Spurs: Devin Vassell scored San Antonio’s first 3-pointer of the game with 7:07 left in the third quarter. . The Spurs attempted only 10 free throws but finished 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Jazz: Bogdanovic led Utah in scoring for the fourth straight game. . Trent Forrest finished with career-highs in points (9) and rebounds (4). . The Jazz outscored San Antonio 66-46 in the paint and 14-4 in fast-break points.
OPENING THE DOORS
More fans are watching Jazz games in person in May.
The team expanded attendance to allow 6,700 fans for all home games starting with Saturday’s 106-102 win over Toronto. That is 1/3 of regular arena capacity and is the highest number of fans any NBA team has allowed in their home arena this season.
This attendance expansion includes courtside seating for the first time. Fans who want to purchase courtside seats must show proof of being fully vaccinated, along with a negative COVID-19 test result.
Utah capped attendance at 5,000 fans before making the change at the end of April.
QUOTABLE
”If we’re undefeated, let’s save those jerseys for the playoffs.” – Bogdanovic after learning the Jazz are now 9-0 this season in the yellow jerseys they wore against the Spurs on Monday night.
—
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
Copyright 2021 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
MANILA, Philippines — Basketball star James Yap broke his silence on the sexual orientation of his son with Kris Aquino, Bimby.
In Dolly Anne Carvajal’s recent Inquirer column, James said that his son is not gay.
“I’ve been quiet about the issue that Bimby is supposedly gay. Because I know for sure that he is not gay. I don’t believe in gossip,” James said in Ilonggo.
The Rain or Shine point guard said he knew that his son is a real boy because he was with him until he turned seven years old.
“I was with Bimby till he turned 7, that’s why I know he’s a real boy. Because even when a kid is still young, it’s already obvious if he’s gay. Naintindihan ko si Kris. S’yempre Bimby grew up with her, so of course she reacted to the issue,” James said.
Dolly Anne, mother of actor and TV host IC Mendoza, supported James’ statement.
“Since I have a gay son, IC Mendoza, I get ‘migo’ James’ drift. Long before IC ‘came out’ to me, I already knew he was gay. That’s what a parent’s gut feeling can do,” she said.
Bimby said recently that he’s not gay.
In a video released on Kris’ Facebook page, the “Queen of All Media” asked her son “How do you feel, honestly, when you read those comments and they say you’re gay?”
“Wala, I don’t really feel anything. If you think I’m gay, alright. But you do realize that the gay community sa Philippines is a strong community. And you do realize that I’m 14,” Bimby answered.
“I know what I am. I’m straight as an arrow,” he added.
SAN DIEGO — Wil Myers singled with no outs in the seventh inning to end Tyler Anderson’s no-hit bid and the San Diego Padres beat Pittsburgh 2-0 Monday night, the Pirates’ fifth straight loss. Anderson (2-3) kept the Padres off-balance for six innings before they broke through in the seventh. Anderson issued a leadoff walk to Manny Machado before Myers singled to right field. Until then, Anderson had allowed only three baserunners, two on walks and one on his error in the fifth inning. After Myers’ hit, Tommy Pham hit a sacrifice fly and Austin Nola hit an RBI single with two outs to chase Anderson. San Diego had just three hits. The Padres needed a bullpen game because three starters are out with injuries or illness. San Diego’s sixth pitcher, Mark Melancon, who was named the NL Reliever of the Month for April earlier Monday after converting all nine save chances, pitched the ninth for his 10th save. Miguel Diaz, Craig Stammen, Austin Adams, Tim Hill (2-2) and Drew Pomeranz also contributed to the four-hitter. Anderson walked Trent Grisham leading off the game but induced a double-play grounder from Fernando Tatis Jr., the first of 13 straight batters Anderson retired before Jake Cronenworth reached on Anderson’s fielding error in the fifth. Third baseman Erik Gonzalez made a nice sliding, spinning stop of Myers’ grounder and threw a two-hopper to first for the first out of the fifth. Former Pirates starter Joe Musgrove, who threw the first no-hitter in Padres history on April 9, struck out as a pinch-hitter in the third. Musgrove pinch-hit to save a position player because the Padres needed a bullpen day. Anderson allowed two runs and two hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked three. Anderson won a 5-1 decision against Musgrove on April 14 in Pittsburgh. He also won a 5-4 decision against San Diego’s Chris Paddack on Sept. 25 while with San Francisco. Diaz started for the Padres and allowed one hit in three scoreless innings in his first appearance since June 14, 2019, at Colorado and his first start since June 21, 2017, at the Chicago Cubs. He struck out three and walked two. Diaz was invited to 2020 spring training but did not appear on the Padres’ 60-man player pool during the pandemic shortened season. Rookie second baseman Kim Ha-seong made a nice diving stop of Michael Perez’s grounder and threw him out to end the second and strand two runners. TRAINER’S ROOM Pirates: Reinstated RHP Michael Feliz (cracked right middle fingernail) from the injured list and optioned RHP Sean Poppen to the alternate site. UP NEXT Pirates: RHP Mitch Keller (1-3, 8.20 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday night in the middle game of the series. Padres: Manager Jayce Tingler was expected to name a starter after the game. It could be RHP Dinelson Lamet, who is eligible to come off the injured list, or LHP Ryan Weathers, who came out of his last start with soreness in his left arm after just one inning Wednesday at Arizona. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
Magda Lisek and Yann Kee plot together in Diary of a Couch Diva. Credit: Karl Brown
A convoluted plot with betrayal and cross-dressing, great tunes and a twist to turn it all around?
That could be any of 1000 operas, but this one – Diary of a Couch Diva – is rooted in the harsh reality of the global pandemic.
Perth soprano Magda Lisek has brought her YouTube channel, Couch Opera Live, to the Camelot Theatre stage after three successive lockdowns; one in 2020 and two this year.
Indeed the release of frustration is palpable as first she, then fellow soprano Yann Kee, explode on to the scene. Not for nothing are they known as divas.
Their rendition of the Flower Duet from Lakme collapses into a collective howl at fate: their repartee a mimic of recitative, narrative duet redolent of musical theatre; all couched, of course, in COVID idiom. “What if it lasts more than five days?” Lisek asks with sad irony.
In a parody of last year’s reality, the quiet work and steep learning curve that Lisek embraced to get her show online – compiled from video vignettes by fellow jobless singers across the globe – seems destined for failure as the acts withdraw.
So the girls have to sing all the parts.
Some are wonderfully true to the originals. Kee’s Si. Mi chiamano Mimi, from Puccini’s La Boheme, introduced as a phone conversation, is lush, full-voiced and soaring, a straightener to the chaotic scene-setting slapstick before.
Magda Lisek sings Glitter and Be Gay for Diary of a Couch Diva at Camelot Theatre. Credit: Karl Brown
Harry Secombe once said of the original, live Goon Show that if the humour was strained he could always win an audience over with song.
Happily all the artists in this show can do the same, and it becomes a rich pastiche of opera and musical theatre favourites, accompanied by drinks and lashings of pizza; a combo to diet for (sic).
Lisek fronts the show-within-a-show singing Marie’s aria from Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment, a number she sang online last year.
Though the voice is the same, the humour is broader and the comedy more physical, now free of the constraints of broadcasting to the planet, with more risks taken and applause won.
Absent the “other artists”, Kee presents as a drunken Toreador from Bizet’s Carmen, a fair take on the Pommie tourists who for decades have made free with Spanish beaches and bars.
Glitter and be Gay (Berstein’s Candide) and Vilia (Lehar’s Merry Widow) give each singer the freedom to develop their distinct vocal charms, even to break the fourth wall and escape the confines of the plot.
Then Lisek takes the cross-dressing experiment one stage further as Pavarotti, essaying Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s Turandot; her triumphant “Vincero” (I will win) a fair approximation, albeit in a different register.
After those gendered vocal gymnastics, Libiamo, from Verdi’s La Traviata, gives the duo pause to embrace their inner party animal, with some distinctly non-MeToo touches.
To settle the mood, Kee intones Summertime, from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, with deep resonance and reverence, swooning and crooning through a classic.
Matt Dixon and Jun Zhang sing The Pearl Fishers’ duet. Credit: Karl Brown
And then the twist. Jun Zhang and Matt Dixon come to the party after all; a balanced combination of Zhang’s light tenor and Dixon’s crystal-clear baritone ideally suited to The Pearl Fishers duet (Bizet), when more vibrato would mean much less. A genuine eye-opener.
Dixon dials back to comedy for Ben Moore’s I’m Glad I’m Not a Tenor, showing off his musical theatre chops with solid operatic roots.
Then he’s teamed with Lisek for The Sweetest Sounds, (Richard Rodgers’ No Strings), finding warmth and empathy through music and youth.
Zhang and Kee follow suit with I’ve Never Been in Love Before (Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls), with interesting chemistry, tender and dramatic by turns.
Jun Zhang and Yann Kee sing I’ve Never Been in Love Before, for Diary of a Couch Diva. Credit: Karl Brown
Zhang, solo, evokes romantic distemper for Core ’ngrato (Salvatore Cardillo for The Ungrateful Heart), asking more from his voice and getting more than before.
Lisek has a similar moment in Physician (Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant); more torch song than bel canto, turning up the coquette she essayed in the Donizetti – but all in the best of taste.
Dixon steals the scene in a finale of highlights from My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe), the mood and lyrics perhaps a reminder that many of the uplifting tunes on the program were written in difficult times; so never waste a crisis.
And Lisek and Kee confirm that in their encore, For Good, from the Stephen Schwartz Broadway and movie favourite Wicked: “Because I knew you/I’ve been changed for good”.
Diary of a Couch Diva, written and directed by Gregory Yurisich, with music directed and accompanied by Michael Schouten, is on again this Friday and Saturday, May 7 and 8, at 7.30pm.
Tickets from couchoperalive.com.
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For 23 years, efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Missouri Human Rights Act have stalled
Missouri Sen. Greg Razer hadn’t planned to speak on an amendment that purported to prevent discrimination based on a person’s vaccination status by barring “vaccine passports.”
But he couldn’t help but see the parallels to his own fight.
“They had a very good point that there are definitely people who will discriminate, and that it’s so egregious that we have to write these things down in law,” said Razer, D-Kansas City. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m gonna have to jump in here and have a conversation about that.’”
Razer is one of only six openly LGBTQ members of the Missouri legislature, and the only member in the Senate.
Under Missouri law, a person can still be fired, denied housing or kicked out of a restaurant for being gay or transgender — or simply being perceived as gay or transgender. For 23 years, state lawmakers have pushed to close that gap and add protections for LGBTQ Missourians.
“We’ve heard bills banning discrimination against dog breeds, banning discrimination against Israel. Don’t people like me deserve to have a roof over my head? To be able to keep my job?” Razer said.
With the end of session less than six weeks away, neither bill has been heard in committee — one of the first steps to a bill becoming law. It’s a familiar story that has played out the last two decades lawmakers have filed the bill, often referred to as the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, or MONA.
So with time ticking away on the 2021 session, Razer attempted to tack the nondiscrimination act onto Sen. Bill Eigel’s amendment prohibiting vaccine passports.
It failed by a vote of 15 in favor to 16 against, but the close margin — and the fact that five Republicans joined all 10 Senate Democrats in support — left advocates feeling hopeful.
“With that narrow of differentiation in the vote, it certainly sways our way that we’ve made significant progress in convincing the Missouri legislature that MONA is a necessity for the state to make progress to move forward,” said Shira Berkowitz, the communications director for PROMO, a statewide organization that advocates for LGBTQ equality in Missouri.
Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, said during debate that he wanted every person in the state “to enjoy the same rights that are protected under our constitution and under our law.
But Eigel said his amendment was aimed at prohibiting the introduction of new classes of people — vaccinated versus unvaccinated. He said Razer’s amendment would do the opposite.
“I am trying to define that world in a way that doesn’t portray individuals in one class or another, because there’s no class that the government can create that encapsulates the totality of who you are,” Eigel said.
Meanwhile, in the House the Children and Families committee hasn’t held a hearing on Hannegan’s bill. But it has debated one that would limit healthcare for transgender youth for the purpose of gender confirmation.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank, Missouri is one of 21 states that does not have an explicit prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in housing and one of 23 states when it comes to public accommodations.
“We do not have a position on that legislation,” said Karen Buschmann, a spokeswoman for the chamber.
Transgender rights
Meanwhile, for some, including both sexual orientation and gender identity is still a sticking point. Berkowitz said it’s not a compromise PROMO is willing to make — especially in the face of a wave of anti-trans legislation nationwide and in Missouri.
“We see them as inseparable,” Berkowitz said. “We can’t, as a state, pass protections that understand the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual community and leave behind the transgender community as well.”
Rep. Mike Stephens, R-Bolivar, filed a bill in 2018 that would have only added protections based on sexual orientation — but excluded gender identity. He withdrew the bill that same session.
Stephens said it’s not because he was trying to be unfair to transgender Missourians, but found that the discussion often dissolves into topics like bathrooms and sports teams “that just explodes and derails the issue.”
Stephens hopes to see MONA at least get a hearing this session, and stressed that it’s an issue of equality that has economic implications for the state in order to attract companies whose employees will want to call Missouri home.
“I’m going to be on board no matter what,” Stephens said of supporting MONA, later adding: “I just have had to come full cycle on this issue and understand it much more deeply and broadly and personally. You grow up. You grow old. You hopefully grow wise.”
But with time running out this session, if MONA finds success it will be as an amendment on another bill.
“I think it will be a moment when lightning strikes,” Razer said. “It will likely be an amendment on the right bill at the right moment. And there will be a day where this finally — it just happens.”
While the long fight to add protections for LGBTQ Missourians trudges onward, what lawmakers and advocates said they have seen change is greater representation.
Just three years ago, there were only two openly LGBTQ members in the legislature. Now, there are six.
Razer said it’s helped reframe the issue for some lawmakers, who see they aren’t just voting on “a ‘they’ out in the ethos,” but on the rights of their colleagues. He’s seen that impact in private, one-on-one conversations with fellow lawmakers, who ask questions of him knowing they won’t face judgment.
It’s been difficult to stand on the House and Senate floor for the last five years and “sort of rip my chest open and have these conversations,” Razer said.
But it’s also been a privilege he has been proud to take on.
“It’s also an honor to be in a position where I can speak for the thousands and thousands of LGBT Missourians so that they know they have a voice and have someone here fighting for them,” Razer said, later adding: “There’s that old saying that representation matters. And it really does.”
COVID-19 has claimed the life of another New Brunswicker, pushing the total number of COVID-related deaths in the province to 38, Public Health announced Monday, along with 15 new cases. A person in their 90s in the Edmundston region, Zone 4, has died “as a result of COVID-19,” according to a news release. The person resided at Pavillon Beau-Lieu, a special care home in Grand Falls, where there’s an outbreak involving the variant first reported in South Africa. Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said she is saddened by the news. “I join all New Brunswickers in sharing sincere condolences with this person’s loved ones during this difficult time,” she said in a statement. On Sunday, Public Health announced another resident of the special care home, someone in their 80s, had died in hospital “as a result of COVID-19.” With the 15 new cases, there are now 142 active cases of respiratory disease in the province. Six people are in hospital, including two in intensive care. The breakdown of the new cases is as follows: Moncton region, Zone 1: one case: A person 30 to 39 This case is a contact of a previously confirmed case. Saint John region, Zone 2: three cases: A person 30 to 39 A person 40 to 49 A person 50 to 59 One case is under investigation, one case is travel-related and the other is a contact of a previously confirmed case. Fredericton region, Zone 3: five cases: A person under 19 A person 30 to 39 A person 40 to 49 Two people 60 to 69 Three of the cases are contacts of a previously confirmed case and two are travel-related. The 15 new confirmed cases announced Monday put the total number of active cases in the province at 142.(CBC) Edmundston region, Zone 4: three cases: Two people 50 to 59 A person 90 or over All three cases are contacts of a previously confirmed case and are linked to the outbreak at Pavillon Beau-Lieu. Campbellton region, Zone 5: one case: A person 50 to 59 This case is travel-related. Bathurst region, Zone 6: two cases: A person 40 to 49 A person 50 to 59 Both cases are travel-related. New Brunswick has had 1,954 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic started just over a year ago. There have been 1,773 recoveries so far. A total of 295,822 tests have been conducted, including 1,339 on Sunday. UNB residence elevator eyed as possible source Public Health is investigating whether an elevator could be the source of transmission in the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus residence COVID-19 outbreak that still stands at 12 positive cases, as of Monday. Last week, Public Health and UNB looked into the ventilation system at Magee House and determined “the risk is minimal,” said Department of Health spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane. “Public Health officials are now focusing their efforts to determine surface contacts within the elevator as the potential source of transmission,” he said in an email. UNB’s Magee House residence has about 180 adults and children living in the 101 apartment-style units, according to resident Martin Kutnowski.(Ed Hunter/CBC) According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, COVID-19 spreads from an infected person to others through respiratory droplets and aerosols (smaller droplets) created when an infected person talks, sings, shouts, coughs or sneezes. COVID-19 can also spread by touching something that has the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose or eyes with unwashed hands, the agency’s website states. The outbreak at Magee House involves the variant first reported in India, which has two mutations that make it “more concerning than all the others,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell has said. It is “very, very, very aggressive in terms of being contagious and causing more severe symptoms.” Magee House is a seven-storey apartment-style residence designed for mature students, some of whom have families. The residents remain in isolation as Public Health deals with the outbreak. Paul Mazerolle, president and vice-chancellor of the University of New Brunswick, says isolation needs to happen at Magee House to prevent the spread of COVID-19.(Ed Hunter/CBC) Meanwhile, the UNB campus reopened Monday, as did the adjacent St Thomas University campus and nearby New Brunswick Community College campus, more than a week after they moved to essential services only in response to the outbreak. Faculty, staff and students can now go on campus as long as they follow relevant operational guidelines. “COVID is difficult,” said Paul Mazerolle, president of the University of New Brunswick. “The uncertainty creates concern and we’re not through this.” Monday marks day nine of the Magee House lockdown, and a third round of mass testing was scheduled for residents and staff on Sunday. As of Monday afternoon, Public Health was still awaiting the results. Alex Hill-Stosky, who lives with his family in Magee House, said many people in the building are either anxious or angry because of the lockdown. “A lot of people feel we are test subjects rather than people,” said the engineering student. Residents of Magee House at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton are in quarantine after at least 12 people tested positive for COVID-19. (Maria Jose Burgos/CBC) Mazerolle said he understands people are concerned and worried about their personal freedoms, but it’s important to limit the spread of the virus. “To minimize the potential spread, unfortunately people’s movements need to be restricted for a limited period of time. … If we didn’t restrict movement, we could be in a much worse situation.” Students have also expressed concerns over the residence’s ventilation system. Mazerolle said the ventilation system has been checked twice and deemed safe by engineers with Public Health and the Department of Environment. “From what I’ve been told by the experts, there’s no evidence to suggest that the ventilation system is putting people at risk for COVID-19. Mazerolle expects Magee House to reopen on Saturday. “We’re looking forward to this coming to an end,” he said. Public Health said the isolation period for Magee House individuals who have tested negative throughout the process could end Saturday. Meanwhile, the isolation for residents and staff of UNB’s Elizabeth Parr-Johnston residence could be lifted as early as Wednesday, depending on the results of retests taking place Monday, said Public Health. So far, all test results have been negative. George Street Middle School reopens George Street Middle School in Fredericton reopened Monday, six days after students, staff and their families were urged by Public Health to self-isolate last week following a confirmed case of COVID-19. In a letter to parents on Sunday, Public Health said students and staff can return to school, and their families can return to work, with the exception of those who have been told by Public Health to self-isolate for 14 days. New Brunswick Public Health confirmed a case of COVID-19 at George Street Middle School in Fredericton last week.(Elizabeth Fraser/CBC) “Custodial services have been through the school disinfecting high touch areas,” said Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health. “Everyone who has not been identified as a close contact should feel confident to return to normal activities.” The George Street and UNB cases are linked, Public Health said earlier. Voting in self-isolation Elections New Brunswick is encouraging people who are under COVID-19 isolation and haven’t voted in the May 10 municipal election yet but wish to do so to contact their local returning office to find out what options are available. With election day less than a week away, the options available are starting to decrease, said Kim Poffenroth, municipal election officer. Municipal election officer Kim Poffenroth asks everyone to be patient as election officials, who are all temporary workers hired for just a few days of work, do their best to deliver these elections during the ‘unusual and challenging circumstances of this pandemic.'(Screenshot/ParlVu) “Our municipal returning officers will gladly work with these individuals to determine the best way to arrange for them to vote, based on their current situation,” she said in a statement. Options may include voting by mail, if time permits, curbside voting, and other forms of contactless voting. “We will do our utmost to make sure every New Brunswicker is provided with the opportunity to vote, while at the same time respecting public health rules and protecting the thousands of people working for us during these elections,” Poffenroth said. New possible exposures in Fredericton Public Health has identified new possible exposures to the coronavirus in Fredericton. People who have been in a public exposure location can be tested, even if they’re not experiencing any symptoms. Residents may request a test online or by calling Tele-Care 811. Jungle Jim’s, 1168 Smythe St., on April 21 between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Habitat for Humanity Restore, 800 St. Mary St., on April 22 between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Other possible exposures Moncton region: April 29 between 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. – Papa John’s Pizza (555 Dieppe Blvd., Dieppe) April 29 between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. – Shoppers Drug Mart Pizza (320 Elmwood Dr., Moncton) Saint John region: April 28 between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – Atlantic Superstore (195 King St., St. Stephen) April 26 between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. – Save Easy (232 Water St., Saint Andrews) April 24 between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Birch Grove Restaurant (34 Brunswick St., St. George) April 20 between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. – Dr. Michael Murphy’s Office (6 Queen St. W., St. Stephen) Fredericton region: April 23 between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., and April 22 between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. – Winners (9 Riocan Ave.) April 23 between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. – Pizza Hut (1180 Smythe St., Fredericton) April 23 between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Petsmart (1124 Prospect St., Fredericton) April 23 between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Charm Diamond Centres (Regent Mall, 1381 Regent St., Fredericton) April 23 between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – La Senza (Regent Mall, 1381 Regent St., Fredericton) April 23 between 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. – Costco (25 Wayne Squibb Blvd., Fredericton) April 23 and April 22 – Radisson Kingswood Hotel & Suites (41 Kingswood Way, Hanwell) April 22 between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. – Unplugged (418 Queen St., Fredericton) April 22 between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – Bed Bath & Beyond (15 Trinity Ave., Fredericton) April 21 between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. – Old Navy (Regent Mall, 1381 Regent St., Fredericton) April 21 between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – Chapters (Regent Mall, 1381 Regent St., Fredericton) April 21 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. – Moffitts Convenience (1879 Rte. 3, Harvey Station) April 22 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. – The Snooty Fox (66 Regent St., Fredericton) April 23 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., and April 22 between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. – HomeSense, (18 Trinity Dr., Fredericton) April 23 between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. – Save Easy Independent Grocer (135 Otis Dr., Nackawic) April 23 – Canada Post (135 Otis Dr., Nackawic) April 22 and April 23 – Jolly Farmer (56 Crabbe Rd., Northampton) April 24 between 10 a.m. and noon – YMCA (570 York St., Fredericton) April 23 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. – Walmart Supercentre (1399 Regent St, Fredericton) April 23 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. – Princess Auto (21 Trinity Ave., Fredericton) April 23 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. – Home Depot (Corbett Centre, Fredericton) April 23 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. – Swiss Chalet (961 Prospect Ave., Fredericton) April 22 between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. – Canadian Tire (1110 Smythe Ave., Fredericton) April 22 between 10 a.m. and noon. – Digital World (524 Smythe Ave., Fredericton) April 22 between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. – Tim Horton’s (1713 Woodstock Rd., Fredericton) April 22 between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. – Costco (25 Wayne Squibb Blvd., Fredericton) From April 19 to April 22 – Canada Post (135 Otis Dr., Nackawic) April 21 between noon and 4 p.m. – Shoppers Drug Mart (1040 Prospect St., Fredericton) Edmundston region: May 1 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., April 30 between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., April 27 between noon and 12:30 p.m. – Legresley Esso (15 Notre-Dame Rd., Kedgwick) May 1 between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. – Rossy (344 Canada Rd. Unit K, Saint-Quentin) May 1 between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. – Ameublement Milix (344 Canada Rd., Saint-Quentin) May 1 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. – Boutique du Dollar 12345 (116A Notre-Dame Rd., Kedgwick) April 29 between 11:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. – Familiprix (116A Notre-Dame Rd., Kedgwick) May 1 between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., April 29 between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., April 28 between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Bonichoix (4 Camille Rd., Kedgwick) April 28 between 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. – Irving (272 Canada Rd., Saint-Quentin) April 25 between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. – St. Patrick Church (2154, Rte. 130, Grand Falls) April 27 between 5:15 a.m. and 5:45 a.m., April 28 between 5:15 a.m. and 5:45 a.m., April 26 between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. – Hill Top Motel & Restaurant (131 Madawaska Rd., Grand Falls) April 28 between 5 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. – Irving Big Stop (121 Route 255, Grand Falls) April 27 between 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. and on April 26 between 3 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. – Walmart, (494 Madawaska Rd., Grand Falls) April 27 between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. – Grand Falls General Hospital April 26 between 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. – Blue’s Printing Shop, (182 Portage St., Grand Falls) April 26 between noon and 12:15 p.m. – St-Onge Industrial Supplies (Belanger St., Grand Falls) April 26 between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. – Canadian Tire (383 Madawaska Rd., Grand Falls) April 26 between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. and April 24 between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. – Atlantic Superstore (240 Madawaska Rd., Grand Falls) April 26 between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. – Foodland Grand Falls (535 Everard H. Daigle, Grand Falls) April 26 between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and April 25 between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. – Toner Home Hardware (445 Broadway Blvd., Grand Falls) April 26 between 9:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. – Merritt Press (208 Main St., Grand Falls) Flight exposures: April 28 – Air Canada Flight 396 – from Calgary to Montreal departed at 1:05 a.m. April 29 – Air Canada Flight 8898 – from Montreal to Moncton, departed at 8:24 a.m. April 24 – Air Canada Flight 8918 – from Toronto to Moncton, departed at 9:04 p.m. April 22 – Air Canada Flight 396 – from Calgary to Montreal departed at 12:52 a.m. April 22 – Air Canada Flight 8898 – from Montreal to Moncton, departed at 8:27 a.m. April 20 – Air Canada Flight 318 – from Calgary to Montreal, departed at 11:45 a.m. April 20 – Air Canada Flight 8906 – from Montreal to Moncton, departed at 7:01 p.m. What to do if you have a symptom People concerned they might have COVID-19 symptoms can take a self-assessment test online. Public Health says symptoms shown by people with COVID-19 have included: Fever above 38 C. New cough or worsening chronic cough. Sore throat. Runny nose. Headache. New onset of fatigue, muscle pain, diarrhea, loss of sense of taste or smell. Difficulty breathing. In children, symptoms have also included purple markings on the fingers and toes. People with one of those symptoms should: Stay at home. Call Tele-Care 811 or their doctor. Describe symptoms and travel history. Follow instructions.
Caitlyn Jenner arrives in Vienna, Austria on June 1, 2018. | Christian Hofer/Getty Images
OAKLAND — Caitlyn Jenner improved her national GOP bona fides with weekend comments embracing the party’s prevailing view on transgender athletes — but now finds herself firmly at odds with a key California policy as she runs for governor.
Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist who is transgender, told TMZ that banning participation of transgender student athletes in girls’ competitive sports is “a question of fairness,” the same position Republican leaders in red states have taken.
Her remarks angered LGBTQ activists in California and serve as another early signal to voters unfamiliar with her political positions. The heavily Democratic state has been in the vanguard on transgender rights, including passage of a 2014 law protecting the right of transgender students to play sports that correspond with their gender identity.
“It’s not just that [Jenner] is out of step with activists and the community, which is true, but she’s out of step with California voters,” said Samuel Garrett-Pate, communications director for LGBTQ rights group Equality California, which sponsored the state’s transgender youth sports law. “She gets a Wheaties box and an Olympic medal and trans kids have to just not play anything? It’s absurd on its face.”
Jenner immediately drew attention last month as a celebrity who would be the most prominent transgender political candidate in the nation, but she entered the race to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom without the support of the LGBTQ community in California. She has thus far done little to cement her standing in the nation’s most populous state, though she will have her first major campaign interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
She was approached Saturday in Malibu by a TMZ reporter who asked where she stood on the transgender athletes issue. “This is a question of fairness. That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school,” Jenner said in brief remarks before getting in her car. “It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”
Her campaign aides declined to comment further on the record.
Jenner allies have suggested a transgender person running for governor in America’s largest state could be a landmark moment that energizes voters. But LGBTQ lawmakers and advocates remain deeply skeptical, arguing Jenner squandered her platform by initially supporting President Donald Trump and then with her recent statements this week.
“In addition to supporting the most anti-trans president imaginable she’s now literally attacking trans children, saying trans children shouldn’t be allowed to play sports. So it’s really disgusting, but she did us a favor by showing us who she really is,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, an openly gay lawmaker and stalwart LGBTQ ally.
Prominent California LGBTQ advocacy groups like Equality California have rallied behind Newsom and swiftly opposed Jenner’s candidacy. That frustrates some LGBTQ conservatives who say those groups do not represent them — and who see, in Jenner, a candidate who embodies the ideological diversity of a community some people wrongly presume to be uniformly liberal.
“I think Caitlyn potentially has an opportunity as someone who lives in both these worlds — who’s been a lifelong conservative but has also struggled her whole life with being trans,” said California Log Cabin Republicans Chair Matthew Craffey, who stressed the group has not made a formal endorsement in the recall. “Being gay and voting for someone that will allow me to live my life the way I want to live it is important to me, but I also care about the fact that my streets are safe, that someone’s doing something about the homeless issue, that taxes aren’t astronomical.”
Jenner in 2018 took issue with some of Trump’s moves on transgender rights — including barring transgender individuals from the military. Since her gubernatorial launch in late April, Jenner has yet to discuss the drive by Republican lawmakers in 28 states this year to introduce a record number of bills affecting transgender residents.
In Arkansas, Republican legislators have passed a ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth — a move that may soon be mirrored by legislators in Alabama. In Texas, legislators are mulling a proposal that would separate trans children from parents who get them gender-affirming care. In North Carolina, Republicans have proposed legislation that would mandate that state employees immediately notify parents in writing if a child displays “gender nonconformity.”
Even as debates over transgender students have consumed other states and created a series of nationally resonant flashpoints over gender politics, California has long since settled some of those questions. The LGBTQ-friendly state has spent years requiring public institutions and spaces to accommodate a range of gender identities.
A 2014 California law bars school districts from excluding students from using the bathrooms or keeping them from the teams that match their gender identities. While the requirement generated controversy at the time, it was relatively muted: an effort to overturn it by voter referendum could not muster the roughly 500,000 signatures needed to qualify — a small fraction of California’s electorate.
Lawmakers subsequently passed a law on bipartisan votes requiring single-person restrooms in businesses, government buildings and public spaces to be gender-neutral. The following year, California’s first openly lesbian state Senate leader carried into law a measure creating a third gender option on California driver’s licenses and other official documents. And California advocates hailed a breakthrough last year when Newsom signed a law allowing inmates in the state’s massive prison system to request transfers to facilities matching their gender identities.
California has gone so far as to ban state-sponsored travel to states deemed to have passed laws discriminating against LGBTQ residents. The travel prohibition was enacted in 2016 in response to North Carolina’s law that limited bathroom use to the sex on one’s birth certificate and prevented local governments from approving their own anti-discrimination ordinances. Twelve red states are currently on California’s travel ban list.
Despite steady advancements by the LGBTQ community in California, disputes have still flared in California’s Legislature over surgical interventions for young children. Bills prohibiting doctors from performing surgery on young people with variable sex characteristics have repeatedly failed, with the powerful California Medical Association in opposition. Newsom’s office has not gotten involved with those debates thus far.
GOP consultant Tim Rosales said that Jenner’s apparent disconnect with California on a major transgender rights issue may not be the last time she will face such a dilemma as a Republican running to replace Newsom.
“She has to run as her own candidate, her own person,” and in the next months, “all the Republican candidates are all going to have issues that are not necessarily in line with the party,” he said.
“But unless they try to carve out their own pathway, they make the governor’s argument for him — that this [recall] is a Republican-led drill.”
Indeed, LGBTQ activists in California say Jenner’s most recent statements underscore what they consider a cynical attempt to use their community as a platform in a GOP attempt to recall Newsom.
“This is all a political stunt … she is not connected to the trans community,” said Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the [email protected] Coalition, an advocacy group for transgender immigrant women. “Caitlyn Jenner will never know what it’s like to be in a public school — or to be a trans woman walking down the streets, and fearful for her life.”
She also portrayed Mammy Yokum in the Broadway and big-screen versions of ‘Li’l Abner.’
Billie Hayes, who played the cackling Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo on Sid and Marty Krofft’s H.R. Pufnstuf and the scrappy Mammy Yokum in the Broadway and big-screen versions of Li’l Abner, has died. She was 96.
Hayes died Thursday of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokesperson said.
After starring as the evil protagonist on the 1969-70 kids program H.R. Pufnstuf, she reteamed with the Krofft brothers in 1971-72 on Lidsville, another Saturday morning show for children (she played the incompetent Weenie the Genie on that one).
The Kroffts reacted on Twitter to the news of her death:
More recently, Hayes served as a voice actor for The Black Cauldron (1985) and for such cartoons as Trollkins, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Paw Paws, Darkwing Duck, The Brothers Flub and Transformers: Rescue Bots.
Born on Aug. 5, 1924, in DuQuoin, Illinois, Hayes played in bandleader Vince Genovese’s orchestra while in high school, then toured with her own singing and dancing act throughout the Midwest.
After moving to New York, she auditioned for theater legend J.J. Shubert and was hired for principle roles in three roadshow operettas: Student Prince, The Merry Widow and Blossom Time.
Hayes made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1956, then succeeded Charlotte Rae as Mammy Yokum in Li’l Abner. She played the bare-knuckle champion of Dogpatch for the remainder of its Broadway run through July 1958, then segued to the 1959 Paramount big-screen version that also starred Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Julie Newmar and Stella Stevens. (Hayes portrayed Mammy Yokum again in a 1971 ABC telefilm.)
In 1966, she toured with the national company of Hello, Dolly!, starring Betty Grable, and later appeared on such TV shows as The Monkees, Bewitched, Trapper John, M.D. and General Hospital.
Survivors include her niece, Nancy, and nephews Tom, Louie and Guy.
Donations in her memory can be made to the humane organization she founded: Pet Hope, P.O. Box 69493, West Hollywood CA 90048.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative Republicans in Kansas failed Monday to overturn the Democratic governor’s veto of a proposed ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, unable to convert successes in other states or Caitlyn Jenner’s support into enough momentum.
The state Senate voted 26-14 to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, leaving supporters a single vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Senators’ decision blocked a vote in the House.
Kansas became the second state within two weeks, after North Dakota, where a legislature with Republican supermajorities failed to override a GOP governor’s veto of such a measure. Lawmakers in more than 20 states have considered such bans, and they’ve become law in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia after Idaho enacted one last year. Florida lawmakers recently approved such a measure, and South Dakota’s governor imposed a policy by executive order.
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The vote in Kansas came two days after Jenner, the former Olympic decathlon champion and reality television figure who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, said she opposes transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports as a “question of fairness.” Kansas conservatives seized upon her comments to a TMZ reporter in arguing that they were trying to protect fair competition and opportunities for female athletes.
“No one can accuse her of being anti-trans or interested in causing suicides, or whatever accusation they had of me for that,” Senate President Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area Republican, told reporters before the vote.
Kelly had called the proposed ban “regressive,” said it would send a message that Kansas was not a welcoming place and predicted it would hurt the state’s attempts to recruit businesses. LGBTQ-rights advocates said it would increase bullying of already vulnerable children.
“We’re not going to legislate discrimination here,” said state Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Wichita Democrat and the state’s first transgender lawmaker. “It’s going to be tough thing to fight, but we’re always going to do it.”
Many transgender-rights advocates have criticized Jenner, saying she has failed to convince them that she is a major asset to their cause. Byers suggested that Jenner is trying get attention for herself.
The proposed ban is likely to be an issue in the 2022 governor’s race, when Kelly seeks a second term. The top two Republican candidates, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and former Gov. Jeff Colyer, have said they would have signed the measure.
Kelly ran as a centrist in 2018 against polarizing conservative Kris Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state nationally known for advocating restrictive immigration policies and tough voter identification laws. Republicans already have started trying to paint Kelly as a liberal and see her veto of the measure on transgender athletes as evidence of that.
“It shows her true, far-left leanings,” said state Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican, a former college basketball player and the bill’s main sponsor. “I think if we make it about what it truly is — it’s protecting those opportunities for girls — that those are Kansas values and that at the end of the day, it will hurt the governor politically.”
Supporters of such proposals across the U.S. generally have been unable to cite local examples of problems. The association overseeing extracurricular activities in Kansas K-12 schools says it has been notified of only five active transgender participants in extracurricular activities, and there is no known case of a transgender athlete having won a Kansas championship.
“After a long reputation of being anti-LGBT, this state is making progress on rights for LGBT people, and it’s making progress on rights for transgender people,” said Tom Witt, executive director of the LGBTQ-rights group Equality Kansas, after tears of relief over the vote.
The decisive factor may have been a concern that sports bodies such as the NCAA would avoid scheduling tournament games in Kansas. Kansas City, Kansas, Sen. David Haley, the only Democrat who was wavering, cited that issue to reporters in explaining his no vote.
Haley previously abstained on the measure, but the Senate forced him to vote Monday. He wrestled with his decision, hashing over both sides’ arguments in an extraordinary six-minute speech.
“David Haley can’t win in this discussion,” he told his colleagues.
WASHINGTON — President Biden, faced with surging Covid-19 crises in India and South America, is under intensifying pressure from the international community and his party’s left flank to commit to increasing the vaccine supply by loosening patent and intellectual property protections on coronavirus vaccines.
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies, also feeling pressure, sought on Monday to head off such a move, which could cut into future profits and jeopardize their business model. Pfizer and Moderna, two major vaccine makers, each announced steps to increase the supply of vaccine around the world.
The issue is coming to a head as the World Trade Organization’s General Council, one of its highest decision-making bodies, meets Wednesday and Thursday. India and South Africa are pressing for the body to waive an international intellectual property agreement that protects pharmaceutical trade secrets. The United States, Britain and the European Union so far have blocked the plan.
Inside the White House, health advisers to the president admit they are divided. Some say that Mr. Biden has a moral imperative to act, and that it is bad politics for the president to side with pharmaceutical executives. Others say spilling closely guarded but highly complex trade secrets into the open would do nothing to expand the global supply of vaccines.
Having the recipe for a vaccine does not mean a drugmaker could produce it, certainly not quickly, and opponents argue that such a move would harm innovation and entrepreneurship — and damage America’s pharmaceutical industry. Instead, they say, Mr. Biden can address global needs in other ways, like pressing companies that hold patents to donate vast quantities of vaccine or sell it at cost.
“For the industry, this would be a terrible, terrible precedent,” said Geoffrey Porges, an analyst for the investment bank SVB Leerink. “It would be intensively counterproductive, in the extreme, because what it would say to the industry is: ‘Don’t work on anything that we really care about, because if you do, we’re just going to take it away from you.’”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said in an interview Monday that the drugmakers themselves must act, either by greatly expanding their manufacturing capacity to supply other nations at “an extremely diminished price” or by transferring their technology to let the developing world make cheap copies. He said he was agnostic on a waiver.
“I always respect the needs of the companies to protect their interests to keep them in business, but we can’t do it completely at the expense of not allowing vaccine that’s lifesaving to get to the people that need it,” Dr. Fauci said, adding, “You can’t have people throughout the world dying because they don’t have access to a product that rich people have access to.”
For Mr. Biden, the debate over the waiver is both a political and a practical problem. As a presidential candidate, he promised the liberal health activist Ady Barkan, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., that he would “absolutely positively” commit to sharing technology and access to a coronavirus vaccine if the United States developed one first. Activists plan to remind Mr. Biden of that promise during a rally scheduled for Wednesday on the National Mall.
“He’s not being bold on this,” said Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale epidemiologist who fought similar battles during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and is expected to speak at the rally. “They said this during the AIDS epidemic, too. All the same excuses are coming up from 20 years ago.”
The proposal by India and South Africa would exempt World Trade Organization member countries from enforcing some patents, trade secrets or pharmaceutical monopolies under the body’s agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, known as TRIPS. The idea would be to allow drug companies in other countries to make or import cheap generic copies.
Proponents say the waiver would free innovators in other countries to pursue their own coronavirus vaccines, without fear of patent infringement lawsuits. They also note that the proposed waiver goes beyond vaccines, and would encompass intellectual property for therapeutics and medical supplies as well.
“Many people are saying, ‘Won’t they need the secret recipe?’ That’s not necessarily the case,” said Tahir Amin, a founder of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating health inequities. “There are companies that feel they can go it alone, provided they don’t have to look over their shoulder and feel like they are going to take someone’s intellectual property.”
The pharmaceutical industry counters that rolling back intellectual property protections would not help ramp up vaccine production. It says that other issues are serving as barriers to getting shots into arms around the world, including access to raw materials and on-the-ground distribution challenges.
And just as important as having the rights to make a vaccine is having the technical know-how, which would have to be supplied by vaccine developers like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — a process known as technology transfer.
Sharon Castillo, a Pfizer spokeswoman, said the company’s vaccine requires 280 components from 86 suppliers in 19 countries; it also needs highly specialized equipment and personnel, and complex and time-intensive technology transfers between partners and global supply and manufacturing networks, she said.
“We just think it’s unrealistic to think that a waiver will facilitate ramping up so quickly as to address the supply issue,” she said.
On Monday, Pfizer’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said on LinkedIn that his company would immediately donate more than $70 million worth of medicines to India and is also trying to fast-track the vaccine approval process in India. The company also posted on Twitter promising “the largest humanitarian relief effort in our company’s history to help the people of India.”
Moderna, which developed its vaccine with funding from American taxpayers, has already said it would not “enforce our Covid-19 related patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic.” But activists have been calling not just for the waiver, but for companies to share expertise in setting up and running vaccine factories — and for Mr. Biden to lean on them to do it.
Last month, more than 170 former heads of state and Nobel laureates, including Gordon Brown, the former prime minister of Britain; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia; and François Hollande, the former president of France, issued an open letter calling on Mr. Biden to support the proposed waiver.
On Capitol Hill, 10 senators including Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, urged Mr. Biden to “prioritize people over pharmaceutical company profits” and reverse the Trump administration’s opposition to the waiver. More than 100 House Democrats have signed a similar letter.
“This is one of the key moral issues of our time,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “To deny other countries the opportunity to make their own vaccines is just cruel.”
Katherine Tai, Mr. Biden’s trade representative, has held more than 20 meetings with various stakeholders — including global health activists, pharmaceutical executives, members of Congress, Dr. Fauci and the philanthropist Bill Gates — in recent weeks to try to chart a path forward.
“Ambassador Tai reiterated that the Biden-Harris administration’s top priority is saving lives and ending the pandemic in the United States and around the world,” Ms. Tai’s office said in a carefully worded statement Monday, after she spoke about the proposed waiver with the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, an arm of the United Nations.
In a letter to Ms. Tai last month, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a trade group, warned against giving “license to other countries — some of them our economic competitors — to hollow out our world-leading biotechnology base, export jobs abroad and undermine incentives to invest in such technologies in the future.”
One of the drug industry’s fears about a patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines is that it could set a precedent that would weaken its intellectual property protections for other medicines, which are central to how it makes money.
“The drug industry is extremely protective of its intellectual property,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This kind of fierce resistance is a reflex of the pharmaceutical industry.”
It is not apparent, though, that such a move in the unique circumstances of the pandemic would have implications for intellectual property protections for other treatments after the coronavirus crisis has passed, industry researchers said.
In the 2000s, a handful of governments, including those of Brazil and Thailand, bypassed patents held by the developers of antiviral drugs for H.I.V./AIDS in an effort to clear the way for lower-cost versions of the treatments.
H.I.V. drugs, however, involve a much simpler manufacturing process than the coronavirus vaccines, especially those using messenger RNA technology, which has never before been used in an approved product.
In a Twitter thread, Mr. Amin offered another example: In the 1980s, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline had developed recombinant hepatitis B vaccines and held a monopoly with more than 90 patents covering manufacturing processes. The World Health Organization recommended vaccination for children, but it was expensive — $23 a dose — and most Indian families could not afford it.
The founder of Shantha Biotechnics, an Indian manufacturer, was told that “even if you can afford to buy the technology your scientists cannot understand recombinant technology in the least,” Mr. Amin wrote.
But Shantha, he added, went on “to produce India’s first home-grown recombinant product at $1 a dose.” That enabled UNICEF to run a mass vaccination campaign.
Mickey Reece’s ‘Agnes’ to make world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
Prolific Oklahoma City filmmaker Mickey Reece will see his latest film, the horror movie “Agnes,” make its online world premiere as part of New York’s 20th anniversary Tribeca Film Festival, set for June 9-20.
Festival organizers today announced the lineup for Tribeca at Home, a one-of-a-kind online festival experience planned in response to the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, and “Agnes” is literally at the top of the list for the fest’s feature narrative film lineup.
“We’re all elated at ‘Agnes’ playing Tribeca this year. ‘Agnes’ completes the ‘Strike Dear Mistress’ trilogy so it’s fitting that the last one get the largest platform,” Reece told The Oklahoman in a statement. “We’ve been waiting very patiently through the worst year ever and I speak for the cast and crew when I say we’re more than ready to share our baby with the world.”
“Agnes” is written by frequent Reece collaborator John Selvidge (“Climate of the Hunter”) and produced by Jensine Carr and Jacob Snovel (“Mickey Reece’s Alien”).
When the church dispatches a pair of priests to a convent where one of the nuns is possibly under the control of a demon, their arrival signals an intense crisis of faith for one particular nun.
Though the 2021 Tribeca Festival is set to take place largely in-person across New York City, the fest is making select films available to audiences throughout the U.S. via its newly launched online platform, Tribeca at Home, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The lineup for the Online Premieres section consists of 35 films — 24 features and 11 shorts — and tickets are on sale at www.tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets.
On Friday, it was announced that the pilot of the Native American comedy “Reservation Dogs” — which is set in Oklahoma, where additional filming is underway — also will make its world premiere during this year’s prestigious Tribeca Film Fest.
“I think I’m descended from like some indestructible Viking guy who if he wasn’t digging his family out of the snow or fighting some battle, he probably was going to go crazy,” Coyne said of developing the Space Bubble Concert idea. “I think I’m kind of like that: if I’m not doing something, I kind of go crazy.”
Coyne said he founded in the Lips back in the 1980s with the notion that “We’re doing our art, and if you’re just a normal person on the street, you should hate us. If you like us too much, we must be doing something wrong.”
Burbank also talked with Coyne about music, art and death in the wide-ranging interview with the OKC musician.
“It sounds hokey, but I say you have to do this stuff with love. You can’t do it for these ego reasons or these money reasons. You have to do everything with love,” Coyne said.
Following the overwhelming success and demand for tickets for their hometown Space Bubble Concerts, the Lips announced today their return to the road for a worldwide tour scheduled to begin this summer, with dates extending well into 2022 (and well outside OKC). Tickets go on sale to the public Friday.
Plus, the Grammy-winning art-rockers will finally release “The Soft Bulletin Companion” on vinyl for the first time as part of the Record Store Day drop on June 12. Pressed on double silver vinyl, this exclusive two-LP edition set is limited to just 16,000 copies worldwide and is expected to sell out quickly. It will be available at independent record stores everywhere. The album will be more widely available later this year, according to a news release.
Oklahoma Film + Music Office moves to Department of Commerce
Last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed SB949, which moves the Oklahoma Film + Music Office to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. The film office was previously part of the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreational Department.
The bill takes effect on July 1.
“We are excited to welcome the team from Oklahoma Film & Music to Commerce,” said Scott Mueller, Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development. “Film & Music is seeing incredible success and already has an impressive economic impact of more than $160 million for our state. We look forward to the opportunity to work alongside them to further grow this industry and its economic impact in our state.”
“Our work at Tourism has successfully brought us to where we are today, having introduced our state’s beautiful natural resources, cultural history, skilled workforce, innovative business and film-friendly communities to thousands of creative professionals and businesses over the years,” said Tava Maloy Sofsky, Oklahoma Film + Music Office director, in a statement.
“We see enormous value with our transition to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, as we are proud to continue to lead and propel Oklahoma’s film and music industries to the next level. Working under the great leadership of Commerce, we look forward to continue retaining, recruiting and cultivating business expansion and more sustainable jobs for more Oklahomans across our state.”
A recent study by the Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Committee found that for every $1 given through the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program, $17.04 was generated in total economic activity, according to a news release.
The impact is felt statewide. Since 2015, at least 125 cities in more than 50 counties were locally impacted as film locations in Oklahoma.
For more information on Oklahoma’s film infrastructure, workforce and other resources, visit okfilmmusic.org.
“We are beyond excited to announce OKC’s very own Greyson Chance will be headlining our festival this year,” said Hannah Royce, the OKC Pride Alliance President. “This year will be the first time a Pride parade and festival will be held in Downtown OKC, it’s only fitting that we celebrate our city with an artist that calls OKC home, and is also a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. This special weekend wouldn’t be possible without strong community partners and allies like Tower Theatre.”
Oklahoma City Pride Alliance, a local nonprofit organization that creates programs and activities to enrich, empower, strengthen and make visible the unique lives and experiences of LGBTQ2S+ people in OKC and across the state of Oklahoma, announced earlier this year that its Pride Alliance Festival & Parade will be June 25-27 at Scissortail Park. For more information, follow the OKC Pride Alliance on social media and visit www.okcpridealliance.org.
“Headlining Pride, is a dream come true for me,” Chance said in a statement. “When I think about my experience growing up gay here in Oklahoma it was isolating, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a home here in my city, and now coming back and performing as a headliner at Pride is truly monumental and a dream come true.”
Rob Lake premieres virtual show for the troops, now for public view
For the first time in nearly 15 years, renowned Oklahoma illusionist Rob Lake could not travel overseas with Armed Forces Entertainment to entertain the troops because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For over a dozen years, it’s been an annual highlight to bring my shows to the troops and their families overseas with Armed Forces Entertainment,” Lake said in a statement. “And while physical travel may still not be possible, I’m so glad I can continue to bring, not only entertainment, but wonder and a bit of home to our troops stationed all around the world. This virtual format allows our service members and their families to experience the show no matter where they are — as now, more than ever, we can all use a bit of magic, wonder, and hope.”
Along with filming in OKC, Norman, Ponca City and more Oklahoma locales, Lake recruited other celebrities to participate in the special. Lake’s streaming performance features special guest appearances by fellow Oklahomans Reba McEntire and Rex Linn, plus Rodney Atkins, Nancy Cartwright, Lauren Cohan, Thomas Schumaker and Gina Torres, all of whom participate in the act.
The special performance also serves as the world premiere of three never-before-seen illusions developed and performed by Lake.
Lake now is streaming his new act to screens everywhere for the first two weeks in May. It is available via YouTube (posted above) through May 14.
Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell welcomes new giant robot to Uptown 23rd
Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell welcomed last week the newest Route 66 roadside attraction in Oklahoma: Rt-19, an upscale replica of a classic tin robot statue.
Rt-19 is the second robot in a series to be installed across Route 66 in Oklahoma, leading up to the centennial of the Mother Road in 2026. Standing 8 feet tall and weighing 900 pounds, this statue is reminiscent of the 1950s, the glory days of Route 66.
Rt-19 is part of the “Robots on 66” series, a creative project that adds fun robot statues to popular destinations along Oklahoma’s stretch of Route 66. The project is the brainchild of MaryBeth Babcock, of Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios in Tulsa, where Liliput, the first robot of the series, resides.
A partnership with the Oklahoma Route 66 Centennial Commission and Sawyer Manufacturing, the new OKC robot statue will welcome Oklahomans and tourists to the Uptown 23rd Street District from its post across the street from the historic Tower Theatre.
“I’m thrilled to be involved in the creation and installation of Rt-19, a new addition to the Robots on 66 series,” said Pinnell in a statement. “The historic Tower Theatre has been one of Oklahoma’s go-to places for live music, movies, and other events for almost 60 years. The new statue will encourage people to come visit and support small businesses in a growing Route 66 district.”
MercyMe adds another Oklahoma show to new tour
TULSA — Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning Christian band MercyMe has announced its fall 2021 “inhale (exhale) tour,” which will play 30 cities across the U.S.
The band, which has Edmond ties, will be touring with fellow Fair Trade Services artist Micah Tyler and will make a stop Oct. 1 at Tulsa’s BOK Center.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. May 14 and will be available online at www.bokcenter.com.
MercyMe released its 10th studio project, “inhale (exhale),” last Friday, and the current single, “Say I Won’t” has risen quickly across national radio charts It’s currently No. 4 on Billboard National Christian Audience, Mediabase Christian Audience and Billboard AC Indicator, as well as No. 5 on Billboard AC Monitored and Mediabase Christian AC.
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