Home Blog Page 395

US Pride organizers debate in-person vs. virtual events for 2021 – Washington Blade

Kim Martel
-
0
US Pride organizers debate in-person vs. virtual events for 2021 – Washington Blade

Like LGBTQ Pride organizations in several of the nation’s largest cities, D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance is planning to hold several virtual Pride events during the traditional Pride month of June and is considering at least one in-person event for October — a smaller Pride parade.

Also like other cities, the traditional June Capital Pride Parade and Festival, which have attracted more than 250,000 participants and spectators in past years, have been cancelled this year following last year’s cancellation, according to Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos.

Bos said a “reimagined” parade called Paint the Town With Pride is being planned for June 12 that will consist only of asking LGBTQ residents and supporters to decorate their homes or businesses with creative outdoor displays or signs with LGBTQ Pride messages. He said the locations of the displays will be released by Capital Pride so people can visit the sites while complying with COVID safe-distancing rules.

Bos said Capital Pride will organize a possible Pride Brigade of peoples’ vehicles to travel together across the city to view the displays on June 12. He said the displays are planned to be in place through the month of June to enable people to visit the sites when convenient for them. Detailed plans for D.C.’s Pride events can be viewed at capitalpride.org.

D.C.’s two main Black Pride events — a conference and outdoor festival that have drawn more than 3,000 participants up until 2019 and that traditionally take place during Memorial Day weekend — have been cancelled this year for the second year in a row.

According to Kenya Hutton, deputy director of the D.C.-based LGBTQ organization Center for Black Equity, which coordinates Black Pride events in about 45 cities across the country, D.C.’s Black Pride will hold several virtual events over Memorial Day weekend, with details available on its Facebook page.

He said some in-person Black Pride events have already been held and others are scheduled to take place in states that have relaxed COVID restrictions. Among them was an outdoor Pride event in St. Petersburg, Fla., that took place in January.

On the other side of the country, Christopher Street West-Los Angeles Pride, which has organized one of the nation’s largest Pride celebrations each year since the early 1970s, states on its website that it will hold this year’s celebration June 11-13. But like several other large U.S. cities, it has yet to announce what type of events it will offer.

“Stay tuned for announcements about what we’re [safely] planning,” the website statement says.

L.A. Pride spokesperson Chris Prouty, similar to officials with Pride organizations in other cities, told the Blade that L.A. Pride organizers are carefully watching the unfolding developments associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to determine what type of events might be possible in June.

“As the pandemic continues to affect the way all organizations plan for events, CSW/LA Pride is committed to producing a safe but impactful Pride 2021 for the communities we serve,” Prouty said. “We’re developing a variety of programming that will be announced soon and will continue to include input from local health officials, community-based organizations and non-profits,” he said. “We encourage other Prides across the country to do the same.”

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration organization announced on March 24 that it will hold several smaller in-person events throughout the month of June. But similar to last year, its traditional Pride Parade and celebration at the city’s Civic Center, which in past years have drawn thousands of participants, were cancelled this year.

“Knowing how deeply people miss being together, we’ve worked tirelessly with our partners at City Hall, public health, and elsewhere to ensure a number of incredible, safe experiences,” said San Francisco Pride Executive Director Fred Lopez. Among the outdoor in-person events planned are two evenings of film screenings on June 11-12 at the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium.

In a break from its Pride events in past years, in which thousands of LGBTQ visitors from other cities and states attended San Francisco Pride, organizers this year have bluntly asked people from outside the Bay Area to stay away.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not yet recommend leisure travel, and the organization’s leadership respectfully asks visitors from outside the region to reconsider their attendance,” San Francisco Pride organizers said in a statement.

Heritage of Pride, the group that organizes most but not all of New York City’s LGBTQ Pride events, has announced several Pride events throughout the month of June, including a virtual Pride March on June 27 with “to be determined in-person elements.” In years prior to COVID restrictions, the New York City Pride March has drawn many thousands of participants.

The organization’s traditional Pride Rally will take place virtually on June 25 featuring prominent LGBTQ speakers, according to a statement released by Heritage of Pride. Its traditional PrideFest and Pride Island events “will also return on June 27, with further details to be revealed at a later time,” the statement says. It says at least three other events, including a Human Rights Conference, will be held virtually.

Reclaim Pride Coalition, a separate New York City organization, announced it will hold its 3rd Annual Queer Liberation March for Pride on Sunday, June 27. The in-person march will include safety precautions, mask distribution for those who don’t have a mask, and other risk reduction strategies, organizers said in a statement.

“The struggle for Queer Liberation cannot wait for the passing of the pandemic, as COVID-19 has made surviving even more difficult for far too many of our most marginalized community members,” one of the organizers said in the statement.

The Baltimore-based Pride Center of Maryland has announced the 45th Annual Baltimore Pride Festival will take place over the weekend of June 18. The announcement says the event will consist of an “innovative Pride celebration that will incorporate virtual and social-distance considerate, intimate in-person experiences to make Baltimore proud,” but no further details were given.

Annapolis Pride, Inc. announced in early March that its second annual Annapolis, Md., Pride Parade and Festival was scheduled to take place Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. The group indicated that as of March, the two events would take place outdoors and in-person rather than virtually.

Delaware Pride, the organization that puts on that state’s main Pride events in the state capital in Dover, announced in March that it decided to reschedule its traditional June Pride event until Saturday, Oct. 2. The main Pride event has traditionally been held on the grounds of Legislative Hall at the state capital building.

David Mariner, executive director of CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBTQ community center and advocacy group in Rehoboth Beach, Del. said there were no current plans for a Pride event in Rehoboth. He said many of Rehoboth’s large number of LGBTQ residents and visitors usually attend the Delaware Pride events in Dover.

In Virginia, the Fairfax County Pride event held in past years called NOVA Pride, which has drawn crowds from the D.C. Northern Virginia area, will not take place this year due to COVID restrictions, according to Bruce Hightower, president of the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance, who said he spoke with one of NOVA Pride’s lead organizers.

A spokesperson for the annual Virginia Pride event held in Richmond could not immediately be reached to obtain plans for the Richmond Pride.

A spokesperson for Chicago’s Pride Fest 2021 said the annual two-day street festival held in the city’s well known LGBTQ neighborhood of Boys Town had been scheduled for June 19-20 but has been postponed due to city COVID restrictions. The spokesperson, Esmeralda Bravo, said organizers are working closely with city officials to determine the best date to reschedule the event, which could be in August or September.

In Florida, statements released by organizers of Miami Beach Pride and the Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival in Wilton Manors, the small LGBTQ-friendly city located just outside Fort Lauderdale, say both will be in-person events. The Wilton Manors parade and festival are scheduled for June 19. Miami Beach Pride says it will hold several events from Sept. 10-19, with the largest being a festival in Lummus Park that’s expected to draw 125,000 participants.

However, organizers of the Miami Beach Pride say a “contingency hybrid event plan is also in place should the planned [festival] event be disrupted by unknowns due to COVID-19.” The contingency plan calls for a significantly reduced number of attendees for the festival and other possible restrictions required by Miami Beach officials.

Boston Pride, the organization that had hoped to host Boston’s 50th anniversary Pride events in June, announced the events in June had to be postponed due to COIVD restrictions. The group said in a statement that it was working with city officials to reschedule the Pride events, which include a parade and festival, for the fall “if all conditions are in place for such events.”

For the second year in a row, Seattle Pride has renamed itself “Virtual Pride 2021” due to COVID restriction on large gatherings, organizers said on the group’s website. It is scheduled to take place online with several events, including entertainment performances, scheduled for June 26-27.

“While we are all missing the Parade, Virtual Pride is our opportunity to commemorate the past, celebrate new wins for equality, and get encouragement for the work yet to come, and quite frankly it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun,” organizers said on the event’s website. “Stay tuned for your link to register for this FREE event,” the organizers said.

InterPride, a coalition of LGBTQ Pride organizations in the U.S. and in other countries, is in the process of compiling a comprehensive list of virtual and in-person LGBTQ Pride events in 2021 that’s expected to be completed in a few weeks. Julian Sanjivan, the group’s co-president, said the list will be available on the website: interpride.org.

Underly Calls Superintendent Opponent Kerr Transphobic – WUWM

News Editor
-
0
Underly Calls Superintendent Opponent Kerr Transphobic – WUWM

Wisconsin school superintendent candidate Jill Underly accused her opponent Deborah Kerr of being transphobic during a forum Thursday because Kerr supports prohibiting transgender students from playing girls sports.

The spirited back and forth came during a virtual question and answer session hosted by the Milwaukee Press Association just five days before Tuesday’s election. The winner will serve a four-year term as secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the state’s top education official.

The candidates were asked whether they support bills introduced by legislative Republicans that would prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls and women’s sports at the high school and college levels. Wisconsin is one of more than 20 states that are considering restrictions on athletics or gender-confirming health care for transgender minors.

Kerr, the 63-year-old former superintendent of the Brown Deer school district, said she was a “girl of Title IX” and participated in sports all of her life, including in high school and while a student at Valparaiso University.

“I want to play against other biological women and girls,” Kerr said. “I don’t think it’s fair to have competition that does otherwise.”

Underly, 43, accused Kerr of being transphobic.

“I guess I’m just taken a little aback by that,” Underly said of Kerr’s comments. “Trans kids are kids, plain and simple. They deserve to feel safe and welcome at school.”

Underly said she opposes the bill that would prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls team.

Kerr stood by her position.

“I know that many parents are concerned about this kind of thinking,” Kerr said. “They want their girls participating against other girls, it has nothing to do with transphobia. This was not even an issue years ago.”

In almost every state where lawmakers are pushing to bar transgender girls from participating on girls teams, sponsors cannot cite a single instance in their own state or region where such participation has caused problems.

In another heated exchange, Kerr accused Underly and her supporters of trying to “buy this election for the Democrats.” Underly has a massive financial advantage over Kerr, raising more than $1.3 million in February and March compared with about $71,000 for Kerr. Outside groups supporting Underly have outspent a pro-voucher group backing Kerr by a 13-to-1 margin, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Kerr has run as a strong advocate of the state’s private school voucher program and of fully reopening the state’s public schools to in-person learning five days a week. Underly wants to freeze enrollment in voucher schools — a position that helped her win support from the state’s teachers union.

Although the race is officially nonpartisan, Democrats and their allies have largely lined up behind Underly while Republicans and their allies are mostly backing Kerr. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has contributed more than $900,000 in cash and in-kind support to Underly, while Kerr has received $20,000 from conservative mega-donor Diane Hendricks and has the endorsement of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Underly, superintendent of the Pecatonica school district, said she had not seen any of the ads run by outside groups attacking Kerr.

“Don’t pretend you haven’t seen these ads, you need to come clean on this,” Kerr said.

Underly, meanwhile, said she supports requiring schools to teach about the Holocaust and genocide, as is being proposed under a bill with bipartisan support in the Legislature. Kerr said that decision should be left up to local districts, but that information and resources should be made available for those that choose to teach it.

And Kerr said she supports amending the Wisconsin Constitution to have the post she is running for instead be an appointment of the governor. Underly said she would oppose such a move and supports keeping it an elected position. Most states do not elect the state superintendent of schools.

The winner of Tuesday’s election will replace Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor. Gov. Tony Evers appointed Stanford Taylor to replace him as superintendent after he won the governor’s office in 2018. She decided not to run for election.

Paul Feinman, First Openly Gay Judge on N.Y. High Court, Dies at 61 – The New York Times

News Editor
-
0
Paul Feinman, First Openly Gay Judge on N.Y. High Court, Dies at 61 – The New York Times

Judge Paul G. Feinman, the first openly gay jurist to serve on New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, died on Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 61.

The cause was acute myeloid leukemia, his husband, Robert Ostergaard, said. Judge Feinman had been treated for the disease when he was appointed to the appeals court by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2017.

His appointment came barely a decade after the Court of Appeals had ruled that the state Constitution conferred no legal right for same-sex couples to marry. That right was granted by the Legislature in 2011 by the Marriage Equality Act.

Judge Feinman was unanimously confirmed by the State Senate, though during a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee one legislator had pointedly noted that a white man was succeeding the first Black woman to serve on the appeals court, Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who had recently died at 65 in what was later ruled a suicide.

“Certainly my entire career has been about promoting equal access and equal justice for all,” Judge Feinman responded, alluding to his own experience as a gay man, “and I hope I add to the diversity of perspectives that the court considers.”

Asked at the time whether he considered himself a judicial activist or a traditionalist, he replied: “I decide each case based on the law and the facts. If others want to characterize it, that is up to them.”

Judge Feinman was a past president of the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York. He was the former president of the International Association of L.G.B.T.Q. Judges and a member of the Richard C. Failla L.G.B.T.Q. Commission, which promotes fair treatment of L.G.B.T.Q. people and issues in the court systems. He was sworn in on June 21, 2017, during Gay Pride Month.

In a statement after the death, Governor Cuomo called the judge a “friend and role model to countless L.G.B.T.Q. attorneys, helping to shepherd us out of an era where being openly L.G.B.T.Q. could mean disbarment.” He added, “It was my honor to appoint him to the bench.”

Matthew J. Skinner, the Failla commission’s executive director, recalled walking past the L.G.B.T.Q. rainbow flag flying from Albany’s City Hall on the day of Judge Feinman’s swearing in and feeling “like such a barrier had been melted away.”

“He was never a snob or an elitist, given the burden he carried for the whole community as the first,” Mr. Skinner said in a phone interview. He recalled something Sandra Day O’Connor had said when, in 1981, she became the first woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court. “She talked about, if you are the first, you want to make sure you’re not the last,” he said. “Paul certainly lived up to that.”

Paul George Feinman was born on Jan. 26, 1960, in Merrick, N.Y., on Long Island, to Bernard and Judith (Wale) Feinman. His mother was a supervisor for the Nassau County Department of Social Services, and his father manufactured trimmings for women’s garments.

Judge Feinman and Mr. Ostergaard, who is digital communications director at Montclair State University in New Jersey, were married in 2013.

In addition to his husband, he is survived by his mother; a sister, Fran Beilinson; and a brother, Philip. Two brothers had died. Judge Feinman lived on Roosevelt Island.

After graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in nearby Bellmore, he earned a bachelor’s degree in French literature in 1981 from Columbia University. He became so taken by French culture that he would take his nieces and nephews to Paris on their 16th birthdays.

Having worked as a legal intern in Upper Manhattan as a Columbia undergrad, he attended the University of Minnesota Law School on a full scholarship and helped found an association of gay students there. After graduating, he worked for the Legal Aid Society in Nassau County and as a law clerk to Justice Angela M. Mazzarelli of the New York Supreme Court, the state’s trial court system, in New York City.

In 1996, he was elected to the Civil Court from Lower Manhattan — squeaking by in the Democratic primary. He was made an acting justice of the Supreme Court in 2004, elected to the court in 2007 and elevated by Governor Cuomo to the Appellate Division in 2012.

Judge Feinman learned he had leukemia in 2015. He had been treated with chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, which he received in 2016 from a woman in Germany who was a bone marrow donor. He announced his resignation from the Court last week, citing ill health.

The NFL Wants Full Stadiums Next Fall. Will It Happen? – The Wall Street Journal

Kim Martel
-
0
The NFL Wants Full Stadiums Next Fall. Will It Happen? – The Wall Street Journal

I want to talk about the NFL expanding to a 17-game season, and its public hope for full stadiums next fall, but before I go there, I want to quickly address the NCAA’s appearance in the Supreme Court on Wednesday:

It was an overdue moment. If you’re someone who finds the economic model of big time college sports rather skewed—coaches making market-rate millions, conferences making zillions, while the governing body ferociously fights to limit player compensation—it was quite something to hear the NCAA buffeted on all sides by justices who sounded equally baffled by the situation. 

“It just strikes me as odd,” said Justice Clarence Thomas.

The NCAA’s case is, effectively, doomsday: This is the way college sports work, and it’s our product, and if you change the way things have always been, it’s no longer the product, and we are going to be toast. While that may be an explanation of the NCAA’s “amateurism” model, it’s not really a convincing antitrust defense, a distinction the justices leapt on:

“It doesn’t move me all that much that there is a history to this, if what is going on now is that competitors—as to labor—are combining to fix prices,” said Justice Elena Kagan.

“Antitrust laws should not be a cover for exploitation of the student athletes,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The whole thing felt a little bit like watching the NCAA march into court and say, Hey, look at this duck, and the Supreme Court justices saying, Wait, that’s not a duck—that’s very clearly a squirrel and the NCAA’s defense being, basically: Well, we really need it to be a duck. 

As others have noted, pointed questions from justices don’t necessarily indicate the direction of a ruling. The case here is limited, pertaining to education-related benefits, and whether the NCAA is entitled to set stringent caps on them without violating antitrust laws. It’s unclear if the court would want to issue a sweeping challenge to the structure of the NCAA—Justice Stephen Breyer signaled his concern, saying he worried about “judges getting into the business of deciding how amateur sports should be run.” 

Still, Wednesday felt like a long day coming. 

As the NCAA’s revenue has increased, the debate has intensified over what types of compensation should be considered for college athletes. WSJ explains how a combination of court cases, state legislation, and public pressure are expanding the scope of what it means to be an amateur athlete. Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

OK, so the couple thoughts about the NFL and 17 games and full stadiums:

1. It’s a testament to the NFL’s modern popularity that it’s the only sports league in the U.S. that could possibly get away with expanding its regular season right now. Imagine the public groaning if baseball came out and said: Hey, check it out, everyone, we also want to increase our regular-season schedule by 6%, so we’re going to go from 162 to 172 games. People would act like they were getting served an extra helping of math homework and asparagus mash! Baseball is under pressure to chop down its season, play speedier games, lock batters in the box and ban managers from loitering on the pitcher’s mound. Basketball and hockey, too—no one’s asking for more regular-season action there, either. The fact that football can lard itself, and the public reaction is more or less a shrug—eh, what am I doing on Sundays, anyway—speaks to its unique place in the cultural diet. If the NFL came out and said the 17th games would all be played on Friday mornings at 4 a.m. ET, in a stadium under the sea, the reply would likely be: Yeah, fine, I guess that makes sense. 

2. The NFL is getting to 17 by eliminating a preseason contest, and that’s good, because mostly everyone despises preseason games, but as the Journal’s Andrew Beaton noted earlier this week, the additional regular season game doesn’t exactly square with the scrutiny football’s been getting over health and safety. The NFL maintains that preseason football, played early in the year, with less experienced players, is a bigger magnet for injury than regular-season games, but presumably, these 17th games are going to be intensely-contested affairs. This is more football, and given the physical, collision-based nature of the game, and the growing science around head injuries, and it’s hard to argue that more football is better from a physical standpoint. Money is driving this, and players are on board—the 17th game was agreed to with the players association—but there’s a difference between agreeing to something in the abstract, and what it will be like to put on the helmet for one more game. Whether this manifests into a player issue will be fascinating to see. 

3. Let me be the latest person to point out that the end of the 16-game regular season means the sad, anticlimactic end of the 8-8 season, which was a sad, anticlimactic event itself, a mark of running-in-place mediocrity that nearly every football fan experiences at one point. Are we good? Are we bad? Or are we just…8-8? I suppose it’s possible that you’ll now get a team that finishes 8-8-1, or 7-7-3, but that’s just weird.

4. The NFL says it is planning on having its stadiums at full capacity for the 2021 season. It may sound like stubborn magical thinking from a powerful sport, but I believe this sort of goal-setting is fine. The final call isn’t going be the NFL’s anyway—that will be up to state and local health officials, as the San Francisco 49ers learned last season—and as the vaccination rollout continues, there should be upbeat incentives for the public to do its part to get the pandemic under control and accelerate a return to normal. For some people, the return to normal will be a much-delayed hug with a parent. For others, it may be the opportunity to stand shirtless in the upper deck with three other shirtless individuals, collectively spelling J-E-T-S, or a tipsy E-S-T-J, on a frigid December Sunday. Whatever gets people motivated, I support. Here’s hoping we get there.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

How likely is it that the NFL will have full stadiums next season? Join the discussion.

Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

An Inclusive NHL Awaits its First Openly Gay Player – The Hockey Writers

News Editor
-
0
An Inclusive NHL Awaits its First Openly Gay Player – The Hockey Writers

There has never been an openly gay player in the NHL. While other sports have many members of the LGBTQ+ community playing out in the open, the NHL remains an outlier. Not one player in the league’s 103-year existence has ever come out publicly as gay – not even in retirement.

I have heard the explanations, ranging from the ludicrous (there are no “gays” in the league) to the simplistic (the game’s hateful, toxic male culture drives gay players underground). As with everything in life, the reason for their absence is complex. I believe, however, that it won’t be long before the NHL has openly gay players lacing up their skates and others working in the ranks of management and hockey operations. 

Related: Is the NHL Ready for a Gay Player?

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recognized this in 2016 when he spoke about the league’s partnership with the You Can Play organization, working to dismantle barriers met by gay athletes in sport. He said, “We certainly don’t want a player to come out for our sake. It should be what’s right for him and something that he must be comfortable with. But I think it’s our job to create a culture and an environment where a gay player knows he is safe and welcome. If and when that happens, believe me, that person will have the full support of the commissioner’s office” (from “Gary Bettman says NHL is ready for its first openly gay player,” The Chicago Tribune, 29/06/2016).

Gary Bettman
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Today, hockey must reflect the changing values of its fan base. That fan base is more progressive and more intolerant of intolerance itself. Fans of the future will not accept homophobia in the sports and entertainment products they consume.

There Are No Gay Players in the NHL. . .Really?

Statistically, there are now and always have been gay players in the NHL. Admittedly, precise estimates of the gay population in the league are notoriously difficult to find. Nonetheless, according to a 2017 Gallup study based on 340,000 interviews, the percentage of American adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in 2017 was 4.5%. 

Taking into account the multinational makeup of the NHL, let’s assume gay men make up half that number or 2.25% of the global population. There is no reason to believe that the American population is different from others in terms of sexual orientation. If these assumptions hold then, with roughly 700 players in the NHL, we can reasonably expect at least 15 gay players in the league in any given year. That means that, over the years, there have probably been several hundred gay NHLers, all of whom presumably kept their sexual orientation hidden from the public.

Some still insist that, notwithstanding the odds, there are simply no gay men playing in the NHL. Mark Tewksbury, an Olympic gold medalist in swimming at the 1992 Olympic games, a former chef de mission of Canada’s 2012 Summer Olympic team and a prominent gay activist in sports for many years, scoffs at that idea. 

Canadian Olympian Mark Tewksbury on Gay Players in the NHL

Asked in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation interview why there are no gay players in the NHL, he could barely contain a laugh. Rolling his eyes, he explained, “There’s no gay hockey players because there haven’t been any in the NHL who’ve ever come out, not even in retirement.”

OK. There Probably Are Gay Players in the NHL. So, Why Haven’t They Come Out?

First, no member of the LGBTQ+ community, including hockey players, should be forced to come out, and they should never have to live in fear of being “outed”. Everyone has a right to privacy and to earn a living without having to account for their sexual orientation. What’s more, no public figure should have to face the expectation of becoming the poster child for gay rights if they don’t want to be.  

If indeed there are no gay players in the NHL, that would set the league apart from the other “Big Four” professional sports leagues in North America. The National Football League has had seven openly gay players. While all of them came out after they retired, running back David Kopay did it back in the 1970s. 

Major League Baseball has had two players who were openly gay. One of whom was Glenn Burke, who came out while he was playing for the Oakland Athletics back in 1977, and who said, “They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it.” 

The National Basketball Association has had two players who came out as gay, one during his final year in the league.

Speaking of the absence of openly gay players in the NHL, Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Anders Nilsson, a prominent supporter of the LGBT+ community, said, “When people say there are three to four gay players on each [NHL] team, I say no, absolutely not. They quit when they were younger.” He further explained that if he had been gay, playing as a teen, he would have quit because of the homophobic slurs on the ice, in the dressing rooms and the stands – all over the hockey world.

Anders Nilsson Ottawa Senators
Anders Nilsson as an Ottawa Senator (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

So, what’s up with the NHL? While there may be very few gay players in the league or perhaps none at any given moment, it’s clear that over the decades, there must have been many skating in secret.

Is Hockey Culture to Blame?

Many claim the culture of hockey drives gay players underground. One of them is Brock McGillis, now an LGBTQ+ activist who played professional hockey in the minor leagues and was one of the first pros to come out publicly as gay. 

He explained, “There’s this idea that to be a hockey player, you have to be macho, hyper-masculine, a ‘bro’ tough guy…And the language and attitudes and actions within the sport almost give the idea that if you’re gay, you’re less than these things. You’re weak, you’re soft, you’re effeminate” (from “Culture of Hockey: Q&A with Brock McGillis, the first openly gay pro hockey player,” The Hockey News, 04/12/2019).

Anti-gay slurs are common in hockey from midget house leagues to major junior and college. Some say it’s because they are allowed to persist because of parents and coaches who have failed to bring the game into the 21st century. (from “Hockey and Homophobia: We are All Complicit,” The Globe and Mail, 21/04/2016)

McGillis pointed to Mark Crawford’s one-month suspension in 2019 as an example of the anti-gay culture that still permeates the league. At the time, Crawford was an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks suspended for using homophobic language directed at his players. 

Marc Crawford
Marc Crawford (THW Archives)

Worse still, former Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters lost his job for using racist and, according to McGillis, homophobic language. Peters once launched the “N-bomb” at Akim Aliu while coaching in the American Hockey League (AHL). When Aliu stood up to him, Peters sent the big defenseman down to the ECHL. McGillis asked, “Do you really think a gay player is coming out (in that culture)?” 

Bill Peters Calgary Flames
Ex-Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

For McGillis, Crawford and Peters were not outliers. Rather, he said, “These guys are the product of their culture – generation after generation of it.” This all makes it very difficult for gay players to come out. 

Most professional players have a very brief career. Coming out as gay means risking ridicule, condemnation, strained relationships and possibly missed opportunities to play. It could even mean being cut from the team and an end to their dream of playing in the NHL.

But Hockey Culture Has Changed – Hasn’t It?

To be fair, the NHL has taken steps to make hockey more inclusive and LGBTQ+-friendly. Since 2016, they’ve been an official partner of You Can Play, co-founded by Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers and son of renowned hockey executive, broadcaster and gay rights activist Brian Burke, now vice president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Burkes got involved to memorialize Brendan Burke, Brian’s son, who was gay and involved in college hockey in the U.S.A.; he died in a car accident in 2010.

The You Can Play Organization

The NHL also established the “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative that uses the sport – and the league’s global influence – to provide a positive environment for players, families and fans of every race, colour, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and for those with disabilities.

NHL players are also prominent in the effort to combat homophobia in hockey. Boston Bruins star Brad Marchand took a stand against a homophobic slur directed at him on Twitter in 2017 and said of his fellow players, “Guys would accept it, no question (if a gay player came out). We’re a team in the locker room and a family. It doesn’t matter what different beliefs guys have, or where they come from, or whatever the case may be. Guys would accept it.”

Brad Marchand Boston Bruins
Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Vancouver Canucks goalie Braden Holtby has been an enthusiastic supporter of LGBTQ+ causes. The 2016 Vezina Trophy-winner participated in three Capital Pride Festivals in Washington when he was a member of the Capitals and marched twice in the city’s pride parade. He also regularly attended the national annual dinners of the Human Rights Campaign Action Centre.

Representing the Capitals at one such dinner, Holtby said that his team is “proof that supporting LGBTQ equality is a winning decision and we’re honoured to stand here in front of you in the fight.”

Braden Holtby Washington Capitals
Braden Holtby with the Washington Capitals (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas and defenseman Morgan Reilly have participated in the Toronto Pride Parade. Other NHL players to march include Kurtis Gabriel of the New Jersey Devils, J.T Brown of the Minnesota Wild, Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers. 

It’s a Different Culture That Stops Gay Players From Coming Out

While it would be hard to argue that the NHL has rid itself entirely of homophobia, there can be no doubt that the blatant variety is no longer tolerated in the league. Over the years, the NHL has arguably made a credible effort to create an environment in which gay players would find it easier to come out. Despite this, as yet, none have.

Part of the explanation for this is hockey’s culture of conformity. It is unacceptable for an NHLer to draw attention to themselves at the expense of the team and its drive to win. Hockey players have always been understated and for the most part, shun behaviour that doesn’t fit with their team’s culture.

Related: Will We See an Openly Gay Player in the NHL Soon?

It’s why players tell sportswriters during postgame interviews that the goal they scored was thanks to their teammate who set them up or made the perfect pass. It’s why P.K. Subban’s ostentatious suits and on-ice theatrics were rumoured to be at odds with how management believed a Montreal Canadien should carry himself. And it’s why a gay player would feel it’s best just to stay in the closet rather than become a poster boy for gay rights at the expense of their team’s focus on winning championships.

P.K. Subban 2018 NHL Awards CP
P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators poses on the red carpet before the 2018 NHL Awards in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

In short, despite everything the NHL has done to be inclusive, it’s still hard to be different in the NHL. That goes for anybody who is different.

While the story of openly gay players in the NHL has yet to be written, there are signs emerging on the periphery of the league that one day soon it will be told. Bayne Pettinger, a young player agent and Yanic Duplessis, a 17-year-old junior player have made it easier.

Bayne Pettinger’s Story

Bayne Pettinger, who was the manager of hockey operations for Hockey Canada’s men’s national team for 10 years and now an NHL player agent, came out in 2020. After years of keeping his sexual orientation hidden, he reached a point where he had to be himself (from, “A young NHL player agent comes out, supported by hockey’s biggest stars,” The Athletic, 5/11/2020).

Still, the decision to come out filled the 33-year-old with dread. In the time he spent with Hockey Canada, the 6-foot-4 former Junior B player had developed close friendships with some of the NHL’s biggest stars, including Penguins captain Sydney Crosby, Edmonton Oilers stars Connor McDavid and Tyson Barrie, as well as Morgan Reilly of the Maple Leafs.

Playing junior hockey required courage, as did playing elite-level rugby for Canada’s national under-19 team. Yet to come out, Pettinger would need a different, even greater kind of courage.

He asked himself, what if Crosby and McDavid wanted nothing to do with him? What if Reilly and Barrie didn’t understand? What if his former colleagues with Hockey Canada turned their backs on him? What would happen to his career? Would coming out cost him hockey itself?

None of his worst fears came to pass. After he publicly disclosed his sexual orientation, his phone exploded with congratulatory messages and encouragement. McDavid texted, “Doesn’t change a thing dude, honestly. Just happy ur happy.”

Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid
Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)

Crosby texted, “We are happy for you and I am sure it feels good to get that off your shoulders and be able to be you.”

Barrie was elated, and Reilly was overjoyed for him. Former Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson told Pettinger that he had “never been prouder of him.”

CEO and Vice-Chair, Oilers Entertainment Group, Bob Nicholson
Former Hockey Canada CEO Bob Nicholson (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)

Pettinger won’t deny that gay players face adversity in hockey. The game has to do more to create an environment in which gay players are accepted. Yet, he gives credit where it’s due, saying, “It’s not me against the big, bad hockey world. It’s actually the opposite, it’s actually quite the opposite for me, that the big, bad hockey world has been quite accepting.”

Yanic Duplessis’ Story

We are also beginning to see more acceptance. In 2019, a 17-year-old Yanic Duplessis was drafted by the Drummondville Voltigeurs to become the first openly gay player to be drafted into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) – a key stepping stone to the NHL.

Duplessis said that coming out “was a struggle for me, and it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be a big deal.” For much of his young hockey career, he was afraid he would be found out in what remains “a very macho, manly sport.” However, it wasn’t as bad as he feared. Former NHL tough guy turned Quebec politician Enrico Ciccone responded on his Twitter account, saying, “Yanic Duplessis, an elite athlete had the courage to publicly embrace his sexual differences. Congratulations Yanic! This is not only a liberating step for you, as I’m sure it is for others.”

This was followed by a supportive message from former Voltigeur and Montreal Canadien, Guillaume Latendresse. Duplessis’ teammates also reached out to him with support, some saying that they had no idea what he had been going through and wished he had said something sooner.

Guillaume Latendresse
Guillaume Latendresse as an Ottawa Senator (Michael Miller/Wikimedia Commons)

Duplessis echoes McGillis in the belief that the key to gaining wider acceptance is education and putting a human face on being gay. He said his dressing room experiences haven’t been bad, and while he’s heard cutting and sometimes vile anti-gay language, “It came from a place of ignorance.” He said that “If they knew I was gay, I’m sure they wouldn’t have said what they did.”

Several young players contacted Duplessis to say, “Me too.” He hopes that admitting his sexual orientation publicly will “make it a little easier for others to step forward.”

Hockey Pride

Hockey is pure and it’s beautiful. It should not be sullied by the behaviour of some. I believe the good in the game far outweighs the homophobia that still festers in certain pockets of the sport’s culture. Still, more must be done to build bridges to the LGBTQ+ community. Not only is it the right thing to do, but the game will suffer if those bridges aren’t built.

Anders Nilsson summed it up best by saying, “What happens is that we will lose gay players, who might otherwise have been the next Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid or Wayne Gretzky. We lose talents. And some families with strong feelings about things might feel that, regardless if their son is straight or gay, he shouldn’t play hockey because they don’t want him in that harsh culture where coaches and players call each other all sorts of things. We lose our pride in hockey.”

‘Debated but Not Counted’: Measuring the LGBT Community Listen Now – Gallup Poll

News Editor
-
0
‘Debated but Not Counted’: Measuring the LGBT Community Listen Now – Gallup Poll

Copyright © 2021 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gallup, Inc. maintains several registered and unregistered trademarks that include but may not be limited to: A8, Accountability Index, Business Impact Analysis, BE10, CE11, CE11 Accelerator, Clifton StrengthsExplorer, Clifton StrengthsFinder, Customer Engagement Index, Customer Engagement Management, Dr. Gallup Portrait, Employee Engagement Index, Enetrix, Engagement Creation Index, Follow This Path, Gallup, Gallup Brain, Gallup Business Journal, GBJ, Gallup Consulting, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Gallup Management Journal, GMJ, Gallup Panel, Gallup Press, Gallup Tuesday Briefing, Gallup University, Gallup World News, HumanSigma, HumanSigma Accelerator, ICE11, I10, L3, ME25, NurseInsight, NurseStrengths, Patient Quality System, Performance Optimization, Power of 2, PrincipalInsight, Q12, Q12 Accelerator, Q12 Advantage, Selection Research, Inc., SE25, SF34, SRI, Soul of the City, Strengths Spotlight, Strengths-Based Selling, StatShot, StrengthsCoach, StrengthsExplorer, StrengthsFinder, StrengthsInsight, StrengthsQuest, SupportInsight, TX(R+E+R)=P3, TeacherInsight, The Gallup Path, The Gallup Poll, The Gallup School, VantagePoint, Varsity Management, Wellbeing Finder, Achiever, Activator, Adaptability, Analytical, Arranger, Belief, Command, Communication, Competition, Connectedness, Consistency, Context, Deliberative, Developer, Discipline, Empathy, Fairness, Focus, Futuristic, Harmony, Ideation, Includer, Individualization, Input, Intellection , Learner, Maximizer, Positivity, Relator, Responsibility, Restorative, Self-Assurance, Significance, Strategic, and Woo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc.

Pattaya’s gay scene does have a future after all – Pattaya Mail

News Editor
-
0
Pattaya’s gay scene does have a future after all – Pattaya Mail
Eggz, Mattress and their friends predict gay entertainment is coming back to Pattaya.

There is no shortage of prophets of doom concerning the future of gay bars and clubs. Worldwide about half have closed already and “queer spaces” in the USA and UK are being eaten alive by massive building projects and tower blocks. Pattaya, of course, is no exception and certainly exceeds the 50% closure estimate.

Blame is usually loaded onto the coronavirus pandemic, but that’s an over-simplification. Drag cabaret artiste and LGBTQ+ spokesperson Eggz Benedict says the Pattaya gay scene has been in decline at least 10 years. “There are so many factors,” she says, “Thailand got expensive for western tourists, regular police crackdowns began and digital hookup platforms such as Grindr and Hornet replaced chrome poles, dark rooms and dance floors.”

The commercial gay scene will need to change in order to survive.

Her work colleague Mattress Lil points out that the three main gay districts in Pattaya are very different. “Boyztown in its heyday was the posh area, but basically priced itself out of the market.

Sunee Plaza catered for the men looking for young teens and that scene was obliterated by the police years ago. Jomtien Complex, also known as Super Town, has survived as an open bar area with no nightclubs. It’s generally quiet these days, but the Thai and foreign operators are mostly wealthy and are biding their time.”

Sustained police crackdowns ended the teenage boy prostitution rackets in Sunee Plaza years ago.

But both predict that there will be a comeback once the virus subsides. “Foreign gay tourists don’t just want a casual pickup, they want company and entertainment which are things the internet can’t provide in a real form,” prophesied Eggz, “even though the next influx will be Chinese and Asians rather than Europeans.” This idea that community rather than casual sex is the key to the future gay scene was voiced by many Pattaya old hands.


Chris Summers, who has wide experience of running gay businesses said, “You have to remember that the organized Pattaya gay scene is geared to foreigners’ wallets virtually one hundred percent. Gay Thais prefer to meet other Thais via the internet or at private parties.” He added that the days of go-go boys wearing numbers on their underpants for ogling foreigners were rapidly coming to an end. “The bars that survive after the pandemic will be cosy and relaxed rather than the noisy, seedy knocking shops of the past.”

Gay prostitution will survive for obvious reasons, but that too will change. “It will become much more expensive,” Chris predicted, “as the Thai economy diversifies, the country becomes wealthier (post Covid) and selling your body is no longer a convincing career route as Thailand ages demographically whilst the birth rate plunges.” By the end of the current decade more than half of all Thais will be in their fifties or later. By 2040 the working age population will be smaller than the retired cohorts.

Khun Nam, a currently unemployed worker at Pattaya’s Tiffany’s cabaret, stresses that transvestite shows were never aimed primarily at gay tourists. “Before the pandemic, there were four huge Pattaya theatres catering nightly for hundreds of Chinese family tourists arriving in coaches twice or three times nightly.” He added that about 500 professional cabaret artists would soon return to work once quarantine is no longer required for visitors. That could be before Christmas.

Kevin Smythe, a computer specialist living in Pattaya, said, “New technology has its limits in Thailand. For example, the media communications platform Zoom in theory can provide gay virtual entertainment and lively music in your own home. But it has not taken off in Thailand. Most of the staff employed in gay bars and clubs are temporary or non-secured staff. They can’t make any money from virtual customers. They need people coming in through the door.”

Pattaya City in 2021 is in a state of flux. Even the pandemic hasn’t stopped the building boom whilst the industrial Eastern Economic Corridor has already removed most of the greenery and wildlife between Pattaya and Rayong. The “old” Pattaya is not about to return, but – over time – will assume new tourist functions in response to developing markets. The future gay scene is no exception to the rule.


First Openly Gay Man Could Soon Travel to Space – PRNewswire – PRNewswire

News Editor
-
0
First Openly Gay Man Could Soon Travel to Space – PRNewswire – PRNewswire

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Yes, GayTravel.com was behind a space-oriented April Fool’s joke when they announced yesterday that LGBT+ travelers could soon be among the first to make reservations at the first hotel in space.

But what’s no joke is that as early as 2023, astronomy photographer Jon Carmichael could be the first openly gay man to travel to space!


Continue Reading
The Most Amazing Photo of an Eclipse Ever Taken Entitled "108" by Jon Carmichael
The Most Amazing Photo of an Eclipse Ever Taken Entitled “108” by Jon Carmichael
Jon Carmichael Shooting To Be First Openly Gay Man in Space
Jon Carmichael Shooting To Be First Openly Gay Man in Space

The Most Amazing Photo of an Eclipse Ever Taken

Jon is most well-known and has received international acclaim for his incredible photograph of the Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 entitled “108,” which Jon shot from a Southwest Airlines flight timed to be in the exact spot, at the precise time, to capture a total solar eclipse and the shadow on the ground below.

“I was immediately struck by Jon’s photo. But, like most things, the story behind it was awe-inspiring. So excited for the world to hear it and be reminded of that moment we were all looking at the sky together.” — Jack Dorsey, CEO Twitter

Elon Musk, SpaceX, Yusaku Maezawa, Mr. Sulu, and dearMoon Project

  • Scheduled for 2023, SpaceX, a rocket developed by Elon Musk, will carry its passengers on a week-long journey past the moon, further away from earth than anyone has ever gone before, then return home. Musk made eight seats onboard available for sale.
  • In 2018, Japanese fashion entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (aka MZ), who always wanted to see the earth from the moon, purchased all of those available seats.
    • MZ is also a globally renowned art collector who believes that art can promote world peace.
    • The genesis of the dearMoon Project was predicated upon MZ’s desire to bring eight (8) talented civilian artists to travel with him.
  • As a sport pilot and astronomy photographer who, just like MZ, had always wondered what it would be like to view the earth from the moon, Jon Carmichael applied for this opportunity to make his dream come true.
  • Jon Carmichael has made it through the 3rd step in the selection process, and there’s early buzz that he might prevail as one of the finalists, but Jon is trying not to set his hopes too high.
  • For Jon, there are many challenges still to come, including final selections, medical check-ups, and rigorous training.

GayTravel.com, along with LGBT+ travelers everywhere, will follow and root for Jon on this fantastic journey.

“First gay man, to go to space? I certainly can relate to that dream!  Jon’s story is truly inspired…” tweeted George Takei, LGBT activist. Takei is best known for his role as Hikuru Sulu, helmsman of the Starship Enterprise in the television series Star Trek.

“It’s as if there is a cosmic force that continues to attract great, positive energy and people into Jon’s orbit,” says Steve Rohrlick, Chief Visionary Officer of GayTravel.

To be kept informed and help support Jon on his quest to be the first openly gay man in space, sign up here for updates and breaking news.

To read more about this stellar story, click here.

About Jon Carmichael:

Jon Carmichael is a speaker, sport pilot, and self-taught astronomy photography artist whose career started at age 20, and he quickly became one of the youngest high-profile photographers in the world. Jon has worked with President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, and the Dalai Lama.

About GayTravel.com:

GayTravel’s vision is a world where the global gay community can travel safely without prejudice, hate, or discrimination. 

GayTravel’s mission is to inspire and connect LGBT+ travelers with select destinations, accommodations, and companies that share our vision of diversity and inclusiveness. For over two decades, GayTravel has encouraged travel and harnessed the buying power of the LGBT+ travel community and their allies to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world in which we live. GayTravel believes that travel is fatal to prejudice and brings diverse peoples and cultures together.

Media Contact:
Victoria Prisco
GayTravel.com
800-GAY-TRAV x709
203-451-8111 mobile
[email protected]

SOURCE GayTravel.com

‘Debated but Not Counted’: Measuring the LGBT Community – Gallup Poll

News Editor
-
0
‘Debated but Not Counted’: Measuring the LGBT Community – Gallup Poll

Copyright © 2021 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gallup, Inc. maintains several registered and unregistered trademarks that include but may not be limited to: A8, Accountability Index, Business Impact Analysis, BE10, CE11, CE11 Accelerator, Clifton StrengthsExplorer, Clifton StrengthsFinder, Customer Engagement Index, Customer Engagement Management, Dr. Gallup Portrait, Employee Engagement Index, Enetrix, Engagement Creation Index, Follow This Path, Gallup, Gallup Brain, Gallup Business Journal, GBJ, Gallup Consulting, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Gallup Management Journal, GMJ, Gallup Panel, Gallup Press, Gallup Tuesday Briefing, Gallup University, Gallup World News, HumanSigma, HumanSigma Accelerator, ICE11, I10, L3, ME25, NurseInsight, NurseStrengths, Patient Quality System, Performance Optimization, Power of 2, PrincipalInsight, Q12, Q12 Accelerator, Q12 Advantage, Selection Research, Inc., SE25, SF34, SRI, Soul of the City, Strengths Spotlight, Strengths-Based Selling, StatShot, StrengthsCoach, StrengthsExplorer, StrengthsFinder, StrengthsInsight, StrengthsQuest, SupportInsight, TX(R+E+R)=P3, TeacherInsight, The Gallup Path, The Gallup Poll, The Gallup School, VantagePoint, Varsity Management, Wellbeing Finder, Achiever, Activator, Adaptability, Analytical, Arranger, Belief, Command, Communication, Competition, Connectedness, Consistency, Context, Deliberative, Developer, Discipline, Empathy, Fairness, Focus, Futuristic, Harmony, Ideation, Includer, Individualization, Input, Intellection , Learner, Maximizer, Positivity, Relator, Responsibility, Restorative, Self-Assurance, Significance, Strategic, and Woo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc.

Why YMCA is creating a large outdoor fitness center in Charlotte – WCNC.com

Kim Martel
-
0
Why YMCA is creating a large outdoor fitness center in Charlotte – WCNC.com

The YMCA branches in Charlotte were forced into massive layoffs as branches closed temporarily and members pulled out indefinitely.

Albany County legislator urged to apologize, resign for anti-gay remarks – Times Union

Kim Martel
-
0
Albany County legislator urged to apologize, resign for anti-gay remarks – Times Union

NEW SCOTLAND — Albany County Democrats are calling on county Legislator George Langdon IV, a Republican from Coeymans, to resign after he made homophobic comments over the weekend at a seminar on constitutional liberty – an event that was partially hosted by another Coeymans resident who was charged on Tuesday for being at the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Langdon made the remarks at Camp Pinnacle, a Bible camp and retreat just south of Thacher State Park, which hosted a seminar titled “A Return to Liberty under the Constitution.” William Tryon is seen in a nearly four-hour video of the event introducing a series of guests, which also included Lewis County Sheriff Michael Carpinelli, who has said he is running for governor. Tryon is being charged with three federal misdemeanors for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Langdon started his speech by urging pastors and religious leaders to get involved in local elections and use their influence.

“I know you have to have that so-called ‘separation of church and state,’ that’s bogus,” he said. “The people need some guidance; they don’t understand the implications of some of these decisions.”

He then turned to gay marriage and gay relationships, referencing a previous speaker’s comments on gender issues. You can watch the comments here.

“Everything God does is sustainable, it’s sustainable. It’s perpetual. … Sorry, when you have homosexual relationships, it’s not perpetual. Give them an island, they’ll be gone in 40 years. Because God created us this way. There’s so much common sense that needs to be applied to our policies, our procedures that we do in our government.”

Former Coeymans Town Supervisor Stephen Flach is Camp Pinnacle’s executive camp director. He also spoke at the event and jokingly said “I understand most of you have a medical exemption” to not wear a mask per pandemic protocols, eliciting laughs from the audience. Carpinelli also went after mask mandates required as part of the COVID-19 crisis, saying “our God wants us to smile at each other.”

The event’s main speaker was Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff who is known nationally for advocating for looser gun restrictions and referring to the federal government as “the greatest threat we face today.”

Vashon-Renee McIntyre, a Republican candidate for the Third Ward council seat in Albany, also spoke at the event.

Langdon’s remarks drew swift backlash after the video began circulating on social media. The Albany County Democratic Committee and local politicians called for him to apologize and resign.

Albany Councilman Richard Conti, who said he is the area’s longest-serving LGBTQ elected official, said Langdon’s remarks were deeply offensive and should be condemned.

“During my time in public office, and even before, I have worked to build an inclusive community respectful of all residents regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” he said. “All residents of Albany County deserve and have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Libby Post, an LGBTQ activist and local business owner, said Langdon’s remarks showed how little he thought of LGBTQ residents in the county.

“I think it’s pretty clear he doesn’t value our lives,” she said. “We’re the other, they don’t think of us as human beings.”

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy called Langdon’s comments “wildly homophobic and hurtful” and said that he should apologize to Albany County residents. McCoy also suggested Langdon should resign, saying if the comments were representative of his thinking, he did not belong in county government.

“Every resident, no matter who they love or how they identify, deserves a place in Albany County, not to be relegated to some theoretical ‘island,’ ” McCoy said in a statement. “The past four years have shown us that we cannot afford to shrug off hate and bigotry. We have to confront it and call it what it is – hate.”

Albany County Legislature Chairman Andrew Joyce, a Democrat, said Langdon is unfit to serve.

“It pains me to even remotely amplify the disgusting comments spewed out by Albany County Legislator George Langdon,” he said in a statement. “Listening to someone laughingly share an ugly, nightmarish scenario of our loved ones being ‘gone after 40 years’ shakes us all to our core, not only as public servants but as human beings. I call on him to apologize and resign. Not for 40 years, but forever.”

Langdon is in his first term in the legislature after serving on the Coeymans Town Board. He did not return a call for comment Wednesday. Langdon is chief financial officer at Crystal Clear Finances, a business based in Latham that he operates with his wife and son. A receptionist there said he was not in the office Wednesday and he does not have voicemail.

Albany County Legislature Minority Leader Frank Mauriello called Langdon’s comments, “unacceptable,” but stopped short of calling for his resignation.

“Whatever your sexual orientation, we are all equal in God’s s eyes and equal under the law. Any statements that contradict that belief are unacceptable,” he said in a statement. “On the subject of resignation, each elected official is responsible for their words and
actions and is accountable to the constituents in his/her district.”

Albany County GOP Chairman Randy Bashwinger did not respond to a request for comment after being sent a link to the video by the Times Union.

Lawsuit: PPA leaders fired staffer who posted about being gay on social media – WHYY

Kim Martel
-
0
Lawsuit: PPA leaders fired staffer who posted about being gay on social media – WHYY

An ex-employee is suing the Philadelphia Parking Authority in federal court, saying he was dismissed after top leadership discovered he had talked about being gay in social media posts.

The PPA strongly denied the allegations and indicated the matter had already been investigated.

Darryl Wilson, a gay Black man, attested that he was called into the office of PPA deputy executive directors Clarena Tolson and Richard Dickson just four days after being hired by the agency as a data analyst, in February 2020. In his complaint, Wilson’s attorneys state the pair then showed him a post from his own social media account in which he described another man as having a “nice butt.”

In the meeting, Tolson — onetime head of both the city’s Streets and Revenue departments — allegedly suggested that the post made Wilson seem like a “sexual predator.” Tolson and Dickson then allegedly informed the staffer that the PPA was a “conservative place” and that “homosexuality was an issue” for the agency’s executive director, Scott Petri.

Related Content

Less than a month later, HR representatives, who are also named in the suit, again approached Wilson to discuss about 20 other posts he had made on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, all of which his attorneys say were created prior to his hiring. According to the suit, he was terminated the same day.

The complaint accuses PPA of firing Wilson due to his sexuality and in violation of his civil rights. It also accuses the agency of treating Wilson differently than white employees who were gay.

In a written statement, PPA spokesperson Marty O’Rourke strongly denied “that Mr. Watson was ever discriminated against or retaliated against by the Authority or any of its employees.” He also stated that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had investigated the matter and “found no merit to his allegations.”

“The PPA does not tolerate discrimination of any kind and intends to defend this matter if and when the lawsuit is served,” O’Rourke wrote.

Related Content

Wilson said he had not otherwise disclosed his sexuality to his superiors. The filing states he was “extremely offended” by the remarks because he himself is a sexual assault survivor.

Wilson’s attorney Erica Shikunov declined to comment further.

“We don’t have any comments on pending litigation,” she said, in a Wednesday phone call.

Emma Smith: The transgender sports journalist making a career on her own terms – BBC News

News Editor
-
0
Emma Smith: The transgender sports journalist making a career on her own terms – BBC News
Emma Smith
Emma Smith has worked for Goal since early 2020

Emma Smith admits the timing could hardly have been worse.

The sports journalist was making a fresh start in her career, beginning a new job with football website Goal, four months after coming out publicly as transgender. She was looking forward to meeting her new colleagues.

But then the coronavirus pandemic intervened.

“My first day at Goal was the first day of lockdown, which wasn’t ideal,” she says with a smile.

“All you can do is laugh, really. I’ve not met anyone I’ve worked with; I’ve not been in the office with them. It’s been incredibly unusual.”

But despite the ongoing disruption of a global pandemic, Smith says she’s the happiest she’s ever been – and that she’s finally living as her authentic self.

To mark International Transgender Day of Visibility, she has shared her story with the BBC’s LGBT Sport Podcast.

‘It really wasn’t like work because it was what I wanted to do’

Smith was a teenager when she realised she wanted to become a sportswriter.

“I’d got to the age when I knew I wasn’t going to be a professional footballer,” she says.

“I thought maybe I should try something else, but I was absolutely football-obsessed and wanted to be involved in sport in some way, and writing became an option.”

Smith started putting together the match reports for her local team – including the thrashings they’d had while she’d been playing in goal – and began writing her own blog as well.

She joined the student paper at university before getting a job on a local newspaper.

“The opportunity came up to report on Tottenham games at the weekend or in European matches,” she says.

“It wasn’t paid, but it really wasn’t like work because it was what I wanted to do and I was covering a huge team.”

From there, more opportunities came up – and as Smith’s stature in the industry grew, so did the stories she was working on.

“One of the things I did was a feature on upcoming British Formula 1 drivers,” she recalls.

“Through that, I was lucky enough to meet Lando Norris and George Russell before they became F1 drivers, and interview them at these incredible facilities where all the cars were tested and made. So that was pretty cool.”

‘I knew I wanted something else, but I just kept it pushed down’

As Smith’s professional career blossomed, coming to terms with her own personal identity was proving more of a struggle.

“Growing up, I didn’t know what a transgender person was,” she says.

“This stuff was never talked about and there were very few role models on TV, and certainly not in sport. So I went through all sorts of different things, thinking I might be this or I might be that.

“I just knew that I wanted something else in life for myself, but kept it pushed down for years and years. That made me very, very unhappy at times.”

In a strange way, that unhappiness helped Smith succeed professionally – as she poured her energy into her career. But by the start of 2019, she knew she had to focus on herself.

“I don’t know if there was a single moment where I went ‘I’m transgender’,” she says. “I just knew that this is who I am, and this is what I’d got to pursue.

“I came out to friends and family and I was very lucky. Obviously, people had questions – I was a very sporty, seemingly masculine person.

“But I was ready to be rejected by pretty much everyone, and I wasn’t by my friends and family, which I was immensely grateful for.”

‘It was very clear that it was going to be a major issue’

After coming out in her personal life, she attempted to do the same professionally.

“I was feeling OK and established in a new job, so decided to tell them,” she says.

“It was very clear that it was going to be a major issue, so I felt in no position but to quit.

“It obviously wasn’t great – but I felt better for having come out and been who I was, rather than if I’d not been.

“Sometimes, life pushes things on you in a way you don’t expect – and you sometimes have to do things that aren’t in the order or at the time you expect to.”

‘If you’re good enough, there won’t be anything that can stand in your way’

Walking away from that job forced Emma to apply for other roles, and to do so as her authentic self.

In a post on Twitter in November 2019, she told the world she was transgender – and was overwhelmed by the positive response.

A few months later, Smith began working at the football website Goal – and experienced a new ‘first’ in her journalistic career.

“Writing that first day and having my byline with the name I actually like, and the one I actually chose – seeing that in print was pretty amazing,” she says.

“It can be very easy to get bogged down by those who are negative about transgender people and are given a disproportionate amount of attention.

“You can be put off and think that there’s no place for you because of how loud they are, but from my experiences, they are in the minority.

“If you are good enough, then there won’t be anything that can really stand in your way.”

Further listening

Transgender people – Stop Erasing Transgender Stories From History – SAPIENS

Kim Martel
-
0
Transgender people – Stop Erasing Transgender Stories From History – SAPIENS

In 2019, the death of a 78-year-old man, Lourival Bezerra de Sá, made the news in Brazil. Despite the fact that the death occurred by natural causes, his body stayed over three months in police custody. The reason given by the authorities for the delay in allowing Lourival to be buried was that his documents, which identified him as a man, did not match the forensic report, which identified him as a woman because of his genitalia.

The media, appallingly, portrayed Lourival as a liar: as a woman who had masqueraded as a man. The pervasive use of Western binary notions of sex and gender by his society, forensic scientists, and the police effectively erased his identity as a transgender man.

Lourival’s postmortem story sadly constitutes yet another example of the erasure of gender diversity in the narratives about past and present times. The ongoing, pervasive belief that humankind is only made up of “men” and “women” contributes to the violence directed at transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people. We urgently need to put an end to this erasure.

In regions of the world influenced by Western worldviews, masculinity and femininity have been directly associated with people’s genitalia and reproductive capacities. This notion purports a strictly binary division of human beings according to physical traits (sex), which in turn results in the attribution of social and cultural roles (gender).

While this division of the world’s inhabitants might seem natural to many, given the dominance of modern Western worldviews, anthropological and biological research shows that neither “gender” nor “sex” can be taken for granted. The idea of apportioning two options of social roles based on the format of people’s bodies cannot be projected onto all other times and cultures. In human bodies and human societies, multiple possibilities coexist in the spectrum of life experiences.

In contemporary societies where these possibilities have been forgotten or forbidden, individuals whose existences transcend sex and gender binaries have become the target of violence. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people count among the most assassinated people worldwide. In Brazil, the country where I live and work as a transgender, nonbinary archaeologist, 124 transgender people were murdered during the year 2019, and 175 in 2020.

The common perception is that something is wrong with us. There seems to be a general understanding that transgender people are a phenomenon of the 21st century, yet another awkward “rebel teenager” fashion trend. The erroneous idea that we, transgender people, “have no past,” feeds the notion held by many cisgender people that we don’t belong in the present.

While it is obviously important to expose and condemn transphobic violence, stories of violence, death, and pain cannot and should not be the only stories told about trans people.

As a transgender archaeologist, I often find myself overwhelmed with deep feelings of nostalgia when I learn about ancient times. Human beings have lived with fluid notions of masculinity and femininity in various cultures throughout most of human history without their existences being demonized and violated. Hijras in India, muxes in Mexico, māhū in Polynesia, and winkte in Lakota territory are but a few examples of people who are traditionally recognized and respected as belonging both to the masculine and feminine dimensions of humankind.

However, most of the stories about the human past that are produced within academic fields of study, including archaeology, are heavily influenced by the Eurocentric binary. By relying on this division of society, archaeologists and other heritage professionals have silenced many people’s existences in their work. They have also encountered many problems in their interpretations.

The erroneous idea that we, transgender people, “have no past,” feeds the notion held by many cisgender people that we don’t belong in the present.

A significant number of archaeologists have pointed to the fact that the division of humanity is rarely binary in ancient depictions of human bodies. In his study of late Bronze Age figurative art in Greece, archaeologist Benjamin Alberti demonstrated that not only was genitalia completely absent from the imagery, it was also impossible to rely on a clear and systematic association of color coding, physical attributes, or clothing conventions to attribute gender.

Archaeologist María Fernanda Ugalde has raised a similar issue in her analysis of over 3,000 clay figures from Ecuador, dating from as early as 3500 B.C. Other combinations of physical and clothing features than the ones fitting Western notions of sex and gender were present in those figurines: For example, breasts were depicted with male dress and a lack of breasts with female dress.

Some individuals buried with objects typically attributed to “men” or “women” have also been identified with a different biological sex. In Peru, the burial of a mummified Moche person from the first millennium was found alongside signs of royal power, such as nose ornaments and gold war clubs, that have typically been interpreted as belonging to elite male warriors. The analysis of the remains, however, surprised archaeologists, who determined that they belonged to a biologically female individual. The story of the Lady of Cao is currently told as one of a powerful woman, possibly a high priestess or even a rare female ruler. That story still fails to acknowledge the possibility that the Lady of Cao may have identified as something other than a man or a woman.

Pamela Geller, a bioarchaeologist who specializes in the analysis of ancient human remains, has pointed out that researchers’ estimates of biological sex are typically tied to five categories: ambiguous, female, probable female, male, and probable male. But that ambiguity, she notes, is perceived as belonging to the researchers’ certainty, and not to the individual’s sex. That, she says, needs to change.

Despite the fact that archaeologists regularly come upon evidence that some people did not fit sex and gender binaries, those researchers still have a tendency to diminish their relevance, relegating them to “anomalies” or “ambiguous cases.” That impression is then reproduced by the media and contributes to erasing the stories of people who embodied fluidity in their masculinity and femininity.

It is time to stop silencing these past and present existences.

Education is key to stopping the violence toward present-day transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people. There needs to be a certainty for everyone—including archaeologists and the general public—that we, transgender people, are and have been part of humanity since its beginning. People need to learn from our knowledge and life experiences, and fight alongside us for our rights. Making sure we stay alive and visible will help show those who are not used to our presence that we do belong.

It is also crucial that the people telling stories about the past understand that they have a responsibility toward transgender people. These stories, whether they are told to the public in a school setting, in museums, in newspapers, or through movies, should include and highlight the existences of people who do not identify with binary genders.

Transgender people exist in history - Characteristics often identified as “male” and “female” have been blended throughout history, as in this intersex earthenware figure from Ecuador, dating to around 100 B.C.­­–A.D. 100.

Characteristics often identified as “male” and “female” have been blended throughout history, as in this intersex earthenware figure from Ecuador, dating to around 100 B.C.­­–A.D. 100. Collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University; 2006.070.020.

Specifically, we need cisgender archaeologists to transform the way they look at the archaeological record. Before creating interpretations, they should be ready for possibilities of existences that do not fit a strict division between men and women, or between males and females. Some great work is already underway, including archaeologist Mary Weismantel’s “Towards a Transgender Archaeology: A Queer Rampage Through Prehistory.”

It might seem scary for cisgender archaeologists and other heritage professionals to abandon binary notions of gender and sex as categories of analysis, given the central place they have occupied in the history of anthropological science and how natural they feel in modern Western societies. But such a transformation represents one possible pathway to preserving transgender lives. Holding on to the Western gender binary causes harm, even death, both in the past and present.

21 works of travel literature by LGBTQIA+ authors – Lonely Planet Travel News

News Editor
-
0
21 works of travel literature by LGBTQIA+ authors – Lonely Planet Travel News

“In the summer of 1991, bored with my job and craving adventure, I flew to Russia and became an American sex spy.” So begins David Tuller’s tale of a gay reporter who left San Francisco behind for the queer suburban dachas of post-Soviet Russia, at a moment that offered some small glimmers of hope for LGBTIQ+ citizens and travelers alike.

Along the way, Tuller blends journalistic observation and travelogue with extensive research into the history of Russia’s queer communities. He asks tough questions, like how we understand queerness in a country where numerous forces from the political to the religious to the cultural continue to limit expressions of LGBTIQ+ identity. And Tuller offers up, too, a deeply personal exploration of sexuality and affection kindled by his new Russian acquaintances. Cracks in the Iron Closet reveals a side to Russia as relevant, and under-discussed, as ever.

1...394395396...466Page 395 of 466
© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv