LGBTQ Breaking News Service

The executive director of the LGBT Center of Greater Reading has been appointed to serve on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. 

Michelle Dech’s appointment was announced Thursday by Rafael Álvarez Febo, executive director of the commission. She will be sworn in Friday following remarks from Gov. Tom Wolf and Dr. Rachel Levine, secretary of the Department of Health.

“I am honored to serve on the commission,” Dech said in a press release. “At the LGBT Center, ours is a mission of unity, one that allows us to meet division and hatred with kindness, love, and education. The opportunity to carry forward that mission at the state level is invaluable.”

Dech will work with legislators, professionals and activists from across the state to advise the governor and state agencies on policies, programs and legislation that impact LGBTQ communities and to serve as an intermediary between LGBTQ communities and state government.

Tim Gruesel, board president of the LGBT center, said Dech is an ideal person to represent the LGBTQIA+ community at the state level.

“Her impact at our center is undeniable,” Gruesel said. “I am certain she will broaden and further that impact in her role as a commissioner.”

Sydney Duncan, 44, an attorney in Alabama, has been so focused on managing the increased legal needs of her clients that she rarely has time to address her own mental health needs, including her anxiety.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Duncan has devoted nearly her whole waking day to her work at Birmingham AIDS Outreach, an Alabama nonprofit. Helping her transgender clients obtain vital name changes has become a prolonged process due to court backlogs piling up, helping them acquire driver’s licenses has become harder while Social Security offices are closed, and increased unemployment among the community she serves has complicated a variety of services her nonprofit provides.

“We’re so busy trying to resolve other people’s issues — which objectively are more pressing than anything I have going on in my life — that it’s hard to slow down and feel the weight of the problems in your own life,” Duncan said.

Duncan, who is transgender, is among many LGBTQ Americans grappling with the added strain of the coronavirus crisis as they continue to adjust to a “new normal.” Meanwhile, the United States is poised to deal with a third spike in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, nine months into the pandemic.

Prior to the global crisis, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans were already at greater risk of mental health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This elevated risk — due to a host of factors, including stigma and discrimination — combined with a global health crisis that has upended life as we once knew it, is presenting unique challenges for LGBTQ people.

“The physical distancing, economic strain and housing instability caused by Covid-19 have the potential to exacerbate these barriers among LGBTQ young people,” Dr. Amy Green, vice president of research at The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization, told NBC News.

Duncan had hoped to begin the year by supplementing her nonprofit salary by working as a comic-book writer. She made her debut with Dark Horse Comics at the end of last year but said her family is now “barely making it by” as opportunities have dried up.

“I feel like I’m better off than most, so don’t want to take someone else’s place if they need it more,” said Duncan, who added that she has been having “more sleepless nights” amid the pandemic. However, “opportunities seem fewer,” she added, which has affected more than just her finances.

“To make it to a level and have it erode from beneath you — the loss feels more profound,” she said. “Second chances for someone like me feel further away.”

Many LGBTQ people work in industries that have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, according to research by the Human Rights Campaign. These industries include jobs that have been contracted due to the pandemic, as well as other industries that have put workers at direct risk of exposure to the virus.

The report found that in addition to being at risk for precarious employment conditions, LGBTQ people were less likely to have health insurance, putting them further at risk from Covid-19.

On the other side of the coin, as many work remotely, the lines between work and home life have evaporated, putting an additional strain on mental health.

Rebecca Mix, 25, a queer author from Michigan, said that being overworked has just become a normal part of her routine with little sign of that changing.

“I think I’m barreling towards burnout,” Mix told NBC News. “I’ve buried myself in working constantly to not pay attention to anything, but at some point it’s going to crash, and I don’t know what I’ll do then. But I feel like I don’t have any other option.”

One of the biggest losses Covid-19 has robbed Duncan of is her sense of community. Seeing friends and colleagues on video conferencing has become exhausting, she said, and a poor substitute for having a community to help lift one another up.

“For me, community is support,” Duncan said. “Without community, I feel less supported, less confident in my place in the world. I feel this underlying anxiety every day.”

Many around the country have begun feeling “zoom fatigue,” while working to implement social distancing measures at work and with friends.

There is also worry about the long-term impact that the loss of in-person connections could have on LGBTQ people coming into their own with their sexual orientation and gender identity and presentation. A lack of a supportive community could stunt that formative time for many, according to research from Boston University’s School of Public Health.

A recent poll conducted by The Trevor Project showed that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth across the country said that “Covid-19 impacted their ability to express their LGBTQ identity,” with that number jumping to 56 percent for transgender and nonbinary youth. In addition, another report found that 2 in 5 LGBTQ youth in the United States have “seriously considered” suicide in the past year, highlighting the direness of the situation for many this year.

The combination of economic strain and lack of available space to express themselves has also conspired against LGBTQ Americans by blocking access to a vital mental health resource: therapy.

Green, of the Trevor Project, said many LGBTQ youth have lost their job amid the pandemic and the health insurance that came with it.

“Finding providers who are not only affordable and available but also well versed in LGBTQ youths’ identities and unique mental health challenges can prove incredibly difficult in many areas of the country,” she said. “And concerns around parental permission, being outed and privacy could be heightened for LGBTQ youth who find themselves confined to unsupportive home environments and isolated from affirming LGBTQ communities.”

One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been the increased access to teletherapy as health care providers shift to remote work. This has been particularly helpful for those who had little access to affirming mental health care in their physical area.

“By and large, I have found it has worked really well,” Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, director of the Fenway Institute’s National LGBT Health Education Center and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Psychiatry Gender Identity Program, told NBC News this year. “I’ve had almost no no-shows in my schedule, and patients are answering the phone very appreciative that we can give them care despite what’s happening.”

Remote therapy, while easier to access in some respects, still does not make it accessible for everyone. Mix, for example, began teletherapy during the pandemic, but then had to quit once the costs started piling up.

“At one point, I felt so spiraling-out-of-control depressed and anxious, but I had to stop because I couldn’t afford it,” Mix said. “I’ve noticed everything is harder and more exhausting — things as simple as phone calls to household tasks like laundry and dishes.”

Therapy in addition to medication helped stem feelings of spiraling out of control and depression, but the longer the pandemic rages on the harder it will be to stay on top of certain tasks and remain motivated in day-to-day life, Mix said.

Others, who are sheltering in place with people unsupportive of their LGBTQ identity, may not have a space to privately participate in a mental health video visit. And some may be skeptical of a new platform for accessing health services altogether.

A combination of unemployment, unsupportive families and reduced in-person services at LGBTQ centers have created an acute crisis of housing precariousness for the community.

Wren, 20, who is nonbinary and uses ze/hir pronouns and asked that hir surname not be published to protect hir privacy, has spent the past year moving to different parts of the country to avoid infecting family members, to keep job prospects alive and have space to finish college classes. For Wren, this involved moving in with hir partner on a farm in Appalachia, working in exchange for rent.

For around two months, Wren returned home to see hir family, but that only brought old traumas and threats of violence. Wren is back on the farm with hir partner, trying to navigate an uncertain future amid the pandemic.

“The uncertainty about where I would be living, the worry I felt for my community in the city who were at higher risk for Covid and were facing violence from police during the protests this summer, and stressed family relationships compounded pre-existing mental health issues I have been dealing with for years,” Wren said.

The implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on the state of mental health care won’t be known for some time, the Trevor Project’s Green added, but the disparities in our current system show that urgent investment is needed before more LGBTQ people get left behind without access to care.

“Investing in mental health and social services is the best strategy for proactively preventing worse mental health consequences in the future,” Green said.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

If you are an LGBTQ young person in crisis, feeling suicidal or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk, call the TrevorLifeline now at 1-866-488-7386.

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New York City’s first LGBTQ+ owned and run housing complex opened in Queens on Friday, 30 years after the owner said she first conceived the idea.

Ceyenne Doroshow, a trans woman who is the founder and executive director of Gay and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society, or GLITS, bought the complex, which has 11 apartments spanning three floors in the Queen’s Woodhaven neighborhood.

“Thirty years of a dream, of doing something like this,” Doroshow said at an opening ceremony Friday. “But not just doing it, putting us in an area, in a location where we don’t have to run.”

Doroshow said the building’s basement is being converted into an educational and learning center, as she considers education to be “the key and the base to everything you need in this world.”

“This was created out of love,” she said in a Monday interview. “Each apartment will have and be – created, and painted and styled – by a designer, an interior designer. The apartments are painted by volunteers. The art and everything has been donated. The furnitures were donated from Disney hotels. This is an act of love.”

Doroshaw said GLITS’ mission has always been to help people internationally, especially her own LGBTQ+ community.

“My community is being hunted all around the world,” she said. “If I’m going to have a mission and a statement, my mission has always been to change the lives of my community, to infuse and get young people to rethink what a career is, to invest in ourselves so we can see a better future.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of Ceyenne Doroshow, the founder and executive director of Gay and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual — or LGB — people are more vulnerable to one of the fastest-growing health concerns in the country: dementia, according to new research from Michigan State University.

“Our study speaks to the unaddressed questions about whether members the LGB community are more likely to develop cognitive impairment at older ages and, if so, what factors contribute to their poorer cognitive health, ” said Ning Hsieh, an assistant professor of sociology at MSU and lead author of the study published in the journal, The Gerontologist.

“We knew that stress and depression are risk factors for many chronic health problems, including cognitive impairment, in later life. LGB people experience more stressful events and have higher rates of depression compared to their heterosexual counterparts,” she said.

Analyzing the elevated cognitive health risks among older members of the LGB community, the study was the first to use a national sample and screening tool to gauge cognitive health disparities between LGB and heterosexual older adults.

Hsieh and MSU colleagues Hui Liu, professor of sociology, and Wen-Hua Lai, a Ph.D. student of sociology — compared cognitive skills of 3,500 LGB and heterosexual adults using a screening tool and questionnaire that tests for six domains. Those areas included temporal orientation; language; visuospatial skills; executive function; attention, concentration and working memory; and short-term memory.

The researchers found that on average, older LGB adults were more likely to fall into categories for mild cognitive impairment or early dementia compared to heterosexual older adults. The team also tested for specific health and social factors — such as physical conditions, mental health conditions, living a healthy lifestyle and social connections — and the only factor related to cognitive differences for sexual minorities was depression.   

“Our findings suggest that depression may be one of the important underlying factors leading to cognitive disadvantages for LGB people,” Hsieh said. “They may experience higher rates of depression than their heterosexual peers for many reasons, including not being accepted by parts of society, feeling ashamed of their sexual orientation or trying to hide their romantic relationships and being treated unfairly in school or at work.”

The researchers felt surprised that other factors — such as fewer social connections, drinking or smoking — didn’t have as great of an effect on LGB people’s cognitive function later in life. But, they also recognized the need for additional research to understand how the stressors sexual minorities experience earlier in life can lead to cognitive impairments as they age. Additionally, Hsieh said, they hope that the study’s findings shed light on the need for greater inclusivity for sexual minorities, as it can have an influence on their mental and cognitive well-being.

“Social inequality makes less privileged groups, including sexual minorities, more prone to develop cognitive impairment,” Hsieh said. “Making the society more just and more accepting of diverse sexuality may help prevent dementia and reduce related health care burden on society.”

The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (grant R01AG061118).

Note to media: Please include the following link in all online media coverage: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaa136

Orangetheory Fitness in Milford. Photo: Google

The family of a 38-year-old Milford man who died less than an hour after he joined a local fitness center has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the gym, in a case that will boil down to the waiver signed.

“He did sign a waiver, so we will have to get over that hurdle. But it’s a fairly weak waiver. The law in Connecticut is fairly unfavorable to these kinds of waivers. In this state, it’s very difficult to waive ordinary negligence, and the kind of negligence that the victim would not necessarily anticipate. We think the waiver will probably be declared invalid based on their negligence,” said plaintiffs counsel Paul Iannaccone, a partner with RisCassi & Davis in Hartford.

The waiver Craig McCarty signed after he joined Orangetheory Fitness in Milford on May 16, 2019, says, in part: “In recognition of the possible dangers connected with any physical activity, the undersigned waives any and all costs, claims, charges, liabilities, allegations, and causes of action of any kind arising as the result of such activity.”

Iannaccone filed the wrongful death lawsuit, citing both negligence and recklessness, in New Haven Superior Court against the facility and trainer Heidi Langan on Nov. 13. The fitness center was served with the lawsuit this week, Iannaccone said.

Iannaccone argues the facility and Langan were neglectful because it “was obvious Mr. McCarty was overweight and probably obese. No one asked him if he had done interval training or high-intensity training, or really whether he had worked out at all.”

Iannaccone said that McCarty, who was 6 feet tall and weighed 252 pounds, was inexperienced with interval training at the time of his death.

Iannaccone said Orangetheory should have either denied McCarty the ability to use the gym or, at the very least, watched him carefully. Neither was done, Iannaccone said.

Iannaccone said McCarty was part of a class that had used a rowing machine, a strength training machine and then a treadmill. McCarty, he said, had a “cardiac event” while running on the treadmill about 50 minutes after joining the gym. Personnel and others tried to revive him, but to no avail, Iannaccone said.

“They probably should have dissuaded him from using the equipment. But, if they were going to let him do it, he needed close attention,” Iannaccone said. “There were several people in the class and he was not getting the one-on-one attention he needed. Given the fact he was clinically obese and inexperienced, it was a real danger zone for him.”

In addition, the attorney said, at one point McCarty’s heartbeat got as high as 240 beats per minute.

“His levels were very dangerous for about 12 minutes without anyone doing anything,” Iannaccone claimed.

Iannaccone continued: “The whole theory of the defendant gym is to encourage people to get their heart rate as high as possible. If you are in shape, you can do this. If you’re an obese person, you can’t do this.”

Iannaccone said he’s seeking “at least seven figures.”

Iannaccone said McCarty was a traveling nurse working at Yale New Haven Hospital at the time of his death.

As of late Wednesday morning, Orangetheory Fitness, which is a chain, had not secured counsel. No one from the fitness facility responded to a request for comment Wednesday, and Langan didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Iannaccone said McCarty’s widow, Amy, and their daughter “are still very distraught. They are trying to get by.”

Read more:

Despite Gym Waiver, Attorney Secures Settlement After Client’s Injury During Workout

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Shirlington Gateway. The new 2800 Shirlington recently delivered a brand-new lobby and upgraded fitness center, and is adding spec suites with bright open plans and modern finishes. Experience a prime location and enjoy being steps from Shirlington Village. 

Courthouse-based Storyblocks, an online platform for stock video footage, has released new video content meant to close the diversity gap in media and advertising.

The company, at 1515 N. Courthouse Road, trained eight creators to make video collections specifically depicting people of color and members of the LGBT communities doing everyday activities. These reels are part of a campaign, Re: Stock, which was launched to address the need for videos of people with different racial identities, sizes, abilities and sexual orientations.

“Sourcing from authentic places will lead to authentic footage and authentic representation,” said Sydney Carlton, Director of Brand Marketing at Storyblocks.

The first batch of videos were released starting in mid-October. Although the pandemic delayed the launch from this spring Storyblocks aims to double its diverse content by the end of 2021 and quadruple it by the end of 2022.

The push comes after years of feedback from clients asking for more diverse footage, since existing footage tends to skew towards white subjects and straight couples.

“We were receiving hundreds and hundreds of comments for more people of color and more same-sex couples,” Carlton said. “It really ran the gamut, but it was loud and a lot.”

A recent company survey found that 72% of users — who include independent filmmakers, advertisers and journalists — said diverse content is important for their projects, but people of color are represented in just 5% of Storyblocks’ current digital library.

“You can only find happy white women eating salads,” Carlton said.

The problem is primarily due to location and access, since most stock video contributors hail from Eastern Europe, where creators do not have the same access to a diverse array of subjects, she said.

The first collections were produced by Monica Singleton and Samson Binutu. They focused on Black families educating their children, Black teens and adults in romantic relationships, family dinners at home and Black women enjoying the outdoors.

“These are things people do every single day,” Carlton said. “That’s the power of the campaign.”

In a statement, Singleton said her personal experience searching footage libraries made her excited to join the project.

“In the past when I’ve looked for certain stock footage or music, it’s been really hard to find representation for people that look like me,” Singleton said.

Future Storyblocks projects will focus on people with from other racial identities, and with a range of body shapes and sizes as well as abilities. Going deeper, Carlton said the goal of Re: Stock is invert stereotypes of who plays board games, does homework with their kids, and lives together.

“That’s where you instill a sense of humanity in people,” she said.

The company has thrived during the pandemic and was acquired by a private-equity firm in Boston this summer.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – City officials in San Francisco announced new COVID-19 restrictions Monday as the state re-assigned the city into the Red Tier over a surge in cases locally and statewide.

Beginning Tuesday, non-essential offices, which were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity late last month, must return to 100% remote and telework operations. Meanwhile, fitness centers must reduce capacity from 25% to 10%.

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Health officials said other sectors can remain open, including outdoor gyms and fitness centers, outdoor dining, restaurants offering takeout, along with shopping and personal care services. Elementary and middle schools, and cultural and family activities such as museums and aquariums are also allowed to continue operations.

Mayor London Breed’s office said the city is experiencing a surge in new COVID-19 cases. From October 10 to November 10, the 7-day average of daily new cases has risen from 29 to 97. Meanwhile, the case rate per 100,000 people has risen from a low of 3.7 to more than 10 this week.

Last week, the city suspended indoor dining and paused the reopening of additional schools to in-person learning over rising cases.

“We are going to proceed with caution to avoid a complete shutdown,” Breed said at a Monday afternoon press briefing about the changes.

The new restrictions coincide with actions taken by the state to ward off a staggering rise in coronavirus cases throughout the region. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday announced 41 of the state’s 58 counties have been moved to the Purple Tier, which has the most COVID-19 restrictions.

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“Daily cases, though, in the state of California have doubled just in the last 10 days. This is simply the fastest increase California has seen since the start of this pandemic,” Newsom said at his weekly COVID-19 briefing.

Before Monday’s announcement, San Francisco reached the least restrictive Yellow Tier under the state’s reopening plan.

With Thanksgiving and the holidays looming, the mayor also urged residents to avoid large gatherings. “Because of Thanksgiving, when we get together, when we see large family gatherings, especially indoors, when those happen, we could be dealing with those impacts of those decisions by Christmas with a significant increase in hospitalizations,” Breed said.

“This is where we are now. This is me sounding the alarm. This is me asking San Franciscans to do exactly what I’ve been asking this entire time. To make adjustments, to make sacrifices, and to do everything you can to remember that this virus exists and make sure our behavior, and what we do helps to avoid circulating the virus in the first place,” the mayor went on to say.

Dr. Grant Colfax, the director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, appealed to residents to avoid traveling over the holidays.

“Please, do not travel. And please do not use testing to determine whether you can travel or not. We have seen the repeated failure of this type of testing strategy across the country,” Colfax said. “A negative test cannot be an excuse to put yourself or others at risk. Please remember that people who test negative can still harbor the virus if they are early in their infection.”

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Last week, SFDPH urged residents who decide to travel to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return.