In an act of “barbaric” violence, a gay 22-year-old was gang-raped and tortured in Brazil, touching off fear and frustration among activists.
The victim, who has not been named, was attacked by three armed men in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina last week. Wielding sharp objects, they forced the victim to carve homophobic slurs onto his legs.
Passersby were stunned to find the man writhing in pain in the middle of the street where he was left, activists told The Guardiannewspaper.
He was rushed to hospital in serious condition and is now recovering at home. Police have launched an investigation – no arrest have been made at the time of writing.
To activists in a Brazil increasingly inured to anti-LGBT+ violence – its president deeply homophobic – the “frightening crime” was in no way surprising.
“It’s very common in Brazil, and violence – not only against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people but also women, Black people and immigrants – is worsening,” said Lirous Ávila, president of the Association in Defence of Human Rights.
The association, which aids victims of violence in the capital city, is supporting the victim’s loved ones.
Brazilian President and ‘proud homophobe’ Jair Bolsonaro. (EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty)
But the incident, which took place during Pride Month, has touched off national anger – and homophobia – from Brazilians, advocates said. Ávila said that some have sought to justify the attack because the victim was gay.
“It’s absurd to justify violence that is brutal and barbaric,” she said.
Last year alone, 175 trans people were slain, according to advocacy group National Association of Travestis and Transexuals of Brazil. By its estimates, a trans person was murdered every two days in a nation of 211 million.
In the group’s report, a startling figure captured the apparent impunity felt by violent transphobes: seven out of every 10 trans deaths in Brazil occurred in a public space.
“We have a president who compounded this violence,” said Ávila.
“It seems that the population feels it has a right to commit these violent acts against the LGBT+ population, influenced by Bolsonaro.”
Having seen their side reach the semi-finals at Euro 2016, hopes are high in Wales ahead of this year’s European Championship – and cheering the players on will be the national team’s new supporters group for LGBTQ+ fans and allies. Carys Ingram gives us the lowdown on ‘The Rainbow Wall’…
With the Red Dragon proudly guarding a multi-coloured brickwork backdrop on a giant Pride flag, there’s no missing the new banner of ‘The Rainbow Wall’.
The fans group has only been going a few months but with the full backing of the Football Association of Wales, it’s already proving to be a big success. Visibility is growing across the country and in the media – and it’s not just because of that eye-catching flag.
Now, with the team preparing for their big kick-off at Euro 2020 as they take on Switzerland in Saturday’s Group A opener in Baku, attentions are turning to the important business of the summer tournament.
But before all that, Sports Media LGBT+ wanted to learn more about the network’s origins and the wider inclusion work being done by the FAW and Wales fans, both around the national team but also with their clubs.
Thankfully, co-chair Carys Ingram – who also runs Swansea City’s LGBTQ+ fans group, Proud Swans – was on hand to answer all our questions! Here we go with our latest Q&A…
JH: Hi Carys! It’s so great to see The Rainbow Wall enjoying such a strong start. Tell us more about the group and how you got involved...
Carys Ingram
CI: The Rainbow Wall [TRW] was initially discussed at the end of 2020 with the FA Wales and was launched on Twitter in February 2021. Our first major event as an official Supporters Group was ‘The Big Social’ – we took part in a pre-match social alongside our Belgian counterparts on Zoom before the Belgium vs Wales match back in March. We played a quiz, broke up into smaller groups to discuss the upcoming game, and finally sang our national anthems loudly and proudly to each other over our Zoom windows! It was a fantastic way to launch TRW.
I got involved with the group after talking with Jason Webber, the FAW’s Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Integration Manager. Jason had done a lot of work alongside volunteers and supporters to get TRW up and running. I initially wanted to chat with him about what the FAW was doing with inclusivity at a national level and he told me about TRW, its values, the aims for the group, and future projects already in the pipeline. After that chat, I felt it was only right to join the group and do my part to help make the Cardiff City Stadium and international matchdays as friendly and inclusive as possible moving forward.
After joining TRW, I took over the main social media role, tweeting out about our projects and matchdays, reviews of what Welsh players and teams had done over the past week, and other things. I also helped the guys to establish a constitution, banking, and roles. I am now TRW co-chair, alongside Brandon Gregory. We felt it was important to have two co-chairs to not only share the workload but to give us perspective from two different genders as to what we should be doing going forward.
As a group, we encourage bringing on as many members of the team as possible and adding them to the typical roles (treasurer, secretary, social media manager, etc) as we’re all only volunteers. Having more members on board can really help the group evolve and bring on more opinions of what we can be doing to make Wales more inclusive. TRW itself is an LGBTQ+ supporters group, but it’s not just for LGBTQ+ members of the community. We highly encourage allies to step forward and help us spread our message of inclusion, help us with our projects, and project our values through the Red Wall and communities.
We aim to firstly make Wales matchdays more inclusive for not just Wales fans but for any international supporter who may be visiting the stadium, and make sure Wales supporters feel safe going away to watch our teams play, in countries that may not be as welcoming about LGBTQ+ people.
Eventually, we want to be able to work alongside the LGBTQ+ club supporters groups already established to help them create inclusive matchdays, and move these values and aims all the way through the Welsh system and into grassroots football.
The new flag looks brilliant! Will it be in stadiums when Wales play at the Euros? Why is this visibility important?
Thank you! We think it’s really important to use things such as flags as a symbol. Not everyone will see a flag and automatically feel safer and welcomed in places, but for a lot of the LGBTQ+ community, a symbol such as a rainbow flag, trans flag, or even one of the players wearing a rainbow armband as we saw recently, can make people feel a lot safer knowing that they’re accepted and welcomed in that place.
As for placing the flag in stadiums at the Euros, it’s certainly something we’re asking the FAW and our members about. However in places such as Baku, the LGBTQ+ community is not welcomed, so we do have to be careful in other countries in regards to being out and proud.
Those who watch Wales games regularly may have seen the red dragon and trans colours flag. Could you tell us about that particular flag, its history, and how long it’s been going?
Hopefully, your readers will already know about the Trans Pride flag with its light blue, pink and white stripes – it was created by an American trans woman, Monica Helms, in 1999, as it was seen that the regular six-colour rainbow flag that we all associate with the LGBTQ+ community didn’t actually represent the trans community so they created their own flag to identify with. The colours have now been incorporated into the Pride Progress flag too.
As for the Wales flag, the best person to ask is its original owner, Penny Miles, about why she created the flag. So I did just that! Here’s Penny…
“The flag bears the name of Wal Goch y Menwyod, which was set up as a fan group to support the women’s national team. That fanbase is in its infancy – we essentially have a blank canvas to work from. In other words, we don’t want to retro-fit a Black supporters group, an Asian fan group, and an LGBTQ+ or disability supporters group, but rather try and start to include everyone across the spectrum from the outset.
“Wales is not a big country, so neither is the fanbase. The reason for the trans flag is slightly personal – I have a number of trans friends, and I have done research on trans lives such as in Chile and with older trans people in the UK. I’m aware of the huge backlash towards trans people in the UK presently, so it was a statement to say that you are welcome in Welsh national football.
“We got it, half sponsored by Football v Homophobia (I’ve been working with Lou Englefield to try and move forward on LGBTQ+ inclusion in Welsh football fan spheres), for matches during the pandemic when games were played behind closed doors. It was to both support the players, but to also tell trans fans that they are welcome. It also reflects the activism of players such as Jess Fishlock and Tash Harding.
“The trans flag was the second of two flags that we got to support the women’s team. I’d originally set out to get the Pride Progress flag due to the need to be intersectional – but once I saw the dragon on the trans flag, it had to be that.
“Mr Flag sent potential designs over – and visually it was just right – but as it aligns with current struggles, it was also right for those reasons, so there was perhaps also an element of fate. This is all in the context of my research on gender relations in Welsh football, which started from personal experiences of being questioned in terms of my participation as a fan of the men’s game. I didn’t want that to happen for fans of the women’s game, but to start differently and to start better.” (Thanks so much to Penny for this info! JH)
Carys, how do you assess the work that the FA Wales has been doing around LGBTQ+ inclusion? What does the future look like?
I don’t think you can fault the work of the FAW when it comes to inclusivity. It’s certainly something they post about on their social media accounts, whether that be raising awareness about tackling sexism, racism, or homophobia. I think football is far behind other sports when it comes to understanding and discussing topics about the LGBTQ+ community because we are underrepresented in the sport, especially in the men’s game.
I think the FAW are doing the best they can as an organisation and it’s up to us as volunteers and community members of TRW to help them in areas they may not understand. We can all help to make positive change.
What’s the situation with the club fans groups – what role will they play? Proud Swans seems to be really energised at the moment, plus there’s lots going on at Wrexham, and we’ve seen groups are starting up now at Cardiff and Newport too…
Yes, more fan groups are really popping up now! It’s so great to see so many people taking the initiative to create a social media presence, and build a presence within their clubs and at the stadiums to make sure the LGBTQ+ community across Wales feels safe and included in the football community.
As you pointed out, Proud Swans and the Proud Dragons (Wrexham) are doing some fantastic work now to combat discrimination surrounding their clubs and we’re now seeing Newport and Cardiff both creating LGBTQ+ supporters groups as well.
I think it’s really important to have supporters being at the forefront of making change at a football stadium and with clubs. Football clubs can become a business and the people at the top can just start to deal with the money/people/players coming in and the outgoings throughout the year, but fans are people on the ground, they’re the people who’ll always be with the club, the people who experience the most with the club and I think it’s important that the fan groups such as LGBTQ+ inclusion groups, trust groups, groups to combat racism/sexism and disabled supporters groups really get stuck in to shape a better future for their football club and the supporters who follow.
Yes is the short answer! It’s statistically shown that only around 45% of LGBTQ+ men are active, compared to 67% of heterosexual men, while only 44% of LGBTQ+ women are active compared to 55% of heterosexual women. For those who identify as non-binary/transgender, only around 36% would say they are active.
As we know, being active releases endorphins and helps in the long term, not just physically but mentally. The LGBTQ+ community are twice as likely to suffer from long-term mental health conditions due to the discrimination shown to them throughout their life, but if we could counter act those negative emotions with positivity through sport, also helping their mental and physical health, then I see no downside to that.
How important are role models like Jess Fishlock and Tash Harding?
It’s extremely important to have people such as Jess and Natasha to represent the community. They’re in a unique position that a lot of people don’t ever get the chance to find themselves in – they’re influential, their voices can be heard, and they can make a real difference. For the youth – not just girls but boys, non-binary, and trans kids – to see someone who’s like them, on a world stage, it just validates how they feel and who they are, and it makes them realise that they too can do anything they want to, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Jess and Natasha have done a fantastic job, along with many other players, staff, coaches, and media representatives to bring LGBTQ+ issues to light and help the community within football.
Watch Jess Fishlock’s short film made to accompany the animation LaGolda, supported by Sports Media LGBT+
It was another disappointing end to the campaign for the Swans as you lost in the Championship play-off final for the second consecutive season. How are you all feeling as you look ahead to 2021/22? Is top two the dream?
I think most fans will agree that they didn’t see us even getting ourselves into the position we finished in (fourth), at the start of the season.
I think with the squad we’ve had the past few seasons, the loans, lack of spending, players sold and bringing in Steve Cooper who hasn’t had a lot of experience in the EFL, we have overachieved. Next season, I think we’d all be happy to just stay in the top half of the table, as it’s set to be a summer of change inside Swansea City, with big players leaving, loan spells ending, and Cooper being linked to jobs in the Premier League.
I think we can only hope that whoever is in charge next season, whichever players we have, that they just do their best and give their all for the club and fans.
What are your hopes for the Euros? Who are the ones to watch for Wales? Where will you watch the games, if not in Baku or Rome?(After facing the Swiss and then Turkey in Group A, Robert Page and his players travel to Italy to take on the Azzurri in the Stadio Olimpico)
After 2016, I think the whole of Wales believes that anything can happen when we start the tournament. The excitement and buzz leading up to the Euros is just so refreshing after the year everyone has had.
Unfortunately, I’ll be watching the Euros at home and in the pubs – much like a lot of the Red Wall – due to travel restrictions and Covid still being a big threat, but that doesn’t dull the excitement at all.
Most teams will be looking at our attacking threats going into the tournament as the main people to watch out for but I think goalkeeper Danny Ward could be a possible dark horse going into the tournament, and that defensive line we’ve got – from Joe Rodon, Ben Cabango, Connor Roberts, Chris Mepham, Neco Williams, and Ben Davies – is solid.
Opposition teams need to worry maybe about how strong our defensive ability could be, rather than our attacking threat. The hopeful fan in me sees us getting out of the group and getting to the quarter-finals.
And finally, what is the Rainbow Wall / Proud Swans message for Pride? How can people get involved, in either group?
Firstly, HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE! Be true, be you, be proud!
This Pride, I think as much as we all like to party, wear our colours, and celebrate being different, we also have to take time to reflect on how we have got to this point and what we have to do in order to keep progressing forward and making not just football but our communities a more equal, safe place to live for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
If you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot about the LGBTQ+ community, its struggles, its ongoing fight for equality, then I would say just to read up, find out what volunteers from the community are doing to make a real change, and just become more educated and support people in this movement.
At the end of the day, everyone involved with Proud Swans, The Rainbow Wall, Proud Dragons and beyond are all football fans first and foremost. We’re all there to watch the game we love, supporting the teams we love, and we all have that in common – no matter our race, religion, sex, gender, or physical ability.
We need to come together to make our sport inclusive and not exclusive. We need to make change, and as fans, we need to be at the forefront of holding people accountable for their online abuse of these minority groups. Be Kind!
Our thanks to Carys, and good luck to Wales at the Euros!
Sports Media LGBT+ is a network, advocacy, and consultancy group that is helping to build a community of LGBT+ people and allies in sport. We’re also a digital publisher. Learn more about us here.
LGBT+ in sports? Your visibility will inspire other people – sharing your story can be hugely rewarding and you don’t have to be famous to make a positive and lasting impact. We encourage you to start a conversation with us, in confidence, and we’ll provide the best advice on navigating the media as part of your journey so that you retain control of your own narrative.
A majority of Republicans in the United States support same-sex marriage for the first time, a Gallup poll found on Wednesday, with a record 70% of all respondents backing gay weddings.
The research shows a significant increase in approval of same-sex marriage since 2015, when it was legalised nationwide following a Supreme Court ruling and 60% of Americans told Gallup they were in favour of gay marriage.
At that point, Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, which also gauges support for the death penalty and birth control, found 37% of Republicans supported gay weddings – a figure that has now increased to 55%.
“One of the most striking trends that (our research) shows (is that) Americans can change their views on an issue pretty remarkably in a fairly short period of time,” Gallup analyst Justin McCarthy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“And now we see a majority of Republicans who are supportive for the first time.”
The Republican party has historically been more socially conservative and less willing to advance LGBT+ rights, with new transgender personnel banned from joining the U.S. military under the Trump administration.
The “Peel Pride Fundraiser” is raising money for the LGBT YouthLine during Pride month.
The aim is to come up with $1,000 during June. As of June 8, it has received $685.
According to its GoFundMe page, “LGBT Youth Line is a Queer, Trans, Two-Spirit youth-led organization that affirms and supports the experiences of youth (29 and under) across Ontario.”
This fundraiser is “hosted” by Caledon Pride. Click here to make a donation.
“One of Caledon Pride’s largest goals is to bring more accessible services to our community members,” reads its GoFundMe page.
“Times are tough, especially if you have no one to talk to, that’s why we’re raising funds and awareness to benefit an organization that we think more Caledon residents should know about.”
Inequalities and human rights barriers, which have been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, are preventing progress towards ending AIDS as a global public health threat by 2030. They facilitate the transmission of HIV by increasing vulnerability to HIV and limiting access to health services, particularly for gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who use drugs, sex workers, women and girls.
Ending inequalities is both a human rights imperative and a public health necessity. Yet, despite repeated commitments, human rights barriers that drive inequalities, such as stigma, discrimination, violence and punitive laws, continue to undermine the HIV response.
To highlight the critical need for progress on human rights barriers, and to call on all stakeholders to play their part to increase action, UNAIDS convened civil society partners, United Nations Member States, jurists and development organizations on the sidelines of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS in New York. At the event, From Promises to Action: Scaling Up Efforts against Human Rights Barriers, including HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination, which took place on 9 June, the panellists emphasized the critical need to generate long-term investment and transformative action on human rights and stigma and discrimination, particularly on discriminatory criminal laws, in order to change structural and social barriers and, ultimately, reduce inequalities.
The panellists exchanged best practices, discussed how human rights-based and gender-transformative approaches could reduce inequalities and issued a call for a rapid scale-up of funding, commitment and action in this area to reach the people most left behind.
The event served as a reminder that 62% of new HIV infections in 2019 were among key populations, who are still criminalized in many countries, and their sexual partners, that due to gender inequality and harmful gender norms, AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death among adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa and six out of seven new HIV infections among adolescents (aged 15 to 19 years) in the same region are among girls.
The event also provided hope that action and change is possible. During the event, the Governments of Angola, Costa Rica and the Gambia announced that they are joining the Global Partnership for Action to Eliminate all Forms of HIV-Related Stigma and Discrimination.
At the event, Winnie Byanyima, the UNAIDS Executive Director, called on the international community to rally behind the bold new targets and commitments laid out in the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026. She highlighted that the strategy was a crucial development, as it set for the first time specific targets to reduce the societal enablers driving inequality, giving them the same priority and commitment as biomedical interventions.
Having new targets means that there is a need for new tools and guidance, and Ms Byanyima unveiled a new series of human rights fact sheets to support action by all stakeholders on removing human rights barriers, such as criminal laws, stigma and discrimination.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Family members of Walmart founder Sam Walton on Thursday launched a $1 million fund for groups assisting LGBT people in the retail giant’s home state of Arkansas, which has enacted measures restricting transgender people’s rights.
The new fund is being established with support from the Alice L. Walton Foundation and from Olivia and Tom Walton through the Walton Family Foundation. The fund will distribute grants of $25,000 and more for groups that offer legal, health, education and advocacy services, along with other high-demand needs.
Arkansas Community Foundation will oversee the fund.
The initiative was launched following a legislative session in Arkansas that was marked by new laws restricting the rights of transgender people. The state is being sued over one of those measures, which bans gender confirming treatments for transgender youth. Unless blocked by a federal judge, the ban will take effect July 28.
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“Our state is in a moment of reflection where each of us must send a message of acceptance to the LGBTQ community that says ‘You belong here,’” Olivia and Tom Walton said in a statement. “It is also a time for action by recognizing LGBTQ Arkansans face growing challenges that need community-driven solutions.”
The Virtual Baltimore AIDS Walk & Music Festival took place June 6 to support HIV services provided by Chase Brexton Healthcare and its community partners.
The event drew 250 walkers, runners, and bikers across more than 50 teams who surpassed their fundraising goal by $20,000, raising $185,000 on their AIDS Walk personal fundraising page. Participants tracked their miles between May 23 to June 5 using the Strava fitness mobile app.
The fundraiser ended with a virtual music festival featuring performances by Baltimore’s own Eze Jackson, Wendel Patrick, and Jasmine Pope. Funds raised for Chase Brexton will support the organization’s prescription delivery program, and ensure that nearly 60,000 prescriptions filled by Chase Brexton’s four pharmacies will be delivered directly to patients’ doorsteps.
To watch the event’s full program, visit the group’s YouTube page. In addition, donations will continue to be accepted through June 30, and you can visit BaltimoreAIDSWalk.org to make a contribution.
The way we think about sexuality is changing. Where there was once a single, well-known rainbow pride flag, today, a wide array of colourful flags fly to showcase the diversity of preferences and lifestyles. People seem increasingly open to discussing their sexuality, and more unconventional, even formerly “invisible”, identities have become part of an increasingly mainstream discourse. With the open dialogue, sexual identities are becoming less rigid and more fluid.
But new data show that this shift is more prevalent in one group: in many countries, women are embracing sexual fluidity now at much higher rates than they have in the past, and more significantly than men are overall.
So, what accounts for this discrepancy? Experts believe there are many factors that feed into this progression, especially changes in social climate that have let women break out of conventional gender roles and identities. With these new insights, however, the question remains: what does this mean for sexual fluidity in the future for all genders?
A notable shift
Sean Massey and his colleagues at the Binghamton Human Sexualities Research Lab in New York have been studying sexual behaviours for about a decade. In each of their studies, they asked participants to report their sexual orientation and gender. They’d never before looked at how that data changed over time – until Massey and colleagues recently realised they were sitting on a treasure trove of information about sexual attraction.
“We thought, gosh, we’ve collected this data for 10 years,” he says. “Why don’t we go back and look and see if there’s been any trends?”
They found that between 2011 and 2019, college-age women had increasingly moved away from exclusive heterosexuality. In 2019, 65% of women reported only being attracted to men, a notable decrease from 77% in 2011. The number of women exclusively having sex with men also dropped between those years. Meanwhile, men’s attraction and sexual behaviour stayed mostly static in the same time frame: about 85% reported sexual attraction to women only, and close to 90% reported engaging in sex exclusively with women.
Revel & Riot uses the T-shirt as a canvas to promote LGBTQ+ equality, pride, visibility and justice. On top of selling great tees, the website provides a collection of resources, including information about anti-oppression, transgender health, internalized homophobia and LGBTQ+ art history. Per the brand, “We believe that the LGBTQ+ fight for equality is bound to all other struggles for social, economic and environmental justice and we try to reinforce that vision through our resources.”
As more Chicagoans get vaccinated against the COVID-19 infection, officials at Howard Brown Health (Howard Brown) are preparing their responses to a health landscape that will likely be much different from what it was before the pandemic.
“We were able to form a pretty urgent response to the pandemic, one that was informed by decades of responding to HIV,” said Howard Brown President and CEO David Munar. “We’re proud to have contributed to the epidemiology, COVID-testing, contact-tracing and now vaccinations and education.”
Like many health providers, Howard Brown saw a surge of interest from patients eager to receive their COVID vaccinations earlier this year.
“A lot of vaccination efforts are going to be integrated into primary care, and it will be a struggle to persuade the half of the population who hasn’t received one to accept it,” Munar said. “But I think we’re going to see more ‘normalized’ delivery of vaccines. … We’re also going to start attending to the health needs in our health portfolios in a more robust way.”
Munar speculated that a timeframe lasting as long as the pandemic itselfabout 18-24 monthswould likely be necessary to return healthcare service-delivery to “baseline 2019 levels.”
He added, “We have evidence that a number of our patients who were on PrEP in 2019 are not on PrEP now. As for STIs, testing rates have declined and positivity rates have increased. The pandemic is directly affecting health equity by the disparities it’s driving among some populations. It’s also having a negative effect on good health. We’re going to be recovering from COVID for a while, but the recovery from the crisis is also going to take a while to get back to where we were responding to HIV and [chronic conditions] like hypertension, diabetes, asthma and other chronic conditions.”
Howard Brown officials have also noted an uptick in mental-health issues among its clientele, including anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, thanks to the isolation and economic devastation many patients experienced.
“In a crisis such as the pandemic, nothing else can flourish,” Munar said.
But the forced restructuring during the pandemic has at least raised possibilities for improvements to health care delivery in numerous realms. Telehealth visits, for example eased burdens on patients for whom making a trip to a doctor’s office is difficult.
“[Telehealth] has allowed us to make care more convenient for those with cyber-access,” Munar said. Howard Brown also mailed clients safer-sex kits, as well as kits to screen for HIV. Staff members were available via telehealth connections to walk clients through the HIV screening process.
But for patients lacking online resources, telehealth communication is a moot point and service-delivery to them remains an issue.
“The pace of change has really been a lot to assume,” said Munar. “I know we’re not alone, and a lot of organizations are going through that, but we’ve really been feeling it.”
He also suspects that the pandemic will set back the state’s Getting to Zero efforts, in which Howard Brown participates, in “very dramatic ways.”
The Getting to Zero initiative would reduce new HIV transmissions in Illinois through a combination of strategies, among them easing PrEP and PEP access as well as access to treatments that reduce viral loads for persons living with HIV.
“A lot of people have not been back to the clinic who are living with HIV, so we think [the pandemic] has affected adherence,” Munar said. “Treatment has been more difficult for some people, and it has probably been widening disparities.”
Howard Brown Health was founded in 1974, ostensibly as a resource for education, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases among gay men. That mission evolved dramatically as the organization began serving individuals with HIV/AIDS in the ’80s. The organization became a Federally Qualified Health Center in 2014 and began expanding its geographic reach in subsequent years.
Even as the pandemic raged through much of 2020, Howard Brown proceeded with new projects, among them a standalone facility that will allow its Broadway Youth Center agency to have its own building for the first time (see sidebar) and a community center on the South Side for which state Rep. Lamont Robinson (D-Chicago) has been a prominent advocate. Munar said to expect more details on the South Side facility in the months ahead.
Munar said, “We’ve been working with Pride Action Tank on a needs assessment, which is complete, and the reports will soon be released. We’ve really mined the assessment, which was driven by responses from some 400 LGBTQ South Siders to determine priorities and programming. The rest of the year we will have a whole series of announcements.”
The next steps will be determining a location and collaborating with other agencies to plan the building.
“We think that will be an opportunity to expand services directly and with partners,” Munar said. “That project is still several years out, but we’re going to be doing a lot of work on it this year.”
Having grown up with a gay older brother in the Bay Area, I have an immediate family that fairly quickly embraced my identity as a gay man, though I had reservations with coming out to my mother’s Catholic family and my father’s conservative Chinese family. I remember having crushes on other boys back in 1984 as a 6-year-old, but I didn’t begin to realize what that meant until I was in sixth grade, and didn’t identify it for myself until I was in high school. I first came out to my best friend in high school, and eventually outed myself to my immediate family and my friends as I started college at UC Berkeley in 1996. This is when my coming out story truly begins.
In a speech a few weeks before he was assassinated, and a few months after I was born, Harvey Milk said: “Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell your neighbors. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. And once they realize that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and for all. And once you do, you will feel so much better.”
Mike Wong (left) with his brother
I saw that speech in a documentary early on in my college years, but didn’t realize at the time what it would mean personally to me. Sure, I came out to my immediate friends, and went to college groups centered on being queer and the coming out process, in spaces designed for people to be “safely queer.” But I struggled to find my community, as being gay was the only thing many of us had in common. I quickly found myself, as a physics and music double major, living a double life. In my music classes, where being a gay man was almost normative, there were many role models and it was easy to be my more authentic self. But in the physics department, the classic heteronormative and straight-male dominated environment kept me in the closet. Depression hit in, and I began to doubt whether I could be a physics major.
About that time, I joined the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, as a horn player, and I found a chosen family. Playing music with the first openly-gay musical organization in the world gave me a confidence in my identity that had been sorely lacking. Here was a group of queer people from all walks of life, coming together once a week to cultivate their inner band-geek. This gave me the resolve to continue pursuing my passions, because I had a safe space that supported me.
At this point, it would have been easy to drop the physics major. My physics grades began to suffer, as I self-segregated myself from the toxic masculinity rampant in the study groups of my peers in the physics department, to the point where I dropped out of the major. This turned around when I came out, as a would-be physicist, to one of my gay friends. He remarked, “Wow, having you as a physicist totally makes me break my idea of who could be a physicist.” As I became surer of myself, I began to push back in those physics’ spaces. When someone would say, “That’s so gay!” I would respond, “Thanks!” As my career in the department developed, I became a respected physics student-teacher, and my being an out gay man became part of a culture shift within the department. By the time I graduated, many other gay physicists came out, and we even had a department chair who was a gay man.
My coming out story continues after graduation. Having moved up the ranks to become Drum Major in the Freedom Band, I found myself at another crossroads. My conservative Chinese family had no clue about me being gay, and my first parade as Drum Major was the Chinese New Year Parade. Apprehensive that my father’s cousin, the Rev. Norman Fong, emcees the viewing stand at the parade, I decided to look him in the eye, perform my salute, and boldly march by the viewing stand.
I admittedly don’t know if he recognized me then, but after that, I decided that the Band was the perfect way to come out to the rest of my family. I began to arrange traditional Chinese music for the parade, and prominently put my name in the script for the emcees to read. One of the proudest moments came the next year, when Norman, who energetically read the script, excitedly pronounced, “That’s my relative! Mike Wong, leading the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band,” further pronouncing to the conservative Chinatown crowd how being gay is nothing to be ashamed of, and that he was honored to have the Band under my leadership representing the intersection of our communities.
Now, as Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Program at UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center, I see how important it is to be my authentic self, to serve as a role model for students coming to the university and exploring their passions and their identities. And, as Artistic Director of the Freedom Band’s Marching and Pep Programs, I find it so important to bring our message to communities that have not as traditionally embraced the LGBTQ+ community. This culminated in participating in Choy Sun Doe Day in Chinatown in 2020, where an older Chinese gentleman, with tears in his eyes, came up to me and remarked how he never thought a gay group would be so prominent in Chinatown. It’s why it is so important for me to be out and gay in every aspect of my life, because you never know when being your authentic self can be so important to the lives of others.
Mike Wong is the Director of the Mathematics and Statistics Program at UC Berkeley’s Student Learning Center and is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band’s Marching and Pep Programs.
Ryan O’Callaghan isn’t your average guy, nor is he an average NFL star who starred in special teams as an offensive lineman from 2008-2011.
As a lineman, he played over 50 games for the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs. However, during our conversation, football is Ryan’s backstory, barely rising to the surface.
You see, O’Callaghan isn’t even a huge football guy – metaphorically, literally, he’s 6ft7in and looks precisely like a lineman.
“I never loved football. Football for me was just solely a cover for being gay,” explains O’Callaghan from his home in Colorado.
O’Callaghan grew up in rural California in the late 80s and early 90s and decided to hide his sexuality.
“California is a huge state just physically, and it’s very different. It’s got very different areas. The main population centres, LA, San Francisco, are very liberal, but most of the land is extremely conservative.
“I come from far north, about 200 miles north of San Francisco, and it’s very, very conservative up there, even more so today than when I was growing up. There wasn’t any LGBTQ representation and certainly no public acceptance of it in any way.
“I also grew up in the late ’80s, early ’90s, so we didn’t have the internet. Really, being where I was from and hearing the things that my family would say about LGBTQ people, that’s what really drove me deep into the closet.”
So, how exactly does a kid struggling with his sexuality end up getting a scholarship to college at California Golden Bears playing football and then going in the fifth round in the NFL draft to the New England Patriots and then being signed by the Kansas City Chiefs?
“I took the stereotypes that I knew about gay guys, and I just tried to turn them on their head. Before football, I was hanging out with a band and drama kids, and that’s the worst place for a closeted gay boy to hide.
“Being a big kid, I was naturally pre-athletic, so I was good at football and realised that most people there were too ignorant to realise that a gay guy could play football and play at the top level. I ran with that plan and I tried to make the most of it. I didn’t start playing football until high school. It never was like a long-term plan.
“I didn’t have dreams of playing in Division 1 college or going in the NFL but, as the years went on, I realised my potential and how good of a cover it was for being gay, so I just kept with it.”
Off the field, Ryan was your average teammate. He was close with his teammates, admitting he kept them close to track what lies he told to who, but he was also constantly worried someone would try and out him, thinking if it happened, he’d be exiled and ultimately abandoned by his friends and family.
“Through high school, I was able to [avoid dating girls]. I was young, and you have an excuse not to be dating. Once you get to college, you’re an adult, living on your own, on the football team, there’s a lot of temptations and expectations.
“I got with a girl once because I thought my buddies were testing me. I thought they may be suspecting that I was gay, but I had rehearsed that. If that ever happens, what do I do? I knew exactly what to do, and it was extremely difficult.
Always worried
“I was pretty good at manipulating conversations and lying to people and making them believe that I had a girlfriend back home or just different things like that. Hiding my sexuality was always in the back of my mind, something I was always worried about. I took the approach of being very honest about everything else. That way, I can keep track of those lies.
“I told them about dating or things having to do with my sexuality. I was still able to connect on other levels, and I was pretty good at controlling conversations. I definitely felt the pressure and the stress, but I did a pretty good job of managing it just by being very honest about everything else in my life”.
Slowly, depression began to set in, coupled with some bad injuries. With six shoulder surgeries, among many other issues, O’Callaghan was no stranger to painkillers, but it was the end of his career when he had two injuries in a row.
“I knew that my career was coming to an end. I really started to spiral out of control mentally. I think anyone who’s taken a strong opioid painkiller knows that not only do they get rid of the pain, but they give you this euphoric feeling that makes you not feel like yourself and me back then hating myself. I love that feeling because it made me forget about everything I had to deal with. I quickly became addicted, and being in the NFL, I had a lot of disposable income, so I could get as many doses I could possibly take. I’m pretty lucky that I just didn’t overdose at one point.”
Ryan was eventually pulled by the Kansas City Chiefs athletic trainer. He was asked would he go see a psychologist and have a chat. O’Callaghan said yes, fearing if he said no, everyone would suspect he was hiding something.
“I agreed to go speak with Dr Wilson. After speaking with her for quite a few months, as the season went on, and I knew what my plan was, I decided I would tell her. Up to that point, she knew about drug use. She didn’t know the extent of it, and she didn’t really know the main issues.
“For the first time, I said the words ‘I’m gay’. First thing after I told her that, she stood up and gave me a hug and told me that I wasn’t the first player to sit right there and tell her the same thing.
“It wasn’t her acceptance that I felt like I needed to save my life, but having her say that and being that closely connected to someone else in that position instantly made me take a deep breath.
Commit suicide
“I ended up telling her my plan to commit suicide, my fears about family and why I felt that way. As logical of a thinker, as I think I am, she basically said, ‘Well, if you’re just going to kill yourself, why don’t you find out if you need to?’”.
O’Callaghan went back to conservative California and told his family and friends. His dad wasn’t overly ecstatic, but their relationship now is better than ever.
“I don’t regret the path I took just because I’m in a fabulous position now. If I could go back to when I first realised that I was gay, I would tell myself, ‘just come out, it’ll be okay’ because I really didn’t start living until I was 30 years old. If I could just start living when I was 15, who knows what would have happened?”
O’Callaghan has recently spoken to City Football Group, owners of Man City and NYCFC, about being a more welcoming environment. The NFL had O’Callaghan on their official float for Pride in America and, more importantly, he’s inspired others by writing a book called My Life On The Line, from which all the money goes towards the Ryan O’Callaghan Foundation, which supports talented LGBTQ youth.
In October 2019, Devon Rouse booked a weeklong trip to Florida on a whim. He had never been on an airplane. Little did he know that trip would kick off a racing career that would have him driving in NASCAR at the Daytona International Speedway.
“You could have told me when we were down in Florida, ‘You’re going to race Daytona at the start of the 2021 season,’ and I would have literally laughed in your face,” Rouse said by phone from his hometown of Burlington, Iowa.
On the last night of his 2019 Florida trip, Rouse, 22, was at a patio bar with friends in Clearwater when he noticed a group of guys wearing the NASCAR truck team logo. He struck up a conversation and, three hours later, they were exchanging numbers and promising to keep in touch.
Soon, they invited Rouse to join them at a Charlotte, N.C., race. He ended up tagging along as the circuit took them from rural Ohio to Fort Knox, Texas, and from Phoenix, Ariz., to Miami. Three months later, he was racing trucks himself.
Though it was a dream come true, Rouse felt stifled by a secret he had carried since he was in Grade 7. He was gay, and terrified that someone would find out.
“I always said I would take it to my grave,” Rouse said. “It was so exhausting. I could sit here and have a conversation with somebody and after every sentence I would pause and think about how I said (something) to see if that was a giveaway.
“I did that with every single word I said, and I couldn’t do it anymore. It was around fans. It was around sponsors. It was around friends. It was around family.”
Last June, Rouse decided he couldn’t keep up the act, and came out in a 400-word post on Instagram.
“This is me, and it’s time for me to stop living a double life. Living as what people want me to be, and living as what I want to be,” he wrote. “I wish each and everyone of you could feel the weight that’s been lifted off my shoulders, and pressure off my chest. It hasn’t been fun lying to people, it hasn’t been fun hiding, limiting myself.”
“This is me, I’m just your same Dev, just a little better now!” he ended his post.
When Rouse tested at Daytona this past January, not only did he set a personal record, racing a best lap of 174 miles per hour, but he made history as the first openly gay driver in the NASCAR Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) series at Daytona. “My name is in the history books,” he said. “That’s mind-blowing to me.”
Rouse is only the second openly gay NASCAR driver, the first since Stephen Rhodes debuted in 2003. Another driver, Evan Darling, who competed on the Grand-Am Road Racing circuit, came out in 2007. Darling has said that the decision cost him his sponsorships, and eventually his career. Fourteen years after Darling came out, Rouse has also struggled to book adequate sponsorship.
“I was approved for 26 races this year,” Rouse said. “I was approved for every road course, and I was approved for any race track a mile and smaller, and ARCA, and the truck series. And unfortunately, I don’t have the funding to do all that.”
After tweeting about his search for sponsorship, Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of American RV chain Camping World, offered to sponsor him for their NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in Knoxville, Iowa, on July 9. Rouse is also hoping to land a sponsor to attend four upcoming ARCA races in Springfield and Du Quoin, Ill., Bristol, Tenn., and Phoenix.
Since coming out, Rouse has had members of the media question his motives, suggesting he did it to raise his profile. “My biggest fear in coming out was altering any future racing endeavours,” he said “Racing is not a community where you see gay people. It’s not.”
That lack of role models has been discouraging, but Rouse is emboldened knowing that he will be that example for someone else. “I am 100 per cent OK with sharing my story, because I know there are hundreds of thousands of people out there that find themselves curious, questioning, or in the same shoes of knowing who they are but scared because of the stereotypes we have,” he said.
Someday Rouse would like to start a charity to support LGBTQ inclusion in sports. He has been working with ex-NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan, who came out in 2017. He’s asked O’Callaghan to introduce him to one of his football friends, former NFL player turned “The Bachelor” contestant Colton Underwood, who also recently came out in the media.
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“I watch ‘The Bachelor,’” Rouse said. “I find it funny. I had the literal biggest crush on Colton when he was on the show. So here is the thing. We are going to have to hangout.”
Thinking back over the past two years, Rouse can hardly believe how far he’s come, not only behind the wheel, but personally as well. “I was always a fun, happy kind of person,” he said. “Everyone knew me as the life of the party. But now that I am 100 per cent comfortable with myself, my limitations are endless.”
When asked on Wednesday about his response, Buttigieg said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” that McDaniel’s language was “dangerous.”
“Her language is divisive and it’s dangerous and it’s making space for people in their party who seek to harm LGBTQ Americans,” Buttigieg said, invoking Florida’s governor as an example. “It’s making space for people like Ron DeSantis, who used the first day of Pride to sign anti-trans legislation. … I do not believe that is the party of inclusion or acceptance for LGBTQ Americans.”
DeSantis on June 1 signed a bill that would forbid transgender female athletes to play on girls‘ and women‘s sports teams at public schools.
On MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” earlier Wednesday, Buttigieg pushed the GOP to pass the Equality Act, saying that “if the Republican Party is truly the party of LGBTQ inclusivity, which I believe it is not, we should have no problem passing the Equality Act.”
“I think some people like the chairwoman are focused on slapping rainbow stickers on tweets and saying you support the LGBTQ community, but really what we all need to be doing right now is working to pass the Equality Act,” Buttigieg said on MSNBC, referring to legislation that would amend the Civil Rights Act to forbid discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Buttigieg doubled down on CNN and spoke out against the Justice Department’s decision that it can defend religious schools’ exemption from anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws.
“The Justice Department is doing its job defending federal law, which is why we need to change the federal law,” he said. “That’s why the Biden administration is asking the Republican Party to pass the Equality Act. We need to pass the Equality Act so that we don’t need to keep having these debates whether or not people get to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans in the workplace or at home.”
A Republican National Committee spokesperson took exception to Buttigieg’s remarks.
“Republicans believe in freedom and opportunity for all Americans,” the RNC spokesperson said. “While Democrats are focused on demonizing half the country, we are fighting to show that there is room in our party for everyone.”
Club will host official Nashville SC PRIDE Night on Saturday, June 26, 7:30 p.m. CT at Nissan Stadium
Nashville SC to host the LGBT Chamber of Commerce and launch a commemorative PRIDE patch to support the LGBTQ+ Business Community
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 2, 2021) – Nashville Soccer Club and the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce will join forces to celebrate PRIDE Month by hosting the official NSC PRIDE Night on Saturday, June 26, as the club takes on CF Montréal at Nissan Stadium at 7:30 p.m. CT. The event will highlight the LGBTQ+ community and raise funds in support of programming and advocacy initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“To have the ability to celebrate PRIDE and the LGBTQ community with this initiative is extremely special for our organization,” said Nashville SC Senior Director of Community Engagement Brandon Hill. “Our club and our league believe that Soccer is For All regardless of race, religion, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. We are committed to being the most inclusive of all sports leagues in North America and this initiative is a great opportunity to show our support.”
“We are so proud of our member Nashville SC on their dedicated and intentional work on incision and diversity,” said Joe Woolley, CEO of the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce. “From the moment they formed they have been focused on making everyone feel welcome and a part of the team. Soccer and all sports should be for everyone, and Nashville SC makes it clear they are. We love that the PRIDE patch is available for people to show their pride and support of the team and the community, and the LGBT Chamber Foundation is so honored to accept the funds and have them advance our educational and community-building initiatives.”
Throughout the month and during that special night in June, the team and the Chamber will partner in the following activations:
PRIDE Patch 2021: Nashville SC will launch the 2021 PRIDE Patch with proceeds benefitting the LGBT Chamber of Commerce. This year’s Nashville Soccer Club Pride Patch, designed in collaboration with the LGBT chamber, is an innovative spin on celebrating June as Pride Month with the distinct flavor of Nashville. The design honors the history of the traditional rainbow colors of the Pride Flag while also incorporating the colors of the newly designed “inclusive flag” – representing the commitment to racial equity, the transgender community and honoring the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community.
The PRIDE patches are now on sale, giving fans and supporters alike the opportunity to purchase the PRIDE Patch through Wednesday, June 30. In addition, fans will be able to access discount offers at local LGBT Community businesses by presenting the PRIDE Patch at checkout. Visit www.nashvillelgbtchamber.org/nashville-sc-pride-patch for a list of discount offers.
PRIDE Bundle Package: Fans will have opportunity to purchase the PRIDE Night Bundle Package with a ticket to the match in the PRIDE Section and a game-day poster by clicking here. For each package purchased a $5 donation will go to the LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
Section 615: Nashville SC’s special Section 615 will host guests from the LGBT Chamber and the Oasis Center Just Us program, which helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth to achieve their full potential.
Hero of the Match: Nashville SC will recognize a leader in the LGBT Community as the 2021 PRIDE Ambassador and Hyundai Hero of the Match.
PRIDE Night Merchandise: The Fanatics Merch Truck will have exclusive PRIDE Night items including the PRIDE scarf, adidas PRIDE pre-match top, and commemorative PRIDE Patch.
Chat with Nashville SC CEO Ian Ayre and LGBT Chamber CEO Joe Woolley: A special video discussion featuring Nashville SC CEO, Ian Ayre and LGBT Chamber CEO, Joe Woolley on June 16.
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