Fabrice Houdart | A weekly newsletter on LGBTQ+ Equality
This week: murder over a Pride flag, a strained Italy, the gayest World Cup, Gaetz vs. USAID, the 18th UK Black Pride, Farrell Covington, Fellow Travelers, COP28 in Dubai, and much more…
Welcome to the 130th issue of my equality news digest, where I share important (and much less important) news, updates, and commentary about the LGBTQ+ equality movement at the intersection with business.
This week: murder over a Pride flag, a strained Italy, the gayest World Cup, Gaetz vs. USAID, the 18th UK Black Pride, Farrell Covington, Fellow Travelers, COP28 in Dubai, and much more…
Global News
Italy: the World is catching up to Meloni
A wolf in sheep's clothing. Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, whom President Biden warmly embraced at the White House less than a month ago, is getting bad press as the World catches up with her Government’s petty attack on LGBTQ+ parents. The Guardian had a piece titled “Orphaned by Decree”:
“The crackdown on same-sex parents has cast a spotlight on Italy’s ranking among the worst countries in western Europe regarding LGBTQ+ rights…”
Italy (again): homophobe General loses his job
Hateful political rhetoric emboldens those previously hesitant to express what they think quietly… sometimes at a price. Italian General Roberto Vannacci, 54, former head of an elite corps of paratroopers, self-published "The Upside Down World, " a compendium of homophobic and misogynistic rants. He was dismissed last week from his job as commander of the Military Geographical Institute (read more about it here). Among Vannaci’s many inspired social commentaries, you could read:
"Dear homosexuals, you’re not normal; get over it! Normality is heterosexuality. If everything seems normal to you, however, it is the fault of the international gay lobby plot, which banned terms that were in our dictionaries until recently.”
The gayest World Cup ever 🌈⚽️
That’s what The Washington Post called it. Queer women in the World Cup proved once again that LGBTQ+ people strive when allowed to be themselves. I loved this piece on the queer mums in the game. Last week’s semifinal between Australia and England was the most-watched TV event in Australian history, with almost half the country’s population watching it. UK’s Prince Williams got in trouble for not giving it the same attention he would have if it were a men’s soccer cup (see here).
Uganda: academics to show contempt for LGBTQ+ people
In a Bloomberg article this week, I mentioned, "I don’t think it’s the World Bank penalizing the poorest in Uganda; it’s Museveni imposing a self-inflicted wound.” In the same piece, Professor Susan Park at the University of Sydney makes this ignorant and covertly homophobic comment: “This decision not to lend to Uganda violates the World Bank’s Articles of Agreement [...] What is so striking about this decision is that it has no link to the Bank’s mandate for lending for economic growth and development whatsoever.” Park would never make such a comment on child labor, gender inclusion, safeguards for indigenous people or discrimination against Dalit people but LGBTQ+ inclusion is fair game because we are "a political question" with "no link to development whatsoever." Inclusion is always “political” when it is applied to a group you don’t think are deserving of rights and yet human rights are universal and indivisible.
Uganda (too): Four arrested under the new law
A police spokeswoman in the eastern district of Buikwe confirmed that the authorities had arrested four people, including two women at a massage parlor, for acts of homosexuality after a tip by “a female informant.” See here.
Iraq: an anti-LGBTQ+ Bill on the horizon?
Human Rights Watch reminds us this week that Iraq’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill is simmering in parliament. Read about it here. If you have homosexual sex three times, you are out. I hope you are keeping count.
The 18th UK Black Pride, a success
On Saturday, the World's largest pride celebration for LGBTQ+ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American, and Middle Eastern descent occurred in London. The event, created by friend Lady Phyll, is in its 18th year. Read about it on the BBC.
The Chess Federation tells you what they think
The World Chess Federation's ban on trans chess players was at least honest in sharing its assumptions about women's cognitive capability. The timing is right; in an open letter published two weeks ago on social networks, 14 French chess players decided to speak out to denounce sexist and sexual violence in their discipline (see here). It all makes sense. Many national federations announced they would not apply the new guidelines (read about it here):
“In Germany, a trans woman already became German Champion in the 2000s and trans women will of course be allowed to participate in all German tournaments for women in the future.”
US News
Country shocked by the murder of Laura Ann Carleton
When did the rainbow flag trigger violence? A few weeks ago, O'Shae Sibley, 28, was stabbed in Brooklyn because he was dancing at a gas station. This week, a 66-year-old straight ally, Laura Ann Carleton, got shot for having a Pride flag displayed in her store next to LA. The murderer, Travis Ikeguchi, a 27-year-old struggling to make ends meet who had become radicalized, had made repeated hateful statements against the LGBTQ+ community on Twitter (X is putting lipstick on a pig) and Gab. His call to action, "Stop compromising to LGBT dictatorship," reminds us that for too many Americans, equality still feels like oppression. This blood is on the hands of DeSantis, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green, and all these politicians who cannot figure out another political platform than gay fearmongering. In the meantime, as I write this, HRC has still not published anything on Laura Carleton’s murder.
Matt Gaetz has beef with USAID
Have you read Rep. Matt Gaetz’s bill to abolish the United States Agency for International Development (see the full text here)? It’s very entertaining if you are into that sort of thing. I am. In passing, Gaetz needs to go easy on Botox: he increasingly looks like your basic gay socialite strolling on Crown Walk, which is not what he is aiming for. The bill contains lyrical musings such as “USAID uses United States tax dollars to push radical, leftist ideology abroad, going so far as to undermine foreign governments who do not adhere to the perverse ideology it espouses” (I assume a reference to Uganda’s noble crusade against “perverse” LGBTQ+ people). It only gets better; he then goes after my friend Ryan Kaminski, quoting a salary that, of course, Ryan does not make (but wishes he would surely):
“USAID has provided a $323,871 grant to Ryan Thomas Kaminski to serve as the United States personal service contractor LGBTI Advisor.”
Queering the Boardroom
Friday noon EST: a conversation not to miss
The Association of LGBTQ+ Directors is glad to welcome Irene Chang Britt for its monthly webinar. This month's session is titled: "Concrete Tips to Get Noticed in the Governance World." Ms. Chang Britt’s public company board experience is impressive: she serves on the Boards of IDEXX Laboratories, First Watch Restaurant Group, Victoria's Secret, and Brighthouse Financial. Register here.
Mark Baxter on GovBuzz and the “Golden Skirt”
Mark Baxter, the Co-founder of the Australian Association of LGBTIQ+ Board and Executive Inclusion, was on the Gov Buzz podcast this week. Baxter spoke about his concerns about the lack of data on LGBTQ+ diversity and a “disinclination to self-disclose”. One risk mentioned in the podcast is the “golden skirt” risk (no idea what the term should be for LGBTQ+ people; please send me your thoughts), the idea that while women hold more board positions, not as many new women are entering the board room as hoped because some women, deemed “acceptable” end up overboarded.
Be the “T-shaped” Board Director
I like the concept of the “T-shaped Board director,” meaning bringing that single expertise the Board needs while demonstrating the capacity to engage across the whole board agenda mentioned in this article.
The Gay Business
A Corporate Post-mortem on Pride 2023
Rob Csernyik published a piece in Xtra Magazine titled “Why 2023 was a transformational year in how companies do Pride marketing”. Graham Nolan is optimistic for next year: “Companies with decades of prior experience and outreach with the LGBTQ2S+ community “could roar back with renewed commitment” for Pride in the future”. I fear that the many companies that have not taken steps such as setting up an ERG, launching self-identification, and providing support to LGBTQ+ employees in their careers now have an excuse to delay it further.
How Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab discreetly fund hate
Investigative journalist Alex Kotch calls out donor-advised funds this week in TNR. DAF is a giving account established at a public charity. It allows donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants from the fund over time without having their name associated with the donation.
The semi-cultural desk
Get excited for Fellow Travelers
Will I need to get Paramount+? This is getting expensive. “Fellow Travelers,” the new limited series starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, is approaching. It will premiere on Paramount+ with Showtime on October 27.
I am reading Farrell Covington
On the recommendation of my friend Burke, I started 'Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style,' by Paul Rudnick. I am hoping it will help me understand America's ambivalent relationship towards its dominant class (apparently, it is becoming a genre, or so the NYTimes tells us) the way the Mitford Sisters helped me understand the unsophisticated countryman gentry of a boss I once had at the United Nations. However, the book feels like a caricature of old money, not unlike Ralph Lauren, but with less subtlety, so it gets old. Rich = eccentric = alcoholic = chic is a literary equation I care little about; it forces gay social climbers to only post pictures of themselves with a Martini glass on Instagram. In the meantime, I extracted this for you:
“I don’t believe that being gay is a matter of equality. Being gay is better. This is, of course, morally and scientifically insupportable. I don’t care. For me, and I’d wager, for many gay people, it’s my truth. And I didn’t arrive at this lunatic conclusion after careful, exhaustive study. It’s an innate and utterly sublime prejudice.”
Who the f**** is Oli London?
Newsweek gave a platform this week to a de-transitioner named Oli London with a relatively empty opinion piece titled “It's Time to End This Gender Madness. We LGBs Need to Divorce the TQI+s”. London is the author of Gender Madness: One Man's Devastating Struggle With Woke Ideology And His Battle To Protect Children. I had to check the whole thing out, and it is a rabbit hole you don’t want to get into, but you will anyway.
Obama’s gay fantasies
God, if we are going to start unearthing emails to past boyfriends, I am screwed. See here.
Megachurch pastor destroys Barbie dollhouse
Just when it reaches peak price on eBay, watch the video - you have time, it’s August, and your clients are in Mykonos.
I watched “The Three Musketeers”
I loved it. There is a gay musketeer, Portos, and we learn about it 30 minutes into the movie. How do you translate “un jarret est un jarret”? Alexandre Dumas never wrote Portos as anything close to gay or bisexual. This version is openly bisexual, stating that he's "put anything in [his] bed and [his] plate so long as [he] enjoys it." At one point, he's seen sleeping naked with a woman and a man.
I also watched Daley Weekly
Here. Which I now think might be a pun. Wasn’t he supposed to get a show in LA? In the meantime, he is running errands.
Unhinged: Billy Porter vs. Ana Wintour
Guess who is not reinvited to the Met Gala EVER? I read Ana Wintour’s biography a year ago and was baffled by how our society glorifies meanness (by the way, you should read How America Got Mean? in The Atlantic), but was this drama necessary? In an interview with The Telegraph, Porter had harsh words on Wintour because he still hasn’t digested that Wintour went for Harry Styles after Poerter urged us to “use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement.”
Talking about the Met Gala, where is the Lagerfeld biopic?
In October last year, it was announced that Jared Leto was set to star in a film about Lagerfeld. Then, in May, he dressed as Choupette for the Met Gala, and we still don’t have a title.
The Gay Agenda
August 26th: 60th anniversary of March On Washington
You can get more information here.
November 30th: COP28 in Dubai
See here. The United Arab Emirates has still not confirmed whether LGBTQ+ environmentalists will be thrown to the lions or allowed to join this year's UN climate talks for COP28. COP27 was in Egypt, so it seems logical that the UN hesitates between Kampala and Grozny for the next summit. LGBTQ+ climate activists are used to navigating those contradictions, but it does not make it less complex.
The non-profit Corner
LGBTQ+ Bar: Improving Safety in Carceral Housing for Trans People
The National LGBTQ+ Bar launched a new Resource Guide to Improve Safety in Carceral Housing for Transgender People. See here.
Work at Trevor if you dare
If the Blade article mentioned in last week’s newsletter did not scare you off, consider joining The Trevor Project as Director of Federal Advocacy and Government Affairs.
Well, that’s it for this week. I had a busy few days: my cornea reopened as does, I broke my laptop while vision impaired, a deer ran into my car (I know usually it’s the opposite) after I picked up the twins from camp, I got a hint of poison ivy on what I like to refer to as “my good arm,” and I had to go through loads and loads of camp laundry while listening attentively to long-winded stories about romantic upheavals at Camp Cayuga (Eitan had a girlfriend for less than 24 hours because she “had lied about her age”). The summer is not over, and I feel spent. See you next week.