Fabrice Houdart | A weekly newsletter on LGBTQ+ Equality
This week: turmoil in Tbilisi, Japanese bathroom drama, Synod on Synodality, Bostock on the Menu, Rapinoe retires, the Walter Albini relaunch, Läderach, remembering Tarik Pierce, and more…
This week: turmoil in Tbilisi, Japanese bathroom drama, Synod on Synodality, Bostock on the Menu, Rapinoe retires, the Walter Albini relaunch, Läderach, remembering Tarik Pierce, and more…
Welcome to my weekly equality news digest - celebrating its 1st anniversary, where I share important (and much less important) news, updates, and commentary about the global LGBTQ+ equality movement at the intersection with business.
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Global News
Georgia: lessons from Tbilisi
Tbilisi Pride was canceled due to the destruction of the venue by a far-right mob of a few thousand. Not a good look for a European Union candidate (more than 80% of Georgians want to join the EU). The organization claims the violence was the “result of prior and pre-arranged coordination and orchestration between the government and Russia-affiliated far-right group Alt-Info.” Alt-Info aims to combat "decadent liberalism" (that would be you, the reader). The video of the mob at play is a little weird (not as weird as a DeSantis hegemonic masculinity ad but close); you can watch it here. The Security Forces were also clearly unprepared. Today a similar cancellation occurred in Indonesia, strangely a sign of progress.
Latvia: the first EU homosexual President
Edgars Rinkevics, 49 years old, was sworn in as Latvia's president on Saturday in Riga following a successful election in May. He had been the foreign minister since 2011 and publicly came out in 2014. NBCNews counted seven other former and current LGBTQ+ Heads of State globally. If there is one takeaway: social change can happen quickly when we invest in equality. This is a hopeful message in an otherwise tricky global context on LGBTQ+ issues.
Japan: the meaning behind the bathroom case
A trans employee won a long-winded fight on access to bathrooms in the Ministry of the Economy (read more here). The case says a lot about the mindset of the Government. Coincidentally, Kishida’s former aid, who gained notoriety by claiming publicly he would “not want to live next door” to an LGBTQ+ couple (and even that he would “hate even to see them”) Masayoshi Arai, reintegrated his cushy job in the same Ministry after he was allegedly “fired.” from his advisor position with Kishida this past February. The last time I was “fired,” it’s not how it played out.
India: BBC reports on same-sex marriage
The Supreme Court is expected to pronounce a verdict on marriage equality in the early fall. My hunch is that we will win that one. That will be a global earthquake. Check out this BBC report featuring my friend Utkarsh Saxena and his partner. Also, this week, Reuters looks at the juicy same-sex wedding business to come in a country OBSESSED with nuptials. I entrust the great Krishna Omkar to design all my outfits for the numerous Indian gay weddings I plan to attend starting next year.
Vatican: James Martin’s prestigious appointment
Fr. James Martin, SJ., famous for his groundbreaking pastoral service to LGBTQ+ people, will be among 364 voting members at the Synod on Synodality. Funny, you may ask, the word synod comes from the Greek: σύνοδος, meaning "assembly," so basically, it would translate as the Assembly about Assembling. Do you find that strange? Well, remember, it’s the Vatican. Martin’s appointment is a great honor and another positive signal from the Pope. Fr. Martin said:
[I] hope to bring the “joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties” [...] of the LGBTQ community. I’m assuming that one of the reasons the Holy Father invited me was to be one of their voices in that meeting.
Africa: an unexpected petition against Intel
Local campaigners have successfully called global attention to Greg Slate, a US Intel executive actively responsible for driving the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in Africa for decades through the American organization Family Watch International (see their Southern Poverty Law Center profile here). Intel responded with the following comment, ignoring the fact that the Uganda anti-homosexual law is widely understood as “a genocidal ideology”:
Intel is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion. We also understand that our employees have diverse opinions and viewpoints. We respect the rights of our employees to disagree with Intel’s policies or undertake outside activities as long as they treat their fellow employees with respect and act in accordance with Intel’s code of conduct
US News
Florida: DeSantis-Jugend
After DeSantis came to power, he and state legislators quickly passed new laws for public education to teach their nationalist and racial ideologies. Sounds like a familiar playbook? ABCNews reports on what it looks like. Next Florida pupils will be forced to participate in afterschool groups, which we could call DeSantis-Jugend.
Gays Against Groomers (GAG) implodes
It will be a long Presidential campaign: 481 days of abuse exactly. Like it or not, outlandish anti-LGBTQ+ strategy is DeSantis's platform. But on the bright side, it led to GAG imploding as Caitlyn Jenner did not like how DeSantis mocked her in his ads. Read more here.
Is Bostock on the menu?
Now that’s a pun because Bostock is a delicious French pastry besides being a famous legal case. LGBTQ+ rights in the US, in the absence of Federal protections, are, we are learning, a jurisprudence house of cards. It only takes a few disgruntled Justices, encouraged by free trips and under-the-table gifts, to sweep it away. Ian Millhiser at Vox believes a Bostock-related case is barreling toward the Supreme Court (see here), and we are in for a nasty surprise.
The Michigan salon that did not understand SCOTUS was only joking
Most Americans don’t have a law degree, and the subtlety of the scope of the 303 Creative decision eludes them a little. So this Michigan Hair Salon already has a sign-up asking the gays to get their hair cut somewhere else (aren’t they all hairdressers anyway? I can hear FoxNews hosts joke).
The Gay Boardroom
Nancy Mahon joins the Board of Compass Diversified.
Someone had a good year. Nancy Mahon, the Estée Lauder Companies' first Chief Sustainability Officer, who sits on several TPG Boards, joined the Board of Compass Diversified this week. This NYSE-listed company owns and manages a diversity of middle-market businesses. See here.
Carlos Campy joins the Board of Zymeworks Inc.
Carlos Campoy joined the Board of Zymeworks Inc., a NASDAQ-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing next-generation multifunctional biotherapeutics (whatever that means). Interestingly, he joins two other LGBTQ+ Board members on this Board (see their diversity matrix here), none of which I could identify.
LGBTQ+ Business
Fashion house Walter Albini relaunch
Walter Albini was one of Italy's most trendy designers of the 1970s who tragically died of AIDS. He is such an important figure that Ralph Lauren keeps a book on his style in his office. The Luxury Group Alsara has announced it will relaunch the brand (see here).
The subdued boycott of Chocolatier Läderach
If switching beer was so easy for middle America, coastal gays could change chocolatiers. Author Andrew Solomon called attention on his Facebook page this week to the fact that Swiss Chocolatier Läderach, which has been expanding tremendously in the US, including through a Union Station shop in DC, is boycotted by the Swiss because of the anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments of its owner.
Lessons from the Russia Boycott of Ukraine
A Yale professor has been single-handedly orchestrating the corporate boycott of Russia. This week he called out the companies that continue to do business there despite previous commitments: Mondelez, Heineken, and Unilever. This raises the eternal issue of how we use our power, as an example, to prevent “friendly” companies from supporting any legislator with a track record of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation through their PAC.
A southern law firm serving LGBTQ-Owned Businesses
The first of its kind in the Southeast.
The semi-cultural desk
Rep. Santos compares himself to Rosa Parks.
The gall of this guy… just mind-blowing. The U.S. Constitution envisioned Congress to represent the U.S. Population, and we don’t like what we see in the mirror: cons, buffoons, and a myriad of other pathologies.
Shark attacks in Fire Island
Between sharks in the water, hyenas a few steps away from the ocean, and brawls at the canteen, a vacation week in Fire Island sounds increasingly like Life of Pi (which I just saw with my sons on Broadway on Friday and was a visual feat, go before it closes). I'd rather buy a new motorcycle than spend $18,000/week on a bungalow made of sticks whose interior design screams “final sale at Jonathan Adler”/gay money chic.
Triple Threat Off-Broadway
On Monday, I saw Triple Threat, produced by Nic Cory and Brendan Gaul. It is an emotional and engaging, at times hilarious, show about addiction, racism but mostly our compulsion to repeat behaviors that don't serve us in life. The performance of James Lane, who plays half a lifetime and twenty characters in 1h15, is genuinely brilliant. I left shaken up: play a different game when the game is rigged against you. Lane just did this, and he came out of it with a storytelling masterpiece. It is playing on 42nd Street until the end of July.
Lesbians everywhere in mourning
Megan Rapinoe made an unexpected retirement announcement ahead of a U.S. friendly against Wales. But her activism will endure, as illustrated by sparing with Navratilova over trans issues this week.
Rose Montoya swears it's not her Coke
No, just kidding; nobody thought it was. But isn’t a tiny part of you wishing that a gay would be responsible for bringing Coke into the White House? Be honest. In the meantime, tittygate pales compared to cokegate.
Fred Karger party crasher
In 2012, the ever-handsome Krager was the first gay candidate for U.S. president, but that’s not why he was on TV this week. He had an earlier career as the “World’s greatest party crasher.”
Coming and Going
The passing of Tarik Pierce shakes DC
For gay men of my generation in DC, Tarik Pierce was a fixture. He was a warm, loving, and thoughtful man with many friends, as illustrated by the outpouring of messages triggered by his abrupt death on July 6th at only 44. While the circumstances of his death were not shared, it echoes the premature death of so many gay men in this city over the years (Mark Glaze, Brian Petro, Desi Deschaines, and an ex-lover of mine who committed suicide with a gas oven in Dupont Circle and whose name I tragically cannot remember today). In Lee Badgett’s seminal book on the cost of homophobia, titled the economic case for LGBT Equality, I am quoted as“seeing another side of gay life on Facebook. [I] received news of friends lost to liver disease, suicides, addiction, or accident”. It reinforces my perception of the poorly researched fact that homophobia reduces life expectancy.
Good night, sweet prince, and may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Minnie Bruce Pratt passes away at 76
That was my kind of woman. Minnie Bruce Pratt, an Alabama native, women’s liberation and LGBTQ activist, poet, and educator, died Sunday surrounded by friends and family in Syracuse, New York, at 76 after her sons announced in June that she had been diagnosed with brain cancer. You can read her obituary in the Blade.
Actor Jeffrey Carlson passes away at 48
All My Children actor Jeffrey Carlson, known for his groundbreaking role as a trans character on the soap show, has reportedly died. He was 48, and no details on the cause or location were immediately available (read more here).
Philanthropist Jonathan D. Lewis’ death
Another champion of the LGBTQ movement, Jonathan D Lewis, founder of the Jonathan D + Mark C Lewis Foundation, helped establish GetEQUAL — a direct action group that advocated for social and political equality for LGBTQ+ Americans — passed this week. See here.
MMAA is recruiting an executive director
Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) was formed by merging OutServe-SLDN and the American Military Partner Association. They are looking for an ED. Details here.
Thank you for reading. Sorry, there was so much depressing news this week; next week will be better, I promise. I am heading to Hudson and New Milford next week for some R&R with my boys, but I will write you from there.